#incoherent we love to see it

[dandelionjack]

i want to get mabelled so bad. when i was 13 i wrote a song on our piano about being a faerie changeling child (undiagnosed moment) and literally nothing has changed since then. yes trading one form of imprisonment for another isn’t glamorous and the reward is bittersweet at best but i’d rather have vines and ivy and rose thorns sprouting from my veins locked in a silver cage out of time out of body out of mind than trapped in this frigid callous place ruled by imagined numbers floating in the ether and strange laws that exist to justify themselves. there is nothing new under the sun or under the hill but i feel mostly moon and mirror. flesh and blood being is sheer horror and nothing but

[puppyeared]

these two are so interesting to me

characters belong to @canisalbus

[skeletal-butterflyy]

Mike loves taking care of people. He loved taking of el in season one, and he loved taking care of will in season two, he loves feeling needed. He desperately wants to be the knight(paladin) that will sees him as. Mike and el love each other but not the way that mike and will do. Mike was only able to say he loves el because will told him that “el” would always need him no matter what:

Mike even says that he knows el doesn’t need him and that’s why they’re having problems. It isn’t mikes monologue that gets her out of Vecna’s vines, it’s max. We even see it in the last scene of s4 where el is separated from the rest of the group. She’s become independent, doesn’t need just mike, as a romantic interest, she’s not a damsel in distress. What she does need is the support of her friends and family.

You know who does need mike though? Will! He makes it clear through the painting and his monologue in the van scene, and we see how happy this makes mike, to know he really is needed. That’s why byler works.

[kissmypoets-hp]

📚 Fanfic Classics Series: The Lettered Special (Part One)

Some covers for @letteredlettered's beautiful fics, which have kept me company over the years. The Drarry fandom is extremely blessed to have so many talented writers and to me lettered's fics are foundational texts. I've had a number of these already saved and when I started making ebook covers for my Kindle I knew I had to make covers for these. Life-changing!!!!! I know I use the term "life-changing" often whenever I recommend fics, but it is what it is. Please, it is 3AM. Read (or re-read) these masterpieces and thank me later.

Away Childish Things Harry gets de-aged. Malfoy has to help him.

Friends at Last This can be considered the sex extra from Away Childish Things, if you like, but you don't have to have read that to enjoy this. It's porn.

He Who Must Not Be Normal Potter has fame and fortune and posh clothes and all he wants is a simple life. Draco has a flat and a cat and a steady job and all he wants is a complicated life. Which makes you think this story has something exciting like body-swapping, but it doesn’t. Instead it has Indian takeaway and a blue jumper and people wanting a whole lot of what they can’t have, discovering themselves as they discover each other.

Hope Springs Eternal (But Love Springs in the Forest, Unannounced) Draco falls into a love spring. Harry saves him! And now they’re bonded for life. Draco is horrified. Harry thinks it’s kind of neat.

By the Grace Harry is an Auror instructor. Malfoy wants to be an Auror.

art credits + comments under the cut :)

Artworks used, in order:

“L'Atre (The Hearth)” by Édouard Vuillard (1899)

"The Open Door" by Edouard Vuillard (1900-04) 💬 Away Childish Things is one of the first fic covers I made, ever. I've reread this fic often, mostly because Harry deserved a better childhood for real!! This is, like, THE kid fic ever. Seriously. I enjoy making covers for fic series because it means I get to do matching covers by the same artist (thank you sir Vuillard). I chose the first piece because it fit the visual mood of the first fic: kind of dreary, but still warm (Draco's lab, baby Harry and his terrible childhood). I also remember some adventures involving Floo powder here :) Honestly, I think Harry and Draco were lonely in their own way before the de-aging incident happened, and both Harry and Draco (in their older and younger counterparts) needed one another. It's so special to me that they were able to meet each other where the other person was without romance involved — they weren't even friends at the start but they still managed to meet each other halfway... For Friends At Last I wanted to choose a painting with a brighter mood because hello, resolution. They're friends at last (okay, title drop)! They have communicated and [insert ACT ending here because no spoilers]! They.... have sex! The same style of chair being featured in both paintings is a happy coincidence. Perhaps Sir Vuillard had an inkling that one day his artwork would be used to make ebook covers. IDK.

"Still Life" by Pablo Picasso (1918) 💬 I was thinking of Draco's apartment here. He Who Must Not Be Normal is a dynamic I can't get out of my head (and it was published in 2013!!!). Basically, all of lettered's works are so compelling. I could be wrong (I wasn't really an active participant in the fandom until this year haha), but I swear I can see lettered's influence on other fics in the fandom...

"Schizonema Dillwynii" by Anna Atkins (1853) 💬 This is actually a cyanotype of a plant LOL but it reminded me of a spring. Sometimes the process is that literal. Anyway, this fic... It kind of set the bar for magical bond fics for me??? I still can't describe why or how. But please read it if you haven't yet!!

