#no motive other than because they think i need help??

[drawing-prompts-ideas]

"You have to learn anatomy before you can develop a style"

I focused on drawing for fun, not necessarily accuracy since a young age. Overtime, I naturally picked up basic rough anatomy, though it wasn't perfect, and still looked OFF if you were experienced. But it was definable, and not horrible, even looking back at it years later.

My style developed long before I actually put any real effort into learning anatomy.

And even then, rarely have I sat down and strictly focused on learning anatomy or any . I think I've done it 3 or 4 times for full-body anatomy, and a handful of times for various things I continued to struggle with and wanted to improve.

I sat down to learn feline anatomy after drawing almost exclusively cats for years because I recognized that I had places where I could improve and to help me learn better posing.

I sat down and learned various mythical beast anatomy because I got really into fantasy and wanted to draw the characters I was writing about. This was still after previously only referencing artists whose style I liked the depictions of those creatures. Despite being decently happy with my art, I wanted to make things more accurate and characters more recognizable.

I sat down and learned human anatomy because of wanting to do fanart for Undertale, which has a multitude of humanoid characters. But yet again, I was drawing these characters before then. This was the most extensive anatomy study I did, as I had never focused on humanoids before, and while I had been drawing anthro characters for a while, human proportions, heads, and limbs were huge struggles.

I sat down and learned anatomy for digigrade and partial-digigrade legs, hands, facial dimorphism, equine attributes, cervine attributes, and other various things I noticed I still struggled with and wanted to fix and felt ready to work on.

I sat down and learned body language, dynamic posing, facial expressions, clothing folds, hair, and other various things that weren't necessarily anatomy based in the same manner.

I didn't push myself to learn just because I felt I should. I dove into learning once I already had a basic understanding of each thing. The one time I DID push myself due to feeling like I should, it greatly discouraged me, as I didn't even have the basic understanding yet, so references and advice did next to nothing other than make me feel like a failure for not understanding them.

Overall, the best advice I can give anyone who is learning to draw or already considers themselves an artist is to keep that 5-year-old attitude of "I'm so good at this!"

With that attitude, seeing better artists' work you like makes you go "My art is awesome, but they're better!" rather than "My art sucks, their's is so much better." A small difference in phrasing, but a huge difference in motivation.

The first starts you off with pride and confidence in your work, and seeing artists you look up to helps motivate you to improve. Your self-pride and confidence are necessary because it gives satisfaction every time you improve, but doesn't let criticism hit too hard. "This drawing is awesome! Even if I did mess up this part a bit." It gives you a more accurate view of where you need to practice more.

The second has you having little to no pride or confidence in your ability, so seeing artists who are better than you discourages you from improving. Being too ashamed and perfectionistic about your work is a huge detriment because even when you can see improvement, it's never good enough. "I got a little better, but I won't ever be as good as them." It tends to end up with people burnt out due to pushing themselves to learn what they aren't ready for yet, lack of motivation to draw at all, and avoiding looking at art at all to prevent themselves feeling bad about their own art, and therefore slowing the very improvement they want.

artist friends: what are some art tips youve been given/have given that you now think are unhelpful/provably NOT true? for example - 'don't shade with black!' is one i used to tell people, until i realized its completely possible to do so successfully in diff styles

also - this is the tutorial that explained shading with black to me in a way that made sense! please check it out, its by datcravat on tumblr!

[ppnuggiexxx]

-> period headcannons || whb

• characters :: paimon ,, morax ,, amy ,, barbatos

• contains :: fingering ,, paimon's blood fetish obviously ,, clitoral stimulation ,, mentions of both heavy & light periods ,, nasty stuff bc its period blood and im on my period writing this ,, somewhat switch paimon ,, sub amy ,, morax ,, and barbatos ,, afab reader ,, fem reader ,, oral sex ,, face riding ,, vaginal penetration ,, foaming at the mouth restraining myself from adding ronove and glasyal ,, sorry for the excessive word usage of clit ,, noose mention & usage (barbatos) ,, horns for leveraging (barbatos)

- paimon

| • the moment you complain about cramping paimon is all ears ,, after all when you first had your period in hell he was the most interested by it in gehenna

| • it was a bit selfish for him ,, but he couldnt contain his fantasies about period sex ,, how it wouldnt only fulfill his interests and kink but also help you with cramping

| • thus paimon is the first to offer to help ,, ready to assist in any way possible ! he doesnt mind all the blood that comes with ,, rather the opposite; hes quite excited and turned on

| • in the past ,, it was angel blood that he'd enjoy . killing angels wasnt anything new ,, but when their blood spattered onto him it just changed his whole motive

| • when his fingers first enter you ,, he doesn't know what to expect . if youre having a heavy period he'll definitely be surprised by how much comes out ,, though if its light he still enjoys what blood does show

| • paimon's quite traversed with the female body ,, not having to insert his fingers too far in to find your g-spot . massaging the area softly ,, he enjoys the moans pulled form you

| • with you on his lap ,, your back against his chest and legs spread he'll take advantage of the position

| • pressing kisses to your neck and whispering compliments to you ,, one hand occupied with fingering you and the other rubbing circles on your clit

| • if you dont feel up for fingering he'll gladly offer his mouth in replacement ,, taking his time as he eats you out

| • he doesnt mind how bloody his face becomes ,, pressing kisses to your thighs and painting both your bodies with blood

| • every time you get your period ,, hes over the moon and ecstatic about it ,, ready to help you if thats what you so wish . hes just a call away !

