#i also don't think size is as big a factor as some people think

[dreorig]

Oh wow, you just happen to be taller and broader than your mercenary boyfriend!

[ deadpool x dom male reader | nsfw under the cut | had this sitting in my drafts for a while now so uhhh forgive any mistakes :P ]

First things first. He thinks that's so hot of you.

He brags about you to everyone. Everyone. Random people, someone's he's fighting with, a friend; they all will hear about how handsome and tall Wade's boyfriend is.

Wade gets heart eyes when you both are in public and you hold his waist or hug him from behind. A subtle possessive squeeze on him will also do the job.

Wade will steal your clothes. He is 6'2, do you seriously think he'd ever have another chance to feel smaller in someone else's clothes anytime soon? Yeah, he's not losing this chance.

How many times can he ask to arm wrestle with you until you threaten to cut his vocal chords?

"So we can't get to decide what we're getting for dinner and we both want different things..." "Wade—" "There's only one way to solve this situation..." "Wade. No." "ARM WRESTLING!" "NO."

You will give him piggy backs and carry him around in bridal style either you like it or not. It's a demand.

He jumps at you randomly. First time he did that he jumped from behind, but you didn't know that was him, so your instincts made you grab that apparently stranger and throw him across the room, making him hit a wall. Wade fell even more for you right then and there.

Wade was mesmerised. You desperate; so you ran towards him, already chanting an infinite amount of sorry's. "Shit. Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to—" your apology was interrupted by the sound of Wade's laugh, which took you aback a little. Wade jumped to his feet and into your arms, this time you caught him properly. He wrapped his legs around your waist and arms around your neck, his chest still trembling with laughter. "Do you know how unbelievably hot that was? Never stop manhandling me."

Wade can reach the top shelves just fine but will ask you to grab the things instead. He just wants to enjoy his tall dog privilege.

He will always go to the gym with you if he's not busy re-killing former US presidents, slaughtering some asshole or pestering Logan. Hell, Wade loves to see your muscles flexing and your sweaty self after a good workout.

Asking you to pick him up (like this) became a part of your workout routine. He giggles and melts in your hold because he loves the fact that you pick him off the ground so effortlessly, like he's a piece of paper.

Fuck him doggy style and slap his ass with your big hands and you'll hear the loudest moan ever.

So loud you'll probably need to slip a few fingers inside his mouth to keep him shut. You don't need any neighbours hearing what's yours only.

You know what they say about big hands, eh? Wade knows it better than anyone and God, he loves the way you stretch him. Naturally he's got a high pain tolerance, so you being big and making him see things without having to use a toy is just perfect.

Doesn't mean you never use toys, tho. Fuck Wade's face and make him gag on your big cock while he has a dildo deep inside him, he'll give you the biggest puppy eyes ever as he humps on your leg.

You reminding him of your size difference never fails to make him wet. Never fucking fails. Tell him he should stand in front of you to get a better view since you're taller and he won't hide the fact that his underwear is already stained with pre-cum.

No marks such as love bites will stay on Wade's body due to his healing factor, much to his and your dislike, but eventually you found a way to claim him as yours — he's got to wear one of your shirts while you so relentlessly fuck him and even after you're done. Your scent and sweat that lingers on the fabric make Wade's head spin, often leading him to beg for you to fuck him once again.

Plus wearing your clothes just feels right. The way they're always oversized on him serves to remind him of how much bigger you are. He's got a size kink, he can't help it.

"Aren't you my little bitch?" you increased your pace. "Fuck, yes, yes," he pushed his hips down, meeting your thrusts. "Did I fuck you dumb? Use your damn words," you growled in his ear. Wade's cock throbbed at that. He was indeed beginning to think you fucked him dumb, yet he replied, "Arghh— yes, shit, yes, I'm your little bitch~" "Yeah, that's right. Let me show you how a real man treats a little bitch like you," you slapped his ass so hard even your own hand burned a little. Wade came right away without even having to touch his cock this time. How many times was it now? Not that he cared, he just wanted more, more, more. You chuckled, pleased with your own work. "Look at what a slap can do to a little bitch in heat." Wade wasn't sure of what you really said, but his ears caught "little bitch in heat" and he smiled dumb, more than happy to know he was your little bitch in heat.

[libraford]

Hi, I just wanted to say congrats on the organ removal! You talking about your uterus health has also made me realize that some of the things I experience monthly are not really normal, so I'm also extremely grateful that you're so open about this. I'm almost 28 and I don't know if I ever would have realized it without you. Thank you, for your art, your photography especially, your openness, and your kindness.

<3

Yeah, part of the reason I've been talking so openly about it is that I'm pretty sure that the way people are so 'hush hush' about reproductive health was one of the contributing factors for why it took so goddamn long to actually get this checked.

Like... learning at 37 that PMS isn't supposed to be debilitating panic attacks and uncontrollable emotional outbursts paired with extreme abdominal pain.

Or that clots are supposed to be about the size of a dime, not a silver dollar.

That you're supposed to lose about 1/3cup menstrual fluid (which includes blood but also other discharges) and not go through an entire big box of the Size 5 8-hour overnight pads in three days.

And all of this, all of this... ALL of this is because there's a tumor inside my uterus that's eating all my estrogen.

Like... I kept going on thinking that these were normal things and I was just maladjusted and not handling it well.

OBVIOUSLY, I am still angry at the whole situation.

I am extremely thankful that Planned Parenthood was able to refer me to a doctor that was willing to work with me on all of this. Like I don't know where you are on your journey, but they were an incredible resource.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Uniquely recognizable

a post on making fantasy people species that stand out but still feel enough like their mainstream counterparts that your audience won't get confused.

Like me, a lot of you want to use the standard fantasy people in your projects. gnomes, orcs, elves, goblins, dwarves, etc. But you don't want to use the same old typical designs you see in every fantasy roleplay game, movie, show, book, video game, whatever. Those designs have become iconic and ingrained in the common understanding of what those fantasy people are supposed to look like.

But it gets tedious, doesn't it? Sometimes it feels like the only difference between elves in different media is the size of their ears. Sometimes it feels like every fantasy people group is designed to be as close to human as possible and then their fantasy traits are just an afterthought. You're tired of it! You want to do something new!

But where is the line between a unique looking elf and a personally unique fantasy people that need their own name? How far can you alter the standard orc before it stops being an orc? And what are gnomes, anyway?

in this post, I'll be showing off a few of my own fantasy folks and talking about the balance between a recognizable design and a unique design. Including one of my own folks that began as something typical and gradually became something else, until I had to come up with a new name to avoid confusion.

first up: Goblins! what are goblins? if you asked a handful of random people, what traits would they consider the most typical of a goblin?

small, usually green, big ears, lanky limbs? frequently a large nose, sharp teeth, and yellow eyes? those are all common traits for goblins in media across the genre. here are a few sketches of easily recognizable goblins: (including one of my favorites, the goblin design of @pocketss)

(image description: three sketches of goblins. The only one directly labeled is the pocketss goblin, which is very small, has a round head and thin pointy nose, and large leaf shaped ears. it is wearing a little coat. the other two goblins are more typical of fantasy roleplay and video games, having large noses, crooked ears, and short bodies with long arms. one of them is wearing a mechanic outfit with overalls and goggles. the other is wearing a hooded rogue outfit. end description.)

these are all different from each other, but they're similar enough that you could glance at any of them and say "oh that looks like a goblin!" You've probably even seen similar goblin art from other tumblr artists, or your favorite fantasy media.

so now let's look at how I draw goblins:

(image description: a frog-like goblin standing in a cheeky pose, leaning on an invisible surface of some kind. They're nude, but have no external sexual traits. Their belly is a pale yellow while the rest of their body is light green with darker green stripes. They have a round face, yellow frog-like eyes, a small nose, long whiskers, and big bat-like ears. next to them on either side are lists of traits that are common for goblins in fantasy media, contrasted against the more unique traits of this goblin design. end description)

this is one of my fantasy people that I consider the most recognizable. They've got a lot of standard goblin traits! green skin, yellow eyes, sharp teeth, big ears, lanky limbs, and they're rather small. On the other hand, they also have several traits that make them stand out from the common depictions of goblins.

They're amphibious, they have whiskers and a frog-like vocal sac in their throat. their skin comes in different colored patterns like real life frogs. and they're also hermaphrodites in the scientific sense. my goblins don't have set biological sexes from birth. they change between laying eggs and producing sperm based on various environmental factors.

But I think it would be hard for anyone to take a glance at this design and not recognize it as a type of goblin. it strikes a pretty good ideal between the typical and the unique, in my personal and somewhat biased opinion.

