#under cut bc it's long as fuck

[ink-the-artist]

Rabbits

Some bonus art, I initially started making this in a totally different art style but changed my mind about halfway through lmao, here are the parts I finished

[symptomofgout]

the narrative of kaveh being an idiot is so baffling to me because he is, quite literally, canonically considered a genius…? why is the popular consensus “6000 IQ alhaitham and his lovably stupid roommate kaveh” when every npc commenting on kaveh refers to his intellect & talent, the literal god of wisdom says kaveh has an “almost-perfect grasp of what it truly means for sumeru to be a nation of wisdom” (whereas she questions alhaitham’s wisdom in her line about him), and alhaitham’s own story profile calls kaveh a genius multiple times??? like the whole point is that he’s alhaitham’s intellectual equal despite having entirely separate worldviews and demeanors, which frustrates alhaitham to no end — ‘how can someone so smart do all of these things that, to me, are so evidently stupid?’ the takeaway from their dynamic should NOT be kaveh is dumb, but rather that empathy and emotion aren’t actually the opposites of logic and intelligence, but sadly both alhaitham and the realm of academia as a whole are too blinded by their own definitions of logic to fully realize that.

tl;dr kaveh is not dumb by any standards and i will prove it

(under the cut: quotes/screenshots/etc proving this + more. please spread the gospel and dispel ignorance. amen)

some npc voicelines (there are more but i’m lazy):

these are pretty self-explanatory — kaveh is a widely-renowned scholar, architect, and engineer throughout sumeru. he graduated from the akademiya with flying colors, students were desperate to take his classes, etc.

nahida’s voicelines:

both are intelligent but only one is wise: kaveh. alhaitham is too restricted by his narrow definition of wisdom (read: what he deems ‘logical’) to look beyond himself and grasp that there’s more to intellect and knowledge than pure cold rationality. he can’t comprehend that empathy and intellect aren’t fundamentally incompatible — in fact, they’re best when put hand in hand. kaveh is one of the few scholars capable of valuing emotions, empathy, and artistic endeavors, while the rest of the akademiya closes themselves off to that entire realm of knowledge from the get-go. this is what makes kaveh uniquely wise, and what alhaitham lacks. until you understand that emotions and logic can and should coexist, you won’t be successful in the true pursuit of knowledge.

last but not least:

alhaitham’s profile (worth noting that profile stories are pretty much the most reliable source of information on characters’ true beliefs and opinions — their voicelines are still them putting on acts in front of the traveler, but these stories are told from the perspective of an omniscient narrator and are likely closer to the truth):

“two geniuses.” and even after their falling out, “neither of them will deny the other party’s exceptional brilliance” — meaning alhaitham considers kaveh to be exceptionally brilliant. point blank. in the text bro

hilarious line — it’s basically alhaitham saying he doesn’t understand how someone with kaveh’s talent and intellect could have a personality/worldview so different from haitham’s. ‘how can someone that smart be so annoying!!!!!’ and ofc by values we know it’s referring to kaveh’s idealism, empathy, and affinity for the arts

alhaitham considers kaveh to be “another genius,” someone who is so much his intellectual equal that he’s “an excellent mirror” for alhaitham. it’s like an experiment for him — the initial question is “how can someone as smart as me care about all of these things i’ve always believed to be worthless,” the subjects are kaveh and alhaitham, the controlled variable is their intellect. because their intellect is the same, alhaitham is able to study their differences (can’t attribute said differences to varying intellect). alhaitham would never say it out loud — and luckily he doesn’t need to bc his character story tells us — but he’s deeply fascinated by kaveh bc kaveh’s very existence is a threat to haitham’s worldview, & he’s letting kaveh stay with him bc through kaveh, alhaitham learns about not just himself but the outside world and humanity as a whole, and as a scholar, there’s nothing more valuable. (also because he feels comfortable with kaveh [“he’s a familiar face”] and they’re both lonely [“similarly lacks familial attachments”] lol these two are never beating the We Know You Don’t Actually Hate Each Other allegations but that’s a different point so i digress)

