#(only difference is that art doesn't get stale)

[arttsuka]

you arent disappointing anyone im sure those people just might have a tumblr break

Well, probably yes. It's just, the feeling of disappointing random strangers on the internet is too strong.

[bi-writes]

i'm a big fan of your writing! can i ask what made simon want to mail order a bride in the first place? thanks <3

mail-order bride

he's tired of staring across his dinner table and seeing nothing but empty space.

it isn't something he had thought about in the before. he's spent a long time shifting between different cots, collecting sand from faraway places and counting the bodies he dropped with tally marks against his boots.

there's a picture he keeps tucked into his vest, but he won't take it out. it sits heavy there, an invisible wall between himself and the outside world, a reality that he chooses not to believe. if he doesn't look at them, he won't think of them, and if he doesn't think of them, maybe he can pretend they were never even real.

they all have something outside of here. his sergeants are too pretty and too outgoing to stick around; they're social butterflies, and simon has seen the shuffle of pictures of some pretty girl that gaz can't stop staring at, and soap never shuts up--whenever they have a signal, he's somehow got a phone call with his cousin's stepfather's little sister, or it's his second cousin's brother-in-law's birthday, and he's got to wish him well since he missed his art exhibition last month.

even price has a pale circular shadow that is stained onto his ring finger.

it's not his fault, is it? it's not his fault he was dealt the worst fucking hand. it wasn't his fault he was born already two feet into the grave; it couldn't have been his fault that he can only get a good night's sleep when there's screaming in one ear or the rattle of a battlefield over his head.

it isn't his fault. it isn't his fault. it isn't his fault.

the cigarettes taste bland today. they're old, stale, and he can taste the bitterness already, but he lights it anyways, flicking ash into the ground, scrunching his nose until he gets used to the bite of it.

there's a shadow at his side, and he turns to snap at them, assuming it's johnny and his incessant nagging, but he holds his tongue when he realizes it's his captain.

he's got a warm cigar in one hand, and he leans against the concrete wall beside him, sighing deep, the kind of pensive weight that only a captain can bear.

price looks tired. he needs to go home.

"boys invited y'out, didn't they?" price asks, and simon chuckles lowly.

"'m olready 'ome," simon murmurs. "'n i can get piss drunk oll on my own 'ere."

price shrugs.

"ya haven't taken leave since you joined my team, simon," he says low. "can't have that. you know it."

simon shrugs.

"can try and make me go," simon tells him. "but y'know i won't leave."

"i'm not asking, simon," price says firmly. "'m telling."

"doesn't matter," simon takes a long drag of the cigarette, holding it in for a second too long before letting it out slow. "got nowhere ta go."

his captain is not blind. simon's on a one-way road, and the end of it stops at the end of someone else's gun. men like simon, the ones who have nothing to lose, they're dangerous. they clear rooms outnumbered thirty to one because no one thinks they can. they hit targets from thousands of yards away because it's the only place that never changes. they kill and sleep peacefully because the blood of a stranger is far cleaner than that of someone they know, of someone they love.

they'll never leave because war is familiar. they don't want to go home because home isn't something they know. they're nomads, taking with them only what they can carry, because the rest is baggage and an emotional weight that they aren't strong enough to carry.

but it doesn't mean men like simon don't want. it doesn't mean they don't wish for more. it doesn't mean they don't think about using their teeth for something other than baring them to show their dominance, their aggression, their insecurity.

simon's a protector. the way he shoves his men behind him says so. the steadiness of his voice over comms when the op goes to shit. the ease of his hand when he ties a tourniquet. the split second that simon never wastes, the way he uses his body as armor and the look he gives his men when they're scared. simon's died twice before, and the look in his eyes tells them that this isn't it, that this isn't death, because he'd fucking know--he'd recognize it if he saw it.

simon's unrelenting. his past, his trauma, it's tried to beat him into a shape that will bend and snap, but its obvious simon is not made of lead--fuck, he's an entire block of unmovable steel. he does not give when compressed, he does not crack when the strength of him is tested. simon's fought too hard to live to let a gun terrify him, he's endured too much torture to flinch when someone sinks a blade into his chest.

but he knows, simon knows, that there is something missing. he fought hard to live, but for what? he's endured, but what the fuck is there when he lays his head down at night?

simon's a lover. he tries so hard to convince himself that he's always been this way--alone, drifting, lost, but it's a lie. simon knows what it's like to want. he knows what it's like to look into a crowd and hope you see a familiar face. he understands wanting to pull that string taut, but he also understands what it can do to you. what it can take from you.

he understands what you can never get back.

he thinks this is a bad idea. he crumples the note paper in his hand that had the address scribbled onto it, tearing it, staring up at the house in front of him. it's quaint, a lovely little house in the outskirts of london, with a red chimney and overturned planters in the yard. there's a weathered wooden door, a porch step that needs fixing, and when he kicks open the door, he grimaces seeing a carpet that need's replacing.

"the fuck am i doin' 'ere?" he whispers to himself, sliding his mask off, running a hand over his face. his heart is pounding, but he's not sure why, but he catches his reflection in the window. what looks back at him terrifies him--he can't do this.

he makes his way back outside, rummaging through his pockets for a cigarette. he takes a seat on the steps, lighting it, and as he takes his first frantic drag, he sees the torn pages of the note still on the ground. he picks up one end of it, running his thumb over the crumpled paper there, smudging the pencil scribble there.

she needs you

it's written in price's ugly handwriting, letters all tilted to the side and barely legible, but he still can read what price didn't write--and you need her.

but simon doesn't need anyone. he barely needs himself, barely can take care of himself. this won't help him--he can't help anyone, he isn't the kind that can be this kind of thing for anyone. he's stayed in the service because at least this way, he can die with honor, he can prove them all wrong, he can at least be remembered for what he could do and not by what was done to him.

his touch is ice. his heart is buried too deep under his ribs; no one has seen it since he could finally register a memory. his face, the skin he wears--he's not a pretty man, he's a forgettable one. he isn't gentle, he isn't capable of it. he can't forgive. he's so quick to anger, likes to snap his teeth, and he cannot be the kind of thing that they all expect him to be.

he does not love himself. he will not love himself. so he cannot love another.

there is a certain kind of satisfaction he feels when he fixes the porch step. once abandoned, once a nuisance, and now it functions as intended. he feels the same kind of thing when he rips up the stained carpet, and he feels it again when he watches the seeds of the thyme leaves grow as they rest in a pot above the sink.

things once forgotten serve a purpose. with effort, they can be used again. they don't have to be replaced, they can be open anew, they can live again and breathe deeper and see through the lens of a different perspective.

when you climb the porch steps the first time, he thinks about the board that doesn't wobble any longer. when the door shuts behind you for the first time and you take off your boots, he thinks about the new carpet that warms your toes now.

and when you lay next to him for the first time, under the covers of the bed he's made, he reaches over and slips a few fingers around your wrist, thumbing at the base of it and swallowing hard when he feels the pulse of your heartbeat. it beats, warm and steady, to a beat familiar, one he knows. his heart has not been hiding under thick bone and the tar of his own blood.

it's here now. under your skin. and now it's home.

[rotthepoet]

Fight - M.Riddle

Summary: Mattheo Riddle breaks your nose, and he kinda feels bad about it.

~2.3k words

Content: Modern Au, Characters are 18+, No use of Y/N, No determined house, Mattheo doesn't like using his words, descriptions of fighting and blood, maybe ooc everyone? dunno this fandom is weird i love it, mention of drug use(tobacco, weed, alcohol), Mattheo's love language is acts of service and gift giving fight me, rushed ending sorry chat i'm getting back into writing again, not proof read

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Violence isn’t something I’m particularly fond of. Not for any reason, but I suppose you really don’t need a reason to hate something so savage. I don’t like action movies, the idea of contact sports and martial arts in the muggle world is barbaric to me, and even watching beaters and chasers hurdle towards each other on the Quidditch pitch makes me cringe.

Hogwarts is full of many fights. They're unavoidable, I suppose. Occasionally, the more disorderly underclassmen will break out into a wizard’s duel. Bright flashes of light and the screams of ignorantly casted hexes will draw onlookers nearby, blocking up the already crowded hallways with a ring of students encouraging their peers with reckless abandon. In fact, there were rumors of a secret dueling club that had been organizing these fights for centuries.

However, there are only so many different hexes and jinxes to terrorize and entertain your classmates with before things become… stale. This conundrum, along with unstable hormones, had sparked a new infatuation among Hogwarts upperclassmen.

