#second part to follow

[willowcrowned]

Hi Professor,

I’m so sorry I didn’t get your emails until now. The site system you’re using seems like it might be totally fucked have messed with my notification settings and you never clarified we were using it it was a little hard to get to! Anyways, I’m so sorry I didn’t get the first forum post up in time, I’ll introduce myself and provide one reaction to the random article you posted asap.

Best,

Student (please don’t kill me please don’t kill me please don’t kill me)

[weshallc]

Old Skool Turnadette FanFic Alert!

When is the Wedding?

Happy birthday my best china! @fourteen-teacups 🥰🎁💝🎂

You are the Doc to my Grumpy, the Amelia to my Juliet, the Cathy to my Kelly, the Caroline to my Gillian, the Audrey to my Helen, the Sister Julienne to my Trixie.

I'm having a moment, so let's roll the fic!

This fic obeys no rules. So you snooty lot who couldn't possibly read something without a specific POV and perfect grammar that so many of us find so difficult and all the rest of it. This fic is not for you. It's for my mucker!

CHAPTER ONE

Half past ten on January 25th 1959.

“Hello, it’s just us.”

Sat at the kitchen table, Peter Noakes looked up from bouncing his baby son on his knee and shared a smile and a wink with Freddie’s mother.

“Why does she always say that? Does she think we’ve given a key to every waif and stray in Poplar.” Whispering as the front door slammed shut.

Camilla scowled at him from the kitchen sink and flicked the tea towel resting on her shoulder towards him in warning. “I think she is still getting her tongue around the ‘us’ part. Sort of trying it out on her friends until she feels comfortable saying it in company.” 

Camilla smoothed down her apron and pushed her chestnut hair behind her on alert ears. “And Shelagh is not a waif and stray. She is our house guest.”

Peter grinned at his wife’s indignation and couldn’t help himself.

“I think it’s because she knows how flustered you get when Dr Turner visits, and is giving you the old heads up. So you can plump the cushions or wipe down the kitchen surfaces.”

“I have never heard such outrageous nonsense in all my days, Peter Noakes!” Camilla ranted, wringing out the freshly soaked dish cloth. “I do not get flustered over any man, whether he be a respected GP or an annoying police constable.” She quietly fumed, taking her wrath out on the countertops with the wet rag.

“As much as I’m happy to accommodate such undemanding and pleasant company. We waited so long for a home of our own, so we could move out of Nonnatus, and now it seems like Nonnatus has come to us.”

Camilla turned and looked at him properly. “You really are the most patient of men. But, I couldn’t see her go back to that frightful boarding house and all those dreadful gossips, after what occurred at Christmas. I don’t think, young sir, minded too much giving up his room for a few weeks.” She nodded at her son, who was looking alternatively between his parents intently, like he understood every word.

“And I agreed there was no other suitable arrangement, with Nonnatus awaiting the wrecking ball and, as you say, every snoop worth their while, observing the comings and goings at the flat over the surgery. I just wonder when we could revert back from Noakes’ Home for Wayward Nuns back to Noakes’ Love Nest.”

“That’s enough. They will hear you." Camilla was beside herself. "Hopefully, we will find out in a matter of moments. They had an appointment with the vicar at All Saints this morning.”

The lull in their own conversation made the voices behind the kitchen door echoing from the passageway audible, if not discernible,

Peter broke the silence, much to Camilla’s delight, as she didn’t want to be accused of eavesdropping. When she hadn’t been able to make out a single syllable.

“If this goes on much longer, I’m going to have to arrest the pair of them for loitering with intent.”

“It’s not a boarding house. She doesn’t have to clock in and out with us. We didn’t issue a curfew. Well, at least I didn’t.” She looked at Peter accusingly and then got back to wiping down the kitchen table and picking up her husband's half-drunk cup of tea, throwing the remaining liquid down the sink.

“I hadn’t finished that!” Camilla didn’t hear him as she rearranged the fruit in the crystal bowl. Someone she couldn’t quite place had bought them it for a wedding present.

“I’m sorry to have to be the one to break it to your mummy, but she definitely does suffer from occasional bouts of flustration. Doesn’t she Freddie?” Peter diagnosed, addressing his son, who responded with a gurgle of approval. "Maybe we could ask the good doctor for a second opinion ?”

Peter’s grin widened. He looked like a naughty schoolboy scrumping apples, rather than a doting husband, but in that moment, he was both.

The wet cloth landed on PC Noakes’ head just seconds after the kitchen door opened and an apologetic voice chimed, “It’s just us.”

