#anywho getting you :D !

[sleepis4theweak]

I just saw your post on Mikey doing angry stimms and had to ask for more /nf since this is the first time I've seen someone draw angry stimms for a character (it's not that common from my perspective)

Thank you- love your artstyle so much!!! :D

(P.s. I also get angry stimmys too sometimes)

Aww- thank you so much for this ask! I am really, really happy you liked it!! And yeah I feel like angry stims aren't talked about as much...

Anyways I was really super excited to draw more- still using stims that I have done, though these are a little more uh... aggressive? I wanted to preface this by saying that I do these gently, or they are stims that I've replaced with something else hehe :)

For my angry stims a lot of it is based on frustration so it's kinda a lot of flailing? Like aggressive shaking. The biting one isn't something I've done in a while- and is one that I would try to do gently (would not recommend that one lol), and the punching of the thigh is something I tend to do (gently) when I'm hella frustrated with homework :)

[slugcatmusings]

What is the Rot? Why is the Rot?

Spoiler Warning and Holy Wall of Text Batman Warning. I got WAY too into questioning the turbo-cancer here, hopefully my rambling makes sense.

So, the Rot is… weird, from a biological standpoint. Really weird, if you stop to think about it. It’s most frequently described as some variation of cancer, and it certainly fits the criteria for it. Caused by damage to DNA? Check. Multiplies uncontrollably? Check. Comes in both benign and malignant forms, one stationary and the other mobile? Big fat check. Heck, even the Rot cysts eating other creatures kind of fits, according to some research I’ve done – there are apparently cancer cells that will eat other cells, which makes sense in hindsight since cancer cells are cells that have lost important genetic restrictions, which may include whatever lets cells identify other cells as “do not eat.”

(I ain’t a biology whiz and I’m doing research on the fly while getting my thoughts out here, so take whatever I say about biology with a grain of salt)

So, Rot is clearly cancer of some kind, right? Case closed. Except when me and a friend of mine were talking Rain World theories on Discord, she brought up some interesting points that got me thinking.

First point: Rot cells obviously mutate in a way that affects FAR more than just cell replication and termination. Some of the cysts can HEAR. As far as I know, cells in the body do not hear sounds. They communicate via chemical signals and maybe, MAYBE react to temperature. Hearing involves complicated, specialized sensory apparatus to pick up on vibrations in the air. Even if you simplify it and say that it’s only vibrations, that’s STILL a multicellular thing, not a single-cell thing. It’s something that took millions of years to evolve on Earth, if not billions.

And while Rain World’s timeline goes on for long enough that it those kinds of mutations might happen eventually, Rot cysts have the ability to hear pretty much right from the start – because even the Proto-Long-Legs react to your presence like the Daddy Long Legs do, and the Rot in Spearmaster’s campaign, where Pebbles has recently contracted it, reacts the same way as it does in later campaigns. It’s already able to hear.

As far as I know, cancer just means the same cell duplicating over and over again. Are more mutations possible with each division, as errors are made in the DNA during splitting? Probably. But not to THAT extent. There’s no way a lump of cancer somehow mutated the exact complicated genetic blueprint needed to grow organs, at least not without outside interference.

Second point: Cases of Rot are way too consistent across the board. Now, we don’t have a huge sample size to work from, but from what we see from both Pebbles’ Rot, and Hunter Long Legs, they’re… pretty similar. Hunter Long Legs is basically a mobile Rot cyst. They move the same way, seem to grow the same way (starts as a growth inside/on the body before eventually freeing itself from whatever wall/flesh it grew from in some capacity and moving elsewhere), they have the same senses, and they even eat the same way, via something like phagocytosis (how white blood cells “eat” invading organisms via engulfing them and breaking them down in a sac in their main “body.”)

