#i'm not even a third of the way through

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID in ALT] I've made posts before about Talia/Dick co-parenting Damian moments (will never happen but let me dream) and this came to me in a vision. Took me ages to finish for some reason 😭 and then even longer to post

[beesgav]

Since he built the Arcadia seemingly from nothing I think it stands to reason that Tochiro also programmed its operating system

[zukkaoru]

IT'S PAGE SIXTY FIVE HOW ARE THEY ALREADY DEAD

[corfisers]

i really need to finish this one day

[secret-engima]

Me: *talking about anime/manga that make you cry from feels* “And then there’s Fruit’s Basket-”

My Friend, surprised: Fruit’s Basket? Isn’t that just the one where a girl befriends some guys who turn into animals based on the Chinese, uh- what’s it- zodiac?

Me, already internally sobbing: no no you don’t understand, you DON’T UNDERSTAND. It’s not about the zodiac, it’s not about the curse, it’s not *about* those things even though they are cornerstones of the premise, it’s about the *characters* and it’s about the *people* and it’s about how people are broken and how trauma is different for everyone, how people are cruel but they are also kind. It’s about the little things in life that make you whole or break you down and how everyone around you is bleeding and laughing and living and dying just like you and even when you are alone you aren’t really, not unless you choose to be, because somewhere, someday, there is someone who will look at you and hold your shards and say “you are worth it”. It’s about how the best intentions can leave the biggest scars, and about learning to trust again or maybe even learning to trust for the first time. It’s about broken bridges and the mending of them. It’s about how selfishness and self-sacrifice each have their place, how too much of either is just as harmful as none at all.

It’s about the Cinnamon Sweet Girl who is afraid to be selfish even when giving and giving and giving of herself ends up hurting her and hurting those who love her and how they wish she would just speak up for herself even a little bit, because how will they know how to help her if she does not dare ask?

It’s about the Tsundere who fights and screams and screams and fights because maybe if he is loud enough, strong enough, good enough, people will look and see who he is rather than who he was molded to be, who rejects kindness because he mistakes it for pity and friendship for lies until it’s proven over and over and he thinks maybe this time it is safe to reach out his hand in return.

It’s about the Prince who does not know what a mother is or how to find one, who finds kindness to be something so rare and strange and yet when he sees someone hurting he is kind because kindness is a choice and he will choose to make it even when he isn’t sure how.

It’s about the Lying Man who loves something enough to realize it needs to be broken, like a limb that has healed wrong and needs to be broken and set anew even if it hurts that he has to do it and that he will be seen as evil because of it.

It’s about the Bubbly Child who actually is hurting because what parent looks on their child and hates them so much they would rather forget they exist? And so surely he must be Extra Happy And Good for the parent who remains because this parent at least bothers to love him.

It’s about the Cold Man who is cold because he cares and was punished for caring, who chose to cause hurt because at least if it is by his hand then he knows when the damage will stop and if he is not the one to do it then the one who comes after will not stop and never stops because pain is all they know.

It’s about the boy who doesn’t know how to make his own choices meeting the girl who refuses to let others make her own. It’s about secrets and lies and truths and lost things. It’s about so many characters who live on the side, except do they? Do they really? The protagonists might be the catalyst that brings them into our view, but they are themselves people with their own hurts and dreams and wants and loves and needs, and oh aren’t they all the more beautiful and make the world so much deeper because of it.

It’s about these characters who on the surface are all a recognizable Trope™ and you expect that to be all they are, because it’s a story, and they are not even the main characters, and some of them are not even alive anymore, for all they have such a deep effect on the story. Except then the writer picks them up in all their messy, beautiful glory, rotates them a few inches to the side so you can see the myriad of facets hidden under their surface and says “Look. Look at them and how much more they are and can be, look at them and tell me what parts of yourself you see.”

It’s about finding people who you can be weak around but who also make you want to be strong for them when they have their turn to break. It’s about how meeting someone doesn’t necessarily make them your other half, how love isn’t something perfect and clean. It’s messy and jagged and comes with strings trailing behind from the lives you lived apart and the hurts you gained along the way but oh isn’t it worth it, to find someone who is willing and wanting to love you anyway. Who will fight for you and with you and will work alongside you to keep this thing that grows between you even when it is hard and your hurts clash and your scars reopen and bleed.

It’s about consequences and how the hurting in turn can also hurt others, either without meaning to or very much meaning to, but how there is forgiveness in the world just as much as there are consequences. It’s about how nothing is meant to last, but isn’t it beautiful while it is here for the time that it is, and won’t it be better to remember it when it is healthy and strong than to cling to it and chain it and force it to stay alive past it’s time.

It’s about how sometimes even the largest things in this world are connected by the smallest of red strings.

It’s about how, even when you are hurting and wounded, even when life has torn you down, it’s worth moving forward, because happy endings do exist, you just have to fight for them, and find the people out there who will be willing to help you do so.

[uncanny-tranny]

Update on my project: I've gotten ten inches of the project done! The fabric is bulkier than I thought, but it's soft, so I don't mind.

Some things I've done to help this project:

Doing a few rows as a break from video games. I'll come to a quick stopping point, stitch some rows, then go back to gaming, which helps rest my hands (especially my right since I am a right-handed crocheter)

Wearing compression gloves is such a good idea, especially if your hands get cold and lock up like mine. They're grippy enough that the yarn doesn't slip, but they also have enough give that the yarn won't get caught

Using the tips of my fingers to feel individual pieces of the stitch is crucial for yarn as chunky as this one. Learn the anatomy of stitches!

Here's what ten inches of ribbing looks like!

