#in a very bad situation

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You're just not toxic enough.

[stars-obsession-pit]

Danny always hated Vlad’s attempts to forcibly adopt him, but honestly at the moment he found himself wishing he could go back to them.

Because at least he wasn’t blood related to that fruitloop. Unlike his newest problem.

Oh yeah, it turns out after that whole series of fights with Vlad about him being “Jack’s son”, Jack wasn’t even his actual biological father. Vlad had never known it (despite literally cloning him??), but Danny had been adopted by the Fentons when he was still very young.

And if that’s where things ended, he’d have been fine with that realization. The Fentons are still his family, blood or not. He doesn’t have any issue with that part.

But it turns out his biological father was another creepy rich fruitloop who somehow suddenly found out about Danny and now wants to force his way into his life. A fruitloop that’s even richer and evidently also better at being subtle than Vlad.

Bruce Wayne.

Yeah. He’d never thought he’d use the word “subtle” to describe Gotham’s ditzy playboy, but evidently the man was hiding a lot behind his dumb smile. If not for Tucker’s hacking ability and his own experience with being Phantom, he’d never have even noticed he was being spied on.

But he did notice, and now he’s been barely functioning from the anxiety. They must be planning something, but what? Are they going to try to hurt his family? Blackmail them? Do they believe the GIW’s lies? What if they find out about his powers? Can he even do anything to fight back without Bruce using his money to ruin their lives?

[mooneggtarts]

Say hello to Jumping Spider AU! Where Orange DIDN'T get to talk it out with Alan and was dropped to the Outernet. Where TDL got into another massive fights with TCO much more early that got them seperated before Orange was created and the whole Virabots thing (TCO kept the house. But only cause TDL refuse to live in the same house as he is)

TDL is convinced that he doesn't care about TCO, or that now he's alone, he doesn't need anyone! Until some Orange kid with the same head as him crashes onto him. Literally. Fate seems to hate him (or pity him?)

[aethersea]

I do think Blazing Saddles handled its one depiction of native americans very poorly, and the full extent of its representation of chinese workers on the railroad is they were literally just there. not even one single speaking line. unclear if this is worse or better than the redface.

it's fucking phenomenal at lampooning antiblack racism though. extremely blatant, extremely funny satire, which is constantly and loudly saying "racism is the philosophy of the terminally stupid at best and morally depraved at worst, and we should all be pointing and laughing at them 24/7"

plus the main character is a heroic black man who has to navigate a whole lot of bullshit but is constantly smirking at the extraordinarily stupid racists and inviting the audience into the joke. the one heroic white character is a guy who was suicidally depressed until he met the protagonist and they just instantly became buds, and he's firmly in a supporting role the whole time and happy to be there. the protagonist saves the day with the help of his black friends from the railroad, and uses the position of power he was given to uplift not only those friends, but all the railroad workers of other minorities too, in an explicit show of solidarity.

anyone saying "Blazing Saddles is racist" had better be talking about its treatment of non-black minorities. it had better not be such superficial takes as "oh but they say the n-word all the time" or "they have nazis and the kkk in there!" because goddamn if that's the full extent of your critique I very seriously suggest you read up on media analysis. there is too much going over your head, you need to learn to recognize satire.

[whirlpool-blogs]

hey remember when the vibes were so off in plymouth that quentin musty called his dad to come pick him up?? idk what could have possibly tipped him off tbh...

was it greg cronin's underage street fighting classes? is it the fact that your parents have to sign over legal guardianship and power of attorney to billet parents? the same billets who receive monthly checks from USA Hockey and therefore have it in their best interest to keep receiving those checks?

was it when they forced 15- and 16-year-olds to dress and undress in the public hallways of the USA Hockey Arena for a month until they "earned" the right to privacy? you know, those hallways that have security cameras up in the corners? but don't worry about that. the NTDP staff has plenty of experience of storing, editing, and streaming hours and hours of footage of their boys!

not that the kids have anyone to complain to, really! after all, after the Jack Hughes class the NTDP switched to 100% online school instead of regular high schools like Plymouth High or Northville High where there are, oh I don't know, mandated reporters who aren't also paid by USA Hockey, or god forbid other kids they might befriend outside of the hockey bubble.

what could possibly go wrong or unreported in a system like that? ha ha! surely not USA Hockey, who hired Brad Aldrich AFTER his sexual abuse scandal with the Blackhawks! surely not NTDP, which emphasizes "breaking down the individuality" for the incoming 15-year-olds!

