#i have a certain perspective which colours how i see things

[cydork]

Alien Questionnaire - A Biological Perspective

A while ago, somebody linked me a very comprehensive worldbuilding questionnaire. For most aspects of a fictional society, it was great, but I noticed it assumed that anyone using it was making up a fictional human society, or at least a society of beings very similar to humans. As such, there was almost nothing in the biology department, which to me is one of the best parts! Thus, this questionnaire was born.

These questions are designed to help people worldbuild from a biological foundation. As such, the questionnaire only touches lightly on other aspects of a fictional society, and is more of a jumping off point. I wrote it with the aim of using it to develop aliens, but it should be suitable for any project with non-humanoid species, such as sapient terrestrial animals.

Have fun! I'd love to see your answers :)

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General Anatomy How many limbs do they have? Do they have limbs at all?

What are their primary manipulators? Where are they located? How does this affect their tool use, building ability, etc?

What kind of body covering do they have, e.g. hair, scales, feathers? How do they clean it? Do they shed this covering constantly, or all at once at certain times? 

Can they maintain a constant body temperature? If not, how do they deal with changing environmental temperatures? 

What kind of habitat do they live in? Both specific habitat, and broader such as on land vs in water.

What adaptations do they have for living in this habitat?

What kind of creature did they evolve from?

What are the similarities and differences to their closest living relatives? 

What resource(s) is the most necessary and urgent for them? E.g. for many animals, but not all, it’s water.

What are some common mutations? E.g. eye colours, ability to digest lactose in humans.

What injuries or illnesses are considered disabling? 

How is their healing ability? Can they regenerate? If they can, is that limited to certain body parts or a certain number of times?

Senses What senses do they have? E.g. sight, smell, electroreception, etc.

How good are those senses?

Which of their sense/s do they use the most in everyday life?

How might this choice of sense impact the way they interact with the world? 

Can they detect things that Earth creatures cannot? If yes, how and why?

Movement  How do they move? Do they walk, crawl, fly, etc? 

If they have multiple modes of movement, which is preferred, and why?

Which part/s of their body do they use to move?

What is their speed and endurance like? 

How agile are they? 

Do they rely mainly on their own bodies for travel, or do they use pack animals and machines? 

How often do they move around? Are they mainly sedentary, do they move a lot within a set area, do they migrate, etc?

Do they have different levels of mobility depending on age, sex, or other biological group? E.g. young barnacles are able to swim, while adults are anchored permanently to a surface. 

Reproduction and Lifecycle  How many sexes are there? 

Are there differences between the sexes (ignoring the reproductive system)? 

Are there different castes, such as in honeybees or naked mole rats? If so, what is the function of each caste? 

Are differences in sex or caste used to justify discrimination or hierarchy? How might these ideas differ in different populations? 

Do they have a concept of gender? If so, is gender affected by sex, caste, or some other factor?

How do they attract a mate? Do they release a chemical into the air, do an elaborate display, etc?

Does one individual try to actively woo another, or is courtship more mutual?

What do they find attractive in members of the same species?

What is the usual reproductive partnership? E.g. two individuals, one main reproducing individual with a harem, no set partner, etc. 

How long do they live?

How are young brought into the world? Live birth, eggs, spores, etc?

Is producing young a painful, dangerous process, or is it easy?

How much parental investment is there? Are there many young with little investment, or few young with a lot of investment (r vs K strategy)? Or is it somewhere in the middle? 

How many offspring are produced at a time? Think about how attitudes towards children may differ between a species that produces one or two, and a species that produces dozens or even hundreds at a time.

How do they grow? Are they born looking like miniature adults, gradually growing bigger? Do they have specific phases of high growth, like puberty? Do they have a larval phase, metamorphosis? 

How self-sufficient are they as young? Can they move around and feed themselves as soon as they are born? Do they require parental care? 

What is the usual structure of childcare? Single or multiple parents/related individuals? Communally raised? 

Is sex purely for reproduction, or does it serve other purposes?

What kind of sexuality is considered the norm? This doesn’t just refer to same/other sex pairings, but the culture around sex in general.

Diet and Foodchain What is their diet? Are they carnivores, omnivores, frugivores, insectivores, etc?

Do they feed off an unusual source, for example rocks, metals, or (in appropriate settings) something like magic or souls?

What physical adaptations do they have for this diet? 

Is their diet very restricted, or can they have a wide range of foods?

How often do they eat? What is the culture around mealtimes, if any?

Are they prey for other organisms? For each other?

If they are, how do they deal with it? Do they fight back, have barriers, or do they accept it as a part of life?

If they are hunters themselves, what is their attitude to killing other organisms? Are they respectful? Prideful of their kill? Is it completely trivial? 

If they are hunters, how do they hunt? Are they solitary or packhunters? Are certain members of the group designated to hunt? 

Are the results of foraging or hunting shared, or is it everyone for themself?

Are they parasitic, parasitised, or in a symbiotic relationship with any other organisms? 

Body Rhythms How often do they sleep?

What time of the day are they most active? Are they nocturnal, diurnal, crepuscular? 

Do they generally sleep for one long period a day, multiple shorter periods throughout, or something in between? 

Do they sleep to cope with extreme temperatures or bad conditions, i.e. hibernate or aestivate?

Do they have any biological processes that disrupt their life e.g. moulting, reproductive cycles, etc?

If yes, how does their society accommodate for these processes? Does it accommodate them at all? 

Communication What is their main method of communication? Sound, visuals, scent, etc? Think about their main sense and how this would affect communication.

What is their body language like? What small moving parts might aid their body language?

If they have multiple methods of communication, are they all given equal weight, or is one considered higher than others? 

Society How sociable are they? 

If social, what is the usual social structure? 

Are there hierarchies? How strict or relaxed are the roles?

How are disputes usually settled? Is it more common to be violent or appease the other party? 

If not social, what is the reaction to being with other individuals? Do they become aggressive or stressed? Do they tolerate each other? 

What is the usual size of a community? Do they have communities at all? 

Do they have an in-group vs out-group mentality? If so, how strong is it? This generally relates to how scarce or plentiful resources were during their evolution, and how territorial their ancestors were.

What kind of bonds do they form? 

On the spectrum of individualistic to community-oriented, where do they fall?

Do they have a strong sense of personal identity? Think about how this might tie in with the previous question. 

What are the main things they derive identity from? Occupation, gender, family ties, etc?

Do they have names? If yes, how are these names formed? Are they given by another party or chosen by the individual?

Have they domesticated any creatures? If so, what do they use these creatures for?

Do they have any unusual relationships with other creatures on their planet (beyond predation, parasitism or mutualism)?

Do they produce art? What are their main forms of artistic expression? Think about how this will be linked to their main sense(s), communication method, and/or primary manipulators.

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GLOSSARY Primary manipulator: Main body part used to manipulate objects, e.g. hands in humans, trunks in elephants, feet in parrots.

Sedentary: Inactive, staying in the same place.

Caste (reproductive): A group within a species with differences in body type and reproductive ability.

Symbiosis/Mutualism: Interactions where both parties benefit, e.g. cleaner fish getting a meal in exchange for picking irritating parasites off larger fish.

Aestivate: To become inactive during hot or dry periods, usually involving being sealed in mucus or soil e.g. lungfish, snails. 

Reproductive cycle: Regular hormone fluctuations that affect an animal’s fertility or attitude towards breeding. The cycles can range from months to years and can include things such as antler growth in male deer, heat cycles, and menstruation in humans.

[eveningepiphany]

welcome to the final show | H.S, part 2

the girlies asked so I deliver!

read part one here, or check out my masterlist!

summary: after the accidental cafe run in, harry and y/n have wound up with each others numbers. and are quick to go from casual texting to organising another time to meet up. including a cafe trip and an unexpected ice creamery visit.

warnings: fluff, swearing, minor mentions of alcohol, nothing too heavy, just our lovely italyrry who is the sweetest ever.

a/n: thank you all so so much for the incredible amount of support on the first part of this official series. and also for your patience in waiting for me to hurry up and post an update. i know it’s been like 2 weeks since the first part, but I really wanted to give you something i took my time working on <3

———

There’s a certain type of disbelief that comes around once and a while. It’s rare.

It’s the kind that you feel straight to your core. That randomly dumps on you during the day like a bucket of water, and leaves your head spinning like that very bucket came crashing down with it.

It happens in a single moment, but lingers for a long time after the fact.

That’s exactly how you felt after harry texted you first. Because not even a few hours later after you’d exchanged numbers, he sent you through, not only a message, but a photo of all things.

One that made your heart swell with its endearing qualities.

A photo of a plate, filled with the food you’d told him earlier that day was one of your favourites.

Sent with a further little message below it,

Your favourite is currently up for grabs at the family gathering. H

The way he’d signed his intial off at the bottom had you nearly throw your phone across the room at how adorable it was.

Like as if you didn’t even know who you were texting.

Again it strewn your thought— is he aware the kind of mental effect this is having on you? Because you’re borderline going to need to phone for an ambulance.

You’re a simple person. A fangirl, to say the least. This shit, despite being able to say ‘I’ve met and talked with Harry Styles for more than 10 minutes’ does not just disappear.

And you had promised yourself not to tell anyone that this had happened— or was happening? Because there would be nothing worse than this somehow ending up online.

And not to treat him like a flighty deer instead of a grown man, but you would hate for that to place a kind of distrust in his hands.

However, all of that self-agreement doesn’t take away the nagging voice in your head that just wants to tell at the very least your immediate friends and family.

But you’re proud to say— after a long 2 minutes of pacing around your hotel room— you manage to craft a reply back.

Well, only after a few rough and undeniably embarrassing drafts that quickly get deleted out of the text bar.

You’re back to sitting on the floor against the bed frame, facing the window looking out on the gorgeous colours of the evening Italian sky.

Heart pounding, and you’re sure this scene from a third person perspective would look like it was pulled from a hallmark movie.

Girl fawning over man’s simple text. Kicking her feet in the glow of Italian sun, with a glass of wine on the floor next to her.

You stared at your finalised message and decided if you didn’t send it now, you would spiral into a never ending pit of doubt. And just end up overthinking the whole thing.

So you just did it. And now on the screen, under his blue message, was your own grey one.

there’s no way. it looks so good! im gonna see if it’s on my room service menu tbh. consider me inspired.

You bit your knuckles. Acting up like a fucking teenager. Waiting for the shock to subside before you actually get up to find the hotel menu.

