#considering all of my lines had to be improvised

[metamorphesque]

hello, what's an interesting fact about you, dear? (just making conversation)

uhm...once I undertook the role of Grandpa Winter (he's our Santa) in a school play

[unproduciblesmackdown]

hell yes my "deniably casual sexual encounter in taylor's apartment babeyyy" wip is over 7k words already and i haven't even gotten to the part where anyone's kissing yet. so far it's all In Effect taylor going "is there like, an energy here or is it just me" (there is) in this 7k< form via my classic move of providing wildly extensive introspection that Could be pared down a ton i'm sure but if i was thorough abt editing myself & my verbosity & taking thousands of words to say something, including the same things repeatedly in slightly different ways, writing anything would be all the more difficult / rarely manifested. playing to my strengths / weaknesses w/fiction out here like, see that last billions fic scene that's Supposed to be largely winston somewhat going in circles stuck in his head and also sexual activity. seizing the premise for this one like, taylor being all I'm Extra Pensive Atm But What If That Sets Me Up To Be More Spontaneous When I Go Back Into The Living Room And Quants Have Something Going On. i've triumphantly managed to get taylor out of the living room in the first place and now their being able to return any minute now as soon as i wrap up their thinking about how their quants are sure like special little guys (extraordinary) (least veil of neutrality; readily positive)

[sepublic]

Post-Hoot with Dana Terrace!

            Dana’s put over 200 hours into games she’s missed since the finale; Octopath Traveler, Little Nightmares, etc. Sarah Nicole-Robles cried harder than she ever did when she said I learned a language I’ll never forget, a whole chapter of my life is over, during the King-ceanera. She said the line once and was suddenly sobbing because of how meta it was. 

         Rebecca has a ‘sona during the bit with Barcus in the epilogue sequence. Cissy also cried when watching with her family, her kids asked her about it; Sarah was really excited as she watched the finale.

         No sequel happening, but we can always hope; Dana would like to do more, but Disney owns the IP and needs to give them permission. Dana knew the prequel line in the finale was ham-fisted as hell but still went with it because she was pissed (she said Fuck to express her rage). Rebecca went back to the Anger phase of grief after watching the finale after realizing what they missed, but Sarah was also in Acceptance because it was hard to regret something that ended so well.

         Dana doesn’t cry that much, but TJ’s remix in the soundtrack made her cry. Dana brought back everyone for BBBYYYEEEEEEE, noting this was every character’s last line, and wished Hooty had more lines. Alex improvised a cut line after the Bye with Hooty expressing appreciation for the finale and readiness for his spin-off.

         Dana won’t say much in hopes she’ll get to do more for TOH in the future; A Youtube reviewer (shoutout to all, Zachary Ax, Man of a Thousand Thoughts, Rebecca herself), the Third Bill got it right on Hooty, and Dana won’t be more specific about that.

         They found out about the shortening during S2; They had an ending in mind that Dana had in mind since development, but it needed too much setup and so they couldn’t pull it off. All of Season 2A was written before knowing the cancellation; Follies at the Coven Day Parade was the first episode fully written knowing the show was shortened, hence the tonal change. The Galdorstones was an arc Dana planned more on, as well as the Coven Heads; Bat Queen; It was a hard situation choosing what to leave out.

         There weren’t whole episodes written that had to be trashed; Just one-sentence ideas on a whiteboard never fully outlined or scripted. But Dana is still happy with what came out, because it was pretty damn cool.

         Rebecca Rose once saw someone with a King sweatshirt like hers at Disneyland and said hi, but they just side-eyed her and didn’t respond; Despite this, Rebecca hopes they had a happy day and believes they were just having a bad time. Sarah joked about not being so forgiving.

         String Bean’s inspiration: Owlbert is in the title of the show, String Bean indeed was there the whole time! The S wasn’t completely intentional at first, but Dana flipped the logo around and figured it out. When making the first episode, the logo wasn’t finalized. They always liked the idea of Luz being connected to snakes, it’s what she brought to school and they liked her reclaiming something she terrorized her classmates with. The Snake-Shifter idea specifically; Zach Marcus just said “Snake-Shifter” as they brainstormed ideas and Dana, being a sucker for lame puns, was sold.

         That was indeed Dana being represented as a student in the epilogue! She was Beastkeeping and Oracle; Dana can see the future of the show, and really likes animals. Raine’s palisman was indeed hidden within the violin’s design; Hunter and Dell worked to fix the palismen after Raine broke it trying to stop Belos. The violin is more akin to the staff, anyhow. Dana considered responding to a question about general Caleb, Evelyn, and Flapjack lore, but Sarah insisted she stay silent in case they get to answer it as an actual story later.

         Dana liked to think while writing Thanks to Them; No, Evelyn’s spirit isn’t in Flapjack. But to Philip, he saw Flapjack as the culmination of the corruption in his brother Caleb; He saw Flapjack, if it weren’t for YOU. You can see a hint of it in Masha’s story, Evelyn entices Caleb with Flapjack, who was Caleb’s introduction to magic. Evelyn was probably disguised as a human, and trusted Caleb for seeming reasonable and less violent. Perhaps like Dog owners passing each other by and suddenly becoming friends over this.

         Evelyn and Caleb’s relationship was sweet, from platonic curiosity to romantic. Eda doesn’t know she’s descended from them, nor does Hunter; And Dana has more to say, but will keep it hidden. Luz will stay the majority of her stay in the isles as she goes to college. Camila bought the shack leading to the human world, which allowed Luz to visit during holidays, weekends, etc.

         They never got to explore it, but it could’ve originally been the home of Philip and Caleb, long abandoned; Eda emerges after discovering the portal. In the next thirty years, she fixes up the shack as she builds the Owl House. Dana also advised fans to google Death of the Author, since she’s technically no longer working on the show, and thus gives permission for fans to write their own answers.

         Eda became the Owl Lady before Owlbert, due to the curse; They planned to do an episode where Eda learned palismen carving with Dell, and how Eda reclaimed the Owl identity to carve Owlbert. Dana stills has the outline of that episode in her head…

         According to Rebecca, Caleb and Philip’s graves were in the basement of the shack, based on this church in New Haven Dana passed by every day on her way to school (Gravesfield is based on some places in Connecticut). However, Dana realized the graves didn’t fit into the story. They also had an ‘original’ Belos design for him taking over animals. Marina Gardner did some amazing Belos designs, and Thanks to Them alluded to it.

         The Portal’s eye comes from the Titan’s missing eye!!! Hunter is bisexual, Willow is pansexual, this is how Dana always wrote and imagined them in her mind, but it’s not explicitly stated so technically it’s more headcanon. Dana noted how some people just picked it up. Dana likes to think Amity and Lilith rekindled their student-mentor relationship. Having worked in the library, Amity was interested in Lilith’s knowledge of history. Dana suggested to Zarya(?) from the design team to add notes to Lilith’s museum blueprints. A helicopter passed over and they joked it was Disney trying to stop spoilers.

         Cissy only got her lines and didn’t know any other details about the finale, to Dana’s surprise; Dana explained that people not getting a full script is due to the pandemic. Before quarantine, actors would get the full script. They have to rely on Eden Riegel and Dana for context a lot. Bosook Coburn spoiled Luz’s death to Rebecca Rose during the celebration party. They came up with a lot of designs for dying Luz, trying to figure out how they can hollow out her head how much. Dana mentions it’s up to the showrunner to show how much they want to the actors.

         Thanks to Sarah, they kept in Luz saying her own SFX during her fight with Eda in O Titan, Where Art Thou; She heard someone do it as part of the mock script and wanted it. When Dana voiced Eda and Luz at the end, Dana was crying. There’s a recording of Season 2B and Season 3 of Dana doing a voice-over of the script to get approved by executives.

         Dana clarified everyone would’ve had more of a chance to talk with each other, such as Hunter and Amity; Hunter would’ve talked to Vee, as well as more human realm kids, literally everyone would’ve had a little more time with each other. Dana loves Luz and Hunter’s sibling dynamic. Dana was sorry they couldn’t have Luz and Raine hang out, but they had the Hexsquad storyline. Luz finished high school in the human world, with the renewed motivation that she’ll go back to the isles. Knowing she has a safe space outside of high school made it more bearable, as was the case for Dana growing up.

         Cissy brought up Gus’ hair in the epilogue, which she loved; Emmy Cicierga did the design for Gus and Raine. Harpy Lilith was by Emmy; Dana did Emira, Eberwolf, and Skara’s timeskip designs. The name of the Titan is unpronounceable for humans.

         Dana can’t say much about the Archivists; The Collector never had a flash-forward design, as they age much more slowly than everyone else. Maybe the Collector got just a tiny bit taller. The idea of the Collector came from creepy dolls, as well as a nightmare; John Bailey Owen had a google folder filled with cool references of creepy dolls with a starry aesthetic, liminal minimalist nightmare-scape. They knew who the Collector was gonna be, what role they’d play, but the vibe still needed to be decided.

         Dana confirmed the Collector was always a part of the show before the shortening, and they solidified their placement after the announcement. The Collector has indeed stayed connected with the others, visits occasionally. Dana has seen fan comics on this and teared up.

         Hooty doesn’t have to be vacated from the Owl House if he doesn’t want to; When the door isn’t active, Hooty could be present. The new portal can probably fold up, and Hooty is busy as a curator for Hooty’s new museum.

         Dana said Raine and Eda’s business is their business; Not all love stories end in marriage. It’s their thing and it doesn’t diminish any love, but they do live in the Owl House together (Raine moved in).

