#the crystal cliffs

[tinapaysmp]

I sometimes think about how fWhip's s1 empire, the Grimlands, is constantly over populated with villagers, meanwhile the Crystal Cliffs, Gem's empire, is filled with pillagers.

Like something about how the Grimlands is filled with the more accepted members of society while someone like Gem is giving pillagers and misfits a chance to learn from her.

And by Afterlife smp, Gem starts out her life as a villager, doing her best to protect them. But fWhip starts out as an Illusioner who's not even welcome in her village, and ends up dying in her village too.

[semicleanblanket]

i miss season 1 of empires

[iiitsnotbase]

Some secrets are better kept hidden

[thecoddaughter]

Collection of non-spoiler sneak peeks from my roseblings fic ❤️

[relgnira]

I present number 48 for the Spotify doodles :D

Oh, maybe I’m naive for thinking

That a mountain so stubborn can move.

But if I’m a mountain moving

Maybe you can be too.

(EMPIRES GEMPEARL?!!?!??)

[tacom-literatureu-blog]

[pulsingvoid]

i'll literally never be convinced crystal/kristen was not a figment of misty's imagination, a friend she invented for herself that the others played along with because at least misty was occupied. i know she reads so fake to me just because she was poorly integrated into the rest of the wilderness plot (as in - not at all lol), she's a half-assed attempt at giving context to misty's anxious attachment style, which was almost immediately undermined anyway by her deciding to like walter. crystal/kristen never appears until misty is socially iced out for accidentally poisoning the soup and suddenly there's a second incredibly annoying theatre kid everyone wishes would go away? that dresses in misty's exact color palette? and they've been on the same team this whole time while misty was so ostracized and lonely? nobody even wanted to look for her when she "vanished"! the wilderness even magicked away her body so they'd have to hunt each other! crystal isn't even her name. i'm sorry, but she's about as real as akilah's mouse.

not being able to suspend my disbelief long enough to accept this subplot as real cheapened it a lot for me as it happened, but i have since decided her not being real could be plausibly-canon, and suddenly it's so compelling. misty invented herself the perfect friend that accepted everything about her and daydreamed little playdates and slumber parties, and even so, when she confessed to destroying the black box, her daydream turned on her. misty's own (quite vivid) imagination couldn't stretch enough to allow her a friend who accepted her wholly. she plays out what would happen if she told her closest friend this dark, fucked up secret, and it ends bloody. she convinces herself she'll never be fully accepted and loved, and ultimately it doesn't matter if crystal/kristen was real or not. i'm honestly fine with this theory never being confirmed (again, i don't think they intended it this way, crystal's place in the story was just criminally unearned and underwritten), but i'm much more compelled by a version of events where misty is so lonely and confused and guilt-ridden that her mind (or, if you'd like, the wilderness) gives her the kind of friend she was unlikely to find even under better conditions, and there's still betrayal and death at the end of it. misty's adolescent brain is already self-aware enough to know her hands will be bloodstained and unholdable for the rest of her life.

[existentialarcade]

OH MY GOD I just realized I never posted my full pieces for the lovely @empiropediazine !! This zine was such a blast to work on, and I love everyone and everything that was a part of it!

[saym0-0]

oh my god roseblings changeling au where gem was raised as the only grimlands heir but as a child was taken fae-style by the crystal cliffs and was replaced by fwhip.

[shaylogic]

Realized while making this that Niko possibly got kicked in the face

[I'm sure these are all stunt doubles though]

[overthemoonminerals]

Amethyst from Tutu Cliffs, Nigeria

[calabria-mediterranea]

Tropea, Calabria, Italy

Photos by Damien Entwistle

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[artemistorm]

I'm on a geology field trip and I discovered a new volcanic dike today! It isn't very big or important but it is cool and all three of the real geologists on the trip got excited about it because they weren't expecting to find signs of volcanism in that area.

[bicolor-art]

originally posted: June 22nd, 2011

My first animal jam fanart :3

[redheadbigshoes]

I’m realizing something about a lot of arguments about including men in lesbianism that’s driving me insane.

It’s always:

“Well, how masculine or whatever before someone is a man?” Or “what defines a man in this situation?” Or other bait questions phrased in a similar format.

And they make it sound like it’s this impossible question to answer, and trying to make us sound transphobic as always, when in reality.

What makes someone a man is if they consider themself a man is it not? If you the person consider yourself a man then you’ve excluded yourself from being a lesbian, right?

I hope this makes sense, because I see this all the time and there’s been another weird influx of this bi lesbian and men being lesbians that’s making me on the verge of losing my shit-.

They use similar arguments conservatives and terfs use when it comes to trans people while using trans people as a way of hiding their own transphobia. You’d think these people are actually concerned about the trans community but they’re just like terfs and other transphobes.

They make up many hypothetical and fantasy situations just to try to gaslight lesbians and make us be attracted to men.

[gears2gnomes]

The Commander enjoys her vacation.