#not even a mediocre one

[captain-astors]

Creature. (The rendered ones are referenced from manga panels)

#mediocre art #tokyo ghoul #On some level I think I should like Kaneki more than I do but there's this weird sense of detachment #I have not only from him but being able to perceive him as a character? #I don't even dislike him it's just that I can't feel any which way about him at all. He's a catalyst for events #feels more like the conch from Lord of the Flies or something rather than a fictional person. #He doesn't suffer and learn from the consequences #he just suffers and does what got him there again. It's arguable that the lack of punishment denies him the satisfaction #but if that's the case why does he end the story with everything working out perfectly for him? #Why do his friends oblige his flaws and accept his lack of change? #Is the problem my lack of understanding or his lack of good writing? #Is he well written? #Why do I like a certain character from a different anime who's a very similar person with very similar dynamics #but with a goal and acceptance by himself and those around him that his actions really are reprehensible and cannot truly be atoned for #not only more but to the point that he's actually one of my favorites? #Am I just sitting upon a throne of entitlement #because his thought process and experiences are not catered to be applicable to and understood by myself? #GOD IF I KNOW ANYMORE #I'm not pressuring myself to like him or anything I just don't understand anything about kaneki these days and I don't know why

[thissmycomingofage]

All I'll say about ttpd for now is that everytime I thought "oh finally something interesting and pretty!" It was an Aaron song. Every. Single. Time.

#i didnt even do it on purpose but i went to check the credit of the one song i was listening to #and it was always him #this man is caring this mediocre record on his back #ttpd leaks #ttpd spoilers #artist: taylor swift #album: the tortured poets department #text #oli schist!

[softesttangerines]

obkk is srsly a curse cz in the span of 10 years, that's the only otp that i go back to every 9months or so and it's annoying because i have consumed every remotely decent content of theirs put on the Internet, there's nothing else left and yet i find myself hyperfixating. Like leaaaave me alone, let me move on!!

#read every possible good fic and even mediocre one just to appease the thirst #reread and gaslit myself into thinking ive never read few fics just to read smthn new again #looks at the fanarts and yells about it whenever sad #done every possible before sleep scenario #LEAVE ME ALONE I NEED TO MOVE IN!!!! #obkk #obikaka #kakaobi #kakashi #kakashi hatake #obito #obito uchiha

[adhd-merlin]

Arthur’s skin is still warm from the bath, the tips of his hair still damp, and he smells faintly of lavender.

“Is Queen Mithian still as beautiful as they say?” Gwen asks Arthur.

She’s lying with her head pillowed on Arthur’s shoulder while his fingertips brush against her temple and her hair — more an absent-minded motion than an actual caress.

Arthur’s fingers stop. He kisses the top of her head. “Never as beautiful as my queen.”

Gwen pokes him lightly in the chest with her finger. “That's not an answer.”

“Are you jealous?”

“No,” she says, truthfully.

There was a time when Arthur could’ve chosen Mithian instead of Gwen, had he wanted — and he didn’t. (Didn’t choose her, and didn't want her, although he might have wanted to want her, and came close to convincing himself that he did). She’s only curious to hear how Arthur felt about meeting the woman he almost married again, after so long.

“I suppose she is. Beautiful,” Arthur answers after a pause. “If everyone’s comments are any indication. I can no longer tell. You’ve ruined me for any other woman.”

Gwen smiles. “You flatterer.”

“It’s not flattery if it’s true,” Arthur says. “Your beauty outshines anyone else’s. And it’s not even near the top of the list of your qualities.”

He says things like that, sometimes — he even means them. Monumental things, uttered with complete casualness, not because he thinks them insignificant but as if he were just stating facts. Something he would be stupid to deny or to resist.

In the early days of their courtship, Gwen used to find it terrifying. She’s since grown used to it. Mostly.

“But I wasn’t there to outshine anyone,” she teases him.

She’s being playful, perhaps a bit giddy from the wine. She expects Arthur to reply in the same vein — to heap more compliments on her until they reach the height of ridiculousness, or to make a silly joke — but his tone shifts.

He takes Gwen’s hand and places it over his chest, covering it with his. “You are always with me,” he says, solemnly.

