#idk if anyone will end up actually like the iteration

[angelpuns]

While brainstorming for this tmnt iteration I've stumbled across Weird Shit™ in my life that may be triggering to some people so I will be putting warnings on some comics, again thus iteration is quite literally just me making comics about me and my siblings' childhoods in an effort to??? Idk process feelings that I didn't realize I had <3

[thefirstknife]

idk if you've talked about this, but Maya says something interesting in her "final" message to the Young Wolf. She says the YW should ponder "iterations" of the conversation on the riverbank (iirc) but I don't remember the YW mentioned in the Dark Timeline, and in the Epistemic lore tab, Praedyth says "the figure always changes." Is the YW a unique individual or do they exist in other timelines too? (I feel like I've missed a few details so I'm hoping you can answer. 😅)

It's a really cool message that will be interesting to revisit from time to time.

I leave this to you now, when it is too early to act. Before you have the faculty to understand its gravitas. You were offered the age you've fought to restore. Everything we've lost. You won't find it on this narcissist's station. I will set it in front of you, finely crafted and tuned. You mistakenly label it hubris, and resist. And you know... failure is a catalyst: it breeds invention. Would you comprehend the endless permutations of our conversation on the riverbank? I was only trying to change your mind. To help you see a better future. That exchange... did not always end in your favor. It does not have to still. You believe my ideology, virulent. All right. Know that I have bled across time, and under the skin of the cosmos. My knowledge became its fabric, filled its vessels, through its mind. Humanity is scattered, yet to see a Collective, focused. But in this infinite network the Vex have created... There is one answer. A Golden Timeline... With a heavy cost.

It took a few reads for me to wrap my mind around this. Maya definitely confirms that this happened in multiple timelines, in some way. We're not really sure if it's exactly the same though, obviously, since we can't really check.

The interesting bit is that the few timelines that Elsie has seen, all of them have failed because, essentially, the YW never became what they did because we didn't destroy the Black Heart. Those timelines have failed completely. But there seems to be other timelines in which we do exist, except we're always someone else (kinda like keeping everyone's Guardian canon, in a way) which we know from Epistemic as you've noted, and it's really cool:

Some visions he gets once, while some come back over and over again. One recurring image: a piece of the Traveler cracked off from its body, lying belly-up in a forest, with a small figure standing in front of it. The figure changes every time, but the sickly glow of the Traveler doesn't.

This is us regaining our Light at the Shard of the Traveler in the Red War, so it's post-Black Heart.

I think the YW is unique in a way that they only exist in the timeline where they destroy the Black Heart (D1 base story), but since there's an unknown number of timelines, this person is always someone different (so there's no one canon YW, it could be any of us). There's also timelines where we never become the YW because Elsie never helps us and we never destroy the Black Heart and things spiral from there.

It always remains a question if anyone using the Vex and their Network and technology is actually seeing real existing things, or perhaps simulations or possibilities. I do wonder if they left Maya around with the Echo for some future purpose or at least to keep their options open. Also intrigued about her mentioning "a Golden Timeline" and if that will mean anything in the future or if it's just her yapping from the Network. I did not expect her to stay around and especially not with the Echo in her posession so I'm super excited about the possibility of storylines with this in the future.

[goron-king-darunia]

Eggtober 6th 2023

"Splat" or "Fun with Colors": Raw Egg.

(Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Pencil brush for details and highlights. 12 colors, I think? 1 Hour.) I actually really liked the rough version I made, so you're gonna get that one at the end as well, for anyone who also likes the rough one better than the smooth one.

But first... I finally discovered a feature of CSP, so now I am unstoppable and I will NEVER AGAIN have to ask myself "How the fuck did I do that?"

Because now I have EVIDENCE. Now curious friends, followers, and my forgetful ass, can watch the full process of how I made a thing. Including what references I used so it's clear how much is iterative and how much I am drawing directly from the visual reference. Today I had to do a lot from imagination because I couldn't find an exaggerated splashy egg, but sometimes I really am just making a study and trying to do a one-to-one recreation of a reference. So now y'all get to know all my filthy little secrets. I was intending to grab footage starting with Eggtober 1, 2023 but OBS needs a version of an NVIDIA driver that will absolutely wreck my computer with BSODs because I own a junker apparently. But it turns out CSP (or at least V2, IDK if it was in V1) has a way to capture a speedpaint natively when you create the file.

Now I am unstoppable, powerful. No more taking a break from art when life gets busy and coming back to pieces I drew 10 years ago and wondering "How the hell did I manage that?" I can just check. It's over for all of you. Once I practice anatomy again and start being able to draw shapes and volumes perfectly from imagination, I will become all-powerful. I will ascend. Hell, maybe someone might even pay me if I learn to draw anything that isn't an egg or a meme. XD Radical self-confidence, baby. I can art now, and I have evidence. My horizons are infinite!

And now, hopefully, any baby artists that are just starting out can get an idea of how I do it from this and future pieces so I can pull you all up with me in a bid of apotheosis. For the EGGsthetic! (Aesthetic.)

I wonder which version of this egg @lady-quen's breadbugs will snap up?

And I wonder which one @quezify will like best? My money's on the sketchy one.

