#its funny to me how normalised it is

[sttoru]

nothing hurts me more mentally than reading ‘your cheeks flushed a pink color’ or smth of that sort in x reader fics 😥

[enemywasp]

Alright so someone on tiktok sent me a link to a compiled list of arguments against proshippers and so I wanted to put a sort of brief response of my own thoughts of each point.

Long post warning!

"Proshippers are non-offending minor attracted people in a fresh paint of coat"

What a start, am I right? Okay so first off this is a huge generalisation, not every proshipper engages with or is even comfortable with anything that sexualises fictional children, or ships them with adults. And of those that do ship adult/minor ships, it doesn't always mean they're attracted to the character themselves or gains any sexual pleasure from that.

They then went on to say that although they might be non-offending, they still fantasise about and romanticise children- in the case of proshippers by creating art and stories. And I am not personally educated enough on how people's minds works to go in depth here, but I do know a lot of pedophilic thoughts can be intrusive and unwanted. And I would much rather people engage in this and deal with their thoughts through fiction where no actual children are harmed, than actually go touch a real child or engage is any form of CSEM.

“People can draw and ship whatever they want!”

Here they went on to say that surely to ship and create content you must justify these things in some capacity regardless of them being fictional. And immediately I'd argue, the justification it that they're fictional. And that sometimes you want to read about things you'd never approve of in real life, it's a natural curiosity. And again, regardless of what the dark content is I would take someone engaging in fiction over harming a real person any day.

They compared this to alt-right groups and dark humour justifying racism and transphobia, etc. And whilst I think something we should always be aware of in fiction is stereotypes and how we may be representing people. Youtube videos like this are usually a type of propaganda that AIM to change people's mindsets and turn them against groups. Whereas fiction tells a story, some may have meanings and connections to real life, be a political piece, etc. Not everything is that serious and has a clear distinction from reality.

Think for example, reading/watching about murder and gore. More on that in a second.

"Fiction doesn't affect reality!"

I'm going to be honest I rolled my eyes at this as their main example was slenderman. If you don't know about that, those girls were schizophrenic. Anything could of set off and caused delusions, it just so happened to be fiction. Those girls needed help- not to just read purer content. They also basically brought up propaganda again, which is again deliberate and designed to warp peoples perceptions. Its based of lying and spreading misinformation and passing it as facts. The only thing I strongly believe can be directly harmful is stereotypes if not handled with care. But I think that's something for anyone who writes and consumes content should be aware of regardless of their stances.

Again here they implied that all proshippers are peodophiles. And that they normalise abuse of children. I'd also like to point out that most proshippers I've interacted with online have age boundaries to avoid interacting with minors depending on how graphic or sexual their content is.

"What do you think all stories about murder should stop existing?"

Here they basically argued that killing in media isn't the same as its not romanticised or condoned. YA Novels disagree- mafia stories being the most immediate example to spring to mind. Furthermore, morally grey villains. One of my favourite films is Mr Right. It's about a hitman killing people. Anna kendrick falls in love with him and its framed as a romantic comedy. Funny how its only fanfiction that's criticised like this? I actually have more thoughts on this if anyones interested.

Again they bring up kids not knowing adults pursuing children is wrong, and I'm questioning why children this young are unsupervised on the Internet. How young were you when you were allowed to watch anything with graphic blood or violence? This content isn't made for kids! Especially not anyone so young they can't seperate fiction from reality as most sites have a specific age you have to be to join. And I'm sorry to say it, but on websites and social media where adults can interact with kids, anything can be used to groom kids. (The real thing you should be mad about here is how there's no websites aimed just for children and safe spaces on the Internet anymore cause it can't be monetised as easily)

"Artists are allowed to draw and write about dark people"

They basically said, yes but it's not the same as promoting. Writing something under a romantic light and not saying "Don't do at home!" Isn't promoting. No ones encouraging these things in real life. Or rather, if they are its not because they're a proshipper but rather who they are as a person and their intentions.

The trans example they used is very extreme and honestly something I agree with a little more, fiction can definitely be used as an excuse to say and act out hateful and discriminatory things. Whilst I do think it's something we should discuss and unpack more, I'm not certain of my view on how I would fix this without risking silencing people talking about their experiences.

"Its not my responsibility to look after other people, just block me and the tags"

Here they threw all kinds of accusations. And says that we're making traumatised people jump through hoops to avoid getting retraumatised. I hate this argument, you know people have actual triggers they may not be able to avoid in real life? The world can't bend around you. And I am very sorry if any content online is traumatising to you, but someone could also be traumatised by a certain breed of dog and not want to see it. Should no one post dogs online ever again? A bald man reminds you of an abusive ex? Bald men get off the Internet! You see how this thing can just keep escalating? The tags and warnings are important because they're the best you can get. You can't control the world to protect everyone from everything ever. No ones forcing you to interact, and if you're on any algorithm based content that will encourage that content on your for your page more.

The only thing I think we should take from this is the reminder that warnings and tags are always important.

"You only care about censoring creativity"

Here they defend themselves that oh wouldn't you want freaks out the community! Which again immediately makes me lose respect for you, if you're just going to brand us all as freaks as an argument and generalize us.

No comment on that first line when you can easily argue antishipper do the same.

"Proshippers are not remotely innocent of targeted harrasement" Neither are antis. There's people who take things too far both sides and I'm not going to defend either for that.

"Real kids get assaulted and all you care about is censoring people online!"

Here they shout "oh I can care about both!" But what I don't think they realise is censorship can make it difficult for kids and to learn about how to speak up and to look for signs, or to speak up about their experiences. How do you plan on removing the topic from the Internet whilst also letting victims speak up? And people may want to write fiction based off their experiences. Who are you to go through it and proclaim what is too far, what romanticises it too much? More on this later.

