#my people art skills are mid at best lol

[theghostofsoap]

an attempt at Ghost lol

(also if Tumblr could not try and enlarge it and make it look stretched out that'd be great)

[dealingdreams]

In many ways I'm not sure I know how to verbalize everything I'm feeling but here are some general things now that I'm a little calmer lol

here is what I'm doing...

I'm starting the process of getting a passport just in case. I don't imagine my financial situation will improve drastically to even be able to afford a plane ticket but I want that option

I'm looking into alternative phone chargers if my power goes out and I need to charge my phone

I'm not doomsday prepping and over spending but the next several times I go grocery shopping I'm buying extra items I usually purchase.

Cat food

Over the counter medications

Period products (for a bit tho I've also been thinking about reusable pads cause a cup just doesn't float my boat lol)

Coffee

Batteries

Toothpaste

Deodorant

Rice

Beans (both canned and dried)

Noodles

I'm putting these items in plastic and/or glass containers to keep fresh and bug free. I'm also making sure I date them so when I bring in new items I make sure to use the old stuff first. I'll buy an extra item for as long as I can afford it just to slowly build up a good amount. Would very much recommend not rushing out an panicking buying.

I'm also purchasing more physical media. Books, CDs, Movies etc etc

____

Now here is my advice. Don't comply in advanced. This will be so much worse if we do nothing. Be prepared, but don't comply in advanced. Don't stop talking about these issues, don't stop creating art, don't give up. Hope is a discipline. Don't comply but be prepared.

Our acts of resistance don't need to be like star wars level resistance okay. Not all of us are fighters, not all of us are safe, not all of us have that skill set even...but small actions to make things just a bit better in the world is just as important. Community is important. It's hard to know where to start especially in the states cause we are so isolated not only in individualism but also cause so many of us have to work multiple jobs...but there are things you can do.

Small actions you can do. You don't have to do all of them but consider your options. Here are some examples...

Get a library card. You can further volunteer if you have the time or the will but even using the library helps provide a lot of resources to your community. Can't physically go to the library then donate used books, or money...or you can download the Libby app and use the library that way.

Want to feed people? Get involved in local shelters, food not bombs, soup kitchens, local community gardens etc etc

Church, finding a church group. I know this is a hot button for folks...but demonizing any faith isn't very radical of you. Also there are many churches that actually might align with your views.

Are environmental and animal welfare issues important to you? Volunteer for clean ups or volunteer at an animal shelter.

___

Also additional things you can do is call and email your representatives both before and after they vote on something. Let them know what you think of a bill, and either thank them or tell them you are disappointed in them depending on that outcome. They might not care but it's worth the effort.

Wear a mask

Say hi to your neighbor

Vote in local and mid term elections. Keep a consistent eye on your voting registration.

___

I'm not the type of person that will tell you well at least it's only four years. A lot can happen in four years...but if we try out best each day (cause sometimes our best is simply brushing our teeth let's be real) to take care of each other we might just end up making this bearable.

Im terrified of this future. I'm a single women. I do own my house but that doesn't make me feel much safer. I'm looking into additional home and personal safety options as well...I'm choosing at the moment to focus in what I can do something about. I can prepare for potential economic collapse within my current financial means, and I can make it a priority to find a community to plug into. Small steps forward.

Love you all

[katyspersonal]

Tumblr sorta needs a 'Mute' feature in my opinion. Like what if I don't want to block this user, what if I don't want to become enemies and in some days I'd like to interact. But also most of the time seeing how they avidly encourage everyone else whereas I get the passive-aggressive 'oh yeah very uhh... interesting... (please leave me alone I don't like your art lol)' makes me want to unfollow every single fan of these characters and never draw them again.

I remember two years ago the exact same thing happened when someone liked the same character and the same ship and I swear I was the only person in the fandom they bluntly left out and could not spare a single good word for. I can't even blame this on my art being "ugly" because this type of user always aggressively praises all art styles and all levels of skill, it feels more like 'a personal thing except we never fought a single time'. And now my toxic trait of needing approval from [cool person name] is back to haunt me years later! Add the unability to "abandon" this character/ship/whatever despite wanting to after facing so much unspoken passive spite, because I am a contrarian and the best way to trap me into doing something is to try to exclude me from it. I didn't face attempts to very aggressively bully me out of the yard/class/community/etc, sometimes with physical violence included, only to let something mid like passive aggression online finally do it.

I am really stupid and naive person despite my age, but in like 5% of the cases I will still understand the hint and understand what is going on. Yet I have to pretend to be clueless even in rare situations when I know someone hates me, because since they never admitted it, quitting will be perceived as me being "paranoid". But dear goooood, it hurts sometimes. I hope that one day I will be numbed to being treated as a tumor on an otherwise healthy body of society that someone is dying to amputate- and always a person whose approval I want, of all people. Knowing that this day will come is one of the things that keep me going as both a person and a creator. Things like viruses and diseases still try their best to persist, so even if I am actually one, I should persist. It doesn't matter whether I actually rot everything around me or this is just my self-depreciating delusion upon focusing on people that mistreated me and not people that loved me. What matters is persisting, I just still feel angry that it hurts. I can't respond spite with spite or passive aggression with passive aggression, I can't do the 'smug asshole' when I become aware that someone tries to starve me until I "die". I can just fall over and cry about it like a kicked dog, despite being so old, especially when it is a person I didn't have anything against.

And really.. It is as simple as turning the internet off, so I don't see The Person and can focus on doing stuff that I like, as if they never existed and can't crash my self-esteem. It is just annoying to keep doing this, a feature to not see them unless I am in the mood would be better. Like.. blocking is not an option. Not only it implies being enemies which is not my intention, but also it will be like an "evidence" that I was "crazy". They didn't do anything, right? Well, they know what they did, but it was never verbal, so it is my fault I "imagined things", right?

[feline-evil]

To try and make my memory issues less Annoying i'm going to start cataloguing what i watch and my opinions on said things, i forgot to do it fresh after watching these first few things but in the future ill try and do it more soon after. You can block the tag jay tv time if you wanna filter this out and not see it!

POST NUMBER ONE: THREE THINGS WATCHED IN JANUARY 2024

YURI ON ICE

I'd heard vaguely about this way back when on tumblr and hadn't had any interest at the time; this was back when i was more interested in getting involved in discourse than really taking any media recommendations from my peers around me lol, older days on tumblr were a dark time huh. Anyway, watched this with my boyfriend this year because i have an interest in ice dancing, i like the sport, i wanted to see some sports anime drama around it!

So, my opinion and review. The show's opening credits are nothing to write home about, very clean looking yeah but kind of bland in a sort of mid 2010's corporate fashion- the show itself though starts with a boatload of charm and a very likeable main lead! The atmosphere was charming and fun and bubbly, everything felt very cozy; LOVED our main leads internal little monologues with little diagrams, loved his family his mom is like peak platonic ideal of an anime mom, loved the tongue in cheek nature of it! Aaaand then we hit what i would call the lowest point for the show, and one that i fully understand if it would be a complete deal breaker for people. That's right folks, we get fatphobic comedy! Whoo. This isn't the WORST i've ever seen but in those first two episodes or so it was prevalent enough to have me rolling my eyes, feeling uncomfortable and saying yeah, if this continues on we might drop the show. If not for how charming the rest of the show was I'm sure we would have dropped it right then and there! But what i am glad to say is that yeah, it drops off; of course it comes with the caveat that it only drops with the main lead losing the weight he was being mocked for, SIGH, but it at least started to feel less like we were going to have to sit through endless weird attitudes towards NORMAL WEIGHTS FOR A GODDAMN HUMAN BODY TO BE, and more like 'oh yeah these hardcore professionals in these fields have shitty attitudes towards bodies. That makes sense. Wish we didn't have to linger on it still because i dislike it thoroughly.' So anyway. Moving onto the next episodes the show really started to pick up for me and got me invested in the ice dancing; while a lot of characters come and go during the lead up to and the competition itself i found so many of them likeable and charming that i was rooting for them each time they took to the ice! I adored the 'rival' of sorts, fifteen year old yuri (not the titular one, different yuri) and we were cheering him on a lot; he's just a little angry kid that loves cats and wants to be the best!!! We wanted him to do good and have fun!!! And we found we were rooting like this for so many people, really feeling the vibe of watching a sport you enjoy and feeling the love for the art of it all.

