#niceys ask :)

[patriciavetinari]

the speed dating people are fools, but you know this (I hope). Anyway, have some virtual flowers; a posy of violets and snowdrops, perhaps?

Thank you

I shall cherish those flowers forever.

[philosophers-shwag]

Away from home for the mid-autumn festival so I drew some faves

[utahlive]

Wilbur Soot has left the store early today

[nhura]

Life is too short.

[ my art ] [ twitter ]

(detail + ratio rambling under the cut >_>)

This is one of those "I need a break between my ten other illustrations, let me do a lil sketchy sketch :D" that got too ambitious etc. etc. I never want to see the color red again" moments. BUT!

I really, really like to explore Ratio's viscerality and what's happening between his brain and his nerves, like... all of this thorough control and discipline and he still has to breathe and react to himself and his surroundings, you know? His accomplishments are insane for "his age"* but he's going to run out of "age" at some point! His ambitions are so far reaching that he's not worried about getting doctorate degree Number Nine! Rather, his efforts are pointed outwards, into the universe, for the universe. As you know.

Speaking of his degrees, I had a half thought a while ago that we've seen him with two types of laurel pins.

One is him in his suuuuuper cute mother goose avatar (three leaves) and the other is the hat he's wearing everywhere else (eight leaves).

The thought was, "Aww, what if they're like commemorative pins counting the number of his degrees or whatever :)". Literally only because there's eight in the current one. This is kind of silly because then you'd HAVE to have an obscene number of degrees even for a normal person for your leaf pin to start looking like a laurel in the first place so scratch that BUT it's cute to think that it's still academic regalia. Something something I work in higher ed myself and it's like... it's like that.

The university goldsmith appreciates the job security.

I REMEMBER WHY I BROUGHT THAT UP. FOLLOWING the fantasy where more leaves = more knowledge!, in summary, even though Ratio seems to be a little beyond trying to get a prize every time he learns something now. But he does want to Keep Going. He can only Keep Going.

So I drew him in a bathtub full of an uncountable amount of gold leaves looking at the camera with an indescribable expression born from a hunger that will never be satiated lol DETAIL SHOT!

*Referenced only vaguely in a comment in the context of astonishment, but it could have easily have been "woah he's accomplished so much for his age (young)" as it could be "woah he looks good for his age (older)". There is no canon age and even then, reconciling standardized system time versus planetary time versus "does his particular breed of lizard human have the same lifespan as tumblr user nhura?" is a losing game for everyone involved! Here's what I think: I think he started going grey in his early twenties, whatever that means in spacefantasygame, and that that's very cute on him.

Do YOU think Ratio would be tempted by immortality???? Or would he MIND HIS BUSINESS

[txttletale]

It's so strange when people accuse you of being super negative all the time. Do they picture you angry crying and mashing your keyboard as you write a post critical of the flaws in a video game something? You always come across as very calm and chill actually so I don't see what they see I guess. It's giving transmisogyny! Anyway. Hope you're having a nice time of the computer today Ms. Healed.

it is really funny. it always reminds me of when i posted about the fascistic undertones to the worldview of doom (2016) (and the genre it's a representative of) and people were like "how do you enjoy anything" and i was jkust like. i played the whole game it ruled i loved shooting those guys. some people i guess just only feel motivated to be critical when theyre really mad instead of just... i don't know, enjoying being critical as an intellectual excercise that make you better at understanding and making art innit, which is a very strange mindset to me

[littleguypumpkinsheep]

Another painstaking redraw!

[kaetor]

page art i did for One Conclusion Zine :)

[least-carpet]

What's your reverse unpopular opinion for jiang fengmian

Oh wow, you caught me in your trap, anon!! Okay, I can do this.

While Jiang Fengmian was, like, grown in a laboratory in a big vat marked "guys specifically designed to make least-carpet hate them," I do think he's 1) really interesting, 2) very realistic, and 3) perfectly designed to produce the trio of Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Wei Wuxian, who I adore.