"Antis are reducing my trauma"

They compared this to saying "date rape victims are reducing my trauma because they weren't taken advantage of in the same way as me" which is a disgusting parallel?? Date rape is still rape. Someone writing about something isn't the same as it happening. Although it can be used as harrasment, grooming, etc if directly addressed to you or being constantly sent to you, written about you. But the content existing in general? No.

"I'm coping"

Compared it to self harm, and such. Poetry and diaries are also used to write about your experiences and unpack trauma. Some of which may write it in an unrealistically positive light cause that's how they want to unpack it or explain those thoughts. And yes these things get posted online.

I can't imagine a single therapist or professional psychiatrist of any kind disapproving of creative writing because, again, it's much better than any alternatives of doing real harm to yourself or people around you. Although I do agree that if something is traumatising for you to read about and just upsets you further, be aware of your own boundaries but not everyone is the same so how are you going to police people's own thoughts and emotions.

Also I can't remember who or where as it was years ago now, but I have heard of people who actually realised they were being groomed or abused and just how bad it was through reading about it in a fanfic and seeing it in an outside perspective.

They also say to do it in private, but doesn't everyone on the Internet now have an understanding of finding a community and looking out for eachother and sharing experiences?

"There's more nuance here than just calling proshippers peodophiles"

Here they say no matter what it still comes down to whether it's ever okay to sexualise minors in certain contexts. And again, not every proshipper does this or is even comfortable with engaging in this kind of content. And further, no one is sexualising real minors in this context.

"I'm a proshipper and a minor tho!"

I'd agree minors should be wary of the spaces they're in but proship spaces aren't always necessarily sexual, graphic or 18+. Saying they're being groomed feels like you're watering down that term. I was a proshipper at age 13, I didn't interact with anyone online about it though, I didn't even know that was the term. I just came to the conclusion that it's just fiction all on my own. Minors aren't idiots.

At then end they talk about their own experience being groomed and I'm obviously not going to nitpick or criticise their experiences. I will point out that one person being bad and taking advantage of you and using content to do so doesn't mean everyone is like that. I am sorry to anyone who has been taken advantage of by someone who claims they're a proshipper though. There are people who have turned out to be horrible on both sides.

I am ill and it's late but I want to get this up sooner rather than later so please ask for clarification on anything. I'm always up for a discussion on this topic as I do believe some of these points do have merits at times and that this whole topic is not black and white

[bibibbon]

I have mentioned how Izu is single out in his own story in many ways but...can I say how bk is the root of all the problems the manga has? Yes, even the Tododrama.

"but bk didn't abused the Todos" True, it was Endy...but the blame still goes to BK bc in a story where HE can mistreated, abuse and try to kill the MC OF THE STORY and no one baits an eye ...why the tododrama would be different?

If Izu has to look up to his abuser and call him cute nicknames...why Endy wouldnt center himself as "mea culpa" and take the spotlight in the narrative of the Todorokis?

It's all a domino effect.

Hori constructed a narrative and even framed as BK's actions aren't that bad. People thought it was funny.

"lol typical BK" as he says smth cruel to Izu or you know, tries to kill him.

People start to ship him back the day...with Izu. People were saying "wait for his character development/redemption" and well...it became a question of what BK feels, not Izu.

Doesn't that feels similar ?

Who cares what Toya or Shoto feels? It's more important to know what Endy is feeling.

If the mc of this story can be abused and no one bait an eye(be in the story or in the fandom at large) why people are shocked the Tododrama is being like that?

Its absolutely consistent with how MHA is since day 1. The victim deserves nothing and the abuser has a pity me party.

Hi @mikeellee 👋

Well sure bakugo definitely has a huge influence but it's not bakugo himself that directly caused the todoroki family drama and neither would I label it as such.

I get the point that it's characters like bakugo that are the root cause for a lot of societies problems!! I also agree with this sentiment.

I think that there is also evidence for this since bakugo shares a lot of paralleling imagery or just parallels with horrible characters like Enji todoroki and All for one. I remember one of @sapphic-agent posts that talked about bakugo and his lack of a main villain was because he was his own villain. Bakugo is the prototype for one of the worst types of people that exist in MHA society and it's worse that his previous behaviour goes unpunished. This is also another parallel that he has with enji todoroki. I would like to say Iam surprised but Iam not.

I think it's interesting how horikoshi managed to simply normalise bakugo's abusive, aggressive and rash behaviour and even turn it into what some may call an enjoyable gag for the readers to see and go "classic bakugo" or some other type of excuse.

So yes if bakugo can do it other characters can do it that meaning enji and AFO who got away with a lot heck afo was somehow even humanised?!?!?!?!

I can never understand canon BKDK shippers like Iam sorry but what do they see in that. Izuku literally has no agency or autonomy here it completely sucks and its toxic as heck. Also it's very ooc considering that bakugo hates Izuku's guts and has only recently started to act civil towards him. Also bakugo never went through a proper redemption so I don't see the appeal. I think that a lot of shippers may ignore these factors which is where fanon and a much more healthier version of BKDK comes in but I still hate it tbh 🤷‍♀️.

Yes classic hori somehow managed to turn his story into one where the abusers are always praised and the victims are either always perfect little angles that forgive and forget everything or spiteful and vengeful with the urge to burn society down.

[spinnysocks]

i don't know how else to say this but we as a society need to stop seeing small pet death as funny. in fact, we need to stop normalising putting them in danger for our entertainment. i have owned hamsters all my life; they are such beautiful little creatures. they are so fragile that it made me so anxious for them because i cared for them. yet, movies or tv shows present hamster death as a joke somehow. this must have had a knock-on effect on people's views because i have seen so many people making fun of a dead pet on social media. i have seen so many people laugh because somebody's pet hamster died/because someone is grieving it. is it funny because you see them as small and insignificant? because a hamster is seen as a stupid, tiny creature that holds no worth? so you laugh at its death? i genuinely cannot understand it. where is the joke. i feel genuine grief for hamsters who have been put in danger or died because of neglect, just to be recorded and laughed at by the same species who domesticated them. the same species who made them pets and are supposed to look after them. yeah maybe i'm sensitive but i think i should be. how could the death of a tiny, innocent, unknowing little animal we made our pets, an animal so fragile and reliant on us, be funny.