And their hands aren’t quite in the right place, because Gwen’s head is in the way, but she understands his meaning all the same — my heart. The term of endearment he sometimes uses for her, when feeling especially sentimental.

#well excuse me for thinking arthur would act like a complete simp around his wife. that's canon. #this is from an arwen smut chapter. I'm not even linking to it. #for the 2 (?) people who cared yes I will write that last vignette at some point #I'm stuck on a merlin x sefa ficlet that doesn't want to be written #it might never see the light of day but I'd like it to happen #pray for me. although I think no one but me cares #it is now my mission to make merlin x sefa appealing to at least 1 other person #and I believe I can do it through the power of my mediocre writing #merlin fanfiction

[eskawrites]

sometimes i still think about the fact that nancy is one of the most powerful, plot-critical characters in stranger things, and how she has led her own arc every single season--from driving the search for barb to taking down the lab to figuring out the flayed to being a fucking general by the end of season 4. and about how she was taking care of the kids during the last half of s3 and how she was the leader of the hawkins group in s4. like, i really cannot emphasize that enough. once the main character with superpowers and the actual war veteran chief of police are out of town, nancy is the unquestionable leader. the person everyone turns to without thinking twice. i’m serious. nancy is a teenage girl who has her every move questioned and doubted and still the only people more powerful than her in the show are a girl with superpowers and a war vet.

and when danger--physical danger--shows up, she doesn’t fucking hesitate. she’s diving straight into the upside down. she’s leading the older group to safety again. she’s shoving aside the 5 different traumatic experiences she just witnessed to put together a multi-step military operation and she’s taking point to go shove a shotgun in vecna’s face. and yeah, they end up not being alone when they face vecna because el is there, but nancy doesn’t know that. she’s fully intending on going to kill an adult man who has control over an entire dimension and has been murdering people with his mind, even though she has no backup, no superpowered el, no hopper and his government contacts, nothing.

and yet.

AND YET

the vast majority of natalia dyer’s press for s4 was about a love triangle. and i get it, a lot of interviewers can’t get away with not asking those questions, but you know what else you could ask about? nancy’s growth over the last 4 seasons. how it felt being the leader of the hawkins gang. how she thinks nancy feels after losing another friend. what was running through her head when vecna had her. what her thoughts are regarding nancy’s plan, or what’s going through her head during that final scene when she’s *checks notes* standing behind the show’s protagonist and looking at The Plot as it rises from the ground.

or, i don’t know, ask her what it’s like being the person handling guns on set. what those upside down night shoots were like. what her thoughts are on nancy’s choice of college! what she thinks about the perm! for fuck’s sake there are only a thousand different questions that would’ve been far more interesting or at least personal to her character. but no. every interview boils down to team steve or team jonathan, as if a tired, already resolved love triangle is anywhere near as interesting as literally any other part of her character

#we're raging tonight lads natalia dyer deserved BETTER #can you imagine watching stranger things season 4 and getting the chance to interview one of the MOST CRITICAL CHARACTERS #and then asking her about this tertiary cliche plot line that you know she can't answer anyway #can you imagine #nancy wheeler #stranger things #natalia dyer #she deserves betterrrrrr #tbh i fully believe we got as much ronance content as we did just bc it was more interesting to talk about than jonathan vs steve #and i can't blame her for that! #i'd be talking about it too even if i didn't ship it #bc at least then you don't have to talk about which of her mediocre relationships she's gonna revive #give nancy wheeler (and natalia dyer) a break ffs #at this point i think we should get single nancy just out of spite

[hussyknee]

cant put my finger on it, but Taylor Swift feels like walking racial microaggression

#it's not even the fact that she let herself become a white supremacist idol without telling them to fuck off #and when asked why she didn't she said she was from Nashville where the Dixie Chicks were a cautionary tale #meanwhile she had no qualms calling out sexism in the industry #but white supremacy was too far apparently #but leaving aside all of that‚ she's so fucking aggressively mediocre #and her 'girl gang' is just rich thin white women #let's not forget that racist Wildest Dreams video shall we? #she's talented and worked hard yeah but her parents are rich and connected as hell #also Swifties are some of the most obnoxious fucking people in music fandom #who get mad when WoC queer women and leftists can't stand her #the whole private jet thing was just icing on the cake tbh #Casey McQuiston had one throwaway line in RWRB where the MoC and Jewish girl dissed her #and half the white queers took that personally #Jesus fuck #let people hate rich thin white women #I mean heck I like Ed Sheeran's music but I don't take it personal when other people don't #then again I don't get idolising celebrities #just because I love someone's music doesn't mean I give much of a shit about them as people #these are objectively complete randos no matter what you think you know about them #anti Taylor swift #people with T-Swift hate blogs also dni #this post is about casual white privilege not whatever weird obsessive shit you got going on #white women #racism #white privilege #knee of huss