Now, this doesn’t tell us much, because cancer, when it does emerge, is pretty consistent in symptoms/what the mutated cells do once they start replicating. It’s pretty much the same regardless of whatever organism the cancer is happening in. But what ISN’T consistent is what causes the DNA error in the cancer cell in the first place. IRL, cancer can be caused by all kinds of things – smoking, radiation poisoning, being out in the sun too long, drinking deadly chemicals and whatnot, anything that damages DNA. But in RW, the only time we ever hear Rot talked about, or see it present, is in the context of an iterator having f*cked up while mucking around with DNA. Pebbles was trying to create an organism that could change his own genome, and No Significant Harassment created Hunter as a messenger and probably mucked something up in the process in his haste to get them to Moon.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other causes of it, of course, we’re working with a sample size of two in an apocalyptic world with who knows how much potentially DNA-damaging stuff around, but… that’s still awfully consistent.

So, combining these points and everything we know to be canon, Rot is:

an organism that lives inside another organism

Until a certain condition is met, it cannot harm said host organism.

Once said condition is met, it goes out of control, wreaking havoc on the organism’s systems and mutating, giving it sensory capabilities and an appetite

Said condition is apparently someone messing up when re-arranging genomes, in yourself or others

It is widespread across multiple different species, at least iterators and slugcats but potentially other species as well.

Once you have a bad case of it, it is apparently NOT CURABLE. Pebbles tried everything he could think of but apparently exhausted all of his options by the time of the Survivor/Monk campaigns.

So, with all the context FINALLY laid out, here’s my wild theory: Rot isn’t a cancer. It’s a symbiote turned parasite. Specifically, I believe it’s a symbiotic microbe that lives inside the cells that make up every other creature in Rain World, and is held in check by a specific gene that all species share, and altering or getting rid of that gene causes it to go berserk, taking over and eventually mutating the host cells.

Yeah, I did watch Parasite Eve let’s plays as a kid, why do you ask? Anyway, hear me out here.

There is precedence for single-celled organisms living inside of other single-celled organisms. They’re referred to as intracellular endosymbiots (hopefully I got the spelling right there), and the most well-known one is probably the mitochondria. The powerhouse of the cell is thought to be descended from some bacteria way, WAY back that was engulfed by a larger cell and not only survived it, but BENEFITED from it. Since then those ancient proto-mitochondria and eukaryotic cells have mutually evolved to be dependent on each other. So it’s entirely possible for something similar to have happened in Rain World.

However, I don’t think it happened NATURALLY, here. Because something that’s able to take over a cell entirely and begin wildly mutating it is NOT something your average cell wants inside of it. There’s a VERY high chance of extinction if you do that. Which means that of course those funky bio-tech loving Ancients either took a look at a wildly dangerous cellular parasite and went “hmmm we can use this” or made one themselves.

Why did they do this? Who knows! Currently, I’m tied between “they needed a better powerhouse for the cell to power the various weird adaptations they’re building into various creatures,” “there was some sort of disease that this parasite gave immunity against and they wanted to make use of it,” and “it gave their creations massively powerful regeneration factors that made them much easier to maintain.” Possibly it was all three. Whatever the reason, the Ancients either found or created this parasite, and put it into their creations’ cells, hoping to reap the benefits.

Well, they got the benefits, but they also got a microbe that hijacked the cells and harnessed their pre-existing DNA blueprints to build organisms disguised as great big blobs of cancer. Which is not exactly ideal, but hey, they just had to figure out a way of keeping the cell hijacking from happening! And the way they ended up going about it was to alter the thing so that so long as there was a specific DNA sequence in the cell, it laid mostly dormant. All the benefits, none of the risks – so long as that specific string of genes remained intact.

And then BECAUSE it was so beneficial, they spread their artificial symbiote and it’s genetic reins throughout ALL of their creations, from the smallest pipe-cleaning slugs to the iterators. Which meant that as their purposed organisms replaced most of the original ecosystem, they spread the symbiote as well. Thus making it possible for pretty much ANY creature on the planet to come down with a bad case of the Rot. And with the iterators, I wouldn’t be surprised if this symbiote is tied to their self-destruction taboos. Try to cross yourself out? Well, it’s gonna maybe happen now, but it’ll be a slow painful death as you’re eaten alive from the inside and all your own parts turn against you, so was it really worth it?