After you replied back, you were sweating, honestly. Anxious at the fact you had just sent a text to Harry Styles. And unlike a conversation, that shit is permanent. So too bad if it comes off embarrassing.

Which of course, it didn’t on his end. Unbeknownst to you, he almost physically gleamed at sight of your name on his screen for the first time.

You’d nearly dropped your glass of wine when your phone vibrated up on the counter of the hotels kitchen where it was charging.

It’d been about half an hour from when you replied, you’d since ordered room service and sat in your bed to watch tv.

You made sure to place your glass elsewhere as you ran over to grab your phone.

If it wasn’t already all gone I’d save you some. Any luck with the room service?

You’d replied back swiftly, disregarding any kind of waiting to text back rule. You were all too eager to wait.

i managed to score some up from the room service. didn’t look as appetising as yours, but it was still enjoyed. x

And at this, he smiled, looking at the Italian sunset as he thought of you with a curiosity he recognised as all too unhealthy.

———

If you had told yourself two days ago in that cafe, that you have had several full conversations with harry after getting his number… you probably would have laughed.

Yet its not a joke of any kind. You can pinch yourself over and over again looking at those texts, but all you’ll end up with is a bruise and they will be just as real.

But as you read over the most recently received one, pinching would have not been enough of a reality check.

Maybe a frying pan? Probably would do the trick.

You scanned over his words, rubbing your eyes like you were tired and seeing shit— even though you’d been awake since 9am, which was 2 hours ago.

Unless you have plans, I’m going to try this cafe a friend recommended me a while back, if you wanted to tag along?

[ 1 attachment link]

And there’s simply no way that this is happening? But after 30 seconds without a follow up text telling you he’s accidentally sent this to the wrong person, you sit up straight.

Well, you’re not about to ask him if he’s serious right now, so you channel every fibre of casualness left within you and use it to construct a response.

id love to! I’ll get ready to go soon if you want to meet there before 12:30?

That works perfectly. did you need a lift, or are you in walking distance. I can pick you up if you need.

You almost keel over at his offer, and the absolute gentleman move he just made.

You also realise you didn’t even look where the cafe was. Because if Harry Styles asks you to go somewhere with him the answer should always be yes. Figure out the means of getting there and back later.

Either way you open the link and get taken to google maps, and the cafe in question is literally a 10 minute walk away from you.

im in walking distance, it’s about 10 minutes away. so I’ll just make my way there at about 12:15! thank you for the lovely offer though.

And you move as quickly as possible from your bed to your suitcase, ready to tear that thing apart for an outfit.

You don’t want to be over the top, but you have to go with something on the shorter side because it’s already in the high 20’s and it’s not even afternoon yet. So you lug out the many summer dresses you crammed in there, hoping that one of them will strike your interest.

Some get tossed back into your bag as you filter through them, not making the cut for a variety of reasons— like showing too much of your cleavage.

Yea, a good few of them get ruled out for that reason.

But eventually— and thank god, because you were starting to loose hope— you find one that is perfect for the occasion. It’s all types of flowy and comfortable, but still maintains the pretty connotation that summer dresses are known for.

Before putting it on, you go into the bathroom and do your morning routine— fixing your hair as a final step, but deciding to leave it out since there is hardly any wind outside to make it a mess. Plus it will suit the dress.

You somehow managed to take long enough that the next time you look at your phone you realise it’s nearing 12:15pm a lot faster than you expected. So you hustle to get the rest of your shit together, and make your way out the door.

The walk there is as peaceful as you could imagine, just the sounds of chatter from passer-by’s and birds lingering in trees dotting the sidewalk.

But on the inside you are still panicking. The last time you’d meet him in a cafe was a total surprise. This time it’s planned, and that leaves too much room for your brain to overthink it.

As you finally push through the doors of the cafe you had found your way to, a tiny bell above jingles. But you’re hardly focused on it as you look to the front counter.

Seeing the exact person you were here for already grabbing two drinks from a barista at what you can only assume is a pickup counter.

As he spins around, he catches your momentary surprise, complimented by flushed cheeks. To this he smiles and nods you over with his head.

He looked excited to see you. Like a longtime pair of friends meeting up again after a while apart.

Your feet kick back into gear at his nod, following him over to a table that’s tucked into the corner. He had his pleasing bag slung across the top of the chair.

“Hi lovely,” he says the minute you’re close enough to hear his deep voice.

“Hi Harry.” You smile, heart still beating too fast. The words feeling different as they get spoken from your mouth.

He walks the few steps around the table, closing the gap still between you— and he doesn’t wait for you to hug him, he just pulls you straight into the warmth of his arms.

Wrapping you up in a way that you can smell the cologne lingering on the dip of his neck into his shoulder.

His accent is muffled by your hair as he talks gently, “how’ve you been?”

The common question has your head reeling. In its simplicity is still sweetness.

You pull back, his eyes training on yours, looking keenly at you, awaiting an answer from your almost shy lips.

“I— yes, I’ve been really good thank you.” You nod, how could you not be? Look where your standing, who you’re standing with.

“What about you…?” You ask, watching as the corners of his pink mouth upturn.

He’s freshly shaven, you notice, and your fingers twitch with the need to glide over the smooth skin of his cheek.

You resist as he answers, still relatively closer than you should be out in a public place.

“I’m doing well, even better now.” He raises his eyebrows, a cheeky grin coming on his face.

He revels in blood that rushes into your cheeks, reddening them up like you’ve just run a mile.

“Oh, stop it. You’re a bloody flirt.” You roll your eyes in an attempt to play it off, and you also take a step back to seat yourself in the chair at the table he’d picked.

Maybe he was a flirt at most times. But from his perspective, with you in a dress like that? Not to sound like he’s drawing on the one direction lyrics, but as if you don’t know you’re beautiful.

I mean, sure, he thinks you’re aware that you’re pretty. But in the way it’s working him up, you seem to be clueless.

Because he’s almost stumbling on his words at the sight of you, soft fabric flowing seamlessly over your tan skin, cutting off above your knees leaving him with thoughts that he should not be having in a public space.

But at the same time, he tries to convince himself it’s nothing but a wholesome coincidental friendship. Even though if at any point tabloids get a hold of this, it will be very very far from that.

You’re watching as he looks a little caught up in thought, and you chuckle at it.

The sweet noise breaks him out of it, and he’s grateful for that. It was a rabbit hole he was happy to just not go down right now.

“Can’t help it,” he shrugs, going over to his own seat.

“Now, i need the full story of what happened with your friends luggage at the Singapore airport?”

You let out a laugh, a little surprised he even remembers to bring it up. You had been texting about travel, and told him the time your friend had her luggage lost in a layover between Singapore and London last month.

“I mean, where did it leave it off?” You had explained a partial amount of the story. But told him, if you’d planned another cafe trip it would be a lot easier to explain the ins and outs.

And he was overly excited to watch you tell the tale. Watch the way your hands moved as you animatedly told the story, and the way your eyes get a little lost in thought.

He caught tiny glimpses of it the first time you’d met, but he craved to watch it happen in full. Among other things.

You told him how you’d had 12 hour layover, but that you guys didn’t want to book a hotel since they were so expensive. But you were still meant to collect your luggage— and everyone else but your friend Bonnie got it back.

“She’s Scottish, crazy red hair and she is like a fire cracker. She was actually at the last show, in the front with us, but anyway— so she’s running around Singapore airport accosting all the staff with her stressed out and angry Scottish accent.”

You went back and forth with the many fuck arounds of that day, how you went from halfway across the airport to a misplaced baggage unit per a staffs advice, only for the lady at the front desk to say it wasn’t there— and to go back to the support centre.

“It was not funny at the time,” you said, “but fuck, looking back now it’s pretty good. And it makes a fun story to tell.”

“So where did she actually get her stuff back?” He asks, frowning with a curious smile.

“Oh, like 6 hours after we originally got off the plan. They’d told us to wait up at that little customer support place and after like another hour and a half, some really frazzled guy came running up with it.”

And you laughed at the image in your head, sweaty and looked terrified he’d gotten the wrong bag, “We asked where it had gotten lost, but he just asked if it was certainly ours, then when we said yes he nodded and practically ran the other way.”

Harry was smiling so hard his cheeks hurt.

“God, is that quite a story.”

“See why I said texting it would have been way too hard.” You amend, reaching for the deserted cup of tea you hadn’t even drank out of yet, taking a sip.

Exactly how you like it, and you smile. Watching him watch you drink it.

“Just how you like it, yea?” He asks to confirm. But also lost a little in the way the liquid seamlessly travels from the cup down your throat.

“Yea, perfect.” You nod, clutching the warm cup between your hands, tongue swiping out over your lips.

“Anyways, what about your own crazy travel stories. Since you’ve done plenty of it.” You prompt, unaware of his remaining gaze.

The afternoon went of just like that. Telling stories and sharing funny little anecdotes that had you laughing so hard that tears were about to spill from your waterline.

You slowly forget that it’s Harry Styles you’re sitting with. And of course that sounds weird. But it’s like there came a certain point in the afternoon where he just became simply Harry.

Nothing more, nothing less.

It had been a rather long time you sat in that same cafe with him. So much that the chairs, originally very comfortable, had started to become the opposite as time flew on.

“Are these chairs starting to hurt your ass too?” He asks, humour lacing his tone as he watches you adjust yourself in the chair for the third time in the last 10 minutes.

“Yea, the metal seats are lowkey not it.” At this he laughs, the way you word things somehow being more entertaining than most.

“Well, cmon, I already paid, we can go for a walk if you want?” He rises from his place, and you’ve never stood up quicker.

“Braving the Italian sun at its very brightest are we?” You joke, smiling as he grabs his bag and slings it over one of his broad shoulders.

“Could be a big regret, could also be very scenic.” He says as you grab both your empty cups.

“I forgot to put sunscreen on as well, so might have a different colour forehead to the rest of my body but… oh well.” he shurgs, following you over to the small bin by the cafe door.

You’re immediately thinking of the time he went to a show after going out golfing and he had a sunburnt head.

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” And it takes you by surprise that the teasing words made it out of your mouth.

Yet, he seems happily indifferent to it, like it’s of course something you’d know, “Whatever you.”

Your laughing at his response as you hold the door open for him, exiting the cafe into the heat.

A tortured sigh is let out of you both at the swelter of it. The concrete pavement doing nothing but intensify it.

“I underestimate the weather every day here, I’m wearing too many layers of clothing to be dealing with this.”

“Take your hoodie off you dolt.”

