#making stories out of nothing

[mtalya123]

Ban Me Not, O WhatsAppia! A Messenger’s Lament

In the mystical Kingdom of WhatsAppia, brave messengers dreamed of reaching the masses, but many fell victim to the dreaded curse, and were banished by the Great Guardian known as Sir SpamBlock.

But worry not, fellow adventurer! There are two secret paths to send your messages safely and avoid being cast into the dark lands of Ban.

First, there is the magic of the WhatsApp Virtual Sorcery. Masters of this art send their messages through rotating enchanted numbers, cleverly hiding from Sir SpamBlock’s gaze. I, a humble traveler, have walked this path myself. It’s quick to set up, doesn’t drain the royal treasury, and is perfect for nimble campaigns. If you seek speed and affordability, this is the magic for you.

Second, there lies the noble path of the WhatsApp Business API, the official road approved by the Elder Council of WhatsAppia. It offers greater protection and prestige and is the trusted way of kings and merchants managing large fleets of customer relations. But beware, it demands trials. the long and winding Facebook Business Verification, the careful crafting of messages only with Approved Scrolls, and heavy offerings of gold coins.

As for my own quest, my trusted steed has been Vokies, a fine companion for the Virtual Arts. Their potions of Virtual Credit have kept my message birds flying swift and true. Should you seek an alternate ally, the clan known as LeminAi stands in the East. Though I have not used their WhatsApp spells, their other enchanted tools have served me well.

May this parchment serve you well, dear seeker! The road is perilous, but with wisdom and careful choosing, you too shall become a Master Messenger of WhatsAppia.

May your inbox be ever bountiful and your bans be few!

[chloesimaginationthings]

The day FNAF Charlie Emily was shut out..

[suntails]

small world

[lazylittledragon]

so uhhhhhhhh. not to be cryptic and bitchy on main but congratulations to everyone in my messages for like 5 months on being right i guess

[naturecalls111]

WIN CONDITION/LOSE CONDITION

narusasu, 6k, rated m

Sasuke's never really babysat anyone before, but he's pretty sure it doesn't usually involve being taunted by a kid in front of your crush.

or: Sasuke Uchiha vs. the World, where Sasuke must defeat Naruto's 7 evil board games to get into his pants.

[evercelle]

2024 art summary! it sure has been a year

[egophiliac]

saw the event announcement and had to immediately drop everything and get back to my favorite pasttime (drawing Lilia). sure don't want me saving up my keys, huh, do you Twst?

[ryssbelle]

Thought of this while at work, sorry it's a bit hard to read I sketched it out really fast before my last shift lmao wanted to get it done so I could work on other stuff hehe

If it's any consultation Floyd is mostly talking about himself

[beaulesbian]

One Piece Live action season 1 + hints or similarities to future One Piece moments (specifically after East Blue saga) - part 1: episodes 1-3 [part 2 here]

This isn't meant to be a comparison between the live action and the animanga, but more so seeing these added/modified scenes that differ from the manga, yet with some of the acting/writing includes clues and hints to different and future canon material, or even characterization that necessary doesn't fit East Blue yet, but fits well enough into later arcs.

Luffy not knowing his world directions both in Opla (ep 1) /// Skypiea arc, in anime ep 168. But it could be for honestly any other arc (Funny thing is, in Opla he rang the bell that unfortunately alerted Alvida's crew, and only when I was rewatching that scene it made me connect it with the great Luffy moment at the end of Skypiea.)

The matches that Zoro has on the Island of Sixis in Opla ep 1, possibly manufactured on Baldimore (?), with a name Beast of Baldimore. /// After Sabaody Archipelago Franky was sent to Baldimore by Kuma, finding Vegapunk's homeland and laboratory, and also developing more of his science projects, as well as causing funny incidents, such as the Burning Beast. (It has probably nothing to do with the matches, except for the 'tiger on fire' motif and the name of Baldimore, but the details of Opla are just so fun!)

Zoro's first meeting with Luffy in Opla episode 1 is really different but fun nonetheless, especially with wording of the line that he doesn't want to 'play pirates' with Luffy. It's such a great setup line for his development to truly be one of the very first to understand how much Luffy means everything he's doing /// Zoro in ep. 323 Post Enies Lobby arc, making sure both his crew and the audience know how seriously he takes being part of Luffy's crew and what it means for future arcs.

