#but these are the most mundane ones I can think of

[fangirltothefullest]

"I read some of the reblogs/tags from the proshipping post and one has got me thinking especially about the fictional minors, and certain restrictions like US not allow depictions of it. I get why this is a heated topic; but the moral responsibility should not be placed on the creators and the other people who enjoy in a fictional setting. I know that there will be really sick people who will use media as an excuse to do to certain heinous actions (like Fight Club) but i do think that is on those members of thr audience and not on the creator and those who are sensible enough not to that. There are so many things i wish i can articulate this better but i do hope that my words are enough. Let me know if you are alright discussing this with them or if you want me to stop."

i just get so tired because like.... i personally don't like that there are people who feel the need to write certain things or draw certain things and sometimes I wonder if the people who do write it need to go to therapy because maybe there's something that they could get help with.

But it sucks because like.... the moment you start policing what people write about it becomes an easy slope of "well EVERYTHING should be puritanical and censored to spare this group and that group" and suddenly it's an excuse to censor everything people consider even mildly "wrong". It's how "degenerates" are made out of homosexual and transgender people, how books are banned for talking about science, how even the most mundane of things we take for granted can so easily be labelled as "taboo" and banned.

There's so much bad that comes from censoring. If we just learned to be like you know what? There are more important things to think about than what random people online are writing about with fictional characters.

There's a reason this topic is heated and it makes sense but the whole point of the post was just to get people to think about the idea that instead of spending all day going "hey this person ships incest block them! Hate them! Send them hateful messages! Tell everyone you know to shun the beast!" it would save you so much energy and time to just.... walk away from this fictional thing you don't have to partake in. literally that's all.

But as usual it always devolves into whether people should get to draw fictional kids fucking or whatever because for some reason it's all or nothing for people.

I think the question for that post shouldn't be whether it's ok but whether we should not be dicks to the people who are like "dude if you wanna write about something I'm uncomfortable with, I'm just gonna hit da bricks"

[creatingblackcharacters]

I really wish non-black people would stop making their ONE black character's story revolve around slavery.

Yes, this also includes the very popular "reverse slavery" trope where a black character is a slaver and a non-black character is the victim. Trust me when I tell you: it stopped being ground-breaking after the 10th time, it's executed poorly 80% of the time and it just feels like you're role playing oppression for escapist purposes.

I think it is highly offensive to always go back to this when we as black people keep being told to "stop living in the past and move on", sometimes by people who'll bring the subject of slavery out of nowhere as gotcha when we talk about modern-day racist occurrences.

Hi, on this blog I ask that we as Black people capitalize the B! Tbh, I've actually never seen it outright as a Black person "reverse enslaving" a white person, probably because it'd seem too on the nose. It's usually been either an ambiguously brown "race", a coded group of color, or nonblack people of color (like apparently in BG3 Astarion is enslaved by an Asian vampire. I haven't gotten that far yet.)

But yes, it's... it's why so many of those fantasy racism stories fall flat; they don't actually capture just how systemic, mundane, and chronic racism actually is. It shows a need to say "I understand this experience" without showing the actual understanding. Without putting on my political hat too hard at the moment, there's this... Fear that many white people have that what they have done to others will return unto them. They fear the retaliation of the very harm they have done, while simultaneously denying that it's "that bad" and "can be gotten over". (Meanwhile most of us just want to be left alone)

I once had a coworker say "I don't get why everyone's so mad. It's not like you're slaves anymore." And it like... Hit me that she felt that a very basic ass, baseline human right was apparently the sign that everything was "okay" between "Blacks and whites". So... 😬 Yeah I hear you.

[morgana-ren]

Do you have any mundane hc about Astarion? Like fave colour, what kind of books he likes, is he a morning person or does he like to lie in, favorite actual snack? Fave animal to snack on?

Obviously this after the trauma has started healing and he's learning about himself again!

Astarion is quieter and softer once he is free.

