catgirl, fangirl, just vibing~

pronouns are whatever | fic writer | Icy | adult | don't call me an inspiration

[yesornopolls]

has anyone guessed where you're from based on your accent?

Has anyone guessed where you're from based on your accent?

Yes

No

Remaining time: 5 days 15 hours

[cure-icy-writes]

hey ur post abt Volo has made me so curious, what are ur Volo thoughts 👀

so so so many volo thoughts if i'm being honest. so so many

so first of all what you need to understand is that there is a lot of history in japan. you can probably get a better understanding of it by reading up on the subject or seeing what other people have to say, but i'll summarize.

-pokemon legends arceus takes place in the sinnoh/hisui region, which is analogous to the real life hokkaido region

-the galaxy hall is modeled after the hokkaido government building

-there was some really fucking messy colonialism happening in real life. this was during the mid meiji era, i wanna say? and the japanese folks showed up, saw the indigenous ainu people living there, and forcibly assimilated them.

-also noteworthy that the jomon people lived there a while back? but those people just kind of.... faded away. you can mostly see their cultural influence on the modern day in the pottery that they made.

With all of that historical context out of the way. Let's look at the game itself.

The clans are pretty much just fantasy Ainu, but it's... hm. The way that they're treated by the narrative, knowing how violently their culture was destroyed, can be uncomfortable at times. Because we don't see much of that in the modern day sinnoh, we just see descendants and people who look like them. we can assume they survived, but their culture... not quite so much. i don't know, it's just kind of a big mess.

but let's talk about the celestica. their ruins are greek inspired, but historically they'd be closer to the jomon. in the fragments and old verses you find, cogita laments that the celestica have left hisui, and from some of the content in hgss, i think it's pretty safe to say that the celestica went to johto and merged with the culture there. but it's a strong feeling of loneliness and cultural isolation that cogita's writings bring to the table.

and then we've got volo. volo, who seems to have a complex relationship with cogita. she berates them for laziness, and yet they still come back to her. why? i think it's because they're lonely. they're like if found family was just as bad as bio family. they desperately want each other for some sort of connection, some sort of culture, but can'tstop grating on each other's nerves. it's.... honestly quite tragic. and they don't seem to even like their job sometimes, when they get to talking about their true interests, but then they call you their "favorite customer" despite never selling you anything. so it feels like our late 19th century merchant is just putting on a customer service act. except, they can't actually keep that act up when it comes to their special interest. which is incredibly cute <3

everyone seems to focus on volo's mental breakdown as their "true" character. but i don't think that's it. their behavior, in fact, is erratic. it's not the behavior of a schemer, it contradicts itself. that's why i think that their words on mount coronet were some sort of manic episode. that they had more fondness for the player than they let on. They're full of contradictions that I want to explore. they took a picture with their togepi. they have three friendship evolutions and try to kill a teenager. also, how can you not find it cute how badly they want to infodump?

There's something they say that just... absolutely fascinates me. It's around the time of the lake trials, and it's haunted me as a core facet of their character.

I want to know exactly what happened in the past that led us to this particular present... Or more accurately, I suppose... I want to know where I came from and where I'm headed. I want to know my path, so to speak.

Maybe this is reaching. But doesn't this just scream "twenty something who's lost and doesn't like their job, who is desperately searching for a future in the remnants of a culture that vanished before they were born"? I've leaned a lot into the indigenous coding in their characterization, how they feel lost and isolated and it's that alienation that makes them willing to tear down the entire world, how they push others away and long for comfort, how they don't really know who they are because all they've ever done is retail.

I didn't mean to stay up this late writing, but... they definitely hold a very special place in my heart. and i wish more people would try to understand them the way I do.

[cheriboms]

soooo embarrassing to get obsessed w a specific character when no one else gives a damn. like yeah heres post #574934. heres au idea #26482. heres art piece #9383. yes its all about the same person, yes i am rambling in the corner blair witch style. feel free to shoot me dead for this btw

[cure-icy-writes]

idk how people do outlines. i just have vague plans for the ending of my fics and only plan a couple chapters in advance and it works out fine for me. i'll be like, okay i need a vivisection scene somewhere and i gotta make sure it' made clear that there are consequences for this bit of foreshadowing, i want endgame friendship, these characters are foils, and then i make everyone more mentally ill along the way and toss in themes like bodily autonomy, mental health, and living long enough to face the consequences

[wiisagi-maiingan]

With food contamination OCD, it's very difficult to know what is a reasonable stance on food safety and hygiene and what is me being crazy but I do have some hills I'll die on.

You need to wash your water bottles.

You need to clean inside straws and the tongs of forks and other utensils regularly.

Silicone is a legitimately evil material to make cookware and utensils out of.

Wash your fruits and veggies.

Wash your water bottles.

Do NOT wash your chicken for the love of god!!!!! That is how you splatter salmonella all over your sink and counters!!!!!!!

Cats do not belong on the kitchen counter, but especially not when you're actively cooking or serving food.

WASH YOUR WATER BOTTLES.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

The silicone thing really gets to me. It's stupid as hell to make cookware and utensils out of a material that picks up literally every bit of debris and cat hair and dust that exists in your home. Why is this the popular trend now and how do I stop it.

[oldbutchdanielmolloy]

i do appreciate the way that we tumblr users have evolved our language to discuss our feelings related to The Character/The Guy. you used to have to just say he was hot or he was making your ovaries explode or he was a precious cinnamon roll even if he looked bad or was just kind of standing there or whatever. now you can say things like “the creature” or “he looks so sopping wet here” or “i want to chain him to my radiator” like it’s just more inclusive and adaptable to the situation

[twobeesornottwobees]

as someone on the asexual spectrum, this shift in language genuinely made me feel more comfortable and happy in fandom spaces. i've never once wanted to lick a man's abs. i HAVE wanted to chain a man to my radiator. and that's beautiful.

[audible-smiles]

the worst part of summer is that people get sooo comfortable expressing their disgust at having to see other people’s bodies. they’re always complaining about wrinkly old men at the nude hot springs or fat women in bikinis at the beach. I hate that shit. if you’re not capable of being normal about bodies you personally don’t find attractive, just turn your head to look at something else! and if you’re not smart enough to do that, then at least do the rest of us the courtesy of suffering in silence, because we don’t wanna hear your weird comments. thanks.

[jamiesfootball]

Huge shout out to all the people who read fics. Who actually take the time out of their busy days to open a fic and read it

Before I started writing in earnest, I did not understand how much writing was going to eat into my fic reading time. We joke about having too many tabs open, but I have a different problem: the amount of tabs I have open on new fics is way smaller than it used to be. My ao3 wrapped would be a sad affair. Unless I’ve subscribed to an author or come across something on my dash, I basically don’t see it

Which has really driven home for me how much fandom cannot just be creators. You have to have people who want to read fic and meta discussions and joke posts. You have to have people who want to look at art and gifs. It has to be mutual.

Community thrives on flow. You have to have that movement of people sharing things with each other for a community to exist

Thank you fic readers. You keep things flowing

[cure-icy-writes]

girl who somehow convinced me to break out the art software after months of nothing

[stjohnstarling]

In light of recent events, I have begun submitting bug reports when I see mature content labels applied inappropriately to posts, especially if an appeal has been rejected.

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

Extremely good idea - how are you doing it? Through the contact us option?

[stjohnstarling]

Yeah it’s one of the options on the Contact Support form:

[sharas-bae]

for what it's worth: after a few months of submitting help tickets as 'feedback' when i saw a post inappropriately flagged as mature, i tried following this suggestion instead. today i got my first-ever response from tumblr support on this issue, letting me know that a post i'd submitted a ticket before has had its mature content flag removed.

[stjohnstarling]

Hey it worked! Maybe if enough of us make a stink they’ll fix the fucking system.

[edupunkbitch]

This is legitimately brilliant. Bug burndown reports (the rate at which your software team can close bugs) is a major metric for most software houses.

It takes an extra step in our part, but this is part of what makes it effective. It's not one click, one reblog activism and it hits them where they care: their damn KPIs.

[quietwingsinthesky]

friend is trying to convince me this is a common experience and I do not believe her, so

Do you expect to be paid back if you pay for something for your friend while you’re hanging out? (I.E. a ride, a meal, a trinket.)

Yes, always

Yes, but only if it’s above a limit of money

No, never

I don’t buy things for my friends.

bald button

Voting ended on8m

For a more illustrative example, say you go to the movies with a friend and you buy them popcorn, do you expect them at some point to send you money back via cash or through an app of some kind? Will you be upset if they don’t?

[blindbeta]

Hello. I made a curious post about blindness and art a few days ago, and a commenter referred me to your blog, which I found very educational and insightful.

I hope you find my questions respectful, I am very curious as I have never met a blind person before. I understand that blindness is a sort of spectrum, and many blind people still have some level of visual input.

How is your relationship to visual art? If someone describes a painting to you, do you perceive it in a way that's hard to explain to someone with sight? The commenter I mentioned told me that blind people prefer clear, concise descriptions of images/art. When you hear these descriptions, what are you thinking about?

Sorry if this was weird. My whole impetus for this was that it's an innate human feature to seek out and creare beauty, and that everyone's perspective is valuable. I want to understand how all sorts of people witness art, which led me to your blog.

Interesting. I personally think that when it comes to image descriptions done by the artist themself, they can describe e their using whatever language they think is suitable. Other people creating descriptions might describe color or mood, but their image description is going to focus on clarity. They might not know the artist’s full intent, so level of detail might change.

I, like most blind people, can see visual art. Image descriptions are still helpful to me as sometimes I might miss details. Descriptions help fill in the gaps. If I’m unable to look at an image because, for example, I’m listening to my screen-reader read fanfic and an image pops up, the image description can tell me the basic idea of the art. I can picture it in my head. Even totally blind people can sometimes have mental imagery although it depends on the person. There are even fully sighted people who don’t have the ability to picture images in their minds.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

And if I said Megamind is one of the few movies that understands Superman.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

And if I said Megamind through its three subversions of Superman shows a deeper understanding that the point of Superman is that he was loved and taught to love by good, present parents, and because of that he is able to return that love to a world even if it doesn't always accept it, and he is not corrupted by his power, than many other films either subverting or playing the superman story straight.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Megamind has three Superman subversions. One is obviously Megamind himself. He was not raised loved by the world, but rather was loved by those hated by the world. Because he was still raised with love, he does care about other people, hence his character development. But because he didn't receive wider love growing up, his own is misplaced at first.

Metro Man was not loved growing up in a way that mattered. His adopted father was clearly very absent, and while we don't know much about his family, their relationship seems superficial. Because of this, his sense of duty to the world is also superficial, hence his boredom.

Hal wasn't raised with power. He gained it and was shown how to use it by a 'space dad' who only taught him power and not love. Hence, he sees it only as a grasping means to an end.

All three of these subversions, in their negative space, create the silhouette of the superhero that they are parodying. That silhouette is of a space child that came to earth and was cared for very deeply by the world, and taught love through his experience of love, and because of that holds fast to his duty to the world. Which is Superman.

[cure-icy-writes]

i have a really good system for sorting my art but unfortunately i haven't updated it since. uhhhhh. it's been a while so i need to get back to that. right now i have it sorted by most recent but usually i keep it alphebetized and it looks tremendously niceys

[cure-icy-writes]

idk if some people are ready for this hot take but i think we should stop normalizing and romanticizing con crunch. that shit is not sustainable, especially for those of us who aren't able bodied teenagers. how about we start normalizing wearing weather appropriate cosplays that we made well in advance.

[chucktaylorupset]

“Irritated fans produce fanfic like irritated oysters produce pearls.”

— Anne Jamison (via pen-in-hand)

[dragon-hoard]

if you are going to need some kind of sedative for 4th of july fireworks for your pets NOW IS THE TIME TO SCHEDULE THOSE APPOINTMENTS TO ASK FOR THEM

NOT WHEN ITS 2 DAYS AWAY

[alex51324]

I feel like to really get this circulating as it should, we need it superimposed over the picture of the turkey going in the fridge. (I can't do it I'm on my phone.)

[amaditalks]