[sunthyme]

Okay, now is technically the last one before my prefect design lol. OOPS I FORGOR fuck well here they finally are lol...

😭Other Side Characters😭

I drew so many cutie patooties in this batch omg they're adorable. But first we'll kick off with the Royal Blade characters!

🐱Chenya🐱

Because I'm not spelling out his whole damn name 💀

(he/she/they/it/ whatever pronouns you can think of lol) Genderqueer - Pansexual

Teehee I forgot to colour in the damn hair clips... I'm gonna kms /j

- Genderqueer cat. Any character based on the Cheshire Cat is genderqueer to me istg. Chenya is no exception.

- I kept most of her design the same but added in some heterochromia for funsies and used those colours for the hair clips and earrings. Xe is also Hispanic, idk it just felt right.

- Totally has ADHD. The impulsive thoughts are obvious with this one and I think that Neige serves as its impulse control. They made like, a pact of sorts (after their Headmage yelled at Chenya for doing something) that Chenya tells Neige whatever the impulsive thought is and Neige either tell Chenya 'No, you can't do that' or 'We can do this instead'.

- Broke asf. I dunno but I feel like Chenya has like the worst habit of impulse buying you've ever seen so they never carry money on they to try and avoid it at Trey and Riddle's recommendation. It's mostly worked as Neige buys anything Chenya needs when they go out anyways.

Speaking so much of Neige,

🐦Neige LeBlanche🐦

(he/him) Transmasc - Biromantic Asexual

God I love how Neige came out, look at him!!! He's such a cutie patootie omgomg I love him sm

- Anyways, I was fighting my demons to not make him black and I lost. I dunno, we don't have enough sweet, cute black boys in media and that is a crime.

- I gave him some hairclips with cute lil charms on them and some of those silly little acne patches. Idk if he actually has acne, he totally could, but I think he'd wear them either way to like normalise not be ashamed of it, y'know?

- I gave him some cute little apple earrings which were a gift that Rook gave him after a concert with one of his letters lol. He wears most of the jewelry gifted to him at one point or another but he really likes the apple earrings.

- Has a crush on Vil. Idk how popular of a headcanon that is but as soon as they interacted, I felt like it made sense. I love the one-sided rivalry lmao with Vil hating his ass and he's just like, 'Omg, she's so pretty and cool and smart. Wow, I'm so glad we get to work together so much!' It's really funny ngl.k

- Loves to crochet, knit, and sew. All are kinda skills he picked up while caring for the dwarves but they're his favourite to do. He's made Chenya a few sets of mittens (because for some super mysterious reason, they always go missing) and a quilt at some point.

- Likes anything with apples in it, pies, drinks, you name it. Fall is his favourite season because of apple cider alone (otherwise it'd be spring).

Onto the Kingscholars!

🦁Cheka Kingscholar🦁

(he/him)

He's so cute!!! I love him omg I'd actually love to babysit him look at those eyes

- I kept his design also pretty on model, darken his skin a smidge and textured his hair to match Leona's. Smacked some dimples and birthmarks on as if he wasn't cute enough already.

- The gold eyeliner is like a royal thing, maybe be specific to the crown line or maybe Leona's just too fcking lazy, probably the later.

- He's actually really good at chess. He's played many games with Leona, even though he didn't get it at first, but now he can beat most people who play him (still not Leona lest he really screws up something). Most of his birthdays, he gets a new pretty chess set and he has a little display of them in his room.

Now for his dad! The only character here without a canon design (as far as I know... which I'm upset about).

👑Farena Kingscholar👑

(he/him) - Heterosexual

I woulda also made a design for his wife but I don' think she even has a name?? So maybe in the future.

- I based him more on Leona, trying to make sure that Cheka didn't just get his trait lmao. I think that he got his piercing actually after Leona got his because the palace staff were criticising him for it so Farena went and got one.

- I dunno, he's giving bi wife energy. It helps that the women of Sunset Savannah are buff and cool and I'm so mad we never saw them 😭😭😭 I wanna see Leona's sister-in-law so bad ;^;.

- He's not as much into the intellectual side of things like Leona is, would rather defeat people with strength which is why the two really don't get along super well. Though I think it's only perceived on Leona's side, I don't think Farena realises how much hurt Leona's had throughout his life.

- Angst aside, he doesn't get much in the way of free time what with all his royal duties and such. His favourite activities are spoiling his family and getting used as a weight for his wife's daily exercise!

We got even more other family characters incoming...

🐍Najima Viper🐍

(she/her) - Bicurious

Fair warning, I haven't encountered any of the last three characters lol.

- I didn't change much here either, just added some red streaks to her hair and matched her palette to Jamil's.

- I don't know if her age is ever implied but I think she'd be younger than him by like a year. She went to a different school with Kalim's cousin (who they're like besties).

- I feel like Najima didn't get the same set of exceptions set on her growing up and so her relationship with the Al-Asims, while still not necessarily healthy, was nowhere near as damaging. I think that while Jamil definitely envies that, he'd rather die than make her go through the same thing as him.

Up next,

🧢Mama Spade🧢

(she/her) - Bisexual

Never met her either 😭😭😭

- I based her off my Deuce design and really just added some more piercings. I actually toned down the blonde streaks but I think they'd both have just a few.

- I believe she has a small business??? Or something? I didn't read the wiki but her hat had a delivery service me thinks but I stan her having a small business.

- She loves her son very much and was super excited when she saw his new piercings. Also, super accepting when he came out, obvi and thinks that while Ace is a bit of a rascal, they do click together.

