#i'll explain in a bit

[unma]

It really does feel like I live in hell

[tekatonic]

huh, Princess Elise is looking a lil different today

[un-till-the-end]

What it means that Till likes Mizi because she's "pretty"

Fans hear Vivinos & QMENG answered in a nonchalant manner that Till liked Mizi initially because she's pretty and conclude his love is shallow and vain. But this doesn't refer to external appearance alone but rather how her internal beauty shows on the outside.

In the free Patreon post ABOUT <Drowning Bloom>, it's explained:

Till is seeking authenticity and someone who shares his values of beauty, nature, kindness, love, etc. He finds her pretty the same way he finds flowers pretty:

The same Patreon post describes Till as:

When Till likes Mizi because she's "pretty", it refers to her smile, her warmth, her kindness. Mizi is one of the first people to show him kindness after he arrived at Anakt, and she is always kind to him.

A different Patreon post explains:

Till actually doesn't know Mizi very well. It's simply her smile that makes Till willing to risk everything for her and sing; this shows his pure nature. He's just a boy experiencing the innocence of first love.

Till resolves to protect her because he doesn't want her brilliance to be dimmed by anyone or anything.

But he fell in love with her at first sight

Till isn't wrong that he "felt a spark" between them on their first meeting. Till is an INFP (Fi, Ne, Si, Te) and Mizi is an ESFP (Se, Fi, Te, Ni). Till has Fi primary while Mizi has Fi auxiliary and that's likely what he felt. He could tell she values the same things he does, and for that reason she would be able to understand him. Because they're alike. However, because his Fi defines who he is whereas Mizi's is a skill she has to develop and does not easily go to, perhaps that's why she did not feel the same way.

If she were gloomy, if she were mean, he would not like her because she's "pretty." He would look elsewhere for someone who could understand him.

[itstokkii]

The Many Ills of Canon South Korea(as explained by a South Korean)

Ik a lot of people might feel a knee-jerk reaction to this and go "why are you making this? it's been a long time since the character was banned and went into oblivion," and that's true. However, I find that a lot of characteristics of how South Korea was written has been carried on by some Hetalia fans, which are still problematic and rooted in pro-Japanese imperialist sentiment.

Here, I'll try my best to go over some major points, starting with Korea's canon design.

Character Design

Looking at this for the first time, I felt like I was on some kind of trip. It looked like Himaruya was indecisive of whether he wanted Yongsoo to wear a durumagi or a jeogori, so he said "let's make the undershirt as long as a durumagi!"

For reference, left is a jeogori and pants outfit and right is a durumagi and pants outfit. These are the 2 main hanbok types for men.

I can't think of a single character whose character design was this flawed and so inaccurately done. It's like he didn't even care or put any thought into Korean traditional wear. It makes me laugh when I see how Japan is given such accurate clothing in contrast.

His clothing is a caricature of what Korean wear is. Thankfully, I don't see a lot of art of him wearing it anymore, but when it does appear it really does feel disrespectful.

His Personality

I don't really have a problem with his energetic personality, but if you know anything about his depiction in the manga, you know what I'll be talking about:

His "hobby" where he takes credit for inventions, and his weird "quirk" involving sexually harassing Japan.

What...was the reason for this exactly? A lot of personality quirks and gags of characters are rooted in some existing stereotype many people attribute to the country, like

America -> eats a lot of food, bright colored cake -> US's reputation as a country with a lot of fast food and artificially colored desserts

England -> food is inedible -> England's reputation of unappetizing foods

Korea -> claims credit for other countries' creations(Mostly Japan's), sexually harasses Japan -> ?????

This is why I don't accept some Westerners trying to brush South Korea aside "because everyone gets dunked on in Hetalia!" yes, but to what degree?

A Japanese man writing his Korean character to be stealing from the Japanese one says a lot, that Korea doesn't have a culture of its own, or most of it isn't their own. Or daresay, Korea takes Japanese culture and claims it to be their own. All three of these conclusions are problematic, and audacious coming from a person hailing from the empire that attempted to stamp our culture out and penalized those trying to preserve our culture.

