#technically? feels more like a joke than my own art

[ayanarts-01]

those two are living in completely different high school anime genres

[gingaseiun]

I haven't really shared this with anyone except my close friends, but I used to dream of having my own TV show. I would write scripts and brainstorm countless ideas for what my perfect show could be. When I got to college, I focused on one particular show concept that had been with me since high school. I wrote a really rough script, created a show bible, and even drafted a letter to send out to production teams....but I never had the courage to actually send it. I was too scared, honestly, haha. The characters and the shows still pop into my head from time to time, and I keep reimagining and redesigning them. At one point, I even commissioned artists to bring them to life. I got hyperfixated on it all. The one thing that held me back was the fear that nobody would like the show. I feel like there's still time to make it happen, but, nervously, I keep wondering, "What's the point?" So here I am, just rambling about it on my blog.

Soooooooo below will be me rambling about the show and characters

The show itself was called Heart Failure, and it revolved around cupids doing their jobs Sometimes successfully, sometimes....not!

(Logo made by Discord: aikozu)

One of the main characters, Sorbet Clairmont, was a serious, no-nonsense cupid who had dedicated millennia to her work in Aetheria, though in Earth time, it had only been about ten years. The show played with that contrast a lot, making jokes about her "ancient" experience compared to how young she would seem to humans.

Born in the Realm of Aetheria, Sorbet was a prodigy from a young age, deeply attuned to the emotions around her. As a child, she had witnessed love in all its messy, beautiful forms joyful reunions, painful goodbyes, and everything in between. Those experiences convinced her she was destined to help others find connections. Over time, she became one of the best, known for crafting love arrows that perfectly captured the emotions she aimed to inspire.

But her success came with a cost. The more skilled she became, the more isolated she felt. Her sharp tongue and brusque demeanor kept most people at a distance, and though many admired her work, very few actually wanted to get close. She told herself that was fine—less emotional entanglement meant fewer distractions. Still, even in the rough first draft of my script, her loneliness seeped through in her sarcastic remarks, like: "Fingers crossed they last longer than a houseplant," and "This better not be another annoying mission... Last time, they sent me to sort out romance at a retirement home. I’ve barely heard the end of it from the other divisions."

(Art below is made by Discord: jijicomms)

The story really started to pick up when Sorbet was assigned a trainee, Lyris Arrowheart. To her, it felt like a punishment rather than an opportunity, one more thing to slow her down. But Lyris’s earnestness and clumsy enthusiasm stirred something in her, something she had buried a long time ago: the simple, genuine desire to connect.

Now, the other main character is my little failure, Lyris. I love Lyris.

Lyris Arrowheart grew up in a prestigious family of Cupids, where success was expected, and anything less felt like failure. His parents often boasted about their achievements. How they effortlessly paired soulmates and ignited love stories that became legendary in Aetheria. From a young age, Lyris felt the crushing pressure to live up to that legacy.

But school was a different story. While his classmates excelled at crafting love arrows and navigating emotional auras, Lyris struggled just to keep up. His daydreaming often got the better of him, causing him to miss critical lessons. No matter how hard he tried, he always seemed a step behind, more of a spectator in a world that demanded precision and excellence.

When he finally graduated, it was less a moment of triumph and more a quiet sigh of relief, overshadowed by lingering doubts. Though he technically passed, the weight of his family’s expectations stayed with him.

One of my favorite little moments for Lyris comes from his introduction in the first script I wrote:

He awkwardly waves at Sorbet, his hands trembling so badly that he nearly drops his bow. He fumbles it, juggling it between both hands before finally managing to hold it steady and wave again, bowing slightly. In the middle of it all, his glasses slip off and shatter loudly on the floor. Frozen in mortification, Lyris immediately covers his face, his cheeks flushing a deep red.

(Art below is made by Discord: jijicomms)

Both of them were always meant to be contrasts to each other, and honestly, I love that about them. Sorbet is sharp, serious, and guarded, while Lyris is clumsy, warm, and endlessly earnest. The idea was for them to become close, just not romantically. I’m sure if the show ever actually existed, some people would end up shipping them anyway (it's inevitable, haha), but there’s a reason they were never meant to be love interests. Their bond was always supposed to show that deep, meaningful connections don't have to be romantic to be important.

There are other characters in the show too, like Elysia.

Elysia is Sorbet’s advisor (and the advisor for a few other characters I’ll bring up later). In Heart Failure, an advisor is a Cupid who assigns other Cupids their missions, called "Moments," on Earth. They are the ones who organize and oversee the work behind the scenes.

Elysia is an advisor cupid and one of the senior chair Cupids of the Embassy of Love, specifically within the Branch of Love. She plays a pivotal role in guiding and mentoring younger Cupids, including Sorbet. With her sharp insight into the complexities of love, Elysia carefully selects each Cupid’s assignments, choosing missions that challenge and help them grow.

Known for her direct, no-nonsense attitude, Elysia takes her responsibilities seriously, making sure every mission is approached with care and precision. Beneath her stern, professional exterior, there is a surprising warmth, kind of like a piece of dark chocolate: a little bitter at first, but sweet once you get past the surface. Her "tough love" approach sometimes frustrates those she mentors, but in the end, she is exactly the kind of guide they need, even if they do not realize it right away.

(Art below is made by Discord: jijicomms)

Another character you would see in the show is Noelle Glaciamour.

Noelle is best known for melting people's cold hearts, the ones that are guarded, frozen over, and untrusting of love. She represents the emotional state of those who have closed themselves off from love or are hesitant to embrace it because of past pain, betrayal, or fear of vulnerability. Her role as a Cupid revolves around rekindling warmth and breaking through the icy walls that surround these hearts.

Now, Noelle’s backstory is touched on in the show, and I won't get too deep into it right now, but there’s one thing that really sets her apart. Unlike most of the Cupids in Heart Failure, she doesn’t really have wings anymore. Instead, she has little torn-off nubs on her back. Something that hints at the struggles she's faced without needing many words.

(Art below is made by Discord: jijicomms)

Now, you can't talk about love without talking about heartbreak. And unfortunately, that means we have to talk about him.

Valen Amour. The bane of Sorbet's existence. The so-called "Emissary of Love," though if you ask Sorbet, he’s more like the embodiment of everything wrong with the system. He’s smug, insufferable, and somehow still manages to be good at his job. The worst kind of person, honestly.

Valen started working as a Cupid around the same time Sorbet did, but unlike her, he made a career out of meddling. Early on, he would intentionally disrupt the pairs Sorbet painstakingly matched, reassigning them with a smug smile and claiming he had found "better matches." His reckless (and, to Sorbet's eternal frustration, often effective) methods got him fast-tracked to elite Cupid status way faster than anyone expected, or deserved.

Growing up, Valen never really had to struggle for anything. Success just sort of fell into his lap. Naturally, that carried into his work. When he was effortlessly placed in the Heartbreak Branch of the Embassy of Love, it only reinforced his belief that he knew better than everyone else. In his mind, instinct always beats strategy, and if he had to step on a few toes to prove it, so be it.

Even his wings set him apart. While most Cupids bear pure white wings, Valen’s are a smoky dark gray, fitting for someone who thrives not in creating new love but in pulling apart the old.

(Art below is made by Discord: jijicomms)

Now, I want to finish off my yapping session with world building. Even though theres tons(not really) of side characters I could yap endeless about. Here’s a more concise breakdown of Aetheria and its rulers. The Cupids live in a hidden realm called Aetheria, beyond the sight of mortals. As the narrator in my poorly written pilot script says:

"Beyond the sight of mortals, hidden from the world of Earth, lies the Realm of Aetheria. The sacred home of the Cupids. Born from the will of the god of love, this world is one where emotion shapes reality itself. Here, Cupids glide through skies of golden threads, each movement carrying whispers of everlasting devotion. It is a place where love is born and nurtured. Where every letter to a secret crush, every fleeting desire, is delivered by the hands of the Cupids, guiding hearts toward their destined connections."

Aetheria was once ruled by Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, who created the Cupid lineage before retiring and passing control to her son, Eros, the primordial god of love. Eros reshaped Aetheria, but Aphrodite didn’t leave him to run things alone. She established the Erotes, a group of gods and goddesses to assist him. These include Anteros, the God of Requited Love, Hedylogos, the God of Sweet-Talk and Flattery, Himeros, the God of Desire, Hymenaeus, the God of Weddings, Hermaphroditos, the God of Effeminate Men and Androgyny, Pothos, the God of Yearning and Longing, and Phthonus, the God of Jealousy. Finally, Psyche, once a mortal, became the Goddess of the Soul after marrying Eros and joining the ranks of the Erotes.

Together, the Cupids and the Erotes run the Embassy of Love, an organization that governs different branches responsible for various aspects of love and human emotion: Camaraderie, Desire, Heartbreak, and Love. In this realm, the Cupids are tasked with nurturing and guiding love, shaping the world’s emotional fabric in ways both subtle and profound.

(Eros, Art below is made by Discord: jijicomms)

I hoped you enjoyed my yapp session!!

[ken-tfc]

MY INTRODUCTION

HIIII my name is Kennett or Ken and i do art (alot.)

I'm a dude but idc about pronouns so refer to me however you feel like ���

im the co creator of undertrack and a few more aus that im obsessed with hehe.

i like requests and asks ALOT, please dont spam my inbox with requests though like max 3 a day from one person bc i cant keep up.

in my posts you may find queer relationships and shipping in general so DNI if you dislike ships or if youre one of those "canon only" mfs (I’m a multishipper dont expect consistency)

SIDE BLOGS:

This blog is very much all SFW other then some jokes and maybe some slightly suggestive drawings, the worse stuff / anything I think might need a warning goes to -> @ken-tfcsuspage

Commission blog: @commission-ken - https://www.tumblr.com/comission-ken/779992025417285632/pinned

In my posts you will find other fandoms than just undertale (but it is my main)

bounderies:

please dont give unwarrented critisism unless im drawing one of your characters or specifically asked for it!

2. please dont tag me or use my characters in media discussing SA (you know who you are)

3. you may trace or use my art as bases as long as you PROPERLY credit me!

4. Do NOT feed my art into ai or claim it as your own >:/

FIND ALL MY ORIGINAL POSTS (not reblogs) UNDER #kennettrememberstopost

thats it for now!

also if you draw any of my character or use them in anything you dont need to credit me but i do like seeing it so a tag would be nice anyways!!

UNDERTRACK INTRUDUCTION

under track is an au made by me and my friend @fivebecomesnone !! And our honorary creator @youregonnahavetime

Undertrack is an AU that features the survivors of a destroyed Universe.

As their universe was collapsing they created the train as a last resort to survive, once gathered onto the train they found out that instead of just going to a different universe and restarting life it was better to stay moving because they didn’t really wanna settle down. Currently they’re always travelling between universes transporting whoever has a ticket! (There’s a whole system for this, you can see examples from five’s post.)

IF YOU WANT MORE TECHNICAL INFO LIKE TICKET SYSTEM OR WORLD FUNCTIONS MAY I REDERECT YOU TO @fivebecomesnone BECAUSE THEYRE REALLY GOOD AT EXPLAINING !! (Also they made the system) They can also explain how to make tickets for your own characters if you want to make that!

We’re currently working on a lot of content for this AU so expect more posts along the way. Find all content of it under #undertrack !!

(Ps if you want to draw your undertale ocs and AUs into the train as a passenger feel free to do so hehe, also you may request me to draw that if you want a little doodle of it)

Thanks for reading chat, enjoy!!

[ekkotimesthree]

RE: Homestuck Discourse, Media Literacy, Fandom Entitlement, & The Puppet Theory

an essay by yours truly

content warning: discussions of child abuse, CSA, & child neglect

so many discourses and debates surrounding homestuck boil down to lacking basic media literacy. so instead of making a petulant rant, i’ll attempt writing a productive essay, but forgive me if my annoyance seeps into parts of this post due to the subject matter. let’s start with dave, since he’s one of the most contentious characters (also because he’s my blorbo, sorry not sorry), and move on from there!

i constantly see people say something along the lines of “davekat happening in the retcon timeline makes no sense why would terezi ignore dave and gamzee yada yada yada”, like there’s not a whole scene that explains this! and it’s one of the most plot relevant scenes in the comic!! if you don’t know what the blood scarf even is, your opinion on this irrelevant, since you didn’t read/remember the text. rule number one of media literacy is properly consuming the media.

“dave being abused and the gay stuff came out of nowhere” this is definitively not true. one of the first things we learn about dave is that he has to hide food in his room so he doesn’t starve, and that this is an intentional choice by his brother. oh, and then his brother actually beats the shit out of him on screen, while not letting him abscond, right after we see john and rose strife their parents in a healthy way no less. (take note of bro using cal, and dave trying to abscond from him. more on that later.)

and re: dave’s sexuality, rose immediately points out that dave is probably gay during their first on screen interaction, and it’s her first line of dialogue to him.

TT: In some cultures the persistent refusal of a lady's invitation to play a game with her would be a sign wanton disrespect.

TT: Either that, or flagrant homosexuality.

moving on, later that same day, dave outright admits he loves john:

in these scenes, rose would be considered a mouthpiece! author’s use mouthpieces to get across information to the audience, that the character(s) themsel(ves) don’t know. in this case, that character is dave.

so now let’s address the elephant in the room, you probably thought these messages were just jokes, and that’s okay! that’s for three reasons:

first, your worldviews and perspectives shift the way you perceive the world, and more specifically art in this instance. that’s a fundamental part of the human experience. having your own personal biases based on your life experiences isn’t inherently a bad thing! for example, if you finish my essay, you can learn more about compulsive heterosexuality, or the effects of child abuse, see all of the signs, all without having to deal with it first hand. which is great! that’s the point of art and storytelling.

secondly, you probably still thought dave was straight while reading this narration. that’s because homestuck is written in deep pov, or as you would probably call it, unreliable narration. these are technically two separate things, but i don’t feel like breaking down all of those pedantics. all you need to know is: deep pov is when a character’s worldviews and perspective shift the narrative, rather than a story being told objectively. think junie b jones, the percy jackson series, or uh, catcher in the rye, if you’re into that sort of thing. that means that all the dialogue and narration within homestuck will always have some level of subtext, aka the non-literal explanation for text. homestuck is made by adults for adults, so it’s created on the basis we can analyze the text, and come to our own conclusions, unlike YA and children’s media.

a lot of people assume homestuck is supposed to be YA series, but that’s not the case. homestuck’s themes are about exploring the effects of child abuse and neglect, which you need to be an adult to fully understand. and unlike cinderella, homestuck shows child abuse on screen, and as we’ll discuss later, tackles subject matter about CSA, or child s*x*al *ss*lt. that inherently makes it a 18+ story, no matter the ages of any characters involved. just because most of us read homestuck as kids doesn’t really have any impact on that.

