#world's largest human body parts

[hufflepuffwritingstuff2]

An Offer You Can't Refuse- Part 1

Hero stirred to the sound of muffled voices. They tried to open their eyes, but there was a weight over them preventing them from doing so. They tried to move something, but that also proved futile as something thick and unyielding kept their limbs pressed tightly together. Some kind of cloth had been stuffed in their mouth, and judging by the sticky feeling on the lower half of their face, had been sealed shut with tape.

Hero wriggled in their restraints. They couldn’t stretch out much; padded, soft walls from all sides kept them tucked in a fetal position. How were they going to get out of this? They couldn’t see, speak, or move. They summoned their power, but any ice crystals that they formed couldn’t penetrate the uncomfortably tight material that encased them.

How did they even end up in this situation? The last thing they remembered was… oh. The fight with Villain. They never exactly played fair, but they really took that to another level when they hit Hero from behind with some kind of knockout dart.

“And now, what you’ve all come here for!” a muffled voice- Villain’s- rang out.

The voices became clearer as cool air wafted into the tight space. Villain must have opened the lid to the box they were in. Gasps and noises of awe sounded out from all around them.

Hero glared under the blindfold. They were ready for a fight. They were just about to try and sit up when there was a jab in their shoulder. Their body sank into the padded floor against their will, and Hero let out a very muffled cry.

“The city’s beloved human blizzard, Hero!” Villain announced, “you couldn’t hope for a better living weapon. With some training, you’ll be able to freeze out any adversary with one command! Let’s start the bidding at, say, five hundred dollars?”

“Five hundred dollars!”

Hero stiffened in shock. Was Villain really doing this!? They tried to fight the drug, but it was quickly pulling them under.

“Five hundred, do I hear six hundred?”

“Six hundred!”

“Six hundred, do I hear seven hundred?”

“One thousand!”

This went on for some time, the numbers going farther up and Hero growing more drowsy.

“five hundred thousand.”

“Five hundred thousand from General in the back, do I hear six hundred thousand? Going once… going twice…”

“One million,” a voice said.

The crowd gasped.

“O-one million dollars,” Villain said, surprise in their voice, “Will you meet that, General?”

“Two million dollars.”

“Two million dollars, how about it, Mx…?”

“Supervillain,” the voice replied, “three million dollars.”

The crowd gasped again.

Hero was too tired to be properly afraid. Their fate was down to the military, or to the most feared leader of the largest criminal syndicate in the world. Somewhere in the back of their mind they wished one of those corrupt politicians had bought them instead.

“Three million dollars, General?”

“Four million dollars.”

“Eight million dollars,” Supervillain replied coolly.

“Eight million dollars. General? Going once…”

“Nine million dollars.”

“One hundred million dollars,” Supervillain said.

“O-one hundred million dollars!” Villain squeaked, “going once, going twice…General? No? Then sold! Please have your payment presented in cash to me by the end of the week. Congratulations, Supervillain.”

The lid of the box was closed, and Hero drifted off completely.

Part 2

#hero x villain #hero x supervillain #superhero whump #whump #hurt/comfort #writeblr #writing #creative writing #drugging #kidnapping #sold at an auction #auction #heroes and villains #series #snippet

[buf309]

Pose Reference Resources

I promised Dia (aka aerequets) that I will make a collection of pose references in the reply of one of her art posts, and then I completely forgot about it. Until now. I'm sorry for my bad memory.

So, yeah, better late than never I guess?

The pose collection I use the most is no longer free. They used to let you download a whole album (more than 8GB worth of data) to use offline, but now you have to pay $40/package or $200 for full sets. I still have the zip file for a very old version of theirs, but I can't legally share it. So, let's skip to the other options.

1/ First, you heard of those 3D dolls program that let you model your own reference pose? This one is an online one and for free, the whole ordeal. Of course since it's online and free, you can't save your model for next time, and it costs quite a lot of time to set the model up. So, you should take as much screenshots in as many tricky angles as you need once you done with the setting. Best using for complicated scenes where those below don't have what you need already available.

2/ This one is free and in 3D, you can rotate the model to any angle that you need. The only set back is the numbers of poses are quite limited. This one is best for using as a basic blocks then build up what you want to draw, or just as a practice to improve your understanding of human anatomy.

3/ This one is free for personal uses and the pose collection is massive. The setbacks are the language barrier (it's in Japanese, English is sometimes tag-a-long) and you have to search through their pages for what you need. The pics for each pose is static but they are in different angle in almost 360 degrees. There are many 2-person and 3-person poses too. Great for illustration inspiration.

4/ This one will only show reference photos of human head, at whatever angle you rotate the model. The web interface is easy to use. There are options like searching based on gender, ages, emotions, glasses, facial hair or not, etc. Good for practicing face drawing.

5/ This one will show reference photos for human body parts, at whatever angle you rotate the model, read the instructions for how to do it. The web interface is quite hard to use at first, just tinkering around for a bit, and you will be fine. There are options like searching based on gender and which particular parts that you need refs for. Good for that moment when you go "huh? how is this <body part> will look in this <situation>????"

6/ This one will only show reference photos of animal heads, and only the head, at whatever angle you rotate the model. The accurate skull refencence list is their best point. There are enough common species in the drop down list. Tbh, I don't use this much because I often need refs for the whole animal most of the time. But it's best for furry artists, I guess?

7/ Real model photos. They sell pose reference in themed packs, but there are enough free packs to use as drawing practice too.

8/ This is the best for general background reference. Lots of options. Not really good for very specific location results, but good for random background in drawings.

9/ Lastly, for specific objects or background references at strange angles, I often search for 3D models on this site then take screenshots of whatever I need.

That's all, folks. Hope this list can help ease some of the struggles that we will encounter on our quest of learning the art of drawing things 😂

#reference #digital art reference

[whereserpentswalk]

There are massive warships. Things that are the size of stations but that can move more swiftly through hyperspace and real space than any other object created by humans or gods. They're not like the warships you imagine, they're like entire divisions of the military, some of them have the populations of small planets, the largest of them have populations higher then earth had before industry came to it.

It only takes one of these ships to comquor a system. Though they often have smaller ships swarming them, like the microorganisms on your skin. And when they fight eachother, holes are torn in hyperspace, and heavily bodies become asteroid belts. Even the weapons that can destroy planets can't take ships like this down in one hit.

Inside the ships are entire societies, of humans, cyborgs, robots, and strange organisms generated by human science. Many of them soldiers who exist to serve as the ships troops, especially since a boarding action is the fastest way to take them down, but many are there for other reasons. You need an entire society to support a ship like that and all the troops it can carry, from workers who maintain the ship, to traders who bring new recourses on, to artists and teachers and lawyers and all the other things that end up as needed when there's that many people.

Some of these ships are so large and so deep that there are people on there who've never seen the world outside their machines of war. And some isolated parts of those ships, who've been within the depths of the endless machinery for so long, that they've lost contact with the more outwards facing parts of the ship society. Tribes and towns within the dark mechanical labyrinth who don't know they're on a warship, who don't even know planets exist.

And they say, that as the loyalty of a ship fades from the empire that built it, that the ship may come to be controlled by many nations, vying for control of the ship's flight. They say that within the depths of some war ships, wars are fought.

#196 #my thougts #worldbuilding #writing #my worldbuilding #my writing #original fiction #flash fiction #short fiction #short story #scifi #scifi writing #scifi worldbuilding #science fantasy #science fiction #sci fi #science fiction writing #science fiction worldbuilding #space #deep space exploration #far future #spaceship #spacecraft #space exploration #outer space

[tallulah477]

Pretty, Pretty Panties

Kinkmas Day 3: Lingerie/Stockings

Pairing: Lo’ak x Fem!Human!Reader

Warnings: AgedUp!Lo’ak, Grinding (cause I can’t think of a better word for this?), Size Difference

Word Count: 1.9K

A/N: I was trying to see if there was a specific word for this kind of sex act and Google decided to bring me hurtling back into the world of Urban Dictionary and y’all . . . Urban Dictionary is WILD

A/N 2: I have exactly zero other prompts prepped after this one so this is going to be exactly like Kinktober lmao

Summary: Lo’ak has always been intrigued by human items, but your panties may just be his favorite of them all.

Translations:

Tawtute - Human

Olo’eyktan - Clan Leader

Tewng - Loincloth

Yawne - Beloved

Lo’ak’s always been intrigued by human items.

It’s only natural - his father was a human, long before Eywa granted him a new life permanently in the body of his Avatar. He, himself, is undeniably part human. The hair on his brow bones and extra finger on both of his hands are features that can only ever come from one place, telling the story of his unique family lineage and the source of his low self-esteem during his teenage years. 

He’s since grown out of the self-hatred his different traits brought upon him, learning to accept who he is and be proud of his differences despite where they come from. Besides, not all humans are bad. His grandmother had told them once that the humans that stayed behind on Pandora after the first war were all part Na’vi - not in looks, of course, but in soul. They are the ones who fought for peace, who heard the call of Eywa, even with their tiny, round tawtute ears, and earned their place amongst The People despite looking like the enemy. 

His father was one of them, a long time ago, and he became Toruk Makto with his hairy eyebrows and extra fingered hands. It used to be suffocating, to be drowning under the shadow of such a successful man, always feeling like a disappointment, a failure, and never knowing if he was ever going to be half the man his father is. But things are different now. Lo’ak is older and wiser, and he can proudly say he feels honored to share in those similarities with such a great man. 

