#SORRY FOR THE WALL OF TEXT

[madame-mongoose]

Ghostbusters au finally here!!

Sun and Moon are Class V spirits. Which basically means they manifested from strong emotions surrounding a traumatic event. They manifest in one of the original pizzerias. The missing children and deep seeded community fear of the place causing them to appear. First forming as one spirit, Eclipse, but splitting into two due to differing opinions and wants.

Sun brings joy and fun through his haunting. A kind face and playful spirit, he's more active when it comes to haunting. Mostly being spotted by children who tell their parents.

Moon acts more as a watchful protector. He leads children away from dangerous areas. He also likes to torment and prank trespassers as well as staff and really any other adult that bothers him. Moon being the original reason the ghostbusters are called.

Y/n is one of three ghostbusters on their team!! Being a huge fan of the ghostbusters, they jumped at the job opportunity when the company was reopened and branches were opened across America. Being quite new they're fairly clumsy with equipment and proper protocol. But they make up for in in their vast knowledge and want to learn more about spirits. Sun and Moon being the most complicated and alluring ghosts they've ever encountered

Designs w/o text under the cut!!!

[dearasteria]

Major Gale romance SPOILERS below, so please DO NOT read and watch if you don't want to get spoiled.

I was REALLY worried about how romance with Gale would go, especially after talking to him right after he gets Karsas' book. My Tav wanted to believe and trust him, but something didn't feel right. At the end of Act II, when Tav tries to convince him not blow himself up for his ex's forgivness/to save Faerûn, it can be summed up with that one gif from Grey's Anatomy: "So pick me. Choose me. Love me" 🤡. Honestly, she asks not only to choose her, but also not to kill her and the rest of the team. Gale is so easily swayed and tells Tav that he loves her, even more than Mystra. Tav should be happy, right? But I'm like WAIT A DAMN MINUTE, it was faaar too easy, I mean, no protests from him, I didn't even have to use persuasion to convince him. At that point, after the trauma that Bioware had caused us with Anders and Solas, I'm getting paranoid. Gale doesn't love Tav, he's definitely hiding something. But I'm thinking to myself, "Okay, calm down, he just doesn't want to die, super understable. Maybe he really loves her and he needed to hear it? He needed reassurance that he has something to live for? Yes, it must be it". But then I go to the quest journal and see this:

DAMMIT GALE, you snake 🐍 My poor baby Tav (especially since the romance scene in Waterdeep was so warm and tender). She's so in love in him. Now I'm convinced that he will definetly betrey us, stubs us right in the heart.

At the beginning of Act III, he becomes obsessed with a book called The Annals of Karsus that may help him learn more about the crown. He becomes obsessed with how powerful he can become. When Tav gives him the book and says, "We already know the crown's dangerougs. Wouldn't that make things worse?" he replies:

"Worse? It could be the best thing that ever happened to me. To us."

After all this, Gale tries to convince Tav to help him reconstruct the crown. We have this beautiful scene on the boat and when I tell you my jaw dropped. HE CHOOSES TAV, listens to her concerns and simply chooses her.

The way he says it, the way he corrects himself… damn. For Tav, it's like a bucket of cold water. And I'm like, "Here we go again" 🤡

Furthermore, when we visit the Stormshore Tabernacle in Baldur's Gate and interact with Mystra's statue, he seems to feel so uncomfortable, he doesn't want to be there. Tav starts to think he's definitely hiding something. She would like to hear Mystra's version of what happened between her and Gale (I hope we can talk to her at some point in the game, it would be very interesting).

My Tav, however, disagreed, and Gale replies, "I hope you're right. I truly do. Godly power, perhaps I can live without, but you? You're everything". Has the curse of dating mages that leave players heartbroken been broken?

But I have to admit, when he said: "With you, I forget my goddess. I love you. Tell me you feel the same way. Tell me you want what I want. Please" - OH GODS 😳. I was so close to agreeing to this madness. The VA did an amazing job (side note: so many talented VAs in this game, it's mind blowing), the writing is amazing, the music is incredible, I was blown away, really.

Next day, after the boat scene, he's so adorable and full of love for Tav. Then I remembered his gratest flaw (for me it's more like his biggest fear) from the scene with Zethino in the circus: "He thinks he, and the world, might be better off if he were dead". At the time I thought he was lying, manipulating Zethino and his answers. My distrust of mages in games… Yes, I have a problem 😅

I haven't finished the game, but I have high hopes for a happy ending. No spoilers please, thanks :)

What a rollecoster of emotions, I love it, I love Gale. It felt like I was playing Dragon Age: Origins for the first time, way back when I was a teenager. It's really insane how this game makes me feel, how much I care about its characters and story.

EDIT: Okay, so we have an audience with Mystra, I mean only Gale, but we see the whole conversation between them. My only complain is that Gale doesn't mention Tav when Mystra asks him why he defied her 💔 The outcomes are different depending on whether you do it before or after the boat scene. Personally, I think doing the boat scene before meeting Mystra is much better. I get the impression that Gale is abandoning the plan to reconstruct the crown solely for Tav and his love for her. And the drama 👌🏻 it gives me life.