- amy

| • he's not too knowledgeable about periods ,, but he does freak out at first ,, thinking youre about to die on him and that was the last thing he needed

| • of course when you explain it all to him ,, he somewhat understands but is more concerned with the fact youre hurting because of it

| • he'll ask if theres anything he can do to take that pain away ,, and with the newfound knowledge of period sex ,, it ends up a little like this :

| • with amy on his back and arms wrapped around your waist ,, youre placed perfectly and ride his face ,, spewing degrading images into his head as he eats you out

| • he becomes more sloppy the more worked up he becomes ,, but after being given advice (he wont say from who) he does focus more on your clitoras after learning it stimulates you more and brings more pleasure

| • " i wonder how satan would think seeing you like this ?" you whispered ,, hand curling into his hair and the other hand on his horn ,, " knowing one of his trusted friend and subordinate is being used like nothing more than a sex toy ."

| • he gets riled up easily ,, and its so easy to put him in degrading situations such as this

| • only using him like hes nothing more ,, maybe sprinkling a little about how gehenna may view him in general should they know just how easily you use him

| • thats not to say you cant ride his dick either ,, keeping him down on his back so you can set the pace yourself ,, please yourself however fast or slow you wish

| • he'll whine and moan about you going slow ,, but youre the one in charge ultimately ,, and he'll follow any instructions given to him

| • rubbing his thumb lightly on your clit while you bounce on him ,, keeping his hands to himself if you ordered him to

| • amy is another person you could always go to if you ever need a little help during your period :) always offering a good time and allowing you to let any anger or frustration out

- morax

| • morax is already knowledgeable with this and knows that medicine isnt the only remedy for your pain

| • after work he will offer himself ,, wanting to take your pain away (alas he has no uterus to claim your cramps) ,, encouraging you to be rough if it helps with your pain and anger more

| • he'll give you a few small chocolates throughout the day (for cravings and as a natural aphrodisiac)

| • when youre both alone ,, whether it be in his room or yours (anywhere from prying eyes really) he'll be unclothed and ready for however you wish to go about it

| • whether its sitting on his face first or having him finger you he's willing to help anyway

| • thick fingers moving in and out of you ,, the other circling your clit as blood attaches to his skin ,, soft moans coming from you

| • his middle and pointer will curl into your g-spot ,, rubbing gently against your clit to pleasure you more

| • morax doesnt mind any mess that comes with this ,, only embracing it as its natural for your body

| • he'll slowly unwrap some of the bandages around his head ,, lowering his mouth to you and licking softly up your labia and towards your clit

| • hes one of the best to receive head from of all the devils ,, morax enjoys taking his time with you and ensuring nothing but pleasure and your safety above all

| • his bandages on his body will be more bloody but he doesnt care for it ,, he does change them often but at this moment he couldnt care for it at all

| • 10/10 cramp remover

- barbatos

| • oh no ! this will not do at all ! barbatos doesnt need his sunshine moping around the palace ,, in pain and miserable

| • he makes sure to take some private time away from work to help your needs ,, always happy to lend a hand to soothe your pain

| • the other devils would understand surely ! of course they would ! they all love you dearly and you being in pain is the last thing they want for you

| • and barbatos is just being a helpful and kind devil

today ,, offering to help take it all away from you <3

| • he has tea prepared ,, the softest blankets on his bed ,, he's even nude and ready to go for you too

| • barbatos wants you to be as comfortable for this as possible

| • he'll lick away any blood from you first ,, preparing you for whatever else you wish to do with him for the day

| • you can manhandle him however you wish ,, not minding a little bit of bruising here and there

| • maybe tugging on the noose around his neck to pull him closer to you ,, forcing his head to where you want him to focus on

| • or just pulling it to move him ontop of you ,, making him do the work for this time

| • using the noose as a warning ,, or to control the pace to your liking ,, or to just bring him in for a kiss

| • if the noose isnt to your liking you could always tighten it ,, or use your own hands around his neck ,, and even then his horns are at the perfect grabbing height

| • you could easily use them to bring his head down if the noose isnt working for you ,, or switch places with you on top and him on bottom

| • using his horns for leverage ,, to keep yourself atop of him ,, maybe one hand on his horn and the other around his neck or holding the noose

| • either way ,, barbatos is used to being in a rough position and is used to the pain (from leviathan’s choking and his rose ivy) so if anything all this just excites him more

| • though the aftercare will be insane <3 after all he wants the best for you ! he’ll wash you up ,, make you more tea and cuddle you to sleep

[munsonsmixtapes]

Hey!! Can I submit a Fiyero x fem!reader request where reader has a unique/different sense of style than most students at Shiz do and she’s lowkey kinda self-conscious about it since she’s new and has been judged by people before at her previous school. Galinda, noticing this though, thinks it would be a good idea to help her by taking her under her wing and “Galinda-fying” her. Reader tries to take this in stride, but honestly isn’t sure if it’s working😂 that is, until Fiyero notices reader’s struggles and tries to reassure her that she doesn’t need to do all of “that.” Reader is slightly touched by that sentiment, but reveals the real reason why she’s doing all of this in the first place. Cue in soft Fiyero, they share a lovely, sweet moment + Fiyero being his usual charming self at the end🤭😉

cw: insecurity, hurt/comfort

The second you showed up to Shiz, you knew that you were different from the others. Your style was very unique and people didn’t seem to care for that. You could see the way they would look at you when walking to class, the way you’d try to jazz up your uniform to diversify it, making it not look like everyone else’s.

