#until then I guess I'm just gonna fuck around with my little blorbos

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Oh wait I have shit to do on the 25th oh no

[antimony-medusa]

other anon mentioned you are the exchange expert -- what exchanges/events do you know of that are coming up besides yuletide? looking to try one for the first time :)

Okay so. So. Let's see.

I normally keep up with exchanges through an 18+ discord server for exchanges. (You can DM me for a link, but it's a choose-not-to-warn space, so like, whole exchanges themed around major archive warnings, so reader beware.) I just cruised through to see what's in nominations right now.

Sick-Or-Treat is a hurt/comfort exchange that runs October 1 through November 30th. To participate, you just post a complete hurt-comfort fic to the collection that's named after a pokemon attack, and you can win badges, up to a total of eight badges!

Holy Fuck Exchange is an exchange themed around sexual or romantic relationships that have at least one diety involved! They're in nominations until 23:59 UTC on the 30th, so you have a little time to get your nominations into the tag set.

SEDORETUE EX is an exchange themed around sedoretue relationships, a four-person relationship found in the works of Ursula Le Guin. They've already closed nominations, but sign-ups are open through the 30th, and you can check out the tag set and see if anything catches your eye!

Star Trek Holidays, a fandom-specific exchange that ALMOST counts as multi-fandom cause they have so many sub-fandoms, is in sign-ups until the 1st of october.

We JUST missed the sign-up period for Trick or Treat, a fun low-stress exchange where you can choose to give someone either fluff (treat) or angst (trick) with a minimum of 300 words, so uh, you can keep an eye out for pinch hits I guess? And oh man, I'm scrolling through right now, and when I'm looking at exchanges in the creation stage, there's If I Fits I Fics, which is CAT themed, and Launch The Ship, where you sign up with a ship with no fics on the archive, and Pine4Pine, which is an exchange about yearning— so many cool themes out there. If you want to know what's going on, checking Fandom Calendar is a fun way to keep up with all the various events that are happening, including single-fandom exchanges. (I post there for my multi-fandom exchanges).

Season of Drabbles, an exchange for 100-word fics, opens nominations on the 1st of October.

Consent Issues exchange, an exchange (does what it says on the tin), focusing on dubcon and noncon tropes, has nominations running through October 10th through 19th.

Looking back over last year on fandom calendar, it looks like None English exchange, an exchange focused on works in any language other than english, opened up nominations starting in November last year.

FandomTrees is a fun holiday gifting fest where people sign up with fandoms, prompts, and DNWs, and then all the creators get to shop amid all the prompts for people they want to create for, sign-ups are going to start in November.

Femslash Kink Meme is a kink meme that kicks off in November, for f/f relationships. People sign up with prompts— a relationship and a kink— and then it's considered good manners to try and fill someone else's prompt for every request you put out! It doesn't have to be something long, just a scene that can fit in a comment! (I haven't done a kink meme myself before, so that's just what I picked up by reading their dreamwidth.)

Yuletide is Yuletide, a lot of exchanges don't run in this space cause like the WHOLE space is participating in that one.

I know that last year Bulletproof Exchange did nominations starting in December, with signups on the 29th. The whole idea for that exchange is that there are tropes or kinks or prompts that you like SO MUCH that you don't even care who's in it, so you match exclusively on prompt tags, and then someone else will write you arranged marriage, or gun play, or coffee shop au, or borrowers au, or whatever else is your Bulletproof Prompt, using their blorbos. I'm eyeing that one myself, I'm not gonna lie.

okay that's— a lot. Hopefully that answers your question and there's something there that's good for you!

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

blorbo question: what kinds of drugs do you think ed would be into? which ones would help him and which ones would make him feel worse?

Ok so I project onto Ed so this might be colored by my own drug experiences, but I'll do my best. I'll tell you generally what I think he'd like and the I'll put up a cut and go through all the ones I've done and tell you how I think Ed would be on them.

