#basically very attractive

[drpeppertummy]

i havent gone into the provolone family tree on this blog but does anyone remember my bestie lemon. his sister pimientos present-day descentant penne is like. a Cartoon Movie Scientist who dabbles in made up bullshit

[unintentional belly expansion, tummyache, hint of burst teasing]

Penne looked down at the new batch of her latest project, exhaustedly rubbing her face. Scattered across the tray before her were dozens of bright orange pills. They were small and simple, indistinguishable from any other pill in the medicine cabinet. These, however, were unlike anything Penne had stashed away above the bathroom sink. They weren't a remedy for pain or sniffles or allergies. No, these little orange capsules were created to solve an entirely different problem: hunger.

The project had begun a few months ago after another long, hyperfocused night at the lab. It wasn't any different from any other night at the lab; Penne was notorious for going entire busy nights without eating. She was simply too busy and too absorbed in her work to step away. That night, however, the idea had crossed her mind that it would be so much easier if she could simply pull a meal out of her pocket and toss it back without interrupting her work. She'd thought about that, and then she'd thought about how many people such a creation might potentially benefit, and then she'd set off to work. Without a snack break, of course.

After several trial runs with increasing success, Penne thought she might finally have something close to a finished product. She felt confident that they were safe to test on herself; she'd worked out any alarming kinks a handful of attempts ago, and the most recent batches had been perfectly harmless, albeit not particularly filling. Now, as she looked down at the tray of little orange pills, her exhausted, work-fried brain began a debate with itself.

It's a new batch, her brain said. We should just start with one.

The formula is barely any different from the last, it argued.

But it could be different enough.

It shouldn't be. We barely altered the density of it.

It would be dangerous and idiotic to start with two. What if it's too much?

But if one isn't enough--and I doubt it will be--we'll have to wait even longer to try it with two.

Patience is a virtue. Whatever happened to lab safety?

Fuck it. We're trying two.

Penne picked up two of the little orange capsules, hesitated for a moment, and then, with a quick swig of water, she swallowed them. She sat still for a moment, holding her breath as she waited for something to happen. For a few moments, nothing did. Then, slowly, she felt her empty stomach begin to fill up as the capsules released their expanding mass of nutrients. Gradually, her hunger faded, and it wasn't long before she felt full. And then very full. And then stuffed. Her heart fluttered nervously in her chest as her normally concave belly began to puff out round and firm. Shit, she thought.

The growth didn't seem to be slowing. Her stomach continued to distend, pushing out hard as the mass inside it expanded. She was well beyond stuffed now, and her belly felt painfully tight as it bloated up even more, pressing out against her baggy shirt. Her belt, snug around her normally narrow waist, creaked as the pressure beneath it grew. Frantically, she reached down and undid it. Moments later, her expanding belly forced the button of her pants open.

An ungraceful cry of panicked discomfort escaped Penne as her stomach stretched rapidly, and her back arched as her belly pushed out further and further. She felt the air that had been trapped in her stomach begin to bubble up toward her throat, and she forced up a burp in a desperate attempt to release some of the pressure building inside her. It didn't help. She clutched her stomach, gasping with panic. It was rock hard, packed tightly with the ever-expanding nutritional mass.

As her stomach began to reach its absolute limit, Penne shut her eyes, bracing herself for the worst. By some miracle, though, the expansion slowed, and, mercifully, it finally stopped. She remained frozen for a moment, holding her breath, and then, when she was sure it was over, she let herself relax. She couldn't relax too much, though; her belly was so tightly distended she could barely move. It ached terribly. She let out a pained moan, cautiously rubbing her taut, top-heavy belly.

She was almost afraid to look down at herself, but she did. Her belly jutted out shockingly beneath her ribs. Her shirt, which had been loose and wrinkled only five minutes earlier, was now pulled smoothly over the painful bulge of her bloated stomach. With barely a pinch of spare fat to speak of on her lanky frame, her belly had absolutely no give left to it.

Carefully, she tried to stand, but her overstuffed stomach cramped sharply, and she quickly dropped back down into her chair with a pitiful moan. Her stomach, hugging the enormous mass of not-quite-food for dear life, let out a strained gurgle. She sat there, belly sticking out absurdly, hoping nobody came along and saw her. I told you so, her brain scolded. Groaning, she let her head fall back and closed her eyes, resigning herself to a long night of digestion.

[skitskatdacat63]

2023 Brazilian Grand Prix - Sprint - Fernando Alonso

[wanderingwriter87]

okay okay which one of y'all finally put garashir on julian's memory alpha page

[orcelito]

It's so fucked honestly that people genuinely believe that others Need to put effort into their appearances in order to be attractive. Like I dunno about you guys but I fucking love people's natural appearances, messiness and all. We are not the same.

[anghraine]

I've been moving and navigating further departmental nonsense etc (my pseudo-dissertation got approved for defending, though! l o l). But it was interesting to see the Worst P&P Takes poll I reblogged accumulating more results and the general tenor of responses in the notes.

