#GO GO HYPERFOCUS

[looceyloo]

REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA

Of COURSE I had to do an armour set for Utena! Tried to go for something with heroic princely vibes! I ended up referencing Charles V's gold & black armour a lot more than expected, ha.

[sentientsky]

you idiot, we could have been…us.

[its-your-mind]

*deep breath in*

the fears 👏 have always 👏 been (in one way or another) 👏 parallel 👏 to 👏 desire 👏

let me explain.

so many of the statements given by actual avatars center around some sort of need that was met by their entity. Lots of them even had a positive relationship with the fear that drove them.

Jane Prentiss is an excellent example - the Corruption has always been about a form of toxic and possessive love, but she personally has a deep desire to be “fully consumed by what loves her,” and finds a perverse joy and relief at allowing herself to be a home

Jude Perry is another - she fucking loved watching people’s lives be utterly destroyed. The Desolation only offered her a power of destruction on a grander scale, and then gave her a more intense rush of joy as she did its work. When she tells Jon that he needs to feed the Eye before it feeds on him, it’s almost as an afterthought; she was happily feeding the Desolation long before it burned her into a new existence.

Simon Fairchild. Every time that old loose bag of bones wanders into the picture, he is having a fucking EXCELLENT time playing with the Vast. He loves showing people their own insignificance, and he loves luring them into situations where he can throw them into the void as he smiles and waves.

Peter Lukas (hell, the whole Lukas family (except Evan. RIP Evan.)) hated. people. all he wanted was for them all to go away, to leave him alone. The Lonely only fulfilled that desire.

Daisy, Trevor, and Julia, all devoted to hunting those things they deemed monstrous.

Melanie, holding tight to that bullet in her leg because on some level, she wanted it. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like it fit right alongside the anger and spite that drove her to success.

Annabelle Cane first encountered the Web when she was a child, running away from home in order to tug on her parents’ heartstrings in just the right way to have them wrapped around her little finger. Later on she volunteered to be the subject of an ESP study. Hell, she’s the one who dangled the “Is it really You that wants this?” question over Jon’s head in S4.

And that brings us to Jon, beloved Jarchivist, the Voice that Opened the Door. Ever since he was a child targeted by the Web, he was looking for answers. He joined the Magnus Institute’s Research Department looking for them, he stalked his coworkers in search for them, he broke into Gertrude’s flat and laptop out of desperation for them. And when he realized that all he had to do was Ask to get truthful answers to his questions? It was only natural for him to jump at that opportunity.

Elias told S3 Jon that he did want this, that he chose it, that at every crossroads he kept pushing onwards, and the inner turmoil that caused was one of the focal points for Jon’s character through the rest of the podcast.

There’s a certain line of thinking in many circles about the power of the Devil: he’s not able to create anything new. All he’s able to do is twist and warp that which was already present, making it something ugly and profane while still maintaining the facade of something desirable.

Jon didn’t choose the Eye. But he did wander into its realm of power, exhibiting exactly the qualities it was most capable of hijacking and warping to its own ends. Jon didn’t choose the Apocalypse. But Jonah picked at him little by little, pointing him towards each Fear individually. Jon didn’t want to release the Fears. But the Web tugged on his strings just so and laid a pretty trail for him to follow until he reached its desired conclusion.

Jon didn’t choose ultimate power, or omniscience, or even his own role as Head Archivist. But he said “yes” to the right (wrong?) orders and kept on pushing for the right (wrong?) answers. He wanted to succeed at the work he had been assigned. He wanted to protect his friends. He wanted to rescue them when they were lost. He wanted to prevent the apocalypse, to save the world. He wanted to know why he was still alive, when so many had died right in front of him.

The Great Wheel of Evil Color that is the Entities might not fit as neatly into categories in this universe - maybe there was no Robert Smirke trying to impose strict categories on emotional experiences, or maybe the ways they manifest in the world has turned on its head (goodness knows many of them have been showcased and blended in some very fun and new and horrifying ways so far) - but their fundamental foundations seem to be the same. Hell, in episode one we learned that there had been enough individual incidents to create a distinction between “dolls, watching” and “dolls, human skin.”

Smirke’s Fourteen isn’t going to be relevant as common parlance, RQ said that already, but I don’t think that means the Fears themselves (and their Dream Logic-based rules) are different - I think it means that the levels of understanding, language used, and personal connections among people “in the know” are going to be entirely unfamiliar

[skate-the-onion]

World Championships + text post memes part 1/4 ( 1 2 3 4 )

[cobblestone-butch]

jus saw ur post ab sculptor etho muse joel, ik u got forcibly ejected from the writers room but if i make another writers room will u write it /hj

hey tysm! I ended up writing a little something so it will be below <3 this is mostly just Cleo helping Etho realise what might be going on with his struggles to sculpt. I hope people like and mostly that anyone who knows anything about art would write for it too (I know nothing!)