(not my own words, of course. words from beloved NTDP founding member and pillar Kirk Culik, the man responsible for team and culture building, player mentoring, and off-ice conditioning for 20+ years, whose only qualifications pre-NTDP seem to be boxing coach/thoroughbred horse trainer/corrections officer, and who was later charged of murdering a 16-year-old boy)

again. i don't know what musty was possibly talking about. this is a totally normal place to make teenagers change

[vaguely-concerned]

This might be due to the fact that on my first playthrough I ended up creating a Rook more emotionally guarded than any of the companions except Minrathous-route Lucanis and perhaps Neve, so I was primed to look for it, but I never got the sense that the companions don’t care for Rook (the thought never even occurred to me until I saw other people post about it) — to me it seems much more like it’s Rook who keeps the last bit of distance, Rook who pulls away when the companions try to extend their care or worry too directly, who keeps themselves slightly apart. (Rook who is so full of grief they cannot know as grief and thus process that there’s no room inside them to let anything else all the way in, perhaps.) They deflect and flinch back when someone gets too close or approaches them too overtly about their feelings — especially when it brushes up against the theme of grief. They can offer care to all the companions who are grieving, come along to any number of funerals as emotional support, but the moment someone turns that towards them they shut that shit down Immediately, like when Taash almost gives the whole game away with ‘Like you’d know? You act like you haven’t lost anyone!’ and Rook just blandly responds ‘We’re talking about you’ and doesn’t engage. But they can also admit that they struggle with accepting compliments, or knowing what to say, or having confidence in themselves without Varric’s help.

Despite all their determination and even in their most stoic no-nonsense incarnation, Rook is awkward, with the struggles that entails. Someone who is eager and happy to be the helper wherever they can, and helplessly unequipped to know how to be the helpee, as it were. It’s not that the companions don’t return Rook’s attachment to them, there’s MUCH more of a ‘okay so what are the ways you will allow me to be good to you??’ desperation of care vibe behind all their invitations to conversations and hangouts together, to my mind. They bring Rook to their favourite places and share the things they love with them, they ask to spend time together (many times just to have their company, not because they have a problem they need help with! Sometimes the problem arises anyway b/c video game quest narrative of course), they bring them out for some direly needed grass touching, they introduce them to their families. Everyone is clearly getting the sense that Rook does Not want to talk about Varric especially (this is in fact what Harding says in banter, if she’s still alive after the reveal :’( ), but they are absolutely SCRAMBLING to find ways to show that they’re there for them even so. AND from the companions’ perspective, with the situation as they have the means to understand it, accepting that Rook isn’t ready to have that conversation and backing off is also a kind thing to do. (tl;dr: To Me Rook is that weirdly socialized friend who is a great hang once they’re actually there but you have to directly invite them or they don’t quite know how to initiate the contact themselves lol) 

Just as a crushing sense of responsibility for their family is a trait that is built into Hawke no matter how you play them or how you make them respond to that, I feel like Rook — however helpful and earnest, warm, charming, jocular, stoic or straightforward they seem at a surface glance — is always someone who struggles deeply with connecting to themselves and other people. (Emotional Intimacy, the Final Frontier.) As, indeed, is the case with all of the Veilguard companions too! It’s clearly a deliberate theme. These are all lonely people struggling with their sense of identity and belonging in some sort of way. AND having, working on and eventually starting to overcome these difficulties also makes Rook a direct foil for Solas, who doesn’t learn that lesson unless you corner him at the end of the world to force feed him his medicine lmao. They don’t manage to break out of the regret prison under their own steam, it’s because even struggling and grieving they have managed to create mutual bonds with other people who show up for them in turn now — and with all the protective walls of denial around what happened to Varric crumbling and making them less of a stranger to themselves, Rook is finally able to let them. An outcome Solas seemingly didn’t even consider to guard against, because he’s become that deeply entrenched in his loneliness, the utter isolation of the self — he can no longer truly imagine an alternative. (It’s not that he can’t form these bonds, obviously, it’s that he resolutely refuses to value them. Whether it’s because he feels like he doesn’t deserve it or out of a need for control or the martyr complex where he must sacrifice everything he loves on the sacrificial pyre of fixing his mistakes, all of the above and more, the result is the same. Mind!Varric, who I think is mostly Solas speaking, even calls this out directly. So yet again a situation where he has some self awareness about it and it doesn’t help At All haha. Solas falls to the temptation of making people into tools again and again and again, no matter how many times it comes back to bite him in the ass and the eternal solitude it traps him in.) 

