Well, I Just Reblogged Christmas Antlers Wilf, So I Suppose I Must Also Reblog Christmas Antlers 12. 

redesigned covers: the crucible

we are only what we always were, but naked now.

Tall Ships and all views from and of them are simply so gorgeous, and looking at pictures like these always puts that sailorly tingle in my chest. I know I tend in hindsight to idealize the week and a half or so I spent studying on Schooner Roseway, but I do keep feeling that ‘call of the sea’...

*Unbidden, Moana slinks from the shadowy corners of my mind to sing her song.*

just spent three days delivering the soggiest schooner i’ve ever been on a hundred miles down the coast, in the company of a really excellent dog!

I'll tell you one thing about the British though is they've got me saying "advert". We were flipping channels and came to the one with the Superb Owl and I was like "oh we could check out the adverts". It just came out, but to their credit, it does sound better than ads I think. For one thing I mean at least it isn't like completely indistinguishable from abs. I dunno, there's just a flow to it; it has a nice inflection. Advert. I knew I was reading too much Doctor Who fanfic the other day, lol. I've got to be the first person to call them the super bowl adverts.

Boardtober Day 1: Autumn or Falling Leaves

(🍂 ☕️ 🎃)(🔸 🍁 🎃)(🔥 🌾 🏵)

Returning to the matter of my phone screensaver, I have actually done a separate home/lock screen for the first time, and this is now my lock screen because I was just in a Spicy Watson mood when I was setting my screensavers. 

I’ve also had a lot of wanderlust lately, and it’s just about exactly a year ago right now that I got home from my study abroad in London (and other places in the UK, but the longest portion of it was in London). At one point I stood in almost exactly the spot this picture would’ve been taken from if it was a photo, in fact--well, not precisely at this angle, but along the walkway by the river near the London Eye.

I know it’s meant as Sherlock fanart, and I can definitely hear the theme song playing in my head as I look at it with that in mind, but I love that it’s also subtle enough that it just makes me feel like I’m there. I don’t know if there are any Thamesside hotels in the right spot to have this view, but the purpley-sparkly sky makes me feel like I’m sitting on the crisp white sheets of a bed in the window of one such hotel room, gazing out against the fading light of the sunset as the stars slowly come alight during a power outage apparently because you could never see that many stars from there sorry I know this is no time for realism and the hum of the street begins to dull for the night, giving way to the rustling of the river. It’s just very tranquil when I’m not overanalyzing it and transportive and, again, purple is my color so it’s great for that too. There’s just a particular, unique feeling to sleeping in a hotel in a city, and this piece has that feeling to it. 

Inspired by Sherlock!

Redbubble

He has had many excellent hairstyles but the long red hair is definitely my favorite. It looks so soft :) 

I also like how they’re all going under the backdrop like it’s their blanket fort, hehe.

Gerard is such a diva I just love him. 

So, I’ve been reading the Buffy Season 8 comics, and I have a question. Well, several questions actually, but these are all about one particular panel. 

[Image ID: A screencap from the Buffy Season 8 comics which shows Dracula walking away from Renée and Xander, cape swooshing behind him, left hand raised in a dramatic flourish as he speaks. His speaking text reads “It’s not possible, manservant. These powers you speak of--they’re part of the ancient magics.  I risked my very soul to attain them. I am their worldly guardian.” The word ‘soul’ is italicized in his speech. End ID]

Does... does this mean that Dracula has a soul?? 

And if so, how long has he had one? Did he have it when he faced Buffy at the beginning of Season 5? Did he get it between then and now in the comics, and if so, how and why, or else how and why did he get it in the first place? Was he cursed like Angel, or did he fight for it like Spike, or is there some other way to get a soul in the Buffyverse? Why would he want one if he did get it willingly?

Is this otherwise unmentioned soul the reason why he’s willing to fight against other vampires by Buffy’s side in this arc of the comics, or is he another example of a soulless vampire acting for the common good for probably at least partly selfish reasons like Spike circa season 5 (although it’s worth noting that Dracula is doing it without a chip)? Is it because he really likes Xander (as a friend or as a crush), or just a personal grudge against the Japanese vampire group that, in his eyes, “stole” his powers?

Perhaps more significantly, does this make Dracula a third eligible party besides Angel and Spike who might be the subject of the Shanshu prophecy, seeing as he is also a vampire with a soul?? (And how mad would Angel and Spike be if that turned out to have never been about either of them this entire time?)

Or, am I jumping on the soul thing a bit too much? Could he maybe speaking... metaphorically for some reason? Does he mean something different by “soul”, like say, the poetic essence of who he is as a vampire or his honor or some such, rather than his human conscience as it is to Spike and Angel? 

Or is he aware of his soul outside of himself somehow, like how when vampires don’t have their souls they’re apparently just out in the nether somewhere, available to be summoned when called upon? If it can be put at risk but isn’t inside of him, then is Dracula’s human soul in some sort of Heaven somehow while his vampiric self is causing mischief on earth, and yet somehow vampire!Dracula is aware of his human soul elsewhere and is aware that his earthly actions may somehow put it in jeopardy? But Spike and Angel seem convinced that they’re fated for hell for being vampires (which irks me, but is a rant for another day), so why would Dracula be an exception? Could he have somehow sold his soul for these powers when he didn’t even have access to it? Does he just mean that he risked his soul back when he initially became a vampire specifically to attain access to these powers? But wouldn’t the specific use of the term “risked” and not “lost” imply that, while there was peril to his soul, the peril ultimately did not persist, hence his soul was neither lost nor damaged, only at temporary risk of being in some sort of harmed state? 

