#because of my condition

[uncanny-tranny]

Not to sound like a person who actually cares about children, but it's so alarming that there's this tendency and trend of not telling kids about their medical conditions that are in their charts.

I'm finding out as an adult that they (though it's not documented who) diagnosed me with a life-long, chronic condition without telling me when I was a teenager. I found out recently when I got curious about my medical charts, and otherwise, I would not have known what's wrong with me. I've been left with more questions than answers, and I feel like a private investigator investigating my own damn health and life.

Is this medical malpractice? Yes. However, I think it also speaks to a broader point of how children are seen to not be entitled to their own lives in any capacity, to the point where they are (intentionally or not) made ignorant about things that are or will affect them.

[egophiliac]

whoops I did more of this

(enjoy it while you can, Roro, it's only gonna get weirder next Halloween)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Just your average male living space.

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[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

i think everyone who's ever had migraines should be financially compensated forever btw

[crescentfool]

my longest friend and companion

[whenthelightisrunninglow]

how's the other guy holding up

[everywaythatmatters]

Shhhh they’re watching Worldhoppers

[falmerbrook]

Falmer appearance and attire headcanons

(click on drawings for more details and notes!)

Hair

In Skyrim, we pretty much only see two hair styles to go off of: completely bald and the hair the "shaman" have (which are also the only females we see (a post for another day)).

In concept art, particularly Adam Adamowicz's, we see more potential hairstyles. He draws it as wispy and messy, as well as containing braids and the ties we see in the shaman in the game. This art is largely what defines my own interpretation of their hair.

I picture the typical Falmer hair as wavy, thin, wispy, and looking frizzy. Given the high number of hairless Falmer we see, I imagine baldness is common, particularly among males, and sometimes among females. Their hair can be commonly styled into braids or knots to keep it under control.

The ability to grow long, thick hair is less common, but those who can tend to style it in other unique ways. Especially among females, long hair is commonly styled into large dense locs (akin to a Polish plait) and held into shapes using ropes or leather ties.

(While I think the intention with the way their hair is drawn and modelled in the game models and concept art was that it was braided and held up with those ties, before looking at it closely I always sorta interpreted it as too stiff to just be braided. As a result, I developed the locs headcanon and have become kinda attached to it even though I have 0 in game or lore support for it)

Materials

The material used in their clothing is obviously dependent on what is accessible to them, and given their unique situation that makes the materials they use and value unique as well. In Skyrim, we see that almost all of their armor (which is mostly what we see them wearing) and homes are made of chaurus chitin (and potentially shellbug chitin), so this is likely the most common resource available to them for non-combative coverings as well. Other materials from their arthropods companions could include their cocoons, unhatched eggs, etc.

Bones from other creatures (draugr, skeevers, trolls, adventurers, bandits, etc.) underground or from aboveground raids could also be used fairly often. These could also provide a source of leather or fur, albeit not a lot of it.

Falmer groups and subcultures inside or in close proximity to Dwemer ruins probably make regular use of the materials present in those ruins as well. With all the metal and machinery present in Dwemer ruins, metal probably makes regular appearances in their clothing (and general decorations) even if they can't manipulate it themselves. Falmer more separated from Dwemer ruins would make much lesser use of these materials, however. Additionally, We see implications of Falmer preparing, cooking, and potentially cultivating fungus in-game, but see nothing indicating they have any plants in their diet, and therefore it is unlikely they regularly make or use textiles or fabrics in their clothing, and if they do they likely come form Dwemer ruins or raided adventurers/bandits/settlements from the surface.

On that note, we know that there have supposedly been incidents of Falmer coming to the surface to attack its inhabitants and travelers, as well as instances of them killing bandits, adventurers, and researchers who venture below, so it's not far fetched to believe that they have access to some materials from the surface. This could give them some access to furs from surface animals, beads, glass, jewelry, textiles, metal objects, etc. they might not otherwise have access to. The rarity of these material among the Falmer would depend on the amount of access any given group of Falmer have to the surface, but among many of them these materials could be seen as more valuable for their rarity and the difficulty to gain them.

While gemstones and ore might be accessible from both natural deposits and underground ruins, unless they had some kind of auditory function or unique texture, they might not have much value to Falmer.