I feel like Astarion is actually a lot more gentle than he lets on. After years and years and years of faking and pretending and peacocking professionally, when he gets the opportunity to slow down, he might find he likes it. Being less snarky than he usually is sometimes. Being quiet when he could speak. Being more sincere and less defensive. Not all the time, mind you. That's still his personality. He is still absolutely Astarion. But maybe, sometimes, he just smiles softly, nods, and is content to sit in comfortable silence with the person he loves and the friends he has. He is content to just listen and watch and enjoy company.

He doesn't have to fill silence like he did before. He doesn't have to charm or seduce or manipulate. He doesn't have to be funny, or cutesy, or anything. He can just be him. And sometimes, maybe he just feels like existing and being quiet and taking in the environment. Maybe he just feels like listening. He wasn't allowed to before. He was always performing and bowing and playing a role. But now he can, and I feel like he'll sometimes exercise that. He still loves being the life of the party, but sometimes, on quiet nights, he enjoys just being.

Astarion picks up a creative pursuit for fun rather than necessity now that he can.

He has a lot of time to fill now. He can buy new clothes rather than just endlessly mending. But maybe he likes his embroidery. Maybe he continues on because he's good at it. Maybe he likes how impressed Tav gets at the deftness of his fingers and the heights of his skill. Now that he doesn't have to go out every night, he's got to find some new way to fill the time, so maybe he adds beautiful embroidery to their clothes for a flashy flourish and sews little love letters into the inside of Tav's clothing in gaudy golden threat and giggles like a naughty child when they finally see it days and days later.

He says he doesn't like reading, but he clearly likes poetry. Maybe he gives reading another shot because he can now. Maybe he feels like he has a lot to catch up on. Maybe he likes it and maybe he doesn't. Maybe he starts collecting poetry books and hoarding them like a dragon. Maybe he decides to try his hand at poetry as an outlet and is surprisingly talented at it-- or maybe he is stunningly bad but Tav still adores everything he writes because it's a piece of his heart.

He still gets up in the early mornings

He misses the sun. He misses it desperately. In the Underdark, there is no sun, and the time of day really doesn't matter, but out of sheer habit, he still gets up early and ready to go. A leftover from their days adventuring. He gets up with the sun for a very long time, even though he cannot see it.

It causes problems sometimes because his schedule is totally opposite to the other spawn. He is getting up when they are going to sleep initially. But after a while, the spawn that become very fond of him end up switching out and ending up awake when he is. He likes to pretend he can still walk the surface world any time he likes.

He still prefers human blood-- but morally... within reason

He fed on rats and bugs for so long that he will not go back. The blood is fetid and he has high standards now that he will absolutely make sure are met. He's not such a sweetheart that he's about to starve himself out to spare someone a vampiric encounter.

However, he will source it ethically when he can to spare himself the nagging. Feeding on slavers in the Underdark. Wayward drow causing a ruckus. Criminals operating underground. He tries a little bit to not kill innocents, mostly because he doesn't want Wyll coming after him and he doesn't want to upset his friends (he doesn't really care, but he knows they do.)

If he has Tav, he will feed on them and makes a point to learn a spell or buy an item that allows him to heal the bloodless bit. It's the least he can do. He will then joke that it means that he can feed twice tonight, right? Right?

They have to find a way to source an enormous amount of blood as ethically as they can (all the spawns roaming the Underdark now and they cannot have people catching wind and raiding in a fit) but truthfully, he still prefers it fresh. He still enjoys the hunt. It's still a part of him. He will 'spare' his victims when he can, but sometimes they have to die. You know how it is.

He reads smut books and develops kinks inadvertently

Just ridiculous books. Ones so raunchy and tacky it's almost funny. It starts as a joke initially because he gets his hands on one from a shipment they stole from a smuggling operation and reads it just to nitpick and make fun of it. He makes a very loud show of laughing and rolling his eyes and reading it out loud in a ridiculous voice.

But eventually, he finds it's a good way to reengage with sexuality in a safe, totally controlled way. He can read ridiculous smut books about vampires or suave, debonair playboys and laugh at them but also relate to them in the silliest way. Sometimes it's just bad writing and just for pure entertainment value, but other times, he finds it's not a bad way to examine his own feelings and view things in a way that is totally under his control with only his mind and body involved. It allows him to unpack things quietly and privately.

