#Thoughts & More

[floralmemorials]

Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day

March 29 is Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day. It was on Mach 29 , 1973 that the last of the American troops were pulled out of Vietnam thus ending our involvement in the war between North and South Vietnam. These very young men were drafted or voluntarily enlisted in the service and fought for what our country ask of them. It is fitting that they be recognized for their service. If you know a…

[jade-len]

Tired, 39 year old Shen Yuan is constantly nagged by his parents about giving them grandchildren. At a certain point, they were done with begging for him to marry a nice lady and just skipped to pleading for grandkids.

While the idea of having a child does make his heart yearn in a way that will definitely be dangerous if thought about for too long, he just doesn't have the time! No way! And what kind of father would he be, secretly reading cheesy, terrible webnovels in his free time? Which, mind you, is rare nowadays. He'd like to spend that valuable time getting rest via napping, thank you very much.

So what if Shen Yuan's heart swells when he sees his students run up to their parents with adorable, toothy grins? So what if he treats his class like they're his own children from time to time, spoiling them silly and proudly wearing the badge of "Best Teacher!" every year? So what if he wants a child to call his own!?

To love and care for a child, Shen Yuan has accepted that it would simply be a privilege he'll never experience.

...Think, think! Don't get so mopey now, Shen Yuan! Try to outweigh the baby fever with the pessimism you (slightly) obtained from your mean older brother!

How about this: There'll be no time for himself, none at all! Just more and more work. Come home from his job, dealing with a bunch of rowdy kids to find your own permanent little monster running around the house! At least he's getting paid for the first one!?

Shen Yuan had seen those videos and posts of kids accidentally exposing their parents embarrassing tendencies. Knowing him, his hypothetical child would have piles upon piles of blackmail on the Shen family's youngest son! Leave this old man alone, alright? Non-existent dumpling, theoretical baobei, please don't be so careless with your father's reputation...

(It would be careless too, to become a gaping hole in the heart of his child. Wouldn't it be selfish to have one, only to die a few years later?)

Over a decade ago, believe it or not, this esteemed Mr. Shen had gone by the shameless persona of "Peerless Cucumber" on the internet. He'd been an infamous anti-fan of the male power fantasy stallion web-novel series, Proud Immortal Demon Way and would leave scalding essay-length comments and posts ranting about its terrible plot point and flaming the author for his awful characterization and overall writing. That era of his life was when he actually had the time to stare into the digital sea of texts and write entire documentaries as replies for twelve hours straight. Fortunately or unfortunately, Shen Yuan doesn't have the same luxury as of now.

Despite the constant hate spewing from his younger self, present-day Shen Yuan is honestly very impressed by the constant thousand word updates every day. Honestly, looking back, how did that man accomplish that? Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky, dear author, are your hands okay? Youthful Shen Yuan's hands cramped all too much from simply typing up angry comments, now imagine PIDW's author??

Aaah, yes, the former hater Peerless Cucumber had long forgotten about PIDW. The author mysteriously disappeared one day, leaving Luo Binghe out on his own for more wives to dual cultivate with as Shen Yuan had realized his passion for literature (and critique!).

With a newfound, realized passion in his heart, Shen Yuan went off to actually pursue the college education his parents had very lovingly saved (and were ecstatic he was actually using) and became a literature teacher! NEET 21 year old Shen Yuan would be quite astonished to see this dignified Mr. Shen now, yes, very much so indeed.

Now, Shen Yuan.. doesn't quite remember PIDW all too well. He begrudgingly admits that it holds a dear and special place in his heart, but in all honesty, Shen Yuan can remember merely a handful of the wives and plot points. Ah, this is what happens when you actually get a life, interesting! Clap it up!

The most Shen Yuan remembers is the stallion novel character, Luo Binghe. His favorite, and - he really can’t stress this enough - an absolutely wasted potential of a character. Shen Yuan may be an older and wiser man who doesn't waste constant time on the internet like before, but that only means he actually has a degree to be critic. Serves all of those self-righteous, questioning commenters right from all those years ago! Look at him now!

