Not many people talk about how deep emotional neglect hurts you.
Iâm afraid to want things. Iâm afraid to ask for help. Iâm afraid to tell someone something if they seem in a bad mood. I canât process when someone is nice to me. I canât handle rejection, but my brain literally short circuits if someone gives me a compliment to the point where sometimes the rejection is better.
There are lots of overlap with emotional abuse, but emotional neglect hurts just as much. And itâs even worse that it usually goes undetected, so a lot of people canât tell theyâre being neglected until itâs too late.
I was reading something about Whitestown, Indiana and my eyes nearly popped out of my head thinking it was one of THOSE comically racist towns. Nice to know, at least the name, wasnât that.
this might be because Iâm a family law lawyer and also an old crone who remembers when marriage equality wasnât a thing (as in, marriage equality only became nation-wide two months before I went to law school), but I have Strong Feelings about the right to marry and all the legal benefits that come with it
like Iâm all for living in sin until someone says they donât want to get married because itâs ~too permanent~ and in the same breath start talking about having kids or buying a house with their significant other. then I turn into a 90-year-old passive-aggressive church grandma who keeps pointedly asking when the wedding is. âyes, a divorce is very sad and stressful, but so is BEING HOMELESS BECAUSE YOUâRE NOT ENTITLED TO EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION OF MARITAL PROPERTY, CAROLINE!â
i'm begging you guys to start pirating shit from streaming platforms. there are so many websites where you can stream that shit for free, here's a quick HOW TO:
1) Search for: watch TITLE OF WORK free online
2) Scroll to the bottom of results. Click any of the "Complaint" links
3) You will be taken to a long list of links that were removed for copyright infringement. Use the 'find' function to search for the name of the show/movie you were originally searching for. You will get something like this (specifics removed because if you love an illegal streaming site you don't post its url on social media)
4) each of these links is to a website where you can stream shit for free. go to the individual websites and search for your show/movie. you might have to copy-paste a few before you find exactly what you're looking, but the whole process only takes a minute. the speed/quality is usually the same as on netflix/whatever, and they even have subtitles! (make sure to use an adblocker though, these sites are funded by annoying popups)
In conclusion, if you do this often enough you will start recognizing the most dependable websites, and you can just bookmark those instead. (note: this is completely separate from torrenting, which is also a beautiful thing but requires different software and a vpn)
you can also download the media in question (look for a "download" button built into the video window, or use a browser extension such as Video DownloadHelper.)
Disguising themselves. They may present in a way that makes you think of something or someone else! They may take the form of a different type of spirit, a deity, or even one of your family members! Weâll look at them and just assume they are what they look like. To avoid this: you can create a layer of your circle or ward that makes spirits present as they truly are.
Taking a different name. This is similar to faces, but with names! If you ask for a deityâs presence and someone shows up, they may just say, âYeah, sure, Iâll be whoever you want me to be, just give me that wine.â Or they may claim a popular name (âIâm Satan. Iâm Julius Caesar. Iâm David Bowie!â) to try and either intimidate or make you idolize them. To avoid this: assume that if it sounds too good or big to be true, it probably is. Always ask spirits for confirmation, and have THEM say who they are without you handing them the name. Especially with deities, they should have no problem just saying their names; lesser spirits may try to avoid it.
Inflating your ego (or deflating.) Youâre the chosen one. Youâre a member of royalty in my realm, or could be if you do what I say. You have amazing potential and just need guidance from me. Alternatively, youâre incredibly weak. All the other spirit workers can do X. This is pointless for you unless you do what I say. They are capitalizing on your insecurities to make you feel dependent on them. To avoid this: know that you will never NEED a spirit to accomplish things. Know your strengths and weaknesses and understand they can all be improved without losing your agency.
Trying to seem necessary. Iâm your spirit guide! Iâm your guardian angel. Iâm the only one who holds the key to X thing. In all likelihood, whatever service theyâre providing can be accomplished with someone else, if the relationship is not working or is toxic. However, a spirit will make themselves seem indispensable, if it means they can keep reaping the benefits. To avoid this: make the conditions of any agreement very clear, and reserve your right to break a contract if you need.
Gaslighting. Sometimes spirits will just straight up lie. They may act âout of characterâ or show their true nature, but blame it on your imagination. They may say they âonly lied to test you.â Theyâll guilt trip you for thinking they might ever dare do the thing. Theyâll find reasons to excuse their bad behavior instead of apologizing or, say, not behaving badly in the first place.To avoid this: know the ways people can verbally manipulate others (it is mostly the same with spirits and physical humans) and be vigilant. Call it out when you see it.
How do you draw blood? I always make mine look like they got ketchup on them
It depends on what kind of blood weâre talking about. Not like Iâm a specialist or anything but the color and consistency of blood depends on where itâs taken from (veins, arteries, organs), how it was applied (splatter, drip, soak), when it was applied (old blood goes black) and what kind of material it is applied to (human skin, scales, fur, fabric, etc). Now obviously Iâm not known for photo-realistic rendering but itâs good to know the differences anyway.I am still experimenting with drawing blood but here are some different things Iâve done so far:
This is just your average blood stuff on skin, fabric and fur. I sometimes combine random splatter brushes but I almost always end up using kyletwebsterâs watercolor brushes. (And some other ones mostly from his megapack.)I do separate layers because older, dried blood turns dark with time while fresh blood still has a shine to it. I try to keep it balanced between clean edges (drops, pouring) and smeared parts. I think my style allows me to use both but for a cel-shaded look Iâd do something like that last orc picture.^My favorite cartoony blood is definitely from Venture Bros. Itâs nicely stylized and easy to animate.
Another thing I like drawing is dynamic blood squirts! As you can see on the second image, I draw the little triangle-shaped drips along an action line, complete with its own inside-shadows and shines. Then I select it part-by-part (not all at once!) and motion blur each part in the direction of the sprinkle.
And finally, hereâs a thing I did last week. Blood bath!!Of course you donât have to use a fancy grid to transform it accurately, you can just draw a quick perspective plane for yourself.This drawing was a quickie so I didnât bother to add real details and shine to the blood but if you want to make it look chunkier you can thicken it by giving it a bit of a shadow.
So yeah, uh⌠I hope this helped somewhat. Iâm still figuring stuff out myself. :)For the full size images please see my blood tag!