thesocialjusticewitch

[thesocialjusticewitch]

i think these are my two fav pieces from this years art fight hehe 💖

you can check the rest of my attacks from this year on my b.sky thread!

Ram for Arichido on AF & Arichido0 on twitter // Twyrin for BedOfWorms on AF & @bed-of-worms

[thesocialjusticewitch]

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Dear Papa

In two days, it’ll be six years since you passed.

Every year around this time, I rewrite the eulogy I delivered at your funeral. And every year, I walk away feeling like I still hadn’t said what I needed to. That I never quite captured what you meant to me.

It took me six years to realise— I kept writing about you. But I never wrote to you.

And maybe… I never really grieved you at all.

Not fully. Not honestly.

It’s easier to pretend I’ve just been too busy to catch up with you than to accept that you’re not here anymore.

This time, I did.

And when I finally spoke to you like you were still listening— I broke. I couldn’t stop crying while I wrote this.

This isn’t a eulogy. This is the most difficult thing I’ve ever written.

Because you’re not supposed to be gone. And I’m not supposed to be here— still trying to make sense of it with a few trembling sentences.

I’m sorry if none of this makes sense. It’s scattered. It’s been six years since we spoke. And I don’t know how to do this.

I always thought you were an incredible human being.

You weren’t a big man in the way the world measures it. No fame. No fortune. No honorary titles.

But you built something bigger than all of that. You built us. And you held us like we were everything you ever needed.

You held Mum’s hand like it was a contract with the universe. Even in the hospital—when your body was giving up— you held her hand like it was the one promise you had to keep. And it was.

I’d never seen love like that before. You showed me what real love looked like.

In that moment, I didn’t see “Dad.” I saw a man—utterly, hopelessly in love. And I wish I’d paid more attention to that while you were here.

There was a time— I was a child, too young to understand— when the repo men came. They took our car. Mum cried. Grandma panicked. And you… you stayed calm. Tried to hold everything together while the world took pieces of you away.

Back then, part of me was disappointed in you. I didn’t know better. I thought you’d failed us.

But now— As I got older, I saw it clearly.

You didn’t fail. You gave. Even when there was nothing left to give.

That’s when I learned: you weren’t a god. You were something better. You were human. And you were the best one I’ve ever known.

I didn’t say “I love you” enough. I know that.

You said it all the time. “I love you.” “I’m proud of you.”

I took it for granted. Thought that’s just what dads say.

But you meant every word. And I didn’t always say it back with the same weight. And now I carry that.

Six years later— I tried to say “I love you” the way I should have back then. And I couldn’t stop crying. Because for all the times I said it… I wish you had heard this one.

You used to ask me to join you for breakfast every weekend. Just a small thing. A quiet ritual.

And I was always too tired. Always said no.

You’d smile and ask if you should bring something back. But I saw it. That flicker in your eyes. That quiet, unspoken disappointment.

You just wanted time with me. And I slept through it.

Even when I came with you, I wasn’t really there.

I wish I could go back. Say yes. Every time.

I know you’d want me to take care of Mum. And don’t worry—I do.

I just wish I could do more. Spend more time with her. Be more present.

But to be honest, it isn’t easy. Because every time I’m with her, all I can see is the empty chair beside her.

And that’s not fair— because any son would be lucky to have a mum like her. And I am. I love her so deeply.

But I’ve never really gotten over the fact that you’re not here anymore.

I promise you— I’ll do better. I’ll show up. I’ll be present.

Because I don’t want to carry the same regret I now live with in your absence.

You saw me.

Not the version people think they see. Not the surface-level me.

You saw the quiet one. The music-maker. The soul who feels real only when he’s singing.

You asked about my songs. Even when no one else cared. You played them in your car.

You understood something about me that I didn’t even know myself: that I feel seen when I create. When I sing.

That was our language. That’s how we loved each other. Through music. Through silence.

You were the only one who really got it. No one else ever has.

You told me to live a life that made me happy. To choose meaning over money. To never chase status.

But I did. Not because I wanted to. Because I was scared.

And even though I built something successful— I’ve never really been happy.

You sacrificed because you had to. I didn’t. And I still didn’t have the courage to choose differently.

That’s where I think I failed you.

You gave me everything. And I built a life that doesn’t feel like mine.

I still reach for my phone sometimes, like I can message you. Like maybe you’ll reply— “Love you, son.”

But it doesn’t come.

So I replayed your last voice message. Over and over. You were asking me how to reboot your laptop. I listened to it again today. And I smiled. And I cried.

Because at the end, you just said, “See you this weekend. I love you.”

And part of me still wishes I just got that message— and I really will see you again.

I held your hand at the end. And I told you I was proud of you.

And I was. I am.

You were the best man I’ve ever known. Not for what you did— but for who you were.

I miss you in small, stupid ways. In the way I expect you to walk into the room. In the way I see your face in mine. In the silence.

People say grief gets easier. It doesn’t. It just gets quieter.

And sometimes that’s worse. Because at least loud pain feels like love. Quiet pain just feels like forgetting.

