#I was so torn on who to make this

[inkskinned]

for a while i lived in an old house; the kind u.s americans don't often get to live in - living in a really old house here is super expensive. i found out right before i moved out that the house was actually so old that it features in a poem by emily dickinson.

i liked that there were footprints in front of the sink, worn into the hardwood. there were handprints on some of the handrails. we'd find secret marks from other tenants, little hints someone else had lived and died there. and yeah, there was a lot wrong with the house. there are a lot of DIY skills you learn when you are a grad student that cannot afford to pay someone else to do-it-for-ya. i shared the house with 8 others. the house always had this noise to it. sometimes that noise was really fucking awful.

in the mornings though, the sun would slant in thick amber skiens through the windows, and i'd be the first one up. i'd shuffle around, get showered in this tub that was trying to exit through the floor, get my clothes on. i would usually creep around in the kitchen until it was time to start waking everyone else up - some of them required multiple rounds of polite hey man we gotta go knocks. and it felt... outside of time. a loud kind of quiet.

the ghosts of the house always felt like they were humming in a melody just out of reach. i know people say that the witching hour happens in the dark, but i always felt like it occurred somewhere around 6:45 in the morning. like - for literal centuries, somebody stood here and did the dishes. for literal centuries, somebody else has been looking out the window to this tree in our garden. for literal centuries, people have been stubbing their toes and cracking their backs and complaining about the weather. something about that was so... strangely lovely.

i have to be honest. i'm not a history aficionado. i know, i know; it's tragic of me. i usually respond to "this thing is super old" by being like, wow! cool! and moving on. but this house was the first time i felt like the past was standing there. like it was breathing. like someone else was drying their hands with me. playing chess on the sofa. adding honey to their tea.

i grew up in an old town. like, literally, a few miles off of walden pond (as in of the walden). (also, relatedly, don't swim in walden, it's so unbelievably dirty). but my family didn't have "old house" kind of money. we had a barely-standing house from the 70's. history existed kind of... parallel to me. you had to go somewhere to be in history. your school would pack you up on a bus and take you to some "ye olden times" place and you'd see how they used to make glass or whatever, and then you'd go home to your LEDs. most museums were small and closed before 5. you knew history was, like, somewhere, but the only thing that was open was the mcdonalds and the mall.

i remember one of my seventh grade history teachers telling us - some day you'll see how long we've been human for and that thing has been puzzling me. i know the scientific number, technically.

the house had these little scars of use. my floors didn't actually touch the walls; i had to fill them with a stopgap to stop the wind. other people had shoved rags and pieces of newspaper. i know i've lost rings and earring backs down some of the floorboards. i think the raccoons that lived in our basement probably have collected a small fortune over the years. i complain out loud to myself about how awful the stairs are (uneven, steep, evil, turning, hard to get down while holding anything) and know - someone else has said this exact same thing.

when i was packing up to leave and doing a final deep cleaning, i found a note carved in the furthest corner in the narrow cave of my closet. a child's scrawled name, a faded paint handprint, the scrangly numbers: 1857.

we've been human for a long time. way back before we can remember.

#idk if it's still tradition but the kids at the local school next to walden when I went there #used to have a tradition where u had to pee in walden pond before u graduated or otherwise you'd fail one of your classes #as someone who did not do this im happy to report i did fail a class so maybe they had a point #they've torn the school down tho so who knows #i hope this makes sense #i think we've been human longer than we've been writing #ps this land was taken over by hostile combatants and colonialized . let us not forget that part of the reason #our 'history' is so short. is that we have systematically slaughtered the people who had history here before

[donutdrawsthings]

I haven't seen any MLP Doctor AU designs past Capaldi's era and I really think that's such a shame! So here's my take on the 13th, 14th and 15th Doctor :o]

Once again love to ramble about certain design choices!

Since the 13th Doctor wears ear jewellery depicting a golden and silver hand holding each other, I thought it'd be fun to change that into 2 horseshoes instead! I also gave a heavier focus on the more subtle rainbow on her coat because I feel it'd be more fitting for a MLP AU and something that could make the design a bit more balanced. I'd also tried to make her blue at first, but felt yellow actually felt more like the 13th somehow.