General before I get into specifics. Canonically he uses stimulants during the Kraken era and weed socially. However I do kinda feel like Rhino Horn is not his favorite drug just the most manageable way to get a hit of endorphins while also being able to oversee raids so he can break Ned Lowe's record. I am biased because I'm a psychedelic enjoyer, but Ed's a pretty confident guy who doesn't really second guess himself until after he acts (lbr the man did not second guess fucking knife parade for like multiple years and he doesn't apologize). Of course he also hates himself but I don't think that makes him not confident, which being confident and not immediately second guessing yourself is a great personality for producing good hallucinogenic experiences. Hallucinogens are usually great if you're not afraid of them. And I also think that Ed wants to be taken out of his life for a little bit and hallucinogens are conducive to that. I think he and Jack probably did a bit of P&P back in the day and I think ecstasy was probably their favorite because Jack is a tweaker and Ed is a psychedelics guy. Now that he and Stede are together he's doing poppers.

Onto specifics. What makes him better, what makes him worse

Ok here's the drugs I have experience with: Meth, Mushrooms, Weed, Coke, LSD, GHB, and DMT. So I'll just give you those.

Let's start with coke and weed because we have canon evidence for those.

Cocaine Rhino Horn- ok so for me personally coke kinda ain't shit. It's the best stimulant by far (ecstasy is a stimulant/hallucinogen so I'm not counting it because it's also something else) but it's still just sort of me but faster. I've said many a time that Coke is my ADHD meds but horny and Meth is like my ADHD meds but evil. I can drive on the shit literally better than I drive sober because I am less distracted. And before someone accuses me of micro dosing I can pack the shit away, I do twice as much as whoever I'm with and get half as high, every ounce of coke ive ever done was waisted on me. I have fun on it it's not a bad feeling but I it's like if coffee was poppers rather than a real drug. I think Ed probably has a similar experience here with being relatively coherent because we see him doing raids while high on the stuff. I think coke is giving him that little euphoria bump he needs to be passively suicidal instead of actively suicidal and not much else. That said once I did like three lines and then went to the wrong bus station subsequently missing my bus (I ordered my Uber before doing the coke so it was not the coke's fault) and I had a tantrum but I did not cry or start doom spiraling over the 200$ I was forced to pay, so I'm gonna go with a tentative better? For how coke makes Ed.

Weed- Ed also displays a high tolerance here, given that he shares a blunt with Mary and then he's sober in the next scene. That being said I think if he had more than half a blunt he would get emotional very quickly. If he's in a good mood he gets clingy and everyone around him is his favorite person and if he's in a bad mood he starts crying. Weed would make him worse and I know this about him

Meth- Tina is my enemy I hate her. They told me it was highly addictive and would make you crazy and then it just gave me insomnia and a weird bowl movement. Did you know while on meth you don't get hungry but you do get hangry? You can't sleep you can't eat but your body doesn't stop needing to eat and sleep. I've done meth exactly twice and once was on accident (the idiot I smoked shrooms with didn't clean his fucking pipe and I did not realize I had imbibed methamphetamine until about 24 hours later when I had been trying and failing to sleep for roughly 10 hours). Anyway I think given how hangry Ed gets meth would make him worse in every conceivable way. Meth also makes me more focused so I think he would invent some diabolical scheme and it would be a genuinely good one and then he would also lose his fucking mind and pulverize the next thing to surprise him after not eating for 18 hours (imagine the snake scene from 1x07 but on... Well on meth I guess) and cry because he is so so tired.

GHB- for those of you not in the know this is a depressant but not an opioid that is sometimes used as a daterape drug because it's got an incredibly dangerous interaction with alcohol but is mostly manageable on its own. It's not entirely dissimilar to high doses of alcohol in its high ill be honest, but maybe I just haven't had enough depressants to be able to tease apart their distinct personalities. I enjoyed this one but I think I'm gonna let my experience diverge from Ed's a little bit here. I don't think he would be a fan. He might be alright with it if he and Stede were doing it together as a sexual aid, but it tastes really bad, like putting bitterant directly into your mouth levels of bad, and we know Ed is a sweet tooth. The poor old man would also get tired on it a lot quicker than I did, and I remember laying there like I was asleep with a pleasant buzz in my brain and not really wanting to get up for quite a bit of it.

