#*obviously this whole post doesn't apply to some stuff.

[kazanskyy]

iceman + his concern for maverick post-hop 31

[arborescreens-a]

what happened to users on tumblr that hostility is so rampant.

like i sometimes see a blog i'm interested in following, for their art or for their fandom, but i'll scroll for a bit before doing so- and just so much of it will be just utterly violent text posts about silly things.

like... i don't know. mental ill brain might just be misunderstanding some stuff, but the amount of times recently i've come across people just openly threatening their followers/mutals for interacting with certain things (be it a fandom, a ship, or a specific character) or putting certain things on their dash? is honestly worrying! :(

please be kinder.

[pinkbeanii]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚𝓓𝔂𝓮𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓗𝓲𝓼 𝓗𝓪𝓲𝓻˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆

-an unconventional date night w/ jongseob-

A/N: inspired by @soulseobie and their Soul one shot, also @kisseobie made the og prompt. This is my first time posting my writing to tumblr so please be nice!! Constructive criticism is welcomed!

Warnings: mentions of wandering hands but entirely sfw, pet names (baby, babe, beautiful, sweetheart), like two-ish kisses but no details, shirtless jongseob but no description

It doesn't matter if you have experience or not with hair, Jongseob trusts you implicitly.

He has so much confidence that even if you have no clue what you're doing it'll turn out okay, and if not then-

“it's just hair baby, it'll grow out eventually!”

Seobie is pretty laid back about the color, obviously he has opinions but yours are more important to him.

Definitely wants to go with you to get supplies, and he's attached to your hip the whole time. It's fun honestly, how involved he wants to be.

"what about this one babe? think I could pull off neon green?"

"oooo, they have rainbow bowls! we have to get some!"

"do you think we'll need a hair treatment for after?"

Very insistent on paying, saying that it's his hair you're doing and it's the least he can do. Tbh, hair stuff can be pretty expensive so you really aren't complaining.

Once you have all the supplies and your space is set up (covered in paper and plastic wrap as to not stain anything) Jongseob is practically bouncing in excitement.

He's gotten his hair done before, obviously, but it's his baby who's doing it this time, ofc he's excited!

Jongseob is dressed in some random old band tee of his, and forced you to wear one as well. It doesn't matter if you were wearing stuff you didn't mind getting dye on, he insists on his shirt.

"no, this is not just bc I like how you look in my clothes, I just don't want you to get dye on your pretty outfit!"

[It definitely is, and he is absolutely pouting when you accuse him of it]

Assuming his hair is already blonde (it is at the time of writing this) you guys start with color right away. He wants to be surprised, so he doesn't even look while you're mixing the color or applying it.

He's very chatty the whole time, still feeling excited and energetic. Which was cute and sweet at first, but he kept moving his head, causing you to mess up in certain areas and get dye places it really shouldn't be.

"babe, you gotta stop moving, I got dye on your neck again!"

"I'm sorry! I'll try not to."

He tries his best not to move too much, but as you finish up the back and move to the front, the moving becomes touching.

Seobie is normally pretty touchy with you, but as nice as his hands feel running up and down your thigh, it's also really distracting.

His hands don't wander too much, he really doesn't want to disturb you! But it's an unconscious thing, his hands just gravitate to your skin whenever they have a chance.

If you point it out he'll get kinda sheepish-

"oh, I didn't realize. your skin is just so soft and warm!"

When you're applying near the roots of his hair, towards his scalp, he gets shivers from the cool temperature. No matter how many times you get your hair dyed, it's always a weird feeling to have goopy dye on your scalp

As you get to his bangs and move in front of him, he gets an idea.

It's pretty obvious, at least to you, when Jongseob has a plan to do something, but being so immersed in applying the dye you didn't notice.

Just as you finish painting a stripe of dye, he pulls you fully onto his lap. Hands gripping your hips making sure you can't squirm out of his reach.

"JONGSEOB!"

"what? I want you here with me, isn't it easier than trying to stand?"

"you could have given me some warning, and what if I'd gotten dye on you? and I don't think that-"

*kiss*

"I want you here, please."

Not being able to say no to his pleas, and feeling quite comfortable in his lap, you stay seated.

Finishing up the front was easy. Using your gloved hand you massage any left over dye into his hair, making sure every strand is coated.

With your hands in his hair Jongseob relaxes even more, leaning into your touch and letting out a whine when you stop-

"felt good, keep going?"

Ofc you indulge him for a while longer, he's so sweet when he asks so it's only natural.

After finally pulling your hands out of his hair and removing your gloves, you hand him the neon orange shower cap he'd insisted on at the beauty store.

Seobie smiles when you turn around, the neon shower cap stretched over his head. He reaches for you again, grabbing you by the waist and pulling you between his legs.

"wanna play switch while this sets?"

After about 30 minutes the timer you'd set rings, signalling that it was time to wash out the hair dye.

You both got settled in the bathroom. Jongseob on the floor, upper body resting against the bathtub, neck stretched so his head was over the tub.

You tucked a rolled towel under his neck, hoping it would help lessen the uncomfortable feeling. Seobie gave you a thumbs up-

"thanks beautiful, feels fine don't worry."

You both thanked the universe that the shower head was detachable, and began the rinsing process.

Jongseob relaxed as your hands entered his hair again. He'd always had a soft spot for you playing with his hair, something you used to your advantage whenever you could.

As you worked to rinse his hair water splashed around, landing everywhere. No matter how hard you tried to minimize it, the water had a mind of its own.

By the time you were halfway done the floor outside the bathtub was damp and so was Jongseob, mostly his shirt. Which he promptly took off as soon as you gave him a break to sit up.

Seobie balled up the tshirt and tossed it up to the counter, turning to you shamelessly.

Ofc you'd seen him like this before, but it still left your face hot and needing to look away.

"what's got you so shy sweetheart, nothing you haven't seen before."

This boy... He's just... Cocky isn't the right word, but it was more than confidence. Maybe comfortable is a good word for it. He knew he was safe with you, so being shirtless didn't leave him feeling "exposed"

Once you got ahold of yourself it was time to continue rinsing.

It took quite a bit before the water ran clear, during which you took advantage of your position to occasionally glance at the shirtless boy under you. No matter how many times you'd seen him, it was still a very pretty sight.

When the dye had been fully rinsed out you pulled Seobie to sit up, plopping a dry towel over his head and drying his hair gently.

Neither of you felt like using a hair dryer, so once his hair was mostly dry, tho still slightly damp, you helped him stand.

"ready to show me babe?"

Covering his eyes you walked him in front of the mirror-

"3,2,1!"

Jongseob looked at his new hair with a wide smile, turning his head side to side, admiring it.

After a thorough appreciation of your hard work, he turned to you and gently held your face-

"it looks absolutely perfect baby, knew you could do it!"

His words left your face hot again, making him giggle at your sudden shyness. In turn, he peppered your face with kisses, light pecks scattered everywhere, ending with a sweet kiss to your lips.

An overall enjoyable experience, with a fun outcome. Seobie would definitely ask you to do it again next time he wanted a change.

Thanks for reading!! I hope this was enjoyable, the plot and idea kinda got away from me at times, but I had fun writing it!

Also, in my head the colour would be like a pinky orange, bc I love Seob's orange hair (let's be real, I love all his hair colors) and my favorite hair color on me is pink, so therefore: pinky orange lol

[neo-the-indigo]

ANALYSIS/SPECULATION/OPINION TIME! (again)

So I've been thinking about Despair Time (again), specifically Teruko's animosity for David. It got me thinking, since I haven't seen many people mention this.

Why exactly, does Teruko hate David?

(Spoilers for literally the whole fangan. This is gonna be kinda long, so hang in there.)

Quick disclaimer: Some of the stuff in this post is based purely on what I have observed, so let me know if I miss something somewhere. Thanks :)

There are 2 other reasons why I think Teruko hates David, so I will list those reasons before I mention the main reason.