I decided to give 14 his iconic Doctor Whooves design, with the only difference being messier hair and some rough facial hair. I was definitely looking at it more with a nostalgia factor, which ultimately fits perfectly with what the 60th anniversary specials ended up being!

15 was a toughie, I'm not going to lie. A thing about MLP AUs I tend to dislike, is when an artist gives them the same colour as their skin. It tends to look silly with white characters, but I've noticed it's seen (at least USED to be) as less silly when it's with darker skinned characters. So with that in mind I wanted to make 15 the general colour he's themed to have in promotional material (orange and blue) and make it darker! ... but dark orange IS brown. So after some tinkering I decided to base his colour on the more earthy red Ncuti wears in this image.

I also decided to tone his hair blue instead of going with black to really hammer in that orange/blue theme 15 has!

Thank you for reading this far! I'm really passionate about this sorta stuff so it really means a lot :oD

#I was so torn between making a genuinely David Looking 14 but I think the doctor whooves design is just too iconic to pass up on #not what i expected to give 100% of my energy today but we roll with it #donutdrawsthings #fanart #doctor who #doctor who fanart #doctor who au #new who #nuwho #nu who #the doctor #mlp fim #mlp g4 #mlp art #mlp au #my little pony #mlp fanart #doctor whooves #thirteenth doctor #13th doctor #fourteenth doctor #14th doctor #fifteenth doctor #15th doctor #character design #design #au design #my art #digital art #au art

[skunkes]

#a doodley #i cant draw his hair shine anymore without thinking abt the ask saying it was so Rooster #so trueeeee my rooster boyyy *sobbing* #also always torn bc i like drawing haggard talon with big ears but i think fed talon wld have bigger ones ykwim #like when kittens have huge ears to grow into #also while im rambling here i wanna restructure his whole history again #vampirism being the result of a curse and negatively affecting him in a way he'll have to carry for the rest of his long immortal life #as well as forgoing feeding to Age and him physically feeling the ails of aging isn't enough... #im trying to conjure up smthng else that wldve happened to him in one of the worst times in his life but thats hard bc i cant explore it to #much bc the subject matter makes me sad LOL and also dont want to seem like those ppl who throw in stuff like that gratuitously

[brookbee]

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) dir. Nicolas Roeg

#bring back funky designs in scifi please ohmygod #surprising i didnt make a gifset of this scene sooner considering how insane i am about station to station #david bowie #the man who fell to earth #tmwfte #rip torn #nicolas roeg #thomas jerome newton #thin white duke #ik they’re not the same but TJN was a big influence on the duke so #my gifs #bowieposting #movie gifs

[benevolenterrancy]

The chrysanthemum cards are all done! Why did I choose the most obnoxiously petal-y flowers to start with? who knows. But now have Wen Ning, bestest boy, as the November lightning card!

#this one was fun to play with #L i n e s #i'm so torn about who to do as rainman #i kinda want to make it wen qing so that they're both november cards but i feel like she's make a great crane bright so it might be nhs #mdzs #wen ning #ghost general #the untamed #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #hanafuda #my art #any suggestions on who to draw next? i'm torn between another character card or working on the other november cards and going month by mont

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

KANKRI: D9 y9u have a license f9r that vehicle?

MITUNA: MN0 1’’M 1N54M3

CRONUS, desperate to save the situation: insane-ly normal, that is!

#submission #funny thing is i was staring at this for a while wondering who i should put in the car w tuna #bc latula would apsolutely make the situation worse (she would mention her cocaine addiction and it’d all be over) #so i was like hm. who should i put there. who would say this #i forgot #about cronus. #my stupid ass sat here stumped and cronus was right there #but it’s ok i’m not too torn up about it (i hate cronus) #anyway that’s the developer notes for this quote #// #homestuck #incorrect homestuck quotes #kankri vantas #mituna captor #cronus ampora #mod terezi #the dev notes make this post it's like sims patch notes to me

[kiraman]

Her hands are rough. She always marvels a little over that, when they’re lying together amid the rich silks and linens of her bed. Her hands are rough—calloused where a sword would sit in her palm, scarred from old burns and older fights. She wears it around her eyes too, a short life lived hard, with all its ghosts and old blood. She looks older than she ought to, cut out of stone: cold; hard; stolid; like shards of glass—like a blade, sharpened, the last thing men see before darkness falls— but when she presses her mouth — slick and soft, sweet with lipstick— to her neck, Mizu warms under her touch, becomes liquid; she flows, grasps at her waist softly, delicately, as though afraid she'll somehow break her.

