#it's a good thing actually because i like my art more and more and i'm able to do better stuff and ofc i need more time to make better stuf

[laserbobcat]

as someone who's 33 and writing Narilamb and reading your comics, and also kinda interested in different kinds of art myself, it is so so nice seeing someone around my age who's into this fandom and making art. I feel so stupid sometimes that it's hard to even pick up a pencil or stylus - and I'm new new new to art like that so I need that practice time. seeing people like you making what you love and not giving a good goddamn is really inspiring. I'm sure you get lots of love for your comics but idk I just wanted to say thank you 💗 your cat and Leshy make so many people smile for so many different reasons :)

AW I do get a lot of kind feedback, but it's rare that I don't have the time/energy to answer. I really appreciate messages. I do read and see all of it, and every little tag matters. It's why I try my best to leave at least a little tag when I reblog art, and I'm not shy about sending messages to creators when I have, again, time/energy. People are shy, but we are all dorks, you realize it pretty quick when you start interacting more with the artists you follow. Warning surprise super LONG life dump bellow. I was like "Inspiring, are you sure? I'm also wreck, let me tell you just so there's no misunderstandings" and bam, novel.

About being 35 and making whatever I want: I do in fact feel self conscious about a lot of things, it's just that people on the internet don't really matter. That sounds harsh, but it's true. It's like people you meet on the street, or at bars, or at work: mostly polite positive interactions, some nice memories, a few of them will form solid bonds with you, the vast majority of them will be lost as soon as they're not in the same vicinity as you anymore. And it's normal, and it's ok. Humans aren't made to nurture too many relationships, even the social ones. So I personally enjoy fandoms in a detached sort of way that might feel like I don't give a damn. I think it's healthy tbh. But it's easy to appear calm and detached when you don't really have skin in the game. I really care about this blog it's my fun place, but it's completely detached from my actual life. I'm being an anonymous dork among dorks, it's nice. Some people are dumb sometimes and I don't care. What are they gonna do, sue me, lol. BUT LIKE. I almost deleted that blog once because and IRL person I know found it? I panicked SO HARD. Y'all nerds can look at my silly comics with cute cats kissing: not people in my real life. I'd rather be found drawing hardcore tentacle porn or sniffing paint. I'm not like, brave or anything, I'm hiding online XD

And honestly life is haaaaaaaard right now. For everyone lately. but for me personally: fanart is a nice hyperfocus to forget that life is a bitch. A distraction. I've always been "too sensitive" never could hold a job for too long, because people are awful in low level entry jobs, I never got one that I really like. I've been studying art and digital art, it's been hard, and it didn't lead me anywhere professionally for various reasons. I paid a private school and I am just finishing paying a big loan, just for the (average) skills I got being used to draw a cartoon bush with legs, kissing a cat, on a dusty website. It's so incredibly easy to feel like a failure. And being an artist SUCKS in this world. I'm not an artist by choice, god I would love to be smart enough to have done different studies, and have some kind of job that actually pays. But no, just did a professional profile, and all my affinities lead to creative work, I'm doomed to be good at things that are hell to make money off of when you don't have twice or thrice the energy a regular job needs. I just can't stop. Even when I take breaks, I always come back to creating things. A life's curse, truly.

I feel depressed now, so let's filter this shit through my "15 years of therapy" voice translator: -I'm not too sensitive, people telling me this in my life have all been notorious assholes. If we had more raw hearted people, daily life would be softer, and we wouldn't have wars. Us kind softies are vastly underappreciated. -I haven't been paying a school for nothing, I met my best friends there, learned a lot of skills and methodology that serve me today, and will serve me later in ways I can't just pinpoint yet without hindsight. I also have a lot of experience and help I can share with younger people and beginners. I'm a great art teacher. -I'm happy that I can't help being creative. So much people trail off into things they don't like, and realize later that they're utterly miserable. It's harsh, but not having the strength to pursue something you don't like is kind of a blessing. You avoid so much shit on your life path. it's not a life worth living. I've seen people with good paying careers give them up to get fully into a passion. -It's okay to draw a bush kissing a cat, who fucking cares what you do on your free time, the cops? It's ok to enjoy cute and silly things even when everything gets serious- especially when everything get serious. So much of us get our inner child crushed it's terribly sad. -The silliness is serious actually. You can get a powerful life lesson from deep books about philosophy and self-care and shit, but they're not rare everywhere else. The silliest movie, comic or fanfic can have a line or a character that will resonate enough with you to change your life. Like a tiny little piece that was missing in your personnal puzzle. I felt deeply moved by some comics online, so my own comics online 100% have the same value. What are "serious" media but hobbyists getting their art to a bigger professional scale. We're all telling stories around campfires and there's nothing stupid, shameful or weak about that. Egyptian gods were dramatic furries ffs.

I'm eternally stuck between "Yeah follow your heart and do art" and "It will lead you to hell though" because I feel like both are true. But do you really have a choice? What are the other options? I personally don't, so I just pick up the pen for a hobby, and started applying to ceramic courses for a career change. We'll see where it goes.

Well that was a lot, but I have some serious anxiety issues that make me over-explain stuff, and I'm talkative, and I'm on my period. Enjoy.

[wateririri]

Idk why you tagged only me but okay man

1. I like drawing and how I make art right now (artstyle, etc) -- I'm glad I'm being more creative with how I do things I suppose?? Idk if they're the most special but I'm happy with them.

2. I like that I'm alive right now even if my psyche tears itself apart and sews itself back together sometimes. I have to thank other people for that.

3. I love my friends!! They're partially the reason why I'm alive right now and also not a secluded loner lol, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for those lil guys and I owe them. I'd die for my friends yk if anything ever happened <3

4. I like how I write and create concepts even though I have no idea what goes on in my head sometimes while in the process of doing so. I like it when people compliment them! I'm still working on actually internalizing the praise though, but I still enjoy the validation I get because sometimes I just don't know if it's good or not.

5. I LOVE MY SON TARU LOOK AT HIM LOOK AT HIMMMMMMM MY BABU HES SO COOL AND PRETTY AND COOL AND SIGMA I'M SO ARGHHHH

Holds him gently

I don't have... Followers😭 @sunspurr boom👅✌️💥 I'm never posting again after this prolly

Firstly, when you get this, you have to answer with 5 things you like about yourself, publicly. Then, send this ask to 10 of your favourite followers (non-negotiable, positivity is cool).

sure! Thank you!

I'm very good at making things up, like languages, rhymes, songs, story's, a lot of creative things

When I stress I pick on the crust on my arms, constantly making it worse again :(

When I have bad mood days™, I can't listen to a lot of Musik bc it makes me on edge

I my personality is based a lot on my mood and other ppl around me, making me a bit childish at times

I'm vegetarian

@hauntedmoontimetravel, @serpentine-starlight

@littlejumpingjoan, @vanitythevantropist

@shortlikerdj @thelizardburt @unnamed-enby

@elizer-the-felon @frooglet @amyethereall

[midnightactual]

PSA: Respect is Minding Your Own Damn Business

Let's have a little chat about what basic respect actually is. Now, this isn't contemporarily political, so don't run away screaming into the night just yet. Stick with me. I know it's hard in the age of TikTok and doomscrolling, but stick with me. Tim Walz articulated a pretty good idea of respect not even a year ago:

[...] because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. And even if we wouldn't make those same choices for ourselves, we've got a golden rule: mind your own damn business.

This applies anywhere and everywhere in this world you happen to find yourself. I know, I know, it's the zeitgeist to look at this or that and say it's problematic, that it's triggering, that it's whatever. I'm not going to lecture you about the abject failure of purity culture to do anything besides divide people, make the perfect the enemy of the good, and give those who actually are the devout enemies of inclusivity and cosmopolitanism all the ammunition they could ever dream of. I'd be here all day if I was going to do that, and it still wouldn't be enough.

Instead, I want to ignore the forest for the dirt, and focus on some basic concepts that seem to have been forgotten both here and more generally in society:

Just because you like something doesn't make it good.

Just because you don't like something doesn't make it bad.

Liking good things doesn't make you a good person.

Liking bad things doesn't make you a bad person.

Being nice does not mean being kind.

Being kind does not mean being nice.

Someone engaging with problematic material does not mean they are problematic.

Someone not engaging with problematic material does not mean they aren't problematic.

Unless something actually presents a real, tangible physical, emotional, or psychological danger to others with intent to harm or exploit, it is not your business to point it out or "warn" others. It is also not your personal decision as to what constitutes real, tangible danger. You are not an authority. You do not have credentials. You are not held accountable by the public. You were not voted for by the public or appointed by representatives. It's not your business.

I could go on. I think you ought to begin to understand: respect is leaving people well enough alone if they're not hurtin' nobody, and "hurtin' nobody" doesn't include things like "they said a thing I disagree with" or "they said something that was true but it hurt my feelings". That's free speech. Now, I could have a whole entire diversion here about how free speech cannot survive including hate speech—and how hate speech can be much more than advocating for harm, and can include the normalization of hateful actors—but we're not talking about that because we're taking baby steps here.

It is okay for you (or someone else!) to like bad things, even openly, and doing so doesn't make you (or them!) a bad person. Now, hold on, I'm not defending pedophiles or rapists or racists or misogynists or whatever else here, let alone saying they have a right to promote their viewpoints. Don't get it twisted. Those are not simply bad things, and you know I'm not talking about those kinds of matters when I talk about it being okay to like bad things. You know exactly what I'm actually talking about.

You know what I'm talking about includes acknowledging those listed things actually do exist and happen, and that censoring ourselves about their existence or happening doesn't make them go away. You know that what I am advocating for includes being able to discuss the existence of such things (and much more) in a mature, adult way, that is respectful and sophisticated, especially within art. I am not talking about fetishizing it, glorifying it, or whatever else.

You know that in an age where people are self-censoring and saying "unalived" instead of "killed" and "unalived themselves" instead of "committed suicide", and it's considered "cringe", that all this has gone too far. You know that in an age of book bans and government censorship, all this has gone too far and been weaponized by the worst people you know of.

So, let's do something about it. But first, let's go over some examples, because this has been highly theoretical so far.

A piece of fiction that includes infidelity as part of its structure is not in fact promoting or glamorizing or normalizing infidelity. Even if it was, with characters openly saying things like, "Infidelity is amazing!" protesting that particular piece of fiction would not change the rate of infidelity in the real world. To complain about the media would, in fact, be avoidant of the issue—pretending one is doing something while actually doing nothing. This is usually called "ragebait" these days.

I think guns are fascinating machines, even if they are only machines made to put holes in things (usually people). I sometimes watch videos about guns. I sometimes talk about guns. I sometimes think about guns. I have never owned a gun in my life. I have never even handled a real gun—the closest I've gotten was an airsoft M4. Do you see the separation between thinking about a subject, engaging with a subject, supporting a subject, promoting a subject, and actively utilizing a subject? Even someone who owns guns and promotes gun ownership is probably not regularly shooting people with them.

My main muse, Yoruichi, is the tropenamer for the TVTropes entry "Ambiguously Brown". She's right there on the page. I have seen people in the wild make statements like, "If you think Yoruichi is brown and not black, you're a racist." We could argue back and forth all day on her ethnicity, but the truth is it doesn't matter. If it mattered it would've been stated. Some possibilities are perhaps more likely than others, but she can be whatever you want to imagine her to be. Likewise, some people think she was in the form of a cat for a century; some dubiously canon sources promote that idea, and some people run with it. I'm not one of them. I've stated my opposition to that take here, in my own personal space, but do you know what I've never done? Gone and jumped down the throat of someone who took up and propagated that idea with a public callout wherein I trash them as a racist and a misogynist who actually secretly hates Yoruichi and wants to tear her down and dehumanize her. I haven't done that because that would be insane to do in like 99.99% of cases, and the remaining 0.01% would almost certainly be "ragebait".

Now that I'm finally talking about muses, let's really dial in on roleplaying.

I don't go police what other people do with Yoruichi because even if I do style myself an expert on her (let's be real: the expert on her) I don't have any authority to tell other people what to think about her. I can present my ideas and other people can take them or leave them, but that's on them, not on me. It's not my business to tell others what to think, how, why, when, where, or to whom. It's only my business to state my opinion in my space. My opinion might be informed by facts and evidence, or it might simply be my opinion. My opinion might be as close to factually correct as could be, or it might be as far away as could be—and even if I had all the facts on my side, roleplaying is a transformative activity where people can do what they want.

It would be wrong of me to go out and hit other people with my opinions like a cudgel. It would also be equally wrong of other people to come here and attack me for my opinions. This is why being a hater or an anti is stupid: content doesn't just flash into your mind unbidden. You usually have to go out and look for it, and even if it comes to you, you have to choose to look at it or read it, and then you almost always have the option to block, unfollow, say you don't want to see the post, or simply exercise some self-control and choose to ignore it.

The only time you reasonably ought to say something if you see content you don't care to see is if something has been said which is factually untrue, and even then you're not Snopes: it's not your job to be public fact-checker. In the case of roleplaying, this occurring is even less likely.

So, your opinions! It's okay if you don't like something! You can make your dislike known in your space. You should, in fact. It's your responsibility to establish your boundaries and to curate the content that you see. That's entirely on you. Whatever you have to do to make your space comfortable for you? Go right ahead! No one can complain.

The moment you step outside your space though, all bets are off. If you put one toe over the threshold in order to tell someone else to not make certain kinds of content, not do certain things, not talk about certain things? You're in the wrong. You're the problematic one. You're the bad guy—yes, the bad guy—because what you are trying to do is censor other people for the sake of your own comfort.

What gives you the right? What could ever give you the right? Nothing. You're not entitled to be the Thoughtpolice for any reason whatsoever, unless as long-ago specified there is some real, tangible danger occurring.

When you act like you're the one who gets to decide what is and isn't acceptable for people to put forward, you're fundamentally being a disrespectful asshole. You're inherently acting like you're the adult, and the stupid children over there need to be yelled at to stop doing whatever—or else.

When this happens in real life, we call it "being a Karen". Well, don't be a Karen here either. Nobody wants it. If you can't articulate a real, tangible danger, keep your mouth shut and stay in your lane, because that's the fundamental basis of respect. You know as much too, which is why everybody and their mother writes some variant on "muse does not equal mun" in their rules.

If you can't adhere to that most basic definition of respect, you don't belong here.

[croquettish]

First of all, really love your meta! Especially your takes on Hans and the depth with which you analyze the game's dialogue. But did I miss something, how is Sam also queer? Are there any signs in the story? I know about the rings (which seem to be a case of the reused assets to me), but is there anything else?

Thank you so much!! ��

If you read between the lines, there are a lot of hints! Sam is incredibly protective of John to the point of endangering those around him (Henry nearly killed his two best men). Even with all the reassurances in the world, he only agrees to Henry's request to see John under the condition that he go there unarmed and blindfolded. And even after John has cleared Henry, Sam still stays and drinks with them. There likewise seems to be a tremendous amount of trust between him and John that I would argue wouldn't necessarily be there (or at least not in as intense a form as it is) if there weren't more there.

If you listen in on the dialogue while Henry is blindfolded (it's quiet!), you'll hear John speaking to others there. His tone is surprisingly firm for someone who could very well just be a "guest" being protected, never mind the part where he's talking about finding intel on whether someone has male or female lovers. The people there treat him with nothing but respect and will even take orders from him. And when the progrom happens, John is allowed to come along. You could argue that they could use all the help they could get, but recall that Hans' aid was turned down! John was trusted to help save his mother and to extract important documents.

All of this wouldn't be unusual for a long of characters, mind you, but Sam isn't a very trusting person. He's distrusting by nature, and he has good reason to be! His people have been persecuted since time immemorial and they very much continue to be in 1403. We learn that Sam just took John in without question, but even that feels like a statement. You'll recall that I've previously talked about the commonalities between medieval Jews and sodomites, both of whom were (along with others) viewed as inherently heretical. Both are marginalized groups that could only exist openly in marginalized spaces, spaces situated outside of the expected societal "norm" where being Othered is a given. John enters such a space willingly and looking for protection, being as openly fruity as he is. Sam meets this vulnerability and takes him in without question.

If we consider that the storytelling in KCD2 is done with intent (and there wouldn't be this much meta for me to write about if it hadn't been), then we can also consider that the parallel here is intentional and meant to reflect Hansry. Here we have two people in a marginalized space, one of whom is a noble who willingly entered that space after finding himself in a place of vulnerability. The peasant in question, well-acquainted with both vulnerability and marginalization, opened his arms to him.

Actually, while my mind is whirring, let's take this a step further. Because I'm still obsessed with the jamuel art drawn by @lookitsstevie, let's assume that while Sam takes him in, he still distances himself and keeps himself away from John for a while before they actually get together (the yearning!!!). That would so neatly parallel both Hans' attempts at pushing Henry away (yeah I've totally got this not at all fake girlfriend also named Karolina in Bohunowitz that I totally slept with don't you loooove sleeping with women Henry I can't wait until we get trashed again!!) and then Henry pushing Hans away later as well. That one is more of a stretch, but you get me.

Finally, the rings. I hear what you're saying about reused assets, but there's a lot of counterpoints to all of this that should be taken into consideration:

Reused assets are definitely a thing, but mostly for minor NPCs, not major characters. Consider how surprised everyone was by the (very effective!) fakeout with Captain Thomas and his unique character model.

Those rings have Sam's name on them. I don't think there would be a reason for random NPCs to wear rings like that.

The sartorial style choices by the major characters in this game were clearly meticulously considered and decided on on a case-by-case basis where everyone is unique. No one else is dressed in the dapper way that John is, for instance!

The rings were not there from the start. They were added in with Patch 1.3.1 with intent.

We all did collectively consider that they added the rings in error and were pleasantly surprised when Patch 1.3.2 didn't take them away. As we know, Warhorse does keep its finger on the pulse of what the fandom is saying, and there's no way that the collective celebration over the canonization of Jamuel would have gone unheard by them. Even if John's ring was initially added in error, this means they were left there with intent.

One could say that Sam gave John a ring with his name on it (Did he... did he just have that casually lying around? Why would anyone own two rings with their name on it, it's not like he needs a spare, this seems very odd if not done with intent) to grant John some element of protection within the Jewish quarter, a sign that John is under Sam's protection, but it ends up coming off almost as a sign of ownership more than anything else, like "you touch him and you deal with me," which in and of itself feels tremendously gay. Moreover, we know that John doesn't really leave the tavern to begin with. Raborsch is a rare exception where he's able to go out, and even there he's accompanied by John!!

All in all, I'd say you'd struggle to argue that this ship isn't canon, which of course would automatically canonize Sam as queer as well.

[alllgator-blood]

I need to ask, because of it I CAN'T SLEEP AT NIGHT.

How do you make, not only long comics, but also VERY FAST. Like- I read one part that has 2/3 like pictures and then next day are again 2 or 3 and I'm like grabing my head and just screaming HOW??? (Also these comics are very yummy and I feel like getting stabbed after each one but in a good way cuz I like being stabbed (Kallamar got a bit too relatable in that one comic 💔))

THAT'S REALLY IMPRESSIVE AND ALSO SHOCKING FOR ME. Like- what is your secret??? 🤨🤨🤨

HAHAHA OH GOD I DID NOT THINK I WAS VERY FAST BUT- I'll try to do a list of tips I thought of off the top of my head, in case any of these help you or anyone else??? I try to not gatekeep anything I do because I think the world needs more comics honestly, so I tend to ramble a lot when giving advice.

click the read more to unleash many paragraphs of tips:

Okay these tips aren't 100% about being fast but also being efficient/keeping a good pace, I hope that's okay!

1: Originally the first tip was "draw every day even if only a little bit, so you don't lose steam" but I'm sure everyone has said that at some point. So I'll just say I Pavlov myself into drawing better by having little "rituals". Liiike...the only time I have energy drinks is when I draw. Or the only time I light candles is when I draw. I have specific songs I put on when I START drawing to get me into the Zone. I find that when certain circumstances are met, it helps the time fly by 'cause I stay focused enough to keep a steady pace. After a while of doing those things when you start drawing for the day, it tricks the brain into going "oh shit, we're drawing now? aight bet" and then you just. Go

2: SETTING DEADLINES FOR SURE HELPS. It's definitely nice hearing from people that there's no Real Pressure on me when I post comics...for free...of characters I have no obligation to draw...just for the enjoyment of doing it. BUT I work best when I have a fire lit under my ass, so I set deadlines like "I need to post this on saturday/sunday at noon so the algorithm will actually let people read this comic". I usually slip those into a description so it's a very casual announcement and I feel okay with postponing it if necessary, rather than making a text post like "NEW COMIC SATURDAY!!1" and then feeling terrible if I can't finish it in time. Lmao

3: I just fuckin GO when I make a draft. Like for this new comic I'm working on, I just sat down and started drawing like the world was gonna end; there's a lot of panels with very off model characters/wonky anatomy because I just wanted to sketch enough for future me to get the idea. I try not to look back on my progress for any reason besides continuity, because then I see how long the comic's getting and I sweat bullets. Literally so many comics have been ditched because I got spooked thinking about how hard it'd be to finish them. So if you just shut your brain off and don't think about the technicalities of it, just keeping mind the story you want to tell- it's SO much easier to complete. Breaking comics into parts is ABSOLUTELY necessary for completion :')

4: Maybe the most important piece of advice I learned from a published comic artist, is that people are gonna look at your comic panels for an average of like 10-20 seconds and will move on to the next. You don't wanna spend hours on a single panel that basically only exists to convey a tiny bit of the plot. So I like to draw just *enough* to convey the general environment/mood, but not feel obliged to put in a million little extra details. I really hate doing backgrounds but my art, to me, feels incomplete without them. So I'll add like PART of a room or a general Nature area just to say hey, this takes place in the temple/outside/whatever! As long as your story is engaging and the pacing is comfortable, I don't think people will mind (or notice) if you take shortcuts.

5: I listen to specific things to help maintain a good speed while not being distracting or understimulating. During the sketch stage, I usually have something slow/instrumental going so I can focus on the little movie that plays in my head and draw what I feel like a scene would look like. It also helps not distract me from what they're saying. For tasks like lining/coming up with color schemes/reworking dialogue, I have something more stimulating playing but not like distracting, so a video essay I've already watched or fast music I already heard a lot of times. THEN for the absolute fucking slog that is the coloring stage, I blast shitty breakcore or put on an actually interesting video so I can zone out while I click my mouse ten billion times to fill in all the colors >:)

Basically, comics are funny to me because it's like a frantic fucking race to the finish line before your motivation completely abandons you. There's been a few comics where I was ABSOLUTELY sick of even looking at them, I think it was specifically "in little ways, everything stays" where the comic itself is sweet and inoffensive but OMFG. I WAS SO TIRED OF DRAWING GRASS AND REWORKING DIALOGUE. KALLAMAR AND LESHY JUST HUG IT OUT ALREADY SO I CAN STOP DRAWING.

This post probably reads like "I HATE COMICS!! I HALF ASS THEM TO GET THROUGH!!" but I really do love making them and it's kinda the only thing I like doing nowadays, so the other aspect of why I get them done fast comparatively is just that it's what I spend all my free time doing. Some comics take weeks of me working on them daily to finish them, because working on them is my main coping skill rn so it always feels worth doing. I know it can't last forever so I try to just get as many stories as I can out before my circumstances change! Maybe don't be motivated by fear of the future though. Just do these because it's fun and people love reading your comics :') I KNOW I DO

In any case- here are the lines for the beginning of the new comic, I KNOW you love the funny squid so here's mine as a kid flexing on narinder for being able to summon his crown weapon:

[pikanchidouble-blog]

Thanks for all of the analysis! I wanted to ask you if you had seen Jake’s most recent Instagram stories. If so, I believe you’ll get a tip towards it being Jake, if you look in the background, at the art. The style and frame match the style and frame of art in Nicola’s photo. As much as my Lukola heart wishes our mystery man was Luke, I think it’s actually Jake. The ear actually matches his perfectly, if his head is at and angle, and while the hands did throw me, Jake tends to gesture with a thumbs up at the camera, while Luke tends to wave at the camera. I could be wrong, but those art pieces really have me leaning towards it being Jake. And hey, if he makes Nic as happy as we read her to be in her photo, if we’re her fan, we should be happy for her. My personal opinion, obviously.

Also, since you have a good eye, what in the world is on the bed behind Nicola in her photo? It doesn’t seem to be a suitcase, and I can’t come up with any ideas that match what I’m seeing. It is bugging me. If you figure it out, I’d love to know!

Hi Anon. I totally respect your opinion if you think it is JD. Like I always say, no judgment at all. Even if I tried to explain why I personally feel it is Luke, it probably wouldn’t change much, becos tbh, most of my conclusions are also based on my own intuition and perspective, just like yours are. And who knows, I could be wrong about this whole analysis too. We are all just trying to make sense of what we see. 😊

As for the things on the bed. I did my due diligence and research on the hotel that is in Nic's selfie so i can know what was the original setup for the bed. (Yes, i know what hotel it is. Yes, it is the same hotel from JD's selfie. No, i'm not going to say where it is. Lastly, it doesnt even matter because i'm still firm with my opinion on who it is and i feel all of this is just to make the narrative believable.)

So according to the hotel pictures, the original setup is 4 down pillows with 2 teal accent pillows as above.

So i went to mirror, colourize the selfie pic, brighten and sharpen it through ChatGPT and this is what I got.

For me, referencing with the hotel setup for the bed, i can see two white pillows and the teal accent pillow. The one which many are confuse whether its a bed room slipper, imo it might be a personal item i.e. clothing, towel, bag etc. 🤷‍♀️ To me its not a bed room slipper because they are usually white and more flat (unless they have lugged one from home). And it looks like there are 2 items there instead of one. So just based on my observation only, there's 2 white down pillow, the teal accent pillow and 2 personal items, either folded clothes, bunched up clothes, a tote bag?

Like in all my analysis, it is up to your own personal interpretation. 😊

[tispyyyy]

Why do you like this if so much?

In my case it's because I love court/palace intrigue, combining it with interactive fiction seized all my attention as soon as I read the plot summary. And the added point of trying to uncover who's trying to frame the MC's family? I was sold.

The demo set the beginning rather well imo! The customization choices are *chef kiss*. In regards to the Han family:

» it's obvious Father is reluctant to send MC to the harem (I get the impression it's not a path he would've chosen for them if they weren't in literal danger of being accused of treason).

» after reading about her in the relationship page I'm inclined to say Stepmom means well but the family safety and reputation has a priority above all else.

» Seung-ah ♥︎♥︎♥︎ goodness, I respect her stoicism but my heart aches recalling what's written about her. First her mom elopes (or so everyone believes), leaving her and MC behind to face the scandal and whatever labels the others might impose on them, then their father is framed and their family is in danger unless they prove their loyalty by sending someone to be basically a hostage of the court—a role that falls on her younger sibling. It can't be easy for her, at all.

» If anything happened to the twins my MC would kill everyone in the room and then herself. ← honest reaction as soon as I met them. Da-yeon is a little spitfire and has never done anything wrong in her life, and Joon-seo is my baby boy baby, my MC has the urge to wrap him in a blanket and bring the best art utensils to him.

» Last but not least, Mother... If there are hidden motives besides elopement, it's worth checking on it. My MC has a mixed opinion on her, so... Yeah.

Some questions I'm interested in:

» how old are Seung-ah, MC and the twins?

» how will romance other ROs beside the Emperor work?

Finally, a few things to note: in the relationship stats page the labels for the twins are switched. Also, you might not be received many asks as you have the ''allow anon asks'' switched off (unless you intend to wait to switch it on? If so I understand).

All of this rambling to say I loved loved LOVED the if ♥︎ thank you for posting it again!

If it weren't for the fact that his entire family could die because of the accusations, Han Seok would have very much preferred to solve the issue on his own without getting any of his children involved.

Han Ji is a very complicated character, and I can't wait for you guys to see why I said so.

Seung is less Stoic and more melancholic... idk if you get what I mean. She's more or less mostly just sad. Seung is definitely a bit guilty that it is her younger sibling that has to go through this and not her. I don't know if I mentioned this is the story, but she is betrothed.

As for the twins, don't get too attached.

Your MC might hate Hye-won very soon.

As for your questions: Seung is 22

MC is 19 (or 18, I'm kinda indecisive)

The twins are 14/15

And the romance:

MC is less of a concubine and more of a glorified hostage. The Emperor doesn't really gaf if MC romances someone else as long as they don't cause a scandal or actually commit treason.

[abandoned-quiche]

I LOVE ALL OF THESE CHARACTERS BTW. I DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOUR HATE FOR THEM ON MY POST

[egophiliac]

Final manifestations for Book 7?

I'm trying REALLY hard not to build up any solid expectations, because I wanna go in ~fresh~! they're already so far away from anything I thought would happen (not in a bad way, I'm just accepting that I'm on Miss Yana's Wild Ride at this point and we're seeing this thing through 'til the end, by gum). so it's nothing too major, but:

they've been handing new crying expressions out like candy lately, I want to see some delicious Malleus tears.

honestly I want everyone to cry buckets. their tears sustain me. the more Silver angst specifically I get the happier I am.

SILVER!!!! 👏 VANROUGE!!!! 👏

just let him have this. the poor boy's been through so much. let him have his big "I'm proud of you, son" moment with Lilia.

I'm 100% expecting Grim's arc (and probably whatever's going on with Crowley) to be its own episode, but a nice hook to leave us hanging on would be good!

a nice hook though, please, I don't think I can take another "Grim is attacking us! now wait eight months to find out what happens :)" cliffhanger...

some Meleanor? as a treat? just a little bit, a tiny quick flashback or something, please Twst I just, I just want to see her again. let her have a little ghost cameo like Dawnathan Knight got. Lilia and his kids are all having their big group hug or whatever and she can gently fade in to be all like

(turning asks off until I'm done playing, SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE Y'ALL)

[undomesticated-animal]

Some tags from @hyenaboycunt, @darethebrave, and @seimsisk that really cut to the quick of what I was trying to do here.

Tag Set #1

#absolutely love this piece#it took a moment for me to properly catch on since i dont think ive encountered written spanglish before#relevant linguistic background for me:#monolingual english speaker‚ 3 years of latin in HS‚ & familiar with pronunciation rules for spanish#plus a few friends/acquaintances who've spoken spanglish around me (but they're not consistently part of my life)#so i did the monolingual thing and focused on the obviously english paragraphs first#but once i grokked what i was looking at i started over#when reading English i dont really have an internal voice. i usually know the words and what they mean#(i sometimes completely miss out on written puns because of this‚ funny enough)#anyway. i started over. and i know the pronunciation rules but i dont have much experience reading spanish.#so i had to sound out a lot of it (internally) while i was reading.#and i was surprised by how much i understood when i could “hear” the words#even if i absolutely couldn't translate them.#and i did have to look to the english paragraphs for help of course‚ but less often than i expected#it's funny too that i was reminded of two people in my life who i hear speak like this. one is a friend's mother and i can HEAR the way#the way she says “mijo” to her son (my friend)#the other is a family friend I haven't thought of in YEARS but this writing has me hearing her voice and seeing her mannerisms so clearly.#I'm enamored with how actually thinking about the *sounds* both 1) made this exponentially more comprehensible to me#and 2) brought to mind the voices of family friends speaking to their children#it feels so very much like *home*#not my specific home. but it's something I've personally only heard spoken in places that *feel* like home.#really wonderful writing here Domi.#there's more thoughts churning but ironically words fail me. and tragically i dont have any other languages i can try

Tag Set #2

#i haven’t used my three years of high school spanish in quite a while#but what a linguistically fun reading challenge!#also a very good poem OP thank you for sharing#it was neat to catch the little differences between the paragraphs#art#poetry

Tag Set #3

#this sentence applies to all languages I think#everyone go read op's tags please#I do not speak Spanish but I can read it more of less fluently because I'm Brazilian and it just works like that#reading the spanglish versions felt so good#and I related to so much of it even if my circumstances are completely different#I have been through the experience of trying to date in English and it was such a mess#how to explain to a gringo the meaning of carinho? carente?

I had a really public meltdown a few months back because something happened during a date that made me realize I had slowly let my entire love life happen in English. And while I didn't [and still don't] feel like the answer is to demand that my partners learn Spanish in order to talk with me, I did realize that part of why I felt so thoroughly alienated from affection in my relationships is because it is in Spanish and Spanglish that I feel verbal care and affection. English feels....sterile and professional. Which is maybe a reasonable outcome of a world where "home" welcomes my polyglot behavior and "the rest of the world" gets irritated with me for requiring extra work of them to communicate.

It somehow never seems to occur to people that the work they dislike having to do for me will have to get done regardless, and what they are objecting to is literally my attempt to not carry and perform all of that work alone and unsupported in relationships that are meaningful to me.

That's a dynamic that's hard to vocalize to others unless they already internally recognize the experience and can pick up on it.

My partners still don't speak Spanish. But these days I do. Almost universally in my relationships, Spanish and Spanglish are verbalized markers of my feelings of intimacy, care, and trust in another. I use more over time as I become comfortable, I rely almost exclusively on common MexíCalí pet names and diminutives for partners, and the more relaxed/less rigidly self-managed I am, the more likely I am to simply reach for Spanglish first and foremost.

When I wrote this, I wrote the English paragraphs first. It took a little while, but it was doable because I use English A LOT in my professional and personal life obviously. Next I wrote the Spanish. This was harder. I have few people to keep up with, so I was anxious about mixing up my spelling, my grammar, my vowel modifiers, etc. I did a lot more checking and rechecking of my work to ensure that I was not misremembering my conjugations and grammatical structures.

I wrote the Spanglish last. I wrote it in under five minutes. I wrote it without once feeling the need to confirm my grammar or vocab. I wrote it and immediately felt it conveyed my tone and intention far better than either monolingual version. It was the closest thing I've ever felt to not having to "translate" my thoughts for someone else, and I spent a little time after just quietly having a cry about reaching my 30s before ever letting myself write the way I think, before letting myself trust my partners and loved ones with this part of me that is so integral to how it feels to be at home with another person.

I actually considered recording myself speaking the poem aloud because I agree with @hyenaboycunt that the way I write is meant to be read aloud, not read in one's mind, and there were several times reading it to myself that I realized reading it would lose something too. Several words where my accent and pronunciation was not the same as the language of the word itself, or where the blending went further than simply mixing and matching words within a sentence. I still might take a recording, we'll see. I really do think it's the next logical place for this art piece to go. But I also know that speaking is so raw and vulnerable to me, and while I would typically just have someone else do the recording, this is a circumstance where that wouldn't solve the issue at all. It has to be me. And ironically, that's what may end up limiting me from being able to do it. Yet again, my relationship with language being complicated creates barriers to communication that even *I* can barely recognize without real intentional thought. How can I expect others to see how much I do to be understood when I can barely admit it to myself?

En íngles, y otra vez in Spanish

No sé to describe mi relationship con mi lingua. Complicado, I suppose. No sé qué the words that will come en mi mente primary, y sometimes es difícil traducir between las idiomas. Creo que most people figure translation ser word-for-word, pero no es menos un pequeño here and there. Sometimes I look for las palabras exactamente por way too long y sientame abrumado. People act like eres estúpido if words are hard for you. Y adorame cual ser talking down a mi en bed, pero tiempo otros I get so angry when people decide no es importante para mi tiene tiempo enough communicarse. I don’t know how to describe my relationship with language. Complicated, I suppose. I never know which words will come to me first, and sometimes it’s hard to translate between languages. I think people expect translation to be word by word, but it so rarely is. Sometimes I search for the correct replacement word for way too long and it makes me feel so overwhelmed. People treat you like you’re stupid if you struggle with your words. And I like to be talked down to in bed, but the rest of the time it makes me so angry when people decide it’s not important for me to have the time to communicate properly. No sé cómo expressar mi social relación con la idioma. Quizás complicado. Nunca sé qué palabras vendrán primero a mi mente y, a veces, es difícil traducir entre los languajes. Creo que la mayoria de la gente se figurarán que la traducción sea palabra por palabra, pero raramente está. A veces trato de encontrar la palabra exacta durante demasiado tiempo y me poniendo abrumado. La gente actúa como si fueras estúpido si las palabras están costarían. Y adoro que me traten con condescendencia en la cama, pero si no me airado mucho cuando la gente decide que no es importante para mí tener tiempo para comunicarme. I wonder often how it feels hablar o necesitar solamente una idioma, y inglés at that. ¿Reconocéis how much nuestro uso de language changes how nos entendemos y our place aquí en es? I often wonder how it feels to only use or need one language, and English at that. Do people realize how much our language changes how we understand the world, our place in it? Me pregunto con frecuencia qué se siente hablar o necesitar solo una idioma, y ​ lo que es más, inglés. ¿Reconocéis todos de lo mucho que la idioma cambia nuestra comprensión del otros y nuestras relaciones sociales? La idioma es all about relationships. La forma de la palabra implies más y mucho about la context sociales en el que it’s spoken. Crecí con myriad trozos de significado in each sentence spoken. English feels desolado en momentos. ¿Cómo se dice mijita como en una chica que es carnal para mi con el tono solamente? En inglés, estan mucho emphasis en the meaning of body language and I imagine los otros rarely notice this. Maybe por eso I have such a bad time entender mi role para las vidas de mis quieridos. Menos Mamá, lo no tengo con que hablar Spanish. Pero maybe menos los diminutivos y verbalizacion de relationships sociales en nuestro day to day conversacion, no créo sé how to fill la falta. Quizás part of el problema conmigo y my understanding of non-verbal communicación, and I figure it out claro que si, pero I forget how often no es necesito hacer que.

Spanish is all about relationships. The shape of a word implies so much about the social context in which the word is being used to communicate. I grew up with so many layers of meaning in every sentence spoken. English feels almost desolate sometimes. How do you convey that you are calling someone baby girl with the love you have for family with only tone? There is so much weight put on non-verbal communication in English that I think people rarely notice. Maybe that’s why I have so much trouble understanding my role in the lives of my loved ones. Aside from my mother, no one I love speaks Spanish well enough to use it with me. But maybe without those little suffixes and verbalization of social relationships in our day to day conversation, I don’t know how to fill in the gaps left behind. Maybe some of the conflict in how others speak and how I hear their words is the absence. I’ve never been good at reading body language, and I surely figure it out in Spanish too, but I forget sometimes how many little spaces it isn’t necessary in my mother tongue. La idioma del espanol es una cuestión de relaciones. La forma de una palabra expresarse mucho del contexto social en el que se habla la palabra. Crecí con tantas trozos de significado en cada oraciónes hablado. La idioma del inglés es desolado por momentos. ¿Cómo se dice mijita como en una chica que es carnal para mi con el tono solamente? En inglés se pone mucho énfasis en el significado que expresa el cuerpo y imagino que los otros ven es raremente. Quizás por eso me resulta difícil comprender mi ubicación social en las vidas de mis queridos. Menos mi madre, nul de mis quieridos habla español con sultura para usarlo conmigo. Pero sin esos diminutivos y la charla sobre relaciones sociales en nuestras expresiones, no sé cómo llenar la falta. quizás un componente del problemo en cómo entiendo a los demás es la falta de contexto. Soy malo para interpretar el expressiones corporal, y también lo entiendo en español, claro que si, pero olvido que con frecuencia no es necesario en mi lengua materna. Me pregunta how it is por la gente del otra cara. ¿How is it to see how much más acepción there is anytime una palabra cambia en español? ¿What do you notice changing when leé lo que está escrito aquí? I wonder what that is like for people on the other side of the coin. How does it feel to realize how many componants of a single word can be changed in Spanish to convey meaning? What do you see change when you try to navigate my language? What was it like to read this post? Me pregunto cómo será eso para la gente del otro cara. ¿Cómo es ver los muchos pequeños cambios en una palabra que tienen significado? ¿Qué ves cuando intentas interpretar mi idioma? ¿Cómo fue leer lo esto obra? Some say a mi está buenísima that I lapse en el español during sex. Some react poorly when I cambio en medio idiomas. Otros no tienen any reaction at all. No creó sé what I want people entender para mi behavior. Yo sé quiero to be loved en mi context. I know this makes la spoken idioma un dificíl way para mi aceptar love. I wonder how entendeís conmigo. Sometimes people tell me it’s hot that I lapse into Spanish during sex. Sometimes people react with visible discomfort whenever I move between languages. Others don’t have any reaction at all. I don’t know how to convey to someone what meaning I want them to take from this behavior. I know that I want to be loved in my own context. I know that I cannot be loved in a context others lack. I know this makes language a difficult form of love for me to accept. I wonder how others would come to understand that about me.

Algunas personas me dicen que está buenísima que hablo español cuando folo. Algunos reaccionan en contra de con desasosiego cuando cambio en medio idiomas. Otros no tienen ninguna reacción. No sé cómo decir qué espero que interpreten de esta acción. Quiero ser quierido en mi propio contexto. Sé que no puedo ser quierido en un contexto de lo cual otros es falta. Es difícil para mí aceptar la idioma hablado como una forma de cariño porque que esto verdad. Me pregunto cómo los otros entienden eso de mí.

[lyxchen]

Okay so I said I was drawing a sangihun kiss and that I would hopefully finish and post it tonight. Well I didn't finish it and I also got distracted and started drawing another sangihun thing and I love the sketch so much that as an apology y'all are getting that now. But hey, I said I was gonna post a sangihun kiss tonight and technically I kinda did <3

Anyways, here it is:

Also the legs and feet at the bottom left are part of what I originally wanted to finish tonight :>

[gracebriarwoodwrites]

I write fragile on a dozen boxes salvaged from recycling I forgot to take out before I knew I was moving and my hand shakes even more each time. The lines bleed off the box corners and into me. I'm fragile, you see.

[son-of-avraham]

Some people at my shul are studying lashon hara so it's very funny to hear them talk and stop themselves by saying, "that's lashon hara 😦" and they'll literally just stop talking 😭😭😭

[uncanny-tranny]

If somebody in your life offers to knit or crochet or, really, create anything for you, please be an active participant in the creation of the piece they are making. I adore making and gifting things, but nothing bums me out quicker than a person who passively just goes "okay," to my ideas about what I'm making them - it can send the message that they won't like it, or that they don't care, even if they're happy about my offering. The back-and-forth feedback is a great way to make sure that you are being gifted something that was truly worth the time, effort, expertise, and money that will inevitably go into the gift!

I know it's really hard to be an active participant, believe me, I'm an anxious ball of horror, but it will only do good for both parties to interact in this situation. It is a big deal to be offered a hand-crafted gift, but it's also something we want you to love and use, and that can only happen if you tell us what would make you fall in love with what we create.

[ai-the-broccoli]

enemies to lovers / but you'll never own my heart

@luzon-dove happy birthday, Quinn!! As a present, I decided to draw a piece fanart of your "blood in the walls of the yagami house" AU fic series, since I found it very well-written and full of super interesting ideas and concepts. I hope you like it!

[burningcheese-merchant]

Alrighty. I hate saying this, but. I'm probably going to delete the ship discourse asks in my inbox. Too many in there now and my mind is too clear to want to answer them

I think we've all been harsh with each other recently. Shouldn't have had to sleep on that, shouldn't have taken me longer than a few minutes to realize that, but idk. I went to bed last night and woke up this morning and... remembered how old I am and that I have better things to care about lol. But seriously, this recent update has really gotten to people's heads, mine included unfortunately, so I think we all need to take a step back and reevaluate ourselves

To try to explain (not excuse) myself personally. I, my friends and acquaintances, and our little fan community have gotten so much harassment for so long that now that the story is sort of tipping in our favor, I felt... vindicated. TOO vindicated this time around lol. For years and years now we have all been viciously mocked, shunned, called misogynists, called abuse apologists, we've been told to kill ourselves, we've been told bad things should happen to our loved ones. I couldn't help but feel smug when episodes 7 and 8 dropped, and then episodes 9 and 10 pushed me into being legitimately petty and mean. Like, all of this harassment was already pointless, now it's even more pointless because BxA is canon. Sore winner, "they hated Jesus because he told the truth" type shit lol

But... That's dumb. All of this is dumb. They're just video game characters. I'm an adult with adult responsibilities lol. None of this is worth getting bent out of shape about, on any side. Nothing wrong with respectful conversation and debate, but it hasn't really been that this time around. It's been gloating. Teabagging. And that's not cool. So I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry if I've upset anyone with anything I've said. I'm happy about Eternalberry but I've gotten TOO happy haha. I've regained mental clarity and thus the realization that I've started becoming part of the problem. I'm genuinely sorry for that. I want to go back to regular dork levels. Being spiteful and petty sucks, even if it's "justified"

Since I feel bad for leaving those asks awaiting deletion, A) mea culpa mea maxima culpa to those who sent them, nothing against any of you I just want to put the discourse to rest, and B) they all more or less say the same things so I'll just go ahead and bullet point my responses:

TikTok is perhaps the worst social media app ever created, it is an actual blight on society to almost biblical proportions, you are a fool if you listen to anything anyone has to say on there, your first mistake was going there in the first place, Tiktok Delenda Est

Twitter is definitely the worst social media app ever created, it is a blight on society that John meant to record in the Book of Revelation but didn't know how to describe it properly because the internet didn't exist 2000-ish years ago, you are a fool if you listen to anything anyone has to say on there, your first mistake was going there in the first place, Twitter Delenda Est, let's all point and laugh at the Trump-Musk divorce instead

Hero/villain ships are as old as human civilization and fandom nerds today have gotten really uptight about them, it's dumb and honestly really bizarre considering how prevalent it is in almost every piece of media, if someone doesn't like the trope that's perfectly fine it's not for everyone it does get pretty dark but a lot of people seem to put on gestapo uniforms when they're brought up now and it's a waste of time and energy. No one is holding a gun to your heads you guys, you don't need to do it to anyone yourselves

It's nice that I've apparently managed to convince some people to be more open-minded about BxA and hero/villain shipping as a whole, welcome to the club glad to have you, I'm sorry you've had to see some of us do our "obnoxious clown" routine recently, don't worry I'm washing my makeup off rn

I'm disappointed but unsurprised that BxA fans have been getting death threats in places, unfortunately that's how it's always been and it will continue to be that way even if all 5 pairs marry and have sex onscreen. No amount of canonizing in the narrative will change some people's minds. No amount of reasoning or olive branches will make them realize how ridiculous they are. Just have to accept it and ignore them

Cookie Run Kingdom is Baby's First Fandom for a lot of people, and a lot of them are actual, literal children, so all the black and white thinking and lack of understanding and respect makes sense, sadly. This is why I put my age in my blog description haha

Rule of thumb for me personally is to just block people who post hate in ship tags tbh. Spare us both the trouble. I've only responded to one post ever, and it was because the person was asking an honest question in a reasonable way so I thought it was fine to engage. I'd rather not engage people who want to attack and not actually talk. Blocking does us both a favor, I don't have to see meaningless hate on my dash and in tags I follow and they don't have to see content about ships they don't like from me. Win-win

Now, with all that said, I want to say some things I've said before, but would like to reiterate loudly and clearly one more time:

You do not have to like Beast x Ancient. It's perfectly fine and reasonable if you don't. It's not for everyone. Whatever your reasons are, I believe and accept them. I post about them a lot because I love them a lot, and I like talking about things I like. I do my best to tag properly so my weirdo babble is easier to filter out. My posts are more or less just preaching to the choir, I think lol. It's fine if you don't like that, it's fine if you don't like BurningCheese or Eternalberry, it's fine if you don't like Beast x Ancient. I am not your mortal enemy if you don't like them. I'm happy to talk to and be friends with people who don't. I already do so often haha

Furthermore, I want you all to know that no matter what I say about ships I don't like, I don't care if you do like them. I am not out to get you for liking things I don't. Which dolls you decide you like to make kiss is not my problem. I am not your mother, I am not your dictator, I am not God. My opinions are just that, no one is obligated to listen to me or take anything I say to heart. Yes, there are ships I legitimately hate with a passion, but I do not hate the people who like them. Not at all. That's a stupid thing to dislike someone for. I talk to and am friends with lots of people who like things I don't, both on here and irl. The world gets really lonely really fast if you refuse to engage with people who don't march lockstep with you. Especially with regards to fucking Cookie Run lol

Let's all give this nonsense a rest now. This is dumb. I'm dumb. We're all dumb. Let's stop being dumb. I'm happy to coexist peacefully with others. We'll all live happier lives focusing more on things we love than things we hate