#drew these a while go so i figured i'd just post them now lol

[cosmosi-art]

little gummy guys!!!!!!!!!!!

[violet-prism-creatively]

My live reactions to Harrow the Ninth

Continued from my pre-reading assumptions and post-reading thoughts about Gideon the Ninth

Everyone who said "Harrow the Ninth will take a while to make sense, be patient and it will pay off" was absolutely right! I made a lot of notes throughout with predictions, some of which were correct and some of which were... not.

Theories that were wrong:

The Emperor wiped Harrow's memory of Gideon

Gideon has spoken with The Body

The Body's eyes now appear yellow because they're Gideon's eyes

Harrow only sees her own eyes as black because she wiped her memory of Gideon, everyone else perceives them as gold

The Sleeper is The Body

The Sleeper is Gideon

"Ortus the First" is Gideon (the Ninth)

Harrow is haunted by Gideon

The picture in Camilla, Coronabeth, & Judith's shuttle is of Gideon

Cytherea's body moving around is a hallucination

Gideon's sword is haunted by the lyctor who established the Ninth House

I also did make some pretty good guesses, though. Here's some more of my notes that are just fun reactions!

"Her parents had... found out... about what she had done" SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER GIDEON'S VITAL ROLE IN THIS

This Teacher is a lot more helpful

there are advantages to having God himself as a father figure

"the grey-wrappered figures of Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus laid on the slabs in the mortuary" NO :(

bookmarking this other incomprehensible clue

it's that graffiti S that everyone drew in elementary school lol

"You had noticed at previous dinners that he did not like some particular vegetables, so you had put them all in." that's so petty, I love it

"said Camilla Hect" YAY

"the skull of someone who, soon after death or symptomatically during, had exploded" Palamedes!

Harrow never got actual sword training as a lyctor, did she? Now Camilla can help her!

"Nobody had seen you walk through that door [to The Tomb]. Nobody had watched you leave." GIDEON SAW AND THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO CONVINCE HARROW THAT SHE'S NOT INSANE, EVENTUALLY

"What a destructive, romantic, ridiculous act. It was always a certain kind of ass who approached love like that" yeah it's a certain kind of stupid, heroic, selfless, etc. to make yourself forget the person you're in love with to protect them

"Harrow Nova" another alternate universe where Harrow is in Gideon's role?????

"they've got a hotshot new BARI star" oh my god it's a coffee shop au in space

SHE REMEMBERS GIDEON!!!!!!! (how??)

"You sawed open your skull rather than be beholden to someone. [...] Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn't even want it." AAAAAAAAA!!!!

"I was, and am, a grown man, and you both were neglected children" thank you Ortus for taking responsibility. actually a decent person

"What the fuck is going on?" yeah i feel u babe

"'The only thing that ever stopped me being exactly who I wanted,' she said, 'was the worry that I would soon be dead... and now I am dead, and I am sick of roses, and I am horny for revenge.'" hell yeah!!

oh Ianthe was gaslighting her. yeah Gideon wreck her!

"you'd kept my sunglasses" awww

"I never made her look like that. She can't love me, even if I'd wanted her to." aw :( and she's still so devoted anyway

"Your art, not my strength, was the ultimate source of our victory." so Ortus does get to be a hero after all, in his own way!

"Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity" I remember seeing posts about this name now! lol

yeah it's a weird chain of people in other people's bodies (Gideon would love the innuendo)

"We needed your, ahem, genetic material" Ianthe was right, ew. Also Gideon is the daughter of God I guess?

"You watched us kill our cavaliers in cold blood, and none of them had to die." ok that is a pretty bad thing for him to do

the tragedy that Gideon only had John as a father for a few minutes, while Harrow had him as a father figure for months but didn't want that

"'my necromancer started an affair with your mother... not knowing I'd also been doing the same thing, using his body.' // I said, 'What the fuck.'" extremely valid reaction from Gideon

"Oh, we'll still hate each other, my dear, we have hated each other too long and too passionately to stop... but my bones will rest easy next to your bones." that's kinda romantic in its own way

to be fair, if John dies, the entire solar system of Dominicus dies

"We died" no actually I think you might be alive and being saved

???????? Another alternate reality memory thing??

Multiple notes about how Harrow might just be the way she is because of growing up in a temple with strict routine, no social interaction, and no variety of sensory input... but I'm headcanoning her as autistic. Also headcanoning Gideon as ADHD, and autism/ADHD gay couples are my favorite ships.

Tagging people who have been following along. I'm going to switch to not tagging people anymore after this, but tagging all posts as #violet reads tlt, and you can follow the tag. @procrastinationaccount @vivaciouscynner @pearlofmydreams @cursed-druid-girl @ghostly-atv

[danganronpa96]

I know u mention how some characters in dr69 had a different take at first (like mario being revealed as not a good brother) but there was ever a moment u considered different survivors/mastermind or was it always the plan to have Luigi, PaRappa, Ayano, Nagito and the Conductor be the suvivors and Hatsune Miku the mastermind?

For the survivors, they were completely planned from the start alongside the death order. There is a reason why I wanted each character to survive, too.

Luigi -> Protag + development

Parappa -> I did not want to kill him. That's it that's the reason

Ayano -> lol wouldn't it be so funny if the girl knowing for killing does not kill? (also development)

Nagito -> let's let the DanganRonpa character who did not survive his killing game survive this killing game

The Conductor -> I was in a big A Hat In Time fixation at the time, so I wanted Mr. Conductor to live no matter what

However, there was a moment during the writing of chapter 5 when I sort of wanted to kill off Ayano due to whatever big allegations were going around about Yandere Dev at the time (not the recent one obviously I'm talking a few years ago), and replace her survivor position with Fluttershy. But I decided against it for what I had planned for the chapter 5 case between Fluttershy and Brian.

I still sort of wanted to kill off Ayano during chapter 6 in fact, as a sacrifice during the final execution. But again, I decided against it because it felt a bit jarring if she died then, plus it would only leave a survivor group full of guys. I really don't care what happens to Yandere Simulator or Yandere Dev, I just like my Ayano <3

Now, as for the mastermind, I'm going to put this stuff under the cut as it'll contain some images and I don't want to make this post very long on its own.

As mentioned in the post just before this, it wasn't originally planned for it to be Miku. I'm not going to re-explain who the initial one was here, but after I scrapped that one, I decided I needed to figure out a better replacement. I made this chart here about the potential characters (or duos) that could make for a good mastermind.

Looking back, I'm not sure why I was so adverse to mastermind Conductor. I guess I just wanted to keep him as a good person instead lol (funfact: there are actually fics about mastermind Conductor and mastermind Peter, and they're both really good, so, I guess I didn't have to do the work myself haha)

I really wanted to do Nagito and Parappa at the time for some reason. I liked both of them a lot, but I'm not sure how I was exactly going to pull of such a random duo.

Instead, I went for Miku and Teto, as it would make more cohesive sense while still being a mastermind I'd like to write for.

(these are all concept art I drew for the new mastermind ideas)

[innerslumber]

So...I've started drawing again. It's rough as all hell but the last few months while sick with pneumonia, I was stuck on my couch a lot and trying to sleep upright. Most nights it was unsuccessful and my brain was too scrambled to read or write, so I'd doodle.

During my teenage and college years, I wrote and drew a fair bit. Went to a ton of anime conventions and haunted the artists alley. But then school, work, family, LIFE just kept coming at me and then 20+ years went by with no creative outlet.

It didn't help that I've had people in my life that constantly discouraged it. That writing and drawing was frivolous and a waste of time. And as the years went by, the harder it was to think I could do it again. It was just easier to tell myself I got more important things to do.

But by some weird happenstance, I fell back into fandom a few years ago and picked up writing again. Now, I am the first person to say that my writing isn't like...earth shatteringly good or anything of that caliber. But that wasn't the point. I just wanted to create again and have fun with my new friends. I write at a glacial pace but at the end of the day, it feels nice to do it again when the inspiration strikes.

