#shoulder-clap

[frownyalfred]

The Justice League needing to run a seduction op and considering every member other than Batman is hilarious to me.

Like, not only do they not know his secret identity (for this idea to work at least) but they’re completely unaware that not only is Batman devastatingly attractive, he’s also one of the most charming, talented liars out there.

And he’s just sitting there watching Hal and Oliver fight over who’s going to seduce the politician/charm their way into the meeting silently laughing to himself.

[linusbenjamin]

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” was released one year ago today ❤️🕸️ (December 17, 2021)

[ghostshipglamour]

[aenslem]

STARGATE UNIVERSE (2009–2011) ⤷ Light

[bonefall]

post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

[presidentheartbeat6]

cuties (:

[xitty]

fine 🎆

[rad-roche]

feel kind of bad for longfellow because he gets muscled out of his own dlc. i like longfellow, i like the cut of his ornery jib, but his job is to be 'slightly sour oldguy deadwife' and he's competing with the oldest, deadwifiest companion in the whole game, the one the game encourages you to take and has a bunch of character development wrapped up in you taking him. moment of silence for old longfellow he never had a chance

[y-rhywbeth2]

Basically, when it comes to the things you can quite possibly expect to personally receive from your god themselves as a follower of the Dead Three: Myrkulites get lethal and traumatising hugs. Bhaalists get sex. Banites get torture and disfigurement.

Pick your poison.

[bbgoffic]

Wrecker looking at his recovered Lula doll at the end of this episode like,

"damn, wish I could hit Crosshair with this right now,"

*especially since it looks like the doll was laying on Crosshair's weapon kit but ya know*

[alluraaaa]

for the promts: z (zoo trip gone wrong) with adam shiro and younger keith?

Kids have too much energy. Shiro knows he would’ve passed out five times by now if he was doing what Keith is.

The ankle biter in question is practically vibrating in place with happy stimming, staring through the glass at the hippopotamus enclosure.

“Never seen him so happy,” Adam muses beside Shiro, tucked against his side.

“Yeah, he’s really into hippos.”

“I can hear you,” Keith grouches, but he still looks excited. “Hippos can have twelve inch long canines. That’s a whole foot of teeth. How are you not into that?”

“Well I didn’t know that, that’s cool as hell,” Adam says easily.

“Language,” Shiro remarks.

“He’s eleven, that’s old enough for hell.”

“Definitely don’t say it like that.”

“Woah,” Keith says, drawing their attention again. He’s not watching the hippos anymore, instead watching the path they’re standing on, where a ten foot long snake is slithering past them. It’s muddy brown and heavy looking but moves with ease, and Keith crouches to watch it with wide eyes.

In a flash Adam is gripping Shiro’s shoulders and hiding behind him, using his boyfriend as a shield to a snake that doesn’t seem to care about them. He says, “What the fuck?”

“Language,” Shiro says again. “I’ve heard of zoos letting animals wander, I just didn’t know this was one of ‘em. The reptile exhibit is right by here.”

“You sure?” Adam asks. Keith takes the disposable camera he was given and snaps a picture of the snake.

“That thing’s huge,” Shiro says, “there’s no way they wouldn’t see it missing. And if it did escape, they’d be making a big deal of it.”

“Okay. Okay, yeah, that makes sense,” Adam says, but still has an iron grip on Shiro’s shoulders. Okay, his boyfriend has ophidiophobia, noted.

They all watch it slither away, either entertained or terrified. It isn’t long before Keith is back to the hippos, pointing out and describing their behaviors to Adam and Shiro, who listen with interest.

“Wow, looks like we have an expert here today!” a voice says, drawing the trio’s attention. She’s an employee, judging by the uniform she’s got on. No one willingly wears a tan polo with tan khakis and a chunky walkie talkie. Either way, she’s adopted a “talking to kids” tone and is addressing Keith with a big smile. “I take it you’re fond of hippos?”

Keith nods. The woman responds, “That’s lovely. Our friends here are real happy to have such smart visitors!” She gestures to the hippos, who seem more interested in napping than humans with trivia, by Shiro’s guess. But he commends this woman for trying to befriend Keith “hates strangers” Kogane-Shirogane. He’s been there.

Speaking of, he’s awkwardly nodding along to what she’s saying, before his attention is grabbed by one hippo diving into the water in the corner of the huge enclosure. The woman is then ignored entirely, and she finally turns to Shiro and Adam.

“He’s one smart cookie,” she says in that quiet, conspiratorial, “talking about kids right in front of them” tone. “Y’all must be having fun today.”

“Oh yeah, he’s been begging to see this exhibit,” Adam says, “We’re having fun too, but he’s overjoyed.”

“Yeah, plus it’s really cool that you let the snakes wander like that,” Shiro says.

“Not that fun,” Adam grumbles, and Shiro chuckles.

“I’m sorry?” the woman asks, concern beginning to take over her bright smile.

“We just saw a snake crawling around,” Shiro clarifies. “Is that… not a thing here?”

The woman blanches. “…Please excuse me,” she says before speed walking away and hurriedly hissing into her radio.

Shiro, wide eyed, turns to Adam, who looks two minutes away from a panic attack.

“Okay Keith time to go,” Shiro says.

Oblivious to the entire conversation that just occurred, Keith whines, “Five more minutes?”

From the direction they saw the snake go, a scream rings out.

“Now,” Shiro says, and Keith doesn’t protest any more. The three of them promptly start hauling ass.

[prompt alphabet - send a letter!]

[taciturnraccoon]

some sleet (+ dad frac) doodles i found while tidying up my room

[luxraydyne]

presently losing my mind a tad at the visual of lawrence's perfectly cyclical return to the bathroom trap, looking down upon hoffman, the failed discipline he's caged, like some sort of shadowy limb of god ejecting the fallen angel from his kingdom for his hubris, but in the same motion looking back to where he began. he leans onto his cane and coldly meets the wrathful gaze of the beast he has locked in, but in doing so must also feel the weeping gaze of a man he left behind. do you feel the weight of adam's judgment around your neck, dr gordon? it had to be this place. he always had to come back. i'll come back for you. and now he has, a promise technically kept. though adam has never been allowed to leave, all this time, always left behind. he, much like lawrence, has seen everything. but he turned the lights out on him. it's fucking biblical mate *gnawing on arm commences*

[technicallyaminecraftsimp]

It’s official, I’ve made it through high school without my parents knowing I went by Karl

[notbecauseofvictories]

[ Lincoln Park Conservatory, Chicago — December 2022 ]

[rad-roche]

another anime, to Test My Abilities