[stardustdiiving]

How evil is arlecchino and what is she cooking

As of 4.2, I’m really curious what they’re planning with Arlecchino as a character, especially as a villain/antagonist/morally dubious character, and how far/which direction they may go with that

Intuitively my impression is we’ll see her do something way more “villainous” than she presents herself as being for majority of Fontaine’s AQ in front of us right—(which isn’t a surprise given that, you know, Arlecchino nor the House of Hearth have never been presented as 110% ethical LOL) but I find myself not being in complete agreement with most analysis or speculation threads I see about Arlecchino’s morality and the like, level of sinister people seem to ascribe to her.

Idk how to put it, especially in regards to her children I do agree they are not a wholesome found family, that Arlecchino is not above pulling strings or using them for her own ulterior motives, but I kind of hesitate on the idea she only cares about the Hearth children as a means to the end/things she can control and there’s nothing else going on with her characterization wise there. I’m not saying that impression seems remotely unreasonable or unfounded, but just that it feels there’s something intentionally missing in how we are supposed to conceptualize her as a person

My main reasoning for this hunch is the fact they have not elaborated on Arlecchino and the previous Knave—who Arlecchino is stated to have taken over the position from by force. The extra tidbits I think about are that 1) Arlecchino was previously an orphan in the Hearth 2) the previous Knave is described as way, way crueler to the children of than Heart than Arlecchino was from when she took control of the House

Often, people’s major indicators that the House of the Hearth is kind of super fucked up are the NPCs we meet in world quests who are part of it and clearly suffering. But one thing I haven’t ever seen people mention w this that i think is a very interesting detail is, in The Very Special Fortune Slip Inazuma worldquest, where we stop this House of Hearth guy (Efim Snezhevich) from manufacturing tension between Watasumi/the Shogunate to restart the war with his other Hearth subordinates, at the end of the quest we get this dialogue that reveals he had been acting under the previous Knave’s directives:

It’s also mentioned he’s employing this plan in an attempt to “rebuild the prestige of the Knave” following Signora’s death, iirc? Now, see, the dialogue itself says that this is “assuming our captive is telling the truth” so who knows what’s really going on, but I find this a really odd/interesting thing to highlight. I’m a bit fuzzy on other world quests with Hearth members, and am not saying none of them were acting and subsequently being treated poorly by our Arlecchino, but like, this gives me a lot of questions especially when paired with implications this previous Knave seemed to be way worse

Like, what drove Arlecchino to take over? How unexpected and controversial was this within the House? Assuming the above information is all true it definitely says something this guy went rogue and acted on what the previous Knave would want and didn’t think our Arlecchino would greenlight it, which does feel consistent with the previous Knave being described as basically worse & crueler than our Arlecchino. It also makes me question how much house of hearth things we’ve seen outside the main story are the work of our Arlecchino or if there’s a bigger divide of loyalty. Heck, I could be wrong but it doesn’t even seem like we know if the previous Knave is dead or not

This isn’t me saying Arlecchino couldn’t possibly be treating hearth children worse than she wants us to know, especially ones who aren’t her “favorites” the way the fontaine trio seem to be, but I really don’t feel sure about making a solid conclusion of her exact level of malice the way ppl r generally understanding it rn when it feels there’s going to be more about her. Just the idea of she, as a Hearth child, clashed with the previous leader who was known for being cruel, overtook their position and took on less harsh methods of leading that made at least some members with more power/possible closer proximity to the previous Knave go rogue and try to commit atrocities in the previous Knave’s name…I feel this leaves a lot of room to suggest there’s more going on with how Arlecchino is as a person