David's "entire personality" (Teruko's words, not mine) is "fake".

I mean, Teruko says this almost verbatum in the 2nd trial, based on her first interaction with David.

To me, this is a weird (but valid) reason to hate somebody.

(I'm not putting the pictures for Teruko's first interaction with David because we've all seen that lol)

2. David throws Teruko under the bus in the first trial.

The whole cast does, really, but David starts it. This is a more valid reason to hate David, in my opinion. David is the first person to be suspicious of Teruko's testimony (because he's a Xander simp, obviously).

This comment sparked the whole idea that Teruko was the killer, and once David said this, the rest of the cast (except for Eden) jumped on the bandwagon.

And after everyone but Eden sided with David, he was the first to accuse Teruko of murder. I'm aware that they had been discussing this before the trial began, but David is the first person to outright say this.

Though both of these reasons are valid, I don't think either of these are the main reason.

So, what's the main reason then?

Teruko hates David because she doesn't understand why he puts on the "nice guy" facade.

Teruko, from what I've seen, has a hard time understanding why David does what he does. I also believe that Teruko is nearly incapable of understanding why David's "entire personality" is fake, and doesn't really see how he (seems to be, based on what I've observed) conditioned to do so.

Here are some possible reasons why she might have some trouble understanding David's perspective.

Teruko's background/lack of talent.

As we all know, the Ultimate Lucky Student talent isn't a real talent, rather this talent exists because of winning a special lottery (according to canon Danganronpa, but for this I'm assuming that it works the same in DRDT universe.)

Unlike Teruko, the rest of the cast are real Ultimates, meaning that a LOT of people are watching them closely, expecting nothing short of the best. This especially applies to people like David and J, who are (in J's case, was) in the public spotlight constantly. Because David has millions of fans, he feels he has to put on a fake persona to appease them, when in reality, that's not his real personality. It's possible that David, like J, has been in the spotlight since he was young, and was conditioned to hide who he really is to appease other people.

Teruko, on the other hand, is a nobody, and doesn't have to deal with any kind of social expectation/pressure. No pressure from parents (since she's an orphan), and because she was constantly on the run, there was most likely no time to make room to please people when there were more pressing things to worry about like food and shelter. This is part of the reason why I think she's so blunt.

2. Teruko lives under a rock. (I love her, but she does.)

Now now, I mean this in an endearing way. Teruko seems like the type of person who couldn't name a celebrity if she tried, because like I said previously, she had bigger fish to fry. What tells me this is her reaction to J's secret reveal in Chapter 2, as well as what Levi and Arturo said to her during that time.

Out of the entire cast, Teruko was the only one who didn't know who J was (as a celebrity).

Based on both Levi and Arturo's comments, I can assume that not knowing who Mariabella Rosales is is pretty similar to not knowing who Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or Beyonce are. So yeah, Teruko is 100% clueless about celebrities. Her own reaction says this too.

Yes Teruko, being a child celebrity is a big deal, and so is being revealed as the daughter of the most recognizable name in the nation.

Now, what does this have to do with Teruko understanding David?

Thing is, David is a celebrity just like J is, obviously. Biggest difference between them is that he is always in the public spotlight, while J successfully avoided the press. Like I've said previously, David puts on a fake persona because of his millions of fans that he needs to appease.

My point is, Teruko knows absolutely nothing about what celebrities have to deal with every day, so she doesn't think of their heavy influence on society and the constant pressure that they face. To her, being a celebrity isn't a big deal. This is great when it comes to treating celebrities like people, but not so much when understanding different perspectives.

Based on both of these reasons above, if David were to tell Teruko what he goes through as a celebrity, based on her background and limited knowledge of what celebrities go through, I'm not sure that she would understand. There would be a lot of questions in that area.

I don't think Teruko is dumb, but just not knowledgeable in that area. I honestly really hope Teruko and David's dynamic improves and that they can understand each other more (this is unlikely, but a girl can only hope.) Their dynamic is the most interesting to me, and I wanna see how it develops over time.

Tell me what y'all think. I totally did not spend 3 days on this (lol).

[beemers-hell]

holds out cup

a bit of your thoughts on character designing? your characters are all so distinct and unique, I've been wanting to ask for awhile how you went about your sillies!

You fool. You idiot. You absolute buffoon. You have no idea what you've done. You have no idea what I am about to unleash unto you all.

Hi i am extremely autistic about character design so obligatory [read more] because I am gonna fucking TALK your EAR OFF about this shit, prepare for a fuckass LOOOOOOOOONG post

So the first rule of character design is to fuck around and have fun :)

Anyway onto the real shit:

P1: Foundational Shit

For starters, I'll link you to a post I made like 3 years ago on this topic, just to get some foundational shit out of the way!

Me personally, I have a very rigid structure I stick to whenever I design characters, which is:

I must know what their personality is like

I must know what their fashion tastes are

I must know what their role in the story is (this one only applies if the character is even apart of a bigger narrative in the first place, obviously. I just am strict and don't make new characters unless I have a purpose for them to serve in my stories so it's hard baked into how I operate as a character designer lol)

By having these in mind when I design characters, shit becomes a WHOLE lot easier/more natural for me. This is because:

The personality of a character can usually be reflected in their design, whether it be a bubbly loud energetic guy who's dolled up in bright colors and playful clothing accessories, a commanding bossy stoic guy who's dolled up in subtle and professional clothing pieces, or even subverting this idea by having a character who acts one way but dresses in a way you'd expect from the opposite.

Knowing what kinds of fashion this character would be into in the first place makes it a whole lot easier to get ideas and look for resources on ways you can style them- Knowing the character would be interested in like, for example, scene fashion makes it far easier to look for the type of clothing they'd wear and find pieces that stand out to you so you can start experimenting with what works or what doesn't for that character.

Knowing the role they play can also help a lot when designing them, much like knowing their fashion tastes can. However, where knowing their fashion tastes helps in looking for visual inspiration, knowing their role in a story can help with their design in a thematic sense; If the character is supposed to be some kind of trouble maker rebellious kid, then you're probably going to wanna make them visually fit the bill (or, again, you might want to subvert the idea of what a rebellious little shithead looks like so you go for the opposite of what people imagine!) Ykwim?

Now with that out of the way, let's get some VISUAL EXAMPLES, using my guys obviously lmao

For an example of the personality thing, here's a page I made where I talk about my thought process behind the designs of some of my goons in regards to taking into account their personality (and aesthetic taste):

For an example of the story role thing, here's a page I made where I talk about my thought process behind the designs of Eb and Ben (+Neco and Alli) in regards to the role they play in their story:

I hope this gets the point across!

P2: Additional Stuff to Consider

In addition to the above section, there's also some other things you can utilize to try and make your designs stand out!

One such thing is brainstorming ideas for stand out design elements! Like, something that' makes them stand out from the crowd, or an element of their design that is so specific to them that they just can't be the same character without it. This thing in general is kind of vague by nature so here's some examples using my guys that I think get the point across:

You can also go the extra mile and give them little design details that just add that little extra bit of "oomf" to the character overall. Again, this is kind of vague by nature, but here are some examples I can give with my characters. Some of these doodles are OLD AS HELL so that's why the art style is outdated, but the point still stands!

You can also go the extra mile to try and diversify your designs by doing some structural tests with your characters. What I mean by this is by literally dumbing them down to their most basic attributes, or as I like to call it, "Run the Silhouette & Recognition Test" What I mean by this:

The Silhouette Test: Making a lineup of your characters and blacking them out so they show up as silhouettes, which allows you to check the readability and/or recognizability of your character's design, and if it's unique from your other characters!

Recognition Test: Make a lineup of all of your character's heads and/or bodies, and only draw their facial features/head shape and/or body shape/structure, nothing else. I do this mainly to help myself try to avoid face/body syndrome and I think it works pretty well for me!

