tumblring alongside you

It was all just a show, anyway. They did it every year. They brought out a selection of criminals, and the Sorcerer who ruled us showed his power by bringing about their deaths by magic. Just to show, every year, what happened to anyone who crossed him.

There was a time, probably, when the people he executed really were rebels or assassins. In latter days he had to take what the dungeons offered. I was dragged up in chains between a pickpocket, sobbing in terror, and a man who’d killed another man in a brawl. There were few criminals of any note, by then. So instead of choosing the wickedest criminals, they chose based on appearance. The man who’d been in the brawl had a face like a clenched fist, and looked like a ruffian. The pickpocket, aging and with hands beginning to tremble, was a different kind of example. As was I.

“There aren’t many pretty ones, this year,” the man who chose me had said, examining me. “But this one will do. Not young, but not old, a woman, well-favoured enough for the gallows… what was her crime?”

The warder shrugged. “She tried to kill one of the sheriffs.”

The man looked down at me and I shrugged. “I hit him with a washing stick, because he tried to extort money from me, and he was a baby about it.” I refused to treat this as anything but pathetic, even after my sentencing. “I didn’t even break any bones.”

“Treason, then,” the man said, nodding. “Attacking the servants of the law. That will look well on the list. Send her.”

I had been debating ever since what to choose. Something quick? Something painless? I considered demanding that I suffer the attack I supposedly made on the sheriff, but then I realized the Sorcerer would only give me what the man had said I was going to do, and that was not a pleasant way to die. I had all but decided on something swift and relatively painless. Beheading with the sharpest of blades sounded good. It would be quick. 

I don’t think any piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has affected me. It’s called “Can’t Help Myself” and it’s a robot arm that’s programmed to clean up the fluid that’s constantly leaking out of itself, that looked like a never ending flow of blood. It has programmed dance moves to make it appear to have human gestures. And at first, it seemed happy and proud of its job, dancing around when it had visitors. But three years later, it looks tired, hopeless, and like it’s living in a never ending cycle of constantly trying to put itself back together for the entertainment of other people. And when I found out that it had finally stopped working in 2019, essentially dying, I couldn’t help but imagine the relief it must’ve felt and so I’ve been in here crying over a robot arm. 🥺 It was programmed this way, it truly couldn’t help itself. And no one ever helped him, they just watched.

I refuse to believe that Astroworld demonstrates that we are all animals at heart or that celebrity culture corrupted every person. First, this was not a stampede-- it was a crowd crush. Someone in a crowd crush has no idea what is happening towards the front and is helpless to move. Crowd crushes are largely the fault of poor crowd organizing/management. Some of the people in the crowd were assholes-- those who stormed the gates, danced on ambulances, etc. Most of them were just caught up in a press of bodies.

Travis Scott is not an innocent party here. He encouraged fans storming the gates and has been charged twice before in 2015 and 2017 for inciting hysteria at his shows. He encouraged violence against a kid in 2015 while crowd-surfing for allegedly trying to steal his shoe and at another show told fans to jump from a balcony-- fans later suffered serious injuries. He encouraged fans to flip off security trying to break up to the crowd and get to injured people. He has a history of being awful to security. I hate cops as much as anyone, but security guards aren't cops. They're just some guys who are getting paid a shit wage to prevent people from getting hurt. You're not standing up to the "man" by being a dick to security at a concert any more than you would be for getting tossed out of a bar by a bouncer for being drunk and disorderly. You're just being an asshole.

Travis Scott encourages people to "rage" at his shows with no care for the consequences. Well, that's just a mosh pit, right? Except, punk/heavy metal shows are famously focused on a sense of community and social responsibility. There have literally been scientific studies that demonstrate how focused heavy metal fans are on helping people who fall during shows. However, if you co-opt the goal of a mosh pit as a stress-reliever and/or a way to release anger without the rules of etiquette or citizenship, then you might be Travis Scott you've created an incredibly dangerous situation.

Travis Scott saw an ambulance trying to get through and he didn't stop playing. He saw a fan's lifeless body being carried away and he didn't stop playing. There is no way he couldn't have heard the crowd chanting to stop. This is not normal behavior. Side note: Here are some examples of responsible examples of crowd control behavior from artists who stopped their shows to stop people from getting hurt in no particular order that I found on Reddit in no particular order: Adele, ASAP Rocky, Avenge Sevenfold, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, KSI, MCR, this entire compilation).

These artists aren't heroes. They just know that crowd crushes have happened before and are practicing basic human decency.

And there were people who tried to help. If you haven't seen the video of the girl who climbed up on a camera platform or read her account, it's brutal, terrifying stuff. People were chanting to stop the show. This ICU nurse tried to help and documented the severely undetrained staff. Concertgoers did their best to pull others to safety, but the people who were in charge simply did not care.

@annabethisterrified you’re

“I painted somebody’s mom”

“Took a while and not perfect, but i painted the guy who painted the other guy’s mom”

“I painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the other guy’s mom who painted an egret”

“I painted the guy who painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the mom who painted a bird”

“When it sinks in that I stayed up most of the night to paint a meme for internet points…”

Bit wonky, but I painted the woman who painted the guy who painted the lady who painted the swan.

Bit shitty, but I painted the woman who painted the woman who painted the guy who painted the lady who painted the swan

I painted u/Shitty_WaterColour who painted the woman who painted the woman who painted the guy who painted the lady who painted the swan

I painted u/color_on_a_page who painted u/Shitty_WaterColour who painted the woman who painted the woman who painted the guy who painted someone’s mom who painted a swan

Oh well, here’s yet another layer

Another branch, starting from the girl with the white background:

Took an hour or so but I painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the other guys mom

I didn’t like how reddit treated the iPad guy so I painted the guy that painted the girl that who painted the guy who painted the other guys mom on my iPad.

Continue from OP’s branch:

I haven’t painted in two years and I’m glad for the inspiration!!

A painting of the guy who hasn’t painted in years painting the guy who painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the girl who painted the other girl who painted the guy who painted the other guys mom

Same ‘level’ as the one above:

Usually lurking but not today…plaid was a great challenge!

Continue! With a cat!

We painted the guy that painted the other guy who hadn’t painted in 2 years who painted the other guy who painted the girl that painted the guy who painted the girl that painted the guy that painted some guy’s mother who painted a swan whilst making them all an NPC in the process

Honorary mentioned:

Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep!!!

And finally, The Great Family Tree (some branch is not in the picture, pls click the link below for the full list:

This seems necessary…

https://nubleh.github.io/i_painted/

(I’ll type it out so it’s easier to read here)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 and 1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 teaspoons baking powder

8 oz bag of potato chips

1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

Cream butter and sugar together

Beat eggs and vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar

Fold in flour and baking powder

Fold in half of the crushed chips and all of the chocolate chips

Chill dough

Roll dough in crushed chips

the restorative power of nature, aka the “go outside and touch grass” compilation