[whorejolras]

this has been sitting in my drafts for months and i'm finally posting it.

it's adding on from this post about Fantine and sex work in les mis. this post ended up being long and more about sex work than Fantine but it does come around i swear.

the way we discuss Fantine is very important, but why?

the way that we talk about Fantine and sex work in les mis - on tumblr, with our friends, in the brick club chat, in articles and in scholarly analysis - directly correlates with the way we treat modern day sex workers and the struggles we face today. notably, the fight for decriminalisation.

i'd argue that Fantine is the most famous of the "dead sex worker" trope. i'd argue she's one of the most famous fictional sex workers. she was just name dropped in the new mean girls movie. everyone knows the story of Fantine the "Miserable Dead Prostitute".

to many people, the book or musical is their first and often only point of reference for sex work, and informs how they treat real life sex workers. many of us interacting in fandom are or will soon be adults with jobs, you could be a childcare worker or a doctor or therapist or any role that makes you a mandatory reporter. and if you hold biases towards sex workers and your patient or the parent of the kid in your class is one, then what.

(you know i had a therapist tell me once that if i had any kids she would "be forced" to report me to the police for "child abuse" on the grounds of my job. that was discrimination and was illegal as i live in one of the four locations in the world with sex work both decriminalised and a protected attribute under discrimination law, but it still happened.)

how people think informs how they vote, and public opinion in turn impacts legislation that actively damages sex workers and puts them in real danger. (criminalisation, the nordic model, "legalisation" also known as licensing, instead of full decriminalisation).

here is a resource put together by NSWP, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects that covers terminology and legal frameworks. I recommend giving the whole thing a read, but if you just want to learn about the difference between the different legal models I'm talking about read from pages 12-14.

full decriminalisation is the safest best practice option for all sex workers. not the nordic model, not select legalisation, full decriminalisation for all workers including those who aren't "legal" citizens.

bringing this back to Fantine. when i search analysis of sex work/"prostitution" in les mis, this is the shit i find.

link 1 | link 2

i don't even know where to start on rebranding "oldest profession" to "oldest form of oppression" and "trafficked and forced into the industry" - the trafficking conflation is a common one. the majority of labour trafficking occurs in industries completely unrelated to sex work, with sex trafficking numbers being grossly overestimated. there are no true numbers because under criminalisation victim/survivors of sex trafficking can't safely seek help for fear of being criminalised. decriminalisation helps everyone.

I will also say that the trafficking narrative is a racist xenophobic one used to target migrant workers, making them more vulnerable to higher rates of police violence, detention and deportation. if you want to get deeper into this I recommend reading Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers.

yet here we see the idea that most of (if not all) sex workers are trafficked or forced, a narrative that removes the agency of sex workers and obscures the reality of labour trafficking. in short, lies which serve to sensationalise and erase real lived experiences, provide publicly-sanctioned excuses for the heavy policing of marginalised communities, and helping no one.

i will quickly say here that you'll never meet anyone who fights as hard for sex trafficking survivors than sex workers and sex worker peer led organisations.

and in the second example, you see how even though they're saying sex work, (so they listened enough to know not to say "prostitute" anymore), but they're still sharing anti-sw beliefs like "selling the body/selling yourself", violent phrasing that denies us not only agency but connection to our bodies, autonomy, and consent.

this is something i'll talk about a lot more in the chapter analysis that i'll get around to finishing and posting one day: but fantine doesn't sell her body to sex work any more than she sells it to the textile factory. how is one form of physical labour "selling your body/yourself" and another isn't? at the end of the day, she still owns her body, just like when i leave a booking i still own my body, just like when i clocked out of my past civilian jobs i still owned my body. we sell labour, we sell services. not ourselves.

noting here that even when discussing exploitation and trafficking, phrasing it as "selling your body" is also gross, still removes the survivors agency and connection to their body, and shows that you're not really a safe ally to survivors at all.

these ideas, that i pulled from the first paragraphs of two of the first analyses of fantine i stumbled across, are the same ones that sex workers around the world argue against when lobbying for full decriminalisation. it's the arguments we have with law makers and councils and saviour organisations and our own families and friends.

i'll talk about this more later but look at how anne hathaway finished playing Fantine and then signed off on a letter and petition against full decriminalisation of sex work and advocated for the nordic model - ensuring that sex workers and trafficking victims alike would be more vulnerable to violent clients and policing.

ironically, the same thing Fantine faces.

so my whole roundabout point is it matters. the way we talk about characters like Fantine matter. this directly impacts how real people treat real sex workers. this directly impacts legislation that directly impacts the lives and safety of sex workers AND survivors of sex trafficking.

just in case i haven't said it enough the safest option for both parties is always complete and full decriminalisation btw 🫶🏻

all links in case they break (sorry for making it longer but i don't trust tumblr with links lol)

tumblr post:

NSWP terminology and legal models source:

screenshot 1:

screenshot 2:

Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers:

anne hathaway article:

[thedisablednaturalist]

[Image id: Tumblr message from @manaphy-is-a-coward : "Hi! I saw your post about wanting more good representation for people in wheelchairs. I’m an aspiring game dev who would like the same thing. Currently, I’m making a dating sim and I definitely want to include a character in a wheelchair.

Do you have any tips? It can be for personality, relationships, stereotypes to avoid, anything!

Thank you in advance.

- Manaphy-Is-A-Coward, aspiring game developer

P.S.

I know you wanted playable characters in wheelchairs, and the ability to customise that fact, but for my first game I don’t think I’m going to add customisation. Sorry!"

