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random collection of posts I enjoy ~ currently into Hollow Knight and Fullmetal Alchemist ~ ~ currently only casual interest into Star Wars ~

[carrionhearted]

Sorry for infodumping about my special interest out of nowhere, you said a keyword and it activated my unskippable dialogue

[elethart]

Finally some quality content in my portfolio

[michaelnordeman]

Eurasian Red Squirrel/ekorre. Värmland, Sweden (3 June 2017).

[theforgowolf]

So I did a thing (Vise is a character created by @fireflysummers that appears in their hollow knight comic, it's really good I'd recommend reading it!!!)

[vexheart]

[fireflysummers]

Like I cannot overstate how much this damn comic is the result of me telling @sandflakedraws that I thought the Green Prince deserved a "himbo mantis boyfriend," and then reverse engineering the conditions required to get that result.

Bug yaoi moves mountains I guess.

[fireflysummers]

The story is only partially about the bug yaoi at this point, somewhere along the line it turned into an actual narrative with stakes and themes and shit.

And I have nobody to blame but myself.

[fireflysummers]

Like, I've mentioned before that I don't really enjoy shipping unless I find two characters more interesting in a relationship than not... and as an aroace person, that can be pretty rare. On top of that, I'm not fond of using romantic relationships as the primary vehicle for "fixing" trauma.

But I was deeply intrigued by Hornet's journal entry about the Clover Dancers:

For one to love another so similar to themselves, is that selfless or vain?

For the Green Prince, choosing to live means more than simply not dying. To survive is to adapt, to grow, to change--there will inevitably come a day when he will look at himself and no longer see his lover reflected.

And so much of this turmoil could be surfaced and expanded upon with this secondary question, of what it would mean for a person like the Green Prince to fall in love with somebody who was his opposite.

As a result, a lot of the story emerged from asking what that "opposite" means in this situation, and the circumstances that would produce that sort of person, and the situations that would even bring the two into contact with each other.

So while the bug yaoi is not exactly the Main Plot (that, as usual, goes to Hornet and her Shenanigans), it is very much sits at the conjoined heart of the story.

[fireflysummers]

All this to say, as a character Vise wasn't designed to "fix" anything, he's designed to excavate the Prince's grief in ways that none of the other characters could manage.

Anyways, I'm done rambling about the sad gay bugs for now.

[fireflysummers]

I wasn't planning on posting this until after the next chapter, but hey, June 1st! Have some bug yaoi!

Plenty of you have kinda guessed that this might be one of the story directions, and though it's far from the only beat in the Green Prince's plotline, their interactions are very fun to draw. Also... Do not be fooled, Vise only has game when he's not trying.

Also some bonus hangouts. Lace is ✨️ distraught ✨️ that Hollow wants to sit politely and listen to Shakra sing.

(You can get WIPs and sketches early on Patreon!)

[Chapter 7]

Hollow Knight Fanart Masterpost

[michaelnordeman]

Eurasian Red Squirrel/ekorre. Värmland, Sweden (1 June 2025).

[uss-edsall]

At 1 PM on a Friday I get an email from my boss. I'm busy as hell so I don't check it immediately. Then I get a phone call from my boss, which has almost never happened before. I'm a white collar worker, a historian. There's never a 'historical emergency' requiring a phone call to kick me in the ass and get to work.

The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond

good fucking god, jesus tap dancing goddamn christ, I'm glad I was asked to look at it and then find a real map

[writertobridge-deactivated20230]

Saw this on Twitter and wanted to share.

[berensreverie]

Guardian of the Unicorns

[valtsv]

basically the best thing any character can do is decide they don't want to be afraid anymore - in fact they never want to be afraid of anything ever again - and take action so drastic they fail to realise that this too is a decision motivated by fear. or to account for the Consequences of that.

[valtsv]

[with obvious perverted intent] hey. don't you want to release the safety catches on that character. don't you want to flip off all the switches holding them back and let the control rods go.

[lizwongart]

Never Stop Reading

[qqchurch]

[saszor]

"Tutorial" on how to "draw" a blind OC.

My kofi

Boring tired disclaimer: Keep in mind that this is an introductory "drawing" "tutorial" and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. Which happens to be true for everything in general. Links below so that you can research and do a nuance. Ones that were directly mentioned are bolded.

Writing a blind character 101 What to avoid etc Video on types of white canes Video on types of cane tips Some more explanation on white canes + tips + other stuff Guide animals Video on working with a guide dog ↑ if you're doing a non-dog non-horse animal please still perceive those two links. A guide animal is not a GPS that tells you "left" or "right" (in fact, you're the one telling it which direction you want to go). So before giving them something weird check if it actually makes sense. You can make a fantasy animal that still makes sense I promise 🦮👍 But why are Magical White Eyes a problem Same as above Going blind from an accident Video on conformers World's most basic "what do you call someone with albinism" The blindfold thing. No people don't wear these. This mostly stupid trope of covering a blind character's eyes because lord forbid someone sees a disabled body part This just stupid trope of giving a blind character some bs superpower to "see" The echolocation thing that every other blind oc does for some reason Just give them a cane good lord if you want a character that can see perfectly then maybe don't make them blind Bonus: if your character has a bunch of scars or whatever else then congrats! You made a character with a facial difference. Which is also something you should research.

[great-and-small]

I am constantly thinking about this

[great-and-small]

This mild Wikipedia sentence is like the understatement of all time

Here are some crazy grasshopper mouse facts for those who are not familiar with the most badass mouse species on the planet

- They are primarily carnivorous, and their diet is made up of not only bugs but also snakes, lizards and other mice.

- They hunt like true predators, slowly stalking and creeping up on their prey before ambushing them. They will sometimes let out a screech as they attack.

- Like wolves, they howl to establish territory and have a specially developed throat to produce louder vocalizations. They will stand up on their hind legs and throw their head back to howl- a sound that can be heard from 100 meters away!

- Grasshopper mouse behavior is linked to lunar cycles and they are more active during a full moon.

- These mice have been hunting bark scorpions and evolving alongside them for so long that they’ve evolved a mutation where scorpion venom that is lethal to other animals is converted into a painkiller in the grasshopper mouse’s body.

[uncle-beanbag-mojave]

They sound like teakettles at night

[mushroominaforest]

Time skip/generation skip sequels are terrible and awful to me because yayyy my favourite characters got a happy ending except NO THEY DIDNT because we need conflict for their children/successors so actually their happy ending lasted approximately 0.5 seconds and then everything became awful again.

Like. Movies will have a young adult break some sort of cycle or save the world or something and then the next movie will come out and now that young adult is an old adult and their life didn’t actually work out and they didn’t actually break the cycle and they didn’t actually save the world and it’s like. It’s so sad to me.

Is anyone else bothered by this? Like I can’t stand it lol. I know it’s just a genre preference whether you like tragedies or not (I really don’t like tragedies) but it sucks so bad when media that wasn’t even meant to be a tragedy becomes a tragedy just because they haaaad to go and make a time skip sequel you know? And then I have to pretend canon doesn’t exist and make up my own happy ending au in my head lmao.