I am not made of glass, Mizu she says, a little abashed, the first time she kisses her, gathers her face into her hands and sinks her teeth into the curve of her lower lip, hungry, desperate for her mouth her hands her smell, her her her — god, she wants her — and Mizu gasps, a sharp, low sound torn from her throat, and draws back, touches her as though she's never touched something this fragile before; unmarred by death. Clean. Pure. Hers.

I shall not break.

She traces the cross mark, the little black dot inked into the inside of her arm,  feels the heat of her body seeping through the silks of her dress, her pulse throbbing beneath her skin.

She does not understand Mizu when she murmurs in that detached, cool voice, like riverwater, flowing darkly through her, I can't - I can't... when her hands rise to caress her neck anyway, despite her protestations, her thumb, rough, made hard from all the blood they've spilled, rubbing against her throat, with such gentleness, it makes her ache.

Hidden away, sheltered from a world brimming with death, Mizu does not crack for her - she cannot let the walls around her be torn down in the name of desire, lust, want want want - this is weakness; she tells herself, fighting against the fire that swells in her blood; this is wrong, but she does not pull away when she looks at her through the thicket of her lashes, long and dark as soot; does not shrug her off when she sits near her, presses her shoulder against hers, hungered for her attentions. She would give anything to be seen, to be known, as she is: violent; furious; hungered and empty and aching- to be wanted, in spite of it all... To be... To be. She is warm under her, around her, and that same humanity, that fragile, small thing that growls its agony inside of her, that thing that makes her, when the hour grows late and she too deep in the darkness, the softness that claws at her heart that she always taught herself to despise in her, is what draws her to this strange creature she does not deserve but has somehow made her way into her life.

She laughs; Mizu, too, does not understand her when she says Come here; let me look at you, when she laughs at her aloof detachment, her cool, stony face, how she looks away when she smirks, how her hand twitches at her side.

(Every time Mizu is gone longer than she said she would be, she panics—what if she does not come back? She is beautiful and strong, brown from the sun and scarred, flaming, why would she come back to her?)

Her hands are rough from touching a world she has never known, and she carries the smell of strange forests in her hair. She presses herself into the warmth of her body (scarred and lithe, slim yet hard with muscle) as they lay amidst the silks of her bed. You’re the only real thing I have, Mizu breathes.

She does not say anything; she does not understand her; only looks at her, as though afraid something will take her from her if she blinks. Her response is to kiss her, over-eager, warm and willing and imprecise, desiring, and, if only for tonight, that suits them both.

#blue eye samurai mizu #blue eye samurai #mizu x fem!reader #mizu #mizu x female oc #u know what this could be any number of ships. i was so torn between making it mizu x akemi or mizu x female oc but oh well it is what it i #brainrotbrainrotbrain- #but im also gonna tag this #this doesn't end until you die. #snapshot of my canon fic b/c i can & it somehow turned into mizu x girl who does not speak japanese midway lol. #this is just ramblings i am not about to edit it or make it make sense bye :* #my writing

[sysig]

Gift (Patreon)

