#might delete it at this point

[frenchphobe]

griddlehark modern pen pal au where they don’t know each other but are assigned as pen pals for those pen pal projects you get in middle school and it just turns into them sending each other hate mail and somehow they just keep going for several years, even though they dont rly have to

[stankworth]

after many years of being strong // may you have the chance to be gentle again

[loemius]

here’s my hot take of the night:

the e-temples that have been cropping up lately are cool, and im glad to see people making specific spaces to come together to worship. that’s awesome! i’m very here for that as a concept. i love nothing more than to see the theoi get the praise they deserve.

that being said, i am very wary about the amount of people i have seen calling themselves priests/priestesses lately. not even just in the e-temples! ive seen multiple people in the tags who have in their bio “priest(ess) of [deity].” i realize most people probably don’t mean harm by it, but it gets under my skin. to call yourself clergy implies a specific level of knowledge and experience with a religion (which isn’t my business to get involved in your praxis like that, that’s personal unless you wanna share it), but more importantly, official recognition by an established institution. there are not that many of these (that i am aware of) for hellenic polytheism. calling yourself clergy is simply that — calling yourself that. there’s no backing for it, and it genuinely concerns me.

we as the polytheist community talk a lot about harmful practices in spirituality, things like spiritual psychosis or cultural appropriation, which are important topics to discuss. it’s been said before and i’ll say again — people claiming to be spiritual authorities of some kind without any kind of proof can be very dangerous. i don’t assume anyone has bad intentions. i give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that everyone is just trying to help other people worship. but it doesn’t change the fact that calling yourself a priest(ess) will make impressionable or unsure people look up to you, and that is a hell of a lot of responsibility. i am concerned that there are minors running these kinds of blogs. that’s a lot of pressure on someone’s shoulders, especially to put on someone who is still growing up and developing their research and critical thinking skills. i don’t want to gatekeep or anything like that. im very glad to see minors having really good experiences with their faith, that they’re excited to share it with others. but it just concerns me.

im certainly not as experienced as other practitioners on this site, having had about two years of experience at this point, but i am very wary of anyone who claims to be any kind of authority on anything unless you can back it up. regardless of if your blog says that you’re not an authority, calling yourself clergy of any kind implies that. people will take it that way. it inherently implies a level of authority, knowledge, and experience on a particular subject, which is usually backed up by having an official institution that recognizes you.

perhaps this is a little callous of me, but in the same way that when someone makes a claim about the theoi academically, i expect them to have sources to prove it, i expect clergy to have some kind of proof of their authority. otherwise, what are you doing that’s different than any other tumblr blog?

to be clear, i don’t have an issue with these devotional spaces. i simply take an issue with people referring to themselves as clergy when that is a particular term with a particular context and a particular implication. words have power. i earnestly think if people just called themselves something like ‘stewards’ of a particular temple, i wouldn’t be so bothered by it. or just call yourself a devotee of a particular god. ultimately, at the end of the day, the words we use have power and implications, and that has to be acknowledged and respected. send tweet

[hoofpeet]

Call this the "I'm hyper-alert for any fracture in my mental health because a good portion of my extended family is either senile or insane"

[solarpunkani]

"Oh no, someone's attracted to the aesthetics of my -punk movement but doesn't know the praxis and history behind it like I do--"

OK. Tell them. Make it a teaching moment. Everyone who's in your movement learned the background from somewhere at some point, maybe this is that point for that person. Give them a jumping off point that they can dive into later.

"Oh but I shouldn't be responsible for teaching baby -punks about the history and the how-tos and--"

OK. Then don't tell them. You don't have to be responsible for teaching people with a budding interest in your group the ins and outs and how-tos. That's fair and valid! It can be a lot of work. Someone else will handle it

"But I'm annoyed that they would try to claim to be part of/be interested in my community without knowing all the details that I know after being in it for months/years/decades, they're dumb, they're posers, they're--"

OK. Then don't engage with them, if it's that bad. Maybe someone else will come around and tell them the history, maybe they'll pick it up on their own, maybe they'll just enjoy the fashion elements for awhile.

"But they shouldn't claim to be part of the -punk community if they don't know the--"

I feel like we have a few options here. People can either talk to them, share the history, share the values, share the praxis. Or they can just chase off anyone who even thinks about dipping a toe in their community, and then wonder why it's dying off later down the line.

I dunno, maybe I'm too naive and patient or whatever. But if people are entering your -punk spaces without knowing The Rundown of what you feel they need to know, maybe being nice about it and informing people instead of immediately assuming stupidity and malicious intent could help you make a new friend. Even the loudest voices in a space had to learn from somewhere, and not everyone has the luxury of being in the space as the History was Happening--whether it's an age thing or a not being aware of the space thing. Or maybe I just don't see what the big deal is behind people hating people who like the aesthetic of something and don't know the behind the scenes history about it yet.

Because I believe in the word 'yet.' No one comes into this world knowing everything about everything, and we're all constantly learning new things. I'm not gonna degrade someone and call them a poser for not knowing what I know. Because if it were me, interested in a scene but getting chased out and called a poser? I wouldn't hit the books and study up, I'd go 'that fuckin sucks, those people sucked' and then avoid anyone and anything having to do with it.

So chase people off and call them posers if you want. But if your community starts dwindling, don't be fucking shocked.

[crystallinestars]

🐺 Werewolf!Wriothesley with wolf ears that perk up when he hears your voice or sees you in the distance.

