#cut and clear

[homewrecking]

Potentially hot take but I simply think that insisting that transmascs who disagree with you are secretly closeted, transtrending TERFs is misgendering.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

News spreads fast.

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[hauntoblogical]

I have seen three different "how much of this site is queer" polls this evening poking fun at staff's 1/4 assertion and not a single indication any of them understand statistics. One someone even replied "This might have some sampling bias" what do you mean might what do you mean SOME

[ffcrazy15]

There's this way of doing female-ness in Christianity that I call "pastel flower journal Christianity." I've got nothing against pastel flower journals per se, but for some reason people believe it's the end all and be all of female spirituality, and I think it's a real disservice towards young Christian women.

One of these days I'd like to start a prayer-and-reading group or something for young women, but there would be no floral themes or over-focus on how "God thinks you're beautiful even if the world doesn't" (a true statement, but it's wayyyyy too often the focus in women's spiritual reading). Instead we would be reading:

Seneca's Letters from a Stoic

Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

Sheed's A Map of Life

Portions of Pieper's book on leisure

Kreeft's Three Philosophies of Life

Guardini's The Lord (or something similar)

Therese's Story of a Soul

and some select portions of the Nicomachean Ethics.

(Also they're all getting the porn talk. I don't know why we give the porn talk to young men but not young women. There's this idea that women don't use porn and they only need the talk about "guarding their heart." Bullshit. There's porn on the YA shelves of Barnes and Nobles and before that there were bodice rippers. Young women need the porn talk too.)

Every young woman needs to be getting a basic grounding in virtue ethics, logic, natural law, scholastic philosophy and Biblical hermeneutics if they're going to get by in today's spiritual landscape. Enough faffery and emotionalism in young women's spiritual education! Give them real food to chew on, not pasty sentimentalism!

[funger-rips]

Fear and Hunger: Termina - Ending Graphic (Full train and Backgrounds + Sprites)

Details about this rip are below cut.

The version train background used in this post is a specific variant of the background that is only partly found in the files. See below for the other versions found in the files.

"train.rpgmvp", which is found in the "battlebacks2" folder. It is used as the background for fights in the train. (left)

"train_ending.rpgmvp", which is found in the "pictures" folder. It is used as the background in the ending graphic, as seen above the cut. (middle)

"train - Copy.rpgmvp", which is found in the "battlebacks2" folder. It is a slightly shifted version of train.rpgmvp, though only in the black border area. I am unsure where this is used in-game, if anywhere. (right)

Also to note, the background image used above the cut is slightly revised. You may notice the subtle but sizeable brown coloring in the bottom left of the images below the cut, where Henryk and Abella would stand. For some reason, this coloring is only visible in the ending graphic sometimes, but not always.

I am not sure what triggers either version, though both variants are visible in-game. The version without the brown coloring is not specifically present in the files, implying that some sort of effect or a secondary image is overlaid on top (speculation).

For the sake of appeal, I have posted the "cleaner" version without the brown coloring above the cut. All the images below the cut are uncropped and unedited from the files.

The sprites of the individual characters are also unedited and exactly from the files.

(Thanks for reading if you actually got this far!)

[uncanny-tranny]

The hardest, but most important, part of my transition has been untangling what my personal dysphoria is, and what is more a result of cissexism.

What I mean by this is that I learned that I am not dysphoric about certain aspects of myself, my body, and my life, but my discomfort in these aspects was influenced by the cissexist culture I live in which told me I couldn't exist as myself.

It's definitely a slow process, but I have found that it helps me self-actualize and actually see myself instead of what others demand of me.

[casscainmainly]

There's something so beautiful about Cass' belief in people. Not only is it consistently rewarded, but it's often the very thing that allows people to change:

Batgirl (2000) #36 / Detective Comics #972

Her belief isn't enough for her, but it's enough for so many others.

[2hoothoots]

alright, here's my hot take on the Sasha-Raz dynamic: i think Raz represents a wish fulfilment self-insert figure for Sasha just as much as Sasha does for Raz.

Raz wanting to be like Sasha and seeing him as an aspirational future self is self-explanatory, right. Sasha is his hero from his favourite comic books, he even dresses up like the guy – it’s cute! there’s a fun hero worship angle there. but i think there’s also an aspect of it going the other way: Sasha sees Raz as an idealised past self. he's an excuse for Sasha to recast his own troubled childhood in a more flattering light, to imagine a version of himself who was more confident, more capable, more driven; and to explore the fantasy of that version of himself getting support and training and recognition, instead of the way things really played out.

here's something. when you use clairvoyance on Sasha, he sees Raz as a younger version of himself:

not as his younger self – specifically, a miniature version of his current self. there's a difference.

here's something else: from what we see in the memory vaults, I don't think younger Sasha was actually like Raz at all.

this part is heavier on extrapolation, because all we see of younger Sasha is a single memory vault; but i think the expressions and the body language tell a clear story here. the boy we see in these vaults is shy, uncertain, estranged, lonely. the distance between him and his father is palpable, physical and emotional. 