Fist-fights.

The idea was childish. Any problem imaginable could be sorted with words, or even wands, and yet both boys and girls fought nail, tooth, and, claw just for an ounce of respect. Maybe an ounce of attention. If I remember right, even an ounce of weed (This was the day many students had to undergo a veritaserum-induced interrogation.) . It was foolish, and oftentimes fights were shut down by the hands of professors within moments.

That did not seem to be the case today.

As if by some miracle, or in my case a misfortune, professors seemed to be distinctly absent from the hallways in which Mattheo Riddle and Theodore Nott, seventh year Slytherin’s and star quidditch players, beat each other into a pulp.

And by my luck, I was stuck at the barricade of sorts, facing the fight without obstruction as my peers tried to press closer, obscuring my exit from the situation.

The two of them screamed about who-knows-what, and they flashed between the floor and standing upright. The two of them sauntered and stumbled around, each collision of fist to skin sent my stomach reeling with nausea.

Theodore’s lip was busted and an uncomfortable looking bruise was already forming around his eye. He shrugged-more-so ripped- his robe off and swung wildly at Mattheo, making him back up.

Now, Mattheo Riddle is a tall man. A solid 6 foot if not taller, muscular build after a few years on the Slytherin’s Quidditch team. He was not someone you would want to stand up against, or really be near in general.

The crowd collectively gasped and hollered as he stumbled backwards, right towards me. Against the thick wall of students, I had no where to go. He swung his arm back, fast and powerful.

The sickening crack was all I could hear. Then all I could see were his angry eyes widening in realization that he had hit something other than Theodore. His head swiveled around, and I almost thought he would apologize before a blow landed in his gut, leaving him to curl over and writhe in pain on his knees. At this point, I believe Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini had forced themselves into the ring to separate Riddle and Nott.

I don’t remember falling backwards, but I was in the strong hands of another classmate while a few people asked if I was okay. I tasted blood on my lips. Tears slipped down my cheeks heavy and hot, and blood dripped profusely from my nose.

It was Pansy Parkinson that escorted be to the hospital wing.

Pansy was a pretty girl, black hair, silver jewelry, and eyes sharper than a new blade. She wasn’t the most approachable girl I had ever spoken to, but after an assigned pairing in potions, we had become quite the duo. She rambled on about how she’ll have ‘Matt’ apologize, and how ‘the boys’ were going to be in so much shit.

My nose was broken, fixed with a simple, “Episkey!”, from Madam Promfrey, and I was sent on my merry way with Pansy at my side. She, and I do mean this fondly, droned on about how sorry she was( “Pansy, I said it was fine.” “No, it isn’t fine! Those nitwits could have done far worse-“) and how she’ll have Riddle pay me back.

“Really, he is a nice guy!”

“So I’ve heard…” I mumbled, a migraine settling in, and I had half a mind to turn back around to the hospital wing and demand enough tonic to let me sleep for a week.

“Why don’t I just take you back to my dorm and we can watch a movie, eat a few snacks. I still have a ton a chocolate frogs left from our last sleepover.”

I sighed, and gave a small smile. I didn’t really feel like it, but if it would make dear Pansy stop worrying, I folded.

The Slytherin dungeons were oddly warm considering being so far underneath the Black Lake. The stained glass casted rays of green and blue lighting among the common room, and fish swam past the great windows. The common room was nearly empty save for a few students among the chairs reading, a couple playing wizard chess, and a small group of familiar faces occupying the couches in front of the fire place.

The first to turn around was Blaise Zabini, and he greeted Pansy with a smile, then turned to me with a small wince. “How're you feeling?”

“Better now. Thank you.”

Zabini nodded, turning his gaze back to the ever incessantly whining Malfoy. Pansy rolled her eyes, and I could feel the ‘he turned me into a lesbian,’ building in her chest. We retired to her room before her own cat-fight could break out

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It was around 2 am when we emerged from Pansy’s room again, both hungry and unable to sleep even after indulging in far too many sweets. She took my hand, racing me down flights of stairs until we stumbled back into the common room with a small giggle that abruptly stopped at the sight of the same group of boys on the couch. Two new heads had joined the count, and simultaneously each turned to face the two of us.

I locked eyes with Mattheo Riddle, and he looked away.

Fucking dick.

“What was it this time?” Pansy broke the silence, dragging me to the couch now. She sat at the end, myself in the middle, and coincidentally, Riddle on my other side.

Theodore Nott, who sat across the center table from Riddle, nursing his swollen eye with an ice bag answered. “He broke my pipe.”

Mattheo Riddle rolled his eyes, “I said I'm sorry and I'll pay you back." He snapped, and Nott yelled something about that being his favorite glass.

Pansy tsk’d them, reaching for the bowl of fruit on the table, plucking herself an apple and offering me an orange. My nails, cut short due to nervous picking and biting, dug at the thick skin. I lifted my head only when I heard my name being spoken, and I met Nott’s gaze.

“How’s your nose?”

I swore he made a snide glance at Riddle, who visibly tense and turned farther away from me.

“It’s fine. Easily fixed.” I turned my gaze back to the orange, biting my cheek in frustration as my nail continued to slip from the peel. A blush rose to my cheeks in frustration.

“So it was broken. You need to watch where you’re swinging those damn elbows, Riddle.”

Riddle gave Nott the finger, and the company around us laughed. I laughed along, but sighed as I ultimately gave up trying to peel the orange. Pathetic. At least no one had seemed to notice or care.

“No one would have gotten hurt had you not been a little bitch.” Snapped Mattheo to Theodore, and his bruised hand grabbed the orange from my own so quickly I almost didn’t realize it had happened.

His fingers worked swiftly, removing the skin of the fruit before he put it back in my hands. He stood up, “I’m sick of your shit, going to bed. Don’t make too much noise when you come up.” He mumbled, and Theodore rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your panties in a twist, princess.”

I stared down at the peeled orange in my hand. Slowly, I pulled a carpel from the rest of the fruit.

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Things had seemed to turn around for me, lately.

Maybe it was a lucky streak, but the bench I frequented in my free time to read had been consistently available despite being a popular spot most days. Along with that, My favorite seat in History of Magic, which had been unrightfully stolen by a group of friends, had been returned to me (It was my favorite because it's located on the far back wall, perfect for an unseen nap). I even walked into potions and found a little note of all the questions that were to be asked during the class, and all of their answers.

Pansy laid her head in my lap, whining about a girl she was pining for, while I flipped through pages of an uninteresting book on potion ingredients. She sat up slowly, yawning and stretching her arms above her head. "It's the weekend, what are we doing here? Lets go for a walk." she urged, and I grabbed my bag and followed. We walked through hallways mindlessly, chatting about the most recent rumors.

There was a yell from down the hall as we turned a corner, and before either of us could look, a body came hurdling into mine. I fell to the ground, hard enough that the air was knocked from my lungs. I gasped desperately, tears rushing to my eyes at the sudden pain of hard stone on my back, and a massive body on top of me.

It pushed itself up onto its hands, hovering over me.

I looked Mattheo Riddle square in the eye, and I could see the color drain from his face.

"Well? Get off of her!" I heard Pansy shriek, and once he had moved, Pansy helped me off the ground. I looked up at her, smiling in thanks, before I met Mattheo Riddle's gaze again. He stared at me for a moment longer, opening his mouth to say something. He shut it again, and turned away. Zabini raced around the corner, eyes wide as he took in the scene.

"You beat her up again?"

The look Mattheo gave Blaise sent a chill down my spine.

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The next day, Pansy and I found a box of chocolates outside of my dorm.

"Someone has a secret admirer!" She chimed in a sing-song voice.

I blushed a little bit at the notion. It was nice to think, but I insisted it was left at the wrong door and we should leave it. After much convincing, Pansy folded.

"I'm sure it's meant for you. You're probably hurting someone's feelings," She sighed.

"Then they should have left a note."

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It was frigid outside, the wind nipping at my nose, and I pulled my scarf further over my face. The courtyard was empty, most everyone opting to hide away in the warmth of their common rooms, and I started to feel like a fool for daring to come outside. At least it was quiet. I collected my bag, sliding my books into their place when the crunch of snow behind me sent be jumping in surprise.

I whipped my head around and audibly gasped when I met dark brown eyes.

"Do you not like chocolate?"

The question took me off guard, and I obviously took too long to answer when Mattheo started talking again.

