I just realised we’ve all just assumed that Xie Lian looks at the wraith butterflies and assumes they are beautiful and ethereal because they are soft with him and not weapons but I think we are forgetting this guys special interest is swords and weapons in general he could probably sense just how deadly they were and that only made them more beautiful to him.
A snake story, based on an experience I had while I was in Florida.
Trailer!!
Saw this textpost last week and immediately thought of him
that Diana Wynne Jones interview where she’s like “I don’t understand why so many girls are into Howl, it must be because they want the challenge of fixing him” is so optimistic, like DWJ’s out here hoping I at least want to make him a more functional person as if “rogue academic turned melodramatic fashion disaster whose social skills Do Not live up to his own hype” is not a perfectly valid thing to be attracted to
@corvidscorpse said: People who aren’t morosexual just don’t understand those of us who WANT a complete dumbass
DWJ, a reasonable woman: behold this undesirable man. look at him, he dresses weird and he keeps emotional support spiders and doesn’t even question people moving into his house without asking and he has to reverse psychology himself into doing anything he’s actually supposed to do.
every morosexual in a 100 mile radius: oh fuck yeah babey
god this isn’t even touching on the fact that Howl is??? apparently??? an ordinary-ass Welshman who was studying spells (????) at the doctoral level and then (somehow???) found a doorway into Actual Magic and promptly moved there to set up shop as a wizard with like five different names and two outfits but still goes home sometimes because he loves his niece and likes to hang out with the rugby lads (still working on processing Howl being a jock but?? okay), because PRESUMABLY all of this is supposed to further illustrate that Howl is an absolutely ridiculous sort of person but all I see is a man who made the exact decision I would make in a millisecond if given the opportunity
Howl Jenkins is what happens when the overpowered ‘thrust into a fantasy world’ man… is not the main character.
Howl Jenkins is what happens when an a normal man gets thrust into a fantasy setting and is mostly excited to dick around and learn some magic to turn his hair different colors, only to realize to his dismay that being a powerful wizard means that people are going to ask you to actually do shit for them
Howl’s real name is just Howell which is one of the most generic welsh names ever and is like a guy named Steve going to a fantasy land and naming himself Stev.
Howl is supposed to be totally ridiculous yes but also supposed to abruptly in the middle of the story turn out to be Extremely Relatable.
We turn the black knob to the Mysterious Destination and afterward Sophie is more confused than ever (though not by much because she isn’t interested enough) but the audience has abruptly had ‘incomprehensible fantasy chaos wizard’ transmogrified before our eyes into an easygoing perpetual grad student with no job prospects whom nobody takes seriously, except he has a secret magic life, which is in fact only slightly less stupid and even more off the rails than the normal one.
poetry.
Just want to add: being invested in rugby does not make a Welshman a jock. It just makes him Welsh
As a longtime filmfan, this discourse makes me Real Excited to read the book.
so I thought this was about howl’s moving castle
it is
that’s some damn tea
If extending a right to all people reduces your rights in any way? That means that right has been dependent on the oppression of someone else.
It means you’ve been profiting from the subjugation of others in some way. Are you good with that?
Wow this tea is SCALDING
goodbye 2023👋hello 𓏏𓉔𓇋𓋴 𓇌𓅂𓄿𓂋 𓇋 𓅃𓇋𓃭𓃭 𓎼𓅂𓏏 𓄿 𓅓𓅲𓅓𓅓𓇌 𓃀𓅱𓇌𓆑𓂋𓇋𓅂𓈖𓂧 𓅓𓄿𓇌𓃀𓅂 𓉔𓅲𓋴𓃀𓄿𓈖𓂧 𓇋𓆑 𓉔𓅂𓂕𓋴 𓎢𓅱𓅱𓃭 𓅃𓇋𓏏𓉔 𓏏𓉔𓄿𓏏
my egyptologist friend says this is a (very poorly) phonetically transcribed english phrase "this year i will get a mommy boyfriend"
okay you werent supposed to know that
actually so funny to me that i have well meaning experts in the notes translating and fleshing out this text that i made using a shitty translator i found on the internet drunk at 2 AM. thanks for the feedback guys but im afraid that i didnt even remember what i wrote myself until that reblog. when i tell you i was screaming. i love this website so much
Steve From “Blue’s Clues” Just Checked In On “The Kids He Raised” And Gave Them A Safe Space To Offload After Donald Trump’s Election Victory.
