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linddzz · 3 months

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Here an assortment of Facts About Morpheus in the Red Flags AU. Where I'm starting to lean more towards the version where they meet and are already into each other before the ""Fake Date"" Incident:

-Jessamy is the raven he took care of when he found her injured outside of his townhome. He now has a room with a window he often keeps open for her to fly into whenever she feels like it. I don't know how legal any of this is in London but tbh it doesn't matter because he also does not know what the laws are and doesn't care.

- His townhome is very dark maximalist in decor, which tends to surprise people at first. There are houseplants and little statues all over, and the walls are hidden behind millions of bookshelves. There is an art studio room and books scattered everywhere. Very recently, hypothetical visitors would notice a lot of child locks and child proofed areas that have a bit of a panicked "I bought every safety thing in the store bc I have no idea wtf I'm doing" energy to them.

- He has a therapist. Yes, the Morpheus that Hob meets is the upgraded version who is actually working on himself already. This is what the improved personal growth version of Morpheus is like.

Anyway, said therapist is Gilbert F. Greene. Because Morpheus going head to head with an unstoppable force of old timey adorable optimism who will also not take his shit is delightful. Dr. Greene insists on going by first names and Morpheus always makes "Gilbert" sound like a slur in retaliation. Some conversations I imagine include:

"Good morning Gilbert, you will never guess who had what you might call a """relapse into self destructive behaviors"""" last night."

"I am very sorry to hear that my dear boy. Let me say though, that I am so very proud of you for calling me! That is a phenomenal step for you and it's wonderful that you are being proactive in your recovery."

"Don't patronize me Gilbert. I will hang up."

(this ended up being super long so I'm just gonna spare y'all's dash. Warning for some lightly touched on mentions of drug use and self destructive behavior.)

- Him getting a therapist was part of the requirements for gaining visitation rights and then weekend custody once a month with Orpheus. The therapy is actually helping, and he's bitter about that.

- His given name is actually Dream, he goes by his middle name. All the Endless siblings have awful names. Desire goes by Adonai because who calls a fucking child Desire???

When Hob meets the rest of the family, Destiny goes "it's good to see you again, Dream" and Hob begins turning to Morpheus like "lmao who tf is named Dream" only to find Morpheus glaring daggers at his brother.

- The Endless parents are rarely around. Some of the siblings still live in the manor and they all use it for family dinners, but it's common for their parents to be off travelling for years at a time.

- Morpheus is an author and a painter who has a bajillion pen names to go with each genre he writes in, so it's hard to figure out exactly how much he's written. Even before becoming a father though, his face and full name is mostly associated with children's fantasy stories that he illustrates himself, and his Art vs Artist vibe is very Miyazaki.

Him and Calliope collaborated on a series of illustrated poetic translations of ancient epics. Their divorce was exactly as messy as one might imagine the divorce between two passionate artist types might be.

- His downward spiral of self destruction started before the divorce but oh boy did it nosedive during and after.

- When she got pregnant after divorce proceedings had started, there was a moment where they were both meeting with lawyers and one asked something along the lines of if this meant they would try for reconciliation and staying together. Calliope said "no" immediately.

It's not like Morpheus exactly thought they would get back together, but the speed and firmness of that hard "no" had his head screaming with white noise and some badly thought out self medication for months, which ended up being why Calliope got full custody and he is just now able to get more involved with the now two year old Orpheus.

- His rebound with Thessaly was also messy. She was just in it for a fun fling and he was... Morpheus. He found out he got dumped when she informed him she was already in the process of moving back to Greece, and Johanna said he needed to be banned from any more beautiful Greek expats from that day forth.

- No one can figure out what the deal is with him and Lucienne. The simple explanation is they're queerplatonic soul mates. Lucienne's wife Gault thinks they're a bit codependent (not an inaccurate assessment), but is more civil with him since the day she yelled at him to go get an actual therapist instead of constantly putting his shit on Lucienne, and he actually did. (It is unclear if this or Calliope demanding therapy for him to get visitation with Orpheus was his wake up call catalyst, but probably a bit of both.)

- Lucienne was originally a personal assistant. She now works as his editor since she seems to be the only person who can keep track of all the shit he's written. She is also the only person who can get away with critiquing his works in progress without sending him into a fit where he might burn all his manuscripts.

- When Morpheus started mentioning this Gadling guy a lot, Lucienne paid a visit to the pub. Not to do anything so crude as to threaten a man's life if he breaks her sensitive friend's heart. What could she do anyway? No no. She's just here to smile with zero trace of humor and ask some questions while looking him up and down through her spectacles. Hob will later describe this as one of the most pants shitting moments of his life, and he felt like he got transformed back into a primary school kid who talked slightly too loudly in the library.

- Morpheus went through a slutty phase during and shortly after University that was less of a healthy and fun exploration of his sexuality and libido, and a bit more "I will take anyone who will have me in any way they will want me and I know that if nothing else, I'm pretty."

- Him and Johanna used to have a game seeing who could get more free drinks in one night. This had to be put to an end when it turned into the catalyst for at least three screaming fights between them.

Fight subjects were

Quality vs Quantity. Morpheus insists his ability to get people to buy him a single glass of wine that costs ��50 beats Johanna's cheap beers. Johanna disagreed. loudly.

Is it cheating when Morpheus ran to the bathroom to smudge on some eyeliner and then stole Johanna's lip gloss? Is it further cheating when Johanna realized that his main method of getting drinks was "act like Adonai"? Accusations that he would ever act like his horrid annoying younger sibling sent Morpheus into an absolute tantrum.

Competitiveness DID overcome sibling rivalry enough for Morpheus to go to Adonai for makeover assistance. This backfired because it made Morpheus hot to the point of intimidating, and Johanna won that night.

- After Hob starts flirting with him, Morpheus goes suspiciously into a Romantic, Pre-Raphaelite inspired art era featuring lots of noble knights with dark sunlit hair. A lot of them seem to be lured in by dark haired fae entities all La Belle Sans Merci style. It's disgustingly obvious.

-Therapy has made him juuuuust self aware enough to know that he MAYBE tends to go a bit hard and fast with romance. This makes him a little more cautious with Hob than he usually would be, and he's doing a bit of "Hob is so nice and sweet and interested but I'm gonna mess it up :(((" pining. Everyone around him is fucking sick of it. He is not self aware enough to realize he's still going super hard and fast, but this time he's doing it while sighing sadly and drawing Hob in his sketchbook all the fucking time.

#red flags au #human au #Dreamling #gonna make my pinned masterpost to organize shit later today djdjdksk

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ccoffii · 1 month

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Eleceed Redeisgns

Don’t get the wrong idea I’m not trying to fix anything (despite my issues with 75% of the bestie crew having the same hairstyle) ZHENA-nim art did really well on this series and I can definitely see her improvements!!

I find redesigning characters I like as a good exercise for me since I’m trying to practice my character design skills! I’ve also added headcannons so strap in.

First victim, istg he doesn’t even look like the same person lol.

