#another goal reached

[not-so-mundane-after-all]

Quiet night on Pabu

[mitamicah]

I redrew probably my most slay picture that I took of the SYS tour x'D

[courfee]

monday snippet

thank you so much to the most lovely @messrsage for the tag (pretending that its still monday)

it's been a while, but here is a snippet from the neighbour reg fic that's been plaguing me for months :') (non-explicit nsfw, so beware)

“Fuck, Reg,” James pants into his mouth, the broken voice making Regulus’ head spin. That is until James continues. “We– ngh– I really shouldn’t...” “Shut up. Stop that,” Regulus snaps, instantly pulling away which earns him a whine from James. “Do you want this?” “I–” James squeezes his eyes shut, turning his face away from Regulus, but his hands stay firmly where they are, strong fingers curled around Regulus’ hips. “Use your fucking words, Potter. Do you want to fuck me?” James’ grip on his hips tightens, a punched out breath escaping him. “Reg...” “I need a clear answer or I will get up and get myself off. Do you want me? Yes or no? It’s not that difficult, even you have to be capable of knowing how to use those words.” At Regulus’ sharp spoken words James moans. Regulus will never understand why this is what does it for James, half the time Regulus doesn’t even talk to him with the purpose of turning him on. If James talked to him in this tone Regulus would probably want to cry, not get his dick out. And yet, here James is, obviously flustered, dark eyes once again trained on Regulus. “Yes,” he groans, somewhere between arousal and defeat. “Fuck, yes, I want you Regulus. I’ve never wanted anyone this much.” And that is more than enough for Regulus.

no pressure tagging @perfect-snaccccccc @jmeslovr @delicris @messerflower <33

[eldrtchmn]

Commission update 🖊️

I plan to start all the remaining b&w portraits this week, then reopen 3-4 slots with a late October/early November starting time

And like usual the slots will be available on my Ko-fi

[constantvariations]

Why Some People Don't Like Jaune Arc

I've seen some folk confused about the dislike towards Jaune, such as @the-sapphic-raven and @foxgirltail so I thought I'd compile all the reasons (that I can remember without a whole-ass rewatch) in a single post. For the most part, it's not the character himself that earns ire but the way he's used

Volume One

All the goodwill Jaune built up by being sweet towards Ruby is immediately soured by his chauvinistic attitude towards Weiss and his dismissal of Pyrrha, a strange choice given this is supposed to be a progressive society/show. And Pyrrha, the prodigy of the entire school, is somehow into being treated like dirt

There's also the matter of his sneaking into a school dedicated to protecting people from man-eating monsters despite the fact that Jaune had negative skills (while somehow being from a long line of warriors). It makes for good story, but it's also an incredibly selfish and dangerous decision that put people, most directly his teammates, at risk due to his inexperience. This would've been smoothed over had he actually been proactive, but instead he sleeps in class and Pyrrha has to take initiative in training him

The biggest problem comes in the "Jaune Arc" where his generic bullying plot not only overshadows the anti-faunus attitude, not only comes before Blake or Yang get an arc, but takes up an entire twenty-five percent of the first season. That was a whole month of Jaune instead of RWBY back in the days of release

Volume Two

Once again, Jaune has a disproportionate amount of time dedicated to him but this time he's joined by Neptune so we can have a love triangle between these two and Weiss. Given that Jaune and Neptune are voiced by Luna and Shawcross, the writers who, yknow, write Weiss's every word and action, this comes off as super creepy. Additionally, he pursues Weiss despite her multiple unambiguous rejections, and the narrative is clearly on his side. And then, after learning that Neptune turned down Weiss - something well within his right to do - Jaune gets pissy and confronts him with language objectifying Weiss as some sort of possession and forces Neptune to reveal something he's obviously very ashamed about

There's also the man-in-a-dress "joke" that shouldn't be considered a joke in a gender-equal society, but that's simply more bad writing choices with Jaune as the victim

Volume Three

There's not as much here since Jaune plays more of a supporting role to Pyrrha, which is where he really shines as a character. There's that bit during the Vytal Festival with the team name shenanigans throwing off the scene's rhythm, but it's more of an annoyance than anything else

But then after Pyrrha sends him away, instead of calling Glynda like he'd been about to do or any authority, he calls Ruby and breaks his phone before calling anyone else. Grief does make people do stupid things, but this is goes beyond that. This was a choice of the writers to refuse Pyrrha backup so she could die, leading into the most consistent complaint of Jaune in all subsequent volumes: trauma hogging