"It's fine if you don't. I didn't really know what you would have liked," Mattheo rubbed his hands together, suddenly looking anywhere but at me. He looked nervous. Was Mattheo Riddle nervous?

"Just… It was an…" he stumbled over his words, scratching at his palm. "Y'know… Merlin, will you just say something?" he snapped, tugging on his scarf.

I couldn't help but stare at him. He looked so.. small.

"You got me chocolate?"

"Did… you not get it? I left it outside of your door."

I bit the inside of my cheek. Mattheo Riddle had gotten me chocolates. Why? "I didn't think they were for me."

"Why wouldn't they have been?"

"I thought someone had just left them at the wrong door."

Mattheo looked appalled at the very notion. He ran his hands through his hair, taking a deep, frustrated breath. "Why would I have left chocolates outside of anyone else's door?"

"You didn't leave a note. I didn't know who they were for, or what they were for, or if they were poisoned!"

Mattheo groaned, mumbling something about Zabini lying when he said girls were clever, "Well they were for you! To… apologize! For breaking your nose, and then knocking you over, and what I was doing before just didn't seem like enough!"

My mouth felt dry, and I shook my head. "What you were doing before? You could have just said sorry!"

Mattheo sighed, "The.. the seats in class- I had detention for weeks because I knew you liked napping in history of magic, and you were struggling in potions- and.. Really I deserve a 'thank you'!"

"Well then, Thank you."

A blush crept up to Matheo's cheeks, though I'm sure it was just the cold getting to him.

"I'm sorry."

I smiled, reaching to grab my bag off of the bench. "I forgive you."

Mattheo grabbed the bag before I could, and I looked up at him in confusion as he slung it over his shoulder. 'I'll carry it for you," Is all he mumbled while pulling his scarf tighter around his red face.

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Things about being a Christian I've had to unlearn as an adult:

Spending a lot of time on/ being invested in something doesn't make it an idol. This is not how that works, bestie. Look. I get that the advice "if you spend more time on x hobby than you do reading the Bible and praying" is well-intentioned, but it's just plain Bad. There are a lot of hobbies that take significant amounts of time. Art. Writing. Trade hobbies, like woodworking. I spent two hours Saturday putting in a garden (now that I have space for one!), and not spending two hours and one minute on Bible reading doesn't mean that gardening is now an idol for me. It means I got into a groove and just kept going (and got terribly sunburned for my trouble). What makes something an idol is NOT how much time you spend on it but rather the importance you place upon it. Sometimes important things take five minutes and sometimes they take an hour; the thing that took five minutes isn't less important because it took up less of your time. If your thought process is "this is more important than spending time with God", that is what makes your hobby an idol. (If you are constantly foregoing your time with God in favor of a hobby, then I'd say you need to re-evaluate your priorities, but spending a lot of time on something does not inherently make it an idol. Not to mention that a lot of hobbies can still bring you closer to God despite not spending that time intentionally for that purpose.)

Not having your "quiet time"/ devotions every day does not make you a "bad" Christian. This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point, and there's a lot I could say on this topic, but what it boils down to is this: God understands our human limits and the brains He gave us that sometimes make it difficult -- autism and ADHD and OCD and [fill in the blank]. I'm autistic. So when (well-meaning) people say things like, "you can't get to know God if you don't spend time with Him!" about praying and reading the Bible -- well, 'spending time' looks different for me. Socializing is difficult for me. And while socializing with God is obviously different than with people, praying is still far more mentally draining for me than for most people (especially growing up in an environment where it was implied that you have to 'say the right things' when you pray instead of just allowing it to be a conversation, but that's the next point). A lot of "socializing" for me is simply being present with someone else. This is called "parallel play": you're doing your own thing in the same space as someone else while they are also doing their own thing. This...doesn't translate well to Christianity and what Christianity is "supposed" to look like, unfortunately, so I constantly felt shame that none of the common advice worked for me when it seemed to work for everyone else. Set a time? Executive dysfunction makes switching tasks hard and once that set time has passed, "well, it's too late now". Having a reading plan? I'd miss a day, fall behind, and the shame at that would keep me from continuing to try. And when I did manage to stay on track, quite often it simply became a box to check off and that was it. So, now, I do what I can, when I can. I always get more out of it, and I think God cares more about that than sticking to a plan just so you can say you read every day anyway.

"Don't script your prayers! They'll become repetitive and you won't think about or mean them!" Oh, boy. Once again, I get the well-intentioned meaning here. You don't want your prayers to become rote and stale. But as someone with high anxiety, scripting them is the only way I can survive praying aloud with other people, and, in fact, it means I put more thought into them, not less! But hearing this kind of advice coupled with an environment where it was implied you had to say 'the right things, the right way' was absolutely detrimental to my prayer life growing up. I was always worried about saying the wrong thing, especially as an undiagnosed autistic who was constantly, ya know, saying the wrong things in conversations with people. So I definitely didn't want to say the wrong things to God! But... I also wasn't allowed to plan what to say? How was I supposed to pray then? So I just. didn't pray. For a very long time. Until I learned its just as perfectly okay to talk to God about whatever crosses your mind while you're standing at the sink doing dishes as it is sitting down with a list of things to focus on. (Not to mention that this really is just...terrible advice in general. Kudos to my pastor, who, in his current Sunday night series on worship, actually gave a tutorial on how to personalize praying the Psalms. So, you know, pre-written prayers.)

Purity Culture. Need I say more? Oh, I could write a whole post about how harmful this is, but plenty of people already have, so I'll leave it at this: I wear what I am comfortable wearing now. Something I love about my church is that our philosophy on modesty is this: The greatest sin of immodesty is saying "look at me" instead of "look at God." In other words, modest isn't about what you're wearing so much as what your attitude about what you're wearing is. If you choose what to wear because you want people to notice and stare and give you compliments, then that is immodest no matter how much of your skin is covered up. It's not immodest to wear clothes you like and that you think are attractive (or that help you look professional when its called for), but ultimately your mindset is really not about "dressing to impress." (There is a very thin line between 'modest' and 'immodest' and its not where most people think it is.)

[redd956]

When writing feels stale and unfamiliar...

Ever be trying to finish a WIP, update a fanfic, or push out something for school, but writing just suddenly feel so stale, almost like your own writing doesn't sound like you...

Well I'm here to help you break that cycle!

This feeling usually happens when either two things happen

Imposter Syndrome

or

You're Simply Improving

That's right, it's not you doing something wrong, you're just being a skilled writer. How do we get out of this dull feeling though? There's a lot of different tactics you can try. Here's some potential options.

Read your own writing

Read your own writing. Do it! Not only does it cause you to realize how much you like your own writing, it forces you to refresh. it's a great way to remember where you were going in a piece, and any potential themes or writing style you accidentally dropped. It makes it easier to pick up some lost mistakes too, and discover some places to improve.

(this one works twice as well after a break or some passage of time :D)

Change of Atmosphere

Not exactly a change of location, but instead a change of atmosphere. Play a new lo-fi playlist, try writing without any sound at all, indulge in thematic video essays in the background. Sometimes in order to regain focus the atmosphere needs to change.

Consume New Content

This goes for all creatives who are stumped. To output constant creative creations and ideas you require an input in the first place. For some people it may take awhile before they feel the brunt of creative block, but it will eventually come for all. The best advice I can give is to consume new media. Read a new book, watch a TV show, play a video game, find a new artist you like. This is all input. Input becomes output.

Take A Break

Not everyone has the privilege to do this one, but if you do, don't turn your nose from it. Taking a break isn't exactly something everyone does creative-wise, especially those who deal with a quick working skill regression. I've been there.

Taking a break from something is a great way to make it feel fresh when you return. Breaks don't have to be long. Depending on what calculates as a break for you is what you should strive for (even if it's only a day or two).

Acceptance

Accept that you are not going to create the top most, polished stuff 24/7 Every artist and writer creates and dumps ton of unfinished art, erases pieces, and makes lots of mistakes. Often times the best work that we admire takes a lot of time, refinement, practice, and drafts. Sometimes we just have to write badly in order to come back and do it again good.

[funnycreatortimetravel]

Small rant about Sans' character that no one is ever going to read and is probably kind of inaccurate, but I'm going to scream into the void nonetheless because why the hell not and I'm kind of bored.