My reply:

Hm so I would need to know what kind of game mechanics you're planning, like is it a visual novel or something more like stardew valley? Also having more characters in general in wheelchairs is still helpful, my concern is when games WITH customization leave out disabled players. I don't expect everyone to make their player character a wheelchair user (although I'd be nice if some did). Honestly, just treat them like you would any other npc. Don't make their whole personality about being in a wheelchair but don't completely ignore that fact. It's just a way for them to get around. It's okay if they make jokes about themselves (but maybe get feedback on them by a wc user before publishing). Another thing that pisses me off is when they introduce the wc user once and then you literally never see them again (barbie movie). Like they just want the points but not actual representation. Also is it ok if I screenshot this and post it so more wheelchair users can weigh in? I'd be good for you to get multiple opinions from both ambulatory and full time users

Okay, thank you!

And of course you can! I would love more opinions! End id]

[anomaly-vee]

so to make it clear: the memories stolen were:

frost’s last memory of his parents and how he discovered his powers

torbek’s… like EVERYTHING. his motivation for this quest in the first place, his history with “the other” (is he the other?? that’s a whole ‘nother post), possibly how he met the gang in the witchlight carnival in the first place??? (also is gorebek GONE?? yet another post)

gideon’s clearest and happiest memory with his pa (mace made it so that he doesn’t even REMEMBER his dad but i am holding on to the hope that he still does bc i will actually throw up)

gricko’s guilt(?) between him and his mother after something about a piano (apologies i wasn’t able to pay much attention after realizing gideon had just lost a part of the happy childhood he had left((as well as the fact that he might have siblings but that’s another post)) and the revelation of twig and the baba yaga ((ANOTHER post)))

and kremy’s memory on how he met remy garou and how he got his warlock powers in the first place (how richie set this one up, iykyk, is yet ANOTHER post i need to make) does this mean kremy forgets who Remy is in the first place? (which would be a big problem regarding the debt) or just how they first met? we’ll find out next week.

i’ll definitely need to rewatch this later to properly fucking PROCESS all the lore they just slapped us with, good GODS this was a doozy of an episode.

[modernchemical]

my favourite thing about aradia megido is how post-death, shes depressed by the inevability of death, destruction, etc. the voices of the dead tell her its not worth it, its all meaningless, that she can't do anything and never will be able to change the grim future. her misery is used to force her to be docile and complaisant. the fear of the inevitable keeps her stuck in its quicksand of depression. but after she comes back from the dead, she is FASCINATED and OVERJOYED by it!!! she finds passion and drive from what previously cemented her in what she saw as futile, and that she shouldn't mope and submit to what the future holds, but instead EMBRACE it, and love herself despite not being able to seem "helpful" as she assumed she should be!!

and best of all as a maid, she is slated to serve her aspect, serve time and death and inescapable destruction- but she doesnt! she fights back!! she LIVES her new life *just for her*. and even with a grim fate still hanging there, she overcomes that fear and learns to live again. [the maid class is soooo fascinating but thats a topic for another day~]

i just think it's such a beautiful comparison to depression and mental health; aradia knows she can't change that future of destruction vis a vis can't fully escape or overcome her mental illness, but carves a path through her pain to find joy and meaning despite it! she doesn't need a "purpose" anymore, doesn't need to serve anyone anymore, she can just live for the sake of living. genuinely she is extremely inspirational to me and her arc of depression-> abuse->fighting back->living for herself + joy despite overarching powers that press upon her is SO fantastic. aradia fan forever she is best girl and she knows it

[clockworkouroboros]

Now that the 60th anniversary specials are all out, I guess I'm gonna share my thoughts about them all, because it's the internet or whatever. Overall, I do think there's a lot of good in these specials. The fan service is absolutely there, but it's been done in a different way than some of the past special episodes, and it really acknowledges I think the many different kinds of Doctor Who fans, from the people who just watch the revived series (or even just bits and pieces of the revived series) to fans of Classic Who and even those of us crazy enough to get into the extended universe. I mean, featuring Beep the Meep and the Toymaker as your two Big Villains is both ridiculous and speaks to the nature of Doctor Who fans that we were all so excited for them. So. A lot of really nice things about these specials all around.

In The Star Beast, we got a really nice blend of nostalgia for the original Tennant era with new, interesting characters and a healthy amount of fan service towards Beep the Meep's half a dozen fans. Between those three things and RTD's obvious love letter to and heartfelt (if perhaps a little clunky) support of queer (and especially trans) people, it's easy to look past the episode's flaws; namely, that it's very light on the plot, and the handwavey bullshit that retcons Donna losing her memories completely undercuts the emotional heavy hitting of Donna losing her memories. You mean it was *always* that easy? Fuck right off.

Wild Blue Yonder really brought in, for me, more than a hint of Wilderness Years Who. The bottle episode slightly claustrophobic feel, the terrifying unexplainable Not-Things, the goddamn salt—I thought this story was the strongest in the set. I think RTD, like many writers, has a tendency to try and make things bigger and bigger and bigger, when really, his best stories tend to be like this. Consider Midnight as another example—brilliant, terrifying, and also very similar to some of the more experimental stories of the wilderness years. If I had a complaint about this story, it's that I would want it to play into more of the sense of sensory deprivation that stories like Midnight and Scherzo did. But honestly, that's a nitpick. It infuriates me a little bit—RTD likes to go in for some spectacle, as seen in The Star Beast and especially in The Giggle (and also the s3 and s4 finales, and also DT's regeneration story, and also and also and also)—but some of his best work is done when he doesn't allow himself the spectacle and instead really pares everything down to the barest of bare bones.