And they never told their creations this perhaps even actively hid it, because why tell them the cause of the main deterrent to them mucking with their taboos? They might find a way around it. The iterators were left ignorant of how Rot works, and because of this they never figured out that Rot HAD a cure after all: rebuilding that genome that reins in the symbiote. Because why in the name of the Void would they repeat the same mistakes that gave them Rot in the first place, and potentially make it worse?

[mewkwota]

I Know What You Are... You Are Mega Man!

The differences between each Mega is something I love and appreciate, plus it's also fun to compare them side-by-side for it.

I think it's really amusing how they start with robots that slowly reach near-human traits, and then there's a straight-up human. Albeit, he is merged with a non-human being.

And then there's Volnutt. I know he could probably be narrowed down to an "artificial human", but I like the idea of tying him to his celestial origins as Trigger that are still half a mystery.

Such is my running-joke with him. He is just... Volnutt (currently).

[keeps-ache]

blood of the covenant

[ohitslen]

I work hard for my scholarship but I fight harder for ✨Chapter 7 of Easy to Care, Easy to Love✨💪🔥🔥

This chapter I give you answers for last chapter’s cliffhanger! Flustered Woowoo! Realizations! Wolfwood neatly remembering everything about Vash! What will all of this lead to for these two insufferable bastards?? Read to find out! 👀💖💖

[synthsays]

He's Back!

Non-text drawing ⬇️⬇️⬇️

We love a rendered Emmett lol

Idea belongs to @odddelorean

[namelessokamiart]

Hello!!! Love your Slugcat pole plant OC!

It seemed like a very interesting concept to me and that

And well, the truth is that just today I found out that it is an OC because a friend sent me the image on discord and I really didn't pay much attention to the small letters :'⟨

And well, since I have Discord, I used your OC a little to create a bot and play with my friend and so on, I mean I'm sorry if it bothers you but I really loved it. You draw super beautifully, what I would give to draw like you 😭

The thing is, I just wanted to say love your OC qwq

(and sorry for making a bot without asking [how curious that I named it Nameless and that your name is nameless])

Aw, well first off I'm flattered! Also haha that IS a funny coincidence xD

I'm glad you decided to reach out to me, I really appreciate it that~ and yes, it's totally fine if you use my work like that, as long as you aren't claiming the art as your own and not making money off it, then I think it's cool :3

I suppose just word to the wise, not all artists are cool with that so make sure you get permission first next time. Personally I prefer if I am told first but hey, its really hard to find the original poster sometimes.

If you're curious, his/their name is Mimic~! I have some vague personality ideas but they're mostly a fun doodle design for now.

(Also I peeked at your blog, I like your stuff! Keep up the good work! :3)

[cyberslam]

vampire AU rotating it in my head

[lesbiradshaw]

it's funny to look at DC (the comics & animation side at least) vs Marvel when it comes to 🌈🌈🌈

b/c it's been years since harlivy was made canon and they still get viral social media attention & fanarts + lgbt cast w/ names ppl actually recognize, then there's marvel whose execs (allegedly) send angry emails when pride flags show up in a background of a popular release + their lgbt rep almost never shows up/gets focus and most audiences can't even name them

very true lol. the mcu especially has done a shitty job especially at showing characters’ queerness on screen and even if they do portray it it’s in a way that can be easily edited out or written off BUT for the record these are my canonically queer marvel favs. deanoru, ayoaneka, and america chavez you will always be famous!

[donotfollowabandonedblog]

Im so dead huehuehue. art block go brrrrr. anyway. heard we can lewd the puppets now. big pog. i personally wont be sharing any nsfw art cuz- oh boy my anatomy is not grEat. but very cool. big W for the puppet lovers.

[tomahawk-swing]

Maha hardly caught a wink of sleep in the past 48 hours. He had rung up every old contact, gathered every little hint he could think of, any lead that might take him onto the right path.

