#luck. luck . luck hard work. luck

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[psie-smutki]

Remember to sit on your parents everyday 💺

[sgtpeppers]

Paul in A Hard Day's Night (1964)

[arcanegifs]

300 likes on this post and i will post another gifset of caitlyn’s boobas 😌

[tradingjack]

how bout them apples

[faithinlouisfuture]

I’m not gonna spend another night of dreaming of what could’ve been

I know I'm the only one who's gonna make my ship come sailing in

[a-thousand-eyes-and-one]

you’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling…

[skitskatdacat63]

Okay now where's the Seb teddy bear so I can make them kiss each other!?

+

[sneakingpasta]

Adachi: This guy hasn’t made a move on me, kinda weird 🫤🫤🫤

Kurosawa every waking second: HeY yOu WaNnA eAt BrEaKfAsT wItH mE eVeRyDaY? tAkE mE oUt To EaT wHeN yOu GeT yOuR pAyChEcK bOoBoO 🫣🫣😙😙🤭🤭

[kacievvbbbb]

Honestly despite my feelings about how the last arc of MHA went down I really love Deku and his story.

I just feel like a lot of the time we get these protagonists whose whole philosophy is it doesn’t matter what you were born as everyone can achieve greatness. But then the series goes on and it turns out that actually it DOES matter because the protagonist has this really great lineage and these really great powers you can only have through birth they were actually born born, predestined if you will, to do this.

But MHA actually sticks to its guns. Midoriya wasn’t revealed to have some great connection to all might that the universe had put in place. He wasn’t defended from some great lineage that makes him uniquely suited to this. Hell All for one didn’t even turn out to be his father, there was no hidden powerful quirk he was always meant to have. He was just Midoriya Izuku a boy who was in the right place at the right time and simply decided to act while the world did nothing. And that’s what really made him a hero.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I believe him a bit more when he goes anybody can be a hero if you just decide to act

[reasonsforhope]

Okay, social media hiatus over! I'm back!

And there's lots of queue'd posts rn too, because fun fact I'm changing around some of my meds rn, and it's mostly going well, except my executive function and focus has fallen below what I need to yknow sit down and do my actual job, and hit instead at "just enough to queue a bunch of good news posts"

[ask-elland-n-will]

[Polyjuice Swap 2024!]

[William drank the wrong Polyjuice Potion: is there any doubt whose fur got into his vial?

Context: some Polyjuice Potions (sponsored by an organisation wishing to remain anonymous) have been specially produced for this Halloween party. They are meant to be swapped between students in secret to allow for fun interactions and "who are you"s. The rule of fun for bending the rules is allowed: long duration, change of clothes, transformations that are not normally possible with Polyjuice, and so on.]

William was really excited about this event as he was one of the people in charge of it, just like the year prior (as much as Cassandra claims it to be her idea). Potions allowing the user to change into some spooky creatures in spirit of the Halloween were a success back then, especially for those who didn't have a costume. Everyone from sandy mummies to cats with pretty bows roamed the ballroom (and some — wreaked havoc).

Changing into their classmates was not the aspect they'd considered until this year, and the permission to do it officially took Will a lot of time and effort. The prefects had to make sure that no transformed student left the designated area, that only the 7th-years took the polyjuice vials, and that the potions themselves were acquired from a reputable source.

William expected some cheating to occur, but not that it would affect him personally. And yet.

He took the vial he was given with excitement. Who would he become! Who else is participating! What is the pool of students he's picking from! William spent a few days looking through his archives, trying to recall his friends' mannerisms and speech patterns, obvious ticks and smaller details, typical topics of conversations, and so on. He was so prepared to play his role that—

— that when he watched in horror as teal fur started growing all over his face, as he felt the same hairy needles spread over the rest of his body, as sharp claws replaced his carefully manicured fingers (at least it didn't spread to his feet?), and as his lips— Merlin, he no longer had the lips, he had a beak! When all of that looked back at him in the mirror, all hope for a fun evening was lost.

[Welcome to the Swap!]

[bright--paws]

The Hunter

'Strong and quick, with a fierce metabolism requiring a steady diet of meat. But the stomach won't be your only concern, as the path of the hunter is one of extreme peril.'

Designs include - @pansear-doodles @skybristle @verdeltiathedead @draagu @fauxbia @soaricarus @eeveekitti @frogseight @bitsbug @cordycepsbian @kenzieofeverything @erratic-pulsee @booksofstars @stargazer0001 @isnt-a-blog-blog @cosmikazie @rivsimpersonator @infinite-echoes @sillycryptid @semi-sentient @toastedbreado @squenble @pookapufferfish @druidshollow @sugarr-moon @emperormoth101 @olmplush @badgerfrost @neattnat @jax-but-tumbling-down @0303emily @sparkdoesart @siftingsand5 @thyminell

time taken (in total) - 5 hours and 26 minutes

WOOOO its finally DONE!!!! i am so proud of how these turned out

apologies to anyone whos designs didn't make it into the final piece!! i forgot to get their refs and by the time i realised i was already done, extremely sorry again,,,

also sorry if i got any of the designs wrong!! i usually worked on it when i got home from school every day so i was very tired

edit- forgot to add but there is 64 hunters here in total! and this only took me 5 hours, thats the same length as an art fight attack with like 7 characters lmao

[room-surprise]

Man, everyone is always talking about how Kabru is wearing eye makeup, but you guys understand that he is just naturally heart-stoppingly gorgeous right? He's probably not wearing any makeup, he's South Asian and he has naturally long, dark lashes, and a delicate, feminine face. He's a beautiful man! He'd look radiant even naked and covered in mud.

He's the type of beautiful that people write poetry about and start wars over!

This is just canon. It's shown and told to us multiple times and ways. People see him and swoon on sight, even when he's barely trying. Even when he's dirty and tired, even when they are hardened warriors and spies. And it's implied that he can and does do this sort of thing regularly... He has a whole flock of women that he's charmed.

And it's not like Dungeon Meshi has sameface syndrome. There's plenty of other men that don't look like Kabru. Kabru's meant to be very, very beautiful. AND on top of that, he's also insanely charismatic and genuinely good at reading people, figuring out what they want, and finding ways to give it to them that makes them like and trust him. He manages to do it within minutes of meeting Daya's hostile, jealous fiancee.

He's a Cleopatra, an Alexander the Great, a Caesar. If he was in a war he'd go out with 10 soldiers and come back with 20 because he convinced the enemy to defect and join his mission.

He's not perfect but he's damn close. His biggest flaw, Kui explicitly tells us, is not having enough experience, and specifically not knowing enough about monsters. The first will naturally be fixed as time passes, and the second.... well, it isn't a problem as long as he's not in a dungeon, which is 99% of his life....

[akai-anna]

Round 3

Round: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

[ofdarklands]

K - Kuarahy Asapukái

>song. just vibes

and now, my 2e pathfinder magus! we are playing the Strength of Thousands this time, which means we are literally in cool jungle wizard uni and will eventually become wizard teachers. for the moment however we are dealing with a giant insect infestation. normal school stuff

her childhood was pretty normal for a gnoll, but eventually her lack of wisdom (8) and high nerditude (16) got her sent to school instead of learning to be a druid like her grandma. children these days, honestly. her personality is rather earnest and relaxed, and she enjoys eating and learning new stuff. top marks in class so far!