#character-wise while I do like him and think they had a really cool idea I do have some issues tbh

[beescake]

i am in love with your sollux i think

sollux love party :]

if you’re interested heres some of my personal fondness thoughts on him.. big warning for the mega long read ahead aye

as we alr know sollux's rejection of participation somewhat mirrors dave's rejection of heroism, but even without getting cooked to completion i still find sollux's character v compelling beyond the fourth wall

as someone who doesnt get a pinch of that Protagonist Sparkle to begin with, he can openly say he wants to leave anytime…. and unlike dave, he actually Can leave the scene anytime. but he can never be truly Free from the story via permanent character death like the other trolls.

his irrelevancy is indeed relevant - he’s there so u can point him out.

while his image is intended to be a relic of past internet subculture, his role is not only about hehehaha being a Chad or a 2000s cyberforum 2²chan haxxor ragequit gamebro.

his continued existence also happens to add a Bit to the overarching themes of homestuck! a Bit that gives him longer-lasting thematic relevance compared to the trolls who could’ve had more character potential but didnt get to survive beyond the main story.

the Bit in question:

his defiance contributes to the illusion of agency (treating characters = people with autonomy). he’s “aware” of it, and that recognition is worth noting enough to forcibly keep him alive as both reward and punishment.

considering how his personality & classpect is designed its definitely a very haha thing for hussie to do LOL. he’s made to be op asf so he's resigned to doing dirty work, gradually deteriorating along the way but never truly dying. as fans have mentioned before, him openly rejecting involvement after a while of grim tolerance is like if the sim u were controlling suddenly stopped, looked up and gave u the finger while u were step six into the walkthrough for Every Possible Sim Death Animation.

but since he’s just a sim… the more he hates it, the more you keep him around. if ur sim started complaining abt your whimsical household storyline you’d definitely keep that little fuck.

but yeah i like that sollux is just idling. the significance of his presence being that one dude who's always reliably Somewhere, root core Unchanged, no individual ambitions (possibly due to fear of consequence?), and design-wise: a staple representative product of his time.

compared to dirk's character, who has aged phenomenally well into the present (themes of control + AR + artificial intelligence, clearer exploration around navigating relationships/sexuality, infinite possibilities of self-splinterhood and trait inheritance), sollux's potential is really... contained. bitter. defeatist. limiting and frustrating in the way old tech is.

the world continues moving on to shinier, brighter, more advanced automated things - minimalist and metaverse or whatever but sollux is still here 🧍‍♂️ going woohoo redblue 3d. (tho personally i imagine his vibe similar to what the kids call cassette futurism on pinterest mixed w more grimy grunge insectoid influences eheh)

conceptually-speaking,

at the foundation of it all, the rapid pace of modern development was built off the understanding of ppl like sollux in the past, who were There actively at work while the dough was still beginning to rise

thats one of the cool things abt the idea of trolls preceding humans! the idea that trolls like sollux excelled back when lots of basic shit still needed to be discovered, building structures like networks and codes from scratch, and humans will eventually inherit and reinvent that knowledge in ways that become so optimized it makes the old manual effort seem archaic, slow, and labour-intensive.

but despite information/resources/shortcuts being more accessible now, much of the new highly-anticipated stuff released on trend still end up unfinished, inefficient, or expiring quickly due to cutting corners under severe capitalistic pressures

meanwhile, some of the old stuff frm past generations of thorough, exploratory and perfectionistic development still remains working, complete, and ever so sturdy.

those things continue to exist, just outside our periphery with either:

zero purpose left for modern needs (outdated/obsolete)

or

far too important to replace or destroy, bcs of its surprisingly essential and circumstantial usefulness in one niche specific area.

which are honestly? both points that sum up sollux pree well.

dramatic ending sorry. anw are u still on the fence or are u Sick abt him like me </3

[cyborg-3005]

SPOILER TADC EPISODE 4 ANALYSIS BELOW

so, generally, these episodes keep getting better and better. one is with the facial expressions, pomni’s and jax’s especially felt very nuanced and added more opportunity to read their characters. but i do also mean writing-wise.

this episode definitely felt like it gave us a much larger glimpse into these characters as people:

while she’s “high,” ragatha mentions a lot of things (horses, dancing, etc.) that seem to be memories of her past life. she’s also more genuine about her feelings regarding the other characters, saying that especially harsh thing of gangle being more annoying with her comedy mask. generally, we’re getting more of a peek at how ragatha feels internally.

zooble is given a chance to be a bit more of the straight-person or the emotional stability for other characters to lean on, and is just more present than ever before.

pomni hasn’t evolved as much from her previous characterization, but she’s more in a position this time to be stable and not in constant mental peril.

jax is forcibly toned down as the day goes on, his underlayer of apathy and depression beginning to take over for his usual sadistic vigor.

there’s so many examples with gangle, but i’ll be getting into those later.

notably, especially by the end of the day, the humans aren’t acting like it’s the end of their adventure, but the end of an actual shift, as if this is their actual job that they drive from to their actual home somewhere. i find this interesting, especially for someone like pomni, who seems to take the idea of closing the shift most seriously—as if it’s real—despite her previously being the one most conscious about the artificiality of the adventures. i think this speaks to how in a normal setting, the characters kind of assimilate into it much quicker; the normalcy of this artificial mockery of real life attracts them as respite from the existential dread in being in a world that isn’t theirs. it also seems to awaken a bit more of their underlying selves.

pomni and gummigoo, man that was a powerful scene. we had all been dreading it, but i think i was pleasantly surprised at how mature and quiet pomni was in handling the situation—so many in the fandom tend to kinda infantilize her and so assumed that when she’d see gummigoo that she’d have some sort of breakdown, but the more frazzled and nuanced reaction she actually had feels much more realistic and true to her character.

i noticed gummigoo at least has the same name as before, as when pomni speaks it he reacts by reaching his hand out with some expression of concern. some have interpreted his mannerisms in this episode as that he actually remembered pomni and his previous self when she called his name but didn’t want to say anything to make the situation more complicated, which isn’t exactly 100% confirmed but is a cool theory regardless. i just really like him as a character in general, so it’s cool to see him again.

and i also really like how pomni’s interaction with him ended on a resolute and bittersweet note. like yeah, she’s definitely sad over the situation, but she’s not completely heartbroken—she seems glad to just have seen him again, even if he didn’t quite remember their time together beforehand. her feelings when seeing him are equally positive and negative, not this abject heartbreak that makes her drown in sorrow. she’s even briefly sorta infatuated with him at the counter, which is fun considering how ragatha on an offhand comment basically confirms funnygummy to be canon.

gotta say, maybe a little sadistic, i like seeing jax actually frightened. it seems like the only thing that ends up bringing out any remote amount of good in him, which we implicitly saw in episode 1 when he seemingly pulls gangle and kinger away from the kaufmo situation (perhaps out of fear for their safety?). i’m hoping we get to see his facade further broken down.

ragatha being high was really funny and very intriguing, as we get more of a glimpse at her “true self” underneath her mary-sue-esque facade.

zooble, i love zooble, man. i think to an extent they’re possibly one of the more heartwarming characters in the whole show just on the merit that their “coolness” isn’t quite a facade to distance themself like jax and they actually show care for their friends. i feel like zooble is less of a character we’ll need a dedicated episode for, and moreso one that will consistently show a bit more of themselves throughout.

and then

GANGLE.

i love how many layers there are to gangle’s “dissection” this episode. we see a glimpse into an excellent representation of bipolar disorder and manic episodes, and so much beyond that with her specifically. i love how her mention of the comic artist thing in jax’s “training video” was clearly a projection of her insecurities over her inability to chase her dreams in her past life, which is set up in the beginning by her mentioning her experience as a shift manager. the adventure’s promise of “normalcy”—a relief from her emotional instability, perhaps—quickly devolves into the horror of being left alone with your thoughts and surrounded by the infinite horizon of crushed dreams and mediocrity, that being the spudsy’s itself.

this adventure clearly awoke some old memories of her past life, making her wallow further in her grief over her not being perfect or excelling all the time. i found it amazing how well the pacing of the episode was able to add these layers one scene at a time to build up both the viewer’s understanding of gangle’s struggles and gangle’s struggles building up with the increasing stress of her job.

that scene at the end with her dancing into the traffic felt very reminiscent of a certain scene in DanDaDan episode 7 (i won’t spoil any of that). it’s interesting how happy she appears, yet it’s revealed to be a suicidal moment in some manners—her joy is derived from a destruction of self and the feelings of pressures being lifted that comes with that. when she throws the weird mask away, she’s lifting the burdens of “normalcy” and social responsibility off of herself, and her joy is not necessarily happiness itself but a cathartic feeling of being able to have a true moment of her own. it highlights, perhaps, why people engage in self-destructive behavior—it lets them let go of the burdens and expectations weighing on them, even for a moment.

i like the touch of how this moment doesn’t actually end in making her feel better—she ends up devastated over how she “ruined” everything by having that moment and being emotionally “selfish” for once. zooble makes her realize that no one is mad at her for having that moment (although the circus might be pissed over her time being all of their boss). i do find that in particular interesting, as it’s sort of a continuation of the sentiment both ragatha and jax express that they find gangle more tolerable with her tragedy mask. they’re unkind words, but the episode, and zooble’s moment of comforting her makes clear why those two were saying that—gangle is more of her “true self” without these overlaying masks (with the mask in this episode specifically, i think it represents the expectations of success and normalcy that capitalistic society imposes on us). it’s not that it’s wrong or unwarranted for gangle to want a happier mask, but the show demonstrates that gangle is the most genuine with her tragedy mask, when she has shed the masks that present her as being “acceptable” in a way that actally makes everyone more distant from her.

the “normalcy” of this adventure seemed to be what got to gangle, as the societal expectations of “normalcy” that come with that might have been gangle’s biggest struggle in her previous life. i love that ironically, the two characters that read the most “normal”—pomni and zooble—actually end up being the ones that connect with her, not to demonstrate that normalcy is good but the opposite: expectations of “fitting in” are bullshit, no one fits in or needs to, and pomni and zooble are demonstrating that.

one more thing i have to mention is i actually like how the show is aware of the pattern of “pomni sits and has a heartfelt conversation with another character in the dark at the act 2 low point” of episodes 2 and 3, and breaks the pattern during that scene with pomni and gangle outside in two ways, one of which being pomni’s “here we go again” attitude with the scenario when it begins, and how gangle forcibly ends the conversation before it gets too far for comfort, leaving the emotional resolution a bit more ambiguous and taking more of a journey to get resolved by the end.

my rambles only make slight bits of sense, but i hope you found something interesting to talk about in here. chat with me in the comments if ya want!

