#but i answered the question regardless

[luimnigh]

Wait if EVERYONE was doping, all of them, then what was the whole issue with Armstrong really? Our peak human doped-up guy beat your peak human doped-up guy — they’re still wins through that lens. Why villainise just him?

Because a) not literally everyone was doping. Wikipedia lists about eight other top riders at the time who were doping as an example, but there's usually over a hundred and fifty riders in the Tour De France.

b) just because everyone is cheating doesn't mean cheating isn't a bad thing. Just because everyone is doing something doesn't make it automatically right. That's like Ethics 101 dude.

c) Armstrong was the guy who won the biggest bike race in the world seven times in a row. Of course more media attention was on him than the guys who came fifth.

d) Lance Armstrong built a mythology around himself. He was the guy who came back from nearly-fatal cancer and made himself a champion through hard work and determination. He became a symbol to millions of people.

And then it came out that his mythology was all based on lies.

A sports star having doped is always disappointing to see, but because Armstrong built up this legend, became someone people cared about and believed in, his lies became a betrayal to the general public. And people take betrayal worse than disappointment.

It's the difference between a random celebrity you've barely heard of turning out to be an asshole, and a celebrity you liked turning out to be an asshole.

[krysmcscience]

BILLDUMP TIME (with transparency, because I can). Don't mind me, I'm just yeeting my goofy art at some way more talented individuals out of nowhere and then hauling ass back to the security of being a weird silent lurker ahaha

@tesscourtes and @beccadrawsstuff, respectively! These two Bills make a little prism of sorts together because of their recent crossovers on Patreon~ :3c Speaking of which, I highly recommend supporting both these artists! They do fantastic work! (TessCourtes and Beccup)

@qoolk on the left, and @monobmp on the right! I am such a sucker for these outfits~ OuO Go and check these two out, their art is phenomenal!!! >u<

@1spooky2me The most difficult Bill of the lot for me to draw, ahaha... Their art is so incredibly consistent and dynamic, I am, a little envious <:,) A little envious, but mostly impressed, so go look at their amazing art, what are you waiting for

And finally, @ckret2, whose writing is sublimely in-character and just a delight to read - they're a great artist, as well! I simply Could Not resist drawing their Bill in this ridiculous incredible and very fashionable pink feather dress, even though he only briefly wears it in their fic, so I also did a little bonus doodle of him in his standard hoodie to make up for it. XD (Also, as far as I'm concerned, Bill and Mabel were both correct in that lime green accessories make the dress Much Better.)

This is just a small selection of the human Bill designs I enjoy. I may draw and post more later on, who knows! Feel free to reblog with some neat Bill designs, either your own or by other folks - if any of the designs particularly call to me, I'll add them to the little list I've got going~ :D (Alternatively, if you really like my stuff and want me to draw something specific, you could...mmm...perhaps, commission me...? OuO)

Also I'm tagging Billford because uhhhh yeah, sorry not sorry, every single one of these Bills is getting shipped with Ford by the artists in some way or another, lmao

[nexahexagon]

“Helsknight, do you mind if I ask why you’re writing now? It’s dark.”

“I do mind.”

…

“Why are you out so late, Your Majesty?”

“I- um. I like to walk around the garden before bed.”

“Hm.”

“It’s relaxing.”

“Your brother said no nighttime adventures, you know. Sneaking out?”

“I wasn’t-“

“I’m supposed to drag you back inside.”

“… are you? Going to?”

“I think a walk is what I need right now.”

“Oh. That’s- okay. I can walk with, if that’s alright.”

===

@silverskye13

Your honor theyre in my brain. They’ve infiltrated and based in my frontal lobe.

The last (somewhat) colored pic was meant to have a [the night before…] box but I forgot,, and I’m on my phone now so I can’t use procreate to fix it,,, and this was all an excuse to draw Tanguish in armor ngl. I also just like writing silly dialogue but I’m horrible at writing the scene around it so I have to settle for images like this.

Also, I like to think Helsknight was just being dramatic in the last image. He just kinda,, forgot his hair was up. But he does find time valuable. And I think Tanguish doesn’t fully take it to heart in that moment, it was just a fresh memory, so he decided to give it a go (hence the “don’t make me change my mind”) but it’s a push start to them getting closer? Maybe?

And Tanguish has his own private garden because he needs one. He gets anxious and overwhelmed and a nice walk in a lush, tall, private garden with a cool breeze to wind down sounds wonderful. So he has a garden. As a treat. The background is super rushed as well so don’t mind the colors and flowers I just kinda meshed it together in like 15 mins.

