#and bc yeah you know what. black and white IS easier

[thunderstar-supernova]

ok its time for me to be cringe and draw my blorbo from my brain with the blorbo from my game

[creatingblackcharacters]

A follow up from the anon with the intersectionality of poverty and race ask from last week:

Thanks a lot for the feedback!

About your point about the white oc 'schooling' the Black oc, I get it even more after you put it into perspective and i agree completely! I will definitely make adjustments and maybe it would be more meaningful if the roles where reversed?(As in subtly acknowledging the role race can play in social structure?)

Regarding the setting, it refers to America because it has elements from the western genre, (cowboys and stuff) mainly aesthetics but with that comes more complexity i guess, a LOT to look out for i know..

I've been actually trying to worldbuild in a way that puts some distance between the setting and America, geographically, in terms of institutions etc, but i guess it's impossible to completely detach the one from the other when the western genre automatically tracks back to american roots.

It's definitely an escapist setting in some aspects and from me personally it comes from a place of wanting to fit any character in any of the roles that need to be filled in the story eg a high rank politician who's a woman, a Black man who's a noble, same sex engagements being common and honestly.. the idea has been to create a story where one wouldn't have to worry about seeing portrayals of common bigotry. i hear you if it feels like a cop out and maybe it is, it's definitely easier than tackling the really hard conversations.

So in your opinion, what is the balance between acknowledging the existence of racism while not telling a story that is not mine to tell? What does this look like in practice, portraying potential micro aggressions for example?

This is hard for me, fr 😅 you chose a visual that is deeply connected to... Well, to USAmerican history, like you said. It's very hard to extract the concept of the western from everything that created that visual (settler colonization), bc if those things hadn't happened, that vision wouldn't exist. From Manifest Destiny, to the genocide of the indigenous, to slavery, reconstruction and more...

Option 1) In theory yeah, you CAN have a world where what we understand as western happens. It's worldbuilding; if you have an entire separate world where you establish that this has nothing to do with Earth, that this is how things came to be and this is how we are now, okay. That's not impossible to do, and could be read fine. Unfortunately you're still not going to be able to avoid the familiarity we have to that setting, but as a writer you're going to have to treat everyone as equitably as you claim this society is for it to be believable. Because even if you say inside this society racism isn't real, I'm gonna notice if it feels like the Black characters are getting treated weirdly by the narrative in comparison. So essentially, be aware of stereotypes and tropes that are racist from a viewer's perspective regardless of its relevance in story. That's my general advice for everyone!

Option 2) Now, you said you want to incorporate racism but without telling a story about racism. That's not impossible- people obviously live lives regardless. But if we're gonna make racism real, then we gotta acknowledge the Rest of It, and that means your equitable society in this western premise is now shaky.

I'd research examples of microaggressions, make sure I understand WHY they are a problem, and incorporate them in. For example, having a white lady cross the street when your Black male character approaches from the other way. Or having your Black female character being dismissed as irrational for a pain she's experiencing. Microaggressions are a thing that happen without racism even coming up as a topic bc they're usually allowed to slide as "unapproachable". But again, the concept of microaggressions implies there's a larger aggression at hand. This again shakes your premise of an equitable society and "a story without seeing bigotry".

If any other bloggers of color have any suggestions, feel free to offer! I do think this crosses over!

[bellanoche-oxo]

I'm sorry this isn't a commission, but I just have a question about your art. Feel free to ignore this, of course. I was really amazed by your Miku drawing from December 16th. Seeing such a high-level piece, I wanted to achieve something similar, but no matter how much I try, I can't replicate your shading and highlights. I was so genuinely curious that I couldn't sleep. Could you possibly give me any hints or advice?

Hey, sorry for making you wait so much for this answer, i've been finishing some projects and i barely had free time. Anyways i'll try to do my best on explaing my coloring and lighting methos and you also asked me to explain how i create the folings of the clothes. Please take in consideration that 1 i am not native in english so it's a bit difficult for me to explain myself sometimes in this language and i may have some misspelings, sorry about that, and also 2 i am not great at explaing my drawing process bc i kind of turn off my brain when i draw lol, but i can explain the fundamentals that i know and help me create! Last thing i want to let you know is that i've started glazing my art, this is a metho to protect the images for AI images generators and it leaves a kind of pattern /effect on the image that i did not put there during the drawing process.

with all of this said let me start explaining things!

Learn the basics:

This may come as a cliche i guess, but yes my first ever advise to anyone is learn the basic theory on lighting and colors (on anything related to art tbh). You don't really need to spend a lot of money on books and such as there are lots of resources online like videos and documents you can read for free. It's not necesary to be an expert and even the smallest mount of knoledge is enought to inpruve your art a lot! , i find it very interesting to learn the way things work too so don't think you'll get bored of it!

To be frank, i am actually not very good at lighting lol. My lights and shadows are not very correct, but since i do have a lot o control over my colors and i know very well how to used them it kind of compensates and creates a very recognisable (i think) style.

just u know basic shitty advise that everyone is going to give you but it works! if you have free time try watching some videos or reading some documents about color theory shadow and lighting!

Your working space:

So this is something that works FOR ME not everyone likes it, you can try it see if you like it and if you do, cool! if you don't … that's cool too! When drawing on digital i prefer it when my base layer is grey instead of white. It helps with my headaches too but it's more about the fact that starting in a middle tone when coloring (in my opinion) makes the process of briging out both shadows and lights easier, let me give you an example:

Drawing from complete light (white) to compplete darkness (black) may condicion you to actually lose control in the contrast betwen these areas, i prefer staring in a middle place (grey) and that way is i want to show darkness i'll use a darkr color and if i want to show light i'll use a lighter color, but if i start on white i can't use anything lighter. I think i did a HORRIBLE job explaing myself there, but yeah it just helps me control my color valius a bit more lol.

this is the color that i used:

Another inportant thing about your woking space is you brushes, in my case i prefer using textured brushes that mix well, and i prefer using very thick strokes, if it's too think i'll just color pick the transparent color and ease it! I work in CSP i don't know what you use, but just in case i'll give you the setiings of the brushes i use the most with their codes so you can find them

Sculpting with lights and shadows

As i said before, i am not very good with light yet, so this is something that i do to help me with the process. When you think about it, lighting is used in art to give volume to the piece, not in every case bc rules in art are not there to be followed but to asist us when we need to take a creative decision. The way that we can start with our Sculpting is by creating a very easy first guide othe the shadows and lights and to do it with very big block, so that we get the general shape first,we don't neet to get lost in the detailds yet

The actual coloring

When drawing my process is divided in three stages. I first create the doodle/lineart, that doesn't neet to be super neat as i will fix it during the rendering. The basic colors, and the rendering.

During the preparation for the rendering when doing the base colors i recomend that you give special atention to the focal points of your illustration, in this case for example that's her face and the top of the hair, that's why i gave so much more atention for this part in comparation to the shirt, that it's literally not shadowed yet. Then another step that i use normally before rendering and that i can NOT RECOMEND ENOUGHT!!!! GO WILD WITH THE COLOR CURVES!!!! OMG!!!! THAT STUPID LITTLE TOOL IS SO FUCKING COOL!!!!!!!!! like for real, it gives effects that i have not been able to achive in any other way and omggggggg use the fucking color curves pleaaaaaaseeeeee

ok i'm notmal again , lets continue.

For the rendering i usually convine all the layers of the drawing on one layer, then use a textured brush that has low opacity of mixes very well fot the actual work. Tbh here is very i can't really help you a lot, bc i have no idea what i'm doing when i render i just don't know, the only thing i recognise is that i try to esare or clean the lines from the doodle/lineart, and i focus a lot on creating volume in the places that are more important.

