#will i be open to criticism? yes

[lillazyboithings]

No thoughts, just eating spaghetti using chopsticks during Noche Buena

[wardensantoineandevka]

Open Sea paladins take "open" to mean open shirts

[macdenlover]

we don’t acknowledge enough how dee used to be a pageant winner when she was a kid and how much damage it did to her. she worked her ass off and got recognition for being pretty and talented at a young age and it was the only source of self esteem she could garner in a family that constantly berated and talked down to her. she sought after that external approval because it was the only way she could prove everyone around her wrong. her dream of being a performer didn’t come from a self-aggrandizing delusion— she genuinely showed a lot of potential when she was younger. but she went through an unflattering puberty and her spinal condition got worse and that natural talent she had as a kid plateaued way too early. the “former gifted kid” dilemma. she slowly lost the thing that promised her that she was good, but she was so desperate to keep holding onto it that she tried anyway. again and again and again no matter how much people made fun of her because it was always about proving them wrong. but after a while she couldn’t jump anymore without anticipating the way it feels when she hits the ground face first. self-sabotage became her way out, choosing to rather live in the fantasy of her own unrealized potential and blaming those around her for her lack of success, than having tried and crashed again. she’d rather buy lottery tickets over and over and never scratch off the numbers than to see that she lost. that self-sabotaging behavior bled into other aspects of her life too, from friendships to relationships to therapy. her own short lived success is what made her grow into embodying the cycle of failure.

[samglyph]

I truly believe Will Wood is an incredible musician and songwriter and is one of the top lyricists in the last decade both in and outside of the genres that he chooses to play in with absolutely zero irony. I also believe that you can only fully understand that if you’ve either had a pet die before listening to his music or you have a history of drug abuse and mental health crises. Or you’re trans.

[glowsticcc]

i’ve been wanting to put sunny in different hairstyles since i first designed them and today i satiated that need

i like to headcanon that q!tubbo learned how to do her hair but whenever she winces bc he pulled a little too hard a part of his soul dies :D

[olasketches]

so because we have only three chapters left, I’ve decided that I’m going to wait for the official release instead of going through the leaks as I’ve been doing for… almost the past 2 years. I don’t want the leaks and the fandom discourse to ruin my last experience with jjk as a still ongoing manga… plus I thought it would be more fun and enjoyable this way... more special ig (I’m being so sappy ik) wish me luck guys!!

[ignatiusteto]

i think sacred music in the kryn dynasty would be very cyclical and repetitive in form to symbolize the idea that life is a continuous thing (at least those who are consecuted right right) and is a cycle across lifetimes and yeah

[dailyliamobrien]

[cornpickerart]

Our Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt❤️🐺

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

Got any trans HCs for the amphibia trio? I love the many different interpretations I've seen from this fandom

I don't know about specific headcanons, I know I'm considering making Anne trans in RiAAU but I haven't decided yet.

In one hand: it would be interesting to think how she deals with her first periods because, well, amphibians don't have those, and Hop Pop assumes she's dying (she doesn't tell anyone else because she's so embarrassed). Not that he tells her that, but it really freaks him out. He thinks she has some sort of internal damage, and it's only after months of research that he finds out about some rare mammalian species, such as a few monkeys and rodents, that experience the same cycle Anne goes through. The whole point of this is that it makes Anne feel even more out-of-place. She doesn't remember her world or her parents, only that she came from "somewhere" (possibly another continent) full of people of her species, and she wonders if things would have been easier if she grew up with her biological family. I mean, surely this would be easier. It just serves as a reminder that she knows nothing about her species, not even its name, and she has no idea of how her biology works or what is good and bad for her or how long she'll live or what changes she'll go through.

.

BUT, on the other hand: Trans Anne. Let's start with the obvious: amphibians don't have penises or vaginas and they reproduce externally, meaning they like... release eggs and sperm in the water and they mix without the involvement of either parent, meaning no one knows what the cultural significance of a "penis" or a "vagina" tends to be in most human cultures. As a literaly 3yo, Anne probably didn't have an extensive understanding of s.ex and gender, and it wasn't like the clothes she showed up with told Hop Pop much. She just knew that, as time went on, she found herself relating more and more to the female frogs of Wartwood, and she almost subconsciously began to refer to herself as a girl. There wasn't any big coming out moment, more like a point in which, after months of ambiguity (this kid kept using different pronouns for herself) she just settled on some good ol' she/her and began picking somewhat girly clothes when Hop Pop took her to the market.

