#are people awake right now

[enbeemagical]

normalize being a little bit in love with your friends

normalize being not at all in love with anything

normalize love being confusing and weird as hell

normalize love not being romantic

normalize love not being

normalize not loving

normalize loving in the wrong way

just. normalize being unapologetically yourself

[feroluce]

So I'm well aware this is probably a case of "it isn't that deep" but I love looking at all the fiddly little accessories and bits and bobs of Hoyo designs and trying to justify them. Sampo's is particularly funny, because. What even is all that dkkxjdkd

His outfit has so many straps wrapped around him, like they're restraining or holding something in to keep it from bursting at the seams, and not all of them look like they're even connected to anything! But I'd like to think they are useful in certain situations, like if Sampo takes a hit out in the Fragmentum from one of the monsters.

He's hurt, his arm is bleeding, but he is ALMOST done, he just needs a couple more things to fulfill his quota to Natasha and he doesn't want to turn around and go back now. So Sampo frees a strap from his shirt, winds it around his arm above the cut, pulls it tight with his free hand and his teeth. He'll treat it properly in a minute, once he's done scavenging.

There's also the strange chains that resemble snake spines. Given how they're way longer in his splash art and the way they wind around-

I'd like to think they can extend somehow, and Sampo can use them to scale heights. Firefly clocks him as a covert fighter without even being within 20 feet of him, so it would make sense for Sampo to have ways to get around that don't involve usual/obvious methods, like stairs. Think assassin skill sets.

He's also the only one known to be able to get between the Underground and the overworld, and while he's pretty tight-lipped about his method, having some sort of device to help traverse vertical heights is probably insanely helpful there.

And the little metal ornaments across the backs of his wrists! You can see it a bit better in his reference sheet (everyone say thanks @/dragaliareferencearchive!) as opposed to his splash art-

they aren't flat, they stick up a bit off his arms. And so I wonder if Gepard has ever gone to arrest Sampo, and found that they interfere with his handcuffs haha

The ornaments don't match, the one on his right wrist is actually shorter and doesn't extend down to the back of his hand. Which probably doesn't make it nearly as annoying for handcuffs as the left one, but it would make sense for Sampo to have them like that, since he seems to be right-handed! I think a certain proficiency in being ambidextrous is necessary to dual wield daggers like he does, but. Sampo uses his right hand to

hold his blade in his splash art

throw his blade in his skill

play/show off with his dagger in his idle

lob smoke bombs in his technique

cross over his heart when he bows

and to flip his bangs during the cutscene where he saves the trailblazers from Bronya

So a shorter guard on his right hand would help him keep his wrist's flexibility to be able to do all that unimpeded (loving the thought now that Sampo is naturally right-handed and still better with it, but he practiced constantly with his left until he could do things passably ambidextrous).

I also love them because I wonder if they're in the perfect place to help block a hit, along with the chain wrapped around his left forearm.

Like I love the image of a hired killer soundlessly sneaking up behind Sampo in some shady dark alley, knife sloooooowly raising, and then all at once, they strike!

And instead of feeling the blade sink into his back, they get the unpleasant resonating of metal-on-metal shivering up their arm and rattling their bones, because Sampo has turned around at the last second and raised his crossed his arms to let the knife glance off the guards on his wrists.

And the mercenary is left to realize that oh, they are fucked.

[herbgerblin]

hi there! I got back into TAZ recently and am looking for more blogs to follow, but somehow I got submerged in Discourse real fast. Do you any blogs like yours that are friendly and discourse-free?

I think it depends on what you define as discourse, but here are a number of people that I know are still actively posting taz things:

@thisisnotacreativeusername

@anistarrose

@terezis

@fuckin-flip-wizard

@thirdchildart

@burnpyygmalion

@umbraastaff

@fioblah

@ceilingfan5

@taakosleftshoe

@duck-newton

@junotter

@taz-ids

@penbattles

@orykorioart

@mooselybased

@noodles-and-tea

@cinnamoncandyy

@lucretiaadventurezone

@mmmarty

@barry-j-blupjeans

@entguarde

[godsfavoritescientist]

Biting the bars of my enclosure about autistic ford tonight. There's something about him using vocabulary and turns of phrase that seem "outdated" or "pretentious" that feels so painfully genuine to me. When people say he talks like that just to "try to sound smart" I wish I could explain what it's like to be so ostracized from your peers growing up that you spend all your time reading instead, to the point where you pick up your way of speaking from books instead of from people. And then what it's like for people to call you out for "talking weird" over and over again, not able to wrap their heads around why the fuck you would choose more archaic or technical or formal words than the simpler ones that surely come to everyone's minds first. What it's like to have to dedicate a sizable chunk of attention to filtering through every single word you say out loud in real time before you say it, to make absolutely sure that it isn't a word people will judge you for using or make fun of you for using, just so you'll have a chance of being taken seriously. Learning through trial and error how to filter out the words that other people don't think are normal or casual enough for the conversation, even though for you, the word choice that's "natural-sounding" enough for them is the third or fourth word you came up with when searching for the right way to phrase something in your head. I wish I could explain just how long it takes to say fucking anything after spending a lifetime doing that during every single conversation, and how repetitive and long-winded you end up being when you spend so long coming up with alternative ways of saying every little thing you ever think. And I wish people realized that, at the very least for autistic people and autistic-coded characters, speech that's seen as pretentious is really just the way they talk when they're not putting in the extra effort to filter through every word they say just so others will take the time to listen.

