#I’m getting off topic sorry

[animationismycomfort]

finally got to play undertale on my PlayStation

I’m very happy :)

[milkcioccolato]

Now, we need to have a serious discussion

Actually no, it’s not a discussion. I’m going to speak and you’re going to listen

It has come to my attention that my ship might be problematic to some because the characters had little crushes on eachother when one was around 18YO and the other around 16YO (characters that will not have a relationship with eachother until they’re both into their 20s)

If you think something like this hurts your sensibilities and you find it gross, please, PLEASE block me

I don’t like having the same conversation thousands of times with people who think they’re these knights of political justice that get so inflated in their "goodness" And being "morally better" Than anything becomes a fight, even stupid fucking things that no ACTUAL REAL LIFE PERSON WOULD FIND PROBLEMATIC!

I need some of you to engage in the real world a bit more and stop eating up every single things these moral paladins feed you as "problematic" and "weirdo behavior" and things like that

Someone can dislike you without being a "narcissist"

Someone can tell you you’re wrong without "gaslighting you"

Someone can definitely make a comic about two TEENAGERS having crushes for eachother without being a "proshipper"

You look ridiculous. Live in the real world please.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

do u think either charles or erik had trouble coming to terms with their love for one another?? like religious guilt, internalized homophobia, etc.

Many such cases really … not hard to imagine them dealin with that …

[m1d-45]

Okay last little idea and I'll leave you be for a bit

Xiao actually responding to the names the creator gives him. Little Friend, Pretty Bird, ect. No matter how far away you are, if you call those names, he has to stop himself from turning into a bird and flying away at that very moment. Those pet names are as much his name as any other he's kept.

-sibling anon

me when xiao

in his time with you in his adeptal form, xiao has never told you his name.

and yet, he still hears you.

if he’s in the area and the wind brings him the softest call of “you here, little friend?” he morphs in an instant, instinct taking over as he flies to your summons. he ducks through the trees, landing gracefully in your outstretched hand, meeting your wide smile with a chirp.

“there you are,” you mumble, and he ruffles his wings in an approximation of standing straighter. he is here. for you.

he’s commonly perched on your index finger, or your thumb if he’s eating from your palm. you only feed him simple almonds, yet it tastes of a delightful meal, energy coursing through his body. he’s careful not to nick your skin in his eagerness, but nobody could blame his enthusiasm if they knew what he felt.

by sitting in your hand, he is rested. by staying at your side, he is healed. he still upkeeps his duties, ever vigilant, but he’s quicker now, spurred on by something—someone—to return to. his place is at your side, and he hates keeping you waiting.

even when he has to.

xiao crossed his arms over his chest, staring off at liyue’s plains while he waited for the traveller to finish talking with… whoever. he honestly wasn’t paying attention. all he was there for was the lost adeptal artifact that the commissioner had promised he had, and then he would be on his way.

the man said something with a tilt to his tone. the traveller laughed. xiao grit his teeth.

“friend? little buddy? where are you?”

the call pulled at his soul as every other name he held, and he itched to answer.

paimon made a comment, an ooh! tossed somewhere in the middle, and xiao snapped.

“can we wrap it up? this is not a proper use of an adeptus’ time.”

the man swiftly apologized, handing over the totem, and xiao all but snatched it from his hand. a ‘farewell’ may or may not have slipped from him in time for the traveller to hear, he wasn’t sure. all he knew was that one moment he was dropping the totem off at his room at the inn, and the next he was leaping off the balcony, shifting mid-air to fly towards you.

he let out a loud cry when he spotted you, tucking in his wings to dive. you saw him and held out your hand, a motion so familiar that the actions to land were muscle memory.

he flared his wings, slowing his fall, flapping once, twice, before settling on your index finger. your thumb reached up, as it always did, and he leaned into it, repressing a coo at the feeling of it smoothing over his back.

