Caltzyx

Good day to everyone whose heads and hearts haven't left the Truham-Higgs vicinity since Thursday. Season 2 has us all in a tizzy, and luckily, the fandom's artists are right there with us.

(This is another one that goes out to everyone who has seen the second season. SPOILERS AHEAD. MILD BUT STILL SPOILERY. PLEASE BE WARNED.)

@sleepyraywrites:

@idkchatie:

@darkshadowswhitelight:

@oliverhangout:

@pixelated3d:

@indecisive-blob:

@artbean:

@stringcage:

@brbrbeatrice:

@lyxchen:

@smileyrice:

@letraspal:

@bernard-the-rabbit:

@carvifox:

@pitiplush:

She’s technically a monster too. She might not look it at first glance and seems mostly human, but it isn’t deniable even despite her looks compared to the other monsters. 

But she realizes that she is still not like the rest of the monsters either and may not have entirely the same experiences as them, which is why she feels that she might not belong to or deserve to go to the support group. By sometimes passing as human, she feels she isn’t worthy of the space. 

The sad reality though is even though she’s mostly human in appearance, that tail she has undeniably would still cause her some struggle. Humans are still gonna look at that tail and think she’s a freak. There are probably still accommodations she needs because of the tail that she may still struggle to have access to. Even if it is just the tail, that tail is still enough to other her from humans and cause her problems and discrimination. 

She should get to belong in that support group even if she gets told she’s not monster “enough”. She still shares some of the same struggles as them that are caused by being a monster, and needs support. 

I’ve just been down about mental health stuff lately and cosplay has helped get my mind of of it. I’ve been cosplaying for about 4-5 years now. So here are a few things I wish I knew before I started cosplaying.

1) You don’t own anyone anything! - This is dumb I know and you probably hear it all the time but I’m sure there is someone who needs it. I needed it. I was (an am) bullied for things like this and my mother make fun of me for it all the time. You don’t have to be anything for those people. You don’t have to make them happy, as long as you are happy that’s all that matters.

2) You won’t be good right away, sorry - I had WAY to high of expectations for my first costume, which was handmade and sucked! I was proud of it still but I didn’t quiet love how it came together and I was made fun of a little. Now I still hand make or thrift costumes and I’m much better at doing it. Time is really your friend so don’t worry. It gets better.

3) If you want to buy a costume, that’s perfectly fine. - I had the idea when I first started cosplaying that buying my costumes would be considered “fake.” That was dumb (and led to some very sucky cosplays). If something is out of your skill range, literally impossible, or you just want to buy a costume because why not that’s okay. I promise you it makes you no less of a cosplayer than if you make a costume.

4) Don’t be too afraid to branch out - Now obviously this is a personal thing but when I started I was scared of cosplaying opposite gender characters (haha now im enby but whatevs.) The key is to just remember that that as long as you feel confident and happy with a character it is always okay to try new things. Now masculine characters are actually my favorite characters to cosplay and I only have a few feminine ones.

5) Cons and photoshoots are more fun in groups - Cosplaying with others is literally one of the best things ever. I was scared at first because explaining this idea to others risks being bullied but my friends and I are now doing group things and it is a wonderful way to bond with people.

Okay so sorry this is long but I wanted to get into technique stuff.

1) Wig caps! buy them. - If you see a wig cap on sale you better buy like ten of them! Those things are great but they do break and its hard to use when they do.

2) Weather is important - I did my first cosplay in October and thought it would be fine to wear a very thin very short costume. No, I was miserable. I pushed through, FOR ART, but I was dying so, plan accordingly.

3) Bring extra equipment - I literally cannot stress this enough. Bring a bag, even a ziplock is fine, and fill it with all the things you might need. BobbyPins, extra makeup, tape, glue, saftey pins, a needle and thread, water, snacks, the whole thing. Trust me, when stuff goes wrong it can make life really hard.

4) Just Stay Safe!!!! - Cons are fun but there are some creeps and I know you know who I’m talking about. Remember that groups are best and don’t be afraid to ask another cos player for help. Everyone has had some kind of creepy experience and they will totally get it. Just take a breather for a minute and don’t forget you are there for yourself and no one else.

I feel like the time has come to produce something like this:

Squick: A fic/art/concept/topic that is repellent to you, so you reject association with it and instead retreat to your personal comfortable spaces- all the while remembering that someone else’s comfort is not your own.

