#and other features. However

[felidaeng]

really effective way of getting me to work on solstice stuff again: give me a character for which i have vivid ideas on how to dragon-ify

(not flight rising)

[mogruith]

Being rescued by a pair of Eilistraeans and joining their cause against the Absolute means gracefully humouring their romanticising of moonlight every now and then.

Matron mothers warn their raiders to flee from the allure of it - and there is something rather compelling about it, isn't there?

[ghouljams]

Idk honestly I could probably write a really in depth analysis on the prevalence of the blue/brown eyed Ghost debate, and what it means in terms of fandom politics especially when coupled with whether Ghost is a natural blond or a brunet, but I doubt anyone wants to hear about the political implications of people pushing most popular character in the series as aryan...

well, i for one would absolutely love to hear about it, but to be fair my degree is in media studies so fork found in kitchen

but tbh is it surprising that this kind of discourse (along with the whole Gaz “not being interesting enough” bs) is a prevalent discussion in a military propaganda game fandom? probably not lol

i also agree with your take that his eyes are brown as part of his character development and that it feeds into the complexity of the dynamics between them

anyway, don’t feel pressured to talk more about it if you don’t feel like it, just wanted to let you know that at least one person would read all of it lol

Much love!!

- Morph

Ghoul thoughts under the cut because I love media analysis and rambling

You hit the nail on the head by bringing up the Gaz "not being interesting" bullshit in relation to this entire thing because I absolutely see the crux of the brown vs blue eyed Ghost debate being a debate over which eye color is "better" which has inherently racist roots.

And as an immediate disclaimer: I am not saying that headcanoning Ghost with blue eyes makes you racist, I am not saying that headcanoning Ghost as blond makes you racist. I am simply pointing out that the way we view certain traits has been and will be filtered through a lens which requires an examination of our own values/beliefs.

It is so intensely interesting to me that in a fandom with a history of racial exclusion, for a media property that upholds whiteness as the pinnacle of virtue, that upholds western ideals and values as the height of moral purity, that places the good guys in a position where they can do NO WRONG despite having a higher torture rate than the bad guys, that a faceless character would be arbitrarily assigned blue eyes and blond hair despite textual/in game evidence to the contrary (yes there is evidence).

Now maybe I am just sensitive to certain things because I paid attention in school and know what a dog whistle sounds like, maybe that's all this is. However, within a fandom that seems to cater so hard to white women and has racist bullshit popping up every other week, I think... maybe we should examine why we want Ghost to have blue eyes.

I find that with faceless characters headcanons always exist within the hopes of making them more attractive. The idea that they would be ugly under the mask is antithetical to the wish fulfilment of fandom, so it makes sense that people would come up with a face for them. But then why are so many faceless characters made into skinny white blonds? Surely people would want some diversity- oh no, wait...

So we make Ghost blond. Alright, I mean he was a brunet in the comics and in the one scene where we see him take his mask off he's got dark hair, but I guess there were too many people with dark hair on the 141 already, so we gotta mix in a blond. But then why the blue eyes? He has blue eyes in the '09 comic, but in every cutscene we see in the '22 remake his eyes are brown. There's already two members of the 141 with blue eyes, so we don't need another one for diversity. So then why give Ghost blue eyes? If you want him to be closer to the '09 version why make him blond as well?

It's because people want to make him attractive, and in the dominant racial zeitgeist blue eyes are attractive. Which... I mean do I need to ask why? It's because they're a white european trait and people still hold white features as the attractive ones. Same with the blond hair. That's why WW2 Germany designated Blond hair and Blue eyes as the "true German" traits and created a whole class for them "aryan."

So what are the political implications of creating an aryan character out of the most popular character in the series (one who has minimal voice lines and minimal canon backstory in the reboot) within a fandom that regularly disregards/ignores the main black character? It's the continued upholding of whiteness and a specific kind of whiteness as more valuable than others. I'm not even going to say more valuable than blackness, I would say more valuable than other white traits. Why are blue eyes more attractive than brown eyes? Because they're more "white." Why is blond hair more attractive than brown? Because it's more "white." Why is a blond haired blue eyed Ghost such a popular headcanon despite evidence to the contrary? Because he's more white that way.

Now I like blond haired Ghost. I think it's an interesting addition to the color pallet of the team, and I like that it makes him look more like a ghost to be so washed out. But I think fandom has a habit of following what becomes popular within head canon spaces and making it fandom canon, and so many of us don't examine why a headcanon might pop up. Where did Ghost having blond hair come from? When did we all decide that was what we were going with? Why is it even a debate whether or not he has blue or brown eyes, and why does it matter?