Art feels...different. It's incredibly intimidating lol. I know SO MANY INCREDIBLE artists and I've watched them apply themselves for years and I just...I don't know lol. The imposter syndrome is wicked hard. I could never call myself an artist, especially after such a long hiatus.

But a friend recently reminded me that art can literally be a doodle on a post-it note. I don't have to compare myself to others and undermine myself, too scared to even start. And the other day, another friend said I never have to post anything if I don't want to. As long as I'm happy and having fun, that's the whole point.

Creating anything, by word or art, can be so hard. So time consuming. But I'm going to keep trying at both. Right now I'm still figuring things out, especially because I'm trying to make art digitally and I've only done that a few times.

Life is still incredibly busy and hard...and I've been conditioned for years that to enjoy myself was being selfish. Having my abusive husband scream at me that I was a "bad mom and a bad wife" for having a writing hobby and that my online friends and I were "trash" for writing about "men fucking each other" was really demoralizing. I'd wait until when everyone was asleep to write on my phone in the dark. But at the end, I still ended up deleting and leaving behind so much because of his vitriol.

But that isn't my reality anymore. If I have time, I can write when I want to. I can draw when I want to. I don't have to look over my shoulder that I'll get caught doing something that isn't anything to be punished over.

And my art is all over the place but that's okay! I'm experimenting and trying new things. There isn't any high stakes. And I can allow myself to just enjoy it. Maybe I might even post it lol!

[phoebe-delia]

I honestly can't remember if I already sent you these or not, so 10, 18 & the wildcard option for those fic asks, PLS AND THANK YOUUUUU! The usual rules apply - if no joy etc, swap them out!! xox

Helloooo!! Thanks for sending, friend!!

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Yup for sure. I'll do both positive and negative here, to be fair to myself lol.

Stars By the Pocketful, my wireless from this year, really did not get the response I'd hoped for. It honestly sent me into a period of some of the lowest writing confidence I've had in a while, to the point where I nearly quit writing 😂. It has gotten some more attention since reveals, but as you very well know from the number of times I whined in your DMs, I struggled a lot with this one. But, luckily, I'm very fortunate to have lovely friends like you to give me perspective, including the fact that I can be proud of a fic for the writing itself and not the stats.

On the positive side, "Grow Up Together" has the most notes/reactions of ANY fic I've posted across both Tumblr and AO3, and I wrote it in the middle of the night about to go to sleep. I'm still astonished at the number of notes it has, because honestly, I feel like the writing is pretty average for me 😂😂😂😂 (I'm not knocking it, but I feel like my writing is normally like that and almost NONE of my fics have NEAR that amount of attention. So idk.)

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

Okay I just found one line that I TOTALLY forgot about from an old drabble but here's this:

"He’d been a Death Eater. The least he could do now was recycle."

Aaannd instead of choosing another question for the wildcard I'm gonna say another line I'm proud of. This is from, predictably, my favorite fic I've ever written (seriously if you only read one thing I've written, I hope it's this fic) "this is me trying."

“I think that maybe if I talked to you I could see how you did it.”

“How I did what?”

Harry drew in a lungful of air and expelled it in a drawn-out breath.“Figured out the difference between who you were supposed to be, and who you really are.”

Thanks so much for the ask, friend!!

Send me an ask from this list!

[kaiowut99]

GX Finalized-Subs!103 (Error Fix WIP): An Ace in the Cup

Settling in from my recent move and stuff, I've gotten to take care of the little animation consistency/card errors I thought I'd take a crack at fixing as I work to finalize my subs for episodes 102-104, the translations for which I'll be starting to look at this week (woot); as part of these touch-ups, we've got the two back-to-back shots here a bit after the eyecatch in 103, which I wanted to cover and break down here (to save space in my eventual release post, lol).

(tl;dr, Saiou no longer draws the card he then activates from his hand with Cup of Ace, and correctly adds the two cards he draws from it into his one-card hand, gifs below the cut show them in action)

So, Light Saiou activates Cup of Ace, predictably landing right-side-up and letting him draw two cards--which are then seen here in the first two screenshots (which I'll come back to later). Then, adding his drawn cards to his hand, he activates the Arcanatic Deathscythe (Doomscythe) he had in his hand (both actions shown in the last two screenshots)--which is already a consistency error: we just saw him draw Arcanatic Deathscythe, right? But the other error there is that the two cards he drew with his right hand and the one card he'd had initially in his left hand suddenly switched places.

I figured conceptually, the best way to fix this would be to use Photoshop to draw the second drawn card on top of the one in his right hand (as positioned in the shot as he draws them), removing the card by the tips of his left hand so that, over the course of the four movement frames it takes for him to add the cards to his left hand, he slides the top card out of his fingers and slips it into the middle while the card originally in his right hand fingers still ends up on the left as I pick up from the original footage once they're all in place. I started working on that Thursday and Friday nights, getting it all touched up and finished by Saturday night (maybe 12ish total hours), and first went about removing the leftmost card in his left hand by covering it up in each frame by drawing in more hair and his shoulder, which was easy enough.

For adding the second card to his right hand, I used a combination of splicing and resizing parts of the existing cards and touching up with re-coloring/re-shading/re-outlining to make things connect and blend better. Once I had the card made in the first frame, I copy/pasted it into the other three frames with appropriate tweaks to test out in the footage using Sony Vegas to see how smooth it'd look in the video, then I'd go back into Photoshop and tweak accordingly.

Overall, after some trial and error, I'm pretty pleased with how it came out! (Gif should load nicely)

Going back to the first shot of the two cards he drew: as mentioned, he already has Arcanatic Deathscythe in his hand, so it's a consistency error seeing it drawn alongside The Material Road and it should've been a different card. But what could it have been, and why did I go with Reversal of Fate? Well, taking 103 and 104 into consideration as the duel goes on, this was my thought process following the cards he plays:

At the start of this turn, he already has just Arcanatic Deathscythe in hand, with nothing face-down. *draws Cup of Ace and activates it, drawing Material Road (Lord) and ???* He now has three cards in hand. *activates Arcanatic Deathscythe* He now has two cards in hand (MR and ???). *Judai uses his turn to summon Sparkman and destroy The Emperor* He draws for his turn and has three cards in hand (MR, ???, and ??? 2), which he ends 103 with; 104 starts and he has the same three cards in hand. *draws and plays The Magician* He has the same three cards in hand. *sets MR and one of the ???s* He now has a ??? in hand. *Judai has his HERO Flash turn ending with Neos attacking him directly before the Light of Destruction rages* He draws and plays Magician's Scales. *uses Magician's Scales to add The Heaven's Road (Sky Lord) to his hand* He now has two cards in hand (a ??? and Heaven's Road). *plays Material, Spiritual, and Heaven's Roads to summon The Light Ruler* He now only has a ??? in hand. *uses Light Ruler's effect to add the Light Barrier in his Cemetery to his hand* He now has two cards in hand (a ??? and Light Barrier). *sets a card* He now only has Light Barrier in hand. *activates Reversal of Fate* He must have drawn Reversal of Fate from Cup of Ace.

Now, I think it could be equally likely that he drew Spiritual Road from Cup of Ace, but I think it was more fitting to have Reversal of Fate be the long-game plan, since Saiou activates it in response to Gran Neos's Nebulous Hole effect--which tries to remove The Light Ruler from play--so that he can negate it (fate and all). As bolded, Spiritual Road was also set face-down for activation after playing The Magician on his turn before Judai's HERO Flashing.

So, with that consideration, I made a proxy for Reversal of Fate that I then used AfterEffects to just slip into place in the footage, moving it along as the cards are moved into view in the shot; I originally planned to just mask in the original Material Road on top along with Saiou's thumb, but I kept getting some residue from Deathscythe's green color bleeding along its left border--instead, I also placed a Material Road proxy in its place, with Saiou's thumb only just masked on top. Started working on that Saturday night and finished it Sunday night, so both shots are looking pretty good!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, with all that said, as mentioned up top, I've gotten all of the fixes/touch-ups I'd picked out for 102-104 done--altogether 28, not counting two translation edits for Manjoume in 102, but including some fixes that were repeated due to the 103 and 104 recaps, and some that are quick little quality-of-watching touchups like with split-screens--so I'll be getting started on finalizing their scripts this week. Edits like these are fun to work on, picking up more Photoshopping/Vegas/AE know-how in the process, though it's always a shame that consistency things like these (or Ryou's Duel Disk thing in episode 8) didn't get corrected by the animators for GX's DVD releases (outside of stat/LP-counter errors, I don't think they would be until 5D's). Looking over my translations might not take too long as I think I was more or less a fan of my last pass-through with these, but we'll see; stay tuned!