- gave him the :3 mouth bc he has the little shit potential especially after wrapping everyone around his finger

- Longer hair comes from the hc that he is the kind of person who would hide behind it and to match his dads

- changed his hair to brown bc the blond colour blended with his skin too much (helps with contrast)

- The bag is to help him carry cats and more cat food

- Oversized clothes to wallow in, also to hide himself or something

- While Jiwoo and Kayden are implied to wear the same size clothing I still think Jiwoo’s clothes would be tight on Kayden

- It helps Kayden learn about Jiwoo as a person since he would question why his clothes were so ill fitting on him

- Colour palette was hard af, but I mostly went with warmer colours and added blue as an accent so he could match Kayden

- As u can tell the only thing that fits him perfectly is the school uniform, even then he likes to size up the blazer

- His bag would start with no buttons and over time more would be added based on where he’s been and the friends he makes

- Glasses are up for debate but they look nice on him

- gave him more down turned eyes so he could resemble Kang Daniel a little more

barely changed, basically the outfit was the only thing to go

- He looks like the kind of kid that would wear headphones all day

- His glasses fucked off to somewhere and I brought brought them back THEY R HERE TO STAY

- The dress shirt in his casual outfit is the same one from his uniform

- Bc of his upbringing with the doctor guy I would think he doesn’t have that many clothes to begin with and sees little point in getting more

- Ofc that will change later with his friends

- His name tag says his last name is Park but he doesn’t rlly have one and the wiki says so too, so it’s just something he had to give the school or somethin

- More lanky build? Basically a bean pole.

Again who the fuck is this

- gave him his melanin back, like all of it

- He seems more the varsity jacket type guy than Wooin

- Hair is based off Yeonjun’s lover loser era

- Tried to give him that international student type of beat vibe bc his sister is the big boss of the SK awakener scene

- i feel like with this hairstyle it’s easier to imagine him with black hair but I digress

- His jacket starts off with no patches and they’re slowly added on when he spends time with the bestie crew

MY GIRLIE!!

- Changed her uniform to be more fancy based off of the reaction of other students in Jiwoo’s school, the pendant on her bow is her own addition.

- No respectable Gen Z wears ripped skinny jeans… Controversial

- a converse girlie for sure

- Her hair is kinda based off the Mafuyu White Day card, either way she has to give gender

- Are they called arm warmers? They give her an interesting silhouette and very distinguishable from the guys

- Alternatively she wears a turtle neck and a sweater/large T-Shirt when it’s too cold + arm warmers just cause

Some other stuff:

- yes, all the redesigns will eventually include some element of blue like Jiwoo to help connect them and signify how close they are

- a lot of them were made with a go out shopping episode in mind to help us learn more about them

- maybe I’ll write a fic but finals r chasing my ass rn so eventually

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noyasaur · 3 months

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hi, can you give me some advice on my problem? i feel like i am so far from my dr. not in the sense of not being able to shift but i find it hard to imagine myself having those things. it actually comes from my low self-worth, i don't see myself worthy of having those things. i have just realized this today and i think it's why i haven't shifted yet, bc i don't align with my dr. i can visualize well but not really "feel" it. just this morning i was thinking of smth im gonna do in my dr(my dr and cr goes at the same time) in a week and i tried to feel the excitement of the upcoming event only to realize i cannot see myself having it so that's why im not there yet. i have manifested to not have doubts so they have increased so much so i decided to manifest aligning with my dr as well. for the past 4-5 days my 4d has been mostly my dr and it helps, i feel close! but i was hoping you could give me some advice on this, good thing i was able to realize what was holding me back tho :0

₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

hihi! first of all, i'm super proud of you for working out what you think was holding you back! that's amazing progress and your one step closer to your dr :D i think you're already on the right track, since you said you've been manifesting to not have many doubts along with manifesting being aligned with your dr, so i would also say to continue with that. especially if you said it's working, which is great to hear!

however, i do have some further advice and tips you could follow, to help you feel closer to your dr!

however, one thing i do recommend for you to do maybe look into, is improving your self-concept/self-esteem. your self-concept is basically the way you see yourself: your identity, what you're capable of as a person, what makes up you as a person- basically, how YOU see yourself as a person. improving your self-concept can get you into the habit of being kinder to yourself and seeing yourself in a more positive light. thus, in turn, being more confident and seeing yourself as a person who is worthy of experiencing their dr! the first step to improving your self-concept is obviously being kinder to yourself; start rooting for yourself and realise that you need to be nicer to yourself! why do you think you're undeserving of shifting? why do you feel this way? find the cause and work on improving your mindset towards yourself. not only does it help with shifting, but also will greatly improve your life and self-esteem too.

i also do have some ways to feel more aligned with your dr that personally love to use. one thing i like to do is when i'm going about my daily life as usual, i like to take a moment to pause and envision and act like i am already in my desired reality. to make this make a little more sense, for example, i could be just brushing my teeth at night like i usually do, but then i take a moment to really feel everything around me. i take in the moment and envision myself being next to a person in my desired reality. like me in this moment, brushing my teeth next so somebody from my dr. just in the moment- i don't close my eyes and visualise, i just try and form and visualise the person being next to me right in that moment while i'm doing the action i;m doing in that moment. i even sometimes go further and imagine their voice, or imagine their touch. it helps me to not only realise how real experiencing another reality is going to be, but also helps me be able to envision myself in my dr more, as it's just like it is in this reality. (i'm not sure if this makes sense so i hope it does 😭)

another thing i like to do is script or write down memories from my desired reality. scripting memories or even trying to channel memories from my desired reality helps me so much. it doesn't matter if the memories you write down are 'made up' or memories you've actually gained from your dr, because no matter what, in that reality you've already experienced these things regardless. it also helps me form more of an emotional connection to my desired reality. you could even do this while listening to subliminals that help you gain memories from your dr!

although, you could also do some of the more commonly suggested things to help you feel aligned with your dr such as guided meditations, affirming, listening to music that reminds you of your dr, make subliminals, manifesting (what you're already doing so i think you should defs continue doing that if it's already helping you!!), etc.

anyways i hope this helped! good luck on your journey and you got this! and remember that you are so so deserving of shifting and experiencing your desired reality. you found shifting for a reason, and you deserve it and to experience your dreams and desires.

- saturn ♡

#shiftblr #shifting #reality shifting #desired reality #shifting realities #reality shifter #shifting blog #desired realities #noyasaur #shifting community #ask saturn💌

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juneviews · 9 months

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omg I saw your post about the jungle and I have to rant because I’m so conflicted! On the one hand it has some of my favs in it and so I want to adore it, but on the other hand the whole thing is just MESSY. And from what I’ve heard of the source material, they’ve stuck to it super closely including dedicating a chapter/episode to each character and I think it’s that (plus the really underwhelming production values) that’s bothering me the most. As far as I’m aware there’s no overarching storyline and so it comes across as a series of short stories set in the same place. I also do recognise though that the actor schedules were also apparently really difficult to work around, and that’s probably affected the series in regards to scenes with the full or most of the cast.

Having said all that, I’ve definitely seen A LOT worse from gmmtv even in recent years and I keep reminding myself that at least it’s messy in a fun, sexy way rather than completely bland (apart from leemook which broke my heart because I was looking forward to seeing them together again). For example if I go by series this year, UMG looked beautiful and was acted well but was horrifically boring, double savage almost tried to market itself as a pseudo bl with perth and ohm and was tedious to get through, I couldn’t get past the first episode of loneliness society and I wasn’t enamoured with 10yt except for view and off. And that’s not me even touching on some of the underwhelming bls.

