#two entirely different species of shoe

[identittie-crisis]

when people say that they taste fear, i completely understand what they’re saying

i was out with my dog today and i stood on this thing that was kind of if an oval was 3d and then in half the same way a semi circle exists. i stood on it and when my shoes slipped down the curves i could taste it.

i literally tasted fear and it tastes like electricity.

[androgynealienfemme]

"What is butch? Rebellion against women's lot, against gender-role imperatives that pit boyness against girlness and then assign you-know-who the short straw. Butch is a giant fuck YOU! to compulsory femininity, just as lesbianism says the same to compulsory heterosexuality. I do not associate respect for compulsory anything with butchness, though perhaps some butch bottoms will disagree. I first gravitated toward butch women because they were the easiest female allies to recognize in my war against the compulsory world.

In the 1970s, when I came out in the dyke community, butch was dead and androgyny was practically an imperative. I didn't mind at first; girliness as a way of life hadn't worked out for me, and though I had always exhibited distinctly femme sexuality, I wasn't presenting myself to the world that way: I hadn't really grown into the image. I was young; the men I had fucked played "Me Tarzan, You Jane." I couldn't figure out how to get them to play the game by different rules. As soon as sex with them was over (or even while it was still going on) the whole thing felt stupid. Men who didn't play Tarzan were fine, but I couldn't figure out how to get them to fuck me. No doubt they were contending with their own straight (or not-so-straight) boy version of femme sexuality and were waiting for me to make the first move. Some men don't play Tarzan so as not to appear sexist; others just want you to do it-- grab their neckties and out them where you want them -- but I didn't know that at the time.

With some relief then, I retired the Jane I never wanted to be, reconstructed myself as an androgyne, and forsook my vain attempt to present my femininity to the world. The Uniform, actually, was Butch Lite. Jeans or chinos, flannel shirts or tees, sensible shoes-- either boots, athletic shoes, or Birkenstocks (it turns out the latter were incredibly subversive if you wore them with scarlet toenail polish, but that's another story). Almost the whole dyke community dressed this way: if a woman didn't, her politics and her sexual orientation were automatically up for debate.

The butches who were left over from the era before the purge also dressed this way. We had renamed the identity, it seemed, but kept the look. That way we could say we'd vanquished it, even as we kept it around to turn us on.

The unschooled eye couldn't tell the two sorts of women -- butches and androgynes-- apart. Butchness had been so thoroughly declared passe that an entire generation of dykes could dress in what was essentially butch-woman drag and evoke defensive responses only from conservative straight people (and very straight-identified "gay women").

At first I believed the mythos of the Vanished Butch (and her symbiotic sister-species, the Vanished Femme). But certain women wearing the Uniform made my nostrils flare, my tongue tie, my skin prickle like an electrical storm had passed. They filled the clothes differently. It took me some years to begin to understand why I wanted to chew on some women's thick brown leather belts and not on others.

Non-butch women wore the Uniform like librarians who had just come in from gardening. It was not clothes that made the woman. It was stance. It was attitude-- it was impossible to picture one of the librarians wearing a tux, or myself dressing in silk or lace to present myself to her. It was impossible to think of presenting myself to her at all, to offer her that mixture of allure and willingness that I desired to give a butch woman."

“Why I Love Butch Women” by Carol A. Queen, On Butch and Femme: Compiled Readings, (edited by I.M. Epstein) (2017)

[indignantlemur]

Thank you so much, I do have follow up questions ^_^

1) how did those early conversations go? “What do pinkskins do for sports?” “You strap knives to your shoes and do what now?” (Maybe? I just feel like Dagmar would bring up winter sports first in an effort to be relatable? You’re the writer, do what you will)

2) what does Andorian dance look like? Historically, currently? do clans compete (any comparison to Highland Games)? Groups? Weddings? Siblings? Any Taboos? Anything you can think of :))

Hello again! <3

I suspect the initial introductions to Terran sports started out casually. Humans making friends, as they do, and doing friendly things like inviting them to attend sporting events - football, lacrosse, hockey, volley ball, snowboarding, rugby, what-have-you. This inevitably leads to a very confused alien asking about the rules, and from there the indoctrination begins! 😆

(1) I fully intend to have Dagmar bring up some uniquely Norwegian and Canadian sports at some point, probably when the gang is all back on Earth again. Dagmar's not really a sports person, per se, but her mother and little brother were and she often got dragged along to events regardless of her own preferences on the matter. You could say she learned the rules of lacrosse and hockey largely involuntarily, really.

(2) While I haven't fully fleshed out all of the details, my Andorians do dance, contrary to the impression that they like to give outsiders, but only very rarely and it's almost always centered around specific traditions and rites. It's considered a private thing meant for family and spouses, and therefore deeply personal - so much so that most Andorians will outright deny that such an activity ever takes place rather than discuss the matter with strangers. Andorians who are reasonably well acquainted with aliens, such as Thelen is with Dagmar, will understand that other species view the activity rather differently and of those Andorians many will often separate the two 'kinds' of dancing mentally. Thus, when Thelen learns from Dagmar he can truthfully say that he is not violating a cultural taboo; he is merely indulging an alien friend's equally alien customs.

When it is permitted, Andorian dances are surprising. This is one of the times where I get to bring in some of that insectoid ancestry that Andorians have and actually apply is sensibly. Drawing inspiration from bees (and stick bugs somewhat), I imagine that the steps are recreations of old migration paths, important battles, and other historical events, each one unique to a Clan and interpreted with heavy artistic license. Swaying, lunging, twisting, leaping, gliding, rising and falling and rising again - the pacing varies, but there is one consistent element: a heart-beat pattern. The measure of each dance is always based on the pattern of an Andorian's heartbeat, the timing quickened or slowed as needed in each 'scene' depicted; one might be frenzied and erratic, the other steady and even, and yet another might shift between the two extremes.

Andorians will dance to celebrate ancient religious rites, new births, and, yes, sometimes even weddings. During weddings, it's usually done after getting outrageously drunk - and usually results in at least one person making an absolute fool of themselves. As long as nothing too untoward happens, most folks let the behaviour slide as 'high spirits' and leave it at that.

One idea that I'm extremely fond of it the idea of the First Dance. After an Andorian child is born, one of the parents will hold the child and map out the progression of Andoria around their solar system in slow, ponderous steps, evenly paced like the steady orbit of their homeworld. When the entire quad is present, the three non-birthing spouses will take turns guiding the child through the First Dance, or move in a kind of relay-race with one switching out and one swapping in while the third waits their turn, rotating through each role until the dance is complete.

The First Dance was once a kind of portent for the child, with numerous outcomes derived from the the slightest of stumbles, the barest of missteps, and whether or not the parent(s) guiding the child took the correct number of steps, or more, or less. In modern times, it is an old tradition kept more out of fondness than anything else, with much of the weight once placed upon its meaning shifting to be an act of profound love and welcome.

As time progresses and Andorians as a whole become exposed to more and more alien cultures, I fully expect their natural reserve to lessen somewhat as new ideas are slowly, cautiously embraced and then eventually adapted to suit their culture.

[camish-and-the-oc-gang]

Notes on Witches:

Witches are humanoid species that reproduces asexually, living in hive-like schools and possessing dominion over magic. [In depth worldbuilding under the cut, shoutout to @hazellum for helping out with witch biology]

Biology:

While witches were designed to resemble humans from the outside, their anatomy presents multiple changes for efficiency. Starting from skeleton level, witches possess a honeycomb ribcage with hard cartilage to fill the holes, making a witch's ribs both significantly difficult to crack and significantly harder to stab through. Witches also lack a hard cartilage in their noses, making it so their noses can be completely squished down, and they primarily act as an impact softener for the rest of their faces. A witch's thumb, index finger and middle finger posses a total of five joints for augmented dexterity. These are the only fingers a witch possesses at birth, and the other two fingers grow in later, having less joints- and continuing to grow back if cut throughout their entire life. Witch fingers happen to have magical properties, and as such are useful in a multitude of spells. A witch's spine connects more vertically to their hip bones, and their hip bones are separated in the middle. Together with their lack of collarbone, this allowes witches to squeeze through any space big enough for their head to fit, much like a cat. Witches have two digit feet that closely resemble those of Piglins, with the exception of the lack of a full keratin layer under their soles, requiring them to still wear shoes. Because of the way their ankles are constructed, it is almost impossible for a witch to sprain their ankle. A witch's gallbladder is where you would usually find a human heart, and their lungs are built in such a wrinkly way to maximize surface area. Not only that, but witches can also supplement their breathing through their skin. They have a decentralized circulatory system, with their heart doubling as a diaphragm. They have two stomachs, one basic and one acidic (which means witches have an almost non-existent gag reflex, since vomiting is significantly harmful for them), and two apendixs, which make them have a significantly stronger immune system. Witches do not have reproductive organs and are not born with any difference in gender- the entire concept is something they only understand because of other species projecting it onto them. They do, however, have optional "settings" their body has to be manually triggered to activate, and a small witch has the choice of which one of these mutually exclusive settings they'd rather have. The "femenine" setting makes a witch produce more raw magic, which is stored in the mana gland in their chests. Witches with this setting have a more offensive power and can cast spells for longer, but are also more succeptible to attacks. The "masculine" setting has a witch grow magic resistant muscle strands throughout their entire body- which interferes with the magic production of the mana gland, but allows witches with these settings to be more resistant to all sorts of magical effects, be it mental or physical.

Society and Culture:

Witch society is structured by schools. Kinda like a hive insect, a new school will be established by a Principal chosen from the Teacher’s rank if the population grows too large for a single school. Population control among witches is very tight however, so this only happens when there’s a mayor screw up in the process and as such there are only like, four or five witch schools around the world at all. 

Witches have different social classes entirely based on age and academic merit. They are as follows: 

Sparks

Sparks are newborn witches, aged 0-5. They are fully functional a couple of hours after their brewing, and spend their time as sparks doing simple jobs around the school to learn its layout and rules. Sparks are often messengers and vigil holders. Detention will usually be watched over by a particularly obedient Spark while a responsible Teacher pops in and out to supervise. 

Sparks wear Pink

Elementaries

Elementaries are young witches, aged 5-10, and start learning the basics of magic. Elementaries spend all their time learning these basics, and are very scarcely provided with time to go and do their own things. 

Elementaries wear Magenta

Careers

Careers are witches aged 10-18. After learning the basics as Elementaries, they’re allowed to pick one of the three schools of magic to specialize in. While they continue their studies with only slightly less dedication than Elementaries, they’re expected to begin working within the school in a field related to their chosen career. Potion Careers will work in the kitchens and the farms, Enchantment Careers will work as secretaries, Inventory takers and have the option to start being trained as Defense Officers. Redstone Careers will begin helping to maintain the many mechanisms in the school. 

Being a Career is often the most stressful time for a Witch, given that their performance during this years, in direct comparison to their peers, will determine how the rest of their life will pan out. Teachers foster ambition in Careers, which leads to a cutthroat and competitive culture among them, filled with no small amount of violence- as long as no teacher sees, its fair game. 

Careers wear Purple.

Graduates

Graduates are most witches older than 18. Having completed their education, they settle full time into one of the jobs they previously held as a Career. 

Graduates continue to wear purple. 

Majors

Majors are a subsection of Graduates that undergo extra training to fulfill specific tasks. Each Major requires a certain Career, and becoming a Major is seen as a high honor only students with high marks can achieve. The three Majors are as follows: 

Exploration Surveyor: 

Surveyors travel outside of the school to gather resources, information and wild animals. A Potions Career is required to become a Surveyor, and they are the most likely to come into contact with other sentient species. They carry potions and potion materials on them for their own protection. 

Defense Officer: 

Officers are the Witch equivalent to the Army. Expected to hold immense discipline and bravery, they’re the schools line of defense in case of an attack. They’re the only ones allowed to walk on school grounds with full armor and weapons, and when not needed for direct combat, are in charge of enforcing curfrews and make sure no student is late to class. They are also in charge of supervising Sparks. 

