#But this is enough for now

[red-dyed-sarumane]

what if i went off about some of my favorite songs ever

kyuuyaku hankagai - hiiragi magnetite: everyone knows i love this. i just love everything about it. we really get both sides of the picture story wise with it- both the fact the world is literally, physically getting destroyed, and all of the mental torment the characters are dealing with. it still has that magu series weird wording but it gets everything across that it needs to. the instrumental is just as heavy as the scenario with added dramatics in parts that really make it for me. all the long notes to simulate screaming. the seamless addition of both the nami no ne no & rute furute woa motifs (& a possible 3rd? theres still parts in here i cant figure out yet) makes me so emotional. if u have no idea about the series its still a solid song. 10000/10 i cannot fully express my love for this song in words i just need it on repeat full volume for weeks on end.

ai wo - null: impossible for me to explain why i love this so much without oversharing. i keep telling myself not to rank this song so high but ive never felt so seen before. null's lyrics are both poetic & still hit every raw emotion where it hurts. the whole being left alone ur whole life & wishing it wasnt that way, that everything wasnt so empty, that someone could love u the way u need & never got. i want everyone to hear this song and i also want to gatekeep it. it became so important to me in such a short time & itll be hard to ever rival it

arikitari heroes - 150suzu: im not immune to nostalgia. shuuenpro is executed entirely different to aru sekai series & i have to judge from entirely different criteria & that said i really always loved how this one sort of summarized the series in a way that highlighted all the strife in it & made it subjective rather than an objective summary. the chorus is so high its like theyre crying out which fits entirely. i still have the video embedded in my mind & its been a hot minute since ive watched it. my teenage self thought it was so deep & even with a different perspective now i cant entirely discount those feelings. anyway i still really love it i could still listen to it for weeks on end if i wasnt busy keeping up with other things. i do not say it lightly when i say this is the song i have listened to the most in my entire life i used to spend Months straight listening to it. beloved.

tachiiri kinshi - mafumafu: i was sooooooo normal about this in high school (lying). its still high on my list of breakdown songs. like damn its been 8 years and it still holds up the same. between this & ai wo that just gives away 90% of my problems. imagine solving isolation by letting people in cant be me. anyway i was obsessed with drawing the girl from the video for a while idk how many doodles i still have left but she was Everywhere on my school work. normal person behavior.

jishou mushoku - nekobolo: song that has pulled the most weight in keeping me alive. where would i be without it. sometimes the mood is so bad this is still the only thing i can listen to some days.

rokuchounen to ichiya monogatari - kemu: the real reason i fell down the voca rabbit hole. still adore the song & find it hugely nostalgic, but there was a reason i connected with it when i was younger & being able to recognize how fucked up that was makes it also a painful reminder id rather bury. song fucks tho love how every rhythm game its in will destroy u trying to play it.

konmei no aji - savasti: regardless of the real meaning of the song this will always be a dissociation song to me not in the sense it makes me dissociate but rather in the spaceyness & disconnect it reminds me of the feeling but in a safer way to deal with it. personally i prefer rire's cover

taishou x - yurry canon: u will appreciate this song now right now its so under appreciated for a yurry canon song. god the fucking "i'm still living the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. as it is i will never be you. theres no reason in living, but just the same theres no point in dying is there?" [punching a wall] i like it a normal amount

kaiko no kanmuri - dopam!ne: god this song fucks so hard and yet its still edgy. i dont even really know how to explain what i feel with this one beyond i love it. its a kind of waiting for the right time to strike for revenge kinda song? idk its my absolute fave dopam!ne song i love a lot of his songs but this one just really does it for me

haru no sekibaku - inaba kumori: kutabireta atashi ga dame dattan da ne. yeah. the overall mood of this song hits just right all too often. sorry lag train this is the defining inabakumori song to me.

hyperlexia - yamaji: the space in this one also gives me a sense of vague dissociation. i just really love the whole reading between the lines not going to fall for lies anymore mood its got going on. a misguided sense of personal revolution that probably wont end in anything meaningful but i particularly like the song.

[goddessofroyalty]

Had Silco and Vander ever had the "Ah, make sense" or "Yup, that tracks" moment with their kids?

Like, my mom had mega craving for western food when she was pregnant with me. Later on she uses it as the reason why I came out light skinned and more inclined to English literature and speak it fairly better that my siblings (we both know it's not true but it's a funny story)

Oh totally.