“there you are, my pretty bird. where were you?”

a shiver rolls down his small body at your words, and he hides behind your thumb. you had many names for him—little friend, blue bird, simply blue—but pretty bird?

your pretty bird?

he’s hot in a way he can’t identify, a melting mix of emotions filling his chest. pride, admiration, adoration, even, all blurring into a messy film that covered his mind.

you turned towards your camp, keeping the hand with him perched close to you. “doesn’t matter. you’re here now, pretty bird. i missed you, you know.”

and you missed him?

xiao’s known for a while that the one on the throne wasn’t truly his god, but now he’s wondering if you were. the swell of confusing feelings was proof enough; were you anybody else, mortal or immortal, god or adepti, he’d have surely struck you down for your behavior long ago. cooing over him as if he were a mere household pet, feeding him scraps of crushed fruit, calling him such names as ‘pretty bird’- he’d have morphed back the second he was strong enough, held his blade to your throat and called you insolent and ungrateful. he’d leave you with a scar, and yet here he was, apologizing for the one he did leave in any way he could.

you carefully poured some almonds pieces in your palm, and he shifted to your thumb as you sat. were you anybody else, you would be dead. but your eyes are still open, carefully watching him, and your heart still beats blood. he can feel your pulse through his claws, sometimes, and often finds his own slowing down to match it.

you had an adeptus eating from the palm of your hand, and yet you were none the wiser. you simply propped your head in your free hand, a gentle smile on your face.

“my pretty bird,” you said quietly, and xiao’s eyes closed of their own volition.

yours.

[the-bi-space-ace]

There’s been some discussion recently about the subplot of bullying in The Bad Batch and I had some thoughts so I decided to write them out to discuss them.

I wanted to bring up some things that maybe can put together this disconnect we seem to see between the show The Bad Batch and the show The Clone Wars and maybe explains a bit about this whole bullied versus bully concept.

To me The Clone Wars paints a very different picture than The Bad Batch in a way that only serves to make the lines blurry and make the viewer think (perhaps not their intention but I think maybe they fell into this more on accident). The Clone Wars batch rolls in with a reputation that’s already not too great. Jesse even says it: it’s not that they win. It’s how they win. The batch is known for dangerous stunts that put other people at risk. They don’t always think through their decisions outside of themselves. Then we get this scene of them walking off of the ship and they are very arrogant. They show off, they talk big, they don’t exactly give off ‘approachable’.

We get into the mission and Jesse, in particular, is not a fan but it isn’t very aggressive yet. Crosshair is being confrontational - staring Jesse down, making snippy comments, and being an overall ass (I love Crosshair, don’t get me wrong, I’m just talking about what I observe in this introduction). I think it’s because he senses Jesse’s dislike of them and wants to poke at it.

We’re not off to a good start.

Where I think the batch fails in this episode is letting Crosshair insult Rex and further goad Jesse. Crosshair shouldn’t have said half the stuff he did and Jesse (and later, Rex) are justified in hitting back at him.

They’re soldiers. They’re going to get in each other’s faces if someone starts talking shit.

When Jesse scolds Crosshair - I think Kix is somewhere standing in the background but not directly involved- Wrecker steps in and turns things violent.

It’s not a moment I’m most proud of them. It’s actually one of the moments I’m least proud of them. Crosshair and Kix get into it when Crosshair shoves him for trying to help Jesse and Rex is attempting to get Wrecker to let Jesse go. This escalated quickly and I’m not sure I can say that this was justified. It seems like a big jump to me (but maybe someone disagrees, feel free to, I’d like to know someone else’s thoughts).

In this episode we’re really led down one path that says the batch and other clones don’t get along and from this limited perspective in this episode it seems like the batch are instigators. They roll in, avoid consequences for themselves, and roll out without giving anyone else a second thought.

