#but the whole point of the meme is to 'draw your two comfort characters'

[lunaryhues]

im late but here's a meme

[regaliasonata]

Character asks: RJ and Casey and Jarrod (separately??)

RJ

•Favorite thing about them

-Chillness, always has a way to stay calm throughout any situation but it also helps that he's a mentor. Positive reinforcement is the best way to get the point across.

•Least favorite thing about them

-bananas on pizza...WHY

•Favorite line

-"I'm having a moment of weakness"

•BrOTP

-RJ/Camille, I'd be intrigued to see their interactions as friends. Like would Camille get frustrated as he explains modern times in a riddle like way?

•OTP

-oh boy here we go, RJ/Casey and RJ/Merrick. Don't deny it RJ and Casey had a thing going on there and personally I'd love the two wolf guys to vibe together.(I didn't draw an animaria styled wedding outfit for nothing guys, I'll post it later)

•NOTP

-none atm

•Random headcanon

-he's obsessed with how things all circle around each other. It's both a hobby and philosophy of his, like just flowing with life like it's the wind. Let it take you anywhere is what he says to himself.

RJ also has whole room dedicated to building lego structures.

•Unpopular opinion

-would've loved to have seen some exploration on his preference. He's a pansexual himbo and I will die on that hill!

•Song that i associates with them

•Favorite picture(s)

Casey Rhodes

•Favorite thing about them

-curiosity, always felt that he had some odd curious feeling in his heart throughout the season. Mainly steming from why he was chosen to be the red ranger and stuff.

•Least favorite thing about them

-nothing really, maybe the battlizer looked a bit clunky?

•Favorite line

-"I don't want any problems"

•BrOTP

-Casey/Lily, big sister vibes and they are just everything to me as good friends

•OTP

-Casey/RJ and Casey/Jarrod. I just love their dynamics(how did ships make me want to write a whole jungle fury au is beyond me but I'm happy I got to that🤷🏾‍♂️😭)

•NOTP

-Casey/Lily. I'd prefer them as friends and nothing more tbh, plus Theo/Lily is so good.

•Random headcanon

-he's definitely giving me the gay but undecided vibes, like still trying to figure things out. He'd be a pretty attentive boyfriend imo, like always trying to make sure his partner is comfortable.

Oh and Casey definitely got fired from the zoo for sleeping in the tiger dens and to get back at the zoo he released the tigers back into the wild.(petty as fuck 😭) don't worry though the tigers enjoy his company.

•Unpopular opinion

-nothing atm

•Song that i associates with them

•Favorite picture(s)

Why is the second one such meme material😭

Jarrod

•Favorite thing about them

-his character development throughout the whole season was just top notch, he's one of my favorite human antagonist.

•Least favorite thing about them

-nothing tbh

•Favorite line

-"I am him!"

•BrOTP

-Jarrod/Lily, would be perfect friends

•OTP

-Jarrod/Camille and Jarrod/Casey. I love both pairings(au stuff makes me steer to the one with Casey but both ships are great)

•NOTP

-none atm

•Random headcanon

-Jarrod tries to relive his childhood since his was kind of rough but it's never too late to embrace your inner child. In this universe there would be a Dairanger anime and that's definitely a show that got him through some stuff when moving through foster homes.

Dai shi scrambled through Jarrod's memories while possessing him and found the dairanger ones and while meaningless to the being he made an oc of sorts when he found a liking to Shadam(the oc being Long) and he was going to use the form in the final battle but was killed before then.

•Unpopular opinion

-They should've adapted Rio's outfit and had Jarrod wear it, could you imagine how sick that would've looked on him

•Song that i associates with them

•Favorite picture

[oswaldsleftbicep]

𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦: 5'4", short black wolf cut hair with curtain bangs, green eyes, light skin, curvy, gothic-like, rbf syndrome xd

𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: shy, introverted but very goofy around close people, insensitive at times because of my bluntness, have hard time opening up to people, more of an observer.

𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮: I'm genderfluid and pansexual, my zodiac sign is Libra, my hobby is daydreaming haha.

𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴: memes, drawing, editing, writing, romance novels, ICED COFFEE WOOOO!

𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘴: humans in general, mirrors, random feeling of depression and gender dysphoria.

bro you seem like such a cool person, i would vibe with you so hard, we have so much in common wtf

anyways lol i ship you with...

Ricardo!!

❧ ok lemme preface this by saying i'm not a fan of his character, and i haven't written much about him nor have i done his route, so all of this is based on the image and characterization i gave him so he'd be more,, palatable to me lmao

❧ you guys would be such a power couple!! y'all have pretty much the same aesthetic going on, like his bedroom?? edgy asf. ya know the whole "scary dog affect" someone intimidating has that gets used to protect more vulnerable people from getting messed with? well both of you are the scary dog lol no one will ever mess with the two of you, and if they dare they for sure got hell to deal with. he's also got a bit of an rbf when he's not doing that dumb little smirk, so it doesn't bother him at all

❧ he would absolutely tease you for being shy around him at first, but in an "i find you incredibly endearing and i'm enamored by you" way, never in an actually mean way. he's definitely more of an extrovert but totally respects you being an introvert and not wanting to be around and interact with people all the time. like even though he's extroverted, he does kinda keep to himself in that he doesn't talk to everyone he comes across, he's just naturally good at talking to people when he needs to

❧ absolutely loves seeing your goofy side and will immediately match the energy you're giving. when the two of you get in a silly goofy mood, there's no stopping you; y'all lowkey annoy the hell out of mikael and noel when you get like that, cuz y'all's energy just amplifies off of one another's, but they secretly enjoy seeing the two of you have fun like that, cuz really it's harmless. he loves seeing what your sense of humor is like and seeing you so carefree and full of joy, it makes him feel all soft and mushy inside

❧ one reason i chose him over some of the others i was considering is because i feel like he can handle someone being blunt and insensitive toward him; he's kind of the same way, so he understands where you're coming from, and he's also got thick skin so he can handle any harsh words you throw at him cuz he knows you don't mean it and it really doesn't bother him at all

❧ he likely wasn't the most patient when waiting for you to open up to him, but he finds the wait totally worth it cuz he really likes getting to see you reveal your true colors little by little; it's almost like a little reward for him and makes him value patience more lol. as y'all's relationship grows he becomes more able to give you the space you need to open up and become comfortable around him and others; if you're meeting someone new and you're having a hard time he'll come up next to you as a form of support and take over the conversation for you, allowing you the time to only jump in when you feel comfortable sharing something

❧ he's definitely an observer as well; it may seem like he doesn't care much about or see the importance in stepping back to take a broader look at a situation or that he's just too laidback, but he's always watching and paying attention to his surroundings, ready to take action whenever. he likes pointing out little things he sees to you, like if you're in town he'll see that some guy has his shirt on inside out and he'll point it out to you and the two of you can have a little laugh about that

❧ your hobby being daydreaming could also tie into his being an observer in that he would enjoy playing that game where you choose a random person and make up a backstory for them; his would probably get really crazy and ridiculous, but at least he's funny about it

❧ he's absolutely supportive about your gender and sexuality, any of the boys would be, no questions asked. if you're feeling invalid or dysphoric, he'll become super serious and do all he can to reassure you; he's not great at the heart to heart type stuff but you're important to him and seeing you hurting like that makes him want to do better so he'll give it his all in making sure you know he's a safe person for you to talk to about this stuff

❧ he's an aries, which has medium compatibility with libra, but the interesting thing is that those two signs are exact opposites of one another in the zodiac, so if you're a believer in the whole opposites attract thing then hey would ya look at that. this also means the two of you would balance each other out a bit, but there would also be some potential struggle in keeping ricardo calmed down? cuz like aries are all about ambition and trying new things whereas libras are more slow and steady kinda pace. so while the two of you would balance each other out, there's also plenty to learn from one another

❧ he thinks it's cute seeing you lost in a daydream and for the most part he'll leave you alone to carry on your hobby, but sometimes he just wants attention from you so he'll, as gently as he can manage, snap you out of it and instead have you tell him about what you were daydreaming about. he might even try his hand at carrying on the daydream with you, like he'll pick up where you left off and add his idea of what comes next in the story; it's basically improvising a story with you. this is mostly an activity the two of you would do on a slow day or when you're just chilling in bed with nothing else to do. on a regular day tho, he'd just leave you be and go do whatever task mikael has for him

❧ he'd be a total meme lord, keeping up with the latest trends but also having a soft spot for the older ones. he probably likes the troll face era a lot and uses those types of memes just to see people's reactions at how old they are, thinking that he just isn't up to date

❧ likes watching you draw, and sometimes he'll want to join in, but not to make anything pretty. if he sees you just doodling, he'll grab a pen or pencil and start drawing shitty sketches on your paper; he's for sure not an artist so all of his doodles are horrible and not proportional at all, but he likes seeing your reaction to the crude things he draws. he won't do this when he sees you working on a serious piece, he's an asshole but he'd never mess up your work on purpose

❧ he's not very well read so he can't do much when it comes to editing or making suggestions on your own writings, but he can beta read and give you his opinion on what you've written so far

❧ like i said, he doesn't read often but i think he could potentially develop a soft spot for sappy romance novels, or at least those weird middle age mom with a deadbeat husband erotica/romance novels. he'd never tell you or anyone this fact tho, you'd only find out after seeing a romance book under his pillow one day and you decide to leave new books on his bedside table as suggestions based on what you've read. so he knows you know about his guilty pleasure, and you know he knows you know, but it remains and unspoken thing

❧ mans has probably never even heard of ice coffee in his life but when you introduce it to him he develops a small liking for it. it's not his favorite thing ever, but whenever he goes to buy you your favorite, he'll get one for himself but only if he's in the mood which happens to be maybe once or twice a month

❧ he'd for sure complain with you about other people and how much they can suck, mostly going off of what you say as a way to show his support for your feelings

❧ you'd probably have to explain the whole hating mirrors and dysphoria thing to him, but as soon as he understands he'll support you without a doubt. he might try at first to comfort you with words but he knows that doesn't always work. i could see him installing little diy curtains over all the mirrors in his room so that when you don't want to look at your reflection he can just pull the little string and bam, mirror is covered and the reflection is gone. he's not great at comforting you with words, but his actions make up for it; it's the little things he does like the curtains over the mirror or making sure you have your comfy clothes available if you get stuck in a slump. he's not very open and expressive about his feelings, but he tries his best to convey it through his actions. at the end of the day, he loves you and would do anything to keep you safe and content

[onewingedsparrow]

I posted 1,615 times in 2022

That's 838 more posts than 2021!