General Attire/Accessories

I like to imagine that the Snow Elves, and by extension the Falmer, have an innate cold resistance in the same way Nords do, and therefore don't require clothes for the purpose of warmth even in the chilly caves of Skyrim. Additionally, their blindness likely means that wouldn't dress for visual aesthetic either. My thoughts are that they are then left with the sense of sound and touch to communicate with each other, and their clothing and accessories could reflect that.

Falmer clothing, decoration, and society in general is very heavily based on touch and texture and little on appearances. They touch each other very often for both communication, movement, and just general day-to-day interactions, and their clothes isn’t very modest, but the tactile patterns and materials used can communicate certain things such as position in society, “wealth”/power, whether they are taken, single, pregnant, with a child, etc., their roles, their age, notable achievements/skills, who is who, etc. on both their clothes and buildings. The more noise one makes, the more attention they draw and the more they drown out other noises, and the more noise making things they can “afford” to have, so the amount of noise one makes in a Falmer settlement is a status symbol. Certain types of noises or noise makers are more coveted than others (chitin beads are common, while furs are less common, and materials only gained from raiding the surface are rare and coveted).

Some noise making accessories could include:

Dangling metal, bones, beads, chitin, etc. that hangs off of their clothing or ears and jingle/clank against each other (in my drawing I show them as pretty uniform in shape and size, but they would probably be much more irregular than I depicted them)

Bells (metal or other materials) that are affixed to or dangle off of their clothing or as earrings.

Hollow bracelets, anklets, necklaces, or other accessories that are filled with rocks or beads.

Rattles tied to the body (made of chitin, dried hollow chaurus eggs, dried chaurus cocoons, beads, etc.) with leather or rope.

Flute or whistle like tubes made of metal, chitin, or dried and treated tube-like fungus that makes a woodwind-esque noise when air passes through it in a certain way. They have been designed to make noise easily from even the slightest movements.

Dried grasses (more temporary) tied to the body that make a swishy noise. More permanently, a similar thing can be achieved with hair. The hair can be sourced from Falmer (either through just cutting hair or through taking it from fallen enemies) or killed humans/mer/draugr. That sort of thing can also act as a kind of trophy.

Necklaces with various materials dangling close together that jingle against each other.

Various materials can be tied into braids or the leather ties in their hair as well.

Some textural accessories could include:

Beads. Since they wouldn't have the ability to tell the color of the beads, the patterning of beadwork would be based on the roughness, material, size, or shape of the beads. (I'm sorry I suck as drawing beads)

Furs. This wouldn't be as common since the Falmer likely don't have too much interaction with furry mammals, but some they may have access to that are big enough to make clothing/accessories out of include skeevers or trolls (and potentially rarely animals from the surface). A potential meaning of wearing furs could be as hunting trophies, but it could have other meanings as well.

Chaurus chitin would like be the most common material in Falmer attire, and depending on the part of the chaurus body, the size of the chaurus, or the life stage of the chaurus it was sourced from it could have different textures. Some chitin parts could include large spikes and deep groves, while other parts could be smoother and less rough. The use of this chitin in clothing could take advantage of this contrast in textures. Additionally, chitin or shells from shell bugs might be a different texture from the chaurus chitin. (it's unclear to me whether shell bugs are exclusive to the caves around the Forgotten Vale or if we should consider them distributed throughout Skyrim's underground)

The placement of textured components on the body could have their own meaning to it alongside what accessories or textures are being used.

Specific Falmer Subcultures

While most Falmer settlements we see in Skyrim are just a small-ish collection of huts and chaurus corrals, there are two distinctive settlements that are larger, seemingly more organized, and I like to think have their own distinct subcultures worth mentioning: Blackreach and the Forgotten Vale. The unique scope and environment of these Falmer cities (as I like to think of them) could lend to unique clothing cultures as well.

The Falmer of Blackreach have access to a vast Dwemer settlement and have has the space to spread out throughout it more fully since it seems to be more in tact than other Dwemer ruins we see. These guys would likely have a clothing culture much more heavily based on what the can access from these Dwemer ruins (metal scraps, leftover fabrics, etc.)