And, honestly? The Giggle was a bit of a letdown. There are so many ways you could bring the Toymaker into Who again, and he ended up sort of being an afterthought. Neil Patrick Harris was obviously having a grand old time in the role, which is great—so why not give him a little more to chew on? I thought there was a lot that was great—Donna and the Doctor in the Toymaker's domain, as an example. I think, building off of Wild Blue Yonder, coming back again and again to just how much the Doctor has been through and how that has affected them, was also a really nice thing to include, and something that I wish had been brought up more during Thirteen's run, because she really went through it.

But that also brings me to my biggest issue with The Giggle, and that is the way David Tennant's Doctor (Fourteen? TenThree? TenTeen?) has been written in a way that still is overshadowing Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor. This was honestly one of my biggest concerns as soon as Tennant's return was announced, and one of RTD's past issues in Who has been his chronic overshadowing of characters of color in favor of a white fan favorite. (Martha and Mickey both get this treatment.) The regeneration scene pissed me off in a way that I didn't think Doctor Who could piss me off—generally speaking, I'm pretty level-headed about most Doctor Who things because this show is ridiculous enough that you sort of have to just roll with it. I already adore Ncuti's Doctor (from his extremely limited amount of screentime), but I can't help but feel that he's been cheated out of a proper introduction because he had to share his limited screentime with David Tennant, the most popular Doctor to ever exist in the show's 60-year history. Likewise, because of this ridiculous Journey's End 2: This Time It's Stupider nonsense, I'm genuinely concerned RTD will randomly bring DT back for some fun multi-Doctor fanwanks, and sort of write all over the first Doctor of color's era with David Tennant. Not that that will happen (I certainly hope not, anyway), but the fact that he's leaving it open as an option already has me worried.

So. Yeah. Maybe I'm being harsher on RTD than I would otherwise be, because the nostalgia for having him back is so ridiculously high that it's driving me a little insane, or maybe these are genuine issues. I'm not upset that he's back, but these specials—and especially The Giggle—left me extremely wary that we're going to get the same exact issues that he brought to Who in his first run. Overall it'll be fine, and again, I did get a lot of enjoyment out of these specials! There's a lot about RTD's writing that is objectively both good and consistent. That doesn't mean I'm not holding my breath going forward.

[eljeebee]

OC Evolution Tag - The Beaus and The Asvang

Tagged by @nocturnalazure (thank you for hearing my wishes)! Thank you!!!

Prior to doing The Davis Legacy, back in July 2022, I've written a story about vampires in the modern world, where Lady Lana Beau had just reawakened from her slumber. Valentina had awakened first, and was living quite well, but she had fallen in love with a werewolf and had been hiding her identity. She was looking for a way to "cure" her vampirism. In this "pilot" story, Lady Lana sought to revive her House as well, seeking to turn her family's human descendant, Zed Waylon, which is through a turned-mortal Lenora. Anyway, she ended her life in the end by burning herself, but made sure she casted a powerful spell on Zed that will keep him safe from other vampires, down to his last generation. Lady Lana was kind of sweet in this pilot story, honestly.

I think the only element that I reused in my current story was Lana seeking to rebuild her clan. The looking for a cure part only stayed with Lenora, and not to Val. The rest was removed, though I had character sheets, which I've been basing on for my current story.

First we start with Valentina. As I initially intended to share only her evolution.

Valentina Asvang's pilot character design:

This was her first design. Literally different from our Valentina now. Still, her history is just the same. An Asvang that worked hard that her power evolved. This was also the time where my sim-making is just me clicking the face templates in CAS and just tweaking them a little bit.

Valentina Asvang now:

One of my magnum opuses. She was the second character I remade for my story, and I remember messing around in CAS, and then everything just fell into place! Everything clicked. And behold, Valentina Asvang is reborn.

Beau Sisters, pilot and now:

On the first picture, from top to bottom: Lorraine, Lenora, and Lana. On the second picture, from top to bottom: Lenora, Lana, Lorraine. On their first designs, they actually had rounded and chubby faces. On their current and final version, I remade them. Lenora was based on Lana, and Lorraine was based on Lenora.

Lady Lana Beau, and her path to the current design:

Her first design was revolved around that vampire pack hair. I actually had to look for long hair CC to complement it for when her hair is down!

That vampire hair returned in her "back-in-the-day" look:

Anyway, I remade her in February 2023. She actually had a lot of tattoos back then! The first vampire to receive a redesign. Her soft features were replaced with dramatic, angular features. I wanted her to look fierce, but still the same "Enchanting Lady" that will reel you in, make you feel warm in her embrace...before you meet your end.

Fast forward to now!

I removed her tattoos :( perhaps some day she'd have it back?

Lady Lorraine and Lenora:

In the pilot and in the current story, Lorraine had always been a "blank" slate to me. Although I have written something for her, where she the most powerful in her family, that she had to be contained by marriage to Vlad, I still haven't written enough to fully realize her. All I know is that, she bore one son, named Hugo, and from what I remember from the back of my head, this Hugo was weak, like a powerful father and a powerful mother cancelled out, bearing a weak child. I also remember Lorraine being distraught for this, and will not leave her bedchamber, leaving Hugo to Vlad's care.

Lenora is still the same Lenora from before. The same vampire that wanted to love freely, that studied and sought that one thing that will turn her to mortal and live and die with her one true love. In the first iteration of the story, Lenora successfully did it, leaving behind many descendants, up to Zed Waylon. Now, her cure failed, damaging her energy and being, which left her to a state where only a handful of memories were retained in her head. She never bore a child.

