I'll rip in hands and teeth and take a bite

The one bizarre thing to me about textiles is that warp-weighted weaving is at least 6500 years old, but our oldest knitted artifacts are only ~1000 years old, and crochet 200 years old. Even though you need less equipment to knit (two sticks) or crochet (one hook) compared to warp-weighted weaving (frame, loom weights, batting, heddles). Why the big gaps between these inventions? And why did each one appear and spread when it did?

for months i had this obsession with wing shape.

the majority of feathered wings have an underlying musculature almost akin to a thumb. the primary feathers - sometimes called "flight feathers" - are those long feathers that seem to "hang off" of the wing. they're actually connected to the "hand" (literally the manus) of the bird and can be individually rotated. they are responsible for the majority of thrust during the downstroke, and while the number of them depends on speciation; the majority of birds will have between 9 and 11 of these feathers (as opposed to secondary flight feathers; their shorter partners, which vary from 6 to 40).

i started attaching them to the silhouettes of people, drawing angels tumbling out of buildings and running late to work and skipping class to smoke outside of a 7-11. i drew angels eating apples and doing their homework and pushing their hair back from their eyes and holding a pencil. the margins of all of my poems had feathers raining down the side of the page.

i was in the worst depression of my life and had decided i was giving up on the idea of freedom. i would be a happy wife to a mediocre husband and the angels would come and pass their wings over my eyes and let me feel nothing but numbness. i would have a life like an echo. i would never enter my body without knocking first - it would carry all this weight, and i would be sleeping peacefully, my soul somewhere out there, flying with wings.

she laughed and came over and sat next to me, and smelled of lavender. whenever she talked, a strange harmony stole into my heart; something that was only memory and no words. not an echo - an answer.

inside of her sketchbook were hundreds of pictures of birds.

OH ARTHUR BENNETT.. such a gorgeous and intriguing character. terribly burdened by a GRUESOME set of crimes, his light suffocated by a HEAVY century of GUILT. so tragic, so dark and broody, and yet PAINFULLY awkward in any social setting ever

(This ask may be sent twice sorry - my wifi is acting up)

Would you ever consider publishing physical comics of the series? I'm not sure about the intricacies of how that's done but I would absolutely love having it as a book, it would be so cool

Also, do you think Steven would have any interest in yarn/crafting hobbies? I think it could fit well with his interest in fashion and would help a bit with all his stress

Unfortunately, since this is technically copywrited content, I have no plans to publish anything and would not be able to if I could.

Even if I did make physical copies, due to the fact that I live in Japan, shopping costs would be through the roof. Y'all would hate me.

As for yarn/crafting... 😂 I suppose I can see WD!Steven getting into it! Maybe he would, in the future. Especially if he could make clothes.

I don't know how much I would be able to write it, though, because the only time I've tried knitting (I think it was technically crocheting?) I became stressed to the point of angry yelling within 5 minutes and vowed to never touch another needle again. Something about the physical texture of doing those yarn crafts sends me spiraling into a mild overstimulation rage immediately. I don't know how people find them relaxing.

Hello!

If you're not too busy, would you mind listing some of the things you think count as death flags for Mr. Spender?

There's the obvious fact that he's the "old" mentor to group of young protagonists, but what else do you think would count?

OHH BOY ok so I'd think I'm a crackpot for this but since we're talking about Zack "Foreshadowing" Morrison. I have some thoughts

No harm in leading with the (chronologically) first thing that jumped out at me:

This one IMMEDIATELY made me antsy whenever I came back to it after my initial read, and considering Zack has referred to it on twitter in the past as one of their favorite jokes it's definitely not been forgotten about.

Second, the sheer amounts of near-misses, jokey or not, of Spender narrowly avoiding specifically lightning

Again, not much, but it's weird that it happened thrice, latter two of which had real gravitas rather than an one-off joke.

And third, Spender himself. He's repeatedly shown himself to be kind of a self sacrificing idiot, as well as prideful to a fault. Granted, it's both him and Mina trying to take on all the responsibility of saving Mayview and its inhabitants from their fate.. But Spender is exactly that right measure of doesn't-value-himself-enough (chest footprint aftercare or lack thereof), having an obscene amount of power (enables his loner act + pride) and poor judgement that has the capacity to put him at great risk. And it has!