I feel like the concept of Sans as a whole has been so utterly gutted by the fandom and not in the way you'd think. Not because of the AUs which are all so oddly Sans-focused (but at least we have Underverse which is actually pretty good) but in the sense of the people who claim to "actually understand Sans canonically" and "try to stay as canon as possible" while also equally missing the point sort of. Hence, why we have this long and overplayed image I'm sure everyone has seen a billion times:

If I could lay some groundwork down, Undertale came out in 2015, nearly a decade ago. The internet was a different time and place then and fandom creativity reached new peaks that no one had ever seen before, and as a result, a lot of Undertale was exaggerated, changed, cut up, and then put back together. Why? Because in all honesty, Undertale was a really simple game with a simple premise. Sure there were bits and pieces scattered throughout, parts like who Gaster was, who Chara was when they were alive, who Sans is in general; all the typical fandom theory shenanigans we've come to expect in the recent years. And in that excitement, Sans became the staple of Undertale pretty much, or at least everything it represented. This macabre, yet adorably misleading game with funny moments and interesting think pieces that people are still speculating about. That's pretty much the basis of Sans. So I get why Sans became the quintessential poster child for such a subversively ambitious game. I get why, then, people try to showcase Sans as this badass God character who knows and remembers all of resets and cries over Papyrus and is just an edge lord in general. It doesn't mean it's accurate in the slightest, but I get the idea of it nonetheless. In the absence of content, and there's a lot of it in Undertale, (I mean, it took me 4 hours to 100% it in the Pacifist and Neutral Routes, and 5 hours to beat Genocide, including the times it took me to beat Undyne because she thoroughly kicked my ass and Sans as well) the fans filled those gaps with what they saw fit and what they saw fit was so wide and diverse that the gap overflowed and the game pretty much became unrecognizable.

And I (except for the truly questionable and gross stuff, you know what I'm talking about) love the fandom for that, I truly do. Just the sheer number of comics, spin-off games, AUs, art, and fanfiction that answered every question I had and more was and is impressive, but even so, there's only so much that can be done with the context Undertale provides us before the content gets...stale. Hence my point on why Sans' character was so exaggerated is because Undertale as a whole had been exaggerated and oversaturated and overplayed and generally...not what the game or Sans was originally. But that was peak 2016-2019, though, a few years ago. And the interpretations and eras, like everything, have changed.

Now back to my actual point. It's now 2024. The fandom has noticeably slowed down. All of the AUs and theories and fanfictions that were popular have either been forgotten about over the years, randomly rediscovered or still ongoing, or just abandoned entirely. The game has been pretty much combed through until every file has been cracked, every document leaked, and every secret discovered. It's like a picked over turkey at this point and a lot of the old creators have indeed left behind the game in pursuit of newer things, which is understandable. It's not the center of attention it once was and in that wake, we don't really have a lot of the same pillars in the Undertale community that we used to. And in this transformed community, we have the left over children, now young adults and teenagers, to pick up the pieces. And in that, Sans' character, as well as Undertale itself, has again, been reformed.

That was a lot of words. But I hope I at least set the center stage. My issue, pretty much, is that the leftover fans deem themselves as "above the cringe" the old fandom left behind, which, is fair enough. And in doing so, a lot of the foundation of the 2016-2019 Undertale fandom was kind of overwritten. No, now Sans is no longer this edgy, overpowered God figure ready to right the wrongs of the player, no, now he's this apathetic guy who doesn't care about anyone, including himself, and is only powerful because he cheated. And to be fair, I see some merit in this interpretation. Sans is in fact, a pretty morally ambiguous guy. He doesn't even attempt to stop the player during the genocide route until there's nothing left. He threatens the player on the pacifist route even when we pose no threat. He makes so many allusions about himself not caring about anything. So I get it. Everyone is tired of everything Sans-related. I was too at one point. But in trying to counteract this fanon interpretation of Sans, I feel like this new one is also semi-inaccurate. This new interpretation of Sans is meant to be seen as "mature" and "not cringe" when in fact, Undertale is and always will be sort of cringe. And that's OK! That's why I and others love the game so much, because it's not afraid of being anything other than what it is and what it claimed to be. It had a story in mind that it wanted to tell and it did so unabashedly. The need to separate Undertale and Sans itself from the cringe is so pointless and almost a little juvenile. And imo, even ruins the character of Sans himself.

Sans does care about Papyrus, so so so much. He reads him bedtime stories. He plays along with his illusions of grandeur. He calls out the player when he's killed, despite Sans having to remain objective as a judge. I feel like Sans not intervening in Papyrus' death isn't because he doesn't care, it's because his entire job is to act as a judge and in a position where he's mostly neutral. He knows the player has powers to redo and undo things, so thus, he gives us room to make those choices, for better or worse. He's like, the anti-toriel. He refuses to hold your hand. He tells YOU to make the right choice, and by you, I mean the player. And in that sense, I feel like that's not something a completely apathetic guy would do. Someone like that wouldn't even see the point of choices, of having an option. Someone like that wouldn't care about getting out of bed in the morning, getting several jobs, or telling a person with higher power to just engage with your brother.

Like come on, don't say he doesn't put effort into anything, like he went out of his way to make sure Pap's Holiday party went perfect. He's constantly going above and beyond for his brother.

Sans has emotions and they're so complex and so well-written, but I feel like this counter-cringe culture of the fandom wants him to be this guy who's either too depressed or too lazy to engage with others, or someone who would simply shrug off the death of loved ones when we have proof that Sans does indeed try hard for Papyrus in the ending where everyone dies but his brother. It's an "oh shit" sort of moment when he realizes that Papyrus is the only person he has left and thus, he puts in the effort to be better for him. It's not that he doesn't care or see the point, he's just kind of numb at this point. If Papyrus dies in the neutral routes, you don't see Sans again until the judgment hall and he'll call you a dirty brother killer and tell you to go to hell. That's something someone who at least cares a little would do. He's not above insulting the player and he's not above getting pissed. I've never really seen him as a, "well that's that then," character when it comes to Papyrus dying, for me, it's always been, "I'm angry, but I can maintain my composure and still do what I have to do."

Even in the genocide routes, Sans wants to give up and do nothing. He wants to let himself die without much thought. But he knows that he has to stand between you and oblivion. It's another, "Oh shit" moment, but in the opposite way. He knows he's gonna die. But he still has hope. Not necessarily that you'll be a good person, but that you can try another way and make better choices. He embodies the same mentality Papyrus did at the beginning of the run, believing there's a better chance for another future where everyone can be happy.

Sans isn't a nihilist, not all the way. There's still a chance, still a part of him that has hope for everything, regardless of the route. And should the Pacifist route be completed, you'll see that he's genuinely happy. He DOES care, or at least he's beginning to know that caring about things is ok and healthy even.

Ex 1: If you go to Sans' lab after completing a True Pacifist Route, you get this bit of dialog:

Ex 2: Sans and Papyrus talking about a Christmas party they had on the Newsletter of the 5th Anniversary of Undertale.

The strongest, yet most complex example of this that we see is that he upholds his promise with Toriel and will continue to do so until the genocide route at the very end because he wants to at least give us, the player, a chance. And even if it was a cop-out for being lazy, I believe that Sans legitimately believes there's a chance for us to turn around and be a better person, or at the very least, make better choices. We know that Sans is a person who doesn't like making promises at all, and even though he said that his threatening to kill Frisk is a joke, had he not made that promise to Toriel, I can't 100% say that he still wouldn't intervened in the genocide and neutral routes.

And if you think about it, Sans upholding that promise just makes me question him even more. Like, even if you kill his brother, so long as you don't kill everyone, he won't kill you just because of that. He sticks to his promise and his morals so much, even if it costs him everything because well, what type of judge would he be if he didn't stick to his moral code?

"If you have some special power, don't you think it's your responsibility to do the right thing?"

And by that logic, if he made a promise with someone, don't you think he'd feel he'd have the responsibility to uphold it?

We also know that he makes an effort to give us updates on the Underground after we leave in the neutral routes because he still wants us to know, at least, the consequences of our actions, so it's not like he's just lazily letting us get away with anything with do (even if he does physically.) He still holds our actions above our heads. He still keeps his promise. He still knows that we can make a better outcome. And if that doesn't say anything about him, I don't know what does.

Even in the neutral route endings where things are objectively going terribly for the monsters with Frisk killing Asgore and taking the souls to leave the barrier, Sans still never gives up. Sans, of all people.

