#but like. I'm fuckin tired

[anonymoussong]

being publicly executed in the group chat for admitting that I'm tired and trying to protect my peace

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

divinity is for nerd ass losers anyway

[decaf-mother]

*Walks in wearing a pink stethoscope*

I'm your doctor for today- what happened to the old one? We don't talk about that.

*PROLONGED STARE*

*Scribbles on a sticky note and places it on your forehead*

I diagnose you with 'needs fictional dick REAL bad'

[iamthepulta]

*stares at 30 reblogs of "deep down you want to bite someone with 100% power just once"*

*writes: "m00t is reincarnated crocodile (beloved)" on notepad*

[landgraabbed]

ever since the reviews for veilguard dropped and i watched a few i cannot open youtube without getting blasted by anti woke shit. i just want to see some silly nonsense bro

[sentientcave]

Aw man

[synthshenanigans]

BRO

Im crying

[the-punforgiven]

Man for real do I have to start warning my epileptic friends about the end boss of Shadow of the Erdtree? Because like I do not have epilepsy and despite that this dude's second phase is fucking rough to look at

[nu-carniviva]

Hi there - re: your stance on proshipping, doesn't Nu Carnival have elements in it that could be considered problematic? Aster fits pretty neatly into the 1000-year-old loli/shota trope, and consent in intimacy/H-scenes is sometimes rather dubious. Are these somehow not problematic things? And if they are problematic, doesn't continuing to play the game while acknowledging that basically constitute taking a proship stance toward it?

Alright. I'm not targeting this specifically at anon, but I am really sick and tired of Aster being called shota bait so I thought I'd put that to rest with a little anatomy lesson. Bit of a lengthy post ahead

I'm going to be using this image as a reference, since it lists all the measurements needed in making an anatomically accurate adult male. While the origin of the image is a little old, the measurements are still used today so I believe it can still be applied:

These are all those measurements applied to Aster. Specifically, his default sprite:

Woah. Seems like a lot, right? Let's go step by step, then. Or rather, list item by list item. Click on each image to see them in full. It's also important to note right off the bat that each line is EXACTLY THE SAME LENGTH, and each line is THE SIZE OF ASTER'S HEAD

"An adult stands 7 to 8 heads tall" - Color coding each line to make things easier to see, if we count all those lines up from the top of his head (hat not included) to the bottom of his feet, we have 7 lines. 7 heads. Anatomically correct for an adult male

"The width of a man's chest (under the arms) is equal to the width of his hips" - Aster is standing at an angle so I can't give 100% exact measurements in this particular part, but he's close enough to be forward-facing that it's safe to assume his measurements line up. Even if they're not exactly the same, the difference in length between his chest and his hips are not apparent enough to say that his proportions are childlike rather than adultlike

"The crease at the inside of the elbow will be near the waistline" - Seems to check out here too!

"The distance from the elbow to the finger tips is 2 heads" - Since Aster's hand is at an angle, I added a third little line to connect his finger tips to the tip of the other white line (which, bringing this up again, is the same length as his head.) Using a ruler to keep the lines perfectly straight, I was able to successfully connect the lines together, checking off this box as well

"The length of the head, the length of the inner forearm, and the length of the foot are equal" - These seem to match up as well, though his foot might be a liiiiiittle bit smaller

"The distance from the heel to the knee is 2 times the length of the foot (2 heads)" - If you look back at the reference image I'm using, "heel to knee" refers to the heel of the foot to the very beginning of the knee — meaning at the very very bottom. My measurements seem to match up to that as well... And that checks off all the boxes on the list

Conclusion:

Aster is proportionally correct for an adult male. He is just short. Short men exist.

On top of that, children are typically drawn with chubby, rounded features. Aside from his thighs and hips, Aster's design uses a lot of sharp lines to accentuate his features — such as a sharp jawline and sharp, slender fingers

One might argue that his voice is high pitched, so he must still be shota bait... But men can have high pitched voices too. Anyone can. Men are more likely to have deep voices, yes, but it's not a guarantee that all men will have deep voices

One also might argue that Aster is childish but... Is he really? Sure, he acts cutesy, but that's to get attention from people (especially Eiden.) That's really the only childish personality trait about him. Other than that, Aster is a natural leader. He's demanding, he's business-minded, and he's sly. Aster has no issue taking charge and giving instructions. After all, he's been the owner of the mansion ever since Huey left AND he's the owner of several businesses all throughout Klein. He spends most of his time working and doing business-related tasks. Hell, one of the things he complains about is how much work he has each day, but he knows it has to get done

"But he likes cute things!!!" You can be an adult and like cute things

Honestly, I see no reason why anyone would genuinely believe he's shota bait other than he's short, likes pink, and likes cute things. Those are all traits that can be seen in an adult. Traits that don't take away the fact that someone looks and acts like an adult

This isn't targeted at anon but tbh... People who insist Aster is shota bait are weird bro. Why are you so determined to say this is a sexualized child?

Side Note:

You mentioned that there are moments of dubious consent in some h scenes, and I agree. Especially with Edmond and Karu who are typical tsunderes, sometimes their scenes start off a little iffy. I am in no way saying that those moments are totally fine, but it is important to note that every single one of those scenes quickly escalates to them expressing their pleasure both physically AND verbally. They start the scenes aroused and okay with the idea of sex, but their tsundere nature can makes the consent come off as dubious — I get that. Though I don't recall ever seeing a scene were consent is explicitly ignored or consent is forced. Eiden is a very patient and understanding man, and he's shown that he will stop if his partner truly doesn't like what he's doing. So while the consent can be dubious at times, I wouldn't say it's entirely problematic

[brionnnne]

note that i will only ever call mithrun "stupid" jokingly. by "stupid", i only mean "frustrating behavior that i am immensely familar with". seeing him do something that makes me groan aloud, closing my eyes, sighing "stupid (affectionate, mournful)". like when he fucking... his dumbass "i don't want to [use the bathroom] right now, so it's fine." oughh. i know you! i know you! that's not how that works!!! and he's smart!!! he's so smart... but god, god... he's kind of an absent professor. he's kind of a cloudcuckoolander. i love him dearly. he gets called a dummy, a little idiot, and i flick his forehead, a little bonk of hard-heads, like "try again, idiot. that's not how bodies work." and "ooh, 'that's not going to work'. yes it is. shut up, stoopid. stubborn little man, my god." rolling my eyes forever.

[saints-who-never-existed]

Oh God, you guys, I forgot Bridgens had his own journals...!!!

In the book, Bridgens had his own journals, kept throughout the Expedition and possibly beforehand. There's one purposefully left behind in his tent when he goes for his final walk, and five even longer ones purposefully left far behind on Terror!!!

Just consider that for a single goddamn second!

John Bridgens, a man who loves literature and stories, and has defined his entire life by them, specifically destroys his own story, deliberately leaves it all behind to rot, in order to carry Peglar's forward with him instead...!!!

[vilelittlecritter]

Ha ha I don't know what I want to do with my life and I feel unsatisfied with my current condition!

[slasheru]

anyway congratulations Hex likers your main quest is coming up next in the dev cycle haha

[foreverxdaydreaming]

x

[rubenesque-as-fuck]

So the guy who rainchecked on Monday saying that he wasn't feeling well wrote back after I'd already gone to bed last night, saying that he was feeling better and apologizing for not replying for a bit. I wrote back mid-morning today and now once again... nothing. I think if I don't hear back from him by sometime tomorrow I may just unmatch and move on. As always, I'll lie to myself and say it was his loss 🙃

[myattman]

At a concert rn. 9 other people here