#I was also trained to observe

[ghostjelliess]

Over-accountability of ma-self:

I've been struggling lately with this. I want to follow more accounts, so I can interact even though I'm anxious about it. But to follow an account, I have to make sure I relate—that I vet everyone by my morals OR by the necessary challenge to them (I don't like the echo-chamber approach).

I'm running into a few problems:

1. I don't know how to find people anymore.

Hashtags don't work like they used to, it's hard to find the right communities because Tumblr is pushing the follow tags, and mass-following seems weird. I have too many niches/interests, maybe?

2. I did this all once.

I used to run a popular-ish account (24k+), we archived it in 2019. I'm hesitant to say traumatized, lest my actual traumas get jealous and raise their ugly heads to compete, but back then it became... not fun.

3. I don't know if this is fun or not.

Is this what is fun on the Internet now? It just feels lonely. Is that the silence of the void between stars talking or just me...?

Anyway, I'm just going to follow a bunch of blogs and see what happens now. I'm supposed to be practicing participation instead of just lurking, but so far I've just been practicing the practicing part (as in, I open the apps to practice participation and connection and interaction, and then I get overwhelmed and anxious and bored and just lurk, and then leave having practiced exactly 0 things).

Here goes, I guess.....

[constehlla]

Pearl is so fun to me bc she’s such a juxtaposition of a little guy. In a world where smoking cars smoke, sleeping cars are sleepy, and quiet cars get upset at people being loud, Pearl is an observation car that does not know a single thing!! She was born today she is 1 days old. Her first day out of doors. She does not know jack or shit and has to learn things for herself! and it’s messy and new and she doesn’t know what she’s doing. Love her.

[burningcheese-merchant]

I said sometime ago that Matar Paneer has a bird friend. Behold

To summarize, since I already explained before and don't want to bore anyone: Paneer found him in a tree as a little peachick, tragically orphaned after his family was attacked, killed and eaten in their nest by a predator. Not wanting him to be alone, she brought him back home and fought for him to stay, to which her parents eventually agreed (Paneer does not take "no" for an answer ever). Besides Pepper Jack, he's her best friend in the whole world and they're practically inseparable.

Extra bird factoids:

Obviously, his physical appearance is extremely abnormal. Instead of the typical green, his train/display feathers are a bold and impressive mixture of reds, oranges and yellows; nothing but warm, vibrant colors that almost make him look as though he's catching fire. Furthermore, and perhaps even more strangely, he seems to be made up of triangles: triangular "eye" patterns in his feathers, triangular markings underlining his eyes, triangular crest feathers, even triangular pupils... No one is certain why he looks like this; it's mostly been waved away as a bizarre phenotypic mutation

He is also abnormally intelligent. He appears to understand human/cookie speech and even responds when directly addressed/conversed with (as much as he can, being a peacock). He understands photos, he recognizes himself in mirrors, he's even demonstrated some problem-solving/critical thinking skills a few times. Extremely impressive for an animal (esp for a peacock, which are pretty dumb irl)

He sits at the table with the rest of the family during meals. His first night with them after being taken in, Paneer set him down next to her plate so he could reach the food (he was super smol), which her parents didn't like. They argued about it until Paneer grabbed Paravani + her food and sat down to eat on the floor in protest (Paravani is family, family sits at the table, if he can't sit there then she can't, either), after which they caved (MP is STUBBORN you have to understand) and let him sit. He sat on the table proper while he was a chick and got his own chair when he grew large enough

Paneer considers him her friend and her equal and does not take kindly to him being referred to/treated as a pet

He mimics Paneer's actions often. Like, if she tilts her head to one side, he'll do the exact same thing. It's cute

Paravani is very curious and adventurous in nature, and normally quite friendly/approachable unless you give him a reason not to be. Even then, he's slow to anger and usually becomes skittish instead; to truly anger him, you have to hurt Paneer, whom he is very protective of

As a chick, he would hide in Paneer's hair when he was scared

He does get along well with the rest of the family - but while he got on with Pepper Jack and Golden Cheese right away (bird people + he could sense their kind natures immediately), he was terrified of Burning Spice for quite some time (it's mostly because of how he looks. He looks like a predator to him). It took a while of Spice deliberately appearing docile/nonthreatening and the others insisting that Spice is nice for Paravani to overcome his reservations. Nowadays he's as fond of Spice as he is everyone else

As I mentioned here, Matar Paneer takes after Kartikeya, Hindu god of war and victory and Shiva's second son. Kartikeya is known for having a peacock as a mount, named Paravani. Keeping in line with this, not only did I give Paneer a peacock as a companion, but one day, her Paravani will grow big enough for her to sit and ride around on, just like Kartikeya's. No one knows why this happens, either. It freaks a lot of people out. Once again his unique features are written off as "mutations + lol Beast-Yeast creature")

Matar Paneer always blames herself for his family's deaths. She thinks that, if she'd found them in time, she could've fended off the predator and saved them, and Paravani wouldn't have been orphaned. Giving him a home and good company was the absolute least she could've done for him...

[vanhelsingapologist]

Publishing has always been a fucking nightmare, but now it’s a layer of hell. It’s not enough that writers be good at what they do. Writers have to maintain an active social media presence and cultivate a following. Be available.

