#Drawing animals isn't exactly something I'm used to yet-

[this-is-tugs]

Can't forget the old man who managed to escape death itself and has winded up with two lil fur babies. Meet Cherry and Strawberry!

[meo-eiru]

*cracks knuckles* here I am again. this time with Micah as my victim

so at first,

you definitely should add some more story to him. so far, if I'm being honest, he feels a bit too plain to me. but oh boy, what a potential I see here!

alright lets begin

omg look at him! such a hypocrite! how smart it is, to put all blame on MC while being just as (actually even more) sinful. and he sure hides well; it's your fault, isn't it? oh you and your sinful mind.

buut despite him not really being my cup of tea, I still do like a good old concept of ugly insides, hidden behind a beautiful shell (if that's the vibe you were going for).

Micah seems so pure, so holy, almost like an angel (you played smart by adding a lot of white in his design) – but behind that pristine facade? he's ugly. and that shell eventually starts to crack, because no matter how pure he may seem, Micah is just as human as we are, and definitely not a good one. and what are we, if not a bunch of cruel, egotistical animals? and deep inside he's exactly that, sickeningly human. with that in mind the very first comic you did abt him is actually pretty hilarious to me. your desires? what about his desires, which are strong enough to ruin your whole life?

I kinda feel like he's also a little pathetic in his own way; if he can't make you fall for him, he will break you. isn't it like a very cowardly move? he wants you badly enough to use whatever method it may require to have you, but will never admit it.

but let's talk about that strange desire to destroy MC's purity. why? to make you just as dirty as he is? cute, but doesn't seem like a full explanation to me. he's a priest, right? and even despite those dark insides of his, I feel like Micah still kept at least some of the priest mindset. I mean, they're raised and taught with a very strict discipline. so I feel like deep down, he feels bad (not ashamed, but in a "how dare they" way) for his attraction to you, and punishes you for that attraction. it's not your fault, of course, but who cares? you managed to destroy his perfect, clean facade, which he was methodically building for his whole life with simply your existence. isn't that unfair? so now you must fall into the depths of hell with him.

I like how we can't justify him. Micah is perfectly aware of what he is doing. and of twisted nature of his feelings too, I think, yet still chooses to indulge in his desires, even if it hurts you, the person he was supposed to love and cherish. he makes me feel an absolute, poetic rage, and I love a character I can hate. (don't get me wrong, it meant to be a praise)

and I absolutely adore his design. also if I was on point with the idea you meant for him, that is wonderful too. if a character makes me feel something, I like that character. but girl, you really should add more details about him. because everything I've written here is, basically, just my own brainstorming and bare theories. Micah needs to have more meat on him for a full character analysis >_>

but anyway, I actually have a question.

what if MC wasn't in any way pure? what if they're a complete opposite of that word? count it on my love for hunchback of notre dame

unlike the nun MC, I suggest a MC who fully embraces their sins. like an evil succubus, they enjoy the joys of being tainted. they know what influence they have on their dear Father Micah, and isn't ashamed of that. I feel like that would make a pretty interesting story

(cough cough draw him blushing and moaning and my life is yours darling)

Another absolutely incredible ask I'll have a field day answering.

I do agree with him being a bit under developed at the moment. Micah was a bit unfortunate as in he was never meant to be an actual character. He was just a momentary creation who existed for me to study color theory. A beautiful man of flowers who didn't have an identity.

Then he joined the cast when I was busy with working on commissions and the 5k celebration comic so I didn't have the time to draw his introduction comic with the things I had planned for him, though I've been trying my best to explore him a bit more thru asks like this one. The fact that I don't want to spoil the stuff I'll draw in his comic is also holding me back a little.

I think Micah is evil, but not completely bad. A man who was born twisted, who was raised into goodness, and even with all the love he received never truly got rid of his inner darkness, but just once, just for one moment, I think he had good in his heart. And that is when he first saw you.

With all his twistedness, all his evilness, all his darkness, I think that love he felt for you was truly pure. Because in his eyes you appeared truly beautiful, like a pure lily.

But Micah isn't a pure man, neither does he want to be. So he prefers to pull you down to his level, so that you two can be sinful together. A truly impure way of feeling that pure and innocent love.

I have gotten asks about him with a more rowdy darling, one who isn't a nun or one who is more sinful. I've been really brainstorming about it but I don't think it would work. Not because I personally can't force the story into being like that but because I think it was just not meant to be like that.

You see I do come up with the characters, but I don't control their actions. If the character is unwilling I can't shape the story to my will. Because that story is their life and they control it. The best I can do is to try to fill the gaps I can.

I might prefer submissive yanderes, I might want Micah to have a more sinful darling instead but it wouldn't be Micah's story anymore. That's one of the reasons why he's so different from the rest of the boys. I'm not super into very dominant guys, I could probably count the ones I have with one hand, it wasn't my intention for Micah to be the way he is, but I don't think he could've been any other way.

Micah was just meant to be manipulative, a gaslighter, a dirty man who'll pull anything to push you below him.

I guess me looking at my stories from an actual novel or manga perspective also contributes to this. Father Micah exists to shine with a darling who he can soil.

Now the darling can maybe go against him in the future, she might rebel or give in to his sinful ways, but that's a different story.

[kozachenko]

[Click for better quality]

Ok so as a sort of followup to that Yachie drawing, I did one of Yachie as well. I already had a pretty solid idea in mind (though tbh drawing her wasn't as fun as drawing Saki) but I'm overall pretty happy with this drawing.

Artist's Notes;

So I knew that I would never forgive myself if I completely missed the oppurtunity to give Yachie face scales, which is something that I haven't really seen many people do yet. I do feel like I could've pushed it a lot more, but I'm liking the direction my take on her is going.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to talk about some of my headcannons for how Hell's fashion works since I've had this on my mind for a while. So ever since I refined my own design for Zanmu, I really liked the idea of having there be some connection between her and Satori in their clothes because they're both the defacto "leaders" of their respective Hells, and then I had the idea of having Hell's fashion trends mimic real life history where it mimics whatever the upperclassman are wearing in someway? I've always been really fascinated with the idea of how Modern Hell works as a society and also how Old Hell was impacted by it's abandonment, and while I am aware that the animal realm isn't exactly Hell and is moreso it's own thing right next to it, I imagine that there would be some overlap in the fashion and culture due to their close proximity to each other. Of course, I still kept a lot of elements in from Yachie's original design, the only thing I really added to the outfit was the jazzed up sleeves and the bottom of her shirt as well as those cool triangle things ZUN added to her shirt in 19. I also have her some nice and sharp nails since I thought they fit her. I also tried adding some scales onto the tips of her ears though tbh IDK how well they read. Her colour palette also ended up becoming a lot more teal than I had anticipated, but I honestly like it as I love it whenever people make Yachie's colour palette and design a lot more teal. I also wanted to try and differentiate her face from Saki's, though I do plan on experimenting more on how to avoid same face syndrome, as it's a problem that haunts me in my dreams. There's not really much I can say here aside from "hee hee clothing rendering go brrrrrr" and how the Clip Studio Paint charcoal brush is really all you need for any given piece and it is literally the only brush I use aside from the occasional airbrush for lighting (sometimes) and the blend tools. I've been doing a lot more simple character art recently and I've just been waiting for a cool enough idea for a full blown piece.

Though now that I've talked about some of my headcannons about how Modern Hell works, I really just want a Touhou manga spinoff about Modern Hell. Like, please ZUN I'm begging you, just do it, it would be so fucking cool because Touhou 17 is literally the only time in modern Touhou when we've been to Hell proper, does modern Hell have any settlements of Oni and other Youkai? Does it have cities? Towns? Villages? What's the technological level of Hell? How do they keep sinners from pulling a Touhou 17 and summoning a fucking god to save them? Where do all the characters associated with Hell as of right now fit into everything? You can't just drop a character like Zanmu who is stated to essentially be the king of fucking Hell and then not elaborate further on how she fits into the general framework of Hell! Is she officially the king or is this more of a "true mastermind using the official king/ruler as a puppet" type deal? How does the Animal Realm fit into all of this? Did Hecatia purposefully create Hell so it would be right next to the Animal realm? Did it just appear there on it's own once Buddhism started popping off on Earth or was it established once Zanmu established Modern Hell? How long was Keiki a problem for, and how did that affect the rest of Hell? Seriously there are so many unanswered questions here and I don't know if I just need to read an interview Zun had where he was asked these same questions and if so please tell me because these questions have all been stirring in my brain for quite some time and I really wished we'd just get a new fucking manga instead of going over the same settings in Gensokyo over and over and over and over again dear god. Like, I get that there's still a lot to explore with what we already do have, but it would just be really nice to see the Animal Realm get a little more explanation as to how it fits into the overall grand scheme of Gensokyo's worldbuilding because that would just make such an already interesting idea for a setting in Gensokyo so much better.

I'm hoping to get the drawing for Keiki done before Touhou 17's 5 year anniversary, though I am willing to postpone that and take my time on it and I also have something coming up where I won't have access to my main drawing tablet for a while so it might be a while until I post again, maybe, who knows, consistent posting schedule? Who are they, I've never heard of them. I do fully intend on talking about my thoughts on Touhou 17 though, even if it's a day or two late, it's Touhou 17's birthday month so it still counts! Also because out of all the Touhou game anniversaries, this is the one I care about the most because Touhou 17 was the first Touhou game I played and 1CC'd(???) on normal, and even though it has plenty of flaws (i.e. the many missed opportunities for it's gameplay, how unbalanced the mechanics are and also screen visibility), I'm always going to have a bit of a soft spot for it and I think that the game's strengths make up for some of it's weaknesses in my opinion.

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

This shot is going to haunt me for at LEAST the next couple months. Like. It's driving me insane. And it's all because of one stupid, tiny detail.

The blood drips on Vox's mouth

Now, there are 3 reasons this is bothering me so much. 1 is obviously the fact that THEY ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH, 2 is that there's no real reason the blood drips would be appearing in this moment, and 3 is that this is part of a sequence where VAL AND ANGEL ALSO BOTH HAVE PINK LIQUID DRIPPING FROM THEIR MOUTHS.

Now, there are possible, very reasonable explanations for the blood drips(which I feel the need to clarify have been CONSISTENTLY on the left side of his mouth in every shot except for like one other): it could be an animation error, simple as that. It could also be that they just switched the sides so the blood drips would be more noticeable, but I'm not really sure why they would do that? Because A, I edited the screenshot so that the blood drips are in their normal position and it literally looks fine

And B, why would it be extra important for us to know the drips are THERE unless they have some kind of significance in the context of Poison? Every detail in an animated show is deliberate because each panel literally has to be drawn out. If they flipped Vox's blood drips to the other side in this scene in order to draw attention to it, then there's a REASON behind it, there is something important going on here.

