#it's one of those things where you improve with time

[sevsgiirl]

— the altar is my hips, even if it’s a false god.

sevika week 2025: body worship, day 1.

synopsis: in which your plans to go to a dinner date goes south because you can’t fit into the dress you want, and sevika has to rectify the situation.

word count: 2.4k

tags: mirror sex, top!sevika, bottom!reader, strap-on referred to as cock, body insecurities.

note: helloo y’all , I know it’s been a while since I last posted something but I wanted to come back mainly because it’s sevika week! if you’re unaware the lovely sevika nation community on twitter are hosting this event from june 2-8 celebrating sevika with prompts for each day! and this is my submission for day one and I hope you guys like it <3

also!! warning ahead but this fic mentions weight gain and body image so if those topics are sensitive for you please proceed with caution.

you were never the type to keep track of what you ate and quite frankly, you never had any insecurities about the way you looked.

living in zaun, it was practically a luxury being able to eat at least three meals a day, once was already enough.

but after sevika got the opportunity to work for the council, your income finally sufficed to make up not just for the cost of living but for groceries as well.

not to mention the dinners.

sevika loved taking you out to dinner whenever she got the chance. she knows you don’t like being spoilt with material things and just because you finally lived in high society, doesn’t mean you were going to blend in with the rest of the piltovians by being stuck up and shallow.

that’s one of the many things she loved about you, however, she had to find a way to pamper you regardless.

so she took you out to lavish dinner and lunch dates during her days off work. luckily, with enough persuading you learned to cave in and just have her drag you along to whatever new restaurant she discovered in topside and let you indulge yourself to your heart’s desire.

it wasn’t until months had passed and sevika told you the day prior you were going out on another date that you found yourself running into a dilemma.

it was already evening by the time you got ready and you were thirty minutes away from your reservation, but still you couldn’t seem to find a dress that fit you any longer.

you’ve already seen the signs long before but didn’t pay them any mind. you never had a reason to be self conscious because again, you always viewed weight gain as a privilege especially with how you were brought up in the under city.

but ever since you and sevika moved to piltover, you’d be lying if you said the piltovian mindset didn’t rub off on you. at least just a little - and by that you mean their superficial mindset managed to snake its way into the back of your mind.

despite all the access to good clothes and food, piltovians like to maintain a certain aesthetic where being fit was the norm.

that’s why at some of the restaurants you’ve visited in the past you’ve noticed they liked to serve meals with such tiny portions, something you even laughed at because the prices would be so expensive but the platter wouldn’t even be the same size as your palm.

you’d see countless of women roaming the streets wearing corsets that practically suffocated their rib cage just to achieve a petite built where their waist was so cinched, the wind could’ve taken them away if it blew past hard enough.

you’ve even eavesdropped in conversations regarding their dietary plans and you rolled your eyes thinking what was the point of making a fuss over something so trivial.

it wasn’t until you stood in front of your body length mirror however, that those same exact moments flashed through your mind like a montage and you couldn’t help it as you inspected your body from head to toe.

your tummy had gotten rounder, your hips much fuller, and the fat in your cheeks became more prominent unlike before where they were basically hollow.

back then, you would’ve viewed these changes as an improvement because it meant that your body was finally getting the sustenance it needed. but for some reason, that’s not how you felt now.

instead, the words of every piltovian woman you passed by in the markets came to mind - whether it was when they read the label of every canned goods they bought, calculating the amount of calories it contained before putting it back in the shelves.

‘ugh too much fat. I wouldn’t want to gain a pound especially since summer is nearing’

‘you better put those chips back unless you still want to fit in that gown you reserved for the upcoming gala this week.’

“baby?”

you snapped out of your trance as sevika softly knocked on the door of your shared bedroom, the buttons of her dress shirt popped open at the top, exposing a slither of brown skin as she stepped inside the room and scanned the mess around you - bundles of dresses scattered across the room - before her gaze fell on you, still clad in your underwear.

“our reservation is twenty minutes away. just throw on whatever you have. you’ll look beautiful either way,” she said as she walked past you and pressed a chaste kiss at the top of your head, striding inside the bathroom as your eyes lingered at her broad shoulders and defined legs that were confined in her black dress pants.

you felt a heaviness in your chest as you realized that while you were here over indulging yourself at home, sevika still managed to look after herself and maintained her wonderful physique. which you weren’t surprised by, she was always a woman of great discipline.

so it begs the question of why you hadn’t been able to do the same?

“better hurry, you know how those hostesses are when you’re even five minutes late. that red dress you wore last time would be-“

“it’s not…” you cut her off as sevika turned to you “about the dress, sev.”

she raised an eyebrow, rolling her sleeves up to her forearms “then what is it?”

you bit your lower lip, trying hard not to get emotional as you refused to spare another glance at the mirror.

“I mean, it is about the dress but it’s also me,” your throat was tight as you wiped a stray tear on your cheek “I can’t fucking fit in it. in any of it. I’ve gained so much weight and I should’ve taken better care of myself but now I feel huge and…”

you shook your head, not wanting to meet sevika’s eye as she stayed silent amidst your meltdown “can we please just cancel the date if it’s okay? I don’t wanna go out looking like this.”

there was a beat of silence and for a moment you wondered if sevika was even there or if she had left the room due to your dramatics.

but when you looked up, you were simply greeted by her clenched jaw and intense eyes as they raked over your form, making you squirm as she started walking towards you.

you sighed “sev, look, I’m sorry okay? let’s just reschedul-“

you squealed when out of nowhere sevika suddenly took you by the hips and turned you around so your entire front was facing the mirror, bracing your arms around the edges as her warm breath fanned against the side of your neck and you shuddered when her lips met the shell of your ear.

her voice low and dangerous as she squeezed the meat of your love handles.