“well there’s no explicitly 18+ content in homestuck!!! they’re all 13!!!!” please take one look at equius’s room, or translate damara’s dialogue, and tell me if you still feel that way. oh, and read the epilogues too. also do you not remember the sheer amount of bloodshed, sex jokes, and cursing shown without a single censor??? even the official homestuck twitter said this:

finally, it’s also worth mentioning the time homestuck was made, because art can’t be removed from it’s historical context. so in 2009, gay representation was still virtually non-existent, especially in children’s and teen media. in the 2000s there was an extremely prevalent trope, “queer people are funny”, where the whole joke is that a character doing something that could be perceived as gay, or transgender, is funny. this problem was especially rampant in media for men. the most infamous example of this is family guy this was s8e18 of family guy, “quagmire’s dad”, where the whole joke is that brian slept with a trans woman, and everyone single joke comes at the expense of the trans woman, who’s relegated to a background role, while the narrative focuses on quagmire and brian’s emotions, the two cis men. so what homestuck is doing is called a deconstruction of this trope! deconstruction is where you break something down to critically analyze the philosophy behind it. we’ll leave a pin in john for now (just you wait), but it’s made extremely clear that dave is struggling with internalized homophobia, thus deconstructing why he makes these jokes in the first place. by the end of homestuck, dave says:

DAVE: but ive had a fuck ton of time on my hands to think about stuff. about stuff ive said and done in the past why i said and did them. a lot of things i once would have insisted were like part of my brand and helped me come across cool and smartassy, but now im not so sure. we used rip on each other all the time for being gay even though we knew we werent which of course is what made it "funny" remember?

with this quote, and the knowledge that dave goes onto date a man, i don’t think anyone is denying the internalized homophobia now, so let’s move onto reading this:

i’m sure all of us are thinking “there’s no heterosexual explanation for this, he doesn’t even like ben stiller!” OR “maybe dave’s just too embarrassed to admit he likes shitty movies? is it really more than that??” either way, that’s because hussie utilitized the rule of three to make you subconsciously notice dave’s obsession with irony! the rule of three is used to set patterns in a story, either to establish a fact, or to subvert the viewer’s expectations. for example, let’s analyze this joke:

notice how terezi’s third response is the funny one?by setting up the pattern, both you and john are expecting her to keep laughing in response, so when terezi flips the script on him, it’s hilarious. that’s called payoff, or in this instance, comedic payoff. now we can compare that to dave’s irony, where it was mentioned three times on one panel. no subversions of expectations here! that’s because hussie wants to establish dave’s obsession with irony, and they did so by creating a pattern you would notice subconsciously. this is how the rule of three works! psychology is cool, right?

so now that we can all agree that the subtext here is related to the irony, we have a new problem: we’ve only gotten dave and rose’s perspectives. we still need one more to complete the rule of three. fuck. thank god i can skip ahead!

using my whimsical ability to read ahead analyze text, i find out what john said to dave, and leave out the unimportant bullshit for everyone’s sake (mostly mine though):

dear dave, happy birthday!!! (…) i got you these. they're totally authentic! they actually touched ben stiller's weird, sort of gaunt face at some point. i'm sure you'll dig them because i know you lolled so hard at that movie. ok so for real, this is sort of a shitty present, but it is an ironic present because i know you wouldn't have it any other way. maybe you can wear them ironically some time. they MIGHT even be more ironic than you and your bro's dumb pointy anime shades.

now we have three characters’ perspectives on dave’s behavior. you’re probably able to put together the pieces i’m putting down, but for those who aren’t getting it: when you compare john’s letter, with dave’s actions, and rose’s messages, you realize that: dave is keeping these glasses because he loves john, not because he likes ben stiller, but he can’t admit that to himself, hence why his narration overcompensates with the usage of irony! it’s worth noting that all of these examples are from dave’s pov, because switching to rose or john’s pov would no longer make them mouthpieces!

“okay but isn’t dave’s perspective not reliable either??” yes! that’s why we’re using his actions as textual evidence, not his statements. the fact dave kept these glasses, and hung up a picture of an actor he doesn’t even like, is the proof he loves john, not him saying outright that he loves him. like i said earlier, this is a comic intended for adults, so characters aren’t going to outright say themes or how they feel. that’s more for peppa pig, hannah montana, and riverdale, you feel me? just like in real life, talk is fucking cheap here.

so now we’re left with a new question: why does dave feel comfortable admitting his love for john to rose, but not john himself? i’m sure the answer is becoming obvious! putting all this together we can gather the following: hussie wants us to know that dave possibly has a crush on john, but definitely loves him.

wait a minute… possibly?!? that’s because we still need textual evidence dave likes men. luckily, like i mentioned earlier, we can skip ahead to the epilogues, where him and karkat get together in the meat timeline, thus proving dave has liked men this whole time. boom! that’s payoff!!!

now we can OFFICIALLY put together that dave had a crush on john. once again, notice how we’re using dave’s actions to prove this, and not just quotes! either way, now we have officially used media analysis to deduce that dave had a childhood crush on john! huzzah! pat yourself on the back my loyal reader.

and for those who still aren’t convinced of dave’s crush on john, this masterpost has way more evidence than i ever could fit in this post.

(trigger warning: csa)

so now with everything we’ve learned about media analysis, i present you with my own analysis: the puppets are a symbolism for abuse, and the sex puppets specifically are an allegory for CSA, or child s*xual ass*ult. symbolism is where you use a certain object to represent ideas or qualities. the best example of this is the iconic green house logo we see throughout the comic. in comparison, an allegory is when a certain object or plot device is used to get a point across, without directly stating the point itself, aka, a hidden meaning. for instance, hussie has said their game “pyscholonials” is an allegory for how they feel about their gender identity!

so now, let’s start finding textual evidence to back up my claims about the puppet allegory, through looking for textual evidence of dave’s symptoms, aka analyzing character psychology:

dave’s anxiety manifests in the way he types. according to healthline “rambling or excessive talking [is a sign of] social anxiety. you fear saying the wrong thing or being judged by others, but you end up talking more (…) in an effort to help make up for your anxiety, and help quiet the worries revolving around what others think of you”. this is basically dave’s whole personality, but more specifically, you can see him doing this around the puppets in this scene, he rambles to himself non stop when returning to his childhood bedroom, and he’s still doing so on the meteor when he can’t find terezi to do “some stuff”. by the end of the comic, dave even acknowledges this himself by saying: “DAVE: yo im hardly one to talk here since i am a goddamn geyser of hilariously self-pulverizing freudian bloopers”. it’s also worth mentioning that, generally speaking, dave also spams his friends a lot until he gets a response, implying he gets anxious when people don’t respond quick enough to him, which is a normal reaction after being neglected as a child. that’s called a trauma response! all of these bullet points are trauma responses that happen to people who had to deal with CSA. in this case, the trauma response would be dave’s anxiety in general, and not him spamming his friends specifically. moving along…

dave’s hypersexuality manifests in a pretty in a pretty straightforward way, hence him constantly making s*xual jokes, and him drawing dicks on stuff on the meteor, much to the annoyance of everyone else. terezi even points this out herself while dave is failing to grieve bro:

TG: im sorry you are so flustered by the mere mention of glittering mythical cryptodick it honestly makes me think youre not ready for the truth

GC: D4V3 YOUR P3RPL3XING 3UPH3MISMS INVOLVING WHAT I PR3SUM3 TO B3 L3WD 4ND VAGU3LY INTRIGUING PORTIONS OF HUMAN 4N4TOMY 1 THINK 4R3 NOT 4S HILARIOUS 4S YOU PROBABLY B3L13V3

his dissociation is also pretty straightforward. he constantly talks about himself in the third person, and treats himself like he’s a character in a story, rather than a person who has wants and needs. for reference, dave immediately pulls meta shenanigans when you meet him, foreshadowing his dissociation. you can tell it’s built up to an already toxic level when we meet him, because on the same day, he has almost no reaction to seeing his own corpse, and immediately disposes of it “for jade’s sake”, rather than his own. and to make matters worse, he immediately “moves on” as if nothing happened. deep pov, remember? he also couldn’t properly process bro’s death. once again, terezi tries to point this out to dave, and he’s still not getting the message. put a pin in this section for now.

near the end of the comic, davepetasprite outright says that davesprite was depressed, regularly talked about how he wanted to off himself, and implies he might of attempted it. this is a grey area since davesprite is technically a separate character, and grieving the death of everyone from his original timeline, but it feels weird to just ignore it. to each their own on this point, but i would assume davepetasprite was referring to dave’s whole life when they talked about him being depressed based on wording, and his terrible childhood, but the s**cidal stuff could go either way. again, the proof here is dave/davesprite’s actions, not davepetasprite’s quote itself.

he displays regressive behavior 24/7 by wearing his shades to avoid eye contact, refusing to participate in common social cues (i.e.: constant dick jokes), and the few times we see him get upset, he shuts down rather than feeling his emotions. not so fun fact, the only time dave cries in all of homestuck is because of onions being cut in front of him. there’s an allegory in this scene, can you find it? (hint: the dragons forced dave into the soup, but he refuses to get out of it) also, in his most emotional scene, he still tries his damndest to not talk about emotional stuff with dirk, and still doesn’t cry when they hug, despite discussing bro’s death, and his thoughts on his own abuse in detail:

the lack of self esteem is pretty apparent. he constantly over compensates at the beginning of the comic, as seen below. he always talks about himself as if he’s a famous important guy, despite that all of his friends know he’s lying, and regularly say it to his face, but he’s still adamant that they’re wrong, or commits to the bit without actually admitting the truth. i wanna note that dave’s humor is always more of a commit to the bit and keep it going sort of thing, for better… or usually worse. not full on sarcasm. this is opposed to rose and john’s teenaged douchebaggery mixed with flagrant sarcasm. also, in the aforementioned scene above, davepetasprite still refers to davesprite as a piece of garbage, showing this is something dave struggles with even while being combined with nepeta. again, we’re using the action of putting himself down, not the quote itself. (also, sorry for the image quality, i’m on mobile)

in the long term, it’s basically impossible for him to form long lasting, fulfilling, and romantic relationships. first, it’s his crush on john, but that’s just kids being kids stuff. there’s also the fact dave and rose had some sort of failed relationship in davesprite’s timeline, due to them not learning they’re siblings. then we see the serious problems arise with terezi, who he dates pre-retcon mostly just cause she’s there, and his weird definitely not gay rivalry with karkat, which leads to her being unfulfilled in their relationship, and starting a kismesistude with gamzee. obviously the jade stuff is a big wooooof (pun NOT intended), both with davesprite, and the candy timeline. ultimately, both times, dave only dates jade because he feels bad for not liking her back, which leads to the relationship falling apart both times. remember the pin in dissociation? that’s what he’s doing here. karkat would be the opposite of jade. dave doesn’t let himself date karkat because dave hates himself, and more specifically, his attraction to men, which i’ll elaborate on later. this is what we call a character foil, aka two characters who have similarities so you can contrast their differences. think naruto and sasuke, or uh, deku and bakugo i guess? how do you do fellow kids? actually yeah! cause jade is green, and karkat is red blooded, which would symbolize how dave sees karkat as the “wrong” choice, while jade is the “right” one. the colors green and red are opposites, but jade and karkat are both of dave’s love interests in the epilogues. see? character foils! symbolism! personally, i refer to this as “star wars logic”, cause the good guys have green lightsabers, and the bad guys have red ones. this is definitely intentional, seeing as homestuck is littered with star wars references, like how HIC is basically just darth vader. meenah is also definitely a reference to darth maul, just look at her double sided weapon, or how they both die before getting to their respective thrones. i could keep going but it’s not really relevant to the discussion.

so right now you might be thinking “well you still didn’t explain how dave got assaulted tho”, and that’s fair. however, i wanna remind you that showing children porn against their will is 100% a form of CSA, same with sex paraphernalia, and especially forcing sex paraphernalia onto them. to do that to a child non-stop, in an environment they can’t escape, would have horrid effects psychologically, and dave displays almost every one of them, as you saw with the textual evidence above. so when dave can’t admit to himself that he he hates bro’s puppets, and more specifically the sex ones, it’s because doing so would force him to admit: a) what bro did to him was wrong & b) that he enjoyed it in some aspect. john even points out how weird bro’s affinity for puppets is weird and definitively not cool, which causes dave to immediately shut him down hardcore (more allegory).

speaking from experience, one of the worst parts of CSA is that you have no clue what’s going on. victims of assault often blame themselves, or feel guilty of what happened, and children lack the ability to tell what’s fully going on in the first place, due to their brains being underdeveloped, thus amplifying the guilt and blame. people often worry so much about the “man tricking kids with candy” because it’s the most pervasive p****ph*le you see in media (god i hate true crime culture), that people forget that 84% of csa happens in the home, 50% of the time it’s someone the child trusts, and 40% of time it’s family members specifically. even if 99% of your experience is terrible, you’ll still find a way to blame yourself for the 1% until you can properly process that you didn’t do anything wrong. this is what’s referred to as the “the myth of the perfect victim”.

