ancientcivilizationnonsense

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The most human thing a character can do is contradict themselves.

The cynic who still carries a childhood stuffed animal.

The liar who craves honesty.

The overthinker who makes reckless decisions.

The heartbreaker who believes in soulmates.

The pacifist who holds lifelong grudges.

The tough guy who cries during old movies.

The thrill-seeker who's terrified of commitment.

The grump who’s unfailingly polite to waitstaff.

People aren’t consistent. Your characters shouldn’t be either.

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Female dancer from Deir el-Medina

This limestone ostracon was discovered in the famous Workers Village of Deir el-Medina. Dating from approximately, 1292–1076 B.C., this piece was created within the 19th or 20th Dynasty.

Deir el-Medina (Set Ma’at) was a workman’s village, which was state commissioned and owned. The artisans and architects who would design and build the tombs of the royals and elite would live there for many centuries with their families.

Discovered in the workers’ village of Deir el-Medina, this ostracon measures approximately 17 cm in width, 11.5 cm in height, and 4 cm in depth. It was acquired by the museum in 1824 from Bernardino Drovetti, a prominent French diplomat and collector.

Now in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. Cat. 7052

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me: i wanna talk about my ocs

someone: ok tell me about your ocs

me, suddenly convinced that every single thing about my ocs is stupid and cringy and probably offensive: i. have them

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Tender Actions for Characters Who Are Yearning (But Not Together… Yet)

(aka: I crave you in silence, and if you notice, I’ll die and also be thrilled)

・❥・Letting their hand hover near yours but never quite touching. Every atom screaming: please reach back.

・❥・ Saving the last bite of something, “just in case you wanted it.” (They always do. You always remember.)

・❥・ Fixing their backpack strap, even when it’s not falling.

・❥・ Offering your umbrella wordlessly. Standing a little closer than needed.

・❥・ Sitting beside them at a group thing before your brain catches up. Like it’s instinct.

・❥・ Casually mentioning something they said weeks ago. Something small. Something they didn’t think you’d remember.

・❥・ Carrying an extra pen, just in case they forget.

・❥・ Letting them rant. Letting them ramble. Letting them be.

・❥・ Your eyes finding theirs in a crowd before your brain says, look away.

・❥・ Brushing against them “by accident” and apologizing even though it lit your whole nervous system on fire.

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When a Character is Falling in Love but Doesn’t Trust It

Love is terrifying. Especially for characters who’ve been hurt, shut down, or raised to believe vulnerability is weakness. So when they start falling? It doesn’t look like a Disney montage. It looks like panic in slow motion.

✧ They start noticing everything and it unsettles them. The way their voice cracks when they laugh. The way their fingers tap when they’re thinking. These little details burrow in and refuse to leave. And that awareness makes the character feel exposed.

✧ They become hyperaware of their own body. Where their hands are. How close they’re standing. If they’re blushing. It’s like being inside a body that’s betraying them constantly.

✧ They act a little mean. Not because they are mean. But because being cold is safer than being real. Sarcasm, distance, teasing, they use it like armor.

✧ They hate how much they want to share things. They’ll see a funny meme and instinctively want to send it. Then stop. No. Don’t get attached. They want to tell them about a childhood memory, then bite it back. Too personal.

✧ They become inconsistent. Warm one moment, distant the next. Showing up, then pulling away. They’re testing how much of themselves they can reveal before it feels like too much.

✧ They assume the worst. They know it won’t last. That this person will leave. That they’re misreading everything. Love doesn’t feel safe, it feels like a countdown to pain.

✧ They self-sabotage. Pick fights. Flake on plans. Pull away emotionally just to “protect themselves” before it goes wrong. It’s tragic and messy and real.

✧ They notice silence more. What wasn’t said. A delayed reply. A joke that didn’t land. Everything becomes a sign that maybe this love thing was a mistake.

✧ They want to run, but never do. The desire to bolt is constant. But they don’t. Because something about this person is pulling them back, despite every warning bell going off in their head.

