#some of you have Got to get more normal about writers. for your own health if nothing else.

[elminster-big-naturals]

the "i created my own narrative in my head and now i'm mad when canon doesn't meet my exact expectations" gang when they find out The Writers are just regular employees with executive interference, targets, and objectives just like coders, animators, sfx artists, etc, and not some shadowy cabal of malicious entities who have conspired to write something that You, Specifically do not like

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

(i kept forgetting to make this post for a while and only remembered when i was reading @antispopausandstuff 's recent post; sorry for the tag!)

i have to say this: catra having a mental breakdown basically every single season was pathetic.

usually villains have a third-act breakdown where they realize that they're losing to the heroes or they're losing control over their own allies, and they spiral into anger and desperation.

azula's spiralling in s3 of atla is a clear example of this, as she goes from the level-headed, cunning prodigy to a child who has lost everyone in her life and is desperately trying to use fear to keep people around. it's tragic because yes, she's a horrible person who enjoys torturing people and seeing them in pain, but she's also a 13 year old who was groomed into the perfect soldier by her father.

not all third-act breakdowns are like this though. sometimes instead of feeling bad for the villain, we feel satisfied seeing their downfall, because they weren't a sympathetic character in the slightest and they deserved to have that realization right before getting their ass whooped.

with catra, i get neither of these. i guess i felt a little bad for her the first time and i felt satisfied the second time, but then it just got boring.

there was no need for her to have a meltdown in every single season, only for the writers to use it as an excuse to make catra do even worse shit and hurt more people.

not to mention, her mental state wasn't consistent enough during these breakdowns. let me explain. let's take the s3 one, for instance.

catra is clearly rattled by the knowledge that shadow weaver picked adora over her (which.. wow who would have thought. but whatever). she is dissociating as she walks back to scorpia, there are tears in her eyes, she's devastated.

but then, as soon as catra reaches the horde with adora as her prisoner, she seems perfectly fine. she's calm and smirking proudly as she throws a bound adora to the floor.

and then when entrapta tries to oppose catra's attempts at opening the portal, oh no! catra is not mentally well again and she electrocutes entrapta. and she threatens to do the same to scorpia.

and then she goes right back to being calm and tells hordak that entrapta betrayed him (i'm sorry i don't care how good at lying someone is, i doubt they can deliver such a convincing lie when they are in a poor mental state) and mocks him for trusting entrapta.

and then throughout the portal sequence, catra is oddly calm. not just during the false reality, when she was pretending that everything was normal, but even after that when she starts sadistically torturing adora.

this doesn't seem like a character who finally snapped and is doing horrible things in a desperate attempt to regain control. it reads as a character who always wanted to do horrible things and finally got the chance to do it.

i can't view catra's breakdown in s3 as sympathetic because her actions seemed so intentional. the writers didn't even try to make it look like catra was going through some serious mental health issues and was only making such a dangerous choice because of that.

coming back to my original point, repeating a trope (especially a one-time trope like this) quickly gets stale. and it's even funnier when you think about the fact that catra basically had a dedicated mental breakdown every season and still didn't learn her lesson.

you stop feeling sorry for her and start rolling your eyes, wondering what atrocities she's going to commit this time. it's just the same thing over and over again, and it's funny that the writers used this as a way to keep reminding viewers that catra is a poor traumatized baby who definitely didn't make the choices that led to all this.

it's just bad writing. sure, in real life, people may have multiple breakdowns if they going through some shit. i can certainly attest. but it just doesn't work from a story point of view, especially when the writers refuse to hold catra accountable for your actions. mental health issues or not, you are responsible for your actions and you should work on changing your unhealthy coping mechanisms.

[syn4k]

🌿

unfortunately the only way to solve not wanting to create things is to not create things until you want to create things again.

"but Six!" i hear you protest over the angry yells of all my followers. "that can't be true! i hate that!"

i hate it too. But listen up you self loathing chucklefucks this is IMPORTANT.

if your brain and body is telling you that you are tired and that you need to take a break, fucking listen to them. Do not ignore them and continue making things anyways.

I do not give a fuck about your making one thing per day streak. I do not give a fuck about your follower count or engagement or statistics or whatever the fuck. I do not fucking care how stubborn you are. This rule is set in the laws of the universe itself just like the laws of physics are.

If you do not schedule time for yourself to recharge, your body will automatically do it for you and it WILL NOT ASK POLITELY.

that's what burnout and writer's block IS! you cant make shit if you're too fucking tired and depressed and busy trying to function as a person and don't have any energy left over for creative work! creating things takes ENERGY and EFFORT even the most self loathing low quality shitpost stick figure youve ever doodled on the back of an napkin. That takes effort too. This is your body realizing that you're going past your own limits despite everything and forcibly shutting you down so that you physically fucking cannot anymore for your own health.

Full stop.

If you take the time that you need to rest and regain energy and use it instead to continue doing things that require energy, your body will force you to allocate that time to rest at some point eventually.

So yeah. Sleep in hard over the weekends. Do nothing. Be unproductive. Fuck capitalism and FUCK the Protestant work ethic. I am being so fucking serious right now. This isn't just me repeating what I've heard, this is me sharing things that I've had to learn the hard way over the span of literal fucking years because my dumb ass kept ignoring it too.

You are allowed to, and encouraged to, politely turn down outings with friends and family if you're too tired.

You are allowed to, and encouraged to, take a day off from school or work if you wake up and know in your bones that you are too tired. (Make sure to let your teachers know beforehand. They'll understand. Skipping a day of work is a whole nother can of radioactive horses that I don't want to open right now but others here may have advice. Check the notes.)

You are allowed to, and encouraged to, do nothing.

You are allowed to, and encouraged to, be "lazy" (if you're not enjoying the forced time off, you're not being lazy).

If you can only do the bare minimum to take care of yourself (i.e making low-effort meals, only using the bathroom twice a day, etc) then that's okay too. The more you rest, the more energy you'll slowly build up to do more things like going to the grocery store so that you don't starve and getting those assignments done and taking an extra two minutes to make yourself a glass of something warm in the mornings so that you don't want to die quite as much. Also, when you can, ask your friends for a script and call your doctor about prescribing you depression medication because I love you and this is not normal and you deserve better.

Living life is not supposed to make you want to die, and surviving is not the same as living.

your body has a built in hierarchy of needs and at the top of the list is creating things, which you can only do once you're at a certain level of energy and wellness. if something's wrong, your drive to create will be the first to go.

it's scary, but you'll be okay

be gentle and kind to yourself. imagine that your brain and body is a horse: kicking it when it's down and yelling at it to move won't help. you have to meet it where it's at and feed it and comfort it until it's ready to move on again. you can't write trail songs if you've got no path to roam

this quickly spiraled out of my hands but i am very passionate about this subject and also i love u. good luck.

[l0v3rg1ri]

Heya! Could a request a platonic!Levi Ackerman x cadet!reader? The reader used to live in the underground and kind of finds a sort of kinship with Levi, bonding over their shared trauma- if that makes sense

Ofc, no pressure to write this! But, if you do write it, I hope you have fun with it!!

Writer note:

Hello! Thank you for requesting <3! And ofc! I would love to write this fun idea! :3 He might be abit ooc, but hopefully not so much! I made a small snip it and a headcannon area since I didn't know which one you wanted! -----------------

Tw: Mention of child trafficking

Platonic!Levi Ackerman x Cadet!Reader who comes from the under-ground "Instead of seeking people who can stop the bleeding, we're attracted to those with similar wounds, who may not know how to find a way out of the darkness, but suffice, simply because they're in the same boat as us."

Headcannon:

his first reaction to hearing a cadet being from the underground was a bit mixed. For one, the undergrounds weren't an area a child would normally be unless they were from a poor or broken family. Even in dark cases, child trafficking. Another is, he doesn't like to get into people's personal life so he just shrugs it off. I imagine him being surprised but also not that interested to just ask you about it.

If you did decide to talk to him and figure out more about him he'll turn interested about how you got to the undergrounds. He will say a thing or two of his own experience in the start of you both talking.

Once you tell him how you got there he can react multiple way. For one if you were from a poor family he'd feel connected to that since he grew up dirty and without anything. The only money and resources coming from his mother who was a prostitute.

But if you were a child being trafficked he'd feel anger rise. His mother was a prostitute and was trafficked into that lifestyle because of lack of resources. Seeing her cry and wonder what she can do and even if she could continue whilst having Levi as a young child at home while she was gone for hours. That's one hell of an image stuck in his head ever since he was a child. He couldn't imagine a young child or teenager going through that made his world crumble. He always hated children getting hurt even if he had no interest in having his own or even being around children

The more and more you both continue to talk he felt like he met someone who could relate to him besides his old friends. He grew comfort in knowing someone could relate and he wasn't the only who had these feelings.

soon he started to see you like a sibling or his child you could say. Talking to you more and checking up on you, though he never gave special treatment during training since he wanted you to grow as your own person just like him, yet he also wanted you to defend yourself enough against titans.

he starts giving you small head pats and small learning lessons he's gotten from Erwin when he was first brought into the Survey Corps. Though he changed a couple of things to make it more understanding.

If you ever gained some sort of mental health disorder then he would try his best to help. In this period of time mental health disorders wouldn't be known as much, but Levi as far as he was concern he knew these were stress signs since he had gotten PTSD from his time of serving and even his underground times. So he would spend nights with you giving you tea and calming you down even if it was just sitting in silence.

