#this turned into a tangent LOL

[bas-rouge]

I wish I could pull off crunchy art but I just don't think I can. I could try I guess that's what the spirit of Dogcember is all about. Practice. Exploration. Etc.

[blue-slates]

I think what's getting me about the ending, more than how bittersweet they are is just that (endgame spoilers lool)

There's just no trust. Whoever the player sides with (and you HAVE to side with one of the them, no way out for you) just illustrates that Verso and Maelle don't trust that the other will follow through if they decide to listen.

Maelle can't trust Verso to not destroy the painting while she's gone to recuperate (and she's right). Verso can't trust Maelle to actually leave the painting after ostensibly fixing things up. (and how long would that even take? A day? A week? A year? Real world time or canvas time?)

And it makes me think back to their final relationship conversation, where Verso can either lie or be truthful about whether he let Gustave die. I was bothered by how subdued Maelle's reaction was, and eventually chalked it up to her putting it behind them. For context I chose to tell her the truth.

But I think whatever you chose, Maelle had already made up her mind about what Verso was capable of, and what she was planning to do with her life. She had already figured out that she can't trust him - he had already left everyone Lumiere to die instead of giving her Alicia's letter, telling her that shes' Alicia. (Maybe at first she still wanted to trust him. She understood why he did what he did, but by that point she asks about Gustave, she's made up her mind) And she'd already proven that, when push comes to shove, she's not going to listen to what Verso has to say, even about him not wanting to be alive anymore. Killing Alicia was a kindness to her, but she didn't let Verso even say goodbye. Yeah, it was her (Alicia/Maelle) decision, but to Verso it must've felt like he didn't matter.

He was just another portrait of her brother she couldn't lose.

And it kills me that they couldn't trust each other enough to reach a compromise, but they'd already made their decision long before their fight.

[sha-brytols]

Can't speak for anyone else but I've felt absolutely no ill will from any of your posts. It was actually surprising when you mentioned that you hated the game. I knew you were disappointed by the story and characters but I didn't realize it went that deep, lol. All things considered you're one of the more even handed and fair DAV critics.

it's cus i was a dwarf and romanced davrin 😔 most privileged playthrough in the game

[serpentface]

You mentioned a while ago that Faiza is afraid of mice. Is there any specific reason why (e.g. a traumatic memory involving the animals)? Faiza grew up in a wealthy household; so I doubt that mice ever posed a legitimate threat to her health, safety, or food supply, as they might for poorer people.

There's not a specific reason, it's just a phobia + disgust response. The only thing I have canon as a Mouse Event is her having been freaked out by the experience of feeling A Mouse run over her legs when she was trying to sleep and being very nervous about that situation as a little kid.

This isn't like, traumatic though (and people sleep on the floor so this is going to be a Relatively common experience that most people don't derive phobias from). She's just creeped out by them. A lot of it is mouse-specific too, like rats wig her out as well but it's the lightning fast skittering movements of mice are that really unsettle her. They are just Too Small and Too Fast and have creepy nasty little worm tails and carry disease and eat your food and etc etc etc.

Most people will have regular encounters with mice, so she would have plenty of minor interactions that reinforce this fear. She will have periodically experienced walked into a room/opening a pantry/ etc and seeing a horde of them creepily zip into the shadows. She also grew up with pet polecats (favored Wardi housepet + ratter), and they don't do the cat 'bringing their owner their kill' thing but Will stockpile bodies of prey for later use, so it's very likely she's like, moved aside some clothing or looked behind some furniture and found a heap of mouse carcasses. Probably has tried to kill one only to watch it leap 20x its body length straight up and disappear into a crevice, unsettling. Etc.

That's in conjunction with (pretty standard) intense cultural aversion towards small rodents as grain/house pests. They're considered Extremely dirty animals heavily associated with disease and contamination, which is especially acute in a worldview heavily centered around an integrated physical-spiritual cleanliness. And as grain pests they can pose very legitimate threats to people's survival. This isn't going to be a direct Threat to nobility, but it's still a factor at play. Things that pose threats to the survival of peasantry are also going to be concerns for nobility (it's just that the latter is likelier to be inconvenienced than Starved), which goes doubly for potential agents of disease (there's only so much the material benefits of class can do when you don't have vaccines/antibiotics/etc, you're Less likely to die of disease than someone living in cramped high density quarters but if you catch something You Catch Something).

