Friendly reminder to all protectors that you're a person too and you're allowed to just exist. You're allowed to front when something non stressful is happening. You're allowed to have hobbies or interests that aren't tied to being a protector. You're allowed to chill and relax a little, you're not stealing time from anyone I promise. You're allowed to cry or be sad or upset, you're not weak or a "bad protector" for doing so. You're a person too. It's great that you protect them but remember, you're not a shield, you're a person. You matter as much as the rest. The world won't end if you let yourself relax and live a little, I promise. You don't have to be strong all the time and I'm sorry if that is your current circumstance though, I promise it gets better. Just let yourself live and be a person. You've already done so much for them. You deserve some breaks and affection too

eek! scary!

Here's this year's annual birthday illustration!!! I think this one is my favorite one so far, happy shared birthday Miss Crown Prince! Spare me some of your long lifespan... 🥂🎂🎉

(+stupid silly discord interaction doodle featuring improvised funny touhousonas under the cut)

do u think that um. yk Julian was having a rough time in the later seasons. and ofc he wants to talk abt it, wants someone to help him process it, wants someone to just listen. but it's not easy to talk abt. and he wants to talk to Garak, wants Garak to know what's going on in his life, wants to be vulnerable and be met with support and care. but Garak is so emotionally unavailable and so unwilling to break his pleasant facade and so unwilling to deviate from their little social script. he was taught never to show care or vulnerability. and Julian gets so tired of playing their little game when, god, there's a war going on, his life is falling apart, can't Garak even acknowledge how bad things are for both of them? he doesn't need witty retorts, he needs sincerity. and Garak can't give him that. so he withdraws from their friendship. and it's not that Garak doesn't care. it's not that he doesn't want to help. but sincerity and vulnerability were beaten out of him a long time ago, and he doesn't know how to take off his mask. even just acknowledging genuine emotion is practically impossible for him. and maybe that's why ASIT is the apology that it is. it's saying, here, I've learned to be honest, I've learned to be vulnerable. I know the harm I caused you by refusing to acknowledge pain, so here's a whole book of me acknowledging pain.

60% of writing is daydreaming, 30% is editing, and 10% is getting words on the damn page omg

THE VIRMIRE SURVIVOR SURVIVORS

Spectre Ashley Williams & Spectre Kaidan Alenko "Not a lot of other people have had my back since the beginning..." Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

can i not even be a part of a whatsapp group about our local nature conservancy without that jumped up wannabe estate group in our area punting their shit

Some Nanite Project headcanon doodles and their explanations, going from left to right:

I doubt that Rex would say this exact thing but the idea is that, being a fairly lonely kid and someone who was probably easily bored even back then, Rex would’ve pestered the people around him a lot, which you know. Fair. I hc him as being a lot like he is now, but obviously more childish. Because literal child. So very inquisitive, curious, trusting, and empathetic, but easily bored and reckless. I feel like he would play on his own (or accidentally injure himself climbing on industrial equipment which just seems like something he just. Did. It also makes him currently being an adrenaline junkie make more sense) until he got bored (or injured) and then pester all the scientists around him that would tolerate him for long periods of time.

Next up is that Van Kleiss and Violeta Salazar (Rex’s mom) had similar or complimentary roles on the Nanite Project and thus worked together a lot. Judging by how Van Kleiss talks about Violeta in Written in Sand, they probably had a similar dynamic to Rex and Van Kleiss in that episode, except with a lot less sand and threat of imminent demise. This would be really funny to me. Also pictured Rex just hanging out, because he seems like he would be a momma’s boy. He is acting out a very tense and dramatic romance between these two cars and they are finally about to kiss. I also feel like current Rex would love K-dramas.

I honestly don’t think Van Kleiss hated or disliked Rex when Rex was a young child. I feel like he would’ve found him amusing at best, annoying at worst, and sort of weirdly endearing, but never being outright mean to him. Based on the tolerance he has for Rex’s shenanigans in the show while he has almost none for anyone else, even his own allies, this had to have started somewhere. If Rex was a chronic botherer, then someone who doesn’t get easily or outwardly annoyed would be the perfect target. Van Kleiss also still is not explaining shit, his favourite activity.

