#BUT I ALSO... DONT... /NOT/ WANT TO DO THIS

[mail-me-a-snail]

TRUE BLU v.

Are you there? Say something.

the final chapter of true blu is now UP!!! it's hard to believe we've finally made it here ;u; when i set out to write this fic, there were plenty of times when i wanted to throw in the towel and call it quits...but im really glad i stuck to it :'3 im proud of this fic and all y'all's support made it possible !!

so here we are at last. as always, comments are appreciated <3

[chaos-deimos-et-eris]

"ass of straw, doesnt get close to the flames"

"its that the devil knows more because he is old than because he is the devil"

"the shrimp that sleeps is taken away by the current"

"its not is if Maria was washing the dishes and she ran out of soap"

"no matter how much silk you put on a monkey, it is still a monkey"

"a bird in hand is worth more than a hundred flying"

"bread today, hunger tomorrow"

"water that is not for drinking, let go"

"in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king"

"a nail gets rid of another nail"

"My first language has a perfect saying for this, but it doesn't make sense in english :("

Say it anyway! You don't owe them perfect clarity. Be profoundly cryptic, speak in riddles, make them ponder what the fuck you meant by that. The anglos, like porridge, must sometimes be stirred, so they don't burn stuck on the bottom of the pot.

[teaboot]

Sometimes I think a lot about my mom's cat

My mom's cat is a common domestic shorthair we found on the side of the road as a kitten

Regular cat, not a maine coon or one of those massive breeds. His mom was smaller than a loaf of bread

But in a sort of a Clifford The Big Red Dog situation, he grew super fast, and really really big, and took a super long time to stop growing

Worried that she was overfeeding him, she eased back his portions, but he stayed a massive round baby

When he started having kidney problems, she took him to the vet.

The vet took a look at him and said, "holy fuck, what are you feeding him", checked the nutritional listings on his chow, and told her "Yeah, maybe he's reacting badly to the amount of grain in this, try a meatier diet"

So my mom wound up special-ordering this specific high-protein prescription cat food made of like. Kangaroo meat or some shit that cost like sixty bucks a bag

And, as typical act two in an episode of House, he somehow got worse on the fancy specialized stuff that was supposed to be Primo Athlete Olympic Feline Blend

Like. WAY worse. His guts were inflamed and his kidneys were shutting down and he was all sore and HE WAS STILL HUGE, just miserable and sad

So shetook him back to the vet, where they had to help him pee (he was apparently close to bursting and had some kind of blockage too) and went "Yeah no this is NOT normal and we don't know what's going on, we're gonna do some tests but in the meantime you should go back to what he was eating before, at least that wasn't actively killing him" so she did

And he still wasn't great, but he also improved

And so they take his blood and do an ultrasound and a couple g's later she gets a call back like "this is gonna sound crazy, but we want you to put him on a low-meat diet. Just the least amount of protein and iron and shit. We need you to find the grainiest, filler-iest dollar tree kibble available and give him some of that bad bad shit"

And my mother is a woman of science. So she did

And he GOT BETTER

His energy picked back up, inflammation went down, he started drinking normally again, got back to pissing like a fuckin champion

And so it turns out that out of all the random ass freeway bonus cats we possibly could have scooped out of a ditch, WE got the one-in-a-million freak of nature with a SPECIFIC genetic defect that means a paleo protein free range diet is essentially poison and he THRIVES on cheap ass garbage

Like. He medically NEEDS junk food

I dont really understand how that works, but i cant argue with results.