The Falmer of the Forgotten Vale would also have access to unique resources, such as Vale deer, Vale sabre cats, and frost giants for fur and leather. Additionally, materials accessed from the Chantry of Auri-El such as textiles from clothing, bedding, tapestries, etc. could give them a greater access to fabrics than other Falmer groups. We don't see many close Dwemer settlements to the Vale, so they would have less Dwemeri influence in their clothing than other Falmer groups.

I like to think that the Falmer's evolution exclusively underground has made them poorly equipped to handle the outdoors during the day and has made them particularly susceptible to sunburn, necessitating the need for covering for those in the Forgotten Vale who have significant settlements outdoors. With greater access to textiles and leather, they could use them as coverings when outdoors.

Armor

I actually have very few notes on armor, for two reasons. 1) I hate designing and drawing armor. It is the bane of my existence. 2) I really like the armor they have in game! I think they look awesome aesthetically, and I like how clearly they are made from chaurus chitin. Per usual, Adam Adamowicz's designs seem to have been the major inspiration for the Falmer armor, and he did a great jobs (even if it isn't the most functional looking armor ever).

(off topic but I also just want to add that he draws them with little hairs and tufts on their ears and I love it. ok that is all)

I do have a few thoughts about armor though.

Even attire made of textiles make noise when someone moves in them, and I can imagine moving around in armor, especially armor made of hard, insect shells would make a lot of noise when someone moves around in it. When you're relying on sound to navigate your environment and pinpoint potential threats or targets, wearing something making a lot of noise would not be ideal. On the other hand, getting into a fight unarmored would be a problem.

So here's my solution: heavy armor (see below) would only be worm within the camps/settlements where noise was already high and space is more cramped (and therefore more risky in a fight) as a sort of guard in case they were attacked. Those guarding the settlements along the outside might still wear armor as well, but less of it. Those going out to scout or hunt (if they do hunt) would wear as little armor as possible, and try to wear it strategically so that it wouldn't rub against itself and make noise. This is why most Falmer we encounter in the game are wearing little except for loin cloths and kneepads.

One more idea I have for armor is a specific armor piece. On the note of guarding or protecting a camp or settlement, I imagine the noises of it all (especially with the noise based headcanons I've laid out here) would make it hard to actually catch any potential threats when you can't see. A large slightly concave piece of armor worn behind the head could block out noises from behind the wearer, as well as a help focus sounds ahead of them.

That is all! Thank you for reading! A lot of these concepts around the culture of sound I think could also be applied to their buildings and even a culture of music, but those are posts for another time.

All of the concept art I used was taken from here and all of the Skyrim screenshots are from UESP.

[comradesummers]

it's very important to me that people remember that while buffy summers is truly a kind, loving, forgiving person who genuinely wants to do good and help people, she is also capable of great pettiness when necessary. and i love her for it!

[bixels]

I think 90% of my gripes with how modern anime looks comes down to flat color design/palettes.

Non-cohesive, washed-out color palettes can destroy lineart quality. I see this all the time when comparing an anime's lineart/layout to its colored/post-processed final product and it's heartbreaking. Compare this pre-color vs. final frame from Dungeon Meshi's OP.

So much sharpness and detail and weight gets washed out and flattened by 'meh' color design. I LOVE the flow and thickness and shadows in the fabrics on the left. The white against pastel really brings it out. Check out all the detail in their hair, the highlights in Rin's, the different hues to denote hair color, the blue tint in the clothes' shadows, and how all of that just gets... lost. It works, but it's not particularly good and does a disservice to the line-artist.

I'm using Dungeon Meshi as an example not because it's bad, I'm just especially disappointed because this is Studio Trigger we're talking about. The character animation is fantastic, but the color design is usually much more exciting. We're not seeing Trigger at their full potential, so I'm focusing on them.

Here's a very quick and messy color correct. Not meant to be taken seriously, just to provide comparison to see why colors can feel "washed out." Top is edit, bottom is original.

You can really see how desaturated and "white fluorescent lighting" the original color palettes are.

[Remember: the easiest way to make your colors more lively is to choose a warm or cool tint. From there, you can play around with bringing out complementary colors for a cohesive palette (I warmed Marcille's skintone and hair but made sure to bring out her deep blue clothes). Avoid using too many blend mode layers; hand-picking colors will really help you build your innate color sense and find a color style. Try using saturated colors in unexpected places! If you're coloring a night scene, try using deep blues or greens or magentas. You see these deep colors used all the time in older anime because they couldn't rely on a lightness scale to make colors darker, they had to use darker paints with specific hues. Don't overthink it, simpler is better!]