And that deep deep loneliness… There but for the grace of… well the theological state of thedas being what it is right now, let’s just go with the grace of Something, Presumably go you as well, Rook. The same capacity/tendency to pull away from connection clearly lives in them as well in some form (again, for whatever reason and with whatever motivations and instincts behind it for any individual Rook). Solas and Rook coming together to create a blood magic paper doll of the mind Varric in response to acute loss and loneliness is one of the most deep , deeply fucked up and invasive acts of intimacy I’ve ever contemplated. I don’t think that’s accidental, there’s something There’s Something Wrong With You (there’s something wrong with you that’s also wrong with me (derogatory)) here that resonates no matter how both parties would hate to hear it. (A fitting legacy for Varric and his wild ‘I made my best friend into a story because it’s the only way I know how to love with this desperation of sincerity’ brain to leave in the narrative, methinks. I feel he’d appreciate it on a craft level, if nothing else.)

If you read through all of Rook’s potential backstories, one of the common threads through all of them, along with a certain maverick ‘I’ll do whatever it takes’ streak, is a sense of profound alienation. They did something or have some sort of quality that made it hard for them to fit in with the group they’re from, causing a conflict that cuts them off from parts of their identity as it’s been up until now. All of which also adds to how important Varric is to them — he was clearly able to break/see through some of that and be closer with them, even in the relatively short time they spent together. No matter what else goes to shit, they can trust that a) Varric sees them, b) he genuinely likes them and believes in them not despite who they are, but for it, and c) he’s got their back, we’re in this together kid. And then he is gone, and it takes them the whole game to be able to bring themselves to accept that and know themselves again, be able to let new relationships in fully. The very understandable ‘the last time I let someone in, they got stabbed before my eyes and the world ended’ flinch away, even if they’re not consciously aware that’s what it is. Anyway I love Rook. So much space to play around in here as to WHY they might feel or react like this, even when the framework is more defined.

[sentientstump]

im making glass shards to eat yum yum

[m45t3rc0mput3r]

I've seen multiple people frustrated with Doey as "bad DID rep," citing the "evil alter" trope. I, as someone with DID as well, respectfully, disagree, and I would like to explain why. Explanation and spoilers for Chapter 4 below.

My main argument is that Kevin, the "aggressive" alter, is not evil. He is hardly even painted in a bad light.

Kevin is a scared, traumatized, tortured child, and he acts like one. Can anyone blame him for reacting with violence after being turned into a toy monster? After being experimented on? After being abused and parentified? After his home and loved ones were destroyed in an instant, just when things were looking up? I would be more baffled if someone DIDN'T react aggressively to such horrible situations.

Like the other components of Doey, Kevin seems to want to keep the younger children safe. This sometimes involves aggression, which is also a completely natural response to everything he's been through. At no point does he really do anything "evil." Doey is an antagonist, not a villain.

In my opinion, Kevin seems like a rather fair example of a protector role in a system. The job of a protector is to, as the name suggests, protect those in the system and possibly others that system must care for. This can include through PHYSICALLY protecting the system and others. Some pieces of media bastardize protectors particularly by turning them into evil monsters, but Kevin ONLY reacts aggressively when it is completely just to do so.

If you walk away from Chapter 4 thinking he was an evil alter that deliberately ruined everything and not a scared, traumatized, abused child reacting to horrible circumstances, that is missing the point and is reactionary. Not all protectors are perfect. Not all systems are perfect. Especially not ones in this situation. It is not "bad rep" to have an imperfect system rather than one that is perfectly held-together and acts perfectly at all times, never doing something possibly morally disagreeable.