         Mattholomule getting a palisman is something Zach Marcus can answer, since he made the character and Dana respects the lore he made. It’s hard to say for Dana if Vee and Masha are dating, since Masha didn’t show up in the finale, but Vee definitely has a crush on them. Again, Dana encourages the Death of the Author approach, if the headcanon makes you happy.

         Alador and Odalia got officially divorced after the finale, and the kids happily lived away from her. They might visit her if they have the energy, but also recognize she’s a toxic influence they can cut off at any point. Dana gave a shoutout to Rachel McFarlane’s voice acting, praising her performance for Odalia.

         In regards to the tower King was born in, Dana has an answer; It was related to a character we all know, who now may have amnesia.

         There was a plan to explore Gus and Willow’s glowing eyes, and do it for other characters; Amity wasn’t going to have that, strong emotions are indeed connected to magic. It was mostly a worldbuilding magic rule they could’ve expanded on, that Dana wishes she did early in the story.

         In the boards, Dawn Han(?) did Clouds on the Horizon, and did the scene of Amity and the twins hiding in the factory as their parents talk about the Abomatons, Alador is worried since it seems like a tad much. Alador had T-rex arms in the storyboard, and it reminded Dana of Remy from Ratatouille, so when they got to the scene of them looking into Alador’s lab, Ratador was drawn in his place as a joke. Dana laughed so hard she decided to keep it in, with Dana handwaving it as Alador’s palisman.

         According to Dana, a show should be appreciated for as it is; But the other way to enjoy it, under the context it was made, is also important to her; Both ways are valid. It was easier for Sarah to voice depressed Luz since she was also depressed. The writers preferred to put their feelings into the show, VS a more happy-go-lucky approach as others did; It was kind of dark for a bit, especially during quarantine. Sarah felt her own experience validated with Luz’s depression, but she and Dana appreciated the balance of having a happy ending too.

         What made the crew hopeful was knowing the characters would always have a happy ending; Luz could continue her studies in full-force, a new family. They KNEW it would end happy. Dana acknowledged how the fandom misinterpreted “I hate the term happy endings,” and Sarah knew about the quincenera when asked during previous Post-Hoots, but couldn’t answer.

         Rebecca commissioned 3D-printed Funko Pops of S2A Lilith and S1 Luz, and gave them to the others as gifts; Rebecca didn’t know about Avi’s appearance until two days before the Post-Hoot, otherwise she would’ve had a Funko of Raine made. Dana’s stand for Luz had to be made with painter’s tape (she appreciated it) due to Rebecca running out of the other kind, and planned to place it beside her Peabody award. Elizabeth Grullon, Camila’s VA, had to call her mom in the middle of a session to translate her line about maduros into English.

        Cissy clarified this wasn’t intended to be the final Post-Hoot! And the video was ended with a BBBBYYYEEEEE!!!!!

[melon-kiss]

I know some of you don't speak Polish and we can't afford to translate 40-min-long chaotic interviews for you and I'm a bit bored (meaning: my brain wants a break from writing but I'm stubborn and I want to finish it TODAY), so I thought I'd give you a bit of a trivia based on interviews with the actors and the crew of 1670:

throughout all the interviews, no one really asked if we're getting season 2. I mean, someone did and the response was: "Well, we know nothing" but nobody really asked if they had any IDEA about what would happen in the next season

I'm not sure about the actors but the creative and directive levels went to a series of lectures on how people lived in Poland in the XVII century

they received a substantial funding, especially considering the directors were complete "no-names"

filming took 3 months, December through February 2022 if I recall

they all lived in an open-air museum in Kolbuszowa; in fact, almost all of the building were already there, they only had to build the house, the barn and the forge

there was no delay in filming, which is apparently rare in the industry but that was because they had a very tight schedule and couldn't afford staying longer in the museum

the last episode was filmed on one day and that was the last day of filming and because of technical issues with cameras working in the inn (the short shot of Maciej serving the pig to the Adamczewskis' table had to be re-done 20 times!), they had to completely rearrange the wedding party scenes, turning them into long shots; the entire labor/dancing scenes were supposed to be shot from 13 (!) different perspectives and be arranged in a "music video fashion"

one of the first episodes (if not THE first episode) to be filmed was episode 7

the script was written with Bartłomiej Topa (Jan Paweł) in mind, however, the actor wasn't really convinced about participating in this project and took his sweet, sweet time to decide on it; same goes to Dobromir Dymecki (Bogdan). Topa says it wasn't because he didn't find it good - it was because he was afraid that the project would be underfunded and therefore fail as projects like that usually don't get the attention they need in Poland

Bartłomiej Topa said he portrayed Jan Paweł as evil and conniving for the first two weeks of being on the set and the first scene they recorded was the one with the "Adamczycha" sign falling down; only after that time, after one scene in particular (don't remember which one, sorry), he finally saw the true nature of his character and changed his approach to the portrayal

surprisingly, Michał Sikorski (father Jakub), unlike Topa, thought of his character as a silly, innocent man and he changed his mind only after seeing the Aniela-Maciej dance scene where he says Love is peaceful, love is kind, love is... unacceptable - he understood he got to play a villain

the actors were FORBIDDEN to improvise; their lines had to be memorised prior to filming

they shot the barrel-cleaning scene (the thing they do before blowing the magnate's son's head up) for 2h because Bartłomiej Topa and Andrzej Kłak (well, he plays Andrzej) couldn't stop laughing; Topa mentions he doesn't even remember how they managed to get it done

all the mud was brought there ON PURPOSE

Kirył Pietruczuk (Maciej) is a debutante when it comes to film, however, he is the only actor in the crew with an acting degree; not only that - he graduated with honors

when asked about this, Michał Sikorski said: "Well, but it doesn't matter, does it? Because, even thought I haven't graduated, I got to play a nobleman and he... well..." (obv that was A JOKE; he is like the sweetest person ever!)

he also said he wrote a "Maciej's journal" during filming and spent a lot of time creating a backstory for his character; he said it was helping with the a-chronical shooting; he read one of the entries out loud in his interview

he jokingly said his favourite episode is the last one because he got to kiss Martyna (Aniela) there

as mentioned before, casting Maciej's role took the longest. They interviewed about 300 candidates and none of them fit. Kirył recalls it was right after he signed a deal with an agency for the first time in his life and he immediately received a call after his first cinema audition and it was 1670, of course! However, he reports that the process was extremely long - he had to go through several stages, each one of them revealing more and more of the script and he wasn't informed it would take that long

The creators said they looked for someone who'd understand the character and his role in the film - as he is the eyes and ears for us, people from XXI century. "He's basically like a viewer of the events, one of us", Kordian Kądziela (director, episodes 5-8) says. It was important he had a good chemistry with Martyna (she was the first and only "Aniela" he had to do short scenes with and the chemistry was immediate) and was able to break the fourth wall properly - he had to have the talent to comment current events with just one look and I personally think he does it perfectly. The actor was also supposed to be "easily likeable by girls"

The first scene they shot together - meaning as Aniela and Maciej - was the dance scene and Kirył says it's his favourite scene in the entire show

Kirył said the scene with the magnate's son was initially very aggressive on his part, however, after speaking to the directors, he decided to tone it down as it was, indeed, not fit for the character to be this angry

they all said, once they got down to it, they had a feeling they were a part of something special

Feel free to add your trivia or correct me if I'm wrong.

[johns-prince]

I Don't Know (Oh Johnny Johnny)

After listening to this "forgotten" song by John and Paul on repeat, with excruciating scrutiny of trying my darndest to make out the lyrics.

This song is approximately recorded around 1960, could have even been 1959, and I've read it was apparently recorded when the group was going by the Silver Beatles. Also, apparently recorded at Paul's house? I'm not sure.

Whether you think it's just them fooling about, simple improvising and nothing at all, I think if they were going to take the effort to record it, it had to mean something.

Even if some or half of it is "improv," it still sounds like a conversation between the two.

It's not unlike them to use music to communicate and express personal thoughts and feelings, wants. There's also nobody else there... it's just them.

Just a couple of the clearer lyrics from Paul at the start:

"Hey now Johnny Johnny, oh Johnny Johnny, oh Johnny Johnny, oh Johnny Johnny, Oh God, Johnny boy, how are we gonna tell them?"

"Oh Johnny boy you wore me out"

It also sounds in one line Paul is singing, "Well you got me!"

Then John starts up.

And I know some people claim the start for John here is him saying "Well little boy" but I have to say that doesn't match up with what I've heard.

Doesn't sound anything like boy, but it does sound like John is saying, "Oh little darling, packing my shoes.. " can't make the following bit before, "cuz I'm losin' you"

"I'm going to see my sister soon. She don't want to see me I don't know really what I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do."

Now you've got Paul again:

"Well Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, when I call you Johnny, well Johnny Johnny oh Johnny, when I'm calling you..."

"Well I don't know what I'm going to tell them..." okay, these lyrics are really difficult to decipher. Maybe it's just my brains attempt at conjuring coherent words from the incoherent sounds, but, what follows this sounds ALMOST sounds as if Paul is telling him what he'll tell the fellas, about thoughts regarding John (I've still got thoughts of you/I'll still have thoughts of you/or, I'll still vouch for you)

Then the closest thing to ever getting to hear what Paul McCartney sounds like when pleading:

"Please Johnny, please Johnny"

John's response is:

"Well I'll tell the fellas I'm traveling with you"

And funnily enough, it's John saying, "I don't know what I'm gonna to do when I tell my mother we're gonna leave town." Of course if this is recorded in 1958/1960, Julia is no longer around...

Paul reiterates this though, confirming it, "Yeah we're gonna leave town."

