#on the OTHER hand

[trans-humanish]

You can also care that they're upset, and continue to make the same choices! It's totally normal to be hurt by the distress of people you love, but that doesn't have to determine your actions. It can be a factor in what you choose to do, but it's much more helpful as a cue to examine why they're feeling upset, than to let those feelings dictate your choices.

When someone gives the advice of “don’t be afraid to disappoint your parents” they don’t just mean taking music theory in college or starting a YouTube channel.

It also means wearing things they might not approve of. Using accommodations that they might not think you need. Not falling for their guilt trips. Eating when you’re hungry, not when it suits them and their idea of your weight or health. Making your own friends instead of seeking the stamp of approval from them.

Of course, some parents are stricter than others, and some use abuse to keep you from expressing yourself. But do what you can, even if it seems small.

Otherwise, when your parents are no longer in the picture, you’ll try to find it somewhere else to get validation. A strict boss, an abusive partner, a selfish friend.

Going against your parent’s wishes is developmentally healthy. Not doing so stunts your independence and self-regulation. You shouldn’t be living to constantly please others, even the people who love you.

[niceonejames7]

tattoos don't really do it for me but sirius black is an exception.

[inkskinned]

it is november, and yesterday it felt like it was supposed to be snowing. in boston, november used a winter month, not a fall month. it is supposed to be chilly; rarely capping over 45F. it is a sweater-and-jacket month. it is a "maybe a scarf too" month. in my childhood, november meant blizzards and sleet.

it did not snow. tomorrow the weather predicts a high of 76.

i have spent so many years of my life studying the longterm possibilities of climate change - the culmination of capitalism wreaking havoc on the bodies of people, animals, plants - but every so often i am still shocked by something small and personal.

in a hundred years, when someone goes outside in boston - will they know the feeling of "snow in the air"?

i know it's a learned feeling, a sensation that maybe only longterm experience can teach. a few years ago, i was walking with my friend who had just moved up from the south. i said it smells like snow and she gave me this look like - what the fuck. i said it feels like snow too, which didn't help. she looked up to the bright blue sky and then back at me and then back at the sky. 12 hours later, we had 3 inches. you can just tell if it's going to snow.

except i can't tell, anymore. i stand outside in a tee shirt and watch my dog dance around a lake. we're in a drought and the skin of the water has peeled back twenty meters. the lake is tamed, quiet, puddlelike and sour. my pokemon go app warns there's a weather condition in my area.

my dog gets too hot from running and sits in the water and i want to laugh about his long frame and how awkwardly he sits - and i can't. some simian part of my brain is scratching the walls. it was supposed to snow. it was supposed to snow, but now it's warm instead.

during the last full solar eclipse, the dogs and the birds and the crickets went crazy under utter darkness. we laughed at them then, promising it will all be okay in a moment. but some part of me is still locked in that long night: some animal sensation.

something is wrong, my body says. i can't afford eggs or rent. i go outside to watch a sunset and listen to birdsong. i don't bring a jacket. allergies are killing me this season, allergies i didn't have as a kid. everyone comments that halloween has started to feel strange, offkilter. that it's hard having "holiday cheer." my body thinks it's april, and then it thinks we're in september, and then june.

something is terribly wrong, she whispers. go outside. it is supposed to be snowing.

[star-cloves]

As an apology for my last post, a quick comic of Fiddleford and Tate being happy :)

[space-morningstar]

It doesn't matter that you also search, how much you try not to let them pass weapons or objects that can be used to escape or harm others… sooner or later they find a way to use them for other cases. "Humanity always finds solutions" is something that goes both ways

I have seen news where a few simple books started a fire and a massacre in one of the prisons. I know it seems inhumanizing, But we must also remember that people in prisons are not just there to be locked in their rooms as if they were children, they are serving a sentence for real crimes.

like even in the few cases where incarceration is necessary to prevent further harm to victims, like so much of the prison system is designed to torture and dehumanize its occupants. like why can't they wear their own clothes. like i don't get why prisoners can't wear their own clothes. make them pass a security inspection, don't allow things like chains or spikes, that makes sense. but like why can't someone bring their favorite comfort hoodie to prison. it's because the prison system exists to dehumanize, not rehabilitate.