[bumblingbabooshka]

[St Voyager Season 1 Episode 1 Caretaker - Tuvok & Janeway]

[shapeofmetal]

For number 7 of the Valentines Specials we have Jazz for twisted.bonds(Instagram)

[meownotgood]

chapter 1 + chapter 2... halfway to 60k

[iceeericeee]

I wonder how many tags i can add on to this

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2023: LOST IN THE MOMENT AND FOUND by Seanan McGuire.

One, I’m always here for Wayward Children, but two, this one is exceptionally perfect for Driscoll Vibes!! Featuring the blanket I’m working on for my mom.

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

Opinions on Dream? :^

SO many feelings about him omgg rant under cut please forgive me

okay so i don't really talk or draw him much cause honestly,,,most of the times i just think he's a bit....boring? or more accurately plain? not in a mean way either but just in a 'fades into the background' type of way like don't get me wrong!! he's a really nice friend to his peers, his feelings about his powers and aura making his relationships harder to navigate and trust along with his whole conflict with nightmare and morality about what's good and bad IS very cool!! and i love it whenever they write him to be complex and not on this black and white mentality or when he's just straight up following along his friends with no free will or with a dubious purpose without ever addressing his issues or feelings! it's just unsatisfying to me :')

or when they're making him the 'naive' and oblivious, (sometimes childish?) character being marked as the obstacle and villain along with the other star sanses from the fic's pov, always talking about doing good things while fighting his brother and not hearing him out about the balance, (and for weak reasons most of the time. like it's been so long and you STILL haven't sat down with him when he's, generally, basically begged you to just have a talk? guys please :'( ) or when they go for the victim sad dream always missing the old nightmare, where corrupted nightmare is the incarnation of evil, with no sympathy or emotion except anger and sadistic glee, killing and hurting everyone and dream's just trying to protect the multiverse and dream's always been in the right. such extremes!!!

LIKE!! i hope i'm not the only one that thinks a 500+ year old should have had enough time to idk. learn things? about people and manipulation and deceit? after knowing what the villagers did to night? about the bad things in the world and how there's a lot of grey areas in life and that he maybe reflected on his past enough to process and ask himself if there should to be a convo to settle his differences with nightmare (and you can make nightmare the stubborn one too! or have them BOTH be petty and imperfect and have some things wrong and some right at the same time like why do i always see the good guy vs bad guy cliché with these two when they're the perfect example of why positivity doesn't have meaning without the negativity!! as long as there's a satisfying evolution or growth that doesn't leave me empty i'm good yknow?)

plus i believe dream really isn't as dumb as people view him. i do get some of you saying he probably can't read or write since that's actually a pretty interesting idea to explore! but in general please let him have emotions other than pure sunshiny happiness or endless sadness like he's gotta have more depth than that! let him make mistakes, have flaws that don't just make him the bad guy that's always in the wrong by default, and be angry or suspicious or jealous or bitter or battling his mental health problems/depression or malicious or smart or witty or mischievous and silly or sarcastic or ANYTHING dude i just want him to be put into different scenarios where he can be serious or lighthearted like it doesn't even have to be long or perfect but make him feel real.

it could definitely be that i don't read or see much art about dream or really look for it hard enough but also i just. i feel bad for even saying this fr and i wanna be honest about why i don't enjoy most stories about him cause he always gets the worst treatment along with ink!!! especially ink omg the poor guy has it the worst i think like wow do they mess him up :'(

always one dimensional in non shippy fics, or too plain or easily replaceable by other, more entertaining people in the significant other's life in most of his ships like man. i have read fics out there that made me genuinely FEEL and root for him and love his character so much it restored all hope for me!!! but i can only name one on top of my head and the others? it's been so long i don't even remember their names i just legit feel terrible cause i love him still and i can't find many headcanons that fit my interpretation of him yknow?

not to say people who write him very happy, mislead or sad are ruining him like that's silly- if i see something i don't like i just. move on bro i wouldn't force people to feel or think the same way i do about him cause anyone can have whatever headcanons they want!!! just talking about what i personally look for in him and why i can't exactly find it since most of the stuff out there just isn't my cup of tea :')

hopefully i didn't set anyone off with this rambling opinionated essay i just pulled hhh xD i know i know he's a popular character and i know a lot of people like dream so *sobs* please please recommend me artists and fics about him that you think is good it's been so looong since i've read or seen anything new that makes me attached to this little guy aughg<33333

[eddis-not-eeddis]

Okay, but how hard is it to just.

Not.

Write a love-triangle.

It cannot possibly be that hard.

[mbirnsings-71]

Life's all fun and games until I start trying to explain a comic book I'm reading holy shit

[jasonsmirrorball]

[weakly] 7k....

[aparticularbandit]

also, yes, i still like this group of kiddos better than the group in the first game. maybe because they mostly treat each other like friends and are actively trying to treat each other like friends (nagito...is a different story, but he's doing his best in his own way) - it's not just makoto running around like we're all friends while everyone else is super suspicious of each other - the fragments are actually friends trying to make each other feel better while they deal with everything - and like. i like them so much better for that.

which is probably supposed to play into the twist re: fragments of despair because then it hurts more when you know that these people were basically junko's peeps, which should be effective! but i already know they're that, and i'm still attached to them.

honestly, other than the teru teru stuff and the compromising mikan stuff in the first case and monokuma consistently and constantly beating up on monomi for shits and giggles. i overall like these parts of the game better.

....

i don't like the mechanics better (i hate the class trials now, and i hate that they're so much longer, and i hate the changes they made to the mechanics, and i'm so glad i finished nagito's ftes because his ability might actually help me in the trials, and i don't like how the monomono machine stuff has been changed ish but it's still usually better to throw one coin in at a time instead of putting a bunch of coins in all at once. mostly).

but i like the characters better, which gets me more invested in the story.