#but at least i've actually posted some of that

[lycorogue]

1000% the comment.

100 views mean nothing. Did people even read it, or did they simply open the story and decided against it for some reason?

Also.... bots. In this day and age I always wonder how much my view count is inflated by bots.

(Alternatively, that view count might be inflated by a single person. I, personally, have added about 100 views to a single story before. This is lovely, and I would be on Cloud 9 if I ever discovered that a reader returned to my story that many times, but view-count alone can't let me know that)

As for kudos, I literally have a story on AO3 right now that gets a fair amount of kudos nearly-daily. But from guests. I have a lot of friends/family without AO3 accounts, so I leave my stories unlocked. But now I'm left to wonder if those are legit kudos or - again - if they are bots. Or, secret 3rd option, if the kudos are readers going "I read it. I'll be polite and leave a kudos to show appreciation that this author posted the story" but this fictitious reader wasn't terribly impacted by my story. To them, it wasn't terrible, but maybe it wasn't memorable either. They may forget the title or that they ever read it. The kudos has no actual weight beyond acknowledgement that a story was read all the way through.

Kudos are a nice dopamine jolt, but they last as long as it takes to read the notification. At least someone (probably) acknowledged my work. Thank you for that.

BUT THE ONE COMMENT!?!

I've moved you enough that you felt compelled to let me know? Even if it's a single heart emoji? Reader, I am kissing you on the mouth right now. I am hugging that comment tight. I am openly weeping with joy. I have proof! Proof that a human read my story and was moved by it. That I was able to connect with another human being, if only for a moment.

Comments. Are. Everything!

[judysxnd]

Proofs that Pedro Pascal & Y/n Y/l/n are dating, (part five)

As requested, here's more!

Not going to lie, I don't really follow closely Pedro's life anymore, so I don't really know what he is up to or where he could be and stuff, so this is a bit approximate

———————————————————————

(a while back, can't remember the dates)

Pedro was on SNL a few times, not only to host but sometimes just to appear in a few sketches. Guess who appeared in at least one sketch when he was here too? Y/n. This is a huge coincidence, it's actually not a coincidence anymore. She did host one time, and Pedro appeared too. This is so weird..

10.11.2024 morning

Pedro and Y/n were seen having a coffee (date?) in some local coffee shop where they were. They were sitting in front of each other in some corner, trying to have some privacy. They were eventually seen leaving together. They were apparently very close to each other, and Y/n even held Pedro's arm as they left. That's cute.. but not enough, come oooooooooon

14.11.2024 at 9:17pm

Gladiator is premiering and, well obviously Pedro is here because he literally is in the movie. But, wait- who is that on the carpet just a few meters behind Pedro? Is that Y/n? Oh yes that's her! Wearing a very tight red dress with some gold lines, matching the topic of the movie. But what is she doing here? During one interview she said that the cast invited her. We do think it was one particular person who did.. Luckily enough we got a picture of them together. They do look good together.

21.11.2024 at 4:13pm

Pedro published a photo dump when he was on the set of Gladiator, and we couldn't help but notice a certain woman in the background of one of his picture. It might seem like a simple landscape picture, but further in the front, there is.. Y/N??? Yes that's her! To connect this, a while ago, might have been when they were actually on set, Y/n posted the same landscape on her story. We did not forget. She apparently visited him on set! What a coincidence

23.11.2024 at 7:20pm

Guess who posted another photo dump of his time on the set of Gladiator? Yes, mister Pedro. Guess who appears next to Joseph in one picture when they're in town? Y/n. Maybe she is in the movie to be there that much? I've seen, she is not. Come on guys, you keep dropping hints, just make it official now!!!

24.11.2024 at 10:29pm

Now it's Y/n's turn to post a photo dump of her "memorable moments" she had these past months. The pictures shows a wedding of one of her friends, a beautiful landscape in New-York at night, a picture of an arena with people dressed as gladiators, a picture of dogs- wait, did you say a pic with gladiators? Is there Pedro in this picture? Wa- Yes ! He is in the picture. There is also a picture of two hands holding, but of course it's her left hand and his right hand so we can't see Pedro's tattoo! Ugh this is getting so frustrating.

[pinep-ne]

Mmm. I usually don't get into fandom drama because sometimes it's really just a waste of energy. But TikTok's got some... interesting people. I've noticed a pattern and I hope I have a place to speak on it.

I'm kind of sick of non-Americans/Southerners being blatantly and willingly uneducated towards, or even just entirely ignoring the political+societal themes of rdr2. It's literally the game man. I just think sometimes they really don't feel the weight of the topics they're throwing around.

Why are you calling Charles a "redneck" in a failed attempt to call him another slur, neither of which were you aware were derogatory, nor did you think to educate yourself on the significance of?? And then when people called you out and educated you, you throw out a meager apology with the words "I'm sorry if I offended anyone."

And then proceed to half-ass a google search, post it, and further prove your stupidity by saying "redneck isn't a slur, it's a derogatory term for Americans" which yes, it is— towards white, southern, lower-class Americans, with actual history tied to it. It's still derogatory, and Charles isn't white. And THEN when confronted about it even more, you throw your hands up and say "I just can't make jokes I guess." Like it was never a joke in the first place dude. You're just being racist (and accidentally classist?) on account of your illiteracy.

And this one was just a wild argument I had the other day— why are you calling Micah's racist remarks "not as black and white as that"??? He quite literally says a derogatory term within the first ten minutes of the game. There's a whole four minute youtube video of his racist actions. Joking or not, or whether you think his intentions were to 'rile people up', it's still discriminatory. Racism is often, if not always, as black and white as that. (no pun intended /srs)

Thinking otherwise, I'm tempted to believe, is your own projection. It shows a lot that you'd stretch so far to continuously deny and defend a continuously emphasized theme, that directly affects the characters as it has directly affected real people. Hell, even if it was vaguer than that. How much tolerance are you privileged with to brush off and prance around something that irrevocably damaged entire communities for centuries. Just because it's fiction? 'Cause it's not real? Because "it doesn't affect anyone"?