I don't have a ton for her but I want that event to come back pleaseeee 🙏🙏🙏

🐉Meleanor Draconia🐉

(she/they) Agender - Aromantic Pansexual

- I had so much fun with her horns. I made them more branchy and I think a full grown dragon (well, like an old one) would basically have a web of antlers. I added some purple to the tips for the 🌸aesthetic🌸.

- Also added some wave to her hair. Malleus looked in her spitting image so I figured I'd give Levan's genes a chance lmao. They're also super tall, probably even taller than Mal herself and especially with the horns.

- I think she'd have left some things that Malleus ended up growing up with not realising they were from her, like a hair clasp, some assorted jewelry, a couple toys and items that Lilia gave him when he was old enough. Pieces of her for him to grow up with, y'know?

Anyways, I'm so sorry for this posting without anything lmao I was real tired last night! Prefect is next on the chopping block!

[huellitaa]

₊˚.𖹭 stop romanticising self hatred.

𓏲. something that absolutely infuriates me is just how fucking normalised self hatred is nowadays. let me get this straight you hate it when someone else talks shit abt or hurts one of your loved ones but its PERFECTLY FINE to go hating on and sabotaging and abusing and neglecting yourself ??? girl .

i have said this so many times and i cannot stress this enough that you are and forever will be the most important relationship you have for the rest of your life because youre there 24/7 365 every second every day all the time forever. so it absolutely baffles me how this is the relationship people are constantly neglecting the most?????????

like think ab it for a sec. its absolutely ridiculous????? it saddens me when i see anyone, even little kids saying they hate themselves and getting laughs out of it.its not funny and its not something to be normalised or romanticised. and because we are surrounded with this mindset it reflects on us too and we subconsciously blend into it and absorb it into our self perception.

dont. do. this. its ridiculous and sad and self deprecating and only reinforces other peoples negative perceptions of us further when they may not have even been there to begin with. do you seriously want to be one of those people? do you seriously want people to view you as insecure and self deprecating and desperate for attention and sad and uncomfortable in their own skin? no. no u dont.

i do not wanna hear you saying you hate yourself or anything of the sort ever. again. its stupid and useless and provides absolutely nothing to you. why do you do it? seriously? like? its ridiculous? stfu?

no. you walk into the room and you hold your head high. you make your presence known because your presence is a blessing. you are a blessing. you keep your back straight and your shoulders back and you know your the shit bc u ARE. stop acting like youre not just to fit in with everyone else. stop engaging with them if thats what it takes. youre worth so much more than that.

u are amazing and talented and stunning and can do absolutely anything in the world and yet you still choose to do this. you are amazing. start acting like it ok?? <3

[fraternum-momentum]

mini update

I think im in a creative burnout rn,, i havent been really satisfied with my art and i feel like my progress has been stagnant. i have no idea on what direction i should take it. do i focus on rendering? should i adhere to a more specific style? should i make it more realistic or should i play with my proportions? do i make the lineart less visible or should i lean more into it? it's all basically a midlife identity crisis of my art or something idk if that makes any sense ajebd

im also just not sure how to overcome a burnout or like how to take a break??? i would always feel uncomfortable and guilty for not doing anything productive like i want to do something but everything i draw is not up to my standards so i trash most of my stuff or just leave it unfinished (well to be fair im very hard on myself, especially these past few days) so i just kinda have no idea what to do??

and another thing is, im not super into dol anymore :[ i mean it was eventually bound to happen, im surprised i even lasted this long lol i might make the occasional fanart here and there if i feel like it (most likely answering an old ask), but that's not the main thing i'll be drawing from now on :c i might post more ocs or more of that puppygirl stuff since ppl seem to like it and i enjoy drawing it too so yea,,

i'm also probably gonna stray further away from like super dark media. i mean dont get me wrong, i still like drawing dead dove stuff and being my degenerate self but i realized that ive been interacting with dark media on a practically daily basis now and its really fucking up my psyche and im probably consuming an unhealthy amount of it (well for me at least, i know people can handle much darker stuff but yeah). like i recognise i like fucked up shit but i dont want it to be normalised to me and accidentally skew my moral compass. (basically im in my metaphorical grass touching era) so ill probably do more sfw stuff here from now on :] which is super funny since the goal of my goretober prompt list was to desensitise myself from like super hardcore stuff but it ended up doing the exact opposite LMAODBQ rip

but thanks for reading all this ! it was pretty lengthy, so i do apologize for that. i hope you have a wonderful day 💛

[softness-and-shattering]

cw for grouching about transphobia/transmisogyny specifically. and kind of homophobia its all variations of the same bigotry soup. Im watching the great british sewing bee. from a couple years ago. And one of the sewists (not sewers GBSB omg) is using a floral fabric and the presenter person comments on it being feminine, and then says (not the exact quote) "Oh I feel a bit sexist for saying that, men can like flowers". So the sewist (a woman) offers a story to the presenter about dating a man wearing floral socks, and ends the story with "and I married him!"

Presenter: "Oh did you!"

Presenter: "I wonder if you'd have to watch your underwear." and laughs.

And the contestant does that barely perceptible freeze, assumedly realises that 1. she's being filmed for national television and 2. doesnt have a good response ready, and pastes on a laugh. And in the editing they stayed on that laugh a little too awkwardly long. For both of them. Because it wasnt a funny joke it was a power joke. In fact the editors didnt need to include it at all.

And what I find interesting in probably an intellectualising-so-it-hurts-less kind of way, is that she was trying to be generous about gender roles, she was feeling sexist assuming that florals were only for girls. And then its like that social conditioning kicked in and she was compelled to make a transphobic joke, so everyone around knows you're 'safe' ie agree with the perceived-powerful-majority and you're not to be bullied. Which is what power jokes are all about, firmly cementing the in-group and the out-group and which side you're on.

