candycryptids

[candycryptids]

Lovely Uri

[candycryptids]

We love tag rambling ! It's a fun little thing for OP to see and it's good for organizing if you're into that kinda thing *and*..... your followers get to read it uwu it's like a fun little note passed around the blog-room hehe

Quad I need u 2 know every time I see your tags I go AAAAAA ☀️✨💖💥🎉

😭 you're too kind thank you I just like hyping ppl up and it's so much easier on Tumblr than Bluesky imo

(and you know thank YOU for showing me that I CAN ramble/scream in the tags and that is very acceptable smdjqndj. I still remember that rando conversation everyone had at Seafloor about tags and as a Tumblr sprout it was super helpful lol ❤️)

[candycryptids]

i was overcome with the need to recreate one of my many favorite reaction pics. with less than an hour before maint, no less

: )

[candycryptids]

The fundamental difference between Zenos and The Warrior of Light as Written--something that exists regardless of any particular WoL's disposition or motivations, all things subject to personal headcanon--is that the TWoLaW engages deeply with the world around them, and Zenos does not. The fundamental quality of Azem the Traveler, and the quality that is suggested to have been inherited by TWoLaW (and by Ardbert), is that they are deeply engaged with the world, and with its people.

Is it true that TWoLaW is disposed toward violence, sure, absolutely, for reasons of video game mechanics if nothing else. But I fundamentally disagree that violence is the core of TWoLaW regardless of how we roleplay them. At the core of TWoLaW is their engagement with the world. Yes, as a result of that, TWoLaW is willing to go kill people and things because they were asked to. You know what else they're willing to do because someone asked them to? Talk to people. Fetch things for them. Gather resources. Make things. Deliver gifts. Facilitate trade. Learn skills. Build community. Cross the seas to help a new friend. Explore. Uncover ancient mysteries. GO TO SPACE! And if you see Zenos as a foil for the player rather than the character, all this still very much applies.

You can roleplay the most curmudgeonly, antisocial, misanthropic WoL possible, you can even reject all side content and stick solely to MSQ, and you will still find yourself inhabiting a character who, as written, is fundamentally engaged with the world. They don't have to be happy. They don't have to be nice. They don't have to do any of what they're doing out of altruism. They're still making the choice to connect with other people, to invest themselves in the struggles and passions of others, to have a personal stake in shaping the world around them, because that is what the character is written to do.

Zenos's tragic flaw is his inability--and yes, perhaps, on some level, unwillingness--to connect with the world and the people around him. He finds no meaningful engagement with the world except to enact violence upon it. He has no personal investment in the Garlean Empire except as it allows him to enact violence, and by this disengagement he basically singlehandedly allows the entire empire to collapse because he doesn't care about it, only about fulfilling his own desires. The funny thing about Zenos as a foil for the protagonist is that he would make a terrible RPG protagonist. The archetypal RPG protagonist is so defined by their willingness to say yes to menial tasks that are only meaningful to some minor NPC that most modern RPGs end up lampshading that fact in some way, and it's endlessly memed upon. I struggle to imagine Zenos making it through the Company of Heroes fetch quests in ARR without getting bored and stabbing someone.

So all-encompassing is this worldview for him that even upon calling the WoL his only friend, he can find no meaningful engagement with them beyond "let us enact violence upon one another." Even the one person in the world he finds interesting enough to engage with, he is seemingly incapable of understanding on any other level. (And if you play a WoL with a desire to connect with Zenos on any other level, I think there's potential for a really interesting tragedy there! Because he either won't or can't.)

And we don't ever really get to challenge him on how narrow and stifling and miserable his engagement with the world truly is. Maybe there's a flicker of it at the very end, an acknowledgement that his life was fundamentally unfulfilling. Perhaps Zenos even sees, on some level, what the WoL has that he does not; maybe unconsciously in pursuing them, he seeks to figure out what that thing is. But then he dies, in his chosen manner, after getting the same one thing he's been pursuing as long as we've known him. That's what's sad about Zenos on a narrative level. Not that he dies, but that he dies unchanged and unchallenged.

