#YELLS AT THE SKY

[fisheito]

Sooo what do you think of the new Yakumo?

i'm going to tear him apart

i'm going to tear him apart

i'm going to rip him to shreds

oh look another collar for me to yank

oh look another set of elaborate decorative chains for me to yank

every circle on that outfit is a marked target and things SHALL be stuck in them

your ankles are forfeit. give them to me

[attroxx]

your kiss trope.

The Signed With a Kiss. Every letter needs a signature, right? While simply signing their name is common, sometimes a character feels that it's not enough (or they'd rather leave their name off the letter entirely). So they decide to sign off their letter by leaving a kiss mark at the end of it, with or without their name or signature. Though this is especially prevalent with love letters (or even affair letters) given the romantic nature of the content, a kiss could be left for several reasons by several different types of characters, such as from a secret admirer or a seductress's personal signature. There's usually a romantic connection between the sender and the recipient, so these exchanges are popular between partners or love interests.

[dentalcaring]

honestly this professor has made me place a LOT of mistrust in white academics who work with indigenous people. he is constantly going on about how many local native folks he knows, how much he works with them, how much he ~learns~ from them. but i think he—and a lot of other white academics— get a little bit too comfortable in our spaces.

as an academic, you can dedicate your whole life to working with indigenous communities, learning from us, befriending us, etc, but this will never, ever equate to being native. you will never truly understand what it is to be native. you will never be able to speak on our behalf. you need to become comfortable with this. and not every native person is going to take kindly to your presence, understand or WANT to understand your friendships or professional relationships with indigenous communities. it still doesn’t make you native. you still can’t crack jokes like we do about our struggles, (especially when instructing or trying to teach other white folks) because even if you are our friend, it’s not your joke to make. you are punching down.

i don’t care how many books you have read, how many classes you’ve taken. you will never understand our lived experiences. you will always be white. be okay with that. it’s not shameful or bad, it’s the truth. take accountability for what your ancestors did to my ancestors, what your kin do to my kin now. and for the love of god don’t speak over indigenous people.

[angeloftheafterlife]

ASKING FOR THEIR NUMBER IS WORSE 😭

[in-lemonade-skies]

yeag,

[curenicoart]

Precure Leaders (2004-2023)

it took me a while to finish all the pieces, but I'm so happy how they turned out <3

[thundergrace]

Reese's trade successful!

A big Angel fan account asked their followers to spread a tweet of the sign so Angel would see, so she was actually seeking the girl out after the game 😇🥰

[saintlethanavir]

Anyone else desperate to romance this old man?

[wisteriagoesvroom]

respectfully. what did McLaren put in the glow-up water

source: mclaren ig

[sleepy-bear-tm]

The kindest loves are the ones which wound the most.

[sky-scribbles]

All right, BG3 gang, let me tell you about the incredible, accidental drama that happened when I went to save everyone in the iron Throne.

I messed up my first two attempts spectacularly, so when I reloaded for my third try, I was resolved. I was going to stick with the results of this run, no matter what. The countdown starts; Karlach runs off to grab the Gondians, my Tav Wildshapes and goes sprinting away to save Omeluum, and Gale Dimension Doors himself and Wyll right to Ulder.

As the boys take Ulder back up the corridor, Mizora appears with her exploding spiders. Gale drops a Globe of Invulnerability over Ulder, and runs off to save the last few Gondians while Wyll starts mopping up spiders. ‘This is great!’ I say to myself.

Then the last spiders run into the Globe of Invulnerability. They can’t hurt Ulder, but Wyll can’t hurt them, and if Ulder leaves the globe, they can explode him.

‘This is not great,’ I say, as Wyll spends several rounds shoving spiders out of the globe so he can kill them.

I finally kill the spiders. Wyll and Ulder sprint for the exit. It’s the final round, everybody else is safe, if they can just make it to the ladder –

They are ten feet of movement short. Everyone who could possibly help has already taken their turn in initiative – except for Omeluum.

Omeluum can teleport itself and one other person to the submersible.

And I realise what I’m going to have to do. Mechanically, the choice is clear: Withers can resurrect Wyll, but not Ulder. And from an in-universe perspective, the choice is even more obvious. Even in a world where, as in my game, Wyll has broken his pact. Even when he’s resigned himself to losing his father. Even when he signed Ulder’s life away in the hope of being free. There’s no question what he’d do in that moment, is there? When the choice is Wyll lives, but his father definitely dies or Wyll maybe dies, but his father definitely lives – with a second left to choose –

Wyll would shove his father to Omeluum and say, ‘Go.’