I think I've mentioned it previously but the fact that Claggor is the least intelligent of all the kids (which in no way says he's dumb just, you know, compared to some of his siblings he isn't as book smart or cunning) is because he was so big Silco's sure that he suffered oxygen depravation and didn't have enough room to grow his brain to full capacity.

Actually the fact Claggor is the most patient (or at least willing to wait) of all the kids I think also gets tied back to the pregnancy and fact he was 3 week's overdue and still didn't seem in all a hurry to come out. While his two brothers were born before the official due date are a lot more impatient and racing to achieve something (in Viktor's case) or to grow up (in Mylo's).

And Silco's whole pregnancy with Viktor filled with sweet milk cravings which ends up being Viktor's favourte drink as well is absolutely a 'yeah that makes sense' thing to them.

I don't know if it's a 'that makes sense' so much as a kind of mean in-joke in the family that Viktor took every cute/attractive gene their parents had to offer (and Claggor was a mini-me of Vander) so by the time Mylo was born there wasn't anything left and he got all the ugly ones.

Oh and of course the joke that Mylo caused Silco to become infertile because he didn't want to have a younger sibling after Powder arrives on the scene and it becomes clear Mylo isn't the most keen big brother and that there doesn't seem to be another child going to happen (not that Silco is complaining if he does happen to be infertile now - they have plenty enough kids, but still the comment is made). Or just generally that the reason why he kind of immediately is antagonistic to Powder is because he was Meant To Be The Youngest and then... wasn't.

[tomswifty-fr]

Glitzi comic commentary (commictary?)

Hello! I was rereading it and saw on the last page I said I would “aaaaaauuuuuhhh ... post some commentary eventually.” Of course, I never followed up on that - until now! If you haven’t read it pls do - this will have spoilers. 

(under the cut - heads up this is very long and very self indulgent. i love talking about my stuff!)

I think I’ve mentioned this already, but the comic is heavily inspired by “A Promise in the Snow” by Stan Sakai, the 8th issue of the 1996 run of his comic series Usagi Yojimbo. It’s fantastic stuff, and a really good ghost story (technically a spoiler, but like... if you know my thing is based off of his and you know how my thing ends, you know).

I would call my version fairly different. Both in terms of things like length and setting, but other aspects too, some of which were planned and some of which happened in the writing/drawing process.

The two images of Glitzi dive-bombing the one bandit and breaking their neck and then charging the one with their neck thrown back were really strong in my mind since I started planning the comic. I needed to get across that even if she’s not the most physically powerful dragon in this scene (that would be the one who ran away), Glitzi is still very strong and is a trained fighter - unlike the others, who are probably opportunists attacking random travelers. She’s also dealing with a lot of pent-up anger and frustration since this takes place almost immediately after her falling out with Margaret.

So like, not a great place to be if you are opportunists attacking a random traveler. I tried to draw the survivor’s retreat as though he had to take a running start before he could get enough momentum to get into the air, tho I’m not sure how smoothly that came through. My personal headcanon is that most dragons need some kind of jumpstart and can’t start flying from a standstill.

  Tundras LOVE to sniff.

^^ Faces of horror and despair when she realizes there’s a kid involved. Glitzi has a very strong sense of responsibility and this is her thinking simultaneously “Oh no, no way can I deal with a kid right now” and “I have to do something, I just have no idea what.” 

Some subtle foreshadowing here - Teazel reacts to the mention of his daughter and also to the question of the pills being for him. They’re not, of course. Snappers are also way bigger than Tundras on site. Fun fact :)

This was originally supposed to be a longer scene, with Teazel regaining consciousness long enough to say some actual words and Glitzi agonizing whether it would be worth the risk to try and give him some of the medicine (what if it helped? what if it made it worse?), even though the label had been made illegible when it fell into the snow. I turned it into the one line because it wasn’t necessary, plus would beg the question of why Nettle wouldn’t speak up and say it was for her, actually.

I really love this little confrontation panel. It took me forever of flipping the sketch and going back and forth to decide who was going to be standing on which side.

I ALSO love this shot of Nettle pressed against Glitzi’s chest looking up at her, seen thru Glitzi-view(tm). I was worried it wouldn’t be clear what was going on but I do think it came out good!

And this too! The expressions are good and Nettle is cute.

