#but i'm always open to question

[commanderhorncleaver]

Introduction: Cain Flametongue

Cain Flametongue, formerly known as Brutus Quietflame, is the cub of Gaius Horncleaver and an unremarkable dam who did little for her cub aside from provide him with a younger brother named Jullus nine months after he joined an Iron Legion fahrar.

The cub grew up in a difficult time for Iron cubs with shamanist tendencies, and unlike Augustus, he wouldn't have Gaius' proximity to the fahrar to protect him physically nor through reputation.

He didn't so much take the name 'Quiet' so much as have it foisted upon him by his bandmates to emphasize his nature. He spoke little and stayed to himself. Being a larger sort, and steadily reliable even with his pyromancy, he was a strong lieutenant. This wouldn't last, though, as he was eventually scouted by Flame looking to sow seeds of discord--rumors of Baelfire's aspirations for godhood were known years before the actual ritual, after all, and the Legions needed to be distracted while the shamans worked and studied and prepared.

Brutus took the first opportunity to accept recruitment, leaking details of raids and plans, small things to help Flame with infiltration or avoiding patrols. When he was asked to assist in a strike against Blood and Iron, wiping out several warbands at once, he again eagerly accepted, and personally wiped out his own warband, including his own brother who had been assigned as his guard.

Though Flame appreciated him, and seemed to offer opportunities for his growth and development, once again, this wouldn't last, as eventually, the Citadel of Flame would take place and Gaheron would be slain by the commander and his comrades. Knowing Brutus' ties to Horncleaver--and having conveniently not been present at the slaughter of shamans--it was assumed that he had been playing the long con. Brutus was tortured: his tongue was burned out when it became evident that he wouldn't talk, and eventually it became clear he would be killed.

So he killed them all first, flaming arrows finding their marks and white-hot illusions luring his captors to their deaths. Finally free, Brutus cast off his name and ties, and swore vengeance on the name that's plagued him all his life, Gaius Horncleaver.

[rkdvanguard]

[bloo-the-dragon]

I see you and i raise you: panicked Moon comforting panicked Sun ;D

For full context, this would be set right after their separation when Moon has just woken up. Sun came online after Moon was removed from his head and he panicked, went into a frenzy scaring off the staff possibly even injuring one or two in his efforts to get Moon's chip back.

And while he is not programmed to work the parts and service machine it's amazing the things one can do when panicking and desperate. But he can't get Moon back into his own head because that would require someone else manning the machine so he gets one of, if not their only spare endo thats available (not counting Eclipse who is in the basement currently)

Moon wakes up, starts to panic because he can't sense Sun but then Sun is right there in front of him, in a very frantic and shaky state. Confused, scared and not knowing whats going on Moon just holds onto him and plays his music box, though the tunes are out of note because he hasn't fully calibrated to this new body.

They'd remain this way for a long time before getting Moon fully dressed (he actually wouldn't have any clothes here but i didn't have the energy to draw all the robot details lmao) and then they'd head back to the daycare.

[grim-ghosty]

How Branch became a Bounty Hunter.

[sentfromwolves]

hey writeblr I'm curious: what do you think is the most distinctive trait of your main character/s that your readers will pickup on?

[exdeputysonso]

Brad Dourif as Hemmingway | London Kills Me (1991)

[magicbats]

for anyone interested, i just made a signal hill directory page 🌲📡

[gremlins-hotel]

Character Design Notes: Alfred

Hopefully this can make up for not posting much art lately. Also, you guys get to see how my brain works a little bit. This is part of why I have trouble drawing new characters. I have the goal to take inspiration from their native fauna - or national symbol, if there is one - since I think the nations represent their land as much as they represent their people. It can take me a little while since I also have a serious case of "needs real-life human inspiration to envision human characters". Seeing the hairstyle and large glasses of an unknown student at my university is what drove me to finally draw Mathieu (and I hope to do so more). So, because you guys know me - and my blog - I of course have notes on Alfred. I do have some notes on other characters, too, but nothing visually solid like I have for Alfred, or perhaps Mathieu and Ivan.

[episodes-without-incident]

I finished the graph of the Drawfee Cascada streak, so for any other numbers nerds:

(How to read it: The chart shows how long it has been since Drawfee last made an "every time" joke. For example, on September 28, they hadn't for 12 episodes.)