Moving on from this, let's look at my depiction of gnomes. They're kind of on thin ice with that title, I don't think they're as easily recognizable. But at the same time, I'm not sure I can come up with an alternate and more fitting title. Gnomes are weird. I see them depicted in only a limited handful of ways in mainstream fantasy, and far more varied ways from independent artists. Gnomes come from a mythology where their name could have referred to several small fae things, or been easily exchanged with other small fae things and similar creatures. The most common depiction of them is probably the garden gnome, which has little in common with how gnomes are depicted as a playable race in roleplay games. but here are three ways I usually see them depicted:

(image description: three sketches of gnomes. the first gnome is labeled "dwarf lite" and resembles a short humanoid with a sturdy body, pointy ears, and a short thick beard. they are wearing a pointed cap and a durable work outfit with gloves and boots. the second gnome is labeled "mousey" and resembles a small humanoid with a hairy face, larger semi round ears, and a long skinny tail. they also appear to have small claws on their fingers and toes. they're wearing a collared shirt, vest, and simple pants. the third gnome is labeled "elf hobbit" and resembles a short humanoid with pointy ears and long hair, wearing a cloaked adventure outfit. end description.)

common gnomish traits include a larger nose, pointy ears, some form of facial hair, and a short torso with somewhat longer arms. The most common versions in mainstream media are the "dwarf lite" and "elf hobbit" versions, like no one can quite decide if gnomes should primarily be tinkerers or spell casters, and which role they're depicted with determines whether their design is more dwarf-like or elf-like. But the mousey with a tail gnomes are more common from independent artists. It reminds me of some illustrations of the Borrowers, and I do wonder if the artists had them in mind.

here's my gnome design:

(image description: a gnomish woman sitting casually and looking upwards with a smile. she has a pig-like snout and ears, as well as four-digit hooved hands and feet, and a stiff short tail. she is wearing a wrapped head scarf over her hair, an off-the-shoulder shirt, and long pants with a climbing belt. on either side of her, there are trait lists comparing the expected gnomish traits with my own different gnomish traits. end description.)

My gnomes do match the concept of being small, agile, magic using folks with a prominent nose. But mine are also not as small as typical depictions of gnomes, and I've gone the porcine route to connect them with my orcs rather than leaning into the typical dwarf lite or elf hobbit depictions. I would not expect every new viewer to see this design and say "oh, obviously that's a gnome." because the pig-like traits are very atypical for depictions of gnomes. But at the same time, they have enough in common, and gnomes are varied enough in other media, that it doesn't take too long to adjust the audience view so they accept this as a gnome. at least I hope it doesn't lol.

and finally let's look at a fantasy people design where I got too into my unique ideas and had to rename them because they just lost the most recognizable traits of the original thing.

I will admit that in middle school I was a Twilight fan and I thought the vampires in that series had a lot in common with elves, so I decided I also wanted elf vampires. Cringe, I know. But the elf-vampires kinda got away from that origin as I built up my world and characters, and I just couldn't keep calling them vampires! I had to think of a new title. But I also didn't want to work too hard at that new title, so I just took some letters out of "strigoi" and I'm going to say it shares in-story linguistic origins with the word "drow", so both of these groups were named after an old elvish term for "those who live below/ in the dirt/ at the roots". Stroi and Drow almost sound kinda similar. Close enough to claim linguistic drift, at least! So they are vampires no more, and I am quite happy with how they fit into my worldbuilding.

for comparison, here are a few typical vampire designs:

(image description: three bust portrait sketches of different vampires. First is an undead human, looking like a common human man wearing a coat, but his eyes are red and he looks very tired. second is a nosferatu, who is bald with crooked pointy ears, a sunken face, and big sharp teeth and clawed fingers. he's wearing a dark robe. third is the fantasy dracula, looking more similar to an elf with sharp teeth and red eyes, but his features are more angular and he has more facial hair than the typical elf design. he is wearing a fancy cloak. end description.)

and here's the elf-cousin stroi that just stopped being a vampire a very long time ago:

(image description: an elf-like man with curly red hair and a long tail. He is standing on his toes. His outfit consists of a simple pair of pants, a shirt with a broad neckline, and a slouchy square cardigan. on either side of him, there is a list of common vampire traits and a list of stroi traits. end description.)

vampires are typically some form of supernatural immortal being, usually undead, often having fangs and venom and special weaknesses. They usually have magical powers like shapeshifting and entrancement. They pretty much always survive on a diet of blood and nothing else and they're generally nocturnal.

when I created the stroi as vampires at the start, I designed them as blood drinking elves who came from a cursed bloodline, all descended from some revived dead warriors. In concept, this is a pretty cool idea! but as I got more and more into speculative evolution and fleshed out my world and characters and all my story ideas, I ended up changing a lot of details for these folks and eventually they just no longer resembled vampires! I don't think a single person would look at this design and think "that's a vampire". no, they're more likely thinking "that's a funny looking elf", and they're right.

my stroi are living creatures in a perfectly normal way, though they have long lifespans. Unlike the elves, they live on the ground and are primarily carnivorous, so they do have sharper teeth and they do consume blood as a result of consuming raw or less cooked meat. They are not strictly nocturnal or diurnal, taking their own shifts to be awake at different times of day, taking oddly timed naps as all carnivores do. They can use magic, like anyone in my setting, but they have no powers unique to them, and certainly no special weaknesses. They don't even have venom, unless you count normal mouth bacteria. So you see, they just don't share enough traits with vampires to justify the title. People see the word "vampire", and it gives them some very particular expectations that my stroi simply cannot fulfill. Their lore has changed too much.

and sometimes this is necessary for the creative process. coming up with a new title for your fantasy people when you realize they no longer fit their origin can be very difficult! but it's so much worse to keep clinging to that origin and trying desperately to maintain the traits that people expect to see even though it doesn't work for your project anymore. I couldn't even stick with my idea that the stroi could still be vampiric if they were brood parasites for the elves. it's another cool idea, but it doesn't fit what I'm writing at all.

Learning to let go of your old ideas and move forward with the new ones is an important skill. Maybe you really really wanted to have elves in your story, but you leaned so hard into some new traits, got invested in all of that, and months or years down the road you look back and realize your elves aren't so elf like anymore! you wanted them to be wolf-like, but you got so excited for your wolf-elves that you ended up with something else entirely. it happens! and it's okay to let go of the elves and move forward with your awesome wolf people. maybe you just have to go do some research on wolf people in mythology now and figure out if there are any other non-werewolf creatures you can take the name of and use as further inspiration to flesh out your wolf people. or maybe you'll have to come up with a whole new title from scratch.

the most important thing to remember is that you should be enjoying your creative process! whatever that ends up looking like.

[polyamorousmood]

Opinions on "one penis policies" and how to address and deconstruct them?

Oh lawdy.

So I am generally leery of one penis policies. They are both predisposed to and often arise from unhelpful beliefs, which means one penis policies in practice are often a little fucked up.

But❗ I don't think people asking for them are irredeemable assholes, and I think there may even be some ways to do it that are sensible.

Very long post, so

First, for this post from this point forward, OPP is short for "one penis policy"

For those who don't know OPPs are exactly what they sound like. The stereotype is that a cis bisexual woman in a committed relationship with a cis (straight) man will approach him about opening the relationship. He is sympathetic and wants to let her explore her bisexuality, so he allows her to see/fuck/date other women only, figuring that he should be enough to satisfy whatever she'd be interested in doing with men. But it should be noted that the inverse can also be true. This post, while talking about it in terms from this stereotype for simplicity, can apply to a variety of situations with the appropriate swaps of genitalia and pronouns.

Why I'm leery:

As with most things that get into sketchy😬 territory with polyamory (and nonmonogamy more broadly), OPPs almost exclusively arise from insecurity. And the thing about insecurity is that for most people, the more you concede to it, the worse those insecurities get, which can snowball later down the line. Having a rule the protects some of those insecurities can encourage people to neglect working on them through other means, and opens the door for the man to feel betrayed if it later becomes important for the woman to pursue another man for any reason.

In polyamory especially (as opposed to other forms of non-monogamy) where at least one goal is to fall in love, they're really restrictive for the woman -- how many gay women down with polyamory are there? That rarity means it may take years to find a suitable partner. And it puts a heavy burden on the woman not to catch feelings for any other men, which can be really hard and heartbreaking in the same way it can be really hard and heartbreaking to be stuck in a fully monogamous relationship as a poly person.

Its kinda sexist? Often, it arises from the belief that penis-in-vagina is Real Sex and anything the woman does with another woman can be therefore written off. Inversely, sex with another man might "taint her" in his mind more than another woman for the same reason. Here there's an intersection with the insecurities in that a lot of men seem to think their "dick game" is the most important thing to their partners (when most studies show things like foreplay are usually more important), so our example man fears the direct comparison of penis size 🍆 and other masculinity things that could never possibly come up with women (incorrect, but more on that later).

Or, the straight man here could be fetishistic about lesbians and thinks its hot his lady is fucking other women🥵, so that's why its fine.

There are particulars that are ambiguous, and these can often cause problems if encountered. How do trans people factor into this? What if our woman gets with a woman who prefers sex with a big strap? Is that fine cause its still a woman, or will the man still feel betrayed because its "basically a penis"? Does this not call into question the validity of the whole rule to begin with? These things are rarely considered ahead of time.