[love-too]

I sometimes lay in bed before going to sleep and think back on the delicious food I had for dinner. This is the real aroace experience for me

[unexpectedbrickattack]

👀🍕..

[fbwzoo]

Well. Bearded dragon ended up coming home with Jack last night due to work shift making it easy to just get him then.

Sometimes I hate being right. I'd been getting increasingly certain that this kiddo was gonna be in bad shape from the info and pictures we kept getting. Well. Let me introduce you to Ed.

Yeah. Poor bub has moderate to severe MBD. He can't even lift himself off the ground really, and he moves by shuffling along on his belly, pulling himself with his front legs. His legs feel like undercooked noodles.

They dumped crickets in the 20g with him, so we moved him over to the 40g last night. Weird makeshift set up bc we didn't even have a lid yet, getting one today. Used the heat and (unused??) Uvb light they had for right now, getting proper stuff ASAP. He's got cloth puppy pads for the floor right now, which seems to work well. Soft, but stay put so he can move.

Joel is getting greens this morning, Jack is getting the lid and some slate & bricks for a better basking spot. May have to do just the slate if he can't even get up a ramp right now, but hoping he can so it can double as a hide. He's dehydrated as well, so that's adding to his current struggle. We decided against trying to syringe him some water last night, to avoid stressing him more than he already was.

Jack's going to work on hydration today, and also calling the vet so we can get him in next week. We're expecting at least bloodwork, probably x-rays, and then we'll see what the vet thinks about the chances of improving his state. Honestly, euthanasia is on the table, but we're still hoping to avoid that. We'd really like to at least see how he responds to a proper set up & food, and if there's any improvement with some treatment time.

And I guess I'm eating my words, bc if we don't euthanize this bub, he's probably fucking staying now! He's going to be disabled to some degree for the rest of his life, and I suppose we could still likely find someone willing to take him, but it does add further complication.

My boys know me well though. Apparently they were already taking bets on how likely we were to keep him. 🤦 I chose my life partners well, I think.

[saminthea]

Is it appendicitis or just fibromyalgia and a stomach bug? Guess we'll see in the morning!

[orbdotexe]

okay yknow what. the TFE playlist as of today. it is all over the place. i am cringe but i am free and also you should read the tags:

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead - Set It Off Ninth Life - Ivycomb Music Used To The Darkness - Des Rocs (yeah. from the trailer. shh) Heart - Fishymom Everybody Gets High - MISSIO You Can Run - Adam Jones Bury Me Low - 8 Graves Forrest Fire - AJJ All the Dead Kids - AJJ C'est La Vie - Weathers Don't Look Back/Don't Wait For Me - trashyinferno Farewell Wanderlust - The Amazing Devil Canary In a Coal Mine - The Crane Wives (PLEASE) Monster - dodie We Don't Talk About Bruno - lydia the bard Soleil - Lizz Robinett (not the original i just like her cover of it) Phantom Feelings - CJack (Wolf n Zavala. kill me) Cut My Fingers Off - Ethan Bortnick Engravings - Ethan Bortnick Between the Rains and the Times - Reverse: 1999 Gladiator - Jann You Only Know - Phemiec The Bidding - Chonny Jash (original by Tally Hall but CJ turns it into an entirely new piece of art. oh my god) OVER & OVER - Rio Romeo A Crow's Trial - Vane Castaway - Kroh Be Nice To Me - The Front Bottoms you smell of dead flowers - Cliesel version Rain In Soho - Mountain Goats Overgrown Garden - beetlebug

[zukkaoru]

the only context i'm giving is that it's a tachihara/junichiro fic. if you don't know them just vote based on vibes

[eijiroukiriot]

them as usual + peace + love on earth

[criticalrolo]

have to come up with a daemon for kestrel it's Imperative.

[running-in-the-dark]

painted for a few hours. it didn't go super well (I forget everything way too fast and it's been like a month, I think?) but I'm making myself stop and go to bed now. almost forgot that I have to go get my blood drawn in the morning 🤦

[age-of-moonknight]

How would you break down the alters' personalities?