I think it's also important to acknowledge the only OTHER time Vox's blood drips have been on the right, this shot in the finale:

Though in this shot there's also an extra drip on the left, and the two on the right are both different sizes, which. Isn't how they normally look. The drips in this frame just overall look a lot more natural then the usual ones? Which I haven't added a picture of yet but they look like this

Two, same sized red stripes on the left side of his mouth. Anyways those are the only two times they look different, and the two moments have literally nothing in common so I can't figure out why they would be different THERE. The best explanation I can think of for the one from the finale is that a story board artist made an artistic choice(hence the drips looking significantly more natural, mor like Alastor's at the end of Stayed Gone), and then it never got changed or corrected or whatever because the frame where his face is right up in the camera last for like a split second. But Idk. That explanation doesn't really apply to the Poison shot because they look EXACTLY the same aside from being on the wrong side and the Poison shot lasts a lot longer than the close up in the finale does.

I would also like to point out that the drips switching sides is NOT a Val make out session exclusive, because when they're making out in the finale, the drips are still on the left. Like you can see the right side of his mouth in this shot and it's completely drip free.

That was a LOT of text for just one section but ONTO REASON NUMBER 2!!!!!! There is no reason Vox would be doing the fucking mouth bleeding thing in that scene.

Those blood drips only appear on Vox's mouth when he's really, REALLY worked up. The times we see them he's typically REALLY angry or REALLY excited. Like, emotions that would typically cause an adrenaline rush. And there's no real reason he would be having an adrenaline rush in this scene? Like unless wanting to make out with someone real real bad gives you an adrenaline rush I wouldn't know I'm ace. But even if that IS the case, shouldn't the drips disappear after Angel interupts them?

There's no energy in his expression when he looks at Angel, no real evidence that he's feeling anything beyond "ugh this guy again". No reason he would still have the drips. And it's not even really an animation thing, because there was plenty of time to get the drips to subtly go away in this shot. But no. They stay for the whole time. Also, while looking through GIFs to find one of this scene, I noticed that Vox literally NEVER has the blood drips when he's frowning. There a couple shots where it would make sense for the drips to appear(like when he calls Adam a pussy for not killing Al), but they don't, and in all of those shots he's frowning. So for this to be the ONLY TIME the blood drips don't dissappear when he stops smiling? Idk seems kinda sus.

Now. The final, and possibly most concerning reason this scene won't leave me the fuck alone: Angel and Val are drooling to.

(IM SO SORRY FOR THE HORRIBLE QUALITY I HAD TO GET THE SCREENSHOT FROM A LOW QUALITY REPOST OF THE MUSIC VIDEO OFF OF YOUTUBE-)

It's really, really subtle, like to the point where I didn't actually notice it until I saw somebody else point it out, but in the scene where Angel is breaking down after all the SHIT Val put him through over the course of the Poison music video, he has a little bit of neon pink coming out of his mouth. He then wipes it away, looks at his hand, and turns to look at Vox & Val.

And Val has it to. All three of them have the same bright pink dripping from their mouths. And granted, Vox & Val are in a very limited color pallette, and the red in Vox's design got swapped for that same bright pink, and his drips are usually the same red as his eyes, but the fact that it's the same color as the spit(?) coming out of Angel & Val's mouths should at least be a little noteworthy, right?

ALSO!!!!!!! I literally just now put this together- the pink substance is coming off of the right side of Vox and Angel's mouths, but the left side of Val's. It's a small detail, but given that the main reason this scene is driving me up the goddamn walls is that Vox's drips are ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH, there's gotta be something to it.

Anyways, these points have all been driven into the ground already. Everybody and their mother have been taking this scene and analyzing it, saying the same shit I just did in a bunch of different ways. I'm rehashing all of this because it's relevant to the conversation, but at this point it's kinda like just pointing out the obvious. BUT! I do want to try bringing something new to the table, something that might ALSO explain why Vox's drips are on the wrong side(again, same side as Angel's), so bear with me here:

I've pointed this out before, but Poison is a pseudo dream sequence. It's constantly cutting back and forth between Angel living it up vs him suffering extensively. This is the most obvious during the dance sequence with the giant blue screens(which I cannot provide a GIF of bcuz I have already reached the image limit for this post-). The very obvious dichotomy is meant to show us how Angel uses his mask to cope with the constant abuse, he literally says he's dissociating in the song, but it ALSO means that a lot of the stuff we're seeing in this sequence isn't literal. The scene with Vox and Val might be part of that.

Vox and Val are in a very different color pallette from everything surrounding them. They're both colored in dark blues and neon pink, purple & blue. The demon beside them, however, is not. That demon is colored more naturally. And while, from a technical stand point, I think it's mostly just to make sure Vox & Val pop and are the center of our attention, it could ALSO mean that this is specifically a part of Angel's dream sequence. It's how Angel sees them. And Vox's drips are on the wrong side.

Now, I don't wanna say that this means Angel feels that Vox is in a similar situation to him, because it feels. Weird. But then again, this shot is the only thing we have on Angel's view of Vox! We know plenty about how Vox views Angel, it's not like. Specific. It's just pretty obvious that Vox Does Not Like Him. But we have nothing concrete on Angel's view of Vox(or Velvette for that matter but that's not relevant rn). Which is interesting, because Angel DEFINITELY has oppinions on him. Vox is dating Valentino, Angel's abuser, and never does anything to stop the abuse. That's gotta lead to some built up resentment, y'know? But all we have right now to show us Angel's view of Vox is something that, if you look deep enough, seems to imply he feels more empathetic towards the guy then anything else? Again, Vox and Angel's pink drips are on the right. Valentino's pink drips are on the left. Vox's blood drips are almost always on the left. But they aren't here. They're on the same side as Angel's. You see what I'm getting at here? Wether Angel is RIGHT about Vox being "on the same side" as he is remains to be determined, but still.

Anyways, I could just be over thinking this. I have a long, storied history of taking small details that are probably just mistakes and blowing them completely out of proportion. Ask literally any of my friends abour Bird Teeth and they will confirm. Plus, I'm probably gonna end up over thinking this shit for all of May and completely change my mind on what the reversed blood drips mean, I have a tendency to do that. But for now this is my theory; the reason Vox's blood drips are on the wrong side of his mouth in Poison is because Angel views Vox as being in a similar situation with Valentino to the one he himself is in. Not the exact same, but similar enough to warrant sympathy at the very least.

[overly-verbose]

I take back my previous threats of violence as my foolish self had not scampered through your art book in all its glory.

Chapter 8 has the reference that is to be used in general, correct?

No worries, I actually chuckled a bit reading that lmao - I didn't expect a reference for SIkuna being in high enough demand for me to be threatened at watergun-point 😂

(the previous Ask with the 'threats of violence' in question for context purposes;

😂)

I'll probably try to draw something of an actual approximation of a 'reference sheet' with the little differences (I was actually planning to do that for the Ask but uh that'd take much longer than this), but to explain it quickly (well, for me quickly which isn't at all);

Chapter 8 of Visuals has actually moreso to do with a perhaps-hypothetical scenario in which later down the timeline SIkuna gets Somehow separated from Yuji and gains a body of his own

- and that allows him to switch between Normal Form

which is basically how he looked whilst possessing Yuji, except probably quite a bit taller (it's already a bit stifling in comparison to the Big Form so he wouldn't make himself even shorter just to keep to Yuji's height lol), a bit older

(he looks a bit older whilst possessing Yuji anyway but yeah),

with some (usually) black earrings and two slits in his left eyebrow to connect it to the Big Form visually

The version with the earrings and slitted eyebrow can f.e. be seen in Chapter 11 lol, just with pink hair for that last one

And Big Form/True Form

which is about 9~feet / 3~ meters tall (I based it off of that one short manga flashback moment rather than some other seemingly smaller depictions?), has four arms and such + mostly wears the outfit from Chapter 8/14 but would also wear different things just like he would in Normal Form

- and I follow the logic of the clothes Somehow changing to fit whenever he suddenly shrinks or grows rather than having to have specifics outfits, but the four-arms thing still kinda demands a different wardrobe anyway for most cases lol

(+ he does have the stomach mouth in the Big Form, and sometimes he'll prefer to leave it uncovered so another outfit difference then,

like maybe an open robe in place of a shirt, something cropped, or occasionally just forgoing a shirt altogether lol)

I think a better reference for the height comparison between him and other characters in that form is moreso Chapter 11 and 14, but it doesn't matter That much

But like, in terms of outfit it doesn't have to be exactly what I've drawn before lol

- he's more of a comfy/casual guy but I'm 1000% certain that Nobara + perhaps other kids would take him shopping sometimes (she or they can't let this particular Older Familial Figure go unfashionable constantly!) and he'd probably want to occasionally wear something more Wowowo so he'd likely have something other than a dozen sweatshirts (and robes and comfy pants and such) somewhere in his wardrobe too 😂

(some Hello Kitty™ merch is also a must, For The Meme!!!)

And I've mentioned it a few times before but, especially if separate from Yuji unless he'd also agree to painted nails which he just might, he's likely to have painted claws/nails sometimes lol - they're a nice big canvas for Nobara to practice her skills on y'know, and he definitely wouldn't mind

.

In terms of how he looks inside the Domain, it's mostly just Canon-kuna's look lol

The kimono/kosode(? I have yet to understand what the exact difference is but heard it may be the second) is the same, the scarf and blue(?) accents on the sides of the main robe and stuff

with the anime-only addition bow to the back of the sash/idk material belt because yes, and because it's something to fiddle with whenever SIkuna gets ungodly bored lmao (the equivalent of fiddling with a sweatshirt's zipper or hoodie string lol)

I've interpreted whatever Canon-kuna wears on his legs as some sort of simple black pants that run down until a bit after the socks beneath the sandals(?) start or something like that??

I don't think he wears anything under the upper part of the kimono(?) but maybe there is some sorta ancient Japanese equivalent of a t-shirt I dunno about lol, besides that it's the same with the wide sleeves and everything

The sandals(?) are the same as in Canon, I've seen somewhere that they could have a small false heel (like a cut underneath that doesn't actually raise the heel of the foot idk how to explain it better) but it's an utter detail lol

As aforementioned, the scarf-thing around his neck is the same too, it's definitely an addition SIkuna appreciates heh - it's comfy 👍

(the Inner/Innate Domain examples I've drawn in Chapters 1, 4, 5, most of 10, 1st bonus drawing in 11, a cropped out glimpse in 13 and second drawing of 14 is ok lol - I just forgot about some things earlier/got better at it with time maybe)

.

In terms of physical differences, in or outside the Domain, the biggest one is probably the eyes

His usual/regular look involves the pupil/most inner part of the eye being white, then having a ring of darker red, then much lighter/brighter red

Meanwhile, whenever he's feeling particularly murderous/spooky/overall more OG-kuna-like (f.e. in Part 4 after a bit of 'experimenting' on the Special Grade), the sequence becomes [very light/bright red, much darker red, a bit lighter/brighter red]

(I mostly draw the eyes in a more oval shape, but that's just my stylistic choice lol - I don't mind it being the same but don't mind otherwise ofc

Same with the colours, they don't have to be Exactly those)

Like this;

And the fact that he actually has a whole Four eyes be eyes and usually all open - the secondary eyes are smaller, but are full eyes with colour and stuff rather than the sometimes barely-there look they had with Canon-kuna

(I'm not yet 100% certain if the difference in colouring is seen in-universe, though 🤔 - but for drawings yeah)

Another thing that isn't usually consistent in the manga/anime (from what I can remember) is the way Canon-kuna sometimes has moreso claws Or fingernails - SIkuna basically always has claws (they sharp!)

