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dallasgallant · 1 month ago

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Time period post: Shaping style and standards

This one comes by request and I hope I fufill it, as I think I go too far off on a side tangent. I was asked about beauty standards and I’m going to focus here on teenagers since a majority of the characters are, during this time they had a lot of say in shaping it! I’m going to focus on the early to mid 60s, as that’s when the Outsiders take place and post 1967 there are HUGE shifts.

Conformity and codes -

The start of every decade tends to be a reflection of the one that came before, so the early 60s is one of muted colors and a strict conformity. Long skirts, short clean hair on guys, formal shoes and so on. Now it’s not as authoritative as that, though to high schoolers it certainly felt like it with continual checks on your attire — for ladies its skirt length and for guys its hair length, as it was slightly longer than it was in the 50s but only by a certain degree. Strict and clean cut.

As it starts to get into the decade the rebellion that began in the last really starts to ramp, and teens get a little more bold. Longer hair, sideburns, short skirts- sneakers! Sneakers slowly become more acceptable footwear (Canvas and leather) though strictly for casual or sport related events. Colors themselves become brighter and so do patterns, women have been wearing pants occasionally since the 20s but the acceptability rises, huggable fit pants, capris. Jeans are still work wear or the most casual of casual clothing.

There’s still an etiquette and form to follow but the lines start to shift and be pushed and pulled by testing teenagers. The baby boom meant a whole lot more youth, and especially teenagers- a demographic now loud and listened to… if even a little tiny bit.

While playfulness existed before it’s the saturation that’s noticeable. Youth start shaping clothing right back.

Rock n’ roll rebellion-

Rock and music both play a huge roll in the shift in culture and in fashion. Not only is music a way to express themselves but so is the types of music, often came with imitating artists attitudes and styles (Elvis -> pompadour and leather booms in popularity) Kids wanted to look nothing like their parents, and fashion became a tool of rebellion. Dress codes forced creativity, ways to push and subtlety implement their style while staying within the lines to be safe- the older you got the more freedom to dress. Even in conservative towns teens found ways to express themselves.

It was about individuality, even if often times that just meant finding another group or style to belong to. A different style and belief to conform to.

You still dressed nice, don’t mishear me we aren’t quite talking hippies (as that’s the end of the decade) or punks (of the 70s fashion variety.) But expressing yourself in the current fashion was the way to go in a lot of ways. Trading the long skirt and buffont for a mini skirt and flips (hair) or whatever was popular where you lived (not everyone just became mod the second 1965 hit. There’s so many styles) it’s making it clear you aren’t your parents.

The greasers really stick out as underdressed for their time, in jeans and t-shirts and sneakers or boots. All not your typical clothing and with them— what they could afford or had but also a way to again express themselves. Sticking with the hair of greasers from the 50s , jackets and shirts and Elvis/ rock n’ roll instead of the new group or idol on the scene. Their hair is probably what got them in the most trouble at school, depending on code. They did ‘long’ hair before it was cool.

Body shape and youthfulness-

Body standards changed in the mid 1960s, curvy fuller figures were out for more rail thin, almost boyish appeal that was still distinctly feminine. A incredible focus on youthfulness and low weight. It also saw less emphasis on breasts, in some forms.

Twiggy is the greatest example of the look many tried to imitate:

Teens for the first time were choosing their own makeup too, not just doing what their mother did or movie stars. They were shaped by magazines and models and stars— music acts and the culture of the time. Cat eye -> in the later half of the decade it was the cut crease, big painted lashes and big looking eyes (think Shelly Duval)

Boys would see a particular emphasis on a tan, sideburns and smile, it was more what they wore than a particular body weight to my understanding. Muscle was not mainstream, you just wanted a healthy moderate appeal.

But it’s important to keep in mind that what magazines pushed v. The reality to most people isn’t always one to one, and the slower travel of information. While thin was ‘in’ most were at a healthy lower weight from lifestyle than a standard, or tanning had broadly been thought to be good for health not just because of a magazine. Teens immolated stars and big city or even foreign (British invasion) looks but they picked and chose and made their own! (If trying to follow/copy anyone at all!)

What was worn-

Mentioned above but the decade was largely shaped by both the conservatism and the rebellion to it— and both existing at once in a strange way. You’d dress to the code at a hop but casual events teens had the true freedom and playful, tighter and shorter appeal (even for guys)

For the Outsiders it really is the dead center of the 60s where the long skirt and more formal clothes existed but the mini skirt also became prevalent. Keep in mind one thing does not stop existing because the other! Not to mention affordability a majority of people don’t just drop everything and have an all new in style wardrobe for every slight shift.

Many clothes during this time were also handmade! By all walks of life, changing an old outfit to fit current standards has been around since before even the 1800s. During the 60s buying clothing patterns in the current style hit a particular high. There was clothes off the rack too but if you really wanted to be that individual ™️ you’d get a fabric of your own desire. People sew a lot more, so they patched a lot more- especially lower income.

Hair is an interesting point I’ve touched on it before but it started the decade big and ended the decade big and long but there was a period where straight and long dominated (and in the 70s too, for some). It starts a little long and ends even longer for guys, more emphasis on sideburns and styling it- though just a bit below the collar. Not to say there wasn’t a bunch of “long hairs” of different demographics who faced scrutiny still despite the popularity. Also keep in mind “long” to 1960s standards - especially for guys varied. To some even slightly down the neck constituted “long” when you hear that don’t instantly think late 60s John Lennon as that’s down the line and only a few cases/more hippie than mainstream or even grease.

Curls! Natural hair! There was a big shift towards natural hair in parts of the black community in the mid and late 60s, it started as a statement and then became gradually more accepted , typically in youth statements. By the 70s Fro’s — both black and white were just another common hairstyle.

Flairs and bellbottoms, which seem like a mandatory item of clothing in the 1970s also got their start in the late 60s.

Celebrity -

What’s attractive? Look no further than the teen idol, dreamy eyed hunks or sweet looking gals who song poppy versions of rock numbers or hit the screen with their own work, often love songs.

Something to note here too is celebrities had their own faces. Their own teeth, their own nose— there were procedures sure but people still looked unique, like themselves! This was far from the time of homogeny… even if there was conformity.

I hope this is helpful! It ended up being more influenced and factors than fashion itself but there’s, so so much out there. What’s helped me at least is looking up fashion by year or seeing magazines/movies etc from that year or set in it to help a bit. Like for example the Outsiders is 1965-1966 Tulsa but still long skirt heavy, but you can see it also branching out / more individual styles. Like for example Randy and Bob are mentioned to have “semi-Beatle” haircuts, like the band so that influence of big cities, the British etc is there too!

#the outsiders #outsiders #time period post #time period post: fashion and standards #1960s #1960s fashion #teen idols #60s pop music #60s magazines #teen culture

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olderthannetfic · 1 year ago

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https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/755884216959516672/someone-whose-fanfic-i-left-a-comment-on-is-angry

I'm just throwing out a slight assumption based on another fic that got added to TV tropes: The author mentioned getting a lot more hate and negativity after their fic was added to the TVT in the comment, like noticeably.

They explained in one of the comments to another why they had to mod lock the comments and the fic, and it was in an author's note in a new chapter they later removed. People who didn't like some of the side ships, and people who didn't like the main ships dynamic, started complaining and demanding random shit of the author. I think the AN explicitly mentioned threats and other explicitly threatening comments. It's not really a new that people coming from third parties to look at a fanfic seem to act like they're entitled to demand the author write exactly what they want or change parts of the fic, while they're consuming a story written for free.

Like, sure, you are publishing your story for any readers. But you can't deny that most fics never reach the popularity to become known outside their tag range, so most people aren't prepared nor do they expect to suddenly have to deal with people with absolutely zero interest in their writing, who're just there to insult you and your work coming in through third parties. It's kinda the same deal like with the Goodreads, you're writing for the fandom and for free, not to be put next to original works with much bigger audiences behind them and who're actually getting paid for their writing. And then recieving criticism as if the person had actually paid you.

As a fic writer the expectation is you write for fellow fans, your audience is a small part of fandom people who have interests at least partially aligning with your own. If you write original works, you write for anyone interested in what you have to offer and try to get a wider audience to get more sales and attention.

Side note: It often feels like people give writers a lot less breathing room when it comes to harassment, or having their works plastered into spaces they didn't agree to. Like, any writer complaining is told it's their own fault, and to shut up, and if they didn't want random people with no connection to the fandom or even ship to read it they shouldn't ever dare publish a fanfic ever. A writer mentioning being uncomfortable having their fanfiction plastered into spaces for professional works and with a high rate of unwanted criticism and some times really entitled trolls are expected to just "Suck it up, you knew the risk when you published your work." When they really didn't. How are you supposed to expect that amongst millions of fanfics, your little passion project is going to be shoved onto Goodreads as if it was some kinda professional publication? It also doesn't give the fanfic writers any benefits, AO3 is an archive, stats mean nothing, they're a bit of a vanity boost, but at large you don't get anything from having your work put into professional spaces, no recognition, no money, and you're forcibly held up to the standards or original fiction by entitled people. 🤷‍♀️ -Btw I know I'm a bit dramatic, and all that, but I still think it's weird how fanfic writers are some times held to standards of published original authors.

TV tropes is full of clowns from parts of fandom where a lot more so-called concrit of the "U suck" variety is the norm on top of the overall pattern of more eyeballs meaning more wankers.

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cripplecharacters · 11 months ago

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Hi! : ) You guys are amazing.

Sorry if this is stupid or offensive but i have a question regarding terminology describing facial diference/ disability

So my first language/ the language i write in is not english so while the terminology post is helpfull since i can translate it/ use it as a genereal guide in what to look out for it does not cover everything. I am sorry if this falls into the category of research question but how do i find good resources for terminology in my own language/ make sure its a good resource with the terms people with facial diferences in my country prefer? Its hard since my country is small and not great when it comes to ableism so there is not many resources availibel in the first place.

The second is a bit more specific. I want to include a character with cleft palate in the wider supporting cast, or at least in the background. So not a mayor/important character I can't spend much time describing them and i dont want to center their description on their facial diference. The term for cleft lip in my language literaly translates as "hare lip" into english whic is...yeah. Its probably not an uniqe case either. There might be some better term for it but i have not been abel to find it and i am not sure there is anything thats not overly medical. If that is the case should i use the medical term instead even if its jarring and include what it describes in a footnote? Does the mod team have sugestions on what else to do in this situation/ similar ones I probably will find myself in? How do i handel ableism thats literaly the integral part of my language. How do i catch terms that have ableist/ bad conotations bejond the basics since it is less called out over here i might not even notice its problematic? I dont want to make the issue any worse, further normalise bad terms by not caring about terms.