"So, first things first! Why do you want to learn to pose armour stands, Etho? Have you got a specific project in mind?"

There's an awkward pause.

"I only ask so I can get a good idea of what to focus on. It's just good if we start our work with something you're already interested in, right?"

She's never seen Etho look so... Nervous. Learning can be a vulnerable thing, sure, but Etho has never been shy with questions and comments and the unknown the way some people are. It feels wrong to turn to insults, light as they may be, to ease the attention - they're at a complete loss on what to do other than let him work through whatever he's feeling.

"Nothing, there's nothing... Specific I had in mind. It's... I tried sculpting."

"Okay that's good. That's great! What did you like about sculpting?"

"I didn't like sculpting."

Cleo laughs, a mix of confusion and genuine amusement, "Alright! So why do you want to learn 'armorstandography' then?"

Etho is still looking down, picking what she now suspects to be dried clay or quartz from his clothes. His shoulders drop a little from their previously hunched state though, which is a good sign.

"I just figured that maybe it would be easier. N-not that what you do is easy, I mean, you're clearly very skilled, and that's why I've asked you-"

"Etho, slow down, it's okay. I am perfectly assured in what I do and how much effort it takes. But still, I appreciate it."

"I thought maybe something with color would be more, familiar? I like vibrant colors and how they go together, and sculpting out of quartz is so... Lifeless."

Cleo shakes her head, "I won't teach you, Etho."

Etho snaps his head upwards, looking for some sign that it's some dry British humor he's missed. Cleo's face is even more stony than his recent attempts at sculpting.

"I won't teach you", they repeat, "Not for that reason. Color won't inject life into what you make, Etho. I won't teach you something that isn't true."

"Uh huh..."

"And besides, I don't think I believe you. I bet your sculptures have plenty of life in them." Cleo sees a frown pull on Etho's features, "Go on, prove me wrong."

---

Etho puts his hand on the door leading to his storage area. It's a big enough space for art projects, and it's nice to hear items sort themselves as he works, frustrated as he's been with the outcome of his endeavours recently. Cleo reads his hesitance immediately, and knows that Etho won't find comfort in their reassuring words. Here, at the doorway, she pushes past him.

She's drawn to her own face first. Sat on a block is her own head, looking back at her. She sees her own soft features, big eyes and strong nose. A dozen other faces around the room, and she can just about identify them as their friends. There's one off to the side, hidden enough to not drawn attention but not hidden too much, as if he's given himself plausible deniability for doing it. Etho's problem is not that his sculptures look lifeless. Etho's problem is denial.

It takes Cleo seconds to spot and minutes to confirm - there's only one sculpture amongst the collection that properly resembles the person it's modelled after. Every other head or bust has been affected by it, flawed in different ways but for the exact same reason. They all look a bit too much like Joel. It's in the furrow of her brow, the fierceness of Scar's smile, the curl of Doc's hair. Their eyes are all bright, smiles meeting them in genuine warmth, and Cleo can see even with just quartz how skilled Etho is at what he does.

Cleo isn't sure how aware Etho is that he's making them all in Joel's image, so they opt for asking something less direct, "What do you think the problem is? With these sculptures?"

"They're all... Wrong. I just can't get anyone right, and I'm not exactly going for artistic liberty."

Cleo laughs kindly, "That's not exactly true, is it? I can see one that's particularly uncanny."

"Uncanny valley?" Etho makes the joke before she can, but it's not what she was pitching for.

She walks over to and stands behind the sculpture of Joel. "I like this one. I've definitely seen this face before I've died a few times."

Etho laughs, and it stops the ever-shifting of his feet and the picking at his hands. He runs a hand through his hair, letting it rest at his neck as he rubs at it in slight shame. "He's, ah, a vicious one, Joel. He does this little huff thing, and it sounds like a tiger- he's always in some kind of mood and it's always so big, he can't do anything calmly or slowly, you've seen how quickly he builds, and, I just thought what's the most 'Joel' face I can think of? I remembered how he looked building that TNT cannon..."

Cleo lets him talk. It's nice, after all the awkward, to see him talk to openly about all the thoughts that went into the Joel sculpture. She can almost see what he means when he says the other attempts are lifeless; the animation in his voice when he talks about Joel makes everything else pale in comparison. She doesn't think he realises.