After a lot of silent but meaningful looks between all parties and the missile safely deposited in the sink, Peter had a fresh cup of tea set before him, as did everyone else. Freddie, who had been watching the morning’s events like he was reporting for the Poplar Gazette, was now sitting on the new addition to his family's knee, observing events from a different angle.

Freddie didn’t really know if he preferred a pink wafer to a bourbon. But he was mildly affronted no-one had asked if he had a preference. He kept trying to grab the pretty pink one out of the hand of the person they called Auntie Shelagh, but she was quick, and said “No” in such a sing-song voice he forgave her.

They were talking again about the weather, crocuses (whatever they were), something called whooping cough, which sounded much more fun than the frowny faces suggested. One of those awkward silences occurred again. That was always his cue. Gurgle, make spit bubbles, form fists, shake arms and giggle. It works every time. Like a charm. Eventually, Mummy found the courage to speak.

“Would it be so very out of turn? If one enquired how your appointment went this morning.”

Shleagh and Dr Turner glanced at each other in that ‘we know a secret sort of way’. It looked like he was about to take hold of her hand, but there were too many obstacles in the way like pink wafers, teacups, a baby and proprietary.

The look Shelagh gave Dr Turner reminded Chummy of an old retainer of her father's who began every sentence with “Permission to speak, Sir?” She caught Peter’s eye. The telepathic consensus was; how long will that last? It was received and understood between them.

Chummy’s attention was distracted when she noticed how tight Shelagh was now holding her son. He seemed very content and his eyes were closing, so all was well.

Shelagh began, “Dr Turner and I have set a date to be married at All Saints' church on the second Saturday in February.”

“So soon?” Exclaimed Peter, ignoring an imaginary dishcloth hurtling towards him.

“Well, yes,” Shelagh replied in the tone of a pregnant schoolgirl with a father brandishing a shotgun rather than an ex-nun with a penchant for purity. “We were hoping for March, to give young Timothy time to grow a wee bit stronger, but of course Palm Sunday and our Lord’s resurrection must always take precedence.”

Peter noticed Shelagh gave Dr Turner that look Camilla gave him when it was his turn to talk. He thought to himself he was only mastering that level of communication, but the Doc picked it up straight away. What a pro!

“That left us with the option of an April wedding, which seemed like an eternity away.”

This time, he took her hand as it warmed itself on the teacup.

Peter smiled to himself. He knew that eternity. He was actually experiencing that eternity right now. Most new fathers understood the consequences of a new baby entering their lives. But no-one had prepared him for a baby at the bottom of the bed and an ex-nun in the next room and the effects on his wife's libido.

“Here here.” Peter cried, “Carpe diem, Doctor, carpe diem!”

Peter’s joy was short-lived when he realized everyone, including a sleepy Freddie, were now staring at him.

“So when’s the wedding?” He meekly asked.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 4: Deranged Bedfellows

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.5)

[izel-scribbles]

arthur lester // i'm only on part 10 so this may not be canon accurate

[thresholdbb]

what's the threshold theory

There was a post about how Tom is the only crew member who isn't really affected by the Borg, and there's a theory that he has so much luck because he saw the past and the future when he crossed the transwarp threshold. He saw the past and the future, all of time and space. There's some subconscious part of him that remembers that experience. In fact, Tom refused to play a part in Chakotay indulging Annorax's temporal incursions, probably because a part of him knew nothing good could come of it.

If we extend that same theory to Janeway, some of her wild luck with time travel and other crack plans starts to make sense. She doesn't verbally hate time travel until after the events of Threshold, since it happens in Time and Again without complaint. Janeway has an uncanny knack for time travel, as evidenced every time she deals with it. She hates time travel, but it might be because part of her knows exactly how to manipulate the timeline. She manages to avoid the "inevitable" temporal explosion in Future's End, saving both Voyager and Braxton. She resets the entire timeline in Year of Hell, and no one else followed her reasoning. She pulled it off flawlessly. In Relativity, she senses the incidents are all related, despite it being just one reading that connects them. By the time she's involved, she has a temporal incursion factor of .0036 and a time travel protocol named after her, even if that may just be Braxton's personal grudge. Then there's Endgame, where she intentionally changes the timeline. Up until this point, she has been dragged into time travel, but for the first time, she jumps in on purpose. How does Admiral Janeway know how to get them home sooner in a way that completely avoids the Temporal Integrity Commission? It's because she has seen all of time, and part of her knows exactly what needs to happen so she can get Voyager home and do it in a way that becomes baked into the prime timeline. Maybe she doesn't consciously remember what happened during her transformation, but the experience lives in her mind somewhere, guiding her decisions.

[oobbbear]

HAPPY 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO OUR LITTLE GAY WITCH STORY!!!

[xovera-toz]

The rest of the poem is even better so go read the 2015 comics. Shoo.

