#because I don't want to flood the dash

[gigglesoup]

'cause when you know, you know 🎀

[fishofthewoods]

Angeltober days 3-5

These are my drawings for days 3-5 of @ultrainfinitepit's Angeltober!

Day 3: Honey

This one went through the most changes from sketch to finished product; I ended up going with a medieval-beekeeper inspired thing with a huge eye instead of the basket face. I didn't have much time for this one, so it's quite rough even in its final form, but part of my goal for this challenge is to get more comfortable posting "unfinished" or "bad" art. Even if the drawing isn't great I'm gonna post one for every day (though maybe several days late...)

Day 4: Sacred Heart

I had a lot of fun with this one! I knew pretty much from the beginning what I wanted to draw--this is my OC Mariana, who I could write a whole essay on and probably will someday. The original sketch was in fountain pen, which was fun to work with since I couldn't erase anything; I'll probably use it for rough sketches again since the messiness is a good way to get ideas down.

Day 5: Horn

This is another one that didn't change much from the first concept, though it took me a while to get there--at first i had NO idea what to do, until I thought to work with some other interpretations of "horn". I'd have liked to spend more time on the final product for this one; maybe I'll revisit it someday!

[hephaestuscrew]

Assorted Thoughts about the Greater Boston Season 4 finale

I'd assumed that Leon would 'move on' at the end of Season 5, the end of the podcast as a whole. But now we're going to have a whole season of the podcast without him. It's strange to imagine. There's never been a Greater Boston podcast without Leon Stamatis. There's never been a city of Red Line without Leon Stamatis. We began Season 1 confronting the gap that Leon left behind. We learned that he wasn't quite as gone as we might have thought, but there was still the loss, the grief, the consequences of his death. In an interesting narrative symmetry, at the beginning of Season 5 we'll have to confront him being more fully, completely gone. But I think we'll continue to see the ways in which his life and afterlife have rippled outwards.

~~

Immediately after Nica said Leon had brought people together "like a family", Louisa exclaimed that she needed to call Michael. I can't help wondering if it was Nica's comment that triggered that thought for Louisa. I'm emotional about Michael being family for Leon, Michael being family for Louisa, Michael being someone who was brought into Louisa's life by Leon…

~~

There were two moments of Nica and Dimitri sitting with Gemma in the middle of them holding the crystal ball. First, in the back of Lucia's car, when Nica reached out to touch the ball and Dimitri took her hand instead. Second, on the Ferris wheel as they prepared to say goodbye to Leon. Leon was in the middle between his two siblings - he is what divides them and he is what unites them. They held hands over him, finding awkward togetherness in the presence of their loss, stopping each from succumbing to that loss. Leon was in the middle between his two siblings, but he also wasn't; it was Gemma occupying that space for him.

On a related note, I can't help but wonder whether the Stamatis siblings had habitual positions when they'd sit in the back of a car together as children. I think that's a fairly common sibling thing, and it seems likely that it would appeal to the order-loving Leon. I can't decide if it makes me more emotional to imagine that they usually sat with Leon in the middle like that, or to imagine how they sat on that ferris wheel wasn't their typical childhood order.

~~

The lack of narration and the high number of monologues from a range of characters this episode meant that sometimes I wasn't initially sure whether a scene was an interview snippet from a real person or a monologue from a character. I think there's something significant in that blurring of reality and fiction, in real stories of loss mixed with the fictional. Those interviewees are a part of this story, or this story is a part of our world too.

~~

I loved Michael's mantra being spoken by the group, with each person taking one word. For Michael, that sequence of numbers was a way of asserting his own agency in spite of circumstances and his ideas about his nature. It was a way of saying 'my choices matter, even if I can't change the outcome'. And this moment showed how that idea can be upheld within through community and togetherness.

Michael spoke the word "Eight". And perhaps he wanted other people to take over, trusting that the people around him would complete his mantra, believing that they'd understand what he needed in that moment. Or perhaps he was intending to speak the mantra by himself until Louisa interrupted to support him. Either way there's a uniquely powerful kind of choice made against an indifferent world - the choice for people to stand against that world together. It's a contrast with Michael's often self-isolating tendencies for that mantra to become a shared thing.

[theforestknowsmydreams]

i need something with the vibe of ao3 but with an active brainstorming tag and a writer just adds all the ideas they have in there whenever they pop up and people comment their opinions and own ideas in response

[arcxnumvitae]

Part 5

His father's wife, a woman with hair the same fair shade as her son's, pretended that he didn't exist, which suited him just fine. She was from a noble family with a history almost as equally distinguished as her husband's. His father was good friends with the current king, which made his father something of an important figure in society apparently. Dalliances were dalliances, but to have a child by a mortal servant through sheer chance in the face of her inability to conceive a second heir, Mhoirbheinn's mere existence seemed to be an affront to the lady of the house.

He wished her son had the same avoidant mindset. Instead, Eògan seemed to delight in cruelty and in tormenting the mortal-born fae that shared the same blood as him. Mhoirbheinn quickly learned that it was best to avoid the older boy the best he could, because nothing good ever came from it.

Lessons and his mother remained the highlights of his days. He threw himself into his studies: writing, reading, swordplay, mathematics, history. He learned of the world outside related to the Unseelie's high society. As his father said, everything he would need to know in the case that he became heir one day. A routine was established and the days soon turned into weeks, months, then years.

One day, as sudden as a comet, an idea struck him. The mortal servants under his father's "employ" were glamoured. From what he had gathered, some humans struck unfortunate bargains that sought their labor to repay, or wandered into Unseelie and were captured for servitude, of which he'd wondered if his mother was the latter. His father kept the humans under a glamour to make them docile and amenable to work, otherwise they might become difficult, or emotional, or overwhelmed.

He'd come to realize over time that his mother's odd ramblings were a result of this glamour. She believed that she was still in her homeland, tending the land alongside her lover while returning home to their human son. The glaze in her eyes Mhoirbheinn realized had been her looking at him but never truly seeing him. Her smiles still warmed his heart, but wouldn't it be better to have her see her son fully?

[queer-book-character-tournament]

I understand what you’re trying to do with quality control, but it is starting to feel weird when you clearly have characters who a significant minority are voting up as queer and you’re questioning if the characters are queer enough.

I know that characters and people are two different cases, and I can quietly remove myself here, but I’m having a lot of fun when I’m not being ambushed with more arbitrary standards about what queer can and can’t look like, so I wanted to try an ask first.

I understand not wanting a character who isn’t explicitly queer to win, but it’s honestly upsetting to have my dash keep being interrupted with rules lawyering about what counts as queer and what doesn’t. Do you think you could maybe make note of the possible issues and just discuss them together if they win instead of discussing it every time another character turns up “questionable”? I’m otherwise really enjoying your tournament

I mean that is what I’m trying to do? Like there’s only two characters so far (out of 204 in the competition) who have been brought up after the polls went live, and like … four total posts I’ve made about it tops? Five, I guess, including this one. One asking for clarification on the question being asked in the first place, one kind of agreeing to that because again I haven’t read, and then one for each character saying it’s just something we will come back to as needed because there was some push back and I don’t really want to debate it before it’s even an actual issue as I can’t do anything during the first round anyway since it's already up. I don’t want the people pointing it out to feel ignored and for it to evolve into a discourse in the notes because it goes unaddressed. So I answered them on the second character same as the first to say let’s come back to this if it progresses past round one.

I’m questioning not if they’re “queer enough” though. We've got a wide variety of character from all over the gender/sexuality/romantic orientation spectrum. I'm not trying to gatekeep what counts as queerness. But when I do ask for quality control I am asking if it’s even canon at all that they are queer inside the text of the book. Not 'queer enough', just are they queer in canon, point blank. The rules did state canon is a requirement, but I can’t read every book submitted to check that. Sometimes I’ll know things aren’t correct, like in the ship tournament someone submitted Sam/Frodo (which is an example of what I mean. It’s not that they “aren’t queer enough” it’s that they just straight up are not stated to be queer, as much as we as fans might enjoy the idea that they are and there might be some subtext we can take from their devotion, it’s not in the pages so it does not count), but if I don’t know I have to pitch it towards you guys. And I let A Lot of characters in, so I won’t know a lot of them. For these two characters in particular I can’t make a judgement call on my own as I haven’t read the book, which is why it's getting talked about. (Although again, as I said, I'm really not trying to debate their eligibility at this time. If they win it'll be something to bring up before round two, but as of now we aren't debating it) I put up a list ahead of the polls of the characters submitted that I had already thinned out a bit with characters I knew didn't qualify and passed the question off to my followers to try and get all of that out of the way before the actual competition starts to avoid things like this, (because as you said, now that the competition is started people are voting for them, because people like these characters, so it's obviously not ideal for a debate to be breaking out now after it's up about their eligibility in the competition) but the polls are obvi getting more attention than a long list so I’m getting some new questions now.

I want everyone to be having fun, and i'm sorry if this is detracting from that for you, but again when it's characters I don't know that people are bringing up I have to actually ask about it or else it doesn't really seem fair

[ya-killin-me-smalls]

really funny seeing people interact with posts specifically to complain about it being suggested to them. like you realize that Tumblr does use some level of algorithm to give you recommendations and those recommendations are based directly off of what you interact with right? by interacting with it in any way, you're reinforcing that this is a good thing to suggest you and the algorithm will act accordingly

[wutheringmights]

i just started the latest chapter and link giving the child the orders to do whatever it takes, reminds me of a set of passages about sacrificing your child to save a city, both by euripides. ill need to find them when i get home, but one discussed love for the city and the so caled obvious choice, one life to save thousands, the other quotes the strength of the bond between parent and child and the cruelty of breaking it. within cbt this means we are constantly asking wether we should do what is right for the individual or for the collective. but more than that we are exploring how we view the child, a hero, uniquely able to end the battle where it stands and save the people at the cost of himself, or a child dragged into a war that is not his own, undeserving of the burden of such power.

this reminds me of another passage i translated like a year ago, where a woman’s husband, brother and children are arrested, she begs for them to be spared from dead and is allowed to save one of them and only one. she chooses her brother, her parents are already dead and he is her only remaining blood relation, she can find a new husband, birth new children, but cannot have a new brother. it makes me think about the value of bonds and blood (or spirit) relations and the warping of them in war. this all feels like p obvious thoughts but they refused to leave my brain haha. i am now off to continue reading, thank you for the wonderful latest chapter!

You've translated text??? How smart are you, anon??? I think you're too smart for me lol

For that last part about the woman, that reminds me a bit of Anne Carson's translation of Antigone, where (if I remember correctly) she says that she cannot give up on her brother since she can never have another one. That part of the play where Antigone just says "he is my brother" is the energy I want to bring to this story.

Just... oh my god, they were brothers.

I definitely have a lot of ideas related to the value of one life over another in the war that I am going to continue exploring throughout the story, so hopefully Euripides will agree with some of the conclusions I draw.

[proton-wobbler]

actually, fuck it, I just finished the other half of the polls and there's still light in the day! Second half of Round 2 going up!

[eatsteas]

i wonder if having that whole aphantasia thing is the reason why it's so incredibly hard for me to start art pieces

[cowboyshit]

I am so, so sorry to everyone’s messages I haven’t responded to in the last few weeks/months!!!!! I have been even more awful than normal at remembering to check my inbox (which I’m already abysmal to begin with let’s be honest) and I’m now seeing that I have a ton of unanswered messages that don’t make much sense to answer now 😭

[fstbmp-a]

The woes of a multimuse is that actually doing pros and cons for all of them would take up so much time and the dash.

[starfallenwishes]

          Still at work, but I’m contemplating if I should post starter calls for some of my more active muses...

[hyoyawns]

I will be reblogging things more so I hope that doesn't bother anyone.

[payidaresque]

my mutuals are so fucking cool???

[cagesings]

you  don’t  know  the  amount  of  restraint  it  takes  not  to  reblog  all  of  the  memes  sitting  in  my  likes  right  now