The "grabbing Japan's chest" bit originates from an ongoing political dispute of an island known as Dokdo, or as Japan calls it, Takeshima. Personally, I'd agree that Dokdo belongs to Korea, referring to maps produced by Japan from the 1800s:

Yellow is marked as Korean land, with even the writing labeling it as "Joseon Land." But regardless of which side is correct, there is something about taking an ongoing territorial dispute(it was a much bigger issue while Himaruya was writing Hetalia) and applying it with the context of "haha he grabs Japan's chest."

It paints Korea as unreasonable and a sexual assaulter so that Korean grievances against Japan can be dismissed. Additionally, both countries have a rampant sexual assault issue(my phone's shutter sound cannot be turned off–a feature of phones only made in/for Korea and Japan), which is why it's also insensitive to give this trait to Korea and make light of this sensitive topic, while also...not extending this to Japan.

Let's not mention making Korea the harasser given the history and Japan's position too. Korea's red light districts and sex/entertainment industry was started by and formalized by the Japanese occupation so they could exploit Korean women.

"Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910, and the proximity of colonial Korea to Japan, its established colonial bureaucracy and transportation network, and the presumed “cleanliness” of its young female population meant that likely the largest percentage of comfort women came from Korea. Another reason for the large numbers of Korean girls and young women in the comfort women system was the well-developed state of the Japanese colonial sex industry in Korea and its networks of human trafficking. This industry, which had been growing with Japanese encouragement since the late nineteenth century, blossomed under the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910–45) and provided networks for obtaining and trafficking sexual slaves." - Music and Dance in the Japanese Military “Comfort Women” System: A Case Study in the Performing Arts, War, and Sexual Violence by Joshua D Pilzer

Now, the "claiming everything is Korean" bit. The whole gag is Korea is delusional haha look he's claiming something Japan made as his!! While Japan is just looking at him like "ok...sure..go off whatever ig." Again, making Korea to be an unreasonable childish character while Japan is mature and just trying to get along, let bygones be bygones! Look at the sassy child I have to deal with guys!!!

Speaking of "sassy child..."

Korea's age

I haven't checked the wiki in a hot minute, but there were 2 details of his age I remember.

he's 15

he was "born" 1945(liberation of Korea from Japan) or 1948(Creation of South Korean govt)

This would be contrary to even the manga, as it references a painting by a Japanese artist in the 1700s of what he assumed were Joseon messengers stealing chickens during their mission to Japan. Korea was alive then as depicted in the picture referencing the real one, so it's safe to say his existence should predate even 1945.

(Interesting to note that Himaruya says that Koreans interpret it as Japanese bullying the Korean envoys, when Korean sources actually suggest it could be children playing around.)

Even if Korea was set to be born 1945 or 1948, it doesn't do us justice. Why do we not have a history before colonization? How is it that Korea could be even younger than America, when the Joseon Dynasty was established a century before Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492? How is it that Japan gets to be older and Korea doesn't?

It's glaringly obvious, but Korea's "childish, immature personality" stems from Japanese imperialist rhetoric of Koreans during the Colonial Era, of people needing to be civilized.

"In April 1919, Baron Goto Shinpei (Home Minister, 1916–1918) addressed a luncheon attended by US Treasurer John Burke. Goto contended that Japan did not act duplicitously in 1905, but instead, “with the full cognizance of the United States government.”  "He added, “under the efficient government of Japan, the Korean people rapidly advanced in civilization and enjoyed the blessings resulting from the development of productive industry, as well as the spread of education." - The March First Movement in America: The Campaign to Win American Support by Brandon Palmer

The most important thing to remember in all of this was that during the time of Korea's controversy, Anti-Japanese sentiment was still quite high because of the unhealed wounds as a result of 35 years of Japanese Occupation. When you think about your colonizer making a personification of your country and depicting him as

-someone that copies from the colonizer and harasses them, a contrast to the "mature" colonizer

-someone with barely a history before the colonizer

-someone who's clothes are so wildly inaccurate

then wouldn't you too be enraged? This is what caused the National Assembly to ban the official airing of the anime, and official releases of the manga. You'll notice even these days Koreans are hostile towards Hetalia, even as the incident happened years ago, whereas the Countryhumans had a large Korean following and creators, because one of them was openly treating their country like a personification from a political cartoon found in a 1920s Japanese newspaper, and the other was fan created.