[arrowsperpetualcringe]

Y'all I'm back on my bullshit

Here's a Interpol + Emmet doodle dump (in Kalos!!)

Expanding upon this post about Emmet in PLZA and also my Emmet + Interpol hcs

Tentative outfit design for this little au/story/concept I got going on.

Is an outfit design necessary?

No.

I'm just extra

plus making different outfit designs for characters I like makes me happy hrjdndjd

Added Nanu to the height comparison drawing, because I hc that he's a bit smaller than everyone else, so seeing him next to AZ was something I needed to do okay-

More Nanu, because I'm not normal about him.

I want that man to smile in be happy in a way that doesn't look snarky for 0.05 seconds so I projected my love of bread onto him.

This is probably most likely ooc as shit. (Sorry, I admittedly don't know much about Nanu, or even Looker or Anabel. I never played their games, but I have gathered what information I could from their wikis, plus as few videos, so go easy on me)

But like. I hc that if you catch him lacking and enjoying life, he'd be startled for all of 1 second, before pretending it never happened. Like he just moves on like he wasn't happy, and wasn't also startled by being perceived as genuinely happy.

Joy? What's that. Never experience that shit a day in my life.

Why is this the hc I have the most to say about... Idk...

EMMAAAAAAAAAAA

UR DAD'S HOME SWEETIE AND HE BROUGHT YOU TWO NEW PARENTS HEHE (And a strange unrelated man. Do not look at him.)

I want to give Emma a cool design too. Y'know something updated to reflect that she's been taking care of herself and the Bureau while Looker was off on other missions.

Something that says "I'm doing well for myself"

But uh I couldn't figure out what that would be, so it'll have to be for a future post hehe

Self explanatory. Interpolshipping + Emma = Nanu is a dad now fuck you

From what I've seen, he already kinda seems like the type who's casually a parental figure to any kid (though he'll never say it out right) the type who's gives tough love and advice you may not wanna hear.

I wanna see that cranked up to 11 with Emma. Has the potential to be really cute imo.

ANYWAAAAYYSS

That's it for now.

I had a lot of fun with this, just thinking about dynamics in my head

Sorry if this is all ooc asf. I don't actually know these characters in depth, but I still like them, and this is just me having fun with them.

With PLZA taking place in Kalos, there are so many ideas to explore hc wise, I could do this forever.

(If any of this interests you at all, or if you have information on any of the characters you want to tell me, feel free to drop an ask!!! Let's yell at eachother about these idiots!!! I love them smsm!!!)

[flowersdiceandlove]

Please tell me about your Eminence in Shadow!SY AU, that sounds really interesting and badass

Okay, so, in case you don’t know “Eminence in Shadow” is a reincarnation, isekai anime where a guy named Cid Kageno ends up in a world with magic. He likes playing as “Background Character A” by day and being “The Eminence in Shadow” by night. I was watching this anime and while I was watching, I felt like Cid and Shen Yuan were a lot alike. (I’ve only watched the anime which only has two seasons, so anything beyond that in the manga I have no idea about)

Now, onto the idea (I og had this written out as a prompt and then thought, huh, this might actually be fun to write, so just…didn’t post the prompt. I think I’ll come back later and post an actual prompt for this though. But, I'm literally just copy/pasting what I already wrote for this.)

Imagine, Shen Yuan transmigrates into Background Character A in PIDW, and, just like Cid, throws himself into the role. He just wants to get through the plot without drawing attention to himself so he can avoid Bingge's ire. But! But! This is Shen Yuan who has always dreamed of transmigrating into this type of story. How can he just pass up the chance of becoming a cool cultivator??? He can't, that's how! So then, how does one remain Background Character A while also being a Mysterious And Cool Cultivator? By acting out his role as Background Character A during the day and growing his power to become a cool cultivator in secret! That's how!

He'll spend his days idling and playing his role as Just Some Guy to perfection, but in secret, he'll hone his cultivator abilities, slay monsters, study demonic beasts, and live out his cultivator fantasy! He transmigrates early, maybe as a baby, and uses all his knowledge of reading PIDW and other cultivation stories to work out how to cultivate in secret. He won't interfere with the plot, making sure he blends into the background so as not to draw attention to himself, and will be able to survive the merging of the realms with his cultivation abilities when that time eventually comes.

But, of course, this is Shen Yuan we're talking about. He stumbles his way into trouble and wifebeams people. He plays up his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator act like Shadow/Cid does and ends up amassing his own Shadow Garden (harem of highly trained women dedicated to Shadow and his cause, for those of you who haven't seen Eminence in Shadow) but the gay xianxia version. We're gonna get Zhuzhi-Lang, Liu Qingge, ect. But, just like Shadow/Cid, Shen Yuan does not realize he has amassed this massive harem who would literally do anything for him and have created an entire clandestine organization (that's really more of an empire) with him as the head. He thinks they're all just Really Good Friends who are helping him live out his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator dreams.

Just like Shadow/Cid bullshits the Cult of Diablo, Shen Yuan is gonna bullshit his own stuff. And, just like with Shadow/Cid's stuff, Shen Yuan's words are gonna turn out to be true. I'm thinking he ends up uncovering all the corruption and drama surrounding the Old Palace Master and Huan Hua Palace. It'll probably end up being a whole big thing and once they start digging, they just find more and more sects, companies, people, etc. involved in this. Part of the corruption and wrong-doings they find, is a lot of provoking of demons. Shen Yuan, of course, knows none of this, and always ends up on the outskirts of the investigations bullshitting some Wise Nonsense that has everyone in awe before kicking the Bad Guy's butt, not knowing what's Really Going On.

He remains oblivious to all the Drama going on and what he's leaving in his wake. One thing he is absolutely certain he must do is Keep A Low Profile and remain Background Character A, so all his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator adventures are done in secret and he makes sure that his version of Shadow Garden knows that This Is SECRET!! Do Not Tell. shhhh.

Just like in Eminence in Shadow, Shen Yuan's harem (that he still doesn't know is his harem) venture out on their own to gather more people to add to the harem join their cause.

Shen Yuan had to have met Liu Qingge before he entered CQMS. Maybe Shen Yuan's Background Family is from the same village/city the Liu Family is from and so they grew up in the same social circle. When Liu Qingge eventually goes to join CQMS Shen Yuan sighs and thinks What a good guy, playing with me all this time. Now he's off to be a Great Cultivator himself. I hope we can still see each other again sometime. Not at all knowing that Liu Qingge has the BIGGEST crush on him and once in CQMS is trying to recruit more people to join Shen Yuan's harem organization. He probably convinces at least half of the future Qing generation in time as well as many disciples from various peaks. It helps when on a couple night-hunts Shen Yuan, in Mysterious And Cool Cultivator mode, showed up out of nowhere and solved the problem like a Wise Immortal and effectively wifebeaming all present.

For Zhuzhi-Lang, Shen Yuan definitely found him hurt and cooed over him, nursing him back to health. Eventually Zhuzhi-Lang had to return to the Demon Realm and Tianlang-jun, but tells Tianlang-jun about the Nice Human Cultivator who took care of him. Tianlang-jun clocks Zhuzhi-Lang's crush immediately, and tells him that he can go woo his human all he wants as long as it doesn't interfere with work, and also, he would like to meet this human.

Shen Yuan nearly has a heart attack when the DEMON EMPEROR (and Luo Binghe's father!! Ahhh!) shows up at his house to invite him to a picnic (thankfully no one else saw this so his cover as Background Character A is still in check). He doesn't turn him down though, that would be stupid, Tianlang-jun could kill him in a heartbeat if he offended him. So, he goes on the picnic. Tianlang-jun thanks him for taking such good care of his nephew, and Zhuzhi-Lang is a blushing mess the entire time. Tianlang-jun as being Tianlang-jun keeps trying to set Shen Yuan and Zhuzhi-lang up. Shen Yuan laughs it off. Clearly Tianlang-jun is quite the jokester and eternally flamboyant (and you know how Tianlang-jun is), and thinks all his suggestive comments are just his weird sense of humor. Tianglang-jun is most definitely trying to get both Zhuzhi-Lang and himself into Shen Yuan's pants. Shen Yuan is, of course, oblivious to this.

After the picnic Tianlang-jun and Zhuzhi-Lang leave but have secured invitation from Shen Yuan to return as they please so long as they keep it hush hush. Zhuzhi-Lang will actually visit a lot and spend a lot of time in tiny snake form curled up around Shen Yuan's arm under his sleeve or in his robes. Shen Yuan idly pets and strokes him, feeling the cool texture of his scales without thinking about it. When he does realize, Zhuzhi-Lang tells him that it's fine and he can keep petting him as much as he wants. Sometimes people will see Shen Yuan, Background Character A, with a green snake on his arm, or in his robes, or draped across his shoulders, but never really think too much about it, thinking he just has a normal pet snake.

Since this initial meeting, there are a lot more snakes around the Shen Estate, and Shen Yuan's parents tell him to get it under control, thinking that his pet snake is attracting them. Shen Yuan apologizes and says he will. Zhuzhi-Lang then tells his snake underlings to hide better. They were there to make sure Shen Yuan was safe, not get him in trouble.

When Zhuzhi-Lang is back in the Demon Realm he talks about Shen Yuan. He also knows about the Mysterious And Cool Cultivator thing and is also trying to recruit demons to his harem cause. Tianlang-jun knows about this and is fine with it. He's long decided that he's gonna get Shen Yuan into his bed family service and so him having his own underlings and support of demons would only make it easier to do so down the road.

