#more takes in the tags

[shadesofmauve]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Knowledge Revenge.

[asha-mage]

Broke: Merlin is a royalist because he is a class traitor boot licker

Woke: Merlin is a royalist because he was raised a peasant in the sixth century and he has the perspective and values typical of that time period on top of his personal experiences with Arthur to give him faith in the enlightened despotism favored by Catherine the Great and Frederick of Prussia.

Bespoke: Merlin is a royalist because anyone who had to live through both the English Civil War and Voltaire's exile to Britain would come out the other side thinking democracy is stupid.

Transcendent: Merlin is not a royalist. He is the divine right of kings in human form. The avatar of Albion and its magic. He does not believe in kings because of Arthur. He believes in Arthur so Arthur gets to be king.

[speakingtruthfully]

Dead on main writing prompt: Jason gets dosed by a rogue and accidentally exposes his and Danny's relationship......

“And this GIW kidnap ghosts?” Batman asks.

“Totally, Dad.” Jason nods. “But you can’t tell anyone I’m a ghost!” Jason claims.

“You don’t want them to get you?” Diana questions.

“Me?” Jason scoffs, “I don’t give a fuck about me. I just don’t want them to get Danny again.” He says in a duh kind of tone.

“Danny’s a ghost?” Dick asks in shock.

Jason smiles again, “He’s a Halfa; like me.”

“Two Halfas exist?” Zatanna asks sounding shocked.

Jason laughs, “Don’t be silly. There are four of us: Me, My husband, My husband’s clone, and that one asshole.”

“You and Danny are married!” Dick yells.

“Yes, Dickwing. My husband and I are in fact married.” Jason states.

“Why didn’t you invite me to your wedding?!” Dick doesn’t do a very good job hiding the hurt in his voice.

“I will invite you to the human one.”

“Wait, your wedding was a ghost one?” Dick asks.

“Duh.” Jason nods, “we’re only legally married in the Ghost Zone.” Jason then quickly adds, “Or Infinite Realms.” Jason shrugs, “Whatever you want to call it.”

“You’ve been to the infinite realms?” Constatine asks.

“Yeah.” Jason laughs. Then, stops as if realizing something, “Oh, My God.” He looks at his older brother, “Big Bird, Did I tell you that I met Jane Austin? Because I fucking met Jane Austin!”

“That’s- great, Little Wing.” Dick says in shock.

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.

[random-cockroach]

MY BRAIN IS FREE AND SURVIVED ON ADRENALINE AHHDASHGDAS 1) Rough animation with idw designs is fun. Blurr turned out to be easier than I thought (imagine animating Deadlock *shivers*) 2) Clean up and coloring is NOT.

[nyanrial]

making little snowmen ⛄⛄

[mroddmod]

i'm not exaggerating when i say he's on my mind 24/7

[coddda]

I wish we could have met in some other way.

Lawlight Week Day 2: Soulmates

If you saw me repost and re-edit this several times uh No you didn't </3

Still frames/Individual gifs:

If you know what every frame is from you get a free cookie. by the way

[1nfcteds1llnesz]

HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HELLOOOOOOOOOO

Posting here because geez… I get 0 attention on Twitter…. I got faith in tumblr

Anyways appol Grian inspired by a post on twit …

Thank yewww for your attentionnnnnnnn

[evenlyevi]

Something simple as a cooldown, have some bunnies!

[bryverros]

i <3 social media aus

[cozylittleartblog]

i thought naming myself this would be really funny. and it Is. every time i get into a match i think about gabriel playing Miku Rhythm Game

[plagueislost]

robin sketches. can you guess which one is my favorite

[cosmicraelum]

I rewatched perfect blue recently

[alukaforyou]

hes just like a little flower to me🌸

hes like noooo stoppp this is embarrassing ✋✋✋

i cant believe i worked on the face the whole dam day and it looks weird lmaooo kmsss 💀 ig u can look forward to the finished version i'll uhhh keep working on it until it looks right >_<

song i picked to draw to was 'moonflower' by lucia its very historical kdrama ost sounding, very longing yearning pretty lyrics >_<;;

the mv tho lmfaooawofejrkgnnofaeif monster loving??? 👀👀👀

u kno whats f'd up abt drawing sukuna; i still have to sketch out the rest of his face before i put the two eyes over it to check if everything looks right wtf like its gonna be covered anyways but the way i still have... to.. draw it under LOL 👎 im just not confident enough to go straight into it yanno?

i completely failed at going the dilf route cuz i just cant draw that my art skillz are not there yet 👎 so i just went the pretty boi route i always pull up lee soo hyuk face ref pics when drawing my other anime husband madara but i summoned him for sukuna this one time too even tho idt they look alike at all,, it just helps to have his face out tho idk. my fave drawing buddy mr lee :3c ALSO!! my cat decided to take a multi hour long eep on my lap i couldnt move, me legs & back hurt sm 😵‍💫

anyways im gonna take months to finish this pic ^_T i just cant draw as much as i used to.. dam adulting sucks :/ i dont want a job TT I DID finish ONE tho one of the 3 in the set heres a lil preview i felt like such a dam perv drawing this lol 🤪

i was looking at a loooot of body builder ref pics they have sm arm veins???? and on the lower tummy DICK area im crying what the hale🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴😖😖😖😖😖😖😖😖