#this is definitely an abbreviated list

[cleo-fox]

The Definitive List of Acceptable Abbreviations in Reader Fan Fic

Official Notice: In order to standardize and streamline the reading experience, fanfic authors are now required to use the following list of abbreviations. Going forward, all reader fanfic must use the abbreviations as stated below. Additionally, all reader fics are required to use all of the abbreviations named below.* No exceptions. Violators will be barred from the reader community.

Approved abbreviations are as follows:

YN = Your name

YLN = Your last name

YMN = Your middle name

YHC = Your hair color

YEC = Your eye color

YBT = Your blood type

YBFN = Your best friend’s name

YMPT = Your most problematic take

YBRN = Your bank’s routing number

YBDOTJCFTGS = Your birthday on the Julian calendar, fuck this Gregorian shit

YNP = Your Netflix password

YEAAWYNA = Your email address associated with your Netflix account

YLOSTTAOTPITTSYNA = Your level of suspicion that the author of this post is trying to steal your Netflix account

YLOUTSCFOSS = Your likelihood of using the same credentials for other streaming services

YDEGFCN = Your dad’s ex-girlfriend from college’s name

YWIIWACTIWTWB = your weirdest injury if we aren’t counting the incident with the whiffle bat

YCSWYPSWYDYPTYRDNTKTI = Your conception story which your parent shared with you despite your protestations that you really don’t need to know this information

YCMHIARLAACLOMACIFYHCP = Your current medical history, including all relevant labs and a current list of medications and contact information for your healthcare providers

YFC = Your favorite color

YBGAATLO = Your best guess at Alex Trebek’s lunch order

Please incorporate these changes into your writing immediately. As previously stated, these abbreviations are now required in all Reader fanfic. Failure to comply will result in expulsion* from the community and other unspecified penalties.

Sincerely,

The Powers That Be

————

(* I debated whether to add this because saying it’s a joke kind of ruins the joke, but I’ve also been on tumblr dot com for more than 5 minutes and I want to mitigate the risk of some outraged person with dodgy reading comprehension taking this seriously and accusing me of crimes against fandom. My actual opinion: write what you want how you want, there are no rules, just tag your shit).

[nateconnolly]

Hozier Reading List of Free Texts You Can Finish in Less Than A Week

Another Hozier reading list is floating around the Internet, and it’s very thorough. Huge respect to @notmysophie for putting that together, they put in a lot of effort and research and it really shows. This is an alternative reading list for people who are too busy or tired to read all the entries on a complete list of Hozier’s literary influences. This list is incomplete—even after finishing it, there will be some very prominent literary references in Hozier’s music that might go over your head. But this will definitely help you appreciate the depth of thought in his songs, and if you read just five pages a night, you’ll be able to finish this reading list in less than one week. 

ONE: ICARUS

Hozier puts the myth of Icarus to song in I, Carrion. You could very easily argue that Sunlight is also a response to Icarus. Many classical writers have told or mentioned his story, but I’ll let my own personal tastes shape this list, and recommend Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He tells the story of Icarus in Chapter 8 Lines 183–235. If you can afford it, I love the Charles Martin translation. You could consult the free Brookes More translation, or the one by A. S. Kline. Remember, you don't have to read the whole chapter--just find the part named "Daedalus and Icarus"

TWO: DOOMSDAY CLOCK

The title track Wasteland, Baby! is such a gentle love ballad, I almost have trouble remembering it’s about the apocalypse. Wasteland, Baby! finds hope and love in the face of annihilation. Hozier wrote this song as a direct response to the Doomsday Clock moving two minutes in 2018, one year before the album was released. 

THREE: GENESIS 1-3

I also recommend reading Genesis Chapters 1-3. You’re probably familiar with the plot, but I think From Eden is such an ingenious twist on the familiar story that you’ll appreciate it even more after consulting the original. Hozier takes the symbols of Genesis 1-3 and uses them to make his own radically different point. The stories of Eden also come up in Be. 

My favorite translation is by Robert Alter, but it’s currently not free online, so you might want to check out the Sefaria translation or the New King James Version (NKJV), both of which manage to capture the beauty of Genesis without becoming difficult for the average English reader. The King James Version (KJV) is also roughly the same level of difficulty as a Shakespeare play. I definitely think the KJV is beautiful, but at the end of a long hard day, you might be better off with the Sefaria, the NKJV, the NIV, or the NRSV. You can Google “Genesis 1” followed by any of those names/abbreviations, and you’ll find it right away. 

FOUR: A MODEST PROPOSAL

Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, written in 1729, might be the most gutting satire in history. UCLA students put together a very thorough explanation of the economic suffering and the proposed “solutions” that inspired Swift. References to A Modest Proposal form the skeleton of Hozier’s Eat Your Young. 

FIVE: SEAMUS HEANEY

Before learning about Seamus Heaney, you’ll need some background information on the Troubles. I recommend this National Geographic article. I also recommend looking through these Chris Steele Perkins photographs of life during the Troubles.

During the Troubles, Heaney wrote a series of poems about bog bodies. His poetry directly inspired the corpse imagery in Work Song, Like Real People Do, and In a Week. 

Disclaimer: I cannot read Hebrew or Latin. I am evaluating these translations solely by 1) how difficult they are to read and 2) how beautiful they sound. I cannot independently review them for accuracy. Just know that all the translations I’ve listed are widely respected among academics and/or religious leaders.

Anyways if you liked reading this go check out my Substack where I originally posted it. 

[nevros-fr]

Big question: Who or when was the first use of the term UMA?

Cross posted to FR's forums but I thought fr tumblr meta readers would like this too! Introduction What is a UMA? It stands for User Made Accents, where the companion term is User Made Skins, but UMAs caught on as the catch-all term instead of UMS. I was in the Arcane discord server where foxaquinn made a joke about UMAs and wondered who was the first to use it. If you are on GASP (general accent and skin pinglist), UMAs pop up regularly where I got pinged 60+ times for threads with UMA in the title. I research by day and play pet sims by night so here I am, combining research and pet sims to unravel how language changed throughout the years in the skins and accents community! I included in text citations for my sources because I like those and I don’t like making works cited lists. :) First, what language does the staff use for skins? Maybe UMAs came from them? The Kickstarter uses the word “customs” in regards to the skins (Kickstarter, 2013) The first skin submission competition for the festival, Undel used the word “customs” to refer to the skins users made (Undel, 2013). Note that the current competitions and even the tooltip for blueprints use the word “customs” as well. The blueprint page even uses “user-created” and not “user-made” so "user made" must have stemmed from the community as a more casual way to say user-created.

Results Let’s rule out some approaches that may give an easy answer. I tried to use the FR search tool to see if I could find the first use of UMA, however it only indexes up to one year of results or 100 pages, whichever you hit first when you sort by age so I wasn’t able to glean anything from that. Note that I tried to stick with UMA as the search term because use of UMS just overlaps too largely with the sound “um” when I use the search bar, which also means that plurals are captured by FR’s search. I can also tell you that FR’s search lets you type in user-made or user made and it will pull up the same results.

Then I tried google where I used the key terms site:https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/ "UMA" with a time range from 2013 to 2014. It looked promising at first because it looked like there was an instance as early as 2013. When I actually checked it though, it pulled up the most recent use of UMA in the forums in the first two hits as seen by the timestamps of May 2023 next to it. Google indexed when the forum board was established instead of the individual threads for this search. I dropped the time range and just checked what results it would pull up.

There was an individual thread called the FR Abbreviations Guide that got pulled up. It was made in 2014 and includes both UMA and UMS in the definition list. However, UMA was added to the page in 2020 (FR Abbreviations, 2020).

I decided to just look back at some of the early Skins and Accents posts to see what language they use. It was pretty interesting, where many people just used skins and accents. There is no distinction yet, likely because there weren’t any festival or coliseum skins that users could submit yet! There were still categories though, since blueprints were so expensive, some artists offered “premades” which were skins people could buy for a certain cost on top of providing a blueprint. There were also options for “ghost artists” where the artist could design a custom skin but pass the psd files to the patron for them to distribute instead of the artist selling them instead. “Customs” was also another common term, where it works the same as it does today. People commission an artist to design a unique skin for them. The majority of skins on the market right now would be considered premades back then, which makes sense as it lets the artist have their creative liberties and will allow like minded users to support them.

