#add alt

[fractoluminescence]

So I still haven't found what I was looking for but here are some things I HAVE found

The one and only fursona(?) I ever created (accidentally. Drew the picture on the bottom left and felt a strong sense of kinship with it. It is both me and not me): the cowdog (not to be confused with the dogcow, that's an entirely different thing and isn't mine)

Fursona with a question mark because I don't know whether it counts if it's not anthropomorphic?

Fun fact: According to another doodle I found, it goes "moof". It/he

A poem that strangely kinda rocks (also from my late middle/high school days) WITH a melody (not gonna try playing it because parents asleep rn but will have to try to see what it sounds like lol)

The "Set the Clock" poem. Not sure if I've copied it anywhere else, so gonna keep an eye on this. This one I explicitly remember writing in high school

Some draft of "Rose Red Dew". I have better copies of this though pretty sure, so not really important to keep, but fun nonetheless

Some short story I wrote? Double-sided, don't remember the details, but it was in part about playing piano, and maybe grief? That sounds like middle school me, but might be wrong

Some other poem of mine, this one about moving too many times as a kid. Since it's such a mess to read, here is an excerpt that was my favorite from what I recall (with one revision from current me):

I was like a lost hiker Clambering inside Open-doored houses Gripping the backbone Of some windy mountain chain

And so I dreamt Of building a world On the inside of my mind Where lost souls could go For shelter and rest Just as I had taken shelter Inside other minds

Another poem of mine. I had just learned about stresses I think lol

A bunch of maps of Karakura?? Like I know why I have these but still find it funny (not sure if these are official or not btw, can't remember)

Random one-time OCs (with flower names for some reason, and random excerpts from poems of mine)

(Part 1 because I'm not done)

[ecruvian]

It's been a good morning.

The octopus is some kind of bureaucrat. The kid in the dress wanted to job shadow.

[fractoluminescence]

Last time I passed this test ⬆️

This time around (a year later) ⬇️

Lol. It seems I am unrepentant about selling my French soul to the English language 😭

@animedoragon

I got the Top 4.47% on this English Vocabulary test

[retquits]

1.6 is coming—see you march 19th!!! 🥹🌱

[autistickaitovocaloid]

Today in vc we discussed the concept of a gmod funeral so I drew my interpretation.

[fractoluminescence]

Prev's tags were informative

I think about this tweet all the time this is what gave bisexuals rights

[canonkiller]

so gaze upon this wretched thing and know that it is love

[sweatermuppet]

redesign for lesbian visibility week 🩷🧸🫶

click for quality (my shop) (instagram) (tip me) (shirts)

[morningsaidthemoon]

daydreaming..!

Also:

[fractoluminescence]

This is one thing I really like about Flight Rising. Many items are functionally near-useless - most of them cannot be swapped for anything (except occasionally a bit of treasure (main in-game currency)) or even used in recipes.

But man are the description fun to read.

To make my point, here are a couple of random objects (not cherry-picked):

Some add worldbuilding, some are downright puns, and some are...confusing in a mysterious way o_O; And some are just. I mean. I mean I could straight up use this as a writing prompt:

I don't know who's in charge of writing these, but man. This type of detail is what allows me to hyperfixate on games. You're keeping a whole part of your playbase in part because you made the effort to include these cosmetic descriptions. Freaking love these

Am I the only person who really likes video game bestiaries?

They make it so that all the enemies you fight have at least tiny shreds of lore associated with them; they turn the endless procession of fodder mobs from basic-gameplay-loop contrivances into notional parts of a world where stuff is going on, and they provide springboards for imagination and daydreaming. A couple of sentences can turn a collection of palette-swapped pixels with an annoying attack pattern into something that sticks in your thoughts.

I miss bestiaries.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The squad of all time has arrived on scene.

[montanabohemian]

if i see a single one of you pissed that your faves canceled an event or a con appearance because they're striking for fair wages then imma come for you in your sleep 🔪🔪🔪

(direct that fury where it belongs: AMPTP and the execs)

[fractoluminescence]

Wanted to add OP's comments to avoid leaving out context for their argument

i want to talk about real life villains

Not someone who mugs you, or kills someone while driving drunk, those are just criminals. I mean VILLAINS.

Not like trump or musk, who are... cartoonishly evil. And not sexy villains, not grandiose villains, not even satisfyingly two dimensional villains it is easy to hate unconditionally. The real villains.