------------------------

It was night time and Levi was awake since he couldn't fall asleep for some odd reason. Sitting in his office drinking tea and just writing papers and papers. Documents he had to fill days ago and he had fallen behind. Suddenly his peace of silence was broken by a light knock at his door. He sighed as he spoke up. "come in"

The door made a small creak as it was open before letting out a loud thud as it was shut. He raised an eyebrow at who entered but soon recognized the familiar face. "Couldn't sleep again?"

"no....I keep getting those weird pauses again" you shrugged as you took a seat on one of the chairs in front of his desk. "mh...you want me to make that tea for you again or?" Levi asked as he looked up at you from looking at his papers. You nodded your head as he stood up and went to a small area of his office. He had his personal area to make tea since he didn't want to walk all the way down to the kitchen to make his tea. Once he was finished he settled down the cup in front of you as he sat down drinking his own tea while the sounds of rain hit against the window. "Levi...does..it ever go away?"

The question surprised him before he just sighed putting down the papers he held in his hands. "no...some may say scars will heal, but they never do. Scars can't go away no matter what you do. You can bandage them, wash them, cover them, or just ignore them. Yet they will always be there because huge scars aren't always healed up. You need to come to terms that the scar is there and always will be and the only thing you can do is understand why the scar is there." "as much as it is shitty to feel like crap you can't heal a wound, but you can learn to live with it and understand why it's there. Learn to grow and understand the world." he sighed as he stared right at you. His grey eyes looking genuine and comforting. He looked back down and then noticed the time. "how about you go to bed now? you need your strength for tomorrows training" "I want to stay just for abit.."

"be my guest then, but if you wake up tired don't blame me and I'll make sure to kick your ass if you can't function tomorrow" "I know sir" "good.."

---------------------------- I hope you enjoyed this! It was a very fun prompt and I loved writing it! :3 Hope you liked it !!

[pitroig]

A Few Kind Words About Gege Akutami, the Fate of Gojo Satoru, and the Redemption within the Fandom.

Now that Jujutsu Kaisen has come to an end, everyone seems to have their own opinions about the final chapters and the progression of the manga over its last arcs. There’s a general consensus that there are obvious plot holes, unresolved matters, some rushed and out-of-character interactions, and overall dissatisfaction with how the story was wrapped up. Many have already broken these points down better than I could, both here and on X, so I won’t try to add anything to that conversation.

In fact, I’m here to say something a little more controversial.

I don't think, at all, that Gege Akutami is a bad writer. I think the issue is something else: Gege Akutami thinks he’s much smarter than he actually is.

Up until the Shibuya Incident or even Itadori’s Extermination Arc, we were reading an incredibly well-written manga. Loose ends tied up neatly, references intertwined, and the narrative structure was solid. So we know Gege can write well. Those chapters had excellent world-building and storytelling. However, Gege is too obsessed with proving he's the smartest in the room. He's too focused on his dark physics theories about cursed techniques, his pseudo-Buddhist references, and when the time came for the Culling Games, he created a ridiculously complex game, convinced he’d have time to develop everything in his head.

But he couldn’t. And he failed. I don’t just think that only the grueling manga publication system in Japan impacted his mental health—it's just incredibly hard to maintain a vision and quality in something as long and complex as what he was proposing. From the Culling Games onward, he relies on after-the-fact explanations to patch up plot holes. Time skips are used to jump over gaps, and he makes the same mistake he did with Gojo: creating a character who can seemingly fix everything—Shoko. We never really get an explanation of how Shoko’s cursed technique works, its limits, or expansions. Why Nobara, yes; why Gojo, no. How does it work, does it get exhausted, where does it come from, how long does it take to work? You can't measure cursed technique input so precisely, then skip over basic rules like medical limitations, and you can’t always rely on a deus ex machina to fix narrative messes when you’re overwhelmed.

It’s not a lack of skill on Gege's part. It’s hubris.

But I said I’d be kind. So, onto part two: Gojo.

Gojo Satoru:

I’ve ranted before about Gojo Satoru’s fate—how introducing him, keeping him locked away, then giving him a completely anticlimactic liberation just to kill him off feels like a massive waste. I stand by that, but I also have to admit part of that perspective is my inner Gojo fan expressing frustration. The truth is, after the last chapter, I finally understood the deeper meaning of his character, though it left me heartbroken.

I can’t shake the idea that Gojo knew, more or less, while training before facing Sukuna, that he would die in that battle. He writes his farewell letters, establishes what to do with his body, and dies in peace, satisfied. I once wrote that both Gojo and Nanami lived on borrowed time. Their development and lives froze sometime between Riko Amanai’s death and Geto’s betrayal. It’s them people talk about when they say their youth was stolen: from that moment on, everything was an escape towards a future that only made sense with death.

I really can’t hate such a tragic twist to his character.

Okay, that was gentler but definitely sadder. Let’s wrap this up with something more positive.

Smile, you're free now.

If you’ve followed a series for years, it’s normal to feel a little empty when it ends. It’s happened to all of us. It will happen to you again in the future, don’t worry. Being a fan is something that’s in your blood, so you’ll find something else to latch onto. But if you still feel like Jujutsu Kaisen is a huge part of your life, don’t worry—you’ve got the fandom.

Sure, the JJK fandom is a little toxic, but it’s also the best gift Gege gave us. Now, without the pressure of canon, you can play however you like to fill in those unanswered gaps. You can write theories, read that fanfiction about your favorite ship, draw that scene you’re sure happened, jump into that forum to explain your stance on a character, write your own fix-it, commission a comic, rewatch the series, or even decide your favorite character isn’t your favorite anymore. You’re now free to enjoy the series at your own pace because the author has set you free from the path they were carving out.

Someone might come along and tell you that what you're saying is impossible because of “canon.” Nonsense. The JJK fandom, like almost every fandom, will be fleeting for some and rock solid for others. Do what makes you happy. Enjoy the upcoming anime. Expand the world-building. Play with everything like it’s made of clay.

And if someone gives you a hard time, think about this: Gege had a raw diamond, and he chose to smash it rather than shape it. Now, it’s your turn to take a piece and make a ring that fits your finger just right.

[thevegandarkelf]

Finding Myself, Finding You: Chapter Twenty-Nine

Masterlist

AO3 link

Let me know if you want to be added to the taglist <3 (18+ only, MDNI)

Story is 18+ for mature content/themes, minors do not interact please

TW/CWs for this story--implied/referenced past rape, canonical violence, non-canonical violence, blood, gore, referenced past suicide, swearing, surgery, excessive drinking, nightmares, panic attacks, mention of scars, vomiting, amputation, medical procedures, non-con medical procedures, referenced past medical torture, referenced past drugging, attempted sexual assault, panic attacks, mental health struggles, referenced sibling death, referenced parent death, PTSD

Each chapter will have its own TW/CWs listed

This story, Lydia Vector, her family, her bestie, and Jake (c) me, TheVeganDarkElf

TWD & its characters (c) AMC & Robert Kirkman, the writer of the comic series

TW/CWs for this chapter--swearing, mention of panic attacks, discussion of suicide

Word count: 3.5k

The nights were starting to get chilly, so Daryl grabbed my blanket off my bed and brought it downstairs. He cozied back up to me and draped it across our laps, snaking his arm back around me. He held me close while I drank my tea, making sure I was warm both inside and out. He tilted my head gently in his direction and planted another kiss on the side of my face, his facial hair lightly scratching my cheek. Ever since I gave Daryl permission to be more touchy, but particularly within the last few days, he’d been showering my head and face with kisses. It was like he couldn’t stop himself, like he couldn’t keep himself off of me. Dare I say my little Georgia peach was a bit…clingy in private. And I was eating that shit up.

What the hell did I ever do to deserve this man?

“Sorry ‘bout that again,” Daryl apologized, “really was just a slip-up.”

“I know, it’s ok.” I took another sip of my tea, tears welling up in the corners of my eyes. “I just don’t think I can go by Lydia again. Which honestly feels shitty.”

I thought I’d gotten all of my feelings out, but they continued to spill out of me against my will like word vomit. “I’ve had to grieve myself in a way. Grieve who I was before it happened. I miss her.” Daryl caught a tear as it ran down my cheek and wiped it away.

“Fuck, sorry,” I sighed, wiping tears off my other cheek with my sleeve, “I thought I was done crying.”

“Can cry as much as ya need,” Daryl reassured.

I set the now half-empty mug on the coffee table and leaned back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. “I swallowed all of this shit for a year. I thought if I ignored it, started going by my last name, didn’t think or talk about it, I could pretend like it never happened. I could move on. I could feel normal.”

I squeezed my eyes shut to try to prevent more tears from escaping and covered my face with my hands in shame. “I just wanna feel normal again. I can’t sleep, I can’t shower without having a panic attack, I can’t even look at myself. What the hell am I supposed to do?” I sobbed into my hands, some of my tears slipping around my hands and trickling into my ears. I did my best to stifle the sounds of my sobs as, frankly, I’d grown tired of hearing myself cry.

“Vec? Can ya look at me?” he asked. I rubbed my eyes with my fists and turned my head to him, resting it on the back of the couch. Despite rubbing my eyes, they quickly filled with tears again, clouding my visual of the beautiful man in front of me. He held my face with his hand, stroking my cheek and jawline with his thumb as he talked.

“Just ‘cause that happened don’t mean ya ain’t normal. Nothin’ ya did to deserve it, and it ain’t your fault. I’ll tell ya that as much as ya need to hear it.” He leaned forward and kissed my cheek, catching a tear as he did. “I know ya been strugglin’ a lot lately, but ya got this. And I’m here to help. Ain’t saying I got all the answers, but I ain’t gonna let ya try to figure it out all by yaself.”

I ask again, what the hell did I ever do to deserve this man?