In short, they often are formed for shitty reasons and put an undue burden on the woman. The consent of it feels less than authentic on both sides -- if he were really okay with it, why would he restrict her and if she only wanted to date other women it wouldn't be a "rule" she had to maintain.

Why then, do I not denounce all OPPs?

Let's consider some examples of pure intentions that could result in an OPP. Or at least, not-fucked intentions like above.

I think its really natural to want to have something special between yourself and your partner. I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting there to be something only you can provide your partner. Its very common to have certain activities, acts, terms of endearment, etc. reserved for a particular partner in non-monogamous relationships! Why should "PiV sex" be treated with such hostility, but "watching our favorite TV show" be seen as a reasonable thing to disallow your partner from doing with someone else?

The man is trying to be supportive and flexible. He genuinely feels he can offer anything she might need sexually/romantically with a man, because polyamory is new to him, and because she's still offering him everything he needs sexually/romantically. The simplest explanation is that its the immutable fact of his gender that's causing the dissatisfaction, and he's very sympathetic to that! In this example, he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit. Non-monogamy is a big thing to most people, and allowing it -- even with restrictions -- should be recognized as the monumental step it generally is.

With that in mind, maybe our man even recognizes this is a big insecurity of his, and wants to work on it. Maybe he plans to address these insecurities, but knows this will take time, and is allowing her as much as he can without it being too much for him. Should he not be allowed some space to adjust, to work on those things? Should we not admire him for trying to broker a compromise🤝 rather than shutting down the woman's desires?

The woman might be okay with it.👍 She may feel she primarily wants to date/fuck other women, so a OPP is a small concession to make for her partner's comfort and reassurance.

There's kink things. I know I said lesbian fetishization was a negative just a moment ago, but even with that there are ways to do it respectfully. I'm not going to kink shame. If our theoretical couple finds it hot for him to put restrictions on what she can do sexually even when he's away -- who am I to stop them? Or any other number of kinks could play a part here! "I'm your only Daddy, but I'll let you go on playdates with other little girls" is not my kink, but I think it should be allowed for the people that are into it. 🤷‍♀️Idk, I admit this is probably my least well explained paragraph but basically it being a kink thing may be a sort of shortcut which circumvents some of the earlier concerns about authentic consent -- maybe they're just freaks who like it like that.

So then. About that question of deconstructing them.

Careful examinations of motives and feelings of all parties is required to know whether any one OPP holds up. There needs to be a lot of work put into the conversation, preferably before the relationship is actually opened. Its going to be personal between those two people, and -- like literally fucking everything with polyamory -- its going to require a lot of introspection🤔 and good communication🗣️.

If you find yourself in a OPP you feel is too constraining, you're gonna have to make a lot of time to talk through it. Be prepared to explain in detail and several times why its problem to you, while reassuring your partner its not because you find him unsatisfactory in some way. Be committed to hearing him out and taking his concerns and insecurities seriously. I recommend making a point to let everyone air their grievances before working on problem solving any of them. As always, avoid blaming.

Then, here are some ideas I think could you could try to help ease some of the insecurities and issues a OPP protects:

Shift the special thing to something other than PiV sex. Make it something else meaningful to you both. It could be some other sex thing😏, it could be the restaurant you went to on your first date🍽️, it could be listening to certain songs🎼, it could be ballroom dancing💃, it could simply be a day of the week 📅you only focus on each other, it could be anything you both value, and it could even be several things!

It may feel more reasonable to allow your partner other guidelines instead of gender. This can fall into many of the same pitfalls of a OPP, but it can also be a good middle ground if negotiations are tough. Maybe she can only date/fuck people shorter than he is, or with a smaller dick, or who makes less money than he does. Maybe she can see other men as long as they don't fuck in the bed he shares with her. Maybe any number of other things would help reassure him while being less burdensome on her.

Offer a lot of reassurance🤗. This is hard and scary! If he is willing to work with you, you better be working with him, too! Tell him you missed him and shit. Tell him how valuable he is to you because he allows you this freedom. Help him see things from a better framework when he's struggling. Do all this even when he doesn't ask for it.

It may help to give him something in return.🎁 Like, don't get me wrong, a very transactional relationship is rarely the most satisfying one. But a simple "I recognize how much work this will be for you, and to show you I also willing to put in work for your sake, I'm willing to try [something important to him]" isn't unreasonable. I think its easy and kinda fair for him to grow resentful if he's asked to accept everything she wants without her giving him anything he values.

If he's trying but still genuinely struggling, put a specific time-delay on when things will take effect. This allows him to prepare for it mentally (without it being something that will maybe happen some day, and thus not soemthing he needs to worry about right now). It gives him time to mull things over, so he can come to her with any concerns before they're already in the thick of it. The length of time will vary based on the situation, but I think something measured in weeks would probably be fair.

Seriously consider anything else he asks for that would make it easier for him.

Best of luck out there! Go live your best, most free lives babes!!

[the-real-daddy-van-der-bellen]

this post is probably very doomerist, skip if you're having a nice day

but I was just taking a walk along the local mid-size river in my town, the river bed there is fairly deep, i am bad at estimating that kind of stuff, but probably five or six meters in height, fairly steep. And up to the very top, there was still debris caught in the trees, from the flood two months ago. So the water was at least up that high, maybe more, but the path was cleared now so I can't tell. I just know that is was a scary, devastating amount of water but we all know that.

and i know some people just say, floods happen, floods have always happened, 10 years ago, 50 years ago, hundreds of years ago. that is true of course, but i think it would be ridicuous to pretend that this big flood has nothing to do with climate change. maybe it would have happened regardless, but from what I know, climate scientists agree that the severity was due to factors that are due to the climate crisis.

It has been over two months. The dehumidifyer in my apartment building is still running, non-stop, 24/7, day and night. I don't even want to know how much electricity that thing eats up. Which might seem petty, considering my ground floor neighbors had to move out and it will still be months until they can move back in. but i am not worried so much about the electricity bill. i am worried because electricity does not just appear from thin air.

The damage is economically devastating for many people, but I can't stop thinking about how many resources all the rebuilding takes. Electricity from the dehumidifyers. New furniture means a lot of wood and plastics. Not too long ago I walked past a gigantic pile of fridges that broke in the flood. So much electronic waste, so many resources required to replace broken things. How many houses were damaged bad enough that they need to be completely rebuilt? Even concrete is a finite resource.

When we talk about feedback loops regarding the climate crisis, we're usually thinking about the polar icecaps melting, which causes the earth to warm up even more. but I've been thinking about how natural catastrophes like floods and the rebuilding afterwards is also kind of a feedback loop, isn't it? It takes a ton of electricity for example to have dehumidifyers running for weeks nonstop, electricity that still comes, at least partially, from burning fossile fuels, which will in turn cause more carbon emissions. more climate change, more devastation, more rebuilding, and on and on and on.

I also think that we are now at a point in the climate crisis where we need to be realistic and need to expect disasters like the flood to happen more often. It's scary. And the worst is, as an individual, there is not much you can do about it.

Don't build a house near a river, yeah, sure. My apartment complex is nowhere near a risk zone. No one, absolutely no one, would have ever expected this here. Because we weren't hit by rising groundwater. It was the surface water running down the nearby hills and pooling around the houses. There are no measures that the muncipality or anyone could have taken to prevent that. You'd have to build a giant wall around the entire town or something, but that would obviously be ridiculous. It's a new apartment complex, the first half was finished only two years ago, the second half barely more than six months before the flooding. I saw the new groundfloor neighbors build garden beds and plant flowers over the summer and now they had to move out again because the entire ground floor is just ruined. They tore out the walls and the flooring and it will still be months until these apartments can be lived in again.

I know people living in the area where the groundwater rose dramatically and took a long time to go down again. At least one couple still had pools of water in their basement six weeks after the flood. You can't do anything about that. You can't pump the water out before the groundwater sinks, it will just come back and possibly destabilize your entire house.

Is that not insane? Is it not absolutely nuts that we are all just supposed to go on with our lives, knowing that we can expect events like this to happen several more times over our livetimes? A flood like this is supposed to be something anyone living only ever sees once in their live, and their children never experience like it, probably not their grandchildren, either.

My aunt and uncle, who admittedly live in a high-risk zone were hit with a similarily devastating flood only 15 years ago.

Makes you wonder when the next time will be.

It's terrifying, especially since there are still so many people in power, in austria and all over the world, who COULD do something, who could have started doing something 50 years ago but didn't.

But people in power will just move to their second or third home if their first home should ever be affected by a natural disaster. And the 100.000 or more Euros it takes to repair and rebuild may be devastating to the average household but for them it is pocket change.

And at this point, we can only scramble to try and fight the symptoms, because keeping the disease in check seems pretty much impossible. Airconditioning in the summer (again more electricity consumption), build flood protection (more resources needed), but also you now need irrigation systems for agriculture because instead of a flood, a drought could hit you just as likely. None of these things are bad, we need to find ways to live with the climate crisis, because at this point it can't be prevented, it is happening and has been happening for decades. But so many things we have to do because of the climate crisis feed right back into it and will make it even worse.