Now, for my last extra thing; Remember my point about knowing a character's taste in fashion? This is applies here. Knowing your character's fashion tastes can make designing their main outfit, or any other alternate outfits you make for them, like SUPER fuckin easy. Here's a couple examples with some of my gals:

Raina likes real casual clothes, simple shit like crop tops/tank tops n' jeans, just styled to her liking. She's a simple chick with simple tastes! But there are noticeable touches, like how she has a habit of changing her earrings to match the occasion she's celebrating!

Eb likes grungy clothes, and adds flair to her outfits by dipping into a decora kei inspired style of accessorizing, which compliments her nicely since she loves customizing things to make them her own. She's not fully there with the extravagance of it yet but she's getting there!

Yume likes pastel colors and form fitting clothes, sometimes with loose jackets/robes to keep her cozy, with minimal accessories. She's also simple, but unlike Raina, she doesn't tend to try and go the extra mile with jewelry and/or makeup, not often.

Bank's a baby punk and is still finding her style, but it's clear she likes a lot of leather, spikes, chains, all that kind of shit. Dark colors, with minimal touches of her favorite color (pink lol), and some accessories like earrings, pins, and/or straps are enough to complete a look for her. And of course, any clothing article to obscure her face works for her!

I hope I don't sound fucking nuts I genuinely put way too much time into thinking about all of this stupid bullshit lmao

P3: Actual Examples of Me Working Through the Character Design Process

I figure if I show off examples where I was working on concept shit, that'd help put this into something digestible for y'all lol.

For starters, here's a doodle page I made back in 2021 when I was making small tweaks to a couple of my guys designs, which is why my art style looks old and some characters have their outdated looks lol:

Now, here's a MUCH more recent example of my concept process, where I was figuring out the idea for Namgi's new design (which is still being worked on atm lol):

Here's the concept pages I made when I was figuring out Majin's recent redesign:

And here's some concept pages I made when I I was figuring out the Possessed Form designs for my hosts!

I hope this is all actually helpful and not just like. stupid nothing shit lmao

And like, yanno, you don't HAVE to do/listen to any of this, this is just the kind of shit I've learned over the years that personally helps me with coming up with designs that feel fresh and distinct, at least for my personal tastes! Something I do might just not work for you, the design process is unique for everyone obviously. It's the same thing as your art style, everyone does shit differently lol

This concludes my Autism Ramble!!

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

i was thinking earlier about how a lot of folks love to praise mangahood/broho for its "feminism" and having "strong female characters" but as i was re-reading the manga last year, a lot of the girlboss characters that the fans love are...kinda mid?? like, you have olivier and izumi and their entire thing is "i'm so much stronger than you isn't that hilarious?!" (and i love izumi so she gets a pass but still.) and then you've got lan fan who is supposed to be this badass fighter, but immediately gets taken out in a fight against bradley and then cuts off her arm, and all of that is used to further ling's character arc (and i love both of them but like...alright. that's a choice.) then you have riza, who's whole backstory is mostly to prop up mustang, and then you have the moment where she finds out he "died" ala lust and she just... gives up?? like lmao what?? and then winry, who's (despite what fans say) entire role in the story is to be ed's love interest and when she's not needed for automail stuff, she just waits around for him, even at the end. like.... ok. which, sidenote, aside from how racist scar killing winry's parents is (and the way it's used to further the romance of edwin) i always hated how ed tells winry her hands were meant to "give life". like... wow, a male character telling a women she's meant to not fight and heal instead?? never heard THAT before! /s and yet edwin fans/mangahood fans will praise this as if it's the epitome of feminism and it's like... i mean i guess it's better than some other shonen out there but it's not what i'd call perfect lol. and anytime you try to point this out everyone is so quick to say "fma's written by a woman!!" and it's like... yes lol obviously but that doesn't mean some of her writing choices can't be side-eyed (see: how the ishvalans are treated).

What, didn't you hear? The presence of women is maximal feminism and peering any deeper than that is misogynist. The same kind of thinking that leads people to proclaim mangahood to be an anti-racist, anti-military screed when it fumbles the former and is absolutely the opposite of the latter.

Never let a shallow reading get in the way of heaping endless praise on your fave shonen fare. Feminism is when there's women and it's written by a woman, not a broad ideological/philosophical framework that needs to be intentionally understood and applied to a story.

Whatever feminist cred we can give mangahood is pretty shallow. And what sticks out to me is how overtly the Brotherhood anime upholds typical patriarchal gender roles. Girl/women characters berate the boys/men for being wimpy/failing their duty for utmost machismo. Various characters prod at Olivier for being an unwed older woman without kids, and although this is met with consternation on Olivier's part, it ties back into larger patterns of women as 'innately' maternal. Obviously the presence of sexism doesn't necessarily mean a support for it, but Winry getting moulded into the perfect idyllic white pastoral wifey does subtly tip the text's hat.

Ed is shocked that Lan Fan is a woman, despite his alchemy and combat teacher being a woman too. And as you said, we are constantly meant to gawk at Izumi and Olivier for being adept fighters, combat-savvy, and brutal when need be. The 2003 anime is not obsessed with Izumi's prowess; you're meant to take her seriously and respect her as a formidable fighter and alchemist.

Lan Fan does get to shine a bit as a fighter when up against Ed, and later when taking down Gluttony post-arm loss, but she doesn't get fleshed out beyond her dedication to protecting Ling. It does read a bit odd when, after witnessing Lan Fan's sacrifice of her arm for her and Ling to escape Wrath, Ling then kicks Gluttony's ass while hauling her around on his shoulder. Like. He's a stronger fighter than his own bodyguard. (Arguably Gluttony is a less adept fighter than Wrath, but he does have sheer mass on his side and that should not be manageable for someone encumbered by a fallen comrade.) I wouldn't expect him to be incompetent, but the disparity in quick succession of scenes is odd.

Of course feminism also isn't reducible to "when female shonen characters are good/bad at battle". More than everything mentioned, Lan Fan doesn't exist outside of Ling and her clan's duty. She has too few scenes as well, given Brotherhood's juggling of 300 characters beat by beat.

Riza truly is just a mess when looking at her place in the story. The codependence between her and Mustang is intentional, and I wouldn't knock that against the writing for that choice. Women having flaws, being wholly human in variety is not antithetical to a feminist reading. But it's when she's constantly put in situations where she's barely holding herself together, where she's a damsel for Mustang to rescue, where her distress is classically Woman™, and that the scene with Lust is meant to reveal just how that deep dependence runs. It renders her null the moment she thinks Roy is out of the picture. That's when its hard to just prop Riza up as Feminist (girlboss genocider addition which, y'know. Nothing more Imperial Feminist than ethnic cleansing, because women of colour don't count in the grand calculus for pop media feminism.)

(Also Ishvalan women also basically don't exist beyond the one elderly woman who rats out Scar.)

Yes, it's a character trait of hers: she can keep her cool so long as Roy is alive. Barring if she thinks its time to kill him herself, any other major threat to him is excruciatingly existential to herself. She revolves around him, whereas I'm not convinced Roy would be as instantly and emotionally destitute in a reverse situation. We got a taste of his Righteous Man Anger with Lust (the symbolism of this faux womanizer scorching a seductress to death who threatened his and his monogamous situationship, as well as leading on his buddy, reifying the Good Loyal Non-Sexual Woman and condemning the Vindictive Harlot is 😬). His self-destruction would likely be codified Male, the way Riza's is codified Female. It's gender roles at fairly essentialist level.

Everything you mentioned about Winry is spot-on. Her passion for automail engineering is slowly stripped away to keep her more as ship fodder and as the continual spectre for mangahood's Scar Was Wrong thesis. She's gonna bake Ed a pie when he returns home from the war front, she'll bare their children, she'll be a wife first and anything else second. Meh. How disappointing. I'll take the staunch automail freak that is 03 Winry, whose destiny is not wrapped up in the nuclear family, anyday.