And sure, Sans isn't a saint, not by a long shot, but he does have some moral weight in the long run, and by playing the part of a judge, he has a certain level of disattachment that's necessary when it comes to doing his job. Nowadays, I don't see the "fanon" sans that everyone loves to rag on, the one that's overly emotional and jarringly out of character, more so, I see everyone ragging on that interpretation, and then coming up with an equally inaccurate interpretation of Sans just not giving a shit and letting Frisk get away with everything just because he's "not emotional and only wants to be lazy, blah, blah, blah, nihilism, existentialism, it's more canonically accurate, unlike that CRINGE FANON SANS!" /or being a total unserious prankster with no other personality traits, and that's equally as jarring for me.

So in conclusion, I feel like "Fanon" Sans, the one where he's breaking down and sobbing over Papyrus and holding his scarf is just as inaccurate as the "more canon one" where he's apathetic and simply just not caring about his death, or at the very best, says "it is what it is." Sans is a character whose emotions aren't apparent, but he still does care in his weird philosophical way. He loves Papyrus and genuinely thinks he's cool. He's a jokester character who loves a good laugh and being laid back. He doesn't like putting in effort, but he will if he has to. He wants the player to make good choices, so he generally tries to stay out of the way to give us that freedom. Not because he knows we're gonna kill Papyrus, but because he knows we have greater power and wants us to use it to do the morally right thing. He isn't above doing morally grey things either, like threatening to kill Frisk in case they pose a threat to monster kind, but I believe even then, his hesitation to just accept a human in the underground is somewhat understandable given the oppressive tension between humans and monsters. Additionally, he does put in effort when it comes to caring about monsters other than Papyrus, Toriel, and even Alphys and Asgore, he cares about them all: (it's implied that he feeds the amalgamates in Alphy's old lab as proven by the same dog food we see in the lab being in Sans' house and Alphys even calls him a good guy because he helps her in the aborted genocide route ending, him telling jokes to Toriel and genuinely trying to bring some joy in her life even though she's a stranger and doesn't have an obligation to, even staying with her in the Ruins after she's dethroned in the Queen Undyne ending, him acting as the judge before Asgore and even being in such an important position requires you to have a solid sense of morality and conviction, his respect for Undyne as a warrior/leader depending on the ending and in the Undertale Newsletter, he makes an effort to score a goal for his team in Hocky, and Undyne of all people seems proud of him, and pretty much everything that has to do with Papyrus he's at the very least involved or interested in.)

My words don't have a lot of merit. I'm simply saying how I interpret things. But as a big sister, I see Sans as a good big brother who's not too involved, but also deeply cares about his younger brother and his friends. I get that stoicism and being "logical" and "cold" is the new trend and whatnot with all these edits of badass characters and longing for a time when everything was less...emotional, but in doing that, it shuts a lot of discussion about Sans as a person and his complex emotions as a whole. I feel like it's too difficult and kind of silly to chalk him up as either one or the other. I feel like there's a nice middle ground between the "cringe" fanon sans and the "cool, apathetic" canon sans that a lot of fans either go one or the other on. Anyway, that's about it for my rant. It's kind of nonsensical and a little hard to follow, but I hope I was able to get my thoughts across nonetheless.

I guess it was a big rant after all. Oh well. It is what it is.

[bibibbon]

Hi again! So when it comes to friendships in MHA, I tend to notice that most of Class 1-A antics usually centre around mineta and bakugo's behaviour to the class, (Violence and Seggsual Harassment) like they just react to it, but never bother correcting them (Mineta being an exception, but not enough to completely change him).

Like the whole class as whole feels... Empty and stale when it comes to forming new friendships, since they're already established ones, but we never get to see them hanging out with the others. And some of them have potentials like Momo and Deku due to their self esteem issues or Ojiro and Uraraka training together to perfect each other's martial arts.

There's a scene where Momo agrees to tutor the other failing students thats cute as heck and it showcases Momo's willingness to help them improve to become better heroes, and I want more of that.

But with the series ending, I don't think this is even possible to have more that, and it almost comes off as fake to the audience that these are found family, where in reality we barely see them acting as friends. (Teasing has a limit, and making fun of Kaminari's dumb moments when he overcharges his Quirk doesn't count.)

What do you think? Again I don't watch the series full episodes, but I get these impressions from watching cut out moments.

Welcome back anon! Iam guessing that you're the anon who asked for writing advice and honestly Iam hoping that you found the post and the reblogs with advice useful as well. Good luck on your first project and make sure to have fun and take your time with it!

Now getting on to the ask you're somewhat right. Class 1A doesn't have a strong found family dynamic at all and I chalk this up to two main reasons.

The lack of "filler" academic arcs meaning that we don't get a proper focus on what they do as regular teenagers.

There are too many people within class 1A. 20 characters are a lot of characters to develop and make sure that they're all unique with different dynamics.

Due to these two reasons hori's attempts at making 1A seem like a big found family that would do anything for eachother fails and it's also why the the whole "we are all the greatest hero" thing fails and why the vigilante izuku arc feels so underwhelming.

When it comes to class 1A's dynamic they somehow always try to incorporate bakugo into whatever they're doing and sometimes even make him the center of attention which personally seems very weird to me since if someone is being aggressive and doesn't want to join I (and most people) would probably leave them out and let them be by themselves.

Mineta on the other hand is someone that's behaviour (like bk) continually goes unchecked by both students and teachers until mina tortures him into stopping. I get that this is supposed to be a gag scene but it honestly irks me out and shows 1) how neglectful aizawa is as a teacher to see this and only momentarily stop mineta while not putting a permeant stop to it and 2) how dense and persistent mineta is. Throughout certain arcs like the campfire arc mineta is literally tied up when the boys are sleeping so he doesn't do anything to the girls or we literally have a panel of mina staying close by to shoji's side to avoid mineta and his creepy behaviour.

This brings up the question of why does no one complain? It's at this point become a problem for both the boys and girls who have to deal with mineta. The boys are continually on his side, basically man handling him to stop him from doing stupid disgusting stuff to the girls and the girls are in constant fear/irritation around mineta. Do they not trust UA? Do they not trust aizawa or any teacher to properly deal with the issue?

We have established friendships in 1A but the lack of content of them hanging out and enjoying eachother company. Now you can find this in side mangas or light novels but not many read that and it's better to have it in main manga in the first place. Usually the opening or endings of MHA show us some scenes of the kids hanging out together but it's not much at all.

I remember reading a post that horikoshi wanted to include a karaoke scene with 1A after they finished their final exam but that sadly didn't make it into the final cut and Iam so disappointed because things like that could of helped us see the cute class bond they had and the found family thing that horikoshi tries to use later on.

Honestly momo and izuku interacting and becoming besties is a need and I know that @sapphic-agent has tried to prioritise that in her rewrite which is why in the battle trials it's Izuku and momo together instead of izuku and ochako.

The kaminari teasing is something that's a bit meh to me. I wish we could maybe see a duality in it that yes his friends would tease him but they would also worry and care for him. We could of seen this with ojirou who lets denki play with his tail whenever but that's only small little moments.

Horikoshi please make class 1A interact more in the main manga although it's now too late to ask for such things 😭

[444takeomi]

BOYFRIEND HCS pt 3

: ̗̀➛ summary: takeomi as your boyfriend

character(s): takeomi akashi

warnings: female reader, sfw but still suggestive, mentions of smoking, ooc (i know he's a piece of shit but let me live in denial)

wc: 0.8k

a/n: literally everyone hates him so this post will definitely flop💀 apologies for being so inactive, i’ve been super busy these past few weeks — i wanted to write something for shin's birthday but i just didn't have the time😭

- i feel like omi is the kind of boyfriend who acts like he doesn't care but is secretly very soft for you

- he won't admit it but he has a hard time expressing his feelings — you fell for him first but he fell way harder, and he wishes he could tell you how much you mean to him </3

- he's the type to tell you that he loves you when he thinks you're asleep, and if he's sure that you're out cold he'll gently kiss your forehead as well

- the first time you told him you loved him he cried </3

- i think that omi is secretly a very insecure person, and deep down he feels like he's undeserving of love and thinks you're too good for him

- gets self conscious about his scar sometimes — he loves when you randomly kiss it and tell him that he's handsome, it makes him feel all warm inside <3

- for dates he usually takes you out to expensive restaurants, but sometimes you'll do something more casual like going to art galleries or museums or going shopping together

- every time you walk through crowds he puts his hand on your waist or lower back

- whenever you go on a date he always insists on paying for everything, he loves to spoil you <3

- omi’s love language is definitely gift giving, and he’s often buying you expensive presents — whether that's perfume, jewellery, or whatever it is that you're into