[secretsofdbz]

Pfiou, so I promised a few people I'd do a post and give credit where credit is due because fandom can be amazing and wholesome and sometimes we need some badass women to remind us of it all ;)

A little while ago, @jorongbak did a few posts about the look and personality Vegeta's mother would have, and the fandom more or less collectively fell in love with Queen Jala (and wanted to be stepped on, for real lol).

Alternatively, I am in a few discord servers centered around Dragon Ball, and the one that we care about for today's post is the SmugSquad server (which is ran by SmugStick, ProfessorChimp and a few others; these are DBTubers who come up with great stories).

So being one of the only women around, I of course introduced them to other sides of the fandom, and sharing tumblr links was the first step ;) (no reposts, but share links to posts).

Needless to say, this helped some of them discover amazing artists, fanfics and more, all while keeping it PG (some of them are very young minors). Jorongbak helped many of them consider the KakaVege ship, drink up the amazing content of Good Geets, get all of the feels, and much more.

Now, Queen Jala was an instant hit, and a group of active users decided "Queen Jala basedium ultimate" was a winner, no diff, and began what DBtuber fans do: "what if?!" stories, with the rallying cry "epicness shall commence!".

The key players were Mocha, I demand you call me barbara, memes (fireflight), with contributions by myself ("Von" or "Princess Trunks mod" lol) and Rock.

Here's a sample of the energy :p

Anyway after a lot of talk and cheers and mutual "boys will be boys" encouragements, Mocha ended up making "Mocha's version" of the story of Queen Jala, and put it on ffnet. So you can read it here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14165665/1/Queen-Jala-The-Strongest-Saiyan-Queen

Mocha also commissioned two pieces of art to go along and give homage to Jorong's design for his stories, and I figured they deserved to be shared properly so here :)

By yogadanu:

By gusdibujando:

(both artists are on fiverr and twitter)

So I served mostly as a messenger (or evil mastermind lol) for this whole ordeal, "all according to keikaku".

Jorongbak drew this for us, and to be honest, we are the thankful ones ;) (me in particular, I'm just such a fan and can't wait to write a little piece of Jala in my own fics ^^)

[punk-pandame]

updates!

thought i'd give a general update on what i'm up to. haven't been posting a lot lately- being sick and tired tends to limit productivity after all lol- but that doesn't mean i stopped writing or drawing! i've been working on bits and pieces of a lot of things when i have the time and energy. i am still drawing or writing something for everyone who's helped with nova's vet bills at a slow and steady pace while i deal with some health setbacks. thank you all for your patience and generosity. it's appreciated more than you know and we're getting closer to paying it off!

a few people have asked for process pics/videos, and lemme tell ya, i *tried* okay XD i tried to do like a process video but it stressed me out so much i couldn't draw, and stopping to take screenshots or videos as i go along really throws me off my rhythm. so right now, this sketch practice page is about as close as we're getting to a process from me. if you bounce around the page, you can tell for the most part what i drew first and what i drew later; the later stuff is way better (peep that old man asume at the bottom as an example lol, i'm so proud of him). the point of this one was just to get used to a new brush and figure out what i want various styles to look like, from super cartoony to more realistic.

[ID: a greyscale sketch page by Punky. The character faces featured, from left top to bottom right: Iruka, Kushina, Chouji, Temari, Kurotsuchi, Hinata, a teenage Shizune, a teenage Kisame, a sickly Nagato, Orochimaru with a snake tongue, a black Shikamaru, an older Konan, Tenten, an older Anko, Tsume, Itachi, Genma, Shikaku, Ino, an older Ssume, Yamato, Shino, and Kurenai. Random objects also pictured are: Kakashi's Icha Icha Paradise book, a scroll, dango, a fan, a shuriken, Zabuza's Executioner's Blade, Sasuke's sword, and a piece of narutomaki. End ID]

monthly recaps have als fallen to the wayside for a while now (sorry!), so i wanted to share with you all my goals for 2023 instead:

- draw a comic: i've always loved comics but never actually learned how to draw them, so i've been reading tutorials artists i follow have put out over the years and learning more about comics in general.i think they're a valuable form of art, and would be a perfect way for me to mesh some of the stories i'd like to tell with scenes i want to draw. hence sketch practice

- start including fanart with my fics: this is likely going to be partially dependent on what i'm learning about drawing comics, but also provides an opportunity to throw in the kinds of pieces i already do. i'm already fixating on the writing, may as well include art, right XD

- finish louboutins. we are so close to the finish line besties i just don't wanna deal with emotions right now hahaha. i only got like two chapters left for it, and the emotions will be resolved i promise!

- get to the chuunin exams arc in tto1us

- start updating 1-800-FAKE-NUMBER again

- yes i'm insane and i'm doing kinktober again for 2023 BUT not 31 individual fics like. half that at *most*. i'm not gonna overdo it and it's all gonna be silly rarepairs. more details in a few months.

- that big art project i wanted to finish in 2022 didn't pan out but i'm not giving up! hoping to finish by the end of this year and have it ready for 2024, but if not, push it another year. i'll release more details if i manage to get close but i am promising nothing lol

-if the inspiration is there, do some more high school series drawings that i never finished.

i hope you're all well. i have not forgotten about you all. i love you, and thank you for your continued support even through the silence <3

be the first to get updates and see new stuff, view exclusive ficlets and drawings, request commissions, and more on my patreon and buymeacoffee!

[adultswim2021]

VACATION

Oh, hello there. Oh, this? I'm just using this online shopping website to look at some birthday cards online. You see, it is my birthday on Thursday, and it's one of the ones where the number has a zero at the end of it, and I'm looking for the perfect card that I can demand my family and friends all buy for me, so I can have "one happening birthday". Finally!

I've taken some time off work, and I'm more-or-less going to dedicate the weekend to taking a couple of day trips and doing some other things I've put off for a while. And, I just realized, this would be much easier if I didn't have to worry about updating this while doing all that. So, I'm taking this week off, effective last night when I was GONNA do a post, but then I realized I didn't have all of my research materials handy, and it took all night to get those things downloaded, and then it was late, and also I wanted to watch seven episodes of "Tanner '88" instead.

So this is my announcement of my intent to not post, probably until next Monday. Some of you might say "that sucks dick", but it's a dick that we all have to suck.

So here's a big Mail Bag post:

In reference to my pondering about Marc Summer's absence in a Robot Chicken sketch about Double Dare:

apparently they did get marc summers for some later episode. i know this because i watched him interview tim heidecker on some webshow/podcast he has and i remember him bragging that he'd been on robot chicken and asking tim if he ever had, and tim kinda going "uhhh, no, i don't think so" lol

LOL. Tim & Eric couldn't be more at odds with Robot Chicken. I am going to guess that when they were younger and much more "punk rock" they probably shit talked them when being interviewed for cool magazines like Time or Zillions.

One time my job hired a guy with whom I had maybe one of the worst personality clashes I ever had (I am a demon from hell and I have zero ability to not show it when I'm annoyed or angry with somebody, sorry to that guy I wish I weren't like this okay), and he got it out of me that I liked Adult Swim and he immediately tried to talk to me about Robot Chicken, and I was like "I don't really watch that show" and he immediately asked "don't tell me you like that Tim & Eric crap!"

whats your favorite thing you bought at a second hand store to make yourself not look like a looky loo

I have a B&W video monitor I bought at a garage sale. It's beautiful, very flipable, but I paid 5 bucks for it and like how it looks. VHS tapes actually look amazing on it. I wanna figure out a way to rig it up with some kind of raspberry pi machine that just loops old cartoons on it or something.

did you do something to the banner? it seems more...expansive.