Why would the comic writers put emphasis on the world “soul” in a throwaway line that isn’t revisited at any point in Dracula’s stint in the comics so far (I’m just through with the Fray crossover arc now and no one has said another word about this that I can recall) when vampire soul lore is such a complicated and contentious aspect of the Buffyverse? Did they just... forget the significance of the whole soul thing? What could this line possibly mean other than that Dracula has had a soul this whole time without mentioning it to anyone, and yet he casually let it slip while talking about his secret transforming powers? 

To put it more briefly, I’ll quote Xander in “Something Blue”: What? How? What?

Okay, so it turns out I have many questions. Well, some of that was more like my own speculations and theories posed as questions since I was on a roll, but anyone can feel free to respond to any of the many questions I put here, honestly. It’s such a small moment but I saw the word “soul” there and it just sent me reeling because... well, it raises all of my above questions and then some. Anyways, I’d love to hear the fandom’s thoughts on this and the possibility of Dracula being a third vampire with a soul(tm). 

Edited to put an actual TL;DR: Dracula implies in this panel of the comics that he has a soul!? Thoughts??

I watched this episode tonight, and I must say, I’m not sure if I was in just the right mood or what, but I don’t think I’ve ever shipped anything on the Orville quite this much before. Like, I find Claire and Isaac and Ed and the Krill lady intriguing, and I root for Ed and Kelly, but none of them give me quite this many feels. 

I mean, it was clear from the start that this was going to be a tragic ship, and in a way perhaps it was that underpinning of inevitable tragedy that made it so beautiful. But like... it was so sweet and moving and I felt so much for Gordon. I wanted it to last even though it obviously couldn’t; I wanted them to be happy. 

Now I want them to develop time travel for real so he can go back and meet the real Laura, not just the computer-synthesized version of her. Perhaps this is the perfect time for a Doctor Who crossover AU...

Leighton Meester as Laura Huggins in The Orville 2x11

I must say, it's pretty poetic that I've gotten to season 6 of Vampire Diaries right before another solar eclipse happens in America. I certainly didn't plan it, but it does feel like my timing is very appropriate with this one. I do have questions about the accuracy of the eclipse portrayal in the show, though. I mean, a solar eclipse did in fact happen on May 10, 1994, and it was visible across much of the country, so that much is accurate. But I don't think Mystic Falls would've had quite as good of a view as they show it having. For reference, here's a map of the May 1994 eclipse path (credit: timeanddate.com):

And, if you'll remember, Mystic Falls is like two hours from my old hometown just a stone's throw north of Lynchburg, Virginia, as seen on the locator spell map (this one's all over tumblr, forgive me for not remembering what blog I grabbed it from):

So if you zoom in on the timeanddate map and pick somewhere closeish to there:

It looks like Mystic Falls would be getting a little over 77% coverage or so. It's also worth noting that the '94 eclipse was an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse like tomorrow's eclipse. That still means that the moon went directly in front of the sun, but it does mean that it was small enough/far enough from earth that you didn't quite get full coverage of the sun (thanks to weather.gov for the nifty graphic):

So, I'm not positive whether it would've looked quite as dark as was shown in the show:

Although, I must admit, in this video I found on youtube of the '94 eclipse, (part of me is shocked to find footage from then but I know I shouldn't be like yes they had cameras in the 90s) it actually looks more similar than I expected it to look, but I imagine it was most likely filmed within the path of totality:

But also, when Kai takes Bonnie to Portland, don't they see the eclipse again there? I couldn't find that clip on youtube just now, but Portland barely had any eclipse--only 42-43% coverage, so it would've been way milder of a visual effect, barely any dimming in the sky noticeable without eclipse glasses.

The funny thing is, the area where I live is going to be sitting right around 80% coverage tomorrow. I was lucky enough to get to travel to Missouri for the 2017 eclipse to get into the path of totality, but I'm afraid that it hasn't worked out for me to do so this year, which is immensely disappointing to me as an astronomy enjoyer, but I do still plan to go to an eclipse party and I'm going to start saving to try and get to Spain for the next total eclipse in 2026, which is going to be right around my 30th birthday (screaming). Anyways, it isn't great, but here's my best picture from the '17 eclipse:

I didn't even have a smartphone yet then, because despite it being 2017, I was somewhat of a luddite, so I had the purple flip phone I so stubbornly clung to and a point-and-click Nikon, but I still think this picture is pretty cool for what it is. Here's the zoom in so you can really see that ring of fire (and my shaking hands doubling the image):

Obviously you can find thousands of better eclipse pictures online, but that one's still special to me because it's mine. Anyways, I'll report back with smart phone pictures from whatever I see of the 80% total eclipse tomorrow to compare and contrast with Mystic Falls's 70% annular eclipse of the 90s, because from what I've heard it's going to be much less impressive than full totality was, but I've yet to watch a partial solar eclipse, so I'll just have to find out. Also, if you happen to have any vampiric loved ones trapped in a magical prison dimension who you need help freeing during the eclipse tomorrow, let me know and I'll see what I can do! ;) Hahaha. Anyways, happy eclipse everyone, and may we all possess sufficient self restraint to avoid eye damage (says the woman who has looked at the sun unprotected so many times and is probably going to go blind because of it some day. I know what I've done lol. Don't be me.)

So Gerard’s Quarantine Coloring Book got me thinking, and I’ve had these lyrics stuck in my head a lot lately (what with the quarantine and everything), so I made my own little doodly coloring page with them. 

In the spirit of the Quarantine Coloring Book, feel free to color it and post your own colored versions of it if you’d like! (Though of course I’d appreciate credit for the drawing part of it if you do post it :) And please tag me so I can see it!)

“And we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, we’ll cry again, and we’ll dance again” 

~My Chemical Romance, I Never Told You What I Do For a Living