#they do so much and are so underappreciated

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

i feel like theres something that really irks me in the mcyt space (but could apply to other fandoms ig) when people start talking about how the fandom(s) needs to start paying more attention to women and people of colour BUT they go about it in a way that seems to be heavily shaming other fans for... liking a popular creator or ship?

like, I completely agree with supporting and uplifting creators who are marginalised! but making angry posts about how you're sick of seeing [insert whiteboy yaoi here] everywhere just sort of makes people feel bad... when you could be spending that time actually promoting and supporting the creator(s) you love!

I have made posts in the past about how underappreciated BigB is, and how I think the life series fandom could do with watching his videos and being less unconsciously racist. but I didn't go on a long angry rant about desert duo being everywhere or annoying grian fans or whatever, because that just isn't relevant?? the popularity of one creator isn't a personal attack on your favourite underappreciated guy!

but to clarify: making a woman / poc cc or character moment all about your favourite whiteboy is bad. simply enjoying your favourite whiteboy content, while keeping an open mind to other creators and checking them out, is fine! the argument should not be 'stop posting so much about these guys im annoyed because theyre everywhere and my blorbo isnt!' it should be 'you should all check out this creator theyre really cool here's some art / fic I made!'

I understand the frustration, having been on both sides of the Popular / Unpopular Character Enjoyer spectrum, of trying to find blorbo content and being hit with one million pieces of work about a character you're uninterested in. but I would always argue that asking people to tag their stuff properly, and promoting / encouraging more engagement with your guy, will make people actually listen to you far more than just raging about it.

that all being said, go watch BigB life series 🔫

[hajimedics]

I'M NOT YOUR DOLL AND I'LL THINK FOR MYSELF AND I'LL LIVE FOR MYSELF

[sapphorror]

The Narrator's perspective only gets more horrifying the longer you think about it. Like, imagine being an Echo of yourself—one of many, all made to serve a very particular purpose and knowingly living on borrowed time, if 'living' is even the right word for your current state of pseudo-existence.

You've inherited the mission of a dead man—it's literally the only thing left that you can do before fading, so you sure as hell better believe in it; the alternative would be unbearable. Only you keep failing. With every loop that you don't remember, your lack of agency in this situation becomes starker—you can influence small things, sure, but it becomes increasingly clear that you have no real power, no matter how personally invested you are in the events unfolding in front of you. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to meaningfully engage with the world.

Worse—every loop you're made aware of is another time you've failed, with unimaginable consequences, though you had no control over these previous iterations of yourself and can't even learn from their mistakes. Everyone around you is operating on a shared perception of reality that you are not part of, will never be part of. After a few repetitions, you are, ironically, the least informed person in the room. All you have left to go on is an evidently outdated script. At the same time, everyone else is experiencing a contiguous version of you, comprised of parts that are, in some sense, also you, while at the same time existing at a complete remove from your current perception of self. Whatever you don't know you did—that's you now. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to define your own identity, never mind know what it is.

Even worse—this has trapped you within a stagnant hell of your own creation. Nothing you say or do really matters in terms of your own self (the rest of the world is a separate issue entirely). Anything you've come to believe—say, for totally hypothetical example, that you were wrong actually and your envisioned paradise is really a hell beyond any you had the capacity to envision—has about as much permanence as a drawing in the sand. 'You' will continue, exactly as you were, no matter how much you might like to change your behavior. Every possible future has already been set in stone. You are, after all, only an Echo. You've forfeited the right to say anything you haven't already said.

For some reason, no part of any of this has made you feel more comfortable and at peace with the general concept of finality.

The really, truly absolute worst part, though?

There is no one for you to blame but yourself. And that's exactly what turns your story into such a tragedy.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[thorough-witness-enjoyer]

thoughts on nezarec .....

Greetings!!! I need him to keep his freaky hand feet away from me, I am so disturbed by them☺️!!!

But thank you for the message!!

To be completely honest, I think about Nezarec 24/7 just because of how intriguing the concept of his character is! Not only do I find his design to be very interesting and eye catching (I’m free tonight Nezarec), I’m forever in a perpetual state of hunger for lore about him!

You‘re telling me the Final God of Pain is a disciple of an entity who wishes to end all pain because he wants the „fullest gamut of existence“? How did he even get into the Witness‘ clutches and how did it justify having such a sadist as a disciple? What was the relationship between the two like?

He‘s from an unknown species, but can never truly die and was remade by the Witness‘ hands? Tell me more!! How does he possess such powers?!

I am so starved for Nezarec lore and I cannot WAIT to receive more once we start dealing with Misraaks‘ situation, hopefully getting his origins like we did Rhulk. I completely understand that he was not the main focus in Lightfall, but I’m climbing my walls at the fact that Bungie would release such a long awaited and theorized character just for us to have to wait so long for a follow up!!