- he always seems to know exactly what to get you, you don't notice it but he pays very close attention to you while you're shopping together and takes note of what you like

- omi is surprisingly a huge gentleman — he always opens your car door for you, carries your bags, offers his coat to you when it's cold, etc

- whenever you have an argument he buys your favourite flowers as an apology </3

- sometimes he has trouble sleeping, but if you run your fingers through his hair he'll be out like a light

- he randomly wakes up in the night and starts coughing up a lung💀 if you're not a heavy sleeper then good luck

- it's no secret that he smokes way too much, please encourage him to quit or at least cut down — he won't listen to anyone but you

- if you don't smoke yourself then omi will always make an effort to put out his cigarettes whenever you're around, or at the very least blow the smoke away from your direction

- you're the only one who he will let poke fun at him because of his habit, you sometimes joke that you won't kiss him anymore if he carries on smoking because of his stale cigarette breath, and he just rolls his eyes at you and fights back a smile

- he would rather die than admit it but he still gets butterflies when you tease him </3

- he's got such a loud sneeze and it always scares the shit out of you, it's a whole jumpscare💀

- i feel like he has very stiff shoulders, sometimes he asks you to massage them for him — the only problem is he can't control the groans and praises that fall past his lips, and if anyone were to overhear him they would definitely think that something else was going on💀

- “fuck, that's it, baby… feels so fuckin’ good…”

- anyways😶

- sometimes you do skincare together, and omi would be lying if he said he understood any of it — he gets so confused when you put cucumber slices on his eyes or use a jade roller on him

- he does love the feeling of you applying different products to his face though, you're always so gentle with him <3

- omi loves to take bubble baths with you and just hold you in his arms, sometimes he goes all out with candles and rose petals, it's very romantic

- it rarely leads to anything more, sometimes he just needs to hold your body against his </3

- he's actually super protective over you, whenever you're out in public together and he notices someone else looking you up and down he gets all possessive, instinctively putting his arm around you and glaring at them

- there have been times where he's gotten into fights because someone wouldn't leave you alone at a bar, but that usually only happens when he's drunk

- speaking of which, drunk omi gets very emotional most of the time and will whisper slurred professions of his love in your ear, telling you how he doesn’t know what he did to deserve you and how lucky he is to have you </3

- he’s not always the best at showing it but omi loves you so so much, he truly thinks you're one of the best things to happen to him and he can't believe he actually gets to call you his <3

please do not translate, repost, or share my writing on any other platforms eg. tiktok

[kimyoonmiauthor]

The source of the idea of "Nothing original under the sun" in writing.

Was most likely Lajos Egri who was trying to be an asshole to Dorothea Brande.

The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri (1946)

How to Become a Writer by Dorothea Brande (1934)

Originally I was giving him a break, but he does no citations, and tends to grandstand things suddenly so I should have known he was putting down another woman (yet again). !@#$

I originally made a note of it by going over Lajos Egri (and the fact he married a child and promoted it in his writing book) the first time, but now I understand why he spent so much time with it.

FU Lajos Egri. Seriously, dude?

See... unlike a lot of the structuralists and later structuralists who were mostly saying:

There's a formula for stories and success.

Originality? Don't even try.

Dorothea Brande spends a whole chapter basically arguing what Jerry Seinfeld argued about stand up comedy: In the specific is the general.

Dorothea Brande leans wholly into the toolbox ideology. There isn't conflict mentioned as a part of story. She isn't in conversation with Percy Lubbock. Can I get a 1940's-1950's cis man not slamming down on women?

This is why one needs to read and give advice in context of the time period and the writing movement they were a part of.

As for Originality...

I made a treaties about that. I think there are a few things to keep in mind...

Stealing other people's ideas when you cannot add a spin to it is often a bad idea because you have not through the philosophy or the depth. People often say it's all in the execution, but often when you steal, it lacks in the execution because you did not ut in the depth of thought and unlike what you've been taught, 100% readers can detect this. Look up Magic Kingdom, Sold by Terry Brooks. Then realize he doesn't really develop the idea more by book 2 he's into the same tropes he uses for his other books because his investment is low. (This isn't slamming him as a writer, but pointing out that you need to also develop your ideas so they have depth.) If he had developed it more thematically and tonally, the following books wouldn't have been as boring. I'm saying execution isn't the only thing you need with ideas, you also need to fundamentally develop the ideas further so you command on more than character and events, but also tone, and theme.

Gap theory

There is a gap in the market, exploit it. Someone went right and EVERY book went to the right path. But what if you went LEFT. This often gets you more money, but is riskier. The readers tend to like gaps over the same three things rehashed. What's more popular an exact remake of a movie, or a new movie? I've gone over the risks and benefits of this, BTW. Great for diversity, BTW.

3. Overlap theory

Usually three things and remix them, but the key is so they feel unfamiliar. NOT that they are this but a little different. The second one doesn't really get an audience following, the first often does. The obvious downside is that people try to play it too safe with this and the market can go stale as people follow people using the gap theory. But when you make things that don't seem to naturally mix then it can be exciting. "Pride and Prejudice only Bollywood." is BORING. I've watched that movie THREE TIMES already. Give me something more outlandish.

So YES, it is 100% OK to chase down new ideas and go all high concept if you like, but put in the time and research to develop those ideas further before you execute them. And I've said it before, but knowing a little philosophy and being a general nerd can help where to look on how to develop your idea.

And psychologically the contemporary research backs up Dorothy Brande over Lajos Egri, so stop repeating that there is no new idea under the sun. Development of your ideas is new and not always in the execution of character/s do events. Because story fundamentally is more than characters in settings doing events.

[mahou-furbies]

I really wish we'll get an art-themed precure season where the "draw your own transformation" idea could be used to the fullest. I think the animation is great in Star Twinkle, but also feels wasted since the season isn't otherwise about art. This has been a problem I've had the franchise for years, it's far more loose with its subjects and themes than I'd like. Like most of the seasons have a distinct main theme, but then there's usually various unrelated elements that feel extraneous and incomplete to me.

Like for example KiraKira is the sweets season, but they also have an animal theme that doesn't really amount to much, and while I'm only up to episode 12, I haven't heard that Komugi and Yuki's crowns or Iroha's detective hat would mean anything. HapiCha is the worst offender as far as I can remember, like the collectible outfit cards are a major element but the story and themes have nothing to do with fashion or clothes, it introduces the international Precure but that notoriously goes nowhere, the girls have dance related attack finishers but nobody has any interest in dancing otherwise, Iona transforms with a piano but otherwise isn't a musician, and so on.

I remember seeing some complaints that some people didn't like how DeliParty was so much about food, and I can see that side too since sure it can get stale to have 40+ episodes on the same topic, especially if it's something you're not interested in or if the show doesn't say anything new about it subject matter. But in general I'd prefer it if they settled on a theme and really thought of how to utilise it to the fullest, and use it as much as possible and from many different angles. Like not every episode has to be about the same thing, the show is four cours so there's room for some variety and more "generic" episodes, but I'd like if most of the major elements (main plot, villains, character designs, individual characters' stories, henshin and attack animations etc) pointed in the same direction. They're going to make a billion of these seasons anyway so there should be room for all kinds of themes to be the main focus, so I don't think they should be tacked on to unrelated seasons where they end up being woefully underutilised.

[koreposion]

More Freshmare thoughts

So I'm really bad at putting their relationship into words because I think about the smaller moments that they might have.

The dates that they first go on are stale and dry. To them at least just looking around places and seeing art is so boring. And aquariums won't just let Fresh jump into the enclosure. As they get used to each other they agree that destroying a city is a better date plan. Or capsizing boats and seeing how many they can do by the end of the day.

Just weird wacky shit that only two freaks would like.

The first time they destroy a city togrher Fresh sees if he can rig up more explosives before Nightmare smashes the whole place. Sure he's getting shot at by guns and helicopters because he's a threat but it's fun. Nightmare finds himself laughing as Fresh dodges an onslaught of violence. Foolish mortals trying to stop their inevitable end is always so entertaining.

He doesn't have to try hard to destroy anything but he loves the different methods he can use. Growing bigger, using other people, shattering the fabric of reality, toppling buildings...you know the works. It's horrific and Fresh loves being down on the ground and surviving all of it. It just validates that he's better than other people.