#Doodles #UT #Handplates #Gaster #Papyrus #Second go around! Maybe he can talk about it with the one who actually got the scarf! #Or not haha - better to just let some things lie #Though ♪ Of course Papyrus would recognize Gaster's efforts ♥ His emotional intelligence hhhh <3 #He knows everything there was Gaster's initially and so reading between the lines of Gaster telling him he can have it #It's a gift! Properly! That deserves praise!! Good job you did something nice! #I also deeply love when Gaster is first pulled back out how one of his first little smiles is at Papyrus being silly #Gaster is also very prideful! It's cute to see his son being self-aggrandizing in that kid way! Seeing him enjoy it is so nice ;; #Also I know that Papyrus is still shorter than Gaster I just really like the idea of him being almost his dad's height ;; #He's so grown up now! He's grown into such a beautiful adult <3 #It does make sense that he's still shorter considering the whole ''torn in half'' thing ahh #Maybe Gaster is leaning down just let me have this lol #I also ended up doing a lot of digital reconstruction on this one! #Especially panels 2 through 4 - I actually pulled out my tablet to draw in the bits that got cut off by the surrounding doodles #I wasn't as careful with my spacing with these oops :P But I think they turned out pretty style-matched :) #Cute lads happy <3

[thewhumperinwhite]

man. actually. vitally important question, because i tie myself in the most absurd knots worrying about How Much Context Is Enough Context:

how much are you able to enjoy whump if you know there's context you're missing?

I'm thinking of OC whump in particular bc thats what i write but this can apply to fandoms you are not in just as easily. like if you don't know who these characters are, how able are you to enjoy a whump scene featuring them?

A concrete example: there's a whump scene i really want to get to in one of my stories, but it features a character i haven't introduced yet. would you personally, Person Answering This Poll, read a story update where you know some but not all of the characters involved?

#whump community #i'm constantly torn between wanting to wait to intro people properly #bc whump in particular hits a lot better when you know Who These People Are To Each Other #and knowing that the more barriers i put between myself and writing Whatever I Want When I Have The Juice #especially Right Now #is gonna make it even harder to write than it is anyway. so. sigh

[incorrect-sunflower-sibs]

Grover: You drive like a lunatic!

Lester: Hey, I just shaved three hours off of our ETA, how about a thank you?

#S: unknown #I’m torn between Apollo being an extremely safe driver #or Apollo being an absolutely insane driver who’s so used to working in altitude that he actually tries to make cars go up sometimes #mf drives in the sky I feel like he has no regard for the rules of the road #I bet he thinks he’s a safe driver but in reality he’s blowing past stop signs (they don’t exist in the sky) and going 50 over the limit #trials of apollo #incorrect quotes #incorrect riordanverse #lester papadopoulos #grover underwood

[nashvillethotchicken]

some of you all really think louis and claudia got together in november 1917 and said "you know what would be so funny? if you wrote in your personal diaries that you didnt think anyone would read about how we were abused by lestat even though I wasnt/was exaggerating/ was the actual abuser so we could trick a bunch of white people in 100 years to sell a book and so I can kill myself. that'd be hilarious" and i need you to use your brains for literally 15 seconds

#think nigga think!!! #why would anyone lie about that? why lie in private journals written at the time? #yall wanna make lestat the victim here so bad literally why would anyone lie about that #amc iwtv #interview with the vampire #iwtv #louis de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #ldpdl #iwtv 2022 #iwtv claudia #claudia iwtv #any for anyone whos gonna bring up the torn out pages of the diaries remember where they were placed in the episodes #louis is upset with his relationship with claudia not what happened with lestat #like i need everyone to be real!

[good-beanswrites]

hii!! can we get some platonic fuuta amane interactions please? thabks !!!

Ahh yes, thank you so much for the request! I love them so much ;--; They've been making my brain go brrrr lately with T3 possibilities, though I decided to stay away from the drama for now. Here something sweet after T1 verdicts but before the attacks -- they're just hanging out :3

Yuno smiled down at Amane, finding her hunched over a table of craft supplies with Fuuta. The guilty verdict had hit them hard, so it was good to see them in better spirits. She tried to peer over her shoulder to see what they were working on. “Aw, what are you two up to?”

Amane returned her smile. “Fuuta is teaching me to misbehave.”

His face twitched in horror. “Oi, you can’t just go around saying that!” He looked frantically at Yuno. “We’re just folding paper planes.”

Amane lifted her chin. “You said in middle school, you made them to throw in class.”

“I said my friends made them to throw in class. And it’s not like I’m telling you to throw them. I was just making them because there’s nothing better to do in this damned place. You were the one that said it looked fun and sat down to annoy me!”