"Do you know what a muse is?" They ask after Etho has run himself out of steam, or perhaps noticed a conspicuous lack of interjection from Cleo, a usually very active listener.

"You mean like an inspiration?"

"Yeah! Well, sort of. In Greek mythology, the Muses were goddesses, and their domains included art of all kinds. And we've sort of derived meaning from that, so plenty of artists say they have muses that inspire them. And it helps them make art even if it's not always about them."

"Uh huh. So you think that I need to find my muse?"

"I think you already have, Etho." She looks down at the head between them, and Etho follows her gaze. Joel's eyes look back at him, intense and alive and challenging. He averts his gaze, something complicated settling over him - what they shared was so long ago, in a time and place so far from here. To feel the pull of that, it feels cosmic and mythical in a way Etho naturally rejects.

It's like Cleo can see through him, always. "It doesn't have to be complicated. It can be as simple as knowing someone well enough to capture a second of their likeness. That's what a lot of my armour stands do, they're just snapshots in time. Maybe you should just talk to Joel."

"Oh, I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"He'll be insufferable about it."

Cleo actually snorts at that. "Fine then, don't talk to him. Just make more excuses to send him mail and wait for an extrovert to bring you to his base to talk, or whatever it is that you guys do."

"You're not far off, Cleo."

"Oh, I know. I have to hear all about it."

"What?! The next time I see Scar..."

---

Joel stares back into his own eyes. The head was left at the gate to his base, like something the mafia might do as a threat. There was a single sign next to it: Feel free to alter or remove - Etho. It's incredible, seeing his likeness through someone else's eyes. He didn't know his hair was so fluffy, his smile so sharp. He picks up the head with a grunt (Bloomin' heck, is this thing solid quartz?!) and moves it somewhere it can be seen, before pulling a book from the chest under his mailbox and penning his sculptor a message.

[koszmarnybudyn]

It took me untill 1am but i finished it yay! The glowing effects were cool to do :) anyway i like angst.

Also just lineart version:

[blistering-typhoons]

The Devil's Foot: Granada/Radio Holmes Edit

(bonus, under the influence of the devil's foot itself, in the radio adaptation, holmes and watson quote this simultaneously)

[fandom-geek]

my god, people weren't joking when they said gortash is desperate to convince durge to ally with him. i genuinely think that cutscene was at least twice as long as it was compared to my tav playthrough.

also "make our pact anew" is fascinating. i wouldn't have thought divine oaths stop applying simply because one participant loses their memory, so i wonder how durge got away with killing ketheric. unless myrkul's intervention, in a durge run, is because of that?

[pollenallergie]

“do the hardest task first”

no. just… no.

hot take: this doesn’t work for people with adhd (in my experience/from what i’ve heard from other people with adhd in my life). i recommend doing the easy/moderately difficult stuff first, that way you can convince yourself that it’s all going to be this easy and undemanding. then hyper-focus will kick in because your brain is like, “yeah, we can do this, we’ve got this.” then, before you know it, you’ve completed both the easy tasks and the hard tasks while hyperfocusing.

like, on a serious note, it’s always been easier for me to convince myself to get the most difficult tasks done when i’m already working/in the working frame of mind, not when i’m laying in bed or sitting on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through stuff on my phone, and struggling to start at all.

if the choice comes down to you not starting at all or starting with the easiest task first (which, for me, it often does), always, always pick starting with the easiest task first. sometimes you need a small victory, a little bit of an accomplishment, to give you the courage to take on bigger challenges.

[fektanist]

little silly doodle and SPARROW

[frecklystars]

So amusing how Ken was so annoyed with Barbie when they went to the Real World™. I mean he was ANNOYED. He was so smitten after the dance party and in the car and basically any time he ever basked in her presence, but literally the moment they get to the Real World™ he sees men in power for one (1) second and he starts getting an attitude.

Like when she's sitting on the bench and he's like "I hate when people think, I get so BORED" and he sounds so pissy already. it's so funny. "the faster I think, the faster we can get home" "what am I supposed to do?? 🙄" then she's growling through clenched teeth "KENNNN." so fucking good. the whole scene, so good. "go for a walk or something!" "OH REALLY. BY MYSELF." AS IF THIS MAN HAS NEVER WALKED BY HIMSELF ANYWHERE BEFORE? "YES." "WHERE???" AND SHE'S JUST LOOKING AT HIM INCREDULOUSLY "???? ANYWHERE!!!!!" "CAN I GO THAT WAY?" "YES"

he walks away. his head over his shoulder, staring at her. the. entire. time. he is walking. no, sauntering. with this stupid grin on his face.

"don't go too far-" and his smile warps into a snarl for a split second when he angrily shouts "OKAY!"

and then the scene where Barbie's all excited because she's about to meet Sasha, Ken interrupts and says "I'm just gonna pop into the library real quick and see if they have any books on trucks :D" and he's got the CUTEST DORK SMILE on his face he sounds SO EXCITED 🥺🥺🥺

and Barbie says with a sigh "okay, just don't get in trouble" and she's not even annoyed here. she's just genuinely worried about him causing a scene or something

and Ken's smile DROPS and his good mood DROPS and his eyes bug out when he growls "I WONNNN'T" in the most exasperated voice EVER, he sounds SO offended and he's doing that hand motion where he's shakily clawing the air palms facing up and in response Barbie's immediately gritting her teeth and clenching her jaw giving him a Mom Glare. i fucking love their dynamic it's such a mess literally neither of them are normal

the whole time they are in the Real World™ they are at each other's throats. Barbie expresses multiple times how uncomfortable she is with these negative feelings she's experiencing for the first time, things Ken has already experienced but she's unaware of it, such as anxiety and self consciousness, and Ken does not acknowledge her comments even once. I don't think he was purposefully ignoring her but he was definitely lacking the chivalrous Kenergy™ because he was so wrapped up in horses patriarchy.

I don't think they had any positive interactions with each other except when they went "shopping" for new western clothes and they were like "we look great!" "i love fringe!" "i love denim!" and they're both laughing together. that was the first and only moment we see them interacting as genuine friends, where Barbie is talking to him as an equal instead of (unintentionally) as an accessory, and Ken isn't begging and prying for her attention. but otherwise you don't really see them caring that much about each other, at least not in a healthy way, until the very end of the movie. and this isn't to say that they're on bad terms yet, not at all, but in the beginning of the movie Barbie is still not really seeing Ken. he's just Some Dude who follows her like a lost puppy and she doesn't acknowledge him unless if he's asking. hey Barbie, check me out. hey Barbie, how much of that did you see. hey Barbie, can I come to your house tonight. hey Barbie, hey Barbie, hey Barbie. please let me come with you to the real world, WHAT IF THERE'S BEACH, YOU'LL NEED SOMEONE WHO'S A PROFESSIONAL IN THAT. and then ryan gosling gives you the softest smoothest buttery delivery when he ends it with a small breathy please? the 'p' and 's' so gentle I literally sigh every time he says it... anyway--

[jofiah]

symmetrical map with asymmetrical detailing my beloved

red team here is more about lumber and wood; blu is more about metal/concrete and mining

[spielzeugkaiser]

12, 24, and 29! <3

12. Favorite pairing/character/subject you created art of this year?

The bard!! But honestly also Geraskier, Geralt, Ciri and Yen and Milek and the other wolves- but a certain bard is often enough the centerpiece of it.

24. What did you listen to while creating this year?

Oh, a lot of musicals (if you look very closely they all reappear from time to time, but it is like each AU has kind of it's own soundtrack - there was a lot of Hadestown - but also Six, Dear Evan Hansen, The mad ones, Waitress, or the Anastasia musical). Some german musicians, cover musicians like annapantsu or Karliene, but mostly I watch some documentaries or funny videos!

[leftboob-enthusiast]

Maybe I'm just autistic but I loooove making my little colour-coded excel spreadsheets and whatnot and sorting it all into a system that honestly probably looks wack to other people but gives me so much satisfaction to do. I used to struggle so much with remembering stuff because I've got zero object permanence but it's me and my whiteboard calendar against the world now

[skull-ishcloud]

I think my biggest problem with RR is that I love the idea he has but not the execution.

Like, nice ADHD guy who uses humor as a coping mechanism. Nice, war between Greeks and Romans. Nice, Poseidon and Athena children couple. Nice, gender fluid badass character. Nice,

Then you realize the ADHD guy doesn't get much deeper than that. That, the war was caused by some flat ass character with no personality aside from killing panda plushies and superiority complex. That the A and P's relationship was kinda forced and toxic. That the said badass character is only gender fluid bc of her mom.

[alien-ally]

i think i figured what my preference is. If it’s a show about romance, where romance IS the major plot, i’m okay with it. enthusiastic and enthralled even. but god forbid it shows up anywhere else and i’m deeply upset, cursing out god damned amatonormativity, my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. LIKE CANT YOU SEE THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO FOCUS ON HERE?