#I HAVE IDEAS BUT NOWHERE TO PUT THEM

[themthistles]

when will tumblr finally give us all polls i have such important (stupid) ones to make

[soupkiddo]

RARARRARSRSGARAGAEAGSAARARGHATRGA WHERE IS MY BEAD BOOK

[themeridian]

im actually sobbing how do i make ocs when i dont know how to art or write good😭

[skeletalheartattack]

...am I just losing my mind or did yer icon become evil? I don't remember that BeAst behind Boe

yuuuump always been behind me

[slutdge]

ill just be minding my business and then remember how fucked the experience i had with cps was and just how fucked cps is in general and actively harms the children its supposed to be there to help and get so mad i dig a hole into my skin with my nails so deep it starts drawing blood

[todayimfour]

Genuinely so in love with plus sized and hairy regressers rn because hi hello that is me and it's so valid. So ✨Beetlejuice✨

[relicsongmel]

Was doing some thinking today and realized that one of the reasons I'm really drawn to Kieran is because he's a rare example of a character that's shy (and usually good-hearted) but still has some rougher edges to him.

I feel like all too often shy characters are shoved into being portrayed as either "smol bean who would never hurt anyone and just wants friends uwu" or "brooding loner who snaps at people to cover up the fact they don't actually know how to socialize" with not a lot of wiggle room in between. While I can and do enjoy characters that (arguably) fall into those respective categories, they're a bit reductive in the sense that things are very rarely that black and white in reality. Even the kindest people have a limit to what they can tolerate. They have bad days or respond poorly to events around them that cause them stress. And the same can be said in reverse as well—point being, people are multifaceted and don't always behave as predictably as we'd like to think.

And I think Kieran reflects that dichotomy perfectly. When we first meet him, he's meek, timid, and relies heavily on his more brash and forceful older sister to help him navigate social situations where he would otherwise lose out on something valuable because he's too afraid to come forward and ask for what he wants (like how she has to ask the player to battle him on his behalf). He's often quick to cower whenever she starts to get heated, but he's also not afraid to point out when he thinks she's wrong and sometimes even gets sassy with her himself. He's undeniably sweet and gentle and shows eagerness to make friends with the player, but he becomes much more curt when he notices we're lying to him about Ogerpon. The rest of the Teal Mask storyline shows him fluctuating even further—yelling at Carmine and the player for keeping secrets from him, punching things in fits of anger...then backpedaling and apologizing for the trouble he caused a few scenes later. Spreading the truth about Ogerpon to everyone in the village to help make her happy...then selfishly demanding a battle to see who's worthy of being her Trainer when she has already clearly chosen the player.

After being lied to and suffering repeated losses at our hands (including the Pokemon he's idolized all his life choosing us over him), he leans even more heavily into his bitter side during the Indigo Disk—being cold and ruthless to pretty much everyone around him, but at the end of the day it's primarily overcompensation for what he perceives as his own personal weakness (because he's still just a kid trying to be taken seriously). He's shown to drop the act on multiple occasions—most notably when he's caught off guard by our appearance at Blueberry Academy and at a few points during the Area Zero expedition. He antagonizes the player up until the moment of his defeat and tries to catch and use Terapagos in a last-ditch moment of desperation that ends up going horribly wrong, but after everything resolves he's quick to admit his mistakes and asks the player for forgiveness and if they can still be friends. After the epilogue he's mostly back to his old self, but still seems to get worked up when provoked (e.g. when he yells at Drayton for refusing to stop calling him "ex-Champ" in one of their League Club Room interactions).

And I think this varied and sometimes contradictory behavior is precisely why Kieran is such a cohesive and believable character—because it shows how even kind, well-meaning people may have a hidden darker side that can show itself under the right circumstances. How they might let their insecurities get the better of them. How a shy, timid kid might not have the experience to know how to deal with sudden feelings of frustration and/or jealousy that are far too strong to keep to himself, so he lashes out as a result. How despite all this he remains kind, sensitive and loving at his core and shows willingness to learn from his mistakes. And that is what makes him so compelling to me.

[dooxliss]

note for the unaware: 100 gold coins = $1 and i have 625 so whatever i get will detract $6.25 from the total price

[r0semultiverse]

Absolutely wild to me that some human guy was just messing around with experimental medicine and invented what is essentially a vampiric blood disease & that’s how we have Muzan! 👀

[sativaasiren]

What if I just started journaling but instead of journaling, it’s fanfiction again

I feel like that counts

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

can someone tell me what Tolkien had against the letter j

[concordewillfly]

also last night as i was sobbing on and off about my relationship with my mother and the general idea of me being doomed i thought that i could print out flyers asking people to form a skramz band. and they would go like hi i dont know how to sing but i can scream and i have a lot to say can we do this? like i genuinely thought it could work

[arolesbianism]

Ok yeah I’m a little obsessed with them

[mortellanarts]

Zero Sum Game

[butleroftoast]

One especially ill-fated romantic entanglement of Skullduggan's:

They're involved with a lady they actually seem rather keen on and, for once, everything is going well. Morris doesn't trust her, she seems suspicious to him, but neither Skullduggan nor anyone else cares what Morris thinks. Cherry is also uncertain, but Robin thinks they're being silly. This lady is a paladin, so ultimately she must be good, right?

Right. That turns out to be the problem. Skullduggan is, of course, chaotic neutral when on their very best behaviour. Not a natural fit for a lawful good paladin, but when they meet her she is oathbroken, which they assume explains how she is able to tolerate the Marquis.

One night the lady gets Skullduggan away from camp on some pretext -- and shoots them in the neck with a crossbow bolt, pinning them to a tree. As they cough up blood and slowly, agonisingly choke to death, she does the natural antagonist thing of conveniently explaining her motivations, the short version of which is that Skullduggan's wanton, reckless, "this idea is objectively stupid but it sounds fun so I vote aye" attitude in court had devastating consequences for her, and was possibly related to why she felt forced to break her oath. Killing Skullduggan is an objectively Good Deed for her god, and as Skullduggan dies, the paladin's god speaks to her and lets her know that her oath can now be renewed (for the low, low price of 1,000 gold at your local deity's temple).

Luring them away from camp meant the cleric wasn't there to help Skullduggan immediately. Fortunately, one of Morris's rats smells the blood, recognises the rest of the scent as someone Morris knows, and goes to check with Morris whether it's okay to eat them now that they're dead. Morris wakes up the cleric and they follow the rats to Skullduggan's corpse, now grey and lifeless, smeared with old blood across the chin and neck, still hanging by the bolt from the tree.

It's borderline whether revivify will work, because they don't have the capability for True Resurrection, it's been more than a minute or two since the death occurred, and the cleric is still unsure of her newest abilities. She manages to bring Skullduggan back, but there's a snag: their first words upon returning to life are "what the fuck have you done?", as they realise that they are now permanently in their skeleton form.

They later discover that using their helmet now makes them look like their human self. As before, however, the change in appearance is a temporary illusion, breaking as soon as anyone touches them.

Reverting the change takes a while as the group has to track down both someone who can cast True Resurrection and the funds to pay for this service. Even House Skullduggan won't pay out to fix the problem: a Skullduggan who gets themselves killed deserves everything they get.

[kenobihater]

not me spending way too much money on trench art