“I’d say you’re gonna make me cry, but I already am,” I said. I locked my eyes with his. Though my vision was still cloudy, I knew he was doing that thing with his eyes again, looking deep into mine, past all the tears and the trauma and the bullshit. No human had ever made me feel so seen, safe, and cared for. “You’re incredible, Daryl. I don’t know what else to say.”

“For someone who talks a lot, surprisin’ to see ya speechless,” he teased, pulling a tiny smile from me.

I did have words. But those words were I love you, and to me, this wasn’t the most appropriate context to say them for the first time. I was saving them for the right occasion.

“Fuck, my whole body hurts,” I groaned, stretching my arms over my head, “I feel like I got hit by a bus.”

“I can help with that,” Daryl offered, practically stumbling over his words before backtracking slightly, “I mean, only if ya want.” I snickered a little at his enthusiasm.

“If you could just get my shoulders, that would be amazing,” I requested. I turned sideways on the couch, and Daryl moved his legs to allow me to sit in between them. I took my ponytail over my shoulder and held it up to ensure it would be out of the way.

The way Daryl worked at my shoulders was heavenly. The man knew what he was doing with his hands, that’s for sure.

Only Daryl was somehow able to work with such vigor and tenderness at the same time, massaging my pain away in the most gentle manner. I closed my eyes and let out a series of soft, satisfied hums as the knots in my muscles melted away with ease. He’d never given me a massage before, but it was like he was already attuned to my sore body and knew exactly what I needed. He worked at my shoulders before moving to the back of my neck. The work-worn, calloused skin of his hands, carved from days upon days of manual labor, felt euphoric against mine. He got the knots out of my neck and moved his hands up into my hair, massaging my scalp, a favorite of mine.

That level of affection, care, safety, and adoration, combined with my vulnerable emotional state, sent me into a fit of sobs once again.

I buried my face in my hands, catching the tears on my sleeves as they came cascading down. My eyes were warm under my fingers from how much crying I’d done throughout the day. The poor things couldn’t seem to catch a break.

“Hey, you’re ok,” Daryl reassured, snaking his fingers out of my hair and wrapping his arms around me, pulling me snugly against him and resting his head on my shoulder. The soothing blanket of warmth that emanated from him quickly cocooned me, adding another layer to the safety and comfort I was feeling.

“These are happy tears, I promise,” I explained through choked sobs, “or relieved tears, I guess. I was…just thinking is all.”

“Thinkin’ ‘bout what?” he asked. I slipped out of his embrace just enough to turn around, still nestled between his legs, but facing him instead. My vision was no longer cloudy with tears, and I got to lay my eyes on the now crystal-clear, gorgeous human being before me. I took his face in my hands, stroking his high cheekbones with my thumbs. Another elvish feature of his, I suppose.

“How good you are to me. How safe you make me feel. How comfortable I am around you,” I elaborated, gently pulling his head forward to give him a kiss on his cute little button nose, “I can keep going if you want.”

He didn’t say anything, but simply nodded. His skin began to get warm under my hands, indicating he was on the verge of blushing, and that signature tiny smile crept its way across his lips. “How you make me feel appreciated, seen, adored, happy. Also thinking about how it feels kind of good to have finally gotten that off my chest. And about how sorry I still am for blowing up on you.”

“Ya can stop apologizin’ now. It’s alright, promise,” he assured, taking my hands off of his face and holding them in his, “feels good to know I make ya feel safe, happy, all that. ‘S all I want for ya.” He stroked my fingers with his. “Feelin’ any better, sunshine?”

“A little, maybe,” I replied, covering my mouth to stifle a rather obnoxious yawn.

“Should get ya to sleep,” he suggested, “rest’ll do ya some good.”

“I don’t…I don’t wanna sleep,” I said, yawning again. It was as if even uttering the word ‘sleep’ was making me tired. I dropped my voice to a soft whisper and twiddled my thumbs around each other. “I don’t wanna see his face.” Daryl offered an empathetic look before dropping his gaze for a moment, followed by a sigh.

“Then let’s just get ya comfortable,” he said. I nodded and picked my mug of tea back up, gulping down the rest of it. I didn’t want any of Daryl’s hard work to go to waste. A bit of tea escaped the bottom of the mug and dripped down my chin, which I quickly wiped away with my sleeve.

“Thank you for this, by the way,” I said, setting the mug back down on the coffee table, “I don’t know what you did, but it tastes better when you make it.”

“’s how I feel when ya make dinner,” he replied.

Glad to know both of us were incorporating love into what we made, and both of us were noticing.

I slipped out from between Daryl’s legs, giving him room to stand. He took the blanket off my legs and draped it around my back, taking my disheveled ponytail and moving it out of the way. The blanket flowed behind me like a cape as I followed Daryl up the stairs, stopping outside my bedroom door.

“Daryl, can you stay with me?” I asked, tugging gently on his sleeve, “I don’t wanna be alone right now.”

“Never thoughta leavin’ for a second,” he replied, planting a kiss on my forehead, “c’mon.”

I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a bit of a pep in my step as I walked around to the far side of my bed. Daryl crawled in on the other side, scooting back until his back was flush with the headboard. I laid my blanket over top and slid under the covers, rolling onto my side to face Daryl and pulling the covers up to my chin.

“Could you lay down with me?” I requested, pulling the covers up to my nose in anticipation of him saying no.

He moved under the covers without hesitation, like he wanted to and was just waiting for me to give the green light to do so. I kept the covers pulled up to my nose, smiling like an idiot underneath and averting my eyes to prevent myself from turning more red than I’m sure I already was. He laid on his side, propping his head up with one hand and reaching out to me with the other.

“Why ya gettin’ all bashful?” he asked, tucking some of my hair behind my ear. He was doing that thing again where he took extra time draping it around my ear, like he didn’t want to take his hand off of me.

Because there’s a handsome man in my bed next to me, I thought.

I answered his question with another question. “Hey Daryl?”

“Yeah?”

I blushed heavily and pulled the covers up over my face. “…nevermind.”

“Nah, c’mon. What is it?” I poked my eyes out over the edge of the covers.

“Can…umm…would it be alright…if we cuddled?” I asked sheepishly, twirling my thumbs together under the sheets and averting my eyes, “I’m a big cuddler. If you don’t want to, of course, that’s more than ok.”

Daryl hardly missed a beat before he responded. “Get over here.” My face lit up, and I scooted over to him. I rested my head on his chest, pressed my body as close to his as possible, and placed an arm over his stomach. He put an arm around me, resting his hand on my lower back and taking my hand in his other one. The flutters in my stomach kicked into high gear as I draped my leg over his.

I’d been yearning for this moment for ages.

“Is your arm gonna be alright?” I asked.

“Probably fall asleep at some point, but it’s worth it. Long as you’re comfortable,” he said as he adjusted the blankets to make sure we were both covered. Daryl always had a warmth that emanated from him, it was one of my favorite things about him. But now, he was more warm than ever, and there was something different about it. It was like his feelings for me were radiating off of his body.

“Oh, I’m very comfy,” I reassured, nuzzling my head further into his chest, “are you?”

“Hell yeah. Shoulda done this sooner.” He wrapped his arm around me tighter, like he was afraid I would slip away. But I certainly wasn’t going anywhere. It filled me with the warm fuzzies knowing he was enjoying the moment just as much as I was.

“Damn right we should’ve,” I agreed. I could slightly make out the faint beating of his heart. The rise and fall of his chest under my head combined with the soft lub-dub sound was damn near the sweetest lullaby I’d ever heard. “I can hear your heartbeat. It sounds nice.”

“Glad ya think so, Buttercup,” Daryl replied.

“Buttercup?” I kinked my head up to look at him and giggled softly. “That’s a new one.”

“Ya don’t like it?”

“No, I do. It’s cute. Gotta add that one to the roster.”

“If it gets ya gigglin’ like that again, I’ll call ya whatever ya want.”

I smiled softly before dropping my gaze, hesitant to ask the question I’d been wondering so much about and potentially ruin such a perfect moment. “Hey Daryl? I might regret asking this, but…what happened with Jake after I left?”

Daryl licked his lips like he was deep in thought, like he was debating whether to tell me now or suggest we wait until morning and he’d share then. He opted for the former. “He’s gone. Left him alone for a while after ya left and…he drank the antiseptic ya left behind.” My eyes grew wide like they were going to bug out of my skull. Of all the directions I could’ve predicted Jake’s fate going, that wasn’t one of them. “Guess he figured he’d be better off dead than not bein’ able to run from a hoard o’ walkers.”

“Well, he certainly got his just desserts, didn’t he?” I commented, “honestly, I'm glad it worked out that way.” I breathed a sigh of relief, and my chest ached as it came out, like I’d been holding it in all day. A small smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. “Maybe not in the fashion that it did, but he’s gone, and he can’t hurt anyone. That’s all that matters to me.”

“Sorry ‘gain ‘bout what he said,” Daryl said, “ya should’nt’ve had to deal with him. Feel guilty for not tryin’ harder to talk ya out of it.” His fingers drew little shapes on my lower back, and this time, I knew I felt a heart shape being drawn.

“You don’t have anything to feel guilty over,” I reassured. I briefly leaned my face into my arm to stifle a yawn. “I wanted to do it. I don’t think there was any talking me out of it.”

Despite my mind not wanting sleep, my body was demanding it. Daryl’s chest rising and falling under my head and rocking it gently, the soft sound of his heartbeat, and the warmth of his body enveloping me were all making it difficult to stay awake. After the day I had, I knew rest was ultimately what I needed, and wrapped up in bed with Daryl, I knew I would be safe.