[the-chaotic-n3rd]

Love how the Manwhore AU went from "Odysseus seduces Zeus in order to save his men" to "Everyone is banging everyone"

[chucktaylorupset]

I think there's something to be said for fanfiction that loves canon in a way that’s rude. Like thank you for this wonderful thematic tragedy made out of this character’s entire arc ending in death, it was emotionally and intellectually moving, but also fuck you fuck you fuck you they live, this time and every time they live, they never died, their flaws are not their undoing, actually they have no flaws, actually they save everyone, actually who cares about a story, any story, where this one dies, actually i cared about that story so much i made a new one, actually i cared so much i unmade the old one, you gave me morals and i left them for the mortal, but they’re mine now and i will never let them die, actually thank you, actually fuck you, strongly worded letter to follow

A kiss for canon and spit in its face all at once, it’s great

[nelkcats]

Surprise check

When Deadman panicked and rushed to call him during an important meeting, Constantine thought it was a ghost thing, he doubted it was anything really important so he ignored it for a few minutes.

What he didn't expect was for Deadman to inform him that his boss was coming to visit in a few hours (because apparently ghosts had bosses). The poor guy was in a panic, apparently it was the first King in charge in centuries that cared and he was coming to "make sure everything was in order".

Constantine didn't know what to expect; a King who demanded that humanity bow at his feet and the ghosts rule? One who hated it when Deadman got involved with humans and sent him away? A tyrant? It was clear that no ruler had ever been good, according to his ghost friend, so he had low expectations.

He reported this to the League, who took a high alert posture. An hour later, Wonder Woman was reviewing with everyone how foreign royalty should be treated when they heard Captain Marvel laughing with someone in the break room. Deadman was also mysteriously missing.

Constantine peeked in but all he could see was a teenager conversing with the Captain and strangely, the ghost. He was about to tell the boy that he needed a permit to enter the Watchtower when Deadman spoke up.

"I didn't know you were so interested in games, King Phantom, or that you were so good on them"

Then, John noticed the ice crown on the boy's head and his strangely sharp teeth, along with his toxic green eyes.

"Flattering me won't help you in the review" the teenager quipped "remember we're still waiting for Dan to find out if everything here is...balanced."

Constantine realized: The King was a bloody teenager.

[arcticclimes]

I feel like we don't talk enough about how funny this official portrait of Fitzjames is. His hair's shorter, he looks older, the pose is so awkward, he seems to be subscribed to the Edward Little school of forty sweaters...

I can only imagine some fancy admiralty party event thing where this is revealed, and Fitzjames has to pretend he's honored while internally having a mental breakdown wondering if this is how people see him.

[rheya28]

“Trust me…”

[wolfythewitch]

If I do a mini little Business (Paris the musical) animatic,, should I put them in modern clothing

[meanbossart]

DU DROW LORE ASK COMPILATION: COMPANIONS, ASTARION'S READING HABITS, AND HIS LONG-INQUIRED OPINIONS ABOUT BODILY WASTE REVEALED.

I don't think "discussed" is the right word, more so mocked her for her blind faith and got into brief spats. It was precisely Shadowheart's water-off-a-duck's-back attitude towards his remarks that kind ingratiated her to him - DU drow spoke his mind, she took it in stride and remained firm in her beliefs without arguing or trying to push it on him. That, alongside the fact that they are surprisingly similar people is what brought them together as friends.

Even long after the events of the game he's still opposed to her hopping from Shar to Selune, also. Shadowheart's attachment to religion is simply something they agree to disagree about.

Can I answer your question with one of my own?

Am I the only idiot that killed her in their first run LOL

BUT YES, he killed Lae'zel when she tried to murder suicide the camp and I went through the whole game without her. I didn't go to the creche either!

I have since had other runs and she's actually one of my favorite characters, I just haven't had the chance to draw her yet.

ACTUALLY - scratch that. I've drawn her once-

Somewhat! But not really. He genuinely just likes jewelry, and rings are the only kind that suit his life-style (necklaces and earrings are a hazard during fighting) this is a reference to his bhaalist days when he used to be completely covered in the stuff day and night.

Hence why he finds them comforting to have on in some way or another. They change around because he gets bored of/misplaces runs out of fingers to wear the new rings that he loots constantly.