I was clearly a fool to think UMAs were old because with the skins and accent threads research, I decided to comb through my forum posts to see what I ended up using. I first used UM accents in 2016 since that is when I first started collecting them, then the last time I used it was in early 2018 because I started using UMA by early 2019. I have no posts between 2018 and 2019, but clearly there was a language shift for me that preceded the FR abbreviations update just a year later  (FR Abbreviations, 2020). I’m usually slow in the uptake so I decided to try and track down other forum boards besides the skin specific threads to see what terms were used.

As I was thumbing through the pages, I think I may have overestimated the age of UMA use popularity because I thought it started back in 2013-2014 since that is when the site first got started and I felt like UMA was such an old acronym. The General Skins and Accents Pinglist (GASP) started in 2016. I raked the first version for mentions of “UMA” and there was nothing ! The use of “UM skins” and “UM accents” was the norm (GASP, 2016; GASP V2.0, 2016; GASP v2.0, 2018). One of the first instances of UMAs being used in this thread was in 2018 (GASP, 2018). Can I do any better than 2018? It surely is an older term!

The accent trading hub was established in 2014, so chances are, there are some time points there! The results for “user made” predates “UM accents” by one year, and “UMA” by two years which were 2014, 2015, and 2016 respectively (Accents Trading Thread, 2023a; Accents Trading Thread 2023b; Accents Trading Thread 2023c). There were 14 pages of results for “user made”, 64 pages for “UM accents”, and 96 pages for “UMAs” from the accent trading hub thread. “UMA” was used by two people in 2016, then 5 pages worth of posts in 2017, then another 6 pages worth of posts in 2018, and it took off with 25 pages worth of posts in 2019. Clearly the language was developing around 2016 but exploded in popularity in 2018. This trend was similar in the UMA mentions in the skins and accents forum board. I used ctrl + f with UMA to see when it started regularly showing up in titles, and that was in 2018.

Discussion

According to the UMA searches in the discussion boards, do you know what cultural icon got a revival in the minds of mainstream media? Uma Thurman specifically because of Fall Out Boys who released a song with her name. And you know what Uma is like? UMA, User Made Accents. I’m not saying that Fall Out Boys planted the idea in our heads, but it’s quite the coincidence the song came out in 2015 and UMA as an acronym use started in 2016. In fact, when I searched the FR threads for UMA across the site, the early ones were Uma as a name and Uma referring to the song. The earliest mention of UMA that was actually relevant and broke containment from the skins and accents board was in 2017 in the tiny little questions thread asking what does UMA stand for. (tiny little questions, 2017).

I would like to say that while this user wasn’t the first to use it, they repeatedly popped up when I tried to see who used UMA the earliest. And that user is chocomonster, they showed up and consistently used UMAs in the forums since 2016. I’m saying they showed up in the bug reports, suggestions, dragon trading posts using “UMA”. They are definitely an early trendsetter for UMAs and repped it across the forums.

Popularity of UMA rose in 2018, you know what else got popular in 2018? Reselling UMAs to the secondary market. Typing in UMA in a title means you have more characters for other things. You know which artist got really popular in 2018? Ravenhearst. She has since changed her username but I will keep Ravenhearst for the search results legacy.

I know correlation doesn’t equal causation, but her skins were massively popular when she was regularly releasing skins for the highly rendered wings and sky scenes where there were skins sold in the 100s range. I looked at the game database for Ravenhearst’s earliest skin which was #24078 and compared it to my hoard of festival skins as a year benchmark. The Flameforger’s event in 2017 has a skin with #23992 while the Crystalline Gala in 2018 had a skin #25608. She started her night sky niche around skin #25001 so it lines up with the 2017 - 2018 timeline.

A stronger communal identity was also created with groups like accent addicts anonymous in 2017 or aaa for short, which is a group of collectors and artists who came together to make collaborative skins. An early "big hit" for them were the wildclaw male line where the participating artists made flower/halo/wings skins that were super popular at the time but also being hated on by the vocal minority. If you weren't around for the bustle, one example that came out would be Invidious by fenmori or Bewitched by Churyu. Some examples of the aaa's recent work would be like aaa. Amanita Ambrosia where three artists take turns, one sketches the concept, one lines the skin and one renders it .The increase of more people interested in buying skins and artists flexing their creativity allowed for a great burst of interest that has carried on to this day.

Conclusions Can I pinpoint who first used user made accents, UM accents, UMAs? No, but, I can guess that it was sometime between 2015-2016. It is clear that language has evolved in small ways right under our noses and that human memories are terrible as I thought we were using UMAs since the very beginning. The customization and uniqueness of the UMA system on FR is such a joy and I can't wait to see how the community changes in the future!

If someone wants to try to tackle who first said UMA, be my guest and let me know! My earliest mention of UMA was October 2016 in the Accent Trading Hub  Accents Trading Thread 2023c.

In conclusion, I love umas and will probably look at their sales and trends more.

[molagboop]

Metroid Dread Model Deep Dive: Raven Beak, Part 1

You know him, you've (probably) fought him, he's a staple of this blog...

It's Raven Beak! We're finally doing this.

Today, I'm providing a comprehensive look into Raven Beak's model. I probably won't have enough space to cover the entire thing, as the image limit for Tumblr posts is capped at 30, but we're starting with the head and working our way down.

The rest of this post is under the cut for your convenience.

Navigation:

Fullbody turnaround and helmet meshes

Helmet details

Shoulders, arms, and hands

Arm cannon

Wings and torso

Legs and feet

BONUS: Naked head

Raven Beak is referred to as chozocommander in the files: his textures are abbreviated to "commander[whatever]" in the files, with the name of a mesh or general purpose specified in the square brackets (commanderbody, etc). Raven Beak appears in three maps: Hanubia, Artaria, and Itorash. As Metroid Dread's cutscenes are executed in-engine, his model can be extracted from the map packages for the aforementioned regions.

There are several models linked to him during cutscenes that aren't part of his base model: chozocommander_arm, chozocommander_face (appears in Hanubia and after the mask breaks in Itorash), chozocommander_wing_r (which he rips off during the cutscene preceding phase 3 of his fight). chozocommander_arm is a more detailed version of his left arm that exists in the actor files for both Artaria and Itorash, the two zones where a cutscene involves the camera getting close to his arm while he chokes Samus out.

With that out of the way, our first order of business is his helmet, and there's a lot to look at.

Here's a list of all his meshes. We'll go over each part as they become relevant. Relevant to our current objective is helmethead, helmethead_clean, helmethead_cinematic, and brokenmask.

You'll notice that each of these have two meshes to their name. The names that are lower on the hierarchy are the actual helmets, and those higher on the hierarchy are overlays for the eyes to make them glow.

Here's what that looks like without scene lighting:

With the overlay...

... and without the overlay.

helmethead_clean features Raven Beak's helmet without the crack from the Super Missile: this is what we see during the opening cutscene in Artaria.

helmethead bestows the crack over the right eye.

Of all the helmet meshes, the cinematic version is the cleanest and most detailed: this one is used during parts of cutscenes where the camera zooms in on Raven Beak's face.

I'll be using this model to explore the smaller details.

All helmet meshes except the broken mask have their own textures: the broken mask uses the basic helmethead's textures.

brokenmask (left) and brokenmask01 (right). These are used to animate the sequence where the helmet breaks in the post-boss fight cutscene.

Earlier, I mentioned that the cinematic mesh is cleaner than the others. The textures and geometry on the cinematic mesh are crisper and more defined because it's used when we want to get a good look at his face: you don't need to see every plane of his beak in high definition during combat.

Here's a closeup of each primary model for the helmet to demonstrate. From left to right, we have helmethead_clean, helmethead, and helmethead_cinematic. helmethead_clean appears to have the lowest clarity in its textures. helmethead is passable, but the planes on helmethead_cinematic are leagues cleaner: there's very little artifacting (the janky crunch affiliated with lower quality jpgs), the colors appear richer, and effort was made to define the negative space.

Look at the owl-shaped crest in the center of the headdress (helmethead left, helmethead_cinematic right): there are darker lines between the arch behind the head, and care was put into darkening the spaces between the eyebrows, around the eyes, etc.