They have to be conventionally attractive enough to look good enough to see on a screen, aesthetically pleasing, kind, funny, up-to-date on trends, socially aware but not so controversial that they turn off a brand from California from slapping their discount code on a video promoting a book.

They have to do all of this with no media training, with little help from the companies that are supposed to be doing this for them.

Of course, a lot of this isn't possible for say, the 40-something mother of two who teaches English at a school and writes on the side. She’s boxed out of an already complex industry that already has enough walls.

On some level, I think authors have always marketed themselves a little, but we’ve reached such a crazy point where we’re demanding the author become the influencer. Accessibility in publishing has narrowed from an inch to a sliver. And that inch was hard enough to get in as is.

[mooredanxieties]

When Hannibal said to Will, "I'm sorry. I took that from you" about taking Abigail away from Will by faking her death, and when he started choking up with tears in his eyes, I think he meant it.

I think that he was crying for Will, because suffering the death of an adopted daughter is one of the only things that Hannibal can truly empathize with.

Hannibal is not an empathic person. He's able to recognize patterns and logically understand behavior, but the actual empathizing often escapes him. Misha's death was one of the only experiences that struck him so deeply that it brought him to tears just to witness someone else experience it too.

[futurealchemy]

with the amount of times hiccup has had dragons scream directly in his ears at a very close distance, it would be surprising if his hearing wasn’t at least a little impaired honestly.

[nivellesart]

Originally drawn for the prompt Germany in Round 2 (2021/2022) of the @stuckybingo and then I didn't finish it until today (I had too much fun with the graffiti and the rest felt more like work, so I've been putting it off.)

In my head, Sam, Steve and Bucky tried to get around Germany in Civil War by train (before giving up and getting a car.)

[voiider]

fake psychic Tim but its just. its just psych. Jason dies and batman goes off the deep end so Tim (instead of becoming robin) starts going ham on the 'tips to the police' bc if the police can deal with the smaller crimes then Tim doesn't have to worry about batman killing a petty thief.

Except he's running himself into the ground and he starts getting sloppy bc he's giving the local police info, and bludhaven info (bc dick) AND probably giving Nightwing info when he can and someone catches him or he leaves a paper trail and then Officer Dick Grayson apprehends him and takes him in for questioning and Tim is like "you can't talk to me without my parents or a lawyer present, I'm a minor. And my parents are in Guatemala, so you better call my lawyer."

and Dick is like "kid you're not in trouble i just need to know who's giving you this information." Because there is NO WAY this kid isn't working with someone. Someone who is using a child to drop off information, which while noble to help the police, is putting this child in danger and tim is like, pretty offended actually. That it's being implied that he COULDN'T do this himself.

So he's like "im not working for anyone."

and Dick is like "you have to be getting the info from somewhere. I just wanna help."

and Tim is like AUGH ADULTS "I just- i figured it out on my own" and its CLEAR that Dick doesn't believe him which is, first off, super insulting, never meet your heroes, and second he shouldn't be talking anyway or admit that he goes out at night or Dick will do something stupid like try to make him stop. So he's like (rolling eyes) "I'm psychic. Are you happy? Can I have my phone call now?"

[noisytenant]

i feel like some artists who like working with text + drawing don't realize that writing letters is also drawing.

words are made up of marks and shapes; text is as much a part of the image as the drawing, even if we classify it differently. you Can write your text in the same style you might use to write a grocery list, but i think it's a missed opportunity...

Just like you can practice to improve your drawing skill and cultivate an art style through referencing various things, you can practice to improve your handwriting-for-art and eventually develop a coherent writing style. the best part is that artistically treated type doesn't need to be "beautiful" or legible, just expressive and tuned to your general artistic goals.

in this way, text is a powerful tool for expressing your creative vision!

[shu-bullshit]

I love fics... And I always think writing is so much cooler than drawing... It does so much more. I wish I could write something, but I think what happens is whenever I think of anything, my visual language just hijacks the whole pathway that it doesn't go another way at all...

[nthflower]

God I cooked a little bit with my world building

[humanmorph]

I hopeee this sortie doesn't fail because season ending yadda yadda but really.I would just love to see Rose River onscreen for Real and it's not just Veronique and Fealty who I love dearly but also the Sleep Detachment people. Talking about them one time Austin said

"Think about the sort of most melancholy moments of Morning’s Observation during Twilight Mirage. It’s a whole crew of those folks trying to put together what—trying to get back to a Tuesday."

I'm constantly thinking about that & it's killing meeee I want to see them. Also what's the dynamic there with Veronique and Fealty / their cult or whatever. How did Rose River start as a faction. Did the NEH squad land near New Oath? What are they currently researching!!! Also Partial Palisade is there how is he doing anyways

[teabookgremlin]

iris and i had an adventure (went to a children’s theme park with a bunch of other service dogs in training) today here are some pictures

[sunlightfeeling]

…it kinda looks like tsuyoshi kicked takuya’s hands off of him based on how takuya shakes his hands afterward…

call him tsudonkshi

(tsuyoshi + donkey)

[adore-gregor]

:)

[goldenkid]

also tinder sucks ass