#I've been really wanting to challenge myself BUT I've also had so many animation and fanart ideas bouncing around in my head

[unicornal]

I've been juggling a lot of things at the moment but!!!! Just wanted to drop this here to show I am indeed still alive and making UWE fanart as promised! This is a little peek at a slightly bigger (?) animation I've been working on whenever I get the chance to amid everything else I'm doing! Animating his ear flicking back like a cat's ear was honestly my favorite part of this next to another little section not shown here

[vanessagillings]

I’m posting the ever-so-rare photo of myself alongside one of my characters based on my childhood because today is World Autism Acceptance Day, and I wanted to show my little corner of the internet who this particular autistic person is:  

I was officially diagnosed in February, at age 38 (I’m now 39). A lot of people thought I couldn’t be autistic.  Some people who know me in real life still don’t.  And until around 10 years ago, I didn’t think I could be either, because I was nothing like the stereotype media portrays. I was told that autistics lacked empathy (untrue), and never played make-believe (also often untrue) and only enjoyed STEM.  I was — and am — an empathetic artist -- and make believe?  I can spend days sketching finely bedecked bears brewing tea or carefully choosing the right words to weave tapestries of fiction — though perhaps my hyper focus was a bit of a red flag.  Even so, how could autism describe me?  I was a good student.  I got straight A's. I didn’t act out in class.  I can make eye contact…if I must.  And lots of girls hate having their hair brushed with an unholy passion, right?  Clearly I swim in sarcasm like a fish, so autism couldn't be why I was so anxious all the time, could it?

If someone had told me when I was younger what autism ACTUALLY is — instead of the nonsense I’d seen on screens — I would have seen myself in it.  I didn’t hear that autistics have sensory issues until I was in my mid-twenties, which is when I first began to really research autism symptoms, and I had almost all of them:  sensitivity to light, smells, fabrics, temperatures, textures, and certain touches, all of which make me feel anxious, I fidget (stim), I never know what the hell to do with my hands or where to look, I talk too little or too much, I have special interests, I have entire animated movies memorized shot-by-shot and can remember the first time and place I saw every movie I've ever seen but I often forget what I'm trying to say mid-sentence, I echo movies and tv shows (my husband and I have a whole repertoire of shared echolalias, making up about 20% of our conversations), I was in speech therapy as a kid, I have issues with dysnomia and verbal fluency, I toe-walk, I can't multitask to save my life, I like things just-so, I’m deeply introverted but not shy, I need to recover from all social interaction — even social interaction I enjoy — and I find stupid, every day things like grocery shopping, driving and making appointments overwhelming and intensely stressful, sometimes to the point where I struggle to speak.  It turns out, I am definitely autistic. My results weren't borderline. Not even close. And while these aren’t all of my challenges, and not everyone with these symptoms is autistic, it’s definitely something to look into if you present with all of these things at once. 

So why did it take me so long to get diagnosed? The same bias that exists in media threads through the medical community as well, and because I'm a woman who can discuss the weather while smiling on cue, few people thought I was worth looking into. Even after I was fairly certain I was autistic, receiving an official diagnosis in the US is unnecessarily difficult and expensive, and in my case, completely uncovered by my insurance.  It cost me over $4000, and I could only afford it because my husband makes more money than I do as a freelance illustrator — a job I fell into largely because it didn’t require in-person work; like many autists, I have been chronically underemployed and underpaid, in part due to physical illness in my twenties, which is a topic for another day.  But it shouldn’t be like this.  It shouldn’t be so hard for adults to receive diagnoses and it shouldn’t be so hard for people to see themselves in this condition to begin with due to misinformation and stereotypes. Like many issues in America, these barriers are even higher for marginalized groups with multiple intersectionalities. 

It’s commonly said that if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person.  This is why it’s called a spectrum, not because there’s a linear progression of severity (someone who appears to have low support needs like myself might need more than it seems, and vice versa), but because every autistic person has their own strengths and weaknesses, challenges and experiences, opinions and needs.  No two people on the spectrum present in the same way.  And that’s a good thing!  No way of being autistic is inherently any better than any other, and even if someone on the spectrum struggles with things I don’t — or can do things I can’t — doesn’t make them more or less deserving of respect and human dignity.

But speaking solely for myself, the more I learn about autism, the happier I am to be autistic.  I struggle to find words and exert fine motor control, but my deep passion and fixation has made me good at art and storytelling anyway.  I find more joy watching dogs and studying leaf shapes on my walks than most people do in an entire day.  More often than not, the barriers I’ve faced weren’t due to my autism directly, but due to society being overly rigid about what it considers a valid way of existing.  My hope in writing this today is that maybe one person will realize that autism isn’t what they thought — and that being different is not the same as being less than. My hope with my fiction is to give autistic children mirrors with which to see themselves, and everyone else windows through which to see us as we actually are.

If you’re interested in learning more about autism or think you might be autistic, too, I recommend the Autism Self Advocacy Network  autisticadvocacy.org and the following books:

What I Mean When I Say I’m Autistic by Annie Kotowicz

We're Not Broken by Eric Garcia

Knowing Why edited by Elizabeth Bartmess

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, PhD

Loud Hands edited by Julia Bascom

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

(trigger warning: the last two contain quite a lot of upsetting material involving institutionalized child abuse, but I think it’s important for people to know how often autistic children were — and are — abused simply for being neurodivergent).

Thanks for reading 💛

[thyfleshc0nsumed]

I really hope I can build my own strange kinky queer family someday, thanks for sharing parts of yours! It’s sexy but also heart warming?

This is legitimately so sweet. It honestly made me tear up a little

It's weird it kinda just... Happened. I met my sweetie 5 years ago now. We met on Grindr and she brought over some drinks and I was like "oh if you're at the grocery store, can you pick me up some milk." We dated for about six months and stopped seeing each other cuz life kinda got in the way. We saw each other a handful of times over the next two years and when I moved I asked if she could help, which she did. I hadn't even realized that I had moved less than 10 mins away from where she lives (she always came to me when we were dating)

I was still madly in love with her (tbh I'm realizing that she was really my first love) and she knew she couldn't give me what I wanted from her and she told me that. I needed a couple months to feel my feelings (and also get footing in my sobriety) before I was ready to be friends. Late fall of 2022 we started hanging out sometimrs again, and then probably spring ish of 2023 I met her Daddy. She started modeling some leather for me not long after I started doing it, but it wasn't until that spike strap photoshoot in ~ Oct 2023 that things got weird in some fun ways. That was like the first time I feel like I really domd her in a way that wasn't just for the camera. Since then, it's been a rollercoaster of constantly developing so many dynamics. She's my sweetie, she's my lover, she's my auntie, she's my sub, she's my best friend, she's so many things to me.

Her and her Daddy started dating like spring of 2022 and I was maaaaad jealous, I projected allllll my insecurities onto him, despite never having met him. The first time we hung out one on one was in late July of 2023 where we went and saw a screening of a porno. After that I think we saw each other at tranny takeover nights at one of the local cruising bars and just started hanging out in group and solo settings. He's truly one of my best friends in the world, and the brother I never got to have

I met his husband (the rabbit) not too long after and we've gotten really close too. One of the most insightful people I've had the pleasure to meet in my little time on this earth. Such a profoundly compassionate person who consistently challenges me to be kinder and gentler with myself. Theyre witty without ever being unkind, and goddamn can they carry a bit. Also they're really fucking good at pointing out when I'm letting ppl be transmisogynistic towards me cuz they're hot lmfao.

I met the femme, the rabbit's girlfriend at the rabbits birthday party last November. She's such a delightful presence and really admire how strongly she stands by her values. I remember a month or two ago, I was on some fuck shit, I don't even remember what, and she was like "hey girl you're on some fuck shit." I respect the hell out of her, and am so glad she's in our weird little crew

I didn't realize what we had was a family until recently. It was a lot of things tbh but I think it was this moment I had in January that really showed me. I was having the worst mental health moment I had had in probably a year. I was feeling so unstable. I was out and I was feeling impulsive. I was planning on either going and getting fucked by some guys at the cruising bar or getting in the lake with my clothes on. The daddy told me to come over cuz I clearly wasn't okay. I did. By the time I got to their spot it was probably 11p and I was nonverbal. The rabbit made me a bagel. The daddy got me a stuffed animal to squeeze. It was probably 45 minutes before I got even a single word out. And they were fine with that. They didn't pressure me to talk, but they didn't ignore me either. They let me be with them the way I needed to be. And when I was ready to talk, I was met with such compassion and emotional intelligence and love. I was taken care of in ways a family does.

