#but i was referencing this one panel so much i just turned it into a redraw

[ok-pop-1]

little redraw of hyrule from @linked-maze ^^

[iridescentscarecrow]

what frustrates me about fandom interpretations of makima as a one note Source of evil, apart from the fact that the manga itself refutes this, is that her character haunts and ties together so much of part two that it's impossible to fully understand without understanding her.

makima isn't ever a unilateral antagonistic force. she's an agent of the institutional evil that looms over all of CSM. she's in as much a commentary on gender and performance of gender as denji is.

and fjmt in part two enacts the "haunting the narrative" trope in such an interesting manner because you see flashes of makima in every female character. you see elements of her diluted into, most visibly, the characters of asa, nayuta and fumiko.

in asa, i see makima in that yearning for connection. i see her in the way that asa herself is fundamentally unable to approach the relationship of equals that she so desperately desires, partly due to her own social awkwardness but also because of yoru's threat: everyone she gets close to turns into a weapon. the fundamental inequality to human relationships that makima is unable to overcome.

during the aquarium date, you see asa echo makima again and again in lines that evoke makima's purposing of denji. that weaponising. "i'll grant you any request / save me chainsaw man! / you don't have to think about a thing."

and her connection with denji also founds itself upon this. yoshida talks to asa about parasocial relationships -- rerendering makima's idealisation of the CSM in how asa sees denji as a love interest. asa and denji parallel each other so organically in their gendered suppression and portrusion of desire. it's a punctuation of denji's search for intimacy that's mirrored by makima's in part one. exploring how asa is different from makima is perhaps the most intriguing part of this reflection though: an example being the way asa overthinks her outfit for her date with denji while makima seamlessly models herself into an Effortless woman.

[it's not like asa borrows just from makima. for example, there are things to be said about the way she views her Body (as compared with reze and quanxi) but examining how mkm's character bleeds into asaden is quite compelling.]

nayuta being the most visible remnant of what makima was is also interesting because makima herself appears so little in nayuta beyond the surface. nayuta's role as the control devil is hinted at frequently as is her appearance resembling makima's

but her and denji's dynamic more often echoes the hayakawa family and pochita than anything else. consider: aki giving up his goal (his 'easy revenge' that he finally sees for what it is) for the sake of his family, that warmth of blood and platonic bodily intimacy that power embodies--

it's all referenced to again with nayuta and denji, in direct panel callbacks and the plot itself! nayuta is The Family that makima constructs for denji in part one to pull him along the plot she prepares. i'm thinking about how makima is an allegory for capitalism. and what the family unit means in a capitalistic structure. the propagation of an ideal that hinges on birth and descendancy, about narrative and reproduction of narrative, about how nayuta births herself from makima and denji's relationship.

and this is also why nayuta herself exerts so much control over denji in the plot, as well as why she's used as a piece to control him. in part one, family was used to create the Chainsaw Man from denji. in part two, it's used to make denji abandon the Chainsaw Man, this icon that the church and the public now take possession of. [something something alienation of the worker from the product. from the collective. from the self.]

fumiko is perhaps the hardest to pin down here because her role evolves as the fandomisation of the Chainsaw Man evolves too. in fact, as a denji fan, she represents not just makima but multiple people who see something in and want something from denji! (think of how she references reze in her highlighting how denji is just a child; how reze uses her commentary on denji to engage with her Self. it's fandomisation,,, and what is makima but Chainsaw Man's fan?)

fumiko most obviously calls back to these wants and their conceptualisation of denji in the raw sexual violence that the events in the theater scene moving into the karaoke scene embody. the undercurrent of sa that runs through p1 and p2 is brought to the forefront in this scene -- denji falling back into these cycles of abuse, him slipping into habitating the wants of others (his initial horrified expression and then his grin during the fight. his initial inner monologue and then the cut to him licking the tentacle.)

so much of CSM rests on this fandom of denji, this theme of what production and idealisation means, one you can trace through fjmt's body of work. and this fandom reaches its crescendo in p2. what's even more interesting about fumiko is her pathos under this layer. her seeing denji as denji at some level but in the end, her handling of him is so selfish. her echoing makima's uninhibited laughter at the horror of denji's situation, her predatory cruelty. denji simultaneously humanised and dehumanised through her fandom.

fjmt's characters exist as foils, as parallels and ideas. makima's character has such a stranglehold over part one and these ideas run over into part two naturally -- as a consequence of denji being a reciever of these themes, but also deliberately in fjmt evoking the Thing that is makima repetitively -- to underscore the forever re emerging structure that denji and now asa are trapped in. the same structure that makima produced and was simultaneously caged by.

[vaaaaaiolet]

“Where are we anyway?” you ask, pulling him to the present. “Maine.” Leon breathes. “Why?” “They’ve um…got good lobster. You haven’t had lobster if it’s not from here.” “Leon.” He lets out a hum, tacking a question mark on its tail end as he stares at the wall. “You remember you’re allergic to seafood, right?”

Leon moves away from the place where he spent 20 years pining for you after it all gets taken away from him in a flash. This is the story of a particularly dull morning in which no boxes are unpacked, no walls are painted, and he accomplishes nothing.

f / m, emotional hurt, hurt / no comfort, implied / referenced character death

i watched one day on netflix and this is my take on that one scene near the end, leon is dexter you are emma, i hate myself for writing this too

word count: 940 // read on ao3

A lull – despite the chaos that comes from unpacking – seeps into Leon’s bones. 

It’s the first time he’s allowed his mind to take the wheel from his body in a while. He’s used to it being the other way around, his body chugging along, all relentless go go go, but this time, something at the back of his head urges him to give in. Inner voice, subconscious, whatever the hell psychologists call it.

He ought to sit this one out. 

The bedroom wall cradles his back as well as wood paneling and wallpaper can as he slides down its length. In the quiet stillness only early morning can bring, Leon watches as swirls of dust illuminate in the air. The hypnotizing dance of particles flying out from his half-unpacked boxes pulls his mind every-which-way, making his eyes furrow and his head hurt. There’s too much dust, too much he’s doing and somehow not enough, he really should be working on the downsta-

“Rather grim photo of me,” your soft voice snaps him out of his muddied thoughts.

He turns his head to see you sitting next to him, knees pulled up to your chest. Your finger points to a framed picture on a shelf he’d set up yesterday with Claire. The picture had been one of the only things she’d gotten out from his boxes before he’d snapped at her; told her in no uncertain terms that she was messing with his process.

You frown, lowering your finger. “My eyes are all screwed open and I look crazy.”

Leon snorts in response, shifting to shrink the space between you two. It’s the most beautiful picture he’s ever taken of you. 

He wishes he was out of the frame so he could see even more of you in that white dress, running along the Aegean shoreline with him. The dress whose hem he’d fingered under the velvet dark of night as he itched to slip it off your shoulders. Your eyes were open and full of stars. Full of him, too.

“Where are we anyway?” you ask, pulling him to the present.

“Maine.” Leon breathes.

“Why?” 

“They’ve um…got good lobster. You haven’t had lobster if it’s not from here.”

“Leon.”

He lets out a hum, tacking a question mark on its tail end as he stares at the wall.

“You remember you’re allergic to seafood, right?” 

God, and he groans. Puts his head into his hands and rubs his now-bruising temples until he feels the veins shift around. Can’t you let him have this one thing? 

“Maine’s not all seafood,” he mutters petulantly back, “it’s got…” Damn it, the only thing he can think of are Cape Cod kettle chips and the lighthouse on the bag. Is Cape Cod even in Maine? “Maine’s got pretty lighthouses.”

“I’m sure you came for the lighthouses, babe.” you chuckle.

“I just…” Words evade his dry mouth. He settles on dropping his head on your shoulder instead, slowly and carefully like a teenager making the first move on a movie date. You throw out a hand, carelessly gesturing towards the innards of Leon’s moving supplies strewn all over the floor.

“I don’t mind, you know,” you say after a beat, “If you just got rid of it all.” 

“What?”

The same anger he felt when Claire rifled through the moving boxes with your name written on them surges through Leon again, and he picks his head back up to look at you in disbelief. 

“No.” He says stubbornly.

“Le-”

He cuts you off with a tired glare. There’s no bite behind the gray-blue of the eyes you once believed could see right through you. 

“I could never do that.” he finally whispers.

He always thought his eyes did the talking for him. This isn’t your fault, Leon tries to make them say this time, it’s mine. I never told you what you needed to hear when you needed it. I know you wrote poetry for me. God, I read it all. I still have the journals your bumbling idiot of an ex dropped off at our house. You can still put your head in the hollow of my back if you try, I’ll let you do it whenever you want, just please. Please don’t make me get rid of what you left behind. 

“You’re actually quite gorgeous in that picture, you know?” he interjects his own barrage of telepathic apologies. “You’ve always been gorgeous.”

The smile that blooms on your features at his words is one that’s arguably more stunning than the one in the picture, but Leon won’t tell you. He commits it to memory instead. A safe place where you won’t see the flaws in yourself. It’s the place you live in these days. He thinks you understand anyway because you brush your hand over his and give it three short squeezes. 

One: I’m thinking of you, two: I miss you, three: I love you. 

“I didn’t really appreciate it at the time.” Your words taste bitter in his mouth even though you laugh.

“I did.”

“Sometimes.” Leon hates how small your voice has become.

He sits there for several minutes, back against the wall, relishing in the weight of your palm on the back of his hand until the sensation becomes nothing but warmth, and then a ghost of that, until it becomes nothing at all. The picture of you laughing with your eyes wide open watches him steadfastly from its perch on top of his shelf.

Eyes wide, alive, in love. That’s how he’d like to remember you, he thinks.

Organizing the downstairs can wait just as Leon once did.

[homarcide-aest]

I'm SO here for your Balkan Dick Grayson takes! I was wondering how you feel about how DC writes or fleshes out Dick's Roma heritage. Are there particularly great moments of representation or particularly flop ones?

*starts shaking*

i honestly hate most of the writing. not only because they arent romani, i mean you can get some basic info about rom culture if you talk to romano people and i understand its a pretty closed culture (like fuck even though im part romani i still dont know most shit, although tbf rom people in turkey is p assimilated) so getting info might be hard, but FUCK dude they look at rom culture in an american pov and its like?????? why.

most rom people resides in balkans, and like bro even if you took some balkani culture to dickies writing or even in is living space itd make sense, since again, rom culture is p assimilated w the country they resides in. like even small things would be enough. a heavy velvety blanket w a tiger or a rose?? him sniffing bottles before drinking??? thats like the universel balkanian experience.

and weirdly enough i prefer the old stuff. like yes they were racist dont get me wrong but at least i was likr "aaah they are talking about it and dick is getting angry about the assumptions" aka that one god awful panel where bruce is like "ye ur kind is hot headed lmao" and dick is like "wtf" (i explain things great i know)

but now??? its used in an awful one-liner. and never referenced again. like what the actual fuck does "beautiful romani smile" means. thats. thats worse???????? thats so much worse than hotheaded cuz its used like "haha guys look i remembered dick is romani haha i know romani culture" and im like no????? shut the fuck up????

at least when people say rom people are hot headed i can be like "ye lmao we do start fights out of nowhere" and again ITS UNIVERSEL BALKAN EXPERIENCE. all balkanians have anger issues. we love chaos. but when its like "haha dick has a beautiful romani smile" im like "oh fuck off" cuz again, its such a narrow minded look at romani people.

i was gonna end it there but fuck it im not done.

rom people are stereotyped as "happy go lucky, have no worries even though the world burning, cant do shit unless a white person is guiding them, hot headed and potty mouthed". besides the last point this is the exact character assasination dickie got. they turned him into a romani stereotype because haha one trick pony robin. he used to be so much more but noo the writers cant actually handle a complex character so lets turn him into this rom stereotype, and say hes romani with a fetishizing ass line!!! i hate dc so much

sorry for long rant lmao im just. genuinely angry at this lmao

anw dick is balkanian now. i can handle mischaracterization of dickie but i will not handle americanization and frenchification of dickie

[mossmurdock]

vampire!nanami is plaguing my mind rn. he gets bitten but doesnt even fully realize he's been turning into something a little farther from human for the past week.

he pins it down as some sort of overly punishing cold, a stomach bug working hard enough to have him call in sick from work for the very first time. all of a sudden his room is never dark enough and the pain in his neck is no longer throbbing; but he has to tell his boss to switch him over to the nightshift and there's something new building in his stomach, something that only grows at the sight of you.

at first, nanami would only rarely see you in the office, half asleep as you gathered the things at your desk and began to finally head home when coworkers were just beginning to settle in for the day. you're always slumped against the metal of the elevator, hardly able to keep yourself up in your brief moments of pause. he'd catch a glimpse of you before the doors would slide close, practically tipping over like a cut down tree.

now he and you somewhat share the same schedule. it's nauseating. a month into this and the proximity of the elevator is still too much to deal with. nanami had expected to adjust to this eventually, once he finally put two and two together and decided to address the odd sharpening of his teeth and senses. he isn't the type to let something like this get in the way of his life, so he heads to work, he gets things done, and he tries to remember to breath more evenly when he catches a particularly strong wave of whatever it is about you that drives him crazy.

nanami isn't one to lose his composure. there are other people in this office that work closely to him, that lean over him to point something out on his pc, that pat him on the back encouragingly when they see him making his first coffee of the night. not once does is he ever swallowed by the need to clutch these people in his hands and find out what's underneath their skin. sure, there's a curiosity, the natural type that he assumes comes with this sort of thing; but its one he's always been able to dismiss easily. blood can be substituted and he's more than content with that if it means he can continue living through life as normally as possible.

but there's a certain satisfaction that must be intimately tied into you, one that his body screams at him for trying dissolve. it's so juxtaposed from his normalcy that he isn't sure what to do with it.

he could change the timing of his leave from work, head into the elevator after you, but there's almost this unspoken routine now, and the last thing nanami needs is you thinking he's deliberately attempting to avoid you. although, a deeper, more twisted, part of him wants to maintain this small sample of you.

he eats, and tries to sleep, complains about work, reads when he finds the time, checks in with friends whenever they reach out, wears his reading glasses despite his vision getting better, and thinks about making plans to travel. these are small reasons for living, enough to keep him going. it wouldn't feel right to go about it any different way.

when you speak to him for the first time, the world feels like it's being violently torn apart.

the work day has ended for the both of you, dawn is much too close to rising and overtime is unfortunately a normalcy for you. you worked especially hard tonight. there's a bit of paleness to your skin and the whites of your eyes have been tinged pink. per usual, you're slightly slumped against the wall, hand brushing against the cold metal bar lining the thick panels.

he feels your eyes brushing over him tonight, they pause at his hands.

"was rain forecasted for today?" you ask. you're referencing the black umbrella in his hand.

"i have a long commute from here," he replies. which isn't a lie, but it isn't the whole truth either. today was forecasted to be incredibly sunny, not a cloud in sight.

your eyebrows raise, "you seem like the prepared type. that's a good thing." he doesn't know why you feel the need to clarify.

the doors open and nanami realizes his ears aren't ringing, rather it's just the intercom telling him his on the ground floor and that it was time to get off. you don't rush to leave him, no, you walk with him outside. you don't question why his umbrella is already open, though you do dare a glance up at the sky before eyeing him sneakily. the sun is rising and the streets are already busy with cars and people.

"rest well, nanami. and decent job at work today." you smile at him slightly, it's a bit tight at the corners. he wishes he could press the fatigue out of you.

"only decent?" he asks. its safe banter. your choice of words, even with only having spoken to you briefly, are deliberate sounding, almost like hooks in the water. so much purpose behind them. nanami's grip on the handle of the umbrella tightens. this is too much. he should leave this alone.

"being anything more than that would be insulting in this line of work, wouldn't it?" you laugh dryly, it shouldn't sound so tasteful.

he smiles, only slightly, he won't flash teeth. "ah well, decent job to you too. and rest well."

you lighten a little in the sun, brightening at his words.

he makes the mistake of breathing in too deeply once you've turned away. he smells it above anything else, the liquid pumping in your veins matches the heat of his.

nanami draws blood from his own cheek and reminds himself to take a very cold shower once he gets home.

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #38

Batgirl (2000) #18 - September 2001 Writer: Kelley Puckett Pencils: Damion Scott Inks: Robert Campanella Colors: Jason Wright

Ooh, a guest in Cass's book. Is this the first we've seen that? I think it might be. We get to see whether Tim gets a better showing in Cass's book than she's had in his.

Far more importantly, though, this issue starts with a dream sequence, one that I've referenced a few times already. I misremembered it as happening much earlier on in Cass's run, because it is so fundamental to understanding who (this version of) Cassandra is as a character.

It starts with 8 year old cass in a stealth suit (if there was one thing I think could improve this flashback, it would be if she was wearing the grown up batgirl suit all clearly too big for her, like the cover of issue 4), sneaking around the Batcave, a mischievous smirk on her face like a kid who knows they're getting away with something. She's tiny in a world too big for her as she creeps up onto a computer panel to reach the bat-cookie jar. There an expression of gleeful triumph on her face as she reaches a hand into the jar to snatch...

No, she's caught! Batman, Dick, Alfred (somehow? Has she even met Alfred?), Helena, Tim, Jean-Paul (nice nod there), they've caught her with her hand in the cookie jar neck of the man she killed. She's grown and wearing her batsuit now but she's still so small and they're so big and they're calling her a murderer while Barbara sits dejected, looking up to say 'How could you?' so hurt that Cassandra would betray them all this way, would betray her specifically, sullying the legacy of Batgirl with a murderer's bloody hands, and then the dead man speaks, and it's not the man she killed anymore, now her fingers are buried in the throat of her Father, David Cain, as he admonishes her. "Did you really think you could fool 'em forever?"

...

There's just so much happening here. The cookies - the treat, the prize she's stealing, labeled with the bat symbol? That's being Batgirl. And saving people as Batgirl is the only way she knows how to do to atone for what she did. Except she's a murderer, she deserves to be punished, not redeemed. Worse, being Batgirl is fun! It's exciting and thrilling and the best life she could possibly imagine. It's a reward, not the punishment she deserves, and deep in her traumatized and guilt-ruined inner 8 year old's bones she knows she's getting away with something she doesn't deserve.

Sooner or later her new family will catch her, they'll learn the truth, they'll realize she's not good like them, she's only pretending, really she's a murderer, and when they find out she's sure they'll all turn on her. From this we can infer that her isolation isn't just something imposed on her by Bruce, it's also something she's doing to herself, or willingly allowing Bruce to do to her. After all, the closer she gets to the others, the sooner one of them will realize that she doesn't belong. The more it will hurt when they cast her out.

And there's David Cain calling her out. David, the only one who knows her secret, who knows the real her, the murderer.

....

This is such a good look into Cassandra's character and mental space, into how she sees herself as Batgirl. How dearly she loves it and how badly she wants it and how sure she is that she doesn't deserve it and it's only a matter of time before the others find out and feel the same.

...

I would also say it's fantastic foreshadowing, because this is clearly building to a number of major reveals & confrontations, right? When Bruce finally has to admit the truth and does try to reject her, tearing their family apart in the process as Babs sticks with Cass and the rest are forced to choose sides. Or wondering how Cassandra will react when she finds out that Babs already knows, that she already knew almost the entire time, and that she doesn't care, still loves her, still is proud of her, still wants her to be Batgirl - will she feel relieved, or will she lose respect for Barbara for not holding Cass to the same impossible moral standard that she holds herself to? One could imagine a conflict of Babs vs. Bruce over whether Cassandra is worthy of the costume only with Cassandra taking Bruce's side rather than her own. And David Cain is still out there, potentially throwing the whole thing into an even deeper level of turmoil.

Sadly I can't say this is good foreshadowing, because none of that really happens. Fantastic set up, but not quite landing the follow through. But we're still in the set up part, and the set up part is so, so good, and this dream sequence is maybe the best two pages of it.

...

So yeah there is an actual story in this issue, it's not just a two page dream sequence. I've spent most of my analytical energy already so I'm not going to go in depth, but it's a cool team up story with Tim, where Tim is trying to take down a mob boss while Cass goes after an assassin the boss hired then failed to pay. It's good stuff actually, and well worth a read, but I just want to pick out a couple bits...

We get an explicit limit/exception to Cass's body-reading ability.

Just a bunch of cool art, I like this panel a lot.

We get this moment where Cass opens up a bit to Tim, who starts to connect with her in a way that he hasn't in their previous meet ups.

And it ends on this nice moment of Tim admitting he's been cold to Cassandra and apologizing, extending a hand in friendship. And it's a really nice moment, though the fact that this is coming from Batgirl's creative team makes me wonder Robin's creative team will maintain the better relationship going forward.

As for the question of Whether Tim comes off better in Cass's book than Cass did the last few times she showed up in his, I mean, obviously. What's maybe more noteworthy is that Tim is more likable in this book than even he is in his own, at least as of the last couple issues we looked at. He's thoughtful and intuitive here, self aware, capable of self reflection, capable of recognizing when he's been in the wrong and taking steps to correct himself. All in a story that still emphasizes his detective skills and tech savvy. It makes me sort of wish Tim had his own book... Unfortunately he did.

Of that run of Robin I've only ever read the few issues we've talked about in this project, most notably the two we looked at most recently, and those two especially were were pretty miserable. Not in the sense of being sad and heavy like Cass's book often is, just kind of awkward and unpleasant and mean spirited. Weird choice for a Robin title, imo, you'd figure people would be looking for something a little more light hearted out of that book, with a more likable protagonist. Then again it's really not fair of me to judge an ongoing book when I've read so little of it, so I'm just going to let it go there.

[lavander-gooms]

Fellas, I think I finally got (noir) Peter Parker's age.

Alright, I know what you may be thinking, that you've read posts like this before that basically end with "erm they say he's a kid so I uhh guess he's 19" (we've all thought this ngl).

Let us begin, shall we?

This mostly began because I hated Felicia and Peter together.

I love Peter's noir comics so much, everything Peter goes through is such awesome writing and symbolism (Peter swearing to take power away from people who abuse it and then ends up abusing his own power ahgdgsgdgag) but Felicia' and Peter's "love story" weirdo lust pedo sub plot gave me the major ick.

Tbh I got tired of people defending this ship because they "didn't know Peter's age". I really wanted to prove them wrong. So I am.

And I just want to know.

Let's boogy.

Peter is referred to as a kid numerous times.

Above are most of the times Peter is called/referred to as a kid in the first comic run (which was only three issues).

I couldn't fit all of them, gosh darn Tumblr.

Anyways, it's clear that Peter appears as a child to all of the character, due to all of them referring to his as a kid. Every character he interacts with as Peter Parker calls him "kid" or "son" or "boy" (etc.). He obviously appears as/is a kid, or they wouldn't have made it a point to keep saying this.

Okay, so this means Peter's a kid. We can eliminate all ages over 21 and under 12. You were considered an adult at age 21 (age of consent was 18- https://worldhistorycommons.org/age-consent-laws -). And I think we can all agree that Peter isn't 12.

My next idea was to turn to the original age of when most Peter Parkers were bit. The problem is, it's all at scattered ages. The most common one I found was he was bit at 15.

But is noir Peter Parker really 15? No. Bear with me.

I came to this conclusion and sank to the ground and cried out in agony. Truly noir Peter Parker's age was a mystery, I thought. So I gave up.

But I was rereading the comic, and noticed a tiny tiny detail I overlooked upon my past rereads.

Here is the comic panel where the Goblin dies via spidery-Kraven, and Peter just watches. While Peter is watching, he thinks back to the time Uncle Ben snuck him in to see Frankenstein.

Okay, there are two versions of Frankenstein Peter could be talking about here.

The first Frankenstein that ever came out was the 16 minute long version on March 18th, 1910. Now, that's way further back than I think Ben would've taken Peter to go see it, as AT MOST (if he's 21) Peter was born in 1912. It is possible Ben took Peter to see a rerun of the 1910 version, but reruns were incredibly rare and the 1910 version of Frankenstein was deemed to be lost until the 1950s (I don't know WHEN it was lost). If Peter was taken to see the 1910s version as a child it could have given him nightmares. But I really doubt this is the Frankenstein movie Peter was referencing.

The second movie is the one I believe to be the movie Peter saw with Ben. This Frankenstein came out on November 21st, 1931. It fits much more with the time line, and fits the whole "couple years back" things (a couple means two to you guys too, right??).

Okay, so we know the date of the movie that Ben snuck Peter into. But, there is one very important word in that sentence. Snuck.

Either, a- Peter wasn't old enough to see the movie,

Or b- Aunt May didn't want him to see the movie.

The 1931 Frankenstein revolutionized the horror movie genre, and brought with it an outrage from the church and adults. It was censored mercilessly, and brought around the "H" rating that deemed anyone under the age of 16 was too young to see. But this came as a result of Frankenstein, in 1932ish in Britian and 1934ish in America. So when did Peter see the movie?

This is where my argument gets flimsy.

We can assume he saw the uncensored version as it gave him nightmares, so I speculatate he saw it around the same time as it's release date.

Peter was under 16 when he saw the Frankenstein movie, due to Ben having to sneak him into the movie.

OR

Peter was freshly 16 and begged Uncle Ben to let him see the movie, he's old enough isn't he? And Ben can't say no to his nephew so they sneak around Aunt May to go and see it together.

Either of these two are plausible, but I'm going to go with the second.

Mostly all the Peter Parkers were born around August/October, so we'll keep that.

On November 21st, 1931 (or whenever he saw the movie) Peter Parker is 16 years old.

Which, one year later, makes him 17. And as the comics take place January 1933, we can make the safe assumption that Peter is 17. Which means in September, he's 18/about to turn 18.

Whew. I think I got it. If you have any other stuff please give it to me 🙏

Felicia and Peter relationship study coming soon.

[inaconstantstateofchange]

sweet, once.

A/N: This is a project I've worked on over the last few months, which is not reflected in the length so much as the content. Warning for canon-compliant Dark Urge backstory events, dark themes, and violence (referenced).

AO3 link

Was I sweet, once? 

Kelis turns the question over and over in their mind, comparing it to the bits and pieces they have gleaned of their previous self throughout the past weeks. Crouching down, back against the wooden panels of the pavilion on the roof of the Elfsong, they look up at the sky, searching for the few stars visible through the lights of the city around them. 

Flashes of the memory returned to them earlier in the day trickle back in past the attempts to shut them away, first in drips, and then a flood. 

A modestly outfitted room, furniture scuffed but well cared-for, charming signs of a loving family scattered around, visible from every angle. And covering it all — blood, and viscera, and other, less pleasant fluids. They don’t want to turn, to see what they know lies behind them, but it’s a memory, not a vision, so they are a helpless passenger — just as they felt on the day itself. 

The empty sockets of their foster mother’s eyes meet their searching gaze first, face a rictus of some emotion more complex than horror and closer to despair. One hand is clenched around a worn pendant, held as steadfastly in the grim strength of death as it so often was in life. They try to remember which of the gods she’d held to with such devotion. Would she speak to Kelis, were they to seek her out in that domain? 

The Kelis-of-now notes with despair to match the woman’s the way she has no weapon, no shreds of blood and scale under her nails. She would not raise her hand against them, even as they killed her for her weakness. For her love. 

The Kelis-of-then turns further, moving with robotic evenness through the nearest doorway. The pools of blood underfoot squelch unpleasantly beneath their bare feet, and yet simultaneously send a shiver of perverse delight through them. 

The sight before them stops them in their tracks — or it would, were they free to do so. Their childhood form steps unrelentingly closer to the bed, and they cannot turn away. For a moment, the small tiefling body in the bed is Mol’s, glaring furiously up at them with a single eye glazed over in death. 

A blink, a heartbeat, and it’s not, of course it could not be. They don’t even know so much as this one’s name, and the only real similarity is in the horns, stunted and small. 

Well… horn. 

One of them has been broken off, jaggedly, at the root. Slowly, through a fog, a tough, ridged texture that matches the striation of the single remaining horn on the child filters into their consciousness. They can’t look down – of course they can’t – but they know what is held in their fierce grasp all the same. 

The lack of blood around the broken horn stub is the only small mercy they can find. Of all the things that happened to this child – their sibling, in this house of peace turned blood offering – this at least did not take place while they were alive. In truth… They look with clearer eyes now, whilst their staring memory-self seems disinclined to move them. The tiefling child is covered with blood, their heart torn from their chest and placed tenderly within their own hands, but — despite all the wounds, all the blood, it is clear that only one was the cause of their death, and that one, a single clean gash to their throat, predates the others by at least an hour.

The Kelis-of-then stays for long moments more, watching the unmoving body of their one-time-sibling, as if observing some reality even shared memory cannot return to the Kelis-of-now. At last, at some unknown cue, their body turns, leaving the still form in the bed without a backward glance, trailing sticky blood behind them as they step into the open doorway of the room across the hall. This room is surprisingly unsullied by the carnage of the rest of the dwelling, but Kelis is not able to catch a glimpse of more than a neatly made bed and a green-covered book resting atop a pillow, before their body is moving forward with purpose, directing their attention neither to the right nor left. 

There is another door on the other side of the room, barely ajar and rocking back and forth slightly in the wind. Here the evidence of violence is visible: smears of blood in clumsy patterns at a strangely low height. 

The Kelis-of-then presses the door open further, mechanical and composed, emerging onto a terrace resplendent with greenery, a vibrant – albeit clashing – assortment of cushions piled invitingly across one entire corner. There are other houses visible through gaps in the greenery, but no lamps are lit in windows, no calls come from distant streets. Their crime is as-yet-undiscovered. 

Their childhood form moves to the cushions, and sits — more like a collapsing string-puppet than anything living. Their hand moves to the side, slow and scrupulous, until it meets a cool, furred form, previously disguised by the darkest of the cushions and the blanket of night. They look, then and now, out into the darkness, the claws at the tips of their scaled fingers passing delicately over unfeeling fur in a visceral mockery of loving sense-memory. 

Kelis-of-now comes back to themself, shaking off the lingering trappings of the memory. Their hand flexes, the ghost of fur beneath it still, and they restrain the urge to claw and bite at their own flesh to remove it. A bitter taste of bile floods the back of their throat, and their eyes prickle in a way they are unfamiliar with. A thought bubbles up ponderously from the depths: is this a cruel vengeance on the part of one of the many gods they’ve wronged, that they would regain no memories of anything but blood, and darkness, and more blood?

In the next moment, they hiss out a rasping laugh that dissipates sluggishly into the muggy night air. Just as likely to be a simple game of numbers. How to fish one gem out of a sea laden with corpses? More likely for the hook to emerge choked with maggots. They were a fool indeed to expect otherwise. 

Kelis settles themself for a doomed attempt at meditation. They consider, for a moment, seeking solace from their lovers, but… They’ve burdened both Astarion and Halsin enough already. They should be able to handle these, the consequences of their own actions, themself. Kelis knows better, now, than to think there is anything of value within them worth the excavation. 

Their first indrawn breath is ragged, breaking a fraction on the inhale, then forcefully smoothed out on the exhale. All will be well. They just need to hold to that.

All will be well. 

[algaepotassium]

Monotone Blue is one of the few pieces of furry media I’ve encountered where the traits of the animal have a significant effect on the characters, where they aren’t just people seen as cute animals but actually are those animals. That’s not to criticize stories where the characters are animal in appearance only, of course I love those too, but when the animal characteristics play a bigger role like they do in Monotone Blue it can lead to some really nifty things (for lack of a better term). My favorite example can be seen in this panel on the first page of Chapter 2: [continued below cut]

[Image ID: a panel from the manga Monotone Blue depicting a close-up of the face of the protagonist Hachi, an anthropomorphic black-and-white domestic shorthair cat. Text in two speech bubbles read “That is why learning is a prime example of the proof of the evolution of animals.” /.End ID]

Throughout Monotone Blue, Hachi is shown time and time again to pay no attention to class. He sleeps through some lessons and skips the rest, remarking to Aoi that whether he skips a class or not is dependent entirely upon if the teacher will let him nap or not. The test he turns in some time prior to the events of Chapter 1 has no answers on it, which his teacher complains is a common occurrence with Hachi. In Chapter 3, when Hachi finds out that Aoi’s scales are cool to the touch, Aoi has to describe poikilothermia (perhaps more commonly known as ‘cold-blooded animal’) to him. This all casts Hachi as someone who has spent a great deal of their time in school not learning. Consider again the text in the above image -- “learning is a prime example of the proof of the evolution of animals.” If learning is so integral to the difference between a feral animal and the anthropomorphic creatures of civilization, we should hold this standard up beside Hachi, the cat who never learns. Hachi sleeps apparently excessively, napping on-and-off throughout the entire school day, but he does not show signs that he is sleep-deprived and not sleeping at night. Hachi is territorial, being incredibly defensive of his spot in the stairwell. Hachi becomes obsessed with getting the scent of others off of his Aoi, marking him by rubbing his face against him. Hachi even goes so far as to bite Aoi when he becomes frustrated. Cats are well known for all of these traits -- they sleep significantly more than humans do, they can be territorial (be that their section of the forest or their spot on the cat tower), they are obsessive about having their things marked with their scent, and (as most cat owners will know) tend to bite when frustrated. That’s not even to mention the inherently beastly connotation that comes with biting. Biting is not, generally, how humans engage in conflict -- punch, kick, shout, but they don’t tend to go for a bite. Biting is something animals do, ferocious and wild animals. Hachi displays these traits of animals, of a quadrupedal non-anthropomorphized cat, in part because he does not learn. He does not engage in the process of learning which is so important for separating the feral from the civilized, and as such he displays by far more traits of animals than any other character in the manga. That is why I think this text is important. During the duration of Monotone Blue, we do not see much of the lessons the students of Furry High are learning. In fact, at no other point is there really a ‘lecture’ given by a teacher, and if only one school lesson made it into the narrative it can be assumed the author felt it was important that we see it. That one lesson is this one -- education is what makes them evolved, or at least is a significant byproduct of their evolution. The text is not all, however. The drawing accompanying the text is more important than the mere fact that it depicts Hachi, the character I argue the text is specifically referencing. This particular panel shows Hachi in a style which is not seen anywhere else throughout the manga. Take the image below as a reference and reminder as to how Hachi is depicted in the rest of Monotone Blue:

[Image ID: a panel from the manga Monotone Blue depicting a shoulders-up shot of the protagonist Hachi, an anthropomorphic black-and-white domestic shorthair cat. This image is subtly more stylized than the previous one /.End ID]

It is not as though he is drawn by another hand, it is still clearly within the general overarching style of the manga, however I find that there is a key difference in this one example -- Hachi, in the first image, looks exactly like a cat. I mean to say an actual, real-world, quadrupedal domestic cat. It would probably look strange if he looked exactly like a real-world cat all of the time, and it would draw excess attention to him, but in this one close-up drawing it is possible to draw his face in such detail that it is indistinguishable from a drawing of a real-world cat of the same markings. I believe that this is an intentional design decision by the author, Nagabe. I believe that he specifically paired that text with that drawing to convey the idea that Hachi is more animal-like than any of the other characters. He does not bother to learn, which is written in that very panel as a key proof of evolution. The art of the panel also conveys his animal-ness by depicting him without stylistic embellishment, instead showing him as the animal cats we know in the real world. This shows incredible attention to detail and narrative consideration on Nagabe’s part, and I felt it warranted note. That said, I will use one last paragraph to disparage my nonsense; this probably means nothing. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Even if I’m not, I certainly don’t know what greater meaning there could be to this. As I said in the opening paragraph, I just think it’s nifty.

[astral-from-afar]

Tokusatsu references in Skip to Loafer Chapter 58

This is practically a spiritual successor to my toku x blue period post but this time I'm just going to point out all the things I think were referenced. This is also just a fun post in general so sit back and count up your sins references chapter 58

Okay first off. This may be a reach already but I believe the first panel is a reference to kamen rider kuuga, just because this is almost identical to what the main character/rider (yusuke godai) wore and just his general vibe.

The dive chant the characters keep saying in the chapter is the famous 'Henshin' that is a staple in the tokusatsu genre (especially kamen rider) Its literal definition in english is 'transform' which is used for when characters turn into their superhero personas.

This part I believe could be a reference to Kamen rider ZI-O. Although it doesn't have a watch because kamen riders have have their transformation devices on their waist, the overall theme of time and the watch is part of the belt so I'll count it. Furthermore, Kanechika references other heroes like Blade (<3) which is linked to the main character of ZI-O's ability of turning into past kamen riders. BUT I could be wrong so take it with a grain of salt

Right this scene. Other than oughhh, this was a reference to Armor Hero XT, a chinese tokusatsu aimed to be a Chinese counterpart to Kamen Rider. I'm not too good at my lefts and rights but I believe Kazakami is trying to point out that the pose should be the other way around which is displayed next to that panel. HOWEVER I want to dispute Kazakami's claim this as the suit shown above which I think he is thinking about is the MARS Armor. The one below should show the ARES form that is still the same armor hero but different pose which is what Kanechika is doing. I don't know if it's intentional but its quite neat that they know these details.

And that's pretty much all I have. The only thing I missed out were the figurines which will probably take me a while longer so I'll update this post when I find out o/

[tropiyas]

martin o'donnell panel notes (he broke down the Halo CE theme with a music analysis youtuber 12Tone)

was for mac showcase

no audio engine - had to play it in sync manually via audio

knew they wanted orchestra + singing

orchestra: 4 violin 2 cello

vocals: him + 3 guys who did mr clean jingle

backing tracks (percussion etc) were samples

they wanted gregorian/ancient from the start

the start hook-y melody decision (the chant):

4 phrases inspired by....... yesterday paul mccartney.... in dorian scale

dorian scale recap: just the minor scale except a raised 6th (lowkey removes the somber darkness and makes it more ambiguous towards excitement(?))

q: why?

a: atmosphere for halo - ancient+epic+mysterious

he friends with koji kondo and other composers

most music was platform dependent back then (understandable, 8bit and other restrictions) - he didn't like those limitations so mostly jumped in when Halo / Mac / late 90s music could be more like Film

big cello fan

*deserved

Halo CE theme breakdown:

Vibe - ancient+epic+mysterious obv but then

check it out - it was NOT really a fully fledged idea intentionally at first, not even meant to be THE Halo theme - originally it was just a Showcase piece for the Mac World. Funny how that works out!!!!

master chief was originally Future Soldier (more of a hero unit back when the game was a 3rd person strategy one) before he was actually a character

Original Game Goal was Seamless World (1999 pretty insane to think abt - even tho it is more common now [with BotW and RDR2])

original request - 2 or 3 minutes LOL (they didn't know what the demo length was gonna be). So he writes a 3 minute track that has smushiness at the start and back so that nothing is missing (yeah the melody is Slow like that)

Showcase ended up being 3 minutes, good. The structure might not have been that [vague] / smushy if he worked more directly with the demo's sequencing and length.

epic stuff had to be more upbeat - the higher pace one was lowkey irish jig themed

Panelist / Audience vibe that we received from Halo theme: kind of Lonely? Solitude / "ozymandias" style.

before focusing on Future Soldier - the alien planet that he was being chased in and getting into the Warthog, turned out that way

great things abt art -> a lot of meaning is emergent (not originally intended) but that doesn't mean that it CAN'T add depth

he personally conducted the chanting - gregorian chanting is monks in cathedral w/ reverb so no strict meter or tempo for what happens. bravado (vince) - give and take

surprised cat face "halo is a religious game" SO TRUE

Drums Breakdown:

- tone being low register - low DUKUKUKUD DUKUDUNKUN drums

- choice reasoning: "I thought they would be cool"

- rhythm: panelist relates it to america west side story drums

- compound rhythms (instead of splitting it to duples (2), split it into 3, but then overlay the 2 on that end of the measure)

- "polyrhythmic"

- first time it was written; first music was 4:4 with triplets

- then 12:8 and conducted in 4

- (sorry don't remember my high school music classes that much)

Strings Breakdown:

- dun dun dun DUNNN

- melodic structure is "simple," just starts low and goes high

- [kinda reminds me of Megalovania except that one walks down]

- "this makes a great metal piece if you've heard people do covers of it"

- (um YEAH MJOLNIR COVER⁉️)

- in college he did a paper on the inventor of leitmotif - symphany fantastique (referencing his enamored with)

- the melody for that song was complex

- you can't develop with a complicated leitmotif

- Harold in Italy - this next piece was short and could be developed

- "the effect of melody is something that gets in your head and stays in there" (easier to hook audience in)

- [like Megalovania]

- strings keep the compound meter that the drums introduced

- to get the drive and aggression and thrust (pause?) - he wrote the cellos to do the OCTIVE Jump and go back and forth. he wanted to hear the ROSIN

- not classical string playing method... When some people read the music they split the cellos! even though it's supposed to jump on the SAME cello. That's WIPPY

- sloppy in a good way (pause⁉️)

- [but yeah it's very human I agree and that makes the piece IT]

- next string line - the backing whole high notes violins crescendoing

- it's the same walk from E to A but then IT KEEPS GOING

- low cello - minor (not dorian) but then the high strings are back to dorian i.e. that one note C#

- gregorian usually not dorian(?)

- mo likes ambiguous scales - dorian scale and the likes are not so explicitly "minor is sad, major is happy"

- enjoys writing to stick specifically to a scale that gives you chords that are non common in contemporary music

- bringing dorian to the high strings after cello is basically a "we're so back" measure.

- he likes that it's a minor key with major subdominant and a minor dominant

- rock and roll influence

- snsnss

- second string phrase

- full sending irish jig - sea shanty vibe

- halo was a damn water level this whole time??

- tidbit: master chief is the highest noncommissioned role you could reach

-

vocals

- the high backing vocals are less gregorian but more wailing

- "idk why, but thought it would be more mysterious and alien to have gregoian monks and then adding arabic wailing"

- he asked if one of the singers could do that kind of chanting - this was the last thing recorded for the theme

- martin tried doing it and he was the one who actually kept it in

- he brought them two versions - wailing vs no wailing (bungie loved the wailing one) (martin was embarrassed because it was his high voice)

- [kind of like how megalovania has that countermelody near the end of the song]

rest of the song:

- the UPDOWN violins with no percussion

- harmony

- starts E Dorian then rhythm stop - the string melody is in G minor woah

- panelist: "why a weird chord"

- martin: "I don't know"

- audience: *claps*

- *he just wanted to move off the E

- since we weren't even in E minor in the first place, moving to G minor it's WOAH

last last segment

- looked at the parallel 4ths "dundundun dun"

- inner voice goes down a step, next voice goes up a step

- oblique and countering motion (this is starting to go over my head) makes cool chords as a result of changing the motion of the notes itself

- MUSIC........

- halo 2 OST takes influence from this kind of motion

- basically taking his piano playing style to cello / strings players and forcing motion, making them sweat

- diminution of original theme - it's two bars per thing but then it removes the second sustained bar (more energetic)

takeaways - sometimes your goat just does it

woke takeaways - only very slightly critical abt using gregorian/arabic chants just to add to the Uniqueness / "alien" feel even tho those are just like. Other People. (but it's so far detached and not meant to be a direct correlation, does it even count?)

[marenwithanm]

i find myself suddenly intensely curious about any theories you have about the palace au

I'm so sorry I have "forget things that aren't in my immediate line of sight" disease 😭 but I remembered just now so whoops lol here you go

Ok so I'm torn with whether or not Four will meet up with the group while they have Future Four with them. Cuz on the one hand, clearly something happens that erases four's memories of this when the twilight of the future (assumedly) does remember. Does that mean these two four's are from different timelines? Does it have something to do with his sleep in the sword? Is it a means of not screwing up the wacky timeline? Idk but I could see it going both ways. On the one hand, if four met up with the group it could have a lot of angst potential, but on the other hand if he never finds out or hears about it secondhand then it kinda solidifies the legend - four and twilight - time parallels better. So either way I'll be happy! (If you can't tell I'm not one for theories I'm more of a "wouldn't it be neat if this happened" type person lol)

Another thing is does lu four already have children? I'm inclined to think yes bc of the "being able to take care of time" scene (four was literally saying 'i knew a toddler once who was super stubborn about meal times' and I'm like. Either that's a trick Four's grandpa used on him as a kid, or Four used that on his kids. But that would mean Four's kids are already old enough to eat solids at the time of lu, and they were canonically 1 when he's sealed, so that means PRACTICALLY NO TIME LEFT WITH HIS FAMILY and that's just too sad.) I'm also inclined to think yes bc of the linked universe panel you referenced where Four says it's good Time doesn't have any kids bc it would be sad if they missed him.

(now I'm imagining a scene where it's after the links escape the temple, and immediately it's like.

Legend, quickly walking up to four and gripping his shoulders: do you have children?

Four: how did you- um... Yes???

Legend: how old are they?

Four: turning... One soon???

Legend:

Anyways lol)

Another thing is I wonder if the chain will help future four and dot fight Ganon in the palace of the four sword? Idk if he got sealed away with them, or if he wreaked havoc in the past. But either which way, I wonder if it will happen. Again, probably doesn't count as a theory, I am simply spitballing

I think that's about all I got off the top of my head. I have vauge wonders of whether or not shadow will come into play at any point in time, but that all depends on how much you plan on dipping into FSA or if this is all just set up. Anyways, I hope that was maybe fun for you to read! Sorry I forgot about it lol

[lord-shitbox]

part 2 of this ask

📝Process for hurt mezu drawing 

here are the steps i dug out of an art server's wips channel lol

1. initial sketch

2. refine sketch. thats lines now babey. (omitted "the sleeves are KILLING ME WAHHH" stage that led to this)

3. grayscale, to use with gradient map (this is a more polished grayscale than I started with, i dug the working file out to get better images)

4. find nice gradient map (ended up being the same one I'd used for the piece i made right before. the goal is to make what's essentially an underpainting, not to color the whole thing with one map)

5. tweak and add colors that arent in the map with hard light layers & also sneak in a layer for special effect and atmospheric/ scenic perspective while you're at it

6. shading & more finishing effects. pretty much all of the shading was done with hard light layers! the only non-hard light layers I used for the shading were the particle effect layers & like one faint glow layer to fix some values. blood was done with linear burn

✨Inspiration for hurt mezu drawing 

the coloring method (grayscale -> saturated gradient map underpainting -> additive color adjustments) is something I tried out with the piece i'd made right before (the one where gozu is holding mezu from behind) & turned out really well, so I wanted to keep going with it

I also wanted to draw them angstily again because it'd been a very long time. like half a year at least. angsting them is very enriching for my soul so I try to do it regularly, this one was overdue

subconsciously referenced the poses in the initial sketch from this old thing (feb 2021). i love doing this. all my for-fun works recycle old elements in some way. my favorite game is "what old art reminds me of what im doing rn" im so good at digging stuff out of my archives for it. everyone loves when i do this

the gangi-kozou panel also

i went through a "shade in bold red-orange & dark blue with hard light layers" phase in like..april/may of 2021. i still like that stuff a lot so I wanted to revisit it

💚Things you like about hurt mezu drawing

repasting the link there but the sixth image in the process is essentially the final so you can just look at that

the colors are nice!! I'm real happy with using more saturated colors n I think the warm vs cool balance works really well

the sleeves (man being dramatic on the sand meme)

no like fr look at the 2021 piece's kimono sleeves vs the one I just did 2.5 years later. so satisfying

Gozu's expression came out nice

i think the claws and flash lines successfully added Emphasis to Gozu's expression & the piece overall

the poses … the drama …. the brush textures are also good

⏳Things you’d do differently with hurt mezu drawing

add in a liiitle more contrast...aka use a wider range of values. Some lighter lights and darker darks. I miss my 2021 hard neon lighting

a bit more distinction between the characters and the background also

the composition isn't bad but it could be better. Should've thought more about the way the eye would flow around the image in the drafting stage (solid b&w color block thumbnails are good for this)

Moar Sparkles. (I put a solid amount of large & low opacity light bubbles in there & some finer brighter dots especially around the claw stems, but I think more clusters of tiny bright lights on the characters themselves would've gone hard)

💌Some favourite feedback on art

as the wise man Austin Kleon once said: keep a "praise file" of all the positive feedback you get (if you've never read "Steal Like an Artist," you must). so. i am prepared for this question hold on

tastes like sugar glass

multiple people have told me my art is soft & dreamlike

jayce you reblogged my touchstarved art with nice tags on april 10th ive got that saved love uou

umm theres a lot...anytime someone keysmashes or feels emotional because of my art i get happy ,,, lys messaged me about the hurt mezu piece that made me happy also,,,,,there is so much joy in the world

[pancake-breakfast]

Time to finish of Volume 5. Let's see if we can't get some more crazies on the playing board.

Stream-of-consciousness thoughts for TriMax Vol. 5, Chapters 5-6 below.

Chapter 5: Death Deal

Everyone's screaming.... Blood is everywhere.... Picking up right where we left off, I see....

Holy fuck, was running over his face with the bike necessary, Legato??? Geez, man.

Creechur Vash is displeased.

CREECHUR VASH IS DISPLEASED!!!

...I'm sorry, but Legato feeling legitimately ill and being moved to tears of sadness that Midvalley would turn a gun on him and "betray Master Knives" is freaking hilarious and I absolutely LOL'ed. Gods, this man is such a mess.

I do feel bad for Midvalley, though. I feel like, in another life, on another world, maybe he could have just played beautiful music.

Dude is just staring and Wolfwood and crying. I'm telling ya, he's SUPER jealous. He wishes Knives trusted him as much as Knives is trusting Wolfwood right now, which is funny 'cause it's Wolfwood.

This look, though.... Find you a man who stares down your enemies the way Wolfwood stares down Legato. Even though he might not actually be able to see very well right now.

Got rid of them...? As in... Vash and Meryl? Vash and... Wolf... wood?? What did Zazie do?

Butterflies?

Ohhhhhhhhhh

Wait, I never *did* figure out why they were trying to get rid of Zazie. Glad Zazie's having fun with bodies, though.

It was because they didn't want Zazie to report back to Legato, huh?

Is... Gauntlet resisting Legato??

YES HE IS!!! GOOD FOR HIM!!!

Meanwhile, Creechur Vash is just waiting for all of this to die down, I guess?

Ohhhhh. Yeah, keeping Crechur Vash contained is gonna be a task for anyone.

Gotta have a good ol' Mexican Standoff.

Ahhh, I know there's so much going on here and it's all bad, but he really is kinda cute like this.

MERYL TO THE RESCUE!!!

Gods, she's screaming, she's crying, she's severely outgunned and/or outmatched by every player on the field.... She may be small, but her power is adequate.

AND SHE AIMS RIGHT FOR LEGATO!!! GET 'IM, GIRL!!!

It's enough for Gauntlet to pull the trigger on his gun....

...aaaand all hell breaks loose.

I like how even though Zazie's new form is more feminine, it's still like, "What is gender? I don't care. My gender is worms."

Legato appears to still be alive. Human skulls are more durable than we give them credit for.

Ohhhh, Stampede referenced this little speech of Legato's.

WTH happened to his face? Like, I know he just got shot, but I'm having trouble figuring out how he went from this...

...to this....

...in the space of a panel.

Ah, that's gotta be Midvalley's corpse. Meryl's right to scream. There's no coming back from seeing that.

I like the little stringy lines implying Legato's power.

Of course that bastard would be like, "Oh, you created a friend? Gotta make sure you pay for that by your friend's hand." He's a very sick fuck.

Creechur Vash is still displeased.

The only one here who hasn't quite seen this yet is Meryl, and she's already freaking out. Even Legato looks terrified. Glad his face is back to normal, though.

Ohhhhh, shit. The Nail is here.

Chapter 6: Let Us Walk The Path To Redemption

Ohhh, Vashie, babygirl....

Legato's little monster-puppet handler can feel pain??

Oop, something going on here is bringing Vash back out of creechur mode.

She has a point. People with a strong enough death wish can cause quite a mess seeking their own destruction.

Nevermind, Vash has turned into a lightning bug with too many wings.

Ohhhh, baby Vash....

I do love the use of white space here, though. This happens a lot when we fall into Vash's memories, and it really emphasizes his loneliness.

That's too many bullets. The image of bullets falling like tears....

Aaaand Legato is ruining the moment with his madness. Gods, this wet cat is gonna punish himself even harder now because of all this, and other people might actually have to watch that.

I like how they have yet to actually show her face.

Goshdarn, someone wrap Vash in a weighted blanket and feed him something nice and give him all the hugs.

YOU CAN DO IT, VASH!!!

Eyyyyy, body horror....

I love that he's focusing on the kindness of those in the past to pull himself through. He has no idea what the future holds... for himself, for mankind, for the companions who, after this, might not want anything to do with him ever again. But he's doing what he can to focus on people's kindness....

And... he's protecting Gauntlet, isn't he? Of course he is. Gauntlet, who's so tired from everything that's happened tonight, he probably wants to die. He was expecting to die. He lost his only friend by his own hand because of Legato. And now the man he came here to kill is protecting him.

OUT OF BULLETS, YA BASTARD!!! (The sound effect here is "ga-chi, ga-chi, ga-chi" over and over again. Def not a gun firing sound.)

Awww, man! Creepy weird guy carrying around Legato has a knife arm.... Whyyyyyy.

Look at his stupid face, though. He's enjoying this.

Ok, that's too many teeth. Please return some to wherever you got them from.

Did... Airship Lady shoot him through the head?

Yeah, she did.

Hahahahaha, the first time we see her fully revealed, and she's just being a baby after falling in the sand.

LOL, Meryl....

You know what? Legato deserves to be talked down to like this. He really, really does.

"Secret Number 13!" But that doesn't add up. Literally. In chapter 5 of the last volume, Wolfwood said they only had three left: Zazie, Midvalley, and Hoppered. They'd only been through six in the previous chapters, and adding Wolfwood to that mix only makes 10. Unless he's counting Legato and Knives, but in the last volume didn't think they wouldn't actually come out to fight??? Or was trying to mislead Vash on their numbers, since he said that one out loud but this one's in his head??? Very confused. Fix your math, Nightow.

Ah, that's... that's a lot of nails....

"You've really been losing it lately." You know it's bad when even the other bad guys are like, "Yyyyyeeeeaaaahhh, sorry about our buddy over here. He's... he's a little crazy. We're just gonna take him home so he doesn't do anything else stupid today. We'll resume tormenting you later."

Mannnn, if Bluesummers could hear Knives say this right now, he'd start crying all over again for a completely different reason...

I'm honestly not sure what happened in this explosion here.

Even Legato's little pet monster-thing is looking not so good. One's spine really should stay inside their body.

Looks like Vash is getting ahold of himself ok over there.

Meryl is soooo brave here. She's terrified to the point of tears, but she grits her teeth and readies herself.

Vash looks spent.

Nothing gets Vash's attention quite like someone in dire need.

Dude. Gauntlet. Why you gotta be like that to Vash!? You know and you're still like, "Eh, I even know it's wrong of me to do so, but I'm smiling about it."

And yet Vash STILL holds his hand so Gauntlet doesn't have to die alone.

Wolfwood and Meryl running to Vash's side now that it's safe. Meryl immediately inquiring after Vash's health. <3 <3 <3

BRB, finding a way to give hugs to a fictional character.

Hahahahaha, Milly. She's sooooo enthusiastic. I love her.

Is that... Zazie in the crutches??

LOL, yeah. But how did Zazie get ahold of a black wig? What a weirdo.

Heh. In spite of everything, here's Vash dragging Wolfwood to a makeshift funeral for the makeshift graves for two people who adamantly tried to kill them.

...No comment. I'm just gonna put this here. Yeah.

LOL, Vash is calling Wolfwood on his bullshit again.

This panel is a good panel. I'm going to put it here, too.

"You break it, you fix it." The path to redemption, indeed. Onward with the manual labor!

Archive

Trigun Volume 1: Covers + 1-3, 3 Detailed Thoughts, 4, 4 DT, 5-6, 5-6 + DT, 6 DT, 7-8, 9-10 || Volume 2: Covers + Extras, 1, 1 Supplemental Research, 2-4, 5-6, 7-8

TriMax Volume 1: Covers + 1-2, 2 DT, 3-4, 3 DT, 5-6 || Volume 2: Covers + 1, 2-4, 5, 6-7 || Volume 3: Covers + 1-3, 4-5, 6-7 || Volume 4: Covers + 1-2, 3-5, 6-7 || Volume 5: Covers + 1-2, 3-4, 3 DT

[go-to-the-mirror]

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)

Relationships: Eleventh Doctor & Dream Lord (Doctor Who), Eleventh Doctor & The Doctor's TARDIS

Characters: Eleventh Doctor (Doctor Who), The Doctor's TARDIS, Dream Lord (Doctor Who)

Additional Tags: Whumptober, Whumptober 2023, Dreams, Background Rory Williams, Mentioned Amy Pond (Doctor Who), Mentioned Sister of Mine (Doctor Who), Mirrors, Episode: s05e07 Amy's Choice, Post-Episode: s05e07 Amy’s Choice, Title from a Tally Hall Song, No Beta We Die Like Rory, Implied/Referenced Sex

Language: English

Published: 2023-10-16

Words: 761

Chapters: 1/1

Summary:

He could almost think he was imagining it in the reflection of the control panel, his own paranoia playing off what he’d just dreamed, but this is a full body view and the face staring back at him is not his own. --- After “Amy’s Choice” the Dream Lord isn’t gone. --- Written for Whumptober 2023. Prompt used is “Leave me alone.”

Mirrors are not exactly the Doctor’s friend.

He really has no idea what he was thinking when he trapped — what was it called, the sister? — in the mirror. Probably something about righteous fury and avenging all who died because he ran and hid.

She looks at him through a dead girl’s eyes, but she’s not who he’s looking at. He could almost think he was imagining it in the reflection of the control panel, his own paranoia playing off what he’d just dreamed, but this is a full body view and the face staring back at him is not his own.

“What are you doing here?” he mutters, just as Rory enters.

“You invited me!”

The Doctor spins around to face him. “Rory!” He smiles brightly and puts his arm around Rory’s shoulders. “How are you, has Amy decided where to go next?”

“She says she wants to rest for a bit.”

“More rest?” the Doctor asks. “You’d think we’ve slept enough.”

“Apparently it wasn’t restful enough?” Rory answers, seemingly as confused as the Doctor regarding his fiancée’s antics. “But afterwards she’s thinking Rio?”

The Doctor grins. “Rio! Lovely place. Tell her she makes good choices.”

“I will,” Rory says with a smile. The Doctor waits for him to leave, then turns back to face the mirror.

It’s just him. Just him and a little girl holding a balloon, but she’s par for the course.

---

“Why are you all fixed?” the Doctor asks his TARDIS. She’s the only one to talk to, really, with Rory and Amy sleeping, probably in heavy quotation marks, but he’s not good at that sort of thing. “You’re always in need of repairs when I’m busy, but when I need something to do, suddenly you’re in tiptop shape!”

The TARDIS feels something that the Doctor could perceive as self-satisfied.

“It’s inconsiderate, frankly. First you give us shared dreams that feed on our insecurities, self-loathing, and darkness, and now you’re not even a little bit broken.

“Well,” the Doctor reconsiders. “Technically you are broken, but I’m not fixing that, it’s lovely.”

The Doctor sits down cross-legged, leaning against the control panel. “Don’t tell Amy or Rory, but I’m a bit tired too.

“But I don’t want to go to sleep, I just…. I don’t. So I need you to quietly blow a fuse, or something, so I can do something with my hands.”

The TARDIS feels… concerned, he thinks. Concern is a difficult emotion, it feels all together too much like pity.

“I’ve already slept a lot today.”

Annoyance, now. It sort of twinges.

“Look, if I go to sleep now, I’m going to have a nightmare, and I’m going to feel worse than if I don’t sleep.”

Judgement? She feels judgmental. It’s hard to put a name on things sometimes. She definitely doesn’t think he’s right.

“Besides, they say you shouldn’t sleep after stressful events — don’t correct me.”

Ah, disapproval. It hurts, just a bit.

“You know, maybe you’re part of the reason why it fed off me, because it’s not just me in my head judging every choice I have.”

And now she’s hurt too.

The Doctor sighs. “Maybe you’re right. Just a quick nap, get my head back in order.”

She’s still hurt.

“I’m sorry.”

She forgives him, that’s clear, but the pain hasn’t gone away. The Doctor tries to ignore that little curdle of guilt inside his stomach.

---

“She’s the problem now?”

The Doctor looks up to see the Dream Lord standing over him. He looks smug.

“You’re in my dream now.”

“You noticed?”

The Doctor gets to his feet. “You’re just pollen.”

“I’m you,” the Dream Lord counters. “You can’t get rid of me.”

“If you’re me, get back inside my head.”

“You keep it all shut so tight, Doctor,” the Dream Lord says. “Like if you shove it down far enough you can pretend none of it’s real.”

“I don’t pretend it’s not real.”

“What did you tell Amy when she asked about your children, hm?”

The Doctor is silent.

“Did you tell her who killed them?”

“Leave me alone.”

“You didn’t. I know you didn’t, I’m the one who didn’t.”

“It wasn’t relevant—“

“And did you tell her what happened to the rest of them? To the rest of your companions? Abandoned, or a soldier. Abandoned and a soldier. Or dead. Is she prepared for the cost of travelling with you? Is Rory?”

“I’m going to do better this time.”

The Dream Lord laughs. It sounds too much like him. “And when you’re alone again, I’ll still be here, Doctor.”

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #10

Batman: Gotham Knights #2 written by Devin Grayson, pencils by Dale Eaglesham

We're finally out of No Man's Land! Gotham's no longer cut off from the rest of the country, and the city is largely rebuilt already - even though that should have taken many years. But it's not like the lasting effects of the year-long mega crossover vanished completely, there were still stories here and there in the months following the end of NML that still referenced the events of the story, like this one. It's a one off story, focused on Bruce & Cassandra - specifically his perception of her - by the same writer and artist as the The Batman Chronicles #18, which we looked at earlier. I wasn't a huge fan of the story in that issue, but I thought they handled Cass alright, which has me feeling optimistic going in.

The basic set up is pretty straight forward. NML is over, but records of who died and who survived in Gotham - especially among people who were homeless to begin with - are still extremely spotty, and a crew of slave traders have kidnapped a bunch of people to sell overseas... which is a very 'conservative conspiracy theorist' take on what human trafficking looks like, but whatever. Bruce and Cass track down which ship the people are on, but not until it's off shore, and before they can get to it there's an explosion onboard and the ship starts to sink, after which it's a race against time to rescue the ship's crew, the traffickers, and the victims alike.

As with the Chronicles issue, I do mostly like how Eaglesham draws Cass in costume. I think it'd be better served with the bigger, chonky belt pouches that can flare out or flop around to help convey motion and better break up the overall black form, but whatever, this is mostly good. He's also really good at rendering a variety of faces and body types, much as in the group shot above. About my only complaint is that he can go a bit overboard in detailing big veiny muscles. It's ok on his Arkham-game style, hulking meat wall version of Batman. Not my preferred take on Bruce aesthetically, but that's more a matter of taste. But he occasionally goes overboard on Cass's musculature too, and it doesn't work as well on her.

Now, a Bat hero storming a room full of guys is normal everyday fare, but Batman hanging back in the doorway and shouting "WAIT!" tells us that we're supposed to read Cass as being careless and impulsive here. Which touches on multiple important aspects of her character - her combat skills make her near unbeatable in a fight with normal human opponents, which in turn makes her overconfident in a way that can come back to bite her in a world where aliens and super-people exist

Anyway, this issue is focused on a different contributing factor to Cass's recklessness - guilt. Cass killed someone, a sin that can never be taken back. She feels deep down that the only way to make up for that is to give her own life in return - not just to save other lives, but to dedicate the rest of her entire life to doing so, to eventually lose her life in the attempt. This death wish makes Cass not just willing but seemingly eager to take on lethal risks - in ways that jeopardize not just her own life but potentially also those she works with or tries to protect.

Batman doesn't know what exactly it is that Cass feels guilty about - if he did then this version of Bruce wouldn't be so willing to let her wear his symbol - but he does understand recklessness and guilt and death wishes - his core motivation is as much about survivor's guilt as it is about vengeance. And as such, he believes that this is an internal conflict for Cass. It isn't something he can save her from, she needs to save herself, and that will mean letting Cass endanger herself in ways that others would absolutely find unacceptable.

That first panel there is the one I was talking about when I mentioned Eaglesham sometimes going overboard on Cass's musculature.

Brick shithouse Cass aside, this is good stuff. So good that we'll be seeing it again. This exact dynamic - Cass struggling with a guilt-fueled death wish, Batman letting her face death in order to confront and overcome that wish, and others judging Bruce to be callous and even abusive for letting a teenage girl under his care endanger herself that way - will play out again in a more expanded form in Cass's ongoing title.

I honestly have only two really minor complaints about how Grayson writes Cass here. The first is that it's just a bit too monotone dark and serious. The story is high danger action emergency through much of it, but we could have had a bit more lighthearted tone early on before they get to the boat. If not a sense of Cass having fun, then at least of her trying too hard to impress Bruce or something, or Bruce giving her some small word of praise and show her being overly excited over it. Something. Cass has these darker aspects to her character, but she's not all downer all the time. This misery is a burden she carries, not who she is.

The other minor complaint is a lot of this characterization is coming to us from those narration blocks. It's not that Cass's feelings /aren't/ being shown. You can really feel Cass's desperation in that top panel as Bruce slips away, abandoning her to face her ghosts alone, or her misery in the center right panel, her head buried in her arms, unable to escape the memory of killing someone. That's good angst, there! The left panel with water and wreckage crashing down on her, the last panel with Cass small and trapped... the art here is fantastic, but the text all over this page is distracting from the emotion and getting in the way of feeling what this character is going through. The narration is mostly fine throughout the issue, good even, but imo this page in particular would have been stronger without it.

The boat captain calls Bruce out for leaving Cass behind, and while he defends his choice, Eaglesham does an excellent job conveying how pained and conflicted he is over this choice.

I mean, obviously she's going to make it at the last moment, but Grayson drags it out for a whole extra page, and I can't complain at all, because the way Eaglesham puts all of the emotions on Bruce's face there is just very good. You can see how much he cares about Cassandra, despite how short a time he's known her. In her core personality and her internal struggles, Cass is very much like Bruce, arguably more so than any of his other proteges. Or, at least, this version of Cass was the most like this version of Bruce. It's part of why Bruce is willing to let her go to these extremes, he believes it's what she needs because he believes it's what he needed, he trusts her to persevere through impossible odds because he trusts that he would persevere through the same. From the very start, Cass very much feels like Bruce's daughter, for better and worse.

We do at least end on a bit of a brighter moment. You have to imagine Barbara was watching Titanic in the tower recently.

All in all, good stuff. The kind of thing that will define Cass's book. A low fantasy/street level story concept, with normal human antagonists and stakes rather than colorful supervillains and city or world-scale action. This focus opens the space to delve deep into the characters' emotions, motivations, and internal conflicts, and a particular focus on the relationship between Bruce and Cass.

Big goofy dramatic superheroics are fun and good, but it's this angsty, layered character business that caught my attention and got me to care about Cassandra in the first place.