51 posts created (3%)

1,564 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@misscrazyfangirl321

@thunderstruck-amanita

@novafire-is-thinking

@sociallyawkwardtoaster

@telemna-hyelle

I tagged 1,592 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#fanart - 510 posts

#transformers - 276 posts

#tloz - 267 posts

#lol - 184 posts

#ゼルダの伝説 - 182 posts

#link - 172 posts

#miraculous ladybug - 159 posts

#memes - 137 posts

#リンク - 129 posts

#tfp - 112 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#it reminds me why i post my fics in the first place. because other's fics were always an escape for me and i want to provide that for others

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

For the fanfic writer emoji ask: 🥺, 🛒, 🦅, 💔

Hey Nova! :D 🥺= Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels? Whenever I write Optimus Prime and / or Elita One being tender with baby Bumblebee. So much fluff. 💗 Also, when the Hero of Time is allowed to cry and someone gives him a hug or much needed words of encouragement. 🛒= What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc. Well, my favorite tag is apparently "Angst with Emotional Hurt / Comfort," lol. I love writing angst, but only if the struggle isn't for nothing—there's always hope, always some light at the end of the tunnel, even if things don’t turn out the way you expected. I also really like including the sky in fics apparently? I seem to subconsciously use sky imagery often to set the mood / represent the situation / represent an absent character, whether that's with the moon, the sun, stars, clouds, etc. 🦅= Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants? I do both, but first and foremost I fly by the seat of my pants! Whee! If I plan too much ahead of time, it actually stifles my creativity and stops me from writing the actual story. So I jump into things headfirst, and let the ideas take me wherever they want to go. Once a story has about 20,000 words, that's when I start to sense an underlying structure is forming by itself. At that point I reread the whole thing and start breaking it into chapters, which helps me plan for the rest of the fic. (i.e. Oh, this scene would be a nice transition between these two parts, I should write that next.) For shorter fics...most of the time I really have no idea where I'm going. :) I just start, and see where I end up. My characters often surprise me by doing things I don't expect, which is super fun. Oh, and related to this, I don't write chapters in order haha. I jump all over the place! That's why I can't ever post a long, plot-heavy fic chapter-by-chapter until the whole thing is finished. 💔= Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart? YES. Let's see...most of them aren't yet posted. Of the ones that are, "Ever With Me" hurts a lot but in a good way. "Promise" makes me sad too. Un-posted culprits include 1) a fanciful, storybook-feel Skyward Sword WIP about Hylia and the First Hero, 2) a RiD canon-divergent WIP about Soundwave trying to get out of the Shadowzone, 3) another canon-divergent RiD fic where Steeljaw does something absolutely terrible, and...hmm... 4) a mid-OoT story where Zelda wants nothing more than to see Link again after the separation of seven years. Thanks for the ask! ✨

11 notes - Posted September 27, 2022

#4

Drawing Transformers is literally just tricking my right brain into doing math Before you ask: Yes I brought this upon myself by drawing TFP but I LOVE THE TFP DESIGNS AND NOTHING NOT EVEN MATH IS GOING TO STOP ME FROM DRAWING THEM

12 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

#3

@novafire-is-thinking​ By the Allspark, Optimus Prime is even bigger and more beautiful than I even imagined...even this photo doesn’t do his glory justice. Catching a glimpse of him from a distance...and then walking closer and closer...until your steps involuntarily quicken and a giant grin overcomes your face and—breathless—you race over to fully behold the majesty of this truck and you find yourself standing there in awe...it is such an amazing experience, I wish every Transformers fan could have that for themselves. Say what we will about the Bayverse, but this truck is absolutely beautiful and in the end I am so thankful that he exists :D

12 notes - Posted June 11, 2022

#2

“You’ll never guess who’s a triple-changer”

(Transformers - any continuity)

Continuity: Cyberverse! One day out of boredom, Starscream thought it would be fun to hack into the Ark's computers and scramble the settings a bit. What he was NOT expecting was a livid Teletraan-X tracking his signal and chasing him over land, air and sea in previously-unknown vehicle forms. Previously-unknown, Very Well Armed vehicle modes. Why the Teletraan needs to transform into vehicle modes at all is a mystery, but Starscream's too out of breath from dodging missiles to ask. For this ask game

This one was super fun but really challenging, I wanted to pick someone unexpected haha. I know Teletraan-X can hover but I think it would hilarious if there was a montage where he chased someone over multiple scenes and changed into a different mode in each one for seemingly no reason 😂

12 notes - Posted December 3, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Rewatching Darkness Rising for the Idkhowmany-th time for fic-writing purposes and getting hit by all kinds of feels :’) I never thought about this before but...in the first episode, right after she “meets” Jack and runs into the two Eradicons, Arcee never once calls for help. She’s angry about Cliff’s death and wants to be left alone, but then accidentally gets Jack involved in a scuffle and only thinks about getting him far enough away from downtown so she can fight the Eradicons herself. She thinks she’s got the situation under control. She’s not worried. She’s upset and mad, but she’s got it. But then Bumblebee shows up on the freeway, right behind her, and slams the Decepticons into the wall. And when Jack looks back and yells, “Friend of yours?” you can hear Arcee’s voice noticeably soften, quite unlike the rest of her dialogue in this fight / chase thus far. “Family,” she says, simply. Fondly. AND IT JUST...! How many times have I watched this??? And yet it only just NOW occurred to me that...Arcee never asked for help...but Bumblebee came anyway. Cliffjumper had shrugged off her earlier offer for backup, and paid the price for fighting alone. Rather than learn from that, though, in her grief over his death Arcee almost did the same. But Team Prime—her family—was looking out for her the whole time. Bulkhead shows up later as well, of course, and that’s when the Eradicons choose to bail. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” I can’t get over the fact that they came after her without asking. Bumblebee especially; Bulkhead took a while to get there, supposedly due to traffic, but I think ‘Bee might have commed him on the way once he realized Arcee was in trouble. My heart is so warmed by imagining what had happened. I can just see Bumblebee noticing Arcee race away from the gravesite, worriedly watching her go, and then turning to Optimus like “Can I follow her? Please? Just in case?” And Optimus Prime ponders for a moment, and ’Bee bounces on his heels, visibly nervous, and finally Optimus gives a subtle, slow-blinking nod and Bumblebee FLIPS into vehicle mode and books it after her. This show. It never gets old.

25 notes - Posted December 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[zulivaris]

Art Block tips that helped me

 I’ve recently experienced art block after 3 or so months of overcoming my last one. Thankfully this block only lasted a few days thanks to some things I’ve observed and noted down from the previous time. So I’m sharing these few tips in hopes that it might help someone get unstuck :D!

First and foremost if you’re tired, sad or anxious don’t be surprised that you can’t make art, go and take care of yourself by treating yourself with kindness and patience, the sketchbooks and canvases will wait for you :)

The tips are under here:

Separate art studies from the creative time:  When you do art studies you’re there to focus on specific things, learn and understand how things work so you can apply them later in your art. Studies take a lot of energy and focus and are the opposite of the creative "flow” of making your own pieces. If you combine the two the results are either unfocused studies or stiff drawings. When you sit down at your desk ask yourself “Do I want to learn something new or do I want to create something of my own?”

When you have an idea don’t be afraid of being messy: Let’s say you want to make a picture of several cats kolo dancing in the moonlight. How do you go about doing this? Well since you came up with the idea you already have a vague image in your mind, sketch it out with simple shapes, stick figures, circle and spheres etc Don’t worry about cat anatomy, or the dancer’s moves, sketch out the essence of it. This method removes the need to be perfect or accurate. 

Ok after the messy sketch then what? Well now that you have sketched out the essence of your idea (and hopefully had fun doing so) now you go on to look for references! You put the creative process on pause and you can do a few brief studies if you need to: anatomy, color schemes, values, poses. Pick out a few of your favorites but don't obsess over them, they are a guide, a tool.

You know much more than you think. You’ve probably been drawing for a few years now. You’ve probably done some studies and drawn more than one type of subject. Then you have already internalized some of that information. I used to be obsessed with capturing the minute detail of the subject, and not be able to draw ANYTHING without reference. Instead of a useful tool, references became another obstacle to my creativity. That’s perfectionism my friend, and that’s no good. Here is an exercise a good friend of mine offered: Draw a few characters, animals and objects from imagination. Make sure that the subjects have no personal value to you (no ocs for example) so that if you make a mistake you won’t feel bad about it. Make the process relaxed and comfortable, pour a nice cup of joe, listen to your favorite music ... You will notice that you do indeed know how to draw some things without reference, and it’ll help with your confidence. 

The more you do studies the more you understand This seems evident but the more you understand your subject the freer you can be and the easier it’ll be to draw it from imagination in the future. If you really struggle with something to the point of frustration (as in you can’t get it right even with reference) It means you have to study it. Have a study list, for example: hands, perspective, color theory etc. And one of those days you want to study pick something from the list, and look for videos on youtube or useful sites like line of action etc. Only study one thing at the time. You can go from studying hands to studying arms since they’re more immediately connected, but you can’t study hands and then jump to learning perspective right after. Trust me you can learn perfectly fine with the resources online, and I’m sure you’re clever enough to do it :D

Mistakes don’t mean you “suck”  I’ve noticed that the two most common causes for art block are perfectionism and lack of self-confidence.  The two can often go in tandem which is worse :’D But let me remind you of something, you can fix your piece along the whole process. Use erasers, lasso tools, liquify , select, paint it all over etc If something looks off to you then you also know deep inside how to fix it. Useful ways to see what clunks: flip canvas horizontally (helps with placement, proportions), turn the image to grayscale (helps to check values and where your eye tends to look), look at your image in thumbnail size and ask yourself if it’s clear, see the pose’s silhouette and ask yourself if you can tell what the character is doing etc. Don’t fret, everything can always be fixed :)

Perfectionism, sometimes it stops you before you begin Perfectionism causes you to overwork a piece, it makes you draw less, it makes art stressful, it brings insecurity. Let’s remove it with a simple exercise. It can be combined with the “draw things from imagination” once you’ve drawn something you like: dont do line art, don’t shade it, keep it as simple and crude as possible and then...post it. Yes, post it. You’re not at your best? You’re only human, this will help you embrace that very human side of you. You make mistakes. So what? The more mistakes you make the more you know what you need to study and the better at art you become. Mistakes are there to show us what we need to learn. See them as another tool and not a sign of failure.

Make the process as enjoyable as possible: You like art. You love drawing. Never forget this. Otherwise why are you drawing if you don’t enjoy it? It’s easy to fall prey to the mentality of those relatable memes that “art= suffering” or “I can’t even draw the other eye”. No no no my friends, these messages are fueling your insecurities instead of overcoming them. Let me tell you what, art is fun. It is. Art is fun, because I decided to make it fun again. And you should decide on that too. Personally I adore lineart but my hand-eye coordination is lacking to do it digitally, so....I just skipped it. Yes. I skipped it. I do the sketch, I clean it up a bit and then jump onto color which I adore. It allowed me to draw more and more freely. When I draw I listen to music, make strokes with the rhythm, I take breaks often and I drink my favorite iced teas. If you don’t like coloring do it in grayscale, if you love lineart then do that etc It doesn’t mean you won’t learn your weak points in the future with studies and practice, but you won’t let your weaknesses prevent you from drawing at all. No no, you won’t let them. You draw because you want to, despite of them.

Don’t wait for inspiration, provoke it  Inspiration is not a divine and capricious muse. You make inspiration. It’s easy just collect all the things you like, music, artists, objects, characters, animals, patterns, plants etc Make boards on pinterest or similar sites, combine things you like. You like suits? You like birds? You can draw a bird in a suit, or a bird-inspired suit design, there is frankly a lot of ideas that can spring up from little things like these.

When a project stops being enjoyable either pause it for now or move on to the next thing. Pieces aren’t precious. They’re not “the one time I got x right” they are one of many. This advice goes mainly to hobbyists who can afford the luxury of passing to a new project. I have a WIP of a character who is overly complicated (I enjoy a challenge from time to time) sitting for half a month. I sometimes come back to it and add something... but as soon as it starts to create discomfort and insecurity instead of enjoyment I move onto something else. In the meantime I created 3 or 4 new pieces. If I had waited on finishing that piece I would have been severely creatively and physically exhausted. The art comes from you, not inspiration. The more art you make the better you become.

That’s about it :D I know it’s long but I prefer to be thorough and cover all the possibilities. If you have read of this: Thank you so much I hope this helps you at least a bit, if it helps only 1 other person I’d still be very happy. Have a nice one, and kick art block’s butt!