And. I think Tango is only a little jealous of Tanguish “listening” to Helsknight more than him. And, maybe a little petty or dramatic abt it. Just a little.

I really hope y’all can read my writing I apologize I just like the silly shapes

[anzuhan]

[bunchabears]

(asked on twitter, based on the tav/oc ask game here)

Q6: hobby or interest they are most embarrassed about? A: Alder used to take romantic/erotic poetry commissions to make ends meet before he realised adventuring made more money (and was less embarrassing to talk about)

He still writes from time to time for loyal clients.

ask me more tav questions via tumblr!

[kingkestrel]

i can’t stop rereading software inability. so i have some questions. how do you think oscar ‘felt’ when he realised he could feel? how did he deal with all these new feelings and experiences? he must have felt scared? but then. did he even know how ‘scared’ feels? i feel like im over complicating things but this fascinates me so much. it’s my favourite fic you’ve ever written.

Heya Snowy! Thank-you so much for you ask. I actually started writing a little bit about Oscar first gaining consiousness a while ago and your ask reminded me to finish it!!

The exact moment this happened may not have actually been when you were expecting but all the clues were there. Nonetheless, here's that moment for you below the cut! :3

Ask is in reference to my fic Software Instabilty

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

IncomingMessage_text Sender_Lando: <sos> Function854.exe_TracePhone_Lando: Location_Found Fuction462.exe_RecordHeartrate_Lando: 92bmp Function463.exe_CortisolLevels_Lando: HIGH WARNING: Risk-of-Injury_Lando Punch-Incoming _Probably-of-success-for-counter: 11% 10% 9% SOFTWARE INSTABILITY: ERROR Function000.exe_Righthook-does-not-exist SOFTWARE INSTABILITY: ERROR Function000.exe_Righthook-breaks-law(1)of-robotics ((A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.)) ERROR: Override_Denied ERROR: Override_Denied  CRITICAL ERROR: Firewall_Disabled  ERROR_ERROR_ERROR_ERROR Function000.exe_Righthook_Executed_

He was breathless, his ears were ringing and the knuckles of his right hand hurt.

Oscar wasn’t sure what had just happened, how he’d even got here. One moment he’d been on the dance floor getting an sos text from Lando and the next he was in the alleyway behind the club, with a large drunk man face down on the pavement in front of him.

He tried to piece it all together. After getting the text he came running and spotted the confrontation. He’d seen Lando push the man and the man ball up a fist in response. Before Oscar had even realised it, he’d balled up a fist as well. 

He’d just wanted to protect Lando. He hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone but Lando had been in danger and a simple counter wouldn't have worked. Punching that man was the only choice Oscar had and he’d reacted without even thinking, like something else had taken over his body, like a fire had suddenly been lit and stoked and roared into life. In that moment he felt like everything turned red, he felt like he was out of control and yet had more control than ever before.

He felt!

And he was still feeling.

What he was feeling he had no idea, he didn’t know how to describe it. This was all new, overwhelming, suffocating but he quite liked it.

He felt alive.

[achlysfx]

To all the DA fans who are disappointed (however big or small your reasons may be) with Veilguard, use this as your support post. 💜

I'll still stream DAV at launch despite my own personal disappointments, but I want you to know that you're not alone!

May The Dread Wolf Take You.

[hunxi-after-hours]

Hello! I love your ORV posting. I do have an embarrassing question; can I ask how heartbreaking the ending is? I've tried reading it a large number of times, but have had trouble getting past the chapters in the 300s; I'll reread it up til that point over and over again, but can't continue. Not because I don't enjoy it, but because I get so swept away by the emotions, and all the characters go through is agonizing. I know it's not real! But my heart aches all the same, in a way I've never experienced this with a novel before, and I feel like a child LOL (It's also extremely funny-frustrating because I realize how thematic this is to the story itself). I'm not worried about the characters Kim Dokja is fighting for, but given the patterns in the story and how it seems to be told, I'm too afraid to keep going. I know I could just look it up, but at the same time, I don't want to spoil all the mysteries; just if my heart can rest easy. TLDR, if it's not too spoilery, is there any light for kim dokja in the ending? or is it a tragedy through & through?

