#but i put them all in one aesthetic for some dumb reason

[ginger-grimm]

OC HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE 2024

Day 15: Nostalgia

Marlow Stilinski as Blossom

Nixie Baker as Bubbles

Riley Stevens-Parrish as Buttercup

x, x, x

TAGLIST: @eddysocs @ocs-supporting-ocs @foxesandmagic @veetlegeuse @decennia @hiddenqveendom @arrthurpendragon @luucypevensie @nikosasaki @noratilney @wordspin-shares @oneirataxia-girl @endless-oc-creations @stelstellakidd @andromedalestrange @far-shores @daughter-of-melpomene @bibaybe

[popironrye]

The Lost Boys

Leisure Headcanons

💋 David 💋

Is a skilled fire arm shooter. (Loves the cowboy aesthetic)

Has his own gun hidden in the cave.

Doesn't get the chance too often, but will ride a horse when the chance arises.

Likes wood carving. Mostly non specific whittling into basic shapes or animals. It helps him relax.

Movie nut! When the boys go the Max's store to fool around, David makes sure to tuck a movie or two that catches his eye in his coat. Tends to watch them alone, all the questions from Paul would just grate on his nerves too much.

I imagine David would be like REALLY good at origami for no particular reason. He doesn't even try, just once the boys do it just because and he's just the best at it.

I don't know if vampires can emerge in water in the lost boys lore, but if they can David loves to swim. Chilling in water clears his mind.

💀 Dwayne 💀

Skater boi! Does a lot of sick tricks, but when you can levitate it's less impressive. XD

Doesn't care for guns, but likes archery. Hammers his own arrow heads. Dwayne and David like to pick a spot in the woods to shoot make shift targets.

A real book worm. Will spend a lot of time just silently reading for hours.

Takes up knitting from time to time. He prefers hand knitted blankets and throws rather then the store ones.

Likes to make jewelry. Made his own necklace.

Enjoys all types of puzzles. Cross word, jigsaw, and brain teasers.

Can sew and offers to sew up holes made in all the clothes the boys decide not to get new ones.

🌿 Paul 🌿

Can play the guitar.

Also likes to sing, and is pretty good at it. Wanted to start a band, but the other boys weren't up for it.

Has the biggest music collection and is always hogging the tabletop/cassette/cd player.

Amateur photography. Just likes to take photos randomly. Some are really artsy.

Got really into tie dye for a while. Although he might have just been high.

When he wants to relax, Paul really likes to stargaze. Laying outside the cave looking at the sky and hearing the waves of the ocean just makes him feel at peace.

When David isn't using the tv monitor, Paul enjoys quite a few video games. He also likes to take on the arcade and carnival games at the boardwalk.

🪶 Marko 🪶

Aside from pigeons, Marko will try to domesticate a number of animals to the cave, including stray dogs, cats, deer, badgers, squirrel, foxes, bats, and even a black bear once.

He in fact did NOT domesticate a black bear, but he did wrestle one.

He does his own patchwork on his jacket.

Like David, he likes to sculpt into wood, but he usually carves patterns and landscapes into more grand pieces.

He's also a skilled painter. Mostly he'll paint murals on sections of the cave David says is ok for him to paint on.

He collects sea shells on the beach.

He'll style the others hair. Especially David who he'll cut and dye in the way he likes best.

🔥Pack Activities🔥

Dart throwing. The bigger the target the better. David and Dwyane are very competitive at this one specifically.

Rollerblading. Put wheels on shoes, what more can you want?

Listening to music. The boys have very wide music tastes and sometimes they cross over and they all like the same stuff. They take turns around the player of their choice to just smoke, drink, and listen to the sounds of the music plays.

Card games. Specifically poker when they're all together. They make things more interesting when they make bets.

And of course motocycle cruising and board walk loitering.

Something that always strikes me with vampires in fiction and indeed with any immortal creature with the high and emotional intelligence of humans. IMMORTALITY IS FUCKING BORING!

I mean, think about it. Imagine you're given all the free time in the world with very little responsibility with no fear of getting sick or tired allowed to do pretty much whatever you want. What would you do? Cause I would go stir crazy. So I came up with these dumb little head canons on how I image the boys specifically would pass the time in their little vampire lives that doesn't revolve around murdering and feeding off of people.

Of course cruising on their bikes come to mind. And there's a couple in the movie we get to see like Dwayne's skateboarding and Marko's fondness for pigeons but I wanted to throw more possibilities out there. :3

[jiraisupportgroup]

♡ Tips To Make Washing Dishes Suck Less ♡ 

Sorry if this is hyper-specific, it’s totally not inspired by my kitchen counter which is covered with dirty dishes I'm pretty sure every dish I own right now is dirty T-T

♡ Dirty dishes are a positive thing! They mean you have food! You're eating! Maybe you even cooked something! That's awesome, hell yes.

♡ You don't have to do it all at once. If you only clean two mugs or if you only manage to get the food off of some of the dishes but not actually wash them, that is totally fine.

♡ Take as many breaks as you need. There is no rule that says you have to wash all your dishes at one time. (Although, I understand this may not be possible for everyone - I live by myself so I am the ruler of my own dishes & I know not everyone is in that situation).

♡ Sit down while you do the dishes. Who says you can't sit down to wash dishes? I do it all the time! I have a kitchen stool I use to sit while I cook or clean. (Don’t sit while working with the stove or oven though - if you’re working with hot things like that you need to be able to easily move to get out of the way if anything happens or you could get hurt)

♡ Dirty dishes are allowed to touch the counter. If you are struggling because there are too many dishes actually in the sink - put them on the counter. Clear up some space so you can focus on small batches one at a time. Give yourself space to breathe.

♡ Use gloves. One of the reasons I despise doing the dishes is because I hate having my hands wet for a long period of time. I also hate the feeling of my hands sweating in the gloves so I use a little baby powder to keep them from getting sticky or wet.

♡ Use a soap you like the scent of. If you like the scent of the soap you’re using, you’ll dislike doing the dishes a little less. There’s also a million scents to choose from from lemon to lavender to watermelon. I’ve seen passion fruit scented dish soap? The opportunities are truly endless.

♡ Use cute sponges! This sounds so dumb but genuinely I bought some fruit-shaped sponges and it makes doing the dishes so much more bearable for me. It feels a little bit less like a chore when you enjoy the aesthetics of it.

♡ Quit scrubbing! Dried-up food stuck to the dish? Don't waste energy scrubbing it, soak it in hot water with some soap and come back to it later.

♡ Listen to music or a podcast. Not only does it help keep you entertained while you're doing the dishes so it feels less draining, but if you're like me your sink is LOUD and I HATE that so I put in my earbuds so the noise of the sink doesn't bother me as much.

♡ Don't worry about the rest of the kitchen. Just. wash. the. dishes. I have a bad habit of being like "I need to clean my entire apartment" which would take a lot of energy and take forever so then I'm like “well I just won't do that it's too hard” - but if I decide “I'm just going to wash the dishes" that seems much more doable & the chances of me actually doing it go way up.

[thefudge]

if you feel comfortable with answering: do ypu drink, smoke, do drugs? do ypu have a partner? do you want to have childten someday? what are your ideal dinners?

uuu personal questions, let’s see: I don’t drink alcohol for a very shallow reason, which is that I don’t like the taste at all. The only thing I sort of/kind of like and will drink half a bottle of is Corona (beer). I don’t smoke because I never started as a teen because I was a typical good nerd who didn’t hang out with the cool kids in the smoking section of the high school backyard; also I hate the smell lol (and to be frank and kind of mean-spirited, a lot of those cool kids were real dullards when you tried to engage them in conversation, especially mid-smoke. Now I’m not saying all smokers are like this, but that cinematic trope of the melancholy hero who ponders the state of the world while enjoying a cigarette is doing a lot of PR for real world smokers. That being said, I do think smoking looks really cool - so as an aesthetic experience, I can’t be mad at it)

Have never done any kind of drug, not just because I’m a wuss but because I’m lazy and incurious, and it seems like extra effort to me when I can get a much better high by just writing smth unhinged or reading smth unhinged. Or even eating some really good pasta.