Redstone Engineer: 

Engineers work closely with regular Redstone Careers and Graduates, often clumped together as maintenance. However, Engineers are in charge of the research and development of new Redstone systems that can be used to strengthen the school. Engineers have a whole floor in the school to themselves, dedicated to experimenting and testing. 

All Majors Wear purple, but are distinguished from Graduates by a pointy Black hat and an Emerald ornament with a shape corresponding to their specific Major. 

Teachers: 

Teachers are the highest operating rank in a school, and are respected as absolute authority figures. Only class Valedictorians can become teachers, unless an incident requires more teachers be called, in which case only the highest grade earners are still allowed to receive the title. Teachers are in charge of teaching Elementaries and Careers, as well as overseeing the work of all Graduates and Majors. They also make up the Jury for Trials. 

Teachers wear blue. 

The Principal: 

The Principal is the utmost authority in a Witch school. Each is picked from the Teacher pool by the previous principal and serves for life. Constant Regicide from Teachers hoping to ascend quicker is prevented by the fact that only the Principal has access to the recipe of witch creation, for which they are protected by the School with life and limb. Given that they’re the only one with access to the whole recipe, the principal’s job includes overseeing the brewing of a new class every year. They are also in charge of overseeing the Teacher’s work and coordinating between them. They also award Majors with their distinctive Emeralds at Graduation, and oversee Trials. 

The Principal wears green. 

History:

Witches were created in the end, which they soon after fled to escape the endermen, taking the recipe for their own creation with them. They organized themselves in tight knit towns called Covens for the first era of their history. Baby witches were the responsiblity of everyone in the coven and the recipe was safeguarded by an elected Elder. Through time, they established trading hubs, and a prolific magic-based society. Then, because of some disputes around territory and trade, witches went to war with piglins. The war was brutal and bloody, and lasted many years. In the end, the witches developed an all encompassing curse: every piglin to step in the overworld would turn into a mindless zombie. They won the war. However, the war left strains on witch society. They had become centralized, and they demanded efficiency. They organized themselves in hive-like schools, and became obsessed with excellence, and over the years, the culture in the schools became increasingly competitive, every witch reaching to be the best, the strongest, and willing to kill to get ahead in the race. You don't get out of witch school without copious amounts of trauma.

[artsandlit]

Paradox. The closest thing to an absolute truth I can accept is that there are no absolute truths.

I had a mind-blowing experience triggered by an awareness of fractal geometry that made its way through popular culture around the year 2000. There are computer generated fractals, of course. Far more interesting to me are those found in art, and more so in nature. Even some scientists report this awareness as something akin to a religious experience.

I SAW everything. I was gripped with awareness of cloud formations. The realization that their shifting structures are informed by a natural design pallete. They are random, of course, yet not in any absolute sense.

Our vascular systems are remarkably similar to trees. A length splits, bifurcates. The smaller lengths split again and again. The fractal whorls of a walnut divided inside a shell are so similar to brain structure divided inside the skull that surgeons use a walnut to explain operating procedures.

I questioned the pure randomness of gravel by the side of the road as I walked to work. Similarity and distinction equals nonlinear order. As opposed to our Euclidean conditioning of linear approximation. Which becomes an unintended synonym for nonlinear order in the word approximation.

Identical twins are not truly identical. It's the reason fingerprints matter in crime investigation. Ordered. Immediately recognizable as fingerprints. Nonlinear. No two are exactly the same. The same with DNA or a crack in the sole of a shoe that repeats in footprints. It is a unique footprint if similar to many others.

I became obsessed with different trees. Weeds or blades of grass or branches on one tree, or all the branches in an entire forest. Degrees of similarity and distinction. All things are relative across one species of plant, and different types of plants to each other, and smaller plants to trees to rocks to animals to computers.

Identical brand-new cars have distinctive locks, keys, ignitions, and serial numbers. And they can not occupy the same space at the same time. As they wear and tear, parts are replaced. Distinguishing dents and scratches and stains appear on the upholstery. Each of "The same thing " is unique and becomes more recognizably so over time, chaos making itself more prominent.

The same applies, of course, to human individuals. Every lightning strike, apple, fire ant, goldfish, pine needle is a distinct occurrence. Every millenia, century, decade, year, month, week, day, hour, minute, millisecond.

Nature creates with infinite variability. When a blanket statement is made about white people or black people, it fuels fear and anger in politics but is ridiculously dumbed down. So many profound truths are presented as cut and dried moral soundbites on social media. But real-world context always matters. There are always exceptions and variables.

When a bathroom is out of order, as compared with all similar or even indistinguishable bathrooms, is it not also in a more pronounced state of nonlinear order?

[sepublic]

            Really, I think about how Ninjago 2012 kinda contributed to a lot of ideas in my works that evolved into more explicit beliefs I live by today. Albeit not intentionally…

         Now a lot of the groundwork already existed in myself. I was the autistic weird, lonely kid who liked unconventional things like reptiles and the like. And I love snakes particularly, so of course I feel sympathetic to the Serpentine. And so of course my very technical mind is alarmed when characters joke about everyone hating snakes, because as far as I could tell, there was no real difference between this and a racial comment.

         I think that’s why a lot of ‘weird’ people see themselves in the villains as the people who are demonized, don’t fit in, and/or are unpalatable; And likewise, relate to recent protagonists who DO fight on behalf of that deviancy. Because they’re the heroes we wanted and needed, the people we saw ourselves in, but actually treated kindly by the narrative, with central focus, and validation as being correct, instead of a “nuanced and sympathetic villain who is ultimately too angry and suffers even more for it”.

         Which is a trope I DEEPLY hated and still do, especially in a lot of Superhero media, like Batman or whatever. You know the one. Some working-class joe gets horrifically wronged and even mutated because of the cruelty of some rich dude. And in trying to get justified revenge, they’re labelled as threatening by the narrative, written to hurt some innocent people because Reasons. All to justify the Hero taking them down to preserve the status quo!!!

         And so the whole episode, the wronged person is treated as the biggest and most dangerous problem. Meanwhile, the corporate bigwig responsible for all of this? The Superhero waxes poetic about making them “face justice” and that’s why you shouldn’t kill them! But what really happens is that they get easily arrested, often non-violently and with minimal conflict, and are forgotten by the story. Probably sent to a cushy white-collar prison, basically a slap on the wrist.

         Meanwhile, their victim is repeatedly focused on as the scariest person in the room, THEY get brutally beaten up and have to deal with the agonizing mental, emotional, and physical consequences of their transformation. When they are arrested, it’s in some maximum-security facility. And because they’re part of the rogues gallery now, the poor victim is now condemned to repeatedly fight our protagonist and lose, always suffering. Not allowed to rest in obscurity off-screen like the rich CEO who made it all happen.

         I always despised this trope and at times, it made me callously think that the victim SHOULD be allowed to murder, honestly! Respectability politics, what a sham… I guess that’s why I connected so hard to the Serpentine as characters in Ninjago, and felt personally enraged on their behalf. Obviously the show didn’t really want nor expect me to take them seriously as people with actual feelings, but I did.

         So I played devil’s advocate. I argued on how inhumane and actually horrific it was, that their entire species was imprisoned, forgotten to time, with no intention of release. And this neglect directly led to the genocide of the Anacondrai. But know, they were an ‘evil species’, so obviously that justifies applying this type of condemnation completely, or even at all!

         And so while I liked the Ninja, I also did feel a lot of frustration towards them, particularly Wu who played a part in that original entombment, for what happened. And I saw them and a lot of the “Goody Two-Shoes” archetype as extensions of that aforementioned frustration, of heroes who would rather preserve the status quo and these seemingly innocent bystanders. It felt like the love and kindness of such characters was conditional, basically; You can’t be angry or VIOLENT about how you’ve been mistreated!

         (This is why openly kind characters like Steven Universe or Luz Noceda DO feel good to me. Aside from their other issues, it’s the fact that their kindness isn’t conditional, because they ARE amongst the deviants and outcasts and actively do question and challenge the status quo. And successfully, too! They aren’t demonized and turned into a ‘tragic villain’ for it, so their dedication to a certain type of justice feels legitimate and not performative in-universe nor by the writers, it’s a justice people like me are actually included in because they ARE me. 

        They’re an actual underdog I do see myself in and not just some Generic White Boy who isn’t as special as society told him he should be, and victimized for reasons nobody actually is victimized for because the writers want you to root for an underdog but don’t actually want to advocate for traits they themselves dislike. They merely find the underdog concept attractive despite being totally divorced from it in real life, it’s the victim complex of a lot of white shooters. Meanwhile the underdogs I like actually do recognize whatever privilege they have and extend a kind hand either way.)

         Plus, there was Lloyd, who released the Serpentine. And again, the writers didn’t expect me to think too deeply into it because it was a Lego kids show, but I thought of how messed up it was that Lloyd was a lonely and isolated child from a school he wasn’t happy in, and basically an orphan his whole life. And yet his uncle treats him as nothing more than a nuisance he just sighs over and then… Leaves literally hanging??? And he indicates he’s been fully aware of Lloyd’s existence this whole time, yet we’ve never seen him be a parent to this kid? Especially since Wu DID orphan Lloyd by, admittedly justifiably, banishing his father!

         It’s that negligence that clearly motivates Lloyd to aspire after his absent father, who at least never did anything wrong to HIM, at least not willingly (you can’t say the same for his mother, as we later find out). No doubt due to being absent, but still. And the fact that Garmadon’s big trait is how much he cares for his son and often drops everything for that love just cements my appreciation for him and Lloyd, and makes Lloyd’s anger at Wu in favor of his dad seem all the more justified. And thus, Wu’s neglect and disappointment is all the more frustrating, because gee no wonder this kid turned out like that.

         It’s that negligence to Lloyd that results in the Serpentine being unleashed and causing so much trouble, too! Not that the Serpentine being free to reap havoc on those who imprisoned them is wrong, let’s be real. But from Wu’s perspective it is. And I felt that the deserved anger of Lloyd and the Serpentine was always understated or punished.

         And that played a big role in how I characterized the Escapees, because sure they were antagonists. But keep in mind, I was initially writing all of this as one big Ninjago fanfic, so of course I was constrained by the rules of the story and couldn’t actively make Wu or others like him the bad guy, just deeply criticize them. Plus I guess I still had yet to fully shake off the ideas that had been implanted in me. But I often made sure to have the Escapees be deeply sympathetic people who themselves were outcasts and deviants, just like Lloyd and his fellow protagonists.

         They were also outraged and frustrated at the world for hurting them, and committed the sin of upsetting the status quo. And for that, they were punished by Wu and Garmadon, imprisoned in the Tower of Tears. But even Garmadon realized they had a bit of a point, which led to him becoming ‘evil’… Again, I was critical of certain tropes but hadn’t quite freed myself from their mental constraints. Also, I was obligated to canon since I was treating this as a slightly-divergent fanfic.

         And in my story, I made sure to emphasize that the indefinite imprisonment of the Escapees was a BAD thing. I poured a lot of soul into personally relating with them, having the protagonists do the same. Making the protagonists mourn that because of a personal vendetta against Wu and his family, they weren’t the friends they should’ve been. Because after all, the protagonists didn’t feel like particularly good people either, and also had a lot of anger they wanted to lash out at the world with!

         The Escapees were wronged and it was Society (Joker moment) that was the real villain, and that maybe society DID need to bleed a bit for what it did. So I made sure to hammer in to myself and the story that the Escapees weren’t fundamentally terrible people, just hurt, and that they were right about a lot of things they did, to be fair. And ultimately… They get to be happy! They get their revenge on everyone who DID actually hurt them, even Wu (whom they successfully kill, but he comes back to life anyway through shenanigans).