“you know, I don’t work day and night to provide for you and make sure you’re well taken care of just so you can stand here and tell me you look awful for gaining weight when that’s all I’ve ever wanted when we spent years eating scraps back in zaun,” she scolded and you couldn’t even get a word out before she suddenly lifted her hand, and swatted a harsh slap against your ass.

making you gasp, gripping the sides of the mirror tightly as you heard sevika fiddling with the buckles of her belt behind you.

“tell me,” she said gruffly as she pushed your hips back “what exactly is the problem now that you’ve gained weight, hm?”

you swallowed nervously “I-uh… I can’t f-fit in any of my clothes, sev-“

“then we’ll just buy bigger ones,” she stated “what else? let’s reschedule the date sure, and buy shit that fits you better. problem solved.”

you huffed out a tired breath “sev, that’s not the point-“

“then what is it so I can understand?”

you pondered over your answer for a minute, debating whether or not you should tell her “I know you’re taking care of me but I need to lose weight. it’s one thing that I can’t fit in my clothes anymore but I just look horribl-“

you let out another yelp when her large palm landed across the skin of your ass, no doubt leaving a mark and you stared at sevika from the mirror just to see her eyes were dilated, focused solely on your backside and how it jiggled every time she swatted it.

she lets out a scoff, squeezing the handfuls of flesh from your waist and you began to feel your legs shake at the way she started pawing at you.

“you’re so fucking ridiculous. you got a body this fucking great yet you’re out here complaining that you can’t fit into a dress and because of that, you think you’re any less beautiful than you actually are,”

her fingers pulled at the strings of your thong and your eyes widened when she started slipping them down until it pooled at the ends of your feet.

“look at the mirror,”

your cheeks reddened because all this time your attention stayed solely on her, not once did you look at your body which apparently didn’t go unnoticed by sevika.

and she wasn’t having any of it “don’t make me repeat myself. look at the mirror,”

squeezing your eyelids shut one last time, you cracked them open and faced the sight you were too embarrassed to confront - at how your boobs nearly spilled over the cups of your bra, and how your hips became noticeably wider. if it weren’t for the improbability you would’ve assumed you were pregnant at this point.

“tell me what you see,”

you gulped, shaking your head “sev, just stop-“

“tell. me. what. you. see.”

feeling self conscious, you wanted to curl up into a ball but sevika wasn’t having any of it as she held you in place “I gained weight-“

“yes,”

“and I’ve gotten fat-“

“yes, and?”

you pondered over your next words because you knew your answer had varying outcomes.

“this is silly. sev, let’s just cancel the dinner and-“

you weren’t able to finish because she didn’t even let you, because one moment she was staring you down like you were prey and the next, she’s kneeling behind you and licking a fat stripe up your cunt, making your knees buckle as you yelled her name.

“oh my god, sev-“

she pulled back and snarled at the sight of your throbbing folds and brought her lips back to your clit, sucking it between her lips as you let out a broken cry.

her hand finding its way to unzip her pants and when you looked down, you couldn’t help the way your mouth fell agape at the sight of her stroking her strap from the confines of her boxers.

“this was supposed to be a surprise, you know? but then you decided to be fucking ridiculous thinking you’re too thick to go out,” she shook her head, her tongue prodding at your hole “but you wanna know what I think?”

you whimpered when she kneaded the supple skin of your rear, the flesh folding in her palm as she lets out a curse.

“I think you’re out of your goddamn mind if you could see the way your body looks right now and think that you’re anything else if not fucking perfect,”

with that, her tongue plunged inside your cunt and started rubbing against your tight walls, making your eyes roll at the back of your head as you backed up against her face, to which she encouraged as she lets out an almost animalistic growl at the way your ass bounced deliciously.

all the while she sunk a finger in at the same time her mouth devoured you like you were the dinner planned for tonight, and you couldn’t stop the way your body seized before falling apart entirely at her hands.

your breathing labored while you held yourself up using the mirror, meanwhile sevika was already standing up and pulling her pants down to take her cock out.

she aligned herself in between your folds and reached forward so she could pull the cups of your bra down, your breasts spilling out as she took one in her hand and used the other to inch her way inside you.

“f-fuck baby,” her voice was raspy as she ogled at the sight you of swallowing her, your cunt fluttering at the sheer size of her cock as you tried your best to adjust “I can’t believe you get to look at yourself every single day and not see what I see…”

with that, she began to do deep, slow strokes into your cunt before she began a punishing pace, one that made you throw your head back as it rested against her shoulder. meanwhile, she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the way your ass rippled with every harsh thrust she made. it was damn near like ecstasy, the way you and your body responded to her.

her hips pounded against yours relentlessly and you sensed the build up of your climax nearing.

she kissed the side of your neck and groped your tits as she fucked you “I never wanna hear you say a single bad fucking thing about the way you look, you got me?”

you nodded, tears brimming at the corners of your eyes “y-yes. fuck, I’m gonna cum. please, please, oh my g-god.”

it didn’t take long before your body started convulsing and your pussy coated her cock to the hilt, all thick and warm and sevika gave it a couple more strokes until she pulled out.

letting out a whistle as she watched the way your cum dripped out of you, at how your thick thighs shook while trying to hold yourself up but failing miserably.

she took you into her strong arms, turned you around and held you close, tongue slipping into your mouth and you couldn’t stop the contented hum that slipped past your lips as you tasted yourself on her tongue.

