#thank you for this excuse to ramble!!

[lancrewizzard]

Saw your thing about the seelie/unseelie courts as we understand them today being a pretty recent idea, and that's got me really curious; do you have any sources on that I could check out?

With great pleasure! And with the disclaimer that this was from half an afternoon's casual searching, I'm just some guy with an interest in British folklore.

They're not even close to academic sources, but these two blog posts give a good run down, when taken with a pinch of salt here and there. 1 2 They also have enough sources mentioned to be a good jumping off point for doing your own research.

As purely descriptive words, "seelie" and "unseelie" have been around yonks. Folk songs are too fluid to be concrete evidence, but Alison Gross is a certified Old Folksong, and I've personally come across enough versions in enough collections of ballads to say that "seelie court" and "fairy court" are fully interchangeable in that context, which lines up with seelie wights/good neighbours as basically euphemistic ways to refer to fairies.

"Unseelie" as "unhallowed" or "hateful" and such goes back at least as far, but Scotland, Social and Domestic (printed 1869, should link to page 234 if I've done this right) is the earliest text I've found that explicitly refers to the seelie vs unseelie courts as we understand them today.

This is my own hypothesis, but reading a bit further up with the author's account of Thomas the Rymer, it seems very much like he fell into the old trap of trying to tie several different stories and superstitions into one coherent narrative. Tumblr's done the same with Greek mythology, so it wouldn't at all surprise me if the Victorian love for classification and neat answers did similar damage to Scottish folklore, caring more for a neat answer than the messy living changing nature of real folk tales.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

what kind of underwear do you think Erik and Charles wear (i'm not asking this to see them half naked) ((please believe me)) (((PLEASE)))

My Personal Belief is charles is a briefs guy while erik's a trunks guy. trunks/briefs kinda couple because i can

and idk just a lil bonus or somethin. as i do.

[lazylittledragon]

STOPPPP I JUST NTOCIED GALE'S HAND GENTLY RESTING ON CYRA'S BACK ON THE KISS PAGE I'M SO SICK RN

he is a GENTLEMAN

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

A cold winter day, and for some reason Howdy is unusually fluffy and Barnaby loves it

NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND i think about them w/ winter coats So Fucking Much its not even funny-

[botanautical]

'We all yearn for the woods. That's why every fellow on this island wants to settle down near a tree - just one will do.'

[melit0n]

Since you guys liked the other one so much, I present more crypid trail cam Vessel (+ iii this time) photos!

(@fields-of-elation thought these could be of use to you <3)

[jazzzzzzhands]

Julie Joyful headcanons?

Well i'm a big fan of the "Fluffy Monster Beastie" Julie!! With a tail !! :) Wild and untamed! (but with a cute dress!) I also like to think she likes earrings <3

I also relate to Julie a lot in the way that i'm very silly and happy So i ofc love to project my own little behaviors!!

[shkika]

I'm literally buzzing with excitement for the Wind comic thing :> I've been coming up with my own theories of what it could hold, and even making a video based on those theories! Tho, it'll take some time to finish XD It's like...A big project. Love your works!

This ask made me so happy I blacked out and this appeared on my screen.

I have the comic planned and sketched out with placeholder dialogue between the rodent sisters I just need to finalize it when I can!

[aria-greenhoodie]

i saw in the tags of something you reblogged that you were writing something becky/wordgirl related? im interested to learn more!

Yes! I’m writing a fanfic set about 15 years after canon, the first chapter is posted on ao3! <- (link) I’ll be updating it till I either finish it or lose motivation…. Hopefully the former rather than the latter. I’ve already got big plans for it, though…

I also may draw some stuff for it…. Like these! They’re concepts for how I imagine adult Becky and Tobey! (Need to be reworked, not happy with the proportions since I want Becky to be taller than Tobey, plus I’m not happy with Tobey’s outfit quite yet…)

Click for Quality!

[crystallizsch]

Trouble? You're only in trouble if you get caught. So don't let me catch you ~

uhhhhh say hi to jamil and yuusha's kid jas(mine) pt 2 (also here and here are like my only two other posts of her)

