#the exclamation point makes it art

[moreclaypigeons]

merle highchurch 👰‍♂️🎷

Im not gonna dignify this one with a caption

[aeide-thea]

In the City

                        for Monica Sok

These bridges are a feat of engineering. These pork & chive dumplings        we bought together, before hopping on a train & crossing bridges, are a feat of engineering. Talking to you, crossing bridges        in trains, eating pork & chive dumplings in your bright boxcar of a kitchen in Brooklyn, is an engineer’s dream-feat        of astonishment. Tonight I cannot believe the skyline because the skyline believes in me, forgives me my drooling        astonishment over it & over the fact that this happens, this night, every night, its belief, glittering mad & megawatt like the dreams        of parents. By the way, is this soy sauce reduced sodium? Do you know? Do we care? High, unabashed sodium intake!        Unabashed exclamation points! New York is an exclamation I take, making my escape, away from the quiet snowy commas of Upstate        & the mess of questions marking my Bostonian past. In New York we read Darwish, we write broken sonnets finally forgiving        the Broken English of Our Mothers, we eat pork & chive dumplings, & I know, it’s such a 90s fantasy        of multiculturalism that I am rehashing, but still, in New York I feel I can tell you how my mother & I        used to make dumplings together, like a scene out of The Joy Luck Club. The small kitchen, the small bowl of water        between us. How we dipped index finger, thumb. Sealed each dumpling like tucking in a secret, goodnight.        The meat of a memory. A feat of engineering. A dream of mother & son. Interrupted by the father, my father        who made my mother get on a plane, a theory, years of nowhere across American No’s, a degree that proved useless.        Proved he was the father. I try to build a bridge to my parents but only reach my mother & it’s a bridge she’s about to        jump off of. I run to her, she jumps, she’s swimming, saying, Finally I’ve learned—all this time, trying to get from one useless        chunk of land to another, when I should’ve stayed in the water. & we’re drinking tap water in your bright Brooklyn kitchen.        I don’t know what to tell you. I thought I could tell this story, give it a way out of itself. Even here, in my fabulous        Tony-winning monologue of a New York, I’m struggling to get to the Joy, the Luck. I tell you my mother still        boils the water, though she knows she doesn’t have to anymore. Her special kettle boils in no time, is a feat of engineering.        She could boil my father in it & he’d come out a better person, in beautiful shoes.        She could boil the Atlantic, the Pacific, every idyllic American pond with its swans. She would.

       —Chen Chen (2016)

[antidotefortheawkward-art]

Hey there!! I’ve been following your stuff for several years already, and I want to tell you how much I appreciate you! Despite not being Asian (I’m Latino), your passion for your culture made me want to reconnect with mine and analyze the effects of colonization in it, and WHY I was so alienated from Brazilian culture in the first place despite living here. It also got me thinking in depth about westernization, colonization, capitalism and white supremacy, which you address wonderfully in your art. I’ve been in contact with my grandparents lately, and I’m trying to find out more about the indigenous side of my family, all thanks to you! My new goal is to research as much Brazilian folklore and folk tales as possible to try to preserve them, and my current ambition is to write a “Brazilian epic” of sorts. It’s a far fetched dream, but I’m writing a lot, and I’m excited to share what I’ve got sometime in the future.

I think it’s wild. Our cultures seem completely disconnected, we seem so far apart, but your art has deeply moved me and put me in movement at the same time. I’m working hard. Thank you for everything.

HERO I AM GOING TO CRY ;O; Oh my god I am so profoundly grateful and happy my art could have such an impact on you!!! I struggled for so long to even think about confronting my feelings about my culture so to hear I could help you with that is just !!!!!! I'm excited for you and your projects, and I wish you the best of luck with reconnecting and research and preservation and everything!! o7 Thank you so much for connecting with my art!!!!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

2020′s unwieldy art retrospective!

[niamhuncensored]

There was a post by @arabian-batboy about how stephanie should wear a purple version of Riddler's suit but i can't find it again. Here's my design, made in Heromachine 3.

[silk-and-dreams]

Gamble meets Salvage, a vessel who collects shiny things and barters whatever doesn't fall out of the bag with a keen sense for price—

@doodledrawsthings

[misterghostfrog]

Question for ppl who’ve  interacted with my art:

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about my designs for Jon n Martin in the tags, and i’m wondering what specifically about them people like? Like I don’t believe i’ve done anything super different from the average design so i’m curious what makes people like them specifically?

[em-dashes]

Commissioned the amazing @chayscribbles for a portrait of my boy Rian!! Look at his hair!! The lighting!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Find her commission info here!!

[hollow-knight-hope]

Thank you so much for 100 followers!!!