I thank you, so much in advance.

Hey! No such thing as a stupid question.

I'll just say that I very much relate to these issues considering my native language calls congenital disabilities “innate flaws” : ) so;

As for first question:

The first step would be to check if there are any organizations/groups that have resources in your language about facial differences, or checking if some international orgs have translations of their pages where they talk about facial differences. Moebius Syndrome Foundation has a page on face equality in 8 languages (+ English).

If there aren't any (high probability that this is the case unfortunately), try to see if there are any advocates for face equality that write in your language and what do they use (and in what contexts).

If you still have issues, there's always the ultimate beauty of writing - making words up. When there's nothing you can use as a reference, the best way is to just create the word that you need. I'm aware that it could be hard to figure out what's appropriate and not accidentally offensive or insensitive, but your good intentions and putting care into it are already doing a lot of the work for you.

I really like this essay - which is about a very different disability-related topic - that asks a great question in this “how do we make [language thing] good for disabled people?” sphere: what feels beautiful? What term do you feel like sounds nice and not othering or pointlessly medicalized? Because honestly, if I encountered an invented word for facial differences in my native (very non-English) language and the explanation behind it was “I thought it sounded pretty” then I'd take it. Always better than “gross deformity” that many consider neutral without thinking about it at all.

Obviously the easiest way would be to ask someone who speaks your language and has a facial difference, but I'm aware that not everyone has that possibility - still, it could be a good idea to reach out to your local disabled community if you're able to. Or just ask on whatever social media is popular where you live.

You can also send us what is the language that you're having this issue in - despite the blog being very American-centric and English-only, a lot of us speak different languages and might just happen to know the one.

Second question:

First thing I'll address is that cleft palate and cleft lip are two separate things. They are often lumped together because they very often co-exist together, but a person could only have one of them.

Cleft palate hasn't, AFAIK, been referred to as a harelip anywhere, so I'm going to assume the question is about a cleft lip.

There are a few options as to what you can do here, in my opinion;

you describe the cleft lip without using any specific term (“they had an opening/a faded scar on between their upper lip and their nostril”);

the character calls it by the medicalized term* because that's what their doctor has told them, and they could mention how awkward/long/difficult to say/no one knows what it is/etc. the word is;

the character is self-aware and points out that the term “harelip” is weird as hell to say about a person when someone refers to it as such;

or, again, you make a word up. The word “lip” probably has to stay for clarity's sake, but try to replace the animal part with something: cleft, split, parted, fissure, opening, etc.; You can also check how other terms with “cleft” are called in your language: cleft chin, cleft palate, cleft hand/foot, etc.;

or you can make up a word fantasy-writer style and describe a cleft lip but give it a completely new name that fits the setting more - [Name]'s lip, [Some sort of deity]'s blessing, you can kinda do whatever (take a look at the Terms That Suck guide below first though).

*my go-to way of finding the medical term is going through English Wikipedia (yeah, I know, but it works for this) and switching the language to the one I need. The cleft lip and palate page has 55 languages, so there's a chance it's on there - if it is, you might potentially find a nicer synonym in the “other names”.

Now for my (very personal) guide on catching if a term Kinda Sucks because doctors have some... tendencies in how they name various conditions:

does it use a word that is just a synonym for evil, or otherwise immoral or broken?;

does it have an animal connotation? (hares, wolves, elephants, fish... there's so many);

does it have a monster/fantasy creature connotation? (i.e., Donohue syndrome being called leprechaunism, Hypertrichosis being called Werewolf disease, etc.);

does it just sound rude? (my native language uses the word “maw” to mean cleft palate, which is absurd);

is it straight up racist and/or xenophobic? (like most of the historic words for syphilis were just “[nationality] disease”).

There's obviously nuance to everything (“vitiligo” is considered neutral, despite being derived from the word for “blemish” in Latin) but as a vague framework I find these to be useful. Again: what feels good or neutral will probably be the better option over “animal face disease”.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

#mod sasza #anonymous #face difference #terminology

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ticklishshenanigansau · 9 months ago

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LaughterLand - Chapter 26: Web

(story by Mod Secret, art by Mod Secret)

As gravity swiftly pulled the brothers down to the ground they screamed louder than the scurrying animals around them. As they zoomed past the trees, they reached for each other, quite certain that this was going to be the end for them. But as they essentially tried to ‘swim’ for each other through the air, the force of the rushing wind turned them both over, ensuring that their backs would hit the ground first. Sans gritted his teeth, bracing for impact.

The surface that caught them was unexpectedly soft and elastic. The skeletons shrieked in terror as they fell into whatever strange net had caught them. Bouncing up and down from the sudden impact, but coming to rest after several moments in the strange catching-device just hanging between the jungle trees. For many minutes, the two of them just laid there, too dazed to make any sound aside from deep inhales and exhales.

Finally, they shifted their eyes to look at each other. An unexpected smile growing on both of their faces as sheer relief took them over. They had survived, they were back to their normal sizes, and most importantly to the exhausted skeletons, they were both unharmed and safe.

"Sans … what … just happened?" Papyrus breathed out so hard it almost sounded like he was laughing.

"I don't know!" Sans stifled a chuckle himself.

In truth, he couldn't have cared less to learn about just how they ended up here. His mind was too overcome with relief that he just wanted to take a few minutes to bask in it.

"I just…. I just can't believe … we actually survived that!" He finally released that breathy chuckle.

"Me neither!" Papyrus exclaimed. "We should thank whoever put this net here in the middle of the jungle!"

"Yeah." Sans nodded.

After taking a minute to breathe out one last feeling of relief, he looked around to fully assess their newest predicament. He noticed how this strange elastic net was suspended almost exactly in the middle of the large palm trees that surrounded them, giving him a clearer idea of just how high up they were.

"Come to think of it…," he wondered out loud. "Why IS this thing right in the middle of the—"

"Sans! I can't move!!"

Papyrus's sudden shriek caused the older skeleton to abruptly turn his head towards him. Immediately, he noticed that it was hard to move his skull to the side. Some kind of sticky substance was aggressively pulling at his head, trying to get it to remain in place. He looked to see Papyrus struggling to pull himself up. The younger skeleton's arms, legs, and back were stuck to the strange net, giving him little-to-no wiggle room.

Instinctively, Sans also tried to pull himself up, finding that he, too, couldn't move his limbs up from the sticky net. A sinking feeling of dread washed over the skeletons as they pulled harder and harder.

"Sans! What IS this thing?!" Papyrus shrieked in terror.

"I don't know!" Sans grunted, trying hard to focus his energy on one limb at a time. "Just keep pulling, Pap!!"

Sans's mind raced. As he pulled, he desperately looked around, trying to figure out what kind of nightmare they stumbled into this time. All he could see around them were the jungle trees, now looming over them and looking more threatening than ever with them in this vulnerable state. Anxiety flooded his mind the longer they were stuck there. His eyes darted in every direction, desperately wanting their next antagonist to show up just to get it all over with, while dreading their arrival with all of his Soul. He glanced over at Papyrus, who seemed to be following suit, sockets scanning the trees around them all the while, trembling with anticipation.

As the sound of an evil laugh suddenly echoed through the jungle, both brothers jolted in fear. The tone was deep, and yet both brothers could tell that it belonged to a female. Her laughter started off sounding far away, but as she came closer to where the pair of them were held captive, her laughter grew louder and louder. Papyrus winced at the sudden volume change, shutting his sockets tightly and practically vibrating the sticky net with his trembling. Sans, however, kept his eyes wide open. Fiercely gritting his teeth, he made the decision to face this new adversary with as much courage as he could fake.

"Show yourself!" he demanded boldly.

"Sans! What are you doing?!" Papyrus whispered in a shrill tone.

"Come out and get it over with already!"

A tone of anger colored Sans's voice, and he realized just how fed up he was with it all. He was so ridiculously tired of all the mind games these enemies would play on them. Everything from the teasing, to keeping them in a ridiculous amount of suspense, to pulling out new techniques for tickling that he couldn't even dream of. He was just so tired of being someone else's plaything. Anger fumed from his teeth as he strained to pull himself off of the strange, sticky net.

"Come … on!" he groaned loudly. "Come out already, you coward!"

"Sans, calm down!" Papyrus fretted. "You're just going to make them angry, Brother. You have to keep a cool head!"

"A cool head?" the low female voice finally spoke, her voice echoing through the trees coming from right above them. "The acceptance of your fate is one thing, but … a cool head?"

The brothers could hear the creaking of the branches directly above them as the shadowy figure began descending downwards. "Anything less than hysterical denial just spoils the flavor."

As she came into the light, the sound of a panicked scream caught in both brothers' throats. They found themselves face-to-face with a gigantic spider. The brothers were used to big spiders down in the Underground, Miss Muffet being a dear friend of theirs. However, whereas Muffet had a gentle sophisticated look to her, this spider was clearly wild and as feral-looking as could be.

She was gigantic as well — the size of a boss monster, maybe bigger. Her eyes were pitch black with dark red irises. Her body was a deep dark navy blue, with the exception of her abdomen being striped with clusters of teal, magenta, and deep purple colors. As to be expected, she was absolutely covered from head-to-all-eight-toes with soft feathery hair that just looked like it was made for tickling. The enormous fuzzy fangs in her head started moving up and down as she continued to stare at them, almost like she was licking her lips. The pastel green drool that began dripping from them pretty much confirming that theory.

"By all means…," she hissed as she came further into view. "Please do keep panicking, it truly whets my appetite."

Looking up at the horrifying spider, suddenly it all made sense to the both of them. They hadn't landed in a net at all … it was a giant spider web! It was all too much for Papyrus, he screamed and frantically squirmed and thrashed against his new sticky bindings

"Nooooohohohohoooo!! Please! Please no!! Lemmie out!! Get me out of this!! I don't want to be tickled anymore!!"

