#Sorting out yourself

[art--harridan]

[Image description: A digital drawing of Iris Campbell from the film Final Destination Bloodlines. It depicts her on the night of the Skyview premonition, wearing her blue dress with white accessories. One of her hands in being pulled to the left out of frame, her body being tugged along with it. Her other arm hangs limply. Below the engagement ring, her ring finger is coloured a bright red, which drips off of it into a curved line. This line travels to the right and splits off into eight different lines of varying sizes, each one with an arrow tip. One of these arrows travels behind her head, and spirals as it travels. These tips all point towards a penny falling downwards. Iris is turning her head and gaze towards it. Her eyebrows bunch up and her mouth falls open slightly as sweat drips down her face. The background is a bold, warm yellow, which contrasts greatly against the blue of her dress and the red of the arrows.]

waiting for the penny to drop

[mohntilyet]

i have to be so real. sometimes you have to outright not give a shit what the author thinks. i’m not saying to disregard how a character is portrayed and give into fanon characterisations but sometimes i will see fans be like “(head writer) omggg do you think this character is a good person?” “how would this character react if xyz happened?” as though that’s not a question you can and have to answer for yourself.! any character can contain multitudes and if you keep limiting your perception of them solely on word of god its not fun for the writer or even yourself anymore. THINK FOR YOURSELF. INVENT NEW WAYS TO FUCK YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS OVER

[lichqueenlibrarian]

SPOCKO

[spoonyglitteraunt]

Something I wish more people understood is that optimism and kindness are a choice.

For some people that choice comes more naturally than others. In some situations that choice is easier to make. But even if you're naturally inclined to be kind and optimistic, there will be times when it's a real struggle to not just wallow in the misery, or to be a petty ass gremlin to someone. When it takes real effort to not just take the easy option, because you know it will not help, or will even make stuff worse in the long run.

On the flip side for those who it doesn't come naturally, who really need to work on it, they still can and often do choose both kindness and optimism. Because no matter the difficulty level, it improves your overall quality of life and that of those around you.

Also, choosing kindness is not faking things. If you do kind things you are a kind person, whether you have to actively chose it or not. There is no difference to those you were kind to whether or not you had to think about the action, or if it just happened automatically. You still treated them kindly, and that is what they'll remember. It will mean more than you might think.

The good news is that it's a muscle you can train. The more you forge those pathways in your brain, the easier they are to walk. Where one day you may find that while you may never be a fully natural optimistic kind person, you can pretty well imitate one, and that's all that matters.

Kindness and optimism are a choice and you always get to choose it.

[deoidesign]

One of my first digital pieces (2010) versus one of my recent ones (2024)

We all start somewhere!

[hemi-demi]

Daily reminder that if you're enjoying some fanfic, and you want to see more of that person's work, that comments mean so, so much more than kudos and bookmarks ever can!

They can be long, heart wrenching love letters to the details and nuances of their writing. Can be pulling your favorite quotes from chapters and making little comments, or – when in doubt – just bark at people. Barking is fun

However you decide, know that even just a bunch of ❤️❤️❤️ can mean the difference between fanwriters and artists just giving up entirely. Fandom is a conversation, so get to yapping!

[blenselche]

insert for the tiny bday scene in ch3

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

I'll take awhile before I can make this into a full proper post with explanation (and sketch illustration) of each segment, as well as the bird view from the market, entrance and a better view of the smithing corner buuuut have this for now~!

[coern-art-very-cool-and-nice]

the boy in the spotlight versus the girl in the mirror

edit: made a part 2

unshaded version

[freyholland]

im obsessed with how teenage Misty tries so hard to mask and mirror the people around her but it's that usual autistic funhouse mirroring where everything is just slightly off and wrong and so people find her extremely off-putting and even creepy and it ends up making things worse than if she'd just been fully herself to begin with. i love that with adult Misty you can see that she's basically stopped masking and allows herself to be as weird and quirky as she wants to be - but she still mirrors the people she loves (primarily Nat) because that's such a huge part of how she's learned to interact with others. also like that they gave her a pet parrot in obvious reference to that. she learned mirroring as a survival strategy but now it's become her love language

[messrmoonyy]

There is a line between making a reader be more innocent and/or submissive to the character you’re writing them with, and making reader just completely childlike. And some of you are starting to blur it just a bit too much.