"The Lone Tree" by Caspar David Friedrich (1822) 💬 Because of Timothy Tree... I couldn't find a good tree artwork that perfectly got the vibe (in the public domain, at least) but I like this one too.

[the-way-astray]

alright everybody can we please stop tagging me/talking about me in the notes of pro keefe/sokeefe posts. i know strieefe has made it so that it's really funny to talk about how much i love him and how much i'm in denial when i say negative things about him under those posts (and that's all in good fun and not the problem), but we have to think about the fact that the ops are just trying to make a positive post and probably don't want a keefe hater in their notes /srs

[thisisadonaldduckblognow]

ik it’s probably a classic case of extrapolating way too much but... the way raph’s character design lines up w his whole arc and role and struggles...

like the fact that he is so so so much bigger than the others. raph is big, raph is strong, raph is steady and sturdy and he can literally pick up his entire family and carry them all at once. 

and like, when raph is so big and so strong and such a reliable thing. when raph is the protector, the one calling the shots on missions, the mother hen, the first point of authority. when raph is there, overprotective, when raph (for all that his brothers poke at him not being good under pressure) always always ALWAYS comes through at the end of the day when things are serious, ALWAYS gives it everything he’s got. 

his design and his learned role/behaviors in this family are just the perfect storm of why it took up to the season finale to drive home the issue.

so much of the series carries the default energy of “raph will handle it.”

raph will hold up the ceiling above you. raph will throw himself over you and take a hit and get back up and keep fighting. raph has a power that makes him even bigger and draws more attention and makes him able to carry MORE. raph will be the substitute parent. raph will be put into the mentor role through leo’s leadership arc. 

and raph is big. he’s built to carry heavy loads. raph is strong. raph is bold and loud and always ready to try to push on. even if he doesn’t know what to do or what he’s doing, he won’t give up and we’ll all pull together and things will turn out okay.

(his room is full of teddy bears. he dipped out on a mission to try to take a picture of a pigeon carrying a slice of pizza. he’s terrified of being alone.

he’s just as much of a kid as his brothers are. he’s just as new and inexperienced with the things happening to them as his brothers are. but for him, for some reason, there’s like this double standard where that becomes a huge glaring flaw.)

idk this got very sloppy and uncoordinated. i’m very in my feelings about raph right now though.

[spock-adoodledoo]

i think one of the things i'll always appreciate abt maomao is that even though she's the protag, it's not really that the world revolves around her or that things always happen to her, it's more that she gets involved in things (usually at the request of other ppl but whatever) that usually don't affect her immediately. idk but it's nice that she's kind of our dispassionate window into palace life instead of the person everything happens to

[valentronic]

*pathetically rattles can* spare shockshipping content ??? spare shockship please sir ???

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A drawing of @mieczmaszyna 's character Izzy. In the words of its creator, Izzy is a humanoid robot with a white chassis, oval head, black headset, square green glasses, claws, and a tail resembling a cable plug. Ai wears a cowboy hat, vest decorated by a star and bottle cap, pants with tassels, spurred boots, and a red bandanna. He's viewed from the side, kicking up one leg and holding both arms out in front of itself to shoot finger guns, looking excited and rather jaunty. The background is a dull yellow-green, muddied by the warm reddish tone of the drawing, and in paler green are the words "BANG BANG!!" by ais arms. End ID]

robot cowboy!!!

[fandombead]

Misconception About Patton (SvS)

I think I've seen a lot of takeaways from this episode be that Patton pushed for what he wanted regardless of how the others felt. However, I believe this is ignoring first that he's a facet of c!Thomas and represents his core values and thus what Thomas ultimately believed was right as well, even if he wasn't happy about it.

Interesting quotes that I think get forgotten or removed from context about how SVS went down:

I find it interesting that people claim Patton manipulated the others, namely Roman. I dispute this because of the intent required for something to be manipulation vs misguiding someone and the word is thrown around carelessly. Janus, however, was the one to actually "manipulate" Roman to his advantage in the situation, and while you can justify it, I am simply pointing out that people do not get on his case as harshly for this thing they claim Patton did.

Patton is the product of c!Thomas's inner learned morality + his feelings, which makes the host as guilty as any of them for that representation of trying to break out of a learned mindset, which Patton is. He's changing as c!Thomas learns, and making mistakes such as not listening to the other parts of Thomas that may suggest he is not a perfect, "good" person by their original standards. Categorizing yourself as a "good" or "bad" person based on some scoring system is not something you want to do: people DO good and bad (and neutral) things, they aren't good or bad themselves.

