#mold mentioned

[mothcrumbs]

@conflicted-phoenix

Mouldheart

#6b9c97 | #638497 | #edb19a | #e6a3ac | #87a79c

[sukibenders]

The Arcane fandom, especially on TikTok is never beating the allegations because why, now, some fans act like it's too inconceivable to imagine that Ambessa was, not only, pregnant twice but gave birth twice as well? And their reasoning for this is "She looks like the type to get a man pregnant instead" or "She's too tough for that, I just can't see someone like her going through that." There are layers to these statements because, for one, just because someone, especially a woman, is a dominant force doesn't mean that they can't get/don't want to become pregnant (do you believe overtly dominant men can't be fathers?) It's also very weird because the undertones of misogyny and misogynoir and the overt masculinization of black women are there because, not only are they viewing pregnancy and giving birth, in general, to be viewed as something "weak" (even though it's grueling hours of labor that results in tearing the body apart, sometimes even death) but also attempts to strip Ambessa of her nuance. Yes, she is strong and very dominant, but she also deeply loved her children, who she birthed, and when one was taken away from her it changed her deeply. It's very gross to view a character like her in this way because it also reflects how you view dominant women in real life, pregnancy, and childbirth as a whole. Like how are you going to praise Arcane for having such a wide and diverse ensemble of female characters, but then have misogynistic takes like this? Make it make sense.

[i-eat-mold]

i love the way you draw koyla, he's so skrunkly sklorbo

Thank you Mackie I love him so much

[javierduffy]

would we like to talk about how hosea also contributed to arthur’s entrapment in and eventual demise due to the van der linde gang because he was constantly affirming to arthur that he was “dim-witted” and “a fool”, and we can assume he’s been doing as such since arthur was very young, and therein causing arthur to internalize the narrative that he is nothing but a dumb brute who could never make it as anything other than a “born and bred” killer or is that too controversial

[fumifooms]

I should have touched on dark elves in my beauty standards post... Let me just slap this on here real quick. So as we went into there, beauty standards can show political dynamics and sort of reflects the politics of who get to be seen as human, who get to be seen as desirable and promoted within a society. So like, beauty is power right, in the sense that beauty standards are highly influenced by the ones in power, the ones who have the time & resources to look a certain way and the power to present that look as desirable to large groups. It’s complex and diverse but generally beauty standards are upheld by the elite, the influential.

By the former 'time & resources' thing I mean stuff like clothes, health, makeup or even cosmetic surgeries, or even simply the freedom to only go out in public when you look your best— Meanwhile the latter, the power to present that look as desirable to large groups, usually applies more to situations where it’s about a whole category of people like an ethnicity that was uplifted as the ideal. Not just in a political or economic dynamic, but discrimination on a systematic level without regard for individual appearance or action.

For example in the former, not all people who wear makeup are rich, and while makeup did historically help signal status, if you’re poor and wear nice makeup you can still touch some of that beneficial association with the beauty standards that makeup helps you attain. In the latter……. Well you get, "no, all elves are good! So the elves who do bad things must be something else!". Where, in trying to have uniform standards for a whole group, you kinda just get erased or othered if you don’t conform to expectations. The elves especially put effort into giving off this air of perfection, which they've successfully made tallmen populations believe. So, for those people, the answer that "But elves are inherently good and beautiful and perfect?" asks, isn't "well elves mustn't be inherently perfect", but instead is "there must be bad ones too, innately too." A similar phenomenon happens with the reverse too, where people will say there are "the good ones" within a group that's seen negatively.

"But Fumi, in this case the difference is purely linguistic and perceived, there’s no visual difference!" Yeah, and there being little visual distinction between two groups has never stopped people from being discriminated tbh. Different types of christians seeing each other as heathwbs for example, or the deep british vs irish hatred that has existed. A tidbit of history I find fascinating was the infamous use of "speak white" from english-speaking canadians against french-speaking canadians especially, because complicated history aside, last century as the business owners the anglophones had the power over the majoritarily francophone working class and a lot of political sway even though they were the minority in the Québec region. There’s a different cultural and ethnic identity there, and language was the most important difference between the two groups- and I suppose the most noticeable one.