Skins

An specific thing that i do a lot when it comes to coloring skin is using an undertone in red (literally) I will put the basi color, use the brush to mark where i want shadows to be in a very vibrant red and then use a blue / green / pruple (depends on the skin) to finish the shadowing. Thios metho is nice for lots of occasions, but take in consideration that it doesnt work for example for very dark scenarios where the character is suppoused to be in the shadows, as that red tone works as a outline for the light. It just depends on the situation.

Clothes foldings:

Ok so here the only thing i can give you an advise with is to remember that the way that clothes fold dependes on gravity and that gravity works in curves most of the time that have two (or more) attachment points that are going to determinate theit trajectory. Example:

And remeber that this creates (again) a volume, that there is an inside part, that it's probably going to be draker, and an outside part, that it's going to be lightter. With this info you can start practicing with images of clothes.

this is as much information as i am able to recolect on my coloring process bc i am horrible explaining , spacially on text and in english, and i am also not very much aware when i draw, i kind of disconect. I still hope this is enough to help you a bit on your learning journy.

I may try doing a video at some point if i ever have the time so i can explain my coloring while i actually do it bc if not in that situation i'm not sure i'll be able to remeber what it is that i did.

My last piece of advise is to watch speedpaints and livestreams of artists you like during their drawing process and maybe even tray to imitate them while they are drawing to see what it is that they do exccly.

hope you have a good day and lot of lucks ! be proud of being able to create and be proud of being an artist!

[kanohivolitakk]

Your recent posts reminded me of Greg wanting Matau to be the turncoat in WoS instead of Vakama and trying to make Vakama's fall from grace into something he apparently fakes in the novelization (failing bc it still comes off as a genuine fall from grace and tbh i think it enhances what the movie already had going for it). Its like he wants to make simple black-and-white sort of characters but he just keeps adding complexity to them apparently by mistake

Oh yeah, Greg really disliked Vakamas heel-turn and vocally expressed his distaste for it whenever asked what aspects of the series he personally didn't like or would've turned differently. Ironically the reasons he disliked Vakamas heelturn gives a really weird reading of Vakama: from what I recall he felt it was OOC for someone as dutybound, honorable and passionate of his job as a Toa as Vakama to abandon his duty and I'm just sitting here like. Greg. Are we talking about the same character? Vakama spent an entire arc seeing himself as not worthy of being a toa. How can you say a man who spent most of the story being in the refusal of call phase and struggles with self-worth wouldn't be suspectible for temptation?

I don't know if you know this, but your comment on Greg wanting to write simple black- and white morality actually isn't that off mark as you may think. Greg actually has said a few times that he doesn't like villain redemptions (or complex villains at all for that matter), and prefers to write simple villains, because that's just something he personally prefers. Interestingly Greg does like prefering complex heroes though, and loves to make heroes with flaws, who are tested and fail at times. He has actually explained this paradox a few time: goodness is challenging, evilness is simple to be tempted by and it is far easier for good guys to fall to the dark side than the other way around. His mindset is essentially that one classic Ursula Le Guin quote of how evilness is simple and good is complex.

And while I get that mindset idk..I just find that rather limiting. Maybe it is because I personally prefer when characters are human and complex regardless of their moral alingment but Greg's idea of heroes being complex and villains being simple never sat with me. Especially when a lot of his better written characters were villains and morally ambigious characters. While Greg did succeed in writing some compelling and likable heroes, he really excelled at making some damn memorable and at times interesting villains. So for Greg to dismiss some of his more morally complicated characters as being more simple than they come across in the text itself is rather frustrating. Like, Greg you wrote some damn interesting characters, stop making them less interesting than they actually are.

I also feel Greg's statement of villains and heroes is somewhat ironic when you remember that three of his best written and most memorable characters are: 1. arguably the only redeemed villain in the entire series 2. a morally ambigious catgirl who can flipflop between an antagonist and antihero depending on the story 3. Unholy fusion of Joker and Deadpool who started as a villain only for later stories to use him as either a neutral wildcard or outright antihero. All three are characters he has admitted of liking, with at least one of them (the catgirl) being among his personal favorites. So basically outliers to the general writing philosophy he had.

[ladyloveandjustice]

I want to expand on what I'm talking about. And I said a little bit extra in the comments:

There's just some posts that have been going around about how to solve the issue of men swinging real right in America right now,which does have an impact on society. some guy was saying he was attacted to the right bc they were all 'welcome brother' but in the left people resent him. I think it's just. It's easier to go to an idealogy that's like 'you're entitled to this' than an idealogy that says 'hey you're not entitled to everything but you could be more emotionally healthy and kinder to other people and". That's something simply being nice or making them feel good won't ever fully fix. The "rewards" for being in the right will always feel more immediate for white men.

It's not unique to men to feel alienated in an idealogy that wants you to challenge yourself. At the same time, more kindness to everyone, emphasis on acceptance, less volatile language toward each other, will help the community be stronger over all. it is a difficult conundrum, but I don't think it comes down to 'we don't make men feel special enough

It also ignores I think, that white men DO get rewarded in leftist spaces too. a lot. Men will get a ton of adoration for saying something vaguely feminist than if a woman says it a lot of the time, and so on a so forth, everyone loves a sweet guy...I think that's something that already happens.

But let's get back to volatile language:

We always say guilt isn't going to help anyone and it isn't about guilt. But I think we need to admit that no, we do try to make people feel guilty and ashamed a lot. And not framing it around that most of the time would do a lot.

I've seen posts straight up saying it's a bad thing to want to survive and live happy lives and take actions to do this because (x) bad thing is happening. You know, the most basic human instinct? And that's not going to win over people. You may not like that, but it's not.

I don't think that needs to center on women helping men feel special about themselves. A lot of us are asked to take care of men all the time and it's exhausting. Men on the left can focus on being more positive about the concept of manhood if they want, but asking women to do the work. is just....yeah that's just the patriarchy.

I do think examining things like black masculinity etc is great though. If you have another marginalized identity, it will intertwine with masculinity in very specific ways that will be used against you, just as it is with femininity or being outside both those concepts (yet the world assigns you one anyway). I totally get that masculinity is used as a weapon against both gay men and gay women, in different specific ways. And I think at least learning about that and supporting efforts to stop this makes one a better person.

On the other hand. it would be insane of me to ask a Black woman to make a Black man feel special and accepted for simply being a man if she doesn't want to do that. Like. absolutely wild.

And it's it's rarely about that, is it? When we say "celebrate men" it's not bringing any unique experience into it. It's about white men. They're the ones who make up most of the alt-right.

Communities in the right are not compassionate but because they offer some form of reward and companionship they can seem like that. As much as people are lured in by "welcome brother" or whatever, those same people will on the right will mock any person who steps outside the strict roles that have been set.

So....we need to abolish to same roles. I think we need to focus on how we talk to people. On supporting people when they're trying.

It also comes off in how we talk to each other about basically I can harshly tell someone who has privilege over me-- a white man or straight person ect ect-- their guilt about their privilege does nothing, I'm not interested in guilt and what we need is action. But let's be real. Telling someone "you benefit from a system that makes other people suffer" is going to make someone feel guilty. And yelling at someone for feeling guilty isn't going to make that better. I think we avoid saying the truth and say what's the core of it-- no, it's not your fault you were born a certain way and now you benefit from something. A society hundreds of years in the making made that happen. And that sucks, that you basically have no choice but to be complicit. And it sucks way, way more for the people who are kept down by that system. So we need to change society. We can do it together. It's not to "make up" for you existing. It's because we care about each other. I want this for all of us, because when we see each other as whole people and are treated equally, it benefits all of us.

