#not about creating anything

[jameszmaguire]

I think it would be better for everyone if I were to be left alone in the future. Don't you?

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[juniemunie]

[Abandoned by the Lightners, his heart became cracked with hatred.]

Hitting a lil' too close to home?

[inazuma-fulgur]

Bigger, longer videos and essays are something we see disappearing and becoming unpopular more and more with "technological advances" of social media or just about anything.

Fast consumption without thinking, before you even get the chance to log off the next think gets shoved into your face

And like without thinking is something I wanna get at. If everything around you is short and flat and mostly self contained, impossible to compare to other things, impossible to utilize in other contexts and to compare other things amongst each other with. Basically if no nuanced, bigger picture thought and appropriate analytical skill get shown and taught to anyone anymore we will become unable or maybe just too distracted to critique anything in a meaningful way.

If nothing is connected anymore and everything becomes a unique completely individual occurrence there are no trends to criticize.

Even if things aren't unique that doesn't matter much if that is the only way someone can judge and understand the world, so they're unable to find trends and systematic issues. Because those concepts don't exist on short form content platforms.

[poison-into-positivity]

how lucky are we man. how lucky are we that david jenkins had an idea for a pirate workplace comedy, which is a deeply funny concept in itself, and decided to do more with it. how lucky are we that he chose to put a love story at the heart of it and have the narrative ask questions like what does it mean to be a man. What does it mean to belong to something bigger than yourself. What does it mean to love someone else. What does it mean to love yourself

[pikp0kcas3]

The Hazbin Hotel fandom’s issue with accepting aromanticism and asexuality

Now that it is officially Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, I want to talk about this!

I find that, as an aroace myself, I am constantly grasping at good representation and coming up empty— it usually ends up in one of two ways.

One: the character is portrayed as emotionless, cold, and robotic in nature. It’s the question aromantic and/or asexual people are often asked: “Are you heartless?” The answer is no, of course, but general media makes it out to be the opposite.

Or two: Their lack of attraction is seen as something to “fix” because they “haven’t found the right one yet”, and they end up with a partner as a “happy ending”.

It frustrates me greatly because of how little people actually see aromanticism or asexuality as a true part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

So when I watched Hazbin Hotel, and I found out about Alastor being aroace, I was over the moon. I was on cloud nine. I also saw how his voice actor has looked up the term as an attempt to learn about aroaces, which makes me OVERJOYED?? Amir is truly a blessing, and I love that he’s proud to embody a character that’s part of our community. It’s so beautiful to finally have a proper character, a fan favorite at that, who just so happens to be aroace— and that’s another thing I love about this.

It’s never explicitly stated in the show (though it is stated in interviews), but it’s rather clear when you’re watching, isn’t it? Alastor’s aversion to any sort of sexual advancement, coupled with Rosie’s blatant “I know you’re an ace in the hole” comment sort of spell out his asexuality pretty clearly, as well as what side of the spectrum he falls upon. In addition, his Valentine’s day card was strictly platonic, which caters to his aromantic side. It feels so validating to finally be represented, to finally have a character in media who shares the same lack of interest in romance and sex as I do.

When I entered the fandom to look for more content, I kind of expected to see the same respect for Alastor’s orientation there too. But that… wasn’t the case? I am fully aware that aromanticism and asexuality are both spectrums— of course, aromantic and/or asexual people can enter those kinds of relationships. I’m not denying that and they belong in the community as much as anyone else on the spectrum.

But, the more I see the same line again and again and again, the more it feels like an excuse to just ship what you want.

Usually I don’t mind shipping? I’m often a firm believer in people shipping what they like as long as it’s harmless and they don’t go crazy over it. I also know for a fact that Viv doesn’t have a problem with people shipping her characters. They are fictional, after all.

But in this case, people are ignoring the very thing that makes Alastor a part of the aroace community! People are ignoring his lack of romantic or sexual attraction!

Is this not the same as changing a gay character’s orientation to suit a straight ship? If not, how so? I’m told that we are a part of this community, so why aren’t we being treated like it? Why is it so hard to accept the people on the end of the spectrum who aren’t interested?

Something I’ve been noticing throughout my life is that society has not exactly progressed very much on the idea of accepting asexual or aromantic identities. Maybe we have, a little, since the old days— but hell, people in “the old days”, which in truth wasn’t very long ago, believed that asexuality was a medical condition to be “fixed” by taking the right medication or having sex. That’s a pretty low bar to clear. And on the romance side, you’re seen as a “late bloomer” or “boring” if you don’t express interest. These days, being friends with someone is treated like a gateway to them possibly becoming a lover. Not getting married, not going on dates, not wanting a partner— it’s all treated like a crime when it’s not.

Maybe I’m selfish, or sensitive, or I’m butthurt over nothing, or I’m making it all about me. Maybe I’m gatekeeping or whatever the term is. But please, please, please, I just want an aroace character like me who simply is not interested in sex or romance.