The way we as social creatures and social groups categorize people and the groups they form is complex, interesting and very important to our society and the way we approach both the world and social interactions, and that's what leads to discrimination. We decide what’s important and then we decide it’s what people should be judged and distinguished by. Belonging to a group is a show of status, and can be a weaponized both ways, for and against. If you’re not worthy to be an elf, a "good" elf, then you’re not.

Interesting especially because looking at the elf portraits page there seems to be many different cultures within the elf race, so yes "good elf" vs "dark elf" is considered something like a race rather than an ethnicity or culture presumably. There's definitely a "main" elven culture since it seems pretty uniform whenever it's brought up in the adventurer's bible and the story, though, wether the differenr cultures form different communities in different places or live together as one nation. But maybe more treated like a mental illness since it’s acquired, or sometimes slang? It's not completely clear wether it's thought of as fully innate or something learned, a chosen moral failure like sin is, but with how they speak about it they do sound very essentialists, even Chilchuck seems to get a chill considering Marcille could be one. Quoting Kui's lore comic, "There are two kinds of elves, nice holy elves and evil elves bewitched by darkness". It’s just considered like an innate thing that separates them from the concept of elves... 🤔 But this sort of category being vague is often a feature and not a bug, because then they can be a boogeyman to bring up just whenever is convenient, that can fit whoever, like calling a kid a "fairy's child" for whatever behavior in the olden days, because if you don't precise a lot what a dark elf is then it can apply to whoever you see fit, and it doesn't need to be coherent or consistent. The sort of discrimination headspace that leads to the classic fascist "the enemy is both strong and weak" type rethoric.

"Dark elves" is interesting within Dunmeshi because it's about people trying to fully separate elves from the concept of bad and untrustworthy people, even though they look the same. "Elf" isn’t just a beauty standard, it is The ultimate ideal of perfection both in appearance and morality, and if something threatens that perception and reputation it has to get rationalized and compartmentalized. Those are coping mechanisms to avoid having your whole world view challenged or shattered. To tallmen who practically worship elves, it’s a huge deal!! To them that makes it make sense! Some elves are born good and some elves are born evil, simple as! No world view re-examination needed!

So for Marcille for example... It’s interesting because she has an outside view of elven society despite being elven herself. She was raised amongst tallmen, aka the people who idolize elves to this intense degree. It had to have affected her dynamics with others— not unlike the academy students, mostly gnomes and tallmen, who looked up to her as some natural-born genius, even though she did do research and study to get her skills and grades. It also had to affect her relationship with having a role model growing up (having none around except for her mother who pretty much renounced her elven culture, a novel series that sensationalizes and glamorizes elves), her dynamic with being elven itself, because even though she doesn't feel like she fully fits into it she's interested in elven culture, and she herself enforces the beauty standards around elves and acts elitist about it- as seen when tallmen actors playing Daltian Clan opera, when men are very masculine rather than very androgynous like with Laios, having long hair, having no facial or body hair. With this angle, all of this behavior of hers is very "internalized high standards that were my bible to follow growing up and so others must follow them too and these high standards must be worth upholding".

Considering everything, elves being looked up to as a role model in appearance and behavior, plus them having the reputation of being great at magic, and Marcille having grown up amongst mostly tallmen, we start understanding that there was IMMENSE pressure on Marcille to conform to that idea of an elf. She has a lot of pressure and a very high beauty & behavior compass to conform to. She also has an idealist and rigid sense of justice and morals, like how Namari is a heartless traitor for leaving instead of coming along to save Falin, and she needs people to believe she has noooo facial or body hair. She probably WAS afraid of being seen as a dark elf, aka fundamentally evil, for her dark magic research. You don't want to be a letdown, do you? You don't want to be the ugliest elf, do you? You don't want to be a dark elf, do you? You don't want to be one of the bad ones.