Importantly however, Shen Yuan also remembers just how badly he wanted to coddle the protagonist, blackening or not, pre-abyss, post-abyss, even as a demonic tyrannic emperor! Can you believe that none of Luo Binghe's wives wanted to squeeze his cheeks and kiss his forehead!? Master Airplane, throw in some fluff, will you? Spare the poor boy from all of these succubi (metaphorically and literally) and let him take a nap! Ahhh, who really cares if Luo Binghe has a kingdom he needs to take over? Throw a blanket on him! Cranky, old Mr. Shen knows the feeling of being terribly overworked, so imagine how the protagonist feels!? Shen Yuan nods his head approvingly at the thought.

All of those mistresses flocking over to Luo Binghe... If Shen Yuan were his guardian, he would kick them all out without a second thought in place of good family bonding time.

Women, power, sex... really, what's needed is a loving father who'll coddle and take care of Binghe when no one else can!

So, Shen Yuan guesses he shouldn't be surprised when he wakes up in the body of Tianlang-jun.

[anewp0tat0]

I've been thinking recently, so here's a headcanon:

when Ciel is in a moment of distress, near panic attack perhaps, if someone were to reach out and touch him so that Ciel could feel their skin, his distress would be amplified. however, he does not react that way in response to a gloved hand reaching out for him. in fact, it is almost soothing. afterall, the hand that has comforted him for the past almost 4 years has been gloved. so if he was ever conditioned to fear all touch, that behavior eventually went extinct.

[z0mbiefrank]

do you ever wanna listen to a song "organically" so you play the entire album to build up to it, then when it finally hits it feels even better??

[becca4leafclover]

What if Pix the Copper King and Pix the Archaeoloist are the same person?

The Copper King disappeared before even hints of the Rapture started to emerge in ancient times. He was a figure of great knowledge, wealth, and mystery, and one of the most respected, if distant Emperors of the time.

His Empire, known at the time (but likely not before or after it) as Pixandria, worshipped death. The center of their civilization stood a monument known as the Vigil: a remembrance of all those that died in all the Empires, at the time of everyone else's memory. Only some drawings and paintings depict the Vigil now, for most of Pixandria at some point was buried by its sea of sand.

But it is said that despite being the one to tend to the Vigil the most, and hold some of the most sacred duties of it, the Copper King did the unthinkable, and denied death to his fellow Emperors. He uncovered a magic forgotten for a reason, and traded it with those rich enough to afford it.

And for that, he was punished. So they say, at least.

Since he denied kings and queens death, death shall deny him his eternal rest, until all those that paid him repay their debt to the afterlife.

The Copper King then fled into the desert, and was never heard from again. Not even as the Rapture claimed the mainland Empires, as his city was swallowed into the sand. It's possible that he died along with the rest of the great powers at the time, and "equally as possible that he still wanders the world in a self-imposed exile..."

Pix set down his pen and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He gets tired of writing out this same story every once in a while, honestly. It's the accepted history yeah, but sometimes it's a little frustrating to make out the Copper King as some shadowy, potential evil figure who abandoned everyone just before their moment of need.

He looked out the window flap of his tent at the rising sun. Oh, it was morning already? He slid his chair out from his desk and stretched his back from writing for probably too long for what's considered healthy.

But when he went outside, the golden sun beams creeping over the mountains illuminating the highlights of the leftovers of Gilded Helanthia were a nice wake up call. He had a lot of work to do today- excavate more of the farming district, feed the dodos, oh yeah and Lizzie stopped by the other day wanting to trade slime for froglights again, right?

And of course, Pix had his other type of work to do today. A favor, for some old friends.

He knew the truth, written in between the lines of his ink. Maybe it wasn't quite a curse placed on him. Maybe Pixandria wasn't as buried as they thought. Maybe he didn't want to leave his friends. Maybe not all his friends ever died, same as him. Maybe his friends never left, and needed someone to guide them.