The Bad Batch tv show paints an entirely different picture and it is definitely to make them more likable and relatable to a young audience. Every kids show has the character that’s an underdog, it’s who we want to root for. It makes the people in The Bad Batch’s age range connect with them more and I can’t exactly blame them for writing it this way - although after seeing the batch in the clone wars it does make me sigh a bit, I won’t lie.

I was bullied as a child. Quite severely, actually, so I find myself justifying the disconnect with a few things. Perhaps the batch puts up a front so they push other clones away before it can happen to them. I’ve done this. I put on a really abrasive attitude to keep people away when I was in high school and I regret it. However, I got over myself as I got older and worked through my own issues rather than blaming other people. Because you have to. It’s not alright to continue to hurt other people because you were hurt and I remind myself of that every single day. It’s the only way to move forward. I never have to forgive people who have hurt me but I can’t start using it as an excuse.

I mention this only to say that maybe their behavior in The Clone Wars was a mask built from past hurt and that could make sense to me. You build up walls when you’ve been hurt and you create behaviors based on experience. However, I still don’t think their behavior should be excused. I still think they escalated that situation far before anyone else did. In the same way I think Jesse made a lot of snap judgements about the batch and just kept finding ways to reinforce that judgement based on what he’d heard about them prior. And this snap judgment isn’t the best way to go about working with new people. It’s not an excuse, just an explanation.

I even think the batch’s behavior in episode 1 of their own show kind of contradicts some of their behavior in TCW. Particularly Crosshair. Crosshair doesn’t engage in the cafeteria until he absolutely has to while in TCW he is the primary instigator. We can try to explain this by saying it’s because his chip activated and his personality shifted. I just think it’s something worth pointing out.

I’d also like to add that of course the batch are the primary instigators in The Clone Wars because the clones we knew and loved in that show are technically the heroes of the episode. Of course they’re portrayed in a better light. It’s the same as the batch in episode one of their own show. Of course they’re portrayed as the ‘good guys’. It’s their show. To me it’s less of a character moment and more of a way to get the viewers of the show to root for somebody, whoever they want us to root for in the moment. The Bad Batch is told from their perspective so they are going to be the underdogs while The Clone Wars brings the batch in as outsiders to the group and gives them a more aggressive interaction to further our already beloved character’s narratives.

This was a very long way to say, I’ve always been kinda meh about the whole ‘the batch is bullied’ subplot and I tend to avoid writing it in my own fics because I think there is inconsistency with the writing between the clone wars and the bad batch and this can possibly be boiled down to a few things like different writers on the creative teams, an uncertain future, and wanting to paint certain characters in certain lights because of the show they are on. Rather than actually being a truly defining character arc it is a tool, as most writing is, it’s just not a tool I particularly care for in this story. And while I do think there are inconsistencies I can piece together some things to explain it if I really want to. I don’t think one side is right and one side is wrong. I think there are a million explanations for hurt on both sides and we decide it for ourselves because neither show truly made it clear enough for me to draw any lines in the sand. (And if you’ve been reading my stories at all you know I love a good grey area so I probably wouldn’t draw lines at all.)

I always try to be fair to everyone when I write stuff like this so I hope I’ve covered all of my points well enough. There are plenty of things to say about this topic and it has been talked about a few times recently in other posts that you can read. Tagging 1 by @laughhardrunfastbekindsblog and 2 by @gars-technician because these two posts inspired me to write this.

I’d definitely encourage open discussion here if anyone wants to chime in 😊 while I know we might all have different opinions I’m certainly willing to hear them as long as everyone is respectful.

[quibbs126]

You do Oc x Canon child?

Well...

Can You can do a fan child of my oc Starlit Choco Cookie with Dark Choco Cookie!

