maurysiek (any/all pronouns)
there's joy to exploring life; it's a joy i want to share; digital art is how
blog skins, 2D digital art, fanart
queer, neurodivergent, fandom old
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really fond of humans just from an appearance standpoint. the long legs. the manes of hair that can come in practically any colour and texture. those crazy high-contrast eyes with the white scleras and colourful irises. the fingers being so much longer than the toes. there's a lot to love. solid 10/10 animal species
hilariously enough, I am probably the most human out of anyone on this entire site. earlier today I was posting about getting "species euphoria" from doing human activities like ecosystem management. I'm the worlds first therian to have a kintype that aligns with his biological species. shirt that says "I ❤️ being a sapient omnivorous primate & bipedal persistence predator" on the front and booty shorts that say "largest gluteal muscles to body size ratio on the planet"
I like the idea in fantasy that humans are better at maintaining things long term because they set up societies or professions to do it whereas dwarves and elves and stuff are like “just get bob to do it he’s got a good few hundred years left” and then bob doesn’t teach anyone else how to do it
Human: Wait that’s why there’s ruins of elven cities even though you live for so long? You just keep not asking people how to do things? How do you learn anything?
Elf: There’s a lot of “you’ve got time to figure it out on your own” attitudes floating around in our society that I’m starting to question somewhat.
Elf: Impossible! Those metalworking techniques were lost a hundred years ago!
Human: What do you mean lost? My great-grandmother learned to make these swords from an elven smith, then taught it to her kids.
Elf: That's ridiculous. No elf would give such secrets to a human.
Human: They didn't. Meemaw delivered the metal to the forge, and no one kicked her out when she stayed and watched. She always said they barely acknowledged her even when doing business with her, like she wasn't worth noticing.
Elf: Come to think of it, my great-uncle always was rather single-minded when he started working.
Human: So he wasn't ignoring her, he just forgot she was there?
Elf: Oh, he was definitely ignoring her, too. He was super racist.
Your dialogue is stiff because everyone is being too honest
Great dialogue can come from radical emotional honesty. But in most real conversations, people
dodge questions
answer indirectly
lie (badly)
change the subject
crack jokes to avoid serious answers
lie (convincingly)
say half of what they mean
tell the truth but get so anxious/angry/defensive others now think they're lying
If your dialogue feels unnatural, it might be because everyone is saying exactly what they think, or articulating their thoughts too well. Try letting characters hide things instead.
if you are a queer earring maker at a queer friendly event you should have clipons and ADVERTISE THEM you will make SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY there are SO MANY CUTE TRANS GIRLS who want to try your earrings but don't have pierced ears!!!!!! I repeat YOU WILL MAKE SO MUCH MONEY IF YOU DO THIS
genuinely I have sold a couple runs of earrings now and I can provide solid evidence that advertising that clipons even exist as an option literally tripled my sales
And please if you have the options, get traditional screw backs without a hinged clip. Everything with a clip works by squeezing your ear as hard as it can. Screw backs let you manually tighten it enough that they won’t slip off, but no further, and are much more comfortable for longer periods of time. They seem to be dying out, though, and increasingly hard to get.
If you think about it, listening to all of the show's songs on a loop is a kind of rewatching. If you think about it.
Anyway let's talk about Vaggi. Vaggi and singing :)
So at the start of the show Vaggi is staunchly anti-singing. "Just... don't sing to them" and such, with a matching extended sequence in the pilot.
But she does sing. It's just not where Charlie can hear.
During Happy Day In Hell, Vaggi is helplessly giving the air advice on... what angels are like :)
And in Whatever It Takes, Vaggi unknowingly joins Carmilla in a song about, on Vaggi's end, how she feels about Charlie. Specifically how she feels about Charlie picking her up and giving her a new life.
Come now, Vaggi. Why not sing to Charlie's face? Why not tell her these things?
Anyway, Vaggi still interrupts the song in prose in Hell Is Forever Reprise.
