mleczne

Waking up, breakin' out T̷͉͘h̴̗̊ḯ̸͜s̷̢̉ ̵̘͌i̵̬͑s̵͙̚ ̶̱̂w̵͚͋h̸̝͘a̷̖͂t̸̬͝ ̵̙̊ȋ̴̯ṭ̸̓'̶̹̎s̷̟͛ ̶̧̅l̷̗̉ḭ̴́k̴͎̓e̴͖͌ ̸̰̚t̸̡͝ö̷̭́ ̸̬̓b̵͕̌ȅ̶̫ ̵̻̂f̴̱̌r̵̪̿e̸̡͝e̵̯̔ 24. they/them

[confused-bagel]

🌈 HAPPY PRIDE!!!! 🌈

You are loved and beautiful and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!!

[zerotolerancepolicy-deactivated]

[shiftythrifting]

I call it... "An Ode To Shiftiness", 2026, mixed media collage.

okay this is the best thing I've seen done with sticker club stickers, I love it

[riverlarking]

[anarchopuppy]

straight up 'unforchin it'. and by 'it', haha, well. let's justr say. my circumstants

[hustlerose]

(first time doing praise kink) you are Useful

[hustlerose]

😇

[ink-the-artist]

God's Little Cow

[kosmogrl]

[powerburial]

what's the matter honey? you've hardly touched your fleeting experience of time on earth

[monkeyislandtwo]

fonts will be named shit like viscera antique, 16 bit dreams, doctor's orders, bingo condensed, googly, wish you were here

[equos-bipes]

for your consideration

[whyenn-reader]

good art doesnt exist. you can't make it.

[whyenn-reader]

you're free now.

[riceballart]

pomni, we are SO fucked.

[cinnlovesgirls]

we are NOT surviving in this digital circus alone (at least caine didnt)

[thoodleoo]

that's not how i remember this saying going

[sanitymakesposts]

Dude come drink these vials I found at the bottom of the ocean with me

[xenosaurus]

as a little treat for myself, I’ve been worldbuilding a “children get a magical beast companion” setting that is almost entirely down the “health and safety complications” rabbit hole

[xenosaurus]

general setting guidelines:

the creatures are called shades, pulling from an old superstition that they were born from their human’s shadow

shades take their form and initial personality from their human’s wishes, so they have a wide range of appearances

shades never appear entirely human, though “fae” shades with humanoid forms do exist.

once they exist, shades exist independently. most of them naturally follow their human’s desires, especially when they’re young, but this is a matter of personality and affection, not compulsion

shades can outlive their humans and humans can outlive their shades.

shades have human intelligence and emotional range, and are fully capable of language. they can form close bonds but do not experience romantic or sexual feelings.

[xenosaurus]

Shades form around a child’s 8th birthday, and begin life as children themselves, mirroring their human’s development. For most shades, it’s a pretty minor change, like a kitten growing into a cat.

There are A LOT of social programs aimed at preparing children for shade formation. You really don’t want a shade that’s going to grow up to be a full sized tyrannosaurus, even if all you’re worried about is feeding the damn thing.

Because there’s such a strong social component to how children form their shades, they are prone to cultural, regional, familial, and generational trends. Some kids want a shade just like mom’s, or just like all the other kids at school, all while the education system struggles to keep up with how to get kids to make “appropriate” shades.

And that means your shade reflects your upbringing! Kids whose shades closely match the templates they drill into you at expensive private tutoring are immediately recognizable as wealthy. There are traits associated with a girl’s shade or a boy’s shade because the parents are coaching them to maintain gender roles, not because there’s anything inherent to little boys that makes them not want a pink bunny shade. A popular cartoon about fairies spikes the number of kids developing fae shades for a few years.

[xenosaurus]

It is technically possible change a shade’s shape, but only through a very pricey, specialized procedure. It’s a process that takes days.

Even then, drastic changes are difficult. Usually, this is done to make a very large shade smaller, remove venomous components, adjust something causing severe health concerns (like thick fur in hot regions), or to make aquatic shades able to breathe air.

Most governments have early intervention programs for “poorly made” shades, catching that tyrannosaurus when it’s a baby and easier to alter to stay manageable size. These programs generally ONLY pay for shades that will be a public health risk. They will not help you “fix” your son’s cute bunny shade.

[xenosaurus]

How much society treats shades like their own distinct people varies heavily. While an adult shade has a fully realized mind and personality, they are often treated as extensions of their humans legally. This is especially true in religions/cultures that believe a human and shade share one soul, or those that believe that shades are servants gifted by god. American religious fundamentalists fall heavily into that second category.

This causes serious problems for shades whose humans have died, who often lose their homes and are taken into state custody if their human’s family doesn’t want to support them. While fae shades (shades with humanoid forms) can sometimes find work independently whether their humans are alive or not, most other shades struggle to find employment or are not paid for assisting their humans at work.

If the shade was still a child when placed in government custody, they will generally end up paired with a new child who has lost their shade. This has a high rate of failure, as it is attempting to forcibly bond two recently traumatized children.

Cultures that consider shades as members of the family, especially those that normatively live in multigenerational homes or where children are expected to care for aging parents in the home, are generally much more supportive of “orphaned” shades, regardless of age. It would be hugely taboo to abandon them to the government to handle.

Regardless of cultural norms, many people individually consider shades as family members. Your parent’s shade likely helped raise you. Your siblings’ shades played with you. The problem comes in where it does with real families; being family doesn’t stop abuse, neglect, and abandonment.

[xenosaurus]

The first character I made for this is Flare, a tiger shade approaching middle age. The orange parts of his fur flicker like fire, and he used to be able to start fires.

Flare is the sort of shade that is very familiar to social workers. Aggressive-looking, dangerous shades that are actually extreme doormats are common companions to troubled kids; their humans wanted something intimidating they could control. It’s the sort of thing teachers report to CPS if it’s severe enough, because a lot of them come out of abusive households.

Flare was a cute enough kitten that he was overlooked, and actually made it into adulthood with the fire starting intact. He volunteered himself to have it altered after his human went to prison, as a condition to get custody of his young daughter. He’d been the primary caretaker for the kid already, as his human was struggling and not in a good place for parenthood.

He mostly just smells like smoke these days, and keeps food on the table working as a security guard. He’s been taking care of his kid as a single cat-dad for 6 years and she recently started fifth grade.

[xenosaurus]

The next couple of characters are Flare’s main support system- a human-shade duo named TJ and Leech. They’re part of a relatively recent spiritual movement referred to in-universe as “shade parallelism”, which tends to get banned as a cult in particularly traditional communities.

Shade parallelists believe that shades are not the creation of their human partners, but something akin to a twin that is born at the same time as their human. They exist ‘parallel’ to their human until they learn what shape will allow them to be accepted by them.

In practice, these are people who believe their shades are their siblings, not their possessions, and deserve equal status to humans- and they take equal rights for human minorities equally seriously. It goes directly against a lot of religious fundamentalism and cultural traditions while also being seen as strange or nonsensical. As such, a lot of political movements and youth subcultures that share their philosophy are accused of being parallelists, even if they aren’t spiritually aligned.

In circles pushing for radical change in almost any social sphere, parallelists are usually seen as a little out there but widely beloved regardless. They show up to protests, organize transportation for people and shades that are underserved by public transit, host “orphaned” shades that have nowhere to go in their homes, and are the core of open source 3D printed accessibility tools for humans and shades alike.

[xenosaurus]

TJ is a woman in her early 30s who also works as a security guard, she’s the one who hooked Flare up with his job. TJ pours basically all of her money into adaptative tech and fun activities for Leech, her shade (she calls him her brother).

Leech is not actually a leech. He’s a lamprey-sea snake sort of mashup, weird little wiggly fish thing with scales and a toothy suction cup for a mouth. TJ thinks he’s cute. It is not a commonly shares opinion.

[xenosaurus]

TJ and Leech have very different personalities! TJ is naturally a fairly sedate person, a little bit monotone with a subtle sense of humor. She tends to get misread as harsh, especially as an adult now that she’s shaving her head and covered in tattooed sea monsters. If you actually know her, she’s thoughtful and gentle, a common saved phone number for emergency babysitting or getting picked up from the airport.

Leech is a dad joke that gained sentience. He’s bright and playful, shockingly expressive for someone with neither eyebrows nor a jawbone. He gives “fishy kisses” with his weird little sucker mouth to make TJ laugh, calls Flare’s kid and her shade “the guppies”, and generally feels a bit like a camp counselor. He’s everyone’s emotional support fish-eel-snake-thing.

[furrylibrarian]

You should turn into a dragon. For your mental health.

[is-this-tf]

Yes, this is TF. Wholeheartedly recommended!!