It's not like the concept of trans people doesn't exist in Amphibia, it's just that Anne didn't realize that was her situation until, at least, meeting Marcy, and noticing the differences between them. It's not like either of them had ever seen another human from up close, so they didn't know what to expect anyway. Anne's only encounters with Sasha beforehand had consisted on magical girl swordfighting in the sky and whatnot. Certainly not enough to discuss their unique biology, which is something Marcy is very excited to discuss, since she's never met anyone with her same "condition" before, and she wants to know everything, so she uses her as her little rat lab whenever she has the chance. Even then, since she also lacks all knowledge of human s.exual dimorphism and its cultural implications, she doesn't associate anything about either of their bodies to any specific gender that could possibly be asigned to anyone based on biological feautures. Since Sasha remembers the most from Earth, she's probably the only one who could maybe possibly remeber her mom or the kindergarden teacher saying something about "the difference between boys and girls", but by the point she's in speaking terms with Anne, and by the time she realizes their bodies are different, she doesn't really care.

That's not to say Anne doesn't experience dysphoria or that she never undergoes any kind of physical transition. It was probably around the time her voice started to change during puberty that she realized her case may be kinda unique: neither Marcy nor Sasha's voices have changed that much, she can tell even though she only sees Marcy in person like once every 3 years and all the words she exchanges with Sasha consist of death threats and insults. Plus, there's a clear difference between """male""" and """female""" voiced in frogs too. She doesn't want to sound like a man! She doesn't want to be anything like a man! Men are gross! Sorry Sprig, Hop Pop, but it's true. Men are icky icky yuck yuck and Anne is a girly girl. She doesn't want to turn into Stumpy! Or Buff Loggle! Oh, no, is that her future? She commits the triple mistake of 1) sending a letter to Marcy that same day, 2) knocking on Maddies' door promising her firstborn if she can save her from turning into Stumpy, and 3) she becomes obsessed researching mammalian biology in the archives. Bad decision. Bad bad. She's discovering things to feel dysphoric about she never even knew existed! Did you know mammalian mothers feed their offsprings with "milk" that comes from their "mammary glands"? Did Sasha and Marcy have those? She hates herself a little for checking out Marcy next time she sees her and she realizes that, indeed, in the past years she's grown a pair of those that Anne does NOT have. She notes that both she and Sasha are pretty much hairless. She used to think hair was a normal mammalian trait! That weasel that tries to eat the frogs every winter sure is covered in it!

Maddie shows up to her door with a bunch of new spells to try out, happy to have a willing subject. Most embarrassingly, Marcy starts doing her own research as soon as she gets Anne's letter and sends her all her discoveries, and now Anne feels mortified because Marcy knows about all the bad bad very bad changes she's going through (Marcy, for her part, is just fascinated by the nature of their "condition").

It takes a bit, but after a few very frenzied weeks, Anne comes to understad what's going on: her species had certain level of sexual dimorphism and she just happened to have been born with the supposed "sex" usually associated with "men" as a social category. When Hop Pop finds out, he burst into laughter. Oh, it was THAT all along! Anne made it sound so complicated, but it was just the same things he went through when he was younger, just the other way around ("Say what now Hop Pop?")! A few curses here and there and she won't have to worry about these so called "mammary glands" and "hair" anymore, though in the meantime, as Maddie perfects a human-friendly curse, she gets turned into all sort of different creatures. By the time it's done, she just wants to feel like... herself.

It's true that there are some things about her body that make her feel weird, like they don't quite fit in, but there are others she only worries about because she compared herself to Sasha and Marcy, which wasn't fair to anyone involved. Did she really want to fundamentally change parts of her body because of insecurities she developed last week over a book about lemurs? Then, a second set of fears come in: what will happen when she goes back to her place of origin? Because she does want to find her birth family. Will they recognize her, if they're looking for a boy? Will they think she's lying if she claims to be their daughter? If she changes only a few things but doesn't "go all the way", will people there think she's a freak? Will she ever be able to fit in with those of her species?