Despite Shen Yuan's meddling, the Tianlang-Jun and Su Xiyan thing still happens and the Old Palace Master stuff leading to Tianlang-jun being sealed. Even with Shen Yuan and his harem friends taking down branches of corruption, they weren't able to take down the Old Palace Master (not yet at least). So, that whole Fiasco happens. Shen Yuan feels guilty about it. Tianlang-jun and Zhuzhi-Lang had become his friends and he knew what was coming. He was confused though because Tianlang-jun did not seem like he was trying to take over the Human Realm and that was why he was sealed. Maybe the System finally decided to pop in and say he couldn't interfere in it, and that some things just had to happen for plot reasons (like with the Endless Abyss). Or, Maybe Shen Yuan didn't see it coming, thinking that he had somehow influenced Tianlang-jun to not want to invade the Human Realm, not knowing that it had always been a lie and set up, the truth never being revealed in PIDW.

Zhuzhi-Lang flees to Shen Yuan, hurt from the attack, and, of course, Shen Yuan accepts him even in his half snake, half humanoid form. It took him a moment, but then he recognized it was Zhuzhi-Lang by his eyes and tended his wounds (again). Zhuzhi-Lang tells him the story of what he and Tianlang-jun believe to be true. By the time he's well enough to do that though, Shen Yuan isn't able to do anything about Su Xiyan's situation. She's already long vanished. Shen Yuan also decides that once Bailu Forest isn't under such careful observation after Tianlang-Jun's sealing, he'll go see the man with Zhuzhi-Lang to see what his state is. Despite it all and Tianlang-jun's...unique personality, Shen Yuan still considers him a friend and wants to help where he can.

It, unfortunately, takes a while for things to cool down around Bailu Mountain and then again to find a way to Tianlang-jun's prison without setting off any alarms. By the time Shen Yuan finally sees Tianlang-jun again, years have passed. He's alive, but not in a great state what with being crushed under a mountain and all. Shen Yuan is in awe of the resilience of Heavenly Demons. When Tianlang-jun sees Shen Yuan he's like "ah, if it's the only human who hasn't betrayed me. What brings you to this place?" all casually. Shen Yuan actually brought him some trashy books and food that he knew Tianlang-jun would like and Tianlang-jun is overjoyed by it. You wouldn't even think he was being squished under a mountain with how happy he was.

Shen Yuan works with Zhuzhi-Lang to figure out how to get Tianlang-jun out, but only after he makes Tianlang-jun promise not to slaughter everyone (probably saying some Wise Nonsense, but is really just trying to get Tianlang-jun to not obliterate humanity). Tianlang-jun pouts, but does. Shen Yuan appeases him by getting him more trashy books and human paraphernalia. During this time, Shen Yuan mentions (intentionally) that he heard rumors that Su Xiyan may be pregnant—Shen Yuan doesn’t think Tianlang-jun’s as interested as he should be in this development; this is Luo Binghe after all—and also that he thinks there’s more to this than they originally thought. Tianlang-jun’s attention is then fully shifted from killing all humans except Shen Yuan, to figuring out what’s going on because hm, you’re right, A-Yuan, this doesn’t make much sense.

With Shen Yuan also working on how to get Tianlang-jun out, Zhuzhi-Lang is able to go back to the Demon Realm to keep things in order. At least to an extent. They keep the fact that they’re trying to free Tianlang-jun a secret bc you never know where there are eyes and ears. Shen Yuan helps Zhuzhi-Lang keep his more humanoid appearance since Tianlang-jun isn’t able to, so that helps Zhuzhi-Lang keep the demons under control, but doesn’t help a whole lot. Things still kinda fall apart there. Shen Yuan’s harem organization is still holding up there and work in secret despite the shakiness in the Demon Realm and the demons in it even use the political uncertainty to their advantage to gain more power.

Maybe Shen Yuan figures out how to make the Sun and Moon Dew Mushroom compatible with demonic qi or maybe he finds another solution. But, either way, he gets Tianlang-jun’s soul out from under the mountain. There is just one caveat of this new body. It must grow from infanthood again at a normal rate. They grow the body, and then Tianlang-jun’s soul pops over to it when it’s a baby, freeing him from his prison. Since the Demon Realm has grown unstable and Tianlang-jun is in a vulnerable state, they decide that the best and safest course of action is for Shen Yuan to keep Tianlang-jun in his care. So, Shen Yuan returns home with baby Tianlang-jun claiming the baby’s his. What better place to hide than in Background Family A, after all? Shen Yuan’s been doing it for decades at this point and thinks it’s the perfect way of living. Thankfully, Tianlang-jun, despite being a baby, does still know how to control his demonic qi, and is able to hide it, making himself appear like a normal human baby.

When the rest of Shen Yuan’s harem Friends find out about “his baby” they’re all seething in jealousy wondering who the mother is. (gender neutral use of the term “mother” here. That harem is definitely trying to figure out how to have Shen Yuan’s baby or get Shen Yuan to have their baby) They also start seething in jealousy over the baby itself bc Shen Yuan is doting on him to the max. He’s holding and rocking him, soothing him, patting him, feeding him, cooing over him, ect. Shen Yuan just can’t get over how cute baby Tianlang-jun is, and is wondering what baby Bingge looked like. (By this point, Binghe’s already entered CQMS)

Every time Liu Qingge leaves the sect to go on a night-hunt, he always stops by the Shen Estate to see Shen Yuan and drop off some monster head/part for him. Shen Yuan always greets him with a smile and thanks him, but asks if dropping the bloody carcass in the entry hall was really necessary. Who’s gonna clean this all up, Liu-didi, hm? Be nicer to the servants! Don’t make unnecessary work for them! The first time Liu Qingge sees the baby, he’s doing this. Shen Yuan comes out to meet him with the baby in his arms, and the sight of Shen Yuan holding a baby, smiling at him, and welcoming him back makes his brain blank for a long moment.

Shen Yuan either is super vague about the baby!Tianlang-jun’s mom or has a super detailed background story ready to go. It’s a bit of a minor scandal in the way that all bastards are, but Background Family Father A is happy to get a grandson from Shen Yuan.

As baby!Tianlang-jun grows up, he gets super smug about having Shen Yuan as his dad and attention. He’s good at playing his role as a little kid around others, but then in private just acts like his usual self, lounging around like the emperor he is, reading scandalous smut, and saying all his suggestive and lucious things. When the members of Shen Yuan’s harem Shen Yuan’s friends show up, he always plays up the act and gets Shen Yuan to let him sit in his lap, pet his hair, snuggle against his side, or something. Shen Yuan’s harem friends swear that the kid knows what he’s doing, but can only chug vinegar in silence bc it’s Shen Yuan’s son. Tianlang-jun is loving having Shen Yuan as his dad, being the only one to call him “daddy” or “baba” or “a-die” or such and has Shen Yuan curled around his finger with his cuteness. (He’s long stopped trying to get into Shen Yuan’s pants and is much happier being his adoptive son. He is still trying to set up Shen Yuan and Zhuzhi-Lang though.)

Because of Shen Yuan’s interference, Liu Qingge either doesn’t have that deadly qi deviation, or is stable enough that when Shen Qingqiu tries to help him with it, is actually able to help. So, Liu Qingge lives.

When Luo Bingge is finally out of the Endless Abyss and is working his way through conquering the Demon Realm, he starts to slowly find out about this vast and secret organization that’s in control of so much. Digging deeper, he’s able to uncover that it spans into the Human Realm and includes some well respected and high class cultivators too. Luo Bingge tries to wriggle out who the leader is, but everyone is so tightlipped and elusive that he’s actually having trouble finding info out. It drives him mad. Xin Mo is also capitalizing on this obsession. Luo Bingge can’t be the indisputable Emperor of all if there’s some shadow organization pulling the strings behind the scenes. Shen Yuan, however, is blissfully unaware that he’s caught the attention of Luo Bingge, still thinking he’s successfully flown under the radar, and tells his harem Friends to avoid getting on Luo Binghe’s bad side and to help him however they can, hoping that this will get those that would have died as canon fodder in Bingge’s rise to greatness to be able to survive it. This just drives Luo Bingge even more up the wall bc he doesn’t know why this secret organization is deciding to back him in everything and so he doesn’t know their motives and so he can’t use those motives to his advantage and so he doesn’t have absolute control! 

When he does finally get a member of the harem organization to talk to him, they just say “Our master is wise. He sees potential in you. Do not squander our master’s good will.” because when they asked why Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan said something like “I believe he’s destined for greatness. I want to see the world he creates.” or “He has great promise. I want to see what he does.” all sage like while internally panicking, hoping that that was vague enough so they don’t continue to ask why he wants to help this random demon that he’s never met. This answer does not help to assuage Bingge’s unease at this secret organization and their secret leader, and only makes it worse bc how does this man know Luo Binghe well enough to know his POTENTIAL!?!?! But he can’t ask the person more bc they vanished from their cell after Luo Bingge was called away on urgent business. And, they also somehow have a way to counteract his blood parasites. Bingge is seriously losing it over this. (He doesn’t know about Zhuzhi-Lang and Tianlang-jun, and I’m sure they both know a lot more about Heavenly Demon abilities and how to counteract them than Bingge does)

Shen Yuan and his harem friends end up leading Bingge through the Demon and Human Realms with mind games and wild goose chases, every adventure leading to Bingge gaining more power. Shen Yuan eventually learns that he’s caught Bingge’s eye and hopes that this all will show that Shen Yuan is a friend and not a foe. See! He’s helping you gain power, Bingge!! We’re not enemies!!

Luo Bingge is not put at ease by this and every encounter with the harem organization is just leaving him more frazzled. Eventually Shen Yuan and Luo Bingge meet on one of these crazy adventures when Shen Yuan had to get involved, Shen Yuan in his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator act, and disguised so that even a Heavenly Demon and the protagonist won’t be able to recognize him. (Zhuzhi-Lang and Tianlang-jun helped him test his disguise out) Shen Yuan spouts more of his Wise Nonsense at Luo Binghe to make Luo Binghe see that they’re on Bingge’s side before vanishing without a trace. After every time, Luo Bingge screams and levels some stuff in frustration. He still doesn’t know what these people are after! How are they so elusive!? 

