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(FORGOT TO POST THIS AAAAH) started playing flight rising (thank you @viscereptile) say hi to Chalcanthite and Weamb!!

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How do you feel about "character joins bloodclan" aus? Im curious about ur thoughts since youre really in tune with the themes of the series but personally i just hate them bc its ALWAYS aimed at 'unfortunate' characters and always ALWAYS ignores the fact that bloodclan is a horrible place in-canon and that they're just reflavoring the abuse and trauma the characters qent through to be more emo or goth themed.

Ravenpaw is ALWAYS a prime target for this and its like. Great. You took the character being abused by their mentor figure and is being harmed from the violent culture the clan has generated... and giving them an EMO mentor figure who will inevitably abuse them and harm them as a result of the violent culture the emo clan has generated. Sasha is another one I've noticed- you've put the woman who lost her kit and is struggling to survive with the others while being controlled and abused by someone who sees her as an outsider (aka alone and easy to isolate), and are gonna put her in a faction who specifically separates kin from one another to easily control them and who have canonically tried murdering those who stick with their family. What was gained here.

Like i know bloodclan is revamped in ur au (thank god for it) but in canon bloodclan is HORRIBLE. People ignore that in favor of putting their favs into bloodclan bc bloodclan is cool and killed tigerstar that one time bc of revenge. Ravenpaw becomes Scourge AUS are SO SO SO much worse bc of this too- sure you manage to point out how scourge and raven has roughly similar stories in their youth but you could also do something interesting and make an au where raven and scourge are FOILS and do a firestar/scourge thing, while pointing this comparison out!! Instead you just went "Ravenpaw emo now and is sad about beating up Firestar his friend" and basically kept everything the same.

Sorry im basically venting here but i just dont like how people forget that scourge in canon does NOT look out for the 'little guy', he's a murderer and abuser who wants to keep his subjects afraid and separated so that he alone has power over them. Bloodclan is not the cool strong goth group, its the group where two cats slaughter eachother over a piece of twoleg scraps, only for the survivor to die bc the food was poisonous to cats and no one knew bc theres no cohesive group that can pass that knowledge around. its a fucking horrible place to live. Im not saying that you cant do interesting "character in bloodclan" aus (a Rusty who lives in bloodclan who STILL wants to do good but is shaped by the horrid reality of bloodclan would be fun imo) but its so often used with already traumatized characters as a 'solution' or 'fix-it with some emotional issues involved' that i just foam at the mouth and howl like a rabid animal on principle at this point.

Hmm... I think for me, it doesn't tend to read that way for me when the fandom makes AUs for it. I'm coming at BloodClan from a point of really deep critique and frustration.

BloodClan's not a REAL place, and what that means is, every speck of how horrible it was is a choice the writers made to justify its treatment. It was something they actively decided, because, BloodClan was a tool to suddenly invalidate the previous 5 books of TPB so that the series could comfortably conclude there was no need to upset the status quo.

If you haven't read it before, I recommend this post I made on how Darkest Hour Is A Personal Disappointment, but anyway;

We spend a whole series on how Fireheart challenges a broken society, because he is different. Their xenophobia, how isolationism and glory get people killed, the way that Tigerstar's greatest asset is how respected he is... these are bad things. They're things that Fireheart fights for several books.

But then, in the LAST book, in the 11th inning, they introduce BloodClan. They're just evil. They have no nuance. The narrative bends over backwards to stress that this group of evil foreigners LOVES murder, hates friendship, and doesn't believe in our good god.

Suddenly, the Clan cats have to be EXTRA xenophobic and glorious to kill these filthy, murderous foreign hordes. Clan cat belief in their good god makes them stronger than the bloodthirsty barbarians. Firestar kills Scourge and we can feel happy and triumphant about it, when Tigerstar was killed a few chapters ago and given a tragic sendoff.

So, I encourage you to step back from an emotional response to how Filthy and Murderous this group was portrayed, and look at it as a writing choice.