[howaboutnosiree]

Just finished rereading Crooked Kingdom again after a few years and look – I understand being pissed at Kuwei for kissing Jesper, that wasn't cool, but where did this idea that he was some conniving schemer out to sabotage Wesper for entertainment come from? Like the story makes it pretty obvious that he was just a 15 year old with a giant crush on the cool unattainable older guy. I went into the book expecting more asshole vibes and less boyfailure vibes from him. I believe we as a fandom must reevaluate our understanding of Kuwei.

[bistaxx]

I do love the idea of most of the characters being in a "sleep" state with their dreams being whatever games the streamers are currently streaming like yeah-

like yeah in Fit's dreams he's living on a farm he inherited from his grandfather in a small rural town, Bagi and Pac both coincidentally dreamed of working at a supermarket, Foolish is stacking fruit in his dreams, Cellbit drempt of being trapped in some sort of ghostly murder hell school then later of being a puzzle solving professor, Roier escaped his rat astral projection and was Melissa in his dreams but now he's rolling down the streets of San Andreas, Tubbo is dreaming that he's been on a live camera feed for days on end with no break as something called a "streamer", and Phil is Sonic the Hedgehog

[endykelopaedia]

that laios/shuro (toshiro?) argument means a lot to me because on one hand i have been laios and i have been excited to be around people who just would. not. say. that they didnt like me around until they did it in a way that was incredibly painful and confusing when that could have been easily avoided by a short conversation at the time of offense.

on the other hand i have been shuro experiencing that naive racism from someone who doesn't know much outside his bubble & its really hard to confront directly because its not coming from a bad place necessarily, but it is truly drenched in the racial biases that a culture has baked in. and that can be very exhausting to try and explain to someone after being bombarded by such, especially if they seem completely unaware of it being a problem.

its a situation where both characters are sympathetic to me, at least a little.

[flossthecryptid]

My thoughts on the Iskall situation:

•This man is a bad person who has done horrible things to people without considering the consequences on the victims, on other members hermitcraft, on his partner, or even on the community.

•No minors were involved to our current knowledge. This has been confirmed by both Mumbo Jumbo and one of the victims

•To summarise what he has done, he has (with an unknown amount of people) made sexual, creepy, comments to them, invited them onto a different messaging app where it is more private, referred to said app as “for family and close friends”, cheated on his partner, and, not told the victims he was also talking to other people.

•He groomed and manipulated and lied to these people. Do. Not. Defend him.

•Stress is not involved to our knowledge, the current assumption is that she left hermitcraft for related reasons (leaving because of Iskall actions) but nothing has directly come out about her.

•Please do not go around saying “oh no, I thought hermitcraft was safe, what if ____ is next?” This is unhelpful, and forgets that these are people. If you haven’t noticed, the hermits clearly hate this. They have made that abundantly clear with how they handled the situation.

•This whole situation shows that hermitcraft is still a safe place. The way they quickly and decisively took care of everything proves it.

•I am so, so, sorry to the victims of this. You do not deserve to have to tell the entire internet about something so personal to you.

Louis McClung on YouTube made a video which better explains the entire situation with the evidence and statement for the people affected.

[lurkinginnernarrator]

Need more fics where sj!SQQ and a martial sibling gets stuck in a situation, and instead of them having a bonding moment or something stupid and emotionally healing, sj just pulls out a knife.

[milkamel]

Are there any facts regarding the Slumbering truth? I'm quite interested. How did Shadow treat Healer after realizing that he is getting attached?

Hmm I should start from the beginning here I think-

At first Shadow Milk was far from being nice towards Healer, treating him like entertainment and a toy, wishing to break him down or just venting out his frustrations (basically veeery toxic, poor Healer). Cause hey, this is someone who 'stole' his soul jam. And now this 'thief' is pathetic, weak and without memories, it'd be a shame to just crumble him or not play around with his prey. And Smilk still needs PV's memories back to have full powers, but he doesn't want to do it the boring way. He wants to see what his other half is capable of even in this weak state.

But of course, he got attached. Healer has struck something within him that no one dared to touch before, they had some things in common, Smilk started to see himself in that sweet Healer. And Healer started to act a bit differently too, instead of fearing him he'd smile at him, talk to him with genuine friendliness and even playfully smacked him with a staff a few times when he tried to intimidate him, the audacity! The lack of fear or blind obedience intrigued Shadow Milk until he realized he didn't even want that power so much, he liked Healer's company even if he found his kindness naive and foolish. He liked Healer a lot more than he dared to admit.