Because of all this, Luo Binghe’s plans to infiltrate Huan Hua Palace and destroy Cang Qiong Mountain Sect are put on hold. He doesn’t know exactly how far this secret organization's power reaches, but he can’t go in blind with such a big power behind the scenes. He does know that the secret organization has reaches in CQMS, but doesn’t know how deep (Liu Qingge’s been hard at work there and all of Bai Zhan is under Shen Yuan’s command along with over half of the other peaks. Shang Qinghua is freaking out because he didn’t write this!!! Who the fuck is that guy!?!? Why is he rivaling Bingge!?!?! And, WHY IS HE WINNING!?!?!? Bingge’s supposed to reign supreme, not some rando he never even wrote! He’s wondering if he maybe wrote out this idea while high as fuck and delusional with sleep depravation which is why he doesn’t remember it, but he knows he wouldn’t do that even at his most addled bc Bingge is supposed to be unrivaled. That’s why he scrapped the Tianlang-jun vs Bingge idea.) 

Bingge gets so caught up in paranoia over this secret organization and not knowing whose a part of it and who's not and what they really want that he’s not negating Xin Mo with dual cultivation bc are the women part of the organization? Are they in on it? What do they want? What do they gain by sleeping with me? So his control is slipping.

It’s also during this time that the harem organization start getting closer to Huan Hua Palace and the Old Palace Master. Their progress is helped when Shen Yuan, during a friendly get together with one of the high ranking members of his harem organization his Friends, he accidentally slips that he’s wondering the validity of the Old Palace Master’s claims of Tianlang-jun wanting to invade the Human Realm and the story of what’s really going on there. The harem organization takes his words as Shen Yuan telling them to look into this matter, so they set their sights fully on Huan Hua Palace and the Old Palace Master.

Not long later, they uncover the Truth, and clear Tianlang-jun’s name, dragging the Old Palace Master’s through the mud. Tianlang-jun, hearing about this, swoops in and kills a whole bunch of Huan Hua Palace high ranking members and the Old Palace Master along with a bunch of other powerful people involved in the cover up and mess. The organization, at seeing the gruesome slaughter, are at first horrified bc who has this kind of power to slip past the organization's defenses and do this? But, then someone spots Tianlang-jun slipping away, recognizes him as Shen Yuan’s son, and concludes that Shen Yuan was the one to do this. Later, at another friendly get together with Shen Yuan, one of them vaguely mentions the slaughter, subtly asking if Shen Yuan knew of it and even more subtly inquiring if he was the one to do it. Shen Yuan, knowing that Tianlang-jun was the one to do it and just got finished burning the bloody robes Tianlang-jun had come back in after reprimanding him to be more careful what if someone saw you???, doesn’t pick up on this at all and is instead trying to divert attention away from them, says something vague back which only confirms in the organizations mind that Shen Yuan was the one who did it. With their firm belief that Shen Yuan knows what’s best, even if they initially thought the execution was horrific, they believe that they had deserved it if Shen Yuan would resort to such tactics.

The organization sweeps in and helps clean the mess up, CQMS and other sects and businesses affiliated with Shen Yuan and the organization distribute Huan Hua Palace’s wealth and territory, gaining more influence. Luo Binghe hears about all this, and poking around some more, finds that the organization was behind this. The fact that this clandestine organization was able to take down such a well established and reputable sect like Huan Hua Palace only sets him more on edge about them. If they can do that, they could also dethrone him too, couldn’t they?? Just because they haven't outright opposed him yet doesn’t mean they won’t. He cannot trust such a powerful organization.

Eventually, Bingge tracks down Shen Yuan and, in a great show like in Hua Yue City, Shen Yuan has to pull the “self-destruct for you” card to stop Bingge’s qi deviation while saying more Wise And Meaningful Nonsense that has Bingge realizing that this guy was really on his side. This entire time, this guy has had unwavering faith in him and his abilities. This entire time, he’s had his whole organization working to help him in any way possible simply because of that. That this entire time, his only motive was to see what Bingge would become, see the world he creates, and for him to be happy. And now he can’t even do that. Because he’s dead. For Luo Binghe’s sake!!

And, Binghe…

Binghe just can’t take it. He hasn’t had someone so staunchly on his side since his mother died when he was little. He starts bawling. He can’t help it. He hasn’t cried in so long, and he just can’t stop the tears. They just keep coming, a heartbreaking wail from his mouth, while he hugs the dead body to his chest.

Other members of Shen Yuan’s harem organization that watched the whole thing stay standing around this scene, some tears falling from their eyes too, not able to believe that Shen Yuan is really dead. Liu Qingge, and others, are getting ready to fight Luo Binghe for Shen Yuan’s body, but before more fighting can break out, Tianlang-jun struts in with Zhuzhi-Lang following meekly behind him. The harem organization members that don’t know about the truth are shocked and scared bc they were supposed to get Shen Yuan’s son away from this chaos and protect him from Luo Binghe. But, Tianlang-jun (whose like a teenager or something by this point) just ignores everyone’s shouts and deftly evades their protective grabs for him, waking straight up to the still bawling Binghe.

See, Tianlang-jun is not nearly as oblivious as Shen Yuan is—he’s the exact opposite really—so he clocked Luo Binghe starting to fall for Shen Yuan a while ago, captivated by the challenge and mind games that Shen Yuan was playing with him, and is staunchly knowing that Luo Binghe won’t attack them again.

“Luo Binghe, do not fear,” he starts seriously, then breaks out in a massive grin and gives him a thumbs up, “we have contingency plans in case of death! Many of them!” Because of course they do. They’ve long secured the Sun And Moon Dew Mushroom Seeds and started growing them to Shen Yuan’s body. Tianlang-jun also still has access to the Holy Mausoleum and the Resurrection Chamber. And, with both Shen Yuan’s PIDW knowledge and Tianlang-jun’s and with his resources, they have a vast variety of back up bodies and plans for many different circumstances. It is also revealed that this is Tianlang-jun and literally no one is surprised by this development. Of course Shen Yuan’s son is the last Demon Emperor who’s supposed to be sealed under a mountain. It also made some of them “understand” why Shen Yuan had been so ruthless in his execution of the Old Palace Master and others since they now knew he had a personal interest in the matter.

When Shen Yuan wakes up, he’s immediately tackled by a sobbing Luo Binghe who places a big, fat, wet kiss on his mouth. He tries to reel back, but Luo Binghe has him in a death grip, so he can only stare wide-eyed at Luo Binghe until he pulls back to keep sobbing against his chest. Those of the harem organization that were there were furious at this bc barely any of them have kissed Shen Yuan and they’ve been in his harem service longer!! And, instead of shoving Luo Binghe away, Shen Yuan hugs him closer and pats his head, trying to calm him down, whispering that “No, Binghe, I won’t go anywhere. Yes, I can stay with you. Please don’t apologize, Binghe, this isn’t your fault. I should have done better to make you see I was on your side. You’ve done nothing wrong.” and so on.

After this, Shen Yuan is no longer able to maintain his cover as Background Character A, but that’s okay because he only kept it so he wouldn’t get taken out as Bingge’s rival or something. Since Binghe is on his side, he can live his whole life as a Mysterious And Cool Cultivator, living out his transmigration dreams unhindered! But, Binghe, what do you mean you’re making me Empress of the Demon Realm? I’m a man! I can’t be your Empress! Pick a pretty girl for that if you want one! Tianlang-jun, why are you laughing!? Why are you supporting this!?

Binghe convinces Shen Yuan to marry him by presenting it as a political marriage since Shen Yuan is in control of so much, and if he wants Luo Binghe to be the Emperor of it all (which he knows Shen Yuan wants) then they really need to be married and Shen Yuan made Empress for his reign to be undisputed. Shen Yuan eventually figures it out, and by that point he’s also figuring out that he actually has feelings for a lot of his “friends.” Well, it’s a good thing they all want to marry him too.

There are a long line of weddings after this as so many of Shen Yuan’s friends harem demand to be formally married. Binghe fights for position of First Husband. And wins. Because of course he does.

Luo Binghe has pretty much lost interest in his own harem (which was still pretty small and shrinking when he decided to kick women out for fear they were part of the organization), and becomes nonexistent after his marriage to Shen Yuan. It’s not a problem though, because Tianlang-jun, Shen Yuan, and Shang Qinghua pull resources and knowledge to nullify Xin Mo’s effect on him, so his harem is obsolete anyway.

—Later, once things are settled, probably:

SQH: bro, wtf? You haremed my harem novel.

SY: 🤷

I just feel like Shen Yuan and Cid are so similar. They both curate their role in their new transmigration life, bullshit through so much by spouting wise nonsense, and making people fall for them left and right while being totally oblivious. Shen Yuan just gives Cid levels of oblivious vibes.

I’m not super feeling my svsss fics right now, so I don’t think I’m gonna write on them and just close the tabs for now. Idk. I’ll prbly come back to this later at some point, but 🤷‍♀️ Hoped you enjoyed this 😊

If anyone has any ideas for what to call sy's version of Shadow Garden, let me know. I was feeling stuck on that part, but like I said, I don't know when I'll come back to this.

[sweatinghoneybee]

MORE QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN ART!!!

I absolutely love all of them so much and i just gotta draw them out! Ok time for a bit of rambling of design details!

Yulan: for Yulan i honestly just tried my best to translate the description Berry made of her in her post cause man i have difficulty with Yulan cause i’ve never drawn elephants before so i don’t know what the heck i was supposed to do!?! Tho luckily for me i got some good references from the amount that was given with the elephant daisy meme guy (shout out to him cause those fanarts are really good references for how to make anthro elephants) and since Yulan got her looks more to her mama t I thought it’d be so cute if she wears her papa’s colours!

