The Rules Do Not Apply: A Memoir

By Ariel Levy.

Design by Lynn Buckley.

“If byler were both girls nobody wou-“ yes they would! as someone who grew up sapphic I would love them even more!

@rainyydazze Ty for putting this in my brain

even after settling down, theyre pretty cautious.....

.......it doesnt last long

ideal ship dynamic: guy who’s the most mentally unstable person you’ve ever heard of in your entire life x guy who wants to bang them so bad it has them saying things like “nothing wrong with that guy. they’re completely normal and sane”

[id: 10 gifs from season 2, episode 21 “the maquis part 2” from the tv series “star trek: deep space nine”, the gifs show commander benjamin sisko, and major kira nerys in sisko’s office.

1st & 2nd gif: sisko is standing inside his office, he talks to himself ““establish a dialogue.” what the hell does she think i've been trying to do?” kira comes into sisko’s office, she calls out to him, “commander.” but sisko picks up once more from where he stopped with his rhetorical question, “just because a group of people belong to the federation,”

3rd gif: the camera cuts to kira. sisko is still talking, “that does not mean that they are saints.” kira interrupts sisko, “excuse me.” but sisko asks her instead “do you know what the trouble is?” kira shakes her head before replying, “no.”

4th & 5th gif: the camera cuts back to sisko, who walks from behind his office to stand in front of kira. “the trouble is earth.” sisko starts to reply, and kira interjects with a “really?”, sisko continues, “on earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. you look out the window of starfleet headquarters and you see paradise. well, it's easy to be a saint”

6th gif: the camera cuts to a close of kira, she is listening to sisko, “in paradise, but the maquis do not live in paradise.”

7th, 8th, 9th, & 10th gif: the camera cuts to show sisko pacing back and forth, before stopping in front of kira. he is clearly frustrated and agitated by starfleet’s response to the situation “out there, in the demilitarized zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. out there, there are no saints, just people -- angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with the federation's approval or not.” /end id]  

guillermo can’t fuck his boss! the coffin isn’t osha compliant

truuulyyyy incredible how quickly mina’s position in the crew of light goes from Sweet Girl to President Of The Universe Basically

One of the biggest things that makes me see Leo as trans is absolutely the size of his carapace in comparison to his brothers’.

And I’m not talking about height! I’m specifically looking at his shell here, because when you compare him to the others, particularly Donnie who is nearly the same height as Leo, it’s very clear that Leo’s carapace is much longer in proportion to the rest of his body.

Like - standing side by side, even though Donnie is shorter his carapace ends noticeably higher up than Leo’s does. And I like this not only because it really helps push the idea that Leo could very likely be trans (or intersex!), but it’s also just a fun design difference between them.

(It also lends way to future scenarios of Donnie eventually getting taller than Leo, but sitting down still has Leo being the taller one haha.)

does the narrator have a canon design?

loving reminder as someone who struggles with food: you are allowed to add joy to your food. you are allowed to add a little joy even if it’s a tiny thing, something silly or something weird. you are allowed to do it whenever you want, as many times as you want. anything that makes food easier and more enjoyable for you is worth it!! it’s your food, you can decide what to do with it!! you can add rainbow sprinkles to your ice cream. you can cut your food into little heart shapes. you can pack your snacks into cute little bento boxes. it is not pointless or childish, it is an effective and active coping tool that you are allowed to use.

give yourself a little joy. the little things add up.

If Pinestar was the Mi of his kits, why didn’t he try to take any of them with him when he left? Like Brightsky keeping some of her litter. He knew how the clans were, he was specifically leaving to get away from it, why did he choose to leave his children behind?

It wasn't a choice. Brightsky gave birth in the home she bolted to; Pinestar wasn't going to be allowed to take his children unless he snuck out with them.

He wishes he did something, when he sees what became of his son. But he tried to be brave when he left, announcing that he would not be coming back, and where he would be going.

He thought that was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, no one else appreciated it the way he hoped they would.

If he DID though, ThunderClan would not have allowed that. They see it as kidnapping. Being Mi doesn't mean you're allowed to do literally anything you want, especially if you do have a Ba involved.

In cases of handoffs (surrogacy, secret halfclan kits being given to their other parent, etc) it's actually SUPER important you do it before 1 moon, so you can pass the disappearance off as a fading kit. There are no funerals thrown for fading kits besides the Mi and any Ba quietly burying the body, so this is the time where you smuggle the baby out.

So you need all the Ba on board with such a handoff, in addition. Cloudtail is an example of that actually! When Brightheart surrogates, he is fully aware of how many are ACTUALLY faders and who is receiving their child.

Tigerkit was like 3-ish moons when Pinestar hit da bricks, unfortunately there wasn't a way he could take him along... plus it wouldn't quite make sense with how he was having nightmares about murdering his son.