DMT- So dmt isn't good unless you're doing a near death experience type breakthrough trip otherwise you see some fun colors for 20 minutes and then it's over. I cannot speak to the breakthrough trip because I did it with a Grindr date and I did not want to be at his mercy for a half an hour while I was experiencing The Tunnel. However from what I've heard of the breakthrough trip, that shit is a mental game. You don't want to do that third rip but you've gotta. Ed loves to win at games and he's got some mental fortitude so I think he would flex how much he likes DMT. It would make him WORSE

LSD- I love her everyone loves her Lucy is my best friend. She's a bit... Lovecraftian but certainly not in a bad way. I think acid would really depend where Ed was at mentally. Like Ed when Stede is around would have a good time taking to the universe. I think that talking to the universe during the Kraken era could go really well or really really horrendously. On the one hand I wonder if ego death might actually be good for him? Like feeling like you're one with everything and like you aren't real could be either freeing for a guy who hates himself that much or it could end up making him hate everything because his self hatred could get as expensive as his dissolving ego. I think immediately pre Stede however acid would not be the best idea this is a vibe I'm getting. Acid has the potential to go either way on the better worse question.

Mushrooms- mushrooms have always been really nice to me but I need to be up and doing something while I'm on them. Totally a club drug for me. I know that's an insane thing to say but I think my brain chemistry may be fucked up. Anyway this does not make Ed better or worse but it does make him look at stuff and giggle which is objectively cute.

[cxttlefishcxller]

Alright - Stand/GoT/Buffy back atcha!

(Why choose? All three I say! As I have to wait to answer now until I can get to a keyboard...)

Ooooh this is gonna be fun. XD

The Stand:

The first character I first fell in love with:  Honestly, it was Harold! Caktus' mad crush on Owen Teague and the blorbo-by-proxy I experienced as a result means that the little shit is really dear to my heart now. XD The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Lloyd. I didn't enjoy him at all in the 94 version, but he's just so.....stupidly charismatic in the 2020 series. Rolled high in charisma, rolled low in intelligence and wisdom. Not a single thought going on in that head. Bless him.   The character everyone else loves that I don’t:  Honestly the fandom is so contained that the love seems to be spread out evenly. All of the well-loved characters are loved for fantastic reasons, I think! The character I love that everyone else hates:  Same as the above, things are so contained that there's not that much dichotomy over the characters? The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I haven't ever really started disliking a character once I got into who they were. It's normally the other way around jfkdl;safd The character I would totally smooch:  Teddy. Do you even have to ask. I mean look at that sweet face, those big blue eyes, that bright, wide-ass grin... XD The character I’d want to be like:  Glen, actually! He's just. So well-spoken, so true to himself and the things he believes in, and he's a really good grounding stone amidst the world's chaos. ;;w;; The character I’d slap:  Nadine. No hesitation. Meet me in the pit, bitch. A pairing that I love: TedPipes, BirdBrains, Hayden/Glen... Honestly canon ships are all well and good, but the selfshipping/OC content is where my heart lies. XD A pairing that I despise: Uh. I dunno, ship and let ship as far as I'm concerned jfkdl;safd

Game of Thrones

The first character I first fell in love with:  Ned, actually. I'm a sucker for a long-suffering character who unceasingly tries to do the right thing. Besides, I always thought Boromir was cute growing up, so Sean Bean is dear to my heart. XD The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Jaime. He started out as such a fucking s h i t but the further along he got in his development, he won me over almost completely. jfkdl;safd   The character everyone else loves that I don’t:  This might put me under someone's crosshairs, but I'm....not all that much of a fan of Sansa jfkld;safd; and I know she goes through some great development and gets good by the end, but her chapters are incredibly difficult for me to slog through just because I find her.......a lot less engaging than other POVs we get into. The character I love that everyone else hates:  I don't think I have one? My favorites are pretty universally loved, Margaery included. The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I don't think I have one of these, either! The character I would totally smooch:  Tyrion, Margaery, Jaime, and Jaquen H'ghar. No I won't take criticism fjdk;lsafd The character I’d want to be like:  Margaery again, honestly. Love me a woman who knows who she is, what she wants, and how to get it. I aspire to be that self-sure. The character I’d slap:  Joffrey. Tyrion had it right walloping the little shit jfkdl;safd A pairing that I love: Jaime/Brienne. mwAH CHEF KISS A pairing that I despise:  Ummmm I dunno. Jaime and Cersei I guess? Not for the family thing but for the fact that she's just really fucking bad for him. She single-handedly undoes all of his development and experiences right at the end, and I'll die mad about it jfkld;saf