[swifty-fox]

As callum is double the size of Austin and quite a bit taller, how do you think this affected the way bucky and buck were portrayed on screen? I know there's also a lot of physicality in acting and I found it interesting that in certain scenes - like when they're fighting with the British at the table, or at that party where bucky has a tense moment with his superior, or when bucky gets up and starts singing - that he seems like someone buck can be quiet behind, he can watch him go and be amazed/amused at what he might do and whilst all the noise happens around bucky remain in his own seemingly preffered quietnes. Buck also watches bucky a lot too, like he is as intrigued with this larger than life character as we are - until he needs to step in lmao.

Not to say a smaller person can't be formidable, after all I think callum is distinctly bigger than the real life Eagen, but for Apples interpretation of MOTA it fits that bucky is this bull of man. It makes the moments -like that super tense moment when crank says 'the people we're bombing didn't shoot down buck' or when Bucky walks into the bar after bucks been shot down and tells everyone they don't have to guess why he's come back and slaps a bill down, or when he won't give that nazi anything but his number - all the more tangible for us watching at home.

The use of callums size is very, very wonderfully executed imo and kudos to callum and the directors for that because I think it can be so easy to end up being a caricature of some tough guy JUST because of size as opposed to being tough in spite of it, that's the balance of physical acting imo you can shoe horn any buff actor into a role but it's how secondary his size is to Buckys rage of emotions that makes it impactful, it's wielded like an accessory to an already formidable character.

I also think it shows in callum and austins friendship like Austin in their interveiws is very content often to simply relax and laugh and watch and listen, he said they're cut from the same cloth and callum said their personalties are similar to buck and buckys I.e. introvert and extrovert but they're kindred spirits. - sorry this was long but I find the art of acting so fascinating when it's done well. And the phycality of buck and bucky is to me really well done and an important part of how they understand each other

Callum is only 2 inches taller than Austin! He's just....big. he's just broad. Austin is much more trim and it makes the difference look extreme but they are in fact very similar in height!

I think from what we know the real John Egan had a very similar bombastic personality lmao. I don't think they were really factoring in Callums height or size into the casting so much as his physicality. He plays the cocky self assured pilot so well. and one thing we know about John Egan was that he was one cocksure motherfucker

^ his POW with a very cocky popped collar.

I do agree that Callum injects a lotta physicality into his roles. i can spot him from a few pixels just by the way he walks. I think it's what lends to his charisma on screen but I also think yes it is virtue of being a big guy. he's got a lotta limb and a lotta body of course he's gonna use it in his acting, of course he's someone whos probably grown up being very aware of his size. Bet he bashed those long arms a lot on things before he learned how to control himself lol. I think of course he is quite physically intimidating in scenes where he needs to be and his size lends to it but it's just the simple fact of him being a big guy.

Austin is shy and an introvert and hates talking about himself, but loves talking about things other than himself. and Callum is willing to talk about anything lol. He seems like one of those guys who kinda has a thought on every subject. It's no wonder they mesh well, they're both deeply thoughtful guys and it seems like Callums open personality smooths the path for Austin really well. I doubt they have many awkward silences between them due to Callum being Callum

[boatshoesdude]

one piece of anti-trans rhetoric that pops up now and again is the "your skeleton is your agab" thing, which for some reason turns into "archeologists will know your agab" (which is a very weird scenario that I don't like to think about for other reasons. Like why my grave specifically? What do they find? Was I helpful to their research? Why does the thought of someone touching my skeleton send shivers up my spine?)

anywho, I'm learning about archaeology atm and thought I'd share some cool archaeological info about actual grave identification!

Number one biggest point of note for this argument that "oh but archaeologists will know" is that if an archaeologist is handeling your bones someone has done something very wrong. A forensic anthropologist is who you're looking for! These are going to be the people trained in all the science/medical stuff and are dealing with humans. Cause there's a big difference between idenifying a sword, and idenitying a person. Two different sects of knowledge that work together, sometimes its the same person, but most times the body will be "handed off" so to speak to the forensic anthropologist while archaeologists work on the physical grave site. this leads to my next grief with the retoric; identifying gender when it comes to graves is mainly guesswork, very educated and very well researched guesswork, but guesswork non the less. When archaeologists are looking to identify the gender, you're looking at the grave itself and its contents (plus historical records and research and yada yada yada). If we know "hey men were typically burried in suits, with watches, dress shoes, and had masculin names" and the grave that's found matches all of the above, then yeah it'll probably be marked as a male skeleton.

you can say "oh but what about height charts and science!?!? The hormones in your body! They'll know!!!" But listen, humans show very very little sexual dymorphism, and humans come in all sizes. It is easy to tell a deer skull's gender because males have rivets where the antlers grow and fall off, where females do not. It is much much harder to tell the difference between a male and female pelvis even though female pelvises (pelvi?) are typically bigger (unless you're trained for body id and have many different factors to aid you). Theres just not enough information to go off of for identification! Humans change in size, yes depending on sex, but also on a million other characteristics like diet, medical history, ethnicity, medication, exercise, so if out of a hundred men, one end up 5'4 with wide hips while the others are 5'10, well them something probably went different with the growth of the 5'4 guy!!! Plus, the standard mesurments used to determin the stature of a person are based on white europeans from historically healthy families, meaning that the measurements are only accurate if you're looking at the body of a white european from a historically healthy family, but that's a side thing that doesn't matter if you have a (mostly) complete skeleton. "But what about the hormones!!!" I hear people in the back screaming. And I have two little things to note for that. 1. Research is really expensive and if you want to justify spending money on identifying the sex of a body you'd better have a really solid research base behind it and 2. Theres so many better things you could learn through bone analysis taht isnt "this person was trans" (unless thats your research topic you do you boo). What does that have to do with hormones you ask? Well bones change with time and as you change, right? So if you take hormes, your skeleton will reflect that. Now its not going to like change your pelvic shape or something, but it will show chages.

Say that a cis woman goes through menopause and then takes hormone supplements for it, that will show change, and change that is important to archeological research. One of the effects caused later in life after menopause is often osteoporosis, the body has a hard time taking in and processing calcium, so it leeches it from the bone, making bones more brittle and prone to breaking. Well, hormone supplements after menopause mitigate osteoporosis, so the bones are stronger, which you can tell from stuff like bone density, to less fractures in the bones in old age. So say you have a city of people you're excavating, and you can tell these people, city-wide, had stronger bones in old age, with less fractures, than most other cities. What this can tell you is that these people had systemic access to medical care that allowed them to live longer, which tell you A LOT about the people that you are looking at and the city they lived in (ya know, the primary reason for archaeological research).

if theres anything take takeway from this post let it be 1. Archeological aren't interested in your agab unless they are specifically looking for it and 2. HAND OFF MY BONES!!!!!

[professorbussywinkle]

Some people have kids because they want a slave...

....Think for a second

The obsession with punishment and discipline and "teaching them a lesson" often in brutal, unforgiving ways that don't teach them to follow their internal guide, but to fear your wrath if they do something you might perceive as wrong

The lack of respect for their bodily autonomy, their feelings, and their personhood

Treating everything they do or say like it's beneath consideration or without any value or significance if it does not serve you in some immediate gratifying way

The overemphasis on obedience being a central factor to how much moral worth they have as a human being

Using the provision of basic necessities(food housing, clothing) to justify mistreating them, treating the provision as something that can be withheld if they misbehave or "step out of line"

Believing their child is somehow always up to no good for no certifiable reason, to justify invading their privacy, denying them access to their social circles and means of communication

Publicly shaming or humiliating their child on camera and posting it on the internet in order to get them to behave in the ways you want them to

Soliciting their child's opinion, then yelling at them for disagreeing with you or "talking back". Also ranting at length about things they know their kids disagree with them about until their kid finally reaches a breaking point and says something, at which point, they're horrible combative children for constantly arguing with you

Treating their emotions as frivolous and pointless, or a sign of weakness not to be expressed freely and openly, forcing them to walk on eggshells around you for fear that anything could potentially set you off

Frequently telling them how lucky they are to not be physically abused. also not telling you what made them angry, leaving you not knowing what it was that upset them and them deliberately not telling you when you inquire about it

Using the excuse "I am your parent, so I know what's best for you" in order to force children to do something that is only meant to make the parent feel in control, and not for their child's well-being.

alluding that you are the sole reason why they can’t do whatever the hell they want and wished you didn’t even exist so they can have more freedom. (This one hits close to home for me)

These types of parents get off on this, literally...in an almost pornographic way it would seem, by pushing around, harming, and denigrating someone who's smaller and weaker than them, by exerting power and control over a little human being who is unable or unwilling to fight back against them, all so they can flex their big boy muscles, all so they can prove they have dominion over you and show you that you have no power to do anything about it, and then deluding themselves about how it's all about "discipline" or "teaching" so they don't feel bad about it

Does it make you feel so fucking powerful??