Oh a man likes floral? Man-in-a-dress must be a sex pervert getting off on wearing womens underwear. Its the 'failure at being a man' and simultaneous 'but a man who's a failure at being a man, definitely not a woman failing at being a man". And the underwear thing is also autogynephelia though I think its unlikely the presenter knows that term but its the whole sex pervert thing.

Perhaps an ok response could have been "why? he's perfectly capable of buying his own." Taking it back from the shame implication and normalising. Not that I think this woman did anything wrong, we've all been in that situation where we freeze and seem to go along with it because our nervous system chose freeze instead of fight. Zero blame on this contestant who wasnt expecting that kind of comment and didnt know what to say.

And with the presenter, like, she said what she said and is responsible for it. And I definitely think (well,feel) less of her now. Its just interesting to me how she was trying to be inclusive and then its like she tripped her own protective wiring and fell back on transphobia for perceived safety. The moving forward thing to do would be trying to notice and correct those thoughts when you have them so its less likely to pop out your mouth, assuming you agree ofc. Im not absolving her. It also didnt seem incredibly malicious on her part. not excusing, just observing.

[sorcerous-caress]

MINTHY <3 Where to begin with Minthara… I guess by stating that this will be colored by the fact that everything I know about her is through osmosis from the wiki and x readers. Would she be a good fit for me? Doubtful. Would she think I'm too sensitive for this world and would not survive the winter? More likely. That being said, when I was thinking about buying the game I was fully prepared to commit atrocities for her.

No judgment to others intended, but I really like how you write her as more than just a cruel, sadistic dom. I mean, she can be cruel but not to me >:) This line from your "how would they drink your blood" drabbles says it best, I think - She takes great care of her belongings. Just love how she can show her softer side (soft for her, at least) but never loses that possessiveness~ And in the "romantic gifts they'd give you" piece - showing you her tender heart and then following that up by giving you the disembodied heads of your enemies? Hooooooo boy that's what it's all about!!!!

Homewarming Gift was the first fic of yours I read? It's funny bc I don't typically go for modern aus or slutty reader but I took a chance on it, and, well, it was good and it was hot, and enough to make me want to try A Beautiful Webbing, which is not only really well-done and atmospheric but also. Hot.

And like I know reader is under the influence of the venom but the kisses at the beginning are so adorable - "giving you one short kiss after another" come on that's so cute. Glad there was a happy ending; I don't normally care about reading marriage stuff but it really worked in that story. And as usual the smut was excellent. I cannot quote this but uhh the last paragraph of this post? https://www.tumblr.com/sorcerous-caress/733264235859181568/driderminthara-dont-do-this-to-me-i-already?source=share I am not normal about it 🫠

https://www.tumblr.com/sorcerous-caress/731664242126864384/will-never-be-able-to-move-again-but-fuck-it-its?source=share You're so real for this. Jaheira is underrated. If there's one thing Pathologic is missing, it's a gilf.

🐿️ anon

There is truly no better feeling than when someone fully understands your vision in an art piece you made.

You get her, you see her like I see her. With all of her beauty and ugliness, her merciless eyes and soft heart. Because both parts will always be part of what makes Minthara herself, the harsh exterior and tender interior. They aren't in contrast nor conflict, they seamlessly work in unison to make this complex character.

Minthara feels like a love letter to every single drow character that has ever been created, the stereotypical ones especially that were brushed to the side. She embodies the controversial drow culture because it is embedded within her deeper than Lolth ever could reach that even when she forsaken the spider queen, she found herself still singing to the rhythm of her people.

I always wrote her with care, a balancing to give each of her traits a chance to shine. Push her bluntness and brutally in the reader's face before subtly illuminating her tender moments.

Moments where she chooses to allow herself to be "weak" within your presence, bestowing upon you the highest honor a drow could ever grant another soul, one that even their parents never receive.

Love is the best kept open secret in the underdark.

If you want a perfect summary to Minthara's love then look at her attitude when it comes to having children. It's very normalised in drow culture for the kids to overthrow their parents and murder them, the parents always mistrust their kids and keep precautions in place because of it.

Yet how does Minthara approach it? as an honour. A reserved right for her eldest daughter to kill her by her own hands.

Minthara doesn't cower or run away. She clearly is still down to having children despite it all. To birth your own murder while aware, to take care and nurture the weak infant who will watch you choke on your blood with cold eyes as you grow old and vulnerable.

You know these stories and fables about kings receiving bad omens or prophecies on how their next child will overthrow them early? on how fear and greed to keep their seat atop the throne for some extra years drives them into paranoia and they send the infant away to be raised in some nowhere village so they me never be a threat to them?

How most of that time that ends up being counterproductive as the child grows up and fullfills their destiny, murdering the harsh parent which abandon their own flesh and blood for a golden crown.

How Minthara never even considers the idea. Not only does she accept it as a fact of life, but she encourages it, looks forward to it.

The proudest she could ever be, that's how much she would've loved her children.

I don't think her kids would want to kill her, despite it all. Especially since she left the underdark and with reader or well tav around as a romanced option, I think the love she desperately tries to hide will be contagious.

That she will be loved out of spite, whether she likes it or not, she will be treasured and her life will remain preserved.

You see, this is magnified ten times by the fact Minthara isn't just some random drow with a harsh life. She was destined for greatness. She was a Baerne princess, in line to become a matriarch to the most infamous and powerful noble drow house there is.

She could've easily been written as a product of her environment, yet she held herself every step along the way. The way she treats us is extremely soft in normal drow standards so imagine how it would be for a drow princess whom only known respect, reverence and being feared all her life.

Even if tav is a male or an elf, she is still romanceable. She still falls in love with us, she still tries to adjust to the surface ways and reach a comparison by her own self without the need for an intervention or a talk with her.