“you good now?” she asked, her tone much softer compared to earlier as you blushed “or do we have to go for another round so I can get it through your head that you look gre-“

“n-no,” you couldn’t help but laugh as your hands flattened against her chest “I’m okay now… you were right, I was being irrational.”

“talk about an understatement,” she lets out a tsk “tomorrow we’re heading out and buying new clothes that fit you. and I don’t wanna hear another word from you complaining about the way you look again. got it?”

you couldn’t the smile that teased at the corners of your lips as you nodded “okay, I promise.”

she smirked, pecking you one last time “good.”

[steelheart-redux]

Steelheart Redux: Year 1 Retrospective

I meant to post this yesterday but forgot. Oops. Anyway, June 1st marked the official first full year of Steelheart Redux! For me, at least. While the comic didn’t go public until September, those who have been here since the start remember that I uploaded all of chapter 1 at once. That work started in June, so I consider that the comic’s effective birthday.

With that disclaimer out of the way: what a year it’s been! In 365 days, I drew 153 comic pages. That’s about 0.4 pages a day— a little shy of a page every other day. Granted, those numbers aren’t an even spread. I made all of chapter 1 in three months (68 pages) and then had to take a break for a while because of wrist strain (wonder how THAT happened…) and then the amount of backlog I had fluctuated wildly for a while. Some days I have more time and motivation than others. It happens.

Quite honestly, I’m mainly happy that I’ve stuck with the project. My worst fear was that I’d get a month or two into Actually Doing The Thing, then get bored, demotivated, and give up. Luckily, my brain has allowed me to stick with Redux with a level of consistency that is frankly unforeseen from me, and I’m just as motivated as I was a year ago, if not more, thanks to people's interest. I’ve said it before, but the reception to the story already regularly blows me away. I went into this with the expectation that it would take years for the comic to gain any real traction, if it ever happened at all. But here we are, a year in, with tens, if not hundreds of regular readers across multiple platforms. It’s an honor I don’t take lightly, and as I’ve said, I’m so, so grateful for the trust and support.

Looking back, the comic started on wobbly feet. That’s something I knew even at the time and had to make my peace with. Steelheart Redux is my first original story project, first long-form comic (first colored comic longer than a few pages, tbh), and first time I've ever really left the title of "fanartist" behind for longer than a month or so. I knew I was entering uncharted waters and that whatever I made, I'd later come to see as 'bad', or at least, not executed as well as it could have been. Unfortunately, the only way to get that experience and improve is to do it bad. So I did it bad!

STRUGGLES:

Chapter 1 is way too long. Not in terms of content, but in terms of page count. For some reason, I was utterly allergic to the idea of putting more than four panels on a page. While I do like the pacing of it, and the sort of slow ease-in to the world and the setting, I made way more work for myself than I needed to. I definitely could have cut at least 10 pages by compressing things without seriously hurting the pacing, and it would have saved me a lot of trouble. Figuring out how to "trim the fat" and get to where I'm going as fast as possible without making things feel rushed is still something I'm working on, but I'm a lot more intentional about things now that I know it can cost me time and physical strain. You can see the font size slowly shrinking throughout the comic's run as I pack more in, lol. Honestly, it kind of works.

I have various other nitpicks. I'm sparing myself from the general "I don't like how I drew that"s in terms of anatomy and such, as those are just an inescapable result of improving as an artist and not worth getting in the weeds over. I will raise my eyebrows over some lighting choices-- I went out of my way to plan out a way to make the nighttime section of early chapter 2 read as "night, but not dark", and then the entire bit was annoyingly dark as hell. Trying to get the purple DRACO to visually stand out from the concrete there was obnoxiously difficult. I don't think it's bad-- I like the 'scribble background' gimmick I came up with to save myself from having to do backgrounds there, for one thing-- but I don't think it would have killed me to brighten up that section a bit. Something to keep in mind for later.

Speaking of backgrounds. Maybe it's too early to say, but at least right now, changing the background style was a game changer. That was one of the largest time sinks of early pages, adding 2-3 hours to every page that had at least one or two backgrounds. They were doable, but tedious, and as time went on, I found myself enjoying them less and less, instead of more and more as I'd hoped. You can see details start to disappear as a result, as backgrounds stopped being a "fun worldbuilding element" and "visual element of the page" and became just "something I had to draw to get the page done". Changing the style to a much looser one has brought the fun back, and made it much easier to pack in all the details I actually enjoy drawing without getting bogged down in "is the perspective exactly right". I've written posts before about making things easier for yourself if you're doing a long-form project; this is honestly my best example.