And I want fandom to respect that. I admire the creations that fans make— the art, the animatics, the writing and the character analysis. And I want people to keep creating because creation is indeed a beautiful thing.

But I really would like people to treat aroace identities like they’re important. Like it’s more than just a spectrum to get wiggle room to wrangle in another ship.

[sigmas-split-hair]

[delicate-sketch]

Idk if this is unpopular opinion or not but while Percy is like “fuck this demigod stuff I am retired” I think Nico would be working in the underworld in the future like I just have this vision of him in a mix of modern and ancient greek clothing doing missions for Hades collecting some troublesome souls idk helping with the judgement talking shit with the dead making the playlist for their elevators vibing to tragedy by bee gees he kinda enjoys the demigod stuff even if its hella dangerous or whatever

[starcurtain]

Hear me out. I know it's unlikely that Ratio would ever have been foolish enough to directly get taken in by a scam, but considering that we know:

One of the groups specifically tricked by Kakavasha before he joined the IPC was the Intelligentsia Guild

What he tricked them about was Tayzzyronth's Swarm remnants, the exact same thing we see Ratio investigating in his very first appearance in the game, and

The researchers were described as "extremely cautious"

I am surprised that "Ratio was at least somehow connected to the Intelligentsia Guild team fooled by Kakavasha before he was ever even a Stoneheart" isn't more popular with the Ratio and Aventurine fandom.

Like imagine being Dr. Ratio. You tell your colleagues, "This seems like a scam. Are you sure you should trust this 'local guide' you've made contact with? Tell me about him. A picture? Does this even look like an Egyhazan native to you? I won't save you fools from making idiotic decisions." (You end up having to clean up the aftermath of their idiotic decisions anyway. There is sand in places on your body you didn't even know existed before this. How mortifying for the Guild. For you, by association.)

Then, next thing you know, you get a mission briefing slid across your desk from your IPC connections. They want you to work with their new Stoneheart. You open the packet to see... that little bastard with the enthralling eyes who had your moronic colleagues scrambling in the dirt on a backwater planet for months. Apparently he's made a career out of fooling you your supposedly competent guildmates.

You run off to confront him. You never met him personally back then, but you deserve compensation for the idiocy you were subjected to nonetheless. He deserves to know how much of a pain in the ass he's been in your life already without ever having met your eyes--

He proceeds to shove a gun into your hands and tries to make you an accomplice to a suicide. Apparently, this is normal behavior for the man now called Aventurine. Somehow, it's supposed to prove to you that he is a sane and reliable individual.

Absolutely nothing in your life has been normal since Egyhazo.

You would like to have mundane problems, sometimes.

How do you keep ending up in this beautiful manic clever conman's orbit, and why, like binary stars, can you not escape the gravitational pull?

[abyssal-ilk]

i will never get over how genuinely fucked the tranquil are consistently treated throughout the dragon age games. like i know it's the Point. but. holy fuck.

the way they're treated as "not-quite-people", the way they're constantly put to the side, ignored, abused, and exploited for profit, the way they're killed over and over, especially in inquisiton, and the way it feels so brushed over. and it never really feels like the player reaction is Enough for what is going on in any situation surrounding them.

[hiding-under-the-willow]

Okay. hear me out. Creaking Helsknight

[inkskinned]

i keep thinking about hobbies and how i often spill over myself to pick up new ones. i have adhd, i end up trying something for like a month and then just getting far enough in it that i move on, satisfied.

and that should be fine; but it's never fine.

i am a pretty decent artist; but i can't just make art for my dnd campaign, i should be selling dnd maps and character designs and scene setting pieces. i can't just make my friends matching earrings, i need to get an etsy and ship them internationally and take bulk orders. i make pretty good props and decorations and use them to throw my friends parties - but i should be running a party planning business and start taking paying clients and networking and putting my skills to actual use.

for some reason, i never figured out the specifics of pottery. it was a fun class and i enjoyed myself - and still, i'm embarrassed, years later, that i put in all that useless effort. everything i make has to be stunning. stellar. i should have applied myself more. maybe i'm too lazy. maybe i'm broken and selfish and needy. actually creative people would have kept going; they would be bettering themselves at every possible opportunity.

we find ourselves in this trap, even accidentally: we need to commodify our time, because it is a commodity. if we spend our efforts and our time not earning, isn't that the same thing as burning free money? and god forbid you ever take up a hobby that ends up being more expensive than you thought. you sit in your car and you look at the receipt and in your head you hear a conversation that isn't even happening - your mom or your friend or your partner all saying oh great. not this shit again. it's always something with you, and it never actually means anything.

i have realized this horrible thing, recently - i'll get excited to start a project, pick up a new hobby. and then i just... stop myself. i start thinking about the amount of time it will take, and how it'll look in my monthly budget. what if i can't even produce a good enough final product. sure, it's exciting to think about how i could make my friend her own custom dice. but i'm just polluting the earth if i don't get it right. better not bother. better not try.

restless, i get caught in the negative space. the feeling that oh god, i want to create. and that horrible sense - yeah, but i don't have the time to just put to waste.