Buffy (my beloved)

The first character I first fell in love with:  Giles, to no one's surprise. But I mean like. Have you seen him? Can you blame me? The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Spike technically goes here? I thought he was funny, but watching and rewatching the series as I get older, I'm able to get more nuances to his character that the writers were intentionally and unintentionally putting in to allow the rest of us to draw lines together. He's one of my favorite villain-turned-antiheroes in media ever.   The character everyone else loves that I don’t:  I think Angel is.......kinda boring......a vanilla milkshake of a man....... Angelus on the other hand. Angelus is an interesting dude The character I love that everyone else hates:  Okay look so Xander has his problems. I dislike quite a few things he does. But hot damn are his one-liners really fucking funny jfdkl;safd The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Nope. Cradles them all. They're so good. The character I would totally smooch:  Faith (girlcrush girlcrush girlcrush), Willow, Spike, and Giles. The character I’d want to be like:  Willow my best girl my beloved ray of sunshine. Powerful as hell and the best damn friend and so achingly awkward in the cutest damn way. I've always wanted to be like her. XD The character I’d slap:  Um. Most of the major villains are slappable but also forgettable at points. Maybe the Silence. Creepy little fucks. A pairing that I love: Okay so I know that Spuffy is endgame and beyond reproach, but I've shipped the hell out of Spike and Willow since I was 11 years old and I'll go down with this ship because I have ways it could work. I think they'd really work out. XD A pairing that I despise: Bangel......I'm sORRY they're bORING TOGETHER I know he was her first love but he never CHALLENGED HER the way she needed and it shows jfdkas;lfd

[morroodle]

Morrotober Overview

October is over and morrotober is done! I actually made it all the way through without missing a single day (I swapped 2 days because I have a terrible concept of time but that dosent count). I'm so proud of myself. I've tried an October drawing challenge year after year but I always gave up and burned out after the first week so this is a huge accomplishment.

I'm not quite sure what made this year different but there are a few things I think might have helped:

Morro is my blorbo and ninjago is my hyperfixation. I'm already obsessed and thinking about it daily so this wasnt too different

I gave myself flexibility. Even though I ended up doing one for every day I never was going to force myself to do so, I had the freedom to skip a day if I didn't want to do it.

Flexibility pt. 2: I didn't make a full drawing every day. I allowed myself to put in as much or as little effort as I wanted which removed some of the pressure and worked better with my schedule

Now for some fun stuff! A recap of the art I made this month and my thoughts on some of the peices.

My favorite peice: day 29 - au/the movie

This was so much fun and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I couldn't decide on one au to draw since I have so many and keep making them so I just did a bunch! (Copy paste my best friend) I've had a bunch of ideas for designs bounching around for a while and getting to draw a handful of them with less effort than a full drawing which is great for my mental health. Honestly I liked making this and the results so much that I'm probably gonna do more of these with more designs.

Least favorite: day 1 - torment/chains

A dissapointing start to the challenge but luckily things only went uphill from here. The reason i dont like it is because this is one of those instances where the idea I have in my head is above my skill level. Additionally this is one of the ones that took the longest which is extra dissapointing considering I don't even like the result. I am proud of the hands though!

Most effort: day 14 - crew

I am NOT used to doing more than like 2 characters in one drawing and this was a challenge. Figuring out a pose for all of them was hard and I had to get creative with Wrayth cause he came last. I originally wanted to put a ghost dragon behind them too but that was just more effort and time than I had. Funny story about this one actually! I completed the base sketch for 3/5 of the characters but then my computer got fucky and I had to restart it. I saved the drawing but when I tried to open it I got the dreaded clip studio Unsupported File Format and had to restart ;-; I spent like half an hour trying to restore but had to give up in the end and restart.