YKINMKATO: Also called “kink tomato.” Abbreviation meaning “your kink is not my kink, and that’s okay.” Used to explain why you are rejecting art or fic brought to you by someone else. A solid mantra to recall instead of sending flames in people’s comments

Flames: The comment equivalent of anon hate.

AMV: “animated music video” or “anime music video.” Often, this is stylized to fit a specific fandom, such as a “PMV” (pony music video) in my little pony. May also be referred to as a lyricstuck.

Filk: Combination of the words “film” and “folk,” this is a music genre, to which “fan songs” and “fan parody covers” belong. If you don’t really understand what this means, take a quick listen to American Pie, then compare Weird Al Yankovic’s Saga Begins

BNF: Big name fan. You know that one person who is just so fuckign popular in your fandom? Their art is always on your dash, everyone knows their fics? Being spoken to directly by them is basically being noticed by everyone ever’s senpai? That’s what these people are called.

DL:DR; Not unliked the teal deer (tl;dr, or “too long, didn’t read”), DLDR means “don’t like? Don’t read!” It’s a reminder that you are under no obligation, ever, to expose yourself to uncomfortable (or, squicky), or potentially harmful (or, triggering), material. Not ever. If you don’t actively like something? It’s not worth your time. Skip it.

Gen: or “genfic” “genart” etc. Fan works which contain no or very little romantic content. Often these are styled after the canon material, and may be called “episodic” ro “slice of life” in addition. 

Lemon: Work containing strong pornographic elements

Lime, or Citrus: Work containing mild or implicit pornographic elements

Sockpuppeting: The surprisingly common scenario of someone making a bunch of fake accounts/sideblogs to send themselves reviews or hate, to try to increase views or drama surrounding a work. The accounts they make are called Sockpuppets. 

WAFF: Warm and fluffy feelings. A genre of fic that exists just to be therapeutically sweet. Nowadays, usually just called “fluffy.”

Schmoop: Take WAFF and somehow make it even more syrupy. You’ll know it when you see it.

Whump: Imagine if you will, a hurt-comfort fic. The comfort might be considered WAFF. The hurt? That’s the whump.

Wapanese: When white autors pepper their anime fanfic with random, tonally inappropriate japanese words. 

Anthropomorfic: Nowadays we just call these “humanstuck” or “humanized AU.”

Wank: Wildly disproportionate drama that crops up because someone wrote/drew/did something that someone else didn’t like. Seriously, I cannot begin to express the fiascos that have come about from all this. Just… Just go look at this.

 Plot bunny: Story ideas that you probably won’t ever actually deal with, but that multiply entirely out of control, creating huge worlds in your head that you’re probably not going to write. But hey! You might! And until then they make great sideblogs/askblogs/tumblr posts.

Casefic: Fanfics that try to create an episode-like feel for procedural and crime dramas, moster of the week shows, etc.

Jossed: When popular fan theories and fanon are addressed in the canon of a series, and whoops, turns out we were all very, very wrong.

Kripked: When popular fan theories and fanon are addressed in the canon of a show and, hot damn, we fucking called it.

Secret Masters: The people who run the websites/ communities/etc that we all do our fanning on. Less relevant now that we have things like tumblr, but when everyone had to run their own archival and social sites for each fandom, it was more important to pay our respects to the strange and powerful beings that brought us all together and gave us our fannish homes. Think the staff of AO3, for example.

Ficlet: Fic that clocks in somewhere between 100 to 2.5K words.

Crossover: A piece of media in which two or more source materials are treated as the same universe. Characters from Fandom A can meet characters from Fandom B. (The Doctor Goes To Hogwarts And Meet Harry Potter!)

Fusion: A fusion takes the characters of one source material and *surplants* them into another universe entirely. Characters from Fandom A cannot meet characters from Fandom B. (Dave Strider is part of an Inception team!)

TPTB: The Powers That Be. Almost always redundantly referred to as “the TPTB.” A collective term for showrunners, actors, producers, writers, et al, anyone who is part of the team that creates the source material.

YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary. A shorthand way of saying “this is how I see it/have experienced it though I realize others might have a different perspective.”

My Steven Universe party food! Me and seven friends about to watch the movie! Steven Universe themed dishes, plus rock and crystal-themed candy buffet!

“How delightfully entertaining this is! I always get so excited before tragedy strikes!”