Does it make you feel so in control??

Does it make you feel so badass??

abusing and traumatizing a vulnerable little person half your fucking size and feasibly being able to get away with it under the guise of "discipline" with no reproach or recourse because you can't or refuse to deal with your own emotional damage??

Demon behavior.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

I’m gonna be real. I drew some beetlejuice and nightmare christmas stuff for the art markets bc I know that stuff sells and I can do it well in my art style. so you could be forgiven for any preconceptions based on that. but then every time someone says “your art looks like tim burton!” and means it as a compliment- and not even towards those particular drawings- I feel a little bit of my soul shrivel up and die.

as an artist- and these are solely my thoughts as an artist, because my thoughts on burton’s storytelling and views have been articulated very well by many other people (I shouldn’t have to spend paragraphs typing up why racism is bad, or how burton's work frequently communicates that being “quirky and different” is only acceptable when you fit within the status quo)- the size of the shadow burton casts is honestly exhausting. stylistically, I wouldn’t call him a bad artist at all, but like… he’s not the first artist to draw like that. far from it. burton, like any artist, has his inspirations- it’s just that he’s such a big name, he’s completely eclipsed them. now, that alone isn’t burton’s fault, and I understand the general public would be far more familiar with beetlejuice than german expressionism, but like. that’s the ONLY name you’ll ever hear when it comes to any artwork that’s remotely macabre. (okay, maybe junji ito, if you’re lucky. THAT is a comparison I gladly welcome.)

there’s a rising british stop-motion studio called spare flesh that I absolutely adore. they have this deeply uncomfortable, gory, carnivalesque vibe to the work they’ve put out, and it’s such a treat to watch. now, I don’t know if spare flesh cites burton as an inspiration- and maybe they do- but personally, I can see little resemblance between their style and burton’s. they’re a lot more, well, fleshy. visceral. rusting and rough around the edges. like, it’s creepy. it’s stop motion. but that’s… really it imo. what they’re doing is completely different. nonetheless, I keep seeing comments on their videos that read, “it’s just like tim burton!”

maybe the people at spare flesh like these comments. I don’t know. but to me, as a horror artist viewing the work of other horror artists, it’s… sort of discouraging. like, is that all I can be? will my best work amount to just another second rate tim burton in a huge pile of other tim burtons?

I’m trying to be charitable. I don’t blame people for drawing that comparison when it comes to my own work. like burton, I’m also heavily inspired by the expressionist movement- and “caligari” in particular. (and again, so are many, many other artists.) it’s a very important work to me, and one I consider formative to several aspects of my creative experience. but like… I have a lot of other influences, too. stephen gammell. edward gorey. remedios varo. otto dix. albert birkle. thomas ott. egon schiele. brett helquist. junji ito, of course. and those are just some of the visual artists. I get a lot of inspiration from the music, movies, and literature I enjoy, too. hell, I even count those fucked up spongebob closeups. burton… just doesn’t factor in.

I mean, again, I can’t blame people for thinking of burton when they see my art, or any other horror art, really. he’s a big name. most people might not be able to recognize too many names on that list, and that’s fine. those are artists I’ve specifically gone out of my way to find. ott, for instance, made me get into scratchboard, and I only found out about him through his cover illustration for shirley jackson’s “we have always lived in the castle.” I get that burton is the most accessible name that people are likely to think of.

but man... is it lonely. I don't want my art to look like burton's. and yet, I understand why people say it does. I don't want to stop drawing expressionist or new objectivity-inspired artwork. I don't want to stop drawing creepy stuff. I feel like that's the only thing I can do to avoid it, and I don't want to give up the inspiration that I've spent so long cultivating. so whenever someone says my art looks like burton's (as someone literally did today, in reference to my nosferatu 2024 drawing), I just grit my teeth, smile, and say thank you. worse things could happen, you know?

I don't know. I guess it would be nice for someone to look at my work and recognize it as mine.

[sharkpedia]

THE CONTRADICTORY KIDDIFICATION OF SORBET SHARK COOKIE

Devsisters is lying to you.

Ok, bit of an exaggeration, but I'm not crazy, I promise. Hear me out.

This little thing. We've all been in love since we say them day 1 all the way back in the Tower Of Frozen Waves update for Ovenbreak, all the way back in 2020. After all, the design is pretty damn good and also cute, and they were a really fun character. And I love them too! Otherwise, this blog would not exist. But... A feeling has been creeping up on me. A slow realization, the makings of a weird conspiracy.

We take the fact that they're a child for granted. After all, how could they not be? Look at their size! The sheer cuteness factor! ... Not everything is as it seems. At least, it used not to be.

I realize most of Cookie Run's audience these days inhabits Kingdom, since it's a much more casual-friendly game and the one with the fancier degree of presentation. But, let's not forget, Sorbet wasn't introduced there. And they had not been called a child until Black Pearl Cookie came out. In fact... Let's look at everything one could examine for the possibility of Sorbet being a child before Cookie Run Kingdom came out, why don't we? Let's look at Ovenbreak, and Ovenbreak only.

1. Stature/Proportions

This is what immediately made people think Sorbet Shark is a child. They're incredibly short, and their limbs are stubby, as far as the land form goes. But... Come on, you can't get any more superficial than that. Let's look at 4 examples that deconstruct this notion.

A) Lychee Dragon Cookie: Stubby limbs, incredibly short. This CANNOT be a child, despite Mangosteen Cookie being a disguise used by Lychee, simply because... Look at them. This thing not only takes design cues from succubi, but also has similar abilities. Obviously removed from the more explicit connotations, but they're still there. There is no such thing as a kid-friendly succubus. B) Snow Sugar Cookie: Proportions are about the same as just about everyone else who isn't freakishly tall. Still a child, though, since they were featured in the Junior Cookie Challenge from the LINE game. C) Ice Juggler Cookie: Shockingly, not a child. Incredibly small, definitely has some behaviors that could be considered child-like; fooled me at first! Yet, according to the Lost Holiday event, she's not at all a kid, and outright denies it, and is presumably insulted by the fact Walnut Cookie might have thought she is one. D) Alchemist Cookie: I have seen... So much age discourse around this one over the years. So, so much. And yet, in all these years, with attention being called to cookie age a few times, she's never been included with the ones deemed children. She's just short. Incredibly short. In fact, about as short as Sorbet.

So, proportions are a no-go. Specially because once the shark form comes into play...

Woah there, when did you get so big?! In fact, looking at sprites, Shark form is about 2x as big as Sorbet's base form!

And... Hey look, the arms are a LOT longer too! In both sprite size and proportions between the two main renders! Hell, if you look at other known underwater cookies such as Lobster, Mocha Ray and Electric Eel, all adults, they're either perfectly on par or actually stubbier!

So... Not proportions. Then, maybe, ingame dialogue..?

2. Tower Of Frozen Waves

This is the only event Sorbet actually participates in as far as Ovenbreak goes, to my knowledge. So, let's look through it! Above is a link so that you can check the dialogue yourself if you so desire.

Okay, first scene and- HEY WHAT DO YOU HAVE THERE BUDDY

Ok, let's get something straight here. It's not stated that this is an alcoholic beverage. But come on. Sure buddy, pirates are totally gonna be partying with non-alcoholic beverages. And no, it's not "ohhh it's for kids they're not gonna have ACTUAL alcohol in there" because one, Vampire Cookie is constantly drunk off his ass, two...

We have literally seen cookies get drunk. Yes, this is from Kingdom, but this is about what the brand does and doesn't allow, so this is a good indicator (Besides, getting drunk isn't the worst when you have gotten somewhat comfortable with showing blood- er, strawberry jam.) There is no universe in which you could convince me that Sorbet isn't drinking totally-not-rhum here. Specially because everyone is drinking the same thing, out of what looks like a standard traditional beer mug. So either Pirate Cookie is encouraging underage drinking, or... Well, let's not get too caught up in that now. Let's keep going.

We meet Captain Ice Cookie, captain of a navy ship, who hunts down pirates and takes them into custody. Let's establish something now; Captain Ice Cookie is very, very motherly. It's a core component of her character. She let Peppermint on board simply because the kid thought her ship looked like a whale, and really wanted to get on it. A navy ship. Her weak spot for children seems to be something she can't really control, otherwise, she wouldn't be letting a child on a navy ship full of weapons used to hunt down pirates. Her nature is on display many, many times in various bits of text.

So, if she saw a child on a pirate ship, she would probably be concerned and ruthlessly berate Pirate Cookie for letting a child on board, right?

Nope. Absolutely not. Her soft spot for children is not even remotely on display here. Not for a second. And this endures through all of Tower Of Frozen Waves.

So either A) Sorbet IS a child, and Captain Ice is... Stupid, I guess? And couldn't recognize that? B) Sorbet is a child, but more importantly a pirate, and in Ice's eyes, any and all forms of basic human respect is something a pirate is not deserving of, no matter their age (Which, although funny, is... Absolutely batshit insane.) C) Sorbet wasn't written as a child during this event, at all.

