{-- o > o --} @existence-is-a-sham - Tumblr Blog

and out of the darkness - you you you you you

[Description: a looping bouncy animation of grace and Rocky from project hail mary. Grace throws himself onto rocky for a hug, smiling and nuzzling his face to the top of Rocky's xenonite covered carapace. Rocky brings a claw up to ruffle Grace's hair and grace throws himself even more on top of rocky, rocky wrapping his arms around grace. End description.]

The first thing about entering PHM fandom with no knowledge of other Ryan Gosling movies nor of the book, is that I can't really tell whether Ryland Grace having a brother is fanon thing or a canon thing.

#project hail mary #ryland grace #the twin thing

red-garden

Who believed in Santa the longest?

Shen Yuan— spoiled rich kid

Shen Jiu— the traffickers told him he was naughty and got nothing

Luo Binghe— his mom kept the dream alive

Liu Qingge— spoiled rich kid + autistic

Yue Qingyuan— the older children told him Santa stories

Shang Qinghua— wild imagination

Mobei Jun— SQH kept the dream alive

Tianlang Jun— spoiled rich kid

Zhuzhi Lang— he’s personally witnessed crazier

Sha Hualing— spoiled rich kid

Ning Yingying— Ning Yingying

Ming Fan— spoiled rich kid

Voting ended onDec 27, 2025

#shang qinghua #child of divorce #has written to santa about his situation #never wrote to santa again after that #svsss

absolutegibberishandnumbers

jokes to make after failure that aren’t self-deprecating:

I’m the best to ever do it

Nobody saw that (best if said loudly)

No one’s ever done it like me

I could be President/they should make me President

Behold, a mere fraction of my power!

The public wants to be me soooooo bad

I’m an expert in (thing you just failed at)

How could this have happened to god’s favorite princess?

Nothing ibuprofen and a glass of water cant fix

I’m being sabotaged

Unfortunately, I am an idiot.

luna-azzurra

Emotional Walls Your Character Has Built (And What Might Finally Break Them)

(How your character defends their soft core and what could shatter it) Because protection becomes prison real fast.

✶ Sarcasm as armor. (Break it with someone who laughs gently, not mockingly.) ✶ Hyper-independence. (Break it with someone who shows up even when they’re told not to.) ✶ Stoicism. (Break it with a safe space to fall apart.) ✶ Flirting to avoid intimacy. (Break it with real vulnerability they didn’t see coming.) ✶ Ghosting everyone. (Break it with someone who won’t take silence as an answer.) ✶ Lying for convenience. (Break it with someone who sees through them but stays anyway.) ✶ Avoiding touch. (Break it with accidental, gentle contact that feels like home.) ✶ Oversharing meaningless things to hide real depth. (Break it with someone who asks the second question.) ✶ Overworking. (Break it with forced stillness and the terrifying sound of their own thoughts.) ✶ Pretending not to care. (Break it with a loss they can’t fake their way through.) ✶ Avoiding mirrors. (Break it with a quiet compliment that hits too hard.) ✶ Turning every conversation into a joke. (Break it with someone who doesn’t laugh.) ✶ Being everyone’s helper. (Break it when someone asks what they need, and waits for an answer.) ✶ Constantly saying “I’m fine.” (Break it when they finally scream that they’re not.) ✶ Running. Always running. (Break it with someone who doesn’t chase, but doesn’t leave, either.) ✶ Intellectualizing every feeling. (Break it with raw, messy emotion they can’t logic away.) ✶ Trying to be the strong one. (Break it when someone sees the weight they’re carrying, and offers to help.) ✶ Hiding behind success. (Break it when they succeed and still feel empty.) ✶ Avoiding conflict at all costs. (Break it when silence causes more pain than the truth.) ✶ Focusing on everyone else’s healing but their own. (Break it when they hit emotional burnout.)

firefly464

Is this anything

rainfallsuphere

I propose an addition

parchmentengineer

Been thinking about this graph a little (actually been thinking about it a lot)

firefly464

OH THIS IS BEAUTIFUL THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

queer-here-and-in-fear

shorthands for dumbassery that i have grown to love deeply

"how dare you say we piss on the poor" in response to someone misinterpreting your post

"_ isnt gonna fuck you" for suck up behavior

"woah. should we tell everyone? should we throw a party?" for who the fuck cares

"and what if the world was made of pudding" for when would this ever matter.