Rinrin: for Rinrin i mostly used references from the picrew made by Berry and also looking at how she was described in the fic tho i add my own spin on her one of those things is making Rinrin the shortest out of the monkey parents cause one, I thought it fits her gremlin vibes and two, I thought it’d be such a cool character design idea for story wise cause Rinrin said that she felt like she needs to be perfect in the past and i thought making her short really is showing how she has grown in her story where her physical appearance shows how she felt small to someone who wouldn’t think twice before roasting someone. And i don’t know why but with how she’s told in the fic Rinrin gives off like girly tomboy vibes so i made her wear mostly pinks and reddish pinks, and to also sort of have like an a complementary color scheme couple going on with her and Shanzha and to also make her color scheme harmonized with her favorite flower hibiscus. Also i intentionally made her wear her clothing massily to also illustrate her growth from her past cause i imagine in the past she wears her clothing perfectly ironed and symmetrical and now with her being comfortable in herself she let’s herself be more free on how she wears her clothes, loose fitting and oversized. Also the shall she’s wearing is the one that was gifted to her by macaque.

Shanzha: honestly i didn’t really change or add much to Shanzha’s looks from her appearance in Berry’s picrew and how the fic described her, tho i did add little butterfly embroideries caus ei just love how her facial marikings looks like a butterfly so i just gotta add more butterflies. I also made Shanzha the tallest of the monkey parents cause i just love the image of Shanzha picking up tiny Rinrin when she’s being her gremlin self to give her a kiss to calm down (also to add the like mother like sun with how Jidu got picked up by Yulan, the monkie have a type with big gals) Also yeah i just gotta draw Shanzha’s muscles cause damn that’s hot.

Wan: mostly drew out him with how he’s described in Berry’s post and just adding feather hairs to him, tho for like his time skipped look i made him more bundled up cause it’s said that Megapolis was the one that’s most technologically advanced so I thought besides Megapolis everyone else in the world most likely bundled up more. Also he’s the hardest to draw cause like Yulan i have never drawn owls ago but i am so proud on the results and i love how his feathers turned out cause i wanted to do barn owl feather coloring justice!

Longnu: same i just used the description given in Berry’s post and just made her have that cool upperclassmen big sis vibes to her tho i wonder if i did her filed horns and claws in her appearance back in the celestial realm and also i made her in that illustration and her full body one abit different with how she wore her clothes cause i feel like she’s holding back quite abit to not flip off while she’s there but have to push threw to not get punishment and i wanted to show her with her way of wearing her clothes. Tho i will say this her time skipped lunar node appearance really made me racked my head alot cause i had difficulty both with the sallow face thing going on and also that the thing that confused me was that Yue said she saw the machine that helped Longnu’s heart beats but then i was thinking “wait how would that look like? And also wouldn’t that be dangerous since it shows where she’s most vulnerable with it being exposed?” And that part made me searched up alot of stuff to figure out what her lunar node uniform would look like and decided to just gave her a hood cape that sort of long enough to cover up the machine and sort of have it have steam puck vibes cause i came up with an explanation on why the machine is exposed is that since the world is reverted back by centuries that the technologies are not the best and that it can overheat quicker so that’s why her heart machine was exposed and made her wear armor below her ribs from where her machine ends, oh! And also i made her glasses her snow goggles cause i thought with how the snowstorm is going on that she’d want her glasses be stayed put on her face with no worries of it flying off from the storm. I must say i’m the most satisfied with her appearance here!

Also funfact: one of my noted for the characters that got time skipped looks is that their future selves have eye bags and looks disheveled cause they are all getting angsts and none of them are having fun with what’s going on with the world right now.

If anyone is wondering what i’m rambling out checkout the fic made by @centuryberry. Pls give her some love kay? She works really hard on her fic so give her support for her work!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52026085/chapters/131567989

[messydoodlesyt]

SMG4 Crew Redesigns Part 2

HOLLLLLY CRAP THIS TOOK FOREVER!!! And I wanna blame Desti and her stupid tentacle hair, but honestly I think after Tari and Saiko I started to slow down because of outsides forces and just no general ideas forming for Melony.

So alright Tari!!! At least in the SMG4 Verse. I still gotta watch Meta Runner (especially because I wanna do a redesign of Belle at one point but she doesn’t really show up much aside from the YouTube arc plus it’s the last Glitch Productions show I gotta watch). But for this redesign I changed her hairstyle a bit with an opened up hoodie to show off the tank top. Couldn’t take away the iconic socks with flip flops she was rocking so kept that, but changed the pants a bit. I should’ve done it in the drawing, but the back of the hoodie has the meta runner logo. Nothing too crazy with her.

Next up Saiko! So decided to change up the colors a bit with her outfit giving her a cool ripped up pink skirt with less beige and more reddish jacket color. Then I changed her necklace to a choker and put the skull as a pin on the jacket. Then some piercings, a spiked belt with a heart skull cross buckle, painted black nails, and some combat boots! Also loved the headcanon people had of her being ripped so I did my best to draw that. Definitely need to practice drawing muscles more.

Okay so Melony- honestly it was tricky with her. Was not a fan of her canon design and tbh I’m still on the fence with her character- idk the OwO types of characters can get annoying pretty fast plus the childish behavior. But I mean she does have her moments where I’ve liked her (really wanna see more of her and Bob interacting) but yeah design wise I changed up the hoodie while still keeping the watermelon design while also giving her some black shorts, kept the striped socks she had for the college fit, and gave her green shoes. I also gave her a watermelon hairstyle for what I’m assuming are meant to be leaves on the top of her head. Then I did a small drawing of her deity form and gave my interpretation of it; even changing the hairband to fit the style.

Going down the line, Axol! So I initially went into all the Axol episodes thinking he was just a one note character that was a simp for Melony, but when I was first watching the arcs I was pleasantly surprised. He shows up before Melony for one thing, but even when she shows up he doesn’t turn into a one note character. Wish I got to have more of him. But anyways back to the design- I actually did like his design so I didn’t change too much, with just giving a turtle neck ish vibe, a beige belt, pockets on the pants to keep his blank papers and sketchbook, and gave him a tail since axolotls have tails.

Lastly Desti- good god it took her SO FRICKEN LONG TO DO!!! And it was mainly because of the tentacle hair!!! Horrible, never wanna draw again but probably will because I have so many ideas with this character. Like man I wish she was used more before the anime arc incident happened. So the hair I didn’t really change much, just had it flopped the other way. Her hoodie has a blue flare on the sleeves along with the hood part, ripped baggy pants, black boots, and a blue belt hanging out.

And that’s part 2! I gotta do more of the main ones like Bob and Boopkins but Bob already looks perfect the way he is and overall anything that’s not human is not my strong suit. Oh well.

Part 1 of SMG4 Redesigns

[messysketchyobeyme]

There was a part in Lesson 60-14 that people were complaining about where Lucifer kisses MC without consent (regardless of the brother you chose to beat up the moon), and I was SO confused because I didn’t get that scene!

For me, Nightbringer ended with Mammon complaining about not wanting MC to live with Solomon, and I had no idea what triggered that extra scene with Lucifer??

But then, I saw this post on twitter, and everything made sense!!

Thoughts under the cut!!!

I think it’s so cute how that one little moment where MC truly saw how Lucifer was feeling stayed with him all these years.

Like, when Lucifer’s afraid, he usually acts angry, but MC understood that he was just trying to protect his family…

That being said, I do think they should have added an extra option where MC could choose to have Lucifer kiss them or not because not everyone likes him that way lol.

Also, maybe I’m just a tiny bit romance blind or something, but whenever there’s a kiss scene that isn’t initiated by the MC, I always imagine the character kissing them on the cheek.

That was my first thought when reading that extra scene…a cute little cheek kiss. But, I understand if that still makes someone uncomfortable!!

Speaking of cheek kisses, I remember reading the chapter where MC was in a coma. For all the other brothers, you got the option to choose if they kiss you or not, but Lucifer’s was required story-wise.

I assumed everyone was kissing MC on the forehead in that chapter, but I remember getting on twitter and seeing people complain about Lucifer being a creep for kissing MC on the lips while passed out. I did not see it that way, but I could definitely understand why someone would be uncomfortable. 😭😭

It’s weird because the writers were doing really well in terms of having the romantic moments be a consensual /option/ for the player, but they have these random moments weaved into the story. I think adding a couple extra lines of dialogue or like two options for us to choose wouldn’t have hurt, especially since this was the ending to NB.

Anyway, I just think that it’s cool that an option so long ago changed the ending a tad, but I understand why it was so controversial!!

[crescentpaws]

i genuinely don’t understand what is so appealing about gethen?? imo, there is absolutely nothing that makes him unique. i’m curious as to why some of you guys think he’s more interesting or more cool than FINTAN of all people. (i know fintan is still the more popular character overall but obviously there’s been a lot of gethen posting lately)

(yes this is a rant partly inspired by the keepblr sexyman comp but also i’ve been thinking this for a while anyway so. the comp was just my motivation to actually write this down. (though if i’m being real it seems like a lot of the support for gethen in the poll was a result of wanting fintan to lose, rather than actually wanting gethen to win) anyway here we go)

gethen is. not interesting at all to me. he doesn’t have a backstory or a reason for joining the neverseen or anything, he’s just There and for some reason y’all love him for that. even fucking UMBER has more lore than him atp and we don’t even know her real name or what she looks like (and she’s not even alive anymore 💀). he does crimes. that’s about it. i don’t understand. every other member of the neverseen also does crimes. gethen hasn’t done anything to set him apart from them character-wise. what’s his motivation? what drives him? what is he hoping to get out of this? i have no fucking clue and frankly it just makes him a boring character to me. just your classic “haha evil villain” guy that has absolutely no depth. and most of the things people think he’s cool for are things any of the neverseen members could have done. it doesn’t say anything about his character specifically. he tried to kidnap sophie in book 1? so did everyone else. sophie punched him? sophie would have punched literally any neverseen member at that point. he’s hot? so is literally every single elf in the entire series. he killed mr. forkle? fintan killed kenric (also, i don’t understand why people think he’s more “willing” to kill people than fintan is? are we all forgetting the time when fintan was fully committed to killing an entire species…? (+ humans count too) fintan has 100% done worse things than gethen has. no one ever talks about “gethen’s big plans”)

every time gethen has shown up in the series so far it’s been like okay… so you’re just here with your buddies to carry out a plan that you didn’t come up with. cool. meanwhile fintan is out here doing dramatic reveals and giving evil speeches. gethen has literally NOTHING going for him y’all i’m sorry 😭 even the way he talks is similar to fintan. like he genuinely has no unique character traits. who is this guy. he’s just a follower. and even if he IS planning on taking over after vespera & gisela, that doesn’t make him special. i’m sure MANY neverseen members have been waiting for the leaders to doom themselves. it once again doesn’t really say anything unique about him

the only prominent thing i actually ever hear gethen fans talk about is his fucking sword. which. again. is not a character trait. and yknow what? the only reason he uses a sword in the first place is because he doesn’t have a cool ass ability like fintan does. i actually can’t think of a moment where gethen’s telepathy has been remotely useful (other than in lumenaria, but his extra mental energy is a side effect of his ability, so it doesn’t count as using the actual ability itself. not to mention he had help taking down the castle. oh right and whose idea was that again?? and sure he read tam’s mind when he was with the neverseen, but that was because gisela basically kidnapped him. gethen played no part in carrying out the actual plan. plus… the neverseen didn’t even seem to actually do anything with the information they got from tam. what was the point of that)

fintan is in prison because he was knocked unconscious after grady made him beat himself up. peak pathetic sexyman material. you have all been brainwashed by propaganda!!!! /j

tldr: everything gethen has done is something fintan has done too/is something fintan is fully capable of doing. which makes fintan the better character. & he actually has lore. and personality. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[deo-ezo]

The perks of being a offspring of hell

Foreword much of this lore is made off the back of my amazing partner @averiwhite please-please go check out their work.