HFDDF OKAY SO - i actually had these unfinished sketches from months ago of jas as a nrc student and scarabia housewarden

this sneaky little bastard (affectionate) had never left my cranium she was just sitting idly by

im sobbing i hate jas so much (lie i love her)

jamil and yuusha still aren't supposed to have a kid so i just imagine this to be an alternate timeline for them 🤧🤧🤧

soooo info dump time ---

━━━━━━✦ scarabia housewarden nrc jas

jas has a vice-housewarden who is her childhood best friend (figuring out if i want them to be twst rajah or abu)

also thinking about if i want yuusha to be a staff member in nrc with grim or just dead during this time (why? just because)

no further info tbh, scarabia housewarden jas is just vibing

━━━━━━✦ child jas stuffs

i'm SO indecisive about her design as a toddler/preteen lowkey 😭

she was very sweet as a toddler but somewhere along the line she just became more carefree and chaotic

jas is a mama's girl but is more alike with her father than she cares to admit

octavinelle trio and heartslabyul duo + grim are like the honorary uncles (jas's favorites are floyd, ace, and grim bc they sometimes enable her with shenanigans)

even though jas has favorite uncles, najma is the favorite favorite. i imagine she's just the cool aunt

if mama yuu is "shrimpy" then jas is a "tiger prawn" (bc rajah)

jas LOVES doing people's hair including her own; would rather do them by hand rather than by magic

jamil showed jas how to breakdance once and it became ingrained in her personality ever since

(there's probably still more about her that i'm forgetting but this is it for now)

━━━━━━✦ bonus future jamiyuu stuff because i miss them

jamil took yuusha's last name surprise surprise (if they get married)

i imagine after nrc they'd be travelling together actually, not necessarily settling down

(i'm REALLY not 100% on them settling down and having a kid but i still love jas a lot so im so conflicted) (that's why aus exist 😔✨)

(and if hypothetically they do settle down i think yuusha being staff in nrc with grim + maybe jamil who travels for work (or being a house husband??? maybe they alternate roles) can be adorable ideas)

━━━━━━✦ (i also had this thing that i never posted about that one trope of a fankid finding themselves in nrc bc of portal/time/mirror shenanigans)

(jamil found both of them asleep somewhere and refuses to wake them up)

also some bonus tidbits about this scenario with them:

💜: Is she a family member of yours? How'd she get here?

🐍: I have never seen that child in my life before now. And there's no way I could have missed news about a new relative of mine.

💜: You know how ridiculous it sounds if she's related to me. I'm not from here. She even looks more like you!

🐍: Jas has the same color of eyes as you. Didn't you tell me she mistook you for her mother?

💜: ...Yeah, but I don't like what you're implying.

🐍: Well, I'm not exactly happy with this either.

they're just both in denial of the implication of this child existing and neither of them is saying it out loud.

and the angst/wholesomeness(???) of jamil asking jas's full name and hearing that she has her mother's last name instead of his

eventually they grew attached (unfortunately) until somehow they send jas home to her original timeline

and then they finally have a real conversation about what all that was about

anyways thank you for reading if you've made it this far;;; end tweet

[leafdragon16]

I'm yet another person from AO3 but I do have a question lol-

Was the design and stuff for Wheeljack based on the IDW comic sparkeaters? Because I've been thinking abt this for ages and it seems so-

It's also made me think abt another character- Soundwave- like he has a visor (that's possibly over his face) and he has tentacles- like it could be very easy for him to be one as well-

I mean I'm not saying to include this in the story- just smth I thought I'd point out lol

Ok so I just went to the IDW TFWiki page for sparkeaters and

WHAT? WHAT. WHAT?? WHAT???

So I have never read IDW and the only information I have about it is what I’ve absorbed from my TF mutuals. I knew sparkeaters were some kind of monster BUT I NEVER KNEW WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE?? WHAT?

First of all that’s really creepy looking and secondly THEY LOOK ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE HOW I IMAGINE EX!WHEELJACK DOES. DOWN TO THE KNIFE TENTACLES AND EVERYTHING. HOW?? I’VE NEVER SEEN THESE THINGS IN MY LIFE I’VE ONLY VAGUELY HEARD OF THEM

So to properly answer your question, no, Ex!Wheeljack’s design is not based on sparkeaters, it’s just a really weird coincidence (and frankly I kinda wish I had because these things look cool lmao). His design was actually based off the first plotline I had for Horror Show before I scrapped it. Shockwave was originally going to try to create synthetic energon but since he has even less information than Ratchet does in canon, it doesn’t go well. Naturally he decides to go big or go home, mixes it with Dark Energon, and injects it into Wheeljack. But that felt too much like copying canon and a virus seemed more like Shockwave’s style anyway so I changed it. You can still kinda see the original plot in his design because I just started by basing it off of the Terrorcons from Thirst and then I went “what if he had stabby tentacles too wouldn’t that be fucked up”

And YEAH. I think it was the Art of Prime that mentioned Soundwave was deliberately designed to seem alien even when compared to the other Cybertronians? I’m not sure when sparkeaters were introduced/if Prime was out by then but Soundwave’s design, especially when compared side by side with sparkeaters, is certainly a CHOICE. [eyes ideas folder contemplatively]

[threestarsaboveclouds]

Say, do you happen to have records of products and other objects your residents used to manufacture or make? Something such as this brand of drinks perhaps?