Does she really care so much about what other people think? She just wants to be herself. Some of the changes she's been going through are making her feel less like herself and more like she's being turned into a tax collector from Toad Tower. Those things have to go - her voice, for example. And she wants a more femenine silhouette (she may or may not show Maddie photos of young Mrs. Croaker as a reference). She wants a softer face. She's seeing her face changing in the mirror and she doesn't like it. She wants it to stay round and soft, not to grow hard and sharp or big and rough. She's not so sure she wants those "mammary glands". It's not like she ever thought about having kids, and the whole "breastfeeding" thing just seems gross, but after her research, and finding out she could have kids with, I don't know, maybe Marcy one day (a thought that makes her blush), she thinks it may be a good idea. She'll consider it. Maybe later. Her genitalia... well, she's used to what she has now. It already took her like 10 years to fully figure out what it was and how it worked and starting over with a whole new set just feels like too much work (also, the babies, the potential babies with Marcy). Frogs and toads have neither "penises" or "vaginas" so there's not a lot of information, and based on books about lemurs and her own empirical experience, comparing herself to other mammalian species isn't too useful. She'll leave it the way it is. She'll see if there's anything else she wants to change later, or if she wants to go back on something.

Marcy is surprised next time Anne visits Newtopia. In her letters, she described this strange transformation in excruciating detail, but seeing her in person now, holding her face in her hands, all she sees is the same Anne she's always loved.

A few more ideas:

HEADCANON: in Amphibia, two people of the same "s.ex" can reproduce through magic, which means there has to be a concious effort and intent. The external fertilization process there's no such thing as a pregnancy, and there's no such thing as s.ex. All reproduction is intentional, which means there's no need for abortion either. There are processes to destroy fertilized eggs and embryos, but they look completely different from human abortions.

Amphibians may perform acts resembling s.ex for pleasure or fun but they look different from human s.ex and have no relation to reproduction.

Andrias is the only person in Amphibia who knows enough about humans to know how they reproduce (a process he finds repulsive). He never tells Marcy, of course, though once she becomes queen, she finds his secret library and his hidden tomes on "alien biology", some of which talk about humans. He's also the only one who knows humans can have children on accident, and that Anne is the only human in Amphibia who could cause something like that to happen (he reads all of Marcy's correspondence). He knows his daughter is very close to this weird farm girl penpal of hers, and even though she's still a child, he worries for her future and the future of the crown. This new discovery could land the crown in the hands of a dynasty of aliens if he's not careful. Is it weird that he spends so much time worrying about his 12yo daughter getting pregnant from another 12yo? Yes, yes it is, but he already controls every aspect of her life, it's not like he's going to stop at her sexuality, future, real, or imaginary.

Man now that I wrote it all down, I think this option is more compelling than the first. Maybe I WILL go with this one.

[apocalypticdemon]

Be the change you want to see in the world

Behold, an unhinged, very approximate flow chart for each character on the ships, cobbled messily together in an unhinged 3-hour sprint I did right after I came home. Thank god for the Terror wiki. who tf are some of these guys.

Flowchart based on the ranking chart from Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization 1793-1815. It's outdated by about 30 years for the setting, but I am simply not hunting down the intricacies of naval rank shifts between 1815 and 1845. I'm a musicologist, not a naval historian

There was some guesswork on a few of the ranks; I couldn't quite figure how ice masters fit in here, nor the gunner's steward when there were no other mentions of gunners anywhere. ugh

[wandixx]

I had a might need to draw cape with stars and well, Miss Martian was a great model.

[clar-a-m]

Here's a bunch of sketches for an imodna zookeeper au i've had in mind for a while

WARNING please don't get mad at me about made up bug facts, those spiders have legs coming out of their butts for god's sake

If you're curious about more details about this au i'm putting them under the cut!

Most of the gang works at Mr. Eshteross’ zoo. Modern AU but does not take place on Earth, it’s Exandria but not really.

Magic is very limited and very rare. Most people don’t ever have any interaction with magic their entire lives and there’s not much knowledge about it in general, so there’s a lot of superstition about it.

All the different races exist as normal.

The real magic about this place is that there’s reliable and affordable public transport, and it’s a very walkable place, lots of people go around on bicycles and stuff. Using this AU to fulfill my dreams. (Imogen bikes to work!!)

The zoo is about to open a new exhibition about bugs, arachnids & maybe other creepy stuff. Laudna is hired to be in charge of this new branch of the zoo, and Imogen is assigned to help her put it all together and introduce her to the rest of the zoo. Their relationship develops and they KISS at some point (!!!)

They were both outcasts and very lonely because of their powers, and through each other begin to be more open and appreciate life a bit more.