This is a not a "men are uniquely punished by the left for being men, we need to celebrate masculinity, stop being so mean" thing. It's a human thing. It's about the way we talk to each other and try to weild guilt towards people in general. People want to feel good about themselves. They want some kind of acceptance. If you're constantly made to feel bad, it can be hard to want to stay. This is something everyone feels, because we all have a selfish instinct.

People don't like feeling guilty. That's just how people are. It's promoting compassion, rather than hatred and resentment, that's going to help us in the end.

But me simply saying that isn't going to change much. Humans feel hurt and lash out too. When horrible things are happening to us, we resent people that don't understand that or are part of that. The paradigm shift will be hard. Not everyone will be able to do it and I don't think that's wrong.

Everyone gets frustrated by a class of people where a lot of them have more power and try to push them down. Nobody wants to talk to someone that's trying to hurt them.

That's why it needs to be someone like me who could explain racism 101 rather than idk. making a person of color say 'well white people don't feel special and accepted for being white. poc we must be nicer. let's celebrate whiteness because the right does and that's why white people are drawn to it, they feel accepted." listen to how ridic that sounds. you are literally asking for a white history month. That's the same thing you're doing when you're talking about manhood like this. The onus is not on the discriminated group to reach out to those harming them. That's up to others in the community.

But as a broader thing...We just need to figure out what the end game is. Do we want to yell and guilt trip, or do we want more people in our corner? What's more important, the end goal or if someone knows all the right lingo or matches up to your opinions exactly? What do we need to rally around? How can we take care of each other? If we're kinder to the community, more people will follow.

Anyway this is the last time i'll say some big thing like this and tag it. I don't like doing this on tumblr for a reason.

[thedvilsinthedetails]

rosekiller microfic band au pt3

heyyy pt3 is here yayyy

I haven’t rlly read it thru again and I’m feeling pretty tired today so if there’s a quality dip that’s why but also we have some nice Barty POV which I find easier to write sooo balances out ig

also we have some Marlene in this one (u can thank @good-oldfashioned-lover-girl because I wasn’t gonna put her in but she loves Marls [not that I don’t] to and yk she’s the boss so 🫡🫡🫡 Marlene is in the fic and I’m actually glad bc I love her part in this)

oh also Reg is autistic in this [in my mind] so when I mention him wearing headphones it’s bc he wears headphones on public transport/often in public/during gigs to help block noise <3

oh also all the skittles have matching nail polish and little tattoos on their wrists (idk if I actually mention it here but just so u have it in ur mind)

Tags for ppl that (I think?) wanted to be tagged <3 : @depressedtheatrekiddo @blu3stars @picklerab23 @lady-stardust-incarnate @always-reading @no-names-work @y0url0verb0y @2bluetwo85 @idk-what-to-put-here-123 @weirdtinkerbellversion @lulublack90 @nikholascrow (please please do tell me if you don’t want to be tagged bc idm and obviously won’t be upset but I just don’t want to tag ppl that don’t actually want to be tagged so I’m just sort of guessing by who commented last time so um yeah)

Link to previous part

link to part one

link to next part

(Cw: lil bit of homophobia in here sorry)

***

By the time the train arrived at their station both Barty and Evan had dozed off. Arms wrapping around each other, bodies curled into one another like a jigsaw puzzle. Evan didn’t wake up as gently as he fell asleep though because he was woken by Regulus kicking his seat aggressively. Once he finally opened his eyes he turned to face him. He was wearing his headphones, big and black originally but covered in splodges of spray paint from when Barty had offered to ‘customise‘ them for Regulus. He’d pushed them back though, now that the majority of people has filtered out of the little compartment.

“Hurry up and get your stuff.”

Regulus ordered before following Pandora and Dorcas who had already left.

Evan turned and tapped Barty gently to wake him up. Then when that didn’t work he shook him till he opened his eyes with a start. 

It took Barty a moment to realise where he was but even once he did he just grumbled.

“Ev don’t make me get up, please.”

He pouted, eyes wide and dilated in some kind of cheap attempt at cuteness.

“Come on you know you have to get up baby- Barty!”

Evan gaped, realising his mistake just too late. A slip of the tongue and he’d gone and fucked everything up.

“D’you just call me baby?”

A grin spread on Barty’s face and he poked Evan gently and laughed.

“You’ve been single too long Rosier.”

“You- you’re not mad?”

“Why would I be mad, baby?”

Barty winked, clicking his tongue as he got up and shuffled past Evan with a wicked smirk.

•••

Barty was going insane. 

Evan had called him baby. Baby. And fuck his reaction had been visceral. But like…in a good way? It made him want to bite down on something hard but that thing was the muscles on Evan’s arms. Or bruise something but that thing was Evan’s neck…with a hickey or two. 

Something about the way it had slipped out so naturally, so warmly. It just made Barty’s heart flutter. Made him want to grab Evan and shake the sense out of him enough to like Barty. Something along the lines of ‘kiss me, ruin me, dear God I’m begging you.’ Ah well, nothing you can’t really do about these kinds of situations except get on with it. Lying was something Barty had gotten very good at from a young age and not stopped since. Some might call it acting but those were the types of people who were just trying to convince themselves they were good and moral. Barty didn’t really care enough about that kind of stuff to bother. White lies this and how it contrasts with malicious lies that, like someone trying to section off a gradient in two. You can’t, it’s all the same monochrome blur in the end. 

Barty was lost in this little daydream when he heard Pandora roar.

“WHAT?!”

Now Pandora didn’t often roar, maybe laugh maniacally every now and then yes, but yell? Scream? That was never her type of thing. Save for some rare occasions that Barty could probably count on one hand. Pandora yelling meant it was time to stop daydreaming about Evan’s curls or Evan’s hands with their chipped green nail polish or Evan’s fucking tight t shirts. Yeah time to stop thinking about that and listen up. So he did.

“I do not intend to offend anyone by it.”

Riddle raised his hands up defensively with a cheap sleazy smile that immediately made Barty dislike him.

“I’m just saying that this venue prides itself on a distinct lack of…untoward behaviour. It’s not a massive deal, I think your lead and backup singers can use separate microphones for two nights of a six month tour. 

“What the fuck man?”

Barty stepped forward immediately hands curling into fists, Riddle was pretty short, he could definitely take him if that’s what it came to.

“Barty stop, that isn’t the right way to solve things. Come on let’s just- let’s come back later ok? See if we can talk to someone else, not this piece of shit.”

Dorcas spat out the last three words as she pulled Barty back to the group.

He was going to argue till he felt Evan put a hand on his shoulder, instead he just left Evan guide him away after the rest of the group.

“We’ll figure it out ok?”

“Fucking- Ev we can’t play there. They’re fucking homophobic.”

“Barty the O2 has been your dream since-“

“I DONT BLOODY CARE!”

“Barty shut the fuck up. I said we’ll talk about it and we will, we will figure it out but stop acting like a goddamn CHILD.”

Barty looked over at Evan who had his teeth bared, slightly wild look in his eyes. He was seething too, clearly. Just more mature than Barty.

“Ok, yeah.”

He breathed in.

“I’m sorry Ev.”

“Hey it’s alright. It’s just important the band shows a united front against this you know? We can’t split up or in fight because then, well then we all lose.”

“Yeah. Yeah you’re right Rosie. But we will do something.”

“I promise you they’re not getting away with this.”