Paul continues with this dogged line, I can catch a couple of "we gotta leave, we just gotta leave, we gotta leave right now."

Then—

"Take the next bus out of town, then we won't let nobody down!"

It's a conversation about getting out, breaking out, starting over just the two of them... With some interesting mentions of family and friends finding out, about something, with them, between them? And disappointing everyone, causes family to turn them away.

The reason couldn't have just been that they were wanting to become famous musicians together, right? I don't think that alone could be it considering Mimi nor Jim, or Julia or John's sisters, ever turned them away or shunned them because of this dream they were already chasing by this time.

The song progresses to where it sounds as if John has reservations about leaving, he's not as confident about the plan as originally thought.

Paul keeps singing the "we gotta leave, get outta town." I caught a "don't hold me down."

John starts repeating "I don't know" which results in Paul repeatedly calling out, "Oh Johnny Johnny Johnny oh Johnny Johnny Johnny Johnny..." Again, it's almost like pleading, "How could you not know? We have to go, we have to leave town, you can't tell me “I don't know” now. Don't do this now."

Now, I will say this, the full lyrical interpretations of this song, while I commend others for trying too, hold too many issues for me to agree upon their validity. I don't catch any "I love yous" and the such, but I think what I have caught, and how John and Paul are singing to each other and with each other here, alone, as teenage boys chasing their dream, is enough to convince me still that this song is so intimately about them, their relationship, and what they dreamed of doing together.

Running off, getting out and creating music together. Running away together. The song technically foreshadowing this honeymoon-esque trip of John and Paul doing just that when John turned 21, and with 100 quid took Paul on a trip.

Two teenage boys not knowing what to do, lamenting over something, something getting out to their family that would cause them to be turned away and to cause disappointment. I don't necessarily attribute that to them chasing the dream of becoming famous musicians together, but it could be. It could be many different things. Could just be me overanalyzing...

The end of the song is a lot more scrambled, difficult to make out, but it sounds like both John and Paul are back to both agreeing to the fact they need to get out, leave town, together.

Also imagining the fact they probably looked something close to this while thumping around and singing this song in Paul's house, alone together, gives me feelings.

[thatonecrookedsmile]

You will acept your fate... Before the end..

------

Without much creativity to come up with a good line/phrase. I had to improvise.

It's been exactly 1 year since Bendy and the Dark Revival released...jeez. Already? I'm telling you, time doesn't make sense anymore, everything is going slower and faster at the same time. It's crazy!

I was in the middle of drawing something more specific for the anniversary but…I didn't finish it lol. Like always! But I have this prompt that I finished a few days ago and that I was hoping to post along with 2 more drawings. But I think today is a more ideal day to post this.

So as a anniversary present I give you guys…Angst™. With the boys. Very ideal.

I remember having another idea for this prompt but the current idea popped into my head so I decided to abandon the previous one. I found it more interesting. A "What-if" idea I had at the time the game launched partially inspired by something specific I thought about these two. Based so much on what I've seen and read about these ink creatures, and on the general idea of "2 minds in one".

I confess that in the end I started to question whether this is the way I see the relationship between these 2 and all this business of "two in one package" that they have. And I still don't know if this is really my vision. I just had a drawing idea that I thought was cool and I just stuck with it until the end. I didn't have many second thoughts until I got to the finish line.

Changing the subject: The anniversary.

I can't believe it's been 1 year since this game came out. The time flies! Good to know this finally released after 3 years.

I don't think I've ever talked abouy my thought on the game before,or at least,not the game as a whole. I wanted to leave this for the specific anniversary drawing, but hey. Why not here?

In short: I really liked it! I've been waiting for this game for a good while so when we finally got that final trailer last year, you could say I was pretty excited for the next 2 weeks until release. I don't know if I knew exactly what to expect from this game, and there's always that fear that I won't end up liking what I play when it released. But I really liked it! Loved it, I would say. I had a lot of fun and I believe I can say that, in general, I had a pretty positive experience with it.

Of course, I have my own grievances and complaints about some things in the game (some probably talked about here on Tumblr and others not) that I would like to see improved for next game,The Cage. But even with these complaints in mind, I wouldn't say that it took away my enjoyment of this game. Especially considering that the positive points (or at least what I consider positive in my opinion) for me, prevail over the negative ones.

At the end? Yeah, I really liked Bendy and the Dark Revival. Happy to see it finally released and be able to play it. I personally believe that we are in a good direction when it comes to the games, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Happy 1 year anniversary BATDR! And happy birthday to both Little Guy and Big Guy (Little Bendy and the new Ink Demon,respectively).

Love you both.

[evelmiina]

Love your work! I wanted to ask what your process is like when it comes to coming up with a design/composition to a piece? Do you have any specific methods you use or it is more improvised:)? Thanks!

I'd say both - method and improvisation. To me all pictures are basically shapes organized in a pleasing way. Even when I draw lines I think more about overall shapes together and how I feel about them. There's a lot to consider about design and composition, some pretty smart books on the subject are Marcus Mateu-Mestre: Framed Ink and Hans Bacher: Vision - color and composition for film. I'm still learning all the time and I make mistakes but I think method to making composition comes down to: readability and narrative intention, moving from simplicity to complex. But it's also fun and important to play around and see what works, that's why my process is not always the same and I can show some examples. Here are the sketches and final I did for my Magic card illustration:

This is my go-to method when I want to rely on tried and true process and I know I won't get lost once I start drawing/painting because I can rely on my steps. I don't always do things this way, but for paid work I want the client to have as clear idea of my intention as possible. The reasoning why 3 worked the best is because it's more dynamic and dimensional than 2, but more readable than 1. It also best showcases how the tower is supposed to be huge, something that was important for the design.

This on the other hand was personal work and I approached it in more relaxed way just to see where it goes. Still I think what made me want to finish it is I liked the variety of shapes and rhythm of the room, like how the screens lead towards the doorway, lot of rectangles but varied in their size and angle. If it was client work I probably would've been called out in the sketch, because the focal point is this empty wall that makes no sense. I came up with the idea of shadow of a window while making it and in the end it worked, but it was an example how I made a big design problem for myself that I was gambling on to figure out.

This one had very specifically just one photo reference, but I did the sketch to put down the essentials of what I was seeing in the photo. In the end I referenced dog's face and pose more from the photo so it looks more natural, which was also funnier than my own initial interpretation

Sometimes the initial comp just doesn't pan out exactly. I did the sketch for this Unicorn fanart and I even drew the interior at some point, but it just Did Not Work for me, I also discarded the idea of medieval dragon in the statue for same reason. So it sat in my folder for a while until I could look at it again and after taking a break, I still liked the statue and the general idea, but decided to make the surroundings easier to look at so that the statue stands out better.

When I did the sketch for this dragon I wanted it to feel big and heavy, like lifting its head from the ground. But I didn't want to do vertical picture which lead me to painting over digitally and extending the picture, then painting the whole thing traditionally anyway.

[tenebris-lux]

You know, while we’re waiting for something to happen in Varna, I wanna gush (and I do mean gush) about an earlier entry and its performance in Re: Dracula: Seward’s diary, October 1, 4am.

First, a note on a detail in Re: Dracula. The part where all the guys said one after another that they all wanted to meet Renfield….

“May I come also?” asked Lord Godalming.

“Me too?” said Quincey Morris. “May I come?” said Harker.

The way Seward said “said Harker”, he sounds so annoyed! Like, “Ugh, FINE, everybody come. All of a sudden my patient is the most popular guy around.” The delivery for just that little line in Re: Dracula made me grin.

But onto to the meat of the entry.

Renfield pulled out ALL the stops in trying to convince Seward to take him out of the asylum. He did everything he could to impress on Seward that he was on the same page as any other guy, even ahead a little—intelligence, reasonability, culture, diplomacy, you name it. He took full advantage of the entourage that followed Seward. The pointed way Trench said the line, “By the way, you have not introduced me,” had the emphasis meant to put Seward on the spot—‘who appears less civilized here? In company?’ He then shows respect for everyone in the room named, displaying knowledge, grace, courtesy, charm, what have you. He was probably not expecting everybody to show up, so he had to improvise. But right off the top of his head, he was able to impress on each of them that he’s not “lesser”.

The pure charisma he displayed made a slight impression on Seward, kind of a knee-jerk reaction to go, “Yeah, sure, you seem perfectly fine, I’ll draw up the paperwork…” But then Seward catches himself. Unfortunately. Still, if Seward had been at all professional about Renfield in his treatment of him so far, him saying he’d talk to him more about it in the morning might not have been unreasonable. And if Renfield didn’t have an ulterior motive to leave the asylum right then, he could’ve possibly taken the opportunity to try to impress him more; not play Seward’s twisted mind games. Unfortunately, he could not afford to wait. At all. So he insists that time is of the essence and he has to go now.

“He looked at me keenly, and seeing the negative in my face, turned to the others, and scrutinized them closely. Not meeting any sufficient response, he went on:—

‘Is it possible that I have erred in my supposition?’

‘You have,’ I said frankly, but at the same time, as I felt, brutally. There was a considerable pause, and then he said slowly:—

‘Then I suppose I must only shift my ground of request….’”

“Brutally” is right. Jack’s voice was very blunt and short in Re: Dracula, and it was audible in Renfield’s voice that the wheels were turning; like, ‘how can I get through to this guy? I thought I was onto something there, but … Plan B then.’ His Plan B is a little more direct, less certain, and involves more crossing one’s fingers: appeal to Seward’s compassion, and try to tell him why he wants out so soon, which … ugh, isn’t much. That’s why he threw his all into plan A; plan B was extremely uncertain at best.