i know this is “personal speculation”, but to me, it seems very apparent that dave is gay, and can’t come to terms with it because of his CSA trauma, hence his inability to just admit to himself he has a crush on john. every girl he dates in the main comic is quite literally the ONLY dateable girl in front of him, or usually the only girl in front of him at all, and all three girls have crushes on him/flirt with him WAY before he starts their relationships. and once again, he only dates jade in the epilogues due to his own guilt and dissociation, combined with her doing everything short of forcing herself onto him. compulsive heterosexuality is a major part of homestuck. for instance, hussie has confirmed via author’s notes that rose had a crush on dave when they were kids, and that something happened between them when they never learned they were siblings on davesprite’s timeline, yet hussie has also said that rose is a full on lesbian. that’s comphet, and it’s very intentional!

i also wanna take a moment to acknowledge that dave and rose are 100% nods to luke skywalker and princess leia, who also kiss before finding out they’re related. notice how dave fights with swords, like a lightsaber, and has the same hair as luke. meanwhile, rose’s seer of light powers are basically the same as leia’s force powers, and she uses most of her weapons as blasters, just like leia. i don’t think hussie was trying to be weird or add this stuff in for any unsavory reasons, like some people imply. there’s a reason all of this extremely vague, and not shown on screen. put a pin in that.

so in the same way the katanas in dave’s fridge symbolize bro prioritizing preparing dave for battle over what he actually needs (food and shelter), that’s how the puppets symbolize dave’s CSA. now, if you read dave and rose’s conversation about the sex puppets with that knowledge, it starts to paint the harrowing picture (again, allegory). it’s important to remember that rose had a canonically had a crush on dave at the time during this conversation, so she was probably just negging him the same way she negs her mom. she was upset because she knew that dave liked john, and probably was just gay in general, so he was never going to like her back. she’s definitely projecting her gayness (and love of puppets) onto dave too. again, all of this is definitely comphet lesbian behavior. all that’s to say, i’m not claiming she’s intentionally victim blaming him or anything during this scene. she’s just as much of a child as he is. put a pin in that too! i got sited sources coming, but i can only put so many goddamn words and images in a single post.

so, i see the sentiment shared a lot that hussie just tacked on the abuse stuff at the end, and that the beginning of homestuck “was just a silly comic at the beginning it’s not that deep”. that is an objectively ill informed take, and now you know why! the entirety of homestuck’s themes are exploring the effects of child abuse and neglect, hence the name, home stuck. there’s a reason the protagonist who is able to save everyone, also has a seemingly perfect home life. notably, the only other character who’s a completely well adjusted nice person is nepeta. she’s also the only character who’s able to free roam as she pleases, has a loving lusus, and ironically, is the only character without a home/hive to begin with. once she makes into the game, her land is quite literally her cup of tea as well. these definitely aren’t coincidences. i hope your allegory alarms are going off right now!

the only reason homestuck is sillier in the beginning is solely because it was a fan lead project for the first few acts. back in the day, there were forums dedicated for audience input to decide what happens next in the story. fun fact: this is how a lot the characters names were decided as well! so there’s a reoccurring bit where (insert beta kid) does (something stupid) and then the plot just moves on (i.e. john’s HILARIOUS antics). those were the silly suggestions sent in by the fan community! that was back when the homestuck community was still pretty small, all things considered. this explains the wonky pacing in the first few acts, and the more comedic tone.

moving on, the reason the puppets and the katana fridge are used as symbols, is because yeah, the tone would be way too dark if they played that straight. however, there’s another reason that’s way more important. remember how homestuck is written with a deep pov, aka unreliable narration? (please don’t kill me pedantics police!!!) hussie uses deep pov to display how homestuck chacters see their parents/lusii, in order to convey the themes of the story. stick around a bit longer and i’ll explain the theme of homestuck! just let me explain something real quick, so you get the big picture.

bro is shown in a positive zany light because that’s how dave sees him. to dave, bro is his whacky older brother, and sure he’s a little out there, but ninja battles and puppets are sick as fuck, right? well we as the audience know that’s NOT the case. again, dave is literally starved on screen, and gets the shit beaten out of him, also on screen. this parallels rose’s relationship with her mom, who gives her everything she could ever want and need, but doesn’t fulfill rose’s emotional needs, so rose sees her as a some sort of spiteful cartoon villain. dave even calls this out the second he sees all the wizard stuff rose got from her mom.

meanwhile, you can see rose admit to liking the puppets here, and she says she’s a fan of bro’s pornbot websites as well.

ultimately, they both want what each other has, but aren’t really able to fully grasp why their own parents did what they did, much less each other’s parents, which leads to them both envying the toxic part of each other’s households. i’m sure you’re starting to see the big picture with the puppets now, so to send the point home, remember that image i showed you during dave and bro’s strife? well, bro is attacking dave with a puppet, and dave wants to abscond, but can’t, perfectly paralleling dave’s abuse to a puppet. furthermore, that’s why he’s surrounded by sex puppets specifically, and they’re all throughout his apartment. it’s all symbolism for how dave is trapped in home dealing with CSA.

this is the purpose of allegory, telling you something without directly showing it. i doubt any of us think homestuck would be better if this stuff was depicted literally, for all the obvious reasons. i’ll close out with this dialogue since it shows what i mean better than i ever could myself:

DAVE: why did i get such a raw cut of the asshole deck? and why did it take me so long to figure that out? and like hes dead now so thats that. so all thats left to do is look back and try to put the pieces together of my first 13 years, and all i can think is what the fuck WAS that?!

DAVE: i dont come away with the impression i used to try convincing myself of, that he was like "mysterious" or "stern" or "aloof". the only feeling left is this insane impression that i was raised by somebody who fuckin HATED me, and the whole act of even "raising a child" was some totally fucked up game to him.

DIRK: What… did he do?

DAVE: i dont want to get out the laundry list, but for reference laundry wasnt one of those things. that was just one of the many little domestic things i just had to sort of FIGURE OUT. sorta like i eventually had to learn what the REAL purpose of a refridgerator was from movies.

DIRK: Wait. What???

DAVE: i dunno theres too much to even get into. just- i dont remember the atmosphere ever not being nerve wracking. all havin to sneak around and... ugh my shitty childhood spider senses are tinglin just thinking about it.

DAVE: it was "training" you know?

DAVE: but you know what it really was, it was some vicious shit that was bad and sucked and i hated it

DAVE: it didnt make me stronger

DAVE: it did the opposite

DAVE: it made me never want to fight

DAVE: it made me never want to see blood or be near danger or hear metal sounds

DAVE: it made me hate the idea of being a hero cause he was a hero and he ruined the idea of heroism

(…)

DAVE: i know how it sounds but i am NOT joking and there is NO shred of doubt in my mind that he loved all those puppets more than me

so uh, this essay is already long enough, and you definitely want me to just say the theme by now, so let’s explain the rest of this allegory in optional bullet points that you should definitely still read.

rose liking the puppets is symbolism for how emotionally neglected children often end up subconsciously “wanting” terrible things to them, like abuse or self harm, so they can justify their own unhappiness with their lives, due to them not understanding that their emotional needs aren’t being fufilled. again, the myth of the perfect victim, starting during childhood specifically. rose does this by convincing herself that her mom hates her, rather than seeing that her mom is trying her best to parent, and failing miserably. rose is also unaware of her mother’s alcoholism, which symbolizes how she doesn’t understand that her mother is emotionally neglecting her. this parallels how dave is seemingly caught off guard by dirk’s sexuality, and thus bro’s sexuality, due to dave not processing that his abuse is sexual in nature.

jade’s love of plushies parallels dave’s love, and eventual hatred, for puppets. (once again, notice the red vs green. character foils!) this is because her neglect causes her to become extremely immature. when she’s a kid, this mostly just manifests as her liking children’s toys, and speaking with a childish affectation. however, this immaturity goes unchecked, leading to the epilogues, where she completely ruins dave and karkat’s relationship for her own sexual desires (paraphrasing). you could say the same for her secretly getting rose pregnant in hs^2, knowing kanaya will be upset when she finds out. basically, she has a huge emotional disregard for everyone around her, which stems from her almost complete isolation for most of her childhood. once again, emotional neglect leading to regression, more specifically maturity regression in her case, which makes sense when you remember she grew up raised by an actual dog. and interestingly, dogs have low emotional intelligence compared to other animals. jade herself becomes part dog while going godtier, right as she has to go into further isolation during the three year journey. dogtier symbolism! jadesprite also throws a tantrum when she’s created, right after being combined with a dog. more symbolism!

dirk loving cal is an allegory how he can’t let go of his own self abuse, which becomes extremely literal when he cuts his head off. something something symbolism. this is also foreshadowing his eventual role as the villain of the story once he achieves his ultimate self, and begins thrusting abuse onto others. after going ult, dirk ends up pushing jane into presidency, thus allowing a troll genocide to happen. it’s also worth mentioning jane r*pes jake in the epilogues, and while knowing this, dirk still supports her because he believes “the ends justify the means” during all of this. now he’s officially just as bad as bro at this point. i also wanna point out that this, once again, this makes dirk a huge foil to dave, with both of them helping their respective presidential picks to win the election. i believe this is hinting that dave will eventually be the one to defeat dirk, thus finally not letting his bro have power over him, or anyone else for that matter. remember how dave is a reference to luke skywalker? well the main villain of homestuck^2 is his father figure from another timeline/universe, so at this point, it seems like dave will have to be the one to do the killing blow on dirk, the same way luke did to vader. only time will tell. pun intended bitch. also, dirk’s shade of orange is right in between dave’s, and the yellow bloods, possibly symbolizing how dirk is doomed by the narrative just like sollux, mituna, and the Ψiioniic, combined with his own self abuse.

roxy has seemingly no affinity or hatred for puppets, dolls, or plushes, foreshadowing her failed assassination attempt on the batterwitch, and her short lived alcoholism. however, she does still have a pile of cat and wizard plushes in her room. roxy is probably the third most well adjusted character in all of homestuck, and had a pretty nice childhood all things considered! obviously it wasn’t perfect though, hence the short bout of alcoholism. all that fits into my puppet theory pretty well, implying that roxy made it to the end of her game due to her lack of alcoholism, unlike her alpha self, but just like rose. her shade of pink being the middle ground of dave and rose’s makes sense as well.

on davesprite’s timeline, his sprite prototypes with cal, and one of the birds who never left his apartment, symbolizing how he was unable to escape the trauma of his abuse and homelife. also another easter egg! crows are the smartest bird, and one of the smartest animals in the animal kingdom. this is symbolizing how dave is actually the smartest member of his session, which makes sense due to the sheer amount of math he does for his sylladex, despite bro not bothering with his homeschooling. this is why davesprite’s wings are clipped, to symbolize how his neglect and abuse ultimately made him worse off, rather than “being the air beneath his wings”. actual dave notably fights with a clipped sword, can you guess what that symbolizes? (hint: bro clipped the sword)

john interestingly fits into this as well, due to him receiving a harlequin doll for his birthday, and it later prototyping his kernelsprite. john hates clowns, and is the main character, which interestingly foils gamzee, who loves all things clown, and is relegated to a joke background character. let’s just put another pin in john and gamzee for now! i promise it will pay off.

but most importantly, lord english is the referred to as “the 8ig 8ad” by vriska (not a coincidence! think about spidermom!!!), and lil cal himself is referred to as the “most important character in homestuck”. notably, lord english is also the mind behind lil cal. this symbolizes how abuse is a central theme of homestuck, and the last trial the characters must overcome. that’s why rose stops drinking after the retcon, and why dave starts… doing something with karkat?

so there’s a huge elephant in the room! if we’re discussing davekat, we have to to mention the contentious reveal scene, don’t we? forgive me, but we have to address all the little nuances of this. so uh, remember dave’s anxious speaking habit we’ve established? well he starts blabbering when karkat immediately brings up his old black feelings for john, most likely implying he’s a little jealous/insecure about that. this is pretty normal, cause he’s still teenager at the end of the day. you can see it specifically in these two lines:

DAVE: so are you SURE you still dont have these unreconciled blackrom feelings about john

DAVE: i say we air this out before it ferments into some rank and hella unexamined feeling sauce

see? remember what i said about dave having trauma responses? this is it. he’s just anxious karkat might still like john, thus ruining their relationship, or uh, situationship at the time. he also might be projecting his romantic attraction to john onto karkat as well. then, he rambles a bunch of incoherent bullshit when john asks what his sexuality is. karkat is extremely embarrassed by this part of the conversation, yet he was able to calmly discuss his old crush on john. so this all comes to a head with the following dialogue:

JOHN: did you... like, date any boys?

DAVE: uh

JOHN: but there weren't even that many boys on the meteor? well, there's the clown guy, but i don't really see you and him... that really only leaves... um, were you and karkat... ARE you and karkat, like. hmm.

this makes karkat officially loses it due to embarrassment, but i’ll spare you from that huge wall of text. next dialogue reads:

JOHN: dave, i'm pretty sure we're making karkat uncomfortable now.

DAVE: yeah maybe we should drop this

JOHN: ok.

so lets think. they aren’t dating, but they definitely did something kinda gay. notably, this parallels the “things” dave did with terezi pre-retcon, while still being tastefully vague. the idea that dave did some gay teenager shenanigans actually does make sense for his character arc, because it implies he’s comfortable enough now to try something like that now. though i do wanna emphasize that i’m not try to explicitly say they had sex, i’m just saying dave explored his sexuality. come to the conclusions you’re comfortable with here! hussie goes out of their way to not display or mention characters doing any sex acts while they are minors, and this is the closest we ever get to anything like that. there’s only one instance of making out even happening in homestuck, and it’s just jake making out with his avatar poster. well, unless you wanna count this i guess? considering everything we’ve gone over in this post, this is most definitely intentional.

through john’s retcons, the butterfly effect forces the dave and rose to address their respective childhood traumas, which leads to them being able to beat the game. same with davepetasprite finally giving jade the closure she needed right before she woke up. same with terezi fixing her relationship with vriska. karkat runs for president later, proving he’s got over his leadership trauma as well. that’s how you win sburb. john saving everyone with that retcon shows the central theme of homestuck: you can change at any point, and get through any hard times, as long as you have people in your life to help and support you. the retcon is great because it shows you how a timeline is doomed, so that way you can understand why they won.