Here's the current graph of the Cats (2019) streak as well:

You can find links to view interactive versions of the charts (as well as the data spreadsheets) in my pinned post.

[icewindandboringhorror]

sneeping with his legs up over his head for some reason... weird boye

[notanotherinfjblog]

A few thoughts on NJs

I'm currently in the unique position where my most frequent social contacts are an ENTJ and an ENFJ, and one thing I find is that NJs generally strongly gravitate towards each other. Coming across a fellow NJ out in the wild is exceedingly rare, so whenever that happens, there is always this strange moment of instinctual mutual recognition. Suddenly you see your own Ni reflected back at you. It makes sense that you'd want to stay close to that person.

In the following, I will just talk a bit about the observations that I've made (not very coherently, I'm sorry). Something that I find interesting is that even though our minds work very similarly (always dissecting everything, searching for patterns and meanings, making seemingly random connections in the search for the root of something etc.), NFJs and NTJs have very different priorities. The NFJ can be completely drowning in work, but that will never stop them from prioritising people over everything else. They will collect and cherish every tidbit of information that someone told them about themselves. They will sacrifice time they absolutely do not have just to be there when an acquaintance they somewhat like gives a talk about something that is in no way relevant to the NFJ. They will be able to recognise all their co-workers by the sound of their steps alone. All of this is precious information. The NTJs, on the other hand, will not even bother to learn your name unless they have taken an interest in you in any way. NTJs will be polite to you, that's no issue, but if they don't care, almost everything you tell them will be deleted from their brains. They prioritise the abstract over everything else. If they are busy thinking about, I don't know, quantum physics, you are welcome to discuss it with them and they will be delighted. If you and the conversation are interesting enough, they will also figure out how your mind works in the meantime. But this is a step you have to unlock with an NTJ first. The NFJs will do this automatically. Funnily enough, I find that NTJs become more openly annoyed by you the more they have grown fond of you. If you are being annoying and they don't care about you, depending on the situation, they will either simply leave or put you in your place. If you are being annoying and they do care, you end up with amazing conversations like this:

INFJ: "I needed help with that work thing, so I asked a friend, but it didn't really go as planned and so I ended up with even more work to fix the thing afterwards." ENTJ: "Well, why didn't you ask ME for my help? I can help you better with this than your friend can." INFJ: "I didn't know I could ask you." ENTJ: "What do you mean you didn't know? Of course you can! Sometimes you are just ... Can you do it over?" INFJ: "Why? I've already done the thing now." ENTJ: "Can't you just throw it away and do it again, but with my help this time? I could help you with it right now." INFJ: "What for? Like I said, it's all done." ENTJ: "Just ask me next time."

Because once an NTJ cares, they care. They want to watch you live a good life, but then they witness you making your own life difficult just by being the way you are, and it will be frustrating because it's not something they can just fix. They will be nosy, they will observe and analyse everything about you (just like an NFJ in default mode but the NTJs are more normal about it). But if they don't care, you end up with actual conversations like this:

ESFP: "I'm going to leave work early today to go to that concert later tonight." ENTJ: "Oh really? What concert?" ESFP: "What do you mean 'what concert'? I literally told you that like an hour ago." ENTJ: "Did you? Sorry, my brain must have registered our conversation as useless information and immediately deleted it."

This is absolutely not something that you will ever hear an NFJ say to someone. If they don't like you, they will just never seek out a conversation with you, but if put into a situation where they have to interact with you, they will remain polite, quiet and a bit awkward (but then again, I have yet to meet an NFJ that isn't a bit awkward in general). Something that I've noticed between ENFJs and INFJs is that we are very similar, but we externalise our Fe a bit differently. I will have the impulse to do a particular Fe-driven thing and then stop myself from doing it because I think it might come across as slightly pathetic. ENFJ just does it. An example: when someone I like (or even only feel neutral towards) tells me a story about something that happened recently and hands me their phone to show me a photo, I get the impulse to look at every photo related to this story because I want to know everything about this person and their experiences, just soak it all up and gather all the information. But then I take a step back and think this might come across as too intrusive, so I do nothing and just listen and look at what is presented to me. In that same situation, ENFJ will straight up ask to see every single picture, zoom in on every face and ask questions about all the people in the pictures and so many other things with genuine curiosity. Meanwhile, I express my Fe more by pulling faces as a reaction to everything that is said to me in order to make a connection with people (think of Jim Halpert looking at the camera in The Office. That's me.). ENFJs, however, are more blank in the face and generally the least emotive of all the FJs. You tell them a funny story and they will just ... stare at you. Their reactions and feelings remain hidden beneath the surface. I never really understood why so many people have told me all my life that I'm completely unreadable. Until I met ENFJ. I know what they mean now. There is a disconnect between the NFJ and other people. They collect all the information about everyone and figure them out in silence, but every non-verbal communication from them seems slightly calculated. Like they are in hiding. It's like there is a window between you and the NFJ. You can see them and interact with them, but you can't quite reach them. There's something invisible between you and it's keeping you separate. I get it now. Many have tried to read me, but only one seems to have cracked the code: ENTJ. Generally, NTJs do show the typical Ni detachment from the world, but their mental and emotional states are not hidden. You always know how they are feeling.