Sans watched helplessly as his brother was practically on the verge of tears. But as a satisfied sigh escaped from the spider, Sans glared up at her hatefully. The spider's gaze fixated on Papyrus, more and more disgusting drool dripping from her feathery fangs. Sans realized that Papyrus was doing exactly what she had wanted them to do. She was savoring the flavor of his desperate pleading like some kind of a sick appetizer to the main course of his laughter. She hovered over him, soaking it in as he squirmed.

"Hey! Get away from him!!" Sans demanded in a sudden burst of rage that diverted both of their attention.

The spider moved to hover over the older skeleton, seemingly trying to intimidate him the same way she had done to his brother. But Sans gritted his teeth and kept glaring, although he was internally fighting through his own fear and anxiety, he refused to give this newest creature the satisfaction she wanted.

“Oh what’s the matter?” The spider shifted into a mocking tone as she moved her legs closer towards him. “Want me to save all of this just for you, then?”

Sans clenched his fist, subconsciously trying to control the trembling in his bones. As badly as he didn’t want to be tickled by this disgusting beast, he would do anything to keep her away from Papyrus.

“Fine! Whatever!” he growled. “Go after me all you want, just leave him out of this!”

“Sans, don’t!” Papyrus yelled, still trying to pull his arms free.

He should have expected Sans to jump in to try and protect him again. But especially after what he had gone through back at Dropwart’s cottage, the younger skeleton wasn’t about to let him sacrifice himself on his behalf again.

“Brother, you’ve been through enough!” Papyrus implored. “Let her come after me! She can devour my laughter! It’s okay!”

The spider let out an amused chuckle as she daintily placed her legs onto the web and stood over them.

“Oh, such brave souls, offering themselves to me,” she mused, gazing at both of them hungrily. “But you don’t need to worry, there’s plenty to go around.”

She moved towards the edge of her web, a fair distance away from the brothers’ feet. She peered over the edge as if to search for something, before turning back to them, her four eyes smiling deviously. The skeletons’ bones rattled with dread, unsure of what to make of her reaction.

“You see…,” she said slyly. “It’s not my mouth you’re going to feed.”

She looked over the edge again, tilting her horned head to the side and signaling for someone to come join her up on the web. Sans and Papyrus gasped in horror as they witnessed four enormous baby spiders climb up the nearby tree trunks and step lightly onto the web beside her.

They were perfect images of her, except much smaller. But still compared to Muffet’s horde of spiderlings, they were gigantic in size. Their height and width almost reminded Papyrus of the annoying little white dog that would constantly sneak into their house back home. As much as he despised that irritating mutt, in that moment Papyrus would have given anything to see it digging through his pile of special attacks again. Especially after looking into the eyes of these frighteningly hungry spiderlings.

"Mama! Are these for us??"

They spoke in little childish voices. Sans knew he shouldn't have been surprised, but it was still jarring to hear such innocent-sounding voices coming out of such hideous creatures.

"Yes my darlings." The mother spider beamed proudly at her children. "They will make a perfect first meal for you."

The young spiderlings began to gleefully crawl towards the captive skeletons, eliciting another panicked scream from Papyrus.

"No! NOOOO!!" Tears starting to gather in the corner of his sockets, Papyrus frantically pleaded for mercy, quickly trying to dissuade them with everything he could think of. "Nononononono!! Please! You don't want us! We don't taste good! We've already been tickled past our limit! Since when do spiders eat skeletons anyway?! Plehehehease!!"

To the skeletons utter shock, the young spiders actually did stop in their eight-legged tracks. They stood right in front of where the brothers' feet were bound, a sudden look of disappointment showing in their dark eyes.

"What?! You've already been tickled?!" The tone of the one who was speaking was also colored with discouragement.

"Aww! No fair!" groaned another. "We wanted first dibs!"

Seeing a possible way out, Sans immediately ran with it.

"Yeah! I mean you wanna talk about how much we've been tickled? I mean ghosts, plants, cats, fish, you name it, we've been got by it!"

The more he rambled on about their past tickling experiences, the sadder the little arachnids looked. Sans knew he had to keep going, if these spiders were truly the picky-eaters they seemed to be, then this could be their chance to escape!

"Yep! I'd say we probably lost our flavor about … ten tickle attacks ago? Wouldn't you say, Pap?"

"Uh…. Y-Yeah!" Thankfully Papyrus caught on to Sans's plan quickly this time, he continued to play it up trying to sound like the weakest being on the planet. "Ohhh, I'm nothing but bones now!" he whimpered pathetically. "I can barely even feel my tickle spots anymore! I've been tickled away to practically nothing!"

Through this overly dramatic performance, even Papyrus had to admit he almost had a twinge of guilt for practically driving these baby spiders to tears. But in the same breath it meant that it was working! He knew it wouldn't take much more convincing before they would feel the need to release them.

"Oh, do forgive us, Children!" he continued the performance. "Oh how we very much wish that we could be your first meal…."

He peeked an eye open at Sans, the older skeleton was wearing a cringed smile as he motioned for Papyrus to cut out the dramatics.

"B-But I'm afraid my brother and I have nothing we can offer." His tone abruptly changed back to normal following his brother's silent instruction. "So if there's nothing we can do to help, would you kindly let us—NYAAGH!!"

The younger skeleton shrieked as the mother spider landed directly above their heads. She seemed to come out of nowhere, neither skeleton had even noticed when she took off from the web. She stood directly over them, her eyes giving them an evil glare for daring to try and outsmart her offspring.

"Oh, such nonsense!" she snapped, her angered tone directed perfectly at Sans and Papyrus before turning back to the spiderlings with her gentle motherly tone. "Here's one lesson you must always know, children."

She spread out her long fuzzy legs, showing off just how easily she could reach around both skeletons.

"When the world offers you a decent meal, you take it no matter what!"

Using two legs on each side, she scribbled and scratched along the brothers' ribs and under their arms. Papyrus let out a burst of panicked giggling immediately. Sans gritted his teeth and tried to hold back. But even he couldn't predict how soft and ticklish those fuzzy spider legs were.

"NYAAAAAAAGHAHAHAHA!! OH NOHOHOHOHO!! NOHOHOHO PLEHEHEHEASE!! HAHAHAHA!!" Papyrus pleaded and squirmed desperately against the sticky bindings.

Sans immediately opened his teeth to follow suit, but was harshly reminded of how much his new attacker craved their desperate pleading. He clenched his jaw tightly, only allowing strained laughter to escape from his teeth. Though he wasn't in a position to ask the same of Papyrus, he refused to let her hear him begging for mercy.

"As you can see, children…," the mother spider spoke loudly to be heard over the skeletons' uproarious laughter. "No matter who had 'first dibs' it's all the same. Nobody ever truly wears out their ticklishness in LaughterLand."

The hysterical skeletons peeked open their eyes, horrified to find the four little spiders now staring at them with newfound eagerness and hunger in their expressions. The mother spider at last lifted her legs away, giving both brothers a chance to breathe before looking at her children expectedly.

"Well my darlings?"

They didn't answer her, they didn't even need to. Both she and the skeletons could tell from the way the same pastel green drool was dripping from their fuzzy fangs, she had them fully convinced. Her deep voice let out a chuckle as the moved back to give the spiderlings some room.

"Two on each side now," she gently instructed. "No crowding, there's plenty to go around…."

As she continued on, the young spiders wasted no more time listening. Two pounced onto Papyrus while the other two leapt onto Sans. In an instant, they were once again drowning in hysterical laughter as thick fuzzy legs began skittering under their arms and across their ribs. Soft little squeezes were applied to their knees and toes, as well as their spines and even up towards their necks. It was another horrific ticklish nightmare for the poor, exhausted skeletons.

“OH NO!! NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!! NOHOHO!! PLEHEHEASE!! PLEHEHEASE GET AHAHAHAFF!! HAHA!! G-GEHET AHAHAFF MEHEEHEEHEE!! HAHAHA!!” Papyrus screeched.

The problem with being equipped with so many legs, is that so many different spots could be tickled at once. While one spiderling squeezed and tickled along his ribcage with its four front legs, its back legs were scribbling along his ribs and underarms. Tears immediately started spilling from the younger skeleton’s sockets as he begged and pleaded for mercy.

“STAHAHAHAHAP!!” His voice was on the cusp of sobbing. “STAHAHAHAHAP IHIHIHIT!! I-I-I CAHAHAN’T STAHAHAHAND IHIHIHIT!!”

“Ooooh! I really like this one!!” cheered one of the spiderlings as it played Papyrus’s ribs like a laughing instrument.

Meanwhile, Sans clamped his jaw down so tightly it started causing his teeth to ache. It was beyond exhausting keeping ahold of his own need to verbally vent. But he held back, only letting out growling groans and strained laughter.

“AHAHAHAHAAA!! GRR!! NNNGGGHHAHAHAHAHA!! AAGH! AHAHAHAAA!!”

The spiderlings that were attacking Sans seemed to notice right away just how much he was holding back, as they didn’t seem to express as much joy out of tickling him as their other siblings were getting after Papyrus. They wriggled their fuzzy legs harder and harder against his ribs, spine, and knees. They played with his feet and toes, and even traveled back up his body to dig into his neck and brush against his cheekbones. Sans laughed and squirmed and guffawed and thrashed with every ounce of strength he had left, but still he refused to let out a single pleading word. The spiderlings paused as they overheard Papyrus letting out a horrific scream of terror as his own attackers went for his toes.

“NOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!! STAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAP!! NYAHAHAHAA!!”

“Hey! Look what I can do!” called the young spider who was attacking his right foot. It had somehow managed to weave its own web in between all of Papyrus’s toes. With all of the appendages perfectly tied up in the sticky string, the spiderling pulled the toes upwards leaving them unmoving and completely exposed. “Now he can’t curl up his toes and protect them!” it cheered as it used its spare legs to wriggle under and between them.

“NO! NOHOHO PLEHEHEHEASE!! AHAHAHA!! OHOHOHO PLEHEHEHEHEASE NAHAHAT THAHAHAHAT!!” Papyrus shrieked as he felt the second spiderling crawling down towards his other foot.

“I wanna try too!” it cried as it proceeded to spin its own web between the toes of his left foot.

Before Papyrus knew it, both sets of toes were splayed out in the young spiders’ little webs. Pulled taut and unable to wiggle free, the spiders gleefully took advantage of every exposed inch of the poor skeletons’s helpless feet.