I angled my head to look back up at him. He was already looking down at me, that signature tiny smile of his spread across his lips. He looked particularly angelic at this angle, the light of the moon coming in through the window highlighting his more prominent features. I hadn’t even confessed that I was in love with him, and it was like I was falling in love all over again.

“Could get used to this,” he practically cooed. He let go of my hand, only for a moment, to comb it through my hair and down my face, stroking my cheekbone with his thumb before taking my hand in his again.

“Me too,” I agreed, my cheeks aching from the giant smile that was spread across them.

As I lulled off into dreamland, Daryl kissed the top of my head and whispered something into my hair with that sweet accent of his. And I had the best night of sleep I’d had in almost 2 years.

When I woke in the morning, I was on my side, this time facing the wall opposite the door. Daryl was cozied up tight, spooning me, his arm draped across my waist. His face was buried in my hair, and his breathing caused some stray hairs to tickle the back of my neck with each exhale. I didn’t recall ever rolling around in the middle of the night, but I was delighted to have ended up in the position I was in, regardless of how it happened.

I laid there awake for some time, staring out the window, as I dared not wake my little Georgia peach from his beauty sleep. Not like he needed any though. His soft snoring tickled my ear, and it was one of the sweetest sounds I’d ever heard. Eventually, though, my bladder demanded I get out of bed. I tried to shift myself away slowly, but once I got a couple of inches away, Daryl’s arm pulled me back snugly against his body. I giggled a little and tried to move again, but his arm kept me in place. I turned my head so I could see his face over my shoulder. He appeared to still be asleep.

“Daryl, I have to pee,” I whispered. He didn’t say anything or open his eyes, but his death grip around my waist loosened enough to let me slip out of bed. He rolled onto his back as I got up.

I stopped for a moment and admired him, watching the covers rise and fall with his chest. His adorable sleeping face, bedhead unkempt and messy, his soft and almost melodic snoring…he was beautiful first thing in the morning.

After I came back from the bathroom, Daryl was sat up in bed, his back against the headboard. At some point in the night, he had taken his shirt off, and I got to lay my eyes on the gorgeous sight that was shirtless Daryl. I’d only seen Daryl shirtless one other time when I stitched up his back. I knew he was insecure about his scars, so I never pressed the issue. To me, he had nothing to be insecure about. The man was sculpted like a god, and he had the cutest patch of chest hairs. I quickly and repeatedly swallowed the saliva collecting in my mouth to keep myself from drooling.

I must’ve been ovulating or something.

“Mornin’ sunshine,” he greeted. His deep morning voice put a smile on my face. I wanted to wake up like this every day for the rest of my life.

“Mornin’ to you too,” I replied, walking back over to my side of the bed, “did I sleep through the night?”

“Almost. Ya’s stirrin’ at one point, so I woke ya. Quickly fell back asleep after that,” he explained. I crawled back into bed and scooted over to him, laying my legs across his lap.

“I don’t remember waking up. Thank you for doing that,” I said. A small, flirty smirk crossed my lips. “Y’know what that means, right?”

Daryl brushed his hair out of his eyes and took my hand in his, playing with my fingers. “Do share.”

“We’ll have to sleep like this from now on,” I enlightened, my cheeks turning a baby pink, “y’know, to make sure I don’t fall out of bed sobbing anymore.”

“Right,” he agreed, “can’t have that happenin’ no more.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me up into his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him on the forehead. I could feel the pink on my face changing to red.

“You’re leaving today, right?” I recollected, a hint of sadness in my voice, “another hunting excursion?”

“Don’t gotta leave for a while yet,” he elaborated. He took my face in his hand and brought it close to his, planting a kiss on the lower part of my cheek, dangerously close to my mouth. “Got some time to cuddle still. If ya want, that is.”

“Yeah. I’d like that a lot.”

Taglist: @raddydaddydude @lovenormandixon @angeldemoncrowley

[voidartichoke]

Looking for Touhou and Card Game nerds

For the past year or so I've been making a Touhou card game. I'm no where near finished but I'd like to show you some of what I have. If you're interested please consider joining me as a playtester/artist/writer. I need all the help I can get! I don't even have a name for this thing yet!!

I don't have a game engine yet but you could get started playtesting right away if u have a copy of Tabletop Simulator. My game features fast paced yugioh-inspired tcg action. Go toe to toe with with one opponent or battle 2v2! Dance around bullet effects for control of the board! Cards are summoning themselves left and right and all the breaks are off!

What sets my game apart? Quite a few things

Well to start I have spirit orbs. Each player starts with 6 spirit orbs at the start of the match. During each draw step the turn player gets 4 spirit orbs. (Unless its the first turn)

There's a resource system?!! How could you possibly call it yugioh inspired if theres a resource system?

Well thats the funny thing! Did you know Yugioh has a resource system? Its called the normal summon and its a beautiful, marvelous thing but this is my own take on it to fit into the world of gensokyo. You can spirit summon cards from your hand to start your plays, but thats not all you can do...

YOU CAN GRAZE- Targeted negate? Dodge it. Targeted destruction? Dodge it. Just the opponent attacking your cards? You can dodge that too! If you've got the spirit, grazing past your opponent's effects is a breeze. Just keep in mind that the game is balanced around having a LOT of targeted interaction so you can't dodge everything, unless you're a legend like that

RAMP OR HOARD IT- Save up to 12 spirit orbs. If you play your card's right you can easily reach this cap and be prepared for anything that comes your way! CASH OUT- Ah! It seems you stopped my combo starter. Well then... what will you do about the second one?

There's no limit to how many times you can spirit summon per turn!The 2nd turn player is always guaranteed to have enough spirit to spirit summon at least two low level summons!!

Okay okay. Spirit sounds pretty cool but what else is there?

BOOM! Spell cards! It wouldn't be a Touhou game without some of these. But we're not talking about spell cards like Yugioh. This is... your life bar???

Unlike a traditional life bar, each player has three spell cards with unique health totals on them and powerful effects. A player loses when all three of their spell cards become captured! You can play it safe and declare your spell cards one at a time to maximize your survival or you can go all in and play multiple at once to push your board's limits at the risk of getting OTK'ED!

Anyways thats all I can reveal for now. If you want to know more, just lemme know and consider joining my team! I'm about 200 cards into the game with around 7 playable archetypes and I'm still going! Also... I REALLY STINK AT GRAPHICS HELP ME OUT OUT HERE!

If you read this far, thanks for reading! Girls are now designing card games... please wait warmly

[yeahiamjustalittleguy]

I've been looking everywhere for hermitcraft writers, I have so many ideas they race through my head so fast.

(More than okay to ignore this!!)

Can I get something with Sculk! CubFan? Maybe just some fluff with the reader being concerned for his health with all the Sculk over his body. I'm so normal about Sculk Cub I swear.

Have a good one :]]

I'm sorry i made him ALL too cheeky but I couldn't help myself,, I feel like he would be such a tease when he is all possessed. He knows the power he has man...

____________________________________

You were not usually someone to judge. Hermitcraft was filled with weird people, so when one of them showed some kind of ideation, it wasn’t really your place to say anything, now was it? You had your own crazy schemes and ideas all the time, and you are about 99% sure that most of the time everyone around you thought you were insane too, and no one got on your back about it. That’s just how it was, it was a server made for talented and crazy people to just do what they do. So, you were not going to judge any of them. Especially not when the individual you had in mind also happened to be the cutest person in the whole wide world. 

Cub apparently picked up quite a bit of sickness from Empires. Or at least that’s what everyone else was saying. You, being the better person that you were, didn’t like to refer to it like that. Sure, Cub had changed quite a bit since the whole rift situation, but he seemed to be fine and again, why would you judge the cutest guy you knew? If he was happy, then sure were you. But that’s not what started to concern you. First, it was the sleeping less. You could deal with a bit of insomnia, people have that. You’re not really someone who fusses over the small things. But then slowly something started happening to his body. It was colder to the touch, is what you noticed. When you’d asked him if he was alright, he had told you he was doing great so you’d shrugged that off too. But when these little blue vines started to appear on his body, as well as his skin becoming gray, leaning on black, that’s where you drew the line. 

You’d not even noticed how bad it had gotten, you realized, staring at his arms and hands instead of his face as he talked to you. To be honest, you could barely concentrate on a single word that came out of his mouth. While you were considering if you were even going to mention it, because of how he always went on about how great he felt, he must have seemed to notice that you were not listening to a single thing he was saying, cause he put a hand on your shoulder to try and alert you to himself. “You’re obviously not listening, are you?” He then asked, and you blushed in embarrassment, as you were caught red handed. He laughed, and his eyes glowed an unnatural shade of blue, a huge contrast to his usually brown eyes. “Don’t laugh, Cub! I was distracted, it’s not your fault either.” You pleaded, trying to explain to him that it had nothing to do with him. You never wanted to make him feel like he wasn’t interesting to you, when he was the most interesting person you knew.

“What’s gotten your attention, then?” He asked, looking around the Empires’ server, acting like he was trying to spot whatever had caught your attention, when he knew nothing interesting was going to be around. Except him, of course. That’s when you decided to bring his state of being to his own attention. “To be quite honest with you, Cub, you’re looking rather different. I know you say you’re feeling great and all, but I’m not sure you’re being honest with me.” You told him, and he cycled through quite a few different emotions before a smirk came to his face. You knew that it meant trouble, cause it was the same smirk he always got when he was about to cause some kind of mischief. 

“I can’t prove to you I am okay, unless, of course…” He leaned in, putting his hand on the wall behind you to support himself with how close he was leaning to you. You knew he was doing it in an attempt to fluster you, and you were determined to not let him get to you. You wanted this to be serious. You wanted to make sure he was genuinely okay. “You’d like to get sculky with me?” He finished, wiggling his eyebrows at you suggestively. Scoffing, you pushed him back into a fully standing position by lightly shoving your hand against his chest. “I think you’re deflecting now, Cub.” You said, narrowing your eyes at him to know you were being serious. This was not a sculk shilling moment, this was a moment between you two. 

