Avant-Garden

30. They/he. Ecologist by training, informal educator by trade. Twin to @pippenpaddlopsicopolisthethird. I make stuff at @lil-leviathan. Cosplayer. New SCAdian (Calontir). If there's a hobby out there I've probably tried it (or plan to). I write sometimes. Expect lots of anime especially Promare and Jojo’s, Crit Role, and whatever else I find interesting. Mostly run through the queue. I'm chock full of weird animal facts that I never get to tell anyone. Avatar by @lavender-laser

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

Just Rule of Be Nice over here. If you’re a jerk ya get blocked. Ditto if you're being annoying on my vegan post.

I sell art here and @lil-leviathan.

[cosmicdrifter665]

it's a good time considering it's TCSv1 day to remind you all the live footage at the end of the Looking Back mv was actually from LH's first ever show, so proud of the loves of my life for making it this far 🥹🥹🥹🥹

[goldensunset]

[slayerscake]

If Thjazi was their shadow tierlist

[cosmicselector-dot-com]

A year ago today - the Cosmic Selector vol 1 released!!

[craftexchange]

It's another Show and Tell Saturday! I'm away for a conference this weekend, so we'll see when I'll be online next. But I'd love to see what you have to show - what's new in your world this week?

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

Ive been practicing clasped weft weaving!

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

One thing I've been really enjoying about Campaign 4 is that many of the abuse narratives woven throughout the text are really showing that it can be a lot more complicated than simply hating the people who have hurt you and wanting nothing to do with anything associated with them.

Wick knows his family is doing terrible things and hurting people; he hates his grandmother for doing these things and keeping him in the dark about them while smothering him in conditional affection to keep him compliant, but he still thinks there's good things in his family that are worth preserving. You can see this when he encounters his mother Iris and his brother Lioran again. He clearly loves them both dearly, even though Iris was not only an active participant but the architect of him being kept in the dark about the Creed. Seeing them again was a bright spot in an otherwise extremely tense and fraught homecoming for Wick, because even as he's realizing what harms his family is causing both to the world and to him, he still cares about these people.

Much the same can be said of Occtis. As horribly as he was treated by his entirely family and in spite of the fact that one of his own brothers killed him on his father's orders, he's still holding out hope that if he can talk to one of his siblings he can get them on his side. He read Petra and Ryah's letter and interpreted their reticence to rush ahead with Deva Vindicta ritual as them not wanting him killed. In spite of having just been in a fight where he was trying to kill him Occtis still took a moment to create a memorial for Frons. He repeatedly (though to no avail) asked Julien to spare Koral. When Julien asked as part of that exchange how he can still possibly extend any trust to any member of his family after what they did to him his answer was that they're his family. Despite everything that's enough for him to still have some faith in them.

There's also Vaelus and her complicated relationship with Sylandri. As much as she has stated that she hopes she can maybe bring her back it's clear it's less for the sake of having her goddess back, as she admits to Hannan that she hasn't prayed to her in a long time and quite readily hears him out and agrees with him about Sylandri hating the elves underneath her purported love for them, and more because her life with Sylandri is inexorably tied up in the things she does want back. Her memories of living in service to Sylandri are happy despite the limits and control (as seen in her memory of Sylandri refusing magic to Arthas for swearing) because her family is there. The world without Sylandri is also one in which she found herself utterly alone, in particular it should be noted that the death of Sylandri and the death of her sister Maywyn were near simultaneous. She's never known a world without Sylandri but with her family. She wants the happy life she knew with them back, and as Sylandri is a part of that, she considers bringing her back too. That life wasn't freedom and as she eventually agrees with Hannan about, was in many ways not her own, but it had something she has been grieving for 70 years, so it's little wonder part of her thinks that maybe that was better.

