ultimatecryptid

[ultimatecryptid]

To any trans women and transfeminine followers of mine, did you know there’s a pretty huge Etsy store which does gaff underwear and swimsuits specifically designed for trans people amongst its products? They go in a pretty decent range of sizes, including sizes for young girls, and while I do not personally know anyone who has used them, there’s a fuckton of positive reviews on the Etsy store. They have a ton of colours to choose from, different fabric choices, the works.

And for once they’re not marked “for crossdressers” too, they actually under “transgender”, so that’s (depressingly) unusual.

I’m mostly posting this because I’ve seen a lot of younger people recently in particular saying they never knew what gaffs were… a lot of people find them WAY MORE comfortable and convenient than tucking, so I would recommend looking into them if you’ve never done so before!

And even if you yourself don’t use or need this stuff, do pass this kind of info on to any friends of yours that might, guys! There’s always like a million more PSAs about transmasc stuff as opposed to transfem stuf tbh…

[ultimatecryptid]

Moooola!

[ultimatecryptid]

Lemme tell u guys a story

In my freshman year, my great grandma passed away. She never threw out or sold anything worth keeping if she could help it, having grown up in the Depression, so when she passed, my grandma suddenly inherited a lifetime’s worth of treasured items. She distributed most of them to her kids and grandkids, saved some sentimental items, and donated most of the clothing and trinkets to charity. I got back the stuffed leopard I’d given great-grandma in the hospital; the fur was still as soft as it’d been when I bought it. One of the biggest things she had to sort through was jewelry. For a year after my great-grandma died, my grandma was setting out organized rows of costume jewelry on basement tables and chivvying her granddaughters to take what they wanted.

And then, after all the choosing, she snuck me into her room while my cousins picked through wristwatches. On her bed were two small jewelry boxes: an old wooden one, and a cushioned one in white pleather.

“I brought you in here because if I gave these to your cousins, they’d sell it. I don’t want these sold. Do you understand?”

I understood.

This is the story of the biggest lie my grandma ever told her mom.

Great-grandma’s birthstone was garnet, and she loved the look of the stones, but could never justify paying for some. Her husband worked constantly, and so did she, and new clothes for the kids was more important than jewelry at the time. When my grandma was 16, she saved her first paychecks to buy her mom a garnet ring for Mother’s Day; that’s what was in the wooden box. The original receipt, handwritten, was crammed into the lid. Great-grandpa saw that ring and teared up; he’d always wanted to get his wife something nice like that, but hadn’t ever had enough money for it. Determined, he vowed to change that. He set aside money for years, slowly, hiding it away in a box in the attic, vowing to buy his wife something she could always wear with her ring.

Time passed, and inflation happened, and he slowly squirreled money away in the hopes that jewelry might get cheaper again sometime. Time passed again, and age had little mercy on him. He got older, typed up a note, and placed in in the box, describing what the money was for; he knew his time was near. Under no circumstances was the money to be spent on anything other than giving his wife a nice gift. The letter read, “One day, my dear Ruth, you’ll have garnet earrings to match that ring.” It’s what great-grandma had always mourned missing; she had such a nice ring, and no good earrings to go with it.

Well, men don’t live forever, and when great-grandpa passed away, my grandma cleaned out her mom’s attic as she prepared to move somewhere smaller. Going through boxes of polaroids and paper clips, she stumbled on the box of earrings money, note and all. She stashed it with her coat, and after that day of cleaning, went to the jeweler before her mom could try and spend the money on something too sensible. She came back with the white pleather box; sure enough, still nestled inside that box were two clip-on garnet earrings.

”Mom never got her ears pierced, you know. That’s why it took so long to find a good pair.”

Once she’d gotten the earrings, grandma presented them to her mom, along with the note. The paper was obviously old and warped by moisture, but it was legible. My great grandma cried happy tears and treasured those earrings more than any other jewelry; the last gift her husband could give her. Decades after the fact, I’d seen her wear them to Christmas parties and worry over them, checking that they stayed on her earlobes.

