#Exist Among

[bovivinator]

Re-listened to TAZ Balance recently and I’m still in awe that Griffin McElroy somehow managed to introduce a “long-lost twin of protagonist who had selective amnesia about them” character so late in the story, so successfully that she not only featured in some of the most thrilling and emotional moments of the series, but immediately became wildly popular and caused most of the fanbase to spontaneously develop crushes on her

[padmestrilogy]

showing the jedi define what’s right by what’s legal was pretty bold! there’s no real difference between the witches training children and the jedi training children, besides the jedi having the law + manpower on their side. and we know this, and we also know the jedi have the best of intentions when taking osha in. sol promises osha she’ll never have to feel the pain of losing family again, and he means it! but she never would’ve lost her family if the jedi hadn’t trespassed. it’s all so knotty. this will probably be the show’s lasting controversy, but it’s 1000x more interesting than the jedi being in the right all the time

[fishofthewoods]

while i'm imperialposting. imperial dragon lore that makes me want to tear my hair out. web weave

[anishenanigans]

aand done!! This took forever, but it's the first time I've successfully finished one of these templates and it was a lot of fun :]

[backmarkerr]

anyway here's wonderwall

[gordon-freeman-phd]

my comic

[serpentface]

This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.

[kmpshitposter]

Flycatcher sketchdump

beloved orange frog guy from fables comic/the wolf among us game

bbbonus

[randomminty]

Coloured some old e4 sketches i miss them so much

[skywalkr-nberrie]

I honestly disagree with the idea that Padmé “chose” Anakin because she’s just as unhinged as him or even the take that they’re both “toxic” and that’s why they work, which isn’t at all true.

Like of course, I know she is as unhinged and impulsive as him, and it’s true that’s part of what makes them “compatible” but that’s not why she fell in love with him. It’s not their flaws within themselves that drew themselves to each other, it was actually their good traits, such as: compassion, passion, deep love, sympathy, understanding, free spirit, joy, kindness, and much more that led to them both falling in love. They saw the “goodness” they both so strongly harboured, and held such strength within their characters. That’s what initially attracted the other to them.

So I think it’s kind of a downer to see some of us make up the excuse that Padmé was just “crazy” to have chosen Anakin. Padmé doesn’t have to be “mentally insane” to want and desire Anakin, when in reality, she simply loves the person he is, admires him for the man he has become, and she’s 100% valid to do so. We as a fandom, don’t need to make up excuses or justifications for her loving him. The narrative already sets it up to simply be that way, without painting the ‘made up’ subtext that Padmé is ‘crazy’ for doing so. And we can simply understand why. Anakin is an amazing person despite what happens in the end, and Padmé herself says she loves him for all he is even WITH those flaws.

[refractionrailway]

on an unrelated note it's so funny to me that they keep making Heathcliff the defacto "we have an id who's in a position of leadership and we need someone to be their sidekick" sinner, guy who is so "hot dog or hamburger style boss" coded

[svtskneecaps]

ok among my favorite parts of qsmp is the fact that charlie slimecicle can only hold the act of being mad at mariana when mariana isn't in the room. like he successfully rp'd being mad at his deadbeat puta esposa for months while mariana wasn't logging on, like he complained about mariana at the wedding, during the election, in subsequent appearances, and then he's messaging mariana in the chat during purgatory and he's still holding it

and then they're both at spawn like as close to face to face as they get. and bro CANNOT hold the act it drops so fast lmfao he was like "yea cellbit i'm gonna kill mariana" and instead they have a genuinely heartfelt conversation and then rp sexo in the fountain

and i know i'm brainrotting purgatory rn but i'm actually thinking about this bc i saw a clip of mariana and slime talking during the awards show and literally. slime's face goes from 😡🤬 MARIANA'S HERE, SAY SOMETHING PUTA ESPOSA to 😄😁 the second mariana shows up on the screen

like he's still pretending to be mad but dude is grinning like absolute crazy and i love that

[not-poignant]

Hi,

I'm not sure how to approach this without sounding like an ignorant asshole, but I'll give it a go.

I'm from a country where the Trans movement isn’t very visible, and most of what I know about it comes from the internet. I’ve never truly understood gender dysphoria. I’ve tried to listen and put myself in others' shoes, but I struggled to be genuinely empathetic. Instead, I just tried to be supportive because it was expected of me, without really getting it.

It might sound silly, but reading Underline the Black made me stop and think… Wait, is this what I think it is? Reading Efnisien’s internal monologues and introspection made me feel something—maybe not from the same circumstances, but in a way that something inside my brain clicked, and I finally saw where the pain was coming from.