Evan nodded. He tossed a hand over Barty’s shoulder, pulling him in just a little bit closer as they walked. Barty wasn’t complaining. 

•••

“You don’t get it Marls, we can’t just not play the O2. We’d lose way too much money off it, probably too much to be able to continue with the rest of the tour. Plus venues will think we’re unreliable and might cancel or pull out. Riddle is such a fucking dick, he only told us when we went there for a tech practice literally today.”

“Fuck yeah that’s shitty.”

Marlene was sat next to Barty on the floor of his hotel room, helping him repaint his nails. The entire band had them matching, a bright toxic green, his had started to fade though. 

“What if you just…ignore them? Do it anyway?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s not like they can drag us off stage mid performance.”

“Not without exposing their homophobia.”

“Still…I wanna make a statement. Something big you know? Show them they can’t straight wash us.”

Marlene looked up at Barty, eyes twinkling mischievously.

“I might have an idea then.”

•••

Evan was sat in an alcove in the hotel corridor watching Regulus patiently braid and unbraid Pandora’s hair on the sofa opposite him. It calmed them both down whenever they were stressed. And Barty and Marlene, locked up together in Barty’s hotel room. Both raging homosexuals dead set on never following rules talking amongst themselves just before the biggest gig of the band’s history? Yeah that was a reason to be stressed. That’s when he heard the tell tale clump of Barty’s docs down the corridor. And he was walking with purpose.

As soon as he came into view Evan noticed the way his eyebrows were knotted together yet his eyes were glimmering with excitement. Evan had no clue what Barty was going to say next but it wasn’t that.

“Marlene thinks I should kiss you.”

Barty announced and Evan dropped his jaw, staring at him agape.

“What?”

“And I agree with her.”

“What?”

***

OK HOPE U LIKED IT

xxx BYEEEE

pt4 probs gonna come soon bc I swear this fic has a life of its own

[lotus--pond]

so I said I'd make this post so here it is!

The ravager species I came up with for my among us au fic!

So I tried to do my best to combine Rakais canon design with a humanized ravager design plus a few extra bits of flavor

So first and foremost, these are the designs I settled on using crowesn's tiefling maker on picrew

So as you can see, this species comes in a lot of greys, black, and whites (plus other light colors like blond hair) using the picrew to the best of my ability, Rakais supposed to be very very pale like in canon, while Rodney has a more grey complexion.

another thing you may notice is the darker markings on the skin! Touched on it a little bit in the chapter but these aren't just in terms of coloration, the texture of the patches is a lot more rough and meant to protect the softer bits, so it's found on more areas than just the face. You can see part of the patch that would go across Rodneys chest and stomach in the picture! The markings on the face serve less for protection and more for like. Flavor? Like it's a species recognition type beat, no two ravagers have the exact same markings. Rakai and Rodney both have ones shaped like large freckles though, because they are related and the markings are at least partially hereditary:)

Another thing is the horns! I unintentionally made them very ram shaped but I think it's a good thing. This was one of the much easier parts to find a common ground between Rakai and ravagers because they both have horns! I think Rodneys will get a bit bigger as he grows older, maybe actually taking a more ram like shape, but that's not really a concern for now

What also will change as he gets older is his eyes! I wanted to keep Rakais fully blacked out eyes while also giving Rodney the big ol eyes, so the solution? His irises will get progressively smaller as he grows older, when he becomes an adult being fully blacked out like Rakais. I wanted to think of a biological reason for this but I got lazy and I was already putting far too much into this bit.

Another thing design wise that has to do with age is the ears! I saw something once that was like 'what if juvenile elves had floppy ears like puppies that didn't straighten out until they reached adulthood' and I stole it. Rodney has floppy lil ears bc thats cute and he is a cutie patootie:)

They also have tails! There's no reason behind that except that i thought it would be cute to have a lil guy who's tail starts going like a helicopter when he's excited. Rakai also has a tail but it is not in there because I made their design before his and had not decided on it, but they do have one!! Both of them!! It is just hard to see past his hair. Think of like Aura from starbound's tail. That

Also didn't come up in the chapter (bc I didn't think of it until after shhhh) but Ravagers get fucking big like 8 feet tall. There's no meaning besides it other than yeah that's cool

EDIT: ALSO FORGOT TO ADD BUT UNHINGED JAW CAPABILITIES ARE A THING I LOOKED AT THE RAVAGER MOUTH DESIGN AND I SAID THAT I WANT THAT I JUST CANT EXPRESS IT IN THE PICREW

If you have any questions feel free to let me know! I poured far too much into this really unserious bit but I hope you all like it:)

[hapfish]

Hey! I'm making a F!Leo cosplay and I was wondering if you have any advice for how to do the shell? The plastron, specifically. Yours was amazing! Ty xx

Yeah of course!!! Luckily the rise plastrons are very geometric so its pretty easy to make a pattern from it! I dont have pictures of early steps so pls bear with me <3 info n pictures below the cut

First thing i did was make a pattern of my torso with plastic wrap and tape so i could see the curve of my stomach and chest. Cant say this helped a TON, but i cant imagine things in my head, so it helped me conceptualize the size and dimensions i would need the front panels to be to cover my torso.

Next i started sketching small patterns for what the cut outs may look like. DEFINITELY make a paper pattern, this took a lot of trial and error and you dont want to waste too much foam. I cannot for the life of me find my paper patterns unfortunately, but hopefully you can see part of where im coming from with the detailed pictures of the plastron!! I made patters for 1/2 of the plastron, and flipped the patters over to make the other half mirrored and symetrical.

Now the cutting. I used .7mm foam (i think?? I got it from micheals. Joann fabrics has some but only small sheets. If you want less seams you should get the bigger ones, or buy massive sheets online. EVA foam isnt too hard to find, but make sure your density and width is appropriate for what youre making. When actually cutting the pieces out, some cuts will be flat while others may work best at an angle. I used mostly 90* and 45* angles to make clean edges and corners.

Bear with me bc the pictures in this next part are kinda uglie </3 ill explain why later.

For matching the curve of the body, i used a fresh blade and made shallow triangle cuts on the backside of the foam as can be seen here:

It would have worked better if the chest pieces were also vurved by i was on a time crunch and didnt have the time to make a 3rd or fourth plastron (yes this was a second fully completed attempt orz). Im also a bigger dude so it may be easier if your torso is smaller. I also had the benefit of making my pants from scratch (using a demon slayer uniform pattern that i altered) so i made the waistband big enough to tuck the shell into, which helped with keeping it curved around my body.

(This but only applies to future leo and i did post gluing the pieces together, but for his Top Surgery Scars™️ i cut into the chest at a 45*angle, then glued those pieces back onto the back side to seal the cut)

For gluing, i tried a whole lot of types but jothing worked as well as cement glue. It is toxic tho so make sure you do it outside or with good ventilation, and wear gloves/a mask. I did two layers on each edge then stuck the edges together, 3 if i noticed the foam absorbing it to much. Make sure you take the gluing slow and really put pressure on the pieces to lock them together. Follow the instructions and youll do fine.

For painting, i did 2 layers of modge podge, 1-2 priming layers (depends on if foam is white or black to start), and then whatever layers you need for a smooth coat of color. I topped it off with modgepodge again to seal it, but that may not have been the best idea for the following reasons....

EW YUCK. WHY IT LOOK LIKE THAT.