There was never any note from great-grandpa. Never any box. Never any earring money. My great-grandpa had spent his saved money keeping himself and his wife confortable throughout retirement. To set aside hundreds of dollars, even a bit at a time, for garnet earrings, was never a thought that crossed his mind. My grandma had seen her mom, exhausted, wracked with grief, and lied through her teeth about where she’d gotten the money for those earrings. She faked the note and everything, making sure her mom wouldn’t wonder where the money came from, and never winced at the pinch in her own pockets. And she never told a soul, not even my mom, until great-grandma was safely and thoroughly buried herself.

[ultimatecryptid]

I need to draw my fancy Rat King again. This sketch is almost six years old.

[ultimatecryptid]

Okay my inquisition hot take is that showing up at the empress's ball in matching military outfits is actually such a power move like oh you all are here to play your stupid little games but we are here to get shit done and you will accept our presence even if we don't conform to your culture because you know that you need us it's just that. Well the outfits they picked were hideous. Slap a different color on that bad boy and you're good to go. Also the inquisitor should have worn a headpiece reminiscent of andraste's to really drive home the 'we're above your petty affairs' vibe

[ultimatecryptid]

people who don't follow chess I promise this post is really funny

[ultimatecryptid]

sometimes you just want to look at the qing dynasty jadeite cabbage again

[ultimatecryptid]

i have been having thoughts about the absence of sex in veilguard but they are still not fully formed and are hard to nail down so im just putting it out there in case someone wants to elaborate further. veilguard is weirdly sex-less. and i dont mean that you cannot have sex. you can have sex. but the world and culture of northern thedas feels strangely devoid of it. it exists at a personal level between you and your romance option but otherwise it doesnt exist culturally, socially, as a concept. i didnt think dragon age needed more sex. bg3 was too horny for me personally, i thought it felt forced for the sake of titillating the player rather than believable for each unique character. but veilguard is the opposite. im demisexual myself, sex has about 0 presence in my personal life right now. but that doesnt mean it doesnt exist around me? i hear my friends talk about sex, i read stories that feature sex, i see advertisements that reference or use sex for marketing purposes, my country attempts to legislate what sex is or is not allowed, i hear people debate what sex is or is not okay, i see sex on tv, i see sex in movies, sex exists around me. it is an unavoidable and constant part of existing as an adult in society. it affects our world in a variety of ways, it influences other aspects of life and culture. and in veilguard its literally just not there. no one talks about it. seriously i do not think i saw a single mention of sex in my entire 60 hour playthrough. maybe there is a banter or two that i missed, sure. but in my inquisition replay im only in the hinterlands and ive already come across a codex entry that alludes to templars attempting to assault mages they defeated and the famous lesbian scout x apostate sex picnic. and coming off of veilguard both of these things felt jarring and outright SCANDALOUS. and inquisition is prude compared to 2 and origins!!! and ive only been playing for like 4 hours!?!?!? and theres already a tragic lesbian star crossed lovers story that i just exploited for intel!? a codex entry that suggests the consequences of the dehumanization of mages by templars might result in ALL types of abuse???? i know that soon im going to get the ambient dialogue about the chantry sister having sex with the iron bull (actually a really interesting bit of worldbuilding via what seems to be a silly convo about sex but actually gives insight into how the chantry sees sex compared to it's real world inspiration) and blackwall asking solas if he's ever banged a spirit. it feels like a different world. A REAL WORLD. these things make people feel like people. you can make criticisms about how bioware uses sex and sex assault for shock value. and i will probably agree with all of them. i have a lot of thoughts on broodmothers specifically (i do not think they are well done). i think da2 is pretty over the top. a lot of the time its done very insensitively. but regardless of the misogyny that is often found within those depictions, it makes the world and its characters feel real in a way that is so jarring in contrast to the plastic doll-house of veilguard. it feels like a disney channel depiction of a college party for an audience of 8 year olds. yeah theres actually just orange juice in the red cups! its so bizarre. its so bizarre because the game has an M rating and it HAS ACTUAL SEX SCENES. i dont think this is even good or bad. its just strange because its a SIGNIFICANT change that i felt immediately upon firing up inquisition. why the change???? why does sex have no cultural presence. why does no one talk about it. what is going on in northern thedas. what are we afraid of. why is the world so sanitized. why why why why why why

[ultimatecryptid]

People are dying from the extreme cold in the tent

Every night babies are dying because of the cold

And 2 days a young man 25 years died because of the cold too.