IN CONCLUSION:

this is all just the TEXTUAL evidence — people saying “kaveh is smart” — and doesn’t even include all of the obvious implicit signs of kaveh’s intellect (no one who graduates from the akademiya w honors and teaches classes there could be anything other than incredibly intelligent, al “i don’t do anything that i don’t want to do” “i’m not going to bother explaining it to you because you won’t understand” haitham not only puts up with but actively seeks out debates with kaveh which he absolutely would not do if he didn’t respect him or consider him to be of roughly equal intellect, look at the debates he has w alhaitham on sumeru messageboards and TELL ME those messages sound like they were written by an idiot or itto or something [you cant], etc etc etc).

and also this is all from 3.3 (+ 3.4 alhaitham leaks)! we don’t even know kaveh’s rarity yet, that’s how far he is from being playable, but there’s already this much information on just how smart he is! it’s the main thing we know about him — 1) he’s smart, 2) he’s passionate/driven by what he feels is right! why does that keep turning into “LOL HOTHEADED HIMBO”??!

okay look. this is all so extra i know. BUT. i must set the record straight now (god knows it’ll only get worse the closer we get to kaveh’s release) because this sudden-onset mass illiteracy within genshin players is going to send me to an early grave. feel free to use as a resource and educate the ignorant so kaveh does not end up reduced to a one-note meme dumb guy when literally that’s just… not even in the game. i mean at least other annoying OOC fandom interpretations have basis in the game but genshin literally tells u every time it gets the opportunity that Kaveh Is Just As Smart As Alhaitham Because Cold Rationality Does Not Equal Wisdom/Intelligence and losing that would be such a crime because it is by far the most interesting n promising thing hoyo has done with new characters in ages! like, not only are they funny and entertaining, not only are they fascinating incredible foils for one another, but they’re used to make a much-needed argument against the prevalent hegemony of mindless rationality and our “logical” society’s illogical fear of emotion/empathy. but yeah sure, theyre just itto & ayato 2.0, i guess. god. the lack of reading comprehension among genshin players is literally an epidemic

[butchdykekondraki]

Hi i know nothing about kondraki you should tell me why she's transfem maybe (Genuine question by the way !!!!!! i'm curious)

YES OKAY HUGE WIN FOR ME. IM SO SORRY IM ABOUT TO BE SO ANNOYING

fair warning 80% of this is based primarily off shit that is only Vaguely Implied in canon, and also like one(1) that her author made on her like blog about 10-12 years ago. lol. lmfao. my point here is that im basically grasping at straws for half of these reasons. anyway that being said Enjoy.

a large part of kondrakis character is her absolutely Abysmal view on masculinity, and particularly her OWN masculinity. she's both her son's father and her son's mother, as his actual mother passed away at a young age, which left her pretty much spiraling from there. as such a large part of her idea of herself is based around being a "proper man" so her son can have a good role model, as well as being a "proper mother" so her son doesnt grow up without a mother. eventually this leads her to 1) believing herself to be less of a man (on account of the mothering) and 2) having a Weird view on masculinity just kind of in general. theres an odd part of her that kind of? exaggerates her masculinity almost? in the sense that shes almost desperately trying to be perceived as a "mans man", going out of her way to insist that she is strong and far more capable than anyone else, insisting upon herself that she is a man and she needs to Act Like One. she hardly ever actually allows herself to be vulnerable, primarily brushing it off with the assertion that its just "not in her nature" to be that way. (<- this also relates to her role in the foundation as a whole but thats neither here nor there).

unfortunately for her she deals with all of this via the worlds most god awful coping strategies (alcoholism & lack of care for her own body). she's repeatedly described as being Just Barely alive, floating by primarily on junk food, coffee, and whatever liquor she can get her hands on. she completely lacks any care in her body, self-preservation being practically non-existent in the sense of self-care. funnily enough, this behavior towards herself Completely Stops the Second she's turned into a girl. damn near moments after she actually gets magically transformed into a woman, she immediately starts taking care of her appearance (going so far as to describe herself as a quote "pretty princess" unquote) and actually being nicer to herself appearance wise. she calls herself "pretty", and when she goes back to being a man she immediately picks back up her self destructive habits and stops caring about her appearance.

theres like. more. but 99% of it is just wholly related to 408 / 7408 and her weird body horror transition. lol. lmfao.