The great link in question

I don't know if it's been made clear enough, but DU drow's love for Astarion is borderline pathological, LOL. He's got a good humor about things and Astarion is definitely no stranger to having little quips and jokes made at his expense (a few references to him being Pointy And Long here and there, for sure), but the guy overwhelmingly adores him and thinks he's always the prettiest girl at the ball, even when he gets in his face and his nose looks huge.

I'll be honest, Astarion strikes me as the kind of guy that has like, 3 really weird books he really enjoys and reads them again and again very slowly over the course of years. Otherwise, not really a reader, but I digress -

DU drow was probably never a big reader himself, I would say he got started on a couple of books back in the day but likely never finished any. He's fairly intelligent, but most of his downtime was spent managing the cult and parsing through relevant documentation.

I definitely don't think he'd have the attention-span for fiction (which I picture as being said books that Astarion enjoys) but he does like to snuggle up with his beau to watch him read - every once in a while he catches a particularly scandalous line or description and they bicker about it. He makes a remark, Astarion feels obligated to explain the context, it devolves into some playful kind of argument that ends with Astarion telling him to go dig a hole and die in it while playing with his hair - The usual LOL.

Oh man I have a few more in-dept descriptions of how that went, both lore-wise and just for me as the player - but in summary, DU drow was pretty mean to everyone earlier on in the game and he did catch onto Astarion's very obvious and obnoxious seduction attempts very clearly. He doesn't like being so desperately pursued and they actually got off on the extremely wrong foot because of it, LOL.

After being unpromptedly rejected at the tiefling party he was a little more enticed by him, basically the "no" was his "go". I like to think of it like Astarion catching onto the fact that his initial strategy wasn't working and that this man in particular needed him to play hard to get - from that point on, DU drow started playing along. DU knew this was still a game, but now they were playing it on even ground so he was fine with it.

First of all - he inexplicably got butt-ass naked for the event.

All in all he liked it a whole lot and it was his re-introduction to the concept of pain being dished out as a form of love and his deep enjoyment of it.

Thank you so much, glad to hear you get some joy out of my work!

Dang it I had a pretty good write-up about his thoughts on Wyll from a long time ago, but I can't find it 😭

In summary, Wyll was a frustrating person for him to be around because of what he viewed to be a deeply ingrained naivete about the world. He shockingly didn't hate him (Wyll is kind of difficult to hate) but he never really saw him as an equal either, and definitely not as a friend. Du drow just desperately wanted him to express something that he would perceive as a genuine emotion; some kind of outburst or show of anger or frustration, but all he ever saw was someone trying to put on an act of performative heroism that he didn't buy at all.

At the same time, Wyll was far too young for him to be too mad. He might have held his father more accountable for making the guy into what he was than Wyll himself, really.

Can a man be scared of being scared? Because if so, it's that.

He also doesn't like shit a normal amount. (piss is fine depending on whose it is.)

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

hmm... in a "Charlie gets wings" scenario, which sparks more joy...

the idea of Charlie very awkwardly unfolding a pair of gold angel wings that almost perfectly match Adam's (the ones her mom would have had if Lilith hadn't gone all demon) except they have only one stripe (like Vaggie's) and Vaggie is gleefully assuring her gf that she wears them SO MUCH BETTER than Adam ever did

OR, Charlie deliberately giving herself a pair of dragon-like wings, to match with Razzle (and the fallen Dazzle), setting herself completely apart from angelic dad bc she's hellborn and proud of it

XD charlie getting the gold ones and being all "nooo.... nnnoooooooo i don't want those... icky, icky associations... let's just trade them out ok???"

and THEN making herself the demon wings like aaahhhh yessss MUCH better o^w^o

(vaggie waking up next morning to find Charlie not in bed but something overhead SNORES, and it's her girlfriend, her gf has become a sleepy demon-winged cocoon snuggle blob, hanging upside down from their bed canopy by her demon tail, crashing on top of vaggie with a yelp the moment vaggie tries tentatively poking her gf awake with one of her own feathery wings) (it Tickled)

[tp2-byes]

°˖✧ 新年好! · Xīn Nián Hǎo! · Happy New Year! ✧˖°

Bonus:

[l-just-want-to-see]

HELPFFF WHAT IS WRONF WITH THEM