He usually keeps layers on so that his tattoos are less visible. Since they’re often a dead giveaway of who he is. So his hands hesitates as they slip to the hem of his jumper.

“Don’t tell me you went out with just a jumper on, no other layers. In Italy?” You shake your head, still smiling as you slowly walk into the shaded part of the sidewalk.

“No— I did.” He laughs, “just m’tattoos usually garner some attention.”

He clarifies, “that sounded really egotistical, not the tattoos themselves, I meant people recognise me easier when they’re out.”

“Oh!” You stumble a little in your thought process. Feeling a little silly for not realising.

“I kind of like… forgot?” You say, coming to a stop as he eventually succumbs to the heat and peels the jumper over his head. Folding it up and popping it into his bag, glancing at you with a tiny breathe of relief at his new found ventilation. Hands moving to tousle with his hair in attempt to flatten it after pulling the jumper over it.

“I mean, i did. too honestly.” He agrees, continuing to walk forward.

You read into that a million different ways. But he makes sure you don’t get confused, “Y/N, don’t look so worried. I just mean you’re a very easy person to get… i dunno, lost in.”

Oh okay? How does one just casually continue putting one foot in front of the other after someone says something like that?

“You flatter me too much.” You roll your eyes, still as awful as ever at masking your shock or adoration for something someone’s said.

“Cmon, you’re just too humble i think.” He bumps you with his shoulder.

You’re laughing at him. But stop dead in your tracks as you stop something across the road.

“H.” You say, and he also comes to a halt. Taking a moment to process your use of his nickname. Like the way it so gently came from you.

Yet you sound almost dire, so he’s looking over where you are, scanning the sunny street for something that could possibly concern you?

For a moment he thinks it may be paparazzi, but this side of town is usually much better in regards to that.

He feels protective of you, “What? Are you okay?”

“There’s ice cream over there.” You say, hand coming up to cover your mouth a little.

A breath of relief fills his lungs, “i— you made it out like this was a life or death situation about t’unfold.”

Your expression turns to a grin, “no, i just love Italian ice creameries!”

“Can we please go and get some?” You glance back to him, and his own smile widens at your face. Gleaming with this unfiltered excitement over something so simplistic.

“Of course we can.” And you’re immediately grabbing his wrist to tug him across the road towards the shop.

“As if I could say no to you, anyway.” He laughs as he keeps up with your quick pace, clearly on a mission.

Once inside the store, with its pink and mint coloured walls and decor, you move to look at the collection of flavours.

The staples such as vanilla and strawberry, but then a small selection of more slightly diverse ones, like peanut butter brownie or salted caramel.

Their cookie dough ice cream looks amazing though, filled with chocolatey chunks of cookie. So you decide relatively fast that’s what you want.

And then you turn to Harry, whose eyes are still darting between flavours indecisively.

“What one do you want?” You ask, and he adverts his eyes to you.

“No I’ll order.” He shakes his head.

“No-no. Let me get this for you, please.” He goes to protest and you nudge him with your elbow, “don’t be stubborn. I want to get you something.”

“I— fine. But know you’re just as pushy as i am.” He scoffs with a laugh.

“I’ll get… maybe chocolate?” He points to it, and you nod.

The older lady at the counter is overly lovely, and you’re rattling off your order to her with a beaming smile.

Harry watches your interaction with her, and how you take a moment to compliment the heart covered apron she was wearing.

His heart trips over it’s own rhythm at the sight.

You pays and he still feels a little guilty, but figures he can make it up to you next time they go out by getting you a cookie or two with your tea.

You come back to his side with the two cones, stacked two scoops tall, and hand one to him.

“Thank you, you didn’t have to though.”

“It’s fine, Harry. Do you wanna find somewhere outside to sit?” You ask, turning to wave at the lady who served you as your slowly exiting the shop.

“Sure, i saw that little bench under a tree a couple shops down near that park.” He nods, taking his turn to lead the way there.

You shortly find the way there, sitting yourselves down on it, looking out onto a small playground with some kids swinging on monkey bars and sliding down the slide.

“Italian ice cream will forever be the best kind of ice cream.” You sigh out with pleasure, licking over the cool scoop.

He unwittingly is blushing at the sight, suddenly batting away mental images at the sight of your pink tongue jutting out of your mouth.

Shaking his head, he pushes them aside. “Definitely. You can tell it’s handmade.”

He busies his own tongue on his own ice cream, only stealing occasional glances to you at his side.

But he can’t help but tilt his cone to you, “Wanna try the chocolate?”

His offer comes as the equivalent of a brick to the head, but you’re invested in making yourself not seem psychotic.

So you nod nonchalantly, “i will, but I have a feeling that’s just because you want some of mine.”

“Mm, maybe I do a little.” He agrees, but any other coherent thought dies where it was in his head at you leaning over to his own cone. Your tongue running over the ice cream, collecting up its sweet residue.

You nod, “That’s so good.” Acting like you’ve got a normal internal monologue right now. Even though she’s hurling things at you that you can’t all process in such a short flash of time.

You just put your mouth where his has been! He is about to do the same thing! His eyes look a little blown out! What the fuck!

Pretty much what it sounds like up there, along with some alarm bells and screaming.

However you just gesture your cone to him, taking mental images of him mirroring what you did just before.

He hums a sound of enjoyment as he pulls back, glancing up at you, pinning you with his green gaze. “Good choice.”

You agree with a slight mumble, shaking your head momentarily to clear your thoughts. Ready to change the subject so you can internally recollect yourself.

“I only regret sitting out here since it’s melting so fucking fast.”

“I know,” he also settles quickly back into the normality of the moment, “i cant eat it quicker than the rate it’s melting.”

“It’s cold though, which is at least a win.”

Conversation trails on as normal while you finish off the ice cream. Discussing if biting the bottom off an ice cream cone is normal or not.

And before you know it you check your phone when you get a text from your mum, asking what time you’re able to call tonight.

She misses you heaps, you can tell. But despite the timezone difference you are making it work.

You also glance up at the time and realise it’s nearing 4pm. And you have just spent majority of the afternoon with Harry.

You also realise you’d agreed to have dinner with all of your friends in one of their hotel rooms tonight.

“Seems like it’s my turn to have to be the one to bail.” You say, popping your phone in your back pocket and looking back at Harry.

“That’s okay, love, what’s the plans for the evening.”

You explain that you’ll go over the the girls hotel room and probably just eat pizza, and then go back to your own room and call your mum for a bit.

He feels a little sad you even have to leave, which is odd, but he nods anyway, “That sounds fun. Solid plan.”

You reluctantly rise from your seat next to him. “So…” you take a tiny breath in, “am I the one picking the next cafe we go to?”

He beams internally at the fact you’re also trying to plan the next time you’re able to meet up with each other.

“I reckon so, Angel.” He stands as well, “I’m good for any day.”

Any plans he has can be rearranged for you.

“Alright!” You feel better immediately knowing you can see him again soon.

“Thanks for the ice cream too, by the way.” He says, walking back over to the pathway with you.

“It’s okay.” You smile, nervously being the one to give him a goodbye hug. A small flutter erupts in your stomach as his hands pull you flush to him around your lower back.

“I’ll see you soon, mkay?”

“Yea. Ill talk to you later.” You remind yourself that he’s easily accessible to talk to. You literally have his number.

“Bye H.” You give him a squeeze, pulling away with a smile, “Bye Y/N.” And you wave as you start the walk back to your hotel. Plenty of things to think about.

———

“Did you guys see the supposed pics of harry today on harryflorals? He was hanging out with someone apparently!” Nina asks everyone.

Only two of you hadn’t, including yourself.

She passes the phone first to you, and you frown.

“I know, looks like it’s taken on a potato.” She says, assuming your furrowed brows are due to the fact the image is really hard to get anything from.

Unless you know that park bench he’s ‘allegedly’ sitting on. And that the blurry figure next to him is almost certainly you— but no one else can tell.

“Yea… shit that is…” You pause, brain freezing a little, “bad quality.”

You hand her phone back. But caption of the post still festering in your head long after the moment is over.

HARRY *SUPPOSEDLY* WITH A GIRL IN ITALY TODAY! but this is the only pic we got 💔

———

ahh and that’s part two! I hope you guys are enjoying this, and I’m so excited to write more about these two. cant wait for you to see what’s in store for them.

thank you again for your patience while waiting for this second part, and to all the lovely people who requested this oneshot to be made into something more.

taglist:

@harrystylesgirlie @purple9950 @teamspideyman @rociolunaa21 @spiritofbuddha @lemonhrry @deamus-liv @lquvlly @kuntxrgraudunkelbunt @hsfanficsrecss

+ all the anons who sent stuff to my submission box, thank you to you guys too, all my love

[punkpandapatrixk]

🪩Your World-Changing Talents — Timeless Pick A Card

First, you change something about yourself, because you see the value in doing so, then you change your worldview. Second, you devote yourself to your Personal Happiness, because you see that happy people create better, kinder worlds, then you pursue your Art. Third, you jump timelines and shift your Personal Reality, and as you create your Destiny, so you sprinkle the world with excitement that is like that of your own~!💅🏻👗👒✨🦋

SONG for all piles: Tsukema Tsukeru by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

MOVIE for all piles: Kamikaze Girls (2004)

[PAC Masterlist] [Part 1] [Part 2]

[Patreon] [Paid Readings]

Reading guide: For those unfamiliar with tarot meanings, your ‘8 of Pentacles’ devotion—the second segment of this PAC—revolves around your almost sacrificial determination to pursue your Art. Whatever you choose to do with your Life, to become something great in this world… anything worth achieving in this world… always requires a certain degree of sacrifice. Dunno who the fuck came up with that Law, but that’s how it is in most cases.

Whether or not your sacrifices will be worth your while, is a pondering you can only answer after you’ve walked the plank and made manifest all you thought would be important to you. But remember this tiny fact: your Life Force has a time limit. So I always say, ‘If you’re gonna spill blood sweat and tears for anything at all, make sure it’s something that’s important to your Soul’.

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – Flame of Vengeance Incarnate

VIBE: Yoyuu by AKKOGORILLA

your untapped superpowers – 5 of Cups

I think you’re someone who carries a pool of regrets in your heart. You don’t always swim in it, but it’s like a weird aquarium of all your disappointments in a world you’ve come to know, and dislike, which you carry inside of you. When you were a kid, you already had set expectations about what you want to be or do with your Life. I guess you weren’t allowed to be yourself; weren’t supported in pursuing your heart’s true desires. You thought to yourself, ‘It’s not like what I like is a bad thing!’