Omeluum teleports Ulder to safety. The submersible leaves, the facility comes crashing down, and Wyll is gone. To save his father.

And you know what absolutely destroyed me? Because the dev team can't possibly think of everything, especially this extremely specific and devastating scenario I've just landed myself in... there's no change in the dialogue with Ulder once I resurrect Wyll. He still tells Wyll he’s ashamed to have his blood run in his veins. He still accuses Wyll, who just traded his life to save him, of running off to chase a devil and her power.

I cannot even begin to describe how devastating that was to watch. Because it made me think – would Ulder change his tune in that scenario? I don’t know if he would. Oh, he’d be shaken, for certain, as he watches Tav and the gang sobbing, banging on the submersible hatch. As the tadpole’s grip loosens, the awful realisation would sink in – my son, my son – but how long before he tries to shield himself from that pain? How long before he says to himself – even says out loud, to Wyll’s grieving, furious friends, he was not my son, not anymore – I saw his face, and it was the face of a devil –

And even after he knows the truth, and Wyll is back, what then? Wyll still drowned in fire and iron and water to save his father’s life, and Ulder still said, he was a devil, as if that made Wyll deserve it – and he can never, ever take that back.

(In sleepless moments, Wyll wonders: would he?)

[eirianerisdar]

Ted just said with his full chest that he "hopes the Imola cat is okay, I haven't seen him all weekend."

HE'S DEAD, TED

[whitebookposts]

I wonder do you think that, in the game world itself, older\veteran sky kids would look at the new moths that go through the new intro and land right at the aviary and be like "agh. moths these days, with their spirits that guide them by their hand and cozy nests. I bet they don't even go to eden every week, with these almost daily shards. back in MY days we weren't spoiled little brats, we learned everything by OURSELVES and survived just fine on a small island. that's why this new generation is just a bunch of snowflakes with new moth hair and pronounce."

[loudclan-clangen]

Alright, now I'm curious, what are the rules of StarClan's Oneway Dunktank? Are there cats who can't touch it (mediators for sure but anyone else?) Do healers meet there every half moon? They can sacrifice a life to speak directly to StarClan but what about other times?

(Also you're not gonna believe this, I looked up effects of crude oil exposure and studies indicate it may cause Anemia and low white blood cell count, so maybe she got a bleeding disorder because she can't stay out of the Forbidden Jacuzzi).

VERY LONG, LOTS OF TEXT, SORRY I GOT EXCITED TO LORE DUMP

The rules/powers of the Black Water Pool and Starclan are intentionally very nebulous. 1. Because I think starclan is more effective as a mysterious force than a clearly designated entity, and 2. Because I would like to have some flexibility going forward in the comic regarding the powers/rules of starclan. Here's what's clearly defined:

Any cat can touch the oil, like physically speaking. They will not just drop dead unless something else is going on that is worsened by the experience. But something may be worsened by the oil, especially if they are deeply exposed to it, like swimming in it or ingesting it the way one might if they weren't specifically trained in how to interact with it safely (like a healer or a leader). This leads to rumors of cats being cursed with terrible visions (hallucinations), disease (coughs caused by respitory damage), or wounds (chemical burns from prolonged exposure) because they touch the Black Water without permission. These could be actual curses from starclan, or they could be biological reactions to the oil, but that doesn't really matter because the cats believe that they are curses. (If that makes sense). For this combination of reasons, (religious belief and biological evidence), cats with open wounds, bad coughs, or who are actively pregnant are absolutely not allowed to touch the oil and are encouraged not to be near it. (Excluding dried oil worn by healers, we've covered in an earlier post that that is a stable form that isn't going to pollute others). This is justified by the healers as being times when one does not want to tempt death, and that being near the pool brings one's spirit closer to the dead, which is good for communing with them or asking them for favors, but bad when you are fighting for/actively creating life.

All of the leaders and their leadership teams have meetings staggered throughout the moon. Leaders and deputies meet on a full-moon, healers meet on a half-moon, and mediators meet on a new moon. (Gatherings also happen on full moons, just later in the day/night. The clans meet the leaders at the gathering place.) Healers might meet at the Black Water Pool but they do not always. Specifically, the Freezingclan healers refuse to meet at the Black Water, so if they want all of the clans' healers to meet they have to pick another place, usually the gathering place for simplicity. Since the healers can only commune with Starclan by sacrificing a life, they don't do it on a monthly basis and not meeting at the Black Water isn't inconvenient for them.