I tried to get it to display more "properly" because it bothered me how pixelated it looked but I think I sorta fucked it up. I tried to change it back but tumblr's edit feature sucks. I guess I should just do an AI upscale or something. But yes I shittily drew on it to make it look wider, you caught me.

Me love the way you walk sometimes The way you talk is so hot Now you know let’s have a shot of rum Then me can make you come With me to the ocean That would be phat You can be my bow cat Nice ital breeze Bring you to your knees We're jammin'

punani likers everywhere, this one is for us

That's Shenmue 3, dipshit

Dang it, you are right.

Brownies was probably the best episode they did that season and I was surprised they weren't willing to do that style of show for the entire series. It seemed more like what Adult Swim wanted from them?

Something for "da" stoners... as a weed-taker myself., I would have to agree!

When was the last time you POGGED off?

What bitch?

Lol I was being silly telling a stupid joke. Chapotraphouse has the ice cream as his sound bite now.

I tell you this guys, I had a weird dream that Toonami Tom said he would sponsor me I'd have to sell out and let him hold the Adult Swim 2021 brand. And I'd have to suck his dick. It was a disgusting dream. No Tom, I would never do that in real life.

[athenaholmesartistsguild]

Some more Rule 63 Yakuza drawings!

I even threw in Nishiki this time!

I'll talk a bit more about my process under the cut if that's something you're interested in. I had a lot of fun working on these so I just wanna talk about them lol.

If you've been following me for a while, you probably noticed that I'm using a different coloring technique. While I like the watercolor look I was previously doing, I wanted to try working with some solid colors and using a more pen-and-ink style to color. I used the same tool that I shade hair with to do the entire piece. I personally really like the look of this brush, but it forces me to be okay with some kinda hard lines in the shading. I'm so used to blending everything out while I color lol.

But in regards to character design:

Kiryu's Y0 self was inspired by this picture of Nakamori Akina. I redesigned Kiryu to make her hairstyles more inspired by the Bubble Era. In my original post, the '80s version of her was inspired by actual hairstyles of the time, but I drew those back in June so I felt like trying something a bit different.

I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the hairstyle I picked, though. It might be the overall shape of it? I dunno. I think I'll try to find something a bit shorter and try that out.

It's a process lol.

Kiryu's current self was inspired by another picture of Nakamori. Considering Kiryu just kinda... finds a style and wears it to death, I decided to find a hairstyle from around the '80s and just tweak it a bit. I wanted something low maintenance compared to the heavily styled hair of her 0 self, so I went with straight- slightly wavy- hair and some loose bangs.

Because Kiryu has a lot more hair now, I included a drawing of her tying it into a ponytail. She makes it look very intimidating.

Something that you can't really see while Kiryu's wearing the suit is that while she has curves, her waist doesn't cinch in much. I wanted to play around with different body types since Yakuza just seems to have like, one model for women, and three for men (skinny, muscular, and fat).

I wanted to maintain Kiryu's bigness without losing her femininity or making her look like the typical small, skinny woman (because Kiryu is not small, nor skinny). So she has wide shoulders, a wider waist, and an overall fuller build.

You also can't see due to her suit jacket, but her rack is big, too. Figured I'd preserve the fat tits since it's an integral part of Kiryu's character (male or female).

As for Nishiki's Y0 self, I used this image for inspiration and tweaked it a bit. I struggled a bit with matching the shape of the hair in this picture, so I just used it to understand the ~v i b e~ I was going for and did my own stylized thing.

I'm honestly in love with Nishiki's hair lol. There's just so much movement!

Nishiki's modern self is pretty much the same. Since her Y1 hair is supposed to be the slicked back version of the 0 hair, I gave the top of her head some more texture since she has bangs that are a different length from the rest of her hair and kept everything else the same.

And... that's it! I really enjoyed working on these so maybe I'll do some screenshot redraws or something.

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on The Royal Heir, Book 1 Chapter 1

• We're back! Hopefully with a better series this time, but I'm not going to keep my hopes too high.

• If my QTs are clogging up your dash, I recommend you block these particular tags: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, and optionally #long post.

• Much like my Book 3 QTs, I will be exploring as many playthroughs as I possibly can to see how each LI's route is being written. Last book, this experiment definitely helped me figure out that they were putting more effort into some characters and less into others, and I'd still like to keep an eye out for these things as much as possible.

• I feel this QT might be shorter than my usual (edit: joke's on me - it's not!! 🙈), mostly because the opening chapter itself is...pretty light, and is mostly meant for us to spend time and have fun with our chosen LI. Plus a tiny smidgen of buildup to the premise, which is having a child in Cordonia. But I do have a theory about the overall theme that I'm going to be expanding on towards the end of the chapter.

• Okay that's it for preliminary explanations, it's time for me to start with the chapter! XD

• Ooh. Oooooooh. This loading page now has tidbits about Cordonian society!! Interesting.

• Title: Happily Ever Afterwards

Alternative Title: Be Grateful We're Letting You Have This Much Sex For Free This Week, Because That's The Last Time It's Happening.

• I'm extremely offended they're making me wear that Pepto Bismol outfit again.

•

...thanks so much for reminding me you still don't care about Hana, PB! 🙄 Everyone else remains to be some version of "loyal", but Hana is still considered more for her skills than for her own steadfastness, even though she was the most hardcore-loyal of the four (SHE LEFT HER FREAKING HOME. HER FREAKING FAMILY. FOR YOU. While the other three were certainly loyal and honorable to the MC, they definitely didn't have to completely cut ties with their families to do right by the MC).

• The "fairytale" aesthetics of the frame story were what drew people into TRR in the first place, so it's not too surprising that the LIs and MC give a nod to the flagship series with a "once upon a time". If you're with Liam, it goes straight from "falling in love with the Prince" to what his relationship with her taught him, before the happily ever after. If you're with one of the other three LIs, it specifies that she came there for Liam but fell for someone else. Sounds a lot like Maxwell's book 😄 In Maxwell's playthrough, in fact, there is a reference to it when the MC calls him a "famous author".

•

(Screenshots organized as follows: 1 - Liam, 2 - Drake, 3 - Maxwell, 4 - Hana. Liam's and Hana's are my own. Drake's from @thefirstcourtesan, and Maxwell's from Kaitlyn Walker's YouTube channel).

The other interesting thing to note is that in Liam's playthrough, he leads the narration. While in everyone else's the MC is the one who steers it. One reason I can think of is that the narrative still treats this story as Liam's story as much as it is the MC's (if I'm right about the theme) - which...has honestly always been a sore point with the fanbase in TRR. That would depend on how us and our baby are now further involved with Cordonia in the story. Another factor for why she leads the narration...could be that essentially, the MC took initiative in the other three relationships, while in Liam's case it was he who took a more active role by proposing to her.

• The little story ends with this question from the MC:

Question: But what happens after Happily Ever After?

Answer: Mess. In Cordonia it's always mess.

• Cordonians (specifically the upper classes, since I don't know enough about the common populace to tell, since they're, yknow, practically invisible) are addicted to tea, apples and fucking shit up where they don't even need to.

• ANYWAY. What (literally) happens after 'happily ever after' is a tropical honeymoon on Liam's private island. In the case of the other three, he allows them access to the place and gives the staff instructions on making the stay comfortable for them.

• Now, since Liam owns the island and has probably visited it a could times, he shows more familiarity with it. He tells his wife that on previous trips the island had more rustic accommodations, but the villa they're now staying in was prepared recently. Additionally, the butler welcomes Hana, Maxwell and Drake as newcomers to the island, considering it's their first time. With Liam, there is an air of familiarity - he calls the butler by his name (Javier) and enquires about him and his wife (Mariana) - to show us perhaps how familiar he is with this holiday spot.

• Why the hell does everyone call Liam "Your Highness"? It's been two whole books since he became King, and the proper title for a monarch is "Your Majesty". How is it that Constantine gets to rake the MC over the coals for calling him Your Highness, yet Liam has to hear this from practically everyone. From Javier to freakin' Protocol-Monitor-Madeleine! The disrespect, I tell you!