EB: well to be honest, i never really believed any of your guys's doom and gloom nonsense. not because i think you are lying... i just feel like there must still be a way to win! (…) also, there is always hope for someone who has good friends to count on!

so when dave and karkat start getting together, and do “stuff” on the meteor, that’s all the tasteful way of saying: dave was able to process things, and become more comfortable with himself. again, this totally could’ve just been making out, come to the conclusions you want. the vagueness is intentional.

notably, vriska, dirk, jake, gamzee, and jane are the only surviving characters to not address their trauma at all by the ending, which leads into their current arcs in homestuck^2 (or lack thereof in gamzee’s case). there’s also one more character, who we’ve carefully left pins in until now….

it’s time to address june egbert. spare the torches and pitchforks please! i’ve done a ridiculous amount of research, and there still doesn’t seem to be a proper explanation for june egbert from either a homestuck fan or a creator behind homestuck, so i’ll bare the cross of this explanation. from here on out, i’ll still say both names interchangeably for pedantic reasons, but that’s solely because this is still in a weird state of schrödinger’s canon, and hs^2 is pretty much it’s own thing in itself. but i’m a trans woman so w/e. once again, spare the pitchforks! please!

the reason why her being trans works is because john/june spent the whole series so focused on saving everyone else, that she never focused on herself, or thought too deeply about anything. that’s kind of her thing, taking everything at face value, and not thinking too deeply about herself (i wonder why… ♾️). this is even pointed out by dave himself during The Davekat Scene™:

DAVE: ok i guess what im saying is… i dont think its all as simple as you think it is, or maybe not like ACTIVELY think it is but continue to assume it is on account of NOT thinkin about it much, due to a lot of junk about the subject that gets shoved into our brains from movies and stuff while we were just dumb kids

JOHN: i,

JOHN: hm.

so you see the set up here right? the character who i was referring to, who still hadn’t processed their childhood? it’s important to realize that june/john has never actually had a character arc herself, because her story is told via the hero’s journey structure, not a typical three act story structure like almost every other character receives in their arcs. ever notice how homestuck is constantly compared to the odyssey or the iliad? that’s why! this all means, june/john is a plot motivated character, rather than a self motivated one, again, like almost the rest of the entire cast. it makes sense for her to have to start self introspection once the game is over, she never really had the chance to while saving everyone else. interestingly, vriska’s arc is told in the format of the hero’s journey as well. dave/davebot’s arc in the epilogues and hs^2 is also told in the format of the hero’s journey. he seems to be in between “woman as the temptress” (aka jade) and the “atonement” stage, which would most definitely be finally seeing karkat again, something hs^2 is still building up to. this makes sense for all three characters, seeing as being a “hero” plays huge parts of all of their respective storylines.

i also wanna bring up the clown stuff again, and more specifically, gamzee. even more specifically, this amazing analysis by @abcq2:

before murderstuck, gamzee has no idea that he is a clown. sure, he anoints his face with greasepaint, rides a unicycle, and juggles, but these are serious religious sacraments to him. and, sure, sometimes he trips on his giant floppy shoes and lands face first in a pie, but that's just being blessed with a miracle, because he was just thinking about pie. and, sure, sometimes his friends say things like "HEY ASSHOLE. CLOWN ASSHOLE. YOU WORSHIP A CLOWN RELIGXON. FOR CLOWNS." to him, but he's too zonked on sopor slime to extract any meaning from it. when gamzee sees the ICP miracles video, he's too sober to dismiss it as a mere coincidence; for once, he gets the joke, and realises that he was the butt of the joke the whole time. he understands that every time he fell face first in a pie, it was the work of an unsen riddler. he grasps that he is, in a cosmic sense, a clown, and hates it. (…) when the murder spree is over, gamzee's beatific grin returns; no longer a look of blank ignorance, but a knowing smirk. he's successfully ruined his character forever - no one wants to see him and no one thinks he's funny. hussie seems to say: jesus you are such a shitty clown. and gamzee's impassive face seems to say: i know. gamzee refuses to clown out of spite, and hussie refuses to remove gamzee from the story out of spite. it's a committed relationship of reciprocal, mutual antagonism. what i'm saying is that hussie and gamzee ar-

once again, all credit for this gamzee analysis goes to @abcq2, please check them out!!!

so i’ll cut straight to the chase, mostly due to me getting close to tumblr’s character limit. the clowns are an allegory/symbol of being transgender. it’s impossible to ignore. remember that game i told you about? psycholonials? if you’ve ever played it, you’d know that clowns and transgenderism are tied up together in one big scene. i won’t spoil the game, it’s really good! check it out! this parallels homestuck, where june has always been associated clowns. not a coincidence. once you fit gamzee into this equation, it’s clear that gamzee’s “clown” dysphoria is a stand in for gender dysphoria. read the analysis above one last time and tell me i’m wrong. hussie themself has only posted themself in clown makeup since 2020, this started exactly half a year before they unofficially came out as non-binary via a homestuck announcement. they also tweeted that they use any pronouns shortly afterwards, on a private (?) twitter account. it’s also worth mentioning that one of the few of photos of hussie that we have, they were in ICP/juggalo stuff just like gamzee, and this photo was taken in october of 2010, mere months after gamzee’s introduction, and possibly a month or less after act 5 act 1 was finished. if you know anything about this image, or tumblr user @dead12234352356456775, please message me! this blog is the earliest place the picture can be tracked to, and i’d love to ask OP if they know anything about this image. hussie has notably referred to themselves “clown gender” as well. it’s unclear to me whether hussie actually likes icp, or if this is one huge coming out ARG, but either way, clowns = trans, got it?

so when john/june have a clown sprite following her around, it’s an allegory for how the trans stuff is literally in her face, but she can’t understand it!

“but there’s no textual evidence of john wanting to be a girl!!” see, we’ve officially waded deep all the way into the murkey grey waters of nuance. so if you don’t know, june is the embodiment of what us trans women refer to as the “pre-egg crack”, aka, the phase before you realize you’re trans. this phrase applies to all trans people, but trans women use/identify with it the most, just cause we usually come out way later, usually around say, 20-23, like john/june is by the end of homestuck! huh, what a coincidence. in all seriousness, this is because most trans women start their transitions when they first live on their own. john/june’s also a computer scientist by hobby, something a lot of trans women do. this is because trans women are one of the smallest minority groups, so we usually have to go resort to online communities to talk to each other. this is also necessary for a lot of us, due to research on hrt not really being as advanced as it should be, and the fact transitioning is still illegal/hard to access in a lot of areas. trans women are also likely to stay inside on our computers cause yknow… dysphoria. plus computer jobs often have decent pay, low barrier to entry, and require little to no interaction with other people in person, making them perfect to both medically and socially transition. sure, june never outright says “i want to wear a dress” or laments about dysphoria, but again, homestuck is by adults for adults. the story shouldn’t have to explain something like this to you. the only reason you had the impression that there’s no evidence of john being trans is because you weren’t educated on the subject matter, but now you are!

“you’re just projecting onto this character!!!” and you are too! again, that’s how everyone engages with art. to think you don’t do the same yourself is foolish. utter poppycock even! however, i really despise this sentiment. the fact i’m a trans woman makes me the most qualified to speak on this subject, not the other way around. who are you to speak on the experiences of trans women? exactly. i’m tired of us trans women being berated for headcanoning characters as trans women, even when it’s extremely obvious why we do as such. it’s always the boils back down to the same bullshit in response: “well actually YOU’RE the transphobic one for saying all trans women look/act the same!!!” *sigh* that is literally the definition of an identity. you sound dumb, and are speaking over actual trans women, whose opinions are infinitely more important than yours when it comes to this subject. this is literally just the “what is a woman” debate repackaged with the guise of liberalism. it’s annoying.

“all this june stuff came out of nowhere!!!” this headcanon became prevalent during the pandemic, where tons of trans people were able to start their transitions! i did this myself, and so did hussie. doesn’t seem so random now, does it?

“hussie is just doing this for woke/fandom points!!!” uh, and what would they be gaining by making john trans? if this was about making money, wouldn’t the merch link on the official website work? hussie makes visual novels now, and has removed themselves from homestuck as much as feasibly possible, while still maintaining their ownership of the IP. not exactly the most lucrative career path. and if you’re implying hussie is adding any element to homestuck simply to please fans (yes, that includes davekat), you obviously know nothing about hussie. go on reddit, read ANY responses to the epilogues, or the plot of homestuck^2, and tell me when you find the tons of people happy with their contents. oh, and see how homestuck fans feel about kankri and cronus while you’re at it. i’ll wait.

“okay but the toblerone stuff is dumb!!!” at no point before the june wish did hussie say that finding a toblerone would give the finder the power to make a canon-altering wish. as you can see here, all of the wishes weren’t even granted, some of which have no impact on canon at all. if hussie wanted to, they were well within their rights to go “yeah no, this is dumb, sorry” when the wish for june egbert was sent in. this means that june egbert already fit into hussie’s idea of canon, and as i’ve already pointed out, june egbert has properly been foreshadowed, so this all adds up. the idea that hussie “turned john transgender because of a toblerone” is an exaggeration of events perpetuated by losers misguided and ill informed fans. hussie has been sent an insurmountable amount of headcanons over the years, and aysha u farah, who has had major involvement for multiple homestuck projects over the years, has said “the only headcanon i've ever seen andrew get excited about is june egbert” on a now defunct podcast called perfectly generic podcast. (forgive me, but any links to the specific episode i’m finding no longer work due to their official website no longer working. i’m not listening to hundreds of hours of an archived podcast for this minuscule of a clip. be my guest if you want to take that on! once again, message me, and i’ll update this section.)

either way, based on everything we know, june egbert is canon because hussie wanted this prior to the toblerone wish, because if the wish contradicted or retconned canon, it wouldn’t have been granted in the first place. simply put, june egbert is canon because it’s want hussie wanted to begin with, and the wish came after that. once again, the sheer amount of foreshadowing here should be more than enough proof, and if you want more even more proof of june egbert foreshadowing, check out this blog post! it’s great!

“well it’s dumbledore logic!!!!!!!!!” is it though? j.k. rowling is a transphobic bigot, who’s works cost money to access, who confirmed dumbledore was gay only after he died, and then she still straight-washed him in future harry potter media. hussie is an actual trans person, running an indie project, who wrote one of the longest literary works in the entire english language, made it all free to access, supports all fan archives, and hasn’t even ended homestuck^2, where john/june is very much alive. and once again, the wishes were to add something to post canon content specifically, without shifting the canon of the main series. homestuck^2 is still updating, and as far as we know now, more projects are on the way, like the completion of hs^2 and hiveswap. these situations have almost nothing in common aside from deriving from twitter. if you’re mad about this, were you mad when jake was confirmed to be brazilian in a youtube livestream comment? or when gamzee’s red crush on tavros was confirmed via a dubiously canon comic? probably not. eh, maybe you were actually, i don’t know you. either way, feel how you wanna feel about jake being brazilian, i don’t care, but you can’t say there was “nothing building up to june egbert” now that you’ve read this essay. the dumbledore comparison is dumb as hell.

“well i’m trans and i don’t feel represented by june!!!” if you’re “feeling unrepresented” by june, it’s probably just because you’re not a trans woman obsessed with computer science. that’s just you not relating to the character. it’s really not much deeper than that. and on that point…

“well i just don’t like this!!!” with all due respect, you seriously need to put thought into why that is. i can’t think of a single non-transphobic to be upset about a character transitioning in a story. and again, homestuck is one of the longest literary works in the entire language, and is completely free to access. in all of homestuck history, not a single product was sold under the guise that “john will be cisgender forever” or “dave will not end up with karkat” or “jake will never be brazilian”. hussie doesn’t owe anyone any part of their story’s canon. it’s their story, full stop, and if you’re mad about that, you’re entitled to something that was never yours to begin with. not all art is made purely for your consumption, and free art is especially not made for your consumption. can you critique it? absolutely. there’s a big difference between criticism and bashing though. if you don’t like any part of homestuck, write a fan fiction, make some fanart, or write an oddly soapboxy essay about your personal fan theories and headcanons. turn that negative energy to make something positive! i’m being serious! hussie themself encourages this!!!

“okay but it’s still lame the davekat stuff happened off screen” i can agree to a certain extent, but dave and karkat’s relationship plays a major part in the epilogues, as well as homestuck^2, and that’s not even unpacking their weird borderline black rom dynamics pre-retcon. to act as though their romance starts and stops during one intermission really downplays how seriously their relationship is taken throughout the homestuck series.