✧ They don’t trust the feeling, but they keep falling anyway. And that’s what makes it beautiful. And heartbreaking. Because they don’t want to fall. But they do. And maybe, just maybe, that’s the bravest thing they’ve ever done.

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Emotional Walls Your Character Has Built (And What Might Finally Break Them)

(How your character defends their soft core and what could shatter it) Because protection becomes prison real fast.

✶ Sarcasm as armor. (Break it with someone who laughs gently, not mockingly.) ✶ Hyper-independence. (Break it with someone who shows up even when they’re told not to.) ✶ Stoicism. (Break it with a safe space to fall apart.) ✶ Flirting to avoid intimacy. (Break it with real vulnerability they didn’t see coming.) ✶ Ghosting everyone. (Break it with someone who won’t take silence as an answer.) ✶ Lying for convenience. (Break it with someone who sees through them but stays anyway.) ✶ Avoiding touch. (Break it with accidental, gentle contact that feels like home.) ✶ Oversharing meaningless things to hide real depth. (Break it with someone who asks the second question.) ✶ Overworking. (Break it with forced stillness and the terrifying sound of their own thoughts.) ✶ Pretending not to care. (Break it with a loss they can’t fake their way through.) ✶ Avoiding mirrors. (Break it with a quiet compliment that hits too hard.) ✶ Turning every conversation into a joke. (Break it with someone who doesn’t laugh.) ✶ Being everyone’s helper. (Break it when someone asks what they need, and waits for an answer.) ✶ Constantly saying “I’m fine.” (Break it when they finally scream that they’re not.) ✶ Running. Always running. (Break it with someone who doesn’t chase, but doesn’t leave, either.) ✶ Intellectualizing every feeling. (Break it with raw, messy emotion they can’t logic away.) ✶ Trying to be the strong one. (Break it when someone sees the weight they’re carrying, and offers to help.) ✶ Hiding behind success. (Break it when they succeed and still feel empty.) ✶ Avoiding conflict at all costs. (Break it when silence causes more pain than the truth.) ✶ Focusing on everyone else’s healing but their own. (Break it when they hit emotional burnout.)

[ancientcivilizationnonsense]

Lion-shaped perfume vase

The mythical lion is represented standing with its right leg forward, in contrast to human statues, which have the left leg forward. It shows an aggressive attitude against evil powers; the fangs are bared, the tongue protrudes from the mouth to tease, one foreleg is raised to ward off all evil forces while the other foreleg is placed on a hieroglyphic sign called “sa”, which means “protection.” For this reason it is called a prophylactic (protector) lion.

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1332-1323 BC. Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings, Thebes. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 62119

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Ancient Roman sarcophagus depicting the myth of Selene and Endymion, 3rd Century CE.

Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome

Feb. 2024

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Blue glass rhyton, Roman, 1st half of the 1st century AD

from The Louvre

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Open work gold ring, Roman Egypt, 1st century AD

from The Art Institute of Chicago

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Her Highness, Pharaoh Anipe 😌

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Scarab depicting the goddess Bastet Egypt New Kingdom or later Glazed composition

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Gold and lapis lazuli ring, Minoan, 1850-1550 BC

from The British Museum

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House of Castor and Pollux Pompeii, Italy

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Okay I JUST realized I never posted these on here—- BUT BASICALLY, about a year and a half ago I started doing these experimental black hairstyle posts that were threads long on Twitter, to give artists a source of inspo for their black ocs whose hair they wanted to try something new with! There’s more to black hair than just the selected styles portrayed in media, and I thought it would be fun to show people how much texture, shape, fades, length, and style can be combined when drawing black hair—-cause it’s a kind of manipulation our hair can do irl! The OG thread from when I made these a year ago were lost with the hacking of my original Twitter account (@/bagels_donuts) but I’ve since reuploaded the whole thread to my new Twitter (@/ItsDonutsFR)! I hope artists on tumblr find these useful, sorry it took me so long to post them here😭🙏🏾 I’ll upload them all in parts!

Part 1: Long masc hairstyles + playing with fades