Oooooh this is a really fun ask to receive! Thank you so much for sending it to me! :D I feel like I need to preface this though that the way each of the alters' personalities (and to a certain extent, their dynamic within the system) is presented fluctuates a bit with individual writers and mediums. Like, currently, I am wrestling with myself over how best to respond to this ask, because there's the part of me that wants to give the most direct possible answer to your question (how /I/ specifically might parse out the alters) and then there's the part of me that wants to take any opportunity I can to discuss the varying ways the guys have been portrayed across the whole expanse of Moon Knight comics. 😅 So I very well might do both???? For now though, I'll stick with the former because,,,,the latter will take considerably more time than I have at this very moment; however, please just let me know if I misinterpreted your ask as I would be MORE than happy to eventually produce something that's a bit more,,,,historical, if you will. Personal Feelings, Sir aka fair warning, this is entirely just my opinion and I tend to pull a lot from the first volume (but with all of the improvements made by later volumes), so please take the ramblings under the cut with a grain of salt.

MARC

Marc is....over all not a very happy man. He's incredibly tactically proficient with an infantryman's razor sharp sardonic wit and if you share a common goal, he's a great ally to have by your side, but...he's seen things that weigh on a soul and done things he's not proud of and you can tell. Like, there's just a certain intensity and hyperawareness that some combat veterans get that you can see in their eyes and I definitely feel like that comes through with Marc. Kinda taciturn, one might even say at times "brusque" (but he might argue "efficient/economical/laconic"), but there are those he genuinely cares for and he's not without a sense of humor. The issue is that he's definitely aware of his own lethal capability and views it not just as a learned skill but as an integral part of who he is, that "there was never anything kind or gentle about [him]" (Moon Knight vol. 9/2021, #5). Oh, and he's got issues with authority as well as an independent streak that could span the Chicago River that have from his time spent in his father's house to the Marine Corps to his mercenary days burned many bridges, so between that and the very real crimes against humanity he's committed, homeboy's got a lot weighing on him. But he's trying his best to be better from here on out and his degree of faith in whether or not he can actually be better may change with the day but he tries nonetheless, making all the difference.

STEVEN

You ever seen, like, a leopard seal hunting? That's how efficiently Steven navigates high society. He has a perfect handle on old money manners and old money charms and knows exactly how to utilize them. I wouldn't say he's "tactical" with the same connotation of martial violence of action that hangs over Marc, but he's definitely analytical. Highly analytical. I want to make it clear that none of the alters are by any stretch of the imagination dumb, but just by the nature of character dynamics, Steven always ends up the Superego even when Marc and Jake take turns being the Id. Whereas Jake is jovial and street smart and Marc was a CIA operative for a reason (even if his heavy guilt and, if you will, angst can still on occasion sneak up on him and take him out), Steven is the numbers guy. He's the one that takes care of the business end of things and sometimes that means being the level-headed one of the bunch as well. Now, I don't want to make Steven sound like a cold fish (or worse, a bit too much of a shark). I would be remiss if I didn't mention that sometimes, particularly in earlier issues, he can come across as a bit of a dandy, perfectly happy enjoying the finer things in life. More importantly, "the finer things in life" include friends and just genuinely positive relationships. He may have a perfectly crafted persona for society functions that includes a very convincing fake laugh, but he's also far more open to loving and being loved than Marc with all of his hang ups could ever possibly be.

JAKE

When Mr. MacKay described Jake as "avuncular" (Moon Knight vol. 9/2021, #14) and a piratical "rascal" (Moon Knight vol. 9/2021, #15) that took me the heck out because, YEAH! While Steven's the perfect party guest, Jake is the life of the party. He's a force of nature and a bit of a whirlwind, the kind of cabbie that can comfortably (both for you and for him) talk your ear off for the entire fare with the thickest Chicagoan accent you've ever had the privilege of hearing. He's a steadfast and steadying support to those he calls friends (of which he has many since he has a tendency to make them where ever he goes), but he's not above settling a matter with his fists if the situation calls for it. He's nothing if not scrappy after all, because hey, the streets of New York where he spends most of his time aren't exactly easy. Similarly, he's also, I don't want to say "a gossip" per say, but he picks up gossip and other bits of intel like a lint trap. He has a wide net of connections, and don't get me wrong, he loves people dearly, but he's very keen when it comes to knowing exactly which people to tap if he needs a certain line of information. He's honest and lovable and an absolute rogue that makes it very hard to remain mad at him, no matter what mischief he might get into.

[torchickentacos]

anyways. having fun with the album project thing I mentioned. Using the flat small brush from here for krita. One brush only, no undo button, all done on 1/54th of a 1.5k x 1k canvas. it's actually pretty therapeutic, I listen to the album I'm drawing while I draw it. This does mean that for AM I got to like. track 2 though and most of that was bc of formatting issues lol.

[fitia]

Been watching some B99 clips on Youtube for the past few days because I do still love a lot of the bits in the show, it's genuinely really funny, but I'm also thinking about how... weird of a character Captain Holt is, politically.