In Dark Times, Jin’s Words Of Wisdom Come To Me…

You ever seen a cat with a deep meow??

I’m pretty happy!! *w* So… I had so many requests about making Miraculous IPhone backgrounds. That’s amazing! Thanks so much (((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o))) <3 <3

They told me to do the individuals of Chat Noir & Ladybug and also some Lady Wifi and Evillustrator backgrounds.

oooooooh im gonna very selfishly also ask for no.20 then!!! also 13 and 16 bc these also sound fun

20. three songs that remind you of the person who sends this one

dead man’s bones - flowers grow out of my grave

coeur de pirate - fondu au noir

in love with a ghost - healing

13. three songs you want at your funeral

mira kubasińska - wielki ogień

wardruna - helvegen

SDM - opadły mgły, wstaje nowy dzień

16. three favourite songs for sex

nina simone - sinnerman

cigarettes after sex - k

glass animals - black mambo

thank you angel!

[three songs ask set]

Over the Garden Wall Analysis: The Beast

So I’m planning to post a few of these. I’ve gone through and watched the miniseries several times now and me and my friends have been talking about pretty frequently in the past month or so. We have a lot of ideas of symbolism and what do certain aspects of the shows represent.

This one in particular however I have to give credit to my friend Sydney because it took her one watch to crack this baby open. I hadn’t even thought of it and I haven’t seen one person to take this conclusion away even after multiple re-watches. Looking back on it though, it seems fairly obvious. 

It has to do with the beast and the idea of just what the heck is it?

The most common fan interpretation going around is that the beast resembles the devil, or something along those lines. A monster that feeds on dying souls. However, as a few of my friends pointed out, that interpretation doesn’t really make much sense.  If The Unknown is the Afterlife, then how would dying be of any real concern? Are you double dead at that point? Does your soul cease to exist? Double Dying is not a particularly novel idea and it does provide stakes to a story, but why does the Beast feed indiscriminately on children? And how does the Woodsman’s daughter come back at the end. There are some missing elements.  However, when we start to consider other elements of the show, the beast’s true identity becomes clear.  First things first, let’s take a look at an element nobody seems to be able to make sense of. That being the turtles. 

The Black Turtles are all over this show and most people who’ve tried to interpret them can’t really say that they are much more than a motif. But we know that isn’t true considering what they do to Beatrice’s Dog.

Beatrice’s Dog, smelling the candy Greg put on a turtle, eats it and then becomes a hideous monster with glowing eyes, hellbent on chasing the boys and devouring the entirety of Greg’s candy. The monster it becomes is terrifying and comes pretty close to ripping Greg and Wirt to shreds. So we know without a doubt the turtles have some kind of evil magic. 

Without the turtle, Beatrice’s dog is just a sweet puppy who even helps get Greg out of the river. The turtles make him malicious, and interestingly enough, obsessed with a thing he did when he ate the turtle in the first place. Getting all of Greg’s candy is all it cares about, to the point it jumps off of a house. 

The next time we see the Turtles is in The Ringing of the Bell, when Greg and Wirt encounter bunches of them kept in barrels. This is where people get confused about the turtles because we see Auntie Whispers eat them but without going through any kind of transformation. We assume Auntie Whispers initially is evil but later discover she’s a kind old woman just trying to protect Lorna, and she even warns the boys about Adelaide. However there is one character in the show who is corrupted by evil. 

We don’t know if Lorna ate a turtle or not, but it is interesting she’s another good person turned crazy after being in close proximity to them. I’m going to say she didn’t eat them though, as when Wirt commands the spirit to leave, Lorna isn’t coughing up any black turtles. Auntie Wither’s also mentions it’s Greg and Wirt’s influence that has made her wicked again. But what does Lorna affectionately refer to them as? Her turtles. They are a corrupting force just like the turtles, something Lorna would know, and they corrupt her in the same way the turtles corrupt Beatrice’s Dog. Why then does Auntie Whisper’s have all these turtles? Well, we know Auntie Whisper’s is a good woman, if a bit strange looking, and also has magical abilities. Perhaps she’s eating the turtles as a way of disposing of them to keep them from hurting other people, and over the years it’s taken its toll on her physical appearance. Either way, this is sort of where we begin to see how evil corrupts souls in The Unknown. Unlike Beatrice’s Dog, the spirit possessing Lorna is a lot more conniving of an evil monster. It uses her voice to speak to Greg and Wirt to try and convince them to let her eat them. It’s a bit more plotting.  So now let’s look at the beast. A strange monster running around in the woods lying and manipulating people into keeping its lantern lit. However, interestingly enough, we have no idea how long the Beast has been around. It could be generations, or it could be a few months. We have no idea. The woodsman and the tavern people let us know what the Beast does, but it could be the Beast has only been doing it for a few weeks. The warning would be the same either way.  Let’s say a person, or rather a child, curiously wandered out into the woods and got lost in the dark. Frightened, they ran out of oil for the lamp, and were caught wandering blindly through the forest. Now let’s say that person somehow wound up eating a turtle, or maybe, considering their oily appearance, tried to use the turtle as lantern fuel.  Of course that’s just a theory, but the give away that the Beast has eaten a turtle comes when Wirt proposes that the Lantern actually contains the Beast’s soul. The Beast immediately evaporates all the light around him, and Wirt frightened, looks into the dark, but then notices the Beast’s eyes.

