#making yourself small

[howifeltabouthim]

She hadn't complained because she'd still been trying to impress him by embracing his hobbies as her own. Andrea would soon see for herself—all that sweat and blood women spilled, it was usually for nothing.

Susie Yang, from White Ivy

[ambrosiagourmet]

I think one of the biggest tragedies of Laios & Falin and their relationship is how much his actions impact her life. But like. Specifically how much they WOULDN’T impact her life as much if they weren’t both stuck in such a shitty abusive situation.

This part of the Falin-tries-makeup daydream hour comic is what got me thinking about it again because truly it just... it seems like such a like an offhand comment that I'm sure Laios didn't mean to be cruel or anything. That's just like. A little kid not thinking about what they are saying. ESPECIALLY when the kid in question is Laios.

But man they depended on each other SO much as kids. Too much. It really feels like they didn't have any other source of positive reinforcement, or anyone else to share themselves with. So of course an offhand comment like that has a huge impact on Falin.

Or this little bit from one of the flashbacks:

This tears me apart. Do you think it tears him apart to think about? I think it does. I think Laios holds every small failure to care for Falin against himself.

And then there's the Bigger stuff. The way that him coping with his own trauma ended up impacting her.

Like his interest in monsters. Like him going to find a ghost, and accidentally revealing Falin's magic to the whole village in the process.

Like him needing to leave. And leaving her behind.

He shaped her life so much, and he carries so much guilt for it. And again, there should have been other people there to help. The same things that made Laios need to leave home are the things that made his leaving so hard on Falin. She ate alone after that. She shouldn't have had to eat alone just because Laios wasn't there.

She was 9 when he left for school, and he was 11.

Nine. And Laios feels like he failed her because he didn't stand by her through this better. As an eleven year old.

Both of these kids deserved so much better from the world.

[finifugue]

Lando sees a man a half inch taller than him and immediately becomes a pick me girl from high school. 'omg you're so tall. How tall are you? Oh I'm just so tiny. I'm not cuuuuuuuuuuute guys stoppppppp omg >:) nooooo literally fight me guyssss stooop I'm not tiny and fragile and little and cute stop saying that :((((((' If he didn't have massive bear paws I'm so sure that we'd see him start comparing hand sizes with every man he meets

[kasztanek86]

ART FIGHT HAS GOT ME SIDE TRACKED. BUT!!!!! (butt) I AM BACK WITH SOME STUFF YAY!!! AND ITS YURI OTASUNE!!! (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

[applerums]

hey girl <3 please help i'm stuck in mental illness hell

[crabussy]

dude. my life fucking rules. feathered velociraptor shleich figurine for $2 at the op shop. captain of one of my favourite ferries complimented my shirt TWICE (and we are now introduced!). new friend waved me over to sit next to her in a lecture. found a way to make my pony collection even more enjoyable. sky was so beautiful it was a crazy pale blue and there were cirrus clouds catching the sun. the ocean looked like molten green glass. I'm going swimming in the sea and having lunch with a few friends in a weeks time. I've earned 500 dollars this week just from my art which is a milestone I didn't expect to hit without joining a company. I'm not feeling as fatigued as usual. it rained in the morning which was really lovely. I thought I was going to be super late for uni but I made it right on time. I'm kind of in love with the world today

[elllteo]

That voice has taught you wrong.

You can't outrun yourself, you can't guilt yourself away until you are left with someone "good".

You can't cut away a shadow, it will follow where you go.

You can't treat yourself like a solvable problem.

You are unfixable.

You were never broken to begin with.

Just taught wrong.

[woodlandrealm]

Eyes that sparkle, like a starlit sky.

[cute-ellyna]

11 from the partner asks for Ayanne and Davrin :)

(if it's already been asked, feel free to choose any other number at your discretion <3)

#11 - Who says "I love you" first? What is the other's reaction? Who thinks it first?

She never read the letter, guys ç_ç

--- To answer the original question, well, yes, Davrin said it first (both with the letter, and later as canon in game). Ayanne probably thinks it first, but she's not one to make a big deal for grand declarations, to her love means home and comfort and she feels it, and lives it and demonstrate it every day in small and big actions.

[pezhead]

[slfcare]

i so dont mean to ruin the mood or anything but

how do you survive and stay relatively positive when the world is getting worse and worse every passing second? would love to know 😭

I honestly think it’s really about bringing it all back to yourself in the here and now every once in a while. Don’t get me wrong, do stay updated with everything going on in the world, but be careful not to stray too far away from you.

It’s okay to create and participate in online spaces that are not about current events. It’s okay to put your phone away when you feel stressed out. It’s okay to focus on just your everyday responsibilities, no matter how mundane they are. It’s okay to not read the news for a day and instead take extra care of yourself, take things one at a time and keep yourself busy.

