#As usual I kinda feel like I started rambling.

[apocalypticvalraven]

So, I came to find this post from a sorta weird inflection point. Skip to "And this is the crux" if you don't want my rambling prelude.

I'm looking at building a new D&D character, and decided I wanted to do something different from my usual "Warlock, bending the rules over my knee as much as possible" approach. I started by picking an archetype, or rather, an Archetype feat(1), specifically "Anti-Communist Machine" but refluffed to be pro-communist, cuz... I'm pro-communist and I don't like playing characters who are counter to my principles (and the feat doesn't actually rely in any way on a relation between ideologies). It requires you to play a construct.

That's cool. I started looking at construct races, and found one or two that are about being a construct that represents an idealized form of the creator's species, which led my AuDHD brain to think "Character that looks like "what if soviet propaganda, but by goblins. Or lizardfolk, or whatever." Which is a fun thought. I think, anyway.

It meant trying to research that particular artistic style, to get a feel for it, and therefore, how it might depict its subjects if it was made by a fantasy race.

The thing about Socialist Realism... well, there are two things. The first is that it is a reaction to and builds upon other artistic styles. The second is... well, there's a reason why Soviet and Nazi propaganda have similar visual aesthetic styles. Socialist Realism is, first and foremost, a Realism based style. Which I don't think is inherently a bad thing. Which is why I kinda just said "...um, ok, whatever" when I first saw explainslowly's response above and moved on.

But as I started sketching out "Socialist Realist Statue Goblin," I realized that... well, Socialist Realist Goblin would be incredibly generic. Like... that's sort of the point of socialist realism, or rather, the overarching term that encompasses both the Soviet and Nazi visual aesthetics, Heroic Realism. The idea being to present the artist('s sponsor)'s chosen demographic in an idealized, perfect, form. And the thing about "Perfect Forms" is that... if you diverge at all from the template, it's no longer the Perfect Form. Like, to take it out of direct political ideologies for a moment, if you decide that Arnold Schwarzenegger's body is the Ideal Perfect Form, then even a perfect replica who happens to be blond instead of brunette is no longer Perfect. By definition. So, Socialist/Heroic Realism Goblin would have to be The Platonic Ideal of a Goblin. Which means you have to figure out what goblins would see as their idealized form in light of their standards of beauty. But also, if you step away from "Muscular, thin, young, and chiseled" then it's no longer recognizable as Socialist Realism. Which means that you have to focus on the things that mark a goblin as visually distinct from a human. Which means leaning into, well, creating what would look like a an antisemitic caricature, except as done by someone who thought the antisemitic caricature was the ideal form. Which... is weird. A kind of an interesting thought exercise, but as a catholic-raised, considered-white-in-America, never-been-Jewish artist... it's not one I personally want to explore.

But, ok, so let's say you want to take the thoughts and ideas that gave rise to Heroic Realism, and then apply that to goblins. You still have to figure out what goblins would see as the physical ideal, and what they would see as "degenerate/bourgeois."

And this is the crux.

While the Soviets did not frame things as "degenerate," their artistic ideas come from the same place as Hitler, the idea that anything which strays from visual realism is bad and harmful to society, except that realism must always depict the decreed perfect form. It is the idea that impressionism is evidence of a diseased visual cortex. It is the idea that only someone who is physically and mentally degenerate could produce art that isn't the decreed style.

I don't necessarily think the Chobani ad is trying to do this kind of propaganda. It's more focused on "a sustainable, ecofriendly future includes our products." Which is of course a laughable and in its own way bad thing to peddle. That said, I think realism is perfectly fine as an artistic style. But I get why explainslowly sees the ad and its artistic style, whether with the corporate elements, or those elements removed, is promoting a pernicious ideology beyond "buy our stuff." It's leaning into artistic tropes which have been used to that pernicious end in the past.

...which... I guess is the same problem some people have with goblins. Huh.

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1 a feat category on dnd-wiki for feats that describe who your character is and give scaling benefits as they level up

[nerdnag]

Hi Sara! You are wise and cool and I'd appreciate advice if you have any! I am trying to make friends especially with fellow autistic people in real life but it is very very hard and scary also I don't know how to find people who want friends. Do you have any advice? (Please only answer if you want to!)

Thank you Ghostly!! 🙏 You are so valid - it *is* hard and scary to make irl friends!! (... Online friends too, tbh)

I don't know if I have any helpful advice, but I'll try!

I think what's worked best for me is to meet people in contexts that are related to specific, niche interests. I'm not entirely sure I have any IRL friends anymore who are only autistic, I do have a bunch who are both autistic and have ADHD though. And all of them, I've met through various kinds of special interests.

For example, several people in my TTRPG group are neurodiverse. How did I meet them? I happened to sit next to a guy I'd never spoken to before while at a work lunch, and we got to talking fantasy books (... I don't really remember how), which got us into RPG talk, which eventually led to him asking me by the end of the lunch whether I'd like to join the TTRPG group that he and some of his friends were starting up soon. That was 3,5 years ago, and we're still playing together to this day!

Another, I met through Magic: The Gathering - we were going to the same weekend event (not related to MtG) and I saw him post in a thread about looking for people to play some games with, so I replied to him, and we pretty much clicked right away because it turned out we had lots of other similar interests as well.