Fiyero liked that about you. He liked how you were yourself and didn’t care what anybody else thought. He was always flirty with you but not in the way he was with everyone else. He genuinely liked you and was starting to wonder when you’d get the hint that he wanted to go out with you.

Glinda also noticed the attraction between the two of you and didn’t know why she felt the need to help you. She could see what was underneath all of your insecurity, how brightly you shined, and she wanted to make it come through. And she could with a little makeover.

To her surprise, it wasn’t hard to get you to show up to her suite. She told you the truth: that she wanted to give you a makeover, and for some reason, you had agreed. Neither of you knew exactly why, but Glinda wasn’t going to question it. She was just going to take what she was given and roll with it.

Okay, maybe you knew why you were doing it. You’d never tell anyone, but you were doing it to catch Fiyero’s attention. You knew it was silly to change your appearance just to catch someone’s attention, but you didn’t know what else to do. He was right there, just out of reach and being yourself clearly wasn’t working.

What you clearly weren’t getting was that you already had him. He had asked you out multiple times and you had just been so oblivious to it, telling him that you had other things to do. Eventually he got the hint and tried his best to move on even though it wasn’t going to be easy.

“You’re here,” Glinda said as she opened the door. Her eyes were wide in shock, but she quickly shook it off, a bright smile on her face as she pulled you into the room with a lot of force.

“This is going to be so much fun!” She gushed. “Take a seat and we’ll get started.”

Glinda closed the door behind her then made her way over to her vanity where you were sitting. She rested her hands on your shoulders and bent down so that you could also see her in the reflection of her mirror. She smiled at you through it before giving your shoulders a squeeze, standing back up, turning you to face her.

She then pulled something from her bed, opening it to reveal more makeup than you'd ever seen your life. You watched in amazement as dipped a brush into a pretty pink blush before tapping it on your cheeks, nodding to herself once she had put on enough.

She continued to do your makeup as she made conversation with you, genuinely curious about your life before arriving at Shiz. And you told her everything, wondering why you had previously disliked her when she was just trying to be nice to you. Maybe it was because of what you had heard about what had gone on between her and Elphaba.

But she was sweet, and you really didn't care what her motive was for helping you. At least she was helping. And with her help, you were finally going to get Fiyero and the two of you would live happily ever after. Well, you hoped you would.

"What do you think?" She asked as she turned you around to face the mirror. You hardly recognized yourself and you supposed that was the point. The makeup look Glinda had done on you had been nothing like what you had usually done. It was glowy and pink and you didn't want to admit how much you liked it.

"I look-" you cut yourself off, unsure what to say. You moved your head this way and that, captivated by the way the makeup looked on you, wondering if there was a way you could replicate it once you had taken it off for the night.

"Amazing, right?" She asked and you nodded in agreement, deciding that word was good enough to describe what you look like. Afterwards, she gave you some clothes you could borrow and even went as far as accompanying you to class the next day so you'd feel more comfortable about your transformation.

The two of you walked throughout the school arm in arm, your heads held high in your pink and blue uniforms, everyone turning their heads to get a good look at you. Especially Fiyero. Seeing you dressed like that caught him off guard. You were like a clone of Glinda and he didn't like that. He liked you better as yourself and wondered what had inspired you to go through such a transformation.

You were vulnerable and Fiyero thought Glinda had taken advantage of that. She just wanted someone she could use, a minion, and that made him feel sick. He wanted to say something to you but didn't feel like it was his place even though the two of you were friends.

So he watched from afar, distancing himself from you because he was afraid that he would blurt out his real feelings if he got too close. That was the thing about you. You were always able to disarm him, able to make him behave like himself, not the persona he was always putting on for everyone else.

He didn’t like seeing you like that, your personality and mannerisms slowly morphing into Glinda’s right before his eyes and it seemed like no one else cared. Well, that was because no one else loved you the way he did. He loved you. That was quickly becoming more clear as he watched the little things about you that he loved slowly fade away the more time you spent with Glinda.

And the thing was, Glinda was never helping you with malicious intent. She just wanted to help you come out of your shell. She just wanted to help you see your full potential the way she did. And giving you the makeover wasn’t to change you completely, but more just show you that you could be way more that you were. To give you some more confidence than you already had.

You were walking back to your suite after classes and saw Fiyero talking to one of his many friends out of the corner of your eye. You had noticed that he had been distancing himself from you and you wanted to know why, to get to the bottom of it. You wanted to know what you had done.

You marched over to him, anger taking over your features as you did so. Fiyero could see you hurrying towards him and wanted to run away like usual, but you seemed to have intention so he stayed there, ready for whatever punishment you were about to give him since he thought he deserved it.

But you only got a few feet before your ankle twisted, sending you to the floor, your books scattering across it as you did so. Before he could think about what he was doing, Fiyero rushed to you, resting his hand on your back as he looked at you, worry written all over his face.

“Are you okay?” He asked and you nodded before turning away, wiping away the tears that were trailing down your cheeks.