Now speaking of art i will say i found myself not always totally in love with the animation during the skate segments; this show is really pretty looking for sure and certainly TONS of hardwork went into it so i don't wish to say anything against that- i don't even know if there IS a better way to animate this but. Well on occasion it felt as if the background slid at the wrong speed or angle or direction and didn't fully match the figures skating, making some of the speed and elegance of ice dance evaporate. A lot of animation also felt a little reused, a lot of the same motion being done with little variance aside from what the commentary dialogue says over top, but again i respect a ton of hardwork no doubt went into this and i'm sure animating competitive ice dancing is a daunting task so i'm not making any statements against effort or skill on part of the animators!! Just stating that i myself wasn't too taken with the animation during these segments.

Of course, at its core, what yuri on ice is really about is a blooming relationship; and oh my god. Okay so i'm kind of used to things tumblr called gay back in the day being....mmmm metaphorical, subtextual. Sometimes even not gay at all. So i wasn't prepared for how openly gay this was! There is clear romantic and sexual intent shown from JUMP, it is not shied away from nor shown as something to be demonized or to bring doom on the characters they are just Gay. Like REALLY gay. And maybe you're going 'well duh of course' but hey. I didn't grow up watching anything with gay characters or people in it, i still am not used to seeing open and happy gay people in media. Its still fresh to me! And it makes me happy! I don't know how they got this show to be SO gay, i would be surprised at something gaining mainstream popularity with 'THEY STRAIGHT UP GET ENGAGEMENT RINGS' level of gay nowadays never mind back then so i'm just sort of taken aback! That's cool!! That's still new to me!!

Now my overall review is: This show is a good fluffy watch, nothing too complex or complicated, might not blow your socks off but if you want something feel-good it's worth a try! Obviously with the understanding that if those first few episodes leave too bad a taste in your mouth i compleeetely understand and would not begrudge anyone switching off at that point, you'd be well within your rights because good lord we didn't need that put in. But yeah! Show's gay! Show's got ice dancing! Someone should take Yuri Plisetsky to the rainforest cafe!!!

DUNGEON MESHI

OK SO THIS WILL BE A SHORTER REVIEW BECAUSE WE HAVE ONLY SEEN ONE EPISODE VERSUS YURI ON ICE BEING A FULL SEASON, ALSO DO NOT FUUUUCKING SPOIL DUNMESHI STUFF MY BOYFRIEND HAS READ THE MANGA BUT I HAVENT.

Dungeon meshi is something i've known about for ages and known that i'd like, but i also knew it had a plotpoint adjacent to something that (genuinely depending on the day, its like a damn coin toss) can squick me out OR trigger me a bit, SO! I'd never read it, which i know is a damn shame! But my boyfriend really wanted to watch the first episode of the new dunmeshi anime and i really really wanted to watch with him and i'm really glad i did because it is SO good. It is so fun and witty and bursting with charm, every character is so likeable and it feels like you've known them forever from jump they settle so easily within your fondness for them! I adore how much they do not shy away from Laios being a very passionate weirdo, i love that the guy who is pretty much our main lead in our cast is. A PECULIAR MAN WHO YOU JUST REALLY CAN'T HELP BUT HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR. I've been this man before, the guy who's really into something nobody else gets!! I get it Laios i get it! Marcille Chilchuck and Senshi are all absolute delights too and each has their personality show vibrantly different from each other, feeling like individuals all with so much to like about them all; Marcille as the person to constantly be unsure about the CLEARLY PECULIAR THINGS THEY ARE DOING is especially great!! Not only is this show a romp so far but it looks DIVINE, the animation knows exactly when detail and motion is needed and when a minimalist approach is needed to sell a gag; each character is rendered PERFECTLY from manga to anime, they are translated over with an expert touch that loses none of their charm- and according to my boyfriend this anime is a very straight forward adaptation, beat by beat following the way things are laid out in the manga's panels the way they are presented within that medium, and that's SO cool to me that they're managing to make precise things that worked so well on paper work just as well in motion! I can't say too much about this story-wise or plot related just now as again, we've only seen the one episode, but it has left me hungry for more and really excited to watch the rest of it, and that's fantastic!! PONYO

Oh wow this is three for three animated entries for the jay tv time list; not intentional but that's pretty cool co-ordination! Animated January..... ANYWAY!

CAN YOU BELIEVE I HADN'T SEEN PONYO YET! I've seen Spirited away and My Neighbour Totoro, but this was my first time watching Ponyo and ohhhhh my god it's wonderful. Every character is a joy, the world around them looks gorgeous, its all so sweet and nice and aaaaaaa Sometimes small kids can be. Grating in movies, or the plot can be moved along in ways that are annoying to watch a toddler progress through, but not with this movie; the kids are SO cute, Sasuke is such a sweet lil kid and Ponyo is so fun- also the line early on at the daycare where the one lil girl says 'you don't have a job you're FIVE!' KILLS ME! This movie portrays little kids in a way that never crosses into the annoying small child thing that a lot of movies can do; and that's not all it does right! It's conflict never feels contrived or irritating, it always flows nice, it's characters never feel boxed into Bad or Good everyone is just a person trying to do what's right, the world never feels Too hostile or Too cosy it just feels nice and balanced! It's a joy to watch it really is, it's not a complex nor complicated tale but it doesn't need to be, its a movie to watch when you want to have a big happy smile on your face; it makes you want to clap and go yayyy!!!! So often because you love what's happening so much! Sasuke's mom is SO FUCKING GOOD. Spoke about platonic ideal of anime mom earlier but Sasuke's mom takes the award for Coolest mom; she's driving fast and furious, she never once judges Ponyo for being a fishy, she's cool!! Ponyo's dad is equally good, i love a well meaning man who just can't help but come across as a Total Weird Asshole because he is just so much of a tired grumpy mess; and i love that he's not portrayed as evil or mean, just protective and misguided in places but ultimately just as kind as everyone else in this movie! And that's something i really appreciate, so much kindness flows through this movie, so much love for your fellow man (or fish); the community feels like a community because of it, families feel like families because of it. Kindness is so wonderful and the kind of kind, gentle understanding in Ponyo makes it's characters come alive! The final moments when Sasuke accepts Ponyo makes so much sense, he's a sweet lil five year old, he doesn't have any prejudice engrained in him, he likes his fishy friend!! And the world is saved by that!! And isn't that just delightful! Also hey if we may get unprofessional Sasuke and Ponyo's moms had a little something going on between them, i think they could've had a lil something something. I'm just saying. I also love Ponyo's dad SO Much. I couldn't fix him but. well. nay, i shan't say. ANYWAY!!! REALLY GOOD, SWEET MOVIE! Definitely one i'll revisit on days when i want a nice sweet pick me up! It's gorgeous, it's heartwarming; oh my god and the ANIMATION!! THE ANIMATION! Every frame a delight, i appreciate so much of how well done the creatures of the sea are and how much are filled into every scene, making it feel bustling and alive, i appreciate how unafraid to make Ponyo look WEIRD they are it really adds to the charm, and the animation in general is just so perfect, its a work of art... I REALLY ENJOYED THIS MOVIE! AND I THINK THAT'S IT FOR NOW, STAY TUNED FOR UH. MORE THINGS I WATCH I GUESS.

[bahamutgames]

CHAINED AFTERTHOUGHTS

Game: Chained Echoes (December 8, 2022)

Console: Xbox One (Via Xbox Game Pass)

ALRIGHT! After a long and stressful move, a long and stressful destressing period, and just generally being busy. I finally wanna share some more thoughts on games I played recently. I figure I should start with Chained Echoes. Cause it's already been like 2 months since I beat it and with my steel trap mind (for keeping thoughts OUT rather than in) it's only a matter of time before I forget what the game was even called... What was I talking about?

I only found out about this game a little before it launched, but it looked GREAT and so I had my eyes on it for a bit, sadly I couldn't pick it up right away. But thankfully, Game Pass once again came in clutch and I was able to play through Chained Echoes on a trial! And now I'm gonna tell YOU what I thought!

As I always say, this isn't a review. This is just a messy write up on my thoughts about the game! Don't expect some sort of definitive review or well structured writing! If you're even slightly interested in the game, please check it out and support the hard working devs!

SPOILERS FOR CHAINED ECHOES AHEAD!! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT ANY SPOILERS!!

Opening

As I'm sure you all know, I'm a bit of an RPG fan. I haven't played all the greats, but I am always on the look out for something new and interesting to play. And nowadays most of the best turnbased RPG experiences generally come from indie games. So when I saw this game making the rounds as a call back to older turnbased RPGs, but with a wholly unique story and world that does everything its own way, I was really interested! It took me a bit to truck through the game but I'm very glad I played it finally!