(The plan to leave Nettle watching Teazel and go to bring back help isn’t a bad one - flying is faster than walking, especially walking over snow with a hatchling and someone too injured to stand up. But Nettle is right here. What if they come back?)

Glitzi’s abrupt agreement to bring Nettle and Teazel with her isn’t just her having a weakness for kids, but her realizing that she’s not going to win this argument and agreeing so as to not postpone the inevitable. Glitzi is stubborn, but only ideologically - she will gladly switch strategies or even cut and run than waste energy on a fight she knows she can’t win. It makes her a very annoying enemy since you can’t actually beat her; once it looks like she might lose she's already sprinting for the hills... and then she comes back, over and over, with new tactics until she’s finally ground you down or found one that works. So yeah, it’s not gonna take much to get her to say yes here.

The line about the snow stopping was added purely because I got sick of drawing the falling snow.

I wish I was able to add a longer beat between Glitzi and Nettle heading off and the last bandit showing up to show that some time has passed, a few hours at least, but I couldn’t figure out how if I wanted to keep that interlude to a single page. Hopefully the snow drifts get that across okay.

Bandit logic :) Also, does this imply that Teazel was alone? That Glitzi is alone now? Subtle foreshadowing?  

Glitzi spent too long up north (with Margaret) and lost her wintercoat (sense of purpose and camaraderie with the rest of her order) and now she’s cold (in a pretty rough place, emotionally).

It’s not really that deep. Or it could be, I guess. This was also originally a longer scene where Nettle interrogates her about her history, we learn more about Nettle’s parents who have a whole backstory that doesn’t come up, and Glitzi admits that she’s feeling a little lost, though not why. But again, it wasn’t necessary and I didn’t want to spend several pages on an ultimately distracting conversation where nothing happens except them continuing to walk through a canyon.

Instead, Nettle says that her parents are from up north but she’s never been; she likes the Icefield and is going to stay here forever! I think this might be a little heavy handed, but hopefully that’s mitigated by someone watching them from the top of the canyon - except that they were originally looking down at Nettle, until I realized that wouldn’t work and erased her, at which point I’m not sure how clear it is that it’s from above and not just Glitzi’s foot or something.

It’s the bandit! I’m just going to post several pages now because 1) I’m proud of them and want to show off and 2) I love drawing fight scenes.

This also owes a lot to Stan Sakai because I love his fight scenes! His drawings are super dynamic and very cool!

Anyway, bandit tries to do the same thing to Glitzi that Glitzi did to their buddy right at the beginning, but some snow gets knocked loose and she has enough warning to roll out of the way before her neck gets snapped. But it puts her on the backfoot immediately and even though she’s skilled, this guy is bigger, stronger, boiling mad, and hasn’t been dragging a Snapper for half a day.

(Tundra trivia time - their manes have one of the same purposes as lions, which is to give anything who tries to bite their neck a mouthful of hair instead of like, skin and bones and vital blood vessels. Everyone knows this so it’s not usually a common target, but Glitzi’s coat is a bit patchy and hey, worth a shot.)

Then an avalanche occurs.

Glitzi is concussed, bleeding from the head and battered from not only having a mountain fall on her but also getting beat up and bit. By digging her out and keeping her awake, Nettle saved Glitzi’s life as well as Teazel’s.

I went through SO many iterations of the design for this village. Way too many for something that is very small, in a single panel background, where everyone is gonna be focused on our unconscious protagonist instead.

The house is round! Instead of a fireplace, it has a coal pit set into the floor, and instead of a solid door it has a thick curtain over the entrance/exit. Nettle’s mom/Teazel’s wife is named Rein. She’s making soup because Glitzi is injured enough she doesn’t want to risk solids, soup warms up the drinker, and soup warms up the room. A perfect food!

And the ending... I’m not sure what to say about the ending. It didn’t take me the longest to draw but it definitely took me the longest to write and sketch. The two last beats in particular, of Glitzi putting her head in her hands and Rein walking away through the village, swapped places many times. They both had to be there, but it was hard to decide which would be the actual final panel.

If anyone wants more on that specific scene, ask and I shall provide but for now I’ll skip over it. It’s uh, pretty tough.

Epilogue: Glitzi stays in the village until she’s fully recovered, which takes a while. She immediately goes back north and does not spend much further time in the Icefield. This is the beginning of her “cynical and depressed” period. She does not tell Teazel or Rein about seeing their daughter’s ghost. 

