Latest Posts by idrawtooslow - Page 5

Blitzø: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Adrealphus: I assure you, that is not possible.

Been awhile hasn't it

The "Christmas Mindfulness" Episode

(This is a story concept for an episode of an ensemble-cast TV show, or maybe a webcomic or something. @homunculus-argument posted a story concept back in October that reminded me of it, but I decided not to put this on a reblog of that, because really, the only similarity is vibes.)

The story arc revolves around two characters: one is relatively new to the story's Found Family, and absolutely loves Christmas, or at least believes in spending "the Holidays" with people one loves. It helps if they're also either cheerful, a bit pushy, or both. I'll call this character "Willy."

The other character, for self-care reasons, always spends Christmas alone. By their own deliberate choice. For them, being alone at Christmastime is their way of celebrating their escape from their abusive family, or from some other tragic backstory that makes Christmas traditions especially distasteful or triggering. It helps if this is also a fairly introverted or pessimistic character. I'll call this second character "Wonty."

This is Willy's first or second Christmas with the Found Family, and Willy's excited about it, but they also learn that Wonty always chooses to spend Christmas alone. Willy sees this as tragic and concerning, and decides that Wonty needs their sympathy, company, and guidance. Either the rest of the group doesn't realize what Willy is planning to do, or Willy doesn't listen to or believe the others.

Willy prepares a quiet, low-key Christmas experience just for Wonty, designed to "fix" Wonty's attitude toward Christmas, then invites themself over to Wonty's home. You see, Willy doesn't understand that Wonty is enjoying spending Christmas alone. That possibility hasn't even occurred to Willy. In Willy's mind, they are making a noble sacrifice by skipping the Found Family's Christmas party, and instead trying to bring Wonty around to the joy of Christmas.

Wonty, answering their door, declines to invite Willy in. Wonty explains that they prefer to spend Christmas alone, celebrating their safety and independence. Willy brushes this off, and insists on being invited in, insists that Wonty needs this, until finally Wonty relents and decides to try and get this over with.

As Willy practices Christmas upon Wonty (if the narrative is set in modern North America, I like the idea that watching "Die Hard" together is Willy's plan), Wonty just gets more and more miserable every moment. Willy can see this, and gets more and more anxious and desperate to cheer Wonty up and change Wonty's mind.

Eventually, out of frustration and confusion, Willy does something that's inappropriate, something that crosses a boundary of some sort, just to try and reach Wonty in Wonty's deepening funk. This leads to a moment in which both characters are shocked by what just happened, then Wonty firmly asks Willy to leave. This bit probably depends a lot on how the actual characters would navigate this situation, but Willy does leave, whether immediately or after trying to salvage their plan.

Afterward, Willy ends up at the Found Family's annual Christmas party. Willy has themself a pity party over what happened, and expresses deep concern over Wonty's lack of Christmas spirit. The rest of the Found Family, or perhaps just a Heart or surrogate parent character, explains the details of Wonty's tragic backstory and reasons for isolating themself from Christmas celebrations, and lays down some home truths for Willy about boundaries and respecting differences. Some people just aren't going to see the world the way we do, and that's okay, and worth respecting.

There's no real reason Willy can't figure out some of the above paragraph on their own, except the concept has to come through to the audience somehow. Also, Willy now realizes that Wonty did try to explain all of this, but they steamrolled Wonty and didn't listen. Willy spends the rest of the evening processing all of this.

The next time Willy meets Wonty at their shared experience, or some other place Willy can approach Wonty in public, Willy presents Wonty with a thoughtfully-chosen peace offering, something they've found out, after some effort, that Wonty will genuinely enjoy. Willy apologizes honestly to Wonty and acknowledges what they did, promising never to visit them on Christmas or try to "fix" them, ever again. Wonty points out that the honest apology and clear contrition make a great deal of difference, and forgives Willy.

Hooray, everyone is okay again, and we grew in the process! The end.

Is there a trope for a character with a phrophecy but rather than it being like: you’re gonna do something great, it instead foretells them to do something awful.

Closest official TVTropes entry is the "Apocalypse Maiden", an innocent person who's very unhappy about being prophecied to unleash some apocalyptic horror.

YES, Fizz's parts are the ones that are living rent-free in my head, oh, I know the empty sick feeling in his stomach far too well!

Fizz in Mastermind

“I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace.”

— Federico García Lorca

My local library has thrown away its reference section. "That stuff is all online, now."

They have thrown away most of their archive. What remains is buried in the basement under junk, and all record of its contents is lost. They have no interest in doing anything with it.

For job hunting tips, we direct you to the three biggest job hunting websites.

Homework help and tutoring comes from a local NGO, when they can afford it, although they do use our building.

We do finally have crafts, though! We turned the quiet room and the young adult reading area into a luxurious crafting station.

Legal aid isn't available. We can refer you to a local lawyer, or that local NGO. But you can look up documents online, and print them for free!

I tried to provide compassionate human connection when I worked there, but that's one of the reasons I was let go. Apparently that's something patrons are supposed to provide each other.

And we still have books! We have more and more books about fewer and fewer things, and soon we will have more fiction than ever, we just have to get rid of all the useless nonfiction that's not about hobbies, home renovation, cooking, or poetry. Nobody ever reads those books, they're just taking up space we could use for James Patterson novels!

Truly, there's no better time to visit your local library.

@whyisthereacentaur Goat alert

a tender heart

@glitzbot

Revisiting the drow, playing some more with uncanny bird anatomy.

There's at least as much Hermetic and/or Merkabah imagery in Evangelion as Christian imagery, if not more.

NGL the idea of being properly seen unlocking one's latent superpowers is a pretty banger concept

Absolutely astonished that while helping a lady today she turned and said, “Your eyes are different colors!”

Reader. My eyes are different colors but it’s so subtle that I’ve had close friends who couldn’t tell the difference. I’ve excitedly told people only to have them clock it and go, “That’s it?”

I’ve had multiple people I’ve known for years see my eyes in sunlight and go, “Oh! Your eyes are green!”

Mom mother still calls me her blue eyed girl.

But here comes this beautiful lady. Who I’d only known for five minutes was just gushing about how cool it was that one of my eyes was greener and the other bluer and how she desperately wanted a dog with heterochromia and how she thought it was super noticeable.

My day is made. I feel like an anime protagonist. I could leap a tall building. I think this unlocked superpowers, probably.

Hmm. So, then, THX-1138 is a queer story?

Yeah. Yeah, that checks. That prosecutor at the trial is absolutely a rabid foaming queerphobe, the one the judge issues a warning to…

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK none of this would be intentional from George Lucas or anyone else?

I am going to be thinking about this all day.

You know, on the topic of 'can you be meaningfully queer in this game', I'm going to say that the game doesn't have to be a romance-centric game (eg Monsterhearts) to meet that threshold.

I'm going to take a slightly left-field example: Paranoia. In this (black humour dystopia) game, everybody is a clone grown in a vat, and fed a steady diet of mood-altering pills to keep them complient that - among other things - suppresses your libedo, to ensure there won't be non-vat-grown humans, and further the society strongly discourages romance in general.

This isn't the focus of the game, but it still means that the game presents us with a hegemonic standard for sexuality and relationships (they don't happen), and ways to be non-normative, and the decision to do so is meaningful.

An entirely heterosexual couple holding hands in Paranoia is - because their relationship is so non-normative the the game's scope, and will have serious consequences for them - a more queer story than any gay tiefling found families in D&D.

In Paranoia, the decision to engage in a sexual or romantic relationship is a meaningful one, in a way it isn't in D&D.

(You will note that romance is not mechanised in Paranoia, nor is it going to be a common mode of play, but the game does mention 'forbidden romance' as a potential plot hook).

Oh, hey, are the Helluva Boss goat fans gonna invade the Cult of the Lamb fandom now?

Sure, I'm down. I have no clue, but I can help organize.

The cult shall continue to grow

Every time I remember that nearly everyone, even people who have never heard of The Far Side, knows what a "thagomizer" is, my brain gets a little spritz of endorphins from the fact that something, that was part of my weirdness growing up, has breached containment and is here to stay.

@strange-aeons

UPDATE: Yes, the kittens do live next door. We had no idea!

The problem with having "free range" cats is that they will annex properties and people you don't have control over, into their territory. I hope they eventually learn that the neighbors' dogs can't keep them safe up here. At least they'll put a dent in the vole population.

This is here because I can't post photos on the local message board. I'm trying to find the owner of these two kittens before the raccoons get them.

I find that almost everyone wants to find a way to convince themselves that they're smarter than the smart guy. I get confidently-incorrected all the time where I have a reputation for being "the smart guy," but people who don't know me very well, or haven't met me before, almost never try to correct me unless I say something really surprising.

The thing about tumblr is that you could make an entirely reasonable post like "hey in a pinch you can use potato starch as dry shampoo, just sprinkle it on top and comb it in, you can wash it off later and it'll be completely fine", and there's going to be someone reblogging this like

"sure this is safe and ok IN SOME CASES but ONLY if you're 100% sure that the thing you're using is potato starch and not something else, like laundry detergent! DO NOT EVER just sprinkle random powders into your hair before you're sure you've identified it correctly! You could burn your scalp off by following OP's advice without question!"

...Like are you sure that this is a real problem that people might actually have, or did you just feel like it should now be your turn to be talking?

Dark eyes open in what the adventurers thought was a tree. Now fully alert, they can easily make out the massive, spreading colossus staring down at them. It speaks to them in a deep groan that echoes through the misty forest.

"LEAVE THIS PLACE..."

The Mercenary stammers as he steps forward. "We... we didn't mean--"

"THE WAY YOU FOUND IT."

"Oh."

This is here because I can't post photos on the local message board. I'm trying to find the owner of these two kittens before the raccoons get them.

Look at this. Look. At. This.

I don't give a flying flet how unfinished or crude this is. I love it. It's cute and whimsical and the lack of polish just inspires me to share my own stuff.

At the same time, I am awed by anyone who is able to coax this much of their artistic vision out of a damn computer.

Hehe, cow

I call the seagull Frank Abigull, Jr.

He walks around the cruise terminal with one wing folded up crooked, so the wingtip sticks out and nearly drags on the ground. He looks like he has a broken wing.

If I eat on a seagull's patch, I'll share. I'm that used to paying rent for every damn thing. Same for crows.

Anyway, I don't know if his wing was ever really broken or not, but when he needs to, Frank can fly just fine.

It may be that he's learned to drag his wing in order to con the tourists and event-goers.

Yeah, the harpy is me IRL at pretty much anything vaguely like a party.

Fortunately for me, some people actually like that kind of thing!

girls night girls night

It's like Jim Woodring but quiet, and without the mental nausea. I love it all.

I'm thinking of rewatching MH after many, many years, but I missed a lot by only watching Marble Hornets and totheark. Would anyone have suggestions on how to find a good selection of the other content without spending hours trying to track it down and contextualize it?

best trope is when the Really Important Character falls to pieces when they try to do a regular task. she’s the Slayer of Nine Worlds, Mistress of Darkness, Daughter of the Blade of Heaven but she can’t tie her shoelaces. he is the only one who can wield the Sword of Time but he’s useless at starting a fire. they’re the most powerful mage in six generations but they’ve been reading the map upside down the whole time. god’s specialest little guys

@is-it-a-man

I swear to god one of these days were going to see a video of Amaury Guichon and he's going to be making some wings and they are going to look dope as hell, the detail of each feather will be breathtaking, he'll spray paint them to perfection, but as the video goes on, he's not building any sort of winged creature, just the wings. And then there's a human-sized harness (also made of chocolate, somehow, he can do it). And he's attaching the wings to the harness. And he's putting the harness on and he demonstrates how he can flap the wings. And then he'll be off. Out the window and up and up and up. And we'll be looking at the livestream (it's a livestream now) and we'll scream "No, Amaury, the sun! It's going to melt the wings!". But he knows this already. And he is free.

I didn't notice who reblogged this and I was WONDERING where the heck it was going...

Which made it all the sweeter to find out it's an Emberlynn joke!

Gravity Falls doodles!!

As I was driving home through the forest recently, ahead of me I saw an old pickup truck pull over onto the shoulder and put its hazard lights on. A young woman wearing handmade clothing jumped out of the truck and ran 200 feet back up the road. As I passed, I saw her scoop up a newt she'd seen crossing the road, and carry it into the forest, before running back to her truck.

This made me smile, but the redneck behind me was outraged. "Damn hippies! Bleeding heart liberal treehuggers... only on Chauncy's Island... Friggin' oughta be a law... stoppin' for a damn lizard. What about the other cars?"

I looked him in the eyes and said, quietly but firmly, "You're new around here, aren't you?"

"I been here seven whole years, so, no, I'm not new," the redneck said. "What's it to you, anyway?"

I've been here 30 years, but I didn't mention that. I just said to him, "Seven whole years you've been here, and you still act like you're brand new. That's a shame."

And everyone else laughed and clapped as the redneck drove away without saying anything more.

My Dad: "The Melrose [apple tree] also has some massive pups."

Me: " . . . . . "

Me: "Just so you know, you should expect some... weird reactions... if you use the phrase 'has some massive pups' in public."