If we had four of him, they'd outweigh my mom. And he's FINE

Also blind, but that's unrelated

Im not using him as a symbol or a metaphor or anything. I just keep catching myself thinking about my mom's Big Fucking Cat

[fraternum-momentum]

ok so maybe we r back,,

[ms-demeanor]

are there really chiropractors out there right now who are claiming they can treat all that stuff?? im really actually asking because ive never seen anything like that at all, but obviously i might just be really lucky. i constantly see people saying chiropractors claim they can treat everything, and its just baffling to me. my chiropractor is pretty young (so maybe she just doesnt have the same attitude as older ones?) and went to med school for physical therapy before becoming a chiropractor, and shes the only doctor out of the dozens ive seen who already knew what hyper-mobile ehlers-danlos syndrome is before meeting me. shes never once said anything about treating anything at all beyond the issues in my back from my muscles going whack, and has actually suggested i see a physical therapist (and referred me to one) to strengthen my back so i dont have to see her very often. i assumed that was the normal experience with chiropractors, but did i just luck out? are the majority of chiropractors really insane and claiming they can cure diabetes and stuff?? thats so crazy to think about...

Just to clarify: your chiropractor is not a doctor. Having a doctorate in physical therapy does not make one an MD, having a DC degree does not make one an MD. People who become physical therapists go to school for physical therapy, but that wouldn't really be called medical school any more than getting a degree in nutrition would be called medical school.

I want to be very firm here because you're using the words "medical school" and "doctor" and that indicates to me that she IS claiming to be more than what she actually is, which is a chiropractor and possibly a physical therapist, both of which have requirements that pale in comparison to the training that MDs (or even nurse practitioners or physician's assistants) go through. But chiropractors really like to let people believe that they're doctors. They're not. They're chiropractors.

It's a very good thing that your chiropractor has told you to seek other care for your back pain; neck and spinal adjustments are potentially life threatening to people who don't have connective tissue disorders and are *extremely* dangerous and an even greater risk for people who DO have hypermobility issues (check out what @thebibliosphere has to say about chiropractic and EDS). A licensed physical therapist will be able to do much, much more for you than a chiropractor, and is a MUCH safer choice.

Now, all of that being said:

Yeah it's super common for chiropractors to claim they can treat all kinds of nonsense and when they're doing so it is probably technically illegal and if they actually treat stuff it's probably technically practicing medicine without a license and can be really fucking dangerous if it convinces people to forgo evidence-based treatment.

Here's a chiropractor in LA claiming to treat a laundry list of ailments:

Here's one also in LA county whose yelp photo is of her doing spinal manipulation on a baby (Literally never ever let a chiropractor treat your child it can no-shit kill them) and offering prenatal and perinatal care

Here's a guy in North Hollywood claiming to treat asthma and allergies with chiropractic:

It's not the majority of chiropractors, but it's more than you'd want.

[ottosbigtop]

king what do you think of comic #7 :D

I JUST finished it like 30 minutes ago so i definitely need to reread it a couple hundred times like i did iwth the other ones but. Highlight moments

PAULING NAME REVEAL. That was awesome

pauling and engineer are FRIENDS they are FRIENDS and he wants to make sure she does the right thing but hes not going to stop her from doing what she wants

Pauling and spy are also friends. I like htat :)

the spy face reveal made me like leave my seat and pace around my room. He looks exactly how everyone expected him to look but the fact that they did that at all was so unexpected.

ZHANNA AND SOLDIER HAVE KIDS !!!!!! LOVE WINS!!!!!!!!

i love scout being a single dad i think thats beautiful. I wish his mom had shown up in the final panel.

on the whole i think it was just a very solid conclusion . It did exactly what it was supposed to and it tied things up, which i did not expect at all. i like that the answer to what the Administrator was doing was.. not all that much, really. At the end of the day her goals were just as aimless as any of the Manns. It definitely feels more like an epilogue than a full issue, and with that theres kind of some lingering disappointment that there wasn’t more to the comic after 7 years of waiting, but ignoring the wait time, i think it did what it set out to do well. In all its clunky and unserious tf2 glory.

If there’s one critique i could give, i would say i really wish we had more of the mercs interacting with each other. We didnt get to see them meet up with Engie properly again which felt kind of underwhelming and for the most part they just kind of did a lot of standing around, behind or next to Pauling. like, it was a good ending, but definitely more for the Administrator and Pauling and the Mann characters stories, not reaaally great for more content of the mercs. But they’ve all been a sideline to Pauling as shes been the mc through most of this really. Its not necessarily new to want more of them dicking around, but i still miss it.

at the end of the day. 10/10. God this style is gorgeous. Im SO happy they moved away from the style of the 6th edition to get closer to the style that was more like what makani did in the other previous issues. And im glad we dont have to stare at a grey box on the comics page anymore yearning for issue 7.