Rein is a native of the Southern Icefield, who moved to Nature territory and met Teazel there. They were happy, but she always missed Ice territory and convinced him to move back with her when they their first egg so she could raise their first child where she grew up. Along with the messy and awful feelings of having one family member die and another almost die, she also feels like maybe if she hadn’t insisted on the move, none of it would have happened. Rein knows intellectually that it isn’t her fault, but it’s still hard. Teazel doesn’t blame her for any of it and supports her as best as he can. They manage to get along and consider moving back up north, either to Nature or somewhere else, but I don’t know what they decide. It’s a hard decision either way.

Here are their scries:

Thanks for reading this far and also thanks to everyone who read the comic when I posted it originally! It was my biggest comic project I ever finished and it really meant so much to see all the awesome comments and tags. To anyone who said it made them cry: sorry lol. I cried too 🥲

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[muffinlance]

My baby daughter got her adorable puffin-print dress absolutely CAKED in mud crawling around the yard and my first thought was "oh no her beautiful dress"

And my second thought was "oh huh it really WOULD be easy to unconsciously steer her away from playing in the dirt. Unlike my son, whose outfits are usually some kind of solid dark easily washed pants plus a shirt that doesn't trail in the dirt like a dress does."

Anyway something something gender roles start getting shoved on kids from literal birth, but with a little time to think about things, YOU TOO can let your children of any gender absolutely destroy their clothes in the dirt pit they're digging in your garden

[nariarts]

Spent a ridiculous amount of time last night obsessively editing my hand written zines in Photoshop to take away any tiny blemishes so they were definitely readable.

Whatever. Understand or don't.

[frownyalfred]

love the idea of the Batfamily getting stopped and searched in the family car on the way back to the Manor and everyone’s tense expecting Jason to be the one packing like twelve guns but it’s Alfred? Alfred is absolutely unbelievably strapped up to high heaven? And he somehow manages to talk to the cops out of arresting him or even giving him a ticket?

Bruce is just standing on the side of the road pinching the bridge of his nose. Jason is grinning so widely his face is about to rip. Alfred’s guns are all sitting on the hood of the car and there’s at least three there that Bruce remembers taking away and destroying. Dick is taking pictures on his phone to send to Barbara and trying not to laugh. Tim has Kon on speaker narrating it…

[project-icarus]

[mangozic]

pre-distortion michael shelley but pointier and more shaped

[east-of-nowhere]

I send you messages of hope and encouragement because no matter how hurt I am by you, caring about you makes me feel like myself. Because I will always concern myself with you. I may not do anything for you anymore, I may not change for you. But you are always and forever and irrevocably on my mind.

[minionsuncle]

We’re haemorrhaging money on the groundskeeper, Jawbone!

Some of my favourite little bits. This is like the first time i fully color them ^.^ it was fun. Took wayy longer than it shouldve LOLL

[ash-and-starlight]

taking the crumbs of venetian agna qel’a chewing biting gnashing on them until there aren’t even bones left and then spitting out. carnevale northern water tribe style

[atalana]

but seriously i do find it so funny that ford was like OH GOD MY PRECIOUS REPUTATION after bill possessed him around other people for all of one night

and then he gets back to this dimension after thirty years and this is now the photo the press associates with his name

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [15]

Danny accepts that because of his half dead status he won't be able to become an astronaut and he has to find a different way to feed his space obsession.

He decides to get really into astromancy (yes, the magic. He already knows everything about astronomy). He gets himself the more spiritual star charts, old surprisingly authentic tomes about the art and divination cards to go with it all and gets to learning.

Tbh he kind of went into this not expecting much but it turns out he had homo magus heritage from his Nightingale roots and he actually manages to call upon the power of the stars.

He figures he can blame the vaporized wall on ghosts.

Meanwhile, a foreboding feeling like cold shivers run down the spines of several magic users that they can only describe as "a child having figured out they need to switch off the safety on their mini nuke launcher in order to fire it"

The JLD is scrambling to locate the source of the surge in magic power before someone with bad intentions can get there.

[umblrspectrum]

so like is it specifically planets the solver craves or can it get by with just eating dirt off the ground

[brainrotcharacters]

the easy grip on the knife. the leg over the seat. the hand over the other seat. the sassy "come get it" move. you know the bitch is smiling behind that mask even as he said the line.