#but that doesnt change the fact that many of us are in danger

[indigosfindings]

i havent really come back to the like "satisfaction brought it back" etc stuff much (my attitude is that like, i said my piece pretty comprehensively around 3 years ago & my opinion on the subject hasnt really changed in that time) but like. there really is something interesting going on there right? like from the foundation of the heuristic a really strange perspective on, like, The Function Of Words is revealed. like the contention of "full version" claims is essentially that You Have Been Lied To, that a True & Worthwhile & Radical & Liberatory concept has been suffocated & hidden from you so that a detrimental concept could take root instead, & that the battleground for this War Over Your Mind & Morals is... popular adages.

take as an example: "the early bird gets the worm" / "but the second mouse gets the cheese". these are clauses with a pretty straightforward illustrative utility: person 1 might say "the early bird gets the worm" to convey something like "i think it's best to do this thing asap," & person 2 might reply "...but the second mouse gets the cheese" to convey "i disagree--i think caution is more important than haste here." implicitly both people should understand what they are referring to (person 1 might be voicing their opinion on sleep schedules, project management, important purchases...) because these idioms arent actually a conduit into fundamental truths of the universe: theyre recognizable shorthands symbolizing a pertinent thought! but the alleged "full version" has no use in that context: "the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese" is contradictory! there's extremely limited utility in an adage that's, like, arguing with itself lmao. in fact, neither of the clauses is universally transferable to every single situation! when you use an idiom, youre not consulting it to decide what you believe--youre using it to *express* what you believe. & that leads into the mistake that the "full versions" truthers make: theyre assuming of language a kind of power that disregards its actual utility

the often commented-on contradiction between "many hands make light work" & "too many cooks spoil the broth" doesnt tell us that these are two fundamental codes of reality whose mutual opposition hints at A Glitch In The Matrix--it tells us that these are two different phrases that have utility in two different contexts to communicate two different ideas, & that neither *needs* to be applicable to every context, any more than the existence of the term "book club" would imply that every gathering on earth is a book club.

like radically (from the roots!) to say "the full version of the phrase was cut down so that people would not be free thinkers" is to say "altering a phrase will alter the ideas beneath the phrase", which is to assume that axioms are speaking a truth or concept into existence: implanting values in your mind rather than representing ideas out of your mind--implying a certain responsibility toward justice, veracity, ethics, etc, & a correlary danger (cognitohazard?) if that responsibility is not met. itd be like saying that a mnemonic like "ROY G BIV" dictates the order of the colour spectrum. it's a strange & immaterial way to conceptualize language--in fact, it's probably that same immateriality that allows the conspiracy-theory conclusion that ~they~ have made a concerted effort to suppress these phrases.

[opossumfury]

People in the comments really proving OPs point. "Don't laugh at those who's lives are at risk" is pretty common decency. Some of yall are just cruel. You act like all Americans are like the wealthy ones you see on tv that don't have real problems. We aren't a TV show, we're real people in real danger. You don't have to like the U.S and you don't have to help us in anyway at all. But maybe acknowledge that the children, disabled, queers, POC, and those in poverty don't deserve to be made a joke while they fear for our lives.

Yall don't get a pass on cruelty simple because you aren't from the U.S.

Yall are still cruel

it’s obviously trendy to hate on america but I genuinely need ppl to understand, especially going into the next four years, that over half of AMERICANS did not want this. we’re protesting, we’re advocating, we’re educating. but our government will not listen to us. you do not need to tell us that our country is an imperialist war machine or make jokes about school shootings or about our healthcare system. we know. we are actively being exploited for our time and our bodies by the capitalists that want to bleed us dry. they do not see us as humans to help, but cattle to profit from. and they are in charge. there is plenty to make fun of. maga, elon musk, trump, etc. but some of you truly lack empathy. underprivileged vulnerable communities make up the majority of this country and we are suffering and will continue to suffer as we descend farther into a fascist state disguised as an oligarchy

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

.

[gldnstrngs]

thoughts post merlin season finale rewatch for the anniversary:

(let me preface that ive never cried to the finale despite me watching it twice and rewatching arthurs death scene several times— i definitely got emotional but never cried)

1.) …so i cried… from the beginning of the episode… i just hated how gwen never got a proper goodbye from arthur and was aiding all of his men, wondering where he was and if he was okay😭 and then later on, when leon tells her that arthurs missing and she turns around and silently cries, but quickly recovers… that was SO heartbreaking. she just keeps going and cries to herself like she deserved so so so much better and i hate that she never got closure

2.) i know that merlin has really truly become emrys but im not sure if it was necessary for dragoon to be his Final Form. i didnt watch the first part so maybe i missed the importance of that, but i feel like the scene would’ve been so much better if merlin looked like himself and casted all those badass spells and everyone would see him

3.) WHEN ARTHUR WAKES UP TO MERLIN AND THE FIRST THING HE SAYS IS “merlin, where have you been?” IM NOT OKAY??? it wasnt “merlin, what are you doing here?” or “merlin, how did you get here?” it was merlin, where have you been? that whole time arthur was in battle all😭he😭wanted😭was😭merlin😭

and then the magic reveal. the goddamn magic reveal. that entire scene is so heartbreaking. tell me why i was so distraught when ive seen that scene more times than i can count. and he doesnt just say “i have magic, i used it to protect you” NO. he says i use it for you, only for you. THAT IS A CONFESSION. it’s such a subtle shift of words but it says SO MUCH.

arthur immediately being in denial kills me. it was never a thought in his head that merlin would actually have magic because he associated it with evilness and cruelty. but then he finds out that merlin has always had magic and the way his eyes become so sad… the way his finger brushed his merlins chin right before realizing the truth… im so…

4.) i couldnt stop crying when the scene cut to gwen in the castle, staring out the window and feeling that arthur is alive. her eyes are so sad. i just can’t get over the fact that she never had the goodbye she deserved

5.) as much as i hate the way arthur reacted to merlin having magic, i do understand. he was literally just in battle, was mortally wounded, and found out that the only person he thought he could trust had been lying to him from the moment they met. i dont believe arthur actually thought merlin was dangerous— he’s prone being angry before being sad as a defense mechanism and that was only fueled by finding out that gaius was also lying to him. at that point, it must’ve felt like every person he’d ever known and trusted only ever lied to him. its so tragic I CANT.

BUT ALSO on the other side of that i actually cannot handle how utterly heartbroken merlin looks. his red rimmed eyes because he was crying all night😭 thinking that arthur would hate him forever…

5.) this entire scene bro…

“why did you never tell me?”

“…i wanted to, but…”

“…what?”

“you would’ve chopped my head off.”

“…not sure what i would’ve done.”

“and i didn’t want to put you in that position.”

“…that’s what worried you?”

“some men are born to… plow fields, some live to be great physicians, others… to be great kings. me… i was born to serve you, arthur. and i’m proud of that. and i wouldn’t change a thing.”

UMMMM SO I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS. i have rewatched this scene so. many. times. it is genuinely one of the most beautiful scenes ever written in cinema call me dramatic but im just speaking facts

arthur’s face when he realized that merlin really did care for him. the way he instantly lights up, despite being in pain. and his eyes… theyre glued to merlin. the whole time, he couldn’t look at him directly, but now he was. he was just scanning his face, memorizing all of merlin’s features AND MERLIN IS JUST STARING AT ARTHURS LIPS

also. ALSO. how have i seen this so many times and never. NEVER. caught onto the fact that gwen and arthur’s theme (which is originally titled the love theme) WAS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND. there was no mention of gwen at all in that scene. that was all merlin and arthur. this just confirms to me that this is the moment arthur fully realized and accepted that he was in love with merlin

6.) gwen deserved to know that merlin was a sorcerer FROM MERLIN. they were best friends. THEY WERE BEST FRIENDS!!! HE SHOULDVE BEEN THE ONE TO TELL HER!!! they deserved a scene where merlin comes back from avalon and he and gwen hug and cry.