Lots of fluff and good vibes!! Cute scenes with cute animals!! Not a whole lot of angst!! Maybe a bit sexy!! Why not!!

Imogen: has been working at the zoo for 2 years. Loves working with the animals and appreciates the fact that she doesn’t have to deal with too many people at a time.

Grew up working in her father’s farm, raising horses and other farm animals. Fell in love with it and decided to pursue it as a career.

Is an Animal Trainer, in charge of mostly mammals at the zoo. Keeps the enclosures clean, feeds the animals and trains them so it’s easier to do health checkups and such when needed. Also in charge of monitoring their health (brushing their teeth, weigh-ins, etc.)

Still has her powers, but more limited:

Lightning scars

Telekinesis

Telepathy (still has to block out people’s thoughts)

Dancing lights

Shocking grasp (can get as powerful as a stun gun)

*Still has bad dreams but nothing too special about it.

Is in charge of helping Laudna, the newcomer, develop the new bugs & other creepy things exhibition.  

Despite having been working at the zoo for a long time, is not very close with the rest of Bells Hells. They’re nice and she likes them but she’s a bit too hesitant to get close to people because of her powers (her backstory is about the same as canon). She begins to feel more comfortable getting closer to them after spending time with Laudna.

Only exception is Fearne. She’s very curious about Imogen and very insistent, so they end up being besties.

Laudna’s thoughts are like music and all that. Imogen finally meets someone who’s like her, and who’s even had a harder time than her but still is so full of joy. Imogen can’t help but want to know more about her, she wants to cherish the spark the she sees in Laudna.  

Sees Eshteross as a bit of a father figure. (maybe he helped her settle in after moving to Jrusar??)

Laudna: got hired at the zoo as the creepy things specialist, also just moved into the city.

Is used to moving around a lot, spent a lot of time living in the woods. Loved to pay close attention to what the little creatures where doing.

Formally graduated recently but has been taking notes in the field for a very long time (at least a decade?)

Still is undead and has some magic:

Looks half dead, has elongated limbs and fingers, black ichor, etc.

Fragile body but can easily pop back into place

Dark vision

Unsettling presence

Can siphon the energy of living things (could make a person pass out, or just make things colder)

Pâté is her actual pet rat, he has a condition that makes him look half dead too.

Very reluctant to make friends (has only really had imaginary ones until now). Expects everyone to just be scared of her and drive her away like they always do, but Imogen is a kindred spirit and helps her feel comfortable enough to open up.

As time moves on, gets close to Ashton and Fearne before getting close to the rest of BH?

Fearne: she and Mister are from the Feywild but no one really believes that, the Feywild is just folklore to most people. BH are not sure if they believe her or not because she is like that but she also likes to just make shit up on occasion.

Has an Only Fans

The zoo offered to take Mister in because no place would allow Fearne to raise a flaming monkey that could commit arson at any time, in exchange, Fearne can come to the zoo whenever she likes with no charge, and is allowed to bring a couple of people with her if she wants.

Comes to the zoo every day to spend time with Mister and loves hanging out with BH

Since she helps take care of Mister, she is allowed in some of the staff only spaces

There are rumors that she sometimes shapeshifts into an animal and sneaks into their enclosures, but that can’t be true right? One of the animal handlers is sure they saw an extra quokka one time but they were all cuddling together while sleeping so they must have been mistaken right?

Likes to chat with Imogen whenever she can find her. If Fearne sees Imogen working inside of one of the enclosures, she stares at her intently from the other side of it until Imogen makes a mental connection with her. They can talk mentally while Imogen works.

Imogen thinks it’s a bit awkward at first, but appreciates the company during boring tasks like cleaning empty enclosures. From the perspective of other visitors, it’s just this beautiful & weird lady watching one of the employees working alone in an empty enclosure for a long time.

Fearne tells Laudna about this at some point and Laudna occasionally watches Imogen work from a distance hoping she makes a mental connection with her as well (Laudna gets startled the first time Imogen talks into her mind like this because she wasn’t expecting she was really gonna do it. Imogen thinks she is very cute)

Gets invested in Imogen’s and Laudna’s relationship. Wingmans but tries not to push them too hard.

Sees the similarities between the two of them and hopes they can make each other less lonely.