Spender has not only shown low enough self-esteem to view himself as the de-facto scapegoat for the safety of the town, but also prideful enough to make very bad calls that end up in people, often himself, hurt (COUGH FORGE INCIDENT COUGH)

This is all conjecture, but it's definitely enough to make me worried about him :') Even if all this doesn't mean he'll necessarily die he's definitely getting (even more) seriously injured at some point. I love the guy but he's so far doing a horrible job of convincing me he wants to live bad enough to circumvent at least that

Have you ever noticed the parallels between the nameless child Kunikuzushi took care of pre-Fatui and Nahida and get the feeling that history will repeat Although this time perhaps, bc Nahida is a god, by the time the Wanderer has found her she'd have shrunk down into a tiny leaf, easily blown away, easily crushed underfoot if one was not careful. With shaky breaths, he cups her with one trembling hand while ripping the cloth of the left side of his shirt with the other, creating a hole where the heart should be. The skin on his chest cracks, and a door swings open, revealing a compartment once built for holding the cursed remains of god. The Wanderer, now hunched over like a pilgrim in prayer, brings the leaf close to his chest and gently places it in the compartment. For the first time in his life, he was grateful for his long life, the super resilience of his body made by Irminsul. If there's nothing else he could do, he could wait. He will wait. He will make sure Nahida sees the brilliance of the sun once more. One day, they shall be reunited.

@feroluce babe, there's someone at the door for you!

This hitting every single one of my partner in crime's buttons aside, it also hits a lot of mine so I in fact had not noticed but I will now happily be noticing. I had thought of making use of his gnosis compartment before, but in a much less... Wholesome context. This one, though, I also like.

Especially the bittersweet realization that as the Wanderer finally gets what he's been craving for centuries - the power of a god, feeble as it may have become, hosted within his body - letting him fulfill the very purpose he was created for at last... He feels nothing. None of the satisfaction, of the elation he long thought would come with this moment. Instead, he's alone, and he feels more hollow than ever.

(But he's used to feeling alone, and this is something he's learned to endure. And endure it he will, because the faint thrum of divine energy in his chest beats gently like a promise - this time you know you won't be alone forever.)

Hey, this isn’t related to the story but I was curious how you got started with twine? Your story inspired me and I want to learn the program so I can make my own. I wanted to see if you had any advice or reference points. Perfectly fine if not, much love regardless!

I've messed with Twine on and off for a while now, so I'm not sure when I actually got into it? It was probably when I originally got into IFs back in like 2015 lol

I use Twine Sugarcube specifically, and I pretty much just watched/read through these:

Twine or Treat: a youtube playlist where a guy shows you how to make a game. Focuses more on making an exploration/puzzle game in Twine, but still has some useful/relevant info

Introduction to Twine: another video playlist, although again, I really only watched what I needed

The Twine Grimoire: there's 3, with each one going through more complicated concepts each volume, includes Harlowe as well as Sugarcube

Sugarcube (and Harlowe) also have their own documentation, but it's so Long and Daunting that I honestly just ignored it when I first started LOL. It's obviously useful to have and reference, but I always need to watch people doing the thing first. I really struggle with just reading through things personally. I'm comfortable enough with Twine now that it isn't overwhelming though lol

Also I'd argue you really only need to learn how to set variables to get started with IFs. Once you know how passages work and how variables work, you're almost set to make an IF.

I'd also recommend learning the very basics HTML and CSS just in case. There's plenty of Twine templates available for free on itch.io, but if you want to adjust them in any way, it's helpful to know CSS/HTML. Also just have fun and mess around! From visual novels to this IF, my learning process has honestly just been 'fuck around and find out' and it's been useful so far! I also think it helps with the inherent anxiety of trying something new too

But yeah, hopefully some of this is helpful/useful to you!

…what have tinhatters done to Millions

oh yk it hasn't been so bad recently but there used to be a day where you couldn't scroll ur dash without seeing jokes (among more serious theories) abt how millions is about (and directed at/a dig at) frank/frerard specifically. bums me out when ppl engage with frank and gerard's solo work through frerard goggles and settle for shallow out-of-context readings of certain lines/songs bc it's just...so reductive and deliberately obtuse yk? obvs all of gerard's lyrics are open for interpretation by design and when enough ppl choose to interpret them in a tinhatty way it starts being considered fact in some circles. there is so much more to engage with in this art...and millions definitely got the worst of that which is kinda sad bc it's such a vulnerable and meaningful song and is sort of the centrepiece of a lot of hesitant alien's themes about navigating fame and dehumanisation, success and expectation, martyrdom and survival. millions literally has a line that is, imo, a pretty explicit statement that continuing mcr would've killed him (the "wake up breathing" part), but to so many ppl all it is is "oooh the frank-getting-rejected-by-gerard song...so cold..."

like it's just kinda annoying to see ppl insist there's No Other Possible Interpretation of the "william it was really me" verse than a catty dig at frank when...hesitant alien is very intentionally an out-of-time britpop album and that is a smiths reference and britpop notoriously helped normalise musicians being seen as personalities, not just artists, by the media, with publicised and sensationalised fueds, fallings out, etc etc. gerard grew up listening to britpop and reading those interviews alone, then consciously emulated some of those ppl during his career, and in millions it's like he's looking at that from the other side of fame...etc etc i could go on. not saying this is the only interpretation either, just that there is so much context there (outside frerard fan theories) to consider and engage with and for a while so many ppl wouldn't acknowledge that haha

How are you holding up now that you are on the other side of the campaign? -🐉

ask me again in a week when I’ve had more time to process this. aaah.

no, I’m good. in denial, for sure. slightly in shock and also quite frustrated haha, but I’m good. I’m good. yeah. I’m good.

narrator: she was, in fact, not doing good. 🥹

Came across this and remembered the post you made about young Cody being attracted to wet cat middle aged obiwan, it's reptiles instead of bugs but feels very adjacent to what you were talking about

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46453954

Huh, eerie. Probably not the first or only fic with this vibe, though, lol.

On the off chance it was inspired by the mentioned post, I'd hope they link it at some point, but with the number of Codywan fics out there, I'm pretty sure there have been fics in that vein many times before and surely there will be more in the future.

already done :)

every night i wake up and say "this is the night i respond to my friends' messages" and every morning i say "i swear i'll do it when i wake up"

actually has anyone talked about the fact that a central point that has multiple songs dedicated to it in hazbin s1, an adult show set in hell and overflowing with violence-sex-swearing-etc, is the power of love

what are some your hc’s for tedtrent!! go crazy please!! :))

oh man oh man i know i have a whole bunch of them that i cannot for the life of me remember on the top of my head rn, which is why this ask is taking so long for me to answer but HMM...

i know that people like to make Trent out to be this, experienced Elder Gay type of guy but in my heart i know he's just as inexperienced to it as Ted (who, in my head, is bisexual, recently found out during his time in london or during the amsterdam episode even) and they're just two people falling in love in the most "I don't know how to do this, but I want to atleast try" way and at times get soo so so overwhelmed that someone loves them as much as they love the other. maybe their communication is absolute shit, maybe Trent doesn't even realize they're on their 3rd date and thought it was something similar to the indian restaurant where Ted just brought him along for dinner, i just think it could all be very silly, very intimate, just all around driving me up the damn walls!!!!!

oh also Trent absolutely hates Ted's whole, open jar peanut butter left on the counter for him to dip his finger into, thing. wishes daily that Ted would just use a darn spoon like a normal person 😭

Need you to listen to Wondering Why by The Red Clay Strays and think of Ace please please please

Okay okay listen... When I heard the very first lyrics of this song when I tell you this might actually be CobraBaby's theme... OH MY GOD

YOU ACTUALLY WANT ME TO CRY RN??? LIKE ACTUALLY FALL TO MY KNEES FREAKING OUT TRYING TO CRAWL THROUGH MY PHONE AND HUG YOU??? YOU BRILLIANT BEAUTIFUL MIND YOU

EVEN ON ITS OWN ITS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL ACE SONG IM MIGHT GO CRAZY RN