I'm always referring back to this interview where MXTX talks about her process, but here's the relevant part:

I think the environment a person grows up in is a very important factor. The parent generation’s joy and sorrow will create an increasingly greater impact on their children... [The parents'] designs are based on the main cast, to contrast or to complete... For example, first, I think of what kind of person Wei Wuxian is. Then, I think of what kind of parents could have such a child. I base his parent’s characters on his character...Looking at it from within the story, it’s that parents will inevitably influence their children. But from a structural writing standpoint, it’s the children that influence the parents.

So Jiang Fengmian exists to produce and explain my faves. Thanks, Jiang Fengmian!

I think MXTX is really observant and specific about familial dynamics, and Jiang Fengmian is extremely recognizable as a specific type of conflict-avoidant dad whose combination of Unprocessed Life Stuff (re: growing up and being unhappy about adulthood—which for him is being a sect leader) and resentment of his wife make him distant with his more challenging child, who to him resembles his wife. I think in some ways that's why people respond strongly to him and to Madame Yu, because they're so recognizable.

Finally, I also think there are a lot of interesting gaps to think about if you want to flesh him out—what actually was going on with Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze? Was his and Madame Yu's marriage always that bad, or did it deteriorate over time, and how? Did he just never want to parent? (There's a brilliant genderswap fic called "you will never need another lover," where he's a woman and Yu Ziyuan is a man, and I find him so much more likeable as a woman who sincerely never wanted to be a parent but couldn't get out of it. Also, male Yu Ziyuan is a total asshole but also a way better husband than male Jiang Fengmian, and so their marriage changes in really interesting ways over the course of the story.) There's a lot of room to develop him in various ways.

Phew, I did it.

[kar-krashew]

your miles >>>> anything. oh my GOSH i'm so in LOVE WITH HIM you draw him so amazingly 🥹 thanks for your service ily 🫡

AHH tysm 😳❤️❤️ the key is to add as much pining as possible ☺️

Here’s a quick one for u:

[ID: digital art of miles edgeworth from the shoulders up. He is smiling and looking off to the side /end ID]

[minophus]

i need your gabriel woefully. he is like a vast, glorious oasis in the middle of a harsh desert. i am merely a witness to the testament of god. thank you.

This is such an extravagant description of him. Thank you so much and you are very welcome

[patriciavetinari]

Dating is rough friend. I know i have been trying for years and while i have had matches and one or two dates. It hurts when i realize how many people ive liked that probably pass on me without a second thought. Out of everyone only one really still talks to me once in a blue moon. And ive got little to show for it. Nothing more than one or two dates and old messages i dont open.

The speed dating sounds even rougher. I couldnt do it i think. You tried though. I hope one day your efforts bear fruit and you find someone who you can spend joyous time with. Hugs for the friend 🖤

Thank you

I'm thinking about suicide so much it's scary even for me.

The only thing stopping me is that it would be pathetic to so it, and not even the sexy kind of pathetic that would make numbers on tumblr.

[thydungeongal]

thank you so much for this blog, I'd been struggling with the medium for a while bc of bad experiences with dnd 5e, and had just decided i was an irrevocably bad gm and shouldn't even try.

there's so much pressure, especially around ppl from the dnd podcast fandom, to be this like born perfect magically Good Gm. you're not allowed to learn how to play this role, if you struggle with it, you're just a Bad Gm and should give up.

I've been looking at all sorts of types of games and I'm excited again to find out what types of games i enjoy playing as gm!

I'm still a bit timid, but I'm surrounding myself with other players that i like and trust and building the courage back up to try taking the reigns again!

No problem at all, and I'm so glad you sent this ask. Hearing people find joy in roleplaying games thanks to my silly posts means the world to me. And it's because of experiences like this that I am vocal in pushing back on all the "A Good GM Can Fix It" takes that keep circulating.

[femboy-central]

… if you want to read my essay on how gay Nick Carraway is it’s under the cut

Until recent years, very few authors had the courage to express homosexuality in their work for fear of institutional punishment or negative social reaction. With stories like that of Oscar Wilde, writers were accurately terrified to explicitly explore the diversity of the sexual and romantic interests of their characters. Despite this, they were not stopped and authors chose to implement their gay characters with artistic subtlety. F. Scott Fitzgerald's most well known novel, The Great Gatsby, homes one example of this type of character. Although he does not live in a time period where he can be open about it, Nick Carraway is a homosexual man and this fact is crucial to truly understanding his self and his relationship with Jay Gatsby.

