#I'm so bad at these

[ariianashq]

still pinching myself over all that's happened to me since 2024. the award nominations I've received over wicked is blowing my mind, and now I can say oscar nominated? it doesn't feel real. what's the best thing that's happened to you since 2025 started?

[captainsparklefingers]

people I want to get to know better 💌

I got tagged by @mareastrorum, and I'm never good at remembering to do these, but this time I got it.

LAST SONG? Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat.

FAVORITE COLOR? Yellow and purple, with pink close behind. I like pastels :)

CURRENTLY WATCHING? Dimension 20 Misfits and Magic, so I know what's going on in the new season. Also, Kaos on Netflix.

LAST MOVIE? I don't know if it counts since it was in an MST3K episode, but Gamera vs Guiron. The NEXT movie is gonna be Beetlejuice Beetlejuice though.

SWEET/SPICY/SAVORY? Hard to say. Probably sweet, then savory, then spicy. But salty should be in there somewhere too, I think.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS? Single! Mostly happy with that, though sometimes I think it'd be nice to have somebody to snuggle and smooch and do nothing else with. Ah, being ace without being aro. It's not a struggle, but it is something.

CURRENT OBSESSIONS? Ignoring fandom stuff for the moment, I'd say outlining and taking notes/researching for Unhappy Families. Aka, avoiding actual writing because I keep hitting walls and don't have a person to talk through them with, so I'm trying to force myself through them, and it's tricky. XD sorry, I'm talking too much again. I've been talking a lot for every question, actually, sorry. Next question.

LAST THING YOU GOOGLED? Priapus. It came up in a YouTube video I was watching and I got curious, so.

Uhm...I guess I'll tag @grayintogreen, @thehobbitwithstickyuppyhair, and @dent-de-leon? If you wanna? I'm never good at these things, especially this part.

[gongyussy]

good thing from jp twitter this week is queen of old man yaoi michiru sonoo discovering the term old man yaoi

update: somehow it got impossibly more wholesome

quick translation: おかえり: welcome home あ 終わった 終わった: ahhh, it's over! it's done! コーヒー? お茶?: coffee? tea? コ~ヒ~ ありがと: coffee, thank you~ ネクタイレア★★ ネクタイ取るレア★★★★: seeing him with a tie on, rarity level ★★, seeing him take a tie off, rarity level ★★★★ にあうな~: it suits him~

also please do follow: AraigumaSha: sensei's twitter account marureviere: maru, who does such valuable work highlighting bl manga for an international audience

[satturn]

star by mitski 🌠

[beif0ngs]

THIS SPECIFIC SHOT OF JINX HOLDING ISHA TIGHTLY IN HER ARMS, AND SEVIKA INSTINCTIVELY USING HER ENTIRE BODY TO SHIELD THEM FROM THE EXPLOSION HAS A COMPLETE AND UTTER CHOKEHOLD ON MY HEART 🥺💔

I SWEAR IF ANYONE HURTS THEM I’M GONNA 🔪🔪🔪

[jue-jack]

Kirby is a star!!!

[pangur-and-grim]

one thing that took me embarrassingly long to learn is "sometimes when people say things, they will not be true."

I used to tell people about this revelation and they'd be like yeah.....duh.....but like, why wouldn't my base assumption be that you're communicating to me in a straightforward manner. anyway, I get scammed a lot.

[demaparbat-hp]

Existential Nihilism Squad™

[inkskinned]

the tradwife movement is the same as it has always been - back in the kitchen, back to breeding - it just has better branding.

when i was younger, i hated pink. i was not like other girls. this is now something i'm embarrassed of - this was not me being a "girl's girl."

but it was expressing something many of us felt at the time: i literally wasn't what girlhood was supposed to be. this is a hard thing to explain, but you know when you're not performing girlhood correctly. it isn't as easy as "i liked x when girls liked y" - because there were other girls that liked x, too - but i never figured out exactly the correct way to like x, or to be interested in y.

now there is the divine feminine. this is the same rhetoric it has always been: women are biologically driven to like pink and ribbons and submitting to our husbands.

the problem is that the patriarchy found a better PR team. because yes, actually, i want every woman to have the choice to be a homemaker. i also want her taken seriously for her legitimate home-making labor. i want her to be recognized as also having a job, just unpaid. i want men to have this opportunity, too.

but it is no longer "i made this choice and I love it." instead it is a sixteen-paragraph rant about how selfish it is that my generation isn't having kids. instead it's long videos about how if you feed your children processed foods, you're going to kill them. instead it is "this is what womanhood is supposed to be. i feel bad for any other choices you're making."

the shame spiral is just prettier. it is large houses devoid of personality. it is the implication: if you don't have this, you aren't happy. the solid, everlasting assurance: women are actually supposed to be submitting. this is the default. this is the natural state of things. all other attempts inflict suffering.

but you can no longer say i'm not like other girls. you can no longer reject this image completely. you cannot find it revolting, even if you know that the underbelly is toxic and festering. sure, it is the same repackaged patriarchy. but the internet does not have shades of grey. you should support and reward other women! your disgust is actually internalized misogyny. not because you are seeing a vision of yourself the way they're trying to train you to be. not because you feel her ghost pass within an inch of your earlobe. not because your father will eventually ask you - why can't you be like her?

because they figured out how to make it beautiful: women will sell other women on this idea, and we will find the singular loophole in feminism. sure, she's shaming you in most of her videos. sure, she implies that a different life is obscene. but she just wants you to be happy! you'd be happier if you were listening!

and the whole time you're sitting there thinking: i'd actually just be happier if i had that kind of money.

[xamitras]

For many of years I had this tradition of drawing Wirt and the beast once a year to see how much I have improved, then depression hit in 2023 and couldn't continue, but it left so really amazing art in the process

[honnojis]

bunch of dandadan stuff i've drawn/pixeled lately! figured i'd compile it all in one post rather than posting all of them separate lmao

[palarien]

sketched this out at jury duty actually

[artkaninchenbau]

A h-heartfelt reunion..?

Bonus

[dunmeshistash]

I've been thinking about it for a bit (and it's probably obvious) but did you notice the giant frog and the tentacles are basically clown fish and anemones? I only realized once someone pointed out to me that the giant frogs have clown fish colors.

And then I realized the tentacles are also classified as "anthozoa" in the AB which is the the class anemones are a part of

The comment about nematocysts is also how it works for anemones, Kui draws a pretty cool graph of how it works too (a little different real ones but conveys the idea well)

I just always thought that was a pretty cool detail that I missed for a while! It's very cool how inspired by real animals Ryoko Kui's monsters are, I'm always amazed by how much sense they make.

[egophiliac]

I'm still processing 7-13, in the meantime have this super quick thing! of all the things that happened that I didn't expect, one of 'em certainly was a not insignificant subplot revolving around Silver unintentionally committing international mail fraud.