sunofsnek

[sunofsnek]

concept: i stay snuggled in bed all morning and don’t feel guilty about it. it’s raining. everyone is safe. 

[sunofsnek]

anyway one more thing that drives me insane about the burning curly scene is the way jimmy physically places him above himself for his shitty non-apology like hes a merciful god whose forgiveness he begs for. loathing and deification are just two sides of the dehumanization coin!! curly cant just be a person who is disabled. he has to be less or more than human because of what jimmy put him through.

[sunofsnek]

now say it with me: authors/artists dont owe you moral purity. an author/artist job is not to hold you by the hand & tell you exactly what is Good™ & what is Bad™. you should be able to think for yourself

[sunofsnek]

HIYA Y'ALL!!!

THANK YOU FOR THE FOLLOWS! As a thank you for you support, it's not ART RAFFLE TIME!

TO ENTER: Follow, like and reblog this post ON THE 12th of JUNE I'll draw the winner who'll get their OC painted by me!

[sunofsnek]

CONSTANTINE francise lawrence, 2005

[sunofsnek]

CONSTANTINE francise lawrence, 2005

[sunofsnek]

Feelings tonight

[sunofsnek]

Reblog daily for health and prosperity

[sunofsnek]

"Mina and Dracula are fated to be together" wrong they're fated to meet in the pit

[sunofsnek]

A customer contacted our team with questions, and then finished their email with: "I am daunted by the complexities and unknowns." I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

[sunofsnek]

🔮✨ MOD SPOTLIGHT ✨🔮

When spreadsheets are your best friend, a job like sunofsnek's is no problem at all! They've truly mastered the art.

Please give her a waterdhavian welcome 💜

[sunofsnek]

stained glass [may 13, 2023]

[sunofsnek]

Dear Mouthwashing fandom, explain to me, why next to the incredible fan art, I find a fuck ton of shipping content, especially between characters where this is highly problematic? SPOILERS FOR MOUTHWASHING AHEAD CN for talk about sexual abuse, death, suicide & violence

DISCLAIMER: I do not shame the general practice of shipping at all. I am a shipper myself and I think it makes up for a lot of interesting dynamics and narratives outside the canon. Shipping is an important pillar of fandom communities and I am unable to forbid you to do it. HOWEVER, in the case of Mouthwashing I want to talk about what, in my opinion, feels tone-deaf to the themes and the canon of the game. But let me start with a short summary of the game before I get into it.

Mouthwashing is basically a visual novel that takes place on the Tulpar, the last manned cargo ship of the company Pony Express. The crew, consisting of Caption Curly, Co-Captain Jimmy, Nurse Anya, Mechanic Swansea and his intern Daisuke, is confronted with a crash against an asteroid and the consequences following it. The story is told out of order to reveal the truth bit by bit. What caused the crash, what happened and how the crew deals with the time afterward being stuck on the ship. Revealing sexual abuse, tragic backstories, the horrible side effects of late state capitalism and the neglect of people in command towards the people they are responsible for.

To boil it down we have two men who, out of societal misogyny, hurt the only woman on their crew by assaulting her or not acting as they should have in their position of responsibility. All of this would not have happened if Jimmy didn't rape Anya and impregnate her, and if Curly had disciplined Jimmy in a capacity possible on the ship and in Jimmy's position as co-pilot. To be honest, with the amount of automatization the ship has, I don't think they need Jimmy if it is not a case of emergency, but I digress. Jimmy is the perpetrator of the story, but Curly is an accomplice in putting his aim of finding a solution and compromise over punishing his subordinate as he should have.

And now to my actual point: I am a big fan of the game, the narration style and the utter tragedy of 5 people losing their lives in the isolation of space, with their company not giving a shit about them. Otherwise, they might have been rescued much earlier or at all. Or had enough cryo pots in the first place. Or a nurse with experience. Or any amount of better equipment and not the most cheap shit that somehow made it through a resemblance of regulations. There are probably no regulations.