[danikatze]

Hey question: is it self-deprecating to say "I have a couple sketches that aren't to my liking yet, but I'm trying some stuff - in the meantime here's one I like a lot"?

Like have I got some work to do in that regard, or is this person accusing me of self-deprecation out of line and should I ignore them lol

[girlsies-week-2023]

Information on some of my favorite Girlsies !!! For sillies !!!

(working title was me infodumping about girlsies under the excuse that it is relevent to the event)

I don't have the energy to go through & update this post at the moment, but @thegroundsofbrooklyn has a post here that has more info on the UK Brooklyn Girls !!!

Starting out with our number one, the original girlsie: Charlie (Hard Promises) !!!

Charlie was the original love interest for Jack in Hard Promises, and she was a newsie !! Her story was that she was living in a house of prostitution with her aunt (with her aunt trying to shield her from as much as possible to stop her from going into that life / being exposed to it) and she was planning to (and did!) go with Jack to Santa Fe at the end.

Next up: Smalls (Papermill - Broadway) (Manhattan / Possibly The Bronx) !!!:

I know that whether or not Smalls is a girl is up to interpretation but I am interpreting her as a girl & including her in this list (same with Sniper).

Smalls is a Bronx newsie (as implied by her yelling so's da Bronx during Brooklyn's Here), but she's still allowed in Manhattan (hence being there for KoNY in some versions), so she's probably allowed to wander around on her own.

According to Liana Hunt, she lives in a family with at least one parent and a ton of brothers who all work to support them, so she's sort've eager to be one of the boys in that sense — she's also super tough.

Talls !!! (Broadway) (Manhattan / Possibly The Bronx):

Talls was Caitlyn Caughell's newsie whenever she was on for that track. I have no information on her besides the fact that she was played by Caitlyn Caughell & is probably a play on her height of some kind — + also being a play on Smalls. Smalls & Talls <3

Sniper !!! (Tour) (Manhattan / Possibly The Bronx):

I'm going to be mixing in other backstories for this because as far as I'm aware Sniper's the only newsie on that list with a backstory that isn't from their actress ? + she has more involvement in the show when she isn't a girl so I'm going off that

But according to Alex Wong — Sniper's last name is Wah, and she's the daughter (son in this backstory but it's okay) of Sam Wah, who owns the laundromat above Jacobi's (the sign of which can be seen in the pre-uksies Jacobi scenes). She's named after her 'incredible aim' with a slingshot.

In certain versions, she's one of the scabs, the last one to throw down her papers, and the one to go 'Ah, what the hell? My father's gonna kill me anyway!' in the proshot. In the tour, she was also the one to yell so's da bronx.

Puddles !!! (Tour) (Manhattan / Possibly The Bronx):

Puddles is in the same group as Talls in the sense that there is like no canon lore about her & there isn't even any information besides her name and the fact that she was played by Melissa Steadman Hart during the tour. However she has the cutest nickname and deserved to be included in this list.

Marriott! Buttons !!! (Marriott) (Manhattan):

According to Adrienne Storrs, the actress for Buttons, she's been a newsie for three years. Her parents are poor Italian immigrants that don't speak English, so she works to support them. She was convinced to start selling Newspapers by JoJo after being caught pickpocketing on the street.

Buttons & JoJo are best gal pals, she sees Specs as a younger brother figure (she's always looking out for him), and Race and Albert are her favorite people to joke around with!