[hivequest]

Taking a Risk » Mallek Adalov/Reader

Wordcount: 2.3k words

Warnings: Swearing, fluff, stressed out reader, chillboy Mallek. TYping quirk only used when texting cause I could not be bothered lmao Originally posted on AO3

A/N: One of my favorite things that I’ve written, ever. I love Mallek and he’s for sure one of my favorite Friendsim characters. When I wrote this I was really feeling those Quarantine Woes

You didn't know what you were doing here. You felt out of place in the worst possible ways. It was a weird, squidgy feeling like stepping on wet grass. But not like the fun kind where you were running around in a sprinkler on a hot-as-balls summer day. No, this was the bad kind of wet grass that you stepped on without knowing it was wet. Why weren't you wearing shoes?

This analogy is stupid. The point is, you're feeling bummed out.

And what better way to not have to deal with that than hang out with someone you knew wouldn't push you into talking about all the ways crashing on this planet sucked! The point is, you're on your way to see Mallek. Mallek is absolutely the kind of friend who can tell when you just need to sit down and veg out. You had been so caught up in everyone else's bullshit that you weren't looking after your own damn self. So now you were doing that.

All it took was a quick text, asking Mallek if he had any company. He texted back only a moment later with a no, obviously not. You asked him if he wanted any. Not really. You ask him if you can come over anyway. Obviously.

You smiled at the palmhusk in your, well, palm. You could already feel the chill vibes of your hacker friend. Friend? Was that the right word for it? You didn't know anymore. When you first met there were definitely some sparks there. You could still feel them now and it made weird butterflies flutter around in your stomach. When you slapped his phone out of his hand and he sent you ass over applecart into the slimy depths of sewer water and he saved you, tits out and all.

You shook off the weird wistful feeling of maybe possibly crossing the friendship barrier and told him you'd walk to his hive. You'd been moping in some bookhive, not your usual hang-out spot with Tagora or Tyzias. This was some upper caste bookhive with purple bloods and some indigos and definitely not where you were welcome if the looks you were getting were any indication. They ranged from snooty to downright murderous. Yeesh.

Your phone -palmhusk, stupid troll names- beeped again. You got another text from him and those cheery fucking butterflies were back. God, you had it bad.

yeah were not doing that lmao;

im not going to let my robobuddy walk out in the sun

do you even know what time of day it =

just stay put ive already got your location ill pick you up;

And like a good little friendsimp. You park your ass on a chair and wait. You hadn't released your moping had taken up most of the night. But with the quick look around, yeah, no, this place was nearly empty by now. Just some older bluebloods trying to cram before their Ordeals and get shipped off-planet. Again: Yeesh.

You kept your ears open for the telltale sound of Mallek's limo. It was a sound you were getting used to these days. He always seemed ready to drop whatever coding shit he was working on to come to see you. You tried not to think too hard on what that might mean. No need to get your hopes up now. It's probably just your bad mood making you imagine some context where there's nothing. Yeah.

Damn, that shit hurted.

Just as you were about to add that to the reasons you were considering just screaming your lungs out who cares whose listening? you heard the wonderfully familiar sound of an approaching elongated scuttlebuggy. If that wasn't enough of a clue as to who the ride was for the quiet of the bookhive was very abruptly disturbed by a series of rhythmic beeps.

Holy shit was that the Tetris theme?

You shoved your palmhusk into your hoodie pocket and yanked the hood over your head. Even if the sun was only out a little bit you didn't want it anywhere near your freshly healed skin. You had no kind cowgirl to nurse you back to health right now if you got your asscheeks baked by the flaming death orb. You peeked your head out and even with the blinding light of Alternia's suns you could Mallek had opened the door and was waiting for you.

Aw. No, shit. You're in a bad mood don't get all heart eyes at him. Don't make it weird.

You took a few steps back into the bookhive, ready to make a run for it. You turn to a sitting indigoblood, who is just staring at you disdainfully for keeping the door open. You give her a two-fingered salute. Godspeed young cosmonaut. She gives you a one-fingered salute. Close the door you insufferable bulgebiter. Fair.

Taking a running start, you book it out into the heat of the Alternian sun and dive for the open car door. It's then that you realize he's halfway parked on the sidewalk to lessen the amount of time you'd have to spend in the sun. Aw. That also means that you came barreling like a cannonball at something that was like two feet out of the door. FUck.

Your face meets carpet and you can already feel the rugburn starting to set in. You hear a startled wheezy laugh from above you, a sound you know better than anyone else on this planet. You smile. It's not like you had any dignity to begin with.

You say hello to him as you peel yourself off of the floor of his car.

"Hey, there robobuddy. You stuck the landing this time," He smiles down at you as he reaches over you to shut the door, closing the space out from natural light and leaving you both lit by his colorful LEDs. You shrug and tell him you've been getting a lot of practice landing on your face these days. The look he gives you is still smiling but there's some level of disbelief at the dumbassery that is your whole existence.

"I know you can get yourself into it. Nothing too bad this time, though, right? No drones or broken bones?" He sounds concerned which is nice but he doesn't drown you with his concern. He leans back on the bench of his limo, keeping an eye on you as the vehicle begins to move on its own. You've been staying out of big messes but the little messes are starting to mess with you. He makes a sound of understanding the sounds as it comes from deep in his chest. Whoa. "Believe me, I've been there. Glad you're not cracking under it though."

He smiles and you can see his little fang and you can feel your heart melt a little. And also you're getting a bit teary-eyed and now Mallek looks alarmed. Shit. You try to quickly explain that you're fine, just, alien allergies am I right? He must be using some new air freshener to mask the musty smell of his limo. Since doesn't use it enough. Ha ha?

He isn't buying it.

With a rare show of cerulean prowess, he lifts you up off of the shitty car rug and sets you on the seat beside him. He feels uncomfortable and you can tell. Ah, goddammit you made it weird. You didn't mean to. Fuck. Fuck now you're feeling even worse. You thought you were starting to balance out. You're with Mallek now, shouldn't everything start to quiet down like it always does? Fuck. He doesn't say anything at first, just leans back against the seat and stretches his arms across it, letting you lean on him if you choose to.

...You choose to.

Your head finds itself somewhere between his shoulder and his collarbone, and you just. Shove your face there. Then scream.

To his credit, Mallek doesn't even flinch. He doesn't wince or shy away from you as you let out every bit of anger, sadness, and frustration out against his sweater. He just sits quietly, staring straight at the blacked-out windshield. You get the feeling he's needed to do this more than once.

Screw this planet. Screw everything about it that makes all of your friends suffer. Why can't you just get them away from all this bullshit?! Why do you have to deal with everyone's bullshit! You love them, you do but holy fuck they're looking to you like you can undo all the damage this place has done to them when you've got literally no god damn idea what's happening at any point ever!

And then, just like that, it fades into the background. Your throat hurts. Your head hurts and you think you might be crying. But it feels lighter. Better now that you've gotten some of that aggression out. You aren't like the trolls on Alternia. You can't kill people when you experience an Emotion™. But that doesn't mean you don't get pent up with rage.

Mallek realizes that now. He lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and his left hand slowly moves down from the back of the seat the rest against your back. His thumb brushes against your back, the claw drawing little patterns against the fabric of your sweater. His sweater. He tries not to think his sign your chest. This isn't the time.

"Feeling any better?" He asks and you don't know how to answer. You kinda don't want to. But you nod anyways, and you feel some tension leave his body. You knew he was worried about you. You apologize for making him witness your meltdown but he just makes another deep-chested hum. "Nothing to apologize for. I got the feeling you weren't feeling great. I could tell from the texts, you didn't use nearly enough ugly emojis."

You scoff and smack a hand against his chest and once again you hear that wonderful laugh from him. Hey! Your purrbeast emojis are adorable, thank you very much! And you'll not hear another word of it or else you'll send him pictures of rocks and rocks exclusively. No more memes.

"Jokes on you I'm into that shit." You laugh and thump your head against his collarbone. You thank him for being with you when were needed it. And picking you up to make sure you didn't deal with it alone. You don't want to make it weird but...yeah.

He doesn't respond this time, just letting you both enjoy the silence and the comforting sound of the engine. You should almost be at Mallek's apartment by now. It's as you're settling in for the last bit of the drive that you notice that the limo isn't moving. And hasn't been for a while. Your head pops up in confusion and the little GPS display on the back of one of the seats says... yep.

You're already at Mallek's.

But then why is the engine still on? That can't be good for the environment. Do these things even run on gas or is it bugs? Bug gas? Gross.

You notice then that the rumbling is coming from behind you. Like. From where Mallek is sitting. He doesn't look away when you turn to him, just kind of tilting his head to the side with a little bit of a cerulean hue to his cheeks. Oh. Oh, the sound is coming from him. He's purring. That's.

That's adorable.

You feel yourself soften even more when he lifts his arms, silently offering a hug if you want it. Is this platonic? Is this more? You've never had too much trouble identifying what people wanted from you. (Debatable.) If was overtly flushed you could shut it down or divert it to something very much friends only. (Like your every exchange with Zebruh.) But did you even want to do that to your hackerman? You could feel yourself screaming, no, absolutely not. But at the same time, you didn't want things to change. You didn't want to make his issues any worse than they already were. He didn't have too much longer on the planet and you knew it would tear him apart.

But then he turned those blue eyes to you. He looked just as unsure as you were but he was willing to take the risk. He shoved himself so far out of his comfort zone for you and was asking you to be selfish. To want something for yourself and do something for yourself. Not put him or anyone else's wants first. Just your own. And so you did.

You crawled up into his lap, pressed yourself as close to him as you could and clung to him. His arms didn't hesitate to wrap around you and you could feel a shuddering breath from above you.

"We don't have to put a label on this... not yet. Or ever. Either way is chill with me. I just... yeah." He gave up with a little shrug of his shoulders but you knew what he meant. Unless you could find a way to fight fate he was going to go off-world. He was going to leave you and you doubted you'd be able to go with him. You'd probably get gored by a drone for even trying.

But even if it was just for now, just for a moment, you were going to take it. You were going to let yourself have something, have someone who would care for you no matter how long or short your time was. You'd take it. You had stomached some of the most horrible things on this planet but Mallek had always been a constant. And you got the feeling he thought the same way about you.

So, you'd take it. Whatever comes next, you'd take it. You listened to the sound of his purring, in no hurry to move to get inside the apartment. Mallek felt the same.

You exhaled.

You would be okay.

