#so i've never wanted to experiment

[justaz]

i've been so scared of the ao3 curse that i swore to myself i would only post stories i've written in their entirety just so i can post it all and be done with it - no chance for the ao3 curse to get me. but alas i was so excited about this one fic i'm writing that i posted a chapter without the story being completed and now i feel like death. i haven't been sick in literal years. this sucks. woe is me.

[canisalbus]

doodled your little guys!!! I have so many thoughts about them. As someone who lives in Italy it has been absolutely wonderful seeing your characters express the country's culture and history!!! It's not often that I see characters be based off Italian history in such an artistic manner.. But that might be me living under a rock, LOL. Anyhow, keep doing what you do, YOU ROCK!!!!

.

[mariyekos]

Okay to reblog to help sample size!

[swampybogg]

[elodieunderglass]

I have a fictional horse question and I would appreciate your perspective!

I read all of Tamora Pierce without being or becoming a horse girl. But! A fic idea I have been rotating in my head for months needs a Horse Response and I can’t rotate the idea without it.

Peachblossom, a strawberry roan gelding who is tricksy, bitey, and grumpy, has just saved the life of a person he has previously annoyed. Person (and the other people present) respectfully thank Peachblossom for doing so. And Peachblossom gives a Horse Response, to the effect of “you’re very welcome; I’m very wonderful; apples plz.”

What might that look like? I’ve put in a series of complicated ear flicks as a placeholder but it doesn’t feel correct.

Thank you for any horse thoughts you may have! It’s been very fun learning about Killie and his entourage. I’m particularly fond of Derek.

(killie the jockey OC's tumblr tag) Aww that's very kind! I'm continually amazed by meeting new people who say they're fond of Killie and his absurd network.

Peachblossom!! EXCELLENT hateful and independent strawberry roan representation! I remember him.

One sweet way that horses show affection and build bonds is to share breath. it's as sweet as it sounds. they place their foreheads close to each other, touch noses, and gently blow air from their noses into each other's nostrils. that serves as general greeting, kiss, affection, scent-sharing, gratitude, and various other expressions of intimacy, kinship, and/or friendship. in the image below they are being VERY sweet and completely pressing their faces together (saying LOVE LOVE LOVE and PEACE PEACE PEACE.)

I'll go into more detail below

if you want to do this with a horse, you should empty your mind and try to be relaxed and peaceful and indicate psychically that you want to do it. they'll usually have to put their head down for you to reach.

Another thing horses do to each other is to scratch each other's withers - the high point of the shoulder. they do it like this, which is super cute and heart-shaped:

they cannot reach this space of the body for themselves, and so this is especially delicious Prize Scratching Opportunity. to scratch each other's withers, they stand shoulder to shoulder and nibble each other with their teeth. it is Extremely Good. if you want to do this to a horse, you can usually offer to do it by saying something friendly and putting your hand on their shoulder - if they move away, they don't want it. scratches will normally be received well (only do this with horses that you're allowed to touch, of course, and upon invitation.)

various horses may do these things to each other in various different ways (or not at all). we are also differently shaped from horses. so the body language can be funny in translation. Horses actually do recognise this, though.

I had a horse friend once (a big stupid retired Thoroughbred - he wasn't mine, he just lived with my friend's horse) who would lovingly reciprocate a withers-scratch by wrapping his neck around my body to delicately, gently and respectfully remove my ponytail holder with his teeth and lips. this, to him, was the equivalent in body language. You can see EXACTLY how his mind was working! reach a high point of the body that SEEMS kind of like withers, this is where the mane is on humans, isn't it - this is the highest point - I'll give it a nice - OH you've got a big knot there!! I'll get it out for you!! Don't worry, I'm exceptionally popular BECAUSE I'm so good at grooming. OH MAN IT WAS ONE OF THESE THINGS AGAIN! you're always picking these up! do you roll around in them?! and then he would carefully give the hair elastic to you, with his mouth. Can you imagine - how careful and gentle he had to be to do that. And of course the correct thing is to say: "WOW big guy thanks SO much!!!!" and resign yourself to having a certain amount of green horse-smelling grass-slime in your hair. that, you see, is an expression of genuine cross-species love and communication - an invitation to love and be loved as a fellow member of the planet - and is to be treasured, even if you stink now and didn't really want your hair down.