“I’m fine, Fiyero,” you told him as you quickly got up from the floor, dusting yourself off. You went to reach for your books, but he had already gotten them into a stack, holding them out to you.

“Your knee’s all scratched up,” he told you and you looked down to see that he was right, blood trickling down your leg from the wound.

“Please let me patch you up.”

“Fine,” you rolled your eyes and Fiyero was quick to scoop you up into his arms before carrying you to his suite.

The two of you were quiet the entire way there, even as he sat you down on his bed. You watched him rifle through his belongings before producing a first aid kit.

You didn’t know why he was helping you when he seemed so upset with you, but you weren’t going to deny it. Anything to be close to him, anything to get him to speak to you again.

You didn’t realize how much you missed him until he was right there within reach. And now you wanted to pull him into your arms and never let him.

He sat on the bed and wordlessly put your leg into his lap, opening up an alcohol wipe and getting rid of all of the blood and anything else that could have gotten into your wound.

“You know, you wouldn’t have fallen if you hadn’t worn those ridiculous shoes,” he grumbled as he put some antibacterial ointment on the wound before covering it with a bandaid.

This was the first time Fiyero had spoken to you like that so it caught you off guard. Now it all made sense, why he had been distancing himself from you. You wished he had just been honest with you instead of ignoring you.

“If you don’t like the way I look then just say that,” you snapped and he pushed your leg off of his lap. He stood up from the bed stood in front of you, bending down so you could see his face.

“I don’t like the way you look.” His words sounded like poison, stinging you in every way possible. You knew it was true, but hearing the words come from his mouth hurt even worse.

His face then softened as he knelt in front of you, taking your hands. He looked apologetic and he was quick to wipe away the tears that were now streaming down your face.

“I liked you better the way you were. I’m sorry for ignoring you and I’m sorry for being so cruel. I just hated that you felt the need to change yourself.”

“I did it for you,” you told him, looking down at your lap, but he grabbed hold of your face, forcing you to look him in the eye?

“What?” He genuinely seemed shocked when you thought it was obvious. Maybe your advances hadn’t been as clear as you had originally thought.

“It was for you, Fiyero,” you repeated. “I just wanted you to like me.”

“I do like you, y/n,” he said. “So much. Why do you think I asked you out so many times?”

“You didn’t.”

“I most certainly did. I asked you to get coffee many times and even went as far as inviting you to dinner a couple of times.”

Oh, now you felt stupid. You replayed all of the scenarios in your head and sure enough, you had been reading it all wrong. Fiyero did like you and he liked you a lot.

“I-I didn’t know that. I-I would love to go to dinner with you, Fiyero.”

“It’s a date,” he smiled before pulling you in for a sweet kiss. “Make sure to wear that cardigan I like,” he winked, going in for another before helping you to your feet.

The two of you lingered at the door, sharing kiss after kiss until you finally left to go get ready, making sure to wear the cardigan that Fiyero was referring to. The entire time you got ready, you couldn’t help but smile to yourself, making a mental note to thank Glinda. She was the whole reason why the two of you had gotten together, after all.

[pinkkop]

I've let my thoughts on Spare Me Your Mercy marinade a little in my brain and I'm now ready to try and put some words to my feelings about this show.

Overall I liked the show and I had a great time watching it. I thought the overall look was great and fit the theme and genre really well. Tor and JJ did really well and the whole cast was really just great.

It was just a really great attempt at more serious BL and it could have been amazing but it just fell short in some very important places.

I don't know if it would have fixed everything but a longer run-time would have done wonders because it would have given them more time to flesh out the plot and the relationships and fix any plot holes.

I'll go into the things I think were missing and my thoughts on them below.

The Missing Connection

A big part of what was missing from the show was more time spent on the relationship between Dr. Kan and Tew because the whole plot really relies on them developing feelings for each and that being a conflict in the murder investigation.

This interview with the screenwriter Lux that @clairedaring posted does make it seem like a longer screen time wouldn't have fixed this entirely since Lux spends a lot time making excuses about why they don't have NC scenes and how that would have detracted from the plot. I think this is absolutely ridiculous because the majority of BL fans would have been entirely happy with the amount of NC scenes we got if they'd just developed the relationship better and spent the right amount of time on the relationship to fit the plot and the emotions needed to make the plot land.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that a longer run-time would have fixed it because otherwise I don't think Lux completely understands how important the relationship development, and any NC scenes needed or hinted at to make that believable, is for the plot.

Deceiving On Screen

A big problem with Dr. Kan and Tew's relationship and it's development on screen is that they were trying to deceive each other for a large part of the series. This makes it really hard to discern as a viewer when the characters are behaving or acting a certain way because of their ulterior motives or when they're doing so because of their actual feelings.

For the characters' real feelings to really come across on screen you need scenes where the characters are expressing their feelings in a situation where they don't need to keep up the ruse. This could be them alone reflecting on or reacting to the person, or conversations with people they are close enough with that they'll share some of their real feelings.

This is something that The Heart Killers has actually done a lot better than SMYM. Like Fadel's masturbation scene or the conversations between Fadel and Bison and between Kant and Style. They desperately needed more scenes like that in SMYM because it would have made it a lot clearer what Dr. Kan and Tew were thinking and feeling when it came to their relationship, because honestly, most of the time, I wasn't sure.

