#family is good

[tothesolarium]

Did ya know I illustrated a book? The way of Loving Kindness: an imperfect process of spiritual engagement by David Orendorff. I keep forgetting to make a nice post about it with teasers and stuff but- this is my grandpa, one of the kindest people I’ve met next to my Nana and some friends.

They’re the reason I’ve been able to work on my art and story so much recently, and have been keeping me from drowning in these… Emotions, to say the least.

The book is about the universal love and the work of being kind to the whole. He is a Methodist and a retired pastor, but he considers my magic and demons to be just as loving and good as what he does. Well, he’s certainly helped more people directly than I have, but he’s an old man! Give me time to catch up fhfhdhs

So to my witches and whoever else follows me, I really recommend this book. It’s got ten illustrations of mine, and a lot of good words.

He’s a wizard but wouldn’t call himself one, but has a better altar than I do.

Y’all better know what a big deal it is for me to recommend something like this

[mantareidraws]

Giving battinson the big birb hug he so desperately needs 🫂

[notherpuppet]

I just love the idea of Lucifer having to deal with this fucking guy every time he wants to see Charlie

[pommedepersephone]

Watching Mary Poppins with the kids.

"MOM it's Crowley's umbrella!"

After pointing out that Mary Poppins came before Nanny Ashtoreth was employed raising the not-Antichrist, my son nods seriously and says, "Well, Crowley would like Mary Poppins. She is a witch."

Fair.

[laughingcatwrites]

As a reminder that good exists out there, a coworker recently confessed to me that he found out his child is questioning their identity (kid's gender redacted for this post). The kid is keeping it from him, so he can't say anything to them or show that he knows, but he's doing his best to get mentally prepared and educated so that he'll be ready whenever his kid does feel comfortable enough come to him.

For context, this guy is a big, bulky middle aged dude who loves sports and typical outdoor "manly" activities. As his coworker and friend, I know he's a kind and sweet teddy bear of a person, but his kid probably views him as a stern, authoritarian figure, the way most teenagers view their parents. His family lives in a conservative area, so I'm sure between that, their dad's looks and interests, and the fact that their dad is a Figure of Authority, the kid is worried that they won't be accepted.

But you know what? When he found out about his kid, the first thing he did was reach out to his closest queer friend and ask for resources for parents of questioning children. His biggest fears are that his kid will be bullied or discriminated against and won't feel comfortable enough to be themself. His second action was to find himself a mentor in another parent who went the same situation (kid coming out in a conservative town). The other person is preparing him for some of the struggles his kid may face and the fights he may need to take on as a parent to make sure his kid is safe and treated well.

Something I want to emphasize for people focused on language as the primary method of allyship is that when we spoke, he used some outdated terms and thoughts about gender and sexuality. That does not make him bad. These were the terms and thinking used about questioning teenagers when he was growing up and he never needed to learn more current ones. But now that he does have that need, he's throwing himself in head first because that's his kid and he's darn well going to make sure that his kid feels welcomed and has a safe place to be themselves even if they never come out to him.

[iightbringer]

the seratonin u get from showing older family members ur digital art and their immediate reaction is “how do we print this out”

[1alchemistart]

HEHE NEW CHAPTER

tbh if they end up dancing im going to expect them to be goofy JKAKLSDFK but waltz drawing OBLIGATORY obv

have this little anya too

[amalgamezz]

ALT

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

[some-kind-of-creature]

It wasn’t supposed to be a secret.

If you died while with the league, you will no longer be acknowledged to have existed, especially if you died during a mission. A disappointment will not be remembered.

The bats and birds don’t like speaking about the people they have lost, so they don’t. If someone ask about the dead, they will tell the person they don’t talk about that.

So how was Damian supposed to know that he should have told his father about his dead brother?

[uncanny-tranny]

Fat people deserve mobility aids, too. No matter if it's connected to their fatness or not, because having a mobility issue that is connected to one's fatness won't change that they're still fat and still have the issue at hand. Fat people don't deserve to "tough it out" because fatness should be this divine punishment doled out to those who "deserve" it. Fat disabled people deserve to have the peace of mind that they can exist in whatever way is most comfortable and accessible to them

[chloesimaginationthings]

In every FNAF universe William Afton can't count

[theftshrubbery]

i hope everyone’s been enjoying the holidays :D

[hrokkall]

"Sad Cat Poem" by Spencer Madsen

[amevdw]

[solestella]