And then she sings in More Than Anything Reprise. (Which I still don't like much, but damn it has a role in that place and time.) And then the floodgates have opened - Vaggi sings in the finale song, in the opening song of s2, in Easy, in When I Think About The Future, and of course in Hear My Hope (might be more in s2 that I'm not remembering offhand).
So yeah. Vaggi starts the series very opposed to singing where Charlie can hear :)
on the topic of disabled characters, though, i think a LOT of artists give characters mobility aids that their character wouldn't actually benefit from using.
i'm sort of having a mild brain fog moment rn so i can't fully articulate what i'm on about, but i think a lot of able-bodied artists view things like canes and crutches as interchangeable. and they often don't know enough about the wide range of mobility aids to make an informed decision about what their character might actually use based on their disability
i also think that aids like walkers and rollators are sort of viewed as "cringe" on some level, and many people view them to be "just for old people," so many artists will opt for giving a character who has full-body pain and fatigue a cane (which, in many cases, can potentially WORSEN full-body pain) instead. and a lot of people don't realize that most wheelchair users are able to walk, so they don't consider it an option for characters with chronic pain
idk it's kind of frustrating. i've genuinely never, ever seen a character that uses a rollator before. not once. i cannot name a single one. i know of multiple ocs who are described to have full-body pain, dizziness, and fatigue that are drawn as cane users and are never shown with wheelchairs or walkers, though
it's also sort of sad? i've been diagnosed since i was twelve years old, and i only heard of rollators LAST YEAR. and that was only because i saw one irl and immediately asked what it was. i wonder how many disabled people out there don't even know it's an option solely because they're completely underrepresented online and in media
if you're a creative with a disabled oc, PLEASEEE check out this link. it's a very nice and detailed guide for telling which mobility aids suit someone's needs best. it's incredibly important to make the right choice for your character! mobility aids tell you a LOT about someone's lived experience. picking the right one will communicate to your audience #1 what your character goes through #2 that you UNDERSTAND what your character goes through!
Something neuroscience-y that helps with prose: attention is selective. A character will not notice everything in a room. They will notice what matters to their goal, fear, desire, training, wound, or obsession. A jealous character notices hands. a hungry character notices food. A soldier notices exits. A lonely character notices pairs. Description becomes character when attention has a bias.
You are responsible for curating your own online experience.
If something upsets you, makes you angry or queasy or triggers you, stop reading/looking at it. Avoid things that might make you feel that way.
Learn to use the Sort and Filter function on AO3, especially the Exclude tools.
On social media, block and mute accounts / tags / words when necessary.
If you hated something, you don’t need to tell that to the creator or start pointing fingers at them publicly.
The Back button is free. Use it.
Addendum:
Yes, for this to work, creators need to tag their works accordingly, so that people know what sort of content they are about to engage with and can nope out if necessary.
I will probably make another PSA about the importance of proper tagging later.
Ship And Let Ship
or SALS
You are allowed to ship whatever you want.
Everyone else is also allowed to ship whatever they want.
You are entitled to dislike or even hate a ship. If you want to do this online, in public, don’t use the ship tags for hate posts.
If you see someone posting about a ship they like and you don’t, there is no need for you to start arguing with them in their replies / comments / QRTs / reblogs. Don’t throw your hate in their face.
Do not harass fan creators or fans for shipping something you disapprove.
All of this also applies to liking / disliking an individual character.
Addendum:
”I agree with this, except when…”
No, then you are NOT agreeing with this.
Let me make this VERY clear. There are NO exceptions. None.
You don’t EVER harass real people over pixels.
If you disagree with this, kindly block and move on.
Your Kink Is Not My Kink
or YKINMK / YKINMKATO
The longer version is ”Your Kink Is Not My Kink And That’s Okay”.
People have different tastes. Not everything is for everybody.
Even if you don’t like a specific kink, other people are still allowed to use it in their creations.
You are entitled to dislike kinky content and think that it’s ”weird”.
Don’t kink shame or judge people based on their kinks.
This goes both ways: your kink is not someone else’s kink, so don’t push it onto those who are not into it.