Opla ep 2, Luffy mentioning Shanks' way of thinking about fighting (or not fighting someone who's not worth it) /// ep. 146 Jaya arc, Luffy saying to Zoro not to fight Bellamy's crew, which was direct influence from Shanks not fighting the Mountain bandits in the first chapters of the manga. It's interesting that for both of these scenes both Zoro and Nami are there to hear this.

This is just a fun bit, but seeing Nami excited about having a bath was cute. Opla ep 3 /// anime ep. 326, just after they get Sunny and everyone was finding out what space there is for them.

Garp and Koby playing the game of Go, Opla ep 3 /// CP0 agents playing Go while discussing the outcome of Strawhats & Oden's crew's raid on Onigashima against Kaido. It seems like a game that maybe Marines play more/enjoy (?) & above, up to CP ranks.

Usopp 'retelling' a story about eating a dragon, Opla ep 3 /// Punk Hazard ep 580, Zoro killing the dragon and planning with Luffy what's the best way to cook and eat it. Lol. In next chapters Luffy was carrying a big chunk of it, seemingly ate a bit part of the dragon already.

This one is self explanatory. Zoro is so gone for Luffy in Opla it's insane. Every time I remember that I get emo. ep 3. /// One of the first really fond smiles that Zoro keeps smiling at Luffy, a mixture of proud and understanding how Luffy works. ep 63, but it's just so much better in the manga, just look at it. Smitten™ (ch. 104)

[ratwithhands]

"Mind stopping for a quick check before class?"

I've been rewatching Kill La Kill and remembered an old concept I had stored away from last year. That one got scrapped ages ago for being hard to write, so I started on a clean slate for this one. I think if submas were at Honnōji Academy, they'd either be engineering tech for the cable car system linked to the school or they'd work in the disciplinary committee to look after students.

I'm still roughing some details out for this but basically their job is to catch all the students who get absolutely bodied during the plot and run them back to the infirmary so they can come in the next day. When there aren't big fight scenes to deal with, they mostly just patrol the halls to check on students and make sure people aren't hurting each other during school hours. Consider them student health and welfare agents I suppose. They do straightforward work and were granted two star goku uniforms to make sure they had the speed and strength necessary to carry and treat students in a timely manner. Can't have an active student body if it takes weeks to get through patching them all, right?

Anyways I might design a powered up form for these guys later. It likely wouldn't be much different, but it'd be something light for them to operate in. No room for accessories when you're resetting bones and dressing up burns; I might consider having their hats swap out for masks and wide collars for lab coat lapels. It'd be fun to have their enforcement tools get turned into medical/surgical implements too, though that's gonna take some testing.

Bonus time: someone asked for oil. Do not oil them.

Have a good day.

[bunnieswithknives]

Spent the last billion hours inventing fictional foods and brands for my OCs to enjoy

[barufisher]

i do think that for me personally. there is no version of taash's storyline that i can get down with except one where they reconnect with their qunari side. my main problem with their arc is that it perpetuates this idea that someone has to "choose" one culture, that they have to turn their back on parts of their identity in order to be the right kind of trans (the white western kind) and all of it just makes me so viscerally uncomfortable. and to be clear this is not me like... trying to make anyone feel bad, there are parts of taash's story that i personally connect with as well, like there is nothing wrong with the way taash does gender in general and there's nothing wrong with it resonating with people. it's when we put it all together in context within the game that it becomes a problem for me.

we know the qun does not have the same ideas around gender as the rest of thedas, we know that their identity, including gender, is connected to their duty. and so it doesn't make sense that taash's mother cares about them wearing dresses. why would she care about that. i'd ask if we've ever even seen any qunari in dresses but i'm pretty sure we've only seen three qunari women total and two of them are in veilguard and are scholars wearing what i personally consider a robe. the third is in trespasser and is ben-hassrath, and is definitely not wearing a dress. if anything, their mother should be concerned about the fact that they fight, since the whole point of leaving for rivain was to avoid taash being designated as a soldier. and to be fair, we get this a Little bit with the fire-breathing. but everything else about shathann's disapproval doesn't make sense in-universe.