[aroaceleovaldez]

do you think they borrow each other’s rogue names after they die

also as a rogue name for thalia, blue bolt? (blue eyes, ‘bolt from the blue’ being an idiom for unexpected and important news, and also meaning a lighting bolt far from the parent storm (this being because a charge of electricity was so strong that it wandered away from the parent storm)

blue bolt felt so deviantart oc-coded but hell yeah that’s the fun part

oh absolutely i think rogues would name themselves after each other. Even besides just adopting each other's names when one of them dies, but also like trading names. Best friend rogue duo whose rogue names are just each other's real names.

tbh Thalia and Luke would have deviantart oc-coded rogue names lol. Blue Bolt is definitely a cool fitting one! I was joking in the TA discord yesterday that Luke might lightheartedly call Thalia "Green Day" or "Hot Topic" just to tease her.

Still dunno what Thalia might call Luke though 🤔 Cause he's already a little jaded of the gods to begin with so he'd probably try to lean away from directly Hermes-related nicknames? But he's super emo so he'd probably try for something dramatic and edgy. And Thalia would probably tease him about it as much as he teases her.

[veryfairysyd]

fairy tales, ya novels, and the emotional logic of growing up

i’ve been thinking a lot lately about story patterns—especially in fairy tales and young adult fiction. not just the surface-level plots, but the emotional logic underneath: the way different types of stories are shaped by the emotional worlds of the people they’re speaking to.

i’ve been reading through a bunch of grimms’ fairy tales, and it’s wild how much repetition there is. so many stories about:

children turning into birds (usually brothers),

spells that take years to break,

evil stepmothers and cannibalism,

a devoted younger sister quietly enduring some terrible task to save her family.

there’s this clear throughline of powerlessness, endurance, and transformation—but the kind of transformation that comes from suffering, not action. the magic is weird and natural and emotional—people cry in forests, pray with all their heart, sleep for a hundred years—and the world responds. it really struck me how much these stories are shaped by children’s emotional realities. there’s fear of abandonment, of being misunderstood, of a world that’s dangerous and doesn’t explain itself. but also: love, creativity, and deep compassion.

a lot of the emotional weight in these tales is carried by the girls. the boys are often the ones cursed—turned into birds or beasts or sleepers—but it’s the sister who saves them, by suffering in silence or completing an impossible task. there’s this idea that martyrdom is magic. not in a religious sense, but in this deep emotional one: that if you love someone enough, and you’re good and patient enough, the curse will eventually break.

it’s jarring, honestly, how much that contrasts with modern western media, which often centers action and male heroes. grimms’ fairy tales seem to quietly say: "if you suffer with love in your heart, the world will notice. eventually, you’ll be seen."

when i started thinking about how different this felt from the stories i grew up with—hunger games, twilight, the fault in our stars—i realized there’s a shift that happens in YA fiction. it moves from childhood powerlessness to teenage pressure, and each genre captures a different kind of emotional survival.

dystopia says:

"what if the world is broken, and it’s up to you to fix it?" there’s so much pressure on the younger generation to save a world that older generations destroyed. that shows up so clearly in YA dystopias. the protagonist didn’t cause the problem, but they’re expected to risk everything to solve it. and the fear and anxiety that comes with that? so real. especially now, when media moves fast and teens are so aware of climate collapse, systemic violence, and injustice. dystopias are like emotional metaphors for how overwhelming it feels to inherit a world that’s falling apart.

romance says:

"your inner world is worth centering, even when it’s messy and dramatic." YA romance takes teenage feelings seriously. everything feels high-stakes not because of external danger, but because the character believes it’s a big deal. and as a reader, you start to believe it too. it’s such a good example of how powerful narrative perspective is—if the protagonist is spiraling over a crush, suddenly that feels like the most important thing in the world. that self-centered emotionality isn’t shallow—it’s developmentally real. when you’re young, everything feels like it’s happening to you and about you, and that intensity gets treated as valid rather than ridiculous. and that’s kind of beautiful.

supernatural stories say:

"you’re going through something no one else understands—but you’re not alone." the chosen one trope in YA supernatural stuff often reads like a metaphor for puberty, queerness, chronic illness, or trauma. it’s the feeling of something huge and weird and personal happening to you, and suddenly you’re different. and then there’s the ragtag friend group—the people who knew you before, the new ones who get you now, and the tension of trying to hold both worlds. there’s comfort in the old friendships, but deep connection in the new ones who understand your transformation.

take twilight—bella has jacob, who represents being loved for who she was: a quiet human girl who likes fixing bikes and being normal. and then there’s edward, who represents being loved for who she’s becoming: someone powerful, dramatic, and deeply changed. her conflict between the two isn’t just romantic—it’s emotional. it’s about growing up, and not wanting to lose parts of yourself just to make your life simpler. YA stories understand that growing up often feels like being torn in two.

in a weird way, all these genres are dealing with the same emotional territory:

something has changed.

you didn’t choose it, but you have to survive it.

maybe someone will see you clearly through it all.

and whether that means surviving a witch’s curse, a corrupt government, or the intense weirdness of falling in love for the first time, the emotional blueprint underneath is the same: you’re allowed to feel things deeply. your pain means something. your love might save someone. your world might be broken, but maybe you’re the one who can hold it together.

and honestly? that’s why i keep reading them.