Interestingly, Steve doesn’t even speak in the 59-second video, but appears to give viewers a comforting presence as he enters the outdoors shot and “offers them” a hot drink.
And many of the comments thanked Steve for offering them this safe space, with one person writing: “As a trans man, I felt this to my core. I took the breath with you then started bawling. Thank you.”
“The man who is a staple of my childhood didn’t say a single word and it brought me to tears. Steve, thank you. I don’t know where we go from here,” somebody else wrote.
Another popular comment reads: “He didn’t say A WORD and said everything at the same time. This man should be guarded at all costs.”
“Neither of my dads checked in on me today. But you did Steve. Thank you,” one more acknowledged.
“So much responsibility on Steve’s hands to make sure we are okay. We need to make sure he’s doing okay too. I mean I’m not doing great, but he’s still looking after the kids he raised,” somebody else added.
While another concluded: “I bet you didn’t think you’d still be raising us all these years later, Steve, but thank you for still being here.”
I met Steve at Comic Con a couple years ago. I told him, “thank you for being there for me as a kid when it felt like no one else was. He responded “no, thank you for all your help; without you, I’d still be trying to figure out what Blue wanted for her snack!” and I had to try very hard not to cry, he was so nice.
Cuddling. don’t mind the claws of the beast
This is what this photo looks like. To me
do you all see my vision here
Feel free to add on.
wow! as a broke college kid, i wish there was a way to access books and movies as well as scientific articles that the new administration isn't necessarily a fan of. man. If only there was a free and trusted vpn ( up to 10 gigs of downloadable data) to use in conjunction with an anonymizing router (also free up to 10 gigs) to safely, er, permanently borrow media in an untraceable way as well as share files. Man, what's that browser that keeps your online activity anonymous? I'm awfully attached to firefox, personally. If only i had a browser extension that would throw a smoke screen over my browsing data while blocking ads at the same time.
what was i talking about? hmm. weird.
PACING IS ABOUT LOAD BEARING WALLS.
*staples violently to my own forehead*
This is such good advice.
All I will add is: WRITE THOSE BREAKFAST SCENES if you want to, they can be absolutely critical in getting a handle on your characters. Or even on the setting. Write them all to fuck. Go hogwild.
Then cut them. They're for you, and for the characters. Not the readers.
Lo these many years ago, in an elevator at some convention or other, Larry Niven gave me some of the best writing advice ever:
Go ahead and write that stuff. The breakfasts, the staring-into-empty-space scenes, whatever. Then pull them out of your work if they serve too little useful purpose. If you feel the need, shove such material into a separate folder to examine for possible usefulness later.
Even if you don't put it where other people can see it, no writing is ever wasted. Every sentence will teach you something. But if a passage or sequence doesn't help illuminate character, build the world, or advance the plot, get it the hell out of your narrative.
Your readers' time is precious. Do them the courtesy of not wasting it.
Hector Barbossa & Elizabeth Swann | Parallels & Developments
#These two had such an impact on each other–in a weird way it’s Platonic!Hades and Persephone #where she learns to become a better king of the dark sea and dead men than he ever could and he comes to almost admire her for it. #Just… y'all have been sleeping on this relationship. #Elizabeth didn’t retain shit from Jack Sparrow–Will did. She learned from Barbossa. (via @theimpossiblescheme)
THIS. Not only is Barbossa far more of a Proper (Cinematic) Pirate than Jack (with the outgrown Errol Flynn hair to prove it!), but he absolutely plays the role of Hades in Curse of the Black Pearl.
While Elizabeth first boards the Black Pearl (here functioning as both Hades’ chariot and Charon’s ferry) more or less voluntarily, Barbossa/Hades does indeed kidnap her and take her to the “land of the dead”—the Isla de Muerta. The Black Pearl also serves as a kind of limbo, holding men halfway between death and life. Much like Pluto of old, CotBP!Barbossa is strongly associated with both wealth and death, even more so than the other pirates. When they get to the “Underworld”, we see that the cursed crew members require a blood sacrifice to regain (permanent) corporeality, paralleling the shades Odysseus encounters who require blood to regain the ability to speak (Odyssey 11.24-50).
By the time At World’s End rolls around, Elizabeth has begun to catch up to Barbossa in terms of piracy and command. She visits another, more literal Underworld at Barbossa’s side; he knows the way, and she has more than learned from her previous experiences. It was Elizabeth thinking more piratically—thinking like Barbossa—that made the trip to the Locker necessary, after all.
In the end, she eclipses Barbossa in power and is crowned King, with her own beloved ferrying souls between worlds as she sails the seven seas. Like Persephone, Elizabeth straddles worlds and holds power in both, and it was Barbossa/Hades who first helped her get there.
(Anyway, this series owns my entire ass, follow for more irregularly scheduled Pirates content and hmu if you want a longer essay on how the Locker journey in AWE is a classical katabasis narrative with a sweet twist on Orpheus’ in particular. Also Barbossa quotes the Aeneid.)
Some lovely tags submitted to me by OP/@charlesdances:
#and I believe in a way Elizabeth makes Hector realize that it is possible for pirates to be masters of their own fate again #and had no problem in the end after her speech that the ‘maid’ from long ago #is now his king #and now he’s this amalgamation of weird mentor/uncle/man she asked to marry her and the love of her life #and i love how she KNOWS that he’s the only one brave/insane enough to guide them through that maelstrom #and when he responds with gusto she gives this GREAT BIG SMILE #as if to say ‘THERE’S the one and only pirate I know. There’s Captain Hector Barbossa.’
Elizabeth and Barbossa’s relationship is so underrated, I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen any of it put into words. The Hades/Persephone parallel is one I haven’t seen before but hoboy am I here for it.
I’ll blame a lot of factors for why people don’t really seem to understand the dynamics of these four characters. First of all, Jack is not the protagonist (the failing of OST is, in my opinion, that they forgot this little detail). Will and Elizabeth are the protagonists. Jack and Barbossa are secondary supporting characters, whose purpose in the plot is to drive the development of those two. Their influences on Will and Elizabeth are very specific. And when you analyze the relationships, you definitely see a very distinct pairing up. Will and Jack, Elizabeth and Barbossa.
Will needed Jack, because Will needed to learn how to put himself first sometimes, needed to learn to see things from more than one angle and that things aren’t as black and white as they seem. Will needed to see someone strange and confident and dangerous who could inexplicably do good things, who had a good heart (and, originally, Jack absolutely did; the fourth and fifth movies absolutely decimated this aspect of his character, and I will die mad about it) but was still able to be a little selfish. Because Will? Will had no concept of selfishness. Will was perfectly ready to sit and pine over Elizabeth for the rest of his life, to let a lazy, sloppy drunk take credit for all his hard work, to fade into the background and let life happen around him. That was how things were supposed to be. That was how the world worked. Black and white. Right and wrong. At least once more, Miss Swann, as always. I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate, I can kill it. My father was a good man. Will is a good man, but he needs to learn to be a bit of a pirate. A bit selfish. A bit dangerous. And in the end, Will is cursed to captain the Dutchman, a twisted take on the immortality Jack has sought. His companions are dead men, his ship is a ghost. He is a legend. So, in a way, he surpasses Jack.
Elizabeth, though? Elizabeth had no need for lessons on shades of grey. Elizabeth likes pirate stories. Elizabeth loves the blacksmith’s apprentice, and flirts openly with him in front of her own father. Elizabeth is constrained, not by her desires, but by her station, by expectations. By love for her father, because it’s obvious in the film that her desire to please him is out of love, not obligation. What Elizabeth needs is to be shown how to take what you want. How to choose the rules you wish to follow, and hang the rest. She’s a natural leader, born into a world where no one would ever let her lead. Jack is a lot of things, but a leader, he is not. He inspires no loyalty, except in the form of debts to be paid. He keeps secrets from his crew, tells them nothing, trusts no one, and in return no one trusts him. Barbossa, meanwhile, was able to win over all but one member of Jack’s own crew and get them to turn on him. Barbossa had these men follow him for ten years, trusting that in the end, he would save them. Barbossa inspires confidence. He’s honest with his men, and honestly no crueler than is necessary to keep pirates in line. This is why Elizabeth is the King, because she respected Barbossa, watched him, learned from him. And, yes, surpassed him.