And finally, a horse that thinks you are going to give it some treats will nuzzle and mouth at your clothing to find where you are keeping the treats. in case you have temporarily forgotten that there are treats in your clothing. their lips are surprisingly mobile. hi. hello. horses get treats.

those are all things that nice horses do.

now, horrible and rude horses do exist. they all have different personalities. they are extremely social animals. in an ordinary horse social life they will have size differences (sometimes quite significant!), dominance structures, breed differences, and multiple-species friendships. and therefore, each horse will initiate contact or express emotion in a different way.

a CHEEKY way to express affection, for example, can be just straight-up knocking a human over with their face. that's because a charming, kind and sweet thing for a horse to do to another horse is to firmly press faces together and share breath; the human/horse equivalent (as polite and intelligent horses know perfectly well) is to carefully imitate this by lowering their nose to your face level so you can blow in their nostrils with your little tiny face; the CHEEKY thing to do is to whack you with their nose and blow pneumatic amounts of snot on you. GET LOVED IDIOT. SNOTTED ALSO. and then laugh about it.

I can imagine that being in line with Peachblossom's sense of humour (not that I remember him especially well.)

tossing his head and arching his neck and dancing a bit to do a bit of stallion-ish showing off (I am tremendously gorgeous, aren't I) and then getting serious and calm and still for a second and putting his head down as if to nuzzle and share breath (I do actually like you a little bit) and when you fall for it, a very slight headbutt (hahahahaaahahaha you THOUGHT! you THOUGHT!!!!) followed by WHERE'S THE FOOD LMAO.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Can you draw Liu Mingyan, Ning Yingying and Sha Hualing In your art style please?

I thought I had, but it turns out I've only drawn them as skin creatures, or as sketches I never posted...I'm sorry women.

[deoidesign]

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

We all start somewhere!

[mobius-m-mobius]

It's a pretty cool name.

Loki + the progression of saying Mobius' name for @percheduphere

[ahollowgrave]

-- flight. (for @lilbittymonster's birthday request!)

[respectthepetty]

Episode five and six of Happy of the End dealt with the aftermath of the death of Keito's Haoran's mother, so this Black Brooder is completely dark now.

He sits in the dark contemplating his life and how much he hates it.

And even though Chihiro brings light to his life (as well as food), Haoran remains dark.

However, Chihiro is the perfect person to lift Haoran out of this darkness because no matter how shitty Chihiro's life is, he continues to be colorful.

His family has disowned him. He gets fired from his job. Yet he is still light.

Kaji, who he considers a friend, is rude to him and belittles his relationship with Haoran, yet he stays light.

And that's why when he gets the slightest indication that Haoran needs his help, he quickly reaches out to him.

He takes Haoran from the dark into the light as they walk around the city from the night into the morning.

He gives him a gift, not only of warmth in his moment of coldness.

But also the gift of color.

And because of this one moment of warmth in Haoran's cold existence, this moment of light in Haoran's dark life, this moment of color in Haoran's black world, he believes he can die now. Is it because he has finally had a moment of joy? Is it because he thinks he will never experience it again?

It isn't clear, which isn't a problem because either way Haoran has settled into the idea that death is a suitable outcome, but Chihiro is more than willing to die right next to him, which is a problem.

Because Haoran doesn't want Chihiro to die. He doesn't want to dim Chihiro's light. He wants Chihiro to live.

And that's what gives Haoran the will to live.

Haoran isn't living for himself anymore because he isn't alone anymore.

He still has the darkness.

But he doesn't seem to be afraid of the light the way he was before. He tells Chihiro he likes him. He tells Kaji they are boyfriends.

He cries because he realizes he has something to lose, but that also means he has something worth keeping.

So even though his darkness pops up when he argues with Chihiro because he hasn't revealed his past,

Once Chihiro appears next to him in his confrontation with Maya, that color reemerges.

And he finally bares his soul and body to Chihiro and tells Chihiro how truly dark his past was.

And a shift happens.

For the first time since Haoran was a child, he is light.

Even as he is forced to run away from Maya again, he has someone to run with him. Even though his world is still dark, he sees the light.

So it's no surprise that Maya decides the easiest way to bring Haoran back into the darkness is to kill the light.