I love this fandom and it's artists so much, and I can't wait to share some more of my own art in the future <3

[7clubs]

Hello everyone!!! Grovey here!

I’ve had a few instances of these kinda stuff and it gets kinda uncomfortable so: Pleeeaase don’t badger me to follow back, or add you on discord, or send random friend requests on my flight rising, etc.

It’s just how I roll, I follow really few people on any given social media. saturation stresses me out and I like to take my sweet time to settle into new connections.

Also I don’t mind getting small questions but I usually am not in the social headspace to do chats with new people. One-on-one chats just feel a bit intimate for me and unnatural unless I’m with friends.

Another thing that makes me reaaaally uncomfortable is getting put up on a pedestal, especially because of certain bad past experiences. Please don’t put down your own art! I’m just human! I’m really fuckin anxious!! I forget stuff constantly! I’m doing my thesis! Help!

I don’t really put out my whole personality on this here art tumblr either, this is my more public side vs private, so if you want a more casual train-of-thought me that’s what my ramble twitter is for.

It’s just a much more open and less pressuring platform which is just. better for me to interact with new people (aaaand i also rant about certain stuff to, you know, signal if our interests just won’t align)

So yeah! thanks for understanding~

[partizanne]

i think being on my meds is actually making me like ......... draw less ? might also be because of school but ive had the last 3 hours to draw and ive just been shitty doodling and also wanting to take a nap

[no-i-will-not-shut-up]

me @ my commisioners

[giantkillerjack]

Exactly! 😁 Neither did I, and I'm guessing this is the case for most viewers! [autistic film theory infodump in 3... 2... 1...]

I think this was by design!

The joke only actually works as a joke on a second viewing at the very least, because if we haven't seen the whole film yet, then we aren't on the lookout for all the little ways this movie is winking and nodding at us throughout!

On the first watch, we are meant to assume that Miles designed the boxes. And so him saying that the boxes must have been reset also functions as a confirmation to the audience that the boxes even can be reset.

It is until later that we realize miles is basically always making confident statements based on next-to no meaningful knowledge of the things he's taking credit for!

So this moment goes from a clever misdirect on a first viewing to a clever confirmation of how shallow miles is in future viewings! Miles probably never even saw those boxes; he doesn't know if they can be reset! He is an empty fool cosplaying as a master of puzzles!

But since it has yet to be revealed that all of his statements are empty, YOU were actually correct to look for meaning in them! As was I!

We were directed to reach the most logical conclusion, which is exactly the same mistake made by brilliant Detective Benoit Blanc! This helps keep us engaged with the story!

---

Another fun thing related to miles' bullshit being purposely obscured by the film was when Miles talks about the meaning of the Mona Lisa, he basically regurgitates the Wikipedia summary for the Mona Lisa as though it is some intelligent original art criticism he personally thought of (when really it is the same interpretation of the Mona Lisa we all learned in fucking grade school).

But what kills me is that I didn't even notice how obnoxious he was being in that moment (twice! I missed this the first two times I watched it!) because the film spends that entire monologue focused on Helen sharing her own secretive knowing look with the Mona Lisa, thus bringing us the audience closer to understanding what Miles is saying than he EVER will be. (What IS behind her smile? What DOES she see??)

And so! Also! In that moment, the movie is actually providing the fresh, clever take that Miles is pretending he is providing! Imagine! A fresh perspective on the Mona Lisa!! When was the last time THAT happened?!?!

I mean, I never gave a shit about the faded old thing til I saw this movie. I saw it in person at the Louvre. It is a small painting alone in a big crowded room. I went to see it because I had been told it had meaning and I was lucky enough to afford a trip to Europe in college. The personal meaning I took from it was "wow it is not worth being in a room this crowded when you could just look at a replaceable print."

And I'm obsessed with the way this film positions Janelle Monae as the new Mona Lisa: Irreplaceable, living, warm, priceless, real and true - and therefore infinitely more valuable.

I like how it makes that point in many ways, and that one of those ways is by using the very same bullshit that both the Mona Lisa and Helen (wake up boys new Mona Lisa just dropped) seem to see right through. And it's all hidden in plain sight! Which is probably the reason this movie is so eminently rewatchable!

One of the things I love about Glass Onion is the way that the camera and music work together to tell nonverbal jokes.

Like when Benoit basically has to hold Miles' hand to get him to the conclusion that someone reset the puzzle box Benoit lies about receiving:

Benoit asks if it's possible that someone reset the box, and Miles then declares that someone must have reset the box like it is this huge reveal - and the camera zooms out while the music subtly swells as though he really has figured out something smart, when actually he literally restated what Benoit just said.