Also I am trying to keep the faith and have hope because I feel there’s been a drastic improvement from episode 1 to episode 6 and that scene with the twins fighting each other in the parking lot in particular was so good and such an amazing performance from Nanon who apparently worked for 6 hours shooting it and I commend him going so hard for something as unserious as this

okay so first of all I agree with mostly everything you said in this post! I didn't even know the show was adapted from an original material, now the one episode per character makes much more sense! but yeah the lack of overarching material IS an issue, but on top of that the writing is so bad?? from the shows you've mentioned I've only seen 10yt & loneliness society, which I both liked enough & personally I think the writing for these shows is MILES better than for the jungle. I agree that ep 6 was the best episode so far, and it's down to nanon's AMAZING performance & also his great chemistry with mild, but all of that could not cover how SHIT the writing was this ep. nithan is DISAPPOINTED that naannam does a no show to her engagement ceremony EVEN THOUGH she now believes him to be a cheater and a MURDERER??? then he shows up & SHE'S HAPPY???? then the real naannam arrives & professes his love without clearing the air once & telling her the truth AND SHE STILL ACCEPTS TO BE WITH HIM?????? the twins make up OUT OF NOWHERE??? and say they love each other OUT OF NOWHERE???? in fact, I was so confused as to which twin was who until I watched this latest ep, and believe we shouldn't have known of naanfah existence at all until the reveal to punpun's character so WE'D BE SHOCKED TOO!!! yes that would've been a cliche plot twist, but at least there would have BEEN a plot twist! I just cannot, tbh. it's giving the three gentlebros level of writing but with even less screen time & I actually liked t3gb bc it was a silly surface level romcom whereas this does not want to be one but most absolutely is. the dichotomy is killing me I fucking hate it here 😭

xxx

#answers #the jungle #the jungle the series #I'm not surprised that scene in the garage slayed so hard if he spent 6 hours filming it omg #currently going feral at how much of a miss this show is I'm so fucking mad lol

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bisexualamy · 8 months

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Transition Update #63: 7 years on T & hysto retrospective

Hi everyone!! The title says it all. I wanted to include all of my phallo consults in this as well, but a few items are last-minute up in the air, so I'll write a separate post for the phallo consults omnibus.

As always, please don't reblog or screenshot and repost. Links are fine. Writing transition updates over the years has been really good for me and I always hope someone finds them helpful. But at the same time, the larger public is awful about bottom surgeries and I'd rather not subject myself to that ire.

This post has a general content warning for discussions of sex, genitals, body image and body/gender dysphoria.

7 years on T

I stopped doing annual T updates a while ago, because after the first 2-3 years most of the bodily changes are basically the same bodily changes cis men go through as they age. This year I made a point to celebrate 7 years, because that's an absolutely wild number, and I think it's important to acknowledge my T anniversary when it comes around. Testosterone has fundamentally changed my life. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here without it. I'm so grateful to be in a place mentally, physically, financially, and temporally that I can continue to access it.

I started taking Finasteride this year bc my hairline is getting a little thin. This is, again, more a factor of being in my later 20s than anything else. I didn't expect it to affect me as much as it did. It was one of the first times I experienced and male body image issue that had nothing to do with being trans. Normally, I'm so grateful to live as a man that most male body image issues don't affect me. I don't care that I'm short or a little round or I have wider hips. I'm so grateful to pass and live full-time as a man that it doesn't register. This one was different, and I'm not quite sure why, but I'm going to try and not obsess over it.

Off and on the last four years, but seriously the last two years, I started working out and lifting. At first, I mostly ran, especially during the height of the lockdown when it was the only safe way to work out. I love running but I always wanted to be strong and see what my body could do. The past two years I've been working with an online trainer and my strength has really improved!! I'm hitting personal bests in the gym and it's stopped feeling like a tedious chore. I'm actually excited to go now. That's an amazing feeling and I'm always really happy when my friends or family call me strong.

Hysto retrospective

It's been 7 months since my hysto back in January. The recovery for that was longer and more difficult than I expected. Being cooped up in the house and feeling really weak and gross, on top of the bottom dysphoria I kept experiencing having to constantly discuss lots of parts I hate having, was really hard on me. I feel like, over the last two months, I've shaken off a lot of the lingering depression from that. All that being said, I've healed very well, and I'm so happy I got my hysto.

One of the worst, dysphoria-inducing nightmares for me was getting pregnant. It was so bad, it prevented me from seriously dating cis men for years. T is not birth control, and even with protection and respectful partners, the fear and anxiety were just too much for me to handle. I knew that once I got my hysto, I'd probably feel more confident dating men, but I didn't realize the extent to which that would be true.

I've felt way more confident to date around and hook up since I got my hysto. I've gone on more dates with cis gay men than I ever have before, and even though they ultimately fizzled out, I have never had that level of dating confidence in my life. It's so, so gender affirming when cis gay men are attracted to me. I always felt like I lost something, being a bisexual man who was too anxious about being trans to participate in any kind of gay male culture in NYC. This is by far the biggest gift my hysto gave me and I'm so happy for it.

#transition stuff #ren speaks

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girlfriendsofthegalaxy · 1 year

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tuesday again 1/31/23

month started on a sunday, ended on a tuesday, very satisfying

listening

Toxic Las Vegas (Jamieson Shaw Remix). this has been on my "silly little walk for my silly little mental health" playlist for three weeks so it's time for its place in the tuesdaypost. part of the appeal is that it's two songs i already like but this remix does something where i go "whoa is that the james bond chord" every time even though it is NOT.

youtube

reading

Bullet Train, a black humor thriller set on a train full of asssassins by Kōtarō Isaka. i have been having... mmmmmmmm. a time. let us say. and i have been clinging to things that i have lost my mind about (mostly cowboys) in order to get through the agonies. so it is weird, now that i am branching out a bit more bc things are on a slightly different tack, to be like "yeah i liked this a normal amount and i agree with the 3.8 goodreads average. i will not remember this in three months." npr said basically: fun little genre piece with no real depth! i don't completely agree with this, bc the book is not action-scene focused! the very few fights are short, blunt, quick affairs. there's a lot of focus on personal ethics and legacies, and a great deal of terror derived from random chance. but yeah it's not really a literary novel.

this was a fast, fun read. a rare example where i liked the adaptation (the recent movie which is a VERY loose adaptation) much more than the original work.

i try not to be picky about sentence structure or work choice in a translated work, bc translation is a tricky business at best, but there were some funky choices here and there that did throw me out of my groove. it's written in present tense, which is fine, but i cannot remember the last time i read a professionally published non-romance book written in present tense. i described the movies as "really wants you to know it took AP English", and the book is similar in an interesting way-- book!tangerine is constantly quoting English literary-canon novels.

the book (and movie) have a very dry sense of humor that clicked with me. "it's not clear why the man is naming fruits". at LEAST two sensible chuckles.

the biggest book/movie divergence is with the character of the Prince: a fourteen-year-old serial killer, who we spend a great deal of the book with, who asks nearly every grownup on this train "why is it bad to kill people?". a rare book in which i actively wanted a child to die. i think this character is much improved in the movie, since the character is both aged up (a young teen boy in the book, an older teen girl in the movie), and given clearer ties to the rest of the cast. however, this adaptational choice does lose almost all of the terror of the random chance the book makes you sit with. in the movie, the prince has a motive. in the book, that kid just ain't right.

had a fun time but not enough of a fun time that i will be seeking out the other novels in the series on purpose. perhaps if i come across physical copies cheap it will ping my memory and i'll grab them, which is how i acquire a lot of my physical books. this feels like im damning with faint phrase, but i did have a fun time reading this! it's just that my brain is a sieve and lately anything that doesn't completely possess me is immediately forgotten.