The Character Sheets:

These are the sheets that help me rebuild their characters in my current story. Though I don't fully base on it, it's a good reference for me.

I've posted this before here, but I'd love to share it with you again!

If you want to read the initial story: click here. My writing is different from before, so bear with me.

Thank you for reading this far!

[echojedis]

My thoughts re: Tech being alive or not is that it could go either way, personally I’m leaning towards him being alive- the way the cast and crew have been talking about it is very vague and if he is really gone there’s no reason for that, surely it wouldn’t be a spoiler to say he’s really dead when we saw him fall. Unless they’ve seen the speculation and are purposefully toying with us which imo would be unnecessarily cruel. The Kiners in particular I don’t see doing that, Brad and Jen were frustratingly insistent over Crosshair having his chip removed despite his headaches in the finale so if it had been them dropping hints I would be a lot more sceptical. For me a big part of thinking that he’s potentially alive is that it’s not just the hardcore online fans speculating about it, even casual fans seem to think it was left too vague. Of course they could have purposefully left it vague to fuel speculation between seasons but to do that if he is really dead is again unnecessarily cruel and a cheap move writing-wise.

I can see Tech living working without making his sacrifice feel meaningless but I can also see how they can very easily screw it up, if he’s alive there has to be some consequences. Him being experimented on by Hemlock seems likely but there’s a fine line between paralleling Echo’s story in a way that ultimately strengthens their bond vs just retreading his path, especially since Echo’s trauma hasn’t been fully explored yet. 16 episodes seems like such a short amount of time for it all to come together, the season 3 announcement on the Star Wars site referred to TBB as ‘this part of the story’ which leaves the door open for a potential spinoff/continuation which could involve Tech but I’m definitely reading into that too much.

[lykos-attic]

Randomly thinking about how angry the way Winter is treated in the narrative makes me

They show the real Winter and acknowledge who he actually is JUST to once again present him as the mean stuck-up prince??? HE GOES THROUGH SO MUCH DEVELOPMENT IN WINTER TURNING JUST TO BE SHOWN AS THE SAME OLD 'ANGRY RACIST STUCK UP PRINCE'???? IN THE NEXT BOOKS LIKE WHAT. TUI. PLEASE. I KNOW THAT WE AREN'T SEEING IT FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE, SO WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HES THINKING BUT. HE BARELY CHANGES AT ALL... LIKE AT THE END OF WINTER TURNING HE REALIZES THAT THE WINGLET IS HIS TRIBE AND HE CARES ABOUT THEM MORE THAN A RANKING AND A FAMILY WHO (mostly) DOESN'T LOVE HIM. THEN IN THE NEXT BOOKS HE'S BACK TO THE SAME OLD 'WINTER'. TUI.

I've seen people calling Winter 'nasty mean racist man' HAVE YOU READ THE BOOKS. DRAGON RACISM WAS SO RAMPANT IN THE BOOKS.... LIKE ALMOST EVERY CHARACTER HAD A MOMENT WHERE THEY WERE BEING THE DRAGON EQUIVALENT OF RACIST. WHICH OBVIOUSLY, ISN'T GOOD, BUT TO JUST PIN IT ON WINTER??? WHAT??? HIS HATRED OF NIGHTWINGS WAS FUCKING DRILLED INTO HIS BRAIN GROWING UP, HE GETS PAST THAT AND LEARNS TO NOT BE DRAGON RACIST. HE REALIZES 'OH FUCK. MAYBE THE THINGS MY SHALLOW HIERARCHICAL SOCIETY TAUGHT ME AREN'T TRUE'. DID WE READ THE SAME BOOKS, WHERE APPARENTLY, NONE OF THAT HAPPENED?? MEANWHILE DARKSTALKER, THE FANDOMS 'PRECIOUS MISUNDERSTOOD BABY' TRIED TO COMMIT RACIAL GENOCIDE BECAUSE HE HAD AN ABUSIVE DAD WHO HAPPENED TO BE AN ICEWING??? (And when Winter is upset about this he is treated as unreasonable by the guy who KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON (Qibli) )

I've been a Winter defender for so long, surrounded by a fandom who mostly hates him and now that I have emotional intelligence since I'm not nine (no offense to nine year olds 🙏) and I have a place to ramble where I'll be listened to I can finally defend my angsty ice dragon I will absolutely do so. This stupid ass garbagefire of a series has meant so much to me over the years and I'm passionate about so many of these characters. I adore Winter so much, reading through the books for like the 50th time is so amazing, like I used to immediately hate moon because she was called a Mary sue, Qibli because people find him annoying, Kinkajou because she was the 'annoying one', but now I love all of those characters. I can see traits of all of them in me, and they mean a lot to me. Turtle's anxiety, Qibli's Sociotropy, (needing to be liked by everyone) hypervigilance (I've never seen people talking about it, and to see it represented in my favorite book series makes me feel seen.), fierce loyalty, Winter's guilt, self-loathing, desperate desire to please his parents, Moon's social anxiety, nervousness, and love of reading, Kinkajou's desire to be a dragon others notice and remember.

This turned into a rant about a completely different thing I'm so sorry, I'm not even done I have so much to say about these guys

Please don't let this flop I poured my heart out about this book series for children

[tadpole-apocalypse]

So Astarion says during the post Cazador cemetery scene that he didn’t like Tav at first. Which makes sense given what we learn about him throughout the game, but it really got me thinking about I see Morgan and Astarion’s relationship and what they actually see in one another beyond the physical, so here is some stream of consciousness about their early relationship that I can't stop thinking about.