7.) gwaine and percival should NOT have gone after morgana. i understand their rage but there was no way they were going to defeat her unless they had excalibur or something…

and gwaines death was so unnecessary. that was clearly for shock factor and i hated it. but i did get emotional when percy was able to free himself because he heard gwaine was being tortured… and then hes there when gwaine dies… their foreheads touching… (im not ok)

8.) it breaks my heart that morgana felt no guilt or remorse when she saw arthur, wounded and on the verge of dying. you can so clearly see that arthur feels that way when he sees morgana die, but there’s nothing on her end. i know it’s meant to show how far gone she is but it genuinely doesn’t feel right. i really do think she would’ve experienced some sort of internal conflict when seeing her own brother dying… like maybe she realized that none of this was worth it. it didnt feel as good as she thought it would

and when she’s stabbed by merlin😭 and he says he blames himself for what she’s become. people don’t recognize it enough how merlin feels so much guilt for the way he treated morgana. i just know he didn’t want to kill her, but he had no choice and he knew it was his fault…

9.) is there a reason why merlin didnt call for kilgharrah. i know kilgharrah said in the previous episode that he would finally be lying to rest for eternity, but i feel like this was an especially dire situation where he was needed😭 AND MERLIN SUMMONS HIM LATER ON!!!

or what about aithusa??? LIKE THEY DID NOT HAVE TO BE ON HORSES THE WHOLE TIME

(if anyone can explain the reasoning then lmk otherwise it was just a plot hole and that pisses me off bruh)

10.) arthur’s death did not need to happen, yet it was one of the best death scenes i’ve ever scene. it was just so raw and painful. “just… just hold me…” WHAT IF I DIE??!?!,,!!, he thanks merlin, he pats his head, he brushes his cheek, he tries to hold his hand like im fjwjdjsjjswhshshsj

also originally i was not fully convinced by the theory that the breath arthur took before saying “thank you” was “i love you.” i didnt want to be delusional but i actually do think he did say that he loves merlin. AND THAT CAN BE INTERPRETED AS ROMANTIC OR PLATONIC!!! i def see it as romantic but yes… im so Normal…

11.) “i’ve failed?” just. don’t talk to me.

12.) when merlin stands by the boat arthur is laid to rest in, trying to hold back his tears only to sob as he touches his forehead. the way he tries to gather himself. the way he struggles to say arthurs name and cast the spell. the way he watches arthur drift off, shaking. just. pls.

13.) gwen my baby girl. i cannot emphasize this enough. you deserved so much better. my heart broke when she played with arthurs royal seal and then when i saw the empty throne beside her. she had no time to prepare for this. she just lost the love of her life.

14.) it cuts to leon and then percival. and then i realize theyre the only two left in the round table. they both look so distraught. they lost everyone they ever loved.

15.) gaius :( he was waiting for merlin with his favorite meal :(

16.) bro the truck always jumpscares me omfg why is it so loud😭😭😭 then i get sad because merlin is old and walking alone and its the present and he’s still waiting for arthur :(

they should’ve had the show end with arthur saying “merlin” instead of kilgharrah saying it. that’s literally all we needed. it would’ve been so perfect but here we are…

final thoughts:

i love that this episode wasnt just the battle and action. the focus of it was merlin and arthur, navigating their feelings from the magic reveal and arthurs mortal wound. its so painful and heartbreaking but that just symbolizes the love they have for each other. this entire episode was filled with their gentle moments, softly speaking and touching each other. then arthur dies in merlin’s arms but i dont think he’d want to be anywhere else

also!!! colin and bradley’s acting in this episode… it was absolutely PHENOMENAL. they are already such great actors, but they really nailed it in the series finale. i can’t get over how they speak with their eyes the whole time. you can the love, fear, and acceptance they experienced throughout the whole episode. it was just so beautiful and i think that was what rlly made this ep

[vinestaffery]

hello!! if u can write illumina … can u pls write some general dating hcs? if u cant i completely understand :-) (if ur reqs are closed IM SO SORRY HHHH)

hihi!! thankyou so much for requesting :3 of course ill write these for you, i absolutely love headcanons because it doesnt run me dry quite quickly when it comes to writing oneshots!!! i hope these were good enough and i hope i was somewhat able to catch illumina's personality!!

ILLUMINA GENERAL DATING HCS

Illumina tends to lose track of time, like a lot. Sometimes, he doesn't even realize that you need to be sleeping and he would just love to spend time with you. He can't comprehend the fact of time itself; Day time and Night time are like hallucinations to him. If you were to correct him on such, he would utterly avoid any points you make or make counters, such as him tossing you around and ignoring each time you try to demand being let go. He absolutely loves how you get so mad at him for such a silly little thing!

He is very bird-like, and you can tell by his very bird-like notions. Sometimes he'll accidentally knock into glass-sliding doors and be completely confused. What do you mean there was glass infront of him? There's nothing there! Sometimes, you might even catch his cleaning his feathers at his favourite past-time. He used to get really grouchy about, in which you understood. At the start of your guys relationship, he was quite private, especially taking care of his wings. Now, he's completely fine with you doing so, sometimes even asking you to help.

He'd get really overprotective with you sometimes when you get to meet new people. He likes to let people know you are his. He is not willing to trade for anything about you, and you notice this a lot. Sometimes he'll wrap his arms around you, his wings slowly rising beside him and you and his chin relaxing on your head. He likes to humilate the other while embarrassing you, stating how much you and him are together, flaunting it in others faces. You set some boundaries around this and he followed, but he still likes to let his presence be known or noticed.

Because of your involvement with Illumina, and being his soon-to-be-engagement partner (I tried my hardest to make this as inclusive as possible I am so sorry), you were mostly greeted with gifts from many other deities. Deities such as Windforce, Venomshank, and even Firebrand and his two sons(?). They'll deliver care-packages to display their gratitude and that your always welcome under their care, even though Illumina is someone that they don't really connect well with.

Cuddling with him is one of your favourite things, mostly because you have the ability to embarrass him. Even though he's 7'0", you always big-spoon him. He'd always try his hardest to be the big-spoon, but in the end, he loved the attention you'd give him as he finally gets that big ol' sleep.

He is a horrible cook, but that's okay. Sometimes, it'd be hilarious bakings and dinners, and sometimes near-death from the house burning down. I promise you he doesn't mean it!! But he'll struggle so badly to impress you, which he always successes. You always tend to help him, in which he tries his hardest to shoo you away!! But in the end, the help is always met with great gratitude, cuddles and affection.

Illumina struggles with affection, I'm not kidding. Being unaware of his own presence and being someone so cruel to others, only to fall for someone like you? He struggles. He never had been this affectionate, on both giving and recieving side, but he's always keen to try. When he tried to figure out more, he asked Ghostwalker, someone he knew he couldn't go back to but he needed major help. Sure, they both broke off, but he was willing to try anything. Ghostwalker found it strange, dangerous but was somewhat grateful that Illumina was willing to change. In the end, Illumina came home and was in the most affectionate mood, taking care of you and also, forgetting to check up on dinner in the oven.