The Ending

I was very worried about the ending, especially towards the end, and it did end up frustrating me, but I think it weirdly fit the show because it was realistic, when Dr. Kan and Tew's relationship hadn't really been given a proper chance to develop or deepen.

Like with their surface level relationship(?) it makes sense that Tew would still try to arrest Dr. Kan even with all the reasons Dr. Kan gave for his actions.

It also helps that I understand the ending as being a little open. Like if you ask me, we never know for sure whether Tew actually brought Dr. Kan all the way to the station or not.

No matter what though it feels like a weird message to send after the show spent so much time advocating for euthanasia, but I guess they couldn't ignore that it's still illegal ... or something.

Again if they'd just spent more time developing the relationship and maybe even allowed Tew time to digest what Dr. Kan has been doing then it would have made more sense for Tew to not arrest Dr. Kan.

Like I would have even been happy for Tew to go back to Bangkok because he didn't want to arrest Dr. Kan but he still couldn't stay, knowing what Dr. Kan and Nurse Ohn were doing.

Then they could have given us a second season of Dr. Kan and Tew separately working towards making euthanasia legal in their own ways and then their ways could have crossed again and finally they would be in a place where they could be together!!

If I had any writing skills and the time I would be writing this canon divergence fic as we speak. Anyone's welcome to give it a go though!

Euthanasia

The one thing I think the show succeeded at, was showing exactly the good that euthanasia can do when it comes to terminally ill patients which also seems to be the most important point for Lux.

It felt like a weird side note though, when Dr. Kan euthanized Boss, and I've seen some people talk about how this feels like an ableist comment from the show. I don't necessarily believe that that's the case, I mostly just think this was another place where the show suffered from having only 8 episodes.

It makes sense that Boss had to die for plot reasons but I just wish they'd commented on it.

As I talked about in my previous post I think it was a risky choice to make to euthanize a disabled person without commenting on the act, especially since there's such a large difference between euthanizing a terminally ill patient and a disabled person.

With all this being said I still don't regret spending the time I did on following along with this show and posting about it. I had a good time doing so, I just hope that we can get a similarly more serious and crime related show in the future.

And in the mean time I just hope Petrichor the series turns out better.

[aloveofclaritea]

Hi and thanks for your reply. You have a couple points here that I am happy to address.

"This logic of spaces by sex didn't stop abbusive men to get access to women spaces"

By this logic you are arguing that it doesn't matter whether we have single-sex spaces or not. That it makes no difference to the safety of women and girls to have single sex spaces. This is patently false. Even when the single-sex space is established by social custom alone (i.e. no armed guards at the doors of the bathroom, just a sign saying "Women") this provides more safety to women and girls than if the door says Men/Women/All.

Why would this be? After all, it's just a sign, right? There are different reasons, but one major one actually links back to the original quote. Men who DO respect women's boundaries and spaces would never purposefully enter this female-only space (unless there is a good external reason like a father needing to change a diaper and there isn't a changing table in the men's). Consequently, a man who DOES enter purposefully gives us a pretty good idea that he doesn't have good intentions because he has broken a social contract and is violating a female-only space. Not only that, but a woman in this situation can have recourse to other people around her, to people in authority, to security and law enforcement, can say "There's a man in the woman's bathroom," and expect that her concern will be treated seriously.

So yes, it may not stop predators and abusers, however it does help to identify and guard against them. Human beings are social creatures. Social norms and customs are actually strong motivators of behavior and when those norms and customs are broken it provides important information that keeps us safe.

2. "Cis men could just pretend to be [trans men]"

As soon as that man opens his mouth, if there was any confusion about what his sex is (which is ludicrously doubtful), there would be no longer. The truth is, no-one can change sex, and over the millennia humans have developed a fine-tuned ability to accurately sex other humans as male or female. This has been scientifically shown through research many times over. It is a myth that we suddenly just "can't tell," and if there is any initial confusion it is cleared up fairly quickly in-person.

Even if a man who pretended to be a woman pretending to be a man DID manage to fool people into thinking that he belonged in the woman's bathroom, the law and norm should still be in place that will provide consequences for that man violating a female-only space.

3. "Trans women would be thrown as a shield for cis women, and they would be targeted the ones who pass could be SA'd the ones who didn't also would be SA'd by being immediately clocked and also ridicularized"

Preserving women's single-sex spaces has nothing to do with "transwomen" being a "shield" for women. "Transwomen" are men. As previously stated, human beings cannot change sex. Trans-identifed males belong in the men's bathroom, and all other single-sex spaces for men.

Men assaulting other men in their single-sex spaces is truly a problem. In fact, male violence in general is huge problem around the world (important to remember though that the primary victims of this violence are not other men). However, it is not a problem to be solved by abolishing women's single-sex spaces.

"What are you going to do, have genital inspections to use the bathrooms?"

-a TRA

Males truly cannot conceive of the idea of simply respecting the space and boundaries of women. It literally doesn't cross their minds, so their minds immediately jump to whether or not women can forcibly stop them. The belief is that if a woman cannot forcibly prevent it, you may take anything you like from her with impunity.

- Marian Rutigliano

[magnoliapromenadegalleria]

TLDR:

-People have a hard time connecting with Kant because his main motivation, Babe, is not around much.

-Kant and Bison are both guilty of lying to one another. Interested to see how they navigate their relationship now that they are both on to each other.