         The Escapees recognize they were wrong to target people like Lloyd and his friends and admittedly became the aggressors this time, sure. But they nevertheless get a happy ending, where hope of reconciliation between protagonists and antagonists becomes a thing. And they find genuine happiness in each other, most of them, who bother to actually reciprocate and were themselves victims. Some were legitimately nasty to be honest, but even they got something decent in the end. The Escapees still found each other and so their lives DID get better and there was focus on them healing.

         I’m not sure if I’ve lost my point here or if I’m rambling. But yeah. As I grew up, I did eventually become wary of the potentially Red Flag vibes I might’ve been giving off myself, with this talk of Society ™ and lashing out with anger and violence. What was I, a school shooter? But as I became even more mature and cooled things down, I could also see the key differences between my own anger, and that of an actual school shooter that people insisted was a “nice kid” (It’s why we love Susie Deltarune, yet mock Syril Karn). Likewise, I became a lot less “I’m not like other [----]s”, which is admittedly a problem I DID notice in my earlier writing and have since worked to amend.

         So I’m not angry at “normal” people anymore, since I also recognize they’re just trying to get along and there IS a solidarity we share. And times have become arguably kinder. So in some ways, I learned to keep myself in check, but in others, I felt vindicated to go further. There is the argument to be made that yes, bitterness and anger ARE feelings we’re entitled to, but maybe those corny status quo superheroes had a point, maybe you DO still need to prioritize your own love in the end (it just isn’t mutually exclusive from the wrath, believe it or not; likewise, it’s why some people are weirdly bitter about becoming mainstream and deny it, if consumerist commodification isn’t a reason).

         I think I realized I’m entitled to my anger but also that others around me are, too! And that I need to recognize people as like me, that I would’ve dismissed as ‘normal’, with no understanding of their demographic. And I’ve grown to love and appreciate the conventionally good heroes that aren’t necessarily an underdog but still believe in defending them, like Beast Wars Silverbolt. I guess I always did like them, I just hated the hypocrisy that came across in those specific examples I brought up at the start.

         Anyhow, this is also probably why I’ve changed a lot of the villains in my writing, at least in terms of how they’re sympathetic. Because I now realize I really can make my deviants who upset the status quo the protagonists, with the antagonists being enforcers who themselves were victims of the system and don’t seem to comprehend it either. That does get me back to the Escapees…

         Because this story is now officially its own thing, so I’m NOT constrained by the canon of Ninjago’s narrative. Which means I can absolutely go all-out in depicting the status quo enforcers as being bad about it (while not pure evil, either). Like recent shows written by others who struggled similarly, I get to advocate for being utterly feral, and also admit that I DO prefer love and happiness, as much as anger is a healing force. I’d rather co-exist with “normal” people than vindictively enact a grudge on them, I just wanted to be treated as a fellow person, never feel the need to return any dehumanization!

         So like. I guess there is a bit of a dilemma in adapting the Escapees. Are they still antagonists? Let’s be real, sometimes it’s FUN to have characters be villains! And do legitimately villainous stuff! Maybe I should downplay how they suffered, because I no longer need to condemn those types of fighting outcasts to villainy. Rewrite them to be a bit legitimately nastier and less victims, but still very fond of one another. And/or they are antagonists, but for generally unrelated reasons.

         That way, there’s an understanding that these antagonists really are parallels to our protagonists, as fellow deviants who found each other. They’re just admittedly a little too pro-violence, but they can’t entirely blame them because they’ve been fairly angry themselves. In the end, I guess this type of Wrong, sympathetic villain is infinitely more bearable when the protagonist is also technically of this group and validated over their anger, instead of having to begrudgingly save the status quo first because Reasons.

[worldwhampion]

APOLLO NMS IS AUTISTIC-CODED 1/2

here's the google doc for much better reading! (also contains a small epilogue)

Let's look at their physical characteristics first. 

1. Stimming

Everyone who’s seen Apollo at a holo terminus knows the thing they do with their fingers: a repetitive movement that never ceases. They are literally STIMMING! For those who don’t know, stimming (aka self-stimulating behavior) involves engaging in repetitive movements, which helps with improving concentration and alleviating anxiety, and often it is done unconsciously. Now don’t tell me that’s just their idle animation. They could’ve chosen any other thing for them to do that does not straight up look like hand flapping, one of the most prevalent stims out there - as well as not making it repetitive and constant.

2. Footing (toe walking)

Another characteristic is a small, but very special detail: their footing.  

(picture credit to @speci-society - they were the first to point this out! annotations by me)

Their ‘heels’ are off the ground, and the two plates which do make contact with the ground are more like shoe soles - think of tiptoeing while wearing slippers. This is very reminiscent of toe walking, another trait associated with autism. The name is pretty straightforward: walking on toes without the heels touching the ground, which is thought to be due to sensory processing and motor issues.

3. Sensory processing issues

Interestingly, Apollo's body is synthetic - meaning that they cannot sense the world around them through touch. In terms of physical sensitivity, they must be quite detached from the world. Usually when talking about sensory processing issues, it is about an overload of senses to the point of discomfort. Though in Apollo's case, I think it is rather the opposite of that; their senses are void. Because well, There’s no way you could possibly have nerves in metal. They’d have to rely on something else entirely in order to sense every time they come into contact with an object (including their footfalls on solid ground). Likely they have other means of sensing things - different from the usual organic way. I’m not sure how their body exactly works, but since they still possess an organic brain, neuroplasticity must’ve done loads to it so that they could properly adjust to their body. Can’t imagine how the first days must’ve been like for them.

4. Motor issues

And possibly, they may still have issues in controlling their mechanical limbs (motor issues) despite the neuroplasticity - or rather, carrying out complex tasks with them - especially their hands, they don’t look dexterous at all but rather very cumbersome. As well as their arms and shoulders, all seem to be very inflexible. In my opinion, Apollo is (borderline) disabled, as they likely do not have the same capabilities as an abled person.

5. No facial expressions

They have no ‘face’ - so no facial expressions either. They also can’t make eye contact. Autistics are known to struggle with facial expressions - and especially eye contact - in conversations. I’m not sure whether it’s a blessing or not for Apollo to be unable to make eye contact with anyone, because that’s just about the most uncomfortable thing to do (for me at least), and yet it’s so weirdly important in face-to-face communication at the same time. To physically express emotions must be quite hard for them, therefore they likely have to compensate through body language. A notable one is a certain tendency to tilt their head: “as the hologram recedes, Apollo's head turns to the side ever so slightly, as if sighing, saddened.” Due to them having no facial expressions, I think it could be pretty hard for anyone to tell if they’re listening to them or not. I am saying this out of my own personal experience. Okay story time! When I was younger it was kind of unclear to others whether I was paying attention to them or not due to my lack of eye contact. This led to me finding an alternative to that: head nodding! I tend to nod my head along as people talk to me. This way it’s clear to people that I am in fact listening without having to directly make eye contact with them. Perhaps Apollo does a similar thing to indicate that they’re paying attention. 

---

Pt. 1 < pt.2

[petrichor-reminiscence]

Milk And Honey Drip From My Lips

Chapter 3: hOi!!!! :3 :D !!

Pairing: underswap!Papyrus x reader

Warnings: cursing, blood and pain, evil floof in a shirt

Word Count: 5.12k

There was darkness. Only Darkness. A darkness that felt all-seeing and all-encompassing. A darkness that was different from sleep, and not death; not quite. It was the dark of a mind, the dark of a soul in search of something.

It might not be what the soul yearned for, but you certainly found some sort of something.

Long ago, two races ruled over Earth:

These words emerged out of the darkness, stark white in contrast to the void surrounding you entirely. You weren't there physically, but you were somehow still there, mentally present and able to see all before you. The image of the planet you lived on, Earth, came into your vision.

HUMANS...

The image of a human with short brown hair that covered their eyes came into view. They held a spear, and their garments were worn with age and dirt. There wasn't much else to say about them; they just appeared to be an average human warrior of the past.

... and MONSTERS.

Beside the human appeared what was apparently a monster. They were covered in fluffy white fur, and looked to be some sort of hybrid between a... goat and a rabbit? Who's to say, anyways; you didn't know the species of monsters out there. Their ears were large and draped next to their face, and they had small horns on the top of their head. They wore a lot of purple, and there was some sort of royal crest on their tunic.

One day, war broke out between the two races.

The images shifted. Fire, war, violence, bloodshed. Everything was dark, everyone was screaming, humans and monsters alike were falling at the hands of the other. Swords, spears, magic, weapons; each side was fighting tooth and nail to reign supreme over the other.

Amongst the chaos, a particular monster caught your eye. She was large and covered in fur; a white and fluffy monster like before, but quite a bit bigger. She had long floppy ear-like things as well, matted with blood and dirt. She wore beautiful golden armor with that crest you had noticed before, along with a long purple cape tucked under some shiny pauldrons, and she carried a massive red trident with her. Her eyes matched her trident, glowing with a passion, and fire danced around her large fluffy feet. The crown atop her head made it clear that she must have been a queen; the queen of the monsters to be specific.

After a long battle, the humans were victorious.

Many monsters lay dead on the mountainside. There were human bodies too, but it was clear where the stronger power lay. You could see the pain in the queen's scarlet eyes... they had failed. Her and her people were beaten by the vicious humans.

They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.

Within the mountainside, there was a large opening above a cliff edge. The monsters all trudged slowly into this opening, led by the queen, sadly going down into the underground where they would likely live out the rest of their lives. There were human mages, seven of them, that came behind the monsters to seal the underground behind them. The gaping entrance was covered by a massive barrier of white light, which was soon disguised with shadows and vegetation.

The monsters were gone. The humans rejoiced.

Many years later...

The images of the barrier faded away, and you were soon face-to-face with your sibling, Chara. Their brown bob framed their smile perfectly, as always, and their red eyes glimmered as they smiled. They were wearing their favourite outfit; brown khaki shorts, black shoes, and their green sweater with the yellow stripe.

And, appearing beside Chara, was none other than yourself. Your h/c hair whipped around in an unseen breeze, and your e/c eyes looked kind of dull like usual. You were wearing one of your favourite outfits as well, the f/c complimenting your style and personality. You and Chara were holding hands.

MT. Ebott

20XX

You and Chara got off the bus at the bottom of the mountain, and began your hike. Everything seemed to pass by in a blur; your hike, exploring the cave, falling into the pit. You watched yourself and your sibling fall through the darkness.

Legends say that those who climb the mountain never return.

– –

A gasp was ripped from your throat once you woke, and your eyes snapped open. Your breathing was ragged and raspy, heart-rate skyrocketing with panic. You saw the small pinprick of light above you, which must've been the hole you and Chara fell into.

I'm alive. Holy shit I'm alive.

With your newfound consciousness also came a very large amount of pain. Your entire body ached, and you felt the dull throb of blood flowing through your nearly-numb limbs. Your chest was hurting from not only the fall, of course, but from your heavy breathing. You attempted to take deeper and slower breaths, slowing down your heart and easing yourself into calmness. Well, as much calmness as you could achieve. You did just fall from an insane height, after all.

Speaking of the fall...

CHARA!

You quickly whipped your head to the side, and saw your sibling laying on the ground beside you. With newfound determination, you tucked your elbows up beneath you, and slowly began pushing yourself into a sitting position. Your muscles strained, but now that you weren't breathing as hard and panicking so much, the ache wasn't as strong. Now sitting, you felt an odd lump beneath one of your asscheeks, but you paid that no mind - Chara was more important. You looked down upon their unconscious body with worry but noticed their chest was rising and falling, and you sighed in relief. Good, they're breathing.

Now sitting up and looking down where you used to lay, you noticed that you and your sibling had fallen atop a little patch of vibrant yellow flowers. They were quite large, and you couldn't exactly decipher what kind of flower it was. After all, it's not like studying flowers was a time-consuming hobby of yours. But now, part of you kind of wished it was.