The closest Captain Ice ever gets to showing any sort of concern for Sorbet is this moment, and even then...

For just about the entirety of the event, Peppermint is FREQUENTLY referred to as "little one" by Captain Ice, something Sorbet never once gets.

They're also a constant reason for Captain Ice to remind Peppermint to never trust a pirate, which would be... Really, really weird for her to insist upon if this was just a kid.

So, Sorbet and Peppermint go to Sugarteara, no one once addresses Sorbet as anything but an equal, or in any way imply that they could be a kid, they get Sea Fairy out of there, etc. Sorbet and Captain Ice never interact during the last few cutscenes. So not once, not even a single time, has Captain Ice demonstrated any sort of motherly nature towards Sorbet, not even the most basic one, past, you know, trying to get them not to die. Which is in her best interest, and probably part of her general moral compass. She only wants to arrest pirates, not kill them.

And... To my knowledge, Sorbet never gets any dialogue anywhere else in OB events or story bits! So... In the text, there's no implication as to Sorbet being a kid or at all young. They're just kind of inexperienced at being a pirate, because for most of their life, they were a shark, not a cookie. Speaking of...

Sorbet's Story card! This was later reused for Kingdom, which as we'll later see might have been a mistake, but either way... Phrasing here is very, very important. There might be hyperbole, but "Once upon a time" implies that this tale happened a decently long time ago, supported by the line "Saddened, the shark disappeared into the sea for ages.", which implies a decent chunk of passage of time. Not once is any indicator of youth ever stated here, and in fact, depending on your interpretation of the text, it's very easy to see the text indicating the exact opposite.

This isn't really related to Tower Of Frozen Waves specifically, but I felt it was worth noting.

3. Lightning round

Ok, this is just where I put miscellaneous things that may add to my point. Let's look at Sorbet's costumes real quick.

Pirate Overlord and Noctilucent Vigilante Apprentice!

One is Sorbet Shark in what's presumably the future, having made a name for themself as a Pirate Lord, commanding the seas and striking fear into those who hear their name. Pretty well decorated! Yet, despite the passage of time that would have taken place for Sorbet to get to this position, the proportions remain the same. They're even rocking some shiny black eyeshadow or something of the sort! Hmm... The other is Sorbet having joined Electric Eel Cookie's Noctilucent Vigilantes, a hypothetical group that cleans up trash from the oceans. It looks like a nightclub outfit. That's probably the point. They're even shirtless, and get an ear piercing. Would be real weird to do this with a child, not gonna lie.

Secondly, I wanna address something that probably furthered the notion that Sorbet Shark is a child.

On land, they're just about entirely non-verbal. People online seem to have... A bit of a problem, when it comes to even partially non-verbal characters. They're often babified, treated like children even if they're not. I've seen this happen countless times; non-verbal characters either get treated as "Ooooh so cool and mysterious" or "Awww babyyyy i wanna protect themmm" no matter the author's intent. Not a callout on anyone in particular, of course, but there's a pattern there.

Next, the concept art.

So... At some point, Sorbet was meant to be taller. And, although hard to tell, it's possible they may never have been intended to wear a shirt at all, just... Ever. If so, that would be really weird to put on a character meant to be a child from the start. Oh, and the shark form got slightly bigger between the concept phase and finalized design. Interesting, isn't it?

Now, for the crux of this whole thing. If you look at Ovenbreak, there is no proper, logical reason to believe Sorbet is a child. It's fine as a headcanon, it's whatever, but there's more to indicate that they're not one than there is for them being one.

And then the other game came out.

Kingdom has taken the series in... New directions. Some good, some bad, some... Interesting. Some blatant ripoffs of other more successful mobile games! Such as one with a 2-word title, with the initials GI, made by a company whose name ends in "hoyo". Either way, Kingdom makes... A lot of changes. A new backstory entirely for Dark Enchantress, the existence of kingdoms once implied to be left in complete ruin, etc.

I think you see where I'm going with this.

Eventually, Sorbet Shark came to Kingdom. There were no indicators of being a child, other than... Frankly, being woobified quite often by the characters around them. They kinda just existed to sit there and look cute and do absolutely nothing important. They save some people near the end offscreen, and that's about it. And, oh hey, costumes made their return, I wonder what Sorbet Shark g-

... Interesting. From Pirate Overlord to... Little sailor outfit. Quite the difference, right? Though it almost checks out, with how they were treated beforehand.

Oh yeah, Soda Islands also directly contradicts the Story card they reused from Ovenbreak. Fun!

They try to imply that Sorbet simply just went underwater for, idk, 20 minutes, and popped right back out as a cookie! Even though that makes no sense, as the Story card says that they disappeared for a long time.

And, to make things even more inconsistent...

Black Pearl. Buddy. You don't live in the Soda Islands. You live in the Duskgloom Sea. Hell, you have your own set of islands named after you. So either Sorbet went mach speed to the Duskgloom Sea, entered the cave, got the wish, and swum back to the Soda Islands, all in about an hour or so tops, or that makes absolutely no sense. Nonsense on top of nonsense! How incredibly fun!

You're seeing what I'm seeing right. Everything about Sorbet's age coheres in Ovenbreak, but then Kingdom... Yeah, it's a mess. Kingdom is trying to sell to you that Sorbet is a child, when plenty of information from Ovenbreak contradicts it; hell, it contradicts itself, since they reused the Story card from Ovenbreak, instead of making a new one that fit this canon. Said canon wouldn't even make sense if they did, since Sorbet would have had to make an incredibly fast trip from one sea to the other in order to participate in the Soda Islands story at all. And these two know each other! They have dialogue together! You can't even say Black Pearl is talking about someone else, because they have unique dialogue that calls back to this!

So... Here's what I'm trying to say;

Sorbet's current age is a retcon.

To those of you who don't know, a retcon is when a story makes an addition that either contradicts or alters pre-existing material. For example, Dark Enchantress actually being White Lily was a retcon. Not all retcons are bad! But if they contradict previous material enough, it becomes hard to take them seriously, and it calls into question the consistency and/or quality of the source material.

Sorbet Shark, by all accounts, is NOT implied at all to be a child in the source material, or at all young, is suddenly a child in Kingdom. And all the means used to imply that are direct contradictions of pre-established material.

But... Why? Why exactly would this be done?

Now's when the conspiracy theorist hats come on.

MONEY

I sincerely, thoroughly believe that the reason Sorbet was turned into a child with Kingdom despite previous contradictions, is because it made them more marketable. I'm not kidding. See, the thing that's made Sorbet so popular is their cuteness factor. The people at Devsisters knew this damn well. So here they have their new game, absolutely booming with players, full of opportunity for people to sink money into their favorite cookies. And that's not even accounting for possible merch revenue!

So, they have this character who sells well due to cuteness factor. Obviously, if they want it to sell even more, they need to do something. And so they did! They leaned into the cuteness factor as much as possible. That's like, their primary purpose now. They're only in shark form for about 2 cutscenes, and 1 small one that you need to find on the map itself. Most of the time they exist, it's in land form, the small, cute, marketable one. So they give them a cute little sailor outfit, and... Hm, what else could they do?

Well... People already see them as a child in the larger fanbase, right? And people find children cute! They want to hold and protect and care for them, and it instills that feeling of wanting to keep said child close to them. So...

Why not birth fanon into canon?

Many modern writers fall into this trap. After all, if the audience sees something a certain way, that must be because they prefer it that way. And if you wanna please an audience or sucker money out of them, why not change a character to be more the way they like? We've seen it happen countless, countless times in many pieces of media. Cinema, anime, comics, games, the works. As a Dragon Ball fan, I'd know! They turned my main man Goku into a complete bumbling idiot in Dragon Ball Super! He's never been book smart, sure, but he's experienced, has emotional tact, and can get really good reads on people. He's not stupid, just smart in his own way. Super just makes him an idiot. Because people kept making jokes and parodies where he's depicted as such, so Toei wanted in on the joke. And it backfired. Hard.

This, to me, is what happened to Sorbet. Much like Goku was turned into a complete idiot because the fanbase seemingly saw him that way, Sorbet was turned into a child because the fanbase largely saw them as one, and because it'd potentially help drive up sales related to the character.

This is all speculation, of course; you could argue endlessly about the why of the matter. But the fact is; Sorbet's age in Kingdom is, undeniably, as proven above;

A retcon.

... You know, assuming Kingdom and Ovenbreak are even the same timeline. Which, considering we've seen Gingerbrave escape from the Witch's Kitchen about 4 times now, all through different means and framed differently... Yeah, there's a good chance they're not really the same timeline anymore. So there's a possibility that OB Sorbet is not a child, while Kingdom Sorbet is a child, despite the designs and personalities (mostly design) being the same. So, either retcon, or split timelines. Pick your poison.

So, what I'm getting at is...

If you see Sorbet as not a child, and would prefer to keep it that way, you're damn well within your right. I know I never did, and I never liked the notion of them being one in the first place. Take it from me, an exhausted writer and (sort of?) fic creator, who loves overanalyzing media.