[bluebeads-art]

your art is so amazing !!! i adored the 3d printed stuff (as someone who has had to design myself 3d printed merch before because i don't usually have much access to the merch in my fandom lol), it's so good?? and all your coloring is beautiful <3

all this to say it might not seem like i reblog much but rest assured all the stuff i liked (or didn't) went into my queue a few times over hehehe. i LOVE your art it's amazing <3

wishing you luck with the identity and health stuff, even if it doesn't get better i hope you find happiness within it 🫡

gah this got away from me sorry for the ramble

aaaaaaa I saw this message in a notification on my phone, said "I'll read that when I actually have time to reply," then the notification got dismissed somehow and if there's no notification prompt to remind me of something, it no longer exists to me. It's been a month I'm so sorry ^^;;

Thank you so much! I wish it was easier to convert more of my stuff to be 3D printable, but my usual modeling style is not watertight in the slightest and disregards gravity entirely. 😆 3D modeling has always been really cool to me because there's so many different workflows depending on what you're trying to make. Keeps things from getting stale!

Speaking of differences, I feel like people don't tend to mention my coloring. :0 I think my line art usually steals the show, heh. I used to be a lot more conscious about color theory and shading when I was younger, but these days there's no thoughts, only vibes 😂

Ok the line, "even if it doesn't get better i hope you find happiness within it" hit me unexpectedly hard (in a good way). Any nice messages I get always means a ton to me, but while I don't seem to be able to articulate why at the moment, I think that line will stick with me for much longer than usual. Thank you so much ♥

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Speaking more generally (this message just gave me a good excuse to talk, heh)- spoilers; the artist in my brain refuses to die. So after, like, a literal year of not touching it, I've started working again on a 3D modeling project that I started in 2021 that has been haunting me ever since. Been trying to redesign a robot OC of mine Rayner, and I'm really particular about wanting his joints to work in a physical space instead of bending the rules artistically. I'm Really bad at designing complex hard surface objects in flat 2D though. However, there's a reason artists tell you not to character design in 3D, and that's because it's slow, it's easy to lose design cohesion, and most importantly it just sucks, awful workflow. But I am Doing it. And while I was super stuck for years and almost developed a friggin phobia of the project, I am now Doing It. And it's actually working out this time. The 3D model itself is MILES from being done, but the design almost is, and while that's a boring end result for other people, it represents a huge milestone and accomplishment for me in many ways.

I've been drawing a little bit lately too! But I feel my social media hiatus has given me a healthier relationship with posting? Like I have a few doodles that I could either post now or post soon, but I don't feel the same pressure to anymore? Where even if I never post them, I think I'm fine with that. I've always thought I made art for myself, but that's not exactly true because I was also making art for the sake of sharing. And while I don't think there's anything wrong with that, I think being able to separate the two and be content with simply just creating is healthy. Also I'm still not as active on social media in general anymore which is probably healthier as well LOL.

So I'll prrrobably start posting again soon-ish now that I've broken this blog's posting silence? Not sure how to wrap this monologue up. My physical health problems are going to keep on probleming, but in terms of artistic fulfillment I've been in a much better place this past month, and that's a huge yeehaw from me 👍

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Only 45 more years to go!) – March 1955

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

March 1, 1955

Like a third of this month’s strips are dedicated to this LARPing as a martian bit.

March 9, 1955

What the actual hell is this face Linus is making?

March 11, 1955

Lucy has started yelling at insects. A recurring gag that will have a surprising amount of staying power.

March 13, 1955

FORCED PERSPECTIVE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOOD NIGHT!

March 18, 1955

Settle down, Beavis.

March 27, 1955

God damn, Charlie Brown is getting fed up with Lucy’s bullshit.

March 31, 1955

I appreciate the creative use of Zipatones in this one.

Thoughts:

Is it just me or does Charlie Brown still seem a bit shell-shocked from last month’s existential beatdown by Patty? It’s like his entire personality suddenly got about 20% more deadpan at the start of this month.

Actually, it might be my imagination but the whole style of the strip seems to have shifted ever so slightly recently both in the type of emotional reactions we’re getting and in the way the kids are drawn. They’re just a smidge more… Rounded? Hefty? How do I say Charlie Brown looks kind of fat without offending anybody?

You can really see the difference if you compare this month’s strips to one’s from a couple years ago.

I think a lot of it has to do with how small Schulz is drawing faces these days (which has the added effect of making them less expressive) as well as the general shape language he’s been using. The cast (especially Charlie Brown) we’re always a bit pear-shaped but they had fairly narrow shoulders which gave them a kind of triangle or cone shape overall. Recently though Schulz has been letting the shoulders stick out more as well as making everyone significantly wider overall. This has had the effect of changing that triangle into more of a rectangular box and is making everyone look just a wee bit more heavyset as a result.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, though I'll admit I kind of prefer the earlier look. Mostly though, to me this shift kind of marks the final end of the scrappy chaos gremlin version of Charlie Brown we've seen up until now and the emergence of Charlie Brown as the universe's punching bag. He just doesn't push back at the world the way he used to going forward. Patty apparently owned him so hard in the marketplace of ideas that it fundamentally shifted his personality, and by extension, the way the universe is presented to us. Honestly, I'm impressed.

It's kind of sad because I liked those more active aspects of his character. Everybody dumping on him made a lot more sense when it was understood that he was kind of a jerk in his own way and ultimately the author of his own misery. But that's just the nature of art and long-form storytelling I suppose. It either moves forward and evolves or goes stale and dies. So it goes.

[ardenrabbit]

Do you have any tips on how to be more confident in what you write? I feel like no matter what or how I write, it could always be better, and I fall into the trap of comparing my writing to others.

I also feel like my lack of confidence is very apparent and worry that it annoys others or makes for a self fulfilling prophecy.

Ahh pls always take my writing advice with a block of salt! 😅 I'm by no means the most well-equipped writer out there, but I'm happy to share what I've learned.

I truly understand this feeling. It fluctuates for me, like, some days I feel like I'm a writing god, and then some days I feel like everything I touch turns to incomprehensible, structureless, stale, and poorly researched gibberish. Unfortunately, my confidence is largely at the mercy of a personality disorder. 😅 BUT! There are some habits and rules that I've set for myself that make it easier!

Your writing could always be better, and that's okay! You will frequently read back on something you wrote a year ago and wish you had written it differently. That's inevitable and normal. Most of the time, that's just a great indicator of progress that you've made in your writing skill. The important part to remember is that there is no perfect way to write, so cut yourself some slack and just write what you enjoy at the time. Yeah, endeavor to do your best and present a product that you're happy with, but don't ever expect it to be flawless. Embrace imperfection and keep going. It's the only way to practice and get better.

Everyone writes differently, and that's good too! It can be hard to see your own writing as good enough after you read the kind of content that makes you think, "That. That's how I want to write." There are works that have me screaming into my hands and wanting to hold myself to a higher standard, but I can't afford to let that paralyze me and keep me from writing to the best of my ability. The best I can do is take a deep breath, come to terms with the tragic fact that I will never have written Boomchick's No Water Is Enough, and take notes on what I liked about their writing and how I can learn from it. Don't do content that you admire the disservice of letting it make you feel bad about yourself. That's not why its author wrote it.

Do not show weakness. I definitely don't always follow my own advice here, but it's just like in art school: don't point out the flaws in your work to your audience, or it will be all they can see. Resist the urge to type out anything self-deprecating in the author's notes. If you start, hit that backspace key. You can trick yourself into thinking you were more confident when posting it, too.

If you feel like your writing doesn't come across as confident within the work itself—why? Are you pulling punches with narrative decisions to avoid confrontation? Are you leaning into patterns that you've already seen written because you're hesitant to branch out? Find out where and why you're doing it and rework it! Take risks! Ride the adrenaline! Be free!!

Periodically reread your own stuff and take note of what you like about it. Don't just nitpick at it; consciously and deliberately point out to yourself the things you think you did well. It doesn't have to be perfect or the best! Also take note of the things you had the most fun with. What lines of dialogue made you happy to write? What event made you happy to see executed? Example: I'm proud of how I handle characterizations and dialogue, and I have the most fun when there are big turns in events!

Along with that, pick a technical weakness you want to work on. Don't beat yourself up about not being the best in that area; instead, keep it in mind and put a little more effort into that when you write. Again, it's okay if it's not perfect. Don't agonize or let it get you stuck, but gently acknowledge that you want to get better at that specific thing. Shoring up your weak spots will make you feel more confident about the work as a whole, and it's reassuring to feel like you're strengthening your skills. Example: I feel like my weakness is scenery/environment, so I stop and try to add a little more detail about that in each scene that needs it (otherwise I will just breeze right over it and only write dialogue lol). It helps me feel like I'm taking control of my weak spots and improves the scene from the bottom up.