I can't tell which I like better honestly. The smooth one us much more "My aesthetic" because it matches how I render eggs but... The rough pencil-y gouache lines you get with light pressure really remind me of how the classic modern quezify eggs look, and I of course only started doing eggs because of the first Eggtober so, like. On the one hand, smooth and painterly look that goes with all but one of my previous eggs (Eggtober 1, 2023 was a study from memory of quezify's style, after all). But on the other hand... dramatic color changes! Textrure, shine! Colors that aren't in the actual references! EXPRESSIVENESS. Two different moods on the same egg art and I really dig both of them honestly.

[thatonebipotato]

gonna ramble about MAWS season 3 predictions and stuff under the cut, its gonna be pretty long and also mostly about conner

ok so first off, MAWS season 3 and conner in s3 are both CONFIRMED LETS GOOO

so i have some thoughts about what i think will happen, at least very specifically with conner

alright so first off, its possible that they could go the standard clone route. thats what im hoping for, as it seems pretty fun and has so much angst potential, especially in this iteration

first off there's the half kryptonian half human thing. thats probably gonna be luthors main draw to why superboy is better. however, thats also gonna be the thing that drives him to isolation, as it tends to do. hes too human to be kryptonian and too kryptonian to be human

luthor and slade, who are fairly good at manipulation, can use this against him and keep him feeling isolated so that he stays with them. knowing them and what they can do, i also believe that they might use kryptonite against him to keep him in line

i believe it could be some kind of sick back and forth, where conner keeps one upping clark and kara and being used as proof that aliens arent needed or wanted, and then clark and kara catching back up and him feeling like hes failing his only purpose

this leads up to a culmination of superboy going against superman and supergirl. ive mentioned the line "i never asked/wanted to be made" coming up before, and i think it could be here that its used

the first season was about clark learning and accepting who he is, then the second was about him and kara learning and accepting who they are, so it does make sense for the third season to also throw in a third kryptonian so they learn who they are together

however, the conner teaser we got shows him looking fairly tan. both luthor and clark are fairly pale in this iteration, so its possible that it could be a clone between lois and clark instead, as ive seen some people point out.

the alternative, which i think is a little bit more likely, is that it will be a conner from an alternate dimension.

alternate dimensions have already been played around with in the first season of MAWS, and as seen in this photo (the second one of the post) from the panel showing off what might be the s3 opening or possibly a promotional poster or smth, it looks like they're not only going to be bringing back the other dimensions, but it seems like that might be the main focus of the season

what i think could happen with this is that they either get to a dimension with conner in it and he helps them with whatever they need, or hes the one/is also traveling dimensions and they just happen to run into each other and they help each other out.

from there, i think we can learn that conner doesnt exist in the main dimension yet, so conner gives clark tips on how to handle him when he finally gets made. that, or because of weird dimension stuff he has to be super tight lipped about everything and can only give him vague hints.

near the end of the season, we also get a teaser for the main universes superboy, who gets to actually star in a potential 4th season

idk, these are just my thoughts that i wanna share. we dont have a lot to go off of as far as i know, but im so hyped for the next season its insane. if anyone wants to add PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go for it, id love to hear other thoughts and perspectives and discuss this with people!!

[determinate-negation]

Hii. I'm not sure how to phrase this question, but how does one draw the line between the most effective way of getting people into engaging critically with art and politics (which is imo, being nice and encouraging and yes coddling a little bit people's fragile egos) and expressing your own discontent with people's lack of curiosity and desire to learn and form well funded opinions beyond base level takes, paired with an immovable conviction that anything that isn't immediately comfortable (such as your blorbo show (?) Being criticized) must be Evil.

What I mean is that as an individual you'd want to basically shake these people who shut down every discussion with the slogan Let People Enjoy Things, and rightfully call them idiots for throwing a tantrum at the grown age of 36 because someone said maybe watching something other than Steven universe would be good or whatever, but on the other hand telling people they are unintelligent for exclusively engaging with surface level ideas/ uninspired art does Not encourage anyone who does that into going beyond that comfort zone. At the same time tho it does feel like you're doing airplane sounds so the baby eats the pudding without crying. You cannot condescend anyone into critical thought but the fact that so many people are unwilling to engage in it out of laziness is making everyone's life worse. How do we get out of that point ig is my question. Sorry if that made 0 sense English isn't my first language :P hope you're having a good day/night

idk i honestly get very annoyed by watching people or interacting with people who respond to any mild critical thought with some iteration of 'let people enjoy things' and 'youre being elitist for not liking the popular thing,' and a million other things. ngl i dont think tumblr is also the greatest place for like... scholarly discourse although it can actually be quite productive for it somethings. but a lot of people genuinely dont want to look into shit. theres an attitude here (not just on tumblr but i just think in the capitalist west) of incuriosity and its difficult to say how to overcomme. for example ill post links to books and essays about a topic and have people complain that i dont specify what chapters to read. this pisses me off to no end and i end up ranting about it and probably coming off like a dick lol. thus the posts...

i also do post like essays and articles and shit that i think explains my position on this and the theoretical basis for it, and if people ask questions ill try to explain any concepts and give recommendations for stuff to read about mass culture and cultural criticism. i think this has been more productive, idk. i dont think political education and class consciousness will rise from social media though, which is where these tendencies are allowed to develop to the extreme. organization and education irl will be the most fruitful, but still i just think to show people the stuff that influenced me and how i think of it is a net positive. ty and same to you