[acey-wacey]

Birthday at NRC

Feat. Ace Trappola, Deuce Spade, Jack Howl, Epel Felmier, Sebek Zigvolt

Requested on Ko-fi by @thelazyhermits! Continuation of Mom Friend

This made me think of Jane Doe from Ride the Cyclone. It's an amazing musical, you should listen to it rn 😠😠😠.

...

One day while hanging out with the first years, you off-handedly mention that your birthday is in two days.

The boys are stunned and appalled that you didn't tell them sooner.

You insist that it's not a big deal but they know how much it must mean, being your first birthday since you got transported to Twister Wonderland.

When questioned in this by Ace (who can't keep his mouth shut for 2 minutes), you tell them that all your memories before being transported are kind of foggy, like a dream you can't quite remember.

You remember the date but not any of the celebrations, though you must have had a birthday every year.

Knowing this, they do their best to make this birthday extra, extra special.

-

Ace Trappola is more into subtle affection than big gestures like birthday parties, but he really wants to make you happy after all you've done for him and the others.

He consults Trey to help him make a cake.

He really does try to make a cake for you but it doesn't turn out perfectly.

The cake is overdone and crumbly and he put the frosting on too early so it all melted off.

The top of the cake is covered in messy chocolate that is supposed to spell out "Happy Birthday Y/N!".

He presented you with his crummy cake on your birthday expecting you to hate it.

Despite it being messy and dry, it almost made you cry seeing it.

Just the fact that he had done that for your birthday, knowing he was horrible at it, made you tear up.

Ace would do literally anything for you even though he'll never admit it.

He just wants to make you happy and he would make a thousand stupid cakes just to make you smile.

-

Deuce Spade is very conflicted about what to get you.

If he gets something functional, yes, you can use it, but it's not very personal.

If he gets something fun, you have it but it will probably break or wear away or be eaten.

He eventually decides on something that will last much longer.

A memory.

It sounds stupid but he knows experiences with people you care about last a lot longer than anything he can give you.

He gives you a little hand-made coupon for "One Free Magical Wheel Ride around Sage Island".

It's a very cute coupon with lots of stickers and exclamation points.

He's gone on rides around the island before, never with someone on his bike before but he's scoped out some of the most beautiful views there are.

You redeem your coupon a couple weeks after your birthday when you both have free time.

He drives you out to the beach and the two of you play in the water for a while and eat a little picnic he packed.

The day trip helped you relax a lot and get away from the stress that seems to follow you everywhere at NRC.

Deuce is just happy he could help you feel more at ease (and that you've discovered the thrill of magic motorbikes).

-

Epel Felmier will do anything to please you.

He asks you if you want him to do anything for you, even wear something cutesy and feminine.

You assure him that you like him much better when he's being himself.

His own country hick self.

He breathes a sigh of relief because he did not want to dress up.

He would've for you but he would've hated every second of it.

He decided to carve your name in cursive letters into an apple and gift it to you.

You are a bit sad because you know the fruit won't last but he will just make you something else if you ever want.

You keep it on your window sill until it gets too brown and you have to throw it away.

It's better than eating it though.

You could never bring yourself to destroy a precious piece of art.

He teaches you a few simple carving techniques too.

Carving apples always helps him relax and he wants you to be able to relax on your special day.

-

Jack Howl is a big softie, though he'll never admit it.

He gets you little matching gifts.

Subtle enough that no one who isn't looking closely will notice that it's a set but the two of you know.

He had to learn how to braid and make bracelets for his little sister so he makes you a friendship bracelet.

Oh sorry, it's a "resistant Paracord bracelet" not a friendship bracelet.

(ps. it's totally a friendship bracelet)

You wear it everywhere, using the excuse that it's good for emergencies, just like he told you when he gave it to you.

He has one of his own in the same colors and he uses the same excuse to shake of accusations that he actually cares about you.

He also gifts you a bunch of dino Band-Aids because Grim is a brat about the kind of bandages you're allowed to put on him and you run out very quickly.

He's a big fan of practical yet thoughtful gifts.

The Savanaclaw jocks are total d-bags about Jack being a "momma's boy" but he brushes them off.

He's just happy you're happy, especially if that means you'll brush him tail while you all watch your favorite movie.

-

Sebek Zigvolt is aggressively caring.

He's one of those "hydrate or die-drate" people.

He can't be the most attentive to your needs when he's trailing after Malleus but he gets permission to stay by your side for one day.

You now have your own personal guard.

He carries around a Mom Tote™ like you usually have.

His birthday gift to you is basically taking care of you like you do him.

Obviously you have to go to class but when you aren't, he is walking a few feet behind you, glaring at boys who look at you wrong.

You tell him that he is allowed to walk next to you but he insists that it isn't proper knightly behavior, even though he isn't your real knight.

