#open ended play

[madebylola1983]

Numbered Peg dolls. Some of the first pegs I painted. I tried different skin tones and hair styles. These have lasted through 4 years of almost daily play.

[bryonyashaw]

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𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆

[bluerosefox]

Her Astrophel and Sterling

hmmm

Hmmmmmmmm

You know what.

You know those AU's where the Batfam finds or learns about either hidden or thought to be dead Al Ghul Danny! with a deaged/daughter Dani (Ellie) (I should know, I created a few of those storylines) but what if, now hear me out, what if instead of them finding Danny first its Talia.

Do I want Talia discovering her thought to be dead son to be alive? Yes. Do I want her to find him while investigating Amity Park when the League gets reports of 'Lazarus creatures/water'? Yes.

DO I WANT HER TO KNOCK ON THE FENTON'S DOOR, fully ready to pretend/honey talk her way into the house to uncover what the Fenton's know, ONLY TO MEET A LITTLE ELLIE?!

YES.

Ellie whose eyes and hair look like a copy of her Beloved but she can see bits and pieces of herself as well. Talia knows the child in front of her was not fully her's though but everything makes sense when she hears a voice, a voice she hasn't heard in ages but as a mother just knows, speak out.

"Ellie! I thought I said do not answer the door my Sterling."

"But Daddy, yous was busy fighting the hotdoggys!"

Talia's eyes widen when she finally catches sight of familiar black hair and blue eyes.

and she could only lightly whisper a old nickname she hasn't dared uttered in ages, a name she secretly gave her son due to his love of the stars "Astrophel..."

[noodles-and-tea]

Sam from stardew valley you will always be my first love

[eugeniedanglars]

the way i see it, colin has three options for handling the repercussions of kissing michael on the pitch in front of everyone:

gatekeep: by some miracle no one caught the kiss on camera so colin's sexuality is kept between him and any fans who happened to be on the pitch near him. the safest option.

girlboss: keeley gets the pr challenge of a lifetime handling the story of the first active premier league player to come out as gay. rebecca is tall and powerful and intimidating in the press room making it clear that richmond stands behind colin one thousand percent. the most realistic option.

gaslight: straight-up blatantly lying. not because he's ashamed or because he thinks he can actually convince anyone that the kiss didn't happen, but just because he refuses to let it be a big deal. acts like he has no idea what anyone is talking about if asked anything related to his sexuality. he doesn't claim to be straight, mind you, he just pretends to be extremely confused about why they're asking because he never kissed anyone in the middle of a football pitch at the end of an internationally-televised game? when presented with photo and video proof of the kiss he says that was some other richmond player named hughes who wears a number 12 jersey. you don't know him, he goes to another school. the funniest option.

[lemongogo]

[lil-gingerbread-queen]

Harley joining the batfam be like.

(More shenanigans under the cut)

Harley: Bats! I have a gift for ya! Batman: ... What is this? Harley: A club's membership's card! Batman: ... Harley: And I've some for the commie, his daughter and your big red riding hood.

The cards in question:

(yes, she drew the pictures. Jason is Bat Brat for reasons)

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[vaguely-concerned]

To the ‘themes I am picking up on in Veilguard’ list, let's go ahead and add what I have a sneaking suspicion will actually turn out to be The theme:

— the world has changed and can never be as it was again.

— I have been changed and can never be who I was again.

— in this simple unavoidable truth there is endless grief and endless hope.

And I… may be getting a bit emotional about it haha. Let me show my work a bit: 

if da:o is a game about people who are already dead or half ghosts in some form (through societal forces, psychologically, functionally, literally, in body, through the joining etc.) coming together anyway to save the world from being swallowed by total nihilism and despair (symbolized by the blight) through the power of love and friendship and also this sword/potential heroic sacrifice that I found, da2 is a game about people who have lost their homes and been set adrift finding and building new homes in each other (while completely failing to save the world. also through the power of love and friendship. as well as years of petty bickering <3 we must imagine kirkwall if not happy then worth having been because the love was there the love was there and that's the only sanctifying force we can ever have in this doomed world and city of ours), and da:i is a game about old stabilizing-but-unjust comfortable lies vs. disruptive but potentially liberating uncomfortable truths, and the power of friendship to help us distinguish the one from the other and navigate through them...

folks… I'm starting to think that veilguard might be a game specifically about moving towards recovery and acceptance after trauma — about how even in this flawed, severed, scarred state, what is here right now is worth loving and worth caring for. even in an imperfect and impermanent world and self, there is worth and joy. and of course the first real tragedy — and threat — of Solas is that he just cannot find it in himself to accept this and move on, to let go of what was, the regret won’t let him go or he won’t let go of it. which means that even though on the surface it’s Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain (and the will to subjugate and violate they represent) who are the main villains, the real antagonistic force in this story beneath that is the Dread Wolf’s despair. A despair Rook must make an answer to by the end of the game, one way or another, compassionately or with righteous fury, triumphant or pyrrhic.

The world will change again and again and so will you — BUT the crucial element is that so will everyone else who exists along with you, you are fundamentally not alone in this existential truth. all we’ll ever have is each other and my god that is plenty, my god that is enough!!! Which is the second thing Solas just can’t accept, he keeps himself separate and completely alone out of an awful mix of fear and pride and feeling himself unworthy of anything else. Rook and the player want to save the world of Thedas because it’s where everyone we love lives, Solas wants to go back to the past because that’s the only neighbourhood where he can still visit those he loved — and the person he himself was, before. A very sympathetic and human instinct/trap to fall into when touched by trauma, I think, if only it wasn’t backed by godlike power, a fundamentally oppositional personality, and a catastrophic lack of therapy to make it literally everyone else’s problem too lol. It’s varric and solas’ banter about the man on the island and where meaning in a life comes from all over again, writ large and with detail work — and the added idea of ‘what if there are also other islands out there, though. With other people on them that you could find if you reach for each other’. Rook with the best of intentions has to make choices to which there are no perfect outcomes and live with what happens — and not cut themselves off from everyone else around them even when there is regret or shame. You get back up every day and you make a life with other people doing the same and you do your best, and that’s the only victory this world will give you. In the end, that is more than enough, that is essential. And I um. I love that. So much. It’s why some of the writing clumsiness on top can’t hurt me because this thematic spine is so solid and so beautiful to me. It’s DA2 all over again that way for me personally — I forgive this story for what it isn’t and couldn’t be, and I love it with my whole stupid open heart for what it actually is. Thank you for coming to my TED-talk and goodbye etc.      