I don’t have a moral. I don’t have a quote. I don’t have anything neat to offer.

I just have this:

You were here. And you loved me so fully, so completely, that even now— even broken—

I’m still standing.

Because you taught me how.

I miss you. I’m still scared sometimes. I wish you were here to tell me I’m okay.

And I love you. So much more than I ever knew how to say when you were here.

Love, Your Son.

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Source: Dear Papa

[thesocialjusticewitch]

My life needs more men wearing garters. AT ONCE!

Damn Rooke, you look like this?

[ID: An illustration of a blonde, caucasian man staring at the viewer looking flustered. He's bending down to adjust the garter on his socks. He's wearing only a nightshirt. The text behind him reads: "The Repressed Edwardian -- Laurence Rooke. End ID]

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Sometimes you have to snuggle your homies and let them know they've made your life better in ways you didn't even believe were possible outside of a Saturday morning cartoon.

On Friendship.

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Art Fight 2025: The Guardian for @salmonandfox

[thesocialjusticewitch]

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Not people saying “Fandom has always been like this” in that vent post I made. No. It hasn’t always been like this. Fandom has NEVER been like this until recently and if you were in fandom pre-tumblr purge, pre-twitter, pre-netflix boom, pre-tiktok….then you would fucking know it was nothing like this.

We still had the drive to create. We still sold prints and charms and made zines…but it was never like this.

The introduction of streaming, binge shows that drop all at once, tiktok and vine RIP i still love u vine but you were the beginning of a particularly ugly era) creating this bite sized, quick paced ‘content’ era of creation and it bled out into fucking everything else.

Fandoms didn’t die down when the show ended or the season was over. You didn’t mass unfollow artist, writers or moots just because they changed fandoms. There wasn’t this need to please the algorithm in order for your posts to get seen by people and enjoyed.

Fandoms used to last YEARS. Star Trek is literally the oldest running fandom out there and you got people in there that could care less about the new stuff and still have been happily prancing through their fucking fifty year old fandom today. Hell, even SPN after all it’s fuckups and shitshows has a dedicated fanbase STILL creating tons of art and fic.

There is no patience anymore. No calm feeling of taking in fandom and friends at a pace that which doesn’t make you stressed and is still fun.

Do I blame fandom for this? Of course not, but people are complacent with it and start changing their vocab to accommodate and end up making the situation so deep it cant be fixed.

We call Art & Fic Content now, completely stripping the value of what it is to a level of consumerism instead of personal entertainment & community bonding.

[thesocialjusticewitch]

i just wanted to draw them animals because i saw so much of them

[thesocialjusticewitch]

The birdwatcher

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Hey hmmm..... So I finished this game.... And well I wanted to make some pixelart you see- so anyway look at my favorite little guys in 2d

[COMMISSIONS]

You'll notice some designs are a bit different from canon, that's partly because I simplified them to my tastes to make them easier to read as little sprites, partly because they were *kinda* made from memory (esp Justice, Morrigan and Zevran-) fkjjnkc I didn't want to boot up the game to look for good references..... :(( Also I like colors ! I know the game is peak emo but idc give me saturation and pretty colors

Below you'll find a *lot* of yapping about my thoughts on these characters and Dragon age 1 overall (it's very long and is a bit critical so beware-) vvv

Not me being a good pédale and making a rainbow without meaning to-

Anyway !

To preface this : these are my thoughts after finishing Dragon age Origins and Awakening, I know *NOTHING* about 2, inquisition and Veilguard (well I know you can romance Peter Cushing in this one so fun things to look forward to). So please, do not spoil me even tho I'm sure I'll say things that will probably be expended on or called back to in the other games :))

Anders (and Ser Pounce-a-lot ofc)

Anders my beloved, silly little mage of a man, you're one of the few characters in this game who's horny for women but don't give me the ick ! He is funny, he hates cops, he is femme, he is the bisexual extraordinaire !!! Sorry Oghren kept calling you a fag :(

Justice I absolutely *love* the concept

The pain of going from abstract ethereal concept to a decaying corpse of a man. Going from a simple world of evil demons and benevolent spirits, to the complexity of everyday life. Like I think if you gently put your hands on his shoulders and explained to him justice can be used to oppress, to hurt, can be manipulated, perverted into a machine of evil- leave me 5 minutes with him and he'll discover what an existential crisis is :) But well, for one it was a dlc so I knew it wouldn't get much time to be explored, and two it also would require subtlety and that's something the writers aren't familiar with-

But there's also the whole dilemma of the possessing a corpse bit ! Kristoff had a life, had friends and a spouse ! That's less interesting to me than the whole concept to man bit but there's still great potential here !! Like if Dragon age gave a shit about women it would have been such good drama !!

Alistair I was pleasantly surprised !

