even when life is hellish (& it is) it's always better than the alternative. i really do know how much it can hurt, i've known that kind of horror since i was a child, i've been prescribed a dozen different magic pills & a string of therapists, even trans magnetic stimulation as a last resort & still found myself balancing on the railing of the overpass begging for the end
but that kind of end is forbidden. even if you're fearless & ready to go it's just not fucking allowed, you hear me? you CAN'T. you grit your fucking teeth & adjust as best you can, no matter if the path to the end is full of more breakdowns & episodes & enough tears to fill a valley. as long as i lived as long as i could, as long as i tried, as long as i've made my story known it was enough
for all those times i stepped back from the edge another me in a parallel life could have stepped forward instead. i am still alive. i am still here. i can still use this life to save someone elses & i still love you. you, yes you reading this right now. i will continue to do so until there's nothing left of me
🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces
(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)
So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented:
→ Three types of ceremonial jewelry
→ A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed
→ A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn
Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.
And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.
Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.
─────── ✦ ───────
🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style
Ask yourself:
→ Who’s in charge, and why?
→ Who has land? Who doesn’t?
→ What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?
Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.
Start there. Not at the embroidery.
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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict
Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?
→ What was destroyed and mythologized?
→ What do the survivors still whisper about?
→ What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?
No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.
─────── ✦ ───────
3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists
Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about:
→ Death?
→ Love?
→ Time?
→ The natural world?
→ Justice?
Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.
You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.
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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)
Culture shows up in:
→ What people apologize for
→ What insults cut deepest
→ What people are embarrassed about
→ What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately
For instance:
→ A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?”
→ A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.
This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.
─────── ✦ ───────
5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals
Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about:
→ Breakfast routines?
→ How people greet each other on the street?
→ Who cooks, and who eats first?
→ What’s considered “clean” or “proper”?
→ How is parenting handled? Divorce?
Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.
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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture
A culture isn’t a monolith.
Even in deeply traditional societies, people:
→ Rebel
→ Question
→ Break rules
→ Misinterpret laws
→ Mock sacred things
→ Act hypocritically
→ Weaponize or resist what’s expected
Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.
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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap
Worldbuilding gets boring fast when:
→ The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure
→ The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric”
→ Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like
You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy.
→ Let ugly things be beloved.
→ Let beautiful things be corrupt.
→ Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.
─────── ✦ ───────
📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy):
→ Culture is not food and jewelry.
→ Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction.
→ Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter.
→ Let your world feel lived in, not curated.
The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list.
It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.
Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)
—rin t.
// writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range
// thewriteadviceforwriters
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Head cannon that even though Bruce is against tattoos (because he thinks they make u far too identifiable) the bat brothers have em anyways because why tf would they listen to Bruce, what were u expecting really?
Also I think the tattoos they have are accidently matching. They all have the Robin symbol.
Dick has the Robin R over his heart. Tattooed by Roy sometime after Bruce fired dick. Was it stupid? Yes. Does he regret it? No. He got it originally to keep his parents close to his heart. Then to keep Jason near his heart after Jason died. Then to keep as a reminder that all his brothers were robin. And that they were Dick's Robin's.
Jason got a Robin R tattooed at the pulse point on his neck. It's crudely drawn and fading, but he did it himself whilst in the league of assassins. He likes the dramatic irony of it. He is a literature nerd after all.
Tim has the Robin R on his ankle. It's bold and hard to hide but that was on point. He was drunk. And sad. And had just recently took up the mantle of red Robin when he got it tatooed by Leslie. He got for himself. As a reminder for what robin stood for.
Steph got it on her collar bone. Right under a left over scar she had from black mask. Cass did it for her. It was small and easy to cover up. Steph liked it. She figured it was accurate for her robin anyway.
Duke got the robin R tatooed behind his ear when he led the "we are robin." movement. He was angry and proud and he wanted to show it. It was wonky and done by a teenager in a Gotham alley but he liked it like that. After all robin definitely wasn't perfect.
Damian got it tatooed on his wrist. His is by far the most visible. He's proud. Proud to be apart of the legacy of the robins. (not Batmans, nor the al ghuls, the robins) It was a promise. To himself. To everyone else too, but mainly himself.