Finally, Rex naming ZagRS. This is actually one that I’ve had since I was about 14-15 because there’s no reason given for her name to be what it is. Like it’s not an acronym like GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System), and it sounds kind of like Zagreus, an ancient Greek deity that I cannot find anything on except for who his parents might be and that he might have some connection to Dionysus. In canon, Caesar mentions that Rex speaking Spanish makes him laugh because he has trouble with pronunciation. This recently led to a whole-ass rabbit hole where I came up with the theory that Rex has just always had trouble pronouncing words because of ADHD, which fed into my already existing headcanon of Rex having named ZagRS. Also I think that Caesar was another person Rex bothered a lot because Caesar has a tendency to be pretty chill. I kind of wonder if they had to keep Rex away from ZagRS because she was designed to destroy any nanites that got out of the holding tanks.

I honestly love making these theories and headcanons so if you want to see more or have questions just pop me an ask.

post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

— IF I HAD A HEART, I COULD LOVE YOU…

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bad news: i think i am sleep deprived enough to have opinions on the internet.

one 'trope' that's always really bugged me from the rottmnt fandom is the "poor mikey has to be the family therapist/most emotionally mature even though he's the youngest!!!"

and i mean? like, yeah, the 'family therapist' thing by itself has its merit, because I don't think anyone should have to be the 'family therapist' (though I don't necessarily think that describes mikey? like I think he WANTS to and does 'therapy' his family sometimes but I also don't think that this is something that everyone seeks or expects from him all the time?) but it's more like

the

the youngest thing

it grates on me when people act like it's such a tragedy or injustice that he's 'forced' to emotionally caretake for his family members at times when he's the 'baby.' but it's not like he's some child being taken care of/relied upon by adults? in both the show and most fanwork i've seen with this trope, he's doing a majority of this 'emotional caretaking' for his brothers. and like... raph is literally only two years older than him. why is it so messed up if mikey happens to have some more emotional maturity than him in some areas? why is it so horrendous if mikey takes care of raph? just because raph's a couple years older than him? this means it's bad for raph to ask for or want their sibling to take care of them sometimes? mikey shouldn't have to provide any emotional support or care, but raph should?

why is mikey not able to provide emotional support for his family without it being viewed as toxic or tragic just because he's the youngest? this is basically expected of raph as the eldest by the fandom. sure, there's lots of "aw poor raph had to raise his brothers" type stuff (which I also don't really agree with but that's another thing) but it's always in a light of "it's so messed up that raph had to parent his brothers instead of their dad" rather than "it's so tragic that raph is providing emotional support for his younger brother."

i hate this idea that because raph, leo, and donnie are a couple years older than mikey, they are able to protect and caretake for him and that's cute, wholesome "good sibling" content, but if mikey does the same for them, it's somehow tragic angst and reflects poorly on raph/leo/donnie.

completely normal tsukasa layouts i made in ms paint

april fool | reblog to use but why would you use this

Each of the batkids fav albums.

Dick: Speak now and 1989. (He does prefer tv of Speak now. And the vault songs from 1989 are some of his favs)

Barbra: evermore. (No body no crime is one of her favs.)

Jason: he is such a rep girlie. But he also listens to TTPD religiously (however he has a soft spot for castles crumbling from Speak now)

Cass: TTPD (Who's afraid of little old me is so her)

Steph: 1989 girlie. But she also loves folklore. (She actually preferred speak now and 1989 at first but folklore and evermore grew on her the more she listened to it. Now she sometimes just plays folklore and stares at the ceiling to wind down after a tiring day)

Tim: TTPD and 1989 (Him Dick Jay and Cas all cried together to I Hate It Here) (and he has happy memories attached with 1989 cus its the first ts album he heard when Steph played it for him.)

Duke: Speak now (idk. In all honesty I don't know much Abt his character. But he is a batkids so I don't wanna leave him out... And speak now is such a good album)

Damian: Reputation. (Idk. Felt like it ig.)

Bonus:

Bruce: Debut.

“ I always thought Narinder was the God of Death, but actually it might be you ”

An old cranky man taking in a cute kid that is better than him at every aspect of his own job. Then they may or may not get up to some shenanigans. The kid is the one having to do most of the job, though.

drawing raine every time it rains (day 9)

they’re starting at hexside tomorrow. they are scared.

starting to think about 90% percent of my problems in life are due to me having life ruining levels of executive dysfunction