Stuff I liked

Man, where to begin? Chained Echoes is AWESOME! There's so much love and passion poured into pretty much every corner of the game. First thing you'll probably notice is how WONDERFUL the sprite art is! The graphics of Chained Echoes seriously look AMAZING! Everything in this game looks wonderful! From the environments, to the enemies, to the characters themselves. The music is also sooooo good! Relisting to the soundtrack while writing this, I absolutely LOVE how it all sounds! It all feels perfectly right at home in an RPG if that makes any sense aha. The battle themes in particular are great, like "Never Forget Our Promise"!

And those characters, in addition to have really nice designs. Are all great! I actually really liked every team mate in the game (with a few exceptions but I still used Robb a BUNCH despite him being an awful person for most of the game lol). My team by the end was

Glenn > Amalia

Victor > Robb

Ba'Thraz (of course) > Mikah

Sienna > Lenne

And yeah you see that right, 8 teammates! This game has an AWESOME system where you can have 4 reserve teammates in addition to your main team and swap them out with each other mid battle! Which ROCKS and means you aren't gonna have to leave all your favorites behind. You can make use of most of the team in a single battle!

The whole game has a lot of systems to take the stress off usual JRPG burdens and also add a lot of unique flare to the game. Stuff like fully replenishing your team between battles is a GREAT touch that reminds me of Chrono Cross. Where it allows and encourages you to go all out in each encounter, rather than saving it (and potentially wasting it) at a boss. That's probably the biggest one people bring up. But there's also stuff like the Overdrive Bar, which encourages you to make a wide range of attacks to keep the bar in check so you don't spam your best skills over and over. This is a really neat concept and also a neat balancing tool since you get fully healed after each fight. Some of my favorite systems in the game were absolutely the ability to find random smaller teammates around the world who help from the home base in smaller ways. And also the reward board! Where you do small quests and earn rewards, then by linking those rewards together can get even bigger rewards! I actually found myself doing TONS of side content in this game cause it was just fun and easy to do thanks to the quick travel and the Sky Armors.

And that's not even all the cool stuff in Chained Echoes. The way you level up and learn new moves is cool, learning and equipping unique abilities is cool, emblems, even crafting (something I usually dread) is pretty neat in this game. And then of course there's the unique Sky Armor battles which are also cool. There's SO many unique systems in this game and they're all VERY cool!

The story is also neat, I like the world they created for the game. Particularly I thought the mana flow stuff was fantastic and very interesting. And the True Kings were SOOOO awesome! I loved the concepts behind them so much! And the different races were great, always appreciate any game with lizard people. And the classic clashing against the gods is always a nice touch, I LOVED the Gurren Lagann influence in this game. Great choice to include nods to that in here.

Also, yeah the ending of this game is VERY strong. A lot of games can fumble the finale, but Chained Echoes actually has a great and satisfying ending in my opinion. Genuinely almost cried while recapping it to someone after I beat it lol.

Stuff I Didn't Like

And, even though it is filled with so much creative stuff and interesting systems... Chained Echoes is not perfect... Let me start with the biggest issue in my opinion: The fights in this game can be TOTAL BULLSHIT sometimes! Don't get me wrong, the systems are all REALLY cool and the fights are genuinely neat! But sometimes... Oh man... Sometimes they are just total chores and last SOOO long!! The first major boss lasts FOREVER. And that wouldn't be a huge problem, especially since you start every fight at full power no matter what. Except for that pesky little Overdrive Bar.

On their own all these concepts and systems are GREAT, but it's once you start getting them all a little mixed in with eachother that they become a massive pain in the ass imo. Going through SUPER long fights, made even longer because you can't go all out on the enemy because you have to babysit the bar nonstop. Then losing the whole fight cause your teammates are dead and you can't properly use all the different moves to control the bar. It's a cycle. And especially early in when they CONSTANTLY MAKE YOU USE UTILITY MOVES EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T LEARN ANY FOR A GOOD WHILE! It sounds small, but to me it made the game almost impossible at some steps.

And you can't grind either, which I know is a blessing to a lot of people. But I like grinding because it's an easy and measurable problem solver with an easy to see goal. But in Chained Echoes, you only level up after a boss fight, where you spend the boss fight currency I forgot the name of to learn new moves. So... if you just have the wrong moves for a fight? Tough. Your ass is NOT progressing. Again, all these concepts are GREAT! And I think with a bit of tweaking, they can all flow together nicely. But I don't know. They just... Didn't imo. I think having enemies also have to deal with an Overdrive bar would make fights feel on more equal footing? But obviously that could make the game too easy if you're not careful.

And you CAN lower the difficulty, but imo medium is just absolutely brutal, while easy makes the game unbearably easy. It's not a good middle ground. By the end of the game I straight up could NOT beat the final boss. So I had to go down to easy. Which was disappointing. Idk. Just made the whole game insanely frustrating to me even though it is forgiving.

I also have some other issues. Some NPCs deserved more time over others (Sienna's wife should've been a teammate and I WISH SO BADLY YOU GOT TO INTERACT WITH MORE OF THE TRUE KINGS!!). There's a lot of weird writing choices like I seem to recall there being NO contractions which is a nitpick but it always bugs me. A particularly big problem I have is. And I can't believe I'm gonna say this. Sexual Assault / Maybe Homophobia TW??? There's some story beats that REALLY rub me the wrong way. Particularly, Killian's backstory is that his sister was sexually assaulted into a coma. The coma part makes for a very compelling backstory, but the SA part is... completely unneeded. Like, I don't think it's ever mentioned ever again in the game. Which you COULD argue is good. But then. Why include it at all? Also I feel like Killian sleeping with another man is presented in a kind of homophobic way? Or at the very least, why is there no gay couple that's like, actually happy and together? To be fair there isn't a lot of love and romance in general but still. Idunno.

Final Thoughts

And even still? Despite the MASSIVE headache this game was to get through at times??? Immediately after I finished it, all I could remember was everything cool about it. The amazing music, the wonderful sprite art, the cool story, the great ideas, the times where I did like 50 reward board goals in a single sitting cause I couldn't put it down. There's a reason the massive roadblocks didn't stop me from playing. And it's because Chained Echoes is a fantastic RPG. I didn't want to give up at those roadblocks, no matter how many swears they made me shout. Because the game is genuinely cool as hell. (plus it doesn't help I realized you have to equip abilities learned through level ups until the end of the game). I think Chained Echoes is a game I will love even more when I get the chance to replay it in the future with a deeper understanding of how the game works and what I did wrong in the first playthrough.

Genuinely if you're into RPGs and you haven't given this game a shot yet... well, why did you read this? And also, I think you should give Chained Echoes a shot and see how you feel about it! Maybe you'll have an easier time with it and then you'll realize I actually suck at video games.

===

Thanks for reading. I'm a little out of practice so this one is probably particularly messy. But I keep thinking about it and I just REALLY wanted to talk about some damned vidjya games! Since the move I've been mostly playing older stuff on Nintendo Switch Online cause my time has been very limited. But I'm hoping to return to more RPG goodness soon with Dragon Quest II!

In the mean time, as always you can follow me on twitter to see in real time whatever the hell I'm playing instead of doing work to make money and be useful. Stop by! You might like what you find!

That's all from me, thanks for your time. Go out and play a game with cool new ideas!

[mikeybenji]

2025.

I think I will make a new personal blog. Long time ago I used Xanga to write my thoughts lol. Back in the mid 2010’s I made a good amount of friends on here. I even met 3 of them irl. Almost dated the second one, but ended up dating the 3rd one. I went through my emails and saw that she followed me June of 2015, but we didn’t talk until August. I almost knew her for 10 years. Wow. How time flew. We physically dated for 8 years, but 9 if you count the long distance the first year. We went through a lot. We both grew up together and overcame challenges and it was an incredible adventure.

I’m heartbroken on how this ended. Sadly, I anticipated this because I noticed the train derailing some time ago and I tried to keep it on the tracks, but I failed. We were growing apart and we became cold to each other. She’s gone now and of course I’m missing her because I lost my best friend, but there was a reason it ended. I think I tried so hard to be compatible when in reality we didn’t have much in common and the only thing we did do together was eat, watch movies and play games with friends. When it came to my interests, she did not care. Her interests were eating out and shopping. Scratch that. Her hobby was spending money. I worked my ass off to give her everything she wanted. She did not help contribute to this relationship. She had no ambition, no goals, no interest in doing anything! I became codependent and if she didn’t want to go out, I wouldn’t either. I was suffering. She became my cancer. Imagine turning 30 and only had a grocery store job for a year. No other skills. I gave her tools, I bought her sooo many things throughout the years so she can work on some art. Perhaps sell them! I bought her streaming equipment and she attempted it once. That’s it. Her art was taking off for a bit but then she stopped. I don’t get it. Why doesn’t she want to do anything?