If I said right now that Ghost 100% in canon of the '22 game has brown hair and brown eyes, would people get mad at me? And why? Why would it matter if he had brown hair and brown eyes? Does that make him less attractive? Why? Why does it matter? Why do you want him to have blond hair and blue eyes? Why do you care? What is the difference between blue and brown that makes it so important? For God's sake look at the societal conditioning that you've been put through! Why does it "make more sense" for him to have blue eyes if he's blond? Why?

Every single idea we have of what is and isn't attractive has been designed for us by the society we live in. Consider what ideals are being upheld when deciding that the "hot" character is blond and blue eyed while also discarding the black character. Being anti-racist and dismantling your own racial biases is a long and constant process, but it is so vitally important. And once we start examining those biases all sorts of shit starts popping up.

And before someone comes in and tells me it isn't that deep: maybe you should look at why you need it to not be that deep, does it make you uncomfortable to think that you might be feeding into these biases without realizing? And who does it benefit to have it not be "that deep" is there perhaps a group of people that would want you to not examine your preference for blue eyes and blond hair? Some sort of brotherhood perhaps...

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Thank you all for voting in the poll to decide who was going to be the leader of the band! It turned out to be such a close race!

[sunlit-mess]

Do you sell your brushes that you use?

Nah, they're not mine to begin with except the customized default ones (and honestly they're easy to do).

Check featured tag: messyr's brushes

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Hey guys, I need some input once again on the topic of mermaids. The logical conclusion to combining fish and human anatomy is to connect the human lungs to the swim bladder, of course. However, the esophagus runs behind the windpipe in humans, meanwhile the swim bladder runs behind the fish digestive tract, which means they are on opposite sides, so to speak. Which means the “tubes” of these systems need to cross somehow.

Option 1. They just kind of pass by one another asymmetrically

Option 2. Like the cephalopod donut brain, one “pipe” has a donut shape which the other goes through

Option 3. All along the merfolk esophagus actually goes in front of the lungs and windpipe, avoiding the whole crossing over ordeal in the first place

Input is appreciated!

[televisionenjoyer]

I was getting soooo in the zone with my writing but I have fucking work and class tomorrow this is so messed up

[sealrock]

febhyurary, day 15: npc

4th sun of the 1st astral moon, 1578

"almost got clobbered by a raging auroch if it weren't for this adventurer, he saved my life today. I never did get his name, but I have a feeling he'll go on to do big things someday."

[simantopia]

the sims 4 guide to references:

bella goth is the ONLY sim to exist

there has only been one spin-off series and that's mysims

[skitskatdacat63]

FINALLY I HAVE PORTRAITS OF ALL THREE OF THEM AT THE SAME TIME

First of all, please imagine their dynamic as: weird sex thing(Rüß/Noir) and their third(Seren.) More complicated than that obviously but, I think that's the funniest way to describe it. Though there's some basic info here if you're curious. Eclipse is here in spirit(I like the last portrait I drew of her too much to attempt another for now.)

Note about their characters that I thought was too long for the tags. Seeing them together reminds me of how pleased I am about how organically they formed as a group. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I feel like when you want to give your OCs relationships(friends, family, enemies, lovers, etc), the characters formed from that desire have a hard time evolving out of that role. For a while, or unfortunately forever, they're just: [character's] friend, [character's] brother, etc, rather than their own "person."

However, these guys, their dynamic formed almost completely naturally. Seren is a really old character, she's from before I even started building the foundation of my OC AU; she was actually from my first attempt to create some sort of world(which has been changed a lot to integrate into my main AU now.) Noir was created after the period where I made a lot of my foundational OCs, but she was basically created just to fill the "big bad wolf" role to compliment a red riding hood type character. Rüß was created after the AU had been officially established, and I thought, hey wouldn't it be kinda cool if she was friends with these other two random OCs? And then they became really important characters with lore which soooooo many things hinge upon LOL

But yeah, to have all these established characters, already with personalities, histories and preexisting connections of their own to come together so naturally?? It's just really neat to me still how it all worked out. Funny though how I spent so many years trying to create all these characters, to fill these relationship spaces, only for my most important characters to come together as a unit randomly, and to add to that, my most important ship to swoop in and form completely on a whim (<- the way Eclipoir formed is equally as organic, and almost more impressive to me.)(I don't want this to come off as "Oh look how smart I am," more that it baffles even me the creator how randomly these characters came together after, like I said, so much time spent trying to manually build up relationships.)