[rooksnooks]

POLL GAME!!!

My love and hugs to @anxiousotters for the tag!!

Instructions: Make a poll with five of your all-time favorite characters, and then tag five people to do the same

Personally I have way too many favourite characters for a 5 person poll so I've just put down a few beloveds from live-action movies that I've watched in the last few years. I might make another if I feel up to it!

Popping this off to @des8pudels8kern @multifandomworshipper@quiet-waters @flameeagleheart75 @thequeenoffishburrito and anyone else who wants to play!!!!

Pictures of each character under the cut!

[starstruckodysseys]

ages ago (literally only like seven months ago) i started a poe party role swap au and honestly i don’t know if ill ever finish it despite it having some banger lines so. here’s my (incredibly vague) outline. if you even care.

hg dies before the story even starts. he begins to haunt a house, a mansion, finding a space in the attic where he can focus on becoming slightly more corporeal and therefore work on his inventions. later, annabel stumbles upon this attic after she moves in, and despite being startled at first she begins to adjust to living alongside hg. they’re besties <3

eventually, annabel decides that the house has been remarkably empty, lately, and she invites a few of her friends - authors, most of them, but her childhood friend as well. hg has heard stories about this friend, but none of them can compare to him finally meeting lenore in person. the whole being incorporeal thing is very handy when it comes to nearly falling into your own soup.

the rest of the story goes very similarly. the murders begin. one by one, our guests are picked off, strangely befitting deaths, thematically. lenore begins to spend more time around hg - he’s a genius and he can’t be killed! he’s, like, the perfect guy! - and they eventually get to talking, and then to befriending. hg tells her his life and death stories, though they’re both terribly boring. lenore, in exchange, tells him about being a runaway bride, her vengeful ex, and something about food poisoning.

hg begins to experiment, using lenore as his hands because becoming corporeal would require too much energy, and he comes up with a way to surveil the house around them without having to leave the attic. they’d be safe. he leaves to set up his newfound cameras eventually.

he comes back. the attic is filled with smoke.

lenore dies in his arms. even in death, herbert george is still a terrible name. he drags her body downstairs only to run into the cops, makes up some unbelievable lie about poison and comas and allergies, and for some reason they take it at face value.

they call in mary shelley, later, the necromancer that brought him back to life, sort of. she’s able to help them reconnect with all of their lost friends, for a moment.

(well. almost all of their lost friends.)

annabel survives. edgar does not.

it turns out that anne brontë is not anne brontë but rather charlotte brontë disguised as her sister, hellbent on revenge for what annabel’s taken from her. or… something. hg isn’t quite sure. but she brings in reinforcements - eduardo “eddie” dantes and a man named guy de vere who sounds far too familiar-

hang on.

they end up outside, eventually, somehow. annabel drives charlotte to the edge of the river. it’s not very deep, but the rocks are slippery and perhaps a little too sharp, and when she slips she doesn’t come back up for a while. she doesn’t come back up at all, some might say.

with nowhere else to go, the fight ends quickly. unfortunately, this leaves hg and annabel in an empty house with more ghosts than before - in both the literal and metaphorical sense, though primarily the latter. they spend their days in a haze, unfocused and lonely, despite still having each other.

and then, one day, as hg is tinkering with his thousandth rendition of a time machine (he’s still holding out hope), the attic fills with smoke once more. he panics on instinct, but there’s no need.

when the smoke clears, lenore is standing in front of him, ghostly and yet beautiful nonetheless.

(and then they get edgar back too and they all live happily ever after etc etc.)

[silverjirachi]

look i get most rehearsals in my life have not been paid, but when this is supposed to be a paid job and i’ve gotten $20 for an hour long rehearsal in the past, with this same company, $20 for a three hour rehearsal is just insulting.