I'm kinda contemplating including slightly pointed at the tips ears to the list but it's not an 'official' characteristic lol

.

I've... Uh. Gone off on a tangent?? As per usual lmfAO-

But hope you get at least a little useful info from this?? 😂

(I don't mind clarifying questions lmfao (though my apologies if I take some time to respond))

Also, I'm not that much of a stickler for detail just fyi - even if the interpretation were to differ in some way from this rambly excuse for a guide I'd still love and adore any and all art created for my story because hOLY MAC A R O N I- *implodes from pure joy*

(Assuming, of course, that that's what 'for scientific purposes' meant 😂)

[thispatternismine]

ATLA live action impressions part 2

Following on from last night's post, here are my impressions of eps 5-8

Still really loved it. Gonna be tarred & feathered for this but I actually like it better than the animated show

Highlights:

Ozai giving Zuko credit for finding the Avatar. There's this weird idea in the fandom that Ozai never intended to take Zuko back. Even though we saw him do exactly that at the beginning of Book 3. Yes he set an impossible task, but when Zuko (apparently) achieved it, he was like 'ok yeah cool - you have met my standards'. Sure, there's no way Zuko would have continued to meet those standards if he'd stuck around, but Ozai did actually keep his word. The fact that he does it to make sure Azula knows she's overstepped & remind her she's replaceable, is an especially nice touch

Getting to see how Azula is treated by her father. I've seen way too many people try to claim Azula was never abused because she wasn't literally set on fire like he was. Never mind that she avoided that fate only because she was able to meet his standards. And having to constantly strive to meet the standards set by someone who thinks 'find a guy who's been missing for a century' is a suitable task to set his kid is abuse.

Another annoying tendency of the fandom is to flanderise Ozai into some diabolical caricature who spends all his time thinking up new ways to torment poor Zuzu, so having that scene of him banishing Zuko was a nice touch. He genuinely believes he is being a good dad & raising his kid to be strong (note: This isn't me saying Ozai is right - I'm saying he thinks he's right.)

The 41st Division 😭

Iroh & Ozai interacting with each other

Gyatso!

I spy some female soldiers! A problem with the animated show was that it's all well & good deciding that the Fire Nation has female soldiers, but bias is a thing & 99.9% of the time if you ask someone to draw a soldier it'll be a man. Yeah sure they all stayed to guard the Fire Nation that's why we didn't see any till Book 3 suuure

"Anything you need." "It has to do with Koh." "Anything but that." DYING

Aang's whole speech to Zuko about how helpful his notebook was (let's be real Iroh probably sighed & told him it was a waste of time so this was the first time he heard 'Hey good job on the Avatar research!') & the way they bonded before he unwittingly set Zuko off

"Quit it before they think there's something wrong with you. More than there already is."

"The Firelord deems your performance... below average." OOF. Pretty sure that's the worst thing you can possibly say to Azula. She'd much rather be told she sucked outright than just 'meh'

Waterbender Yue

Non-arsehole Hahn

Using Kuruk lore from the Kyoshi books!

I like the changes to the NWT siege. Having the spirits' mortality be an occasional, temporary thing to gain an appreciation of life that occurs during a full moon when the powers of those who will protect them in that state are at their peak, makes more sense than permanent vulnerability that relies on nobody finding out. Also never made sense that a naval officer was stationed in a fucking desert & was able to just take time off to go through a spirit library, so having Zhao find his info from the Fire Sages works better IMO. I do hope we'll still get the spirit library though

Ozai's lil eyetwitch when Azula backtalked him like if you agree

Haven't mentioned yet but I love the costumes in this

Also never mentioned Momo, the Real Hero of ATLA

Sokka continues to be awesome

Lowlights:

June calling Iroh cute & fawning over him. Normally I'd think it's unfair for the live action version of a character to be held accountable for what the animated version did, but this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like og!Iroh's groping of June being treated like a joke has been called out many times so they fucking had to know what they were doing

Why isn't Azula's fire blue? We got like 1 second of it & that's it. Maybe consistent blue flames are a power up she'll obtain later idk

[x0401x]

It's kind of... funny, actually.

I mean it. Everytime I read something from the Tsunagari no Issha fanbook, it's like reading a detailed record of everything the show gets wrong about the novel. It's so easy to pinpoint all the things the director fails to understand, his caricature-like way of portraying Minato and his blatant bias towards Seiya and Eisuke. But even then, the character highlights section is really something.

The vehement refusal to see Minato as a human being is evident in the way they approach his feelings during the regional tournament. He can't be mad that Eisuke is shit-talking Shuu! That's not positive! Minato has to be Positive TM all the time! Maybe this was also a conscious decision to make Eisuke look less shitty, because that's also one of Yamamura's main goals. To give spotlight to characters that he likes, forget making sense of the protagonist. Minato is selfish all of a sudden now and no longer cares about team harmony.

Speaking of team, while I do like that Kaito and Seiya's relationship wasn't ignored in S2, it's hilarious to see it being described as a "president and vice-president" thing in the fanbook. Because since S1 doesn't even get to portraying them as proper friends, it's still awkward to try and define them as such even now. It's hysterical to see the fanbook saying that they "balance each other out" when the anime doesn't really show it. Like, yeah, that's how it's supposed to be according to the novel, but it's just... not really happening in the anime, lmfao. The fanbook really went, "that's how it is, don't worry about it" on this one. But even more hysterical is the fact that they go "Kaito is the only one who notices Seiya goes overboard with Minato". Like, no. Everyone can see it. Only the blind wouldn't. It's just that Kaito is the only one who confronts Seiya about it.

And Seiya. Oh, Seiya. There's so much delulu going on about him here. The choice of words is interesting when it says he "obtained enough skill to be able to line up with Minato and Shuu in a short time". Like, sure, he was lining up with them in team competitions, but he was on their team, lol. That doesn't mean he was on the same level as them at all. Even now that Seiya has, in the novel, achieved a non-stop hit ratio at the regional tournament, although by a much smaller margin than before, he's still below Shuu and Minato in "skill" (between quotes because that's not really the word that should be used, given that skill isn't what matters in kyudo). For the record, Shuu himself is also a little below Minato, because although they have the same achievements, Minato does everything uncosciously. By Zen standards, he comes out on top because of that.

On the topic of Shuu and Minato, I'm losing my mind at how the fanbook addresses them as people who "aim for the top". That's not really what they're aiming for. They don't really care about the tournaments themselves. What they want is to draw the bow with their friends and each other.

Above all, it just becomes very evident that the anime misses the point of what this story is about in general when it concentrates so much on getting personal with what goes on inside the boys. It forgets the rest, the outside influences on what happens in the circle, and how they all got there in the first place. It kind of puts too much decision power in the hands of these kids who don't really get what archery is just yet, because nobody does at that point. It's almost like they know exactly what to do, for the conflicts barely give them any doubts and answers come all too quickly. Every step they take is very linear because of that. In turn, the journey feels robotic and very much... fictional.

The Tsurune novel is a story that feels real, no matter how fantastical and mythical it gets sometimes. Everytime I see kids on their way to school or kyudo practice here in Tokyo, I'm reminded of the novel and how those boys are such a faithful portrait of them. It feels like I'm reading about real children. Meanwhile, the anime, rooted as it is in realism, is a story that feels exactly like that. Like a story. All because of the very obvious decision to take focus away from the very essential figure of the master.

Masaki has been put in his own category since S1, where he's placed as far away as possible from these kids he's supposed to guide, while in the books, he's regarded by them as, quite literally, one of the boys. The "let's leave Masaki to the sidelines" game got super real in this season, since he barely shows up and even more barely interacts with these little dudes who are his pupils but don't feel like such.

I just wonder what's gonna happen if there's ever a sequel. Masaki's backstory is the only thing that resembles a plot in volume 3. Other than this, it's all the usual training and the usual tournaments. Ayano has really driven KyoAni into a corner with that one, but they've managed to dodge Masaki like a bullet until now, so I feel like they'll be able to do it again if they want to.

Maybe it's contradictory of me, but I hope they don't do that. If there's one thing I've learned with the anime is that I'd rather see Masaki's story being reduced to an out-of-character fraction of what it originally was, as has been done in in S1, than see him fading into the background like in S2. I thought his character being butchered was enough of a disservice, but seeing him out of the picture? That was true pain.

[aesethewitch]

Divination Survey - Early Thoughts

I've been running a divination theory survey to look into divination trends, common theories, thoughts around digital tools, and the conflict/bias surrounding digital tools. It's still early days, and I don't have a ton of responses yet, but I figured I'd put together a quick summary of what I've got so far.

(And by "quick summary" I mean "detailed overview of the questions I'm most excited about right now." This post got away from me, lol.)

Preferred Tools:

Right up at the top, it's no surprise that tarot is the most commonly used tool with a whopping 88% selection rate. In second place is oracle cards with 54.5%, followed closely by pendulum at 45.5%.

Custom entries include runes (which I can't believe I forgot to put as an option!!!), smoke divination, candle divination, geomancy, astrology (horary astrology, specifically), numerology, tasseomancy, and dream divination.

And 15.2% of respondents selected shufflemancy! Considering my recent interest in the history and theory of shufflemancy, this is very cool to me.

Under the question about most preferred tools, tarot wins out again with 75% of respondents selecting tarot as their primary tool. Oracle cards sit at a distant second place with 12%.

How Does Divination Work for You?

BY FAR the question I was most excited about in this entire survey. The answers to this are so, so interesting. Just over 50% of respondents selected that they have a combination of beliefs surrounding how divination works, and no two explanations are exactly alike.

The 12.1% slice is "I intuitively understand the messages presented by my tool using patterns and imagery." The rest are most of the other default responses. It's a very cool spread of choices, and I'm almost surprised to see that nearly every option I laid out was selected.

But that big slice, hoo boy. That's where the super interesting stuff is. Responses include:

Animism, lots and lots of animism. I'm not surprised! It's a common theory that tools have spirits and/or minds of their own. This is most often in combination with messages from deities (the tool's spirit helps to interpret) and with the reader's intuition.

A lot of introspection. Using intuition and personal ability to "tap into" the subconscious or the universe, the tool becomes a conduit for these messages.

Tons and tons and tons of spirit work. Messages from spirits, signs from deities, help from ancestors... This is overwhelmingly the most common response, most often in combination with personal intuition.

So interesting. There are a lot of common threads, but everyone describes it differently. The connection to something "higher," a spirit or deity or somesuch thing, is pervasively common.

Expertise

Just a quick pause at the expertise questions, because it's really interesting to note. I've gotten a wide spread of self-reported expertise levels; at first, it was mostly beginners rating themselves anywhere from a one to a four. Now, It's evenly spread.

Respondents most commonly report their expertise with their most preferred tool between a four and a seven, with precisely two ten out of tens. The overall expertise in divination falls, though, skewing significantly lower. 30% chose a six, and only 15% chose something higher than that.

I suspect that this is due to the huge range of divination methods out there. It'd be impossible to be perfect at every method... I type, staring very curiously at the single ten out of ten.

Divination & Predicting the Future

Skipping downwards a little bit, I asked whether respondents believe divination can actually predict the future. This question has, by far, the most even split between options. Let me run through everything and let you draw your own conclusions here:

18% chose "Yes, I do"

3% chose "No, I don't"

18% chose "Yes, but it's better as an introspective tool"

15% chose "Yes, but it's better for communication with spirits or deities"

15% chose "Sometimes, it isn't accurate or reliable"

15% chose "Maybe, I'm not sure"

3% chose "Maybe, it hasn't been proven or disproven by science"

6% chose "No, it's just a self-improvement or introspective tool"

3% chose "Yes, but only under certain circumstances"

And one person wrote in an answer that summarizes as "Yes, but only if things stay on the path exactly as they are now"

Conflicted respondents state similar reasonings -- the future being in flux, free will making changes, reading only one possible outcome, and so forth.

Accuracy Reports

No matter what respondents said to whether divination can predict the future, every single respondent rated their accuracy at five or higher. 40% rated themselves an eight. Readings done by other readers skewed only slightly lower.

We're a reasonably accurate bunch, I suppose!

Digital Tool Usage

88% of respondents report using a digital tool for divination at some point. This is mostly tarot, unsurprisingly. Other responses include oracle, lenormand, and (!!!) shufflemancy.

I threw in the random number generator and color/hex generator options for fun, but they did get selected a couple times each!

As for usage preferences, the majority of respondents rated digital tools very, very low. When compared to physical tools, most of the respondents selected that they'd be significantly more likely to choose a physical tool over a digital tool. For readings done for others, this opinion is even stronger, with ratings skewing closer to one.

Written opinions on this vary. Several respondents indicated that they distrust the internet or algorithm behind the digital tools. One person said, and I cannot stop thinking about this, "I trust whatever spirit is in the internet way less." They make specific mention of distrusting algorithms, often stating it's not true divination due to being computer generated.

The most common hangup is the lack of connection with the tool in question. Respondents report difficulty making the connection to the digital tool, which impacts the quality of their readings. Others state it's difficult to get in the divination "mindset" with a digital tool as opposed to a physical one.

On the other hand, proponents of digital tools mention that they've made those connections and have no trouble with it. They note the ease of access, the convenience, the portability, and the subtlety of digital tools kept in one's phone.

The AI Problem

Shock and awe! Opinions on AI-generated divination are overwhelmingly negative. Reasoning ranges from moral quandries over the sentience of AI to issues with misinformation to sustainability to stealing jobs from human diviners.

Interestingly, though, several respondents stated that they would be willing to try AI divination at least once. As it becomes more accurate, reliable, and has improved limitations/laws surrounding it to protect workers and prevent misuse, they might just give it a go.

For now, the vast majority of respondents state that they'll be sticking to divination done by real, live, humans.

Stick Around for More!

Thanks for reading! Drop a comment or a reblog and let me know what you think. The conversation keeps my brain afloat in the Tank of Research and helps me focus and consider new perspectives.

If you're interested in my work on this subject, check out my #digital divination tag. And, if you haven't already, consider dropping a response into the survey this data came from! I don't have enough to draw solid conclusions yet, so every bit helps. I'm sharing my data and additional research every week.

AND, if you like my work and would like to facilitate this research and help me keep food on the table, consider visiting my Ko-Fi page! Every dollar helps me worry less about staying alive and worry more about the origins of divination methods.

[amazing-spiderling]

Ask art🎨! 1. 3. 5. 13. 15. 25. 34

What got you into art? When did you start?

I feel like I was one of those kids who was always drawing. One of the earliest hobbies I remember having was drawing, and since my mom was a teacher, it seemed like we were never at a loss for pencils, crayons and markers in the house. I think I also developed a desire to imitate things I saw on television pretty early on. I remember being TRANSFIXED by the Saban "Grimm's Fairy Tales" that would play on occasional Saturdays as part of Nickelodeon's "Special Delivery" programming. This was old timey anime, but even as a kid I could tell there was something different about it that I liked, and I tried to imitate the style as best I could in the margins of my notebooks.

Later, I got into comic books, and I remember wanting to draw my favorite characters from those (Batman was an early one, eventually giving way to Nightcrawler and the X-Men.) Again, I'd copy pictures out of comics I snuck in my bag to school. By the time high school came around, I was holding pieces of paper up to a paused video on television to get anime characters exactly right (please understand the internet was still in its infancy, and google wasn't even a thing yet). So I guess the thing that "got me into" art was seeing things I liked, and wanting to make them too.

3. What digital programs, if any, do you prefer?

I pretty much only use CSP for drawing, and then I'll hop onto Photo Pea if i need to do any grunt work (resizing/reformatting etc)

5. Who is your biggest inspiration?

Mostly, other people in my fandom circles. When I see people creating art of the things I love, it makes ME want to make art of the things I love. Sometimes this is people posting art that makes me think "I want to try that" and other times it's just conversations that spark something in my mind, but I know I'd be waaaaaaaaay less productive if I didn't have a community of awesome creatives to keep me fueled up!

13. Where do you draw inspiration from?

Hmm. Stories, I think? Sometimes I have an idea with a story connected to it, but I don't know if it could sustain an entire fic, and would rather see it as one powerful image. Other times, I'll hear a song and it will spark a visual in my mind I want to get out. And of course, I love a good redraw. I'm quick to draw associations between things I like, and a lot of time that has to get expressed as art.

15. Any tips and advice?

So, I actually originally went to school for painting hahahaha. I was convinced I wanted to be a fine artist. But I spent a lot of my time in art school convinced that I had to reach certain (totally undefined) thresholds before I would be capable (or allowed?) to do certain things. Use certain materials, attempt certain projects. And to be fair, I was limited by some things, like money, my ability to go places and *get* said materials, my available time etc. But that wasn't the roadblock in my head. Many years later, I was sitting in on a panel of female creators who had made a place for themselves in the digital space, and one of them asked the audience how many of them had an idea for a website, a podcast, a webseries etc- anything creative they wanted to do. A lot of people raised their hands. Then she asked how many of them had a cellphone. Everyone raised their hand again.

"Then you already have everything you need to get started. This isn't the best camera or microphone or computer in the world, but it's enough for you to get going. You don't need anyone's permission to get started."

I think that she did a really good job of articulating an issue I'd given myself- I was waiting for permission to do things, and I didn't need it! I try to keep that in mind now whenever I want to try my hand at something new.

25. Most frustrating thing about art?

Having an idea you're really excited about. Wanting to draw it. And being unable to make yourself get up and do it. I probably spend just as much time figuring out ways to have better habits and rituals around making art as I do actually making it.

34. Piece you didn’t think would get noticed as much as it does?

I cranked out that Scott Pilgrim deleted scene redraw (the comic with Murderdock at a Mary Janes concert) in the course of a single evening because the idea came to me all of a sudden and I knew that if I didn't do it RIGHT THEN i never would. Since that movie kinda only has a cult following, and the scene was only available on the DVD version, (and Murderdock was more niche than he is now) it was really something I did for myself. The fact that a bunch of people have found the idea s funny as I did still surprises me.

[a-small-batch-of-dragons]

Crushed

Hiii, I always love your fics, you always write my blorbo so well. Just— Hngh they're all such good bois. Anyways, please don't feel rushed about getting to this request, but I would love to see your take on a fic where the other sides try to matchmake (either subtly or not, dealer's choice!) Virgil with someone of your choice :D preferably with hurt/comf sprinkled in with all the shenanigans that they can get into when they try and push Virgil and Other Side together :'D thanks sm! – anon

Read on Ao3 Part 1

Warnings: none!

Pairings: prinxiety, perceived anxceit but not really

Word Count: 3349

Takes place in an AU where the Sides' roles are switched: Logan is Morality, Roman is Anxiety, Virgil and Patton are Creativity, Remus is Deceit, Janus is Logic.

Roman sees Janus kiss Virgil on the cheek. Oh, well, that means that they must be in love, right?

If only he knew that Janus isn't the side that Virgil's actually crushing on…

    Roman fiddles with his hands as the meeting goes on. This one's about what to do this weekend and he's not sure any of them sound like good ideas. Going to the new pop-up store by themselves seems like trouble; what if they get overwhelmed and then none of their friends know how to come yet them? And the new restaurant might be worse, what if they don't like their food and then they have to tell the waitstaff that? They're just doing their job, it's not their fault if Thomas doesn't like the food! And what if Thomas's car gets a flat on the way there? They don't know that area, they don't know how far the nearest place is going to be, what if they can't drive home and they have to be out there for hours and hours and hours?

It was better just to stay home.

"Roman?"

Roman jumps as a hand comes to rest on his shoulder. He looks up to see Logan watching him, concerned.

"Are you quite alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Bullshit!" Remus waggles his fingers in a wave when Roman glares at him. "You're freaking out, aren't you?"

"Don't be unkind," Janus scolds, giving Remus a gentle push to the shoulder. "I'm sure if Roman is upset about something, he would tell us."

"That's also bullshit."

Patton rolls his eyes, scoffing at the two of them beginning to squabble, looking back at Logan. "All I'm saying is I don't think we should be going out there! That place has no standards of health clearly available, they don't even have vegan options, and who knows what that horrid chicken logo is actually from? We're much better off going somewhere safe and reasonable, that's probably what Roman is so upset about, right?"

"Uh—I—"

"Thomas isn't vegan," Janus says smoothly, "the restaurant wouldn't be open if it hadn't passed its health and safety inspections, and the logo is irrelevant."

"Excuse you?" Patton draws himself up. "The logo is a reflection of the restaurant's values! If they're going to blatantly display something so vulgar, I don't think that's a place that's very family friendly!"

"You say that as if it's a negative," Remus huffs, "I don't want to eat around a bunch of screaming kids. And what's with the whole 'vulgar' thing? It's a chicken holding a platter."

"Wearing nothing but underwear!"

"It's a bikini."

"Exactly!"

"There is nothing wrong with a cartoon depiction of an animal in a bathing suit," Logan says with infinite patience, his hand still on Roman's shoulder, "now, are there any other objections?"

Patton fumes and grumbles for a moment. Roman bites his lip. He doesn't actually want to make Patton upset anymore and it seems like everyone else has already agreed…

"Roman?"

"Um—"

"Don't lie," Remus says, "I'll know."

Oh. Oh, god, everyone's looking at him, oh, no—

"Hey."

Roman turns to look at Virgil, who had previously been quiet. He leans forward, propping his weight on his elbows.

"What's bothering you, Princey?"

"I—um—it's just we've never been here before. We don't—we don't know the area, we don't know how to get there, we don't even know if we'll like the food."

Virgil nods. "Okay. Well, Joan is the one who recommended the place, and we know Joan knows our taste in food. It's close enough to the bus that if something really bad happens, we can still get home. And we'll have J—" he gestures to Janus who nods— "on directions, so we know we won't get lost."

"All true," Janus adds quietly, "thank you for speaking up, Roman, did that help?"

"Y-yeah." Well, now I feel like an idiot for being so upset.

"Then it's settled." Logan pats his shoulder once more. "I am excited to try this place."

"Me too!"

As the conversation winds to a close and the others start to sink out, Roman finds himself watching Janus and Virgil. The two of them have their heads together, speaking quietly. There's an intimacy to the way their shoulders keep brushing, the way they keep smiling, even the way they trade off the ends of their questions. Part of him thinks he shouldn't be watching this, this is clearly a private moment, but he can't stop.