It's basically a completely safe way to engage with everything again after it's all said and done. He is trying to do his healing and this is just a playful, light way to do it. His life experiences will come to shape who he is, and he is finally discovering his own sexuality and needs. Maybe he develops some kinks and desires he didn't know he ever had through a book he's reading and sits there for a moment, face flushed with wine, eyes slightly wide and lips pursed. You know, the face you make when you figure things out. "Ah. Well. If I didn't know better, I'd say I enjoyed that."

He sings quietly

He only really does it when he is alone, and it's never really belting it out operatic singing, but more quiet and gentle singing. If you're lucky enough to hear him, you'd have to assume he's actually pretty good and seems to have good vocal control and an excellent voice, but it's hard to tell because he'll stop once you enter the room. He only does it when he is alone alone.

It's almost like he doesn't even realize he's doing it. They are songs from ages ago that you wouldn't even recognize if you were born in this era. Small, lost lullabies. Songs in Elvish he seems to just recall straight from memory though he couldn't tell you how. It's always low and soft and something so gentle it's hard to believe he's capable of it. He rarely speaks Elvish even when with other elves, but it's utterly flawless when he sings. Whether or not it is because he just remembers the song explicitly or because he actually remembers Elvish quite well is anyone's guess.

He likes painting

He wants to express himself. Sometimes with that kind of trauma, it's very hard to express yourself. You have to find ways to show the way you see the world around you. Things that go beyond words.

He picks it up out of sheer boredom. He finds he likes it. It's not an all consuming passion quite yet, but he likes artistic pursuits and he thinks this one is quite nice.

He paints the sun peaking over the streets of Baldur's Gate. The ocean at dawn in all its magnificent glory. The forests he remembers walking through during their adventures. A smoldering campfire beneath an orange sky. The wizard performers in the courtyard. Lots of colors sometimes, like he is reliving his life in the sun the only way he can. Occasionally draws a cheeky little building on fire like the firework shop they set ablaze. Sometimes they're funny, like Karlach dressed in a strongman jumpsuit while flexing and holding Wyll and Gale on her muscles. His sense of humor translates into his paintings.

Red and black when he is doing something deeper for himself. Memories he doesn't like to talk about. Experimenting as a sort of therapy. Sometimes they're more metaphorical and only make sense to him. Sometimes it's just chaotic, violent splashes and it ends up everywhere. Sometimes you can tell he got frustrated or didn't like what he felt because it will be half finished and then set away in frustration with the lines running so deep that it almost tore the canvas.

He isn't doing it for prestige but he will joke about the 'famous vampire painter' and how his paintings go for thousands of gold at auctions and line all the finest hallways in the finest houses. He'll laugh that he has an eternity to get good at painting, and he could become the best. You know, if he wanted to, of course. If he didn't get famous, it's because 'he didn't want to' and all of that.

When someone really means something, he will paint for them because expressing his love is still sort of difficult. Occasionally the old group will get a package that is more or less a rude and absurd painting he decided would be absolutely hilarious to send. That or poetry because that's much more intimate, but that is pretty much reserved for his lover-- and mostly only when he's drunk and cheeky.

[froschli96]

you know, i always find it really funny when dudebros complain about syndicate and odyssey being too "jokey" or not "taking its characters seriously" or whatever…

like, did y'all collectively sleep through "it's-a me, mario!", "i meant besides vaginas", ezio inventing the latte, bartolomeo's... just... *gestures vaguely* entire character, etc?

like, it's fine to have preferences of course, i myself prefer a more serious and grounded tone, but these are usually the same people who tout the ezio trilogy as "peak assassin's creed", call ac1 a glorified tech demo and hate on connor for being "too serious and boring", like? make it make sense!