[skybristle]

Someone somewhere is evil, why, how

Was it maw?? Idk I got bad memory

Explain

I will be watching

rbs > likes

I hesitate to call anyone evil because they all just kinda have their own crazy interlocking mental illnesses that drive them to do terrible things to and with eachother. that said. YEAH MAW IS. I could argue Starlight is the main perpetrator becayse maw wouldn't have hurt another iterator without her influence butttt you asked about maw so I will respond.

maw, even for an iterator, has a hell of a God complex going on. immense greed and solitude driving her to maintain the cult of her colony. she was actually a very generous god, if ruthless, but Hella xenophobic to both other iterators whom she considered lowly in comparison to her divine splendor and also anyone trying to immigrate into her colony as it upsets her sense of control.

this is. uhm. kind of a problem since around when she's built is when the great equalizer really hits full force and ancient kind is scrambling for any space avaliable. ash is a clusterfuck ATM, sparks is full, and maw has used her puppet admin to close immigration. and their group is fairly isolated. so. like. yikes ! they start scrambling for space on sparks and keep building on top of her, and at some point have to expand horizontally and extend her structure. sounds cool! except when you consider theyre doing the construction while she's fully awake, the extra processing power is overclocking and overstimulating the shit out of her, all while she's trying to tend to a mega colony. it's fucking hell and she begs ash to do something to get maw to share the burden, anything to make it stop. and. hold on I wrote a broadcast abt this

so maw basically says "L get fucked" because she refuses to submit to lower gods who can't even control their people. this kind of is the root of all of sparks trauma and hrr eventual actions against her and ash but this is abt maw.

after mass ascension... she kinda has a crisis because. no worshippers! so naturally she creates purposed organisms to inhabit her can. however it eventually goes arwy and they start ripping eachother apart. and maw just finds this cathartic and is like 'oh really? let me show you real carnage' and just keeps bioengineering more insane shit. in her own little bubble ignoring everyone 'below her' for a very long time. hypocritically she also fucking hates sparks soo much for her false seniority and her superior power [from the expansion maw directly caused....] and other things but. that doesn't really matter until later and sparks is terrified of her so they don't interact.

this is a side point but the gladiator campaign happens somewhere around here. Hella busted slugcat in her brutal can who must impress her to escape. they end up 'fightinf' her [trying to survive her boss fight long enough] and they're the one to bite and break her antenna LOL

until.... overseers of pale pink manage to squeeze through her can, and, eventually, Starlight reaches her and speaks of her [and whispers] work to get them off the string. u see maw wouldn't care but both of them are soo vulnerable and just ripe for the taking! and God is she desperate to fufill her complex. they mainly want her help for the ability to bioengineering to break iterator internals, most primarily the arm to free the puppet. so maw makes them kneel and beg for divine aid [or starlight anyways. yes it is as homoerotic as you imagine]. they kind of drive whispers away and just loop into eachothers worst desires. driving starlight deeper into her irrational and desperate impulses and maw deeper into violence and wrath rather than godlike benevolence. maw basically loaded starlights gun and gave her threats to remove herself from her structure credence.

so eventually they turn on whispers, who's fallen out of use to them and is already growing more fearful and growing wise. the final catalyst is them spotting colorburst being sent to ash as an attempt to wake him and invoke his seniority to stop them by whispers.

maw sends the purposed organisms she designed to whispers can and they rip their puppet free. against their will. but they get the chance for one final scream, an emergency broadcast that becomes complete pandemonium for their group...

anddd I'll cut it there. more questions r welcome but this post is getting Hella long

[sonjuponju]

now YOU tell me about YOUR ocs...!!! (if you want) is your pfp enix...🧡

IT IS IT IS!!! that drawing turned out so good i just stick it everywhere now 😭

the thing about my ocs is that i hardly get anything done with them if i don't have someone to constantly validate my choices and help me build ideas and stuff so most of my stories are pretty incomplete and all over the place 🥲 but i do have some bits and pieces that i can share!!

ima put everything under a read more cus there's gonna be a LOT of stuff. you really don't have to read all of it if you find it longwinded, i just really love rambling about my dudes (but only if someone asks 😭)

ENIX, he/him - he's actually one of my older ocs, i created him way back in 2017 when i was like 11 😭 fun fact! his original name was vixen but due to the definition of the word bugging me i recently changed his name to enix :3 another fact but kind of an embarrassing one - he used to have DID, and my 11 year old ass played RIGHT into the "evil alter" trope, so yeahhhh... the only good thing to come out of that was that the "evil alter" eventually became a wholly separate blorbo, named feliks! who we will get into now B)