[abimee]

hello hello! feel free to ignore this entirely, do you have any tips or advice for learning how to draw different body types and faces as well as using photo refs? I wanna get to the point of being more comfortable with it not being perfect and human but I’m not sure! How to really begin or go towards this

hm. preface i am not taught artistically at all not even highschool art class and am entirely aelf taught and like, from the viewpoint of hobbyist art currently in the US objectuvely i am a """bad artist"""" and not something to take art advice from. but i am glad to give my two cents

i think the jpimg off point is to first ruminate on the whys, and its not anobby to say that you want to draw humans more realistic in the sense of natural features and differences because you wabt others to see themselves in your work, or because youd love to draw a variety of characters. but second is coming to terms that with that, you have to do a lot of sensitive reading and understanding; you gotta research and listen to people, like say if you draw cleft lips abd someone with a cleft lip tells you that hey! its more common if they dont have teeth where the cleft is closed, you listen and adapt. attempting to get everything right the first time kinda destroys itself in the process, and as you delve into drawing say fatness, disabilities, physical differemces, etc you must come to accept that you are drawing for the people, and thus the people are allowed to criticise you and you must adapt.

thirdly is that you wont get it right instintaniously, its a learning process! dont feel the need to post your attempts online of theyre not up to par for you, but attempting is te first step in everything. you can read and research and listen and refference all you can, but if you dont consistently attempt it you wont get anywhere

and its sort of hard to say how to go about... attempting it, besides "just try". attempt to freehand, say, a tall fat person with acne scars posing for prom, or a skinny eldery person with scoliosis making tea, and when youre finished you can look at yoir piece and begin to deconstruct what you think you got wrong and what you got right. pull up (real life) refferences made by people and extrapolate what tou can re-attempt.

and as for diversifying general faces and features of humanity; engage in the moving picture, watch movies and short films and photography and youtube essays and watch the people around you, take stock of what you see in the world both behind a performed lens and in reality and see whar you may miss, what shapes you see and how peoples eyes crinkle or how their lips turn or how their fingers move. watching the world more closely is how i began to notice featres outside of my own at a young age

and as for refference photos, i think finding archive blogs cataloguing photos shot from real lives and not stock posing websites is a great way to see a range of natural poses. pausing youtube videos to refference someones legs as they attempt to kick a ball, or old myspace photos drifting across rabdom aesthetic blogs. just stare at them and the form or the composition and attempt to remake it, and attempt as many times over as many years as you want. trace over memes and teach yourself to look at bodies as shapes and lines rather than whole figures and you may be able to decobstruct and recreate those poses from memory alone soon after

and above all dont be afraid to make "bad art" in that the anatony is off or the hands are too childish compared to the detail of the image, or maybe the face looks weird or the legs are bent strangely. part of a human looking piece of art is in the flaws too

just look at all the weord anatomy and crude acribbling in my art and yet somehow people like it, so not doing everything right is sometimes good 🗿

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

I really liked reading your fics of Lotor watching movies! Do you think Lotor would like watching Atlantis or lilo and stitch? And who would he watch them with? (Hopefully either Allura or Pidge)

Movie Time with TSL Lotor – Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

It was a cold and rainy morning on the planet of Olkarion, with an emaciated Galran prince swaddled in blankets on the floor of the paladin’s lounge room. Lotor still wore his night robe and Earth-fashion pajamas, his white hair disheveled from sleep. He yawned. His face pulled tight with his harvesting scars, and his long fangs gleamed in the lamplight. He tiredly scratched at his cheek. “Why did you wake me so early, little one?”

Across the room, a pajama-clad Pidge sat cross-legged, plugging in a few cables. “Because. It’s Saturday.”

The bleary-eyed man blinked. “I know not what a Saturday is.”

She looked up, readjusting her glasses. “It’s the day where people get up to eat cereal and binge-watch cartoons. Like a tradition. My brother and I used to do this all the time. And sometimes my dad too, but he slept in a lot.” Her face twisted in a pout. “And everyone here sleeps in for, like, ever.”

“Even the princess?”

“Even the princess.”

Lotor’s gaze slid to the container of milk, courtesy of Kaltenecker, and then to the sacred box of—he narrowed his gaze curiously—frosted cheerios. Pidge had procured two bowls and two little spoons. He raised his nose and sniffed delicately. The box smelled of sweetness and grains, and saliva swarmed through his mouth in anticipation of food. Beneath the blankets, he scratched at his stomach. Wakefulness began to seep through him at the thought of eating and watching more animated drawings from Earth. “You wish to share in this…tradition with me, then?”

“You were sleeping out here on the couch,” Pidge deadpanned, giving him a look, “so you were gonna share in it no matter what.” A small emotion came over her. She glanced down, returning to connecting the cables. “And my brother’s still off-planet, so you’ll have to do.”

He huffed in amusement. “I am a companion of convenience, then. A replacement brother.”

“Yeah, something like that.” She began to scoot away from the cables, grabbing for her cereal bowl.

Lotor quirked a brow. His blanket shifted around him as he picked up the remaining bowl, mimicking her actions. “What is the topic of today’s entertainment adventure?” He watched curiously as she dumped cereal into her bowl and filled it with milk. And then he followed in kind, hesitantly dipping his spoon into the concoction and biting down.

His slit pupils dilated at the sweet taste.

His fangs crunched down loudly.

Pidge munched more quietly, but her lips stretched as she moved to turn on the movie. “It’s called Atlantis: The Lost Empire.”

Lotor’s elfin ears flicked in interest. “Lost empire?” he repeated curiously, voice muffled by cereal.

As the movie began to play, Pidge’s face brightened. “The whole movie involves an old human legend, about this advanced civilization that sunk under the sea in a sudden cataclysm.”

“Fascinating.” His explorer’s heart lifted in excitement, the sleeping disappearing fully from his eyes. In that moment, it did not matter to him that he was 10,000 years old or watching something that was most assuredly meant for children and families. “Does the legend have any form of validity?”

“Well, being mentioned by Plato, who was a real philosopher—” she pointed to the screen to the opening quote—“has made people search all over for it. But so far, nothing’s proven because there’s a lot of sunken cities on Earth.” She paused. “The movie definitely takes some creative license with ancient human tech, too. Like, ancient humans did not fly in fish ships.”

“I see.” Lotor crunched down happily on the cereal, eyes wide. The screen brightened with the cartoon colors of human animation. Strange, fish-like planes streaked through a blue sky in a panic. Lotor instinctively leaned along with the framing of the movie, as if he were on the ships as well. “Calamity is rather fun to indulge in when it’s not real.”

“I know, right?” Pidge grabbed onto her blanket, wrapping it around her.

And the two remained sitting on the floor of the great lounge, increasingly lost in the tale of Atlantis.

***

It was at some point after Milo Thatch’s introduction that Lotor hesitantly spoke up, his voice catching oddly. “This animation.” He tried again. “I thought you said once that humans were unaware of the planet Altea.”

Pidge pushed up her glasses, still cradling her cereal bowl in her lap. “Yep. Didn’t know about it at all.”

Lotor puzzled at the screen. He hummed, setting his cereal bowl down on his lap. “This Atlantis bears significant similarities to Altean technology and to its people, down to being significantly advanced even ten-thousand years ago.”

The human girl blinked. And then her face twisted in a mischief. “Oh, yeah. It might have more similarities than you think.” She began to waggle her bows. “Including to a certain Altean princess.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Also, you kinda remind me of Milo,” she declared. “Just saying.”

His eyes slit further in consternation, for at that moment, the somewhat bumbling but intelligent character of Milo Thatch was sitting in a water puddle after his museum colleagues rejected his proposal. For good measure, Lotor crunched down on another bite of cereal. “I may enjoy ancient history,” he declared, voice muffled, “but I am not as scrawny as he.”

Pidge poked him hard in his ribs, which still jutted out beneath his sleeping robe. “You’re right. You’re scrawnier.”

Lotor flinched away, shooting her a playfully dark glare. “A temporary consequence of being harvested by the witch. I will reclaim my health, and then you will regret making fun of me so.”

Her face split in a wicked smile. “Nah. You’re definitely Milo. Muscle can’t hide that you’re a nerd.”

He sputtered, waving his cereal spoon. “And what of you? With your books and codes. And cat memes.”

“Oh, I’m a nerd,” she declared. “I just own it proudly.”

The fallen prince ate of his cereal in a light disgruntlement. He watched Milo as the character awkwardly stumbled through meeting a busty blond human woman and then a spastic old man in a bathrobe—his objective always set on discovering the secrets of Atlantis and its sources of power.

Milo Thatch owned a cat too.

Lotor’s face began to heat in realization that he did have a lot in common with this strange human man.

***

By the time the character Milo Thatch met the Princess Kida of Atlantis, a real princess had sleepily trailed into the movie room. Allura’s long, pink robes slipped against the tiles of the halls, her curls a tumble down her shoulders. She yawned and proceeded to stumble her way over to Lotor and Pidge.

With little preamble, she flopped over them.

Pidge barely managed to raise her bowl of frosted cheerios in time, squawking. Lotor froze entirely as Allura’s white curls spilled across his lap—her warm cheek leaning against his leg.

“It’s too early for movies,” the princess whined lightly. She snuggled against him and wiggled a bit to get comfortable, laying across two bodies. “I could hear the sound all the way from my room.” Lotor’s attention split from the animated Princess Kida to the living, breathing princess in his lap. His elfin ears flicked back, and his sharp cheeks heated.

Pidge grumped and tried to shove her off.

The princess did not budge, save for a grump right back.

Lotor had long finished off his bowl of frosted cheerios—leaving not even a drop of milk in his wake. But he carefully pushed the bowl further away, in fear that her hair would end up in it. “We are watching Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” he murmured to her, voice straining. “Would you not like to watch it with us?”

Allura made a noncommittal noise, appearing to fall back asleep, the lines in her shoulders relaxing as she exhaled deeply. The action suggested she had grown to trust him a great deal, for the back of her neck lay bare where her hair had parted.

Lotor swallowed hard.

He turned to look at Pidge, who had sighed and given up trying to push Allura off—instead, she’d moved to accept Allura’s robe as something of a blanket and had rested her arms over the back of the princess’s legs.

Lotor hesitated, knowing that the paladins often piled upon each other as a means of displaying familial affection.

As Milo Thatch moved to swim alongside Princess Kida in search of the Heart of Atlantis, Lotor moved to brush his fingers against the waves of Allura’s curls.

It was a soft, hesitant action—testing the waters of her trust. She made a soft noise in response, her lips sleepily stretching. Her elfin ear flicked lightly as the calloused pads of his fingers ran over it. The action itself meant things to Alteans and Galrans, for only family and lovers touched one’s ears.

The princess nuzzled against him.

His heart skipped. Careful of his claws, he continued to toy with her hair as he turned his attention back to the movie, in which Milo’s very interest in Atlantis had now endangered the Royal Atlantean family.

Lotor bit his lip, feeling a great protectiveness for Allura wash over him.

***

The movie indicated that Atlanteans received their power from a great, sentient crystal—the animation of which was not unlike pure quintessence.

“Do you think,” Lotor asked quietly to Pidge, “that it is possible your Atlantis was real, and that some piece of a quintessence-rich substance—a comet, perhaps—landed upon your Earth?”

Pidge looked over at him, readjusting her glasses in interest. “I suppose it would be possible, but you’re suggesting then that Atlantis is real. And that the power in this movie is real.”

“How do you know it isn’t?”

“What would you do with it?” she challenged right back, raising a brow. “You got plans for that power or something?”

The fallen prince made a face. He was still absentmindedly running his claws through Princess Allura’s hair. “No. I simply fear that concentrated sources of quintessence may have this effect in our world—that it bonds to a host and…overtakes them, somehow.” His white brows knitted together. “As it did my own mother, who has been lost to quintessence, and a demon has taken her place.”

Pidge’s gaze fell to Lotor’s hand, which ran along the tip of Princess Allura’s ear. The princess herself was fully asleep against him, her mouth open with a trail of drool slipping against Lotor’s pajama-clad leg.

The girl’s face curled with a sneaky smile. “You’re worried about Allura? Afraid you’re gonna lose her over something, because you loveher?”

Lotor’s eyes snapped to Pidge, his face heating. “I know she has successfully navigated Oriande, but…” He fell silent with emotion for a time before he could add, “My mother came across something of great power, and it changed her.”

The strain in his voice made Pidge’s mischievous smile falter. She hesitated.

The movie played between them as the animated humans fought to steal Kida, who was bonded to the crystal.

Pidge eventually said, voice softer, “Allura’s really powerful. We’re not gonna lose her over anything.”

Lotor’s throat tightened. He continued to stroke Allura’s hair as she slept against him. “You do not know what I have seen quintessence do to people. Even now, if certain groups knew what all Princess Allura could do, they would seek to control her, just as the evil humans in this cartoon wish to do with the crystal-bonded Kida.”

