#this isn't inspired by any specific recent event

[something-about-sunflowers]

Family and friends who ask for/expect artistic labor for free are so fucking annoying.

[traceybrakes]

Let's Talk About Un-ironicizing Art!

In light of a lot of the conversations i've seen surrounding Death Grips and recent events concerning them, I want to take the time to point out that this is a good time to start thinking about how we engage with art on the whole!

For a long time, the irony poisoned method of consumption went unchecked in all facets of internet culture. As an internet musician in current day, I have noticed a sharp disconnect between artists and enthusiasts/casual listeners when it comes to attitudes surrounding music specifically, though I've witnessed it permeate all forms of art in some way.

I see people who have grown scared to engage on deeper levels, intentionally severing any resonant connections or knowledge learned from a piece of media before it has the chance to take root. In short, dare to be vulnerable! Dare to enjoy something on the basis that you yourself resonate with it, and not for any other nebulous reasoning. When masses of people relegate art to a spectacle, not only do artists become more likely to be disenchanted with the passions that fuel their work, but the audience ultimately suffers as well. All art at that point becomes less an extension of ourselves, less a vehicle to explore our identities, and is rendered a meaningless hulking sludge, or worse, the opponent to an already shrinking and narrow worldview.

Be not afraid to be unabashedly in love with the work that inspires you. Be not afraid to have the things you love misunderstood by some. When you engage with work new and old, make sure to do it for yourself. Making and observing art is inherently selfish, but being selfish is not inherently misguided. Allow yourself to learn, grow, discover, and repeat that cycle until the day you die.

To speak more candidly about my own experience, throughout the course of my life, there has been art that I've held near and dear to my identity, and own journey of self discovery that I seldom find others who hold the same sentiments to. I've always found this exciting. Exciting to hold something close to my chest as something so personal, and even more exciting when I can ease up on that grip when I find someone who I can share that with. However, I've also been through the throes of how the internet tends to chew up and spit out art that generally isn't understood by the many. I've fallen victim myself to the hive mind mentality that circles some artists and the cult of non-identity around them. This off-color ouroboros of knowing all about an artist's work and simultaneously upholding this facade of vapid complacency. I've come to the conclusion that if being openly supportive and connected to an artist's work or a particular piece of work automatically renders a person uninteresting and unambiguous at the very least, then I will live happily as an uninteresting open book. At the worst times, we see this line of thinking contribute to Death Grips being mocked and belittled en masse by people who are unwilling to engage with their art before they even get that far. It's heartbreaking, to me at least to see people put so much effort, emotion, and passion into transforming culture for the better to be rewarded with a crowd that's plugging their ears.

I realize I run the risk of sounding self indulgent, or even patronizing to an extent; I apologize because that isn't my intention, I'm hoping to see gears shift at least on a micro level surrounding attitudes towards art appreciation. Remember to dare to be in love holistically with the art you engage with! Speak of the things you love in a way that makes that clear to others, and consider your peers to do the same! You and the people around you can only be better off for it.

[dogtoling]

General life- and blog update , since I assume at least a few people might have been wondering where I've been and what i've been up to recently. I obviously haven't been posting or drawing much this year in general. This will probably be an important post if you care about stuff on this blog, and I already rambled on Sheezy, but that site isn't very populated yet and it's also very good at hiding journals so let's just ramble again...

The summary of this post if you hate reading: I'm heavily considering just stepping away from Splatoon. That decision obviously would affect this blog (mostly, my OCs, which is kinda most of the blog at this point). I don't think the blog itself will go anywhere, and I'll probably use it for something in the future... alternatively i'll cherry pick stuff from here into an archive for people who like the worldbuilding.

Longer post under cut:

So what have I been up to this year? The answer is quite simple: NOTHING. Like, actually absolutely nothing. Aside from Art Fight, this has probably been one of my worst art output years of all time, which is really frustrating. That's between my horrendous mental health and depression chasms this year and a complete lack of both focus and inspiration (which can also get chalked down to the depression to a degree, yeah). So the very real reason to why there hasn't been much activity on this blog this year is because I just haven't Done Anything in general.

Now because I know there will be a few people who think "that's fine! you shouldn't judge yourself based on productivity!" you're right! I also agree. However the issue for me specifically is that most (if not all) the time I spend NOT drawing or creating, I spend sitting around wishing I could start drawing or creating, because that is like the 1 thing that keeps me sane on this freaking earth. Unfortunately coming up with OC scenarios in my head doesn't really result in output I can feel fulfilled by in any form as much as I wish it did, lol.

Now; The Issue. It doesn't take a genius to see that if you spend 9 months trying to finish like a dozen OC pages that you COULD do in a week or 2 if you wanted to, then there's probably more than just the problem of executive dysfunction (even though that's at least 60% of it for sure). Obviously my other major problem is that I live by imaginary rules and structures that make sense, but aren't actually useful at ALL in reality and are more than a hindrance if anything (the mental to do-list in my head that says i can't do X until I've done Y doesn't do very much if task Y takes 10 months and I also don't want to do it, and it also has no structured ending).

How does this tie into stepping away from Splatoon, you may ask. Well, the issue is that I have foreseeably fallen out of love with the series. Which isn't exactly news lol. Currently, I'm not even sure i will get the next game, if and when the time comes. Yes, the loss of interest is also expected, given that Splatoon 3 has ended and every fandom has this kind of downtime and lukewarm in-between-titles period. But the truth is that modern Splatoon (almost 10 years old!!!!) is tangibly different from the way the series was back when I fell in love with it. That was Splatoon 1, and while the series has improved in a lot of aspects and is thriving, it's grown in a direction that I just don't really like. Splatoon 3 had the most freaking horrendous, immersion breaking story mode they could've done, then they followed it up with a DLC story that was pretty cool but also compounded a lot of my fears about the series' future and played into every single thing i do not want Splatoon stories to be - fully character focused, random fucking villain, mundane event that's unrealistically world-threatening just because a kids video game needs a scary climax even though it's immersion breaking AGAIN, the whole thing taking place in cyberspace and thus offering basically no worldbuilding even though there is SO MUCH WORLD. I COULD GO ON.