Well. It didnt always. Turns out when youre wearing approx 3 laters in the summer then cover your body with insulating foam, the heat and moisture makes the modgepodge MELT. and like i said before, this bottom portion was tucked into my pants so it did not breathe. I have yet to even try to find a solution but just keep it in mind when making your cosplay (and if you find a solution PLEASE LET ME KNOW! My one idea was tryna find a sealant that wont melt (obv) but idk what that would be)

And FINALLY. how to secure it to the body suit!! I used snaps!! So easy and nice (besides the melting issue but thats a different thing entirely.) They never came off or gave me problems (minus the melting) and made the shells easy to transfer/travel with and put on.

(Heres a pic of them on the suit sewn in by hand, and above you can see them on the shell itself.)

All in all, The plastron was so so hard and im honestly still not happy with it, planning to remake it before i wear him again. Please show me your cosplay when you finish it, id love to see!! Please lemme know if you have any other questions!! 🐢💙

[freddie-77-ao3]

random facts about random riordanverse characters from my characters doc:

percy jackson: thalia once dyed his hair neon green (which, he has black hair, so no clue how) and it lasted for two weeks before washing out entirely

thalia grace: actually very close to will solace. he treated her when she first woke up, and reminded her of jason. she's basically a big sister now. she threatened nico about him.

nico di angelo: got so nervous about asking will out he accidentally asked in chinese, before reverting to welsh, and then latin. finally, he stutters it out in a mix of greek, italian, and english (luckily will understands all three). unfortunately, will responds in sign language for some reason??? nico doesn't know sign language.

meg mccaffrey: meg has a horrendous obsession with gatorade. like. she won't drink water, it's gatorade or nothing. apollo is SO concerned because he doesn't know what gatorade is and also it looks VERY unnatural.

leo valdez: not only can he cook tacos, he knows how to make tamales. actually, while on the argo ii, he and percy made most of the food. this man can COOK.

will solace: has a habit of always carrying pens around with him (both as a way of keeping close to michael, who collected pens before his death, and just bc he's in the infirmary so much) and he clicks them ALL THE TIME as a fidget. people forcibly take them from him sometimes.

Annabeth Chase: she's autistic and so is her dad. part of why they have so much trouble having a good relationship with each other. they both have really black and white thinking styles.

Calypso: she's like 7 feet tall.

Magnus Chase: he really likes the chronicles of narnia series. when he was a kid, he dressed up like the lion for three halloweens in a row. his favorite is the lion the witch and the wardrobe.

Alex Fierro: felines are easier than canines in regards to shapeshifting.

Sadie Kane: she likes strawberry ribena the best

Carter Kane: he wants to grow his hair out. when he's in his twenties, he does. sadie helps him braid it.

Clarisse La Rue: after her mission in ttc, she's extremely claustrophobic.

Piper McLean: the reason she was so against feminine stuff in TLH is because she was so sexualized by the media when she was girly. so she openly rejected it.

Travis Stoll: makes oddly specific t-shirts about what happens at camp. like, “I defeated the greek personification of time this summer and all i got was this lousy tee shirt.”

Connor Stoll: isn't dyslexic. loves reading.

Katie Gardner: she drops out of college after her first semester. it just wasn't for her. she owns a flower shop called petal to the metal, where she says "have a punk rock day" to all her customers.

clovis: he doesn't actually need to sleep 24/7, he just doesn't want to interact with people.

Cecil Markowitz: a threesome baby. no, really. he's 25% his mum, 25% his dad, and 50% hermes. he-- he has a lot of questions and no answers, and that's probably for the better.

Lou Ellen Blackstone: she's black, and usually keeps her hair in braids. before alabaster torrington defected he did it (he's white, learned just for her), and after, beckendorf did her hair.

Zoe Nightshade: she's regenerating. she was a titaness, she'll be back.

Lee Fletcher: he dropped out of high school. it wasn't for him. got his GED and took college classes on the side til he died, but personally modern schooling wasn't really for him.

Rachel Dare: when she turns 21 and gains access to her trust fund, she immediately donates the entire thing.

Hazel Levesque: definitely the person who always has a cardigan/sweater for you to use if you get cold.

Frank Zhang: goes back and finds his grandmother after HoO

Jason Grace: jiper was comphet. he's gay.

Reyna: didn't actually join the hunt. i don't think that really is a natural character ending? she is ace though.

Grover: turns out pan passing his spirit on to grover actually made grover a god?? yeah grover didn't realise for //years//

juniper: fought in the battle of manhattan. she just brought a couple of her berries with her.

Chris Rodriguez: following going insane and becoming sane again, he develops anorexia to regain his sense of control over his life.

Drew Tanaka: she's actually aro-ace.

Malcolm Pace: in an effort to always be prepared he sleeps in jeans and street clothes, and always has a bag of supplies on him.

Ellis Wakefield: is from somalia. his first language is somali. he speaks somali, english, arabic, and greek.

Mitchell: went to military school for a bit. has a habit of calling people sir/ma'am after every sentence now.

michael yew: has the gift of prophecy, knew going into manhattan that he was going to die.

miranda gardiner: summer only camper, takes over counselor during the summer (katie doesn't want it. also she's vietnamese. i know thats two facts i just think it's important.

sherman yang: he has two dads. his mortal dad's name is jeff. sherman sees him like, one week every two months? jeff lives in seattle.

jake mason: he's got a fish named bubbles. he says it's because harley wanted to name it. he lies.

silena beauregard: summer only camper, she volunteers at a domestic abuse shelter during the year, and hopes to go into social work.

charles beckendorf: he was 16 when he died, but had finished HS work 2 years early. had been accepted to MIT. he wouldn't have gone, anyway, because of the expense, too far from camp, but-- it had been a nice dream

Nyssa Barrera: she's a year round camper, and always been mad that taking care of harley fell to her.

Lacy: physically disabled. she's got JRA, and is in a wheelchair part time.

Harley: really likes unsweetened cheerios.

[rollercoasterwords]

I recently caught up on ATWMD and it is such an incredible story. You are an insanely talented writer. Your prose is so vivid and the complex characters and storyline are just 10/10. Amazing. Thank you!

I have a question if you're open to giving your opinion! I feel like the group (Remus, Lily, and James) seemed to accept Regulus quicker and easier than Sirius. They seem much colder to Sirius (at the start at least) than they were to Regulus when he first arrived. Like the wandless magic lessons for instance. When Imelda won't teach Regulus, James does it personally. But I didn't get the impression they'd do the same for Sirius. They seemed more likely to cut him loose.

Is this just because of the circumstances for how they each end up with the order? Or do you think there's more to it? Or is it just because we didn't see Regulus POV at the time of him arriving with the order so it's just a matter of it being the past?

hi thank u!! glad ur enjoying the fic <3 & i think i answered a similar question to this before but i don't feel like scrolling back thru my own blog 2 find it so. happy 2 go thru it again i love talking abt these characters <3

essentially the difference in their responses is down to the different circumstances in how each brother joined the order, yeah, but all 3 of them also respond pretty differently, so going one by one:

lily honestly doesn't respond all that differently to either brother; w reg she was kinda cold at first out of hurt/jealousy over what she perceived as his budding relationship w james, assuming that reg would become another in the long line of casual hookups & knowing that she herself could never sleep w james without probably ruining their friendship bc of her own feelings, etc. & then once they have their little bonding moment where they both kinda realize they're in the same boat (unrequited feelings that go deeper than just wanting a casual hookup, knowing that those feelings will wreck things if they do ever sleep w james) & make their unofficial little pact (no sex w james potter) they become very close. so lily's initial response has less to do w how she perceives the other person as being good/bad & more to do w her own personal feelings towards them. when sirius shows up she's the only one of the 3 who's initially pretty kind + welcoming + essentially just treats him somewhat normally, bc she doesn't personally feel any animosity towards him but also isn't immediately going to be best friends w him, knowing who he was. she also has a slightly different perspective, tho, bc she's close w reg & knows that reg thinks sirius is a good person, and trusts his judgment. for lily, all the stuff with the death eaters is less...personal? ig? even tho it's had a very significant impact on her life; she was rescued by the order as a young child & raised w them, so she never directly experienced the kinds of oppression that muggleborn wizards typically face from death eaters + voldemort's regime etc, and she also does most of her work within order hq in potions labs and isn't necessarily fighting face-to-face w these people, so although she views them as the enemy she just isn't as emotionally connected on an individual level & therefore has an easier time looking past sirius's history and judging him as she finds him when he joins the order.