[piplupod]

objectively a stupid thing to get irritated or upset by, but i really hate when people at the centre try to tell me how lucky i am for the life i live or how good i have it, esp when they tell me they had it sooooo much worse when they were my age. they do not know me. they do not know my life. they have no idea what my situation is.

they see somebody who is exceedingly polite and unerringly kind and shows up in nice clothes most of the time. they see that i draw in a sketchbook. they see that i work on the jigsaw puzzle. they see that i hold the door for people. they see that i greet people and ask people questions about themselves in a way that makes others feel seen and heard and appreciated.

now what the fuck are they getting from that that makes them think they know anything about me or my mental health or life situation!!! if anything they should be curious because I share so little about myself with people, I tend to keep things focused on others because that's safest for me. do they not question why i am at the mental health centre so often if i apparently seem like i have such a great life ????

[nexus-nebulae]

found my ancient mp3 player recently. finally found a charger for it and plugged it in. and remembered i found a yt playlist of the whole httyd movie chopped up into like 20 videos and i downloaded the mp3s of all of them to listen to on the school bus. which is why i can effortlessly quote the whole first movie now

[ichorblossoms]

trying to summarize honeybee for an oc zine character booklet thing and. augh

[skrunksthatwunk]

mannnn ok i've been waiting for the yyh fixation cycle to put me back on (!!!!!!!) rather than (thing i am so normal about but it's dormant) and it's taken a little longer than i expected and i was worried it was going away but i am happy to announce that WE ARE SO BACK BABYYY

[volfoss]

hi sorry im like. so so mad about media so im putting this silly rant abt the witcher under the cut <3 spoilers for ummm the books or smth but i dont think my mutuals are into this so 👍

So i just hit Blood of Elves (the 3rd book) and met Triss. so not only did she literally SA/take advantage of geralt (as is the fucking pattern in these books w women towards him and the author and the plot treating any time geralt gets in this position as haha funny so many hot women want him :/) but she is um. absolutely fucking horrible. it is so confusing to me how so many fans love her (because even if you've only played the 3rd game, she LITERALLY point blank jokes with him about how people will no longer take advantage of him since he no longer has memory issues, and when he asks who was taking advantage of him, she was just like me :3. like its never elaborated on its just a fucking joke because we <3 feminism in this series!!) but if you've read the books it just becomes more clear how shes treating him. its a really disgusting pattern of behavior where most of his lovers either treat him like a freak and a mutant (which is sure soooo funny when hes treated like that by normal citizens) or just like a sexual object for them to use, with no regards to his consent. and by god triss has embodied both of those so so badly, where shes just nonstop either lusting after him (when he shows literally NO interest in her at this point lmao) or just treating him like shit. shes constantly guilt tripping him about ciri which is so fucking frustrating bc all the stuff shes bringing up under the guise of haha epic feminism moment is handled SO badly. she basically forces femininity on ciri who is like. barely 12 or 13 by this point (if my math is right) and who literally asks if triss will turn her into a boy and who is more than happy with dressing in male clothes. but triss finds this an absolute travesty that ciri literally has a diy haircut (or one of the men did it for her bc its mega crooked) and takes it into her own hands to turn her into a super pretty polished girl like. adjacent to beauty pageants but fantasy medieval. it is um. incredibly frustrating to see all of this and how triss consistently tells geralt his parenting sucks and that ciri shouldnt be with him (despite the fact ciri only feels safe around him and he does a rly good job parenting in his own way. like its not traditional bc he IS a cringefail adoptive single dad but its also like it doesnt need to be and he cares about her safety so much but wtv) and that he just overall sucks as a person. but we r supposed to root for the two of them to get together as in most of the games, she's the primary/most fleshed out romance option. and its like i do NOT expect ppl just playing the games or watching the netflix series to read the books but its also like she is genuinely really bad to him a lot, just talking down to him and it is actually um. very interesting bc geralt as a character is very emotionless a lot of the time (some of this is due to him being a witcher but some of it is just his personality or the trauma hes endured) but the increase of him just being upset or silent and resigned has increased tenfold in just the first 100 pages of this book. its so so frustrating to see esp after seeing how bad yennefer was treated, i really hoped triss would be better. but in every single way she's been worse.