The gist of it is that nowadays, rather than playing Splatoon and being inspired and excited at what comes next, I mostly find myself dreading what dumbass plot they will do next to throw a wrench in the otherwise good stuff. And when that's like THE main approach I have to what's supposed to be my favorite series, it is HARROWING. I can't even really blame the game for this; the story is NOT its selling point, the developers probably do their best to get the bits to us that they really want to tell, and at the end of the day the game is unfortunately a product. Worldbuilding for Splatoon is fun to a point. It's less fun when in order to actually write or create something coherent, instead of filling in the blanks, the blanks are 90% of the freaking thing. At that point you're just better off making something of your own instead of being anchored onto an IP that gives more problems than answers and occasionally shoots you with like a machine gun. Working in the realm of Splatoon is frustrating because more often than not, the questions I have ARE NOT MINE TO ANSWER, and the likelihood that the specific-ass questions I need answers to will ever be actually addressed is really low.

Tying this back to my OCs. Obviously I love my OCs more than I love myself which admittedly isn't that high of a bar but you get the point. The problem is that I spend a lot of time mulling over worldbuilding that, again, frankly isn't mine to do. Because if I want it to be Splatoon, then it should be mostly accurate to how Splatoon is! But the problem with that is that there's really not THAT MUCH worldbuilding in the series that you can work with, and most of the core game mechanics are just abstract enough that it's actually horrendous to try and come up with workarounds and ways for things to make sense that don't require just constructing a full knockoff version mirror dimension of the game and saying fuck everything that's in place here because Inkopolis Plaza literally has no roads in or out of there and I have no fucking idea how that's allowed when your only option is to jump the fence (or, nowadays, take the train which also isnt connected to a street as far as I remember). Between the face value issue and the lack of REALLY IMPORTANT worldbuilding, like - I will always come back to this - THE INK TANK'S FUNCTION 10 YEARS DOWN THE LINE - there's a goddamn ocean of plot holes and things that end up being obstacles to creativity rather than inspiration. I feel like I'm pretty solidly at the point (and have been for a while) where hanging onto Splatoon is really only contributing to creativity block and frustration with lack of freedom and the ability to actually do things.

So I guess those are my reasonings that I've put together just sitting here for the time being. The TL;DR is that I wish I could just do stuff without Splatoon's canon getting in the way, which is a really stupid problem to have if you're making Splatoon OCs. I feel this frustration extremely strongly every time I have to work with actual bigger aspects of the world; we still don't have an Inkopolis map, we don't know what the world around Inkopolis looks like, we don't know what the wilderness is like aside from Just Normal Forest and Desert and very few snippets as to what modern wildlife MIGHT be, I still don't know how the fuck the Inklings teleport to the goddamn arctic ocean to play a turf war at Shipshape Cargo co. These are all actually really important things if you're trying to establish a setting in any kind of storytelling that's outside of immediate city bounds (and even there, you need to know the layout of the city and its important areas). Also a fucking mutant bear and a baby salmon and a squid not wearing suitable gear went to space and fought on a rocket in space. These are some things that would give me peace of mind to not have to deal with in my own writing, probably.

So where do we go from here? Unsure. I haven't really made a decision on this front yet, though right now I'm leaning more towards actually going ahead with trying to do my own thing. That will result in obvious design and setting changes for my OCs whenever I get around to it. This blog probably won't go anywhere (again, unless I impulse delete it during a mood swing like i've almost done on like three separate occasions this year), but it will probably get less use, and I will probably end up making a new blog to post about whatever I end up doing once I get to a point where it feels like it makes sense. There's a chance that I will delete this blog and put all the interesting stuff on an archive blog for the people who are here just for the worldbuilding. My actual true passion for a long time now hasn't even been Splatoon anymore, it's just been cephalopods. I'm kind of done having Splatoon get in the way of the cephalopods, as thankful as I am that it introduced me to them...

If you read this to the end heres a treat for you = 🍪

[project-sekai-facts]

VBS event teaser commentary

Welcome back, it has been *checks calendar* 8 months since I was last able to do one of these jeez. Anyway, this will be a bit different to the ones I've done in the past, since rather than trying to predict what the event will be about, we already know. This is more of me trying to guess what will be in this event and what will be in VBS' next arc.

(TL by Project SEKAI ENG on twt)

(TLs from here onward by lozy bug on YT)

This event will have VBS finally surpassing RAD WEEKEND!!! This has been their primary goal since the start of the story, however more recently it has become more of a stepping stone for them in order to go beyond it. BREAK DOWN THE WALL has a lot of talk about how RW is a step for VBS before they go and do their own thing. It also is the obstacle blocking their SEKAI from expanding fully, in the form of a wall (hence the event title), which is also referenced in the event synopsis. The wall has started to crack with them honing their skills and resolve, but won't fully crumble until VBS can go beyond Nagi's dream.

Now all the way back to LUTF. Specifically the Nagi flashback section. So Nagi's dream was always for RADder to go on and reach a worldwide stage. They were popular in Japan and doing tours, and they had plans to do stuff overseas, but Nagi fell ill and died before any of this could become a reality. Nagi is like, the most important person in VBS' story. Ultimately she's the one who started it all. She decided to hold RW which inspired a whole generation of young people, passing the torch and hoping that they would go beyond what she achieved and do the things she always dreamed of. Without Nagi, there would be no VBS and no Street SEKAI.

So VBS' current goal is to go beyond what Nagi did, which entails VBS reaching around the world. However, the first step right now is to surpass RW. Now for what a lot of people have been asking me all day: is this rushed. Well, we won't really know until the event is out. But, imo, not really? It's been pretty obvious we're leading up to it, and while I thought we would have a few more events, this placement makes some sense (also WLEs are clearly leading up to a soon-ish big lore event so we need to get those sekai expanding lol).

I think some aspects could get rushed though or will happen offscreen. Again. Which was kinda an issue with On Your Feet, their last arc ender (though this was no fault of the writers i'm pretty sure they were not intending to wrap everything up at that point in time but plans were changed kinda last minute... you can tell bc events got insanely long for a bit and some units clearly needed more or less time than they were given). Mainly what comes to mind and what i've seen people talking about is Toya's song writing, and Arata's Whole Thing (& Souma!).