[ganondoodle]

since tumblr always has to suffer my personal vents and breakdowns and rants and annoyances you get the most wips and pics of unfinished stuff, im sure that makes up for it

the (unfinished) shiekah arm concepts that made me want to explode and i dont think im gonna work on again

[strwberri-milk]

hello! i don't know if you've done this before, but what pet names do you think each lads man would use??? and maybe what would they like to be called!

idk if ive done it before either LMAOO but

i see zayne as like. a traditional romantic?? he loves using the names like, sweetheart, beloved, anything that uses a bunch of syllables and is def cheesy but like nothign super out of the ordinary?? he donest mind any pet names being used on him either but i think he has a penance for just like. his title?? so if you say "my boyfriend" "my husband" etc etc he melts a little and its so generic but theres smth about it that makes his heart go pitter patter

xavier seems like a babe/baby man through and through?? we also have honey and sweetie but i think defintely he uses baby often enough that you respond to that faster than your actual name and he likes being called the same!! sometimes if hes feeling super sentimental he'll use prince/ss?? but that one is super rare to hear from him

rafayel ofc has a penenace for cutie?? he just thinks youre so cute he wants to gaewrfawofdea you. anyway. he loves calling you cutie, sweetie, baby (see a theme??). but also when hes more emo he'll called you beloved or smth in lemurian under his tongue. he appreciates being called handsome, beautiful, yours, etc etc - smth that feeds his ego or reminds him that hes yours. you two are also more likely to make up your own nicknames in my head outside of the typical pet names

sylus uses sweetheart, kitten (ofc), anything that can kinda help him like, assert his authority over you but it doesnt ever feel that way definitely. he doesnt really care what you use on him but honestly has a soft spot for when you use names that dont really "suit" him like. if you call him cutie, or sweetheart, smth like that?? idk the gushier and cuter it is the more he likes it??

[bamsara]

Did you first make Tyren with the intent of how his path is going for us to hate him? or did he just fit into the role at some point?

Yes, Tyren was created with the intent for him to be an antagonist in the end.

Tyren is created based off my own feelings of being idolized and as the subject of obsession, especially if those actions were seen as 'harmless' or complentary at first sight, so I wanted to have a character that readers at first would go 'aw what a sweet dog' and then 'actually i dont like that guy', and also have a twist on how dissenters are typically seen as the biggest threat to the cult's health. Sometimes it's people who think they are doing you a favor with the best intentions that harm you

[froggerland]

And then I do neither of those

[noxlotl]

Art style breakdown /tutorial(??)

Some friends asked so here we go : disclaimer im bad at explaining (so feel free to send an ask or smth)

Final art (long read so theres a timelapse at the end)

If its not for something important (commissions), i dont usually make a lineart for a drawing but just clean up the sketch , it wont be used anyway

I usually separate them by colors , mostly so i can Alpha lock them and not worry about coloring over parts

When coloring i use a soft airbrush to have gradients within the shading , so its not one solid color . How i shade is very blocky , lots of triangles lol (if im using CSP i love using the lasso fill tool ) but there are parts especially in the skin where I keep it smooth and blended, usually nose and cheek area . Using an asaro head is usually a good start to learning how to shade faces with planes in mind

Depends on the character, but I like adding shadows on the lashes/brows itself , make it look solid and 3d , it makes the eyes pop more imo

Using multiply layer to make the shadows darker for more contrast

At some point I��d merge everything together so i can just paint in one layer, easier to fix things with liquify too ; if im in CSP i keep the separate layers in one folder just in case i need em later but i cant really do that in Procreate cos of layer limits

This is the part where i make the shading more painterly .,To make the shading look sharper , i like adding lines on the edges .

The fun part : adding the ✨

This is the part where I add textures , either from texture images or with screentone/hatching brushes. This is also around the part where i add the character’s accessories and stuff like scars and freckles (its just easier to add smaller things near the end than having them accidentally painted over at the start)

Whenever I feel like the drawing looks too much of a similar shade / temperature , I use a gradient map+layer effects (masked) on parts to give it variety . Technically you can do this by just having a layer effect on and manually adding colors but gradient maps make me go “ooooh didnt think of that color there “

CSP also has a posterization filter that i like using when i feel like some part looks too smooth to me.

I sometimes add in sketchy lines , and seeing how cool it looks in Marvel Rivals art ive been adding it more lol

Artists that influenced me are : Nesskain, Toni Infante , Valorant’s 2d art(their main artist is Suke) ,Arcane , Spiderverse and the most recent one ive been obsessing over is Marvel Rivals ( its got everything i want my art to be when it grows older lmao )

[dysphoric-bitch-boy]

OP men when you’re on your period

Doffy -lol good luck -physically couldn’t give less of a shit if he tried -wants to fuck -calls you gross

Crocodile -he’s been through this shit so he’s sticking with you -buys you fancy chocolates -gets you ibuprofen -if he has time he’ll watch a movie with you -god help him if it’s titanic -genuinely comforts you and stays by you as much as possible

Corazon -has heard of chocolate on your period so he gets you some -you ask him for pads and he’s wholly confused -“overnight? Light flow? Medium flow? HEAVY flow?” -“yeah I’m in the pad isle what size vagina do you wear?” -“so you DONT shed skin on your period?” -overall he has no idea what the hell he’s doing but he’s doing everything he can to make sure you’re comfortable -gently holds you like an egg and cries to titanic with you -“Laaaaaawwww it’s so sad join us pleeease!” -he eventually wears Law down enough to watch it with you two

Law -he’s a doctor who actually knows how periods and people who get them work -he knows to get you chocolates, pads, ibuprofen, heating pad, etc -kinda bad with emotions so if you’re super emotional he doesn’t know how to navigate it -lets you rest your head on his shoulder as you cry to titanic

Buggy -like Corazon, has no idea what to do -starts panicking about what happens if you get super angry at him or what if you’re so depressed you can’t even eat or what happens if you lose all your blood or- -does everything he can to help you, if the cramps are really bad he cuddles you until you feel better -walking on eggshells to not upset you even tho a lot of its unnecessary -treats you like royalty -you’d definitely save him from an attack or something and he’d ease up about most of his worries -he’d throw you a banquet in celebration and also in relief -“WHAT????? You’re telling me these come EVERY MONTH?????????”

Sanji -bro is already a huge simp -but on your period you’re not allowed to even lift a finger if he has anything to say about it -makes you plenty of protein-rich meals and chocolaty French stuff -gives you all the attention and love he can give and more, which may or may not get super annoying really quickly -knows nothing about pads so he just buys them all for you -literally every single product in the isle -it’s fucking expensive but he’d do just about anything for you especially since you’re the only one who’d date him

Zoro -wtf??? -doesn’t have the slightest idea of what a period is -thinks you’re joking -“okay, so you’re telling me once a month you bleed in your pants to prepare for getting pregnant? Nice try, everyone knows that the stork brings the baby-“ -don’t even bother with him

Franky -tries to invent you a device that captures the blood and gently heats your lower stomach -if you ask for ibuprofen or anything like that he might just bring you cola instead -“I don’t know about you but this stuff makes me feel suuuuper! I’m sure it will work on your cramps and get you back to your normal, energetic self!” -it doesn’t work

Brook -sad that you’re wearing the period underwear instead of panties



[scartale-an-undertale-au]

So... I see this a decade after i decided to simply... Stop instigating conversations because i felt like im simply burdening others with my presence and that they actually felt annoyed having to hear from me and wished i wouldnt send messages.

The thing is that none of them ever approached me afterwards. When we saw each other after a while we would be ecstatic but there was a wall between us already and i dont know if its simply life going on and us being very different than back then, or that they truly didnt see me the same as i saw them (as my besties).

One time i met one of them (this one specifically was my best friend from first grade until twelve basically) on the street and i see that she's married and walking with her husband. Turns out the wedding was that sunday and i wasnt even notified of it happening or of the engagement. I wasnt mad about not being invited, but i was hurt for not even being notified! She then turned to her husband and said that im a friend of her from high school.

Its been a decade from high school so i can see why she said that, but that hurt me so badly that the moment i waved them goodbye and they disappeared around a corner, i collapsed and just sobbed. I was so heartbroken. It seemed that i was the only one who still thought of her as my old school's bestie or had thought of including her in any future milestones simply because she was so important to me.

So i dont know how i feel about this post. I understand where you guys are coming from and its in good intentions, but the main issue is that many kids who become the sole instigators were never shown that they can be vulnerable in front of their friends about this matter. It felt like its your duty and how you contribute to the group. And when it became harder and harder, the friends never questioned why you pulled away or asked for your wellbeing. It turned into a situation when you feel more like a nuisance than a leader.

Fortunately, i have now friends who instigate so much more than me and i keep telling them how i appreciate it and apologise for how terrible i am at texting back and that its never because i dont want them to text me. Its simply because texting or answering messages had become so hard for me and so mentally taxing i sometimes shut down when i see messages i need to reply to.

So rambling aside, as much as i appreciate your sentiment, i think a different approach would be helpful.

My approach (which is not better or worse, just a different approach) is to get comfortable with a 'friends for one day' reality. I go so many times to so many places and meet so many amazing people, we always say we'll contact one another and keep in touch and then never contact one another again, and that's alright.

You have to be comfortable with being friends without focusing on the 'keeping the friendship going' let people come and go. Those who truly want to stick around will stick around, and they usually have a much deeper connection with you that isnt dependant on who instigates the conversations.

My friends are those that mostly text in memes and reels since we dont see each other often. And i do the same in return. Its easier and relays so much more. We have proper conversations here and there, but our actual interactions happen physically. And they instigate meetups much more than i do and i always make sure that they know that i appreciate it. One of my friends and i also have some differences in opinions, so we have some long discussions.

I also have a friend who i dont text to at all but invites me to shabbat meals once in a while and i come over and its like no time had passed. I invite her back for bbq or shabbat as well, but thats also once in a blue moon.

Another friend is across the ocean so its mostly photos and small comments and talks about our lives and since the war began, she keeps checking if im alive and well.

Another friend is also across the ocean and we mostly speak about our realities of being jews or squeal over her precious daughter or make plans for when she finally comes to Israel.

So my friends arent part of one group but many branches of different aspects of my life. I would say i have around seven/eight of them that arent my current co workers (work friendship is also temporary and i accept that fully and enjoy our time together) and im truly blessed because i had let go of the desperate need to keep my friends together.

So please dont call us a bitch for not willing to talk about it. And we're certainly not mini community leaders, we're just people who are friends with those that never cared about reaching out first or affirming our friendship in any kind of way. Its not fair to put the expectations of reaching out onto the one who constantly did that. Friends who truly want to keep up a friendship will attempt to do so when they see that the other side isnt as present as previously.

Sorry im all over the place, im on my phone and its harder to articulate on it

every now and then the internet decides it should revamp the ole “stop texting first and see how many friends you lose” when in reality you could literally just communicate that u feel bad that ur the only one texting first

[angelpuns]

pov i did in fact get a (v cheap) cane to see if it helped any but I'm??? apprehensive about using it or telling anyone about it cause im?? Idk if it will improve my life but it's a temporary solution until I can go to the doctor. Anyway this is just me telling someone( the internet) about it cause it frankly should not be this big of a deal. It just is cause that's the type of person I am. I mean- my friends can attest to me not being able to stand or walk for long periods of time, I just don't want them to??? i don't wanna say judge me, but maybe think I am being dramatic?? It really is temporary to see if it helps so. Idk. I know they probably wouldn't but man im just.ragh. I also was under the assumption that canes are just for support when walking but apparently nthey are also helpful if you have trouble standing. good to know cause that's where most of my issues lie. walking sucks too but I can usually deal cause im too focused on other things such as 'dont get hit by car' and 'dont let knees get too straight'