I don’t mind if she’s just very evil and deceptive bc if she totally had me fall for thinking she was less evil than she actually was that’s fun tbh. But I feel people suggest that’s all her character could be with no degree of like, “sympatheticness” or deep grey morality and that if her character did go there it would be automatically poor writing and genshin walking back on making a truly evil woman when IDK. I feel you can claim at this point they have left it open ended and it’s never been completely confirmed she’s pure evil. Also sometimes I just get a hunch and feel cautiously confident in Genshin executing certain characters well. Not all characters, just certain ones. Especially given Fontaine’s character writing being very good and a character like Lyney feeling very solid to me when any development with Arlecchino would likely involve him and his siblings as well, I honestly feel open to the idea of Arlecchino being satisfyingly written to be both villainous/morally dubious but “sympathetic/likable as a person” in ways outside of just her ruthlessness if that makes sense

If I’m wrong/they drop the ball with it more than I anticipate I’ll eat my hat but I am pretty excited about her character and which way they decide to go with it. I will say the only potential impression I have of where they’ll go with her has been wondering if it will go in a “cycles of abuse” direction—I’d be surprised if they ever elaborated on Arlecchino’s character especially in how she feels about things and her also growing up as an exploited child of the hearth wasn’t relevant

#arlecchino #see my track record with said hunch with when I feel I should let genshin cook has been #for months truthing my vision of xiao’s speififc brand of internalized dehumanization induced suicidal ideation #and how genshin will one day he will get another quest of sorts thst develops his character towards #the idea he’s allowed to live and enjoy people’s company and this will likely #also come with following through on yaksha lore and when they do this they will do him SO well and it will be peak genshin quest #all of this Months before the existence of perilous trails was even rumored #and then I was soo stubborn xiao would show up in 2023 lantern rite w more character introspection to follow up PT #and also from the first fontsine teaser I was in the trenches for furina bc I felt so confident #the main storyline would handle her very well & if genshin went anywhere near the direction of her #not being a ‘true archon’ & ppl were Wrong if they thought genshin woudlnt take her seriously #and HAHA. WWOOWOOWOWOEOEOOEOEE #I have also been sent into hysteria multiple times bc genshin keeps canonizing my exact ideas of my favorite character dynamics #and often exceeding my expectations that I thought were jsut wishful thinking #yes I predicted exactly how xiao would interact w Venti & zhongli on screen yes I predicted #the exact nature of hat radish friendship no I was wiped out on the floor #by nahida enrolling wanderer in college & calling him hat guy & zhongli saving xiao’s life #& xiao having hardcore social anxiety from zhongven flirting with each other st the dinner table #this sounds so conceited. see I often don’t know What genshin is cooking but k feel sure in knowing when soemthing is going to be #a shitshow or mediocre or when we need to let them cook. even if it takes 6+ months #TRUST ME <— guy who has been waiting on genshin to cook for several characters for multiple years and is still sure I will get my food #am I crazy. yes. am I also often right when I have hunches on when genshin is going to suck and when it’s going to be good esp character #writing wise. often yes #one day I will annihilate genshined impact with my bare hands #genshin #fern.txt #fandomferns

[mamawasatesttube]

just remembered how megfitz made tim think about how bernard is so much better than all the other relationships he'd "settled for" and was once again briefly consumed by rage. meghan you apologize to zoanne wilkins right the fuck now

#rimi talks #like also apologize to ari and steph and all but. i specifically am a zoanne wilkins stan blog until i die. so #i can't lie. this line alone made me dislike tim/ber significantly more than i did before reading it #and the rest of tdr did Not help with that. #protip: if you have to put down women in order to prop up your m/m ship i WILL hate that m/m ship out of spite immediately #especially when you do nothing to sell me on the ship other than going HEY THEYRE PERFECT BTW. THEYRE SO PERFECT TOGETHER. like... ok #can you tell me why they even like each other tho. (she cannot bc she doesnt know how to write a mediocre romance forget a compelling one) #god i really just. that comic was a trash fire. lord. the mentions of kon in it made the kill bill sirens go off in my head #anyways. its fine tdr isnt real it cant hurt me. but meghan does still owe my girls an apology lmao

[amee-racle-ofmyown]

