#and some which are... not. ah well.

[hiddeninthe-veil]

Ok, your turn! Tell me about something you find interesting 🌻

In the fanfiction series pray for disaster (when the world is razed we’ll still be burning) by the Archive Of Our Own user Omegalomania, also known as Zero or @graffitibible on Tumblr, there are a variety of words used by characters to indicate a person’s gender identity. These do not match up with our world’s concepts of gender. These words (starshine, earthshine, luneshine, and ringshine) are based on the word “sunshine.” As the society this series is based in is a very informal, unregulated one, “sunshine” takes the place of the formal “person” and informal “guy,” “bro,” or “dude,” albeit in a much more gender-neutral way than either of the latter. This is, at least, the case for the second generation of Killjoys, whose worldview and times we are the most sunk into. Four books are solely about this second generation, more page-time than any of the other three generations we see are given.

Starshine is the Zones’ word for “person who uses he/him.” Luneshine means “person who uses they/them.” Earthshine means “she/her,” and ringshine means “person who uses something different from the above (i.e. it/its or e/em, etc.).” “Woman” and “man” seem to have lost their meanings sometime during the first generation of Killjoys— during the Analog Wars. “Woman” appears only ten times in Peacemaker’s story; seven of those times, Peacemaker is referring to herself. “Man,” (as its own word, not part of “many” or various other words, as far as I can discern quickly) appears only a few more times than that, but no more than thirty times. The books told from the perspectives of the Fabulous Four have as few or fewer mentions; likewise, the Girl’s book only has one mention of the word “woman,” which is in reference to Battery City’s Director. “Woman” and “man”, as labels for a gender identity, became obsolete in the first generation of Killjoys, during the Analog Wars, and were replaced at some point by the various “-shine”s.

I tried to find a closer look at when they may have appeared. Peacemaker, who had not heard of these words, was dracked (brainwashed) in 2012; yet, when Party Poison and the Kobra Kid escape Battery City, all of the words are in widespread use. This means the words must have popped up between those dates. Fun Ghoul’s perspective, we put the faith back in mayhem (it's important to enjoy what you do), reenforces this; all four pop up when he's around thirteen or fourteen. In a comment made on January 10, 2024 on don't tell me to rest in peace while you're still picking the bones of my memory, the author notes that he was eighteen or nineteen when they died in 2019, meaning he was born in 2000 or 2001. Through other context, I was able to figure out that the words were spreading over the radio waves in late 2013 or early 2014. Ghoul escaped Battery City in mid- or late-2012, in the confusion of the Fires of 2012 when the Analog Wars were ended. Shortly before NewsAGoGo, who Ghoul is staying with, mentions any of the ‘shines (Faith, ¼ of the way through chapter 3), Ghoul mentions that he escaped the city “maybe a year, maybe longer” ago (Faith, 1/6 through the way through chapter 3). From this, we can determine that use of the ‘shines was definitely widespread by mid-2014.

This can be narrowed down, however. Kobra mentions the Analog Wars ending (They Made, two-thirds of the way through chapter 1) just before a quick montage of how his training changes as a result of the Wars ending; after this montage, he mentions that he is “thirteen years old, on the leaderboard for a year and counting” (They Made, three quarters of the way through chapter 1). 9 months later, “less than three months from final exams” (They Made, three-quarters of the way through chapter 2), he escapes the City with his brother. "Final exams" were to be taken when he turned fourteen. Therefore, my hypothesis is that the Analog Wars ended at least two, and at most six, months before he turned thirteen. This leaves a gap between the Analog Wars ending and his escape of at least eleven and at most fifteen months for the generation and propagation of the terms. At the very earliest, the ‘shines would have been in widespread use in mid-2013. At the very latest, they would have popped up in early 2014.

How, though, might the words have spread, and what (in-universe) could have possibly inspired them? The first question is easy to answer: the DJs, the voices of the desert, spread a truly ludicrous amount of slang around the desert. They are the reason that Killjoys have any sort of cohesive culture and vocabulary. I assume that most widespread slang, such as “shiny” (meaning good) and “red-line” (to vacate a place quickly) would have originated in a crew with a good relationship with a DJ, who would have then used said slang as a way to further encode messages over the radio.

My personal theory is that Show Pony had a key role to play in the inspiring and spreading of the ‘shines. They were close to a DJ during the timeline under scrutiny. As a nonbinary person, they would have a personal interest in generating and propagating some sort of words to easily communicate pronouns. They might have been far from the ‘original’ nonbinary person we hear of in the Zones (that title might go to El Antagonista or Zero Percent, both members of the First Killjoys), but they are shown to have enough creativity to come up with the terms, and enough sass and charisma to force them into general use.