watching

fallow week bc i have been #gaming. i need to literally put on my to-do list "rewatch The Big Sleep for febslash feb research" maybe that'll get me to actually do it. im going to take this opportunity to complain about how much fucking work it is to write smut. not even the technical stuff bc i do like to write smut that's threesomes where everyone is the same gender and has the same color hair. the hard part is going "okay what's sexy" and then like storyboarding out the sequence of events to make sure everyone's having fun and it CONSISTENTLY stays sexy the whole time. i have never had irl sex with a narrative throughline. difficult difficult lemon difficult

playing

still running around in wolfenstein: the new order making this big beefy boy do jumps and slides. went to the moon. came back from the moon. hit a very fun bug as i try to fight my way out of the london nautica where i crash landed, bc i died, the level spat me out at the last checkpoint, and there were no health or ammo or armor pickups anywhere. just what i could scavenge off the fallen. very unpleasant to fight through a room with 20 health but i did do one whole room before realizing this was a bug. i would not like to play the entire game like this. very stressful. the big boss at the end of the level was also extremely stressful.

but let's talk about the moon, the moon in the fucking sky. how was the moon? was the moon fun? no it was full of nazis. it was also jammed full of sixties computer banks tho. many instruments and dials as well.

as i write this on sunday night i am going to attempt Again to finish the second to last chapter in this game. i am So Close to finishing this game in under 20 hours [ed note, monday night: lmao still have not finished this game]. look at some more computer banks there aren't enough pictures to break up this post.

not sure if this is a side effect of the next-location action movie disease, but wolfenstein is very interested in how areas link together. lots of temporary facilities that have grown ad-hoc roots, lots of trains planes and automobiles. we drive a lot of trucks. we’re in helicopters and subs and moon rockets. we blow up a bridge and scramble through several trains, blowing one of them up. we fuck on a train also can't forget that cutscene. we live in the sewers. we scuttle around in vents. we are in some very far-flung locations but they all look the fucking same bc they are encased in brutalist concrete. i'm sure this is bc it's fun to have a gun battle on a train and on the fucking moon and bc like u only have so many guys actually modelling things for your levels.

this is a very half-baked observation bc i think i am beginning to get a migraine (as i finish writng this on monday night) but let's get this out of the way first: all buildings are political. something something things invented and built for war never actually go away, something something transportation infrastructure to ease conquest continues to keep the colonies within easy reach of the imperial core, wartime infrastructure like highways and bridges as a tool of empire, fascism is a constant state of war which in this game is partly represented by constant shooting and also constant building. something something the unsustainability of not only constant building things but constant growth. something something long linked history of fascist architects who love brutalism. this video game has great visual design and visual shorthands is what im trying to get at. i think.

the london nautica museum/labs/spaceport is a big gun. this is not a subtle game.

making

here's a peek behind the curtain: i talk about cooking when i don't have anything else to report on. but i genuinely did not have anything else going on this weekend bc this took all my fucking literal and metaphorical spoons. this represents like three weeks worth of soup lunch (the red lentil previously discussed on this series) plus two quiches.

why so many quiches lately? i bought two dozen eggs before christmas and thought i would do more baking than i did, which was zero. tried this dal palak recipe, majorly fucked up the proportions of the spinach bc i cannot read the back of a package, and by the time i corrected my mistake i had a fuck of a lot of the spinach/onion/spices. unfortunately i fucking hate the texture of rice plus lentils plus this mixture all together, but felt bad about wasting so much food, so the lentils went into the soup (which i needed to make more of anyway) the spinach mixture went into some quiche (bc i needed to use up those eggs anyway) and uhhh idk what will happen with the rice yet. maybe fried rice to finish off the last three eggs in the carton. this entire debacle used all my spoons for the weekend.

there's also a pork shoulder defrosting (and after that marinating[from last summer's Father's Day Meat Sale i also wish i was making this up]) but that's not very photogenic. i desperately need freezer space and it's been a fucking minute since i had some meat.

#tuesday again #tuesday again no problem

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happi-tree · 10 months

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THANK YOU<3 dialogue is one of my strong suits HSHRHEGSHJ i'm lacking a bit on the description part but i've been trying to improve at it lately 🥰 and YASS taylor trying to downplay how hes feeling and its really not working HDISUDHEJRJR tfw u have residual anxiety the morning after a mental breakdown AND stress makes ur chronic pain worse... hes struggling but its ok because link Exists and is such a sweetie ♡♡♡

and my fic is like. taylor has an anxiety attack for the first time so he DOES NOT know what's happening and like. it's freaky deaky so ofc he'll still be hella shaken up in the morning argh so real

Well, it certainly shows that you're very confident in it!!! I love how I can look at something you've written and immediately tell who's saying what without having to look at any clarifiers/speech tags. You have a real knack for getting things down in a character's voice and I respect you so hard for that <333

Personally dialogue can be so tricky for me bc I'm a big description girlie and it definitely takes me A While to figure out how to write from the povs of characters who don't immediately read to me as introspective - it's why I've actually found it easier for me to write in Link's pov than in Taylor's lmao 💀💀💀

And YIKES first-time anxiety attacks are so rough but. Yeah at least Link's there to sit with him and guide him through grounding himself again,,, weeps Link is such a sweetheart I love him sm 🥺

Figured I'd answer these both in the same ask so I'm not clogging up the mutuals' dashes too much (hiiii mutuals ily 👋) Yes they are dancing!!! The premise of this wip is based on that one Link teen fact that he used to take ballroom classes with his dads and is a pretty good modern dancer. It takes place in the vague 2-month period between coming back from Old Earth/New Faerun and the house party in ep 25. I personally hc those two months to be mostly in wintertime so!!! The teens are getting ready for Teen High's winter formal and Link offered to teach them all how to dance (Normal was v self-conscious about not knowing any moves sbfkhas)!!! And YEAH I love calling attention to the fact that Link is so tall I think their height difference would be Very Noticeable (Freddie said Taylor's height is in the mid-5 ft range while Link grew from 6'3'' to 6'4'' over s2) and Very Cute 🥰🥰🥰

#what can i say. i enjoy writing gay people <333 #the thing with link tilting taylor's chin up is actually what inspired me to flesh out the wip in the first place. well.#that and also the sequel wip which i had the idea for first. that one's at the winter formal with fancy outfits <333 #but YEAH im sososo excited for your fic cookies!!!#characters comforting each other after an anxiety attack is actually something that can be so personal... ueueue 🥺🥺🥺#thanks for the ask cookies!!!#asks #cookies-over-yonder #dndads #fic #swiftli

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liameowlia · 9 months

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i discovered tumblr messed up and this post was not in fact posted lmao, thank god i saved the draft before hand.

warning: i tried my best to leave this as most spoiler-free as i could, but if you really don't want to know anything about the plot at all (not even vague things about it) just jump to my tldr.

i don't really have the brain-functioning hability to put into words everything i'm feeling about the miraculous movie right now, but i just wanna say i loved the movie.

i think it was GREAT, it made me extremely emotional and i'm really sorry that apparently not everyone feels the same way (and i super understand why they may differ from me), because i genuinely will hold this movie dear to heart, as a comforting piece of media to watch when feeling sad or needing a pick-me-up.

