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Careful

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This scene always gets me 😭 Painted using Procreate on the iPad 🎨

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Just read The Strange Case of Harley and Harleen and my god I needed a little bit of positive plurality in my life this week.

The way Pam and Harl's relationship adapts to accept the Harley/Harleen split makes my heart swell.

The way Pam sees the difference between her girlfriends.

And assures her that she accepts and loves all sides of her.

And does what she can to accommodate Harleen's memory holes.

The core relationship of this book is just so sweet and positive in accepting things as they are without judgment or pushing. Just acceptance and love.

And after finding that in our own life, I know what a powerfully positive thing it can be.

But the Harley/Harleen relationship is well handled too. There's friction and denial at the start but the two develop and trust one another by the end and Harley takes a seat as my favorite kind of character, the morally ambiguous protector.

I love the way Harley's protectiveness of Harleen is depicted and how she tries so hard to keep her from interacting with the criminal underworld of Gotham.

It's just saccharine and kind.

Highly recommend the book to anyone who just wants soft and kind plurality vibes. Heaven knows the majority of the fiction involving split personalities are flooded with angst and darkness and though this book contains a few dark plot beats like DV it never feels painful or sorrow inducing.

I'm so happy I read it.

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Was explaining some gender things to a straight cis friend today vis a vis gender presentation VS gender identity when it suddenly dawned on me with much the same horror as getting to work and realizing you left the stove on, that unless you've been immersed in a queer culture for some time you'd have no way of knowing that appearing androgynous/indeterminate/wildly gender-nonconforming is HOT

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Full-bodied and red, darling...

A little tribute to my beloved bastard vampire~ Those of you who know my work might recignise this as a master's study I've done with an OC in the past but I couldn't resist to give it another spin with Astarion~

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when i was a teenager it felt very revolutionary to be cruel to myself. like some kind of slow passive protest against how much everything hurt. i starved myself of sleep and food and tenderness because it felt right. it felt sharp and angry and radical and i wanted to be those things. adulthood is the realisation that the world is already working to cut into you well before you learn how to do it yourself. caring for yourself and others is the real protest

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“imagine caring so much about fiction” imagine being so lame that you scoff at the timeless human practice of falling in love with art and stories

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Don’t look at things you know will make you angry. Don’t read the comment sections. Don’t look at the blogs of people who add dumb comments to posts to confirm that they’re dumb all the time. Don’t read old conversations you had with people you don’t talk to anymore. Go look at pictures of kittens or something instead. Protect yourself from negativity in every way you can.

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Friendly reminder that sometimes mental illnesses are genuinely disabling.

If your mental illness makes it difficult, impossible or harder than it should be to do certain things that would take a non-mentally ill person no effort to do, that's disabling.

If showering is a chore for you, and your ability to function and get it done fluctuates ? That's disabling.

If doing dishes is something your brain won't let you do unless under very specific circumstances ? That's disabling.

If you can't clean your room or throw anything out and so your room or house is messy and/or possibly dangerous at any given time ? That's disabling.

If you have an infinite number of these things that no matter what you try to do you can't get rid of the extreme toll it takes on you, or the time it takes you, or whatever ? You are experiencing things disabled folks experience.

Don't be ashamed to ask for help, or to talk about how your mental illness affects your ability to fuction, or even to call yourself disabled.

I have lived with a severe anxiety disorder for my entire life, and I can say that I have been very hesitant to call myself disabled for the longest time because of internalized abelism. But you know what ? I am disabled. My mental illnesses disable me, and having that term at my disposal helps ME to explain what I have to go through every single day.

I'm sending love and support to my fellow mentally ill folks, especially those who are afraid to call themselves disabled even if their disorder disables them. I hope that one day you can reach a point where you're able to use that term for yourself and not fear what anyone else tries to tell you about your own lived experiences.

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some quick things you can do that may help you feel a little better. pick one and see if it helps!

- brush your teeth

- take a shower or bath, or wash your face

- put away five things that are out of place

- cuddle a pet, plushie, or beloved object

- eat something, either a snack or a full meal

- drink water!

- go for a walk outside

- close your eyes breathe deeply for ten seconds

- make a checklist of things you need to do

- call or text a loved one

- journal

- check in with your headmates to see how each other is doing

it can be hard to look after ourselves when we’re suicidal, but you are worth it. please take care of yourselves today. we hope that doing something small for your own health may improve your mood, if only a little.

reach out if you want to brag about how you’ve cared for yourselves lately, or if you need a little encouragement. we love you.

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Cringe started as a verb describing a physical reaction, i.e.: "I cringe when I see [x]."

Modern slang has turned cringe into an adjective describing anything to which a person might have such a reaction.

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This shift in language is illustrative of a shift in culture.

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For a while there, in the early 2000s, there was this big sex positivity movement and we talked openly about kink and queer sexuality and creating a culture of consent that broke away from traditional conservative ideas of moral respectability.

And now we are in the midst of this giant purity culture backlash, this giant push for rigid conformity all over the internet. Anything that deviates from the norm even remotely is ridiculed.

And this cultural shift is perfectly encapsulated in this singular linguistic shift, this verb becoming a noun.

The Revenge of the Pearl Clutchers

That's what "cringing" is. It's pearl clutching.

When the pearl clutchers turned cringe into an adjective, they turned a reaction into an accusation. The pearl clutchers don't want to take responsibility for their own kneejerk emotions. They want to blame YOU.

They are saying, "My disgust isn't the fault of my own backwards prejudices. It is YOU who are inherently disgusting. My inability to cope with even the slightest deviation from norm is not the problem here. YOUR refusal to rigidly conform is the problem. I am not the one who is cringing. YOU are the one who is cringe."

Fuck 'em.

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Take the word back.

Cringe is not something people are.

It's something judgmental assholes do.

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“imagine caring so much about fiction” imagine being so lame that you scoff at the timeless human practice of falling in love with art and stories

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Kicking up some gales!

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Dragon Miku

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Don’t look at things you know will make you angry. Don’t read the comment sections. Don’t look at the blogs of people who add dumb comments to posts to confirm that they’re dumb all the time. Don’t read old conversations you had with people you don’t talk to anymore. Go look at pictures of kittens or something instead. Protect yourself from negativity in every way you can.