#d; texting hell

[mycorrhizastar]

The 2nd installment of my Oops All Girls big gay Dragon and Unicorn comic is available as a digital download on my Patreon for $2+ subscribers.

Forest Fire: The Summoner's Song follows Peristeria, a witch currently working at a salve making workshop that supplies the unicorn side of the war effort, and shares a border with the Great Forest. Peri is disillusioned with her work and something lurks on the border of the woods that promises her an escape.

The print version of this comic was originally created for MCAF 2025, which has since passed. More stories to come as I get into more local festivals, markets, and expositions :)

[doink-boink]

Most of these are Zach LMAO, a lot of things happened to him in this episode. Gifs from the Komodo Dragon episode!! Of course, made with @novazentryx

[symbologic]

Soul-Bound in Wano: The Spooky Simpatico of Luffy and Zoro

Just finished Wano, and wow. I'm surprised there isn't more talk about the crazy parallels between Luffy and Zoro throughout the arc, but especially the raid. It's like Oda was trolling us with how perfectly they mirror each other in places.

Of course, there's the whole shared "wandering samurai" theme in Acts I and II, and then there's the heartwarming scene with them both freaking out over spilled soup. (Side note: I wouldn't be shocked if Zoro's anime-only sake scene was stuff Oda had to cut from the manga – it totally fits Oda's style with Zoro.)

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've got a ton of other stuff too:

Zoro uses Conqueror's Haki to injure Kaido because they're all desperate? Boom, Luffy digs deep and starts doing it too.

Zoro gets bandaged up like a mummy? Well, guess who can't move because he fell in the ocean?

Both of them get their own team of doctors? How lucky!

Zoro gets revived with an injection? Here comes Luffy, fueled by some meat!

Zoro declares he'll become a GOD if that's what it takes? 🤔 Makes you wonder what that means for Luffy...

Death himself shows up for Zoro? Not good! Now Luffy's literally in cardiac arrest! Speaking of, Zoro's looking rough. Those sunken eyes, man...

Thank god they're both too stubborn to die. And guess what? They get put right next to each other, while people pray for them to wake up

And wouldn't you know it, they wake up at the EXACT SAME TIME

This can't just be a coincidence, right? It feels like they're on some spooky, soul-bound level where Zoro's fate weirdly determines Luffy's. Which actually slots so, so neatly into Wano and its recurring themes of fate! Hell, Oda himself even said in an SBS (the one about Zoro's family tree) that Zoro's story is that of a strange, twisted fate he's completely clueless about.

Honestly, I love that for them.

Zoro might not get a whole arc dedicated to his backstory like Nami, Robin, or Sanji. But the choices he makes carry a surprising amount of weight in the grand scheme of things.

[keeps-ache]

YOU HAVE TRIED.

[sysig]

Flowey has become my on-theme spacefiller and he’s so happy about it (Patreon)

[universalthaumaturge]

so. chapter 5 huh.

[pocketgalaxies]

bh does really like to get eaten and chewed

[raikkonenvettels]

c'eri nei giorni neri quelli che piove troppo forte per stare in piedi e fottevamo anche la morte volando leggeri mi hai chiesto dimmi cosa temi in che cosa credi la mia risposta sei tu

ricordi by pinguini tattici nucleari

[aropride]

trying to draw lines of who's queer and who's not is unhelpful and a waste of time and i find it's an impossible task to categorize something as uncategorizable as attraction and identity. i've started thinking of it as more of a sociopolitical label as well as an identity label, and in my opinion that's a lot more useful than sitting around trying to decide if a guy who's only ever been attracted to women and ryan reynolds counts as queer or not. because i feel like if, for instance, a straight cis man who does drag and regularly engages in trans activism and sits down with his state senator to discuss making trans sanctuary laws or whatever. wants to identify as queer. i don't really care? i don't think that affects anyone negatively. i think if someone's involved in queer activism and the queer community and they want to use the word queer for themselves i think that's fine and i think it's not any of my business.

also there's this tendency, especially online, for people to go "well what if an allocishet person uses the word queer for themself even though they arent!" and that doesn't feel like a helpful thing to worry about because like.. what if? who is really getting hurt if a gender nonconforming cishet person identifies as queer? or a woman with two husbands? i saw a post along the lines of "we've got straight girls calling themselves fagdykes this is why inclusionism is bad" and i mean. first of all i genuinely just do not believe that. i don't think there are cishet women calling themselves fagdykes. i don't think people who wouldn't be considered queer by cishet society are often proudly declaring themselves part of the queer community in general. people don't paint targets on their backs for fun. i think it's much more likely that the person they were mad at was nonbinary or bi or otherwise queer. but even if they were, like. if for some reason a completely cis completely straight woman wanted to reclaim slurs for herself, she probably has a reason for that. and it's not really our business anyway.

