#balancing tradition

[nepalniceties]

Balancing Tradition and Ethical Sensibilities

Nepal’s Dashain festival, a vibrant tapestry of culture and tradition, is a time of joyous celebrations, family reunions, and spiritual reflections. However, like many cultural festivals, Dashain is not immune to evolving societal concerns and ethical considerations. In this exploration, we delve into the potential malpractices associated with Dashain, shedding light on the ongoing efforts to…

[crabsnpersimmons]

This one goes out to all the slow burn enjoyers, the dense Y/Ns, and the soft robo jesters that suffer in silence!

Inspired by @bamsara's “Solar Lunacy” fic.

If you feel like reading my ramblings and want to experience more heartbreak for fictional jester blorbos, check under the cut where I detail all the planning behind the frames!

so i heard this song for the first time in a while and the opening lyrics immediately made me think of moon, so i was daydreaming some scenes and then i decided to thumbnail some ideas:

and it all went downhill from there as everything became a metaphor and a parallel to each other, which i will now go into detail on!

you thought the animatic itself was sad?

*writing muse laughs maniacally* IT'S ALL A METAPHOR

Frame 1. "turn down the lights" We start with a back view on Moon. The lights are out, the Moon is out, but we do not see his face. The music and the greyscale atmosphere are enough to establish the weight of the moment and the weight on Moon’s mind.

Frame 2. "turn down the bed" We cut to a shot of Moon's body, kneeling on the ground of the daycare, like a padded cell. Moon’s hands are twitching with the effects of the glitch, with purple sparks coming from his hands. We still do not see his face.

Frame 3. "turn down these voices inside my head" Cut to an extreme close up on the dark half of Moon’s face. Now we see his face, but only a portion of it. His left eye is wide open, red and glitching out. The voices in his head can refer to the glitch but also his repressed feelings. Or maybe it could be Sun's voice in their shared headspace.

Frame 4. "lay down with me" Y/N's hand enters the frame from the upper right corner, lowering down to meet Moon where he kneels on the ground. Only a corner of Moon's face appears on the bottom left corner of the frame, his starry nightcap beginning to cover his glitched left eye.

Frame 5. "tell me no lies" An full shot of Moon on the floor and Y/N standing in front of him with their hand stretched towards him. A light spills out from behind Y/N, creating a boundary between them.

Now we see more of Moon. It is only when Y/N enters the frame—enters his world—that Moon’s body is shown in its entirely. When Y/N is here, he is no longer fragmented. He is whole.

Frame 6. "just hold me close" pspspspsps Playfully, Moon extends his own hand, beckoning Y/N to come closer, to join him. His right hand crossed over his body as he uses the playful gesture to hide his true feelings—to put distance between him and Y/N. His hat continues to cover his glitching left eye. He doesn’t want to worry Y/N.

Frame 7. "don't patronize" In response, Y/N’s hand pats Moon on the head, returning his playfulness. Moon looks surprised by the action. Moon, notably, does not lower his hand—perhaps he has forgotten it or perhaps his invitation is still open.

Frames 8-9. "don't patronize me" Moon rotates his faceplate so Y/N’s hand is touching the side of his faceplate, a more intimate gesture than a head pat. However, his hat is in the way. At this angle, his starry nightcap fully covers his glitchy eye and the dark side of his face, hiding his defect and acting as a veil between him and Y/N. A self-imposed boundary. So close, yet thinly separated. It's better this way. It's safer this way.

The lyrics are broken up by Y/N's arm, both to illustrate how the song is sung ("patronize" is drawn out and "me" is briefly added in before the chorus starts) but also to show how Y/N interrupts Moon's resolve, highlighting the irony between the visuals and the lyrics. Demanding not to be patronized, yet Moon happily accepts this play at intimacy. Don't patronize me, I am weak for it.

This is also the only instance where the red light of Moon's eyes glow and tint the surfaces around it. Visually, it makes it look like Moon is blushing (heavily inspired by @restinsodaroni's art). But also, in this moment of honesty, Moon's intrinsic light spills out, colouring the greyscale world. In this brief moment of honesty, Moon touches the world with his own colours, his own light.

(and this is also where i forgot to clean up the shading on Y/N's arm, but it's okay it doesn't need to be perfect it simply needs to be. And Moon will still love Y/N even if they are a continuity error.)

Frame 10. "'cause I can't make you love me if you don't" A parallel to a frame 4, Y/N retrieves their hand away and immediately Moon is reduced to the corner of his faceplate in the frame. Only now his glitched eye is fully covered by his hat.

The lyrics here (and in the next frame) in particular grow lighter to emphasize Moon's diminishing resolve and agency.

From here on out, the lyrics here are broken up, carrying on this theme of fragmentation. Y/N is pulling away, Moon is breaking up, the words are breaking up. Everything is coming apart.

Frame 11. "you can't make your heart feel something it won't" Y/N turns to leave. The lyrics, broken up as before, highlight the irony of the situation. Y/N, a human, can’t feel something they simply don’t feel. Whereas, Moon, the machine, feels something his code never intended him to feel.

Frame 12. "here in the dark in these final hours" Another full shot that parallels frame 5, as Y/N steps towards the light and Moon leans forward into the space Y/N once occupied. Y/N is leaving—that which makes him whole is leaving. And he is only capable of making it to the boundary where the light cuts into the darkness. The "final hours" suggest it might be the end of Y/N’s shift, or perhaps this scene takes place right before the glitch takes over—the final hours that Y/N has with the true Moon. Either way, time is running out—and only Moon knows it.

There is a contrasting display of body language here. Moon is on the floor leaning towards Y/N with his hand still left out. Whereas Y/N is turned away, walking away, and has already slipped their hand away and into their pocket. Y/N is closed off while Moon is limply open. Y/N is actively moving while Moon is on the floor, waiting, hoping, for that which he lacks the agency to reach for himself.

Frame 13. "I will lay down my heart" A close up on Moon’s hand, rising up again, perhaps to beckon Y/N back once more. This is a slight parallel to Y/N's hand reaching out to Moon. While Y/N can freely reach out and touch Moon, Moon cannot. He can't enter the light and more importantly he can't risk potentially harming his relationship with Y/N—be it through the glitch or by his feelings. He can only lay down his heart—put aside his feelings or hope that someone will pick up his pieces and make him whole.

Frame 14. "and I'll feel the power" Still on a close up on Moon’s hand, now clenched in slightly. This initially was going to have the glitch effects. However, I felt it more meaningful for it to be left without. Leave it up for interpretation why Moon pauses his hand. What is the power that he alone feels and stays his hand?

Frame 15. "but you won't, no, you won't" A parallel to frame 1, a view of on Moon's back with his hand stretched out towards the light, and Y/N walking into the light spilling through the open daycare door.

The placement of the lyrics suggest two different “you won’t”—Y/N who won’t realize Moon’s feelings, and Moon who won’t dare speak them into reality.

Another note on the parallel to frame 1, this time we also see Y/N's back, but it is notably different from our view of Moon's back. With Moon, we literally see inside him through the hole for his loop. However, Y/N is shrouded in shadow, just a solid, obscure silhouette against the bright light of a world Moon—and Sun for that matter—are closed off from. We don’t see into Y/N, just as the Daycare Attendant doesn't have any vantage point of Y/N's life beyond their time at the PizzaPlex. (The unfortunate reality of a being a character made for the purpose of being a vessel for the reader.)

Frame 16. "'cause I can't make you love me" We finally cut to face Moon head-on, frozen in place with his hand stretched out, unable to cross the boundary into the light. His eyes have gone dark. Where we began by seeing bits and parts of Moon, and never seeing his full face—now we, the viewer, see the full Moon, open and vulnerable—unbeknownst to Y/N.

Frame 17. "if you don't" But in the dark, behind closed doors, there is no one to perceive him—no one to receive him. The light dwindles as the daycare doors are closed. Moon stays frozen where he kneels. It is no longer the glitch that plagues him, but a far deeper dread.

But a lone streak of light peaks through the gap in the daycare doors. Perhaps that is just enough. A silver lining. A frail hope. A single, ethereal thread out of darkness and into light.

Thanks for reading and watching!

We'll be back to our regularly scheduled fun and games shortly!

[chibigaia-art]

a secret santa Kim I drew for a classmate :^] used my alcohol markers for this one

[davidjrpalos]

a bit rusty

[ghostedglitch]

my professor didn't know this was taz fanart >:3c it's magnus and fisher! :D

"voidfish" - white charcoal on black paper - march 2 2024

[valsnonsense]

ITS CLIVAAAAAA

Honestly of the shipping pieces I've made, I'm the most proud of this one. I dunno why I just feel like I popped off with it. I'm most proud of the pose, definitely one of more dynamic ones I've attempted

The super hyperactive bubbly girl with the down to Earth nerdy boy has always been a favorite shipping dynamic of mine so when I saw these two it just hit me like a TRUCK.

Them Brozone bois scorin' royalty. You know Clay and Branch are relaxing in the morning with their coffee, watching Viva and Poppy talk a million miles a minute about friendship bracelets or something with those doofy love sick grins on their faces.

Gave Viva a buncha scars cuz she definitely has had some tussles both during and after the escaoe. Also gave her the droopy ears that Branch and Floyd have that Trolls who've gone gray have. Cuz you can't tell me this girl lost her family and entire kingdom and DIDNT go gray for at least a little bit.

Viva loves taking running starts at Clay and leaping into his arms. It's the "he'll catch me no matter what" meme. Clay as lost many cups of coffee and or tea to catching her.

I loves drawing their hair. Floofy babies

[sorrcha]

smooth green snake 🐍

[jajatoc]

Evening Comes (Advesperascit)

(Acrylics on cheap canvas!)

[meirimerens]

alors dis-moi — qu'est-ce qu'on fait de la haine ?

literally no part of the song is applicable to pathologic even a little bit but I've been listening to this whole album on repeat for almost a week and this one line. oh honeigh. :catjam: :catjam:

[avanii]

Camerupt (and Numel) sketchdump! Drawn with various traditional media (coloured pencil, acrylic paint, mechanical pencil, fineliners). Hope ya like seeing sketches, too, instead of only finished art, lemme know!

[luvaaheee]

shoutout to young rascal me. this is for you

[madcat-world]

The Balance - Unita-N

[floristkills]

The hottest bitch at fantasy NASA--

*click for better quality*

[zagreuses-art]

Some watercolor marker TAZ bookmarks I made a long while ago. I realized I never posted them on here.

[ID: first image, six bookmarks featuring illustrations of the six TAZ balance arcs: here there be gerblins, murder on the Rockport limited, petals to the metal, crystal kingdom, eleventh hour, and the suffering game. The following images are closeups of the bookmarks. Second image, horizontal, showing taako from the back, jumping away from the back of the train and holding a box containing a glowing gold monocle. Third image, a shadowy hand reaching for the Phoenix gauntlet , which is wreathed in flames. Fourth image, Sloane as the raven shrouded in a column of vines and a storm, wearing the Gaia sash, looking up at her is Hurley in her Ram outfit surrounded by pink flowers . The fifth image, a robot is hanging suspended in a pink crystal, it has the transmutation stone in its hands, behind it is a portal to the astral plane full of ghostly silhouettes and glowing orbs. The sixth image shows Roswell the elemental (a suit of armour filled with mud with a red bird on their shoulder) underneath an arch that says refuge, above the arch the shoulders and arms of June are visible, holding the glowing and floating temporal chalice. The seventh image shows the black and white big top tent of the game, a crisscrossed colorful background, the arms of Edward and Lydia crossing over each other to cup around the Animus Bell, behind their hands is a red robe with glowing eyes. End ID]

[dysaniadisorder]

I love you walking corpses!!!!

[ID: A paint pen drawing of Kristen Applebees from Fantasy High. She's wearing a long golden veil over her head, a large green robe with huge sleeves, a white and gold dress, and a red bracelet with a question mark charm. There's a huge gaping hole in the center of her chest spilling blood down her dress. She has her head tilted down and is peacefully closing her eyes, her hands poised around the wound to try to reach inside. Around her is a purple night sky speckled with a few stars, and framing her head is a completely black void halo. end ID]

[vividscavenger]

Alphabet Challenge. A different letter every week. This week's letter is B.

B for Balance - Balan and Lance

B was postponed a week due to technical difficulties. This is still fun to do.