People’s failure to understand where you’re coming from broke your heart—perhaps also self-esteem. You could’ve been made fun of for your unique perspectives. Because you were different, people acted as if you were out of touch with reality—like you were insane for even having thoughts and desires that didn’t match the norms. Your behaviours, mannerisms and fashion could’ve also been a source of your getting ‘bullied’ or belittled, in a manner of speaking.

Do you actually understand why you’re viewed so differently like this? The truth is, you’re an alien. You’re an astronaut with a mission. Two scenarios: 1. You came here to play whilst learning to understand the unique limitations that afflict the world of the Humans, 2. You came here specifically to break down conventions and boundaries because the limitations of the Human world are causing its inhabitants to stray even further from the truth of the Divine GOD of All That Is.

your ‘8 of Pentacles’ devotion – 7 of Cups

In a manner of speaking, you came into this world with a specific desire to not fit in, because your Soul’s purpose is to add more layers, shades, depths of colours into the Human experience. I hope that makes sense, seriously. You’re not necessarily a fighter of sort (you could decide to be though), but you’re just wanting to show people: ‘Yo, there are many ways to enjoy a Human’s Life. You don’t have to be restricted like that. Damn!’

Of all the piles, your rebellious spirit is the loudest. You could identify as an Indigo, Crystal or Rainbow Child. You could also have been born in the 50s, 60s, or you’re just generally into the punk aesthetic of that era. It was an era of vulgar charisma. Something about the spirit of rebellion of many artists during that era speaks to your Soul and could’ve inspired a pressing desire for Freedom. You like your Freedom and you’d do anything in your power to protect that Liberty—your sheer dignity for being alive.

You shouldn’t (you know you wouldn’t) stop dreaming your ideal Reality, no matter the oppositions. The drabness of the world actually pisses you off, and you want to fight that grotesque by being exactly your weird and wonderful self. You are fuelled by some kind of rage about the ropes put around people’s necks when it comes to choosing their own dreams or other people’s. You seek to destroy those ropes and avenge those whose flames of passion have been dimmed by their societies. You know you’d never allow yourself to be ordinary because your very existence IS your vengeance.

support for you to thrive – 4 of Cups Rx

I know you’re afraid of cages and lethargy. You’re most afraid of living the same days over and over again and repeating the same routines that have nothing to do with your Soul’s truths. You’re afraid of living the rest of your Life being normal, vanilla, unaccomplished, and above all, insignificant and unmemorable. This particular fear runs in the background of your mind and could cause you to want to be changeable at all times. But living on Planet Earth, a little bit of structure is necessary if you want to maintain any semblance of sanity.

Rather than being always ready to try all kinds of venue—to challenge or prove yourself in all ways to all people—try to really know the few things that actually matter to you. If you could devote yourself to only a handful of things that you know you will never regret dedicating your lifetime and energy into, you could become a real master of something meaningful. And if you do care about what some close people think about you, perhaps this is the best approach?

I think you could really change your world the moment you decide to focus. But first you have to find the precious light bulbs that shine a Light on the things that are treasures to your Heart. You probably won’t have enough numbers in your years to try and explore all possibilities, right? So, focus. Focus on one or two things that really matter. Below essay may be of some use😉

☆°・. Devotion to A Vocation .・°☆ | Punk Girl Culture + Pick A Card

PARADIGM SHIFT🔻💗

raison d’être by your Oversoul – Red Astrologer (William Lilly)

manifesting with the Magic of your being – Priestess of Innocence

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – All-Encompassing Spiritual Courage & Creativity

VIBE: NEXT LEVEL by aespa

your untapped superpowers – XIX The Sun

Since you were a child, you have always been different in that you saw the world with a brilliance in your Third Eye that allows you to see the deeper truths—as well as deceits—of the world. Always wiser beyond your years, you were practically a child sage. You saw through the black and white lies of the adults around you. And you felt a cold disregard for the mundanity of the hobbies and activities children your age were into.

You saw quite clearly some really strange things about the Human world that were normalised. And you couldn’t wrap your head around all this normalcy that wasn’t normal to you. In your heart, you promised yourself you wouldn’t be absorbed into all that insanity. So you created a world of your own that had nothing to do with the one you were part of. The world of your creation had only the colours you liked. It was separate from your immediate reality, but this inner world contained everything that would one day become your real Reality.

Of all the piles, I think you’re the most likely to become a celeb of some kind. Probably even a superstar in the entertainment industry. But whatever your line of vocation may be, you are definitely someone who will be recognised vastly by the public. Mostly for what you do to shine a new light unto this drab world of deceit. You could become some sort of a whistle blower—sharing with the world hidden truths that would liberate the minds of many people.

your ‘8 of Pentacles’ devotion – Page of Wands Rx

I think you’re someone who’s always been clear about certain evil and malice in the world that you think you were born to fight. But if you had to fight anything at all, it was that you had to fight for your place in the world. You believed that when you get older, you’ll be able to do something about all that’s wrong, abnormal, about the world. I’m not even sure if you’re fully aware of this, but…

Do you struggle within yourself to make manifest simple desires that should come easily to fulfil your basic needs—for your psychological and spiritual wellbeing? Manifestation doesn’t seem to work in your favour as easily as it does other people. You may have wondered what you’re doing wrong in the world for God to disfavour you so much. You can’t really understand what others are doing right for their manifestations to come so quickly.

But… easy come easy go, right? Your Soul actually has a very particular interest in understanding how the Devil works in this Matrix of a world we are living in. That’s why you’ve dealt with some serious lethargy and lack at some point in your Life. All for you to truly understand limitations, lack mindset, and many other trauma issues that typically hold people back from making manifest a Life of their true desires. If you can fully understand how limitations are set in place, you can unravel them for good!

support for you to thrive – Queen of Wands

If you chose this pile, there’s a very high chance you’re a Starseed. That’s why you refused to be like your environment or upbringing. You had this NEXT LEVEL understanding of who you are on a Soul level. You believed you were higher than the folly of Mankind. Sounds like arrogance, but what can you do when you’re literally nobler than the rest of Humanity, whose main characteristics are destructive, deceitful and bloodthirsty? You’ve always known you’re better than THAT.

Of all the piles, I think you’d resonate with the idea of never having your own free will. To some extent, it’s quite true because you’re like this important agent of change whose mission is too important to fail. From the Higher Realms, your Higher Self and team of Spirit Guides were almost controlling your every step so you’d always be guided towards your Highest Destiny. From your perspective down here, some things may seem unfair. But if you could’ve seen things from your Higher Self’s perspective, you’d understand how supported you are in this messy Game called A Human’s Life.

If you’ve resonated with this pile, please acknowledge you’re a very special individual. You really came to Earth to be a trailblazer of sort. You’re definitely going to be famous one way or another. And although you may be worried about certain aspects of Life right now, there’s a secret here: knowing how much of your Life is dictated by your Higher Self, do you really think you could ever fail—at anything, really?

I’d recommend you read the previous segment again with this in mind😉

PARADIGM SHIFT🔻💛

raison d’être by your Oversoul – Gold Alchemist (Roger Bacon)

manifesting with the Magic of your being – Priestess of Healing

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – No-Nonsense Happy Go Lucky Attitude

VIBE: 2 Baddies & Ay-Yo by NCT 127

your untapped superpowers – Queen of Swords

Okay, I think people underestimate you because of the way you look, or that you don’t talk a lot. But you’re a quiet engine. There’s a lot going on in that pretty head of yours. You’re really intelligent, in fact, so intelligent you’re literally a weirdo for doing things differently. You know what I mean? Prof Snape, when he was a student at Hogwarts, figured out unusual-but-effective ways to brew his potions more quickly, with results that were even more potent. He was a quiet weirdo, but he was a brilliant potion master. Potion making was his interest, after all.

Do you know what your hobbies are? Are you brave enough to admit the things that light up your world? You must have pride in the pursuits that give true spiritual meaning to your Life. It’s your Life anyway. If you’re a bit shy about having strange interests, try to really understand the reasons your fears/worries/anxieties arise in the first place. Whose approval do you seek and why do you care anyway? Babe, it’s up to you what you wanna do with YOUR Life. Always remember that. On another note…

Because you’re so cute, or small, or soft-spoken, or just really patient (maybe just on the surface?), people think your head is empty. Mean people get really confident thinking they can fool you with their stupid words and stories. But quietly, you always, always see through their bullshit. One way or another, you always figure out who’s been shit talking behind your back, too. Your intellect literally cuts through the stupidity of conceited people. People would never expect such sharp intelligence to be housed in such a pretty face.

your ‘8 of Pentacles’ devotion – 10 of Cups

When you want to do well in the world, I think you really want to do it for your community. Your community could be your family, circle of friends, or the world at large, really. I think you don’t give yourself enough credit for how much you care. I think people could see you as standoffish, always doing your own thing, at your pace, can be quite lonesome, but you do care, dang, from a distance.

I think you don’t really want to be in close contact with people because you feel constantly misunderstood by them. It breaks your heart and you’re just afraid your hatred would only grow if you allowed yourself to feel that way always. So you intelligently decided to be a little closed off—it’s all your own protection as you also protect people from your nastiness (when you get upset). I think you’re really smart in that you know how to strike a balance. You just want to live in a peaceful world.

When you’re alone surrounded by only the things you like, you’re at your best. You think people should all strive to be a little selfish but happy like that. I think you could really change the world via showing people how prioritising your mental health and peace of mind leads to a better personality LOL

support for you to thrive – 3 of Pentacles Rx

You definitely need to work on your own. At least, you need to have your own thing that you can manage just by yourself. You know, the world isn’t the same as 50 years ago. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, there are so many ‘jobs’ that can be managed alone. You can be an Internet creative in all kinds of medium. You could also be a solo small business owner. You could also be an online freelancer. You could also be an NFT miner or something.

I dunno, the possibilities for the future of ‘jobs’ are evolving constantly now and I think you’d be happy to know there are so many ways you can maintain your independence whilst avoiding dying alone and penniless. You don’t mind being alone; you just don’t wanna be penniless. And here is your confirmation that it is possible for you to live like that LMAO

Though I really think, when you’re much older you’ll eventually find your Soul Tribe and do exciting things with them. But that path will be accessible to you only after you’ve founded a solid base for yourself doing something you’re genuinely enjoying doing for the rest of your Life.