Yeah, it hurts like hell thinking about all the good memories we made. The adventures we had. The people we met. Thank you for being in the passenger seat for this portion of my life. Even though what you did to end this is shameful. I just wish you would have talked about it instead of making drastic moves. I would have still wanted us to be friends. I’m going to have to get used to doing things alone again. I’m scared but also excited.

I will write more tomorrow. It’s late and I have work in the morning.

Goodnight.

[aroaceacacia]

@taiey ok so to the best of my memory

during the season 4 end fight, vitalasy acted erratically and strangely, talking about someone using his account to fight his allies. a joke theory at the time was that it was mrcube but over time the skill that possessed vitalasy displayed started leading us to believe the person in there was actually oasis, a former lifesteal member and vitalasy's teammate from season 2. (this ended up being confirmed by reddoons during his search for the dragon egg during mid's arg in december LOL man just leaked it)

oasis was a participant in the vitalasy "kinda sus" brand of humor; iirc she was present when subz and vitalasy first met, acting as vi's maid, which made subz kinda go what the fuck (? would need other scholars to confirm this one). you can see her in vitalasy's season 2 videos, I dont think she made any of her own at the time

now alongside season 4 as it was airing oasis was working on a highly-edited trilogy of lifesteal videos called across the darkness. id recommend watching one of the trailers "im doing this... for you" ok girl! she also had soundtracks and promo art being made; I remember one image of her fighting clownpierce. across the darkness never got made for various reasons and then i think oasis got canceled for being kind of shitty to people around her so i think it's fine to say that i was under the impression that vitaloasis was going to be a canon romantic relationship in that version of canon (and ourple were going to be brothers, which is really really funny to me)(and swagdoons were going to be cousins. she had to be trolling)

we (me and the besties) were then kind of delusional about oasis beign a part of eclipse. like we were Fully convinced she was in the vault until subz opened it up. 255 results for the word "oasis" in our liveblogging channel half of them are begging for answers for the end fight and the other half are saying "shes in there"

even without explicitly discussing oasis, which they never really did, vitalasy still had his 5 step plan that he hadnt actually fully figured out, which did eventually lead to spoke opening the wormhole and unleashing dozens of other players onto the server to end the world. so thematically it kind of brings it full circle to vitalasy being possessed

so yeah that's what i remember

do the modern vitalasubzam fans know that oasis was lowkey part of the eclipse polycule also .........

[domirine]

You probably do a lot of life drawing seeing as how perfectly fluid your art always is so this ask might be redundant lol but,, i was wondering what kind of references you usually use? Do you just google similar poses, does it come from your mind, or do you have a go-to app to look through like pinterest?👉👈 i ask bc I struggle a lot with poses and usually when i look them up i end up drawing nothing bc its not. Ever good enough for me/what im looking for lol😔 still not sure how to even draw characters smoochin, rip

thank you, nonny!! i do a lil bit of life drawing, but man i really do feel the same way you do. while i'm happy to show some art when i get it done, the process can be a real struggle.

sorry this is gonna be long and all over the place lol hope it helps tho:

life drawing good: i recommend ditching the idea of finding the 100% Perfect Ref right off the bat. studying anatomy and life drawing (this site has a range of body types and fun poses) somewhat regularly, therefore growing my mental library so that i can try and make whatever pose is in my head happen later, has been more viable to me than spending hours looking for the Perfect Ref.

drawing a bunch of generic people skating without pressure of creating proper character art is good practice, and it primes me to then come up with a skating pose of my own.

ref hunting: i save pictures i might use as refs regularly in a browser folder - good refs, bad refs, boring refs - losing a ref standard can be helpful because at the end of the day it’s what you make with it, so it doesn’t have to be particularly mind-blowing to begin with. you don’t wanna reinvent the wheel or create the most never-been-done-before pose, you just wanna get a thing right.

pinterest is very good for poses, yes, though you have to know how to look for them - i.e. i found that typing out "dynamic pose" will not yield organic results, as opposed to looking up people in motion like athletes, boxers, skaters and such. for fighting, i recommend using photos or clips from (ideally staged lol) fights, as opposed to stock images where the models are standing for a while posing - the former preserves a lot of the movement. i also recommend looking up group photos from events or shows for interesting natural poses and people interacting.

best hot tip of all tho: what helped me most is to not treat references very religiously. don't be tied down by what's in your ref, or not finding the perfect one, because then you're focusing on accuracy and not necessarily on what you wanna communicate with your drawing. if you can't find what you're looking for in full, just use a part that you find interesting, and then bullshit the rest and revise accordingly.

idea-generating can be very hard but you can practice it like any other skill, because having a decent idea of what you wanna draw is helpful - you don't have to have the whole pose visualised 100%. it's the mood, body language and expressions, that i think are more important. looking at refs can help reveal your ideas and intentions, but i will not create them for you i’m afraid.

for example, speaking on characters smooching, i've drawn these using refs in   pretty uptight way with no ideas beforehand - and i find them painfully boring because they're not rly communicating anything aside from a anatomical accuracy (more or less);

i was being too intent on staying faithful to the reference, and they're looking kinda stale to me. the only one that was done without any ref, was the bottom left - which i like! bc it's got spice and it’s portraying some emotion.

but i wouldn't have drawn it if i hadn't already started on the others, so maybe another good tip is to trust the process and not give up mid-work!! drawing stuff you’re not proud of is still drawing stuff, and not everything you create is gonna be satisfying. things are gonna click here and there, but you never know when, so don’t give up on your ugly artsy ducklings!!

[ratsoupee]

Hey there! First off, gotta say that I’m a big fan of your Tim The Dragon Tamer AU! I love the world building and am especially fond of the dragon entries that Tim makes while he goes about exploring. Imagine after the reveal, Bruce and the Batfam finding the notes and being more than a little worried at how close Tim gets to HIGHLY DANGEROUS DRAGONS, TIMMY. I imagine they almost lock Tim in the manor when they find out what their baby bird has been doing behind the scenes 😂 (and even then, he’ll probably just get Redbird to break him out) .

Anyway, I’m real excited for the next chapter and all the other word building fics that you might have in store in the future. And your art is fantastic! I hardly see any writers make their own art for their fics and you’re doing phenomenal work for both! I’d also like to ask, since Tim needs armour for his Dragon Thief outfit but probably can’t tell anybody (let alone the people that make the gear for his night job and his fam) to help him make some, what are your thoughts on Blacksmith!Tim? I read a fic previously on something similar to Blacksmith!Tim that was set in modern DC universe and I think it would be a fun thing to explore in your universe. Like the Batfam seeing the burns on his arms and hands and being all ‘What happened?! Did your dragon do that?!’ And Tim being Tim ‘lol nope that was from me making the costume :)’ . And then Tim being bothered by his siblings to make and help repair their costumes bc ‘Timmyyyy you do detailed work so well! Plus we pissed off the last blacksmith and they refused to help on any armour work for at least the next week, thanks bestie 😊.’

So yeah, I’d love to hear more on your headcannons for the AU (and the blacksmith stuff *wink*) if you’d like to share them!

Sorry it's taken me a while to get to your ask! Your question required some thought to it that I would like to answer properly 😳

Thank you so much for your love of this fantasy fanfiction! The batfam definitely question Tim's history with dangerous dragon run-ins, but that just encourages half of them to do it too.

The reason I have art for the fic is that most of the stories, ideas and thoughts I have of the world all stem from visual images. It plays out in my head like an animation, and I take aspects of what I found appealing about the plot, vision and aesthetic in my head and try my best to translate to words. It's also the reason I wanted a beta reader for this fic, since words are incredibly hard to translate from an image in mind.

I've actually read the Blacksmith!Tim fic! It was an incredible take on Tim and I just like the idea of Tim having a wide variety of skill. He's what I would call Jack of all trades, master of none. His skills are borne out of either interest, or a need for it in obscure times. So he gets into blacksmithing so no one questions his need for a big ass saddle.

He does get burns and cuts, but he usually explains it away, or wears long sleeves. The others sometimes ask for him to help him tinker, but they actually mainly go to Duke. Duke's just glad to have another person to blather blacksmithing jargon to someone.

One headcannon I have in mind regarding Blacksmith!Tim is that his first saddle was so badly crafted, it loosened mid-flight and cause Tim to fall off the back of Redbird. They ended up crashing into a tree canopy

[vkelleyart]

Thoughts on fandom: inclusion and engagement.

(Art credit to the kindhearted @penpanoply​!)