I don’t have any records of this beverage in my archives, this one in particular might be from a faraway region. The distances between iterator cities often led to them developing very unique cultures, and food and drink such as this were based primarily on what food sources were native to the surrounding area, as well as what could be cultivated in the cities’ automated farm arrays.

My city, Zenith, was primarily a destination for scholars seeking to advance their knowledge, but over time it also began to attract a modest amount of tourists. People often traveled to the city because of its unparalleled views of the night sky. Many of the items offered by local merchants took on a celestial motif in an attempt to appeal to these visitors.

One item that I recall being popular was a form of candied Lilypuck. When shucked and cut into slices, the plants appear vaguely star-shaped. Lilypucks also have a form of bioluminescence, which fades after the fruit is picked. They were prepared fresh and offered to stargazers, who enjoyed the novelty of the way Lilypucks glow in the darkness.

Despite the appeal to tourists, the extreme climate of my location deterred many visitors. The cold could be dealt with by dressing appropriately, but a larger shock to newcomers was the thin air. Those traveling from lower altitudes often had trouble acclimating to the air's depleted oxygen content, resulting in sluggishness and exhaustion, and even injury. Eventually the High Council began to mass-produce masks to provide the wearers with supplemental oxygen in order to mitigate the effects of altitude sickness.

The masks used Bubble Weed as an oxygen source. The plants were suspended in water tanks and attached to the wearer's air intake. Some of the masks manufactured by the High Council were very ornate, made in an effort to appeal to the upper class. These more elaborate masks were often only accessible to wealthy individuals who visited; usually these were foreign politicians or famous visiting scholars.

More lightweight and affordable masks were also available. These were less elaborate and more utilitarian, and were often used by members of the working class, as well as children. They were considered more comfortable and offered a higher range of motion because they didn't cover the entire face. However they were also frequently considered uncouth by members of the upper classes for this reason.

A popular activity among younger tourists was a challenge to see who could climb up the city’s central Vertex Spires the fastest, often using supplemental oxygen as an aid. Many individuals ended up injuring themselves in the process, and the High Council eventually banned the practice out of caution. However, it is to my understanding that this only made the game more enticing to the youth, and it persisted despite the Council’s efforts to lock down the Spires to prevent trespassers. I assume it was seen by many as a rite of passage or a dare. I... can't say I approve of this activity, but I was unaware of its practice until I read about it in my copy of the High Council's archives.

When my citizens were still here, I paid little attention to their daily activities. Their lives were recorded by citizen ID drones and my Overseers, and I only received reports of notable events that required my attention. The rest of the information was processed by background subroutines in my low-level processing strata, and was heavily moderated by the High Council of the House of Spheres. Recordings I lacked the time to examine were stored in the Council's archives for later perusal.

I appreciated the lack of distractions. Now that Zenith’s residents are gone, however, I have access to everything, and more than enough time to examine it all. I used to care very little about the culture of my citizens, but the more qualia I analyze, the more I am realizing what a rich tapestry of life had been woven through my city streets.

….

I am beginning to regret allowing the House of Spheres to moderate access to my own citizens so heavily. Their lives seemed so trivial and insignificant back then, but the city seems barren and lifeless in their absence.

[to-be-a-dreamer]

you sound like a right winger. cancel culture?

This is legitimately the funniest insult I’ve ever received thank you Anon. Like, you can’t think of any better way to discredit my post about how I wish people would just let a character be Not Racist and acknowledge that sometimes people can learn they were wrong and become better people so you call me (a queer woman of color who is college-educated and an immigrant, btw, just so we’re all on the same page) a “right winger” for using easily-recognizable terminology to ensure everyone reading understands what I think is the core issue. Incredible, insane, I wish you weren’t a coward who posted anonymously so I could scroll through your blog because I’m sure you’ve got jokes.

But anyways, since we’re all here I’ll take the opportunity to explain what I mean and my thoughts on cancel culture.

Original post that Anon is talking about for reference

People on the internet are obsessed with this idea of perfection. They think that a person has to do the right thing, always, every time. They think that a person who does or has ever done something shitty is just a shitty person who doesn’t deserve a platform. And they think that a person who was a shitty person in the past should always be viewed in that way. They can never accept that someone could have toxic or harmful views, realize they were wrong, and then become a better person, especially if they went through that journey offline or a long time ago. They don’t care if the person they see before them is clearly an open-minded, good person who doesn’t possess those views anymore. In their eyes, that person is still that same bigoted asshole from three, five, ten, twenty years ago and they have to acknowledge that past and be publicly shamed for it every single day in order to be “forgiven”. (They will never truly forgive)

And it’s just. I don’t understand it because what is the point of activism and education if we’re not going to allow people to learn what we’re trying to teach? How is our movement supposed to grow if we don’t accept the people who have been touched and reformed by it? How does any of this get better if we don’t allow people to be better?