I had a client who was a retired executive for one of the big oil companies, i think it was Shell or Chevron. Had a home just outside of San Francisco that was wall to wall floor to ceiling full of expensive art. Literally. I once accidentally knocked a painting off the wall because it was hanging at knee height at the corner of the stairs, and it had a little brass plaque on it, and i looked up the name of the artist and it was Monet's apprentice and son-in-law, who was apparently also a famous painter. He had an original Andy Warhol, which should have been a prize piece for anyone to showcase -- it was hanging in the bathroom. I swear to god this guy was using a Chihuly (famous glass sculptor) as a fruit bowl. And he was like, "idk my wife was the one who liked art"

I was intrigued by this guy, because in the circles i run this dude is The Enemy. right? Wealthy oil executive? But as my client, he was... like a sweet grandpa. A poor widower, a nice old man, anyone who knew him would have called him a sweetheart. He had a slightly bewildered air, a sort of gentle bumbling nature.

And the fact that he was both of these things, a Sweet Little Old Man and The Enemy, at the same time, seemed important and fascinating to me.

He reminded me of some antagonist from fiction, but i couldn't put my finger on who. And when i did it all made sense.

John Hammond.

probably one of the most realistic bad guys ever written.

If you've only ever seen the movie, this will need some explaining.

Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park in 1990, and i read it shortly thereafter. In the movie, the dinosaurs are the antagonists, which imo erases 50% of the point of the story.

book spoilers below.

In the book, John Hammond is the villain but it takes the reader like half the book to figure that out. Just like my client, John is a sweet old man who wants lovely things for people. He's a very sympathetic character. But as the book progresses, you start to see something about him.

He has an idea, and he's sure it's a good one. When someone else dies in pursuit of his dream, he doesn't think anything of it. When other people turn out to care about that, he brings in experts to evaluate the safety of his idea, and when they quickly tell him his idea is dangerous and needs to be put on hold, he ignores his own experts that he himself hired, because they are telling him that he is wrong, and he is sure he is right.

In his mind, he's a visionary, and nobody understands his vision. He is surrounded by naysayers. Several things have proven too difficult to do the best and safest way, so he has cut corners and taken shortcuts so he can keep moving forward with his plans, but he's sure it's fine. He refuses to hear any word of caution, because he believes he is being cautious enough, and he knows best, even though he has no background in any of the sciences or professions involved. He sends his own grandchildren out into a life-threatening situation because he is willfully ignorant of the danger he is creating.

THIS is like the real villains of the world. He doesn't want anyone to die. Far from it, he only wants good things for people! He's a sweet old man who loves his grandchildren. But he has money and power and refuses to hear that what he is doing is dangerous for everyone, even his own family.

I think he's possibly one of the most important villains ever written in popular fiction.

In the book, he is killed by a pack of the smallest, cutest, "least dangerous" dinosaurs, because a big part of why we read fiction is to see the villains face thematic justice. But like a cigarette CEO dying of lung cancer, his death does not stop his creation from spreading out into the world to continue to endanger everyone else.

I think it is really important to see and understand this kind of villainy in fiction, so you can recognize it in real life.

Sweetheart of a grandfather. Wanted the best for everyone. Right up until what was best for everyone inconvenienced the pursuit of his own interests.

And my client was like that too. His wife had died, and his dog was now the love of his life, and she was this little old dog with silky hair in a hair cut that left long wispy bits on her lower legs. Certain plant materials were easily entangled in this hair and impossible to get out without pulling her hair which clearly hurt her. When i suggested he ask his groomer to trim her lower leg hair short to avoid this, he refused, saying he really liked her usual hair cut.

I emphasized that she was in pain after every walk due to the plant debris getting caught in her leg hair, and a simple trim could put an end to her daily painful removal of it, and he just frowned like i'd recommended he take a bath in pig shit and said "But she'll be ugly" and refused to talk about it anymore.

Sweet old man though. Everyone loved him.

[slink-a-dink]

[nastiagarachtchenko]

[fractoluminescence]

@feralthembo 's tags

I mean I get that’s it’s not the only contributing factor, but I’m curious exactly how much of the shelter dog over-population problem is actually due to poor dog ownership/management vs the housing crisis and economical stress. I’d be willing to bet by investing in social programs that give people the resources they need to care for their pets (cough cough affordable and free housing cough cough) that the amount of pets in shelters would dramatically drop. We can all sit here pointing fingers and screaming at each other until we are blue in the face, but if the owners basic needs are not being met, how can we hold them to a basic standard for their pets?