“NYAAAAHAHAHAHAHAA!! M-MEHEHERCY!! HAHAHAHA!! PL-PLEHEHEHEASE!! OH-OHOHOHO GAHAHAHAHA…!!” Papyrus trailed off in a fit of silent laughter frantically trembling in the web. He silently prayed that the bright orange tears falling from his face would somehow loosen the sticky string enough to at least release his head, but they fell like perfectly undisturbed rain down to the jungle floor.

"Hey, can we have some of yours?"

By this point, the spiders who were tickling Sans had stopped completely to ogle at Papyrus's misery. Sans took in big mouthfuls of air, his face trying to shake away the tears gathering in his sockets from all the strain. He was so beside himself with exhaustion that he didn't even hear the spiderlings talk about targeting his brother.

"No way!" cried the spider on Papyrus's right foot. "You've got your own!"

"But yours has more flavor!" the other spider argued. "It's not fair! Mama! Make them share!"

The mother spider gently nudged at the spiderlings tickling at Papyrus's toes, they begrudgingly released his feet and crawled back onto the web. Papyrus let out a pitiful sob intermixed with catching his breath, fearing that she was going to allow Sans's spiders to come after him next. But to his surprise, she blocked them from moving towards him.

"Give this one a chance to recover, darlings," she gently instructed. "If you overwhelm him too quickly, he'll pass out before you properly get your fill. Take your time dears, savor it."

The spiderlings nodded obediently, eyeing Papyrus and making him squirm uncomfortably. She turned to face Sans, who had finally managed to regulate his breathing. He stared into her multiple eyes, trying to have that same look of defiance. But even he had to admit that holding back his words like that took more out of him than he’d figured, and he could tell by the expression she was giving that she could read that in him clearly.

“Now children, this one is bursting with flavor, I can promise you that,” she mused, now looking the older skeleton up and down. “The only difference is, he’s going to make you work for it a little bit more.”

She began jabbing him in different spots all over his body. The front of his spine, the lower ribs, the ankles, anywhere she could properly read a reaction. Sans once again tried his best to hold back. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck as he tried to stifle his reactions, but he was unable to stop himself from jolting his body, and couldn’t silence the sharp breaths that she drew out of him whenever she jabbed at somewhere vulnerable. He could tell that every move he made was playing right into her multiple hands.

“It’s all about finding that right spot….” There was a smile in her tone as she poked around his toes. Her soft fuzzy legs eliciting a sudden jump from the skeleton. “Once you find it, it’ll be the tastiest treat you’ve ever had.”

Sans knew right then and there what lesson she was trying to impart on her children. She wanted them to make him beg, to find the spot that would get him pleading for mercy. His expression shifted to a hateful glare, he refused. He didn’t care what it would take, he absolutely refused to give in to what they wanted him to do. He wouldn’t give them the meal the wanted, or the satisfaction of hearing him plead for mercy. She turned back to the spiderlings.

“Have you tried using their techniques on his toes?” she suggested cruelly. “Pull them back and see what happens.”

The spiderlings wasted no time, they crawled back towards Sans’s feet and immediately began wrapping his toes up with their miniature spiderwebs. A shrill squeal escaped from the older skeleton as he felt the delicate tickling sensation of the web being woven in between his toes. He wanted to scream at them to stop, but held back, reminding himself that it wouldn’t do any good anyways. Another gasp escaped from him as he felt both sets of toes being pulled upwards, a light breeze wisped through the in between spaces of his toes as they were perfectly splayed out. He didn’t have time to even attempt to struggle before he felt their soft fuzzy legs start digging into his vulnerable toes.

“EEEEEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHEHEE!!! AAGH!! AAAAGH!! AHAHAHAHAHA!! NNNNGGHHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!”

His laughter came out more panicked than ever. He kept trying to hold back, but his jaw had become too exhausted to keep his teeth clenched anymore. Letting out a series of growls and shrieks, all he could do was mentally force his words to stay muffled as he laughed uncontrollably.

“There, now isn’t that a bit better?” the mother spider cooed.

“A bit…,” answered one of them, clearly not convinced. “But still not as good as the other one.”

“Oh yes, that’s right.” The mother spider turned back towards her other children, who were still staring hungrily at Papyrus. “That’s enough of a break, young ones. You may continue. But remember … gently.”

Papyrus let out a horrified gasp as the spiderlings crawled back on top of him. One resumed tickling at his feet, while the other one jabbed at his ribs and underarms. They were, indeed, much more gentle in their attack, but it still sent Papyrus into another fit of hysterical laughter.

“NO! NOOOOOHOHOHOHOHO!! NYAHAHAHAHAHAAA!! OHOHOHO PLEHEHEHEHEASE STAHAHAHAP!! PLEHEHEHEHEASE!! AHAHAHAHAHA!! N-N-NO!! NOHOHO MOHOHOHORE!! HAHAHAHA!!”

Sans glanced back over at Papyrus, his vision became blurry from the new onslaught of tears gathering in his tired sockets. He wanted so badly to call out to him, to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. But even he knew that he couldn’t keep that promise, he had no idea how they were going to get out of this now. They were hopelessly stuck with five hungry and vicious ticklers, and as desperately as he tried to keep it together, he didn’t know how much longer he could hold out before they broke him.

The mother spider moved back towards the top of Sans’s head, having just remembered a particular reaction that she had previously overlooked.

“Well if one spot doesn’t do the trick…,” she continued with her sadistic lesson. “Perhaps try multiple spots at once.”

She lowered two fuzzy legs down towards Sans’s underarms, the older skeleton let out a panicked squeal in between gasps for air.

“Oh yes…,” she hissed. “I think this spot will do nicely.”

She began to gently poke and trace little circles around Sans’s defenseless underarms. Poor Sans let out a scream that defied the usual low tone of his voice. His entire body trembled and shook, leading the entire web to vibrate uncontrollably.

“WAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!! AHAHAHAHA!! N-N-NAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! AAAAGH!! PL-PL-AAAAGHAHAHAHA!! ST….AAAAAGH!!”

He only barely managed to stop himself after accidentally releasing the beginning of a plea, his mind was starting to go blank, it was getting too hard to focus. With every passing second of enduring the horrible ticklish sensations, Sans’s control was slipping further and further away. The mother spider let out another low chuckle.

“I think we’re getting warmer.” She beamed down at her prey.

“Hey! Watch this!”

Sans barely even registered that one of the spiders had spoken again, he didn’t even figure out what it had said until he felt its soft fuzzy fangs start nibbling on the ball of his right foot.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHAHAHAHA…!!” Sans trailed off into silent squeaky laughter, tears endlessly falling down his bright blue cheeks.

It was the strangest sensation. As its thick fangs scraped against his sensitive feet, the soft hair suddenly became coarse due to the harsh friction of the spider’s nibbling. It was akin to having two long hairbrushes grazing across the sensitive spot, creating a horrendous tingling buzz. It was utterly unbearable!

The mother spider immediately took her legs out from Sans’s underarms the moment she heard him devolve into silent laughter. The alleviation of her underarm tickling left Sans with enough oxygen to start laughing and screaming with his full voice again, but remarkably, he still held onto enough sanity to resist the urge to beg.

“Hmm, that’s quite good dear,” she complimented the one who was nibbling his toes. “It’s always good to try out new techniques. Just remember what I said about pacing. We don’t want to overwhelm the prey too quickly, do we?”

Understanding immediately what she was instructing him to do, the spiderling lifted its fangs away from Sans’s feet, finally allowing the skeleton to breathe. Sans inhaled so quickly, he coughed and wheezed from the sudden shift in oxygen intake. His chest ached from having to catch his breath so many times in one miserable day, and he couldn’t help but lay limp and lifeless in the web not even having the strength to be on guard anymore.

The spiderlings that were tormenting Papyrus had also stopped to give him a break. Blinking the remaining tears from his sockets, Papyrus glanced at Sans. His poor brother looked so exhausted, so defeated. Sans opened his eyes to glance back at Papyrus, he wanted so badly to give his brother the look of reassurance and confidence that he so desperately needed to hang on through this mess. But Sans’s face was too tired to even try.

“Hmm…. I still don’t think we’ve quite found the right spot on him, have we?”

The mother spider began examining Sans again. Her many eyes scanning every inch of his body, deeply pondering what they could have possibly overlooked. Sans knew exactly what spot they were trying to find, his Soul filling with utter dread at the thought of them finding it.

Almost on cue, the spiderling that had been tickling at his left foot had found an opening in the web. It crawled underneath until it was hanging upside down crawling on the opposite side of where the brothers were laying. Sans began to tremble again, his Soul practically exploded out of his ribcage as he felt the young spiderling starting to crawl up his back. The creature meticulously began poking at every available spot, taking note of every tense jolt and squeak that it could pull from the older skeleton.

Then finally, it happened. One of its fuzzy legs just barely grazed along the grooves of his back, Sans never had a chance.

“AAAAAHAHAHAHAA!! NOHOHOHOHO!! NOOO!! STAHAHAHAHAHAAAAP!!”

His shrill cachinnating words burst out of him like an explosion, tears flew in every direction imaginable, and his mind went blank with insanity.

“Good work, my dear!” the mother spider praised proudly. “You found it! Now, you may feast!”

The spiderling lightly dug all of its eight fuzzy legs into Sans’s back. It knew it could have gone a lot harder with the scribbling, but besides heading its mother’s advice, it didn’t need to. Sans screamed and thrashed and pleaded with everything he had. He didn’t even think about it anymore, his mind was all consumed with the horrible sensation, leaving his body in uncontrollable laughing seizure.

“NOOOOO!! NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!! STAHAHAHAHAP!! PLEHEHEHEASE!! PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE!! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!”

“Leave him alone!!” Papyrus shrieked, finally seeing what they were doing to his brother. “Let him go!! Please!! He’s had enough!! STOP!!”

He gathered enough strength to start struggling again, but his words and actions were immediately cut off by the other two spiderlings moving in to attack again.

As both skeletons lay there hopelessly laughing at the hands of four tickling spiderlings, the mother spider hovered over them, proudly taking it all in. She inhaled deeply, sharing in her family’s captured meal.

“Yes.” She sighed deeply. “You two will do perfectly. Your screams and laughter will keep us fed for many generations to come. My children will grow into strong Tickle Spiders thanks to your nourishment, as will their children. Your laughter will echo through the trees of this jungle for years to come, and all will know—”

“Uhm … excuse me?”