Still reasonably, he says he has reasons for wanting out, that it’s for the sake of others. But he can’t tell him why. Just … please trust him on this?

Unexpectedly, he just loses ground with Seward, but he’s got Van Helsing’s interest, and Van Helsing’s the type who tries to make a practice of giving the benefit of the doubt.

“He said to Renfield in a tone which did not surprise me at the time, but only when I thought of it afterwards—for it was as of one addressing an equal:—“

Which Jack found weird when reflecting on it later. Because why would Jack even consider Renfield being equal? But anyway, Van Helsing takes the initiative and overrides Jack’s authority by saying, ‘If you can state clearly why you want to go and convince me, he’ll let you and take responsibility.’ Which is kind of a weird gamble, if you ask me. Like, yeah, Seward would probably do it, because it’s Van Helsing, but it still seems odd to me. Van Helsing says later that he knows a lot less of “madmen” than Seward does (should we tell him?), so it’s a risk. But he was much closer to believing Renfield than Seward was. Whatever the case, Renfield couldn’t tell them anything. Van Helsing tried to persuade him to change his mind, because then he’d make so much more progress, rather than if he just kept secrets, right? But he wasn’t picking up that it wasn’t that Renfield didn’t want to say something, or was afraid to.

He literally couldn’t tell them.

“Dr. Van Helsing, I have nothing to say. Your argument is complete, and if I were free to speak I should not hesitate a moment; but I am not my own master in the matter. I can only ask you to trust me. If I am refused, the responsibility does not rest with me.”

The helpless way he says ‘I have nothing to tell you.’ And he’s DROPPING HINTS. He hears and understands Van Helsing’s arguments and if he WERE FREE TO SPEAK … but he is not his own MASTER…. Come onnn, Jack, you’ve heard that word before, right? I think somehow Renfield knows the guys are heading next door, so come on, Jack, put two and two together. Where else has Renfield used that word? And again, I love the added emphasis Felix Trench put on the word “master”. Like, come on, man, take a hint. Yes, Renfield’s addressing Van Helsing, but Seward’s hearing this. Seward’s the one here who knows his habits, his patterns.

Right?

…

No go.

“Come, my friends, we have work to do. Good-night.”

Renfield’s only chance is heading out the door. Reason and trust have both failed. Last ditch effort: pure desperation. Pleading, begging, on his knees, crying. Saying he’ll go under ANY circumstance Seward picks out, even if it comes to torture. Anything. Anything.

And Trench’s performance … oh god, the tears coming, the breathlessness, the way words warp when you talk while crying….

“Can’t you hear me, man? Can’t you understand? Will you never learn? Don’t you know that I am sane and earnest now; that I am no lunatic in a mad fit, but a sane man fighting for his soul? Oh, hear me! hear me! Let me go! let me go! let me go!”

GOD. He’s just so desperate to get ANYTHING from Seward. Is there anything in that man he can reach?

Still no. The way Jonathan Sims said Seward’s next lines—“Come, no more of this; we have quite enough already. Get to your bed and try to behave more discreetly.”—were PERFECT. Sternly chiding a lesser person who’s misbehaving, in tone, but with cold unfeeling words. Absolutely no warmth. No connection.

“He suddenly stopped and looked at me intently for several moments.”

The last check. Is there anything there? Anything in there at all he can reach or connect with?

“Then, without a word, he rose and moving over, sat down on the side of the bed.”

Just … the way he gives up. He’s out of options. Absolutely nothing will get through to the guy he needs to understand him. Or his friends, even the “open-minded” one. They all think he’s crazy and apart from them. He just needed one of them—preferably Seward, but any of them would do—to stand in his corner, and just relocate him somewhere. They can pick any conditions they want, just so long as he leaves now.

But Seward has never understood him. He made it a hobby to “try to understand him” and “know how he works”. And now when he actually needs to, he’s completely off-base. I won’t go so far as to say that if it weren’t for Seward, the attacks on Mina wouldn’t have happened, because it ultimately comes down to Dracula being the attacker. Still, it’s frustrating.

The final thing Renfield says to Seward as the doctor heads out the door—“You will, I trust, Dr. Seward, do me the justice to bear in mind, later on, that I did what I could to convince you to-night.”—was described as said “in a quiet, well-bred voice,” and it certainly was that in Re: Dracula, but it also came across as drained and defeated and … done. Just … ‘I tried.’

And he really did try.

He knows he has a weakness and is susceptible. There’s no telling when his mental fortitude might weaken next. But if/when it does, it wouldn’t be just him that suffers consequences.

….. anyways, that’s my gush.

[novelizt]

THE COMPLICATIONS OF A FAKE ENGAGEMENT ☁︎ ANTHONY LOCKWOOD

⚜ PART TWO

GENRE ➺ fluff + hoax engagement

SYNOPSIS ➺ you shouldn't be that beautiful in a bridal gown for a wedding that's fictitious to begin with

WARNING ➺ fem reader

DISCLAIMER ➺ I haven't read the books so the characterization/alignment in the books may not line up and it's been a while since i've written anything. I hope you enjoy it anyway!

NOTES ➺ inspired by the try-on wedding gown scene in “extraordinary attorney woo”

   When a 17-year-old signs up to be a ghost hunter, the last thing she expects is to wind up in a bridal boutique. Especially not with her employer improvising the role of her fiancé.

   Lost between fabrics of silk and satin is the story of how you ended up here. You're on the brink of insanity when Lockwood finally does his job as your make-believe fiancé. Chipping in with a compliment, blowing kisses, and raining applause. On a normal day, you could act as if all this was fine and that the flurry of frivolous women weren't tiring. But the dresses were heavy and the lights were blinding. You had his ring, and the look on his face was convincing—but twelve dresses in, and you were ready to crumple into a heap.

   "Why the rush to marry?" Kelly—you think her name was—asks. She was the ringleader for the entire dress-fitting business.

She tightened the corset around you and clipped the fabric around your bust tighter. You couldn't even speak! Luckily enough, Lockwood took note of your lack of oxygen and answered for you. "We're trained agents."

   Kelly pulled the cinches tighter. You wheezed your last wisp of air, gripping the fabric for release. "As in the paranormal kind?"

   Lockwood's eyes shone with pride. "Exactly that! You never know what could happen on a case. Might as well marry while we're breathing, no? Oh- please let my girl breathe, she's turning blue."

   The corset loosened and you sagged in visible relief. Nodding in acknowledgement, you said, "Many thanks."

   "No worries, darling. Wouldn't want you dying before the flower picking." He smiled at you, and you withheld the urge to glare at him. "Have you found what you're looking for, love?"

   You look at the rack and consider just lying... but there was a reason you were here. Judging by his still jumping knee, he hasn't found evidence at all.

   Signing yourself to your fate, you sighed. "No..."

   Kelly jumps with glee. Dragging you behind the curtains before Lockwood could get another word in. The last thing you see of him is a grateful grin. He disregards the simper you throw his way.

   When he's sure you're distracting Kelly, he slips back to the file rooms. Shuffling through documents whilst keeping his ears open. It's not that hard to guess whether Kelly got you into another gown or not. The woman is exorbitant and loud.

   He's got his hands on an incriminating sheet of evidence as he hears it. Kelly's compliments and your terrible attempts at buying him more time. Lockwood stuffs the sheet into his coat pocket and breaks for the lounge. In time for the velvet curtains to draw.

   His eyes are adjusting to the brightened lights again. Yet, all is right when you're unveiled. Sheets of ivory silk rolling down in waves curl around your figure like it's made for you. It's less extravagant than the previous choices but it highlights you the best.

   Whatever fake reaction dies in his throat and his jaw hangs open. Eyes leading up to your giggling face as Kelly pushes a row of spray roses into your hands to "complete the look." He knows all this is pretend. He can't help but wonder how different it would be if ghosts and ghouls didn't invade the world. If the pair of you were a normal boy and a normal girl. If you two weren't 17 and only here for another case. If you were actually dressed in that ivory gown, coming down an aisle as red as the curtains. In an alternate world, would it be reality?

   He's considering the probability of it when you drop the roses to your midsection. Allowing his mother's old ring to gleam in the light before he pulls his eyes right back to you. He reads, "Have you found what you're looking for?" from your lips, and like a puppet on a string, he nods yes, and he's sure he mutters the word, too. But he's not thinking about the evidence in his pocket. He's thinking about you in ivory, and how much better it would be if you were his real bride instead of his fake one.

• i've been wanting to write for the lockwood & co. fandom for a while now hehe

⌠ @novelizt 2023 ⌡

[queen-breha-organa]

I wanted to briefly come back online and discuss the WGA and, in turn, the current writer's strike.

I know my opinion matters very little, and I don’t consider myself an expert or a valuable voice in this matter. However, since I talk about Star Wars a lot, I wanted to discuss the strike because these things go hand in hand. I think it’s unfair to ignore the real-world circumstances that shape the media you enjoy. Knowing the context of something is important. And beyond that, this situation has just been on my mind, and I wanted to express my thoughts somewhere. 

Firstly, all workers should be paid living wages. All workers deserve to be treated fairly and compensated fairly. All workers deserve safe, productive, and fair working environments—end of story.

I’ve been seeing a lot of jokes along the lines of “I didn’t even know media had writers these days,” and while I understand the joke and the potential humor in it, I feel like it’s important to realize that this is entirely why the WGA is striking in the first place.

The writer’s rooms are shrinking. Writers are being overworked. Writers are being underpaid. Writers are being dismissed and undercut. These factors lead to poorly written and poorly managed shows because the individuals who write the bones of the shows are exhausted and burdened by corporate interference, unreasonable deadlines (especially in animation), unfair wages, and stale corporate agendas.