Human DNA is in his veins, their technology now a staple in the Omatikaya Clan, introduced at the insistence of his father. Throat comms wrap around the necks of every hunter and warrior, tablets are used to help keep track and categorize supplies of both the clan’s reserves as well as the outpost’s inventory. Every warrior must go through vigorous gun training, learning how to handle the weapon, how to shoot and reload with military precision. The bad humans are gone now, with no sight of ever looking like they’re going to return, but the Olo’eyktan does not take chances, and he will not have his family run out of their home ever again. 

Lo’ak knows it all, his long blue fingers fiddling with any piece of technology confidently. But it’s not just technology he’s interested in. He’s tried clothes before, stealing the largest t-shirt he could find from one of the science guys just to try it. It fit, but just barely, the material stretching across his lean shoulders a little too tightly and feeling way too constricting for his own taste, the bottom hem stopping about halfway down his torso. You laughed when you saw it, tears filling your eyes as you pointed at his midriff just barely able to gasp out the words ‘crop top’ through your full bodied laughter.

The shirt didn’t work for him, he was okay with that. He was curious, he tried, he learned - and that was that. He never really thought he would want to go around wearing tawtute clothing even if they would have fit him right.

You, on the other hand . . .

. . . well, those panties fit you perfectly.

It’s not like humans go out in their underwear, and Spider is the only human bold enough to regularly walk around in a tewng, so Lo’ak only finds out exactly what’s underneath those annoying layers of tawtute clothing when the two of you start fucking around. The chest covering, a ‘bra’ you called it, is completely unnecessary. There’s no need to cover up as much as humans do, and to hide such perfect tits in an uncomfortable wired cradle is a torture that he will never understand why someone would put themselves through, and, frankly, it’s a slight against Eywa to cover up such gifts. 

The panties though? Yeah, they can stay. They look so much like a tewng, covering your most intimate parts like a privacy cover, only missing the front flap to make them identical in look. You have different ones - different colors, different textures, and different styles that show various levels of undress for your perfect ass. 

Lo’ak loves them all, but currently, the one’s he’s fucking are his favorite. 

It’s a tiny thing, like you, light pink with a cute little bow in the front, and the soft material feels like heaven on his cock as he glides through your wet folds. 

You look so good underneath him, hair splayed out like a halo on your pillow as you gasp and whine every time the head of his cock slides over your clit, tiny hands fisting into the sheets for support as his own hands push your knees back against your chest to keep you spread open. 

You’re still wearing your panties, and a part of him wants to growl in frustration and rip the delicate material from your body for not being able to have an unobscured visual of your puffy pussy. But you’re so wet, so so wet that the panties have all but become transparent with your slick, making them sticky and see through enough that he can see both the outline of your labia and his length as he rubs against you underneath it. 

He shivers as he thrusts faster, the wetness of your arousal making the slip across your swollen clit all the more easy, and a growled moan escapes him as the wet sounds your pussy makes at the increased pace invade his ears. The tip of his cock is nudging against the wet fabric with each pass, the large bulge pushing the material away from your body with each thrust just from the sheer size of him. The underside of your panties is dragging against the length of his cock, working in unison with your silky pussy against the underside to tease him into insanity. 

Your whines get louder, hips twisting in response to the never ending stimulation on the sensitive bundle of nerves, dripping hole clenching around nothing, begging to be filled. “Lo’ak, please,” 

He hums at the sound of his name, his name, moaned in that beautiful voice of yours, eyes flicking up from the obscene view of where your bodies are meeting to your face. “Yes, yawne? What can I do for you?”

“P-please, fuck me,” You beg. Your legs are trembling in his hold, desperate to kick out and wrap around his hips to try and pull him in. “Please,”

“Hm,” He grins, sharp canines on display, glittering in the fluorescent lighting of your bedroom. “Does my pretty girl feel empty? Need some big Na’vi cock to fill you up?”

You nod, frantically, heat pooling in your cheeks as the coil in your belly tightens at the thought of his cock splitting you open. You want it so badly, want to feel his length push into you, want to experience it as it keeps pushing, filling you up more and more and feeling like it might never stop. You want to see that bulge currently working underneath the cover of your sticky panties in your stomach instead - want to watch it disappear as he pulls out only to reappear again when he thrusts back in, deeper and deeper as he fucks your cunt so good in a way you know only he ever could. 

He wants that too, wants to feel what your gummy walls feel like wrapped around his cock. He knows the sight would just about kill him, to see your soaking hole stretch to its limits trying to take a cock that’s way too big for you. How suffocatingly tight you would feel, to finally be inside you (or at least as much inside as he can fit).  

He can’t help it, he just wants to see what it looks like, and he stops the tortuous drag of his cock along your clit to slide down the length of your pussy. One of his hands let go of your thigh to pull your panties to the side, mouth watering at the sight of your soaked core and puffy clit now completely visible to his hungry gaze. His breathing is shaky when he presses the tip of his cock against your tight entrance, the head rubbing gently at the pulsing hole as you mewl underneath him.

“Lo,” You moan, back arching as you try to push your hips down further against him. “More,”

“More, huh?” Lo’ak groans, pressing just a little bit harder against you and watching as your entrance gives under the pressure, trying to stretch around him and welcome him in. “This slutty little pussy wants more? So greedy,”

Your wide eyes glisten with unshed tears, red rimmed and watery from the way he’s teasing you. He won’t push in, won’t give you anything more than the small presses of pressure against your sopping hole, just enough to get you to start to stretch around the tip only to snap back when the pressure releases. “Lo’ak, please!” 

His fangs dig into his bottom lip, a soft growl echoing through the room as he steels himself to be strong. You’re not ready, he’s too big and he doesn’t want to hurt you. You gasp when he pushes against your entrance again, cock slipping against your wetness and running up your slit and across your clit roughly making you jump. 

Lo’ak releases his hold on your panties, letting the soaked garment snap back in place over your cunt and his heated length. 

“Can’t,” He grunts, once again beginning the agonizing stimulation of him sliding against your pussy. The soaked squelching sounds as his cock glides against your clit are obscene and wonderful, and your responding moans and whines sound even better as his ears flick to catch the sound. “Wanna fuck your pretty, pretty panties.”

Your hands latch onto Lo’ak’s wrists, nails digging into his skin as the coil in your belly tightens up more. The bite from your nails only intensifies the feeling, and Lo’ak can feel his own orgasm barreling towards him, and fuck, only you can make him feel like this without any penetration at all. 

It’s all wet in your pretty panties, all wet and gooey, and your arousal soaks his cock so good as he rocks against your soft folds. The fabric of the panties are rubbing against the head of his cock with each thrust, the added sensation only adding to the intensity. And when you cum, back arched and whimpering his name as he slides against your clit over and over and over again, dripping hole clenching around nothing as your body shakes with pleasure, the sight sends him over the edge, too. 

His orgasm hits him hard, ropes of pearly release painting your sensitive pussy and the inside of your pretty pink panties as he moans. Slowly, he pulls his cock out from underneath the fabric, letting the panties press back in place over your cunt with the sticky mess he left behind between you and the ruined material. 

And you look so beautiful like that, so sexy as you lie there, panting and looking like you just got fucked within an inch of your life despite the fact that you didn’t even take his tip, let alone his entire cock. The pink panties are pretty, and you wear them so well. 

But now he can’t help but wonder if you maybe have a pair in blue too.

**Special thanks to @neteyamsyawntu for the prompt!

Taglist: @eywaite @loaksulluyswife @erenjaegerwifee @f-cklife @beautiful-brown-skin-05 @anastasia1777-blog @localjasmine @tsewtx @skywonder @neteyamswillow

#𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝑾𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒔 ✎ #Avatar12DaysofKinkmas #lo'ak smut #lo'ak x human reader #Lo’ak x female reader

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - May 29, 2023

Rwanda’s life expectancy has increased by 20 years in the last 20 years

What did Rwanda change? Three developments stand out: low-cost community-based health insurance plans, national investments in rural health posts, and ramped-up foreign collaborations. In 2020, more than 90 percent of Rwanda’s people had some kind of health insurance. This stands out relative to other low-income countries, where on average 31 percent of people have health insurance.

2. Brandon School Division rejects call to remove library books on sexuality, gender identity

Loud cheers erupted inside a packed high school gymnasium after the Brandon School Division rejected a call to remove books dealing with sexuality and gender identity from libraries. Hundreds of people in Manitoba's second-largest city showed up for the marathon school division meeting, which ran into the early morning hours.

The trustees ultimately voted 6-1 to reject a proposal to create a committee of trustees and parents to review books available in division schools.

3. Lotto winner pledges to fund classrooms in his native Mali

Happiness for one lucky North Carolina resident comes not from newfound wealth from a lottery win, but using those winnings to help schoolchildren -- in this case, from Mali.

Souleymane Sana of North Carolina won $100,000 from a scratch-off ticket. Relocating to the United States from Mali -- a war-torn county in West Africa -- Sana is using his earnings to create a non-profit to help school kids from his hometown.

4. Mountain gorillas rebound thanks to Ugandan veterinarian

In 2018, as their population topped 1,000, they were removed from the critically endangered list and their status upgraded to just endangered. That positive step was due, in no small part, to Ugandan veterinarian Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. 

Her working home is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to roughly half of the world's mountain gorillas. But early on she also realized that to help the animals and keep them free from disease and poaching, she needed to also help their human neighbours, launching successful initiatives to improve the health and well-being of the people living around the park. 

5. Imports of ivory from hippos, orcas and walruses to be banned in UK

Ivory imports from hippopotamuses, orcas and walruses will be banned under new legislation to protect the endangered species from poaching.

The Ivory Act, passed in 2018, targeted materials from elephants, but a loophole meant that animals other than elephants, including hippos, were being targeted for their ivory.

6. Solar power due to overtake oil production investment for first time in 2023

Investment in clean energy will extend its lead over spending on fossil fuels in 2023, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, with solar projects expected to outpace outlays on oil production for the first time.

