it’s dean-and-lucifer hours ~
the most black-and-white winchester party line is that people are good and monsters are bad, yeah? lucifer, though, looks at human beings and sees mainly the potential for them to become demons. humanity itself is flawed, but human souls have the potential to become demonic, and so to lucifer there isn’t a huge amount of difference between a human and a demon. from this perspective, the black-and-white winchester party line makes no sense: humans aren’t a distinct category from monsters that can be categorized as morally different. “people are good and monsters are bad” would have no meaning to him.
this is another one of those things that underhandedly complicates the “monsters are bad” idea that doesn’t really go anywhere overtly but is very much there. like, imagine you’re dean, and your whole life is spent figuring out who’s a monster and who isn’t so that you can kill or save the right things. then you meet some vampires that don’t drink human blood; you find out sam has demon blood and isn’t as clear-cut human as you’d be comfortable with; you go to hell and are on the path to becoming a demon yourself, etc etc — and over the course of all this, your definitions of “human” and “monster” start to blur. and then you encounter this Thing that looks at these two separate categories you’ve built a whole life around keeping separate, and goes “this is one category. not only is the line between human and monster blurred, there’s no line at all.”
and dean couldn’t even really deny that without contradicting himself! he is the one who repeatedly remarks that he doesn’t get people, that monsters are easy but people are just fucked up. the monster of the week episodes that turn out to be just people are some of the scariest on the show, and dean barely hesitates before treating those 100% human people like any of the non-human entities he dispatches on a regular basis. those people aren’t on their way to becoming monsters; to dean, they’re just full-on monsters, period.
so lucifer shows up and takes that idea that has been floating around for four seasons and goes all-in with it. this is the hill lucifer is willing to die on, that humans and monsters are functionally the same.
meanwhile, lucifer fits dean’s most basic definition of a monster: he’s a non-human entity that kills people. does lucifer consider himself a monster by this point? hard to say, but whatever he thinks he is, he thinks he has the authority to make the kinds of decisions dean has been making all along about what types of beings are good and what types are bad, and to kill the ones he deems bad.
what ends up happening here, imo, is a total deterioration of what “monster” even means. there are several definitions, and nobody can meaningfully agree on them, and according to some of them it’s possible to move from human to monster or monster to human or to be partly both or to be fully both at the same time — and it all just stops making sense. dean and lucifer are not characters who are at all equipped to learn anything from each other, but it is just interesting to look at the similarities between their perspectives and what that does to what the show is saying about monstrousness.
Tumblr is doing some stupid AI shit so go to blog settings > Visibility > Prevent third-party sharing.
i love tumblr solely for the fact that i see rick and morty fans on here actually being invested in the series and the characters and not taking the series dark humor and use it as an excuse to be discriminating towards others
exactly what i was rambling ab a few days ago on discord with my friends (i know there might be some errors and some stuff i said that may be wrong or could be phrased better but it was just a ramble between friends, nothing serious and im too lazy to rewrite it all)
I find it interesting how in Hell’s Greatest Dad Lucifer says « Who also happens to be your blood », referring to how angelic blood, his own, flows inside of Charlie’s veins.
Lucifer feels so threatened by Alastor because of his relationship with his daughter that his argument is to bring up the fact that they’re blood relatives. A lot of us know how sometimes blood doesn’t make everything and you can part ways with your family no matter what flows in your veins but he used it as an argument as of why he, Lucifer, is the actual father figure.
All he says in this song is that he’s gonna help her, he’ll be there and will give her anything, but on the other hand Alastor says, to reason, that he already helped her, he already did so much for her and was present in her hardest times. Charlie has an actual reason to eventually see Alastor as a father figure more than Lucifer during that time of her life. The only « valid » argument Lucifer has in this song is their blood bound. While Alastor has an actual bound with Charlie that he created through ups and downs and by supporting her dream from day one like he says it himself.
Also little note at how Charlie only reacts to Alastor’s words, not to her own actual father. Not even to mention the whole clip where she’s eternally awkward in Lucifer’s presence but very at ease with Alastor. Lucifer really did lose this battle but absolutely not war, I expect a lot of father-daughter bounding in s2.
How did Alastor meet the Morningstar’s
Alastor likes attention.
just got a second official warning for my use of "from the river to the sea, palestine will be free" on the OTW volunteer slack
people are also currently asking board to ban saying that the founding of israel was colonialism—equating this to saying racial slurs—and were complaining about my status back when it was "palestine will be free", too
suffice to say, fuck that place, don't give the OTW your money, and don't fucking volunteer there
(the second screenshot is from the warning I got a few days ago)
With the various rumors and releases of Tumblr possibly changing how they do things... (gestures to the vague rumor mill)...
I really think we as Folks Who Make Things and Folks Who Like Art Writing Poetry Music Comics Other Things need to explore zines. And I mean ZINES. Nothing glossy. Nothing fancy.
Very. Cheap. Zines.
I've been threatening mentioning I was going to create a guide on how I'm going to approach this -- and I'm going to -- but I am also realizing in the writing I Do Things Highfalutin because I am who I am + had a career in graphic design.