Idk. This was long. And maybe over share y. I just. I fucking love these people so much and it kinda all spilled out.

[archduke42]

OK, I've had time to really reflect with this trailer

I still have some mixed feelings. Part of me hoped they would not bring Barriss back because maybe it was time to move on. After 11 years, I felt like I was just being suckered by red herrings. It's a little exhausting when opportunities happen and everyone speculates but it becomes a false alarm. Plus I used to be rather arrogant over the thought of Barriss being an Inquisitor. Used to irritate me a lot that fans even wanted that to happen. "How can anyone want this?" I used to ask myself. But I'm old fashioned, from a time when good guys were good, bad guys were bad, and Hero(ine) blows up the super weapon. All this character ambiguity people embraced for their Star Wars was a bit alien to me. It was enough that she was supposed to die in Order 66, but this was almost too much. The backlash against "The Wrong Jedi" was a tidal wave at the time, and lots of fans (myself included) cried hard at Filoni and Lucas' casual retcon.

But then, I'd been writing hero journey stories for Barriss since 2005 or 2006 and the whole villain plot twist was infuriating. And there was so much hate for Barriss on the internet at the time. I cursed Filoni's name with an old man's fiery blackened heart. My Muse had become the most hated character in Star Wars, and I had become a hot mess for several years after so much heavy emotional investment. I wanted to channel all my energy into Barriss stories (and eventually Barrissoka stories, since they were such a perfect couple) I also commissioned some shipping/wedding/marriage art to maybe push back against people's notions of a revenge fight between Ahsoka and Barriss. I have been blessed with discovering a huge Barriss Offee/Barrissoka fan community out here, and I think we have all built so positive energy in our love for these characters. Being a writer and reading the works of so many others has helped me grow with the community and learn so much. I am grateful to the art of people like @grissaecrim, and stories by people like @jedimasterbailey and @stellanslashgeode (and so many others) I can be excited that Barriss is officially coming back! The wait is over, and my anxiety returns. but I also have had a long period of time in 11 years to accept these new dynamics for Barriss. I am ready to accept whatever Destiny is in store for Barriss, though I suspect Filoni will be giving her a journey of sorts and not just leading these episodes towards a villain death for her. I suspect this journey may even go to live streaming with Ahsoka involved but time will tell. I still loath the concept of challenging expectations, but I realize that Star Wars characters have to grow out of two dimensional designs. Heroes don't need to be sparkling perfect and Villains can have a moral compass of sorts. I just wish Lucasfilm would stick to a consistent history with all this. I'm certain Filoni will have more retcons to drop on us. It's his style. But in fairness, the trailer was exciting, the animation looked really good. And I enjoyed seeing other minor characters involved, like 4th Sister, Grand Inquisitor, etc. I look forward to the exciting battles with Elsbeth and Grievous, etc. Most importantly with this trailer comes the enthusiasm to see Barriss return. Much of the hate is gone, and the Star Wars community in places like Youtube, Tumblr, etc is blowing up with excitement for this. The majority fans are ready for her adventure to continue with open minds. I think that gives me more joy than anything, that fans actually want to see her again, and want her to win at this in the best way possible even though she is starting from a dark place. I'm ready to see how this goes. This could be one of the best Star Wars experiences of 2024.

[jasper-pagan-witch]

2024 Grimoire Challenge Review - January Week 1

Well, I had to wait until Wednesday to get out of the house and get a binder and some paper for my challenge grimoire this year, so I basically speedran all of the December prep and the first week of January, because I will never learn and never improve on this habit of mine.

Keeping in line with other grimoires I've used in the past (such as the Epsilon Ledger and the Delta Book of Tarot Spreads), this red binder has been named the Eta Binder. I wrote down my proper name (let's go, trans mages!), tacked @2024-grimoire-challenge onto it to remind myself that that's what we're doing, and gave it a date of working. Since I started on Wednesday, that's 1/3/2024 (because I'm an American) to an unknown end date.

I had to scramble to come up with a list of 52 plants and stones to work on. I just went through the list of herbs and teas offered by my local ("local" being half an hour away) spice shop and capped it off with some Missouri flowers. For the stones, I just flipped through Judy Hall's Crystal Bible (somehow both a really good and really bad reference book) back and forth a bunch of times until I had a list of crystals I hadn't already done dives about.

As for my magical study ideas, I mostly just threw shit down that I've been interested in or have just gotten interested in. I gave each deity I worship their own bulletpoint and also split up the specific areas of pop culture magic I'm digging more into. I made sure there was a blend of comfortable old stuff, brand new stuff that I'm not sure of, and things that are generally outside of my purview.

Through the power of "work had too many 3-ring binder dividers", I have split my binder into seven sections - 1 is Plants, 2 is Stones, 3 is Work-Related Notes, 4 is Spells Designed (if I complete any, they'll be moved into my spell binder that also houses all of my correspondence lists), 5 if Journal, 6 is currently blank, and 7 is Empty Pages.

Then I finally got started on the actual projects. For the plant and crystal prompts this week, I used an integer generator online to choose two numbers randomly and received caraway (aka Carum carvi) and muscovite (aka KAl2(AlSi3O10)(F,OH)2), so I used my normal research process for the two. It was actually pretty fun, if you ignore the fact that my hand hurt so much because it ended up being 4 pages (well, 2 pages but front and back) EACH of information drawn from books and digital sources that I was all but copying word for word.

As for the Work-Related Notes, that's where I've saved things like my Definitions page, Spellwriting 101 (in my practice), and a page about my Common Tools.

I will admit that I skipped the year outline, mostly because the passing of the year means near nothing in my craft. I don't celebrate any particular "magical holidays", I don't work by the moon cycle, I'm definitely not Wiccan and thus don't celebrate the Wheel of the Year, seasons just mean whether or not I have to wear a coat, and I don't care about matching particular workings to days of the week. I'm starting to think I'm just a deeply boring person, upon reflection.

Then we get to the Work Spaces / Altars page, and oh boy! I don't actually do...workings at my altars, so they're probably better described as shrines. I have my Primary Work Space (my wooden desk, the metal microwave stand I've stolen from somewhere, and the tiny red bookshelf under the microwave stand) that is an absolute MESS at every given point that holds whatever the fuck I'm working on, regardless of what project it is. I have a Thoughtform & Spirit Shelf (which is actually a partial shelf) in my big red bookshelf that holds the anchors for my thoughtforms but also my PokeFamiliar. I have five altars around my room that are currently holding seven deities, a candle for an eighth deity, the Lokifam, three spirits, the Unknown Benefactor, the symbol of an animal spirit I want to reach out to at some point this year, and Jasper's Casper (an adorable little ghost that my coworker and her daughter crocheted for me to celebrate the first anniversary of me working at the library).

Shit's a bit cramped in here!

And today, I'm writing about my Personal Practices that have made it into my craft. I'm actually working on this now, but I paused to write up this summary. It's pretty neat to think about all the stuff I've done that I still do.

Results: My hand hurts and my head is throbbing, but c'est la vie. This is a really fun challenge, and I hope it goes all the way through 2024, unlike when I tried to do the 2023 challenge and the host of that one vanished into the aether.

[wamtorical]

Credits to @antiquatedplumbobs for the Antiquated Brindleton Bay save file! It's beautiful - all npc characters (Neighbours etc.) belong to her (Except one infant I added). On another note, my characters are based in England and having researched I realised non wooden paneling didn't and still rarely exists here so we'll consider that the only semi-unrealistic aspect since I really didn't want to remove it.

April 1890

Dearest Charlotte,

I trust this letter finds you in good health and spirits. Elmer and I are doing splendidly, and we hope the same for you. Is the house quieter without me? Do tell us any news.

With the generous sum we've loaned, we have been able to purchase not only the farm but also some farm animals. You must come see. They were all rather expensive but still worth every penny. Our cow we've named Bluebell, and our chickens - well, I simply can't keep track! Two of them are so alike, but our distinct and boisterous rooster has been named Willy by Elmer. It is such a relief to have a steady supply of milk and eggs. No longer do we need to worry about procuring them - do come over so I can lend you a batch.