Perhaps the most damning evidence of Nick's sexuality is the fact that the only sexual encounter he is implied to have had is with Chester McKee after the party in New York (28), but it is not all. Nick's homosexuality is most casually clear in the descriptions he gives of the people in his life. Although he does acknowledge past romantic relations with women, he does not read as particularly interested in them. When questioned about a rumoured fiancée out West, Nick remarks that he is very opposed to "being rumored into marriage," (15) and in his first meeting with his supposed love interest, Jordan Baker, Nick compares her to a cadet (an exclusively male occupation at the time) and points out her most masculine features as ideal including her small breasts and erect carriage (8). In comparison, Nick's descriptions of the men around him are rich with intrigue; Nick notices how Tom Buchanan's eyes establish dominance in his face and the way his muscles move under his clothing (5). When Nick speaks about the train conductor on the hottest day of the summer, he critiques people who think of kissing flushed lips and laying with a partner in the heat despite no one else in that scene expressing those feelings (87). The suddenness of this flustered complaint implies that Nick is reacting to his own desires; desires he wishes he did not have.

While Nick is at least vaguely attracted to multiple men in his story, there is one he is consistently interested in throughout: Jay Gatsby. From their first meeting where Nick goes on about how pleasant a smile Gatsby has (36) onwards, Nick is very fond of Gatsby, going so far as to emphasise that he is the only rich person he did not end up disgusted by (2) and that all of the East was haunted for him after Gatsby's death (137). In Gatsby's life, Nick even expressed his affections to him in whatever ways he could. For example, when Nick agrees to reintroduce Gatsby and Daisy, he does not allow Gatsby to reimburse the favour (62). Also, after Myrtle's death, Nick only leaves Gatsby's side because he feels like he is intruding (112), returns to a bed he can not fall asleep in, and takes the first opportunity available to meet Gatsby again at dawn (113). Nick listens to Gatsby's story then (114), something nobody else would do in favour of spreading scandalous, borderline slanderous rumours.

Nick claims he is not a judgemental person, but proves himself wrong as the novel progresses in regards to every person he has met but one. Despite remarking that he disapproved of Gatsby "from beginning to end" (118), he was equally endeared to him. Nick also claims to be an honest person (44), which he proves not entirely true either. Realising Nick's true feelings for Gatsby reveals the intricacy of his character and calls into question the reliability of his narration. Although his intentions are always sympathetic, Gatsby is by trade a bootlegging criminal and yet even after meeting Meyer Wolfsheim and being told about his business (54), Nick plays ignorant about Gatsby's involvement. To Nick, the idea of Jay Gatsby is related only tertiarily to the idea of "Wolfsheim's men". Nick makes this clear every time he visits Gatsby after Wolfsheim's men begin working at his house by how suspicious he always is of them, even describing one's face as “villainous" (86). Nick does not judge Gatsby as the same as these people nor the Buchanans despite not being so different in truth because he is already in love with him and truly wants to believe he is a good person at heart. Even Tom Buchanan is aware of this on some level, showing his cognisance after Gatsby's death by telling Nick that "(Gatsby) threw dust into (Nick's) eyes just like he did in Daisy's" (138).

To ignore Nick's sexuality is to intentionally misunderstand his character and The Great Gatsby as a story. On his surface, Nick Carraway is a single objective voice in a world of desires and deceit, but as much of The Great Gatsby does, his character requires the reader to look below to his own human biases if they intend to comprehend him.

[txttletale]

Thanks for being part of mean indie TTRPG tumblr. I had a chance to run Trophy Gold (Hester's mill) for a Halloween one shot and it was a bit, and it's all because of a post you made about how it's magic works

this is the best ask ive ever gotten actually knowing that my blog got one (1) person to Play Another Game is the most material good i or possibly anyone has ever done :)

[redstonedust]

what is your opinion on garlic salt, then?

sometimes i pass it in the morrisons spices aisle and have 0 thoughts on it or whether i should buy it. god bless.

[spadaaces]

This guy again