PARADIGM SHIFT🔻❤️

raison d’être by your Oversoul – Red Alchemist (John Dee)

manifesting with the Magic of your being – Priestess of Luck

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

[PAC Masterlist] [Part 1] [Part 2]

[Patreon] [Paid Readings]

[vulturesrottencorpse]

what do people have against closed fantribes??

i see lots of hate for closed fantribes and I honestly don't get it. Actually, I do, sort of, but I also don't.

I used to be one of those people who hated closed fantribes and would rant about them for ages until I found one really amazing one (won't be naming and less "popular" tribes BC I know someone's gonna go out of their way to harass them.) that switched my perspective completely

The main thing people have against them is that they are from an already existing piece of media (wings of fire) which hey that's actually true, that was my reason for hating them, however if you take that logic and apply it to any other thing like adopts, p2u bases, commission art, ect ect, then shouldn't everyone hate that too?

The second, and biggest reason is the prices I guess. People will rant about some certain poptribes (dewwings seem to be the main target) because they're expensive. I have some news for you. The artists who create drawing designs, or any designs from other fantribes, are all INCREDIBLY talented, and artists have the right to price their art how THEY think is fair. I thought everyone knew this but no, apparently not when it comes to this specific thing. Yes, dews can go for over 200$, but that's from auctions where people are actively choosing what they use their money on. You are not forced to buy a dewwing, or any closed fantribe. Me for example, I'm too young for a job or a bank account, yet I own a few, and several other closed fantribe characters, because more often than not there are alternative ways to get them!! I got my rare dewwing for FREE. completely free, through character trading. Some people also take art as payment!! What I'm saying is, 1, artists don't have to cater their prices to how YOU think is fair, they are the artist, they decide how they price. 2, said artists are super talented! Heartspark? WOW, absolutely stunning designs every single time! Honeybee st? GORGEOUS, genuinely makes the best designs I've ever seen (imo), eldragonis? IMMACULATE use of colour and anatomy, WOW. and that's just to name the most populous ones! Guys, they are popular for a reason! Their art is amazing, they spend their time creating these gorgeous pieces, just for people to attack them and tell them their prices are too high and not worth it? 3, you do not HAVE to pay money! There will always be ways to get characters from closed species for those who may not have the money to spend, if they didn't, let's be honest, they would fail as a community. Nobody is grabbing you by the throat and screaming at you to spend 200$ on this legendary trait dragon character! So then, why should you care if people who do have that money to spend use it on that? It's their money they can spend it however they want.

Instead of veiwing closed fantribe owners as scummy money hungry evil overlords, and start viewing them as they are, artists making a living by doing what they love!

(psssst, this post isn't an invitation to start drama, if U wanna share it opinion plz do it respectfully 😭 <3)

[conflictofthemind]

what are ur thoughts on gnc will?

This will be a long winded one.

Short of it: yes he is gender non conforming. I don’t think he’s particularly “girly”, but it’s this nice touch of the feminine he carries. There’s other users on this platform that have probably discussed this in a more proper manner than I have, and certainly more than I will writing this ask. I’m just going to give my own flavour of take and personal anecdotes about the topic under the read more 🙃⬇️

Honestly I find it a very underrated topic of discussion in this fandom that otherwise likes to discuss the same things over and over again (all love because I do it too with the added bonus of being new so often I don’t realize).

I do think it’s because the fandom isn’t very conducive towards it. There is a small but sometimes loud portion that likes to assume you have some secret nefarious reason behind any ‘gnc will’ posting (i.e. stereotyping). Or say by pointing out certain things as feminine, I’m being regressive and misogynist. Whereas I have another profile where I almost exclusively discuss female characters and often gender in those media. This is not a new topic to me (which I’m sure you’ll see).

In the first season he is absolutely a damsel-in-distress. He’s kidnapped by a monster and is hiding away in a ‘castle’ while his friends must come to rescue him. This continues from then on, but is the most obvious in S1.

We see the two characters that tend to chase him down when he is upset or in danger being Mike (duh) and Lucas, who are the two most masculine members of the party and play corresponding roles in DnD as Paladin and Knight. Even in the painting Will makes of the party, it features the party (Mike highlighted) facing off against a dragon. In that game the boys play in the arcade, the goal is defeating the dragon to save the princess —

— which is also such an iconic image of particularly Sleeping Beauty, who is a princess trapped in a castle. I have a whole idea centered around this one for later.

So in terms of role he has definitely been given a traditional female one. Even within the Byler relationship, Will stays in that passive ‘yearning maiden’ type position who is waiting for her true love to confess his feelings first. As Mike should.

All of that might have been very controversial because quote unquote ‘boxing Byler into gender roles’ is regressive (even if the characters intentionally fit these princess/knight archetypes, oops!). Personally I don’t find it regressive at all, I find it interesting to look at things from this perspective. Part of this labelling is the deconstruction of the tropes as well. Will can’t and is not going to remain passive in Season 5, so how will this be dealt with and how will it affect specifically the Byler storyline?

I’m especially interested in whether he completes the transformation from Princess to Witch 👀 but my fairytale posting might get some entries of its own.

Now what you provably mean irt clothing and gender presentation:

The answer is still yes. I think a lot of the reason people deny Will as being gnc is because he doesn’t look the part. But instead of thinking about why that might be, the conclusion is made right then and there.

Will wears clothes that are mostly hand me downs from Jonathan. Their family is poor and if he does get ‘new’ (read: personal choice) clothes they are almost certainly from the thrift store. He has no option to even try and experiment with.

In the original pilot the Duffs actually wanted him to be identifiable by ‘colourful’ (read: girly) clothing, and did keep a bit of that in his Will the Wise outfit that is customized and only worn when he’s comfortable and in his element. The original conversation around the table was Dustin poking at him for wearing a wig and purple gown:

My personal headcanons are that he would keep the natural colours because they are pleasing to the eye, but would experiment and branch out with slightly cuter designs once he is out of Hawkins’ claws. I think the femininity in his style would be kept fairly lowkey apart from certain DnD reunions with the party where he might pull out a costume with some experimental and colorful makeup.

Like, I own an 80s vintage sweater that I think he would wear:

I hope the theoretical reader enjoyed a look into my closet lol. But yes, I see Will as gnc (very broad term there btw) and it is a part of my enjoyment of the character. I am mostly a fan of female characters, and the few male characters I do really stand behind usually have at the very least a few gender non conforming traits.

<- All of this is said as a lesbian who doesn’t necessarily consider herself gender non conforming, but also doesn’t fit a lot of major feminine ideals. I’m butcher than the average twenty year old woman solely off of not wearing makeup, not shaving, and being gay which I do consider as particularly gender nonconforming for women.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Hi I’m not the greatest at this kind of stuff so could you explain the arrows and Eddie a little? The danger one is pointing away from him and the other one is pointing to him ? Thank you In advance!

Hey Nonnie

I’m not entirely sure I have the arrows figured out myself at this point, but I can give you my current thoughts on them!

So the first arrow - on the black helicopter with danger written on it. In the still it’s to the right of Eddie (as we look at it - his proper left) but in the actual scene we see, it’s on the other side of Tommy pointing towards both Eddie and Tommy. Remember this is being shown to us from Bucks pov, so this could be telling us that the developing friendship between Eddie and Tommy is a danger to Buck.

Now the second arrow is less clear, but my current interpretation of it is that it’s about Buck looking past Eddie and focusing on Tommy. The reason I think this is because of what else we can see from that perspective - which again is Bucks pov.

Buck and Eddie build the yellow tripod - which creates a triangle - a play on the Buck-Eddie-Tommy triangle that is developing, buck is in one section of the tripod, Eddie in another and in the blank section, is a blue for lease sign and the arrow appears to be pointing toward it (from a flattened camera perspective, in reality we know that it’s pointing down the road to the left of the building the sign is on). Leases are temporary things, so the arrow pointing to the for lease sign is perhaps saying Buck should look past Eddie temporarily. That looking past Eddie, will move things forward for him - that he needs to look elsewhere for a bit.

I want to point out just how much yellow and blue we saw in play at both scenes - the blue plane and uniforms and the yellow helicopter at the airfield, the yellow tripod, the blue sign, blue shop front behind Eddie and the blue post box (??) on the wall next to the lease sign. The later scene at Bucks loft is also yellow blue coded (as is the basketball game to a certain extent) and yellow and blue are a colour combination that is used loudly in queer narratives - heartstopper, fellow travellers, rwrb and many other shows have used this colour theming to great effect.

This is the loudest we’ve seen it’s use in 911 since the beginning of season 5, when it stepped up a notch before chilling back down to the there but not as obvious levels we have had for a while.It’s important in relation to the arrows because it is telling us that Buck is headed in a queer direction and also that the queer direction is the right one!

Hopefully this makes sense, but like I said this is just my interpretation right now - we’ll see how things play out next week and over the rest of the season, but it’s worth keeping an eye out for arrows in Bucks and Eddie’s (and Tommys) scenes together! 🩷💜💙

[kx0e]

do u have any advice for ppl who wanna get into art? (^_^)

i'm basically just gonna give you the advices my art teachers gave to me ^^'

long reply

i personally recommend starting with traditional before trying digital so you can have some muscle memory and the very basics

so my first advice would be to buy a small sketch book (A5 for exemple) and a some medium you want to try (paint, markers, watercolour etc...) and you're just gonna draw everything you see that's interesting to you.

this is gonna teach you how to observe which is the most important thing to know how to do in art no matter what you want to draw !

here's some example from my sketch book

if you want to learn human anatomy, i recommend you read the MORPHO series, and in school you learn in order so first the bones, then the muscles, don't rush it's difficult but i promise it makes you improve a LOT !! (i can screen some of my notes i made in class if you want)

it's important to learn realistic anatomy even if you want to draw semi realist or cartoon

this is my general advice, to get into art you have to be patient and motivated, draw what you want and have fun ! don't be scared to try new things too its very important !!

if you want to learn colour theory, perspective, compo, and certain medium watch tutorials on youtube, or domestika they will teach you way better than i ever could lmao

[gaybellethorn]

listened to a little bit more of the first book yesterday, namely the party scene in chapter 5 or 6 or whatever. <3

loooove the detail about apple having this completely different opinion on headmaster grimm to raven. it mentions that when their parents were in school, the commoners weren't allowed to interact with the royals. but grimm implemented different rules because every tale is important no matter how tall, or whatever. some big grandiose statement

and apple thinks this was a wonderful idea from grimm, and that the whole school will benefit from this.