How could flowers save you from a fall from such a height?

You stretched as you pondered the thought, straightening your back and reaching your arms above your head. You winced upon extending the appendages, your muscles aching in protest, but you knew it was good for you; either this or not be able to move your body at all here soon once the pain fully set in. As you did this, your mind went back to that lump beneath your ass. It felt... crumbly, almost. Crunchy? Oh well, you'd be able to describe it better when you found out the cause.

You lifted one side of your butt in order to reach beneath you, but felt nothing. That's strange... OH SHIT! It suddenly hit you just what had been in your pocket this entire time. You reached into your back pocket, and pulled out the sad squashed rectangle that you called your phone. The glass had completely shattered, and it looked more like a lumpy chunk of rock than anything else.

"Fuuuck," you groaned, dropping the destroyed device beside you and placing your head in your hands. Before you could complain any further, though, you heard some shuffling and slight whining from beside you. Your eyes widened as you quickly whipped your head to the side, watching Chara as they began to move.

"Nnhgh, wha... wha happen?" they asked groggily with a hoarse voice, reaching up to rub their eyes before opening them.

"Chara! I'm so glad you're okay!" you exclaimed, and they hissed, scrunching their eyes closed as they lazily waved one of their arms at you.

"Shhhhushhh," they whined, "'s too louddddd." You couldn't help the grin that found its way to your face as you shook your head with a light chuckle.

"Sorry, kiddo, I'm just glad to see you're alive," you said, this time much softer than before, and they absentmindedly nodded along before suddenly stopping. They reopened their eyes, shooting up into a sitting position with an expression of shock.

"Alive?! We could've died?!" they gasped, seemingly forgetting all about their problem with volume literal seconds before this. You nodded.

"Yeah, do you not remember?" you questioned, tilting your head to the side curiously as you looked at your sibling in concern. Then, your gaze went up, and you pointed high above to the tiny pinprick of light in this cavern's ceiling. "We fell down a hole in that cave we went into, dude; fell all the way down here." Chara's crimson eyes followed yours, and they widened even more upon noticing how far away that opening was. They then looked back at you.

"We survived a fall from that high?!" they asked, and you chuckled in disbelief while putting your head back in your hands.

"Trust me, Chara, I find it hard to believe too," you replied, rubbing your temples. Sure you survived the fall here, but where the hell was here anyways? Where were you?

"Do you think this is where they ended up?" Chara asked, voice going from shock to excitement. You cocked a brow.

"Uh... where who ended up?" you questioned, looking at them in confusion. You were met with eyes glistening and full of wonder.

"The monsters, duh!" they responded eagerly, getting up to their feet while they said this. Monsters?

Visions flashed in your mind of a dark void-like space, images of war and bloodshed, of the mountain, of monsters... but it was gone just as quick as it came. You felt a sharp pain in your head, wincing with a slight hiss. "M-Monsters?" you repeated, slowly rising to your feet as well. Your legs hurt, but not too bad, so at least you could walk. That was good.

"Well, duh, don't you remember the stories?" Chara asked.

"Oh, those stories," you said, finally remembering the tales around the town of a fight between humans and monsters long ago; a tale about the 'brave' humans pushing back those 'evil and vile' monsters, sealing them beneath the mountain to remain beneath the earth for an eternity. You had always felt that it was quite unfair, that the humans in these stories were assholes for doing that, but your opinion of how it went was neither here nor there.

"Yeah, the stories! Do you think that we'll find the monsters?"

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. "Look, kiddo, as hopeful as I'd like to be, they're just stories." Chara frowned, crossing their arms with a huff.

"Don't be such a buzzkill," they complained. "Come on, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Hmm, let's see," you began, turning around and starting to walk in the only direction that wasn't just a cavern wall of dirt and stone. "Probably at the bottom of some hole in the fucking mountain." Chara giggled as they jogged to catch up with you before slowing to a stroll once they were at your side.

"Okay, hah hah," they said, nudging your ribs with their elbow. You ignored the sting of pain that came with it in favour of slapping their arm away while the two of you shared a laugh. You couldn't help but admire their optimism that burned brighter than any fire you'd ever seen. They could make light of even the darkest of situations, and you truly loved that about them.

The two of you continued to walk out of the large circular cavernous area, hand-in-hand, and found yourselves in a stone passage. Walking through the darkness, the only sound to be heard was your footsteps echoing in this odd underground corridor. It was far too quiet, eerily so, and you didn't like that in the slightest.

The passage came to an end at another larger cavernous area full of dirt and grass, and there was more light pouring in at its entrance. However, in this clearing was something that unnerved you. Sitting in the most well-lit patch of grass was some sort of figure that you could barely make out in the distance. Chara sighed in relief upon seeing light again, and was about to make a break for it, but you quickly grabbed their wrist to stop them.

"There's something up ahead," you muttered before they could protest, and they just looked at you in confusion before looking up ahead for themselves. It took them a moment, but eventually they saw it too, and froze. You squeezed their hand tighter in reassurance.

"What do you think it is?" they asked quietly, and your head was spinning with thoughts - most of them full of worry.

"I... I don't know," you replied honestly, taking a step forward and straining your vision in attempts to see it better. From its shape and shadowy outline, it didn't look like any sort of creature you'd find out here in the wilderness. Or maybe...

Your heart dropped, and you quickly pushed Chara behind you. They looked at you, panicked, and you placed a finger to your lips signaling for them to be quiet. "Listen, I think that might be a bear cub," you explained, gesturing to the creature with a jab of your thumb. "Which means there's probably a big 'ol mom nearby ready to absolutely wreck our shit." They nodded, showing they were listening, and you continued. "So, here's the plan: we're just gonna walk, as casually as we can manage, and go right past it. If it follows, just keep walking, it'll get bored eventually, and as long as we're not messing with it the mom should hopefully be oh so kind enough to let us keep our heads. Yeah?"

Chara swallowed nervously, but nodded, showing their understanding. You took a deep breath, squeezing their hand tight once more, and began to walk forward out of the stone passage. The closer you got to the entrance of the larger area, you began to realize... whatever the fuck it could be, that thing was not a bear.

"I don't think that's..." Chara said, trailing off, and practically reading your thoughts. You nodded, breath shaky and heart racing as you held them close. "Well, what do you think it is?" they asked, "Now that we know it's not a bear, at least." Your stomach dropped as you realized the most likely answer.

But... it couldn't be... could it?

The two of you got closer and closer, until you were right at the threshold of the large grassy cavernous area. The creature was a lot closer now, and luckily it seemed to have its attention elsewhere as it didn't notice the two of you. It had white fur, ears like a cat - looked a lot like a large cat, too - and weird round lumps on the side of their head like where a ram's curly horns would be. And, strangest of all, it... it was wearing a blue t-shirt with a yellow stripe across the middle.

"Holy shit," you whispered beneath your breath, eyes widening. Monsters... the monsters sealed beneath the mountain. You got more images flashing through your mind of the mountain, the monsters, the barrier, the cave; the very same cave you two had entered.

"What?" Chara asked in concern, "what's going on?" What're they talking about? Didn't they see it? You looked over, your e/c eyes meeting their red ones, and realized that they had actually been focusing on you the entire time. You swallowed thickly, taking a deep shaky breath before being able to answer.

"Well, Chara, I think... I think we just found one of your monsters." You gestured towards the creature in the middle of the clearing, and they gasped excitedly, but quickly covered their mouth with their hands as their eyes grew wide. They were too loud, and they knew it.

Suddenly, upon hearing the gasp, the creature turned its head in your direction. You locked eyes with it, its beady black little eyes staring straight through you. You shivered, and Chara slowly crept behind you. The creature smiled widely - and quite cutely - and let out an excited gasp of its own. It began bouncing up and down in excitement, almost...vibrating, it seemed?

"Aww, it's kinda cute," Chara remarked, and despite your worry, you couldn't help but agree.

"HOI!" the creature shouted loudly, startling you and Chara so much that the both of you yelped as you staggered backwards.

"Holy shit it talks, holy shit oh my god," you said, and Chara smiled excitedly.

"It talks!" they repeated, and dashed out from behind you before you could even register what was going on.

"Wha- hey! Chara!" you exclaimed, giving chase and following them to the center of the clearing where they stood before the fluffy white creature.

"Hoi!" it repeated, this time a little less loud since it didn't need to shout all the way across the clearing for you to hear it. It waved a cute little fluffy paw, and your heart melted just a little.

"Hello!" Chara responded happily, giving a small wave of their own as they sat down criss-cross in the grass before the fuzzy creature.

"Hoi! Oi'm Temmie! Temmie the Tem!" the creature - Temmie - responded. Temmie? What the fuck?

You cleared your throat awkwardly as you sat down beside Chara on your knees, giving Temmie a little wave too. "Well, uh, hey there Temmie," you replied, very shocked and also very confused.

"Hi Temmie! I'm Chara," Chara responded happily, clearly very eager to be conversing with this... fluffy... uh... you weren't sure what to think of it as; calling it a 'thing' felt far too rude, but you weren't quite sure if it was one of those monsters from the stories either.

"Chara! New fwiend Chara!" Temmie replied eagerly, and Chara giggled happily. You couldn't help the smile that found its way to your face. Temmie was quite cute, that was for sure, and who knows? Maybe you could trust it- or, them. Yeah, them, that felt a bit less rude to you.

Then, knocking you out of your thoughts, Chara gave you a nudge with their elbow. You realized that they and Temmie were looking at you expectantly, and you chuckled awkwardly. "O-Oh, uh, I'm Y/n," you responded sheepishly, not so proud that you embarrassed yourself by spacing out in front of this... floof. A floof in a shirt. God, you still couldn't get over that.

"Chara! Y/n! New fwiends! Awa!!" Temmie exclaimed happily, vibrating. This time, you were close enough to confirm, they were indeed vibrating. What the fuck. Suddenly, they stopped, and tilted their head while their smile changed slightly. It was eerie, almost. "Yu two awn't fwom here, are yu?" they asked sweetly, and you and Chara both exchanged looks of concern.

"U-Uh... no, no we're not," you answered for the both of you after a moment of hesitation, scooting a little closer to Chara as your body tensed.You weren't so sure if this 'Temmie' could be trusted yet.

"Well den, since Temmie is such gud fwiend, she will help yu!" Oh, SHE, got it, got it, you thought, but how on earth is she going to be able to help us? Give us directions? A ladder tall enough to climb out of that hole?

"How?" Chara asked, once again voicing your thoughts aloud. Temmie's smile widened, but it didn't seem as friendly as last time. This one felt just a bit more... sinister. Your stomach began twisting and turning as your mind raced, but she spoke up, taking you out of your thoughts.

"Yu must be SO confwused! Uwa! Temmie will help!"

Well, yeah, anyone would be confuUUUUSED WHAT THE-?!

Suddenly, your chest felt tight, your body felt numb, and quite cold - it almost felt as if you'd been submerged into an ice-bath. You could only assume the cause of that was the glowing thing wrenched from your abdomen that was now floating directly in front of you.

What. The fuck.

You stared at it in shock, eyes wide, watching the glowing pulsating heart-shaped s/c thing in front of you with an awe you had never quite felt before. It seemed as if everything around you was significantly darker, the glowing light of this heart being all-encompassing and consuming all of your attention. The beautiful s/c light emitting from this floating thing scared you, almost; you felt as if anything were to touch it, your entire being would shatter. You couldn't think of why, but you knew you felt incredibly connected to this glowing heart.

You looked over at Chara to see the same shock and awe on their face as well. Before them, a red heart floated above the ground and in front of their chest. You looked back to yours, and Temmie continued.

"Dis is yu SOUL, da vewy culmination of yu bein'!" she explained.

My... soul?