So an explanation of Tallon’s powers and magical ability. Tallon descends from the royal lineage of Sincasts, the rulers of Hell. Technically he is all powerful, but I never saw him as having the grasp of his unlimited power and show he really only does small amounts of magic. Teleportation was always something I had in mind for him. It helps add to that chaotic nature of his by making it impossible to know where he’ll go next. I think it’s cool as well for fights/ fight scenes. I try to limit it to be very short range teleportation, while Tallon can teleport further way it takes more time and he has to have been to that place before. Like the film jumper.

Illusions were a big part of his bag of tricks. Tallon being death does just guide souls to the next life, but also in the world my fiancée created the grim reaper disposes of very bad people. Tallon likes to scare the crap out of these people bringing forth their worst nightmares.

The demonic powers, I always liked the idea of him using skeleton (mostly rib cages, skulls, and spines) as weapons, or a way of intimation. Also helps lend the idea of Tallon being a battle dead death and the Grim Reaper motif. My Fiancé ( @averiwhite ) has always explained Tallon’s family members having control of their body, being able to changed virtually whatever they want. Tallon has that same ability but again because of him not practicing—or not listening to his mom explain it—he limits what he can transform into. Usually only shifting into a female form or changing the shape of his teeth or growing talons (heh, his name is “Tallon” and he grows talons). His full fledged demon form is something I only designed recently and I’m still workshopping. Though I imagine it being very bloody and lots of teeth. Lore wise he has to drink sinners blood to transform and can’t do so whenever he pleases, though he very rarely uses the form.

Please if you have any questions feel free to ask I will always take the time to talk about my characters. I hope you all enjoy and thank you for reading this far.

[synergysilhouette]

"Batman: Caped Crusader" review

Binge-watched this show, and I wanted to be one of many people to share my thoughts on this--plus I was spurred on by getting a wish of mine granted from the show. Make sure to check out the show if you can!

The animation is beautiful--I know this is a weird comparison, but soemthing about the animation reminds me of 2010s Scooby Doo animated films, and I kind of adore that.

The voice acting was...fine--I can't tell if it was poor performances or poor direction; Hamish's Bruce Wayne sounds too raspy/rugged some of the time, like he's still playing Batman, and many of the other actors felt like they were just reading lines rather than performing lines, not enough emotion. IDK if they're more used to live-action work, but voice-acting is a different ballgame, since your voice is all you have to convey the character. A lot of performances fell flat for me, but it wasn't 100% unbearable, just underwhelming. I have some people I'd recommend instead (both familiar to the role and otherwise), but I don't wanna start anything.

LOVED Harley (but not her costume)--Jamie Chung had one of the better performances in the group, and I really LOVED the angle they did for Harley; I feel like the media often flanderizes her as the goofy crazy chick, so seeing her actually utilize her psychology skills (like I've been asking for!) is so satisfying. That said, the outfit has GOT TO GO. Gold and black is gorgeous, but it ples in comparison to her black and red look. And a weird nit-pick; when I first saw the stills, I was under the impression she was wearing a carnival-esque mask rather than face paint, and I find that idea a lot creepier. I wish we'd gotten more of Harley's antics--and even seeing her get close to Bruce in the way she did with Barbara and Renee--before revealing her as a big bad to the public. And I appreciate that she isn't 100% evil; she is doing what she believes is a noble cause, just doing it in an illegal and unethical way. I needed a backstory!

Not enough Batman--Maybe it's just me, but it definitely felt like there were some episodes where Bruce and Batman were supporting characters and more focus was on the GCPD. While I don't mind it too much, I enjoy superhero shows for the superheroes, not the heroes; this is why I had a love/hate relationship with "Gotham."

Batman (and Bruce) isn't quite likeable enough--In earlier incarnations, Batman was more kind and caring before becoming more emotionally closed off with time, but here he's that way from the get-go. Not to mention that Bruce Wayne puts on a facade around everyone, even people he trusts (he probably did that anyway; I can't remember), and his session with Harleen really frustrated me because I don't expect his walls to come down immediately, I don't expect them to be this high this early. I wanted him to be a bit warmer and transparent, rather than curt and cold like he's usually seen in the show. I feel like this is an issue often seen in comics, too; people prioritize Batman's "coolness" and thus push his feelings to the wayside.

Using underrated and familiar villains--I'm sure the real experts are gonna chew me out for this one, but as someone who got into comics in the 2010s and didn't catch up on the acclaimed 90s series, it was fun to see villains I loved and villains I didn't know; one of the best things a popular property can do is use underrated characters, since it helps the show feel original and fresh (thus why "Teen Titans" is so enjoyable; the whole franchise is underrated).

Too modern for the 1940s--I can't put my fingers on it exactly, but the vibes feel too modern; I assume the 1940s was for aesthetics, but since everything else feels updated (from the way people talk to Harley and Renee seemingly being open about their feelings for each other), I don't think it was a wise choice to have it both ways. I see no reason not to have it in modern-day, but I suppose you'd have to get more creative with technology.

Barbara and the Robins--First off, I should've gambled with someone that Jason would be a redhead; I'd have made SO MUCH money. Secondly, I'm not crazy about how all four kids are orphans; If I recall correctly, both Carrie and Stephanie's parents were alive when they joined the Batfamily. In any case, I'm confused on why Barbara is significantly older than them when they're all supposed to be within the same age bracket (I think; someone has told me otherwise since posting this, so I could be wrong). Not to mention, a part of me worries that because of the quartet's young ages and Barbara getting so much screentime as a lawyer, we won't get any of them as Robins or Batgirls unless something drastic happens, and/or we get a time jump.

Overall, I think my biggest gripes are the voice acting and how Batman/Bruce Wayne is written. That said, I enjoyed the show overall. IDK why HBO Max dropped it. Hopefully season 2 will introduce Poison Ivy, Catman, Tim Drake, Ghostmaker, and Gardener, since the finale already showed us a certain someone who IS coming to Gotham.

[ruins-of-tragedy]

Concluded season five of RWBY. The band is back together! The world tour is on track once more!!!

- Adam. You were right. Someone needed to die that day. But it shouldn't have been Sienna. It was supposed to be you.

- The PR battle between Adam and the Belladonnas. WoWie... I want to tear that Taurus guy apart from limb to limb.

- So Ozpin is not just Ozpin but many, many, many people who merged their souls with a cursed person? Okie. This is a thing.

- Cursed because he couldn't stop Salem initially. What kind-of fucked Gods are these?!

- I want... No. I NEED Weiss, Blake and Yang to receive special training from cute small little Oscar boy Ozpin. Pwease.

- Love the idea of a semblance and what that can mean in our verse. Especially since we can unlock it too... In the words of one wise Nora Valkyrie, it's "...like your very own superpower! Everybody's got one. It's just a matter of finding it and mastering it."

- Raven may not be a great mother, but she seems like a badass. I can respect that. However, fucking nope. Yang deserves better. Am glad she at least had Summer for a while.

- It's the fact that Weiss has to stand up on her tippy-toes in order to hug Yang properly. 😆😭🥹

- Ruby is innocence. Weiss is defiance. Yang is strength. 🫶🏻

- Blake must miss them so much.

- Adam is spite. And his way of thinking is dangerously contagious. Gods... I LOVE this show.

- Who needs real tea when Raven's over here spilling the whole container worth of gossip?

- To the guy carving food like ramen out of wood pieces... Teach me your ways!!! Also, do better for Faunus. They should be allowed in the bar too.

- Yang and Weiss and Ruby hug!!!!

- Vomit Boy. Nickname throwbacks!!! AGHHHHH!!! Ice Queen didn't miss them at all. ✨

- That conversation between RWY and then Weiss and Yang... Gods. I really appreciated the variations in loneliness Weiss talks about.

- Unrelated note, but Jacques Schnee should come to our world. I will welcome him happily. Please. And thank you.

- Ruby was right. "Nice Weiss strikes again."

- Also, love how Yang does not want to care. At all. But she does. So much.

- Abandonment issues are the worst.

- Ilia liked Blake? Awwww! I didn't know she was cool like that! The betrayal though. Fuckity fuck.

- WoWie. Ilia was able to form thoughts and speak them out coherently still, while having a lady on top. Straddling her, as she was being pinned down. Gods. I couldn't have done it if I was her age. Heck, can't do so even now... Debating morals and engaging in a big emotional confrontation this way... She is stronger than I am.

- Ilia could have died the same death her parents probably did. Fuck. Thank Gods for people like Ghira.

- The audacity of this biatch. The Belladonnas ruined everything?!??? Corsair. Catch these hands!!!

- Welcome to the good side Ilia. Here we have friends, support and Blake!

- So Weiss gets stabbed. I know she is not going to die. But FUCKKKKKKK. They are really coming after her this season...