There's also something to be said about the orcs' ultimate decision to bless the Conqueror. He ruled and enslaved them with an iron fist and used them as fodder in his endless wars with his siblings, but when the orcs finally won their rebellion and their freedom and one of Azgra's war priests demanded a farramh for him, it was not only granted but granted easily. Agari Shadow, who lead the rite and was not only an orc but an orcish druid (and thusly a member of a people who were harmed by Azgra across multiple axes) said nothing could be easier than giving a blessing for the Conqueror, and lead a blessing that while it did not forgive him, acknowledged who he was to the orcs and how that effected who they became, and that who they became was ultimately what they are celebrating now.

All these relationships are one in which one party was grievously harmed by another in a sustained and terrible way, but also in which the emotions and choices made are more complicated than a simple hatred and rejection, even where that would be justifiable by what was done. There's more nuance there, and seeing it play out in various ways across various relationships in this campaign has been a delight to see.

[lil-leviathan]

NINE more scarves and cowls are live on Etsy!

They're all coming with me to an in-person show in a couple of weeks so grab something if you want it!

[mcromwell]

Find a humanitarian organization near you and volunteer with them. Do it. I mean it. Even like one day a week. Even an HOUR a week. This shit will change you in the best ways. Your circle will fill with cool people. THE HELPERS-- FIND THEM and then BE THEM

Being in close contact with people who give a shit and are also witnessing the descent of our country into fascism and ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT is actually mad refreshing in contrast to the pointless noise that is the internet.

You'll make such fast friends if you:

show up

say "where do you need me"

do what they say

have a good attitude

Done. Easy. Volunteering is awesome and will put you right in the lap of the best people in your area. They're the helpers, they're the people Mr. Rogers told you about!

Doing an easy task like potting trees for a community garden or helping at a food bank will also connect you to people who are doing more, like immigrant support or things that tackle more urgent, dangerous issues going on. So you can scale up your involvement easily by just showing up repeatedly.

Or don't scale it up-- maybe you stop at helping at the food bank and you're stacking cans for a few hours. You're feeding your neighbors. That's a load-bearing part of any revolution. (I use that word optimistically.) The people you meet will be the people you lean on when shit gets worse.

AND VICE VERSA, prove that you are someone to lean ON by showing up and helping. Offer things to people. Your skills may be helpful. Already, just because we've done local volunteering, we have made at least 5 or 6 new friends, got a potential firewood connection, and WELL-PAID EMPLOYMENT (??? OMG)

(and free lunches and snacks and fruit trees) And it's healing as fuck to have people genuinely tell you, in the flesh, to your face, "I'm so glad you showed up today. I appreciate you so much. This would have been harder without you." That shit makes you feel AWESOME and REAL and PURPOSEFUL

(We woke up early for a shift at the food bank, I'm hyping myself up because I am not a morning person LMAO) But yeah volunteering is such a good way to build security and community. There's something for everyone to help with, just get out there and show up, first.

[qunibaby]

Started volunteering 3 hours a week at a queer community center and it has helped boost my morale so much. There’s something magical about needing a safe space and then becoming apart of that safe space. Helping others really does help/heal you.

[thecoolguy24601]

Really insane found media

So, back when Dracula first released in 1931, it came with an epilogue where Edward Van Sloan (who played Van Helsing) basically reassured the audience that vampires exist. They apparently removed it out of fear it’d anger religious groups. After almost a century, it’s now available

[orbisonblue]

@hotvintagepoll

[hotvintagepoll]

@lazaefair these tags rule

[armoredprincess]

meditating on the shape of the great serpent this morning

[armoredprincess]

long

[bonivers]

going on a guilt trip do yall want anything

[secondbeatsongs]

if you really cared about me you wouldn't have to ask

[bluestrawberry7]

I cannot be Stopped

(cr4 memes part 10 atp jeez)

[tyriq-edits]

Is it ok to ask why you dislike the new odyssey? (From seeing the trailer itself, I do agree that it’s not accurate to the myth in some things)

1) calling it inaccurate to the myth is an UNDERSTATEMENT dear anon.