FELIKS, he/him - my fucking sweet baby. my angel. he has gone through so many transformations it's hilarious

here he is in his "evil alter" days. already got the black eye to signify his "evilness". though i don't think it took very long for me to decide that he was actually the host of the body, not enix. in any case his usual day-to-day activities included pissing everyone around him off and trying some evil schemes every now and then

in like 2018 i got REALLY into this visual novel called "the arcana" and feliks was the ex best friend of the MC my friend cooked up for our version of the story. i didn't want him to be a cyclops for this iteration because i thought it didn't fit the theme, so he had to get a human design. he didn't have DID in this version, but he did have an identical twin brother, named vance. in this story feliks killed vance and became the boyfriend of the villain of the story, also becoming one of the villains in the process. his ex best friend ellis ended up defeating him and he got hanged with his boyfriend for their crimes

now here's where the story gets really juicy. feliks reincarnated in the modern world, and i think i ditched him having DID and instead the "alters" turned out to be the fragmented parts of feliks' dead brother's personality. vance had basically come back to haunt him in a form that was kind of comparable to alters, but also not really

the main arcana characters alongside ellis also reincarnated and ended up finding feliks (who was still evil btw). they were kind of like a friend group for a while until shit hit the fan when everyone found out that feliks killed his brother way back in their past life (they had no idea up until now). ellis became incredibly angry with him and him being a magician turned feliks into water and put him in a vase so he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again

before this happened though i think ellis and his also magician boyfriend were able to piece vance back together and give him a body, so he was reincarnated too. after receiving a second chance at life, vance got himself a boyfriend, and even got married with him. the happiness didn't last for long though when feliks was able to sneak himself in his water form into vance's husband's water bottle. the husband drunk the water and ended up possessed by feliks 🙃 feliks killed vance AGAIN, was able to return to his own body by also killing vance's husband, annnnddd... then ellis caught up to him and beheaded him with his scythe. (god i still love this story)

after death feliks became a demon in hell, and that's basically where his story ends. idk i must've gotten another interest at this point because i didn't get any further with the story

in 2020 i decided to revamp him AGAIN, this time making my own fantasy universe for him. i got a couple of my friends involved with it too (this was basically a species i made specifically for that thing and my friends made ocs of that species). the story for it was really juicy too but im not gonna be telling about it cus it's almost identical to my current project with him and i might wanna make it into a real thing one day so.. SPEAKING OF WHICH

HIS CURRENT DESIGN. MORE PHOTOS.

I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT HIM!!!!!!! GAAGAHAJJSDJDKSK

anyway. yeah, there isn't much i can tell about the story, but i can tell you about how SHIT it is trying to come up with fantasy clothing. i am no fashion designer, not by a longshot, so my boy has his tits out 24/7 because i can't think of anything he could wear (and also i just love seeing him bare chested ❤️). i kinda don't even know where to start with the clothes cus i don't want them to be the generic european medieval stuff you see in fantasy CONSTANTLY and i am awfully lazy at researching anything that isn't my number 1 interest so. yah. to combat not being able to draw him with a canon design, i made a domestic modern au 🫶

here's feliks and his roomie clancy :3 they are my biggest blorbos rn and i would REALLY love to talk more about them but um. yeah this post is long enough especially considering there is still one oc i wanna mention

here's valo!! she is feliks' sister. you might think wait you didn't mention feliks having a sister? no i didn't because she is his BROTHER. I GENDERBENDED VANCE. BECAUSE IT WOULD FUCK. and yeah she is absolutely incredible i love her from the bottom of my heart. valo and feliks still have kind of a complicated relationship but at least in the au feliks doesn't kill her :D she's just kinda chilling with her gf until i come up with a story for her too

so ya that's all i wanted to talk about for now!! if you read this far then thank you 😭🫶 i had so much fun writing this. i was busy the whole day today but i just kept thinking about how much i wanted to answer your ask haha. i didn't plan for it to get so long though but im super grateful if you read this far 🥹

[sarwanoodle]

DoH (Drops of Honey, iterator) and Laeka (Lizard that's actually a Beecat but they're like a werecreature don't worry about it)

The entire extremely complicated lore of DoH below for anyone curious (Warning!!!!! The Rain World universe me and my friends have slowly but surely created is very very funky there is a lot of unlore!!!)

DoH was originally designed by GC (Grayscale Contract) to be a replacement for someone part of her local group, but she ended up making a design she liked better (Sprinkles of Snow). A family of Beecats, a subspecies of slugcats, stole the blueprints and used them to make a replacement for another iterator (GRWTE).

Basically how the replacements work is when an iterator attaches the replacement puppet to their structure they like become the replacement. The Beecats were incredibly crafty and used all sorts of material they stole from the local iterators to create the replacement puppet. They forcibly attached it to to GRWTE, forcing them to become DoH.

DoH was programmed to love the Beecats, and took care of them for a while until he connected to the global chat. Some iterators in the global chat were worried about him, and decided to try to help him. DoH was removed from GRWTE, but one of the iterators that helped, EFotS (A friend's iterator), felt kind of bad for DoH, since he was kind of a separate person?

EFotS literally researched and learned some sort of forbidden sorcery (idk it's complicated) to create a soul for DoH to call his own. But EFotS kinda fricked it up a little so DoH's soul is mutated, which usually causes some weird stuff. (Me and my friends have lovingly named these cursed creatures Sproinklies)

DoH is very traumatized when he wakes up and gets his memories of what happened back. He hates Beecats now, and doesn't want anything to do with them, so he stays with EFotS. DoH eventually grows a tail, which is blamed on his mutated soul. His tail starts growing longer over time but dw about it

A while later they discover that DoH has a mouth and a stomach and is slowly turning into flesh and bones. Whenever he eats, his tail grows and another part of him becomes biological. This freaks DoH the frick out because when it first happens he literally doesn't remember that part of him not being biological and he worries that his memory is going to get worse and he's going to forget everything.

