#did you notice the song?

[pardonmydelays]

✨️ happy eclipse from lin-manuel miranda! (via lin's instastory) ✨️

link to the playlist:

[zorangezest]

3/3

i've been getting a couple asks if redraws were allowed and yes! i love seeing how my art is interpreted in different styles, go for it!

previous laserbeak

phew! that's a lot of drawing...i'm going into hibernation now...

ive been working on this project for close to a month and i have to ask: what was your favourite moment?

[buttercupshands]

never say never I guess

had a sudden "I want to draw them"

Lyrics from "The Last Goodbye" by Billy Boyd

also a warm up that led to this, wanted to try drawing them again and somehow got inspired a bit

[bu99erfly]

2024 RECAP – MY TOP 18 ARTISTS (playlist + list of artists under the cut)

MY TOP 18 ARTISTS + TOP SONG FROM EACH ARTIST 1. SZA – Snooze / 2. Victoria Monét – Touch Me / 3. Tyla – Truth or Dare / 4. FLO – Caught Up / 5. Tinashe – Nasty (No.1 Song) / 6. Beyoncé – Bodyguard / 7. Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe! / 8. aespa – Supernova / 9. Rachel Chinouriri – So My Darling / 10. Sabrina Carpenter – Bed Chem / 11. Red Velvet – Cosmic / 12. Charli xcx – 360 / 13. Jae Stephens – Body Favors / 14. YVES – LOOP / 15. ARTMS – Virtual Angel / 16. Doechii – Alter Ego / 17. Loossemble – Confessions / 18. Chuu – Strawberry Rush + HONORABLE MENTIONS: Megan Thee Stallion & Raveena PLAYLIST (3 hours of my top and fav songs of this year): apple music / spotify

[onebizarrekai]

♪ blue's theme - ALL OF THEM (mostly)

mr. character development's tangible rehab from a stupidly evil power hungry bastard who has committed treason against every country to an idiot pacifist with a zebra print fedora, a moped and a license to teach yoga

( note: the 'mostly' comes from two things; one, the very very first version of this song sucked, and two, there are versions that are mostly identical )

[mollysunder]

The Medarda arc of s2 struggled to be good, because the plot viciously smothered it. You can argue that Arcane was never about politics but you cannot say the Medardas were never explicitly a family defined by politics. So when the show shifted it's priorities from a drama steeped in political conflict where even though the setting was fantastical the stakes were grounded to a shift where magic is the end all be all threat to humanity, the Medardas are rendered largely irrelevant.

In s2 Mel's agency over her own story is both largely stripped from her and poorly communicated. Arcane has Mel abducted from the plot to be the Black Rose's captive. Even when Mel manages to free herself it's not through the traits the audience understands are her strengths, her cunning and social intelligence, it's through an innate instinct that natural to her and indecipherable to the audience.

Ambessa as a character is more or less a villain of convenience, which would be fine if she wasn't immediately following Silco's act. Once Mel is removed from the story Ambessa is largely disconnected from any emotional tension fuels conflict between the characters and previously drove the plot in s1. She's there to play the worse bad guy for Caitlyn and then give Viktor the man power for the Glorious Evolution.

It's frustrating to see the Medardas used the way they are in s2 because when they're together I can see how it could be good. When they're together Mel forces emotion out of Ambessa. In Act 1, Ambessa proved she could do circles around Piltover's court, which could actually put Mel in a tight spot.

Their final scene on paper sounds like a good idea where the true resolution to Mel and Ambessa's story was that Ambessa saw Mel's own ruthless behavior as she not only betrayed Ambessa to the Black Rose, but used her as BAIT to double cross LeBlanc. Ambessa died proud that her daughter killed her the way she did, and that's so cool and tragic, but the execution was a flop.

One, their final fight is completely unimportant to the actual Glorious Evolution, Mel's grief can't even be a highlight because it's interrupted by Viktor's mind trap. Two, their fight didn't rely on any of Mel's actual strengths, just magic and the poorly explained MacGuffin LeBlanc gave her. How did Mel even know it would do that?

It's like the writers had the bones for a great story for the Medardas, but then they're like the world's worst archeologists and fit those bones together in the worst way possible because they were convinced the bones made a stegasaurus instead of a T-rex or something.