i know it seems like a joke, but this movie genuinely feels like a fix-it fic ksdksdkjk i feel like they really tried hearing the fans while producing this and it made me happy! i understand that some people are kinda mad that they did all these big changes in the movie and not in the show, and i agree that many of the aspects of the movie would be super satisfying in the show, but unfortunately it's all we got :(.

at this point i feel like the series is like a train on fire that the crew are trying to keep on track lmao. i say it as a joke, but i really do think that they've noticed how many flaws there are in so many aspects of the series and are trying to (maybe) fix them in a way that makes sense, while simutaniously going foward with the plot, but that's hard to do and will aways leave some unsatisfying things behind, and that's another reason as to why i liked the movie so much.

i know i'll unfortunately never get to have the "perfect" development or writing or plot or characterization or finale for the show, because of so many (big or small, objetive or personal) flaws there are inbedded in the show and how it has been biult up until now, but i can get pretty close to that with the movie. no, i'm not trying to say the movie is perfect, it's far from that, but watching the movie from the perspective of someone who's been watching the show since it frist aired, it made me really happy! i got to see a new version of the story, a new retelling, with most of the things i love being rearrenged, plus some new improvements, and best of all! it's canon! it's not in the same universe as the series, obviously, but still canon.

i feel like the movie made canon (parts of) a version of the story that i've always wanted for miraculous, it made it possible and true, not just frustated and sour daydream. it's canon, guys. i know that for many people that doesn't mean a lot, but for me it weirdly does. and i'm really happy about it.

i loved the songs, i love musicals, so sorry if you weren't pleased by that. i loved the designs, even though i did find adrien's art different from the series, so it took me a while to get used to (not bad, just different!). i did miss my marichat or adrien <3 marinette action, but it's fine bc it's a movie and they can't fit everything in there. i liked the pacing, but idk if that's bc i already know the basis of the plot, so idk if it'll seem rushed to someone that never watched the show. i have some other critiques and things i personaly would've changed/improved, but i mostly liked pretty much everything.

tldr, i guess (?): i loved the new miraculous movie, even though i undertand why some may not like it and have my own critiques about it. my rating is like 8/10, maybe even 9/10 depending on which aspect i'm talking about, from the perspective of a fan. i'd give it a solid 7/10 for those who have never watched miraculous before (maybe i'm being too generous bc i literally just watched it). i would definetly recommend you to watch it, even if you haven't watched the series before, no matter how old you are. hope you guys like it just as much as i did.

thank you for coming to my tedtalk and have a nice day, evening or night. bug out!

#sorry abt my grammar #sorry for my english #ml movie spoilers #miraculous spoilers #miraculous movie spoilers #miraculous: ladybug & cat noir #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug movie #miraculous movie

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ganondoodle · 1 year

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Hey, I adore your artstyle mate, I loveeee all the vivid colors and the fact that most of it lacks lines?? You doing the hard stuff, but it paying off 💜

can I ask, as I’d like to get into comic making, how long does it take you to finish a a single panel?

Hi!! thank you very much!! drawing lineart is incredibly frustrating to me so im very glad i was able to make the jump to mostly lineless artwork, tho im very much still at the beginning to learn how to do it xD

to answer your question, i .. cant say really, it depends on what is on the panel, and i always jump around when working on a page, i draw half of the very last panel, then jump to another, maybe i see something i want to change right away and work on the third besides i ... dont know anything about panel composition, i think in movies so i play it and try to pause it on a frame that could work as a panel, whichs is probably why it goes alot slower than normal comics, idk how much to skip gndfjknvgfdjk

im by no means an expert in making comics, you kinda have to find your own way of what works for you, i have done many in the past but all failed, i gave up before getting even one chapter done many times

general advice i can give you is, most importantly, dont wait, i know its daunting to start, but you have to start, even if you dont think you are good enough, you will always change and improve anyway, better start now or you might do it never, and remember, when a page is done its done, i know how tempting it is to go back and redo it, but if you start with that it will only lead to an endless cycle of remaking it over and over

a cause that made me abandon my old projects, was partly lack of support/recognition, but mostly that i was forcing myself to things that werent fun, like one i made in black and white bc i thought you had to do it bc color takes too long, but i live for colors, so it drained the fun out of it immediately

the only "rules" i have set for myself is that its understandable, the flow of the action doesnt flip around too much, speech bubbles are aligned in a way that guides you (of course im not perfect at that either and always learn); i dont jump between pages, i jump between working on panels, but i dont start another page before the previous is at least acceptable, otherwise id get ahead of myself and get impatient, just wanting to skip ahead and neglect older pages; and that i only work on a panel/page as long as it has acceptable quality and is fun to draw, when i notice im getting bored or frustrated i finish it quickly as best as i can and move on, otherwise it might drag the entire project down, which is why each panel or page in 'Destiny' varies alot in quality

i can barely look at the first pages .. or even at the last one i made for that matter, but its also fascinating, how much my art changes within even one update which takes me about a month for 4 pages, since i have set my 'fun' rules at least, it used to take much longer (i wish i was faster, and i could be, but i have a job, and have to look out for my health, both physically and mentally, so i take whatever time i need and draw however much i feel like drawing, no rushing)

my progress so far is that i write a rough script, what happens, what dialog, where it ends, and so on, it doesnt have to sound good, god knows mine are shitty xD but its a good guideline, even if rough! then i make a rough draft, basic panel layout, dialog (it always changes fro mthe script, again its more liek a guideline than a rule ;) ) then i start with actually drawing the first page, my art and way of .. art and writing changes incredibly fast (idk if its for the better lol) so .. by that point i redraw the rough draft version of the page if i see how it works better, rewrite dialog too, and even cut stuff from the rough draft

im not done with the first chapter (im slow af lol), but wrote the script for the second one when my hand was injured and i couldnt draw for a month, once im done with this chapter i will draw the rough draft for ch2, then write the script for ch3 then go and draw ch2 fully, at least thats the plan the more time passes the more i know what the next chapters are gonna be, tho i know the important points long before; right now i have the entirety of the first arc sepeareted into chapters, and the end of it all too, but between there its still a lil blurry and im adjusting everytime i think of soemthing better

anyway, sorry for that long ass ramble, its late and i thoguht about this ask bc im trying to get my want to draw back (not feeling well rn nkfdnkd) so i randomly decided to answer it .. probably in the most unhelpful way possible, alot of stuff noone aksed for lol

anyway, sorry, and goodnight uwu

#ganondoodles answers #i hope i didnt sound too preachy #or soemthing #idk im not good at giving advice #..and my way of drawing changes so fast #whenever i explain sth it usualyl changes right afterwards #and man that feels shitty #like im lying to people #:(

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taegularities · 7 months

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Rid, this maybe a small rant so bear w me pls >:(