Least effort: day 23 - memories

Little guy. Tiny dude. Took like 5 minutes and I love it. I didn't realize just how small I made him until I got a reblog saying they couldn't find him.

Most popular: day 5 - rope

Would have liked for some of my other drawings to get some of the attention this one got but honestly I'm not suprised it got so popular. It's a masterpiece.

Least popular: day 12 - underwater/submarine

Guess people don't want morro to be destinkified

Extra: day 6 - skeleton

This dude literally showed up on google?? I made that???? The funny part is the link dosent even lead to my blog or tumblr

Additional notes: wait what am I supposed to do now?? I think I forgot how to have free time?? For an entire month it's just been school eat sleep and morrotober but now it's over I don't know what to do with myself. A

Did I enjoy this? Yes. Will I do it again next year? Who fucking knows. Anyway back to my normal bs

[abyssembraced]

Fire Emblem?

Send me a fandom and I'll tell you my blorbos!

Blorbo: If you want me to stick to Awakening, since that's where Robin's from, then that'd be Lucina! I love her. My daughter <3 (because I married Chrom lmao). I made her absolutely busted in FE Heroes too, though I haven't actually played that in a while.

Though technically Lucina's my second favourite Fire Emblem character overall. First place actually goes to Edelgard! That's My Wife right there. My beloved. I like the other house leaders too, but,,, El <3

...But once again, as much as I love these girls, sadly I don't think I could write them well. But maybe. They're on the list of characters I would consider adding if I ever added another Fire Emblem muse here, just because I love them, but I'd definitely have to replay their respective games first.

Skrunkly: Uhhhhh. So the funny thing is, I usually really like the characters that tend to be described as "pure" or "cinnamon rolls", and just overall those who would fit into this category well, but for some reason with Fire Emblem, I just don't get as attached to them? So I dunno who I'd say for Awakening specifically, but at least for Three Houses I do like Ashe?

Scrimblo Bimblo: Could Henry count as underrated? Probably not, huh. I think he's pretty popular. But I do like him a lot! My funny murder crow guy. And Owain... Probably also doesn't count here, huh. Not sure how popular he is among the fandom, but like. With his appearances in Fates and Warriors, the games themselves sure give him a lot of love. But he's also really funny, and one of my other favourites from Awakening. So... I dunno!

Ashe could probably also fall in this category, since when it comes to the Blue Lions I think most people tend to focus on Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain (and Ingrid and Dedue?) more than anyone else. But that would be reusing characters, so. hhhhhhh dgdhshf

Glup Shitto: So like. I thought this was gonna be a difficult question but then I remembered. Nobody fucking played Echoes. I feel like anyone from there is free game except for Alm and Celica ashshdfh. So! I remember liking Mae quite a bit, but I think my favourite from there was Conrad! I remember him being really sweet

Too bad I haven't played any of the Japan-exclusive games to have some really obscure favourites asdghsf. I do wanna play Genealogy someday though, if a fan translation exists

Poor Little Meow Meow: I don't like reusing characters for these but. C'mon. I don't think there's an FE character out there that's more controversial than Edelgard von Hresvelg lmao. I have absolutely zero interest in dealing with any of the Discourse, so all I will say is: we love Edelgard in this house. This is an Edelgard Appreciation Zone, or at the very least an Edelgard Tolerating Zone if you personally dislike her.

That said, I also wanna give a shoutout to Takumi from Fates, because I adore him too and still stand by him being one of the better things to come out of Fates. He's a bit of an ass to Corrin at the start, sure, but like. I feel like that's kinda justified?? He doesn't remember Corrin like Hinoka and Ryoma do, so from his perspective some random stranger from the country they are currently at war with has just waltzed in and is basically being treated like a god when they very well could be an enemy spy. And iirc, he does want to accept Corrin and get to know them? But he's smart, and remains wary until Corrin does choose his family's side.

