#they had to be very sensitive to

[tanadrin]

You're not wrong about anything wrt cost of flying, but man is it bracing to wake up to a reminder that I can never ethically see most of my loved ones in-person again.

hmm. i think this is also the wrong way to think about it. flying is not a sin. being in some indirect way responsible for a certain amount of carbon emissions does not Taint Your Soul. and absolutist frameworks for this kind of thing are not helpful to anybody, least of all the people who actually might already be contributing to fixing problems like this through positive behaviors, like voting or political organizing.

the problem with carbon emissions is that they're a difficult to solve collective action problem, where a lot of the incentives point in a harmful direction, not that they are Fundamentally Immoral, and i think that's an important distinction to make, because i think a handful of semi-scrupulous individuals flagellating themselves and depriving themselves of things that would make them happy in the long run has no real effect on big problems like this. you not seeing your family is not going to fix global warming! and there are not enough people who are willing or able to act on guilt alone to refrain from flying that it's going to meaningfully dent emissions from the air transport sector.

what we need are policies that shape collective decisionmaking. this is why a fat carbon tax (especially when coupled with a rebate for lower-income people) can be a useful policy: it might make it harder to fly to visit family, but it won't make it categorically impossible, and it will reduce air travel in general, or encourage finding lower-carbon alternatives that allow people to travel just as much, like high-speed trains or, i don't know, some kind of fancy jet fuel that emits less CO2.

honestly, if you vote consistently for pro-environmental policies and parties, if you donate a bit of spare cash from time to time to the same, and/or if you are minimally politically active in other ways, and you're not, like, the CEO of BP in your professional life, you are fine. go, free from sin. if everyone did that, the problem of carbon emissions could be solved in a few years. now, you might go, "but not everyone is doing that!" well, not everyone is sitting at home miserable because they missed seeing grandma on her deathbed; that won't solve global warming either. in fact, it will do even less to solve global warming, because it is (and i say this with compassion) an anxious, guilt-ridden, useless gesture meant to salve your own spirit, not actually a contribution to solving the problem.

in general, i am really opposed to letting a vast and nebulous sense of guilt on big, systemic problems shape your personal behaviors. none of the behaviors that these feelings of guilt ban ever contribute to significant or systemic improvements in the problem--guilt is not building nuclear plants or preventing oil from being drilled. and in my experience, the kind of people who feel this guilt are prone to anxiety, maybe as kids were made overly responsible for the emotional state of people around them, and thus feel an outsized sense of responsibility in other areas of their life, and they mistakenly think that 1) this is a healthy way to go through life, 2) if they don't go through life this way they're a Bad Person, and 3) most people (or most people they think of as Good People) feel this way.

i wish to free people from this burden. there are no individual solutions to big collective action problems! and if reading about global warming, or racism, or poverty, or any other big social problem fills you with an enormous sense of guilt and has you wracking your brain for ways you can help by cutting/reducing/abstaining from things in your life, congratulations, you are one of many people in this world who can be at least 300% more selfish and still be a certified Good Person. so, uh, chill.

[canisalbus]

To me, Machete kind of has the energy of a secondary villain/coldhearted side character in someone else's story that a lot of fans latch onto, moreso than the protagonist. Question is, would he be the villain in anyone's story?

Why, thank you! I'm actually glad to hear he gives off that vibe. I don't think he set out to become a villain but a lot of people certainly view him as one.

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

family visit 🏝️

(ghosts can be haunted too)

[Scala script translation in alt text]

[thekittyokat]

you ever just have a lot, a LOT of feelings all at once about a character and not even remotely enough words or brainpower to FORM the words to describe everything you're feeling. so it feels like you may explode. yeah

[astralstarlight]

good for me

pairing: tighnari x reader

summary: tighnari gets more than he bargained for when he comes across a field of aphrodisiac flowers, especially when he has to deal with you getting 'lost' again

word count: 3.4k

warnings; nsfw content, reader has a pussy, aphrodisiac, slight exhibitionism?, lots of mention + playing with tighnari's ears and tail, "good girl" is mentioned once (by tighnari)

a/n: sensitive ears and sensitive tail! only the last 1.7k+ is horny material <3

Sometimes, Tighnari thinks he's an idiot.

Aphrodisiac flowers give off a distinct scent; something that he's had to learn the hard way over the years. And he knows how much they affect him. But they still entice him in the worst way possible.

"Because that's what they're supposed to do, you idiot," Tighnari mutters. He pushes the ice pack harder against his cheek, hoping to stop the hot flush creeping up his neck.

This time it was a whole patch of brightly coloured flowers in the Avidya Forest. He hadn't even realised he was doing it — rolling around in the bright flowers with reckless abandon, the scent overtaking his nose and a gradual, pleasurable warmth running under his skin. It takes an embarrassingly long time before he pauses in his actions. And it's only because his instincts kick in, telling him that he's being watched. Movement stopped. Breath stilled. Ears listening.

Whatever presence he'd sensed had disappeared. Probably just a fluke. Regardless, at least he'd been close enough to the village to dash back on shaky legs.

He hates this. He really does. Even a habitual twist of his ear sends a hot urge sinking to his stomach.

Just as he's gritting his teeth and deciding how he's going to take the rest of the day off and, preferably, alone, there's a knock on his door. Without waiting for his confirmation, they come in. A forest ranger, out of breath and spilling over with information.

"A scholar. They were coming to deliver their research on to the Akademiya, but they got... There was a Withering." The forest ranger dips their voice, just slightly. "They see familiar in a way? I'm not too sure."

Tighnari's ears twitch at the words. The Withering is still causing problems this close to Gandharva Ville? This is definitely not the time to be distracted by aphrodisiac flowers. Fuck.

"Familiar?" He questions.

Recognition seems to click in the forest rangers eyes. "It's the exchange student. The one who nearly got eaten the first time they showed up here?"

Tighnari tries to stop the way his heart races at the thought of you, once again showing up in the village. Still, it's not good to be thinking of you when he's in this state, or else he might just pounce on you the moment he sees you.

"Show me."

He's got some self-control left. Just a bit.

"I suggest you peruse this Avidya Forest Survival Guide once again, paying close attention to the chapter near the end about the Withering this time."

You're not even listening, Tighnari notes. You're sitting in his bed, blanket pulled over your lap, both hands curled around a cup of warm tea, and nodding. But you're not listening. Your eyes are slowly drifting up every so often up to his ears, before snapping back to his eyes, and honestly, it's kind of rude. He feels his patience snap. Only because he's starting to imagine things, and looking at your hands, and hoping they would be the one coaxing through his tail. He really shouldn't be having these thoughts about someone he's just officially met two weeks ago.

And it's only because of the aphrodisiac, he assures himself. Only because...

"You can touch them if you want," Tighnari says. His mind is finally catching up to his mouth, informing him of how simply terrible this decision is, because if you touch them, he might never ask you to stop. Instead, he watches as you visibly flinch and catches your eyes glancing down towards his tail as he gives it an experimental swish.

Caught in the act.

He's not an idiot. He knows his fur looks soft, and he's caught various other people staring sometimes.

You choke on your drink. "That's really not—"

"Really." He leans forward, towards you. The warm room is getting to him, making him feel just a bit bolder than he usually is. There's probably a realistic, polite part of you that's hesitating. But there's no way the twinkle in your eye or the way your heartbeat races can be imagined by Tighnari. Especially not when he's so oversensitive to every sound at the moment. You're so obvious, and so easy to read.

His gloved hand slowly reaches up to stroke the tip of his fluff ear, and your eyes follow the movement. Your hands around the cup tighten until you're sure that it'll crack under your grip if you squeezed any harder. You take another sip of your now-cold drink. It doesn't quell the flushness in your cheeks, nor the tenseness in your entire body. Tighnari hears, rather than sees, your pulse quicken as you swallow.

He needs to get a hold of himself because he's meant to be hospitable right now, especially to someone who was another lost lamb. It was almost a weekly routine at this point. Someone would get lost, end up here, and he would send them on their merry way.

Except, you've shown up here three times now. The first time was after encountering some carnivorous flowers and reaching a state of shock, the second time was when Tighnari found you wandering of the path, and now, this. Academics usually had a bit more common sense than this.

He narrows his eyes. "What were you doing this time?"

Your cheeks flush at his words, fingers thrumming against the cup's surface. "I thought I saw you, so I was coming over to say hello. But," your voice quietens. "You seemed busy."

Tighnari freezes. A feeling of dread running through his body. If you saw him earlier, then that means you saw him in the flower field. But that's not the worst part. Tighnari knows he's rarely quiet when the heat overwhelms him, which means you most likely heard him making the most pitiful sounds.

"They were aphrodisiac flowers." No point lying to you now. "I'm very sensitive to them, unfortunately."

"Aphrodisiacs?" You repeat, eyes widening.

"Yes."

He watches you open your mouth to say something, then close it just as quickly. To be fair, he doesn't know what compelled him to tell you the truth. The cup all but clatters from your hand onto the side table, and you're wrenching the blanket away from you quickly.

You stand up, smoothening down your clothes even though there aren't any wrinkles. "I'm sorry for taking up so much of your time." You bow your head quickly. "I think I remember the way to the Akademiya. Thank you." You pause. "Tighnari."

Oh fuck.

With just one word, his mind runs wild, hearing your voice in other tones — a pained, needy voice calling out his name. He can very easily picture you panting in his ear. The room feels like it's burning all of a sudden. He clears his throat.

"No worries!" He says, cringing at the cheerful tone. "Stop by anytime!"

He needs you to leave. Right now.

And thankfully, gratefully, you do; eyes still looking towards the floor. Tighnari hears the nervous thump of your heart as you brush past him; but you don't look back.

A wave of relief washes over him. He lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, feeling every muscle in his body relax except... the heat running through him is worse now. And it's not something he can keep ignoring.

There must be a higher power out there working in his favour because, not a moment later, the forest ranger who announced your arrival bounds through the door. This time announcing your prompt departure.

"Alright. Please let everyone know that I'm not to be bothered for the rest of the night. I think I need some rest." He prays they let this slide. Please, just one more thing.

The forest ranger nods their acceptance of his request, and darts off again.

But Tighnari isn't thinking much about that anymore. He's crumpled over on top of his bedsheets and dragging his pants down to relieve the tightness over him. He makes the mistake of pressing his nose into the pillow.

It still smells like you. And he can still hear the lilting tone of your voice, imagined to be just a bit higher pitched and whiny, saying his name. He pulls a glove off his hand with his teeth, hissing as it makes contact with his warm length, teeth immediately clamping over his bottom lip to stop any further sounds.

It was going to be a long night.

You, on the other hand, are hesitantly standing at the edge of the village. The path should take you to the Akademiya in no more than two days. You know. You've gone through this way many times. Way more than the other three hindrances that have caused you to catch Tighnari's eye.

Tighnari.

He'd offered to let you touch his ears, and you'd still walked away, said no, been very polite, and where did that get you? Frustrated and annoyed. Especially because you've been spending the last two stops in the village trying to get the courage to ask. The opportunity slips by yet again.

But then you remember his heat-filled gaze. Is touching his ears an intimate thing? And the aphrodisiac flowers he was talking about earlier...

You decide right there and then to take the winding, twisting path back up to Tighnari's place, and say you would like to touch them actually, and it didn't matter if it was going to make things weird because you were interested anyways—

Your thoughts cut off as you reach his front door and hear a muffled groan. Not a pained one by any means. A low heat drops to your stomach, and begins to travel further downwards. Ah, this is the opportunity to leave right? This seems like a very private moment to walk in on, and not what you intended at all. You can simply send him a letter to request a visit, or drop by another day. But your feet stay frozen in place, refusing to move, even as a louder noise leaves Tighnari's lips.

There's a small opening in his window, and you really shouldn't be peeking inside, but your eyes dart to a movement out of the corner of your eye and your brain short-circuits. It's mostly just bare skin, but you can guess the position he's in, just from the peek you're given.

Your fingers unconsciously trace up your thigh.

And then, you freeze again as Tighnari moans out your name.

He's perched on all fours, rutting into his bare fist.

"Fuck." He mutters, brushing his thumb over the head of his pulsing cock and feeling his breath hitch. It's not enough. He doesn't stop his movements, even when he hears you slip in through the door, a nervous look on your face. He's known you've been watching for a while. Every bone in his body is ushered into high alert, especially at the state he's in. It also means-he bites his lip on a moan again as his tail tangles in the sheets-he's extremely sensitive.

A very dangerous part of his mind wants him to give you a show.

You stop a few paces behind him, hands hovering in midair. "Tighnari?"

It's not like what he's doing has hit you yet. It's just one thing for your eyes to see it and another for your brain to fully register what you've walked in on.

He rolls over onto his back, face flushed and ears twitching wildly at the top of his head. You step towards him once he opens himself up for you, and his tail wraps around his thigh.

Would his tail be wagging rigorously in excitement if he didn't do that? You don't know how this all works but—

"Please." Tighnari whines. He's a disheveled mess, made even more so when his hands push his shirt up, past his stomach and brushing over his nipples. There's not a single thought running through your head right now, except for just how pretty he looks, splayed out before you.

You definitely haven't misheard him moaning your name, because he's still moaning it in the same pleading tone, even now.

Moving closer to him still, you hesitate. Maybe you're imagining it, but you swear you're close enough to feel the heat of his body and there's nothing you'd like more than to press up against him. Still. This is weird, right? Tighnari and you don't have this kind of relationship.

His next words stop you. "Touch me, please."

He chokes back a moan as your hand grabs his tail in a stroking motion — not too hard, not too soft. He might be able to cum just from your touch alone. This is bad. This is definitely bad. This is—

"Hng!" It's impossible not to let that one slip out. Your fingers deftly brush over the tip of his tail, curious and tentative, but growing bolder with every whimper you drag out of him. A sharp pain runs on his hand, and it takes him a bleary moment to realise it's because of himself, biting down hard on his gloved hand to stop the embarrassingly loud sounds leaving his lips.

It's only then that he realises you've laid yourself down next to him, perched up on one elbow. Your other hand is still wrapped around his tail. You're so close to him. Your eyes are focused on his expressions, watching as his eyes squeeze shut, back slightly arching into the air every time you dance your fingers over the fluffy length.

His eyes refocus from the pleasure when he notices your mouth moving. The words pass through one ear and out the next, and he's not registering it at all. Wait. His name. You're mouthing his name. In his haze, he's not really sure he understands what you're saying, so he does the next best thing.

His still-gloved hand reaches up to cup your face, thumb stroking over your cheek. Your eyes soften, and you lean over to press your lips to his hesitantly.

Tighnari wants to laugh. You're touching him in ways that he's only touched himself in, and you're still nervous over kissing him. Everything about you is so warm. The hand on his tail, and even the way your lips move against his spreads a warm feeling throughout his whole body.

It's when you move to a more stable position and allow your other wandering hand to brush over one of his ears, that he absolutely loses any sense of self-control. His vision blurs and he's rutting his hips into the air, gasping into your lips. You pull away quickly, hand stopping the movement on his tail but still stroking over his ears. Gently.

You lean down further, pressing a kiss against his jawline and travelling up to his ears. "They really are so soft," you whisper.

He whimpers, trying to bury his face into your neck.

"I still..." He pauses, watching as you pull back from you to meet his gaze again. You tilt your head to the side, a smile beginning to appear on your lips. "If you..." He trails off again.

You're not going to make him say it, right? He feels an embarrassed flush settle in his chest. His whole body still feels like it's on fire, as though he's going to combust if he isn't touched properly in the next few seconds. And you're certainly not helping. Not with the way you're running one hand through his hair, and twisting his hair around his ears, nor with the way your other hand is lightly brushing over his skin, leaving small warming spots in its path.

He gestures vaguely towards his hardening cock and you let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I can help with that still. If you need." But you say it as more of a statement than a question.

You leave his side briefly, and he almost lets out another whimper. His mind still feels hazy, coming down from his high. The sensitivity in his body overrides his instincts, and he doesn't hear you coming.

You hitch one of your legs over his middle, straddling him. He feels faint. Your bare thighs cling around his sides and he feels everything. You're not wearing anything under there. You must have taken it off after you moved away. And—

You lift the bottom of your shirt that's covering the rest of your decency and Tighnari genuinely thinks he might cum again, just from the sight alone.

You, on top of him, plunging your fingers into your depths and stretching yourself out to take him in. It's so loud. You're so loud. He's so sure that the sinful sounds leaving your lips will ring in his ears the next time he even looks at you.

If he wasn't in such a blissful state already, he absolutely would like to see how you would feel on his fingers. His free hand tugs off the remaining glove, reaching for your thighs.

You're soft. He thinks he's starting to get what you meant when you were stroking his ears earlier.

Your name leaves his lips unprompted, and you turn to look at him. All motion stopped.

You speak first. "Is this still okay?"

Tighnari nods, not trusting his mind to phrase the word properly. It's enough. He's still biting back a guttural noise from the back of his throat as one of your hands reach behind you to wrap around his cock. It's already fully hard again. Tighnari can't tell anymore whether it's still the aphrodisiac clouding his mind, or whether it's just because of you.

Really, all he can feel right now is you. Your thighs surrounding his waist, your hand causing a wave of pleasure to run through his body, and even the scent of you is starting to fill his lungs. Still, he grabs your arm. He needs you to be sure.

"I want this." He says, combining it with what he hopes comes out as a reassuring nod.