There’s been some stuff floating around on Tumblr about strife in the CO/WS fandom, and though I haven’t been explicitly named-dropped on anything public, my DMs have been... active. lol Rather than rehash what’s been said already, I just want to impart a little wisdom and perspective in the hopes it may soothe frayed feelings and offer a way ahead for cultivating a respectful community. As someone who has been an active participant in online fandoms since the mid-’90s, which was the advent of online fandom content creation (shout out to my fellow X-Philes!), and who has also spent a chunk of her professional life managing social media for the federal government and for activist groups, I can promise you it’s all gonna be okay.

Here’s some context for why strife happens and what we can do to create a more inclusive and communicative fandom environment. 

1) It sounds cliché, but fandoms go through growing pains. 

In the case of the Simon Snow fandom, what was once a small and cozy space untouched by cataclysmic events (such as the release of *gasp* a sequel) has grown exponentially in a relatively short amount of time following the release of Wayward Son. Newcomers are eager to find a home in this space at the same time as folks who’ve been here a while may be consciously or unconsciously wary about widening their circle, and It’s important to remember that this is not necessarily an expression of bad behavior on either side but just human psychology doing its thing. 

The byproduct, however, is that tension and stress builds over time from the lack of meaningful communication across the divide, which subsequently fuels misunderstandings. Ironically, the interfaces we use to communicate don’t help with this because any existing communication about the tension happens in tiny vacuums until a trigger goes off and bad feelings go public. 

Way Ahead: These moments of destabilization are opportunities to see where we can be more self aware about how we engage with fandom and the kind of community we want to be. Can you promote, support, or befriend someone trying to gain a foothold? If yes, please do! Each person must reach their own decision about what they can do within the confines of their available energy, health, and time, but a little self awareness goes a long way as long as you’re honest with yourself and others if applicable about what you can contribute. Anyone who judges you for it isn’t worth the strife.

2) In a fandom comprised of vulnerable/marginalized people, it’s more accurate to say that cliques are “bubbles of trust.”

This one's important. Just by nature of the source material, the CO/WS fandom includes fans with a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, especially when it comes to those who identify with the characters’ queerness, mental illness, and/or trauma. I really believe––based on individual conversations/group chats––that the difficult lived experiences that so many of our fandom peers have endured has produced one of the most open, aware, and accepting fandoms I’ve had the pleasure of participating in. Our vulnerability is, in a real way, our strength.

That said, a community of survivors also has the side effect of cultivating small circles of engagement that I call “bubbles of trust.” When you’re a survivor of abuse, marginalization, mental illness, fill-in-the-blank, it’s often quite hard to risk casting a wide net and expanding your circle to include new faces––which can subsequently be internalized by equally sensitive and vulnerable newcomers as rejection, judgement, or inadequacy.

Way Ahead: First of all, there may indeed be gatekeeping and exclusion going on. But before internalizing someone’s cagey behavior as gatekeeping or purposely exclusionary, ask yourself if you have all the information. Many people are private (I include myself in this assessment) because life has regrettably taught them to be this way, and so they may insulate themselves to a small group of people who have earned their trust. Some people might also triggered by certain content (case in point: smut triggers my anxiety) so they don’t engage with it. Others might have something in their pasts that define how they handle certain subjects (for example, a person of color should not be tone policed for getting angry when confronted with a racialized microagression, however accidental it was). You just don’t know what you don’t know. 

The solution here is to regularly check your privilege and ask questions in a private space if you sense you’re being treated unfairly by someone. If you go public with your grievances in hopes of mobilizing the mob, you may accidentally find yourself stepping into the role of the aggressor instead of the victim.

3) Social Media is not built to help you get engagement. It’s built to help itself make money off of you.

Repeat after me: Hits/likes are not a measurable indicator of talent or worth. There are ridiculously talented folks on Tumblr and elsewhere who, for whatever reason, haven’t had their viral moment, and it’s not their fault. Loads of factors come into play where things like likes, reblogs, and comments are concerned, among them being posting frequency, subject matter, the time of day, the day of the week, the week of the month, the month of the year, the current administration, the stock exchange, the concentration of middle class users, who just won the Superbowl, a madman trying to steal an election and undermine the democratic process, a PANDEMIC, do you get where I’m going with this?? lol

At the end of the day, my humble successes have been helped along by good luck, good timing, high profile signal boosters, and an absurd amount of work. (This is why I try to signal boost new work whenever I get a chance over at @vkelleyshares.) 

So while you cannot control Tumblr’s interface, trends at large, or your fellow users, here’s what you can do to ensure you give your work the best possible chance of exposure.

Have an image ready to go with your post. Tumblr is a visual platform (no matter what it says about being good for text). Not good with images? Set up a Canva.com account and get access to free graphic software with a gazillion templates to create whatever attractive image you want to attach to your post.

Keep the outward facing text brief and easy on the eyes. Too long and eyes will glaze over. Put excess text behind a “read more.”

You may think you’re being cute when you do this, but don’t put yourself down in your posts. (Don’t put yourself down in general, of course.) Doing so acts as engagement repellant. If you don’t believe in your work, no one else will.

Related: Be your best cheerleader. Confidence is a magnet, and if you don’t have it, go ahead and fake it until you start to convince yourself you are worth the buzz. So promote yourself! You have gifts that only you can impart. Use that knowledge to fuel everything you do from your art/fiction writing to your outreach with other content creators, and by golly, if someone’s done it already, acknowledge that contribution and then tell the world that this is YOUR unique take on it.

Treat your fellow fandom creators as human beings, not art/fiction/content boosting machines. I cannot count how many times I’ve had folks slide into my DMs with offers of friendship only to disappear once they realize I’m not available to draw a picture for their fic. It hurts because it’s manipulative and it makes me want to hole up and not signal boost anyone. Creators who truly support each other will not give off a transactional vibe. I want to help you reach more people, but not if that’s all I’m good for in your eyes. 

The long and short of it: Lead with compassion, do your best with the opportunities at  your disposal, and remember that fandom belongs to everyone in it. ❤️

What saves a fandom made of sensitive and vulnerable souls from imploding when it goes through growing pains is radical compassion from those who can offer it. Begin with the assumption that your fellow fandomers are not trying to harm you, and wade into the water knowing that your insight into the lives of your peers is limited by default and you may need to temper your words or actions accordingly. If you’re a content creator, save compassion for yourself as well, as there are indeed challenges to gaining an audience, and lack of engagement does not mean you lack talent or skill. Be your best advocate, and if you have the bandwidth to lift up a fellow creator and make a new friend, please, go ahead do it! 

And finally, fandom belongs to everyone, and no one has a monopoly on characters, tropes, or themes. Create and consume what you love (with respect for your more vulnerable peers), and bask in the variety, my friends!

That’s all I’ve got in my head at the moment, although I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting. Thanks so much to @penpanoply for letting me use her art for this and to everyone else, hang in there and try not to judge each other too harshly. These are unprecedented times, and most of us are doing our best in circumstances that are pushing us to our limits. 

As always, if you have questions or want to sound off on anything, shoot me a message or an ask, or ping me on Discord. It might take me a second to respond (thanks, Covid) but I’ll get to it! Love, love, and more love to all.

[skaruresonic]

Wow, it's amazing how much I agree with a lot of these. 1.) I also think Jason Griffith is highly overrated, as both Sonic and Shadow. His Shadow isn't... great, to say the least.

2.) omg I don't understand how Vandalize made it into Frontiers and I hate it, get me off this ride rofl. Everyone waxes poetic about the "fuck the pain away" part, which got edited (but they all went nuts over it anyway, so how effective could the censorship have been in the first place?) but not the "smashing bottles on the sidewalk" part, which DID make the cut. Because I know when I think Sonic the Hedgehog, infamously an environmentalist franchise, I definitely think "alcohol-fueled littering,"

3.) Yep. Everyone's like, "Why are you being so hard on Frontiers when Cyberspace levels exist?" with the unspoken implication being that Sega's throwing me a bone even if I wouldn't like traversing the overworld (which is not a negligible part of the game). And it's like no, I think almost all of Frontiers sucks, for one thing, and for another, if the only real Sonic-feeling stages are relegated to side stages that aren't even real, what does that tell you? 4.) Agreed. I like my hard rock, but Frontiers' tracks just leave me feeling cold,

5.) THANK YOU, FINALLY SOMEBODY SAID IT. I feel like I'm going insane from all the praise people are giving this mid-ass game lmao. 6.) Agreed. Forces is definitely not the trainwreck '06 was. People just had their expectations way too high and then turned the game into an easy scapegoat to vent their frustrations on. It's not great, but not irredeemable trash, either.