Labeling yourself as "good" may just help you justify everything you do even when it's objectively bad because "well I'm a good person so this is good too". And labeling yourself (or others labeling you) as "bad" might just make you feel stuck and like you can never be anything more, and so you just become it with all your decisions. These are not the human experience. Nuance aside, everything is relative and you'll be picking apart every aspect of yourself trying to figure out "which you are".

Thomas is essentially trying to convince part of himself that it'd be okay to go against his morals for a beneficial reason. There was no right answer (going to the wedding or not) that would make everyone happy; Patton was doing what they asked and giving Thomas the moral answer based on c!Thomas's sincere priorities (like his friendships and being trustworthy).

(Pat's the emotional center AND the moral center of Thomas, which conflict more often than not, and are part of the reason this guy really struggled with separating the two while making his case-- he's unfortunately the holder of both.)

Where Patton was wrong was putting others first 100% of the time. Now, to be fair to Patton, he did agree that there are times when you should put yourself first, but they were circumstantial and in service to helping others more. This isn't healthy and is on the extreme end close to self harmful because you're prioritizing others even when you don't have the means to give, which can lead to burnout and neglect of yourself. The "opposite" end of this is only caring about your own means and using others as a means to an end. Both of these can lead to ruining your social and emotional connections to others.

And again, these are manifestations of the inner turmoil c!Thomas is having. These are his beliefs (read as "moral code") vs his wants battling it out and no matter what he settled on given the options, he'd have been unhappy. (note though: Roman did bring up simply asking Lee and Mary Lee about this directly and sometimes open communication is the best solution-- a lot of the time, actually)

At the end of the day in this part, Patton was defending c!Thomas ' character and relationships (which are important to them) while Janus wanted c!Thomas to not feel obligated to put his own goals behind the wants of others, especially with minimum benefit in both regards (Thomas's presence at the wedding was less impactful for them than the callback would have potentially been for Thomas, and it was a high Opportunity Cost).

Patton is essentially a representation of a religious upbringing sticking certain ideals in your core beliefs that even once you separate yourself from it, still for better or worse guide a lot about you. He's changing and evolving from that, and I do get why a character like this puts a bad taste in people's mouths and they associate him with that. That's entirely valid and I get it. This isn't about that-- I'm not over here arguing he did nothing wrong or that you can't hate him for whatever reason you want, that's not what I'm saying nor what I care about here-- I'm just clearing up what I've seen in canon versus how a majority neurodivergent fandom with certain life experiences might have warped the view of him in hindsight. This is not a malicious jerk trying to get his way and at the other extreme, he's not an innocent bean who wasn't ever in the wrong.

There ARE other examples of him pushing points associated with his roles and having to change throughout the series to this point. He just is the one looked at the hardest out of the sides (who all do this at some point in the series) because he's supposed to have all the answers when morality is one of the most difficult things you have to figure out in life. He didn't claim to have all the answers, but c!Thomas needs them from him to be the best person he can, and that will ultimately conflict and be more complicated than the black-and-white morality kids get taught and then have to alter as they grow up and see a complex world.

We all have to deal with that and it's uncomfortable to confront it. It manifesting in one character separate from yourself is easier than consolidating that that's a part of everyone, and one that isn't fun to examine all the time. I just really like how the show brings philosophies I studied into the next episode, but do think that a chunk of the audience did misunderstand / block out what Patton was actually saying/trying to do...I'm gonna rewatch the Redux episode and also keep an eye out for what people might be talking about when they specifically talk about his actions being problematic there, but I definitely believe the intent of this character (and how Thomas has presented him) does not get to the conclusion of him being willfully any more pushy or mistaken than the others at one point or another.

[deer-with-a-stick]

if netflix makes Luo Ji non-chinese I'm going to throw myself off a fucking cliff

[corfisers]

i really need to finish this one day

[distance-does-not-matter]

it's about the fact i've got all this love screaming inside of me and i can't do a thing about it

[yea-baiyi]

just reread the tgcf extras. tldr hualian’s married life is just, chilling, hanging out, having great sex. they are so free and comfortable, they spend so much time laughing together. which is exactly what marriage should be tbh (silently wipes away tears)

[inquisimer]

welp. fix it fic in my notes draft on my phone 😭😭😭

[townofcrosshollow]

The interaction with another GNC man that sticks with me the most was with this guy who sometimes shops at the grocery store where I work, and often comes in wearing a pencil skirt, tights, and high heels. I don't think I had my nails painted and we wear a uniform, so at work nobody can really tell I'm GNC. I was the self checkout attendant that night, and he called me over to ask for a bag. While I was there I got up the courage to compliment his shoes. His response was a very earnest "Thank you for saying something."

It's hard to describe the amount of shared pain behind those words. It was not thank you for the compliment. It was thank you for identifying yourself, publicly, as like me. Thank you for telling me there's a person here who supports me. I'm alone, you're alone, but right now we're alone together.