Very bright paper. I like "Astrobrights" because they are absurdly bright. Here is a link in a store I like. I buy a lot of paper and envelopes from them. You can generally find Astrobrights in big box office stores. It prints on laser printers and ink jet and photocopiers.
Very bright envelopes. What's that? Astrobrights has envelopes?! AM I SOLVING PROBLEMS let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Letter paper is 8.5" x 11" and is the most common size in the united states (overseas folk will have to use this advice with a grain o'sea salt and search yer own waters).
A9 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half.
A2 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half, then folded in half.
#10 envelopes are your common long envelopes, letter paper folded in thirds.
Pick the size you like.
If you want to get big and fancy, Tabloid is 17" x 11" -- so double a letter sheet. This gets tricky to work with but is neat in sizing.
Do you know how to use InDesign or similar program? Use that.
No? Use Google Docs or Word or whatever other program and ramble.
Want something special? Write out some or part with a sharpee or pen.
Mix and match both.
If you are feeling fancy, design it like a booklet -- mock up a sheet of blank paper as if it were a brochure. If not, just design it straight up and down like a letter. There are no zine laws.
Print at home on your home printer.
Don't have a printer at home? Print it at work (don't get fired)
Can't? Your local library may be able to help.
You need 1 copy on white paper.
FedEx Office has photocopiers. Your local library may too. Or your job.
Print 1 copy of your zine on white paper and then photocopy the rest onto colorful paper (or white paper, it be yer zine seadog).
Or print everything on the color paper if you have access to free printing, that's fine too.
The photocopy setup is purely "printing tends to cost more than photocopying."
If you want to slash prices, print 2 per sheet and have FedEx office cut them for you, this will cost $1 - $5 depending on how many sheets you are dealing with. This is for when you're doing a LOT of zines at once.
Or use their manual paper cutter yourself for free.
"Long reach stapler" is what I recommend. There are a few varieties. They tend to be $20 - $30.
Or just use 1 sheet!
A single first class stamp for 1-2 pages. If you get up to 3+, go to the post office and ask them to weigh a comp you have assembled.
This is a guideline.
It's a really good idea to check at least once how much your zine weighs just in general. Post offices have scales. And are pretty. And have stamps.
OKAY ENOUGH LUSTING FOR THE POST OFFICE FROM THE GHOTS POST OFFICE BLOG BACK TO WORK
This is actually the most difficult part. Label printers exist with various costs -- if you're starting out? Go with printable labels.
Your office supply shop will have them and they'll have templates you can drop in the customer addresses.
Save yourself time by using this label as the thing that seals the envelope -- don't lick envelopes.
A key tenet to staying in business is constantly reviewing physical (and mental) labor and stressors and reducing them as much as possible.
Return address labels are intensely cheap in literally every online printer, google "return address labels." Make sure you have this because at least a few of your shipments will come back to you.
Prices are based on above links. You can get whatever paper you want, so this is guidelines. All numbers rounded up.
Payment processing ($0.30) + $0.05 sheet + $0.15 envelope + $0.66 first class postage = $1.16 base cost
$1.16 + 2.9% of $1.16 payment processing = $1.20
Plus taxes. I'm not getting into tax figures YOU DO THAT (just say 30% for easy math, this is not saying "your taxes are 30% or that mine are" I am saying "I am going to factor 30% for this equation to complete this guide".)
I did not include the mailing label (it will be $0.01 - $0.05 depending on how fancy and how many you buy) because you have the option to just write things and also it fits into the rounding of the above.
If you use Patreon, include your fees. Probably replace the above processing fees with your patreon processing... fees? I don't use patreon I don't know how it works.
Retail option 01: $1.50 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.09 / net / zine.
Retail option 02: $2 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.56 / net / zine.
Retail option 03: $3 - 1.20 = $1.80 gross - 30% = $1.26 / net / zine.
When my shop launches, it'll have a zine once a month. We are going to offer a subscription option + a "I just want 1" option.
You can do a zine monthly, or every few months, or whatever.
If you have a lot of energy and an audience that comes to your shop a lot? Consider doing a zine monthly.
If you do not have a lot of energy and/or your audience is tapped for cash frequently? Considering doing 1 zine per season.
Consider 2 zines a year if that works better for you!
Not sure? Experiment! Be upfront! "This is new. I'm figuring this out. Billionaires are tinkering with these things and we gotta figure something else out."
so hi I'm atty and I'm your loud long rambler today
Netherworld Post Office used to be @evilsupplyco and now we are rebranding in prep of relaunching. Same person behind the rambles and comics, new name with a more focus (mail instead of mail + seemingly everything else in experiment)
if you enjoyed this ramble and/or like ghosts, monsters, witches, mermaids, and fun stories and projects focused on cozy Halloween, you may like us when we finish the rebranding and relaunching in autumn 2023.
email sign up (the zine will come when we are open)
I really, really, really hope you consider doing a regular, or irregular, zine. Something outside of email, something outside of social media, something that connects I MADE A WEIRD THING and the people who say I LOVE THIS WEIRD THING YOU MADE.
The walls are closing in on free social media as a platform for people who make weird things to build audiences for free or very cheap.
And with that...
good luck folks
thanks for listenin' to the ol' ghost
19 lesbian, she/he. WINC*STIES/PROSHIP DNI name's alex btw
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