ALSO SIDE NOTE I WILL BE GOING TO A DOCTOR SOMETIME AFTER JANUARY IM JUST LITERALLY TOO BUSY AND POOR RN TO DO SO

[thesupernaturalhouse]

Alright, so. According to some people. Millie can't be upset about a baby because she doesn't want one, nooo she has to be a cheater!

That's fucking ridiculous.

Theres so many reasons for her not to want one. her job for one, the risks of pregnancy, the lack of medical care in hell, her and moxxie not talking about, Her and moxxie not planning for or on it, Money issues which have been mentioned MULTIPLE times btw, blitz spends all the company money on stupid stuff hes NOT a very good boss, Anxiety over raising a kid, fea rof the pain youd experience during birth, not feeling ready for one, maybe she'd rather have one in the future. the women is only 26.

or maybe she doesnt want one at all!! women can just not want to have a kid i mean it is NOT that hard to understand

[tamamita]

what are sunnis and salafists? sorry that this out of nowhere im a white anon so i dont know alot and you can ignore this if you want

Sunnis are adherents of Ahlul Sunnah wal Jumu'ah (the people of the Sunnah) or the Sunni branch of Islam. It constitutes the majority of followers of Islam, with Shi'as being the second largest group of Muslims. The name is derived from the term Sunnah, which means Prophetic traditions and practices.

Historically, Sunni Islam did not originate at the onset of Islam and following the historical disagreement regarding the successorship of Muhammed (pbuh&hf), but is rather the culmination and consensus of centuries of legal and scholarly opinions, debate and theological studies, thus is it is a misconception to assume that Sunnism was brought about during the political schism in the early years of Islam, whereas Shi'ism were a partisan group before forming its own theology and jurisprudence a century later. Sunni Islam derives its laws and jurisprudence through the Qur'an, Sunnah, consensus and analogical reasoning. Sunni Islam is represented by four school of thoughts: the Hanbali school, the Hanafi school, the Maliki school and the Shafi'i school. Each school of though represents a particular geographic location, and lay people following Sunnism may follow the scholarly opinion corresponding to their geographic origin and location. Most Sunnis follow the Maturidi and Ashari rationalist schools of theology and rely on scriptural sources to derive their understanding regarding God's nature and the material and metaphysical reality.

Salafism is a reformist/revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that holds that the purest form of Islam can only be derived through the opinions and practices of the honorable ancestors (Salaf al-Saleh). They hold that the best generation of Muslims were the Sahabas (companions), the Tab'iun (the second generation) and the Taba al-tab'iun (The third generation), according to a prophetic tradition, viewing later interpretations of Islam as innovations or deviation from the Qur'an and the Sunnah. They believe that only through the Salafs can absolute monotheism be understood and that anyone who rejects them or derive different opinions are deviants or heretics, such as the Shi'as (and some Sunnis), who venerate saints. They reject the concept of Taqlid (emulating), that is, following the four schools of thought, holding that ijtihad (independent reasoning) takes precedence over Taqlid through the study of the Qur'an, the Sunnah and consensus of the Salaf al Saleheen. Salafists tend to reject the rationalist schools of mainstream Sunni theology and adheres to a literalist and traditionalist (Athari) interpretation of Islamic theology as understood from classical scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir and Ibn Qayyim. They may also derive their understanding of religion through the legal opinions of other modern Salafist scholars. There are several Salafist movements, such as Madkhalism (the quietist school), Wahhabism, Salafi-Jihadism, Ahlul al-Hadith and etc. Salafists are known for their puritanical view on Islamic monotheism and literalist interpretation of scripture, hence their intolerance toward other co-religionists that do not conform to their religious interpretations. They most notably hate Shi'a Muslims.