#it's kind of the star here

[mcromwell]

"You Can't Come With Me" 7.5"x7.5" Acrylic, monotype, and colored pencil on reclaimed wood

Getting lost in rendering fluff (as you do) while illustrating a scene in which Ashton asserts he needs to do this alone.

[aru-and-leopard-cat]

I feel like this has to be said, since it’s becoming increasingly popular to be extremely rude to ppl and trash on their interests (especially on tumblr)

You can enjoy any media you like despite what losers on tumblr tell you that you should and shouldn’t enjoy, be it music, books, or shows and movies. If you’re having fun and enjoying yourself that’s all that matters, lame ass ppl on this site will try and make u feel guilty about what you enjoy and I think that’s stupid as fuck

Listen to pop, watch that popular show, read that book that everyone claims is bad. Who cares, ppl are way too obsessed with being different and unique that they’ll try and squash your interests and enjoyment to make themselves seem interesting

Bottom line, just treat people with kindness and don’t diminish their interests, it’s such a shitty thing to do

[tossawary]

This is petty fandom salt, BUT... I've been chewing on this phenomenon that I've been calling "Fandom's Darling". It is related to things like "Author's Darling" and "Mary Sue / Gary Stu" and "Protagonist Halo" and all that jazz, where one character gains a peculiar narrative weight in a story.

"Author's Darling" is when a writer has a favorite character, and the world and all other characters sort of get... warped to put the Darling in the spotlight. It's most noticeable in TV shows with multiple writers, when a character you personally like suddenly has their previous characterization destroyed to make another character look good somehow. Every other character might become weirdly incompetent. The Darling's feelings are treated as The Most Important Feelings in any given situation. The logic of the fictional world seems broken past suspension of disbelief in order to validate this one character's beliefs or skillset or some other fantasy. And so on.

"Fandom's Darling" is what I've been calling the pattern where a fandom essentially crowns a New Protagonist for their fanfiction stories (it's often a side character rather than the original protagonist, but it can also happen to protagonists). This character becomes the self-insert for all sorts of indulgent fantasies, gaining special powers or backstories, and/or becoming the focus of extreme whump, and/or hooking up with all the various hotties, starring in all sorts of tropey AUs, and so on. They're not always an obvious Mary Sue version of themselves, but the character's original personality and interpersonal relationships tend to get warped or dropped completely, and other characters tend to become a little flat around them. I call it "Fandom's Darling" because it's not just one self-indulgent fantasy fic (you do you! Have fun!) with characterization choices that I don't vibe with (I have neither the time nor the desire nor the authority to police anything, I am just venting), but rather a prolific mini-fandom of sorts revolving around this empty doll / fanon version of the chosen vessel character, so it becomes a little unavoidable.

I am salty about this (mildly frustrated) (imagine a soft sigh of disappointment before I just go do something else) because you are FUCKED if you actually liked the canonical version of this character and their interpersonal relationships. It's almost worse than liking an obscure character that no one cares about. There's about a thousand fics starring your fave, but maybe only about a dozen of them are actually rooted in any kind of recognisable canon.

[commsroom]

the u.s.s. horrible unending nightmare 💥 (once again from the incredible @hehearse)

[wigglybunfish]

Designs for the funky humans of PreservationAux, Perihelion, + one very tired SecUnit and a monstrous Research Transport AI.

[cinnabarts]

silicate lifeforms

[eggdrawsthings]

☀️🐥

[generalsdiary]

Sunday x gn!reader (drabble)

“I just finished a part of the renovation in my room. do you wanna see?” you stated in a simple tone to the man with tired eyes in front of you. there was sweetness in them, you knew it. and, at this time, you know he is probably feeling isolated, lonely, estranged, and perhaps very much like a newbie despite the given status remaining on the trailblazer.

Sunday gave you a small nod and quietly followed you up the stairs to your room. at the entrance, both of you put on slippers and Sunday stayed behind to take off his coat.

walking amongst some boxes and clutter, the whole space is not yet finished, you stop by your bed and sit down. he approached the bed, placing a knee on it, leaning forward; making you lay back down and push up more onto the bed until he fully laid on top of you in a warm embrace.

Sunday exhaled quietly, his eyes were shut and he held you tightly. “finally”

“some peace and quiet?” you questioned in a soft voice. your fingers moved to brush through his blueish-grey hair.

“I have always had peace and quiet. it is you, this space... the comfort your presence offers. it soothes the sore wound, of leaving my home behind.”

the outer space offered a pleasant white noise and being closer to the train's engine provided a quiet humming sound. accompanied by your breathing, in harmony with his, and your heart beating strongly in your chest, it all pulled Sunday into a feeling of hope. and perhaps a possibility of a new home.

[jayrockin]

The worm question.

[fizpup]

pov: it’s the mid 2000s and you’re learning what love is

[lucabyte]

I don't know how everyone isn't also always constantly thinking about how burial rites seem to be potentially one of the few things Siffrin instinctively remembers about their culture. But rest assured. I am in fact always thinking about it.

Textless version where they're just hanging out. It's fine!

[aron-mp4]

Just realised i forgot to post this?? I think this fic changed my brain chemistry i will never be the same again

(Art of one of my favourite scenes from A Simple Thing by @ryehouses)

[bioluminesced]

if you ask me the light’s winning

[mari-lair]

Isolated stargazer fun fact: The researcher's memory is worse than traveler Siffrin, one of the first things he did after touching Isabeau's face and 'seeing him' was to carve the image on a piece of wood. He isn't very good at carving but they used refined wishcraft to make sure the image is perfect. They tend to be very responsible when using wishcraft but he really really doesn't want to forget the face of his friends.

[starcurtain]

Hear me out. I know it's unlikely that Ratio would ever have been foolish enough to directly get taken in by a scam, but considering that we know:

One of the groups specifically tricked by Kakavasha before he joined the IPC was the Intelligentsia Guild

What he tricked them about was Tayzzyronth's Swarm remnants, the exact same thing we see Ratio investigating in his very first appearance in the game, and

The researchers were described as "extremely cautious"

I am surprised that "Ratio was at least somehow connected to the Intelligentsia Guild team fooled by Kakavasha before he was ever even a Stoneheart" isn't more popular with the Ratio and Aventurine fandom.

Like imagine being Dr. Ratio. You tell your colleagues, "This seems like a scam. Are you sure you should trust this 'local guide' you've made contact with? Tell me about him. A picture? Does this even look like an Egyhazan native to you? I won't save you fools from making idiotic decisions." (You end up having to clean up the aftermath of their idiotic decisions anyway. There is sand in places on your body you didn't even know existed before this. How mortifying for the Guild. For you, by association.)

Then, next thing you know, you get a mission briefing slid across your desk from your IPC connections. They want you to work with their new Stoneheart. You open the packet to see... that little bastard with the enthralling eyes who had your moronic colleagues scrambling in the dirt on a backwater planet for months. Apparently he's made a career out of fooling you your supposedly competent guildmates.

You run off to confront him. You never met him personally back then, but you deserve compensation for the idiocy you were subjected to nonetheless. He deserves to know how much of a pain in the ass he's been in your life already without ever having met your eyes--

He proceeds to shove a gun into your hands and tries to make you an accomplice to a suicide. Apparently, this is normal behavior for the man now called Aventurine. Somehow, it's supposed to prove to you that he is a sane and reliable individual.

Absolutely nothing in your life has been normal since Egyhazo.

You would like to have mundane problems, sometimes.

How do you keep ending up in this beautiful manic clever conman's orbit, and why, like binary stars, can you not escape the gravitational pull?

[cloud-ya]

big win for butch lesbian community