7.) Never finished Colors but I do appreciate its art direction. I remember being very pleased the first time I played it. 8.) Sorta agree? I do think Pontaff could be rather off-base with their characterization and their jokes could be hit-or-miss on occasion, but at the same time, they more or less retained Sonic and Eggman's core characterization. When taking the bigger picture into account, Sega could have honestly done worse.

9.) Never played them. :o

10.) Hard agree lmao. ShTH is very enjoyable even in spite of its tryhard jank (or maybe because of it...?) and I love how "lived-in" the universe and characterization feel. Don't @ me. I know this game is awful. That's why I love it. The heart wants what it wants lol

11.) For me, whether the win goes to Secret Rings or Black Knight depends on whether you're talking about story or gameplay, because SatSR's gameplay is horrible while SatBK's is serviceable-to-fairly-enjoyable. However, I think SatSR has a better-constructed narrative than SatBK's, if not one of the strongest in the series.

12.) Kinda agree, kinda not. Werehog levels could really drag on and on, especially later on in the game... Although it was fun figuring out how best to employ Sonic's combat skills in Eggmanland. Each fight felt like a new puzzle to be solved.

13.) Overall I'd say SA2 has the tightest controls of any Sonic game, even after accounting for mishaps like mapping the Light Speed Dash and Bounce to the same button. Heroes has a pretty good control scheme, though. (I honestly don't understand the complaints that it's janky and horrible; what are you guys trying to do?)

come, let us be contrarians together :P

I actually have a ton of Sonic hot takes and rare opinions outside of Eggman related stuff btw

a few examples-

Keep reading

[canmom]

i can relate so much to your art struggles, you are really not alone in this 😭

i think ultimately it comes down to the eye/visual library becoming much more advanced and much quicker compared to what youre actually capable of replicating from your imagination, so almost all of the time your skills have to catch up to the high standard your eye sets, which is soo frustrating!!

(and im a mid-tier artist at BEST lol, so not sure if its just a thing you grow out of after you learn all of the anatomy/light/perscpective/color theory/etc.?? be free to update me on that if you make it past fundamentals hell :P)

so youre kinda always setting yourself up for falling short of your own expectations.... in the end i suppose one way of dealing with this is just to remind yourself that youre learning, and being ok with making "bad" things but also tell yourself that not everyone sees the same flaws in something that you see so the thing you consider "bad" is not necessarily in the eyes of another person!

yeah it's tough. i feel like i have no real idea how to assess what's good about my work, i can usually only see the flaws in it, so i'm grateful when people tell me it's good but i also feel like... they probably wouldn't feel that way if it weren't for our existing personal connection ig. i felt kinda good seeing all those decent pieces in pixiv thumbnails but then i clicked onto the front page and saw a lot of considerably more confident and accomplished pieces... which of course, they're only gonna put the best stuff on the front page!

my main barrier is simply not making enough stuff i think. i don't think i'm fundamentally off in my approach, i have a decent and gradually improving ability to eyeball perspective and create good shapes and keep good proportions and anatomy and so on, my lines are gradually getting cleaner, but there's a sort of indescribable element of confidence that comes with just cranking out enough pictures and brings all the elements together. and that only comes from muscle memory and practice.

some part of me has this naive belief that as soon as i get on stimulant medication (hopefully before the end of this year) i'll be able to start practising art like it's a fulltime job (while also holding down a fulltime job?)... but right now i know for certain i'm not drawing enough and i just can't figure out how to get myself to "draw, antonio, draw and do not waste time", like i always love it when i'm doing it but it's just such a barrier to start each day, gahh.

like i need to do more of everything: more fun pieces to develop my feeling what i enjoy and want to create in the long run, more drawing from life/photos, more studies of artists i admire...

anyway i'll stop going on. good luck anon, may we both reach the place we desire...

[bigskydreaming]

Is it true that gymnasts can't work much when they're 30+ ? Is it like an Olympic gymnast thing or just stuntwork in general? I saw some people concerned over Dick's back causing him problems as he gets older. But then a lot of martial art guys like Donny Yen, Jet Lee are still pretty flexible aren't they?

I see this a lot in fandom too, anon, and as often happens, lol, I myself cater to the ‘fandom’s got it backwards’ take.

Fandom specifically focuses on Dick’s body giving out early on in life compared to the rest, due to acrobatics being ‘his niche’ but in reality - or as close to it as we can come in a universe that tbh really demands suspension of disbelief over the fact that any and all of the Batfam take as much punishment as they endure.....

Thing is, Dick is actually one of the family most likely to have the LONGEST longevity of physical fitness.

This is because fandom keeps correlating Dick’s niche as gymnastics, rather than what it IS - acrobatics.

Yes, gymnastics is typically considered a ‘young person’s game.’

ON AVERAGE.

But, something to keep in mind, is that there are different TYPES of gymnastics. There’s competitive artistic gymnastics, but also rhythmic gymnastics, aerobic gymnastics, and a few others. Olympics gymnasts are primarily competitive artistic gymnastics, but even there, there are specializations so to speak. All Olympic gymnasts are usually cross-trained on the various events/categories, but the teams overall put up their best gymnasts in each category to compete in that category when possible....because for the most part, someone who excels at say, floor routines, is not going to be the most optimal choice to do the high bars or the vault. That’s because floor routines emphasize more rhythmic gymnastics, whereas something like the vault is more in the arena of a power gymnast.

And these different areas of focus put different kinds of strains on the body.

So yes, while its true that a lot of gymnasts retire early and the Olympic teams as a whole tend to see their gymnasts exiting the game by 30 at the latest......the latter is because those gymnasts are expected to be at least capable and at elite levels in ALL events, so they can compete as needed for the overall team....BUT, in the case of the former, the gymnasts that retire early completely.....those are almost universally the power gymnasts, the ones who specialize and emphasize in the hard-hitting events like the vault, the beam, the uneven bars, etc.

I say hard-hitting, because I literally mean hard-hitting. 

Because these are the high impact events. The ones that see a gymnast land with the full weight and impact of their body on their feet at the end of a successful (and exponentially force-multiplying) flip, handspring, dismount, etc. 

That kind of impact puts TREMENDOUS strain on your joints....and that, specifically, is what leads to a lot of early retirements, and a lot of early wear and tear on the body. That’s the kind of punishment that the body can only withstand at elite levels for so long.

But that’s not the only kind of gymnastics, and its definitely not the thing that Dick’s known for specifically - that’s acrobatics. And while there’s similarities and crossover, that’s another ballgame entirely.

In fact, where the similarities and crossover tend to happen is in the areas of rhythmic gymastics, aerobic gymnastics.....the kind of things that you see in events like floor routines, the rings, the parallel bars, the pommel horse.

Those gymnasts, the ones who specialize primarily in those areas of focus......they tend to retire from the OLYMPICS around the same time as the others, because again, everyone on those teams needs to be on the top of their games and CAPABLE of being pitted against the power gymnasts of other teams on events like the vault if they need to fill in in a pinch.....BUT they don’t often retire at age 30 overall.

You wanna know where a lot of them end up going after that?

Cirque de Soleil.

Dead serious, I shit you not.....a ton of elite level gymnasts after leaving gymnastics end up....essentially running away to the circus, lol. A full third of Cirque de Soleil’s performers ARE former professional gymnasts.

And a lot of them end up....acrobats.

Because after all, there is a lot of crossover in the two, in terms of feats.....but the difference, the thing that lends acrobats more longevity than most power gymnasts and the like.....is the latter endure most of the abuse to their bodies and joints....when their bodies hit the ground at the end of their feats.

Acrobats, in contrast.....are kinda focused on.....not being on the ground.

A lot of the same wear and tear simply doesn’t happen on their bodies, and allows them to perform much further into life....because there’s simply less strain in the types of aerial feats acrobatics focus on, while suspended high up off the ground.

And we see this reflected in the Batfam and their various styles of fighting and focus, which is why I say despite people focusing on Dick’s body giving out soonest, as the quote unquote athlete of the family -

(Which tbh, I kinda...eh, about, because it feels often like one of those things where people NAME him ‘the athlete of the family’ just to give him his niche without having to acknowledge him as being the equal of any of the ‘brainy ones’ in that regard like Tim or Babs or Bruce, etc.....but honestly, when was the last time you saw any significant focus put on Dick being able to do something physically that the other members of his family COULDN’T do, because they’re not ‘the athlete’? Y’know what I mean? Like, there’s a lot of MENTION of how he’s the most athletic or acrobatic or all of that.....but that never seems to hold any of the others back from doing any of the equivalent physical feats one is inclined to write them doing, or allowing them to be written as sizably less skilled as fighters in any meaningful way. So focusing on Dick as being the most specifically physically minded and oriented of the family feels a bit performative, tbh, and that puts the focus on his body being specifically vulnerable to wear and tear, moreso than the others a bit.....suspect imo. BUT I DIGRESS).