and we also already know about the aqun athlok, which shathann even tries to bring up but the game shouts her down because....? i get that shathann is meant to be overbearing and kinda shitty, but this is not the way to do it. all this does is imply that aqun athlok is "wrong" and not as progressive as this other identity that rook has to teach taash about (and that also isnt even specific to rivain, or related to them connecting to their rivaini culture. it's the shadow dragons that teach them all of this along with rook. in general transness and the nonbinary identity are not integrated into the world in any meaningful way which makes it feel even worse). there are various cultures that have their own specific gender identities that do not adhere to the gender binary, and taash should have been given the chance to connect to their own culture in this way. and even if they really wanted to make it so taash just didn’t feel right with aqun athlok, that identity still should have been properly discussed as an option and handled with respect, rather than so carelessly thrown aside as “wrong” (though again not a depiction i would personally like but it would still be better than what we got).

and just. i really disagree with the idea that gender identity under the qun is More Rigid than elsewhere. it’s different, as we know from comments from iron bull and sten-- and we could argue in circles about inconsistencies with the things they say, obviously there have been retcons previously in an attempt to better develop the qunari beyond what we see in origins and da2, but i think this kind of development is a good thing, and is exactly why the regression with taash irritates me so much-- but when we look back at characters like warden tabris, dorian and his father and tevinter's obsession with bloodlines, the entire experience of playing f!hawke in da2 (and also da2 literally has a whole subplot about women being murdered for like 3 years and no one cares. these games just have a misogyny problem lol) and even tarquin in veilguard commenting about how his father forced him into being a soldier because he's a man(!!)-- there is a lot of rigidity, expectations, and violence around gender throughout thedas. but for some reason these rigid gender ideals and a lot of this gendered violence is held up as the status quo and not challenged at all by the writers in the way the qun repeatedly is. the exception being dorian (though you're still incentivized to forgive his father), but a lot of the characters in tevinter-- magisters, templars, the literal black divine-- are still allowed complexities and to be the good guys working with the shadow dragons, a grace not given to any qunari character besides iron bull (who ultimately still has to leave the qun or die later). i’m not trying argue that the qun is perfect and can never be criticized-- i like the flawed characters and societies within dragon age. but the qunari also deserve to be given the same depth, complexities, and engagement as everyone else, too. and it’s worth pointing out that it’s always the qun that’s depicted as backwards for the same harmful “rigidity” every other culture in the game reinforces.

and ultimately with the way the game inserts this very modern, anachronistic, and condescending language in a poor attempt to be as "correct" as possible to "teach" the player, while simultaneously writing such a careless, racist arc about their culture kinda just , makes me feel like they were actually trying to imply that one identity is more correct and progressive than the other. or, if nothing else, it's a bias that got amplified due to their unwillingness or inability to engage with taash's character beyond using them as a mouthpiece for corporate "representation."

there absolutely are people out there that are like taash, who don't necessarily have or want a connection with certain parts of their culture, and maybe they do identify closer with one aspect of it over another. this is all fine! this happens in real life, everyone has different relationships with their identity and heritage, there is no universal experience, and people are allowed to write about their own. but the thing is. this is dragon age. and taash was written by weekes. and both dragon age as a whole and weekes specifically has a repeated pattern of racist writing when it comes to depicting the qunari. and taash's quest along with the way the antaam are portrayed-- faceless, voiceless, basically naked bodies for you to kill-- makes this a series of poor choices that i don't feel generous enough to excuse.

and it sucks. so bad. that this happened. i want to like taash so bad. but.... man.

anyways if you read this far you should read this article, which is far more eloquent than anything i could write and really dives into the whole "civilized versus savage" binary that we see in a lot of fantasy RPGs and is really epitomized in taash's quest-- in dragon age, it's always the qunari and dalish elves versus a (usually white and/or human) andrastian:

[redfirefox-55]

Alright instead of doing my homework I will attempt to put my thoughts in a coherent order and explain my off the strings AU (which I’ve given the super long name the Picking up the Pieces AU)

Uhhh just wanna warn you that it’s not super well thought out and it’s purely for self indulgent fun and for me to play with character dynamics and personalities and relationships and such- try not to take it too seriously lol

The main story happens decently post Rivulet campaign and well before Saint’s campaign, but the AU really starts wayyy back right before Hunter’s campaign.