I've already hit the image limit, so we're going to examine the details on his face even further in another post: I've waited so long to share all the little differences between these helmet meshes in excruciating detail, so I suppose it's only fitting that our first entry is more about that than it is showing off the finer details of the headdress and mask themselves.

I would not have been able to dive this deep a year ago when the image limit was capped at 10. I hope they increase it further so I can inflict you with more model facts.

I am working on the second post. The navigation section at the top of the post will be updated as things go live.

[liannelara-dracula]

Hi, can we have the diaboy's handwriting?

Hi Love,

Totally, this sounds so cool. For more explanation of if cursive is old or not you can refer to the comments.☺️😊

-Liannelara

P.S. For fun here is admins hand writing

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Prompt

Requests are open

Rules

Warning:

*certain words have been/may be censored for Tumblr guidelines.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

The Diaboys Handwriting hcs

Sakamaki

Shu

Fancy and kinda dark academia aesthetic but is definitely not readable to most of us.

It's in cursive of course cause he's archaic.

And he's pretty lazy, he like barely holds his pen.

He mostly writes in Latin that way none of his brothers understand but sometimes he writes in his demon language.

Although with all the tech now he literally does the voice audio type or anything he needs to write down.

It's so rare to see this lazy ass with a pencil in his hand lol.

Reiji

Its crazy but in cursive it is beautiful, like great penmanship.

But in print, Reiji shows a completely different side of himself.

He never writes in print because he finds that people may think he's vulnerable.

Reiji only writes his most personal thoughts in print and its because he never shares with anyone and can't be himself except for on paper.

So only sadness and angry are written in print.

It is canon that he once held a diary when he was younger so it wouldn't be surprising if he writes his feelings in print. I mean he's stressed.

If he had a lover he writes in print because he wants her to know this side.

Cursive is what he uses when he's doing chemistry or a grocery list.

Laito

The left is how he writes in his demon language its more secretive and mysterious. He hardly uses it tbh.

The writing on the right is usual, normal print/cursive writing.

It's not super fancy or plain.

It is plain but with a little flare.

His writing is pretty neat and clean.

Although he doesn't write a lot he does like to write about his sexual escapades.

Kanato

He alternates between the two.

The left is when he is more focused and maybe upset. But not mad.

If he was mad, he'd write everything in caps.

Although the right is when he is calm since it's cursive.

He uses both interchangeably tho.

What's actually nice about his handwriting is not that it's simple or because it's bold or small. It's what Kanato writes.

I seriously think he writes poems and he is really good at it.

I mean any girl could fall in love with how this man writes, especially if he writes about you.

And he has such a nice voice when he talks about his lover/love interest.

Ayato

It's a mess, he prefers to type.

He makes spelling and grammar mistakes all the time but he uses a pen.

He literally cannot read his writing sometimes and asks Reiji if he knows and his brother just gets really mad at him.

He crosses out so much stuff.

And he writes in any spot.

He doesn't stay on the line, the letters are everywhere.

It's super plain and he never writes in cursive because he literally does know what is the top or bottom of the paper after writing it.

Subaru

Very messy and always in ink.

There are so many scribbles and ink smudges.

He always writes in print because his cursive is unreadable.

He doesn't stay on the lines, his writing moves up and down.

It's very careless and free.

He writes very big.

And has a hard time reading his handwriting sometimes.

Kino

Different and kinda neat but has a lot of crossed-out parts.

Sometimes capitalizes things for no reason.

He can write in cursive but wouldn't choose to.

Although his writing style is unique considering the font.

He is also part of the ink-only squad.

He also likes to abbreviate a lot of stuff.

Is able to keep his writing in a steady line for the most part.

Mukami

Ruki

If he's presenting it's neat, if its for his own things its sloppier.

But still, no soul has ever been able to read it.

He does it on purpose.

Kou has always wondered what it says but he's never been able to tell if it's even in English or in the demon language. Like he has no clue.

Ruki does this in case something thinks about snooping.

He probably does write in his free time, and honestly, he writes a lot. I bet he has so many journals that are filled over the years about his life as a vampire.

So it's hundreds of years of the world all in these books of his.

It's honestly fascinating but no one can read them.

Though if he had a lover he may open up to them about it and share what is in there.

But he might be a tease and lie about what's in there to get her to laugh and throw a pillow at her.

Kou

Okay now although the content at the end of this letter (left) is yandere that's not the point.

I seriously feel he writes in a bunch of fonts and caps/lowercase just cause he's everywhere.

And this is usually how he writes to his fans because they think it "cute"

The right shows his usual handwriting tbh.

It takes a second or two to understand.

But it's not too bad.

He hardly uses his handwriting for anything tho.

Puts hearts on "I"s

Yuma

Messy, always messy.

He is just so sloppy.

You'd think that because he has good hands in a garden he'd have nice handwriting, but you're wrong.

He connects letters with each other, and he has spaces, eraser smudges, and even crossed-out words.

Although his paper is not clean and you can read the writing, well for the most part.

He does have a nice signature though.

Azusa

He has really neat handwriting.

Like it's easy to read, it's neat, and it's not super big.

But there's only one problem.

His papers are always ripped or crumbled, torn, worn out, or have watermarks.

Like there isn't one time where the paper is nice.

He seems like he doesn't know how to do cursive or rather he forgets.

He probably writes relatively small.

Tsukinami

Carla

Fancy cursive and then regular cursive.

He's never used print in his entire 3,000+ years lol.

If he is writing a very formal letter to someone important he uses the writing on the left.

If he is writing for himself or to his brother he uses the writing on the right.

Either way, no one can deny that he has good penmanship.

His signature is also really elegant.

He has his own signature style in cursive.

Something most cannot do.

Shin

Like his brother it is in cursive and very fancy.

The left is how he writes in a more formal setting because it is easier to read.

He always writes really neatly surprisingly, it's the founder prince in him.

It's always in a steady line too, you'd think he'd measure where he wanted to put the handwriting.

The right is his more loose and less legible writing. He uses this if his letter is informal and it is to someone he is comfortable with or has known for a while.

He doesn't really write in print unless its for school and he wants to blend in.

Because he's supposed to be a British exchange student it doesn't surprise me if most of his notes are in shorthand.

I think once he learned that no one uses cursive he decided to not use it that much and stuck to print.

Which probably looks something like this.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

˗ˏˋ 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 ˎˊ˗ ©𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔~Present

[featherwingfae]

So the nonhuman theme of the day that I've been seeing on the Internet seems to be self doubt both due to internal and external influences.

My response to this theme is this. You are who you are. And no one can tell you who you are but you. (The rest of the post is pretty much just this^^ in way more detail than necessary. You have been warned lol. Buckle up this is gonna be a long one. Literally took all day to write 😅)

Most of us live in a society where we've been told since infancy who we are are and what we must be, and if we don't fit in the predesignated boxes then there must be something wrong with us and we just need to be forced into a box. But just think about the vastness of life for a second. From macro to micro there's just so much to everything it's breathtaking. Everything is layered. Why should one being's existence be any different. There is what is seen and then there is everything else. Some thing's don't need to be understood by others, because they are not there for others. They are simply there. Wether we understand them or not. And that in itself (I think) is quite lovely.

I am Fae. Not just because of ______. I am Fae because it is simply what I am. It's what feels right.

It's ok to just exist. It's ok to live without ever fitting into boxes or labels. And if you find a label or box that fits you, that's ok too. It's your existence. Do what makes you happy. I've also found that sometimes, finding that feeling that you fit somewhere, comes first and the reasons why come after. Be patient. I know it's maddening sometimes when you've got a million questions bumping about in your head, or even just one or two burning ones, but life is a journey. A mystery to uncover through experiences.

I could give you a whole laundry list of reasons why I can call myself Fae. But at the end of the day, the only reason I need is that it feels right. I don't need to act like the stereotypical Fae (from folklore, media etc), I don't need to have magical experiences, I don't need memories. Keep in mind that your nonhuman identity does not need to match anyone else's.