[valtsv]

whenever i find myself struggling to understand the importance of creating art with love and for yourself, i remind myself of purple cat. purple cat was a little handmade clay cat figurine i made when i was about 7 years old. and it was an absolute fucking disaster of a thing. its ears were wonky and misshapen, its body was an unflattering chunky cylinder, its feet were stubs that chipped off one by one, and its tail and eyes were a nasty puke green color that didn't go with its violently violet body at all. it was also half charred black from being baked in the oven for too long. it looked hideously pathetic and sad. it was a total failure, the ugliest thing i had ever made, and anyone else who saw it would have assumed it was trash and thrown it away without a second thought. but i absolutely loved it. as a kid i played with it constantly; it was one of my favorite toys, and even after i outgrew that i couldn't bring myself to throw it away. i would have run into a burning building to rescue it if it was inside. i kept it and displayed it proudly until it was accidentally shattered while cleaning my room, and even then i had to be persuaded to throw it out, and i was heartbroken that i couldn't salvage it. it meant nothing to anyone except me, but that didn't matter to me at all. and that's the kind of attitude you should approach all your creative endeavours with, in my opinion. yes, it's important to constantly strive to improve your art, and of course it's always nice to get compliments from other people affirming that you did well, but ultimately none of that means a thing if you don't love your art, and if you didn't create it with yourself in mind as much as anyone else. by all means aim high and be constructively critical of your work, make a career out of it if that's what makes you happy. but allow yourself to make some purple cats too.

[astradella]

The phrase “big brother shadow au” won’t leave my head

[aalghul]

I can't find my post but I still think the reason a lot of jason and cass interactions feel off is because we need to address that they're the exact opposite in that cass killed and was changed by the toll it took on her to take a life, and spends so much time believing she needs to give her life to atone. meanwhile jason was killed and was changed because he knows what it is to die and lose your whole life, and he willingly becomes a murderer to save people.

even in respects to the emphasis being on victims vs mourners? cass (who has taken a bullet for a murderer) allowed a killing to occur when she could've stopped it and it was when a murderer was on death row but the mother of his victim told cass she had to let him die because her daughter died. Cass wasn't happy about it, but she stepped aside. jason kills specifically to stop there being future victims. this is what motivates his first kill and every other kill in lost days. when he asks bruce to kill joker, it's not so that bruce or anyone else will be at peace knowing someone who hurt others is dead. it's so that jason (the victim) will, theoretically, be content. so that there won't be other ppl who become victims of the joker's.

their case isn't as simple as loving or hating the other. they have to exist in a weird grey space with each other unless you're forcing them to not think about themselves entirely. their relationship would honestly have to be more complicated than the average bat relationship and that's saying a lot.

[tizeline]

So after Donnie leaves them, why doesn't Draxum just...kidnap him back?

Like, yeah he'd be upset about it, but he'd be safe. Draxum's got two kids that can jumpstart the whole Stockholm Syndrome thing for him, and Donnie would be away from the humans. His kids have already kidnapped him once. It's HIS kid, tf are the police gonna say?

So here's the thing, they COULD just kidnap Donnie and keep him locked up until he agrees to join them. Buuuut y'know they're kinda in the middle of this whole taking-over-the-world-thing and worrying about keeping Donnie from escaping and/or blowing up their home again would kinda get in the way of that lol

To clarify - Draxum absolutely wants Donnie to join them, but the way he sees it they're not exactly on much of a deadline when it comes to that. If anything he's very concious of the fact that Donnie joinging them would include him having to change his entire view on humanity and Splinter, which would inevitably take A While. Draxum also figures that after yōkai take over the world, Donnie will get to see with his own eyes that the Draxum's strategy of improving the world is obviously the right choice! As such it would be easier to get Donnie to agree with them by showing concrete proof of their superior ideals, as opposed to arguing using only hypotheticals.

Overall, Draxum figures it would be a lot more effective giving Donnie space to let him change his mind in his own time, especially if taking over the world also leads to Donnie joining them, two birds in one stone and all that. Aside from that, Mikey also wants to let Donnie come to terms with the "truth" on his own, and Leo doesn't wanna force Donnie to come home with them because he's salty that Donnie doesn't want to join them. That leaves Raph as the only one supporting the forcefully-saving-Donnie-plan. Raph, being the protective big brother that he is, thinks keeping Donnie safe in a locked room until he changes his mind is a GREAT idea! But yeah no he got outvoted :(