“okay but isn’t a lot of that stuff dubiously canon?” baby, everything is canon. hussie has said so themself. there are infinite possibilities for what could have happened during homestuck, so maybe we should just focus on the fact it’s taken seriously at all? honestly, the line between dubiously canon and actual canon is paper thin. homestuck^2’s entire plot is currently deconstructing what canon even means. if you wanna only see the main series as canon, be my guest, but the accusations of homophobia and queerbaiting over the davekat reveal are a little ridiculous. their relationship plays a major part in all homestuck content for years now. also, big reminder that, with the reveal of june egbert, there’s now only one canonically straight character from the main series, and she’s a villain now, so…

“well you’re just strawmanning me now!!!” my loyal reader, i understand you are a human being with infinite nuances i will never be able to understand, cause quite frankly, i have no clue who you are to begin with. i don’t think everyone who hates davekat or june egbert is some anti-lgbt bigot. i’m just here to set the record straight, and provide context for people who are willing to listen. a lot of this shit is confusing, and there’s misinformation a plenty out there. most people who are participating in this discussion clearly haven’t bothered reading homestuck for years at this point, possibly even a decade. and that’s fair, most of us read it as kids, and probably stopped by the final update, if not sooner. honestly, i think the main issue here is that people are playing the telephone game via fandom discourse. that’s how we went from “hussie supports june egbert” to “hussie made john being transgender canon cause of a candy bar” in the first place. if you’re participating in this discussion, maybe try rereading homestuck before you let your vague memories of reading the comic years ago define your current day opinions? besides, i’m not delusional enough to think any bigots are going to read this post and be convinced, but i’m sure i can open up the minds and eyes of people who are willing to listen! give homestuck a reread, imagine how much more foreshadowing has gone unnoticed over the years!

i feel the need to be so thorough, bust out so many references, break down every bit of nuance, and speak from my own experiences, because inevitably, a small group of people are gonna read this post and still go “it’s not that deep! they’re just puppets! june egbert is a bunch of sjw malarkey!!!”, and to those people, i hope you stop making fandom spaces miserable because you didn’t wanna pay attention in english class. media analysis is a necessary tool, and i’m sorry our education system here in america failed both you and i. (or maybe your a non-american country has english classes as terrible as ours? idk.)

honestly, i think i read like five or six books in throughout of all high school. i failed english my freshman year, and dropped out by my senior year. there’s always room to grow though! look at how i’m able to write this essay now! all you have to do is just watch some video essays that break down your favorite movies, tv shows, books, and more!!! there’s tons of jackasses like me who will lament about their hyperfixations. plus, now you already know what symbolism, the rule of three, and allegories are! before you know it YOU’LL be the one noticing all of the easter eggs in the media you enjoy, just like us the rest of us pretentious media analysis fuckheads.

i’m sure all of us are old enough to remember how exciting it was when rosemary was first confirmed, or when the dirkjake kiss happened, or all the recent stuff with davekat. and guess what, june egbert is going to be that lots of young trans women! after reading all of this, is hating june egbert the hill you’re gonna die on?

you know, hussie practically uses homestuck as their personal diary. i don’t think anyone’s denying that. it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why they want their main character to be trans, or why they wanted dave to end up with karkat. maybe you’re just not willing to understand it? if we’re allowed to project on to these characters, then why won’t you let hussie?

if you got to the bottom of this post, thanks for reading! i might turn this into a video essay if i’m being honest, but if you wanna repost this, or make your own response, please just credit me! also check out my homestuck fanworks if you like this post, i’m sure you’ll like them too!!! i don’t really have anything else to promote so uh…. if you’re on the homestuck^2 team and read this…pleasefortheloveofgodiwouldkilltoworkonanofficialhomestuckprojectidontevencarewhowhenwhenwhereorhowbutillsettleforanytjingpLEdareplelaplwlalsplelallaldle

in all seriousness, thanks for reading! i doubt this post will take off simply due to how long it is. i’d love to hear other people’s thoughts and opinions on this, or possibly make mutuals to yap with even! dear lord i miss having friends to talk about homestuck with. also sorry for the censors, normally i wouldn’t bother with something like that, but i’ve been working on this non-stop for the past few days, so i don’t wanna risk it being taken down.

anyways….. THAT’S why i have the bro strider tag muted 😭

(EDIT ON 9/15/24: added a new source i found and fixed some minor grammatical errors)

[im-so-normal-iswear]

Can you request a Stan/Ford (Seprate) with a younger(29-49) girlfriend who's a Mortician and absolutely obsessed with death(in an artistic way)? Fluff ofc!

Okay!

Ford/stan pines x mortician reader

Ford Pines:

Ford is fascinated by your profession as a mortician. He has a deep respect for people who can approach death with curiosity and artistry like you do. Your discussions about the work you do, the art of preserving bodies, and the beauty you see in death intrigue him beyond belief.

You often catch him asking you all sorts of questions, from technical aspects of your work to philosophical ones. He loves talking to you about your unique perspective.

"So, when you're preparing a body, do you think of it as… scientific art? Like a preservation of life, but through death?

He finds himself comforted by your openness about death, especially considering his own near death experiences.

Your view on death makes it less frightening for him, and he loves how you’ve made it feel like a natural part of life rather than something to be feared.

Ford is surprisingly soft when it comes to your more artistic expressions of death. Whether it’s photography, sketching anatomical designs, or even macabre poetry, he loves seeing the world through your eyes. He thinks it’s poetic that your job is so tied to life’s greatest mystery.

Despite his mind, Ford can be romantic in his own way. Sometimes, he’ll surprise you with small, thoughtful gifts related to your interest, from a rare antique book on embalming techniques or a sketchbook for your death-related projects.

Ford loves hearing you talk about your day, even if it’s filled with things most people would find morbid. He's already quite used to stuff in that field. You make it sound fascinating, and Ford can’t get enough of your stories.

Stan Pines:

Stan is initially a little weirded out when he finds out you’re a mortician. Death isn’t exactly something he likes to think about, and your enthusiasm for it is unexpected. But once he gets over the initial shock, he’s intrigued. Really intrigued.

"So, you work with dead people all day? That’s gotta be a hell of a conversation starter!"

He jokes about it a lot at first, but it’s his way of trying to understand. And the more you talk about it, the more he finds himself genuinely interested.

He loves how you’re not afraid of death and how you’ve made it into something artistic. Stan is all about people who aren’t afraid to live life on their own terms, and you embody that completely. He admires how you’ve taken something most people shy away from and turned it into an art form.

“You’re somethin’ special, ya know that?”

Stan’s rough around the edges, but when he sees how passionate you are about your work, he’s hooked. He may not understand everything, but he loves listening to you talk about it.

He brags about you all the time. “Yeah, my girl’s a mortician. Works with the dead, and she’s damn good at it. Not everyone can handle that kind of thing, but she’s a real pro.” He’s super proud of what you do and loves showing you off for being so unique and talented.

He’s surprisingly romantic when it comes to your art. If you have sketches or projects related to death, Stan will look at them with genuine admiration. He may not fully get it, but he’s impressed by your creativity.

“I don’t know how you come up with this stuff, but it’s pretty damn amazing.”

When he’s feeling cheeky, Stan likes to joke about death in a lighthearted way.

“So, when I kick the bucket, you’re gonna make sure I look real handsome, right?”

It’s his way of showing he’s comfortable with your work and isn’t afraid to joke about it with you.

If you ever doubt yourself or worry that your obsession with death is too much, Stan is the first to shut that down.

"You’re incredible just the way you are. If people can’t handle that, screw ‘em. I love every weird, dark, artistic part of you."

At the end of the day, Stan is just completely in love with how unique you are. He may not always get your artistic take on death, but he’s endlessly proud of you and everything you do.

"You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, y’know? Don’t ever change."

A/n: got sick again while writing these

[your-unfriendlyghost]

New fic: Ponyboy has a bad time

but it’s okay dw it ends decent i promise

This one’s technically a part of my Ao3 series “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”, a fic about Soda and Steve trying to get home from Vietnam- but the main focus here is Ponyboy. And Mark Jennings, actually. I intended for Mark to just be a quick cameo, but idk I guess I kinda like him more than I thought, cos he is solidly a deuteragonist here.

It takes place during and in the month that leads up to the dance in That Was Then, This is Now. Ponyboy’s got a lot on his plate, between stressing about Soda, getting in trouble at school and in town, trying and failing to ask out Cathy Carlson, trying not to disappoint Darry, and just generally feeling alone. Mark’s his best buddy, but Mark’s best buddy is Bryon…It all comes to a head at a horrible school dance that’s totally not based on true events.

Then Steve Randle, a man who he thought was dead, shows up and saves him

Ao3 summary:

“I’m dreamin’, ain’t I?” Pony says softly. “You- you ain’t here for real, right?! You’re- you’re dead-” Steve shrugs, looking a little uncomfortable. “Naw…this is all flesh and blood, man,” he says, attempting something like a smile, as if he’s trying to make a joke. “I just…took my time, y’know, before comin’ back here…” he trails off, eyes narrowing. “But what the hell are you doin’ out here?” He steps forward, limping on his crutches, and shoves Ponyboy aside to look at the car. “And what the hell did ya do to my baby?” he groans, glaring at Pony over his shoulder. — Or: Ponyboy’s life has sucked a lot for the past three years, but this week it’s been especially lousy. After Mark gets beat up standing up for him, Pony’s just about ready to make some really bad choices…but when he’s at the lowest point he can get to, an old friend comes back from the dead to bail him out.

(here’s the next part @cherrycolacowboy fyi!! Ik it took a hot minute but it’s here now dw :))

[wisteria-lodge]

badger primary + badger secondary (slightly burnt-out bird secondary)

unBurning snake primary (lion model) + burnt snake secondary (badger model) (bird model)

 Hi, Wisteria! I’d love to get your perspective on my primary/secondary; it feels like I’ve been going in circles. This got so long omg, but hopefully it has everything you need. My guess would be that I’m a lion primary or snake primary (maybe burned?).

Interesting. Because Burned primaries... especially Burned internal primaries... often come across as an unhappy version of something else. Or else they think they're an *unsuccessful version* of something else. I'll keep an eye on that.

For secondary….not lion probably? I feel like I don’t really ~get~ lion secondaries, but they’re charmingly incomprehensible and have fun energy to bounce off of. This might be why I’ve dated multiple lion secondaries. An ex of mine once said that I was much more playful and sillier around them than with other people.

I'm wondering if you might be a Badger secondary. Courtier badgers can kind of unconsciously "bounce" off other people's energy like that, and the fact you didn't notice the change taking place, it had to be pointed out to you, makes me thinking that the shifting probably is unconscious.

I have a lot of Opinions about the proper/moral way to act in the world and they can be rigid (funny enough, lying isn’t on that list). I also tend to make most decisions into moral questions.

Oh that's some Bird primary energy right there. You're mentioning a list (even as a joke, even in passing) and you're talking about your Series of Opinions Which Answer Moral Questions, rather than "being passionate" or "being stubborn" or just listing me some of your positions... which would be the more Lion-flavored thing to do.

And not finding lying inherently morally objectionable - that's just a pretty standard utilitarian thing. I think that was John Stewart Mill's thing, it's only the purpose of the lie that's important.

Once I wanted to take a writing workshop that was kind of expensive. But I didn’t apply for one of the scholarships because I technically could afford the class, even though it was a stretch. Intellectually, I knew that it would’ve been fine but applying for the scholarship would’ve felt wrong.

Hm. The scholarship would have helped but it wasn't necessary... so you felt bad about taking away from someone who needed it more? That's sounding a bit like Badger primary need-basing to me. Badger? Badger-flavored Paragon Lion primary? I see what you're saying about Lion vs Bird though: intellectually knowing that something is probably fine, but not doing it because it just Feels Wrong is certainly Lion.

Things feeling “right” is so important to me. When I’m making a hard decision, I’ll make pro/con lists and talk it over with friends, but I’m always keeping an eye on my own gut feeling. It’s helpful when a friend suggests an option and my gut goes “NO”. Like, scratch that off the list! 

I mean, Birds *can* use their gut as decision-making factor. But because this anecdote is about problem solving strategies, it goes in the Secondary category. And this is pretty darn Badger secondary, using the group as such an important part of your problem solving strategy.

Normally I’d say something about wanting to try and make the world better but all I want to do right now is sit quietly and make art. That’s the burn out though.

That's a pretty idealist primary answer. But also... one you don't feel 100% great about, going by that caveat about "burn out." Starting to see why you think you might be specifically a Burnt Lion.

I’m usually fairly intense; a coworker once compared me to that army charging down the hill in the Narnia movie. 

That could honestly be any secondary, but what has me interested is that this is the second time you've used the words of someone outside of you (your ex, your coworker) to define yourself. Which is more of an external primary thing (Bird or Badger.)

(I framed it above as “making the world better” and that is something I really care about, but honestly, part of it is that I like winning.)

I mean, no one likes losing. And "making the world better"... like what person wouldn't say that? They'd all just have different ideas of what that meant.

Describing a fantasy feels overwhelming, my gut instinct is to say “feeling free” but that’s not concrete.

(correct :)

I guess my perfect day would be waking up early, getting lost in an art project for hours while bread bakes, going for a walk by the ocean, meeting up with friends for brunch, wandering around with them, getting the news that I won a prize for my art, having dinner with some other friends, and then going home to call a long-distance friend, read a book, and fall asleep cuddling my cat. 

Three separate outings with friends in one day! :D So what I'm getting from this is that community is really, REALLY important to you. Your perfect day involves meeting two groups of friends, catching up with a long distance friend (presumably someone who's harder to keep in touch with, so chatting with them is itself a bit of a fantasy in itself.) And then you win a prize, ie - you are recognized by the community for your art. Also fresh bread specifically is such a shareable baked good... and none of this is problem solving. I'm wondering if you might be a Badger primary, just going by how much community has been weighted in this ask so far.

One of my friends suggested that I might be a snake primary

And to keep count, this is the third time you are defining yourself with the words of someone in one of your communities.

because I value loyalty and friendship so highly. Most of my happiest moments, when I felt the safest, were being around close friends.

You use a lot of collective nouns, which is a trick I use to divide Snakes from Badgers (because of course, they're both Loyalists.) You've used the word "friends" five times. With Snakes I hear a lot more "my partner" "my sister" "my best friend."

I definitely rank people in my life, and I don’t feel bad about prioritizing my favorites over others.

Badgers do prioritize the people they like slightly more. Badgers are *people,* and people have preferences. But they are also very aware of who has the most *need.* Like that writing workshop scholarship: you didn't need it the most, and so you felt bad about taking it. I bet you would have felt equally bad if one of your friends who also didn't exactly need it applied.

However, I’m really, really bad at basic self-care (we’re talking “eating regular meals” and “getting enough sleep.”)

I mean, this can be evidence of all sorts of things I am not qualified to diagnose over the internet... but having trouble with self-care is something that Badgers historically struggle with. a lot.

(and something that Snakes, even Burned Snakes, don't really have a problem with.)

Also, I recently moved away from most of my friends for an incredible opportunity. I miss them, but I never seriously considered not going. 

I'm going to take a guess that this new opportunity involves a group of some kind. I mean, clearly you have a lot of different groups of friends, which is fantastic.