[birdy-bird27]

😭 man I’m trying to make my cool Alaska native oc and I just realized idk what everyday traditional clothing looks like I only know present day clothing trends I don’t want to misrepresent my own culture now

[unproduciblesmackdown]

maybe i already expressed specifically this amidst a thicket of tags but speaking of the Unexpected & Dynamic all throughout bsol's finale of a [hey all the characters are in the same place] beautiful stretch of vivacity, it's great that like. i mean one figures you're not gonna get [villain immediately kills hero] & you're right b/c that would be a surprise & slightly humorously so but too unrewarding in all other ways to be worth it as the end of a whole entire story & arcs here....but then the ways that banana has this like totally Self Imposed arc about wanting to be able to do whatever it takes to help the musician in return / in general, self imposed b/c the musician himself is like no you're good you're perfect my special little guy i will die without, & we're not exactly subject to any other characters' input like um btw banana you & your Failure to be as heroically bold & brave as to do whatever it takes, as the musician does, except when he feels he can't at some points including if he doesn't have banana with him on this journey, but not b/c he asks anything more of him but to be there with him on this journey....

that is to say, i say as i go "wait what was the specific thing i was gonna talk about in this specific post," that like it's a surprise banana might die of his own self imposed doing whatever it takes, but one of the Least surprising surprises perhaps, like ah yes the funny little guy devoted sidekick? what else would such a guy be For, even if the musician doesn't feel that way, see also: me taking 990 words to say it's fun how at the beginning we could think banana is misguided about the musician encouraging him with his heart words not his mouth words to dance, but then we would be proven wrong when the musician is like cough argh augh i Need banana & i will be encouraging him to dance with my heart And mouth words....but so that yeah even as it may be like Nooo & have stakes & suspense it could still be like ah well yeah that'd be what banana is for, alas, & That is the surprising & not "this was a total success for our heroes" downside to this finale. but it isn't, & banana getting miraculously saved himself as he nonmiraculously protects the musician b/c he wanted to do that himself too

just bringing all that back up to say i was thinking again about like "you wouldn't expect a private little moment following banana but you get one" and "and it's so earnest all throughout & with the more wrenching shift amidst the still perfectly [funny little guy] material & it Does make me cry" and then i was like :( and if he Had died i would have to cry about that too like nooo not banana for would-be dispensibility of the funny little devoted sidekick guy after it was like nooo banana :( (also held hostage in the evil marriage normativity larping but again also all the more "successfully" so b/c his guntoting spouse doesn't actually care about the mutual genuine affection you're also Supposed to have with this) & nooo banana :( (singing his beautiful sweet earnest prayer in this relatively brief song bookended with relative levity (relalelalevity) but still earnest b/c it's all earnest b/c where do you think we are) like yeah basically like i weep at that little moment with him Expressing the depth of his feeling about wanting to do this for the musician despite the musician being like huh wha of course i don't ask that it's nbd, if it paired with "& he does Resolve this by dying about it later" like noooooooooo. tambourine miracles (again thinking of a real tambourine with a disclaimer waiving liability for acts of god associated with? channeled through? that tambourine. sure)

wrapping up a post even less sure if i said anything novel or clearly enough what i wanted to say b/c i went on a journey like maybe it's about something else now, but i don't think so, i think it was just me like wah if banana died i'd be all the more like Oof Augh about his little solo packing its punch of perfect earnest real depth of feeling b/c Everyone's presumed to have that, and they do, and it shows, funny little nonprotagonists or no(s)

[radiaking]

I do think esp at the very beginning of their journey to new Vegas that coop still has this desire to kinda mess w/lucy and watch her fuck around and find out but with non-life threatening things (idk like getting swindled or smth along those lines). I can also see lucy playing into this by stubbornly refusing to take his advice and then butting heads about it to start just bc she’s sick of him telling her what to do and isn’t yet ready to trust him just bc he offered an olive branch. Like I think she’s smart enough to suspect that he didn’t do it out of the kindness of his heart and assumes she is dispensable to him and even more stubbornly being like ‘I’m going to do things my way not yours’ and as long as her life isn’t literally in danger, he’s like okay sweetheart, do things your way.