"and sharks are smooth both ways" for a group of people heatedly arguing with 1 guy who is fucking with them all

".. but its about a witch in the alps finding her lost cat" for someone trying to sanitize something to the point of absurdity

queer-here-and-in-fear

this is prime proof that this ENTIRE WEBSITE is autistic because nowhere else would a no tags post that's just an informative list about slang get this much traction.

queer-here-and-in-fear

anyway more addittions

“30-50 wild hogs” for someone making ABSURD excuses for violence.

“what were YOU doing at the devils sacrament” for how do you know that without being a part of it.

“anyone in this thread smoke weed” for the shit you people are saying is so off topic this might as well be a general discussion forum

“dogs are boys and cats are girls” for ooh ur mindset did not grow past 4th grade, huh

“color theory in a childrens hospital” for bending over backwards to not agree that YEA, that thing Came Off Weird

“you are a tar pit” for someone finding any reason to respond with outrage.

“is the __ in the room with us right now?” for I Don’t Think That’s Real.

“bean soup? im allergic to beans!” for ik this doesn’t work for you, but that’s not a flaw. not everything can be for you.

“people irl: hey man hows it going” for this will Never Matter irl

An au where Rachet outlives Drift because of an accident/confrontation and Drift comes back to haunt him but Ratchet thinks it's justtt a hallucination arggg.

Do you know how much angst potential this could have? I'm surprised I haven't seen any fics like this yet.

Can y'all imagine, Ratchet overworking himself to distract from the pain of losing the mech you've chased to the farthest point of the universe, fought side-by-side with, taken the Conjunx Ritus with, and vowed to be by their side for eternity, just for them to be violently ripped out from your hands and die?

Like— it was supposed to be happy ever after now, but now that you're gone, now what? What happens next? What happens when Ratchet is all alone and in his grief, he managed to conjure the image of his dead conjunx that starts to say things like, "You haven't slept in cycles Ratch," or "You know you still need energon to function Ratty."

He hates it.

He hates how he misses it. He hates how everyday feels like someone just shoved broken shards into his spark chamber that he had to physically check if there were indeed shards in there. There wasn't. He wasn't sure if he was glad that there were none. Because how can he rationally explain this pain?

He hates how the hallucination would look at him with those sad sorrowful eyes. Like it wasn't his fault that he was gone. How he almost snapped at him when him told him that if he had to choose in sacrificing himself to save him, then he would gladly do it again.

Just— well, people would probably find that fic emotionally delicious. Like falling from a really tall height and being aware that a safety net is there to catch you.

Anyways, thank you for listening to my TEDtalk, if any fic writers are interested please please do provide a link. Thanks yalll

#transformers #ratchet #drift #tf idw #angst #fic

2soulscollide

WEBSITES FOR WRITERS {masterpost}

E.A. Deverell - FREE worksheets (characters, world building, narrator, etc.) and paid courses;

Rach Academia - FREEBIES (workbook, notion template, games, challenges, etc.);

Hiveword - Helps to research any topic to write about (has other resources, too);

BetaBooks - Share your draft with your beta reader (can be more than one), and see where they stopped reading, their comments, etc.;

Charlotte Dillon - Research links;

Writing realistic injuries - The title is pretty self-explanatory: while writing about an injury, take a look at this useful website;

One Stop for Writers - You guys... this website has literally everything we need: a) Description thesaurus collection, b) Character builder, c) Story maps, d) Scene maps & timelines, e) World building surveys, f) Worksheets, f) Tutorials, and much more! Although it has a paid plan ($90/year | $50/6 months | $9/month), you can still get a 2-week FREE trial;

One Stop for Writers Roadmap - It has many tips for you, divided into three different topics: a) How to plan a story, b) How to write a story, c) How to revise a story. The best thing about this? It's FREE!