“I’ve already told you I’m doing great. And now that I’ve listened, buttercup, now it’s your turn.” He said, grabbing your waist and pulling you close. He was having an attitude today, and you didn’t know if it was being in another server, the sculk growing on him, or just the fact you’d been less than attentive. All you knew was that for some reason, whenever he touched you, your little cheeks would warm up and go all red. And this attitude was making him do it all the more. “You know, if you joined me, there would be many perks.” He said, smiling devilishly down at you. He was going to try to sell you the idea of sculk again, but he was doing a good job because you were all but ensnared by how curious you were about what perks he might have been referring to. “Like what?” You couldn't help but ask, wanting to know where he was getting at. Or maybe you already knew and just really wanted him to touch you more and make your cheeks all warm and your tummy all fuzzy. 

If it was even possible, he drew you closer by your waist, leaning his head slightly into the crook of your neck to whisper to you. “Do you want me to show you, buttercup?” He asked, his voice slow and slightly lower than usual. You knew what he was doing, but it just made you feel so nice and tingly, how were you supposed to stop him when this was something that you’d always wanted. If nothing else, you would thank whatever possessed the man for the confidence he gained. Hopefully, when this was all over (everyone was going to cure him eventually) he’d still have this confidence so you could finally stop dancing around each other. Having been caught up in your own thoughts, you nearly jumped out of your skin when you felt his hot breath on your neck, all too close. “I’m gonna need you to answer me, buttercup.” He said, leaving you with goosebumps all over your body. You don’t know where the pet name even came from either, but this was all too much to handle.

“Stooopp, Cub. I’m not going to join you.” You whine, placing your hands on both his shoulders and leaning back a bit to at least try and make some kind of distance again so that you wouldn’t start melting. Staring at you, that dumb smile still on his face, he suddenly surprised you by leaning in and planting a small kiss on your cheek. “That’s okay, even if you never come around, I’d still be around you.” 

You could have melted and died right there. Maybe this sculk thing wasn’t all that bad.

[dykeomania]

in thinking about moving forward,

this is the last thing i will say on this. i would feel really weird if i didn't have this on my blog, while continuing to run it. i apologize that this is so long.

i think it is incredibly important to begin navigating how we are going to cater to the experiences of women [and nonbinary individuals -- my! fault! i am so sorry, thank you**] who have felt particularly left out as told by the uproar that's been going on for these past few months apparently, and by these current conversations.

if women and/or nonbinary individuals who feel like they cannot find themselves in fics have to write them themselves, be it for a particular reader insert or for a more general one, then some kind of sub-community needs to be made to nurture and amplify that sentiment, at this time. i do not know if that is preexisting. if it does exist, it needs to be expanded upon or heavily revised.

as both a reader and a writer, if you see yourself in something, it is absolutely necessary that you ride for it so that other people can have the opportunity to see themselves in it, as well. and if you can't write certain perspectives, then embrace them. it's like completely normal to decorate your blog with things that align with who you are and the kind of desires you have, but at this time, as a community, it's really important to make room for neglected narratives.

and finally, for the love of god, please, stop being so fucking horrific to people.

it is okay not to like pillow princesses or, it's okay if you have a hard time vibing with hyper, hyperhyperhyperfeminine personas. your idea of what sex, femininity, and queer expression looks like does not have to coincide with their expression and definition, and that's completely normal. but under absolutely no circumstances is it okay to be antagonistic or threatening towards someone because of how they interpret their queerness. that is homophobic, and it is pride month. hyperfemininity is inherently queer in and of itself, just by theoretical principle. that doesn't make it immune to criticism -- absolutely not. but you are being mock-righteously** hurtful towards people and telling them to go off themselves, all because you don't like them writing for white bitches with fishtail braids and shitty mullets. principally, you have to understand how awkward that is. that doesn't look okay. you don't move like that towards queer people who are different from you, in real life. that's not what being queer is about.

i don't know how long any of this has been going on for and frankly, i really don't want to. what needs to happen now, is that people need to feel held in order for this to properly scab over. this applies to everyone. this is deep and if it got this deep, then it always has been. it's fundamental that something is done, in light of this, to keep going strong.

i don't want this community to be mortally wounded and divided by all of the shit that's been happening, and i'm like, so sad, that it has come to this point. i'm in a position where i can only mobilize but much (and i will if i have to, but my main priorities are my research, my girlfriend, my friends, and my family, and tbh just being happy and taking care of my mental health). but i really implore those who can / are able to, to just make something of this while holding down their own. i know y'all can everything considered, so just do it.

this was very embarrassing and not a good look for a lot of different people. if you need to apologize to someone, go apologize. if someone feels a way about how you moved during all of this, don't get defensive, because it was probably weird. move accordingly so that everyone can enjoy themselves in this community, again.

get it together. preferably within the next week or so.

tough love.

[eggzspider]

my thoughts on homeschooling/unschooling as a previously homeschooled child now in education

for reference when reading i went into alternative education aged 14, mainstream education aged 16 and am currently 18.

lowkey i think homeschooling was awesome for me. but i am also very aware that a whole lot of parents homeschool for entirely the wrong reasons. bc religion/alternative beliefs are quite big where im from, a lot of parents have this calling from god to neglect their kids idk. my mother definitely fell victim to a lot of these mindsets, especially since the lockdowns, as she became super entrenched in conspiracy theories, and being a "truther" (??) but my dad is very conventional so i think i got lucky in that. both my parents made sure i was seeing people and socialising as well as doing decently well academically.

all that being said, i think a lot of my positive experience is to do with my generally being academically inclined anyway. when i entered education, i didn't struggle to keep up, and after adjusting i found school/college a really good environment. this most definitely does not go for other families though. a lot of the other homeschooled kids I've known have found adjusting to that environment really difficult, especially regarding self regulation, and just generally making this huge switch from "child led learning" to the structure of classroom learning and such. what i did find difficult was not being able to play into my strengths, eg i am a good artist and writer, but i suck at maths and sciences, and normally that wouldn't have even occurred to me, if i found something boring (long division) i just wouldn't do it and would find something fun (write more or draw or wtv) to do. this uneven kind of education did mean that i ended up resitting various exams, which did do some deeply evil things to my self esteem/mental health

socially, i do feel very .. idk . weird ?? i dont think that being homeschooled makes you into a genuine socially inept outcast, if youre a cool person and not a dick people dgaf, but i do also think that ive missed out on a lot of experiences that other people my age had. when i entered education, i hadnt really had much experience of pop culture, an didn't really get a lot of jokes and things which did result in some generally quite minor bulling when i was in my mid teens. i think i have a lot more independence, but i think that might be just a me thing, as i also knew kids who literally wouldn't leave their rooms bc they were so unused to being around other people. aside from that i also think i have less of an inclination to follow trends, and get super wrapped up in social politics. i am just generally alternative, culturally, musically, artistically whatever, but i do blame this on the homeschooling, most of the adults i was around were very conscious of things like consumerism, capitalism, and environmental awareness which influenced me a lot. it amazes me on the regular that people are so genuinely uncaring about these things, and how culturally sterile a lot of people are. being able to seek out my own entertainment without peer pressure or a curriculum to follow got me to explore a lot of things (esp the arts) in my own time, and get some really deep understandings of things that i wouldn't have learned in school, but have really helped me now I'm finishing college, (uk init) and starting to prepare for university.

on top of this a lot A LOT of homeschooled kids are queer. like and insane proportion. turns out if you don't have a constant threat of bullying, or unwanted outing, you will be so much more inclined experiment with gender and sexuality without fear and repression. im transmasc and queer, and have received virtually no harassment or discrimination from other homeschooled kids or their families. even super fundamental families who homeschool to make sure their kids dont learn about dinosaurs and transsexuals are honestly remarkably chill.

so yeahg i think homeschooling is. ok. not for everyone. i think a good way to think of it from a parents perspective is "is my kid going to be in a better environment in mainstream education? are they going to be better off socially as well as educationally? are there things that school can offer that i cant, and vice versa?" and preferably not "aha yes you will stay at home forever to skin rabbits and say scriptures."

TLDR: i loved being homeschooled bc it made me a pseudointellectual aesthetically minded art freak. homeschool your kid if you want a peculiar homosexual child with PLUR values and an educational minmax build but you must unfortunately have a lot of time on your hands and resist brainwashing your child at all costs. peace and love.

[basilone]

@hesbuckcompton-baby tagged me in this one, ty! 💚I know a lot of folks have gone and done this one already, but please if you wanna do it consider yourself tagged right now! misc tag game!

favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

I really loved Prague when I went there for a citytrip aeons ago. The atmosphere of that city and its chill style really vibed with me. We’d rented an apartment, so it felt way less like visiting and more like living there for a couple of days. Remember just standing on the balcony in the very early morning watching the locals waking up and starting their day – that sense of utter inner tranquillity I had in that moment has really stuck with me.

something you’re proud of yourself for?

Uhm, I dropped out of school when I was fifteen. That part isn’t a point of pride, just a fact of life. And I had a lot of people pushing me this way and that way since, telling me I’d never make it and that I needed to sacrifice pretty much all of my mental health in order to fit the standard idea of what fifteen-year-olds should be doing with their time. I didn’t listen to them and started to carve out my own way instead. We’re almost twenty years on from my dropping out, and I can safely say this: I made it. I’ve got a great job I love, I’ve got people around me who lift me up, and my mental health is good enough for me to thrive 90% of the time. I have worked my ass off to get to where I am right now, and fought a long uphill battle to make life sing again. And it’s made me so resilient and so certain of myself, you know? I’m superproud of myself for sticking around in this world and making something awesome of my own path in it.

favorite books?