A different friend, who is a snake primary, pointed out that I always need some cause or project. I do tend to get caught up in things and vanish for a couple months but always reappear eventually.

That's interesting. Because so far, when you've talked about a cause or project, the the recognition/other people involved seems kind of key. You like "winning": It's "I won a prize for my art" not "I sold a piece." And that's amazing, that's a great way to keep up energy and motivation. It just means you've probably got an External primary. (Bird or Badger.)

I know it’s not healthy to be consumed by a Purpose but I want to be.

Going from the tone of this ask, you seem a very upbeat, lively, dynamic person. Except when you're talking about these Idealist causes. Then it goes from "my happiest moments, when I felt the safest, were being around close friends" to "I know I'll burn out" and "it's not healthy." Where is all that coming from?

It feels stabilizing, invigorating—and safer than centering people. I even get stressed about how much I love my cat. People can hurt you, or they can leave, or change. Or you could leave them, or hurt them, or make a bad decision on who to trust. It just seems so precarious and vulnerable. I’ve had a hard time my entire life opening up to people -

I'm just going to point out, that I've written a bunch of these, and objectively... it sure seems like you've opened up to a LOT of people during your life. Now, maybe that's not as many people as you would ideally like, but that's also kinda a Badger primary thing. In a perfect world, a Badger primary would like to be able trust everyone. But when doing that doesn't feel safe... then the Badger primary burns a little. And, Burned Loyalists have a way of looking like stressed-out Idealists. (the same way that Burned Idealists will look like stressed-out Loyalists.)

I'm honestly not getting much Burnt Badger energy from you though. Maybe like, a light toasting. On your bad days.

- or letting myself need them.

There we go. I mean partially, yes having trouble needing other people is a human thing. But Badgers primaries are so, so much happier being needed and useful themselves than the other way around. (It's why they tend to have boundary issues.)

I’ve cut friends out before and didn’t feel bad about it because they hurt people and didn’t take responsibility for their actions—

Sounds like they hurt the group? Which is a very Badger primary way of thinking about it, and a good example of Badger primary opt-out loyalty, versus Snape primary opt-in loyalty. A Badger will say 'I will care about you until you do xyz' while a Snake will say 'I won't care about you until you do xyz.'

but none of them were in my inner circle. On the other hand, I had a hard time setting up boundaries with an ex because I loved her and she needed help.

Boundary issues. Need-basing. (Badger)

(I used to wonder if she was a good person who sometimes did selfish things or a selfish person who was capable of great kindness. Eventually I decided the question was reductive and didn’t matter.)

I think you're right about that. I suspect we are all both, at different times.

My family is….complicated. I was the kid who had to be okay.

Ooof, I hear that.

Like, I started to organize the holiday cooking/baking schedules when I was a teenager. When I was a child, I went through some trauma that I kept hidden from everyone, including my parents, because, like, why would I tell an adult? What could they do? I was a mess, but learned how to seem like I was fine. I read my parents’ child psychology books so I could tell when they were using things from them on me. 

Yeah, this is brutal. It'd be brutal for anyone, but especially brutal for a Double Badger, which I suspect you are. You're describing a situation where, very young, your community just was not safe. It couldn't help you, or protect you, it was even trying to "trick" you (with child psychology methods.) And in that situation, what do you do? Well, you're a child so you go Invisible Badger, where your identity just /is/ whatever the group needs. And apparently... your family needed an easy kid who planned holiday get togethers.

My dad’s a double bird.

Maybe *that's* where some of your Birdy language is coming from.

My mom’s either a badger secondary or has a badger secondary model (maybe actor bird?). She has a very obvious Socializing Mode and it used to frustrate her that I didn’t follow suit. She once told me before a party “you’re charming when you want to be, so please want to” (the year before, I had brought my history textbook to this party so I could look studious and get out of talking to people). 

That is both very relatable, and has a number of potential causes. (I have a very hard time at a lot of holiday parties, I find them very overstimulating, and will absolutely find ways/excuses to tuck myself away for a little bit.)

Your mom strikes me as more an Actor Bird than a Courtier Badger. She just has this 'Social Mode' setting which she can just turn on, even if (presumably) she's not feeling it that day. And she thinks that you do too... but I think you might be wired differently. And that's the Courtier Badger thing: in the moment, you have to authentically /become/ the thing, or it doesn't work.

For years, I thought I was a bird secondary. I love systems, I love knowing things, I love having something in my back pocket. I even used to have a system to determine which color of heart emoji to text (it was based on the closeness of the friend and the level of affection expressed).

That's adorable. And honestly, very useful-sounding.

I find roles comforting. I used to do costuming for theater and I still pick out my own outfits like I’m dressing a character, paying attention to what mood/vibe it communicates.

All of that sounds extremely Bird secondary. I will say though... it sounds like you had to build a model to survive your childhood, you had to "learn how to seem like I was fine." Bird is the most common model to build (especially if your dad is right there as a model.)

The issue is I like roles until they feel restricting or boring or I’m annoyed and feel like causing problems on purpose. As a kid, I was fairly mischievous. I convinced this kid in my class that I had a treehouse in my backyard where two Dalmatians lived, just for the fun of it. 

That feeling of getting "stuck" in a role is absolutely something Actor Birds struggle with. This, and the example near the beginning about getting more Liony with your Lion friends, makes me think that what you really like is having the opportunity to bounce off other people's energy. I get that. It's what I'm doing right now.

Sometimes I find my plans and elaborate systems claustrophobic. I automatically reach for them when I’m feeling anxious, but do they actually help?

Sounds like your Bird model functions as coping mechanism. I mean it's also a toy that you like to play with, yes, with your costumes and your systems. But it doesn't sound like it's necessarily something that you want to live in.

But I don’t know how else to tackle problems.

I mean, I'm hearing that you like to reach out to your friends, and then have quiet periods where you just buckle up and do your own thing.

(I think that your Bird model is just a little bit... burnt out. You've been using it so much that it feels like a chore, and that's where a lot of this burnt secondary language is coming from.)

Still, planning can absolutely trip me up. Some of my most successful moments came from just reacting.

Courtier Badger (or Snake. And I guess a very social snake /is/ possible. But Snake secondaries, and especially Badger Snakes, have a way of being either a little more deliberate (or a little more *guilty*) when it comes their face-changing.)

I can’t do it deliberately though, I overthink. It just…happens. Like I’m bad at flirting if I try but I’ve accidentally hit on people before. There’s been multiple times where I’ve had dinner with a friend and then realized it accidentally turned into a date.

Yep. Relatable. Badger secondaries (and not just me) often talk about getting into a "flow" state where you're completely in tune with the other person, reflecting them or bouncing off them. Sometimes you're not even sure how you got to a certain place, and have to come back down.

Sometimes I’ll do things instinctively and then have to backtrack to explain my reasoning to others (when explaining how to filter information in a database, “vibes” is apparently an insufficient answer).

I feel the same way about editing. I *love* editing, and I am aware that at this point I edit based on "vibes." Like yes, I'm sure I could think about it and logically explain my choices, but that's not what the process in my head looks like.

If there’s nothing I can bounce off of or if I don’t know how to read a situation, I freeze up. 

This is why Badger is a Prep-Work secondary, even though Badger secondaries are not generally comforted by very elaborate plans the way that Birds are. You get better the more you know about a situation and the people who are involved with that situation.

I don’t think that I’m a badger secondary.

Interesting. :) Let's hear the reasoning.

I do work a lot, but it’s not in a consistent, methodical way. My phone lock screen used to say “Work until they get pissed about it.” Lately though, I’ve been wondering if this burn-out inducing work ethic actually leads to success. I’ve achieved things through sheer effort but

I'm wondering how much of this "methodical" work ethic is you over-using your Bird secondary a little bit. Too many charts, too much planning. I'm wondering if maybe your dad was like that... and maybe it worked for him, but it sounds like a chore for you.

it feels like I’ve gotten where I am more by learning how to be good at things, figuring out what situations need, and people liking me. 

That is a straightforward description of a Badger secondary. ESPECIALLY the 'figuring out what a situation needs' and 'people liking me.'

I do reflexively adjust to people’s energy around me. It isn’t conscious, but sometimes I shift too much and lose myself in it.

SO. BADGER. When I shift too much, I can have almost a slight hangover feeling afterwards.

Like, I’m so focused on the moment that I’m not thinking about a longer term strategy. 

Badger. (But you are prepping. Because you're learning.)

Shifting does feels like I’m fooling people a little. Improving my way through a meeting at work instead of being prepared ahead of time feels like I’m getting away with something or cheating.

Nope. That's the Bird secondary in your head talking.

Still, it comes in handy. I once was in a meeting about something I vaguely knew how to do, but it turned out that it was actually about this very technical aspect that I didn’t have experience in. So, as I was talking around the issue, I was googling and speed reading. 

See, this where I think Badgers actually do shine. Because yeah, you didn't know the specific topic. But you knew the other people there, you knew the company, you knew what was needed, and so I bet you were value added, even just keeping the energy up.

I really want to be this super organized, steady person but I’m just not. I’m mercurial, easily bored, and so restless.

It sounds like what works best for you is friends, and play, and that's something that can kind of go missing from your life. But you like you love your job, you're good at your job. And I think you need to give yourself (and your Bird secondary model) a break.

But I think I do need a routine? My old job was intense and I was constantly on call. Now I’m in a new job that is more predictable and has very flexible hours. I can go grocery shopping any day of the week and it’s overwhelming. I don’t know how to be structured without feeling stifled. 

Going from a job where you are constantly on call to one with flexible hours is just going to be an adjustment, no matter what. You've also just recently moved, and are presumably building up your community in this new place. I think you're going to be just fine. The fact that the job is predictable will help, the fact that you're working with other people will help.

Thank you for your time! Hope you have a good day!

You are very, very welcome. <3

Thank you to R for such an excellent submission. If you'd like a Sorting of your very own, commissions are open on my ko-fi. :D

If you'd like to read more about the system I'm using, my explanation is right here.

[emilydorp]

Is it just me or did GD probably say something he shouldn’t have to T.O.P, and that’s why T.O.P cut him off?

They’ve said it so many times T.O.P is super sensitive, and words really stay with him. And GD… he’s the type to get emotional fast and say something without meaning it, but it can still hurt.

What’s crazy is that in 2022, everything seemed fine, we were all waiting for the next GD&TOP comeback, and then suddenly T.O.P said he’s leaving the group and even blocked GD. It just feels like something must’ve happened between them.

Anon, honey bun, ummm. Okay tinfoil hat warning.

a) During that one iconic af Radio Star show, GD himself (HIMSELF) said that Tabi can be a softie sometimes and has also said on separate occasions that he’s careful with the words he uses while speaking to him. I highly doubt GD would take steps back from that if he consciously chose to be careful in the past.

And in his lyrics of Untitled 2014, which in my opinion is about self reflection through the lens of a breakup, he admits to himself that he says harsh things and chases people away. Imho, since he’s reflected on this part of his personality, he’s clearly improved (I genuinely don’t understand how people can’t SEE how much Ji has changed over the years).

Both GD&TOP have spoken in the past about "saying things they don't mean" to their significant others (yes, they BOTH admitted to being 'harsh') and for them to still be together and date for at LEAST a decade, they must've worked on these painful pieces of their relationship and personalities.

b) Tabi was the one that coldly left BB, with an unceremonious announcement in his Instagram comments and shady Instagram stories. Maybe he was hurt and that’s why he did this, but publicly Ji was the only one that was hurt by these actions. Yet Ji defends him from the public (by saying that they're all now shining in their own places) which is very empathetic of him, since TOP's actions did drag both their names through the mud. (And if kVIPs are to be trusted, he also made an Insta story about removing the GD&TOP album in particular).

c) Taeyang says in this clip that TABI is on another planet now. Tabi. And I understand that YB is more loyal to GD than TOP BUT YB is technically someone who cares for BOTH of them. And here, he’s firmly taking GD’s side. (Also don't you f-cking adore the fact that everyone in this fandom treats everything as a joke? So both GD&TOP saying they are interested in men and not into women gets swept under the rug? DX). Maybe this is alluding to the moon project being a cause of issues between GTOP? I'm not going to delve deeper into that because it is a head canon based on a few things rather than something with a clear pattern but hmm.

https://x.com/NaiBb_/status/1656555651139551233

d) GDYB are incredibly loyal people and stuck with Se7en through his scandal, so I highly doubt they were the ones that slammed Tabi for his decisions. Also, the lyrics "You're welcome back home wherever/forever you are" are 100% an indication of how Ji feels and I'm pretty sure those lyrics are for Tabi (because of his Insta story + changing the lyrics to "forever you are" in Paris + the way he sings his parts in that section of the song). Not sure if that's the attitude you'd have if you were to blame for your break up. Just GD's entire attitude isn't indicative of someone to blame for a break up, Tabi's is..

e) Tabi is someone who is/was emotional unstable and despite art giving him an outlet, he clearly still had a lot of processing and pain within him (especially since we don't know what the full extent of the damage caused by the scandal was, and from what we've seen it genuinely did effect him. I agree with people saying the scandal wasn't EVERYTHING and the only reason GTOP cut contact with each other, of COURSE it wasn't, something else must've happened between them, but such pain tends to stick).

Adding this with the fact that Tabi feels ashamed of his actions, and Tabi himself is taking blame for their break up in his interviews, I don't know anon, I don't think Ji is completely to blame, like you suggested.

I know that in every break up there are TWO people and both sides are guilty, but such cuts aren't always equal. And I personally value Jiyong's strength and clear development in maturity throughout the years and see it as a great indication of him attempting to be a better partner for Tabi and overall a better person.