Toya's song writing is undoubtedly going to happen offscreen or in a card story. If it happens in the event itself, it probably will just be something that happens in passing and not given any focus, since this isn't his event. As for Arata (and Souma)? I think Arata will probably come back in this event, just because it feels very wrong to surpass RW without him. How they're going to bring him back? No idea, it was set up in BDTW and vaguely in Toya4 that he would come back in a future Toya event but this now feels like something that won't happen. However I still think the emotional baggage (aka his feelings about Souma and what Taiga said to him) will be dealt with in more detail in a future event, probably Toya5. Also then you can deal with Souma's stuff too, like the song he wrote for Arata that has been a thing since woao. Seriously, this is Toya event stuff, the only way they can get it in here is if they pull an Our Happy Ending and give Toya a dedicated chapter and try and squeeze it all in there. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if Arata stays MIA or is limited to a small appearance. It would be a bit disappointing, but there's a lot for the Squad past RW, so he can be there for event that surpasses the event that surpassed RW ig.

So what's next? I seriously suggest reading the epilogue of BDTW, it's only 6 minutes long and talks a lot about VBS' goals from here on out.

Their new SEKAI area takes inspiration from many places worldwide and their cultures and music, and the graffiti is all the names of famous street music events. They conclude that it's a place for teams that take the world. There's also an interesting scene earlier in the event that Miku reflects on here - Nagi's ghost (possibly her actual ghost, possibly a physical incarnation of An's imagination) was walking around the SEKAI, and she was looking at this one specific blank spot on one of the walls. Obviously, that spot was meant for RADder, but they never got to carve their name. VBS' new goal is to do exactly that. Maybe we'll see some travelling from that (where on earth they'd get the money i don't know), or maybe we'll deal with everyone's feelings and unresolved plot points first and Then get on the worldwide stage stuff (probably in the same arc. two if they decide to continue this past 6th anni).

[bobbimorses]

do you have any tips/ comics to read to help characterise hawkeye? I wanna try and encompass all of his personality rather than the popular fanon one and im not as well versed on hawkeye pre-fraction. thank you 🙌

so i would definitely recommend clint's appearances in thunderbolts v1 (#9-10, 20-75) for some more "recent" but not "recent recent" clint, in that it's him post-accomplished avenger, in a team leader role where he's not facing the pressures of being a new leader (like in west coast avengers), but still in his classic duds and pre-disassembled era.

hawkeye v1 (1983) also works as his first solo if you want a classic sort of "parallel" to fraction hawkeye to ease you in first. i only say parallel in that it's clint off his game, so that might be easier for you to worm your way in (and obvs there was a lot of gruenwald inspiration that went into it). also, he meets bobbi! who can say no to bobbi?

if my initial rec of thunderbolts was daunting bc i said hey read 50+ issues, you can instead try solo avengers v1 (1987), #1-11 to start with. clint's stories are only in the first half of the issues, so it's 11 pages of "ah, so that's clint." it's bronze age comics so it's goofy, and who is goofy? is it the carny with the arrows shooting into tornadoes with southern accents, bottom half wearing a breechcloth, top half shirtless? of course it is.

and hey, i feel like "taking on an elder of the universe, getting worked up over baseball" also encompasses personality? perhaps? so try west coast avengers annual #2 & avengers annual #16. "but tumblr user bobbimorses, there's like 15 characters in that and it's a crossover." fret not, it's the 80s so it's not like modern event comics. your eyes can glaze over in a good way, but glazing is not necessary. love and light.

captain america v3 #4 he is annoying cap. he loves (annoying) cap. the people ignore him. he wants attention. he is kicked in the face by batroc. he denigrates the french. this is clint barton.

daredevil #99: this isn't actually important per se but clint is annoying and carrying a torch for natasha and beats up daredevil and a beautiful bay window and complains about how his teammates, the literal avengers, showing up is like his getting tattled on to his big brothers to drag him home so this is a microcosm of his attitude in the era of the late 60s to 70s.

i didn't rec anything post-fraction per the structure of your ask but you could read hawkeye: freefall if you're only versed with fraction? anyways that's just a tiny smattering of tastes that i hoped could cover different stages.

realized i didn't rec anything from the kooky quartet era which is also important to get a sense of him (though thunderbolts v1 #9 has a whole issue flashback), so you could just pick a random issue from avengers v1 #16-29, or just watch this video for a sample. ignore the startlingly deep voice, that's pretty much the whole gist

i think i actually lost track of the whole "tips" intent of your question while doing this but if you really wanna go crazy, you can just skim through my "full" clint chronology guide for some issue ideas. i also have a neglected recs tag for some different specific recs

[catt-nuevenor]

Apologies for the questions; I’ve been following you since the beginning but have not kept up with development within the last year so I’m a bit confused about the story now and I can’t seem to grasp an understanding through reading recent asks. How long is the prequel set to be? Are we still getting to play as the mc from myrk mire along with the child they have in future stories? Since the ros are now genderlocked with their counterparts being their own people now, each romance will be different for them right? Does that mean queer relationships would be commented on since it is set in a time period where it wasn’t outwardly common, or is that accepted in your story? Sorry for the questions!! I was a really big fan of the old demo, so I’m excited to read the new one and see what you have planned!!

No worries, I quite enjoy asks like this, lets me get in the weeds a bit about development.

In chronological order:

How long is the prequel set to be?

I'm going to interpret this question in two ways. The first, One Hærfest Day is 10 Chapters long with eight separate routes, one for each of the core Aldmirham+ cast. The second, I haven't timed a full read through of a route just get, and reading speeds tend to vary wildly between individuals, but at a guestimate, I'd say it'll take about eight to ten hours to read through everything when it's out.

Are we still getting to play as the mc from myrk mire along with the child they have in future stories?

Yes. 100% yes. One Hærfest Day allows you to begin crafting this character through a small number of choices in each route. My hope is that you will then be able to carry these decisions onto their story, the one events in OHD are building to.

Since the ros are now genderlocked with their counterparts being their own people now, each romance will be different for them right?

Scenes from the original Myrk Mire will rhyme with their later counterparts, rather than be entirely different. But in other ways yes, each RO is very much their own individual person, and you will see that variety in each of their intimate scenes, be they platonic or romantic.

Does that mean queer relationships would be commented on since it is set in a time period where it wasn’t outwardly common, or is that accepted in your story?