[handsomegentlebutch]

Hey I'm stoned and I think I look very handsome

[orcelito]

2 hours zoned out catering prep while listening to trigun OST. 5 hours of stress stress stress stress becoming a bundle of nerves winding tighter and tighter and tighter until it begs for a release of Some kind, any kind, anything that would make the constant stream of customers and drinks and noise just STOP-

Then 1 hour, long hour, but calm hour, listening to trigun OST again and dealing with the aftermath. It did wonders for keeping me from biting my own arm off, but it still took. So long. Even with the help of my boss and the manager coming back from her catering thing, it still took about 20 mins over the hour (1 hr 20 mins when it usually takes 30 ish mins)

This was not a good day for me.

[deelovesbooks]

i take issue with that diagnostic question that goes "do you struggle wearing socks" not because its meant as a more open ended question for you to pop up being like, no for you see I have a system!

no i take issue with it bc my oblivious ass took until this year to go, huh i wonder if it doesn't just mean socks but any type of clothing

because as long as socks aren't cutting off my circulation i couldn't give a shit, but you know what i do actually struggle with? Fucking. Sleeves.

[maukuja]

.

I went to see a doctor via occupational healthcare today to get a referral to neuropsych on the public side and that was Not Nice. The doctor seemed reluctant to write it and seemed like she didn't really believe me that I need that stuff. Which like, yeah I get that, I'm having a good patch right now and don't actively want to end it, but it will right back to that when this patch ends. The lines to even get to see anyone on the public side are long, so it's better to try to get an appointment now than later when I'm in the pits.

She also pointed out that I did finish my Master's degree on time which like, yeah, why do you think my mental health is shit? You go do a master's in Physics and then tell me how well your mental health made it through that. I've always had good grades, both in school and in 'I don't want to live anymore, actually', those are not mutually exclusive. I know it might be hard to believe if you've only seen typical depression cases, but my doctor in shitty healthcare, you are writing the referral precisely because my mental health problems are stupidly nuanced and complicated. I fucking wish it was just depression and not some combination of bpd, bd and autism that makes me have depression as a symptom of those issues. Two different psychiatrists, internet therapy for depression and five visits to a psychologist, and we barely know what might maybe be the problem! All of those conditions overlap in symptoms to some degree and I don't have a clear-cut case of any of those!

She did write me the referral, but she did also make it clear that she's not sure that they will actually accept it, since I'm not doing bad enough and it's coming from the private sector. I know she can't lie there about the severity of the issues, but like, man. I've been suicidal since I was twelve. It's a miracle that I'm even still here. You don't think that warrants getting help? Even if right now it's a good patch? You think that maybe I'm actually fine now, despite it being this same loop of fine-suicidal-fine-suicidal for twelve fucking years?

It was already such a struggle to make myself try to get help for these issues because funnily enough, I actually triggered some intervention from the school welfare officer based on my answers in a depression screening in like 8th grade. They talked to me and discussed stuff with me and then told me that well, you already are doing all the things I could teach you to do, so I can't really help you. Which was super cool because I still was really depressed and suicidal. Very nice to hear that you're already doing everything right that you should do to not want to kill yourself, yet you still do. It took me ten years to try to get any help from healthcare because I was so scared that I'd have to hear that again.

This is not even for me to get help with that stuff either. It's just to get some sort of diagnosis on what is going on with my head so that they can have some clue how to treat the problems. I was looking to get therapy, but it doesn't really make sense to get therapy if they don't know what they are treating, so they won't write a referral to that. I need to get a referral to be diagnosed so that I can get a referral to therapy so that it won't cost an arm and a leg to get therapy. And to get that I have to go to the doctor and have her look at me frowning and not understanding. Looking at me like I'm fine and just lazy or something.

