#“Keep to small spaces.”

[cynicalraccoon]

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I was introduced to the Small Space series by amomentofwonder on YouTube when she showcased the second book on a video. It looked interesting so I bought the first book, Small Space. I didn't realize it was geared to a younger middle school audience, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Liked the mystery and the autumn atmosphere. Wasn't really too much horror.

One of the main characters, Olivia, or "Ollie", was a typical middle school girl grieving the death of her mother. She's hiding her grief behind a mask of aloofness and in the pages of her books. Throughout the book, Brian and Coco, her companions bring her out of her shell. And you get to see her finally face her mom's death at the end.

She also has a cool dad. What I like most was that Ollie's dad was the creative one in the family while her mom was the adventurous one. It's a nice switch up from the usual norm.

I don't have much to say about Brian. Yeah, it was a dick move to not help Coco when she was getting bullied by his friend. But aside from that, he's okay. And he comes through for the two girls a lot.

Coco worried me in the beginning, not gonna lie. Because she seemed the weak link, cried a lot, and was ready to trust anybody to help them when they took off in the woods. Which proved to be true, when the three ended up at a obviously sketchy old woman's house in the middle of the woods that's filled with paranormal scarecrows. Coco didn't think twice about entering. At least the other two were a little bit cautious.

But I did end up almost face playing when they did go into thw house. Then I remembered that they are children and they didn't really have any other choice at the moment.

I will admit that the three each brought a skill to the team. Ollie with her survival skills and knowledge, Brian with his comedic quips at times, and Coco with her unexpected skill at rock climbing and bravery.

Ollie's watch was an interesting touch. Thought it a as a trick by the Smiling Man at first, but it actually did turn out to be her mom helping them from beyond the grave.

Now, for the antagonists of the book.

Ms. Webster: Woman had the nerve to try and plead innocent at the end after trying to sacrifice a class of sixth graders to the Smiling Man. No. You did the crime- attempted murder, fraud, ect.- you do the time. Granted, Ollie shouldn't have taken the book from her in the first place, but still. Don't sacrifice people.

The bus driver, or the Hound: Talking, soul eating canine creature. liked him. He didn't do much. Would like to see him in the sequels, but that's probably impossible considering he's connected to the Smiling Man.

The scarecrows: A classic horror trope. But they played their part well.

Smiling Man: he was good, I'll give him that. That reveal at the end was a good plot twist. It's always the nice ones you have to be wary of. I liked that he admitted that he lost in the end and that he even felt a bit of respect for Ollie because of how she outsmarted him. I also liked the bit of body horror that he showed at the end. Keeps the readers curious about what he would truly look like without his human disguise.

And last of my review, we never did find out what happened to those children that burned in the schoolhouse fire. The Smiling Man couldn't have taken them because I don't think he made a deal with the Garret Webster. He probably did take the children that night the schoolhouse caught fire.

Anyway, Small Spaces was a fun read. I'm kind of interested in the sequels. Maybe in the future I'll read them.

[bluerosefox]

Gray and Graysons

One of the Bats has a secret. Something they never told to the others.

They were so very young but they have memories of a sibling, so small and tiny. They remember the burst of warmth they had in their heart when they held the tiny baby for just a moment.

But they weren’t allowed to keep them, their family couldn’t raise them. Money was tight, just enough for three but not for four, despite their shows always bringing in a crowd it was getting harder and harder for the world to be wowed by them in the new age and their sibling was too small and tiny and needed to be cared in a single place than for them to be on the road. Their lifestyle was not good for his tiny sibling apparently.

They had to watch as their parents gave his sibling away to people in suits, them promising to give his baby brother to a loving family when they find a ‘home’ for him. He watched his parents try to be strong only for his mother to break down once the car left down the road, his father holding her and apologizing, the rest of the circus troupe all silently coming over to give the heartbroken family condolences.

Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson had tears running down his face when he last saw his baby brother.

A brother he got to name before he had to be given away.

Daniel ‘Danny’ Grayson.

-x-x-

Dick never told the others. If anyone dug deep into his past they might find his brother’s birth records maybe, if someone got around to digitizing the paperwork for him but given the fact he was placed in the US childcare systems just a few days after his birth and the fact that Dick was still pretty young they most likely believed he didn’t remember his baby brother now. Not after so many years.

But they were wrong, Dick remembers. And he kept the secret close to his heart and memories.