Rebecca (by Daphne du Maurier), Anna Karenina (by Tolstoy), Son of the Shadows (by Juliet Marillier), The Braided Path trilogy (by Chris Wooding), and Ash: A Secret History (by Mary Gentle).

something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

The prospect of curling up on the couch/in bed with a really good book for company. Can’t beat that!

favorite thing about your culture?

The way I almost went “which culture” lmao. 😂 Which really almost is an answer in itself, as I think Dutch culture is a collective of many different things? We’re traders/explorers by nature and our identity tends to slip into something pretty multifaceted. That said, I come from a specific part of this country where people still routinely speak a dialect and where the cultural events are a lot more in-your-face celebratory. My fave thing about this particular cultural offshoot, which I grew up in, is that you can play all the Dutch-language songs you could ever want without anyone bothering to so much as hum the tune… but the second you play a song in my dialect is the second you get the whole crowd singing along. Something about poetic expression? Yeah.

when did you join the hbo war fandom? what was the first show you watched?

In 2020! At least, that’s when I immersed into the fandom here on Tumblr and watched Band of Brothers/The Pacific back-to-back. Gen Kill was actually my first, though, as I’d read that book some years before and watched that one without fandom-dipping first.

have you read any of easy company’s books? if so, which ones were your favorite?

Yes! Bill & Babe’s book is so nice.

favorite hbo war character and your favorite moment with them?

*inhales* Speirs. Night time, speech time. Local forest cryptid says shady shit about war, more at eleven. I’ll never be normal about him so.

do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

Fun fact: I usually advocate against using the term ‘content’ when describing creative pursuits, for reasons I’m not gonna get into right now because that’s a rant for when I’m feeling particularly feisty. That said, I’m a writer and gifmaker. I’m more known for the latter, but the former is where my heart really lies.

favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

I have a few favorites that’re way up there in terms of how mesmerizing they are, but I’m going to mention one that isn’t mentioned nearly enough: Tom Pelphrey. Truly one of the most captivating actors of our time. He tends to do TV shows more than movies – please, look up his monologue from Ozark if you have a moment – and so I get to rec Banshee to y’all while I’m at it. He’s amazing in that.

favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

Look, I’ve lived by the words “seize the day because tomorrow you might be dead” for years now. I think it originated in Buffy, but I’ve adopted it and it’s mine now. Life wisdom from yours truly, boom.

random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

I’m really into astronomy, outer space, etc.

if you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader?

I used to have beta readers back when I started writing, yeah, so I’m not gonna advocate against using one. Sometimes you need that extra pair of eyes, that nitpicking, that moment of being confronted with your own hubris. I’m my own beta at this point in my writing journey, but I still have a group of people around me who get first dibs on reading my stuff because I trust they’ll give it to me straight and pick out any lingering idiocies on my end. Which doesn’t stop me from shoving something onto the internet that has never seen an edit a day in its life, ahem.

three things that make you smile?

Put me near an alpaca and watch my face brighten, I dare ya. Also big fan of bookstores. Even bigger fan of AO3’s notification mails for fic reviews.

any nicknames you like?

Killy’s my most-used nickname, and we’re vibing!

list some people you love to see around on tumblr!

If I follow you, I love to see ya. That’s just how this thing works. But I’m gonna shout out my writing-and-life-support crew here because without them I would be nowhere much at all: @mercurygray, @junojelli, @shoshiwrites, @arethosedustyjumpwings. You lot are the real deal who’ve stuck to me like glue, and that means so much more than words can say.

what would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

Look, I have a zombie survival plan drawn up in my head but it essentially involves not being near people ever again. Because we’ve gone through a pandemic now and I don’t trust people to follow quarantine instructions or anything else that mildly inconveniences them. So. In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I’m sorry in advance, I’m gonna cry-scream-piñatapunch my way through any and all stupidity. If you see me running, please know I’m being chased because there’s no other way you’ll ever see me running voluntarily.

favourite movie?

Singin’ In The Rain. This needs no further explanation.

do you like horror movies?

Yes and no. I do not vibe with horror movies that get really gory for the sake of shock value. Can’t do it, won’t do it. But I’m a biiiiiiig fan of the final girl trope, I can’t go a day without pondering vampires, and I really love old horror movies and the progression of horror stories throughout the years. It’s fascinating to me to see how specific types of horror interact with the history/culture of that time it was created in: horror is never created in a vacuum, and its storytelling beats are so inspirational.

[itsbenedict]

Games I Played In 2023 And Whether Or Not I Thought They Were Good (Part 2/4)

Yup, there's more! Lot of 'em this year.

[1] - 2 - [3] - [4]

Trails into Reverie

Sad to say, a... nightmarishly bad finale to the Erebonia/Crossbell saga of Trails.

The one thing I'll give it is that the core combat gameplay remains super fun, and carries the experience- they're always finding new ways to expand and iterate on the battle system, and this time is no exception.

Otherwise... man, where do I start? The story is just... such a mess. They clearly intended this to be, like... the big climax to the Crossbell games, where the people fight to reclaim their independence from Erebonian occupation- but, uh, whoops, they obviated that entire conflict with the end of Cold Steel, so they pull ridiculous Ouroboros shenanigans out of their ass to recreate that conflict as if the previous resolution never happened. Feels like they developed half the game with a specific set of antagonists in mind, and then whatever hack writer they have running the show over there changed their mind about how Cold Steel would resolve and they had to bend over backwards to make up a new antagonist who just happened to be using the same occupying army and main badguy they just dealt with already.

And structure aside, it's just... wow. Just playing the hits of awful hand-wavey writing decisions, villain motivations that make no sense, anime-ass fanservice, and sucking its own dick over how cool the cast is despite most of them doing nothing and existing only as action figures for the combat. It started stupid, threatened to become halfway interesting as it set up the intrigue, and then shat the bed in the finale by revealing that absolutely none of the intrigue mattered and that the villain was like dogs and just sort of did things arbitrarily. Never hated Trails writing more than this one. What an embarrassing display.

also like half the game's runtime is padded out with level grinding in an inexplicable magic cyber-dungeon like in Sky 3rd, which keeps acting like it's going to be important to the plot but then manages to somehow not come up even a little bit at all. and it's got a gacha in it even though it's all in-game currency and there's no real money shop so why would you bother doing that? does someone at Falcom think that gachas are actually intrinsically fun and not a shitty tactic to get people addicted to gambling? what's even wrong with them???

DREDGE

This is a fun fishing game! Except you're fishing for Lovecraftian nightmares! You're a fisherman on a fishing boat and the locals will pay extra for fish that have been horribly mutated by the unholy energies of the depths, so you have to keep finding weirder and weirder fish to finance the boat upgrades you need to find weirder and weirder fish.

I'd say... it works very well in the first half, as you're upgrading your boat and being slow-rolled on the eldritch horror, and kind of falls apart towards the end. The first couple areas are full of various NPCs and sidequests and things to do, and you always have something to do with your resources...

...but later on, the game's economy gets a little lopsided and a lot of the stuff you're hauling up just wastes space in your inventory because you're past the point where it matters but the game keeps throwing it at you. Areas are also a lot more sparse and lonely, and it ends up getting kind of repetitive.

Still, it's not too long, it has some really good atmosphere, and that first stretch is really engaging and tightly designed.

Wildfrost

This is one of them roguelike deckbuilders that are all the rage lately! And it is a difficult one. Even when you're good at it, you probably don't win most runs. Enemies are strong, you only get to play one card per turn, and you have to be really careful managing the action economy to make sure you don't get hit. You are a unit on the map, a unit without that much more health than normal summons, and if you die it's game over. Enemies hit hard and have various triggered abilities that punish you for playing sloppy- you'll frequently find yourself in no-win scenarios out of nowhere because you didn't sequence your moves right.

The other crazy thing is... the final boss? When you beat it, your hero gets possessed and becomes the final boss of the next run. Find some crazy broken synergy that steamrolls the boss? Great! Good luck finding a way to beat it next time around! The final fight's difficulty starts to scale out of control, and forces you to keep one-upping your own strategy with clever tricks.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

This was released on April Fools, and... it's not that great, honestly. The title's basically clickbait- it's a murder mystery-themed party, and Sonic's not actually dead and no one thinks Sonic is actually dead. That wouldn't really be a problem (just kind of a missed opportunity), but...

I mean, this game is for babies. I guess I'm spoiled by real mystery games, but like... it's this completely linear sequence of rooms with one or two suspects to interrogate each, hiding precisely one secret that you uncover via the most dead-obvious deductions in the world. The core mystery works but doesn't really make you feel clever or anything.

It is, like... funny, though. Sorta. I mean, as funny as it can be with the totally toothless premise and a cast that's...

...I'm gonna be honest, I've never understood why people have so much love for the Sonic cast. They all feel so one-dimensional and tedious, and they're typically unmoored from any consistent world or setting that could give them something interesting to do. They have to get by on the strength of their personalities, which are a little flat since there's only so far they can push the bit in a kids' game.

The other thing that bugs me is... y'know ProZD's Danganronpa video? This game has a bad case of "BUT CAN YOU SPELL THE WORD KNIFE?", where in between every bit of deduction or progression, you have to play a completely unrelated minigame where you play as Sonic running along a course where you have to pick up X rings by the end or else restart it, which serves as a loose metaphor for the process of Thinking Really Hard. It's got a wonky isometric perspective and the levels are all both boring and difficult and it felt like a huge waste of time. And they get harder and longer over time, until you're spending longer on the bad minigame than on the actual game game.

Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend

This is a Slay the Spire clone, but it's Touhou.

...That's about all there is to say on the matter. It has a couple unique mechanics- colored manabases, "Teammate" cards that act kind of like planeswalkers, a chargeable super instead of potions... but it's Slay the Spire. You know what the deal is.

That said- I find it a lot more fun than Slay the Spire, honestly. The colored mana thing adds some depth to deckbuilding, boss relics give you unique buffs instead of debuffs, and a lot of the archetypes are crammed with explosive synergies that make it really fun to go off. Plus there's Touhou music through the whole thing, and it's generally better-produced and prettier despite being in early access. Only point where it loses to STS is the lack of a robust modding scene.

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

I did not finish this game! It was very bad!

I saw my cousin playing the sequel to this game on his Steam Deck at an engagement party, and I was dazzled by the screens and screens of party members and stats and mechanics all over the place, and thought- this has to be fun, right? I'll check it out- oh, hey, it's a sequel, I guess I'll play the first one.

This game is... very much an Etrian Odyssey clone, except they kinda make everything worse. You have have a ton of party members, but the thing is they don't learn active skills when they level up- there's no build choices to make, just Number Increasage. The only way to customize your skills is to assign units to covens, which have preset lists of abilities and drop randomly as loot. There's the appearance of customization, but in practice there's not a lot of options. Throw in "at any time an enemy might crit and unhealably disable one of your party members until you return to town, ruining your run", and it just feels like a slog.

The other thing is that it is completely repugnant. Like it's just deeply unpleasantly anime horny in the worst ways. The main character (sorta- you play as her mute faceless magic book, not her) is the worst. She's introduced beating a child and murdering her pets, and pretty much maintains that tenor throughout. And this is not an isolated incident! This game has some kind of fucked-up child abuse fetish- there's a significant number of child characters and all of them are physically assaulted by the nearest authority figure within seconds of being introduced. And it's not a problem, or even a theme- it's just a thing that happens all the time, practically as a gag. Also used as a funny gag: sexual assault! Wow! I couldn't stomach it!

PowerWash Simulator

This game seems like a giant shitpost- and to be clear, it absolutely is a giant shitpost- but it's shockingly cathartic and satisfying. There's just you, some levels implausibly caked in a ridiculous amount of grime, and a power-washer with various nozzles and soaps you use to hose off every inch of the place. There's something about it that just feels so nice! Objects flash and go ding when you fully clean them, there's a checklist of stuff and how clean it is, there's lots of fun little details in the levels...

...and it has a story campaign, which is very silly. You start off taking normal jobs washing normal things, but as you accrue Fame, you unlock weirder and weirder clients that wanted bigger and stranger things powerwashed. Without spoiling anything, it gets pretty wacky towards the end.

It's a fun game to play in the background when you're watching a show or listening to a podcast or something and want something mindless for your hands to do. (At least, at first. Some of the later levels are multi-hour behemoths, and it never feels good to stop in the middle.)

-

I still have... fourteen more games to write about. It's like they say...... the work of a gamer.......... is never done.......................

[1] - 2 - [3] - [4]

[popstart]

hi can we get your heathney thoughts and hc </3 ur ppp fic was so good i read it all in one day i love the dynamic u gave them

talking about ppp in the past tense is kind of killing meee(i want to work on it again idk whats up i just have writers block infinity and health problems + phys disability flareups. blehhh) anyways once i get to it again is when its gonna get good. rn its just setup for setup BUT IM GLAD YOU LIKE IT SO FAR! yay ^_^! truthfully i see way too much wrong with it and want to fix a lot and thats part of why i havent touched it in like. um 7 months🤐. lemme retcon some things and fix the pacing and itll be GOOODDDD...

heathney is literally just whatever i feel like forcing onto them at the moment because when i was writing hcag and ppp there was like... 3 fics for them HELP😭 and i had a different idea in my head than the ones i half-read. i havent really touched ao3 in the same last 7 months so im not sure if its different now but bc it was bleak for a while i kinda just made stuff up and hoped it stuck with people (which apparently it did. im glad people like my work :3)

my thinking about them started when i was writing/drafting heartaches (im still writing for it too. auahghh🫠) it was all spawned by a random train of thought that i wish world tour was less focused on alejandro and more on the dynamic that could have formed around heather and courtney PURELY because of that 1 second scene where heather was comforting courtney. thats literally it that entire fic was spawned by two seconds and some anons egging me on bc it was an idea other people were interested in. I wanted to delve into the thought process of heather behind that. like how genuine was that scene to heather and how impactful was it to courtney. basically I just thought the idea of heather taking advantage of courtney when she was so volatile and emotionally clingy sounded evil and fun. i literally just didnt like that courtney got so into alejandro bc i hate that man so much so i swapped some things around and got hcag

sorry for being the ultimate tangent master im finally getting back to ppp heathney. anyways. Having been writing the sort of dynamic of heather and courtney being weird teammates that are only using eachother but also in it for their own emotional clingyness reminded me of my FAVORITE SHOW EEVRRR lps populaarr🙈🙈🙈🙈 and also aus of that show i love so i stole the concept. in my mind they became childhood besties for the resties until they got separated then hated eachother when they met up years later. With the way i was writing heather in hcag i was thinking soooo hard about how fucked up courtney couldve been if she had an influence like heather as a kid. this is also going back to my time in the amphibia fandom oops i hella stole everything for that fic and tweaked some things.

I dont think ppp is the heathney dynamic of all time because its literally shit i made up and stole and inserted into a really self indulgent fic, BUT it is a dynamic i love for them in the setting of the au its in. heather being so so so controlling to courtney as kids and courtney having no friends to base this behavior off of thinking its normal. aughh... they have opposite levels of social skills which makes their communication shit which entertains me. Heather knows what she wants from people and knows how to get it, and she doesnt notice (or care) how harmful she can be. Courtney doesnt know how to talk to people very well and has a very twisted grasp of what people think about her, in her eyes being the most well liked person on the planet and throwing a tissy fit every time thats challenged. im gonna say it 20 times but it just grasps me way too hard and it gets my brain thinking forever and ever about them. courtney as is very much a "i want what i want and ill get it" kind of person but in ppp heather is so good at manipulating her that the kinds of personality traits she shows in canon are very much suppressed (whether that was on accident or on purpose from heather is technically spoilers? for ppp i guess). theyre still there but hidden from years of being friends with heather as a child. LOL BASICALLY. i hope its obvious but despite their deep friendship as a child and how much love (and rose tinted glasses) they had for eachother and the past, that shit was NOT HEALTHY!!!! AT ALL!

so heather is really good at manipulating and courtney was the one that ended up on the brunt of it all. not surprising, we all know what heather is like, but COURTNEY.. ohh im so sorry about what i do to her im constantly fucking her up because i just love to see how she reacts to it. she is so reactive and emotional and i love it. i love seeing such an intelligent and confident woman be so weak to her own damn self UGH it kills me inside but i cant look away i need to mess her up constantly. Courtney in ppp has such an interesting perspective to write because i can insert some random ass idea into her head and play it off because she is emotionally STUPID! you can truly make her think anything thats at an extremely juvenile level of emotional awareness/understanding and you'll be able to play it off because she has way too much confidence in herself while knowing very little outside of academics and very clear-cut rule oriented things. the way it plays into her thoughts about heather too.. oohhhh. evil evil stuff.. she knows heather is considered a bad person and she also sees herself as being better than everyone in every way so she cant mentally stoop down to heathers level of brutality, meanwhile because of the way she sees herself shes constantly thinking bad of others and people see them very similarly. Courtney doesnt realize it but she is on a veryy similar playing field to heather in terms of how people see them. it would be gutting if she ever realized but her brain does Not let her see it that way. i just love courtney corruption arc ok orz. i need heather to play into it so damn bad. it grabs me so hard.

anyways this is quite messy and very spur of the moment but these are basically my thoughts on them. i want them to make eachother worse but in the most fucked up way imaginable. i want them to have the most deep and complicated history ever

[valenteal]

Fun fact about me: I am a rare breed of theater nerd who doesn’t like musicals.

I find that while they do a great job showcasing the actor’s musical talents and dancing abilities musicals tend to leave storytelling and character depth by the wayside. Everything becomes a Production not just in that it is a thing that has been produced but in that it’s all over the top and kinda shallow. As a writer I think the medium of storytelling is extremely delicate, and while musicals can have good storytelling it’s very easy to get caught in the many pitfalls. Weather it’s overuse of musical numbers, formulaic songs that all sound the same, or neglecting proper character development or forgetting to showcase it with normal non-musical conversations, there are a lot of ways to go wrong with a musical.

Now, sometimes it’s done well, and people are going to hate me for this, but Disney has a pretty good track record with making musicals. And I mean Disney, not Disney channel. Encanto was flawless. I love the live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. But that isn’t musical theater. That’s movies. The medium is easier to work with for deeper storytelling. Stage performances have the constraints of limited space and a fixed audience who can’t see them up close. But that doesn’t mean you give up on good storytelling! It means you work to overcome those obstacles with talented and dedicated people! You can make a truly moving production on a stage but modern musical theatre just… doesn’t.