They also said "He can't be racist! He works with POC!"

???

I'm all for liking and appreciating whatever character you want— I'm not gonna spend my time leading all those horses to water— but snatching and running with the veil of fiction to dissolve the connotations and gravity of a very real thing, simply depicted within a story, just so you can slobber all over your favorite character, it's just undoubtedly shallow and disrespectful to the history and media that you claim to comprehend. You can't just create lines to read between and pull the "have some media literacy" card when someone calls out that you really never had such power in the first place. Like I said, do whatever you want with a character, but at the very least acknowledge every single part of them instead of brushing it off.

Ah anywho. I'm not a POC myself but I am Southern. Racism is still very present here and I felt it'd be important to me to speak up about it. If anyone's got perspective to offer, or they'd like to correct me on anything, I'm open. I think my prose may be a little too flowery to have gotten every point and logistic across, so there's always a chance of misinterpretation. Just let me know!

*** Hh and disclaimers because I'm afraid of misunderstandings. I know racism exists in places outside of the U.S., but the game is placed in America. It's in the context of discrimination against American POC, that some non-Americans tend to poorly gauge the difference and weight of. In neither of these instances were the people from the U.S. And as another thing, this isn't to ignore the treatment other characters receive regarding their culture or country (Sean, Javier, Charles, etc.) by folk who are not a part of it. It's just ignorance. The cycle sickens me. I just think in general if you're going to consume historical fiction and you're going to discuss it, at least understand the historical part. Don't be blissful x

[marscantread7]

Don't feel like doing that fancy shit w/ the pictures and borders and colors, so js headcanons I have for Sy and Xav and YOU! The reader, not mc. So basically Xavier and Sylus x regular, avg citizen reader. Ig for info. Ur a college student working some normal job js to pay off ur tuition. Like a barista or sumn. Not doing fast food, bc I'm currently a drive-thru worker at a fast food place and I cannot put my self insert character through that😭💔

Sorry abt the other LIs😭💔 I'm tryna get rid of my drafts so I'm js gonna do my two favorites for rn💀💀💀 I'll come back to this concept w/ the other three at a later date

Xavier

- he's suupppeeerrr overprotective of u. Bc like, ur not an evolver at all, and u have no sense of urgency, so like anytime there's fluctuations in the area, or even a wanderer appearance, he's teleporting u far, far away

- He loves helping u study for exams >_< and like, for ur online classes, esp if it's a gen ed class that isn't important to ur major, he will do ur assignments for u and even take tests and quizzes

- "Brings me back to the good ol days🙂‍↕️"

- He will have u bring home recipes for the new coffee ur shop has for a limited time so he can practice making it. He really loves (to try) cooking for u ans even if his croissants come out a little burnt, u enjoy it either way.

- u actually live in a dorm bc unfortunately u can't afford an apartment😓💔 Xavier always gets nervous when he's there bc "what if ur roommate says smth?" And ur js like, "She's always bringing smb new over. I promise u, she will not gaf abt me bringing the same boy over everyday."

- he will always make sure to visit the coffee shop everyday to get breakfast or lunch, and even drop off a treat for u.

- "Saw this fresh banana bread and brought u a few slices"

- keeps u in the dark abt everything involving protocores and wanderers bc bless ur soul! Ur too curious for ur own good and would definitely try to do ur own exploring

- he's caught u one too many times looking up the N109 Zone and has scolded u for it.

- oh yeah! And nothing against u, but he refuses to tell u that he's Lumiere bc of how curious u r. And crazy. U would definitely try to hunt him down to get exclusive pictures for ur Lumiere blog💀💀💀

- "Omg Xav!!! Look at this new Lumiere post? He's so cool!"

- *Xavier trying to keep his cool* Yeah. I bet he is😅😅😅

Sylus

- ur more chronically online than he originally thought when he first met u

- "What would u do if when he okay, so u said yes would go?" "Darling, what the FUCK r u talking abt rn?"

- he's trying so hard to convince u that u don't need to work and he can js pay off school for u

- "Crow man. Listen. I get ur super, mega rich, but u might not always be here to support me. I also feel like less of a burden on u. At least w/ my own money I have that security and assurance that I can still support myself if things don't work out between us, or if smth happens to u." "Kitten, I get that, but for the time being, I'm truly not going anywhere. Why don't u js let me pay for everything and u js put all ur money in a savings. I truly don't mind letting u use all my money, I have more than enough to spare."

- gave u one of his apartments to live in so ur not in those janky ass dorms.

- He refuses to let u step foot inside the N109 zone

- "Ur lucky ur even alive rn. If I hadn't caught u snooping around all those months ago-" "Ugh! Live a little? Aren't u all abt living life ln edge?"

- has to hide his motorcycle from u bc for some reason u know how to hotwire different vehicles????

- Mephisto always snitches on u when ur up to no good

- Srsly, bless ur heart. Ur such a curious soul, and Sylus HATES it. He's genuinely surprised on how u have made it this far in life bc the amount of dangerous situations he finds u in

- "So u knew the energy fluctuations in this area were high and u still decided to go???" "I've always wanted to see a Wanderer in person" "😐"

--------------------------------------------------------

Haha😭😭 js Starcrow w/ a regular ass reader who has no sense of danger LMFAOOO. Kinda half assed the end of them bc I'm js trying to clear out my drafts rn while I have a burst of writing energy rn

[bedupolker]

hello! I love your art, it's so cute, expressiv and dynamic! I'm wondering if you have some info about the process behind your painting.

It looks like watercolour which is what I'm interested in doing. I'm finding it tricky to find resources on watercolour anthro stuff - both because I'm inexperienced in watercolour but also cos resources I've found are mostly geared to realistic/traditional watercolour, not cartoony/fantasy stuff.

Watercolour for cartoonier styles looks great when there's some bits left white, which u do really well! How do you figure out where to paint and where to do the highlights?

Also I'm not sure of simple things like whether to ink or paint first, and how to approach sketches. Also what paper to use - I'm using watercolour paper but artists like Remy Boydell use Bristol board I think 🤔

I know a lot of it is experimentation and practice, but I'd love to hear some tips/resources from someone who knows what they're doing and does it well! Thank you for reading this long ask, and I hope you have a nice day :)

I haven't had much formal training in watercolor (I have in oil and ink) so unfortunately can't really link you up to any good tutorials. If you viewers at home have any then feel fee to comment below.

Nonetheless I think it's always good to start with some baseline of realism so you can figure out how light and shadow play on things like clothes and hair. The highlights are kind of just gut instinct that comes from experimentation, usually I'd leave a bit more white on whatever side the light source is coming from, plus a little more white to accentuate the more shiny bits like sleek hair, metal, polished stone, etc. I like having white wet gouache on hand too to fix things or add in tiny choice highlights.

I usually sketch and then go over it in a thin pen, let it dry then erase pencil lines, paint over it, then use pen again to add thicker outlines or details and some cross hatching for texture. The pen bleeds a little (I'm sure you can see in some of the art I've posted) but it's not always a bad thing if you can work with it. I'm sure that's not everyone's preference but i don't mind it.

I've recently posted stuff both on Bristol-like paper and watercolor paper. I actually do like watercolor paper because it has a nice texture but if you're really going for a clean, precise look more reminiscent of cartoon art then Bristol may be easier to work with. Honestly though looking back through stuff I posted I'm not sure theres a really noticable difference, at least with how I render things.

But yeah like you mentioned it's just a lot of studying art you like and experimentation. I posted some rabbit pet portraits recently and absolutely was looking at some Beatrix Potter art to reference what fur texture she used and anatomy.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Been rewatching the early Marvel movies and apparently this is the time of my life where I just get re-obsessed with characters I love so here's some random thoughts about Loki/Thor the Dark World:

Why. In the world. In the universe. Did Odin not ask Loki ANY questions when Loki was brought before him for judgement in Dark World? Like, at the BAREST MINIMUM he should have asked where Loki got an ARMY, the last time he'd seen Loki was when Loki fell off the Bifrost and then he vanished for a year and showed back up with the glowstick of destiny and an army that Thor says "are not of Asgard or any world known". ODIN. WHY ARE YOU NOT ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS?!

Like, we are aware that Odin is. partial to giving his kids harsh punishments. He obviously doesn't care about Loki's motives. Like, a good parent would look at their kid who disappeared for a year and then came back insane and be like "hey so what happened to you when you disappeared? you didn't get captured by a super powerful being and tortured into submission did you?" (Thanos tortured Loki I have SOURCES and I WILL cite them upon request) But even a bad parent who was a decent king would wonder how their kid suddenly got an ARMY out of NOWHERE and yet Odin never questions this at all. Even Thor in Avengers at least asks Loki "Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be king?" (which just shows Thor would honestly be a better king than Odin tbh) but Odin is just like "nah this is not important. imprisoning my son for life and telling him how worthless I think he is is more important in this moment."

I wonder if she'd had more time if maybe Frigga would have been able to get Loki to tell her what happened and if maybe that was part of her goal of visiting him (beyond just, you know, actually being a decent parent who cares about her child and wanting to keep him company) because we know she's clever (she's smarter than Odin good gravy, is there like an age difference between them is he going senile or something) so PERHAPS she thought if she talked to Loki she could puzzle out what had happened to him and find out if there was, you know, a potential universal threat Asgard should be aware of. And like, if she had found out anything what was Odin going to say? He can't actually punish his wife in any meaningful way (lol imagine he tries and she just grabs her two grown sons and leaves, help xD) especially if she found out IMPORTANT INFORMATION that he SHOULD have discovered on his own.

This does kind of highlight an underlying problem with Odin, where he seems to think that Asgard is invincible and is, well, lazy about defending it. Like, I've seen posts about how Loki letting the Frost Giants into Asgard in the first movie is actually him not just showing that Thor is not ready to be king, but also demonstrating that Asgard has dangerous holes in its defenses. Because yeah, Loki can HIDE HIMSELF FROM HEIMDALL and sneak into Asgard. Heck, he can sneak OTHERS into Asgard while he's not even WITH them. That- that is a security threat, because if anyone BESIDES Loki could do that then Asgard could easily be invaded and- wait a second, that happens in The Dark World! The Dark Elves hide themselves from Heimdall and sneak an invasion force into Asgard! Destroying it's defenses and KILLING ITS QUEEN. Like, my goodness, do you think Loki is the only person with these abilities? Are you even trying Odin? At all?

TLDR; Odin is an idiot for not questioning Loki about the Chitauri/where he was for a year between Thor and Avengers, not to mention an awful father and an incompetent king.

[inkywellkiwi]

I started this post in NOVEMBER 2024, I left it in the drafts but I'm going to post it anyway.

/

I don't like of doing this kind of thing but it will be necessary, it may be a bit silly but a friend ended up finding this image on Pinterest without credits, even though it was silly I felt a slight discomfort. I don't know how to explain it, it was kind of tough to see that this thing I did is there without credits, you know?

I had the idea by chance when I saw a picture of Mole, Damien, Pip and Gregory together and for some unknown reason Mole was cross-eyed, so I thought "Why not make an edit of that?"I spent a considerable amount of time editing Mole's face, manually removing the background of the helmet (I do this out of habit), changing a few things and so on so that someone can just take it and post it on Pinterest just because it's not there and it's funny, since Mole is an 8/9 year old boy, he's a mercenary smoker and has probably had some moments like this in his life.

I feel like I'm making a storm in a teacup because I did this just for fun and I thought I'd post it because maybe it'll brighten someone's day, I actually feel ridiculous talking about this

I find it annoying that a considerable number of pins don't have the original artists' credits. In fact, I like it when people publish with the credits and I'm even happier when the artists themselves publish their artwork there

But seeing something I've actually done, being there made me feel very uncomfortable, and this has probably already happened with the few Raggedy Ann things I've posted here, but I've posted some memes I've done there, not all of them that I've posted here but I've posted them there

I commented there so that the person could at least leave the credits, it's been about 2 days and so far...nothing. I know that this network doesn't usually notify like it used to, but...I don't know

I feel like I'm being ridiculous by talking about this and passing on some bad image, but in fact I'm just uncomfortable, I would never wish for someone to have their work reposted without credit especially thereUnfortunately it's a lesson for me to have to watermark even silly things

But again, I'm sorry about this, I didn't expect this to happen so soon with something I did just to make fun and get a laugh out of some people, I can't express myself very well, especially in English which isn't my first language, I tried to explain as best as possible what's going on in my head about this, I'll probably delete this later

Again, I apologize for this ridiculous post.

/

After two months nothing happened so I'm finally posting this, It's not cool not to give credit to what YOU TOOK and reposted somewhere else, learn that doing this kind of thing is RIDICULOUS

So whoever you are, PLEASE GIVE CREDITS, your hands will not fall

What he saw cannot be unseen

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

super indulgent genshin oc concept bc i've been thinking too much about capitano and ororon's dynamic in the story lore ramblings and ideas under the cut for anyone interested hahah;;, beware - long-ass post

(obviously spoilers ahead for the natlan AQ)

haven't picked out a name yet but we could probably scara him and call him 'vessel' or smth anyway, i was thinking too much abt how, in a way, ororon's situation sorta- idk if 'mirrors' is the word, but it has some similarities to what was ultimately going on w capitano? the difference was of course that while ororon failed to be a vessel to send lingering souls into the night kingdom, capitano didn't fail. quite famoulsy. so while that's super interesting and all, i couldn't help but think how they could've pushed that idea further? like you have to make this connection yourself. not even ororon, who spends a good chunk of the AQ thinking about what happened back then, made any remark about how similar it was to what ended up happening to capitano (that i recall?). did we ever find out if the ritual they tried w ororon had ever been performed before? i don't remember. it might've been, but it could've also been a hypothetical of sorts that they figured they could just try. anyway, regardless, i started thinking about if they HAD done it before, how interesting it would've been to actually get an account of what went down. as in- in further detail. bc then we could've possibly had a stronger/more evident connection between capitano's ordeal and ororon, and it would've been more clear what ororon sort of- dodged. if that makes any sense. like we know thanks to capitano but still, it's not the exact same scenario. so you can probably see where this is going lmao

this guy (we'll go with 'the vessel') is the result of my brainworms thinking about how it could've worked if we had one of the previous 'sacrifices' of the ritual (or maybe even the only other one) appear in the story. maybe he could've been from around the time citlali was still young (like before she realized she wasn't aging), so before she was renowned and in a position where she would've been able to easily stop the ritual. i think it would be really interesting if she could've like- still protested? y'know? but since she didn't have a high position she felt like it would've been pointless. this would make it all the more compelling the fact that she still didn't outright protest against ororon's ritual, and would've given more weight to her complicated guilt/relief over the whole ordeal. so all the way back then (like 200ish years?) they found a fella with an incomplete soul, trained him to prepare him since the situation wasn't nearly as dire n so there was time (and would make more sense if it was also the first time they were doing this), and then successfully performed the ritual. or at least as successfully as they thought, bc i think it would be all the more appaling if like- ororon's was always meant to be a capitano pre-ronova situation. he would've carried these souls w him and he would've been laid to rest but HE wouldn't have really rested, if that makes sense? not just killing him. maybe that's what it was and i just can't remember. anyway. if it was something like that, then the vessel would've been essentially put to sleep somewhere in a secret cave or whatever, acting as a sort of waiting room for the souls in him to stay w him and not roam the land until they could get into the night kingdom. but since the situation w the night kingdom was worse than anyone had expected, the souls sort of never moved on, and stayed w the vessel, dormant in that cave.

like that, ororon's ritual has failed and we have a more interesting situation going on – citlali's conflict is even more complex, the MotNW are more morally gray, ororon's 'failure' is more weighty given the vessel's ritual did seemingly help out a ton, and capitano has a more interesting parallel w the whole situation. in this scenario of course the natlan AQ has much better pacing etc. it would be more harrowing if we're allowed to stew w the souls disturbed from the night kingdom and sort of haunting the land like they were when we were helping them w citlali n xilonen, i feel like that happened too fast. if the souls were disturbed in that way, then so too would the vessel's rest be disturbed, and i think it would be hilarious if at some point in that little section we get the MotNW in a panic like 'HE IS GONE. HE IS OUT OF THE CAVE' and the traveler is like who???? it would be so funny. so the vessel essentially wakes up, accidentally escapes from his cave, n then starts wandering natlan in a daze bc he's like 200yrs in the future, he's confused, and he has a bunch of souls backseating his existence van hoenheim style. the gang could then meet him n we could have ororon have his little crisis over it n the vessel himself also have conflicting feelings over it etc capitano probably figured out/found out ororon's whole situation w the failed ritual, so when the vessel wakes up, capitano could probably show up and start sort of being oddly inclined to have chats w him. by that point in the story we wouldn't know capitano is in p much his exact same shoes, so this would be a weird sort of 'wtf is he planning' moment. the vesssel wouldn't be able to quite join in on capitano's plan, but since he was trained specifically for this whole ordeal, we could have him and capitano sort of compare notes n theorize how they could both just Fucking Rest. i think the ronova thing would play out the same (wouldn't want to take that away from capitano since that was his wholeass reason for being there), but they would've sort of off-camera (we get shown this afterwards) figured out that if capitano's plan works, then the vessel could sort of use him as a conduit to guide the souls through him and into the night kingdom. sort of like a passage that only he can access. so capitano goes and sits down, and then the vessel sort of sits down by his feet and joins him. then capitnao isn't alone and since i'm nothing if not a simp the first thing i thought when i saw him sitting there was those really heartwrenching fanarts people make of xiao kneeling by the rex lapis statue and resting his head on a thigh/knee, and i can't get the image out of my head, so. vessel -> xiao, capitano -> rex lapis statue, you get it i don't need to explain this any more LMAO i didn't even think of it as ship material (though you bet the fandom would make it so if this was canon. not that i'd protest), but more as a. sort of like- a sudden bastion of understanding and companionship at the end of the road. like yes both of them were alone but also not alone but also really really lonely for a good chunk of their long lives and even though it has now come to the end they both wanted they also managed to find a companion/comrade/someone who Gets It, even if it was just for a little while there at the end.

so yeah

[chimken-nugget]

not trying to turn this into a warrior cats blog but i have to say, one of my favourite pieces of warrior cats media has to be the Cats of the Clans Field Guide.

Genuinely, this field guide acknowledges some of the biggest gripes I've had with the warrior cat series (and through the perspective of Rock !!).

Also, it's just super well written (imo, at least) and the art is gorgeous ????? The idea of the reader being in the perspective of 3 starclan kits talking to Rock is actually so peak.

Of course, we have the usual continuity errors that appears in almost every book post-TPB, and some stuff did not age well lorewise, but i don't think the writing team ever really thinks that far ahead for the lore to be properly coherent anyways.

I'm just going to share a few of my favourite things about this book, though i do recommend reading it yourselves.

Warning: Massive wall of text below

- Rock being unbiased towards any clan. One of the few books where I didn't feel like it was leaning towards one clan more than the other. Having each clan be represented by the 3 straclan kits (mosskit for river/thunder, blossomkit for shadow, adderkit for wind) is such a smart move. Any biases are portrayed through the kits themselves.

- Rock has these moments where he openly criticises the clans for the way they tend to consider themselves better than non-clan cats. He says that there have been better cats to exist who were never involved with clan life. It was honestly so refreshing to see this weird supremacy stuff get acknowledged.

- Rock also acknowledges that starclan is flawed. Throughout the book he wonders whether they have biases and mentions how strange it is that shadowclan keeps getting messed up by starclan (e.g. the nightstar situation). He also mentions how faith in starclan isn't everything.

ALSO ALSO, quote from the book: 'For once I believe Starclan has acted in every Cat's best interest'

"FOR ONCE",, I love Rock.

My only wish is that leafpool getting doomed by starclan (and the narrative) could've been acknowledged. However, this book was pre-OOTS perspective, so leafpool had not yet reached fully doomed status.

- Rock wonders whether tigerstar ever looks at hawkfrost and remember his persecution of halfclan cats (this drove me insane while reading TNP i am so glad it has been pointed out here)

- Something that stood out to me so, so much as well is the way Rock points out, and criticises how overlooked Sandstorm is and how she tends to be reduced to simply being the mother of Firestar's kits. Rock is a no. 1 sandstorm fan, and i agree with him.

- Rock's disdain of spottedleaf being in Firestar's business is so true. Thank you Rock for speaking on what the authors would later forget.

- Rock calls Tallstar's last-minute deputy change foolish. Tallstar is one of my favourite characters, but even I have to agree with this.

- PRINCESS SITS ON THE FENCE AND STILL WONDERS TO THIS DAY WHETHER HER KIN ARE SAFE

Genuinely, what ?? Did the Erin Hunter team actually just decide to sit down that day and properly (kinda) consider all the flaws of the characters they created.

idc what anyone says, i consider majority of what this field guide says to be canon LOL

[everestgale]

I SLIDE U SMITTEN ACROSS THE FLOOR FOR THE CHARACTER ASK STUFF -OWL

SMITTEN OUR BELOVED...

[Send Me a Character and I'll List Ask Game]

favorite thing about them

Smitten is so full of love! And he is so open about his love! He loves the Princess no matter what she looks like, no matter what she does to you, how much hurt she inflicts on you. He will always love her! He is so passionate, so devoted to her, even to his own detriment-

Yes, my favorite thing about Smitten is how absolutely deranged and passionate he is. No, I am not sorry /lh

least favorite thing about them

This is less "least favorite thing about him" and more about disliking how some people misunderstand him as possessive and malicious in HEA. He is unhealthy and flawed, and he caused harm, absolutely, but he is not doing anything in HEA from the place of malice, and I will die on that hill <3

favorite line

"Oh, just you wait and see! My vengeance will echo the depths of my bereavement!"

brOTP

I really like the Grey Brothers (Skeptic + Smitten), I like the idea of them having a weird sibling-ish bond, but in a "distant sibling who you don't talk to much because you two are so different... but it's nice to chat and catch up sometimes, and you are still there for each other if you really need one another" kind of way.

OTP

Ironically, I don't actually ship Smitten all that much... who am I kidding, the answer is CheatedSmitten, and I really need to draw more of them when my wrist recovers, or I will EXPLODE-

(If you'd like a reason, a friend wrote a very nice description on how this ship would play out, and I've been rotating it in my head for a few weeks. Smitten, the kind of person to extend his heart wide open, but also to probably wonder if he will ever be enough after he disastrously failed with HEA... and Cheated, the guy who repeatedly failed over, and over, and over, and over, someone who would understand this feeling of not being enough- Okay, I gotta stop, otherwise it will take over this whole post)

nOTP

Definitely not a nOTP, it's just that out of popular Smitten ships, I have a very hard time imagining Smittunist (Smitten/Opportunist), and it's entirely because of how I designed and how I write both of them. In fact, I actually really like seeing how other people write and/or draw that ship!! So it's decisively a "me" and "my designs/interpretations" problem 💔

random headcanon

People-pleaser Smitten. You can see it throughout this entire post, I'm very deep in the "people-pleaser Smitten" headcanon mine, and I can't get out of it /lh

unpopular opinion

Once again, don't know how unpopular it is, but I think specifically in the Unknown Together ending, where Smitten knows that she left with the Long Quiet, while he would be sad for a while over the fact that the Princess is gone, he will eventually bounce back, accept the fact that she is happily with "the big guy" somewhere, wherever that might be, and then choose to extend his over-the-top loving self to other people (mainly, his fellow voices) <3

...this is specifically for the Unknown Together endings. If we're talking about A New and Unending Dawn... well, we get an entirely different Smitten.

song i associate with them

It's more of a mixed HEA + Smitten song, but there is no other song that I associate with Smitten more than this one, so "Predator" by The Crane Wives it is!

"What were you thinking? Shouldn't you know better? You took advantage of another anxious people pleaser"

I'm kind of obsessed with how these lines fit well as HEA singing about Smitten... but also as Smitten singing to the Long Quiet, or rather, you, the player, for choosing to stay in the cabin and create this "Happily Ever After" ending... only to be dissatisfied with it.

favorite picture of them

This is what happens when the character we're talking about is a disembodied voice who has no canon design. So! How about my favorite drawing of him, which is this illustration with the Damsel. Look at them! They are so happy :]

Ignore the fact that it's part of the illustration set and in the rest of the illustrations they are not so happy, that's not what the question was asking!

[delulustateofmind]

Hi snail how r u? I hope u r ok

Now please listen to my tirade: Five or six months ago, my ex showed me a video of the most gorgeous man I've ever seen, with golden hair, possibly grey-green eyes, long limbs, and powerful swimmer-like muscles, making passionate love to his partner, who has a post-pregnancy body. I don't know why, but for some reason, that man made me think of Gojo (I know it sounds cringe). If you ever consider writing a fic about Gojo in which he is also a father, could you please make Y/N's body like most women's bodies become after post-pregnancy? You know, with stretch marks, large, hanging boobs (at least larger than before), a flappy, soft belly, and arms, etc.

I'm doing good sweet anon! Hope you're doing well 🩷🩷

Okay, so this has been living rent-free in my mind, and honestly, it might turn into a full-on fic someday. But listen—all of the JJK men would absolutely worship their wives, even after their bodies change from pregnancy (even Sukuna). Like, childbirth is intense, and they’d be so proud of you for going through it.

Gojo, though? He’s emotionally constipated, so it might take him a second to actually realize what’s going on. You’re standing in front of the mirror, picking yourself apart—your breasts aren’t as perky, your tummy’s softer, stretch marks are there. And for a while, he doesn’t even think you’d be insecure about it because, to him, you’re still drop-dead gorgeous. But then, one day, he overhears you talking down on yourself, and it’s like—excuse me?

Immediately, he’s giving you because how dare you talk about his wife like that? He’s up in your space, kissing every “flaw” you point out, because he truly doesn’t get it. To him, you’re the same beautiful woman who gave him his child, and he never fell for you because of your body anyway. As long as you’re healthy, that’s all he cares about. And your insecurities? Not healthy. So he’s making it a point to tell you how much he loves you every day—in the soft moments, in the messy mornings when you feel far from cute.

And Geto? Oh, he’s just as bad. Post-pregnancy you? That’s his favorite version of you. There’s something so beautiful to him about how your body changed—like it’s a reminder of what you both created (he has control issues). And yes, it’s absolutely feeding into his breeding kink. He lives to rub moisturizers and body oils into your skin, cooing sweet praises about how proud he is of you, how much he loves you.

Nanami? Same energy. His hands? Always on you. Always. He’s running those big, warm hands along your body, leaving soft kisses on your stretch marks, whispering little thank-yous for giving him the best gift he could’ve ever asked for. It’s not just love—it’s reverence.

Honestly, they’d all just make you feel so cherished, no matter how much you’re struggling with your own perception. They’re your biggest fans. Always.

In bed too, however, I feel like they'd be too nervous to initiate anything after you gave birth so trust me they take things extremely, painfully slow.

[my-castles-crumbling]

Hello, I think we are mutuals? Anyway I need to talk about it with someone and nobody is in the mood for it, so I might just speak here and you can answer or not. For context I am an adult lesbian from Argentina so everything that I'm about to say is really personal. The president of my country is a big MAGA fanboy, the little shit has been over his heels for Trump since the orange man has shown a little attention to him, recently the whole country saw Trump shit on latinos and thought "well, you are dumb if you as a latino love the orange man", so the president to maintain his chair near Trump decided to go to davos (a conference about economy) and say the most insane bullshit I've ever heard. He said that gay couples shouldn't adopt because they are most likely to rape the children, that trans surgery and hormon replacement shouldn't be allowed and that trans people support genital mutilation, he said that femicides aren't real because men also kill other men, and a lot of more shit that at least I knew that he had said it before being president but never acted on it. Now I wake up to the news that his party will try to remove the character of femicide from the civil code. He had said that he also wants to ban abortion (it was recently approved in 2020 after a lot of figth search marea verde Argentina), he defunded hormonal change (here we have public medicine so trans people used to have access to it, not the easiest to get but still better than none), he defunded hiv treatment (and his party calls it the gay virus) and a lot of fucked up stuff like acting like the congress doesn't exist and paying people to get laws approved. I am afraid, he wants to use our suffer to hide his economics mistakes and the fact that he has nazis (yes, actual nazis, yes people from the nazi as in germany 1945 nazi party) in the goverment. I am really frustrated, nobody cares, nobody talks seriously about it and just last year a man burned alive four lesbians (of course the goverment said it wasn't important). I might just get murdered and nobody would care, the goverment calls me and every university student a terrorist for angry because they defunded public education and people just nods. I hate everything that's going on and I don't need first world pity just some knowledge of what is going on here, tiktok goes down a few hours and everyone goes insane, gay people in my country are getting hunted down and nobody bats an eye. It's frustrating to live like this really. Sorry for the rant I'm just really angry and I don't know who to talk to. Thanks for reading if you do ♡

Hi <3 Please don't be sorry about the rant. I don't think anything I say can really help in this situation so I'm going to post this so hopefully more people can learn about what's happening. I'm sending you love, though.

[amethystfairy1]

I am so sorry in advance because this is a really overthinky question for a really basic thing and I doubt that too much thought was put into it but I've been so curious about Tango (and blaze-borns in general ig) and how he works since reading TT esp, because of the burns, so I have a few questions :) [post-writing extra apology for possibly the longest ask in tumblr history, I should just make a Google doc and start sending links atp 😭]

°•~°•~°•~°•~

Just to walk you through the thought process, I tend to really, really think about little things since I zone out so much and need something to occupy my brain-time lol, so it started with the question how do the blazeborn water burns work? And that led to a slew of other questions.

The first question was "why water?" Ofc the first thought is that it's a temperature thing, as in TTSBC, super hot water doesn't have this issue. However, it's not like every room-temperature thing hurts them. So second thought was that blaze-born have something lava or fire-like just beneath their skin, with their skin acting as insulation. This makes sense, as they have an "internal flame" they can will to heat up on command, and also makes sense since there has to be some layer of insulation given that Zed describes his hands as "warm", but he's not actually being burnt, which, given that Tango can melt glass and metal after heating up, it's safe to assume even his base temperature is really hot.

I'd guesstimate 1000°c since that's about fire temp, so the skin layer has to be HELLA insulated. I also had some questions about why blazeborn even were that temperature, since, given the nether origin, there's no real evolutionary reason for netherborn in general to be able to cool enough to not hurt flesh, but I guess piglins exist... I also thought way too hard about that and started questioning how the hell (haha) blazeborn exist in the first place as they're implied to be part human to an extent... and that train of thought was left in the dust. More important questions to be had.

Anyways so I read a zedango one-shot I'm at least 75% sure was written by you, where Tango says water burns him "like lava burns [humans]". So naturally I did a ton of research as to how lava burns humans, and how burns work, and the chemistry behind it. Google, surprisingly, failed me miserably, and I had to use Google scholar and guess a ton, but I think the gist is that (and thank you Wikipedia) when fire is on stuff, the heat energy causes said stuff to turn into a vapor and make light. Human skin has a buncha oil and carbon and hydrogen and oxygen, all stuff that's great for fire. This tied into another question I had, which was "would pouring lava on the burn help?"

So first question: why does water help burns, and why does it hurt fire, and is it related. Short answer: yes. Long answer: water is REALLY GOOD at absorbing *temperature*. When water goes on fire, it basically consumes all the heat energy, making the fire die out, since, as discussed prior, fire (and lava!) work by using heat energy to make light. It helps with burns for the same reason, basically taking the temperature off of the burn. Cold water is bad for burns, though, as it doesn't absorb the temperature as well (being cold) and skin being cold is bad for the damaged tissue, and the cold constricts blood vessels trying to heal the area.

So, with this logic, should it be reversed, pouring lava on the burns would hypothetically help, since the initial problem is that the water stole all the heat, and pain is doing it's job of saying "hey, something's wrong here, stop moving so we can fix it." HOWEVER, while typing this out, I remembered something.

In TT, Tango's water burns are described as purple and bruise-like. I've been using real-life logic, but this isn't a real life earth setting. This is a minecraft setting. And what happens in minecraft when water meets lava? No, not cobblestone, that's the other way around. Obsidian. A purple rock. This means that the earlier theory that blazeborn have lava under their skin is basically confirmed. It also disputes the earlier theory that lava would help, as Tango was wrong. Water does not burn the same way lava does, it burns the same way liquid nitrogen does (which, really, makes sense).

Remember earlier about cold water closing off blood vessels? Well, in severe frostbite situations, something similar happens. The lack of bloodglow is the main problem. Safe to. Assume the lack of lava-flow would ALSO be bad. Obsidian forms when lava cools rapidly, which makes sense. Tango's under-skin layer turning to rock resembles frostbite in a lot of ways. It's hard to move, hurts a ton, and even turns purple-blue. How do you treat severe frostbite? Well, warm water does help, but using the warm water method hurts INSANELY. The recommended action is to just try to warm it up the least painful way possible and take a ton of painkillers. Now, people can dip their hands in liquid nitrogen and be fine. How? The internal heat of one's hand and insulation of their skin plus the fact that LN is hydrophobic means that the oil and moisture on your skin should keep you safe for a second or so. But pretty quickly your abysmal heat gets beaten. Now take water, which is really good at absorbing heat. Frostbite in seconds.

That leaves only two questions: Why does the blazeborn skin only insulate one way? Given Tango's ability to be fine to the touch, you'd think that he's super insulated and thus protected. Easy answer? Being nether-born, there's no real reason to be immune to the cold in general. Water is literally not a thing. The second question: Why does Tango need to drink??? Easy answer; it's one of the criteria to be "alive." Need water to function. But water is completely unavailable in the nether. "They drink lava" makes no sense, as lava effectively is just hot rock. It makes sense Tango needs water, as things like... tongues, eyes, ect really need that stuff. But blazes don't, as they're fire. There's no way to get water from food, as nothing else (in the nether) has a high water content, and in ttsbc, water hurts even to drink prior to entering the mouth, but the digestive tract can handle it. Is it the human side? If so, how did Tango live in the nether so long in TT?

I was tempted to go "okay too much overthinking" at this point, but I refused to give up. So, I've determined something. A quick Google says humans need water to "regulate temperature, digest, circulate blood, salivate, and pee". How does water help with these things? It's a really really good solvent. What else is a good solvent? Basically just nail polish. Okay. New plan. Piglins exist in the nether, and they are flesh-based, organic, and pretty close to the overworld mob, well... the pig. Crazy, I know.

Anyway, [how've I not hit a character limit] that means water HAS to exist in the nether. What else proves this? BASALT! Pretty sure I watched a matpat theory that said something like this, but eh game theory is always gonna beat me to it.

Water has to exist somewhere in the nether. Where? How? I daresay, ice. In earlier versions, ice in the nether would become water. Later this was removed. However, now, ice placed in the nether will stay ice. How? Who cares, it's perfect!

Should the ice exist beneath the rocks, say under basalt or netherrack (which we can assume netherack is really good at insulation as it doesn't burn like magma in MC) people of the nether could eat that ice, which would melt without using too much of their body heat and dehydrating them like it does normal people due to the fact that their body isn't working overdrive to melt it by heating up, since theyre already more than warm enough, and it means the piglins likely just melt their ice and drink it super fast. The ice could be held by the claws, preventing burns, and BAM. Blazeborn mystery solved.

°•~°•~°•~

TL;DR? I ask too many questions and think too hard. Also, blaze born get frostbite, not burns, eat ice, and should not be thought of from an origin perspective. (Seriously, given the serious variations types of hybrids and mutants, what were people doing????)

Come back next week for my rant on Doc being our only cannon double-hybrid/mutant as a creeper goat and the implications of interspecies children and what is considered a "main" subspecies and why, as well as the consideration of a possible history of purity in breeding given the amount of people who are just one thing, how many of trait get passed down and why, weather the bird side can become more dominant in avians, how siblings can have different bird subspecies,(raven and parrot?) and why TT avians have bird legs and TTSBC ones don't!

[After consideration I'm sending this anonymously because it doesn't matter whether tumblr says there's no way to know, I think it's possible to guess who I am given... uhh... the book in your inbox]

I.

I think you're giving me a lot of credit here for thinking things through this much...I do try to think things through but this is...

WOW!

This is AWESOME! You did so much research into it and that's SO SO SO cool! I love it! I don't really have much to add too it...but I can help with that second bit! I've mentioned before, but if your parents are different subspecies, you will ALWAYS be born of one or the other. For example, if Joel and Lizzie ever had a kid in TTSBC, that kid would be either a cat hybrid or a butterfly hybrid, not both, and no mixed traits. If they had another kid, it would flip the coin again. Avians feather colors are similar coin flips based on parentage! As for why the TT avians have bird feet and the TTSBC avians don't...? Well, if you wanna deep dive on that, go for it! This whole thing was SO COOL to read! Thank you so much for reading and enjoying my AUs so much!

[thatdisasterauthor]

Hello.

Just a random Tumblr scroller here. 😊

I find it funny, that I had the doctor's appointment yesterday for my top surgery and then today I came across your post about chopping boobs off.

My surgery is scheduled in the beginning of April. I'm also going flat, because it's the easiest operation. (At least that's what my doctor told me.)

I've thought about this for years. I don't have really large boobs, but I've had enough of using bra's.

Your comment about gender presentation not changing hit me hard. I actually nodded for myself and thought that's exactly how I feel about this.

I just wanted to thank you for sharing.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one with these feelings and thoughts.

I've told my sister about this operation. I'm not sure if I will tell anyone else beforehand. (well, I have to tell my kids about it at some point)

But anyway, thank you. 😊

-R

Thank you! I'm glad the post stood out to you. :)

[changingplumbob]

Kirsty!! I truly have to thank you for always being such a great person. You are by far one of the most supportive people I've met through Simblr and I hope you know that every post you make is beloved by, at the very least, me.

I hope your day, your week, the whole rest of your month are wonderful because you truly deserve happiness and joy! 💜

THANK YOU 🥹 seriously I had a tough day and this was such an uplifting message to come home to. I know I've been slacking on the love trains lately but as a woman stuck at home most days with chronic fatigue it is so nice to be able to talk/connect with people like you 💗 I'm so happy that while it may seem that I can't do much with my spoons of energy I'm able to bring some joy to others, knowing that I've made just one person smile each day helps keep my plumbob green

Have this screenshot of Emily dressed as a watermelon blowing a raspberry that is excess because... I don't actually know, my guess is there wasn't enough surrounding screenshots for it to be a whole scene?

[dovewithscales]

*swinging into Tumblr just to respond to this*

I'm not active on Tumblr anymore, but Page sent this to me on Discord so I had to come respond. They're correct, I haven't published any books myself, though my name is on six published novels that I worked on. Rebecca Mickley is a hare who writes fiction. I do publish essays on spirituality, alterhumanity, and philosophy on my website which they linked at dovewithscales.com. I'm not an academic like Page, House of Chimeras, or Orion, but as Page said I am an ordained and licensed pagan high priestess and I approach my personal practice and my church from an alterhuman perspective. More than half of my church members are also alterhuman.

This does prompt me to publish some new stuff on my website. I have a few unpublished essays ready to go. I've been working on actually putting a grimoire into text for my students, as I currently have four members of my church who I'm training. That includes all my essays, and I'll probably take the parts I want to share with the public and put them into at least one book, someday. But I have no immediate plans.

I try to be kinda sorta present on Bluesky, but mostly you can DM me on Discord, both as DoveWithScales. Please do feel free to reach out with any questions, as I'm unlikely to see responses to this post. I left Tumblr after their attempt at AI moderation deleted my blog for no reason, and I'm not coming back. I spent a week getting it reinstated just so I could leave a pinned post with my contact information, since this used to be the biggest otherkin blog on the internet and I felt bad letting that resource disappear without telling anyone where to find me. A distinction which I'm glad to have handed back to Page.

As for other alterhuman authors I know of... Let's see. Michelle Belanger and Raven Kaldera are both vampires. If you want old school, there still exists some poetry attributed to Taliesin the bard, who described himself in terms we would now understand as being otherkin. Everyone else I can think of has already been mentioned. I'm absolutely certain I'm forgetting someone. If someone else comes to mind I'll try to remember to come back and add to the list.

Alright y'all, I need your help. Do you know any religious, magical, and/or occult authors (any faith, any practice) who are furries, alterhumans, otherkin, therians, and other such entities? If so, please let me know! I am trying to throw together a useful directory post because I figured that I can't be the only bastard here doing this nonsense as a furry and werewolf otherkin. I already know about Lupa Greenwolf and Denny Sargent, but that's where I've run out of steam. It's not limited to merely animals and monsters, too - anyone is welcome!

Blogs who are run by people who fall in any of the above categories are also welcome to reblog this post and introduce themselves, I'd love to see more of us out in the wild! (Pun only kind of intended.)