If you're a Fae who loves technology and finds the modern age fascinating. Guess what? There's nothing wrong with that. (I LOVE Minecraft 😁 Though that may or may not have to do with the fact that I get to fly around and build whatever I want from nothing. Yes I'm obsessed with creative mode 😅 I usually get bored in survival)

If you're a Therian who's never enjoyed being on all fours or who doesn't like gear. It doesn't make you any less Therian. Do what makes you happy 😊.

If you're some ancient entity and you use an ungodly (hehe) amount of emojis and/or abbreviations (ex. Lol, omg, etc) it doesn't make you any less ancient or awesome. Do what you enjoy. You are too old to not be having as much fun as you can experience. I'm also an ancient creature, you really think I want to spend my time not doing what makes the happy chemicals 😊✨👁️🪽😁.

If you're an Alien who's not obsessed with space stuff. That's ok. Human portrayals probably don't do it justice anyway, and there's so many other things to be interested in. Like have you seen mushrooms? Those funky little guys come in so many varieties it's absolutely delightful 😊🍄✨.

If you're a vampire who can't stand the sight of blood. Don't worry about it. I can almost guarantee you're not alone (plus there's a lot of different types of vampires. If you know you are/were definitely sanguine then you're still valid 😊).

If you're fictionkin and you're absolutely nothing like your fictionkin type/character. That's ok 😊. People often change with their experiences, it doesn't make you any less yourself.

That last one applies to most nonhumans identities in general honestly 😅.

If you're an angel that doesn't/didn't have big feathery wings. You are still an angel. The universe is filled with too much color and variety for me to believe that all ______ have the same or very similar designs. I've never heard of an angel with dragonfly or beetle wings. That doesn't mean they don't exist 🙃.

You can be a plant who loves salads, a placekin who hates going outside, an objectkin that doesn't use it/it's pronouns or is super expressive, a vampire who adores sunbathing or just sunlight in general, a carnivore that doesn't like meat, an avian that's afraid of flying or heights, a demon with a heart of gold, a deity with social anxiety and/or low self esteem, an herbivore that loves going hunting, a dragon who prefers minimalism, an aquatic creature who doesn't like water, a void that's constantly overthinking, you can match all the known stereotypes for your nonhuman identity or none at all. You can have phantom shifts constantly or never get any, you can have countless identities, you can have just one, you can remember your past life/lives in detail or remember nothing at all, you can believe in past lives and souls, or not, your identity can be psychological, physical, spiritual, etc.

It's s your identity. No one else's. Just because you choose to share yourself or your identity with someone else does not mean they own you or your identity. It is, was and always shall be, yours. (Btw please please please, be careful who you share your nonhuman identity with. Not everyone is going to "get it". And not everyone is going to accept it. Stay safe, mentally, physically, emotionally etc.)

They say names have power. They also say not all things are what they seem. Whatever your nonhuman identity looks like, only you can know what it truly is. Understand that I am not saying that the appearance of one's nonhuman identity should be dismissed altogether, especially when one is still questioning. I am saying, that we shouldn't rely solely upon appearances. If your nonhuman identity fits in the category of x as far as appearances go but x just doesn't feel like it fits, then chances are, you're not x, or there's more to it than just x. I've known I was Fae since right around 2019. However I doubted myself for a long time because as far as I knew Fae were "supposed to have insect wings" and on top of having big feathery wings, I have a lot of them. In fact many of my nonhuman features could be considered angelic. However I've never felt particularly comfortable identifying as an angel. It just never felt like the right fit. It took awhile but eventually after I'd already accepted that my "angelic features" didn't make me any less Fae. I remembered why I had those features to begin with, and it all just clicked into place.

It's ok to not have all the answers or even the correct answers right away. Life is experiences. From moment to moment you are who you are. Things may change, new truths may be revealed, that doesn't make you or your identity any less real. You are whoever you are right now. Wether that is someone/something from everything you have ever been or ever shall be or just one thing right now, unconnected to anything else. You are not fake for changing. You're not fake for not changing. Most have doubts about themselves about all sorts of things. To the point where it seems like doubt is just part of the human world experience (not saying it's only a human world experience, just that everyone here seems to doubt themselves about something or other) and perhaps working through our doubts is a lesson of this place, then again maybe not 🤷. In the end what you believe is up to you😊.

Now, I'm not expecting that this single post from a total stranger will erase all your doubts. Not at all. I didn't write it to erase doubt, but rather to give it a little bit of something to fight against. To plant just one more seed in the hearts and minds of others who might need it or whom it might help in any way. This post is far from the only one out there, fighting doubt in its many forms and faces. And what I've said has already been said in many times and ways. But it's my take and not everything will click with everyone. If this post helps even just one being, then it has served it's purpose. Each and every single one or plural of us is unique in our own ways. And I truly believe that's one of the most wonderful things about life as a whole.

If you've read this far, I apologize if I got a bit carried away and made this post longer than necessary but it means a great deal to me and things that matter to me are very difficult to "sum up" 😅. And if you follow me. I warn you now that most of my posts will probably be a bit lengthy if not extremely so.

And now my dear creatures, crawlers, beasts, beauties, hellions, heavenlies (no I don't care that that's not a word it is now lol), magicals, marvels, wonders, wanderers, wildlings, winged things, whimsies, and whatsits (and everything beyond and in between) I wish upon you a most wonderful day/night. May you always know/remember that your existence makes the world a more magical place. 🌍✨ (And in my opinion we could use all the magic we can get 😊)

👁️🪽✨🍄🍀🪻🌱🥀❄️🌟✨

Till next time.

[scarletttries]

Kendall Roy x Age-Gap! Reader Headcanons:

Pairing: Kendall Roy (Succession) x Reader

Author’s Note: I've had a few requests around headcanons for Kendall Roy and a younger reader, so please enjoy these few thoughts. Fellow succession fans please send me more of your Roy family thoughts! 😊

- Despite recently celebrating his 40th birthday in questionable style, Kendall considers himself a young soul. Ever since he was a kid, he's always been in rooms full of middle aged professions, rather than the fun peers his own age he craved, and he's never quite grown out of that need to feel young.

- So when you come into his life, working hard at one of the many charities he's chosen to support in his efforts to rehabilitate his image, he feels a new type of excited affection.

- Kendall has to make you think he's cool. It doesn't matter what it takes, your approval becomes the sole focus of his day immediately. But in a contrast to the way he's had to live a lot of his life, he finds you warm up to him more and more the less of an act he's putting on. As he starts to share his true thoughts and feelings he sees you start to enjoy spending time with him more, putting in the effort to make plans with him without seeming to care about the mile-long reputation he drags everywhere behind him.

- Ken is obsessed with going to the latest clubs and dive bars with you and your friends, knowing anywhere you are will be infinitely cooler than Stewy's latest list. He loves being able to splash cash and get you whatever you want, but it also means the world to him when you sneak off to buy him a drink, even if it's the worst one dollar shot he's ever tasted in his privileged life.

- If you're into social media, prepare to help Kendall set up his own account despite everyone at Waystar begging him not to. I'm thinking a Tik Tok full of him dancing around on-trend, showing off his ridiculous life and trying as hard as possible to get you involved in all his videos.

- The exception to that is that no matter how many times you explain, Kendall has never once grasped the concept of BeReal - every time he spends forever trying to set up the perfect shot, and every time he's confused when he misses his window.

- Kendall definitely still texts like it's the 2000's - expect unnecessary abbreviations, excessive emojis and hashtags thrown at the end of messages for no reason other than entertaining you. Now that Kendall knows about dick pics, it won't be long until he's begging for pictures of you too (respectfully of course.)

- Kendall would never admit to not understanding a meme you showed him, desperately image-searching and cornering Humphry until she reluctantly tries to give him enough context to send a witty response.

- If you're into keeping up with new music, expect Kendall to demand you make him regular playlists to keep him up to date, adding his own recommendations proudly. If you prefer things a bit more classic then Kendall will feel incredibly validated by your exceptional taste.

- Kendall would start off a little self-conscious about dating someone younger, feeling like a stereotype of every powerful man he's ever met, and worried about the power dynamic being doubly-off between his age and his family status. But all those feelings would fade as he grew to realise that he is having so much fun. For the first time in his life he could just be himself, and be accepted. He wasn't overthinking and strategising with every breath, he gets to just really enjoy all the time he spends with you.