[chalkrub]

this too is yuri (the relationship between me and two of my own characters i love too much)

[opbackgrounds]

That's the feeling of your heart growing three sizes today

[chaoticats3]

Been working my way through tmbd and just finished artificial condition. I would kill and die for ART. Also crying everytime Murderbot starts Experiencing Emotions (trauma) and just is like. "Huh. This is illogical and dumb. I should not be doing this. The danger that I am making up in my mind is not real" like babygirl you are having a panic attack, you can't LOGIC your way out of emotions. and also stop acting like me I am being called out in every chapter.

[lukazade]

Sleepover with two puny mortals that you're in love with (and everything can go right).

Lowkey based on a fanfic I was writing, but as usual I haven't the confidence to post it! Yeah~

Had this in the drafts for months,,,, figured I'd finish it up now so it's done. I like to kinda have some Finished art on the page hahahaha

[x-neurotoxin-x]

Can we all just take a minute to acknowledge how many times Touya should've been saved but wasn't?

Not even touching on at the home, that's an entirely other tragic situation, I mean the seven years he was on the street. It's such a messed up thing, because you're telling me there's this sickly teenager dressed in burnt up hospital clothes and no shoes wandering around COVERED in VISIBLE wounds all over his body (that only became worse with time as he started training his quirk again) and no one reached out to him? No one tried to help him?

You're saying for a damn near decade he lived on the streets, likely hungry and barely scraping by to get his needs met, probably frequently very sick due to his burns and the conditions he was living in, also in a terribly vulnerable situation where people probably did take advantage of and victimize him and you're telling me nobody helped him? They just ignored him? For nearly a decade??? Yeah, I'd go crazy and start plotting society's downfall, too, that's sick.

[ghostdrinkssoup]

Severance S2 spoilers, but I think innie!Mark running back to Helly is deeper than just him realising he doesn’t have feelings for Gemma. As we know, outie!Mark gets severed because he doesn’t know how to cope with Gemma’s passing, meaning he’s someone who struggles to accept death (and by extension change). We see this characterisation extend to innie!Mark when Petey’s disappearance forces him to re-experience grief. Notably, innie!Mark’s gut reaction is to hide the group photo of Petey so he won't be reminded of him, similar to how outie!Mark hides Gemma’s things in his basement because it’s “easier pretending she never existed”. Innie!Mark later shreds the map on the back of that same group photo when Helly presses him to question Petey’s death, again, very similar to how outie!Mark tears up the picture of Gemma. Despite differing contexts, both versions of Mark try to prove they don’t “give a shit” about someone they are very clearly mourning.

Innie!Mark isn’t just mourning his best friend, but also how things used to be. His attachment to Petey doubles as an attachment to the culture created by his coworkers, again, not so dissimilar to outie!Mark mourning his old life with Gemma. In both cases, he doesn’t want things to change. The idea that work culture is created “by the people” is established in the first episode, during a meeting between innie!Mark and Cobel:

Here, Cobel explicitly associates hell and heaven with the work environment, noting that hell is not reality but our perception of reality, influenced by our environment. Essentially, the people at work determine whether the workplace is worth being attached to. Although this philosophy isn’t universal (not everyone loves their coworkers), it aligns with innie!Mark’s values, as demonstrated in the shredding scene: 

Here, innie!Mark confirms that he isn’t loyal to Lumon, but to his colleagues. We also learn that in the face of uncertainty, he would rather lean on the support of his immediate community (his “family”) than become isolated, reframing the workplace as an intimate (and domestic) space. Considering that severance is meant to separate people’s work lives from their personal lives, this scene is particularly fascinating. Especially since Helly resists conflating the professional sphere with domesticity (“I could not, with a razor to my throat, be less interested in being your family”), viewing work as a prison that restricts her freedom (which, ironically, is likely the reality of Helena’s personal life). Interestingly, innie!Mark resents Helly’s constant disobedience until she tries to commit suicide. Again, when he’s confronted by death.

