Me Reading The Percy Jackson Books In Fifth Grade: Yeah That’s A Normal Age For Them To Go On All Those

SHADOW AND BONE (2021-) | “The Unsea” (1x07)

“Crows don’t just remember the faces of people who wronged them. They also remember those who were kind. They tell each other who to look after and who to watch out for.”

I am a Gen Xer, and I've been having some conversations about photography and selfies lately, and I want to share a little bit, because I think younger queer people don't quite understand what things used to be like.

I have no snapshots of the era of my life in which I was smootching girls behind the tilt-a-whirl at a shitty traveling carnival in a dusty empty lot. In fact, I have no pictures of any of my friends from that era aside from yearbook pictures of the friends who were in my school. I was a little goth teenager and many of my friends were also punk queers. We could not take pictures of each other.

Why? Because pictures were taken on film. And film needed to go somewhere to be developed. And if there were pictures of people "being gay" then sometimes your whole roll would disappear at the photo processor. Or your 36 exposure roll would return only 32 pictures to you. Because the processor would censor it. And aside from that, you had to be cautious about whether a photograph would somehow be seen by parents, who could kick your friend out of their house. Just because someone was holding hands in the background of a photo.

Snapshots were for kids who did sports and wholesome activities.

A little later, I had a friend who took photography and had access to the school photo lab (the art teacher didn't care as long as no one was developing nudity), and there were some photographers who hung out with the skater kids. But prior to that, there was a whole era of my life, people who were super important to me for a time, that I just don't have pictures of. At all. Because it wasn't safe.

I found myself recently explaining this to a younger coworker and another colleague in the meeting, a gay man about my age, was nodding along. This was an important facet of life if you were a queer teen in the 80s. You didn't have pictures of your people until you knew someone with use of a darkroom.

It’s DOOOOONE! It’s finally finished! Oh my gosh, what a journey this has been! I started concept on this last July (2020) and have been working in chunks via Instagram Lives to complete this sequel papercraft of the Six of Crows for over a year! I’m so excited to present Hook And Crook, inspired by a specific scene that happens in Crooked Kingdom. I’ve been stating this over and over again during the lives, but there were specific mirrors happening here between the two papercrafts that wholly define the dynamics of the characters and the two books.  

We talked about how the symbols in the facade of the Slat in Featherdark (Six of Crows papercraft) represented the strengths of each character (cane, knife, guns, bombs etc). The crow is standing proud and upright, above the city, to symbolize the upper-hand that the dregs had during SOC.

Now, the tables have turned in Hook And Crook. The symbols on the facade of the hotel show the character’s weaknesses (gloves, a red bird, gambling wheel, Dunyasha’s stars, paintbrush & laurels etc). The crow is defensively crouching with its hackles raised, the city above and oppressing - all representing the dregs having to turn and fight under dire circumstances. And bonus! When you put the two side-by-side, a little nod to a certain Ravkan symbol takes form! What a stupidly fun project this was! I’m so happy it’s finally finished and I thank you all for those who joined me in the lives to watch the process! (so sorry for the low quality on this; Featherdark is my most pilfered artwork for unsanctioned merch 💔)

officially diagnosed with bed too cozy disease

SOC paintball AU

So excited to show you guys my piece for the @grishaversebigbang ‘s reverse mini-bang!

@littlestivy wrote an amazing and fun fic based off of this piece, which you can find here!

I worked with @trassellynn on this au who also drew an absolutely stunning piece that inspired the fic, which you can find here!

🌹 a flower for everyone not feeling their best today

Kaz didn’t believe much in Saints or angels or gods, but Inej in front of him was as close as he could get to religion.

Two for Joy by @zemenipearls 💕

Kai wrote the most gorgeous fic as part of the @grishaversebigbang reverse bang; such a lovely extrapolation of the initial sketch I'd originally sent as the idea. The fic will leave you warm and fuzzy, guaranteed 🥰

I know this is going to make me sound pretensions but I have to get it off my chest. I feel an unimaginable rage when someone posts a photo and is like "this picture looks like a renaissance painting lol" when the photo clearly has the lighting, colors and composition of a baroque or romantic painting. There are differences in these styles and those differences are important and labeling every "classical" looking painting as renaissance is annoying and upsetting to me. And anytime I come across one of those posts I have to put down my phone and go take a walk because they make me so mad

exceedingly unfair that i'm unable to listen to music while also listening to a podcast while also reading a book while also watching a movie

“Staring.”