An emotion came over Pidge. “Well—I mean, we wouldn’t let that happen.”

Within the movie, Milo Thatch had accrued a small band willing to risk their lives to retrieve the princess.

Lotor watched, his heart rising in a pound. “Do tell me that they save her,” he demanded. “I will not watch the rest of this if the Princess Kida dies.”

The human girl gave him a look. “It’s a children’s cartoon. They’re not gonna kill off the princess.”

His breath caught oddly, as if he suddenly realized what he was doing. He pulled his hand away from Allura’s hair. “Right, yes. Of course, they wouldn’t.” He breathed out slowly. “That is well.”

“You take these shows too seriously,” Pidge warned. “Half the fun is knowing that it turns out okay, but not knowing how. You just gotta watch.”

“And Princess Kida?” Lotor demanded. “She is not permanently bonded to the crystal by the end, is she?”

Pidge groaned. “Oh my god. Just watch the movie.”

The princess suddenly whined at the loss of Lotor’s touch, her blue eyes cracking open. “No,” she pleaded blearily. She disjointedly reached up, searching for Lotor’s hand. “Keep petting me; it was quite nice.”

He looked down at her, face tightening in a mix of amusement and protectiveness. “Apologies, princess,” he said, moving to run the back of his knuckles against her warm temple. “I will do as you wish.”

She made a happy noise, settling back into sleep.

***

Lotor did not relax until after Milo Thatch had released Princess Kida from her prison, and until after Princess Kida had saved Atlantis and reappeared from out of the crystal’s aura—to land in Milo’s arms.

“You see?” Pidge called, waving her hand at the screen. “What did I tell you?”

Lotor swallowed down emotion. His fingers stilled against Allura’s stiff curls and the warm of her cheek. Despite the fact that he knew the story to be a children’s fairy tale, an odd burn appeared in his eyes. He exhaled shakily. “You were right,” he relented. “The princess lived.”

“Exactly,” Pidge said. For all her youth, she narrowed her eyes with a critical level of awareness. “They saved the princess. Because she had people to fight for her too.”

He raised his vulnerable eyes to her.

An unspoken truth wavered between them—which was that he and the paladins would fight to protect Princess Allura in much the same way, if it ever came to it.

Then, Pidge broke the mood, her expression shifting with a demonic mischief. She waggled her brows. “You love Princess Allura.” She began to shove at Allura’s legs. “Wake up. Lotor wants to declare his undying love for you and tell you that he’ll save you from crystals and evil people and—”

“—Stop it,” he hissed, his cheeks heating. He grabbed for one of the extra pillows that hung off the edge of the couch—and he flung it directly at Pidge. “You gremlin.”

It struck her soundly, but it did not hide her cackle, nor did it stop Princess Allura waking up from all the unsettled movement and raised voices. Her eyes opened a slit. She made a noise of confusion. “What is—going…on?”

She sleepily raised up from Lotor’s lap, her white curls tumbling down her shoulders.

Pidge opened her mouth to respond with a tease, but Lotor smoothly cut in. “Pidge was just putting in another movie,” he said, voice straining. “Weren’t you, Pidge?”

Allura turned to him, still rapidly blinking her eyes. In that moment, she appeared so entirely vulnerable that Lotor struggled against an instinct to gather her into his arms. “Oh, another one?” She yawned. “But I think—I missed all of this one.”

The human girl crawled away, reaching for her watch with her movie collection on it. “Don’t worry,” she called merrily. “I’m sure Lotor wouldn’t mind reenacting it with you one day.”

“I should hope not,” he retorted, his lavender cheeks still in a flame of emotion. “I’d prefer the princess not be in danger at all. And I am not a Milo Thatch.”

“You are definitely a Milo Thatch,” Pidge deadpanned. “Allura, tell him he’s a Milo Thatch. You know he is.”

The sleepy princess only half-understand the plea. She rubbed at her eyes before leaning back against Lotor, resting her heavy cheek against his shoulder, curling up against him. “He’s—my Milo,” she murmured groggily. “Thatch.”

Lotor pressed his lips together, and he damned the skip of his heart.

Allura’s Milo.

He managed a glare at Pidge, but it lacked fire.

The human girl simply smiled back with that demonic mischief before turning away to look for another movie.

[transmasc-wizard]

how about 6, 10, 24 and 49? :D

!!! thank you for the ask!!!

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related? It's literally a whole plot point that Rowan and Corey look scarily alike. Same pale skin, bright eyes, lean frame, i-will-kill-you look, and dark clothes.

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? I don't draw a lot of my OCs but spiritually, Hope. They've got a Thing with their eyes i can't quite capture and also they constantly wear Way Too Much Stuff. Hoodies, belts, hats, flannels, tshirts, khakis, and gloves can all be in the same outfit.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why? hmmm this is hard because a lot of them would kill me. But probably Corey, because he essentially started out as Small Nico's way of coping. (So did Angel but that's another thing.) He was the first character i made to be queer on purpose, and he's been queer since the very first day i thought of him. I projected... A Lot of personal issues on him, that's for sure. He's not a self-insert Gary Stu or anything, he's just... comforting. (though realistically he'd stab me.)

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes? I retain with utmost certainty that no one would trust any link Angel ever sent because there'd be a 99% chance it was a rickroll.

[peikonlainen]

Just a quick question but what often gets you inspired?✨

Oh boy ehhhhhh - here we go to the never ending rabbit hole!!

Sometimes small things gets my attention like e.g. squirrels paws, unique red face of a person at a cold day or seeing chair upside down on icy lake (honestly I am now working on long comic about trolls inspired by that chair).

Comic art and animations inspires me greatly! Lately I have been inspired by animations gems like the thief and the cobbler, treasure island from 1988 (and other Soviet Union animations) and the king and the mocking bird. The animation process fascinates me greatly, how can one make smooth and imaginative animations is wonderful! I can't get enough of it all.

Also concept of kindness inspires me greatly. I have gone throw...lets say a lot. I love stories that show kindness where it is needed, e.g. Tove Jansson's story of invisible child. The child was bullied by their family so much that they turned completely invisible and lost their own voice, eventually they found confidence and selfworth in themselfs thanks to kindness of Moomins. I want my feelings to be seen and heard but sometimes world or people are overwhelming. Kindness is important, otherwise we will fall apart or at least I do. I am still on my way to be kind and understanding of myself and othets but those qualities are more important to me than ever.

Couple weeks ago I started to collect stuff that inspires me or I find interesting. I will list most of them below. If I am not saying anything about certain box, it means I enjoy the show/comic/meme/animal but cannot put my finger on why. Usually those make me smile and give new pespective about life. Somethings might be there twice because I am forgetful baboon!

Junji Ito's horror comics are visually out of this world! But my fav is his humorous comic about his cats. It was so different from his other comics that I fell in love with it.

Emma manga made by Kaoru Mori. Usually I can't stand romantic stories but the characters but the story and the art works perfectly together in her comics.

Comics and animations of @cecameron are gorgeus and fun!

Tove Jansson's books, comics, art and life in general.

Rainbow Road from Muppets is my favourite song and I wish it would be played at my funeral one day. Its hopeful song that fills me with joy.

Entranta from Shera. She never gives up, I wanna be like her! I wanna see failure is part of the process and helps me get further little by little + its nothign to be shamefull of.

Ponyo's fathers frustration is relatable, also the whole movie is wonderful and colorful. Its maybe my favorite ghibli movie.

Scarr my beloved weirdo! The image was in the tarot pack of the grim adventures of Billy and Mandy and he is of course the hermit (which is my personality card)

@deep-dark-fears comics surprise me by giving new ideas to express fear.

Hugo Simberg was Finnish artist at 1900's. Symbolism and sympathetic characters of devils and death has inspired me since I was 8 years old.

Treasure planet is one of my favourite disney movies. The father son relationship between Silver and Jim is great and makes me cry everytime.

Hypnopotamus and Warren Stone from ROTTMNT. Their relationship is wholesome and inspiring + the show itself is fun, full of action and passion! I love it!

Tintin comics are almost religious in my family. It was one of the first comics I saw different from different parts of the world and how tintin could become friends even the most oddest (looking at you captain Haddock) people is marvellous.

The penguin my belowed ❤❤❤

Mörkövahti is Finnish children book that accidentally inspired me greatly. The world of troll like creatures, magical elements in the story and research of the creatures made me fall in love in the world of the books. I often love to read books for kids or teens, they are more interesting and I don't have to fear to be faced with rape, sexism and other nasty stuff.

Stop motion animation and expecially Arman animations have been always part of my life. I have soft spot for the pirates movie thanks to it's humor, naivety and animation style.

Adventure time is one of my favourite series and couple of things stuck with me. Some people are build different, you don't have to understand it but you need to respect them. I love this idea greatly and I try to live by it.

Pinsir is my favourite pokemon and it says a lot.

Mr Pogo and other smart ape characters inspire me greatly. No wonder new planet of the apes trilogy is part pf my movie collection. I am not sure why I love smart apes as characters but it always works.

Wander over yander whole concept is to be kind and help people out, I love it.

Peto was made for me by @elle-eedee at lgbtq trolls discord server. Peto ended up becoming my ultimate comfort character and I love to draw him and make stories for him. I loved the way elle-eedee combined my favorite things to create him ❤ also their colorful art inspires me everyone I see it.

@alioutfit blog is blog of style choices of man named Ali. I want to find my own style like Ali.

The murder she wrote is nostalgic for me and I wanna get into that series again! The fact smart older woman is the main focus inspires me. I love Agatha Christi stories too so it checks out.

Hugs + rottmnt. I love hugs and the show has a lot of good hugs!

Don Rosa's Donald Duck comics are the best! Those who don't know, Donald Duck comics are big in Finland!

Heikko Peikko (meaning Weak Troll) was stop motion animation series in Finland at 70's. Its wonky, basic and charming story of Heikko Peikko's everyday life.

The meme that made me less depressed

@foxing_around had wonderful comic that made me think over my friends over my sad ass.

Squirrels, I like them a lot. They remind me of my grandpa who loved forest and nature.

My sandwich with a face

Monsters petting each others! My friend has a lot of arkham maddness board games that comes with monsters. I like to play with the figurines, they are so lovely monsters!

Concept art of toothless from how to train your dragon. Why toothless couldn't look like this little ugly thing??? I would have loved him from bottom of my ❤

Kingdom of lonely bananas sign was at supermarket. Little imaginative ideas like these are great.

Pasila series is good stuff, it was said to be Finnish South Park.

My photo of snail ❤

WoY faces are glorious

The snow queen movie from 1957 gives me live. Its one of my favourite Soviet Union animation movie.

My photo of my special secret place at summer

I know only these two from Transformers comics and their love is wonderful. Truly I haven't read the comics...I wish I could tho!

Sherlock Holmes books are awesome

New ducktales series had so many characters from the comics I couldn't believe it at first! Finally I had my favourite characters like Fethry on the show!

I love odd looking animals because I am one too

Animal Crossing is a game I thought I would never play. It looked like a baby game when my big bro gave the it to me at the time gamecube was new console. He bought it because it had a memory card and he know nothing about the game. I tried it and never looked back ❤

The ping pong animation is my favourite animation series from Japan. I got the manga even I can't read it since it's straight from Japan. It's more about the lifes of the characters and how they grow as people than the game itself (or at least it feels like it). The story feels real in a way, that the characters are three dimensional and their reactions are natural. Some charachters stop developing as players, some loose interest completely, some work hard to be the best, some forget why they played in the first place and some found new ways to live their lives. The story is good for my soul.