I've had this thought in my head since last week, but never got around to writing it down. I think part of the reason people, not me because if Kant had one fan it would be me, have such a hard time getting behind Kant's reasoning and motivation, is because we aren't that familiar with the object of said reasoning. Babe is Kant's motivation. He's the only family he's got as far as we know, and he's Babe's guardian. It's not only a question of if Kant doesn't do what Capt. Crunch does he will be sent to jail, it's if Kant doesn't do what Capri Sun does he will be sent to jail, and Babe will most likely go into the system because there's no one else. That's simply just not an option. Kant wasn't stealing cars because he liked the thrill of it, he did so because he needed to take care of his brother, and he was desperate. We joke that Kant is a terrible criminal, but I think that's the point? From the pieces that we can grasp, he was/is a criminal out of necessity after his parent's sudden death, and not just for the thrill of it. He wouldn't be in his current situation if he was great at it.

When you write it out like that, I think it makes one more empathetic to his plight but the problem is we don't really know Babe. I wrote in a previous post that Fadel and Kant are the same in different fonts. Both are protective of their brothers and will do anything to protect them, but the stark difference is we know Bison. He's a fleshed-out person and we feel bad for him. We don't know Babe. We know that he likes Shakespeare, he gets bullied, and he's Kan't brother. That's it. We go episodes without seeing him, and his absence leads one to forget that he's the main reason Kant is doing any of this at all. He just looks like a sleaze trying to stay out of jail.

With each episode, it is becoming clear that Kant is failing horribly with not becoming attached to Bison. He lies and has a healthy amount of fear of Bison, but his gestures are honest. He can't help it, he's been into Bison since before he knew what he was. He's not just sweet on Bison because he has a role to play, he's sweet on Bison period. With them living and working in such close proximity anyway, they were bound to be a thing.

But.

That's not what happened, and he can't even fully explore his feelings because this cop is threatening him and has put him in an impossible and dangerous situation with no resources or protection, Bison is a killer, and he's stressed out by both. There's definitely nuance and reasoning there with Bison, but baby boy is still incredibly lethal. Kant's head has got to be stronger than his heart and his other head, and as much as he likes Bison, he loves his brother abundantly more, and that's reasonable. He also does not know Bison. I wrote something last year while watching Only Friends about Sand and Ray's relationship that I think can be applied here. Kant and Bison are not getting the same insight into one another, for clear reasons. They're open with each other, but they are not completely honest with each other for, again, reasons.

Kant is lying to Bison, but Bison is also lying to Kant. Kant knows Bison is lying to him, but being a sweet-faced assassin is a pretty big omission. Bison is under the impression that he's killing bad people, but Kant isn't privy to that and only knows that under that pretty face with dreams and an artistic spirit with a love of cats lies a killer. Someone who could kill him and his brother and not think twice about it. Obviously not, but Kant does not know that. Someone who just as easily lies to him about a big part of his life, and with a lot more ease. Bison doesn't want to be an assassin anymore and wants to live his life, but as far we know he does not lose sleep over any of his kills, and that's still scary. Again, nuance there, I got a whole thought process on other mother raising children to be disposable assassins, but this post ain't that!

It's been touched on many times that Bison knows there's something up with Kant. He is a perceptive little thing, so there's no way he doesn't know Kant is not being truthful. Fadel has pointed out and Bison does not listen. Bison knows. Deep in his bones he's always known, but I think he didn't want to believe it because he's fallen for Kant. That may not have been the initial goal, he just wanted freedom and Kant's hot, great motivators, but dammit if he didn't fall for the guy. I have a similar theory about Kant. Let me explain, don't touch the mic, let me explain. Kant knows Bison's other occupation. Capt told him what was up and he hasn't been completely comfortable around Bison because he knows this information, but I don't think it really clicked for him until he went into Bison and Fadel's secret room. Not because he didn't believe it, but because he didn't want it to be true. I think he wanted Capt. to be wrong about this because he's fallen for Bison too, and not only that, he's falling deeper despite all that. Which is a terrifying revelation. And Bison protected his brother twice now? Kant might be better at keeping himself than the other three, and he might be lying to himself out of self preservation, but he's just as gone. Now that both know about the other, I'm so ready for them to finally be truthful and truly lay themselves bare without deceit between them.

...This got away from me, but whatever.

One last thing! I think this scene above is after all truths and betrayal are out in the open because that looks like a taxi, probably stolen, Kant looks like he might be wearing some sort of uniform that hides his tattoos, and Bison is wearing a hat to hide his identity. Okay, I'm done.

[alea-jottun]

Arcane season 2 rewrite part one : Viktor

(other parts here)

Here are some ideas I have been entertaining for an alternate season 2 I'm working on.

I have been mixing s2, what little of LoL lore I've heard about, and what I wish would have happened (I apologize in advance for any mistake, English is not my first language):

With the way they established a link between Viktor and Singed during s1, I think it would have been interesting to mix the LoL lore and Arcane canon : Singed could have been encouraging Viktor down the Lol path (spurring him to commit more and more unethical experiences in the name of progress, while providing him with shimmer and helping him replace his sick body with machine parts, etc.).