The s/c glow reflected off your eyes as you gazed at this floating heart in a trance-like state. This is my soul... As weird and fucked-up as these past few minutes have been, you couldn't help but believe Temmie. Her words, they just felt... right. This was your soul, and you knew that now. It just made sense to you. It explained why your body felt cold, and why you felt so strangely attached to it. Despite the chill in your bones you could feel the warmth radiating from the s/c soul before you. You reached out to touch it, tempted to see what would happen, how it would react, but were startled away from doing so when Temmie began to speak again.

"Yu SOUL stawts off weak, BUT can gro STWONG if yu get lots and lots of da L.V.!"

Your hand dropped to your side. "L.V?" you muttered to yourself, confused. What was this, some video game?

"Now, what does L.V. stand for? LOVE, of couwse! LOVE!"

Love?

"Yu both want lots and lots of LOVE, yahyah?!" As Temmie said this, your soul began to shake and tremble. The idea of something bad happening made your heart start racing, and you tried as hard as you could to mentally will your soul back into your body - if that was how this even worked. However, you noticed some sort of resistance; a blockage, if you will. Something was keeping your soul there, and it was almost certain this force was Temmie.

You and Chara exchanged concerned glances again. What the fuck was going on?! What on earth did she mean by 'love'?! What the hell was she planning to do?! "Well, don worries! Uwa! Temmie share wif yu!" With that, she winked, and a small white flash twinkled by her winking eye, almost like a star in those anime scenes.

Crossing your vision before you were white blocky letters, letters that spelled out 'LV: 1'. Your eyes widened as you yelped in shock, scrambling back a bit from the fright; your floating s/c soul followed you, remaining only a few inches from your chest. What the fuck was happening?! First your soul is a glowing heart that can leave your fucking body, and now you're gaining L.V. like some weird video game! What the fuck?!

You felt a tap on your shoulder, and looked over to see Chara staring at you with fearful and confused eyes, searching for answers. You simply shook your head, stumped and just as shocked with the situation as they were. Then, you noticed their red soul beginning to move. Following your eyes, they stared at it, and the both of you watched as it merged with Chara's body once more. Then, you looked to your s/c soul, and saw it creeping closer and closer to you. You felt its warmth approaching, and nearly sighed with relief and enjoyment when it re-entered your body. You felt the warmth spreading through your veins, the strength returning to your limbs, the will to live surging back through your bones like a tidal wave - it was damn near euphoric.

The soul, instead of disappearing entirely, left a vibrant s/c glow in its heart shape on your chest, the light seeping through your clothes and illuminating the area around you. Certainly not as much as it had when it was outside of your body, but still enough to make a noticeable difference. Why didn't it disappear completely like how it was before Temmie pulled it out? Confused, you continued staring down at your chest, until Chara shook your arm, startling you from your thoughts and turning your focus back onto Temmie.

"Down here, LOVE is spwead thru widdle white... "Fwiendliness Pewwets"~" Her voice turned sinister at the end of her sentence, and a chill shot through your spine. No, no, this was wrong, something's going on and it's not going to be a good thing. Suddenly, right before your eyes, floating white pellets appeared out of nowhere, dancing in front of you and Chara. Chara cocked a brow, very confused, and you just stared at the pellets, untrusting.

"Go ahead! Touch em! Gwab as many as yu can!! Uwa!" Temmie encouraged, smiling wide and happy, as if she hadn't just sounded like a literal demon moments prior. Chara looked at the pellets with scrutinizing eyes, studying them for a moment, before reaching out to touch one.

"Wait, Chara don't-!"

"OW!" Chara yelled in pain, a loud zap echoing throughout the cavern as the 'friendliness pellet' disappeared. They immediately recoiled in shock, holding their sore hand to their chest, looking at Temmie with wide fearful eyes.

"Chara!" You exclaimed, pushing yourself closer to them and grabbing their hand, pulling it towards yourself to inspect any damage. Their fingertips were red and warm, and it looked as if they were scraped against concrete or some other rough surface.

You turned to look at Temmie, expression full of anger and disgust, and your brows furrowed when you noticed her chuckling. She just hurt your sibling, and she was laughing? Your mouth was agape, and just as you were about to ask her what kind of sick joke this was, she beats you to the punch.

"Yu IDIOTS!" Her voice held that strange demonic chill like before, lower and more gravelly, and her grin turned maniacal. She was vibrating again, as if her little evil body was bursting at the seams with excitement at the thought of bringing you two pain. "In this world, it's KILL or BE KILLED!"

Well, so much for 'cutesy stranger floof wearing a shirt'. Now that Temmie showed her true colors, it was apparent her intentions were more 'cutesy villain wanting to kill you' coded - still wearing the shirt, though.

Your eyes narrowed as you stared Temmie down with an icy glare that was fit to kill. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" you asked, pulling Chara into your protective embrace. "We didn't even do anything! "Why-!"

"Why not?!" Temmie screeched through her crazed laughter, interrupting you. "Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this?!" Her evil laughs continued, and you squeezed Chara tight, looking down at them with concern. We need to get out of here, was all you could think, and once your body had finally caught up with your mind, you stood and tugged your sibling to their feet. You kept a firm grip on one of their hands, and turned to run, ignoring Temmie's loud devilish cackles as you did so. You heard the sounds of those pellets appearing again, this time many many more, surrounding the area in a large circle, and that's when you decided you were out of there.

But, you couldn't even make it more than twenty feet or so before you ran face-first into some sort of barrier you couldn't see - luckily you were the one in front instead of Chara. You felt a horrible stinging pain, heard a crunch, and suddenly something warm and wet was trickling down past your lips. "Y/n!" Chara exclaimed as you recoiled back, shouting over Temmie's laughter that was steadily increasing in volume.

You cupped your bleeding and broken nose with one hand while the other still held Chara's, your head spinning as you struggled to grapple for focus on something - anything - other than the pain and fear. You released one of Chara's hands, and lifted your head, blinking hard in attempts to push away your now blurry vision. You reached forward, towards where you had been so abruptly stopped, and your hand was stopped by the same unseen barrier. It created a small ripple effect around where your palm made contact.

However, before you had more time to think about what the fuck this barrier was and who made it and why it was keeping you there, you had to think fast. The pellets began closing in, and you backed away with Chara, watching them pass through the barrier that kept you in like it was nothing. You turned to face Temmie, angry, watching with rage and hatred while she laughed and laughed and laughed.

"DIE!"

Chara yelped, burying their face into your - still glowing - chest, shaking with fear. Your heart was racing, along with your thoughts. Was this really where you were going to die? Not from the fall, but at the hands- er, at the paws of some twisted and fucked-up creature? You closed your eyes, tucking your head atop of Chara's and holding them as tight as you could, blood dripping onto the top of their head and soaking into their brown hair; seeing as death was imminent, however, they didn't really seem to mind. The pellets spun closer and closer, until you could hear the hum and feel the heat coming off of them, when suddenly...

Temmie gasped, and the pellets disappeared. You peeked an eye open, seeing her eyes wide with fear, looking off to the side somewhere. Suddenly, a ball of fire came flying from the distance, hitting her and sending her flying.

"WAHHHH!"

With a sharp intake of breath, you scampered back, still clinging to Chara and breathing like you just ran several miles. The heat that came off of the fireball was intense, painful almost, but luckily neither of you had gotten burned. The two of you shared looks of relief, grateful to still be alive with each other, before fully realizing and taking in what you had just seen.

That was a fucking fireball that you had just witnessed, a fireball that came out of nowhere.

Well, actually...

The heavy footsteps that graced your ears indicated that 'nowhere' wasn't quite the case.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..."

[cephiwyrm]

please please please share all of your ocs!!

HELLO YES I WILL??? there was one i was specifically vague posting about in the one reblog which i will NOT but i will share something funny abt him

my ex made a cardboard cut out of him, hated him so much they STABBED HIM and then mailed me the arm, and of course i still own it. ANYWAYS! pulling these from my main toyhouse (i have an ugly watermark i am so sorry) let the rambling begin (extremely long i am so sorry LMAO)

(cutely pulls up a piece of art) alright this is my cherry pop story! they are 3 cryptid / unnatural monster type hunters in a universe that is pretty much exactly like earth 1:1 except it was cats and dogs that became the main dominant species. the main character (aka just the one we see through her POV theyre all main characters to me.sniff) is Annie! she is a quiet and get it done type of character, besides working the 9 to 5 monster hunting job, she really likes games (this takes place in the 2000s btw) and is interested in how mechanical stuff works! also she is a trans icon :)

next is Peyton! shes she nerdy, figure it out type. probably the one in the group the most interested in what they're actually being paid to do; also one of the first ones to notice what is actually going on. she mainly enjoys going out and fucking around with her skateboard and shes a little sillay gal

last but not least in cherry pop is Micah! hes the brawns and usually helps with doing physical objectives, and also just catching the monsters in general if need be. first one to come to conclusions, even if they are SEVERELY wrong. he is captain of the swim team and wishes to go to a bigger college one day (they are in a small town)

OK NEXT !! AFTER PARTY they are some of my oldest ocs (not OLDEST oldest but def. there) and their story is a little all over the place since its with me and my friends and we havent gotten into it recently (its basically a masquerade type kill scenario) all their art is a little old but this is Okano! at a very young age, her father died and she was able to take over a very well off company. Well she doesn't make huge decisions by herself at the moment, she shows great opportunity in the future. she is very distrusting because of it though, and takes a while to warm up to people.

next is kaga! (one next to peyton) shes a little silly gal, shes very reckless and kind of doesn't care about danger shes in it for the thrill. absolutelu kills it being a roller blader, but also just likes walking around with no shoes on. also ! she works in a tattoo shop :)))

now realizing i have a lot of. trio characters huh. anyways! heres kiki. no ur not getting a genuine image bebcause she iisss so baby...... anyways; she is a french vlogger! she loves exploring the world and showing it to her growing number of people. also has a small AU inside of stardew valley :) shes obsessed with seagulls as well

ok realizing i have too many ocs and i dont want this to be like two million word post (30+ on my main and more not even on TH) so ill end off with my TTRPG charas :) this is Milo my druid aarakocra for DnD! on like the second session he got struck by lightining and got a god that way. When he was just a litol baby he wandered off from his home and into a forest where his brother, an elf named Leo, went up to his soon to be mentor/father figure Crechir like CAN WE PLEASE KEEP HIM PELASEEEEEE and may or may not have lied about his entire home burning to the ground later on he found a little gold dragon which when touching different objects changed colour; and was named skittle. little funny thing about skittle was everytime a gold coin was fed, he would grow just a little bit. even more later on, he was sent an ominous message about his birth home about how his mother had died and he was the next chieftan and so he had to go do some special trials in order to become one! he also went to the hell casino and since crechir gave him chips he was able to get an amulet that lets him shift between his two forms, treefolk and birdfolk

and finally, this is Ash for MOTW! she is a twin in a small town in canamerica (canada and america fused because our irl party is in both) due to being a twin, she was born with some spooky (haha her class) powers, and will send her twin Ali memes via telapathy. unfortunately being a teen with powers, she is also kind of very angsty and prone to some bursts of outrage. besides that, she has a very strong interest in wood carving, while her twin loves to hunt crytids, due to the strangeness of their town they have to deal with it every once in a while! they have a pet snake belovingly named banana (or boenana. shes a boa constrictor) and is honestly a teen that is addicated to her phone

ty for reading if you did!! i fucking LOVE MY OCS. SO MUCH. I WILL GO ON AND ON ABOUT THEM UNTIL I RUN OUT OF THEIR ACTUAL STORY

[ridiculous-disaster]

Because I hate this show’s lackluster season finale and because I hate Zoe, I’m going to complain about her outfit. Now I might be a bit biased towards this outfit considering that I recently reviewed the crime that is Kitty noir. In comparison Vesperia, stupid as she is looks decent.

Might as well start of with the positives, don’t worry this list isn’t to long,

This does hide her identity rather well, a hair style change goes a long way.