I was having a conversation with my roommate in college yesterday about books and reading in general. She is picky when it comes to reading, mostly inclining towards romance and sub genres within the umbrella. While I believe that reading anything is a good practice, she is radical in her opinion. In the sense that she believes books which are officially published in a hardcover are credible enough to be called books or novels for the matter. Recently i revealed to her that I’ve been reading fan fiction for 3 years now and her reaction was… quirky? She thinks that fanfiction writers are still amateurs in writing, have no experience with editors and they only write as a hobby so they don’t put in as much effort as a novel writer would, so their stories are dumb when compared to novelists and best selling authors. I argued that fan fiction is not something to be looked down upon cause some people have put out excellent things to read and they do work hard on their plots and characters. Even if they are not accustomed to working with publishers and all but that doesn’t work as an authentic judgement that fanfic writers can’t be placed as the same level of some authors. Just putting out a book in hardcover doesn’t equate quality of a story, it only means you had access with some publishing house. The argument kinda took a sour turn cause she was unwilling to take in my pov so I asked her if you think fanfic writers suck then tell me which stories you have read in your entire lifetime which you consider masterpieces then i might recommend you some stories from my end to change your perspective. She texted me sometime ago and most of her list includes Colleen Hoover 😐 it kinda made me realize that in fact we as readers must have a fanfic phase in life otherwise we would place authors like CoHo with incredibly poor taste in writing on the pedestal and look down on underrated talents in the field of literature. I still can’t comprehend what does CoHo write in her books that attracts mass attention from people cause all she does is glorify toxic relationships and normalize it with her weak happy endings. I’ve read around 3 books from her and lemme tell you some of the bts fics on ao3 & tumblr deserved way better audience than she does. In my opinion, the only reasons books like these blow up is due to people who have a first time experience in reading and don’t really take much interest in reading, it’s disgraceful to way better writers who are overlooked cause they don’t suit the usual trend due to certain criteria they don’t fit in, the criteria being easy choice of vocabulary, some aesthetic corny words, incredible smut and bland character development. Maybe the lack of quality romance novels in bookstores has me caving into fanfics because I feel in some measures I’d rather spend a week completing works of a fanfic writer with amazing plots for free over spending dollars and wasting time on books I end up disliking because of their stuff characters having absolutely no growth or a potential plot going to waste.

rant anytime, love <3

oof, i don't know much about colleen hoover, so i can't judge.. but honestly, any kind of creative work should be appreciated. like, i used to be young adult girly myself, and got into writing like that, so i feel like none of us should drag down someone's effort (not talking about you, just in general!!). and like, as a fanfic author myself i do feel a bit bleh about your friend saying we are amateurs bc we don't work with publishers lol :') i've actually thought about this before. editors have so much work to do, like they need to perfect a story, right? i know it's different for us, but most beta readers i know do the same.. literally sit down and spend hours reading a fic to help a writer improve it (shoutout to you ily @missgeniality). tbh, i'd say agree to disagree with your friend and enjoy whatever you enjoy!! sometimes it's hard to explain a pov to someone. but tysm for standing up for fanfic authors, like i'm so happy you cherish them the way you do <3

#but yeah i've definitely read fics too that were better than some books i started #lately i haven't been able to read a lot books bc i realised i've gotten picky #but yk side note.. jojo moyes is a really good writer!!#notes for rid 🌹#anon

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yeetlegay · 2 years

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ive been thinking a lot since ep4… i think the fact after porsche puked a lot of the roofie was flushed out of his system bc he was in mostly control of his motor abilities, could recall memory very well (teasing kinn about the kiss), and had the general symptoms of being drunk— so mostly it was just impaired decision making. being almost fully unconcious with vegas and actively resisting him vs actively seeking out kinn who sort of resisted at first (also important but he was not completely sober either since he was drinking earlier at the auction). i think that since the show has improved upon the novel so much (especially on sex and consent), and there are certain parts that they can't completely omit out, but a lot of the ethics of the scene can be decided by porsche's reaction the following morning (to gauge how in control he was the previous night). this is a scene which can be overlooked as a writing choice, which was considerably much better handled that most bls. non-sober consent is not completely consent, and in really life all of these arguments are invalid, but the show did so much better than the source material, and even made the instagram post,which personally feels like a good ending to the discourse.

I agree about waiting to see how Porsche feels the next morning, bc tbh it’s hard to tell if the drug he took was meant to be something like ghb or a fictionalized version where they could fudge a little on the specifics. I totally get if people feel conflicted about Porsche being under the influence of smth during this scene, but I personally didn’t mind. (I actually have a lot of thoughts about how this ep and that scene in particular flipped the power balance against Kinn so that might be a whole post later lol.)

But yeah I vote we just wait and see how Porsche feels next week. I expected some dubcon and in fiction my boundaries are way looser so I think for storytelling purposes this scene nailed it.

#kinnporsche #tagging for discourse and novel spoilers just in case #like I’m an og yaoi stan I’ve been AROUND lol #a little ethically dubious sex is just par for the course #yeetle asks

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whump-captain · 1 year

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I got tagged by @set-phasers-to-whump and omg i had such a blast answering these, thank u (◡‿◡) i'll tag @deepwoundsandfadedscars @thatsgonnaleaveamark (i think it's double tag? soz if so) @whumpapalooza @emcscared-whumps @straight-to-the-pain and anyone who sees it and has more than one WIP going on currently, writing or otherwise

(ill put in a readmore bc it's Long)

Rules: post the top 5 works you’re most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular), your top 4 current WIPs that you’re excited to release in the new year, your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year, your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year, and your number 1 favorite line you’ve written this year!

Top 5 works im proud of, in no particular order:

Impaled (Felix Lawrence) - I’m mostly proud of this one because I was worried if I could write it at all! A lot of moving parts in the scene that i was convinced would get away from me, but i managed to keep everything straight and describe it clearly. It was also a struggle to drip-feed bits of necessary lore into this one snippet without grinding the whole thing to a halt and i think i did that pretty well!

Confrontation (Ghost ambulance) - I’m super happy with the prose in this. I think it flows the best out of most of my stuff and there are some sentences that i’m really proud of because they convey a lot of meaning in a very pretty way. I often find it hard to balance clarity and metaphor but i hit the jackpot here. The dialogue is also one of my better ones, i think.

Failed rescue attempt (Kintsugi) - this one takes the prize for dialogue though, I’m incredibly happy with how it turned out. I tried to fit an entire conflict between two characters into a single conversation and introduce them both by way of that conflict - while also keeping them sounding distinct and like real people. I’m also very pleased with myself over the use of the prop in the scene lmao it’s such a small thing but i felt like a film director including it lol

No anesthesia (Ghost ambulance) - im mostly proud of the pacing in this one. it's quite long but it doesn't become repetitive which is something i notice a lot in my writing. both the dialogue and the actual action flow pretty well and there are no awkward transitions or subject changes - plus it might be the longest actual pain description ive ever written lmao but i managed to keep it interesting throughout and have the whump scene actually feel like a Scene.

Whumper POV (Ghost ambulance): I wrote this mostly to challenge myself and i succeeded at the thing that was the challenge! I wanted to try a brand new character voice and also to develop said character - but not to fall into common "whumper tropes". I don't write whumpers often so i was worried i'd end up with a cliche but i managed to find an emotional core for the character and from there it went more smoothly. The biggest point of pride for me is that i fell in love with Brent as a character because of this piece lol and now i want to write more of him

Top 4 current WIPs:

Uhhhh i never ever name anything lmao but:

WIP 1 is some comfort-heavy Elaine whump that shows her mindset before and after meeting her friends and it's just. SO comfort. im excited. i should hurt her more often so she can be taken care of (◡‿◡)

WIP 2 is an introduction to a new ghost ambulance storyline, taking place at a fancy high-society party. I honestly don't have much of it figured out plot-wise lmao that's why it's not going very quickly but it's gonna have high stakes, a race against the clock, gratuitous descriptions of fancy outfits, and a brand new character (with gun)

WIP 3 is a whumptober "poisoned" prompt that i'm planning to finish, because i have some cool monster ideas for it that i can spend a bit more time developing now that i have no time concerns. of course, no time concerns probably means it will take much longer than it needs to lol

WIP 4 is something i started aaaaages ago, it concerns a dislocation, blood draining, and a sentient vampire tree trying to eat people. it's incredibly fun but i got a bit stuck on a description and never finished it so i wanna try and get it out soon (◡‿◡)

(im also going to add the entirety of Kintsugi in here even though i don't think i'm going to post much of it. the characters changed a lot as i developed the story and so did the whole setup so unless i feel like doing an au, im gonna most likely spend time writing the feature-length thing. i am v excited about it though (◡‿◡))

Top 3 writing improvements:

Ehhhhhh this one is really hard bc i have this sinking feeling that my writing has actually gotten worse through this year djdjfhdkd its probably because i write way more than i used to, so a lot of stuff is going to be Just Alright instead of something i consider standout. Also ive started looking at my work more critically so I can consciously improve, but it does mean i notice more of the flaws.