I can see Singed feeding Viktor's resentment towards Jayce and Piltover, preying on his pain after his banishment (and claiming that he understands him because he lived through a similar experience). Of course, from a purely objective point of view, Viktor is aware that Singed is trying to reel him in and has ulterior motives. But despite his best efforts, the emotional pain is still too raw and powerful. He knows Singed's intentions towards him cannot be good, but he is also grateful to him for helping him continue his work (in this AU, Viktor managed to steal some hex crystals) and for helping him with this new body.

Back in Zaun, Viktor drowns himself in his work, trying to forget how much he's hurting (how could Piltover do this to him ? How could Jayce side against him in his trial, this kangaroo court, after all they've been through together ? How could he have been so wrong about Jayce ? How could he have been so naive to think Jayce would undertsand ?)

He becomes the Machine Herald and, once he's no longer under imminent threat of death due to his illness, he begins to work on mechanical machinery, body prosthetics, etc. in order to improve life in Zaun.

And that's when things go wrong : Viktor's new body is powered by the hexcore Jayce has implanted him with (because I like this idea, let's keep the beginning of episode 1). But now he needs shimmer to keep his mind and body together (after all, it's by mixing the shimmer variant, his own organic body and the arcane that Viktor fixed his leg in s1), and the pain at bay.

He becomes a shimmer addict.

At first it's manageable, not as nocive as regular shimmer, and he only replaces the parts of his body that are actively hurting/killing him (his lungs, his spine, etc.). But with his regular shimmer consumption, he begins to develop side effects, which spurs him to modify even more of his body, which in consequence make him even more dependent on shimmer.

A few years pass, and now he is involved in shimmer traffic (there could be a possibility to link his arc with Jinx's or Sevika's here, I will need to develop this point later). He keeps healing desperate Zaunites, knowing that every prosthetic he builds helps the patients survive but will get them addicted to shimmer eventually. He tries to convince himself that he is doing the right thing, that he is doing more good than harm, that some sacrifices are unavoidable. He hasn't had a resting night of sleep in years.

Viktor keeps transforming and fears that one day he won't recognize himself anymore. If he doesn't stop taking shimmer he will lose the rest of his humanity, but if he stops his machine body will fail him. He has never felt this lonely.

[markantonys]

So bizarre to see fanboys jumping through hoops to find a way they can incorporate as many of Mat's plot points from TDR and TSR into their imagined version of s3 but NOT include Cauthor CPR. I'm sorry the cursed dagger on a spear makes you mad but you're okay with Min or Nynaeve saving him from hanging???

smh!!!! mat only does 1 important thing in all of TDR and TSR, and that is receive mouth-to-mouth from rand. and they would rather sacrifice that than any of his other stuff!

if it can't be rand, then nynaeve would be an okay substitute since she knows healing and hasn't had any chances for a good emotional moment with mat yet; however, imo if she has TOO many moments of successfully helping her friends via non-magical means, it would lessen the urgency of needing to break her block. thus, nynaeve saving mat with CPR would arguably be counterproductive to *her* arc of needing to break her block. (unless it instead is the trigger moment that causes her to break her block and she's thus able to heal him magically, but, while that's a sweet idea, it doesn't make much narrative sense for mat to be the one serving such an important emotional role in nynaeve's arc, no offense to him haha)

as for min, there's no need for the show to outsize her and mat's emotional connection i.e. they need to be good friends early on to make their series endgame work better, yes, but they do not need to be (and shouldn't be) each other's #1 most important emotional connection for two seasons straight. think of the heteronormative ship-baiting it would cause for show-onlys if mat and min had a focal emotional connection for two seasons straight culminating in her giving him mouth-to-mouth! ain't happening.

and all that being said..............as of now there's no reason to believe it can't be rand giving mat CPR! mat not being part of the waste storyline by no means precludes his doorway incident from occurring in a way that can involve rand. it could happen in the first couple of episodes before the gang's split up. it could happen in the finale with mat entering one doorway in tanchico and getting yeeted out into rand's lap on the other side of the continent because the pattern craves cauthor.

plus, with this scene being perhaps the single biggest and most iconic rand-mat emotional moment in the entire book series, i don't see why the show would instead give it to a different - and less important - mat relationship. (unless they absolutely had to because it turned out to be logistically impossible for it to be with rand, but, again, we have no reason to think that's the case.) if you look at the whole series, rand is more emotionally integral to mat and his story than nynaeve or min are, so why shouldn't he be the one mat has this big moment with? plus, if mat vs. couladin is in the cards for s4, iirc mat's implied motive there is that he intentionally hunted down couladin during the battle to help out rand even if he makes it sound like it was an accident, so s3 Cauthor CPR would set up a) how ride-or-die these two are for each other and b) mat feeling like he owes rand big time for saving his life, and wanting to do something major to return the favor.

overall, the fanboys often have really strange priorities when it comes to judging which book events are important to the overall story (Male Badassery) and which aren't (Everything Else), and their show predictions reflect those priorities very tellingly. i mean, my show predictions also reflect MY priorities very tellingly, but my priorities are a lot closer to rafe's than the fanboys' are, which hopefully leads to more accurate predictions. if you think a gay showrunner isn't going to do everything he possibly can to fit in the iconic-to-the-gays moment of rand giving mat mouth-to-mouth, you're kidding yourself!

[stars-obsession-pit]

So my knowledge is limited to reading through his wiki page but…

I feel like there’d be an interesting level of contrast in their motives. Khoa sees his vigilantism at least in part as an art rather than just a duty. Danny, on the other hand, would be more on the “duty” side IMO.