The show continuously reminds us that loss of intimate attachment, whether at work or home, is what both versions of Mark fear most. For example, innie!Mark is the only worker who hasn’t tried to quit. Helly repeatedly tries to quit in season one, even though she knows it’ll end her life; Irving is more than ready to quit after he learns Burt is married, and is ready to accept his death after outing Helena as a mole; Dylan also tries to quit when he’s separated from Gretchen and realises she won’t be coming back. Innie!Mark is the only severed worker (of the main cast) who can't accept death. Walking out that door terrifies him, and Lumon nurtures that fear. As Milchick says in season one, death isn’t something that happens at Lumon. The workers don’t even know what death looks like, as shown when MDR find the animal corpse in Woe’s Hollow:

Suddenly, the external world of the natural environment overwhelms the workplace, bringing death in its wake. Yet, the internal world of domesticity also brought loss in the form of Petey, Burt, and Irving’s “retirements”. Clearly, neither private nor public spaces are appropriate labels for the workplace, because the workplace is unnatural, monitored, and sealed off from reality. Lumon literally advertises this state of being, yet woe resulting from the loss or death of a loved one keeps threatening to invade this sequestered paradise. The personification of woe being a ghostly bride (AKA someone’s dead wife) also feels pretty pointed.

But let’s return to that point from earlier about work culture. As we have already established, innie!Mark is more than willing to work at Lumon if he becomes accustomed to the culture created by his colleagues. Helly contrasts him in this sense, as she is both independent and capable of rallying people to action without group support or approval (as we see during her speech to Choreography and Merriment). Innie!Mark, meanwhile, quelled his rebellious behaviour the moment he made friends with Petey. Under ordinary circumstances, innie!Mark is unlikely to be the kind of person to just up and leave his job because it’s exploitative. His decisions are not guided by morality, they’re guided by emotional attachment. We see this with outie!Mark in season one: his views on Lumon only begin to shift after he attends Petey’s funeral, and goes to his (Petey’s) daughter’s concert. Before this moment, outie!Mark is mostly apathetic about the inner workings of Lumon because severance is a convenient coping mechanism. It’s only when the peace is disturbed, and someone he’s grown to care for dies, that he changes gear. 

Innie!Mark behaves similarly when he demands to have his team back in the first episode of season two. It’s the most rebellious we’ve ever seen him. He doesn’t want his friends to disappear, and once they’re back, he doesn’t quit despite being given the option to leave. He wants to find Ms. Casey (who he knows is his outie’s wife), sure, but he’s also attached to Helly and his other colleagues. They’re his family, and he is very unlikely to abandon his family.

Outie!Mark is also very unlikely to abandon his family. The moment he learns Gemma is alive, he’s willing to risk everything (including his safety) to get her out. His stubbornness and loyalty are only rivalled by his innie’s, who is effectively himself. The problem isn’t that innie and outie Mark are different people; it’s that they’re the same person. If the roles were reversed, outie!Mark would never leave Lumon for Helly, not if it meant leaving Gemma behind. He would do the exact same thing innie!Mark does because neither version of him can accept loss, which is why he can’t leave. It’s not just Helly: it’s Dylan and all the other innies he would be abandoning. Not to mention that leaving would mean his certain death and Mark has never been able to deal with death, something Lumon promises to shield its workers from.

Why don’t people quit their jobs, even when they know it’s corrupt? Because people become complacent, conditioned, and attached to the status quo. Innie!Mark was always going to run back into the tender arms of hell. For a moment, it probably seemed a lot more like heaven to him.

This has been Mark’s consistent characterisation throughout the show. Do I view innie!Mark and outie!Mark as separate entities? Yes and no. I do think that innie!Mark is just as much a person as outie!Mark, and that they are different versions of the same person. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t the same person. If innie!Mark was different from his outie, he probably would’ve gone with Gemma. But outie!Mark has never learned how to accept grief, and innie!Mark is a version of himself that hasn’t evolved past this worldview either. What we see at the end of Cold Harbour, then, is a very literal representation of self-sabotage. Because the type of person who would’ve gone with Gemma wouldn’t have severed himself to avoid grief in the first place. For Orpheus not to turn around, he would've had to be someone else.