- My emotions are being played with.

- Jaune's semblance heals?! Awwwwww! So fitting!!!

- Hazel is so overcome by his own rage, he can't see it was his sister's choice. And instead of respecting that, he is out here trying to bring down other children. I don't think she will be impressed.

- Raven is the spring maiden. Did NOT see that coming.

- I need a show revolving around Team STRQ.

- Jaune's aura amplifies others. He won't run out. Pyrrha believed he has a lot of it. 🌟😭

- Blake coming in with back-up and reinforcements had me screaming with joy!!! Really needed that.

- Cinder's now Grimm too?!

- That look between Blake and Yang. Xiao Long cannot anymore. She has fallen HARD. I think she knows it too. At least somewhat. Gods. I love them.

- Yang not letting her emotions get the best of her when it easily could have before... Especially when it's Mercury coming for her. Top tier character glow up!!! Even more so because it didn't happen all at once. There were times she failed to do it too. I like how they kept it realistic.

- Cinder Fall falls. Vernal is the MVP. And dead.

- Every time RWBY has a half an hour episode now, I get scared. And that's the case still with the finale of this season.

- Sun Wukong is an honorary Belladonna for me.

- Weiss remembers Blake being more quiet. 😂

- Yang vs Raven. Love this battle of wills.

- So much for being "Lionheart." Giving Leos a bad name. At least he dead now.

- Fuck. Could never have imagined Raven killing the initial Spring Maiden. But I guess it makes sense.

- Yang Xiao Long is my favourite character. Period.

- Team RWBY is back together. They are hugging. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

- Bumbleby is out of the trenches, but heading into an emotional one perhaps?

- Next stop: Atlas. I feel Qrow's long suffering sigh. 😤. Ironwood was turning into a bit of a dictator, the last time we saw him. Wonder what's going on with him now.

- Raven wants to talk to Tai... Not your typical parents teachers meeting. 😆

- This is out of order, but I laughed so hard when Raven clocks the bad folks for being ego-maniacs. Then calls out Cinder's last name and how it's too appropriate. Doctor Watts confirming it was the cherry on top!

- This season was something. In the best possible way. Holy hell... Anywho, onto the next one!!!

(No spoilers! Or I use you for Jacques and Adam target practice. Adiós!)

[geminiartemis]

Let's talk about Mammon's asexuality!

Okay, first of all, I know this post is waaay late to the party, and maybe someone else has already talked about this much more eloquently than I ever could, but fuck it, I just feel like talking right now. lol

So, back in July, this official image was posted.

Most people were surprised to find out that Mammon is asexual. Heck, even I was surprised, although I had seen that theory around.

But after a while – and many, many rewatches of that episode – I realized that it makes perfect sense.

(Obligatory disclaimer: I'm ace. Not all aces feel the same way about sex and allos. Mammon is a piece of shit regardless of his asexuality. Most real life aces aren't assholes like Mammon. I actually love Mammon as a character. Don't take things too seriously. It's not that deep. Calm down. Take a deep breath. Drink water. TRUST US WITH YOUR ENTERTAINMENT!)

Exhibit A

Mammon insists that making a sex robot out of the clown pageant winner is not weird. Then he points at some random guy in the audience and says HE'S weird for even thinking that.

Here's what I think. Mammon knows it's weird. Look at his face. Listen to his tone. He's super weirded out. It's only acceptable to him because it'll make them money, because he's still a greedy bastard, but he does think it's weird. Nobody said anything and he still got defensive about it and put the blame on someone else. “YOU'RE weird, you sick fuck!”

The thing is, to him, sexualizing a young clown is probably just as weird as sexualizing anything or anyone else. Because he's ace and not too worried about the ethics of it as long as it makes him money, sex is weird, sexualizing people is weird, people who like sex and sexualize others are weird, but those things are generally socially acceptable, so everyone is a sick fuck, so how is sexualizing Fizz any different? He just doesn't see the difference, nor does he care to.

Exhibit B

Like I just said, people who sexualize Fizz are, in Mammon's own words, “sick, fucking degenerate adults.” Like, the idea actually disgusts him! He is so disgusted by his customers who sexualize Fizz that he can't even keep his opinion of them to himself while recording a TV ad! Not because he has morals or any affection or sympathy for Fizz, but because sex and sexualizing people disgust him. He just doesn't get the appeal at all. (But it makes him money, so he goes along with it.)

Exhibit C

Since sex is so important to allos and IT KEEPS BEING BROUGHT UP ALL THE TIME, we aces sometimes get the impression that it's all allos think about. We assume sex is allos’ Roman Empire. Assume that allos are always DTF. What do you mean you DON'T want to be fucked, Fizzie?? *Crimson voice* That's the kinda shit you allos like, right?!

The sad thing is, that's the sentiment I saw some people in the fandom express when this scene and this line came out. So Mammon's reasoning here isn't even an exaggeration, ridiculous as it is. I don't know if those people were hypersexual allos or clueless aces, but… yeah… it's something that some people think in real life, apparently.

Anyway, the point is, I can totally see the ace vibe in Mammon now. Is making one of the most irredeemable villains ace, the kind of ace who has zero respect for allos, a wise idea in terms of ace representation? Eh, we've already had this discourse in Hazbin Hotel with regards to Alastor, and everyone has their opinion on this. I'm not getting into that. And hey, Octavia is ace, too! I don't know if that will be relevant in the show, but it'd be really cool if it were. We'll see!

[pedrocomicreviews]

The Ultimates #12

“Radical action and imagination are what are called for now.”

The gang has an anniversary meeting! Shocking reveals that I can’t go on without spoilers, so full spoilers ahead! 

This really feels like it should have been part of the One Year In one-shot we had with Nick Fury. They could have easily stapled a sticker on it saying so, Decimation Era-style. But either way, this is the culmination of an entire year of storytelling, and the Ultimates get together to discuss how badly they’re botching this shit.

It’s not as much an interesting story as it is a summation of what we’ve done thus far, and honestly, it’s fun to see characters admit that they’re not ready for any of these threats. More than that, it’s very fun to have characters break down and admit their mistakes, their fears and how this is all going to shit really, really fast.

Doom and Tony are the main speakers for most of this, but I also want to put Captain America in the forefront. Since he lacks his own book and is confined to Ultimates, we don’t actually get a lot of time with him, but this establishes him as a lot more reasonable and practical than I think Steve Rogers usually gets to be.

In the normal universe, he’s usually regarded as the guy who’s always right before any discussion even happens, and we have almost a hundred years of comic books where he gets put in this position to go back to for evidence. Here, he’s not exactly an unknown quantity, but he’s a lot more subdued than usual. So it’s cool seeing him calmly explain his point to the two men who are ostensibly either saving or dooming their entire universe with their hubris.

It’s also very wise to have Captain America be the one who actually pays attention to the rest of the team. His admiration for the work America and Luke Cage have been doing feels very true to the character in any version, but it especially feels like an obvious third option to Tony’s ideals of “heroes are inside everyone and we just have to engineer them out”, and Doom’s desperate attempts at “bringing back the world he was denied”. Steve doesn’t believe in any of that. He wants to work with what he has, and he wants to respect people’s individual achievements and raise them above what they could have done by themselves.

Which I think is interesting, because Doom also reaches that conclusion, except in a pretty negative way:

While Steve sees the problem and finds a solution in community, Doom sees the problem and assumes the problem is hopeless if they don’t compromise, because he can only see a problem in the sense that he should be the one solving it. The idea that others have a role that he can’t see yet doesn’t even go through his head, which is the most Reed Richards thing in the world.

It’s a little like how Xavier and Magneto keep fighting to see who’s going to lead mutantkind toward the future, while the actual future leaders are busy building community, taking care of the children, making sure they’re safe and are not just soldiers in an endless war. Tony sees people like gears, Doom sees people like variables, Steve sees people as people. When they all agree on an “Ultimates 3.0”, Steve ends up winning out as the new way they do things.

Too bad there’s a spy undermining their every effort. While it was pretty obvious who the spy was, I am still interested in how long Janet’s been playing both sides, and where that will ultimately (hah!) lead. Ant-Man and the Wasp have been kind of in the background as that one pair of “founding Avengers” who haven’t had much to do, but we should have plenty of them in the next 6 issues before The Maker comes back.

A good time of a comic, even if it wasn’t thrilling or anything like that. On purpose, too– Doom fully expected there to be a superhero fight, to which everyone around him seems to consider it weird to even think about. What are we, the Avengers? We’re all adults, we can talk this out. 

Shout-outs to my main man Ultimate Luke Cage as well.

Always five minutes away from showing me his revolutionary poems and teaching me how to make a molotov cocktail. God I love him so much.

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

TOM GLYNN-CARNEY TALKING ABOUT KING AEGON II TARGARYEN FOR MAGAZINE UPROXX.

AEGON IS EQUAL PARTS DANGEROUS AND PATHETIC THIS SEASON. WHICH TRAIT DID YOU LEAN INTO MORE?

"I really wanted to find every color possible to his palette."

"I wanted to make him as intricate and as complex as he deserves, I think."

"And yeah, we see lots of different flavors."

"We see a vulnerability to him this time."

"We see desperation."

"I think people can call him a villain as much as they want."

"I think he thinks he’s a tragedy — just a desperately sad story in a physical form."

THERE ARE SO MANY AEMOND APOLOGISTS, BUT WHO'S REPPING FOR AEGON?

"This has been the story his entire life."

"He’s seen as weak, he’s seen as pathetic."

"Just someone give him a hug for crying out loud!"

AEGON CERTAINTLY HAS A BIGGER ROLE TO PLAY THIS SEASON WHICH REQUIRES MORE FROM YOU THAN IN SEASON ONE. WERE THERE ANY SCENES/MOMENTS YOU WERE UNSURE ABOUT TRANSLATING FROM THE SCRIPT TO THE SCREEN?

"Every scene I did, I didn’t know how it was going to pan out, and that’s kind of the way I like to go about playing Aegon."

"There’s no part of me that wants to have a preconceived idea of how the scene’s going to play."

"It lends itself to the way he is personality wise."

"He’s very impulsive."