Annual investment in renewable energy is up by nearly a quarter since 2021 compared to a 15% rise for fossil fuels, the Paris-based energy watchdog said in its World Energy Investment report.

7. Paralyzed man walks naturally, thanks to wireless ‘bridge’ between brain and spine

Gert-Jan Oskam lost the ability to walk in 2011 when he injured his spine in a cycling accident in China. Six years later, the Dutch man managed to take a few short steps thanks to a small array of electrodes implanted on top of his spinal cord that delivered nerve-stimulating pulses of electricity.

Today in Nature, an international team of researchers reports giving Oskam a better fix, a way to digitally bridge the communication gap between his brain and lower body. Brain waves signaling Oskam’s desire to walk travel from a device implanted in his skull to the spinal stimulator, rerouting the signal around the damaged tissue and delivering pulses of electricity to the spinal cord to facilitate the movement. Oskam can now walk more fluidly, navigate obstacles, and climb stairs.

----

That's it for this week :)

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#best news of last week

[historia-vitae-magistras]

i’d never even considered how the civil war would affect alfred during ww1, that’s a really interesting idea. would you mind expanding a bit more if you haven’t already?

fuck yes I can expand on that. TW for historic nastiness.

Okay to prelude— I don't typically do 1:1 state/gov to character but considering the cession of the south into a separate state and the US itself is the Union, my boy is in blue. In this blog's universe there is no schizophrenia or split personality or Doppelgänger or any other representation of the south. It gutted him and he lost feeling in a lot of his usual area and it severely weakened him but he represented the United States and that means union blue. And considering the north really doesn't have all that much moral leverage on the south especially in matters of racism, it's not much of a jump. If you aren't crazy about that, look away now.

So. Trench warfare. It's as old as humans bashing each other's heads in. Defensive ditches are an archaeological feature across the applicable world. But it's the American Civil War that might hold the gold medal for largest gap between how technology designed to kill had advanced spectacularly over any innovation that might save lives. I won't say deadliest because you do have the Taiping Rebellion around the same time but a lot of that was sièges and counter sieges and river based naval engagements. But anyway— rifled artillery and direct fire techniques had changed the game and soldiers were driven underground behind parapets and sandbags. Around Petersburg especially. And it's towards the end of the war when the Confederacy is increasingly desperate and hand to hand fighting is getting more common and more brutal. Entire regiments were lost in hand to hand mêlée. And if a soldier didn't die instantly, it was off to a field hospital. Guts ripped open by iron shells, lungs hanging from the tips of bayonets, wounds so infected they glowed, limbs hacked off by a surgeon who hadn't washed his hands in six days and sepsis rot so foul someone can taste it on the air even with the mouth closed. Malaria and typhoid so fucking bad the army cots would literally shake apart from how bad men shivered when the chills aspect of the fever cycle hit. I know it's fashionable right now especially on vintage fashion YouTube to say people in history weren't disgusting but like, I've been in archives for years. Yeah it fucken was. Never was medicine so far behind the ability to kill.

So Alfred's probably died a solid dozen times half of which from shitting himself because he's probably riddled with parasites. He's been shot, stabbed, slashed. Shaken, rattled and absolutely steam rolled. And the final part of his almighty trauma is this is happening just up the river from where he was born in Jamestown. Alfred is on his belly in the earth beneath the feet of the people that bore him and then rejected him, begging his Protestant God and any of his own people listening and the very earth itself to protect him, to keep him alive as shell after shell lands around him.

When every battle is over, the dead rot in piles across the fields and trenches. The famous photos of the Antietam and Gettysburg dead are days old, you can see some of the bodies had been looted. There were so many dead and so many dying that upon its tardy entrance into world war one, the US had a more coherent body management and disposal program than any other of the entente powers. Who had already been at war for nearly four years.

So yeah, in my opinion he got ten steps into a front line trench where the British and especially the French were just causally walking on bodies, he vomited so hard New York felt California rattling around in there and said fuck it. My boy was either off to cleaner pastures like Belleau Wood or the air corps. It was too much too soon and he just couldn't keep it together in those conditions. They knew what bacteria were by WW1 and he was a burgeoning world power. So he probably only went full himbo with dysentery twice in France so it wasn't as bad as his civil war flop era but oof. That smell, the screams, pressing himself into soil that is not his own yet again is too recent and too vulnerable. He can't do it again so soon.

#the ask box || probis pateo #hws America #meatsack mechanics || the sociology and biology of nations #I'm back #broke my tablet lol

[bl4ckorch1d]

SHACKLE // Buckthorne Woods

Male Naga OC / GN! Reader

1.5k Words || AO3

Slight horror themes.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The forest was almost deadly silent, an oddity for such a usually lively place. One place once visited by many turned abandoned acres. Though it wasn’t a mystery, the nation needed a specific place for the things they deemed ‘unsightly’ for their aesthetic modernized cities. It seemed not even the birds wanted to stick around, not wanting to become prey to either fangs or claws. 

Buckthorne Woods, a name known by many and feared just the same. It only seemed like a few years ago until the humans decided ‘monsters’ can’t roam free on their own free will anymore. Almost seems like they got bored of fighting themselves and moved on to a different area of the food tree. While the woods were certainly one of the largest in the nation, it still was nowhere near big enough to hold every ‘monstrosity’ that roamed the land; their population almost became cut in half due to this. Not much of a chance for a bloom either, while the forest dwellers stay among their own types and don’t fight with each other over land, most refuse to bring a child into such a hate-filled world. Some kinds are becoming almost extinct; mostly the less humanoid they look, the lesser their number is. 

A waterfall was all that truly broke the silence in this specific part of the forest, a beautiful sight almost no one will ever know exists. All that accompanied other than the lush forest greens was a small opening to a cavern, only lit by the sun shining into it.

═.✾. ═══════

The water rippled against the paddles that ran through it, a canoe accompanied by a lone fisher. Setting your canoe under light shading, between the endless green that surrounded your figure. With the paddle set aside, you are in high hopes for fish above the average. With your dominant hand gripping your fishing pole, in a single swoop, you swing the line into the water. A small splash accompanied the bobber as it broke the surface tension of the water. The rays of the sun crack through the open spaces of shade, your skin embracing the slight heat. Eyes steady for any slight pull, you sit there tense. A slight tug on the pole, “Finally, a bite.” you hum to yourself. As you go to start reeling in, your body suddenly drags forward, slamming at the edge of the canoe almost tipping over. You try balancing yourself all while whatever was hooked squirmed around violently in the water, splashing and sending slight waves in all directions. Stubbornly, you began pulling back in panic and hurry, but all this action resulted in was a loud snap. Your back harshly hits the bottom of the canoe, as it sways from side to side. “Damn it”, you thought to yourself, “Should have brought spares.”, as you looked down at the snapped pole.

  At this point, your only goal was to find your way home after that experience. The river only went in one direction, and you swore you remembered which way you came from. So why did it feel so ominously wrong? Paddling through the water, you had expected to find the subtle tracks you left behind to get back out of the forest. The endless overgrown verdure shielded most of your view, but you could hear the heavy sound of water crashing against itself. You knew at that moment that you were completely lost. Your phone was rendered useless without an ounce of service, and the map you brought was drenched from the fishing disaster. The idea of making it back seemed like a pipe dream. It was late evening, and by the time you could even make it back to your fishing spot, the forest would be enveloped by complete darkness. Heading on towards the sound of the water, your eyes were met with an enchanting sight. A waterfall with almost crystal clear water in the pool below it, the scene looked straight out of a magazine. Looking past the constant pouring, there was a cavern hidden slightly beside the falls. Seemed to be your last resort for a place to reside. Paddling on, you dock your canoe as close to the cavern as you can without it getting completely flooded. Grabbing any salvageable supplies, you adventure forward to the mouth of the cavern. 

Nothing seems odd at first glance, a few spiders with their webs seem to be the only company you’ll have tonight. You drop your bag only a few feet into the cavern, far enough to be protected from the elements but close enough to still see outside. The cavern seemed to split into many tunnels further along and that just seemed like a horrible idea to adventure in your current state. Luckily your small blanket had survived the onslaught of water, a small comfort in your hellish predicament. If it wasn’t for the bed of rocks you laid on, you could almost trick yourself into thinking the waterfall was a sound machine when you shut your eyes.

◦ • • • • • • • ◦

Pains shot up your left leg, and you could feel the bile burning in the back of your throat as you lurched awake. Your eyes water as you lose the fight against your nausea. Choking as the last bit of bile makes it out of your mouth. Reaching for your backpack so you can fish out your thermostat to rid the aftertaste of vomit. Instead of the bag, your hand meets straw. You aren’t where you fell asleep. Panic rises in your system as you notice your left leg has swollen like a balloon and the leg beside it has a glistening silver shackle around it.  

You try to make sense of the rest of your surroundings. You seem to be at a dead end of one of the tunnels you spotted earlier. A small fire lights the area with the smoke billowing out into a tiny hole within the wall. If that hole led outside, it seems it is still night. You can’t spot your bag anywhere in the room, there wasn’t much of anything other than the small straw bed you laid upon and the small fire. Oh, and of course the shackle around your ankle that seemed to glisten as it taunted you. Yanking on it seemed to only deliver more pain to the opposite leg as you slightly moved. The chain connected to it was rooted deep into the cave wall, you’d need a jackhammer to even hope to remove it. 