DoH's memory doesn't get worse and he doesn't forget everything so everything's fine!! But DoH still kinda struggles with an identity crisis because he's changed a lot from what he used to be and he's worried that EFotS won't care about him anymore because he's so different from the person EFotS wanted to save. But EFotS still loves him and DoH loves EFotS and did I mention they're gay they're gay as hell

Anyway if you actually read all of my insane ramblings you are also insane. Take this

[f0point5]

If Newey actually leaves it'll be quite some time before anyone will get a car that is properly his under them. Idk know when he's allowed to leave, if he can give a two week notice now or if he has to finish up the season. Let's go with the latter. The whole 2025 season then would be his gardening leave, he then could start (let's say at Ferrari) in 2026, right as the new regs come in. The 2026 car for his new team will be mostly finished by the time he joins, so he'll spend the season working on smaller upgrades and tweaks to someone else's car design. The first car that will truly be 'his' again will be the 2027 car. (Then again most teams don't fundamentally redesign their car concepts within one regulation cycle so he'll also heavily have to work with someone else's interpretation of these new regulations and won't be the person to build that idea up from the ground up.)

So if he were to go to Ferrari, LH with his 2+1 deal might not even get any perks from them louring Newey in like some people hope/fear.

It depends. His current contract ends in 2025 and apparently has 1 year of gardening leave stipulated. So 2027 is the first time he would able to work on a car so 2028 would be the first Newey led car, as it stands.

However, contracts can be amended and bought out if both parties are amenable. Given that Newey has apparently not been as involved in the latest iteration of RB cars, and given the reg change coming, RB might let him out of contract early for the right amount, because there’s not much for him to steal and take with him in terms of car secrets.

But You’re right, even if they let him out from the end of this year it’ll be midway through 2026 before he is making the difference at the absolute earliest when, as you say, he will working with someone else’s concept. There could be a stipulation that he gets free reign and they just have to pony up the money, but who knows.

All of this is what makes me wonder what Newey has to gain. But the time he’s back at the head of car design he’ll be over 70. Does this man not want to retire like he’s been saying? I honestly don’t get it.

[ca-suffit]

First off - I really appreciate what you do here, I'm new to fandom spaces and the things you post about have crystalized what bothered me in this fandom, which has made the experience of sifting through it much easier, knowing why some people's takes make me wildly uncomfortable and why I wasn't convinced by the big blogs big loud voices yelling at me what to think and how. There's an objectivity to your words that takes me out of the shipping war, book nostalgia, societal issue-blind mindset a lot of loud people here flaunt like some intellectual commentary, when it's not.

That aside, I know you mostly comment on fandom racism, but I've been confused for some time with how this fandom deals with transgender AUs. I know that a while back there was a lot of heated discourse and some big blogs saying that Louis shouldn't be feminized, dismissing critique of patriarchy which the show makes so clear, and misinterpreting Lestat's place in the familial structure etc. Now, I'm not talking about that, I wholeheartedly agree with Louis being a feminine (and maternal) figure in regards to gender roles, and with his general demeanor, as well. Though he is more subdued in that sense and gets misinterpreted, due to people used to something more outright like Lestat's flamboyancy.

And I know a lot of fic was written at first to spite the people who were uncomfortable with the notion of a clearly feminized Louis, which brought out MPreg, A/B/O, breeding kink, crossdressing, GNC, and even trans (FTM or MTF) iterations. I've read some great work involving most of those (though I've never wanted to check out any applying to Lestat, since most of them seem ridiculous) which was careful, mindful and made sure to respectfully use real life sensitive tropes, such as transness.

But I've also seen really crude, insensitive, and outright unconvincing characterization of an FTM Louis. Empowerment through writing is great, and I know transmasc writers can vent through the process, but some work has had such blatant fetishization of trans men, and it gets lumped in with praise along other, more serious and deserving fics. Not every FTM Louis is empowering, and I just can't get behind people writing a trans man that's turned on by being called a wife, having his genitalia spoken about in an outright feminized and crude way, AND ENJOYING THE THOUGHT OF GETTING PREGNANT.

Now, I know that various people's dysphoria allows for different things, but the amount of trans men that actually have a single positive thought about pregnancy, their female genitalia being spoken about, or having womanly roles forced upon them in relationships, is so low that writing about it without consideration becomes quite offensive. If you want a mindless smut one-shot of a pregnant or willing to be Louis, go for him as a cis gay man with a breeding kink, for A/B/O, bogus science, or honestly, fucking anything besides him being an FTM.