"He doesn’t think things through very much, and I always like to catch myself off guard and surprise myself in those scenes."

"For me, that’s how I find authenticity in a moment."

"And that just means it’s different every time, and they can just choose which one they like."

"I don’t deal with the cut."

THERE'S A TRANSFER OF POWER BETWEEN AEGON AND OTTO IN EPISODE TWO. HOW IMPORTANT WAS THAT CONFRONTATION IN TERMS OF THE REST OF THE SEASON?

"Massive."

"We start to see ’em pull back the reins."

"We start to see ’em take a bit of control and use his authority and put people in their place when they need to be put in their place."

"He finds it stimulating."

YOU FINALLY GET TO RIDE A DRAGON THIS SEASON. DID YOU GET ANY TIPS FROM YOUR CASTMATES WHO'VE DONE IT ALREADY?

"It was actually, surprisingly straightforward."

"If you’re doing a full day up there, then yeah, you’re going to be tired."

"We had a lot of sort of strengthening and conditioning work that we’d keep doing, just so we had a pretty healthy baseline in terms of our physical strength and capabilities."

IF YOU COULD PLAY AEGON'S THERAPIST FOR A DAY WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE HIM?

"Be patient with himself."

"Stop comparing."

"Stop being jealous."

"Give yourself a break and go on holiday."

SO MUCH HAPPENED OFF SCREEN BETWEEN SEASONS ONE ANE TWO. IT TOOK YEARS TO FILM. THERE WERE STRIKES. HOW DID THAT EFFECT THE CAST AND THE VIBES ON SET.

"Yeah, you’ve got tunnel vision while you’re making this show and that’s how we like it."

"I think you sort of buckle down and stay in the zone and stay focused."

"Try and get as much sleep as you can."

"It takes its toll, but we all welcome that with open arms."

"It’s one of those kinds of once in a lifetime opportunities to be a part of a show like this and to play characters like these."

"We’re all very aware of that, and we’re all very grateful to be in the position we’re in, getting to bring these characters to life and share this fucking cool story with so many lovely fans."

IS THERE A LESSON YOU'RE LEARNED FROM FILMING THIS SEASON THAT YOU'LL TAKE WITH YOU INTO THE NEX PHASE OF YOUR CAREER?

"That’s a good question."

"I’m kind of still working that out."

"I’ve only been doing this [acting] for, well, eight years, really, so I’ve not had a great deal of experience."

"I feel like the responsibility to play a pivotal part in a project like this takes its toll, stamina wise, and you just need to make sure that you can keep up with the rhythm of everything."

"But I think taking your breaks where you can get them, surrounding yourself with people you love and trust as you’re doing it, you can be quite delicate in the process."

"And yeah, stay away from social media."

[gophergamergirl]

Uhhh does anyone still care about Inside Out fankids?? Because I may or may not have made some lil guys

Character sheets and other stuff under the cut :)

To start with, here's my Brickstar kid, Courage! ❤️💛

He's probably my favourite, he's such a dork and I love him for that 😅

One thing that I tried to do with his fire/hair (?) was to make it look sort of messy, like Joy's hair, despite the fact that in animation it would probably shift shape a lot (I just don't have the patience to draw that lol). Anger's flames tend to burst out in one general direction, so for some extra flare (heh) in Courage's design I thought it'd be neat if his fire was more like a spread rather than an eruption (if that makes any sense whatsoever), considering his is always there rather than only showing up in extreme cases of emotion.

His clothes started out as being partly inspired by Marty McFly's in Back to the Future, what with the puffy jacket... It didn't end up resembling that look whatsoever, but I think it turned out ok.

------------------------------------------------------

Then there's Paranoia, my Anxifear child! 💜🧡

She's probably the least interesting design-wise, but I love her anyway 🫡

It was very easy to mesh Fear and Anxiety's looks into one, as they have the same sort of eyes (big, round; they give me Kermit the frog vibes if I'm being honest) and floating eyebrows. After I'd figured that out, the main issue for me was her clothes- Originally, I had her in a skirt and blazer (I was trying to make it resemble a school uniform because she tries to be neat and organised) but it didn't look right, so I prioritised her comfort and dumped her in two jumpers and trousers. I like to think she gets cold very easily, so two jumpers are better than one for her.

At first, I was worried that brown would be quite a difficult colour to work with, but ultimately I think her colour palette isn't too bad!

------------------------------------------------------

Then we have Shyness, my Tearblush kid! 💙🩷

I am so sorry for the accidental Embarrassment slander, he's really difficult to draw for some reason 😭

At last we have reached the group's resident Soft Boy™. Like with Paranoia, I operated on the idea that they could get cold quite easily, so I gave them a scarf, mittens, slippers, etc.

His shapes are very similar to Sadness', he's just smaller. Their initial name was Timidity, but I thought that Shyness worked better as their name in the end.

I think that his colours are quite nice; It was fairly simple to get the various purples to work together. I tried to use pink-ish purple to contrast more with Fear's blue-ish purple, just to make sure that you could more easily tell which emotion was working at the console.

------------------------------------------------------

Last but not least, here's Apathy, my Fancyphone child! 💚🖤 She's probably my second favourite, after Courage

She's already judging you, sorry I don't make the rules

Aside from Shyness, I'd say that her design was the easiest to come up with. The first thought that came into my head when thinking about her design was "Okay so what if she was goth??" and I loved that idea so I ran with it. While I don't think I captured the goth aesthetic perfectly, I still think her clothes are pretty cool! Admittedly it was a bit difficult trying to balance the colours so that her turquoise colour was present, but still dark enough that it looked vaguely like something a goth would wear, but it actually doesn't look too bad. Not too sure on her hair though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

She and Envy, as shown in one of the doodles, have a sibling dynamic, as I picture Disgust and Ennui as parental figures for Envy, so naturally she and their kid would be sisters! They don't always get along (I think Ennui's "You care too much about things" towards Envy fits their dynamic pretty well), but they do love each other! Envy thinks Apathy's clothes are really cool and wants to emulate her style, which she fails miserably in doing but kudos to her for trying 🫡

------------------------------------------------------

This is basically their dynamic lmao- Courage constantly wants to Do The Thing and the others (mostly Paranoia though) have to babysit him 😂

------------------------------------------------------

Also I had an idea where maybe the kids could channel their parents' emotions and essentially do what they can do? I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I was thinking that if all of the main emotions had to go off and do something, Riley wouldn't be too badly effected because the kids can just fill in for their parents?

I did draw an example, but I only had the motivation to do it for Courage, so here's that:

So if all four of them have two parents, that means two alternate emotions for all of them. Hypothetically, the only emotion they wouldn't have in their arsenal would be Envy (and Nostalgia I guess, but she'd be in the basement if they needed her), so they could probably handle it... After they all have a sufficient amount of experience, of course.

------------------------------------------------------

I might make a comic at some point about Courage spawning in Headquarters one day, and everyone freaking out about it (Especially Anger lmao; Bro is not prepared to be a dad and it shows (although I like to think that he and Joy would be great parents in the long run :D))

I think that's all I have to say about The Kiddos™, sorry for my rambling 😅

[ledreca]

working on a signalis/2001 space odyssey crossover au since im really fixated on 2001aso and enjoy the world and characters of signalis, might dump lore and such here for it eventually but its mainly only hal because I just wanted to draw him as a replika and it spiraled into this lol. . .

special thanks to @fivepebbleseater for helping me design it

insane ramblings below cut, includes 2001 space odyssey and signalis spoilers

HALR aka Halberd or Hal (don't have any real good ideas for what the german in the acronym would stand for yet as I do NOT speak a lick of german) is a replika based off HAL-9000 from 2001aso. I kind of stretched the replika naming standards for this because I couldn't find any good birds or bird names so I just resorted to the first bird I knew starting with H, the hawk or goshawk (sorry talk tuah fans). also he's named after and uses a halberd because it sounds like Hal Bird and im funny like that. halberds are also sick as hell and can counter falke spears which I thought was cool.

purpose-wise he's basically a sigma male merge of LSTR and FKLR units with both of their specialities combined, i.e. the ship maintenance skills and "stoicism" of LSTRs and the combat prowess and Bioresonance of FKLRs. He does pretty much everything HAL9000 does in 2001aso, like controlling the entire Discovery and maintaining navigation and the hibernaculums while engaging with the crew (or just Dave lol). my reasoning for his deployment over another LSTR unit, besides just being an upgraded and more capable variant, is due to his strong biores and use as protection.

in an earlier period of the world (I'm not too confident on the timeline in tandem with the actual game including the whole ariane dream situation so like. Alternate Universe Split Timeline or whatever) the Nation ends up being the first to secretly dig up the Tycho Monolith and trace the emanating signal to a far off planetary system. this prompts the designing of a replika that can handle both prolonged space expeditions and any potential conflict it may encounter in a first-contact mission with alien lifeforms. as far as the public and Hal's crew on the Discovery are aware, he really is simply just an upgraded high-end alternative to LSTRs. they're a big scary corporation of course they wouldn't want people including the literal pilots and scientists to know they're looking for aliens lol.

ALSO, he utilizes biores to basically form the same connection and hold to the ship as HAL9000 does in the form of a sort of halo or "crown" of flashing cords that trail behind him, connecting to his back and upper arms and flickering in and out of existence like half tangible processor threads. modified HAL terminals on the discovery walls act as anchor points for him to connect to and fully immerse himself in the workings of the ship, this makes his crown spread farther and fully tangible (I hemmed and hawed with my friends about the colors they'd be because gold wouldn't really make sense so I just ended up using technical difficulties aka my pride flag). he can also manifest his cool trusty red halberd as means of protecting his crew, though he will of course take great pains to keep peace among other lifeforms.

I think thats about all I've got so far, uhh some quick facts: he's 8 feet tall, 245cm, could probably beat falke in a fight, anchoring stabilizes his persona and singing and flowers degrade it (had to shoehorn in daisies somehow), his pixel logo is based off the USAA logo from the space odyssey film jumpsuits, he/its pronouns, and he and dave WILL be kissing. android sesbian lex and robot say gex solidarity 🤝

I will prob be posting more fanart later as it comes idk I draw slow