Fuuta huffed at the accusation as Yuno walked away, laughing. He returned to the design he was folding. He hadn’t been giving an explicit step-by-step for each, but Amane was keeping up just fine. They each had a small pile of various plane designs they were adding to. 

Running a finger along a new crease, he gave Amane a sideways look. “Though, you could stand to misbehave a little bit.”

“I did.” She reached forward to mimic the fold on her own plane. “That is why I’m here.”

“Eh? I don’t mean you should commit crimes!” He scowled. “I’m talking about normal kid stuff, nothing against the law. Like staying out too late, driving your teacher crazy, funny vandalism–”

“--Vandalism is against the law.”

“Oh come on, it’s harmless! Don’t even try to argue that a little graffiti is comparable to what got you here.” He rolled his eyes. “So? What about that other stuff?”

She shook her head. With neither disappointment nor pride, she said, “I never left my home at night. And my teachers were far too strict.” 

“Aw, it’s the strict ones that are the most fun to prank!” He pointed to Amane, adopting the most persuasive voice he could manage. “You gotta do some of these things, or you’ll turn out with a stick up your ass. Like Kotoko, or Mikoto. Or a weirdo like Kazui and Mahiru. Shidou’s more or less normal, and he’s the type of guy to break some rules now and then.”

“And you?” She raised her eyebrows at him, feigning innocence. “I take it you turned out perfectly because you misbehaved as a child?”

“Hey, I never said I was a shining role model or anything. But I mean it. If you stay like this, you’ll grow up to be a boring loser, another cog in the wheel.”

“It is an honor to be a part of something bigger than yourself, to find belonging, and purpose.”

“Tch, don’t be such a pain!”

“I wasn’t.”

“You know that’s not what I was talking about!”

“What were you talking about, then?” She gave him the same expression as before, and wondered if could hide her genuine confusion. 

“Don’t play dumb. I know working in a group is a good thing, but you don’t want to kill yourself for leaders that don’t give a shit about you. That’s a major issue in this country, you know? In government, and corporations, and all that. That’s not belonging, that’s just exploitation.”

Amane stayed silent.

Oblivious to the emotions flashing across her lowered eyes, he nudged her in annoyance. “And the best way to break from that is to loosen up a bit. So have a little fun now and then, jeez!”

She picked her creation off the table. She turned it over in her hands. It had come out perfectly sharp and clean. “I’m having fun now.”

Fuuta, preparing to argue with whatever she said, blinked. “O-oh.” 

“At school, my favorite activities included choir practice and the arts. It has been difficult to sing here without accompaniment, so I am grateful to have the opportunity for crafts.” She looked at him earnestly. “Despite your past of disobedience,” she smirked, “I always enjoy your company.”

His expression twisted up, but he couldn’t hide the reddening of his ears. “What do I care if a brat like you likes my company?”

She smiled. “I’m not a brat. As established, I am very well-behaved.”

“That’s even worse!”

“Tell me about this plane, Fuuta.”

After sufficiently rolling his eyes and sighing, he agreed. He started explaining what made these planes different from the last: how they compared on speed, accuracy, and length of flight. It didn’t really matter if they were just going to toss them around here or the panopticon later, he thought it would be helpful to teach her anyway. Maybe if she ever was inclined, she’d remember which ones were best for pinpointing a teacher’s back, or a warden’s…

#milgram #fuuta kajiyama #amane momose #thank you for the request!! this was so fun aw #today on Fuuta Is Helpful But Has No Idea What Hes Doing #featuring Amane Understands Perfectly What Hes Doing But Isnt Going To Let On #im genuinely torn on whether fuuta actually broke any rules of if hes just as much of a goody two shoes as amane and trying to hide it #ive done whole anayses on why hes a strict rule follower #but also he seems like a normal kid who did normal kid stuff like that too #in my heart he does know how to paint graffiti but im not sure #so i kept it all vague whether he was actually involved or not lol #and he has no idea the extent of rule breaking that shidou has been involved with 👀👀👀 RIP #i wish i could describe the exact amane expression i was picturing but its somewhere between the sassy minigram face and just in general #the face kids make when theyre suspicious/smarter than you and smug about it #i love themmmmm #drabbles

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

This. This. This entire conversation with Morrigan actually makes me want to sob. She and my Tabris always becomes close friends over the course of DAO; that, paired with the fact that my Tabris always romances Alistair, makes everything about this hurt so much more when you take DAO's ending into account.