🐺 When you laugh or give him a kiss, his tail wags like a happy dog’s even when he tries to play it cool.

🐺 Only you get the privilege to rub his fuzzy ears and watch his eyes close in bliss as he relaxes under your touch.

🐺 Wriothesley likes to tug on your lower lip with his fangs when you kiss, relishing in the pleased sounds you make in response.

[beetleboyy]

how it feels to post about i saw the tv glow on here

[broadwayfangirl222]

Ok so this photo implies that they used to be friends, but what was their dynamic like before this falling out? So I think they started out as friends. Obviously, probably initially bonding over both being creatives/performers/entertainers. They got even closer over time. To the point one of their store-fronts were pretty much connected:

In Stayed Gone you see one of Vox's stores literally next to what you can assume is Alastor's because of the mic and radio but also the boarded up sign labeled "Old Crap" over the original name (Vox probably had that done after their falling out or in the 7 years Alastor was gone)

As time went on, Vox started to change. He became more and more obsessed with remaining in the spotlight no matter what and profits over any kind of actual integrity when it comes to running a business/deals made.

Say what you want about Alastor, but he's been relatively honest whenever we've seen him try to make deals. He doesn't promise or offer anything he can't deliver on. At most he'll probably use technicalities and loopholes the other person accidentally put in the deal with him. Like a messed up genie or a monkey's paw kind of situation where your own words get twisted and used against you.

Meanwhile, Vox literally advertised a product he didn't even know he could actually make. He waited until AFTER the announcement to even begin R&D on the idea:

You can argue he kinda had a basic proof of concept since the Vees knew about the dead angel already but I personally wouldn't. And that's not even going into the hypnosis he does to people. Imagine how he is with making deals over souls? So between these shady practices and him always "Flitting between this fad and that" this is probably where the rift between them began. Professionally/as overlords, Alastor began seeing Vox as a sellout who takes the easy route with no finesse to it.

Then Vox's business proposal happened. On Vox's end, well, he caught feelings™ plus working with Alastor would be good for his whole business too. Like back then he just pictured having what he has now with Valentino, just with Alastor: Being business partners and partners™

And Alastor who already has major issues with how Vox conducts himself as a business man/overlord, and now dealing with this personal angle his aroace ass definitely can not handle, basically responded with his iconic "Ha!...No!" (and kinda mixed with Charlie's panicked "fuck NOOO!")

And that's how their strained dynamic fully fell apart, Vox got angry and bitter he was rejected, then it turned to full blown rivalry

[folkbreeze]

just a quick screenie of the lot i'm working ot for my copperdale save bc i love how it's looking for now

[ivanttakethis]

So like………………. what was the point of Round 6?? 🤨

[knockknockitsnickels]

Wow, it's someone who understands the nuances in Smitten's actions in HEA and acknowledges that, while what he did was bad, it's wrong to reduce him to his worst moments.

Time to see what they think of the princess while taking a loooong sip of my coffee

[saintobio]

hello am still alive but the corporate hustle is sucking the life out of me. i’m sorry sy11 is taking awhile but i’ll try to find time whenever i can 🥹

[untoldsoup]

Whatever asshole reported me on Webtoons can fuck off.

So people can have zelda comics and scooby doo comics on there, and *monetize* them, but I can't have a mario fan comic on there for free.

Sorry you read my comic and got mad it made you horny for Bowser so you decided the logical solution was to make sure my comic was deleted.

[stephreynaart]

Caricature artist fun

Woman: no one told me you were leaving

Intercom: the festival will be closing in 5 mins

Woman: ma’am, please my daughter and I have been in line for 20 minutes (lies I cut the line off 15 minutes ago). Look at my daughter, she’s about to cry.

Daughter: 😐

Me: okay…yeah, no, I gotta go.

Woman: how much? I will pay you

Me; I’m sorry, I’m not staying. Maybe next time?

Woman then walks away with her family giving me the stankiest of stank eyes as I pack my easel and supplies

Shit like this happens at the tail end of every event I work. I once had a woman stand next to me as I’m packing up just repeating “please” over and over until I left.

[coffebits]

Someone requested them on ig and I thought they were really fun to draw 💙💛

[bloobydabloob]

When you answered the ask asking about your art style (which is a post I keep looking back on bc what you have to say is very interesting) in one of your screenshots of you talking you mention something about how most if not all of your symbolism is self referent and I was wondering what you meant by that!

Hellloooo. I’m glad you found my ranting interesting. Here is some Dirk art I’m probably never going to finish for your troubles.

What I meant by that when talking about any symbolism in my art is that it doesn’t reference outside sources - e.g. where some art might use something like religious concepts, animals, real life events to represent ideas, I tend to use things more like colors, contrasting objects, composition. That sort of thing. So things that are inherently a part of the work itself rather than connections to the real world. If I ever do use symbolism otherwise, it’s usually comic related even still. Although I have done pieces with religious symbolism before too, haha.

I don’t know how to describe it other than “self referential” because I’m not really sure what else to classify that sort of symbolism as. Just… artistic maybe? Non literal? I couldn’t say. I think it all basically just goes along with the majority of my art nowadays being more figurative than literal. Sorry if this doesn’t explain it very well. It’s also funny to think that anyone is “Looking back” on any of my texts posts though, haha. To me I feel like I am just dumping my words on my poor followers. Surprising. Thank you for reading.