cowboisadness

[cowboisadness]

like i'm sorry but we as a fandom have to stay firm on our anti-AI values. we cannot suddenly start giving AI a pass when it's something we "want to see" like destiel kisses. it's not suddenly fine. we're not going to start using AI to make fanfic scenes come to life or audio AI to make characters "say" stuff we want to hear. you have GOT to be firm on your anti-AI stance. if you start making exceptions then suddenly anything will fly. fandom is for real art and creations made by real people. no AI fanfics. no AI art. no AI rendered "bonus" scenes. no AI audio. none of it has a place here.

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i love reader. idc if she’s a bimbo or a crybaby or a little unhinged. good for her tbh. i love her in all shapes and forms. she is barbie. she is a doctor and a student and a barista and she can take five dicks at the same time. what a beautiful world we live in.

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Okay, so deductible must be like our excess for insurance. No copay here unless you go through private, but I'm guessing it called something else here.

That's awful! So sorry you had to go through that. I had my cervical screening (pap smear), done by a nurse at general doctors, recently and she referred me to gynaecology simply "to check specific thing out, might be nothing tho but worth a look". Had my appointment within a couple of weeks. In and out and a nurse made me a cup of tea as I felt a little nauseous afterwards.

Proudly pay my taxes so everyone can get that sort of treatment.

Wishing you the best and hope the cyst is causing any troubles for you!

Honestly my favorite part of this UHC shooter debacle is seeing people from Europe who have universal basic healthcare being really really fucking confused about everything and having to explain what private health insurance is and then seeing them become mortified.

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I had an idea on how it worked (no idea what deductibles and copay is still) but the rage I've felt for the American people had multiplied 10 fold from hearing recent stories.

The NHS in the UK isn't perfect, but we love and adore it and will defend it till our last breath.

My mother got an incurable disease, didn't last the year, but we were provided with training, so many medications, daily carers, frequent doctor, nurse, and specialist visits 24/7. We even got given specialist equipment (bed, chair, lift, ect) and hospice resbite. ALL paid for by our taxes (roughly £40 a month for me). No insurance, no money exchanged. We all would have suffered if it wasn't for our health service. She got to pass away at home surrounded by family.

I really, really hope Americans get a health service like that. You and your loved ones deserve nothing less.

Honestly my favorite part of this UHC shooter debacle is seeing people from Europe who have universal basic healthcare being really really fucking confused about everything and having to explain what private health insurance is and then seeing them become mortified.

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Reaching 🌺🦇

Inspired by THAT scene form Bridgerton S2.

Shooting my shot and posting my art on here. I'm learning. I'm not good, but I'm learning.

[cowboisadness]

I've been hovering here more often lately. Desperately want to get back into writing but I do not have the time D':

If anyone is still interested in my long fic, Hang em High, I will get back to it, I promise. I still love that man and have things planned for them.

I graduated this year!! Currently doing my masters and my ass is being kicked. It's only the first semester.

Wish me luck, kids.

[cowboisadness]

Just like Bryce and Hunt, the bond didn't appear or snap into place for Nesta and Cassian until love was there

The development of the concept of mating bonds throughout ACOTAR and Crescent City

(I would have liked to add ToG but I didn’t have the time to read the series yet)

ACOTAR

"High Fae mostly marry,” ... “But if they’re blessed, they’ll find their mate—their equal, their match in every way. High Fae wed without the mating bond, but if you find your mate, the bond is so deep that marriage is … insignificant in comparison.”

The bond was portrayed as the ultimate form of love, something enviable and sacred.

ACOMAF

"Not lover, not husband, but more than that. A bond so deep, so permanent that it was honored over all others. Rare, cherished."

The same narrative continues,showing the bond as something sacred ,a love that goes beyond ordinary relationships.

ACOWAR

“Why not make them mates?” I mused. “Why Lucien?” ..."What decides it? Who decides it?"

The narrative begins to shift toward a more skeptical view of mating bonds, as there are miserable mates, proving that it is not always the perfect match the Fae believe it to be. Additionally, we learn that bonds can be created by different deities, such as the Mother, Fate, and the Cauldron.

"A mating bond can be rejected,” Rhys said mildly,...“There is choice. And sometimes, yes—the bond picks poorly. Sometimes, the bond is nothing more than some … preordained guesswork at who will provide the strongest offspring. At its basest level, it’s perhaps only that. Some natural function, not an indication of true, paired souls.”

This was a turning point in how the mating bond was first portrayed. Rhys explains that bonds are not always about love or compatibility, they can serve practical, biological purposes, like producing strong offspring, which confirms that the bonds are sometimes flawed and not always tied to soulmates. Additionally, the introduction of choice and the ability to reject what was previously portrayed as destiny is very significant.

Love would trump even a mating bond

And, of course, introducing the idea of love overpowering the mating bond.

ACOSF

Azriel stiffened. Let his cold rage rise to the surface, the rage he only ever let Rhysand see, because he knew his brother could match it. "What if the Cauldron was wrong"

For the second time, Elain and Lucien's bond is questioned, and a deity is suspected of creating arbitrary bonds.

HOSAB

"There were several definitions of the term mate—though Bryce supposed that to Ithan, to a shifter, only one mattered: one’s true lover, predestined by Urd. The Fae had a similar concept—a mate was a bond deeper than marriage, and beyond an individual’s control. The angels, she knew, used the term far more lightly: for the malakim, it was akin to a marriage, and matings could be arranged. Like breeding animals in a zoo."