and i think if someone actually is "only identifying as queer to infiltrate queer spaces and cause discord and hurt people," i think that's a them problem, not a "person who uses labels i don't fully get" problem. and i don't think that happens often except for possibly in discord servers, and i think that's generally called "lying" and "being an asshole."

whenever i see stuff trying to draw a line on who's queer and who's not, whether this person can say fag or not, whether it's okay for this person to use they/them pronouns or not, whatever. "are polyamorous people queer?" "can a cis guy use they/them pronouns?" i think of ace/aro exclusionism and bi exclusionism and nonbinary exclusionism. because the arguments sound the same. something about not being "oppressed enough," about "stealing resources" (what resources?), about "well these ones are okay but those ones aren't," about fakers, about people reclaiming slurs they can't use, about how they're "making us look bad," how they're "not queer enough," whatever. and i think it's petty and useless and pretty stupid when we're in the face of a rise in violent transphobia to focus on that instead of actual problems.

i had a friend in high school who talked about how she doesn't understand sexuality and gender and gender roles because she's autistic. she was a lot like me in that we'd both pick at strict definitions of things like "queer" or "trans" and find exceptions to common strict definitions until they fell apart entirely. and she identified with just her name, not trans, not nonbinary, not cis either. not bi or pan or ace or aro or anything else, and not straight. just herself. and she was fully accepting of me and other queer people in our life and was involved in queer activism and was actively deradicalizing her mom from radfem ideology. i don't know if she identified as queer then or if she does now, but if she did/does, i don't see why she shouldn't. i don't think it'd be my place to tell her not to.

i don't know. i just think if someone wants to consider themself queer it's not my business why. because they probably have a good reason. and i think trying to define something like queerness is an impossible task, and i think there's better things to do. it's not hurting anyone for someone you or i see as allocishet to identify as queer for whatever reason. sometimes you don't have to understand the intricacies of someone's identity and life story and why they use certain words for themselves.

[le-jardin-inculte]

don't mind me just thinking about

and

something something the mortifying ordeal of being Perceived

[squirting-sub]

Told them I'm not made for being dominant and they replied with "You're made for kneeling in front of me and pleasing me.".

[symbologic]

Luffy vs. Zoro at Whiskey Peak

Unpopular opinion maybe, but the Luffy vs. Zoro clash in Whiskey Peak made sense for their characters. You could even argue that it was bound to happen, given their personalities.

Luffy likes the people who feed him. In the the face of their suffering, no matter who's responsible, he's too angry to concern himself with the reasons behind it. Zoro, on the other hand, prefers to handle things independently without saying much about it, especially if it means his crew gets to enjoy themselves a little longer

So it's not really surprising that Luffy would be blindsided by finding their hosts cut up by his swordsman, and that this would send him flying into a fit of rage. If he's never paused to listen to context or backstories before now, why would he start here? And of course, Zoro is not the type to back down from a challenge. He will match Luffy's energy and respond in kind

"But if Luffy were a good captain, he would have stopped to listen to Zoro's side of the story." Vivi tells him he's a bad captain two arcs later, precisely because of this kind of behavior. It clearly leaves an impression on Luffy, and we see he's grown into a better leader by the time he reaches Amazon Lily. (Almost as if Oda set all this development up on purpose with Whiskey Peak. HMM...)

"But Luffy refused to believe that Nami had killed Usopp in Arlong Park." This argument is like comparing apples to oranges. Nami did not actually do the murder that Johnny and Yosaku claim they saw, nor is she capable of killing people in cold blood. Of course Luffy isn't going to believe Nami killed Usopp based on hearsay. But in Whiskey Peak, Zoro did cut those bounty hunters. Luffy sees the evidence for himself, and he knows the carnage Zoro is capable of inflicting once he puts his mind to it. There is no denying what happened. Nothing other than Zoro saying "someone else did this" (or Nami knocking the soul out of him) was going to stop Luffy from going ballistic

"Why would Luffy fight so hard to recruit Zoro into his crew, firmly believing that he wasn't a bad person, only to later attack him because he believed Zoro was capable of harming 'innocent' people?" Because the fight was never about whether their hosts were "innocent" or not, not really. Their fight was about what Zoro did (assaulting the ones who fed them), and how those actions made Luffy feel (mad as hell, because these people FED THEM) For Luffy, context did not actually matter at that moment in time because, for him, "they fed me" unequivocally means "they're my friend", full stop This is even shown again in Mocktown! Both when Luffy unquestioningly eats an apple from Doc Q, and when Bellamy buys Luffy a drink in Mocktown. In the first case, Luffy only lived because he was lucky. And in the second case, he assumes Bellamy is a good person despite all evidence to the contrary, only to have his face brutally smashed into the bartop by Bellamy. Luffy is shockingly bad at reading people who try to feed him.

Luffy has interpersonal conflicts with all the core members from East Blue at different times. The fight with Zoro is the only one instigated by Luffy. But surprisingly, their fight highlights their similarities instead of their differences. They still fight equally and work together against BW agents who try to interfere with their fight.

I think that's what Oda wanted to showcase with this scene.

In short, Luffy's initial anger stemmed from his protectiveness towards those who have fed him, while Zoro's actions were driven by his dedication to the crew and subsequent refusal to back down from Luffy's challenge. It was a clash resulting from miscommunication and misunderstanding, something that is not typically a problem for them — until it suddenly becomes one When all is said and done, they're both quick to forgive and forget. This, too, is fitting for both their characters. From that point onward, Zoro continues to demonstrate that Luffy's trust is not misplaced. And Luffy never, ever doubts Zoro again after this

[elecman108]

The Chosen: The Universes most dangerous living weapons who are known for their blood lust and the terror campaigns of the Elders... err... but this group of them were the ones who ran way and hid like cowards, but lived. Who's the biggest fool now, Elders? Ha!

-

I know I already posted a line up similar to this earlier, but now that I have all the colours finished, I felt like putting them all together again.

I love my 20 war weapons (+1 guy who got processed later) (+1 honourary Chosen) who are unsettling to a lot of people. <3

Lore and added notes under the cut, per usual.

---

First...

Alternate version of the line up with Seunna disguised as Ashley Foster, the Commander of an anti-Extra-Terrestrial-Invasion Military of humans. The irony of her, a former-Elder-now-Chosen (We'll get there) and, most importantly, an extra-terrestrial, is the leader of said Military, but don't worry about it. They assume she's a human unless told otherwise. She's just... very Psionic.

So... The Chosen. They are wildly different if you line them all up together, but there are some notes of consistency, no?

...In their facial scarring! It's obvious looking at the face of a Chosen as to which Elder made them. The above are Neylor, Mordenna, Reue, and Khomain. There are no alterations of the scarring within a singular "family" of Chosen. Although... of the above, I have them ordered in a specific way: Hunter and Blossom are not related and not family, neither are Fang and Void despite being made by the same Elder. On the other hand, Nazira and Zafar are twin siblings, and Sis and Warlock are blood related depite... not looking the part, really. What gives?

In the case of Nazira and Zafar, they were siblings prior to their processing. In the case of Sis and Warlock, they also were siblings... although in this case, it was by adoption, but the processing as Chosen made them blood-related. It's complicated.

There are three notable people who don't have facial scarring, though.

...Namely Nash, Seunna, and Theo! Each have unique situations that make them fit under the umbrella-race of Chosen, mind you.

Nash has... been through hell. Prior to joining the Aubosians and being revived by Ender, he was mentally processed to be an assassin, got killed once, revived as a zombie, given powers he couldn't control, died again, and then was revived by Ender. Problem was... Ender revived his ass on Aubosia, meaning they had no body and just stole is soul from halfway across the Universe. So how was that done? Ender used the gibs of a dead Flux Beast to make Nash. Technically, by biological logistics, Nash isn't Human anymore. But he is. But he... isn't? It's complicated. He has other characteristics of being a Chosen (notably being unstable and generally aggressive), so the Chosen decided as a group to adopt him into their umbrella-race and gave him not only Chosen gear, but a Chosen Title, being Shadow.

Seunna is a former Elder. The Elders made the Chosen. That already is a murky area, so... Essentially, several Elders processed Seunna into a Chosen, and Seunna's own strong psionics negated the other Elders' psionic scarring, so she escaped with no facial scars. If another of Seunna's Chosen lived on, they'd have scars from her psionics. Upon becoming a Chosen, Seunna no longer would be able to make a Chosen with facial scarring, though, but then again, Seunna only processed a grand total of three Chosen, all of which having died early on into the war, so she gets a pass by the other Chosen who hate the Elders vehemently.