The pace of life is delightfully slow, and I must say, I find it quite refreshing. I wake early to prepare breakfast and Elmer sets off to work. Meanwhile, I attend to our farm and animals, relishing in the peacefulness of the countryside. Later on I take a little time for myself, of course, before Elmer returns for dinner, after which we retire for the night. It's the married life I've forever longed for. Brindleton Bay is much different to Windenburg, though I'm sure you've formed an established impression on it from the glimpse of it you saw during the wedding. The streets are tranquil and overrun with more cats and dogs than people, mostly sad-looking strays putting on a face for scraps. The fresh, salty air from the sea is invigorating, I tell you - it is the nicest air I've ever had the luxury of breathing! We have settled into our new home with ease and pleasure.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Elmer is training as a nurse at our local hospital. It came as quite a surprise to me, after all I've only ever seen female nurses. He says that the training is not as rigorous as that of his female colleagues. Nevertheless, I trust that he knows what he is doing. The money is slowly but surely coming in and the loan should be paid off soon enough.

In the greener areas I spotted many quaint looking cabins fit for individuals seeking a quiet, solitary life - remind you of someone? Specifically, there's an abandoned one in the very heart of the forest that I believe you would adore. I wish for you to come and see it soon, it's in a great need of renovation and I know you like a good challenge. I miss you so, Char, it's odd being here without you. You're like my other half. Should you could move there, we could see eachother much more frequently.

You'll be pleased to hear our neighbours are quite friendly as well. I've yet to meet them, but I've heard nothing but good from Elmer. They reside across the street from us and possess a farm that is quite grand in size, fitting for a family of their stature. Their brood is extremely sizable, with several children ranging in ages from infancy to adulthood. You wouldn't believe! It's bizarre. As for myself, starting a family has not crossed my mind. If I were to have children, I fear I would spoil them endlessly. However, Charlotte, you and I know the dangers that it risks. I simply cannot bring myself to face those dangers and Elmer thankfully understands.

I await your letter with bated breath. Continue praying for me as I pray for you. And Charlotte, please venture out and befriend some of the locals, I'd hate for you to be lonely - or perhaps, as I mentioned earlier, you could move here! it would be a considerable amount of work but you wouldn't need to go through the hassle of taking out a loan. Kindly convey my love and regards to our dear friends back home.

Claudia,

📜 next / previous / first

[layingeggs]

Lost Kingdoms monsters that I like

Lately I've been playing a gamecube gem called Lost Kingdoms. It's kind of like if the Dark Souls crew got drunk and marathoned Cardcaptor Sakura and made a game about it.

Hang on, I can talk about this without mentioning Dark Souls.

It's kind of like if a bunch of Japanese young men obsessed with JR Tolkien growing up got drunk and marathoned Cardcaptor Sakura and made a game about it.

I want to talk about the monsters. Not necessarily the 'best' ones or even my personal favourite ones. Specifically the ones that made me unconsciously do my babytalk voice every time they appeared onscreen. Same as when you're out and about and see a cat you recognise.

This is banshee. Her card art shows her looking kind of like a nun in bondage? That's already very cool imagery, sex appeal aside. Sex appeal included just makes her better.

Look closely at her in game model, you can see she has a wispy tail like a ghost. But the affect of the tail becoming slightly transparent towards the end is not very visible.

When I tried showing my wife another of my favourite cards, a worm, she thought that that was this one. Without visible transparency, banshee does kind of look like a worm. Maybe she would have been a better monster as a worm! But ghost girl is good too.

And yeh, I took these pictures myself. There's probly better ones out there online, but I wanted to get the pictures of the actual cards I had collected, the friends I made on my journey with this game. They are my babies. They are my girls.

This is carbuncle. Maybe the first monster in this game who I really fell in love with. We're already off to a great start. Some kind of armadillo or pangolin with long floppy ears and forehead gemstone.

What you're not getting in pictures though is the noise. This creature makes a kind of sea animal singing noise? Like a gentle playful seagull. Very sweet.

I filled my deck with as many carbuncle as I could in the early game. Was useful back then. Sadly doesn't keep pace with the difficulty of later game levels, so I don't have as many decks with baby carbuncle in.

This is cockatrice. She's kind of, the first secret boss you can find in the game? Sort of? To me, I think she was the first notable challenge I really overcame. Also, some of the starting game monsters can be leveled up to evolve into her. So I feel like she's almost my starter monster if that makes sense?

Very cute. Very sweet. Though of course a pretty standard cockatrice. Turns you to stone. Very useful in early levels. Still useful in later levels.

Crystal rose. Pretty lady. Boobies.

She reminds me of the flower girl in Castlevania Symphony of the Night. One of the few characters in media to give me distant aching girl feelings from childhood all through to adulthood. I wish I was her.

Sweet baby rheebus. Kind of a useless card? My introduction to this card is that sea monk can be leveled up and evolve into rheebus. Lost Kingdoms plays some nasty tricks on you like this. Rheebus is very good, but also a weaker version of sea monk. Allowing sea monk to evolve into rheebus makes your deck worse.

A lot of evolutions are like this. Monsters can evolve into weaker monsters and totally waste all of the experience points you painfully collected. Honestly, I hate games that do this. But I choose to enjoy Lost Kingdoms for its other better qualities.

I've never ran rheebus in my deck. Weak and not very useful card. But I do love her all the same.

Any time I find a rheebus lying on the ground in levels, I pick her up and play her. I know she's weak, but it's a free rheebus. I want to give her the chance to come out and play outside.

She's like, what? A kitty cat with goat horns and covered in rich foilage? And she has a cyclops eye that looks very dorky in the ingame graphics.

I'm not sure how much of that is part of her body. Or if it's maybe obscuring her true body. Is that eyeball even hers, or is it the plant's eyeball?

Cute girl. Pretty girl. Beautiful lady. She's a bird. Birdy bird. Birdy girl lady.

Siren. I love her. She's great.

In the game, she stands perfectly still and damages anything that gets close to. No luring in and enchanting and eating alive like you'd expect from the namesake. She's more of an attack musician than a hungry hypnotic predator.

Maybe they could have played into that angle more. But I just enjoy that the artists created a cute or horny character design where the only human element is the head. Makes me feel like fromsoft and myself perhaps share some similar tastes.

This monster used to be my favourite until just last night. It's whip worm. The best monster in the game, bar none.

Lost Kingdoms is set up in such a way, that you have to be aware of a number of factors when building your deck and playing your cards.

-One issue is that each card has a limited number of attacks and missing even one attack is very costful for you.

-A second is that each card costs a resource called magic stones and starts eating your health if you run out of stones.

-A third is that you always have two objectives. Defeat the enemies, and explore the level to find more cards, which requires using up your precious attacks on destructible terrain.

Whip worm is the complete package. She melts enemy health even when she's fighting against type advantage. She costs so few stones you won't notice spending them. And, her attack involves her spinning around you and damaging everything that comes near. So you're not limited to just a few attacks, she just pours out constant damage everywhere you walk, destroying destructible terrain with little cost and meeting both main objectives at the same time.

The creature herself is a funny one. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at? She never comes out of that shell thingy so no idea if it's her body or a thing she found on the ground somewhere and made her house.

You can see in the card art she's got those big beefy arm muscles, but she doesn't punch or scratch or anything. In game, you can see she tucks herself in to that shell thingy. The only part that comes out is the tail.

Is she actually a worm? Who knows. I love her.

Oh, another little detail. Carbuncle is also a monster who spins around you and attacks everything close, and she can level up and evolve into whip worm! Since carbuncle is an early game monster, and she was my first favourite, I got this nightmarish game breaking brute quite early on!

This is tiger mage. And last night I learned something about her that shocked me utterly. I sincerely believe that this is the greatest monster I've ever seen in my life.

In the game, she's also another game breaker. You summon her, she waits to pounce enemies with somewhat decent damage, and she halves the stone cost of all cards.

As soon as she becomes available, you've gotta run tiger mage in your deck, surely? Some tough late game enemies will kill her easily but most enemies actually struggle with her, and she's amazing support for all other cards.

And the monster is cute, right? A little kitty cat tiger wearing a mage robe. That's so cute!

That's wrong. Look closer.

I somehow never noticed until playing the game last night when I happened to stand next to my kitty tiger mage and zoom the camera in while waiting for her to murder a goblin. Please take a look at these pictures.