My stories are written in a fictional setting, and while it takes inspiration from historical settings, it isn't dictated by them. In OHD, Myrk Mire, and other stories set in this universe, there are a variety of social responses to queer relationships dependent upon locale, social standing, and individual communities. OHD and Myrk Mire are specifically set in a region called the Four Shores, a collection of islands encircled by turbulent waters.

In this region, queer relationships are accepted as readily as straight relationships, and family is considered a far more fluid concept than other regions, dictated by fellowship more than blood. Other folk from other regions may pass comment, but any local won't give a passing thought to who someone chooses to be with.

I hope that answered at least the spirit of your questions.

Happy and thankful to have you along for the ride!

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

What I love about Akudama Drive is how technologically advanced some things are while some are just... not. Including but not limited to:

The fact that some merchants don't take "seal" payments

The appearance of cars on the road (when we know Courier's bike exists, for example)

Executing the biggest baddest Akudama by guillotine (when police robots are perfectly able to execute citizens-turned-Akudama)

(Watch Psycho-Pass by the way. Some of these vibes remind me so much of Psycho-Pass it's not even funny. Psycho-Pass and Akudama Drive are both huge faves of mine.)

The cars in Kansai evidently have some sort of specific motor that looks modern, but the car themselves have a retro appearance. I'm wondering what the creators were aiming for with these differences; I've talked about the takoyaki lady, and it's likely that as a small merchant she is an example of how people who live in poverty don't have easy access to, or don't necessarily benefit from the newest form of payment. (Does Hoodlum have a seal? He does have one of these phone things, with a hologram on top of it instead of a screen. Which I'll come back to in a sec.) If I'm to include my least favourite section of the manga, girlCourier also has a more retro-looking two-wheeler, and she might represent what technology is like outside Kansai.

Cutthroat's public execution had a very crude aspect to it. And I think the use of a guillotine was on purpose. The idea would be that a society that does public executions, that foams at the mouth at the idea of watching an execution, that advertises an execution as the next hype event, is no better than a society of the past. For that reason, I think we can look at the few and far between uses of older technology with a similar lens. In my takoyaki lady "essay", I also mentioned that Akudama probably use cash because they can't use their seal, which is... pretty grounded in reality.

When I was gathering promotional content for RAIN CODE, Kodaka's most recent game, I remember reading in an interview that RAIN CODE actually didn't take place in the future. The reason technology looks different than it does in reality, notably with the existence of umbrellas that float over people's heads at all times, is out of necessity. He thinks that if we currently lived in a world where it rains all the time, like it does in RAIN CODE, we would have used current technology to focus on creating better umbrellas by now. I don't know how much this could apply to Akudama Drive, but assuming Kodaka had a hand in anything worldbuilding related, I'd tend to look at the phone-like device Hoodlum uses with that lens too; it's not necessarily the next evolution of smartphones, but the result of a different world in which the applicable necessities and cultures resulted in slightly different technology.

Which is not to say that screen devices don't exist. But they look different. The device Pupil uses doesn't look all that modern... all the while, Boss can turn the MOON on and off!

And the screen and loading don't look very modern to me, neither does it appear to have a touchscreen, but it also evidently has facial recognition technology from a distance, which isn't really what we expect of real hand devices/phones.

And Courier has a magic hand.

Some of the technology looks very modern, while some looks dated, and some just looks different. If Kodaka had a hand in any of this, I'd say he is inspired by worlds wherein technology evolved differently, rather than worlds where technology has evolved past what we know as current.

[sky-swimmer]

Now this isn't so much a theory as much as it is a thing I'm thinking about. But trying to write an upcoming fic and also the latest chapter of yours where Dev and Hazel decide to try to pinpoint what caused them to fall in love brought to mind the poem "Having 'Having A Coke with You' with You" by Mark Leidner (which directly references "Having A Coke with You" by Frank O'Hara) bc it's about the moment the poet realized he wanted to marry his partner. I don't think any one thing caused them to fall in love but I do think there was a "Having 'Having A Coke with You' with You"-style moment of realizing "I want to spend the rest of my life with this person." Anyway that's mousefeelings' poetry corner

Oh my gosh- I just looked up both the Frank O'Hara and Mark Leidner poems...

AUGh- you have such good taste?! It was honestly beautiful. And I LOVE that the recent chapter of my fic reminded you of it?!! 😭😭 That is so thoughtful??!! And yeah yeah YES absolutely I love what you said about it!

I agree, I love the idea that there's not a specific moment where the feelings just suddenly turn on, but more so, a realization of the feelings that had been there 😭😭😭🤧

Hazel and Dev are still stupid highschoolers in my fic, and totally oblivious to romance- so unfortunately for them, they don't have that same reasonable logic of how feelings work. They just believe Hazel's plan of figuring out and avoiding canon events will prevent them from falling in love 🎉✨💪

What you predict / think is VERY interesting 👀👀👀 and honestly we are in agreement heheh. We will see in the next chapter how the conversation turns out!

ALSO I love that, in the poem, the inciting moment was over something so small and seemingly inconsequential to his s/o, but to Leidner, this odd interaction was just the final tipping point and meant absolutely everything. AUGhhhhh yes the inspo is flowing!!! It's probably the most realistic and somehow sweetest way to go about it.

If you're writing an upcoming fic that follows that theme, or tackles that specific moment of realizing you're in love with someone... I may pass away. I would NEVER get enough!!! Regardless, I am so excited to read your works!!! You have such beautiful insight, I know the writing must be incredible!

Thank you so much for sending me this because the poem was amazing and so inspiring!! And hearing that you're associating themes of my story with poetry and then sending it to me- hwhdjdjfjf I feel like I've made it in life. THANK YOU, MOUSEFEELINGS

[bad-traffic-smp-ideas]

Welcome to Bad Traffic SMP Ideas, an experimental gimmick blog with a twist!

Hello! Instead of showcasing the many good ideas this community has come up with, this blog highlights all the "bad" ideas created with our beloved smps in mind.

I, the Head Watcher, will be your guide on this journey through the wonderfully horrific concepts I've collected for future traffic series smps. Enjoy your trip! ^^

[QnA + tag system + more below the cut!]

What is a "bad idea?"

It's whatever you want it to be! The "[blank] Life, but _" format works really well for series concepts as a whole, but "bad headcanons" are welcome too! Go wild, friends <3

"Someone already sent in my same idea! Can I submit it again?"

