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Crystals? Crystals Indeed.... It's Don't Blink for @thedragenda! Seems like this spooky boy is the favourite to win this year...!

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I really hate how much I have to prioritise able bodied egos just to stay safe as a powerchair user.

Like, I get a lot of uncomfortable pitying interactions because I use a wheelchair and the number of strangers who think it’s okay to touch me or who come out with really odd things is way higher than people think.

Today a random stranger insisted on giving me (and only me) a fist bump. Presumably he thought the poor disabled person needed cheering up, maybe he just wanted to look like a good person. Did I want to touch a random stranger? No. But I did because it felt like the safest and quickest way out of an uncomfortable situation.

Yes, theoretically I could have blanked him, or told him not to touch me. And maybe some people would, but to me it just feels really unsafe. I know that most of the time it would be fine, but I also know from experience how quickly a situation can change if I appear ungrateful (seemingly the ultimate sin for a disabled person)

And if someone starts yelling at me and/or following me (it’s happened) I cannot get away quickly. My chair just isn’t built for either speed or agility. Most advice I’ve seen tells you to enter a shop if this happens in public but I can’t physically enter like 90% of the shops near me.

And on the off chance it gets physical and I need to defend myself, I’m fucked unless someone else intervenes. Yeah, the chance of this happening is really low, but it’s not zero (especially if alcohol is involved) and the consequences of getting hurt could be really severe. I once had someone try and punch me because he kept walking into my chair in a space so crowded I physically couldn’t get out the way. The only reason I didn’t get badly hurt was because other people saw him going for me and physically dragged him away. That’s not always going to happen, and sadly people won’t always be on my side.

I also live in a small town while being incredibly memorable and terrible with faces. Chances are if I bumped into that person again they’d remember me instantly as the ungrateful angry cripple, and I wouldn’t have a clue who they were until too late. If people are watching I could also very quickly get a reputation for being ungrateful, rude or angry, which is a reputation that that could make my life tangibly harder and even attract more violence.

And sure, it’s just a fist bump, or a blessing, or someone admiring my chair with their hands. They probably mean well. But it adds up and makes it so obvious that when people look at me they see my wheelchair and don’t bother to look any further. They see that I’m in a chair and that’s all they feel they need to know to make a judgment about what my life looks like, and who I am. They treat me in a way that makes them feel like a good person, without ever questioning their assumptions about what I might want in a situation.

And if I challenge them, and ruin their good person feelings, then I must be uniquely awful. Don’t I know they were just trying to help? Don’t I know their taxes pay my benefits? Don’t I know that their feelings matter so much more than my dignity and personal space?

For me it’s not worth the risk over something relatively small with a stranger. But all those small things add up into something huge. Something like this happens at least once a week, more depending on how often I leave the house so it’s always in the back of my mind when I’m around people I don’t know.

And I’m just tired of it.

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watching howl's moving castle and im struck by lettie's appearance and being a hot girl that takes care of others and that reminds me of colette so much. is there a chance there was some inspiration? if not thats fine, i just love me a sweetie thatll stick up for you. maybe im just deperate to see dc characters other palces

So, Lettie herself wasn't particularly an inspiration for Colette but she 100% fits the archetype I was going for! (WE FUCKING STAN LETTIE IN THIS HOUSE 🙌😤)

The three main influences for Colette's character are: Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, and Charlotte La Bouff (The Princess and the Frog)

I love the "blonde bimbo with a heart of gold" archetype so much and I wanted the bartender to have a sisterly type character to lean on, so I combined the two and thus Colette was born.

I think Charlotte is probably the most obvious influence (seeing as she is both a southern belle and desperate for a man) and she is definitely the "happier" source of Colette's inspiration.

In the case of both Jayne and Marilyn, they bring in the sadder facets of Colette's character. They were both incredibly talented, intelligent and kind women who got painted into a box because of their appearance. Pretty was all they were allowed to be. It was their only "value" in society and they were both written off as a pair of dumb blondes when they were so so so much more than that.

I could probably ramble forever and ever about them and their influence on Colette's character but I don't think anybody wants to hear me go on and on about a side character so... 😅

We'll just say that yeah... beautiful blondes who are more than just their perceived beauty are one of my favorite things and if you see that similarity in characters in other media, it is 100% intentional because I eat that shit up like pudding.

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Nothing hit me like a squelching sound when I touched the foam

WAIT PLEASE CHECK HERE FOR OUR 4K CELEBRATION

Part1 Part2 Part3 Part4

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Yeah so the new Mega Dragonite design is a complete travesty so I redid it. Took about 40 minutes. Ffs Gamefreak up your game. jfc.