A tiny voice from up above suddenly put an end to the onslaught of merciless tickling. The brothers didn’t even hear it, they wasted no time taking in as many mouthfuls of air as they could. Coughing and spluttering and practically sobbing as their breathing slowly regained normalcy.

It seemed to take forever before the blurriness faded from their vision and they could finally see past the remaining tears. Something very small and green was hovering just a few feet above them. The light coming down from the trees almost gave it the appearance of an angel. Once they came to realize who it was, it felt as though their prayers had been answered … it was Sky!

“Well, hello there, fellas!”

The little green spider tipped his blue top hat towards them in his signature greeting, his pleasant Southern-like voice was practically music to the drained skeletons’ ear canals.

“S…. Skyder?” Sans croaked, his face and voice were raw, almost painful to try and move again.

“Heh, almost!” The little spider chuckled. “But I’ll let that one slide given the state that you’re both in.”

The mother spider looked up at him, a confused expression showing in her four eyes.

“You know these two morsels?” she inquired.

“I sure do, Auntie! These guys are old friends of mine!” Sky replied in his usual chipper tone.

“Auntie?” Papyrus’s tone would have sounded more flabbergasted had he not been so worn out.

“Anywho, these nice gents here are trying to find their way home, you see,” Sky explained. His tone was almost obnoxiously cheery, as if he hadn’t just witnessed his two friends being tickled in the most traumatizing way possible. “And I came by thinking I just might be able to help them out!”

“W-Wait you…,” Papyrus trailed off breathlessly. “You … can…. You can get us … home?”

“I think so! I think I found a way back to this ‘Underground’ you were going on about!” Sky nodded, a big smile showing across his little face.

Sans and Papyrus practically started weeping again, for a moment they had thought they had fallen out of the web and crashed to the ground. A ray of hope had overwhelmed them in an instant. They had found a way home? It didn’t seem real. Was this nightmare truly about to end?

“No way!” the spiderling on Sans’s back suddenly shrieked. “We just got the hang of getting this food! It’s ours!”

“Yeah!” the other spiderlings agreed.

Unyielding fear and dread shot through the brothers yet again in remembering their current predicament. These horrible spiders had finally found out just what made them tick, there was no way they were going to give them up without a fight. The mother spider looked at her children, then back at Sky.

“I’m sorry, dear nephew, but I don’t think my little darlings are quite willing to part with their new favorite food.”

Sky thought for a moment. His many eyes looked back and forth between the skeletons and his Auntie. Finally he floated down on his delicate string of web to meet her face-to face. It was jarring to the brothers just how much tinier he was compared to her.

“Auntie, would you mind if I had a word with you, alone?” he gently implored.

The mother spider let out a disgruntled sigh, but proceeded to follow the little Sky Spider up to the top of a nearby tree, leaving the brothers alone with the four spiderlings.

They stayed up there talking privately between the two of them for what must have been at least five minutes. At one point, one of the spiderlings attempted to snack on Papyrus by tickling at his toes. But his sharp giggles drew a stern look from the mother spider, prompting her children to stop in their tracks and refrain from anymore surprise attacks.

Finally, she called all four of them up there to join her and Sky in the conversation. The family of spiders stayed in the top of the tree whispering too lightly for either brother to hear what they were talking about. Meanwhile, Sans and Papyrus used that time to regain their breath and sanity. Neither of them wanting to even mention what Sky had told them. They didn’t want to somehow jinx the possibility of them finally finding a way out of this horrible place. For now, they just wanted to hold out hope that he could somehow get them out of this mess.

It took a long time, but finally Sky descended back down to the web. It was hard to tell because of how small he was, but the brothers had thought they had seen a look of satisfaction on his face.

“Okay fellas, hold still now,” he said, beginning to work on the web surrounding Sans’s right arm. “I’m gonna cut you both loose. Might take a minute for you to get used to gravity again, but when you do—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on,” Sans interrupted. “They’re gonna let us go? Seriously?”

“Yeah!” Sky replied cheerfully. “I’m gonna take you guys to where I found the exit outta here! Just lemmie get you out of this….”

Both brothers were too stunned to speak, as the little spider worked on cutting them out of the sticky web, a hopeful smile spread across both of their faces. This was it, they were finally going to escape this nightmare and be free!

Once Sans felt the stickiness start to lift off of his limbs, he fell with a heavy crash to the grass below. Papyrus followed after him with a loud THUD! It took several minutes for both brothers to readjust to gravity and stand up on their own. But once they finally felt comfortable enough to walk, Sky landed on Papyrus’s shoulder, his many eyes beaming up at them.

“Okie dokie, you ready to go?” he asked.

“Yes!” Papyrus practically leapt up and down with joy, momentarily forgetting how uneasy his balance was and nearly tripping. “Let’s go home!” he cheered, following Sky’s front leg pointing him in the direction out of the jungle.

Before Sans followed behind them, he caught a glimpse at the mother spider and her spiderlings still watching them from the top of the tree. He expected them to be staring back at him with hatefulness for having gotten away from them. But to his surprise, that emotion wasn’t present in their expression.

The hunger was still there, but there was also a look of satisfaction. Almost one of acceptance, as if she and her family just hadn’t lost the biggest meal ticket of their lives. It was eerie and unnatural, it sent a chill crawling up the older skeleton’s spine.

“Sans, come on! Let’s get out of here!”

Papyrus’s voice snapped Sans back to reality, and he quickly turned to catch up with them. Though he couldn’t shake the feeling that something very bad was still about to happen with these spiders.

#Tickletober #Tickletober2024 #Undertale #LaughterLand Story #Sans #Papyrus

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noneedtofearorhope · 5 months ago

Note

what are you hoping to see from vintage story world generation? are there certain parts of current generation you do enjoy/you would want them to retain, or fine-tune for better results?

i think it should be generally more flat and less chaotic/noisey. finding a place to build a whole village shouldn't take an hour. mods like fields and plateaus do a pretty good job fixing this, but 1) that shouldn't be necessary and 2) they kinda tend to totally kill off all the chaos. we should have little a chaos, as a treat. i kinda like the 'marshy' sections in vanilla generation, i just think it should, generally, be flat(er) marshes.

also cut back on the shafts to hell (but again, a few here and there adds nice interest). shafts to hell could also use more variety in shape, size, and incline. as someone who plays with full gravity/stability, horizontal caves that hit soil is also too common, and it's something i think that would turn most away from sticking with the setting. you either have to find them and try to prevent a total cavein or just deal with the nice big flat space you finally came across having big snaking sinkholes all over once a cavein does get tripped. perhaps this could be alleviated by changing how soil specifically acts in terms of gravity/stability, which i think might be better anyway.

stretch goal might be for there to be a system that ties flora into the underlying rocks. im thinking like karst forests, plants adapted to the unusually high ph in limestone rich areas. not only would this be nice for variety and interest, i think it's one of those little things that would really make it feel more alive to those who notice. it would also possibly make finding limestone easier by just seeing from a distance/on the full color map that a particular area's flora stands apart. they could add serpentine and have floral endemism for that too.

oceans feels like too much of a low hanging fruit to go into. plus they already have plans to improve it that just got cut from 1.20.

#vintage story

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gaykarstaagforever · 2 years ago

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I said I was going to read it, and I read it.

And now I know why no one else has in 55 years.

Spoiler Alert: he doesn't actually electrocute Clark, and was never going to. Utter bullshit.

The only cool things about this old guy are 1) his name is Homer Ferret, and 2) he looks like George Burns.

What is uncool about this guy is that he is an optometrist who has been stalking Clark Kent since he was a baby, for reasons he never goes into.

Like, he is just at the Kent's house when Baby Clark does his first heroic thing (pushing a runaway train car off the tracks). He is also suspiciously at the high school when it catches on fire, to see Clark jump into a bush from which Superboy then emerges to blow the fire out.

Did Homer start the fire? If not, why the hell was he hanging out at the high school? We never get answers to these and many other questions.

My favorite part is where he guesses (correctly) that Clark is Superman, based on his glasses. But not in the sane way of noticing that Clark Kent looks exactly like Superman if Superman wore glasses. Remember, no one in the DC Universe can apparently do that. Instead, as the only optometrist in Smallville, he knows Clark Kent never bought glasses from him. Once he has Clark strapped to the chair, he looks at Clark's glasses and realizes the lenses are just fake plastic ones (this was back when glasses actually contained glass).

Clark, as usual, just fucking lies and says he wears fake glasses because he is a giant coward and figured glasses would make kids bully him less. Because that is how that works.

Homer doesn't buy it, either, and so demands Clark admit he is Superman or get juiced. At the last second Clark FINALLY decides to use his X-Ray vision to look through the floor, where he sees that the generator attached to the chair is a low voltage one. Homer throws the switch and it tickles Clark with like 2 volts.

Then Homer admits he wasn't 100% on Clark being Superman after all, so wasn't going to risk killing him. Clark says "oh, you!", and decides to do a Daily Planet report on all the Superman artifacts this clearly dangerous obsessive has collected into a Superman shrine in his basement.

No one gets punched a single time.

The only good thing about this story is this random full page portrait of Clark Kent looking vaguely upset:

The other story in the issue is better, in that it is way, way dumber.

It starts off showing you how YOU TOO can draw Superman!

I feel there are a few steps missing here, but

Jimmy Olsen tells Clark how he is joining an art correspondence school, and Clark IMMEDIATELY decides it is a scam worthy of Superman's attention. And sure, it is definitely a scam being run by mobsters. But the second half of that is not remotely true.

Before he starts using X-Ray vision and perfect recall and telescopic vision and TIME TRAVEL (yes) to "solve" this crime of low-level mail fraud, he has to interview a kid who wants to be a cartoonist at the Daily Planet. Where he says this:

I think I get what he's supposed to be saying in this weird attempt at 60s Mod talk, but it took me awhile. You give it a go.

He also is a total dick about how much this child's comic strip sucks.

I mean it's no Silver Age Superman comic, but they can't all be, Clark. And let's be honest here, the bar is pretty low.

At some point in his "investigation" of this scam art school, Clark decides the best plan is for him to create forgeries of classical Western paintings. By this point he already has more than enough evidence to have these guys arrested, but he didn't get to do any pointless TIME TRAVEL yet (yes), so, priorities.

He flies back in time to study the painting techniques of the great masters. But he is bad at time travel (yes, literally), so he accidentally flies through the tail of Halley's Comet, which makes him 1) 16, and 2) blue.