HOWEVER. we get a detail from maddie later about how it's so cool getting to see inside the royal common room, compared to the commoners common room which is much dingier

THATS SO FUNNY. LOL. apple is praising the headmaster for making the school so much more inclusive but it only extends to a party at the start of their final year. the rest of the time the elite are kept segregated. jesus christ <3

anyway with perspectives, so far from apple's pov, she hasn't seen much friction or had any issues outside of raven being a bit awkward around her and, now, raven ruining briar's party. apple is kind to her at the end and doesn't seem to blame her, but as the book goes on i wonder if you get the impression from apple's pov that Everything Would Be Perfect if it wasn't for raven being at the centre of every hint of tension. she's her villain after all !

im really interested to see how apple's perception of grimm develops throughout this series. id be interested in a readthrough of the books where you read all of raven's chapters together, then all of apple's chapters together, and see how things play out from each pov. especially with how they get treated by certain characters and how that'd colour your perception of them if that's the only side of them you're seeing

sidebar, like with maddie, i love how apple does not get her at all. lmao. especially as a contrast to raven's really lovely friendship with her. like maddie is wearing her dress upside down and the other girls are saying how it looks so fab, and apple is trying to join in (making it about herself <3) like "lol i don't think my dresses would work upside down </3", and maddie says "hmm maybe you should make yourself upside down and the dress will fit right side up :D" and apple like. unblinking says "...okay." END OF CONVERSATION LOL. SO SO SO FUNNY SHES SUCH A CUNT.

meanwhile, from raven's pov, she's had nothing but friction from everyone! between her mam at the start and worrying about her destiny and her magic coming in wrong and everyone treating her with fear and disgust, she gets a completely different view of the school and this society. just such a cool framing device to really point at how this system fucks people over and perpetuates all its own problems, turns designated villains into da joker baby, etc, and how easy it is for all of that context to go over the royals' heads even while they're perpetuating it

that being said, i loooove the choice to frame the party from apple's pov, really really clever. apple tries to bring raven into the fold of the party when she's already feeling vulnerable, raven gets her feathers ruffled by duchess, and suddenly raven's raising her voice and her hands are getting hot (looove the description of this and how apple lets go 😔) and she's shooting out spells which turn the birds into snakes. everyone's fears are founded now that raven's threatened everyone and ruined the party, and i love this first "villain" act from raven being framed from the royals' perspective. raven isn't given the interiority in the moment, she doesn't get to process her feelings on it with us, she's treated as this third person unknowable bad guy who can't control herself, she's just built like this apparently

taking raven's perspective away from her in her first real villain scene (evil queen wrecking the princess' party, following that sleeping beauty plot beat) and making us spectate on it, along with the rest of the party, feels so gut wrenching. this is the first of every successive time in her life that she doesnt get to be the main character in her own life, she only gets to be a fuck up at best and malicious at worst and it's never about her, it's about the harm she inherently causes

the closest we get to raven's pov in this is apple going back to their room afterwards and finding raven in bed, holding her pillow over her head (with an evil goblin face pillowcase from an evil goblin bedsheet set apple bought her INSANEGIRL I LOVE U).

but again it's apple's scene, and apple gets to give us her assessment of the situation as the moral of the story. she tells raven smth like "yes, school can be hard, but in real life things are gonna work out." ill need to find the actual quote bc apple says it's the thing that's gotten her through everything else, and she thinks raven should learn to take comfort in it as well, she doesn't need to be hurting herself like this. AUGH.

i also really really loved the conversation between duchess and raven, im so ready to become a duchess girl finally.

them trading jabs with each other based on their endings was soooo juicy and revealing <3333333 why are you lying to everyone pretending you have feelings about this, why can't you just own being a villain this is so pathetic vs at least im not gonna die sad and alone with my only ambition being to get with a boy who never wants me. GIRLS GOOD GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's so bitter and cruel, digging the knife in as any means of leverage, at least you're fucked by this system too

pairing these two together is so interesting, i love how their jabs are so revealing of their own insecurities as well. duchess needing raven to be faking any depth of feeling because she needs these destinies and archetypes to be written in stone, there can't be any wriggle room, there can't be any hope for anything else. it's pathetic to hold out hope for anything else. :(

duchess bringing up raven's dad as this boring sad loser who's being lying to her that she can be a boring sad loser too is interesting, the book seems to be doing a lot with raven's relationship with her dad. and this is specifically the thing that sets her off and has her magic go haywire. really interested in where that plot ends up going!

there was a detail when raven first walks into the room and a gust of wind follows her and a chill comes over everyone. she apologises and says smth like "huh that's new, still trying to get a hang on all this magic stuff haha.....". with raven in her final year and all these powers coming in, her body changing, forcing perceptions/expectations of her to change - there's definitely parallels being drawn between that and puberty/coming of age/being perceived as a woman and this sense of a ticking clock before she's doomed into this role shes forced into. there's really interesting commentary there about girlhood/womanhood and also trans raven rights. 🎉🎉🎉

[tothepointofinsanity]

I have a similar-ish art style to you in the sense that a lot of my art just by the way I stylize certain features makes my it look creepy. This is a huge problem for me because I do genuinely love drawing cute stuff but I can’t because of my art style. I don’t want to completely change my art style because one that would take forever but two drawing things that are scary and creepy help me cope with my agoraphobia and paranoia. I know this is more of a do you have advice than a proper question but what would you suggest I do?

(side note: I ADORE YOUR ART!!!! I especially love your Sayaka work as a massive pmmm fangirl)

Hello, firstly, thank you for taking your time out to write out a long ask. (/ _ ; ) <- Grateful. I’m not a reliable person to ask things about in terms of art given I’m not a professional or good at it, but as usual I will try my best to answer your question here.

I suppose there is a perspective that what constitutes as “cute” differs from everyone, and often I’ve noticed that things that are cute can also be creepy simultaneously depending on context, not just by changing styles alone. Kyubey is an example of this, if you must. It has all the markers of “cute animal design” - round eyes, large bushy tail, cat-like ears, and in the show it behaves like a cat hopping around and perched on the shoulders of the magical girls. Yet it’s not restricted to the interpretation that it’s just cute, since later on there are different things which make it creepy. The context of what the alien creature represents, for one, or the way shots of it are accompanied by a gloomy, industrial background which contrast its bright, supposedly cheerful colour scheme, or how there’s nothing humanly sentimental in it whenever it focuses on Kyubey’s eyes. These transitional details are what balances something that can be deemed both creepy and cute, although not everyone might share this perception.

You don’t have to change your art style, just the way you want to stylise cuteness in your own way. This could mean cutting down “realistic” details for the subject but still keeping the way the background is coloured or textured, for one. Cute things can be achieved also by being simplified. I think Kyubey would look terrifying and not cute at all had they went with a realistic cat design and not an “anime” styled one. One reference I often think about is the way Gekidan Inu Curry captures the dichotomy of Sayaka.

In this example, the highlight is the “size” or composition of the subject. Sayaka on the left is closer to the audience, so we can see her details clearly (how tall she is, how her eyes look, the shadows coloured over her heart). It makes her seem menacing because she’s so close and doing strange things. Yet it has a retain “moe” charm to it because the way it’s coloured and being sketched that it seems…cute. In its own way. Sayaka on the right is sitting further away and enjoying a drink atop a mountain of fluffy Anthony balls. It’s worth noting as well how her eyes in the second picture are more simplified, being drawn on as dots, but the style does not outright lose its creepiness [the weird, dated shading on the umbrella, her hair being textured darker, the background being a fuzzy red].

What you could do is try thinking about how something that is cute would look like in your style. If that makes sense. It is a sort of attitude that affects the approach of your art. Thus it’s strongly encouraged to experiment with what you can draw in your current art style instead of needing to change it. If a rabbit is cute, can you find a way to make it look cute in your style? What is the core appeal of the thing you like? What elements are making current results unsatisfactory by your standards? What do you have to adjust? — Those are questions you’ll venture the answer yourself, and the more you draw, the more your style changes on its own, organically, so don’t worry about it. You may not be able to draw cute things today or tomorrow, and you will likely struggle to get the process of it, but eventually you’ll certainly be able to draw the diverse things you really enjoy without having to sacrifice the personal components of your art’s identity and what it ultimately means to you. With all that said, I’m not sure how realistically useful my suggestion or advice will be, but I will nevertheless be supportive of your endeavours. Good luck!

And thank you! I love drawing Sayaka, so I’m happy people like seeing her just as much. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶!

[scrimblyscrorblo]

Any tips for coloring traditionally? I have no clue what im doing

Valid, I don’t even feel like I know what I’m doing most of the time lol

- Usually I like to test the colours first, like a lil circles to see how they look together before. It’s typically best to start with your lighter colours , the darker ones will cover up mistakes and you can layer the shading

- Be loose with it, at first I was a real perfectionist about colouring w markers and it made me not want to do it. But once you kinda accept there’s going to be a mistake or two, you can kinda breeze through it a bit more, not to say don’t take your time tho - the colouring process is fun and tedious when it wants to be

- And don’t be afraid to use colour palettes from shows or characters you really like, already! That’s actually good to get a feel for how different colours work together and why.

Sorry these are so long TT

- The only other thing I might suggest is that when I sketch in pencil first I sometimes hatch over certain parts to get a feel for the values.

Like which parts are gonna be darker and lighter so it feels like colours of the same value aren’t going to blend in too much.

I hope these help this is mostly stuff I’ve learned watching professional artists’ process, usually Drawfee, highly recommend!

They do different Drawclasses for stuff like anatomy, colouring, perspective etc for free on their drawfee vods channel

And of course keep trying, the more times you try something the more it’s gonna get easier! Good luck!!

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Hello World! (Blood Blockade Battlefront)

Now the world is brightly painted/With colours that I chose for it/But I wonder what the scars I didn't choose would even mean/Thinking I'm the only hero/The center of the world I know/But until the end, and without rest, up on the stage I'll be What can I do?/I can't even pretend that I'm empty

"A lot of the lyrics in this song talk about choosing to go on living life, and living life to the fullest. All the experiences you've gone through and how they've changed you, and how your own world can look so different after your perspective and mindset changes over time or after something impactful. For me, the very music and singing and the way it's sung gives me this feeling of someone bearing their soul for all to see, and it makes me quite emotional yet happy, as I connect very deeply to themes of chosing to live my own life and seeing the world differently over time. I also love the visuals for this opening of the anime, because it both articulates the song perfectly, as well as the story and vibe of the show!"