He does give you nicknames, but isn't too keen on big major ones. The ones he use the most is, 'My Angel', 'Princess', 'My starlight', or any other cheesy name that he can give you. He varies much and listens into other nicknames he can give you.

[grrrrrarro]

Platonic yandere yautja x child reader if u seen my pride um I recommend it the scene where cub nothing attacks a full grown lion but for this child reader was attacked while with a group of pups and was able to kill a xenomorph with a spear through the head

King i love you but please use punctuation😭

If I understood you correctly, you want dad yautja with kid who managed to kill xenomorph with other yautja pups? I hope I understand that right👽😊

I used y/n for kid cuz its easier to write that way, plus i used they/them!

Yautja dad with human kid (they whooped xenomorph)

First of all "WHERE WERE YOU, WITH WHO, WHY YOU BEEN OUTSIDE FOR SO LONG, I TOLD YOU NOT TO HANG OUT WITH OTHER PUPS SO MUCH, WHY DIDINT YOU TELL ME, I WAS SO WORRIED OMG" typical controlling/overprotective perent questions🥱

Dude litteraly banned them from going outside for good month or two

I mean yeah cool cool you- YOU WHAT??? YOU KILLED WHO? W- WHAT

Dude needs proof

But if he saw y/n with yautja pups acually killing that thing? Hes proud and dead at the same time. Like omg yay my baby killed something yay⭐but at the same time OH MY STARS YOU COULD DIE SO MANY TIMES

Hangs xeno head in middle of livingroom so everyone that walks in sees it😊 he is a proud dad

But it doesnt change the fact that you litteraly can't go outside without him around

He also kinda dislikes y/n friends??? Like "ugh really kid? You are hanging out with those bab troublesome pups? You know you can do better? Just stay with me"

Hes jelous and upset that first hunt kid had was with their friends, not him😭

Everytime you guys hang out with other yautjas he gives y/n's friends a death stare

Of course hes proud that his lil baby menaged to hunt down A FUCKING XENOMORPH, he will purr. The issue is that he cant help but imagine what could happen.

Heres little extra, i never write this type of stuff but im bored atm. Tw toxic behaviour?:

Y/n wanted to show off what they hunted with their friends, but the corpse too heavy to carry, so kid just goes to their home, walks up to their dad and tells him that they have gift for him but its outside. They grab his hand and lead him outside, he didnt expect few young yautjas poking dead xenomorph in his backyard for sure. He yells that they should stay away and he pulls put his weapon. He has so many questions all starting with "why", "how" and "when"???

After making sure that the thing is dead and his child didnt suffer any wounds he turns to other pups and starts scolding them, how dumb they are to bring a human pup on a hunt?? Dont they know how dangerous it is.

He would probably yell at them forever if not y/n stepping in and trying to explain that y/n was acually attacked and pups helped, yautjas wanted only good. He kinda didn't expect that, you? His own kid? Stepping in and protecting other people from him? He should be the one viewed as the one whos right and the one you always go for advice! So yeah he didnt take that well. Of course he tried to keep cool around those young hunters but o my god after they went away? Omg expect a lot of offended and angry dad behaviour, he gives them silent treatment for few days or is just simply passive agressive

After all y/n just wanted to feel like rest of their friends. And ironically enough the only one treating y/n like human is her own dad

[did-sm1-say-catfish]

tip for writing characters with ocd: make weird shit up

most often i see just typical germ phobia, which, while it can be a part of ocd, it is definitely not entirely what it is.

ocd is made up of obsessions and compulsions. The obsession is the fear, and the compulsion is something you do to keep the fear at bay. a typical example would be "i need to turn the lights on and off three times or else my entire family dies a painful death" but thats pretty tame, actually. Ocd can get off the fucking walls.

What you need to understand is that ocd is not logical. in fact, it can be a little silly. but at the end of the day, it is a conniving little bitch that wants to ruin your life.

instead of giving your character any sense of reason and logic in their ocd, try making them do crazy crap.

Oh, they need to clean their hands? yeah, a typical hand wash isnt gonna cut it. how about they need their hands covered in paint before they can wash them or else their hands arent truly clean. ("why do you have paint in your bathroom?" "uhhhhhhh")

They need to get changed? right, well they need to put on their clothes backwards, do three spins, and then reverse their clothes before they can walk through any doorways. like a magical girl! or else their cat gets herpes and dies a painful death.

They need to order food on their phone? right, first off they need to use their tv to order, and they cant use their phone until the food arrives, and only when their fingers are greasy from the food can they pick up their phone, or else their doordasher get smashed by an anvil and they will be convicted of the murder.

If youre having trouble, think about how their compulsions could come to be.

perhaps they were doing an art project where they were working with paint, and now washing their hands without paint somewhere in the mix just feels wrong.

maybe they put on their clothes backwards and then reversed them before going to the vet with their cat and being warned about the dangers of cat herpes.

maybe they ordered food from the tv as a funny bit with friends, and then watched copious amounts of roadrunner and coyote while waiting for the food to arrive.

i cant speak for everyone, but most of my compulsions are developed from just going about life, and then the ocd creeps up.

me: alright time to fill up my cup from my water dispenser on the fridge!!! me: oops i spilled a little haha ocd: wouldnt it be such an annoying compulsion if you HAD to spill it or else you couldnt drink your water? me: haha yeah that would be so annoying. good thing that isnt one of my compulsions!!! haha ocd: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) me: ... ocd: hehe me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

another thing is that obsessions dont always have to be specific. they could be as rigid as "your best friend will slowly die of pneumonia while you are none the wiser, and then while they are on their deathbed, they will blame you" or as loose as "something bad will happen" (alternatively, even more vague!! “I get an icky feeling (emotional)”)

Most people with ocd are so anxiety ridden that they have trouble trusting themselves, their memory, and everyone and everything around them. They might be inclined to do things themselves because other people will mess it up, or double check and redo all their compulsions because "what if i made a mistake?" Ocd is an anxiety disorder, after all.

and this is just ONE type of ocd. many types of ocd are more mental, think-yourself-into-a-breakdown kind of anxiety. They are full of distrust in yourself, in your memory, and in everyone and everything. "what if i killed someone and i forgot about it?" and "what if i'm going to rape/kill/torture my loved ones?" or "what if im going to snap that baby's neck?"

Ocd can be silly and it can be grisly, but it is never fun.

so customize your characters ocd! it doesnt need to be generic store bought "germ icky" anymore. you can make them MORE miserable!!!

[self-loving-vampire]

how did you get yourself to see getting to a place safe to transition and transitioning itself as worth it? like i know im trans and i know it would probably make me happier, but it seems so hard to just exist anyway, it doesnt seem worth it to put myself at risk like that. i dont have any close relationships to draw strength from and i dont see that changing any time soon.

In a way that's like asking why being alive instead of dead is worth it, which is a fair question if you are depressed.

Like I said, I didn't always think it was worth it. For a while I was living more like this.

The other big thing that helped, in addition to finding people I could trust and considered true friends, was having a tangible plan and the hope that I could make it work.

Definitely don't rush things if you feel isolated or like you are in a high-risk environment. My own plan took years to complete because there was a high probability of death or permanent immiseration if anything major went wrong. Like if my parents had realized what the idea was, or if my asylum hearing didn't work out somehow and I got sent back.

Any of those things could have ended with me possibly living in the streets back in El Salvador and a significantly reduced ability to make any kind of second attempt, if not outright death.

