#all right it's not THAT dire

[birbfeeder2artisticboogaloo]

trying to politely enforce boundaries with ppl who don't respect u and take everything very personally is literally SO PAINFUL LIKE

I JUST DOn'T WANT U TALKING ABOUT ME LIKE THAT. IT IS A. PERSONAL PREFERENCE. NOT AN INDICTMENT OF U OR A CRITICISM OF UR PERSON. JUST PLEASE STOP

[egophiliac]

Have you heard of the "Crowley is Malleus' dad" theory going around? Where Prince Levan (or whatever his name is) didn't actually die and just went out to get some milk and is now known as Dire Crowley, the silly man? The implications of that theory is absolutely hilarious when you think about it

hold on, we can figure this out, we just need LISTS

PROS THAT CROWLEY IS SECRETLY REVAAN/LEVAN/LAVERNE/WHATEVER:

unspecified fae of some kind, with similar coloring to Mal

the animal masks are apparently a Briar Valley thing

has some kind of big blackmailable secret that was alluded to in episode 4, and then as far as I know never brought up again

(unless this was just Azul bullshitting, which is extremely possible)

based on Diablo, which...maybe means something?

has canonically worn Dad Shorts

CONS:

(gestures to Crowley's entire personality)

NO LISTEN Revaan was the guy they sent off on diplomatic missions and to take care of delicate political situations, and...look, I love this dweeb, but would you trust Crowley to be in charge of negotiating your war treaties

despite my brain insisting on reading his name as "Raven", Revaan's title does imply that he was also a dragon (or super into longan berries, I'm not ruling that out)

currently unclear why Lilia "my closest friend Revaan...he is no longer with us...I used to make fun of him for being kind of a priss about eating jerky..." Vanrouge has somehow not noticed or said anything

Malleus' Aloof Anime ~Aristocrat~ vibe had to come from somewhere, and by all accounts it was NOT his mom's side of the family

???:

turns into a bird in the opening, I don't know if that means anything but it's kinda cool, I guess

all that aside, if Malleus and Yuu are any indication, then the Draconias have...questionable taste in their social choices. so anything is possible!

[onaperduamedee]

Shooting star, as it turned out, never to return once you left our sky.

[buckybarnesss]

i live in florida.

the closer we get to the election the more i find myself trying to avoid despair as i watch more and more people actively chose to hand the election to trump and the republican party either by apathy or refusal to engage with the reality of our situation.

desantis has been governor since 2019. it feels like he's been in office for a lifetime. the state has slid so far backwards i don't recognize it and i've lived here since 1996.

the state has been a testing ground for a lot of the conservative policies they're wanting to push nationwide and it's bad. i don't even think bad is the best qualifier for how awful it is.

it's going to kill to people. it has killed people already.

we are not going to live, laugh, love our way to viable third party candidate between now and november.

we are not going to avoid sliding further into fascism by shrugging our shoulders and saying both sides are the same.

there's no glorious revolution coming any more than the rapture is.

but i do fear making it out alive of another trump presidency. that's kind of urgent for me and it's not selfish to be concerned about domestic policy as much as and if not more than international policy.

you can't help others when you are also being stripped of your rights. you think we're gonna get to protest peacefully under another trump presidency? the man who wants to assassinate rivals and wanted to sick the national guard on protestors especially when the supreme court just said the president is immune so long as it's an official act without hard lining what an official act is.

everything is on the line. vote like it.

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

i stand with you in the face of a defensive misunderstanding of what critique is.

i think understanding what a critique actually is is a skill that increasingly is not taught. i remember going through freshman art courses feeling the frustration that all negative, nasty, unhelpful, and missed-the-point-entirely feedback is so commonly conflated with critique, and then critique gets a bad name because everyone remembers the time someone said their painting looked like an asshole (true story, altho now i think i would take it as a compliment) instead of the time a teacher or friend or classmate helped them uncover a hurtful bias or think of new ways to explore the same idea or how to connect it to related ideas or how to look up and understand other people's ideas on the same topic.

anyway i think you're great.

ahhh you're so kind to me!! i appreciate your support, and i think you are great also.

i have experience with giving and receiving critique as a student myself, and i think it was the best part of my degree! i majored in creative writing in college, and critique was just a generally accepted part of learning to become a writer. i don't even remember people being especially worried about receiving critique on their work. we had guidance on what kind of feedback was useful, but we were still at liberty to give it as we saw fit as like messy 19 year olds. the standard was that we gave it both written on printed copies of the work AND aloud in front of the whole class, and the writer receiving it was not permitted to speak during the critique. understanding how people are perceiving your work is important!

i don't have any particularly negative recollections of the critique process, although once in a high school writing class, the boys in the class told me that my male characters touched each other too gently and real boys are more rough with each other. in particular, they took issue with me writing that one boy nudged another. nudging is too soft. nudging is for girls. that was more than 20 years ago, and i still think about it sometimes because it was such an interesting perspective! i did not take their advice, though.