I guess what I really want to say is thank you. Thank you for helping me begin to understand and for broadening my perspective. It might sound small, but it’s something I deeply appreciate. I’ve been trying for a long time.

I do feel a bit foolish realizing that it took an ABO fanfic for me to get it… but at the same time, I was also reading about your real-life experiences. Or at least, that’s how it seemed to me. Forgive me if I’m wrong.

You have an incredible talent for expression.

Anon, until you know otherwise, everyone has to start somewhere. This applies to unlearning our biases and prejudices, which we all have for something, or many things, until we unlearn them. The fact that you've even tried to be supportive of something you don't really understand is still important, and still matters. It's a step into understanding, even if you don't have it yet.

I don't think it's foolish that it took you a story to realise what you've realised! This is actually exactly why representation of diversity (in gender, sexuality, culture, race, etc.) is so important in fiction. Because it's in fiction we can be free to explore concepts that are different to our own, or that challenge us, or make us see the world differently. This is why it's so important to know it's possible to identify with a trans character, or a POC character, or a character from a different culture to ours etc. Because that's when we humanise what we previously saw as like, different, Other, hard to understand. We go 'oh that's...really relatable actually, I think I'd feel the same way if that was my experience of life' or 'I don't know if I'd feel the same way but I really understand where that person is coming from.'

Gender dysphoria is complex, and different for different people. Being able to write it metaphorically through Efnisien's journey has been really interesting for me personally, because I've been able to depict both the inner conflict of knowing that your being is not...automatically going to be accepted as normal no matter what, unless you stifle or suffocate yourself, alongside the true euphoria and joy that can come with living as your best life, or your very self.

I have once seen a good analogy which is simply: Imagine from tomorrow onwards, everyone uses the pronouns you don't associate with yourself. You are bullied and mocked unless you wear clothing that is opposite to how you want to appear to others. You are put down and treated as psychologically abnormal for finding joy in true expression, even when that expression doesn't actually hurt anyone else at all. And now tell yourself that even your loved ones, when you desperately try to explain how wrong it all feels to be treated as so different to your true self, they explain that it's just mental illness, or that you're just confused, or that you don't understand yourself, and condescend to you, and treat you like they somehow have always known you better than you know yourself. And that's when you realise you might have to choose between your true self, and your family and loved ones who don't understand, or worse, hate you.

And then imagine that's the rest of your life, but it could change in an instant, if all of society just accepted that you are who you say you are! That all of your depression, and oppression, and suffocation could literally just vanish, if everyone was like 'oh sure actually, you want those pronouns? Cool! You want to wear this clothing? I like it!!'

And that journey is very tough in the real world, even in more accepting places (the US is clear evidence of this). In Underline the Black, I get to put Efnisien in a very specific space, and show the journey in a kind of specific way that isolates it and speaks through metaphor.

My experiences are different to Efnisien's, though I am trans, I never actually started out wanting to write a 1:1 trans narrative. Like, in this universe, "conventionally" trans people exist too. Efnisien's experience is a new thing, and a separate thing, but still - as we can see - a very good metaphor as well. I like telling parts of my story, but only small parts. I am more interested in...telling healing stories where I can watch a character heal and go 'oh I would like more of that for myself, as well.'

(Also, it's better to just say omegaverse, or AOB, etc. because a/b/o without the dashes is a slur in Australia, and while I know most people don't live here! We try to avoid slurs from other countries when we can. And we can only know to do that once someone tells us!)

But yeah, no, you don't sound like an ignorant asshole at all. You sound like someone who has learned something, and has gained more understanding, and was open to doing that, and honestly anon if more people came to something they didn't understand from your perspective, acceptance and love would be a lot easier to teach people.

It's so important to read stories about characters who aren't quite like us, or aren't like us at all, because that's when we realise just how much we actually do share so many similarities, and why our differences matter too.

Anyway thank you for sharing your message with me! I really appreciated it.

[the-witchy-sideblog]

Actually speaking of underrated portrayals: endless forest and plains for the Vast

No matter how much you walk you're always alone surrounded on all sides by things that cannot and do not care about you or your impact. Never reaching civilization or a trail and constantly walking forever

[mommytimmy]

Trick or treat!

A Timmy I found and colored from my current doc!

[asterwild]

Whooping crane (Grus americana), a large crane species native to North America. Populations decreased after European settlement due to hunting and habitat loss, and in 1941 there were only 15 adults remaining in the wild. Thanks to decades of conservation work there are now over 500 in the wild and additional birds in captivity. You can read more about them from the USFWS here.