For me, a great example of this is Heathers the musical. I watched it back to back with the movie (and I plan on reading the book at some point though I’ve yet to do so) and I was able to really pin down what I dislike about musicals with that comparison. Heathers is a deep story that touches on the very real and very dark truths of being an American teenager and going to public school. It’s a story about imperfect teens who are all under pressure and who all have their own reasons. The characters are realistic and relatable, and anyone who’s been to public high school can probably recognize themselves or people they know in the characters. It tackles the very real issues of teen violence and the mental health crisis that our country is facing. The musical failed to capture any of that. The whole thing was weirdly sanitized and all the characters were turned into caricatures (wow that’s hard to spell). Heathers the musical was not deep or moving and it didn’t take itself half as seriously as it should’ve. The topics it was dealing with were too serious and close to home for them to make light of it. It’s dark. It’s heavy. The characters are kids who made mistakes, were victims of circumstance and none of them deserved to be vilified or victimized. But the musical took all of their depth away and made the whole thing more detached from reality and less serious than it is. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of storytelling, but at least write your own story instead of taking someone else’s and twisting it to suit your needs.

While Heathers is a very specific example it made some general mistakes common in musical theatre. The music itself, while catchy, is fairly unoriginal and simplistic. I don’t mean lyrically, that’s very original, though in my opinion distasteful. Meaningful conversations that showcase character depth were replaced with song and dance routines that failed to convey the same meaning. I found it to be pretty tedious in all honesty, the songs were so repetitive and they didn’t even move the story forward all that quickly, just got stuck in one moment way longer than necessary and sacrificed valuable time that could be used for real dialogue.

Anyway, that’s my informal essay on why musicals are an inferior form of storytelling, with only one example for evidence since this is just me doing this for fun and I am not going to subject myself to more musicals for no reason.

[rollercoasterwords]

i just want to say thank you so much for your post about even loving parents (and people) being homophobic bc this fandom lately is so so reductive towards those kinds of realistic portrayals, acting as if their creators are “wrong” when in actuality a majority of us live through these experiences and can find comfort in fiction that works thru them! as someone who grew up religious i ADORED your atyd sirius pov for exploring internalized homophobia so honestly. it made me feel seen and struck such a chord of truth. like yeah they’re wizards but also voldemort’s whole thing is hating people for things they have no control over so acting like inequality that doesn’t exist in the wizard world either is not the end-all solution some people think it is. anyway love you. ❤️

anon!!! thank u so much 💓

i think that parents post struck more of a chord than i was expecting it 2 strike lol like. i will say i think the majority of people in the fandom are like. normal abt letting fic writers write what they want etc but! it does suck that there is like. this small and annoyingly vocal portion of people who are just....really weird about homophobia in fanfiction lol.

like my post was specifically abt portrayals of parents but there does seem to be a vocal minority (although mostly not on tumblr thank god) who act as if choosing to write about homophobia when u could choose instead to write a fantasy world where it doesn't exist is like...morally depraved bc it's "unnecessary"

and i definitely got like. a lot of that sentiment when i was writing atydsp!! which is obviously just my personal interpretation of the character and not meant to be taken as anything more than that, but like--i'd always read sirius as a deeply closeted gay man with intense internalized homophobia in atyd, and that's part of why i wanted to write abt his character in the first place. for me it was incredibly meaningful to explore the story of a character raised in a homophobic environment by homophobic family, who struggles with internalized homophobia in ways that are messy and sometimes even hurt the people close to him. and it was honestly really disheartening to get so many comments along the lines of "ugh sirius is being so stupid and annoying" bc i was just like....this is all very real to me. and largely based on personal experience. and it sucks seeing people brush it off and go "but they're wizards why can't u just make him accept that he's gay!!!"

and it's also like. i understand why someone might not want to read about homophobia, and that's totally fine! u can seek out fics where queerness is totally accepted and filter out homophobia and do what's best for ur own mental health, y'know? but for me, personally, i actually tend to avoid stories where homophobia is just magically erased. and again, that's down to personal preference (i am by no means saying one type of story is better than the other; i think they are both equally valid + i'm glad both types exist in all their variety on ao3) but even if i'm reading about magical made-up universes, i think that like.....for me, so much of my experience as a queer person has been shaped by the homophobia of the world around me. and i'm not saying i think that's all that being queer is (of course it's not!!) and i'm not saying every queer person will feel the same (and like....if ur a queer person who's never really experienced homophobia in ur personal life then that's awesome!! happy 4 u!!), but that struggle has been such a fundamental part of my queer experience that i really have a hard time relating to characters who don't share it. reading about characters who never experience internalized homophobia and whose family + friends are totally accepting honestly just makes me feel worse bc it's so far removed from my own experience, whereas reading about characters who do have homophobic family/friends/environments/etc is actually something i'm able to find comfort in.

anyway this turned into a whole essay but!! i'm happy 2 hear that my post (+ my portrayal of sirius) resonated w u 💕 and i do think the majority of the fandom understands + is supportive of people exploring homophobia however they want in their fics; sometimes we just need 2 bitch a little bit on tumblr abt the annoying people who aren't lol

[roseprincessarts]

The Do's and Don'ts of Creativity

Hey all artists and writers!

Here are some things I like to inform and talk about, and I feel like it's a great opportunity to learn and think about what is right or wrong when it comes to creating something and becoming a better artists.

Here are some tips, the do’s and don’ts of creativity as artists and writers ourselves!

Here are the do's!

Do's

Draw and create stories that inspire you the most and what it makes you feel about it. That's what I'm trying to learn lol.

Take time to think about what story you can create, based on anything (just not false information and based off rumors) and can be inspired by different fanfics or poems! ^^ Your own ideas are fine by what you came up with!

Draw at your time when having mental health issues, relationship issues and depression. Drawing can sometimes help you cope after what is troubling you, and BE HONEST with it.

Draw with your own ideas and/or draw inspirations that have all your friends come together, fandom or not fandom (which means any art originally, like animals, landscapes, etc.)

Get a good feeling of how your art you shared to your folks, that the people all come together, and get a good feeling how the detail turn out ^^

Draw something that is meant to dedicate a late parent, or the death of a loved one (same thing lol), and relive the memories you had with them and cherish it.

And that's basically it (ran out of ideas lol)

Now let's get down to the don'ts!

Don'ts

Do not let the jealousy and exaggerations get the best of you. You may come across artworks and stories that interests you and that get more views other than yours. But think again! Jealousy can bring into doing bad things to get what you want. Not the answer to get what you want, right? It's normal to feel jealous, but as long as it is respectful and like "I'm a bit jealous of what you created, but hey, keep up the great work!", and then you'll keep creating for your own time! Isn't it easy not to be over exaggerating with jealousy? Have any excuses not to be jealous? Examples like you are jealous over an artist who got more views and praise and try to make them look bad by making false information about them. There isn't any excuses not to be jealous if you wanted praise like them. Think that if we don't love their artworks they stop talking to us and block us? Nope! If you don't like what they got, a suggestion is to be respectful about it and not think they'll bully you. If you like what they create, you can be respectful and be friendly. Artists do not fake being nice and all that. All artists I know are nice and really encouraging and would never fake it! Great, isn't it?

Do not even think that they are just obtaining 'fame' and 'attention'. Not every artists is seeking for attention. There isn't any proof from what I saw that artists I probably knew aren't queen bees, spoiled. They obviously not hogging any attention and spotlight at all. I think they are much encouraging and supportive. Hey, I share stuff with other people I know, artworks, journals, etc. all the time. Does it make me a queen bee? Actually, no. Never have been, never will be. My stuff doesn’t get enough favs, likes, views, but hey, I ain’t jealous. That’s okay. I am trying to get as much reputation on Wattpad, Qoutev, and Ao3 as possible, though not active as much. I’ll be as much active on there while if I can ^^; (hopefully). And it doesn't make all artists sick when it comes to something like this. No proof that I see. You don't have to be popular is one thing that is true, but when you look at other artists, you probably don't want to take it too literally. None of the artists are attention seekers! They encourage us! Awesome to learn about it!

Creating memes based on false accusations, making artists, their artworks and stories that you felt jealous of and think it's unnecessary to you and everyone else view isn't probably the best idea. It can make artists look bad and get harassed for false information and creates drama. Yeah, pretty bad lol.

Imagining your OC's bully and basing their bullies on an artist that is falsely accused of bullying isn't the best idea either. Basing bullies on people online falsely just creates harassment and it just isn't right.

Now here is another thing I want to say. You think the artist you know and admire hates special needs people? That part I don't exactly know or don't know what to say, but think this again. I don't think artists I know mind my disability and would never bring hate, and neither will they bring hate to other special needs people. I don't know other artists that do it do not hate special needs, but artists I know doesn't seem to mind my disability or other people's disability ^^.

Creating stories basing off rumors that aren't true isn't the best idea. It gets everyone fed into the false rumors and that's something that shouldn't happen. It would be the best time to listen and take time to correct themselves.

Thinking of quitting creating stories because of popularity? Assuming everyone quits, too? Recheck again! Some people hate popularity, yes. But… thinking no one is allowed to get your works noticed and only the ones you think they obtain fame? Actually, no. Any artists I know actually do NOT obtain fame. I don’t see any of them doing it. No proof, whatsoever.

And lastly, wishing artists to get banished and demeaning them dedicating to their late parent, THAT part I noticed is distasteful AND appalling. Think that artists you know don’t care about one parent’s death? Not true! They do care! What happens if the artist is on hiatus if you told them about one of your parent died? They will care, but the exaggeration doesn’t help and probably shouldn’t assume they don’t care. I assure they do. And demeaning other artists that dedicates to their late parent. Pretty harmful, isn’t it? It is heartbreaking for one of the parent to die, but to insult other artists meaning to dedicate to them is considered appalling.

And that's it. May missed a few things, but… ehh. These are probably be enough ^^

But with these, anything is possible when it comes to creativity of arts!