His eyes widen when he sees Janus lean in to kiss Virgil's cheek.

With a squeak and a scramble, he sinks out too, appearing back in his room and curling up into a ball. Janus kissed Virgil. Janus kissed Virgil. Oh my god, Janus just kissed Virgil.

He definitely wasn't supposed to see that. Wait, did that mean they were—together? Maybe it was a secret? Or maybe they were just in the beginning stages of being together, or maybe one of them was waiting to ask the other out? Was that why they both wanted to go to the restaurant? Was it their date?

He puts his chin on his knees. It had felt really nice when Virgil asked him what was wrong. He should try and make Virgil feel nice too.

…yeah. Yeah, he can help Virgil with Janus.

***

"Logan?"

Logan turns as Virgil jogs over to him, adjusting his glasses. "Yes?"

"Is Roman okay?"

"I've not seen much of him lately, which is a little worrying, but…yes, I would presume so." He frowns. "Why, do you think something's wrong?"

"He's avoiding me, I think."

"Avoiding you?"

"Yeah, he keeps saying no to things we planned a while ago, and he won't really look at me during the meetings anymore. I tried to ask him if he was alright and he just got really red and mumbled something before he left."

"Well, that is worrying. Is there anything else in common, or that you've noticed?"

"…he keeps suggesting I hang out with J."

"Janus? Perhaps he knows that you two have been wanting to work together for a while."

"Maybe."

"Look," Logan says, resting his hand on Virgil's shoulder, "you know Roman thinks the world of you. I'm sure if you spoke to him about what's troubling you, he would understand."

Virgil sighs. "God, I hope so."

***

No, no, no, no, this is all wrong, this is very wrong, oh, no, I messed up—

Roman forces a smile to his face as Virgil finishes talking, looking at him in that way that makes him feel special. "So…yeah, Princey. Are we—are we good?"

"Yeah, we're good!" Virgil blinks at the force of his shout. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to yell, it's just—yeah. Yeah, we're good."

"Are you gonna…stop avoiding me?"

"I didn't mean to avoid you—okay, maybe," he concedes when Virgil raises an eyebrow, "but—I thought you'd—well, I mean—I just thought—"

"You can say it, it's okay."

"I thought you'd rather spend more time with Janus."

Virgil frowns. "Janus? Why?"

"W-well, you…you…um," Roman mumbles, twisting his fingers together, "I didn't…I know I've tried to hog a lot of your free time in the past and I'm not really good at the stuff you—that you enjoy doing with people and…Janus is?"

Understanding crosses Virgil's face and he chuckles. "Yeah, he's pretty great, huh?"

"Mhm." Don't let him see that, don't let him see that, just be happy for them, just be happy for them. "I just…I just want the two of you to be happy."

"That's really sweet of you, Princey," Virgil says, reaching out and lightly tapping the tip of his nose, "but I like hanging out with you too, okay?"

"O-okay."

"Wanna sit next to me for movie night again?"

"Yes," Roman says way too quickly, "I mean, yeah, yeah, sure, if that's…something you want too."

Virgil chuckles. "Yeah, that sounds good. See you then?"

"Y-yeah."

Virgil ruffles his hair and heads out of his room, leaving Roman to wait until the door is properly shut to fall on the bed, bury his face in a pillow, and groan.

It was hard enough when Virgil came and asked him softly if they could talk, it was hard enough to hear him be all concerned over Roman, but then he had to listen to Virgil say that Janus was great in that soft and fond voice and then ask him to sit next to him at movie night—

Oh, why is this so hard?

He just needs to stop freaking out about it. He can still be Virgil's friend and help Virgil get with Janus. He can do this. This is what he wants. This will make everyone happy.

…right?

***

It's one of those days, Virgil's in a playful mood, and yes, he is about to make that everyone's problem.

A few of them know better, rolling their eyes and making themselves scarce or proudly displaying the fact that it rolls right off of them. He caught Janus texting a group chat saying that he's in a mood, best steer clear if you don't want any part of it, and chuckled to himself as he made his way back upstairs.

As if that would do anything to deter him.

He's about to go and track down Remus when he walks past the den and pauses. A smile crawls across his face when he sees Roman there, curled up on the couch, writing in his notebook.

Perfect.

He approaches slowly, giving Roman more than enough time to look up and flee—or at least try—but he doesn't, buried in his notebook until Virgil reaches the corner of the couch. Then he startles, glancing up and curling a little tighter.

"Hi."

"Hello, sweetheart."

Bingo. Roman turns pink, ears flushing red as he blinks up at Virgil. He shuffles a little bit, glancing away before looking back up. "Did—did you need something?"

Virgil hums, tilting his head and just gazing at him. Then he smiles. "May I join you?"

"Um, yeah—yeah, sure, go ahead."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

Another muffled noise as Virgil walks over. Roman shifts, clearly expecting Virgil to sit next to him on the couch—tempting, but not quite what he's going for—and visibly startles like a little kitten when he takes a seat on the coffee table, right in front of him.

He makes himself comfortable, elbows on his legs, and tilts his head as if he's surprised by Roman's confusion.

"Hi, cutie."

He doesn't bother to hide his smirk as Roman looks away, fruitlessly flipping pages in his notebook until the flush subsides a tiny bit. He rests his chin on his hand and just stares, loving the way Roman keeps pointedly not looking at him and trying to sneak glances only to find out that Virgil's still just watching him.

"What," he blurts out eventually, ears back to blushing roses again, "do you want something?"

"Maybe I just want to spend time with you."

Roman looks up, disbelief written all over his features, only for it to dissolve right back into a downright adorable fluster when he winks.

"Aww, come on," he coos when Roman tries to hide his face in the notebook, "don't hide from me, sweetheart, you're too cute."

"I am not!"

Trap laid and baited, Roman steps neatly into it as Virgil leans forward. "Of course you are, Princey. That's why you're hiding your little red face. It's so I can't see how cute it is and tease you about it."

A truly wonderful smattering of flustered noises leaves him and Virgil chuckles.

"Don't worry, cutie, I won't hold it against you."

"Oh my god, what do you want?"

"Don't pout, cutie, I told you. I want to spend time with you." He laughs as Roman glares at him—or tries to, because it keeps going back to that pouty face and he covers it with his hands. "You hiding a smile under there?"

"No," he lies, pulling his leg up to hide it. Thankfully Remus doesn't catch it.

"This isn't proving me wrong, you know, about how cute you are."

Roman peeks one eye out to glare at him but he twiddles his fingers in a wave and oops, he's all flustered again.

"Aww, you're too easy, cutie."

"What do you want?"

"If you keep asking me that, sweetheart, you'll make me think you like hearing how much I want to spend time with you," he chuckles, "but I'll be nice."

"This is you being nice?"

"I did want you to do something for me," he continues, watching as Roman slowly looks up, face sobering as he calms down, sitting up on the couch, "hm?"

"What is it?"

Oh, you poor thing…He holds eye contact, shifting closer, until his face is right up next to Roman's. He lowers his voice to a rumble and smirks.

"Blush for me, Princey."

The poor dear does as bid, turning bright red in shock. He chuckles and tilts his head.

"Isn't that precious," he murmurs, "I wonder…if I ask you to squee for me, would you do that too?"

Roman splutters and Virgil's smile widens, leaning up to whisper in his ear.

"Squee, cutie," he whispers, "squee for me, Princey."

Roman covers his face, pulling himself up to curl into a little ball, letting out the most adorable little squeal he's ever heard.

"Maybe I should save that as your ringtone," he teases, before humming when Roman doesn't move at all, "don't get all shy on me now, cutie."

He doesn't react and Virgil frowns.

"Don't make me come and get you," he warns, before tugging on Roman's sleeve, "alright, you asked for it."

Sure enough, Roman yelps when one of Virgil's hands slides over his tummy and around to his side, hands flying down in an attempt to stop it. But by the time he realizes it's a trap, Virgil's settled on the couch next to him and pulled his legs into his lap, reaching out to cradle his face.

"There you are, cutie," he murmurs, "aren't you precious?"

Roman's eyes are wide and brimming with tears, sparkling in the light. Virgil hums and coos, bringing him closer and ruffling his hair.

"Hey, hey," he says softly as Roman tries to pull away and hide again, "don't run away from me. None of that, little dragon, you're adorable. No, no, shh-shh-shh, you are."

He brushes a thumb underneath Roman's eye to catch the tears that do manage to escape.

"Don't let all those mean voices tell you otherwise," he scolds gently, "do I need to shut them up for you?"

His hands twitch and clutch at Virgil's sleeve and he smiles, brushing a thumb over the other cheek.

"Aww, it's okay, little dragon," he coos, letting Roman wrap his arms around him, "it's okay. Was I being too mean and teasy?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, I can't help it, you're so cute."

"Stop," Roman whines, lightly pushing at his chest, still pouting, "why aren't you doing this to Janus?"

Virgil frowns. "Okay, what's up with you thinking about me and Janus? This is the second time we've had to talk about this."

"You know!"

"I don't know, Roman, that's why I'm asking."

Roman lets out a frustrated noise, his hands flapping. "You know! You two—you're—you're—!"

"We're what?"

"I saw him kiss you!"

"You saw what?" When the fuck did Janus kiss me? Why don't I remember that?

"A-after the meeting about the restaurant, you two were talking and I didn't mean to eavesdrop, really, I didn't, I didn't know it was going to be such a private moment but I did and I saw—I saw him kiss you and I thought—I just thought—"

"Whoa, whoa, easy," Virgil says before Roman works himself up, rubbing his back, "you saw J kiss me on the cheek, yeah?"

"I'm sorry—"

"I'm not mad at you, Princey, look at me—" he cups Roman's little pouty face in his hands— "I'm not mad, okay? J kisses everybody on the cheek, he does it to Remus, he does it to Logan, he even does it to Patton when Patton lets him get close enough."

"He doesn't do it to me."

"Because he doesn't know if you're comfy with it, little dragon, that's all." Roman's face screws up into this frustrated little pout and goddamnit, it should be illegal to be this adorable. "Hey, you thought I had a crush on Janus, right? Or that Janus had a crush on me?"

His chest twinges when Roman looks up at him with those big sad eyes and he has to reach out and cuddle him.

"We're just friends," he murmurs, "I promise, little dragon, we're just friends. It's okay."

"…know that now."

"You just trying to help get us together, hm?" He feels Roman nod. "That's really sweet of you, little dragon."

"Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, you were trying to look out for us, that's okay." Roman mumbles something. "What's that?"

"Was trying to look out for you."

"For me?"

Roman refuses to let him pull back, instead burying his chin into his shoulder. "You're always so nice to me. So I wanted…I thought…"

Oh. "You wanted to be nice to me too?"

"Mhm."

Fuck. Fuck, he's too cute. He's too cute, this should be outlawed, how am I supposed to deal with him being so fucking cute?

Before he can think better of it, he kisses Roman's shoulder.

Roman goes still.

"V-Virgil?"

"Yeah, little dragon?"

"Did you just—did you just…kiss me?"

"Yeah, I did," Virgil says softly, "was that okay?"

"Are—are we still just friends?"