They’re the same beautiful eyes of Beatrice’s Dog when it ate a turtle and became a monster. Wirt then get’s a look on his face as if he understands something, and he realizes the Beast has no power, and that he can just take Greg and go. 

So if this was the case, then who was the Beast before it ate the turtle? From it’s appearance, it looks distinctly like a tree from the forest. But what I always notice is the Beast’s cape that he wears almost like a shawl. The Beast also has an interesting connection with the Woodsman too. Since the Woodsman carries the Beast’s lantern. But the Beast knows interesting details about the Woodsman’s life, like the fact the Woodsman strayed from his cabin because he couldn’t stand coming home to find it empty. The Woodsman in turn seems to be the person in the wood to know the most about the Beast having wrestled the lantern away from it. They both share a motif connection with tree’s as the Woodsman chops them down for Lumber, and the Beast creates the trees out of souls.  Who then is the Beast?

The Beast is not lying when it says the soul of the Woodsman’s daughter is in the lantern, because the Beast is the woodsman’s daughter. The black shawl, the connection with trees, the fact that in the series opener, it is spring and she’s looking curiously off into the woods, as if wondering what exists out there.  When the Woodsman blows out the lantern once and for all, the next time we see him he is home at his cabin, not going inside because we know he can’t stand to see it empty, and who should come out to greet him but his daughter.

She’s even carrying a candle to symbolize the lantern. We don’t see any of the other people the Beast turned into tree’s reappear, so why then does the daughter survive. Because she was the beast. In the very next cut too, we see the fish in the rowboat from episode 8, which we know was in the same area as the Beast since by that pond is where Wirt begins to turn into an Edelwood tree. And what is the fish pulling out of the pond?

A black turtle. Presumably the one the Woodsman’s daughter ate. My theory then is this, the Woodsman’s daughter wandered out into the woods, got lost in the dark and had her lantern go out. She tried to use a turtle as fuel and as a result, became the Beast.  TL;DR: The Beast is the woodsman daughter because she ate/used a turtle as lantern fuel. 

Sorry things were so quiet today, folks, but I was putting this sucker together for @thisishannako ‘s show Inked, over at Stone Way Cafe in Seattle! Everything but the red and gold is good old Speedball ink (the others are Prismacolor and Sharpie, respectively.) It was nice to break out the nibs and brushes again! Alas, now my hands look a lot like this lady’s.

|| Top 24 Shoujo Animes ||

FAQ and Tags Masterpost

What is Elsewhere University?

Elsewhere University is a university on a fairy hill, as first depicted in this comic I drew a year ago! People began asking questions about the world, and then writing stories and drawing art set within it, and then building on each other’s stories and on my answers about the world, and it’s become a big lovely sandbox (the second comic‘s entire purpose is to celebrate some of my favorite things that have grown exclusively out of the fandom). The various submitted stories aren’t necessarily compatible with each other, because there are currently well over 2k stories and asks building this world and expecting anyone to know all of that is absolutely mad. But they’re all built on the same base mythology of folklore+college weirdness outlined in the first comic.

Where can I find the original comic?

As part of my Tapastic series, or on my main blog. 

My ask/fortune/submission hasn’t shown up yet.

At the time of this writing, my inbox is around 2500, and roughly ¾ of those are student asks. There’s going to be a bit of a wait before anything you submit sees the light of day (although stories will show up before fortunes do). I know it’s not ideal, but I will reach it eventually, I promise!