I hope this perspective was helpful in explaining why certain qualities of canon are disrespectful. Please remember before defending "canon" Hetalia, Hetalia is made by a Japanese author who was found to have been on Japanese right wing forums. Don't try to convince a Korean that his depiction/canon of Korea is respectful.

[fiendish-illos]

some Clay art i made while i was listening to a friend rant about an intricate and well-woven culture she and a comrade of ours made

i dont think the doodle had anything to do with the conversation but i was in the delirious mood to make something unhinged.

so i did.

agency is a beautiful thing

[tinglingfuckingsensation]

With All My Heart

Eugene Roe/Renée Lemaire/Babe Heffron

Mixed Media/Papercraft Collage (my armchair for scale) - sorry for the image quality this did not photograph well due to all the reflections

Haven't figured out yet how to explain this one to people IRL 🫣

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wardrobe Woes

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[cerealforkart]

It's here everybody! Dungeons and Daddies the Manga is now possible for you to buy and to hold!

I'll have this store open for a few months to let orders build up before I place my own order to get the books made (I don't want to order 100 books in advance and only get 50 orders, leaving me with a ton of leftovers, y'know?), so be prepared to wait a while before it's actually in your hands.

Dungeons and Daddies the Manga is over 250 pages, and costs $25 CAD (~$18 USD) before shipping, which is about $2 less than the manga I most recently bought!

While you're over there, I also have a leftover sale for the stickers I made for the anniversary some months ago, so if you missed out on those, now is the time to grab them while supplies last! They're $10 CAD a pack (~$7 USD).

[damnprecious]

Wait, is Finland not Scandinavia?

Finland is, in fact, not an Scandinavian country. Denmark, Sweden and Norway are Scandinavian countries, while the three Scandinavian countries and Finland and Iceland make up the Nordic countries, and the Nordics also include the autonomous areas of Greenland, Faroe Islands and Åland.

In the English language, the two terms are often used synonymously, but in the Nordics, the two terms wouldn't be used interchangeably. This is because of geographical and cultural reasons: Geographically, Scandinavia refers to the Scandinavian peninsula, which Finland is not a part of (aside of the northernmost parts of the country), and culturally Swedish, Norwegian and Danish are Scandinavian languages, while Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language. Although Denmark also isn't located on the Scandinavian peninsula either, Danish is a Scandinavian language. There's also historical and political reasons for the distinction.

But yes, very much understandable if you didn't know this since at least English treats the two terms as synonyms, I'm not sure if other languages treat them as the same or not.

[tangled-wires-and-a-dead-heart]

Got inspired by @yllvmi . So I decided to make a bingo chart with my predictions for episode 5!

[beetlemoths]

I plaaan on drawing Ink and Blue at some point but anyways, humanized version of Dream!!!! His original skelly design I got from @thaltro its like my most fav dream design ever!! I hope I did him justice ^^

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

The fans: Ugh Sonic was just so preachy. I mean obviously he's supposed to be the good guy, so any uncomfortableness I feel here and any way I feel like Sonic's choices are framed as being why some other people have shitty lives is just bad writing because he is obviously supposed to be right always, but this characterization makes no sense. Isn't he right for the things he did?

Ian Flynn, using Kitsunami to say the (barely even at this point) quiet part even louder: Hey it's almost like ever since the Mr. Tinker event we've been purposely running with the critique of Sonic as being more selfish than he appears. Sonic is upholding a system of Eggman v Sonic that currently benefits him and shuts down talk of how to improve the current system because he likes his own personal enjoyment and he's attached enough to Eggman that he'd rather Eggman pretend to be a good person than be stuck in prison for life. He doesn't even quite practice what he preaches. We are trying to show that the current hero v villain system and Sonic's recklessness currently affects some people poorly and that Sonic isn't a perfect hero.

[flieslikeamoron]

For the ask meme, if you're still doing it! I wish you would write a fic where either Eddie or Steve can read the other's mind, or feel their emotions, or are otherwise psychically linked in some way. :)

Hiiiii! At one point I was thinking about writing a soul bond type of thing where the bat bites create a hive mind that Steve and Eddie share. Your ask reminded me of the idea so I wrote a little bit of what that could have been like. Some dicks and stuff behind the cut.

-*-

It’s not that weird.

Sure, it’s a little strange Steve always seems to know when Eddie pulls into the parking lot at Family Video. Even if he’s in the back room, couldn’t possibly have heard the rattle of the van’s rusted muffler. 

And yes, he can tell when Eddie’s hungry. Thirsty. Tired. Can tell without asking if he’s craving a burger or spaghetti. Can tell where Eddie is in a room without looking. Can feel it like a magnet pulling. But he knows when Robin’s hungry just by looking too. Or when she has a crush on someone. He knows when Nancy’s fed up or trying not to laugh. He knows when Dustin’s about to go off on some nerd rant before he starts talking. 

It’s just because they’re friends now. That has to be why he feels so much better when Eddie’s around. Like something he didn’t know was missing clicking into place. That’s friendship, isn’t it? 

It’s not that weird. 

Not compared to all the shit they’ve been through. It’s nice, actually, the way Eddie smiling at him sinks deep into him like sunshine on his skin. The way Eddie’s pacing footsteps or the drumming of his fingers on the counter thumps in a rhythm against Steve’s chest. Even when Eddie’s pissed, it rattles like rain on a tin roof in a way Steve kind of likes. 

It’s just because Steve likes him. It’s not a big deal that he hasn’t felt exactly like this about any of the other people he’s friends with. Any of the people he loves. Different isn’t bad. There’s no reason to mention it. What would he even say? Do you know when I’m thirsty too? Do you feel like a lock turning when you touch me? That does make it sound weird. And what if Eddie says no. What if Eddie has no idea what he’s even talking about. 

No, Steve will just give him a Coke when he knows Eddie wants a Coke. And bask in the smile that gets him. There’s no reason to bring it up. To make it weird.

Until.

It comes out of nowhere, heat building low in his gut when Steve’s in the middle of putting his laundry away. He’s got the phone trapped between his ear and his shoulder, Robin on the other end giving him a play-by-play of her latest not-date with Vicki. He puts the rest of his jeans away, trying to ignore how turned on he is for no apparent reason. But there’s something fucked up about having Robin’s voice in his ear while he’s popping a boner. 

“I gotta go,” he interrupts. “Sorry, I forgot I have to-” He tries to think of something he could be doing that’s not jerking off.

“Am I boring you?”

“No I just-” He stops again. This time because he has the oddest feeling. Almost the feeling of a hand on him. Of fingers pinching into his nipple. It’s never really done much for him, having his nipples played with. But a pulse of heat goes right through his balls. He curls a hand thoughtlessly against his boner, feeling the needy weight of it. “I’ll call you in a sec.” He can hear Robin protesting as he hangs up and tosses the phone aside. 

She calls right back, but he lets it ring. Too busy tugging his pants down. He can’t explain anyway. That he just really needs to get off right now. It’s rude as hell. He doesn’t know why he’s- But he’s so turned on. He’ll make it up to her after he gets this out of his system. 

He tugs his underwear down enough to get his dick out, starting to stroke himself with one hand, the other braced on his dresser. He likes to start slow normally, get himself worked up, but he feels strung tight as if he’s already been at it for a while. He spits in his hand, spreads precome down the shaft. Watching his hand move, the head of his dick red and slick in the circle of his fingers. 

There’s something wrong with his vision, something sort of blurry like a double exposure in a photograph. He blinks. It’s like the almost there of another hand, that’s not his hand. Of a dick that’s not his dick. He can almost feel it ghost against his skin when that hand moves, off rhythm with his. It’s making his dick throb, gut snarled tight with heat. It’s making him dizzy. He closes his eyes, and tries to focus on the slide of his hand. Just his hand. Tries to picture Phoebe Cates getting out of the pool. Perfect boobs and a slo-mo smile. But the picture in his head feels impossible to hold on to. Feels like he can’t- 

And then he’s seeing himself a little hazy and far away like looking through clear water. It’s him pulling himself out of the pool in his swim team speedos. Muscles flexing. Water streaming off him. Hand running through his own wet hair, and a cocky grin on his face. 

And okay, he knows he’s a good-looking guy. But he’s not- His ego isn’t this big. This isn’t the him he sees in the mirror. It’s sort of- Everything a little better than he actually is. The him he wishes he was. 

He didn’t- The shape of it feels wrong inside his head, like it doesn’t fit right. But he’s watching himself sitting down now, at the edge of the pool. And there's someone still in the water. There are hands on his thighs. A mouth on his cock. He can’t see much of the other person but long, dark, wet hair. He can almost feel it, the heat of that mouth on his cock. The sizzle of it through his mind going straight to his balls. And every time he strokes himself it’s like he feels it in his dick, and then he feels it again somehow like an echo throbbing through him. An overwhelming feedback loop of want and need and how good it feels. God. Fuck. I’m gonna come. He is gonna come, but he hears it against the inside of his head, and it doesn’t sound like him. It sounds like-

“Eddie?” he says cautiously. Out loud and in his head too.

He feels a quick stab of shock, fear. It feels like the rest of it. Sort of the wrong shape inside his body, inside his head. That picture of him winks away. And then it’s like he’s got a song stuck in his head, but it’s a heavy metal song he’s never heard before. 

“Eddie?” He thinks it harder. Tries to make it a scream, send it out past the inside of his own head. But the music keeps going, the noise of it so loud he can hardly think past it, can’t hear past it to whatever Eddie’s thinking behind it. That is Eddie behind it though, he’s pretty sure. That was Eddie just now. The things Steve was feeling. That was what Eddie was thinking about while he was getting off. He was thinking about Steve. 

Steve should be more weirded out by that, probably. Knowing he’s starring in Eddie Munson’s wet dreams is a bit of a surprise. He didn’t even know Eddie’s gay. He waits to feel shocked or upset, but outside of being kind of confused how any of this is even happening, he doesn’t seem to mind it. It’s a compliment, really. If that’s the way Eddie sees him. He kind of likes it, actually, in a deep down, self-satisfied way that makes him wonder if he does need to work on his ego after all. 

He feels vaguely guilty that he accidentally ruined the guy’s jerk off session. He looks down at his hand on his dick. He’s not sure if he should finish now. It’s like stolen valor or something. Is he even horny or was he just piggy-backing? However he got here, he’s still pretty close. He gives himself a couple careful strokes. Can Eddie feel that? Or was it just a one way connection? He heard it when Steve thought his name though. The heavy metal is still fucking blasting, so maybe he can’t hear or feel Steve past that just like Steve can’t hear him. He doesn’t know if he should risk it though. 

It’s pretty fucking weird.

The kind of weird he can’t ignore. 

He takes a cold shower, the heavy metal stuck in his head starting to give him a headache. Could you turn it down a little? he tries thinking. If it gets through to Eddie, he ignores it. Steve tries to figure out if there’s a way to turn down the volume on his end. Putting his fingers in his ears doesn’t help. He tries counting backward from a hundred and that seems like it does something, sort of. But as soon as he stops counting he can hear the music just as loud. Maybe Eddie will turn it off on his own if Steve gives him a little time to stop freaking out. 

He’s got to be freaking out. Having the dude you’re jerking off about pop up in your head has to be the nightmare scenario of all time. But how is Steve supposed to tell him it’s cool if he won’t stop putting up a wall of sound?

Or maybe Steve could try something a little less direct than whatever this head to head connection is. He tries calling Eddie’s trailer. No answer. He tries the walkie. No answer.

He wonders if Eddie can tell he’s pulling into the trailer park like Steve can always tell when he’s pulling up the street to Steve’s house. Steve can feel it. That magnet tug as he walks up the stairs. That feeling just underneath his breast bone that always seems to orient toward Eddie like a compass pointing north. He wonders if Eddie can feel that too. 

But maybe he can’t, because he looks shocked when he opens the door. Wide-eyed for just a second. The music breaks apart in Steve’s head enough that he can feel fear, just for a second. Less than that. Barely long enough to notice if he hadn’t been paying attention. And then the music starts up again, and whatever Eddie’s feeling is hidden behind it. Behind the easy laugh as he reaches out to thump Steve on the chest with the back of his hand like normal. Says, “You couldn’t call?” like Steve didn’t. Says, “You’re lucky I don’t have a life,” and tugs Steve in through the doorway. Like normal. 

For a moment Steve thinks maybe it was all in his head. Maybe he’s making up weird shit and thinking he and Eddie have some kind of psychic connection and hearing things that aren’t there and seeing things that aren’t there. Maybe none of it is real. And there’s nothing weird here except him.

But there’s music in his head. And he doesn’t know this song.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS x Hollow Knight Part 3: The Rebugging

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4

[edward-cabrini]

How To Write With Invented/Obscure Words

With great difficulty is the short answer. The average adult reader will have a fairly broad vocabulary. This means you can use words like cacophony and expect to be understood. However what if you describe a series of gun shots as a staccato? Or worse yet what if you invent a new word? For example fear claidhmte When a reader doesn't understand what you've written there's a good chance they stop reading. So what can we do to keep them reading? One option is to teach the word before they reach it. As an example in "The Curse of Want" Lorcan's adoptive father is a rígfénnid a leader of a fian. This is also begging the question of what is a fian? Before either of those words appear on the page, I have already described a warband approaching with a man atop a horse leading them. The POV character seeing them then goes "Ah, of course he must be their leader." As they get close they hear the language and see the armour and colours they wear, thus surmise the travelling soldiers must be a fian and the man leading them of course their rígfénnid and so approaches him to ask for help. In a few brief sentences, all while setting the scene we have learned two new words that will crop up a bunch throughout the story.

Another option is giving meaning through sheer force of vibes alone. This is what a lot of technobabble is. Warhammer authors do this pretty well, for example, vokite caliver. Out of context, it's nonsense. You might know a caliver is an early type of firearm if your a nerd like me, but volkite still means very little. Yet as part of simple sentence saying: "With a grunt, the space marine hefted his bulky volkite caliver atop the rockcrete rampart. He unleashed it's screaming fury upon the sieging heretics." You quickly understand it's a powerful weapon of some sort and that's enough. I find this works best with physical things rather than concepts. In my writing I use accurate terminology for armour and weapons but don't go out of my way to say exactly what they look like or how they fit together. Writing, "Lorcan's knee buckled awkwardly as a shot ricocheted off his steel polyenes," is enough for someone to piece together that a polyene is a piece of armour on the knee. Your reader isn't thick, they will get stuff from vibes and context your job is to provide just the right amount.

The third option is to never explain yourself as an omniscient author. I use a lot of Irish words in my writing as it features a fair bit of Irish mythology. However, what a Fomorian is, is never explained in any meaningful fashion (so far) as there's conflicting ideas about what it means to be one. Sometimes you'll have words that mean different things to different characters. If you go out of your way to define them from the author's perspective you can lose a lot of impact of the use of that particular word. It's a gamble to leave your reader in the dark as to a words meaning. Especially if it has a crazy spelling and so they get stuck pronouncing it mid-sentence. As a last option, you can never explain yourself. For real this time. Sometimes you won't want to define something even with surrounding context. Maybe meaning will be given later, maybe you want to leave it up for interpretation. This works well for curse words. E.g. "Dramhail take me!" Dramhail might never be explained. Is it hell? Is it a deity? A monster? Who knows? I knows. Whilst you can gleam that this is a curse of some variety this is not the same as defining a word through vibes/context. Dramhail could mean literally anything, it's merely being used as an expletive. It's perfectly fine to leave things open to interpretation like this. With all that said I will now also throw in a little advice for inventing words. Words have roots and a defined structure within a language. If you shove bridge and river together as bridver to create a word for a water way crossing over a pit or road for example. It doesn't really work, it sounds very forced and odd. Bryere, works better. In old english bridge comes from bryeg, river from ea. The modern words are already finished by "borrowing" from other languages. So to make a new word it can often be best to go back a step in time and then link the words together. I would also opt for changing spelling to "modernize" the new word. For example in bryere, ere takes the place of ea whilst still being phonetically similar. You can then add additional context into the word if necessary such as: bryere-way. "The canal barge sailed across the chasm on the bryere-way." "The canal barge sailed across the chasm on the bridver." You'll really hear the difference if you speak it aloud. As I hope is evident, one is clearly better than the other. In this little example we have even defined the new word with context within the sentence itself. Ultimately it all boils down to how explicit you feel you need to be. If in doubt, read the whole sentence aloud. You'll know if it needs something more.