[aqua-the-smiter]

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦୨୧✦•······················•✦•······················•✦ ℑ𝔯𝔬𝔫 ℌ𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔰 Ferrus Manus x female oc (Argena Seeva) Other parts in the reblogs Ferrus, in a bid to one up his pain-in-the-ass brother Fulgrim, takes up drawing. Gets some reference help from his long suffering friend and senechal, Argena. Part of my AU I have cleverly called the Primarch Wife AU. Happy endings, the boys get the help they need, Big E is a good dad and, most importantly, everybody gets a wife. Because big husband and small wife makes brain go brr

Sexual content/NSFW after the cut - Very lewd-but-not-lewd touching, Ferrus jacking off to his future wife while trying to get work done, idiots in love. @thevoidscreams @pringles-plaguehaus ✦•······················•✦•······················•✦୨୧✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊ “Gena?” Ferrus asked, sounding uncharacteristically nervous. “I have a…strange favor to ask of you.” Argena put down the loop of silver she’d been polishing and turned around on her stool to face him as she heard him out. Throne, he even looked uncomfortable, and she wondered what exactly he needed that he was looking so hot under the collar. Ferrus Manus was many things, but wavering was not one of them. Actually he was kind of cute like that. She mentally slapped herself almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind. HE. IS. YOUR. BOSS. She’d been with him for over a year and half at this point. It felt like it should have been longer. Falling into the role of his senechal had been so easy after a while. Especially after they’d started spending more time simply enjoying each other’s company. He was a surprisingly layered man once he opened up enough to show it. And, she heavily suspected, a lonely one too. So they’d gotten close more easily than she would have first thought. It even showed in the way he addressed her. Gena, a more tender nickname than her given. “Does it have anything to do with your ongoing attempts to one up your brother?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It does, yes. Look, I can’t help it. Fulgrim has been driving me mad recently, so I want to pay him back in kind.” “I know, I know. And if you pull it off you’ll make him absolutely seethe.” “It” in question was Ferrus putting a serious effort into learning how to draw. He could already, but it was an entirely different kind. Technical drawings, machine blueprints, weapon schematics. Nothing really artistic, although it could be counted as a form of art in its own right if you asked her. Watching him work was hypnotic, the movement of the pencil or stylus in his metal hands impossibly graceful. Elegant even. But most people didn’t see it that way. Resident artsy fuck, Fulgrim, certainly didn’t. Constantly making little jabs and jokes at his best friend’s inability to produce anything else than purely practical drawings. Finally, Ferrus had enough and announced to her in private that he was going to produce a piece of actual art better than anything Fulgrim could do (and he wasn’t as good as everyone thought he was, including himself) out of pure brotherly spite. The early results were rough, but promising. Argena herself had quite a bit of skill, picked up from her goldsmithing hobby, and he’d come to her with practice sketches, rudimentary shapes and simple three dimensional objects. It took him a while, but he was definitely getting it. His talent for technical drawings was beginning to shine through with the clean linework. In short, it seemed he might actually do it. “That is the goal.” He said, just a little smug. “So what do you need me for, pray tell my lord?” She prompted. The Primarch seemed to steel himself for a moment. “Well…I feel I’m ready to move on to…organic materials now. I can only draw my own tools so much before I cease to learn any more from the exercise. I was going to ask if I could study you. Your anatomy, I mean.” And it already sounded like that would involve less clothes than she started with that day. “...Study my anatomy? How so? Moreover, why?”

“Feel up your body. Your muscles, skeletal structure, general build. How everything connects and moves together. I find that I learn best when I am up to the elbows in it so to speak, so being able to touch it would be the best thing. You are the only person I feel comfortable coming to with this. It is, ultimately, quite a petty thing I’m after. You have been very understanding of me. More than I thought would be possible.” Ferrus paused for a moment, wondering if what he had to say next was even a good idea before deciding he’d take that chance. “Also, you are objectively a very beautiful woman. Whatever someone’s personal tastes may be, nobody could look at you and deny it. And subjectively, I think you are a beautiful woman. For those reasons you’d make the best subject for what I’m trying to accomplish. If the goal of art is to create something pleasing to the eye, something that captures the beauty of the world and the enthusiasm of the creator in a still image, you would be a perfect basis. Not like the mess of colors and lines Fulgrim throws on his canvases.” He spoke so frankly. Ferrus was always a very no-nonsense type of person, but to have that direct, blunt nature used in such a glowing description of her was something else entirely. Because you knew for a fact when he said something, he meant it. It made her feel very warm inside. “And this is purely for research, right?” She asked tentatively. “Purely objective.” He swore. “And I won’t go any farther than you want or touch you anywhere you don’t want to be touched. I’ll fill in any gaps in my knowledge with an anatomy book. Just tell me where to stop, and I will.” Somehow a Primarch who’d grown up in the wilderness eating sand had a better concept of boundaries than many people. “Well...I trust you, so I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.” She said after a moment, rubbing her upper arm. “I’m willing. Let’s do it.” He gave her one of his rare smiles (that seemed to be becoming less rare nowadays come to think of it), genuinely grateful. It made her feel more at ease with the agreement. Who knows, it might even be fun. ₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊

[pinkeoni]

I personally genuinely liked Hell of a Summer! I thought it was a campy good time and I vibed with the humor of the film. It was a blast watching it in a packed house at a sold out Q&A event as I think that really added to the experience. It would probably be a deferent experience if I just saw it alone. I think I just generally enjoy the campy slasher genre so it didn’t disappoint me and met expectations. My main criticism is some of the technical stuff like lighting and shot composition, but I’m sure that will be improved in future films. Maybe I’m biased as a Finn stan, but I think in a neutral sense I had a good time and can’t complain. It wasn’t high art but it wasn’t trying to be

Hi anon!

I'm glad you had fun. I do think that the type of crowd you see a film with can really affect how you view it. There were a couple of people in my theater really getting into it which made it a little more fun. There was stuff to enjoy about it. There were jokes that worked for me and some of the performances was great. Like I said in my tags, Fred Hechinger was awesome and I'm glad he was the lead for this movie.

I'll give a more thorough review below:

I also enjoy the campy slasher genre, and agree that they weren't aiming for high art, but that doesn't mean that films like that can't also be well made? Neon released a list of the film's influences on letterboxd, and while I can see where they were trying to be like those other films, I just don't think they were able to replicate what made those films great.

The movie has a lot of tropey and cliche characters, because the films they reference have tropey and cliche characters. Although those films were able to better utilize and subvert those tropes. These tropes aren't subverted so much as I feel like they were included because they are popular tropes. They do a little something with the popular kids trope, but not nearly enough with it.

A lot of the humor is character based, and since the writing is not very strong, there is a lot of reliance on the actor to make these jokes funny. Fred Hechinger is a strong lead, and Abby Quinn, Daniel Gravelle and Matthew Finlan are other standouts. The weakest actors... were probably Finn and Billy.

Billy was better than Finn and got some laughs out of me, and I respected that Billy was able to be a bit more self deprecating and goofy in his role. I wish Finn was able to do the same with his character, instead of making himself a master pussy eater who majors in Gender Studies. This is just kind of a personal nitpick rather than a critique, but I always like it when directors of horror movies cast themselves as schlubs who end up with a grisly death (see Ti West in X or Osgood Perkins in The Monkey).

I think good films can be made with low budgets, but man, I could really feel it with this movie. There was a lot of weird editing decisions that made it clear they were trying to do the best with what footage they had (and I speak from experience with my own work that I made it school LOL). Most of the kills were done off screen or just out of frame, making them lose a lot of their impact and scare factor. It was pretty obvious early on which characters were safe from death (like I said, Billy and Finn couldn't bring themselves to kill off their own characters) so I didn't feel a lot of stakes. It felt like the movie was just trudging along, checking off different slasher/comedy check points as it went by.

Like I said in my OG post, it's not bad for a debut feature by a 20 year old, but I think if Finn really wants to be a good director he has a lot of work to do. I like Finn well enough, but I feel like the success of this movie is reliant on his industry pull and fanbase rather than his skill and artistry. I think he can become a better filmmaker, but he's going to need to start putting in more effort than just coasting by and letting his fame get a Neon release.

[pinkrangersarah]

What are your thoughts (if you have any) on the respective love interests the rest of the F7 are shown meeting in the end credits? 🎤 me personally I never really saw the three tin girls we see alongside the triplets as their love interests, I always thought they built them and are therefore (technically) their daughters; mostly because I think it’s a bit boring to pair up the triplets with other triplets idk that’s just me 🤷

okay, so technically i have A LOT of thoughts, which is hilarious considering we don't know anything about these characters; not even their names. i've just been thinking up fan fiction so long that i've basically created entire oc's around them. so i'll give my initial thoughts and then what i've personally come up with!

little red riding hood has never been a super interesting character to me. rather, her initial persona has never been interesting to me. it's a good fairytale on its own, but nothing about red herself had ever stood out to me. all of the different interpretations of her over the years, however, have been really fun. her "once upon a time" interpretation is probably my favorite, and it plays into one of the BEST tropes that has come out for red riding hood over the years--which "red shoes" also does--is red riding hood herself being the wolf.

i think arthur and werewolf red riding hood could be very fun for various reasons. werewolves are monsters, something merlin states in the beginning that the fearless 7 are called to deal with regularly. arthur also puts a lot of value and his self-worth into his physical strength, and as a werewolf red riding hood would no doubt be much stronger than him. these are prejudices arthur would have to climb over (i don't see arthur as sexist, but he cares so much about being strong that a tiny girl like red being five times stronger than him would no doubt bug him), allowing him to grow as a person and love red riding hood for who she is.

ugh. to be honest, this is my least favorite. it really feels like they just didn't know what to do for jack; i can't seem to find the JPEG anymore, but if what i found was genuine concept art then they were originally just going to make a merman that looks... just like jack? thank GOD somebody said that was a stupid idea (again, if that was real concept art), so then we ended up with this. YES, i know the moral, but i just... don't really see what they were going for with this.

admittedly, i did make up an oc for jack, whom i will eventually put out more art for (because i do genuinely want to write something), and i did keep the water theme. i liked the idea of arthur having to overcome a major prejudice so much that i came up with the same concept for jack by making up a sea witch companion for him.

this is no doubt sleeping beauty, and honestly it is probably the funniest one out of them all. true loves kiss who? no, just make some damn good food and sleeping beauty will come running. making female characters (especially princesses) messy eaters with lousy table manners is absolutely nothing new, and i'm certain someone somewhere has paired them up with a foodie with exceptional cooking skills before, but it's still an endearing duo and a very fitting choice for hans. he doesn't strike me as particularly picky, he and the triplets honestly seem the less vain out of the seven; he just wants to cook and bake for someone he loves. it's very sweet, and i like sleeping beauty's design here.

i also agree with you that these automatons are not meant to be girlfriends. hell, the triplets seem content in their dwarf forms. i think the automatons are just assistants that happen to look female. to be honest, i think it'd be hilarious if somebody, maybe arthur, joked that they couldn't find anybody they each clicked with so they just made companions, and the triplets just go "what, no, we needed help in the workshop since you're too afraid of little oil and grime."

[tired-n-trying]

14th november, thursday

children's day

so like.. let's just ignore how i have't been active for quite a bit. depression fucking sucks. in desperate need of a reality check cuz wdym my next periodic tests are a month away?? i was chilling in my dussehra holidays just last week (it's been a month). less depressing fanfiction, more textbooks :(

i'm going to be trying to get back into the flow from tmr!! for the past few days i've only been up-to-date with notes & submissions and that's it. i haven't done any more actual "studying". i just need to make more time for it & get through it. i like my subjects & i'm gonna continue reminding myself that i actually love what i'm learning, even when it's difficult.

soooooo, today was children's day! we didn't have to wear our uniforms and omg everyone looked so good!! like the way everyone styled their different clothes & accessories was all so pretty! we had a special assembly at school at first where our teachers danced too. we were supposed to have the first half of our regular classes but our teachers mostly let us pass our time. me & my friends were just talking & snacking the entire time (a few pics were also taken!). i usually don't get my phone to school cuz my dad directly drops & picks me up, but today i took my phone to school to take pictures! (technically my mom's, i don't actually have my own phone). then our two classes were combined (science+commerce) & our class teachers conducted a few simple games. mostly simple fun stuff involving cups & balloons. before leaving me & my friend managed to click a few more pics. then i got home & fell asleep for a few hours lol (gimme a break i got around 5 hrs of sleep. also i somehow woke up around 5:45 a.m.! i barely get myself to get out of bed at 7:30 on other days)

today was really fun tbh. like me & this one friend mostly just yapped but i'm feeling so grateful for her<3 met her on the third day of school this year & suddenly it's been more than 5 months & the only constant is that we're both always yapping in our classes. yk when u find someone u can joke around with & tease yet also have deep conversations about stuff like humanity, art, politics, religion, career, our futures, marriage, etc. we have a lot in common too (introverts, book lovers, weird relationship with parents, love writing). feels like she just gets me yk. it's really nice..

[optiwashere]

This seemed fun, so why not do this for my babies? Portraits taken from art in this post.

Some elaborations under the cut...

Stats

Ages are at the end of BG3. Shadowheart is at least late 40s in canon, but I always had her as 50 in my mind. She has her birthday in my fic canon during the post-Absolute Crisis rebuilding while Asheera's won't be for another few months.

Asheera is ~201cm tall, Shadowheart is ~170cm tall. Roughly 31cm height difference!

Ship Parameters

Shadowheart and Asheera both enjoy being the big spoon and little spoon, but Shadowheart prefers being nestled in Asheera's embrace. Doesn't mean for a bit that the roles aren't reversed now and again, though.

Shadowheart wears Asheera's clothes all the time. Constantly. They are, of course, comically oversized on her.

They both use pet names for one another, but Asheera fancies herself a bit of a romantic so she likes to come up with melodramatic ones ("my Heart") while Shadowheart prefers "love" and "my love." Shadowheart also calls Asheera "my Lady paladin" a lot in the fics, but IDK if you consider that a pet name or not?

Shadowheart is undoubtedly far, far, far more introverted than Asheera. In fact, Asheera is pretty extroverted in general. The extrovert/introvert ship dynamic is my catnip, how could you tell?

So, the affection one I took to mean what they prefer. Shadowheart likes quality time and affirmations while Asheera likes acts of service and quality time. However, if you imagined it as what they do then their placements would be flipped.