Which is the other big, glaring character of Brotherhood: the power of the cisheterosexual institution of the nuclear family and marriage. It has its own healing powers, eeking the humanity out of Pride and Wrath, being the driving force for Hughes to survive genociding people long enough to establish his own family, the will-they won't-they vice grip of Roy and Riza, Ed's big reward for ending Father once and for all, Hohenheim's salvation was in part his family (becoming the true father that his homunculus doppleganger never could be); families at least exist outside of the Western nuclear model from what we see of the Xingese characters, and what little we get to see of the Ishvalans, but that's hardly expounded upon.

We weep at the purity of Madame Fuhrer's love and concern for her Fascist Supreme Leader husband and her star son, pulling on the heartstrings of the nation. (The Ishvalans don't matter.) We're stirred to righteous horror at what befalls the Rockbells, a loving family ripped apart by Amestris by Scar. Gracia is the picture perfect widowed wife, proud of her patriotic husband, and dutifully rearing the country's future. Envy, a gender freak making a mockery of her and Hughes meets brutal retribution by our idealized Man, who struck down the other aberrant gender of Lascivious Evil Woman. Winry's future shines golden, as her hands deliver a baby, channelling her parents and, (barely) subtextually, some sort of Woman's Intuition. Lust isn't even a character beyond the archetype of femme fatale (she's more interesting to analyze as the Female Sexualization of desire from an inhuman being masquerading as a cis man than as a character herself).

It's a lot of failed potential on top of being very normative.

To actually give a solid, deeper critique on the ways Brotherhood is and isn't feminist would be a greater undertaking if you want to delve beyond what's been mentioned here, and I just don't have the time to really get to the meat of it all.

Still, I don't think it isn't without some positives. At least I find Madame Christmas a solid example of an older woman not couched in maintaining a standard of feminine youth or thinness, yet carries herself with an air of confidence that the narrative and characters never balk at. The sex workers she leads are also spared sanctimonious bullshit or anxiety over their existence.

So that's something. (These are not major characters in the slightest.)

I'm not shocked by how shallow the series actually is regarding its female cast and its overall gender politics, but fan insistence that it's a prime example of a feminist story is laughable. Yeah, shonen stories, especially battle shonen, are ABYSMAL in these regards, so compared to total shit mangahood stands above its contemporaries. But if your standards are higher than total shit, than mangahood really won't knock you off your feet.

Despite what some may think, you can acknowledge the flaws of Brotherhood while still enjoying the story and characters. It isn't actually a personal attack to like imperfect media (which is pretty much all media lbr). But try bringing any of this up without people flying into a conniption, as if you killed their dog right before their very eyes. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

tbh it's not just insinuation of you doing some class discrimination that is gross, other things listed by them as accusations towards you are at least equaly as disgusting, if not more. "ableism, classism, racism" i'm sorry, i didn't know swift is disabled, poor or non-white, oh wait, she is neither of these. yes, grammar policing can be used to discriminate, but when it's used to punch down people, who actually belong to these categories.

also there are literal college courses focused solely on swift's writing, but you as someone with english lit degree can't do some grammar analysis on your private blog? is other anon as offended about these courses and sending them emails about how discriminatory it is to pick apart someone's writing? of course not, because the only people, who would spend money an that type of a course are rich ts fandom cultists, who wouldn't say anything, that might be actually critical about swift. also anon doesn't actually care about picking apart someone's writing, they only care about swift's writing being put under some criticism, because otherwise they would be sending offended emails to every school or critic for the crime of literary analysis.

it's almost as if swift trained these people with her never ending victimhood and copying, to look in her name for any struggle to steal whenever she is being criticized. not an ounce of critical thinking or just common sense to look at it for a second and realize that these don't apply to swift. "so yeah not a good look" yeah, but not on crumblinggothicarchitecture

Sorry, this took a minute for me to get to <3. I appreciate this perspective. I didn't even mention that in the ask, but it's so weird to accuse someone of being racist, ableist, classicist just because I analyzed Taylor Swift’s poor grammar. Swift is the one who calls herself a writer and claims she one of the best writers on the planet right now. So, it stands to reason that I would use my English Degree to analyze her grammar if, for any reason, I felt she actually wasn't a good writer.

If I say that someone isn't a good writer. I'm not going to just state that and leave it there. Obviously, it's on me to effectively argue my point. I do, however, have ways to argue my point. So, naturally, I will get into some linguistic or literary criticism of Swift.

I'm not sure that Grammar-Anon really understands what I am trying to do here. Besides, I think you're right about them not knowing that linguistics is an actual academic discipline. Are the people who dedicate their whole lives to studying and teaching grammar also being racist, ableist, and classicist? LOL.

The English language is such a beautiful medium for expression. It's one of my favorite languages, among many, to read poetry in because it has such an amazing breadth of vocabulary words with which to express emotion. In most linguistic study, it is the mechanism of language itself that scholars pull into study. Fascinating stuff- and people study it all. There are scholars whose life's work revolves around understanding AAVE dialects, or understanding Louisiana Cajun dialects, or understanding mid-Atlantic dialects, or Jewish-New York regionalisms. This is just a short list of regionalist dialects I've personally read about in the last few months- however, the list is expansive and covers much more than just the American continent. For instance, there is a whole subset of academic study centered on the post-colonialist use of English Language in India. Scholarship in this field often takes into account feminist theory, Marxist theory, or Post Colonialist theory. (Again, I just listed my favorites, but there are many more theoretical lenses through which people study the impact of grammatical praxis).

This is something people make into their whole life's work- it's not somehow offensive to participate in low-stakes grammatical analysis of Taylor Swift.

You're right, some people just can't handle the idea of putting her work under the microscope because it would impact their narrow-world view if someone said actually Swift is a bad, unoriginal writer. Imagine the meltdown if twitter Swifties found me :O

I've been giving Swift a pass for years, mostly because I would dismiss her music as simple pop-music. It's meant to be fun. I would listen to it, because it was an easy break from the dense, challenging stuff I would read for classes. However, now I'm going to tear apart Swifts work. It's the principle of the matter now because she seems to think she's the greatest American poet to ever live. I am both bored, as summer approaches and I have nothing else to work on, and frustrated that she's pretending to be a poet.

She's not a tortured genius. She's a trust fund baby who got as far as she did on mediocrity because of her parents' money. We "wouldn't last an hour in the asylum" where they raised her- Ha. She wouldn't last a second working a part-time job after school to pay rent. I get upset when people accuse me of some type of classist's attitude purely because I use my education when they know nothing about my story. I got a lucky break.

Education is my road out of abject poverty. Nothing else was going to save me. I did it all on my own, with the help of a bunch of scholarships, lucky breaks, and really wonderful teachers. Now, in my real life, I am the teacher now. I want to root for people. I critique for the sake of wanting people to improve their skills.

Taylor Swift's arrogant attitude and unwillingness to face criticism just gets under my skin. So, what do I do? I'm not fond of ad hominem attacks. Instead, I will make some good arguments about her bad writing and have some fun in the process. :)

So yeah- I guess it's not a good look.