[My first ever requesting a fanchild]

Sorry this took so long, but I finally got around to finishing him, this is Dusk Choco Cookie

…Okay I’m gonna be honest, I mostly finished him up because I felt I needed to keep drawing today, and he just needed his outfit finished. So in all honesty, I don’t really know/remember what his personality was. And unfortunately my old notes don’t have anything other than him being a guy

Well, I do know he’s a swordsman like his father and grandfather, and he’s the quiet sort. Despite this, he’s not really similar to them in personality, though I don’t know how to describe how he differs other than he focuses on his individuality more than anything? Like yes he’ll protect his home and people, and he enjoys doing so, but he’ll only rule out of obligation, not because it’s something he aspires to do

He’s very fond of gardens as well, and finds fireflies quite beautiful, because they’re like little living stars. I don’t really know where he’s living, whether it’s the Dark Cacao Kingdom or not, so I don’t know how often he’s realistically seeing them. Though most likely he is living there, so floral gardens are probably more of a rarity. But maybe that’s why he treasures them so

Currently he travels the world, looking to hone his skills (though thankfully not looking for any cursed objects of power)

And I think that’s about all I have for him in all honesty. Sorry, it’s really not much, especially considering the wait time (I mean it’s only been a few months, as compared to others, but you know)

Well anyways, on to design things

Dusk Choco technically isn’t named after any specific food, more like dusk and also chocolate. His mom’s name is Starlit Choco, so I figured it should be star/night themed, and Midnight Choco I had already saved for my Dark Cacao/Moonlight kid, so I ended up with Dusk Choco. Doesn’t really mean anything, but I think it sounds pretty nice regardless

I came up with the hair long ago, so I don’t really remember the process behind that. Today’s sketch work was mostly the outfit, which I sort of ended up centering on the belt and gauntlets I had already made prior

For some reason I decided to look up 500s England outfits for potential inspiration here. Not really sure why other than one of yesterday’s Transformers episodes taking place in that time period with Arthurian legend, and Starlit Choco giving me vaguely fantasy England vibes when I looked at her. I do get it’s entirely wrong to Dark Choco’s theme though

But I mean, I got some neat looking outfit ideas out of this picture, so I used it for some basis and went from there, mainly the bottom tunic and the side cloak

I also want to say I got some inspiration from this one outfit I have tucked away somewhere in my photos for Dark Cacao references, but I don’t know how much it came through

The pin for his cloak was originally supposed to be an Oreo piece like his dad, but I didn’t like how it looked, and I eventually instead changed it to be a rose like his mom

I wasn’t really sure how to do his colors other than blues, but I gave him the silver because I thought it looked good with them (also Midnight Choco was blue and gold). The pinks were originally a gold-ish color, due to me looking up pictures of dusk and seeing some yellow in there. But I thought it clashed a bit too much with the blues so I tweaked it to the pink it is now

Honestly I think I like the pink, and it and the blue cloak kind of reminds me of the Sleeping Beauty dress colors. Which I think kind of fits the vibe I was going for?

But yeah overall, I don’t think he turned out horrible. Maybe he could have been better, but I still think he turned out alright as he is now. Maybe a little too European though

But yeah, that’s Dusk Choco. I hope you at least enjoy him!

[spicyicymeloncat]

You ever think about how whenever you hit a female character with the “buff, smartass, takes no shit, is never vulnerable” gun you might accidentally be reinventing the “tough guys don’t cry” mentality which is part of the reason why men have shorter lifespans than women.

Being vulnerable isn’t inherently female but you’re hating it for misogynistic reasons anyways and it helps no one on the gender spectrum.

[yuripira4e]

I want to preface this post by saying that I love the cat king as a character, especially one that has such a major impact on Edwin and his relationship with his queerness and learning to be okay with it; HOWEVER, I also believe that everyone that genuinely believes he should be a love interest for Edwin should read this. (Also if you just like the cat king as a character and want to understand his character better and why his and Edwin’s relationship is not something that would be healthy or “real” for either)

[eebi-after-hours]

do NOT let Blanche get into the X-ray glasses jar!!!!!!!! /j/ref

[skiinedknees]

IF I SEE ANDREW DRAWN AS A TWINK ONE MORE TIME.