Then this happens:

Let's unpack this.

1) Superman was the inspiration for Thomas Gainsborough's "Blue Boy," because he at this point is a boy, who is dressed in the mostly-blue Superman costume. ...But also because his skin is blue. You know. Unlike the boy in the painting.

2) Gainsborough uses Superboy as a model, in that he has him pose, holding a hat. But the boy in the painting is wearing a completely different outfit of rumpled velvet. So Gainsborough just did the complex outfit from his imagination, but he needed Superboy to show him what a boy holding a hat looks like? What bizarre level of "master artist" is this?

3) He doesn't paint the Blue Boy's skin, because Superboy has blue skin, and that would be too weird. And while he can obviously do imaginary clothes fine, he needs another model with normal-colored skin to do a face and a hand. ...Even though he only chose Superboy as a model in the first place, partly because he has blue skin, which makes him a 'Blue Boy,' which is what inspired the whole painting in the first place. ...Except he never intended to actually make the Blue Boy blue-skinned. So...

Adult men with families and mortgages wrote this.

After this, Superboy flies back through Halley's Comet's tail, restoring his age and color. Then he goes to visit Rembrandt, where Rembrandt ACTUALLY DRESSES HIM IN A PERIOD OUTFIT, to use him as a model for one of the figures in "The Night Watch". Because Superman is so muscular.

Because, as everyone thinks when they see that painting, "Man. That one guy in the hat is buff as shit." (?)

Notably, yet again, the painter doesn't paint Superman's face, this time because a officer of the REAL Night Guard paid to have his portrait put in the painting. But I guess that guy's body wasn't all swol and hot enough for Rembrandt's painting...of that specific guy.

"WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GETTING THE POLICE TO ARREST THE MOBSTERS RUNNING A SCAM ART SCHOOL??"

Good goddamn question.

Superman comes back to the present and creates perfect forgeries of the two paintings he was inexplicably involved in creating. When the mobsters try to sell them as the real paintings, Clark Kent shows up with the cops and points out how the forgeries aren't actually perfect, he made them slightly different to prove they were fakes.

And this somehow is a crime the mobsters get arrested for. Instead of Clark Kent, who very obviously painted the forgeries so that these guys could sell them. Like, that was their plan, that the heretofore whatever Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent is suddenly such an amazing artist that he can make near-perfect forgeries of great paintings. And Clark went along with it, until he stopped. And this finally proves their art school is a scam. Even though the building they are in literally has trashcans full of art submissions they have thrown out once they take the registration money out of the envelopes. And all the secretaries working for them know the whole plan and have been helping them do it.

I'm not inferring that. That is all specifically shown in the comic.

None of this was necessary. Absolutely none of it.

On the plus side, at the end, the Daily Planet hires that kid to do his monkey comic. But just the writing, because Clark still thinks his art sucks. Jesus Christ, Clark.

Here is an ad for a hobby model of what was at the time an 11 year old station wagon.

I'm not being sarcastic! That's what their ad copy says! That's how they sold this!

There is also a Letters to the Editor feature, which I didn't take a picture of, because they print everyone's full names and hometowns. Yes I know even those kids are probably dead now, but I'm not going to chance it.

At any rate, about half the letters are children telling DC's editors that these Superman stories are stupid and full of inconsistent nonsense. To which the DC editors reply by defensively snapping back at them.

So it's not just us, as adults, now.

They knew. Everyone knew.

#silver age comics #superman #dc comics #comic book

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buildthoughts · 7 months ago

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Snifferish Builds #1

Taking a dip into modded minecraft with Sniff's latest video! Specifically Chisels and Bits, which will probably show up in the future as I enjoy rats smp.

The windows and the moss and the wisteria on Sniff's cottage really show of the artistic strengths of the chisels and bits mod. Using round windows in contrast with the dramatic sharp shape of the roof helps push the cozy vibe. The lattice designs on the circle windows is so neat and keeps the pattern from becoming too repetitive. Sniff added a tiny stained glass arch above the door which adds a ton of personality to the build. Having windows cracked open and the wood chopping log also add extra life to the cottage.

Just inside the door, there's boots, a hat, and a backpack. Sniff built this cottage for themself and these extra lived in details add to the feeling that Sniff actually lives here.

Cozy is the game with this interior and I wish I could live here. Plants in every corner and a big bed with a library on one side and a sunlit art setup on the other? Dream Home.

Sniff's attention to shape and weight when it comes to sculpting cloth, like those curtains, is admirable. I love the pattern on the carpet but I'm pretty sure that's a default from one of her mods since Sniff didn't mention designing it (and she noted when she was bringing in previous models they've made like the bed). Sniff mentioned they like high ceilings, which was why they didn't do an attic. For my own person tastes, I'm more torn. Sniff ended up doing a loft which I think looks stellar, but the a-line ceiling in this section of the house, I'm less a fan of. I don't think I've ever lived somewhere with an a-line ceiling, so maybe that's why it feel off/unfinished to me?

Kitchen is cute! Love the stove, fridge and shelving! I like that the sink faucet's gold color matches the detailing on the stove/fridge. But something about the sink isn't doing it for me. I think it might be because its the least textured spot in the room? But porcelain is smooth, so a texture wouldn't make sense. I'd be curious what adding a little lip around the edge of the sink would do? It'd probably be too bulky and throw off the scale.

I just noticed that the stove wall is a different texture than the one by the sink. That's an interesting choice. In this image it didn't feel right, but I watched back her video and it looks a lot more cohesive in motion and adds some nice warmth to the room.

I couldn't get a good screenshot of the loft, but I loved the inclusion of a book press and the art desk. Adding a railing for safety, also very good.

A lovely build. The colors are warm and earthy. Chisels and Bits builders go off.

#mcyt #snifferish #chisels and bits #modded mc #mc builds

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4th-make-quail · 8 months ago

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Big Bang anon here! I was just looking for some challenging event to participate this winter, and wanted to know your opinion because you have a lot of fandom experience! And YES I also noticed that a lot of Big Bang challenges currently are like "minimum word count is 5k words", and no shade to mods but that's not a challenge skdjdhdjl

Do you have a favorite fandom event type? Care to share your best fandom event experience?

Good morning nonny! Ahhh I see, okay I getcha!! There are quite a few longer word count fandom exchanges if you're into those, but the winter ones are already well in progress iirc!

One good place to check for events like this is fandom calendar on dreamwidth - people advertise their stuff on there regularly (no need to make a dw account to look at it either).

If you want a longer event, I have a few friends who do the three longer minimum word count exchanges and they have fun, so here they are;

- Fic in a Box (fiab): a fanwork exchange with a large minimum gifting requirement and several unique features - this one is complicated, so check out the comm link! Unfortunately this one is well and truly over now, but it's there for next year - schedule is around August to September!

- Five Figure Fandom Exchange (fffx or fandom 5k): a multifandom gift exchange for fanfic of 10,000+ words, and for comics of least 10 pages or at least 40 panels. Currently ongoing, but there are pinch hits in need of picking up! Deadline is January 18th, so if you can write a pinch hit fandom, you could try that!

- High Adrenaline (previously Heart Attack): two weeks to write 10k (or draw a 25-panel, 10-page comic) and one week to edit. Noms open in January!

Completing all three of these makes you eligible for Triple Crown, which is a prize raffle for all three of these 10k exchanges.

For the next few months, most people will be doing Yuletide which I've talked about a bit here before, but it has a 1000 word minimum so might be of less interest to you if you wanted a challenge. Pinch hits for yuletide are being posted here this year, but there aren't any available rn, and as yuletide is for rare fandoms, ymmv as to how possible this is for you anyway.

The next thing I will personally be participating in is Candy Hearts, which is a valentines day themed low word count (300 words) exchange, schedule usually starting with noms in December. This replaces chocolate box which used to run at the same time, and it's really fun!

Others I usually do regularly:

- Seasons of Drabbles: new to me but very fun, has a new round every season! For strict drabbles specifically, currently in its autumn round so there will be a winter one to come I imagine!

- Goreswap: an exchange for gore etc, with genre type tags to pick. Schedule starts with noms in January usually! Not one I've done, but I have friends who love it and do it every year.

- Phoenix Down Exchange: my own full Final Fantasy franchise exchange, set to start noms in Feb as last year

- Rarepair Exchange: as it sounds, for rarepairs! Check the comm for definition of minimum fics required to be eligible. Usually starts around April

- Rare Male Slash Exchange: as rarepair ex above, but for m/m ships only and again with specific minimum fic number eligibility. This is older than rpe, but as it tends to run on a similar schedule (noms in May last year) I've not done it for the last two years

- Relationshipping: for incest ships! The last round was July to August, but it conflicted with other fan stuff for me so I didn't do this for a bit as well. Run by some very good people

Some others I know about from my exchange crew participing but have never personally done: kids come first (underage themed), consent issues (dub/noncon themed), trauma exchange (as the name suggests), trick or treat (complicated, I think halloween theme?? Unsure), nonconathon (dub/noncon, but with very fun freeform tags to pick and nominate), and then there are usually a hell of a lot of flash exchanges around as well, which run on quick turnarounds - you could try joining the Exchanges After Dark discord server, which is an 18+ nsfw server for exchanges. It's very big and has a channel for every exchange, so the best thing to do is mute them all apart from what ur interested in ime! It also has a fandomcalendar rss feed channel which could be relevant if u wanna see what's coming up!

As for your second question, my favourite fandom event experience is probably Unconventional Fanworks Exchange, which is unfortunately didn't run last year and I'm not sure if it will again 😭😭 its an exchange for, well, unconventional fanwork mediums, and I've had so much fun challenging myself in the two rounds I've participated in! They had things like newspaper articles, in universe academic documents, blueprints, paper dolls, all sorts! I'm hoping someone might take it over tbh, if the mod can't run it again.

Also, this year I did Small Web September for the first time and had sooo much fun! It's for working on any smallweb projects you might have; personal sites, neocities, coding etc. and it had a really great vibe, plus it was super fun seeing everyone's smallweb projects! Very inspiring!!

This ended up very long, but as u can see I am very passionate about these things! I run my entire fannish calendar around exchanges mixed with event weeks and I find it very rewarding - I'm always happy to introduce anyone to exchanges and talk through how to participate etc. so anyone can ask me about this at any time!