But Improvement 1 is definitely dialogue, im much more comfortable writing it now and i have a decent idea of how and why it might stumble - and through that, how to make it better.

Improvement 2 i'd call figuring out my workflow, which honestly does wonders for Actually Finishing Stuff. I learned to keep my writing momentum, mostly by using [filler words] in [brackets] instead of pausing to do research or look for the perfect word. I come back for those later, after i finish the first draft. Coming back to the first point, i also start a dialogue scene by just writing out the lines, with no prose or descriptions. That helps me keep the conversations on topic and gives them better flow cause i don't forget what the previous line was about while writing a reaction lol

Improvement 3 is a bit of a cheat but i do think it counts that i started reading way more this year. I try to pay attention to what i do and don't like about the books i read and how i can improve based on those insights. It's also very inspiring, do gotta say

Top 2 resolutions:

Hmmmmm number 1 i'd say is to be kinder to my own writing tbh. I have so many goals i want to work towards but above them all hangs a bunch of uncertainty bc i doubt pretty much every choice i make. I keep thinking oh this is too winding, that is too simple, is this how it's Supposed be written and all of that whereas like. It's not Supposed to be anything. It's supposed to be fun and maybe meet my own standards of "quality" but that's it. In the words of a philosopher, It's Not That Deep.

Number 2 is to get my writing out to more people! I'd love to both get more audience here and also to maaaaaaybe perhaps somehow get published - that's a big dream of mine recently (◡‿◡) i reckon i have what it takes to get a short story in a magazine, i just need to be more resilient and send out more stuff

No. 1 favourite line:

Oh man that was the hardest one fhdhdjdldh i'm gonna go with:

"The ground below remains steady and it promises peace if he only lets it swallow him and bind him forever to this single point in space and time."

#tags #tag game #this took ages but it was bc i really wanted to think abt the answers #it was really fun (◡‿◡)#i did it only w/ writing for consistency but tbh it can work for most creative works i think

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moefongo · 2 years

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Just saw ur post—how have you been feeling? Jaw been alright today and not too much pain?

Eating food, sleeping, ice packs, cold drinks and warm drinks depending on how you feel, dim lights, and caffeine do help.

I’ve been doing ok. Having stomach problems and I don’t know if it’s getting worse again because I can only eat small things for meals like half a granola bar, but I’m still hungry but nauseous. How have you been drawing? Happy with your work? Have you found a new media to discuss? If so what is it? I’ve been being dragged back by my brain to Nights of Azure but I’m desperately crawling myself away. As well as Dnd.

quote of the day, from my lovely dad:

“you fucking hamburger head, big head ass with no brain, how does that feel huh?” (Talking with honey after she bit his hand hard)

-Q

Hey bestie I didn't see the ask until now sorry, but I've been okay and so far my jaw hasn't hurt as much lately.

And yeah all of those work like a charm, my mom also got me today a cream or pomade (idk how to say it in spanish) that has arnica and cbd oil and supposedly helps w migraines so im going to try it out next time I get a migraine to see if it helps. For the jaw pain I also apply 'manteca de ubre de vaca' which works wonders

Have you tried drinking broths like chicken broth? If you can tolerate it, you can make some so your body has nutrients and it isn't hard on your stomach. You can make them with as little fat as possible but im gonna ask my grandma if she has a recepie since she makes them a lot and I'll give it to you later

I'm still drawing man tits and practicing more poses by drawing over the pose to get a sense of where everything should go. I am also getting better at drawing feet/shoes so that's an improvement, but i still suck at drawing hands tho lol. In terms of nursing, I haven't been able to find a job since i dont have my certifications (cpr, pals and a whole lot more) and bc i have a provisional license (but my exam is on the 7th of December so im mostly studying and prepping for it) I'm still on a huge Onmyoji brain rot and currently frustrated bc I haven't gotten Susanoo on the new event but I have been writing a lot of headcanons for the game on my side blog. Also I got back to dragon age today and I simp so hard for Varric

The quote is inspiring and makes me want to pet her sfjfjsf

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data-is-my-favorite-android · 2 years

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Let’s talk about Star Trek canon and what we consider bendable (but still compliant enough) to remain canon and what changes we consider significant enough to be divergent.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I confess it’s because I’m already on high alert looking for signs that SNW is going to ultimately follow its own path (if you’ve read anything else on my blog in the last week you know why lol). So I’m probably reading too much into things or thinking about this too hard for my own good, but the question of what can bend and what can’t break to remain canon-compliant still stands, and it’s an interesting one.

Btw, most of the stuff I’m thinking about centers around Spock, not only because he’s a long-time favorite of mine but also because, of the characters shared between TOS and SNW, his was the most fleshed out in TOS.

All shows with an established canon have inflection points, and some of those points are “harder” than others, more fixed and enshrined as important, immutable events/facts in the course of a story. If you bend them too much or break them, the existing story as the audience knows it is quantifiable changed. Softer inflection points can bend the facts in a way that might make audiences give writers the side-eye, but are permissible bc in the grand scheme of things they don’t tinker with the core backbone of the known story. The audience can still accept that these events occur in the same universe.

For SNW’s part, it has already committed several minor breaks with canon which are related to soft inflection points. In TOS, Spock was the only noticeably alien member of the crew, for instance. Discovery sort of changed the rules on that, and SNW followed suit. There’s lots of behind-the-scenes/budget/practical reasons why TOS didn’t show other aliens on the Enterprise, whereas now Star Trek properties have the budget and the technology to invest in prosthetics and special effects for more than one core character. And that’s a good thing! We love aliens 💕 But it is a notable difference.

In TOS, Spock states that he has never mind-melded with a human before, but Spock mind-melds with La’An in SNW. Bones doesn’t know shit about Vulcan biology while Dr. M’Benga seems to know more (at least when it comes to pure Vulcans; Spock has always been trickier bc of his human genetics). Some of the ship’s technologies are more advanced than in TOS. And of course Nurse Chapel has WAY more personality (which is a wonderful improvement and I am so freakin’ happy that the writers brought her on board and really dedicated effort to making her a nuanced character).

These are all fairly minor and can mostly be chalked up to the fact that they’re relatively obscure, trivial facts, and that we have better production technologies and want to show them off and we need to make Star Trek feel like it’s in the future, which means updating the aesthetics and functions of the tech. When it comes to characters like Uhura, Chapel, Pike, and Una, it’s pretty easy to tweak their characters (because there wasn’t a lot of detail in the source material to begin with) and update them for modern audiences and values without violating the audience’s sense of continuity too much.