The tiger isn't actually wearing that mage robe at all. There appears to be some sort of mage wearing that mage robe.

Except this also is wrong. The "mage" riding the tiger, hangs limply on the tiger's back most of the time, and only occasionally puppets up to cast a spell for attacks. She has no face. No hands. What exactly is this creature? Is this a creature?

Another disturbing element, and really the reason why I never saw the mage in the tiger mage before, is that the tiger herself is so animated. She growls. She leaps and pounces. She rears up for attack during the attack animation. I always assumed the fireball came from her mouth and the robe was just flailing around from the energy and movement.

At first glance, you have what looks like a wizard riding a tiger, but look closer and it's more like a tiger playing with a doll, right? As if the tiger is pretending that they are the animal companion or pet of a more powerful creature who's the actual monster?

To add to this, there's one more non-cat element. Those bat-like wings. I always figured they were the tiger's wings.

But if you look at my screenshots, you can clearly see the wings lift when the "mage" "stands up". Those are the "mage's" wings.

So this thing that appears limp and lifeless most of the time and has no hands and no face, does actually have at least some partial organic components?

What is tiger mage? Who is tiger mage? Which one is the tiger and which one is the mage? Is the tiger the mage?

I don't know if this is a reference to an established fairy tale creature or game monster or something that I'm not familiar with. Would love to know more if it was.

Finally is doppelganger. She might be my last favourite card. The last one who's capable of making me absent mindedly blurt out "It's doppelganger! :D" every time I see her.

All the other cards left for me to collect at this point are all big divine and deific. Have huge stone costs, often have effects that are very flashy but ultimately actually terrible in gameplay, and the monster design is just like an animal, a monster, looking kind of mean. Not girl. Not baby. And not my own personal aesthetic of mean either.

Doppelganger is very useful in gameplay, and she's a doppelganger, right? She can take any form she wants. But she takes your form! She's a cute girl! I love her. I also enjoy the weirdness of the player character finding a card that clearly has her on it. Carcaptor Sakura had one of these too, and she had a base form that the card art showed of what she looks like before she copies you.

I like doppelganger's card art. Thanks to the awkward use of colour, it looks distinctly like she is checking out her bum in the mirror to make sure she is getting the correct amount of undies rising up and skirt rising down.

But actually, that's not her bum. It's a magical artifact that this game calls the runestone. It's just an unfortunate choice of colour. Skin colour on a round surface and clothing colour on a strap like material. It's not her bum.

Though if it were her bum, then I would appreciate the irony(?) of a doppelganger copying your form and then checking herself out in a mirror. That's cute.

As you know, the legend of doppelgangers is that they are an omen of death. If you see someone who is your complete double, then it is a signal that soon you are going to die.

Lost Kingdoms represents this with doppelganger insta killing anything she touches. Including you. Let's have a see of what that looks like.

[moveslikeanape]

i actually don't play disney magic kingdoms myself, it's just not really my type of game, but i've seen some gameplay of it and read a lot of the little dialogue from it online and it's always seemed really charming and cute! so it really is too bad we might never get to see tarzan characters added to it. i do play disney dreamlight valley on the switch, which is sort of a life sim game like animal crossing but with disney/pixar characters all living together, and a lot more of a story to it with quests you get to do for everyone. it's a lot newer and doesn't have nearly as many characters in it, but a recent update added a jungle biome that would've been perfect for tarzan and jane. i know they'll probably never be added, but if they were then they could live together in the treehouse and we could see how tarzan would feel about living in the valley among so many other humans! there would be so many new things that jane could teach him about.

i recently started collecting lorcana cards after seeing one of rapunzel wearing a green dress, which i found really cool because that was what she had in so much of her concept art! i was also pretty excited to be able to get cards from the emperor's new groove, the great mouse detective, treasure planet, and hercules. i bet they could make some beautiful cards for tarzan... but yeah, that copyright issue is incredibly frustrating. some of my favorite movies may be a bit overlooked or underrepresented by disney, but at least they don't have the legal problem that tarzan has. i guess with once upon a studio they must've wanted to really go all out to make sure every single walt disney animation studios feature could be included! i'm grateful they did, because it would've been a huge shame to see tarzan not even allowed into the special 100th anniversary short. the new movie "wish" also has a tribute to past WDAS films during the credits, where gold-colored drawings of characters from each movie appeared across the screen in chronological order. strangely they actually left out a handful of movies including the black cauldron, but they did include tarzan!

also, i'm sure you already knew about this haha, but just the other day i came across an article from a few years ago where several of the people who worked on tarzan were interviewed and talked about the production. and i learned for the first time that it was originally planned as a direct-to-video movie which would stick closer to the source material with tarzan going to england. i'm obviously very glad that that didn't happen and we got the movie we have now instead. -🌟

Sorry, was out of town for the weekend visiting family.

That's fair about Magic Kingdoms not being your type of game. I think the only real reason I play it is because it's something I can play casually and more of less keep up with, with out it taking too much time.

What I've seen of Dreamlight Valley looks like so much fun! And that would be amazing to see Tarzan and Jane in that game. Probably will never happen, but we can dream!

Ooo, I haven't seen that Rapunzel one, will have to look it up. I've always loved the concept art. So insane to think there's actually even Treasure Planet art in them!!!

Sadly we may never get Tarzan in Lorcana, but I found this artist during the Disemeber challenge on instagram, and he's actually done art for Lorcana. Looks like it was just the one card, Chief Bogo (which he's posted if you go though his stuff). May not be official, but at least here's a Christmas themed idea of what could be if they included Tarzan

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adam Bunch (@adam_is_arting)

OMG, I never expected any reference to Tarzan in Wish!! I haven't seen it yet (live in a small town, starting to think we may not even get it in our theatre), but now I'm even more excited to see it!

Oh wow, I actually didn't know that! That's so interesting (definitely so grateful they didn't go that route though). Would have been interesting to see how close Disney would get to the source material… don't know if you've ever read the books, but there's a lot of not so family friendly stuff. Also would have been such a waste, given the quality of D2V animation, would have been such a shame to only get Tarzan & Jane quality animation.

[astarionancuninswife]

mother (a tav backstory)

I came across this post on twitter a few days ago of a writing challenge for the month of March, and I think not only will it help me be more comfortable writing, but also help me understand my tav(s) a bit more. I've decided to primarily focus on Luci since she's my first tav.

Today's prompt is "What are Tav's parents like?" There is a little bit of Luci x Astarion at the end because I couldn't help myself, but this is more so a bit about Luci and her backstory! I hope you enjoy!

Also, I've thought a lot about this and I imagine Lily Gladstone as the face claim for Luci's mom, Daphne. I'm just shit at descriptions lol

word count: 1663

warnings: I think maybe suggested child abandonment is really the only thing that's worth a warning? lmk otherwise!

ao3 || baldur's march || guidelines for requests || masterlist

Luci couldn’t remember much before her mother found her wandering the woods alone; not her name, or her biological parents, or why she was in the woods in the first place. All she knew was that in the last few years, she had survived side by side with the animals of the forest and built bonds with quite a few of them to the point of being able to become one. But then her mother came across her on her way back to Baldur’s Gate after a well-needed vacation away from the city. 

Daphne was horrified to see a frail tiefling child without any supervision to be seen. She had clearly been able to take care of herself, but she was still visibly unweight, and the elven woman knew it would be a miracle for a child to survive any longer in the wilds alone. 

“Hello,” she was careful approaching the girl, speaking in a hushed tone and keeping a neutral expression on her face. She wasn’t sure when the last interaction the child had with anyone beyond the animals of the forest, so she didn’t want to scare her, “My name is Daphne Hana, may I know your name?”

The girl with pale pink skin watched the woman cautiously for a few minutes before bursting into tears, trying to communicate back but not being able to speak through her sobs. She had seen others often on the trails and such, but it was rare anyone stopped and talked to her. They saw a lost child, a tiefling at that, and turned their heads as if they saw nothing. To be seen and spoken to in such a soft way was overwhelming for the young one. 

Daphne stopped a gasp from escaping her lips and potentially scaring the child more; instead, she kneeled down to her height and held her arms out to give the girl a choice. It doesn’t take but a second before tiny horns are clumsily nudged against the tan cheek of the older woman and little arms are clinging to her shoulders. The elf wrapped her arms around the girl protectively, gently petting her wild burgundy hair. 