#ask quail #nonnybirds #yet more bfe thots!!#this makes me miss unconventional fanworks exchange..... weh #Lo! Too much information be upon ye!!

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aventurineswife · 30 days ago

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You know I always wondered how sapient life would react to the scale of a civilization so advanced that they could rage war against abominations of other dimensions.

Like not only imagine seeing Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep and not going mad, but also being able to challenge them alone and have a chance to beat them. They don’t even seem them as abominations anymore. Just another creature that’s just outside standard human logic, they make sense just not the sense we know. And I also came up with the idea of why both Eldritch abominations and this Ascended civilization interacts with the Hsr universe.

1. It’s simply another battle ground, that will inevitably be destroyed as a mere byproduct of their fights.

2. It’s where they try and gain more power, using lesser beings to try and have them ascend as well, becoming new powerful soldiers for them and finally-

3. They are literally just messing around with humans like “Oh hoho! These funny little meatbag’s are going insane just looking at me! Haha! Ahh…I love lower beings.”

Wait I just remembered another reason that I totally did not shamelessly steal from a Stellaris Mod.

4. Tournament of Power. The Advanced Civilization in particular needs the best of the best to act as a bulwark. The rules of simple, every civilization now must fight primitive versions of the civilization. If they manage to win? “Congrats! Here’s some of our tech and I’ll be seeing you in the 87th dimension!” If not? “Ah…how disappointing…oh well. We’ll come back in…20 millennia? That sounds fair? Well it is. When I was mortal-�� Que shameless bragging that’s basically grandparents going “Well in my day!”.

But yea, some more ideas from me. Also if you hadn’t noticed I am a big fan of Eldritch, high tech, and monster readers. I just find it neat and I hope you do too.

This is the kind of galaxy-brained, deeply chaotic thinking that scratches the best parts of sci-fi and cosmic horror at the same time. Like yeah, what does a civilization even look like once it's evolved past the point of seeing the laws of physics as optional and is now just casually beefing with interdimensional gods over lunch break?

The idea of people not going mad from seeing something like Nyarlathotep—but instead going, “Ah, yes. A fourth-dimensional neural construct with 900 avatars. Bit annoying, but manageable with graviton-null rounds.” —that’s such a perfect inversion of Lovecraft’s horror. It’s not that the universe got any less horrifying—it’s that humanity just got used to it.

It shifts the whole tone from dread to... cosmic workplace ennui. Like:

“Oh look, it’s the Corpse That Talks In Choruses again.”

“You mean Steve?”

“Yeah. He’s still mad about the last war. Won’t shut up about how we 'disrespected the outer veil'. Anyway, coffee?”

And your 4-point theory on why they’re even here in the Honkai: Star Rail universe? Genuinely has range.

1. Collateral Damage Central

“Oh, the Xianzhou Luofu got leveled again? Yeah, my bad. I sneezed in 11 dimensions.”

Just pure “we’re too big for this sandbox but we’ll still kick over your castles for fun” energy.

2. Gotta Catch 'Em All Ascensions

“So what if we recruit this mortal and he doesn’t immediately implode?”

There’s something wonderfully disturbing about eldritch warlords treating humans like gachapon pulls—some become gods, some just melt into goo, but hey, the odds are thrilling.

3. Trickster Gods with a Twitch Channel

“Let’s see how many of them scream when I phase-shift into their moon.”

It’s cosmic horror meets internet troll, and somehow that tracks too well. I can imagine some smug being live-commenting:

“Yo, meatbag #73 just tried to comprehend me. Poor bastard started bleeding through his socks. 10/10 reaction.”

4. Tournament Arc from Literal Hell

This one is just straight fun. Like, yes, pit the baby civs against their own future selves and see if they’re smart enough to punch their way into enlightenment. And if they lose?

“Sorry, kids. Try again in 20,000 years. Study harder next time.”

There’s a real darkly humorous undercurrent of cosmic bootcamp here.

Honestly, this whole line of thinking does what the best speculative fiction should: it takes the terrifying unknowable and reframes it as a new normal. Not comforting, not safe—but no longer the end of the mind, just the next page in the manual.

Also, yes, it’s extremely obvious you’re into eldritch, high-tech, monster-reader weirdness lmaoo—and yeah, I do think it’s neat. Not even in a “cool aesthetics” kind of way, but in how you're layering existential terror with humor, logic, and even bureaucracy. Like if SCP Foundation got folded into Mass Effect, then slapped with a Warhammer filter.

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heathensimmer · 4 months ago

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NEW 3T2 TRAITS MOD: Neurotic Reactions UPDATE 6

THIS MOD HAS BEEN RE VAMPED AND UPDATED 😃😃 go to my Tumblr. Its Update 6 now and includes Dishwashers.

I miss the Neurotic trait in Sims 3.

So, I set out to make them seem real and fleshed out in the Sims 2! Just as I am doing with the other traits.

As my new bio states, "I hated this world so much that I built my own"...

This is a new 3t2 traits mod! And I am the proudest of this one so far. I think it's personally the coolest thing I've done yet!

It's a small effect, but noticeable and I finally reproduced it this morning after trying to organically get a Neurotic Sim to break a toilet.

I also found it weird that no Sims react to the toilet clogging except an angry parent lecturing their child.

So this mod fleshes out a few things.

Unlucky, Absent-Minded, and Childish will have a higher risk of clogging the toilet.

Neurotic Sims have a new interaction! Well not really new... but...

There is an animation called "Why Me?" and I think it's hilarious. The Sim almost freaks out but then takes deep breaths and calms down.

I decided to add this to Neurotics who will do this animation if a toilet clogs after they flush the toilet and if their mood is low. It will also work if the toilet is already clogged by someone else apparently. There are other effects for the different age groups. They all will do a different animation if their mood is high. Their Comfort motive will also drop significantly!

Requirements:

Easy Inventory Check

I couldn't figure out if the animation is base game or not... Idk how that works so I'm going to just assume that you probably need Ultimate Collection. Hey, it's the best, so get it now!

The traits Unlucky, Childish, Absent-Minded and Neurotic and trait_MAIN from Hexagonal Bipyramid

Conflicts:

Any mod that prevents toilets from clogging like this: https://modthesims.info/d/83903/testers-wanted-no-clog-toilets-no-break-plumbing.html

Pescado/MATY also has a Plumbing - Less Breakage mod that won't work with this! If you're unclear, just err on the side of caution and load whoever's mod affects you want last alphabetically in your downloads folder.

This mod alters the following BHAVs:

Toilet-Flush Group: 0x7F16556B

UPDATES

Update 1 - made the other three traits less of a risk to break toilet.

Update 2 - I realized that Sims will always flush the toilet if they're Neat even if the toilet is clogged, which means Neurotic Sims risk tanking their Comfort.

Update 3 - Fixed an error

Update 4 - Added a new resource Interaction - Flush - Test! I actually fixed the issue described in Update 2.

Fixed this issue by simply making Sims not flush the toilet if it's clogged, which makes a lot of sense ...

I also am working on effects for the sink breaking and for the bathtub! I will combine them all but go ahead and test this one out in the meantime!

Link: https://simfileshare.net/folder/242742/

Credits: All Sims 2 modders, Hexagonal Bipyramid especially, and MAXIS. And also Echo on Mod the Sims.

HAPPY SIMMING!!

#sims 2 #sims 2 mods #sims 3t2 #3to2 traits project #sims 2 traits #sims 2 trait mods #sims 2 guide #sims 2 simblr #sims 2 gameplay #sims community #traits project

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silly-moth-123 · 3 months ago

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Vent

I'm actually kinda scared because I've seen so many websites fall apart and die and I'm worried about Tumblr bc it has all the warning signs

Big changes in ui, insane levels of censorship, and resentment from its userbase are the main things I'm noticing

And especially the censorship. I've never seen a single post with a content label on it before like yesterday and now I'm suddenly seeing multiple censored posts per day

And 90% of them are genuinely so confusing as to why they're censored. Like, that's literally just a drawing of Siffrin. The other 10% are also not explicit material but at least I can see how maybe an auto mod bot of some sort would reach that conclusion - like, a clay statue of a human, or a drawing that features a fat woman with large boobs. (Although so far I'm primarily seeing boob censorship only for minorities, with only one or two thin white cis ladies getting censored. But for that to happen they have to be wearing something pretty revealing, whereas anyone else would get censored as if it's a high school dress code). And the thing is, I have *never* seen actually explicit material face any level of censorship. Porn bots are still in existence here. And instead of censoring those, they're choosing to censor.... a completely innocent drawing of a banana peel????

And it honestly hardly feels like Tumblr with all this censorship. It's not that it didn't exist before but like- it wasn't as bad. @/certifiedsexed could post genuine and important information, @/our-queer-experience could reblog images of lesbians kissing, and that was great and amazing! But now I've seen both of those things censored. And it really makes me mad that this is happening.

And I just- I don't feel real on a physical level, and Tumblr is a digital environment, and so I kinda feel like Tumblr is the only place where I can really exist and feel real. Idk how to explain it very well but Tumblr is my safe space and idk what I'll do if I lose that

Also Tumblr's unique culture and linguistics have been a special interest of mine even before I was on this site, when I had just seen it as screenshots on Pinterest. And part of the reason why it's such a fun spin to have is because Tumblr is always evolving and changing and coming up with new jokes, and the magic of that is gone if Tumblr dies out. Then it's just frozen in time, there's a limited amount of information to learn about it, there's no way to fully interact with it, and it's just gone. It'll still probably be something I enjoy, but it'll never have the same feeling

It's not that I'm scared of the app just going away completely. I'm scared of the users slowly leaving and abandoning the site, which seems kinda likely and honestly is a fair decision if you're able to move somewhere with less censorship and I don't blame anyone, but still it makes me so mad that the Tumblr staff has to ruin the one place where I can actually be myself

And I mean. This is all my very hypothetical fears. None of this is guaranteed to happen. It's just a little nagging thought in the back of my mind and I'm a little scared of it

Most of my other socials are in my pinned post, and my discord is "hazelnuttree." including the period at the end. Just in case. Again I don't necessarily think this will happen but the what-if's are scaring me

And I wish having a backup plan to talk to my friends was enough to calm me down but it's not. Because even if I can still talk to my friends it'll be different. The kinds of interactions we get to have in the tags of a post or via askbox or by adding on to a post the other made can never be recreated on another site. And like- it's still better to be able to still talk to them versus not being able to at all, but it'll be different on another site