And I say this especially because I know it's not just trans men reading those crude and smutty iterations, it's also, and mostly, people who have hurt me and many other transmasc individuals with their disgusting chaser behaviour. Talking about it brings up many hurtful memories and I won't go farther for risk of becoming too subjective and affected, but I think trans AUs really shouldn't be treated with as much ease as they are.

first, thank u for the compliments!! I don't rly hear nice things here so it's appreciated when anyone takes time to give feedback and let me know this is doing something.

second, trans stuff is still under the racial umbrella as there's a lot of trans people of color here who get ignored in favor of white fandom bullshit all the time.

idk all the ins and outs of this but my main question reading this was.....are the fics being written by trans ppl or no? Cuz it's one thing if it's trans ppl expressing a spectrum of an identity and another if it's a non trans person using an identity to meet some kind of plot end and not considering the real implications of that. It sounds like it's the latter but I got a little confused.

[guardian-angle22]

Much as I would love to see a Muslim/hijabi woman on tv. Most likely wouldn't want to be on tv since it goes against their beliefs. I'm ok with Natacha in this role bc I love her and I appreciate what LS has done with showing respect as the show has continued

[response to my post here]

First off, thank you for the insight/feedback on the accuracy, and the prayer part in particular! I had thought the location she was praying in was inaccurate but that wasn’t something I saw mentioned a lot at the time of the initial backlash to that scene. So I appreciate the information. 💜

I definitely head canon that when Owen rebuilt the firehouse (for the 2nd time!) he made sure there was a dedicated quiet room. Not only would it be important to have for Marjan or anyone else that works at the firehouse with them of Muslim faith to pray in, but also they have stressful and emotional jobs! Having a dedicated safe space at the firehouse to go when you need that kind of quiet privacy just makes sense to me.

As far as the casting part first: I think Natacha has done a great job and I appreciate the fact that she spoke up to the showrunners after hearing feedback from Muslim viewers. and from what I heard of her talking at the most recent convention, she has some great ideas of exploring various intersectionality that is found within that religion and I think that’s great and really hope they do explore some of those things.

My desire for an actual hijabi woman to have been chosen for this part was mainly based off experiences I witnessed from a previous fandom, Skam. IDK if you ever watched it, but the 4th season focused on a Muslim girl in high school, Sana, played by an actress who was actually Muslim, Iman Meskini, who was fantastic. The show writer/creator/producer relied a lot on her knowledge and lived experience when filming things. Then the Skam remakes happened… and another iteration of the show did not bother to get an actual Muslim to play that character and I remember very vividly the negative experiences a lot of the Muslim people in fandom had based off choices that were made and how that character was portrayed. Iman herself spoke up about how much better it was to have someone with the lived experience, who knew what it was like, acting in a role like that. I love this quote from her too: "I never dreamt about being an actress, because I never saw an actress with hijab on. I didn’t even see it as an option or a possibility at all until I became that example that it is possible."

I definitely can appreciate and understand how nuanced the discussion of actors playing parts that aren’t their own experience truly is though. I think the wars that are waged online about actors who play queer parts especially is a big thing happening in culture right now and I truly understand a lot of varying sides to those kinds of discussions. I know it might not always be possible for own voices actors to play parts like this, but I just feel like the best case scenario in a role like Marjan would have been for it to be played by a hijabi woman. That doesn’t mean I think Natacha is in the wrong for taking the role or that it was a terrible mistake for her to have been cast. Just that there was a better scenario that I had hoped for, that didn’t end up happening. and that's okay.

Now the corn silo story: That interview with Natacha where she said there were things that got cut from that storyline makes me really sad because I wish we could have gotten a better resolution to it. Maybe it would have been exactly what you're mentioning here too - clarifying for the viewers that not everyone in the mosque felt that way and it was just pettiness amongst some of them. Sadly, I guess we'll never know exactly what that would have looked like. It makes me a little sad that the only time we've even seen the mosque she goes to was in that episode in season one. I really really hope we get a chance to see some more storylines for Marjan that can include her faith and her mosque but more of how they're positively impacting her life instead.

(I don't have any relevant Marjan reaction gifs since I mainly use my fave Paul, so have this gif of her being absolutely adorable instead)

[tacticalhimbo]

WIP (WEDNES)DAY!

and i actually have stuff for it! kinda! many thanks to @sstewyhosseini who tagged me 💕

idk who all's workin on stuff rn, so i'll throw some random tags out! @vendettapandav , @detectivelokis , @cybilbennettgf (i just noticed the name change KDJDKDJ) , @kourumi , and anyone else who's a creative/sitting on a wip!

i've begun the plotting process for my latest fic(tm), so here's the official summary and prologue's notes 😌

SYNOPSIS: Hope County, Montana, has been overrun by an extremist religious sect known as the Project at Eden’s Gate. Their leader, Joseph Seed, has effectively cut off the county’s communication with the outside world, and the sudden quiet after the storm has raised the eyes of the federal government. U.S. Marshal Cameron Burke is assigned to accompany a skeleton crew of deputies from the local sheriff’s department to his compound, and serve the warrant necessary to put Joseph behind bars. Accompanying him is Senior Deputy Earl Whitehorse, Deputy Staci Pratt, Deputy Joey Hudson, and Junior Deputy Marion Scott Mitchell.

However, things are quick to go wrong, and the group is separated. All are captured and imprisoned by the cult’s heralds, except for Marion, who now finds himself in the crosshairs of the cult. It is up to him, and those he has befriended within the community, to rise up and put a stop to the cult’s doomsday plot. Will he be able to take down the heralds, or will the chains of their power drag him down beneath the waves?