Sure!! Most of the time, I won't even realize it's been said before. This blog has been going for so long now and I have bigger priorities, I won't penalize you for sending in a "repeat" ask :)

(There is also the #additions tag for adding onto specific ideas, although it isn't used very consistently. If you would like your ask to be added to a previous post instead, just ask!)

"What does the queue look like for this blog?"

Currently, it posts once per day, and there's usually ~100 posts in the backlog waiting to be posted.

For complicated personal reasons (but mostly me being a busy uni student), that most likely won't be changing anytime soon. I don't get around to stocking this blog very often and I would rather have it be slow and consistent than have random bursts of activity then silence. I know this is frustrating for people, but this is my personal passion project, and I don't want to needlessly stress myself out over something I started for fun :)

"I sent in my idea two months ago! Where is it?!"

Probably still in the askbox! Very rarely do I actually delete asks, I promise I don't cherrypick the ideas I like and discard the rest. But since I know the wait is frustrating, this is my policy to deal with it:

If you've sent in an idea and it hasn't posted yet, you can send me an ask describing your idea and ask to have it moved up in the queue. You can also send in a separate ask when submitting an idea if you want to have it posted sooner rather than later.

(If your idea is connected to recent events in smps, etc it will most likely be moved up anyway so it posts while still "relevant," although this is somewhat limited to my familiarity with the event. It never hurts to ask!)

"Wait, this blog has a TV Tropes page?!"

APPARENTLY. I didn't make it, but I'm a HUGE fan of it, and it's probably more organized than my actual blog. Go check it out, I'm famous guys <3

Housekeeping + Rules:

Mostly common sense things + be a decent person, etc. This isn't a place for discourse, so please leave that elsewhere. There haven't been any serious issues, but if there ever are I'll create a more cohesive list of rules.

Admin Info:

You can call me Pho! I saw the @/badmccideas blog and got inspired to make this around the end of Last Life in November 2021. My main is @phosphorus-noodles :)

Currently, I'm the sole mod running this blog. This may change in the future, but please don't ask to join the team unless I ask for more help! This project is my baby, and I'm very protective over it ^^'

Tagging System:

#bad traffic idea - catch-all tag for bad ideas

#bad headcanon - specifically for headcanons, not concepts (not consistently used, so if you can't find a headcanon tagged with this it's probably under the previous tag)

#not a bad idea - anything that's not a bad idea (announcements, admin notes, reblogs, etc.)

#good idea - personal favorite submissions <3

#admin - posts from yours truly :)

#ask - ideas sent in via ask

#submission - ideas submitted

#reblog - anything reblogged

#additions - inconsistently used, but meant for building upon existing specific ideas

#life series predictions - used whenever there's a new season on the horizon to try to predict where apollo's dodgeball will fall

#blog lore - mostly for fun, not that serious or consistent lol, feel free to filter this tag or join in with the fun! :)

If you've made it to the end of this post, congrats! I love you <3

[winterandwords]

For the writers living with chronic illness and physical disability

I'm going to get into writing and posting this while my brain is still half asleep and before I change my mind because it feels too personal and I don't do that online. Please excuse any typos.

Comments on a recent post of mine about wanting to write but not being able to got me thinking. I'm chronically ill and physically disabled. I have been for most of my adult life (I'm 42 now). It's been progressing slowly throughout that time and more rapidly over the last few years. It is what it is.

I don't talk about it in detail on the internet because it's impossible for me (not saying other people can't do this) to accurately represent the full experience in a way I feel comfortable with while still engaging enjoyably with an interest-based community, which is what I'd rather be doing here.

Also, people get fucking weird about it. I have no patience for *pat on the head* "well done for existing" consolation-prize pity bullshit or inspirational cripple bullshit. Equally, I have no patience for being dragged into a who-has-it-worse competition that I'm never going to take part in because I don't see the world that way or a what-about-me-ism-fuelled derailment session.

This shit is complicated. I'm on Tumblr to write and to talk about writing. But if I'm also quietly dealing with all that other stuff alongside making up some guys (gender non-specific) in my head and putting them in situations, I know some of you are too.

And you know what? It's hard. I know it is. We live in an inaccessible world and so many parts of that world and so many people in it can be brutally hostile towards chronic illness and physical disability in ways that still shake me to my core when I encounter them. It no longer surprises me, but it still fucks me up on the regular.

But listen. YOU ARE CREATING. You're doing something huge and worthy and valuable and fucking difficult. You're carrying the weight of all that other shit and YOU ARE STILL CREATING. It might take you longer than you'd like and you might be doing it in ways that are far from ideal, but you are still doing it.

You might feel excluded from communities and events and conversations, not necessarily because anyone is intentionally excluding you, but because you have no option other than to do the sick-person version of things and it's impossible not to feel like you're on the outside looking in sometimes when that's your experience.

The point of all this is that I want you to know with my whole heart that YOU ARE SEEN. Your strength and your determination and your sadness and your rage and your pain and your more-able days and your rock-bottom days are all seen.

Your challenges and your messiness and your perfectionism and your complexity and your dichotomies and the unrealistic standards and demands you have internalised from existing in an ableist society are witnessed and felt, widely and deeply, and with a solidarity unshakable enough to hang bridges from.

I'm not going to tell you that you're good enough, because it should go without saying. I am going to tell you that you're not alone, because that does need to be said. You are so much more than a conditionally-acceptable exception and you deserve to reach and exist beyond the boundaries of the small boxes you get shoved into without your consent or permission. YOU ARE SO MUCH MORE.

Alright? Alright. Keep going 💜

In case this gains any sort of traction and people start replying to it or reblogging it, I want to make something very clear. I am also neurodivergent. That is not what this post is about. I also have lifelong experience of mental illness and trauma. That is not what this post is about. This post is about chronic illness and physical disability and it's for people who are living with those specific things, whether or not they're also living with the other things.

So, in the most loving way, if you have something to say that isn't about that, this isn't the place to say it. Thanks.

[olderthannetfic]

I recently and finally managed to put together why it bothers me so much when fanfic authors sometimes overshare, but only on specific types of fic. When I read dark(ish) fic I enjoy seeing characters get put through the wringer--it's entertaining! I'm cheering them being put through the most horrible shit, and I love it.