I AM GOING TO POST THE HEIST DUO BEING SOFT AND DOMESTIC AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME‼️

bye I reached the tag limit💀

#the power I wield as a mediocre artist is insane #I have been. Thinking about this specifically for so long ok #just imagine with me #perhaps day after a heist #maybe he offered to take first watch again. but ended up staying up all night to let you sleep. again. #and so maybe now he's super tired #you're just cleaning dishes or cooking or something #and he slowly sidles up behind you #tightening his arms around your waist #he just stands there #breathing in your closeness #there were one too many close calls for his liking #feeling how solid and warm you are is comforting. the even rhythm of your breaths reassuring. #maybe a kiss pressed to your neck #he's just glad you're okay :) #and happy to have you here with him. to share everything you do with each other #OK WOW DAMN I JUST MADE MYSELF ALL🥺🥺🥺🥰 #my art #ahwm #partners in crime #heist mark x y/n #heist!mark x y/n #mark iplier #heist mark #heist!mark #ahwm y/n #yn sona #a heist with markiplier #markiplier egos #markiplier cu

[horsechestnut]

Reading Batgirl 2000 is making me want to write a Dark Batman fic.

#as a Stephanie Brown fan I thought I understood the worst parts of Bruce Wayne #but jesus christ the way he treats Cass in this comic is infuriating #no fucking wonder she decides perfect for a year is better than a life of mediocrity #the girl with no family who can barely communicate and you've shown zero interest in interacting with outside of Batman #doesn't give a shit about her secret identity? #NO SHIT #WHY SHOULD SHE??? #And your response to her making a 'mistake' #(one that literally any other bat would have intentionally chosen to make by the way) #is to take her away from the one person who's making any sort of attempt to give her a sense of identity #i will strangle this man #like i barely even have to do anything he's already doing the dark shit for me in canon #i read comics #batgirl 2000 #anti bruce wayne #cassandra cain #batgirl #batgirl ii #also glad to say that batgirl 2000 is actually as good as everyone says it is :) #the art isn't my favorite and I'm going to throttle bruce but I love the way Cass is characterized it's so fucking good

[partynthem]

sza’s masterpiece SOS losing album of the year to tayl*r swift’s boring pop album is literally janelle monae’s magnum opus dirty computer losing to kacey muskrat’s meaningless country album all over again

#call me trigged idc cos you’d be right #SOS was the album of the fucking year sza is the artist of the decade for that one #and to give aoty to taylor fucking swift for an album even swifties think is bad and boring??? oh my god dude #it’s 2018 all over again…. i CAN believe i lived to see another talented black woman be overlooked for the mediocre work of a white woman

[spirk-trek]

guys :')

#please don't tag him i'm shy lol #and it's so lame that i even care but :') #wil is one of those ppl i think it would be nice to sit down at a bistro with and eat mediocre baked goods and talk about mundane things #like dog breeds and city zoning and over 100 new species of frog being discovered last year #he just seems kind and pleasant #also btw it was the post about kirk and spock riding ponies in old fanzines......... #not even my own art #all he did was press a button lol society is weird #but anyway it still made my morning so what does that say about me!!! #misc me

[ofliterarynature]

Booklr, your LGBTQ+ book club recs please!

What are your favorite backlist, underrated, or obscure LGBTQ+ reads? The more diverse the better!

I’m part of a patron-led LGBTQ+ bookclub at one of my local libraries, and after a full year our book list is in need of a refresh. I’ve proven very bad at helping with this, as I’ve either read all the things or am too impatient to wait for it to get picked, lol.

The group is 18+ and open to all genres, but we are specifically NOT looking for YA, romance novels, or books with lots of queer trauma. Self-pub is also out for library-access reasons. Some of our favorite picks so far were My Volcano, Genderqueer, The Song of Achilles, and The Heartbreak Bakery. It doesn’t need to be a 4-5 star read, as long as it can foster good discussion!

#books #booklr #bookblr #lgbtq #book recommendations #bec posts #2023 #feel free to ask questions! #any responses from me in replies will be from justbeccaz FYI #again not looking for popular titles (I’ve probably read it or decided not to) #or super new ones (so we can get enough copies from the system) #also note I personally did not like some of the group favorites #and sometimes even bad or mediocre books led to good discussion! #book club restock

[melmedardasworld]

While I found Ivy and Vincent cute in TO, of course, the writers had to kill her off, leaving Vincent alone again. I wished him and Eva were written differently as a couple.