“Would you like to come with me? I have plenty of room for a little one such as yourself,” she promised, leaning back a bit to see the child’s face. She watched as many emotions crossed the small girl’s face before being given a nod against her shoulder, “Do you have a name?” The girl sniffled again and shook her head, either not trusting her voice or not knowing how to use it properly. Daphne smiled softly, “Then we’ll have to find you one, won’t we? Now, come,” she stood up and held her hand to the girl, which is quickly grabbed by a tiny hand, “We’re still quite a way from Baldur’s Gate, but we’ll be there soon enough,” she assured the scared girl as they walked to the wagon Daphne had been driving beforehand. She allowed the child to pick if she wished to sit in the back, telling her she’d make a soft pallet if she wanted to sleep or simply lay down, or if she wanted to sit in the front with her. The tiefling took a second to decide, ultimately yawning and letting her savior pull blankets into a nest and securing the wagon canvas to mostly block the sun from her eyes. She also was handed a few rations, which she picked at between naps on their way.

It took the rest of the day for the pair to arrive at Baldur's Gate, the child admiring every structure and person they passed. Daphne happily explained what each building was for when a pink index finger intensely pointed at them, glad that the difference in woods and the city didn’t seem too overwhelming for the kid. It didn’t take long before she parked the wagon and horse in front of a home, which she informed the girl was her house. It’s a quaint little place in the middle of Lower City, two stories, but the second story was solely two bedrooms, while the bottom floor was the living spaces. In the entry room, the shelves filled with books quickly intrigue the young one. 

“We’ll explore tomorrow, darling,” Daphne smiled at her, “It’s late and we need to get you settled for the night.” She guided the tiefling up the stairs, which was a feat in itself since the child clearly had no clue what stairs were. Eventually, Daphne relented to picking her up and carrying her to the top of the steps before leading her to the spare bedroom. It had already been set up as a guest room so it didn’t take much to set it up for the child to be comfortable, “I’m right across the hall should you need me, don’t be afraid to wake me if you do,” she leaned over and kissed the pink forehead between the nubby horns after tucking her in, “Good night, sweet one.”

The night went surprisingly well, with only one incident of the child climbing into bed next to the elf. She didn’t complain at all, instead she made room and smiled at the trust she’s receiving. 

As the sun rises, so does Daphne. She carefully pulled herself from the cuddles of the child and went downstairs to make a quick breakfast. She pondered over what to cook, before deciding on a simple eggs and bacon meal. The girl she found needed protein and she figured that combination would both be easy on her stomach as well as hopefully help bring her some energy for this morning. She’d have to do some research later on tiefling diets, but she was sure meat would be welcomed. She brought the tray of food up to her room, almost dropping it when she heard sobs. She quickly placed the food on her nightstand and wrapped her arms around the child.

“Gone,” the first word spoken from the pink tiefling, and it broke the motherly woman’s heart. 

“No, no, I was still here,” she tried to calm her quickly, “I was downstairs, I was making you food.” She assured her, reaching over to grab a plate without letting go of the girl, “See, food.”

The tiefling child turned her head just enough to look at the plate before looking up at the woman who had taken her in, “F—Food,” She repeated as her tears slowed, “For me?”

“Yes, dearest,” Daphne laughed softly, glad her new little friend was warming up and able to use her voice, “Go ahead and dig in, I’m sure you’re starved.” The elf watched the girl hesitantly take the plate into her lap and pick at the food with her fingers, completely disregarding the fork handed to her. Daphne figured such would happen, so it wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t long until the plate was cleared, and they were set for the day to start.

“Luci? Luci, my dear, have I finally lost you?”

The pink woman looks up from the book she had found while snooping around a random empty house they came across, “Hmm? Oh, yeah, no, I’m… I’m still here,” She laughs with embarrassment as she sees her vampiric friend in front of her with his eyebrow raised. Her smile falls a bit as she looks down at the book again, opening to one of the first pages, “This is the book my mother always read to me as a child; the first one she read to me the day after she sorta adopted me actually. It’s… it’s how she gave me my name…” She runs her fingers over the weathered page as she remembers that night clear as day, “Lucille, a spirited adventurer with a passion for unraveling ancient mysteries, set out to explore the Whispering Woods.” She reads with a sad smile, she misses her mother so much right now, “Lucille Woods.” This is the first time she’s spoken her full name out loud to any of her recent companions, as well as the first time she’s given a bigger glimpse at her past and her life in Baldur’s Gate. And to the companion she was still fairly hesitant about, she’s definitely going to beat herself up later over giving him even a sliver of something to hold over her if he so desired… 

Astarion watches her reminisce and, for once, doesn’t have a smartass comment to make. Instead, he lets her have her moment before smirking, “You’re named after a ‘spirited adventurer’ and you became one yourself? That really does just describe you with a neat little bow, now doesn’t it, darling?”

Luci crinkles her eyes with a smile at his jest as she closes the book, stuffing it in her bag, “I feel like that’s your flowery way of calling me annoyingly perfect, to which I say a-thank you,” She giggles before slipping her arm around his and starting to lead him out of the house, “Come on, we should regroup with Shadowheart and Wyll and head back to camp; it’ll be getting dark soon, and Gale promised me breakfast for dinner tonight! I’ve been excited for eggs and bacon all day; I don’t think I can wait another moment!”

The pale elf resists the urge to yank his arm away from the touchy girl; he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to how physically affectionate she is even after their short while of knowing one another, but he needs her protection so he must pretend not to be affected by it for now. He thinks, as they continue to find the other two and start walking to their campsite, that maybe if he acts interested enough in her family life, she’ll start trusting him even more. She’s incredibly and stupidly sweet, so it won’t take much… and he must admit, he actually is curious about her upbringing and what exactly ‘sorta adopted’ means for her and her mother. 

[luxgalador]

There's a pride party tonight and I can't decide if I wanna go or not

I really need to make some friends irl but also I know I'll keep to myself like I always do so unless someone talks to me first I'm not gonna meet anyone...damn my brain

On another note, how did you pick an animal for your fursona? I wanna make one but I like lots of animals...too many to choose from

I say this not to diminish social anxiety or neurodivergence at all, as I experience and live with both. But you can just talk to people. A simple statement that absolutely is not as easy as it sounds, yet remains true. I think you should go. And I think you should try very hard to say something nice about someone's outfit and then introduce yourself. Don't be afraid of awkward. Awkward is everywhere and it's OKAY. I think so many of us have been taught that awkward is bad, but even if you talk to someone new, it's awkward, and goes nowhere, well hey that's still something to be proud of for you. And the best part is that no one's gonna keep score on that and you'll likely never interact with that person again. Or maybe you do and you can laugh about how awkward the first time was. Awkward is human. Social interaction is awkward and unscripted and silly. So I'd like to challenge you to go a liiiiiiiitle outside your comfort zone. And if it gets bad, hit the bricks! You can always just fuckin leave. But you're not gonna get what you want until you get out of the lonely routine. I spent my 20s there and have been challenging myself and like.... literally a year later my life is filled with friends who actually match me. And a lot of that is because I've learned to just say hi and that I think people are neat.

OKAY MORE FUN SECOND PART QUESTION

I mean tbh as soon as Socks followed me home and I spent that first year learning all about cats and their behavior (I'd never had one before), I just felt like.... a natural connection to cats. Like I saw myself in Socks and in learning about why she behaves the way she does, I genuinely learned about myself, my neurodivergence, my sensory experience, and the ways in which I show affection. I've always loved animals and creatures of all sorts but with cats it was like.... okay wow yeah that's me. So my fursona kinda built up over time in my head. Just kinda viewed myself as a cat and then it became a real, tangible design early this year! I'm actually in the process of tweaking my sona's design right now to include some fur patterns inspired by Socks since she's so special to me and showed me so much and has given me such love and companionship these last 6 years. After that I'm commissioning a fursuit maker for a cat head hehe. So for choosing, I'd recommend just keeping an open mind and seeing which creatures you relate to!

And the best part is that one don't have to pick just one. I sort of "happy accident" ended up with Sylvi as a fursuit who is now a secondary fursona for me and I'm IN LOVE with her she makes me very happy. And I always had dogs growing up so having a puppy fursona and suit is very fun too!