But there are larger deviations happening too, and they’re operating in a gray area that make them /just/ plausibly canon-compliant enough but also are arguably not. Whether they are truly “hard” inflection points depends on whether they indeed have larger ripple effects downstream.

In Amok Time (TOS), for instance, nobody knew Spock was engaged, including Nurse Chapel and Uhura. Literally everyone was shocked. It is also (not stated outright but) heavily implied that Spock and T’Pring have not seen each other since they were very young. In fact, it is stated that Spock hoped he would never undergo pon farr, though he was certainly old enough to have gone through at least one. You can write that off as either an error on the part of the writers or that his human genetics may alter the internal clock for his pon farr, but the fact remains that a) he probably hadn’t been in contact with T’Pring for quite a long time (possibly since childhood) and b) for sure NOBODY knew or suspected he was engaged/betrothed in TOS. And that’s… not an inconsequential difference between TOS and SNW, in my opinion. It isn’t necessarily an obvious and outright deviation, but it is definitely not an insignificant revision SNW made.

(Also it seems like everybody in Star Fleet knows a fair bit about Vulcans by this time in SNW, whereas in TOS there’s very much this sense that working closely with Vulcans is extremely rare and they guard the secrets of their lifestyles and culture well.)

Like I said, this has just got me thinking about the malleability of canon and what is acceptable to mess around with and still claim adherence and what isn’t. A lot of these things are small infractions, but Amok Time and the information it conveyed about Spock’s character and Vulcan culture therein is a MAJOR cornerstone of Trek lore. It’s one of the most notable episodes of the TOS canon, arguably a hard inflection point as a whole, and you wouldn’t think the writers would want to muck around with it. But they did. T’Pring is VERY present in Spock’s life in SNW. Nurse Chapel is absolutely painfully aware of her, and Uhura may also know of her too (though I don’t think they’ve directly interacted). Other Bridge members also know who T’Pring is by name, if not on sight.

These facts by general consensus still don’t seem to outright break canon, even if they do represent a more significant break from info established in TOS. The hard inflection points of Amok Time are that Spock has a fiancée and goes into pon farr, and when he arrives on Vulcan she forces him to fight Kirk so she can end up with Stonn. This effectively ends their betrothal. Explicitly break with any of those points and you have divergence, but all the other details are just that: details. And SNW takes place more than ten years before the events of TOS, which leaves lots of room to play and makes it easier to avoid doing things that would DIRECTLY violate canon. But idk, the changes they made particularly in regards to T’Pring and Spock’s relationship are already subtly shifting away from canon. It’s certainly bending the narrative details of one of the more important episodes in TOS. It wouldn’t have been hard for the SNW writers to leave that aspect of Spock’s life alone. They didn’t have to bring T’Pring in, and they also didn’t have to bring Chapel in either (or Stonn now that I think about it!). Spock also seems to be actively confronting aspects of himself in SNW that he largely avoided discussing/examining in TOS (though this could be a matter of perspective. It just always seemed to me like he was never really comfortable/never really reconciled his human and Vulcan halves in TOS, but it’s been a while since I’ve watched TOS end to end, so maybe I’m not remembering some things right. He seemed happy to live among humans, but he always had trouble embracing or admitting to his own humanity). His character development already seems on track to put him well ahead of the curve of where he started in TOS.

So with all that in mind, what exactly would it take to definitively signal a break from canon and the establishment of a new timeline in SNW? At this point, it probably all hinges on something significant Spock does, or maybe Pike. If Pike figures out how to bend fate or avoid it entirely, that would obviously create an AU. But that branch point is ten years in the future, so I’m not quite sure how they could show him avoiding that without a weird time skip or something. But Spock? If he breaks it off with T’Pring (and/or T’Pring gets with Stonn who has already shown up), that could signal a clear departure. If Spock gets with Nurse Chapel, that could also do it (though that’s a little more gray; you could say that TOS Chapel’s unrequited love for Spock is rooted in an earlier failed attempt at a relationship). Spock has a LOT more hard canon inflection points in TOS than anyone else, so his actions and development in SNW bear the most weight.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Star Trek has always played around with alternate universes and divergent timelines, and that is true—but rarely does the eye of the story shift to follow one of these branches. The cinematic Star Trek universe made a whole new timeline, but it can get away with that because that story is told through a different medium (movies vs tv series). For the shows, it’s harder to justify. Discovery had to REALLY do a lot of heavy wrangling to remain canon compliant, and some fans were mad about the deviation it presented up until Michael went to the future with the Discovery and her name was stricken from all records.

Personally, I appreciate a core canon, but I love me some AU shit. I love exploring different expressions of the same characters, seeing different choices lead to different (or shockingly similar!) results. I think a lot of fandoms are becoming more open to the flexibility of multiverses, in part bc of the influence of fanfic, and in part bc of other properties/mediums doing the same (namely comics and their spin-off Hollywood franchises). Whether Star Trek and SNW follows suit remains to be seen.

Idk, ya’ll have any thoughts on this? I’m spending way too much time mulling this over lol

#strange new worlds #star trek: strange new worlds #long post #meta #rambles #I’m doing this on my phone #so if I’m redundant it’s bc I wrote it in chunks #sorry I’m obsessing about this

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stardustanddaffodils · 1 year

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notebook ; how many notebooks do you have? do you write in them?

pen ; what's your favorite font to write in?

pencil ; where do you do most of your brainstorming?

paper ; where's your favorite place to sit down and write?

docs ; what's the longest story you have ever written (pages or word count)?

tropes ; what's your favorite trope to write?

(as many or as little as you like)

notebook: i have many notebooks. i... dont rly write in any of them. except my songwriting notebook that one still sees the light of day occasionally! but even then i mostly do songwriting in the notesapp now

pen: i used to use times new roman for EVERYTHING. now... comic sans my best friend <3 i dont write in this one like ever but i will forever love handlee cos its the font we used to write an elementary school class play :D <3

pencil: notesapp. tho i will say that most often the brainstorming just... never leaves my brain :') if smth is a longer project or i keep getting stuck i'll do a semi-chronological thought dump on the google doc itself

paper: oh thats a good question! i usually just write at my desk, but thats cuz its just. my desk. not rly sure i have a favorite place :O maybe i should get one! the beanbag in my room is for sure a contender tho! i sit there w the squishmallow thats almost as big as me and its very fun :D always hard to find a comfortable position w a giant unicorn, a blanket, and a computer tho Pensive

edit after writing the next one. our back deck when its warm & sunny out is definitely a contender... its so nice sitting in the sun with flowers n warm pretty things around However. makes it hard to see the screen pfft. and of course Internet Connection is a problem

docs: i think Smiling At The Stars still takes the cake! it was over 8k before i edited it down... i remember writing it, just sitting on the deck one afternoon cuz it was sunny and OH it was easter so i watched my sister hunt for eggs while i wrote and i checked and id written 3k words in that one day and i was like OHH my god... best feeling. i was so proud of that fic when i wrote it too <3 not sure how id feel abt it now seeing as. i've improved. but i still love it bc i know how much i loved it then <3 definitely hoping to break that record soon tho ;) (has many multichapter fics planned i swear ill work on them sometime...)

tropes: hurt/comfort comes to mind! childhood friends is also nice :D and if i have to write romance its gotta be slowburn or friends to lovers because i am TOO ARO to understand how people just??? get together????? like what?????? GIRLLL where is the emotional connection

#asks #sunsplatteredfeathers #adam tag

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