• Okay so we're having a candlelit dinner by the ocean, and we get our first OOTD. Cute beach dress, has bright flowers and some crochet work on the bodice. I bought it because I couldn't bear to have Esther stay another minute in that Pepto Bismol of a dress.

• LOL @ all the LI responses to "this spot is right where the sharks are!"

• Tuna sashimi and pineapple aioli, huh? I have never had either so idek what that's supposed to taste like (someone on this writing team likes pineapples). I remember having to cut down on tuna during pregnancy, which meant no more Subway sandwiches since the tuna sub was the only one I liked at the time. IIRC most of my family were also cautioning me against pineapples and papaya during my first trimester!

• My gosh this butler doesn't waste much time jumping into assumptions huh?

• Also Javier, why is Cordonia's future so dependent on the well-being of my foetus even if I'm not ruling the country?

• Does Cordonia have sex ed? My money is on no. (esp in the Hana route).

• So there are two parts to the way the premise of wanting to have kids is built up in this sequence. In the first part, the LI impresses upon the MC the need to have children soon after the wedding. The second part addresses the urgency - the "why right now?" factor, and explores the LI's personal emotions towards having children. This bit also feels a bit like a follow-up to the Valtoria balcony scene in Chapter 15.

• The first part is pretty similar for Drake, Hana and Maxwell - all three of whom are now married to a Duchess and are aware that securing the duchy is important. They word it in their own distinctive styles, but the gist is pretty much the same. In Liam's case, since he is the king of the country, he speaks more about Cordonia and its tensions with neighbouring countries.

Take note of this because I'll be returning to this point later. (also who are the writers trying to convince about Cordonia's size. "Small kingdom" my ass).

• I'll be going by the LIs' personal reasons to have a baby now, one by one, along with a summary of their views on children in the Valtoria balcony scene last book (since this scene clearly references that diamond scene if you've bought it last book).

(Screenshots: Liam's and Hana's screenshots are mine, Drake's is from @thefirstcourtesan and Maxwell's is from Kaitlyn Walker's YouTube channel)

- Liam: Liam's love for family and need for children is well-known throughout the series. In Book 1, he's dropped hints about wanting to have a different kind of family dynamic from the one he'd experienced as a child, and in Book 2 there were multiple references to wanting to not be Constantine - both as a King and as a father. In the balcony scene in Book 3, Chapter 15, Liam tells us a number of things - about the value of having more heirs for succession, of him always dreaming of having at least 3 children, about Kenna, Cordonia's most legendary warrior queen which leads to an interesting factoid about how the rules of successions for both the throne and duchies are not gender-specific (he also cites Olivia and Penelope as being in line to inherit their duchies). In this sequence Liam undoubtedly has more to say about the political aspect of having an heir than the personal, but his statement about "someone missing" in their lives is of no surprise when he's been enthusiastic about kids for three books straight.

- Drake: Drake perhaps gets the lengthiest 'personal' bit of all, revolving around his eagerness to be a father and his own family history. This scene has Drake speaking of wanting a child with "your eyes and my hair", but most of all of Savannah and her little family, and wanting the happiness his sister is experiencing now. The writing often manages to tie Drake's thoughts about his future family with his past: in the Valtoria balcony scene, his memories of his father and his desire to bring up his own kids the way Jackson did are dominant in the conversation on children. He speaks at length about the absence of a proper 'home' so far in his life (stating that his room at the palace always felt like "a room in someone else's house") and how high on his priority list the prospect of having children is. The Valtoria scene shows him eager to have kids asap, and this scene builds up the same urgency. You're left in no doubt that he wants those kids now.

• Maxwell: Maxwell's route of this scene soundly pretty sudden, tbh. In his Valtoria scene, Maxwell expressed doubt and nervousness when it came to children, citing the example of Bartie ("I love palling around with little Bartie and everything, but if he bonks his head or something, I can just hand him back to Savannah. When it's your kid, you're the one people hand him to."). While this is referenced in TRH's dialogue when Maxwell jokes about forgetting diapers and baby socks - it's a pretty big jump from the man who didn't exactly feel ready to have children yet, and not enough work was done to justify that shift. This could be somewhat excused in the beginning of Book 3, when the narrative had just begun to treat him like an LI, but they've had an entire damn book and several months after to reflect on how to write him properly. That is...if they actually gave a damn.

- Hana: They don't even have the excuse of "relatively new LI" in Hana's case. Because she is the lone female LI married to a female MC, her scene should have been a lot more extensive and explored her urgency to have children so soon after their wedding, a whole lot more. There are tiny changes, like the one where she hints at the "logistical concerns" that come with two women considering a family, and where she speaks of giving her child the childhood she never had (which, frankly, is an extremely vague statement and could be applicable to more than one character in Cordonia). But there is urgency that, again, isn't properly explained in the scene. Even Hana's Valtoria scene doesn't have much that would explain why she would want a child barely weeks after her wedding. The Valtoria scene does have her outlining her dreams for the duchy (along with a joke about her enacting "Beauty and the Beast") and her happiness at the thought of being a mother (she maintains that out of the things expected of her, motherhood is the one she looked forward to). They could have spent some time thinking up a reason for why Hana would rush this, even before anything has happened, or outlined something personal and not ultra-generic. Both Maxwell and Hana deserved a lot better than this.

• Maxwell speaks about possibly forgetting diapers (PLS NO MAXWELL NO) and baby socks (um okay not as bad but depends on the climate), and one of the MC's dialogue options is to say..."diapers and socks are overrated". Guys your kid won't care how much fun you are when they have a bum rash.

• A-ha! Diamond scene. First-chapter diamond love scenes always come cheap in these series' (12 diamonds) and are usually quite a steal.

• ESTHER HAS NEW LINGERIE OMG I'M SO HAPPY I'D BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR SO LOOOOONG 😭😭😭😭

• ...and it is also matches Liam's underwear. Maxwell's too 😅

• The scene is nice, there are variations between the ways the LIs work up their appetite before they finally roll in the...well, sand 😅 Maxwell has what they call an "ocean duel", Hana's fulfills her lifelong dream of carrying and spinning around her wife on a secluded beach, Drake chases the MC through the water...and Liam just enjoys being a huuuge tease, okay? 😂

• Oh God, why are they still using the old LoveHacks sexytimes music. That "DHUM-boom-ta-doom-DHUM" beat drives me nuts, and not in a good way. You have better music now, PB! Like the sexytimes tunes from RCD and PM. Use those!

• My gosh this entire group is quite horny for dominant duchesses, aren't they. Every last one of them. Each playthrough has these four gazing at the MC in wonder and telling her some variation of "I think you ordering me around is hot". Olivia could trample over them all with spiked heels and they would thank her!

• As always, when something suspicious happens, my dumbass MC goes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and never thinks about it again until shit actually goes down. This woman will never learn, will she.

• Anyway! We now move on to the rest of the honeymoon, summed up in three-four varying scenes per LI:

(Screenshots: Liam's and Hana's screenshots are mine, Drakes is HIMEME's YouTube channel, and Maxwell's is from Kaitlyn Walker's YouTube channel).

- Liam: Focused and dedicated. And insatiable as hell. Sex on a bed (SHOCKING!), sex after his wife points out what could be an apple constellation during stargazing (the MC effectively killed Liam's boner for Cordonia, I see), sex after having chocolate strawberries at a sunlit pond, sex again on a bed (Why is he getting four? 🤔). While the staff is still around somewhere on the island. This is a man with a mission.

- Maxwell: Fun and playful - kind of a "let's live wild and do daredevilry while we can!" vibe. In one Maxwell and the MC cliff dive into the ocean, debating over the wisdom of such risky adventuring when they may possibly be having a baby. In another, the MC watches, concerned, as Maxwell eats a raw squid appetizer. There is a nice callback to Maxwell's House sigil - the kraken - when he tells her that a squid would never hurt a fellow squid. The third shows them playing Strip Monopoly in the comfort of their bedroom.

