#had the most complex shapes to colour

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

made some doctor whos while i was away

[travalerray]

this kid is absolutely his jiujiu's nephew

[a-driftamongopenstars]

a few thoughts I had about the whole symbology around the Light and the Darkness, and especially with the new trailer dropped.

i love how much shapes are being put to the front of it all.

not just the title, although this is a part of it.

shapes are the most basic thing, it's how we learn. we learn to create from shapes, the most simple ones, circles and spheres, triangles and pyramids, squares, and then we built these complex things, but at the heart of it all - it's made of basic shapes.

there is something so... thematic about them. it's like going back to the basics, to the start, where there is black and white, right and wrong.

but it isn't that easy.

and then we arrive to the final shape.

as if the witness is trying to make it all... simple. to unify all these complex shapes into something singular, understandable, palatable.

but it doesn't work like that.

i don't know yet what those cubes are going to be within the new dlc, but they also look so wrong against this amazing, varied, colourful landscape. beautiful and terrifying and wrong, because you so rarely find perfection out in the wild.

anyway, it's about the shapes!!

[bob-frank451]

Humans are Weird: Pineapple

    The volatus knocked on the door. He had been invited for supper by the human family. This in and of itself was not special. One of the universal languages of affection and relationships is the sharing of food, and although the families three meal rythm differed from his own five meal rythm, they had shared many meals together over the last three years. 

    One problem associated with moving to a whole new culture thay is not immediately obvious is the complete loss of all the food one is accustomed to. The humans had searched the available foodstuffs, and as omnivors, most were edible for them, although they missed their native food from Earth dearly.

     Today was special because within the last month the GA had finished indexing Earth's various foods, and publishing which ones were edible or safe for each of the GA's constituent races. The human family had anxiously awaited the completion of the index and had decided to cook an Earth meal for their friend.

    The first shipment had arrived yesterday afternoon, had become available for purchase early in the morning today, and was, judging by the aroma wafting from the human's house, in part currently cooking in their kitchen.

    The door swung open slowly and jerkily, almost as if a toddler was opening it. The volatus drifted into the house, peered behind the door, and saw the human's three-year-old daughter beaming up at him with a grin filled with sharp, white teeth. Extremely cute.

    "Zinzin!"

    A nickname that had stuck. The tiny human hadn't been able to pronounced his actual name, and instead the whole family had adopted the pet name. There was a burst of neural activity nearby, and Zinzin turned.

    In the door between the "living" room and the kitchen stood his friend. The mountain of a man glanced at him, eyes filled with a mixture of affection, and a sharp wit and humour that made him a safe, reliable friend, or a formidable enemy.

    "Welcome here Zinzin."

    "Thank you."

    The Volatus sampled the air, delicate nose analyzing the complex scents. There were the normals; CO², human proteins, the waft of degrading vegetables from the garbage, a selection of detergents, especially Squalus, and disinfectants, and the smell of new materials off-gassing.

    Overpowering all of these were the smells drifting from the kitchen. Starches, eggs, lactates. Several more potent smells filled the house. At least two fragrances. The traces of alcohol in the scent indicated a potential extract. Underpinning the various fragrances was a beautiful mixture of alien fruit. It was intoxicating.

    

    His friend was watching him, grin so wide he looked like his daughter's drawing. Zinzin suddenly felt quite awkward. He looked up at his friend, and tried to deflect the attention.

    "What's for supper?"

    His friend lost it. Waves of laughter exploded from him. He leaned against the doorframe, and collected himself.

    "You're the one with the fabulous nose, you tell me."

    Zinzin though for a moment.

    "Well, there is starch, egg, and milk, a lot of milk, so I suppose a batter of some kind."

    The human nodded.

    "Alkaloids and acids, so the batter foams, something fluffy?"

    "Hopefully"

    The human's wife joined them, and jabbed her husband in the ribs playfully.

    "My waffles are going to be just fine, thank-you"

    

    More laughter followed, light and easy. Each person wanted to show their guest something. There followed a delightful quarter hour of slightly hungry amusement before Zinzin found himself "sitting", as much as volati ever sit, at the table in the kitchen.

    Flop! An intriguing circular object flopped lightly onto his plate. A soft, fluffy object, almost certainly the product of the aforementioned batter. The top was a lattice of divots and ridges he rather thought would be very good for contained sauces.

    In front of him the table was covered with a variety of shapes, colours, and smells. There was an abundance of various plates and platters filled with fruit whose shapes and colours resembled nothing he had ever seen before. This whole meal had apparently been a full day project for the entire family.

    His friend bent his head down, and closed his eyes, followed closely by the rest of the family. Zinzin, familiar with the custom from the last three years, followed suit so smoothly that if you did not notice the race of the volatus you would swear he was on of the human family.

    His friend spoke, thanking the One who saved him for the day, his family, their guest, and the food.

    Then they ate. If one has ever seen a human eat one never forgets it. They eat with an intensity and focus that reminds an observer that these broad spectrum omnivores are only slightly removed from obligate carnivores, and the world they were designed for was not always so kind as it is now.

    The volatus hardly noticed any of this. Three years had acclimated him to his new friends, and so at this point the only thought in his mind was the spread before him unlike anything he had ever seen.

    The waffles were completely safe for him to eat, they were just bread after all. A large collection of fruits and vegetables were also deemed harmless. His world filled with the most beautiful tastes and smells, mixed with a deep intuitive grasp of the chemical composition that would make a human foody envious, and any botanist or chemist reflect sadly on their own constricted umwelt.

    Not all of the food laid on the table was safe for a volatus. He gestured to a red bowl (the result of careful colour coding). His hostess answered the question before he asked it, an impressive feat for a race without telepathy.

    "Oranges"

    Zinzin wrinkled his nose in frustration. 

    "I can see that, what are they?"

    She laughed, a light, carrying laugh that made the room brighter, before explaining.

    "The fruit is literally called an orange. That's one of the oldest jokes in the book."

    He opened his mouth to ask another question, but was once more anticipated.

    "The fruit came first."

    It was uncanny.

    "Are they safe for me to eat?"

    "The flesh has oils that will irritate your skin and cause your fur to fall out, but the flesh should be safe.

    He husband reached for an orange.

     "Mind if I?"

    The volatus watched the orange intently. It was very orange. He did the human nod.

    It was sour, very sour, and very sweet. Refreshing.

    Next he tried a raspberry. He couldn't risk too many because of the xylitol. The mangoes and pears were safe, aside from the cyanide laced seeds. Typical deathworlder fruit. The grapes he could not eat without organ failure.

    Finally he came to the vary last fruit deemed non poisonous for a volatus, the pineapple. The volatus took a tiny piece, and ate it. It was sour, but not unbearable so. It was sweet, and so fragrant. He basked in the smell for a beautiful moment.

    Then the burning started. There was a war in his mouth! The fruit was chemically attacking him! His friend had been watching, and now handed him a glass of water.

    Zinzin drank, washing away the malevolent fruit and it's influence.

    Then the volatus sat and pondered the remains of the battlefield in his mouth. Enzymes. The damaged and inflammed cells of his mouth must have been attacked by some sort of enzyme.

    "Enzymes?"

    His friend nodded, before speaking.

    "Not just enzymes."

    The human stood up and made his way to an object sitting on a shelf, setting it before the volatus. Zinzin stared at it intently. Lenses and mirrors... It was some sort of primitive microscope! Of course a biologist would have a microscope! Zinzin gingerly picked up a piece of pineapple, and analyzed the microscope. He gently pulled out the glass slide, and rubbed the pineapple on it. He focused the instrument. 

    The humans waited quietly, except for the toddler, who was busy coating her surroundings with syrup.

    

    Volatus do not, as a rule, use exclamations. They are very rarely surprised, which is why Zinzin did not know how to react to what he saw. Thousands of sharp spikes drifted about in the fluid.

    His friend helpfully filled the silence.

    "Calcium Oxalate needles."

    "What?"

    "The needles create thousands of micro lacerations, and the brometin enzyme enters through the cuts, and starts digesting your cells."

    Zinzin thought for a moment.

