Sophia Friesen by Bruno Unikowsky for Numéro Netherlands January 2025
skwistok where toki compartmentalizes his adoration and resentment for skwisgaar is so good. toki having a shrine for skwisgaar where he collects pictures that he cut from newspapers and magazienes, stuff he stole from skwisgaar's room and his own skwisgaar crafts only to roll his eyes and talk back when skwisgaar scolds him. toki having a fanaccount for skwisgaar and one where he bashes him and logging on either to post depending on his mood. toki daydreaming of skwisgaar being nice to him while also being fully ready to take skwisgaar down at the slightest opportunity. toki being simultaneously skwisgaar's biggest fan and hater without perceiving the contradiction in his behavior because he's too used to his lifestyle. toki being equally capable of loving and hating the guy because a part of him can't help admiring him and the other is permanently bitter for the way he's treated by his idol.
tma AU where s1 jon comes across a ton of statements early on involving people named mike and concludes that mike-esque names are especially common among spooky folks. He then starts going “hello, mike” all cryptically every time he meets a new Spooky Lil Guy because he figures there’s about a 50/50 chance their name will actually be mike, and he’s just really desperate to look like he knows what is going on and is qualified for his new job. This causes people in the spooky community to think he is way further along in becoming the Archivist than he actually is (because how else would he know my name is mike if he didn’t Know it?), and people end up casually revealing a ton of information about the entities to him without him even needing to ask because they see no point in trying to hide what he clearly “already knows”
ok au where after becoming archivist jon starts getting into the habit of making vent tiktoks in his car after work because tim showed him how and at first he was like “this is stupid” but then it genuinely started helping him decompress so he just kept doing it in secret. and he eventually he gains a minor following who are becoming increasingly concerned because it goes from “the most INSUFFERABLE statement giver came in today” to “i got fucking KIDNAPPED AGAIN!!!”
I got to hold a 500,000 year old hand axe at the museum today.
It's right-handed
I am right-handed
There are grooves for the thumb and knuckle to grip that fit my hand perfectly
I have calluses there from holding my stylus and pencils and the gardening tools.
There are sharper and blunter parts of the edge, for different types of cutting, as well as a point for piercing.
I know exactly how to use this to butcher a carcass.
A homo erectus made it
Some ancestor of mine, three species ago, made a tool that fits my hand perfectly, and that I still know how to use.
Who were you
A man? A woman? Did you even use those words?
Did you craft alone or were you with friends? Did you sing while you worked?
Did you find this stone yourself, or did you trade for it? Was it a gift?
Did you make it for yourself, or someone else, or does the distinction of personal property not really apply here?
Who were you?
What would you think today, seeing your descendant hold your tool and sob because it fits her hands as well?
What about your other descendant, the docent and caretaker of your tool, holding her hands under it the way you hold your hands under your baby's head when a stranger holds them.
Is it bizarre to you, that your most utilitarian object is now revered as holy?
Or has it always been divine?
Or is the divine in how I am watching videos on how to knap stone made by your other descendants, learning by example the way you did?
Tomorrow morning I am going to the local riverbed in search of the appropriate stones, and I will follow your example.
The first blood spilled on it will almost certainly be my own, as I learn the textures and rhythm of how it's done.
Did you have cuss words back then? Gods to blaspheme when the rock slips and you almost take your thumbnail off instead? Or did you just scream?
I'm not religious.
But if spilling my own blood to connect with a stranger who shared it isn't partaking in the divine
I don't know what is.
Everyone who plays around with Tarot cards long enough winds up with a “bad” card that they love. I just barely persuaded my husband not to get the Ten of Swords tattooed on his body; traditionally, it shows a corpse with ten swords stuck in their body and means “utter ruin,” but he thought that if it took ten swords to kill you, then you must have put up a pretty good fight.
honestly this is the most badass ten of swords interpretation i've ever heard. i'm stealing this