#I wish it was a little easier

[not-terezi-pyrope]

I feel like I'm less engaged with broad scale social struggles these days, and it's because, well, I am. Don't get me wrong I still pay attention, have opinions, do what I can if small choices are available in the course of life. But there was a time where wanting to combat the world's evils was a major factor in my life planning, and now it's no longer that.

The fact is that it's just too much to grapple with, and I've realised at this point that I'm a small fry compared to the fires raging outside my bubble. I don't think that any impact I personally could have feels worth the damage it'd do to my mental health and psyche to throw myself into activism. Yes, I know that the efforts of many small fries make a movement, but I have to think from my perspective as one person who does value herself, weighing that heavily in comparison to the fraction I am of any group whole. My priorities these days are in securing a good life for myself and those I care about, as best as I can, within the domains I can more directly influence. Try to find happiness, income and a home for me and my boyfriend, sustain fulfilling connections and seek sources of joy.

Does this make me a worse person? A callous onlooker not doing enough to push back? Some people would say so. It certainly is a position that indicates privilege. But as I say, my actual potential impact as an individual is small enough that it doesn't cause me enough disquiet to change tack. Thinking small scale has helped me. It has made me feel less directly helpless.

And that's another reason I don't feel overly guilty - because I was forced into that position. Because the struggles of our current world - especially as a trans woman in the UK, and with shaky mental stability at the best of times - burned me once too many already. Confronted with almost apocalyptic inhumanity and lack of hope in the world at large, on so many fronts - I think I have a psyche that has to retreat from that to stay sane. To compartmentalise at least a little. To focus on my own life as things fall apart beyond my walls, and hope for better but not fight for it, because honestly I don't think my fight will really lead to things changing in any way that's tangible.

Maybe some people are the type who can fully take up that fight. I don't think I am. I'm just tired, and I think that it needs to be accepted that that's just the way some people are. Or if you hate me for it, that's fine. Hold that disdain, just please, if you respect my humanity, leave me be. I do feel guilty, some. Just not enough to overcome how tiring it felt to try to push back.

It may be a privilege, but honestly nobody should have to fight all their lives. It's not a fair default state.

I do my best, in a few small ways.

[lazylittledragon]

do any other artists feel like. yeah you're a 'good artist' because you draw things that look nice, but like. TECHNICALLY? you're really not great

i really hate that i can recognise that yes, my art is good, but is it VARIED? is it dynamic?? is my anatomy good? is it full of texture and colour theory? do i know how to do This? can i do That? no, not really. and that's quite painful actually

[ramshacklerumble]

Party at Ramshackle..? For…who…?

Set to Home Screen: Sit with me.

Home Transition 1: I haven't had a birthday since I was a kid, I hated them. No, this is different. It's nice.

Home Transition 2: Here. We made a bunch of rock candy at the Science Club. Mine are the pink ones.

Home, after login: The guys worked really hard to make Ramshackle look good, come see.

✨NEW ✨ Home Transition (Groovification): Ace’s birthday is two days after mine. He’s trying to convince Riddle to hold an unbirthday party tomorrow.

Tap Home 1: Deuce bought me a new journal. Looks fancy, like a tough field journal with a waterproof pen. He noticed my old one falling apart, I guess...

Tap Home 2: Got a big prickly pear cactus from Jack. He looked at me weird when I said I like'em grilled.

Tap Home 3: Ortho gave me my own Duel Beasts deck since I always borrow from his cards when we play. He has a ultra rare for me, but I gotta beat him first.

Tap Home 4: Epel carried in a huge crate of apple cider. Uh, for me. Not the party. I drink it by the bottle.

Tap Home 5: Kingsley and Sebek both gave me books on flora across Twisted Wonderland, but at different times. They can be so similar sometimes. ...Don't tell them that.

✨NEW ✨Tap Home (Groovification): I’m smiling? Yeah, I do that sometimes.

DUO MAGIC: You got this for me, Grim? / A good boss'gotta take good care of his henchie sometimes!

tag list:

@cyanide-latte @inmateofthemind @tixdixl @blithesharem @thehollowwriter @jovieinramshackle

@theleechyskrunkly @skriblee-ksk @boopshoops @the-trinket-witch @twistedwonderlandshenanigans @kimikitti

@felix-cant-ski @nightwingshero @water-writings @beneathsakurashade (dm to be added)

[icewindandboringhorror]

I made a few new wax seal stamps out of clay (like the ones I did for my worldbuilding stuff forever ago), this time just of random symbols that I thought might look good done in the style of painting over the raised part of the wax or etc. :0c Some of them aren't carved deep enough to really show up that well, but overall they worked okay for being clay lol

[skullfragments]

That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish," what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.

i'm back with the sillies!! they're smitten, i believe :)

i still have a bunch of scenes i want to draw so stay tuned for more princess omens!! (this one forced its way in front of 2 other WIPs oops)

[abyssal-ilk]

thinking about if the blight ghilan'nain infected herself with hurts. or if there was any fear after she became mortal, any new enhancement of pain or feeling with the loss of her archdemon. would it of been the blight killed her, eventually? if lucanis did not? or if not killed her, would it of corrupted her to the point of being mindless, driven only by the blight she tried to tame? would elgar'nan have lost his sister no matter what?

[kit-kat-jo]

i really need a cyn au badly guys. just imagine. uzi eats the solver, tessa’s body fades away but cyn is left behind. her core is intact and completley void of the solver, it’s in uzi now. her eyes are white because uzi sapped away the yellow in hers. cyn’s still small and her limbs are still janky, her movements shakey, even moreso without fleshy insides weighing her down. she doesn’t have a voice, or at least forgets how to talk for a while, because the solver has been talking through her for so long. she has a horrible, horrible time, dealing with hazy memories of things she wasn’t in control of, of horrible things the solver did through her, all the souls trapped within that died by her body’s hands. n and uzi agree to take her in, to help her through it. v adjusts as she learns that she’s somebody completely different, apart from the solver, someone she never truly knew. she becomes n’s little sister, but for real this time. she becomes all of theirs.

someone help make this au with me im so srs

[virgothozul]

I-

hum.

[lorillee]

in honor of kakashis birthday i thought i might as well finally release my half finished mini concept of "inverse lost tower where baby kakashi comes to hang out with shippuden era team 7. Badly" because obviously baby kakashi seeing his older self have relationships and happiness that baby kks doesnt think he can or deserves to have pisses him off on such a fundamental level hes so filled with rage he barely knows what to do with himself. not to mention that adult kakashis general outward lackadaisical demeanor also makes him angry because how can they have gone through all the same things and yet he still doesnt take anything seriously etc etc u already know all this. regardless the issue more than anything else was that im not much of a writer so i could never get the words to feel right so it'll probably stay unfinished forever, but take these anyways

[jasperyourmutt]

zonked out on the dog bed snoring up a storm. you come over and rub the soft spot on the top of my nose. i let out the most contented sigh

[skitskatdacat63]

I don't know what compelled me to make this but now it exists

[rawwithlove]

🖤✨🤍

[sparklecarehospital]

Sometimes I wonder how I'm ever gonna be able to work on the other Spinch stories I have, I have so many ideas for things but only so much fixation power

[magnolia-sunrise]

(both Wolfgang and Élise use they/them pronouns only)

[kitten4sannie]

[pleasedontcareaboutme]

It's missing my father hours rn so imma just dump a bunch of pictures here and cry

( sorry i don't know the source of anything I just had them on my phone)

(also dont read the tags i just need to let it out lol)