Additionally, these writers often aren’t given the opportunity to oversee or manage their writing while it’s being filmed. Instead, companies are acting as if the writing process ends before the filming process so that they can shorten the writer's contracts and pay them less. However, in actuality, the writing process is often most valuable during the filming process. 

Some things work on paper but don’t work on the day. Maybe the joke doesn’t land, or an actor can’t deliver the line as intended. Writers are needed on set to rework and revise these lines, so the process can run smoother without sacrificing story and believability. Now some actors are incredible at improvising and can make these things work. However, overall, without writers on set, you usually end up with awkward/stiff dialogue or scenes that make no sense. Writing doesn’t stop in the writers' room.

Another massive force driving this strike is the evolution of streaming services. 

With “traditional” tv reruns, the network airing the media has to purchase the viewing rights of the episode or the show. This money is then extended to the people who worked on the show in the form of residuals. It makes sense. Something you worked on makes money, so in turn, you get money. 

However, streaming services have broken this mold by allowing consumers to watch whatever media whenever they want. Streaming services claim that it is no longer possible to pay residuals for these shows since they don’t know how often or when the shows are being watched. This is a lie.

Companies will brag privately in shareholder's meetings and publicly in articles about streaming shows that have done well. We’ll read headlines like “Stranger Things’ Was Most-Streamed TV Show in 2022” or “‘Star Wars’ vs. Marvel: Which Disney+ Shows Are Most-Viewed.” These articles and the data within them prove it is possible to know how frequently shows/movies are being watched on streaming services. Still, companies are only willing to shell out this information for bragging rights and not for fair payments.

In 2021, Disney CEO Bob Chapk earned $32 million. In contrast, the WGA website states, “Median weekly writer-producer pay has declined 4% over the last decade. Adjusting for inflation, the decline is 23%.” These writers are merely asking for 3%, while CEOs are given the moon.

This is unacceptable.

If you’re reading this post, if you’re on Tumblr and engaging with fandoms enough to have this post written by me, a Star Wars blog, circulate on your feed, media writing has affected your life. Writers have impacted you and your daily routine and hobbies. 

You should care about this strike. You should be supporting this strike. 

We all want our favorite shows to come back, we all want to reunite with our favorite characters, and we all want to see their stories, their triumphs, and their struggles. 

But the real people behind these stories and behind these characters are far more important than any fictional narrative. 

These writers have crafted the worlds and stories we love, and by supporting them, we can return the favor and craft a better world for them too.

[thrashyraccoon]

Patch (Eddie Munson x metalhead!reader)

Summary: You buy a Christmas present for Eddie.

Warnings: none.

The holidays were approaching and you were wondering what to buy your boyfriend as a gift. You didn't have much time because it was a week until Christmas. Your thoughts landed on Eddie's combat jacket as you remembered how many times he had praised your jacket and the number of patches on it. You're not surprised at all, his jacket was quite "naked" compared to yours, if I could put it that way, because it was decorated only with a few patches on the front and a few pins. There was absolutely nothing on the back. Focusing on this thought, you decided to go to a music store selling vinyl and cassettes in Hawkins. Due to the fact that it was the only music store, there were quite a lot of musical genres, from Michael Jackson to Black Sabbath. At first glance, it didn't look like they sold metal band patches there, but you've bought patches here a few times before. You saw the salesperson hiding them behind the counter because of the various customers milling around the store. You approached the salesperson and asked the classic question about patches. Despite the newer assortment, the selection wasn't too huge, but you finally decided on one large Dio patch from the album "The last of the line". You were lucky because of the larger ones there were only two patches. This one from Dio and the other from Metallica's album "Kill em all". You really liked the other one, but you only had money for a patch for Eddie. When you saw her, you knew this would be it. Eddie loves Dio very much, including this particular album, which the boy calls the best of the band's entire discography (even though it was 1984 and his discography was not large yet). You were already heading towards the entrance when you saw Eddie enter the same store. You packed this patch into your bag so quickly, not even knowing it was possible. When he saw you, he was as surprised and slightly stressed as you were at that moment.

“Hi, baby,” he gives you an awkward smile, “What are you doing here on this oh-so-cold day?”

"Well… I decided to go for a walk, see the… new assortment, but there's nothing interesting, you know," you answer him with a similarly awkward smile as his. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at band practice today?"

"I should, but we finished early today… but I had to… come get a present… for Wayne… you know… I wanted to buy… a vinyl record" you admit that you rarely see someone so awkward, but at this point you wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"Oh yeah? Well then I hope you find something."

"Me too…me too," he replies, looking away.

"You know, I'd like to talk to you more, but I still have to look for gifts for my parents, so you know…"

"I see, it was nice meeting you."

“I love you too,” you smile before giving Eddie a quick kiss on the cheek and walking towards the door. Jeez, you really were terrible at improvising.

…

A week passed and you were already at Eddie's. You decided to meet Eddie one day after Christmas at his place. Even though you suggested that the boy spend Christmas Eve together, Eddie insisted that he would rather spend the entire Christmas Eve with Wayne. You're not surprised because, after all, it's his closest plus, even though your parents accepted Eddie and already considered him their new son, your extended family, not necessarily. You were currently sitting on your boyfriend's bed with your eyes closed, waiting for him to let you know when you could open them.

"Okay, you can open it." you hear Eddie coming towards you. You open your eyes and see him holding a medium-sized red gift bag. "Happy Christmas".

You smile as you accept the gift. You bend down to give him a gift. "Merry Christmas, darling"

"So," he begins to say, "who unwraps first?"

"Maybe you?"

"No, I'd rather it be you." You start laughing and then say after a while

"Okay, why don't we unpack them together?"

"Actually, that's a good idea." You both start unwrapping your gifts from each other. You take a gift out of the bag and you see a patch, that patch you saw in the store a week ago, which makes you laugh, as does the metalworker sitting next to you.

"I can't believe we thought the same thing."

"I'm impressed too, honey," he says before giving you a kiss, "When I saw this patch, I thought it would be perfect for you. I know how much you love Metallica."

"I also made my choice based on how much you love Dio," you say, and then it dawns on you, "Wait… did you buy it the same day we met at the music store?"

"I guess so," he laughs, "We had good timing, it turns out."

"And you told me you were buying a present for Wayne, didn't you?" you say, feigning outrage, and you inhale dramatically. "Did you lie to me?"

"And you were just there to see the new range?" Eddie clearly gets your game and continues.

"Oh no, you can't avoid the answer, Munson," you laugh, climbing onto the boy's lap, stealing a passionate kiss from him.

"Well, turns out we're both liars, honey." he says, wrapping his arms around your waist, "what do we do with this fact?"

“Well…” you get off his lap, heading towards a nearby chair in his room where his combat jacket is, to which Eddie is slightly confused. "We can sew our new patches onto our jackets right away." You smile, tossing him the jacket.

"You know what?" he says, slightly resigned, but also amused, "Okay, you're in charge here, sweetheard."

I don't know if I'm satisfied with what I created, but this idea was in my head and since I wrote that I would write it, that's what I did. I know the holidays are over, but I can at least wish you a happy new year. As usual, I'm waiting for your opinions on this fanfic.

[painting-warhammer]

Solitaire in the style of Vriska Serket (Homestuck)

Just in time for 4/13! Commentary under cut.

The Lessons Learned

#1: Learn As Much As You Can Before Letting Your Mini Anywhere Near A Brush

As first figures go, this was honestly not as bad as it could have been, but I am an outlier. (and the second figure would be much worse.) Since the proverbial canvas was so expensive, it was a lot of "measure twice, cut once."

This was the main thing I used, and save for the face looking like chewed-up bubblegum, it came out relatively okay for a first try. Overall, this guy's a legend and this would be far from the only video of his I would reference.

#2: It's Okay To Be Inspired

What really hooked me on Warhammer in general is that you can paint things in your style. This is appealing at first, but if you're not an artist, you're going to be exposed quickly in the worst way possible, and that's by the color wheel theory. If you don't understand contrast and coomplements, all the technique in the world won't save your figure from looking like an eyesore.

This is where "established" characters that you are mimicking end up being your saving grace. If canon material is your bag, that works: You certainly won't lack as far as exact guides then! But in my opinion, you learn a bit more by improvising and trying to make something similar to an established character. Chances are they're popular because they have an appealing color scheme. As it happens, Vriska's various blue motifs really complement her orange, which is something I never realized way back when.

Also, reinterpretation was inevitable. I had initially considered freehanding the sun symbol on her lapel, but when everything was smaller than my pinkie, I just settled for making her jewels yellow. The real masterstroke was taking the Harlequin's Kiss weapon and recoloring it as the Warhammer (oh hey) of Vrillyhoo.

I just took the general colors and used Spiritstone Red on the rounded bits, and made something analogous to it. It's still the neatest part, imo.

#3: The Best Way To Start

For every color, I had a swatch. I had one base color, which I then doused in a shade, and then added one layer paint as the main color and one shade lighter for highlights.

#4: How To Make A Shiny Figure

There's a special paint called Ardcoat that puts a glossy texture on, but something that's a little more muted that gives a shine is... shade paint! I didn't shake the paint pot enough and created a fun glossy texture that you can see on her knee. (I learned how I accidentally did this by asking at my local Warhammer shop, lol)

#5: Don't Be Afraid To Make Mistakes

I'm sure there's more than just this wrong with this figure, but the Solitaire is supposed to be leaping off that little rock there. There were glyphs where I was able to put in a glowing line of Baharroth Blue that was watery enough that it filled in the little gaps on its own. It looked fantastic once...

Unfortunately, I overfilled my brush and it sloughed over into the other creases and ruined the whole effect. I also slopped Mordant Earth onto the stones and made it too ugly.

But that's just it. As much prep work as I was going in with, there was always going to be a mistake, and on a personal psychic level it feels bad when you make it. It ruins a whole day of painting lol. And you can't really stop those emotions, but you should at least try.

#6: You're Not Married To Your Army

It's inevitable that getting your first figure leads you to think about a whole army of them, but I had this distaste in my mouth when I thought about making more than one Vriska. For one, I didn't like any of the other Harlequins or Aeldari, or more importantly, I couldn't think of fun color schemes for them. The thought came to mind to make the ships similar to the Batterwitch/Condesce, but they were too similar color-wise (and even in the symbology!) where it just felt redundant. I get a special kick out of making something different from the boxart, because that's the point in my opinion.

I coped for a while: Green stuff or 3D print horns for the other figures to make them trolls? Suck it up and just use Vriska's color scheme for the others? In the end, I just gave up and called this a practice run. This is still my favorite figure. I'm just happy the first one turned out so nicely, relatively speaking, so I don't really have a lump of paint surrounding what was once a figure like a lot of first-time painters.

But no worries. Because I'd definitely fuck up the next one. 😅 That's for a new post.

[faretheeoscar]

PROMISE ME MIGUEL…

*Warnings this is long just for being an explanation to my fan art drawing for Non Violent Communication fic of @greensagephase *

Apologies for any mistakes I might have made,I wrote this on a plane hehehe

So a couple of days ago I had this dream about Peter and Miguel meeting each other, keeping the to the canon of NVC in mind that Peter is gone (my heart aches for Peter and I’m having a full brainrot rn)

I can’t remember the full details about it so I’m gonna improvise a bit, but in general this is how it went. (in general the premise was that Miguel got to talk to Peter, it was in a dream, the same dreams he has with his family when Gabriel, his mom or Gaby come to visit him in his dreams.)

Cue the dream and the brain rot!

——————

Miguel have been tossing around all night, he have been getting conflicted about his feelings about you, how they started to develop which each passing day, at the beginning he was reluctant to even acknowledge you as his friend cause he was afraid of loosing you, but then everything changed, it’s been 2 wonderful years of what he thinks it’s the most amazing friendship of his life, there’s no one like you, he feels comfort around you, something he had only had with his family, and nowadays it’s not an unfamiliar feeling for him to consider you as the closest person he has in his life.

The thing is that recently his thoughts have been diverted in another direction, you both have been in certain situations that made his heart beat faster than normal, he has been noticing your smile, the way your eyes sparkle every time you look up at him, the way you do a little scrunch on your nose when you think and stick out the tip of your tongue when you are concentrating, his thoughts have led him to think to you in other ways more than a friendship, made him crave to be closer to you, to be more…

But Miguel is conflicted, he doesn’t want to risk the only thing that is a constant in his life, specially not knowing if you are maybe feeling the same thing that he is feeling, he knows something in the air has changed, he can sense it, but still he doesn’t want to put anything in line, that’s why Miguel has been distancing himself from you for a little, he has stopped pairing you up with him on the team missions cause he gets nervous that he’ll screw up and say something he wouldn’t, hell today he was so nervous to be around you that he has cancelled his Saturday dinner with you, and he’s not only nervous about how you might feel about him, there’s other thing that bothers him deeply… and it’s your past, he knows you have had your own hard journey to heal, and he has helped you in what he can first, as a boss, then as a friend and now… he wants to help you with your heart, the thing is that, he has never ever wanted to insult Peter’s memory, and that’s what scares him the most about this situation, that’s why he has gotten in an anxious state when he is trying to rest, he tosses and turns on his bed, he has been like this for two weeks now, not even being able to sleep with your hoodie cause it causes him an amount of fear and guilt that he doesn’t know where it comes from, maybe it’s also the same insecurities he has regarding about thinking… no, not thinking, wanting to be in a relationship again.

Miguel is in front of his monitors this being another night when he tries to get these thoughts away from his head distracting himself with job, but tonight his head is pumping, he hears a slight beep on his ears, the sleep depravation is getting to him, he even feels that he eventually will pass out with exhaustion, a thing that doesn’t take long to happen as he suddenly feels his knees weakening, his brain quickly responds to it in a flight or fight situation and he hangs on to the closest surface attempting not to fall, but suddenly everything goes black for him.

Miguel opens his eyes and blinks but he’s not in his lab, somehow he’s now at your house, spread out on the couch, his head doesn’t still hurts and he feels heavy, there’s a soft hum on the living room, billie holiday plays in a very soft volume, the scratch of the record it’s soothing and helps him with the head ache, he feels his heart warming at the thought of being at your place again, but as he regains his senses he feels the couch, it isn’t the same couch that is now at your apartment, it’s the old one…

Miguel looks at the soft old fabric and touches it with his fingertips wondering what the old couch is doing there, he tries to sit down on the couch and he notices your apartment is also on the same configuration you used to have it, the old bookshelves are there, almost breaking by the weight of the books in them, your old pictures and not the new ones… something weird is happening, this moments are when he curses about not having a spider sense to sense, not knowing if he’s in imminent danger or to be able to read the room he’s in, all his worries get answered when a soft masculine voice comes from behind him.

“Oh hey there, you’re finally awake!” Peter says as he looks at him smiling leaning on the pilar next to the kitchen.

That’s the answer, he’s dreaming.

It’s a very vivid dream and he starts to be a bit insecure that something might happened to him just like when he saw his family, but this couldn’t be like that, cause why on earth would he be seeing Peter on his dream.

“Relax Miguel, you’re safe, you just passed from exhaustion, but you’re fine” Peter chuckles as he offers him some coffee and sits down next to him in the couch maintaining a safe distance.

“You…know me?” Miguel’s eyebrows furrows as he looks at Peter, he’s still not sure how he is in his dream or why does Peter knows him if it’s really a sort of apparition like the one he saw of his family.

“Of course I know you Miguel, you might think I don’t know you, but you’ll be surprised of how much I actually know about you” Peter chuckles and relaxes on the couch as he says that, as if he was talking to an old friend.

Miguel’s mind starts working a million miles per hour, if this is really Peter, if somehow he is really talking to him those that means that, have you really been talking about him to Peter? Of course maybe he could see you as he took care of you, just like his family did for him, just like Gabriel, his mom and Gabriela were in his dreams, perhaps he was in your dreams too. Miguel was pretty sure Peter was always looking out for you.

“Really?”

Peter nods his head and smiles softly at him.

“Yeah, you see, I look down to her, I protect her from here, take this as my own HQ and my monitors are that old tv over there” Peter jokes as he motions at the exact copy of his old apartment he shared with you.

“No, but in all seriousness, she has told me everything about you, she always talks to me when she gets the chance, when she leaves flowers at the cemetery, when she feels alone, when she dances in the living room…” Peter can’t help but chuckle as a wide and tender smile appears on his face, he of course has never stopped loving you, you were… are his everything and will always be,before he gets distracted more by the thought of you he shakes his head and continues talking to Miguel, after all he is here with him for something important.

“She always talks to me about your friendship with her, about everything you do together from the small little things like the morning coffees, to the big things like Christmas or new years celebrations, your missions, she is always so happy when she talks about you…”

Peter gives Miguel a knowing look that makes Miguel a bit uncomfortable for a second, it’s not his plan to intimidate him or anything, but he can’t help his playful nature.

“She has told me about your dinner weekly traditions, about the food you prepare for each other, the evenings talking and listening to records while enjoying cafe de olla and pan dulce”

This makes Miguel think, the fact that you talked to Peter about everything you two always do, from biggest things like the missions to the smallest things like your traditions of cafe de olla and pan de dulce shouldn’t really surprise him, cause he also tells his family all about them, when he speaks to Gabriel before going to sleep or when his mind drifts and he pictures another reality with his family there, where you are in there too, when he pictures a big family dinner and you two talking about the smallest of things as everybody gathers on the table to eat; in his fantasies he talks to Gabriela about the music and movies you show him from your universe, he talks to his mom about the recipes you share together, and lately he confides to Gabriel about his confusing feelings towards you. Miguel knows the sentiment of speaking to his loved ones about the important things in life even when they are not there anymore, so that makes him sure that you talk to Peter like he talks to his family, but the fact that you eagerly talk about him with Peter, brings a small blush to his cheeks, that he hides drinking some of the coffee Peter offered him earlier.

“I hope you don’t mind that I seem to know a lot about you” Peter smiles softly at Miguel and he shakes his head giving him a soft smile in return.

“Of course not Peter, and same goes to you, that I do hope you don’t mind I also know a lot of things about you either”

Miguel starts thinking about all the times you have shared information with him about Peter, when you have shared memories of your time with him while he was still with you.

Peter nods at him,.”It’s alright” he looks at Miguel as he sees that his mind goes somewhere else, he’s worried about being there with him alone, he knows why Miguel is here with him, he knows the purpose of his brief visit, Miguel is scared of feeling, scared of opening himself to love again, slowly lifting his walls up again, cause even though he has a lot of fears mainly about how you feel and how he doesn’t want to compete with your memory of Peter, what Miguel fears the most is that he doesn’t think he might be good enough for you, that he might be better keeping a distance between the two of you again, building up his walls regarding physical touch that he let slowly crumbled with every spark of electricity and comfort he felt when he got to touch your hand or feel the warmth of your embrace, even though you have showed him and told him that he’s everything and more you could ask to be better, to be happy, he doesn’t think he’s good enough even as a friend, specially cause of his latest actions on keeping distance from you.