MI brainrot

Ethan comes out of the therapist office looking effortlessly cool. This is not a good sign. He’s got his mission face on, wearing something that could be conceived as a smile if you haven’t seen his proper one, which is crooked and a bit too wide, unleashed when he’s being brutally mocked by a dear friend or has one of his signature puns turned around on him. When mission face is off he’s intense, makes an amount of eye contact that on paper is around average, but feels interrogative when you’re under it. He’s moving smoothly, too. Benji knows for a fact that with his ribs and knee he should be walking in his usual lope, but he’s walking like he’s in poker game at gun point. Benji takes him home. In the kitchen, after small talk and tea, Ethan’s still got his game face on but he’s icing his leg and Benji’s given him a pamphlet so they don’t have to look at each other. Ethan tells him after 10 minutes, on the dot. “I’ve been jittery after missions where I didn’t use to be. The shrink says I’m not passively suicidal anymore, that’s why. Says I probably have been for a while, didn’t know.” He’s talking like he’s conserving money on a telegram. He hasn’t looked up from the pamphlet. Benji makes him another cup of tea, and after the next mission holds him by his uninjured body part (right shoulder seems okay) with enough pressure for him to feel it until he settles a little. Ethan thanks him with a foot rub the next week, long enough later that most people wouldn’t have connected it. Benji loves him, chooses to. It’s always been a choice for him, when he’s not in physical danger he can stack feelings around the corners of the problem till he’s looking straight through it. It’s what made him such a good technician, and it’s one of the things that made him decide to love Ethan at first. He can’t. He’ll buckle down and work through it, but always as a person. Benji will stay while Ethan works out how to feel like a person again.

The Warners' Surprisingly Fitting Concerns

You know, I never gave it much thought (outside of this dumb joke) but each Warner's verse in "We Could Try to Do It, Santa" fits their personality pretty well and is about the thing they'd naturally be the most concerned about in that situation.

Yakko's Verse:

At first his verse is about how they can't deliver the presents without Santa's magic and how they'd have to upgrade Santa's sleigh so it can fly fast enough to travel the world in one night, but then it's revealed his true major concern is how that would result in the reindeer getting hurt:

"Prancer and the others might burn up if we're that fast"

"And a sonic boom would work its way through Dasher, Donner, Dancer,

Soon engulfing Cupid, Comet; Santa, this can't be the answer!

See the last thing that we'd wanna do is make the reindeer yelp!"

As a protective older sibling, naturally Yakko would assume Santa of all people would want to protect the reindeer given that they are under his care, like how Yakko tries to protect his sibs. I think the switch up in the verse's focus also reflects how although Yakko's snarky yet jovial nature means he's not quick to be emotionally open and often hides or undercuts his sincerity with snark or humour; he still clearly deeply cares for his sibs and that will eventually show.

Wakko's Verse:

Well Wakko's verse is unsurprisingly about food, but I also wanna point out how it easily has the most extreme consequences of the three, given that the whole of Earth shatters.

This reflects how Wakko tends to go to extremes the most out of the Warners. Need to do a gag about having eyes at the back your head? Wakko will have nine rather than just two. The Warners are bouncing on springs during an earthquake? Wakko's bouncing on a spring upside down, etc.

The little guy loves being extra.

Dot's Verse:

Dot suggests spying on people in her verse. Dot specifically would be the Warner to sing about this when you remember her whole schtick is acting cute and innocent, but being way tougher, craftier and more violent than she appears.

She more than anyone would know that there's often more to people than meets the eye, and hence would be the one to point out the need for wiretaps, logs of web searches, etc. until they had a "constant feed of every single child on Earth" if they wanted to know what the each child in the world was truly like.

Grian and pearl are the only 2 that remember things from other worlds. Grian didn't realise others forgot other worlds until talking to them, and recieving blank stares. Jubilant when pearl mentioned other smp's offhand.

Oh also tango remembers Jimmy due to strong emotions

ooh... is this because of Evo? if so, then Jimmy might know more than he lets on. he did remember Grian and Tango very clearly during the crossover. i wonder if any of them have realized why they're the only ones who remember.

i also wonder how incredibly confused Grian gets seeing Tango remember his rancher. he's never remembered before! has he been hiding it?

-Mod Mleem

taking emergency commissions! for the next week, i'll be running a sale on quick doodle commissions for $10! up to 3 characters, chibi or my default style only :] to snag one, message me on here or at [email protected], describe your desired character(s), the expression and pose or action you want, then send the $10 up front to http://paypal.me/snufmins (if unable to use paypal, let me know in the message and i'll give you my cashapp or venmo). here are some examples of what you'd be getting as a doodle commission:

commission turnaround will be 2-3 days at most! thanks everybody✌️ciao for now