The result of his search wasn’t anything to be proud of... but it was a start. They could barely be called “leads”, but he was certain that with some more digging, he might actually find some interesting information.

Dingo’s old PET, fortunately still functional, with muffled recordings of the last conversation to happen in the boy’s bedroom.

Data from his computer, right before Tomahawkman was last plugged out of the system.

An old wrist brace. Dingo was supposed to wear it from time to time, but it was long abandoned in his wardrobe.

And... a rock. A plain, old rock from very, very far away.

Unfortunately, Maha couldn’t divide his attention between them all. He needed some help.

[evanthefunky]

I watched Aquaman (2018) two weeks ago and I am STILL thinking about how. *gestures as if to try and decide*... how inconsistent? it is. And I honestly don't know what to call it.

On the one hand, I do love that Arthur is reluctant and not interested in being king. He doesn't want power, hes got enough. Ultimately, he becomes king because he wants to save his world (in context its clear he means the Surface, human world) and sure ok if that means saving Atlantis, ok.

Problem is, beside the drama of "who deserves to be king"... is Orm even doing a bad job? Why does he NOW want to become king and Ocean Master? Atlantis wasn't any more on the verge of being discovered than when people first realized Arthur might be part Atlantean. Sure, someone has to be a villain, and being denied confirmation that he is the "true heir" because he didnt have uh Atlan's trident is a doozy but its been centuries since anyone has had it? So he was feeling threatened by... his older half-brother who.... *checks notes* didnt fucking want to be king.

Ok, so Orm was the villain because (for whatever reason) he Just Now Decided to culminate all his plans to force the title Ocean Master unto himself. As far as we know, (although movie 2 will hopefully touch on this) Orm had not been looking for the trident. If Arthur and Mera found it in like 2 days, how did Orm not find it in yanno at least two decades?

"Well," you say, "it was because Vulko and Mera didn't find the hologram recording thing until Just Now."

So why didn't they give it to Orm? Because he... "isn't the true heir"? Who is deciding that? If Orm doesn't even get to TRY to get the trident, because he doesnt know where it is, because he doesnt have the hologram message from Atlan... how could anyone possibly know Arthur is the "true" heir? He's 100% Atlantean, second son of the last (previous) queen of Atlantis. Sure, hes the second son, but hes the first 100% Atlantean son.

(I'm not gonna go into the absolute BULLSHIT that is Atlan's message... its so fucking stupid im so 😤 about it. Its stupid. Not to be on the side of cinemasins bc they're assholes but if they had a monolog about it and gave it more than 1 "sin" I say rightly so! If they didnt... not surprised bc that channel is lame and yet I still think of them. Sigh. I digress.)

So then we look at Vulko and Mera. What would they know about Arthur that he (or anyone else) doesn't know? Maybe that he... saved the world with the Justice League? That he can speak to aquatic animals unlike any other Atlantean (was Atlan able to? Methinks he was, so was he half-human, half-Atlantean, too? More on that... another time) can? That Vulko made a promise to Atlanna that he would protect Arthur? And Mera had NO reason to go with Arthur, no reason to betray her nation and family, no reason to forsake her betrothal beside the fact that... uh. *checks notes again* Arthur is... hot, and that we have to have a romantic coupling by the end of this movie.

And I dont know if its Amber Heard or the writing, but I have written better romances at the age of thirteen than the writers did for this movie. They brush hands once, he catches her when she stumbles from the statue thing (I think??), I guess we can count her betraying her home just for a hot dude (can't relate) as a romantic gesture... but he doesn't do anything for her.

Which is funny. Especially when you look at the times she kisses him, she initiates both times. Or maybe just the one time? I remember two, but one is dramatic (cinematic, even?) underwater and another is shorter and above water, and he seems surprised by both. Which makes me uncomfortable, especially his surprise. We obviously don't have a lot to go on to see how he acts around women, beside Wonder Woman, and I can't remember what he says to her in Justice League (beside some probably bad jokes and stuff bc its ... well. Anyway.) so like for all we know hes suave and charming etc or a complete dummy and Just Gets Lucky.