Don’t have a partner, mainly because again, I’m very lazy, I don’t make an effort, don’t put myself out there etc, and I quite enjoy being alone and living by myself and not having to answer to anyone in my home (although I love visiting my family and staying with them). Don’t want to have kids because I don’t think I’d be a good parent, and I already feel maternally fulfilled because I have so many students to look after.

In terms of an ideal dinner, I’m gonna interpret this as you asking me about my preferred evening meal or supper and for this one, you can’t go wrong with: one can of supermarket corn, one can of tuna, one or two fresh tomatoes diced into little cubes (although sitting in your fridge for a week tomato will do too, I know it does for me), olive oil, and cottage cheese. If you make a salad out of these ingredients, magic happens.

In terms of ideal dinners as in eating out at a restaurant: my favorite joint in my town is a Chinese restaurant that mostly operates as a take-out place but they have like two tables set up in the very modest interior in order to pass as an actual dining place and I like to go there with a good friend and sit at one of those tables and have rly good Chinese food without any dumb background music or any other customer in sight, except for drivers picking up orders. So my ideal dining experience is a tiny hole in the wall that’s got crazy good food (it’s a small family business and they can really COOK) and that no one frequents in person except for me and my friend lol

[themattress]

Birth by Sleep was the point the KH series began going downhill. It was hyped up as a prequel that would answer a lot of questions, which it did...but it also had somehow mutated in development into something that went beyond that into recontextualizing the entire series rather than helping to logically progress it, which included heaps of blatant retcons that contradicted the previous games. All the new Keyblade lore in this game never went away and gradually consumed the series, as did its main villain for a long period of time. The anticipated fall-out of "save Terra, Aqua and Ven from their tragic fates" transformed into "save everyone from their tragic fates", undermining any dramatic weight the series had.

Yet despite that, it was on the whole executed quite well. I love the graphics, the music, the gameplay, the Disney worlds, the overall atmosphere, the new characters and their superb designs, the mini-games including the Command Board, and even the story on its most basic level plus clever writing/pacing by Daisuke Watanabe that shines through even Nomura and Oka's clunker of a script. It may not have lived up to expectations and was when the series jumped the shark, but there is so much good in it that keeps me coming back all the same.

I cannot stand Xehanort the Keyblade wielder as a character, for a multitude of reasons I don't want to relitigate here (I feel everyone ought to know them by now anyway). But despite that, there are three places where I actually enjoy him a lot - in Birth by Sleep where he's written as just the delicious wicked, unsympathetic villain of that story and origin behind Terra-Xehanort plus is voiced wonderfully by Leonard Nimoy; in Kingdom Hearts III's Re:Mind DLC where he's just treated as an enemy you can enjoy hating and beating up without thinking about him all that much plus is voiced wonderfully by Christopher Lloyd, and in the KH3 manga adaptation where most of the problems he suffered from in the game have been excised, from having his plan depicted as a new comeback rather than "the pre-destined master plan all along" to having the unearned pathos and dignity in his send-off removed.

358/2 Days is a mess, but it's.....how do I put it....a sincere mess. It's got the same dumb shonen anime vibe as KH2 did, but dumb shonen anime that are genuine and comfortable in being dumb shonen anime are charming to me, moreso that dumb shonen anime that overreach and try to pretend they're some avant-garde work in the way the KH series grew into from Dream Drop Distance and onward. I consider Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, the special editions of all three, the original Coded (the mobile game that doesn't exist anymore), 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep to be the Golden Age of the franchise.

Xion kicked off many unfortunate trends that would contribute to the degradation of the KH series and as a character she's very shallow in how plot is put ahead of any form of distinct personality, but that plot wasn't half-bad all things considered (it should have been a disaster, yet it shockingly wasn't), and while her personality may be tepid her personal struggle is effectively portrayed and I can't blame people for getting invested and choked up over it.

Of course, I straight-up love the manga version of Xion. She doesn't qualify for this meme.

Kingdom Hearts III is an abomination of a story, just one shade removed from its direct predecessor Dream Drop Distance. It officially killed any interest I have in the franchise going forward. But much like Birth by Sleep, it's a damn well-executed game! The gameplay, while shallow, is really fun, and by God the Disney worlds are superb - they may be the most filler they're ever been plot-wise, but they've also never been better designed, successfully combining the best of KH1 and KH2 style design in a way BBS and DDD failed at while also cleverly incorporating different genres of gameplay that match the world's aesthetics. The Gummi Ship is a similar "best of both worlds" situation, I adore minigames like the Bistro, Classic Kingdom, and the Flan Heartless, and all the stuff brought about in the Re:Mind DLC (except for fucking Yozora) is fantastic (Data Greeting, my beloved!) So while KH3 being my final big experience in the KH series could have been better, it could have been worse too.

Under better circumstances many characters from the X sub-series and overlapping Lost Masters Saga could have had potential, but the writing is so bad that I just end up turned off of the characters altogether. Except Strelitzia. Despite (or maybe even because) her having some of the worst treatments of a female character even by this series' standards (which is saying something), I can't help but appreciate her. While I hate the "Keyblade wielder in ancient times" angle for all of them, something about the dynamic between Strelitzia, Lauriam and Elrena is endearing and adds a lot to the bond between Marluxia and Larxene that beforehand was just a shallow one rooted in mutual power-hungry aspirations. So even if I disregard literally everything else involved, I'd still want to headcanon Strelitzia as existing.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

hey! I was going through ur tag for the grishaverse and I was wondering if ur thoughts changed at all?

tl;dr No not really lol

Long answer: see I think the problems boil down to Le!gh Bardug0... starting this series during the Obama administration and her just essentially being a white liberal/center-left lady.

Like I see so many people dismissing any criticism of this series as "lololol shadow daddy apologists" but like. There is a basis for that "apology". I'll tell the truth and say that I don't think book!Darkling is super interesting (not talking about the TV show in this ask at all for several reasons), because he's essentially a) a cautionary tale on two legs; b) an aesthetic. One of his inspirations is Raistlin Majere, and Raistlin runs MILES around him, because he's allowed to SERIOUSLY mess up, the narrative acknowledges it, and the narrative still manages to make you kinda root for him because the narrative is allowed to be **complex**, and guess what, NOBODY DIED IN REAL LIFE

And when I say cautionary tale, it's that I REALLY hate that somehow women need to be told that rooting for Shadow Daddy makes them a dumb bitch, especially when the other option is Mal, who could honestly be based on the lady from Ballerina Farm's husband and quite frankly? Shadow Daddy ain't real. Guys like Mal sure are lmao.

(And again, I love stories where the lady gets to tell Shadow Daddy/the villain to stuff it, AND she doesn't lose her integrity. See: Christine Daaé, Liz Sharp in the Miss Sharp's Monsters series, Galadriel in the Rings of Power TV series. Heck, in some cases, they're even allowed to show compassion, they can be deceived, but it's never, EVER put on them as a mistake that puts their intelligence into question.)

But even then, if I had to be honest, I don't think Alina and the Darkling are well-suited to each other anyway, because what Alina really needs are a) hobbies; b) friends who are not Mal and who are removed from the political situation; c) self-esteem classes. And at the end of the day, Darkl!ina is more of an aesthetic. People who go all "BUT THE AGE GAP BECKY" are missing the point, and Alina is such a nothing of a character it's easy to self-insert as her, and it's easy to use the Darkling as a Ken doll, as he's also a) an aesthetic; b) a very flat cautionary tale on two legs, making it pretty easy to turn that aspect of him on its head. And mind you, I don't *actually* have a problem with that (that's what fanfic and transformative fandoms are for), and my general answer for age gaps in stories is usually the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZX23fHL64

(And I know I'm going to have people replying to this video: "BUT IRINA! THE GRISHAVERSE BOOKS ARE YA!!!" Ding ding ding, correct! But YA is mostly read by adults nowadays and publishing houses are knowingly appealing to that demographic! That is also the reason why New Adult became a thing! I hate capitalism :) )

*

But like, I spent so much time talking about Darkl!ina when I don't think it's really the problem with the series, and it's more that... Le!gh Bardug0 doesn't seem to understand that she wrote about an oppressed minority, that we are not meant to see as an oppressed minority, and that aspect of her books has aged like milk in light of... pretty much everything that has happened since the end of the Obama administration.