But when the author states in an AN or even summary that the following, often very disturbing events, are closely inspired by their own life and hard times they went through, then it's suddenly not just a fictional character suffering, and the suffering itself isn't fictional any longer--instead I keep thinking about the author, a real living person, going through such awful things, and I absolutely can't stand it, especially if it's the sort of the more intimate violence, like rape.

It's different from reading the news and other various non-fiction which talks about such heavy things happening to real people, because I read that to be informed, to learn. I read fanfic to be entertained, and I think that's why I want to know as little as possible about the author so I don't connect real people to it.

Honestly I'm just glad to understand myself and my reactions better, this isn't any sort of a thesis statement, but I guess it can be a continuation of the classic 'look, just because I love reading very disturbing and disgusting things doesn't mean I want to see them happen to real ppl or even DO them' that some people seem to struggle with.

--

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

so making that post about meif'wa in headscarves and such made me think about religion in my rewrite and i remembered that i haven't spoken about religious headwear at all, so here is some stuff for Avra. I might post about other religion stuff for LR at some point too.

These are mostly aph-specific since no one religions the way she does lmao. Except for the coin-chain, that's a little something she starts doing that ends up being a cultural thing for Phoenix Drop because surprisingly the way rulers dress does persuade their people to dress similarly.

Coin Scarves are a Scaleswind thing, and quite an old-fashioned one. You're more likely to see a little old lady (or man, it isn't gender specific) in church wearing one than your average individual. Only hair that is longer than shoulder length is typically put beneath them (hence Avra's little microbangs being out) however in some parts of Scaleswind it is seen as more proper to cover the entire top of your hair regardless of length.

Different colour + metal combos refer to different divine, and multiple can apply to a singular Divine. People often wear them based off of the divine they follow most of all (Irene, for most), however those who only wear them for prayer will wear them according to the divine they're praying too. Pre-O'Khasis/Scaleswind war, royal-blue and gold was the most common combination as those were the colours most associated with Irene, however they're also associated with O'Khasis, so it changed to white and gold when the war began.

Avra gets hers during her little excursion to Scaleswind. Those who worship the Destroyer often thought of her quite highly for reasons, and she is quite recogniseable, so when she was just walking around a little old woman pressed a red and cold coinscarf into her hand and walked away. Red and Gold are colours associated with Shad only by his worshippers, however black and silver is more often used by the gaggle of elderly folk in Scaleswind that dare to worship him as they aren't ashamed of their religion. It is however seen as heresy, so any youth that continue the practice + worship Shad will often wear the red variant.

Avra honestly just thinks its cute (she is wearing it in my recent Shadmau/Shavra drawing :})

This is a coin veil, inspired by catholic veils because they're so goshdarn pretty. They're the predecessor of coin scarves and while coinscarves are made with opaque, typically thicker material, coin veils are made with lace or sheer fabric.

It is not practiced anymore, it kind of went out of fashion when the elaborate worship of the gods was replaced with the more humble and accessible worship of the divine. Coin scarves were kind of made so the church could try and make those that were fond of veils convert away from the gods, under the idea that 'they're basically the same thing anyway!!'.

Avra gets hers because it was a practice she partook in during her life as Irene, so she kind of was drawn to it. For Donna and Logan's wedding, she had an excuse to wear fancy stuff, so she asked Cadenza to help her make a coin veil. She doesn't remember what it's meant to actually represent, she just thinks they're pretty and comforting. Cadenza makes her a red one, using a bunch of lace she had already made, and it is very long. Avra only typically wears it for events or whenever she's stressed and needs to chill out.

Similarly to coinscarves, colour and metal indicate certain gods, but so does lace pattern and veil length. Worship of Judgement/Death (The destroyer/shad) was often indicated with long black veils with golden coins and the lace covering the face as well as the hair, with the lace usually having patterns of wilted flowers and animal skulls to represent the very decay they worshipped. Of course, this could only be afforded by the very rich, however the rich were often patrons of his temples in larger communities and would supply them with veils for the worshippers to wear. The addition of coins to veils was thought to have started with Judgement/Death worship, as it was believed that if someone was buried in their veil and brought back, you would be able to hear them by the chiming of the coins. Which was good because you didn't want an SK sneaking up on your ass, even back when Shad was thought of highly.

Worship of The Mother (Irene) was done through medium-length white-lace veils which were usually not adorned with coins (though were still called coinveils) but had beads instead, and were typically tied or pinned closed around the chest. The lace usually had floral patterns on it, though not always. Irene herself wore one, however due to lace being very hard to carve, most of her statues depict her wearing a hood instead.

I could get into the impacts of Avra wearing her red little coin veil but naaahhhh.

[aziraphales-library]

Sah hope yer all havin a superb day

Any fic recs for our angel Aziraphale bein a good swordsman? Or just generally bein kickass? No way he was put as a guard for a gate to Eden if he didn't know a thing or two about fightin so I wanna see him flex his skill

Have a radical day/night and drink ya water

You can check our #bamf aziraphale tag for fics where he is generally kickass, and here are some specifically where he does some swordfighting...

All It Takes by summerofspock (E)

When Hell assigns Crowley to duel a local lord, Aziraphale offers to teach him the finer points of swordplay.

Things get a little sweaty.

Chivalrous by MrsMoosie (T)

The apocalypse was averted. Aziraphale and Crowley are still wanted for their roles as traitors, and Crowley is the first to be targeted.

Sworn by the Sword by EdwardotheBarber (T)

On the way back to his bookshop, Aziraphale is confronted by a certain red-haired supernatural entity. Unfortunately, she is not the one the angel would have hoped for.

War wants revenge. A fight is looking inevitable. Aziraphale only hopes he can end this before Crowley is involved.

(Spoiler Alert: Crowley gets involved.)

Ever more my protection by Royal Owl Rose (T)

"In light of certain recent events Azriaphale began to rethink a lot of things concerning weapons. Holding the flaming sword again had surprisingly felt quite natural. An itch began to burn in the back of his mind. He knew eventually, after heaven and hell had cooled their heels, they might be after them again. Next big one or not. After all he and Crowley had been through, he was not prepared to lose the one important thing in his life. The demon had become his constant after six millennia on earth, and more importantly, his best friend."

After Nonmeggedon, Aziraphale realizes that he must take drastic measures to protect his demon from the forces of Heaven and Hell.