Shadowheart confesses love first. Affection and attraction, that's technically Asheera.

Neither of them really panic about bugs. Asheera has a bad habit of killing the little creatures though, and she has serious thoughts about her own oaths when she does it.

Horse riding... Listen, all I'm saying is Asheera riding a horse with Shadowheart behind her? Yeah. But, like, if we're literally talking about driving a car then Shadowheart can drive but if anyone else offers to drive then she's going to take the opportunity to sit in the passenger seat, curate the music, and fall asleep.

Shadowheart knows how to cook because she's an adult, but she's just terrible at it. I'm sorry, she is a horrible cook to me. Her taste buds are all fucked up from decades of sampling/testing poisons, venoms, and paralytics as a Sharran. Asheera's not much better, she just knows that if Shadowheart cooks it'll be a disaster for everyone.

Shadowheart prefers discretion and Asheera loves giving her wife big, showy kisses for all to see. They have an understanding.

Despite the jealousy levels, Asheera is prone to overprotectiveness. After everything that Shadowheart went through in her life, after everything that Asheera saw in her memories and in the events of BG3, there's no way she doesn't immediately come to Shadowheart's defense at pretty much any perceived slight. Shadowheart finds it very sweet, but unnecessary. She can defend herself just fine. Doesn't mean she hates it though.

Shadowheart has the age on Asheera by a margin, and she spent decades in a Sharran cloister. Calling them "relationships" is probably a bit much to be fair, though. This doesn't mean Asheera is some naïve virgin! She's actually more experienced with long-term relationships than Shadowheart.

Levels

They're both extremely horny, especially for one another, but Shadowheart wins out on this one by sheer excitement to try out anything and everything that she thinks Asheera would want to try. Asheera isn't a prude by any stretch of the imagination.

Shadowheart is awkward in that "sheltered in a cult commune" kinda way. She says the wildest shit sometimes and expects people to just move on from it. Someone who quotes erotica with their friend in public is going to cause others to feel awkward. Asheera on the other hand? She makes things awkward by either being way too serious about a situation or cracking bad jokes about it; there is no in-between, and nobody is sure what to expect.

Asheera doesn't get jealous. Shadowheart is jealous of things that aren't really related to their relationship. I don't think either of them gets jealous over that sorta thing. Shadowheart just has to manage her feelings about family given that Asheera has one that loves her and she was able to experience a childhood and such. That triggers jealousy which Asheera finds normal and reasonable and completely understandable. It's one of those aspects of Shadowheart's specific trauma that isn't really something you "get over" and Asheera, while finding it hurtful and hard to deal with sometimes, relies on her training and oaths as a paladin to manage that specific hurdle in their relationship.

[rose022]

hi~ im rose! (among other names lol, ask for them or find them) welcome to my intro!

layout by @lunaniticwares (haiii >_<)

- dont feel bad about blocking or unfollowing me, just wanna say this. i may make posts abt being confused when i see people leave but curate ur own experience, be happy

- i am not mentally well. there will be vent posts that are on main sometimes. i tend to post them on my vent if theyre particularly bad but there will be some here. you never have to reply, i will be okay eventually.

- you can call me whatever you want idc, just lemme know. like genuinely any nickname. i do have others tbh but ehh

- pronouns are whatever is funniest in the moment. or just use your own. neos are ok

- yeah yeah im an adult so dont block me if i like ur post and u say mdni ight? also for any minors if that makes u uncomfortable u can leave. if i post some here, its likely jokes in some form. both nsfw and suggestive are tagged just like that

- don't really have a dni but like i will block you if you're a bigot. im a fag and autistic if you don't like that go away idc. also if you are pro cop or military stuff fuck off

- i post about whatever i want all the time. you may follow for one thing, but there is no consistency here other than what i like. i have too many things i like

- asks and dms always open for anything. i won't really reach out first but i promise you can always talk to me about anything. if you don't have anyone else or just want to talk about a particular thing or want to vent, etc. like genuinely pretty please talk to me about your interests i will gladly listen!!! <3

- also you can always tag me in anything!! i love tag games (i may take a bit) and if theres anything you think id like or reminds you of me id love to see it!!

- if we're mutuals please tag stuff with cw rose for anything with touya or akito being shipped with anyone else or TBHK nene and tsukasa as a ship, self harm images, stuff about spiders (or any bugs kinda) mostly pictures of them or them on someone (bees moths and butterflies exempt), needles if theyre detailed not cartoony, real life gore of animals or humans (not sfx or art just real stuff), sa, stuff about veins, and please use tone tags but mostly just for joking or sarcasm as i tend to assume everything is serious.

- MUTUALS PLEASE TELL ME STUFF TO TAG FOR YOU!!! i do my best to read carrds and intros and stuff but i might forget please remind me please. gore and sexual stuff will get tagged as gore and nsfw but it's mostly explicit stuff. things are tagged as what it is, not with cw or tw.

- !!current things i tag are homestuck, eye strain, saiouma, bsd, religion (marlo dont look), elie shoo (csm saiouma gore), suggestive (anything relating to anything nsfw like jokes or anything else), adrien no look (alcohol, crickets, girl interrupted, hospital innuendos clowns, child death, natural disasters), deco 27, emetophobia

- tags

#rose rambles - my posts

#rose tagged ramblings - i made a separate one for when i talk a lot in tags

#rose art - quite simply rose's art

#rose ocs - the sillies from my brain

#ask rose! - asks

#rose pics - look i don't get creative with naming these i think you can tell

#rose cosplay - ^^^ yeah

#helpful - things that could be helpful to anyone

#save - similar to above but more so personal things

#important - maybe not technically helpful but i think people should see

#favs - self explanatory, i believe

#sillies - similar to above but not really

#luv - mutual appreciation mostly

#heart! - things made by mutuals!

#liebe - things made for me!

#mecore - woah thats so me frfr

#rose writing - idk man take a guess

#für das rose - submissions aka post limit

#favfavs - fav art or fandom things

#wm - reminds me of ocs

(i wanna like fix all my posts to have tags but i reblog so much and itll take me a million years to get back to the start of my account atp. maybe one day.)

- commission info

art:

writing: $2 per 100 words (?)

i also take requests for these!! or other stuff but like it will almost definitely take me a bajillion years to finish so if you wanna make sure i do something, gimme money. but u dont gotta its ok ily anyways

i have a k-fi rose226 and dm for p-ypal

- sideblogs

@nightcord-luka-official dead

@luka-spotted most active

@daily-akiyama-mizuki dead

@daily-asahina-mafuyu dead

@kokomi-sangonomiya-official

@mafuyu-asahina-official

@wansho-luka-official

@junior-high-enanan-official

@fischl-official

@rosemusictime lol no followers

@oz-the-bird-official (to translate my Fischl)

@ako-udagawa-official this and above in progress (there will be no progress i died)

@daily-purple-character send reqs

@rose-poll-account

@aoi-shirosaki-official pjsk oc rp blog

@hikari-itsuki-official ^

@yuki-jigoku-official ^

@kei-makura-official ^

@roseswonderland things i make

@yuki-spotted

@niigo-va-updates

@engelgram oc gram, to hold the name

(i may remove u as a follower depending on if i trust you enough for these next few but if we're mutuals ur pretty much safe)

@moonlit-thoughts22 vent

@selfless-lvr selfship/kin

@softrosebud agere

@shhh-its-rose moots only ig. random idk

@eros-engel fuck it. nsfw blog.

(guys i think I have too many sideblogs help)

im not active on many other social media but if we're mutuals you can ask for like anything and ill probably have an account. somehow im most active here tho (and in one discord server but u guys cant join)

[7ndipity]

Pumpkin carving with Tae

Taehyung x Reader

Summary: Just a cute pumpkin carving date with Tae.

Warnings: like one suggestive joke, not proofread

A/N: Thanks to the lovely anon who requested this!

Masterlist

Requests are open

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

“Tae, are you ready yet?” You called, setting out the last of the supplies the two you would need.

“Almost!” He yelled in reply.

As soon as the two of you had gotten back from picking out your pumpkins, he had zipped off to the bedroom to change, saying he had a surprise, piquing your curiosity.

When you had originally suggested decorating pumpkins together, you had thought it would be a easy enough idea for date night, seeing as technically all you needed was pumpkins and some knives or paint, but you must have somehow forgotten that you were dating Taehyung, because nothing with Tae was ever truly simple. He loved going all out on activities with you, especially holiday related things, and so far, this had not been an exception.

As soon as you had walked into his apartment, you had been stunned to find his living room fully decked out in Halloween decorations, paper bats and ghosts taped to the walls with black and orange streamers draped all over the place. He even lit a few pumpkin spice scented candles for full immersion, a full blown Halloween party, just for the two of you. He’d left you to browse the list of spooky movies he’d pulled up on the tv while you waited, taking note of the massive tray of candy and snacks that he’d also acquired, which there was no way you could possibly both eat even half of.

You’d just decided on a movie when the bedroom door swung open again, Tae strolling back into the living room, now wearing a pair of black dress pants, a matching waistcoat with a purple button-up shirt underneath, and a matching cape.

“Tada!” He announced, giving the cape a little flourish.

“What on earth are you wearing?!” You gaped at him.

“I’m a magician!” He said proudly.

“But, I thought we were saving the costumes for halloween?”

“We are, this is just for today.” He said. “Oh wait!”

He quickly snatched a headband from the counter before coming over and kneeling down in front of you and sticking it on your head, so that you were now sporting rabbit ears.

“There, now you’re my little bunny assistant.” He said, grinning widely.

“You’re not gonna try and pull me out a hat, are you?” You asked, skeptically.

“Actually, I was thinking I might try and make your clothes disappear.” He smirked, earning a swat from you.

“Would you please behave for once?!” You scolded, feeling your face heat up slightly as he snickered. “This is supposed to be a wholesome date.”

“Who gave you that idea?” He chucked.

“Tae.” You whined.

“Alright, I’ll be good.” He said, sitting down next to you on the floor in front of the coffee table.

“Where do we start?”

You both set to work on your individual pumpkins, Tae quickly having to give up part of his costume for the sake of functionality, discarding the cape over the couch arm and rolling up his shirt sleeves. Which, in your opinion, made the look far more attractive, but you kept your thoughts to yourself. He knew all too well the effect he had on you, and you weren’t in the mood to inflate his ego any more than necessary at the moment.

You were so focused on your own pumpkin, trying your best to get the eyes of your design even, that you hadn’t noticed his attention shift to watching you.

One of his favorite things was getting to watch you work on things like this, whether is was an art project or just trying assemble a piece of flat-pack furniture, something about the way your face scrunched up in concentration as you worked was so endearing to him, never failing to make him smile.

Letting the fluffy feeling in his chest get the better of him, he leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to your cheek, causing you to start slightly, glancing up at him in surprise.

“What was that for?” You asked, letting out a small laugh.

“I dunno, you just looked cute, I wanted to.” He said, grinning at you, reaching over to adjust your ears, which had drooped forward and were beginning to threaten to cover your eyes.

Your eyes followed his movements, feeling your face grow warm again, before you snapped yourself back to attention.

“Are you almost done?” You asked, clearing your throat awkwardly.

“I think so, do you wanna see?” He said, moving back to his previous seat.

“Yes, please.”

He spun his pumpkin around, making you let out another laugh. Of course, he would carve his signature Vante design.

“That’s pretty good, actually!” You said, impressed.

“What, did you doubt my skills?” He asked, looking at you questioningly.

“No, never.” You said, shaking your head seriously.

“What about yours?” He asked.

“Eh, it came out a little lop-sided, but I think it’s still cute.” You said, turning your pumpkin around to face him, earning a thrilled gasp from him.

“Is that Tata?!” He exclaimed, leaning closer to examine the familiar heart-shaped alien design.

“It’s supposed to be,” You said, grinning shyly. “Do you like it?”

“I love it! I wanna take pictures of them to show the guys, it’s amazing!” He said, tackling you in a bear hug, sending you both sprawling on the floor.

“Tae! You’re gonna crush me!” You squealed, giggling as he peppered your face with kisses.

“I would never.” He chuckled, propping himself up to meet your eyes. “I love you.”

You raised a brow at him in surprise. “So suddenly?”

“Yeah, is that okay?” He asked.

“Yeah.” You nodded, winding your arms around his neck, pulling him down for a proper kiss.

“Hey Tae?” You mumbled against his lips.

“Hmm?” He hummed.

“I love you too.”

“Good.”

[heel-samizayn]

oh I was just about to make a similar post as one of my mutuals about the divide of casual vs hardcore wrestling fans + how I dont think I fit in either technically

in the online space, I'm comparatively a casual wrestling fan. didn't engage with online community for years at all (literally just watched wrestling and followed it and thought about it on my own or w fam). I don't know a lot of the inside jokes/rumors/the general fan reception for years to this day. at most I read youtube comments & go on twitter for certain wrestlers or verified news. I only stick to one promotion for the most part and don't care for backstage politics, drama, or dirtsheets. I watch (and rewatch!) what I like and that's it.

but if you ask anyone in my life they'd tell you I'm the biggest fan ever! an "expert" if they had to call on one 😂

the actual most hardcore fan I know has encyclopedic knowledge, cares about stats, but has told me that they never watch interviews or documentaries or care about the process, which makes me more hardcore than them. that's wild to me!

it's all just arbitrary. it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. except if you want to be in certain spaces where people care about that

personally, I just like what I like, and that's all that matters to me.

I loveee not knowing everything (knowing too much/being too deep in the weeds feels like it takes away from just enjoying the show as it was meant to be enjoyed) and I like forming my own taste and opinions irrespective of a general culture, taste, or consensus.

remembering what I first thought of something, keeping that in mind with current and future happenings, then watching it build on itself is fun.

whether my opinions happen to be shared by a whole community or not, my experience is my experience, so it's all the same to me. fomo is a trap that sucks joy. the fun part about art is that it means something & is experienced unique to each person