james, on the other hand, is personally connected & fighting death eaters face-to-face; they aren't just a monolithic Enemy to him, he hates them as individuals, too. he also has a more black-and-white view of a morality and a different idea of what courage looks like, and values what he perceives as courage very highly. so for james, he viewed regulus as this sort of brave lone warrior from the start for deciding to break away from the death eaters + fight a cave of zombies + try to destroy a horcrux on his own--james thinks that's badass + brave + noble, and that colors his perception of reg from the start. even when reg insists that he's not a hero, james still thinks what he did was heroic, and that paired w the fact that he was never a high-ranking death eater before breaking away makes his involvement w them forgivable--in james's eyes, reg has atoned for his past and is now trustworthy, which is why he likes him from the beginning. sirius, on the other hand, doesn't make the decision to join the order; he's basically forced into it. bc of that, james views him as a coward and looks down on him when they first meet; this is where a lot of his animosity is coming from. + sirius doesn't exactly jump at the chance to join the order, giving the impression that he's still loyal to voldemort, which just makes that animosity worse. it's not until sirius starts to "prove" himself thru action that james begins to trust him more, bc action is really what speaks to james + what he views as a testament to someone's character.

and then there's remus, who disliked both brothers from the start. unlike either james or lily, he's grown up under voldemort's regime & has directly experienced violence + oppression in ways that neither of them has, so he hates every death eater on an individual level for good reason--in his eyes, they have all made the personal decision to uphold + perpetuate violence (which is true!), and he doesn't care why they made that decision; nothing excuses it. we don't really see his reaction to reg joining the order bc he's not really around order hq as much, but remus was wary towards him from the start & even tho he eventually accepted that reg was working w them now, he's never befriended reg the way lily + james did & he never feels close to him or even really likes him. and his relationship w sirius is a whole other can of worms lol...hopefully the story is enough to show why remus treats him the way he does, but really the only reason he doesn't just keep ignoring sirius the way he kinda does reg is bc of their history together + the feelings between them. otherwise he'd probably just be standoffish to both of them!

[anachronistic-falsehood]

ALSO IM CHEATING BC I KNOW WHAT THIS ONE IS AND IM GAMING THE SYSTEM. BUT. #1

SNILES SO SNEETLY <3

"Earlier this morning, the Class S threat known as the Trickster was spotted in downtown Freedom City shortly after the head of the Freedom City Protectorate, Atlas, went rogue and killed his entire team in a devastating attack that is said to have been orchestrated by the Trickster. No one has been able to track him yet, but PRT teams are headed into the downtown wreckage to conduct a search. Sources are saying that the wards team of New Haven are still on his tail, and the wards of Freedom City will be staying to assist with cleanup and take on some of the responsibilities of their deceased Protectorate team. The leader of the Freedom City wards team, Stygian, declined to comment when asked about the uncertain status of Atlas himself. Fortunately, Framework was able to step in and shed some light on--"

"Ugh, boring!"

A spitball splatters against the TV screen hanging on the wall of the cafe. It sticks, right over the nose on the reporter's face.

The Trickster lowers his straw and reaches for the napkin holder on the table, ripping off a small piece of napkin and rolling it into a tiny ball. He tosses it up in the air and catches it in his mouth, swirling the paper around on his tongue. He lifts his straw to his mouth again and aims it at the TV.

The spitball hits the reporter right on the nose. The Trickster barks out a laugh.

He kicks his feet where they're propped up on his table. "My muuuuuuuuuse?" he calls out in a sing-song voice, looking up at the counter.

His toy stands behind the counter, slowly chewing on a croissant from the display case of pastries. Very good thing they came across a place with food before leaving this wretched city. He kept forgetting to feed it. Maybe they should take some of those sweets with them, just so he doesn't have to go out of his way to find anything himself. Ugh. Food. Such a hassle.

Muse's hair is neatly plaited into a braided headband, adorned with shiny gold pins that match the golden choker around its throat and the earrings that dangle from its lobes. Its white ruffly shirt is a little disheveled, some small splatters of blood on the fabric, but it's nothing that can't be bleached out. Or replaced! Even easier. Next to Muse is a body, slumped over on the counter, its head split open as if ripped asunder by a rabid animal.

"Find the remote for me?" the Trickster asks, batting his eyelashes.

Muse stops chewing its croissant. It turns to the body and reaches into the pockets of the apron around its waist. Blood smears on Muse's pale skin. Muse withdraws its hand, and in its palm is a small black remote.

Without being asked--how considerate! This is why he's the Trickster's favourite!--Muse points the remote at the TV and changes the channel. It flicks to another news channel. On screen is a cape, his blue and red costume torn, body limp. A couple of officers in heavy bulletproof armor are dragging him into a van in the middle of a street that's in ruin, buildings toppled, fires blazing. Another cape clambers into the van behind them, auburn hair loose around his shoulders, a black mask over his eyes, weapon straps crossing his body in an X with a sword hanging on his back.

The trickster drops his straw and points at the unconscious cape. "Ooh, there he is!" He claps his hands in delight. "Oh, he was fun to play with! Maybe I should have kept him. Would you like a playmate, Muse?"

Muse takes another bite of its croissant.

The Trickster hums. "Yeah, you're right. Too high maintenance! Wouldn't stop fighting me the whole time! I mean, come on, I'm just trying to have some fun! What's the harm in that?" He picks up his straw and loads another spitball into it. "Killjoys. All of them."

Muse changes the channel again. The screen changes to another news channel. A hero in purple armor is talking to a reporter, and next to her is another one, a person made entirely out of rock. Ooh. Rock person. Low maintenance. Couldn't really dress him up, but he didn't seem the smartest when he was fighting. Easy to control.

The Trickster hums. Nah. Muse is good enough for now. Maybe another time.

"Seriously? Is every channel in this place news?" He lifts his straw to his mouth and fires another spitball. It lands right on the purple hero's face. Or, where her face would be if he could see it. Ugh. He'll never understand those types. Hiding when they could be taking their due credit. Boring!

Muse changes the channel again. It cuts to an overhead view of Freedom City filmed from a helicopter, highlighting the blazing fires in the streets, the toppled buildings.

"Ughhhhhh, come on!" The Trickster sinks down in his seat, slipping onto the floor with a huff. "Where are the cartoons! Who wants to watch the news! News channels are humankind's worst, most boring invention!" He fires another spitball at the screen. It splats right over a crater in the middle of a street.

He sighs and tosses his straw onto the floor. "Well!" He gets to his feet and claps his hands together. "Let's head out, shall we? I'm sure those nasty little PRT officers won't be happy if they see us."

Muse grabs a couple pastries from the sweets display and tosses them into a small paper bag. It walks out from behind the counter and makes its way to the door, pushing it open and holding it, waiting, staring dead-eyed at the Trickster.

"Oh, you're too kind!" The Trickster pats Muse on the head as he walks out the door. He skips out into the ruined streets of Freedom City. "Come on!"