Of Swords and Flames by CaspianTheGeek (E)

Aziraphale has a new assignment to inspire the humans via gladiatorial combat. He was trained by Michael, and there's no reason he can give Heaven as to why he can't accomplish this simple feat.

Crowley isn't quite as convinced this is at all a good idea.

Or the fic in which Caspian needed a plot so we could get to the homoerotic swordfighting and have an excuse to put Aziraphale in a gladiator outfit.

Truly Ineffable by Bookwormgal (T)

Stress can come out in the most unfortunate ways and an argument causes nearly a month of separation. Not that long for an angel or demon who have walked the Earth for six thousand years, but enough is enough. But when Crowley saunters back into the bookshop, his angel isn't there.

But the bookshop wasn't quite empty either. And She has a favor to ask of him. And when he asks why he would do anything that She asks of him, She merely tells him that Aziraphale needs his help.

...Well, when you put it that way, how could he possibly say no?

- Mod D

[bayofwolves]

Rereading Hunted

I'm doing my first reread of Spirit Animals in years, in preparation for starting my biggest writing project yet, A Revised History of Erdas, and to my delight I'm discovering a lot of things that went over my head as a younger reader. I finished Hunted today, and wanted to talk about some of the more interesting things I noticed -- character details, plot holes and creepy implications. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much, but I've found it tickled my brain just the right way.

So, here are some highlights from my reread -- stuff even I didn't pick up on before.

Please mind the tags as there is a brief mention of rape near the bottom of this post.

Conor looks to be strawberry-blonde on this cover, not golden-blonde as he's described in text. I feel like it suits him.

The war has actually been going on for a while, probably since well before Wild Born. Finn was fighting Conquerors when his brothers were massacred, and it's unlikely that event was recent enough to have taken place during Wild Born. There is also a moment in the first book when General Teng speculates that the Conquerors who are laying siege to Jano Rion entered the city over a period of years in order to avoid suspicion. It would be interesting if the authors tied this in more efficiently, and our protagonists had been living in an active war when they summoned the Four Fallen. This opens up a plot hole, though: the Conquerors operate under Shane, and because Shane is 13 when he mobilizes his people for war in The Book of Shane, the events of the main series must have started quite soon after this. Abeke mentions he's only a little older than she is in Wild Born; since Shane is already 13, he couldn't have been waging war for a few years before this.

The only background I could find for Kunaya's name is that it is of Zimbabwe origin and means "rain". Notice the connection? Abeke is a Rain Dancer.

Rollan mentions that his father is dead, in a way that suggests he knew him. This seems to have been retconned in Fire and Ice, as his father plays no part in Aidana's retelling of their past as a family. Indeed, he is never brought up again after this instance in Hunted.

The Earl of Trunswick was burning bodies. Our protagonists notice something off about the bonfire burning outside Trunswick, with Abeke and Meilin specifically noting its unpleasant smell. And most tellingly, when Conor and Rollan are captured, the Earl tells his soldiers to "burn the body with the rest" if Conor does not put Briggan into passive state. Who exactly the Earl was burning is not entirely clear, but a possible clue comes from a later chapter where he threatens Finn after the breakout from the Howling House. "Don't worry, Finn Cooley! We'll burn that troubled bond out of you yet!" he says. I'm inclined to believe the Earl was burning the bodies of spirit animals with the bonding sickness -- in a twisted attempt to cure their human companions, or merely to torture them further. It's possible he was burning human corpses too; Isilla the Greencloak is mentioned to have been killed, and I get the sense he wouldn't have treated her body with respect. In any case, this is a crazy thing to heavily imply and then never fully explain.

Tahlia is noticeably older than the other three kids. She even takes offense to being referred to as a child by Zerif. (In ARHoE, with the other three being around 13, I think I would place her at 18.)

Tahlia's entire existence doesn't make much sense -- she's supposed to be bonded to the Stetriolan legend of the water-holding frog, but this legend isn't even mentioned in the third arc when our protagonists go scouting for these same legends' bond tokens. Instead, it is replaced by Zhong's water dragon. Additionally, why would Stetriol even need a hero to inspire them? They already have Shane. They're the birthplace of the Conquerors -- what more inspiration do they need? It would make more sense if Tahlia was Zhongese and bonded to a water dragon, like Song's Seaspray. After all, if any nation needed someone to sway them to the Conquerors' side, it would be the fallen Zhong.

Ana, the Amayan girl with the Gila monster, was chosen to be a part of the False Four for her "exceeding connections". This makes me wonder if she was intended to be related or otherwise close to the Prime Minister of Amaya. It's never revealed what Zerif meant by this and Ana presumably dies in Fire and Ice.

The False Four in general are a really interesting (and promising) concept and I wish more was done with them. I wanted to see them rallying the four nations to the Conquerors' side and creating more of a threat to the Greencloaks! I wanted to see each of them directly paralleling the True Four! Instead, they all ended up incarcerated, insane or dead by the fourth book. Ah well. That's what AUs are for.

The absence of Lady MacDonnell is noted, but never explained. Interestingly, Rollan notices this in the same breath as he does Lord MacDonnell's children being so rigidly obedient. Considering Lord MacDonnell's character, I'm willing to bet he had his wife executed or otherwise removed for some transgression she made. After all, one of the Three Undeniable Truths is "death".

Lord MacDonnell is a really terrible guy. Despite aiding our protagonists in this book and The Evertree, he is a nasty person who keeps his own people in a permanent state of fear. This book is full of despicable characters, for sure.

What were Devin and Karmo intending to do with Abeke? And why her? Because of her connection to the Conquerors, I'm guessing. But it's never really explained. They tell her they're taking her back to Nilo, but there's no way they would just kindly take her home and let her go. Maybe the Conquerors planned to give her the Bile and then use her in some scheme. I wish this book wasn't so vague (but I also don't because it gives me more freedom as a writer).

Devin calls Abeke "vermin" in the final battle. Interestingly, Karmo doesn't seem to approve of this comment. In fact, Karmo is a lot more sympathetic than I remembered.

This is the only first arc book that Shane doesn't appear in, and for no apparent reason. I think it would have been a good choice to include him and plan to in ARHoE.