Errr also yeah Tim deffo got a sleeve done at some point, Jason has a back tat 100%, dick has one of them cool collarbone ones that look like rope, duke has his parents initials on his forearm, Steph deffo has a black widow quote somewhere on her body and Damian has stars littered on his shoulders.
Being asexual and racist is embarassing as fuck. Being racist at all is obviously embarassing as fuck but the amount of racism and especially antiblackness i have been seeing from asexuals recently is obscene.
One of the only asexual activists is Yasmin Benoit, a Black woman. She has raised so much awareness for the community. She was the first asexual person to lead Pride in London, she started the #thisiswhatasexuallookslike movement and is THE leading voice for the community.
And you all will celebrate international asexuality day on April 6th but we wouldn't even have that if she hadn't cofounded it.
Edit: why are you all too scared to repost this. Cmon. Be vocal about being against racism
One of the guys I worked with told us a story about how, when they were doing archaeology surveys in the woods they ran into a bigfoot hunter. Bigfoot guy asked if they had seen signs of bigfoot, and he was like "Sorry, nothing like that. We're archaeologists, so we're looking for human stuff." and the bigfoot guy was like "Oh! I saw some Native American cairns on my way out here. I can give you a general location." and when he was like "Yeah dude, that'd be sick. We're actually looking to document those." the bigfoot guy was like "Yeah, they looked pretty cool. I didn't touch them though, because Native Americans built them, not bigfoot."
“one man yaoi” fight club image printed on a school printer
sofabed that fits perfectly under my loft
saw, saw ii, saw iii, saw iv, and saw vi special editions on dvd
ceramic cat painted to look like my old cat binx
fancy victorian-esque mirror i got at goodwill for 8$
thrice-annotated copy of welcome to night vale by joseph fink and jeffrey cranor
the complete calvin and hobbes
Voting ended onJun 23
@moldfucker @dogboycarriebrownstein @zz0mbiex @jinglyjangly-theclowm @desolendate @hopelessplutonium @jame-dumb and anyone else who sees this and wants to :)
My dusty mga's miniverse collection that I haven't touched in forever
My purple mushroom ghost mug
my lavalamp
my skeleton poster
Voting ended onJun 20
I dont have a lot of cool stuff. It helps that im poor
@riversareflowing @thatonebrackletdog @averageao3enjoyer @len-the-antagonist @constantlyenchantedmimic @confusedfroggirl @queer-enby-cat01123 +all of my other mutuals, im sorry I dont remember you, I dont remember anyone 😭😭 also im too lazy to go back and check. Sorryyyy
slow burn or love at first sight // fake dating or secret dating // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence // hurt/comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut or fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one-shot or multi-chapter // kid fic or road trip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high-school romance or middle-age romance // time travel or isolated together // neighbours or roommates // sci-fi au or magic au // body swap or gender bent // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane
hehe thank you @last-honey for the tag <3
no pressure tagging @mechanicaldegenerate @gingerpeachtea @quietlyimplode @evtheacecaptain + anyone who thinks it looks fun:)
slow burn or love at first sight // fake dating or secret dating // enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence // hurt/comfort or amnesia // fantasy au or modern au // mutual pining or domestic bliss // smut or fluff // canon-compliant or fix-it // reincarnation or character death // one-shot or multi-chapter // kid fic or road trip fic // arranged marriage or accidental marriage // high-school romance or middle-age romance // time travel or isolated together // neighbours or roommates // sci-fi au or magic au // body swap or gender bent // angst or crack // apocalyptic or mundane
@the-star-fox-dances @noleafclover @braindeadhades and anybody else who wants to try!
It's always "hail Mary, full of Grace" and never "Eva, the first woman, whose sins cast humanity away from Eden (but humanity found it's place out there)".
Anyway, Eva Stratt, you did everything correctly, you made the wrong choice, humanity is alive because of your determination, the most woman ever. They coul never make me pin your morals down as 'good' or 'bad'.
Yes, because your blog is amazing!!!! <3 if you don’t want me to like your whole blog, then stop being so cool and funny and reblogging such cool and funny stuff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
AceDisaster @evtheacecaptain - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