If I had to be honest I'm honestly concerned people don't realize she wrote about an entire people that are meant to be Jewish-coded, and their leader is the... shadowy advisor who manipulates the King, and personally that makes my antisemitic alarm bells go all Kill Bill but what do I know Brenda. (And if you want to sit down with me and calmly explain to me why I'm actually wrong about this, please do, because sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy with that realization and I don't understand how no one talks about it)

And I'm honestly not mad if you decide to have your book series end with a) the monarchy still firmly in place; b) the Grisha still being an oppressed minority, because such is life and people are shitty. The issue I have is that the basic message of it seems to be: "Well the Grisha should have kept asking nicely instead of rebelling and causing havoc xox. Look at Alina, she's the Token Good Minority, her boyfriend is a Real Strong Ravkan Man and she knows her place xox". And I'm writing this as of January 2025, and to anyone reading this, all I'm gonna say is: kings and health insurance company CEOs don't give a shit if you ask nicely.

You will not convince me, not in a thousand years, that the Grisha somehow had privileges in Ravka. Because no, being recruited into the army because of who you are, no matter how well you are treated, is a violent act. It is a violation of your human rights. It is a clear statement that your life belongs to your country, and that your country can see fit to use you as cannon fodder if it is so inclined. Yes, I am aware that Ravka is a crapsack place, but seeing people IRL use the good treatment of the Grisha as an army as an argument against their grievances is ignorant AT BEST. I will also kindly point out the U.S. Army tends to recruit and target marginalized communities.

If anything, you could say that the Grishaverse books are about violent authoritarian regimes forcing more and more of a violent response from the oppressed, leading to moral compasses being thrown away, only for the oppressors to come out of it victorious because they have the privilege of foregoing moral compasses, but of still being upheld as a moral center as they present attributes of "morality". You can get away with anything as long as you keep reminding people at every turn you're a husband and father, right? RIGHT?

Like, this book series is essentially about how the ENTIRE SYSTEM is inherently violent, we have a heroine who basically caves in and upholds said system, sees those who had the nerve of rebelling against it punished one way or another (no seriously WHAT DOES LE!GH BARDUG0 HAVE AGAINST GENYA), and then she basically buzzes off to her cottagecore dream life with her shitty boyfriend who got a personality transplant, so she can be a housewife and take care of orphans (something she did not show any interest in doing prior - remember what I said about Ballerina Farm?)

But yeah sure Shadow Daddy and the BookTok girlies are the problem, I guess

ETA: Look I don't think Le!gh Bardug0 is the devil or anything, at the end of the day, she's one fantasy author, but I think that a) attitudes like hers towards fandom have made the next few generations conservative in ways that they don't even realize, with extremely poor media literacy skills - she's not THE problem, but she's part of it whether she likes it or not; b) given how Rule of Wolves turned out, I'm not really inclined to give her much grace because lecturing your readers because of themes you fumbled yourself is not a good trait to have.

Full offense but it's not normal for someone like Chappell Roan to get the backlash she got for saying that politicians are failing their voters and need to step up their game. When you're in politics, you're serving your people. You are not supposed to be dangling a carrot you can snatch away at every moment. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are conservative, partisan and lack critical thinking skills and it's honestly concerning. Whatever the girlies on BookTok are into should be at the bottom of your list of concerns.

[ask-unpleasant]

hey chat sorry for the month of inactivity. i was unmotivated to do anything with this blog

but then i looked at some of the art on here and realized that i just lost my love for the character designs. so you know how we're gonna fix that? we're redesigning some characters bayybeeee 😈

starting with the man the myth the legend, here is UNPLEZZIE 2.0

he's probably the only one i had genuine problems with other than not being very aesthetically pleasing. he seemed too boring, his proportions were always a bit wonky, and the way he became more and more simple the more i drew him dumbed him down to just...awkward.

for this redesign, i kept all the features that made him my unpleasant. the only really signature thing i changed was his hair, sorry not sorry he had to fire his barber. i changed his scars to be far less opaque as to not clutter him up (which was the main reason i left them out most of the time), the only drawback is that i'm no longer just scribbling them in with a brush, they're actual geometry, so i cut back on the arms just for my own sake. also his tail now looks (and acts) like an actual docked tail.

next is the QSWX GVCTXMG AMXLSYX VIEPPC FIMRK GVCTXMG GLEVEGXIV SJ XLI CIEV, here is CREEPY 2.0

creepy was probably my least favorite character to draw. its head shape with the hair that always ends off screen, the 4 arms, the lack of any real way to move visible, it has always been a mess of a character. don't get me wrong, creepy is my second favorite character to write for (beaten only by neuro), i love its personality and its inflection, i just never got the chance to show that because i hated drawing it so much.

so for the redesign, i've basically reimagined it. its face hair now has an actual definitive ending, it has a more unique shape, and is just much more expunged-friendly in my opinion. it looks even more like its mom now...

next is this one, i thought she was american. here's PARANORMAL 2.0

i'm gonna be totally honest i have no idea what i was doing when designing para for the first time. that outfit was 100% subconsciously stolen from some other character i can't think of right now. it also really just didn't fit her character at all. also i dont know why i gave her boobs???? what????

anyways for the redesign she's basically a whole new design now. i wanted to play with some shape language. also, para always had a sort of inhuman quality to me, despite her personality, so i've given her inverted eyes and some animalistic features. i guess it adds irony or something, i dunno.

and finally, the moment GERIATRIC CAT you've all been waiting for, UNNERVING 2.0

in truth nervy's design is my favorite. the only gripe i had is the lack of legs, like with creepy. also i had to give her one of the same pride flag ass gradient as the rest so she'd fit in with the rest. other than all that i love her she is perfect just the way she is with minor adjustments

that's all the redesigns done!! i only did these 4 because stabby is not mine to redesign and NEURO is perfect just the way it is. feel free to give me any constructive criticism for these redesigns, i can always tweak em a bit. also the more stripy gradients wont a pattern that follows the contours of the body but rather just unmoving plaid always. i hope this lengthy yap sesh contributed something to something, maybe gave some insight into my characters.

and if you got this far i put a public discord server link in the intro post. you dont gotta ask anymore. dont tell anyone....shhh....*lovingly puts my finger on your lips* *smirks* *bolts away* *gets hit by truck* *instantly fatal*

[samson-the-whale]

So ... I made a self insert fore WIR ....ya

:]

Name: Scrapper/scrap

Gender: male (this mf bisexual)

Age: in his game like 20s to 30s if we go with his game age like 30s or 40s 

Game: Scrapper's scrape up

(its like punch out game mechanics game play wies)

Character interactions:

 Hc he gets pumped up easily and likes to push people in the shoulder lightly but really fast when he needs to let out that excitement (t can be like a charging up a special move in his game) and might accidentally leave a bruise 

When he does it to Ralph it tickles 

When he punches Felix he says ow but then hammers his arm and it heals

When he did it to Calhoun for the first time she hit him across the room because she thought he was picking fights and fucking K.Od him with that bitch slap

Then was kind of apologetic after Felix explained and yelled "oh shoot sorry" then Scrap still laying in the floor gives a thumbs up and a strained "I'm ok...it's ok"

 Also if he did the punching thing with Vanelopie she would just pixilate a bit and his punches would almost go through her shoulder kinda I think much like Ralph it would also just tickle 

Ralph:

Before the whole plot of the movie I like to think Ralph liked him but was kind of bitter "he has huge fists and smashes stuff why am "I" the villain?" XD

Ok ok 

So he and Ralph actually get along surprisingly well for you know one being the main character of his game and supposed "heroes" of the game  and the other is well the bad guy. They both like punching stuff and hav a give each other a high five or fist bump while walking by each other so like buddys

Felix:

Him and Felix are more like 

Felix: look at this cool thin-

Scrap: HOLLY CARP CHECK THAT OUT

Like literally one of the doodle sketches was Scrapper leapfrogging over felix to look at a new plugged in game 

So he kinda is an annoying brat towards felix but always makes it in good fun like he's messing around with him with never an intent to hurt his feelings (even when he goes too far and accidentally does)

Vanelopie:

So now we got Vanelopie

There's actually this running joke sorta where scrapper really likes bright colors becus how I imagine his game has a very limited color palette except him for aesthetically pleasing reasons

So he'd actually stay away from brightly colored areas out of comfort before becoming more enthralled in other colors hens his fixation with casualty visiting sugar rush when he's bored 

You may think oh then he must have met Vanellope while visiting 

Well actually no he bye dumb luck he never met her until after the events of the first movie 

So there knowing each other isn't really that strong yet 

But because of him and ralph eventually becoming friends he grew a liking to the spunky little girl calling her shortstack all the time (despite him being a similar height) and or squirt

In response Vanellope calls him oled man

Calhoun:

 Calhoun thinks he's like 12

He is not he's like 30-40 Like lectures him on his fighting form Thinks he's like inexperienced Finds him endearing if a little overbearing Finds his high energy useful in certain situations but exhausting at other times Is unsure...which fighting game he originates from Then bonding through duty or honor or avenging a loved one.

Sour bill (because I want more interactions and im hiperfixsaiting):

Scraper:Yoooooo a fellow rubber ball

Sour bill:what?

 Ima say this shit now they would drink tea together because yes Scrapper doesn't like coffee he drinks tea

Sonic (because I can):

Mf cameos in scrappers game in later levels for no reason just because funny

It's like the meme

Scrapper: sonic? What are you doing here?

Sonic in scrapper's game: waiting for them to play Gangdemstyle 

Ok so I forgot to put this in I was ryly hoped to post this but thanks to my friend @im-not-important fore spell correcting and helping come up with ideas(also did some of the Blu doodles in the Wight board drawings)

[oneatlatime]

The Earth King

As always, commentary off.

No. Sokka. No. Stop. This is your stupidest idea yet. I want to LEAVE Ba Sing Se.

Sokka. Listen to your sister. And your other sister.

Toph embodying my will manifested on screen.

What makes you think the Earth King is going to listen to four teens and their fluffy dog? When I put it that way, this is Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo plus Momo. Does that make Momo Scrappy Doo?

We're going back to Ba Sing Se. Great. Yay. I'm so excited.

It is rapidly becoming apparent that Sokka has lost his mind.

Surface to air rocks is funny. I'll give it to them, that's good.

This fight scene music is fantastic.

Aang took a level in badass at some point without my noticing.

I know these hats are inspired by real historical hats, and so I really shouldn't make fun, but these look like the lovechild of a toilet brush and a feather duster.

This fight is majority Toph and Katara. RIP the egos of these several hundred Earth Kingdom soldiers.

Please ensure your fluffy little butt is securely stored in the overhead bins before takeoff.

There's no way these guys are still alive. This is what was done to Jet, doubled. They dead.

The girl who doesn't even want to be here is doing all the work. Typical.

My congratulations to Toph, Katara, and Aang for demolishing an army without breaking a sweat. If only season 1 Katara could see you guys now.

I said in my previous write up that Zuko doing something good always comes back to bite him. I didn't mean it this literally. Did he have to take the jug out with him, or was that for the drama?

Good job guys!

Soka steals my job and points out the fulfillment of the Beat Up Sokka quota.

His earthiness has an interesting set of priorities.

So... is this episode just going to be talking?

He brainwashed your friend? Did you miss that he killed him too?

I said in my last write up that Long Feng was Avatar's first competent villain, but the tone he takes with the Earth King is so unsubtle that I'm thinking of rescinding that claim. Unless the King is so dumb that subtlety isn't required?

Toothprints. Sokka the idea guy coming in clutch. Too bad his brain wasn't engaged at the start of the episode.

Appa is a herbivore. Confirmed. Although he should have fangs for aesthetic reasons. Fanged Appa would be metal.

This king is a confusing mixture of endearing and infuriating.

No mere fever will prevent me from doing mundane actions in the most dramatic way possible!

Way back in the 90s there was a print ad for Chevy trucks that I remember seeing in magazines. It had a shirtless guy in jeans sitting on the bed of his truck in a field, pouring a bucket of water over himself. It was kind of at sunset and had a very late summer vibe. I had completely forgotten about it until I saw Zuko's bucket shenanigans in this scene, at which point I was abruptly -ABRUPTLY- reminded of how much time little me spent staring at that ad.

OH MY GOD. The King doesn't know about trains!!! BLASPHEMY.

Huh. So the King isn't stupid, he's just horrifically naive.

Positive attitude Sokka is kind of frightening. I do not like.

If I told this King that I had a bunch of puppies in my windowless van, he would totally fall for it. So much about the Earth Kingdom suddenly makes sense.

That one guard is having a doozy of a day.

Did the King just show a smidge of self-awareness? Wasn't expecting that.

Who is this? I have no idea who this is. I didn't realise how integral the scar was to the character's design. Give it back.

Yikes. A bunch of shmymbolism. I suck epically at decoding shmymbolism unless it's really spoon fed to me, so I'm not even going to try to understand this dream beyond 'poor guy has a really bad fever.'

Has anyone seen the Spencer Tracy movie Father of the Bride? There's a bit where he has a dream that the floor on the way to the altar does pretty much exactly this. Hungry floors must be a common dream experience.

Pretty.

If the King is really this completely ignorant of the war, who's been directing the army?

It's pretty neat that Sokka is the spokesperson of Team Avatar, and that no one disputes that.

Aang says "there's a comet coming this summer," but I heard "comic" and I know they made tie in comics for the show, so I was like "ooh a crossover episode!"

"You're already vulnerable. The Fire Nation won't stop until the Southern Water Tribe falls. You can either sit back and wait for that to happen, or take the offensive, and give yourself a fighting chance." -Sokka's dad speaking to the men of the Southern Water Tribe, while his son listens perhaps a bit too closely.

If the King really was completely in the dark about the war, how does he even know who the General is? Did Long Feng have the power to keep the General from mentioning the war?

"Your majesty I'm General How, head of the Council of Five." "What's that?" "It's in charge of your army." "Right. And what's the army up to these days?" ... " ...I planted a lovely tomato garden this year."

I love that earthbenders don't wear shoes, and that it's culturally normal. Makes an intriguing visual contrast to their fancy duds.

I have GOT to know what Mushi the teamaker's secret file says.

Toph can't read guys.

Sokka, Katara, I get it. You miss home too. But how would anyone at all from your tribe know to send a message for you to Ba Sing Se? Last time you all touched base, you were headed to the Northern Water Tribe. And those guys sent you off to Omashu, not Ba Sing Se.

Nitpick time! Katara starts reading the text of this letter out loud before she unrolls it.

Katara's voice acting while she's reading the letter is sweet. She's so excited.

Iroh. Priorities. Tea can wait.

"Huh? What's happening?" "You huffed a bit too much cave slime under Lake Laogai. Just ride it out."

This vase is lit like a main character.

"You're going through a metamorphosis my nephew." Iroh, he's a bit too old for that talk. Hang on I just realised that Zuko went through puberty on that ship. I bet that was rough.

I don't trust this. This news is all too good.

Aang referring to them all as "the family" hurts a little bit.

It is unbearably sweet to let Sokka go see their dad while Katara helps the Earth Kingdom plan, but Katara sucks at planning. Then again, the Earth Kingdom sucks in general, so maybe having a sucky planner will be a net improvement?

Either way it's good little sister content.

But there are six Kyoshi warriors. I counted in Appa's Lost Days.

Oh they didn't

Attack hug!

Airbender Zuko is a very effective jumpscare. Don't blame him for freaking out.

You know it's bad when finding the scar intact comes as a relief.

Nope. Don't trust it.

Fuck this guy.

Long Feng even eats rocks maliciously.

Fuck these guys.

Oh they did. Fuck these guys.

Final Thoughts

And just like that, it all went to shit. Or it will.

I was braced to be annoyed by how conveniently quickly the Earth King got with the program, but it actually fits well into the rest of the episode. Instead of a thing that goes improbably well, it's the one thing that goes right in episode filled with set up for everything falling apart. That bothers me less.

This episode was actually fun. At least until the end. It was mostly talking and Zuko on a bad trip. But it was win after win for everyone but my Ba Sing Se hating self, and it's always good to see your favourites having a good day. But! I have a glimmer of hope! So long as Sokka and Aang aren't completely written out until they return to Ba Sing Se, at some point I'll get some episodes outside of the city. And I have Appa back, so things aren't too bad in the grand scheme of things. I wonder that Appa wasn't upset at having all his people back for five minutes then having them split up again.

I do not like positive thinking Sokka, and I especially don't like that I have no idea where he came from. That point wasn't set up at all. I want my baby cynic back.

If letting Appa go was enough to trigger Zuko's morality crisis to the point of physical illness, why didn't letting Aang go in The Blue Spirit, or choosing to chase after Iroh rather than the Gaang in The Winter Solstice Part 1, cause a similar illness? What is different about this time?

Toph was once again the voice of reason in this episode, or rather my personal audience insert. Although it did surprise me how excited she was to see her mom. I thought that sending bounty hunters after their own daughter was kind of unforgivable, but either Toph doesn't know, or she's a more forgiving person than I am.

I realise now that this should have occurred to me when I watched Appa's Lost Days, but what idiot didn't take the Danger Ladies into custody when the Drill was stopped? btw I keep calling them the PowerPuff Girls in my head.

This episode was simultaneously a finale to a lot of threads and an introduction to a lot more. It was a chance to breathe between crossing the finish line of the 'find Appa' quest and starting the 'season finale' quest. It was also structured backwards. The big fight was like six minutes in. The 'what are we doing this episode?' was one of the last scenes. But it still works. I'll be interested to see what I think of this one when I rewatch it. It was such an info dump that I wonder if my opinion of it will be different once I watch it with all of the relevant facts known to me already. Either I'll appreciate the episode's other parts like the comedy, or I'll be bored. We'll see.

Two episodes left this season! I don't think I'll be getting to those before next year. See you all in 2024! (time needs to slow way down)

[lore-grandma]

Ranking the dorms by how much I’d like to live in them. This is going to oddly hard, I’m going off of the idea that you’re a basic general student, like I’m sure you’ll interact with the ghouls but this won’t be the main focus. Maybe if it’s a ghoul only dorm I’ll acknowledge them a little more.

7. Mortkraken- ok so I know what you mean “but everyone seems to keep to themselves”. I know but every dorm is likely going to have some duty that you’re going to have to do because you’re in this specific dorm and yada yada. I listen I’m dumb and frankly I don’t want to know more than the basics of medicine. And like I don’t mind learning about science but I’m not smart to damn near explode the lab with anomaly. Also this dorm lacks funding.

6. Jabberwock- same reasons as before tbh, lacks funding, I’d probably kill myself because of the dorm duty. And like yeah the fact that the only people here are ghouls and only 1 is doing the work would put it lower BUT, the expectations of what you just need to know is arguably easier to pick up on despite the fact that it’s on a much larger scale, and cute anonmonalies. Also despite towa’s destruction, I do like weather changes. Especially being cold. However let us all remember the fact that there aren’t cannonically other members brings this dorm down.

5. Vagastorm- I like bad boys, however I do know most annoy the hell outta me. Also idk how much you’re expected to participate in car maintenance and the pit, but I’m good. What puts this dorm above jabberwock is that I could befriend other people in my dorm.

4. Sinnostra- I like the criminal vibe but I don’t want a dorm leader that could literally kill me at any moment, I would rather enjoy my crime environment not everyday please. Also dorm duties again, I don’t want to be working at minimum a service industry job especially for a vice captain that can’t say a full phrase. Also I’d fucking hate the ghouls irl. But at least it’d be interesting.

3. Obscury- it’s a ghoul only dorm and I feel like somehow I’d be stared at the whole time. Also I forgot about this when it comes to talking about jabberwock and mortkraken but a fairly huge issue with those dorms is fighting off taiga. Anyways I don’t think this dorm would be too bad, yeah you need to do a service industry job but it’s not as populated as sinnostra. You will get jumpscared a lot.

2. Frosthiem- up to date, seems cold, sure everyone is an asshole but at least the aesthetics are nice. Also ignore people enough you could be left alone. Also hardly any dorm duties. I don’t have to fear for my life at any point of being in this dorm. I mean maybe if you go into thoma’s office or whatever, but I lack confrontational skills that I genuinely believe I’d ever end up like that one girl.

1.hoturubi- ok I’m actually fairly neutral about all of ghouls here, and my favorite one is canonically dead. So I think I can be easily left alone here and even if I did make friends I can’t imagine they’d be awful people. Also I have no idea what the dorm duty is here, but at least I get to learn about a culture. Also zenji seems hardly noticeable as a ghost.

[peachphernalia]

For the character ask game: 4, 8, 9, 14, and/or 23 with …. *drumroll* Whole [and the crowd faints in surprise /sar/vsilly]

Can answer as many or as few as you’d like!! Everything is super /nf, just curious . I like hearing your thoughts on These Guys :3

HOORAY this is about to be very fun for me

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

well . i actually have thought about several. i know this question is asking for onebut i Really struggle to narrow it down so [not-so] rapidfire list:

putting him into venturiantale pie as a case is extremely funny to me . pie gets a call about this guy who keeps splitting into three people by mistake & then trying to kill himself which is like a normal client for them . ghost deduces that this must be some demons or something but they seem to not be doing anything Evil to the general public [preoccupied with making an album] so it’s problem solved really . whole is billed $1000 for this

marble hornets . just think it’s funny for him to be going through the album’s events & also slenderman is there. for some reason

undertale . preferably with hms haunting him chara style . because i think it would be fascinating to watch him work through those moral dilemmas . he’s a perseverance soul btw

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

already went over thisone in a previous ask but basically . Nothing ! i don’t have much i dislike with fanon whole characterizations

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

oh god i don’t think so . i like him a lot but i think we are both people who would be very difficult to live with & we are similar in all the ways that would make that . Bad. i think. i fear we would get into fights . maybe iam cynical

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

funnily enough whole is the one guy of hmsw that i don’t really have an aesthetic i lean into when thinking about his outfits . i guess he’s a little grunge adjacent but he isn’t , um. Cool. heart hands . i think it would be really cute to dress him up in goth or scene or something though . ouw actually scene would be Really cute i need to think about that more

23. Favorite picture of this character?

ok there is a lot of art of him i like obviously but i feel like it’s cheating to not pull something from the actual videos . therefore

this fucking screenshot of him . I Like It. i took it for one of my dumb soulwhole meme edits & it’s been in my camera roll because i laugh every time i see it . what are you looking so angry for . why such FurrowedBrows. why so Pissed Off can you chill out man

[willothewispwisteriadawn]

My head is hurting after Secret History inner ramblings.

I think the one thing that’s difficult about this book is that EVERYTHING is a little true and a little false at the same time? It’s weird because sometimes I go to make a statement on something or post a thought, and I just can’t get the nuance right ever. All my opinions have a bit of a “but here’s where that thought ends” aspect to them. Here’s what I mean:

1. Henry and Camilla: I think someone kind of disliked something I said once when I said I was skeptical about Henry’s relationship with Camilla. And I tbh had strongly worded my thoughts. But here’s the deal. Henry, based on what we know of him, likely doesn’t have a good concept of love. And Camilla feels safe with Henry. Due to this, I think Henry views Camilla as something to protect. He sees her as aesthetic and wants to pursue her because he has clearly been taught by Julian and his own long history with many books and few human interactions that what’s important is what is ethereal and arcane and pretty. Camilla is going through a lot with Charles and she knows all the other guys are, in varying ways, terrified of Henry. Bunny was a jerk but his obsessive attitude toward Henry was indicative of his fear and his needing to know what Henry is up to, an attitude which makes increasing sense as the novel progresses. Richard has slips about Henry all the time but the most memorable to me is when he almost says “What if it’s Henry” instead of “What if it’s the cops?” when Charles knocks. Charles is so blatantly frightened of Henry and for good reason: Charles never seemed to want to kill Bunny, was was pulled into the murder (but it was still his choice), not taken seriously when he tried to lament Bunny, and then put into a situation where he had to just keep talking about it while minding his every word. Then there were strong indications Henry was trying to kill him. Camilla isn’t dumb. I’m sure she sees things that the guys see. She’s certainly disturbed when Henry made her douse herself in pig blood. But she allows Henry to have what he wants so she can be safe. 

Now, I don’t even think Camilla is wrong to make this choice. In fact, Richard’s attitude towards her decision was uncalled for. That said, we now have a relationship built on a man who is buried in fanciful ideas about things and a woman who is fully aware of everything wrong with him and just goes with it because she’s scared. But it’s weird because saying that this relationship is entirely destructive isn’t perfectly true either. It’s true for the above reasons. But I also see Henry and Camilla do having some semblance of a positive relationship too. He does treat her kindly and, whatever the reason, he does help her when she’s struggling with Charles. We’ve seen signs of Henry looking out for Camilla throughout the whole book. And, you know what? We even get tiny indications that she really believes in some of his nonsense. But, by the end of the novel, I was so skeptical of anything Henry did and so wary of how emotionless he’d gotten that I couldn’t really believe he wouldn’t ever hurt her (my goodness, this guy could read some ancient myth arguing that some random, toxic action is somehow akin to love and he’d take it seriously). But bottom line is that this isn’t an easy thing for me to voice my opinion on without immediately disagreeing with my own wording. 

2. Francis being untruthful about Charles. When I say Francis’s story about Charles isn’t correct, I mean that there are indications Francis is twisting facts. I’m saying it makes too much sense that he bore blame too, based on what we know of Francis. But what I’m not saying is that he spoke nothing but lies. This book is about illusions and things hidden in plain sight. Francis saying that Charles and Camilla being pretty makes it hard to see that they aren’t good does ring very true. It’s similar to Richard’s statement that he has a tendency to view interesting people as good (he says this about Julian). I do believe Francis when he says that Charles, even Camilla in a more subtle or different way, is jealous and manipulative— and the twins have been that way for a long time. We can pick that up ourselves throughout the novel. And he’s probably right that the bacchanal brought the worst of it to light. He definitely tries to tell Richard about something awful Charles did that night and can’t bring himself to. 

That said, Francis is also clearly framed as being illusionary himself. He’s compared twice to a fox in this scene. His reason for why Charles won’t admit to having been with him is flimsy. It’s an odd understanding of Charles who won’t speak of his drinking when personal details aren’t involved. And alcohol was involved every time Francis and Charles hooked up (in the story about the first time it happened, when they left Richard’s room, and at the funeral). Francis even admits that was a driving factor in their relationship. At the Corcorans’, we also see Charles say Francis attempted to coerce him into something only for Francis to cut him off. So it’s just that, knowing alcohol was involved, knowing Francis has tried to take advantage of an inebriated Richard, and knowing that he’s trying to cover up truths… it just doesn’t give us a picture of a Francis who was entirely innocent in the matter and who didn’t at all take advantage of his friend. 

A few things can exist at once because I think Francis’s big deal is being something of a doormat. He balks in the face of anything scary from doctor visits to certain social interactions; he goes along with others. He can be sharp-tongued and he does have strong desires, but he is often scared back into place. He clearly wants something with Richard (he goes for it twice) but won’t attempt to push when Richard is lucid. He asks permission, is denied, and accepts it (good!). But when Richard is vulnerable, Francis is more aggressive (fair point to Francis: this is not all the time. He’s seen Richard drunk and sleeping and been normal about it). Francis does get pushed back into place by Charles as well. Camilla states this when she tells Richard why she can’t move in with Francis rather than Henry. We also see Francis mock Richard’s speech patterns then immediately become really meek and apologetic when he sees that Richard is actually angry. And I’m kind of wondering if Francis knew all about Henry potentially setting up Richard and kept his mouth shut while Charles perhaps attempted to save Richard by taking him to the bar the night the police came. I say this because Charles says he knows Francis would betray him to Henry. And this moment seems more that just drunken rambles, based on Francis’s reaction. Francis’s suicide note even apologizes for NOT doing things. This fear does seem likely to cause him to merely take advantage of people when they’re vulnerable, to push until bitten back. (By the way, I think the alcohol he has during the funeral bathroom moment was purchased by Charles when he went out since it was in the glove compartment? The rest is vague but, to me, Francis is taking advantage of a weakness. To be honest, I like to think even Francis realized this. He payed Charles’s rehab bill. I think he knew that, in encouraging the drinking or, at least not stopping it, that he’d failed Charles— and Camilla who was directly affected.) 

This is a lot of things. So I think me having moments of “OK FRANCIS WAS CLEARLY MANIPULATIVE HERE” is not the same as me saying he was totally wrong. Just like me saying he’s likely right about Charles is not me saying Charles wasn’t a vulnerable and mistreated party too. 

3. Bunny being more morally aware than others. This one is the TRICKIEST. Because Bunny is really bad too. He’s such an awful friend. But my big-hard-to-capture-thought is that I do not believe Henry when he says Bunny’s reaction to the farmer-slaying was purely feelings of being left out. And I think Bunny was aware of and disturbed by the things going on in the group in a way the others largely weren’t. Richard says Bunny was a bloodhound for insecurities and that’s true. But I also got the sense that he was actually seeing his friends flaws and going, in some deep part of himself, “wait, this is really bad.” Julian mistakes Bunny’s behavior for a possible religious conversion. I think that’s very close— it was a moral crisis, I believe. But Julian is onto the same principle which doesn’t align with what Henry said (that it wasn’t at all moral). Furthermore, I think Henry (and Francis) was wrong about Bunny’s feelings of jealousy and hatred towards Richard. Again, this line between partially true and partially false is light because maybe Henry did note real feelings of inferiority (Bunny did harass Richard despite him not being at the bacchanal and there’s that mean moment where he tells Charles to give Richard a drink without washing the cup). But this is all thrown in to question with Bunny’s letter to Julian which doesn’t mention Richard at all. I just wonder if Bunny, despite all his rampant -isms and blatant mistreatment of his friends, was the first to wake up. And he was killed for it. Similarly, Charles starts to wake up in ways. He, in the midst of all his own crimes, was getting impacted by having helped take a life. And Henry’s reaction repeated itself; he went to silence this person who, within all his madness, was right about something. AND YET AGAIN. This is only true in some manners because Henry was also thinking of Camilla.

Revisiting my whole thesis: It’s like anything I could possibly say about this book has limits and other considerations. Many things are true to a point and false at a level. So I look back at every post I make and am like “well I still think I was right, but I wish I could shine a flashlight on every little detail and exception.” I just want to be fair about everything all the time!

[goodluckclove]

tw for drugs and sex mentions

yo clove not writing related but do you think it's normal to have not tried recreational drugs by 15 and not particularly want to find them? I've seen people making fun of people for it, along with not having sex which is also concerning to me as a sex-repulsed aroace person (caedosexual and demialterous/aroflux). I'm really anxious about stuff like this so I'd love ur opinion if you're comfortable answering stuff like this, I trust you a lot and you seem like a smart and knowledgeable adult so if you say it's fine I'll probably stop worrying

Hey man if you want to get real let's get real. I won't get too descriptive, but I do agree some people may need the tw so I'll put this under a Read More. Generally my answer is that younger people have a warped view of what warrants maturity and adulthood and a lot of the stuff that they think represents being a Cool Grown Up is actually not meant to be that profoundly world-changing in my opinion. This is especially true for all the stuff that is designed to spike your dopamine, unless in cases where it's being used medicinally (and even then it's case-by-case on if it's really medicinal).

Let's get into it!

So first off let me say the three big things that make me kind of biased to talk about stuff like this.

I am an alloromantic, sex-repulsed asexual

I am an addict

I am a child of addicts

I'll tackle sex first just to get it out of the way, and because I think it'll be easier to answer. Teenagers are one of the most brutal species on the goddamned planet (second only to middle schoolers and that sludge in Chernobyl that kills you immediately if you look at it), and I know for a fact they'll find a way to make fun of you for anything. I didn't know I was asexual in high school. I was an out lesbian at the time - I actually came out on our school broadcast for a GSA ad that ended up playing at least twice a month all year. People were more...too into it, which is also bad.

Mean Teens might say some dumb shit. That sucks, but you'll live. There will be way more Mean Teens that have an opinion on your sex life than there will be Asshole Adults. Like way more. I am open about being an asexual marriage and the worst I get is like "what if you want kids" which - you know - you can shut that down quick.

What matters is what you think about yourself, and the cool truth is that if you go through your whole life never wanting to have sex your life will be very close to unchanged in the grand scheme of things. I'll probably never want to eat a whole olive, and Riley thinks that's crazy because they love olives. But we will both see the same amount of sunsets and cool birds, and we were both eat roughly the amount of yummy snacks and have the same amount of adventures.

I've had sex. Ladies. No, seriously though - it's fine. It's okay. I remember yearning for it for years (I was actually wanting intimacy oops), and when it finally happened I was like oh. that's it? okay. There was a point when my girlfriend at the time actually entered me and I was immediately confused because I had no idea what she was trying to do. I remember I furrowed my brow like I was trying to understand Improv Jazz.

I laughed. i did laugh. That is not great for two people having sex for the first time.

Anyways, I had a few sexual partners and just kind of assumed they were all bad at sex or I was doing something wrong for some reason. Then I met Riley and they were openly ace, and something just clicked in me. I'm still aesthetically and sensually attracted to them (I use sensually in terms that aren't sexual), but there's really no pressure there and we aren't worried about it. And it's awesome.

If someone makes you feel weird about not having sex or a romantic attraction to people then you should feel a little bad for them, because that seems like a thing that a person would only do if they had very little else going on in their lives. That's some bland-ass khaki shit.

Onto intoxicants! So before I moved to Portland I lived in San Jose, California, and shortly after weed was legalized my parents had me start smoking with them - I was 18 - and I ended up being heavily addicted for about three years. This is a divisive thing to say because I know there's some argument about whether or not weed can even be addictive. Let me just say right now, I'm not about to have that argument. I detoxed for about three weeks and I genuinely thought I was dying. Like, I said my "last words" to my mother when she came to check on me. It was rough.

I am not anti-weed. I know it can be an amazing tool for people with certain medical conditions. And if you don't have a history of addiction, it's probably fine to smoke a bowl or a joint every so often and just have that be the end of it. I mean, it's so easy to find now.

Weed is fun, though. That's kind of the reason why it developed it's own culture and persona. The same can be said with alcohol. People definitely have opinions on IPAs. But if someone is so invested in what is essentially little more than an economic industry, that they feel the need to judge you for - spending your money on other stuff? That's piss wizard shit.

Weed is fun, yes, but it is expensive. If someone says they have cheap weed it's probably shit and you need to smoke a lot, or they got it through means that aren't great. And going out to bars also gets costly quick. I still go sometimes, but I limit myself to one fun cocktail.

You can also still go to bars if you want - when you're older, I mean. They can be a good place to meet people and see shows. A lot of them have cool non-alcoholic options - I like when there's a kombucha on tap - or they even have mocktails that are still cool mixed drinks with no alcohol. But they all have Coke or whatever.

There's literally a bar by my house that I go to and I only order the French fries and a Coke. Nobody cares. Getting drunk can be fun if you're in the right situation, but I don't consider it worth the hangover. Getting high can also be fun in the right situation, but edibles taste like trash and if you smoke you're essentially a smoker and that's it's own stigma. What's the alternative - vaping?

Oh my god, vaping? Come on. I have friends that vape and you know how many of them only do it because they're addicted? All of them. Shit sucks. I don't judge them, but I can see them cringe every time they have to hit it.

Also don't let people talk to you about that Delta-8/9 shit. Yeah, it's stronger. Yeah, it's unregulated. But like - it's unregulated and we have no goddamned clue what it'll do in the long run.

Getting high is fun because you don't have to exist in the world for a while and that's great, but it ultimately doesn't solve anything. When I'd smoke a bunch of weed and sativa alone in my bedroom (Hey don't do that! Bad idea! Really bad! My parents knew I was doing this and they allowed it because they are bad people!), I'd giggle and fuck around and eat a lot of snacks, but the next morning all the shit I was trying to escape was still there. Only difference was that now I had to go out and drop another 60 bucks on an eighth to get me through the next two weeks.

A lot of people want to have sex and get drunk or high so they can think of something else other than their current situation for like fifteen minutes to six hours. if you don't want to do either of that, and you're not going absolutely insane, that seems pretty cool. I can cite all the studies that say that a lot of that kind of stuff can actually stunt your development if you get into it too early (Or at all, really), but you don't need me to do that. You know that's the case. I knew that and I still OD'd on weed twice before the age of 21.

You're good, man. It's not a culture when you do that this young, it's a coping skill. And if you found a different one that's going to be way better for you in the long run. You can still have fun and make friends, you can even still have a partner in life if you find that's something you want. Your life is might seem limited in a few ways - but it's actually far more open in many, many other ones.

I don't mind questions like these all, by the way. Thanks for trusting me!

[spacemonkeysalsa]

Astarion's scars as a tattoo, yeah or nah?

tl;dr - that's a hard nah from me

I'm pretty heavily tattooed, but I don't have any pop culture tattoos, yet. I am considered a few different pop culture tattoos, including some bg3 related ones. Astarion is my favorite character, and I am definitely not getting his scars, but another pop culture tattoo I have considered at multiple points in the past is the brand of sacrifice from Berserk.

If you're not familiar, it's a popular tattoo among Berserk fans and it functions in universe as a sign that this person has been marked to be consumed in another person's ascension to godhood.

There is a pretty big difference between the brand of sacrifice and Astarion's brand though.

Those baring the brand of sacrifice in Berserk's universe are not slaves. The mark was not put upon them by their slaver. You can argue that they were similarly exploited, but it's not a one to one analogue with chattel slavery at all.

When I thought about getting Astarion's scars as a tattoo I immediately didn't feel right about it, and to be perfectly honest, I didn't recognize why I felt that way. I was not thinking about it deeply.

Later, after discussing it with my sister (who is covered in recognizable pop culture related tats) she managed to put my discomfort into words. Basically, she pointed out that the scars are a slave brand. There is historical significance to these kinds of marks, and it's use in the story of bg3 only emphasizes that.

What I'm describing is a very white woman, talking to another very white woman, like 7 months ago when we'd isolated ourselves and been playing the game nonstop and hadn't peaked in on the fandom yet, because we (correctly) thought that would probably be horrible.

And, I just say that, because I think that if the two of us could pick up on the implications of the scars, everyone else should probably be able to (at a minimum) understand this position when it's spelled out for them. If that's how uncomfortable we felt, in the privacy, basically of just our own minds, playing the game in a vacuum, I can't even imagine what it's like for black fans trying to participate in the fandom.

Ultimately, it is an individual's choice what tattoos they want to get, but the assertion that I've been seeing from people that they shouldn't be judged for it is just not correct. Judging people for their tattoos is totally allowed, actually. The kinds of tattoos that someone gets says a lot about them. I'm positive people judge me for my tattoos all the time, and they are allowed to do that. I have those insect knee-bending wing tattoos, I'm sure someone thinks those are dumb as hell.

So, I've had the chance to talk to a few people who wanted to get Astarion tattoos. I always tell them outright why I don't think they should get the scars and then I try to work with them to come up with something else. I've been prepared for pushback, but I actually haven't gotten any. I think people are more likely to be reasonable when you talk in person.

It's only in internet conversations between strangers that I see real pushback.

On the other side of things, I know the idea of identification with this character, and reclamation feels very powerful, and it's just not effective to try and convince people to have a totally different emotional response to something they experienced. So, I'm not surprised to see people double down in that context.

I wish empathy was enough. But, in case it's not, I'm actually going to try an adjacent angle, as a person who is covered in tattoos.

Let's talk about the most common reasons that people regret their tattoos: 1) They get big, bold, distinctive tattoos before they have a realistic idea of what their adult aesthetic and vibe will actually be (happens a lot to people who get serious and huge tattoos before age 25)

2) They experience a paradigm shift (often social, cultural, political, or artistic) that causes them to feel negatively about the tattoos they got in the past, and they subsequently have a negative relationship with them. Often, these people will start wearing clothing that covers the tattoos before they really confront the fact that they don't like them any more. It's a very hard thing to admit to yourself.

I can see how this particular tattoo doubly qualifies on all accounts.

I'm relieved that I didn't get all the tattoos that I wanted when I was in my late teens and early twenties. Like, fr, thank god I was poor and thought I'd go to hell, because all my tattoo ideas at that time in my life were exactly the kind of stuff I would have regretted later.

So, if you really want the scars, and you're feeling even more convinced than ever to do it because you're annoyed by how passionately some people argue against it and you want to prove that you can do what you want with your body, and that the meaning is immutable to you and can't possible change, keep in mind that regretting tattoos is very common, changing your mind is very common, and growing the hell up is inevitable.

Even the most innocuous tattoos with absolutely no broader implications might make you feel negatively about your own body one day, and no one wants that. That definitely wouldn't be the legacy that you want to attach to this tattoo.

There's a big difference between trying to control someone's behavior and trying to just be real with them about the increased likelihood that they will be unhappy with the tattoo at some point down the line. Like maybe after they make some black friends.

It might sound like I'm being flippant, but I am actually dead serious. With how many people are getting that tattoo right now, it's basically inevitable that some of them will one day learn or experience enough to completely change their opinion on this exact debate and then feel all kinds of gross about the tattoo.

And, to reiterate, I don't think that's as good an argument as just not doing it because you listened to black fans about how it made them feel and empathized. That should be enough.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep1 Musings - Revenants Pt1

I've been thinking about the vampire population in Europe for a while, and WHY it was that Louis & Claudia had such a hard time finding any sentient vampires until they got to Paris.

It's SO interesting that AMC added Daciana, an old AF vampire who's obvs mentally traumatized, but still highly sentient & verbose & articulate; and one who knew other sentient vampires long ago, too.

We get the impression that the locals are going around killing vampires, or preventing them from being made just cuz they're shooting up coffins & wearing garlic. But we know that that's not how AR lore works--making vampires involves copious blood exchanges--not even S01E01 really showed it in full, cuz vamps need to swap blood back & forth quite a few times for the best results--like Marius did with Armand.

Which is why Claudia's revenants failed; she doesn't have enough.

We see Daciana feeding the soldier blood, and she's obvs bitten him, too, but it's clearly not enough--Lestat said you have to "half-kill" the victim and not drink dead blood--so I wonder if it's cuz the injured soldiers Daciana picks are just too close to dying already?

Who knows. We can assume Daciana's not the Maker of the other revenants Lou & Claudia encountered across Europe. Which begs the question: who is? And why're they making such shoddy vamps? Are ALL these Makers THAT weak?

Then it dawned on me when I remembered Marius again:

Are these northern & eastern European vampires the "Old Gods" from the Queen's Blood? Like--from the GREAT BURNING? 👀

Cuz it would make sense that the reason all the vampires Louis met suck (literally) in the Old World is cuz their Makers just CAN'T make better vampires--they're still too injured! 👀

Like, TVL implied that Teskhamen (Marius' Maker) might've FAILED b4, or that he'd seen other candidates NOT become proper vamps strong enough to make it back to Egypt. HE'd been too weak to make any; he was scared he didn't have it in him to do it properly.

Teskhamen said that the "Old Gods" all over Europe had burned up. It hadn't been a decade after the Great Burning that he turned Marius, and was still a charred black husk. (Centuries later, when he makes Hesketh, he's STILL injured. So I wonder: are the vampire Makers out there creating revenants injured & weak, too?....)

Teskhamen waited til Mael found Marius, "the mortal Who Knows, and is Learned and Can Learn," and made Marius a vamp cuz he was smart & educated; not only increasing his odds of sneaking TWMBK out of Egypt, but also likely lowering the possibility that he'd turn out a mad, dumb revenant.

Cuz aesthetics are everything with AR vamps--even as crispety crackety crunchety as Teskhamen was, he STILL had to go on bragging about how beautiful he'd once been, like, bruh? 🙄

But that got me thinking some more, this time about Louis, and his attitude towards revenants, which I'll put in Part 2, cuz it's a lot longer--this is just me thinking out loud about wtf might've gone wrong in Europe, based on what Teskhamen, Mael & Marius described in the books.

[typingatlightspeed]

Ngl. I am tempted to learn Blender in order to make MI-inspired cosmetics and upload them to the Steam Workshop to get them into TF2 for real lmao. Cuz like, ok. We already have faun feet for Scout, werewolf cosmetics for Demo, Engie's got plenty of cyborg stuff, Sniper doesn't need anything ofc, and Medic does technically have a wings cosmetic too.

But I would love to add in:

-a kitsune set for Spy (tails/ears, probably, maybe also the claws)

-give Medic better wings cuz the old ones are kinda cruddy, and also probably bird feet + hands, kinda like the Abhorrent Appendages for Pyro

-maybe a whole body replacement like the voodoo-cursed souls for Heavy, to make him look more Jotun

-maybe at least a stitched line around Soldier's neck to indicate it was cut off? Or you could have the whole head rotten above the line too. I feel like the collar would be too kinky for a general TF2 audience tho lol

-pyro would be another tough one, but maybe a whole head replacement that's just a will-o'-the-wisp ball of flame? I dunno if Valve would accept it tho, because 1) conflicts with Unusual effects, 2) class/team recognition issues, and 3) looks too much like the player is actually burning to death and needs to be extinguished, adding too much visual confusion and clutter. Still, something to think about.

Obvs most if not all of these would be Halloween-restricted, being such radical deviations from the mercs' normal appearances, but I still think it'd be really fun lol

AAAAA ANON I AM LOSING MY MIND (and have been for two days since I got this ask aaaaaahhhhh) I WOULD OWE YOU SOME KIND OF BLOOD DEBT YOU'RE AMAZING FOR EVEN THE THOUGHT ILU

So I know I've said it a brazillion times but Demo's werewolf cosmetics are actually the entire reason for MI! I was salty people kept writing Sniper as a werewolf but not Demo when dude was the one with cosmetics! That said I'd kill for something more lupine, less old-school Wolfman, but it would deffo be redundant. (I almost just used the comedy term "that would be putting a hat on a hat" but then I remembered that that's actually a cosmetic in TF2 so the phrase isn't exactly salient in this setting lol.)

My Scout loadout is the Hero's Tail, Baphomet's Trotters, and Antlers (I hate the dumb belt thing but it is what it is lol), so faun!Scout is deffo doable in the game. :3 And I plan on playing with the cyborg cosmetics that have been added to the game in later MI stuff eventually (spoilers? lol). I love the designs of those, building off of the chunky Gunslinger aesthetic and the designs of the sentries and dispensers and such, really really great holistic design philosophy out of the workshop creators who made those other pieces. They absolutely fuck.

But YEEEESSSSS a kitsune set for Spy would be the greatest thing ever ough. In my head I see it as the tails and a classic kitsune mask tilted to the side or up, with his eyes changed (orange-gold with slit pupils) and fangy teeth. And this one is the most blue-sky but if I could animate I'd do a taunt for him where he pulls a hoshitama out of his jacket pocket and does a little fushigi juggling with it before tucking it back away, lol.

Medic's little costume wings are cute (I deffo have a pair lol) but a nice big realistic set with bird feet and hands would be amazing! Ough WANT.

I like that idea for Heavy, since he's one of the hardest to represent in-game, since you can't change his size (he'd be the size of VSH Saxton if he were MI accurate lol). A full-body skin to give him that blueish gray skin, slightly pointed ears, and glowing eyes would be super cool. <3 Heavy's already so dreamy, it would be enchanting! Ooh part of the skin being the ring on his finger, too. :3

And lol yeah the collar on Soldier would almost assuredly be too kinky for general TF2. We couldn't even get Scout in a crop top (which is forever a tragedy). A rotten head could work, as would the neck scar, I think. Sadly straight up removing his head would not work from a gameplay perspective, lol. Unfair to Sniper players lmao. He's probably the hardest to convey.

For Pyro a will-o-wisp head would be most likely to actually get into the game, since the mystery of Pyro's face is The Joke. To make him MI authentic the way to do him would be to sculpt him a new head and face and stuff, and give him textures that make him look on fire, maybe a little flame effect animation atop it, plus some serious jiggle bones on his hair that keeps it in motion constantly. Make him a very mild light source. But, again, absolutely wouldn't get into the game lol.

And yeah they'd deffo be Halloween/Full Moon restricted, but tbh that makes a lot of sense anyway, lol. After all, they *are* monsters. :3