Bungie drop more Collapse lore that focuses on Nezarec being killed and the Witness losing the Veil and my life is yours, I’m so hungry.

As for his personality, what a guy!!! I have a plethora of headcanons about him, but I like to imagine just how far his tendency to be a sadistic nuisance can go! I make him torture the Witness‘ patience in my head as karma for all it has done and I often wonder if he has an underlying philosophy to his actions! Maybe his love of pain and mastery of nightmares is related to the species he comes from, who knows!

Overall, freaky guy who should be even freakier and is in dire need of more lore! I love you Nezarec, stay freaky, and never improve as a person because you are so funny as is!

Also a little headcanon drop, I think Nez would be very fond of goats as I imagine he finds their horns to be charming (like his) and he often gets them as sacrifices from his human acolytes! In my head, he has a pet goat he treats as his baby (much to the dismay of the Witness who finds his sentimentality towards the thing frivolous)! I love making that guy do silly things.

Love the glasses and gold chain by the way.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

You know that feeling where you have ideas. So many ideas. Too many ideas. And they all would take way too much time that you don't have if you actually wanted to execute them. So you just sit there giving yourself a headache because you cant decide where to start? Love that feeling. And by love, I mean I want to take my brain out of my skull and wring it like a wet sponge.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i mean it when i say we've gotta bring back askblogs. bring back making character chat posts with poor choice text colors over random backgrounds. bring back blogs dedicated to what outfits you think characters would wear.

fandom is an ecosystem, not a numbers game. these types of blogs/posts/etc still exist in concept, because people still want to make them and they're a great way to get your thoughts of an idea out in a simple format, but most people make them on like tiktok or instagram reels and that's where the problem lies. Those videos don't go anywhere. The format doesn't allow for the discussion to spread through the community and they're less likely to be engaged with in general. And to make them most people have to either show their face or figure out editing software, so the barrier to entry is higher (editing) and/or they have to forfeit an amount of privacy.

those types of posts/blogs are the first rung of the ecosystem. they're the perfect environment for younger members of the fandom to begin safely interacting with the larger community and putting their own thoughts and ideas out there. roleplay is the other major spot for that and those communities are diminishing as well, honestly (if you know of an rp forum board site, cherish it. and if you can make one, make one). they allow younger fans to begin engaging with the source material on a different/deeper level, but still at a very low barrier to entry, and begin conversations with other fans, which also helps them build skills which in turn may encourage them to pursue other avenues within the fandom (fic writing, other formats of askblog - which itself usually leads to art, cosplay, also fic writing, etc). Without those places to build those skills, they might feel discouraged from trying to begin when surrounded by curated people who have built their skills up for years.

And those conversations they foster also in turn help the community, by offering ideas to artists or fic writers to extrapolate on or building community jokes. And that text/blog format specifically is extremely beneficial, because it allows younger members of the fandom to remain anonymous and keep their privacy without concerning themselves with having any platform or having anything attached to them (very important for young fans figuring themselves out and navigating online community spaces for the first time, since they can remove themselves from spaces easily if they decide they don't like it and they're protected, rather than PUTTING THEIR FACE ON THE INTERNET). And those posts they make will spread a lot more into the community since they're in a significantly easier format to be reposted (few people are gonna be reposting tons of random short-form videos versus spamming their instagrams with reposts of 10 random fandom images yoinked from tumblr, or reposting to pinterest or something). Like, don't repost art, at the VERY least don't repost without credit, but also I am not ignorant to the fact that my art is not just the first google image result for "pjo pride" and related searches, but also the 4th, the 6th, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, etc etc., and pops up in the search results before the official ReadRiordan does simply because people reposted my work more (most with credit, thankfully).

For fandom to be a community, it needs to perpetuate itself. There needs to be engagement with one another and conversation. If that bottom rung is cut off, then new fans won't be able to grow into the other niches of the fandom, and the fandom will be solely reliant on the source material and die out extremely quickly, and there won't be a community. There's no conversation! There's no reason to stay beyond the original material! But if you don't have points of entry for new fans, they won't have any way to build the skills needed to move into those niches, or engage with the community in a healthy way.

tl;dr: Bring back askblogs and character-based text post blogs. They are vital to fandom ecosystem.

[gildengirl]

I think one of the most hilarious moments in LYKY (there's honestly so many) is when Cammie's getting ready for her date with Josh and because she told him that she has a cat, they take Professor Buckingham's cat, Onyx, and proceed to rub the cat on Cammie's clothes so she has some cat hair on her. Because in their minds, Josh could get suspicious of Cammie if she didn't have any physical evidence of having a cat and would immediately know she was lying.