Eshteross: owner of the zoo. Worked for the in-universe equivalent of the IBAMA (the Brazilian institute, look it up I guess) for years, fighting against illegal deforestation and animal trafficking. Opened the zoo with the inherited money of Mistress Prudaj, with the goal of educating people about wildlife, helping rescued animals and reintroducing them into the wild when possible.

Evelyn is his right-hand person and second in command at the zoo.  Worked with him during his last few years at the Nature Protection Institute Place. After he retired, Eshteross invited her to come make the zoo a reality.

Is very particular about the people he hires to work at the zoo. He has seen a lot of cruelty during his time at the Nature Protection Institute Place, so he only hires people he really trusts, people who he knows love the animals very deeply. 

Chetney: the zoo’s handy man. Is in charge of fixing, building and breaking things down. Makes lots of wooden things for the animals.

FCG: zoo’s veterinarian & rehab specialist.

Ashton & Orym: part of the zoo’s security team

anyway that's it. i'm not gonna write a fic about this or anything, i'm not a writer, but it was super fun to come up with all of these! If you like any of this feel free to do whatever with it i guess?

thanks for reading!

[carlyraejepsans]

I’ve started watching Utena because of you. What. Is going on

HI. WELCOME TO THE CLUB, watch the trigger warnings. but yeah, revolutionary girl utena veers more and more towards surrealism the further you get into the series. it often and voluntarily forfeits narrative/logical consistency in favor of visual storytelling, metaphors and symbolism. i was just talking about it with nic the other day, and if the story weren't so harrowing, i would recommend it to everyone who wants to get into literary analysis, because it is SO packed with symbolism EVERYWHERE that it actually encourages you to try to decode it.

whatever you think utena is about, it is NOT. you can't go in and treat it like your 49293th classical shoujo. utena is a firework show of visual symbolism and it very rarely, if ever, explains itself to the viewer. it refuses to handhold you, but it never berates you for trying and getting it wrong either. there is SO much handholding in modern day media, but utena trusts its viewer to take away something meaningful from itself and to piece its message together on their own. it's one of my favourite pieces of media of all time just for that

[gabichanwrites]

Imagine you have a character, a broken, vicious man who bites and spits venom even at a person he loves the most, who pushes the buttons of his love just because this toxic familiarity is all he knows, just because it's all he feels safe doing. And then his love finds another person who brings out such a different part of them, a part this character never could or maybe just long forgot how to do. He drowns in jealousy, in his bitternes, he hurts his love, he hurts his love's beloved, their crew... And finally gets what he wanted. Finally has his Blackbeard back, finally can forget about the part of Ed he can no longer reach... But suddenly Blackbeard is unpredictable even to this character.

And suddenly everything changes as he slips and can no longer even enjoy the familiar toxicity because he saw something better and kinder and selfishly wishes for it too, despite it all. And suddenly he understands people around him, people who never saw the evil in Edward, and suddenly he realizes it's his fault. All of it, just a part of it - doesn't matter. He caused this and nobody is happy, not even him.

And then, despite everything, others start to care for him. They tell him "We think you're in a toxic relationship" as if they didn't know it was him who brought Blackbeard back and they hug him tight as if he wasn't the once to sentence them to this horror and they hold his hand when he panics. They experience kindness and hope in a miserable place, maybe a glimpse of what made Blackbeard so soft for a moment there. And when everything falls apart, when he takes the final tumble in this horrible dance he has with Blackbeard, somebody is there to hold him up. Somebody is there to criticize his drinking and make him a new leg and call him their unicorn. The character is "their bastard", he is part of them. He is part of something kind and accepting and he shyly embraces the new familarity-that-might-be, even when he still insults and retreats and bottles stuff up because maybe if he seems fine he can help others, maybe in the end he can be loved in a way as kind as theirs. Maybe he can have a family.

So once they are again in danger he takes the chance and speaks boldly and captures the ominous attention of the enemy. He takes a risk for them. He takes a bullet for it. He rests in the arms of his love and tells him he's sorry even when he could never accept the other's apology. He never gets the chance to try more and forgive more and try to be forgiven more. He can only ever serve as a tool for another character, can never evolve to existing on his own, to healing on his own.

You are Izzy Hands. You are drowning in your mistakes and the toxic familiarity you're too afraid to get out of. And once you dare to try...

The show would rather have you die than give you a chance at healing and happiness.

Your death doesn't prove a point and it doesn't mean anything. It's just cruel.