This moment, right here! It is where we are meant to be.

But gazing into something huge and utterly Other, being uncomfortable means you're engaging your mind with it. "Uncomfortable" is actually a whole spectrum of emotions that become a vivid and satisfying rainbow.

There was a post a while back with some artwork of Dendrogaster, a crustacean that parasitizes starfish, and its body is like this branching fractal of fleshy lobes made to fit inside the body of the starfish mirroring its structure, and I was absolutely horrified to look at this, and this horror was the same emotion as a strangely visceral wave of sympathy for this parasite.

Creative works about parasites often invoke the horror of bodily invasion, which is visceral and strong for me, but this artwork inverted that horror, instead showing the horror of being made so perfectly for fitting within someone else that you lose everything you are and become unrecognizable.

I also think of the post about the cowbird chick. It's awful that the bird pushes its siblings out of the nest as it grows, and the mama feeds it because she instinctively must feed her chick, but the cowbird is just a baby. Was it wrong for him to hatch, to be alive, to be hungry, to be a baby and to need love?

Symbiosis is intensely beautiful, and sometimes it's beautiful because it's grotesque and terrible. Of course, the symbiosis between two organisms isn't an allegory for a relationship, it just is a relationship, but looking at the way organisms become entwined feels like you're seeing things that, if words described them, would also be human experiences.

Being invaded by a parasite is a horror of powerlessness and loss of autonomy, but being a parasite is also defined by powerlessness. In many cases, the parasite will die without the host, but the host can live without the parasite. I wonder why it is expected to sympathize with one and not the other.

Your immune system fights against internal parasites like a tapeworm...Imagine being a tapeworm. The body of your host is your universe. Do you find your world to be kind? Benevolent? Does your god love you?

Sometimes people call disabled people "parasites." When I think about my future sometimes I'm uncertain and afraid.

I will find you in every life (threat)

I am forever fascinated by the arms race between coelurosaurs and ceratopsians. Among the most famous rivals in palaeomedia growing up was Velociraptor and Protoceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, and of course I had to add two of my faves, Gorgosaurus and Styracosaurus!

I really like the theory of Jack being vampire-coded, not only because he is a foil of Dracula but because it shows how the abuse of power can come from within the house (or rather within the asylum). So here is a list of vampire-like traits he's exhibited so far:

-Has a good forehead and strong jaw, just like Dracula is described as having a prominent forehead and "strong chin"

-Doesn't sleep at night except for the help of chlloral

-Monologues about the "natural order of things". Dracula with his lineage and warrior blood and Jack with his superior rationality over Renfield.

-Jack is described by Lucy as having an intense stare and wanting to psychoanalyze her (later Renfield), which implicitly recalls how Dracula has power over Lucy through his hypnotizing red eyes.

-Uses a lancet, which is a small instrument for blood letting. Speaking of blood, he describes Renfield as having a "sanguine" temperament twice. What's next, drinking blood?

-Feels lonely and compelled to love someone, just like Dracula wants to "love" Jonathan. Now this is pretty interesting -- Jack is more like a gothic brooding hero that Dracula tries to be in a lot of media adaptations. He's in love with Lucy and yet he uses Renfield as a replacement.

-Being alone vs being lonely. Dracula is lonely, even though he lives with three vampire women who are familiar with him. Jack has friends who he keeps at a distance because of unrequited love. Of course this is a bit of a stretch as we tend to think of all three suitors as a parallel to the vampire women, but I'm throwing this in anway.

Ooh yes! Jack having the authority to drug his patients is a great parallel to Dracula's mind control powers.

My (most) favourite digimon in digimon frontier! Vritramon!

Requested by djiinn-equip: