#I wanted to do this because I keep including Charles in my art as the Cola Can

[kitfyy]

Cannibalism!! @bubblingcolaa (joke)

also included you on my chalkboard doodles (as well as @senhiv @senavin [as the cat next to the coke])

[queen-paladin]

disclaimer: yes, I am complaining about cheating in media. Because, yes, writers have the freedom to create what they want but if the morality in creation is free for all forms of media, but no piece of art is exempt from criticism, and that includes criticism on personal moral grounds. I betcha if I said Harry Potter is good, actually, everyone on here would flood my blog telling me I am wrong because of the author's intense prejudice. That being said, I am criticizing cheating in fiction, If you don't like that, don't interact

So often lately I see period dramas where the husband cheats on the wife (ex. Poldark, The Essex Serpent, Queen Charlotte, The Great)...and not only do I despise the cheating trope with every fibre of my being to where I get panic attacks when I consume the media...but specifically with period dramas...

Do these writers not understand the greater implications of a husband cheating on a wife during these periods? More than just the humiliation and heartbreak in the case of a loving, good marriage just like it is today.

In the Western world, probably until certain laws were enacted in the 1900's, if a woman married a man, she was legally his property. She had no legal identity under him. She was financially dependent on him. Any wages she made would automatically go to her husband. Her children were also not legally her children- they belonged to the father. If the husband died, even if the wife was still alive, the children were legally considered orphans.

Women could only rarely gain a divorce from their husbands. In England in the mid-1800's specifically, if a wife divorced a husband she had to prove he had to not only cheat but also be physically abusive, incestuous, or commit bestiality. On the other hand, a husband could divorce a wife just for being unfaithful. Because, kids, there were sexual double standards.

Getting married was often the endgame for a lot of women during that time. Sometimes you couldn't make your own living enough- marriage was a way to secure your entire future financially, with more than enough money to get by. If you were a spinster and middle class, you could get by with a job. But if you are an upper-class lady, the one thing a lady does not do is get a job and work. So upper-class spinsters basically were dependent on their families to get by (ex. Anne Elliott in Persuasion faces this with her own toxic family). As strange as it sounded today, marriage gave them some freedom to go about since a husband could be persuaded sometimes more easily than a father and one had a different home, their servants, etc. A husband was your foundation entirely for being a part of society, and standing up as your own woman.

So if a husband cheated on a wife, that was a threat to take all of that away.

He could give a lot of money that could be used to support his wife and children to the mistress. He could completely abandon said wife for the mistress. And since the wife legally couldn't get a job as he still lived, she would be dependent on any money he would said- and that is IF he sent over any money.

He could take her to court and publicly humiliate her to get a divorce away from her (look up the separation of Charles and Kate Dickens, he would call her mentally ill and say her cooking was bad and that she was having more children than they could keep up with all while having an affair and divorcing her to be with the misteress). And even if the wife was the nicest, more proper, goodest, more rule-abiding never-keeping-a-toe-out-of-line lady in town...as a man, the law was default on his side (look up Caroline Norton's A Letter to the Queen which details exactly that, the poor woman had her earnings as a writer taken by her husband and was denied access to her children from said husband)

So yeah...even if there was "no love" between them (and anytime the wife is portrayed as too boring or too bitchy so He HaS tO cHeAt is brought up is...pretty victim blamey)

So yeah. Period drama writers, if you have the husband have an affair ...just consider the reality of these things and address them, maybe punish the husband for once (*gasp* men facing consequences for their actions?!?!!), and if not, just please find other options and other tropes and devices for once.

[tempting-andromeda]

Could you do some artist head canons with eagle flies and charles? (Maybe john and/or arthur too?) like they are the readers muse for most of their works?

(Sorry if this is too broad, i just love your work sm!)

Artist s/o headcanons

Characters: Eagle Flies, Charles Smith, Arthur Morgan, John Marston

Eagle flies

Likes to look at your drawings

Even if you don’t allow him to

Once he sees you small doodles of him he gets so flustered

Stares at it for hours

He’s exited you found him interesting enough to draw him

He doesn’t confront you about it but he does tell Paytah

Hes so excited to be like “yeah they draw! And they drew me!” And Paytah already knows because eagle flies has the worst tendency to just zone out and you take advantage of that

Gets embarrassed but now he’s like… conscious about zoning out

If you ask him to pose he does so without any hesitation!

Likes to watch you draw

Leans over your shoulder and watched how you know exactly where to place the shading

It’s all very interesting to him

He likes when you don’t hide some of his traits when you draw him

When you include the scars on his face, his sharp cheekbones, etc

He feels nice knowing you noticed those things about him

Charles Smith

He knows you draw and you’re quite the artist but doesn’t expect to be your muse

Likes to support your art but tries to keep himself out of it to not disturb you

Once he sees a sketch of himself he gets so flustered

He doesn’t feel so mean and large when you draw him

He feels soft

The main focus isn’t his furrowed brows or dark under eyes

It’s anything else but you still drew them

You still noticed them and didn’t pretend that he looked better without

Thinks it’s sweet when you draw him whom he’s working

He doesn’t see the beauty in it but you seem too and who is he to argue

Does ask for playful requests though

Has asked you to draw random animals doing human things just to humor you

Tries to ignore the warm feeling in his chest whenever you draw him though

He likes it but he doesn’t want to seem too egotistical

He just likes that you see him differently than he does

Arthur Morgan

He’s used to being pulled out of his comfort zone

Not once in his life as he ever thought “hmm I want someone to draw me”

But one day he catches you drawing him and his heart bursts

He knows a bit about art

He doesn’t use many nice things just a pencil and paper, not wanting to focus on anything all too much so he can get by

He knows art is difficult if you want to make it look good

So when he finds out you’re drawing him? He’s flattered

His hands feel clammy and his cheeks feel hot

So when you ask him to pose or if you can draw him he nearly rejects you but he quickly recovers and just asks that you don’t make it a habit

Truthfully he wants you to make it a habit

He wants to see how you see him

Is he mean and dumb looking or is he just a guy

It’s incredibly intimate to him and he doesn’t know why

He likes looking over then, lazily chewing on his nail as he looks at one of your paintings of his eyes

Will say that you’re painting the wrong man and that your picture is a different man than him but it’s special to him

John Marston

Can’t pose for shit

He’s stiff and awkward

But sometimes you catch him when he’s distracted

He’s whittling or polishing his gun and he looks…calm

He’s definitely someone you have to draw off guard

If he knows what you’re doing he’s making it awkward for the both of you

Will smile but it’s just teeth and his face is blank

But when you catch him off guard he looks so calm

Or when he’s sleeping

He likes looking at your drawings and looking at how you see him

He didn’t let you draw him because of his scars at first but now he liked seeing you draw them

You put in just as much detail like you refuse to forget them

It makes him feel nice

He does tease though

“Why didn’t you add my rugged muscles?”

[queengiuliettafirstlady]

Love Booth Challenge

Love Booth for underrated characters.

Ikemen version

Hello and welcome to my first challenge. I am proud to present to you the Love Booth challenge, a month long exploration of love for the underrated characters of the Ikemen games.

General Rules

Works and art of all forms are welcome! Fanarts, fanfics, headcanons, moodboards, playlists and everything you can manage to think of is included. 

Limited to Ikemen fandoms and to certain suitors, due to popularity of some characters more than others I have decided to host a challenge exclusively for the less appreciated.

I had this idea since forever what took me so long to post it was the creations of the prompts I created in association with my lovely friend MO @xxsycamore.

I did my best to include most of the less loved characters from the Ikemen games exclusively with an English version.

That said if you think about other less popular characters, belonging to one of these games or to other Ikemen games that are not out in English yet, You are allowed to use these prompts as inspiration.

The main focus is to show love to characters not so loved by the fandom/game all year around without limit for this reason I won't make a masterlist.

When posting your works, use the tag #love booth challenge - you can as well tag me @queengiuliettafirstlady in your posts! It will help find other creations for those interested to check them out.

Posting to other sites is allowed - as long as you mention the challenge and its creators.

Reblogs are appreciated!

Content Rules

This challenge features a list of prompts, and dialogue prompts which you can match to your liking, if you want to. You can create more than one work for the same prompt, too!

Under the cut, you will find the prompts linked to the characters included in the challenge, that can be mixed up with prompts from other challenges happening around the fandom in the same month.

Any additional rules are up to the artists. You are free to choose the rating (make sure to mark your NSFW works accordingly, and if you’re minor, make sure not to interact with such!), and also the genre (the challenge’s main focus is romantic love, but it is not obligatory for your work to be of such genre), all characters and ships included are up to you (OCs, character x MC, character x character, etc.)

You’re free to take requests from your audience using these prompt lists, again please make sure to mention the challenge and its creator.

You’re absolutely free to post your works for this challenge whenever you feel like.

The final and most important rule is to have fun and not pressure yourself about full completion of the challenge. Do only as many works as you wish! :)

Here is a free-to-use banner/header for the challenge!

If you have any additional questions, I’ll be happy to help. There is no such thing as a stupid question, so don’t hesitate to get in contact with us! I wish you happy creating!

THE LISTS

Ikemen Vampire

Dazai - Storyteller - A walk under the cherry trees.

Jean - Monster - "I am not worthy of love."

Mozart - Music - "You are my muse."

Sebastian - Secrets - "My composure is an act."

Shakespeare - Bard - A poem for my lover

Faust - Alchemy - "Behave for me."

Charles - Obsession - "I wish we could stay like this forever."

Isaac - Scholar - "I don't understand people at all ... yet I found myself quite curious to know everything about you."

Ikemen Prince

Keith - Duality - "Trust me."

Luke - Bear - "I will protect you."

Jin - Sweets - "All I need is our love."

Rio - Pet - "I will love you always and forever."

Sariel - Discipline - "It will do good to remember I am quite a strict tutor."

Nokto - Facade - "Were the truth lies ?"

Licht - Scar - "No matter what I do this scars will not heal, but your presence made me forget about them."

Yves - Fashion - "Would you like to get ready together ?"

Ikemen Revolution

Zero - Identity - "I am human because of you."

Harr - Magic - "I only want to keep you safe."

Loki - Abandonment - Seeking comfort on a rainy night.

Blanc - Gentleman - "Do you remember what I warned you about when you came in Cradle?"

Mousse - Dreams - "You are the subject of my dreams. I want to know even more about you."

Dean - Strict - Stern gaze softening upon an endearing sight.

Dalim - Flirt - "You shouldn't have trusted me."

Oliver - Creativity - "The best part about my creations is seeing you smile."

Ikemen Sengoku

Kennyo - Revenge - "You make me feel complete with your love."

Ranmaru - Loyalty - "I will always be there for you."

Sasuke - Companion - Fanning over the fanboy.

Mitsunari - Knowledge - "Let me take care of you."

Yoshimoto - Beauty - Admiring art together.

Kanetsugu - Strategy - "I found quite difficult to keep my composure when you are around."

Hideyoshi - Devotion - "You're my number one priority."

Ieyasu - Teacher - Collecting herbs together.

Once again Have fun and Happy Creating! I can't wait to see all your creations. 🧡💟💌🤗

[wizard-on-whales]

Modern AU! for rdr2 characters

These are my headcannons for each character and what I think they would do in modern times.

Characters included: Arthur, Micah, Dutch, John, Abigail, Mary-Beth, Karen, Tilly, Sadie, Strauss, Charles, Susan, Bill, Lenny, Hosea, Sean, Molly, Javier, Swanson

_______________________________

Arthur Morgan: 

He works a blue-collar job. He would most likely be a ranch hand, but for some reason, I can also imagine him being a plumber or welder. In his free time, he does art and sells prints on Etsy. He is still an old-fashioned gentleman (In a good way), and all of the ladies he meets swoon for him, but he is a himbo and doesn't realize they are practically in love with him. They will give him the most obvious hints, but he will think the women are just being nice. 

Micah Bell:

He's the creepy uncle that you avoid at every family gathering. He hasn't had a job in like 15 years, and no one knows how he can still pay his bills. And he also always smells like lingering alcohol and cigarettes. He will lean too close to his nieces and say extremely concerning things everyone would choose to ignore. Im also getting the vibes that he went to prison for several years, but no one knows what for.

Dutch Van Der Linde:

He sells people scams or owns a pyramid scheme business. Similar to Scentsy products, he somehow convinces all of these people to buy his products to sell to other people, telling them they will get rich by selling these products, but, in reality, he's screwing them over and making most of the money himself. 

John Marston: 

If we are talking about early Red Dead 2 Marston, he still lives in his parent's basement and plays video games on his PC all day. He also watches Andrew Tate and would try to boss Abigail around and tell her he's an alpha male. (She'd slap him and tell him to get over himself) Late rdr2 and rdr1, he's grown out of that mindset and has become a working family man. Potentially also a welder, like I said for Arthur. But any high-paying physical job works.  

I feel like Abigail, Mary-Beth, Karen, and Tilly would all have a mom group they host every week to discuss their child's newest achievements. Their husbands think that is all they do at the meetings, but they also have in-depth conversations about women's suffrage and how the world caters to men. They think of ways to better the world and bring more women together to discuss these topics and bring light to issues regarding women. The girls would run a pretty popular Facebook group where they let other women express their opinions on those topics. (Arthur is a part of the Facebook group and likes every post he sees and comments shit like, “You're doing great, ladies! Keep up the good work! 😁🥰👍”) 

Sadie would probably occasionally attend these meetings (Although I dont see her having children, she would go for the cheap wine and to hang with her friends). Sadie would also go for the in-depth conversations and bring new thoughts to the table because she is a CEO or manager for a very successful company. She would share her experiences of what it's like to be on top of the men who work for her but still be looked down upon by them simply because of her gender. She would also probably share tips on that Facebook page on how to create a successful business without having to attend years of college and give tips for all stay-at-home moms who want to be more than just moms and wives. (She would also be the cool rich aunt)

Leopold Strauss: 

He would do the same thing. He gives loans to people who he knows won't be able to pay back the money, and then when the bill comes, he'd ruin their lives and probably end up breaking up families/ relationships and send people to jail for not paying back the money in time. 

Charles Smith:

I can see him being a park ranger or working in any conservation field. Potentially even a firefighter who deals with all of the forest fires that happen in places along the West Coast. He’d also be one to do something similar to what he did in the game, but he would work with the local native tribes against companies to try to win back their lands before it gets plowed over for an Amazon factory or something. 

Susan Grimshaw:

I can see her being the mean substitute teacher who yells at everyone to get to work, and then when someone does something slightly wrong, she would yell at the whole class and be like, “In all of my years of teaching, I have never seen a class behave this badly.” Either that or she would work at the front desk of the business Sadie runs. Miss Grimshaw would NOT play with anyone who would try to be rude towards her. 

Bill Williamson: 

Ehem…a police officer. I feel like this one is self-explanatory. But he would mostly sit in his car and do nothing his entire shift. Occasionally pulling someone over for speeding. If they are a white dude, he'd would let them off with just a warning. Poor Lenny would probably get the ticket. 

Lenny Summers: 

I feel like he would be the one to graduate high school early and go to college as soon as possible. I dont know exactly what he would choose for his degree, but I feel like it would be something involving politics. Maybe that wouldn't be his major, but he would take a government class. Or Potentially going into journaling. 

Hosea Matthews:

He's the retired grandpa who used to work in a factory where he made a surprising amount of money and was able to retire early. He spends most of his days walking up at 5 in the morning to watch the sunrise and read the morning paper. And he’ll spend every opportunity he gets to take his kids or grandkids fishing. And if you stay at his house overnight or for the weekend, he gives you a bowl of ice cream every night before bed and recounts every story he could think of that happened from the last time you saw him. (Some of them are surprisingly concerning, but he is one of those badass grandpas)

Sean Macguire:

Similar to John, Sean would spend most of his time gaming on his PC and arguing with children on COD or Fortnite. But he also works at a local bar as the bartender and won't hesitate to argue with the drunk assholes and would slap a bitch if needed. But he also embarrasses himself by flirting with women who will give him dirty looks or tell him that they are gay. (I feel like Karen would also work late-night shifts at the bar with him, but shes also taking online college classes because she wants to be a social worker) 

Molly O’Shea:

Instagram and TikTok influencer 100%, and lots of brands like to sponsor her and send her free stuff (Mostly because of Dutch’s business.) and she posts videos of her and Dutch, and everyone in the comments freaks out about how he is grooming her because of their age difference but she denies it all and says that they are actually in love.  But then she would post a video to that one sound, “My god this reminds me of when we were young.” And Molly be like 8, and Dutch be in his mid-to-late 20s. 

Javier Escuella: 

He’d be a musician. He would have started out in a shitty garage band with Sean and John or something, but then he’d realize he actually wants to be a serious musician while the other guys were just messing around. So he’d leave and make solo music that blows up, and he ends up going on tour, and making a lot of money and becoming hugely successful. 

Reverend Swanson:

The preacher you always see in the corner of the bar Sean works at. And if you went up to him and started talking to him, he’d tell you the most profound things. He would tell you about his life when he was younger and what happened that made him lose hope, but he would motivate you to never give up. He’d be that person you meet by chance for a few seconds that you would never forget. Hosea probably invites him to go fishing with him from time to time. But instead of fishing, Swanson stares at the water ripples in silence. Hosea would let him sit in silence and let Swanson enjoy the company and the time to think while being sober. 

----------------------------

[lithreeum]

WHATS UP FUCKERS I'M HERE TO SHARE WITH YOU MY LATEST CAFFEINE FUELED BRAINCHILD:

THE PROJECT MOON AU WHERE NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS EVER (and also some of them are college students (and none of this is well thought out at all please help me))™

You know how Fate has that one cooking spinoff where nobody kills anybody and they just hang around and have dinner?

This is that. For PM fans. Roland is canonically a good cook and a foodie. It could happen. PM please make it happen I just want my goobers to be happy and untraumatized.

Anyways, with that rambling done, let me ramble about these four fuckers and what they're up to.

So, the setting's a fancy college where rich people go to. Angelica is there on academic scholarship; Argalia has a music scholarship; Roland's there because his adopted mom Iori is a lecturer there so the tuition's cheaper; Angela's there because Ayin and Benjamin are fuck you rich and spoils her to high heavens.

Argalia's and Angela are both music majors, Angelica's in engineering, and Roland's in culinary. Roland and Angelica are 2nd years, Argalia and Angela are 3rd years.

Roland's known Angela since forever ago because they were in the same orphanage. Argalia and Angelica are siblings. Here's baby roland on adoption day I drew while writing this because I have no self control.

Where was I? Oh right. So, Roland gets adopted by Iori; Angela gets adopted by Ayin and Benji. Angela calls Ayin Dad and Benjamin Gramps because he has grey hair, the two got to some hijinks in their high school years, they remained friends to present day.

Back to the main four. So, first year, Angelica and Roland meet on campus one day on some meet cute shit. Then it turns out Iori is Angelica's Host family while she's studying here. Romcom shenanigans happen, Argalia's the overprotective brother, Angela's the resident wingman/shipmaker/popcorn eater/"just kiss already" yeller, Roland cooks/awkwardly flirts, Angelica gifts Roland a knife she made for his adoption day, it's great. Eventually A Fritter Called Jeon happens and they start dating and more romcom ensues.

That is everything my stupid little monkey brain can semi-coherently conjure up since the rest are just incoherent snippets of tangentially related information and cute funny things these goobers can get up to. Among which include:

The Asiyah and Briah Sephira are Angela's circle of friends that met in high school, they all go into their respective fields from LoR. Geb does sports. Maybe Yesod and Angelica know each other from engineering competitions or something.

Binah's a CIA agent that knows way too many people, because of course she does.

Yan and Gloria are taking Theology studies, Esther and Hubert are post-grads/professor assistants, they become friends somewhat, Moirai's a professor there.

Blue Reverbs are all music majors that hang out with Argalia and Angela, they take bets on which one snaps and kills the other first. Oswald bets on hate sex. Tanya bets that the two of them would kill someone together.

Charles' Office are Roland's group of friends back from back in High School, Olivier went on to become a civil servant, I do not know what the fuck the rest are up to, we'll see when they show up in Limbus.

Speaking of Limbus, the Limbus gang are all in...I don't know what you english speaking fuckers call "school clubs but in college", I know a word exists for it, but I'm blanking. They're all in one of those. Rodya started it and roped them all in. Vergilius and Dante are their advisors. They go around and survey the socioeconomic state of the country in various locales and write reports about it (read: Rodya found a way to get them all free vacation and they all took it)

Angelica' physically very strong, she does martial arts, and she gets Roland into martial arts, but whenever they "spar" they just end up a blushing pile of goo that's too embarrassed to grapple their crush. They have good fun though.

Argalia keeps trying to split Angelica and Roland apart but he doesn't actually try since he's seen how happy she gets when she talks about him.

[magnetic-regent-magneto]

Do you focus on Erik’s Jewish heritage at all with your portrayal?

-- MUN ||:

(Let me try to keep this short. If you want to know more about an aspect, I would love to answer another ask! I will sometimes name only examples)

I Do.

But not every character gets to see as such and I get intervals where it is stronger or weaker represented in my writing. And I hate that I probably only scratch the surface.

I try to portray Magneto's Jewish heritage in a nuanced way, not always overtly-- not screaming it out, I admit. And I try to do good research. Please do not kill me.

I let it drive his actions and thoughts-- making it subtext. Let me try to break it down briefly.

SHORT VERSION

WHEN IT APPEARS:

with family

similar connections

reflection of conflict

children

plots

era dependent

HOW IT APPEARS:

him speaking more Yiddish

references and metaphors of art, quotes, writers, folklore, cultural events, traditions, music

his cooking

memories to his family, how he grew up, differences of Max vs Magneto, Polish and German influences

love languages and the way he loves

appearance

chaotic relationship with god

FULL VERSION BELOW

WHEN IT APPEARS:

Heavy Emphasis with Specific CHARACTERS: Some interactions draw out the Jewish influence more directly, making it less subtext. This happens with:

Obvious Examples for that are his family (Wanda, Pietro, Lorna, Luna, Billy, Tommy,...),

characters with similar believes (Moon Knight),

people who can be similar or oppositional (Dr. Doom, X-Men, Charles),

children like the New Mutants or children on Krakoa.

ERAS AKA. PLOT: Magneto's connection to his heritage fluctuates. Sometimes, it's at the forefront (90s, Krakoa/Arrako), with reflection on his history and family. Other times (2014), it's more detached or even betraying, creating an internal conflict. The eras also tend to turn to other aspects of his heritage. (Arrako - family, Krakoa - mythos, 2014 - historical trauma, parallels to dark times)

HOW IT EXPRESSES:

YIDDISH LANGUAGE: The first noticable thing is that I try to use Yiddish. Though rare, as I fear mistakes, he uses Yiddish names for his children, and occasional phrases.

JEWISH CULTURE: Instead of the predominantly Christian metaphors in the comics (Pieta), I reference Jewish writers, folklore, myth, music, quotes, and art. Golem, Leviathan, and creation myths are often referenced, alongside Kabbalistic ideas.

My FOLKLORE tends to always circle back to the Golem or Leviathan, or myths from creation and Kabbalistic doctrine. Some folklore aspects I love but lack to mention enough is gilgul (reincarnation until being worthy of god), Dybbuk (possessing evil).

Magnus also cooks Jewish food in my RPs. A lot. Food is a comfort language for him.

TRADITIONS AND RITUALS: Life cycle events or traditions and actions is something I try to add more and more. Just to name a few, this includes writing of Bar/Bat Mitzvah (Birthday celebrations) for his children, Sabbath, when the roleplay storyline is darker (referencing Genosha or similar events), I think back to traditions of shiva. Krakoa is related to Pentecost in my mind.

LOVE LANGUAGE: His romance is based on Yiddish romance writing and poetry and how it is viewed. Like, everyday acts of love mattering far more. His love is actions, constant, not bursts. (Also, I remember old Jewish love movies!) example source as this could be its own endless post.

FAMILY- MAX VS MAGNETO: I give his family a more significant role. A ground he can be based on-- because that is a core all of Magneto will always return to. There is more reflection to what Max was given-- taught how to make jewelry, stories he was told, how he grew up before Auschwitz and during it (fighting for survival, being a thief, having especially good eye-sight to spot gold in the pits,...).

Max, Erik, Magnus, Magneto-- Using different names reflects different aspects of him. Max connects him to his core, his family, and his youth. I use it more often. It's a return to his pre-Auschwitz self, similar to Al Ewing's return to the name in X-Men: Red.

Furthermore, he is more of a 'typical' Jewish dad to his kids, with predominantly German and Polish influence.

APPEARANCE: Though not noticable in my writing, I suppose, in my mind, subtle details like his nose, skin, and hands influenced by jewelry-making with his parents, or his naturally curly hair, hint at his Jewish background. I also like the idea of his helmet being kind of his Kippa (I do not remember where I read that once)

GOD: Magneto's relationship with God requires separate discussion. However, I do show him reflecting on his faith at times, calling upon God, even. And he tries to atone in the way his heritage has taught him to.

Add-on edit: Jewish heritage aesthetic influences.

[butterscotch-goat]

Your oc lore, please give it to me, I arrived very late and am rather confused but also incredibly intrigued! (Also side not idk how to explain it but your art is very comforting! Says the man who has seen 2 drawings. But my point still stands lol)

This means so much to me 🥹🥹 Im glad ur interested!!! I'll give u some quick summaries (quick as I can be bc once I start talking about my silly little blorbos it's hard for me to stop-)

IF YOU EVER HAVE QUESTIONS PLS ASK IM DYING TO TALK ABOUT MY GUYS

SO! First group of OCs is a project I'm currently calling "Escapism" which takes place in 1890s England. (Check the #buttersketch-escapism tag for content of em)

Okay so I started typing and realized I included WAYYY TOO MUCH info but I worked hard on it so I'll still include it, bUT

TLDR: Aster (tired, anxious, hopeful) is magic (plant magic) and is being used for experiments and tests by Charles(friendly guy, stubborn, cheery) and Beatrice(joyful, caring, passionate) until Beatrice herself becomes and experiment when Charles wants to find out what would happen if you attached wings to a human being. Also aster and Beatrice are girlfriends. Charles accidentally kidnaps Martha (extroverted, curious, peppy) because her magical(healing magic) girlfriend Grace died and Martha has info about her magic. Eventually Aster kills Charles and is haunted by her guilt, which is manifested in a character I call Ghost!Charles (self-explanatory)

Here's uhhh escapism for ya!! Sorry,, you don't have to read it there's a lot of text I know-

Second story which I haven't posted about as much as one I'm calling "Dawn" which takes place in the modern day, and is about demons & angels, heaven & hell & earth type stuff. Simpler than escapism, thank God- (check the #buttersketch-dawn tag for some content of dawn!!!!!)

Here's the cast!! Refs are somewhat outdated but do the job. (Sorry for the last image I don't have a ref for him yet)

I'll keep this short, for real this time!!

In 2019, Chigs accidentally falls off the edge of heaven and misses earth so they fall straight to hell. They didn't have any evil intent so are still an angel, but they need to find a way back to heaven. They stumble into Dawn's office and Dawn reluctantly agrees to help them. Frappe also barges into Dawn's office to hide, as she's on the run from the police. Gene comes around to check on Dawn and finds an outlaw and an angel. Dawn, Chigs, and Frappe run away to earth. Gene recruits Ronnette to help him track down the trio. The trio accidentally gets separated on their way to earth; Frappe and Chigs find each other but Dawn is left to navigate a modern day earth on her own. HIJINKS ENSUE!

time for some lore that's BARELY plot relevant!

Gene and Lucy used to be boyfriends but Gene broke up with Lucy in the 1920s because Lucy was so drowned in his work and wouldn't care about anything else. They get back together eventually tho :3 I make a lot of Lucy & Abigail content even tho he only shows up in like one flashback scene maybe??? Sorry about that.

Anyway THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT MY GUYSSS I tried to keep it short, also bc it is getting late and I have school tomorrow OFBSHHDHFHDHSJ.

my inbox is ALWAYS open for questions of any kind so hmu if you ever have any!! Sorry again for all the info!!

[skelleste]

2023 Art Summary

Some of the many things I worked on over the past 365 days. More details below.

Happy New Year!

Just like last year, 2023 was full of even more character art, including a brand spanking new OC. You haven't seen much of the comic yet, because it's not done, but there's been progress on that in the background as well. I also started commissions last March. None are featured in this post so I could focus more on original art, but I wanted to give a special thank-you to all my past commissioners. Not a single one of you were a customer service nightmare, in fact it was quite the opposite. I appreciate everyone who's been kind enough to give me work and treat me well.

The rest of this post is going to be some of my favorite pieces by month, and a little about them. I usually spare my followers from most details in my posts, because there's often not much of interest to the public to say, so this is mostly self indulgent.

January

I decided to revisit Tom and Maudlin, as I hadn't drawn them much since creating them. Whenever I make a new character of importance, I try to go out of my way to put them in varied poses and expressions so that I am able to understand how their bodies work by the time I need them for a real project. It's also a great way to explore their personalities, although I feel that I'll have to push Tom's emotional side more in the future.

February

Props for the comic! It sucks to have to design things on the fly, so it helps to have notable objects designed beforehand. Especially if it's important to the plot. Some of these appear in more panels than others, but it smooths out the comic process nevertheless to have ample references on hand.

March

More character designs to spare me from designing mid-comic production. If they don't have lines in the comic, then I ask random people to assign names to them to make it fun, and because it's easier to keep straight who's who when they're not named Man 1 and Man 2. Left to right, they are Johnifer (you can already see why I name the ones with dialogue myself), Wanda, Jean Vincent, Booker, Charles, Maribelle, and Gertrude.

April

It'd be silly of me to pretend as if 90% of my output isn't shitposts. When you dedicate most of your art time to a project, then you're not going to end up making any other art unless you satisfy primitive monkey brain somehow. In my case, that's usually addressed by drawing funny shit. Early this year is when I discovered how easy it is to crack jokes with Scatterbrain. This goofiness is now embedded into her personality permanently. Expect more of this.

May

April-June is when I do my Art Fight preppin', which usually consists of me making a list of my most neglected OCs and giving them some attention. I also try to get around to eventually making all of them a reference sheet in this style, just so they have something standardized between them. This year, Walla Walla had her turn. She's a shitpost character, so I won't be drawing her much again, but she's a good excuse to draw some J-fashion doodles. My interests outside of cartoon stupidity don't really make it into my art often, so she's a minor outlet for some of it.

June

I've made even more character designs this year than last year, but they were all background characters, making Raoul the only new important one. He's been officially-unofficially written into the story since 2022, but it's very hard for me to make OCs that are written before they are designed. Everyone else was designed first and assigned a role in the plot later, so he got put off for a good while. I finally got around to it though, after I killed some darlings. He is now an all-new species, and I modified the chain design to something less clunky compared to what would be historically accurate.

July

July is, of course, Art Fight month. All other art is put on pause. This year, my favorite attack was a drawing of Enchanted Bones for my friend Bugles. I drew the character independently from the background, which is why the lighting situation is as unfortunate as it is, but we don't talk about that. Thank you to everyone who attacked me and made awesome art, I'll revenge you maybe in a few years. Sorry for the wait, but the backlog is mighty long.

August

Stanson got a slight redesign in the last year, so he can fit with the style of the comic better. He's actually the oldest character out of the bunch. I had no purpose for Scott when I made him and threw them together in the same folder. I had a few one-off designs that I figured I'd keep around in case I ever did an OCT, but these two got yoinked out of it when I started getting story ideas for the them. Stanson is a cowboy (not really), so it became a western setting to make sense of it. I plan on giving him the same sketchpage treatment the other characters have gotten, but I've been putting it off purposely for a while. You'll just have to wait.

September

And there it is, the inevitable page of Raoul getting into various mischief (and subsequently getting his ass beat half of the time). He has a very abrasive personality that gets him into trouble. I don't want the comic to be heavily action-based, but he naturally lands himself in these positions and it lets me draw characters in new situations. His introduction to the story is still a long way off at this point, but I can't wait to pit him against Scott in some slapstick shenanigans.

October

Spooky month is incredibly busy for me in real life, so there isn't as much time for art as I'd like there to be. That's why I dedicated all my time that month to trying to get Halloween art done in time. I've been a fan of Homestar Runner since childhood, and as soon as I thought that Raoul would pull off a Jigen Daisuke look, I knew I wanted to do a full Homestar-esque set of costumes. The other ideas quickly fell into place. My version came out way more detailed than theirs usually are though. The spirit of Halloween possessed me.

November

I started going full gear on the comic around this time (I think 28 hours in one week when I stayed home), so there's an absence of polished personal art here. Scatterbrain eating some spaghetti is my placeholder art for "I worked on a website a bunch instead". It's far from done, but I've made major strides since then.

December

A secret santa gift for my friend, Toby! I continued doing mostly comic work, but I also made room for a secret santa and scheduled a bunch of art trades to complete between December and March. The rest still have to be completed, so you'll see that throughout 2024. Anyway, Toby's OC, Thomas, is based on the state of Michigan. I plastered him on a postcard in front of a highway sign with some Robins because they're the state bird.

There were many more drawings of course, and you can find them scrolling through my Tumblr, or on my DeviantART (I switched to Tumblr as my main site in late August). I hope the new year brings many improvements and happiness for everyone. Last year my goal was simply to start on the comic, which I did, but it was also to get it uploadable, which I didn't. I'm gonna have to aim for the same goal again. Life things were largely fine but still tumultuous enough to throw me off-course, but now my most dangerous family member has moved out and it should be somewhat safer to live here. Not 100% safe though. It never will be. I generally avoid talking about the comic extensively as I won't have a solid release date for some time, so this is the last you'll hear of it for now outside of the rare WIP screenshot. Wish me luck and have a wonderful new year!

[murderacademia]

I don’t have an intro post here and I can’t post my super cool card (PowerPoint) so I’ll try this out instead

I am Cam, I go by She/Her and am currently 18 y/o

I am still considerably new to tumblr and don’t exactly know how to use it. I hail from instagram, if you must know.

My main skill is drawing, I am oh so questionable at everything else. Currently wishing to study character design in coleg. Yay!

I like dolls. A lot. Lifetime special interest. They inhabit my brain 24/7. Usually on social media I have that pink kikipop doll as my profile picture (literally what I look like irl) I just wanted charl here because I enjoy charl oh so much. I own the pink doll!! And many other dolls!! 40 dolls of varying price ranges currently inhabit my room

Other things I like include the color pink, pizza, and money (which I use to buy more dolls)

Some interests I have aaare:

DRDT (duh) Madoka Magica (my fave anime) genshin (unfortunately) Honkai and a few other misc sources

I am simply the silliest of sillies, and I do not bite, I prommy. However what I lack in biting I make up for in annoyance. I am very prone to being annoying about hyperfixiations (take one look at my profile and you will understand) and I urge you to please keep it in mind when interacting with me bc at times I make people uncomfortable and don’t quite. Know wheeen so a bit of patience and understanding is always appreciated 🙏 something something brain worms

As for this blog, I most will just post mostly art and sometimes my incomprehensible rambling. Usually I’d say I draw whatever I want but that nearly year long Charles Cuevas / DRDT hyperfixiation has kept me busy (only fandom I draw for) so. I will attempt my very best to keep this blog on topic w fangans

I am full of thoughts and am waiting to use them. Thank yiu

[merrysithmas]

If you could write your own or even rewrite a SW story or character arc and have then be canon which or who would it be and how would you do it?

OH OH OH I have SUCH a good idea for an original Star Wars storyline that I honestly am going to keep it to myself because I might want to turn it into an original novel one day.

I think SW has the dad-and-kid trope (so many characters), the Cliched Love Story trope (many characters), the Classic Monster trope (Vader), the Man and his Dog trope (Chewie and Han... yes, Han is the dog)... but what it is missing is another pivotal trope which appeals to a subset of the audience that they have yet to tap into and seem to have trouble tapping into.

So... DLF if you're listening, hire me! haha

But otherwise I think one thing I really would have liked, although I understand why they did it in RotJ, is to alter Anakin's helmet-less Vader design. Like I really would have liked to see Luke burn Anakin's body in a different part-Jedi, part-Sith costume, rather than inside the shell of Vader. I think it would've been a great opportunity for them to visualize this "Third Body" ... not the Angel Anakin, or the Demon Vader... but the soul inside who is balanced, both, and finally at peace. I definitely would've made some cool costume adjustments there. Maybe when they reshoot some RotJ scenes (heard they were doing that) for the Ahsoka series, they will do some adjustments.

There is a lot of great art out there of "reformed Vader" on the internet which I think would be a great starting point. This, for instance, is one of my favorites from the artist Monsieur Charles Design:

I'd also rewrite the entirely of the subplot of RotJ ... it was utterly awful although I LOVE Ewoks, give Leia something to actually do in RotJ, and alter the slave!Leia storyline and the "wise master" Luke on Tatooine at Jabba's palace storyline... because it is super hokey and honestly silly. It does nothing for Luke's character imo. Leia also deserved to speak to Vader while knowing he was her father - or have some kind of scene showing her reaction to this.

I'd also give Ben Solo/Knights of Ren/Kylo Ren way more backstory, give him scenes with Leia, plant evidence of Rey being a Palpatine all throughout the sequels (or keep her a Nobody), allow Finn to have his own plotline of freeing and liberating the stormtroopers.. there's a lot I would change. I'd also put more Obi/Ani moments in the prequels (something the TCW went and did) and expand upon Obi-wan's insecurity on screen. And lastly, of course, I'd include almost all of Padme's deleted scenes, and give her WAY more screentime with her fellow rebel conspirator Senators, to give her agency away from Anakin's storyline.

And I'd include the awesome OG storyline of her going to Mustafar to slit Anakin's throat, but being unable to because she loved him so much.

I just LOVE how every person with the ability to actually kill Anakin/Vader couldn't. Padme because she loved him, Obi-wan because he loved him, Luke because he loved him, and Sidious because he needed a slave.

Ahhhh... the agony of it.

[the-madwomen]

Things I Learned Reanimating The Dead

By Dr. Luna Ludenburg

As far as anyone is concerned, this is a work of fiction, because it technically did not happen in this reality.

For the sake of transparency, I am not a medical doctor, nor am I particularly versed in biology. My doctorates are in theoretical physics (well, when it comes to lifestyles such as mine, it's only partially theoretical) and something called reality engineering (the ability to manipulate how others view reality, non-existent degree in our universe, nicknamed "the spin doctorate") which I got mostly to make any art I make to seem more immersive. In terms of areas of study outside of my titles I have been teaching myself neuroscience, which even then is not enough knowledge to bring back a whole body from the point of death and is only an interest I developed after the experience. So you may ask yourself why I would attempt something as radical as the title of this account suggests.

To tell you nothing but the truth, it was due to wanting to be accepted by my peers. Not in the scientific community at large, but that subset of mad doctors and professors akin to myself, testing the limits of both science and ethics. Fellow mad scientists, essentially. They often form these sorts of secret societies where they group together and share inventions, or at least concept art of such.

I, as a self-respecting agent of madness and progress, of course wanted in. But as it turns out, most have an initiation to see how far you're willing to go for the sake of knowledge. This is not a form of gate-keeping as I had assumed, or at least not the kind that fandom often has. Rather, it was a way to separate spies and other undercover agents from the rest, as most members would be enemies of countries due to their attempts to better the world... For them, anyways.

You can probably guess as to what this initiation entailed. Reanimating a corpse is off-putting to most, so it's a good way to separate those putting on an act from those with a passion. I won't say the thought didn't give me pause at first, but it didn't take me long to accept the offer. I knew there was a risk, and I was still mortal at the time so that risk was my own safety, but then again so was my dimension-hopping adventures normally.

The good news was one club would give me the basic supplies for the machinery used for the experiment, though I would need to assemble it myself. They also handed me the basic instructions on how to assemble a body together, and I do mean the most basic instructions. Some of the other groups, such as the one helmed by Dr. Isabella Saltine, gave me helpful advice not covered in these instructions. In case you ever feel the need to pull off what the forerunner of us mad scientists managed, here are just some of the things I was told.

- Make certain the blood types of every part you use match. If not, this can cause complications throughout the whole body, including the brain. The person who gave me this advice, Dr. Isaiah Fleaford, also gave a device to test blood type in a cadaver in case that information wasn't on record.

- Handle the brain with the upmost care. Not just not dropping it, but also in touching it whatsoever. Smudge the wrong part of the brain and the subject's sapience may suffer for it.

- Nerve endings will prove the most trouble. In the dimension I'm from, this one I'm assuming, there have been cases of head transplants being partially successful in monkeys. The problem was they would be paralyzed from the head-down. Thankfully, as part of the basic equipment, I was given special devices designed to make the nerves connect to the brain properly. I am glad I was given a few hundred, as this still proved to be the most difficult part of the process.

- One man, Professor Charles "Chills" Carlson, gave me a few cryo-chambers to work with. Keeping all the body parts preserved while I go look for other bits would prevent them from rotting and myself from having to look for new parts.

- The body used should be very large, at least 3 meters in height. Physical fitness is also good to look out for.

- Stay as low profile as possible. People don't take kindly to desecrating graves, even the ones of those they despise.

With all this information and then some in mind, I set out to begin my work.

Many had also told me to take the brain last, as this would attract the most attention since you would have to take one from a facility designed to keep brains preserved. However, I have the advantage of being an interdimensional traveler, which enables me to take body parts from worlds that haven't developed an equivalent. Therefore, I could get the brain first and not have to worry about suspicion. I decided this was best if I had the option, since I could design the body around the brain as opposed to putting a person into a body they wouldn't feel comfortable in. I had a choice between a professional Chess player with an ELO of 3200 and a beloved cooking show host. I chose the latter, as she was younger and the Chess player's mind was likely more useful to this world's scientists.

I also bothered to do research on each person whose body I used. In respect to their lives and so my research is not wasted, I'll tell what I know of them. Keep in mind that they are all from different universes and time periods, though all were freshly dead.

Jade Perkins was the American host of a popular cooking show that aired weekly on America's PBS. Her dimension was not too dissimilar from our own, though I will be going back there soon after I fix my interdimensional traveling device. Multiple reasons, one of which being that, in hindsight, Goncharov was a film that actually existed there, believe it or not, but the meme didn't come up in my dimension then so I thought nothing of it. Tangent aside, Miss Perkins was known as being incredibly generous and good natured all around. She was considerably overweight, and was proud to be able to combat fatphobia with her television program. She tragically died in 1993 at age 49, when a truck trying to dodge another pedestrian ended up hitting her instead. She was survived by two children. She is the source of the brain I used.

Uma "Übermench" Himmel was a German professional bodybuilder and three time winner of the Miss Galaxy beauty competition. She comes from a dimension wherein Trotsky became the leader of Soviet Russia, resulting in a much faster World War 2 and all of Germany becoming communist. She was known as a risk-taker and for being surprisingly intelligent with a degree in chemistry. She was rumored to be able to lift a baby hippo over her head. She sadly died young in 1972 at the age of 30 due to negligence from a janitor not putting up a "floor wet" sign whilst she was lifting weights, causing her to slip and the dumbbell to smash her face in. She was survived by her girlfriend of three years. Her head and arms were in a horrid state, so they were separated from the neck and shoulders, respectfully, and I took whatever was left.

Frances Benoit was a French serial killer with a personal kill count of 7 men and 6 women. He resided in a dimension where the French revolution had not taken place... Yet. He was known for killing French nobles, likely politically motivated. He killed most of his victims using Garrotte rope, using other methods for only five of them. His last kill would prove him unlucky, as he had to resort to a rather loud gun that made his presence known. I was unfortunate enough to be at his hanging, where he died in 1801 at age 46. He was survived by his wife, who last I checked was beginning to fan the flames for a revolution in his name. I ended up taking his arms, as I found no buff female cadavers with a matching blood type to Perkins' AB, and some pompous fool in all red chased me off with a rapier before I could continue searching.

Jesse Burrell was an Australian recluse who lived an isolated life. Her dimension was most similar to my own, from my recollections. I could not get a accurate account of her life due to her isolation and the bad blood she had with most people I found who knew her. She was a gun rights advocate and an alcoholic who spent most of her time outside of her home at the local bar. She died in 2000 at an unknown age, likely her mid-thirties, in a shootout at her estate, along with three others, with the potential survivors and reason for the showdown being unknown. She had no known family members, one genuine friend in the form of the barkeeper and far too many enemies to count. Her life was shrouded in mystery. Her corpse had been vandalized, with tattoos around her whole body having been removed via a knife, resulting in me removing skin from the stomach and stitching it to her face. She was the one I felt the most sorry for, for she was the easiest to take parts from.

Once I had all the supplies I required, I got to work. I won't bore you with the details, as it was all very repetitive truth be told. Building the equipment especially was almost as difficult as an English speaker trying to build IKEA furniture. But in my opinion it had all been worth it, and not just for the membership to any organization. That elation, that joy, when you're about to pull the trigger on a project, especially one as difficult as bringing life to what once was dead. I only managed to mess up one thing. The brain had been split in half. That sounds like a bigger deal than it actually was, but the human mind can survive being split in two. It does result in the two halves of your body being controlled independently from one another, but nothing so terrible.

I remember pulling the lever. The electricity flowing through my temporary laboratory, surrounding me. My hair turned white as snow, but that was fine by me. Looks good on me anyhow. Just the sheer mania I felt, knowing I was doing something as massive as this. My maniacal laughter echo through the world as I felt a pure sense of wonder and amazement at my own achievements... Or maybe it was the electricity, I don't know.

In any case, the results were a massive success. Obviously I couldn't have done it on my own, of course. The supplies given to me were the thing that made this possible, and I couldn't have done it if not for the ones whose corpses I used.

Mayhaps my proudest accomplishment in this is that, aside from the brain split and the consequences of that, Miss Perkins had all her mind intact, no memory loss whatsoever. I was overjoyed at this news, because it meant I could reintroduce her to her world after I showed my fellow scientists. She looked like her total physical opposite now, there were stitches on her face, her skin had a slight a green tint to it, and her arms grew slightly more hair than the rest of her body, but other than that she seemed like a normal human being.

It had worked out as perfect as it could have.

The best part of it all, in all honesty, was meeting Miss Perkins herself. Last I checked in on her she was still advocating for body positivity of all shapes and sizes. Just because she was fit now didn't mean she had lost her sympathy who are like what she used to look like. She would often joke that, technically, she weighed the exact same due to her height and muscle, which she managed to maintain. And all this in the 90s, no less! There were less fat jokes on TV overall in any case. Even trying to prove it was actually her was sweet, thanks to a song she made up for her kids convincing them. Feels good when mad science has a positive impact.

And of course, I was accepted into the various mad science societies since such a massive success was something to note. Glad that happened, though I would be lying if I said I didn't forget the reason I was doing it halfway through.

So what did I learn? Well, taking risks is sometimes beneficial for everyone involved, hard work is worth it if it's something you're passionate about, the joy others feel about your work is often better than what you get out of it, the saddest deaths have noone sad about it, and the part of the brain that processes the feet and the part that processes sexual attraction are right next to each and some are unfortunate enough to have those intersect.

... I forgot where I was going with this. Ah well.

[variousqueerthings]

I’m watching s11 so time to reflect on s10 part 3: Charles Emerson Winchester (the third)

in my first post I talked about personal wants from s10 and about Margaret and wishing there was more of her journey happening (also edited to include the amazing yelling she does in follies)

in my second post I talked about Klinger getting so much more (deserved) focus as time goes on by the other characters, and about how I read that character as one of the only ones that’s got a stable sense of self

and so we come to Charles, who has no stable sense of self at all (lol) -- no, okay that’s not quite true, his love of art and music and food and surgery are very real, to the point that every time he has a love interest episode it’s like he’s more excited about just having someone to talk to, than actually youknow... in romantic lurve (it’s the aroaceness of it all)

Warning about this one: it got really fucking rambly, and I don’t think I reached a conclusion, so just... so unfiltered thoughtwise

where he’s always butting up against himself is the whole “my family expects me to be so and so,” which also informs some part of his snobbishness, but then sometimes people are just mean to him because he’s a weird kid (the irony ofc being that the MASH 4077th consists of weird kids, but alas, such is the burden of being a Foil)

that being said, I do on occasion go out loud “this could never have happened with Frank” and one of those episodes was of course “sons and bowlers” in which he sits with Hawkeye, while he’s desperately trying to reach his dad

I love that they chose those two for this, because it was pretty clear that Charles’ relationship with his father is probably polar opposite to Hawkeye’s with his, and now they’ve really given us that spelled out by Charles I-will-keep-all-of-my-emotions-right-here-and-then-I-will-die Winchester

I was writing that I felt like there was some great stuff with Charles in these later seasons, but actually now I’ve written out his main episodes I notice that for the most part they’re more comedic in nature -- “communication breakdown” (in which he’s just an autistic mood and the others should be nicer to him imo), “snap judgement/snappier judgement,” in which he is a terrible lawyer, but also calls Hawkeye a third rate lothario, which I rate as one of the funniest throwaway jokes of the season, “the tooth shall set you free,” which is a serious episode in which he has the non-serious part, and “pressure points,” in which he and Hawkeye and BJ wage war in the tent (and also Charles is right once again tbh)

where I think Charles really shines is that he’s so embedded in ensemble narratives and also very seldom lets people know anything about him, so when he does have an episode like “sons and bowlers” it uh... bowls you over.... (I hated that)

I may also be biased because I think he’s such an interesting character, but often his comedic episodes are things where I read him at odds to the comedy framing -- that is, for example the autism mood in “communication breakdown,” or the way “the tooth shall set you free” suggests (as many other things do) a lot of questions about his relationship to asking for help, about being vulnerable, and also... dentists. but also those other things! 

I always have mixed feelings about him being the Foil when he’s well passed being considered part of the family, but there’s something wonderful about thinking about him -- abrasiveness as a person + his pride + his self-confidence (sometimes misplaced) + snobbishness  -- and taking all of those traits and making someone one can really root for (Frank could never because Frank never genuinely tried) 

I think a part of it is also that David Ogden Stiers radiates so much warmth and hilarity that it shines over onto Charles (similar to how BJ would not work if it weren’t for Mike Farrell appearing to genuinely be all those things BJ tries to present himself as) 

this has all gotten a bit unfocused, but there’s something I wonder about in terms of how I feel some characters are a tad too underserved (Margaret  and Father Mulcahy) while others are really shining through (especially Charles and Klinger) in these later seasons, what it is that makes them to my mind when I see them

I think with Klinger, Margaret, and Father Mulcahy I was able to write my way to what I feel about them at this point -- there’s also something about Hawkeye that’s hard to sum up in one post. He has genuinely great focus episodes, but he doesn’t get to exist/have fun/be a part of the ensemble without there being drama so much these days, and I feel like sometimes you’re watching a guy who’s already down getting punched over and over 

with Charles it maybe is a lot vaguer, or else I just haven’t ruminated on the point so much, but I do think the balance of him in the episodes -- light-hearted comedic to sudden single Moments that hit you in the face -- is technically good, even as I also think that the ones where he’s “given his comeuppance” are often not related to anything he’s done so badly wrong (was it @genderquer-klinger who wrote a good post about that?) 

in a lot of ways this has been him since the beginning and in that sense s10 isn’t any different -- in my post about the episodes I think were the most fitting for what I needed from a late season (something deeply exploring characters and furthering their relationships with one another/furthering the narrative/going deeper into Themes) I didn’t have any on there that focused on Charles, although “sons and bowlers” was close and the Hawkeye and Charles parts of it are some of my favourite on the show as a whole

as a conclusion to this (and can you tell you’ve been taken through my brain processing, rather than an actual edited post) I think what I need to do on my next watch is note the ways in which Charles exists in episodes from when he first arrives at the 4077th and until the end

have a hypothesis that he’s a character with some episodes that go really hard (I’m also thinking about “the life you save” end s9), but that a lot of him is found more in comedy episodes that “aren’t meant to be that deep” but a bunch of autistics looked at him and went “one of us!” (and.. yeah... that is what happened)

also I was just perusing through s10 episodes again and in “identity crisis” Charles has another one of the subtly funniest moments on the show, I just

[holds tongue depressor]

Charles: tell me do you know anything about anatomy?

Guy he’s about to fuck with: No

Charles [snaps tongue depressor]: Yes, I thought not

I just... cannot... with the comedic timing of him

(also both in that one and in “sons and bowlers” Charles and BJ team up to fuck with someone by making him think he’s sick)

(also also last note to bring it to the notion of “stable identity” + combined with “some of the comedy comeuppances aren’t that funny” I think some of the lack of stable identity read into him also comes from a bunch of us projecting onto him as someone who is deeply repressed about who he is and what he wants, and so often acting against his actual deeper wishes, and that often when he shows more of his real self he gets rebuffed -- and you know, that’s not technically wrong either, the show does have these moments in canon, for example how he talks about his father in “sons and bowlers” -- it’s just that it never becomes a “you know I may not wish to marry/have children at all, also I’m autistic as they’ll call me 50 years in the future” kind of conversation)

[clonemediaarchive]

Carbon Copy Consumables by Deborah Sheldon

https://www.sciencewritenow.com/read/science-humour-and-the-absurd/carbon-copy-consumables

Look, what you’ve got to understand about industry – and I’m talking about the food industry in particular – is that the pursuit of money always trumps common sense. It’s been this way since Year Dot. For instance, there’s only one type of banana across the whole planet, the Cavendish, but here’s the kicker: each piece of fruit is a clone. I’m not bullshitting you. They’re grown from suckers. So, every banana is genetically identical. If a pathogen comes along that can wipe out just one banana, it’ll wipe out the crop worldwide.

And this isn’t a theory, mind you. It happened already.

Prior to the Cavendish, the only commercial banana was another cloned variety, the Gros Michel, and that crop got destroyed by a kind of soil fungus in the 1960s. The Cavendish was its replacement. But did the food industry learn anything from putting all its eggs – or Gros Michel bananas – into the one basket? No, except to do it all over again because of economics. Even when the smallest possible risk is complete and utter catastrophe. You see where I’m coming from? Money trumps common sense. Every. Single. Time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against food cloning. That’s my trade, after all. Cloning is a great idea. Finding a way to computerise, mechanise and standardise the process solved a lot of problems like overfishing, deforestation, famines, and suchlike and et cetera, but hey, I don’t need to make a speech. Anybody with half a brain knows that food cloning factories are a boon to mankind. I’m only stating my point of view for the record.

Also, for the record, my name is Charles Pomeroy but everyone calls me Charlie. I’m thirty-four years old, single, no kids, Aussie by birth, and a factory runner for Carbon Copy Consumables. For the past eight years, I’ve worked at their Antarctica plant servicing the research stations, hotels, resorts, casinos, theme park, restaurants, private homes and what have you. The busiest time of year is summer when the tourist ships come by the dozen and every business is running at full capacity. With about nine thousand mouths to feed, I have to run the factory twenty-four seven. Yeah, all by my lonesome.

The company website explains their setup if you’re interested, but in a nutshell, the Antarctica factory is about a kilometre long, three storeys high, covered in gantries and stuffed to the gills with machines. Carbon Copy Consumables is ‘lights-out’ manufacturing with everything controlled by a bunch of computers. Even the trucks that pick up the supplies are automated and self-driven, and each truck is packed by robot arms.

So, the four reasons I’m needed there…

One: feed the machines. Our base material looks like bouillon powder. It’s actually a combination of elements including carbon, nitrogen, sulphur – I forget the others – but ninety-seven percent of every living thing on Earth is made up of just six elements. Amazing, right? At full storage capacity, I’ve got six vats and each one’s about the size of a wheat silo.

Two: keep the joint hygienic. The machines have self-cleaning cycles; I top up detergents.

Three: equipment maintenance. Our machines are so smart they’re almost self-sufficient, the emphasis on ‘almost’. Nothing beats the human mind. Training to be a factory runner takes four years because you need to learn how to service every part of every machine. Yeah, there’s manuals to jog your memory, but it’s a specialised field with lifelong job security. Why would Carbon Copy Consumables sack a factory runner after investing four years into them? And you get paid top dollar while you train. Sweet gig. If you ever want a career change, look into it. Just be aware the competition is stiff. For every opening, there’s a thousand applications. You’ve got to be the best of the best.

And four: stock control. The machines can’t make informed decisions about which foods need to be cloned. I take orders from all over Antarctica. You’ve got no idea of the vast amounts of produce I churn out to allow three meals and snacks for nine thousand people in peak season. Hold onto your little cotton socks because I’m about to blow your mind. Ready?

Five tonnes of vegetables. That’s metric tonnes, mind you, per day. Two tonnes of beef, every cut from chuck to eye fillet. One tonne of chicken. Ten thousand eggs. All. Per. Day. And so on, and so forth. Can you grasp the scale of this operation? Can you imagine trying to fly this amount of naturally-sourced food into Antarctica? Well, that’s how they used to do it in the old days. That’s why the population was capped at about one thousand; the logistics of supply were too difficult.

Oh yeah, and another reason: a bunch of Antarctic Treaties about keeping the continent pristine. Those treaties were overturned for the sake of money. Capitalism is great, don’t get me wrong – it’s dragged most of the world out of poverty – but there’s a few drawbacks here. Did you know that one-third of Antarctica is now a giant tip covered in garbage? Anyhow, that’s progress. Two steps forward, one step back. Don’t worry, a company will come up with a way to turn rubbish into something useful, like gold, if there’s money in it.

Sure, I’m on good terms with the freight runners, ship captains, pilots, et cetera. You know what? Cards on the table? I’ll come straight out and tell you that my partner in the botany scheme was a pilot named Jenny. I’m guessing you’re interrogating her anyway, so there’s no point me trying to be discreet. The whole sideline about the plants was her idea, with a forty-sixty split. She promised me bucketloads of cash, and boy, was she right on the money.

There are two flowering plants native to Antarctica: the hair grass and the pearlwort. You find them mainly on the western peninsula and on a couple of islands. One time Jenny told me, while she was waiting on her plane to be refuelled and loaded, that some knob-ends from Sydney’s North Shore were scouting for unusual plants for their daughter’s bridal bouquet and table arrangements, and would I be interested in some quick dough?

Now, these Antarctic plants look pretty dull, but that’s not the point. Rarity symbolises wealth. Even if the plants happened to look like busted arseholes covered in fly-blown crap, it wouldn’t matter. Do you know what happened in the seventeenth century when the pineapple was first brought over to Britain from Barbados? Well, the pineapple was such a rare fruit, and so expensive, that super-rich people would bung one in the middle of their ballroom and host a party to flex on their high-society friends. The not-so-rich rented pineapples for the sole purpose of bragging. Even a rotting pineapple had prestige.

And hundreds of years later, rich people are exactly the same.

Long story short, yeah, I cloned the plants, and Jenny sold them to this family. Within months, Jenny and me had an enterprise. Strictly under the table, of course. It’s not like we took out ads. Word of mouth only. Just like the trade in stolen art works, right? Inner circle stuff. People want to show off to their mates, not get arrested by Interpol.

Oh, we made money for jam. And we never worried about us double-crossing each other. Jenny couldn’t run the plants through the machines herself because cloning is locked down tighter than the diamond industry. I couldn’t get plants out of Antarctica without a pilot’s licence, and besides that, didn’t have any contacts with buyers. Jenny and I were partners in crime. Both of us faced jail. We had reasons to be faithful to our handshake.

But word gets around in the upper echelons of the filthy rich.

And soon, Jenny came to me with another request, this time from Asia. Some billionaire wanted to throw a dinner party with penguin on the menu.

Look, I’m not going to debate which animals are okay to eat and which ones aren’t. As far as I’m concerned, once you’ve eaten meat, you’ve crossed a line and can’t wag the finger at anybody for their choices. Still, I had to think about this offer for a long, long while. Could I really offer up cloned penguins knowing they were destined for someone’s cooking pot?

Jenny had convincing arguments, namely… I provided beef, lamb, pork and chicken as food, didn’t I, so what’s the difference? The penguin destined for the table wouldn’t be the original or ‘real’ penguin, just a clone, while the real penguin would be released back into the wild, unharmed, free to live its life, swim and raise babies. Penguins get eaten by seals and orcas every day, so why not by people? Et cetera. Bottom line: the money was jaw-dropping.

Antarctica has lots of different penguins like king, adelie, chinstrap, gentoo. Penguins are fast in water; on land they’re bumbling idiots. My first penguin was a chinstrap, so-called because it has this little banding of black feathers under its beak. It’s an aggro species but small and real clumsy on the ice. It took five minutes to stuff one in my backpack. Hey, there’s about eight million of the buggers; it wasn’t like taking one for a couple of hours would upset the balance of anything important.

Right?

And yet…I’d never put a live animal through the machines. For some reason, I imagined the cloned penguin would be turned inside-out. Crazy, huh? I had to keep reminding myself that fruits and vegetables are alive when they’re cloned. Oh yes, of course they are – if they were dead, they’d be withered and black.

Even so, I had a big problem. The machines can’t read anything that’s moving because they work on similar principles to 3D food printers. I had to find a way to keep the penguin as still as possible. I chose sleeping pills. My working hours are all over the place. Naturally, I’ve got stashes. I figured the medication would stay in the bird’s guts and blood, and not migrate into its muscles. Therefore, anyone who ate its meat wouldn’t get dosed.

I cloned the drugged bird.

The process takes seventeen minutes for the first replication. After that, once the sequencing is worked out, the replication rate is lightning fast: pow, pow, pow. The cloned penguins were asleep, which made packaging and transportation much easier. Since we use automated systems to load trucks and planes, only me and Jenny knew what was going on.

Good God, over the next year…

Money, money, money.

So much money…

Occasionally, there were ‘exposés’ on blogs and threads about illegal penguin meat, but the mainstream media figured it was an urban myth. Hah! I supplied every kind of penguin that exists in Antarctica. Yet each specimen I kidnapped was returned, unharmed, to the ice shelf where I found it. I never penned any of them to save time. That would’ve been cruel. And remember, the clones exported for eating purposes weren’t ‘real’ in the same way the original penguins were real. Manufactured clones don’t count. That’s law, right?

Soon we got other requests. Antarctic seabirds became popular: blue-eyed shag, giant petrel, snowy sheathbill, cape pigeon. But these birds can fly! Trapping them required ingenuity on my part; luckily, I’m very intelligent. The price per kilo had to be higher than for penguins. Astronomically higher. That said, Antarctic seabirds are stringy. You’ve got to braise them low and slow. Even if you’re a pro chef who does everything perfectly, the meat still comes out dry, chaffy, tasteless. Look, it’s not about flavour. Remember the pineapple? If dog shit was rare, the one-percenters would serve it at dinner parties with silver spoons.

Did I eat any of these meats? No. Beef, chicken, lamb, pork: that’ll do fine. Occasionally I eat fish and seafood but don’t come at me with weird shit like eel, oysters or sea urchin. Novelty doesn’t interest me. I won’t try a food just for the ‘experience’. Not that I’m shaming anyone who’s into that kind of thing. Live and let live, I always say.

So, dealing in cloned plants, penguins, seabirds…as you can imagine, I was busy.

Busy enough that I swapped sleeping pills for amphetamines. The factory ran twenty-four seven and I had a side business that was essentially a full-time job in itself – when could I sleep? And the money was another time-sink. Do you know how difficult it is to launder and hide cash? You can’t use bank accounts without explaining why, how, when, and the tax department always sticks in its beak. From necessity, I stayed awake for three, sometimes four days at a stretch. Ah, crazy times... But after a few years, I was going to retire and cruise the world on a five-hundred-foot yacht.

It was exhaustion, I guess. Desperation. Amphetamines don’t create energy; they stop you from sleeping, and the sleep debt adds up. Then you start making dumb decisions. That’s the only way I can explain it. One day, when I was popping another pill and staring in the mirror at the black bags under my eyes, I thought, “Why the hell am I killing myself, burning the candle at both ends – and in the middle too – when there’s such an easy solution?”

Sure, the idea gave me pause. Each of us likes to think of ourselves as unique. But I got to pondering about identical twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets. I’m an only child. Would it be so bad to have a ‘brother’? We could split the chores. Perhaps share some of my money. I was the mastermind, so any divvying of funds would be at my discretion since the clone would be my employee, right? I know how it sounds, but it made perfect sense at the time.

Putting myself into the machine was like taking a seat in an untested rollercoaster. You’re doing something that should be perfectly safe, at least in theory, but feels terrifying. The machine clicked, hummed, buzzed, whirred, knocked, whistled, tapped, and each sound scared the absolute shit out of me as I lay on the table, motionless, because I’d never heard those sounds before and I began to panic, wondering if something had gone wrong, if I would die. Get turned inside-out.

Let me tell you, that was an excruciating seventeen-minute wait.

The alarm went off: the sequencing and first replication had finished. I laughed and cried in relief. I’d only keyed in one clone. Just one. I got off the table and ran to the other end of the factory, which took about five minutes. The Other Charlie was standing there in my uniform. You know what surprised me? It turns out I’m bow-legged. I had no idea. The other thing that bothered me was his posture. His shoulders were tilted one way and his hips the other, as if there was a sideways bend in his spine, but subtle, very mild. I guess I was critical because I was seeing myself in the flesh for the first time. I looked old. Maybe that was on account of how tired I was, so empty and rundown.

“Charlie?” I said. “Do you understand what’s going on?”

“Perfectly,” he said. “Let’s get started.”

“Sweet,” I said. “Run the shift while I get some shut-eye. I’ll be back later with a chinstrap penguin.”

“No worries,” he said, and went about his – our – business.

I had the most restful sleep I’ve enjoyed in ages. Then I took a snowmobile and headed to an ice shelf. Have you ever visited Antarctica? It’s beautiful. Light-blue ice mountains, clear sky, snow in all shades and textures. Anyway, I spotted a crowd of chinstrap penguins – they stick out like dog’s balls against the white landscape – and parked my snowmobile about half a kilometre distant so the engine noise wouldn’t spook them. I walked the rest of the way. And as I trudged over the last little rise, damned if I didn’t find the Other Charlie squatting there, wrestling a penguin into his backpack while a horde of angry penguins shrieked at him.

“What the hell’s going on?” I said, pissed off. “Why aren’t you at the factory?”

“What are you talking about?” he said. “You’re the one supposed to be running the shift.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “So, who’s running the shift?”

“I guess nobody is now,” he said, and looked annoyed, pouting, as if I was the one who’d done the wrong thing. “We’d better get back. I’ve got a penguin already, so let’s go.”

We rode to town on our respective snowmobiles. I was fuming the whole journey. Clearly, the Other Charlie was throwing his weight around. He wanted to be equal partners, not my employee. But as the original Charlie Pomeroy I had first dibs. As we neared civilisation, I wracked my brains, trying to figure how to rein in this cheeky bastard.

Back at the factory, we both got a surprise.

Some Other Charlie was there and he looked just as shocked to see us.

“How come there’s two of you?” he said. “What the hell’s going on?”

“You’re asking me what’s going on?” I said. “I’m the one who deserves answers.”

“Why do you deserve answers?” the Other Charlie said, hands on hips.

The three of us got to arguing. My theory: Other Charlie had the same bright idea and had cloned himself while I’d slept. However, Other Charlie and Some Other Charlie were both now insisting they were the original, which was ludicrous, considering it was me who first went through the replication process. Meanwhile, the penguin thrashed inside the backpack, squawking its head off, and I started to worry the little bugger was going to hurt himself. When the three of us headed to the backpack at the same time, we halted, stunned.

“What the hell’s going on?” said a voice, and blow me if there wasn’t a fourth Charlie walking over, his face pale and shocked. “How come there’s three of you?”

And the four of us yelled at the same time, “What the hell’s going on?”, which made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. But it scared my clones in the exact same way and when I saw the identical expressions of fear on their faces, I started to shake. They started shaking too in perfect mimicry. I was caught in a hall of mirrors. My heart banged hard enough to explode. Meanwhile, the trapped penguin screeched over and over. We turned to the backpack as one. And then—

“What the hell’s going on?” said a voice.

Christ, it was another Charlie. I can’t explain the horror!

Then another Charlie appeared. And another...and another…

God, the way I figure it, each clone must have cloned himself, unaware.

After some fraught arguing, the bunch and I ended up cooperating to scour the kilometre of factory from one end to the other in order to flush out any other Charlies. Meanwhile, more Charlies kept arriving at intervals with kidnapped penguins. Each time, we’d have to stop and have another pow-wow.

God, if it wasn’t so terrifying, maybe it’d be funny.

We walked together in a line, shoulder to shoulder. Each of us ignored the distressed penguins without discussion. We found about a dozen more Charlies at various points, who joined our search, while others kept coming in from outside, bearing penguins. The birds wouldn’t stop calling to each other, distressed and frantic. The chinstrap sounds a lot like a seagull, did you know that? I kept closing my eyes against their cries, trying to imagine that I was on a beach somewhere and only dreaming this nightmare, until I noticed my clones doing the same thing and felt a heart-seizing panic attack coming on.

When the alarm sounded, we froze and stared at each other in terror. The alarm meant that yet another Charlie had been created, and would soon be jogging towards us from the far end of the factory, shouting, “What the hell’s going on?” I’d forgotten to turn off the machines. We all had. How many clones in total? Oh God, I don’t know. I couldn’t even guess…

Getting sprung by the authorities was my fault.

Whenever I cloned a plant, penguin or seabird, I deleted the history from the logs. For some reason – probably because I was sleep-deprived – I forgot to do that after making the Other Charlie. And because he’s me, he forgot to delete the history when he created his own clone, and so on. That tripped a red flag at Carbon Copy Consumables, and then military police came, and well…you know the rest.

Listen, I understand that clones aren’t protected under any laws or Geneva conventions. Fair enough. Unauthorised clones have to be put down. No complaint from me on that score. My only issue is that you destroy the clones and not me by mistake. I’m happy to go to jail if that’s my punishment, or pay a fine or whatever. Surely, there’s some way to tell us apart? A medical test. Isn’t there? There has to be. The clones might be telling you the exact same story, but my statement is the truth, I swear to God, because I’m the real deal. Okay? Hand on heart. I am the original Charlie Pomeroy.

[mish-tique]

Rose here! 🥺🌹

I just got out of class and found a comfortable position to live-ask before the next class way later.

First off, YES THEY WERE MINE, and I'm really happy that you're going to keep the carlando one in your to-write (so thankful, so blessed). And thank you for the well wishes for class. Needed that because I did not know how I got to answer my prof's question in a clear and educated manner when my attention was fucked because I kept on thinking about day 3 lestappen.

SPOILERS below the rose line

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I love love that this is in max's pov, I get to relate to him as he describes charles all sweaty (thank you singapore for the visuals) and bloodied with his gloved hands

"Charles, who’s wet from sweat due to the struggle the man had put up. It’s slowly dripping off his skin, mixing with the blood that’s clinging to him. Max already knows that his partner is going to bitch about it when they get home since it will be an ass to clean up." <- i emboldened home because even as heartless serial killers they refer to somewhere as home (not a hideout, not an hq, they have a home 🥺); also charlie's hot like HOT

"On any other day Max could have taken hours to admire the pretty painting they made together, but now the only thing that calls for his attention is his lover." <- strong hannibal vibes here I love it

I bet they make the prettiest crime scene when they do their kills together. i bet their victims thought, "oh these two are so beautiful they look like they belong in runways, in museums, they are pieces of art" but they're actually the art that will be opened up on display for the police to find later

Of course! Choking! of course he'd be into that. I mean, he's already horny for the glove covered hand. you're so predictable max. charles do have the perfect hands for that (i could watch him play piano in the morning then be choked later in the evening)

this is already so long and i'm not even halfway yet (sorry)

“My hand around your neck, leaving blood all over your skin while I press you against the wall?" <- fuck the visuals i'm getting I NEED A MINUTE

oh no poor lando. lando i'm sorry you have horny coworkers; i'm sure that they're not the worst scenes you've walked into tho in your line of work

i love how you included charles' reasoning for wearing gloves; makes the serial killer vibes more prominent, like he's got his processes and ticks and vanity

"Fingers that Max wishes are decorated by rings like they usually are, thick ones he longs to have on him, around him, in him." <- same maxy, me too

"Their plan had been to be swift and clean, but in the process leading up to it, the asshole had kept inappropriately touching him in a club."

"He never likes being hunted unless he’s Charles’ prey. And Charles definitely didn’t take having to share his prey kindly."

"So swift and clean turned into bloody torture like it was part of a mating ritual long lost to most human traditions. One Charles reminded and partook in especially for Max.

those last 3 bulleted quotes killed me

i just know that if they're ever caught, and if i were their lawyer, my grand defense would be "they're in love, your honor"

I volunteer as tribute in their next kill - fuck - if you haven't realized it yet from all these asks i gave you (i am lestappen whore, may it be them together or individually, with me or with each other)

Woah that's a long ass ask

Thank you so much for this!! I'm glad that I sent you that ask because if i was the one who tried to imagine/write it, I wouldn't have made it any justice. Honestly so good and hot and sexy and the writing of max's thoughts is just so god-tiered

more kudos and more roses for you!!

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-Rose 🥺🌹

Please do not get distracted by my kinktober during classes, it will get you in trouble and I don't want that for you sweety 😭

we are all max at one point in our lives, admiring the shit out of charles.

max and Charles might be ruthless but they're also very much in love and ready to go at it at home

I've never watched hannibal but I'm happy to capture the vibes

and god yes!! we need a victim pov. memorized by two beautiful men, not realizing that he will be the main peace of their exhibition for the police and press

i love myself some prey/hunter mentions!! it's so hot for no reason

you as a lawyer would definitely keep them out of prison

No but i'm sure you would've done it justice?? the way alone you did the victim pov shows that! But thank you, sweetheart <33 Love to see you drop by

[blackbutler-readerinsertsandjunk]

I'd like some Charles Grey~ Him proposing to the reader would be nice, but if you don't have any ideas for that, really anything with him would be great :3

aaaaaaaaa!! he’s so cocky, I love him

Well, the day that everyone thought would never come… the day someone is able to tie down the wild Charles Grey! People have told him (and he’s heard the gossip) that they can’t imagine him ever wanting to get married. Not that he’s unattractive, it’s just, well… he’s Charles Grey!! How could he ever want to settle down? But then you came into his life, and he started to think the idea of settling down wasn’t so bad, if it was the right person. So he’s more than ready to prove everyone wrong. By this point, he can’t envision a future for his life that doesn’t include you. So he figures, if that’s the case, he needs to put a ring on your finger.

Although his proposal is quite public, it’s not as if he tries to make it the center of everyone’s attention. He does it at a ball the Queen throws… just, you know, not in the middle of the dance floor. He does, however, dance with you a bit first; makes sure you’ve both had some champagne or wine or something, makes sure you’ve both had refreshments. Then, just as a new song is starting, he drops to one knee and takes your hand. Staring up at you, anything he planned to say goes up in smoke, because whenever he looks into your eyes, he’s struck speechless. He does manage some honesty…

“You’ve changed my life for the better. I don’t know who I was before I met you, because now that we’re together, I believe I’m so much more myself than I ever was. When I talk to people about my life, I have to stress that there are two parts… everything which happened before I met you, and the rest of my life laid out before me like an unpainted canvas. It’s too big a job to paint it on my own, I think… and I was never good at art anyway. I would rather prefer to paint it with you. So… will you do me the honor of marrying me? And keep in mind,” here he winks like the sly devil he’s always been, “I should be quite sullen if you refuse. But no pressure.”

No pressure, indeed! How ever could you refuse?