Everyone talks about the joys of someone else being super invested in your OCs and while this undoubtedly feels absolutely awesome, I think there's also something to be said about the joy of being invested in someone else's OCs too. There's just vibes you get out of some people's casts of characters that you can't get anywhere else with their own unique flavor from that person, and they're just sitting there in relative obscurity spawned completely out of someone's mind with no media involvement or anything. Special kind of feeling

ECHOING THIS WHOLEHEARTEDLY!

I feel like it is such a special feeling to get invested in somebody else's characters and learn their lore as you go along. It's like picking up this really rad breadcrumb trail.

I think it's especially special amongst friends because you get to learn lore that wasn't posted publicly, you might know how their story ends, you might know whole story beats and character arcs, or see the secret progress on their projects. I think there is no feeling like being able to make inside jokes about their characters with each other or show them a video/image like, "I saw this and thought of your character / they would totally do this."

Growing up is actually all about realizing people don’t inherently dislike you and it’s a bit odd to assume they do

This

there are more tweets in this thread

fucking SLAY

ultimately i think kindness is the most radical thing you can do with your pain and your anger. it’s like, you take everything awful that’s ever been done to you, and you throw it back in the world’s teeth, and you say no, fuck you, i’m not going to take this.  you say this is unacceptable. you say that shit stops with me.

humans are fucking terrible and this awful world we live in will fucking kill you but if you are kind, if you are brave and clever and try really hard, you can defy it. you can impose on this bleak and monstrous structure something beautiful. even if it’s temporary. even if it doesn’t heal anything inside you that’s been hurt.  

i’m gonna sleep and i’m gonna wake up and i swear by everything in this deadly horrible universe i’m gonna make someone happy. 

i’ve seen a number of comments and tags where people feel that they must swallow or repress their anger in order to engage in kindness. that is not at all what i am recommending here. radical kindness is an expression of anger. it is not passive. it is not repressive. it does not require you, in any way, to forgive those that have fucked you up. it does not require you to be quiet. 

it just requires that you be kind. viciously. vengefully. you fight back. you plant flowers. give to charity. play games. pet someone’s dog. scream into the dark. paint and write and dance, tell jokes, sing songs, bake cookies. you have been hurt and you don’t have to deny that hurt. you just have to recognize it in other people, and take their hand, and say: no more. enough. fuck this. no more. 

have a cookie.

i will say this again: we are all going to die. the universe is enormous and almost entirely empty. to be kind to each other is the most incredible act of defiance against the dark that i can imagine. 

i will say this again: we are all going to die. the universe is enormous and almost entirely empty. to be kind to each other is the most incredible act of defiance against the dark that i can imagine.

1. The universe is indifferent. We ought not be.

2. A good quote: There are two kinds of people. Those who think, “I don’t want anyone to suffer like I did.” And those who think, “I suffered; why shouldn’t they?”

3. Two good quotes by Kurt Vonnegut: “Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies-“God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

And: “Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

Another good quote:

“I. THIS IS NOT A GAME.

II. HERE AND NOW, WE ARE ALIVE.”

You can be kind and fuel it with rage. You can be kind and fuel it with a bitter twist, or you can be kind and fuel your kindness with righteous anger, or you can be kind and fuel it with love or spite or ecstatic joy. And no matter what your fuel is, you still can make kindness happen in the world so that people can warm themselves by it.

Kindness isn’t an emotion, kids. That’s the thing. Kindness is action. Kindness is choosing to take your emotions and channel them towards doing the most good where you can; to choose the targets of your actions carefully; to spread a little joy behind you, when you have a little to spare.

Kindness can mean a gentle word or a shouted imperative. It can be a warm meal or a gentle hug or a clean death. Kindness can manifest in many ways, and not all of them are one hundred percent nice. The kind thing to do may be doing nothing at all. 

But kindness is, above all else, an action. We are imperfect humans, and we cannot control our emotions–but we can control what we do as a result. We can control the actions that our emotions and experiences propel us to perform. 

The darkness is nothing but the absence of light, you know. It is endless and nihilistic and all enveloping. A lit candle has no hope against it.

But if enough of us light small candles and little matches behind us as we walk through this wide, uncaring universe, we can light up that sky. We can take an empty world and we can fill it with each other. 

That’s how we can take the bones of an empty universe and forge a warm hearth fire humanity can use to keep back the night. 

But kindness is, above all else, an action. We are imperfect humans, and we cannot control our emotions–but we can control what we do as a result. We can control the actions that our emotions and experiences propel us to perform.

I’m also a fan of Camus:

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”

I’m afraid I’m nowhere near as eloquent, I just repeat House Martell’d words.