[kithtaehyung]

[ 3tan11/3tan12 ] woot woot! final decisions have been made and i’m excited to share them bc my brain and body just took the biggest dang sigh of relief😅

3tan11 will be its own part now, and what was supposed to be the second half will now be 3tan12 to make tagging things easier!

3tan11 will be posted on sunday (12/3), and the word count is 17.7k final draft before serious editing (which i will take the rest of tonight and this weekend to do)

3tan12 is currently 10k and will end up around 15-17k, making both a whopping 34-35k total😭 hence the need for more time to really make sure each part is done the best way possible!

this being said, 3tan12 doesn’t have a definitive posting date bc i wanna post it when i am happy with it, but i have a strong feeling it will still drop within the month or early january🍊

yoongi’s interlude: fugue is still slated to be posted after both 3tan11 and 3tan12🤍

honestly, y’all, it’s just been a week💀 there’s been a bunch of Life happening to sum it up. but i’m realizing that i’m forcing a lot of this out just to meet a deadline that can most certainly move and change. now that i’m giving myself real time, both halves are gonna be infinitely more thought out and cared for before posting. which is better for y’all in the end.

i love you all very much. and the hope is that you will be able to feel even just a sliver of that sentiment with each half of this arc🫂 on sunday, take time to read the first part and digest, and then we can all take a breather before the second one drops❤️‍🩹

[thereadingmoon]

he’s asking if you’re a communist, Robin.

[the-butch-of-blaviken]

hm. thinking about Geralt, Eskel and Lambert watching Vesemir doting on Ciri like the granddaughter he never had, going easy on her during her training when she asks for it politely, making a show of lecturing her when she's being mouthy when it's obvious to everyone he's already forgiven her. Lifting her off her feet and spinning her around when he sees her again for the first time in years. And all the while Vesemir's sons in every way except blood are watching and watching and thinking, so you were capable of being affectionate and considerate and a decent fucking human being all this time. You just chose not to be this man with us.

[lightningidle]

Fig's line "I don't think I'm an artist, I think I'm just a good friend" has not left my head at all. Just...

You're Fig Faeth and your horns came in over the summer and you pick up the bard class as a form of adolescent rock 'n' roll rebellion, and it works! It's exactly the outlet you need! You give a guy you just met drumsticks and you start a band and it's good enough that within a year and a half you're touring. You are, in every sense, good at being a bard.

And then, finally, your junior year, you start to take it seriously. Your art goes from an outlet and a form of rebellion to a practice. A discipline. (Can rebellion exist within a discipline?) Your classmates know what they want to do with their work. They all have a thesis statement. And yeah, there's cohesion in the music you make, but you've never had to think about why you make it. You've never sat down and dissected what it is about bass that speaks to you. You've never poured over your lyrics to pick at any deeper meaning. Why should you? You don't play music for a grand design, you do it to... huh, why do you do it?

(Your art is the one form of self-expression that feels as safe as Disguise Self does, because even if you're pouring your heart onto the page and then screaming it in front of thousands of people, it's not like you're really making yourself known. You can sing I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm furious, and your fans will sing it right back, and there will still be the distance between performer and audience to keep your heart safe.)

Now you're being asked to look inward to explain the artistic choices you're making, and you can't help but recoil at that, because you'd rather do anything than look inward. Meanwhile, your classmates have no problem with it, so you start to wonder if you're a real artist at all. Can your art be authentic if it only exists to bolster a thesis statement? Has your art been unauthentic this whole time because you've never really thought about a thesis statement before? Is that what makes it art, and not just the next track on somebody's teen angst playlist?

You can't think about yourself— acknowledging your own existence makes you want to puke. So if your music is an extension of yourself, (and it is, even if it's just because the spotlight reveals only what you want it to,) you can't think about your music. You can't. You have to. Your grade depends on it.

You're Fig Faeth, and you keep multiclassing because you'd rather be a good friend than a great artist. If introspection is what great art demands, then fuck it. You must not be a bard at all.

[prophetofthemuse]

I love this animation, I genuinely do, but these few seconds surprise me every single time I watch it.

Do I have the rizz, muse. Is this rizz enough for you kids. Do I have the skill issue or whatever.

[reinabeestudio]

I keep reading their name as 'Saffron' so, the funnie colors 💥

At first I thought it was a pun on 'Sin fin' (endless in Spanish). Fitting since, well. Y'know. The Loops(tm) (<- said like The Horrors)

(*In Stars And Time by @insertdisc5)

[sergle]

Hey Sergle, how does one learn how to draw? Like, I am in my 20s, can barely draw a stick figure, and feel overwhelmed whenever I try to look up tutorials. Do you have any advice on how to start?

my Unprofessional advice on how to start in earnest, is to do it the way little kids do when they start learning to draw! which is to not approach it as learning at all. sitting down and scribbling out whatever comes to mind, reading a book or watching a movie and trying to copy the way the characters are drawn. draw a page full of cats. do it while you watch tv. doing all that w/o the Grown Up impulse to be embarrassed that you're new at a skill.