She could've easily been so so much worse and it would've made sense, Minthara already sacrificed a great deal and changed so much. But because it was done behind closed curtains since she is far wiser and more self-willes than any average person, we take it for granted and don't truly comprehend the amount of self-discipline and work it required her to reach this point.

Drows attack others on sight, any different race. There is a prime example of it ingame when you free the drow group from their stone curses, they immediately go for your throat.

Minthara broke through generation curses and decades of propaganda, racism and sexism by her own self.

It wasn't a cheap character development where her falling in love with us suddenly made her wake up and blah blah blah. No, she didn't need us to begin with, she didn't need anyone to reach that revelation. She found the path herself out of sheer cleverness and perspective.

It takes humility to acknowledge that you've been raised wrongly all your life, that everything you stood for were lies built on bigger lies by some mad sadistic goddess who got off on watching your people tormenting.

That's why I like the fact she is a paladin, noble in essence and soul.

I wrote beautiful webbing in a single day, none stop from sunrise to the middle of the night. It was as if I was possessed from how much the sentences weaved themselves and the visions kept coming.

I changed the ending and meeting scene multiple times. The decision to make it a happy ending happened last moment, I had a much more grim twist in mind but decided this one fit better.

She does take great care of her belongings after all.

-

Your praise means a lot, thank you. I wish I was in a better state to show more enthusiasm or appreciation for your kind words. I genuinely didn't accept you'd actually leave a comment after that ask I answered, I thought I must have gotten over in my own head and I should apologise for snapping at someone who didn't do anything wrong.

The funeral hit me hard, I haven't slept in two days as of writing this. I'm waiting for the sleeping pills to work rn, I don't know how I can still read and write without problems.

Or maybe this is all gibberish and I'm not actually writing anything comprehensive? I'm not sure, I hope not.

Either way, I'm sorry. You deserved more grace and courtesy from me, I'll do better in the future.

I hope your day is amazing squirrel anon, I just remembered there is infact a squirrel ingame in bg3 and that made me smile.

It's also so ego boosting that you liked my Minthara pieces despite not knowing anything about her before? It's such a great compliment oh god do I even deserve it? It implies I really did her character justice, that my fanfic didn't rely on the reader's previous knowledge of her character as a crutch, that it could possibly stand on its own as a story.

I'm really happy, thank you for making my day better.

Please do take care of yourself. I may not have talked about each topic you mentioned but I reread your ask many times, and I'm thankful for every word.

[darkangelsofthedarknight]

Being chronosian (ageless) is so funny cause people probably think I'm crazy enough to join 18+ discord servers, try to sneak into adult only places (bars, clubs) or actively tell everyone irl that im actually non physically ageless!! Honey, that's not how this works.

I do not want to be 🍇ed by a 50 year old man or get called delusional (even though I am but it's I don't want to be called that as an insult and get laughed at). I know what I am physically. I just want to be treated how I feel non physically but not to the point where people start sexualising me. Even adults don't want to be sexualised by other adults (or teenagers, because they are capable, capable more than welcome can imagine).

And no I don't have the right to give out my personal information and she to you just because I am chronosian.

And no I do not support radqueers. This whole label is literally anti radqueer.

And yes my mental perception of everything is messed up and yes I actually like an adult because I have schizophrenia. And yes I recognise it weakly. But I'll still label myself how I want.

I am not required to tell you if I'm a minor or adult bodily. It doesn't make a difference when talking to me, unless you're pulling out sexual jokes out your ass which is definitely not normal to think about that everyday so often that it has become part of your humour. I have how normalised sex jokes and generally sexual behaviour is.

It's not quite the same thing as transgenderism or sexuality but you wouldn't ask someone whats in their pants or if they've ever fucked someone same sex/non-binary.

And you definitely wouldn't go out your way to antagonise those who are LGBT+ because of schizophrenia/delusions (usual life lasting). If you would, you're quite bigoted and ableist, not sorry.

Respecting their identity even if delusional and not hurting anyone is the right thing to do. You don't have to support it. Just treat them how they want to be treated and don't let them go too far (example: a chronosian who mentally identifies as younger does something problematic like developing or revealing that they are paedophilic, that's not okay and you should stop them because they are not physically young, at that point its a delusion about how young their body is).

If anyone chronosian (preferably ageless or oldechro) finds this post, please reblog or like because I want to see how many of us are out there who agree with what I said.

[radio-charlie]

Idk. I've been here since 2008 or so, though not consistently. Of course ppl have always been saying offputting shit in the comments and tags. Sometimes they do it to shock u, sometimes its them getting a bit high off their boner vapors. I used to read blogs (morbid curiosity, dw) written by ppl who bragged about befriending teens who'd gone to jail for stabbing their neighbor's little daughter dunno how many times. But in recent years there's been a funny push to normalise what are truly very antisocial and bloodthirsty mindsets k. Not even among born-and-bred psychopaths but among ordinary people who probably get the closest to violent fantasies when they need to outrun their self-loathing and neuroses.

It's come from so many angles that to list it all coherently would take me until lunchtime. And frankly i have stopped caring. Because for all of my effort to help a country I should actually work on destroying to protect everything I love, I'm just gonna end up in the shithouse alone lol. So, frankly, joke more about torture, sexual assault, war crimes, marrying astarion and giving into the dark urge, being like patrick bateman and hyperfixating autistically on chopping up hookers, idgaf. You don't have to pretend to the world at large that you don't secretly want to lose your conscience, so that you'll finally know the security of the unfuckwithable. I can see that you are lying.