[bonesandallbutnotcanabalism]

Tw: mentions of disordered eating and eating disorders

Intro ~

Name: AJ

Age: 16

Likes: books, david bowie, the cure, cats, english, social sciences

Dislikes: politics, math, science, most modern pop, most dogs

Fun facts:

-I'm chronically ill, disabled, and autistic

-I have very bad vision in one eye, and mildly bad vision in the other

-I was born with my intestines outside of my body, hence the chronic illness and disability mentioned above

I wanted to post a 30 day thinspo challenge, however I forget about these kind of things very quickly. Instead I wrote all the answers today, and it might defeat the purpose, but it's really just a way to share about myself so I dont particularly care.

1: 170cm, 53kg (about 117lbs)

2: 170cm, or 5'7. Not really, I wish I were taller, especially because my dad is 6'4

3: This is one of my favorites because I enjoy how the person looks delicate but masculine at the same time. I have a whole folder of downloads that I saved for instances when I don't have wifi or cell service

4: my bigest fear about losing is my parents noiceing and making me stop.

5: Im doing it for me. I don't have dysmorphia, but rather dysphoria surrpunding my perceived femeninity and I know losing would alleviate most

6: I do binge. I have the self control of an over zealous toddler, and I used to be able to eat upwards of 3000 calories and still lose weight.

7: my parents don't know, and they'd put a stop to it if they did know. I'm already thin, so... they'd freak out

8: I boulder 1-3 times a week, lift weights, etc, not much cardio because I'm chronically ill already

9: People didn't ever make negative comments about my weight. It was always praising me for my thinness when I was just incredibly ill & suffering from internal bleeding

10: I haven't really given up anything.

11: I don't have a favorite blog, but my favorite tags are #thinspiration and #malespo because the former always has really good bonespo and sickspo (better than the posts under those tags) and the ladder because it feels more realistic

12: I try to eat as many vegetables as I can get, and I'm vegetarian-trying-to-be-vegan, so I don't get much protein. Whenever I binge it's all carbs.

13: I'm losing in an unhealthy way, mostly because of the fact that I don't 'need' to lose weight, but also because I purge often

14: My ugw is about 40kg (88lbs). I want to reach it by the end of august/beginning of spetember. I only have to lose 13kg, which sounds like a small number, but it's quite a bit in practice. Approx 30lbs.

15: I am Vegetarian, but I'd like to be vegan. However, I have several health conditions that require me to eat excess fats, and I prefer to do that in the form of dairy rather than non-animal fats.

16: When I was 12, my health teacher had us do a project on eating disorders. I had recently gone from 137cm and 23kg to 153cm and 36kg, and I was perpetually bloated due to my medical condition. After the project, I mysteriously went up to 45kg in 2 weeks, and that is when I decided to lose weight.

17: I am hesitant to call it an eating disorder, but I definitely engage in severely disordered eating habits.

18: Potatoes are my weakness. I've always loved potatoes of any kind, and they have been my downfall.

19: I think 2 or three weeks ago, when I got Culver's for myself and my family after bouldering and weight-lifting.

20: I don't have a favorite ana-specific diet, as counting calories sends me into spirals of bingeing, however I try to eat as low-carb and low-sugar as possible, which I can do freely because it is beneficial to my medical condition.

21: I wear a 66-71cm waistband, and a small/medium in most shirts. I typically wear button downs and courdoroy slacks though.

22: My lowest weight after my disordered eating started was about 40kg I beleive. Some of my weight gain has been due to puberty and height increase, but my medical issues have also gotten better, making it easier for me to gain weight with my past eating habits.

23: The media didn't play a role in my urge to lose weight. I only got a phone when I was 14, and any social media was I was 15, but my goal of weight loss began before that. I also didn't watch much television or movies.

24: I feel the terms pro-ana and pro-mia typically refer to the journey and the inter-community support, rather than actually advocating for people to develop the disorder.

25: I purge often. The first time I tried, I tried all of the tricks in the book other than sticking my fingers down my throat. It turns out I have a very low gag reflex, and I was unsuccessful. A while later, I used my fingers and was successful. Now I am less so, because my gag reflex is further developed. I can touch the valve that closes your throat without gagging.

26: The thing that excites me most about reaching my ugw is that I will no longer feel like shit when I eat, or sit, or stand, or do anything at all.

27: How do I deal with being around food? I don't. I just try to avoid it as much as possible because, again, I have the self control of an overzealous toddler.

28: Yes, I would love a gap between my legs. I hate the feeling of my thighs touching, not just because of the body issues, but because I have severe sensory issues

29: I don't have a definition of beauty. I think the whole point is that beauty is subjective and differs from person to person. What I find beautiful for myself may not be what I find beautiful in others, and what I find beautiful in others differs from person to person

30: my stats are the same, because I did this all in one day instead of eating lunch (or using my lunch break to do classwork)

[liz-allyn]

how can I get my fics to get attention like yours do? working your ass off and then getting 20 notes sucks. and I’m trying to become a better writer and honestly crave the validation like you get from your followers. hopefully you’ll see this! Obsessed with S&V

Hi my fellow 🖋️!

Thank you so much for your comment, and thank you for thinking so highly of me!

answers for fic writers after the cut

So honestly? I don't know how to get followers. This blog has been running since 2021, and I only started writing fic < 1 year ago. I've become so much more well known (ha) in the TASM fandom because I've hung out here a long time. I don't have a secret to engagement or understand how tumblr 'works' that well (ie the algorithm that social media sites use to decide what to put in front of you). There are still people I freakin' worship on this site who don't interact with my fics at all, haha. AND flip side, some of the best writers I've ever seen are on here and their fics have less than 100 notes. I have learned that persistently I'll look over into other peoples' yards and be like "fuck. how did they get 4K followers?" or like "wow, she just posted this yesterday and it has over 1k notes."

as for working your ass off and getting 20 notes—CAN CONFIRM: that sucks. some fics I wrote for fun. some fics I wrote for the creative challenge. but pretty much on all of them I've left a little piece of me, of my soul and the lessons i've learned in my meandering partial journey. blood on the keyboard. and those fics? the really great ones (or ones just as good as sugar and vice)? they still don't have many notes.

But I will acknowledge that my following dramatically increased when I started posting S&V. I think I had ~900 and that blew up to 1.5k. There are a few factors in this:

Always post fics with fic art (with gifs! if possible) - This is the number one thing that draws me to read fic. I like art that looks cool. I also have been playing around with Canva Pro for 3-4 years (it's my fav) and I'm animation-adjacent as a day job, so pushing myself to think about graphic design has been really good for me. I find it fun to come up with a whole aesthetic for your story, whether it's a mood board or a color scheme (I usually have 'branding' on the brain). If you don't want to play with fic art, at least find an appropriate gif. Use the actor's face. I also think the gif search on Tumblr sucks balls but it's really worth it to have the right gif.

Pay attention to the hashtags of other popular fics in your fandom - when I started paying attention to notes, this was the best advice. I was using all kinds of tags that made sense to me, but weren't effective. In the web version of Tumblr, I can search for a tag and see how many followers it has. It's significant if #peter parker x reader has way more followers than #tasm!peter x reader. Also trends come and go, tumblr has their hotboy of the month and it rotates. there have been months were TASM Peter was non-existent in the last year, and months where we're getting *fed*. Pro tip with tags: I have a separate Google Doc with a list of hashtags that I copy and paste to save time. After a while, you should try reblogging with different hashtags

Use a spelling or grammar checker - I'm not a grammar fac*st but if I open a fic and everything is misspelled, almost no punctuation is used, and I have to work really hard to understand your story, then it's not going to go far. (With respect to writers who post work in English, and it's their second language). I never pay much attention to the occasional misspelling or grammar mistake, but when it looks like you sent your fic via text message or tinder chat, I just can't. I personally use Grammarly, but I also hate it and think it's buggy and overpriced. If anyone else has a better option that works with Google Docs, let me know!

Never write your fics in Tumblr's post editor. That has nothing to do with engagement but that shit is buggy as hell.