The healers (and leaders) can only speak directly to Starclan by sacrificing a life period. One of my biggest issues with the actual books is that speaking to Starclan is so casual that they constantly have to justify the cats not being able to in order to maintain any form of mystery or miscommunication, or risk making beloved characters look like jerks for not telling the living cats something important/make the entirety of Starclan look less powerful by claiming that they just "didn't know". My very simple solution to this is to put a layer of separation between them. In order to talk to the dead you have to die. This means that characters will only do so if they feel it is VERY important and they are certain that Starclan will give them a helpful answer, which they will not always do. (Why doesn't Wildfirecry ask Starclan how to cure Rosehippaw? Because he knows that there is a very high likely hood that the answer is "you can't" and then he'll lose both his daughter and a life that he could have used to help his clan in a more effective way).

Circling back to how normal cats are meant to contact starclan if they aren't allowed to touch the Black Water Pool by themselves, we finally get to talk about Loudclan burials! (This idea has been rattling around in my brain since the bonus art for Moon 18!) Okay, so: When a cat dies, the ground on the mountain is too hard and shallow for them to really be effectively buried. Due to this, the body is placed into a shallow dip dug into the ground and then covered by a pile of heavy stones in a make-shift cairn. The cairn discourages larger scavengers, like foxes or ravens, who might carry pieces of the deceased away, but allows smaller scavengers like mice and insects to eat away the fleshy bits. After a few moons, (during which family and friends are encouraged to keep their distance and learn to live without the deceased) when the scavengers are finished and all that is left are clean bones, the body is exhumed and repositioned so that the skull is left exposed outside of the cairn that covers the rest of the body. This is meant to allow cats to speak directly to the spirit of specific dead clan mates, though there is, of course, no expectation that the spirit speak back. (This is what we see Fiercestripe do in the Moon 18 Bonus Art). All burials happen in a field of forget-me-nots (small, blue. five petal flowers) as they cover the scent of decay, and therefore the cairns/graves are often decorated with them, along with other flowers or plants that may have been special to the deceased. Less commonly, a family member may ask to take a piece of the deceased from the cairn, such as a small tail bone or claw that they will wear to "carry the deceased with them". This is only allowed if the cats are known to have a close relationship, and is very frowned upon if the requestor is not a close family member or lifelong mate.

The major exception to all of this "Starclan is nebulous and distant" stuff is when I draw ghosts (like Bluepaw talking to Owlstar, which, admittedly, I drew before I had a good grasp of what I wanted to do with spirits and starclan). I know that it sort of negates that distance but... I just think it's fun. I think it's more fun to see what the spirits have to say (on occassion) than strictly sticking to never seeing Starclan outside of the Black Water Pool. So for those instances just remember that you, as the audience are getting sort of a third person omniscient view. You can see the ghosts but the characters in the story cannot (unless it is stated that they can due to like ghost sight or something).

Of course, as I said at the beginning, I'm trying to remain flexible, and I'm sure I'm going to break all of these rules at some point, but if I do my job correctly, then moments when these rules break should be important, and not just because I'm disregarding or forgetting them.

On a completely different note: You're not gonna believe this but I actually did know that! I did a decent amount of research into the effects of oil exposure when i was thinking up the Black Water Pool and yeah! It absolutely has played a part in Eklutna's condition. She's had hemophilia since birth, (which very simply means that her blood doesn't clot very well (for all of you biology nerds out there yes i know that it is rare for a cis female to have full hemophilia but it is possible if both of her parents had it)), but that has 100% been worsened by her love of swimming in "the forbidden jacuzzi". As long as we are sharing fun facts: exposure to crude oil while pregnant, while not always, can occasionally cause birth defects like weak lungs!

[feraltwinkseb]

August 27, 2023 - Zandvoort, Netherlands Source: Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images

[arecaceae175]

In the Heroes Legacy comic, Legend is talking about how heroes can rise from nothing and they should be very proud of who they are. He's the veteran adventurer, after all, and he's very proud of his work. They're all laughing and smiling after Legend's speech...

... Except for Time and Sky

Time's expression is harder to read, but he looks upset. He has a lot of trauma from his adventuring days that he's had to work through, and for the most part he has.

On this adventure, though, with this group of other heroes, all of his trauma and harsh feelings towards the sword and the goddesses is being brough back. He hates knowing there are others who had to go through the same things he did.

Sky... Sky looks angry. He's so so so angry with himself for allowing this to happen. He believes the curse is his fault, and he believes he is responsible for his brothers being forced to save their worlds because of his mistake.

Image credits to @linkeduniverse!