What I'm trying to say here is that while my plan had risks, I tried to go about it in a rational way and make all kinds of preparations to minimize those risks. To this day neither of my parents even knows I got married or started taking estrogen.

The fact that risks exist doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't do something. It means you should understand those risks and know what you can do to reduce them. It is important to act based on clear-minded risk assessments rather than just fear.

It is also worth noting that there's risks to not taking action as well. If you are confident that transitioning would make you happier then you can reasonably expect that delaying it for too long will cut an equivalent period of potential increased happiness out of your life, which you may regret later. Many trans people wish they had done everything sooner because that's when they finally got to start living, and time is precious.

In my case there was that, and also the fact that my father was a highly dangerous and violent person that I felt was increasingly necessary to kill because of how he treated not just me but his entire family with seemingly no legal recourse for us. There were only bad endings waiting for me back there.

[s0lar-ch3ri]

another dandys world analysis for the freaks of my phone /affe

been a bit since ive titled my rambles! anyways, while my main focus is will be shrimpo, i will be including mini analysis on other toons (and will even do some by request)! lets talk about the ichor.

if you dont want a long ramble? *tdlr*: the twisteds are not the opposites of themselves, but who they truly are. the reason shrimpo isnt changed personality wise is due to the fact that shrimpos very nature isnt detailed enough to have desires beyond his anger, no matter if he wants it or not.

want the full ramble? look on below! (i will be referencing dialogues without screenshots, be aware)

at first glance its understandable how the twisted forms are opposites to their toon counterparts. finn becomes slow and inflicts slowness when machines are completed while his toon is fast and gains speed from machines, glisten turns from confidence and self reliance to insecure and requiring the physical support of others, even dandy turns from an elevator aid who doesnt mess with the events outside the elevator and easy to ignore to a harmful and lethal twisted who is very involved (when you finish machines he goes to them) and very hard to ignore (his music box plays the entire time youre on the floor, his massive size causes him to be hard to not notice, etc).

however, i doubt this to be the case, for theres a couple details that dont line up.

take finn for example. yes, his twisted ability does directly parallel his passive ability, however this isnt seen in personality. finn is a happy guy, making jokes and having fun even in the face of danger. if the ichor twists toons to their opposite selves, itd be expected that hed change personality to, being less friendly and cheerful. he *isnt* though! both twisted and toon finn are smiling!

thus, the idea that theyre being their true selves came to mind.

finn is, while violent as a twisted, a happy guy, eager to follow the player around, even as his lower half is completely gone, as if ripped off. while in terms of skills he has completely swapped, under all the ichor is the same fishbowl. this isnt the opposite of who finn is, but rather who he truly is. a happy guy who cares for his friends deeply and loves to have good times with them. he doesnt feel fear or anger when looking at them as he finds a friend in anybody, even if they dont want to be his friend. of course, he holds no true desire to hurt any of them. their "twisting" can twist their desires and views, turning their eyes red and distorting their bodies. while it is, in my mind, their true selves, it is the ease it takes to twist their wishes that turns them violent, as their ideas are stretched and thinned to their bare bones and their wishes warp to their unbelievable worst ends.

this idea can apply to those who even seemed to have became their opposite selves, as many of the toons, on closer inspection, are not truthful on who they are. lets use again from our example dandy. on the outside, dandy is as i described, an elevator aid who tries his best to provide helpful supplies and doesnt get involved with the outside affairs of the elevator. however, as he is twisted, he is cruel and very violent, investigating machines when he hears their finish and making his presence known when he isnt in line of sight. this however, is a front, as twisted dandy is truly who dandy wants to be, who he is. as you attempt a dandys run, where you are able to get dandys twisted by not buying items from his shop (its not a guarantee at first, but by around floor 16 he will be almost bound to show up), you see the petals peel away to show the more sincere sinister pollen inside (yes, flower puns, my show so i do what i want /lh). he becomes more angry, more demanding of attention, even shaking with anger at a certain level. dandy isnt truly doing this shop out of the kindness of his heart. dandy wants the attention, to be validated as the hero, and being "helpful" (to sell items you can more often than not find on the ground for items he believes he owns) while calling you ungrateful if you turn it down. as he twists, he no longer hides who he is as his truth becomes violent, a flower who wants to outshine the sun and believe hes better for it.

glisten isnt free from this either! while glisten from the outside appears to be a confident toon who knows his worth and isnt afraid to flaunt it, this isnt the truth. by looking at his dialogue, he seems to prioritize how others see him, which is especially noticed in one of his dialogues with rodger. rodger expresses concern about glisten, to which he tells him something along the lines of "you can see i know how to care for myself", rodger says he watched glisten walk into a wall the other day, which glisten denies. there is, of course, a bit more in depth of what was actually said, but the main point is there: glisten is more of a wreck than he is willing to let on. his self confidence can only come in when it first is made by someone else. one compliment he can allow to spiral into a whole mood boost. however, as glisten becomes in some scenario isolated and left for the ichor to take over him (important wording to me, on glistens twisted description it uses the phrase "it is not advised to leave him to succumb to his affliction"), he is left without a way to properly cover up who he truly is, how the confidence he uses is reflected by those who look into his eyes. he doesnt become the opposite of himself, but rather who he truly is, slowly corrupting until the fear of loneliness consumes him and he turns to the desperate fear-holding toon hes always been.

lets even take a toon i didnt mention at first, toodles. toodles is very happy-go-lucky (more or less literal with her ability), just a small girl who wants to prove her worth. she wants to be braver than life and prove she provides as much worth as anybody else here. as monsters of her friends appear, she tries to seem as though the darkness is the least of her concerns. however, as her twisted, while she still skips around and has her fun, she holds much more childish behavior. she crawls towards the player, she has a low attention span, she skips around (this one is seen with regular toodles, i am aware, theres a reason i pointed it out). while both her regular toon self and her twisted form are both children, toodles tries to pretend shes more than that in a sense, being a kid only by age but working as well as an adult would. however, in truth, she is just that: a kid. even if her attempts to seem more mature than she truly is arent exactly successful, she still is hiding who she is, and as such, her twisted self (while very similar) acts like the young girl she is.

i can connect this back to basically any toon and twisted (which i will upon request), but there is, among all of my connections, an outlier: shrimpo. i have rambled to friends as well as in my last post, i do not think shrimpo is truly the hateful bully he pretends to be. however, by my logic here, would shrimpo not be kinder? would he not be more passive, such as connie or razzle and dazzle? i think not, for one crucial reason:

even if shrimpo is not a bully, he doesnt know how to not be one.

it is safe to assume the toons act similarly to how they did in the show, or at the very least were designed to be these characters. however, to translate a character to human becomes an issue once their regular setting is taken from them and they are no longer simply a character, but more. their ideals are not their own, but their creators vision of them. each gardenview character, from dandy to eggson, all express complexity. they have multiple kinds of bonds, have their interests and dislikes, speech patterns vary, even their own styles and color schemes (which, while can be similar to some, are not complete copies of anyone elses).

this complexity, strangely, is not seen in shrimpo, a character designed only to hate and be cruel. if he is given complexity, it allows him to grow away from being hateful, which is undesired, as (to quote his poster) nobody likes a bully, and finding something beyond bullying makes him not a complete bully. shrimpo, from how i see it, holds variations of hate, some maybe more genuine than others. but on the most part? i dont think shrimpo truly hates everything (which, it is apparently canon, since one of the creators confirmed that shrimpo likes one thing, but i can talk about this someday else). however, as a bully, shrimpo lacks the complexity to know how to express anything but hate. screaming and yelling, this is his specialty. to be kind? to be caring? shrimpo is unaware of how to. shrimpos nature, by design, is ever so flat, so his lack of personality change comes from how he lacks the ability to be anything else. there is nothing to be "twisted" into because, whether or not shrimpo wants, he is nothing more than a bully. and you know the thing about those?

nobody likes them. whether the bully likes it or not.

[cogmented]

how do you come up with your designs for mcyt’s? theyre so creative and cool so i thought id ask

THANK YOU AND THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTION

now entering yap city tihs will be a long post

my steps are basically

voice

personality

og look of minecraft skin/branding

player movement

other ppls fanart (if any)

things that happened/cultural associations

i start with a bunch of random sketches to get the feel of the person.. that's why so many of my early posts were doodle pages. to me, character design is more based on what the person is like rather than what they look like. i think a lot of people do that

I do this with all of the above and shape language, but in bigger art pieces outside of lineups i also use color and perspective (as in youll see more of someone like spepticle in large, sweeping scenes while someone like zam in closed, heavily perspective-based ones) to indicate personality. ill change designs when suited for this too (spoke with or without a gas mask, vi with or without a mouth, etc etc)

my first iteration of lifesteal designs heavily relied on the look of the skins and were gradually tweaked over time. my most prominent example of this is my spoke design, so i'll use him at least once in the examples for continuous comparison.

i watch a couple of each person's videos first, understand their voice, personality, and what they do, then focus on them in other people's videos too to get a full story, their movement, and what others think of them (helps with personality and things we might not see). streams are the most helpful because they're less biased and you see so much more of their antics. huge stream fan.

i get into the how after this

this process doesnt go in order for some designs and others have a more prominent focus on particular parts of the process that override or effect other parts

Voice

starting off with not spoke here's a problem i encountered when designing wemmbu

I based him a lot off of spoke and ashswag due to not knowing much about him besides the fact that he schemes (spoke&ash-esque) and he doesn't move his character around too much when talking (ash behavior). he didn't match the left one because his voice doesn't have the dramatic, flamboyant fratboy flair that spoke has, so I shifted it to be more friendly yet still dangerous with curved square shapes rather than triangles. i made his scheming, diabolical nature more evident through his clothing that's pretty jester-like and sharp, but with a smoother middle that spoke doesn't have (and to match his eyes).

voice also impacts character height. i dont know how to describe this. mapicc and zam are similar heights because their voices are similar, same goes for parrot and vortex, but leo and vitalasy are close to the same height (due to vitalasy's huge fuckass ears) despite having wildly different voices, with leo's bold text voice and vitalasy's higher-pitched jumbled kinda speech they still take up the same "amount of space" in conversation. they stand out. and even though spoke's voice also stands out an incredible amount he is still only slightly taller than average. this is where personality overrides voice in my designs.

Personality

spoke is sharp in every sense of the word, but is also able to mold himself around to get what he needs.

my first attempt at him was pretty lackluster. i didn't know much of him at the time, only his wither video, and thus understood him mainly through his association with parrot. he seemed a lot more evil and more serious at first glance. like woah! fully fledged mouth and nose?! not anymore.

i cover certain expressive parts to also depict more of their personality in some abstract, holistic way. after watching streams and whatnot, spoke doesnt actually speak (excluding his random sounds and yips or whatever he does) too terribly much, except when the spotlight is on him or he's trying to get something. so, i tweaked his design to encompass that when i understood him better.

i take away his arms to allow his hands to stand out more (character movement thing, he moves around a lot when no one is paying attention to him, punches the air when ..not talking but making a point ig. he's a big fan of hovering menacingly), i give him a slinky-like outside skeletal structure to both capture his affinity for withers (i made him a wither thing because of the wither sounds in his video.. and the withers in general) and to give him the feeling of more freedom with his movement.

i also just really like gas masks so. basically, spoke is someone that hides away until he chooses to stand out. thank lord heaven he looks like some shadow creature.

later on i gave him more magenta highlights, especially in the wormhole era because 1. magenta wasnt heavily included in his rainbow look, making it stand out on his whole being, and 2. because magenta is really really cool and people should use it more.

og minecraft skin/branding

hi spokeis here. this will be quick because his branding is so heavy. lightning, rainbow, black. boom. character. withers and white eyes? easy. causes a lot of anarchy? again, lightning and withers.

planetlord on the other hand is someone i greatly differed from the og skin and branding. i saw the design in a vision idk. i shift his colors all the time in different pieces but i use more of his pfp colors now because there's too many purples in this world. his branding, personality, and voice all connect very well. a bit misleading, he's a bit of a weasel.

Movement

i never used to look into movement, but pvp styles and conversational movement of lifesteal is intriguing. unfortunately it was only something i started paying attention to during the end of s4 because vitalasy's movement was so interesting. he's a big fan of getting in people's faces.

ill be real, i didn't really notice spoke a lot during things because he was almost always never alone, and when he was it is always at a distance or you knew he had people to back him up.

spoke's movement isn't actually too abnormal. he's goal oriented and tends to always be doing something, and when he does he finds the most efficient way possible. pretty basic. his design choices are based mainly on voice and personality.

someone like mapicc on the other hand has very particular movement. he spins around people when fighting and gets right up in their face (in nethpot pvp mostly), so i made his clothing tighter to the skin with looser parts to accentuate that movement: practical clothing for close combat battles. it was also noticed (by the lord) that he tends to look straight forward instead of the slightly down that most players do.

zam fights differently, but i made him with the og branding (he's princezam) and what he does in mind. his body language in my art is more indicative of his personality.

Other people's fanart

shoutout the community, a notable amount of ideas were from the mid-late 2022 lifesteal community.

dog leowook and leather jacket mapicc were from gen, jackalope rek from aoi i think, "croptop" jacket spoke from saints-blade, snail terrain from navy-leader, tv ashswag from kish, sock puppet red definitely from someone i dont remember, 4 armed squiddo from seri, and old cartoon jaron was from bucket

Things that happened/istarted talking about cultural inspirations

spoke and his connection to godhood influenced his redesign greatly. this section affects what the character wears most of the time.

i give both spoke and vitalasy painted palms (alta) due to their connection with godhood and destruction, with spoke in particular reminding me a lot of Kali Ma, thus i gave him a skirt (due to nppp too). vitalasy's clothing is based on Indonesian cultural clothing. wemmbu's also takes inspiration from Indonesian and Bhutan cultural clothing.

indigenous cultures inspired some designs too (i do a lot of ethnographic anthropology work with some of the tribes i base the clothing off of), with woogie having Yupik and Inuit inspiration. polar bear = cold climate in my head. and leo has Haida and Yunnan (minority Chinese providence, not a tribe) inspiration.

bacon's... not bacon strip design's clothing was based on Bangladeshi clothing (im Bangladeshi, i also added alpona patterns to ash's design), nomadic cultures, and some german pilgrim thing?? idk not my best design. i specifically looked for nomadic inspiration because of his willingness to flee at any moment lol. i didnt do this for rek despite his fleeing reputation because i dont watch rek content too much and he already had hybrid traits that took care of that presentation.

poafa's design is a goat because of the medusa trials where he was used as a scapegoat. makes sense i think. his horns are from past associations with jepex that infected mapicc as well (devil trio s1). zam's design is very much from s3 empire and s4 castle.

planet's design changed slightly, mostly rounder shapes, but also the number of "spikes" on his scarf, now stuck at three because of 3ht.. and easier to draw than five. minutetech has a bow instead of a bowtie from jumper due to s5 happenings. the gem on his crown has wemmbu's highlights from his gem's main color.

roshambo's design was also heavily influenced by medusa where i gave him a snake body. in my art that depicts before medusa events he doesn't have the snake body, and same goes with before s4 spoke where i draw him with full pants. in some sketches ive depicted mapicc with a muzzle only after the destruction of s4 spawn due to quix's mapicc dog influence shoutout.

mapicc and ro have matching things that persist seasons (mapicc periwinkle collar, ro red painted ring finger... head finger?), as did subz and vitalasy with matching shoulder pads (beginning of s4 subz had a bandana and vitalasy had a bell that traded between them through artworks of mine) Vitalasy also gained sun and moon earrings. mid and 4c have matching hoods/cloaks ^_^ marriage or something.

hope this made sense and covered everything you could have ever wanted forever... feel free to ask me questions i love explaining processes

[doodlegirl1998]

ngl im a mineta defender until the end, now before you jump me let me explain

his behavior is obvi disgusting (lets also not ignore the fact that hori has said hes his self insert) BUT IT IS EXTREMELY EASY TO FIX!

a lot of kids and teens who have similar behaviors often have parents with the same beliefs. not to say that this is always the case but it’s more common than not

which means that they’re raised not knowing that their behavior is wrong. they see it as acceptable, and not only that, but *expected* of them

it is an extremely easy thing to rectify. of course sometimes it’s harder depending on how much the behavior has been ingrained into them, but at the end of the day it is *fixable*

he was failed by his parents for encouraging his behavior and he was failed by other adults/teachers for letting it continue

also it’s not that much of a stretch to say that he was probably heavily bullied. he has a very prominent lisp, he’s a heteromorph, and he’s extremely short. i’ve seen several ppl who hc that he has dwarfism and i definitely agree with that

aizawa doesn’t seem to give a shit because he never takes any action to try and discipline him for how he acts

also im sick of the shinso replacing mineta fics. the only good thing abt shinso replacing aoyama is that ppl don’t have an excuse to replace him.

like for the love of god it’s not that hard to simply change his character. it annoys me to no end. bc i like mineta a lot! his quirk is interesting and he has a lot of potential as a character but he’s reduced to a creepy pervert bc every shonen anime needs to have at least one 🙄

tl;dr stop bashing mineta and start bashing hori

Hi @the-jello-bowl ���

Stop bashing Mineta and start bashing Hori... hmm. You know what? That's a sentiment I could get behind.

After all, the ultimate problem with Mineta lies in his writing.

At the start of the series, Hori wrote him too perverted with too little of any other redeeming or sympathetic quality. That impression stuck - so a lot of fans want him out of heroism and out of 1A.

This is fair because Mineta's behaviour is triggering for many people, and he could make a dangerous figure as a hero and an adult if left unchecked and if his perversions worsen.

While I understand why, Shinsou replacing Mineta is a lazy way to do take Mineta out of 1A, since Shinsou canonically hasn't shown he deserves to be in the hero class nor shown to have good interactions with 1A as a collective.

While it doesn't make his behaviour excusable, you are right when you say Mineta was failed by the adults around him. Especially his parents and Aizawa, as you pointed out, they were the ones prime positioned to fix this behaviour, yet they did not. We don't know what his parents are like for certain, but I believe his dad was likely a verbally and emotionally abusive misogynist who Mineta idolised. And we know that Aizawa fluctuates between negligence and using his hero grade weapon on Mineta as discipline... so there is no consistent messaging there. Yikes.

Instead, Hori implied Mina had to clockwork orange Mineta to stop him being a pervert which... took away Mineta's whole agency in his decision to stop being perverted. (Did his character even get better at all by his own freewill really if Mina had to do this? Will that 'brainwashing' break one day? Here is another reason to hate Hori's writing.)

Hori also doesn't expand on the things that could make Mineta sympathetic, the lisp, the possibly being bullied in the past, the likely self-confidence issues. He doesn't expand on Mineta's backstory or expand on why he wants to be a hero, really (if it was just girls, he would have quit by now, let's be real).

It is a failure in Hori's writing that he doesnt give Mineta (as a HERO student) a redemption arc where he realises just how awful he's been to the girls and vows to make up for it. This moment could have even begun because Mineta stops his perversions due to wanting to be more well-liked and like Midoriya (who he looks up to). The building blocks are there - Hori neglects them.

TLDR: Mineta is a character that could have had potential, and his quirk is interesting. He had potential for a character redemption arc, potential for an interesting backstory, too.

The reason why Mineta is hated is because Hori wastes all his potential to have a lazily written creepy pervert throughout the majority of the story.

Good traits such as Mineta's bravery only make a large appearance later, and the perversions disappear too late in the story to really salvage his popularity.

Not only that, but being a hero is a privilege, not a right. Mineta has got to show through the story as a member of 1A why he deserves to be there and why he has the character for Heroism - unfortunately Hori fails to do this for him because of the reasons I mentioned above.

A lazily written cowardly perverted character could have worked in a minor villain character, but this is instead in a member of 1A, who we are meant to root for adding to the cognitive dissonance of his character.

[downfall0fman]

what are your thoughts on born again?

My first ask!!! Thoughts on the first two episodes of Daredevil Born Again, spoilers ahead‼️

*deep breath* Okay so

Short answer: I am really enjoying it so far! I’ve only been a full fledged Daredevil fan since November (Ive always loved the concept of Daredevil. I started watching the show after I saw the D23 trailer online and remembered the original show existed and, no joke, binged it all in four days HAHA) so I know my opinion will be made differently than people who have been here since 2015, but its been a great time! I will miss the amount of colored lights that they had in all of the Defenders shows though 😔

Long winded yap answer: I think, and I believe other people should at least hold space for this too, it is crazy to judge the entirety of the future of Daredevil in the MCU and say “we are not back” “they should have never brought this back” “this is so bad I refuse to accept this as canon” based on two episodes. I’ve heard people say that they completely removed Karen and act like she is never coming back because she wasnt in the second episode (to be fair that is half of the show-) like of course shes coming back, Franks in the trailers and she has to go get her man! (If we dont get Kastle canon, which its unlikely we wont, I will throw a fit online) I heard someone say the character arcs in Born Again are one dimensional while they were large and complex in the original, like girl there hasn’t even been enough time to arc like come on be real

Now saying that I definitely can understand when people say they should’ve given us at least half an episode worth of N, M, & P before fridging Foggy. I feel like we never got to see them, we never got Nelson Murdock and Page as a business at all. I would’ve enjoyed at least pretending that the show was happy for a second (also from what I’ve been hearing its a side effect of the change in directors, still it does leave you wanting). I also agree what people have been saying about the CGI (someone more knowledgeable on the why can comment on that aspect) and the fact that Marci should’ve absolutely been in Born Again, but I have yet hope for the future!

Many things to look forward to! Kastle kiss HOPEFULLY, more Fisk couples consoling, I have been keeping blind to as much of anything about Muse as I possibly can because he sounds so SICK and I have a feeling he might become my favorite Daredevil villain based on vibes alone, I really like Heather and I hope she doesnt hang herself! Look forward to crying my eyes out when Matt and Foggy reunite after Matt finds out hes in witness protection, I look forward to Karen putting herself into even more danger, the Frank and Dex fight you KNOW is going to go hard as fuck, Frank beating on cops, Frank

Oh dont get me started on cameos/reoccurring characters. I cannot state how much I NEED Brett Mahoney and Turk Barrett. Seeing the Defenders again would be so cool or seeing Claire Temple or Maggie!! Some reference to Lantom would break me I think. Those are only the characters that I think it would be realistic to see again, but I have my own personal list of unrealistic hopes (like the coffee they all had in the Defenders shows, they all had the same to-go cups, bring back that one coffee place- is that Beckys Diner?? Is that it!?!) Theres a whole lot to be excited about!!

…did I mention getting a Kastle kiss yet, I look forward to a Kastle kiss I really want Frank Castle and Karen Page to finally kiss pLEASSE GOD (or Kevin Feige) LET THEM BECOME CANON I COULDNT BEG MORE

[a-thousand-attempted-words]

So you wanna write better

Forests!

Dont worry, its not that hard! By the end of this, you'll most likely have some extra juicy ideas on all the things you can put into your forrest scenes (from a certified "I live next to a forest and also studied this" person).

Ive divided this into Emotions, Smell, Sound, Sight and Feel. Scroll to whichever part you need help with!

The literal forest

Forests are places of change in literature. That doesnt mean every forest needs to change your protagonist. But because they are often vast, unclaimable and dangerous - not to mention mythical and powerful, primal and maybe divine - they tend to have an effect on your protagonist.

A place of change (or power) can mean many things, and depending on your story and your stories culture, this might not apply. But generally speaking, a forest is a large and uncomprehensibly complex thing that provides an opportunity to face nature.

But! Remember that this thinking stems from the culture vs. nature debate in literature and you do not have to follow it.

The natural forest

Emotions

By day, a forest looks very different than by night. Its almost a beast in itself, a gnawing machine that does not care for you.

How does your protagonist feel by day, when everything is bright and loud and endless and green? When water gurgles and birds chirp at them. How do they feel by night, when lack of light makes shadows endless and the reduced sounds echo in a vast and uncaring void? Does their campfire provide enough warmth against the elements? Do they have lanterns, flashlights, specialty goggles that allow them to see? The forest creaks and shouts without them needing to witness it, it echoes and enlarges sounds, swallows them too. Are they familiar with that? Does their heart raise at the foreigness of it all?

Horror

Remember that cityfolk tend to be freaked out by forests much more than ruralfolk. Remember that sounds that could be familiar to you (the creaking of wood with heat and cold, the strange chirps of birds, the blubbering of a spring) could be completely foreign to another. Remember that everything Ive written from here on out relies heavily on familiarity. Remember that the size of a forest also determines how calming it is.

How far are you from civilisation? Who could come to help you? Which animals are out there? Which familiar sights arent around you at the moment?

A forest that leaves you stranded and closed off from civilisation is terrifying to everyone who doesnt know the land. It is a maw. It could bite down any moment. A forest without signs, without manmade paths, without civilisation is a place to die in. Or a place to get lost in. The horror of the forest is the forest itself. Its the fact that you dont know it. It is the fact that it is an endless stretch of unknown that does not care for you.

Sound

Forests are incredibly "loud" in a subtle way. There are always birds, insects, the wind in the leafs, the steps of animals over wood, leafs, water. You can listen to some birdcalls online (some of them are super strange) or search on sites like freesound.org for natural recordings of forests to grasp just how much fucking Sound™ there is. Silence in a forest means bad things. Are the animals dead? Hiding? Where did all the insects go? If there isnt any buzzing, are there still worms? Bugs? What happened to the wind? If your forest is silent, thats a choice. Employ it!

Smell

Forests tend to smell "fresh". I know, that degree really serves me. But in all honesty: You are walking through a natural lung. The air is being filtered 24/7. Forests literally breathe like you and I do and they are excellent at it. If you are closer to running water this increases. After rain, the air has qualities of that grass scent you know from your garden. You also smell a lot of rot. Leafs, trees, dying plants. They tend to smell good to us. The only time that rot becomes unbearable is (afaik) two cases:

The carcass that is rotting is an animal of larger size. Small sized animals dont "smell" unless you're very close to them. And most animals that are small get taken by scavengers. You wont find them rotting, because they will be eaten before you get there. Its only once the carcass is so large that it cant be eaten at once or fast or it has some venomous qualities that you will find rot.

The other options is rot in still water. It wont smell immediately, but still water tends to take on scent after a few days. The scent of still water should be familiar to you from old puddles or algae infested waters. It will be ridden with bacteria and - and dont forget about this - larvae! Amphibians and insects love some stiller waters for that stuff.

Sight

This might be easiest: You've probably seen a forest in your lifetime. I wont bore you with "green leafs" and "blue skies". Instead, lets go over some more uncommon scenarios, often forgotten:

Moss. Moss is everywhere. Its on stones, on wood, on treebarks. There are over a hundred different species of moss. Google them. Moss in itself is a little eco system.

Treewounds (also known as tree cancer). Trees get nibbled on. They get scratched at. They have sicknesses. And then they tend to grow in these tumor looking things. Apart from that, they can have gaping open wounds from broken off branches, from birds pecking into them, from insects infesting them. Trees paint the history and the health of a forest. Take time to mention what they look like.

Pathways. Even if no human (or other protagonist species) has ever set food into your forest. There will be paths in the undergrowth. Paths often traveled by many tiny paws. They tend to lead to other such paths, to water, sometimes to good food sources and to gathering places. You need to train your eye a little but you'll find them.

Nests. For insects, for birds, for everyone involved. Clusters of larvae under bark or stone or attached to ferns, swimming in water, nestled into mud. Birdnests placed into treeholes and cliffsides. Holes in the ground that lead to mice, rabbits, you name it.

Feel

What does a forest feel like? That depends. Bark is incredibly textured. It has valleys and hilltops, it swirls under your fingers like a miniature map of cartography. No bark is the same. Birches are flat, fruit trees are coarser and the older the tree, the gnarlier it is. Look at pictures of trees and look at the bark. Stones can be all kinds of coarse and rough but they are so much softer when overgrown with moss. They are almost like pillows. The pathways are often soft soil, compressed by hundreds of feets. They might have stones in them. Waterbeds are muddy and soft, but oftentimes carry pebbles and other uncomfortable rocks in them. Mud itself is like a very soft peeling. Most dirt in waterbeds has been washed clean and soft by time. The newer a waterbed, the coarser it is. The middle of the riverbed will always be harsher than the sides. Mud deposits as sediment after all. Clay feels soft too. Sticking your feet and hands into the muddier parts of a river is always a gamble. There might be something living there. Be aware.

Oh look, a transition

Hope this helps anyone! Have a great day :)

If you have any further questions or suggestions, do ask!

[webowzr]

the way you people project onto ford is ABSOLUTELY INSANE!! and the way you use that blatant projection to piss on others who do the same is also crazy.

ford wasn't a good person pre-portal. while yes, characters like bill are way worse, ford doesnt get absolved of his failings just because bill tricked him. ford is /incredibly/ self obsessed, and through his journal entries you can see just how self-absorbed he is. he doesn't care about how his actions could benefit others (its why he's so against his journal being published) instead he only cares about the glory HE could derive from his actions. he waxes poetic about "not wanting to be another tesla" and the book explicitly compares ford to icarus. fidd's actually goes out of his way to PLEAD WITH HIM to stop the portal, because fidd's now knows it's dangerous and warns him, but stanford is so blinded by his own self-importance he ignores fiddleford until reality slaps him in the face and shows him how wrong he is.

speaking of manipulation, ford manipulates and lies to fiddleford CONSTANTLY. ford lies about where he got the idea for the project, he lies about who he's working with, ignores fiddleford if fidds doesn't comply with his wants, and is constantly paranoid about fidds 'true intentions' (lol) .

STOP woobifying ford, stop pretending ford is some innocent guy. its quite frankly disconcerning to see how many of you guys claim he's ur fav or whatever but dont like the flaws that make him a compelling narrator. i LIKE ford as a slightly immoral person who grows and changes, whose willing to do ANYTHING for what he wants even if it isn't the best move, a 'smart-guy' who uses questionable tactics because part of him does believe it's the best thing to do.

ALL THIS BEING SAID, characterize ur ford however you want. you want to make him more of a victim? go for it!! you want to project onto him? feel free!! just dont pretend like ur characterization is completely correct without facts to back it up. and dont shit on peoples ships (srsly u guys r getting mega petty nowadays) because fiddauthor or billford or whatever isnt particularly healthy either!!

[crguang]

Hi, I've been reading your fanfics lately and I've become obsessed with your writing! I'm not good at English so I keep to myself.

I wanted to share my feelings, because I think you should know what a great job you do! Not only did you make me have a different perspective on Kafka, you also made me see character development more clearly! (I also write a lot, and it's one of my difficulties.)

It's incredible how his stories gave me an addictive feeling, something I haven't seen in any other Kafka fanfic! Please keep it up!

In fact, I have ideas in my head about how Kafka would react to R's death? Or what exactly would make her cry? I wonder, and I think your point of view would be quite accurate.

first of all, don’t worry about your english!! it’s great, and it’s not my first language either so i understand the struggle. thank you for your kind words i cant believe my writing has inspired/helped you in any way, im especially happy it changed your mind about Kafka hehe. trust meee i understand how tough characterization is, i focus way too much on the details and it can get pretty frustrating. i take it seriously too, so when something doesn’t go my way or i can’t portray a scene the way i see it in my mind, i lose it a little bit.

ouhhh, kafka and death is a pretty intimate affair in my opinion. she deals with it all the time but we don’t know if she’s experienced it— she sees suffering as something euphoric, fascinating. we know she doesn’t care for her victims because of it, that and the fact that she’s following what she truly believes is destiny. if it was their destiny to die by her hand, why would she mourn? i think it would take a lot to make her cry, she’s very resilient and can withstand a lot + she doesn’t feel fear and there are lots of complex emotions born from it (anxiety, dread, panic) so in my opinion she’s not very attuned to these as well. i’ll expand on the “not feeling fear” thing because its absolutely insane; its a primal instinct that makes us do or not do so many things. it’s connected to so many other emotions— we feel sad because we fear losing people, we feel helpless because we fear not being good enough, etc. kafka wouldn’t be able to understand all of that in a visceral way. we know she worries to an extent (for the trailblazer, for blade) and that also stems from fear but so far, it’s been somewhat superficial. she checks up on them like once and that’s that. here again, following and believing in a scripted future makes it so that she doesnt have much to worry about. it makes me believe that she would often realize things after they’ve happened, like “oh, i don’t like this…”

losing someone she genuinely cares about might paralyze her, at least at first. death doesn’t obsess her because fear is self-preservation and she cant feel that. she is logical though, and knows not to put herself/others in certain dangerous situations. she doesn’t fear her s/o dying, she just knows she doesn’t want it to happen. what she can feel though is sadness, and that only happens during/after the fact. grief is soo complex, that’s why i think it would paralyze her afterwards— she’d feel this immense loss that she hasn’t prepared for, and kafka is rarely caught by surprise. she wouldn’t know what to do and her logic won’t save her; so many things don’t matter when you’re dealing with emotions that feel all-consuming, she knows death is inevitable, so what? she knows this was always a possibility, so what? that doesn’t tell her how to deal with it. she’d go through the motions as usual because life didn’t stop for her but she’d have this constant tightness in her chest like fingers curled around her heart. the tears would find her on a tuesday morning as she’s cleaning her gun or putting on her boots. to me, her feelings have a little lag; she doesn’t feel apprehension much so they would have to hit her afterwards. in my most recent fic im writing about her being a player for laughs but i still make her fall for the reader at the same time they fall for her, she just realizes it way later. this is long as hell im so sorry but to sum up i do think she would cry a lot because she almost never does and her body would need the relief.

im yapping im sorry😭 your question was super interesting and it really got me thinking but let me stop lmfao. i hope i kinda answered it along the way😭

[mystxmomo]

Hello! Would you mind answering 7, 13, 32, and/or 47 for my fave girl Enclave? Please and thanks!

7. How easily and frequently do they ask for help

Depends on who she's asking help from.

From Vhaeraun? Easily. In the world's driest tone, "It makes him happy when he's helping. Gives him enrichment." ;;: yeah she's pretty up his ass about grabbing from his magic and calling on his avatar. It's a direct influence within how she's fighting and defending herself.

But to any of the people in her life that she surrounds herself with...? She'd struggle with that. That's not her role here. Maybe she's a bit more comfortable asking someone like Ilphaer for help, but people like her brother/Dekkon who are SO much younger than her? Awkward. She's not doing that.

And this is something I actually incorporate into how she fight/her actual class/subclass in 5e. If she multiclasses into rogue (I have a few different sheets that Ive conceptually played with because I'm not quite sure which feels right without playing, and she's such a specific character that I would not bring her to a table of strangers, lmao) she's either an assassin or mastermind. Her abilities are so... Meant for self defense and taking care of things on her own. When she's written pen to paper, she runs ahead and tries taking care of things on her own.

Is it a good trait? No. But it's so specifically her.

13. Is there a moral line they would never cross

I answered 13 for her here but Tldr, is that she's someone willing to cross her own moral lines, but you have to put in the work of convincing her that it's worth doing. And good luck doing that as an outsider. She follows people and their concepts. She's not exactly a paragon of virtue, but she's always been aware of this and thinks that she doesnt have the luxury to be that.

32. Are they more concerned with the bigger picture or are they hung up on the details

Which, to tact on to the last answer - Bigger picture.

Though, admittedly, I think this is something that changes over the course of her life. When she's younger, I think she's someone far more concerned about smaller details and things happening within the moment of. But I think there's this thing that happens as she gets more involved with the divine. Like, she's already a fairly long-lived elf, but i think given who she stands by, she starts viewing things on a time-scale far larger than most of her peers. To her, a big picture may very well become a little detail to focus on.

After all, What's 100 years when you're rubbing up against something that's existed since before your entire race was known as drow..?

47. If they were an object, Which material(s) would they be made of

Obsidian. I almost made one of her blades obsidian, and I still might give her an obsidian knife just because she can never have too many. Built under pressure. Chips easily, but dangerous when chipped properly. And is often, in fact, only aesthetically associated with what it is because of the damage done to it and the way it's reshaped through doing so. Material that's been used in lot of tools over the course of time, and to use it properly you HAVE to damage it. Pretty, natural material. Adds further connection to how in her Gods pocket she is, and how she personally sees herself.

I think it fits her very well. I almost went with a fabric like velvet but wanted to specify that it's threadbare, but I think that's ultimately a little too soft for her (My original thought process was going to be that it's one a lot of people like, but that just as many people hate the texture of, and then the added damage making it unusable to most ..? But the lines didn't connect well enough in my head. Alas)