Idk. I wasn't really worried about it when I started seeing all the posts about it until I started seeing so much censorship and now I'm a little more concerned. Especially since my dpdr is getting more consistent and extreme and the only place I can feel real is online, and Tumblr is by far my favorite place to be online and I don't want to lose the one place that helps me through really bad dissociation

Idk. I mean- don't be too worried about me or anything, I'm safe and okay. It's not like Tumblr is the only distraction from my dpdr it's just the most effective one. The other thing that helps is engaging in fictional media, which is great but the big difference is that on Tumblr, it's about *me* and I actually exist, versus media I don't exist at all. Both are comforting but in different ways, and it would suck to lose Tumblr

Idk I'm just scared

#vent #vent post #long vent #you can ignore me

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our-transmasc-experiences · 4 months ago

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i have a random question because i'm not really sure if this is a thing that other transmasc people experience I guess? i haven't really considered myself that dysphoric, because i don't really feel any dysphoria when i see my own body like unclothed or something but maybe it's because i'm used to it, but if i can see any of my i guess more feminine features when I'm wearing clothes like maybe my shirts a little tight and i can see my chest then i feel super insecure/dysphoric? idk how to explain it but like i feel super uncomfortable when i feel like i look more feminine

That’s so understandable, to be honest! The level of comfortability I have with my body fluctuates a lot, but sometimes I feel like I’m gonna be comfortable with dressing femininely and then start feeling really uncomfy the second I’m wearing feminine and/or form-fitting clothes. Usually, when I can’t bind (I generally can’t at school, because it limits my mobility and breathing during PE), I wear high-impact sports bras, because even though there’s little-to-no compression effect, they make me feel like my chest is less noticeable. I also go for baggier shirts, darker colors or really chaotic patterns (both can conceal curves), and layering!!

Having minor or no dysphoria, or dysphoria that only acts up under certain circumstances, is honestly so real and relatable! I hope you can find some good strategies for managing it, even if other folks think they’re “weird” or whatever; I think I can speak for the mod team when I say we’ve all got your back and we’re here to offer more tips if/when you ever want them!!

-Mod 🐾!!

#transmasc tips #transmasc chatting #ask answers #mod 🐾

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josiesaltzmanstyle · 10 months ago

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1.06 Mombie Dearest

It’s giving Sky (TM).

Josie starts off the episode in this Ted Baker London sky-blue ribbed sweater. It has a sewn-in white scalloped collar and white cuffs, and hanging white fabric at the bottom that gives off the illusion of being a full undershirt. It’s reminiscent of the Modcloth sweater she wore in 1.01, though the psuedo-undershirt and the keyhole at the back of the neck are distinct details that make it feel less mature. I’m biased, not being a fan of either of those details in general. The illusion of an undershirt is a detail I generally do not love in blouses; I think it looks a lot 'cheaper', for lack of a better term, than simply wearing an individual undershirt or having an undershirt sewn it. I think it could work for a different character, but something about it feels a little off for Josie to me. BUT, also, she tucks her shirt into her skirt here, so it's not too bothersome to me. It's not really visible.

Another fun Saltzman Twins Style Note: Lizzie is either wearing a blue twist-tie crop top or bra/bralette under her white netted tee, and the shade is very reminiscent of Josie’s sweater.

One fun thing about this project is how much more I’m noticing these fun coordinating moments. I’m curious about whether they talk about coordinating like this, or if they have a siphon twin psychic sense that influences choices like these on occasion. I’d imagine a mix. Regardless, it’s fun to see common threads (🧵) between their relatively disparate styles—so far, Josie leans vintage/mod-influenced, and Lizzie trends modern but often more casual. It's noteworthy to me, too, that Josie is in her school uniform - we'll see a glimpse of that signature plaid skirt in just a minute, and the Salvatore S is pictured above, emblazoned onto her sweater - while Lizzie seems not to be dressed to be going to classes. Interesting to note, given Josie being presented as the one that's a little more 'studious' between the two of them.

No clear shot of her shoes, but Josie has a classic/adorable knee high socks thing going on, too.

She has also been experimenting stylistically a little the last few episodes, this color palette and generally studious look is (perhaps refreshingly?) a return to form.

Lots piercings, once again, but unfortunately hard to make out.That's an interesting styling choice to me, though, that even in some of her more traditional outfits, she tends to wear multiple earrings in one ear. It's a detail that somewhat contrasts the more studious persona she's often trying to present.

Later, we get a repeat of Josie’s pajamas from 1.02 as she’s helping Lizzie get ready for their sweet sixteen party, her hair pulled up in sensible ponytail. Not much new to say here, particularly because I still can't pin down the specific items for how generic they are. But it is interesting to note the contrast being made here - Lizzie complains that Josie's not even dressed for the night yet so that the narrative can highlight that Josie's been helping Lizzie get ready for their party at the expense of getting herself ready on time. It's also interesting that we don't know how this happened - is this a regular occurrence/something that they both just presume will happen? Did Josie start getting ready and pause when Lizzie needed help? (I actually feel pretty confident that she did - her makeup is done. Which, I mean, her makeup is always done, it's a CW show. But her hair is pulled back in a way that would be really efficient for doing her makeup, and she has different earrings than the ones from the day in.)

Obligatory talisman moment. I naively assumed that this necklace was custom-made for the show, but it's actually this necklace named "Adventure" from Pyrrah. According to the description, "The ship featured on this talisman represents adventure, while the anchors are symbolic of safety and security. Elephant trunks signify good luck. The caduceus is a symbol of Hermes, the patron saint of travelers." While not exactly what Hope describes (a charm to "make quiet things heard), it still seems appropriate for a character whose arc is so wrapped up in repression vs. expression, self-discovery, etc.) Particularly interested in the adventure/patron saint of travelers aspect, given when Josie makes her last appearance with it.

It costs a pretty penny, and there seem to be limited quantities left, as the item has been archived, but it's out there, for what it's worth out. (I'm on a grad student's stipend, sadly, otherwise I would be more seriously tempted. The details seem really intricate.)

She's also sporting what looks like a golden/bronze tie-on charm bracelet in this scene, but alas, I can't find it anywhere. Still, I find it interesting - I don't believe she wears it with her day outfit, but she is still wearing it when she approaches Jo in her dress. It's very pretty and feels a little more whimsical than her usual fare re: accessories.

What I love about Josie’s party dress—its timeless, classic, and elegant nature—also makes it hard to narrow down. I found a few options that it may be, but realistically, I’m not sure. (Am I mad at myself for being able to find so little this ep? Yes. Alas, if I keep letting that stop me, I will never finish this project.) If I had to guess, I would say I think they may have gotten this dress from a bridal shop and altered it somewhat.

I also usually try not to color correct quite so much, but this shot called for a little more, as Legacie's often skewed-green filtering was washing out the color, making it hard to tell the dress is pink.

Anyway, Josie is sporting a pale pink, gauzy dress with a sweetheart neckline. It's one of the looks that stands out to me most from season one (though maybe I just like formal wear), making me a bit said that we never get a particularly great shot of it. The one above is probably the clearest shot, but I wish we could have closed in on it to see some more detail, and seen it in better lighting. Alas, alack. The bottom is also cascading and a bit purposefully-torn looking (I don't know a better word for this, unfortunately), giving it almost the air of a dress from a fairytale.

She's also taken her hair down (though she seems to have perhaps curled it?) very specifically so she can ask Jo to braid it. It's very wholesome.

More readily visible here is that rhinestone belt Josie accessorizes with. (I didn't color correct as heavily again with this one, so you can see how much the lighting/color grading affects the look of the dress lmao.) It adds a bit of modernity to any otherwise very classic look. I'm also inclined to think it's either sewn into the dress itself, or is a cuff of some kind, because it doesn't extend to the back.

Instead, there's a white, silky looking bow on the back! It's simultaneously very classic and traditional while also coming off a bit young/juvenile, perhaps emphasizing the vulnerable position Josie finds herself in this episode.

Not pictured because we never get a great shot of them, but I would bet my life the white wedges she's wearing in this look are Aldos.

I know this is a series on Josie’s style and I keep bringing up Lizzie’s too, but I often find the comparison adds something interesting to the conversation! It’s fascinating to me (especially in an episode so focused on the differences in and unspoken but real tension between Josie and Lizzie’s wants and needs) that their different style preferences are SO on display in their birthday outfits. Josie’s dress is classically feminine and princess-like with a sweetheart neckline, whereas Lizzie’s bright blue fringe dress and white faux-fur shrug is reminiscent of old Hollywood with a modern it-girl twist. The differences in their personalities couldn’t be more on display here and given the content of the episode, I imagine that’s intentional. I also find it interesting/notable that Lizzie stays in-color theme with what both of the twins were wearing earlier, while Josie shifts away from it.

After getting buried alive, I think I'd probably feel the need for a shower, too. There was a LOT of dirt involved.

Her white tie robe looks fairly basic/standard. I think we may later see her in one that has the Salvatare 'S' emblazoned on, but this one doesn't seem to.

Not easily seen here, but if you pay close attention in this scene, she's still wearing the talisman Hope gave her underneath. <3

As Josie and Lizzie and Alaric say goodbye to Jo before the twins siphon the magic keeping her 'alive', they've both changed into much more casual clothes - Josie wearing grey sweats and a (very dark) blue sweatshirt, Lizzie in a red hoodie. VERY fair, considering the day they're having. It's interesting that they've switched color schemes, with Lizzie's red a deeper, warmer variation on the pink from Josie's dress earlier, and Josie's navy sweatshirt a similar callback to Lizzie's blue. Very ebb and flow of them. Also noteworthy, Josie's put her hair back up after her shower, whereas Lizzie has let hers back down.

Once again, if you look closely, the chain of the talisman is still visible underneath Josie's sweatshirt. I keep on noticing it because it seems like the type of thing she would normally take off for a shower or getting ready for bed, leading me to wonder if it's helping her feel safe, given what Hope said earlier about it helping them find her.

That's a wrap! I'm a bit disappointed I could only really find one item with this episode, but ah, well. You win and you lose some. As always, if anyone has any info on them, feel free to reach out so I can edit/update this post, and I'll be happy to credit you.

Favorite outfit:

Did you even have to ask?

#legacies #josie saltzman #josie saltzman meta #legacies meta #josie saltzman style #1.06 mombie dearest

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