     "I suppose the acid doesn't help either"

    The volatus sat, as much as volatus ever really sit, and allowed himself to bask in the light conversation, and watched, with little surprise, as the humans ate pinapple until their mouths were raw.

Only Deathworlders

Ao3 Discord

[wishingstarinajar]

so i said in the last ask that i had some head canons. and i wrote one out. it ended up being a lot longer then it was meant to be but here is it. (also im not the best at writing, having dyslexia sucks so sorry if it sounds a bit off or anything.) hope you like it :)

Case has a secret room in his lab/office. 

This room is hidden behind a bookshelf, and to open it you need to pull on a certain book and the middle shelf moves to the side, like the secret doors in movies. 

Once the shelf moves you're greeted with a long dark hallway. No light. No sound. It's all pretty scary and spooky until you reach a big metal door with a complex lock on it. Your first thought is that it's just another room filled with experiments and computers. Or maybe something darker. That's why it's so hidden.  

But if you somehow manage to unlock the door (or it was left open) then…

The first thing to catch your eyes is a big fancy old shiny gramophone sitting on a dark red-wood cabinet with records stored neatly underneath it. Above the gramophone is a photo of Case, his brother and queen, in a golden frame to match the horn of the gramophone. Under your feet in front of the door is a little dark red doormat. It looks pretty old.

The left side of the room is full of sewing equipment. Everything is neatly laid out. There is a big table in the middle with an industrial grade sewing machine mounted to it. Near the table is one of those fancy expensive mannequins with a half finished project pinned up on it. 

Against the wall just next to the door is a small desk with a big pin board hanging on the wall above. The pin board is covered in photos, patterns, little sketches of coats and corsets, a few buttons and gems on it too along with some scraps of fabric and post it notes. 

On the desk there’s a notebook with a hand made pattern next to it, as well as a little cup holder with pens, pencils and chalk. Next to that is a tiny annoying dog shaped pin cushion and a little box filled with sewing needles and more pins. You can never have too many pins. 

Sitting just under the desk is a little red stool on wheels. 

Around the room, and under the big table there are boxes and containers. You can't see inside them. it must just be storage. On top of one of the containers is an older looking sewing machine and an over-locker. 

The walls are lined with shelves filled with big rolls of all different types and colours of materials and fabrics. 

At the far corner of the room there’s a set of drawers that matches the red-wood cabinet of the gramophone with golden handles and trimming. On top of the cabinet is a lamp and an empty wine glass. 

Next to that cabinet is a big rack of clothes, That are all mostly the same colours that Case likes to wear, that being red and silvery shiny grey. Most of the clothes are corsets or have some kind of corset built into them.

The other side of the well lit room is mostly empty. This is when you notice the fact that the floor of this secret room is wooden. It’s a nice change from the cold tiled ground of the lab. 

The only thing in this half of the room is a big dark red well loved comfy looking armchair with a little grey pillow sitting on it. In front of the armchair sits a matching ottoman. On the back wall of the room, near the armchair is a small window covered by some dark red curtains that match the red doormat. 

Just next to the armchair is a wine rack filled with fancy bottles of fine wine. The top of the rack acts as a table and has a few wine glasses resting on it. The glasses look pretty fancy and expensive, one has a golden handle and a few others are made of clear crystal with ornate patterns and designs in them. 

You overheard something about Case liking to dance. Perhaps this big open space is where he practices. 

The only other thought that crosses your mind is why keep all of this hidden? (the answer to that is this as the only other room big enough that would fit the big sewing table and the armchair.) 

You shouldn't enter rooms you weren't invited to~

Damn, you went in-depth about his stuff! But it's all rather fitting for him, very fancy. Nice work!

I really love the last bit because, yes x'D Case doesn't hide away his corsets, sewing machines, designs, gramophone and records. He's too proud of these things. Just cozy at home, away from the lab in Waterfalls and prying eyes.

Megalosomnia belongs to @megalommi~

[snapeaddict]

Snapetober Day 18 - Gaze

April, 1998

From where he was, higher up on the wall, Albus gazed down as his Potions Master - the new headmaster - sat behind the desk. He could only see his left profile, and even that, after a second or two, was hidden from him as well: a curtain of back hair blocked his view.

He could not feel terribly deeply, or at least, he knew his feelings had to be much less complex, much smoother than those of his actual self. But this added something to them, too. A layer of emotional rawness he had never experienced in life. 

He knew he had loved the boy, so he loved him, still, and his silence was excruciating. 

"Any news, Severus?", he asked, clearing his voice. "That is, outside of Hogwarts. I find myself longing for newspapers these days."

The younger man did not raise his head, and dipped his quill into the inkwell in front of him. 

"Even the Daily Prophet? Surely you remember, Dumbledore, the amount of nonsense that is printed on these pages daily", Severus replied indifferently. 

"Even the Daily Prophet. Life as a portrait is rather dull."

Severus' hand stopped mid-sentence.

"I am sorry to hear that. As you are aware, I did not wish for it to happen either."

"Severus..."

"I do not require idle conversation to pass the time, Albus. I have seen no news of importance as of late."

Raw emotions.

"You are being unfair", the portrait blurted out. "I made you do it - but have you thought about what this cost me?"

The Slytherin dropped his quill and his head finally jerked upward, turning towards the portrait. His usual mask of indifference was gone, and he looked utterly shocked: he could not master the strength to reply immediately. 

Albus, too, was shocked. The vague knowledge that such behaviour was unlike himself creeped over him, heavy with meaning. Who was he?

"I have thought about it, Albus", Severus replied after a while, coldly. His voice was a little lower than usual. "I have thought about it over and over again - and I wish you had too, before touching that damn ring."

There was a bizarre contrast between the rigidity of his voice and his face, distorted by an ugly mixture of pain, grief and anger.

"You are in no position to reproach me so, Severus", the portrait replied austerely, rising from his painted chair. "Have you not done things yourself without thinking of the consequences?"

He saw Severus' hand twitch. He had gone too far - he instantly regretted it, but did not find in him the will to apologise or even utter another word. He expected the younger man to explode or storm out. But to his surprise, he did neither, and Albus found himself dreading what would come next.

Severus simply reached out for the pile of newspapers to his left. He picked one specifically: the Daily Prophet. He turned each of its pages with care until he seemed to have found what he was looking for, his hands, albeit almost imperceptibly, trembling with anger.

"I was wrong, Albus", he said. His voice was terrible, low and icy cold. "There is one article you might want to be made aware of - it concerns Gellert Grindelwald. He was found dead in his cell yesterday."

There was heavy silence, and, tangible for all present, a bleak sense of no return. 

"It cannot be", the former headmaster managed, his voice faint. "It must be a mistake."

"It is not. There is a picture - his face is most distinctive. You remember the shape and colour of Gellert Grindelwald's eyes, I am sure?"

[veilantares]

LOST LOST really is 2023's theme for me. I spent most of this past year on my PhD project, so my output has been quite scarce overall - certainly so compared to the industriousness of years past. When I had chances to draw this year it was often like a gasp of air amidst a sea of my other efforts. "What's the next step forward?" I think at times. Consider the center drawing my face of course, because in real life I look like if cannonbolt was a sad refridgerator.

I started a new physical sketchbook and made some breakthroughs in my personal illustrations, but nothing I'm happy to share - in previous years I didn't have as much nervousness to experiment in public. Anyway this feels like a good opportunity to do a bit of a retrospective on the last ones of these I did.

In many ways 2022 was the best year of my work, I both did my most challenging (and correspondingly complex) pieces this year, and had the confidence to make several things a week. Past the initial few months I had really started to hone my mix of solid shapes, lineart and linelessness thats ubiquitous in my pieces now, though I wonder if I have grown too comfortable with the stability of a partial formula.

One disadvantage about only choosing nine pieces was that in wanting them to look good together I had to exclude a series of the coloured background pieces that interspersed the dark background ones. In those, I felt like a lot more of my effort went into the shape language, so there was a synergy with both approaches letting me understand things.