Imagine if Eva and Vincent did survive as a married couple. What if they did have their baby? Instead of that horrible, Eva sacrificing kids (a way to permanently kill her off so that Rebekah could be the one in her body) and that ridiculous Hollow/Inadu storyline. Another storyline that again reduced the WOC as this evil monster who was murderous and crazy and powerful because... why again? Also, I'm not sure if I remember it well, but didn't the writers allude to Eva and Vicent's unborn child becoming a sacrificed to the Hollow/Inadu? Just... sick.

Anyway, the covens were already looking up to Vincent and wanted him to become the next Regent after Josephine died. He and Eva could've been a power couple/elders for the covens in NOLA if they wanted to, of course. Vincent, stepping down to protect his wife and unborn, would've been an interesting story, too.

They were individually lauded as powerful witches in their community and by the regent herself. Together, they'd have made a stand against the vampires in the city for their people.

Finally, why could we not just get one wholesome (power) couple navigating the supernatural world as a growing family? A ⚫️ couple at that, too.

#vincent griffith #eva sinclair #she was wronged #the originals #this show is problematic cause why are witches who are powerful always do dark or black magic or do the most heinous things and have agency #or they say no more and they are seen as crazy evil #or obsessed yes looking at qetsiyah #like even dahlia too #but the ones supposedly on the good side are always punished for some reason or the other #its not even how witches are historically portrayed and I'm talking about female witches #the men other than vincent didn’t have these issues #thinking kai and silas i guess but he was a mediocre witch lol

[crepuscularray]

Deercember Day Thirty: Megaloceros giganteus | Great Feast

Megaloceros giganteus, also known as the Irish elk, giant deer, or Irish deer, is an extinct species and is one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended across Eurasia during the Pleistocene, from Ireland (where it is known from abundant remains found in bogs) to Lake Baikal in Siberia. The most recent remains of the species have been radiocarbon dated to about 7,700 years ago in western Russia. Its antlers, which can span 3.5 meters (11 ft) across, are the largest known of any deer. It is not closely related to either living species called the elk (Alces alces or Cervus canadensis), with it being widely agreed that its closest living relatives are fallow deer (Dama spp.). A handful of Irish elk depictions are known from the art of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. However, these are much less abundant than the common red deer and reindeer depictions. The bones of the Irish elk are uncommon in localities where they are found, and only a handful of examples of human interaction are known. More information here.

References: Deer, Megaloceros Design 1, Megaloceros Design 2, Cat, Smilodon Design, Style Suggestion.

#Extinct representative for one of my three “free” days #I'll give myself a little treat and do something easy #I said #cave art should be fast #well to be fair it was fast #but boy this is challenging to do well #so I said fuck it and did it mediocre LOL #didn't even dabble into the wild proportions of Pleistocene art #idek if I could tbh #did learn some stuff tho so that was cool #SECOND-TO-LAST DAY #btw these species did not coexist so some significant liberties were taken for sure #I just needed two well-researched species for the period and this is how things went #Deercember #realHum #Art #Drawing #deer #deer art #paleoart? #Megaloceros giganteus #Irish elk #giant deer #Irish deer #Smilodon fatalis #saber-toothed cat #saber-toothed tiger

[in-the-sweet-november-rain]

--

#can someone help me feel something? #its just so hard to fucking keep going you know? #i have 0 purpose exept to be second place and watch other people succeed #no one seems to care anymore that i'm still here #and i basically not even part of my friend group anymore (i never was in the first place they just tolerated me) #like whats the fucking point? #i don't win anything- i'm not good at anything #just middling and mediocre at EVERYTHING! #and i just ant someone to want me #like theres nothing keeping me on this planet #so why stay #i try to feel something- i rly do #but i can't #the knot in my stomach keeps getting tighter and tighter until i eventually push everyone away and break and the cycle repeats #sry to be this depressing on valentines day #but idk anymore... livings hard #and i'd rather not #getting out of bed is so hard knowing no one wants to see you or here you or know you #but i have to #and life goes on #and i'm just swept with the current #because thats all i'll ever amount to <3 #i sound so ungrateful and stupid #but idk somethings obviously wrong with me and i don't know how to stop it #vick's venting again