When Tigerstar, known cat-racist and murderer of mixed-race people, is killed by Scourge in self-defense, he is grieved by Firestar and commended for his "good qualities". (and then they retconned in that it was actually secretly revenge all along, not just self defense, so this killing is extra evil)

When Scourge is killed, Firestar just thinks about how it's cool he's not going to heaven, and how all of the previously ferocious BloodClan warriors look so inferior to the forest Clans.

And so, with all that said,

I'm 100% in favor of how the fandom widely looks at this, says, "fuck that" and just makes them the Cool Goth Group. I'd argue pretty strongly that the least nuanced idea of that is still infinitely better than canon.

There was nothing there. It was literally just Xenophobia-Is-JustifiedClan. They literally hated love and friendship and banned families so that Clan cats would look good in comparison. Banned families. You don't get this level of stupid evil from anything else but an 80s cartoon.

Maybe I just don't see the AUs you tend to see (I curate my Tumblr experience very well and generally hang out in more adult-oriented spaces, I can imagine a place like Amino being mostly kids who tend to be immature. Edgelord Angstpiddle is just a normal part of growing up), but every project I see that gives me a glimpse of BloodClan Ravenpaws and Sashas come with such tweaks already assumed.

Like, these are examples I've seen,

They'll have Raven be involved with the formation of BloodClan

Scourge will actually be a character with some pity and mercy, like how he was in Rise of Scourge when his abusive siblings begged him for food, and he fed them before sending them away.

no ban on love and friendship. Lol. Lmao, even.

More of the social structure will be based around acquiring food for people in a 'harsh' environment, leading to that battle, instead of just Evil Foreign Greed (which canon!scourge only had after being almost killed by tigerstar, because he said "actually, in light of new information that you are a murderer, i need to reconsider our deal.")

BloodClan will be overhauled completely. I've seen this a few ways. Connecting them to SkyClan, or the Oakstar raids on Chelford, or even as a positive entity; a surprise ally. (VERY common with BloodClan Ravenpaw AUs I've seen).

Anyways... (Shrug), I dunno dude, it doesn't bother me that much.

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"The Merman and his Muse"

Ancient Greek au with Merman!Katsuki and Izuku as Euterpe, child of Zeus and one of the nine Muses. He specifically presides over music and lyric poetry.

I like to think that merfolk, who have lived their whole lives underwater where sound doesn't travel well, wouldn't know what music is.

But one day, Katsuki visits the surface and hears Izuku playing his flute near the shore.

What began as an exercise in curiosity turns into a love story. Cue in some kind of star-crossed lovers drama, because Izuku is a devoted child of Zeus, while Katsuki is a loyal subject of Poseidon and everyone knows those two gods just dont get along.

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"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? I'M RIGHT HERE."

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Jealous Izuku (part 1/?) 🫢

there’s more to this but basically they catch katsuki on a “date” with someone at the same time/place as their own date. The mystery guy is actually just katsuki’s manager and they’re waiting to meet with an important client but Deku doesn’t know that heheh 🤗

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Tips for writing those gala scenes, from someone who goes to them occasionally:

Generally you unbutton and re-button a suit coat when you sit down and stand up.

You’re supposed to hold wine or champagne glasses by the stem to avoid warming up the liquid inside. A character out of their depth might hold the glass around the sides instead.

When rich/important people forget your name and they’re drunk, they usually just tell you that they don’t remember or completely skip over any opportunity to use your name so they don’t look silly.

A good way to indicate you don’t want to shake someone’s hand at an event is to hold a drink in your right hand (and if you’re a woman, a purse in the other so you definitely can’t shift the glass to another hand and then shake)

Americans who still kiss cheeks as a welcome generally don’t press lips to cheeks, it’s more of a touch of cheek to cheek or even a hover (these days, mostly to avoid smudging a woman’s makeup)

The distinctions between dress codes (black tie, cocktail, etc) are very intricate but obvious to those who know how to look. If you wear a short skirt to a black tie event for example, people would clock that instantly even if the dress itself was very formal. Same thing goes for certain articles of men’s clothing.

