#so this is the last week....huh.......:/

[cathymee]

calling for a family dinner after all that is crazy. like can't you all at least prioritize group therapy first

[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.

[heartorbit]

find another role, carry on the show

[nocofamilyau]

I sure hope Hijotee is doing well wherever they may be... (21/24)

[chompe-diem]

hey. don't cry. audible smile in brian murphy's voice when he says "...but it's good when your friends look out for you" ok?

[vero-niche]

moodboard for when you are watching orb on the movements of the earth:

[complexraspberry]

Roku Week Day 5: Past Lives

[id: a digital illustration. A young Roku is facing the right of the image. He looks down with a worried expression as he fidgets with his hands. He is coloured in solid red with heavy shadow. Behind him is Kyoshi. She is coloured a bright, light yellow. She is back on to the viewer and looks over her shoulder at Roku. Her face is obscured by the border. Kyoshi is casting a large shadow over Roku and within it are drawings of eyes, each looking at the boy. /end id]

I imagine it would be stressful to live up to people's expectations when you come after the legend that is Kyoshi

[captainrufflebanger]

I'm feeling a bit better finally as I started drawing a spontaneous shitpost tonight (too exhausted to finish tho so we'll see).

[silvermeww]

okay, when was someone going to tell me that

oh, idk, steven started at 19, burgh has a younger sister, clay actually isn't born american, skyla's whole fam thing and ELESA IS 15???? (even younger than skyla like wtf???)

(also the 'alder' at the bottom is supposed to be drayden lol)

and that's not all

say hello to:

viola being 18??? 'black whirlwind' korrina, RAMOS MEETING AZ'S FLOETTE AS A KID, genderfluid and apparently also age-fluid olympia, CLEMONT?? AND HIS WHOLE THING DOWN TO BEING 12 OF ALL AGES???

(you know what, marlon being 30 definitely makes sense with the hippie vibes)

wikstrom SAYING that he only wears that suit in pokemon battles but i've never seen his casual wear, malva being pr for flare lol, drasna selling dragon merch + great family lore if you want to know, siebold having to third-wheel lysandre and sycamore while eating (move aside malva, you're not the only elite 4 dealing with this) and 20?? YEARS OLD?? DIANTHA????????????

(way too many men in kalos are getting ladies, c'mon)

ethan being into history is such a neat detail hmmm, idk much of the frontier brains ngl, and we've finally got the region for looker and it's... hoenn??? you know what, makes sense with his chaotic vibes so i'll take it (throws away unova taped to a rock behind my back). also he's abolsutely cheating we all see that he's just relying on knowing us as protags, should've known smh

(um i think someone said that 'caitlin' should've been anabel but idk)

oh and the last one is charon, if we care about how much of a loser he really is. forget about birch and the poochyena, this guy is the lowest heh. imagine being charon (please don't).

(when the protags of johto are the same age as clemont lol) (yeah i know there are years between those events just let me have this)

and last but not least:

aaron 🤝 valerie: wanting to be pokemon (and ig gotta toss in shauntal with the ao3 writer gift heh, don't know if they would commission her or stay away), bertha's description???? i love flint just saying, cynthia 👀👀 is absolutely doing something illegal 👀👀, roark is WHAT??? (child labour laws in sinnoh must be lax ngl), maylene as well???? fantina watching scary movies is something i'll have to incorporate into my worldview and bryon?? are you okay??

so yeah. credit goes to @/KuroBlitz96 on the twitter/x for having this up, i'm just here to project sheer surprise at this massive dump of ages... my thoughts on pokemon have completely turned on its head once more lol (this is fine)

[keeps-ache]

would greatly prefer to be horrid and unkempt in clean pajamas though won't lie

[redo-rewind-if]

✨ The horrors persist but so do I... along with this week's progress report! ✨

Next Update (Chapter 4):

Opening: 100%

Avoid August/Confront Him: 100%

A Normal Day at Work: 20%

You Can Fix This, Right? 🤡: 0%

Keep Your Friends Close...: 0%

Avoidant Route: 0%

As you can see, the Avoid/Confront path is finished! (For the second time lol). The next section is coming along slowly but surely. Based on my current estimates, it won't take me too long to get done... Hopefully...

In other news, I'll be back to posting snippets next week! I've got some juicy ones I've been thinking of sharing some time soon. 🤭

[icewindandboringhorror]

Just curious what the average level of personal investment in these sorts of things is. Like, how much do people usually get into silly stuff like this their friends ask of them? etc. etc. Which I know, only surveying a small sample on a very specific website means I'm not getting an exact average idea lol, but.. curious nonetheless .. Maybe reblog for bigger sample size but also this is not very serious at all/not worth a call to action gbhjbhjb

[phontao]

heretic!

[libraryknight]

One of my sideblogs is gaining a very large number of new followers today…

and I can’t figure out why.

Best guess is that someone with a large platform reblogged something I’d commented on, but it’s far enough down the reblog chain that I didn’t get a notification.

[magicalgirlsandcerulean]

The Love Macho X acount has started a Boueibu quiz: Q) To win the Binan contest, what did Io flaunt? Respond here (options from top to bottom: gold [bullion/ingot/bar], gems, bankbook, stack of money [bills]).

Other quiz questions which have closed at the time of this post going live are: Q) What is Yufuin's signature phrase before Love Attack? (fill in the blank) "Flash, Purifying _____!" (options from top to bottom: Lumiere, Aqua, Hurricane, Ignit), Q) Which is Zaou's signature line which comes after Yufuin's "You, who befoul our beloved Earth!"? (options from top to bottom: "No justice can come from loveless power!", "Love is all!", "Live for love! Die for love!"), Q) The protagonist Yumoto Hakone lives at the bathhouse Kurotamayu. How many curtains are found in the Kurotamayu's entrance? (options from top to bottom: 3, 4, 5, 6)

The Yurinan collab is finishing soon. Check out the merch, butter sandwiches and juice while you still can.

More YouTube shorts: "Am I the Only One who Found Yumoto Cute Just Now?", "Good Day to You!!" and "Do Your Best in the Place where You Belong", all from ep. 10, plus "It Looks Like the Gravure Was Popular" from ep. 9.

More details are now available about Boueibu's collab with Sunshine City. Yamazo laughs you can see the monsters on the walls.

[biborispavlikovsky]

not to see patterns in everything but i found a shirt last week that i lost when i moved last fall and when i wore it out last week a barista gave me a free drink in addition to the one i ordered bc he thought i would like it based on my order and was like "now u can compare". today i wore it again today and a few items i ordered ahead at the bakery weren't available so the girl gave me 3 extra pastries for free and was offering more (literally said i could have whatever i wanted she was so sweet) so anyway, the shirt is not blessed but people have been exceptionally kind in the past few weeks and the shirt has witnessed it with me