Seems like you really should have listened to all the warning signs you saw at the entrance of the forest, instead of delusionally hoping no harm would have come to you. Now you lay prisoner to some mystery creature. Yelling seemed pointless as no other humans would be anywhere near the entrance of the cavern, and you couldn’t tell how deep you were into it. The noise would also likely attract whatever trapped you, but that almost seemed better than willowing alone in pain. So, you did as any white girl would do in a cheesy horror film and yelled out, “Is anybody there?” . . . A weird mix of relief and disappointment washed over you as silence was your only response. Not even the slightest rustle, only the crackling of embers. 

A sigh escaped your lips, almost masking the slight foreign noise just outside from where you could see. Nausea hits like a typhoon once you lay eyes on who you guessed to be your captor. A naga male, he could almost be mistaken for a model if it wasn’t for the tail that replaced where legs would be. “The rabbit finally awakens I see.” A silky deeper voice, one that overenunciated its s’ by quite a bit. His tan upper half shifted as he went to throw the sticks into the dying fire. Once he moved closer you could finally get a good look at him, his snake side resembling a ‘tiger snake’ with the black and yellow banding. A sharp jawline matched, with sharp golden brown eyes. Black hair tied messily into a bun. Could be worse, much better than some smelly goblin at least.  Your internal monologue was disrupted as he moved to you, getting closer to your swollen leg. “Suprised it hasn’t turned purple yet.” He let out a snide hiss as he poked it, his smile widening as you whimpered out in pain. “But don’t worry, it’s only been mere hours. It’ll swell much more by morning.” A prideful huff as those sharp eyes glanced down at you. He was obviously mocking you, and you could only grit your teeth in response. His hand swatting at you, “No need for that, I’m not going to let it get that bad dear.” The tone made him seem so condescending that you wouldn’t be surprised if he bit you again, right in the same puncture wounds. “Now, give me a second, don’t go anywhere!” . . . Maybe a goblin would have been better. His form quickly slithers out of the area leaving nothing but the sounds of embers once again.

═══════ .✾. ═

#.Ahiga #monster x human #monster x reader #monster x girl #monster x you #monster x y/n #monster x female #monster x female reader #monster x male reader #monster x gn reader #male reader #gender neutral reader #female reader #naga x reader #naga x human #monster boy #monster #oc x reader #male oc x reader #yandere #yandere oc x reader #yandere oc x you #naga x you #naga #naga oc x reader #male x reader #monster boyfriend #monster boy oc #monster bf #yandere monster

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: emperor penguin

This is the last Wet Beast Wednesday before Christmas and Christmas is associated with the north pole thanks to Santa. So to celebrate the season, I'm going about as far away from the north pole as it is possible to go and talking about the emperor penguin. This also happens to be the first dinosaur I've showcased on this series.

(image id: an emperor penguin lying belly-down on ice, seen from the side. Its back, wings, and head are black while its belly and neck are white. It has a patch of orange feathers near the ears. Another penguin is standing up in the background. end id)

Aptenodytes forsteri is the largest of all penguins and the sixth largest (by weight) bird in the world, only surpassed by the emu and two species each of the cassowary and ostrich. Those are all paleognaths, one of two living groups of birds, making the emperor penguin the largest of the other group: the neognaths. There are some discrepancies on their size due to the standards of bird measurement, but recent measurements list their standing height as reaching 120 cm (3.9 ft) with a weight of 22.7 to 45.4 kg (50 to 100 lbs). Their weight varies a lot during their lives, with both males and females losing a lot of weight during breeding season. Males generally weigh more than females. Genomic and anatomical analysis indicates that the emperor penguin, along with the closely-related king penguin and an extinct species, are part of a group of penguins that branched off of the family tree before the other living penguin species. As with other penguin species, they are heavily adapted for life in the water. All penguins are flightless, with their wings having adapted into flippers used for swimming. Penguins stand differently than other birds. Most birds have long legs and hold their bodies horizontally to the ground or at an angle, but penguins have short legs and hold their bodies vertically, like humans do. This, plus other adaptations, helps streamline the birds, letting them swim more efficiently. Like other seabirds, their feathers are very dense and coated with oil that repels water. This keeps the feathers from becoming waterlogged, reducing drag and helping keep the bird warm. During molting season, the feathers emerge from the skin mostly formed and push out the old feathers, preventing the penguin from developing bald or thin patched that would compromise insulation. While the feathers are responsible for most of the insulation, a layer of fat also helps. Like other birds, penguins are endothermic, commonly known as warm-blooded. Penguin tongues have backward-pointing barbs that help prevent food from escaping their mouths.

(image id: an emperor penguin jumping out of the water and onto ice. It is pictured in midair with its body roughly parallel to the ground and wings extended. Multiple other penguins are in the background. end id)

Emperor penguin's divide their year between the breeding season and the rest of their lives. During most of the year, they spend their time searching for food. Most of this food consists of fish, krill, and squid. Emperor penguins are social animals that often coordinate with each other to hunt in groups. While hunting, they will dive up to 535 meters (1,755 ft) and spend up to 21 minutes underwater before surfacing to breathe. During dives, the pressure can increase up to 40 times and the emperor penguin has some special adaptations to cope. Unlike most birds, emperor penguin bones are solid, reducing the chance of one breaking under pressure. During dives, the heartbeat slows dramatically and non-essential organs cease functioning to conserve oxygen in the blood. In addition, the hemoglobin in the red blood cells is modified to carry more oxygen in high pressure and low temperature. While on land, emperor penguins gather in colonies along the shoreline. Members of the colonies spend a lot of them time huddled against each other to keep warm. The penguins live all around Antarctica between 66 and 77 degrees southern latitude.

(image: an emperor penguin swimming underwater. Its head is pointed up, making its body very streamlines. Its wings are extended and are used for propulsion and steering. end id)

The thing emperor penguins are most famous for is their breeding behavior. Breeding season starts at the beginning of winter in Antarctica, between March and April, and is triggered by the decrease in day length. Penguin colonies travel inland en masse moving between 50 and 120 km (31 to 75 miles) to find a spot to raise their chicks. These spots are usually large, flat patches of sea or lake ice with a barrier such as a cliff or iceberg used to block the wind. Males perform sexual displays wherein they make loud courtship calls while wandering around the colony. When a female is interested, she will face they male and they will both hold their heads up for a few minutes. Once a pair os formed, they will walk around the colony together. When ready to mate, The pair will bow to each other. Emperor penguins are serially monogamous. They will only mate with one other penguin each season, but rarely pick the same mate more than once. The pair say together until the egg is laid in late May or early June. The female then transfers the egg (only one is laid every year) to the male, a tricky process. They have to use their feet to transfer the egg without dropping it. If the egg breaks or is exposed to the ice for more than a minute or so, it will die. It is not uncommon for an egg to be lost, especially in first-time parents. If this happens, both parents will leave the colony and return to the sea, not mating again until next year. The male balances the egg on his feet and covers it with a loose flap of skin. The bottom of this skin is a featherless patch called the brood patch that only forms during this season. By keeping the egg between his feet and the brood patch, the male incubates it. Once the egg is transferred, the female returns to the sea, leaving the male responsible for the next few months. In every other penguin species, the mother and father take turns incubating their egg. for the next 65-75 days, the male will incubate the egg in the middle of the Antarctic winter, where storms are frequent and temperatures can can reach into the -60s C (-70s F). He will not eat at all during this period, which, including travel and mating time, can last for 120 days. Males can lose up to half of their body mass during this fast. If the egg is dropped even once, it has a very high chance of dying. Walking without dropping the egg is tricky, but the males will form tight bunches to conserve body heat. These bunches are mobile, with members to the outside gradually moving inward and vice-versa. The egg usually hatches after around 60 days and it can take a few days to break out of its shell, which is thicker than in most bird species. The chicks are born featherless and will freeze to death if they leave the male's brood pouch. The male produces a substance called crop milk with a gland in his esophagus. Crop milk is unique to pigeons, flamingos, and male emperor penguins and is used to feed the chick. The crop milk does not provide full nourishment to the chick, but will keep it alive for about a week.

(image id: a male emperor penguin standing on ice with its egg balanced on its feet. The skin flap thet normally covers the egg is pulled back and the male is bending over to examine the egg. This egg is broken, possibly the result of being dropped, and is non-viable. end id)

(image id: a newly-hatched emperor penguin sitting on it's father's feet. It is very small and featherless, with grey skin and a black head. end id)

About this time, the female will return from her time at sea. She spent this time feeding and fattening herself up for the next leg of the parenting journey. She returns to the colony usually between 5 and 10 days after the hatching. If she arrives too late, the chick will starve. Once she arrives, she will locate her mate through the sound of his calls. The male then transfers the chick to the female's brood pouch and returns to the sea to feed and put weight on for another 3-4 weeks. The female will feed the chick by regurgitating half-digested food into its mouth. After this, the mother and father will take turns brooding the chick and feeding at sea. If either parent is delayed or dies, the chick will die as the remaining parent will eventually abandon it and return to sea. Orphaned chicks will try to seek food and shelter from other adults and mothers who have lost a chick may try to adopt an abandoned one, but as a single parent cannot raise a chick alone, it will eventually be abandoned as the adult goes to feed. Sometimes, a mother who lost her chick will attempt to steal a chick from another mother. This leads to fights over chicks that may leave chick trampled to death.