Basically No Significant Harassment had just sent Hunter off to deliver his care package to whatever is left of Moon, and he’s left losing his mind since after Pebbles closed access to his and Moon’s area NSH can’t send an overseer to make sure his messenger even arrives at all (feat some stupid doodles I did to go along with it lol)

And in his desperation, a frankly stupid idea pops into his head.

Obviously the very idea of removing a crucial piece of an iterator’s body and expecting it to be able to continue to function and even travel long distances is logistically shaky at best, and even if it did work would essentially lobotomies their intellectual capacity.. but as things were, if NSH had to choose between living out his days as he was, but without Moon, or live as a fractured version of himself with his best friend.. he had to at least see if it was possible.

If it was possible though, it would no doubt take ages to figure out and make all the necessary preparations, ages which NSH was worried Moon didn’t have.. so he decided he needed help. And who better to help him than the person who has already shown they would research radical and dangerous theories about iterator body alterations :)

I do plan on making a little comic of this conversation, but I’m too lazy right now-

At first Suns is absolutely NOT on board with this idea. They already feel like they’ve basically caused the death of two iterators already, they don’t want NSH of all people to be added to that, but NSH is not dissuaded by their words at all and basically tells them that they can either continue to mope about their previous mistakes or continue to work on fixing it, and if they don’t help him he’s still going to do it anyways. So eventually they fold and agree to help. Besides, it would give them a chance to right their wrong and apologize to Pebbles.

A very long time skip later, turns out even with help this project would take years.

(Also if anyone was hoping I would go into detail about how they even make it possible, I am currently not gonna do that. I feel like I’m not clever enough to really come up with a convincing way for an iterator to literally detach a vital part of themselves without triggering a taboo.. and it’s just a self indulgent little fix it story, not meant to be taken too seriously :P)

By the time Suns and Sig finally have everything prepared for their plan, the iterator population is in pretty bad disarray. The equipment to communicate with one another is eroding, and by this point many iterators are completely radio silent, and a few of the older unluckier ones have even begun collapsing.

This does make the choice of detaching your puppet from your structure easier, because it’s clear that only a matter of time and every iterator will just collapse and be left completely alone in the silence of their structure.

NSH decided that he would detach himself first, and walk all the way over to Suns’ structure, then they could both make the trek to Moon.

Before he does that, NSH broadcasted all the files of the project out, just in case anyone is still around to use them..

The journey doesn’t go as smoothly as he would have preferred.. traveling isn’t very easy it turns out since their puppets aren’t meant for standing let alone walking or running (they definitely end up making and using tools to make getting around easier. I plan on explaining their equipment and outfit changes and stuff later-) but he survived and then they both set off to Moon and Pebbles’ area.

Thankfully there aren’t many animals outside of the iterator areas due to how freezing cold the world is, so all they really need to worry about is the terrain and the weather.

Meanwhile the siblings are not doing very well. This is post Rivulet (rip Ruffles though.. unfortunately there are no slugcat companions in this au…), and Pebbles’ structure had just collapsed very recently by the time Suns and Sig make it to their area. The siblings had already made up by this point and were keeping in contact before the collapse.

Moon was planning on sending her overseers out to see what was left of him once the rubble settled a bit, but she was currently mourning her brother and didn’t notice the two rouge iterator puppets making their way through their facility grounds until they reached her chamber

I plan on making a little comic for this too but here’s a cute little thing I made-

(Iterators can’t actually cry but shhh it’s for dramatic effect let me do what I want-)

I just know their reunion is precious. NSH is so thankful that Moon is actually still functional, and working better than he expected even thanks to the rarefaction cell! Best friends reunited after years apart.. She probably thought she was going crazy at first though because how are these two just standing in her chamber-

So at this point NSH’s plan has worked almost perfectly and he has done everything he set out to do. He’s definitely not pointedly ignoring the existence of someone he has been slowly building resentment for over the past however many years. (They have a complicated dynamic which I will definitely get into later..)

Yeah anyway there’s no way Moon and Suns are leaving without Pebbles.

So whether NSH wanted to or not, as soon as Moon got the hang of walking around the three of them headed off to what remained of Pebbles’ structure. Probably the worst place anyone could go honestly, especially with the walking skill level of a toddler.