...The Blame Takumi memes are still funny though, I won't lie dghdsf. I started with Conquest, so those memes are actually what led me to look into him more when I got around to playing Birthright

Horse Plinko: Y'know what. Lorenz. Is that unfair to say, given that I never did get around to playing the Golden Deer route? Yeah, kinda. Am I gonna say it anyway, because I'm not sure who else to say? Haha yea

I guess Takumi can get a little bit of bullying for being a grump, but only affectionately, because I still care him and he deserves a hug

Eeby Deeby: Validar and Thales are the easy options, yes, along with all the other villains, but like. Fuck em lmao

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Thanks for ur posts about Izzy, I'm as white as my wall, but also gay and genderqueer as fuck, so logging onto ao3 and seeing how commonplace charitable interpretations of Izzy are gives me psychic damage. Like, I often stan villains, but normally I have to find myself a little niche of other people who are as crazy as I am to do that. (I'm a Badminton fan btw, hope they kill another one off in Season 2)

I'll tell you a secret, I'm also white. I don't really consider it a wall. It does make me a little dumber I guess because I don't experience racism that's directed at me. But like I've had multiple black and brown people that are important to me in my life ever since I was little, so I guess if I'm out with my little sister(who's Chinese) and I see racism directed at her I'm going to pick up on that too and have to navigate that situation. White people are racial beings and we live in a racialized society it's just that we have the privilege of pretending that's not the case if we want to. You should always be listening to people who do experience racism about racism because they have had to be the recipient of it but that doesn't mean that racism is an unknowable mystery of the universe to you. It's something your friends and neighbors and coworkers have to navigate daily. The goal of listening to marginalized people is to better support them and one of the ways we do that is calling out other white people when they fuck up. They're not gonna listen to us for the most part, one thing I've learned being publicly vocally in support of people of color both in my real life and online is that there's no fuckin solidarity in the in group, but they are more likely to listen to you than they are to listen to poc (especially white queer people if you are yourself queer because there is actually some solidarity there as well as a leverage point). The more we as white people who care about PoC are afraid to talk about race issues the more PoC have to go it alone. I remember was in 8th grade when Michael Brown was killed, and I live in a predominantly white area, and for some fucking reason my social studies teacher decided to bring up what was happening in a class of roughly 30 white kids, one Asian girl, and one black girl and I stood up for him when the entire class was doing the whole "if he didn't want to get shot he shouldn't have been doing x y z" thing. And I remember that my black classmate didn't speak up until I had been defending him for like half the period and was getting visibly frustrated, and I kind of don't think that she would have said anything if no one had been on her side, because why would you take that risk. I was insulated partially because of my whiteness and partially because I was already being bullied so if I made a stink about something in class it couldn't get much worse for my gay goth autistic ass. The point of that anecdote is that if you rely on people of color around you to do the work of antiracism not only does that make things harder for them, but it also leaves the door open that that work won't get done because the person of color that you're afraid of speaking over will probably decide to prioritize their own safety. That's not to say you should speak over anyone either, but 90% of being an adult is figuring out how to navigate complex social situations and this is one of those.

Now of course I know that defending Michael Brown from racists is more serious than defending Ed Ourflagmeansdeath from racists because Michael Brown was a real person who died tragically and Ed is just my blorbo. But either way I'm in a proverbial room full of my chud peers and I've never been the kind of person to not say what I think, and in both situations I am kinda insulated from consequences. There's a reason @chuplayswithfire has had to turn off her anons and I haven't. Part of it might be follower count but I'm not enough of an idiot to think that's all it is.

I guess I kinda got off subject but you're on my blog, so cheers.

But yeah, as a certified villain fucker I would love it if the loudest and most prolific members of our community would just cool it on the racism(/misogyny if we leave the ofmd fandom). I don't even have that much of a problem with apologia in theory. In practice I've even dabbled in apologia myself for my man CJ. But villain fans have kinda always been like this. There's been us baddies who enjoy fucked up guys(gender neutral) and then there's the Snape wives and the Kylo Ren stans and the Jokercels who can't care about fans of color or women to save their life.

Also re: Badminton I too am a great fan of watching Rory Kinnear in period costumes die in stupid ways. As an actor I've thought Badminton would be an incredibly fun role to play since episode 2. Standing on a rock in the background and just fucking around while things happen in the foreground would be the time ever tbh.