It's enough for you. There's no more hesitations with your movements when you move to take him in; inch by pleasurable inch. He slides straight into your warm tightness so easily, and he can feel you collapse onto him, panting into his neck while you adjust. He's glad. He needs this time to adjust to, especially with you clinging so tightly around him.

You feel him stretching you out, and he's whispering in your ear, wildly incoherent. Does he even know what he's saying anymore? Awkward mumbles of "good", followed by a shaky breath, and then "girl".

He's good. He's so good to you, really. Still trying to gain back some semblance of control when you both know who's really taking the reins here.

"It's okay, Tighnari." You run your hands over his ears, drifting down to the back of his neck. "You can take it."

He mewls, bucking up into your soft form without hesitation. It wins him an uncontrollable moan form your lips. He's all ready to coax the same sound out of you with the movement again, when he feels you moving on top of him — hands settling over his stomach as you lift your hips up. There's a slight brush of cold air against his exposed cock, but it's quickly returned to wonderful heat when you drop back on to him.

It doesn't take long until he's cumming again. It's hot and so good, that he's sure he blacks out for a bit this time, blinking back to focus as you softly stroke his head, in-between his ears.

He winces.

The extra stimulation from his ears runs through his body, and it feels almost painful. Your hands stop as you notice. Tighnari laughs, breathy and rumbly through his chest.

"Well." He says, eyes shining bright and tail weakly swishing under him.

You raise an eyebrow. "Well."

"I want to apologise first for dragging you into this mess. Truthfully, I..." His words trail off as he notices you vigorously shaking your head.

"No, don't be sorry at all. It was..." You trail off.

Tighnari leans up on his elbows, albeit shakily, with a small smile on his face. "I think..." His eyes land on your exposed collarbone meaningfully before travelling up to meet your gaze. "I might have to return the favour at some point."

"Oh?" A smirk tugs at the corner of your lips. "When were you thinking?"

Tighnari lifts a finger up to drag along your neck — pale and unmarked. "Just give me a minute."

[sergle]

if anyone wants to know what kind of day mr. Hugo had today, it got to be So So Very About Him. let me take you through it - went to the lake first thing in the morning, got wet and ran around full-tilt and got tired - in the evening, came along with us to a christmas lights festival thing at the park. got to walk around and have fun, was petted by ~30 people - at some points, he was surrounded by a closed Circle of very small children patting him and saying he's nice. - received whippy cream at a coffee place drive through - got to walk around petsmart and do Dog Browsing there - got admired by two of the girls working the checkout bc they enjoyed his Sit Pretty so much - MET A POMERANIAN PUPPY AT THE STORE. (this is more important to me than him) touched noses with VERY SMALL pomeranian puppy. oh my fucking god. - got greeted at another drive thru (I got popeyes. only god can judge me) and got given, because they aren't pre-loaded with treats for drive through dogs, a girl gave him (after asking) (he can take it) (he was really locking eyes with her) An Entire Chicken Tender. Hugo's relationship with drive-through windows gets progressively more and more Expectant. anyway. very full day for mr. Hugo. We also got a couple pics of him doing paws / sit pretty / high five-ing in front of the lights. here are those!

[jackdaniel69nice]

We know tokoyami loves perching on top of things so here’s a silly one shot

Tokoyami has a “bad habit” of climbing on top of furniture he’s not supposed to

There are normal thing like sitting on top of a railing, his desk, or the back of the couch…but climbing the fridge and trying to wedge himself on the top shelf of cabinet is a bit much

So there came to point of enough people being jump scared by a perched tokoyami sitting in the dark that they decided enough was enough and put a large book shelf in the common room.

They stuffed enough black pillows and fluffy blankets on top to attract even the most picky of avians and waited

(The rest of the shelf spaces were filled with books and board games so it wouldn’t seem suspicious, in fact everyone seemed to enjoy adding their additional stuff to the shelves to show off and grab quickly)

The trap was a simple one and tokoyami fell right into it, it only took 3 days before he asked why there were blankets up there when no one could reach them

they answered it was storage, he knew they were lying

Instead of hovering at the edge of the room broodingly now he will walk straight over to the book shelf and perch on top of it

He can look surprisingly cool and edgy from up there (he can make anything look cool and edgy tbh)

One time kamanari tried to go up there because it makes sense if it’s the common room then anyone should be able to go up right?

Well tokoyami walked in to see kaminari in his nest Fortress of Darkness and immediately turned around and walked back out

He wouldn’t climb back up for nearly a month until finally they coxed him into it

All he kept saying was that the space had been “spoiled” or “wrought with corruption” or they had “defiled his inner sanctum”

They had to take everything down, wash it, and move the shelf before letting tokoyami set it back up how he liked

They knew better than to touch his stuff again after that

[ineed-to-sleep]

We've started blocking it out babey *I say completely chill and cool and unaffected as if I didn't just become a pathetic beast screeching in pain on my tattoo artist's chair today for 2 hours*

[purenguyening]

I love, how like, regularly, I warn my friends that Vietnamese coffee is infamously strong. And then my mom prepares it for me and my dad and throughout the day I wonder why I'm off the walls only to realize... oh wait.

[kaldurrr]

tracker saying she wanted to be a supportive girlfriend so she didn’t say anything at the time about kristen’s concerning behavior. honey that’s not being supportive. also doing a rebrand of an established religion is tbqh no where near as difficult as starting a religion from ground zero. that’s like changing christian denominations. like go tell your current girlfriend you’re not thrilled about hard launching her on insta and stop putting the onus of why you don’t want to do it on your ex.

[revrads]

“The Bo-Staff”

Some angst based off my Ninjago redesign! There’s a reason why I gave Zane a bo-staff from the start and if you’re interested in reading it, proceed to the tags cause I’m too embarassed to do it in captions lmao (Spoiler- it has something to do with the Ice Emperor)

[canisalbus]

I find little Machete being happy over bread baking to be so endearing, especially because I can imagine a world in which helping with baking was one of the few childhood joys he had (due to the lack of art of him happy as a pup), and then remembering the art you did months back of modern Machete making a souffle, I can see reincarnated Machete being drawn towards baking in his free time due to those residual feelings from his past life.

.

[daily-hanamura]

[northern-passage]

i've been thinking a lot about the word "representation" and what it means and how it's changed over the last few years, particularly when it comes to the writing/publishing landscape but also in movies and tv shows… and i really don't like it anymore. to be clear, of course i think it's important to have diversity in your work, i'm not saying i hate the concept of representation. but i do really dislike the way it's used now, and i really just hate the word itself

in a broader sense it's just become a marketing tool. i'm not impressed by any publisher or author who just describes their book by listing all of the minorities/identities the characters represent as if that should be enough. it feels very gross, very exploitative and disingenuous. it also really bothers me because it's always marginalized identities- which i understand Why, but it feels very othering to me (and again. Very exploitative as an advertisement). you would never list out "cishet able-bodied white man" as a character description to pat yourself on the back over. so why do it to everyone else? why insinuate that one is the "default" and the other one is "special"? (and when i say this i'm mainly talking about advertisements/marketing. i understand why people would specify about characters in descriptions with the plot, but i don't like to see an ad that's just "this book has gay people!" with nothing else)

which then leads me to my other point, which is that a lot of people treat "representation" as if it's "too hard." like "oh i don't know enough to write about that, i don't have that experience, etc" which is a fair way to feel! however… it's weird that people only say this about writing trans characters or characters of color. i'm writing a story right now with a character who is really into motorcycles. i personally do not know that much about motorcycles, so i researched what parts are what & what different kinds of models there are & what basic bike care looks like. i guarantee Most people will have to google something at some point in their writing process. so what's the problem? it also, again, feels very othering when authors treat certain groups of people as "impossible" to write, "too hard" to understand. they are just.. people. you write them as a person. and then you figure out the rest later.

and i think part of the refusal or fear to write something outside of your experience is because of the way representation is treated as So Special. these characters are So Special that they aren't allowed to be anything other than "representation." they're Not allowed to be characters with complex emotions and interesting motivations, they have to just be Trans or Gay or Disabled or whatever. they're not allowed to be people. which means, at the end of the day, we loop right back around to where we were at the start….

there is bad representation. there are depictions of certain marginalized people that are harmful and that are damaging, i'm not trying to minimize that or argue against it at all, in fact we should all be mindful of that while writing and reading. but i also think it's possible to swing too far in the opposite direction as well and put certain groups of people on a pedestal and not allow them to do anything at all but be Perfect Representation, if that makes sense.

[ineed-to-sleep]

NEW TATTOO BABEYY. IT HURT

[anothermonikan]

I should probably draw more canon complacent GabV1el stuff but I do think it's cute when they cuddle and go on little funny dates sorry. Yeah I know their whole thing is fighting and whatever but. machine and angel kisssy?? ever consider that??