There’s something to be said, I think, for the fact that in the end, Will and Elizabeth both matched the two pirates, and then went beyond what they’d both accomplished.
Wait, which animals raise livestock?
Several species of ants will 'herd' aphids around (a type of plant lice)- even picking them up and putting them back with the group if they wander off. The ants will attack anything that approaches their aphid herds, defending them. The aphids produce a sugary excretion called honeydew, which the ants harvest and eat.
Some ants will even 'milk' the aphids, stroking the aphids with their antennae, to stimulate them to release honeydew. Some aphids have become 'domesticated' by the ants, and depend entirely on their caretaker ants to milk them.
When the host plant is depleted of resources and dies, the ants will pick up their herd of aphids and carry them to a new plant to feed on - a new 'pasture' if you will.
Some ants continue to care for aphids overwinter, when otherwise they'd die. The ants carry aphid eggs into their own nests, and will even go out of their way to destroy the eggs of aphid-predators, like ladybugs.
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Microhylids – or narrow-mouthed frogs - have an interesting symbiosis with Tarantulas.
While the spiders could very easily kill and eat the much-tinier frogs, and DO normally prey on small frogs, young spiders instead will use their mouthparts to pick up the microhylid frogs, bring them back to their burrow, and release them unharmed.
The frog benefits from hanging out in/around the burrow of the tarantula, because the tarantula can scare away or eat predators that normally prey on tiny frogs, like snakes, geckos, and mantids. The tarantula gets a babysitter.
Microhylid frogs specialize in eating ants, and ants are one of the major predators of spider eggs. By eating ants, the frogs protect the spider's eggs. The frogs can also lay their eggs in the burrow, and won't be eaten by the spider.
So it's less 'livestock' and more like a housepet - a dog or a cat. You stop coyotes/eagles from hurting your little dog/cat, and in return the dog/cat keeps rats away from your baby.
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Damselfish grow algae on rocks and corals. They defend these gardens ferociously, and will attack anything that comes too close - even humans. They spend much of their time weeding the gardens, removing unwanted algaes that might overtake their crop.
The species of algae that they cultivate is weak and and sensitive to growing conditions, and can easily be overgrazed by other herbivores. That particular algae tends to grow poorly in areas where damselfish aren't around to protect and farm it.
Damselfish will ALSO actively protect Mysidium integrum (little shrimp-like crustacians) in their reef farms, despite eating other similarly sized invertebrates. The mysids are filter feeders, who feed on zooplankton and free-floating algae, and their waste fertilizes the algae farms. Many types of zooplankton can feed on the algae crop, and the mysids prevent that.
While Mysids can be found around the world, the only place you'll find swarms of Musidium integrum is on the algae farms that Damselfish cultivate.
Damselfish treat the little mysids like some homesteaders treat ducks. Ducks eat snails and other insect pests on our crops, and their poop fertilizes the land. The ducks can be eaten, but aren't often, since they're more useful for their services than their meat.
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There are SEVERAL species of insect and animal which actively farm. They perform fungiculture and horticulture: deliberately growing and harvesting fungus and plants at a large-scale to feed their population.
Leaf-cutter ants and Termites both chew up plant material and then seed it with a specific type of fungus. The fungus grows, and the termites/ants harvest the mushroom as a food source.
Ambrosia beetles burrow into decaying trees, hollow out little farming rooms, and introduce a specific fungii (the ambrosia fungi), which both adults and larval beetles feed on.
Marsh Periwinkles (a type of snail) cultivates fungus on cordgrass. They wound the plant with their scraping tongue, then defecate into the wound so their preferred fungus will infect it and grow there. They let the fungus grow in the wound a bit, and come back later to eat.