GROWTH:

I feel like, looking back, I can see myself become a lot more confident with drawing various things. Steelheart Redux is filled-- intentionally and not-- with things I'm bad at drawing, which has forced me to improve at those things sheerly through unavoidable repetition. Mainly, this includes backgrounds, mechs (still can't get me to draw cars though LOL), full bodies, and profiles.

It's also interesting to see the way I draw characters change. Going into the comic, I'd already been drawing Arthur for years, but making pages forced me to really lock in his design and get comfortable with drawing it. While it's not too different in terms of content, it has a different 'feel' now. This, too, I know is inevitable, and honestly something I look forward to.

I've become a lot more confident in doing these things, which makes making pages less intimidating and lets me experiment more with layouts and angles I might have otherwise been afraid to try. It's nice! It shows in a lot of the end of chapter 2, which is one of my favorite parts of the chapter. I was worried about hitting those emotional beats, because they're setting up for a lot and really needed to feel meaningful, but I think I landed them alright. My character writing is still something I worry a bit about-- there's a lot of subtlety to these guys and this story I worry I won't be able to get across in a more visual story-- but that's something for me to increasingly focus on going forward.

Away from the comic, I've also improved a lot as a 3D modeler. My robot rigs have improved, and I have much better human bases to work off. I can also slam out a layout for a scene much faster, which is a nice time boost to my workflow.

Overall, despite the hurdles and rough edges of some of the early stuff, I'm incredibly proud of everything I've produced. This is the first time I've ever put my heart, body, and soul so thoroughly into a project like this, and I'd like to think it shows.

While we're still in somewhat of the early stage of the comic's story, I'm hoping I've made a solid foundation for myself. I'm so excited for what's to come, and hoping I can execute it even better, year by year.

[molagboop]

To the mutuals who have considered starting hormones but have been putting it off: i'm hitting you with the beam.

FAQ:

Q: Raven Beak transgender??

A: Irrelevant: he will be threatening you with his beam at my behest (i have paid him in sparkling objects and cashews) if you are unhappy with your lot in life and don't start taking measures to make yourself happier.

Q: Samus transgender???

A: That's a very personal question and one that I'm not at liberty to answer, but I'll have you know that if she is, she doesn't require a prescription for hormones because Chozo have this fun little bit of medical technology where you can get an implant that monitors and increases production of specified hormones as necessary. Very useful for folks with endocrine disorders and those who wish to trans the gender. Sorry that it's not available to you: all the Chozo doctors who could potentially hook you up are either dead of old age or taking a sabbatical in deep space.

Q: Why is the beam transgender?

A: There's this funny thing called "light" and it's on a spectrum—much like gender and autism, the former of which is more of a bimodal distribution—

Q: Am I transgender?

A: If you have said to yourself at any point "I think I would transition if it weren't so difficult in this day and age", you are probably transgender.

Q: Can he tell, though?

A: No. Chozo gender is very unlike human gender: "man" and "woman" are very nebulous and foreign concepts to his people, but he can sense your fear of his beam. If you fear his beam, it is directed at you. Take the initiative and start improving your life in a way that's safe for you.

Q: Can I contract him to protect me with the transgender beam?

A: If you ask very nicely and pledge your undying fealty to him, yes. He's in the market for an army of malleable minions, and healthcare is on the list of employment benefits. You'd have more luck asking his daughter for beam services: she's more of a pro bono beamer and is easier to talk to. It's not that he won't take your case, he's just very intimidating. The faint of heart may find it difficult to approach him.

Q: Why does Raven Beak wield the transgender beam instead of Samus?

A: Because I sketched him firing a beam during an exercise last year and one of the alts for the beam texture was transgender. The phrase "I am hitting you with my transgender beam" is comical, hence the alt.

Q: Why is this just now hitting your blog if it's not new?

A: Long answer: To encourage long time followers and mutuals who are on the fence about their gender to follow their hearts in a way that's a little light-hearted and not overly familiar. I am using a commonly drawn subject on this blog to deliver an earnest message in a lightly comedic tone. If you are miserable or think there's something missing in your life, it is well within your right to take measures to claim that happiness and start living life to its fullest.

Short answer:

[rnbwtrout]

Offering unsolicited advice muahaha

I recommend trying to sketch it out, and work out what exactly you need to learn to achieve the vision, then take a bit of time to study those elements. Then come back to your drawings and try again. Oftentimes the inability to represent something artistically is just that you don't understand how it is actually drawn/shaded. Art is a skill above anything else and as such it needs to be trained and practiced to really be understood. Treat art like a science, trial and error some things and tweak some things, and, maybe not immediately, but over time you WILL get to a point where the visions in your head can be put on paper effectively. The secret though is to not get caught up in perfection, just get as close as possible. When it does click it's so fulfilling, it just takes a bit of a grind.

Example: I'm working on a series of FMAB fight scene redraws; I'm trying to rework the perspective for the scenes entirely. Mostly because I'm a try-hard lol. I started with one and realized I didn't even know where to begin. My grasp of perspective wasn't great, and my understanding of posing wasn't great. So I stepped away for a while to work with the scene elements in a perspective grid, and to understand some poses better. Came back to the idea a couple weeks later and it looks about 85% what I envisioned. Here's where I'm currently at; this is still just the draft, some things still need tweaking, haven't gotten to line art or shading yet. But it's leagues above where I started a few weeks ago.

