#i'm clapping for myself

[sakuraspoke]

ghost - from the pinnacle to the pit @ hellfest 2016 [x]

[tea-cat-arts]

Preemptively apologizing for the white text on a yellow background. Anyways, Golden Deer Trainer Cards!

[pyjamacryptid]

I'm currently rewatching the dark tower for reasons (fic reasons), and when Gwen said "Morgana's enchanted it to protect me," it rang an alarm bell, this time 'round.

"[...]to protect me."

hm. huh. you don't say. interesting. As in, the knights are the enemy not the rescuers? hm. curious.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it (i mean, hey, that's the fun of it), but that choice of language stood out to me.

[bonefall]

post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

[defilerwyrm]

CABINET!!!

Finally got this finished after working on it off & on all day. My metamorphosis into a middle-aged man is complete.

Top shelf has my leucistic Texas ratsnake; second shelf has my scaleless masque corn snake; the rest is storage for assorted reptile supplies like spare water dishes, hides, cork flats, fake foliage, etc.

[beliscary]

i lov self righteous self loathing martyr complex 'im built different' 'im right about things you haven't even heard of' hot temper/instant regret soppy wet pathetic sad... dion

[pollen]

letting myself unmask has been so nice at times because i'm seeing my boyfriend express joy much more readily too. who knew me being expressive and all that would do so much good!!!

[expressionless-fr]

excutive dysfunction vs imagining I'm working in a woodland mansion who will win

[blvckentropy]

Would you believe me if I said this was a random generated sim?

[likegemstone]

I spent several years so afraid that my writing might offend/hurt someone that even thinking about writing would cause intense anxiety and I simply didn't write for years. It even got to the point where I very rarely *read* anything because reading made me want to write, and that triggered anxiety.

When I finally started to write again (bc it's in my fucken DNA and I just. can't not tell stories) I had to tell myself that I was never going to let ANYONE read what I was working on, and I probably wouldn't even ever reread it myself. That was the only way I could get myself to relax enough to tell the story.

Writing/telling stories is how I have always processed and understood the world—all the messy, nuanced, confusing, painful, fucked up parts of the human experience. Stories are the only real way I've ever been able to connect to people in a meaningful way.

And for those years I wasn't writing, I honestly just wasn't processing my emotions, my experiences, my thoughts and opinions. Every confusing or painful or complex feeling or experience I had was utterly overwhelming. I slowly began to isolate myself more and more from everything because it was just too much.

In my attempt to make sure I never ever hurt anyone, I was slowly killing myself.

I have all this anger now. Anger aimed at the situations and relationships in my childhood that made me have such intense reactions to upsetting someone, at the spaces I was in leading up to this isolation that were so clique-y and judgmental and virtue signal-y that made me so convinced that any move I might make would be "problematic," and mostly at Me for letting this happen. For closing myself off and letting the world keep moving and growing while I sat there and just. rotted.

Even now that I'm writing again and even sharing my work, I catch myself sometimes watering Her Broken Magic down, to make it more palatable, less messy. I've done edits to tone down the characters' personalities to make them more "likable." And I'm pissed about that—that I've been made to feel like I have to, but also that I did it at all. HBM certainly still pushes the envelope in many ways, but it would be a much more brutal beast if I wasn't keeping its reins so taut.

It's fucking exhausting spending my life walking on eggshells. It's not sustainable. I will always be sensitive and arguably over-empathetic, I will always try to uphold my morals, be respectful and understanding, and I'll always feel awful any time I hurt someone. But I've had to accept that the only way to completely avoid hurting anyone is to not exist. To never have existed.

But I exist, and I don't want to be ashamed of that anymore.

[hungry-hobbits]

oh i started therapy a few days ago and i'm extremely excited to go back so please clap

[slow-clap-processors]

Artemis

Chell said nothing.

And that was her choice.

But if she had the last word, she’d say:

“Yes.”

“You didn’t ask,

If I wanted to go;

Not that I’m going to correct you.

Because if I had a voice it would be screaming,

I deserve better.

"It’s no wonder the portals are orange and blue,

One behind my eyes and one inside you;

Gateways leading to different parts of the same room

We both know how this puzzle is solved;

Just look away,

A click of the gun and it’s finished.

The sound of the radio echoing after my footsteps.

"I am a predator and these tests are my prey-

That’s what you said. I don’t know what to say.

A huntress? oh please,

You make me sputter in outrage and weak in the knees-

I always knew the cake was a lie.

Don’t worry.

No one was fooled by my act either.

"I am the moon, and I am not.

They banished me there and I have turned it against them.