[t4tpumpkinduo]

if those text post about the sa stuff is about cq i am baffled with how blind someone has to be to be that bad at media literacy and racist hello

no like. lmao it's super abt cq and yeah. it's horrible.✌️ i like don't even know where to begin w what an awful take it is. can we be people.

it's just uhh. well. imo not good to take v v lighthearted joke/outta context bits that aren't given narrative weight and then spin them into something they Never Were for some like. idk. leeway? is that what it is? leveling the playing field? i see this talk abt cquackity frm a lot of ppl (v consistently in cdr*blr, just to paint a picture lmao.) but the one that makes me the saddest is frm ppl who rlly like cschlatt and wnna fight back at his unjust bigoted fanon treatment by being unjust and bigoted to. another character?  like. ok? 😭

the worst thing is, for the second group, (first group don't matter i'm not wasting my time arguing w ppl like that), is that it's coming from ppl who are like. all things considered completely right abt cschlatt! it's absolutely correct to get upset abt an addict being demonized, having all his actions taken in the worst faith imaginable. having joke bits that don't have narrative weight treated as hard canon when that's not the case at all, just to paint some stupid picture that woobifies and dilutes other characters at his textually supposed to be sympathetic expense. it's ridiculous! that's all true!! cschlatt sweep forever that's my special princess like i agree!!!

so if you can understand that taking bits where he's like slapping cqs ass, or making boy prostitute jokes at cfundy, or batting people around jokingly/w no narrative weight are clearly meant to be at most shitty jests w no added pressure to them, and painting it as smthing else is disingenuous and transparent. why the hell are you taking like this abt cquackity then 😭 why the hell are HIS actions suddenly being scrutinized w the same rightfully critiqued incorrect lense! it's just sowugrrugrbrfnjfk

and on top of that, you cannot divorce the way ppl look at things and the way they filter them. like uhh for example. there's a stream where ckarl just like drugs cquackity. he puts heroin in his shit and it causes him a psychotic break and q chases the guy like an animal abt it for quite a while until he sobers up. ckarl also called him like ugly and stupid and unlikable and at one point hunted him down with an axe across the map bcs he left him at a joke altar. and i have never once in my life seen ppl freak out at ckarl abt it and go ohhh he must be a secret abuser oooh. BECAUSE THAT'S NOT TRUE AND SHOULD NEVER BE A TALKING POINT IN THE FIRST PLACE 😭 OBVIOUSLY!!! it's not supposed to be taken that way in the narrative at all. ckarl is explicitly a good guy, who means well and likes playing pranks on his friends who he loves dearly enough to sacrifice himself for them over and over. there's no awful weight to these actions he's playing his damn touys. when shit is meant to be held to a standard it literally just is held to it the dsmp isn't subtle there's no way around it. and if smone tried to tell you anything different abt it the ridicule they'd deserve would be astronomical.

ctubbo tried to drown ctommy and spent the whole time giggling abt it. that doesn't mean ctubs is some kinda freak abt it because it's treated in the narrative as a bit. ctommy hits and lashes out at cjack a lot. it's never treated or supposed to be taken as ctommy fucking abusing him. 😭 cschlatt and cq make jokes at eachother and it just point blank is never coded in any other way than them doing bits and speaking in freak tongues and having gay ghost sex infront of cq's fucking dad and being light hearted assholes to eachother until we get to the scenes where weight IS being applied. and even then it's not abusive it's human conflict between equals. like fuck's sake.

and idk. like i said, it rlly is interesting that it's applied to those character specifically. and the hypocritical gross ass double standard of it all is suddenly like. so ignorable huh how weird. so you see specifically the addict character who's at most an asshole as some uniquely scary demon evil abuser despite him not being that at all. you see this mentally ill deeply psychotic dude who's at most an asshole and think he's a violent freak who beats his brother even though he clearly isn't. you see this brown character, one of the ONLY ones, and suddenly yr stumbling over yrself abt how he's a violent assaulter and also fantasy racist to white characters despite all the. wow yr rlly cool and normal and not transparent at all hahaha. wow. hah. what a world.

anyways yeah like. i'm not gnna engage w this fuckass topic no more gensrs. it's bad for my blood sugars it's bad for my liver i've said my piece i'm done i'm sick of it. 👍 i'm just gnna start blocking even more ppl and focusing on the good of the fanbase instead. sucks that it's so common and unchecked but whatttt can you do except keep sending ghouls and devils to their addresses. if you have this wack ass "interpretation" do us both a favor and fucking block me. sword slash through the chest and you're on fire.

[unhingedlesbear]

Okay fuck it yeah I'm making the post idc abt backlash. First of all the hidden agenda fandom doesn't exist anymore so whos even gonna have an issue. But if you do feel called out um. Maybe thats ur problem idk bc I'm not aiming at anyone in particular here.

Anyway long ass ramble abt the tiny dead Hidden Agenda fandom below the cut

This is mainly something I noticed looking through the very limited amount of Hidden Agenda fics on ao3, but it's VERY obvious on there. The vast majority of fics on there are centered on Adam and Finn, which I can understand more since they have an interesting backstory and are well written characters, sure. But then you look at the others and the other characters that are centered are... Riggs and Calvary?

In the actual game ofc Becky and Felicity are the main characters. Both of them not only are pretty objectively interesting characters on their own, and even more so together. On top of this they have the most shipping potential of any two characters in that game, it's literally basically canon, it's not even subtext atp it's literally just text. NO other two characters have that amount of chemistry in the game, and yet there is a noticeable lack of gravey fics in that tag. And I'll stress again bc I know how defensive people got last time I made this kind of observation, I'm not pointing fingers or calling anyone misogynistic/racist/homophobic BUT. but. When the two mcs are women, one of which is poc, and they're implied to be lesbians, and they get sidelined by the fandom despite being the focuses of the game... it's kinda hard not to assume there's some kind of bias there.

And on another point, it's similar when it comes to supporting characters too. In a way I'm disappointed but absolutely not surprised that Adam/Finn is prioritized in fan works over Becky/Felicity, but when characters like Riggs and Calvary are also given more attention than them it becomes way more suspicious to me. Riggs is a fine character, I like him enough and I can see why others might like him more, but wbk he doesn't really have all that much relevance. Calvary is even more confusing bc he basically JUST exists to be a creepy misogynistic asshole and as unlikeable as possible. Thankfully I haven't seen him getting a lot of attention but the fact that I've seen him getting any that isn't entirely negative is... hm...

Now there ARE in fact male characters that can be both relevant and likeable: Tom and Karl. (I talk shit abt Karl bc it's a joke I started with friends, I'm gonna drop that for this post obv bc we're being fr here) these two are pretty obviously more relevant than Riggs or Calvary, they're literally Becky's partners (Tom can even replace Riggs' entire role lmao, and if he's replaced himself it's by Karl) and I'd say they're also both likeable characters on their own too. And yet I'm pretty sure I found maybe one??? fic with them in it? Probably should have mentioned this earlier but yeah, they're both poc.

So like... I feel like it all comes down to what Becky/Felicity/Tom/Karl have in common and then what Adam/Finn/Riggs/Calvary have in common. It strikes me as questionable. But like maybe I'm just an annoying snowflake though idk🤷‍♀️ /s

This turned into more of a ramble than anything and I'm aware i'm also yelling into a void bc I'm posting entirely for a dead fandom that barely existed to begin with, but tbh this stuff applies to most if not all larger fandoms as well, i'm just looking at it from what I've seen in the remnants of the HA fandom. Again I am not attacking anyone here, I am making observations. If you're like mad or something I'm just gonna assume you didn't even read the whole post. Yes ur allowed to like characters, but I am also allowed to address what I've noticed about what characters seem to be more liked than others.

[libraryspectre]

I want to connect to other LGBT people (particularly other trans people), but I have trauma surrounding the word "queer" and this alone has prevented me from seeking/building community.

For context: I'm in a red state and I've never opened up about being LGBT with anyone other than my girlfriend & family. I don't want to have to tell people about my deeply-personal, traumatic experiences...in order for them to not call me a word I've only ever heard used as an anti-LGBT slur; it's on the same "level" as being called a d*ke, f*g, r*tard, or "freak" to me. It horrifies me to hear it used so casually (especially from cishet allies [?], holy shit), and, because of this, I've never even tried to make LGBT friends. (The whole: "Anyone who hates the word queer is a TERF!" stuff hasn't helped either.)

I say all of this because your post about connecting—for the first time—to others like yourself sounds amazing. I know it would likely help me not feel so alone too. Do you happen to have any advice? If not, no worries.

Hey anon! Sorry if this is a little muddled, I've got a bit of migraine brainfog, but I'm going to do my best to answer.