A third, I got to know through playing social deception games at yet another event, in which we sort of fell into a banter-y jargon while trying to convince everyone else to vote out the other. (We were both the wild cards in every game, because I had a habit of grinning wildly and looking generally untrustworthy regardless of which role I was given, and he had an absolutely straight face regardless and was really hard to read, so we pretty quickly identified each other as friendly rivals.) Then I figured out he lived in the same city as I did, and my train was cancelled, so I used my Charisma™ to hitch a ride with him and his dad back home :D

... So based on my own experiences, it seems I've mostly met other neurodiverse people through various kinds of games, which is one of my great passions in life! Depending on what your interests are, maybe there are events, groups or such that you could be on the lookout for? Sort of like it usually happens on Tumblr I guess, but IRL it's a bit harder since you have to do more work and research to find those places and communities.

The thing is though, it will always be scary. The first time I went to play with the TTRPG group, I was super scared. I barely said anything during the first hour or so, and even after several sessions, it still took some time each time to get back into it and relax. But I always have a lot of fun while playing, and I know they appreciate having me there, so that makes it easier to relax and not worry so much. It was the same thing with the MtG friend - I rewrote that first message sooo many times, and then had a racing heart by the time I went to meet up with him. The trick for me has been to recognise when it's worth pushing through that discomfort, and try to be accepting of the fact that sometimes it won't work out, but sometimes it will; sometimes it will lead to amazing friendships, but sometimes it will fizzle out or face plant before it could even start. And that's fine.

It gets easier with time in my experience, but it never gets easy. I've sort of had to accept that I usually don't make a great first impression. It's not that I make a bad impression, I just don't think I make much of an impression at all - I probably seem more shy than I really am, and sometimes my fears make me behave really awkwardly. But after a couple times, as I start to relax and get more comfortable being myself, I think I can make a really really good impression! And I stress a little less about first impressions when I remind myself of that.

Oh, and one more thing: I've personally found that it's a lot easier to meet new people if they are there by themselves. People who already hang out in groups are much harder to approach. Because of this reason, actually, I tend to avoid going to places together with my friends if my aim is to meet new people. It means I won't have the comfort and safety of my friends with me, but it increases the likelihood that I'll approach people I wouldn't have talked to others - or that they will approach me! (The friend I met through social deception games is the opposite, though. He says the comfort of having friends with him makes him more relaxed and confident, which makes it easier for him to meet new people.)

[pup-pee]

no1s mad i drew more konbart right?

last drawing is nirvana au // also i gave up on the 1st drawing mayb? i might return 2 it

[wayfinderships]

Oh boy! :D I can't wait to look through my f/os tag!

-1 HP

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[moonchild-in-blue]

I haven't really done much art for tumblr (at all) lately, cus life, but! Here's a lil something I've been working on (it's a Xmas gift) 💙

(also peep that lil January calendar painting 👀 i did mini squares for each month for myself, because I need to have a physical one always, and they each have their own colour 🥺)

[laugtherhyena]

Character inspo things, i thought about making these a lil while ago when the trend was going around but i could never think of enough characters to fill it all the way (i still can't, but eh fuck it)

[e77y]

The visceral and hungering loneliness is back. You know what that means! Bedtime

[scarecrowbutch]

if you'll allow me to be sappy on here for a moment, i want to say how happy it's made me to see more art of people/characters with cleft lips that aren't demonized or gross the past few years

i'd only begun drawing characters with cleft lips a few years ago and ever since then, drawing that and seeing others draw characters with it has helped my self image immensely, and i encourage anyone who has anything similar to draw their features more on ocs or faves and seeking out others who do similar 🧡🧡

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

every once in a while i remember that scott’s life series+empires characters being aro is not actually a hc that has occurred to most people and it really does throw me for a loop. there are very few characters where my personal hcs about their queerness so heavily affect how i analyze them but scott being aro really is a massive contributor to how i see his character and i see takes about him i agree w/ relatively frequently so i. forgot. this is at least partially because i have curated my dash well and rarely go into the tags but that is not the point.

[low-needleworker6860]

Dum de dum dum

Gonna add max tags and max characters to each cause who cares

[gregmarriage]

i don’t understand ppl who leave their packing, until the last minute. i am already packing and i don’t go anywhere for over a week, imao

[rainbow-burst]

I being so fucking normal about this fit on him rn I'm beingsofuckingnormal I'm beingsofuckin nor-

[sn0wbat]

If you don’t mind, I saw the comic about vampire hair and it made me wonder what would Einarr look like with a beard?

the context

he'd rather not dwell on it too much

[scrawnytreedemon]

Part of me, after all this time of kinda feeling 'eh' about the prospect, wants to try dating. Issue is that I basically have no options in my area, and as many lovely people as there are online who I'm compatible with... Once we officially start dating, I just can't keep up?

It's a mixture of not having anything physical to do(not even talking that I mean like going out and shit) and also needing to be more active online when my track record is already very spotty, lol.

Plus, thinking about the future, y'kno? Not even in a marriage and kids kinda way, but like,,, how viable would it be to close the distance? What if I found someone more generally suited to me in my area, even if we don't share that soul-bond?

It ends up being easier to stay friends, even if in person I know I'd be all over them. Don't want to strain the lovely thing we already have.

[silverselfshippingchaos]

this is one of my favorite k.yohei moments!!

[todayisafridaynight]

NO PROBLEM BROTHER ENJOY THE MOVIE <3 AND YOUR FOOD <3

I JUST FINISHED WATCHING IT THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN FOR FINDIN IT THE WAIT WAS SO WORTH IT (;´༎ຶ▽༎ຶ`) (;´༎ຶ▽༎ຶ`) (;´༎ຶ▽༎ຶ`)