Above all, WRITE FOR YOURSELF. You won't make everyone else in the world happy, and you won't write anything you like if you don't write what you want to read. Be selfish when you write and just do what makes you happy! Dance like nobody's watching and all that.

I hope there was something helpful here for you! The best advice I can give is to be patient with yourself, keep practicing, and write what you're excited about. You've got this!! I believe in you!!

[charmspoint]

🌿for the writers truth or dare!

Thank you for the ask!

Ask game

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

Cradling your face in my hands

YOUR BODY IS NOT A MACHINE. NEITHER IS YOUR MIND.

Idk about you anon in particular, but I've found that I often have writers blocks the most when I push myself too much. I'm currently in a writing low, which is normal because I'm right off a really really big project and I need to replenish my energy. I also had a really big writing block when I came crashing down from 2021 when I wrote a truly dumb number of fics for me. This one happened because I got caught up in the fandom craze and tried to pump out a lot of high quality fics fast, because that is what fandom demands from writers and artists these days. Fast and quality. This of course wasted a lot of mental and emotional energy which couldn't be compensated by the at the time abysmal comment frequency (Recently I've been getting a lot more comments and I hope everyone else is too. It would feel nice to be out of this dark feedback era).

So to reiterate.

Your body is not a machine.

Think about what is happening around you in life. Are you stressed about school, college, work? Are you having social problems? Are you spending too much time online? Do you feel like you constantly have to be pumping out projects or people will stop paying attention?

From my experience, writing block is very rarely about the inability to write itself. Inability to write is a side effect of something else. A big project, complicated outside factors, external pressure, or just the fact that you got a new game and you are using all your time to play your game and not doing anything else (person who is not obsessed with BG3 atm). Usually when these are dealt with and you renew energy after them, writing will come back on its own.

You need to be kind to yourself.

I find this to be the best advice in many situations.

Pushing yourself to do what you can't do at the moment will only result in further frustration. Yes, it's good to have a writing habit, but I advocate for that to be a low goal one. My goal is 200 words a day. Sometimes I don't manage to do this because life is complicated but 6 days out of 7 I do. This keeps you on track, doesn't let your brain stale, but also isn't just torturing you.

If you are lacking in creativity you need to EXPERIENCE THINGS. Read that book you've been putting off, start a new manga, watch a movie, beyond that, take a daily walk, go to a museum, discuss ideas with your friends. I hate the phrase media consumption but I do like eating imagery and your brain NEEDS to eat. It needs to experience different art forms to be able to produce ideas of its own. Fanfiction is fine too, but unless you know a really amazing writer who brings a lot of new things into their work, I wouldn't recommend it, because in the end fanfiction is just exploration of a familiar thing. Thing you are stuck on. DON'T function only on fanfiction.

Let your material REST. If you are stuck on the fic, shove it in a folder and don't look at it for a week. Try not to think about it too much, do some of the things above and let your work rest. After a week you'll forget the finer details of it and will be able to look at it more objectively, which might help you resolve the thing you were stuck on. Also sometimes when you read your own fic a fresh you get those 'I´m a fucking genius' moments which is always great.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF.

Don't create on anyone's schedule but your own. I know how incredibly hard it is, I've felt it too, with fandom today which is overly picky, overly judgy and not very grateful. With a fandom that seems to more and more treat its creators as content machines instead of people sharing their passion projects. DON'T WRITE FOR THOSE PEOPLE. It's hard but don't write for the comments in your inbox. Don't set a schedule you can't meet. I've been writing a 17 chapter fic for almost 3 years now because I want a weekly release schedule but I don't want a weekly writing schedule. If your fic takes 6 months, a year or 10, let it take that times, don't shove it out before you feel ready.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF!!!!!!!

Realize that sometimes writing just won't go, no matter what you do. Realize that you aren't a failure or a fraud for this, that it means nothing when it comes to your skill and ability, that the greatest writers ever had struggled with the same thing. Some days you don't have time to write, some days you aren't in the mood to even do the bare minimum. These days will exist and be kind to yourself on them. Your writing won't escape anywhere. Come to terms with being human and come back to it tomorrow.

Hope any of that rant helps hzbjhvh!!!

[illegally-blind-and-deaf]

OK ANASTASIA AND DMITRI HEADCANONS BECAUSE ILTSM (both musical and movie they've merged in my head)

- Dmitri doesn't know how to read. Which makes sense when you remember that he grew up in Imperial and Soviet Russia, so for someone of the working class it was very common to be uneducated. Anya is very determined to change that.

- Anya teaching Dmitri French is utterly hilarious because of one word. That word being "The." Dmitri yelling at a dictionary about WHY THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS TO SAY ONE WORD and WHY DOES THAT WORD EVEN EXIST IT DOESN'T NEED TO EXIST WE DON'T HAVE IT IN RUSSIAN and also WHY ARE HALF THE LETTERS SILENT THAT'S THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING I'VE EVER HEARD and we couldn't forget WHY ARE THE LETTERS MAKING DIFFERENT SOUNDS??? WHY IS Н MAKING AN 'N' SOUND AND И MAKING AN 'I' SOUND ANYA I CAN ONLY LEARN ONE LANGUAGE AT ONCE STOP LAUGHING AT MY PAIN-

- Three words. Dmitri, Paris, Chocolate. Really anything that's not stale bread and cabbage in water but specifically chocolate. He's really cautious at first because obviously he's never had any in his life and he takes a bite and just- melts into nothing because it is the single-most delicious thing he had ever ingested and can he please have more- It's safe to say that he downed three entire chocolate bars in the space of 93 minutes and had no regrets.

- Anya spends a ridiculous amount of time orchestrating various pranks on Vlad and Dmitri because why not? The ones with Vlad were always really nice and friendly, like surprising him by speaking with him only in french, or making him think something was wrong so he'd go to the ballroom and find the gramaphone set up ready to play a polka. Dmitri was no spared any mercy. He got the trip sure, the fake spiders (he screamed bloody murder and Anya was dying of laughter for a solid ten minutes,) he got the sack of lentils that was actually full of rocks so when he went to bed it was... not pleasant. Hey, she was a wild child. (The pranks still persisted even after they got married, just not as mean... except for the spiders.)

- For some reason, idk why, but Dmitri seems like an artsy painter person. He doesn't think he is, but then he tries it and realises that he is very observant in the way light chances the hue of different objects and in how to catch the small things that make art lifelike. His favourite art style is a little cartoon that he does on the edges of notebooks and journals like a flipbook which keeps him entertained for ages.

- Dmitri likes flowers. Nuff said. Anya just buys him flowers constantly. The bigger and gaufier they are, the better. When questioned why, he simply says "they're pretty and I like pretty things."

- As much as Anya hated having to practice as a child, she is very talented at music. They have an old, 2nd hand upright that lives in the corner of their living room and when Anya gets the time she plays a little something on the piano. Sometimes it's a classic piece she learnt years ago that muscle memory still remembers or a little jazz that she's learning, or sometimes she just plays around with what sounds nice.

- Because I don't think Anya and Dima went back to Russia (because that's dumb why go back to the place that's trying to kill you,) Anya becomes a schoolteacher in France teaching English. The kids love her because she's firm but gentle and helps them all no matter what and sometimes gives them little treats if they've been very good. There was a rumor (in St Petersburg???) going around about a tall, brooding man that no one seemed to know who always looked grumpy and never spoke and many of the kids scared each other by theorizing that he was an evil spy coming to steal their food and toys. Imagine the shock they all felt when he knocked on the door one day with a satchel in hand and sheepishly smiles at Anya, who takes it with a smile, mutters something in a foreign language that was not English or French, and then KISSES HIM ON THE CHEEK????? SILENT MYSTERIOUS EVIL MAN GETS A KISS FROM SWEET, KIND FAIRY TEACHER????? Anya then explains that no he's not going to steal their food and toys and that he is in fact really sweet and he does speak but he's very self-councious because he's not fluent and his accent is thick and also he is her husband. SILENT MYSTERIOUS EVIL MAN ISN'T ACTUALLY SILENT EVIL AND MYSTERIOUS AND IS MARRIED TO SWEET KIND FAIRY TEACHER!?!?!??!

that's all for today folks до свидания (do svidanya) and dont die