Love Like Ghosts (Lord Huron)

I don't feel it till it hurts sometimes/Oh, go on baby, hurt me tonight/I want ours to be an endless song/Baby, in my eyes, you do no wrong/I don't feel it till it hurts sometimes/So go on, baby, hurt me tonight/All the spirits that I know I saw/Do you see no ghost in me at all?

"The use of ghosts as a metaphor for ghosts is just. so good. The idea of being haunted by your pasts love/seeing yourself as a ghost because of love is such a fascinating idea like?? Referring to the concept of love with "what ain't living can never really die" is really interesting because the love was "never living" meaning....that the love wasn't real? that the love was one sided? that they were never in love at all? it could mean a thousand different things and the entire song is skewed from the perspective of the narrator. The character narrator's of LH songs are....notoriously unreliable to put it lightly, and this one could be viewed in the same way. The narrator is adamant that the person they're singing to doesn't truly love them, but doesn't want them to leave her, but we have no way to know that for certain. She implies that the person is lying to her and doesn't truly want her with the line "You don't want me baby, please don't lie" but again, we don't know if thats true. It leaves this song is such a weird state of leaving the listener guessing and walking away with their own meaning of the song."

Hello, World submitted by @puppet-limbo

Love Like Ghosts submitted by @danidoesathing

[i-dont-pay-taxes]

Umurangi Generation: The last generation who has to watch the world die - quick review/analysis

Umurangi generation is a first person photography game set in a fictional cyberpunk-ish world where humanity is facing an extinction level event. We follow our voiceless MC and his group of equally voiceless (yet endlessly stylish) friends on their trip around new zealand.

The game is split into 8 different stages, consisting of classic punk street slums, restricted rooftops and military bases. Our goal is to take pictures of certain objects or people around the map within the 10 minute time limit, these tasks are called photo bounties. The game also includes bonus objectives with every mission, like collecting all hidden film canisters, taking a photo of all your friends, or finding a spot to recreate the picture of a postcard you are shown in the pause menu.

Stage 1 - The start of your photography taking spree is a small rooftop brimming with graffiti and the punk spirit. This stage acts as the tutorial of the game, containing easy to find photo bounties and collectables. The main thing of note is about this stage is just how nostalgic it makes me feel. To be honest, I've never gone onto restricted rooftops full of punk graffiti, yet the amazing art direction and colour palette make this place feel like a sanctuary of teen angst, as if I've missed countless conversations between friends which have all moved on. It invokes that same feeling as seeing years old graffiti where someone confesses their love to a person you have never met. A painful hit of nostalgic melancholy. All in all an amazing stage which sets a great starting tone for this game.

Stage 2 - Turns out i forgot to mention that the indie punk environmentalist game has a complicated relationship with the government (the UN to be specific). The second stage is set on a UN military base which is riddled with tired soldiers and graffiti expressing anti UN sentiment ("I just wanted meaning in life yet here I am" and "My dreams of being an audio engineer are over." are some of the more notable ones). The base is a clear sign that the UN is trying to stop whatever world ending event is happening, much to the dismay of the people. The stage also contains a hint at what might be causing all this, with a sign counting the number of killed "squids" (they look like jellyfish but fine). Upon completion of every stage we get a new camera lens or picture editing option, and this stage requires smart use of the camera lens we got on the past stage to earn a bounty, teaching the player about smart positioning. At this point in my playthrough i had assumed this game had a strong anti UN sentiment, but later I found another way of looking at things, that comes later tho. Not my favorite stage, but a well done one nonetheless.

Stage 3 - Anyone else love cyberpunk? For me it's not the futuristic technology or sci fi story that's intriguing, but the lively backstreets and (depressingly) squeezed housing. This stage is just that, with even more anti UN (and cop! how political!) messaging, so much so that the stage is a no UN allowed zone, with cops not even responding to any crisis calls. From a gameplay perspective it's a way more vertical stage, with a few bounties being hidden up high on the rooftops. Not much more to say about this one, past complimenting it's amazing design.

Stage 4 - If the stage before was about realistic cyberpunk streets, that being dirty, cramed and depressing housing, then this stage is about the cyberpunk utopia. Bright neon signs and loud dance parties can be found above a tunnel filled with the homeless (and more dance parties!). This stage aint for me, as I dislike the bright neon colour scheme... still, it provides a fine, I'd even say amazing, set up for the next stage (remember that). An interesting thing we see are these huge UN walls blocking off all exits. While they were present in the first stage, their position was far away. This stage is, in my opinion, the worst in the game. Not that bad to be the worst stage in this masterpiece of a game tho.

Stage 5 - The bright streets sure were relaxing, what follows them is logically a warzone. Stage 5 starts on the same UN base from stage 2 (yay, reusing assets in a smart and clever way!), but a huge battle has started between the soldiers and... a giant jellyfish squid godzilla thing? The spawn point of the stage is like a flashbang, with people in front of you fighting for their life. The contrast between this and the rest of the game is amazing, and shows how it's not afraid to make darker stages to tell it's story if need be. The stage from a gameplay perspective offers a bigger challenge, with the player having to avoid squid corpses and find their bounties in a pretty dark area. One of my favorite stages as well.

Stage 6 - My favorite stage. A train ride after the battle that happened on the stage before. Everyone stands around in a surprisingly relaxed way, taking their time. From an outside perspective this level of stoicism (while admirable) is completely unnatural, yet when we take into account the seemingly inescapable and unstoppable ending of the world that is to come, that level of calm nihilism is only logical, even if depressing. The photography we do feels like a distraction this time, an unnecessary hassle. This game may present itself like it's about photography, but by now that's clearly not the case. It's about facing the end.

Stage 7 - The train stopped and the last bastion of human bureaucracy is left doing things that bureaucracy does. People stand in line waiting to get let through a UN checkpoint. We don't see anyone actually moving, or really doing anything, we just see people waiting, not even annoyed as it doesn't matter if they are let through or not. Some people are dancing, not even bothering to step in line, deciding a death embraced is the best way to go. We take our pictures as usual and continue, as there is nothing our camera can do to help.

Stage 8 - Back where it all started, back on that same restricted rooftop. It's nostalgic melancholy is finally realised as we watch the giant godzilla jellyfish squid thing threaten humanity. Humans arent really meant to face death, you know? Our friends stand around, some sit and look, some dance, we take pictures, but really none of us know what a proper response would be. The UN built a big fuck off robot thing to fight the damn godzilla, i mean that just aint the action of someone who's accepted death. And so we wait, our destruction ensured, taking out final batch of photos. I can't call that nihilism, I think it's not a lack of hope, but an acceptance that hope won't help.

One final photo - We are transported to a beach, no context is needed. We are dead. Humanity is dead. As we look up we see the thing that caused our doom, and our last action is clear.

After pulling out our camera, a click can be heard, following which are the credits. At the very end it says: "Umurangi Generation: The last generation who has to watch the world die".

My own interpretation of the story - At first, as I've said before, I thought this game had a straightforward anti UN message... and to be honest, it somewhat does. Still, I believe this is moreso a story about what being a generation that has to face the death of humanity is like. We are destroying the planet, to say the least. We are watching our world die, and the generation after us will also have to do the same, so to be the last generation who has to watch the world die is something both overwhelmingly scary, but also indescribably easing. The ending of a book is always somewhat relaxing, no matter if good or bad.

I don't think I need to point out the obvious connection between global warming and the story of this game, but i'll just add that one of your friends is a penguin, and I chuckled when i got the irony of being in the same position as the penguin, losing my life to something i can not stop.

The anti UN sentiment this game provides is a direct response to the mishandling of major national crises in the year of 2020, from my personal reading this game isn't so much against the UN as it's against the damaging of local citizens and cultures by the UN's mismanagement.

Conclusion - The game is fucking good go buy it already!

[slowsweetlove]

On Beauty for Vogue (please visit the original article)

Excerpts that I loved.

On relaxation

Recently I’ve been going in the sauna and cold plunge a lot – which I do love. It helps to make me feel like I reset. As far as switching off, I like to read – just sit out in the sun, under a tree or something and read a book – it always helps me relax.

On his morning ritual

I prefer a slow wake up. I’ve gone through periods of time where the first thing that I do is work out or something like that; lately I like to get up, take a shower, take my dog for a walk, make a cup of coffee you know? Journal a bit – kind of just start the day getting my mind centred.

On morning beauty

Not really. I just take that shower and that’s about it.

On his fragrance approach

My approach is that I wear fragrance depending on how I want to feel, kind of how I get dressed. It makes you feel a certain way so that applies to my life. I have some days where I wear fragrance and some days that I don’t. The first time I ever used fragrance in a role was when I was doing The Iceman Cometh with Denzel Washington here on Broadway. During rehearsal I started putting this specific oil on my wrist, and I’d smell it before starting and then that ended up becoming sort of a trigger that would get me into that emotional state for the show. So every night before I’d walk out I’d smell this. I’d use it as a way of bypassing the conscious mind and getting down to the emotions. The true power of fragrance.

On his earliest experience with fragrance

I’ve layered [fragrances] since I was a kid. The first time I remember wearing perfume or cologne at all was when I was a child and I was sneaking in my parents’ room. My mom had this really floral scent that I’d spray on, then I’d spray my dad’s woody sort of scent. I used to mix them together, so as a kid I was doing that.

On beauty tips he learned on set

Before I’d ever been on set, I’d never really done any beauty things. But you have a lot of early calls when you’re on set and they’ll put those eye patches under your eyes. They actually really help! I always feel like it moisturises under the eyes. I keep it simple though. I like to put on some face oil or something like that and that’s about it for me.

On his skincare routine

I really don’t [have a skincare routine] besides Amy [Komorowski] who does my make-up. She developed an oil that’s for your face called Circa 1970, and she gave me a bottle of that and I love it so I put that on my face. I get out of the shower, put that on, and go. I don’t really do anything else.

On his wellness philosophy

I think it’s all about your mind, you know, about keeping your mind in a healthy place. My mother used to do this thing where she would write 10 things she’s grateful for every morning. I’ve done that – some days I write three things I’m grateful for in the morning. It just kind of shifts your perspective and reminds you of how lucky we are just to be alive. It can colour and change your day in a positive way – focus you on little things that we can be grateful for. I prefer to do it in the morning because [the way] I see it, when you sleep, sometimes it’s like you wake up and your guitar is detuned and you’ve got to tune it. So, usually doing something physical that gets the blood pumping in some way wakes you up and that’ll change my state.