Volume Four

While Ruby, Ren, and Nora get only outfit changes, Jaune gets upgrades to both his armor and weapon using Pyrrha's crown and sash. This is pretty blatant favoritism since Ren and Nora don't get anything of hers to symbolize their connection to Pyrrha despite them also being teammates and friends. This trauma favoritism continues when Ruby wakes from a nightmare about Pyrrha only for the scene to be about Jaune's feelings. We never come back to Ruby's trauma (unless you want to count that one talk with Oscar in V5, which still isn't great) and Ren/Nora are completely passed over

Then in the Nuckleavee fight, instead of Ruby being the one to rescue Qrow from oncoming attack because she's got the speed and that's her uncle, it's Jaune who saves the day. It's Jaune who gets that silent handgrab with Qrow, which means nothing because these two don't really know each other but would mean a wealth of things had it been Ruby instead

Also, the sword sword "upgrade." It's not Jaune's fault that it's poorly designed, I'm just legally obligated to say it sucks every time I talk about this fight

Volume Five

When Qrow and Lionheart talk about Raven, Jaune knows she's Yang’s mom despite the two of them sharing maybe 10 words with each other. Yang didn't even tell Blake, her own partner, much about Raven, but for whatever reason she told Jaune? Sus

The climatic fight nerfed everyone, but Weiss and Cinder got special stupid juice specifically so Jaune could be the main character. Cinder spent the last two seasons building up and reinforcing her hatred of Ruby, even agreeing to Raven's alternative plan just for a stab at the kid. Yet her attention during the big fight is solely on Jaune because...? And he goes toe-to-toe with her! She was trained by a professional huntsman for years as a child while Jaune has, what? Maybe a year of training? And she's a Maiden! The deck is so stacked against Jaune it's not even funny

Then to punish him, instead of attacking Ruby - who's entirely preoccupied by Emerald, his very first friend, and the person he crossed continents to follow - Cinder goes after Weiss. His crush. Who conveniently forgot her sword isn't a wand and her glyphs can do just about anything so her aura could be broken

Weiss got fridged so Jaune could discover his semblance. Female empowerment at its finest

(Before anyone tries it, no, I'm not saying Ruby should've been fridged instead. The situation as written is set up so that somebody HAS to be fridged, which is stupid. This could've been revealed in a million ways that didn't involve girls being maimed)

Volume Six

Getting aggressive with Oscar was out of line. I understand (not condone) Qrow being violent because he's been in the game longer than any of the kids and just watched an entire HD powerpoint of Ozpin's lies. Being Oz's spy was essentially his life

Jaune does not have that same depth of investment. One can argue that he was acting on his grief of Pyrrha, but that falls flat when neither Ren or Nora come even close to the same reaction

Once again, Jaune hogs all the Pyrrha-related trauma, even getting a visit from her mom(?) while looking at a giant statue of her (despite the fact that Pyrrha blatantly said in V2 she didn't like being treated like she's above others)

Volume Seven

Jaune hogs the camera for JNR's new landing strategies, his hair is dumb, and grown women fawning over a teenager is gross, but overall Jaune this volume is fantastic. Super swell in his supporting role here and that bit where he compliments Nora after her failed flirting always makes me giggle

Volume Eight

Imma be honest, I don't remember much of V8 and I do not have the time, will, or energy to rewatch it, so I'll just skip to the biggest thing in the volume: Penny's death.

Jaune did not try hard enough to save her. Whereas any other time this trope of mercy killing during combat has been implemented, it's typically done as a reluctant last resort after every other option has been exhausted. Cinder was still preoccupied with Weiss and Jaune's pretty beefy; he could've made a dash for the exit while still healing her

Instead, he boosts her aura for a whole 2 seconds before agreeing to stab her in the heart.