All I think for how long people will can survive?

My brother is sick all the time because of the cold in his tent

[ultimatecryptid]

i’m all for reinventing yourself on a whim but lemme warn you that it turns out you can’t choose a random function to become the person who leaves parties mysteriously without saying goodbye.

i have a friend who always does that. it’ll be hours into a party or event and we’ll look around and realize he’s gone. he bikes so i did convince him to at least text me that he’s home safe so now whenever he makes his quiet getaway i check my texts & know he’s made it. in the end it’s not a big deal to leave a party unannounced, especially if you didn’t specifically attend with anyone else. people do it all the time.

but i’m the sort of person who does a victory lap at the party & everyone gets a goodbye hug and i have one more drink or snack or song etc. before i go.

so i was at a party and we were all outside on the patio for a smoke and i was out there having a drink because i was masking inside and everyone got cold so they went back in and i told them i’d be in once i finished my drink which wasnt weird because i like the cold

but then i got to standing there a minute and thinking i was tired so i decided to leave. for perhaps the first time in my extrovert life, i didn’t feel like doing the whole goodnight song and dance so i threw away my drink and i headed out the back gate and down the sidewalk. not a word. this was unprecedented but when i got home i’d text the host and tell her i’d made it safe.

but if you’re someone who does a goodbye lap, it turns out you can’t just vanish in the night after you were last seen outside in the winter dark.

one person asked where i was. someone said i was outside having a drink. but they looked and i wasn’t. people started asking if i’d told anyone i was going. i hadn’t. people started worrying. they texted me. my phone was on silent so i didn’t respond. people started panicking. they checked all the bedrooms and then all the bathrooms. they asked each other if i was with anyone outside. they launched a search party. they left the party and walked down the road to check for me at both nearest bars. they made phonecalls. they asked each other if anyone knew my mom’s name and number.

if i’d been even five minutes later getting home and finally seeing all the texts, they’d have probably started printing flyers with my face on it i’m sure of it

[ultimatecryptid]

FRIEDA LEPOLD Dress 2024 if you want to support this blog consider donating to:ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

[ultimatecryptid]

Guimi You (South Korean,b.1985)

Christmas in California, 2022 

Oil on linen

[ultimatecryptid]

getting murdered but it's so traumatic i repress the memory and only actually die years later during hypnotherapy

[ultimatecryptid]

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝟠𝟘𝕤 - 𝔾𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕤 ℙ𝕦𝕟𝕜𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔻𝕀𝕐

[ultimatecryptid]

[ultimatecryptid]

People forget that in the end, we are just normal people going through horrific events. I want to share the insignificant details of my life with you to show you that I'm just a regular girl.

In the end, I hope you understand that we are not strange people from a distant land. We are like you. We want to have normal lives like you. Please help us strive for normal as we wait for the war to end. We can't do this alone.

Our situation is real, we are struggling in northern Gaza. My campaign is vetted, so please don't feel hesitant about helping us.

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #347 )✅️

Forgive me, you shared before and it helped a lot so I ask you to please share again @kerosene-saint @andnowanowl @omegasmileyface @4c-aperture @bahrmp3 @dhmiss55-blog @woodesnake @original-character-chaos @revalentinee @rapogirl13 @gorillawithautism @xerxestexastoast @kyoukainokanata-kuriyamamirai @rabiesrabiesdog @rainyrebloggin @ok1237 @isummonedadragon @pro-pin-prinny @boxheadpaint @rukafais @butcklinkle @earlysunsetting @ceeberoni @strangeauthor @the–pony-box @blurrycow

[ultimatecryptid]