Her confusion over why my Tabris didn't send her away. Why she didn't abandon her after they learned of Flemeth's plans. Why Tabris went out of her way to slay Flemeth and bring her the true grimoire. She asks Tabris why, and is baffled when the answer is, "I did it because I'm your friend," as if it's that simple.

The way Morrigan looks at the warden, the way her voice cracks when she says, "I want you to know that while I may not always prove... worthy... of your friendship, I will always value it."

She knows how this will end; Flemeth sent her with the wardens with the end goal of stopping the blight and obtaining the old god soul through the dark ritual. Morrigan knows that Alistair and Tabris are the only Grey Wardens here, and assuming they don't find more, one of them will have to die defeating the archdemon unless they agree to do the dark ritual.

With that context, her asking Alistair, "And what if a Grey Warden has forced to choose between the Warden he loved and ending the Blight? What should his choice be?" suddenly has so much subtext weaved through the words that I'm gonna start foaming at the mouth. She's practically telling Alistair that a warden has to die. She's scrutinizing his reaction to find any hint that suggests he would agree to the dark ritual in order to save himself and the woman he loves. And when he doesn't choose, she has her answer.

Morrigan made comments to Tabris about him, almost hopeful that their relationship was just a physical thing between them and not actually riddled with feelings... and then gives disapproval when Tabris says she loves him.

She doesn't want the warden to die; hell, she doesn't want Alistair to die, either; whether because she does actually care about him or because she knows it'll break her friend's heart if she loses him, or both!

Things would be so much easier if the only two Grey Wardens left to defeat the blight didn't fall in love, wouldn't they, Morrigan?

She knows that in the end, no matter the outcome, she will lose the woman she called sister and it's devastating.

Morrigan, who has never known true friendship. Who grew up isolated in the woods with an abusive mother and terrible implications for her future. Who discovered said mother planned to take over her body just as she did with her other daughters. Who doesn't understand kindness as it was rarely given to her without a catch. Who isolates herself from the others in camp. Who finally has a companion she cares about... and in the end, if her plan works and the dark ritual is completed, she'll end up pregnant and alone and wearing Tabris' resentment like a tender wound on her heart.

Or Tabris will reject the ritual, and will die to the archdemon.

Or her lover will.

I just- the dynamic between the warden, romanced Alistair, and Morrigan is so good and painful and rich that I'm gnawing on furniture as we speak.

#dragon age origins #dao #alistair theirin #dao alistair #dao morrigan #dao tabris #warden tabris #i'm replaying dao right now in case my recent written posts haven't made that obvious #the relationship dynamics the warden has with each of the companions is so so soooo good like there isn't a companion i dislike #i play into the slow burn with alistair's romance but it's not even just the romance aspect it's also their friendship too #playing dao and not romancing alistair would feel wrong at this point for me it's so crucial to the entire story and its development #and i love morrigan's friendship with the warden and how gutted tabris is when she comes clean about everything and offers the ritual #and then bails once everything is over and tabris is torn between hating her and feeling hurt and not wanting morrigan to be alone again #i talked more in depth about morrigan and the ritual in a previous post but it's a lot... especially when it comes to the witch hunt dlc #oh and then there's the friendship between tabris and zevran like don't even get me started on that sksksks i won't be able to stop #even a character like oghren who is the last person you'd think tabris would ever become friends with since he's y'know *oghren* #but i'll go on the record and say there's more to oghren that gets overlooked and overshadowed by his glaring flaws #and i don't wanna talk about leliana... she makes me too sad like ever since my last playthrough where i accidentally triggered her romance #while i was deep in alistair's romance i have a really hard time not reading into the things she says to tabris #in my last playthrough i dunno what i did but she confessed to tabris even though she was fully aware that tabris and alistair were togethe #and it was a *mess* okay like it really felt like we killed marjolaine and leliana was in a vulnerable position yet was hardened enough #to be like 'i know she and alistair are together but i'll take my shot anyway and attempt to break them up' like.... noooooo leliana D: #and the rest of the game it felt like she was bitter and still in love with tabris and i felt *horrible* #i just said i don't wanna talk about it but hhhnnngggg i'm taking extra precautions to not have a repeat of that this time #excuse my tag ramblings i'm just very passionate about dao and the companions okay #also want to note that this is my interpretation of morrigan's motivations based on how i play the game and my warden #so others might view this reaction and the warden/romanced alistair/morrigan dynamic differently and in that case #i would be interested to hear that different interpretations because those are always fun to read