[beta-lactam-allergic]

Hey I just wanted to say thank you so much for your support of the Jewish community, it really means a lot to us (any time, but especially now).

I noticed that you said you're an Indigenous Australian, and I was wondering if there's any ways we can help support you and your community? (Indigenous Australians in general, or your specific nation) I'm not Australian, but I know y'all have definitely suffered discrimination and worse at the hands of the government and society (and still are).

I honestly wasn't expecting thanks. It seemed like the bare minimum, it should be the bare minimum. The fact that it isn't & is rare enough that you felt the need to thank me is more an indictment on the failures of most people in my opinion. I admit, it does feel nice to be thanked though.

If I had donated to multiple Israeli charities I would feel worthy of praise. But the only one I have donated to is Ogen's "Swords of Iron Emergency Economic Relief Fund". I donated about $100USD (they didn't give the option to donate in AUD).

If you still want to help my people than I would suggest donating to the Aboriginal Legal Service (for Aboriginal people needing legal support in NSW & ACT), North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, abbreviated as NAAJA (same as the Legal Service but for NT), ALSWA (literally just the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia), The Fred Hollows Foundation (it's owned by white people, but it does good work, & without it the blindness rate for us would be double what it is), or one of the many Aboriginal Medical Services. Each community has their own AMS with their own names (the AMS abbreviation comes from the very first such organisation, AMS Redfern, which is the one you will most likely find if you do a Google search, it serves the Aboriginal community in Sydney, which isn't where I'm from), with widely varying level of effectiveness depending on management. The one servicing people in my area is one of the less effective ones, though most of us rely on it for lack of alternatives.

Once again, most of us can't afford either legal representation or visits to the GP, so donating to an AMS or an aboriginal legal service will help most of the us. I actually have some money, so I don't use the local AMS, instead going to see a GP who mostly services the LGBTQ community.

Calling out antisemites when they are being antisemitic is just the right thing to do. From a moral perspective, letting people victim-blame Israel for the war Hamas started is wrong. Letting people peddle falsehoods & antisemitic libel without calling it out was the same as condoning it. I saw people celebrate the October 7th pogrom outside the Sydney Opera House, long before the Israelis were able to launch counter-attacks on Gaza. I saw people on this site act like Hamas were angels when those murderers bragged & posted the footage of their atrocities for the world to see. I couldn't stay silent as these terrorists were praised after murdering people, raping people, kidnapping people. I couldn't stay silent when people denied these crimes happened despite the overwhelming evidence, despite Hamas not only admitting to it, but proclaiming their desire to do it again & again until there were no more Jews to attack. To stay silent was at best condoning those who would deny what happened.

That alone was enough for me to pick a side, but that's just emotions. If emotions hadn't moved me, my logical side would have still intervened to back Israel & condemn antisemitism.

Defending Israel's right to exist is just basic logical consistency. Even without the moral component of the fact that Hamas committed atrocities on October 7th & are proud of it, I have other principles. Admittingly, some of these started pretty self-serving but applying these principles consistently rather than only when it benefits me leads to altruism, so here we are.

I was going to write the list of principles, but it's a very long list, so that's a separate document. In the meanwhile, I'll summarise two of the parts of the principles list affecting my POV here (though not the only parts, they're the easiest parts to point out).

In essence, I consider the Jewish people to have a better claim to being the native people of Israel/West Bank than the Palestinian Arabs do. I know that some Palestinian Arabs have Jewish ancestry, but I consider indigeneity to be as much about culture as blood, so if they fully adopted the invader's culture & identify as Arabs, they voided any claims to indigeneity they once had as far as I'm concerned. Yeah the first 9 points in the principles list were about native sovereignty. I still think a two-state solution is the best chance for a long-term peace, but that's pragmatism over the fact that the Arabs are there now & aren't going to leave, not an endorsement of their claims to indigeneity.

In addition, I'm a transwoman, not straight (bisexual, not sure where on Kinsey scale) & an atheist. Hamas would kill me if I was somewhere they could reach me for being myself regardless of anything else I did or didn't do. It's just logical to back the side that won't kill me for being a queer non-believer & which actually gives us rights. Actually LGBT rights also made up several more points in the principle lists.

Basically I was locked in to supporting Israel on basic morality & on ideological consistency. I don't see the point in thanking me, but it does feels nice that you did thank me so I guess thanks in return.

[neurosharky]

How far do you have to go? - ASPD Recovery

This post will only contain my personal opinion and experience. It may not be applicable to other people with ASPD and may likewise be relatable for people who do not have it. This discussion is for educational purposes only and is not something you need to agree with, just something that might be beneficial to think about and reflect on.

Abbreviations:

ASPD = Antisocial Personality Disorder

ASPD is a really complicated condition to talk about, as many people have extreme opinions about it, have only heard about it in the context of stigma, or are absolutely not ready to see it in the context of a disability, that the person having it is negatively impacted by and cannot change entirely.

The number one thing that people like to tell me is that I should go to therapy (which I do and am open about doing) instead of trying to normalize this condition on here and that the only "good" ASPDers are the recovered ones.

That got me thinking and I asked myself: What does a recovered ASPDer look like? How far do I have to go in order to be what you'd call recovered? How much of my symptoms and struggles am I allowed to have and at which point does it cross a line? What can I put under the category of "I simply cannot do that because I have a disability" and what do I really need to somehow learn to do?

While I'll not be able to answer all of these questions in detail, as the space in an instagram post is not particularly huge, I do want to try to talk about this a little:

ASPD recovery is deeply personal and individual. Which symptoms one should work on and how far this work goes, does not have a general definition or collective aggreement. There are people in this world that think you should never show any signs of aggression, there are people who think showing them is okay as long as you don't hurt people, there are people who think hurting people is okay as long as you apologize after and theres people who say that simply showing symptoms and hurting people with them is the okay thing to do.

For every ASPD symptom there are millions of opinions as to what is okay and what the end goal should be, which is why I will not be able to give you a definite list of therapy goals to aim for. There is no inherent all applicable correct solution for this, it is individual!

This also means that there is never truly going to be a "recovered ASPDer" in the eyes of other people and that no matter what my recovery looks like, there will always be someone who tells me I need to take it further.

While I can try to appease all of their wishes, there is a baseline of ASPD symptoms and characteristics, that I cannot get rid off. I cannot learn emotional empathy, I cannot have the same level of emotions as those considered "normal", I cannot learn to feel remorse, I cannot rewire my own brain, it is stuck that way and will always be.

I can however work on how I treat other people, I can be honest about my symptoms and warn people about what will happen so they dont take it personally, I can unlearn some ASPD related views & beliefs, I can try and use my symptoms for good, I can ask people to be my moral guides or impulse control, I can have someone look over my text messages and emails before I send them to make sure they are polite, I can learn to apologize quicker and in a way that works for me, I can learn to find healthy outlets for my aggression, I can place myself under supervision so I don't break the law, I can find my own definitions for bonds and figure out how relationships may work for me, I can find situations in which I can give away control so the things that I usually don't do will get done etc.

There are many things that I can do in order to reduce the harm I cause with my symptoms and for me, thats what recovery is. I don't believe in ever being able to live without causing any harm, as some people will simply be "harmed" by me having a differently wired brain. I don't believe that I'll ever be able to get rid of my symptoms enough to not meet criteria, as ASPD does disable me a lot and many things are influenced by other disabilities to a degree that will never let me be a picture perfect example of a "recovered ASPDer".

In short: I draw a line between "this is my disability that I can't change and if you interact with me, this is what you consensually & knowingly are interacting with" and "this is behaviour influenced by my disability that I can change and try to control so it does not cause harm and that is what I am responsible for".

I do this with entirely selfish intentions and not always successfully, but I do it. I reduce harm that way, I contribute less negativity to the world and people feel good around me, which in turn causes them to be nice to me, so everbody wins.

I am not aiming to be like a non ASPDer. I am not aiming for an existence without my symptoms, because thats impossible. I am simply practising harm reduction and am aiming to get what I want from this life and what will make me happy. If people can't deal with me like this, thats chill, but also their problem and not mine! I'll not force them to be around me, but if they decide to be, they will have to accept my disability. Thats how far I'll go, because thats what is realistic for me and that is good enough.

first posted on my insta account (same @)

[flightfoot]

Not sure if you've been asked this before, but can you recommend some good Kwami swap fics?

Sure! I dunno whether you just mean Adrien and Marinette sapping kwamis, so I'll list anyone using kwamis that are different from their normal canon ones.

---

Auspicious by The_Rabbit42

Entry #6 for AU April 2023: Reverse-Crush Kwami-Swap Adrien is quiet and reserved whenever he’s not consumed by stress. And between extracurriculars and modeling and his responsibilities as Mister Bug, he’s often stressed. He appreciates his kitten, but he loves his bright and outgoing classmate. Not that she knows that. Marinette’s parents have always allowed her a good deal of independence, but she’s felt her confidence skyrocket since getting Plagg. Simply being Lady Noire allows her to be more flirty and free. She likes her friends, but she loves her stoic and heroic partner. Not that he knows that.

This is just a lovely fic that’s exactly what it says on the tin. I like how Rabbit goes into what Lady Noire’s and Mister Bug’s dynamic is like here especially.

---

Thanks, But No by @pauliestorylover

For every miraculous that Fu cupped in his palms, an image of the same blue-eyed girl flashed through his mind. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was born to hold the miraculous—she resonated with every single one of them far better than even the late Celestial Guardian, and it was Fu’s duty as the last Guardian not to allow such talent to slip through his hands.

Too bad Marinette wasn’t on the same page.

Or; au where Master Fu keeps throwing miraculous at Marinette hoping one will stick, Marinette goes around handing out miraculous like candy, and Wayzz has never seen anything so ridiculous in his millennia-long lifespan.

This one’s fun. Everyone except for Adrien ends up with a different Miraculous than in canon, and it’s really interesting to see how they all adapt. Marinette’s thorough noping out is pretty funny too, and there’s some sweet bits of Adrino and Alyanette in here!

---

Crepes and Petals by @fruitdragon1a

Alya and Marinette have been friends ever since that fateful first day in collège. Scarabella and Lady Noire have been friends ever since they started fighting crime together at the age of fourteen. Alya and Lady Noire? Their friendship is newer-- and Alya wishes it were more.

---

instant familiarity by @fragileizy

“We must’ve told each other everything,” Adrien whispers. “I couldn’t imagine being able to take photos with you like this and not fall in love with you.” Marinette’s face goes red again. “You know? In some really weird way, I’m really glad that the two of us lost our memories together. It’s not so bad falling in love with someone you care about for a second time.”

---

theory bored by @14muffinz

You’re not supposed to theorise about who your partner is, Tikki had scolded, glaring at Luka as he continued to map out his entire theory, abbreviating as many miraculous-related names as he could feasibly remember. To be fair, it’s a lot, so it’s not like this would be much if anyone were to get their hands on it. He’d sighed, capped his marker, and turned around as though he was going to clean up the board. And then, because Tikki unfortunately taught him just how stubborn he could get if he really wanted to, he calls for his transformation while facing the other way. [OR: Ladybug Luka, Black Cat Juleka, and a reveal.]

---

The Unluckiest Cat In Paris by @aidanchaser

Mister Bug has always been a hero, and his partner Lady Noire has always stood by his side--until he has to face a future where he betrayed Paris and his partner is trying to kill him. Kwami Swap AU - Chatte Blanche

---

Down on Her Luck by Proper_Prose

Exhausted from her most recent Akuma (which she most definitely did not cause), Chloe has a heart to heart moment with her kwami. Hopefully it goes better than the other times.

---

The Cat’s Out of the Purse by The_Rabbit42

Adrien just took the ring off to be safe. Plagg just got bored and wanted to annoy Tikki. Rose just opened her purse and SURPRISE! Ladybug just wants to get the ring back to her partner.

This was a fun fic, never seen Rose and Plagg interact like this before! It’s a treat getting more Rose and Plagg focus in general of course, but I really like their relationship here. Plagg’s really good with his wielders in general, and I love how he emphasizes that while he needs to get back to Chat Noir, while Rose is transformed with him, she’s as much her own wielder as he is. It reminds me of how he acted with Zoe, Plagg’s just a treasure XD

---

as luck would have it by @silver-hibiscus

It’s Adrien’s birthday, and there’s an akuma attack. Luckily, Ladybug and Chat Noir are there to save the day! Even if they’re not the heroes that we’re familiar with… Not so much a kwami swap as an another au entirely.

Same title as one of my own fics, funnily enough! Though entirely different premise. This is a Gabenath fic, with Gabriel as Chat Noir and Nathalie as Ladybug, complete with a lovesquare and some unspecified other person as Hawk Moth. In this version, Gabriel and Emilie had some terrible fights and were separated, with Gabriel realizing along the way that he’d been a distant father and working to rectify that, he’s a pretty decent person here. I could actually kind of see this being a feasible path Gabriel could have gone down, if he wasn’t so desperate to revive Emilie and hadn’t gone so far to try to distance himself from who he was and where he came from back before he met Emilie and started changing to fit in with the upper class.

---

Fortississimo by @azuriteartist

Juleka and Luka are the Ladybug and Black Cat holders, but a fearful akuma requires them to ask for help from a new source.

---

Scarlet Fever by @chronicallylatetotheparty

Papillon Écarlate has managed the impossible. He's akumatized Marinette. Now with an army of supervillains and no Ladybug to stop him victory seems inevitable. Unless Adrien can stop him. But will he be enough when his own mentor doubts him?

[mjunhinged]

Radical Feminism - Getting Started

Hi there, and welcome! A lot of young women find themselves lost when first identifying themselves as RadFems, and this post aims to diminish that. I will be summarizing the main ideas of radical feminism and attaching resources below. My asks are always open, so please never hesitate to reach out if you have questions!

📖Definition

The internet defines radical feminism as follows:

"Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation."

While that definition is somewhat broad, I would say that it is fairly accurate. Radical feminists believe in a complete restructure of the current system, into one that does not unjustly favor and prioritize men.

🗝️Key Ideas

~Female solidarity before everything else.

~A woman is defined as an adult human female. Women are oppressed because of our sex.

~Radical feminism is for ALL women, regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexuality, or nationality.

~Gender roles, and gender as a whole, serve only to oppress women.

~Bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom are human rights.

~The sex industry is an entity that rapes, abuses, and objectifies women. Sex workers deserve liberation.

~Modern pornography encourages the abuse and rape of women, and is therefore immoral.

(I almost certainly missed some ideas here. This is by no means an exclusive list, just main ideas that are common amongst RadFems).

🗒️Subsets of Radical Feminism

Radical feminists are not a monolith, and even within this political ideology you will find offshoots. Some of these include (but are not limited to) gender critical feminism, socialist and Marxist feminism, black feminism, and lesbian feminism.

🗣️Commonly Used Abbreviations

These are some terms and abbreviations that I see commonly in RadFem circles, that may be confusing to newcomers.

TERF: Trans exclusive radical feminist. Often used as a derogative, a TERF is a radical feminist that does not believe that males can self identify as women.

TIF: Trans identifying female. A female who now identifies as a man.

TIM: Trans identifying male. A male who now identifies as a woman.

TRA: Trans rights activist.

👥Organizations

These are some organizations that align with RadFem ideology. Against, not an exhaustive list.

ICONS

The International Council on Women's Sports is one of the leading organizations fighting to keep women's sports free of sex based discrimination.

https://www.iconswomen.com

Women's Liberation Front

A gender critical RadFem organization that fights for women's sex based rights in legal and political spheres.

https://womensliberationfront.org

Women's Declaration International

Another radical feminist organization that advocates for women's sex based rights.

https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/about/

🩷Radblr

The Radblr (RadFems of Tumblr) community is growing everyday! Some common tags used by this community will be attached to this post.

[sarelcon]

EVA Foam Detailing

Since I’m currently working on a new panel for EVA foam detailing, sharing an abbreviated version of this so that I actually have some posts on my account. This is definitely not a complete list of every technique that could work, but these are ones that I have used before and found to be quite useful.

Sanding

This is probably the most well-known technique for detailing. A rotary tool is a must-have for working with EVA foam since it’s such a versatile tool. A basic sanding drum is great for beveling edges or carving in battle-damage and weathering. Grinding stone tips can smooth and even out sanding. Depending on how the tips are angled on the surface, you can create a hammered metal look, soft leather-like crinkles, or circles that look like screws or bolts. Sanding is also the single best way to clean up rough seams. Be sure to wear a respirator and eye protection when sanding since the foam will generate a LOT of dust. You will your workspace will get covered with dust.

Burning

A soldering iron or wood burning iron can be used for detailing. These hot tools can be used to engrave precise or geometric lines or can be used to create a feather texture. These can also be used to make more organic textures like wood grain. Very much like a rotary tool, a wood burning or soldering iron has endless possibilities only limited by creativity. The foam can be easily burned through, especially when it is a thinner sheet (1-3 mm). Burning foam creates very nasty fumes so be sure to work outside with a respirator on.

Heat stamping

This is a more subtle technique but can still be very useful. The most common application is using crumpled tin foil to make a leather texture. Once foam has been heated up evenly (using a heat gun), it can pick up the texture of anything pressed against it.

Google eyes

For a cheap and easy way to get rivets or bolts, try using googly eyes. Once these are painted over, they can blend in perfectly (just don’t shake the armor or prop because they will rattle). Though real rivets can be used (that is my next point), googly eyes are easy to install and are very easy to find in a variety of sizes. These can be glued down with pretty much any type of glue.

Metal hardware

If authenticity is the goal, eyelets and rivets can be installed into EVA foam. The key to these is leather hole punches. You can buy these either as a pack of hole punchers or as a single tool that operates a lot like a paper hole puncher. For real leather or fabric, these are normally hammered into the material to generate a hole. Because EVA foam is so soft, a twisting motion works better for cutting a hole without crushing the surface. Eyelets will require a bit of glue but rivets have two separate ends that snap together nicely without any adhesive. O rings and metal buckles can also help with making realistic-looking armor.

Foam clay

Foam clay is an obsession of mine, but I have to admit that it is a detailing material and only works for specific tasks. Foam clay is great for adding organic textures like bone, monster skin, etc. It can be free sculpted some, but is limited due to being such a soft clay. It sticks to EVA foam without any glue required. It can be sanded or burned once it is completely dry to add more texture. It can be used to fill deep gaps in seams. It can also be pressed into molds.

Pre-cut bevels and scales

With cosplay becoming more common and mainstream, specialty products are readily available. Bevels are pre-cut strips of foam that can be used as trim. They most often come as half-round or triangular though some shops may carry less common shapes like low profile triangles or trapezoids. Scales are another great pre-fabricated material that can be bought from cosplay supply shops. They are sometimes sold as individual scales in packs of 50-100 or as scales attached to a strip.

Primer manipulation

I just recently discovered this technique while making Gyurato’s blood sickles. When using a brush on primer that has a slower drying time, it can be manipulated while still wet. Pressing something like upholstery foam or a sponge into the primer can add additional rough texture. I also used plastic wrap to add creases and wrinkles to the surface of the dried foam clay. Another thing to keep in mind with primers is that the finish (satin, matte, gloss) can change out a paint looks. Picking the right sheen, like gloss when painting a metallic, can help with achieving the right effect.

Hopefully these tips give you some ideas for future projects.

[yukimomodivorce]

Unecessarily long explanation/analysis of what Re:vale's name might mean

I don't know how to start this ok so basically this post and these tags from @nitunio

inspired me to try to explain my own interpretation and I maybe accidentally spent several days looking into the etymology in the process and now I have more to say about it than I did initially. So I wanna start by outlining every potentially relevant definition/use of re and vale that I found and then I'm gonna talk about how some of them relate to Re:vale. This post has sections and a reference list baby let's go

1: Definitions of re

1. In music terms, re is the second syllabic note in a diatonic scale (do re mi etc.)

2. Re: specifically with a colon at the end is often used as an abbreviation of 'reply' (especially in emails) and/or as the Latin re meaning 'regarding' or 'in reference to'

3. In most cases, re as a prefix/affix indicates 'back' (as in return) or 'again' (as in repetition)

2: Definitions of vale

1. The Middle English vale (pronounced like veil) is another term for valley (derived from the Latin vallis), used in literary/poetic contexts or place names to mean:

A low stretch of land surrounded by hills or mountains, usually with a river flowing through it

The world or mortal life (figuratively and often with connotations of sorrow or hardship, such as in the phrase "vale of tears")

2. In most modern uses, the Latin vale means 'farewell' or 'goodbye', especially in the context of death (apparently this is really common in Australia? I've never heard it before)

3. This use is derived from valeō (or present infinitive valēre), which basically means 'be well/healthy' - so vale in Latin means 'goodbye' in the sense of wishing someone good health, safe travels etc.

Valeō/valēre can also denote strength and worth, and it's the root of both valour and value

4. From what I can find, vale in Spanish is mainly used as a colloquial term similar to 'OK' or 'cool' in English, but it's an inflection of valer which can mean 'valid' or 'worth' and is also derived from the Latin valēre! everything is connected :D

TLDR two main uses of vale both derived from Latin: vallis meaning valley and valeō meaning to be well/healthy/strong/worth

3: What 1 year and 4 months of being a Re:vale fan does to a man

Yuki and Momo's symbols are both repeats, and the two dots (resembling a colon) are what distinguish repeats from final barlines in sheet music (more of me rambling about their symbols here - it's also where the design on their rings comes from, which is something that I keep realising and then instantly forgetting about).

Considering this, I think that the most relevant and likely intended meaning of the 're:' in Re:vale is repeat - we also see English words with the prefix used in this sense pretty frequently with Re-raise, 'revive' and 'rebirth' in Dis one., and 'restart' and 'reborn' in Period Colour. The 'back' aspect also has some significance here, especially in Re:member (the word remember doesn't mean you're like. membering again. it refers to memories. but the title re:member is very intentionally split that way because re:vale both gains and loses a member, so it works with both the again and back implications. anyways). This is also a bit of a recurring theme in i7, what with the whole "the ideal idol is one that doesn't end" thing.

Turning our attention to vale as in valley, once you look into it the whole "vale of tears" meaning doesn't really align with Re:vale unless you only interpret their story as a tragedy, but if you were to look it up and just see the definition "the world" with very little context, then it seems pretty fitting for the most famous currently active idols in the Idolish7 universe. But it actually symbolises how they mean the world to me and also to each other. And the figurative world of suffering that they have put me through thank you and goodnight. Just kidding there's more. I would say something about the valley (landform) and how Yuki is the river and Momo and Banri are the surrounding hills but you get the idea. Momo would live by the river...... he wouldlive by the river. I think about this every day

Anyways. So I really can't say how much of this is intentional but the 'goodbye' vale is especially accurate if you consider the underlying meaning - it's a way of saying goodbye, but it's also sort of a way of saying good luck and be strong. It's the same as how Banri has to say goodbye to Re:vale, but he also tells Yuki to "find a place to sing as yourself". And valour is kind of Trigger's thing (see: valiant) but reaching a little further for the 'value' meaning, it goes back to the whole Mikansei Na Bokura thing - all three of Re:vale's members had to lose something important to them, but the time they spent with it was still valuable and in the end they're able to retain those experiences and move forward to something just as valuable. In the end the name is a bit of a cluster of things vaguely related to them but I guess if you put it together it's like. The repetition of them saying this to each other. Yeah Momo after his injury getting that push from Yuki and Ban's concert to start saying goodbye and moving on and yeah like nitu said him affirming Yuki. Banri saying goodbye/I can't be there next to you anymore but I'll cheer you on from the sidelines and remember the time we spent together fondly and be able to smile once we meet again (<- from the end of his re:member pov). Yuki stabbing me 12 million times in the chest I mean um. Yuki... yeah I'm gonna need another 14 days to write that post let me get back to you on that one. But you get the idea. You get it

I think I had another point somewhere in here but this post has been sitting in my drafts for ages and I still haven't thought of it. But thank you very much for reading if you've gotten this far!!! As a reward you get a hug from me and the reference list :D

4: References

These aren't organised well at all but hopefully it's not too bad

Australian Writers' Centre: Q&A: The Origin of 'Vale'

Dictionary.com: Re • Vale

The English Idolish7 Wiki (my beloved)

Reddit: Contextual Use of "Vale"

Wiktionary: Vale • Valer • Valeō

also the google definitions of most of these terms but idk how to link those and I can't be bothered

[landwriter]

PSA: The Death of Translation has been translated into Chinese! Go give it love, or read my rambling essay and then go give it love:

翻譯之死 by @thirrith

How do you translate a story where meaning hinges not only on the words themselves, but the meaning made by the reader's knowledge of their obscurity? Where misspellings aren't misspellings at all, but memories? Where sentiment is drawn from syntax differences? Well you start by being absolutely fucking brilliant!