(For my fellow TLT heads out there — you know what this story is reminding me of most of all, actually? It has some big Nona the Ninth vibes down there in the deep. It’s about… the horror and unspeakable beauty that can only be found in liminality, and the role of love in making that basic fact of existence bearable. And also even more unbearable at the same time. I'm so sorry.)

[cozylittleartblog]

just left deviantart lol

everyone join sheezyart, i need it to replace deviantart (also they're way cooler & anti AI & have profile customization dA could never DREAM of)

like. i logged into deviantart yesterday. and saw the official deviantart team page promoting AI grifters who make $11k+ a year on their website selling "adoptables". instead of, y'know, real artists? who actually deserve the money? and in that moment i realized i could not fuckin' use deviantart anymore, they'll sell out to the highest bidder. fuck 'em. my deviantart has become a sheezyart shill page.

[turtleblogatlast]

Something I really like is that April’s constant stream of odd jobs she goes through is somewhat reflected in the boys as well. Like, you have April working at random pizza places or getting a crane license or being fully willing to apply for a job at a place clearly made out of cardboard. Then you have the boys as well who do anything from working as a basketball mascot, building a massive dog park, being waiters, getting a whole band gig at a theme park, etc, etc-

Main difference is that April actively applies for these jobs (and is hopefully paid for the short time she’s in them) whereas for the bros the jobs usually find them (and they practically never get paid.) It doesn’t even stop at jobs either, they just seem to casually amass skills in general.

I don’t know, I like how both April and the turtles are just so ready and willing to do things. Sure, they’re not always good at these things, but they do them readily! In a way, being heroes is just another job (well, more like volunteer work/vigilantism/another fun activity) that they initially took on because of their general sense of “why not?”

They’re very willing and open to trying out new things despite their tendency to revert back to what they enjoy (and how commonly trying new things ends up going wrong), and I think that adaptational interest of theirs really helps them be well rounded in multiple regards.

[bryonyashaw]

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𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 🐣

We've had a busy weekend - Easter crafts, Puppet show (basically a Jesus-fied version of rock songs and a speed read version of the Easter story) egg hunt (classic) swimming and of course an infinite amount of chocolate eggs. Was also nice to catch up with a couple of parents I've not seen for ages (as much as you can do when you've got feral kids running everywhere) and seen my nephews.

𝘐𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 - 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘨𝘭𝘦:

"𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘺 𝘈.𝘋. 30.

𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘴, 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘴, 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘨𝘨, 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘺𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨.

𝘌𝘨𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥, 𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘦𝘯𝘵 (𝘵𝘩𝘦 40 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳) 𝘴𝘰 𝘰𝘯 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘵𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘨𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵!"

Meanwhile my kids and I - CHOCOLATE.

[bluerosefox]

Mysterious Relations AU

Group Chat: [TwoHalfasMakeaWholeNERD]:

The(Better)Remix:

[Sent Imagine: it was a picture of a painting of two very wealthy adults stood with smiles as their hands were placed on a smiling child, with black hair and blue eyes, between them]

Lol, hey Template we sure you're a Fenton by blood? Cause you're looking very much like a Wayne clone tbh or something!

--

TheOriginal: Firstly WTH THAT'S SO WEIRD. Secondly ELLIE did you sneak into the Wayne's place?! GET OUT BEFORE THEY SEE YOU! We don't need another Fruitloop on our case!

-x-x-

An AU where Ellie travels to Gotham and is just hanging around in human form, got stared at by a lot of the older Gothamites, many of them commenting that she looks like a young female version of Bruce Wayne but with Martha Wayne favoring over Thomas, so being the curious gremlin she is she sneaks into the Wayne Manor (What, like it was hard?) and finds the Wayne family painting.

Ellie being Ellie snaps a picture with her phone and sends it to Danny, jokingly questioning his parentage.

She's so distracted by her messages to Danny she never noticed the elder gentleman standing behind her, ready to ask the young miss if she needed anything.

[arthursfuckinghat]

"I was gonna say you're like a son to me.. but you're more than that."

"It ain't that complicated!"

How quickly that shoulder pat of comfort turned into a condescending one.

[decamarks]

SPIDDR

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Track list for Fig and the Cig Figs independently published Junior Year album (officially named “Infaethable”)

Teenage Rebellion

Night Yorb (a heavy metal banger)

Summer Scaries

Devils Nectar

Time Quangle (a love song about Ayda)

Multiclass (Gorgug sings on this!)

The Ballad Of Lucy Frostblade (Kristen was the one who convinced Fig to write this)

So Late, So Tactical

Do You Have A Fucking Warrant

Cassandra (Can You Hear Me)

Hall Of Mirrors

President Applebees (written entirely in the night after Kristen gets elected by a drunk Fig with extremely drunk notes by Kristen)

Raging For Love (inspired by Gorgug, of course)

The Elven Oracle (Has A Day Job) (So Stop Bothering Her)

Maximum Legend

Fury Of The Ball

Cursed

Infaethable

The Bad Kids