I mean, the results are definitely to be expected if you're familiar with the side of Austen fandom doing a lot of the reblogging etc. But still, interesting!

Many Tumblr polls specify that they're asking about personal preferences that may be irrational—favorite/least favorite, coolest/most annoying, or something like that. This one, though, asked for the worst interpretation of P&P, not the most annoying one—and the current leader is "Darcy is never really proud, he's just shy and probably has anxiety" against some very steep competition on the Bad Takes front.

I was thinking about why that seemed a kind of tediously predictable choice even though I agree that the take is wrong, and realized that while I do disagree with the shy Darcy interpretation and I particularly disagree with the specific formulation where he is never proud at all, it ultimately feels to me like a failure of nuance rather than just completely wrongheaded like some of the others. And this is probably my fundamental difference with a lot of Darcy takes I see!

In my opinion, a character who is introverted and who feels awkward in various social situations and who doesn't like common social activities and who has to work himself up to talking to his crush and who is repeatedly suggested to behave very differently in contexts where he's more comfortable being interpreted as shy and anxious is not that big of a leap.

Yes, it's important that he is actually fundamentally confident and haughty, that he makes his personal feelings of discomfort other people's problem, and that he thinks he's such a unique and special butterfly that he doesn't need to even put in an effort outside his personal social circle. But it's a misreading that is easy to follow (and long predates the 2005 P&P, as I've mentioned before!).

The additional misreading that a shy and anxious Darcy is also never proud at all is a much more drastic leap, and in my experience, condemnations of shy Darcy interpretations rarely differentiate between "Darcy is shy as well as arrogant" and "Darcy is shy rather than arrogant" as interpretations (although their basic arguments are quite different). But even that as the worst possible misreading of P&P when Darcy is not even the main character is ?????????

I mean, for one alternative (not even the one I voted for!), the idea that Elizabeth is an author avatar Mary Sue seems a far worse misreading of P&P than basically anything to do with Darcy at all. The center piece of the entire novel is Elizabeth's epiphany of self-knowledge about her own shortcomings that do not particularly resemble Austen's at all, but were ethically a concern for her, and she's a complex, interesting character in general whom Austen correctly regarded as a major achievement. Inverting that into Elizabeth as an improbably perfect, reality-warping self-insert is deeply wrong and frankly pretty misogynistic as well.

(ngl though, it's a little funny to see such a blatantly terrible reading of Elizabeth rank so far behind the shy Darcy votes. I've gotten "does anyone actually think/say that?" so many times on my posts about Austen fandom's prioritization of Darcy's character development over Elizabeth's and yet...)

And even just going with the Darcy-centric misreadings, the idea of Darcy as a "bad boy" seems easily the most absolutely wrong take on him. His pride is at least complicated and the finer points can be fairly debated and it's a quality that actually changes somewhat throughout the novel, and you can have discussion over what happened when, whose testimonies should be weighted more, etc. But there is no point at which "bad boy" isn't utterly wrong for him. However, there's definitely a tendency in some wings of the fandom to find the idea of Darcy being misread too favorably more objectionable than him being read too unfavorably, regardless of the particulars, so it's not a surprise.

I suppose you could argue about what "worst" means in the context of variously bad interpretations. Like, is an interpretation that is about a fairly trivial aspect of the book but extremely wrong about it "worse" than an interpretation that is pretty bad but at least comprehensibly so about something very important?

[i-really-like-phrogs]

Re-design of my un-named Beetlejuice OC from back when I was thirteen

Original Reference under the cut:

[sergle]

how come you don't draw the ppl / characters you have the hots for

there's a certain kind of artist that can do that... a better type of artist................. and an artist who can stand to look at the reference material for more than a few seconds at a time.

[yardsards]

people love an "i'll take care of you" "it's rotten work" "not to me, not if it's you" character dynamic until the character who needs to be taken care of is disabled. then it's supposedly fucked up and toxic for a person to have to take care of someone else.

[sysig]

Some highlights from a tense but still very Winterkov-y scene (Patreon)

[thecraftgremlin]

I think Marcille's reactions to Falin presenting more masculine are really interesting when you look at them through a lens of elven concepts of gender and we shouldn't have to ignore them in farcille and Butch Falin readings.

[2129888]

i don't remember how i stumbled across this interview but i've never seen anyone mention it so i'm dropping it here <3 it's a little dated but still like super valuable and a decently in depth look at higuchi-sensei's previous works and how she works and thinks as a mangaka... personally i think it's the most i've ever learned from an interview of hers. super interesting stuff :0)

[eliotquillon]

rewatching s1 of house and the first time wilson talks to cameron (ep 4, maternity) he calls her ‘allison’ . wilson and cameron have tons of early season heart to hearts (most notably about her not being able to cheat on her husband) but as far as i know he never does this again. Um.