i should dig up that piece and see if it reads queer in any other ways. i think that's what they were getting at. (actually i once had a non-fiction class tell me i was in love with my roommate after reading an essay i wrote about her)(i did not listen to that advice either, but having 12 acquaintances tell you that you're gay in 2006 before you realize it yourself is Truly Something!)

i think people have conflated criticism and critique and think that being more openly analytical is the same thing as being negative. but analysis is so fun to me! analysis is why i joined fandom in the first place, and it's why i write fic! can we trust each other to be respectful and to speak in good faith even when we're not singing each other's praises? for me fandom would be better if we could.

oh i also want to clarify that i don't think it's impossible to demonstrate that you've thought deeply about a piece of fanwork while remaining completely positive. people do it all the time and do it very well!

i know i sometimes have tunnel vision wrt my own perspective. in a lot of situations, i wish it were more acceptable to be more direct, and i know people sometimes find the way i express myself to be kind of shocking. i know a lot of people like to be spoken to more indirectly than comes natural to me, and i don't mean to imply that my perspective is the only correct one or that there's no good reason to err on the side of gentleness/politeness in our responses to amateur art and writing. i just think that at a certain level of circumspection, it feels like we're all holding each other at arm's length.

i think for people who can't bear to feel exposed, making and sharing art is always going to be painful and difficult, and maybe too painful and difficult to enjoy the process unless they're sure of a soft landing. but like. the rewards of being loved only come after the mortifying ordeal of being known, right?

[bananamilk2004]

yeah ok we've heard of butch fem ghost which is awesome showstopping amazing but if i may add onto that: the entire tf141 being butches. soap with the same mohawk stunting around in military surplus activewear to attract femmes (or other butches. she's not picky). gaz who– unlike her friends– presents herself as more of a bifauxnen with clean pressed shirts and a nice smile. price who's the hardest butch out of all of them; never shaving, foregoing bras, referring to herself with brazen terms popular in the older queer scene (all the while having the voice of a chainsmoker, so deep it can initially be mistaken for a man's tone) (maybe she even packs?)

just. ugh. butches…

and imagine if you were passed between all of them? spitroasted by their straps? omg

[tiercel]

Why do liberals get so mad when you try to articulate the most baseline criticisms against a politician

[starmocha]

Girl where did you buy your bulbs that you thought were daffodils?? 😭

On the bright side, the garlic bulbs helped secured two dates with Zayne 🤡

[zzoupz]

I would appreciate your professional opinion as the king of Faith the Unholy Trinity yaoi (I'm deciding for you, you are the king. I'd also crown you the king of FTUT Yuri, but you haven't posted much Yuri for FTUT)

At what point does a fic become too long or too boring to read/finish reading? Are there any tropes you wish you could see more of in the fandom? Any thoughts about fics you've wanted to get out?

Feel free to ignore me I've just had a bit of writers block and am inspired by you and your art.

ahaha thank you im honored

- THERE ARE NO 'TOO LONG' FOR ME!!! in fact this fandom needs more longer fics / ok serious answer is probably like 500k words but even then ill still read it. all the more for me

- other characters adopting the kids (amy/michael) pleaseplplpl. also ive seen a few of this but domesticated gary is rlly good (gary actually living as a normal guy for whatever reason)

- we need... allred/garcia..........

[ineecho]

Reading the lost hero and smth that is pissing me off is Leo not getting included in hugs... GIVE ME LOST TRIO HUGGING GIVE IT TO ME 😔😔😔. Not once while on Festus (that I can remember) did Leo lean back into Piper and Jason only forward onto festus which like totally chill he loves his dragon. But here he asks for a hug and everyone ignores him :(

[bunnihearted]

🕸🎀˚.⁺⊹

[nsewell]

i think the key to circumventing the call of draining more money into academia is to get a job on a university campus that tricks your brain into scratching that itch

[essektheylyss]

I wrote a whole FIVE HUNDRED WORDS. This is a miracle. Maybe tomorrow I will finally write the last fucking scene in this section so I can move the fuck on.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

i need people to start paying me for every time they tell me "oh but ur arts so good ur wasting ur talent u need to do it professionally" wrong i need to do art to draw beautiful characters that not a single other person cares about while feeding every ounce of love i have into my work or to convey thoughts & feelings beyond words and to even think of doing otherwise is to deny my own nature "oh but u can do what u want and then sell it" why is everything about money to you why cant u just enjoy things at what point in ur life did u forget how to have fun

[storm-of-feathers]

I maintain that stress sickness is a stupid maladaptive response like oooohhh the numbers in my bank account aren't big enough so now my body is cooking itself. bruh.

[f1uffy-turtle]

Tech girlfriends will barge into your office, take a look at your PC being throttled by the dreaded Windows and they'll be like "Your setup is trash" and install Linux for you