Theo is actually genetically modified by the same process that made the Chosen formerly! But why doesn't he have scarring? For the same reason that Seunna couldn't make another Chosen with scarring, Theo was processed by another Chosen, that was then killed (I haven't really settled on which one, but they are a dead one). So Theo has psionics and (new) weird abilities, but because it was another Chosen and he is Aubosian, he kept his appearance without modifications. Aubosian blood, even if one is formerly from off-world like Theo is, tends to keep someone's form consistent as best as it can. That's how Aubosian cloning works.

But... Wait. Theo kept his appearance? And the Chosen are unsettling? Why?

Fang is an Avatar, like Akira, and Blossom and Charon are Zudjari, like Myuut. They are some of the most minor changes - Fang has eyes, which Avatars don't have, along with long ears. As for Blossom, she has no ears (which aren't really visible), and Charon is inexplicably blonde, which is not a hair colour that Zudjari have.

I mean if you line up the Chosen with members of the Advent branch, like Sol and Thossia, their outfits at least match. The Advent are a big fan of black and red when it comes to fashion. Also, given how wild some of the races are in the Triad Council, their off looks don't really... stand out. Unless you put them next to ones of their own (former) races.

Nazira and Zafar are Niternians, much like Cipher and Theo. Their skin tone is notably... washed out and green. Hyperion is a Floran, like Tawunya and Jasmine (I haven't coloured Jasmine yet though), but... His hair is strangely actual hair, and he has actual ears. His eyes are also a little odd.

At least the largest group of living Chosen, being all formerly Ethereals, look consistent with other Ethereals given how weird a lot of them look... Wait... Why is Cipher here again? Don't worry about him, he's... interesting. Although, speaking of odd... There are still odd notes - Warlock is huge, Dreamweaver has a mask over her entire face, Banshee's eyes are mostly purple, and... actually, Prophet looks just like a normal Ethereal until you realize she is also one who has no ears, and just holes in the sides of her head.

There are some VERY obvious weirdos, though.

...And since I don't have any others of their former race to pull up, here they are with notes. Handmaiden is a humanoid, but formerly a Chryssalid, which is... a six-limbed insectoid race. And not blue. She does have eyes like a Chryssalid would have, though.

Codex have full covering armour, much like Andromedons (see Void), but their skin is solid grey, which... clearly isn't what Hex has. She looks more like a human than a Codex, but she's a Codex!

Hylotl tend to have 3+ eyes, but Headliner just has... two. Also she has no fins, and despite the gills on her torso, she cannot breathe underwater. That's an ability she lost through her processing.

As for Avians, they're a humanoid bird species like Aarakokra, which means beaks. Angel... has no beak. Or nose, for that matter. And her green body isn't feathers, but skin. Her wings are feathers though.

So... Yeah. The Chosen are, essentially, a genetic slurry of stuff that the Elders processed them with, most having been formerly kidnapped people of various planets across the cosmos who have no memories of their time prior to being a Chosen.

But there are a planet's people that the Chosen don't look out of place with.

Aubosia. It has around 100 known sentient races on its surface, after all, with humans as a strong minority. And you probably didn't notice that I added Vic, who isn't even from Aubosia here, did you?

I mean, all are dual-citizens of Aubosia and the Triad Council because Theo is using Aubosia's status as a protected planet to ensure the safety of the remaining Chosen, so...

[101ocs]

Whatever I don’t give a fuck anyway he can do whatever he wants or post whatever shit he wants to piss me off and it’s not gonna do shit I’m fucking fine without him I don’t fucking need him anyway. Goddamn fucking slut I don’t fucking need it anymore he’s just a stupid fucking whore

[red-dyed-sarumane]

she is so very on my mind again

[nei-ning]

Me: *trying to sing along with Suwabe Junichi's (character) song: Koi Kara Ai e... Shoshite Mirai Ni.* *Fails miserably, apologizing it with giggles*

Me: *lift gaze up on TV screen and there's Dr. Sandra Lee and she's saying to her patient: "Keep singing. Keep singing."* (note: I ALWAYS listen music with headphones so I didn't hear anything from TV)

Me: *snort x laugh escapes but I get so happy mood boost that I keep singing, even if I can't spell all words*