think about the things that Sasha says to Raz: your talents will always set you apart. sometimes, isolation is a good thing. those are very weird things to say to a kid as “advice”, and they’re very revealing about Sasha’s own mindset! i think it’s very easy to read Sasha as someone who had a very troubled, lonely childhood, and then sought to retroactively redefine and romanticise it. it wasn’t grief that stopped him and his father from ever forming a meaningful bond; it was just his talents, his father didn’t understand. if he was lonely and isolated growing up, well, maybe that was a good thing. just look at where he is now!

and i think Raz serves as a vessel for Sasha to project all of that onto. because their experiences aren’t that similar, not really. Sasha left home because he was unable to connect with his father; Raz ran away because his family didn’t understand or support his gifts. Sasha pushed things too far with his powers, and was shocked and unsettled by what he saw; Raz pushed things too far with his powers, and was rewarded for it. Sasha left home uncertain and afraid; Raz left home on a mission. the two stories aren’t the same, but they rhyme – you can draw parallels, if you squint, if you’re willing to change a few details here and there. and one of these stories is much more alluring, more satisfying, more compelling than the other. 

when Sasha says to Raz in the shooting gallery, “I would have done the exact same thing at your age” – sorry, but i absolutely do not buy it. younger Sasha was meek and conflict-averse, he faced one single unexpected consequence and immediately noped out. i think he absolutely would not have done the same thing. but i bet Sasha wants to think that he would have, y’know? i bet he wants to see himself in this boy, who’s driven and confident and focused and such an eager student – who has so much promise, and is in an environment where that can be recognised and rewarded and nurtured. Raz isn’t just a promising student, to Sasha – he’s also an opportunity to live out that what if, to explore the wish fulfilment of his own younger self getting that kind of recognition and support, instead of being left, lonely and alone, to fend for himself. 

one final thing: one of the big reasons i really like this reading is that i feel like it makes the scene where Sasha scolds Raz for messing with Hollis’ mind way more interesting: [screenshots from this upload of the game's cutscenes]

"You thought you could manipulate another person's mind, to bend their will to your own! There are few things worse, Razputin."

i’m not the first to point out that this feels a little hypocritical coming from Sasha, especially when you consider that this is basically the exact same thing he encouraged Raz to do in his own mind! and besides that, you could argue that it isn’t even Sasha’s place to hand out this lecture – Hollis was the one whose mind was actually messed with, and her and Raz have already hashed things out.  but if you think about Sasha as projecting himself onto Raz, then i think there’s more depth here. this isn’t just Sasha being upset because his protégé did something bad – he’s shaken because Raz did something unexpected. suddenly, Raz has broken away from the model that Sasha had built up in his mind, of the perfect, confident young agent that Sasha could easily see himself in. now he’s having to realise that Raz isn’t perfect – and maybe he isn’t just like Sasha, either.

[sunnibits]

senshi dungeon meshi tell me what to eat for lunch…. senshi from dungeon meshi pls… Guide me…..

[emmavakarian-theirin]

YOU GUYS my surgery results came back and i got the all clear!

[purecommemasolitude]

the thing about "barely any of the musical greasers actually have their hair greased" is that that's pretty obviously because it wouldn't work with most of their hair textures, but more importantly i'd argue there's not even a loss of that aspect of the story

just like it's not a choice without implications to cast ethnic groups that read as ethnic minorities to a 21st century audience (the greasers being mostly poc is for a multitude of reasons but among them it's worth noting that a lot of the originators of the subculture, to my understanding, were oppressed ethnic groups -- just ones that a modern audience might not interpret as such), a very efficient way to communicate the implications of greaser hair culture without having ponyboy deliver monologues on the subject is to have them played by groups for whom hair is a significant part of their history and oppression. when a group of white socs surrounds pony and johnny and threatening to hold them down and cut their hair, it does read differently and say more quicker when johnny is played by a black and indigenous man

[lycheelsea]

Boom! Art! I’ve returned! (Kind of idk if my motivation will keep up)

I watched Pixar’s Win or Lose and absolutely adored it!! Laurie especially is so so cute

[velsatelier]

secret hiding place (6 pages).. my thoughts under the cut

this took way longer than i wanted…….. this is only my second time doing a comic of sorts, the longest colored one i’ve done being 2 pages….??? this comic to me is pomni being honest and almost unafraid of sharing her thoughts to ragatha, like she did in gummigoo, and maybe terrified of losing another connection again with the possibility clear in her mind that ragatha could get abstracted any moment (unaware that she already is kind of in the process…) this all happens on the tower on the lake…? so they’re high up, and can see the stars that way. in case there’s any confusion about their designs, it’s just my personal take on it and i’m also very sorry for all the inconsistencies throughout the pages. just don’t squint too hard okay . Okay…

also just wanted to link another comic really quickly about another tadc artist whose work i super duper love, and i found out i had a similar ending idea to theirs way too late into the comic process… their comic is super well written too and their other works are also really stunning and i’m really sorry if it seems like i stole their idea or anything