Peace out. Don't fight people over this little thing's age, because really, it's pointless.

Not even the creators of the character know what they're doing, after all.

See you all later.

[thebreakfastgenie]

IG this isn't quite your wheelhouse but any thoughts on long-distance schooling and whether it should be more widespread? During Covid I saw a huge fissure between people going "This is going to kill education Forever" and students going "Oh thank God I'm finally somewhere bullies can't hunt me for sport."

Hah, this is more my wheelhouse than you realize. I did long-distance schooling back in the early 2000s. I was going to school every day, but most of my coursework was long-distance and nobody else at my school was doing it with me. I'm the only millennial who prefers to keep zoom cameras on because I was in a virtual classroom back in 2006 when nobody had webcams and it sucked.

Education is not one-size-fits-all. On the balance, I think in most cases in-person school is better. There are unique learning benefits that just cannot be replaced. This is true to my experience in grad school but I think it's especially true for K-12 education because part of development at that age is teaching children to socialize with each other.

That being said, long-distance school has benefits too. There a lot of kids with medical issues who want to continue learning but fall behind because they are not physically well enough to attend school regularly, and long-distance learning is a game-changer for them. Some kids just don't live in places where the local schools can serve their particular academic needs. In a bullying situation, I think changing schools is a better first step when possible, but when that's not a viable option long-distance is definitely on the table.

There was learning loss during COVID. Schools themselves being remote was a big factor, but it was exacerbated by social experiences also being suspended and the fact that the switch to long-distance was unplanned and in the middle of the school year, so the implementation was a lot bumpier than a planned and executed long-distance school would be. If anything is going to kill education forever it's going to be ChatGPT, but there are longterm negative effects from COVID-era learning loss. I don't think closing schools was wrong, it's just something we have to deal with because there was a pandemic.

"I'm finally somewhere bullies can't hunt me for sport" is an interesting response to COVID because where those kids were was home, all the time. That's not good! Sometimes bullying is so bad kids just need to be removed from the school, but social isolation is not good for bullying victims!

[olderthannetfic]

why do some popular things have such small fandoms, in your opinion? like, John Wick is incredibly popular but has less than 2k fics on ao3 and there doesn't seem to be a big fandom presence on tumblr. there's shows with 10+ seasons that have incredibly small fandoms as well.

i know not every fandom is going to be, say, Harry Potter or Supernatural levels (especially if it's an older show and fics have been lost to time- i've heard ER lost quite a lot) but it's just... odd to me, i guess.

--

The majority of things don't get fanfic fandoms.

There are some trends though. Certain genres are more likely to generate them than others. SFF is pretty likely. Crime dramas are reasonably likely, whether that's people slashing buddy cops on AO3 or lead canon het on FFN.

Incomplete-feeling canons are a bit more likely, usually due to plot holes or a crappy ending that people want to fix—but not so crappy that everyone just gives up in disgust.

Relatedly, things where the art part isn't too intimidating are more likely than ones where the big draw is that author's exact way of writing or the fantastically subtle and moving acting in some arty movie about social issues.

Serial media are way, way more likely to generate a fic fandom than one-offs, and having a certain number of hiatuses but not ones that are too long helps. You want some gaps where people have time to make stuff before it's instantly jossed, but you do need new canon to reinvigorate a fandom periodically.

Things just being well known by lots of people does help relative to a similar canon that few people saw, but exact audience size isn't the main factor.

Some tasty character dynamics help a lot. Maybe shippy, maybe more found family. A world that people want to play more with also helps. Even the gen-focused fandoms tend to care a lot about the latter two. They don't just write about any old canon. There have to be certain hooks.

--

John Wick does seem like it fits some of the standard criteria. There's more than one movie. It's fun, dumb genre stuff, not super high art.

TBH, having more than like 5 fics already means it's a success as a fic fandom, so part of it is just your frame of reference. I know you say you don't expect HP, but you should be expecting the norm to be way under 100 fics, not nearly 2k. That's part of it.

But I suspect the big reason is that a lot of people find the films relatively complete as-is.

They're set in the real world (-ish), so the setting isn't that interesting to explore with a bunch of OCs in the way that people write their own HP or Naruto casts. People like the lead, but I don't think they fixate on his relationships to other characters. (Checking AO3, it looks like some people are writing basically John/self, which makes sense.)

For much of the audience, it's all about watching him use a lot of guns. So many guns. All of the guns.

Once the big screen spectacle is done, I don't know that people really want more unless it's more action movies with more visual awesomeness.

IDK, I don't think I've seen any of these beyond some clips, so maybe I'm missing something.

[final-milf-ratchet]

Hello again

Yesss, Predaking *needs* a Queen, and Magnus is perfect - beautiful and strong..

The idea of Magnus actually being easy took me OUT but you know.. i actually love it. No one knows about it because they just.. never try. And Predaking is charming anyway, so Magnus is opening up pretty quickly..

omg Ratchet being so done with Optimus' pining that he wordlessly thanks Predaking for giving him something to goad Optimus with, relieved when the Prime stomps to the ship..

Even if they weren't already determined to end the War (something that will be much easier with Predaking as a secret agent on the Nemesis, my god imagine Prime and Predaking teaming up, holy shit) they would be determined anyway once Magnus tells them "nothing's going to happen until the war is over anyway". I can imagine them waiting for things to settle down and then pinning Magnus between their bigger frames, smugly pointing out that the War is over now..

They're very understanding though, despite their *need* to breed him - giving him more time, until one day he bashfully tells them that he thinks he's ready now.. He's an absolute wreck by the time the sun rises again, definitely not getting out of berth for the foreseeable future..

Also omg. Imagine Optimus and Predaking playing with Magnus' refineries. His wells. His tits. They're so big, and warm, and soft.. It's so easy to mark them up as well, pulling on the little nubs and biting them, pulling the sweetest noises out of Magnus.. And when they finally spark him up, and his tits start leaking whenever they're being too rough...

Hiiiiiiiii!!!!!!

People always assume Magnus will just coldly shoot them down, so they give up before they even try. 😔😔 Poor fools don't know how close they were to ultra magnussy 😔😔😔 tragic

I think ratchet's been putting up with optimus pinning for TOO LONG. The first time Optimus and Magnus meets Optimus walked away like 😳👉👈 and went to bother ratchet about it, then every time Magnus showed up after that ratchet had to deal with Optimus doing the same thing. They may be friends but ratchet is SICK OF IT. He's tried many solutions over the years to get Optimus to act on it (Optimus' last relationship was with Megatron, who was more upfront in their relationship and usually initiated stuff. Rip Megatron u were a good one b4 u started doing space crack)

As soon as Cybertron recovers enough to have bars, Ratchets going to buy Predaking a cyberbeer, he swears it.

I probably worded that wrong earlier lol, the autobots are def trying their best to end the war!!!! but having a secret dragon turncoat that's infiltrated the nemesis helps a LOT lmao. I am now imagining a comedy of errors where Predaking keeps trying to bite Megatron's head off on the nemesis and various factors (starscream, well placed door frame, too many witnesses, starscream again, dark energon, starscream a third time, etc) keep stopping it from happening. There's gotta be some dramatic reveal too, Predaking and Optimus teaming up to fight would be SO COOL.

Mayhaps after their team-up is the first time they share Ultra Magnus, after gaining a new appreciation for each other in battle ☺️ (and maybe they fuck in the aftermath too☺️☺️☺️)

Oooooohhhhhhhhgggggg them working together to tease and grope Ultra Magnus' Megamilkers 🤤🤤🤤 2 titties mean one person can put all their focus on one boob... It's a good thing cybertronians have chest plates and don't wear actual clothes because I'm sure Ultra Magnus would always be covered in hickies lol

And I mean, they've all talked about sparklings one day being a reality... Maybe once they get to a point post-war where bots are starting to have sparklings again, Ultra Magnus goes and gets his birth control removed and then surprises Predaking and Optimus later that night, when they're all in bed together (the biggest bed in the goddamn world look at the size of those three)... Like you said, Ultra Magnus isn't going ANYWHERE for the next few days, his hips need to recover and his partners are taking every chance they can to fill him up again ;)

[thegingerwrites]

Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @teaandjumpers!💕

A random niche pet peeve you have?

I feel like I'm pretty easy going and then I'm on the train listening to like three people on TikTok at the same time. Incredibly rude, really irritating, 0/10 please turn it off I'm begging you 🥺🙏😡 I don't think that's super niche but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The biggest animal I think I could take in a fight?

Absolutely no idea 😂 I'm kind of thinking size isn't everything? There are probably really vicious little dogs and like piranhas or something that I couldn't take in a fight. I'm not sure if that's a reflection on my fighting skills or the fact that I'm not out here trying to fight animals When I'm running in the park and a big dog gets a little too excited I do tend to square up, so we'll go with that.

What color would you paint your kitchen if you were allowed to paint it any color?