[mumblesplash]

recently my parents have been sorting through old stuff because their basement flooded, so my mom keeps sending me pictures she finds from when i was a little kid and after a while i was like hey uh mom. these are cute and all but is it just me or does a deep and unsettling Knowledge beyond human comprehension seem to lurk behind my eyes in literally every single one of these? and she was just like ‘yeah your eyes always looked like that it was kinda creepy 🥰’

[sealrock]

febhyurary, day 9: heaven

"heaven is real to me, except heaven is not a place, it's a person." to hector, my dearest. my beloved. forever yours, elaine

[disposal-blueeee]

VARGASTOBER - day 2 : comfort

[starryluminary]

Don’t know if I can deny

A Sudden Desire

Alternates

[chippedshake]

I wish I had the number to my younger self

Somehow, it's not until Ponyboy blows out the twenty candles on his cake that Darry processes Ponyboy's now the age he was when he had to take his brothers in. And he's still a kid.

Ponyboy may know what he's majoring in, but he has no idea what to do with his life, and Darry's a bit terrified to think of what would happen if he were left alone in a kitchen with instructions to make himself lunch, much less run a home and take care of two boys.

He was just a kid.

I'd pick up the phone and say, "You're only twenty and you've lost more than most people do

It took him a while to realise that most people at his job didn't want anything else. They didn't want an intellectual job, they didn't want to go to college, they didn't want to get out of Tulsa. They did the job because they liked it and Darry was never any more jealous than the day he realised that.

These people were happy doing the job because they managed to find other things that brought them joy, other things to make life colourful. Meanwhile Darry couldn't do anything but pull muscles and stare at brochures longingly as the layer of dust on them grew thicker and thicker.

You don't know it now, but there's still more to lose

He wasn't ready to lose two more people not eight months later.

He wasn't ready.

But life didn't give a fuck, apparently. Whether he was ready or not, two of his closest friends were gone in one night, one of them with a stuttered sentence from Ponyboy and the other with cracking gunshots as Darry pleaded with Death itself.

'Cause friends move away, and people don't get older

Sometimes Darry looked around and realised that no one really understood. No one really wanted to either. Everyone left the first chance they got and never looked back unless it was to spit in his face.

Paul never spoke to him after graduation until the rumble, and hadn't talked to him since. Cormac tried to stay in contact but didn't last two letters. Janine told him she would call him every day.

She didn't call once.

He wasn’t close to the gang, not like his brothers were. The closest one to him in age was Two-Bit, and mentally that closeness was irrelevant.

There was no one, not really, because his mom would've understood, and Dally could've taught him to get over it, and Johnny could've listened, and maybe, if he got to grow up, he could've understood.

But he didn't and none of them were there and Darry was stiflingly alone.

Your heart's gonna break over and over

Dally's burnt jacket, hung over a chair in the dining room. The necklace their mom always wore that now went under Soda's shirt. Ponyboy wearing Johnny's jacket whenever he visited. The school photo of his football team that he couldn't seem to force himself to throw away or take off the wall. The tie their father wore to meetings that Darry still wore to anything formal.

Two-Bit's new switchblade and that couch his mom thought was hideous and Steve's ring he got from Dally, and Evie's drawings, the same style as the ones she'd made for the funerals. Cherry Valance, who only talked to them because Bob died, and Marcia Sternberg, who took so long to talk to Two-Bit because she assumed he'd been too busy with everything that happened to call her.

There was a reminder in every corner of every room, chipping away at his heart. Inescapable and endless.

You're not to blame, so don't blame yourself

If he'd never hit him, Ponyboy wouldn't have run away, wouldn't have woken up Johnny, wouldn't have gone to the park, wouldn't have almost drowned (wouldn't wake up screaming five years later), wouldn't have killed Bob, wouldn't have run away again (wouldn't have chosen Dally over Darry) , wouldn't have been there for the fire, wouldn't have lost his best friend.

None of it would've happened if Darry hadn't snapped.

Maybe that’s why Dally asked for him when he called from that payphone. Why he asked for Darry. To remind him that it was all his fault.

I wish you knew the feeling wasn't permanent

The sleepless nights, the constant feeling of being behind, always having something to do. Not a second of rest. Whenever something was done, something else was waiting right behind it.

No end in sight.

Just work. And more work. And more work. Until he broke.

Watching people leave him behind as they made something of their life.

He wishes he'd known there was an end, that it wasn't always going to be like that. It would get better if he only asked for help.

I wish you knew your brother would come back again

It would've saved him so many hours if he'd just known Ponyboy would stop hating him and think he hated him back. That Soda would stop bottling up whatever it was he was bottling up and would finally break down in front of Darry, letting himself feel again. That Two-Bit would quit drinking once and for all almost a year after he started with Darry and Sodapop's help. That Steve would come up to him the day after Ponyboy graduated and told him he'd never admired someone like he admired Darry.

That he would still fight with Ponyboy sometimes and Soda would still say he was fine when he wasn't and Two-Bit would get up to go to the fridge compulsively and Steve would threaten him if he ever said anything to anyone about it. But it would get better.

His brothers would heal, eventually, and come back to who they used to be.

And time does heal, but don't heal everything

It strange, how everything changes so quickly, and yet remnants of the past are hidden at every corner.

Dad hasn't been around for six years, and yet Darry still turns around impulsively to ask which shirt to wear to work. He still curls up on himself and pretends his mom's arms are around him, telling him it'll all be okay when he feels useless and knows he's messing everything up.

When Dally had been gone for a year, Darry still saw him everywhere, in every hood and every little kid that wandered past. But once, when he saw Curly Shepard mugging a thirteen-year-old, he blinked and for a second Dallas Winston stood in front of him in all his long-lost glory.

He tried to save him — stop him from meeting his inevitable end. The end the Brumly boys would meet. The end Tim Shepard would likely meet, no matter how much Darry liked him. The end Dally met, despite everyone around him.

But Curly didn't want to be saved, and there's no saving someone who doesn't want to be helped.

If you knew it now who you were gonna be, you might care less about what they think

When he graduated from high school, all of his shirts were flannel. They weren't Madras, of course not, but he'd worn them so it would seem like they were.

When he went off to work each morning, he used to practice looking serious so his coworkers might think he was a bit older and buy the lie that was the ring on his finger. It wasn't a real wedding ring, just one he found in his mother's old jewelery box that he wore so it would seem like he had a normal family.

But now, as Ponyboy blows out his candles and Darry's brothers all cheer like they're still kids (because they are), he can't bring himself to care whether everyone he's ever known is together, talking shit about him.

Because Ponyboy's laughing and Two-Bit's glowing as Marcia wraps an arm around his waist and Steve's clapping a hand on Ponyboy's shoulder and congratulating him and Soda and Evie are stepping away to do some sort of stupid dance to the music that's playing on the radio and Curly Shepard may be a hood but he's also dipping his cake in Pepsi and Two-Bit and Marcia and Steve are joining Soda and Evie and Tim's smiling and Darry is overwhelmingly happy, surrounded by the people that actually matter.

Stop trying to impress the people who leave

His friends hadn't cared; they went off to college anyway and left Darry behind, drowning in his fake flannel.

His coworkers hadn't cared; they went out for drinks without him while Darry spent ten minutes in his truck before heading inside the house, trying to rip the stupid ring off because his mom's hands were so much smaller than his.

But he'd grown apart from his brothers in trying to impress other people. He'd missed out on petty arguments and moments of calm coexistence because he was hiding out so they wouldn't see him for the con man he was.

And they noticed. They noticed and they cared.

It scares you to death, but don't take it hard

Once, Darry was late to work because he'd frozen in the kitchen, staring at their calendar. It was his birthday in two weeks. He hadn't even noticed. He'd be twenty-one in two weeks and he hadn't done a thing since he'd turned twenty.

He wasn't a dollar closer to going to college or getting a job he could enjoy, and even if he could, he still didn't have any idea what he would study or work as. At this point, if he ever did get to go to college, he'd still be completely alone because everyone would be decades younger than him.

Time was running away from, slipping through his fingers, pooling on the ground before he even noticed he'd been holding it. Everyone else was getting somewhere, getting where they wanted to be. Just last week Soda'd gotten a raise at the DX, and Steve was looking into becoming an actual mechanic. Two-Bit was concentrating on crawling out of his addiction, and Ponyboy was more than making up for the time he'd missed at the beginning of the year.

And Darry was in the same place he was last year.

Now he's twenty four, and if his twenty-one-year-old self could see him, he'd probably run away screaming. Still no plans for getting to college, still at a dead-end job here.

But he has friends at his job, and he doesn't quite hate it. His brothers are home, not all living with him, but in the neighbourhood, and Ponyboy's just a phonecall away. Even Tim is just a couple blocks away, and he's always up for a walk to complain about little siblings and the shit they get up to.

Yeah, he hasn't done what he wanted to do when he was eighteen. But who has?

You're gonna ask: Why?

He was cleaning his room one night when he couldn't sleep and found an old picture of himself under his mattress, maybe fallen, maybe placed. It was from his graduation, an eighteen-year-old Darry smiling between his two parents, holding his diploma proudly. Hope in his eyes, dreams as big as he could imagine.

It was a couple weeks later that they did the math for the college he wanted to go to and realised he wouldn't be able to go. His parents told him to get a job, start saving up, and get in a couple years late. He could still do it.

Until they weren't there anymore and his savings had to go to headstones and funerals and bills.

No one told him what to do with the dreams that were floating away like a balloon someone let go of. No one told him how to ground himself and start taking care of his brothers. No one told him how to plan meals and do laundry and budget and do the hours he needed at work while not fading away from his brother's lives.

Why wasn't there anyone there? Why did he need to learn all of it alone?

You're gonna want answers

The next day he sunk to his knees, pathetic, crying on top of decaying organic matter, pleading to grey lumps of stone.

It was the first time he had been there since the funeral, too afraid of breaking down in front of his brothers. He couldn't cry in front of them anymore, and knew he'd break that promise if he went there with them.

With his hands on the ground, touching the same dirt his parents were buried under, Darry asked them why it had to be him. Why Uncle Louie couldn't take care of them, why he had to figure everything out on his own, why it all fell onto his shoulders.

Hate to be the one to tell you this

But you'll be alright, kid."

[pinkinsect]

aryu and tokimitsu are so special to me actually

[evagora]

i've since quite a lot of headcanons involving slime singing for juanaflippa lullabies to put her to sleep, but may i present: mariana singing for her to wake up? or while he's cooking breakfast and juana needs to brush off the sleepiness?

my basis for this:

[jasminesilk]

Melody musters up the courage to say howdy to the cute cowgirl at the bar. Cadence is quick to ask for her number!

[scootarooni]

o i forgor to talk abt miku expo!!

DUDE it was one of the most fun things I've been too aaa my calves are still sore from all the standing and dancing I did lmao. I hope it didnt annoy anyone near me that I was singing along to everything aahahaha (but also everyone was singing to Miku and World is Mine so I don't feel that bad abt it)

Sat next to a super sweet person who lent me and my friend spare lightsticks ; w ; and it was just. so awesome being around other vocaloid fans wow

The merch line was waaay too long both before and after the concert and I had like a little over an hour of driving back home to do so I didnt even bother

my friend that I brought with me had a blast as well!!! which was super reassuring becos he knew next to nothing abt vocaloid going into it.

OH ALSO THE LIVE BAND? SPECTACULAR. We were close enough that we could see them and aa they were singing along too. Seeing them get super into unknown mothergoose was the highlight of the night tbh (and yes i cried during it yeah yeah)

my camera is garbage🚮so the image and audio quality is blugh but here's a sweet little vid some of us singing to world is mine ^_^ (VOLUME WARNING)

[stargazer-dreamer]

Futile

character: spike spiegel

reader: implied afab

content warnings: forced birth control, forced surgical procedures.

notes: also on ao3. 400 word count. remastered version of sterile

You heard him echo throughout the ship, humming under his breath; a simplistic rhythm escaping past his lips, days, weeks after the fact.

“…They can fix me proper with a bit of luck.”

---

He had gotten a vasectomy, years before you met.

That was fine with you. Plenty of people got them, for various reasons; health, or lack of interest. Convenience. At that point in both of your lives, having—and, not to mention, potentially raising—a child wouldn’t be the smartest decision that either of you could make. And besides—ultimately, it was his body, in the end. It was his choice. And that was fine with you.

What got to you, however, was the way he worded it when you had asked him about it.

“Oh, yeah,” he drew out, in that casual, uninvested way he got, sometimes. “I had gotten it done years ago—kind of forgot about it, actually.” He avoided your eyes, in a way that made you think he hadn’t forgotten. Not after a decision like that. “I had to get it done,” he said, with his lips pursed. But the side closest to you curved upwards when he turned away. “I couldn’t—you know.”

You didn’t. And he wouldn’t elaborate.

“I would have gotten it done, anyways,” he shrugged, noncommittal. After a beat, after you sat there and began to process his words—“And then,” he gestured. “My eye.”

You didn’t know why he brought it up—it was fake, you knew. He’s told you. He lost it in an accident, years ago, and had it replaced. It was something that he never really brought up, and you didn’t want to pry, not after what must have been such a traumatic experience; but now, as he left you sitting with more questions, you couldn’t help but wonder: how was a vasectomy and an artificial eye related? You felt like you were missing something.

Something important, perhaps.

He made a noise, one you couldn’t quite decipher. And then—“Protection! It’s all about protection.” He wagged a finger, like he did when he was quoting Jet; but this time, the voice he used wasn’t his impression of the man at all. It sounded different. Distinct. Older. Slower.

Spike shrugged, again, and looked at you. But he evaded your eyes once more, something, somewhere, drawing his gaze. “I would have gotten it done, anyways,” he repeated, quieter, and scratched at his cheek. His third shrug lingered, leaving his lips lowering, his gaze far and off. “You know.”

And you wondered, then, if he would ever look at you again.