Firstly, I think the decision to seduce her was entirely instinct; I doubt Astarion actually sat down and planned to manipulate her, because it wouldn’t even be a debate to him. Ofc he’d seduce and manipulate her, that’s how he’s done things for the past two centuries. He doesn’t even think of doing otherwise; it's just how he is around others he perceives as useful to him.

She vouches for him to the others after the vampire reveal, mostly because she’s pragmatic and they need all the help they can get for the tadpole crisis.

When he tries to bite her, she has no moral qualms about digging into his mind. Not only does she see he has fed only from vermin, but she can feel echoes of his hunger, his revulsion, and then the barest bit of satiety as the putrid blood slides down his throat. Then he starts pathetically begging her for her blood, so she takes pity on him. It’s also pragmatic, she would rather not camp with a starving vampire, but it's mostly pity.

It turns out she likes being bit, so when he turned on the seduction she was like…ok fine let’s do this. It was casual for her to start, as well. She thought his over the top seduction was a joke, and didn’t realize he actually trying to seriously seduce her this way until she teases him about it at the tiefling party (during the scene where he’s trying out all his lines on her). He doesn’t have her “hooked” the way he wants; She still hasn't dropped her guard around him entirely and he needs her on his side against Cazador. She would also have spent some of the tiefling party flirting with Halsin and trying to get him to drink with her. Karlach and Lae’zel also shoot their shot with her here.

There's a really interesting dialogue you can get when holding the Sussur flower as a Sorcerer (or any magic user I presume) because it blocks all magic use. Astarion made a comment that we should fix not having our magic asap, because "he wasn't with us for our personality" like in a cutesy "oh darling I'm joking but am I really" way. He just for a moment becomes very transparent about the transactional nature of their relationship and because I had Morgan react with panic I thought she would have been really upset by what he says here. They would have a big argument around this part of the story that does threaten to end whatever they have going and it’s only until he sees she is actually really shaken and left vulnerable by the experience that he tries to fix his mistake.

Clearly what he was doing up until now wasn't getting him the results he desired, so he has to change tactics and actually try to cozy up to her in a way she will respond to.

He stops with the clichéd lines and act, which lets them talk more candidly with one another. At this point she's still being tight lipped about her background, and all she's shared is that she sold fortunes in the city to pay her rent. But they have things in common because they are both selfish cunts who reluctantly start to care about the others around them, and they can have animated conversations about fashion, local baldur's gate politics, and necromancy.

He spontaneously offers favors, like mending her clothing or slipping healing potions/baubles he nicked off of the last merchant they passed into her bag. He does them as an incentive to get her in bed again but it feels nice when she is genuinely impressed by his work. She has an eye for detail that he grows to appreciate, particularly when it comes to himself as she is not at all the type to give him the shallow praise he wants. It becomes a game for him to get those little reactions from her because of his actions.

Then by the time they’ve made it to Last Light Inn he realizes that he’s even starting to look at her entirely differently. Her large nose was quite elegant actually, and her freckles weren’t nearly as hideous as he first thought, and actually in this lighting she was quite stunning, really. And her blood was really really good.

His oh moment happens after the Gauntlet of Shar. She clocks his scars as Infernal way back to their first time together, sketches it out so he can see it for himself, and is generally like “hey I see this is important to you, I can help if you let me.” And she proves it by killing Yurgir, no questions asked. Just goes out and kills a devil just because he needed it. He’s a step closer to achieving his seemingly impossible goals because of her. And she’s covered in devil blood and gore and reeks because no one has showered in weeks, but she’s looking at him with fondness in her eyes and blood in her mouth from the Merregon arrow she took to the face, and his chest hurts in a way it hasn’t in many years if ever.

So what starts as him molding himself into a more attractive honeypot for Morgan ends up being something that makes him go...oh I want this. I want this to be real.

Morgan herself grew up in a cult where her social relationships and interactions with outsiders were heavily controlled, and she was always warned about sweet talking men looking to steal her away. Once she got free of the cult, those guys became her type. She was perfectly content to have short but intense relationships that inevitably self destructed, and this was how she expected things to go if both of them survived their situations, until she caught feelings too.

[atokniiro]

HOLY SHIT YOU"RE ALIVE!!! So what's the main thing that got you MIA all these years?

The 6 year hiatus explained

Many things in my life has changed in the time since I first started work on Treehouse ch. 13:

Becoming a parent, getting my master's degree, starting a PhD, dropping out of said PhD, looking for a job during covid lockdown, working a full-time job, building and moving into a house, and generally growing older and less energetic.

With all that, it has been hard to find the time and the motivation at the same time to sit down and draw, and the state of the new chapter of Treehouse itself was not helping.

As you may be able to tell from ch. 13, the story has now reached its first really major turning point, which will set off the overarching plot and several character arcs. I came to a point where I was deeply unsatisfied with what I'd come up with for the continuation, and I hit a hard writer's block trying to figure out how to proceed.

All of this together made it demotivating to even open up the Manga Studio project file, so progress simply stopped happening, leaving the chapter not even half done for years. And then, 2½ weeks ago in the middle of my summer vacation, the stars somehow aligned, and I figured it out and finished the chapter at a — for my standard — blinding pace.

I don't think the motivation was suddenly granted to me by divine intervention, but it was rather the result of many small sources of inspiration accumulating enough + realizing and accepting that I had to kill some darlings (I ended up having to redraw several already finished panels and even deleting a whole, fully sketched page!).