Green! Not sure if I could really carry off a full green kitchen but I love to look at them ☘️🌳💚✅🍀

Flamingo or swan?

I don't have flamingos where I live but there are plenty of pretty but mean swans, so flamingos 🦩

Childhood TV show that had a strong influence on your childhood?

Probably Kim Possible? But I was just talking to my younger sister about this. I used to get up early before school and curl up to watch cartoons by myself at like ~6-7 in the morning. So I watched the PBS cartoons like Cyberchase and Arthur but I also ended up watching some weird ones, like the one I was explaining to my sister that for a moment I was convinced I was making up. I was not making it up. Probably not my first but perhaps my most intense early introduction to Sherlock Holmes was Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century. Lestrade's ancestor brings Sherlock Holmes back to life to stop a clone of Moriarty, Watson is a robot, it's wild.

What would I wear to a costume party?

I really want an excuse to dress up kind of regency or pirate-y. I also fantasize about someday putting together an Obi-Wan cosplay. When I'm thrifting, I'm constantly on the hunt for the right pair of cherry leather boots 👢

Something creative I'm working on or thinking on?

Outside of fic, I've been posting about my crochet exploits. Once I finish that bag, I'm returning to my knitting white whale--a Welsh wig from a pattern used in The Terror. It's sort of a silly project that I wanted to try my hand at and learn new skills. I started back in January, had a crisis of faith, got a knitting lesson, and was finally cruising along until the crochet project landed in my lap. I have to return to it before it gets too warm out. I really can't do any kind of knitting or crocheting once it gets to warm out 🥵

Give a piece of advice you think people should know:

I'm still trying to sort this advice out in my own head but I've been thinking a lot about art and creativity and the idea of persistence being a huge factor in creating something great. In a lot of projects, there comes a time when all you can see are the mistakes, when you know that you are never going to create something as good as someone else, when it feels like you should cut your losses and save your breath. I think that a lot of good comes from pushing through that feeling of doubt and uncertainty. I consider myself an amateur at a lot of things (drawing, baking, painting, sewing, to name a few). When I make things with my hands, I tend to see the flaws and I've been trying to look at what I make through someone else's eyes to see the successes that outweigh the failures. Even just the fact that something exists where something didn't before is something of a miracle.

My Italian teacher in high school used to tell us "learning is uncomfortable" and I used to hate her for it. The way she said it when we were struggling always seemed like a cop-out for her failure to find a better way to help us with conjugations or something. But I have come around to the idea that she might have been at least a little bit right. I saw an article recently that talked about perseverance and students learning to write with AI, that the ability to sit with the struggle of learning to write, to push through difficulty in order to find success on the other side is being lost. While I think we have to take a step back from glorifying suffering and burn out, I do think that there is something to be said for sticking with something you know is worthwhile even when it is hard. Learning to judge for yourself what is worthwhile and what isn't and being brave enough to see the good in the results waiting for you on the other side is advice I try to keep in mind.

A few no pressure tags: @unspuncreature @samstree @darthwillies @usakostar

[illarian-rambling]

This question has been needling me at work, but who would win in a Starbreaker crew battle royale? Let's get into it!

To preface, this is not a fight against the best of the best. Honor's Outcasts has their mighty warriors and Mortal God had its clever mages, but Starbreaker? These people are scientists, sailors, and head-cases. Their only real advantage over anyone else in a fight is that they're already dead, so they can't exactly die again (unless they're pulled too far from their ship, but whatever). But, if the crew were to have a battle between themselves, who would win?

So, we can already take two out of the running. Anarac is a consummate pacifist. He can fight, but the trauma he has from End possessing him and using him as a living weapon makes him basically incapable of violence now. He'd freeze up if it came to a situation like that. We can also take Nyda out of the running. Despite her mercenary family, Nyda can't fight at all. Her freeze instinct is super strong and due to abuse suffered at the hands of her parents, any combat scenario gives her terrible performance anxiety to the point of a panic attack. So, basically, if you threw a punch at either of those two, Anarac would go catatonic and Nyda would collapse into tears. They are not winning this battle royale.

This leaves us with Kaulakri, Faalgun, and Pash as our competitors. Each has definite strengths and definite weaknesses.

Faalgun is the only one with actual combat training. Not a lot, mind you, he was a pilot in the Flying City navy, not a ground troop, but he's got some. He also got into a ton of street fights as a kid, so he's got practical experience. His big weakness is being 3'5" and 70lbs sopping wet. His Halan heritage does give him some advantages; horns, scales, and claws. But being the size of a six year old is a little hard to navigate.

Kaulakri is probably the most physically fit out of these three. She might be fat, but she lifts weights and as a field scientist, you know her cardio is cracked. She might be shorter than Pash, but I promise, her bicep is at least twice the size of his. The only problem is that Kaulakri has no semblance of combat training. I don't even think she knows how to throw a punch. Her only semblance of self-defense is biting, which to be fair, she does have very sharp teeth.

Pash's big advantage is ruthlessness. He, unlike the other two, has killed people before and he doesn't feel bad since, in his mind, that's just how these things go. He's also got reach at 6'2", but he's pretty skinny and doesn't have much combat experience (anyone he killed was with the element of surprise). All he's really got going for him is a complete lack of guilt or empathy.

So who wins? I think, if this is a three-way fight, it'd come down to Kaulakri vs. Faalgun, because they would team up to take out Pash first, seeing him as the most unpredictable and violent (they'd be right). Between Kaulakri and Faalgun though, the deciding factor would be weapons. Faalgun's got decent training with a dagger, so if he had one, I think he'd be able to do some sick parkour and win. If it was barehanded, Kaulakri would probably just end up picking him up at some point. Generally though, my money is on Faalgun. He might not be as ruthless as Pash, but nothing gets his heart racing like a fight. He wants it more than Kaulakri.

Alright thanks for playing my silly little fighting game with me! Have a bitchin day <3

[emeraldskulblaka]

What makes a stage adaptation of Tolkien's works relevant?

The big Tolkien websites/blogs/influencers care about many adaptations of Tolkien's works, but not all. I'm not overly familiar with non-stage adaptations beyond the Really Popular ones, so I don't really know what's going on there, but I AM noticing significant patterns and omissions when it comes to stage shows.

Only select productions are reported on, and what is reported on does not depend on the specific adaptation. I'm asking questions I can't answer myself; they're meant to help structure my thoughts.

Question: Are only productions by well-known, highly professional theatres relevant?

The answer seems to be a clear YES. While the size of the theatres varies, only notable regional, state, and commercial theatre productions are seen as relevant. It makes sense - they're better documented and widely promoted, not least because of their budget.

However, Kentucky Opera's Hobbit last month went by unnoticed. It was a children's opera, which brings me to the next question:

Question: Are Hobbit plays less relevant when they're performed by and for kids?

It looks like it. Strange, is it not? The Hobbit is a children's book. Let me elaborate on this:

Not only the Kentucky Opera's Hobbit, but also the National Children's Theatre of South Africa's Hobbit, and Wilde & Vogel's puppetry Hobbit (touring in German-speaking countries) barely rouse interest from Tolkien Societies or local fans. Is there no value in children's theatre to be found for adults?

Question: Are parodies not legitimate adaptations?

If the Hobbit is less interesting because it's for kids, and proper adaptations must be performed at renowned theatres, you'd think LotR-inspired plays aimed at fans of all ages would be interesting, but... no. Some of them are parodies.

Charles Ross' One Man Lord of the Rings played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for two weeks, no one batted an eye. Fellowship! even has an official cast album, but 'the' Lord of the Rings musical is the only one, right? And The Wizard of the Rings in Arizona may have played a popular local theatre, but it's also... a parody! While memes and fun edits are popular, parodies are not.

Question: Is there a bias towards English-language adaptations?

Also a clear YES. Popular Tolkien bloggers/websites/influencers often write in English for an English-speaking audience, which however DOES NOT always live in English-speaking countries. I found the Tolkien Society before the German 'branch', and I've met Russians who found out about the rock operas through me, who is running a blog in English.

Non-English language productions sometimes offer surtitles during performances, subtitles for official recordings, and live broadcasts to overcome language and spatial barriers. The interest for these is still remarkably small.

Question: Does official licensing play a role?

Apparently, yes. Maybe it's the same motivation that makes people ask for 'book-accurate' adaptations, the desire to see your favourite characters and stories represented as true to Tolkien as possible, and the trust in the rights owners to ensure that. Maybe.

What makes me think that? The fact that people are asking for Silmarillion adaptations even though multiple Czech musicals, a Spanish musical, and multiple Russian rock operas and musicals already exist! Of course, those aren't English, and they're also comparatively small productions, but they're written by fans with lots of love for Tolkien's writings in their hearts, and that should be worth something..?

Ultimately, I think, it's always a combination of multiple factors, and I haven't even mentioned the most important one yet: The majority is quite simply not interested in theatre. Or not in all of Tolkien's works. And it's always easier to love what's popular: as a creator, you get more attention for your works, and as a consumer, you have a bigger variety of things to choose from.