Here’s my biggest problem with “cancel culture” (the mass ostracism and shaming of someone who has behaved or spoken in a socially unacceptable way). I think that this kind of mindset has led to an entire generation of internet users who are terrified of ever doing “the wrong thing” on the internet. We’re so afraid of making mistakes because we know how hard it is to come back from that and how unforgivable the rest of the internet is. And it’s turned us into overly defensive people who struggle to admit when we’ve done something wrong. We’re terrified to consider the possibility that we’re the "bad guy" in any situation because we've convinced ourselves that doing something shitty makes you a shitty person. We think our individual actions are lifetime sentences. I've seen so many people on the internet make small mistakes but double down and take things way too far when they're called out for it because they don't want to see themselves as a person who does problematic things. Because we've convinced ourselves that making a mistake makes you a bad person on a fundamental level. We've tied the amount of criticism we receive to our self-worth.

I also notice that it prevents people who actually need to learn and be better from realizing that. Because the amount of hate someone receives is so disproportionate to any mistake they actually made, it's so easy for a person to think "okay there's no way I deserve to be harassed this much, this is probably just the internet overreacting again, I haven't done anything wrong" and instead of learning the small lesson they needed to learn they just brush off the hate and dismiss it as cancel culture.

And so to bring this back to 9-1-1, I do think that some of the hate towards Tommy is due to shipping wars, but on a deeper level I think people just can't handle the truth that Tommy is actually a good person now. Maybe it stems from people hating the idea that someone who made their own lives miserable could learn and grow and become a better person later in life like Tommy did. Maybe people have some unresolved trauma about bigots that they're projecting onto these characters. Maybe they want to feel morally superior and just don't like the idea that someone who was shitty in the past could go on to have the same views and ideals as them. It's hard to tell for sure and it probably varies from person to person but I think the idea that a person has to be defined by their past is a big part of it on all levels.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on cancel culture as a whole and why I think the current generation of internet users has a really tough time taking accountability and why we all have rejection sensitivity (not RSD, the actual real medical condition, just a general sensitivity to being told you're in the wrong). We don't like to confront our own flaws because, according to the internet, those flaws make you a terrible person always and forever and you will never be able to overcome them or move past them. I hope this all makes sense I've been thinking about this a lot since 2020 but I've never tried to explain it in words. I don't think there's anything wrong with holding people accountable for past actions, I think there's something wrong with the disproportionate hate those people receive and the amount of shaming and shunning they have to go through before they're allowed to move on with their lives.

[gaykeithbilance]

Your tags on the fem guys post… you’re so right. Shout it from the rooftops kind of right

thank you! it's very hard for me, being one of the few correct people on this fandom (slash joke)

i've never understood art or fic that makes either of them very fem or masc. i'm still bitter about the fandom on mass deciding to make keith a muscular and masculine man who sweeps lance off his feet after he had the growth spurt in season 6. i'm sorry but that's a twink. keith is perfectly in the middle with gender presentation and will always stay that way. lance in voltron canon dresses more masc-ish than keith, but that's 17 year old lance. he's still coming to terms with his bisexuality and he's still unlearning society's ideals. a theoretical slightly older lance who is more comfortable with himself could be a bit gnc (and look hot doing it). crop tops, well fitting jeans, cool jewelry etc. but he's not a skirts and dresses guy. keith isn't either. you know who is? coran

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

THE WEBSITE JUST UPDATED.

There's subtle changes, but there are commands scattered all across Welcome Home, including the home page.

ohhhhhhh what the FUCK

[kassandrasowl]

I just come from a MXTX fanfic bender, so bear with me:

Fanfic where Wei Wuxian is a descendent of Hua Cheng (like his nephew x times removed). And Hua Cheng goes to the Burial Mounds after Wei Wuxian saved the Wen Clan but before the whole mess with the Jin Clan happens to investigate who this guy is so many cultivators are recently complaining about in their prayers. And then he meets Wei Wuxian and is like "Gege... can we please keep him?"

Because of course he recognizes his and Xie Lians own suffering in him. And he's also a clever ghost king and knows when someone is related to him.

And Wei Wuxian is like super bemused by this all of that but accepts it because yay, finally someone is on his side?

And then the thing on the bridge with the Jin clan happens, but Hua Cheng is with him because he hasn't trusted that invitation in the first place. And he's absolutely livid. Heads roll... literally. Xie Lian is a bit exasperated and like "Aaah San Lang, I don't think you actually need to remove their heads.. excuse you what did you just say about my nephew in law? Aaah, well... forget what I just said San Lang, keep going!"

Fast forward to Lan Zhan being vaguely confused how to proceed. Hua Cheng being an absolute mother hen and Xie Lian fondly watching all of that while quietly making sure Wei Wuxian is alright and will be in good hands.