divorce court judge ruling a couple has to just stay together cause they both suck so bad they shouldnt be allowed to subject anyoone else to their behaviours
YOU’RE desperately trying to escape the narrative, I’ve engaged with it on a structural level and am beginning to make it my home. I’m recarpeting the narrative as we speak
characters who are so inauthentic. characters who only show what they want other people to see of them. characters who simply must have control over every part of themselves. do you even get it
LonelyEyes simply fills checks on all the best ship tropes. They are enemies. They are begrudging allies. They’ve known each other too long. They know each other’s secrets. They know exactly how to annoy the other one. They respect and trust each other to hold on their part of the deal. They talk about each other with that knowing spark in their voice.
This article is six parts and thousands of words, but I hope you read it. Incredibly brave creators spoke about their experience working with Rusty Quill, and their stories kept me up for nights. In my opinion, some of the actions taken by this company were unconscionable - but I invite you to read this piece and decide for yourself.
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but the behavior we support will be emulated by other podcast companies. It is up to us as a community to decide what that behavior should be, and take concrete action to uphold it.
i’m think about speech patterns! take these for all your fic writing needs! not all of them are done bc i was taking requests for who to do next on the discord lol
Jon: He tends to speak like he’d type, a veneer of professionalism and Oxford education, but one which slips the second he’s shocked out of his facade by worms, or Martin. He’s one for run on sentences; he has a lot of thoughts and he wants to get them all out the second they come into his head, no matter if they actually make sense to the listener or not. If he’s shocked! or upset! He gets snippier! His phrases are cut off, or bitchy.
Martin: He, well, he hedges a lot. He lets people come to their conclusions before he, uh, before he finished speaking. It’s easier that way, y'know? They hear what they want to hear. But when he’s angry, or annoyed, or tired, he lets slip what he’s really feeling. He stops biting back his words and he gives up on being sweet. You know what he thinks? Maybe people better listen to him now and then!
Tim: Tim is a consummate professional, but also? A Lad. A lot of people forget, but he started in publishing! He’s good with his words, and a nerd. These are two Very Important Things about Tim Stoker that he will ensure that you know by the end of a conversation with him. Tim does his best to make you comfortable, talking casually but without restricting what he knows. He’s not about to back down from a point if he disagrees with you, though. He’s always up for a bit of a Scene, be that imitating his movie of the month, or creating some imagined moment about the people around him. He cares, so deeply, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. His emotions ride high; he can be the class clown if he wants to, but he can just as easily be hurt very badly. Oh, yeah, another thing to mention! He’s a little forgetful in conversation! He needs to wheel back to things when he remembers them! He also has a habit of asking questions without asking them? He’s more curious than he wants to let on…
Elias: Well, Elias is very similar to Jon. He’s a little more restrained in terms of run-on sentences, though. He’s spent a long time crafting his language to provide authority in equal measure with a non-threatening presence. He speaks slowly, as if he’s thinking over every word, rolling them in his mouth like a sweet. When he realises he needs to intimidate, though, a thrill laces everything he says. He *enjoys* the ability to put those below him into their places. He likes using his words to mould and crush people, and he isn’t above doing so. Do I make myself clear, Jon?
Annabelle: Well, Annabelle is similar to Elias, actually. She chooses her words very carefully. She knows how much affect a single choice can have, even down the stress she chooses to put on a phrase. There’s a smile in her voice, like she knows everything that this conversation is going to include. Though, I suppose, it’s important to remember how young she is. When she died, she was just a poor university student… She’s not sure she’s grown up since then, and it’s much easier to weave a web when people think you’re innocent…
Nikola: Nikola talks Exactly how you’d expect a ringmaster puppet to talk! Grand gestures, bright smiles, all with a plastic coating! Isn’t everything she says just wonderful?! She knows people hate her, and she also knows how funny it is to pretend like they adore her! She’s less self-aware, than some of the others, but she’s there to have fun, not manipulate people! She understands her atrocities, and *delights* in them. She doesn’t have a face, so she has to put all her emotions into her voice!
Peter: Peter is just… Tired. Growing up as he did has him split between an innate human desire to share, and the exhaustion of other people. He settles by picking a confidant, and markedly rejecting everyone else through a professional, bland exterior. He knows, he knows better than you, but he’s not going to stress himself proving it. He’s got better things to do.
Michael: Michael… What an interesting boy… He… I…? Was… Is…? Michael is something else. He knows he doesn’t talk in a way that others understand instinctively… And yet it’s always very clear what he means. He is deceit, but he will never lie to you. It’s easy to understand a lie. Much harder to unravel a half-truth. I suppose that’s what Michael is… A half-truth. There’s amusement in his nonsensical nature, even as he bites back resent. Some remnant of that anxious little boy long to make a joke, to titter anxiously at the things his friends say… Michael is confusion, confusing, confused. And he knows exactly what’s happening.
Great post, OP. I’d also like to point out that Elias tends to choose certain figurative, elaborate, or emphatic phrases that aren’t necessarily common in everyday speech. Off the top of my head, “at a hundred thresholds” (MAG 92), “exactly where [his eyes have] always been: […] watching over my Institute” (MAG 158), “you are a living chronicle of terror” (MAG 160), “[Gertrude] died in the line of duty” (MAG 9 IIRC), or “like fingers on a hand, and I am the beating heart of it” (MAG 92), not to mention that according to Peter he “insists” on a certain metaphor we hear him use on a separate occasion. Furthermore, the final bit of invocation in his statement is in iambic metre, so that’s more proof that he chooses his words carefully as you said. Even when he’s embodying his boring bureaucrat persona, he sometimes uses interesting similes, such as comparing Jon’s wounds to Swiss cheese. All in all, his speech patterns feel very… non-neutral, with his frequent adjective and adverb usage. Often, he shifts into a sort of dry humour where his sentences are considerably shorter, and he delivers them with a bland tone, such as “I am still here” or “I only have two eyes”. Lastly, I’ve also noticed he tends to make other people sound like the insane ones (scolding Jon for scowling, or “sometimes I forget how new you all are to this” when “this” is literally apocalyptic supernatural lore).