My point is, regardless of that, my take is the focus on Dick’s body giving out soonest is ironically just....completely backwards. Because actually compare his form of physicality to some of the others, and you see what I’m saying:

Bruce and Jason for instance - they’re perfectly capable of high-level gymnastic feats when necessary, but their overall approach to flips and jumps and grappling swinging and the like is to use it as a means to an end. Its always in service to getting them ON THE GROUND as quickly and efficiently as possible....where they can use their brute strength and mass and physicality to its most effectiveness, wading in to brawl hand to hand with combatants anywhere possible (excepting of course when Jason is using guns from a distance, or Bruce his Batarangs, but you get what I mean in terms of overall styles).

But THAT kind of thing....is far more the realm of the power gymnast. The kind of high impact landings and force-multiplying jumps and flips meant to just....cut straight to it. Hone in like a heat-seeking missile. Deliver the full force of them as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In contrast....Dick’s style is entirely different, and hails directly from his origins and his strengths as an acrobat. He’s NOTED for basically spending as much time IN THE AIR during a fight as possible. He soars above when possible, rather than engage up front and hand to hand. He’s more likely to leap over criminals’ heads, kicking out and navigating upwards on his way to ‘tag’ the next one in any manner he can....dodging in and out, using confusion, weaponizing evasive maneuvers, getting his opponents to get tangled up in each other’s way...that’s HIS style.

Dick deliberately keeps himself at a distance as long as possible, not out of fear but out of basic awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses and his instinctive (due to being a born and raised athlete every bit as much as Damian and Cass are born and raised fighters) drive to look after his own body and keep it maintained and honed and efficient for as long as he can - something that I don’t doubt was drilled into him by his acrobats-as-their-livelihood-family from the very first moment they began training him. 

The less he HAS to engage hand to hand, the less he HAS to land feet flat on the ground after a flip rather than using the balls of his feet to simply spring off even further and then transition into firing his grappling hook mid-air, the less he HAS to block a strike with the side of his forearm or strike someone fist to face rather than block with an escrima stick and strike with the other.....

The longer Dick’s body stays in strong enough condition to remain his most effective weapon.

And that’s not something everyone in his family can claim, or even point to as a priority of any kind.

Which is why I maintain that focusing on Dick’s body giving out young is not only a bit....eh....given they all perform equivalent levels of physicality in their vigilantism day in and day out.....its also, IMO, focusing on the wrong family members entirely. 

(Overall, personally I’d rate Dick, Tim and Cass the ones most likely to retain their physical fitness the longest based on their respective styles and how they’re typically depicted in fight scenes).

[oleredacted]

Hey tumblr, gonna shout into the void.

I feel a bit shit. The past couple years I’ve felt stagnant in all areas of myself, mental health included. I want to feel happy, fit, attractive, coherent, intelligent, talented, etc. I can’t seem to make any progress at all. If I do, I feel like I fuck up and end up at square one.

My time in Málaga and Gran Canaria has made me realised I want to move to Spain asap. I already knew that anyway, but I feel like it would be so much better for me. At the same time… I know that wherever you go, there you are 😉. Obviously meaning, if I move to Spain, I’m still taking a lot of the issues I had here in the UK. However, I feel like there’s more there for me. Even if I go right back into a bar job, there are so many gay bars and it’s so accepting of lgbt+ community and culture.

I’m currently unemployed, by choice LOOOOOOL, cause I’m doing a residency at my uni. That’s been extended till May, but it’s just an opportunity for me to work on my “portfolio”. I don’t feel as passionate about concept or comic art anymore. And some of that is because I felt I wasn’t making progress in that, too. I’ve started to work on my drag which is hopefully the best direction for my art lol. But even that scares me. I’m worried what people will think, but I’m trying to constantly remind myself to not give a fuuuuuuck. Like I’m funny and talented and my skills would be put to use well in drag. But it’s like a LOT of effort, on all parts. As you can probs tell, I’m lacking in energy and effort in general, soooooo.

Also, living situation. Bless my flatmate, but he’s really doing my fucking nut in. Has been doing for a while. As a person he’s not terrible, but he’s really self-centred and arrogant. Also, I hate English teachers lol. Financially, he’s doing better off than I am here: I have a smaller room and he has more than double the storage space in the kitchen. I can never use my exercise stuff on a weekend cause guess who’s here all the time? His mate, who’s been sleeping on our couch since NYE. They’re both so fucking loud and irritating, but that’s a personal gripe. However, he genuinely plays stuff on the highest volume I can hear it anywhere in the flat… through noise cancellation airpods!! Grrr. I could go on but I really cba. Point is, I wanna move out asap.

Oh, but I can’t live anywhere else atm. As in, I can’t stay with either of my parents. I wouldn’t want to, trust me. But they physically don’t have the space for me. Frustrating. Last last resort, they would let me stay, but it wouldn’t be at all comfortable. Ah well, such is life.

I’m not sure where I was going with this- was getting a bit depressing, wasn’t it? I went for a walk with my friend mid typing this and uhh, I kinda feel better for it, but not like amazing. Don’t feel I’ve solved anything, but I do think I have to get started with putting plans to action asap. Trying a month in Gran Canaria, will be scary and a big risk, but how else will I get the pay off? I mean ideally, I’d love to live in Spain. But would I love to live… live, laugh, love. :)

[mazou2425]

Woa thanks prima!! Uhh let’s do this:

Last song : Peace of Mind by Tanner. Solid song, I was in the car with my family so my songs were a bit more tame lol

Favourite colour: I like vivid shades of red best!! So yeah red is my favourite colour

Currently watching: Star Wars rebels since I never finished it and also Bad Batch when episodes come out

Sweet/Spicy/Savoury: I like savoury best!! Im not the biggest fan of overly sweet foods or really spicy stuff

Current obsession: Star Wars..that hasn’t really changed in the last 2~3 years lol

Last thing I googled: Star Wars practical effects, I wanted to show my bf the trench run

Favourite season: AUTUMN!! the colours are super pretty and I love next to a couple mountains so it’s quite nice, and since I’ve got that Quebec blood I’m out in shorts and T-shirts till mid-December

Skills I’d like to learn: I’d like to learn to play the guitar!! I’m pretty solid in most departments of art (Writting, drawing, theater) but music is still one that I struggle with

Best Advice: live in the moment, we as humans tend to live in the future rather than the now, which can be stressful. You’re not in a hurry, take time to relax and do what you love, the future will pan out by itself

Well thanks for tagging me Prima!! I’ll tag a couple people too!! @burritoboy30 @soularsss (Only if you want to ofc!!)

Tagged by @sleepy-sham

Last song: Fête de trop by Eddy de Pretto, a wonderful french singer, a literal poet, and a queer icon.

Favourite Colors: Emerald Green. That color is so beautiful, magnificient, and ethereal. The peace and the calm it inspires me... And of course like prev I love turquoise, it's so pretty. Also, purple.

Currently Watching: Uh. Rewatching Loki S2 because I like to suffer ? Well, it was just for 1 episode because I wanted a reason to cry, so perhaps it doesn't count. I am currently watching Ouran High School Host Club as an anime. If we're talking about TV Shows then it'd be What if (from Marvel) and Gen V.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Sweet. Always sweet. I constantly have candies in my room and if not then I have chocolates.

Current Obsession: Pls don't ask I'm able to cry just by thinking about them. Yeah it's SatoSugu, I'm doomed.

Last things I Googled: don't judge me I was looking for memes and posts

Favourite Season: SUMMER !!!! I'm a Summer child. I thrive on the heat of holidays, water gun fights, hot thunder nights and summer activities. I love when there are ice cream shops everywhere, when kids play outside, when the sky is entirely blue, and when people play music on the street. I'm very fine with temperatures from 25 to 32° C so I actually enjoy the summer weather.

Skill(s)I'd Like to Learn: Sign Language, Editing Videos and Photos properly, and Drawing.

Best advice: Do not harm but take no shit. Also, you are not the main character of the Earth, people don't think about you all the time. If they seem hurtful or avoidant they're probably just lost in their own problems and lives. Things are rarely about you. Breathe. No one's mad. And if in doubt, just ask (nicely).

tags, only if you want to do it : @gwendeeagain ; @gojosbf ; @disneyanddisneyships ; @azeofspades ; @blazerodd ; @kuroos-left-testicle ; @getousatoruu

KUDOS <3

[jamaiskookie]

bangtan headcanon: OT7 IN HIGH SCHOOL 📓✂️

☞ genre; fluff, crack

☞ warnings; excessively stupid

masterlist  u wanna talk to highschool!bangtan?