Oh, goodness me- Is that a FACE on Hermitopia?!

[amplified-pain-culture-is]

my rheumatologist told me that her treatment plan will "cure" my AMPS, do you think that's true or BS lmfao (i definitely think the treatment could HELP but cure is a strong word,,?)

.

[flash-from-the-past]

Cake Mania

[seithr]

Another day i shall be spending the whole day Out and am thus unable to draw anything. if only you guys knew. I have so many thoughts. I can imagine anything 👉😎

[salmoncakepls]

:0

[breadandblankets]

Honestly Barbara is lucky with how corrupt Gotham is, in no other city could they pull permits to do the huge electrical upgrades necessary to support Oracle to a building like the Clock Tower

[floralmemorials]

A Quiet Hillside in Kansas

I went to Coronado’s Castle just outside Greensburg Kansas recently and this quiet beautiful cemetery was next to the castle entrance. First I should explain that the castle was built during the 1930s as part of a WPA project and Coronado had nothing to do with it other than to use his name. The cemetery is along a rolling hillside and even had a few cattle grazing at a distance.

[bmpmp3]

I NEEED to go back to making art that makes it ABUNDANTLY clear that theres something wrong with my brain BUT NOT in a cool or stylishly interesting way. i need to do it in a way that makes people say "hm." and walk away

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also given that the logic of said superiority authoriority is an entitlement to deny someone's personhood & use them as an object for your purposes, from obviously getting to direct what they must do & can't do, to enjoying whatever gratification from lashing out / demeaning which is also going to serve as an affirming exercise in authority when one can do that from an insulated elevated place....a crucial part of whatever form of this violence, from the most nanoscopic triangle in the sierpiński triangle pyramid scheme hierarchy, to the hypothetical largest (zoom in or out to whatever degree: the same shit also), being that indeed the superior parties need the deserved insulation from any Consequence to exerting their superior status, including indeed from having to witness the consequences For the "inferior" parties, such as whatever externalizations of suffering they recognize as such, which either (a) need to be put away (b) are manipulative performances or otherwise exaggerated (e.g. being a pussy / not even having the sense to realize how little suffering they're Really experiencing) or (c) can be fun to witness if you decide you enjoy that as an affirmation of power as per your ability to completely detach from any avoidance of causing pain, harming for its own sake, b/c you Can

all which is to frame how Interesting it is that after all those moments of going "well, they keep bothering with reaction shots of winston noticeably feeling hurt & expressing it, sometimes also verbally. it's like it could be setting up something" it set up Nothing; while once again just like has been done dozens of times a scene just Ends on winston being rejected &/or hurt, no resolution then, no resolution ever, and in the case of 7x03 was so significant an attack that just like in 4x11 when mafee gets to take out his own Loyalty Insecurity on winston while everyone else hangs around in tacit to overt approval, everyone just leaves the room & we get winston staying behind in the Most distant position aaand scene's over! thread's over! david levien get back here after you Liked that 4x12 livetweet of mine pointing out "so see & winston was right anyways??" like....that is: we are given the Perspective of someone who is also now Leaving winston behind, thus immune to the consequences of however that treatment could actually affect him or how he might struggle to deal with that now (who cares! the answer is: Alone) like Whatever, next time we see him he's completely fine now. and i'm just so happening to think that all the little moments of getting to see winston wither & withdraw & etc in reaction to being shitted on was also us being granted the perspective of Gratification that he's punished for speaking or existing or whatever, without it ever going anywhere or mattering beyond that instant. we too are the ones who surely get to relentlessly bully the autistic person & damn if we don't at least enjoy someone getting to go off the rails restoring their ego by doing absolutely whatever they want to him, which just so happens to be perfectly aligned with getting him Back In Line. pull yourself together winston! the only consequences you're experiencing we wanna deal with are the ones where you give us the algorithm we decided we want, actually. and now let's look across the rest of the season where the consequences for wags for being this way (or anyone else for standing by, ready to benefit, with philip bafflingly declaring as well how actually it was brutal in a good way) is approximately fuckall even as of course nobody's pretending he's one of the personal growth guys out here: rian is though, and didn't have to "grow" out of abusing winston or thinking that was fine & good or that of course she's inherently superior! and in the end we have more affection and interest for the Epic Asshole than their Cringe Targets