If I'm understanding this correctly, you're hesitant to seek community because you don't want the label of "queer" to be applied to you, and you're worried that won't be accepted unless you provide an explanation you're not ready to give. Additionally, you're adverse to hearing the word at all. If I've misunderstood, please correct me! And my dms are open if you'd rather talk that way.

So, first, I wanna say that if you're personally uncomfortable with that label, it doesn't make you a bad person or member of the LGBT community. What isn't fair is when people decide that they're uncomfortable with queer as a label, and that means no one else can use it either. But that doesn't seem to be your attitude. And some people do unfairly claim that anyone who is personally uncomfortable with the word must be bigoted, and that's not right either. However, I'm going to gently redirect you on the matter of allies - queer is considered to be reclaimed, and has long been the preferred term for academia and other areas. It is totally fine for allies to say "the queer community" or "queer people." Obviously that doesn't give them the right to use it in a derogatory way, or use it to describe individuals who don't want that label, but general respectful or professional usage is fine.

As for the meat of your question - this is just speaking from my personal experience on a college campus in Texas, so take it with a grain of salt.

I don't think this will be as much of an issue as you're afraid it will be. I've seen the community in both red and blue states, and online, and they're all very different environments. In my PERSONAL experience, irl spaces are less prone to petty squabbling about terminology. Also, LGBT people in red states are better at sticking together than LGBT people in blue states. The difference from Texas to Oregon in how people spoke and acted toward each other for minor intra-community disputes was pretty staggering. I'm not saying it was perfect, but in Texas we were much more willing to overlook difference of opinion or beliefs that needed some examination, because we had to stick together!

I write all this to say that, if you politely tell people "oh, I don't like using that word for myself/i don't identify with that word/please don't call me that" they're pretty likely to accept it without question.

If you have trouble just hearing that word even if it isn't applied to you, or hearing it applied to a group you're apart of (for example, "a bunch of us queers are going to lunch") that may be harder to overcome. I think if you're so uncomfortable with the word that you can't stand to hear it, you'd need to do some work overcoming that discomfort to be comfortable in those spaces. It simply isn't fair to require others to police language they've reclaimed - if they decide to do so to make you more comfortable, that's their choice, but ultimately it is their choice. Unfortunately that's the best advice I have on that. As for the group thing, you can ask people not to apply it to a group you're a part of, but they may not always remember and it may not always be appropriate to use a different term for the group (remember, queer is the most inclusive and equalizing word we could possibly have, which is why it's important.) So I think if you really can't stand that either, you may need to first try to overcome some discomfort. It may help to remember that for many people, queer is as much a political identity as it is a personal one. So in some contexts you can just remind yourself that when they reference queer people, they aren't talking about you, a LGBT person who does not identify as queer.

I think the extent to which any particular community throws around the word queer probably varies wildly, so there's no telling how often you'll even encounter it. It might be a good idea to just try some things out, and if you the word is being used to a level you can't handle, you can leave. You also might have better luck trying to meet individuals rather than joining a group - I'm sure you'll be able to find other individuals who are personally uncomfortable with that word, or willing to avoid it, especially if you're in an area that heavily uses it as a slur.

I don't have any advice with how to become more comfortable with the word itself, because that's not a challenge I had myself (although I do have strong negative associations with the word homosexual). I do have the experience of being a mostly sex-repulsed asexual trying to seek community with queer people. The people I was around talked about sex all the time, and it made me really uncomfortable! But i recognized that it was important they had a space to do that, considering how policed our sexuality is outside our own spaces. And I knew it wasn't fair to insist there'd be no sex talk. So I became closer with people who were more restrained about that kind of thing, and 1-on-1 it was much easier and fairer to say "I'm not comfortable talking about that". And they didn't mind. And in group situations I got more comfortable over time with discussions around sex, just through exposure. I removed myself until the discussion was over if it became a problem, but eventually I was fine most of the time.

That's not a perfectly parallel experience, because I don't have trauma around sex, but I think some of that might be helpful advice. It might also help to read things from people who reclaim queer talk about why they love it as a label, so you can give yourself some exposure to the word being used in neutral and positive connotations. Learning about the history of its reclamation and its importance of it as a term might also be helpful. I wish I had readings to recommend, but I don't. Maybe my followers could chime in?

One more thing - it's great you have a girlfriend to help you with this process. Please lean on each other and ask for all the help you need. You need to be a team. Maybe they can go to things with you and help out if you get overwhelmed, or help you speak up about your boundaries if you have trouble doing so.

That's all I got for you. Sorry this was so long - please remember that you're worth the work it takes to be happy and comfortable and have community. Stay safe and I love you 💜

[apuff]

he/she just use whatever you think is most genderfuck in any given situation

you can call me puff or apuff

i am a minor

i block liberally and dont really have a dni, but PLEASE do not follow me if you are a terf or post nsfw 🙏🙏🙏🙏 seriously

i post art and writing and some assorted shitposts, it's usually about mcr (my wife michael romance 😇😇😈) i do like other music and webcomics and videogames tho

@apuff-rb is my reblog blog

@apuff-comics comic blog

i tag for most common triggers, and i use just the word (eg, blood not tw blood), and usually tag both bright AND flashing things as "eyestrain"

please donate or reblog this fundraiser, verified here :

i have a few different tags for various things in my blog, like:

art (some old art of others' is on here, but it's mostly my art)

apuff's inane ramblings (inconsequential text posts)

mcr (My Chemical Romance is an American rock band from Newark, Ne)

dungeon meshi (you know what this is you're on tumblr)

miku (HATSUNE MIKUUUUU)

art save (things that are pretty, i'm trying to keep tutorials out of this now but i might forget)

save (like..general useful stuff, good websites, not very specific)

things i want to draw (self-explanatory, more for text posts that inspire me than images, which is "art save")

picrew (picrew chains. i reblog the picrew of people that i tag in these because otherwise i can't find them ever)

long post (posts that are long, this is mostly for blacklisting)

free palestine (self-explanatory)

remember this (desperate plea. i don't even know what i use this for)

art tutorials (TAG I JUST MADE UP NOW!!! i probably won't retroactively tag things as this)

-----

ok so for starters for trigger/blacklist tagging i'm using the format of just the thing in the tag, not "cw" or "tw" before or after it. for example, something with blood would just be "blood" not "tw blood."

for bright colors, i'm doing "eyestrain." i'm tagging things with flashing/strobing colors, lights, or light n darkness "flashing lights" if you're sensitive to that, please make sure you have it blocked since i can't cover the absolute myriad of the unstandardized tags for that specific thing on every reblog with it.

let me know if there's something i need to tag on a post, i forget a lot of stuff/autoreblog plus there's fears i don't know about and things

now palestine/gaza related posts are sort of a whole different beast in terms of tagging? i'm trying to put down "free palestine" on every post i reblog about the topic (cause you actually need to do that to get tags to trending) (plus overall blog sorting is good)

now obviously, the entire GENERAL CONCEPT of the current genocide is dark and upsetting, so know that i really can't tag every possible thing that could be upsetting. but, i'm trying to make a system of particularly upsetting things, especially pertaining to images & videos

ok so. for images/videos of children being actively harmed, as well as graphic text descriptions, i'm doing "child harm" this does not cover statistics of children killed or general comments on the fact

things like videos/images of gunfire, shooting and bombing, i'm doing "violence" like the other one this doesn't cover descriptions of those things happening.

"injuries" is self-explanatory- burns, bloody injuries, face trauma, etc, you get the drill (even blurred/pixely censored ones)

"dead body" is also self-explanatory, doesn't include body bags except if they have visible body part sticking out

tags that could mostly apply to anything (like "gun" or "blood") don't have any special tags, i just use the generic ones like i said above

still thinking of a tag for people being distressed about their situation/ their dead loved ones since things like "death"' are too vague and would cause overfiltering but i can't think of something accurate. if you have any suggestions, let me know.