[persephoneprice]

just a random lil thought but I've been thinking a lot about education in the Capitol recently. Coriolanus mentions the Academy as the finest secondary school in the Capitol, and I kind of see the Academy as a private school equivalent. I think the Academy probably has a primary school too that is much smaller and much more exclusive, which allowed all the 'old' and important families to get to know each other as kids (such as the Snows, Cranes, Ravinstills, Creeds, Dovecotes, Cardews, Prices etc etc) before the school opened up to a wider selection of students in secondary. Haha, would love to hear your thoughts on education in the Capitol and how even that is sorted by class (as it is in our society too). Maybe some kids even have student loans for university?

i always pictured the academy to be more of a private-school type situation where only these truly elite families attend! but then it was pointed out to me that actually there’s around 400 kids in each year at the academy. that’s a pretty massive school!

it’s still described as “anyone who is anyone” attends but it really makes me question what level of important you have to be to attend- because with that many students i’d wager you don’t have to be super elite and important.

but it also makes me wonder how many other school there are in the capitol (and do they compete in sports or other activities?)

i really like the idea of the primary school being much smaller and attended by those children who are truly ultra-rich and elite! i agree because i think the ultra-elite wouldn’t want their young kids mixing with ‘lesser’ children before they’re ready.

coriolanus talks about how important the connections he’s made at the academy may be to him in the future. he also talks about how if he can’t attend university he may have to get a ‘low-level city position’. this is interesting to me because is he able to get these jobs because of his connections or are these just the typical jobs offered to people who graduate from lesser schools? and what other jobs are offered in the capitol because he does say that capitol jobs are hard to come by.

if the jobs are so hard to come by then how are so many people graduating and entering the workforce every year? there must be other, ‘lessor’ jobs for all of these people- particularly the ones who aren’t elite and can’t afford university.

anyway, i apologize i’m getting off topic. back to your point about student loans- i actually don’t think that’s an option? at least, the way i interpret the way coriolanus describes it- he isn’t able to attend university unless he’s able to come up with the money to do so. (which again makes me wonder- are all those other schools kids just entering the workforce post-graduation? and what are they doing?)

i’m not surprised in the slightest that education in the capitol is primarily tied to status and money because that’s pretty much the way it is in our society. if i had to guess- i’d say even the 24 mentors spots are tied more to money and status then to academic achievement.

i’m going to go back off-topic again under the cut-

but snow talks about how being in debt is historically a ticket to being a peacekeeper. i can’t help but wonder what true poverty looks like in the capitol. what if someone lost their housing and cannot get a job because they cannot afford to go university to get a good position? is being unhoused in the capitol an option or are you automatically going to end up as a peacekeeper (or an avox)? what if someone in the capitol is living with a serious mental illness and is genuinely unable to support themselves? what becomes of them if they can’t support themselves but they also aren’t able to be a peacekeeper?

are people who live with smi locked in an institution? killed? i don’t see how in tbosas there would be enough resources for the programs needed to adequately support people who are truly in need. so where does that leave people?

[jgffkek]

this song is so yazov core like AHHHHH idk I’m Thinking about him a lot

[sebbyisland]

how to get my beloved family member to back off the bioessentialist gender bullshit just a little.

[lesbianfakir]

I love when I’m released out into the wild and I’m a certified #girlfreak then I come back to tumblr and there are 10 other people even crazier than me on my dash to greet me

[ranger-danger]

Talking about stardew valley romances is so awkward. My friends are like “oh I love [every single guy, and Haley, but Alex]” and I have to go “oh I like Alex and Maru the most.”

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

Silly Game Time: What was the most recent internet search you're comfortable with sharing?

Ooooooo

Okay so I’ve been really interested in gothic architecture recently, so I’ve been trying to do some mild, just a little bit, research into that. I’m really curious how goth has gone from that to ya know the music and style and such we see today.

Sadly, I got distracted and haven’t learned anything.