Welcome to the Hellscape of My Hellsite Mind

Actual quotes from the Apollo 11 mission:

Actual Quotes from the Apollo 11 Mission: Image 2: Collins: I’d like to enter Aldrin in the oatmeal eating contest next time [Bruce McCandless, in Mission Control]: is he pretty good at that? Collins: He’s doing his share up here. McCandless: let’s see. You all just finished a meal not too long ago, too, didn’t you? Aldrin: I’m still eating. McCandless: Okay. Does that, that… Collins: He’s on his – he’s on his 19th bowl.

Image 3: Collins: Menkent. God, what a start. Aldrin: Nobody in their right… Collins: Mekent’s good … Aldrin: … nobody in their right mind would pick that one. Collins: … Mckent’s a good star.

Image 4: Collins: That’s a horrible window. It’s too bad we have to shoot through this one, but – oh, boy, you could spend a lifetime just geologizing that one crater alone, you know that? Armstrong: You could. Collins: That’s not how I’d like to spend my lifetime, but – picture that. Beautiful! Aldrin: Yes, there’s a big mother over here, too. Collins: Come on, now, Buzz, don’t refer to them as big mothers. Give them some scientific name.

Image 5: Collins: We’re trying to calculate how much spaghetti and meatballs we can get on board for Al Bean [the lunar-module pilot for Apollo 12]. Garriott: I’m not sure the spacecraft will take that much extra weight. Have you made any estimates? Collins: It’ll be close. Garriott: 11, Houston. The medics at the next console report that the shrew is one animal which can eat six times its own body weight every 24 hours. This may be a satisfactory baseline for your spaghetti calculations on Al Bean. Over. Collins: Okay. Thank you. That’s in work.

this fanfic shit is easy

Ignore how bad the world map is. I tried to do it from memory, and it's been a minute since I had geography.

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LOOK AT THE BOOK TITLES! THE MAPS!

Combeferre：The man gazing at the sky

"While Combeferre was raising a wounded man, he received three bayonet thrusts through his breast; he cast one last look toward heaven, and breathed his last."

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Obviously, this painting references the original Les Misérables—the scene of Combeferre's death.

I particularly love the colors in The Night Watch and Liberty Leading the People, so I used them as references. I also drew inspiration from "Masquerade," one of my favorite songs from The Phantom of the Opera. In the book, their deaths all feel absurd and grand, yet they end just as absurdly—even Combeferre's death is brushed over hastily. But this kind of ending, without grand fanfare, though silent, is deafening.

The highlight on Combeferre isn't based on much logic; it's simply because the Chinese translation of his name, "公白飛," contains the character for "white" (白), so I thought it suited him perfectly.

I really enjoy the sense of motion in certain famous paintings—where every figure, whether protagonist or secondary, has their own business to attend to. Though I may not have fully achieved that, I still tried my best. Combeferre is helping up a wounded soldier; the soldier on the far left intends to stop him, not knowing whether he means to save or harm the injured man. When he later realizes Combeferre is trying to help, he moves to intervene—but is killed by one of the soldiers. Beneath that soldier lies a wounded young man. Behind the soldier who kills Combeferre, Enjolras is fighting another soldier, watching his closest friend die before his eyes, while the soldier seizes the moment to stab the man behind him. An old man, seeing the soldier attack Combeferre, tries to step over Courfeyrac—who lies on the ground, trying to hold him back—but is struck from behind by another soldier with a short sword, never seeing it coming. In the background, a soldier is quietly carrying away his friend, who is part of the rebellion. There are three already dead in the painting, and two more will die in the very next moment. I particularly love this sense of absurdity and chaos.

don’t mind me I’m just crying over this 1867 woodblock print of Valjean and his family :(

This week’s word is…

✨ HUG ✨

Relinquishing the lantern to the ground before him, an ancient and awoken part of him turned around. He returned Louis’s hug. The younger man held him tighter until the sobs faded into silence.