I was so lucky to be able to hang around in the document while Eth worked on this. The level of creativity and diligence that has gone into this is mind-blowing. It is such a gift, and the process was incredible. It doesn't matter if you can't read Chinese - if you liked the fundamental premise of The Death of Translation, if you like language at all, you need to know how this was done:

Eth's translation is in Traditional Chinese characters with the addition of Classical Chinese and Cantonese to translate the Middle English. Classical Chinese - also known as Literary Chinese - isn't representative of how Chinese used to be spoken in the vernacular, which is why Eth chose it specifically for the written portions of Middle English...and those lines spoken by Dream, naturally.

Hob's Middle English lines are in Cantonese, which has the benefit of being older than and still at least a little intelligible to readers who only know Mandarin. Middle Chinese can't be used the way Middle English is used in the Sandman fandom (delightfully and gratuitously), because unlike the alphabetic characters of English, where words can be sounded out and phonetic spellings will exist in written record - a huge part of understanding how a language once sounded - logographic characters don't directly specify phonology. And even if they did, Middle Chinese spans from the 5th-12th centuries AD - making it contemporary of not Middle but Old English, and covered an area several orders larger than the parts of a small island where Middle English was spoken for about three hundred years - it's nowhere near as homogeneous(ish) or accessible(ish) as Middle English; Cantonese, despite being a different language, serves the same effect.

And then, the grocery list! This is where writing systems go ham. In English, it contains abbreviations, the medial s (ſ), archaic spellings/misspellings, and fancy old ampersands (one of the only logograms in the English writing system, I think, originally Latin's et and evolving over time into the shape of & - in Jane Austen's Persuasion you will find this aural history of 'et' instead of 'and', where &c is used to mean et cetera).

Eth used Cantonese, Simplified Chinese characters (a 20th century addition, faster to write, that Hob definitely would've embraced), variant character forms (which typically have a visual resemblance to each other), and 通假字, homophone characters that were conventionally used interchangeably with one another in Classical Chinese:

English and Chinese have such different writing systems and histories, and Eth has used all the compounding effects of that (upon things like phonology, modern-day intelligibility, writing system changes) to the absolute fullest effect and made choices that add invaluable implicit meaning to the story and characterization.

(As if that's not enough, the translation also features hot-linked footnotes that provide context for cultural references?! Literally everything a reader could ask for.)

And this is all super clever and fascinating if you're a big language fan like me, but the soft artichoke heart of my wonder can really be summed up best by this fact:

For many years I've loved the Jack Gilbert poem 'The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart', enough to put the first lines at the beginning of the fic:

How astonishing it is that language can almost mean, and frightening that it does not quite. Love, we say, God, we say, Rome and Michiko we write, and the words Get it wrong.

And for just as many years, I assumed Michiko was a place name, or some classical reference to art or literature beyond my plebby ken - until I saw Eth's note in the translation document.

Michiko, in fact, was the name of his wife.

The whole thing is such a testament to translation: the true deliberate practice of it, not just figurative language imagining a fictional character and his long-lived idiolect. And Eth's translation has only underlined my conviction that there is, sometimes, I feel, deeper work of understanding done - greater art made - and lovelier agonies to be had - in carrying words across languages than there is in putting the words down in the first place, in a first language.

[potatomountain]

TLAM Masterlist!

“To Love A Monster”

TLaM for abbreviation

pairing: mutant reader x human ateez

genres kinda: trauma fiction, slow burn, monster fic, eventual smut, not all members are romance options, not all members are nice to reader. a learning to love fic with the 8 men that taught me to love myself and life. has a lot of dark themes such as experimentation 

Synopsis:

We all have characteristics that deem us different; and these differences are often not viewed in a good way by society. Whether it’s the way our brain functions, the color of our skin, our height/weight, or what we lack that is typically needed to survive in the modern day world such as proper sight, hearing, or even two legs. A lot of these differences can harm ourselves or others without proper care or precautions, and thus we are deemed dangerous, unworthy, not good enough. 

But it doesn’t mean we are unlovable, or undeserving, or some freak of nature. It can make it hard to be loved, and love in return.... but not impossible. It takes eight men, and then some, to learn all the ways love can form for someone who really is, by society’s definition, a freak of nature: a mutant.

Chapters:

One  |  Two  |  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |  Six  | Seven  | Eight  | Nine  | Ten

Tag list:  @justhere4kpop  |  @candypop1611 |  @spooo00oky | @sanniessnails | @babyhailey819   | @simplyalfie | @diamondjen03  | @lilactangerine | @tenebrisirae​ | ask to be tagged <3

[bison-appreciation-club]

🍄 my names and pronouns 🍄

my names are dee, beathan, silas and any abbreviations of silas (si, sile). mutuals can call me dorris alexander challenge. i use they/she pronouns, but i prefer masculine or neutral honorifics (sir, dude, mr, mx, gentleman, etc). you may call me 'my liege' if you desire

🌾 more about me 🌾

i'm white and british. at the moment i'm learning more about my scottish and irish heritage. i'm also autistic. my special interest is the nez perce war.

🌻 my interests 🌻

nature, celtic reconstructionist paganism, the wild west, medieval europe, codes and spying during ww2, the ancient egyptians, bison, small fluffy things, nature, hiking, folk music, scottish stuff, bbc and cbs ghosts, lord of the rings, animal crossing, horror novels, found footage stuff, space, plushies and the history of maize. as you can see, i am a very well-rounded individual.

🌿 dni and byf 🌿

dni: terfs, general homophobes and transphobes, racists, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, pro-lifers and zionists. ik that if anyone in that list really wants to interact with me then they will, but i promise you WILL get blocked.

byf: i do complain a lot lmao. i'm trying to escape from my family's conservative beliefs that i have believed for years. i'm very bitchy about it. also, i swear a lot, in case you haven't noticed

🌊 where else to find me 🌊

my ao3

my pinterest

my cohost

my spotify

i'm not really active on any of them but there ya go

🪻 sideblogs 🪻

@doodlebugs-and-doodleart, @heneversmiledagain, @suairceagsionadh, @the-days-of-49, @aesthetics-hypothetics, @pipistrelle-s, @wyncandel, @mus-rusticus, @be-ace-eat-cake, @moodboard-creator, @rosehips-and-autism

🦜 tags 🦜

i don't tag things regularly at all, so if you're looking for a reasonable tagging system here then you ain't getting it. however:

#dee rambles - all my own posts

#dee's history stuff - all history related posts, both my own and reblogs

#dee reads history things and #dee watches history things - self explanatory really. mostly me watching everything with black kettle in, which isn't much

#dee speaks dialects - anything to do with my regional dialect (which i am relearning) and dialects in general

#dee studies languages - me studying latin, nahuatl, cheyenne and gaeilge

⚠️ i don't censor anything, including tags. all tw's are tagged 'tw [x]'. this applies to all my blogs ⚠️

🦬 links and donations 🦬

donations:

links for palestine

palestine fundraiser (please donate to help families escape from gaza)

donate to the wampanoag langauge reclaimation project

important links:

more links for palestine

even more links for palestine (mostly not donations but resources to learn more about palestinian culture)

shop palestinian brands

stuff to do for thanksgiving (*definitely* not links to resources about decolonisation (it totally is btw))

what to do if someone has hypothermia

executive dysfunction tips

suicide helplines

debunking the lies your abusive parents told you

how to adult successfully

just nice things:

time is a flat circle

the sound of every forest in the world

if you're having a bad night

internet guide

bison (!!!!)