#just suppose

[erot0-0bscura]

[daniellesdarrieux]

Richard Barthelmess in Just Suppose (1926)

[dickensign]

So say we were aliens, and we were “here”, hypothetically.

The answer would be in the Martha Jones saves HISTORY episode of modern Doctor Who, where the whole planet calls for healing at the same time. “Peace” will also do. Everyone wishes healing fro the planet. It’ll do a thing. All the verbs in all the drecgtions, plus some other grammar words. The aliens don’t give a fuck about spelling, just feeling, meaning, the gist.

Verb the fuck outta your language. All the pronouns, too.

We, it, them, us, them over there, they, him, her, who, here, there, fey, fairies, queers, NBs, trans, black, brown, and third world. Wish the planet peace. All of us and them, expand it to your worst enemies just in case these fuckers get it entirely backwards, again, as per usual. Throw in the planet herself and some non-humans just for fun, kicks-n-grins, no major important reasons or necessity.

We won’t even need the aliens if we could just do that.

[daniellesdarrieux]

“The Prince - and the Crown Princess” Richard Barthelmess and his daughter on the set of Just Suppose (1926)

Motion Picture Magazine | feb-jul 1926

[daniellesdarrieux]

[daniellesdarrieux]

[gods-no-longer-tread-here]

Imagine standing in a dark pit. You know there are walls and aceiling, but they are so far away and it is so dark that you can’t quite make them out.

Imagine your feet have been chained together, a chain too short for anything but a tottering shuffle. You can’t feel the clamps, but the chain is vivid and impossible to remove attention from.

Imagine your arms are chained behind your back at just below your elbow. Again, the actual clamps don't seem real, but you can feel the metal links, frigid and sharp against your back. It's so short it strains your shoulders and your circulation increases, so there is a faint pulsing feeling in your ears and neck.

Imagine being unable to move, every muscle on lockdown.

Imagine you are all alone. Completely. Utterly. Not just alone as in no one is in the pit but you; alone as in there is nothing outside the pit either except nothingness and pain. You are chained up in the darkness, in the emptiness, forever and ever and ever. You can't even die. You're trapped, restrained, enveloped in soft, warm, tender darkness. The chains are strips of metal and ice shards, digging into your back, sending ice into your calves to freeze them in place, and there is a strip of pain in your skull, writhing around, gouging and freezing and killing. Methodically. Calculatingly. This is its sole purpose.

Imagine you let that monster in willingly. It's killing you, in fits and bursts. There's no one to hear you scream when it burrows through your brain because you are alone, alone, alone.

Imagine that as intently as you can. Feel the absolute rawness. Sounds uncomfortable, right? Almost scary? Maybe a little debilitating?

Welcome to my Anxiety.