● Shifters and Fae share the same concept of soulmates, created by Urd( the Mother in ACOTAR.)

●Angels: a practical, arranged partnership, which we later learn is with the blessings of the Asteri/Daglan, and its purpose is to produce offspring (Celestina/Ephraim) and oddly very similar to the bond that Rhys described hmmm

Knowing that the Cauldron is corrupted by the Asteri bref...

HOSAB

"Some Fae claim they know their mates from the moment they meet them. That there’s some kind of invisible link between them. A scent or soul-bond.” “But if you’re not my mate Athalar no one is ”

But guess what? Hunt didn’t know that Bryce was his mate from the moment he met her. They only realized it after they fell in love, and it fully formed after they chose each other as mates, which was very intresting and a new take on mating bonds. It might have existed all along, but its recognition and manifestation depend on emotional growth and mutual choice.

HOSAB

"So … maybe they were already mates, by that Fae definition. Maybe Urd had long ago bound their souls, and they’d needed all this time to realize it. But did it even matter? If it was fate or choice?. "

We went from 'mates = happily ever after' to a philosophical question. Fate may have set the stage, but they had to choose each other to make it real and in the end what matters is their love now, in the present.

Hofas

She wanted to marry him. Loved him enough to make it permanent beyond even their mating bond. To... become a family.

Again, it shows one's agency in making their relationship permanent and building a future together, even with the existence of the mating bond.

I find the evolution of the concept of mating bonds in her books interesting. Sjm went from portraying it as the ultimate, predestined form of love to challenging this idea by revealing that mating bonds can be flawed and are not always indicative of true love. Then, she presented a concept that balances fate and choice more effectively. I think it's very clear how she is developing the concept, and Elain is definitely set to further emphasize the idea of one's agency over fate and the power of love even more.

[cowboisadness]

Arthur Morgan with oils 24x32 cm

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Baldur's Gate fanartists will draw Astarion like a renaissance painting and Wyll like the cover of an adventure novel and Gale like a Leyendecker drawing and Karlach like the cover of a trashy romance novel (where she is the beefy hunk and her love interest is the swooning maiden) and Lae'zel like a knight in a manuscript and Shadowheart and Minthara like the cover of a lesbian pulp novel and Halsin coming out of a lake like the bear equivalent of the Birth of Venus and they're all so right

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HEY that's MY emotional support morally ambiguous misunderstood full of trauma touch starved yearning for love drenched in blood responsible for numerous atrocities comfort character who is TRYING & u will TREAT them with RESPECT

[cowboisadness]

Red Dead Redemption 2 was so real for creating the most in-depth, realistic clothing system I've ever seen in any game, and exclusively using it on burly, unhygienic men.

You choose every layer, every accessory, with dozens to hundreds of each to choose from. You can go in and fine-tune minute details like whether or not to roll up the shirt sleeves, or button the collar, or whether to wear your pants under your boots. These clothes get dirty in real time depending on what you do in the game. Mud, dust and blood linger unless washed off. Every garment has a warmth rating based on its material, and the game calculates what temperatures an outfit is suitable for based on the combined total. Dressing too cold or warm for the weather causes health debuffs.

You can choose which way he parts his hair, and whether he gels it. If you eat too much he gets bulkier and gains a double chin, and if you eat too little he can go underweight and get all bony and sallow. Both of these states come with stat changes. His hair and beard grow in real game time, and you need to routinely style and shave his facial hair if you want any style other than a full Santa. You need to bathe him regularly or people will start commenting on his BO, and he'll start visibly appearing filthy long before that. He sunburns in the sun, and in the heat he becomes slick and glossy with sweat.

This shit is IN DEPTH. It blows the customization systems of actual fashion-centric games like tf2, Monster Hunter and Splatoon out of the water in every regard. They honestly look basic in comparison. It's a paradigm shift for sure once you experience RDR2's level of customization. Everything else starts to feel smaller.

The player character all this customization is applied to, and I simply cannot stress this enough, is a 36 year old, 6'3" smoker weighing well over 200 pounds, with facial hair thicker than a sheepdogs, forearms like gnarled tree trunks and a dark, dense forest of body hair covering every reasonable surface. His skin is pocked and marred with scars from a rugged, nomadic lifestyle, and his teeth are the colour of cornbread. He has a thick southern accent, is a known mean drunk and knows how to skin pretty much any North American animal. He has never worn deodorant, flossed or moisturized. He eats canned beans, fruit and the like by simply pouring them into his mouth and gulping, often while walking or riding a horse at full gallop.

I can think of NO better use case for such customization. Not some fresh-faced little twink, not some busty anime babe. Just a gross, hairy, unwashed homeless dude with crippling self esteem issues and a chest broader than a barrel laid lengthwise. A non fashion-centric game, certainly a non-fashion centric character, but for some reason the best clothing and customization system ever concieved, bar none. What the fuck.

[cowboisadness]

🌙✨.

[cowboisadness]

When Margaret Thatcher died (UK prime minister), we got 'the witch is dead' into the charts.

It was brilliant. Hoping for the same energy.

you have to outlive donald trump

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The only thing scary about Halloween this year are these temperatures! Ha ha ha! *pulls the mic close* I'm going to start killing oil executives

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quick arthur studies for practice

(photos refs from ArthurMorganisKing on pinterest)

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i gave you all i had

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All bundled up for the May snow