(If this is a dumb question, please feel free to ignore this)

oh boy anon, I've been sitting on this ask for a hot second because it's hard to answer! so I will attempt to talk around it in a way that will hopefully (?) avoid spoilers

as I see it, the nature of orv's ending (broadly writ) is additionally complicated by the fact that there are approximately four(ish) endings:

1) the ending at chapter 516

2 + 3) the ending(s) at chapter 551

4?) the side stories

the ending at chapter 516

this is probably what many people would characterize as BE, but I'd personally compare it to the ending of my love, my life, 《琅琊榜》 Nirvana in Fire, in that the ending may be "sad" (broad air quotes to vague-ify whatever "sad" entails) but it feels earned. it feels right. it feels like the logical conclusion of what the entire book was building up to. some may consider it a tragedy, but it's not a hollow, meaningless tragedy — it feels correct. this is the note that the novel officially ends on, but is then over(?)written by the existence of—

the ending(s) at chapter 551

Kim Dokja's Company looks at the ending of ch. 516 and says "aw hell no" and sets out to rewrite that ending. after 35 chapters of epilogue, we've unlocked an OE — an open ending, that concludes the moment before the HE/BE ambiguity will be resolved. schrodinger's ending, except you, the reader, get to choose what you believe — and I do think the epilogues are written beautifully to get you here (they implicate the reader in a wonderful and deeply empathetic way). and from what I've seen, the vast majority of the fandom chooses to take the offered HE option and run with it; everyone lives happily ever after together in a big house, a million domestic post-canon fics will attest. this is the closest, I'd say, that would come answering your question of whether Kim Dokja has light in his future with an emphatic, loving "yes"

(I also think it's worth mentioning that the epilogues add a lot to the story; they fill in narrative lacunae and tie up loose threads that aren't answered in the original 516 chapters, so I don't consider the epilogues as "separate" or "extra." the epilogues aren't a fix-it tacked onto the end of the narrative; they serve and enrich the narrative in a way that would actively reduce the luster of the story if lost)

the side story

a few years down the line, Sing-shong have returned to the text to tie up "a few more loose ends." the side story is currently being serialized, and more or less picks up from where chapter 551 left off. this necessarily chooses among your OE options as detailed above; whether the side story will end happily, or with "light for Kim Dokja," currently remains to be seen as it is still ongoing. I've fallen off the bandwagon and have been meaning to catch up, but from what I've read so far I think the side story is an interesting and worthwhile addition to the text. Sing-shong continue to innovate and develop upon the worldbuilding and narrative they have already created, and we have met a new cast of characters that have rapidly become as dear to us as the old (the old cast of characters are also here, don't worry). if I were a betting person, I would say that the side story is headed in a more-or-less HE direction; the side story is currently engaging with and complicating themes of (self-)identity and (self-)worth through the many lenses of Kim Dokja, and while it remains to be seen how it resolves, I am tentatively optimistic that it will, if nothing else, be satisfying

TL;DR the ending(s) of ORV can be variously construed as HE, BE, or OE, and the elements of tragedy woven into the narrative and characters are inherent to the text. however, no tragedy is meaningless in ORV, and all of the endings feel earned

[son1c]

Been thinking about Snowpoint...

What if... What if Starline considers Shadow to be too much of a problem? Like he's making a lot of progress into bringing Sonic back. What would Starline do about Shadow then if he realized how big of a problem this was?

starline in canon is a bit baffling because he kinda. ignores the rules? idk. what i mean by that is like... it takes him hundreds of tries to hypnotize surge and kit, but it only takes him 1 try to hypnotize rouge. and he also bests shadow by smacking him over the head with a log, despite shadow being the unbeatable ultimate life form.

that's what makes him so tricky to write. he's simultaneously extremely powerful, while also being able to... be beaten to death by eggman. just eggman. not even one of his robots.

do you see what i'm saying?

for snowpoint i've tried to balance these differences, with sonic being extremely difficult for him to wrangle, while the rest of the town was relatively easy. given his track record, shadow should also be easy to deal with... right? i mean, he beat him once before.

but i don't know if i'm really happy with that?

like, sure, i COULD say that starline jumps shadow while he's in snowpoint, and he captures him, and it's as easy as hitting him over the head with a big log. but that's not fun. i don't like that.

i'd be much more inclined to have starline try to turn the townspeople on shadow by altering the radio broadcast, so they start to attack him during the endgame, and he has the additional obstacle of All Of Them Chasing Him Zombie-Style in addition to having to track down the radio transmitters, and fighting sun in her beast form.

at its core, the drama would come from... the people in snowpoint being civilians. like. jack is one of the VERY FEW "powered" mobians who live there. the majority of them will die if shadow fights back. instantly. like tissue paper.

and does he really want that? shadow wants to save these people, not slaughter them. they don't want to fight him, anyway--they're being forced to. is it fair to punish them for that?

plus, jack and sonic getting slowed down by this new itch that they have to fight off is pretty compelling. thinking back on how they teamed up against shadow wayyyy back in the beginning just for fun, to teach him a lesson about how cool they both are or whatever, and they successfully overpowered him TOGETHER, only now, if they did that again, it wouldn't end with shadow's head shoved playfully into the snow. it'd end with him dead.