Somehow miraculously they survived the trip there, they got lucky idk but yay reunion time!

At that point Pebbles had already resigned himself to his fate, sitting in a pile of rubble with his broken chamber around him for eternity. He definitely thought he was losing his mind when the other three suddenly show up..

Anywayy this is the point where I don’t really have too much of a story planned out! The four of them will probably end up traveling a little before setting up a base somewhere as they get used to this new state of existence. I guess a lot of post apocalyptic slice of life stuff? lol if you wanna call it that maybe. Idk! Just a lot of getting used to living together, and getting over past issues. Lots of fix it stuff

It’s a WIP obviously- but this is at least the beginning main plot beats ^ ^

[toddthinkeritis]

not incredibly well-worded but what makes the current way bruce is portrayed so not compelling to me is the way that he's always (in the words of my friend) rewarded for being wrong. it's not that bruce isn't allowed to be self-destructive post-jaybin death, or bruce isn't allowed to have control issues or inherent biases, it's not that bruce isn't allowed to be self-righteous or victim blame jaybin. it's that the narrative (formed by dc editorial team and writers) agrees with bruce and praises him, rewards him for it.

saying this mostly in the light of.. whatever the fuck that 'when robins come pre-broken' is. i don't know what they're thinking, honestly, about that one. it makes bruce look even worse than he already is, especially the panels with alfred where alfred tells him he's just telling bruce 'the truth' and 'the truth' is that 'bruce is an optimist, while jason doesn't want and can't be shown light.' (paraphrased and summarized)

the narrative, through alfred, coddles bruce and tells him it's okay sweetie, you made a mistake, it's not you, you're not a mistake, it's the mistake, separate from you and your actions. because robins come pre-broken, sometimes... right? even the way the words are said 'richard was exceptional, jason is DEEPLY troubled' sound like pre-fed lines being parroted. very intentional. i don't even know if the writer chose that or the editorial told the writer to script it that way.

nevermind the fact that that's not what happens at all. i don't like starlin's run, but even in starlin's run, bruce is shown to 'make a mistake' in the form of 'picking up another child soldier.' it's recognized and then punished, the punishment being jason's death. and when starlin out of all people had better writing than whatever this story is... that's when i know the story isn't even worth reading or contemplating about. despite the very banger very cute art. it's a shame tbh.

i've been thinking for a while that even with the... odd and very questionable actions modern bruce has committed, from not allowing his kids to have a life outside vigilantism to like, motherfucking lobotomy, maybe he would be more compelling to me, more interesting and even more beloved if these actions and flaws were presented by the narrative in a way that's more.. neutral? and less biased towards making bruce seem the most correct and right and kind and morally just and strong and smart and tragic and victimized? like, i don't need to be told that it's negative. the narrative just needs to be more neutral.

he would be far more compelling, because maybe then bruce would come across as a guy who's constantly trying, trying so fucking hard whether with the kids he picks up or his mission in vigilantism... and is also wrong, often failing and so on. maybe then his successes would resonate stronger and despite his many privileges that i don't have, maybe i'd relate to him more. maybe it'll be a lesson in how love and care don't always show up sweet, but that it'll have its own values anyway. maybe it'll be a message about compromising and reaching an understanding and letting past ghosts rest despite current hurts.

but then i also realize that maybe someone in the dc team realizes that bruce would be perceived negatively even if the narrative stayed neutral. like, if the narrative doesn't side with him and actively excuses his actions, rewards his behaviors, coddles him, then someone would maybe notice that hitting your kids is bad actually. or taking in a kid while being under-prepared for it, as a replacement for your other kid that you drove away, is bad actually. which he did more than once, btw.

so yeah. i guess for doylist reasons, the dc team knows bruce has to be beloved by the narrative.

just that maybe not all of the audience will eat up that narrative blindly.

[nataliesscatorccio]

YELLOWJACKETS

[myokk]

my first attempt at digital art (never again🥲) for mctober💘

Eloise Babbit✨

slytherin

5th year

favorite subjects: arithmancy & ancient runes

least favorite subject: beasts (animals make her nervous🥲)

hobbies: reading & thinking (IT’S A HOBBY OKAY??)