[deoidesign]

Hello I stumbled across your profile and I just say I love your art style! I've gotta ask, how'd your develop it? And do you have any advice for someone who can't decide what they want their art to look like?

Thank you so much!

To be entirely honest, I don't feel like I truly "developed" my style. I feel a lot more like I finally let myself draw it! But I am incredibly deliberate with my work, and I do have clear tendencies and preferences... So I'll do my best to explain how I got to where I am now as an artist.

It's important to remember that "style" is something of a nebulous concept. It changes with you as you grow as a person, and most artists can work in and emulate many art styles! Art really is a form of communication with yourself, and your "style" is a reflection of the tendencies and preferences you have. My art does not look how it looked 5 years ago, and my art will look different 5 years from now too. I've changed, and my art reflects that!

(2012, 2018, 2023; two pieces I remember being incredibly proud of and considered my best work up til that point, and then my most recent piece)

What you need to do, as everyone will tell you, is study the fundamentals (anatomy, perspective, form and structure, lighting and shadow, color, and composition) so you have the proper tools to make the most informed decisions possible about your art, and so you can deliberately break or follow rules as you please for your desired effect. I know it sounds silly to learn rules if you're not gonna be following them anyways, but they help you be much more consistent and intentional! More knowledge is NEVER a bad thing to have!

However, I know it's a bit demoralizing to just be told to study fundamentals. Everyone knows you're supposed to do that, but it takes YEARS to learn, and people want their art to feel how they want it to now (which is very very very normal to want!)

So on that front, I have 2 follow up suggestions that I personally find helpful (of course, everyone is different, so it's not like this is the only way to learn! But, if it resonates with you, it might mean it will work for you too.)

1: Separate study from application

I believe this is beneficial for a few reasons:

If the goal of every piece is learning, it can become frustrating, overwhelming, and boring

It's harder to self critique when there are multiple variables to investigate. I like to study one fundamental at a time

Study (usually) works best with a large quantity of output, whereas application of knowledge (finished pieces) is often more satisfying and effective when you get to take your time

Deliberate practical application of what you've learned in a finished piece helps cement the learning in your mind, and also lets you get satisfying finished pieces with noticeable improvement after a good study session!

I've found that keeping these things separate helps me improve faster and more deliberately, and it takes a lot of the pressure off of both aspects! I'm not worried about my studies looking beautiful, they're just to learn! And I don't feel pressured to critique my finished pieces, cause they're just for fun and to make something pretty. I personally find this helps me have a much healthier relationship with my art.

When studying, copy! Copy things as best as you can, all the time. It gives you something to compare to for self critique (and of course, if you're copying someone else's work and you share the study, ALWAYS give credit, share the original, and say it was for study.) In application, don't copy: reference. Make it yours!

2: Let yourself do the things that feel "easy" or like "cheating"

This one is simpler: nothing in art is easy.

If something feels easy to you, most of the time it's not because it's actually any easier... It's because it's part of your natural tendencies and preferences! This took me forever to realize, but as long as you're actually doing some study, then you're learning. You don't need to learn All The Time. When you're doing the "application" portion, you should let yourself do whatever is actually the most fun and feels easiest! This is where your style will start to come through, and where you get to learn about yourself. Take the pressure off, and have fun!!!

The only cheating in art is theft. If you're not stealing, then it's allowed!

My whole life (and yes, still!) I'd get regular criticism about both my style and my subject matter. You will too. You'll see a thousand different styles, and a hundred different things to admire in each. Your heart will ache that you don't draw like others do.

But art is a form of communication with yourself. It's like your voice, or your accent; just something that's a part of you! It can be fun to mimic others', but when you sit to have a conversation you speak naturally. (I know some people want to and do change their voice, but this is a metaphor and metaphors aren't perfect)

Don't stress so much about what you want your art to look like, especially if you're not sure. There's a lot of value to be had in constant experimentation, I think it'd be rather boring to only draw one style the rest of my life. What I draw is what I want to see, right now, for who I am now! It's a part of me and comes naturally, if I let it!

I hope this helps!

[tallymali]

i have such a morbid fascination with those weird reddit dudes who rate their attraction to a woman by working out the ratios and proportions of her features. i want to know if it has ever occurred to them that this is not how other people experience attraction