In 2021 I started using colours instead of grayscale, that years inktober could almost be said to be my best work, there was both a variety and scale to it..I drew something virtually every day for almost three or four months straight and crucially, I also shared it all after I was done. It really felt worth it planning art ahead, but also spontaneously filling the blanks it in the moment. That being said maybe that productiveness was not sustainable because I'd have very little time for much else after school, work and art.

Late in that year I realised I could just draw the things I like if I wanted, instead of the things I thought people wanted - so some of the later pieces really resembled discount warframes. That game has so deeply hooked itself into my visual library that I draw it even when I'm not intending to, and so when I started deliberately trying to evoke it (with very fledgling art analysis skills), I think I got more and more familiar with what I wanted.

In 2020 I was just starting out so I did not yet recognise there was something specific to aspire to - I dont have a retrospective montage like these other years for 2020. You can see virtually every piece I've ever uploaded on my instagram page, so I think I might not narrate as much about those in this post. Maybe in the future I'll review all these years through a completely different lens.

[briarworthandoleander]

Do you think Shara Isvalda and Gaismagorn often have fights?

These two are, if I'm not mistaken, the only two big monsters that live most of the time underground and although I don't think they feed on the same. Shara feeds on bioenergy and Gaismagorn uses the Qurio to absorb nutrients (not sure about this)

I forgot Kulve Taroth, she also lives underground, so I guess they had fights too.

Although maybe not because they don't live on the same continent. Apart from Kulve and Shara.

I would like to theorize that Gaismagorm is technically a Deep Sea Elder Dragon, not an Underground Elder Dragon given its dens location. It's probably best to explain how bioenergy and dragon energy work to explain the feeding methods of both Shara Ishvalda, Gaismagorm and the beginnings of Xeno Jiiva.

Bioenergy (or dragon energy) is everywhere, in the water, in the earth and in the air we breathe. It flows throughout the world. Xeno'Jiiva are born when this energy coalesces in one spot like a whirlpool. Shara Ishvalda meanwhile are drawn to the natural flow of this energy so they move with the flow of the bio energy underground and take root where it is most prevalent at the time. These two instances often occur after a large elder dragon has died.

Gaismagorm is a different beast.

Gaismagorm was, and possibly still is, an ambush predator for deep sea elder dragons. Instead of supping on bioenergy - it sends out scouts of a sort in waves that we have grown to know as:

The Qurio. A relatively simple life-form in the shape of a fish that could flutter around with bright colouration to lure prey. One could say that they are actually the closest in biology to a Xeno'Jiiva, as both are comprised of bioenergy.

The Qurio were Gaismagorm's lure for elder dragons like Ceadeus; a means of attracting these dragons to the cave of Gaismagorm so that the dreaded devil could grab them with its great arms and pull them into its lair to feast.

But over time, creatures tend to get wise to one's tricks, so it's a question of adapt or die. So the Qurio became parasitic leeches that would drain bioenergy from other elder dragons to give to Gaismagorm. They grew more complex, powered by Gaismagorm to find and hunt down prey instead of just luring it. But seas can run empty, and when they do - new sources must be acquired. So the Qurio began to fly. Thus began the plague on air and land.

...and how they found the species of Elder Dragon called Malzeno.

Unlike most other monsters, Malzeno were not drained but instead gained a symbiotic relationship with the Qurio, essentially leeching Gaismagorms' bio energy for themselves through the Qurio.

However, I am getting off topic.

You want to know if Gaismagorm and Shara Ishvalda fight and how often. I would say no.

Shara Ishvalda prefer arid areas and mountains, whereas Gaismagorm is going to be underground under entire oceans and seas. The two simply would not meet unless there was a large source of bioenergy between their individual biomes that was too irresistible for either to ignore.

-Leo Briarworth

To piggyback off of Leo's theory, it could be surmised that the Qurio started out as single-celled organisms during the time that Gaismagorm as a species dwelled in oceanic trenches, where light can't easily penetrate except in very specific forms and down to a certain depth. You see, taking a close look at the Qurio themselves, they give off a peculiar red glow. It's something that we can pick up on easily at a glance, something that monsters can see and follow above the ocean's depths... but past around 4.6 meters below the surface, red light begins to be absorbed as light waves are scattered.

In the deep ocean, there are creatures that use light to hunt, luring prey with a nice, shiny promise of food that sometimes glows to scare off smaller, less capable predators. In this same vein, light can be shown on prey that most creatures wouldn't be able to detect otherwise. It isn't too much of a stretch to assume that this same principle was followed before Gaismagorm eventually made the transition from sea to land, when the Qurio were still parasites that fed on Gaismagorm and the nutrients it processed as it, too, fed.

Eventually, in time immemorial, though... something changed. Gaismagorm as a species grew and their prey didn't, so they continued to adapt, and so did their parasites to this ever-changing biome whilst they worked their way up the food chain. Eventually, fish and other creatures that lived in the ocean just weren't enough, so the species both had to broaden their horizons or die. Fins became legs, legs became wings, gills that filtered oxygen from the water became lungs and vents to expel waste and excess, unusable energy.

It could be assumed that they were out-competed in the air, so then they adapted to food they could reach without expending so much energy. Once aquatic, then aerial, then subterranean... it's a massive leap and seemingly a step backward evolutionarily, but the structure of Gaismagorm's larger pair of arms suggests that they were once wings and simply evolved into powerful limbs, too heavy for flight but perfect for tunneling through solid earth and stone. Down in giant tunnels, they didn't need powerful hind legs for taking to the skies, so those became vestigial, Gaismagorm's eyes shrank as an adaptation to low-light conditions, and the Qurio, their parasites... developed wings from fins used to swim through water and their host's innards.

We might never know what led Gaismagorm to start creating exit points in the ground for the Qurio to find their way out and feed, but somewhere down the line, the behavior was sparked and a new pattern of hunting was born. Gaismagorm, too large to easily leave their tunnels, had to find food somehow, so they began to rely on the Qurio, which in turn began to treat their host as a hive. They began to leave its body, taking to the skies, hunting down and draining precious lifeblood from monsters up topside, then returning to Gaismagorm to feed it what they'd stolen.

From there, the Gaismagorm could (and can) process the blood into something that the Qurio can eat--a form of energy expelled by the elder dragon, a waste product, pure and filtered down into everything that it can't use but they can.

In the simplest of terms, think of the Qurio as Bnahabra or Vespoids, feeding their larvae meat so that they can create a protein-rich slurry that they can actually digest. It's the same principle; both species rely entirely on each other to survive.

-Oleander

[as8bakwthesage]

I gave Tem Souldancer a proper reference for their civilian self and their Magical Boy/Enbie transformation!

So a couple of notes:

Tem Souldancer is 16 years old when they meet the Turtles. They use they/them pronouns. They are also a self-insert who I ship with Donnie.*

Tem is short for Artemisia, a name that they adopted after moving to NYC. Their "real" name is Crow, but they did keep their surname out of respect for their family's culture and history. So they went from Crow Souldancer to Artemisia Souldancer, but everyone calls them Tem for short.

Tem is Two-Spirit, and is on Testosterone. Their gender is "your worst nightmare." They are also ace-spec.

Tem was diagnosed with ASD as a child. Their special interests lie in the complexities of magic and systems of the mystic arts. They study magic almost like it's a science. And also crows. They have a huge thing for crows. Duh no shit

They are very silly

Tem's Backstory and Powers...

Tem's Backstory:

Headcanon time! The magic in ROTTMNT stems from two sources - from the Spirits of the Earth or from the Krang/Onni. The magic that comes from the Earth and its Spirits acts like veins, and ties all living creatures together. The veins are in all kinds of colours, depending on the life force of the person a single vein is connected to. For obvious reasons, Raph's is red, Leo's is blue, Donnie's is purple, Mikey's is orange, April's is yellow, etc. However, most people cannot see the Veins, including the Hamatos.

Tem, and by extension their family, can see these Veins, alongside some other stuff. This is because many centuries ago, a young woman was given these abilities by one of the more powerful Spirits in order to protect the Earth from the Demons who would try to destroy it (the Krang.) This woman adopted the title Souldancer because it felt like she was dancing among the souls of the living. This would become the surname for Tem's family.

Souldancer children are born with a small crystal on their body, varying in shape, colour, and location. These are called Soul Crystals, and they help the Souldancers use their powers. However, they only appear on firstborn children. Any other children born after do not get a crystal. The secondborn are taught how to do magic for reasons that will become apparent in the next paragraph.

The firstborn child would be trained in the mystic arts and in the ability to see and manipulate the Veins. The secondborn child would be responsible for producing the next generation of firstborn and secondborn children, so that the Souldancer line never died out. The firstborns are not allowed to have relationships or develop attachments to others. (Kind of like the Jedi Order in the Star Wars prequels, and the reasons why are the exact same.) The firstborn are called Guardians, and the secondborn are called Carriers.

Tem is a very weird case because they and their brother Rook are the firstborn together. They are twins, and they both have crystals. Rook's is green while Tem's fluctuates between white, shades of grey, and black (I'll come back to why that's weird later!) But Souldancer twins have never been born before this, so Tem's parents had to figure out what to do. Because Tem was born a few minutes after Rook, their parents decided that Rook would be the next Guardian because he was older. Tem would be the next Carrier. They were supposed to marry a man who was nine years older than them when they turned 16.

They tried to smile and continue living. But they've always loved using their magic and protecting and helping others, and they don't want to give up that part of themselves. So when they turned 15, they ran away from home and moved out to NYC, where they knew an entrance to the Hidden City was. They figured that being closer to the Hidden City would mask their Soul Crystal from their parents' detection.

Tem set up shop and began working as a waiter, while also doing VTubing on the side (which they are slowly but surely getting more views and money from.) They also use the nights to their advantage to not only fight crime and help out injured people using their powers, but also to fight any and all remnants of the Demons' armies. Tem is also trying to destroy any and all remaining Krang weapons (one of which being the Dark Armor.)

Tem meets the Turtles in season 1 of ROTTMNT. They get very insecure about having to share a spotlight with any other heroes. Tem has lived in their brother's shadow for years and wants to escape it and make something of themselves independent from their family. They project hard on the Turtle brothers as a result. However, they soon become friends with the brothers, and develop a rivalry/friendship with Donnie (which eventually turns into a romance, but that's a very slow burn.)

Tem's Powers:

Remember how I mentioned above that Tem's Soul Crystal being greyscale is weird? Well, here's why! All Souldancer firstborns are born with a Crystal, and they all come in different shapes and colours. However, no child has ever been born with a Crystal like Tem's before.

The scale of White to Black shades in magic is reserved for those with a LOT of power, typically Spirits. White magic was typically more focused and could allow a person to utilise any kind of magic they wanted to. Black magic, on the other hand, was harder to control and was more prone to instability. However, it was also the culmination of all colours, so it could also do crazy powerful stuff. The shades of Greys in magic are a combination of both of these aspects. The darker the shade, the more magical energy a person had, but that magic was unstable and difficult to control.

Tem's Crystal changes colour depending on how upset they are. If they feel a very strong emotion such as hatred or terror or even love, their Crystal gets darker. However, Tem's appearance while transformed is a mix of different shades of greys mostly because it is a reflection of their experiences with their magic and emotions. The colour of their Crystal only changes whenever Tem overexerts themselves.

Tem's powers are more specific however. They can see the Veins, but they can also interact with them. If they spend enough time, Tem could find anybody in the world using the Veins. They can even siphon magical energy from a large network of sources to heal others. Think of it like the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Typically, minor injuries like cuts or bruises or even sprains don't take too much magic or effort. Wounds, stabs, broken bones are trickier but also not too difficult to heal. Near-death injuries are harder, but not impossible. However, when someone dies, it is basically impossible to heal from that.

Tem also can drain the life force and magical energy from others. Very similar deal to the Healing magic. Draining magic is easier when it's in smaller quantities. Typically draining small amounts of magic from someone will make them tired or weaker. In larger quantities, it could bring someone to near death or even kill someone. However, removing so much magic from someone as to practically take their soul would absolutely be way too much Black magic for one person to handle and it could possibly kill them.

Alongside that, Tem can also mimic the powers of the Turtles, mostly whenever they are in close proximity to them. So the closer Tem is to a brother, the easier it is for Tem to mimic their powers. Their crystal and clothes even have the colour of the corresponding brother added to them, which disappears when Tem is no longer using their powers. It's also important to note that the more Tem uses one of the Turtles' magical abilities, they also tend to feel whatever it is the brother in question is feeling. They can only use one power at a time, and if they try to do multiple at once, it is too much.

In their Corvid form (as they like to call their transformed black and white self), they can glide, jump farther, run faster than any ordinary human. They also have a significantly higher pain tolerance and much faster reflexes.

/

*I have been a TMNT fan since 2012, and I was 16/17 when Rise was announced/released. Tem is an abridged version of myself in 2017/2018, which is when the events of the first season start. I'm adult now, so any and all content from me about teen Tem and teen Donnie will be strictly SFW. This is kind of a grey zone for me in terms of self-shipping because it's retroactive and Tem's experiences differ from my own drastically.

Why I'm retroactively self-shipping is very personal to me, but it boils down to healing my inner child/teenager. I grew up with these characters and I'd like to pay homage to my younger self and give them some love and support from healthy places. This is very much a love letter to teenage Aso.

[joyburble]

The hunting dress. This appears repeatedly, in-between periods of wearing other things. Its first appearance is in Episode 6. It's a glorious teal-green velvet with heavy gold embroidery and beadwork, and we see it full-length as Danyin barges in downstairs.

He wears this when he's out to fuck shit up, but not as, like, a formal public occasion. It has straight, relatively practical sleeves, and no train. It's worn in the forest for the Fairy Exam shenanigans, (looking exactly like the Evil Penguin from The Wrong Trousers, but that's the peformance, not the costume. Magic invisibility seems to work just as well as the Penguin's famous disguise) ...

He also wears it in Episode 10, for the first confrontation with Xunfeng:

it's being worn when they swap bodies, and it continues to be worn by Xiao Lanhua throughout a lot of the body swap scenes, interspersed with other things

Xiao Lanhua seems to find it relatively tolerable, if awkward and uncomfortable to wear.

It's also being worn when they switch back, so immediately to (informally) fuck up Changheng and Rong Hao, followed by Xunfeng.

He wears it again to hunt down the kidnapper in Episode 15. Here, it's an interlude and a change of look in the middle of something else, which I'll come back to later.

The texture is a little velvety, but the structure is stiff and complex, with lots of bits. The strange sinuous things around the shoulders and neck are reminiscent of his armour. The embroidery glitters at the hips.

From the floor, we briefly get detail of the skirts. What is going on with that thin line of teal-blue velvet ribbon? Where is it even coming from? So much detail.

Maybe it's connected to what might be a middle layer of blue gauze. The more closely I look, the more this outfit looks incredibly fiddly and complicated, more so than any of his more ostentatious outfits.

But then they go to the hunting lodge, and suddenly it looks at home. Green, gold, velvety, complex, organic, and now all the squiggles and unexplained layers are roots, branches, leaves (and, as usual, flames).

The headpiece is very organic-looking, strongly asymmetrical - it looks like a present from an Ent.

All the colours and shapes blend in now, with a suggestion of rough, primal power, at home in the forest. Suddenly it seems almost as though we are seeing him in his real home.

So it is still with us for the conversation with the elder woman in the forest, where its compact shape seems appropriate.

He also wears it to enter the human realm with the intention of fucking shit up, in Episode 19, until he changes it to blend in.

I had the impression by this point that this was supposed to be the outfit the character internally feels most comfortable and at home in: he wears it when the priority is doing, rather than being seen to do.

Given that, I found it striking that he wears it here in Episode 28, to come and find Xiao Lanhua, who has waited all night outside his door. We have a moment to wonder why he is wearing it now.

In episode 15 and 16 this outfit was worn for an interlude of action in the middle of the process of restoration. Here, it's worn for an interlude of different action in the middle of the process of consequences.

We get to see that the skirt of the underlayer is a bonkers silver leopard print, of all things (and also that the thing he's covered her with is the outer layer of the Chrysalis Gown).

She asks him if he is all right, and he says a wordless "no". And then we discover what he is on the hunt for - he's worn this to propose! This is the only time we can really see that it has a sleeveless, shiny over-layer that seems to be suspended from those strange sinuous things that wrap around the shoulders.

Of course, the situation immediately spirals out of his control again, but in a good way:

After this, I could be wrong, but I don't think we see the hunting dress again.

There is so much going on for this relatively compact outfit. It starts out signifying practical physical action and personalised one-on-many violence. It then blends in with nature to suggest a sort of primal sincerity (potentially not just in attacking things). Then it ends up here. I think that's beautiful.

The DFQC costumes master post is here.

[whistwhistler]

some thoughts on jane tennant & kate whistler and the awful takes i’ve seen on their characters so far...

I think there’s a particularly harmful narrative out there that has been started that Jane “uses & abuses” the people around her (namely, Whistler) when she needs something or when she’s in trouble and I just think that’s incredibly antithetical to who she’s been designed and created to be as a character. Do you really think the writers would a) do that to Vanessa (or Tori), b) be so careless in handling an incredibly complex, woman of colour (and in senior leadership, no less) who has been involved in the espionage game and all the toxicity surrounding espionage, war, intelligence and politics in this current political climate and c) write female friendships/working relationships to be so toxic in an age where females doing literally anything on tv are scrutinized for no good reason? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, it was intentional from the start to highlight how at the core of Jane’s being, that she’s not an inhuman byproduct of what the CIA creates its operatives to be?

NCIS: Hawaii, so far, has been deeply intentional in the way the seasonal story arcs/thematic arcs are crafted. Everything about each season has led up to what happens in its finales. The first and second season has established and zeroed in on the theme of family/found family/etc., and that’s not something that’s just thrown in there because it sounds pretty or cute. The theme of family is constantly reinforced because it’s the backbone that drives this series. Ohana. It’s what sets the Hawaii office apart from the other shows. It’s not as dark, gritty, violent, or depressing, and that actually works to its advantage. Family drives every aspect of this show and its characters. And you know what else? Family is messy. And while I still have my own grievances on how they’ve focused so heavily on Jane (again, for obvious reasons), her family/kids, and her past and not so much the other characters (yet), I also believe it’s worked to their advantage. I haven’t seen a show do flashbacks and retrospective character study on its characters, and do it well, in a while especially for a “police procedural.” For us to even have flashbacks and character-centric episodes is a gift for a procedural, and we have to remember that. We’ve seen bits and pieces of Jane’s past, and now we see how it all plays into this storyline of how her past is coming back to haunt her. Jane is a woman who fiercely loves and cares deeply for those who are close to her heart, but even to those who cannot fight for themselves, or are in deep trouble. That was made so beautifully highlighted in 2x18. That’s what makes her an incredible boss, an incredible leader, and most importantly, a wonderful friend. Has your boss ever invited you to their office for a drink? Let alone to their own home with an open door policy? Has your boss risked their life to rescue not just themselves but others who are wounded and are in desperate need of medical attention, all the meanwhile being badly injured themselves? Jane’s life revolves around family and caring for others because it’s something she was deprived of as a child. Her mother was not around. She did not have siblings. She had a loving father, but with him being in the military, she would have had to move from base to base. Her childhood would not have been steady. Friends would have come and gone. Her entire life was on the go. She’s had to fend for herself growing up. She’s had to stand up for herself. Jane Tennant is a woman who is deeply informed and shaped by her experience and leverages that to be the person she needed as a child to those around her. It’s what has made her an extraordinary SAC. But Jane also isn’t perfect. She has flaws, and they’re making themselves known in this finale.

So now, despite Jane being the Special Agent in Charge of the Entire Pacific Rim™, she also has a past. We can’t ignore that. Jane Tennant has a past. And it’s a CIA past. And from the sound of it, it’s a past she’s not particularly proud or fond of. We can see that Jane’s CIA past has deeply affected her, as it should. You’ve all seen (in some shape or form, fictional or non fictional) the extent of what the CIA is, what it represents, the shadiness and the dark side of how it operates, and what its people are capable of. We know the toxic culture of secrets, lies, deadly surprises and betrayal that can follow with being involved with the CIA. Jane has been involved with all of that. And she is still, unfortunately, involved with that despite having switched agencies and careers. She no longer is a covert CIA operative, she is the SAC of the NCIS Hawaii office. But that doesn’t mean she won’t slip back into covert CIA operative mode the moment she finds out she’s in danger. Like everyone else, Jane has a fight or flight response... She just happens to do both. So what does this mean?

Well, if Jane is in danger and it involves her extremely dangerous, shady CIA past, everyone in her life will inadvertently be in danger as well. Why else would Ernie call Jane out that she was being shady? She doesn’t really have a choice. She’s played the intelligence game long enough to know that secrets, information, and data can get people killed. The people she’s dealt with are extremely dangerous, and if they get the slightest idea of who is important to Jane, they will stop at nothing to eliminate those around her to hurt her. To torture her. Can you imagine the weight of that? Knowing that your past has put your kids at risk for being targets? Your closest friends, your colleagues - your family? Hell, I’d be shady too. Jane is incredibly smart. She knows the loopholes, she knows what angles to play. She knows the risks she has to take. She has been through it and knows exactly how to manipulate and play the system. That’s what makes her such a polar opposite to the character Kate Whistler is. 

Okay, enter Kate. Because I know what you’re all thinking. What was the point of reinforcing the family theme with Kate with the amount of Jane/Kate interactions we’ve had all season only for Jane to use her to get into the bank in Venezuela and then handcuff her to a column in a kitchen, basically leaving her to dry? What was the point of all of this if Jane going rogue anyway is going to put everyone in danger? Wouldn’t Kate be pissed as hell for Jane getting her into this mess, risking her career, putting her in danger, etc etc etc? Well, I’m glad you didn’t ask, because I’m still going to tell you anyway. 

Short answer, Kate didn’t see it like that. Long answer, Kate Whistler isn’t a chump and is a foil to Jane Tennant’s character. Aka, Whistler is everything that Jane is not, and yet, is everything that Jane needs. I’m not saying Whistler is an antagonist (maybe it seemed like she was in the first season, but we’ve seen how she’s grown since then - keep this thought tucked away in the back of your minds for later). But why else would they have introduced Whistler the way they did in the pilot, if they weren’t going to use her to balance Jane out? And vice versa? Why else have they spent so much time developing Whistler’s character, despite her being an agency-adjacent character (AKA, a non-NCIS character on an NCIS show)? Why have they spent so much time writing scenes and moments between the two women and developing that friendship? One, it’s because they’re establishing Whistler to be just as an important part of the NCIS team despite her being interagency, and two, it’s because Jane and Kate both need each other. And most importantly, they trust each other. Keep this thought pinned. Trust. Whistler looks up to Jane, despite her sticky way of operating. And Jane looks up to Whistler because of how brilliant she is. How unlike Whistler is to herself. Jane recognizes that Whistler is someone she needs in her corner; not because she has malicious intents of using Whistler for what she can do, who/what she knows, and what she’s capable of, but because Whistler is just wired differently, and she needs that - dare I say, craves that. Jane has spent so much of her life depending on and trusting people like Maggie who are like her, only for people like Maggie to betray her in the end. She knows that Whistler will never do that, because she knows what Whistler is driven by (protecting the intel/secrets/data to the highest degree, etc.) Whistler knows, understands, and can play the intelligence game just as well as Jane can, and Jane sees how much of a breath of fresh air she is. And for Whistler, despite Jane’s way of not doing things by the book, it’s yielded results. Jane’s methods have worked, and that’s what Whistler has seen and understands of Jane and who she is as a leader. She sees and appreciates Jane’s ideology as a leader, reminding her of the kind of person, perhaps one day, the leader (ASAC, SAC) she wants to become.

And that’s why she’d listen to Jane in going to Venezuela.

Okay, let’s back it up a bit. Jane’s methods have worked.

... But they don’t always do.

Alas, the moment you’ve all been waiting for - Jane’s habits of slipping back into a covert, secretive, protective and shady operative, is not working. Jane going rogue is not working.

And yes, it puts others in danger. It puts herself in an immense amount of danger. 

Okay, so that part was obvious, so what am I getting at? Once again, I’m glad you didn’t ask (because I did, for you), so here we go.

As we can see in next week’s promo, Jane is kidnapped, and is being tortured by Adrian Creel, a dangerous person from her past. Not only that, but is someone who she thought was dead. Both her past and present worlds are colliding, and she’s now scrambling to do damage control. So she goes rogue. We have to remember that Jane is highly intelligent, calculated, and cunning. That combination of words is absolutely fucking terrifying if used for harm instead of good. But that’s not who Jane is. And we saw that in a flashback.

This is what sets Jane apart from the person that Maggie Shaw is. Maggie is a textbook CIA operative. She has little regard for those who cross her and will do whatever it takes to get a job done. Spies are trained to not get attached to others. To push aside their emotions and feelings. And despite Maggie having a soft spot for Jane and becoming a mentor/mother figure to her (which makes her betrayal so deeply wounding to Jane not having a mother of her own in the picture), Maggie and Jane are fundamentally different people. One sees people as assets, assignments, collateral, or worse - collateral damage. The other sees people as human beings. One is completely unaffected by betrayal. The other is deeply affected. One is unfazed by death. The other is. You catching my drift?

Jane’s CIA experience has shown her how terrible the world of espionage can be. How messy, interwoven, terrible, and haunting it can be. Right now, it’s haunting her, and coming back to bite her in the ass. So what do you do when your past is coming back for you in the present? You pull every stop necessary to protect those you care about the most. To protect your family, the people you’d easily lay your life down for. Jane is not the kind of person that would intentionally get others she cares about into messes, nor is she the kind of person that gets people into messes that she herself wouldn’t be able to pull them out from. These are calculated risks Jane is taking. It’s not that she doesn’t know or think that her actions won’t cause problems for herself or others later on, she absolutely knows and understands the weight of every outcome and every choice she has to make. She wouldn’t put her team or colleagues in more danger than they need to be. Please understand this language. She can’t protect them from everything that could possibly happen, but if she has the smallest chance of controlling what she can control, then she’ll put herself on the line first. So she’ll make the choices that have the least collateral damage. She voluntarily pulls herself off the case from NCIS to protect her team. She would rather risk herself getting fired or killed before there’s a slightest chance of danger coming towards her team. She reaches out to Whistler, not because she doesn’t care about Whistler as much as she does with her own team or doesn’t care about her enough to not put her in harm’s way, but because Whistler is the only person she can trust right now (and that’s a massive thing for Jane after being betrayed by the one person she thought she’d never, ever get betrayed by). Jane knows that Whistler is absolutely vital in ensuring that whoever is after her, will never be able to reach Whistler, her team, or her kids. Her team can’t do that (lead her to Venezuela) for her. In a weird way, Jane knows that she cannot do parts of her mission alone, but she also recognizes that she cares too much about Whistler to fully let her accompany her in a mission that she knows that she may not come back from alive. This is the grey area of the espionage game that Jane is playing. Jane going rogue and the espionage world is not black and white. Things just aren’t that easy. And it’s baffling that so many people think “well if Jane would have just been honest and let her team help her they wouldn’t be in danger.” It literally doesn’t work like that. Why else would they continue to highlight the stickiness of Jane’s CIA past? Why even highlight the CIA at all? Simple: to show how drastically different NCIS is, how NCIS operates, but also how much Jane has changed since getting out of the spy game, and how much she’s affected the people around her because of the person she is. It’s not that she’s gone rogue and isn’t letting people in and is putting everyone in danger like everyone sees it to be, but she’s trying to keep everyone safe from how deep and messy things are when they’re not taken care of (i.e. “I made a mistake and I need to fix it”), and how much of a splintering effect it can have if not dealt with the way things need to be dealt with (and I mean “dealt with” in the CIA terms of killing someone). For Jane, Creel cannot know that Whistler helped her get close to him (despite her not knowing Creel was alive this entire time, just that someone has impersonated her and has emptied out the account). Creel cannot know that Jane has kids. Creel cannot know that she is in charge of multiple offices full of NCIS Agents and American government personnel. Creel cannot know anything. The stakes are so fucking high.

Jane is involved in a war that has now involved death, and will continue to do so. And she’d rather it be Creel’s, or hers. What if Jane had allowed for Whistler to accompany her to the house of her impostor in the name of not keeping Whistler in the dark? What if Whistler had been the one that was shot instead of Charlie-1 because none of them had vests on? Or conversely, what if Whistler had been kidnapped along Jane and had been the one getting tortured by Creel in retaliation of what happened to him?

Jane would never forgive herself if harm (or death) came Whistler’s way. So handcuffing Whistler to the column was genuinely to protect her. Not because she’s an ungrateful asshole who just uses Whistler for access or that she doesn’t trust in Whistler’s ability to handle herself in the field or that Whistler wouldn’t have her back, but because Jane knows the violent outcome of what this will be. And she’ll do everything in her power to avoid Whistler (or anyone else in her life that is important to her) to become collateral damage or fall victim to her dangerous past. It’s not that Whistler is a rookie that Jane can’t trust to have her back in the field; it’s that Jane can’t afford for harm to come her friend’s way: for Whistler to get injured, tortured, or die on her account. Jane can’t afford her closest friend to fall victim to something they will never come back from. It’s not perfect, it’s messy, but it’s Jane’s way of keeping her safe. Once again, Jane is built like a spy. Secrets and lies and shiftiness is unfortunately, a part of her DNA. But she also isn’t a heartless, unemotional, ghost of a shell. She cares so deeply for the ones she loves, and it motivates her to do the things she needs to do to keep them as far away from imminent danger as possible.

Okay, now back to Whistler. (I told you it was long)

I think what was greatly overlooked was Whistler’s reaction. She wasn’t angry, hurt, or betrayed by Jane cuffing her to the column. Frustrated, yes, but Kate immediately recognized the gravity of the situation that Jane is in, and once again, worries for her friend diving headfirst into danger. Kate doesn’t yell at Jane, she calls out her name because she fears for her friend’s life. Listen to the tone of their exchange closely. It’s not one that’s done in anger or rage. Both of them know how dangerous this has become. Again, Kate isn’t a poor chump that walked into Jane’s mess. Whistler understood what Jane has asked of her to risk. She didn’t like it, but she also can’t stand around and do nothing while her friend is in danger. Of course she’s going to help. Whistler understands immediately what Jane has walked back into. Whistler knows exactly who Jane is from her time in the DIA. I have no doubt in the back of my mind that she’s run extensive background checks on Tennant and the team while she was at the DIA because of how much of a liability the NCIS team was with the DIA (hence, her having to liaise and almost babysit them in terms of data sharing and collection.) Whistler has seen Jane’s dossier, and she’s probably studied the woman’s profile like she would’ve studied material from grad school or studied a profile on a terrorist. That’s what made Jane Tennant the bane of her existence, but it’s also what fascinates her the most: how unlike Jane is for someone that has worked for the CIA. That Jane puts others first, treats her team like they’re her family, and fiercely cares for them. This baffles Whistler to the core, because she’s worked with CIA/NSA/DEA/all government acronyms type personnel. She’s worked with spies. She’s interrogated terrorists and traitors. She knows the formula of what makes a covert operative. Jane has been everything but that. And on top of that, Whistler has worked with upper brass. She’s worked with bosses, admirals, generals, commanders, ASAC’s and SAC’s. She’s worked with people who don’t care about you unless you have impressive accolades and accomplishments that are worth listening to. So for her to cross paths with SAC Tennant... It drastically changes the way that she sees world; the people that she works with, has worked with, and it changes the way she approaches things. Whistler is a type-A personality; likes to plan ahead, likes to know exactly what is going on; every detail, and overarching piece. DIA Whistler would never have allowed for this to happen - in fact, she probably would’ve been the one to inform the brass about what was going on and would immediately have Tennant arrested for treason. But Kate Whistler, friend of Jane Tennant sees that her friend is in need of her help, and that’s what informs her decision to help Jane and go to Venezuela, despite her not actually knowing what the outcome of this entire thing will be. Despite the high risk she’s taking. Despite the fact she could very well lose her job over this if things go south. Despite seeing how much her friend has shifted back into fight or flight CIA mode. Whistler realizes how much danger Jane is in. So no, she’s not angry. 

But she sure as hell isn’t going to sit around and do nothing either. 

This is where things get real juicy, because once again, DIA Whistler would never. But FBI Whistler has spent enough time around Jane Tennant to know the kind of person she is and her value of others, that people are the priority. And when people are in danger, she will stop at nothing to come to their aid. This entire season has highlighted Whistler coming to Tennant’s rescue in sticky situations (2x08, 2x11, 2x18) and some being situations she didn’t particularly like, but have followed her and/or sent aid, or has gone to rescue Jane herself. And so far, the finale has been the culmination of that. Not because Whistler’s a pawn in Jane’s game, but because of the incredible growth that has transpired in Whistler’s character to become someone who will take risks for others, despite every ounce of her being saying otherwise. To play things safe, by the book. Whistler’s unlearning her patterns and habits of going by the book, being a stickler for the rules, because not everything in life will happen by the book. Having a relationship with someone you work with isn’t in the book. Having a drink with your co-worker at her home after having a 50-cal gun aimed and shot at you by a Yakuza member isn’t in the book. Your friend having a dangerous CIA past isn’t in the book. Not everything is in the book. Whistler is starting to see that. Whistler could’ve easily packed her shit up and angrily gone home. But she stays to go after Jane to try and rescue her. Because that’s who Whistler is.

So, finally, what’s the point of all this again?

Ah, yes. The Tennant-Whistler relationship and how it will be affected by all of this. (Oh, yes, sorry. I forgot to mention this is actually the thesis. I just hoped you would entertain my thoughts long enough and read this far, so if you did congrats. But also, I’m sorry.)

There’s a few articles out there already teasing how this will affect the team in the future - how Jane’s secrets and past will affect everyone, and immediately, how this whole “come with me to Venezuela and help me but also I’m going to handcuff you in the kitchen to keep you safe even though I might die” discourse will affect Jane and Kate’s relationship moving forward. Because on the surface, Tennant asking Whistler for this massive favour feels incredibly transactional and one sided. But if you’ve been watching the same show as everyone else has, this wouldn’t have happened if their relationship wasn’t built slowly on trust. The Whistler we see now isn’t the same Whistler that was introduced to us. The Whistler that helps Jane in Venezuela is a Whistler who, like Jane, is being formed by her experiences, which informs the decisions she makes. The Whistler we see now is someone who would lay their life down for their friend because she knows that Jane would do the same for her. The Tennant-Whistler relationship, aside from the romantic Kacy relationship, has pretty much been the forefront of this season. The tension/disagreements, the favours, the seeking out wisdom and advice, comfort & encouragement, coming to each other’s (mostly Kate coming to Jane’s) rescue. If I may be so bold to say, I actually don’t think this will affect the others as much as it will affect Jane and the choices she’s made. It’s very Jane-centric. It will be Jane-centric in the way it shapes her as a boss, a leader, and a friend. Everyone else is very secure in who they are, in their ability, and who they’re working for. It’s Jane that needs to see that she cannot continue acting on the lone wolf mentality. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say that I think this is still very much building into NCIS Hawaii’s overarching theme of family but also how this now could be flipped on its head in later seasons as we explore more of the other characters and their pasts. But like I mentioned earlier, Jane has a past. But so does everyone else. And they needed to establish Jane’s character, all her strengths as well as her flaws, in order for people to see why she goes the absolute lengths that she does to protect who she loves (I’m still so convinced that Whistler’s DIA past and involvement in various top-secret assignments and the many people/contacts she has everywhere will also come back to haunt her in the future and when that time comes, Jane will 110% return the favour Whistler has constantly been doing for her by coming to her rescue this entire season but that’s a theory for another day), but also why the people she loves will also do the same for her (Jesse’s line in the promo, “I’d put my life on the line for you”, and Whistler coming to her rescue literally 4x this season). Jane wouldn’t abuse that. We know that Jane is going to be fine, but in light of these revelations, Jane is going to have to make some major changes regarding the way she operates as a person as a result of what happens from this entire situation. We already know that the season will conclude in its trademark ohana-esque manner (thank you promo pics), but it’s not to say that this won’t cause tension in the future. Family is messy. I can’t stress this enough. But all of them are mature enough to understand that what Jane was doing, was ultimately to protect them all. Even Alex understood the gravity of the situation. They might not like it, but they understand. And that’s an important word - the understanding. They will come to the realization that the damage control Jane was doing was very much for their safety, despite how in the dark they all felt. It’s not invitation for them to be petty, bitter, or angry with Jane. When they find out that Charlie-1 is dead and that Jane was kidnapped and tortured, they’ll see just how dangerous her past life is, and why Jane did what she had to do. Because getting shot or being kidnapped or tortured could have easily been one or more of them, had Jane not played her cards right.

Back to the Tennant-Whistler dynamic. I think Whistler and Tennant are going to continue to have their moments, but I think the establishment of this dynamic (over, say, Jane’s dynamic with Kai, Lucy, Jesse, or Ernie) has been so vital this season, a) because it shows not only how much trust has been built between the two, but how fundamentally different their dynamic will be moving forward from how Jane and Maggie’s relationship was, b) how Kate has never really had a friendship or relationship with someone like Jane ever, and aside from her own relationship with Lucy, and how much Kate also needs Jane as a figure in her life. Both women have been able to lean on each other for support and both women recognize how much they need each other. They see each other as equals; they are each other’s professional/career match (and I will die on this hill despite Kate being significantly younger than Jane, but I think Kate’s career has invited her to tables that people her age would never normally be invited to, but because of her intelligence, high capacity and ability to see things quickly and put things together has placed her higher up quicker than anyone else) and c) the theme of Whistler coming to Jane’s rescue this season will eventually come to a reversal where Whistler will find herself in trouble and will be needing Jane’s support or even rescue, and Jane will be there for her. They’ve hinted at how equally dangerous Whistler’s job is this season. They’ve hinted at Whistler being in the field more, gaining more experience. They’ve hinted Whistler leading teams, working with CI’s, setting up sting operations and leading join efforts in busts. They’ve hinted at the kind of criminals she deals with (serial killers, terrorists, assassins, etc.) This undoubtedly is going to come into play in the future.

Jane values family over everything else. But she also realizes that she can’t just use them when she needs something. She’s going to have to learn how to let her family in, and she’s going to learn that family isn’t transactional, but unconditional. And I think that’s the angle they’re going to play in the latter half of this finale, as well as building into future seasons. The lone-wolf thing will never work. We’ve seen it with Kai in the pilot. We’ve seen it with Lucy (especially in 2x19). It’s not going to work for Jane either. I mentioned earlier, Jane is not perfect. Nobody is. She’s going to have to unlearn things from her past, and she’s going to have to work towards letting people in. She’s going to have to learn to take her own advice. Yes, she’s been badly burned, and being in the espionage game has traumatized her. She’s got literal scars and experiences to show for it. But the beautiful thing is that she has a family surrounding her that will be with her every step of the way - she just has to let them be there for her the same way she’d be there for them in a heartbeat. Yes, this can be so hard to do when you’ve lived on your own and had to fight for yourself for so long, but NCIS Hawaii wouldn’t be NCIS hawaii without these incredibly important themes and arcs, and I’m thankful they’re exploring this with Jane. We’ve gotten a taste of how fiercely protective Jane is with her team and family. When a situation in the future calls for her to step into action, she absolutely will lay her life on the life for her colleagues and team the same way they would for her. I think Jesse’s line to Tennant will be the turning point for her, and she’ll do better moving forward. They needed to do this in order to set up the future story arcs for others in future seasons. Family is messy. But we’re all in it for the ride, and so are they. 