[shima-draws]

The fact that this won’t even be the LAST time Sanji gets horribly manipulated by another woman. I’m just 😔

#HE’S A SIMP and girls take advantage of that too often 😭 #AND THE FACT THAT he still forgives them anyway!! Even after putting him through hell!! #Listen say what you want about Sanji but there’s no denying that he’s. SUCH a good person #Too good of a person who is endlessly kind and caring and forgiving #Sanji gives and gives and gives and never takes. He’s so stupidly selfless sometimes it makes me want to cry #And people take advantage of that so often :’( #HE’S A GOOD BOY!!! He doesn’t deserve this #Shima speaks #One Piece #Sanji #Black Leg Sanji #He literally became my favorite (besides Luffy) for this exact reason #The fact that he’s so self sacrificing. The fact that he gives himself entirely to other people #And doesn’t expect anything in return #And has so little self worth I just. FUCKING hell dude. #His attempted sacrifice at Thriller Bark was a really big thing too #’They can always find another cook’ that was probably his thought process #BUT SANJI MY LOVE. THEY CAN NEVER FIND ANOTHER SANJI. ANOTHER YOU #If Sanji had taken Zoro’s place he WOULD have died. And that would have fucking torn Luffy APART #SLAMS MY HEAD INTO THE GROUND UGHHH SANJI. I LVOE YOU

[thedreadvampy]

btw about Neil Gaiman I periodically agree with the 'Neil Gaiman is annoying' stuff bc I feel like both he and Amanda Palmer seem like people who I would go insane stuck in a room with bc we have very different ideas about art and suchlike. and I also do think that the career trajectory he's on lately is cynically redoing his greatest hits and pretending that was the dream all along when it clearly was not. which is at best meh.

having said which

as far as I can tell by far the most common complaint about Neil Gaiman is "Snow, Glass, Apples is problematic/gross/it's got incest and rape and frames the child as the aggressor"

which strikes me as a weird complaint to pull out of a 40 year body of work tbh when that short story is pretty clearly coming from a place of 'how far can I push this'. like you don't have to like the story. I don't really like the story. but it is. a horror story.

like and this is the thing with particularly 90s alt horror right? a lot of the interest is in transgression and sitting in the worst possible perspective and seeing what happens if you pull those strings. like I really like Clive Barker for example but there's a good chunk of his short stories that I'm like I'm not picking up what you're putting down Clive this seems Kinda Off. but that willingness to write some trite or Bad Message horror fiction that doesn't land is imo a side effect of being willing to try writing uncomfortable and unpleasant fiction at all. which is what horror is for, among other things, it's for creating discomfort as a form of catharsis or engagement.

like I am not a huge fan of the type of sex-horror that pops up in a lot of Gaiman's work and other contemporary horror writers - to me I don't find it upsetting or horny it just ends up feeling kind of edgy and tryhard - but I'm also a bit like. it does seem like a lot of people's beef with Neil Gaiman is that In The 90s He Was A Horror Writer

and this approach to Problematic Horror in Snow, Glass, Apples I find kind of microcosmic of how The Discourse often approaches art in this kind of 1:1 way. if you write a story which seems to line up with rape apologia it can only be because you agree with it. if you write a story about transphobia you're a transphobe. if you write a story that makes me genuinely uncomfortable you're attacking me.