Her shoes stand out from the others in an interesting way.

Those who made this stupid outfit had way better ideas concerning colors then Kittys designers did. There are just two main colors do match the colors of a yellow jacket, (the species that she was most likely based on)

Hair antennae are an interesting choice, doesn’t work however as she now hat four antennae.

Notice how short that list is, and two of those are just an interesting and unique choice. Considering that this is the replacement to queen bee, a really well thought out outfit and one of the best in my opinion. I will get more into Chloe later but for now this is the list of stupid things in this outfit, I will rank them from least annoying to worst thing in this show.

The mask looks stupid, they tried to use the top of the mask as a way to show emotions like how we use eyebrows in animation. But it looks stupid, the mask bends down to, I assume look like a V, but just no it looks dumb, her outfit already has enough V’s on it you don’t need more in dumb places.

What is up with her bangs, I get that they’re supposed to look like antennae but they just look like they came straight out of an anime and it clashes with the rest of her outfit as it has more of a motor head aesthetic, also the miraculous already has two antennae sticking out of it, you don’t need more.

The clear favoritism in her transformation secureness, compare her to Mylene who literally stands still for half of her transformation, I have seen fan animations who have more movement in their transformation

She literally just stand still here,

Compare this to vesperia

The entire sequences has this amount of detail and movement, it’s clear favoritism towards their “best bee ever”. Her transformation also shows a lot more creativity then any other hero or villain, more then the main characters. One of the worst characters on the show has one of the best transformations. How stupid is that.

4. Her outfit is nowhere near as though out as Queen bee

Look at her. It’s an outfit that both clearly shows who she is and has a really well thought out composition. I need a list for all that this does well, but this is already getting long enough so here’s a summary. She properly looks like a bee, black limbs and a yellow torso, she is designed to move your eyes, her stripes move your eyes downward to look at her legs and then upwards again to her completely, this is accomplished with the stripes getting smaller, also an adorable detail, her fingers look like she’s gathering pollen.

This is a great outfit compare this to vesperia

She barely even resembles a wasp (I will get back to that), yellow limbs and a black torso, it’s like doing the opposite approach. The black fingers add nothing as it doesn’t represent anything and does a poor job a balancing. Her pattern is now on everywhere her legs, also those are not insect stripes, those are tiger stripes at best. Her outfit doesn’t guide your eyes anywhere, I didn’t expect the copy to be better but it shouldn’t be this bad, you already made a bee before, learn from that, take note what people like and don’t, but hey what do you expect from a one dimensional replacement that was only added in because light gray was far to nuanced, yes I’m talking about Chloe when I say gray… I miss season two.

5. Thai isn’t a god dammed bee, it’s a wasp. The BEE miraculous made a wasp. You don’t see the mouse turning into a hamster, that’s because they’re different species, I can excuse hawkmoth because moths and butterflies are I the same family and he’s the villain. But this is stupid.

With all this said, what does vesperia have going for her. I haven’t even dissected her personality and I already have a huge rant about her and as some may have noticed I took apart and complained about everything in this outfit. Compare the good things to the bad. There are 4 good things, two of witch are basically the same thing and one witch I complained about. The favoritism towards her is also staggering.

Final note, about Chloe and her. If I was Chloe I would be pissed. A few episodes ago a hero whose identity had been revealed had gotten right back into action and now there is someone with the miraculous she used to use, stating how much better she is then her and ladybug does nothing as this wasp just stand around and gloats. The episode doesn’t seem to show vesperia explaining the situation to Chloe, so for all she knows someone who is far more self-centered then her is still given access to the bee. It’s honestly kinda sad if you think about it that way.

[cryptidofthekeys]

“Galaxy”

....Sooo I um, y’all... I forgot,, to post the thingy I had been working on, gjfkdlfgjd so im doing it now before I forget too,, its just a fucked up Cerberus lookin ass amalgamation of an animatronic,, three lads combined into one body

I SHOULD say,, this is just the base description, anything in side facts n shit like that can be subject to change when I write stories, I say that bc 9 times outta 10 I DO change some shit around when writing with all the things I make, this shit has probs already been done before like oh fusing them essentially into one body, lmao i dont,, really care, I just had my own vision in mind and voila here we are

----------------------------------------

| Name: Galaxy

| Nickname: Gala

| Gender: They/It/He

| Age: Doesn’t have one, it’s literally an animatronic …er, well…

| Height: 20ft

| Species/Race: They’re basically three animatronics fused to one really messy body

| Occupation: Former Daycare Attendants, more so just guards and protects the Daycare (what remains of it anyway) now than anything

| Eye Colors: Moon has red and white eyes, Sun has blue eyes, and Eclipse’s eyes are just a dark orange void sorta thing (his pupils are a dark red color but you can see little white specks in them)

-----------------------------

| Appearance: I’m skipping straight here to explain all the details I need to, soo let’s start off with the left half or… Moon essentially- his face is just,, well normal in all honesty the only thing different is him looking v scratched and beat up and p dirty, same goes for Sun in those regards and even Eclipse- p much the entire BODY looks beaten to hell and back and dirty- And for smaller more intricate details for the damage, Sun’s missing two of his rays bottom left and upper right, the body’s got damage that makes them occasionally spark and it hurts all three of them, you cannot touch ANY part of the body that belongs to Eclipse.

--------------------------

Reason being they’ll burn you p much (his parts are p much the middle torso, his arms, face, and then its legs but those are covered by pants but I still wouldn't risk touching them), I’m not changing much from like canon designs soo Moon is p much just the white n blue colors, right down to his blue starry pants that glow in the dark btw, Sun’s pants are the same ol striped ones, and Eclipse’s pants are just inverse colors of Sun’s essentially, a darker orange color (and he’s got black stars on them), also they still got the bells attached to their wrists, Eclipse doesn’t have any bells however.

-----------------------------

Moon has his sharp teeth and claws, Sun doesn’t have any of those things, and Eclipse has not just sharp teeth BUT their v crooked and jagged as hell, and basically they’re fucking fingers are just long claws (Moon’s torso is the upper one and Sun’s torso is the bottom one) also both Moon n Sun have their slippers p much from game, Eclipse’s is inverse color and has what is, well,, an obvious Eclipse marking on its shoes- The thing that connects them to the neck, basically okay imagine a pitchfork BUT with only three pointy bits instead of four, of course it’s a MUCH thicker-esque pole than that to support their weight, but those three poles connect their heads to the body.

---------------------------------------

And if it wasn’t obvious, they basically have six legs connected to this one body, and of course six arms (Moon’s legs being left, Eclipse’s legs in the middle, Sun’s legs on the right and then for the arms, Moon’s arms being top, Eclipse’s in the middle again, and finally of course Sun’s arms on the bottom) speaking of their torso is actually fairly long (I mean we SAW how lanky those fuckers were in the game) and they need a big torso to support that body of theirs.

----------------------------------------

Eclipse has rays much like Sun’s but they are that darker orange color (the top ray is literally bent and hanging on by a thread at this point) the bottoms of the rays has a dark red coming out of them essentially, they’re face is all black but on the edge of the circle it's got a white glow around it (p much like encircling the entire faceplate, that should make more sense) and his mouth is a bit hard to explain its VERY much different from Sun and Moon's mouth- its basically like when it opens its mouth- its a PURE WHITE void inside, the only thing you can see is basically the blackness that’s shaped into teeth, it might look like mere shadows but don’t be fooled, it can definitely tear things apart with those teeth. However much like the others- You can see the faintest outline of the moon part of the faceplate and of course the sun part of the faceplate.

---------------------------------------------

I dunno if I explained this part just yet but uh his fingers- er, well claws I guess are that dark red color meanwhile his arms, hands and legs underneath the pants are the darker orange color (he’s got some areas that look black too tho, whether its purely filth or part of they’re design who knows lmao) now I don’t know if I have any more details to cover bgfjkdlgfjd I’m so forgetful its why I don’t d o shit like this that often but the FINAL things I can think of are p much 1: Eclipse’s rays essentially are a bit more flowy-esque then Sun’s and finally 2: They have a long tail, it’s made up of all the other kinds of planets and then has a star at the end of it (the star along with the planets also glows in the dark, i just think its fun- there's no rhyme or reason for glow in the dark tail I just like the aesthetic)

--------------------------------------------------

I changed a few things about Sun n Moon but not MUCH- I was more so invested in keeping my own Eclipse design, at least for in THIS AU in particular lmao (i did forget one thing, they have buttons going up the torso, Sun’s buttons being red, Eclipse’s Black, and Moon’s blue, both Sun and Moon’s buttons squeak, Eclipse’s do not)

------------------------------

| Side Facts: Not going to bother with a personality part, but all you really need to know is that they’re NOT evil even though they look like an absolute monster, they aren’t evil- Now they COULD be misunderstood at first and that’s mostly because if someone ACTUALLY fucking enters the Daycare- After ALL these years?!? If someone ACTUALLY enters it would do everything in its power to make sure that person N E V E R leaves them again… …So kinda yandere-ish in a way but not intentionally evil, they’re just EXTREMELY lonely and have honestly a lot of trauma deep down, their scared of being abandoned again so SEVERE abandonment issues p much- They just want a new friend… They’ve been lonely for s o long now, won’t you keep them company~?

-----------------------------

…Oh I will say though they ARE super unhinged and feral gHGJKFLHGJFDKS- I mean that’s just them naturally, its AMPED up tho to a 100 considering their stuck in one body p much.

-----------------------------

P much- THE BEST WAY I CAN DESCRIBE IT IS THEY’RE LIKE A GIANT PUPPY WHO JUST,, DOESNT UNDERSTAND SHIT ANYMORE- like for example, they don’t understand boundaries, they don’t understand they could push things too far- They can be VERY clingy too btw, will show nothing but affection if they grow attached to you …But there’s always lingering fear even if you grow a relationship with them that you’ll wind up leaving them behind too, just like everyone else did…

-----------------------------

Needs A LOT and I mean a LOT of reassurance but in the end he’s very lovable, friendly, and sweet …can be grumpy sometimes especially if woken up which that’s a lot of Moon and then other times VERY energetic which is Sun, and then Eclipse? …It's just, well, Eclipse lmao- kinda a neutral ground

--------------------------------

Now… I won’t say they CAN’T be a threat but that’d mostly be the overprotective nature it can get if it grows attached to someone and he DOES have the capacity to kill or hurt ANYONE and I mean ANYONE if they are deemed a threat, and it's hard to stop them if they have deemed anything a threat… But usually, they- despite being unhinged and feral as fuck- They are nice and sweet, a giant puppy who just wants a new fren WHO W O N T LEAVE AND ABANDON THEM… HAHAHA… Ahem-

----------------------------------

As I stated earlier,, Gala usually guards and watches over the remains of the Daycare, that is their home, and sometimes when they get especially lonely they do love to look at the drawings the kids had made for them so long ago, it thinks fondly on those memories of the kids, laughing, singing, playing around- Having a wonderful time with their three friends, Sun, Moon, and… Eclipse… . . . Sometimes, he gets himself so upset with the memories- sure they are good and wonderful BUT it hurts that nobody has come around for, hmm how long has it even been? They lost track of time years and years ago…

-----------------------------------------

Galaxy doesn’t like mirrors, they DESPISE anytime they can see themselves, they don’t wanna see this body they're stuck in, they don’t want constant reminders of what happened… It just wants to go back to normal, all in their own bodies, it doesn’t want to be a monster… So needless to say it uh does have something like self-esteem issues and those can get pretty bad if he sees themselves in a mirror or any reflective surface, it’s just a constant reminder when they see their body what they have truly become.