All y’all out here in the TMA fandom talkin about icons like the guy who froze the key to the buried and that plumber who somehow managed to miss a wholeass murder-clown barn. Talkin about how you’d all like to see just once what would have happened if someone had straight up punched an avatar in the face.
How is no one talkin about my man Alexander Scaplehorn, the absolute legend who went to investigate the Trophy Room for money laundering in ep 54 and escaped by fuckin bodyslamming an avatar of the Stranger straight to the floor and then just fuckin hightailin it outta there. This man is a true badass and it’s a crime he doesn’t get mentioned in this fandom more.
You left out the best part which was that after he barely escaped from Monster Taxidermy Hell with his life, he wrote them a glowing report, because whatever creepy supernatural bullshit they were doing, they weren’t laundering money.
He body-slammed a Stranger Avatar in front ofBreekon & Hope who he also escaped from by just being too nimble for them to grab. Remember this is the same Breekon & Hope with reflexes fast enough to snatch a butterfly out of the air. The combined forces of a Stranger Avatar, whatever the Angler Fish is, and Breekon & Hope were not enough to hold him.
And the best part is. Despite seeing all the taxidermy come alive and barely escaping from 4 Stranger creatures he ends by saying he’s glad he remembered to bring his briefcase of notes with him because otherwise he would have had to go back!
The man was perfectly ready to walk right back in there if that’s what he needed to do to get his report filed. He really said ‘eldritch monsters or not ya’ll are getting your taxes inspected.’
The fact that Jonah met someone with the very specific fear of eye trauma after seeing his friend’s eyes gouged out, and decided he would make a perfect new vessel (a process which involves cutting out his eyes and replacing them with Jonah’s own) is so funny
i reslistened to Mag22, Colony and Martin’s description of his first sight of Prentiss makes it seem like… like she was putting on an act? Revealing stuff in a certain manner to be as creepy as possible? And I think it’s really funny like ok look:
“Then, I heard movement. From the other side of the basement. It was faint, just a rustling, really… It appeared to be a woman. She was facing away from me, apparently staring at the corner of the wall… In her right hand she held a stained, green handkerchief. She stood there, totally still…Then, with a quick, jerky movement she brought the handkerchief to her face and coughed… I saw [a worm] drop from the handkerchief onto the floor… I screamed. Her head snapped towards me and she locked eyes with me… she slowly reached up and let the overcoat fall to the floor.”
Jane was just chilling out when she heard him come in, she quickly threw on her coat, wedged herself into the corner, got her handkerchief ready, ooh he’s here, let the tension build a little before dropping a single worm, yes, he screamed, now quick turn around, give him a smile, wait for it, wait for it, aaaand…
HEY I THINK IT WAS TIME I DREW SOMETHING FROM ONE OF @p1nkwitch ’S FICS AGAIN. Here’s, . From lonelyeyes week… The urban fantasy flower/tattoo shop au… I recently reread it and rnghrnhgnrh head empty!! The first one is just . A heem. And the second one is that one scene with Captain…. Yeas.
I just watched Batman Returns, and I’ve gotta say. Max Shreck from that movie (I refuse to look up actor names, not sorry) would make a very good Elias.
Just a bunch of tma sketches, even tho i can’t make my traditional art look good on photos. Yeah, I’m Elias’ simp and I’m not sorry, if you have any complaints, talk to my dad
I’ve seen and read a couple TMA fics where the power of love makes Elias decide not to go through with his Ritual, and I’m not ragging on that because the power of ‘I can fix him’ is fun. However, I kinda want to write something where Elias loves family/friends/a lover/whatever, and still ends the world. Why would he give up his plans for love? After all, he’s doing this so that someone else can’t complete a Ritual first, and make things worse. He wouldn’t want his loved ones to suffer under some other, uncontrollable Fear! (Is the world he makes any better than a world ruled by any other fear? No. Yes. It is for him.) And his devotion to The Beholding is, after all, his oldest relationship.
I feel at odds with like 80% of the fandom bc elias is supposed to be a very competent and very evil man but I much prefer the interpretation where he’s just
what if jonah was yeeted out of elias mid season,, and the actual elias was pretty much on and off his consciousness the whole time so he only has a vague idea of what’s going on
so he just… Tries His Best to adapt to whatever’s happening kjLKAJSKLDJ
elias: yes rosie i totally did not forget about that meeting with that man you said i had a meeting with. yes i know what it is about, we will be discussing… institutely things.
elias: yes rosie i am perfectly capable doing these micro…. soft egg cells. (deletes the whole sheet) see?
elias: (pacing around the office, alone) what the hell am i supposed to do in here?! just stand around and do nothing?! (beholding shows him an image of jonah just standing creepily, stalking his employees through the Eye).
oh so i just literally stand around and do nothing also wHAT THE HELL WAS THAT -
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obviously people start noticing stuff but when he runs out of three piece suits he has no choice but to come clean to the archives team LMAOOOO
jon: melanie stop beating him up i think he’s telling the truth
(punching noises in the background stops)
tim: how did you know? you using your creepy eye powers again, boss?
I love you violence I love you descent into madness I love you transformations into an unrecognizable self I love you monsters who were human I love you questioning if I’ve changed or been like this all along I love you being scared I love you secrets I love you twisted coming of age stories