Comic of @catmilks made me realise there are other people like me. The feeling of the comic is relatable and hopeful, things will pass and life goes on + make sure you take care of yourself.

Comics of @ stuffnoonetoldme made me reflect my life and how I see myself.

@diva-humon has good points of life. I realised I have very christian way of thinkin even I am not religious or have ever been part of any religios.

Suomenlinna, I loved it!

[transformers-fan-continuities]

Do you have any tips for starting a TF:FC blog? While I personally still have a bit to go before I feel I should make one, I do think the information would be helpful!

hfshdshgjfjhgHA I’m flattered that you ask me, as if I have any freaking idea what I’m doing fhfhfhffff

First tip, figure out what you’re comfortable posting! I’m still struggling with perfectionism, which means I don’t share WIPs and miscellaneous bits and bobs, because I just don’t think anyone would be interested in that, despite the fact several people have told me they are. So what do you want to post? Doodles, info files, ficlets, character designs, stream-of-consciousness rambling? All of those are valid by the way, curate your content as you see fit, your followers will love everything because we as a fandom are starving.

Second, look at other folks! Many fan continuity blogs I like have a taglist or about page somewhere, or at least a tag system that makes posts easier to find (assuming tungle’s tag search function works properly smh). Also consider, do you want asks and submissions open or not? Some folks have it set up so that they post everything to their main or art blog and then reblog the relevant Transformers stuff to a dedicated sideblog.

Third, aesthetic. Okay this is admittedly a little less important but I like choosing the theme and color scheme of my blog. This also kind of ties in to what you’ll be posting, make sure whatever format you choose is readable and easy to navigate, for both you and your followers. A useful thing I’ve seen a few blogs do is pin an information post or linktree at the top of their blog, so people can navigate it easily.

Fourth, get a backlog of content before you start and then post it regularly but sparingly. Not like, once a day or anything, but don’t dump a thousand posts in a week and then have nothing left to add. If you draw a few things, post one or two of them, and then post the rest the next day, so you feel less pressure to make some kind of post every day oh my god I’m out of new things to post I have to make something right now but I’m tired and uncreative hhhhhh. Backlogs help.

(Side note about content- mystery is always enticing, so maybe save some major plot points and spoilers, but hint at them. Just sprinkle in some winkwink nudgenudge and ominous foreshadowing so people get to wondering. Same with references to canon! Lil easter eggs are always fun to spot.)

Fifth, which you’ve already started doing by sending an ask to this blog, get connected to other fan continuities! Reblog their stuff, send some asks, treat other fans as you’d like them to treat you, and curiosity about your continuity will follow. I know for a fact that there are at least three Transformers fan canon ask memes out there too.

Sixth, but actually first and foremost,

this blog is for you.

Seriously! Do whatever you want with it! That applies to your whole continuity too. Don’t be afraid to post and reblog stuff that you like, even if it’s not necessarily Transformers, and on the other side, don’t feel bad for avoiding posting or reblogging anything if you want this space to be only about Transformers! Your blog should be set up for your ease of use and enjoyment, with your followers as an important but secondary consideration. Just Have Fun.

Secret seventh tip that isn’t actually a tip, maybe draw robot food? That seems to have been a wild success for me idk maybe try it?

[cas-rivaille]

Hello! Can I get a matchup for jujutsu kaisen please?

Appearance : 5'4 ace/heteromantic girl ambivert.Dark brown hair/eyes (I wear glasses but they are also sun glasses because bright lights give me a headache) a little chubby/muscled and pale skin+permanent smirk/smile/ neutral face. Plump lips. My style varies a lot (always comfy) but I never wear dresses heels/makeup. I love to imagine outfits with symbols from fandoms or my own drawings so I have a rather unique style (most of the time I wear a NASA jacket and leather boots/sneakers, I also love sleeveless turtleneck) who changes a lot. I have malleable cheeks and tiny hands/fingers/wrist.

MBTI: INTP-T and chaotic neutral/good

Zodiac: Gemini sun, Taurus rising, libra moon

Enneagram : My dominant is type 5 then 8. Quizzes says that I am a 5w6 or 8w7

Personality : .Sarcastic,a little naive but I have a backbone (don't bother flirting with me and if you feel that I am flirting with you which happens a lot then it's just my personality and on the rare occasion I notice they have to confess or I won't believe it) ,calculative,protective,creative,expressive,manipulative,a devil's advocate,prideful,charismatic, smartass, bookworm, daydreamer, a little insensitive/blunt because I'm more on the logical side ,vengeful, mischievous, a huge tease, open minded, very curious, gets annoyed easily, impatient (unless it's in drawing because I am a perfectionist there) so kind of a bad temper, observant but not romantically,sadistic to a point but my conscience prevents me from doing these acts. Indifferent to many things, morally...unique as my moral compass is on the neutral side I don't believe in absolute evil/good.

With my friends I am either laughing, goofing around or annoyed. I love to give bad puns or cursed ideas who are gore/weird and saying I know y all love me. Those who don't talk to me see me as a nerd aggressive smart and blunt person ( even prideful) and strangers as polite and kind. I notice a lot of details because I don't let my guard down even if I daydream plus I have a photographic + sound memory and they work very well in all situations which can be a bother when I try to concentrate which is difficult for me because I get distracted easily. Also I have very weird reflexes so...anyone who approaches me by surprise gets hit, any sudden movement and I already have my leg/arm going their way which got me into a lot of trouble.

Dislikes: I fight for my beliefs. I have trust issues so I never talk about my problems and will use humor when confronted. Bright lights. Cooking. Slow things or people. When I get teased in a mean way (otherwise I actually like being teased it's a fun fight after). People who change side easily and hypocrites. Overly serious people. I tend to be aggressive and expose an annoyed face easily (I am moody), plus I hate orders and love pressing buttons it's funny(in a fun way rarely in a mean one) unless it's a sensitive subject. When I feel that I am unwanted or someone insults me or take me for granted I become very cold and distance myself and the relationship becomes strained the more they take time to ask for forgiveness, something I might give but will never forget.

Likes: I love cats/laughter/sweets/pranks/dark humour/ a true crime and Supernatural enthusiast and I love science especially concerning space, chemistry, robotic and psychology. Books, sleep, drawing and video games too. Cherries. Sushi.Oh and debates I love them. Surprises too I hate routine and runs away from it. I like making character analysis which I often get right but never show to the people around me because I know they will trust me less.

Hobbits : Reading, getting lost in a book, drawing, learning, debating, daydreaming, sports (I practice karate and shooting), art (piano/drawing/writing especially poetry) and video games

I have some bad habits like biting my nails (I just got rid of it by painting them black)/lips and moving my leg up and down because I am always nervous, disorganized room/sleep and eating schedule plus I am lazy. Also I might try to hide it but I am very competitive and a sore loser

Fun fact : I dream a lot and write my dreams. I don't mind nightmares on the contrary I welcome them because I find them to be a nice experience and they give me ideas plus the amount of emotions you can feel is amazing. I also tend to curse while talking.

I rarely get motivated but when I do I give a very good work and put my soul in it, if I don't reach my goal I feel down for a while and become very snappy.

I am a lazy student (hell if I don't feel like writting I don't especially exercises that I understood) but also at top of my class so none says anything (i can befriend people easily if I want to, teachers included). My projects are often done last minute or just improvisation but I get a good mark at them which means that yes sometimes I can become arrogant and I don't really know what it feels like to study really hard and fail sorry. But I know it will bite me later. I often argue my way out of a situation with anyone : I know the exercise why should I write it? If I told you the answer then I know how I got it and you know it too no need for me to write the correction. Mum the brain is a muscle too so I am in fact exercising.

When dealing with an emotional person I don't know what to do I will try to give them words to keep going, it succeed but I am rather harsh plus I try to make jokes to cheer them up.But if a friend breaks down before me I will do my best to cheer them up (ahem jokes and reminding them of all the success they achieved) and if I am comfortable and they want a hug I will give it. I hate people who denies that others helped them.

My love language is gifts, quality time, a little act of service and affection in private if comfortable. I also love to send memes saying it reminds me of us/you and holding pinkies.

Please can you not consider geto,mahito, nanami, todo and junpei as matchups I am uncomfortable with them.

I am stubborn, moody (one day I can be really cold/snappy to the person because I am in a bad mood but I apologize after) and can be perceived as unloving even if it's not the case, well sometimes but I usually love affection despite me never saying affectionate things.

Thank you very much for your time! 😋

AHHH THANK YOU FOR THE REQUEST !! this is my first jjk one i hope you like it !!

i won't be answering it in order lol i do it on memory then go back to make sure i got everything i hope that's okay !!

as for your matchup.... ITADORI

so a lot influenced my decision on this, first thing being

your mood, you said repeatedly how you can get moody and we all know itadori our precious bby is a ball of sunshine and very easy going. he would totally understand me give you space if you needed it and just try his best to help you feel better if something is bothering you :)

he would LOVE to link pinkies with you and spend quality time with you

our baby is a resident ISFP so you two def have similar aspects

he would love your pressing buttons/hating orders part of your personality bc i feel like it would lead to several clashes between you and some of the teachers and he would think that's SO FUNNY OMG

he also loves your sense of humor and there is never a dull moment between you two

if you were comfy with it, he would love to hear about your dreams because he thinks it's so cool that you write them down

please let him paint your nails he would love it

he would send you memes too x10 this boy has endless memes in his phone, you're guaranteed a laugh when you text him.

he would totally appreciate your way of cheering people up because it's exactly what he needs

you best invite this boy to anything karate related because he thinks it's SO COOL i mean we all know he has natural abilities but putting it into a martial arts form is s o amazing to him and he really admires you

don't be surprised if he asks you to draw him

IF YOU LEAVE HIM POETRY OR A LOVE NOTE HE WILL MELT ON SPOT. GONE. ASCENDED. EVAPORATED.

he loves your style and think you look so badass

i totally hc itadori somewhere on the ace spectrum, probably demi

dates??:

VIDEO GAME DATES

going and getting sushi together in the middle of the night low key just sneaking out

ARCADES

nights in watching crime shows or supernatural he absolutely LOVES occult stuff as we know he would probably make the two of you try a ouija board

COOKING DATES you two would make dinner for the first years and gojo every now and then and all the praises go to your cooking it's so good

all in all, itadori is the calm to your storm, you two mesh together very well and he loves you with his whole heart

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED LET ME KNOW IF I MISSED ANYTHING HAVE A GOOD MORNING/DAY/EVENING/NIGHT !!

- cas :)

[atamascolily]

Telling, not showing: subversion and missing scenes in TLJ

 I spend a lot of time thinking about The Last Jedi as I work on my fix-it fic, and I’ve finally been able to articulate one thing that’s bugged me ever since I saw it. For me, the film divides very neatly into two parts: one where Rey is anti-Kylo, the other where she is pro-Kylo. The cave scene at the film’s midpoint also marks the transition between the two.

From a storytelling perspective, the problem isn’t that Rey becomes zealously pro-Kylo, although I must admit I am not a fan of this particular evolution in her character. The problem is that the writers use a twist to subvert their audience’s expectations and surprise them with a “Gotcha!”--except that in so doing, they skip over the parts that make that transition emotionally plausible to me.

Let me explain. Up until the cave sequence, Rey’s only interactions with Kylo have been through three unexpected, unwanted conversations via the Force that neither one is controlling or directing (even if Rey/the audience is skeptical of this at first). [The fact that Snoke is setting them up is a different story problem, but that’s not relevant here.] They are all negative.

In their first encounter, Rey straight up shoots him with a blaster. (It doesn’t take.) In the second, she’s standing by the ocean next to the Falcon and she calls him a monster. (Kylo agrees.) In the third, he gives her his own version of what happened the night the temple burned, and tells Rey her parents were junk traders who sold her for drinking money. As a result, Rey heads for the mirror cave to investigate, demanding to see her parents.

The mirror cave sequence is eventually revealed to be a flashback: Rey is wrapped in a blanket next to a fire in one of the stone huts, narrating her experience to someone. We’re supposed to assume it’s Luke (or maybe Chewbacca, although goodness knows the narrative forgets about him until they need someone to fly the Falcon). But then Kylo says, “You’re not alone,” and the camera shows us Kylo, sitting across the fire from Rey. He’s been there the whole time, not Luke. And his relationship with Rey is now radically different from anything else we’ve been presented with before.

The problem is that because of the way this scene is framed--because of the twist--we don’t see the transition from angry/antagonistic!Rey who (correctly) calls Kylo Ren a murderer for killing Han Solo to the calmer, more open Rey who is willing to share personal intimate details about her life and experience with someone who literally tortured her in the last movie. I know, I know, the writers of TLJ would like me to forget that, but I really, really can’t. Sorry. That happened. And, silly me, I think that would impact their relationship. You know. Just a little.

So I don’t see how Rey softens towards Kylo, I only see the end product, when the movie presents it to me as an accomplished fact. And I don’t know about you, but I personally need to see that transition in order to find her “conversion” to the “Kylo Is Good” cult believable.

Unlike JJ Abrams, who never met a Force vision he didn’t want to show the audience in jarring and confusing detail, the writers of TLJ don’t show us what Rey experiences when she and Kylo make contact in the infamous, slow-motion “hand touch” scene that follows. All we know is what Rey tells us, and what she sees is clearly enough to convert her all the way to Team Kylo, because she immediately attacks Luke when he intervenes and orders her to stop. We don’t see what she sees to make her believe that Kylo can be redeemed, that he is trustworthy/reliable/necessary.

You can argue that we did see events from Kylo’s POV in the flashback prior to the mirror cave sequence, but if that’s the case, what makes Rey’s vision in the hand touch different from the information she got then? What changed to make her believe it now when she didn’t believe it then? And if it is different, what makes it different? 

All I know is that Rey jumps from “Kylo is my enemy” to “Kylo can be redeemed and I have to go rescue him right now” and it’s so sudden and jarring, I can’t see how we got from one to the other so quickly. I can see what the writers are trying to do. I can see what they think they’ve done. But what’s presented in the film as it stands just doesn’t work for me. I don’t find it convincing. But the film doesn’t care, the film says, “Okay, wasn’t that great, Luke is pathetic, Rey is awesome, let’s go!” and moves on, assuming that Rey is now so pro-Kylo now she’s willing to drop everything to save a man because she’s convinced everything will be saved if he can turn back to the light.

The unspoken subtext: because Rey doesn’t think she’s good enough to save the world herself? Because she’s lonely and wants a companion/lover/boyfriend? Because she needs a man to complete herself? Unlike Luke, who had a meaningful, if one-sided relationship with the idea of his father before he learned the truth, Rey and Kylo have... nothing outside of negative interactions. (Comforting Rey by saying, “You’re not alone,” doesn’t make up them, and I personally don’t consider it as positive interaction given all other gaslighting that’s been going on in their interactions over the past movie and a half.) Luke has to believe that Vader can be redeemed because otherwise he’s left wondering if he himself can be truly good if he comes from evil; restoring Vader to Anakin is the best way to resolve the cognitive dissonance. Redeeming Kylo.... doesn’t do that for Rey, because her core issue isn’t with Kylo, it’s with her identity, her relationship with her parents, and her struggles with finding her place in the galaxy. None of those things are something that Kylo--redeemed or not--can give her. So why is this suddenly her driving motivation?

And then the rest of the movie happens, and it’s more or less consistent with Rey’s character transformation as pro-Kylo, right up until the point he takes up the mantle of Supreme Leader of the First Order and roundly rejects her overtures. But it rings hollow for me because I don’t see the transformation myself--all of the important bits are deliberately kept off-screen and so I’m just left with this trailing feeling of “Wait? What just happened?”.... which is my default reaction to TLJ in general.

And I think that there are those who would argue that my feelings of bewilderment are proof of this movie’s sophistication, people who like the “gotchas!” and the twists and the “things aren’t as you thought they were” topsy-turvies. I enjoy my plot twists as much as the next person, but they only work for me if they are emotionally plausible and explained, not assumed, and I don’t see any evidence for that when I go back and re-watch the film specifically looking for it.

And this is a recurring theme throughout TLJ; in fact, film’s tagline ought to have been “This is not going to go with the way you think!” It happens with Rey’s relationship with Kylo, it happens with Luke’s death, it happens with Holdo and Poe, it happens with DJ’s betrayal... every relationship, every trope from the previous films and movies is upended. The patricidal Kylo draws the line at killing his mother; the courageous Finn is revealed as a coward; Poe’s daring becomes arrogance. The Resistance is no better than the First Order because they buy their weapons from the same vendors and slaughter innocent bystanders in their struggles, while the New Republic stands by and lets it all happen.

It’s not that there’s no place for nuance, for subversion, for this kind of moral examination in Star Wars. I just wish it was better executed. As it stands, the film comes off to me as a kind of grimdark moralism, with the message that “All your heroes will disappoint you, and there’s no point in trying to accomplish anything because you’re doing it wrong,” and I just... don’t find that uplifting or enjoyable.

TL:DR: my relationship with this movie can be summarized by this handy meme:

[jowritesthingss]

Excuse Me Sir This Is My Emotional Support Eldritch Being

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Pairing(s): n/a

Rating: Teen (for swearing)

Content Warning(s): rabbits, food/drink, mild(ish) swearing, not!Sasha, eldritch beings, spoilers through early s3-ish

Length: 2,190 words

Brief Summary: The archival team adopts a rabbit. (Part one of the Emotional Support Eldritch AU!)

AO3 link in reblogs bc Tumblr is a biatch!

*

“What is it?”

Jon levels a suspicious glare down at the fluffy blob comfortably stretched out in the middle of the overstuffed break room couch.

Tim blinks owlishly at him from behind his mug of tea. “A...rabbit?”

“Yes, but are you sure it’s a rabbit?” Jon asks insistently. “Not a—a spirit, or...an animated doll, or a clown in disguise or something?”

Sighing, Tim sets his tea down on the counter. “Look, I get the whole ‘suspicious of us being murderers’ thing—no I don’t, actually, but that’s beside the point—it. is. a rabbit.” For a good measure, he walks over to sit on one side of the rabbit, reaching a hand out to the little guy’s fluffy head. If a rabbit could smile, he suspects this one would be doing so as it leans up into his hand.

“No fleas or ticks...or worms, so it’s not some Jane Prentiss Pet Sematary crossover, I promise—” Tim rolls his eyes, “—the veterinarian confirmed as much when I brought the poor thing in. Out of the mud and the rain of the gutter,” he adds, not even attempting to hide the guilt-trip. He wishes Martin were here, with his ridiculously effective puppy-dog eyes.

Tim knows this is Jon he’s talking to, but surely even he can’t be that cold-hearted. He rather thinks that Jon will enjoy not being alone anymore down here during all his late nights. If he’d let himself, surely Jon would enjoy having company in the form of a teeny tiny creature that can’t and won’t harm him—which, uh, certainly is not why he’s lying about his current flat not permitting pets, no siree.

“...Fine. Whatever.” Jon points an accusing finger at him. “But we’re not keeping it,” he stresses. “The moment you find it a different home, it goes. The moment.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Tim chirps, although as he begins a staring contest with the rabbit’s curious red eyes, he has no intention of actually doing as Jon says.

Martin chooses this moment to walk through the door. His eyes light up. “Aw, is that a rabbit?”

“No, this does not mean you’re allowed to bring in more strays,” Jon snaps.

The light in Martin’s eyes fades. “Okay,” he says mournfully as he crouches to pet the rabbit, sulking.

-

“So what should we name him?” Tim asks Jon when the Head Archivist comes into the break room the next morning.

“Oh—my—” Jon startles where he stands by the counter, attempting to make himself some toast with the Archive’s horrible fifteen-year-old toaster—toast that now splatters across the floor. Somehow in his sleep-deprived stupor he must’ve missed Tim sitting on the couch with a white rabbit on his head. He never seems to really notice Tim, but at this point it’s fine enough; Tim has accepted that the guy has impossibly poor taste.

The rabbit clambers down from Tim’s shoulders, jumping off of the couch and padding over to investigate the new human(?) and the mess he made.

“How about Thumper?” Tim puzzles aloud, stretching leisurely and acting as if he doesn’t notice Jon frantically scrubbing up raspberry jam and trying to avoid the rabbit’s investigative snuffles all in one. “No, no...that’s too cliché.”

“I really don’t see the point in naming it when it shouldn’t be here more than a few weeks,” Jon comments, shooing the animal in question away before it can try to lick up any jam.

“Maybe Joe?” Tim continues loudly, as if he hadn’t heard the other. When the rabbit ambles back over to him, he scoops them up, pressing their noses together. “Ligma?” He shakes his head at the rabbit. “No, no. We need to have more sophistication as we go about this.”

“You could do with applying that sophistication to your work,” comes the grumbled retort.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Jon abruptly turns to burn another piece of bread in the toaster.

-

“How about Marshmallow?”

“What on Earth—” Jon shrieks, jumping in his desk chair, and a sheaf of papers is sent flying around the office.

“The rabbit. Should we call him ‘Marshmallow’?” Tim smiles as innocently as he can manage, standing out in the hall with his head peeping into his boss’ office. “Marshie for short?”

“I am in the middle of a statement!” Jon sputters. “Get out!”

“Okay, okay....” Tim fluidly shrugs his shoulders. “What about ‘Bob’?”

“Out!”

But Tim continues to pop into Jon’s office unannounced throughout the day, tossing out name suggestions. He even manages to rope Martin into doing it too, and notes with savage delight that between the two of them and his work, Jon doesn’t get much more than a moment to wallow rest for the remainder of the day.

Between the two of them Tim and Martin manage to compile a surprisingly long list of names:

Snowball,

Posy (Martin is partial to this one because he thinks it’s cute),

Bungen Leitner,

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt (“is that too American of a reference for a fanfic taking place in the UK?” “what?” “what?”),

the Bunholding,

Michael (Jon is especially averse to that one for some reason),

Cottonball,

Fluffy Bastard (Tim’s own favorite),

Bugs Bunny,

Eldritch Horror (Tim tosses that one in as a joke; no way the rabbit that eats his own shit is some kind of otherworldly being),

Big Bungus (“it’s a play off Big Chungus!” “d’you seriously think anyone else here even knows what memes are”), and

the Vampiric Count Sir Maximillianus-Who-Is-Also-A-Werebun

(Despite badgering Sasha multiple times in an attempt to get her thoughts on the matter, the only name she offers up is “Dinner”, which makes Martin cry, so that one is out.)

None of the names quite seem to fit the little white puffball that has now taken over the realm of their break room, however—so Tim and Martin find themselves going back to the drawing board. They reluctantly leave the Institute at the end of the day, still without having decided upon a name.

-

“JON JUNIOR!” Martin screeches excitedly the next morning as they’re congregating once more in the break room, zombie-like before their tea and mid-morning snack time (primary schools don’t get all the fun, okay).

Jon and Sasha startle, and for once even Tim himself jumps. The rabbit doesn’t seem to care much where he is, nibbling at some hay in his corner litter box.