2) Nolan FUNDAMENTALLY misunderstands what the Odyssey is about and why it is such a significant text to greek and western culture as a whole. The slogan of the movie is: One man who defies the gods. THAT IS THE POLAR OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE ODYSSEY IS ABOUT!!!!! THE ODYSSEY AND GREEK MYTHOLOGY AS A WHOLE ARE LESSONS ON WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER DEFY THE GODS! The whole fucking reason why Odysseus is lost for a decade at sea is because he BROKE THE LAWS OF XENIA, the laws of the Zeus. The reason why Telemachus cannot simply throw out the suitors? XENIA! The Odyssey is there to teach the readers about Xenia.

3) no greek actors in sight anywhere. Imagine if Nolan made an adaptation of journey to the west and hired only white actors from the east coast.

4) The movie was filmed in the illegally occupied western Sahara, thus supporting settlements and colonialism

5) the movie looks like ASS. No colours, no interesting settings and everything is drowned in lights. And the costumes look like they are bought from the dollar store and spray painted. The entire movie looks like a 13 year old edgelord’s definition of “coolness”

6) the same way Nolan fundamentally misunderstands the point of the Odyssey, he also fundamentally misunderstands greek culture and history. WHY IS TELEMACHUS WEARING PANTS?!? WHY IS ANYONE WEARING PANTS?! Why does Odysseus’ boat look like a viking ship? Why does the suit of armour look roman???? WHERE IS THE BRONZE?! The COLOUR?! And this is not a “whoops we were off by a few hundred years in some artistic styles”. This is a “WE WERE OFF CENTURIES! Mycenean greece and the Roman Republic are 1200 years apart. 1200 YEARS!! At that point you might as well give Odysseus a jetpack. It’s like if i made a movie adaptation of Frankenstein, still set in the 1800s, and made Victor wear jeans and sneakers. It is THAT level of inaccurate. Pretty much the only historical accurate part in this movie is one of the suitors gay flirting with Telemachus as a way to assert dominance. Which yeah, is something the greeks did, using homosexuality as a way to dominate other men.

7) WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO LET AGAMEMNON AURA FARM? Agamemnon! AGA-FUCKING-MEMNON!!!! AURA FARMING?????????

8) Nolan is so preoccupied with being a pretentious fuckass that he lets this get in the way of his own art’s quality.

9) bro took out the whole “nobody blinded me” scene. You know… the story that just so HAPPENS TO BE THE CATACLYSM FOR THE WHOLE STORY!

10) it just fully gets rid of the gods. Poseidon? Never appears. Zeus? Never appears. Again Nolan is a pretentious asshole who tries to turn the Odyssey, again a book about the laws of the gods and why you need to respect them, into an atheist redditors wet dream. And i am saying this as a staunch cold hard atheist myself. Imagine if someone made a movie based on the new testament and just COMPLETELY left out God, the angels, the immaculate conception or that Jesus is the messiah.

11) After Nolan was done shooting the movie, instead of safely getting rid of all the equipment and stage props, HE JUST DUMPED IT ALL INTO THE OCEAN!

12) Zendaya (and I think some of the other actors but I’m not sure) wore ancient bronze discs that were stolen from an archeological dig and turned into Earrings to the premier of this movie. This whole movie LITERALLY supports art theft and the theft of ancient cultural artefacts by doing this. And as an archeologist specialised in ancient roman and greek history: I AM PISSED!!!!!!!!

I could go on for much much much much longer but these are some of my main points why I hate this movie with the same intensity that AM (from I have no mouth and I must scream) hates humans.

[necrowyrm]

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

I finished my concert craft! Anyone going to see Lord Huron on July 19th, I'll be handing these out!

I made these with printable fabric transfer sheets on linen, backed with craft felt and pin backs. I kept two and stitched them to my concert vest!

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

The vest 😎

[spontaneousmusicalnumber]

I finished my concert craft! Anyone going to see Lord Huron on July 19th, I'll be handing these out!

I made these with printable fabric transfer sheets on linen, backed with craft felt and pin backs. I kept two and stitched them to my concert vest!