And here's some of the pages of tweaking and studying I did to get to this point:

If you don't know what to study to figure out how to achieve your vision, I highly recommend browsing other artists who break down their techniques and methods. I started using the 5 point fish eye perspective grid for scenes because I saw another artist use it well in a way that made sense to me. I still don't understand it fully, you can see my envisioned perspective on the Mustang vs Lust drawing is actually not what I was putting in the perspective grid at all LOL. But even still, working with it and thinking through it still helped me envision what I needed to do better. I spent a good 3-5 hours on those perspective grid just redrawing boxes to understand where to place the characters effectively. And it was tedious, but by the time I got to actually redrawing the scenes a bunch of things suddenly made sense. And even still, the perspective isn't perfect, but it doesn't matter because it's close enough and still achieves the vision.

That all being said: just grinding usually doesn't help. You need to grind with a purpose and a vision in mind. I see people say "to learn perspective you need to draw a bunch of boxes in perspective over and over". Which has always felt pointless to me. But in this case, I made huge improvements in my understanding of perspective by drawing these boxes because I had a specific intent and vision in mind for what they represented.

Tl;dr: Grind it out!!! Art isn't talent it's a skill, study it!

Having a sickass art idea that haunts your every waking moment but lacking the talent to fully idealize it in your exact vision

[relax-and-read-on]

So! In the theme of pride month, I decided to post a New and Improved HC list of primarch and queerness! At the time of the og list (over 3 years ago???), my hc were very different, and things have evolved soooo much in my mind, specifically in relation to the setting! So, without further ado...

How queer are the Primarch?

Roboute: Pansexual of the political Maccragian variety. Marriage? That's for politics and alliance making. Romance? That's where your closest and most beloved companion go. Monogamy? Just don't make succesion lines messy. In general, very attracted to long hair and elegance, and likes more dominating partner. Cis, of the "listen I have paperwork to finish I don't have time for this" variety.

Lion: Gay. Gay gay gay GAAAAAY. Gay gay homosexual gay. Also violently demiromantic. Is lost in the glass closet, not because he doesn't want to come out, but because Sanguinius smiled at him and he had to go on a 3 months hunt instead of asking him out. Absolute disaster gay.

Sanguinius: Shapeshifting pan and polyamourous. Present masc for the Imperium but is a lot more fluid in private. Has an insanely complicated polycule that need a flowchart and a power point presentation to understand. Somehow people keep getting added to it without him meaning too, he's just that lovable.

Horus: a SLUT. A pansexual WHORE. Surprisingly one of those that has sex with afab people the most in the family hello canonical breeding kink, He has less of a polycule and more like a laundry list of fuck friends, and he fully identify as cis, comfortable in it too.

Konrad: Lol. Lmao, even. Very complicated relationship with gender that he has not finished untangling. Usually identify as a menace. Flip wildly between sex repulsed and wanting to have the most mind blowing orgasm from a BDSM scene. Pansexual of the "what's a gender" variety.

Fulgrim: almost fully aromantic. While he love people from every single presentation of humans under the sun, he only has ever been *in love* with Ferrus, and it's mind blowing to him. Genderfluid, and actually slightly chromosonal intersex! Most people would never guess, but he does find it important for his identity.

Ferrus: The most demisexual of the fam. Was under the impression he was himself ace, until he saw Fulgrim forge him a hammer, covered in grimme. Trans man, in the "hey look at this cool new dick I made myself, it shoot LAZER! Yeah ofc I had to take my pants to show you-" variety.

Perturabo: Actually, honest to god hetero flexible. Very attracted to women, the feminine and the delicate. Things that are soft and pretty. He was honestly surprised to be attracted to Fulgrim, and had a minor gay panic about it. Technically agender, but mostly because he feel so remove from his own flesh and body's desire.

Magnus: Warp goo in a vaguely human shaped pile. When asked about his gender as a child, he identified as a constelation. Will say that he is Sapiosexual, and then will transform into a goat the first person that ask about Leman Russ.

Jaghatai: Honestly? Labels are meaningless. Why not just go with the flow? He enjoy pretty, fun, smart people. He is cis, but he really enjoy playing with gender expression, from simple things like painting his nails to full on costumes. His ass look fabulous in a tight dress.

Rogal: Gay, aromantic. Like having sex (aka hardcore bdsm) with his friends. Is actually slightly confused and almost worried about gender expression and presentation, and overthink the whole thing a lot. Has had many talk with Fulgrim trying to get it.

Mortarion: fully, 100% true gonadal intersex (thanks fertily god!). Feel very ankward in his gender expression and is intimidated by experimenting. Is attracted to people that are nice to him, wich is both charming and a bit worrying. Very into bald people, of all thing.

Alpharius/Omegon: Pansexual for tactical purpose. Genderfluid for the trolling. Actually can have some pretty bad gender panic ocasionally because they feel like theor life is always so fake, that they don't know themself.

Corvus: Trans woman! Beautiful and comfortable in her transition! Joke that she has to be hetero with all the guys in her fam, but then she had one VERY interesting night with Sang and shapeshifting and now call herself bi. Sleep around, but is waiting to settle down and become a pretty strict monogamous.

Vulkan: He wants a wife (gender neutral), the 2.5 children legions, a pet dragon and a white picket fortress. By far the most romantic of the fam. Somehow has traditional family roles in his head, but completely removed from gender expectation. Cis, amazing ally and suportive.