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today i learned that the finnish word for ‘hazardous waste’ is ongelmajäte, which can also translate as ‘problematic garbage’ and my roommate and i immediately agreed this is a word that belongs on tumblr.

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so i've seen people draw wukong in this swimsuit and... you know i had to do it to em

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let's go to the library with mama

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damn not like this

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some elf planet "fish"

took some time to finish these while working on another, larger, more tedious project. ramblings under the cut lol

Amabie from Japanese folklore, said to give prophecy of either bountiful harvests or an epidemic when it appears. most depictions are of a small, upright creature with the beak of a bird, long hair, three tail-legs, and a diamond shape around the eyes.

they live in the warm, shallow waters surrounding small equatorial islands. elves will use their tough scales for making jewelry, if they are to find any washed ashore. it's thought to be bad luck to take one from its home, but great luck to find one in the sand, and the scales are said to ward off misfortune. they're shy and hard to locate.

Lusca from Bahamian folklore, said to reside in the blue holes off Andros, attacking those who venture too close. most depictions are of a half-shark half-octopus creature, though some have a dragon half rather than shark, and some are just big cuttlefish.

they live in equatorial waters and, where possible, take shelter in underwater cave systems. they are far more common than tales from elderly elves in coastal villages would suggest. they aren't malicious, though they are opportunistic, and will eat any other creature they can feasibly fit in their mouths. elves in small boats are warned to be especially cautious, as they tend to explore with their mouths, even if harboring no ill intent.

Aspidochelone your classic "animal with island on its back" myth. depictions range from whales to turtles to crabs. sailors will mistake it for an island, anchor their ships to it, and get dragged into the water once the creature feels the fire they light.

they're found all over the world except for in polar waters, cultivating many hundreds of types of macroalgae on their backs. some elves who know how to approach them properly can climb atop these massive beasts to use as something of a kelp garden, knowing there are very few creatures who would prey upon them. some rare macroalgae varieties grow exclusively on their bodies, adapted to a life cycle of constant movement and migration.

Utelif allegedly found along the African coast, from Guinea to Ethiopia. the saw is supposed to grow from its forehead as opposed to its nose (a detail i neglected </3)

they range from the southern seas to the equatorial ocean of the planet. they are prized for their flavor and size but remain abundant due to the danger inherent in hunting a swift, agile creature with a serrated beak. they are not aggressive, and in fact are known to be friendly with elves, but approach is warned against as the slightest idea of danger will make them bolt, turning even a peaceful float along the waters into a possible bloodbath.

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TIL the reason you don’t find much Lyme’s Disease in California is not because we don’t have Ticks, or Lyme Disease Vectors; but rather: because the Western Fence Lizard (if you live anywhere in California this is your regular Garden Variety Lizard) has adapted a passive immune response that makes their blood lethal to Lyme Disease Bacteria. Any Tick that feeds on one gets its gut cleansed of Lyme Disease as a side effect.

Fucking neat.

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Found the Japanese box art for Walking with Beasts, and the way it is posed goes hard.

There is also the implication that they travelled in time to kick Big Al's ass, and they succeeded. Peak cover art, 10/10

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Just realised that whenever I see the phrase "I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole" I automatically think of a ten metre pole. Like a comically long pole. A ten foot pole isn't all that long. That's slightly less than two of my body lengths. Not touching something with a ten foot pole still lets you get pretty close to it actually.

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Grok's New User

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it seems like cazador would send several of his spawn out at a time every night to "hunt." and even if there were times were they weren't all successful, you have to assume that's 2-4 people being brought home to get exsanguinated nightly. and the average person has around 5 liters of blood in them, give or take. that's so much blood for one guy. i don't think he was drinking them ALL in one sitting. you have to assume he was having some of the blood saved for later, to have in between his "fresh" meals. evidence: the bottles of coagulated blood in his office.

and all he did was laze around his palace, it seems like. in comparison, astarion, who is running around all day adventuring, he's hiking and sneaking and fighting and hunting, would need a much higher caloric intake.

ok that's my big wind-up to say: contrary to the nightly feeding trope, i think astarion also needs to be eating three meals a day. minimum. with snacks. like the living people in the party. make this fool eat breakfast

i know he does have a bunch of old nasty blood bottles in his tent but those assets are pretty static, like nothing about the tents change from start to finish because it's set dressing. but i wonder around when he actually starts trying to store for later. especially when a meal a day (tav and/or whatever he hunts) probably seems luxurious to the guy so used to being starved.

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Lock in now.