You jokingly "knight" him with a wooden spoon, dubbing him "Sir Sebek of Ramshackle, knight and attendant to the Lady Y/N of Ramshackle".

He wears the title with genuine pride.

He goes and brags about it to Silver later, who honestly couldn't care less.

Throughout your birthday, Sebek makes sure you are never in want.

When you lose you pencil, he procures another one from the bag.

When you get thirsty, he pulls out a water bottle for you.

There's something distinctly magical about the seemingly endless carpet bag he carries around but you'll leave that mystery for a different movie.

He loves you a lot, though he would rather fall on his sword than say it.

His love is very linked to protection and that's exactly what he does: he protects you.

-

All in all, the boys do their best to give you all the comfort and happiness you deserve on your birthday.

You are constantly surrounded by people and things you love.

The whole night ends with all six of you (+ Grim) in a cuddle pile on your couch, watching your favorite movie.

You think back on the day as you drift off to sleep and realize that there's no one else you would rather have spent your first birthday with.

[undiscovered-horizon]

No need to be sorry, I'm glad I can put a smile on someone's face. I wasn't planning on it originally (I'm a go-with-the-flow kind of person) but where there's demand, there's supply!🌺

🫀REQUESTS ARE OPEN🫀 || Batman-inspired playlist

Imagine the Riddler being your secret admirer. - Part 5

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]

Life with Eddie was simple but not easy. On the one hand, it was utterly comfortable, yet you still kept on your toes because peace as it turns out is a fickle thing.

You quickly realized that the space surrounding him quite well represented his inside: 'vital mess'. Which meant chaos that only he could navigate. Trying to bring any kind of order to it would upset him in many cases as if there was some enigmatic, state-of-the-art feng shui that only he was privy to; every single object, even if seemingly misplaced, was placed in a position essential to the arrangement. So with time you grew used to the constant lack of undisputable cleanliness.

He wasn't as predictable as partners want to perceive each other. Sometimes all it took was a word or a single look to make him spiral into anguish and anger. The good thing was that Eddie wasn't inconsolable - just a little easier to start panicking than most people.

Eddie's been busy with some detailed, mechanical work for a few hours at that point. He wasn't exceptionally expansive, so he only murmured something about getting parts to finish his little project. You didn't think much about it and simply left him to do whatever it was that occupied him.

But he won't need the empty shipping box anymore, will he?

"No, don't!" Eddie's sudden exclamation caught you off guard and you instinctively flinch. "I'm sorry," he quickly apologised. "Just... please, don't move the box."

You let out a quiet sigh and moved your hand away from the cardboard. Turning to look at Eddie, you noticed him staring at you with a curiously worried expression like he was expecting you to be upset with him for some reason. He wore that look quite often.

"I love you," you said in a reassuring tone.

Eddie's eyes opened slightly wider and his eyebrows lifted. "You... don't think I'm a weirdo?"

"No, I do," you said as you shook your head slightly. Eddie's expression momentarily fell. "You're the weirdest and best person I've ever met."

For the first time in his life, being called 'weird' didn't feel like an insult.

_________ A/N: Dialogue is taken from @dinosandcomics on Instagram

@bluefairyangel

[acavatica]

This is an AO3 discourse post. I don't know why I'm whacking a bee's nest, especially in this context, but here goes:

In 2019 I wrote a fic about Ax and Marco Animorphs' first time, and I was too afraid to publish it. I shared it with my friends and just accepted that I would not be able to deal with it if I got backlash for writing two sixteen year olds having sex. Not just any sex, but sex with at least 3 enthusiastic consent check-ins, and fuck, basically a tutorial how to use condoms. I wrote them fumbling like real teens, clearly from a place of nostalgia and empathy and processing my own experiences through art.

It's four years later. I stand by this fic. If I get called out, so help me god, I will make you look so stupid.

Here's what it looks like when you use one of the Major Archive Warnings on AO3:

There is a red exclamation point. The first tag is Underage, in bold. No one is going to accidentally read this. It is completely understandable that some people don't want to read about teens having sex. Frankly, it's not my thing either.

The point is, I've done my due diligence. If you can't even tolerate seeing the word Underage (which I also get, I can't see words associated with my phobia, and they're distressingly common words), filter that tag out before you browse. If you find a fic that's not tagged properly, report it. People complain that AO3 doesn't have enough rules, but their rules are user-enforced.

If there really is a plague of untagged major content warning fic (including rape, major character death, and graphic violence), they should all be reported. If your life's work really is to protect kids from accidentally reading this content, you should be volunteering for the archive to get those untagged fics off the archive.

If this is truly a cause you care about genuinely, AO3 is not your enemy.