Muse follows after him without a word.

[poswiecenia]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. REPOST, DO NOT REBLOG !!

NAME: da name is miles. sometimes called kilometers as a joke , ive had the alias satan before ( stemming from the hetalia rpc from all things , we don't talk about that era ) and uh. yeah ? milays. a single mile. 

PRONOUNS: he / they baybee. 

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: usually discord but if i would rather keep distance until i can figure if we can get some dynamics going it'll likely be through the tags of posts or tumblr im's. 

NAME OF MUSE(s): man. looks at my roster. c'mon now LOL. go here to find out but my main braincell has lumine in it thank u

BEST EXPERIENCE: thinking emoji. probably running into jamey and those currently in my affiliates and developing various oc's and interconnecting plots and stuff that have found their way to the dash itself. its been super uber fun thank u.

RP PET PEEVES / DEALBREAKERS:

honesty when it comes to communication if something isn't a vibe to write anymore. it doesn't save fact not to say anything , it just makes situations even more dire or worse since it begins to pent up and then explode into something really bad. just be honest with what you do wanna write vs what you don't wanna write anymore. while yeah it might upset some people .. lack of communication isn't a price to pay for losing friendships or wild shit going down.

singleshipping. i can't due to trauma. and those who give the vibes that my muse interpretation is theirs and only there's but in a way that makes it uncomfortable ? miss me with that, thanks.

MUSE PREFERENCES: those that have gone through shit but are still able to be kind in some capacity even though it would've been understandable to see them crack and be cruel. characters with morally gray morals and don't see the world as a black and white slate. muses that are also full of sunshine and are innocent and haven't gone through the world to ruin that for them. characters that have a position of power or have immense power themselves and will do anything in their power to keep others safe. sad dads. old men who are tired.

PLOTS OR MEMES:  to begin things i'm usually partial to memes to get things going just due to my own braincell being unsure just yet but once things get going and im like waow this is super cool and will work . . plots fr. both are good and fun but something tickles when i can plot af.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: both. sometimes i wanna just do itty bitty meme responses and sometimes im totes down to clown with long form replies that are 1k words long or smth.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: honestly whenever. late in the afternoon into the evening sometimes flies more but its very ??? just dependent on my mood ig. sometimes i'll write 4 things then take a nap for 6 hours and then write 4 more LOL. 

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S):  some of my muses i kinda place bits of my brain into but uh ??? probably my oc's im most like bc i put pieces of my hopes into them. but beyond that idk i don't think any single muse i write is like. super like me 100%.

tagged by: @glacialswordsman + @aguilareye ( thank u guyyyyys :3 ) tagging: @draconicfool, @dawnbrst, @fckurselfie + anyone else who wanna.

[2jam4u]

hi milla! It’s so nice to see you around again, I’m so touched and happy for you that your life is so beautiful 🥹 you give me so much hope. I have the same dream of becoming a therapist, I’m autistic and have a GED because I had a horrific time in school in general as a kid. I’m 30 now and it intimidates me so much to go “back” to college (for the first time) not bc of my age but because it was so difficult the first time with undx autism amongst other things. I’m still undiagnosed officially today, and I always weigh whether or not I want go through with a dx, but my understanding is the only way I can get accommodations is with the official diagnosis. Do you have any words, thoughts, or advice for an autistic girlboy on a similar path to you? Thank you just for reading this I hope you have such a nice night 🫶

Honestly the 10+ years between my last attempt at post-secondary education were mostly me in a panic because I had my hs diploma and what felt like a brain that just didn't work with traditional education and a job market that demanded at minimum undergrad degrees for entry level jobs. It took a solid 10 years of my sister convincing me year after year for me to finally get on board and allow myself to try again. But yeah, I think a large part of why I'm able to be successful now is the knowledge I have of how my brain operates and my clinical diagnosis.

I think when it comes to accommodations at school or work, those are the only areas where the formal diagnosis has any worth. In pretty much any other area of life it's not necessary, but you do need to have formal diagnostic reports to give in for those accommodations. That being said the majority of my accommodations are for the adhd according to accessibility services at my school. I don't think they're very well versed in autism related accommodations but they know a lot about adhd so I have a recorder for class, access to digital copies of all my textbooks, a text-to-speech software for those digital texts and extra time in exams — all of those are specifically for adhd. So if you're auDHD i'd recommend getting an adhd assessment done because they're significantly cheaper and (I don't wanna say easier but) easier to get, people are more likely to believe you, more likely to take your self-reporting at face value, shorter assessment etc.

But like I said before, I think the accommodation is only half the reason I'm doing better, there's a ton of stuff I do for myself in the way of regulation, support for my "deficits", preparing myself for routines and possible changes, laying out my school info in a way that's most digestible for my brain bla bla bla. Those are things you don't need a diagnosis for but are work you can put in for yourself that can make a HUGE difference. I can talk more about that if you want but if you're not able to get a formal diagnosis please don't think that means school is ever off the table for you entirely.

Black and white tism thinking here but I tended to see school as an all or nothing situation. Either I was naturally great at it and had no problems, or I couldn't do it at all. So when I struggled I gave up quickly, but now I'm forcing myself to work through things and it turns out I don't have to be naturally gifted at something to still get really good results and good grades. And I think the same can be true for a lot of us, if we give ourselves the opportunity to make it happen.

[saveahorserideaneddie]

Can I ask you to list a couple things you do like about the show? Or the actors? Or the characters? Or heck anything 911 related? Because it seems like you and your other anons don’t like anything to do with any aspect of it at all from the writers down to the smallest of storyline details 😅

which at that point is probably a good time to step back and stop engaging with it either temporarily or permanently since all it’s gonna do is continue to feed into the negativity your having over it since nothing seems to be bringing you joy about it.

can yall not read? like seriously can yall not read the words when i say “i am not goign to watch season 8 until something good happens”

i feel like a goddamn parrot on here when people like you keep coming into my inbox with this same fucking “maybe you should step back” thing like yeah that’s what i have been fucking saying????

im not going to stop interacting with my friends on here- that’s out of the question. i still love being involved in the fanfic community and i still love the first 5 seasons of the show, but im not going to lie and say that i have been pleased with the most recent installments. if you actually took the time to read my blog and what i talk about you would see that i adore eddie and his queer subtext. i adore buddie as a ship, probably to a crazy degree. i love henren, and bathena, and madney. josh russo is literally one if my favorite canonically queer characters on tv.

i adore this cast with the exception of the talentless nepo baby half the fandom wanna suck the dick of (god knows why other than he’s a fugly white man who kissed their favorite white boy) i love seeing them interact with each other outside of the show.

can i ask you what the writers have given us to actually enjoy the past two seasons? other than the madney wedding? nothing else has been decently written, or taken the story in a positive direction. yeah, we got bi buck but he’s in a relationship with a literal misogynistic racist man who has had repeatedly treated buck horribly with no acknowledgement whatsoever. so no, i don’t like the writers or tim minear at the moment because they have had every opportunity to usher in something positive for eddie, but no bc tim “this show is a drama” minear would rather give the happy plots to his white characters while running his poc characters through more unnecessary trauma and pain (with the exception of chimney, although his happy plotline only happened after he was near-fatally sick an entire episode and bobby whose plotline was centered around a black man’s trauma being dug up and thrown in his face)

the earlier season of this show were such a joy to watch live when it felt like there was actually care going into it from the showrunners and writing team, but lately it’s just them throwing darts at whatever wack-ass drama plot they can think of.

this cast works too fucking hard for the vapid shit they get given to act out each week.