That said (given that this is tumblr) message me privately, off anon, if you’d like to make sure it hasn’t been eaten by the website. If you can give me a username or an exact phrase to ctrl+f, I’d be happy to check that it made it safely to my inbox! But if you send a find-it ask on anon, I won’t answer it - I get enough of those that it would clutter up the blog pretty badly.

Are there any guidelines for Elsewhere U fanworks?

The bare minimum - it should be readable with regards to grammar/spelling, it should be related to Elsewhere University, and, you know, don’t be an asshole. Don’t worry too much about continuity! Due to the sandbox nature of the project, that’s all a bit fuzzy anyway.

Fortunes should be about the size of a single ask.

Nothing made or sold for profit.

How should I get my submission to you?

One option is to submit a story through tumblr

Another is to publish it on your own blog, or on AO3 (there’s an official tag!) or somewhere else

If you opt for something other than submitting it through this blog, send me a link through messaging or an ask if you’d like to see it shared here!

You can try @’ing me but I’m not great at checking that. 

And lastly if you do post it somewhere else, please credit this blog or the original comic specifically. Thank you!

Types of posts

Stories - written prose submissions

Art - comics and illustrations of the world

Students and Charms - fortunes and futures

Vignettes - very short stories

Podcast - episodes of Elsewhere University Student News, a fan podcast

Tv Tropes Page

Poetry

Recs - Reader-submitted books/games/etc in the vein of this blog

Love letters to majors - submissions specifically regarding the ups and downs of a major

Newsletter - Elsewhere U newsletters and notices

Prophecies - vague, ominous, regarding the future

Advice - do

Warnings - do not

Original - my contributions to Elsewhere

GENERAL TAGS

Changelings - what the Fair Folk leave when they steal your roommate

The Forbidden Major - the (banned) study of the Fair Folk

Knights - students keeping the campus safe. Crusaders, mercenaries, and idealists.

Stolen Away - so you’ve gotten yourself kidnapped into a weird magical summer world

Deals - striking bargains

Debts - Owing

The Aftermath - Graduation and afterwards

Courtesies - the politics of please and thank you

Legacies - people who fit in better than they expected

The Treaty - Posts touching on the delicate agreement between the university and the Elsewhere

Belief - reality gets malleable here

Names - Names and their power. Full FAQ below.

PLACES

Location - where the fuck is this school, anyway (and a masterpost of the borders)

The Pool

The Library

The Theatre (and The Play)

The Dorms (dorm list/summary here)

The Forest

The Train Tracks

The River

The Wishing Well

The Greenhouse

The Unsea

Walmart

Denny’s

LIFE ON CAMPUS

Student Life - anything to do with day to day Elsewhere U existence

Majors - a full alphabetized list of majors and their standing with the Gentry at the end of this page

Prospective Students - why people come to EU

International Students - how they deal with this bullshit

Sports - what sports, where, and why they’re Off

Parties - hella revels

Food - “We must not look at goblin men, we must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots?”

Electronics - how that works out (or rather, doesn’t)

School Spirit, and on a related note the Mascot and the school Motto (full list of mottoes below)

Graduation

Greek Life

Holidays

Games

Sign Language

Marching Band

Clubs and Secret Societies

Student Witches

STAFF

Professors - who in their right minds would work here (list and summary of notable professors here)

RAs - Resident Advisors and their responsibilities

The Librarians

Administration

Groundskeepers - nonacademic staff. A statistically unlikely number own swords.

NOTABLE INDIVIDUALS AND PHENOMENA

The Foxy Lady

Jimothy

The Wyrm -the dragon sleeping under the condemned building in the western corner of the campus

Anna Monday

The Wild Hunt

The Washer at the Ford - she will tell you the time of your death, but only if you’re into that

Courts - here the year turns on Spring and Autumn

The Tall One - warning

Royalty - don’t speak of them

Cat-Eyes - purveyor of Seeing glasses

The Rose Prince

FOLKLORE

Protection - including iron, salt, and running water

The Sight - including modified glasses, silver, and mirrors

VARIOUS

Ghosts

Werewolves

Banshees

Brownies

Sirens

Selkies

Gremlins

Mermaids

Kelpies

ANIMALS

The Crows - Do Not Wrong The Crows

Pets - Fish, Cats, Dogs

Wildlife - Birds, Insects

Horses

School Mottos thus far (translations may be incorrect - I haven’t personaly checked them)