I feel really good about Treehouse right now. My daily life feels well-balanced and calm, and I have more clarity about the series than ever before. I have developed a process and workflow that I think works really well for me, and most importantly, I am having FUN!

I'm currently writing the script for the next 3 chapters, and I can't wait to start drawing them ✨

[reuna]

ive been wracking my brain over something. knowing full well Israel is responsible for genocide. knowing full well its system is an apartheid. knowing full well the reasons that have justified both the 1940s English zionist occupation, the First Intifada and so on. knowing full well if Israel were to end, its problems would stop existing.

Why do I still feel bad by accepting violent protest and defense against a physical risk of violence and of ethnic cleansing as a legitimate mean of changing things? why does part of me, alongside "polite society", still dare criticise Palestinians that chose to side with paramiritary political parties and organizations to protect themselves from harm? why do I still entertain the possibility that everything would have been "fine" had not Hamas attacked or something, as if a peace built on injustice was still a peace and not a strongly enforced status quo, where people would technically still be dying under, as Gaza was reduced to an actual concentration camp ever since?

i have made my choice by standing with Palestine against what's essentially a criminal post-colonial organization disguised as a legitimate government. but even then. how would we work after the dissolution of Israel. how would we integrate

Wow, hi. I honestly didn't remember I enabled asks at some point, this is the first one ever. Thank you. I dunno if I'm able to give a good answer tho, I'm just one person who's following this from afar, feeling powerless. I am in no way an authority on any of this, I am not Palestinian, and I strongly recommend following Palestinian users here on tumblr for an insight from people who are directly affected by this.

But I have been thinking about the thought processes you describe, and the many people who seem to really believe, that if Hamas hadn't attacked on October 7., everything would be fine. And I think a lot of it (for the non-zionists who aren't reveling in the slaughter israel is doing) has to do with just... the fear of change.

The status quo is what we know. It might be horrible and deadly, but it's familiar. There's a sense of safety in knowing how things are, and I think it's a very human impulse to just resist change. After all, for all you know the change could make everything worse. And I think the fear of change is more powerful the more privilege we have. People who aren't in the oppressed group rarely even see the oppression others are dealing with every day, and bringing it out and talking about it, feels like "rocking the boat". Everything was just okay before, wasn't it? Why make such a big deal of it? I personally don't suffer, so let it go.

On the topic of Palestine, however, I think there is also the fact that before October, people had lulled themselves into an illusion of stability. Something like "the Palestinians have accepted their fate and so, we should let it go" (and this was never the case, mind you, israel and its allies have just been very efficient in keeping things from us). This is of course exactly what israel wants: That the Palestinians just accept their fate under israeli oppression and stop resisting. And that's why the attack was such a shock for them. Realising that no, the people they had oppressed and tortured and raped and kidnapped and stolen from still didn't just submit to them. They dare resist and remind the people in the West that they still exist, they haven't been beaten into submission.

And this is, of course, what it will always be like, until the oppression stops.

I, personally, feel like the only really proper solution would be one Palestinian state, in which Palestinians and (former) Israelis would live on equal terms. I also believe this is entirely possible, based on the things I've read and heard about the time before the zionist project, and the experiences of people in, for example, South Africa, where the white people believed they would be attacked if apartheid was abolished... and they weren't. And before anyone who reads this tells me I'm talking Hamas propaganda or some shit like that: No, these thoughts come from Ilan Pappe (israeli), several Palestinians themselves, anti-zionist israelis and Jews across the world, and historical records.

I sincerely do believe liberty and equality are possible and worth fighting for. It is painful, for all parts involved, in different ways, but it's the only way to go if we want real safety. I think this is true for every society here on earth.

[foodsies4me]

So basically: Alec is super magically powerful and was able to keep a tendril of the unacknowlesged soul bond alive as a kid that was making him sick and corrupting the newly formed soul bond?

and now Magnus healed it and the bond is complete and Malec are currently cuddling in bonded bliss?

Wowwwwwwwwwwww 🙈🥹 I get more invested in AWG every single chapter. So excited to see Malbec exploring all the new layers of both of their magic + soul bond.

I wouldn’t say super magically powerful, but he is powerful yes! And it was maintaining that tendril that was a king him so ill, so yes for that part as well!

I apologize for the incoming ramble, it’s going to be a lot.

Alec’s magic is pretty unique in the sense that it reacts both in the way a normal shadowhunter’s magic works as well as the way a warlock’s would that is to say:

Shadowhunter magic - no intent, only runes. The magic reacts to the runes so even if you were to think about using a rune that would make you weaker (for whatever reason) if you use a strength rune, you will get stronger.

Warlock magic - mostly intent when untrained, when trained it’s intent + spell to focus. Intent will however always take the upper hand so if a warlock were to use a spell that should summon fire, but decides they really want it to create a jet stream of water instead, they would be summoning water.

Alec is using his magic the way a shadowhunter would (largely because he didn’t know he had magic the way warlocks do) except the intent is leaking through which is how the familias rune he drew on Bubbles by example ended up being a permanent bond that lets him track Bubbles (and more dangerously would let someone track him though Bubbles, which Magnus and Ragnor are going to have a conniption about).

In a similar vein, the philia rune which is just meant to be a decorative rune that shows familial love, was affected by his desire to draw this rune to show Max he loves him and that he’s safe/cared for when he’s scared. As a result, it now reacts to Max (or currently Madzie’s emotions), which in return makes it so other runes can activate if the magic in the rune feels it necessary to do so. Examples: the enlighten rune activating for Max when he’s scared of the dark, the familias rune activating and forcing Alec run over, the philia rune activating and spreading love and warmth to soothe etc.