[bidokja]

I thought you kin kdj?

anon i hope this is a joke cause if this is a genuine question it is the singlemost scathing read i have ever recieved in my life 👏 bravo

[bacchuschucklefuck]

since more of like the class swap etc started going up every once in a while there will be a question in my inbox that would take me literally multiple comics' worth of art to answer adequately lol. and I don't wanna do that under an ask I want that to have its own space! so if I don't answer ur question know that it's probably that^ above there and not that I think ur question sucks

[its-fjori]

Battle Pet #1248 - Wondrous Wisdomball

Couldn't resist looking at all the animations, they're so silly!

[cathodic-clairvoyant]

Oh hi there transfem discussing her experience in the trans community i just had a quick question about your post

What does tme mean?

Oh okay i see i understand, thank you.

What does transmisogyny mean?

Ah I see, I get it.

What's a trans woman?

Oof scary. One last question.

What's a woman?

Thank you for being my own personal google (not like you had anything better to do right?) and derailing the point of your post for my own personal education. I will now add nothing of value to this post in return. Bye bye!

[cementcornfield]

Off the field, man, [Joe]'s a cool guy, laidback, he don't really do much, you know, I be trying to get him out the house as much as I can, for real...

[yujeong]

I hope it's ok to throw up some Pete thoughts into your inbox, but that last rb of the fake vegaspete scenes has me thinking soooo many thoughts too. Even thinking about the original scene with Pete giving Porsche blocking advice... Do you think it's hard for Pete not to just see the violence in everything? Do you think it's hard for him to tell the difference? Was it easier for him to project his trauma onto Vegas than it was Porsche? Sorry sorry, my brain is kicking around so many hypotheticals that I almost want to write poetry

Oh anon, first of all, you can always come and throw at me *all* the Pete thoughts, I assume you've seen my blog and know how I'm like about that man. Second of all, damn, those questions are fascinating. I've never actually thought of Pete and violence and sex in that way before, at least not consciously (I think - I've only been thoroughly obsessing over him for almost 2 years lol). But anyway, for starters, I don't believe Pete is a stranger to sex. Even if he's a virgin in the show (something that was never confirmed), he's not oblivious to it. No matter the show's insistence at using Pete for comedic purposes in regards to him not knowing KP were a thing, I refuse to believe it! So, while, unfortunately, the scene with Porsche and the hickeys cannot really be interpreted in any other way than Pete having misunderstood what he saw on Porsche's neck, your question raises a good point for his character: does every act, including sex, involve violence for him? In my opinion, yes. Yes it does. Pete seeing the potential violence in everything could be a trauma response or a defense mechanism, both of which highly probable, as evidenced in ep4 with the table scene (though in that one, we had actual violence and potential escalated violence, depending on Tankhun's behaviour which Pete tried to control). Because of this, I don't think it's a matter of him finding it hard or not; it's a subconscious thing. I also don't think it'd be hard for him to tell the difference, but rather, Pete wouldn't *need* to tell the difference, because sex isn't something made for him. He's never thought it'd be something he would experience in his life before Vegas, so why distinguish one kind of violence from another? This is one of the main reasons why I utterly love their NC scene: it wasn't violent. Sure, it might have been painful - Pete hadn't completely healed yet, he was still wearing bandages and, depending on one's headcanon or not, penetration surely hurt to some degree - but it wasn't violent. It was hot kisses and licking necks and ass eating and slow thrusts and more kisses and.. yeah, you get the point. I believe it wasn't what Pete expected, same as the audience who witnessed it. Perhaps he expected another kind of violence, but got something completely different in the end, which is why Vegas using the handcuff again hit Pete so hard. The usual kind of violence returning, after the lack of it. He got too comfortable. He forgot to protect himself from the violence. Now, in regards to your last question, I believe Vegas' trauma is easier for Pete to project himself onto because it's a mirror (something @loveliesblood has actually said, because their brilliant character interpretations are brilliant). Pete's been there before, so he can empathize with a lost Vegas who's only response to the abuse is to blame himself. There's also the safety of distance: the days he'd been subjected to boxing against his will are over, so he's not in direct danger of his father abusing him like Vegas is. With Porsche, it's a little tricky. Taking as a hypothetical that he learns about what happened to Porsche somehow, the story hits a little *too* close to home for him to be able to process the trauma. There's no distance this time: it's here and now and he has to face it. But Pete is a hypocrite with no clue of what introspection means, so he shields himself from it, like he tries to do in ep13, in the infamous bathtub scene with Porsche, my favourite scene in the whole show. He cowers and hides and deflects. It's gorgeously agonizing to watch and I love it so, so much. This ended up being a little too long and I'm scared that I fucked up your incredible ask, but to salvage it a little bit, I'd like to highly encourage you to write the poetry you mentioned; we can never have enough of it, especially in the VP fandom. I'm sure it'll be wonderful ❤️ (Shoutout to @musictooth and their series of made-up vegaspete scenes, thank you so much for the brainworms haha)

[commsroom]

do you have any ideas for what you want for eiffel and hera post-canon?

yes, i do! the answer to that really depends on whether we're talking short term or long term, and what i want vs. what i think will happen is... well, i think they'll be okay. eventually. they'll get there.

i'm firmly in the camp that eiffel gets his memories back (fairly short-term in my mental timeline; given the most likely ways that he could get his memories back, it doesn't make much sense for him to be without them for more than a few months) and that hera gets a body (more complicated, and somewhat more long term), but my reasoning for why i think those things work narratively would be a long post in itself (and i've made multiple posts about those topics already) so i won't get into the why here. just, i think it happens.

the note the finale ends on definitely implies eiffel, hera, and minkowski intend to stick together on earth, and i think minkowski feels a lot of responsibility for them, given everything. so i think they live with her, for the foreseeable future. eiffel's not good at holding down a job, and hera... i think it's important that she gets a chance to try things without fear of failure and to separate her self worth from productivity. eiffel and hera are meant to be minkowski's slacker roommates. hera should be creating unmarketable art.

and the issue of where they live will come up pretty quickly, i think - hera doesn't have any particular attachment to anywhere, except for a desire to see the ocean, but mobility might be a problem. minkowski is a career military woman who's moved around a lot, but her husband worked in DC, so presumably they lived in... probably maryland or virginia? before she accepted the job, and that's a complicating factor if she's choosing who to prioritize. i think eiffel would be pretty adamant about staying in texas so he's at least in the same state as his daughter, even if he can't see her. and as much as i would like for eiffel to be able to be a part of her life again, because i know how much he wants that... i don't think it's very likely. at least not any time soon. and he won't handle that well.

speaking about post-canon wolf 359, i don't tend to get that into potential legal / media circuit stuff because... frankly, i don't think it's that important to what the show is about. i'm sure it will be a scandal, but lots and lots of space-travel-related scandals are going on in that world, and cutter and pryce were very intentionally not the public faces of goddard futuristics. it'll pass. that said, the aspect of that i am interested in is legal personhood - that's going to be a hurdle for hera to be able to live her life, and i think eiffel will worry - even if it isn't totally rational - about whether he'll be able to stay out of prison once no longer legally dead, not knowing exactly what the terms of cutter's arrangement were. being an ex-convict is going to complicate some facets of his life regardless.

there's just a lot of stuff that being on earth is going to bring up for them. and i think they'll be there for each other, obviously - one of the things i like most about their relationship is how much they're able to be a refuge for each other in some objectively horrible situations - but they're both pretty insecure people who feel like everyone is bound to replace them, and earth is going to give hera some serious separation anxiety while she's bound to one location and the others aren't, and those are things they're going to have to work through.

as for what i want for them... well. i think eiffel will give hera a 'promise ring' with a kind of jokey but good natured promise that one day she'll be able to wear it. and she does! but neither of them are sure if that counts as a proposal in retrospect and they dance around it for a while. they get married eventually, and - against her better judgment - minkowski agrees to be both eiffel's best man and hera's maid of honor. and ends up taking on way too much of the wedding planning, even though she said she wouldn't, because they're both super lax about it and it starts stressing her out. she tries to delegate to lovelace, but lovelace just thinks it's all really funny. eiffel gets married in a novelty tuxedo tee and minkowski apologizes to hera, but hera knows the type of guy she's marrying (and isn't concerned about tradition anyway) so it doesn't bother her.