(image id: an adult emperor penguin feeding its chick. The chick is larger and covered in fluffy, grey, downy feathers. It no longer needs to stay on its parent's feet. The adult is looking down at the chick with its mouth open. The chick has its head inside the adult's mouth. end id)

Starting 45-50 days after hatching, the chicks now have a thick enough coat of down to survive outside of the brood pouch. Starting around this time, both parents will return to the sea and occasionally return to bring food, using the sound of their chick's vocalizations to track them down. When the parents are gone, the chick huddle together for warmth. Starting in early November, the chicks will start gaining their adult plumage and the adults will stop returning to feed them. Once they get hungry enough, the chicks will make the trip to the sea (which is shorter now as it is summer in the Antarctic and the sea ice has receded) and will be independent from now on. Only 15% of chicks survive their first year, but after that the survival rate is 95%, meaning most living emperor penguins are adults. Emperor penguins reach sexual maturity at 3 years, but most do not mate until they are 4-6 years old. The average lifespan of those who live long enough to reach adulthood is 20 years, but may live up to 50 years. The high survival rate of adults is in part due to a lack of predators. Adult emperor penguins are only hunted by leopard seals and orcas, though the former prefer juveniles. Juveniles are preyed upon by seals when they reach the water and by southern great petrels when on the ice. Adult emperor penguins lack any land predators, which has resulted in them having no prey response when on land. Scientists and antarctic explorers have reported that adults will approach them without fear.

(image id: a newly-independent chick entering the water for the first time. It has not yet fully developed its adult plumage and has a mix of the chick's fluffy down and an adult's smoother coat. It is jumping off a ledge of ice into the water. Two other chicks watch from the side of the image. end id)

Emperor penguins are classified as near threatened by the IUCN, meaning they are losing population and may slip down into threatened status if conservation measures are not taken. The largest threat to emperor penguins is global warming reducing their habitat. Because they need sea ice to lay eggs and brood, the loss of sea ice every year has reduced the ability of the penguins to reproduce. in 2022, loss of sea ice led to a catastrophic failure to reproduce among nearly all known colonies. It is now estimated that 90% of colonies are at risk of dying out due to the loss of sea ice. If these trends are not reverted by reduction of global warming, the penguins could face extinction.

(Image id: two emperor penguins with their chick. The adults are standing behind the chick, which has its downy juvenile plumage. The chick stands about half the height of the parents. end id)

#wet beast wednesday #emperor penguin #penguin #marine biology #biology #zoology #ecology #animal facts #marine life #good parenting #cute #image description

[diioonysus]

creepy/messed-up history facts

the man in the booth across from lincoln was named major henry rathbone, and after booth fired the shot, rathbone tried to tackle him to the ground, but booth sliced rathbone in the arm with a dagger. after that night, rathbone was never free of guilt. he suffered from stomach ailments to heart palpitations, and on december 23rd 1883, he attacked and killed his wife clara, and attempted to kill himself. he spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.

in 1494, sailors returning from the new world brought with them massive outbreak of syphilis, which spread through an entire french army, and with no antibiotics to counteract it, the disease spread unchecked. the skin on victims' faces would essentially rot away from the grisly ulcers. in some cases, the noses, lips and other body parts of the affected people were essentially gone.

in 1890, thomas edison, using wax cylinder, produced a line of baby dolls. they had wooden bodies, procelain heads, and miniature phonographs in their chests. the phonographs would play back recordings of young women reciting nursery rhymes like "hictory dickory dock," and "now i lay me down to sleep." (here's the audio of them x)

dentures used to be made from the teeth of dead soldiers. they were ivory base plates with real human teeth attached, a lot of these were sold to dentists by scavengers looting corpses from the battle of waterloo. the dentists would boil the them down, cut off the roots, attach them to ivory plates, and sell them.

in 1929, a pair of scientists at princeton university wanted to test and understand how the auditory nerve percieves sound, and their test subject was an alive cat. they cut out part of its brain and attached one end of a telephone wire to its auditory nerve and the other end to a reciever. weirdly enough, many researchers think this helped lead to the development of cochlear implants. but the cat was killed after the scientists wanted to see if it worked on a dead cat.

in 1726, mary toft told doctors that she gave birth to rabbits, and doctors were fully convinced until they found pieces of corn inside the stomach of one of the rabbits, proving that it hadn't developed inside her womb. she instead was manually inserting the rabbits to make the delivery look as realistic as possible.

it was believed that babies under the age of 15 months couldn't feel pain, so doctors would instead use muscle relaxers that had a paralytic effect to stop the baby from moving. this essentially meant they couldn't move or cry but they could still hear, see, and feel everything that was done to them. this was accepted up until 1980s

there was a tiger in india named man-eater of champawat who became dependent on human flesh, which at the turn of the 20th century inflicted a seven-year reign, killing 436 men, women, and children. she was eventually killed in 1907.

there was a book called "how the mail steamer went down in mid atlantic, by a survivor," which tells the story of an unnamed ocean liner that sinks in the atlantic. the protagonist is a sailor named thompson, who grows concerned over the lifeboat shortage, and sure enough the liners collides with a small sailing ship in a fog. as the ship sinks, only 200 of the 700 people on board survive. the second novella "the wreck of the titan: or, futility" by morgan robertson, follows the fictional ocean liner titan, which hits an iceberg in the north atlantic and sinks. like the titanic, the titan was described as the largest ship afloat at the time, both ships had a shortage of lifeboats, and the titan was dubbed "unsinkable." when the accident occurred, roberston simply said he was knowledgabe about maritime operations, saying "i know what i'm writing about, that's all."

some books created in the 18th and 19th century were bound in real human skin which was called anthropodermic bibliopegy. most of these books that were bound with human skin instead of animal skin were mostly based on anatomy or erotica.

during the battle of ramree island, which was fought between january and february 1945, japanese soldiers were cornered by english troops seeking to conquer burmese island of ramree, forcing japanese troops to cross 10 miles of swamp. the japanese soon began to suffer the effects of tropical diseases, but the presence of large numbers of scorpions, tropical mosquitoes and thousands of saltwater crocodiles, the world's largest reptiles, was even worse. In its genre. very aggressive beasts that can reach 8 meters in length and weigh more than a ton. according to some survivors, during the night, they were hunted one by one, in which the crocodiles would ambush them from underneath. and the survivors said the worst part was hearing the screams and the breaking of bones in the dark.

there is a cocodile named gustave (or was if you believe he's dead), a large nile crocodile in burundi who has been rumored to have killed 200-300 people. he's never been captured, but it has been stated that he could be "easily more than 20 feet, and weigh more than 2,000 pounds." he was/is estimated to be over 100 years old, and was/is described as having bullet wounds over his body, and his right shoulder blade was found to be deeply wounded, but they don't know what could have caused it. it's been rumored that he would leave the corpses he killed behind. in 2019, an article revealed he was killed, but there's no photographic evidence which leaves people doubting it's true.

#just some creepy facts ive come across #history #scary #facts

[amomentsescape]

Hello 👋

I was wondering if a Jason Voorhees x Reader, Beauty and the Beast AU would be possible?

Have a nice day, love ya writing!

The Beast of the Woods

Jason Voorhees x Reader (Beauty & the Beast AU)

Summary: A love story retelling where true love can really turn a beast to a man.

Warnings: Some minor bad words, a cheesy fairytale-like ending

Word Count: 2,031

A/N: Thank you so much! Glad you enjoy my fics :) I didn't follow the original Beauty and the Beast storyline perfectly, but I tried to include some of those main parts as best as I could.

You were the first and only person that had ever caught lonely Jason's eye.

After all of this time trying to hide away in the darkness, riddled with insecurity and feelings of despair, you gave him that first taste of bliss.

That had to have meant something.

But years of hardship had stripped him of most of his humanity. He was selfish and callous, unable to recognize just how cold his anger truly was to others.

So when he saw you running up to him from the darkness of the woods, he didn't know how to react.

His grip around your father's throat only tightened as you pleaded to let him go.

How foolish were you? Didn't you know how quickly he could dispose of both you and your father?

But maybe that's part of what drew him into you- that fierceness in your eyes against all odds. It was admirable, but he would never admit it.

Your father let out a pained gasp under Jason's grip, and it only filled your heart with panic.

"Goddammit, he's sick! Can't you see?! Please, let him go!"

Begging was going to get you nowhere.

His grip tightened once more.

"No! Please, please! How about me?" you eyes frantically searched the masked man towering over you. "Take me instead! Just please, let my father go..."

That fierceness had melted into pure desperation.

How ridiculous, Jason thought. Love makes you do stupid things.

He slowly turned his head back to the man dangling in his grasp, tears and sweat already freezing to his skin from the cold winter air.

But when he looked back at you, there it was again- the feeling of bliss.

Jason dropped your father to the ground, and you immediately ran over and held his frame in your hands.

"No," he croaked, looking at you with teary eyes. "Not you. Please, take me!" he turned to look at Jason.

But it was too late. The masked beast was already grabbing your hand, pulling you towards the dilapidated cabin.

"(Y/N)!" your father called.

"I'll be okay!" you cried back. "Don't worry, please."

And with that, you were shut out from the rest of the world.

***

It took you a very long time to get to this point.

Jason was not a likable man by any means. All he did was pull you around and become aggressive whenever you refused to do what he asked. But surprisingly, he never once harmed you. It left you utterly confused and intrigued.

He had been ready to kill your father that night, you were sure of it. So what had made you different?

The first few days, you locked yourself in the room he had given you. You didn't want to do anything that involved being around that man.

But it didn't take long for nature to kick in. You could only go so long without food, and even though you wanted nothing to do with Jason, you knew you had to see your father again. Had he even made it out of these woods? The worry ate away at you.

You finally broke down one night, leaving your room and meeting him in the small kitchen.

He turned to you, body stiff at the sudden presence. But it didn't take long for him to turn back to his task: sharpening up the largest machete you had ever seen.

You gulped and felt the feeling of fear wash over you.

Jason must have noticed however, since he quickly set the weapon down, his head shaking back and forth ever so slightly.

The rest of that night was awkward, both of you eating in silence.

And things continued on like this for a while until one day, there was a knock on your bedroom door.

Jason was standing before you, holding a small book in his hand.

Despite trying so hard to keep up the stone cold facade, you couldn't help the small smile that broke out on your face. God, it was the first source of entertainment you have had in weeks. You didn't even notice the way Jason shyly looked to the ground as you grabbed the novel, his breathing speeding up.

He had never seen you smile before. But now that he had, he was certain that it would be the only thing he'd want to see for the rest of his life.

After that day, things became easier. He would gift you with a new book every week, relishing in the way your smile became a little bit bigger each time.

It eventually got to the point that you would read on the couch, Jason sitting beside you cleaning his machete.

You quickly learned that he was pretty partial to these books as well, seeming to relax whenever you decided to read aloud a couple chapters here and there.

To your surprise, and slight refusal, Jason didn't seem so bad anymore. Of course, he was still a bit brazen, but there was some amount of humanity left in him. You were sure of it. Why else had he spared your father and taken care of you like this?

You began to ask him questions, just simple small talk for the most part.

He always answered with a nod or a shake of the head. It wasn't too hard for you to pick up on how he communicated. He was a simple man at that, and he honestly seemed to appreciate the conversation.

Whether you were ready to admit it or not, Jason was becoming almost like a... friend?

***

You only grew closer after this. He began to trust you more, letting you help out with some of the chores and cooking around the cabin. He even began to take you out on short strolls around the forest. He secretly loved the way your eyes lit up at seeing the different critters running around the woods. It made him think that maybe you were starting to like living out here- living with him.

But his dreams came crashing down one night when he walked by your bedroom.

He could hear your poor attempts at silencing your sobs, crying quietly into your pillow.

He became worried and just slammed open the door, not even thinking about being polite in this situation. He had to protect you at all costs.

But as he sat on your bed, listening to you explain why you were so upset, he felt his heart break.

"I just miss my father so much. He was sick, and I don't know if he's doing okay without me. I wish I could see him."

Your eyes began to tear up once more, and you couldn't hold back the sobs that forced their way out.

The way you made him feel, the happiness you had brought him over this span of time, made him realize that he truly did care deeply for you. And because of that, he couldn't be selfish with you. Your happiness had suddenly become more important than his own.

So he let you go.

You hugged him so tightly before you left, his body fitting against yours like a puzzle piece. It felt right.

"Thank you, thank you!" you spoke hurriedly.

He had led you to the edge of the woods, allowing you to find your way home.

***

You father couldn't believe his eyes when you burst through the door. The fact that his child was back in his arms made him truly believe in miracles. He didn't think he'd ever see you again.

But what was even more shocking to him was what you had to say about the beast in the woods. He had actually been nice to you and took care of you? And you had come to like him as well? Truly, you must have gone mad.

"Don't you know the story of how the Beast came to be?" he asked softly.

"Don't call him that, Father. He's a human just like us."

He simply shook his head.

"The Be- Jason," he corrected himself. "Jason is a killer, (Y/N). Long ago, his own mother was filled with such rage that she committed the evilest of crimes as her own sick revenge. But even when she died, her spirit never rested. She passed on this twisted curse to her own son. And so for many years, he stalked the area and took dozens of innocent lives. It was only when all the villagers banded together that they were able to chase Jason away from their families. He has been living in those very woods ever since, only ever killing when lost souls found themselves deep within the wood. I would have never even stepped foot there if I hadn't thought you were lost. I just can't believe he didn't hurt you."

You felt frozen to your seat. There was no way that this man you grew to care for could have been a killer. He never once made you think he would do anything bad to you. In fact, you never saw him hurt anybody or anything that whole time you had been living with him. It didn't make sense.

"I can't believe this, I-" your voice caught in your throat.

You father looked back at you sadly. "I'm sorry."

Suddenly, screams and yells tore through the quiet sound of the night, ripping you both from the conversation.

You peered outside the window only to see a large mob of people heading towards the woods.

Jason.

You sprang up and ran out the door, ignoring the calls of your father to stop.

"He was just standing there at the edge of the forest. Must have finally wanted to end his suffering," you overheard someone say.

You kept running until you were with the crowd, shoving and pushing your way to the front.

And there before you, on the ground, laid the body of the man you had grown to care deeply for. Blood was beginning to pool around him.

"NO!" you screamed, taking him into your arms.

"Stay back! He will kill you!" one of the crowd members yelled.

Your gaze pierced back at all of them surrounding you.

"Jason would never hurt me! I've been staying with him for months and never once saw him hurt a fly. How dare you all punish him for something that was done against his will?!"

You turned back to Jason, his eyes looking back at you sadly.

"It's gonna be okay. I promise. J-just stay with me-"

Jason reached his hand out and placed it on your cheek, quieting your words. He simply shook his head and took your own hand in his free one, placing it gently over his heart.

He took his last breath like this, your tears dripping onto his mask as you cried painfully.

The crowd had slowly begun to thin out afterwards, only leaving your father who was kneeling beside you.

You could still feel more tears sliding down your cheeks as you bent closer to Jason's frame.

"I love you," you whispered to him.

And with a gentle touch of your hand, a miracle suddenly occurred.

His eyelids began to flutter as his head rocked around a bit, his whole body coming to its senses.

You could hear the gasp of your father beside you, your own breath getting caught in your throat.

How was this possible?

"J-Jason...?" you finally spoke, suddenly finding your voice again.

He turned to you at this, his arms quickly wrapping around you, pulling your body against his.

You began to laugh happily, your once sad tears being flooded out by joyous ones.

"How is this even possible?!" you asked once you finally pulled back from the hug.

Your father shook his head. "His mother's love was what kept him alive after all these years. But this time, it wasn't his mother's love that brought him back. It was yours."

"What does this mean?"

"His mother's spirit is finally put to rest."

You turned back to Jason at this, his eyes still on you.

"You're free, Jason!" you yelled excitedly.

He simply replied with a grab of your hand, placing it above his now beating heart.

#jason voorhees x reader #jason voorhees #friday the 13th #slasher fandom #slashers preference #slashers x reader #slashers #beauty and the beast #au

[lilacsupernova]

[It is] true among the poor and oppressed today: never forget that more than 50 per cent of Indian women—a nation of more than 1.3 billion people—are currently suffering from anemia and malnutrition, due in no small part to local traditions where young women eat last, after the father, children, any men in the extended family, and finally older women. When the young woman is pregnant, malnutrition becomes especially severe and harms the fetus, further stunting the upcoming generation of one of the world's most important economies and, by far, the world's largest democracy. This won't be the last time I say this: humans are mammals. If we want to invest in humanity's future, we have to feed human mothers, and we have to feed them well. It would also be nice if we'd stop abusing and killing in women in general, but let's start with the food.

– Cat Bohannon (2023) Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.

#cat bohannon #eve #feminism #motherhood #poverty #india #radical feminism #lilac posts #patriarchy

[fatehbaz]

Mangroves. Estuaries. Shorelines where land meets water. Fluidity and porousness of boundaries. Imposition of imperial, colonial, European property law and the “fiction” of solid borders. Profit extraction from property, the “legal magic” of creating permanent borders, and the destruction of coastal forest-worlds.

---

[T]his tropical coastal ecology is a site of continual refiguration: neither sea nor land, neither river nor sea, bearing neither salty nor fresh water [...]. The mangrove has been prone to confused definitions, [...] also a complex coastal ecosystem in itself. With these hybrid conditions of “belonging,” the mangrove lends itself to helping us think through the present-day schematic of Euro-American crises [...]. Its polymorphous personality as a sediment-carrier, land-builder, defender of numerous life forms [...] renders the mangrove a fascinating study in the biopolitics of selfhood. [...] The Sundarbans covers an area of 10,000 square kilometers of intertidal zones between parts of southwestern Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India. The largest mangrove forest in the world [...]. As a landscape, the Sundarbans is marked by unfixity, since its intertidal nature places it between appearance and disappearance -- with islands being submerged overnight. [...] [T]heir porous quality does not allow for clear border-making. In reading [...] satellite image[ry] of the Sundarbans, produced by what is said to be “the most stable, best characterized Earth observation instrument ever placed in orbit,” we are met with the trembling instability of borders. [...] [H]ere the coastline becomes indiscernible as a single entity. The legal vexations of such amphibious and obtuse terrain become pronounced in sea-rights cases, wherein border-making becomes the necessity of tenure. Forming rulings over such zones lays legality prone to paradox. In the Blue Mud Bay case, heard by the High Court of Australia in 2008, a legal body was called upon to make a determination regarding the shifting geography of a mangrove coastal region. In the final ruling the aboriginal Yolgnu claimants were successful, with the court ruling that the column of tidal water lying above land should be regarded no differently from the land itself. Thus the court’s attempt to encompass Dholupuyngu cosmology and “aqueography” occasioned a legal magic transforming water flow into the fixity of “land.” [...] The mangrove line is, hence, one of sedimentary reclamation rather than clear political divisions of terra firma. In mangrove zones, human determinations become ghosts.

Text by: Natasha Ginwala and Vivian Ziherl. “Sensing Grounds: Mangroves, Unauthentic Belonging, Extra-Territoriality.” e-flux Journal Issue #45. May 2013.

---

Traveling through Bengal in the eighteenth century, [...] [travelers] saw a highly sophisticated water-based economy -- the blessing of rivers [...]. The rivers were not just channels of water; they carried a thriving trade, transporting people and goods from one part of the delta to another. [...] Bengal’s essential character as a fluid landscape was changed during the colonial times through legal interventions that were aimed at stabilizing lands and waters, at creating permanent boundaries between them, and at privileging land over water, in a land of shifting river courses, inundated irrigation, and river-based life. Such a separation of land and water was made possible not just by physical constructions but first and foremost by engineering a legal framework. [...] BADA, which stands for the Bengal Alluvion and Diluvion Act, a law passed by the colonial British rulers in 1825 [...]. Nature here represents a borderless world, or at best one in which borders are not fixed lines on the ground demarcating a territory, but are negotiated spaces or zones. Such “liminal spaces” comprise “not [only] lines of separation but zones of interaction…transformation, transgression, and possibility” [...]. Current boundaries of land and water are as much products of history as nature and the colonial rule of Bengal played a key role in changing the ideas and valuations of both. [...] [R]ivers do not always flow along a certain route [...]. The laws that the colonial British brought to Bengal, however, were founded upon the thinking of land as being fixed in place. [...] To entrench the system, the Permanent Settlement of 1793 created zamindars (or landlords) “in perpetuity” -- meaning for good. The system was aimed at reducing the complexities of revenue collection due to erratically shifting lands and unpredictable harvests in a monsoon-dependent area [...]. From a riverine community, within a hundred years, Bengal was transformed into a land-based community.

Text by: Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt. “Commodified Land, Dangerous Water: Colonial Perceptions of Riverine Bengal.” RCC Perspectives, no. 3, 17-22. 2014.

---

[A]t the shore, where the boundary between land and water is so often muddied [...] terrestrial principles of Western private property regimes feel like fictions [...]. Shorelines, indeed, do much to trouble the neat boundaries, borders […] of the colonial imaginary […]. And so thinking about shallows necessitates attention to the multiplicity of water, and the ways that tides, rivers, storm clouds, tide pools, and aquifers converse with the ocean [...]. For Kanaka Maoli, the muliwai, or estuary, best theorizes shoreline dynamics: It is not only where land and water mix, but also where different kinds of waters mix. Sea and river water mingle together to produce the brackish conditions that tenderly support certain plant and aquatic lives. [...] As Philipp Schorch and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu explain, the muliwai ebbs and flows with the tide, changing shape and form daily and seasonally. In metaphorical terms, the muliwai is a location and state of dissonance [...], but it is not “a space in between,” rather, it is its own space, a territory unique in each circumstance, depending the size and strength or a recent hard rain. […] [T]he muliwai [...] as a conditional state [...] undoes territorial logics. [...] It is not a space of exception. Rather, it is where we are reminded that places are never fixed or pure or static. Chamorro poet Craig Santos Perez reminds us in his critique of US territorialism that “territorialities are shifting currents, not irreducible elements.” If fixity and containment limit, by design, how futures might be imagined beyond property, then the muliwai envisions decolonial spaces as ones of tenderness, care, and interdependence. [...] Because water has the potential to trouble the boundaries of humanness, it may furthermore push us to think through […] categorical differences […], to consider the colonial mechanisms that produced hierarchies of bodies to begin with [...].

Text by: Hi’ilei Julia Hobart. “On Oceanic Fugitivity.” Ways of Water series, Items, Social Science Research Council. Published online 29 September 2020.

#abolition #ecology #landscape #imperial #colonial

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇳⚔️🇮🇱 🚨

WHO REPORT CALLS AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL AN "EMPTY SHELL" AND DESCRIBES A GRAVE YARD

A newly published World Health Organization (WHO) report on the Israeli occupation raid on Al-Shifa Medical Complex, located in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, calls the hospital an "empty shell" and describes a ruined courtyard with "numerous shallow graves" filled with the bodies of murdered Palestinians.

According to the WHO, the organization tried on six different occasions to organize a mission to visit the hospital in order to evacuate patients, staff and displaced civilian sheltering inside, but were "denied, delayed or impeded" six times between March 25th and April 1st, 2024.

The WHO said the hospital, which had been Gaza's "largest and most important" referral hospital in the Gaza Strip and said it is now "nothing more than an empty shell," with no patients, no doctors and a majority of the hospital's equipment and facilities completely or partially destroyed, including the hospital's emergency department and its maternity ward, both of which were destroyed by "explosives and fire."

The Israeli occupation army also destroyed the hospital's oxygen plant, which the WHO says leaves only Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, which was also damaged during a previous weeks-long Israeli siege and eventual raid back in December, 2023.

However, the horrific part of the WHO report comes when WHO personnel describe what they witnessed outside on the hospital grounds, writing in the report how, "numerous shallow graves have been dug just outside the emergency department, and the administrative and surgical buildings."

"In the same area, many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visable. During the visit, WHO staff witnessed at least five bodies lying partially exposed to the heat. The team reported a pungent smell of decomposing bodies engulfing the compound. Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indespensible act of humanity."

Further, survivors of the raid described to the WHO teams horrific treatment at the hands of the Zionist army, telling the WHO they'd endured "severe lack of food, water, healthcare, hygiene, and sanitation, and were forced to relocate between buildings at gunpoint."

"At least 20 patients have reportedly died due to the lack of access to care and limited movement authorized for healthcare personnel," the WHO added.

Despite the horrendous scenes the WHO teams were met with, they'd endured several delays, and even the illegal detention of a driver, before gaining access to the site and they also said more than half of all their missions to Gaza have been met with delays, impediments and postponements.

Worse still, the WHO says the loss of the Al-Shifa medical complex has "broken the backbone of the already ailing health system" in Gaza. This after the WHO worked to restore basic services at Al-Shifa after a previous Israeli raid inflicted damage to the hospital's functionality, saying in the report that all those efforts are "now lost."

Out of 36 hospitals functioning in Gaza on October 7th, 2023, only 10 remain at this time to serve over 2 million Palestinians, most of them displaced, and nearly 5% of Gazans dead, wounded or missing.

Meanwhile, with a looming Israeli invasion of Rafah, the WHO fears Gaza could be facing "unimaginable health consequences" from Israel's war and its "systematic dismantling of health care" in the Gaza Strip.

The report finishes by warning that, "as famine looms, disease outbreaks spread, and traumatic injuries increase, WHO calls for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid into and across the Gaza Strip, and a lasting ceasefire."

#source1

#source2

#source3

#photovideosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

#gaza #world health organization #gaza news #gaza war #al shifa hospital #al shifa medical complex #israeli occupation #israeli occupation forces #israel #israeli war crimes #israeli crimes against humanity #war crimes #crimes against humanity #genocide #genocide in gaza #genocide of palestinians #israeli terrorism #palestine #palestinians #free palestine #israel palestine conflict #politics #news #geopolitics #world news #global news #international news #breaking news #current events #war

[whereserpentswalk]

Imagine you had to send yourself to another dimension. You can't stay on your own anymore, and you know you're probably never going back.

You wake up in a giant forest, with trees the size of mountains or skyscrapers. Dragonflies the size of falcons fly overhead. And you can see grasshopper like beasts the size of deer running through the woods, pursued by wolf sized arachnids. Cenepeds slithering across you like snakes.

Eventually the sentient population finds you. They're human shaped, very skinny for the most part, and covered in glistening white exoskeletons instead of skin. They're faces lack any Immediately visible features other then two giant orange eyes, though their mouths become visible when they open them. They have hair on their heads in human like patterns, but it's silky like that of a moth. They seem to have two sets of arms, though only the upper set is able to be fully utilized for tasks.

They're confused at you at first. The only vertebrates they've ever seen resemble tiny lizards or rats. But when you try to communicate they take you to their largest city, or at least the largest in the area.

You're taken to a large stone sitadel, and begin doing tests on you, though they take care not to hurt you. After a few days you're set free in the city. You know enough of their language to get by. And one of their universities will give you a small apartment and some money every month in exchange for regular samples of blood and urine.

Their society seems mostly humane. Democratic, with a late 20th century level of technology. But for awhile it just seems to alien to you to assimilate at all. You can't make freinds at first, you can't pick up on their body language due to how diffrent they are.

Eventually you start socializing more. The idea that you'll ever see a human again seems more and more a fantasy. So you do what you have to. First with people from the university, then with just people in the community. Should you even call them people? It's like everything, hard at first, then it seems normal.

You get used to their food in time. Eating meat and drinking bodily fluids from giant insects. It's the thing you have to get used to the fastest, as you'll starve without giving up your discomfort.

The creatures here don't really wear clothing. Sometimes jewelry or capes but nothing that covers their bodies like human clothing does. You try to wear the clothes you came in, but those were out. And when they're gone there's nowhere to find replacements in this world. You don't know how you feel about being naked, but since it doesn't bother anyone else it eventually seems normal.

You live a good life for a time. You have freinds. A respectable job as a dimensional researcher. You marry someone from this realm, though it took awhile for your mind to rewire itself to be attracted to these creatures. Eventually you forget what it even felt like to be on earth, to see another human.

One day, when it's been over a decade since you left, a rescue crew from your home dimension comes, saying the danger is gone, that you can come home. But this is your home now. And other humans just look like animals now, like lizards or rats that might scurry around your home.

#196 #my thougts #worldbuilding #fantasy #writing #my worldbuilding #my writing #creatures #fantasy creatures #creative writing #short fiction #short story #flash fiction #science fantasy #science fiction #sci fi #scifi #lovecraftian horror #aliens #spec evo #speculative zoology #alien species #speculative fiction #speculative biology #dimensions

[imustbenuts]

Malice, Malevolence, Maous.

Kegare, Shinto Buddhism and how it gets reflected in Japanese video game writing. (Fire Emblem and Zelda Botw/Totk centric)

Gonna blab on a very specific aspect of Japanese Shinto :D. This is not talked about often despite the sheer amount of stuff out there so here's me talking about it.

So. It often goes something like this. The Hero gets a powerful magical weapon at some point. They fight through the Big Bad's army of mooks while they may journey throughout the land. Eventually, they, or the weapon mcguffin gets powered up by a higher power, and at the climax, the Hero/es comes through to take down the evil big bad Demon King-esque malevolent monster/dragon/non-human out, thereby succeeding in saving the world.

Any of that sound familiar? It should, for anyone who has engaged with just about any Nintendo media from Mario to Fire Emblem to Breath of The Wild.

This big bad character archetype is also known as Maou, or the Demon King. 魔王 can also be translated into Sorcerer/Magic King, but the negative evilness associated with it is more apt. TvTropes even lists this as a trope (link)!

The why they are often times taken down this way though, kiiiind of lies within Shinto Buddhism. (And by extension many of other culture/religion's concept of 'ritual cleanliness', but for this post I'm ignoring them! Sorry!)

I'll switch gears a bit to culture/religious stuff and talk about Kegare under the cut.

I think everyone who has ever touched any Nintendo or Japanese related media has ran into the concept of 'kegare', or 'spiritual uncleanliness' multiple times without realizing it.

Kegare (穢れ or 汚れ) is the concept of 'spiritual dirtiness'.

Translated as 'pollution' or 'defilement', to be kegare'd is to be dirtied in some form, often times through action. Generally speaking, kegare is a negative energy typically generated upon contact with death, childbirth, disease and menstruation. But it can also come into state through particularly powerful, negative state of emotions such as hate, jealousy, guilt and anger as well. Note that Kegare isn't by itself a moral or judgemental concept, but rather a force of nature. Kegare is not sin, and therefore cannot be seen as such!

You can think of kegare as bad vibes, bad juju, or even miasma. They're very similar concepts.

With enough bad vibes (basically), a place, object, or a person can be polluted so hard that evil spirits might manifest and cause harm to both them and their surroundings. Hence why Japanese media loves depicting places with bad vibes like the hospitals to be full of yokais or ghosts looking to cause harm.

This is why characters who harbor ambitions of taking over the world are seen as Maous. It's why characters like Hegemon Husk!Edelgard, Grima, Ganon, Mr. Grizz all fit into this evil, ambitious, resentful, almost force-of-nature-like beings who brings with them death to the world. Because they aren't just bringing death with them, they're about to unleash the largest tsunami of bad vibes they can into the world too!

But, the state of kegare can be purified away. There are 2 main ways to do so. Misogi, and Harae.

Misogi (禊)

By standing under a waterfall or washing the body with water, kegare can purified. Notably though, one must be dressed in white during this ritual cleansing. This specific concept is known as Misogi, and you might have come across it in botw already:

In BoTW, Zelda attempts to purify herself in order to unlock the power of the Goddess. By visiting important spiritual places and washing herself in its water in white, she's performing Misogi.

In Fire Emblem Heroes, Naga will suggest this to Kiran, the Player Character:

But misogi isn't exactly why big bads get the holy weapon whacking treatment. If you have noticed, misogi affects only the willing individual taking part in ritual cleansing. The real reason is actually...

Harae (祓)

Harae can mean 2 things. To drive out, or, exorcise. Consenting or not, harae essentially drives out or purifies kegare in another person, place, or object through rituals.

Harae can involve ceremonies, song and dance, using a ritual cleansing tool(!) such as the onusha.

As an example of the former, Azura in Fire Emblem Fates essentially embodies the power of misogi through her association with waters and purification. Here, she tries to exorcise the evil inside of Garon. She is actually performing harae!

As an example of the latter, the cleansing tools.... Why, it should be sounding familiar now.

Be it the Falchion, Yato, Fire Emblem, Breidablik, The Creator Sword, the Master Sword, Ocarina of Time, The Twilight Bow, they all share 2 very similar traits:

Be powered up by the good juju power/light

Whack the big bad maou with it, sometimes unleashing light in the process

In this context that I'm presenting, they are all tools of purification/exorcism. Sit down and think about this. Think about all the Japanese JRPGs you've played so far and see how much this clicks.

The Hero gains a weapon/tool/relic, powers it up in some way or is inherently already powered, and then uses that to smack the big bad and win. Sometimes the tools can be the heroes themselves, but it is often the very similar song and dance (heh). Hell, you can even extend this beyond Fire Emblem and Zelda. Maybe even extend it to anime and manga, and you might find the same themes in places you don't expect.

It's kind of neat to think about. Essentially, the hero not just defeats the big bad, but kind of purifies them as well.

But! There's another reason why weapons are often the divine relics needed to deliver the finishing blow in video games, and why they are almost always associated with characters of authority.

The Imperial Regalia of Japan/ The Three Sacred Treasures

There exists 3 treasures which represents 3 primary virtues and are part of the enthronement ceremony in Japan. They have never been shown to the public to symbolize authority, so no one but the authority knows what they look like. The above image is just an artist's impression of what they might resemble. They exist, supposedly.

The Sword is known as Kusanagi no Tsurugi, the mirror as Yata no Kagami, and the jewel as Yasakani no Magatama. They represent Valour, Wisdom and Benevolence respectively. They are said to be brought into this world by Japanese gods, passed to the first emperor of Japan, Emperor Jimmu, who said to be a descendant of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess.

Yep, this is also why Fire Emblem is always about noble blooded people with divine weapons.

Yep, these are also the original inspiration for the triforce in The Legend of Zelda.

I won't get into the details behind the Regalia's story in this post, it's too long! Linfamy has done a video about the Regalia if you're interested.

Hopefully this was interesting. Again, feel free to take the ideas here and read up on it externally. So many, many videos and posts and I've not seen people talk at all about this. Sadge.

But before I close off this post, there is a negative side to this kegare concept, in which real people are discriminated against in Japan. ...Remember the association with death for kegare? Yeah... Uhm, someone needs to take care of the dead in any society and butcher livestocks for food, so what happens to those people? ...Messed up things, actually. If you are interested to learn about this, feel free to check this video out (link). Warning: it's a huge downer of a video.

And I think I've spent enough time writing this! Ty for reading this far if you did! ❤️

#fire emblem #fire emblem heroes #legend of zelda #fire emblem engage #apologies if the tags over reach a bit #culture stuff

[beesmygod]

i think another issue with webcomics having any scene or being taken seriously at all is that its a lot of stale air, everybody got captured by ig/twitter/tumblr and subsequently become trapped in the trappings and style of those websites. all discussion is couched in the boring 'fandom' subculture on websites with pre-built in infinite scroll and shit search, so updates to their comics or body of work are just as ephemeral as posts that are basically 'lol i farted on my dog' and any criticism is 'just being mean' or 'dogpiling on a poor artist'. not to mention any discoverability of anything new is basically going down the twitter/instagram likes of 'known quantities' for your own comic taste because of how atrophied any discussion around the medium has become

I dont see any way to escape this beyond social media dying a brutal and unprofitable death

trying to argue against the webtoons/IG model was entirely pointless the few times i tried, but its a topic that's hard for me to not devolve into frustrated sputtering about. it's so obviously antithetical to the purpose of making art, enjoying things, creation, joy, goodness, etc. and i would, frankly completely irrationally, be framed as someone who had it out for vertical strips. a sentiment which makes no sense unless you assume im the biggest moron and dipshit in the world. im sure arguing against someone is easier when the position you saddle them with is a seriously stupid one.

the inevitable downward spiral of these platforms feels entirely predictable. any model that revolves around quantity over quality is an obviously flawed one in most circumstances but when applied to art its completely absurd. the ideal artist for these websites are people who have no interest in contributing to a vaster landscape of complex works and instead are hyper-focused on being part of a large scale skinner box experiment for adults with compulsive spending issues. the artists themselves have severe numbers poisoning.

these are purely ephemeral and unremarkable comics that are rarely ever seen outside of instagram for their lack of any exceptional or worthwhile unique elements worth passing around. they are created with a factory mindset; crank them out as quickly as possible and flood various websites with the comic equivalent of grey goo in order to amass the maximum number of clicks. their ideal audience is undiscerning and simply looking for stimuli that will not challenge them on any level. logically it follows that is work is explicitly for the largest possible audience one can acquire: the lowest common denominator. they are making work for a computer or an advertiser to enjoy. human enjoyment is secondary.

the unironic and sincere discussion of views and followers as if the numbers have ever been real was surreal. everyone was around for when facebook revealed that it had been grossly inflating its video metrics after strong-arming everyone into moving to video, causing the destruction of several indie companies and websites. you would have to be straight up delusional to think the webtoons numbers are real. like, it is genuinely hard for me to be nice about people who bark bark bark about "its where the audience is!!!!" when the worst comic you've ever read with 2 updates has 12876492375238576 views, 0 patreon followers and 8909 comments. the obviously AI generated comments by accounts with no profiles (as in, you can't click on profiles at all to confirm its even a real person commenting) are beyond the pale lol. its some emperors new clothes shit, if the emperor made his own invisible clothes and cried about how hard they toiled for nothing. and also they were emperor of synecdoche, new york

how does a reasonable adult look at this and conclude its real? isn't it an obvious fiction? its because it's mean to point out otherwise, and being mean is the worst thing you can be.

people used to bitch about how the "had to" made reels and i felt like i was going insane. superstitious nonsense about "the algorithm" spread and has incited people to tortuously warp their work to fit with advertising standards they don't see a penny of, in the hopes of finding an audience that doesn't exist. when the algorithm changes to better suit advertiser needs, they are somehow blindsided and betrayed by this, as if it has not been the M.O. of social media websites for the past 20 years. they will do it again. and again. and again. as advertising becomes less and less financially viable and more and more intrusive, public opinion is going to turn hard on the people who tied themselves to these ships.

call me a rat for fleeing, but i can't bear to entertain this stuff anymore. it's embarrassing, the idea of sacrifice in the name of a greater good (sacrifice being uhhhhh not using fail platforms lol) should not be such a shocking and radical act. it should be reflexive