I love it like a crow loves it’s nest,

High in a maple tree,

Fabricated from plastics and pure poison.

What I mean is, I’m used to bad dreams,

Limited breath, and things which are not as they seem.

"I don't sleep, which is fine

I don't prefer my nights to be restful;

Maybe I should.

But maybe instead,

You could turn off the emancipation grill,

And we could grow seedlings in the companion cubes

So they'll always have someone to sing to them.

"Don’t scrape the floors

Of the vines and trees,

Don’t wash away your scars for me.

I will banish the crows, but don’t ask me

To sing for you.

Don’t look at me like they do,

Like i’m some slice of delicious

Vanilla,

Crazy,

Cake-

I promise, I don’t taste nice.

"Notice how you never use my name?

Look me in the eyes,

Coward, Titan, I know

Your cameras will never let you forget.

A girl could never dream of a prettier headstone."

GLaDOS’s sister poem: Prometheus

[lre333]

(found)family dynamics ft. nose presets by @kashisun​ 🖤

Y’ALL i can’t wait for you to get your hands on these amazing presets - MARINE, you mfkin’ DID THAT, OKAY?!! *inSPIRED* had me up playin in CAS, making up whole damn backstories for sims i just met ~sigh~ they already got theme songs and nicknames cuz you had the NERVE to pop off on these wonderfully unique, character-filled, deeply customizable schnoz shapes ~ i’m in love <3333

a lil scenario occured while i was putting the family together, learning their quirks and how they interact with each other - an entire mess XD

in order of appearance :

vanity ; as “i’m watching my shows” non-snitchin’ witness / too pretty for this

snickers ; as accident-prone troublemaker crybaby / jealous he’s not the baby

ariel ; as perpetually sick-of-this-shit scandalized younger sibling / good sport

hunny ; as not the mess but has something to say about it / lowkey accomplice

mamma neptune ; as rough-edged at work, soft toward the children / the glue

[bookwyrminspiration]

ELYSIAN BIG NATURALS! (might need to turn up your brightness)

I shouldn’t be allowed to have procreate

(disclaimer: this is all a joke, and if you're uncomfortable, block the tag "elysian big naturals". If that's not enough, talk to me! I have anons on and would love to help solve the problem.)

[apocalyptic-dancehall]

tp-s!-era gijinka refs because i've been dying to do them for once. multiple versions too!

more details!! if you're not interested TOO BAD

- 5'1, average (if a bit short) height for his kind

- 20-21 years old by the time tp-s! takes place.

- i've said it multiple times, but i'll make it clear: the deranged result of splicing crab/craw worm genetics with that of a human's! resulting in these freaks <3

- although for whatever reason, he's not a mammal, or exactly one if we're being generous

- despite his strange looks, this is STILL that one yappity goofy dancing imbecile, except he has more limbs and swirly locks

- wears (apparently two pairs of) gloves for the specific purpose(s) of sparing people from the sight of bug hands™ (and protection from hazardous materials). imagine putting your hand in a bug's if it were human-sized. that's what it'd feel like.

- nothing's ever stopped science from making that new tail WORK. it's like a (freakishly long) third arm, and thankfully capable of bearing enough of anything despite its appearance. also prone to wagging like crazy

- ever since he's caught jack's eye, he wanted to impress him in more ways than one. unfortunately he manages to fall flat on his face in more ways than one as well. what little he and his employer have in common, absurd clothes are among them.

- to mirror his non-breathing gimmick in the game itself, he's got absurd lung capacity (also helps that he doesn't have a nose..) and o2 usage is delayed by about 5 seconds more

- plantigrade when he's got his boots on, digitigrade when they're off

- you know that trope where a character's hair is somehow compacted into a simpler shape? that's what's taking effect here

under the cut (at your own risk) vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

(side-note: i really wanted to put in the drop-shaped appendages of a mantis shrimp around his lower back, but i think it'd kinda clutter the whole thing up ekejjaiak)

>> another thing i wanted to put in here but - again - didn't want my phone blowing up over was blood stuff. i figured it'd be like. a light teal/cyanish with amber specks. maybe it got a bit warmer/greener around the more "human-y" parts of his body and remained cool in the crabby spots.

[livums]

I made a neocities site for my writing!

Check it out if you like! It's VERY under construction but it has the one 🔞 excerpt I have posted there so I can host it somewhere other than my writeblr blog lol.

I hope to maybe have it function as a full archive once I have a finished first draft of... anything... Wouldn't that be fun?

Feel free to sign my guestbook while you're there.... 🙈

Cheers!