Finn has PTSD. Poor guy. I kind of like that he didn't return to Greenhaven at the end and instead stayed in Glengavin -- after all, it was the Greencloaks and their talk of destiny that led to Finn's brothers being killed, Donn retreating and Finn being so deeply scarred.

The Earl seems to threaten Conor's mother with rape in the foreboding letter he sends. I've seen several people discuss this. He tells Conor his family will starve if he doesn't hand over the Iron Boar, "and the fate of your mother will be far crueller". It's a chilling implication, and certainly a choice to include in a children's book.

Overall, Hunted is dark. For that reason, it's become one of my favourite books in the series. Beautiful cover, great writing, cool new guy introduced, failure for our protagonists and an epic cliffhanger. This one is a gem.

This is part of an ongoing series.

Wild Born | Hunted | Blood Ties | Fire and Ice | Against the Tide | Rise and Fall | The Evertree

Immortal Guardians | Broken Ground | The Return | The Burning Tide

Heart of the Land | The Wildcat's Claw | Stormspeaker | The Dragon's Eye

Tales of the Great Beasts | The Book of Shane | Tales of the Fallen Beasts

[clowndotgay]

Hiii!! it's me again :))

(smiles cutely and bats eyelashes) (I SWEAR IT'S MY LAST REQUEST) So I was wondering if uhm it would be possible to get more renders of thomas... Whenever I see him or his brother I get a serotonin boost (I have the most normal ttcc blog ever hahaha ha ha ha)

I've seen that you started to receive more request recently, so once again, if you don't want to do it, don't force yourself!

oh yeah absolutely here's A Bunch Of Him:

inspiration for the style of the first one was drawn from @/applekitty's renders, which look absolutely amazing and have a great vibe to them. there's more specific origins for each of these images, so there's that + rambling + a doodle below the cut

more specifically the first image is inspired by someone in the clash discord who was hypothesizing about boardbot hq boss fight just being a fight vs the chairmans whole family, which i think would be. A Time. (hence Crystalline being there, but i don't have a design for her, personally, so, y'know.) the gif was requested by a friend because i find it really funny that he really is just an ottoman if you angle the camera away from his face??? third image i made as a desktop background, fourth image is thomas sleeping in his office. i think he ends up sleeping overnight frequently, he just has too much work to do to commute, honestly.

^ quick doodle, transcript of the text is in the alt text because i know its difficult to read. conversation takes place several years before events of the game.

OKAY SORRY FOR THE LONG POST AGAIN... THERES A LOT I WANT TO SAY ABOUT THIS ASK ASIDE FROM POSTING THOMAS!!! (BUT I LOVE POSTING THOMAS!!!!!!)

first of all the image you attached is absolutely amazing! secondly you are free to send requests any time!!! i do not actually get (that) many, after i respond to this one there'll only be another in the backlog to do, and i've only been putting off that one because it's got a cog that i don't have the model for yet (though it's not like that's a hassle, really) rest assured sending me a request is not bothering me or forcing me. if i don't want to do a request i'll just ignore it or say nah. i am a very bored unemployed person who likes toontown and likes making stuff of other peoples blorbos!

i read all of the comics on the clash site the other day, so i've been meaning to do renders/draw thomas and robert anyhow... they're both such sillies. silly old men. this isn't related but roberts model is. super expressive! like, i can only really get him to look angry, but damn is it easy to make him look a bunch of different shades of angry. i think its mostly the excessive eyelid bones. that last sentence sucked actually, banning myself from posting about fictional eyelids

[bluegekk0]

Regarding the most recent ask, it was mentioned that grimm helped set up several town events

I’d like to know what kind of events, holidays, meetings or ceremonies would be held in dirtmouth?

Like Would the town regularly have hall meetings addressing the current status of things for example?

Most of those events have to do with holidays, and those are usually connected to seasons. I intend for there to be two seasons throughout the year: winter and summer (with possible unique names that I haven't thought of yet). The year begins once winter changes to summer, and that calls for new year celebration, where the bugs reminisce on the year that just passed, and wish for the following year to be prosperous. Similarly, when summer changes to winter, another holiday happens. I really like the idea of calling their winter something along the lines of "long night" since that's the period where the sun appears very briefly throughout the day, if at all. Perhaps some kind of celebration similar in spirits to our Halloween would also happen. And of course, a holiday related to the end of the infection is a must, the bugs would undoubtedly celebrate every anniversary of the day it vanished.

Grimm helps with organizing those since he has a lot of experience with attending such events, and a lot of knowledge and ideas on ways to make them mode interesting and engaging for the community. He undoubtedly introduced some traditions previously unknown to the Hallownest bugs, and of course, he has a Troupe which are masters at performing (and have a music crew, an essential part of any celebration)

For more exact details on the seasons and holidays, I'm planning to add holidays as an article on the lore page, so I'd love to share more then.

As for meetings, I definitely think those happen periodically. There isn't a specific leader in Dirtmouth, but I do think they appoint an elder who's in charge of those meetings. Elderbug would fit the role well, I think, he's very respected and is one of the oldest inhabitants of Dirtmouth. The meetings would most likely take form of discussions about the development of the town, latest news and events, organization of holidays, any kinds of weddings or similar celebrations, and so on. Anyone can attend the meetings, and those who hold a valuable role in the community (such as the farmers and hunters who ensure a consistent food supply, Vyrm who's responsible for renovations, and so on) are especially welcome to attend and voice their mind. If there is an important matter that needs to be decided, then a vote is held, and the elder's main role is to count all the votes and then announce the results. Dirtmouth is a very small town, so I do think that every inhabitant's opinion would be valued. The town was built on the community and its group efforts, the bugs all cooperate and support one another, so maintaining this dynamic is at the top of the priority list if Dirtmouth is to prosper. And for that to happen, voices need go be heard.

The meetings would be held in the longhouse, a large building located at the center of the town. That is also where all celebrations are being held, so it's very big, with extra storage rooms and a kitchen connected to it, a fireplace, barrels for wine and mead, a large table waiting to be set up, and even a small scene for the Grimmkin crew to perform and play music, and so on. Visually it would resemble a Viking longhouse (since that kind of style is a big inspiration for the AU version of Dirtmouth) with some of the Hollow Knight aesthetic introduced, naturally. I'll definitely draw at least the outside once I get to remaking the map/panoramic view of the town.