[tenobelisk]

Warning: these critical role opinions may be a little spicy if you think liking star wars and funko pops makes you nerdy. sorry, that was a jab. im just going to talk about critical role stuff for a bit to get it off my chest. spoilers for seasons one and two will follow.

so, i love the fact that sam will do characters that are not built to please anyone. in season 1, scanlan's storm-off was fantastic. he called them all out and i loved the timing of it. nobody gets to be comfortable for long, things are not perfect, im not the 'funny little guy' anymore. it's the most real shit to bring to the table each season in a different way, and i have no idea if anybody else feels this way about sam's characters but just bravo.

so, also, i really didn't like the policing of Nott's behaviour in season 2 vis-a-vis drinking and killing things, nor did i like veth at all. shrug. it got to the point where i felt nott was being curtailed and suppressed out of some real-life moral code bleeding into the game. veth seemed to be a normalisation and the death of nott. which seemed a mercy killing at that point. i dont like it when a character loses their fire even if its for Morally Good Reasons.

an aside: i loved how nott's husband accepted her goblinity. that couldve gone on for longer, i enjoyed matt's representation of the role and the dynamic between them. oh well. caterpillar, butterfly, etc.

the controlling of purse strings and behaviour checking going on also bothered me especially when it was followed by unchecked indulgence under 'approved' circumstances. do we all have to lean toward good and 'fix' whats wrong with us? what's with all the policing? maybe i've just been around too many controlling people and comfortable white middle class Game Enjoyers not to see it glaring brightly and wonder why anyone else isn't rattled by it. great, so you aren't bothered, doesn't mean its a good thing to soak in.

speaking of blurring cast and character boundaries, im still sad about orion in the beginning of season one, but i understand why it ended the way it did. i am okay with frantic unmanageable types in games like this, even if they make me uncomfortable sometimes. maybe it had to go that way for him to help himself in a less messy way than escape and misbehaviour.

of course i now know there were real-life incidents behind it that had rattled everybody. that definitely needed to end, but it was difficult to watch even though i've watched it twice now, minute-by-minute. but they're real people who react to problems imperfectly. that's 100% okay. just don't expect me not to file it away for later.

so after this many-years long roller coaster i'm reeeally trying to get into season three.. but the southern accents and smell the fart acting is making it real hard for my attention span. i've seen improv troupes kindof coast off of memes and crowd comfort and venue clout enough times to understand that its just nice to sit and be part of the show. the thing has a life of its own and enough work went into making it that way. the thing we are most familiar doing can sometimes become what we do to wind down, rather than what we do to power up. maybe that's what happened, or maybe it's just me. i am bummed it is not grabbing me as much as the past seasons but i will still drop in every now and then and give it a try.

[gabbysthoughts4thots]

https://www.tumblr.com/gabbysthoughts4thots/764366026166206464/its-funny-how-his-fans-are-calling-him-toxic-yet

Like where do they get the audacity from when they’re out here stalking, abusing, harassing these woman, and even him, its truly deranged. All bc a woman is linked to their fav that they never in a million years were going to date. It’s just so weird how this behaviour has become so normalised

See it’s the HARASSING that gets me. You can check up on his followers or wtv but why are they going after the girls? It’s not their fault he thinks they’re fit

[angus-journals]

September 24th, 2024

I'm currently sat on a park bench, pondering how to break my writers block. It's a mild day, though the chilly breeze is a tad uncomfortable.

...

I've really hated the resurgence of the r-slur in recent years. A coordinated effort by the fascist right, and edgy, so-called 'neurospicy' progressives behaving like useful idiots.

I don't give a fuck about your self diagnosed ADHD or dyslexia, to be honest. All the people I've seen attempting to "reclaim" the r-slur are literate, live independently, hold careers, and appear to have all the freedoms able bodied, neurotypical people have. How dare they, claim to speak for those who are non-verbal, cannot live independently, hold down a job, or need round the clock care. Nobody who works or cares for actual disabled people would advocate using such a disgusting, foul slur. I remember being in school and, collectively, receiving sensitivity training on how wrong and offensive the term was. To see zoomers sling it around so freely is upsetting, especially coming out of a pandemic which disproportionately killed disabled people.

Fascism is coming. Its philosophies are gradually being normalised through irony posting and edginess. It's unpopular to say this, a lot of people are in denial but to me it's another shocking indictment of our education system that so many people cannot recognise fascist rhetoric unless it's accompanied by a funny moustache and Nazi salutes. A cartoonish understanding of the world.

[northwest-cryptid]

honestly, I'm not sure if it's a great response to the whole "normalised lack of privacy" thing but, I've learned to treat the web like the fair folk and its done quite well for me.

May you have my pronouns? no, they're mine fuck off.

I don't necessarily think you're in the wrong for that if I'm to be honest. Though I think the big thing for me is that we've sort of normalized this general lack of boundaries and 180'd on the entire idea of protecting your identity. Which is primarily what bothers me so much. Like if someone wants to get to know me and they're like "hey I don't know how to refer to you in a respectful manner and I don't wanna assume" sure that's fine whatever right?

But then you also have people who are like "if you don't have your pronouns listed I'm going to assume you're some right winger who thinks pronouns are dumb" and I just... what?

When I was young (unfortunately a long time ago) there was literally classes in school where we were taught a lot of shit about internet safety, and I think he problem that caused is that it kinda backfired, like people will talk a lot about pronouns and the like and I think that's honestly such a point of like... non-issue in the grand scheme for me.

Because here's the thing, we were taught in elementary school that you essentially shouldn't give away your personal information online. Online was a place for you to exist by an alias, you were not you; you were whoever you wanted to be. But you never were to give out your information, the problem was they taught this in the most cliche kind of way...

"What if that cool kid you're talking to is ACTUALLY AN OLD MAN!"

Which is cool (<- Sarcasm) because it absolutely reinforces the idea that: - Old people are somehow inherently predatory to young people, so remember young people NEVER BEFRIEND PEOPLE OLDER THAN YOU! - Men are dangerous because old women would NEVER be a predator, only OLD MEN!