[rotteneldritchhorror]

I will forever find it funny that this man is seen by half of this fandom as like- a hot toxic possessive daddy dom and not the pathetic bitchboy with daddy issues that he fully is lol

[voidandabyssal]

Undertale, Monster beauty standards:

Beauty standards are always an important thing to consider within a culture. They say a lot about a lot more things than people realise.

Beauty standards are a pretty common component of every culture. A good indication of basic gender norms and values within a culture. So what could the beauty standards be for a gender non-conforming society?

Monsters aren’t restrained to just two (technically three) biological sexes like humans are. Every single Monster is born with the ability to impregnate and carry a successful pregnancy. Some Monster subspecies don’t even need another partner to reproduce! Asexual reproduction is not uncommon or strange within the Underground.

Monster society also doesn’t share a single standard look. Most human groups, you can imagine in your mind a basic ‘type’ from that group. E.g. you can easily imagine what a general Chinese person looks like.

Monsters are far to diverse and unique from one another for that too be a useful tool.

So aside from some more cultural specific standards for the different subspecies (which I will talk about later) Monsters the vast majority of the time rely on SOULS to project their attractiveness.

SOULS: make up the combination of ones being. It is you, it’s everything you are, you hope to be and that you will be.

To Monsters, a bright SOUL. One that is expressive, strong and powerful is a beautiful one.

Many Monsters find human SOULS to have a sort of alien beauty within them. The rainbow of colours all within a humans identity to project. Despite the many differences between the two species, much poetry has been written about the strength and beauty of human SOULS.

Of course, since Monsters SOULS themselves are stark white many take to dressing their physical form. Adorning it with fashionable clothes, keepsakes or powerful enchantments.

Dressing fashionable is like a Monster way of saying, “hey! Im beautiful! My forms beautiful! Come here and look (or be intimidated) by my masterful fashion skills!!”

Taking personal care of themselves is another indicator of beauty. Washing and brushing fur, removing dirt from between bones, horn care. Hygiene remains a focal point in their culture. Luckily, despite Monster society’s many diversities, they were all still able to access proper hygiene tools.

To not take care of oneself indicates a much larger problem. Depression is an especially deadly illness for Monsters. Many of the first signs of which develop through symptoms like avoiding taking care of oneself and managing their appearance. If you see a Monster struggling with these, maybe reach out? They are usually more open to their feelings than humans are.

Scars and injuries are viewed somewhat strangely by Monsters. Unlike many humans, Monsters tend to find scars to be intimidating or dangerous. The scarred individual dangerous or intimidating. Some scars are tolerated, if small and otherwise un obstructive to a Monsters form. Vice versa with injuries.

Monsters that suffer horrific, permanent damage are often considered unattractive or dangerous to be around. This doesn’t help the mental anguish the Monster is likely already under. Monsters like this can often find themselves self isolating or being ostracised from Monster society.

A struggle for those too monstrous for Monsters and too Monster for humans.

Monsters that have obvious diseases or defects are also considered unattractive. Dimming, an uncommon birth defect, is commonly considered to be an ugly trait to have. Again, anything that could indicate that a Monster may not be healthy or happy is considered to be an ugly trait.

Overall, despite all things said. Many Monsters find the personality and behaviour of someone to be the most attractive part of a person. The way another human or Monster acts or treats others is a very important part of this physical attraction. This of course is going to look different from Monster to Monster. Each Monster having their ideal partner’s personality and behaviour in their mind.

It’s hard to standardise such a personal thing. But if you want to impress your Monster crush, maybe dress up a little, put that extra couple minutes into grooming yourself

(Or just flash them your soul. If you really want to get their attention😉)

[moonshynecybin]

To me, all Taylor swift songs about an age gap are actually about rosquez. Specifically dear John

sorry this doesn’t answer you entirely but i read it back and it got me THINKING. about marc age 20-22 versus marc age now. and again i’m listening to my podcasts having thoughts. as i do. and they’re all talking about how visibly HAPPY marc is this season. like we’ve allll noticed the dancing the twerking the VERY public and endearing goofy clownery. marc voice i am show :3 and all the podcast guys seem to agree it’s the happiest he’s been in a while, but notably NOT since 2019 (when he was at the height of his powers wielding competitive momentum like a fucking broadsword). they say it’s the happiest he’s been since 2014 ! way back ten years ago when the sky was roses ! which. YEAH that was his most dominant season. but. BUTTTTT. i would also wager (yaoi googles on please hold) that kind of happiness preceded the flavor of the sport changing for him pretty dramatically due to his feud with valentino…. post breakup hits different… and now vale’s GONE. marc sees him like five times a year. out of sight out of mind, at least a little. marc maybe doesn’t have to THINK about him every single day that he’s at work two feet away from him in a press conference. so you take that and add that his arm is something resembling a little more functional (still obviously very fucked lmao) and he’s on a good bike and he’s not winning yet but he’s maybe feeling like his old self a bit more. and i imagine that all feels pretty good !!!

[weirdmageddon]

how do people even find partners. i dont want a bullshit answer, like really