Because like, I don’t know if Danny wants to be a hero? He certainly stepped up, but I don’t think heroism would be one of his driving goals outside of that. Like, it feels to me like a more situational relationship. “Ghosts are causing chaos, and so I will use my powers to protect people.” Maybe I’m wrong, but if the ghosts stopped, I don’t feel like he’d feel a need to keep up his heroism. Sure, he’d certainly help if he came across problems, but I don’t think he’d seek them out like how Khoa does.

Which could then maybe potentially lead into a situation where Danny is… not a moral compass, but a bit of an anchor for Khoa. Like,, helping him avoid being completely consumed by his crusade.

Also was this concept motivated by how Ghost-Maker had a sidekick Phantom-One?

Does anyone have any ideas what Danny's dynamic with Khoa (Ghostmaker) would be like?? Cause I've been strangely fixated on the possibility of Danny and Khoa (mostly a family au instead of a ship, like mentor-student or father-son dynamic)

I DON'T KNOW! I'M CONFUSED BUT I WANT TO WRITE AND READ A GHOST AND GHOSTMAKER FAMILY! RAAAAAHHH

[luifaro]

playing that in stars and time game everyone's been talking about and idk why but i just don't trust loop like i can't shake the feeling that they have ulterior motives. i think it's just paranoia from flowey though this is like the second time some weird creature was able to remember everything despite time loop shenanigans and the first one i know of was definitely evil.

UPDATE: taking all the smiles i'm getting in the replies as a sign they ARE evil. thanks for the help gang!

[blackkatdraws2]

There are more things in the Parable than Stanley knows about. [Blank Scripts AU]

[monards]

i fear that i don’t acknowledge enough the fact that i KNOW rhinedottir's evil !!! and she's horrible !!! and that she's wholly ireedamable !!! i know and love and respect that fact !!! i'd shoot myself in the frontal lobe if hoyo made her out to NOT be wholly evil !!!! but the reason i always go on and on and on about her humanity and complexity is because. SHE IS ALWAYS DUMBED DOWN !!!! TO JUST THAT !!!! it's literally the greatest and most moving theme (IN MY OPINION!!!) in genshin, that human beings are COMPLEX !!!! and they're MORE than just evil or bad or wtv. we see this through every character to almost ever be introduced to us -> literally just take arlecchino as an example. if anyone was at all paying attention to the discourse around her when the fontaine teaser dropped (and. 4.0 in general) it was the BIGGEST thing to watch people argue between "she's a harbinger, so she's clearly the most evil and the big antagonist of fontaine because of these accounts we have right now !!" versus the argument of "we've only seen ONE perspective of her so far, and it's no duh that all this stuff sucks -- but there's no way she's JUST gonna be all these horrible things,, because literally nobody to exist is just horrible and cruel with zero to no good in them. and also that'd make a shit narrative by hoyo in a story driven game" AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED !!!! we saw !!! in REAL time !!! that while arlecchino was rightfully cruel and horrible and, yes the things she did were fucked up beyond belief and she should absolutely not be excused for any of it - she is NOT just evil ! she's shown to care, albeit in a fucked up way that only shows she's even more deranged ; but what's so incredibly important about her is the way that her being "evil" doesn't mean she's incapable of anything else. She is evil, yes— but so many of those evil actions have *motives* and *reasons* that explain them (but not excuse or condone!) and, although they don’t save her grace or anything of the sort, they DO show her true character. AND YHATS SO IMPORTANT!!!! She’s capable of being an antagonist while still being justified in some form, and given nuance and backstory and redeemable traits

I am !!! NEVER !!! going to say rhinedottir is a good person. she isn't! no shit sherlock ! how the fuck do you think im gonna go on and ignore the fact she sent both her kids to their deaths, and also fed one to another. dare i say, that is NOT anything good !!! suprise of the century !! woah !!! -- but what i AM gonna say is that she's much beyond that? hello !! not only has the point of her having not a zero good trait or will in her body been. proven false over and over and over again. but it's such ! Sad and not compelling is character choice for her *not* to be nuanced and complex and justified in a fucked up !! — like do you REALLY think hoyoverse (who is clearly capable of, and likes to make) complex characters, who are horrible, while not being *only* those horrible things, would pass up a golden (haha) opportunity to make a characters whose entire existence is JUST that??!,!2????

believe what you want! Do what you want! This is a silly video game that will be eroded along with time in a hundred in so years ! But god so help me, please don’t be willfully ignorant to the complexity and nuance of characters, just because you want a villain. No villain , real or not, is entirely evil. People are complex and multi faceted and people really, really need to hop off this cart of going “okay but stop saying she’s multifaceted because it takes away from her being evil” because it DOESNT! If anything, it makes her so much more compelling . Which is something some people can apparently. Not handle.

[cavity-collector]

i genuinely need to be put down like a dog i cant do this anymore man holy shit

[starbuck]

i have so much love in my heart it’s unreal

[houseofwolvess]

turns out that eating breakfast after taking the meds you should eat with food is a good idea

[qsmprambling]

If cookie access is going to be a big concern with holidays and such coming up, maybe it's worth flagging it with the admins. Maybe add some kind of banker to the bakery that only eggs can access and parents can give cookies to? Or just make it easy and have it that everyone's cookies are worth 1 point.