[canisalbus]

As someone who frequently experiences the "fog," you're feeling, just know it does absolutely get better. I'm someone who lives in a very oppressive place in the world, so me being me is a difficult thing to do. Venting is necessary to relieve pressure from your psyche, and as someone who has a platform of followers who are here for you and will give advice... just delete it after! No judgment, no bad air to look back at! 🖤

From a trans les dog, you inspire greatly

Love from the American South 🖤🇺🇲

Thank you for saying that!

For what it's worth, I'm making an effort to eat better and get adequate sleep and enough fresh air, you know, do my best to coax myself back on the right track mentally and physically. And sometimes it's working and I get more good days than bad ones. I just lament the fact that I'm losing so much time and energy to the Daily Struggle™ at the moment. The weather is nice and the Finnish summer is so terribly short, I should be enjoying it while it lasts and charging my batteries for the next winter. But it is what it is.

Even if your location makes it challenging to enjoy it at this time, I wish you wonderful pride month anon 🌷🏳️‍⚧️

[uncanny-tranny]

Social transition being seen (by some) as this super easy thing that isn't as hard as real transitioning (medical) is bullshit. Be critical of the idea that there are some trans people who just "have it easy" because they are trans or because they are trans in ways you may not be.

Social transition is just as difficult, hard, and rewarding as medical transition. Maybe it is not as hard for some, sure, but that is not the same as thinking that social transition is inherently easier or lesser. If you're socially transitioning, your voice still matters.

[mazken]

brush test slash rendering practice with ayem

[wisteriasymphony]

So I just finished reading all of The Warm Embrace of a Shadow (well caught up) and uh yeah I’m totally obsessed!

Adrien is so deeply messed up in a very compelling way (which makes sense considering the general set up for his character), and his and Claudia’s relationship is SO fun to read I’m so obsessed. The brain worms are setting in as we speak-

But I also wanted to ask, because of how the narrative is used in the story (as a deliberate thing the characters have to escape if they choose to) feels…so Revolutionary Girl Utena coded I need to know if that’s on purpose it’s been circling my mind since I finished it. If not, I’d love to hear your thoughts/insights on how you use the narrative for the story! Also sorry if the ask is too long-

@miraculous-lesbians

Don't worry, I've gotten much longer asks and will probably continue to get longer ones, haha!

Unfortunately, I have only experienced Utena second-hand so far, so I can't say that any of the parallels have been fully intentional. Both are postmodernist (if, uh, I'm allowed to call a fanfic that), both heavily rely on deconstruction (with Utena, it's fairy tales, and with TWEoS it is the lovesquare, miraculous canon, and fandom tendencies), and both deal with meta-commentary and meta-narrative!

As I've said in previous asks, The Narrative is Canon is God is Tikki is Thomas Astruc. It's a technique I think is inherently unique to fanfic and especially canon-divergent fics to be able to write out a story that is in conversation to and constantly reliant on the larger "correct" story of canon. Claudia is treated the way she is so often by other canon characters not just because of her class and race, but because she is also an ascended extra within the 'meta' of canon (but, like, it is also very much the former two, don't get me wrong). Adrien and Marinette are soulmates because in the 'meta' of canon, they are endgame, and isn't that basically the same thing? So on and so forth. TWEoS is a very deliberate and self-acknowledged "Timeline Where It All Goes Wrong", and part of that is constantly reminding us that it wasn't supposed to end up like that.

Of course, due to the above, the fact that The Narrative of ML canon is everyone's intended destiny, and that it's a destiny Adrien is unhappy with, the only option is to acknowledge (through fanfic) there are other choices. That you could have everything laid out for you perfectly, and that you can refuse, and that might be how you find yourself. And, of course, the process of finding yourself and asserting your own personhood and agency is going to be rough, and if you've been in survival mode for your entire life, finally exiting it is going to make you a whole lot worse before you get a whole lot better, but it's worth it. You do not have to treat your acceptance as a given.

[starleska]

who's this funny green treat? why, it's Rock Samphire Cookie—your new favourite sweet-and-salty geologist! 🥰💎💚 i hope you guys like my silly little Cookiesona (who totally isn't an excuse to selfship with my two favourite cookies, i swear!! 😳) shout-out to @sharkstonbarkston for the idea of making them Olive Cookie's cousin, and to @ratprincess212 for the overalls! 😉

[front-facing-pokemon]