#feel free to be as detailed as you want

[nuggets-and-french-fries]

I know this may sound cheesy but I just want to say a massive thank you to my recent anon requester for requesting an imagine and it's second part.

For a while there I was stuck in a rut with writing and I felt like I was finished with writing but thanks to my anon, I feel like I have my spark back and I am grateful for that.

This leads me to say that anyone who would like an imagine for the month of December and maybe into January, feel free to request any imagine you'd like.

It may take me a couple days to write but I promise to give your request my absolute best.

So send me your requests and feel free to be as detailed as you'd like with them. The more details the better because then I can really get your imagine the way you'd like and turn it into something that makes you smile and feel some joy when reading.

Anyway,

Thank you all in advance for your requests and another massive thank you to my recent anon requester.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each and everyone of you❤️

[octylish]

An Eye for an Eye (A Table for Two)

[the-agent-of-blight]

Aromanticism in Academic papers (day 1)

A few days ago, I posted wondering about aromanticism in academic research. Well after a search through google scholar and some institutional access (thank you wikipedia <2) I've found some papers. Since it's Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week this week, I'm gonna try posting about one paper I found each day this week.

So today's paper is The stability of singlehood: Limitations of the relationship status paradigm and a new theoretical framework for reimagining singlehood By Dr. Hannah Tessler (2022) [stable link]

To give a summary, this paper focuses on the idea that the general conceptualization of the term single is extremely limited within the standard definition of a person without a romantic partner. This assumes that a given person's relationship status is binary, that the individual is willing to be in a romantic partnership, that singlehood is a transitory state and not one that some people prefer to be in long term. Obviously, the implications of the term single does not accurately reflect the experiences of many people without romantic partners (like many aromantic people). The paper instead proposes a new framework for classifying singles on a graph of two axes, one for Openness to romance and one for desire for romance. This framework not only allows for the term single to encapsulate more than the normative assumption, but also shows how singlehood can be stable.

Tessler identifies seven populations of singles that subvert the standard assumption:

Singles that perfer singlehood

Aromantic and/or asexual singles

Heterosexual single women who elect to opt out of heteronormative relationships

MGTOWs and to an extent some incels

Singles committed to religion

People satisfied with single life but facing social pressure

and Single people after divorce/widowhood

The section on aromanticism itself is well written and accurate. It describes the state of many of us very well, while acknowledging that there are partnering aromantics out there. For future considerations, Tessler writes: "There is currently scant research on aromanticism, but more scholarship is necessary in order to better understand the intersections and boundaries between sex, romance, and relationships."

All in all, this paper is a wonderful insight that I hope future researchers in the area of romance take a look at and use ideas from. There's a lot of research out there on romance, but not as much on the lack of it. Tessler challenges the scientific community to help fill that gap.

[link to day 2]

[tsin-datura]

Sincerity

Jon and his scrapcore costumes. Even at this point in their 'relationship' Edward still acts as if he's Dr. Crane from Arkham Asylum

[glamrockcas]

Destiel Fic Recs

I've been fortunate enough to read some really good fics lately, and it feels like an embarrassment of riches, so I'm going to share.

AUs:

Are You Writing From the Heart? by luckshiptoshore - E, 86k

virga(e) by shineforthee - E, 71k

The Angel in the Marble by zuzeca - E, 20k

If Only Maybe and Then by stonelions - E, 100k WIP

And Watch What Happens by Hth - E, 85k

The Breath Of All Things by KismetJeska - T, 65k

Foxfire by kilvmaim - E, 67k

The Leap by FriendofCarlotta - E, 82k

Canonverse:

american oracle by handsliketruth, whiskeyjuniper - E, 80k

It's all very complex by artichokeflower - E, 20k

of the unlocking and the lift away by unicornpoe - T, 43k WIP

they're playing dido in the hospital gift shop by spocklee - E, 16k

An Abundance of Light by CatiDono - T, 12k WIP

maybe i like pleasure pain by tothewillofthepeople - M, 13k

I tried to type out little descriptions for each, but the task really defeated me, so please click through to see each fic's actual summary. There's a wide variety here in terms of subject matter, rating, and the date they were written, so maybe there's something for everyone.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

I've decided to officially test the commission waters, starting with bust sketches <3

~ paypal only & payment up front, if you want more than one character the cost doubles per added character!

~ i mainly draw dragons (oc, flight rising, wof, etc), but i'm willing to do do anthro and nonhuman characters in general. i'm also willing to draw simple mech - nothing too fancy, please

~ atm i have no limit on slots, and reblogs are greatly appreciated!

[bajablastable]

erm.

[bravadoting]

OG Nagi Sketches

I challenged myself to draw the NEO TWEWY cast during the time of the original game starting with Nagi 💜

[sideblogforweirdshit]

Whump Reference Post for Fingernail Removal Torture

 Hi whump writers of Tumblr! I recently made a little introduction post in which I said I’d be making reference posts. This is one I already had typed up, because for some reason this was the first thing I thought of.

There are no images attached, but I’m putting the rest of the post under a readmore since the majority of the content is semi-graphic written description of the how-to’s and wherefore’s and such of fingernail removal torture.

To be clear: I will be going into as much depth as I possibly can without using images. The content of this post will be purely academic. There will be no artistic liberties taken. This post is meant to be as accurate to (and descriptive of) a real-life situation as possible.

I hope some part of this post eventually winds up being a helpful resource for someone!

1) Not as painful as it’s made out to be

-It's painful, but definitely not to the extent it’s shown in movies or whatnot. A lot of the "pain" comes from the shock factor of seeing your body without something it’s always had, as well as the inherent "wrongness" that comes with experiencing a part of your body being removed.

2) There is very very thin film of skin between the fingernail and the finger.

-If one is careful in removing the fingernail by peeling it back slowly, one can preserve this thin piece of skin. -If one pulls the fingernail back quickly and without taking care, this thin film will rip, and the nail will pull away with bits of flesh attached.

3) The flesh under the nail will be vertically striated.

-If one uses the peel-back method, and is careful to not let the thin film of skin between the nail and the flesh rip, the skin/flesh underneath the nail will be as visibly striated as the fingernail itself. If you look closely at your fingernail right now, you’ll see that there are many tiny grooves from the tip of your nail to the base. This is true for all human fingernails. If the nail is peeled back with sufficient care, those striations will be echoed on the skin underneath the nail.

4) The  “peel entirely off” method versus the  "peel back and then stop" method versus the "pull out entirely" method.

-The “peel entirely off” method is how I will refer to the method of grasping firmly the tip of the fingernail in some sort of vice (usually pliers) and then peeling it backwards, moving the pliers from the nail at the tip of the finger towards the hand itself. Using this method, the nail will remain firmly grasped in the pliers the entire time. The movement of the pliers only stops when the base of the nail is ripped entirely out of the finger. This will necessarily result in ripping out a fair bit of skin past the cuticles, as the technical base of the nail (aka “nail matrix”) is generally around half a centimeter hand-wards past the cuticles (and follows the curve of the nail, so is deeper than the cuticles as well). Due to the nature of skin, I would expect a tear reminiscent of an extremely deep hangnail that goes from the base of the cuticles to at least halfway between the first and second knuckle (and at most goes to the second knuckle). In this case, it is not guaranteed that the nail will grow back. There is a chance it’ll come back, but there is also a chance that the nail matrix is permanently damaged and will not be able to grow a new nail. Since every human is different, there’s not an exact science to determining where a person’s nail matrix is before it’s ripped out. A (very) general rule of thumb is to follow the curve of the existing fingernail, and draw a point on that curve before it hits bone. Obviously, this is extremely subjective.

-The “peel back and then stop” method is how I will refer to what is essentially the previous method, but one stops before the nail-ripping goes past the cuticle and snips off the peeled part, leaving a milimeter or so of fingernail existing on the nailbed. In this case, it is assured that the nail matrix is undisturbed, and the fingernail will grow back. This is the method I will assume is taken for the future steps

-The “pull out entirely” method is how I will refer to the situation where one grasps the protruding part of the nail firmly, and applies force away from the hand and in the direction the finger points. In this case, there’s a large chance that the nail will rip. This depends largely on the care taken with the pulling object (pliers, usually) to grab the nail exactly parallel with the sides of the pliers. If any part of the pliers digs into the nail at a singular location, this will create a point at which pressure will build up, and the nail will likely rip at this location. The strength of the individual’s nails also affects the ripping. The individual’s nail strength can vary based on nourishment as well as on a general person-to-person basis. Personally, I do not recommend this method.

-If one wants to make the removal definitely permanent, there’s the possibility of peeling it back all the way down and out, and then chemically burning where one assumes the nail matrix is. (Some serious irl hikers do this to their toenails on purpose, to reduce the chances of getting ingrown toenails from being laced into hiking boots for days on end.) Removing the nail permanently will obviously reduce the opportunity to peel it off again, but will give a permanent Horrific Aspect to the victim.

5) For the first three days, the exposed flesh will be painful.

-The entire tip of the finger will be a constant deep and throbbing pain. Any deviation from this norm will be an increase in pain, never a decrease (save medication or an ice-bath-for-full-minutes immersion to the point of numbness).

-Any contact with the exposed nailbed will increase the pain. Knocking the exposed flesh against anything, even extremely gently, will result in a visible bright red welt under the thin layer of skin (bright red on light skin only! on darker skin, the welt will still be visible, but will show as a dark red-brown). It is a visual similar to an extremely tiny, non-protruding blood blister. Knocking the nailbed against something less gently will result in fully scraping off that delicate outer layer of skin.

-Using the finger for anything will be painful (though not unbearably so), and it may even be painful to bend the finger at all.

-Any moisture on the exposed flesh (including anything from regular water to antibiotic ointment) will hurt a lot. This will intensify the throbbing at least twofold across the entire nailbed, and will also result in an amount of stinging as if one had just realized one had been stung by a bee.

6) For treatment and healing thereof (if quick healing is desired)

For those first three days, any bandaid application is inadvisable -The exposed flesh will be so tender and vulnerable that any bandaid (even the non-stick kind) will stick to the exposed flesh and rip it upon removal. I can only assume this is in part due to the curvature of the finger, which means that any wrapping-around type bandaid will inherently put pressure on the nailbed, resulting in sticking.

-To promote healing, the first three days should be without any sort of covering on the wound.

After the first three days, a scab will form. -At this point, the pain will be much less. it might be uncomfortable to bump the nailbed into objects, but it will not be the same pain as in the first three days.

-The wound will also be much less sensitive to moisture.

-When the scab starts to crack (usually a vertical crack), one should apply antibiotic ointment and a bandaid. At this point in the proess, it is desired for the scab to remain as consistently moist as possibly. This will help the scab fall off when it is ready to do so.

-At this point, the finger can be used normally (within reason) without much (if any) pain.

After two or three days with the bandaid covering, the scab will start to fall off.

-One may expedite this process if one is careful.

-At this point, the skin on the nailbed is sensitive to the touch, but not to the point of pain.

-There will be some dry, loose skin around the edges of the nailbed.

-The previously visible striation will no longer be there.

-Pressure on the exposed nailbed will not be necessarily painful, but it will feel decidedly Odd. Though not painful, It will be an extremely sensitive area.

-The nailbed will be a delicate pinkish color.

Around a week after the initial scab falls off, there will appear to be another scab. It will be a relatively thin layer of dry, dead skin.

-If the nail is allowed to grow normally, it is likely that it will cover this second scab before it has the chance to fall off.

-If the stub of the fingernail is trimmed routinely, it is possible for the scab to fall off, leaving only relatively smooth unblemished skin where the nailbed is. This skin will be roughly the same color and texture as the skin on the tip of the finger. 

7) The rate at which fingernails grow back is extremely slow

-The average growth rate is about 3.5 milimeters per month. There are several factors that can cause this to vary:

-Fingernails on the dominant hand grow back faster than the nails on the non-dominant hand.

-Fingernails grow back faster than toenails.

-Nails grow back faster in warm weather than in cold weather.

-Depending on the nail and the aforementioned conditions, one can expect a total regrowth time of anywhere from three to six months (or more).

8) Life Without Fingernails

-Fingernails affect a large part of our everyday lives. We mostly use them when we’re manipulating objects with our hands, and we use them to scratch. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s a lot. It’s hard to explain just how weird it is to not have fingernails to someone who’s never experienced it, but here goes:

-Fingernails are the Hard Backs used to brace our fingers against a hard shell when we manipulate something with our hands. If you pinch your fingers together right now, you’ll see a white band along the top of your fingernail. This is where the pressure from the pinching goes; it’s braced against your nail.

-Picking something up without fingernails feels extremely odd the first few hundred times you do it. It takes a long time to get used to it.

-Writing is even worse. Without the hard shell backing your fingers, the pencil tends to slip out of your grip more often. If you usually have long enough fingernails that you balance your pen/pencil on them, you’re extremely likely to have the pencil completely slip out of your grip multiple times a sentence.

-You don’t realize how much you unconsciously scratch itchy parts of your body until you no longer have the ability to do so. If you’re only missing a few nails, you have to consciously adjust your hand so that you can scratch with the existing ones. If you’re missing all of them, you have to actively find an external object to alleviate the itch.

Some places on the body one can scratch with their teeth, but for most places, one needs to either find an “itch stick,” or rub that part of their body on something scratchy. A lot of clothing is scratchy enough to work for this. One needs to learn how to vary the pressure so that one can alleviate the itch without tearing through the skin or scratching themselves.

Pros:

-Body horror

Fingernail removal is a more mentally significant mutilation than cuts or burns, if only because it draws on the "that was there and now it's not" aspect of body horror.

-Can be inflicted more than once

Since fingernails grow back, they can be removed again and again and again. Though it may take some time for the nails to regrow, it isn't even close to the type of permanent that’s chopping off a finger or a toe.

-Helplessness

Since it takes a few days for the nailbeds to heal enough to be able to use one's fingers, a complete removal of all fingernails will take away one's ability to use their hands. Even after this initial period of extreme sensitivity, the lack of fingernails is something most people aren’t prepared for. The previous section explaining how fingernails affect daily life is significant here.

 Cons:

-Can’t repeat often.

Once a fingernail is off, it's not coming back for at least three months (likely longer). It doesn't have the relatively quick reset time that burns or cuts do.

-Relatively short amount of time in pain

All of the pain is in the first few days. It is inconvenient afterwards, but there is little to no pain at this time.

-Amount of care needed

One needs to be relatively careful inflicting this. Fingernails are not as resilient as you'd think, and the likelihood of them ripping before you can finish ripping them off is fairly large if you're not being careful.

If you have a short-tempered or impatient whumper, this might not be their particular wheelhouse.

 Conclusion

Overall, I’d say that the effectiveness depends entirely on the desired result. The time it takes for the fingernails to regrow versus the amount of time in which the subject is in pain is not a very productive ratio, so if you’d want your whumper doing a particular torture regularly, I wouldn’t recommend this.

However, if the whumper’s goal is to appeal to the body horror aspect without permanent damage, this is a great option. The fact that it takes nails so long to regrow gives the victim a sense of horrified freakishness. It also has the added benefit of reducing the victim’s maneuverability far after the fact.

The semi-visible nature of this method of torture can be effective if one wishes to horrify characters outside the whumper/whumpee relationship. You don’t immediately look at other people’s hands when you meet them, and as such it might take a while for outside characters to notice the lack of fingernails (especially if they’re past the three day mark). But once they notice, it will be hard to look away.

[velociraptorsaurusrex]

1x02 Tempered Steele // Casablanca (1942) // 1x18 Steele in the News // 2x03 Red Holt Steele // Reborn, Susan Sontag // “Divers,” Divers, Joanna Newsom // 1x17 Steele Among the Living // “Kingfisher,” Have One on Me, Joanna Newsom // 1x11 Steeling the Show // 1x10 Steele Trap // 1x07 Etched in Steele // combined translations of Ovid's Pygmalion // 3x05 Blue Blooded Steele // 1x12 Steele Flying High // 3x01 Steele at It // Pygmalion and Galatea, W.S. Gilbert, Act I, pp15 // “The Creation to the Creator,” Mildred Pluma Foulke // 2x04 Altared Steele // 2x19 Dreams of Steele // Genesis 1:27 // 3x06 Steele Your Heart Away // Genesis 2:23 // 3x21 Steele Trying // Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, pp179 // “To Helen,” Frank Marshall Davis // Herman Melville letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Nov. [17?] 1851 // 2x01 Steele Away With Me // “Act,” León Salvatierra, trans. Javier O. Huerta // 4x01 Steele Searching // “Corpse Song,” Margaret Atwood // Job 10:8-9 // The Eye, Vladimir Nabokov, pp?? I only have an ebook // Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare, 2.2.46-55 // 4x02 Steele Searching // 4x07 Premium Steele // Dark Passage (1947) // “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman // “Now I Become Myself,” May Sarton // “Sacred Emily,” Gertrude Stein // “Recreation,” Audre Lorde // s1 intro voiceover

[tumblrisweird]

So I've been on a Lancer kick lately and have built a lot of character/mechs in COMP/CON (currently at 55+). Some of my favorite unusual builds (none of which I've actually gotten to playtest yet) include:

A Tokugawa built for long-range fire support

A Kobold that spends all its time hiding and moving mechs around with dual Ferrous Lashes

A Caliban that uses the cannon talents and a thermal lance to knock tons of enemies around

A size 3 Saladin with Mule Harnesses built to be a mobile fortress

A Dusk Wing with a superheavy Siege Cannon that provides orbital bombardment

A Swallowtail that uses an auto-cooler to provide Markerlight plus two additional lock-ons every round

A Death's Head with a Leviathan superheavy cannon

A Mk 1 Genghis that uses Zheng equipment with Combined Arms talents

An armored locomotive

Jerma

[moe-broey]

One thing they don't tell you about the Senshi tulpa that WILL inevitably manifest in your mind to tell you to eat better is that. Every time I make myself a coffee via kuerig instantly, I can hear him. Lamenting the fact that I have become so accustomed to convenience and ease that even a standard coffee machine has become foreign to me. I am thinking about how to make coffee without use of a machine in the first place, I am wondering where my french press went, I can see him. In my mind. Showing me how to make coffee in The Dungeon. Dungeon Coffee.

[solar-sunnyside-up]

hey, something i've been struggling with recently is i've been struggling with "finding my people" because i'm a minority in my hometown, and a lot of people... aren't. they don't understand me, and often when i try to get them to understand they seem like they fall back into the old systems they were traumatized with (elitism, classism ect.,). 1/2 -solidarity anon

Im gunna say this at the top, this is so rough and im so sorry you gotta go through this sweetie. We are so isolated and filtered into categories within our current system in order to keep that isolation and to fight solidarity and unity. Now I cannot know for 100% sure what your going through or the extend your suffering. But will say I am from and currently still live in a oil loving, god fearing, anti-LGBT, and very racist city while i was raised wiccan by a poly core family and all my gay aunts/uncles and have been dreaming of an earthship my whole life plus every summer id be stuck in an even more harsh farming community that was so small they gotntheir first street light when i was 9 and the chruch is also town hall (mayor works in a wing off of the building). So there is at least some overlap in the experiences your having.

But that being said, how I got weirdly connected to people and involved in so many projects and stuff might not work for you.

Personally? I just yelled and yelled about the injustice of the system at work, about cool forestry projects and people buying ghost towns to start up Co-loving villages. Sharing discworld and different philosophers with coworkers backed up by their fave hobby. About how terrible the conservative politics are. About how cool transit could be if we funded it. About community art projects and how cool solar glass would make things look. About drags shows and events and did you know there is A SOUP FESTIVAL? I'm autistic and have only really interacted my whole childhood with friends with ADHD so my brain is weird and won't shut up once it starts going.