Aside from the general problems with this listed above, it was generally a good practice for ESPECIALLY young kids in elementary school. However this idea that people online were all fakes that were lying to you was really funny because it just wasn't true about 90% of the time. Were there absolutely predators on the web? Yes of course! Is it good to teach children they might encounter a predator? Yes of course! The problem however was basically that this amounted to teaching the kids that everyone online was lying to them, something they wouldn't believe after the first like 15 people they run into are actually just... exactly who they say they were more or less.

Like sure "xXBloodKiller93Xx" isn't ACTUALLY a thousand year old vampire in the body of a 16 year old emo guy who listens to Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance... but he IS actually a 16 year old emo guy who listens to Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance... and let's be honest, unless you were like 6 you probably didn't believe the vampire bit anyways.

So after you've encountered like 30 of these cases the one time the 12 year old who talks like a 30 year old, but is a little too on the nose about how they type like a kid and doesn't actually know what's cool with the kids... well they just kinda seem like a weird kid you don't really want to hang out with anyways because they're not really fun to talk to. Ironically most minors I knew when I was a minor were actually into older people anyways and were more likely to fall victim to predators who were older and didn't lie about it; I know this from experience since I was groomed by a woman from the US Navy who was literally like 25 when I was only like 15-16 and got offended because I felt uncomfortable getting naked on skype video calls with her. She never lied to me about who or what she was and when I was young it was cool to have a hot navy girlfriend who would do sexy stuff with you online. So unfortunately groomers didn't have to actually work hard the way many many schools and media taught us they would. They could just kinda walk up to horny young kids who didn't know better and say "hey I'm a hot older person who will do sexy stuff with you" and many of us were like "oh shit fr?!" Except we didn't talk like that.

Anyways my point with all of this is that school and media hammered this teaching into our brains that we need to watch out for predators pretending to be kids, pretending to be one of us. Only predators didn't do that, and despite the fact that you could be literally anyone online many people just chose to openly be themself. Which as you can imagine lead to a lot of that "the kid you're talking to is ACTUALLY a predatory adult" teaching feeling really cliche and dumb and by proxy we began to ignore more and more of the safety shit taught to us because it wasn't applicable to the real world.

Then Facebook happened :D

As soon as the centralized web hit a lot of advertisers understood they could finally collect a lot of data on what people were doing and advertise to them directly in ways that were actually profitable because if they know you were just at the apple store, and they see you've been posting about wanting the new iphone; then they can market apple products to you knowing you're actually an apple customer who is more likely to actually act on buying that product.

However advertisers don't just have access to your data like that; because that data doesn't belong to the public, it belongs to people like Facebook, who make money off selling that data to people who want to throw ads at you.

But here's the thing... if you're trying to advertise to people, you need them to be real with you because you can't very well advertise to a dude who is claiming to be a 50 year old vampire when he's actually a 16 year old. If he's talking about his swords and guns and how much he loves being in the military, you're gonna think you can sell him swords and guns and military stuff. Truth is however he's literally just a 15 year old edgelord who plays COD and doesn't have the money nor the legal ability to purchase any of what you're trying to sell him.

This is why Facebook started to crack down on accounts with fake names, which is hilarious by the way because believe it or not as a Native American many of my family members couldn't use facebook without creating a fake name because we don't actually have last names and Facebook thought our names were fake or made up. Fun little bit of racism right there.

But now people are being incentivized to be honest about who they were online. Gone are the days where we could use an online handle and a profile picture of something we like or an anime character to be anonymous online. Now more and more of the people using the internet are people who came in during the era of the centralized web, they have no idea why someone would bother to hide their information.

Which is hilarious for a lot of reasons due to things like the purity culture of the centralized web which I've spoke on a few times on forums and the like but not really ever gone too in depth about here.

Essentially now you have this really funny sort of culture where everyone thinks any honest and good person would have nothing to hide, so the idea of using an alias and not giving out literally ALL your information must mean by process of elimination that you DO have something to hide and therefore we use fear of social consequence to enforce behavior. We actually do that a lot here on tumblr as well and it's really stupid and annoying, because we'll never actually have real progress unless we're able to determine flaws in our philosophy and fix those flaws. However I digress, my point is that this has become the norm to such a degree where now it's almost viewed as childish or unprofessional to use an alias.

Which is also really stupid because until the centralized web came around being professional online was kind of a joke, typically the only real professionals online weren't occupying spaces like social media.

the tl;dr is that the one deviation of the norm became the new norm and with it came a culture that enforces the norm through social consequences and as a result even new users of the web or younger people are picking up these habits of the culture which is honestly not great since the original point of that sort of teaching of the culture was to literally keep young people safe. Now they list not just all their personal info about where they live, how old they are, what their pronouns are, what their likes and dislikes are; what fandoms they are in, but also their damn triggers? Like If you want to hurt someone you know exactly how, when, and where to do so.

Anyways I have a lot of thoughts about this but I literally just woke up not too long ago and barely finished my coffee so my brain isn't necessarily kicking into high gear to write comprehensive essays on the subject.

[calumhoodgoss]

what are your thoughts on their relationship overall ? And how do you feel about her posting depression things while dating him and continuing on after the supposed break up? Was very interested in what you thought about those things

hmm my thoughts on them overall is a great question. i dont really know to be honest! dont get me wrong i dont hate brandy, so i dont automatically think theyre a horrible couple. i do however think both of them appeared unfulfilled during their relationship - this is obviously an outsiders observation so i could be so wrong - but the way theyre acting now after assumably breaking up seems like theyre both being more true to themselves finally.

as for the depression tweets i cant really say much because i dont have twitter.. so i dont really know the full sample of what she posts so i cant really judge 🤷‍♀️ to be fair i sure do like some dumb shit on all my socials but the only difference is that im not a public figure. to like/post that stuff when you know your audience will see it is definitely a choice and whether shes doing to normalise depression or to gain sympathy or to seem funny, who knows. but its definitely to send some kind of message, that much is certain