but artwork, especially art like horror that's not necessarily trying to provoke enjoyment as its main response, is necessarily hit and miss. and if what you're shooting for is discomfort then whether it works, falls flat or goes too far incredibly depends on your audience. and making good art - as in art that makes its audience think, art that opens the audience up to discomfort and catharsis and sticks with them and changes them - requires the space to experiment and tbh the space to fuck up. like they aren't all going to be winners and they certainly aren't all going to work for you as a singular audience.

personally I don't see the appeal of Snow, Glass, Apples, less cause it's nasty and more cause it's hack. ooh an edgy monstrous version of a fairy tale where there's lots of rape and cannibalism? you're soooo original Neil. but like. that's fine. I don't really vibe with like 70% of Neil Gaiman stuff I've read but I still like Neil Gaiman because the stuff that works for me really works for me.

idk I think there's a lot of folk on this website who shouldn't interact with horror cause they clearly aren't interested in being horrified. that's not everyone who dislikes Snow, Glass, Apples, but it's a real undercurrent to a lot of the criticism and tbh this kinda vibe is shit for art. making standout art What Is Good also requires being ready to make art which stands out for the wrong reasons. sometimes they'll be the same art to different people.

#red said #not to Cancel Culture this but isabelle fall springs to mind in a lot of how folks talk about stuff like this #like she wrote a transgressive piece exploring her own negative feelings about transness and her anger around a transphobic trope #and she made something which i found really resonant and interesting #and she got torn apart for it because it Might From Some Angles Agree With Transphobia #and I'm not making a direct comparison. because i think attack helicopter is a really GOOD story and i think SGA is gratuitous and hack #but that's the thing right? transgression and discomfort and speaking about unpleasant things in an openended way are KEY #to making art that engages directly with your own pains and angers and discomforts #and that's hard to mediate tbh. but it's also very necessary. #i think as well thinking about Gaiman this is also a thought I've often had about Amanda Palmer #who over the years has written a lot of songs about things i find genuinely uncomfortable or offensive. #and i can engage with 'it's fucked up to tell your ex they transed their gender At You' or 'your partner's suicide is not about you' bc yeah #but #you can't celebrate someone for making confessional music then get mad because you don't like everything they confess #if you only take about your socially acceptable thoughts it's not really confessional is it? #if you only talk about discomforting things that people are comfortable hearing about its not really discomforting #and you can only really discern what's Good Transgressive and what's Damaging Transgressive through doing i think #so if you want challenging art you are going to have to get some art which challenges you and you go hmm no i still disagree #is what i think #so yeah you can hate the artwork but when an artist is specifically setting out to make challenging art it's weird to hate them #for making 50 pieces of art you like and 1 you hate

[money-and-dandellions]

Apollo is the merciless soldier, who will kill, holding a cold, unforgiving and unblinking gaze, while burning the souls of the ones who crossed the line down.

Apollo is the joyful poet, who will sing, telling the whole world and more, about his love and adoration of the person he laid his heart for.

Apollo is a king who gained his wisdom through pain and suffering of himself and the others, the king who stayed true to his word and became just against all odds.

#because i have a scene (it has background BUT) where pos-toa apollo gets mad (haha two meanings) at some stupid people (or gods who knows) #and just kills them all #like mercilessly screaming unforgiving rage and fate much more cruel than death #the sun instanly gets much hotter abd the arrows just keep piercing the limbs/eyes/heads of the victims while the soil gets soaked in blood #so so red and filled with agonizing screams of despair #and apollo just jumps from obe person to another like a wild hawk (which is one of his sarced animals btw) #he snaps their necks with a wet disgusting sound #he torns their heads and limbs off #one by one #and he doesn't stop because he screams and every single drop of blood in the ground *boils* #cooking the victims alive #it has it's own background and #with it #the story is much more intense #i will make a post about it #toa #apollo #greek mythology #oh yeah he got mad because 1) his children got hurt 2) his one of his sisters got hurt 3) his oracle got hurt 4) hahaha imagination #b&d apollo #means bamf and dark