Wallpapers by aslovefromlies, according to Sharks (though she sounded a little unsure so please correct us if that’s wrong).

These are really cool!

I like how the variant with the hellhound has it sort of in the background, presumably because Rachel is the focus of the piece, not her power.

I also love her mask – it’s deceptively cute – and her sort of canine facial structure, which is rather fitting to her characterization even besides her connection to dogs. Along with the coat and her short hair, it makes her look kind of… Russian? Maybe she has some ancestors from there.

Y’know, I might just end up adding one of these to my cycling backgrounds folder.

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aberrant-eyes:

“Is the school permanently soaked in eau de bystander syndrome or something?” In my experience, most American high schools are. The difference between what Taylor goes through and what I, for instance, went through is one of degree, not of kind, and as William James famously observed while high as a kite on laughing gas, there are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference.

Yeesh, that sucks. I’m really sorry you, and anyone else with similar experiences, had to go through anything like this!

In Norwegian schools, at least where I live, you don’t really see bully attacks in public much. I don’t know how much goes on in the dark, though, because I’m a privileged fuck who was left alone in spite of being a massive nerd (in fact I suspect I was so much of a nerd that it somehow looped around to respect? idk).

I wonder if the difference here has to do with the Law of Jante. The Law of Jante was originally a piece of Danish satire, but now the term is used to refer to the thing it was pointing out, which I believe to be a key element in Norwegian culture: You’re not supposed to think you’re better than others, or at least you’re not supposed to express that thought. The Law of Jante stands in stark contrast to the attitude the U.S. appears to promote at times, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it criticized as socialist or communist. Norway is a largely social democrat country, and the idea is at the core of socialism.

Anyway, my point is: there’s little status to be gained from bullying in Norway. In fact, status is barely a thing in Norwegian school (because that would suggest that some are better than others, and acknowledging your own high status would break the Law of Jante), so it kind of gets hard to relate to a lot of American high school dramas. They always feel exaggerated.

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aberrant-eyes:

“Maybe it would’ve helped, somehow. Maybe it wouldn’t.” Maybe it would’ve hurt more than it helped. It’s occurred to me that Taylor was and is mostly worried about protecting Emma from Danny’s temper. (Withdrawn girl with glasses, dad who calls her “kiddo”… I wonder if Wildbow based them on Daria and Jake Morgendorffer or if it’s just a coincidence.)

Yeah, that’s a fair point. She did mention that concern back in… well, can’t remember exactly when, but I think it was an early chapter of Insinuation.

As for Daria, I’ve never actually watched the series (nor Beavis and Butt-Head), though I’ve heard of the character. Wikipedia does describe her as “a smart, acerbic, and somewhat misanthropic teenage girl who observes the world around her”, which could just as easily be used to describe Taylor, so if nothing else, at least it seems like an apt comparison.