Open bars / cash bars at events usually carry limited options. They’re meant to serve lots of people very quickly, so nobody is getting a cosmo or a Manhattan etc.

Members of the press generally aren’t allowed to freely circulate at nicer galas/events without a very good reason. When they do, they need to identify themselves before talking with someone.

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I was playing animal crossing w my boyfriend and he pointed out how that game also had a sort of father figure with twins under his care so uh

The one who waits (extremely chill version)

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This!

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Some people confusing ao3 with goodreads... the audacy and entitlement is... baffling. People blocking you and telling you 'get thee gone', but instead of doing that, you just keep going and write a whole ass manifesto that ppl are sooo bad and rude. I'd rec a mirror, girl.

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Hey gentle reminder that you can ignore those "Reblog! If you don't you're [extremely upsetting label here]" posts. You should ignore them, btw. You don't suddenly become a racist because you ignored someone trying to farm interaction, you don't become homophobic because you felt bad about exposing your followers and friends to that, you don't become a bigot because of other people trying to guilt trip you.

If you're not purposely causing harm to minority groups or hold bigoted beliefs, you don't suddenly become a bigot because you ignored someone being an ass. You're allowed to ignore guilt tripping messages and if someone gets irritated at you for ignoring them, tell them to get a grip. 🫂

Likewise, you're allowed to ignore:

Guilt tripping spam asks.

Scam asks.

"Reblog if your account is [group] safe!" posts

"If you don't reblog, I'm going to assume you're a [insert term here]" posts

"People are dying, you can spare some time to reblog" posts

Posts that show actual pictures of real life tragedy with the intent of hoping you spread it across the platform.

"How dare you donate to Ao3/Wikipedia when there's [insert other tragedies here] going on!" posts

Posts that imply that you shouldn't have a safe space and that it's cruel to have your account be a safe space.

Posts that say you shouldn't be happy while there's tragedies going on in the real world.

At the end of the day, 90% of those posts use the "other people have it worse" mindset and that ISN'T HEALTHY. You don't tell someone that's happy they aren't allowed to be happy because someone else is happier than them at the moment, so don't do it for pain and suffering.

Anyway, I suggest you block the people that make guilt tripping posts. Better for your mindset in the long run and people need to realize they can get their point across without triggering people's OCD/thought spirals.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS BOWUIGI NATION

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groovy time

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This is so me.

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Honestly I can tell you finding out art was made by AI really does immediately, legitimately sour it for me, like people will trot this out as a Gotcha for anti-AI people but it's just making it clear they don't consider art to be the conversation that it is lol. It's similar to the way Harry Potter immediately soured for me because engaging with it while knowing the kind of heart Rowling is writing from changes the way the work feels; there isn't any moralizing or whatever that I have to do, it's easy to drop it because it's rotted in my hands.

"Oh but you LIKED this song before, nothing changed!" The conversational partner did. A very large portion of what is interesting to me about art is thinking of why the creator chose that instrumentation, or what made them want to make the thing in the first place. Finding out I've been talking to a wall completely removes an entire third of the force that art is to me, and I can't argue that anything about art or its consumption is Objectively Correct but I can argue it's fucking boring lmao

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Another concept I had for Death in this world.

One of the things I realy like about the character, is how he isn’t a straight up villain, he’s Death and in tern has a respect for life. Hence why he taunts those who disrespect the value of their own, or others.

In Jim’s case he was given a choice, willingly giving a part of himself to death so he can continue to serve in protecting the lives of others. And I believe Death has a lot of respect for that.

Merlin, not so much, but we can all agree with that one.

So have Deaths more, sentimental side.

( I might have got emotional drawing this one… ok definitely emotional it’s the god dam bathroom scene!)