Lorgar: Actually part of a third gender reserved to the priestly class on Colchis! Pansexual, but desperatly wants partner that can fold them in half and break their back. Think that helping people discover their sexuality is a mission from God(s), and consider it a great honor.

Leman: VERY pro trans, and will argue that his experience of feeling like he had to "change species" is extremely similar! Absolute slut, does not really ping gender, but has a tendency/societal habit of wanting to be the dominant partner with whoever he's with. And yeah.... there's a knot.

Angron: Demisexual that can rival Ferrus. A lot of his experience where shaped by trauma and things he saw, and the feeling that he cannot/should not be loved when he will invariably hurt his partner. Lorgar doesn't care. Does not like to deal with gender stuff and gets agressive about it.

[trainsinanime]

It says a lot about the might of the US that they were able to accomplish so many things, like building the internet or sending people to the moon, while hampered by the insane imperial measurement units. The country dominates technology and culture to a degree that means in an international context, Americans are always (often unknowingly) playing on easy mode even compared to other "developed western" countries, but this is a little thing where they go out of their way to make things harder for themselves, and still, they succeed. It's impressive, like someone unicycling to work every day.

But part of me also wonders what it could be without. Every US achievement was held back just a tiny bit, maybe a fraction of a percent, because all their formulas are weird. In the rest of the world, any formula is "multiply these things together, divide by those". You sometimes get a 1/2 factor if it's the result of integrating something linear, or a π or 2π if there's a circle involved, but that's it. Americans, though? Every formula is "multiply these things together, divide by those, and multiply by this arbitrary constant because otherwise our stupid units won't line up." It's not a lot of effort, but it compounds over time. I'm sure if you do the averages, the equivalent of at least two or three engineers on the Apollo program only did averages.

Imagine what if they didn't have to do that. What if they could do actual science, instead of remembering that a pound force is one foot pound divided by second squared… times a useless random factor of a little over 32.

For example, imagine if they spent their time improving computers, making them like a tenth of a percent better every year. This effect compounds, because the computers have to do ever so slightly less work; not just the multiplication but also just keeping track of what units to use in the first place. Imagine if all the people who argue that "Fahrenheit makes more sense because it's degrees hot, and to me normal means 70% on every scale" instead did something useful with their time. Imagine if I did something useful with my time instead of writing this.

I know it's not a lot in absolute figures, but even just three minutes per day compounds to a lot people hours and even more computer hours if we consider it on the scale of decades. For example, if we put all this additional computing capacity into actual research, then by now, instead of adding an extra finger to every plagiarised drawing, AI might already be able to add two.

[beceejed]

The Blades are supposed to be super competent. Simultaneously both spies and knights from a secret order with secrets, with its roots mysterious Akivir! Ooooo!

The games want to put you with/in the Blades. The Blades are cool! Join the Blades and work with this exclusive order to stop a horrible disaster. You're part of the club now buddy! How awesome is that?

But!!! This narrative comes with a few small problems that give it dissonance each time.

The Blades are super paranoid and secretive so they don't trust an outsider/former convict who walks in off the street until you've 'proven yourself.'

The Blades don't know - and the Writers don't help them with this - That they are side characters in a sandbox game where only one person ever in the world gets to be competent. The Blades think they're the heroes, because historically they have been. But only the Hero of Kvatch and the Dragonborn get to be Heroes. Only those two get to do any important things ever.

So! You end up with a situation where you are introduced to standoffish, sometimes haughty, often rude people who treat you kinda shitty at first, but you are really doing all the legwork and heavy lifting for their part of the plot while they stand around and act like they're competent, and then eventually they fail or you basically take over finally but they don't exactly improve their demeanor much.

I think the writers are going for 'feel a sense of accomplishment by rising in the esteem of this secretive, exclusive order who have every logical in-world reason to distrust you, earning their respect and your place among them and their storied history' and what they land on instead is 'These fuckos get in my way all the time and literally are the cause of some major story problems by being incompetent in a way that makes me have to clean up their mess, and they're not even grateful when I do it and they start off/remain rude and demanding to me and I can't even quicksave and kill them because they're Essential uuuugh I hate these guys.'

Which becomes especially apparent on repeat playthroughs.

They suck not because Blades are Bad but because you are the only one who can be good at their job. You have to be everywhere and do everything because you have that destiny about you. Fate makes them fail so you can succeed, but it doesn't feel good the way I think its intended to.

Now when people in Skyrim talk about how the Dominion kicked off the war by dropping a cart full of Blades heads at the Emperor's feet, its like 'yeah that tracks. They're Blades, of course every single Blades Agent in the dominion was caught and executed in rapid succession so the altmer could make a statement about their superiority, that seems par for the course. They kinda exist to suck so that better people can show how much better than the Blades they are.'

Jauffre is to Oblivion what Delphine is to Skyrim

[abrielarnold]

Not quite understanding, Knives declares with pride, “All in Haven are mine.”   Blaze chokes on his beer and coughs it down.  Knives blinks innocently as he drinks the last of his fourth beer before saying, still high on alcohol and pianos, “I am theirs as well.”

Love and Violence by @thelightningstreak continues to impress. It's so so delightful throughout and some of the recent chapters have been especially gut punchy. (Have I cried? Yes.)

[meownotgood]

I'm going back to bed the moment I post this but I've been having a super rough and stressful night... so for whatever reason I went back to read some of the kind asks I've received since I saved a lot... some since the first time I started writing... and I got so emotional and just began sobbing haha.... I can't believe how lucky I am...... I love writing so much.........

[wishmaker-astra]

Ah... yeah, alienation is a really nasty phenomenon. It can really mess with you and potentially drive you to do some wild things. This is irrespective of if you're human or pokemon or anything else if you're a member of a social species or equivalent.

It even happens to humans in human society, though usually not as intense. Those of different cultures moving to a place of a significantly different culture can feel lost and adrift in a similar way. And in other cases, even those of the same culture can be made to feel the same way.

While I'm not human anymore, and damn happy I'm not, I used to be. I was pushed away and excluded for reasons I cannot fully grasp, other than I was "different" in some ways that mattered to them. At least the initial reasons I can't fully grasp anyways.

I've never really been part of a community. Not really. I just exist and have existed in one, occasionally making bonds with someone, most of them fleeting or with conditions placed upon me for their continuation. Due to this various aspects of society are just... baffling, absurd, alien, and difficult to keep in mind.

And yet... it's still been worth the effort. Human society has meaningful work I find interesting, large amounts of variety in other things that keep things interesting... even if it absolutely needs improved. Massively. Regardless, it's where I met my girlfriend, and she's one of the best things to happen to me.

You might make a different conclusion than me if the effort is worth it, but I think you might be similar to me from the opposite side in a way. You've been around and in human society enough that you too will be a bit of a stranger in the woods, even to your own original culture. You're an immigrant effectively. Something a bit... unique from either, not exactly a perfect fit there or where you are now. And you're going to have to navigate challenges in either place.

It's rough to think about... but you're going to have a lot of insight into both your own species and humanity that neither would have for themselves if you stop to think about things. It will also be worth talking to both other pokemon who are in similar situations and humans who have... had a less than stellar time with human society. You can help each other out and have some fallbacks if things get nasty.

That said... take time to grieve, try some things out to see if it helps. Little gestures or actions sometimes can go a long way. It won't be instant relief of course, but... it'll help with coping, and it'll get easier with time now that you've realized you are grieving.

Occasionally, though not every year for each, a student will mention their or another's birthday. The peculiarities of human celebrations aside, whenever it happens I am reminded to the fact that humans use such a strange calendar. The only useful feature is its ability to track seasons. Mind you that this calendar often stereotypes seasonality into four distinct equally long seasons, which I shouldn't have to explain the laughable inaccuracy of for most of the Pokémon reading this.

Contrast this with the calendar my species has used for longer than humans have used theirs, which tracks both seasonality and the brightness of the moon. Humans are clueless about when the moon is dark or bright. I lost track of the date once and messaged one of the students asking if it was going to be large tide soon, he responded as if I had asked him if the moon was about to fall from the sky.

[airenyah]

Hey so do you know where I could find this acting manifesto of yours?

I usually try and avoid publicly expressing my opinion on things like this but I recently saw some people commenting negatively on his acting again and I’m starting to doubt my own judgement.

I’ve truly never had a huge problem with his acting but I keep seeing people using really harsh words to describe his prior and current work. I genuinely think he’s doing a good job in THK but these comments sometimes make me think I’m missing something.

That conflicts with the fact I know at least three people he worked with on THK specifically had positive things to say about his acting too and I trust people who do this for a living to know what they’re talking about for the most part.

I guess I’m just looking for your post to have a more detailed perspective of the opposite viewpoint to “he’s a terrible actor” to help affirm some of my thinking so I’m more confident in my positive opinion of his acting.

Overall though I’m enjoying everyone in this show but for me I’m specifically enjoying the four mains the most. Kudos to them honestly.

(Disclaimer: Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion but the harshness of some of the opinions took me off guard a little.)

fuck these people. they don't know shit.

(mind you. this manifesto was written based on his performance in just star in my mind and hidden agenda. his 2024 shows weren't even out at that point. in fact, thk hadn't even been publicly announced yet. you can see from the start there is talent in this boy if you actually know what to look out for)

bonus: i rant some more in the last reblog

[gxtzeizm]

12 hours after the miami gp race…i am still crashing out? well probably (tbf my crashing out lately is quite continuous especially with my uni things + this fakeass sport that doesn‘t help me better either)…it is control-able rn? well at least it is rn….at least i’m able to do post-race reblogs in a minute from now so yeah 🙂↕️🙂↕️

[aria0fgold]

Okay like, I think it'd be too long to put in the tags of the last post so I'm making my own post but ngl that method helped me A LOT. It helped me unlearn So Much stuff by having that first thought, interrogating it, and replacing it. Cuz way back, the thing I'd do is have the first thought, hate myself for it, never try to have it again which isn't helpful At All. And then I reached a point in my life where it was like, have the first thought, avoid it, which is just as worse.