Realistically, this just how the situation seems to me. The doctor was probably frowning just because she had to make sense of a lot of text from all those psychiatrists and the psychologist and figure out how to write the best referral, regardless of how much she believed me. I just wish she'd had a more friendly and understanding approach to me as a patient. I wish I could have left there feeling like there is now actually a chance for me to get the diagnoses I need and then the help. I just feel tired and upset now, and I will feel so much more shit and so hopeless when the rough patch eventually hits.

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

RATING: Explicit (Graphic Violence) Word Count: 21k Pairing: Shenko Characters: Female Shepard, Zaeed Massani, Aria T'Loak, David Anderson

“Josie!”

The sounds of his shrieks are muffled, but guttural- hoarse even. It’s a picture of blurred feet kicking and flying in nearly every direction in a desperate attempt to shove them off of him. A flash of violet light in his hands that twines its way up his arms disappearing just as quickly as the sounds of his radius cracking deafens the room. The smell of thick, ebony smoke and burning flesh clogging lungs- and then the taste of iron.

The taste of blood.

“Josie- help! I- need you- to help me-” He cries through huffed gasps of pain. Heavily armored hands close in around him. A blurry pair grasps at a bunch of onyx-colored hair from the top of his head, slamming it against the hefty aluminum refrigerator door. It sends a flurry of drawings, magnets, and half-torn pictures fluttering to the ground like leaves during early Mindoiran autumn. Vermillion streaks from his brow, trailing toward his lips. Armored bodies close in around him, but he pushes himself against the refrigerator with a pained grunt.

Another flash of hazy violet light permeates the room, filling it briefly with the muted sounds of pained moans as the bodies hit the floor- one after another. His hand grabs the table, vaulting himself to his feet with a slight stagger. He begins hobbling- a blurry image limping closer and closer. His eyes are fuzzy as they shift from violet to sable- the edges starting to meld together in a haze of mish-mashed, murky colors. Then, the blur is replaced by a feeling of warmth as his hand reaches down.

“Josie, we have to-“

His voice is cut off by a shriek as his body comes careening down towards the floor. Surprise is replaced by anguish as one of them smashes their boot into his back. His agonized bellows cut throughout the room, as another one of them grabs his right leg and begins dragging him further and further away.

“No- Let- Let me- Josie- Help me!”

An arm reaching out, but it isn’t his. Another flash of violet light that begins snaking its’ way from palm... To wrist… To elbow as the hand tremors violently through the blur. Chipped jade nails covered in dried blood- a bracelet made from multicolored rubber bands loomed together caked in mud. There’s an attempt to focus that light- to use it. Trying to find some way to protect him.

But then the violet light fizzles out just as quickly against the blur. The hand falls as the edges begin to shift from blur to darkness.

“Josie! Please- help- help me!” He screams- a muffled, croaked sound that begins to fade against the edges of the blur. Then, a flash of nails- bloodied claw marks in the wood of the floor made by the resistance of his hands as his body fades further and further away.

The blur is gone now- replaced almost completely by a wave of darkness. The jade-nailed arm feels heavy – a weight that can’t be lifted as a high-pitched noise envelopes the room and the large hydraulic door whooshes open with a soft metallic whir.

“Josie!”

His last shriek.

His last expression is a picture of pain- of anguish- of agony. Through the darkness, his eyes showcase something worse than fear as the hydraulic door slams closed, and his bloodied face disappears into the void.

Then, his final image is replaced by a wave of onyx. The smell of smoke returns- the scent of burning flesh, and the taste of iron. His screams ring over and over through the void of darkness on the other side of the hydraulic door for those few moments as the heaviness settles and breath becomes shallow. He calls again and again, but the words are hollow- nothing more than sounds being swallowed whole by the blackening vacuum.

And then just before the darkness fades to nothingness and the heaviness overtakes, one more sound- one short, resounding crack that deafens the room, echoing for what feels like hours through the darkness.

And the sound of his voice goes silent.