---------------------------------------

OKAY,, ASIDE FROM SAD AND DEPRESSING SHIT BC JFC I JUST REALIZED THERE'S NOTHING GOOD HERE,, Galaxy can be very loving and sweet when you grow close to it, despite such overprotectiveness and fear of abandonment, it can be very loving- Now sure they know they can’t touch you, not with the spark thing and of course Eclipse burning you, BUT you know- This giant lad will admire the hell out of you from a safe distance, brings you gifts and trinkets whenever he can (again, giant puppy) while their voice boxes aren’t what they used to be, they are v much happy to listen, sometimes the occasional voice will break through.

-----------------------------------------

You’ll hear either of their voices at times, Eclipse’s voice you unfortunately can’t understand anymore because its voice box is p much gone at this point so they mostly stick to sign language when they want to speak, sometimes when the others want to speak badly enough as well instead of hoping one of their voices gets through- They will also use sign language, you’ll hear many things on them actually, sounds of whirring, glitchy or just broken sounds, their voices, sometimes static, and then of course the occasional sparking sound.

----------------------------------------------

But I’m not going to lie… What they wouldn’t GIVE to hold you close to them, you cuddle you as closely as they physically can, but if they could do that well… It would NEVER let go of you, I’m not exaggerating you would genuinely be carried e v e r y w h e r e- even though they know not to get close enough to burn or shock you, they still don’t know boundaries at all,, jkfgljgfds they’re trying their best, like come on they haven’t had any animatronics let ALONE H U M A N S to interact with in god knows h o w long!

---------------------------------------

…And of course you’re probably wondering, what the FUCK happened to these three? What happened to The Mega Pizzaplex? What- JUST W HAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!? …Weeeeellllll…. If I told you that’d spoil the fuuuunnnn, silly~! >:] …AANNYYYWAYS~! He also loves to finger paint, tell stories, they attempt to sing lullabies but it never works …so they play it on somethin else instead lmao, or just play games in general tbh- it reminds them of their time spent tending to the children in the Daycare, it can cheer them up usually …And I say USUALLY for a reason btw.

------------------------------------------

I suppose that uh Sun or Moon could hold you but then Eclipse gets jealous and angry bc he can’t hold you so they prefer to not pick you up or hold you or ANYTHING like that tbh, but now I will say, even though I won’t say how just yet, there IS a way to fix all their issues it’d just take fucking F O R E V E R considering they’re 20ft tall lmao

-----------------------------------------------

Also shit I did forget to mention something appearance wise, that lil uh skirt lookin thing they have on p much- They have that BUT it’s literally combined- like in the front is Eclipse’s dark orange n black stars, left is Moon’s blue and starry one, and then finally Sun’s red and yellow stripes on the right.

--------------------------------------------------

Btw VERY overprotective over any children that come around even tho the kids usually run away from them, but if a child were to stick around- that child will be protected- you will n o t hurt them, try it and you’ll suffer just sayin- cause uh there’s MUCH worse things they can do to you aside from burning or electrocution… 

---------------------------------------

Another thing, goddammit im noticing so much shit i missed FHJVKLFGJKDS- but uh the ‘poles’ that essentially connect to the body are color coded ghjfkdjdks no reason for that either i just think it looks nicer,, Moon’s being blue, Sun’s of course is yellow, and then Eclipse’s is darker orange. Also those ‘poles’ used to not necessarily be polls- it uh let their heads stretch out a bit, kinda like something out of a literal fucking cartoon but considering its been years since they’ve been cleaned and repaired, they’ve got parts missing, damaged, some color has deteriorated, and they also even have some rust in certain areas, but uh those are just stiff ass polls now so-

---------------------------------

Oh yeah, Eclipse has little white sparkles on the palms of its hands (looks like stars shining on its palms) , Moon has well, moons on his palms, and then Sun well- obviously has Suns on his palms.

---------------------------------------

They also have a good few wires sticking out of them too which is not safe but again, who's going to willingly volunteer to repair a 20ft animatronic that looks like T H A T!

[9wonnih]

—

⠀⠀

“ happiness is just a temporary refuge from the sadness ”

⠀⠀

—

⠀⠀

⠀

⠀

⠀

the alarm buzzed as i woke up only to find me laying on the couch. after yesterday's anxiousness, i decided to watch my all-time beloved show to calm myself. it was 5am in the morning, i always wake up early in the morning which have become my daily routine. controlling my consciousness, i took time to dress up and had breakfast. it was time for me to leave for college.

i double knotted my shoes to prevent them from coming out as undone because it would be awkward to be stared at. i took local bus which left me at the school building. i took a few deep breaths. the flowers around the place smelt so good which i took time to admire before going in.

i stepped inside the class only to find myself alone as i was early today. but the time soon passed yet the teacher was late again. the boredom hit me like a train. oof! but then i remembered grabbing “ kookie's ” book. the curiosity got the best of me so i opened it up to the second page..

—

life is cruel for all the species in the world. it is divided into sadness and happiness, unequally. we are always taught to find– more likely chase the happiness. it's nothing but a false hope.

it's just like money, the more we chase, the more it runs away. the entire life we get to feel 20% of the happiness and the rest percentage is sadness and hardships. and yet, we are not allowed to show how we feel about this.

why are we born? just to suffer. the society, who never appreciated our unique self is controlling our lives. from breathing to sleeping. every damn thing. yet again, we wake up every day to please this society. we are not working for ourselves, it's only for the society we live in.

there is no difference between us and the caged birds. they are never allowed to leave. the world was never at peace. instead of knowing ourselves, we are put in a lane to hunt for the money or so-called happiness. it's nothing but a piece of paper, yet it decides what food we should have or what clothes we should wear. strange.

my thoughts are all over the place. one minute i think of giving up on life because i can't figure out the purpose of my life. there is no reason for me to continue breathing. and it can be a goodw reason to die, though. in stark contrast to that, the other minute, i tend to admire the world's peace. nature is a beautiful creation but why not a human?

if we didn't know how to speak or understand, things would have been a little decent today. everything has two sides, so does this. hearing one's words can ease one's pain. so, i am not saying this was ever a bad idea. the problem is that we proscribed from speaking out our true emotions.

the soul is like the jumble words. we just need to fix things here and there to solve. it's not a thing to ignore or leave at the last of the priority list. nobody is gonna heal us until we decide to do so.

people casually say “oh yes they healed me, they are the love of my life”. but oh well, that's so wrong. they only made you realize that you deserve to be happy, you are worth living the life, you are beautiful the way you are and God made you just unique and extraordinary, not ugly. however, humans prefer to be dependent on the other.

—

i was reading carefully until i was disturbed when the teacher entered the classroom with an unfamiliar boy. i shifted myself to my left to have a good look at him. perhaps, a transfer student. he had those big pretty eyes and good looks.

John Keats has once said that the

“ thing of beauty is a joy forever. despite the gloomy days,

unhealthy and over-darkened ways, some shape of beauty moves us away from the pall. ”

and maybe that's a valid reason why i was feeling a pinch of euphoria just by looking at him.

'cause he was just so beautiful.

“Jungkook, Jeon Jungkook. nice to meet you all, looking forward to make good friends’’

he smiled.

a bunny !??

[redacted-scp-antics]

Looong text coming and please don't ignore the warnings!

I'm bored •^• so I've decided to ramble a bit about my characters. Starting with the guy who was created by myself to function as my own version of Bright. Please note that I'm not trying to attack anyone by using my own 963 version. It is just something I personally feel more comfortable with.

TW for mention of death and torture (NOT highly detailed, but take care). Also a manipulative relationship and memory loss.

-His name is Alkaios, he has no last name.

-Physically 29 years old. His real age is much higher but unknown. However, he existed long before humanity was a thing.

-He can NOT possess other people. Instead Alkaois simply regenerates.

-Is close to being immortal, but not completely. He can be killed, but so far, there are only very few who could take his life.

-Alkaios favorite color is turquoise.

-Adores rodents, especially chinchillas

-Works with MTF Delta-4 “Minutemen”.

-Suffers from recurring nightmares and has had many sleepless nights.

-He can creat tiny stars and sometimes gives them to others.

Alkaios is 1.80 meters tall, he is far from being buff but has some muscles thanks to his hard mtf training. They can be seen the most on his arms and legs. He can either be seen wearing his mtf uniform or simple jeans (preffering white, gray and black) a shirt and trekking shoes. During colder days, he is also wearing a peacoat and gloves.

Alkaois calls a silver-blue colored charm bracelet his own. It has different types of pendants. Two daggers, stars and crescent moons. This bracelet and a blue-silver colored dagger are his most important possessions.

He has the habit of shaving himself because he likes the smooth feeling. But doesn't mind body hair on other people.

His skin is light brown, he has bright green eyes, and his hair is black. It reaches down to the middle of his neck and is slightly wavy.

(Death and torture, manipulative relationship and memory loss are going to be mentioned in the following part!)

Alkaois is not a human, he is a part of an ancient species called the "starborn". His body is mainly made out of stars. As a Starborn he used to live inside a realm between the stars. His species was known for being kind and peaceful, preferring to avoid conflicts. For a long time, they existed in peace and were able to defend themselves from the few threats they had to face.

Everything in his life seemed to be alright until something happened that would change his life forever. Another species, the "Stareaters" attacked them, murdering almost everyone and leaving only five of them alive. He tried everything to protect his friends, but was quickly overpowered and forced to helplessly watch them all die.

During the destruction, he was eventually targeted by Carmient, a Stareater known for his cruelty. He was simply curious about how good Alkaois regeneration was. He destroyed his body and soul almost entirely, over and over again. Before finally deciding that he was done with his violent game. After attacking Alkaois one last time, he left and returned to his own realm. Due to the things he went through, his mind completely shut down, and he spent a long time period in a numb state.

Eventually, he regenerated again, far away from his realm. Having lost all of his memory, he wandered the place he found himself in. Before meeting the Foundation for the first time. Alkaois instinct took over, and he protected one of the agents from an attack. The Foundation expected him to die, and when he stood up again, they knew that he was not human. The agents asked Alkaois to follow them, which he did after a short moment of hesitation.

The Administration was already waiting for him. Making sure that the tests Alkaois went through were safe. He spend a while being closely watched by the Foundation especially the Administrator. Who at this time, was the only one who knew who Alkaois really was. However, Ascian decided to keep the whole thing a secret. He couldn't do it, Alkaois was already lost and afraid, and hearing what happened would have been too much in Ascians opinion.

Eventually, he joined the mtf and had many successful missions, making new friends among the Foundation personnel. He still suffered from his nightmares but felt happiness again, trying to see his future in a better light. This worked for a while before he met someone from his past.

Just like Ascian, Carmient had also noticed his return. At first, he just curiously watched Alkaois, before he decided to take action. Knowing that the starborn had lost his memories was amusing for him. This time Carmient approached him differently. He was kind and gentle, always understanding. Managing to slowly lure him in. It didn't take him long to make Alkaois fall in love with him. They spent months together, and for a while, Alkaois almost stopped caring about his memories.

He did tell Ascian that he had found a new friend, but he never mentioned any details. Up to this day, the Administrator deeply regrets not asking more questions and failing to protect him again.

Carmient eventually decided it was time to bring his new game to an end. He promised to show Alkaois what really happened and to make sure that he would finally understand his nightmares. Alkaois followed him into his realm. At first, everything seemed to be fine. Carmient showed him around, never letting go of his hand. After some time, Alkaois noticed something, the other people were staring at him in a strange, hungry way. They seemed to be mocking him. He was eventually unable to ignore this and asked Carmient for help. The stareater just smiled, offering to take him back "home" after he learned the truth.

Alkaois was by now surrounded by a large group of strangers. While listening to the person he loved so much, tell him what he and the others had done to his kind. Again Alkaois mind was starting to shut down. Carmient made sure that he knew that he was the only one keeping him alive and that a few simple words would be enough to bring him a fate worse than death. However, this time Carmient did not physically attack him. Instead, he escorted him back into the human world and waited until the Foundation picked Alkaois up.

