#But i need to say it somewhere

[idogaystuffonline]

Hot take(?):

Making Alfred and Matthew "native" doesn't really work. Native American is an umbrella term that refers to multiple different groups of people distinguished by language, religion, attire, gender roles and social structures all over North, Central and Southern america. Making them all the same being not only erases their culture but also ignores how native American communities are often divided by borders.

There's nothing wrong with making your favourite anime boys mixed but if your intent is to represent this communities i think it's better putting a little more effort and making different OC's for each community

[bardengarde]

It sends me how long I've known about MASH but was just straight up uninterested in it. My mom would show me and my sister shows that she watched as a kid so we grew up a lot on Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, and some Bonanza sprinkled in between, and like it wasn't like she'd turn the channel when MASH came on but the opening from it I always thought it looked extremely boring so my sister and I would change the channel once Little House stopped showing for the day and we heard those opening guitar chords.

I can't believe I used to think MASH looked boring, when my preferred source of entertainment on that channel was /Little House on the Prairie/

[overlordjanefire]

unironically transgender apollo justice fics have done so much for my ability to enjoy sex as a trans man and i don’t know how to feel about that

how can i just wake up and be like “damn can’t believe my bottom dysphoria during sexual activities is down to almost zero because of apollo justice tcock” that’s deranged

[lazylittledragon]

mombin pt 6 and look who showed up

(1)(2)(3)(4) (5)

[oceanwithouthermoon]

saiki getting forcefully nonchalant-ified by the animators compilation

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Good morning, Sleepyhead.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[pangur-and-grim]

it’s hard for me to feed myself right now (just in terms of physical ability), so my mom drove me and the animals to her place. she carried the cats in first, because I had to butt-scoot up the front stairs, and once inside, Pangur got scared and ran. she’s tucked herself away somewhere, and nobody can find her. I probably could, and I could lure her out and make her feel safe again, except that I’m largely immobile. I keep falling on the crutches and fucking my leg up further, and the likeliest hiding spots are up or down a fleet of stairs. it’s been 4 hours, and it’s killing me not to look for her. I’m so tempted to crawl down the basement stairs, broken leg be damned.

[cubbihue]

What would Peri’s power level be if he didn’t have his inhibitor/stabilizer wand and just went apeshit?

While Cosmo deals with too much magic in his body, Peri suffers from a slightly different issue. Cosmo has the greatest amount of magic in Fairy World. Peri is incapable of regulating his magic.

Peri cannot, not then as a child and not now in the present, control his magic. Without his inhibitor, he can easily destroy an entire realm- just as he nearly destroyed Earth as a baby. This fact has not changed, although it is less plausible today than back then.

Peri's taken extra measures in the present-day to ensure it cannot happen.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

Instability: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[mando-din-lorian]

✨ Manifesting Bobadin for the finale ✨

[bonefall]

Splashtail and Atheism

Hello. I am an Atheist and I call Splashstar an Atheist because he is based on widespread bigoted depictions of godless people like myself. There have now been several posts about this written as if they're trying to "correct a misconception," and I am tired of vagueposts completely missing the point of the criticism to get caught up on arguing semantics.

The misanthropic, god-hating "Atheist" character in Christian propaganda, which I feel Splashstar has some alarming similarities with, does not come from the writer's correctable "misconception" of irreligious labels. It is born from a hatred of nonbelievers.

Specifically, my point that Splashtail is a mashup of two popular anti-secular tropes common in religious media;

The assertion that there's no such thing as a "real" nonbeliever, and that Atheists are just "rebelling" against God because we're mad at him, want to do bad things without guilt, or have "lost our way."

The belief that morality itself stems from faith in a higher moral being, asserting that the irreligious are "evil" in contrast to the faithful.

Even passing familiarity with the arguments of Christian apologia seen in Chick Tracts, Pureflix films, PragerU videos, and so on, will have put these tropes in front of you. They are false and harmful, and they target Atheists.

For more on this, TVTropes has an entire article dedicated to the Hollywood Atheist and its sub-tropes. Note how many of these Curlfeather and Splashtail fall into, regardless of if you're arguing that they are "real atheists" or not.

Those that hate us do not care about semantic labels. To them, we are without God, A-Theistic, and they do not actually care what is at the core of your beliefs if it contradicts their narrative.

But, even worse, the "Splashtail Can't Be An Atheist" crowd isn't even totally correct on the semantics they're trying to have a pedant battle about.

Most atheistic organizations and online atheists define Atheism as "one who does not believe in God" and attempt to push a sliding scale of "agnosticism" on how hard of a "maybe" you're feeling about your lack of faith. In the sliding agnostic scale, Agnostic Atheists are a "probably no god" and Gnostic Atheists are a "definitely no god." Others describe that scale as "hard" and "soft" Atheism-- but there is NOT universal agreement on that definition.

There other definitions of an "Atheist," and even those who reject the "agnostic scale" completely (I am one of them). "Atheism" was historically the catch-all term for what we might now call "Irreligious," and more.

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy explores its many meanings, and proposes that what defines an Atheist is an active choice to distance oneself from faith; "Someone who rejects the premise of gods either based on lack of belief, or meaninglessness of the question." Matt Dillahunty, a prominent educator and activist, intentionally refers to himself as an Atheist when others (including religious people!) have tried to pressure him into using the label Agnostic, for reasons he covers in great depth. Historically, "atheist" simply meant anyone who denied the gods or acted impiously, evolving into use as a broad label for irreligious practices around the 1500s, until attempts to narrow it to "nonbelievers in deities" in the 1800s.

By EoP's expanded definition alone, Splashstar qualifies as an Atheist. The rejection does not have to come from a belief that Theism is false, but that the question is meaningless. He doesn't have to "believe" in StarClan any more than you have to "believe" in a total stranger. He rejects faith in it and lives without their influence.

But even more than that, "atheist" is a broad, stigmatized term with a history you can't erase. Hundreds of combinations of philosophies, spiritual beliefs, and logical positions have been called "Atheism."

"Atheist" can refer to Agnostics (those who aren't sure if there is a god or not), Antitheists (opposition to the belief in and/or worship of gods), Igtheists (those that feel that "god" is such a nebulous term that the question of belief is meaningless), Apatheists (people who just don't care), practitioners of Non-Deistic religions (such as Humanistic Judaism and some sects of Buddhism), and even heretics who spoke against religion like Diagoras of Melos (gay guy who chopped up a statue of hercules and used it to bake beans. king.)

In a fantasy universe where gods are provably, visibly real, the term "Atheist" is going to look a lot more like those historic and expansive uses.

Unless you want to argue that "atheism" by the narrow, popular definition of "believing in deities" can't exist in such a setting. So, arguing that Cloudtail stopped being an Atheist when he saw demons in OotS, in spite of this not affecting his spiritual practices. Or, dancing around using one uniting term, you could specifically say Curlfeather is a Misotheist, Splashstar is an Antitheist or Agnostic, Mothwing is Deist, etc.

You could have a discussion about how applicable these words even are in the setting. Or make up terms that satisfy yourself. You could do this forever. But I choose not to.

I think it's counterproductive to push people to learn a bunch of terms for hyperspecific branches of irreligious philosophy just to discuss clear anti-secular sentiment within the text of a book, actually. Or push people to abandon a useful word because fantasy isn't exactly the same as real life. Functionally, imo, all of those aforementioned cats are Atheists within this setting, living "without god" by rejecting belief-- and many of them invoke real world bigotry, with tropes much older than WC itself.

So the simple fact is; Calling Splashtail an "Evil Atheist" immediately communicates the narrative tropes I am criticizing.

Either by authorial accident or on purpose, Splashstar's lack of morality being tied to his rejection of StarClan invokes the demonized atheist trope, very much like the ones seen in PureFlix's God's Not Dead or Jack Chick's The Last Generation.

All the arbitrary wishing that the terms were more narrow and exclusive will not change the reality that those characters are intended by bigots as atheists. The terms of the discussion reflect that. Trying to tut-tut the fandom for calling a spade a spade is a smug way to phrase you completely missed the damn point.

[puppetmaster13u]

Meme Prompt 10

[xiaowhore]

caleb and the many, many questionable things he says (homecoming wings spoilers + n109 vs skyhaven comparison under the cut)

at this point the yandere fic is writing itself

i just find it interesting (and hilarious) how the fandom collectively thinks that caleb is far more scarier than sylus. as for why, i personally believe the writing for skyhaven is better than the n109 zone's—this chapter did a better job of “show, not tell.”

the n109 zone is repeatedly described as a dangerous area, and is depicted in the illustrations with dark colors and ominous reds. however, i (personally!) did not feel the danger of the situation and wasn't intimidated by sylus at all. though the shooting his chest thing in the start did make me go “what the fuck,” sylus never posed any actual harm to the mc. while there was a period of time that sylus forbid her from leaving his home, he gave her enough freedom in the later parts of the chapters and came to save her ass whenever she was in trouble. even if he pretends not to, sylus always has her back. rather than actually being dangerous, sylus just ended up as a mafia leader-like hot daddy character with a dark aesthetic (and a fucking tragedy for a backstory what the fuck)

skyhaven, on the other hand, is depicted in the illustrations as a normal cityscape. no creepy crows, no gangsters; it's a very controlled environment. its horrors are not described outwardly, but the mc gets to see what transpires in skyhaven. we finally understand the weight of human experiments, a topic that was only briefly touched on the n109 zone. we know someone there—caleb, a childhood friend that must be more trustworthy than the shady, brooding sylus—and yet something feels off about him.

of course, we as the players are aware that caleb would never harm the mc. it's glaringly obvious how much he cares about her. but his overprotectiveness feels creepy, not some romantic thing that makes the players gush about him. we feel unsettled. we feel trapped when he doesn't allow the mc to leave his house. we feel scared whenever he's around, as the colonel working for the fleet and the caleb at home. and while he never does anything bad to her when he catches her trying to escape, we feel terrified for her anyway.

caleb doesn't have henchmen guarding mc's movements like sylus does. caleb has never treated the mc roughly like sylus did at the start. both caleb and sylus have killed people onscreen.

however, caleb is infinitely more intimidating than sylus ever was.

anyway the point of this post is i like crazy guys and i hope that only applies to fiction... might make a fic for caleb “professional yearner, tries hard not to have romantic feelings for his childhood friend who (allegedly) only sees him as an older brother figure”

[ingoodjesst]

have you put the pieces together yet, detective

[baeshijima]

mmm thoughts of private executioner!blade, who is high priestess!kafka's bodyguard. well, more like her guard dog, as many fearfully seem to think.

he is aloof and gruff and rough around the edges, his name capturing it perfectly. when in the eyes of the public he either keeps to himself or stands ready by kafka's side, but when out he lurks in the shadows ready and waiting to carry out her death orders.

you, yourself, haven't had very many pleasant encounters with him... if you can even call them that. that being said, you haven't had many pleasant encounters with anyone. notorious for your... less than pleasant disposition, for a lack of better words, you have more people who'd rather see you run through than those you can call a friend.

in a dog-eat-dog world, you had no choice but to protect yourself. that, however, ultimately became your demise.

"oh? so you're the one sent to kill me. can't say i'm all that surprised."

standing before you is the feared executioner. his sword is tucked inside the sheath attached to his hip, that ever-present dark swirl of an aura stifling the air. he doesn't say anything, instead opting to silently stare down at your slumped and worn-out form. you find that his gaze doesn't bother you; rather, it's oddly comforting knowing someone will see you in your last moments.

"i've never asked you for a favour before, so this will be my first and last request for you." in all honesty, you're not sure where this chattiness stems from. considering you're currently in a holding cell under the crime of attempted murder towards kafka (a poisoned wine you were most definitely framed for, though you can't say you were surprised) and are awaiting for your turn to be under the guillotine for your public execution, you probably should be a little desperate towards the private executioner in front of you.

and yet, your mind is nothing if not peaceful.

with a huff, you relay your request, "can you make sure it's quick? painless, preferably, but i'd rather you just get it over and done with."

silence blankets the cold chambers. moisture accumulated along the cobble ceiling drip in a steady rhythm, like a clock ticking away the seconds. it's unnerving, almost, how there is not a single sound other than your impending countdown.

"why?" comes his low mutter, effectively causing a ripple within the stagnant air. you almost think you misheard him, but his following words cease the thought, "why won't you ask me for help?"

had it not been for the abrupt shuffle and clanging against the metal bars, you would have never looked up to see him in your last moments.

his scarred hands gripping the metal until his knuckles turn a ghastly white and blood dripping from his palms is what greets your sight. as your gaze slowly trails up, you almost let loose a laugh of disbelief; who would have thought blade, the infamous guard dog of the high priestess, could make such a desperate expression? one looking as though his whole world crumbled before him, in which he can do nothing but sit and watch.

(you will never know of the anger and desperation which coursed through his veins the moment he heard of your predicament. had it been anyone else, he wouldn't have cared. but you're not anyone else; you're you — unapologetically, wholeheartedly. it didn't take him long to hunt down those behind it, cutting them down without thought and putting an end to their miserable lives. he rushed as soon as he could when kafka gave him the order, no thoughts other than you, you, you, occupying his mind.

you will never know of the anguish which overcame him when he found you in such a state, your once healthy complexion and defiant gaze reduced to nothing but a tiredness which had always sat quietly behind your disposition. he's almost positive the muscle which unwillingly keeps him alive tore at the seams from your request, the acceptance in which you displayed causing his mind to go astray. even as he damn-near begs you to rely on him for help — to run away with him to some place no one knows of you and start anew there — you merely smile, resigned and peaceful.

you will never know of how much blade is willing to put on the line for you, for you never made it to see the complete and utter carnage he wrecked in your name.)

[monkayy]

[hikaruchen]

I shine only with the light you gave me. — The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives

INPRNT

-

This is a recreation of The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864) by Frederic William Burton. Credit to the wonderful @soulhollow for giving me the brilliant idea and commissioning this 💚

-

The costume design for Alfred

They said they wanted to see Alfred in purple/gold tones, so I self-indulgently designed a costume for Alfred (though again not necessarily trying to be historical accurate)

-

Details for archaeology nerds (So it happens again I guess)

1. The tablet-woven bend

Design is loosely taken from an actual archaeological find from the Taplow Barrow in Buckinghamsire, dating to the early 7th century. The original piece really had the gold threads on it by the way. You can see the modern reconstruction here.

2. Pattern on the tunic

Taken from a part of an arcade illustration in the Royal Bible (Royal 1. E. vi, 4r.) c. 1000-1025 in British Library, London. Added some vine patterns that are quite common to see in insular art for reasons.

3. Pattern on the shawl

Taken from a part of the stole and the maniple in St. Cuthbert’s coffin, dated to early 10th century, now in Durham Cathedral Museum.

4. Embroidery on Alfred’s sleeves

The pattern is from an illustration in the manuscript of Bede’s Life of St Cuthbert (MS 183, f. 1v) c. 937 in Parker Library, Cambridge, which depicts King Æthelstan showing the book to St Cuthbert himself.

-

The process

Such a pleasure to work on this one! Thank you again for giving me the chance✨