[fascinatedhelix]

I am probably overthinking things but here's a rant motivated by this post (or rather, some of its responses) (tw: some discussion of ACAB, nothing explicit):

Does ACAB apply to the Heroes?

In real life, cops are bastards because they exist to enforce an oppressive status quo, and are rewarded for their bastardry with functional immunity from the same laws they are supposed to uphold.

In Hero Factory... it's complicated. Yes, the corporation has the Heroes cooperate with local law enforcement in many cases (for example, Stormer's buddy buddy relationship with the cop in ep3), but it is a private corporation, and given the whole Galactic Conspiracy plotline in the late books before it all got cancelled, this doesn't seem to be a universal thing. Hero Factory exists, in-universe, to deal with the growing supervillain problem, which could be tangentially regarded as law enforcement, but only in cases where local enforcement is unable to handle it (like all the acid spitting weirdos). Hero Factory Incorporated gives the impression of a private emergency services company, rather than necessarily a law enforcement agency (at least in my opinion). They even have dispatchers like a 911 call center.

Also, the franchise likes to blur the lines between "person" and "thing." One of the most obvious examples I can think of is how the robots all refer to the techno-organic species in Savage Planet as "animals" and "wildlife," despite many of them being sapient and perfectly capable of speech. There's also how they treat their own: Daniella Capricorn literally refers to her camera bot as her "mindless slave," and nobody seems to bat an eye at that, and the Fire Lord and his crew became that way because of an ill-advised "upgrade" that was intended to increase their efficiency, presumably by the company that made them for mining.

The Heroes are considered "people," but also products. They are advertised to the public in showcases and commercials, they are maintained by the company that produced them, and when they wear out, they're sent off to live elsewhere to fulfill a similar role. I don't think they're really allowed to decide what they want to do with their lives, because most that do wind up becoming Villains, if Core Hunter and Von Nebula are any indication.

Presumably, this sort of universal dehumanization is why things like Furno zapping a prisoner in episode 1, Stormer dismantling their radio guy for insulting him in Hero Factory FM, and other instances of "police brutality" in the franchise isn't really treated seriously in-universe. They're robots, they can be repaired and replaced if need be, who cares if they get hurt?

Honestly, on a Doylist level, it's obviously just regular children's copaganda. You're not supposed to think too deeply about the implications about the metaphorical cops literally being owned by a private corporation, who engage in casual acts of excessive force and brutality for the sake of a laugh, and how just about everyone in the setting gets all kinds of roughed up on the regular because they're robots so it's fine.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I did mistake Surge for a girl when I first looked up HF on tumblr and saw the HRT post, so gender stuff with him is absolutely on the menu in my mind. But also, I'm not sure if he'd be allowed at Pride. I guess it depends on where you draw the line. I stayed up way too late rambling about robot philosophy.

[eddiediaaz]

Hi there! We're not mutuals, so sorry if this is weird, but I saw your vent post and I just wanted to say that you are absolutely not a waste of space. I can't pretend to know exactly what you're experiencing career or health-wise, and I won't tell you it doesn't suck because having either one of those things happening at once would suck, so having them at the same time definitely does. That said, I know just from the fandom work that you share that you are an incredibly talented person, and that you're going to be able to find a way to apply those skills somewhere, even if it's in a different way then you were doing pre-strike. To be dealing with health stuff on top of that is obviously stressful, and I hope things start coming together for you in some way to make any piece of what you're dealing with feel easier soon. If you ever need someone to vent or talk to, feel free to reach out. There are a lot of people around here that are thinking of and rooting for you <3

it's not weird at all oh my god, that was so so sweet of you. the fact that you took the time to send this to me, you are incredible and i thank you so so much <3

i already "work" (well, worked) in a creative industry, movie vfx, and i have no idea what else i would do if i can't find a job again there. it's a very unstable industry and the hollywood strikes last year and now the very real AI threat have rocked the boat so hard. a lot of people lost their jobs and won't be getting them back for many months still, if at all. i've still paying my student loans from film school! i feel at loss about what to do, do i take a minimum wage and suffer when my unemployment benefits end after the summer? do i go back to shcool? can i even go back to school without any savings whatsoever? i live on my own, who would pay my bills if i'm a full time student? anyway yeah it's just A Lot to process right now, and i'm just hoping i won't have to figure out and that the industry will go back to what it once was after the summer (which is doubtful according to a lot of people). and then the whole heallth thing is well i've been unhealthy with how i eat and little excercise i do and now i'm paying the price.

thank you so much for being there and listening <3 i know i am well surrounded, but sometimes i feel like such a burden talking about my "problems" when i know a lot of people have it much much worse.

[beauzos]

genuinely thinking a bit about a Mother 3 SOBR au and I'm kind of stumped about what Vincent would do for a living. he can't be a fucking banker, they don't have any money, so it'd only be a job he'd get post-timeskip. he's good with numbers, but what kind of job would actually apply in Tazmily? i just don't know. my only guess would be something to do with books otherwise. they. i mean they probably have some amount of books though that's always been a big question mark for me about literature n stuff but it'd cute if Tazmily had like, a little library or something.

i think Mimi would probably just do art. or maybe is a schoolteacher. she'd also 100% be one of those ladies who gets sucked into working at the shitty ass old folks home post-timeskip.

Beau would have to actually get a job JHBSD but i could see a few things for him: either he'd be a tailor because it is something he's probably not all that bad at, albeit you can tell Lucas's family has something to do with clothesmaking most likely, at least in terms of wool products ?? but idk. that or he'd continue to just be a cowboy, or a hired hand, in other words, not that i assume with people's small farms (in fact, there's only two real farm areas, Matt and Jill's family and then Nippolyte grows crops outside Osohe) require much help, but it's Tazmily, they'd humor him.

but he'd probably only get hired once by any person. he still wouldn't be all that reliable. i don't think he'd have as bad of a reputation in Tazmily because there just isn't theft, and all i could really say about what happened in Brittlebone is he was an accessory to a theft, he'd probably just not be very good at the job, or flaky, or whatever.

he could still play guitar, though, but it'd be just a hobby like always.

i think Jerome could've convinced the Tazmilians to hire a sheriff even though there's no crime. but because there's no crime, he'd be bored out of his fucking mind all the time. Jerome obviously thrives on chaos and conflict so i imagine his "job" is just him sitting in the Yado all day playing cards because there is, quite literally, nothing for him to do. otherwise, he's probably just hanging around Luis's farm or whatever, cause i'm sure he just goes back to running a farm like he usually does with his family.

i have no idea what Casey would do, but then again, there seem to be villagers that don't actually do anything. like Ollie doesn't do anything, though i suppose it's also through the grace of being in the mayor's family. but it's not clear what people like Paul and Linda or Ed's family do, so i think it's entirely possible he doesn't really have a role either and just kinda bums around Tazmily with Jerome.

i'd say it'd be easy for them to just continue working law enforcement after the timeskip but i almost think Jerome would get shoved out of it eventually. that or he'd also fall for the whole glitz and glamor of the Pigmasks thing. Casey would probably fuckin join too, shit. it's either that or the fucking mines and i don't think either of them would do it. Casey might for a while but he'd get burnt out quick. i don't even think Jerome would buy into the whole "great master Porky" thing i think he was just that bored and he has the right attitude to be a Pigmask, so he falls into it easily.

i don't know if Luis would join, though, and they might not let him since he's an older guy, in his 50s. he'd probably be one of the folks who doesn't get a Happy Box though so he's probably got bigger fish to fry with the house getting struck by lightning or whatever. Jerome would have a Happy Box and enjoy it, Casey would have one and be disappointed that it doesn't help.

Beau would probably have one. Vincent might get one for Mimi's sake.