which is why i (once again, in case you were about to gloss over this) I AM NOT WATCHING SEASON EIGHT UNTIL SOMETHING IS DONE TO FIX THE MESS THEY MADE

perhaps writing it in bold, italicized caps will make it easier for you to get it through your head.

and as far as “my anons” if you actually had enough confidence in your message, then why are you hiding behind anon, hm?

i have said multiple times i love interracting with my friends and fandom content that doesn’t have to do with spec. i have said multiple times im holding off on season 8. i have never said i hate the cast or i hate every single plotline the show has ever had, but you know what i did hate? how s6 and s7 turned the show into a fucking ooc mess. it is within my rights as a fan to dislike a season of a show for valid reasons.

what’s not okay is you coming into my inbox repeatedly saying “take a break” when i’ve said multiple fucking times that i plan to rather than just blocking me if youre so offended by people agreeing with me that the show is at a make it or break it point.

please kindly take yourself out of my space if you’re not going to actually take the time to read the words i post and just immediately send me anonymous hate because you didn’t like my posts

[jyndor2]

@miraclesabound okay friend you reminded me of something funny. so I took a 6am train to get into DC by like 7:30, so I was there from the jump, and yes it was cold but I dressed appropriately so I didn't really have a hard time with it. and later on, like if anyone has ever been to a big protest you know that when you're in a massive crowd like that you do heat up because you're all close together (and marches are supposed to be close, you're not supposed to let a bunch of space build up between marchers because it's easier for cops for instance to fuck shit up if you get separated, etc) but when you're just standing around for ages your feet will not understand that you are surrounded by other people and will get super cold, which is rude of them 🤬

so anyway when I got to dc I got something quick to eat at a wawa lol and then made my way over to the rally area at around 8:30, where it was basically just organizers starting to trickle in. and yes, it was freezing.

it was also beautiful out, but very chilly and windy. around 10:30-11 or so the sky CHANGED (I cropped this photo bc PEOPLE DONT KNOW HOW TO COVER THEIR FACES)

the wind was rolling. it did clear up after a bit of a sprinkling, which I was like lmao oh god no please not this, rain makes americans want to stay inside but it passed quickly because of the wind thankfully. also I forgot which americans we're talking about - Arab americans show up for palestine no matter what, and of course the crowd was super diverse and full of all people but this is a movement that is driven by Arab americans, Muslim americans, Palestinian americans, Black americans (edit: cannot believe I forgot Jewish americans im dumb) etc. they show up no matter what.

later, in the rally which started at around 12 for six palestinian americans to speak on their families' traumas in the war and then at 1 or so the official rally began, yeah it was windy as hell and it was kind of funny, there were these massive palestinian flags all over the crowd (I experienced two of them - one in the front and later during my phone issues towards the center back - I didn't see the end of the crowd but it stretched over blocks and streets, it was massive for the united states which sadly doesn't get protests like this often) and they had handles for people to hold onto them and pass them around the crowd - kind of like all of us holding onto palestine, at least thats how I took it - but the wind was WINDING and so we were all kind of struggling to keep it from flying away

fucking wind working for genocide joe jk

anyway at protests there are organizers who have supplies and I saw some people with hand warmers, but when we got to the white house hours later i was next to a man who was blowing into his hands bc they were so cold. I had an extra scarf (i had my keffiyeh and then another scarf which is wool and very warm, my keffiyeh is a fake bitch so it is not super warm like a real hirbawi one, i used to have one of those like ten years ago but i lost it in a move i think 😭😭😭) so I lent it to him to wrap his hands.

here's me with my fake bitch keffiyeh and my new cat finn btw

cats say free palestine

but let's be real it was in the high 30s or low 40s, even with the wind it wasn't like... the worst I've experienced. here in Delaware we don't get winters like we used to but last December there was a night that dropped to 8° Fahrenheit or -13° Celsius so I've had worse. but some discomfort is nothing compared to what gaza is going through, and even if the temperatures aren't like that in gaza* it's still cold at night and going through starvation, dehydration, the trauma of war, disease etc is made even worse by dealing with cool nights in a tent.

it was cold but we were all warmer together.

*my cousin's israeli friend literally had the gall to say that it's ridiculous for people to worry about the cold nights in gaza bc it doesn't get that cold like ??? bitch??????

[princess-of-the-corner]

Idea for Princess Bee au:

Marinette realizes Chloe has really grown and changed and worked on her issues bc Chloe apologizes for bullying her for years

Like, after their kids become friends and they've started interacting more Chloe privately goes to her and says 'im sorry I bullied you for years when we were kids. I was taking out my own shit on you and that was horrible. I shouldn't have done that, and I deeply regret it'

Just a simple apology, taking accountability without trying to make excuses, and in private, without Adrien or someone around that Chloe might be secretly trying to impress

Bc like, a lot of how Mari sees Chloe has been colored by their past of being victim and bully. The only times she's seen the genuine good that Audrey tried to abuse out of Chloe were all tied to the Miraculous somehow, either bc of the Bee Miraculous or bc of her being Ladybug, someone Chloe very clearly admired.

It would be easy to look at that and think 'shes only being nice bc she wants to be Queen Bee/she doesn't know I'm someone she bullies under the mask' when in the few months between Chloe's trying to change and Miracle Queen happening that was all she really saw

(something which isn't helped by the meta aspect of 'the Status Quo is God' that the writers religiously stick to. I hate that in shows, where we get episodes of character development that feel like they don't matter bc all the episodes in between ignore that for the sake of sticking to the status quo until the finale happens)

Chloe apologizing for being a bully is something we never got in cannon, and I think it would go a long way to getting through to Marinette that Chloe has genuinely changed for the better over the years since they were kids

Oh yeah like ofc Chloé does apologize and like. There's probably two apology scenes?

One would be a quick thing when they first met again of 'sorry for being a dick I was dealing with a LOT as a kid but ya know got over it', but then yeah a second more in-depth apology somewhere down the line when Chloé's not caught off guard by her presence and knows that she's going to have ongoing long-term interaction with Marinette and the others where she /does/ have to properly own up to All That™ instead of just 'oh we ran into each other so say sorry without unpacking'.

And in between the first and second apology it doesn't fully sink in for Marinette yet. Not out of maliciousness or anything but like

She hasn't properly thought about Chloé in years. Maybe a passing thought but she never analyzed the whole thing. So the Chloé in her memory is the version she knew when she was still a teenager with a very black/white mentality and using that to make leaps in logic toward what Chloé did instead of recognizing her as a complicated person in a hellish situation.

Like, now as a grown adult who can understand things: If she took a step back and looked at what Chloé's situation was, she'd more readily realize the abuse happening and how it affected her, and that some things like 'working for Hawkmoth/Monarch' don't make sense without something else happening. Middle School!Mari just rolled with Chloé being a jerk like her mom and her dad spoiling her but clearly they loved her becuse ofc parents love their kids and clearly someone as bad as Chloé threw away all chance of changing simply because it was too hard to change her perfect life and it was easier to throw a tantrum and join the Villain over not getting handed a reward than it is to earn said reward.

But grown adult!Mari hasn't really taken the step back to really think about that. So the Chloé in her head is just a spoiled brat who refuses to change and betrayed the Team for petty reasons. And that persists for a while because this vision is so solid and she doesn't know the full story that when the current Chloé acts different, she's once again trying to tie the two together and assuming Chloé is just being fake nice.

She catches on eventually, of course. But there's the initial suspicions because of it

And to clarify: I don't mean this in any kind of salty way. It's just hard to see the change in something when the old version so solidly exists in your head