He didn't want Healer to regain his memories anymore. He didn't need the soul jam that much, his own half was more than enough to use his powers. After all if Healer remembered he'd surely leave him and he'd find out what a terrible beast Shadow Milk was. There's no way he'd be so kind after that and would be willing to stay, he'd most likely try to seal Shadow Milk away again and Smilk would be stuck for another millenia again. And Smilk already shared way too much about himself than the other should've known.

So he decided to act in the only way he knew, manipulate Healer into staying, trying to make sure Healer avoided anything that could trigger him to remember or make his soul jam resonate. He'd manipulate his current memories, make his dreams into nightmares just in hopes of making him stay. It should've been easy with how vulnerable Healer was to his influence.

..Unless Healer is not so innocent and oblivious as it might seem? Who knows..

[krysmcscience]

Don't mind me, just slacking on a big Billford comic by making other far more ridiculous Billford comics and also some AU art (please excuse my slapdash human!Bill thank you please, also before anyone asks the art style is messy and all over the place because idgaf LOL)

This started out as an excuse to design a Bill Cipher-inspired "wedding" dress, but then spiraled wildly out of control. Various rambles and a bunch more human!Bill arts under the cut, including another silly little comic at the end! (Feel free to skip the rambles, I won't be offended. I know I'm bad at shutting up. XD)

I may or may not write some comedy stuff for this AU, which I'm calling 'For Better Or Worse (But Mostly Worse)'. While Ford DOES remember getting sloshed enough for one thing to lead to making out with another after karaoke, neither he nor Bill remember this wedding, At All. The Love God did nothing to dissuade them from going hog wild on their marriage spending, either, so it got...uh. Exorbitantly Expensive. As in, the grand total could probably buy the entire fucking MOON sort of expensive. (It's fine, don't worry, Bill's good enough at crime to be able to afford it.) Also, because the logic of this AU is mostly dictated by Rule of Funny, the Love God's powers are close to unlimited when it comes to matters of romance, but ONLY when it comes to matters of romance. (Like weddings!)

Want an empty human vessel to smash the soul of a triangle into for date nights or when it's convenient, or perhaps even when it's NOT convenient? Easy peasy! Want the marriage to be recognized in every corner of the multiverse from now until the end of time, thus making any potential future divorce nigh-on impossible? Can do! Want to buy an entire beach for the ceremony and honeymoon and in general, and totally not at all because it would be Super Hilarious to prevent any specific movies from being made on that very same beach in the future? Fine, whatever, it's not his finances he's ruining!

Does the Love God also provide special rings that just so happen to turn incorporeal as long as the "happy couple" doesn't remember that they barged into his dreams to bully him into presiding over their marriage? ...No comment!

He spends the next thirty years trying and failing to get in touch with either of them for payment. This is why you should always demand half the money up front, my guy!

Also it's absolutely a traditional Jewish wedding, because I like the idea of Bill demanding all the keepsakes from the marriage that he paid for, and being completely confused when one of the things he's handed is a fancy container full of broken glass. He gets it later, but in the moment, he thinks the Love God is just fucking with him some more.

Ramble over! Here's the full dress that caused the comic to happen, along with what Ford wound up wearing at the wedding (and begrudgingly agreeing to put on again later for Reasons), aaaaand also a close-up of Bill's ring:

I may have forgotten to draw Bill's hair floofier when drawing the back of the dress, lmao

Since double ring ceremonies have been leaking over into Jewish wedding customs for a while now, Ford also has a ring, but his is the much more traditional plain gold band. There's definitely a message engraved on the inside - embarrassing, cringe, or incriminating somehow - but I haven't decided what it is yet, so use your imagination for now. XD Bill, on the other hand, saw the phrase 'traditional plain gold band' and said "No Thank You" before proceeding to embellish his ring to his liking. And because he's a secret sap who adores Ford's extra fingers, the triangle points add up to twelve, as do the engraved stars. Yes, they're stars, not dots, I just got lazy. There's also six lashes on the eye gem, and probably an eye engraving on the inside with another six lashes. (Bill's got it BAD, okay? We all know this.)