Story Structure Database - The Story Structure Database is an archive of books and movies, recording all their major plot points;

National Centre for Writing - FREE worksheets and writing courses. Has also paid courses;

Penguin Random House - Has some writing contests and great opportunities;

Crime Reads - Get inspired before writing a crime scene;

The Creative Academy for Writers - "Writers helping writers along every step of the path to publication." It's FREE and has ZOOM writing rooms;

Reedsy - "A trusted place to learn how to successfully publish your book" It has many tips, and tools (generators), contests, prompts lists, etc. FREE;

QueryTracker - Find agents for your books (personally, I've never used this before, but I thought I should feature it here);

Pacemaker - Track your goals (example: Write 50K words - then, everytime you write, you track the number of the words, and it will make a graphic for you with your progress). It's FREE but has a paid plan;

Save the Cat! - The blog of the most known storytelling method. You can find posts, sheets, a software (student discount - 70%), and other things;

I hope this is helpful for you!

Also, don't forget to check my gumroad shop, where you can find plenty of FREEBIES (from notion templates for writers to workbooks and sheets).

-> Check out my freebies

Happy writing! <3

astral-pr0jectile

Ohoho

existence-is-a-sham

Gonna need these l8errrr

That feeling when Eye Operation is tomorrow.

#This is gonna be a very obscure reference in the future #i think

weapon-up-wallflower

Delphi

I started re-reading MTMTE, because there’s a lot I feel I’ve forgotten or missed that I’d like to call back to. And now that I’ve reached the Delphi arc, as I’m reading through this a few things have struck me:

- If someone got the impression that Drift and Ratchet hated one another, they should really re-read this arc and pay close attention to the body language.

- Remember: Drift joined the Autobots two years ago. Before he did this, he was a freelance bounty hunter, and before that, a member of the Decepticon Conclave, and before that, again a bounty hunter. He’s led a hard life. He’s, at the core, a harsh person.

Ratchet makes the stop on Delphi on his own initiative. It wasn’t passed by the high command really - the person he talks to about it is Swerve, of all people. Which makes it unlikely Drift was assigned to accompany Ratchet; either Ratchet asked him to join, or Drift did so of his own initiative out of interest for Ratchet’s safety (which is probably what happened, considering it’s a constant recurring theme in the comic).

They touch down, and then there’s this exchange:

Is it harsh? Is it needling? Perhaps.

But Drift has led a harsh life. He’s been an Autobot for a mere two years, and genuinely doesn’t know how to conduct himself around them, crafting one identity after another to try to find something palpable to the people around him so that he doesn’t scare them. Because Deadlock was terrifying.

This sort of banter? This sort of bluntness? This is Drift’s natural language. Drift knows how to conduct himself honestly in this sort of dynamic. He’s more comfortable in it - he speaks his mind (and we see, later, in the Annual, the difference between banter and Drift’s reaction when it becomes real.)

So it’s with this bluntness and sarcasm that Ratchet’s speaking to him with, but it doesn’t change the core of what Ratchet is actually doing here: checking in with Drift. Are you scared/are you going to be okay.

I’ve thought about this a lot, of whether or not Drift is scared of the DJD. And I don’t think he isn’t scared per-say; rather, Drift’s been with the Decepticons for a long time. He was part of the Conclave. He knows exactly what the DJD is capable of, and probably has, in some way or another, come to terms that that’ll likely be the way he’ll die eventually. He knows he’s living on borrowed time. And he knows himself well enough that when the DJD comes for him, it won’t be a pathetic or hopeless death. He’s Deadlock. He’ll be taking one or two of them down with him. At the same time, he’s got some vague, temporary immunity - objectively, he should be at the top of the DJD’s list, but he isn’t, because Megatron made it that way. Even though the war is over now - even though Megatron surrendered and is being held, awaiting trial - Drift’s still probably subconsciously relying on the vague safety net that provides and the extra time it buys him.

But that’s when Drift is able-bodied. When he catches the rust plague, all of the sudden his tune changes dramatically.

The firs thing he does - the very first thing - he does is apologize. Which seems strange, because why apologize because you’re sick? Given their history though…

Drift’s mind is back in his memories of Rodion, in his memories of Ratchet. That apology? That was for everything. For all of it.

Ratchet’s words are harsh, but banter is the go-to vehicle for levity in their relationship - much needed levity, because their history is old, it’s complicated, it’s heavy, and it’s deeply, uncomfortably personal. In this moment, Drift’s dropped that. He’s dying, and his thoughts have immediately turned to Ratchet, to what they, in some strange way neither of them will confront directly because it says too much, have survived through together and often because of one another. Ratchet’s not meeting the honesty Drift is showing, yet, because he doesn’t want to acknowledge the reality of the situation. Drift isn’t going to die, not in his book. And this doesn’t come from a place of arrogance on Ratchet’s part; since Issue 1, Ratchet himself has been repeatedly acknowledging his failing hands, how he can no longer pull off the miracles he used to. He’s morose about it, he’s extremely self-aware about it. It’s both depressed and humbled him. And despite this Ratchet is determined that Drift, specifically Drift, out of the other infected now-twenty-one patients in Delphi, isn’t going to die from this.

But Ratchet’s words are offset by his body language. He’s at Drift’s side, clasping Drift’s hand with both of his own, those legendary hands that have begun to fail, something he’s acknowledged up until this very moment, because he’s going to fix this. Drift isn’t going to die, not in Ratchet’s book. Drift says, specifically, Ratchet was trying to desperately save Drift’s life back then. Ratchet is still trying to do that same thing.

II.

Drift has been shown to be touch adverse in the comic - he rarely touches anyone, and shies away from touch.

He’s outright leaning away from Rewind here. Rewind. Probably one of the least-threatening bots on the entire ship, physically.

And yet, despite being shown to be touch-adverse, Drift has reached for Ratchet’s hand, when he’s on the floor. And yet he’s comfortable with Ratchet lifting him. He reaches for Ratchet’s hand again, and Ratchet takes it. For all people somehow felt these two legitimately disliked each other reading through this arc, their body language makes it clear this is absolutely not the case.

III.

Drift, in full health, might not be terrified of the DJD the way most ‘cons are. But he’s dying of a plague, and he knows that if the DJD shows up, he won’t be going down with a fight - it’ll be a terrible, terrible death. He’s scared. So he asks this of Ratchet, because he trusts Ratchet. Ratchet’s response?

Don’t you dare ask me to do this.

Because with the context of their dynamic of mutual care that extended throughout the entire war apparently? That they very well might be the reason why one another, somehow, made it through alive when so many other people died? Ratchet doesn’t want to hear it. The war is over. They didn’t make it this far just for Drift to die now.

This is not professional bedside manner whatsoever, and as we even see later in the comic isn’t how Ratchet normally acts when interacting with a patient who has a terminal illness. This moment is extremely personal. This is the sort of body language, the sort of words, you expect from a friend or a loved one. This is someone in denial, who is personally and emotionally invested, and he’s unable to distance himself from it.

So Ratchet tells Drift to stuff it - he’s not going to kill Drift. He’s not going to let Drift die. And when Drift is settled, Ratchet goes after Pharma, gives him an impressive punch to the jaw, gets shot in the chest, and still follows Pharma up to the roof, where this exchange happens:

I’m miles away from anyone I truly care about - I’ve got nothing left to lose.

Except, that’s not true, is it? Because we just saw, up-close, Ratchet outright denying even the possibility of losing Drift, to both Drift and to himself. He doesn’t want to consider that happening, nor the implications. Ratchet’s not lying to Pharma, here; he’s lying to himself. Because Drift very well could die. And all things considered, Ratchet shouldn’t care so much about Drift. Drift’s been an Autobot for a mere two years, at this point. Drift was Deadlock. Deadlock killed so, so many people. Deadlock was part of the Conclave. Deadlock was an enemy. So no, he shouldn’t care so much about Drift.

But he does. He does care, because it isn’t and never has been that simple between the two of them. He does still have something left to lose, and he is very, very close to losing it.

IV.

He’s not alone feeling that way. Drift, who is bleeding out, who is falling apart, who is dying, who couldn’t even walk just moments before, who was clinging to Ratchet, who had asked Ratchet to kill him if the DJD showed up because he couldn’t fight, somehow managed to summon the strength to climb down one ladder and up another very long ladder all the way to the roof, leap forward, and save Ratchet. He managed to stay conscious long enough to do that, only to do that, before immediately passing out.

Because just as much as Ratchet was determined Drift wouldn’t die, Drift was determined Ratchet wouldn’t. He’s always been determined. When Pipes became infected, Drift’s instinct was to protect Ratchet.

In our Lost Light, Drift immediately sought Ratchet out when Overlord broke free. In the duplicate Lost Light, he sought Ratchet out when the DJD were on board and died by his side.

Drift and Ratchet have a very, very complicated history that colors all of their interactions. It’s deeply personal, and at times it’s an open wound that leaves them very capable of hurting one another unintentionally. Even despite that, they are extremely determined to protect one another. Despite that, they continue to try to work through it, because the problem is and always has been that they cared too much about one another, even on the opposite sides of a war.

bloominglegumes

received a few asks about how i draw tf characters and so finally i sat down and started scratching out some notes :))

i'll add more later on if more people are interested and when i have some time,, but i hope these are somewhat informative ?? of at least my own thought processes when it comes to drawing the robot guys

#need this #transformers

goracememy

fiveminutetrash

Wait- this is actually so fun-

sockatoothewafflebird

i’m gonna reblog this every time it appears on my dash. rhat’s my new rule

very-gay-poet

I LOVE THIS

#WEEEEEE

bloominglegumes

a bit of pride themed doodling,,

(hcs/flags are largely just me being goofy dont take them too seriously)

#transformers #i love love sm

beardedmrbean

theman

I GOT A FUCKING RAISE THE POTATO WORKED WTF

tattooedzombigirl

This potato works. Every. Fucking. Time.

secondlina

Reblogging because it’s a damn potato and I want to encourage people to assume potatoes are magical.

existence-is-a-sham

Magical potato, please help me survive this semester

kwekstra

Highlights from the conference room where they nominated contenders for Word of the Year 2023:

• They put Skibidi Toilet on the projector to explain what “skibidi” means.

• Baby Gronk was mentioned.

• We discussed the Rizzler.

• “Cunty” was nominated.

• “Enshittification” was suggested for EVERY category.

• “Blue Check” (like from Twitter) was briefly defined as “Someone who will not Shut The Fuck Up”

• The person writing notes briefly defined babygirl as “referencing [The Speaker]”. He is now being called babygirl in the linguist groupchats.

• MULTIPLE people raised their hand to say “I cannot stress this enough: ‘Babygirl’ refers to a GROWN MAN”

kwekstra

When technical issues occurred while voting on “kenaissance”, everyone had to reassure the speaker, Ben Zimmer, that he was “benough”

kwekstra

In a stunning upset, the last-minute nomination “(derogatory)” DEFEATS “cunty” as the most useful/most likely to succeed word of 2023.

kwekstra

Someone renominates “babygirl” for word of the year, saying that they have spent the past year trying to figure out if people are “little meow meows, blorbos, or babygirls”. This is in front of a room of hundreds of people.

kwekstra

ENSHITTIFICATION WINS WORD OF THE YEAR 2023