#SCS: It's Not What It Looks Like

[ddraggy]

I've been reading Special Civil Servant, an action manwha on Webtoons. It's a bit of a strange one, this. I am, in all seriousness, reading it for the story. However, the fanservice is welcome. It's not often the main male protag of an action manwha plays the role of lead eyecandy. I'm enjoying the story so far. It ticks a lot of my boxes.

Violence? Check.

Vore? Check.

Monsters? Check.

Inhuman superhumans? Check.

Cinnamon roll who gets whumped all to hell? Check.

Pretty? Check.

Unexpected suggestive artwork that clashes with what is actually going on and gets progressively more and more o.O as the series progresses? Check.

I'm going to go chapter by chapter and pick one or two shots. There be spoilers after the photo. I think I'll call this series of posts:

Special Civil Servant: It's Not What It Looks Like!

Here's a shot of our hero, Maru Han, from Chapter 1:

Can you guess what just happened here?

.

.

.

That's right, he just took way too many ADHD meds, hallucinated getting dissed by a bird, and is now regretting his choices.

See you next time!

[consultingfujoshi]

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[cat-dragron-arts]

Murderhelion BLAST!!!

[pilferingapples]

a quick sketch for @angelicenjolras ' Shoujo Cosette redraw meme!

[existingingrey]

The more I look at it the more I feel like Haseol couldn't take more of Jeongwoo's pining and made an excuse to get him to Sangcheol

백공죽 Extended Version

SCJW Pre-dating era 🤨

[cinnamonest]

Lena thank you for the fucking food (scara post). I didn't even get halfway into the story before I started laughing. Scara entering an early midlife crisis because of reader's colourful pens took me outtttttt like he is such a lil bitch

Other than that, I've been WAITING for a post where Scara goes ham on a darling that technically never did anything "wrong" and always treated him nicely/fairly, with nothing being good enough for him 😭

That's what makes any situation with him so hopeless, there is literally no way out. The man is so neurotic that he will just interpret literally anything you could possibly do or say in a way that fits a narrative he's already constructed in his head. He internally exaggerates everything you say and do so that any negative comment or action is a million times worse than it actually is, and even the nicest of your words have some hidden negative meaning or implication.

Moreover, you don't need to do or say anything at all, just your existence is enough to be annoying and being annoying is enough to warrant a fixation. It can be any demeanor too — he'll find a way to interpret it as irritating, and fixate on retaliating for your crime of annoying him, all while you are barely aware he exists.

And once that fixation is established, because it's based on something so broad yet so vague as your very existence, there's no way to undo it. It's also in large part that specific bitterness guys get where they're attracted to some girl that feels unattainable, so they take the “if I can't have her then she can't be happy” mentality.

But YES he IS suuuuuuch a little overdramatic bitch about everything even vaguely feminine darling does you're so right. For starters he’s a naturally severe case of cute-aggression, so anything perceived as cute automatically earns an intense reaction.

He’s also very much stuck in the immature boy mentality where anything he mentally associates as feminine is icky and dumb. Yet at the same time, he's attracted to it, so being attracted to and annoyed by the same thing creates a lot of internal confusion and frustration, which you WILL bear the brunt of.

Which is so much worse with e-girl darling because you know darling is gonna have the e-girl staple items. The sanrio-themed everything. The cutesy phone case. The cat-ear gaming headset. All the frilly lacey clothes and underwear. Awful. A complete waste of money. Why does it look so cute on you and why does that make him feel like punching a wall.

Even in consensual interactions, he has a comical degree of aversion and repulsion. No he's not sitting on your bed or borrowing your pen or using your controller. It's PINK. Are you out of your mind. Ugh.

[slipnoose]

here's my other gripe for today: too many fans ommit black characters within the hunger games from fandom appreciation, as if every one of katniss’ interactions with them don't hold some form of value. you aren't going to get a prize from me just by simply mentioning the fact that they exist. like the d12 characters, like the white characters — show me how they exist! i want to see full on inclusion of people like chaff and seeder, rue & thresh, reaper & cinna — that aren't just five second references. commit to your supposed care and support of poc characters beyond charity mentions & start writing full on fucking fics. or go the hell home for real

[periodicavocation]

he sit

leafs @ panthers | game 4 | 11.05.25

[i3utterflyeffect]

cursor selkie sc (due to some unlikely plot contrivance) in god with a bag of groceries au would be so funny...bystanders watching god pass by with a bag of groceries, followed by tiny god with a packet of cookies. adorable.

ANON... YOUR MIND..........

[aeb-art]

it's @8um8le's birthday, so i had to draw cyber crew hehe 🎉✨ happy birthday, ballad! 🎉✨

used a pose ref so that's below the cut vvv

[ddraggy]

Chapter 10 - Maru to the rescue!

MARU IS ON THE JOB. BUFF MOM AND HER DATE ARE OK.

All those stab wounds Maru got? He's fine. See?

Yup, very fine. Officer Kang from the flashback is also fine. She's not hurt since she isn't even there, but yeah, we should check her out too, just in case.

And here's flashback Maru complaining about how hard his civil servant job is. Poor, helpless baby forced to eat yucky things. But he can heal faster than everybody else, so he can get all maimed and mutilated and flat out tortured every couple chapters no prob.

His job sucks.

You can do it, Maru! You've got a lethal ranged attack now! Too bad the demon monkey monster can copy abilities. So now it's *also* got a lethal ranged attack. And somehow also better aim. Melee it is, then.

Keep in mind he's just some guy. No real combat training, no nothing. Buddy leans hard on that super healing.

[thepandalion]

"its ok, you don't need to know verbs, you're not a linguist, you're a dog" -me, to my dog, right now

[binnybinnychickendinny]

hollywood in stl!

[screwpinecaprice]

What would happen if Steven and Connie were giant diamond-sized crystal Gems?

I don't have any scenario thoughts for that, to be honest. Haha

It made me think of the connverse kaiju AU tho.

[existingingrey]

It was not a glass of 🥛.

This will help you calm down.

백공죽 Expanded Version.

[uncanny-tranny]

I laid out the crochet blanket I'm making for my cat, and she's lying on it even though she can only fit two thirds if her body onto it right now and this is making it all worth it 😭😭😭😭