Being a fan I, of course, looked into the hashtags on several social media sites, and between the incredible art and analysis of the game, I quickly found shipping content, and I have no idea why. I have literally no idea how that narrative speaks to you in a way of shipping characters romantically/sexually. Especially three shippings really rub me the wrong way.

ANYA/JIMMY

Are you fucking kidding me? Literally, what is wrong with you shipping a victim with their abuser? There was not one interaction between them, that suggest that there was consent or affection, that Jimmy has any sympathy for Anya. He knows what is going on, he knows that Anya is pregnant and takes no responsibility. Even worse, his idea of FIXING this was to kill everyone, at least himself, to avoid responsibility! Same goes for AUs where she kept the baby and is somehow okay and happy? I get the urge to fix it, but that is not a good fix. There is no good fix if you are pregnant due to rape.

ANYA/CURLY

A lot of argument I hear for that is that "at least Curly is her friend and was nice to her" and if that is your whole foundation of argument, I want to ask what your standards for a relationship are. Please know that you deserve more than the bare minimum. Another question in that context: Is Curly really Anya's friend? His friend was abused and instead of protecting her, he tried to reason and help her abuser! That is not the behavior of a friend! There is no "but Jimmy is his friend too!". If your friend is an abuser and that does not make you stop being their friend....why?

JIMMY/CURLY

It feels like it is a law on the internet, that two men who look at least averagely handsome will be shipped, especially if they have the tiniest of connection to each other. I am not even sure if I would call them friends in the first place. It appears that Jimmy, whatever his bad life before that job was (thanks to the developers for not giving us a backstory), he is still absolutely unsatisfied with that he has. He is jealous of Curly and his position, seeing how quickly he takes on the Captain title after the crash and only realizes far too late how hard the position actually is. Curly on the other hand feels a bit like a people pleaser to me. He probably had pity for Jimmy, took him under his wing to help him? Fix him? Whatever it is, it made him ignore Jimmy's bad side to a fatal degree. I respect the toxic yaoi but are you sure?

TLDR; I am worried about how the practice of shipping developed, from a way to extend the canon, explore queerness in cis/straight dominated media, into a compulsion of where some people can't look at any form of media or constellation of characters without immediately smashing them together like dolls. If you do this, maybe step back for a minute and ask yourself if it is appropriate. On that note, same goes in case you defend Jimmy. Why?

[sunofsnek]

[sunofsnek]

#Fictober 24 - Day 6: "I am not giving up"

Bye fluff, we are getting into action. Aryaxes when he is actually fighting.

The whistling of arrows being shot just past his ears was deafening, but he pushed on. Aryaxes raised his shield in front of him, trying to block any projectiles until he was close enough. He would end this, no matter what.

This should have been easy, but that is what they always say, right? The miners in the West complained about a goblin problem they could not solve themselves. Aryaxes read the letter again and again as they traveled to this town, not sure what to expect. Every farmhand was usually able to kill a goblin, since they weren’t strong or resilient, only really dangerous in packs. But in a mine? Depending on the construction they could just smoke them out. But the letter clearly stated, that for some reason the goblins seemed to be fueled by an unnatural force, and that was when one of the clerics asked Aryaxes to join them investigating. After their arrival and a quick talk with the foreman, they decided to head in, accompanied by a handful of miners who were brave enough to follow in. Deeper and deeper they walked down the narrow mine shafts, making Aryaxes almost claustrophobic, but they didn’t encounter more than a few goblins here and there they easily took care off. For a moment Aryaxes was sure the problem wasn’t as big as they had told them, but the confusion in the faces of the miners told him, that this was not what they have seen. For a moment, he closed his eyes, focusing his perception outside of him and right there at the corner of his mind he sensed something, something undead. This was not a good sign, but they would see soon enough what was behind it.

They walked deeper into the mountain, deeper than the miners had gone for a long time and suddenly a big room opened up in front of them, the stench of the undead overwhelming. Aryaxes looked up and saw it. An undead mage using some green rays on the goblins to shroud them in a green glow, but before Aryaxes could say something, or could react, the goblins charged. He raised his sword and shield, before he looked at the cleric.