But like. The romance doesn't make any sense. Shes interested in him, hes fine (?) with it, but is that enough to betray your world's previous tranquility? We don't really get to see what Orm got up to, so we don't know what kind of king he is.

(Sidenote: its interesting to see what they considered pros and cons for Orm and Arthur, and how they didn't know Arthur helped stop uh. Whats-his-face from destroying the planet. BUT who controls the pros/cons list and maybe they didn't want anyone in the audience to know he was a world-saving ☆hero☆.)

So Vulko. The one who knew both Arthur and Orm, made a promise to Atlanna about Arthur but potentially not about Orm. Not to look at Wilem Defoe and say "man only plays betrayers and villains, I dont trust him" only to be surprised that Vulko did in fact stay true to the protagonist of the story. Vulko effectively chose who the "true" heir was out of Atlanna's sons.

Why?

No idea. Beside Arthur being the first-born.

So they should have made Arthur the second-born son. Not only would his half status be more of a "disadvantage", but it would make Arthur's reluctance more sensible and Orm's confidence more concrete, more clearly defining why they were doing what they were doing. Orm defending his birthright as first-born would have been more interesting than second-born grasping for it, where Arthur being second-born but reluctantly being pushed to claim the older brother's right as his own more controversial and dangerous. ALSO it would have made more sense for Atlanna to be condemned to the Trench because she first of all was wounded (?) on the shore near Tom's lighthouse and so I dont think she meant to be there, but is she really to be punished by falling in love with someone who rescued her and helped her heal? Is it really her fault to have a child with the person who evidently helped her learn about humanity as something not inferior but equal in a different way than expected (a potential reach but let me live). Is it so bad that she had her firstborn as a half human?

But I guess there is the crux of the problem, which ultimately is on patriarchal bullshit than on her "fault". She did choose that her first child was half-human. And why didn't she just return to Atlantis after being healed/nursed back to health? Why did she stay? Was there something that made her reluctant? Who did the condemning? Also, who the fuck is Orm's father? Where was he in the story?

Atlanna wasn't interested in returning to Atlantis, at least not until Arthur was older so that he could learn to be the prince and heir of the nation. I think she did mean to return when he was older. She called him a king of his people, agreed to name him after a strong and good (according to legend) king. (Arthur was also the name of a storm which hello hello so sexy I wanna write another paragraph on that but not Right Now.) She planned to bring Arthur to Atlantis to unite the Surface and Ocean nations. Was that so much a crime to cast her into the Trench, after, of course, bearing another son to take the throne?

Why was Arthur the true heir, according to the movie? The story's universe? Who decided this, or what? Why? Why not Orm? Because Arthur had a hero's reluctance, which is often apparently a good thing, (it is, it so fucking is, to see a hero reluctant to be a victor because of the necessary sacrifices. A selfish hero who wins is better than an arrogant hero who wins for self-gain and power.) over his brother's expectations of being king because he's 100% Atlantean?

I dont get it. Leaves me with suspicions and doubts and questions.

I dont trust Vulko or Mera. The Mera and Arthur romance is suspicious and I dont trust it, either.

Im excited for the second movie to see if any of this is clarified, or if its just going to be moved past and I'm gonna be floundering asking "hey what the fuck" as I get more information but No Answers.

[mewkwota]

A Lunch Break in the Space Time Continuum

Castlevania has so many little instances of anachronism, but I can't help but enjoy them because it'll give me funny thoughts like these.

This isn't even a big one, I just like the topic of food. O'course. I told you I want my video game vampire hunters to be well-fed.

[arisushanti]

sure, the dialogue in stranger things s4 was cringe-y and predictable, but holy fuck will i be thinking about that ‘max running up that hill’ scene for a looooooong time....

[synthsays]

Next chapter of the fic is finally out >:DDDD

Sry abt the posting gap btw ;-;

[55178]

I would have a 4.0 gpa if it wasn’t for you meddling kids.