What could have inspired the terms in-universe is a harder nut to crack. Out-of-universe, the author made a tumblr post talking about how they were inspired by the canon use of “sunshine” and used various astronomy terms to expand on the concept. However, in our world today, connecting the earth to femininity, the stars to masculinity, and the moon or astronomical rings to androgyny is a bit of a stretch. I assume, at least, that (as in our world) pronouns would originally be connected to whatever concepts of gender theory were still floating around after the apocalypse which took place in the late 1990s, even if they concepts became divorced later. Having brainstormed with multiple people on the idea, my best guess is some sort of advertisement campaign connected astronomical terms with gender in the minds of the general populace of Battery City. I am able to extrapolate further, but I will head way too far into the weeds with this, so I’m not going to go there.

So the ‘shines were a contribution to the common slang by the second generation- what did the other generations contribute to ~gender~? The third generation contributed both the combining of various ‘shines to show the use of multiple pronoun sets, alongside the broadening of the term “sunshine.” Whereas before “sunshine” had simply meant “person,” it was shifted to be also used as an identity in the same way the rest of the ‘shines were- “sunshine” became “person who does not have a preference in pronouns used for them” (Messiah, halfway through chapter 3). Before this, the only option for a person without a preference in pronouns, such as Fun Ghoul, was to say “no preference” in response to the unspoken question of someone calling them “sunshine” (Faith, halfway through chapter 4). There was also a de-gendering of “no preference / sunshine;” Fun Ghoul, despite never expressing a preference, is only ever referred to using he/they pronouns. Young Menace of the Defenders crew, on the other hand, is liberally referred to using all three pronoun sets.

I theorize that if the fourth generation of Killjoys had continued in this way, four more terms would have appeared, using “sun” as either a prefix or suffix, meaning “all pronouns, but with a preference on the other half of the word.” For example, sunstar could mean “any pronouns, but with more he and him than anything else.” This is, however, pure speculation on my part, and not to be taken as anything more.

[gwinver-art]

:'>

[mlobsters]

jared padalecki and jensen ackles minneapolis con 2025 - main panel

supernatural in 150 words or less

+bonus

[mamawasatesttube]

the timkon fans who shit on bart are annoying, the konbart fans who shit on tim are annoying, and i don't actually know if there are timbart fans who shit on kon, but i sure hope not, because they'd be annoying. the three of them are a set!!! do NOT separate. red tornado literally assigned them one shared brain cell. what is not clickign

[bluestation]

i found you in the future

[meamiki]

mira !!! :]

[side-quest-girl]

What if we reframed LG's actions as a desperate person doing, albeit to an extreme (and in an unhealthy way), what we have seen him and CXS do for so many others-- an attempt to process grief and regrets while visiting, but not altering, the past.

What if he took it too far, and dived too deep. What if he went in with the surface intention of never breaking his own rules (even the 12 hour one), even if deep down he probably knew it was a bad idea. Too raw, too personal, too addicting. Too soon. And what if he's gone through every picture like a mad man, going earlier and earlier, trying, not to save CXS (he knows he can't, shouldn't), but to extend his time with him as much as he can. 12 hours at a time.

But then, he gets to the last photo. The earliest. The day they met and LG's final chance to be with CXS as himself. And it's... too much. The little restraint LG has had with all the previous photos, back when he knew there were more pictures, more memories, to lose himself into, disappears. The dam breaks, and he lets himself drown. Lets himself go. Decides, even if overstaying his welcome means disappearing into the waves of time, forever drowning and trapped and unable to return to the present, that's okay. Because he doesn't have a present to return to. Not really, not one he can live in.

And so, he stays. Overstays the 12 hours and feels the last remnant he has of his CXS, the gold in his eyes, drain away. But that's okay, because to his slight surprise he doesn't drain away with it, and he now has something so much better than a remnant with him. CXS himself. One who doesn't remember him, remember them, sure. But a CXS that's alive and happy and that LG can finally have for more than 12 hours again.

...

And still, he broke one rule. He overstayed his dive. But he still remembers the other, more important one. Carved into his soul from all the times he and CXS had repeated it, he knows. Past or future, let them be.

And he will. He tries (and fails) to put the inevitable future out of his mind, and focuses on maintaining the past, step by step. And it kills him to do it, but he does. Because how can he not? The past must be preserved. Their future (their damned, heartbreaking future) must be preserved.

But then...

Despite doing everything in his power to keep things the same...

Things change.

LG knows it's his fault. The little missteps here and there have had a cascading effect (at least, he thinks that's the case... it's not like there's another meddling time traveler, is there?) and now everything is spiraling from fate's destined path. He's screwed up so much now. He could, should leave now and pray things return to how they were before, that time repairs itself from all his changes, somehow. But it's not just the small things. Nodes have changed. You can't turn back from that. And... oh, right, he can't go back now anyways. The gold is gone from him now, and he's trapped. And it's a terrifying feeling.... everything is changing from how it should be, and LG can't escape all the glaring reminders of just how badly he messed up, but...

It's actually a relief, deep down. Because the timeline is already unraveled, the future already undone. And now LG finally, finally has permission to do the one thing he could not justify doing in all the 12 hour dives before. LG can finally deliberately make changes. He no longer has to settle for letting himself drown in the unmovable tides of time, only to love and love and lose again, unable to do anything but watch and know. Now, LG can swim. He take take action.