“Keep them alive, I will destroy this monstrosity. The miners need your attention more than I do.” The cleric nodded reluctantly, grabbing his holy symbol and muttering a prayer to Helm. 

The whistling of arrows being shot just past his ears was deafening, but he pushed on. Aryaxes raised his shield in front of him, trying to block any projectiles until he was close enough. He would end this, no matter what. He knew that whatever spell was making the goblins stronger, it would not stop until the source was defeated. Until the undead was slain, and this was his sole duty to do.

Step by step he pushed forward, dodging arrows, attacks by the goblin’s short swords, and soon enough the spells of the undead mage, as he started to aim at him with firebolts and worse, making his shield creak. Just another step. Aryaxes muttering to himself, until his shield broke, and the fragments flew out of his hand, making him more vulnerable. The next firebolt hit his shoulder, making him yell in agony, but he would not yield. Not when he was still standing. With a silent prayer to Helm on his lips he charged. “I beg you Vigilant One, guide my sword. I will not give up until me or the monster have fallen.” Crackling energy surrounded Aryaxes’ sword, as he swung his long sword. The blade connected with the undead mage and the room was filled with the sound of thunder, deafeningly loud, strong enough to make something in front him burst. He was catapulted away against a stone wall, all the air forcefully pushed out of his lungs. He opened his eyes only to see the goblins loosing their green glow, before his conscience was shrouded in darkness.

[sunofsnek]

#Fictober - Day 5: "It's a new day, let's go."

OTP ship fluff, early morning cuddles. Link to Ao3 here.

As the sun shone in his face, Aryaxes groaned. He had planned to sleep in for longer today, but he seemingly had forgotten to close the curtains last night, so that was done. Before he could decide to close his eyes again, even if not to sleep than to enjoy the warmth, his stomach growled, which meant either way he had to get up to make breakfast. As he tried to move, he realized he couldn’t. The other person was sprawled all over his body, head on his chest, legs entangled, long hair all over the place.

“Hey, let me get up.” His voice low to not startle her.

“No.” A small defiant sound, murmured against his skin. He rolled his eyes, trying to get her off carefully, but she was making herself heavy, even if she wasn’t even awake yet. If he weren’t hungry, he almost would find it endearing. “Alina, it’s a new day, let’s go. Come on, you slept long enough.” But, nothing. No movement. Aryaxes knew the next sentence was basically cheating but he had to.

“If you are not going off me, I can’t make breakfast, Lina.” And quicker than he could say another word, she moved, rolling herself tight into the sheets, pulling them off him in the process, exposing him suddenly to the cold morning air.

“Why are you like this?” His tone scolding, but he was only met with a soft chuckle, muffled by the pillow. A soft smile appeared on his lips, Aryaxes leaning down to press a kiss on the small spot of her head that was not covered by sheets.

“I’ll be back shortly, menace.”

[sunofsnek]

#Fictober Day 4: "No, we're not doing that"

That is really self-indulgent and can I have some VA to record that? So yeah, have some comfort

Aryaxes stood in front of the door that hadn't opened the whole day and he started to get worried, so he knocked.

“It's me, open up. 

I can hear you in there, so just open the door. It won't help if you hide all day.. What happened happened and life is still continuing.”

He waited, hoping to hear noises of movement but nothing.

“You can hear me, I know that.”

A sigh escaped him, as he leaned against the door frame. 

“I'm not the most empathetic person, I look like I dislike anyone but you know you can talk to me, right? I won't push you away if you genuinely need someone. Well, at least you know now. I'm not good at giving comfort but I can try, I guess. 

You made a mistake, nothing more. No one is hurt, nothing exploded so you're better than a lot of other people I had the misfortune to be around. It's okay to be sad for a moment and catch your breath but wallowing in self-pity the whole day isolated? No, we're not doing that. It doesn't help you, it makes you just more miserable. Believe me, I know.”

He paused, stopping himself from saying too much about himself. This was not the time and place. Luckily, he heard slow steps and the door opened, revealing his companion in a very disheveled condition. He couldn't help his expression softening ever so slightly.

“There you are. Come on, we'll get you some water and I made strew. You need some substance.”