Shave your facial hair and deny you have any body hair. Take care of elven traditions like hair-braiding and have pride. Be the kind, smartest model student. Do magic by the book. Never do dark magic. Ah shit-

And so she hid the domain of her research, and so she hid being a half-elf.

[chronostutter]

AM is so fascinating to me bc he is so blatantly the embodiment of like, american/western ideals taken to their extreme and bloody end, and that still does not spare him from being absolutely misinterpreted by people online

and like, his proximity to sexual violence/rape does not exist without reason. i know a lot of people (rightfully) are uncomfortable with fiction including these beats/themes, but it is very much a narrative tool used to further exemplify his connection to militarization/imperialism. he is the magnums opus of a warmongering empire—the ultimate patriarch, the unloving god, etc— and his actions are gratuitous and horrific all as a reminder of this fact.

idk, obviously mileage for these topics can vary (which is why i rarely want to be like "WOW THIS IS GOOD!" because i know many people who simply cannot stomach these types of works) but he is written that way to get a point across, and it does so nauseatingly well ❤️.

but alas. people tend to discard aspects of a character that make them uncomfortable/refuse to engage with the source text so now we have people who think AM is just some sad angry ai. when actualy he’s like if you gave one of those bigoted generative models access all nukes ever and poor temper management LOL

but ah well such is the nature of the beast

[fbfh]

omg could you do leo valdez with ocd reader 🥺 ... i love how you write him smmmm!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

OF COURSE BABES. first of all for anyone who doesn't know there are a lot of different types of OCD, and no matter what type or types you have, you could not find someone more supportive than Leo motherfucking Valdez. OCD is hard to have and hard to treat and guess what???? he's gonna learn everything he can about it and work with you to figure out how to help you when things are bad and good and all the little uppy downy in between parts.

adding a read more so this doesn't trigger anyone (cw: mentions of contamination, checking, vague mentions of intrusive thoughts, religious ruminations and magical thinking, please do not engage with this post if it could trigger you!!! I love yall <3)

if you have the contamination kind and you're always stuck feeling like nothing's clean enough, Leo understands. He'll take over for you, he'll cast eyes over things and remind you that you did what you're supposed to do and help distract you with something else. He knows to check dates on the groceries he buys you, knows how to help you feel better without accidentally enabling your compulsions.

if you have checking compulsions like relocking doors and making sure the stove is off and appliances are unplugged, he starts doing the closing up routine at night for you. you have a house rule that you're only allowed to check things two times, then Leo will check once for you if you need him to, then he helps you move onto something else. If you're worried that the stove is on and it's going to burn down the house, he never fails to make you laugh by promising to be the one to deal with all the insurance guys.

"Worst case scenario? We pull off the greatest insurance scam in history and retire early to the Swiss alps."

he says it so casually that it never fails to make you laugh, it takes the sting and the stress from your thoughts a little.

if religious ruminations or magical thinking are more your thing, Leo actually knows exactly what to do about that. he pulls out a golden drachma and cuddles with you while he fidgets with it.

"I can get a direct line to any god. If one of them starts beefing with you, I will personally handle it." he kisses you. he mumbles against your lips, and he smiles when he gets you to smile. "I'll also remove every screw, nut, bolt, and support beam in their entire palace and turn everything into breakaway prop furniture."

when your intrusive thoughts get bad he holds your shaky hands and promises that he won't ever let you do anything that could hurt you or someone else, he goes through your affirmations and grounding exercises with you, he reminds you that thought crimes are not crimes.

no matter what your symptoms are or how bad they get, Leo's love for you and deep knowledge that you are an amazing, wonderful, incredible person never wavers. he loves you. he loves being with you, he loves helping you, he loves being the one to care for you. Leo loves knowing that he's able to support you, to ease your burden and make sure you don't feel like you're alone. and you're never going to be alone, because nothing could ever scare Leo away from you. he just loves you too much.

[flecks-of-stardust]

[ID in alt text]

hi sorry still obsessed with this gif i got. it's so funny to me. my baby's little feets sticking out. the pearl in their hands. the slime mold 'walking.' the neuron glow receding. earlier i laughed so hard it hurt and it's still just as funny now watching this help

[crabbyhellfire]

Would y’all like to see my avatarsona in the good year of 2024?