《KIM SEOKJIN》

class clown

always manages to sneak kimbap in class, and stuffs his face despite being in the front row. 

he’s alarmingly good at sneaking food into places. 

cafeteria ladies love jin so much. 

and every christmas he brings in his perfected sugar cookies and never shares them.

(he’s in the cooking club)

((he’s the only one in the cooking club))

will interrupt the teacher to make a bad joke. 

“yes so helium is the fo- oh yes seokjin?“

“i was reading an excellent book about helium, i couldn’t put it down!! ahHAHAHHYUKHYUKAHHAHAHHA“ 

nobody’s?? really sure?? if he’s dating namjoon or not?? it’s the schools biggest mystery, there’s currently a betting pool going on worth about $500

likes to annoy namjoon and yoongi about holding bake sales. 

is surprisingly good at planning parties?? but never hosts them?? hoseok always gets him to plan his parties and he even planned prom!!

he’s particularly proud with the theme he came up with. 

‘zombie meets elegance‘ 

it was actually pretty nicely pulled off (much to the shock of the entire student body) 

《MIN YOONGI》

student council president 

takes his job very!! seriously!! 

fights with the principal on funding daily. 

doesn’t come to school without coffee and resting bitch face.

even the teachers are afraid of this short little emo boy. 

is the only one who actually wears the school uniform properly with the little tie and jacket because that’s how you show school spirit. 

definitely that closeted gay in high school who thinks nobody knows about his homosexuality when in fact, everyone knows.

(nobody has the guts to bring it up to him though)

“hyung why are you staring at jimin’s as-“

 “-NO WHY GET BACK TO WORK” 

actually enjoys doing morning announcements. 

“make sure to check out jin’s dumb bake sale i think he’s selling brownies for some charitable reason anYWAYS time for min’s advice column!!“ 

min’s advice column is yoongi’s free therapy. namjoon suggested adding an advice column to the school paper so now yoongi just judges his classmates’s decisions gives subpar advice. 

“i personally think you have no chance with this girl, but you’re clearly hell bent on asking her out. it’s a dumb choice. good luck.“ 

《JUNG HOSEOK》

fuckboy

throws obnoxious parties at his parent’s huge ass mansion. 

somehow?? is?? the nicest? playboy??? evER??

will respect your girl’s boundaries but also would 300% hit on her when you’re not looking. 

aftercare king wILL cuddle with you and help you clean up or whatever until jimin eventually comes in screaming. 

his school id says “hobi 💦👅” ... noone knows how he managed to do it (taehyung thinks he seduced the secretary) 

surprisingly good at romance even though he deTests dating

“it’s a waste of time, money, and ass.“  “- what?”

gives everyone dating advice whether they want it or nOt- he lives his *shhh very secret* romantic fantasies through his best friends. 

once helped taehyung ask out his girlfriend... they’re still going strong!!

defo has daddy issues that he never talks about,, maybe if a girl finds it sexc™️ in that kind of messed-up-bad-boy-she-could-fix vibe he’ll bring it up

kinda failing science lmao he probably needs a tutor.. but will never admit he needs a tutor for sake of his pride. 

most definitely has had sex in the janitor’s closet a couple times, up until yoongi caught him once, reported him to the school board and got him suspended... for a month. 

(yoongi has no regrets, that was the best month of his life.)

《KIM NAMJOON》

student vice president

honestly would probably be the council president and is the most qualified for it but can’t be bothered.

plus he hates public speaking and the president has to speak at assemblies.  

genuinely enjoys learning!! bUT HATES GROUP PROJECTS

because every single fucking time taehyung and jimin pester him about teaming up and he ends up doing like 75% of the work.

not because anyone forces him to or anything.

it’s because jimin and tae are such dumbasses every time they finish their work namjoon has a sudden uRGE TO REDO ALL OF IT BC THEY GOT IT WRONG.

tries to take all AP subjects.

gives up and drops half of them by the second semester.

great student but also will “no yoongi i don’t want to fucking play basketball i've been awake for thirty hours trying to finish this goddamn essay that’s due tomorrow. wHAT DO YOU MEAN WHY DIDN’T I DO IT EARLIER I WAS BUSY TAKING CARE OF MY BONSAI TREES.“

started the school paper!! it’s called “persona post”

writes about actual relevant things like political events and global problems, but everyone else just writes about school gossip *sigh*

although that one column examining hobi’s sex and dating life was a pretty fun piece of writing to read through. 

he sits in the back of the classroom and never raises his hand even though he knows the answer like 95% of the time.

definitely has a crush on seokjin

《PARK JIMIN》

the one everyone has a crush on

and when i say everyone i mean everyone, even hoseok has had a crisis over park jimin. 

(jungkook is definitely president of his fan club) ((in case it wasn’t clear, he’s dating jungkook))

school’s golden boy, basically gets away with everything with a bat of an eye... and the most infuriating thing is he doesn’t even realise it. 

“omg jimin!! you’re so cute!! this shirt looks sO good on you, can i touCH?” “omg thank you i didn’t think it fit well because it’s my boyfriends but that’s so sweet!!” “boy... hm?”

mom friend: sweetest bitch alive and is always worrying about his friends but everyone knows he’s secretly really fucking kinky.

(again, jungkook has no comment)

the kind of person who celebrates christmas in june. 

literally- he starts putting decorations in his locker and around the school mid june. by november, he’s wearing reindeer ears to school.

*lowkey kind of a nerd* genuinely enjoys studying with namjoon.

“well, studying with anybody else is just too stressful!! plus, namjoon’s so chill. he doesn’t look like it but he actually is super sweet and nice!!!“

“... please take those reindeer ears off, it’s embarrassing.“ 

half of the school would probably cut off an arm to sleep with him. seriously, he gets offers like everYDAY it’s kinda getting tiRING

is considering starting a youtube channel where he just takes videos of all the dogs and babies he meets throughout the day. 

“idk i think vlogging would be fun“

《KIM TAEHYUNG》

art hoe

nEVER FUCKING STUDIES OR PAYS ATTENTION BUT GETS DECENT GRADES.

the definition of bisexual mess, WILL trip when he sees hot people.

exclusively wears wired gold glasses and soft neutral sweaters to school. if it’s a good day he’ll wear a beanie. on special occasions he’ll maybe throw in some fUN loafers.

dyes his hair to match ~the vibes~ of that season. the most recent wild hair colour is cool toned teal. 

jungkook said he looks like leprechaun shit, but tae really likes it. 

tried to go vegan countless times, failed each and every one when he passed by a mc donalds. 

carries his sketchbook wherever he goes. he has that thing around 24/7, 100% would not be surprised if he slept with it under his pillow.

really quiet until he has a point to make;; like that time where he launched into a three hour screaming lecture on how phineas and ferb is an animated masterpiece.

drinks tea purely for the aesthetic of it. 

goes to hipster coffee shops to pretend to study... ends up watching barbie movies and critiquing them on the writing blog that he thinks nobody knows about. 

watches anime in class (he recently rewatched all of ATLA for the third time,, failed his econ class but worth it!!1!!1)

《JEON JUNGKOOK》

preppy jock

once again, everyone is attracted to him, but he’s so whipped for jimin everyone’s crush fades away once they talk to him because-

“oh it’s so cool that you have a dog!! you know, i think jimin kind of looks like a pomeranian sometimes it’s sO CUTE- hm? oh jimin’s my boyfriend.“

... it’s disgustingly adorable. 

plays almost every sport and is somehow always the team captain. not out of obligation or with leadership skills or anything, everyone else just votes for him. 

mess with his friends and he’ll put a stink bomb in your locker. 

his nickname is “golden baby” because he’s good at everything, teachers love him so much. 

grades? sTELLAR. sports? he’s done them ALL. creativity? pAINTED THE SCHOOL MURAL. service? volunteers at a pet shelter whenever he can (the bunnies love him for some reason) 

everyone either is 

a) in love w him, wants to fuck

b) jealous of him but is also secretly gay for him

pretends to not know how talented and cool he is and plays it off super cool

proceeds to fail, the only thing he’s bad at is humble bragging. 

“wow omg lol i got a 100 on my bio test and yesterday i got a hole in one in golf, my first time playing it but it’s chill i guess hahhah day in my life amirite.“

**this headcanon is the start of the bangtan school series, stay tuned**

wanna be tagged in school series or my writing? here or send me an ask