Now, Lu Guang, can try to save Cheng Xiaoshi.

Because time has already changed. Nodes have already changed. There is no future to protect anymore. Just a person. Him.

[sysig]

I really like @theratpy​‘s Dr. Zo :D I like him for normal reasons don’t even worry about it don’t read into it at all haha (Patreon)

Bonus Ratticus

[sluttyten]

I was working on a new fic that I was really looking forward to, but in light of recent revelations, I'm gonna be taking a step back I think

also i removed him from the member masterlist and all of his fics, excluding things like YIMA and the poly series which I'm considering re-editing to get rid of him

[rayclubs]

Happy drink beer non-stop and urinate frequently Friday

[cappycodeart]

Bit of an art dump with some Fern content. I didn't get enough Fern fill in the new series tbh so I started hypothesizing a scenario where she and Itchy could meet? So, in this version of things, this is a Fern that gets re-cursed/re-grassed after Fionna restores the magic in her world, and Itchy tries to find a way to make her human again. Turns out they have more in common than I initially expected. When I connected the two, I realized they actually make for a fun parallel, like Fionna and Simon do.

(this is obviously many many years AFTER Itchy's adventure with that AU Betty I just don't have the braincells to finish a single plotline so I'm making y'all jump around with me. I'll make a proper timeline of events eventually, <3)

Bonus:

[a-most-beloved-fool]

aos fic where Jim Kirk falls in love with Spock but, since Spock is dating Uhura, masks his feelings by leaning into his reputation as a playboy, compulsively sleeping with anyone and everyone who winks at him in the worst coping mechanism known to man

bonus points if Spock either isn't dating Uhura or is instead in some kind of open/casual/FWB type thing, and is pining over Kirk and getting his heart broken a little every time Kirk finds someone new to sleep with

[likesdoodling]

What do I mean by that you ask? Well. I was scrolling through pinterest this morning, and spotted this amazing picture-

And decided I had to draw this. But as Zuko. >:D>:D>:D

This challenge does actually work btw. I can draw Zuko pretty accurately without references after finishing this, 😂

[maxbytes]

it's @peri and i's month-iversary today! here's some long-awaited bowuigi to celebrate. i love you, boyfriend! 💚💚💚

[huginsmemory]

WIP photos of basically Ford's turtleneck... I'm getting there (to @curiouscatastrophe and my own excitement)

Look, I just learned to knit a lil while ago and figured an easy project to do would be a sweater (since lets be real just interested in doing sweaters, since they're cozy and I wear em a lot) that's a single colour and a chunky knit to go fast and keep me hooked... And well... If I went to Michaels and there was a chunky yarn that's the same red as Ford's turtleneck then I'm juuuuust gonna chalk it up fate, uh-huh.

[dipndops]

Here are my parts for the Detective Conan Yoshio Urasawa MEP hosted by @marshmallowgoop!!

Go check out the project if you haven't yet to see all the fun things everyone did for their parts c:

Okay, now for a lot of rambling!

Part 3: Episode 1,010: “The Idol Whose Smile Disappeared”

I really wanted to pick a part and episode that lined up lyrically so I was glad that I could pair part 3 with this episode! For this part, I wanted to follow the story of Kayoko who is struggling from success as an idol (at least from the perspective of Futoshi the officer).

To match with the lyrics, I wanted to pick clips where Kayoko was stressing over her career and eventually finding confidence again. I knew I had to add the scene where she was pelted with (I think?) makeup sponges by her idolmates. That scene was super over the top and I think definitely sells the weird factor for this episode.

In the episode there are two separate shots showing her bright red shoes, one during a scene where Kayoko is crying and another when she is confidently striding outside. Initially I wanted to have the separate shoe scenes transition into each other but couldn't make it work the way I intended. Instead I wanted to keep with the theming by altering the colors of the first few clips to a monochrome red. Then, when we transition to a much happier Kayoko, we see the red shoes but in a brighter, colorful environment, reframing the symbolism of the color.

Part 9: Episode 976: “Follow Them! Detective Taxi”

Now this part has way less thought put into telling a story and instead I wanted to focus on how weird this episode is. This was the first part I worked on for the project so I was learning a lot about video effects.

For the first half of the part, I wanted to have the slide transitions to match Conan and Kogoro running around, emphasizing how hectic everything is.

With the middle section I wanted the energy of the clips to slow down at "don't wreck your brain." Sort of like Conan and Kogoro pausing to get a reality check of everything.

Then for the last section the energy is ramped up again because guess what, armadillo.

This was a super fun project and I'm happy I got to join it! I've never made AMVs before and only done very minimal video editing prior to this so I definitely learned a lot. Also, I haven't gotten to the newer episodes of Detective Conan yet, let alone any of the Urasawa episodes. It was such a tonal whiplash after I just finished an intense arc in the 400s and jumped over to watch these episodes lmao

Anyways, thank you again MarshmallowGoop for hosting! I had a blast working on this c: