#here it displays both

[alkemylabz]

The species loamcats were engineered from suffered brood parasitism from many species (including rival social groups of their own species), but none such prevalent as the geac. These creatures would lay their eggs in the nests of pre-sapient loamcats, and the near-identical hatchling would be raised unknowingly. As it grew, it would evict its siblings (or eat them, depending on species) and go on to parasitize more nests in adulthood.

Even after their extinction, the tale of the geac would become mythologized through the generations- particularly in cultures that did not practice egg marking.

The geac became not a separate species but a loamcat cursed from birth, a type of "witch" or "changeling" that had failed to retain their gifted sapience. These mythologized geac would attempt to act civilized but eventually fail, turning back into mindless, violent beasts that would devour their unscrupulous host families. They would then sneak into the hatcheries of careless families and leave their own egg in misguided hopes that their children could be taught better restraint.

Of course, this mythologized geac could be assigned to any cultural group of ire. In more conservative areas it is common for cultural minorities to be referred to as geac- with the full connotation that their origin (or belief systems) makes them unable to retain the gifts of the Precursors. In many of these areas the myth of geac can be considered a racist trope- though in others it is used as a eugenicist fable against the disabled and orphaned.

In more superstitious spacer societies, this myth has evolved into a new iteration. Geac are born from wedlock, from unscrupulous unions that have not been approved by those in the family. They are a symbol and punishment of an individual's poor etiquette. The only way to resolve the curse on the child is to abandon them as one's own- or take on the curse in their place.

It's not seen as coincidental that alongside this myth, spacers are notorious for handing off unborn children to guild-sponsored orphanages.

[johnnyshrine]

★ 071 // “it gets better”

[haplophrynemolliz]

Stupid fridge thing I never posted (TRANSCRIPT BELOW, FROM TOP LEFT TO BOTTOM RIGHT):

HANNIBAL:

Will,

Don’t forget the zenzai in the fridge.

Love,

Hannibal Lecter-Graham

WILL:

Hannibal,

Are you just going to use your full name in every note from now on?

—W.L.G.

HANNIBAL:

Will,

Why would I not? It’s my name.

Yours,

Hannibal Lecter-Graham

WILL:

Hannibal,

I forget how sentimental you can be.

Regretfully also yours,

W.L.G.

HANNIBAL:

Will,

Regretfully? But look how your own signature has evolved, beloved.

Ever tied to you,

Hannibal Lecter-Graham

WILL:

Hannibal,

Oh yes, because if nothing else, you’ve given me an extra letter.

Ever so grateful for your continued benevolence,

W.L.G.

(EXTRA):

ON THE SKETCH:

Please don’t remove this, Will. This is the only method I have at my disposal to withstand the endless dog slobber.

THE YELLOW STICKY NOTE BELOW THE SKETCH:

At least get a different magnet.

[nytgaih]

love scout was ALSO revolutionary! the way it showed mature adults in a mature romance was so fresh and unique. no miscommunication, no misunderstandings, mutual respect and trust.

i think this is what relationships should aim to be. even though yoo eunho had a child and was divorced, so what? it doesn't make him a poorer candidate at dating/marriage, and it doesn't define who he is as a person. and kang jiyun standing up for him to her bestie further cements the importance of seeing people as who they are as a person.

jiyun having gone through so much trauma also doesn't make her a lesser human being. the show presents her in a way that despite all of her pain, she's gotten to where she is because of her capabilities. yes, she had help from junghoon's father, but only she could grow Peoplez the way it did.

the show also tells us that It's Okay to seek help and comfort and move on from your pain. eunho gave jiyun the space she needed to heal her wounds without interfering or meddling with the process. in return, jiyun only went to eunho when she felt Okay and ready to face him.

i just think that the writer wrote a beautiful show with multiple beautiful messages, and it really resonated with the audience. because we want to see mature, healthy relationships, where people aren't afraid to love and be loved.

[bumblingbabooshka]

Hirogen, in their ship of horrors: We're going to gut you alive and use your organs are trophies.

Seven, Defenseless: Cringe. Tuvok, Also Defenseless: Just wait until the captain hears about this, idiot. You fucked up big time.

[skylarbee]

you can poke your head behind the mountain peak, don't have to mean that you've gone into hiding

[somnefarious]

There's something so fun and cute about coils being used as an elevated seat or bed, love to see it

[sajdd]

so im getting back into watching tommyinnit after so long and i love that you can see that hes matured but hes also somehow still the same chaotic little shit as always. good to be back.. same shit as always

[dailyayao]

[aroceu]

i'm making this post mostly to vent, but also to reflect.

being in mdzs fandom was the first time being in fandom felt like... "content," to me. like i was a creator who WAS obliged to the masses, who was seen as holding some social power because i was interested in creating works for people to enjoy, rather than enjoying them myself. even though i am both: i am someone who likes to read as much as i like to write. i like enjoying as much as i like creating things for people to enjoy. i don't believe in this dichotomy, and i sure as hell didn't come into fandom for parasocial attention.

one of the problems definitely was that i was on twitter more than i was writing, and i was thinking of ways to game the algorithm so i stayed on people's feeds, because of the way twitter began to work, because of my own anxiety, and because subconsciously i understood the landscape. i didn't like it but i knew it. and too much was going on in my life that i couldn't take a step back and realize how much it was negatively affecting me.

still, it felt weird and strange and wrong to have followers with bios that said things like "don't perceive me i'm just here to read." strangers who would reply to my posts with over-familiarity and rudeness and said they were justified because i had over 1000 followers on twitter, because that is apparently a marker of how you are "allowed" to treat another stranger online. throwing around the terms "bnf" and "popular" as if they mean something beyond being similar to how american high schools work. i saw people group me and my friends who also had a lot of followers as this exclusive class of people in the fandom because we liked making things for other people to enjoy and we had a lot of followers, and therefore they could treat and generalize us all in weird dehumanizing ways because of it. i saw people complain that if any of us said anything "problematic" or "wrong" then it was a moral failing on the rest of us if we didn't publicly call it out.

and like. fandom is not a content creation space. at least, not to me. while i do like attention and making a big number even bigger—like i'm not gonna lie, it does give me dopamine!—i didn't come here to generate a parasocial audience. i came here to make cool stuff and also make friends. and now with people who follow me because they like the things i make and less so me, something i now struggle with that i didn't used to in fandom is: do i follow people back? do these people see me as someone they want to admire and have a parasocial relationship with, or do they want to be friends? this post is a little bit of a PSA as well, i suppose: while i don't believe that everyone in fandom/who now follows me has this content creation mindset, i know there are people who do, and i don't know how to interact with strangers anymore. if you don't want me to interact with you and just want to admire me from afar, i want to respect that boundary. at the same time, i do like making friends. and i want to make friends with people who are just purely curious about me, not because i'm put on this parasocial pedestal.

i also don't think this is a problem with mdzs fandom specifically, or even necessarily just for fandom itself. i think a lot of spaces online have turned into this: where not only your social power but also your personhood, your identity starts and ends with how big the number next to your name is, and is an indicator to a stranger how humanizing you can treat them. make your private assumptions or judgments about me; i have no control over them so i don't care. but i am still a human behind the screen as much as you. i struggle with my day to day stuff as much as anyone else. and i want to make friends over that. i want to commiserate and bond with people; and while i won't pretend that i don't think there is a little more "influence" if the number next to your name is a bit bigger, i don't think it should detract from the reality that if someone has 30 followers or 3000, they are still human.

unless they're a bot.

but i'm also mostly making this post because let's face it: most of the friends i've made in any fandom, historically, have been either because i was a fan of their work, or they were a fan of mine. and that's what fandom is all about—an exchange, a conversation. why are we reinventing rigid hierarchies based on follower count? why should someone who likes my fics or someone whose fics i like be treated any differently, because of the role we play in this exchange? (and why should whose fanfic you enjoy say something about you as a person... but that's a different conversation lol) there are actual content creators i like, content creators who profit monetarily based purely on that, and the monetary profit is their primary motivator in having that label, that career in the first place. but that is not fandom, to me. fandom is not a job and i am not here to profit (all of my works and thoughts are free!), and in no way has money ever played a role in my existence in fandom. it is what it's always been: to make cool things and to meet cool people. and if nothing else, it's a bit disappointing to realize that not everyone feels the same.

anyway! tl;dr if you're interested in talking to me and being friends feel free to always reach out. i also know that my own response times can be spotty (another flaw of mine, alas) but i'm mostly making this post to say that i am not someone who thinks of myself as separate from my audience, and that my numbers/output mean very little to how willing i am to engage. i can get overwhelmed as much as anyone else, but in my heart if you're interested in a dialogue with me, then i am too. because that's what being in fandom is all about.

[as-dreamers-do]

my multi-layered plans don't always come off

but when once in a blue moon they do, it's the best feeling in the world

[oswednesday]

we're sooo fucking back baby lets goooo

[lildoodlecat]

@sumireviku creatures in the wild

[ecto-stone]

So if FFOS is what if teen Vlad take more after Plasmius personality. Then My Blood is what if Personality back in college make sense for Jack to absolutely adore him but Vlad still maintain his personal flair.

[candycryptids]

Hiya! I hope you're doing well today! I love your characters and how you've structered their bios! Since Chuusday is listed first, is she technically your official WOL or is it someone else? Do you canonically have a WOL in the first place?

Also, I find it SO sweet that you and one of your partners both play FFXIV and have characters paired together ;w; Did you meet ingame or long before either of you started playing? Either way I wish you both the best!!! <3 - gardenofballads 🌻

Awaaaah! Im doing pretty ok!!! Taking time to answer this as a wind down from Emerald Weapon Ex Brain Soupage. And I’m so glad! ;W; I think I butchered one of those “Get To Know An OC” thingies- uhh… oh [this one] actually! I chopped a lot out and I think added a couple different thingums instead because there was so much to that that it felt overwhelming to try to look at let alone fill out LOL but it was a really good jumping off point uvu;

And!!! Hilariously Chuu was my First XIV Character, so she’s dear to my heart for being the first one- but she very quickly made it known being the WOL even as an AU was something of a Joke (Her character showed great reluctance and even frustration at having to do So Much World Saving, maybe a side-effect of me rushing through MSQ to catch up with my other spouse [Who plays Talia, though they’ve got less time for XIV these days ;0;] and the rest of my friends who were all EndGame already at the time in Shadowbringers fhdjfjsjfs.) So I made…… many alts. Throwing spaghetti at the wall but I have SEVERE side-character/NPC brain and kept making “supporting cast” types =w=; it actually took me like. 3? Alts before making an ACTUAL WoL with my husband (Ishi’li and Kizuna) (as of Right Meow, they’re in post ARR, but we’ve been working on Keathan and Tuesday together because Keathan was… Keathan’s first character in xiv XD so we’ve been jaunting through the story together and experiencing every inch of it so we can pick and choose what The Boys™ get up to when we wanna focus on them x3)

🥰 I knew both speece during at least high school- but I actually knew Keathan as early as Elementary school hehe 😌 tho the speece didn’t proper marry until… i’unno, 2017? (For frustrating legal reasons, I’m not legally married, but. As it goes. Someday we’ll have money to visit the one state that has legal poly marriages. Also I struggle to remember our wedding year 🫢)

Since managing to make a Co-WoL with my husband I’ve managed to make one other Alt meant to be a Solo-WoL (Mochiie) but I have to really wrinkle my brain to sink time into playing him, since I’m trying to take screenshots throughout the story at what I find to be inspiring beats xD And even still he has an alt-universe where he’s just a side-character for the ‘Main Timeline’ (where there’s a bunch of spaghetti and like 8+ confirmed WoL’s and the Msq entourage looks HILARIOUS in canon, someday I’ll get all the data together and take pictures, but I think it’ll cook what’s left of my brain x’3) [it’s less concrete than anything I’ve posted about before or I’d try to explain it ;v;’ it’s just interesting mostly to see how the story gets stretched to fit around a larger community of heroes than a solo guy shouldering the whole burden lmfao.]

🌸🌸🌸…. I also hope you’re having a lovely week @gardenofballads !!!! I am tossing flower petals into the air around you !!! Thank you for the ask and well wishes n kind words 🥺💖 🌸🌸🌸