And this is why I just can never quite get behind the idea that the core of the WoL is the same as the core of Zenos--no matter how many people the Warrior of Light has killed. I just don't believe that. When I look at TWoLaW, I see a character deeply engaged with the world. When I look at Zenos I see a character who never truly connects with anyone or anything outside himself.

[candycryptids]

FFXIV Sexyman Bracket | Round 3B Matchup 4/4

NOTE: It’s not your typical sexy man/sexy woman tournament. I guess it’s more of “who do you think is the sexiest/who is the top sexy man/sexy woman/ which character do you like more and want to win”. It’s just meant to be a bunch of characters compiled for fun.

[candycryptids]

demisexuality can be so hard to explain because it’s misconstrued as you just wanting to trust the other person before you have sex with them. and I get why the misconception happens. But demisexuality differs in that there isn’t sexual attraction at all before that bond forms.

I think what people have difficulty with is the idea that there are people out there who aren’t experiencing sexual attraction at all until a certain point, if ever, because we’re taught that sex, libido, and sexual attraction are all the same, both in and out of queer spaces.

And when you’re learning about asexuality and demisexuality, you may learn that people have romantic and aesthetic attraction separately from sexual attraction, and that sexual and romantic attraction aren’t necessarily intertwined, and that may challenge your worldview on sex.

But “I trust you enough to have sex with you” isn’t the same as “I’m not sexually attracted to anyone but you, and the reason I’m sexually attracted to you now after we’ve established this close bond is literally because of the bond of trust we’ve been able to form”.

It’s easy to see how those can get conflated. On the surface, if you’re unfamiliar with asexuality, they may sound the same. But it’s important to acknowledge the difference between “no sex until I trust you” and “no sexual attraction unless I trust you and maybe not even then”.

Demisexuality is housed under the asexuality spectrum. It’s part of the gray area between being allosexual and asexual. It’s part of why the definition for asexuality includes “little to no sexual attraction”. It’s a mostly asexual experience with an asterisk.

While being demisexual may have impacts on a persons sexual activity, even demisexuals have a varied relationship to the act of participating in sex. Libido and sexual attraction are not always intertwined either, which can make telling the difference tricky.

I think of sexual attraction as libido that has a compass. Since I rarely ever experience sexual attraction, but do have libido, it’s noticeable for me when that libido actually has a direction to go, rather than being a floating, nebulous, independent thing.

Remember, not everyone is demisexual. There’s a difference between waiting to have sex and not having sexual attraction at all until a certain point. This also inherently ties demisexuality to romantic attraction and relationships, and not all demisexuals are alloromantic.

But if you read what demisexuality is and think “everyone is like that” or “that’s just being a woman”, you either 1) are demisexual 2) don’t understand what it is or 3) both. And it’s okay to not know. Just as long as you’re willing to try to learn.

[candycryptids]

We have enough to share

[candycryptids]

i hate this place i want to go to build a bear

[candycryptids]

i did the thing

[candycryptids]

carbyyysssssss

[candycryptids]

Silverstone’s Poison Frog (Ameerega silverstonei), family Dendrobatidae, endemic to Peru

ENDANGERED.

Photos: Tails and Scales, Amazonarium, Understory Enterprises Inc.

[candycryptids]

I feel that if I don’t repost this somewhere every year at some point, I’m living my life incorrectly.

[candycryptids]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I am throwing KNIVES at you! (They are your GIFTS. you may KEEP them!)

I AM WIGGLING AROUND TO DODGE THE KNIVES.... (like this hohoho)

But I'm gonna go find them I would love some new KNIVES >:3 THANK YOUUUUUUU tossing a bunch of flower petals into the air and also some Hershey kisses. Stick them in the fridge they're melty.

[candycryptids]

Oh happy birthday! I hope you have a nice day!!

It's been a delight so far !!!! :D I'm very full of good food and we did a fun activity 😤 and nobody exploded xD

[candycryptids]

[candycryptids]

happy birthday!! :D

:D!!!!

Thank youuuuuuu 🥰 it's a good day so far c: