martybaker

[martybaker]

fall 🤍

[martybaker]

Good morning…

[martybaker]

I want a Hob Gadling paper doll. I want to put him in all his little outfits over the centuries, but also outfits for eras we never saw him in. I want Regency Hob. I want 1940s Hob. I WANT DISCO HOB.

[martybaker]

There was a time when everything was easier

Maomao, Xiaolan and Shisui from Kusuriya no Hitorigoto manga

[martybaker]

canon to me btw

[martybaker]

god gives her hardest battles to her cuntiest soldiers

(ID in alt text)

by the time canon rolls around mira's lovergirl goggles protect her from the worst of it. but zoey wearing crocs w socks still forces her to cycle thru every deep breathing exercise known to man

[martybaker]

There you are

Visit my Ko-fi page for Arcane commissions and stickers Visit my Bluesky for more art

I've been feeling quite overwhelmed lately and drawing people in tight hugs helps me a bit. Also it's my birthday today yay!!

[martybaker]

Me getting up in the morning like 

Hittin’ the keyboard like

Friends comin’ online like

DID YOu SEE tHE THINGg MY GOD

[martybaker]

[martybaker]

✨

[martybaker]

@valeriianz and @aquilathefighter I hope you don't mind me riffing on your tags on @everythingisamazing's Viktor + movement post but my brain spent the entire workday building out a ballet AU. Because (as a one-time serious although never professional dancer) I can very much see Viktor in that world; he has the precision, focus and iron self-discipline to be good at it. And I had a ballet teacher for a while who was in her 60s maybe and wore a knee brace, and she did use her hands to demonstrate a lot. And she wasn't out there doing grand jetes but she still absolutely had that professional-looking line and movement quality.

(I don't know if I'll ever fully write this out as a fic, so if anyone else wants to take it as inspiration, go nuts!)

So anyway:

Viktor as the prodigy who was on stage at Lincoln Medarda Center at sixteen, only to have his career tragically cut short at twenty-two when it became impossible to hide that he had a worsening disability that was affecting his leg, joints and spine. He started dancing as a kid as physical therapy to help correct the femoral anteversion in his right leg, but it very quickly became clear that he was a natural at it, both the physical and mental aspects. (He is definitely one of those choreo savants who can see or even just hear a combination called out once and then execute it perfectly.)

Jayce and Mel as the rising star soloists who are both very talented but haven't quite broken through yet. They get cast in the lead roles in this obscure Corin Reveck ballet called What Could Have Been (which is plotless but very loosely follows some of the emotional beats of Arcane). The two lead roles are only referred to as the Defender and the Herald. Jayce is dancing the Defender and Mel is the Herald.

(It's ~ unconventional ~ casting because Corin Reveck was known for preferring particularly willowy, petite dancers and Jayce and Mel are excellent but they are not that. There's a nasty rumor that Mel only got a lead role because her family's name is on the building and Jayce only got one because he's one of the few people in the company tall enough to partner Mel.)

There is Much Drama because Corin Reveck and Artistic Director Heimerdinger had some sort of falling out years ago that no one will talk about. And also because the ballet is notorious for having had only a handful of performances before the dancer in the Defender role, Reveck's protege, collapsed on stage and the piece was never performed again.

First rehearsal and everyone is like. Is fucking Corin Reveck gonna show up? But no. It's Viktor, now in his mid/late 20s and walking with a cane. He was Reveck's protege, and he will be leading rehearsals. He knows this ballet really well, because he didn't just dance the lead role; it was created for him.

Jayce is like oh fuck. Complicated feelings about the fact that Viktor is going to be preparing him to step into the spotlight in a role that was supposed to be his. Especially once he starts getting to know Viktor as a kind person and a good teacher and someone who can't move like he used to but is clearly an incredible dancer. And also Viktor is really really really hot.

Jayce is struggling, and it's more to do with nerves than with actual skill; he feels a ton of responsibility as one of the leads not to fuck this up for the rest of the cast. You see where this is going. Viktor is like I'll work with you one on one. Yes we can work on the pas de deux; I know both parts. This is when we get the extra lore, that both of the lead roles were created for Viktor. They were both always intended to be danced by people of any gender, with the only requirement being that the Defender can support the Herald in a lift. Reveck was one of the only people who knew that Viktor's health was declining. The idea was that Viktor would dance the Defender role until he couldn't do the lifts anymore, and then he would dance the Herald role for as long as he could. Except he only ever did a handful of performances before he got too sick and never danced the Herald role for an audience.

This isn't one of those stories where Mel conveniently gets injured right before the premiere and Viktor just has to step in and take her place because he already knows the role. I feel like it's pretty important that Mel does dance the role on stage and does it beautifully. But maybe Viktor does start stretching a bit more and doing his barre routine and figuring out how he can modify things and there is definitely a scene where Viktor and Jayce dance the finale pas de deux alone in a dimly lit studio and the UST is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Also: Caitlyn is Jayce's childhood bestie who was in the same ballet school as him and is now an apprentice at the company; Vi, Sevika and Ekko dance in Blisters and Bedrock, the edgy contemporary troupe that does same-gender partnering and has butch women and people with prosthetics in the company. (Jinx is their lighting tech.) Viktor ends up working with them later, choreographing and sometimes dancing. (I'm imagining something similar to Axis Dance Company's Kinematic/Kinesthetic.) Jayce has a full ballet career until a knee injury finally gets him and once he's recovered he joins their company as well. Neither of them has the physical stamina for a whole ballet anymore but yes they do sometimes reprise the Herald/Defender pas de deux.

[martybaker]

@valeriianz and @aquilathefighter I hope you don't mind me riffing on your tags on @everythingisamazing's Viktor + movement post but my brain spent the entire workday building out a ballet AU. Because (as a one-time serious although never professional dancer) I can very much see Viktor in that world; he has the precision, focus and iron self-discipline to be good at it. And I had a ballet teacher for a while who was in her 60s maybe and wore a knee brace, and she did use her hands to demonstrate a lot. And she wasn't out there doing grand jetes but she still absolutely had that professional-looking line and movement quality.

(I don't know if I'll ever fully write this out as a fic, so if anyone else wants to take it as inspiration, go nuts!)

So anyway:

Viktor as the prodigy who was on stage at Lincoln Medarda Center at sixteen, only to have his career tragically cut short at twenty-two when it became impossible to hide that he had a worsening disability that was affecting his leg, joints and spine. He started dancing as a kid as physical therapy to help correct the femoral anteversion in his right leg, but it very quickly became clear that he was a natural at it, both the physical and mental aspects. (He is definitely one of those choreo savants who can see or even just hear a combination called out once and then execute it perfectly.)

Jayce and Mel as the rising star soloists who are both very talented but haven't quite broken through yet. They get cast in the lead roles in this obscure Corin Reveck ballet called What Could Have Been (which is plotless but very loosely follows some of the emotional beats of Arcane). The two lead roles are only referred to as the Defender and the Herald. Jayce is dancing the Defender and Mel is the Herald.

(It's ~ unconventional ~ casting because Corin Reveck was known for preferring particularly willowy, petite dancers and Jayce and Mel are excellent but they are not that. There's a nasty rumor that Mel only got a lead role because her family's name is on the building and Jayce only got one because he's one of the few people in the company tall enough to partner Mel.)

There is Much Drama because Corin Reveck and Artistic Director Heimerdinger had some sort of falling out years ago that no one will talk about. And also because the ballet is notorious for having had only a handful of performances before the dancer in the Defender role, Reveck's protege, collapsed on stage and the piece was never performed again.

First rehearsal and everyone is like. Is fucking Corin Reveck gonna show up? But no. It's Viktor, now in his mid/late 20s and walking with a cane. He was Reveck's protege, and he will be leading rehearsals. He knows this ballet really well, because he didn't just dance the lead role; it was created for him.

Jayce is like oh fuck. Complicated feelings about the fact that Viktor is going to be preparing him to step into the spotlight in a role that was supposed to be his. Especially once he starts getting to know Viktor as a kind person and a good teacher and someone who can't move like he used to but is clearly an incredible dancer. And also Viktor is really really really hot.

Jayce is struggling, and it's more to do with nerves than with actual skill; he feels a ton of responsibility as one of the leads not to fuck this up for the rest of the cast. You see where this is going. Viktor is like I'll work with you one on one. Yes we can work on the pas de deux; I know both parts. This is when we get the extra lore, that both of the lead roles were created for Viktor. They were both always intended to be danced by people of any gender, with the only requirement being that the Defender can support the Herald in a lift. Reveck was one of the only people who knew that Viktor's health was declining. The idea was that Viktor would dance the Defender role until he couldn't do the lifts anymore, and then he would dance the Herald role for as long as he could. Except he only ever did a handful of performances before he got too sick and never danced the Herald role for an audience.

This isn't one of those stories where Mel conveniently gets injured right before the premiere and Viktor just has to step in and take her place because he already knows the role. I feel like it's pretty important that Mel does dance the role on stage and does it beautifully. But maybe Viktor does start stretching a bit more and doing his barre routine and figuring out how he can modify things and there is definitely a scene where Viktor and Jayce dance the finale pas de deux alone in a dimly lit studio and the UST is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

Also: Caitlyn is Jayce's childhood bestie who was in the same ballet school as him and is now an apprentice at the company; Vi, Sevika and Ekko dance in Blisters and Bedrock, the edgy contemporary troupe that does same-gender partnering and has butch women and people with prosthetics in the company. (Jinx is their lighting tech.) Viktor ends up working with them later, choreographing and sometimes dancing. (I'm imagining something similar to Axis Dance Company's Kinematic/Kinesthetic.) Jayce has a full ballet career until a knee injury finally gets him and once he's recovered he joins their company as well. Neither of them has the physical stamina for a whole ballet anymore but yes they do sometimes reprise the Herald/Defender pas de deux.

[martybaker]

jayvik + tumblr text posts

[martybaker]

“Tangled in love, stuck by you” Fanart for this wonderful fic Keep You (at arm’s length) by InAllPossibilities.

[martybaker]

[martybaker]

Black Iris jayce and viktor giving Rio her much deserved smooches 💋❤️

Go read Black Iris by @thetriickyowl right now! This isn't a suggestion it's a demand!!!

[martybaker]

jayvikBDSMweek Day 7: Free Day ❤️ Aftercare

COLLAB WITH Reijen_here 💍 Husbands cuddle after a long week, rest up boys!!