[faunandfloraas]

You make me want to listen to FNF every time but I hate that song it makes me SO sad

someones not catching uuuuuuh uhhhhh uhhhh upppppppp

[therealv1ultrakill]

Honestly I will not make this a habit, but this place is in some sense my personal diary now so !

I am a bit upset? I do not shame or gatekeep others for having similar interests or being insanely passionate (i.e "number one fan of xyz"), but seeing someone in a server I am in was a bit of a jumpscare! But also in some sense good, I think. Wake-up call of sorts, and I don't say that just to cope or remove the feelings from it.

I really like this myth/lore/horror (whatever you'd like to call it, haha) game. And it wasn't unpopular before per se, but especially over the past month/since its full release, it has been EXTREMELY popular. We're talking double-digit thousands (10k, 20k, you get the point). And I saw someone who.. I don't really find myself using the word "lore" for people anymore, it feels kind of icky. At least, for more mundane or truly not like. TRAUMATIC traumatic situations. Do some of these things scar my mind? Yes. Most things in life do, in technicality, butterfly effect, unpredictable outcomes, whatever. I had to let this callus my mind. I still feel weak, worthless, pathetic, cruel, etc. But I know I am not those things, and again, in some very weird way the initial thing before the server-seeing event really helped me begin my progress on my backbone, and actually feel like I can truly believe in myself.

Anywho, I struggle to stay on track, it's a very apparent thing with me that my mind has multiple railroad systems (hah! no pun intended though) going on at the same time. It scared me! I got a little nervous. I got anxious. And all the built-up positive energy (which was already a bit of an iffy thing) came down. Even now, I woke up feeling a bit of sorrow. But I do not hate myself, still. It does hurt, but I am finally at a point where I am doing my best to allow myself to feel these things and process this hurt while also not using my wishes (be it well or not), energy, mental rooming, etc. on these people involved, or anyone as a whole in my past who likely does not enjoy my continuing existence. I felt jealous, almost, for a second. But I do not think it was because of any posted art, but I think just as a whole. The concept of sharing something I love so deeply and devote a lot of time to. The thing that I want to be one of the number one fans of. I am still trying to accept though that there will always be a person better, more devoted, more obsessive, etc. at something than I likely will. Sure, I can become one of those. But I do not think it ought to be for this, especially since it has negatively impacted me a bit at times / controlled my emotions some (prior to this incident. They do not control me that much, my friends!).

Also, tbf… the creator + the currently morphing fandom are like. Really fucking foul at times. Like yeah dude can ban whoever he/they/? want but it's pretty damn wild that if you post chit-chat in the channel (granted they said not to) you get immediately banned. And see, that alone I wouldn't give really a rats backend about - it's the fact that the fandom and creator revel in it and so many people continued dog-piling and mocking people, I swear I've never seen the words "lacking media literacy/lack reading comprehension" be run into the ground so fast it looked like 65% of the channel was pure spam. Like… damn? I know the internet sucks (and someday I ought to go on a tangent about why the phrase/saying "it's just the internet, get used to it/get over it/why don't you expect it?" is stupid, harmful, and excusing bad behavior and denouncing any form of accountable and perpetuating people to get away, but I digress..)

[npdlangley]

am i actually disordered or am i fakng. time to find out! stay tuned!

[thawthebeez]

i wake up. i think about haikyuu. i have coffee. i think about catalyst. call this fanfic my day-job fr

[jinglingeyes]

Jdjdjdjdj YOUR ART IS PRETTY AND THE WAY YOU COLOR IS SO NEAT /POS

Also @ tweet

LITERAL IN MY NOTES APP LMAO

V

very conflicted and confused GNC Unlabeled AFAB (who presents more masculine) Laios is about to get married before getting emotionally fed up with everything, (humans, parents, his sister be mistreated, feeling out of place/disliked, etc) decides fuck that mess, runs away at the alter, semi-catches up with Kabru and heads straight to the dungeon to explore. Whether anyone likes it or not! While Kabru tries to befriend and understand the person they slightly underestimated (thought was boring lol) and “under” observed. Falin is having fun adventuring only to receive news that Laios is gone/missing/left from thier parents and she is immediately off to find Laios with the help of her friends

as foretold

[sickleblade]

cmon man. unwatchable

[garyfiddlesticksdammit]

used medibang for this one cause it seemed fun