And the only physical evidence he had was a single picture of him holding his brother, a smile on his tiny face towards their father who had taken the photo of them together. When he had lost his parents, lost most of the things that connected him to them, to his past in the circus that had been his whole life, had been taken from him in Gotham’s ruthless childcare system, he held on tight to the picture in secret. Hid it away from anyone trying to rip it from him, hid it from Bruce when the man took him in days later, hid it from Alfred despite how gentle the butler was towards him. He couldn’t, wouldn’t risk losing his photo at the time, he hadn’t trusted anyone and by the time he did he didn’t have the heart to reveal it.

So yes, the existence of his baby brother Danny was his most guarded and best kept secret.

So that’s why Dick, as Nightwing, nearly died from a heart attack when leaving a Justice League meeting he spotted a familiar face among one of the new engineers working in the Watchtower.

It was like seeing a young version of himself. Only, Dick could see that the young man was more than a copy of him, so much more than a clone. He held many traces of John Grayson but also had a bit more of Mary Grayson than Dick did. Small details that Dick foggely remembers taking note when he had held his baby brother.

“Hey, hurry up with that report Gray!” Shouted the head engineer from down the hall, his hand beckoning the young adult to come over.

“Coming! And boss, I told you Danny is fine!” Danny shouted back before hurriedly leaving a stunned Nightwing.

[bonefall]

Anyway. Bi and Mspec Lesbians aren't a hotly "debated" topic or even new to queer culture, it's just the newest thing that bullies who REALLY want to be homophobic and even racist use to justify harassing gay people they don't like.

It's the thinnest possible veneer of progressive language wrapped around TERF and reactionary rhetoric so that they can feel righteous for forming an angry mob against vulnerable targets. If you're gullible enough to fall for the newest wave of bigotry within the queer community, and turn on your allies because they're "confusing" or "invading your spaces," the SAME way they turned on bi/pan labels, trans people, xenogenders, neopronouns, and aroace people before this, then get lost.

[dykedvonte]

Curly's little blurb on his steam trading card just keeps reminding me he is a much more miserable person than people realize.

We don't get a lot of his thoughts, inner confliction that aren't bogged down by what Jimmy says or does. Even in the The Last One and Then Another, his dialogue is reflective, not the Curly before the crash but the result of everything. Parts of the him he was are there of course, but also disfigured and warped beyond recognition just like he is physically.

Curly really doesn't think much of himself and desires. He clearly chases fleeting moments of happiness. He doesn't really have prospects for himself, assumes in a similar way to Swansea, that if it should make it happy then he is happy. Though, he hasn't reached the point Swansea did to admit it doesn't. He neither sees the glass half full or empty, it's just water, something he needs and he'll take it from any perspective.

He wasn't running from anything but he's never really been going towards something either. He's listless. I've been using the term complacent to describe how he feels about his life and the closest people (really just Jimmy) in it, but now that word feels too neutral, too nice. Happier than Curly really was. There isn't just one word for it, he's unfulfilled, uncertain, uninspired. There are no active problems he faces and that's the issue, why should he be upset?

I believe he really is a person who doesn't know who he is or wants to be. He follows a structure. I don't think he's suicidal, but he clearly doesn't think about what makes him happy. He's numb. I suppose that is a better word than complacent, used to the feeling even if he hates it. It doesn't hurt so why stop it?

[evercelle]

2024 art summary! it sure has been a year

[sysig]

Blind side (Patreon)

[thatwildwolfart]

🎃Happy Halloween!🎃

Shepard chose the costumes. Garrus doesn't know what he's dressed us, he's just happy he gets to carry a sniper rifle.

[piinktearxs]

It’s okay if you don’t own or want agere gear

it’s okay if you don’t own or want an agere room

agere inspo boards are fine but don’t feel pressured to conform to the aesthetic just because that’s what you see online - nobody is going to see that space without them being worthy of it (ergo non judgmental of how it looks or how it is) - you do what feels best for you in that moment, no pressure, this is YOUR safe space so whatever makes sense to YOU

[anewp0tat0]

it doesn't feel real to me fellas. but I don't have time to sit by and chat and unload unfortunately so I'll just drop this and be on my way, cya kind folks very soon ✌️

not professional but I liked how his eye looked goddang it. I knew I was screwing myself but I did it anyway

[archivewriter1ont]

Cadet Batch Quotes

Kix: *giving all the Cadet Batch a checkup* Would you space monkeys hold still?! You’re gonna break my sphygmomanometer!

Cadet Wrecker: *chokes* Your WHAT?

Cadets Crosshair and Hunter: *dissolve into giggles*

Cadet Tech: *condescendingly* It should not be so funny... it is a real word.

Cadet Wrecker: You say it then!

Cadet Tech: Sphygmomanometer.

The Other Three: *falling down laughing*

Kix: Oh for crying out loud.