Here are the initial scribbles of Bill's custom vessel in more casual attire, please ignore the wonky anatomy and the fact that I flat out refuse to ever draw him with a proper top hat:

He does actually need a cane in this vessel; since Bill tends to possess men and especially Ford more often than not, he's used to having a higher center of gravity when in a human body, so his ability to balance is pretty garbage. (He may or may not topple over with concerning regularity.) As for his empty eye socket, his bangs don't do much to hide it since he's so high-energy (dude is constantly on the move), and he also refuses to wear a patch over it, because 1.) why bother, and 2.) it's more fun to freak people out.

To better align with Ford's attraction towards the strange, the vessel was designed with super minor shapeshifting ability - Bill can look like a perfectly normal human, but he can also make the teeth and fingers sharper whenever he likes (which is mostly just when he's angry or being more of a menace than usual), as well as slit down the pupils or outright ditch the irises altogether. He can also have whatever he wants in the downstairs department, just because I'm an indecisive bitch on that front, lmao. Maybe he can have boobs if he wants them, too, but I ain't drawin' tits on no triangle, nuh-uh, no sir. His powers are otherwise limited down to what humans can do, because for some reason, the Love God doesn't trust Bill to not snap into Immediate Apocalypse Mode if he's given a physical form that's actually all his and no one else's.

Due to the body being all his and no one else's, it's also not really a standard possession so much as it is just...Bill being temporarily human. He's a lot more aware of and in tune with his human body's senses than he ever was with his "puppets", which makes things like pain a lot more intense. (He is mostly fine with this, because he's a fukken masochist.)

A bit more fashion stuff, including beach and party attire~

The beach outfit was mostly me trying and failing to nail down his body shape, which is still not bottom-heavy enough. I then decided to slap a bikini on it, before making it supremely unsexy with a pair of fugly shorts, because Bill's fashion choices are not allowed to be conventionally attractive. Meanwhile, the party outfit was mostly me looking at the casual attire I designed, asking 'how would Bill make this Worse', and then drawing the result. The mismatched thigh-highs are killing me inside! :D

No, his vessel can't actually summon fire, I just drew it for funzies before I decided on said vessel's limitations. Yes, the gold brick tattoos are absolutely a reference to the fic 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' - I simply could not resist.

I also HAD to draw Bill in one of his canonical(?) shirts, just made tank-top'd:

He is absolutely about to over-correct and fall backwards after this. USE YOUR CANE, GOOFBALL!!! (I meant to draw Bill closer to this degree of bottom-heavy in the other images, but. Alas. I am bad at anatomy, LOL)

And, last but not least before More Comic Time, I attempted to draw him closer to Gravity Falls style:

Jury's out on whether or not I succeeded, but - hey. I tried. Now have some Handyman Bill AU, but with my goofy human design, instead:

Hey, it's a 'mystery snack', and the guy wanted A BITE to eat - the joke was right there, guys!!! (Based on this post, because it just screamed BILL CIPHER to me.)

whoops i forgor bills ring and cracks ahaha too late now

I WILL SHUT UP AND STOP RAMBLING NOW K THX BYYYYYE

[moonshynecybin]

The Marquez family dynamics is like crack to my brain i think about it way to much. Like you've got marc and Alex the most codependent siblings to ever live who shared a bedroom until they moved out of their family home in their 20s just to move in with eachother. From some stuff I've seen Julia and Roser divorced (I have no clue when) they are always following marc and Alex's careers and are very involved and Marc and Alex both speak really highly of them but sometimes I look at how marc and Alex are and some stuff in old articles and go there childhood was definitely not all sunshine and rainbows and happiness and Marc's talked in the past about how he was raised by his grandfather cause his parents always worked but them the economic crisis in Spain made a teenage marc the main money bringer in the family with is crazy. Like Marc and Alex are closer than a lot of twins even are and Marc is like a father figure/brother role and Alex is one of the only people in the world that probably knows Marc's inner thoughts. Like I'm constantly thinking about his post for marc when he left Honda and the stuff he must have seen marc go through in those injury years. And the stories about Marc's injury in 2011 where marc was apparently the most calm one and was the one calming his parents down is crazy to me like 18 years old possible career ending injury and he's the one with the most level head. This got so much longer than I expected.

no i agree its one of those things where even if your parents arent absent or abusive per seee, it also doesnt mean that they are like perfect parents who leave you baggage free. and i think marc and alex CERTAINLYYYY have parental baggage lol