Be Kind
or Don’t Be An Asshole
Focus on the things you like instead of the things you hate.
Create and unite instead of destroying and dividing.
Don’t harass real people over fictional things.
Stop stirring up petty drama just to get some attention on social media.
Stop trying to ”win”. Fandom is not a competition.
Remember that your own experiences aren’t universally shared. Your perception of things can differ from someone else’s, but that doesn’t mean either of you is necessarily wrong.
Niffty has ABSOLUTELY hit on him when they first met. she just got over it with time
Alastor doesn't think of Niffty as his daughter, exactly, as he is convinced that he would make an absolutely terrible parent. But it's... pretty much what he's doing, yes. He thinks of her as an adult, but even adults can need someone to look after them you know?
Niffty by now thinks of Alastor as her little brother. Of course he thinks she needs looking after and doesn't want her to protect him when he's in trouble, that's just what little brothers are like. Makes perfect sense. She forgives him for being stupid about it
I absolutely love the specific flavor of hc where Alastor and Niffty both think they're the caretaker of their dynamic, and there isn't nearly enough of it floating around. Of course it definitely helps that I hc them at dying around the same age so there's no clear older figure with them
You have Alastor's desire to protect "those of fairer means"/not be perceived as weak by needing help for anything/hyperindependence vs Niffty's 50's housewife ingrained instincts of Manage The House and Take Care of/Guide Everyone Else, and it creates an indecipherable mess of the blind leading the blind in circles. Even better, they both completely assume that the other agrees with their version of the dynamic and can't see the conflict
Everyone else on the other hand becomes very confused about who is taking care of who within like a week of seeing them together. The natural assumption is Alastor being the caretaker bc 1.) He appears to be the much more powerful one (which tbf he is the strongest sinner in Hell, but STILL), 2.) He probably owns her soul, and 3.) He sometimes has to fish her out of trouble and/or the toilet
But then they see how much Niffty mothers him???? Alastor doesn't notice bc that's just part of their dynamic to him. But she reminds him to take his shoes off, and checks up on him, and talks to him when she worries he might be lonely, and brings him gifts. And it just gets very confusing bc????? Who is the mentor figure here????? And the answer is Yes
How canon is the 50s housewife thing for Niffty? Because I don't think it would fit with her and Alastor being the same age. If they were the same age when they died but Niffty died 20+ years later, it'd make her the younger one I'd think. My favorite is actually for Niffty to be definitively older than Alastor, from like a few centuries back, because I think it would be funny, but "a younger sibling who definitely considers themselves the older one in spirit" is also fantastic to me
People in the notes arguing that this is about individual comfort and misgendering are missing a major piece of the puzzle, which is that programs made for mothers and pregnant women often by definition exclude anyone whose gender marker is not F on every form they’ve ever filled out.
Insurance agencies use M markers to deny coverage for pregnancy related healthcare. Doctors offices hang up on pregnant people trying to schedule pre- and post-natal appointments for themselves because their voices or their names aren’t feminine enough. And if they manage to make the appointment, they can get harassed out of the waiting rooms or face medical malpractice behind closed doors.
Charities and benefits made for pregnant or new mothers don’t accept pregnant/new fathers or non-gendered parents. The WIC fund is called women, infants, and children.
If we degender pregnancy and childbirth (and periods while we’re at it) we open up support for every trans and intersex person who needs it. We normalize pregnant people of other genders and sexes, leaving less room for harassment and malpractice and more accountability for those who decide to be assholes anyway.
It’s not a-fucking-bout comfort. It’s about safety and survival. This can literally be the difference between life and death for some people.
“there’s a restaurant two miles from my house called—” nope
“today I learned [celeb] went to my high school—” nope nope nope nope nope
these are all real posts I’ve seen on the internet that allowed me to identify a user’s hometown instantly. if it’s a small town, that’s doubly dangerous, because a bad actor could trace you just by a unique first name or selfie you once posted. in an age where doxxing and stalking are some of the worst I’ve ever seen it, you HAVE to think twice about what you’re posting online.
i once saw a 13-year old post an image they noted as being “a few miles from their house.” it had a theater in the shot with a unique enough name to be local. one google maps search, now everyone knew not only what city they lived in, but the possible neighborhoods in that radius too. and they had a HUGE following…who all knew this was a 13-year-old child.
so yeah. not to sound like a 90s internet safety PSA…but I’m gonna be that PSA for a minute.
if you’re posting an image, there is NO need to say that you live there. you could just be traveling. “saw this in Montana” is better than “saw this by my house!”
before you post about a venue, especially a restaurant or small store, check and see if it’s local—CRUCIALLY if it has only one or two locations. people might travel to arenas or convention centers, but they’re far less likely to be traveling to Bartleby’s Fish and Chips. if it’s an anecdote and you still live nearby, you can honestly just leave the name out entirely.
if you’re sharing a news story, it can just be a story you found and wanted to share. you don’t have to clarify “it happened in my town,” because even if you don’t mention your town name, an easily-googled news article will.
if you’re seeing a concert or meeting a celebrity on a tour that’s stopped locally, wait until they’ve hit a few more venues before you post about it, or at the very least wait until you get home. this is honestly a smart move for any event you attend: unless you’re marketing yourself, there’s no need to advertise your location in real time.
check your selfie backgrounds for anything identifying. this includes city names on venues, school names, street signs, and house numbers.
this stuff is flexible if you no longer live in your hometown, or if your city is particularly big, but there’s STILL no reason to tie yourself to your school, your workplace, or your street. you can call it paranoid, but as someone who’s seen my friends get literal death threats over fictional characters before, the last thing I want is someone willing to act on those threats finding out where they live.
Please also be aware that your posts also provide information about anyone you're with.
I once had a friend post a photo while visiting me with both a unique local business and a set of street signs in the background, while they knew I was being stalked by someone who knew and potentially followed their account. I wasn't in that photo, but other posts from that weekend made it obvious they were staying with me. They hadn't yet been in a position where they regretted having that information publicly available, so it didn't occur to them to avoid sharing it.
Even if you don't (yet) care about your own right to privacy, you're often not the only person you're doxxing
I do feel like when it comes to Alastor, some people tend to focus way more on the bravado he puts on, than the genuine kind heart he has. They're both equally important parts of who he is, and they feed a lot on each other.
Alastor put a lot of work into becoming a radio personality in life, and fame is an extremely fickle thing, so he's also had to put a lot of work into maintaining his reputation, and station in life. He's had to put up a wall between himself and everyone else, so that nobody can take the life he's so carefully built away from him, but he's still ultimately human at the end of the day. He still very much deeply loves and cares for people, as much as he doesn't want to admit it all the time, and I just think that makes him all the more fascinating as a character!
It's one of my favorite things about him, honestly, and I can't wait to see how they play with that in the next season!
YUP. He's sharp-edged for a good reason, his backstory is like 90% trauma, and that's me being generous with the estimation. He's prickly as fuck, but when you look at what he actually does, his actual actions and the consequences of them... I mean you COULD say that everything he did for the hotel crew in s1 was because Rosie made him, but I don't think that bears out. He was able to run away from Adam, he makes the deal with Vaggi to not ask him to do TV things rather than with Charlie, he is very noticably absent in most "bonding exercise" scenes, he straight up brought the eggs back in Scrambled Eggs directly contrary to Vaggi's request. He let Mimzy in and let her pursuit catch up and wreck half the hotel even though he knew as well as Husk did that that's what was going to happen.
Like, just... there's this trend in fandom I've noticed not for the first time, where people take charismatic characters at their word for who they are and what they are like, instead of actually looking at the facts presented in the narrative. Alastor identifies as a demon in Hell, baby, and that means clearly that's exactly what he is and all he is. For fuck's sake, he gives Charlie a monologue in s1e7 about how he doesn't reeeeally enjoy all the suffering around him and is just putting up a brave front, but of course it's not what the scene concludes on, the deal is, so people just... what, forget? Don't notice?
There's a fascinating moment in s1 finale where if you are only LISTENING to Alastor's part of the song, "great Alastor Altruist died for his friends" sounds perfectly mocking, like ha-ha as if that'd ever happen. But if you actually look at the screen in that moment, he's genuinely freaking out and in visible distress? Bro is a professional voice actor, of course he controls his auditory expression better than his facial expressions and body language, especially when nobody is there to see it... Is that really what people do with that part??? Listen without watching???
I just...
And the funniest part is when people insist that the bravado he puts on is false in the other direction. That he's a fraud, a coward, that he is the one who "will never fill his cup, no victory will ever be enough". Like where are you even getting this from??? General media archetypes??? Well Alastor sure is one, BUT NOT FUCKIGN THAT ONE???? He's a typical trickster for fucks sakeeeeeeee
(The bravado he puts on is perfectly damn well true, actually. He DOES enjoy being difficult!!! He can't always manage it, but it's his favorite thing when he pulls it off. I will never shut up about the parallels between Angel and Alastor, both method actors of "it's not a mask, it's who I have to be" variety. Alastor is exactly as fucking badass as he's selling himself to be, and the fact that it has a higher difficulty level for him than it would for a Default Villain is worthy of more respect, not less, lol)
"being a human is so boring why can't I be one of the COOL animals" okay hey. I hear you. but I actually really super love being an omnivorous persistence hunting primate with a stomach capable of dissolving many literal poisons and the ability to smell geosmin (released in the soil after it rains) at five parts per trillion. I super enjoy being a bipedal terrifyingly agile mammal with some of the most efficient sweat glands in the animal kingdom. I find a lot of joy in being an endotherm with mimicry abilities that rival most other animals with vocal chords. it's sick as hell I'm having a lot of fun
Rewatching Season 2, and among the MANY amazing Vox and Charlie parallels I've noticed (which I will do a deep dive on at some point):
While primarily Lilith plays the role in Charlie's emotional journey Alastor plays in Vox's (the person who rejected them they desperately want to prove themselves too), Charlie also has another person - an enemy who hates her and does not have her best wishes at heart - that she spends the whole season hyper-fixating on impressing, winning over, defeating, proving wrong.
Vox himself.
It escalates throughout the season, but she hardly ever talks about "The Vees" as a group, even before Vox shows up in 2x05 and proves himself to be a bigger threat than she thought.
(Continued below the cut)
In her interview with Katie, she doesn't mention Velvette. :
"Well, as you know, Vox paid a visit to our hotel recently, yes, and he lied about everything that--"
Even though Velvette clearly played as much of a role in the tape as Vox did, Charlie singles him out specifically. Throuhgout the rest of the interview, it's "He". She's, as Vaggie points out, hyperfixating on what he's saying about her - him specifically, despite all of VoxTek being involved in this. Charlie's specifically mad at him.
She then, as soon as she gets Sera, Emily, Abel and Lute's attention, decides to do the totally not stupid thing of dragging them to Vox's rally to apologize, to "Show them all he's a liar". She continues to hyper-fixate on Vox specifically and trying to prove him wrong about things, him specifically. At this point it's turned into a grudge.
"Vaggie: Because you aren't listening to me. You're hyper-fixating on what he's saying about you.
Charlie: Because he's hurting the hotel, he is ruining—
Vaggie: Charlie! You are hurting the hotel! I know it sucks what Vox is doing, but you're playing his game."
Basically Vaggie says what I've been s saying. And of course this scene could just as easily take place between Vox and Val. This is of course exactly the problem between the Vees - Vox isn't listening to his partners and hyper-fixating on what Alastor is saying about him. And it causes him to push his friends away just as Charlie does hers.
And in the finale, when Vox taunts her, it makes her cry. Adam said shitty things about her all the time in season 1 and she never broke into tears over it. It comes across like Charlie is specifically upset about the fact that Vox doesn't like her. As people have pointed out, it's a general problem both characters have, that of needing everyone to like them regardless. But still, Vox is fixated on Alastor's approval because he rejected his affection in the past, which isn't the case of Vox and Charlie. So why the parallel hyper fixation?
I think the issue is that Vox actually challenges her. And he brings up points she doesn't know how to counter in 2x03. He points out she has no proof, and she can't argue with that. He points out she doesn't know how redemption works and roasts her attempts to do it with Angel, including some of her definitely ridiculous ideas ("give a hobo a dime" seriously Charlie WTF!?). He points out her "self-sacrifice" set up for Angel doesn't actually pose a risk and forces her to try it for real. He points out she doesn't know how to redeem someone for being a "murderer". All of these are genuinely good points, despite coming from a villain. And Charlie can't counter them.
Her one moment of victory over him is when eh asks if she thinks he can be redeemed and she says 'anyone can be'. But otherwise, the problem is that while he fabricates shit on the air, he also points out all of her real mistakes. Vox forces Charlie to confront her own flaws in a way that Velvette or Adam do not, or anyone else really. Adam didn't hit on Charlie's real flaws, he just ran his mouth off so he was easy to ignore.
So if Charlie can prove Vox wrong, she won't have to actually think about all the good criticisms he brought up. He does something similar with the Angels in 2x05, where he brings up real criticisms about what they've done. "Apologizing for genocide with gift baskets" is not that different from what Charlie thinks, she even green lights this project. Just as she thinks "giving a hobo a dime" is somehow the path to redemption. And Vox, though of course he's doing it for selfish and not righteous reasons, calls the angels out on this, and by proxy Charlie.
I think this is why Charlie is so fixated on proving Vox wrong, him specifically. If she can prove he's a liar and a monster and write him off as just some stupid villain who doesn't know what he's talking about, she doesn't have to think about any of the valid points he brought up about her. She's really sensitive to criticism, has trouble taking it even from her girlfriend. Vox gets upset about Alastor's (often hollow) criticisms in a similar way because he can't counter them no matter what he does.
Both characters are stuck in a place where they don't want to ever have to deal with being wrong. Now, by the season 2 finale both of them are at least able to do that with their nearest and dearest (Charlie apologizes to Vaggie in 2x06 and gives up her position, Vox admits 'Maybe I went too far' to Val and Vel and has now lost his position). But interestingly, neither has yet to deal with the genuinely valid criticisms their nemeses brought up.
Vox obviously can't deal with Alastor's criticisms. But Charlie hasn't really addressed any of Vox's points either. She hasn't figured out how redemption works or really made it up to Angel for what she did. I think an interesting question going forward is: will Charlie just write Vox off as some asshole whose points she doesn't need to listen to, or will she actually take the time to acknowledge and address them?
Regardless of where things go, I just found this parallel really interesting, and I think it makes Vox and Charlie's parallels an interesting dynamic to dive into going forward.
Time for a post that doesn't comply with the gimmick...
So, companies are tracking you no matter what you do, but this specifically is something I care about deeply.
Essentially, when you share a link, sometimes it has extra data that tracks where it comes from and goes.
Opening Spotify, clicking the first item, and using the share button, I get something like open.spotify.com/track/4P0f1HTaA2UwtLJGryNgJZ?si=DBvbfihOSweU1KHj9Mib8w
That ?si=...........…. is the tracker. It tells Spotify who clicks on the link and ties it to you, meaning Spotify knows who your friends are even if you never follow them.
Similarly, if on Amazon or EBay in the browser, I get something like www.ebay.com/itm/146493392451?_skw=lenovo&itmmeta=............&hash=item................&itmprp=enc..............
And, similarly, everything after the question mark is tracking you. I had to blank it out because it was so long!
There is an exception for a few things (I.E. the v=..... on YouTube, but not the si=..... on YouTube)
The general rule is delete everything after the ? and if it breaks, add something back.
Firefox users, when you right-click to copy a URL, it will give you the option to "copy clean link" which does what prev describes for you automatically. 10/10.
gamechangershow
origamiaround
amandla
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