Another thing with Alec’s magic is that it has never been restrained.

I already mentioned this, I think, but warlocks are used to containing their magic (even when they flare it in greeting it’s still not unleashing their full strength) because it’s considered impolite. The other reason is that it could be dangerous for untrained magic - a child could have a nightmare about monsters and, depending on how powerful they are, accidentally bring those monsters to life through their magic. (This is an extreme example, but that’s the main logic.)

Alec’s magic has however been given free reign to do what it wants because:

There were no warlocks around to notice;

Even if there were his magic mostly feels like that of a regular Nephilim at first glance;

His magic is perpetually exhausted because of the bond he had been unconsciously maintaining, so that would have made it even harder for a warlock to catch;

Alec didn’t realize he was doing anything in the first place so he wouldn’t have thought of putting a stop to it and trying to better control his magic.

All to say that Alec has the magical power of an adult (a young one, but an adult nonetheless) warlock with the finesse of that of a newborn. And just like how having a baby with the strength of a bodybuilder would be slightly disastrous, so is this. Ergo, the first time Alec tries to summon fire when Ragnor and Magnus are training him, he nearly destroys a full wing in the Spiral Labyrinth and burns off Ragnor’s eyebrows.😂

Sorry again for the long ramble, I have so much worldbuilding and nowhere to put it so you became the ramble victim. 😁

But yes, the idea is to wrap up the first part of this series in the next two chapters (with some more Malec being cute) and to finish with Alec’s official appointing ceremony before we start with the sequel that will focus on Alec’s magic, as well as some other plot lines that have already been set in place.😊

[theblackat333]

Am I crazy or am I onto something

so this website I used to post on, basically just did a thing that definitely gives priority to “sponsored” content over indie content. I’m not saying which website it is, in case they take it back, or if I get my information wrong.

I feel like this is part of a growing trend in most major social medias, of screwing over artists, but still trying to maintain the appearance that “ANYONE can make it in here, you just need to post frequently!”, and while plenty of people have gotten whole careers out of making art for social media, I think that’s about to become VERY, very hard for anyone trying to start from scratch. Looking at all the social medias I post on, the only places I’ve ever gotten decent traction with for original content, have been YouTube, and very recently, tiktok. Tumblr is pretty hard for me to use, and I keep forgetting to post on here, I don’t even know why I bother with WEBTOON, I’m pretty sure I’m shadowbanned on instagram, and even so, I hate their algorithm and stupid fucking cropping, and I refuse to touch twitter.

Im going to get my little tinfoil hat on, but one thing all the places I’ve had major problems with have in common, is that they have a huge problem with AI generated “art”. If I’m going to get really conspiracy theory here, I think a lot of places are purposefully trying to push more AI things out to people, and reduce the amount of actual art getting traction. Since, yanno, social media companies are tech companies, and I think we all know that your average tech company wants to push out AI as far as it will possibly go.

This is all a crummy theory based on nothing but vibes, and maybe I’m just not very good at posting, but I think a lot of social media places just really dislike art, cause it’s nigh impossible to consistently pump out decent looking art on a daily basis. But it’s very easy to post 5 shitty AI images every day without fail, just saying.

[firenati0n]

so I learned today that my dissertation that I thought I monumentally fucked up actually got the highest mark I could have achieved, and I am now the proud owner of a master's degree, and I may be getting fucking published, and a year's worth of tension and stress is finally starting to seep out of my body, and my nervous system can maybe have another fighting chance at regulating (unlikely), but—

The first thing my friends and family said to me was "proud of you!" and in the same breath they all, independently, said "you better also be proud of yourself" and then my mother said "your happiness always seems to be short-lived and fleeting, why is that?" and then she hit me with a "you stress yourself out to the point of illness and work yourself crazy only to enjoy none of the results" and—

boy howdy was I at a loss for words because she's right and i hate hearing my close friends and family echo the same sentiment of: I simply do not allow myself to enjoy any fruits of my labor???? I will bleed myself dry for validation and achievement and praise and love and then feel completely fucking insane for even wanting it in the first place.

It's why I stopped writing, why I abandoned so many threads. I wasn't getting any validation. I felt totally worthless.

and then I feel depths of shame previously unexplored at my Big Age for wanting some rest and peace (ironic that i beat myself up for wanting to recharge after I literally studied psych and wellbeing and the importance of rest!!).

I guess I just feel selfish for wanting to celebrate myself sometimes. And feel unable to be happy for myself because I hate boasting. So I'm going to hold myself accountable and say that I'm proud of all I've overcome to get to this point in my life, a point I did not anticipate being at 5 years ago, or even a year ago.

Onwards and upwards. 💛

p.s. I could not have finished that fucking dissertation without the emotional support of the gazillion rwrb fics I read throughout my writing process. I genuinely used ao3 as a coping mechanism and a rewards system for me to power through what was probably the hardest year of my life (for many reasons beyond academic).

to all of my writer/creator/artist/friend mutuals and the general rwrb fic/art community (I know you won't see this but i love you all the same), please know that any gratitude I express will never be enough. if I've ever screamed in your inbox or comments sections, know that it comes from a place of deep, genuine, at times debilitating emotion. y'all literally kept me afloat during some of the worst months of my life. You continue to keep me afloat. I don't know you, and you don't know me, but I know your words, and that is a privilege.