- Hana: Adorable, caring and looking through every detail. Hana's three scenes involve her showing the MC the sights around the sunlit pond (which Hana and the MC lovingly call the "Hana Lee Honeymoon Itinerary"), watching the sunset under blankets, and this little scene of them choosing sperm donors for their baby:

It's a nice addition, but it still doesn't explain why they couldn't have waited a few more months. Nothing has happened yet in the timeline of the story, the women are (they believe) finally safe and happy, and while Javier seems to believe that babies born to a couple that consists of two women pop out of nowhere, I'm hoping the denizens of their duchy will have at least a little more common sense (this is Cordonia, so "hope" is the operative word).

- Drake: Langorous, relaxed and contented. Stargazing on the beach (I wonder whether this was a nod to the meteor shower scene in Book 1), whiskey on a patio/balcony/whatever in the afternoon, and eating roasted pork by the fire. Plenty of sex but also lots of outdoors, which means lots of the stuff Drake enjoys doing.

• Aaaaaand it's time for sexy scene 2! The couple are now relaxing in bed on the last day of their honeymoon, and the LI proposes a momento in the form of a sensual photoshoot (which comes with artwork of the LI in their underwear, posing for the MC) The male LIs pose with their hands at the back of their heads, smirking at the camera, while Hana strikes a coy pose, leaning against her hand. It's a quick, fun scene that's supposed to squeeze as much alone-time out of the couple as possible, because from here on the focus may shift to other things. Basically this chapter is meant to be one giant (but largely safe for readers) smutfest. I like the artwork - it's different and I guess meant to be a little more realistic than the usual full-page art in the books (like the engagement and wedding photos with your LIs last book), which is why I think it takes a little getting used to. I know it took me some time!

• Maxwell got an underwear upgrade too!

• We've now come to the end of our honeymoon, our bags packed and ready for our return to Cordonia. The chapter ends with us seeing a "familiar face", who could either be Liam (if you married someone else, and he doesn't show any expression) or an unspecified person (if you married Liam, and he looks ultra happy). Now that could either be related to some paparazzi-related stuff, if the flash of light was paparazzi-related, or it could be a fake-out and he's actually brought along the rest of the gang to surprise you. Idk and I don't want to speculate too much on this, mostly because something more interesting caught my eye.

• So that's it for my thoughts on the scenes themselves! On to the "general thoughts" section.

• General Thoughts and Potential Theories:

- As a first chapter for a new series that is still tied to an older one, it worked. It mirrors the light feel and sensibility of TRR's very first chapter, in that both chapters build an illusion of a fairytale-like place, with hints of the darkness within emerging the next chapter onwards (in this series though - since we're already familiar with Cordonia - the darkness is lightly hinted at this chapter itself). In a lot of ways I think we're going to see a lot of parallels between TRR and this new series.

- Unfortunately, one of those similarities also includes the imbalance in the writing for the LIs. Specifically with Maxwell and Hana. It's the most glaring in the dinner scene, which builds for us the premise on which this entire book stands (the topic of pregnancy). There are ways you could have them make the jump from nervous about having kids to excited, if you tried - there are elements in their storyline that could have helped us understand their urgency.

- I played Liam's route first, and was happy overall with it but I still have my misgivings. The good in terms of Liam's story is that he gets importance because the story is also about him and his country, where we are staying. He gives us some very important details in his route, and personally I like that his role as Guide To The Intricacies And Nuances of Cordonian Society still exists...but you can't deny that there were things in his storyline which should have been addressed and never were. I hope those are addressed this book. If they do the same this time around, it will only be to their detriment.

- Also, I find it highly ironic that Drake is the one to mention Savannah and Bartie when it was MAXWELL who was more involved in helping her with the child. Sure, he was - as he confessed in that Valtoria scene - more the "fun uncle" type, but he was still pretty heavily involved. Still keeping track of what Savannah needed and what Bartie would want. In his own final Book 3 scene, Maxwell is shown having an amazing rapport with little Bartie, playing peekaboo with his nose. I can barely count scenes involving Drake and Bartie with the fingers of one hand. Why couldn't Maxwell reference that last moment in Book 3, drawing up some inspirational moment from it? Like spending more and more time with Bartie changed the way he felt about kids? Or maybe that Savannah or Bertrand said something regarding the joy children bring to him. Anything that gives us some idea of when this shift happened.

Maxwell may have been new last book. It may have been a struggle to know what to do with him last book. But that isn't the case right now. By now they should have settled in their writing of him and figured out ways to make his story make sense? To give him more depth rather than simply reducing the man to the court jester? Maxwell's story was supposed to be about him growing, the scene in Valtoria was supposed to be about wanting to be a good father for his future children but fearing he might fail...yet the writers have the same man say the exact opposite. Maxwell's family history was thrown away for no good reason last book, and was replaced by Savannah drama. There was more space given to Savannah's love story with Bertrand (which didn't NEED the entire book to gain fruition) and Drake (optionally) enjoying humiliating Bertrand. That time, energy and effort could have gone in building up Maxwell, getting an insight into what happened to the Beaumonts that they became so poor...but no. The only Beaumont that mattered seems to be Savannah (and we know exactly why). And going by the fact that they're going to force an entire wedding storyline involving Bertrand and Savannah down our throats, that still seems to be the case.

- Hana's is even more worrying considering that it was poles apart from the rest of the playthroughs and therefore SHOULD have had more thought. Yes Hana loves the idea of being a mother. Yes Hana loves children and has a nurturing nature. But the urgency is still the same as the others' in her playthrough, and it made absolutely no sense. There was a clear dissonance between their current situation and the rush these two were in.

Hana's deserved at least some more time in her dinner scene. Maybe one where she could speak about growing up an only child, with no companions and not even toys. She could explain the loneliness involved in having a small family with parents who gave her more duties than affection, and then speak about giving her kid a better childhood. There isn't even any discussion about which of them should be the person carrying (we know it will be the MC, but why it has to be her in their case is anyone's guess).

What the team have done here is give Hana the bare minimum, after an entire two books of giving her even less than that. I know I'll probably be judged for thinking negatively rather than being cautiously optimistic, but the fact is that the moment this team feels they can get away with tossing scraps or less than that, they can and will do it. It's not stopped them before: not from botching up Hana's storyline, not from giving Hana fans a reception full of goof-ups and shoddy writing, not from pairing her with her bully. Perhaps last year I would have been happy and grateful to see Hana and the MC calling each other "my wife". This time...I refuse to settle for just mere scraps. If you can give thought and care to Liam and Drake's storylines, you'd better be able to do the same for Hana and Maxwell, otherwise what's the point of reviving this book? What's the point of using Hana specifically in two of your ads as bait for your lesbian/bi/wlw fans?? Might as well let the entire series rot in the trash where it belongs in that case.

- I've heard theories about our child becoming heir to the throne, thanks to a possible future arc that may make Liam unable to have children. I personally hate this possible plot line for two reasons:

1. As it is the MC gets more importance than she deserves, whether or not she actually puts in the work. She becomes a front-runner during the social season even if she fails. She becomes a Duchess even if she lacks even the most basic skills, while Hana who has done way more than she ever had for the country gets nothing, not even a needle-point's worth of land. She becomes Champion of the Realm even if she is literal garbage throughout that book, when that title could have easily gone to Olivia or Hana instead if she didn't earn enough to get it. And now to have her kid be made an heir to the throne? For no good reason? Get outta here.

2. Forcing Liam into yet another storyline that is tragic and painful (and I'm pretty sure the writers will find yet another excuse to write a thesis on Drake Walker in the time they could be using to let Liam actually break down, or vent. If they couldn't be bothered to explore the man's feelings when his own father died, do you really think they will bother with him in this??) on top of whatever else he's had to experience so far? At this point I can do with less of that. I'm honestly sick of storylines that put Liam in very uncomfortable, painful situations with very little space for him to air out his grief. Give the man a fucking break. Let him have some breathing space to rule his goddamned kingdom, get him a fantastic therapist and get him better friends while he's at it. Pushing him into yet another messed-up situation when you've barely even scratched the surface with what his experiences have done to him, is really just drama for the sake of drama, nothing else.

- Nonetheless, since this is about a pregnancy and a future heir, I believe there will be plenty talk about succession, and about the importance given to fertility and children in Cordonian society. But as with the social season in Book 1, the engagement tour in Book 2, and the wedding + Unity Tour in Book 3, I believe the pregnancy itself is a frame story. The kind of story that justifies the glitz, the glitter, and the glamorous events...that can serve as a temporary gloss to cover the conflicts within. All while the inner stories reveals those conflicts, layer by layer (again, if it's done right. Book 3 is a good example of a great premise ruined by bad writing. I sincerely hope this book does not go in that direction).

- Remember those screenshots I put up in that dinner scene from Liam's route? About Cordonia's tensions with its neighbouring countries, and how the country may be viewed as vulnerable? I think that's where the actual theme of the story lies.

Books 1 and 2 mostly revolved around the illusion of Cordonia - the fairytale kingdom - before the MC herself is confronted with the tensions brewing within. Book 3 was about strengthening Cordonia through resolution of internal conflict. It was about learning about the intricacies of the country, its most powerful duchies, their histories and identities, Cordonia's messy, complicated history - to tackle the problems that lay within.

I feel like Book 4 would be taking a natural progression from resolving internal conflict to finally standing united as a nation against outside forces. Constantine - in his conversation with the MC in Shanghai - hints not only at groups within Cordonia that wanted to destroy the monarchy, but also foreign powers ("suffice to say there are those who envy Cordonia's prosperity...". Not the royal family's - but "Cordonia's").

Keeping a united front and showcasing strength through pride in the country - ergo 'patriotism', or perhaps 'national integration' since Cordonia is home to many different cultures and geographical locations (I originally wrote 'nationalism here, but now realize there may be negative connotations attached to that word in today's times: thanks @musicallisto!) is often viewed as an asset against alien forces. The MC is now a part of the monarchy/nobility, and will be irrevocably tied to the country's future - so it makes sense that she will now dig into the deepest and most intimate parts of Cordonia's history, and go several steps further in helping to unite the nation.

- Why do I theorize 'patriotism' or 'national integration' as being a theme? There are several reasons for this:

The Unresolved Storylines: We still have a ways to go in understanding Cordonian history. We don't know which other forces were involved in previous assassinations, and we don't have a clue what happened to Liam's mother. All we do know is that other people and groups that we have probably not even seen yet, may have been involved. Francesco (who also knew Liam's mother) and Xinghai, the only foreign delegates/visitors that we got to network with in Book 2, have minimal roles so far but SEEM to have had some influence when they were introduced earlier. Francesco particularly could have some sort of role to play, given what we were told about him in Book 2. Now would be a good time to explore why he needed contacts with these people (other than the fact that Xinghai is Hana's dad). It's possible that nothing will happen and we may not even see these two, or exchange any important information, but I'd still hope that there is some importance to their appearances in Book 2.

The Connections We Made In The Engagement Tour: Meeting Francesco in Capri was related to getting access to EU markets for Cordonian products. The engagement tour itself revolved around grabbing international attention towards Cordonian problems - one of which was the tsunami that hit Portavira, which we learn more about in Book 3. There is a possibility that these threads may be picked up in the future.

Both the above points hint at possible threats, or allies. At this point we can't exactly determine who is friend and who is foe, but it is clear that neighbouring countries - and indeed countries we have associated with in the past - will play a pretty big role in the way we view Cordonia, and in the way we direct the narrative of this country.

The Artwork: I love this part of my theory because it is the most based on actual evidence rather than guesswork. The idea of a nation depends as much on items of familiarity and symbols, as it does on history. It's why countries have national animals, anthems, fruits. Why art depicting national and local legends can often be considered almost sacred. The book has barely even begun yet, and already it is FILLED with all kinds of things symbolic to Cordonia.

Let's first take a peek at the cover art:

Now let's ignore Liam's and Drake's (busted) faces in this cover and focus on what the three are holding.

The MC holds a rattle in her hand, and the jewel within the rattle looks similar to a ruby, which has been associated more than once with apples in the story (Cordonia's most valued variety of apple is the Cordonian Ruby, Liam's wedding gift to the MC is a ruby in the shape of an apple. The same rattle shows up in the second cover [on the left] as well. It's a stretch, I know, but I've got better evidence. Stick with me).

Liam holds a onesie with a crown design on the front - and we know that "for crown and country" is a popular phrase, especially for toasts, in Cordonia. Drake holds out a toy lion: the lion is the national animal, and holds a place of pride in the national Coat-of-Arms. The throne on which the MC herself sits, is blue and gold - both considered national colours. That's at least 4 symbols related to Cordonia vying for our attention on the same cover!

I mean, even Book 3 had just two major symbols - the apple (related to Cordonia) and the phoenix gown (related to Valtoria) - featuring on its cover.

The biggest proof to me, however, is not the cover, but the loading page. To be more precise - what is written above that loading page. A number of Choices books (BB, for instance) write little factoids about the world they are building above the loading bar, which players can read while they're waiting for the chapter to load. This wasn't a common practice with TRR, but they've definitely started it now! Some of the commentary is usual stuff - about gaining advantages through outfits, welcoming you back to Cordonia, etc...but THIS TIME there are tidbits of information given to us as well. And 80% of those involve apples!

Here are a few I managed to catch. One fact on the importance of apples in Cordonian culture, two specifically on the Cordonian Ruby itself including a rare recipe, and two old proverbs (this isn't the only time we've heard apple-related proverbs in the books - in Book 3 for instance, Bertrand refers to their trip to Fydelia as 'slicing two apples with one knife'). Proverbs in general often give us an idea of what people within a region hold up as important, as so connected to their life experiences that they can use those familiar objects as motifs for things that they see in daily life (eg. proverbs in my home state, Kerala, often refer to things/animals we find locally: jasmines, coconuts, jackfruit, dogs, elephants).

The fact that the apple features so often and with such emphasis in the loading page itself - and we have already seen what this simple fruit means to Cordonia - indicates to me that this national symbol - and the idea of the nation itself - will be of great importance. Not only will we be exploring foreign relations, IMO, but we'll also be learning how to build a national narrative that will benefit and strengthen Cordonia.

What's also interesting is that the apple symbolizes fertility to the Cordonian people as well - the apple cutting ceremony during a wedding (as explained by Regina to Leo's fiancée in RoE) is "a symbol of the fruit the tree will bear - you being the tree, of course", and there are chances that the fruit may feature often within the context of pregnancy/having children as well.

• That's all for now, guys. I hope to write more and theorize more as the chapters progress! Until then, I hope you enjoy this one, and I'd love to hear what you have to say.

• I did the Hana screenshots for this chapter, since the first chapter allows me to play repeatedly within losing keys, but I won't be able to do so from Chapter 2 onwards. If there are any Hana fans out there who keep screenshots of scenes in their route and are interested in sharing, I'd love to hear from you and will definitely credit you for the screenshots I put up!

• If you'd like to be tagged in future QTs, please let me know! Tagging @nikkisha16 for now since she asked xD

• Until Saturday, folks!

[jem-jarrett]

I'd love to hear you answer 2, 10 and 16! Stay safe and have a good day!!!

Hey thanks! I love doing these. Okay here we go:

2. What is one thing you regret having done or not done in your life?

No regrets lol. I have anxiety so I’m always doubting everything I do and thinking over alternate courses of action, but I don’t think there’s anything major I regret. Maybe just not being honest and kind with myself in high school and early college. I repressed all my queerness and thought something was wrong with me. So I regret not accepting myself then. It’s such a waste of energy to beat yourself down like that. But hey, I figured it out (mostly) and I’m chillin w my identity now. 👍🏽👍🏽

10. Who are you most envious of—real or fictional—and why?

Fictional: I’m envious of Catra. Being a Magicat would be dope asf. But I’m not envious of any other aspect of her life. She’s had a difficult past and has a lot of challenges ahead of her, so I don’t want to minimize that. I just think having a tail would be neat. I’m also envious of my dogs because they get to nap all day in a sunbeam while I work.