[eclipsedcrystalstar]

I don't have much of a say on Dusthides but I wish people would stop straight up lying about what the staff has said about ancients. They did not say the point of ancients is to break the mold, they said due to not having to fit apparel on them they can break the mold, not that they will every time.

"Our main goal with ancient breeds is to release them more regularly than we do modern breeds." This is the point of ancients

"Since they don’t need to wear apparel, ancient breeds also allow us to break the “One head, four legs, two wings, one tail” template. For example, dragons like wyverns, multiple-headed dragons, drakes, and more!"

'Allow us' gives them the opportunity to, not a promise to always do it. They also mention terts in a similar way and clearly don't always go wildly linebreaking with ancient terts

Do I think ancients SHOULD break the mold? Absolutely, I love funky dragons like Aberrations and Banescales, but don't make up something for them to have to always follow and then get mad when they don't, that's just bad for you

[stinkythehutt]

half formed thought but something about how the side of the fandom that loves obi-wan and dislikes anakin views obi-wan as simultaneously the most powerful and talented & the whumpiest most in need of care man ever, unconsciously and unintentionally mirroring anakin’s own warped view of him

[scribe-of-hael]

Hasbro: we will make s2 Earthspark awful BUT , but , we ARE making a new tf show !

Ok what is it -

Hasbro: CYBERVERSE!!!! AGAIN!:D

...

Are fucking kidd-

Hasbro: THAT crosses over with a Chinesse kids show with 52 episodes planned ! :D OK BYEEEEEEE~

[silusvesuius]

n*loth not being able to bag anyone over the (human term) age of 25-30 at most is the only logical and real conclusion to me because it can be just explained away as him wanting to prove and control everything and anyone (Cus he's a man!) but being stuck in that demographic because his unbearable and vile personality is a force that nobody can look past once they've outgrown the possible fear and idolization period of anyone but also n*loth in particular.

[nichelink]

Bugsnax+Consumer: a 16+ nichelink relationship/relationship dynamic where one of the people in the relationship is the "consumer" and the other is the "bugsnax."

this is a Fiction-Based subset of Transformation Nichelink. this may include but is not limited to:

attraction terms like cannirotary (or cannibalistic in general), sugaric, alimentary, amousse, bonding, etc

the people in the relationship being disso desir , vior , or similar terms

the consumer being desirspecies, desirorientation, dissowouldyoukindly, dissomemory, or similar terms and wanting the shaper to "make" or "transform" them because of this

the bugsnax being alderbugsnax, or similar terms

wanting a dynamic where the bugsnax "changes the consumer from the inside," whatever that may mean for the people involved

the consumer being a recovering r*dqueer and/or f*lt member and the shaper giving them a safer outlet to express their desire to have their personhood/identity 'erased' or to be turned into someone different

generally anything dysfirming.

nichelink carrd

tagging: @radiomogai | @mogai-snacktime | @indie-media-mogai | @beyond-mogai-pride-flags // ask to be untagged or to be tagged in similar themes

[solidwater05]

[ID: A picture of handwritten blueprints for a small scale model of the Demon Core, to scale with a small screwdriver placed on top of the blueprints for reference. /End ID]

I have this tiny-ass screwdriver (5 cm long!!) so. yeah

The upper half is giving me some serious fucking trouble but it's also pretty late and it has a considerable amount of details so I'll just finish this tomorrow. Wooo Demon Core

[loupy-mongoose]

Have the others figured out/were able to infer that Timber's death was a deliberate choice and not an accident, or are they still processing the fact he died in the first place?

By the next part, the adult quartet will all know that it was deliberate. Admittedly a lot of that discussion will be off-screen for the time being, but Timber laid out the situation for them as best he can remember.

Edit: I apologize, this seems to have caused confusion. I assumed this was referring to the attacker doing it deliberately, not Timber himself. Timber didn't do it, someone else did. Deliberately. XD