They're all so unhinged, I could not love them more.

[iamthepulta]

I think I'm slowly getting a picture of a narrative. This is tricky though. If I had uh- known what the fuck I was doing six months ago, I would've titled the presentation, "Alum mining, trade, and metallurgy from Bronze Age to Present" and called it a day.

The lax definition of alum's chemistry also makes it really hard to pin down. It ranges from hydrous to anhydrous (impure and pure) aluminum sulfate salt to aluminum clay. Civilizations until the Roman era just kind of pointed at white shit, called it alum, licked it to see if it was sour (not salt) and tossed it in the chemical vat.

There were also specific locales for the good shit. So instead of saying 'alunite', you'd say 'alum from the Hittites', or 'alum from Egypt'. One could be used for tanning, but the other was used for a fancy blue glaze (cobalt-clay). You could also produce alum from alunite, like on the isle of Lesbos (Sappho historical romance novel with alum when??)

But. Within all this. You have the Babylonians primarily using it as a tanning agent and wool-dyeing. The Egyptians used it as a glaze, for pottery, and medicinal/metallurgical uses. Apparently blue beads were making it all the way to China and Scandinavia at this time? The Romans took the metallurgical uses and cranked that up to 11. After the fall of Rome, the Arabs used alum for all the above and Germany was also using it metallurgically, but my research ends here right now.

In the present, alum is still used as a mordant (dyeing agent), but is more often used as a water treatment flocculant (filtering impurities). It's also more rigorously defined as either ammonium, potassium, or sodium hydrous aluminum sulfate. Whether we still mine it is unclear?? It doesn't seem to be the case: we mine aluminum, get aluminum oxide, which either goes to Iceland to be made into pure aluminum, or is sold separately and then added to Na2(SO4) to make alum.

It doesn't really pack the same punch I wanted it to with clothing though, because it's not really used for that. Chromium sulfate is now the primary mordant if you're doing chromium tanning, which is environmentally bad and kind of like nuking a hide to make it tan fast. I guess I can track down where the chromium is coming from, and how they make that.

This isn't even getting involved in plastic production, or rayon, or nylon, or the history of fast fashion and petroleum. I think the end line of this will have to be something vague and unspecific, like "disregarding the non-renewable resources that go into <I want to say artistic, but they're not artistic. The proper term is probably female-driven industries lol> fundamental human tools can lead us to overlook industries that have just as much impact - economically and socially - on geopolitics."

... I can already see the first question on that being, "what are some other non-renewable resources you think have been overlooked?" :') ahh, idk. I've been reading for 30hr. I'm going to go to sleep. I'll run away from the podium or smthg.

to do: I should reread Al-Razi with alum in mind... the translator is not Levey, so I have to chemically check all the names she gives minerals. But I distinctly remember alum coming up several times and tripping me up.

Also chromium sulfate manufacturing/mining; saving this chrome/ferric reference because I haven't seen them written altogether anywhere else.

[canisalbus]

just a quick ask to tell u it makes me super happy seeing the detail u go into when pointing out stuff u like about other people's art of ur ocs :3 it's so rare to see but it's so so motivating!! <3

Thank you! I don't take any interest for my art for granted, and if someone goes through the trouble of drawing my characters for me, I feel like trying to write a proper response is the least I can do. For a visually oriented person, receiving gift/fan art is a huge deal, it means someone considered my goobers worth their time and effort, they've probably been thinking about them more than a little and found them inspiring in a way or another, and I find that terribly flattering. It's extremely fun and interesting to see other people's takes on them. And I've drawn stuff for people as well, I know how nice and rewarding it feels to receive a response that is longer than a word or two. Positive comments like that can linger in people's minds for a long time, at least for me they do.

[basofy]

ive never talked about their dynamic but this is one of the many thoughts i have about them

[sunsetzer]

As a lover of ff6 first I'm almost offended at the crossover outfits in ever crisis bc it's like... ff7 overshadowed it entirely, and now the closest thing we have to modern renders of the cast outside of the brave exivus CGs is the cast of ff7 dressed as them 🫠

[rainingincale]

.

[sysig]

You’ve caught my Wandering Eye ♥ (Patreon)

[non-plutonian-druid]

Trick or treat! :3

thank you!! :3 i know youre probably here for fan art but i am taking this opportunity to post... a little guy!!

[ID: a cartoon drawing of a small round man who looks very much like a pigeon. His suit is patterned like a pigeon, and his cravat is iridescent green and purple. he also has a curly white mustache, a top hat, and a cane. End ID.]

look at him!

[northwest-cryptid]

Don't even get me started on Hod, I'm not immune to Hod.