He's *not* the type of character I usually like, but he did grow on me fkfkkf I still think his design is very bland and boring, but he is such a dumb golden retriever of a man <3

Also the whole discussion you have with him about his inexperience and kind of disinterest in sex, where ofc you can role play as the worst human being to ever grace this earth, but if you're a good friend here the discussion basically boils down to "ok you do you man :) that doesn't change my opinion or how I see you" and I was really surprised in a good way (don't know how this discussion plays out if you romance him, or "harden" him or whatever and I don't want to know- let me have this nice thing fjfkkf)

And btw thank god once again I chose to play a guy in my playthrough- because forcing him to have sex with Morrigan at the end if you play a girl ??? Horrible- we could have had the magic strap evil babie but 2009 didn't have the technology yet...

Sigrun !!!!!!!!!!

Dramatic emo girl, love smelling wet dirt. She's so cute ;; and I really liked her ending- she wants to go back to the legion to kill herself, but your character keep making up excuses and very urgent™️ things to do to keep her with them ? Got me hard in the feels ;;

(Too bad my DAO romance creates a plot hole here- but that was still very sweet)

Zevran, I went full the Rasmus for the pixelart and I have no regrets :)

Ok so he *did* grow on me, mostly because I romanced him, but omfg the beginning was rough- like he makes a very compelling first impression, but then he just continuously cat calls any girl you have in your party ?? With the atrocious pick up lines you've heard a thousand times on the streets if you were socialized a woman and everything.... And like, his misogyny truly is inexplicable for someone who was exclusively raised by women, and not any women, prostitutes !! Like how do you end up the "you would be so much prettier if you smiled" guy, when raised by lots of women you probably saw get the same lame lines all day everyday and hate it ?? Oh but that's right ! 2009 video game writer sexism. And as I said, it got better when I started romancing him (even if the end of it bugged out for me, he never offered me the earring a second time-) like idk if the game just ran out of sexpestZevran.wavs or if he stops harassing women when fucking you, but that made him much easier to like 👍 also I love a cringe man with no rizz let's gooo

And I have to say, this screen made me very happy :') I didn't expect them to call back and further expand the romance from the main game ! What a nice touch to end my *check notes* 70+ hour playthrough oh god-

And finally Morrigan !

I really like how she talks ;w; it's so formal and silly ! Unfortunate charadesign tho..... But ! She is the bitchy bestie with whom I made the evil bébé. A baby was made en toute amitié <3

Really wish she'd talk about anything else other than her mother tho- all I'm asking is for a second topic to discuss here... Even in the banter between party members it's very often about her mother !! I know you had a fucked up sheltered relationship with a witch of legends- Girl please give me anything else I'm begging- I was very happy we killed flemeth :) it improved conversations a bit... All the mother talk went to past tense so that was new at least

And since I played 70 hours of this and I love to class things, here's my tier list of every other companions I had in my team (so no Loghain sorry Alistair killed his ass, no man who killed Duncan my beautiful wife in a flashback gets to live)

*"rompish" is a funny french slang word that means 'boring', because it's the sound you make when you snore

I think overall I preferred Awakening, even tho it was a sloppy bugged mess and kinda disappointing in therms of quests and payoff with a *terrible* villain, I certainly preferred my final team and the plot had me more intrigued... Origins had plot points I enjoyed, and I can't deny it at least has the advantage of getting better as it goes... Like BG3 is the type of game where act 1 is peak, act 2 is a bit less engaging but still an absolutely banger and act 3 is well messier- so even tho that's an *excellent* game, it's still a gradual downward slope. But on the contrary ! In the beginning of DAO the writing was so bad I wanted to beat up my balls, as us french say, and just stop playing altogether... Went to Orzammar last and that was were the game picked up a bit for me, still not so great writing but there were things here full of potential (if they were implemented better it could even have been great ! Looking at you making us select a politician to support before giving us *any* context or even their political views ??? But that's a cool plot point in concept !) and by the time of the landsmeet your companions have developed a second personality trait and the whole drama with Loghain was fun ! Had a mid ass time overall but at least the slope was steadily going up :)) still inexcusable misogyny tho... and fatphobia. That Awakening made so much worse funnily enough- like without Awakening, since I'm comparing it to BG3, I'd say Origin's "one fatphobic boss design present in every fantasy rpg where you play exclusively as thin women and ken dolls" was less egregious ! Low bar but good job fkdkdk but with the addition of 'the mother' ???? Get the fuck out that makes it actually so much worse-

Of course all this yapping is only my opinions, if Dragon Age 1 is your favorite video game good on you ! There's a lot of things to love here :)

PS : the logiciel I use for pixelart is called "Aseprite" !

[thesocialjusticewitch]

[thesocialjusticewitch]

POV: Solas finally notices you

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Spirit Animal is racist.

Patronus was invented by a transphobe.

I think it’s time we all suck it up and say what we mean: fursona.

[thesocialjusticewitch]

This has absolutely been done before but hey!!!! Here’s another!!!! Yay!!!!!

Anyway companion piece coming (hopefully) soon

[thesocialjusticewitch]

When we are gone (personal artwork).

[thesocialjusticewitch]

Surana by @ladiemars <3