[witheredgardenparty]

I will make one speculative comment: I don't think X is broke. I think that scene with the coin is a commentary or parallel between social monetary control and the trust system.

Explanation and potential spoilers in tags

[ratsbanes]

i know the fandom consensus is that androids blush blue but i disagree. like they dont have human blood, blue blood is just an equivalent based in human qualities because thats what we naturally come to understand. its like oil in a car. your car doesnt work the way a person does!

so while yes, blood rushes to the face and head which causes a red colour from the colour of the blood, thats humans, not androids. they definitely blush, but just a normal red colour. its purely cosmetic since they are meant to look as human like as possible. so blue blood blush makes no sense

[rinofwater]

So outside of the bond quest events and main story, the characters in Azuma get pretty shallow characterization, huh?

[ran-orimoto]

* me putting my Fairyblitz googles on*

Both have got the same trees in their cards (the Fuji confirms it), but the season is different and Ancientirismon is contributing to the serene weather, Ancientbeatmon is collaborating with the rain.

…

And have I also materialized my Junzumi spring/summer symbolism????? Even if there is pink in Ancientbeatmon’s card, the trees are already going green. SO HAVE I———- HAVE I MATERIALIZED IT FINALLY.

*Vivaldi playing violins*

[wordpress-blaze-219529005]

Chapter 30 | Inevitable Consequences (필연적인 결과)

Jaesung often spoke out of turn, inadvertently causing himself more problems than solutions. But when the time came to get serious, his lips struggled to form words, and his throat was inevitably barren.

The silence stretched between them, becoming more onerous than the risk of saying too much. At last, Jaesung started speaking while meticulously choosing which secrets to divulge and which to keep under lock and key.

“I’m… looking for a traitor.”

Luis ignited a cigarette, watching Jaesung fumble with the hem of his shirt, evading Luis’s stare.

“Ah, so big boss Maniaco finally found out, huh?”

“What?” Jaesung couldn’t help himself say in surprise. “You knew?”

“Of course, I handle the finances. I’m aware of every single cent that comes in and goes out,” Luis said, patting the arm of the chair beside him. “It was only a matter of time.”

Although Jaesung was wary of sitting, what more did he have to lose after getting down and dirty with the enemy? Being naked and in the throes of passion was a man’s weakest, most vulnerable position. At this point, there was nothing left to hide.

Yet that didn’t stop him from being on guard. Jaesung cast a glance at his jacket, carelessly tossed on the ground a short distance away, noticing the gun’s handle protruding from beneath it.

“In this line of work, it’s not a question of if you’ll die, but when,” Luis said as he flicked ashes onto the ground. “Meeting someone like you, though, was unexpected.” He paused, then added, “I suppose luck really does favor the bold.”

“It can also get you killed,” Jaesung remarked. Luis caught the double entendre but merely responded with a grin. That the man standing before him had survived in the mafia for as long as he had, given his preferences, remained a true enigma.

Luis reached for a bag beside the chair and searched through it, eventually pulling out a slender notebook bound in leather. It appeared well-worn and frequently handled, evidently an item of great importance.

“Here,” he said, throwing it Jaesung, who barely managed to catch it. “With this, Luca probably won’t kill you.”

“I still don’t get it.” Jaesung flipped the ledger around in his hands, the texture smooth on his fingers. “Why are you doing this?”

“You were a good fuck.”

“You can’t be serious?”

Luis stared for a moment before letting out a laugh. “Dead serious.”

Damn it, if he didn’t feel his face becoming warm at that comment.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret: I’m the traitor. But that’s not why Luca really sent you here. He thought he could use you to get to me, but sadly, I don’t have the information he’s after. I don’t even have a real name of the person I gave all that money to. Either way, everything I know is all in that book.”

“Why don’t you tell him that?”

If Luis was really the traitor, this was the guy Luca had sent him here to kill. That thought made him nauseous.

“I won’t be alive long enough to get the words out.”

Did he say that because he knew Luca would kill him, or because he knew Jaesung was sent here for that exact reason? He didn’t have to contemplate for long, however, as Luis’s next words were all the confirmation he needed.

“I would rather you kill me than him.”

Source: Chapter 30 | Inevitable Consequences (필연적인 결과)

[ollierachnid]

"Oh you have a Ghostbusters OC/canon ship? Who's that with? Egon or Peter or Winston or Ray-

NO. EDMUND SWEEP‼️