Avoid putting too much text up front before the fic. I put author's notes at the end. I try to keep summaries short. I try to focus on what someone absolutely needs to know to understand this fic, and I *mostly* try to avoid apologizing to the reader ahead of time for what they're about to read, for it being too long, for it being weird, bleh bleh bleh

If you're writing a series, make people reblog to be tagged. I've seen lots of people do taglists and then they give up because it's a pain to manage (and it is), plus you have a bunch of people that go "add me to the taglist!" or "next part, when?" and they didn't even reblog what you've already written. I think that's been one of the really big factors behind S&V's success

Make navigation as easy as possible - this is web design 101 (which I flunked repeatedly), but a masterlist is good to have. If you're in a series, a link back to the previous chapter + next chapter is good to have, I've also recently started putting a link back to the masterlist. people that know more things about stuff than me told me that you want to make things as simple as possible for viewers to get from one page to another. (that's why youtube links are shit on tumblr, even videos are meh, but GIFs work so well and attract so much attention). this is a visual site, so big images or headings or links with color help to draw the eye's attention.

Write what you want to write. Because you really need to gain enjoyment from writing, and it should never feel like you're a content factory. Do this 9 out of 10 times. The 10th time, write what people want to read. My first mob fic was These Violet Delights which I thought was so smart, and I was so proud of, and I planned this whole series out for. But also I tag things accurately, and some people (even my moots) are uncomfortable reading about those topics. Then when I started S&V I was extremely self-critical because I didn't want to write something filled with tropes and cliches. And then I sort of got off my soapbox and let S&V be its own thing, full of tropes and cliches, because they're popular for a reason, and they're fun to read, and it's okay to have candy for dinner every once in a while. And I've been able to pivot my plans and create something I'm pretty proud of.

It does help to stay consistent in the fandom you're writing for. Either by writing or reblogging other writers. Just don't make yourself feel like you're a slave to Tumblr and you must stay active at all times f o r e n g a g e m e n t. Everyone should take breaks when they need to.

Don't listen to my advice because no one knows how to hack tumblr. There are some posts that have sooooo many notes and I'm like 'why?' Meanwhile, my heart's been ripped open in LED pixels on screen and sometimes it passes by.

I hope that this was useful! And if not, I'm sorry for the long post. I look forward to reading your fic (whoever you are), and feel free to tag me when you write your next thing!

💜

[starcaptainslangs]

MyLang days 4-8: Geography, Flora, Fauna

Alright! This post continues where I've left off doing @quothalinguist's conlang year challenge.

The next prompts up to today center around defining the space that my speakers live in. I purposefully didn't let myself go down a rabbit hole about the specifics and instead let it be painted with a wide brush to be made more specific later.

Geography

MyLang is spoken by the Fae in an abandoned House and the surrounding Yard, which divides the "world" into two major super regions.

There are other communities of animals like the mice have their own barrow, the owl lives in the attic, like a dragon, and there could be a city inside a fallen tree log, or in a big old tree in the yard.

The House has been long abandoned, with the owners having disappeared into myth and legend long before the first Fae passed through the Hedge. The house has a basement, a first floor, a second floor and an attic. It looks like an old Victorian style house. 

The Yard is surrounded by a hedge on one side, a forest on the other, a stream in the forest, and a road or path. These are the limits of this "world", but there are obviously other communities and regions that have their own cultures and languages. The Yard is untamed and wild with thick brambles that create nearly pitch-black forests, a pond that stretches like a sea, grass jungles, huge old trees, and a few stumps and logs that are converted into cities.

I think the size of the region is a quarter acre or so. I'm not sure if that super matters.

The scope of the House and Yard is like a subcontinent-sized region, maybe as large as California or Western Europe with travel tending to be pretty lengthy depending on where you’re going. I don't think I want to create as many descendant families as are in California or Western Europe. This setting is also not that "hard" so the size of the region really is whatever makes a fun story.

Climate and Weather Patterns

The house is set in a temperate forest region, like Southern Oregon or the Northeast, but with an elevated fantasy element. There are four distinct seasons and each comes with its own magic quality. The main two climatic regions are divided between the Yard and the House.

Yard Climate

The Yard bears the full brunt of the seasons with cold winters, wet springs, hot summers, and chilly autumns.

House Climate

The House Climate varies depending on the level. The basement tends to be warm and humid because of the furnace there. The first floor is kept temperately warm year round, experiencing mild seasonal variation. The Second floor has more seasonal variety, being the furthest from the furnace.

Flora

There’s the typical flora that I would recognize, but there are also Fae-size crops and magical plants that are more important to note. They are:

A kind of small blue-silver sweet berry, maybe it has magical properties

Fungus cultivated in the basement

A grain or rice-like cereal that is used to bake into bread. Is this a normal-sized grain (ie huge to the Fae scale) or a smaller one that is to their scale, but it is a young type of grain or grass that they harvest.

Other food-source plants to notes: 

Dandelion roots and flowers

Acorns, used for food and building materials

Grass Seeds

Grass

Fruit trees: Lemon, Apple

Berries like blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, grapes?

Non food source plants:

A fungus used for lighting

Varieties of a moss that can be woven into textiles

A kind of leaf that can be sewn with spider silk to make clothing

Wood, generally derived from sticks

Bark, used as a building material 

Grass fibers that are used to create rope and other materials.

Fauna

Just some listed off the top of my head that would be relevant:

Mammals

Badger

Cat

Mouse

Rat

Vole

Mole

Insects

Bee

Beetles (probably tons of varieties, like riding beetles, beetles for food, etc.)

Ants

Termites

Centipede

Birds

Song Bird

Hawk

Screech Owl

Raven/Crow

I also had an idea that the root word for "sky" evolves to the word for "ceiling" in Housespeak.

[irithnova]

hi! how did your interest in hetalia begin? also, with mongolia as well. <3

Hello! :D

Well I became interested in hetalia when I first kind of started secondary school (UK) soo I think around 13 or something I became interested in hetalia? Then at 13/14 is when I first started getting interested in the country of Mongolia, so I guess me liking aph Mongolia was just a natural marriage between the two interests haha.

I guess I started to like hetalia because I've always been a history nerd and an anime/manga fan, and I've always liked learning about different cultures, so hetalia seemed like the perfect manga/anime for me. Admittedly, Mongolia wasn't immediately my fave character, Russia was my first favourite character. I was also a weird kid and a lot of my weird friends liked hetalia too! (I say weird in a good way).

When it comes to being interested in the country of Mongolia, I think it was because I got really tired of learning about European history. Not that I only focussed on European history when it came to my different historical obsessions lol I mean I had a huge ancient Egypt phase, but I wanted more. I've heard about the Mongols and their impact on European history but it was mostly to do with the spread of the black death (the UK wasn't affected by the Mongol invasions). Also when I was obsessed with Russia (still kind of am..) there were more mentions of the Mongols so I was like eh why not.

When I started to do more research on Mongolia's history, the more fascinated I became with it. I've always had an affinity towards cultures that were labelled as "barbaric" by its neighbours (I'm not saying I view the Mongols as barbaric, not at all, just that they were labelled that way), which explains my pretty huge Scottish history phase lol.

I was impressed by what they were able to achieve despite being the underdogs at the time, and the unique nomadic culture of Mongolia further drew me in to being interested in the country and it's history. Even beyond the empire era and before the empire era, Mongolian history is incredibly interesting.

The secrecy that Mongolian history is shrouded in before they came onto the world stage because of the lack of records to do with the Mongols, the huge Mongolic/Turkic empires that came before the Mongols, what the true origins of the Mongols are, Mongolia during the Ming and Qing dynasties, mass conversion to Buddhism, Mongolia's fight for independence in the 20th century and transition from communism to capitalism, and Mongolia today, it's all just so alluring.

Mongolian culture also really drew me in. It seemed so different from my own and I couldn't help but just, idk, keep on reading about it haha.

With all of this in mind, I guess this is why I'm so interested in aph Mongolia as a character. Going about characterising a man (or woman if you prefer) with such a rich and complicated history was a challenge I was willing to take up, and the more I learn about Mongolian history and culture (bc you never stop learning! ) the more and more complex he becomes.

Many hetalia fans in the past have just brushed him off as some brute and basically used him as the local villain of the week in a lot of their fics (I mean some still do it today but it's not as bad as it used to be...) and it frustrates me to no end because it just reeks of typical anti-Mongolian sentiment. There's nothing wrong with making him the bad guy in fics, everyone is free to show the dark sides of nations in their fics or art etc (I have a fanfiction myself where he is acting like an asshole, empire era).