TITLE INSPIRATION: I wanted to pull from Biblical passages because of the thematic elements, and the fact Eden's Gate as a sect. is very similar to the Seventh Day Adventists (at least in my analysis of them)...

Of course, I had to phone a friend... But I melded our ideas together.

The initial iteration was The Angel's Chain, referencing Revelations 20:1 -> And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

But then I dug deeper, and read the entire chapter. And I liked the overarching theme of angels and false prophets... so... That's how the title ended up growing in size ^^; It can be short-handed though (e.g., Revelations 20 OR Angels and False Prophets).

I mayyy change my mind about making the title so long but that's what we're running aith for now.

And, as promised, the treat of the prologue's notes (please forgive that this section is in all caps, it helps my eyes when I'm writing on my document):

DETAIL THE DAY OF THE RAID. MARION IS IN THE COMMUNITY. HE VISITS ELLIE AND THOMAS, WHO HAVE MOVED INTO THE COUNTY JUST A FEW MONTHS PRIOR TO THIS CLIMAX. HE TELLS ELLIE THAT HE’S GOING TO THE COMPOUND LATER THAT EVENING, EVEN THOUGH HE KNOWS HE SHOULDN’T. THEY CAN’T TRUST ANYBODY. THEY HAVE A BIT OF A MOMENT, BUT THEIR FEELINGS ARE BURIED. THEY’RE CLOSE FRIENDS, NOTHING MORE. EXCEPT IT FEELS LIKE THAT. THOMAS SEES THEM GET SAD AND ASKS WHAT’S GOING ON, TO WHICH MARION EXPLAINS THAT HE’S GOING TO BE DOING A REALLY BIG JOB AND THAT HE MIGHT NOT SEE THEM AGAIN FOR A LITTLE WHILE. THOMAS IS SAD. THEY HUG IT OUT; ELLIE JOINS. HE BIDS THEM GOODBYE. CUT TO THE CHOPPER. HE’S THINKING OF THEM. BURKE NOTICES HE LOOKS OUT OF THE GAME. HE WAVES IT OFF AND SAYS IT’S NOTHING, JUST NERVES. INTRO SEQUENCE. CRASH.

SEPARATION. SURVIVAL INSTINCT KICKING IN. THE COUNTY HAS GONE TO SHIT AND MARION IS BARELY ALIVE ON THE SHORE. A MAN (DUTCH) GRABS HIM AND DRAGS HIM OFF. END.

We're on the angst train already!

[homestuckexamination]

what do you think was said to Damara on top of her already existing issues for her to turn bitchnasty for sweeps? idk why but somehow, i like her as a character, you know what im saying? makes one wonder what Tavbro told one Damara to convince her in joining the ghost army.

Oh I love Damara too. The specifics don't really matter though, do they? She clung too tightly onto someone who ultimately broke her heart, and at her lowest point, got bullied not just by anyone, but by the very person who would've under normal circumstances inherited the empire. This is even more jarring when you remember that, while also fucked up and toxic in how it dismisses lowblood agency, Highbloods are supposed to care for Lowbloods in Beforus, which would make, Meenah, by all intents and purposes, someone you expect more to be coddling and to baby you rather than put you down brutally and end up trying to kill each other.

Do notice the One Damara that DOES join Tavros, however, is a God Tier. Of course anyone can God Tier if they just die in the Slab, but considering that Damara usually has an allegiance to Lord English and wants to see everything crumble, and this one in particular is a God Tier, it kinda makes me hopeful thinking that she's someone who, either did NOT go through the hell her other iterations got through, or actually worked it out and regained some sense of joy and happiness.

[talysalankil]

so i did not expect to spend the better part of the day (i.e. all of it save for grocery shopping and making dinner) working on a number system for fteits but i guess sometimes the hyperfixation must be heeded or something but hey, look, i made a thing, i even did it both as a mechanical typeface and as a cursive

graphic designers don't @ me if the font looks terrible to you.

Am I now tempted to build their whole writing system? kinda!

Would i ever use any of it in the actual book? i don't know, probably not!

does anyone want to hear about the world building behind it? also probably not but who can stop me on my own blog

so the idea that the culture of the kingdom of anemos would use a base-16 number system is an old one from the very first draft. i actually used that system in narration and dialogue and my beta reader at the time rightfully pointed out that's utterly awful so i have refrained from it. but in my mind they're still using that system.

since the actual arc number of the setting is 4, i had been toying with a lot of ideas for a sort of sub-base, but the results i came up with were always feeling super inorganic. but idk why today i had the idea of having it based from a sign language. like, there's a sign language in setting (not developed beyond just "there is one" i don't have the skills for that) and the idea i had is that the signs for numbers could be using a sub-base of 4 by having the position of the arms be the signs to serve not just as signs but also be readable for communication over a longer distance in a primitive society. cause like, base 10 or other variations are fine if you're close enough to make out the individual fingers

so i toyed with possible poses, decided that the left arm would be used for the less significant digit and the right arm for the more significant digit because you just have to decide, ended up with this stick figure drawing because that's the best i can draw (the arrows represent the forearms only - these are depicted from the front so right arrow is left arm and blue is right)

and then translated those signs to like, a shape someone would transcribe in writing. iterated a couple times just to get a more organic shape. and then did the painstaking process of translating that to slightly more rigorous vector shapes to make a cleaner-looking font.

fun(? you've read this far) fact is that there kind of is a canonical stroke order and direction that comes from this derivation, in that someone would first draw the stroke that corresponds to the left arm elbow to hand, then whatever connective tissue there is (usually another body part like the upper arm) then finishing with the right arm, also elbow to hand.

also this means that crossing your arms would have a cultural association with the number zero, which is actually a neat little touch i can probably work into the book proper. so it's not all for nothing!