It’s okay to recognize when you’re starting to spiral, and instead say—hold on. There’s laundry to do and a dishwasher to unload and I should text my friends.

Everything seems to be falling apart at once and this gets magnified to an extreme when all you’re able to consume online is how screwed we are, to the point where not consuming the bad news feels like denying it. But that’s not the way to deal with it. Don’t let your feelings of helplessness make you isolate yourself in a bubble of fear and despair. Keep talking to people, keep hoping for better days, keep taking care of yourself and reflecting + evaluating how you’re feeling and what you can do about it in the moment. Keep putting energy and intention(!!!) into the mundane and keep moving forward.

This may not be directly applicable to staying positive, necessarily, but keeping yourself away from the opposite (getting lost in negativity instead) is the next best thing, and you can do better from there. Sometimes hope is really just about holding on to the things that don’t hurt you.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

i must say i’m baffled by the fact that people say you look like sam reich i simply do not see it

I honestly think that more people than we realize have a degree of face blindness, and rely on details like beards, hair, glasses, etc. when looking for similarities between people.

It also applies to things like fashion and why folks call my modern outfits "Victorian" when I am literally just wearing a brown sportscoat over brown jeans. Because the norm for men these days is t-shirt and shorts.

Visual shorthands have become more and more compressed and more and more leaned upon and I hate it. It feels lazy and lacking in curiosity beyond the current zeitgeist (faceblind issues aside).

[fluffydeoxys]

OC stuff is dangerous wdym you just think about that guy and you feel things. You made that thing and it’s come such a long way like they’ve grown and fleshed out and you’re proud of them. And there’s an indescribable feeling of pride and tenderness and passion and fondness. That ☝️thingie is My Thing and I love them

[syntheticcy]

Reminder, you can always use your creations to help people.

Even if you believe that your art is "ugly" or "useless" it's not. Please don't tell yourself that. As an artist, you impact the world in ways you cannot even comprehend. People see your art, they see what you pour your love into. They get inspired by your work and build so many beautiful and deeply moving things. Whether it's a game, an animation, a drawing/sketch, or even a book or movie. Sometimes even a show.

Stop selling yourselves short, your creations breathe life into spaces. Not just fandoms, but entire lives. So many people love you and what you create. You just may not know it yet. You believe that your art doesn't much, but it means everything. It's just a small stepping stone for now, but even so, you should be proud— Proud of your art, proud of you. You've created this. You thought of this. You've sunk hours into your thoughts about this. Whether you're a beginner or a long-time artist, you've created something wonderful.

Please love your art and give it the care it deserves. Don't give up just yet. You have so much to do and make. It always brings me to tears when I think about all the artists who gave up. Love your emotions and love your self-expression. I know things are scary and I know it's only going to get scarier. But that doesn't mean you should drop everything and run. You still have time. You can still be yourself. You can be you. You're allowed to. At least here you are.

You and your art are more than you could ever know.

[originalaccountname]

If you wanted to share a pdf/jpeg of the tinies, that would be wonderful. I'd love to put tiny stickrrs on my water bottle or aroumd my apartment! But only if you're ok with doing so.

I'm making them available for download (for an undetermined period of time and for personal use only) here in both colour and lines, with choice of US letter or A4 printing paper.

The preview might get weirdly saturated with the colours, but it's just the CMYK colour profile creating visual glitches and the downloaded file should look perfectly fine.

100% scale, for reference (grid in inches with cm on the sides)

I hope you have fun with them!!

[alienglowgarden]

Im bad at writing coherent things but I need to get this concept out of my head so it stops haunting me.

I had this idea for another fic called The Undine Colony.

The setting would be the second colony by the sea- started when Sol is in their forties- the story taking place an unknown time after that.

It starts with the alarm that the original Stratospheric colony has gone silent. Collapsed all its networks, killed every signal, spirited away every colonist. As it still houses much of humanity's most advanced tech, like the servers for their holonet, essential parts of the power grid, this is an issue of extreme urgency.

And who better to turn to in their moment of need than Sol? So here they are suddenly jolted into wakefulness.

Their first thought is that they cannot feel their body. They quickly learn they are not in fact the real Sol, but only an AI copy made of their brain-scan from many decades ago. Though they cannot access the future vision as an ephemeral bit of software, they have superior computing on their side.

The gist of it being that AI Sol is now in charge of the 2nd colony to replace the hole left by Congruence, all while being tasked to figure out whats happening to the og colony & trying to reestablish contact. Aaand trying to piece together their own existence on top of it. Trying to find out what even happened to the original Sol. If they have something to do with this blackout.

So yeah, itd be slowly unfurling that mystery, piecing together the gap in their memory & issues of personhood.