"Do you want to be?" When Roman goes quiet, he carefully shifts them so he can see Roman's face. "Do you want to be just friends, Roman, or do you want more?"

"M-more is an option?"

"Yeah, sweetheart, more's an option, but we don't have to talk about it right now," he says quickly when the poor thing looks like he's about to explode, "we can do this later when you've cried a bit of this out, okay?"

"C-can we still cuddle?"

"Of course we can, Princey, c'mere." Roman tucks himself right back into Virgil's arms and he hums, nuzzling the crook of Roman's neck. "It's all gonna be okay, sweetheart, I promise."

"Don't," Roman croaks out, "don't give me hope."

"But I'm Hopes and Dreams, baby, that's my job. Okay, okay, that was mean, I'm sorry, I'll stop, I'm done, I promise."

"Virgil!"

"I know, I know. I'm finished, I swear." He gives Roman a proper squeeze to make up for it. "Just—I'm not giving you false hope, little dragon. We can talk about this, I promise."

"You better stay right here until we do," Roman orders in his little pouty voice, "or else I'll never forgive you."

"I won't move," he vows, lying down so Roman's on top of him, "see? You got me, little dragon."

"You're my horde now. No moving."

"No moving," he agrees, letting Roman shift until he's more comfortable, "you got it."

It takes a little longer than he'd like, but eventually Roman sags into him, lying down and letting himself actually breathe. Virgil keeps running his hands up and down, up and down, trying to coax him to sleep if he needs it. He's worn the poor thing out, he knows, and he only feels a little bad about it.

Okay, that's not true; he feels bad about making poor Roman worry and fret, he doesn't really feel bad for flustering him that much.

He's too adorable.

After a moment, though, he feels Roman tense again and he's about to soothe it away, say it's alright, he's not going anywhere, when he feels a little kiss on the side of his shoulder. He grins.

Yeah, they're gonna be just fine.

General Taglist: @frxgprince@potereregina@gattonero17@iamhereforthegayshit@thefingergunsgirl@awkwardandanxiousfander@creative-lampd-liberties@djpurple3@winterswrandomness@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes@iminyourfandom@bullet-tothefeels@full-of-roman-angst-trash  @ask-elsalvador @ramdomthingsfrommymind@demoniccheese83@pattonsandershugs @el-does-photography @princeanxious@firefinch-ember@fandomssaremysoul@im-an-anxious-wreck@crazy-multifandomfangirl @punk-academian-witch@enby-ralsei@unicornssunflowersandstuff@wildhorsewolf @thetruthaboutthesun @stubbornness-and-spite @princedarkandstormv  @your-local-fookin-deadmeme @angels-and-dreams@averykedavra @a-ghostlight-for-roman @treasurechestininterweb @cricketanne @queerly-fluid-fan @compactdiscdraws@cecil-but-gayer@i-am-overly-complicated@annytheseal@alias290@tranquil-space-ninja @arxticandy @mychemically-imbalanced-romance@whyiask@crows-ace @emilythezeldafan@frida0043 @ieatspinalcords @snowyfires@cyanide-violence@oonagh2@xxpanic-at-the-everywherexx@rabbitsartcorner @percy-07734@triflingassailantofmyemotions @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo@cerulean-watermelon@puffed-up-bees@meltheromanstan@joyrose-fandomer@insanitori@mavenmush@justablah65@10paradox10@uhhh-hi-there-i-am-nervous@cutebisexualmess@bella-bugatti-frogetti-baguetti@ultrageekygirl

[hanszoe]

I don’t know if you have or not, but can you describe Hans’ physical appearance and personality? Or like how they seemed to be more disinterested in their passions throughout the show? I hope that makes sense.

hello, thank you for the ask!

i have some links in my pinned post talking about things such as their muscle composition and eye injury.

as far as their physical appearance goes, it seems like there are actually multiple official appearances for them, the one isayama illustrated and their anime appearance. isayama seems to make a clear distinction between the two based on this interview (cw transmisogyny). that translation translates 性別 as "gender" but it should be "sex", and i believe isayama actually wanted an androgynous appearance for them. most fans seem to draw them how they're depicted in the anime, and i don't mind either, but i will base my own work off of their manga depiction.

the manga style isn't detailed enough for us to know about most features of their body, so there's a lot of room for fan interpretation. things such as skin tone, blemish patterns, wrinkles, muscle tone, etc. are all mostly up to interpretation. i'll have to make decisions like this for how i want to depict them in detail at some point, i'll probably look for some athletes with similar builds to them. i've also thought some recently about their exact eye color and think i'm going to go with a dull light brown color like this one.

as for their changing in personality, i'm not confident enough to state definitively since i haven't taken exhaustive notes on the manga, but i think that hansi was actually depicted quite consistently in this way. there are very early pulls for hansi not wanting to be forced into a role and it's the core of their narrative arc, becoming unable to see beyond what sannes said to them in the cell. i've seen some complaints about their death scene and do believe it was an insert myself, but in my opinion it at least does a good job of concluding this theme, as erwin's dialogue finally relieves them of their role, one which they had to give their life to be free from. i don't believe that hansi was exactly right in being unable to see a life for them outside of it, but any attempts they made to connect with people in a way that might help them resolve it we see all shot down. ultimately they became a victim of the narrative's same persistent commitment to helplessness.

i also read a theory from tsuki no ura about eren potentially erasing something from their memory. i have yet to take detailed notes on the manga so i'm not sure what he would have erased or why, but this could be another explanation for their total lack of hope and losing interest in titan science, which suspiciously some mentions of marley's titan research association also seem to go nowhere, especially considering pieck's comment "you seem to know even more about titans than marley" to hansi. i have some theories on this, but nothing definitive yet.

even if that's not the case, i think there is sufficient textual explanation for hansi losing their passion for titans either way, as after finding out the walls are made of them they confess to moblit that it was terrifying, the same way the first time they left the walls on an expedition felt. being confronted with another huge unknown truth of the world was similar, and i believe by the time they're called to paths hansi just has nothing but terror left. there are only so many totally unforeseen recontextualizations of ones' understanding of reality that one can take before everything starts to seem meaningless.

[evanpeterswifeyyy]

Personal Beef/ Vent Stuff. Absolute behemoth of drama, read at your own discretion

warning! topics of clear mental issues, sa, excessive yapping, lying, sexual content, drugs (weed)

lowkey might delete this if I regret it but oh well

I need to air this out into the void before I go insane because just talking about it with irl moots is not enough, and journaling isn't the same to me, and doesn't feel right. This is gonna be long, so buckle up buttercups.

Ok, so a little background.

I will be referring to this person as Amanda for privacy sake.

Me and Amanda have known each other since about third grade. We used to be friends for about a year around that time, but things went south when I realized that she had some major anger issues and lied about a lot of things. Obviously, we were children so it was petty stuff, but it was real for me at the time, and overall I just don't respect liars. It's something I was grown up on.

We stopped being friends in about fourth grade when she threatened me with violence, but became friends again about a year or two later when we were forced back together because of after school activities. I accepted that maybe she had changed and matured during that time, but things had only gotten worse.

During this time she lied to me about being one of the most popular animators on Youtube at the time. Childish, yes. But I was also a kid and a huge fan of said Youtuber at the time. I believed this lie for a few years until I pieced things together, the inconsistencies with her "proof" about animations and the fact that she only showed her drawings on paper. This isn't super important to the story, but it sets a start of a long pattern of attention seeking and lying.

Also at this time, we were going through puberty. We were both exploring our sexuality and gender expression, and there were inappropriate topics brought up. I have never been super comfortably talking directly about explicit content, at least not when I'm not the one trying to engage that sort of conversation. It's a very specific circumstance to me. (I'm saying this because it's important for later). Amanda used to pull up inappropriate material in front of me and we would laugh about as pre-teens do.

Eventually we stopped being friends again, I don't remember exactly why this time though. Just know that we wouldn't speak again until middle school.

During about eighth grade I believe, a new kid (we'll call him Jack), joined a few weeks into the beginning of the semester. I became friends with him because a large friend group I was in during that time were all friendly with him already. I ignored a growing gut feeling about him because all my friends liked him and also he had a more alternative style that I enjoyed. Only a few weeks into knowing him, he would begin dating Amanda, and me and good chunk of my friend group having known her since elementary school began to warn him about her pattern of behavior.

He brushed us off and we all started arguing with him about how we had known her for years and they had been dating for weeks, yet he kept arguing that she had "changed" (unsurprisingly she had not). He also told us that she had claimed that we didn't like her because she was too "caring". Which was obviously a complete lie. Eventually we gave up after finding out that he had his own problems, like believing that bullying fat people was a valid way to make people lose weight to "save them" from health issues.

Fast forward a few weeks that year and we began hearing rumors of them doing...things, in public in the school. ie the library, bathroom, locker rooms, etc. I knew that Amanda was already a slightly sexual person, but not to this extent. So I became worried, it was out of character even for her. I knew what it was like to have rumors spread that ruined reputations, so I wanted to confirm if they were true or not and see what was going on.

Amanda confirmed that yes, most of the rumors were true. I was of course then worried she was being pressured, and she sent me a long message that essentially implied that she was and that he was coming onto her all the time without her full consent. At that age, I knew what that meant and that it was serious. So I told an adult about what happened and reported the situation to proper authority (not the police, there was no evidence of actual assault). She received a call and so did Jack, and after that, she thanked me for doing and I believed all was solved and well. Oh boy, I was severely mistaken.

After that, I would begin to occasionally check in on her and see how things were doing, only dipping my toes into a friendship. I told her that I only wanted to be acquaintances, still traumatized from our past friendships. She agreed and understood, but eventually we got to highschool and we became inseparable. The most we had ever been friends. Amanda had never stopped dating Jack. We began having issues already a month later when they started dating on and off, leading into highschool.

To keep things short about their messy relationship, she would come to me all the time and talk about her relationship with Jack. She would tell me when they broke up, would bring him up if they were back together, told me all the times he supposedly cheated on her (conversation from a few months ago now implies that he may not actually have, but I can't say for sure.).

It got to the point where every month they broke up for a week and then got back together, and during that time they would both sleep around, Amanda would find out and then tell me how she was talking to a girl he had been with during/ between their relationship and we would both become friends with said girl. Every single time, Amanda introduced me to them. Every time, Amanda told me about it herself. Everything I know about their relationship is from her mouth (this is important).

During our friendship, I knew 3 girls that Jack had been with. But there was one that stood out in particular. We'll call her Susie.

Susie met Jack and one day they were hanging out at someone's house, Jack smokes weed big time and offered some to Susie for her first time. (She had never smoked before). She ended up greening out, and became conscious to him trying coerce her into doing stuff with him. She obviously didn't want to, and I don't know if things went any further. I remember it not, but the point is, he at least tried to assault her.

Susie told both me and Amanda about this situation and we all talked about it. Obviously mortified, I hoped that this information would finally keep the toxic relationship of Amanda and Jack officially broken. But alas, it did not.

Eventually we all drifted apart, and during that time they kept breaking up and getting back together over and over again. It was genuinely exhausting because I'm not exaggerating when I say 90% of our conversations were about Jack, and most were instigated by Amanda. So I knew essentially every detail as soon as it came about.