“Listen, we are both here to talk about something important, I know how you feel, I know what conflicts your mind and let me tell you, despite what you think of yourself…You’re a good man Miguel”

Peter puts his hand on Miguel’s shoulder and let’s it stay there, his touch only wanting to give Miguel comfort letting him know that is was a valid thing to feel, he sometimes felt when he was alive that maybe he wasn’t enough, but that was a thing that you always reminded him an absurd concept, you always told him, that it was enough for you two to be together, that what you only needed for happiness was to see him smile, same thought that always came to him, your smile, your happiness was the most important thing in the world for him.

“I couldn’t be happier with what you have done for her, how you have help her get through, how you changed her world upside down when you let her in the Spiderverse, im happy that you care for her, that you protect her and even more happier because she’s happy when she’s with you, she’s free, she has a confident, she has a friend to rely on, Im happy Miguel by the fact that she chose you…”

Miguel looked at Peter with big wide eyes, he couldn’t believe how kind he was being with him, but he couldn’t believe either that he told him that you chose him.

“What do you mean?” Miguel asks Peter hesitantly, and it only makes Peter laugh.

“Come on man, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed that she also fell over heels for you,like you did for her”

Peter pats his palm again on Miguel’s shoulder in a friendly way, to try to ease his nerves when he sees him getting tense, letting him know with that gesture that it was totally okay with him.

“The other day… she prayed… she was so confused about everything she was feeling and she reached out to me, at first she was scared when she realised what she felt about you, she was unsure about telling me, she felt a lot of guilt, she… well she prayed for hours, prayed for my forgiveness cause her heart aches to move on, although her head keeps on telling her it’s wrong, but her heart wants to open, wants to get a second chance to love, and she wants you Miguel, she wants to love you”

That statement gives Peter a small heart ache, not by the fact that you fell for someone else, cause he never wanted that, it was the last thing he thought about when it came to you, he knew your heart, how it could love so much and how you can be passionate, caring, sincere, your love is the purest thing he has ever felt and he’s happy that Miguel is probably going to experience it if you two stop playing and let yourselves feel, and that’s what makes his heart ache, the fact that you aren’t letting yourself feel again, that you think you need to ask for his forgiveness, it’s what troubles him, and that’s why he is also with Miguel right now, cause he knows that if he pushes him into the right direction and you see the man that is in front of you and how he cares for you that you’ll understand that is okay to love again.

“All of this talk Miguel, its for me to tell you that, I trust you, I’ve seen how you’ve helped her through the good and the bad, I’ve seen your relationship mix, morph and transform, how you both changed, and how you get the best out of each other” Peter keeps smiling softly at him, getting an immense amount of proud when he thinks how you have changed with Miguel’s help.

“Miguel I want to ask you a favour… remind her? Remind her it’s okay to love, remind her how it feels, how to open her heart to love again, stop dreading what you feel for each other and try”

“I don’t want you to feel guilty about insulting my memory, or to think you’re taking my place, it’s really not the case, I have never want anything more than to see her happy, to see her smile and finally move on, I trust her heart with you, and that’s why I need you to make me the promise to try, to let her know that feeling butterflies in her stomach again is valid, to feel the illusion of love and that her heart is gonna be safe”

Miguel smiles kindly at Peter and nods his head, there’s been a weight lifted up his shoulders, he was so unsure of letting out his feelings for you because he feared to insult Peter’s memory, but now that he got his reassurance from the man himself, he could even start to feel butterflies in his stomach as Peter mentioned them, a small blush creeped towards his cheeks when he basically got Peter’s blessing to be with you.

“I promise I’ll take care of her Peter, take care of her heart”

That’s a promise that Miguel makes to Peter with all his heart, a sentence that he was afraid of saying out loud before, a statement he takes pride in now and wants to fulfil.

“I know you will…”

Peter gets interrupted by a soft voice, your voice calling for him, he can clearly hear it, as he looks around your living room.

“Seems like it’s time for me to go, cause your lady awaits” Peter smiles at the sound of your voice, a slight tone of sadness in his voice as he wishes he could go back like Miguel is going to be doing in a few moments.

“It was very nice to finally get to talk to you Miguel, I admire everything you do” Peter offers his hand to Miguel and shakes it gets up from the couch walking towards the bedroom of the apartment living Miguel alone but before he disappears he looks back at Miguel and adds something else.

“You both have a lot of things coming up in your future, I can’t wait to see you…happy. Now, go get her”

————-

When he opens his eyes again, he’s back in the lab, his head stopped buzzing but his eyes take time to get adjusted to the lights as he blinks.He’s on the floor and a soft warm hand is holding his face, as you cradle his head on your lap trying to wake him up, your eyebrows furrowed and a concerned look in your eyes.

“Miguel, Miguel! Are you okay?” You sigh at the sign of him waking up, your nose scrunches and you try to get his attention to you. “Hey, Miguel, look at me, everything is fine…”

—————

And… scene! Hahaha

In my dream I just remember him explaining to me that he passed out from exhaustion and then everything got blurry as everything led somehow to a romantic confession and me finally getting to kiss him hehehe. 🙈🙈🙈

But yeah, how does this turned into me writing almost 3k words?! idk,my mind went wild, guess this is what happens when the brainrot goes hard.

Anyways Alondra @greensagephase this is just my AU, what happened in my dream, not pressuring or anything with his sort of spin off story of mine lol, hope you enjoy what my brain cooked about Pete and Miguel, but this is all thanks to you and your writing that I got to imagine this scenario 🫶🏼

Ps. I’m including as a bonus the silly expressions I was trying to do of Peter that led me to dream about this and then fully sketch him with Miguel.

[thebibutterflyao3]

Day Seven - Prompt: Improvisation @rosekiller-microfic

March Daily Series - 875 words

<<<Previous Part OR Start Here

After he blocked Barty’s number, Evan buried his face in the pillows and sobbed. He barely held his emotions in check for the entirety of that brief confrontation, until Barty cried out. Ignoring the pain and desperation in his voice were beyond his limits. Evan’s ribs cracked wide open when his heart was wrenched from his chest.

Deep, raspy breaths echoed around him as he plunged his face beneath the pillows. His lungs ached and his throat was swollen shut. This was the first time he’d cried in years and he didn’t know how to make it stop. It was too much for one person to take.

One month in and he’s ruined me. One bloody month.

Four full weeks of Barty “trying so fucking hard.” Of course, Evan noticed the effort. He was thrilled that he’d finally found someone who cared about him enough to try. Knowing that it was really just Barty’s attempt at atonement cheapened everything they had. Or at least, what he thought they had.

Was any of it real? Did it mean anything to him at all?

Evan scrubbed his hands over his face. He didn’t want to believe that Barty would be so callous, but now that he knew the truth, everything was suspect. Every line Barty used, promises that he made, and feelings he shared could be a lie. Their entire relationship was an elaborate improvisation of an apology to Regulus.

What if he hoped to win Regulus back? What if I was just a means to an end?

Unfortunately, it made sense. Evan knew that he didn’t hold up to someone like Regulus. He wasn’t just handsome, he was stunning. Regulus was beautiful in a way that defied reality. Sure, he was often a prick, but he was so pretty!

I can’t blame Barty for wanting him back.

It wasn’t even a blow to his own self-esteem. Evan knew that he was fit, but objectively, he couldn’t compare himself to Regulus when they weren’t competing in the same league. They weren’t even playing the same sport. Barty was a fluke, he wasn’t even Regulus’s type.

Evan patted around the quilt for his mobile. When he found it, he quickly looked up the photos that Pandora sent to him of Regulus’s new boyfriend. James was fit as fuck and she said that they were obsessed with each other. There was no way that Regulus would give him up for Barty, right?

“I would. In a heartbeat,” Evan whispered. He rested his chin on his arm as he swiped through the pictures. “A hockey player? What use is a git like that anyway? He’d bore me in a week, tops. Although, I wouldn’t mind shagging him.”

His phone lit up with a new call and for a moment he considered throwing it. Barty had so many bloody burners to avoid debt calls and set up buys for weed that Evan doubted he could block them all. When Dorcas’s face appeared, he sighed with relief.

“Hi Dorcas.”

“Well, don’t you sound cheery?”

“Not today. What’s up?” he said, grateful she hadn’t FaceTimed.

Dorcas hesitated, then sighed. “I need an unbiased opinion on something and I don’t think either of my flatmates can see past their rose-colored glasses at the moment. Do you have a minute? I think I just need to talk this out.”

“Yeah, go on.”

“So, I heard that my ex is in Wales with the rest of them. She was the DJ at the festival they attended last night and is joining them for the rest of the week. Am I mad to want to meet her there? That’s foolish, right?”

Evan hummed thoughtfully as he considered the situation. He didn’t know much about Dorcas’s ex-girlfriend, other than they broke up because long-distance was too hard. It was rare for Dorcas to reach out to him for advice though, so he was careful with his wording.

“Unless you think seeing her would fix the long-distance issue, I can’t see how it would help.”

Dorcas was silent for a long moment, but he could hear her nails tapping in the background. She wasn’t one for impulsive decisions. It was the primary reason that she and Pandora were friends. They balanced each other out and kept each other in check. Well, it took Regulus and Dorcas to balance out his sister’s level of chaos, really.

“That’s what I thought,” she said finally. “If there was a way, we’d have found it already. I’ll just hurt my own feelings going to see her, then having to leave again.”

“It’s been a while hasn’t it?” Evan prompted. He needed this distraction.