[sunsrefuge]

4, 8, 12, 13 for whoever you’d like to talk about most! :D

thank you !! <3 ohh, these look very interesting for Eliana !!

4. What would an evil or bad end version of them look like?

I actually have a whole AU for this!! ^^ Her bad end version would be Desert Rose! Considering all of the messes that she gets into, I'm sure there are more possibilities, but the Desert Rose AU is my favorite because of how much it affects the story that comes after LLtL as well!!

She gets very defensive and refuses to be under anyone else's power any longer. She picks up Joko's staff during his big funny man speech, (after he tosses it aside,) and I still gotta figure out the details but she unintentionally makes Aurene's first dash miss Joko, he gets the Commander, and then he gets got by Aurene! ^^; Whoopsie! But she takes up his mantle just to ensure that she isn't controlled anymore... That said, she's not fit to rule a kingdom by any means. She has no experience with leading, so things are bound to go downhill eventually! also; Poor Puppet, always trying to save her from herself in this AU kfjhsduf

8. Are there any juicy rumors about them floating around Tyria?

Plenty, I'd think! She joined the Commander's team as Awakened, and very quickly became one of the team's most outspoken members in the remainder of LWS4. There's a very old rumor about her being a runaway from the Nightmare Court, (that's kicked up again now that she's a Crystal Bloom Captain,) but no one's been able to find any ties to confirm this. ;) There's also rumors about her among the Awakened, such as Archon Iberu trying to court her at one point after Joko's death, although that one died down a bit after she punched him in the jaw lmao

12. How do they feel about Snargle Goldclaw's literary masterpiece Commander of Your Heart?

The first question is "has she read it" - which is instantly a yes. She'd consider reading stuff like that to be a guilty pleasure, so she's definitely read it! In my personal AU it's about Khozzak! (Although, I'm sure that a second iteration, specifically titled after a Champion, would be about Phoenix!) To which she uses the material to tease him endlessly. ^^

((Bonus: There's an AU I have w/ @mavelleofdawn where she has a relationship with the Commander prior to getting trapped in Gandara, he rescues her from Joko, and they get married after LWS4! ...she'd absolutely read the book in that AU too and teases her husband about it a lot! ^^)) not naming him only because idk if i have rights to name him and i cant ask today akjshdus

13. How would they describe themselves?

Out loud, she'd want to say things like sweet, caring, and loyal! While those are definitely true, she knows deep down that she's picked up a sense of ruthlessness over the years, and she can be very strict with people if she feels like they're infringing on her freedom at all. She's also very protective of her friends! <3

[rhywhitefang]

Blank Rune References Part 1

Oxyll looks like such a sadboy and well, he is one. decided to do everyone in the beginning, shortly before the arena, I suppose, for simplicities sake and I was so caught up by the novelty of Oxyll having arms that I almost forgot to draw his prosthetic

Copper will always be Naruto Copper in my mind, sorry not sorry </3

Kain looks like such a nice young man lol, he awakens my auntie instinct, I want to make him pancakes and pinch his cheeks. I felt a bit self-indulgent giving him curls. But you know what? I'm allowed, nothing in canon contradicts me. You know what canon *does* specify about him though? Blond.

Midas is a bit leaner than I wanted him to be, but I don't think it looks too wrong^^

I was aiming for more of a strawberry blond for esca's hair, and I think with the contrast it leans more reddish here, but the actual color really does have the blond in it, belive me

I'm sorry Phi but the moustache stays ON ihrpgrpg

I tried very consciously to make Lexy and Skipio look like siblings, and they do have the same color palette for that reason. Idk if Lexa's earrings are canonically dangly or not (I think they're studs in the canon, but they might not be that closely described) but they show up more clearly like that. She also has pink hairties (Even though in canon I think she wears her hair loose? It's unclear when you look at the passage. It could also be describing pigtails, but I Phi might've been picturing loose hair...)

I almost forgot Skipio's glasses on my first draft, shame on me. They're important! Also I always headcanoned Skipio as pretty tall (mittelgroß anyone...)

Ah Lyn.... I also put her hair up in a ponytail, just because it makes more sense for a practical character like her. Crossed arms because I didn't want to bother with drawing scars, sorry, so now they're obscured by the angle.

Idk if I'm fully happy with Pan's hair. It went through a few iterations and I still don't think I got it quite right by the end.

I had already drawn June by the time I got to Liam (i just want to upload this in the proper order) so I could do the same thing I did with the other pair of siblings, and take her coloring for him as well.

In the white arena poncho, Tave's skintown really does have almost a jaundice to it. Rip to Gouda.