But as I said before, the way in which Mongolia is characterised in a lot of fics (because it's usually fics) is just blatantly racist and/or ignorant towards Mongolian history and culture, and the writers would never depict another nation is such an unflattering manner, so yeah they're just using Mongolia as a cheap villain or they cheapen the character of Mongolia into a caricature as a grab for an easy one dimensional villain, which is a huge disservice to the history and people of Mongolia.

Even now, I'm still trying to be kind of careful with how I characterise Mongolia, because ignorance doesn't have to be blatant in order for it to still shine through. In the past, I've seen people hypermasculinise Mongolia and other central Asian characters. Listen, there's nothing wrong with headcanoning a character as being more on the masc side, I headcanon Mongolia to be more masc too!

But the issue comes from when people completely have a lack of nuance when it comes to masculinity in Mongolia and central Asia, and it really runs the risk of depicting them as barbaric and backwards. I've noticed how in the past, some people would hyperfeminise East Asian countries (more often than not, China) and in turn, hypermasculinise Mongolia, and it paints a pretty ugly picture when these same writers/artists make headcanons or art or whatnot.

Another thing I'm being careful with is how I headcanon Mongolia and technology. I know it's a joke amongst people that he can't even turn on a computer (and to those who joke ab this dw I'm aware it's a joke) but it becomes an issue when people unironically go around saying stuff like that, in my opinion (I don't think he's a technology wizard but c'mon he's not completely disconnected from technology to the point where he can't even use a laptop properly).

Some people tend to romanticise the rurality of Mongols and paint them as being a "happy, simple people" who are "too good for technology/capitalism." and this is just the classic "noble savage" trope all over again, just seen through a hetalia lens.

Of course, the nomadic lifestyle, generous hospitality and connection to nature is inseparable from Mongolian culture, and I would never try to deny or argue against that, it's one of the main reasons why I admire Mongolian culture so much in the first place! But going around perpetuating the noble savage stereotype only feeds into silly ideas outsiders have about Mongolian people. I've seen Westerners say crap like they're surprised that Mongolia has restaurants and wifi! And one of my Mongolian friends had an American literally say very boldly to them "I thought Mongolians still lived like cavemen" ⁉️⁉️

So yeah, I do hope my depiction/interpretation of Mongolia is thoughtful dhdsjd sorry I did kind of go off on a tangent. I'm aware that this is hetalia and it's not supposed to be a serious anime but am passionate and I hope I didn't come off too strong 😨

I think people's downright awful/racist depictions of aph Mongolia has only made me more passionate about him because I want to prove them so wrong haha! And it's the same with the actual nation. If anyone tries to argue with me about how the Mongol empire sucked because they were just "muhh barbarians" I will absolutely argue with them about it lol.

But thank you for the ask!! 🙏😳

[tracingbackirises]

Tagged by @definitelydivergent Thank you friend!

What book are you currently reading? Re-reading Anne of Green Gables. By the way, if anyone has any book recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

What’s your favourite movie you saw in a cinema this year? I believe the only movie I saw in theaters in the last twelve months was Lifemark, which is an amazing movie and based on a true story!

What do you usually wear? Normally I try to stick with clothes, but when I'm getting my hair dyed I tear holes for my arms and head into a trashbag and wear that

How tall are you? 5'4" on a good day

What’s your star sign?

Do you share your birthday with a celebrity or historical event? I'm sure I share my birthday with many historical events; whether or not I share my birthday with any significant historical events is a different question, to which I know not the answer

Do you go by your name or a nickname? Mostly my name. Very few people call me by a nickname

Did you grow up to be what you wanted to be as a child? I wanted to be many things as a child. I've long since lost interest in being a doctor or a horse, but still hope and dream to work with children and write books

Are you in a relationship? Who is your crush if not? I'm not in a romantic relationship, but I very ardently adore the man who came up with goat cheese (goat cheese, my beloved)

What’s something you’re good at versus something you’re bad at? I'm actually pretty good at learning how to read and write in my target languages, all things considered. I still have a long way to go, but I know that if I were to have more self discipline and put in some effort, I'd actually be pretty impressive. On the flip side, I'm not so good with the speaking and hearing part. My pronunciation is often way off and I struggle to hear the different vowel sounds, except in Spanish (Spanish vowels, my beloved).

Dogs or cats?

What’s something you’d like to create content for? You know, I'm not actually sure! My favorite piece of media is Earthbound, but I've never really thought of creating content for it. I always thought Earthbound would work so well as an animated series, so it might be a fun little challenge for myself to write scripts and create story boards for it. I would also love to write Christian fiction, but have not been confident in my ability to do so in a way that is not either cheesy or too worldly.

What's something you're currently obsessed with? The idea of making goat cheese and mushroom quesidillas! Saw a recipe online and I have been in love ever since!

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year? I'm not aware of having been disappointed this year. I've had a pretty amazing year, actually. If there was something that disappointed me that I'm forgetting, I would not like to remind myself

What's a hidden talent of yours? Well if it's hidden, how am I supposed to know about it?

Are you religious? Yes, I have a personal relationship with Jesus and have made Him the Lord of my life!

What’s something you wish to have at this moment? Would it be beating a dead horse to say goat cheese? Yes? Okay, then I'll settle for a million dollars (huehuehue)

Tagging @sapphiremoonandstars if your heart so desires

[not-poignant]

Do you have a lot of different farms in stardew valley or go very long with just one? Also if you have different farms do you do any challenges or goals to keep it varied?

I have over 1,600 hours and have had over 15+ farms in Stardew Valley, and I tend to get bored around the year 3/4 mark, so I've never made it to year 5 in any of them. I started playing in 2016.

I played the first 10 or so without any mods at all, and most of my farms happened before the Ginger Island update, and things like that. Farms 10-13 had some cosmetic and quality of life mods (i.e. mods that let me know when I had hugged a chicken, so I didn't go and accidentally hug it again, and the 'No Children Ever' mod - the BEST - no kids, and don't even get asked to have them, perfect), and farms 14 and 15 actually have some 'cheat' mods to make it easier to play and more relaxing (instant catch for the fish, instant kill for the enemies).

I don't really have any obvious challenges or goals because I like to relax when I play it, so there's no point in making it harder for myself, right? It's very easy for me to max out all my skills to 10 before the end of year 1 for example (I'm usually level 5/6 on fishing with zero mods before the end of Spring, year 1), and usually all I need before the end of year 2 are the rest of the artefacts (I will have all the fish / crops / Community Centre etc.)

I'm not a hardcore min-maxer, but I do lean towards efficiency and low-key min-maxing, which means by the time money is pouring in, I'm ready to restart, because my favourite part of the game is starting to get all my goals. By the time I can sell my Iridium bars in stacks of 100 because I just have too many, I don't really see the point anymore, lol.

The game has actually changed a fair bit since I started playing it, we have a lot more quality of life changes now. There are new crops. There's new buildings. There's new farm animals. There's new scenes with the NPCs. The maple syrup bear, lmao. The little notes and magnifying glass. I've thought a little about trying Stardew Valley Expanded (a mod) but realistically what happens is I play for a little while quite intensely, and then I get bored and forget, and then I come back an old farm and can't remember what my routine was, so I just start a new farm. I'm actually in a 'I should probably update my mods and start a new farm' right now. So I haven't played Stardew Valley in a while.

I'm at the point where I've deleted quite a few of my farms, because I know I'll never go back to them, though I still have around 8 in the list.

I've never played multiplayer because I can't stand it (not being able to pause ruins the whole game for me), and I've only ever married/bonded to four candidates! Sebastian, Alex, Elliott and Krobus. I'm good at giving advice to newbies and even 'mid-tier newbies' (i.e. those who have only completed one farm and have about 60 hours under them), and otherwise just want people to enjoy the game and make it enjoyable for them. Stardew Valley is one of the best games to mod for your comfort (or challenge), and folks who can make the most of it should feel free to without guilt.

I've seen on YouTube some of the challenges people come up with - no farming for 100 days, no leaving the farm for 100 days, no talking to NPCs for 100 days, and so on. Idk, that's not really my thing. If I want to stress myself out, I'll just play Elden Ring or something.

Let me leave you with a pic of all my truffles from just one day of being away from my farm lol

I really miss the mushroom cave hack, but Barone nerfed it once he found out that some of us were exploiting it, lol. I thought it had been intentional, and not an error! :D :D