[puppy-the-mask]

Slamming my hands down on the table-

Ok so good news and bad news. Good news I have more writing. Bad news is its a crackship between Amp (Horrorfell!Cas) and Huntsman (lmk)... I call it ✨FeralFangs���

Huntsman laid in wait deep in the dark forest, waiting for his prey to show itself and trigger one of his traps. Lo and behold the indicator strapped to his wrist vibrates and one of the dots on the map pulses that it’s been triggered.

With a silent grace and fervor only attainable through years of hunting in such terrain, he closes in on the clearing. He knows his charge could escape in a moments notice so time was of the essence and he had to forgo some of his stealth to make it in time.

As he approaches the trap he sees a figure caught by the leg in his snare, its signature jacket’s hood pulled up. With a feral grin he pounces- tackling them to the floor.

“Aha! Gotcha-!” He pulls their hood away to reveal a dummy and his eyes go wide. “What!? No!!”

He quickly stands and frantically surveys the area for any sign of where they’d gone while frustration boils inside him from getting played so easily

All of a sudden an instinct seizes his body, making him freeze as he feels a shudder down his spine. The shift in the air is tangible as predator becomes prey and he feels eyes bore into his neck.

In a rush of wind he’s pushed to the ground from behind and the breath is knocked out of him as he feels a weight settle on his back. A light puff of laughter rings in his head right beside his face as he flushes from both embarrassment and another emotion

“Hehehehehe, Gotcha~!” A soft raspy voice sing-songs in his ear. He feels speechless for a moment before regaining his composure and scoffing

“That was a cheap trick!” The giggles grow louder as the figure releases him and he turns around to scowl at the one who’d bested him

“It was an effective one.” Amp smugly replies, still sitting proudly on his legs.

The two stare at each other in silence, Huntsman’s embarrassed scowl deepening as Amp’s delighted grin grows. He just wanted to win their game one time!!! He was supposed to be the best hunter, it was in his name!

Suddenly he gets an idea, a smirk flashing across his face before he pounces- pushing Amp off of him and onto the grass behind her, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight and in a tangle of limbs the two wrestle in the grass. Shrieks and laughter followed the two as they struggled back and forth in the clearing, one pinning the other only to get thwarted and shoved away for the cycle to continue.

Finally the couple collapses onto the ground next to each other, staring up at the sky and breathing heavily. There was dirt on their clothes and leaves and twigs in their unkempt hair but the smiles on their faces made it all worth it.

Amp looks over at Huntsman’s face for a moment, admiring it. Then she flips over, crawling closer to rest her chin on his chest and look up at him.

“So…” She trails off, huntsman lifting his head closer. The air grows thick with a different kind of tension and she can feel his heart beating

faster under her head. The tension stalls as she suddenly breaks out into a sharp-toothed grin “you hide and I’ll seek?”

She laughed at Huntsman’s expression, getting up and running away as he chases after her

“So is that a no-?! Oop!” She calls over her shoulder- narrowly avoiding a shot of web.

Sure she could just kiss him, but a deal was a deal. They’d agreed that if he caught her, he’d get a kiss. And as she hears him grumbling and giving chase behind her she can’t help but laugh at the irony of his own bet keeping him from getting what he wants

After all, there were only two unwavering truths anyone who crosses her path knows to be true. That Amp always held to her bets, and that nobody has ever caught her

Luckily for him she’s already decided that she’ll cash in a few of the small favors she’s racked up playing these games with him on something the both of them can enjoy… or that she can tease him with. Maybe both, who knows!

[icantalk710]

🥱