I will not bow, I will not bend, I will not break. I am more than what was done to me.

How much longer until the utopic Solarpunk future where Capitalism is dead and we all live in ecologically sustainable high-tech forest cities? Asking for a friend.

Until we make those ecologically sustainable high-tech forest cities ourselves. It’s going to take a lot of us to do it though, so best to spread the word (and gather native tree seeds).

And, like, get started now. Then our “weirdo houses” will be the only thing functioning when everything falls apart!

The only reason why we don’t live in a solarpunk world right now is because no one has bothered to make it yet. 

We’ll have to make it ourselves, and we’ll have to help each other make it. That’s why it is solarpunk. 

Some resources to consider creating or joining or doing:

Grow food in 5 gallon buckets

This is so great

Oh thank goodness for this. I just found out the town I’m moving to has a farmer’s market.

Imagine paying $40 extra a month for Tumblr

That’s what is going to happen if we let Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, go through with repealing Title II (AKA Net Neutrality).

Simply put, without Net Neutrality, Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T will be able to “bundle” websites much like cable ON TOP OF paying for internet connection. “Want access to Netflix AND Tumblr? Get the Entertainment Package! $40 a month. What about Amazon and Ebay? Add an extra $20 a month to get the Shopping Package.”

Not only will they be able to bundle websites and charge more, they will also be able to censor and block websites that they don’t agree with entirely.

THIS WILL BE THE END OF INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT.

For business owners, it will be even worse. Ex: Comcast will ask Amazon to pay high fees to be available in a low-cost package, fees that websites like Poshmark or Etsy will not be able to pay. Therefore, only Fortune 500’s will be available to web users at a low cost. Say goodbye to Etsy (unless you’re willing to shell out $70 a month for the “All-Inclusive” package).

To learn about Net Neutrality, why it’s important, and/or want tools to help you fight for Net Neutrality, visit BattleForTheNet (https://www.battleforthenet.com)

There are five people deciding the future of the internet, three men (Rep) and two women (Dem). The two women have come out as No votes. We need only to convince ONE of the other members to flip to a NO vote to save Net Neutrality.

There are many ways you can help:

WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE A LAZY TUMBLR USER WITH ANXIETY WHO TRIES TO HELP WITH JUST REBLOGS / LIKES:

Here are 2 petitions to sign, one international and one exclusively US.

International: https://www.savetheinternet.com/sti-home

US: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/do-not-repeal-net-neutrality

(After you sign make sure to verify via email, it may take up to 30 mins to receive the email).

Text “resist” to 504-09. It’s a bot that will send a formal email, fax, and letter to your representatives. It also finds your representatives for you. All you have to do is text it and it holds your hand the whole way.

HERE ARE MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:

These are the emails of the 5 people on the FCC roster.

Blow up their inboxes!

Ajit Pai - Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov

Mignon Clyburn - Mignon.Clyburn@fcc.gov

Michael O'Rielly - Mike.O'Rielly@fcc.gov

Brendan Carr - Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov

Jessica Rosenworcel - Jessica.Rosenworcel@fcc.gov

You can support groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU and Free Press who are fighting to keep Net Neutrality:

• https://www.eff.org/

• https://www.aclu.org/

• https://www.freepress.net/

• https://www.fightforthefuture.org/

• https://www.publicknowledge.org/

• https://www.demandprogress.org/

Set them as your charity on Amazon Smile here (https://smile.amazon.com/)

Write to your House Representative here

(http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/)

And Senators here: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=state)

Write to the FCC here (https://www.fcc.gov/about/contact)

Add a comment to the repeal here (https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?proceedings_name=17-108&sort=date_disseminated,DESC)

Here’s an easier URL you can use thanks to John Oliver (http://www.gofccyourself.com)

Also check this out, which was made by the EFF and is a low transaction cost tool for writing all your reps in one fell swoop.

(https://democracy.io/#!/)

Most importantly, VOTE. This should not be something that is so clearly split between the political parties as it affects all Americans, but unfortunately it is.

This Armadillo girdled lizard biting its tail looks like a mini dragon (Source: http://ift.tt/2gbfi42)

totes adoraboros

I wanna be a villain so I can just saunter everywhere. the heroes are always sprinting, always running. you ever seen darth vader run? hell no. and I ain’t about to either.

Reblogging because I think this is super helpful 

!!!!! PSA that the hyperactive stuff on here (always needing to Do Something, ccaann’‘tt bbee bboorreed, etc) can wind up masked almost totally by maladaptive daydreaming, which, when you think about it, is actually a marvelous way to begin INSTANTLY doing something interesting without even having to get up and go somewhere else. Once you internalize your need for stimulation and start watchin’ the ol’ headmovies, you might LOOK like a very patient person who has no trouble sitting still when it’s required or staying on-task for extended periods of time despite setbacks and delays, but only from the outside. Inside there are tabs open with music videos and etc. playing, and you’re probably glancing back at reality only when necessary. You might look at sensation-seeking symptoms like hyperactivity and think “can’t relate” when, really, you’re just ready to return to your interior hyperactivity at a moment’s notice. @ everybody who can’t just slip out of reality when boredom threatens and who has to instead find something to entertain themselves with irl, my heart goes out to you and everyone around you because holy fuck

I wonder how many writers and other creatives are ADHD. I mean, that whole “Occupy the brain with invented narratives, characters, dialogue, and wotld-building” thing was my refuge as a child, and has become my happy place as an adult.

I’d write all day, every day, if I could arrange my life for that. Coping technique turned profession. Unfortunately, the Day Jobbe sucks up most of my creative energy, alas.

Others out there like me?

I had a teacher in high school who pulled me aside one day and thanked me for being so attentive in class, and all I could think was, “bitch I am on year three of a Harry Potter OC fanfic, I have not heard a single word you’ve said in weeks.” So, yeah, maybe.

(A couple years ago I turned up positive on an ADHD screening, but I wasn’t jittery and I don’t forget appointments so my therapist said nah, probably not. But I’m finally getting my anemia treated, and I’m starting to wonder if maybe ADHD comorbid with depression and iron deficiency, compensated for by years of refining my note-taking and planner systems, doesn’t explain an awful lot.)

Just so you know, ADHD and ADD are no longer separate diagnoses- there’s just ADHD, and subtypes (primarily inattentive, primarily hyperactive, combined). That means there’s tons of us ADHD people who aren’t hyper physically and may even struggle with fatigue and brain fog pretty badly. 

Some more exciting ADHD things include:

- I have lost this thing. When did I lose it? Where did I lose it? Did I ever have it in the first place?

- ‘I’m calling because you missed yo-’ FUCK

- the overwhelming need to be stimulated combined with getting tired of everything quickly and lacking physical energy/ the ability to concentrate 

- saying offensive or inappropriate things and then when people are like ‘what are you thinking?’ being like ‘i honestly could not tell you’

- your brain is like one of those shopfront windows with all the TVs playing different channels. at least one of them is a song.

- ‘okay you can’t leave the exam hall until 1PM, so if you finish early you’ll just have to sit there’ haha death would be kinder

- poor emotional regulation. feelings are Very Hard To Handle By Yourself and you might break things when angry, hurt yourself when sad etc

- step one: join club or society. step two: learn everything there is and volunteer for as much responsibility as possible. step three: lose interest completely and ghost or quit, ignoring desperate/confused emails and hating yourself

- “something i thought has distressed me, but i can’t remember what. let me sit down and unpack the last five minutes of mental conversation.”

“!!!!! PSA that the hyperactive stuff on here (always needing to Do Something, ccaann’‘tt bbee bboorreed, etc) can wind up masked almost totally by maladaptive daydreaming, which, when you think about it, is actually a marvelous way to begin INSTANTLY doing something interesting without even having to get up and go somewhere else. Once you internalize your need for stimulation and start watchin’ the ol’ headmovies, you might LOOK like a very patient person who has no trouble sitting still when it’s required or staying on-task for extended periods of time despite setbacks and delays, but only from the outside.“

HAHAHAHAH omg I should have seen this 15 years ago

ADHD is reading the first post in this thread, skipping all the commentary, and rebloggingbit anyway

My input is ADHD is TALKING CONSTANTLY AND UNABLE TO STOP

As someone who’s been maladaptive daydreaming since I was 3/as long as I can remember

It is EXACTLY why I write/draw/get so passionate about stories

But it’s also why as a kid no one saw blatant ADHD- I can be patient and calm but my mind is constantly on high speed daydreaming and creating and writing and it can still be very hard to focus/cope with mental exhaustion

As someone who just recently realized that “I had ADD but I grew out of it” is not a) a true statement and b) something that happened to me, this post is super helpful on a few levels.

Can someone who has NOT been diagnosed with ADHD (but preferably tested for it or something similar)  comment on how much of the above list THEY experience? Because I’ve been wondering for months now if I might have something like this, but I have trouble gauging how much of it is “well everyone feels restless sometimes” and how much it isn’t.

Also the “maladaptive daydreaming” thing up above. What the hell. That’s actually a thing? You mean you might have ADHD and not be the “Oh shit I’ve been still too long time to go run 10 km” type of “hyperactive”? Like if “retreats into own brain at slightest boredom” is a viable alternative then that might actually explain so much…

Afaik ADHD is usually diagnosed in kids when their school performance suffers. I’ve always been a school overachiever, to the point where I spent years’ worth of classes multitasking between listening and drawing (except now that I’m in uni and am unable to draw on the side as I need to watch/look and not just listen, I find my concentration often suffering, so I’m wondering if drawing obsessively wasn’t actually my coping strategy for staying focused). Either way, I’m wondering if being the class smartass didn’t mask it. I need to think about this and look at more resources.

I think quite a bit of this can overlap with the autism spectrum. I’ve been tested multiple times throughout my life for ADHD and always come back negative, but was recently diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. I also have A LOT of trouble with the maladaptive daydreaming thing, and I’m pretty sure that has more to do with trauma than anything else. I experience quite a few of these, which is probably why my family insisted on repeated testing, since it also runs in the family.

@irisbleufic might have something to add on the being diagnosed as on the spectrum later in life.

My diagnosis, like @firesighn’s, is ASD rather than ADHD, but there’s considerable overlap. Extreme hyperfocus is something I’ve definitely got (case in point: my ability to write as much as I can write in short periods of time, as well as switch between a freakish number of projects at once), as is the need to constantly be doing something. I was only just diagnosed five years ago; I’m in my early-to-mid 30s. My experiences have been remarkably (and in some cases exactly) consistent with various features of what’s been said above. However, I’ve also got an OCD-component to my diagnosis that makes life interesting (or, depending on the circumstances, difficult) in other ways, like fixating on the exact positioning of almost everything in my environment, and on numbers needing to be rounded off in specific ways (this applies particularly to word-counts on writing projects and check-totals once I’ve added tip).

fake conversations in your head of you venting to someone

working through trauma by yelling at no one while driving alone

validating yourself by imagining situations where bad things happen to people and you save them

the suffering never ends

This is the real process

Resources for you!

Character Ideas:

Character Design Ideas:

Naming Help:

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Bonus art masterlist!

BLESS EVERYONE IN THIS POST.

There he goes

armoured ferret

Rations for various RPG Races

[[ Source. Original creator: wats6831. Additional information and images linked under each one. ]]

Universal:

Homemade artisan herb bread, home grown and dried apples and prunes, uncured beef sausage, munster cheese. Made a small bag from cheesecloth and tied it closed.

Discussion thread here.

Dwarf:

Garlic chicken livers, smoked and peppered cheese, spiced pork sausages, hard tack, dried vegetables, dried wild mushrooms.

Discussion thread here.

Elf:

Top left to right: Evereskan Honey Comb, Elven Travel Bread (Amaretto Liquer Cake with custom swirls), Lurien Spring Cheese (goat cheese with garlic, salt, spices and shallots), Delimbyr Vale Smoked Silverfin (Salmon), Honey Spiced Lichen (Kale Chips), and Silverwood Pine Nuts.

Discussion thread here.

Halfling:

From upper left: “Honeytack” Hard tack honey cakes, beef sausage, pork sausage mini links, mini whole wheat toast, cranberry cheddar cheese mini wedge, mini pickles, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, lower right is my homemade “travel cake” muesli with raisins, golden prunes, honey, eggs and cream.

Discussion thread here.

Half-Orc:

Wrapped in cheesecloth and tied in burlap package. Forest strider drumsticks, molasses sweet wheat bread “black strap”, aged Munster, hard boiled eggs, mixed wild nuts.

Discussion thread here.

Orc:

Orcs aren’t known for their great cuisine. Orcs prefer foods that are readily available (whatever can be had by raiding), and portable with little preparation, though they have a few racial delicacies. Toughs strips of lean meat, bones scavenged from recent kills, and dark coarse bread make up the bulk of common orc rations.Fire roasted rothe femur (marrow is a rare treat) [beef femur], Strips of dried meat (of unknown origin) [homemade goose jerky], foraged nuts, only edible by orcs….nut cracker tusks [brazil nuts], coarse black bread, made with whatever grains can be pillaged [black sesame bread], Pungent peppers [Habanero peppers stuffed with smoked fish and olives].

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Gnome:

Pan fried Delimbyr smelt, spiced goat cheese (paprika crusted hand pressed Fontina), Gnome shortbread (savory pistachio), glass travel jar filled with Secomber Red (wine), hard boiled quail eggs packed in rolled oats (to keep safe), dried figs from Calimshan, and Southwood smoked goat sausage (blood sausage).

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Lizardfolk:

Lizardfolk are known to be omnivores, forage for a surprising variety of foods found within the confines of their marshy environs, in this case the Lizard Marsh near Daggerford. Fresh caught boiled Delimbyr Crayfish on wild chives, coastal carrageen moss entrapping estuary brine shrimp (irish moss, dried brine shrimp), Brackish-Berries (blackberries), Blackened Dart-Frog legs (frog legs) on spring sprouts (clover sprouts), roasted bog bugs on a stick!

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Drow:

From top left: Menzoberranzan black truffle rothe cheese (Black Knight Tilsit), Donigarten Moss Snails (Escargot in shallot butter sauce), Blind cave fish caviar in mushroom caps (Lumpfish caviar), faerzress infused duck egg imported from the surface Realms (Century egg), Black velvet ear fungus (Auricularia Black Fungus Mushroom).

More images here. Discussion thread here.

Drow will also eat A Fucking Rock if it’s goth enough

@pupperoni-pizza

shoutout to people with ocs

that are either for fandom or purely original projects. you just spend so many hours constructing them from essentially dirt. shoutout to people with ocs who have them go through a million changed names and a million changed backstories, and still don’t feel like they’re up to the developmental standards that they should be…but they’re still loved by you regardless. shout out to people with ocs who want to share them with others, but are too anxious to tell information about them out of fear of judgment or laughter. And shout out to these same people who’re obviously adoring their creations but feel scared as shit to express the love out of your friend’s potential annoyance. shout out to people who make their ocs align with themselves in surname or quirks or just giving them those softer, hidden traits that also make you, you. to the peeps who feel so disappointed with their creations because again, they don’t feel good enough or accurate enough compared to other ocs. Nothing is perfect on the first draft, but they’re getting closer to perfected imperfection. to the creators who will write paragraphs about those brain children, paragraphs and concepts that have been building up for months only to be greeted with no response or simple replies such as, ‘oh.’ or to people who actually pay attention to them, and ask the BIG QUESTIONS and you’re just internally screaming and have to put on this cool act. shout out to people who spend hours thinking about how they sound like. (listening to voice clips for HOURS just thinking about your characters) What songs can apply to their personality and lifestyle…how they apply to them specifically.  shout out to big-brained creators who have a hundred and one characters and are greeted with, ‘isn’t that enough?’ when you talk about the concept of making a new one. If shows can have a vast cast of more than a ten to twenty characters, you can have your own vast cast too.  this post is just for people who feel so uneasy being so deeply involved and enthused in their creations. as if, there should be a limit on this type of love.  fandom ocs get stepped over and judged on sight, non-fandom ocs really get stepped over. But all that work and construction is valid and shows in your explanatory essay of their favorite genre. 

1k notes. this post got 1k notes. I am so happy and thankful that it managed to spread out of my small dashboard corner and touch people. 

this is my official offering to the minuscule dragonlance fandom on this website

please let me in 

I need an au where Raist didn’t try to become God but instead went around helping people and creatures. He also adopted Bupu and she travels with him and helps him.

hi *wave*. Sorry, I tend to hide on anon at first. Ahh, she sounds great! I’ll have to get on the browser so I can read the whole page (I mostly use the app and like..so much doesn’t work here. Namely, about pages). I’m Lun.

Oh gosh, if I were any better at making OCs I would be 100000% into joining the Mage Squad. It sounds like so much fun.

I’m just..gonna like..squeal over finding this fandom, K? And ships!?! There are ships!

Hello Lun! @jenna-of-the-red-robes and @whatyouvedoneinthedark, can Lun join mage squad without having an OC? We don’t actually do much with our OCs lately, so I’m wondering if it’s possible. Either way, I’m so glad you’ve found the fandom! ONE OF US ONE OF US 💖💖💖

HELL YA! Heck we have someone who is a knight in the group!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh thank you ^_^ I'll have to go re-find the list I just saw and start following people. I found one of the posts about it on Jenna-of-the-red-robes' blog. I don't have any clue as to what color robes I'd wear, which is too bad.

hi *wave*. Sorry, I tend to hide on anon at first. Ahh, she sounds great! I'll have to get on the browser so I can read the whole page (I mostly use the app and like..so much doesn't work here. Namely, about pages). I'm Lun.

Oh gosh, if I were any better at making OCs I would be 100000% into joining the Mage Squad. It sounds like so much fun.

I'm just..gonna like..squeal over finding this fandom, K? And ships!?! There are ships!

pros and cons of slytherin house

pros:

 cons:

other houses: (x) (x) (x)

don’t be sad because sad spelled backwards is das und das ist nicht gut

@boring-one

song ‘anything you can do’ parody

woops, my hand slipped XD

@marvelousvasili This is why I love fanart ^_^