Cauti, Cordati, Auspicati - Wary, Wise, and Lucky

Cum Gladio Et Sale - With Sword and Salt

Fainiciúil, Ciallmhar, Ámhar - Wary, Wise, and Lucky

yn dilyn y seren - Following The Star

Beware the Lights

Swallow the Hidden Names

BLOOD AND BONES BLOOD AND BONES BLOOD AND BONES

Tine Agus Airgead - Fire and Silver          

כבדו את העורבים - Respect The Crows

Tha Iad Ag Innse Gun Bhreaug - They Tell No Lies

Carpe Nihil - Seize Nothing   

Iron and Salt - a warning 

Aspectum, Dolorem, Sacrificium - Sight, Sorrow, Sacrifice

Scientia Defendit Fideles - Knowledge protects the faithful

What Doesn’t Bend Will Break

Names FAQ

What’s a true name? The name that you consider to be truly yours; it’s highly personal and subjective.

Does the legal status of the name matter? No.

Can nicknames be true names? Yes.

Can you have more than one true name? How would that work? Yes. Depending on what each name meant to you, each true name might have power over you in its entirety, or each be part of a larger whole.

If I pronounce or spell my name differently/use a derivative or variation of my true name as a safe name, would that be safe? No. It wouldn’t have power over you, but it wouldn’t be hard to discover your true name.

What happens if someone speaks my true name? If you are given a command with your true name, you are compelled to obey it. This is only true in the Elsewhere and areas affected by it.

Can safe names influence a person over time? It’s unusual, but it’s happened.

Can a safe name become your true name? Yes; if you feel yourself becoming too attached to a safe name, it’s time to change it (not an uncommon event).

How does the school deal with safe names? Student IDs and role call lists for professors include the student number and the preferred name of a student. There’s a hard ban on obscenity, at least as far as the safe names in the school system go, but even so, they range from mundane to pop culture to total nonsense.

Would a name with negative associations be a good safe name? Yes, in the sense you’d never have to worry about growing too attached too it.

Is it possible to be nameless? Yes, which renders you invulnerable to this particular hazard. There are still plenty of other pitfalls, so overall the nameless don’t attract too much malice from the Gentry.

Is my last name part of my true name? It depends on the importance it holds for you. But even if it doesn’t signify anything, it’s recommended you keep all parts of your legal name secret in order to make it more difficult for anyone to find personal information on you.

How does the school protect true names? The administration offices are heavily guarded against both human and Elsewhere intruders, including but not limited to 24/7 guards, iron in all the walls, heavily password-protected computers, and formidable custom iron filing cabinets that hold all the paperwork they couldn’t avoid printing out.

Does everyone on campus go by a safe name? Almost everyone. There’s always a few skeptic freshman who don’t buy into what is presented as Elsewhere university’s ‘unique traditions’. The lucky ones are given nicknames by other students who persist until the skeptic has stopped protesting. The unlucky ones find out the hard way why you don’t want anyone to know your true name.

Majors

accounting majors

animal husbandry majors

anthropology majors

architecture majors

art majors 

art history majors

astrophysics majors

bio majors

biochem majors

biomech majors

business majors

chem majors

classics majors

comp sci majors

culinary arts majors

dance majors

econ majors

education majors

engineering students

english majors

environmental studies majors

film majors

forestry and wildlife majors

geology majors

history majors

humanities majors

journalism majors

language majors

law majors

math majors

midwives

military

mortuary science majors

music majors

philosophy majors

physics majors

poli-sci majors

pre-med majors - any medicine-related fields

pre-vet majors

psyche majors

smiths - the tag for shop class and metalworking

sociology majors

stats majors

textile majors

theatre majors

theology majors

Elsewhere University © 2017 Samantha Dow

it’s ninety-nine degrees outside, four fuck-thousand percent humidity, and my husband was like, “i’m gonna go for a bike ride.” and i was like “why. no. why. don’t put us on the news like that. local fool collapses on unnecessary journey. don’t do it.” so he says he doesn’t want to “hide in the house” because the sun is shining. bruh. honeybruh. “the sun is shining” does not cover it. its hot outside. its motherfucking hot as fuck outside. our outdoor plants have been crying into their hands all week. whole cars are melting into the sewer. our fucking patio umbrella developed sentience to ask me for lemonade this morning

Good morning tumblr, Who are we cancelling today??