“Yes, a little over a year now. We cut ties a month later because it was too hard to pretend that we were just friends.”

Understandable. Barty and I could never be friends either.

Evan traced the pattern on his quilt with his fingernail as he listened to Dorcas talk about her ex and the shite situation that broke them apart. He agreed when he was meant to and scoffed as expected. Normal couples had such mundane problems. All relationships are challenging at times, but most were rather boring.

Are they actually boring, or have I officially gone ‘round the bend?

Next Part>>>

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #56

I got a wonderful bit of encouragement today from some awesome person on the internet. These letters are indeed for you, but they're also for anyone else who needs them, and I'm very glad to know that, at least for a few people, they are having their intended effect. To be sure, my intended effect is your safety, but it's also for the safety of anyone who can relate to you, or anyone who feels out-of-place, fallen, or alone. I don't know if these will ever really reach you, but if they reach even one person in my world, maybe that's enough.

Of course, I will continue to hope that these will reach you. And I will continue to hope that anyone who is moved by these might find it in their heart to help me to reach you. To be sure, you have to be stopped if you're going to make bad choices that hurt people, but... if it can be at all avoided, I really don't wanna see you die again, and if there's anything at all I can do to in service to that, I'm going to try it, no matter how impossible it seems for someone as small as me to make a difference. Thank you, @not-sephiroth; your words lend me the strength I need to muster up the courage to continue doing this, so if you ever wondered whether or not your voice and your presence have power or whether they are good things in this world - don't. Because they are. 💖

I finished going over all the cracks on the bowl today, and I gotta say, I'm pretty thrilled about the results. The bowl is still covered in residual gold dust and splotches of epoxy in unexpected places (because it gets on my hands and then my hands touch things), so I don't have a suitable picture for you yet. But I will soon, once I use the knife-chisel-scrapey-thing to neaten up the lines and clean up any remaining epoxy splotches.

All told, my fingers have 21 cuts on them from yesterday's use of the knife-chisel-scrapey-thing. Some of them are pretty deep and painful, but that's all right. With any luck, they'll heal quickly - just in time for me to get more of them when it's time for me to use the tool again, hahaha!

At the moment, I'm enjoying a hot mug of tea. It's just ordinary green tea with honey, but we're out of milk right now, so I improvised by using some matcha-flavored ice cream that I still have in the freezer:

I actually had to make two of these, because despite the incredible distance I put between my first jar of it and my workspace, I still somehow managed to get gold dust into it, so I had to dump it out. Oh well. The second jarful is still very good! Can't really complain!

Besides, it's a good excuse to use the matcha ice cream. I'm basically the only one in the house who will eat the stuff. But I have to eat it very slowly, so this stuff has been in the freezer for what feels like forever. Remember when I told you that it's less painful for me to be burned on the stove than to be touched with an ice cube? Well, unfortunately, the same thing applies to ice cream; whenever I eat it, if it's not at least a little bit melty, the whole inside of my face EXPLODES with pain, so the flavor has to be good enough to make up for that (and there aren't too many flavors that can do that, so…). Matcha ice cream comes close to that threshold, so while I can eat a bite or two of that flavor in one sitting and still enjoy it, I think it's still better to use it to sweeten green tea after it's brewed.

I'm assuming that you don't have the whole "cold = pain" glitch that my body's got going on. So I wonder what flavors of ice cream you like best. I'm gonna ask even though I know you can't answer me. I'm gonna ask because your tastes and preferences are worth knowing and considering. I'm gonna ask because maybe you've not thought about it before, and I hope that you will think about it, if only for just a moment.

I thought to do dishes today or weave trees, but as it turns out, I've got too many cuts all over my hands to be able to do that without a lot of pain right now, so I guess I'll… "continue to chill". As you might guess (if you read my letter about the Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant, or if you've gotten an idea about who I am from reading my letters generally), it's a very uneasy sort of "pseudo-chilling" that isn't really chilling. I'm not good at it yet. But I'm gonna try all the same. I'll try it until I become good at it. Some guy who I don't remember once said to me that "anything that is worth doing, is worth doing badly until you can learn how to do it well." And that kinda stuck with me, I guess. It's a good set of words to ponder, whenever I'm getting down on myself for not being immediately amazing at any new thing I wanna try out. It's especially important to extend oneself this kind of grace when one is practicing breaking down one's old conditioning in favor of healthier, more loving behaviors towards the self and others.

There's a kind of shape and flavor my mind tends to take when I am engaged in this version of "not-quite-chilling". I'll see if I can make a playlist to translate it into sound so that you can understand; I don't really have words for it. Here, there are three videos in it:

The first one is approximately, "Hey, yeah! Chillin'! I'm TOTALLY chillin'! Totally! I'm 100% doing the thing!! Check it out! Look at me go! PLEASE BELIEVE ME. AAAAAAAAAAA.", interspersed with the occasional background, "WTF AM I DOING" in the form of the dissonant boops ("boooooopboooooopboooooopboooooop…").

The second one is, approximately, "I am DETERMINED TO CHILL. I am FOCUSED on not letting the existential dread get to me! It is allowed!! We are doing this. We are doing this TODAY. Let's GO…!!!"

And the third one is kinda what the inside of my mind sounds like when I am actually chill. This is rarer, but not nearly as rare as it used to be, because I practice.

I tend to shift between these three basic "phases of chill" anytime I make an attempt. And that's okay. Variety is good.

What does it look like when you chill? Is that a thing you do sometimes, or is that a totally foreign concept to you? I remember when it was a foreign concept to me. But even if the concept is not native to you, you can learn it. It's important to do from time to time because all humans need it (you're human, no matter what you try to tell yourself).

You know what? Maybe one of these days, by some small miracle (impossible, I know. I know…), we can practice chilling together (in the VERY LITERAL sense of the word; I've never understood that other implication - I don't do non-literal, and my opinion on that particular mystery phrase is, "what do you think you're doing?? either watch this season of Steven Universe with me, or go home!"). I'll sit down for a while on the ottoman and play Pokemon or something, and maybe you can sit nearby on a different furniture item and read a book (like an ACTUAL book, not half-crocked and wildly inaccurate reports full of depressing half-truths and outright lies). We don't even hafta talk if you don't wanna. I'll give you a soft, warm blanket, a big hot mug of tea however you like it, a plate of snacks, and a copy of "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende; I think you'd have fun reading that one. Our sofa is particularly comfy and soft; it draws you right in, and if you got sleepy, you could have a nap there without your neck and back getting all ouchy and weird. Can't promise that one of my cats wouldn't try to find a soft, warm spot on your belly to nap on, though - that's just how they are, haha! But maybe you wouldn't hate that. And nobody would bother you; if they tried, they'd have to get through ME first, and believe me, that is a FAR more terrifying prospect than anyone might assume at first glance.

Anyhoot. I'll probably end this letter here for today. I can't see anything earth-shattering or important happening today, and if I keep going, I'm gonna ramble because my mind is actively trying to do literally anything except for chill.

You're loved. You're wanted. You're cared for. You're needed. You matter. Your existence is a good thing. Start acting like it. And start treating yourself like it. Against all odds, I am trying to learn how to do all this and documenting it in these letters, at least in part so that I can model the process for you. If you wanna save your world, fix your mistakes, and learn new things, you gotta be at your full strength, and you can't be at your full strength if you're too busy self-loathing, neglecting your self-care, or beating yourself up over something.

I'll write to you again tomorrow. Eat something tasty and hydrate with something wholesome and refreshing in the meantime, okay?

Your friend, Lumine

[ladydragonkiller]

I've been re-listening to some early tma and noticed some interesting lines from episode 2 with everybody's fave Joshua Gillespie.

everyone loves him because he just decided he was going to live with the coffin. improvise adapt overcome. wake up finding you're opening the spooky lock? freeze the key. he got so used to the big ole moaning coffin chilling in the living room that it didn't even freak him out anymore

(image ID: screenshot of the transcript of MAG 002: Do Not Open, reading as follows: I lived like that for almost a year and a half. It’s funny how fear can just become as routine as hunger – at a certain point I just accepted it. My first clue that my time keeping the coffin was coming to an end was when it began to rain and there was silence.)

but as I was chilling along with him, I realized that some of this seemed familiar. in fact, it rung a bell in my head connected to one of the episodes that is generally considered the scariest from tma. that's right - 086: Tucked In

(Image ID: screenshot of the transcript of MAG 086: Tucked In, reading as follows: Last night I woke up like before. I sensed it there, but as I raised the covers over my head, I realized that I wasn’t worried. Fear had given way to routine. I lay there, warm and protected, and simply waited to fall back to sleep. But this time, what I felt instead was a sudden weight pressing down on the end of my bed.)

Benjamin Hatendi handled the situation pretty similarly to Joshua Gillespie! He had a terrifying thing happening to him, slowly got used to it, and there is NO REASON that his circumstances worsened while Josh got off scot-free

and honestly, that just makes things scarier. tma has a big theme of arbitrary things happening that just screw someone right over, with no rhyme or reason to them. it's even just said out-right in 160!

(Image ID: screenshot of the transcript of MAG 160: The Eye Opens, reading as follows: It does tickle me, that in this world of would-be occult dynasties and ageless monsters, the Chosen One is simply that – someone I chose. It’s not in your blood, or your soul, or your destiny. It’s just in your own, rotten luck.)

of course, the web contradicts this imagery somewhat. there isn't a lot less random than "giant metaphysical spider puppeting around all the events to make things go according to plan". but that's only one out of 15 entities, so I think the idea holds

don't really have a meaningful conclusion to all of this, just a bunch of thoughts that I wanted to exorcise from my head.