“I—what?” Jon asks, flabbergasted, although he manages to not drop his toast this time. Character development.

“We should name him Jon Jr! After you!” Martin explains eagerly.

“Absolutely not,” Jon tries to say, but before he can finish, Tim is jumping in.

“I think that is an excellent idea,” he says, grinning broadly. “Thoughts, Sasha?”

“I’m not emotionally invested in this.” Sasha shrugs, uncaring. “I’m going back to my desk.” She takes her drink and walks out of the room, letting the door slam shut behind her.

“All right, since Sasha doesn’t care, I’ll decide her vote for her,” Tim says, carefully containing his glee. “So that’s three votes for and one against, then. Majority rules.”

“What? No!” John protests, but Tim is too busy looking at the rabbit for confirmation.

“What do you think, little guy?” He walks over, bends down, and lightly boops the rabbit’s nose. “Are you a Jon Jr?”

The rabbit twitches his nose in agreement and poops.

“Well then!” Tim stands, clapping his hands together. “That’s been decided upon.”

No, it hasn’t,” Jon insists, but Tim cares little for his boss’ objections. He’ll accept his fate as Jon Senior eventually.

-

To Tim’s utter surprise and fascination, it happens sooner than later.

Jon, Tim quickly realizes, is a lot like the one dad who says “no dog” and then ends up loving the dog more than he loves his own children.

Despite his initial objections, the daft fool ends up getting caught up in Jon Jr’s big, innocent, rabbit-y gaze (worse than even Martin’s puppy-dog eyes, they conclude gravely), and by the end of the day Friday Jon has announced that he supposes the rabbit can stay with him over weekends and holidays.

“We’re still not keeping him,” Jon reminds them all, even as the rabbit gathered in his arms, giving his nose kisses and knocking his glasses askew, says otherwise.

He gets caught trying to sneak the rabbit into his office on more than one occasion, but Martin raises a fuss about it.

(“He’s all of ours! Jon Jr is our department’s mascot now,” Martin protests defiantly. “You can’t take him away from the rest of us.”

“Yeah,” Tim adds, mostly just to stir up drama—he doesn’t particularly care one way or another. “You can’t just swoop him up and file him away like one of your statements.”

“Just don’t let it get out and chew at my electronics,” Sasha says, distractedly typing something on her phone, probably to that weird new boyfriend.)

To stave off the imminent coup, Jon Jr becomes an officially-declared resident of the break room. He slowly amasses chub around his middle and a cardboard kingdom of bunny toys, houses, blankets, and treats. A rabbit could want for nothing more.

And perhaps—perhaps a human could want for nothing more, too, Tim thinks as he looks down at the figure curled up on the sofa, rabbit nestled against his chest.

He doesn’t love the man, not by a long, long shot—doesn’t even particularly like him half the time—but Tim can’t deny that the scene is adorable. And, regardless of his very vocal protests, Jon Jr may very well be what Jon Sr needs to finally process things and move the hell on with life.

Tim smiles grimly. It’s about damn time.

He quietly closes the door to the room and heads back towards the Archives. He’ll leave Jon to wake himself up.

(And to discover for himself that Jon Jr has peed on his pants leg.)

-

Of course, this is the Archive we’re talking about, so naturally the peace is abruptly shattered, and everything goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Tim isn’t entirely certain what happens or why, but all of a sudden Sasha isn’t really Sasha, and he and Jon have gotten backed up and cornered in the tunnels as this not-really-Sasha stalks towards them, predictably with the intent to kill, just like the rest of the spooks they are so lucky to deal with.

Tim and Jon Sr slowly back away until they hit a dead end. Meanwhile, Jon Jr licks at Tim’s arm—he’d been scooped up as they ran into the tunnels, Tim doesn’t entirely know why—and despite the fact that they are most probably about to, y’know, die, the little kisses almost feel strangely reassuring.

The thing-that-is-not-Sasha cackles, her—their?—its?—voice distorted and echoing throughout the tunnels. It stalks towards them.

All of a sudden, Jon Jr wriggles loose and leaps smoothly down onto the ground. He scampers in front of Tim and Jon, heading towards bitch-give-me-my-Sasha-back.

“No! Get back here!” Tim hisses at the rabbit, even though he knows it’s pointless. He hates to admit it, but he’s becoming rather fond of Jon Jr, even if Tim mostly brought him in to piss off and totally not help Jon. Jon—who, speaking of, seems to be equally fond now, judging by the deflating tire of a terrified squeak he makes, and the adorable immature grabby arms he makes at the little bugger.

“Junior,” Jon calls out, sounding like a toddler who’d just been told Santa wasn’t real (he is, they have the statements to prove it, he is). And Tim wants to laugh, albeit hysterically. The first time he sees his brick wall of a superior cry and it’s over a rabbit, and he’s not even going to have time to gloat over it because they’re about to die. “No! You’re going to—”

Jon Jr stops and sits in front of wholly-absolutely-totally-not-Sasha-what-the-fuck, who looks down at him, bemused through its murderous bloodlust.

The rabbit lifts a dainty paw up to his mouth, and suddenly—suddenly it’s twisting and huge, towering up to the ceiling of the tunnel, its skin hairless and tinted a sickly, glowing gray, with five, six, seven...a whole lot more limbs than a rabbit is supposed to have.

The not-rabbit unhinges its now meters-long jaw and snaps up the creature.

Tim and Jon stare at each other, wide-eyed.

There is a loud gulping sound, then a deafening crack, and suddenly there is a very normal white rabbit sitting in front of them again, carefully cleaning one paw with a very normal pink tongue.

“Wh—” Tim chokes on his own words.

The holy-shit-it-really-is-an-eldritch-horror-after-all stretches, yawns, and flops over in a dead sleep.

“...We’re keeping the rabbit,” Jon says faintly.

“I—yeah.” Tim nods, light-headed. “We’re keeping the rabbit.”

-

Jon Jr the rabbit-slash-eldritch-abomination gets a very hearty dinner of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber peels that night.

-

(Tune in next time* for the terrible, terrible realization—“Jon Jr is a girl?!” (Also why is there another dead body again, dammit, can’t we go one week))

Fin

First || Next

*

(There may or may not actually be a next time. It depends. )

Behold. What very well may be the stupidest thing I have ever written. Ahem. Did I say stupidest? I meant most brilliant. Clearly I meant it’s the most brilliant thing I have ever written. Obviously.

Let me know if you enjoyed this! I have a bunch of ideas to continue this ridiculously silly AU of sorts, but idk if I’m going to quite yet and am not certain that I’ll be continuing to write for TMA. atm I’m focused on a different fandom, and I’m only on s3, so the really big idea I had has to wait, anyway.

Want to chat or be added onto any of my taglists? Shoot me an ask or a message here or via my other social media!

[fixaidea]

I know this was not intended as an ask meme, but I will offer a penny for your thoughts on your favorite TGCF and MDZS ships (I.e., your favorite from each) and what it is that draws you to them. Is it the same things? Different things? Tell me all about them! *showers you in pennies* ^_^

Thank you! :D

Ah, I’m boring, it’s the main ship from both.

I can only get behind a ship if I like the people invoved separately as well, as individual characters, and I love everyone involved in these pairs, especially Wei Wuxian and Xie Lian.

Wei Wuxian is something of a trickster and both him and Xie Lian efffectively act as detectives throughout the whole book - and I’m always here for a good crime story. 

Xie Lian really defied my expectations. I thought he would be much softer, more naive and generally weaker. But nope. Yes, he’s kind and gentle but he still has a bite, and he’s a lot smarter, sneakier and more pragmatic than I thought he would be.

Lan Wangji is supremely relatable - doesn’t talk if he doesn’t have to, has trouble communicating his thoughts... I feel that.

Hua Cheng - him I love because he’s the neat subversion of the Bad Boy trope, which I hate. He sets you up with a laundry list of low expectations and then defies and subverts each item one by one.

Also, respect. Both of these pairs highly value and respect each other, even if Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have a harder time communicating their thoughts and feelings than the other two.

(Also Hua Cheng and Xie Lian get extra points for being generally very good at respecting boundaries.)

EDIT: I can’t believe I almost forgot THE main attraction of HuaLian! Book!WangXian may have a long-standing misunderstanding, but not them. Literally none of the angst and drama comes from between them. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are each other’s refuge and comfort in a world that hurt both too much and for too long.

[quickspinner]

H, J, T and Z for the fanfic writer ask, please?

H. How would you describe your writing style?

I don’t have a great answer here. It’s just...me? I feel like it’s way easier to describe someone else’s style than one’s own. I’m so sorry Airi I’m drawing a complete blank here. 😆 Introspective, maybe? I tend to focus more on thoughts and emotions than actions for sure. I like to explore my characters’ inner lives and emotional experience, and plot and setting and everything else are just a means to that end.

J. What’s your favorite fanfic trope? Have you written it?

😆I always feel stupid with questions like these because I need like, a list of tropes to choose from lol. As soon as someone asks me a question like this my mind goes completely blank and it’s like I never knew what a trope was. Ummmmm...I really like soulmates and meet cute type AUs, and I have written both. Honestly I used to hate AU fics, but then I realized...I’d only read ones that weren’t very good ones that were not to my personal taste. I used to wonder, what is the point of having two characters who are nothing like their canon selves except in name, in situations that are nothing like canon? Why not just write original fiction at that point? 

Obviously, my viewpoint’s changed--I really enjoy the challenge of putting two characters in a different setting, considering what that setting would change about them, and trying to craft a narrative and emotional arc that’s still true to the characters within the parameters I’ve set for myself. Super fun, especially when there’s only limited canon to play with, or canon is unsatisfying. Canon fills out the characters for me, and then I pluck them up like little action figures and put them in my own universes.  

As for soulmates, I know they’re kind of a love-it-or-hate it thing, but here’s my view: real life relationships aren’t like that. But sometimes I find comfort and joy in the fantasy of What If Things Were That Simple. Except they’re never actually that simple, it’s just complicated in a different way, and it’s interesting to me to think about how soulmates being a thing would change the world’s attitude towards love and coupledom. I also really love fics that explore a wider meaning for what constitutes a ‘soulmate.’ I could go on forever about how interesting I find the worldbuilding of it and all the interesting directions you could take it. I totally get people who don’t like soulmate AUs, I also think relationships, even between soulmates, are still work, and it doesn’t have to be a copout. I think of it like a neon sign that says “this person is very compatible with you” but you still have to put in the work to build the relationship. 

Although treating it as a ‘you love this person immediately no matter what, even if you can’t stand them’ could also go interesting places, come to think of it. 

T. Any fanfic tropes you can’t stand?

Not exactly? Almost anything can be fun if done well. I tend to be more leery about enemies to lovers and slow burns, because they’re so easy to do badly (or at least, in a way not to my taste) and bad ones drive me really nuts, and I’m not a fan for Unrelieved Angst, especially if it’s not purposeful. 

Z. Is there a story you’ve written that doesn’t seem to get much love?

Honesty Indelible isn’t getting a whole lot of love right now, but I’m hoping that will pick up when it’s finished. I did splash an angst warning all over it, so I understand if angst isn’t something people want right now, or if people don’t want to venture until it’s complete (although we’re at a cheerfulish place right now, so you could probably read through the current chapter and be okay at the end of it). I get that people follow me mostly for fluff and cuteness, and I take a risk when I venture outside my brand, so to speak, but that’s okay. I’m still invested in the story and the people who ARE reading it are awesome and beloved, so it’s all good. 

Thanks Airi! 💜

Ask meme