On beauty

I think beauty is less of an objective thing than it is a way in which we experience the world, because when you think about it, you could walk by a beautiful rose and be having a bad day and you won’t appreciate it. Or, you walk by it a thousand times and stop seeing it for what it is. But when we take the time to really be present, and actually take in the world with all of our senses, there’s so much beauty around us in every place. I think it’s more of the filter through which we see the world.

[thebestofoneshots]

I’m not trying to be rude because it really isn’t just you (which is sad) but normalize saying “white-coded” reader please, it’s very tiring to read a fic then seeing something like “you blushed” “your cheeks turned pink”, if your intended is white people then clarify that please.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I appreciate your honesty and the opportunity to reflect on how my writing may unintentionally exclude certain readers.

Your point about "white-coded" language in fiction is valid, and it's something I've been reflecting on recently. While I may not have initially considered the implications of phrases like "your cheeks turned pink," I did read a post about it a few weeks past and now I think twice about the way I write things since they can inadvertently reinforce a narrow representation of beauty and emotion.

Lately, I've tried to move into things like "blood rushed to your cheeks" and, "you felt the skin of your face warm", and while in the past I might have written, "your cheeks turned pink" I have actively tried to avoid it now.

Having said that, the example that you provide, "you blushed" did jump at me a little since I have never considered blushing as an exclusively white reaction. I am not white, and I blush, so I decided to do a bit of research, since, perhaps, my idea of blushing has been wrong all along.

According to Felix I D Konotey-Ahulu (a consultant physician in General Medicine & Tropical Medicine at Cromwell Hospital in London) "blushing is far more than a mere cutaneous phenomenon" (Ahulu, 2004). He states that "not being able to ‘see’ the rush of blood does not mean it has not happened" (ibidem).

Now he does speak of a "white definition of blushing", that being that your cheeks turn pink and/or red, but blushing, really blushing, is not inherently related to the colour changes of your skin, but rather to the feeling it evokes: the embarrassment, the shame, etc. At least that's how I've always seen it.

If white-centricness has turned it into something that it isn't, the rest us shouldn't be feeling as though we cannot blush because our skin isn't pale enough to let it be evident, because then, in any case, we're just letting the white appropriation to topple over the meaning behind words.

Blushing is not exclusive to white people, and it never has been.

Implying that it is, is just falling into the same idea of otherness that whiteness has imposed over years of colonization, but we ARE all humans and WE ALL feel fundamentally the same emotions. Blushing is a reflection of emotion more than a physical (discernable or not) reaction.

I'm not saying I have never written "your cheeks turn pink," I have, and I think it's more to do with the media that I've consumed than with me wanting to exclude any skin tone from my texts, as you mentioned, I am not the only one to write like this, and it's because we are all reading the same books and unfortunately, those actually ARE very white-centric. Now it is not an excuse and I certainly should and WILL be more careful with the way I word things, but I'm STILL learning how to write.

I apologize if my writing has made you feel excluded or overlooked. That was never my intention, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to rethink my approach to things.

Moving forward, I will be even more mindful of the language I use and strive to create a more inclusive experience for all readers. Your feedback is invaluable in helping me grow as a writer, and I thank you for bringing this important issue to my attention, even if I found the manner in which you sent the comment a little confronting (and slightly upsetting), as it felt like you were making assumptions about me and my intended audience.

However, I respect your right to express your feelings and opinions, and I value the ability to have an open discussion and move forward together, even after this initial confrontation.

I'm committed to making positive changes based on your insights.

Bibliography:

Konotey Ahulu, F. (2004). Blushing in black skin. Blackwell Publishing Ltd , Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. Retrieved in: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1473-2130.2004.00040.x

[brw]

What current X-men comics are you going to continue reading? I’m definitely dropping NYX but I have mixed feelings about everything else

I'm definitely keeping up with Exceptional X-Men and the Abjectiveless X-Men series! I'm pretty here for both writers, and I'm excited to see MacKay continuing developing this team dynamic. I know people aren't sold on the art, but I honestly don't mind it. The colouring isn't my favourite, but the art feels reminiscent of early digital comic art, which I find kind of charming. I'm a fan of the issues functioning as single stories, as opposed to large multi issue arcs, but that's purely a personal thing in how I prefer to read.

Exceptional X-Men I've been really excited by, I especially love the character Bronze and can't wait to see her develop. It feels unfair to compare it to Uncanny X-Men at this juncture, because we're only on issue 2 of Exceptional, but I like this group of kids more, they feel more grounded and like kids I could meet and get to know more. And I'm definitely excited to see how Eve L. Ewing will write Emma and Kitty as a black woman, I think that's a perspective that's really needed on both characters, so I'm really looking forward to this series! It's probably my favourite of the lot currently.

Uncanny X-Men just isn't for me, and that's fine. I'm not much of a Gail Simone truther (she's like Dan Slott to me where I just think deleting Twitter off her phone for even a month would do a lot of good) and none of those characters are really ones I particularly want to keep up with so it isn't something I'm keeping up with, but that isn't because it's bad, I'm just not the target demographic.

I think I'm probably gonna stop reading X-Force after this issue, that's how upset I actually am at the treatment of Nuklo. It feels incredibly ill-considered, which is shocking in a 2024 comic. Comics published in the 80s, while often difficult to read, at least have that excuse that information and tact around these things wasn't quite there, but having a bunch of heroes beat up a high support needs autistic man is genuinely really upsetting to me. We can do better. We deserve better. I know they're X-Force, and aren't meant to be standard heroes, but there wasn't even an acknowledgement that Nuklo is a high support needs autistic. And given the very real world experience of some autistic people getting attacked and sometimes killed by police in the middle of meltdowns, because of the complete lack of empathy towards us (which goes double for black autistic people), I find it really distasteful and upsetting that this was written, to be honest, and I feel really let down by Geoffrey Thorne by how poorly handled this was. I might give it one more issue to see if there's any acknowledgement of this, but I'm feeling pretty negative towards this series right now, and I feel let down by how few people seem to be bringing up Nuklo's autism. There was a chance here to do better than the past and try and be more empathetic to high support needs autistic adults, which is so often lacking, and that was ignored in favour of having a big adversity our heroes could hurt.

NYX I'll honestly keep reading out of morbid fascination, it feels so egregious it feels like it has to be leading up to some dismantlement and critique of Sophie's behaviour, but considering who the writers are, I won't hold my tongue for that either. Definitely on a "never buying a copy of" pile (although I can really only afford buying two of these consistently)

Not reading any of the 1000 Wolverine books ❤️ I don't care ❤️❤️

I wouldn't say I've been enjoying X-Factor but the reaction against it has been so over the top from certain people I'm honestly reading it out of spite. I'm gonna let them cook, I'm a little interested to see how things pan out. Hope Warren comes back but I like seeing Frenzy and I find that suicidal Grandmother really funny as a character concept, tbh.

Oh man, what else is there. Don't really care about Phoenix, it honestly just feels like various power feats than any actual character introspection work and I really don't care. I liked seeing Cosair but I'm not charmed enough by this take on Jean to bother reading on, to be honest. Dazzler was honestly disappointing, but in a boring way where I don't really have any larger complaints to make. Just kind of mid. I haven't read Sentinels yet but I've really liked the work of the writer on the current X-Men Infinity Comic so I'll probably read the first issue and decide if I want to keep going. I liked Storm. People kicking up a fuss about the Orchis shirt is honestly so silly to me, like Storm in this current iteration is not the character to be expecting bloody violence and revenge from. Read Wolverine instead chief. It's only the first issue, but I had fun!

I think that's about everything! A mixed bag, but there's so much that I think there's something here for everyone, which is the one positive of how bloated this lineup is, but I guess after how many damn X-Men titles we had during Krakoa it makes sense to keep the numbers high if they're selling.

[miniar]

To mourn the memory of innocence.

Most if not all of us can remember something from our youth, something that meant a lot to us, something that coloured our world in a positive sense, that we later learned wasn't all that great, and I've been thinking of that recently in connection with the ongoing conversation about a certain wealthy author and her crusade against the human rights of a small marginalized part of society.

The innocence of youth is a frequent guest star of these conversations and while ignorance is often the more accurate word, innocence isn't exactly wrong, it's just, the children aren't the ones who are innocent in that context. I mean, children are innocent, but the "innocence of youth", to me, is more about how in our ignorance, in our naivete and lack of worldly experience, lack of knowledge, we tend to assume that all the things we enjoy are innocent.

There are two ways this hits.

One is that we don't see the damage done by prejudiced tropes baked into our media because we just don't have the knowledge or perspective, the other is that we want to believe that the authors, singers, actors, creators of all kinds that have brought us such joy, relief, etc, are generally good people.

And then we grow up.

We grow up and start to unpack lessons we internalized from that which we truly and honestly enjoyed, and start to see the damage.

We grow up and start to learn how even the most beautiful art can be created by someone capable of selfish cruelty.

And it hurts.

It sours the memory of things that meant so much to us, that helped make us who we are today. Things that are still a part of who we are.

Songs we sang along with feel bitter in our mouths when we listen properly to the words, knowing what we now know about the people who made the music, the background sound of our youth.

The tv-show laugh track feels cold, mocking, cruel, in the background of the photo of our smiling faces.

The book's spine feels heavy and crooked and wrong on our shelves, not because of how we used to read it under the covers when we should be asleep, but because we now know where the money the author made from it is going.

And It Hurts.

We find ourselves mourning our own ignorance, sure, but more than anything, each of us has been betrayed and we may even feel as though we've been taken advantage of, tricked into becoming complicit with those that have and still do harm.

Every time we sang their praises to a friend before we knew, before we could understand, feels like a sin.

And It Hurts.

I get why it'd be easier to pretend that the harm never happened. To close your eyes and choose to remain ignorant, but that doesn't solve anything. It doesn't heal us. It doesn't help us. And it doesn't stop the harm.

It makes sense that some of us aren't ready to mourn, aren't ready to face the reality of the situation, but that will not change it.

Maybe, one day, a person will grow up and learn that people are flawed and some people are really very not good at all, without looking back at their youth to find the ghastly presence of bigots and abusers dotted throughout the background of memories, and have to work through and reconcile the harm fed to them and fed by them to find their peace with their own past, but that person is probably not born yet.

The world hasn't become what it needs to be for that to happen... yet.

The only way we can get there is to demand better of our entertainers than bigots and abusers. And that starts with refusing to keep promoting and funding bigots and abusers.

It hurts to mourn the memory of presume innocence of that which gave you joy. It hurts to grow sometimes.

But we have to let go of that which does harm or the harm will only continue. Choosing to hold on to these things out of desperate nostalgia makes it worse.