Another fridge for Jaune's collection

Volume Nine

Everyone's fears of Jaune stealing the spotlight once again get confirmed. He gets a legendary role in a story loved world wide, a pedestal only matched by Ruby's weird deified status in the rtx V9 epilogue, which may or may not be canon

Weiss is into him for "being mature" despite never having shown a preference for older men. Not counting villains we have Ozpin, Oobleck, Port, Klein, Qrow, and Ironwood; all of whom could've been used to establish this trait, yet it only comes out with Jaune? Highly suspicious

His relationship with the paper pleasers is incredibly terrible. He has no respect for their culture and treats them like children despite their obvious intelligence. It rings far too closely to missionaries "saving" people, usually of color, in third world countries

Then, when Ruby finally snapped and is venting her frustrations, Jaune cuts in to take his rage out on her. Jaune, at this point, is at least in his mid thirties, so we get a grown ass man yelling at a seventeen year old girl who then runs away, putting her in a vulnerable position that is immediately taken advantage of. Nobody blames him for being upset, but as an adult he now has a responsibility to take care of how he treats people significantly younger than him

Not even an hour after Ruby drinks the tea right in front of them, the entire group hugs Jaune with big, bright smiles. Ruby not once had someone actually comfort her despite her obvious failing mental health, but Jaune gets comforted by both the team and the narrative

Thanks for surviving this far

Feel free to add on, but I'm tired of this being in my drafts so Jaune be upon ye

If y’all disagree with any of the points, I'd love to hear your view and have a nice discussion

[toddhewitt]

4.06 / 4.10

"and we will be your partners, in the fight to free [the new world]?"

[fcthots]

keep in mind, they're rough

[good-beanswrites]

oomph i know i'm definitely really early with this ask (changing time zones for vacation is weird o.O) but I was thinking about it over the past few days

for the lights, camera, sing your sins au, are the interrogations somewhat scripted where the prisoner knows what to say and Es is mostly just reactions or questions to that? I feel like we've talked about this but I have forgotten jandjnf o.O

because all i can think about is Es getting beaten up or close to tears in the first voice dramas and man if it's scripted, i feel bad for the prisoners who have to do this to es o.O

Hi Mug :D No worries, a slightly late reply because I was on vacation too haha! 🍂

And I mean it's whatever works best in people's minds, but I always pictured there being very little scripted, actually! I'd hoped that everything was as natural as possible. The prisoners just have to make the little shift to act as if they did follow through with the murder instead of talk about how close it came -- other than that, everything that happens is the characters' honest questions, answers, and reactions.

When explaining the no-violence ban to everyone, Fuuta and Kazui (and later Amane) tell Jackalope how they would think during their interrogations. Jackalope instructs them all how to act in order to stay consistent with the barriers/losing strength stuff. I think the only explicitly scripted action is Mikoto's violence, since Red admits he may resort to that if Blue felt threatened. Jackalope tells him to get to the point of violence no matter how the interrogation goes, as it's necessary (to proving Mikoto's situation, to driving home the central ideas of Mikoto's case, to reveal Milgram's process and 'limits,' etc).

And yeah, it definitely tears him apart to actually do it -- he has to verify that Es signed up for this several times (which they did), and it still takes a lot of resolve to follow through with hurting an innocent kid like that. I imagine that's one of the reasons he's not really upset that Kotoko surprised everyone by intervening: he felt so guilty about the attack and was grateful someone came in to stop it.

Although it wasn't physical pain, Mahiru is also really upset that she brought Es such emotional strain. She thinks it's cruel to fool them into feeling bad for her when she's okay, and it takes a lot of reassurance from the others to convince her it's for the sake of the experiment -- every part of the process has toyed with everyone's emotions, she's not a terrible person for doing so.

Whether in the middle of the trial or the final executions, I think any characters who die next trial will also feel awful for making Es mourn for them when they're still alive. It's not all one-sided guilt, though. It's balanced by anger/sorrow towards Es for condemning them to death in the first place because of their decisions. Any time they get too caught up in thinking "I'm so cruel for tricking them like this," they have a moment of "well, they did specifically order my death, so..."

When I'm looking for a pure fix-it, I'll let those emotions go pretty easily <3 But unfortunately my writer ass is never free from The Themes asdfsdf and sometimes I still get caught up in the project's major focus -- not only is Es facing the original Milgram dilemma of choosing whether or not to follow authority, but now the prisoners are faced with the exact same decision. Do they physically/mentally hurt this child "for the experiment?" Because someone in authority told them to? They're doing this to prove a point about justice and fairness, but where should they draw the line? At what point is it not for the greater good and they are just causing more harm?

I think I mentioned it before but in this au the prisoners are extremely motivated by the promise that this experiment will help others like them. Yuno wants to make a statement about society's views on abortion and sex work. Muu wants to make a difference for bullying victims. Kazui hopes to be a voice for all those who have had to keep theirs quiet about something. Mikoto hopes his story creates more awareness and acceptance for people who are usually terribly stereotyped and feared. Kotoko wants to bring to light the problem of corruption and what can be done about it, and so on. In the end, they can always justify causing a little emotional/physical harm because they are doing it for a good reason.