[evvlevie]

hiii eviee!!! new anon and fellow virgo here!! 💕💕

first let me tell you i’ve been following for awhile now and you’re really so sweet and kind, you make my shifting journey feel less lonely (since i don’t really have shifting friends).

so as i said, i’m also a virgo so this whole thing of personally finding what works best for me in regards of shifting makes me feel really confused, like i want to follow some rules or instructions idk 😭

anyways, i've already read most of your pinned posts and i'm actually really excited about using loa to shift (i was recently thinking about manifesting entering the void and shift from there with loa, but i honestly don't know if i’m just complicating things😭). well, back to the point, is it okay if i record tapes myself with affirmations regarding shifting, void state, or both, and listen to them on loop when sleeping or doing my chores or simply in my free time?

ngl, since i got into the shifting community, back in 2022, i heard about the loa applied to shifting but i was always a little skeptical about it bc it was just hard to believe for me that just by using it i would shift suddenly (i’m just used to trust more in methodical tools like meditation or things like that haha).

any tips you think might be helpful for me? also, do you have some affirmations (or any affirmations post) that i can add to the tapes if i record them? :33

thank you so much in advance! take care of yourself and i’m hoping to give you a shifting success story soon (if i don’t end up permashifting haha) 💕💕

hello my dear virgo anon 👀

I totally feel you, when it comes to needing instructions!

This has been a problem for me too in the shifting and manifestations community as I always felt like I needed a clear recipe on what exactly to do in order to get results.

Here is the thing: You shift/manifest as soon as you "expect" a certain thing to happen. if you feel like meditation is the most logical method that could lead to success then obviously you subconsciously think that this method is going to guarantee the most success.

recording tapes with affirmations is actually a thing that many many people in the manifestation/shifting community do, and if you think they might work for you, then please go for it! ❤️

other than that I shifting doesn't necessarily need to happen through the void, I for example have manifested so much stuff in my life so far and I have never even come close to the void state. If you believe that this is something you need to do because it makes the most sense to you, then please keep going. Because trying stuff that goes against your instincts or feel counter intuitive will not bring you closer to your goals ❤️

As for instructions I can only tell you this:

Manifestation and shifting are the very same thing. If you can manifest something, then you can shift. Every single manifestation IS a shift in realities already. So you basically are already shifting all the time without doing any big methods in the first place. Keep that in mind.

and when it comes to manifestations there are only a few simple steps you need to enforce:

decide on your desire, and get specific about what it is you want (in this case: deciding you want to wake up in the void/in your DR)

understand that you control your realities. you are not victim to some higher power, you ARE the higher power. the only thing that has any say over what kind of 3D reality you are experiencing is you and your decisions.

persist through your methods.

the third step is basically every time you experience something in the 3D that contradicts what you manifested (like waking up in your CR for example) you don't get scared and demotivated, but you remind yourself of your power (step 2) until your manifestation sets in. In your case that might mean keep on listening to your tapes until you shift, or affirming that you are a master shifter etc etc. because the point is, that since only you have any say in which reality you wake up in, you are PROMISED to wake up in the one you chose sooner or later. There is literally no way around it, which is why sulking after waking up in your CR is useless, you are going to shift ANYWAY.

many people let the element of time influence their perspective. They think that if their manifestation hasn't come up after a week of affirming for example, that their manifestation has failed, or that manifesting isn't real. That literally isn't true. Time is an illusion. The only thing you only ever have is this exact moment. The past is gone and the future doesn't exist yet. The idea of time frames isn't applicable to manifestations since they don't line up perfectly and wait their turn to materialize. don't cling to a certain amount of time and decide that after to weeks of "trying" you are doing something wrong. You can't do anything wrong as long as you are reminding yourself that you are the decision maker in your physical world. 3 Weeks of no change is irrelevant because you know what you decided to happen, so you know it's going to happen regardless of what it is that you are seeing.

I really hope I could help you my dear ❤️

[48787]

I keep thinking that like V1 is like a non-sentient feral beast that has sudden flashes of genius to solve the occasional puzzle, but it's all just following its programming like a state machine. Like even with the Terminal lore and V2's very clear sentience, I keep thinking V1 just is like different being, like an older bot who doesn't have all the sentience as the other robots which lets it be much more efficient with its murder. This is all wrong, of course, V2 and the other robots are practically feral beasts too and are just as blood thirsty (just not as efficient), the Terminal lore obviously applies directly to V1, yadda yadda. But what inspired this post, and why I think I keep having this weird perception of V1 despite the fact that I know it's wrong, is because I keep forgetting the fact that V1 directly speaks! It only happens once (at least as I'm remembering, this whole post is about me forgetting shit so like who fucking knows), but I keep forgetting the "You're not getting away this time" line. Like with all the lore it never is in your face with how it actually applies to V1 and we never get anything direct about V1's personality (I wanted to brain rot about how this is wrong too and we actually do get a lot of V1 personality through the gameplay and animations n stuff but i am so tired and this post is getting so long), so when I first saw that line it felt a little jarring, especially because it only happens later into the game and doesn't happen again, and my brain just sorta didn't know how to slot it into the game's story.

EXCEPT THAT'S ALSO NOT CORRECT! (Extreme brain rot territory that might just be me looking too much into it but I don't care) It's not, like, a special dialog prompt or anything and V1 does not audibly speak, it's the SAME text box that appears throughout the entire game in tutorials!!!!! This can mean either two things:

One (which is what i currently believe) is that ALL the text is ACTUALLY V1 speaking, at least to itself. Like the "Sentries can be interrupted by shooting them with the revolver, railgun, yadda yadda" is like V1's computers making a little "mental" note of a new enemies weaknesses, perhaps because V1 knows about these enemies beforehand or V1, bein a lil robo dude, did a scan or something about V1's computer knows how to figure that stuff out. Not to mention other game-y things such as the scoreboard and cyber grind are continually proven canon so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary. This makes the sudden dialog less jarring in my mind because it's not sudden!

Two (which i don't like as much but whatever) is that all dialog in the game isn't, like, real. Like the tutorial stuff is just tutorial stuff, has nothing to do with V1, and by extension the "You're not getting away this time" line isn't actually V1 dialog. There's a little bit of evidence to support this one as well (even though I'm gonna refute every single piece in favor of my preferred interpretation). Jakito's lines are also in this dialog box, which would go against it being V1's dialog or internal monolog. However, that could just be because words are being communicated in a way other than speech and V1 is translating this, sorta like some kind of telepathy, not to mention the words were a different color (I THINK?? I THINK IM REMEBERING THAT RIGHT). There's also the "Something wicked this way comes.... Just kidding :)" line, which wouldn't make sense for V1 to say to itself. I'm tempted to write it off as a funny little goof, there's so fucking much I want to write off as a silly little goof, but Hakita said before that all secret levels besides 2-S is canon (I MIGHT BE LYING I JUST SPENT AN HOUR LOOKING FOR THIS QUOTE BUT COULDNT FIND IT, DID I IMAGINE IT??? GOING CRAZY) so I don't know! But that could've been a meme as well!! It could also be similar to the Jakito thing. Maybe it could've also been V1 being like "wouldnt the be funny lol" to itself. whatever. point being the "youre not getting away this time" line could just be non canon and just a silly little line.

I obviously really prefer my first interpretation, stuff that seems like its just game-y stuff keeps being made canon so like it just makes sense that something we'd take for granted like tutorials is also canon.

I can't tell if I am looking too far into all this or if this is just something everyone already knows or noticed i am so tired and potentially at that stage of insanity where you think its all so obvious and everyone is on the same page and then you talk about it and realize everyone actually thinks your crazy but also maybe it is so obvious and im just dumb or maybe this is all stupid i am so tired and have so many feelings about this fucking game. I had so much more i wanted to say but forgot it all because its so late. when looking for references for this stuff i thought i knew like most of the lore but realized i was actually probably wrong because i havent seen a bucnh of hakita quotes about shit. the one quote i was trying to find just stopped existing and i dont know if it ever existed. This post is a mess, i dont even know if any part of this will make sense to another living soul or if there is a single sentence that isn't completely incoherent.