You can make your reader be more ‘innocent’ in regards to a burly, ‘bad’ character like Arthur Morgan or Dutch Van Der Linde or Joel Miller etc and not make them behave like a literal child.

It’s really bloody gross.

[centipedetea]

its killing me that spamton is going thru that situation where people hate woobifying fanon so much that they lean too far in the opposite direction and create fanon 2 where he's cartoonishly evil for no reason

[stuckinthisdamnhellsite]

he couldn't tell her. wouldn't tell her. wouldn't be yet another voice of cynicism against her optimism. but he also wouldn't high five her again either. too jaded, too tired, too many years spent doing this to waste time on celebrating when there's always more work to be done.

but one thing he was not, was callous. he would not let her crying go ignored. get swallowed up by all the other wails around him. this, he could help with. this pain he could lessen. and so he did. the best he could. no high fives, no hugs, no pats on the back. just words. as comforting as he could make them.

this job is tough, but so are you. and showing emotion is not the same as showing weakness. you being here is helping, you are making a difference.

he stopped there. he could have continued but again, he didn't want to kill her optimism. didn't want to make her as jaded as he was. even though he could see her future so clearly. couldn't see any other way she wouldn't turn out just like him. but he wouldn't be the one to tell her. not now. not like this.

not when she is currently so little like him. has such a bright outlook and genuine excitement. when he first met her, it took him off guard. pulled the rug out from under him. and any other cliche phrases he could think of. so far removed was he from feeling like that, he couldn't even think of how he was when he first started. was he like that too? did he have that sort of unquestionable hopefulness? how did it all turn around, turn him into this?

as he walked away he couldn't help but think that one day, one day she'd get it. one day she'd be as tired and as frustrated as he was and it would all make sense. but then maybe, just maybe, she'd have someone, the exact opposite to how she was, show her that maybe it doesn't have to be that way. and she'd have a moment like this too, to be able to see that there just might be another way to be. another way to look at things. that maybe, hope might still be possible.

[starbiology]

sorry i just cannot get over how funny of a setup neopets made for themselves with all the faeries being women and sticking to that

its not that there just hasnt been a male faerie design. Tnt has advised for years in the editorial that male faeries do not exist as theyre an entirely female species. you cant even have a story posted in the neotimes with a male faerie because they do not exist in the world

and youd think after that kind of decision theyd come up with some lore like 'faeries appear from their element or magic' but no, its never explained and it gets funnier

Some of the faeries reference having a mom and family members.

They also can be Not related to each other which is important too

Its not like theres only a few faeries either, not even a few hundred. Theyre a fairly common species on the planet. Theres in fact ~1,296,000 faeries just in their city alone (per the neopedia)

While faeries are immortal, they do start off younger. Its not stated if they start as children, though it makes sense that they would. Several parts of lore reference faeries going to school when theyre young and having a dedicated mentor faerie who helps them hone their magic.

So an easy assumption is well, theyre just having children together. Or creating them out of ✨magic✨ or something

and have to end this with my fav note of this confusing bit of neopets lore from jellyneo lol:

[auspicioustidings]

Firewatch Part 14

Summary: You visit a grave as our story comes to an end.

Words: 1.9k

You wondered if Johnny had snuck into bed with you. He had done it the last time Simon was on watch and it had been admittedly sort of nice waking up bundled in him. He was pretty cute when he was sleepy. 

He hadn't, the warmth was from Dosia which was strange because these days she usually was either outside or cuddled up with Price if Simon wasn't around like the little traitor she was.

This was not Simon's bed.

–

“You've been through quite the ordeal! Can't believe you were in the forest all this time. Surprised you never came across our Firewatch, they live out there. Or they did I suppose.”

“I- sorry, what do you mean?”

“Didn't you ever notice that tower from your old place? It was a watchtower for wildfires, the men who ran it had a cabin out there as well. Shame about what happened.”

“The fire…”

“Ah last I heard between air support and the trucks coming in to help from all over it's looking like they have it contained, but these things tend to burn for days or weeks before we can really relax.”

“What about the men in the forest? What happened to them?”

The sheriff blinked at you.

“How exactly did you survive out there all this time?”

–

It wasn't as bad as it could have been was what people kept saying. The tower was gone, but the fire had never ripped through the town thanks to quick detection and action to contain it. 

In the span of six months you had lost your home to fire twice over. You were living out of the little bed and breakfast while paperwork was sorted. There was a lot of red tape involved in bringing someone back from the dead, although it was curious how much easier it was made by the sheriff having not properly filed the death certificate in the first place. You weren't as officially dead as you should have been. 

Everything would be wrapped up soon and then you didn't really know what you would do. You had money from the Insurance claim on your cottage (that had been a wild series of phone calls to increasingly senior people as you tried to explain that you were the owner who had perished in the fire), but you had no clue what to do with it. 

You knew you had been putting it off, but it was time to go visit the grave. Maybe then you'd figure it out.

–

It wasn't anything fancy, just a rustic headstone set in the ashes. Dosia wasn't super interested, instead going to rub up against your visitor. Wonders never ceased.

“Knew she'd come around eventually.”

“They do say absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

“Does it?”

You glanced over at Kyle and your heart thumped. The last time you had seen him had been weeks ago when he was disappearing into smoke and embers.

“Yeah, yeah I think it does.”

You both stood and stared at the gravestone, Dosia's ears pricking before she took off towards the treeline. You weren't worried, you were pretty sure you knew who she was in a rush to see. She completely ignored the man walking towards you and Kyle on her way. 

“Ouch.”

“She still hasn't forgiven you for saying I should've got a dog you know.”

“Still think ye should swap her for one.”

“He cried when we thought she didn't make it out.”

“Away and biel yer heid Gaz.”

You had missed them. You had really, truly missed them. It was overwhelming being on your own after always having them around. You were angry a lot at little things like how difficult you found a busy shop now. They had done that to you. It didn't make your stupid feelings any less complicated. It didn't make you feel any less like kissing the new scar on Johnny's arm or the bruises healing on Gaz.

“So you buried your girl in the end huh?”

“A few weeks before the fire. We were planning on bringing you to see it.”

“This close to town? Bit risky no?”

“Aye, reckoned ye were worth the risk.”

You took a deep breath to calm yourself. It was a strange thing looking at your own grave. Why put it here to bring you to see it? To prove that they weren't holding you to some impossible dream girl standard anymore?

“Was supposed to be a birthday present, but we're a bit late now aren't we little bird?”

Price looked tired as he emerged from the treeline. It must have been an awful few weeks for him. There was still the remnants of the fire to be looked after incase it blazed up again. It had taken out the cabin and the tower, nothing left but smouldering wrecks and a nasty looking burn creeping up his neck. All of those drawings in Simon's room gone. You don't know why that was one of the things that made you the saddest.

“Didn't feel much like celebrating anyway” you answered truthfully. 

Your birthday had been 5 days after the fire and you had spent it for the most part staring into the void and napping. You hadn't felt like celebrating your new found freedom at all. 

“We did actually get you something. Still have it, if you'd like.”

You wondered what it was. As far as you knew nothing survived the fire. But they were just things and things didn't seem all that important anymore. Not when Simon finally joined you, a purring Dosia in his arms. He was slow due to a bad left leg it seemed like. 

“OK.”

Simon let Dosia down even though she was very reluctant to go so he could take something from around his neck. He handed you the corded necklace. It had a key on the end.

“Happy birthday sweetheart.”

“What's it for?”

“Havnae given it a name yet, thought we'd leave that for you tae do.”

“It's a 20 minute drive out the other side of town, just on the treeline.”

You stared at them. You knew what they were talking about. There was a crumbling cottage out there, you knew because you had considered buying it when you had first moved here but it was more expensive than the one you had went with and you couldn't afford it. You had completely forgotten it was there.

“Hope you don't mind sweetheart, but we took the liberty of getting the electrical work done.”

“And the roof, sorry luv I know you're a good roofer but my heart cannot take watching you do that again.”

“Tae be fully honest the whole thing is already done. Got a wee bit carried away.”

All those trips into town. The way they'd come back looking tired. They had been building you a home. 

“But… no wait, that's not… you were going to let me go?”

“Couldn't keep you in a cage forever little bird.”

“You'd have gotten arrested!”

“Would we aye? For what?”

“For kidnapping me!”

“Funny thing sweetheart, nobody in town is talking about the fire because they're too busy talking about the miracle girl. Apparently survived months in the forest on her own, told the sheriff she was quite the survivalist.”

“Yeah well! You! I!” you huffed, trying to come up with any reason that you had lied that didn't sound like “I love you”. “It was a cooler story.”

They laughed and it made you smile. You couldn't do it in the end. They were not bad men, you couldn't tell the truth knowing it would see them punished and put away. When you didn't know if they were dead or alive it had brought your feelings a stunning clarity. You had fallen stupidly in love with them. 

“So what's next?”

“Don't know honestly. We're camping out and keeping an eye on things. Once the danger has passed we rebuild” Price said, hand massaging at his shoulder.

“I'm pretty handy with a hammer.”

“Yeah?”

“Suppose I could help out” you offered, fighting to keep the stupid grin off of your face as you held up the key  “after all my cottage is pretty nearby right? And this guy is going to be useless with that leg.”

“Watch it sweetheart, my teeth are still intact.”

–

John liked to joke that you would combust if you didn't have a project. Once the cabin was rebuilt (5 bedrooms, incase they had visitors obviously) you helped where you could with the tower, once that was done you wanted to redo the kitchen in the cottage, after that you talked him into taking in an abandoned dog (honestly very easy what with you and Kyle both giving your best puppy dog eyes). Dosia surprisingly seemed to enjoy the new addition, bullying the german shepherd into doing whatever she wanted. The pair of them mostly came and went as they wanted between the cottage and the cabin, thriving running wild in the forest in between. 

Simon tried to get you into football which you sort of did. You had no interest in the big games, but you'd both go and cheer on the local team when they had home games. Inevitably you both looked a mess having gotten into a bit of a paint fight when you had insisted Simon have a little flag on his cheek. You threatened to de-fang him at least once a week. Both Dosia and Riley were absolutely in love with him which both you and Johnny sulked about. You thought maybe, for Riley at least, that Simon felt safe. His leg never quite healed right so he was more cautious and slow moving now, something you thought she might find comforting. 

When Johnny wasn’t grumbling about the animals wanting nothing to do with him, he was whining at you to not get out of bed. You had never met a lazier creature than John MacTavish on a duvet day, he just wanted to cuddle and watch movies. When he was on a hyper day he wanted to redecorate which almost always ended in a fight because you disagreed on what would look good. Everytime a big video game release rolled around the two of you (and sometimes Gaz depending on the game) would just hole up for a weekend and do nothing but play. Luckily Price indulged you and usually kept you fed and watered. 

Kyle had only been half kidding about making a fire fighter out of you. It started as therapy really, a way to try and control the nightmares. He took the lead in teaching you about all the equipment, letting you observe drills and even buying you custom fitted kit. While you never did want to be near a fire again, you learned to be less scared of the idea, you learned to believe that you would know what to do if anything happened. When you hadn't panicked at a little bin fire in your cottage and instead had just dealt with it, you had showed up at the cabin bursting with excitement to tell them. 

The Firewatch went from 4 to 5. You enjoyed it, the peace and quiet and the stars as you sipped hot chocolate and looked out onto the forest. You didn’t really know what the future held for you, but against all odds you had found a family and you were well and truly happy. And if sometimes you found yourself looking through the binoculars just to check on said family, you figured that was just karma.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

there are of course certain posts circulating here that do indeed display the grim state of critical reading and thinking skills on this website. (i'm thinking specifically about the "taylor swift isn't bisexual" "don't worry, op isn't actually saying that taylor swift isn't actually bisexual" post that has been making the rounds for years. op of that reblog chain is probably still fighting for their life, thoughts and prayers, etc.)

then there are posts where there are, in fact, very reasonable and plausible explanations for why a large number of people on the 'neurodivergent with diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities' website might struggle to understand what they're looking at right away. logic puzzles, jokes that rely on solving math problems in your head to unearth the joke, unreality bits, etc.

and i think it is actually very important to be able to distinguish between these two different types of non-comprehension before deciding to have a go at people for not understanding what they're looking at.