[zestyderg]

Drawing for that fic idea I had.

Two dramatic bitches who can't stand each other and the very ill child they have to travel with to ensure she doesn't die.

ZZ wishes his Majestic Vessel was not dying of a magic disease so he can get on with world domination and not be stuck with this aggravating cowboy.

Joe wishes he mailed ZZ a pipebomb when the skull was still in his body so he didn't have to tolerate him now for Dina's sake.

Dina wishes she was literally anywhere else and not dying of a supernatural illness.

[schnaf]

.

[deus-ex-mona]

series i’m gatekeeping from my family vs series i’m ✨ok✨ with my family knowing i’m into:

[ascalonianpicnic]

You know, one thing I like a lot about verdant brink is that every event ties back to the meta event of the map. And it's not like drizzlewood where every event is designed with the goal of progressing the meta, instead it's that the meta is just this constantly running cycle on verdant brink, it's always going whenever you pop in, and every event is part of it because the meta is designed in a way so every event can tie to it without it being forced. The events are all helping the crash survivors and the locals get and maintain safe footholds in the jungle. And the meta is all about the same thing.

I like how you don't have to drop everything you're doing when the meta rolls around, because you've already been doing it. It's the thing that annoys me most about the amnytas map honestly. I'll be working on the event achievement for one of the bastions and oop gotta drop everything because now it's time for the meta so nothing else will get done on this map. Like sometimes the verdant brink meta will cut off what I'm doing, but I'll have a clear countdown to sunset at the same time and I know I just have to run through the same event chain to get back to where I was. In amnytas I just have to go to the event location and wait for the event to pop up eventually and hope the meta doesn't interrupt me.

And like I can see my impact in verdant brink as I go through events too. I help the npcs find a better place to hold out, I help the bases build up, I help claim and maintain footholds in the jungle. And yeah the jungle undoes all my work but I see it happen and I see why it happens when night hits and it's just really cool and i think a map like that where the meta is both more passive and involved in everything would be cool to see again. Like drizzlewood and gyala are an Active Push towards the threat, and in amnytas the threat just shows up on schedule every 2 hours, but verdant brink feels like a fight against the encroaching threat, you're not going to it, you're preparing for it to come to you.

And then theres the canopy bosses as a little extra bonus I guess. They're not my favorite part, though the wyvern boss you have to glide around and throw stuff onto is mechanically pretty cool.

[elsyrel]

I played the demo of Touchstarved and... I knew it. I knew I would get obsessed. I love it T______T I love the artists and the writers, I missed so much finding new content of such quality. The story and the characters just feel special. I’ve just played the demo and I know already I’m gonna love it (both with Last Legacy and the Arcana, I didn’t properly fall for the characters until I started each of their routes, but just starting the prologue they caught my attention... I have the same feeling with Touchstarved. I just KNOW I’m gonna get obsessed, lol) But honestly, I don’t know which character is my fav, lol. I fucking love all of them, I seriously don’t even know which route will I play first. Each as their own  charm... I might toss a coin??? Lmao. And the art is so beautiful ;-;!!! Of course, I’m especially weak to the blushy sprites, lololololololololol Just one little thing... I’ve played for hours just to see all the dialogue options... and somehow, I STILL MANAGED TO NOT GET VERE’S AND KURAS’S RED OPTIONS OMFG. How. How do you get themmmm??? Which is the magic combination??? I need to see everything, pleasssssseeeee orz

[fromtheseventhhell]

Itch.io is hosting a "Games for Gaza" bundle on their website, where you can purchase a bundle of 256 games for $10 (at a minimum, more is always welcome and appreciated). All proceeds are going to Medical Aid for Palestine and they've almost hit a goal of $300,000; there's a week left and plenty of time to raise more money and awareness, so please share and donate if you can.

[mushed-kid]

i have to figure out what i wanna study so i can get into university and get a job and a future and stuff��

[freebooter4ever]

i send my friend suggestions of tourist places to see in his new country (his contract was extended, lucky him!) or messages about friend of friends i have living there that he could maybe meet for fellow americans to talk to, and his response is always that he doesnt have time. and not in that exaggerated way that people do to seem busy. but in that bone tired way i recognize from him here in LA, that i recognize in myself.