16. What’s the saddest song you’ve ever heard?

Oh boy, well since you asked, there’s this Irish song about a highwayman who falls in love with a woman, and he visits her before riding out at night and doing crimes. He tells her to watch for him in the moonlight, and she does this every night. Except one night the British (damn colonizers) come through and tie her up, threaten to shoot her. They’re waiting for the highwayman to return so they can kill him. So his lover is watching for him in the moonlight, and when she hears the hooves of his horse on the cobblestone, she grabs a gun and shoots herself. The shot rings out and warns the highwayman that the redcoats are there. But instead of fleeing, the highwayman is enraged and rides in to town to avenge his lover. The Redcoats shoot him down in the street. So...they both die. That shit hurted. I’ll drop the lyrics at the end of the post and a link to the song. Also the entire Norah Jones album “Come Away With Me” makes me want to cry. I had a Shih Tzu growing up and he had separation anxiety, but if we put that album on he’d calm down immediately and fall asleep. He died eventually, after a long and happy life, but anytime I hear one of those songs I think of him.

The Highwayman

By Loreena McKennitt

https://youtu.be/qI_PMcFnZZw

The wind was a torrent of darkness

Among the gusty trees

The moon was a ghostly galleon

Tossed upon the cloudy seas

The road was a ribbon of moonlight

Over the purple moor

When the highwayman came riding

Riding, riding,

The highwayman came riding

Up to the old inn door

He'd a french cocked hat at his forehead

A bunch of lace at his chin

A coat of claret velvet

And breeches of brown doe-skin

They fitted with nary a wrinkle

His boots were up to the thigh

And he rode with a jeweled twinkle

His pistol butts a-twinkle

His rapier hilt a-twinkle

Under the jeweled sky

And over cobbles he clattered

And clashed in the dark inn-yard

And he tapped with his whip on the shutters

But all was locked and barred

He whistled a tune to the window

And who should be waiting there

But the landlord's black-eyed daughter

Bess, the landlord's daughter

Plaiting a dark red love knot

Into her long black hair

"One kiss my bonny sweetheart

I'm after a prize tonight

But I should be back with the yellow gold

Before the morning light

Yet if they press me sharply

And harry me through the day

Then look for me by the moonlight

Watch for me by the moonlight

I'll come to thee by the moonlight

Though hell should bar the way."

He rose up right in the stirrups

He scarce could reach her hand

But she loosened her hair in the casement

His face burned like a brand

As a black cascade of perfume

Came tumbling over his breast

And he kissed its waves in the moonlight

Oh, sweet waves in the moonlight

He tugged at his rein in the moonlight

And galloped away to the west

He did not come at the dawning

He did not come at noon

And out of the tawny sunset

Before the rise of the moon

When the road was a gypsy's ribbon

Looping the purple moor

A redcoat troop came marching

Marching, marching

King George's men came marching

Up to the old inn door

They said no word to the landlord

They drank his ale instead

But they gagged his daughter and bound her

To the foot of her narrow bed

Two of them knelt at the casement

With muskets at their side

There was death at every window

Hell at one dark window

For Bess could see through the casement

The road that he would ride

They had tied her up to attention

With many a sniggering jest

They had bound a musket beside her

With the barrel beneath her breast

"Now keep good watch" and they kissed her

She heard the dead man say

"Look for me by the moonlight

Watch for me by the moonlight

I'll come to thee by the moonlight

Though hell should bar the way."

She twisted her hands behind her

But all the knots held good!

But she writhed her hands 'til her fingers

Were wet with sweat or blood

They stretched and strained in the darkness

And the hours crawled by like years

Till now on the stroke of midnight

Cold on the stroke of midnight

The tip of her finger touched it

The trigger at least was hers

Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot had they heard it?

The horse's hooves rang clear

Tot-a-lot, tot-a-lot in the distance

Were they deaf they did not hear?

Down the ribbon of moonlight

Over the brow of the hill

The highwayman came riding

Riding, riding

The redcoats looked to their priming

She stood up straight and still

Tot-a-lot in the frosty silence

Tot-a-lot in the echoing night

Nearer he came and nearer

Her face was like a light

Her eyes grew wide for a moment

She drew a last deep breath

Then her finger moved in the moonlight

Her musket shattered the moonlight

Shattered her breast in the moonlight

And warned him with her death

He turned, he spurred to the west

He did not know she stood

Bowed with her head o'er musket

Drenched with her own red blood

Not till the dawn he heard it

His face grew grey to hear

How Bess the landlord's daughter

The landlord's black-eyed daughter

Had watched for her love in the moonlight

And died in the darkness there

And back he spurred like a madman

Shrieking a curse to the sky!

With the white road smoking behind him

And his rapier brandished high!

Blood-red were the spurs in the golden noon

Wine-red was his velvet coat

When they shot him down in the highway

Down like a dog on the highway

And he lay in his blood in the highway

With a bunch of lace at his throat

Still on a winter's night they say

When the wind is in the trees

When the moon is a ghostly galleon

Tossed upon the cloudy seas

When the road is a ribbon of moonlight

Over the purple moor

A highwayman comes riding

Riding, riding,

A highwayman comes riding

Up to the old inn door

[witchymashedpotatoes]

First of all, let me say that I am absolutely grateful for how much I've learned through your posts (although I always get this strong craving for a nice bowl of mash lol)!! I'd like to ask you if you know quick tips or have a beginner's guide on sigil work. I only know aleister crowley's method but find it too long and a little uncomfortable. Thank you for your help and blessed be!

Hello!! I’m so glad that my posts are actually useful, haha.

But whenever I get an ask about making sigils, I always point out a website called sigilscribe. I LOVE this website, as it makes sigils for you! You simply put in what kind of sigil you want, or what you want the sigil to do (I.e, “family love”, “protection from curses”, “happiness”, etc.) and it uses letters from the words you put in to make you a sigil {I believe that’s how it works, correct me if I’m wrong.} Here’s the like to it;

http://sigilscribe.me/

Now I actually don’t use sigils a lot? I used to for a while, but now I normally just use a pentacle (lazy witch here;;;;). While I was a beginner witch I would mostly just sigilscribe, but sometimes I would make my own. I made around 3 sigils, and I still use them to this day.

But when making sigils I would think about what I would want it to do. Protection? To go unnoticed? Calmness? I would think about what I associate with what I wanted it do, and go on from there. I would also use things from books and other symbols to make sigils.

For example, with calming, I would envision a nice, calm river. So for a calming sigil, I would draw a simple, outline of a river and put some details into it.

For protection, I always used boxes and x’s.

You just have to figure out what’s right for you.

Also, I’ve heard of another way (I’ll try to explain it best I can), where you make a sigil from a wheel. Basically, you draw a big circle and a smaller circle inside that circle. Then start writing all of the letters of the alphabet inside the line of the two circles. Then, simply make a sigil by drawing lines from each letter to the next letter. For example, if I wanted a sigil for ‘luck’, I would start the line from L, go to U, then so on. Then you have the base of a sigil! You can add onto it, or make it more simple if you choose a big word.

(Also here’s some stuff on using sigils;)-Charging sigils is easy! Depending on what you drew it on, you can run it under water, bury it in the ground, burn it (be careful please please PLEASE, and obviously don’t burn anything toxic!!), charge it under the moonlight or sunlight, or charge it with the wind!!-You can also charge sigils with your own energy! I normally do this in a pinch, or if I’m out in public. Draw or trace the sigil onto something, then channel your energy into your hand, feeling it lay there. Then, once you feel you have enough, push the energy into the sigil. (From my ordinal experiences, you’ll probably feel tired after this. Also, it’s ok if you can’t do this! This is surprisingly one of the things I CAN do in witchcraft, ahahah...)-Using sigils in witchcraft is very easy. You can use it to protect a home, give extra power to a spell, or cleanse! Draw onto a paper, use water to draw onto a surface and charge it by wiping it away (at least that’s how I would charge it.), trace onto a rock, or crave into a candle. It’s all about personal preferences!!!!

Hope I helped you in someway. Good luck!!

Love and Light, Amaryllis~(Asks open)