[lemongogo]

can i ask.how u guys practice ur creativity <3 how u practice ur imagination or like.. how u experiment with ur art, how u come to ideas and how u develop them.<3 pretty please <3

[icewindandboringhorror]

I find it kind of silly that so many of those "time based life rule" sayings are like ~deep serious guidelines~ of some sort, but then there's that one other Well Known Rule that's just like "hrmm can I eat something off of the ground or not"

[vimbry]

"nanobots" the song is this deconstructed view of child development and parenthood where it's like, 'wow have you ever thought about how weird producing offspring is. like, it's weird, right! we make these little people and they quickly grow into their own individual personalities with their own lives and autonomy and I've lost all authority and there's so many and you've gotta be responsible for them all the time, what did I do !!!'

but as well as approaching it with this slightly overwhelmed perspective, there's a sort of affectionate optimism in there, too. that even tho the concept's intimidating, there's a sense of wonder in how humans develop and raising them and watching them grow up. hey this kid thing's fun actually, yeah I wish they'd leave me alone sometimes, but look at how cute and resilient they are look at what they can do. and then "replicant" is like jesus parenting a teenager is hard.

[bravevolunteer]

i've said this before but i'm so convinced the aftons did a grand canyon vacation

[sonknuxadow]

been thinking about how some sonic characters have last names and some dont and i wonder what the in universe reason for that is.. maybe its just a simple cultural difference. as in little animal guys from some places have them and others dont. or maybe its not common for them to have last names at all and its mostly the ones who spent a lot of time around humans at a young age and adopted human behaviors who have them which is what happened with amy. or maybe most little animal guys DO have last names but its a common practice to not disclose it, especially if youre a public figure or just dont want people digging around in your personal life for whatever reason. like for example shadow choosing to say his name is shadow the hedgehog instead of shadow robotnik because that last name might raise a lot of questions he doesnt feel like answering. but even if it is that third option and everyone has a last name we just dont know about i still dont think sonic would have a last name. not having one just feels right for him

[revvethasmythh]

Actually thinking very hard about what, exactly, is compelling about Relvin. imo, there is an inherent mundanity to him as a character--that's really the core of what he is, Just Some Dude, caught in the crosshairs of something much bigger than him that he can't understand let alone fight. A guy who tries, but it struck so deeply by decades of grief that even the trying can be hard. A man who loves his daughter but doesn't know how to help her and maybe can't stand how much she looks like her mother. Very mundane. Very human. Very relatable, both the good parts of him and the ugly ones. I know that I personally find a lot of interest and texture in what the mundane looks like, especially in contrast to the wild escapades of adventurers or powered people. It's why, perhaps, Relvin is a character that feels more relatable and approachable and miles more understandable than someone like Liliana, who's motives are opaque, who's goals are unclear, and who's intentions are currently unknown/incoherent. We can sit here and ask ourselves "what does she want?" until kingdom come, but even Imogen doesn't know and she is also sick of the not knowing. Liliana wants to free Imogen--but who knows how. She wants Imogen to run, but doesn't tell her why. She left Imogen to find answers, but we have no idea if she really accomplished that goal despite repeated conversations with her (all of which essentially repeat the same info shared in the previous convo).

At least we know what Relvin wants. Wanted. To build a family. For the two halves to become a better whole. That's approachable, that's human, that's tragic in the face of everything that's happened, and, yes, that's mundane. But god is there texture to that mundanity where there isn't all that much even in the comparatively extraordinary life of Liliana.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

So when I've been complaining about even fanfiction not being romantic enough, part of what I mean by that is that people take huge, gothic characters in pairings with gigantic, dramatic stakes full of titanic emotions and then make them feel small and mundane. Stripping the very romanicism from the bones of the romance.

There are many things that are deeply appealing to me about B&tB pairings or 'unlikely' pairings or Gothic romance in general, but something that is less structural while still being absolutely key is that it's not an easy relationship to get the characters into. It's not something that would happen under ordinary circumstances for either person. It's not a bond that can be forged without some form of pressure preventing these people from continuing in their regular patterns.

If you're writing an E/C fic where you start from scratch, the moment they so much as touch for the first time should be absolutely show-stoppingly prodigious. It can never be casual, not between these two, the idea of a touch being allowed should be an Event. The reader's heart should be thundering in their chest, the suspense should be palpable, the consummation divine. A single touch is a consummation for them, there should be that much tension. If they hold hands and I'm not holding my breath, you have done it wrong. The first kiss should feel like an atom bomb going off, the world should shift on its axis, a line is being crossed which has left both characters forever altered.

And people will instead write them like a standard romance novel couple who make standard pervy comments in the narration, get a bit flirty, casually hook up and then weigh pros and cons about whether dating fits into their life plans or not. All of this being totally without weight, without feeling like any kind of Rubicon has been crossed or that it's significant for the characters to have entered into something which must foundationally alter their worldview.

Reylo brushing fingers across the galaxy and it being the turning point of the entire narrative, given the same majesty and mystical significance as Luke's vision in the cave or Yoda lifting the X-Wing is the exact correct amount of emphasis for them reaching towards each other in tenderness. You have a character defined by abandonment and loneliness and a character who is surrounded by people but never touched, both unseen by anyone else, both aching for connection, both never having felt anything like this before, both aware of the galaxy-spanning consequences of what they're feeling. Them touching is le big deal.

The kiss for the B&tB pairing, the EtL pairing, any Gothic pairing has to feel out of reach, a chasm that cannot be crossed- until it happens, impossible yet inevitable. Something the characters could never have conceived of taking place at the beginning of the story, an infinite abyss of which they have somehow found themselves on the other side. You have to do the work to get them there, you have to build that bridge stone by stone, and it should be a sublime agony of seeing the path take shape while it still feels like the gap is just unbridgable, that no matter how close you come, it will never be complete, they can never get all the way across. Until they do.

If you write characters who have (or should have) that kind of vast gulf separating them as just kind of falling into an intimacy which isn't earned and thus means nothing, I just have no idea why we're here. Why buy a giant gothic castle of romanticism and then bulldoze it to build a minimalist condo? Everything about the pairing that makes it that pairing is stripped away. If these were people who could just meet at a party and end up in bed, they would be completely different people.

[theladyfae]

nothing to me will ever be more iconic than my beloved mutual managing to get me so invested in a (rarepair) ship for a media i had no previous interaction with that i was actively making my own headcanons abt their potential relationship dynamic and making song associations and engaging in others’ brainrot for months before i ever even considered getting in to said media. and now a year later i’m finally writing fic for them but still know next to nothing abt what they’re like in canon cause i still haven’t made it to that part of the story, the memories of the shared delusion are genuinely the only thing keeping me going.

[bangcakes]

.

[everlasting-evocation]

What gun does Weather Report use in Stone Ocean?

This question has kept me up at night for the past few days and I finally figured it out after what may truly have been the most backwards and horribly organized search ever.

The "Charter Arms Bulldog" .44 Special.

I've been researching revolvers for a while now to prepare for a new SBR fanfic in the works but this gun has been a pain in my ASS. I could not find the correct model for whatever reason but I'm sure it's the one and here's how.

In Episode 31 of Stone Ocean, we see a left side view of the pistol in question, which matches the same profile of the Bulldog with perfect accuracy, including a near identical color match.

Here are the facts: It had to have been a double action revolver because as Weather pulls the trigger after only cocking the hammer once, the cylinder shifts multiple times, proving that, had it not been filled with water, the gun would have fired with each trigger pull. We also know it would have had to have the capacity to hold five rounds of .44 Special (we see both the inside of the cylinder and the ammunition up close.) To add to the excitement, it's also historically accurate. The events of Weather's history take place in 1988, while the Bulldog was first manufactured in '73 and continued to be a very popular firearm throughout the 70s and 80s.

Conclusion: It all makes sense (I can finally sleep peacefully)

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally settling once and for all... with the evidence laid out plainly.. which of these brother boys is more stinkys ,,,

[dreaminterlude]

not to make this a public diary but every time i hang out with crush and he reveals another observation about me i feel insane. today he mentioned that i’m very perceptive and good at reading others, and also very empathetic, both things he’s mentioned before, even when we had only been friends for a month. today he was struggling to figure out how to tell me this, but that he thinks i’m fun and funny, and the way he said it seemed like he was surprised by it. but it’s interesting because people get to know me in the opposite direction: fun/funny -> perceptive -> empathetic. idk i just think it’s funny that