She has (had?) a rich boyfriend that went to jail for forgery a bit before the strike, so she's a little heartbroken during it, but she's 'continuing to live her life and she has the best newsie friends'.

She has a really positive mindset in general.

She also (along with JoJo) checked Katherine out when she walked into Jacobi's and later taught her how to Irish dance during KoNY with JoJo !!!

Marriott! JoJo !!! (Marriott) (Manhattan):

According, once again, to Adrienne Storrs, JoJo (who's real name is Josephine) is 'one tough cookie'. She was originally a pickpocket, but Jack found her and took her under her wing for ten percent of her earnings when she was almost twelve. She was one of the original newsies in the Manhattan group, and after three years she started seeking out other girl newsies (& that's when Buttons came along !!). She's been a newsie for about five years, 'not too far behind how long Jack had been selling'.

She has an Irish father and a Romanian mother and they were circus artists that came to America with P.T Barnum in the 1870s. She was born in 1882 (making her seventeen at the time of the strike) and she was raised around a circus.

Rafaela (Marriott) (Brooklyn):

Once again, according to Adrienne Storrs, Rafaela's parents moved from Spain to Puerto Rico in the 1880s and she was born there in 1885. They moved to New York City when she was five and she's very close with her brothers, who were six and eight at the time. All three children became newsies at the same time, being expected to work as much as their parents did.

She didn't go to school, she taught herself how to read and speak English, using her time as a newsie as a teaching device. She's super tough, and she had to grow up really fast. She 'has a strong sense of community with her family and fellow Brooklyn Newsies'.

Joey (Marriott) (Brooklyn):

You guessed it, information yet again from Adrienne Storrs!

Joey is Racetrack Higgins' cousin, and she's super positive. She's also secretly a really good fighter.

Hildy (Marriott) (Brooklyn):

You'll never guess where this info is from.

Hildy is German, and her parents own a sausage shop, and she likes to get into trouble.

Honorable mention to Nancy, Hazel, and Muriel from Newsies Jr.

I don't have the energy to read through all of newsies jr rn to find out which lines they have, however I can tell you off the top of my head that they are very supportive of Katherine and probably also on the younger side (because. Newsies Jr. Obviously).

If anyone who's played them would like to mention their backstory in the rbs or in this accs ask box, that would be lovely !!!

Spot Conlon (UK) (Brooklyn):

Using Lillie-Pearl's backstory for Spot here, because Clarice never got the opportunity to share hers if she had one :(

Lillie-Pearl's backstory for Spot is that her parents were Irish and African American immigrants living in Seneca Village.

Spot in Uksies is very close with Davey !!! According to Lillie-Pearl, she doesn't call him Davey, she calls him David, and in her cameo description she added 'making rhymes with Davey' into her list of things she enjoyed. She is also very close with her girls (obviously), specifically Lucky & Stray, who she did the handshake with depending on what point in the show it was. She also liked Race, depending on the day.

(She also probably isn't on awful terms with most of the Manhattan newsies, especially if they're girls.)

Lucky (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

Lucky doesn't have a lot of canon lore too her HOWEVER I can tell you that she used to do the handshake with Spot back when she existed, was called Tops for some performances, AND her real name is Eliza !!! She also interacted with Scope a lot during The Rally.

Mack (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

Mack's real name is Jeanie MacDonald, but she shortened it down to Mack because she didn't like her name.

She's a Scottish immigrant whose family moved to the U.S (just North of New York) to start a farm, but a plague of locusts destroyed the farm, so they had to move into the city for work.

She couldn't stand being stuck in their one bedroom cramped apartment, so her father suggested that she take up work as a Newsie.

Splint (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

Splint's arm is in a Splint !!! For some mystery reason that definitely isn't because Bobbie's hand was injured at the time of the first preview. Definitely not.

She doesn't appear after The Rally, which is because — according to Bobbie — she falled down & died :( (Bobbie needed 2 be there as Hannah)

Also her real name is Splinty McSplint.

(Bobbie also said that if she were to have a love interest it would be Buttons.)

Scope (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

I have no canon info about Scope besides the fact that she has the world's cutest pigtails and hung around Lucky at The Rally a lot :(

Ritz (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

Ritz' real name is Rita, and her nickname comes from ritz crackers and also Lucy's last characters name !! That's all the canon info we have on her as far as ik :(

Stray (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

Stray's nickname comes from her feeding all of the stray animals of New York !!!

She is related to Specs in some way (probably siblings, considering the fact that Sam & Immie are).

She becomes a Bowery Beauty when she's older, and her real name is from a newsgirl turned dancer but Immie doesn't remember who that is — the closest I got in my research is Lillian Russell, who wasn't a newsgirl but yk close enough.

(Her love interest would've been Mike !!)

Pips (Newsies UK) (Brooklyn):

Again, no canon information on Pips as far as I'm aware, besides the fact that she is literally adorable

[blackberryjambaby]

the sydney herald have just published an article about how jehovah's witnesses are forced to forego blood transfusions & the statements the spokesman makes just kinda make me sick

when i was 12 i needed urgent knee repairs & my mother refused to sign for a blood transfusion should the worst happen. i begged her to sign because i both needed the surgery & didn't want to die. the anesthesiologist who was on that day didn't let the surgery go ahead when she refused, saying that in the worst case scenario if i started to bleed out on his table, his team would do everything in their power to save my life. they wouldn't just patch me up & hope for the best. realising that a man i'd never met before valued my life more than my mother did was deeply horrifying

[pathos-logical]

Do you know of any resources or posts specifically about captioning comics? I am very new to this, but I love comics and I make comics so I want to learn how to caption them properly. Thank you for your blog and all you do!

Delighted you asked this, since it gives me the excuse to share one of my top favorite posts about exactly that!!! I used @/TheQueerWithoutFear's addition in this post as a personal bible when starting out with art IDs! I think this post also has advice which is generally applicable to lots of comic IDs, since people can get bogged down writing every single detail of a piece when the broad strokes would do and thus detract from the overall comprehensibility of an ID. I also really appreciate this site as a great resource for examples on how to write concisely and with an audience in mind, and this post also lays out a lot of good tips! I'll round out this post with some general advice/guidelines:

Neither alt text nor caption IDs are better or even necessarily more accessible than the other; what matters is good formatting (so please don't put IDs below a readmore or use anything but plain text, use sentence case and primarily formal language, use brackets and "ID/End ID" formatting for caption IDs but omit them from alt, etc!)

For comics, especially long ones, I personally favor conciseness over strict fidelity to art, though this is highly subjective and depends on the piece and sometimes my mood. What I would boil this down to is that you don't need to include every detail in a piece to write a good ID, and using narration/prose is often more understandable than transcribing visual techniques (Ex: "She notices something to the side" is clearer and more succinct than "Action lines next to her face indicate she saw something to the side")

Organizing an ID's information in a top-down format is best for comprehensibility: start with who/what is featured (and where they're from, if applicable) and what they're doing, and then move on to background, style, and details

Last, you're welcome, and thank YOU so much for reaching out!! Artists like you make the world go round!! Please feel free to reach out if you ever have more questions, and have a wonderful day!!!

[stupidgalaxybrain]

The longer I go between doing a journal touch-up, the more I end up changing from the original page. By far this one has the most dialogue adjustments, including getting rid of Kirby's dialogue which felt ooc (For the bad dialogue, not necessarily speaking on its own). Anyway- Dark Matter! Like nearly everything in this franchise I've got thoughts, and some of them are on display here, like Blade being kind of a dork. And with Gooey, I HC his eyes look different directions because he has to concentrate harder to focus them after having one eye for so long. If he's really tired they'll start to melt together. I also imagine Gooey stowed Blade away after KDL2 because who would suspect Gooey would hide anything? It's the perfect plan.

Transcript and Original:

Dark Matter Blade, possessing DDD: Is this... friendship?

Waddle Dee: Great King, you've been awfully quiet- Are you snoring?

-

Blade, about to get his ass handed to him: I bet I look so cool right now

-

Zero's Top 2 Least Favorite Kids

Blade - Failed 1st invasion

Gooey - Literally helped kill Zero

*Honorable mention to all of Zero's kids in general

-

Gooey: Aw geez, Kirby, think we could stop for a snack?

Kirby: Ice cream? (I guess they've got some on hand lol)

-

ChuChu: What do ya got there?

Gooey: A smoothie. (He has more than a smoothie.)