By now Alkaois feels a deep hatred for Carmient and the rest of the species. Ascian has warned the Foundation about the danger they are all facing, and is more open about his own past. Trying to prevent everyone from being hurt.

[mauesartetc]

you've stated a couple of times how sonic the hedgehog's design is visually interesting/creative, can you elabore on that and maybe put your own spin on it?

Have a nice day!

Ha, sure! I've never even played the Sonic games but I'm aware of the general pop-culture mythos around them, and I can appreciate how the characters all have unique personalities that stay relatively consistent throughout the series. I do think the Sonic characters in general have a nice variety in proportions (namely, big heads, skinny bodies, big feet) that makes them interesting to look at.

Kinda wish the designs would deviate more from that template for a bit more variety, but I guess Sonic Boom did that? Sort of? At least with Knuckles?

Like I get that these guys are iconic and it's in Sega's best interest to maintain that brand recognition. Of course they wouldn't want to change the designs too much. But personally if I were designing a new character for a Sonic game, I'd try to give them a different body type from what everyone else has. Samebody Syndrome doesn't count as a legitimate stylistic choice imo.

And really, the connected eyes were always a bit nonsensical and terrifying to me. It's like all the hedgehogs in this universe are cyclopses with two pupils and two irises somehow, yet the other species have regular eyes for some reason. Figure that one out.

(But apparently Vector the Crocodile has connected eyes too, so I have no idea what the logic is there. It'd be hilarious if he revealed himself to be a hedgehog in disguise.)

Enough about the cast; let's get into Sonic himself. Looking at his original 1991 iteration next to this 1930 patent drawing of Mickey Mouse, it's clear where a lot of the visual influence came from. Notice the body proportions, face shapes, oval-shaped black noses jutting out from the face, and the white gloves.

This does somewhat explain the connected-eye thing as well, except it looks more natural with Mickey since each pupil is implied to represent one entire eye, with the space around them simply representing differently-colored fur on Mickey's face.

And to reiterate what I mentioned in the shape language post, Sonic's assortment of triangles visually puts him at odds with his nemesis Dr. Robotnik, who's based on round shapes. While it's more common to see villains with triangle-based designs and heroes with circle-based ones, Sonic shows us that vice versa can also work.

If I put my own spin on Sonic's design, I'd make it look a bit more like a hedgehog, separate the eyes, and add more padding to his shoes so they hold up better to running. I also felt the tail and back spikes were a bit superfluous, so I left them out.

It's a first draft I'd need to explore more thoroughly, but it's a start. Thanks for asking!

[catboy-outputs]

N°0001 - ang

as a partially Filipino (Philippines Number One) catboy who has so foolishly allowed his brain to become colonized by the very language he writes in right now, i have always Struggled somewhat with Tagalog, and/or its "standardized register" known as Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, surely the least confusing language(s) name(s) in the universe

my Strugglings with the language have very slowly become less Struggly over time (i can write extremely basic essays in it) — but they have done so Too very slowly because Even Now i can barely speak, write or listen in the language, and it is such a shame because Tagalog is (by my own subjective opinions) so such an interesting language (paradoxically, all languages are equally interesting)

there is a Word in the Tagalog language: "ang"

popular knowledge likes to translate this word into English as the definite article "the", which is kind of correct but not entirely accurate, because "ang" isn't used in the same broad contexts as the English "the"

so the English definite article "the", right

you (often) use it whenever a noun phrase refers to “a unique, familiar, specific referent” (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), like this:

The block of cheese you left on a table (referring to a specific thing—the block of cheese—previously mentioned in conversation)

The biological urge to sleep (referring to a single general concept? maybe)

The shoe (referring to the singular and definite species of physical objects commonly known as "shoes")

there are not many strict limitations on what noun phrases you can use "the" on, such limitations being the presence of Genitive pronouns, like "his" and "their" (people don't say "the her table" unless it's funny), and sometimes but not always personal names

the Grammaticality of "the" on a noun phrase is independent of the noun phrase's role in the sentence, so you can say things like:

"The man who brought the bag filled with the books gave it to the teacher who was the only person in the room"

The man who ... (subject)

the bag filled with the books (direct object + adjectival/prepositional phrase)

the teacher who was ... (indirect object)

the only person in the room (relative clause + prepositional phrase)

this does not hold true for Tagalog's "ang" because Tagalog and English are Somewhat different languages

you know how English has a "passive voice" that's used sometimes right, whenever the speaker is talking about Something that an Occurrence happens to, so they'd have to mention that Something in the role of a direct object, but they want to keep the Something in the prominent role of the grammatical Subject

the purpose of the passive voice is basically to take a sentence with a subject and an object, and demote the subject to the Less Prominent status of an optional Oblique argument (which is neither a subject nor a direct object) to replace it with the direct object, which becomes the new subject, like so:

Active voice: The cat have broken the plate. Passive voice: The plate has been broken [by the cat].

with the passive voice the subject is made less prominent and the object more prominent

this sort of thing is far more prominent in Tagalog, where there are like four or five Grammatical Voices (also known as "Focus" and by several other terms) for the verbs, marked directly on the verb using various affixes; the Object Focus, Tagalog's equivalent of the passive voice, is used much more frequently than its English counterpart, for the same purpose of keeping a prominent topic of conversation as the grammatical subject

like this:

Agent focus (≅ Active voice) : Sumirà ang pusà ng pinggán. Object focus (≅ Passive voice) : Sinirà ang pinggán ng pusà.

pusa = "cat" pinggan = "plate" sira = "to break"

notice the words "ang" and "ng" (pronounced "nang"), used in both sentences

these two are Case Markers, having the same function as the case particles of Japanese, the noun endings of Latin and Russian, and the subject-verb-object word order of English; they differentiate the subject (action doer) from the direct object (action done-towards entity)

despite being prominent in Old English and related languages like German, cases are only marginally a thing in Modern English; they are retained in many pronouns, which have a few cases remaining; English has the Subjective ("I" "we" "she"), the Objective ("me" "us" "her") and the Possessive ("my" "our" "her[s]")

Tagalog has three cases:

the Direct (marked by "ang")

the Indirect (marked by "ng")

the Oblique (marked by the particle "sa")

returning to the example sentences; transitive Tagalog sentences with a subject and an object have the subject in the Direct Case and the object in the Indirect Case

Sumirà ang pusà ng pinggán. Here ang is attached to pusa because pusa is the subject of the verb sumira ("broke", Agent focus)

Sinirà ang pinggán ng pusà. Here ng is attached to pinggan because pinggan is the subject of sinira ("was broken", Object focus)

This is the purpose of the Tagalog word "ang" — it is the Direct Case marker, used to indicate the grammatical subject of a sentence

"ang" can be considered roughly analogous to English "the" because the Tagalog verb focus system has a purpose roughly analogous to the concept of Definiteness, which is the purpose of "the"

Definiteness indicates that a noun phrase refers to something specific that is previously known in a narrative or conversation, differentiating it form Indefinite noun phrases which are not previously known or unspecific and could be anything (Definite "The cat" vs. Indefinite "A cat")

the Tagalog system of verb focus has the purpose of keeping an important topic of the narrative/conversation in the prominent grammatical role of Subject, differentiating it from other noun phrases that may be less specific, less definite or otherwise not as prominent

"ang pusa" can be translated as "the cat" because a sentence like "Sumira ang pusa ng pinggan" usually refers to some specific or previously known cat breaking some plate

but "ang" isn't a one-to-one analogue of "the" because "ang" has an additional responsibility that "the" doesn't have, namely to mark the one and only grammatical subject of a sentence; so in a sentence where "A does something to B", the Tagalog speaker must choose either A or B as the more prominent verb argument to use as the subject, selecting the appropriate Focus for the verb as necessary

"pusa" more prominent: "Sumira ang pusa ng pinggan" "pinggan" more prominent: "Sinira ang pinggan ng pusa"

and the thing is that both "pusa" and "pinggan" may or may not be a Definite noun phrase; however since Subject Marker is the main job of "ang", only one of the two nouns can attain the role of Subject and acquire the "ang"; you can't put it on both

The plate was broken by the cat — Acceptable *Sinira ang pinggan ang pusa — Ungrammatical (only one noun phrase can be the subject, so only the subject can take "ang", even if both are Definite nouns)

so yeah

English "the" is the definite article for definite noun phrases in any grammatical role Tagalog "ang" is the subject marker, and the subject in Tagalog is usually the most prominent noun throughout the conversation; and definite nouns are more likely to be made the subject than the object in Tagalog.

fucking heck this is way too long and rambly, my next post will be much shorter i swear

[lewis-the-quack]

- Yes. Has it been in your possession the entire time? Would you remove your shoes? - Remove your stinger. - It's part of me. I know. Just having some fun. Enjoy your flight. Then if we're lucky, we'll have just enough pollen to do the job. Oan you believe how lucky we are? We have just enough pollen to do the job! I think this is gonna work. It's got to work. Attention, passengers, this is Oaptain Scott. We have a bit of bad weather in New York. It looks like we'll experience a couple hours delay. Barry, these are cut flowers with no water. They'll never make it. I gotta get up there and talk to them. Be careful. Oan I get help with the Sky Mall magazine? I'd like to order the talking inflatable nose and ear hair trimmer. Oaptain, I'm in a real situation. - What'd you say, Hal? - Nothing. Bee! Don't freak out! My entire species... What are you doing? - Wait a minute! I'm an attorney! - Who's an attorney? Don't move. Oh, Barry. Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain. Would a Miss Vanessa Bloome in 24B please report to the cockpit? And please hurry! What happened here? There was a DustBuster, a toupee, a life raft exploded. One's bald, one's in a boat, they're both unconscious! - Is that another bee joke? - No! No one's flying the plane! This is JFK control tower, Flight 356. What's your status? This is Vanessa Bloome. I'm a florist from New York. Where's the pilot? He's unconscious, and so is the copilot. Not good. Does anyone onboard have flight experience? As a matter of fact, there is. - Who's that? - Barry Benson. From the honey trial?! Oh, great. Vanessa, this is nothing more than a big metal bee. It's got giant wings, huge engines. I can't fly a plane. - Why not? Isn't John Travolta a pilot? - Yes. How hard could it be? Wait, Barry! We're headed into some lightning. This is Bob Bumble. We have some late-breaking news from JFK Airport, where a suspenseful scene is developing. Barry Benson, fresh from his legal victory... That's Barry! ...is attempting to land a plane, loaded with people, flowers and an incapacitated flight crew. Flowers?! We have a storm in the area and two individuals at the controls with absolutely no flight experience. Just a minute. There's a bee on that plane. I'm quite familiar with Mr. Benson and his no-account compadres. They've done enough damage. But isn't he your only hope? Technically, a bee shouldn't be able to fly at all. Their wings are too small... Haven't we heard this a million times? "The surface area of the wings and body mass make no sense." - Get this on the air! - Got it. - Stand by. - We're going live. The way we work may be a mystery to you. Making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs. But let me tell you about a small job. If you do it well, it makes a big difference. More than we realized. To us, to everyone. That's why I want to get bees back to working together. That's the bee way! We're not made of Jell-O. We get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow! - Hello! Left, right, down, hover. - Hover? - Forget hover. This isn't so hard. Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Barry, what happened?! Wait, I think we were on autopilot the whole time. - That may have been helping me. - And now we're not! So it turns out I cannot fly a plane. All of you, let's get behind this fellow! Move it out! Move out! Our only chance is if I do what I'd do, you copy me with the wings of the plane! Don't have to yell. I'm not yelling! We're in a lot of trouble. It's very hard to concentrate with that panicky tone in your voice! It's not a tone. I'm panicking! I can't do this! Vanessa, pull yourself together. You have to snap out of it! You snap out of it. You snap out of it. - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - Hold it! - Why? Oome on, it's my turn. How is the plane flying? I don't know. Hello?

@you-need-not-apply been a while so here <2

PLanEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE