#but for real i am so very very proud of them

[derpygirl-draws]

You know what? I will not be be quiet.

^(just an example of what I am talking about) I wish I could live everyday not having to worry and not having to listen to the people I love panicking or just saying “Welp guess we are fucked”. But because so many people believed in this asshole and voted for him, I have to fear for the lives of people, REAL PEOPLE, some of whom not so long ago did not have any rights or freedoms as much as the average American. THIS IS NOT NEGOTIABLE, PEOPLE’S LIVES ARE AT STAKE. Not just their mortality but their basic right to happiness. THEIR RIGHT AS PEOPLE TO LIVE HOW THEY PLEASE IN THE PUBLIC EYE AND TO FEEL PROUD OF WHO THEY ARE.

I’ve heard people call other’s dramatic.

Those who think the reaction of minorities is dramatic do not know the fear of being deemed less important to the world. I don’t even fully know what that’s like and I don’t want to know. I don’t want anyone to know what it’s like for the world to turn their back on them. It’s a very real feeling that I wouldn’t wish on anyone! I WANT TO SEE THE PEOPLE I LOVE BEING HAPPY. I WANT TO SEE THE WORLD HAPPY. But that’s too much to ask, isn’t it?

I may not fully understand the struggles of every minority. I’ve been fortunate enough to have lived a childhood where discrimination against any part of me has been minimal.

I am a person who was born as female and identifies as female. I am a person of color. I am queer. I am neurodivergent. The majority of my peers and friends are minorities. And I care very deeply about all of them. I don’t hate many things in the world. I believe hate only fosters bitterness. But I will not hide the fact that I HATE seeing the people I care about, no matter how little I know them or how distant the relationship, hurting. I HATE knowing that I can’t immediately take their pain away and tell them not to worry.

Cause who am I to say you or the people around you shouldn’t worry? Who am I to promise it’ll be okay? Who am I to wish for a better world when it feels like the cards are constantly stacked against us.

Who is anyone to call someone else dramatic for fearing the future? When this is the world we live in.

I want to say my peace on the matter cause I feel it would be doing my loved ones a disservice to keep my voice left unheard. To bottle up your thoughts is the give in to the fear.

TELL THE WORLD HOW YOU FEEL. TELL THE WORLD AND SOMEONE WILL COME TO LISTEN. You are not dramatic for being scared. But do not suffer alone. There is always someone who will listen. Always someone who feels the same. Always someone who will appreciate knowing they aren’t alone and that you are with them.

And for those who don’t care or don’t believe this is a big deal, I will not beg. I will not ask. I will tell you to educate yourself and learn about reality we’ve been thrusted into. And if anything, how this affects you too. Cause otherwise there is nothing I can do for you and nothing I will do because there are others I know who appreciate and acknowledge what I have to say. There are others who will stand with me. There are people I want to stand with because they are people that believe and care about me and the millions of people who will be affected by the choices and ignorance of others.

I stand with open arms to those who need it. Who needs support. I will not say please stand with me. I will say I am here and I will stay here and be here no matter what and if you choose to stand with me, that’s your choice.

I will not beg for the freedom to exist and neither should you.

[drinkabletoxicdishsoap]

Hello!! I am back with another crossover parallel :D it’s still fairly odd parents a new wish x the owl house but it’s comparing two characters this time, dev and hunter! (Hopefully it will make sense when I explain it)

1. Their mothers are both never mentioned :( (ik belos isn’t technically Hunter’s dad but he’s basically a parental dad figure so it sort of counts since before Hunter got redeemed, he didn’t really have a mother parental figure)

2. When they were first introduced, they both had some accessory covering their face or parts of their face (Hunter with the mask as the golden guard and Dev with the sunglasses)

3. They both just have the same attitude before their redemption? At least while Hunter was still the golden guard. Both are a little sarcastic and snarky and want to make their parental figure proud (more on that in a second)

4. OMG DALE AND BELOS ARE LITERALLY THE SAME ANSJSKKSKSK. Both are business men (being emperor counts as being a business man trust), have experienced some sort of trauma(Dale with Vicky and Belos with his brother), do not pay attention to their children, basically run the city or place where they live, are loved by a lot of people, and both aren’t good people

5. This only counts if you see the Dev being a clone theory as being real ‼️ but both are non-humans or were made by their parental figures to fit in when in reality, they’re not who they look like they are (dev with the clone theory and Hunter being a grimwalker)

6. Both are befriended by the kind and happy main character :3 (Hazel and Luz)

7. Both have had access to magic (Hunter and his palismans, Dev and Peri)

8. When they both got redeemed, they started acting kinder (Dev, unfortunately, went back to being mean)

9. To be honest they both have just been through a lot 😭🙏 these poor trauma filled boys

10. A kind person is usually shipped with them (hunter x willow, dev x hazel)

11. Their access to magic were killed or almost killed (Hunter and Flapjack, Dev and Peri)

12. Both were VERY lonely 😭😭😭😭 (except Dev is technically still lonely with the memory wipe)

13. I know Hunter in the titans key episode was absolutely insane when he felt when he failed Belos (the quotes being: “Long story short, this is my grave! Want me to make you one too?” and “I can’t turn up empty handed…. not again.”) but I feel like Dev would probably act the same if he felt like he failed his dad too

14. And they’re both into nerdy things :3 yayayy!! (Hunter with Cosmic Frontier and Dev with Prime Meridian)

That’s all I could think of!! There may be more parallels but I haven’t watched the owl house in a LONG TIME 😭😭 I will rewatch it though! If you think of more parallels or I said something wrong, feel free to correct me in the reblogs or comments/replies. Thank you for reading another crossover yap session from me, it means a lot <3 I hope you have a great night or day!

[wisteria-lodge]

Hi! I would like to ask this Narcissa seems to love Lucius and Draco, cares for them and appears to be a family oriented person but how come it is stated in her wiki that she despises the Blacks, wouldn't this imply she considers herself more of a Malfoy and I mean why would she despise the Blacks when it comes to blood purity/superiority, I don't know the correct term but don't they practice/talk about it more/the Blacks prioritize it so shouldn't she be proud of being a Black?

So I just want to say real quick that the fanwiki is not always... accurate. It includes a lot of data from the games, interviews, interviews with the actors that I would never count as canon, and it's also written by y'know, fans. it's actually pretty funny to read through the entry on say, Lucius, and be told that he was a "high achieving model student" and "his talent in potion-making even earned him a place among Slughorn's elite Slug Club." (right. it was definitely just the potions.) I'm learning that he "favours a more elegant, refined technique when he engaged an adversary and generally demonstrates great form in his duelling style." [citation: Jason Isaacs is pretty]. And while we're on that topic "it is likely that his looks might have improved upon the fall of his former Master." Very important that we know Lucius gets hot again after the books.

My guess is that this is the bit you read:

[text id: Narcissa had a close relationship with her oldest sister Bellatrix despite their differing temperaments and personality traits. Narcissa always despised the Blacks, but had great respect for those who did. The ones who dared defy their family's beliefs, such as her older sister Andromeda and cousin Sirius Black, leading her to ignore and disown them.]

I don't know about this. Maybe Narcissa and Bellatrix were close at some point, they do use nicknames to refer to each other, but in the timeline of the books there's a LOT of friction.

Narcissa is actively trying to get Bellatrix to "leave [her] alone" during the Spinner's End chapter (which is what the snippet up there is citing.) Bellatrix is... unhelpful about the Draco situation, saying things like, “If I had sons, I would be glad to give them up to the service of the Dark Lord!" She's also blaming Lucius for the Department of Mysteries fiasco, which Narcissa is pissed about:

“Don’t you dare — don’t you dare blame my husband!” said Narcissa, in a low and deadly voice

We also see some sort of power struggle between them later on, in Malfoy Manor:

“This is my house, Bella, you don’t give orders in my —”

In the books, I don't think we get any details about how Narcissa specifically feels about Sirius, or Andromeda. There's this:

“I expect Potter will be reunited with dear Sirius before I am reunited with Lucius.”

Which is just a very Narcissa way of saying "you're on thin ice." I guess the "dear" feels slightly mocking. But she's also actively threatening Harry, so not the most representative moment. We do get this from Bellatrix:

“We — Narcissa and I — have never set eyes on our sister [Andromeda] since she married the Mudblood.”

But... she is also speaking for Narcissa, and panicking in front of Voldemort. This might not even be true.

As for the wiki saying "Narcissa always despised the Blacks, but had great respect for those who did" - that's such an odd sentence I kinda feel like there must be a typo in there. I'm not sure there's any evidence in the books that Narcissa despises the Blacks.

(I mean I do think, in a fun headcanon way, that you can make a case that she went subtly low-contact with her family after she married Lucius. The Blacks seemed to have a pretty toxic family dynamic going on circa the first war, and one thing you can say about the Malfoys is that there's a lot of love there, and as a family unit they seem solid. Maybe Narcissa did start to think of herself as more of a Malfoy than a Black. (Maybe her Malfoy-blonde hair isn't natural...)

I also think there's something going on with the house elves. The Blacks clearly have a culture of house elves, and the Malfoys... don't? Like there don't seem to be any house-elves there once Voldemort takes over (and I mean, Dobby was such a *stunningly* bad security breach, I'd be shocked if there were.) But the house seems to run just fine, while hosting a bunch of Death Eaters, Snatchers, and prisoners. Makes me think Dobby was the *only* house elf, and that he was originally a Black family house elf who came over with Narcissa when she got married. In that case, I suppose the decision not to get more might mean something. But all that's just me having fun with the worldbuilding. )

[twopoppies]

I would like to add a bit to the ‘bi as a stepping stone’ discussion.

We all know how Ricky Martin was sold at the end of 90’s/ early 00’s - his hypersexual videos with tuns of half naked women & occasionally making out with some of them. Idk in how many relationships he was with women (and if they were real or just for a bearding purpose) before he came out but according to wiki, it says:

“In March 2010, Martin publicly came out as gay via a message on his website, stating: "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am."In an interview with Vanity Fair, he declared: "There was love, passion. I do not regret anything, any of the relationships I lived, they taught me a lot, both men and women." Martin also told Fama!: "I know that I like both men and women, I'm against sexual labels, we are simply human beings with emotional and sexual needs. I like to enjoy sex in total freedom, so I'm open to having sex with a woman if I feel desire." Despite this, he expressed that he would not be interested in "an ongoing relationship with a woman", stating: "Men are my thing"”

So there it is - he talked about relationships/being in love and sleeping with women but yet he came out as gay, not bi.

So in my theory and based on the fact that I believe H doesn’t want to lie about important things (we all know how he denied Larry when asked about Sweet Creature), if he (and Louis) will want & be able to come out, he will make sure his PR team will work harder than the devil to come out with a bulletproof strategy to come out without using bi as a stepping stone. And also if he’s actually bi (like he’s not), imo he would come out already because he plays both straight and gay anyway so I don’t think it would be such a biggie if you get what I mean. But there’s a reason why he keeps it to himself and so I don’t think (and I really hope) he won’t come out as bi.

I agree with you. I think the idea that he's bisexual has been put out there by his team as a way to "explain" his lyrics/behavior/appearance etc. and keep playing all sides. But I don't think he's actually going to confirm he's bisexual. He's made it quite clear he doesn't think the public needs to know anything about his sexuality. What I would hope for him is the end of the PR relationships and the ability to stop pretending. If he ever wants to confirm or clarify, that's up to him.

I think with Ricky Martin, it's possible he was still discovering himself early on when he had relationships with women, but I don't know. He identifies as a gay man at this point, and he seems very happy. I believe Harry has known for a long time that he's not interested in women (in fact, the only time he's ever directly answered a question about his sexuality was to say he WASN'T bisexual, but everyone seems to ignore that now).

[black-arcana]

"Oh my god, there was so much talk: ‘I bet there’s a real rivalry going on!'" How Within Temptation and Tarja Turunen formed the ultimate symphonic metal tag team for blockbuster single Paradise (What About Us?)

Two symphonic metal icons united for this powerhouse 2013 single. Sharon and Tarja tell us how it all came together

(Image credit: Press)

When Within Temptation and Nightwish released their debut albums in 1997, there wasn’t a name for the kind of music they made. Within Temptation’s Enter, released in April, took obvious influence from gothic metal bands like Paradise Lost, but its grandiose, elegiac compositions and symphonic undertones hinted at the direction the band would eventually take. Conversely, Nightwish’s Angels Fall First, released in November, approached metal from a different direction, drawing more directly and heavily on folk and classical music. Ultimately, both bands would spearhead the symphonic metal movement of the early 2000s. But, anchored as it was around two charismatic women – Sharon den Adel and Tarja Turunen respectively – history tells us surely there must have been some rivalry. Symphonic metal’s answer to Blur vs Oasis perhaps, or Mustaine vs Metallica?

"You look so beautiful, Sharon!” beams Tarja, as her counterpart joins a Zoom call. Erm... maybe not then.

Hammer is speaking to both vocalists more than a decade on from their collaboration on the Within Temptation song Paradise (What About Us?), the lead single from 2014’s Hydra. As soon as Sharon joins, any notion of tension is quashed. Tarja’s expressive face lights up and the pair chat animatedly.

There’s a clear camaraderie between them as they joke and discuss new developments. Which raises the question, was the ‘rivalry’ just a load of bollocks?

“Oh my God! There was so much talk, like, ‘I bet there’s a real rivalry going on between you and Sharon’,” Tarja says, hissing like a cat to illustrate her point. “I was just very happy to see more girls singing in bands. It made me feel really proud of the movement. I still am!”

“We didn’t even really become aware of the idea of ‘symphonic metal’ until later when journalists started giving it a name,” Sharon admits. “I don’t think there was much overlap between Nightwish and Within Temptation. The music was very different but because there were some similarities, people had to give it a name!”

Those similarities were enough to turn Within Temptation and Nightwish into leaders of the burgeoning symphonic metal movement, however. Sharon and Tarja were soon upheld as inspirations for a subsequent wave of symphonically inclined artists that included Epica, Leaves’ Eyes and Delain, dispelling the notion of metal as a boys’ club.

“We often felt like the strange duck on the festival bill because there was a woman in the band where most bands had male singers,” Sharon says. “Plus, I wasn’t really from the scene when I started out – I was a big grunge girl!”

“I started out in classical music so I was a complete weirdo in metal, too!” Tarja chimes in. “Though I never let that experience bother me. I felt the embrace of the crowd, but also our colleagues were really nice, so I never needed to grow balls. Although, maybe I got used to it, because I had two brothers at home and was the only girl in my primary class. Six years with nothing but boys! Urgh!”

Although separated by more than 2,000 kilometres, it wasn’t long before the pair became aware of each other’s work.

“When I first heard Within Temptation, I was like, ‘This woman has such an angelic voice’,” recalls Tarja. “We must’ve still been working on that first Nightwish record, so I’ve been aware of them from the very beginning, really!”

“The first time I became aware of Nightwish, we played a festival together,” says Sharon. “People were really excited about the band so we went to see them. We were blown away by Tarja’s presence onstage. It was so powerful... so diva!”

However, the bands’ chances to cross paths proved surprisingly few and far between. By the end of the 2000s, Within Temptation were undeniably still symphonic metal scene leaders. They’d also grown tired of the tag. Both 2004’s The Silent Force and 2007’s The Heart Of Everything had topped the charts in their native Netherlands – as well as charting internationally – but the group were getting increasingly itchy about where they could go next. 2011’s The Unforgiving was a sprawling, multimedia concept record that saw the band incorporate more pop influence into their music. Now the pressure was on to reinvent themselves again.

“Hydra was our most difficult album,” Sharon acknowledges. “We were very much searching for direction, because we’d already achieved our biggest sound. So it wasn’t like we could go much bigger than that, particularly in terms of symphonics. We were searching for a way to evolve and take inspiration from something new.”

It was an exciting time, but the creative tumult meant some ideas almost got scrapped entirely.

“Paradise (What About Us?) was one of the few more typical Within Temptation songs on that album, but that whole record took a lot of searching,” Sharon remembers. “I actually wrote it with our keyboardist, Martijn [Spierenburg], and when I first looked back on it I was like, ‘Urgh, this is too much!’ It was Robert [Westerholt, guitars and Sharon’s husband] who insisted it was really good, and he wrote the song’s main riff. I had originally written it with just lines on the piano, but he added a whole different flavour to it that really worked. Otherwise Paradise might’ve ended up in the waste bin!”

During the writing process for the record, Within Temptation decided to reach out to a number of guest vocalists, feeling they could add unique flavours to the music. They signed up former Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner and even rapper Xzibit, but by far their biggest coup was enlisting Tarja to sing on lead single Paradise (What About Us)?.

“There were two reasons we wanted Tarja for Paradise,” Sharon admits. “Not only for her voice – we felt like she could really add something – but also because in a more literal sense we figured it would be paradise for the fans! Ha ha ha!”

As it turned out, Tarja was delighted by the opportunity. She’d been trying to catch up with Sharon over the years, but their schedules had never aligned. Now they were working together, they could connect properly.

“It felt like I’d known her forever,” Tarja says happily. “I kind of felt that connection even before we met; Sharon must have gone through so many similar things to myself. We could recognise each other.”

Although they were bonding, there was still a distance between Tarja and Sharon – physically, at least. Tarja provided her vocals remotely from a studio in Buenos Aires, where she was living with her husband and infant daughter.

“I was bubbling with the joy of being a new mother and my family travelled with me everywhere, even to the studio when I recorded [2013 album] Colours In The Dark,” Tarja says. “I’d faced a lot of challenges of my own; I wasn’t really trusting in my abilities as a songwriter, for example. Paradise helped me so much, because it was so nice to even be asked about something like that. I think I had been waiting – without knowing – for something big to really happen. I didn’t doubt for a millisecond that this collaboration would be special!”

As it turned out, the distance also helped Tarja interpret the song, and gave her a bit of breathing room to work on ideas.

“I was really nervous!” she admits. “I think if Sharon and the guys had been next to me, that would have been something completely different. Because I was somewhere else, I could get into the song in my own way.”

“That’s also beautiful, because it means Tarja’s meaning for the song became its own thing,” Sharon adds. “For me, the song was about how we never learn from our mistakes as human beings. Because it’s such a big and cinematic song, Tarja’s voice added that enormity to it. She’s the empress!”

Released on September 27 2013, Paradise (What About Us?) finally united two of symphonic metal’s leading ladies. Predictably, the response was ecstatic from critics and fans alike, and to date the song has amassed more than 30 million streams on Spotify, as well as more than 100 million on YouTube. In turn, when its parent album, Hydra, was released on February 4, it quickly became Within Temptation’s most successful release to date, topping the charts at home in the Netherlands while landing a Top 10 position in the UK (No.6) and Top 20 in the US (No.16).

More than a decade on from its release, Paradise (What About Us?) feels like the moment Within Temptation drew a line under everything that had come before, saluting the original leading lights of symphonic metal while also elevating them beyond the genre and into arena-conquering territory.

“Doing a song together, when nobody expected it, was so positive on every level,” Sharon says. “We still have this connection after all these years, and our friendship has only grown from that point.”

“It gave me a new friend in my life,” agrees Tarja. “It’s a song of friendship to me. I’m so happy we could bring people joy and love by working on this together.”

Within Temptation's latest album Bleed Out is out now. The band tour the UK with Tarja Turunen in support this month

[katelynnwrites]

never underestimate the power of friendship and where it can get you 🫡🥉

[xxplastic-cubexx]

So uhh hi. I love love love your cherik art. Every single one of them is amazing, cool and just gorgeous. Also love your pfp, Charles looks guilty (caught red-handed) but Erik looks like he doesn't care lol. That's his husband and he'll kiss him anywhere, anytime, doesn't matter who's looking.

Again, have I mentioned I love your art? Let me say it again. I love your cherik art. Love Erik with his glasses, chibi cherik, Charles and his adorable bald head. Everything. I wanna scream about cherik with you.

*grabs your cherik arts into one folder titled LOVE IT*

*puts your cherik art on a frame and hangs it on my wall*

OHHHH you’re so incredibly sweet my friend: thank you so much for the love you have for my work, it means so much ;; !!! I really do love drawin all flavors of cherik (and charles and erik in general ofc), so im so happy all them flavors get appreciated as much as they do :’]

An im always happy to talk bout cherik !!! I fear theyre going to be livin in my brain for a long while and im gonna be subjected to Many thoughts about them For A Long While …..

[why-the-heck-not]

”having cats is so cozy :3 they’re so cute aww look at her purr aw what a sweetheart”

i’m collecting pieces of a bird into a plastic bag on this fine sunday evening

[luderailing]

Lat 🖋️

[im-an-anthusiast]

Ditches and Spiders

God, his forearms ITCHED.  Ugh – they sang a horrible siren song, to which the only answer was the raking of claws, the bloody contact of skin and nails. Or whatever. He clenched his fists, twisting them, rolling his wrists, and watching the taut, lean, yet somewhat gaunt muscle flexing under his scarred skin. Calixte hated the scars so, so much. They weren’t ugly, contorting, or shredding, and they weren’t spirals of thorns or carved spines. They were “beautiful”, twisting, mending – spirals of petals and curving stems. Calixte always hated the mix of lily flowers curling up his arms in a monotone white of scar tissue. They made him sick. His entire lunch – half of a white chocolate granola bar – tickled the very top of his throat, acidically ghosting over the roof of his mouth. He ought to practice Magic again.  

He applied the Sepal Balsam. Almost half the container coated his forearms thickly, massively surmounting the blood below it. Was that... wait... quadruple- no, pentuple the recommended dose? Perhaps that was why he could feel his pain fade into such intense numbness so quickly that in mere seconds he could not feel his forearms at all – and could, in real-time, watch the open wounds, cuts, gashes, and lacerations riddling his forearms and climbing up his bicep close, and twist at themselves, forming sickeningly intricate floral shapes, layering onto those already there. What a disgusting toll he has to pay, really. And, sure, he could always not push himself so much or just wait for himself to heal, but how would he get better, then? The best around don’t just rest. No pain, no gain, after all! He just has to push himself a little harder, surely...! 

The gloves contracted around his arms. They squeezed and cried at the Magic pouring into them, pushing and lashing at his flesh. The gloves wrung his arms, and blood dripped out from their hems at his biceps. All for... him.  

The bouquet strained in his arms. The paper tore open at the pressure pushed into it, flowers spilling around his flesh. Ditch and spider lilies both wrapped around his forearms, slipping from his embrace one by one. All from... him.  

“Are you proud, dad?” 

[literary-heights]

they are. everything to me

[armenelols]

For after the Last Battle and the overthrow of Morgoth, when the Valar gave Elros and Elrond a choice to belong either to the kin of the Eldar or to the king of Men, it was Elros who voyaged over sea to Númenor following the star of Eärendil; whereas Elrond remained among the Elves and carried on the lineage of King Elwë.

Note 19 - And also that of Turgon; though he preferred that of Elwë, who was not under the ban that was laid on the Exiles.

- Problem of Ros, HoME XII

Every once in a while I remember this passage and am sent spiralling into the orbit.

Elrond saw the disaster that were the Noldor and went 'nope, I am staying out of that drama. Sindar, here I come' and he's so valid for it. Living up to the as wise as a wizard. He looks at the elven side of his family tree, goes 'do you think I am stupid' and chooses the least problematic branch.

[larsbarsart]

Skipping Marbletober Day 8 because I've been working on this just about all day.

@cardinallll Here's your kids

I wanted to incorporate their parents and dragon origins into their designs... I don't think I did that but I've spent far too long on this to care

Feel free to correct and critique this as you please, this AU is your baby

[autistic-shaiapouf]

Ohhh messy pieces representative of each song I have in that Pouf playlist meant to represent his character arc

[valiantstarlights]

Where Wolves Fear to Prey: Chapter 2

Robert Gadling meets Lord Byron in 1816, and discovers that the man has an uncanny resemblance to his Stranger. Of course he’d want to fuck him.

Dream…takes this new development as well as you think he did.

Inspired by Tom Sturridge as Lord Byron in the movie Mary Shelley (2017).

Synopsis of Chapter 2, told in memes and without the spicy stuff:

(🚨 spoilers under the cut ���)

Bonus:

[pennyserenade]

my friends and i have been having more serious conversations about going to mexico lately and it has me feeling emotional because years ago when i started working to mend my relationship with the way i felt about being mexican, this was where i wanted to end up.