And then last year, when I realized A Lot of stuff bout me, I had to work on unlearning so much during then and like okay, this is like treading the territory of "you gotta be unwell a lil bit to heal" typa thing, like imagining your favourite characters Right There. But mine is like, a lil to the left. Cuz when I realized all the stuff I gotta unlearn, there wasn't any character from a media that can count for that just yet (I got hyperfixated on Cain months after the realization but if I've known him earlier he would've ngl took on the patron saint role in my life of unlearning unhealthy stuff)

So what I did was... used an OC. It wasn't Alec and Ray surprisingly enough cuz in my head they have their own lives and it was a lil harder for me to put them in that role. And it just so happens I have One OC that is specifically made with an awareness that makes it seem like he's a self-insert but not really. It's Alerik. The designated creator of the universe that is practically aware of the truth behind that universe and his own existence so it was easier to pull him. And it worked.

Cuz whenever I do the have first thought, interrogate it, replace it thing, I can't get it right in a way that when I think of interrogating Myself, my brain's immediate reaction is always "hatred" so then when I got Alerik to do the interrogation, my brain couldn't react immediately cuz it isn't just Me, there's Alerik now and he's both me and not at the same time, he's a piece of me. That I love. So my brain couldn't react with "hatred" towards a character I made with love, it worked. I could interrogate myself, figure out "why" I reacted the way I did, "why" I had that first thought, and what I could do moving forward without hating myself or avoiding anything. And I love it. Cuz after a year of just that, slow and steady, I managed to unlearn most of the bad habits and get rid of the self-hate. I love myself now! And the world! And everything just seems so much beautiful this way.

[demodraws0606]

Seeing TPOT hatred on every platform is so fucking funny when really as a person who has been into garbage media before this is possibly one of the least deserving.

[windor-truffle]

me fighting Richard at World's Eye: lmaooo this is so easy dude compared to Kurt and his bullshit radial attack and infinitely spawning adds. Like bro are you even trying where are YOUR adds don't you have any fr--- oh. right.

[madlori]

My ankle journey

I am sharing this with all you good people on the dash because I am so fucking mad it took so long for me to learn it and if I can spare one (1) person the agony it will be worth it.

So for like...oh, 8 or 9 months, I've been struggling with pain/inflammation/tendinitis in my left Achilles tendon. I don't know what caused it. It just started up (welcome to middle age, this shit happens). It wasn't severe enough to be debilitating, but it was annoying and limiting. It was also intermittent, in that some days it would be very painful and other days hardly at all. The kind of shoe I was wearing affected it a lot.

Now, I have bone spurs on both heels (it's just a thing that happens as you get older sometimes). I'm also aware that heel pain is usually the result of tight calf muscles that pull and irritate the tendon. I tried stretching that calf muscle. You know the stretch, this bitch right here:

I did it all the time. I also iced the ankle after walking for awhile, hoping to avoid inflammation. Results were...unsatisfying.

I went to:

A chiropractor

A podiatrist

A physical therapist

A bodywork coach

They all gave me some variation on the "strengthen your calf muscle, stretch your calf muscle" advice. I continued doing this without results.

I was getting frustrated, and a little afraid that this was just my life now. Finally, I thought...maybe some targeted massage might help. I asked for rec on a local FB site and was pointed to a woman who specializes in therapeutic massage including cupping, etc.

I went to her a week ago.

She spent over half our first session working on my left lower leg. Within about 10 minutes of making my eyes water, she uttered the sentence I did not know I had been waiting to hear:

"Oh, it's your soleus."

Excuse me, what?

"It's your soleus that's the culprit. It's all tied up and stiff." She started digging into it and I felt literal sparks run up my leg as she released adhesions and got the muscle moving a little. When she finally put the leg down, it felt like it was on fire with all the blood rushing into it.

She said, "You'll need to stretch your soleus. It'll clear up, but it'll take a bit of time - tendons take ages to heal."

But I HAVE been stretching.

"No, you haven't. The usual straight-leg calf stretch only stretches the gastrocnemius, that's the big belly muscle in your calf. That's not your problem. That stretch doesn't stretch the soleus. Don't worry, I'll show you how to stretch it."

My mind is spinning.

So here are the muscles in question:

The gastroc (as the pros call it) just attaches down the back but the soleus runs underneath it from the knee around the side to the heel. The lower part above the ankle is where it typically gets tight and forms adhesions.

To stretch it, you do the same calf thing where you put your foot back and press your heel to the ground, but you have to do it with your KNEE BENT:

The bent knee keeps the gastroc from engaging. It's one of those selfish muscles (like traps) - if you give it an inch, it'll just take over and prevent other muscles from working or stretching. There are other ways to stretch the soleus but this is the easiest and you can literally do it anywhere. I've been doing it while standing and waiting for things (the elevator to come, the toast to toast). You just put the heel back and bend the knee. It's kind of like curtseying.

The minute I did this stretch, I could FEEL where it was pulling on my tendon. I knew that THIS had been the problem.

The massage therapist also told me to stop icing my heel. She said icing is for an acute injury, but a more chronic aggravation needs heat, to increase blood flow for healing. She recommended elevation with heat every day (I've been doing it in bed during "phone before bed" time).

I have been doing the soleus stretch at least half a dozen times a day for almost a week, and the ankle is at least 70% better. It is still a little tight and tender, but the improvement is significant. I think a few more weeks will have it feeling normal.

I am...blown away by this. This massage therapist was able to pinpoint an issue in only a few minutes that eluded all the other professionals I saw. I can't wait to go back to her and have her solve all my other problems, tbh.