I found out later/ during this time that Amanda was also doing the same thing to some mutuals we had, and I talked with them about what was going on. Amanda later claims that me talking between these friends that already knew was "spreading rumors". Despite the fact that they were facts that came from her mouth, and were only shared to people we both knew or that already knew because of her.

There were a few times (and I also found out later that this happened to other friends of mine as well, more people I know that I haven't even spoken to about it) where she would show me private photos of her and Jack. Their entire relationship was and is very sexual. A lot of the positive conversations Amanda had about Jack was about how they had slept together, or when they were broken up she said word for word to me that she was "addicted to sex" so she was sleeping around between their breakup. As time went on, their relationship became more and more physical after middle school.

These photos that Amanda showed me were very explicit, and I never gave my full consent to seeing them nor had the rational mind at the time to consent. I brushed off because we were friends still, but looking back, I'm disgusted and I feel disgusting. This is something i feel she brushes off a lot just because I didn't say no.

And it doesn't help her case that I was not the only one to see these photos, and without explicit consent.

By the end of Freshman year, I tried to break the friendship off. I was becoming exhausted and couldn't keep up anymore. I had a conversation with her directly about it, but the very next day it was ignored and she kept talking to me. By the beginning of Sophomore year we had officially gotten into our first full argument over Jack and their relationship and everything that happened and stopped being friends.

There are details between then, but lets fast forward to now. We still have mutual friends, like a lot. And what I've noticed is that every time my name is mentioned by someone or a photo of me is shown, she begins a tirade about how I'm a bad person, and how I was "spreading rumors". She was apparently upset with me for "getting involved with her business", despite the fact that she always included me in and told me about it--and never once said I couldn't tell anyone. Especially when I knew she was telling other people the same information.

There were a few more arguments, mainly over text as usual, but eventually the arguing ended. I had thought.

I've heard from friends many of times how she brings me up, which I want to say--I barely talk about her or think about her anymore. The only time I do is when I actually see her, or someone is talking to me about her. Which I never tell any of our business to people who don't already know either of us, and I don't bring it up unprompted. And no, I don't mean I talk about when her name is brought up or there's a photo of her. I only talk about what happened if someone is already telling about something she did to them, or they ask me about it because she was talking about me to them.

Now we have today.

Today I received a message from a close friend of mine that informed me she was still talking about me to my friends.

Here's how it happened:

She posted on her social media alluding to me, about how she was upset that we had mutual friends because I'm a "bad" and "problematic" person (for caring about her well-being and toxic relationship she threw me in the middle of).

I feel the same way, the issue here is, I don't talk about it. I don't. I don't go to my friends and talk about it and try to sway them away from her, I don't post on my social media (except for now, but tumblr is more like a public diary to me) about it, and I don't bring her up every time I see her face or in my friend's following. Not even if she's in their posts or comments and dms.

I have no idea what prompted her to make the post, but I do know that the same post prompted my friend (we'll call her Trish) to message her and ask her what it was about. She began talking about me (the details I'm not aware of), and then Trish came to me and told me about it. I told Trish my side of the story, and she believed me and told me she already didn't enjoy being friends with Amanda and didn't believe her because me and Trish are much closer.

Fed up at this point, I go onto an unblocked account and message Amanda, respectfully and as kindly as possible, asking her to stop talking about me--especially to my friends. She tells me a bold faced lie that she was in fact not trying to turn my friends against me, but no matter how many times she says she's not trying to control the fact that her friends are mine as well, it is very obvious that's not actually the case from the amount she talks about me, and how my friends have described/ shown her talking about me.

She tells me that she is just explaining what I did wrong to her, and I'm still in the dark of what exactly I did to upset her specifically and how she thinks I'm the bad guy, so respectfully (again), I ask her and try to have a conversation that may finally settle the bad blood between us so we can both finally go our separate ways and I can stop hearing about this. But no, as soon as I ask she blocks me.

I find out she has posted MULTIPLE posts alluding to me again, a final one saying (paraphrasing) "normalize talking things out. Something that hurts other still exists even if you don't realize it". Which is ironic, because I was fully aware she was upset and hurt and acknowledge that in my message, and was trying to have a civil discussion about it. She also has never recognized the fact that she has done things to hurt me as well.

All this is to say, AMANDA I KNOW YOU WON'T EVER SEE THIS AND I RLLY HOPE YOU DON'T, BUT I'M TIRED. PLEASE FUCKING DROP IT AND LET ME LIVE IN PEACE.

Istg this gets brought up to me every few months and I'm genuinely done with it. I can't do it anymore.

Her and Jack are still together and are still having issues to this day and somehow I just cannot escape her mouth. All I have to say anymore, is that if she wants me out of her business, she can keep my name out of her mouth--and I'll give her the same respect.

If you listened to this unholy yap session, thanks. I'm actually exhausted from all this drama and I wish it would end already, but I know it's gonna resurface all over again and I'm going to have to explain to another friend that what she says about me isn't true and she's twisting what happened.

Some side notes:

She retracted Susie's statement about being practically assaulted, and genuinely used "well they made up and are friends now" as an excuse for not breaking up with him after what he did. She also claimed that because I told people about her boyfriend essentially being a rworder, I was "telling her story when it's not my place", when Amanda was the one going around and telling everyone. I had not mentioned Susie's name once when I told people, I just told them what he had done. Amanda was the one associating her with it and also told her that I was talking to people inside the group Amanda had told. And to be fair, I told people who I knew would not spread that kind of thing to anyone else but to me and the people involved. Susie ended up messaging me about it because of Amanda, and I explained to her the situation and everything was fine. I'm not sure if Susie and Jack being friends afterwards is true, and I can't confirm with her anymore because she either blocked me or deleted her Instagram. I'm still in close contact with one of Susie's close friends who joined in on the conversation during the time to this day though.

Whenever they broke up and she told me the reason (usually cheating or arguments) I would tell her that it's good they're not together anymore because of that (and I would also bring up the past issues they had as well, adding to the list each time) and that they should stay broken up this time. Every single time she told me "yeah, you're right" and agreed, and then went on to talk shit about Jack with me, before getting back together with him again a week later. And I would only ever find out because she would begin talking about him positively again unprompted, or about the last time they had sex. She apparently still does this same exact thing to her friends to this day, because the mutuals she's still "friends" with (most of them that I talk to say they are actually fake friends I find out, which is crazy to me, because so far it's been most of her friends) tell me how they have the same exact behavior from her after I tell them how she acted around me. Most of her conversations with people are always about her and Jack and especially how they're always supposedly having sex. It's so strange and vile.

Really hoping talking about this on here doesn't bring me some bad karma or anything. I don't even care if no one reads this, I just need to get it out and have someone other than 10 of the same people know about it. I need a fresh opinion, someone not involved or with personal ties.

[elzphine]

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ About me! ⭑.ᐟ

This post IS LONGGGG Hi I'm Ella, this page is mainly for me to rant and talk about things I like. Below is more about me as a person and my interests, I do like talking about my personal life to a degree without giving much information out just so you know. Ella isn't my real name either it's a nickname I go by on some of my socials.

Name: Ella

Age: I don't like going into specifics, but I do follow dnf's that restrict certain ages according to my actual age, just keep creepy things to yourself! <3

Just so you know I do tend to overshare on my posts, I try keeping an open mind most times, due to my personality and the way I was brought up I am relatively mean when talking about others even if I don't exactly mean to be. I don't necessarily trash talk people in specific but I tend to be overly honest with people which causes feelings to get hurt etc, etc. I speak what I perceive to be the truth so I lack friends irl..

Personality: It's changed almost every time I took the MBTI test, probably because I took it on 16p.. But I also self typed too and looked into how people who actually are the MBTI I call myself act and respond as a person and compared it with myself I so I guess it's self typing? I don't know. But INTJ is what I find most relatable to myself and how I perceive the world and interact with people. Not too sure of an enneagram I haven't found a free test for that yet.

Interests: Ani-manga, Horror genre things, JJK, PMM, Death note, tbhk, danganronpa. Drawing, Character design, Fanfic reading or writing, world building, character writing, Reality shifting, japanese folklore, I love using folklore when creating characters it is so much fun to interpret and create a design incorporating elements from history, or just irl things in general. I like hazbin hotel, don't come for me I hate the humor in it but I love the idea of the show being an interpretation of heaven and hell and the society in it. Harry potter kind of not really.. Never was much into it. give anime reccomendations pls I need more things to watch!!

Music taste: ANYTHING LITERALLY ANYTHING IM IN THE MOOD FOR I WAS ABLE TO LISTEN TO A 6 MINUTE SONG ABOUT CORNDOGS PERFECTLY FINE IDK HOW. I have bad hyperfixations when I comes to music genres so these are my tops, Emo claimed bands, female manipulator music, pop punk and some hardcore bands, I don't have any at the top of my head, but I was able to listen to black metal, death metal, parody songs the electro swing remix was fire! I can get down to taylor swift and baby shark, I can listen to drill, rap, phonk, songs in spanish or even swedish. country, folk idc. My playlists due to my recent revamp, Are more fixated on ariana grande, sabrina carpenter, mitski, lana, and very few taylor swift, I like alternative music too, I know I'm forgetting so many different genres but those were what I could list off best so keep that in mind. early 2000s-2016 music is top tier fyi. though frank Sinatra is a G oms.

Other random things: I'm all for self improvement and learning more about myself and other topics if I ever magically start liking something you know about by all means info dump, My fav seasons are fall and winter. I'm a winter baby <3 I prefer "cunty" music made by women rather than gay men or trans women (Love y'all too dw.) It just feels more authentic to me if you know what I mean, I can't properly like describe it for some reason but just trust me it's not because I hate that group of people. (I hate everyone equally !!!) I'm a medical NERD, my favorite medical dramas are HOUSE!!! HOUSE I LOVE YOU HOUSE PLS ADOPT ME AND TEACH ME EVERYTHING HE'S THE ICON PLEASE PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE. He's funny and I love his way of thinking. (I just realized we have the same personality type live laugh love that!!) My personality does kind of differ online due to the character limits on tumblr, because if it were up to me every one of these sections would have 5 different paragraphs per thing thank you. I'm an honors student idk if thats shocking to anyone but yea. This also probably will be more shitposting based just random takes from my perspective like reviews on starbucks drinks and just random events. the format is probably going to be more like, diary like idk? its just me posting my thoughts and leaving it out for you all more anonymously if ykwim? I was bullied all of my elementary years over a single unsanitary habit I had. (Picking my nose, like everyone made a point to leave me out due to this. EVERYONE collectively even when i stopped it still happened.) I'm insanely delusional not in a cute or quirky way like "omg he likes me guys" like no, I convinced myself for a month that I had schizophrenia even though I had 0 symptoms or auditory hallucinations or visual hallucinations. I did constant research and found myself on schizophrenia tiktok. Like dawg is trippin fr fr, overthinking and analyzing every little thing is my favorite hobby, so is daydreaming!! One time during a finance class I had I daydreamed that I was a single mom who lived a walking distance from the beach and I had the job i'm going for in the medical field. I loved that daydream so much, would've preferred to have a partner ngl.

Thanks so much for reading, apologies for it being so long my mind is so rampant and i have so much to say and so much input to give that it kind of gets hard to put it in simple sentences. If you're similar to me please follow and moot me or wtv yall do on tumblr I love people with similar mindsets and aspirations it makes me wanna do better in order to keep up.

[humanmorph]

C/W (01-05) thoughts

Finished the first C/W arc + first faction game (which really took me a while. I'm blaming PALISADE and also the bad weather and ALSO getting obsessed with finishing a bigass drawing in 2 weeks)!

I've said this in a different post already when I had just started listening, but I had like, way lower expectations on this, which seems silly in hindsight. I think I just have a tougher time relistening to podcasts (it's not an issue with rereading books or rewatching movies, really), and often stop about halfway... But it's just really fun to look at C/W again having listened to the rest of the Divine Cycle (and also the other seasons, because it's fun to look at the different player characters throughout). And like. They've gotten better at this over the years so by comparison C/W is 'worse' but it's still fucking good. When it hits it hits, and it honestly hasn't even really started hitting yet (though there's some good moments already for sure. Mako buying a bunch of robots was exactly as funny as I remembered it being)! I'm pretty much just excited for everything, but the Kingdom Game expecially. Something else I'm enjoying (and he'll always continue to do this, but it's so Present in C/W) is how Austin describes scenes. He uses film making language SO much (Counter/WEIGHT is an anime, right)! It's good stuff. I'm trying to not get too used to the system because I know they'll switch. I know WHY they switched and stuff & agree with that decision but I still think it's a cool system & am enjoying the time with it, even if some scenes do drag on quite a bit (which isn't only because of the system, but it also isn't helping).

Some character stuff, I guess: AuDy: They were my favourite at the start last time I listened and I think that pretty much holds up. They're just good. They don't even do that much in this first arc (although dropping from the ceiling as a distraction is pretty fucking great), & I think most of the really good AuDy moments are still coming up, so it speaks to the fact that it's just a good concept for a character that I immediately enjoy. I'm pretty sure they continued to be my favourite pretty much until September? I guess l'll can talk more on it when I get there, though.

Mako: I'm gonna be honest I remembered Mako as way more annoying than he is. At least in this beginning arc. He's literally fine. His whole fogging robots deal is kind of weird to listen to now, since it's something they'd either not do now or actively adress in the story since it's a kind of way to take away agency that's pretty uncomfortable when you look at it longer. I wonder if there's a way that'll come up in the first Chime mission mini-arc? Their hands are a bit tied there since it's a prequel I guess, but there's probably a way to do it. Anyways, Mako ends up as my favourite by the end of the season, and I actually don't quite remember how he got there? But same with AuDy, I'll talk more on it when I get to September (it's possible it was the clone reveal. I love those).

Cass & Aria: They have to share a paragraph because I don't have an extremely strong opinion on them either from my last listen at this point in the story, nor do I now. I'm excited for Aria stuff expecially though. I've mentioned this before, but I'm definitly better at listening and actually processing information now, and it's extremely possible that I just missed things about both Aria and Cass that were just kind of mentioned in a sentence but are actually very important to their characters. (Looking back, I listened to C/W right after I had covid, so some sort of brainfog might also be at fault.) Expecially because Ali isn't very. I can't think of the right word now. But she's just quieter in play (not audio! that's Art.). It's nice seeing everyone get better at this, but for Ali expecially I'm super excited to see her go back to Aria for that mini-arc.

Re: the faction game - it's really good that I know that they cut back on factions later / consolidate them because it is. Not overwhelming necessarily but it's easy to get confused? I feel like I need to take notes on what factions do or like, also have a list of all of them to check to keep track. It's probably a good idea to check out the summaries on the wiki after I listen to these & see if I missed anything. (I keep zoning out because I'm thinking about different, later Counter/WEIGHT stuff, usually related to something they just mentioned.)

All that aside: with the scenes and also just ideas generally they are pretty much immediately crushing it. Like oh my god that first Snowtrak scene just rules so much. That's critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends right there.

I definitly didn't draw fanart when I was listening in 2020, and I don't know if I will now, but I'm at least in more of a mindset to even want to do it. (& actually, there is ONE scene I was extremely wanting to draw even back then, I just thought I couldn't do it. I do think I can do it now! And I will at the very least try.) But speaking of art, here's a Hudson Thorne for your troubles if you read to the end:

[animehouse-moe]

Dr. Stone S3 Episode 1: New World Map

Looks like science is back on the menu boys! Dr. Stone returns with its third season (which is 2 cours once more!), with the goal of creating a ship to cross the ocean. An ambitious goal considering the technology of their time, but one that come Heaven or Hell Senku will complete. Though every dream that aims for the stars starts with a humble beginning, this one starting with a search for oil and the beginnings of agriculture.

It's been a while since I've really watched or paid attention to Dr. Stone stuff, so I've been reminded of how enjoyable the art and designs are for this series. They're incredibly tight and creative, and plenty vibrant without being overly contrasty or excessive in terms of color design. It's a really great balance that puts the focus on stranding out, and being strong.

And one last thing before I get into it, the direction for Dr. Stone has never really stood out to me. It's one of those things that just focuses on not getting in the way of the story and its characters. It leans perfectly into the comedy and excessive nature, but doesn't attempt to try and put a spin on things or really do anything crazy with it. Not exactly bog standard, but not something that you point out and talk about.

So with that in mind, I'm jumping right into science!

I thought this blueprint was rather fun, not really accurate in any way, but something and interesting to younger audiences for sure. The cross section is a solid idea for showing how it's supposed to look, and there's even measurements just poking their head out from the bottom of the image. But ultimately, it's slightly more than a glorified drawing of a cross section of a ship.

Now, two little tidbits here, not really important but just stuff I found fun. The first is Yuzuriha being put to work, considering her sewing skill it makes sense, but if it weren't clear to others she's the one that's putting together the sails for the ship which was a fun little background detail to add. Similarly, Kinro and Ginro are working together to plane the various logs into workable lumber. They weren't using it, but was fun to see them show off a planer (and helps remind you of the level of technology available to Team Science).

Now, I'm not 100% certain on what sort of tool Ukyou is using here. My immediate thought was a sextant, but that's used for celestial navigation and they're in the daytime and are surveying land. So, due to lack of knowledge I'm chalking it up to "funky telescope for charting topography".

So, maybe not science, but I really enjoyed this piece as a bit of logic behind the crew's search in the skies. Rysui points out the existence of a herd of wild animals. Now, for a herd to support itself, there must be sufficient food in the area, which Team Science also happens to be after. Sort of a two birds with one stone moment that works out quite well for them as they stumble upon wheat, of all things.

So, on the topic of wheat, I was kind of sad that they didn't explain this little piece here. It's a fun and interesting little thing that helps with an overall mundane task. Threshing is the stage where you separate the stalk/straw that holds all the wheat together, and the more traditional way to separate the two is, essentially, to smack it against something. Because of that, seeing it done in a much more refined and controlled manner was interesting, so I was kind of disappointed they didn't add any dialogue to the scene.

And the last real science-y thing of the episode was a litmus test. A really fun and simple example of the importance of stuff that you might have thought random when in high school. Litmus paper (and acid-base testing in general), is applied in all manner of facets of modern human life. Seeing it as such a simple yet important example was really fun and inspiring, and a cool way to casually teach people about the challenges of agriculture.

Of course, Dr. Stone isn't purely about scientific advancement, so they throw in some sentimental moments as well. In the smaller dosages that we see them in, they serve the story perfectly to allow for the characters to develop, and to help frame the importance and magnitude of the advancements that color human history.

Though you'd be kidding yourself if comedy didn't reign supreme after science. The sort of chibi style that appears just helps accentuate the ridiculous nature of the comedy, while separating it comfortably from the more scientific or sincere sides. It's basically a textbook approach that's executed incredibly well.

And lastly, Minecraft is in an anime. Yeah. Weird, yet awesome decision to have some of the exposition scenes appear as something styled after Minecraft, given the similarities. Great fun, and a cheap and easy solution to those moments, which can allow them to put more focus elsewhere.

[ye-local-simp]

Could I have a twst match-up?

I'm a 17 y/o afab non binary with short black hair that's really fluffy, it gets ratty and oily super easily so I have to wash it a lot, I don't really style my hair or anything. Small hazel eyes and freckles, lips are always chapped and I always am picking at them. My skin is tanned, and my arms and hands have scars from animals, mainly cats because I own two of them. I have really lanky arms and legs, I'm 6'7 and not that muscular, more of built like a twig, instead of being strong I'm quite agile and flexible

I usually like to wear coats, turtlenecks and sometimes sweatpants, my main style of fashion is dark academia or grunge style. Sometimes if I'm going to see a musical or some kind of show live, I'll dress up really fancy like to match the kind of theme that it has, for example, for watching phantom of the opera live I wore a mask like the phantom's and a suit.

For my personality, I'm a pretty laid back and calm person, quite hard to anger, usually in friend groups I take the role as the parental figure and keep an eye on everyone, although I'm not always good at keeping peace. If energetic enough, I'll be causing whatever chaos I can with my friends, but also being cautious and safe at the same time. I enjoy listening to people ramble on about their interests, sometimes I even get interested in the same things as them, and it's just nice seeing people be happy on a certain subject. I really enjoy reading books a lot, and spend most of my time reading or writing, and if I'm not doing either, I'm most likely drawing/painting, or even taking a hike or something. I don't exactly do much outside of those things, but at night I like to play songs on my guitar to try and make myself tired so I can sleep. At any chance I get, I try to get my friends to laugh, if the mood is bad or not, I can easily tell what my friends like and dislike, so I use that to try and cheer them up, perhaps by cracking some jokes or making them food.

I have a very VERY large interest in history and gemology! I have a super large collection of rocks that isn't completed yet, and probably never will be, but I just find rocks to be really interesting and cool. I absolutely love world history as well, taking a major interest in egyptian history and mayan history. I also love bugs, those are really cool, I favor the devil flower mantis the most, they're really pretty. On the other hand, I don't like loud noises at all, nor being that social, repeating and loud sounds and noises really get to me and annoy me, sometimes making me lash out with anger, and I just dislike being social or going out into large spaces, mainly because I don't want to have conversation with others, I'm really awkward and rude around strangers so I'd rather avoid large crowds to the best of my abilities. I also really hate showing off my talents and such against my will, it takes a lot for me to get that fond of someone that I'll play my guitar for them or show them my drawings.

Now for partners, I really just want someone that will be loyal to me as much as I would to them. I don't mind PDA at all, in fact I like it a lot, but I'd be chill if my partner didn't like it. I'm not that picky when it comes to a s/o, so I don't really have any preferences, but I do usually find the hot-heads and flirts to be a bit attractive, but like I said, no major preferences! And my love language is gift giving, mainly to show others how much I care for them. I love giving others gifts and it makes me feel really happy when I see someone be joyful from smth that I gave them. I honestly don't mind that much, as long as I'm in the same room with my partner and I know that they love me, I'm as happy as can be.

You are matched with...

Rook!!!

-He does do PDA but obviously not too much PDA before Vil kills him.

-He is definitely loyal and appreciates everything you do.

-he takes appreciation to the next level.

-Such as writing poems about your relationship and giving you amazing gifts for little things you do.