Echo: Can we check if their giggle boxes are connected or something?

Jesse: Wait, we have GIGGLE BOXES??!!

Rex: *facepalms*

[ainsi-soit-il]

Obviously, such spaces don't preclude praying in other parts of the home or outside the home, but I was curious how common this was.

[seeminglydark]

Because when I get stressed I draw mini comics, but the good news i, bestie helped me solve my bigger stress problem, thankyou @lesbrarians <3 ily!

Here’s a hint of the UFO keychain origin comic I’ve been working on, aka why Caro wears a SnapBack like they’re a character from a 1996 cartoon show <3

[hotwaterandmilk]

Without going into detail I had a medical emergency earlier this week that saw me wind up in hospital for a brief stint. I'm OK, I've got another lifelong condition to manage but it's mainly pain-related and that means it's management through outpatient neurology for me.

TL;DR it sucks, but it won't kill me so I don't want to dwell on it.

I just want to shout out to my beautiful cat who slept beside me for twelve hours straight after I got home and was nice to the paramedics when they were doing their job. She makes even the worst situations bearable. Love her, here's an artist's impression I commissioned:

While I still have a lot of plans for working on my Wedding Peach site, this new complication may slow me down a bit. I'll keep on keeping on though, you know me. Thanks for your patience.

[chiyana]

Jon: Damian, I have a suggestion that you're going to hate, but I need you to bear with me and seriously consider it Damian: very well Jon: *takes a deep breath* I think we should go on an adventure with our brothers (Kon and Tim) instead of our dads Damian: *visibly vibrating with anger* *deep inhale* ...eXpLaIn Jon: our dads are constantly talking about responsibility and the importance of a well-balanced SuperBat partnership, working together as a single unit and approaching things seriously Damian: they are respected heroes, above reproach in their conduct and two of the three main founders of the Justice League Damian: meanwhile our "brothers", as you say, have a public history of being reckless and idiotic when teamed up together and are regularly involved in inane, useless shenanigans Jon: they would let us ride laser dinosaurs into battle without question Damian: they- Damian: -later- Damian: father Jon and I are going on an adventure with Drake and his clone boy

[dykedvonte]

Mini rant below and in the tags, the only time I’ll talk about this and my personal take on it.

The way people talk about hypothetical male Anya on Twitter and the idea of how Mouthwashing would play out if the genders were swapped makes me remember how people still don’t take sexual assault and rape with male victims with the same gravity, especially when the perpetrator is female.

[ratatatastic]

i love the poker table and all the shit that has come from it if not because you can see exactly who's the loudest persistent bitch there and who exactly finds that endearing spoiler alert its exactly who you think it is womp womp

deeply important to me on a "whos the best and whos the worst at the table" maffhew and benny insisting forsy is the best because of his good pokerface and his consistency and even swaggy agrees that forsy is pretty good meanwhile benny cant help adding an "ekky thinks he's the best" while he's at it and swaggy has to get his two cents in as well: "and [ekblad] thinks he's pretty good."

and when forsy gets asked best and worst he decides he can't say worse and instead only lists the people he think are the good and: "ekky's pretty good actually but he's very... he's a little bit more wild so he's got some big swings."

and at first it's like oh maybe this is a benny/swaggy bullying ekky moment as they're prone to wont to do (ekky deserves it and likes it) but then forsy immediately says afterwards that c*usins is: "but i think nick c*usins. hes doing pretty good. yeah, I know, I know... we're gonna get him though."

which immediately discredits why he thinks ekky is a good player because both benny AND demers were like c*usins is the WORST at poker

and if you think oh forsy is just a carebear of a man and he cant choose the worst- NO HE DOES NOT. HE ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT BECAUSE in the same interview he has no qualms of naming lundy as the worst playoff beard (2nd year in a row btw): "its gotta be one of the finns probably... lundy" and calling out luosty for his culinary abominations: "luosty is eating—he's putting raw onions in the pasta which is... yeah thats a little... weirdo, weirdo!"

this is just forsy whos very bad at hiding his bias and will warp the world in favour of it because he'd rather die than not pick ekky for TWO whole questions (best at poker and best playoff beard)

and with primetime panthers we learned that ekkys too loud and pushy for both benny and swaggys taste that they both elected him as the worst seatmate on the team plane which is so comical that mr. im not very good at poker but I still sit with them and get shocked when ekky bounds over and wants me to play too would say such a thing huh

and the double whammy is that swaggy prefers forsys who's the complete opposite of ekky

and i just think everyone going, forsy is nice quiet and reserved in his facial expressions and ekky is loud insistent and not as good as he thinks he is, is just sooooooooooo