As a result of my ramblings, I have gotten a lot of responses mostly ones that are positive since if they didn't agree with my absurdist philosophy ramblings or solar project ideas they'd just leave the coffee shop. If they enjoyed it, say they want to join a community garden/event or if someone was as stoked as I was about again UNLIMITED TASTINGS SOUP FESTIVAL than we'd chat about that. The thing is a lot of these things have overlap. Someone who wants to convert their lawn into a pollinators habitate prob also likes little libraries and as a result prob also likes the idea of dark sky street lights. And down the rabbit hole you go.

That being said... my best actual advice is 2 pronged.

RESEARCH and REACH OUT

I personally have done years worth of research on my city. What local events and politics are happening? Even in rural places there is at least garderns, there's engineers, there's usually a LGBT focused club. And from these spaces, you can build a network. Doing research I found out about 5 different organizations in my city (most of which was founded 40 yrs ago??) That where sustainability focused. Doing research made me realize how cool community associations could be and how I could help mine out. It also gives you all those ideas for convos.

Second, I reached out to those groups about weird ideas I had, about if I could hang up posters for them in my local area, if I could buy groups worth of tickets in advance, and than also reaching out to the ppl I already talked to and had these ppl interact. My fave example of this is T. T is an engineer who built a fully functioning solar car during his degree program but specializes in hydroponics (how we ended up talking was over plants) he than gets shown my fave farm near by and now he's building the farms hydro system and Seedling house. Writing in to newsletter ppl and showing off weird layout design. This is ultimately very anxiety indusing. What if I'm bothering them? Why should I be spamming them like this? But the secret here is-

No one will ever be mad about you showing interest in their interest once you find those ppl. They want the interaction just as much as you do.

[wild-moss-art]

my fesona pre and post timeskip! some info under the cut

Moss is a half nabatean who performs with a traveling circus. When Rhea sees one of their performances, she senses that there is something familiar about them. Moss takes more after their human mother than their nabatean father, so Rhea can't quite place who they remind her of. Moss is not forthcoming with any useful information on the matter, feigning complete ignorance. In order to watch them more closely, Rhea extends an invitation to the officer's academy. Moss accepts this invitation, albeit with suspicion, because it may offer better career options than the circus.

At the academy, Moss is a bit hard to pin down. They are friendly enough, generally cheerful, and happy to engage in conversation with anyone. They enjoy getting to know people, but are reluctant to reciprocate; rather, they tend to mirror others. Most people don't really notice this behavior, and those who do tend to find Moss mercurial and manipulative. Moss owns very few things, and they have very little regard for morality and attachment.

Due to the difficulties other characters may have getting to know Moss, support points are difficult to build. They get no support points from gifts, and negative support points from returning lost items. Supports can be built through battle, teatime, and sparring together(assuming that is a mechanic I also add to the game). If people try to pry too much, they lose support points unless they are at b support.

Moss can be recruited to any route, but will defect at the timeskip if they have no a supports unlocked for the house they are in. If they have an a support unlocked in a different house, they join that army after the timeskip. If they have no a supports unlocked, they never return to fodlan when they leave during the timeskip. Moss's heritage is only revealed in the silver snow and verdant wind routes.

[sysboxes]

Is there a limit on reposting in a time frame? Idk if "repost spam" is a thing that affects blogs. I'm very unfamiliar with Tumblr works

Ok so! Tumblr does have a post limit, I’ve never hit it but from what I understand: you can only make 250 posts every 24 hours. This includes both posts you reblog and original posts you make. I’m not sure if that’s 250 posts per blog or if posts you make/reblog on a sideblog count towards that limit. I’m also not sure if you can still queue posts or save them to your drafts if you’ve hit the post limit.

As far as I can tell, there’s no other effects it has on your blog, it shouldn’t boost or hide you in an algorithm or anything. While tumblr technically has an algorithm (setting your dashboard to “best stuff first”), most people opt out of it and set their dashboard to reverse chronological order. Even in the algorithm tumblr does have, I’m not sure posting a ton has any effect on it.

[thatonebabybat]

Hey btw having depression is not a requirement for being goth and if you think it is I don't like you. That's a whole chronic illness, not a part of your "goth mindset"/"aesthetic". Please reflect on that.