[spottylightning]

Lance Griffiths

Introduction

Full name: Lance Griffiths Nickname(s): Lancy, Checkers, Cowboy, Sarge, Lancelot, Stallion Gender: Male (he/him) Nationality: American Place of birth: Fort Davis, Texas, USA Age: Late forties to early fifties Callsign: Griffin Sexuality: Bisexual Occupation: Fighter aircraft Squadron: VMFA-312 "Checkerboards"

General Information

Personality: Lance is complex. Not everyone will get to know the same Hornet. On the surface, he's ruthlessly efficient at getting jobs done with military precision and strives to push himself to do better and work harder, although he can unknowingly come off as a bit too aggressive when he puts his mind to something. He has a brutal honesty to him and isn't afraid to say it how it is, which can come in handy in situations that require it. While a very stoic man on the outside, that doesn't mean he can't feel pain and sorrow, he just buries it deep down under a rough exterior. He may struggle to show emotion at times, but his loyalty is unmatched. Lance doesn't let many people see the softer side to him, mostly because he's afraid he'll be left heartbroken again. Once he does let down his walls though, he cares for you unconditionally, whether you're a friend, family, or a lover. Deep down, he's a gentle, kind, considerate and surprisingly affectionate guy who would go to the ends of the earth for those he truly cares about. Another side to him is a little more charismatic. Lance is a total charmer, there's no doubt about it. He certainly knows how to sweep someone off their feet with his soft, crooning voice or a subtle wink. Hobbies/Interests: Working out, playing guitar, singing, drawing. Likes: Horses, cooking, fishing, his family, challenging himself. Dislikes: Sweet foods in large quantities, having his opinions dismissed, laziness. Voice: Lance's typical speaking voice is very deep but smooth, though he can raise it to a commanding shout when necessary. Throughout the years, he has slowly developed a more typical southern drawl, both from his mother and time spent living in South Carolina. Compared to most of his siblings, he generally sounds more like his mother than his father.

Physical Characteristics

Species: Fighter jet Model: McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet Eye Colour: Dark blue Shape/Size: He is a very big guy in terms of fighter aircraft sizes. While standing far taller than the average F/A-18 Hornet, he is also very solid, with his build consisting primarily of thick muscle, especially around his fuselage. Notable Features: Large scarring across left LERX, smaller scars and bullet wounds can be found all over his chest, sides and underbelly. Interesting Facts: • Growing up in rural Texas, Lance has always had a bit of an accent, though it becomes much thicker when he's tired, angry, stressed or excited. • He struggles greatly with severe depression and PTSD, both from the loss of his wife and son, and being forced to fight a MiG-29 to the death for his own slim chance of survival. Lance has spent many nights awake as the nightmares became borderline unbearable. • He doesn't do very well in situations where everything is completely out of his control. As a first-time parent during Evelyn's pregnancy, Lance was stressed out about practically everything. Similarly, with Dexter, his partner had to assure him multiple times that everything was going to be okay. • He very much enjoys chin scratches. • He makes the absolute best apple pie you've ever tasted. • This man can sing, really well.

Mental Characteristics

Strengths: Dedicated, strong-willed, direct, honest, loyal, charismatic, organised. Weaknesses: Stubborn, overly dominant, insensitive, blunt, bossy, difficulty expressing emotion. Fears: Lance has an intense fear of losing those closest to him. He struggles with getting over loss and grief and finds it hard to push past what he can't get back. MBTI: ESTJ "Executive"

Relationships

Parents: • Andrew Griffiths (F/A-18A) • Sabine Griffiths (F/A-18A) Siblings: (In order of eldest to youngest. Includes gender and ages in comparison to Lance. All are F/A-18C Hornets.) • Sadie Griffiths (Female - 1 year younger) • John Griffiths (Male - 5 years younger) • Mark Griffiths (Male - 6 years younger) • Carol Griffiths (Female - 7 years younger) • Austin Griffiths (Male - 8 years younger) • Bradley Griffiths (Male - 9 years younger) • Abigail Griffiths (Female - 10 years younger) • Lucinda Griffiths (Female - 11 years younger) • Mason Griffiths (Male - 12 years younger) • Hailee Griffiths (Female - 13 years younger) • Riley Griffiths (Male - 14 years younger) • Thatcher Griffiths (Male - 15 years younger) • Cassidy Griffiths (Female - 16 years younger) • Isabella Griffiths (Female - 17 years younger) • Susie Griffiths (Female - 18 years younger) Children: • Harley Griffiths (F/A-18C x PA-34) • Jesse Griffiths (F/A-18C x F-35B) Friends: • Aaron Sullivan (F/A-18C) • Liam Grady (F/A-18C) Relationships: • Adam Haynes - former • Evelyn May - former • Dexter Dias-Sherwood - current

[mandymorisdraigynss]

Up on the table today is an Izuru Kamukura written execution! This was made a year ago and I only minorly edited it this year, so it might not be the best piece of work...

When you see the cut, that's when the gore kicks in. Feel free to scroll past it.

HOPE’S PEAKS’ MONSTER/FRANKENSTEIN OF NORMALITY

Ultimate Hope

Izuru Kamukura’s

Execution: Executed

Izuru is wearing a hospital gown. He walks into a plain white room, filled to the brim with Monokumas. Some are with clipboards, and all with long lab coats. Izuru is on a stage: They are elevated off the ground, towering above the already tiny Monokumas. One Monokuma, leading the bunch, points at Izuru and seemingly commands them to do something. Unbothered, Izuru walks over to an easel, next to them, on the stage. They start painting – and are finished in mere seconds. The Monokumas attempt to write things down, but are quickly pushed down by more Monokumas, with a range of emotions. Some are awestruck; they are amazed. Some are crying tears of happiness, some are yelling and screaming, talking about the painting. It is clear that every Monokuma in the room is genuinely impressed. This is for good reason, of course. The painting is beautiful — Every stroke has been planted carefully, every colour matches and every line goes on to make absolute perfection. Despite how robotic it looks, of course. But surely that can be overlooked.

When the Monokumas calm down (which takes an awfully long time, mind you,) one of them drags a whiteboard onto the stage, handing Izuru a marker. Izuru is still unbothered. They know this is an execution and they are not particularly fond of these last-minute shenanigans. Soon enough, Izuru pops off the marker cap, and starts scribbling things on the board. Complex maths problems that even the mathematicians of today have not figured out.

A loud snap is heard. A Monokuma has pointed something out to Izuru.

Izuru has made a mistake, and it wasn't something the Monokuma made up or edited, or even tricked him into. Izuru had made a genuine mistake, and they knew it. Before they could even start thinking about how this could've happened, several Monokumas had grabbed Izuru and started dragging them away. 

Izuru ends up in a surgical room. The Monokumas are now wearing hair scrubs and masks; They've taped them down to a surgical table.  The table is cross shaped.

Monokumas all around them grab various surgical tools — while they wave them around at Izuru threateningly, other Monokumas bring out trays full of varying body parts.

When all the trays are brought to the surgical table, the Monokumas go ham. They start slicing at Izuru’s body parts. Arms, legs, torso, everything. Bones break, limbs are twisted, and you can hear the cracks in every joint as they're torn from Izuru’s body. Their eye is taken out, their nails are pulled… The chunks of them that have been ripped out are replaced, with the very same organs on the trays. Yet, those are not the only parts being used. No, parts of Izuru themselves are rearranged, in mostly the wrong spot. The ones that are correctly placed get stitched up, but then brutally torn out. Stitched up, torn out. Stitched up, torn out…

Until there's nothing left. Until it's just an assortment of body parts and blood. A twisted Frankenstein of body parts… an incoherent mixture of parts, all harvested from the remains of the Reserve Course long dead, the stem of Izuru’s existence. The reason they exist, the cocoon they emerged from and left behind. How many of the Reserve Course would’ve died to be a part of Izuru? Then again, they already were, and already had. They were finally what they yearned to be the most.

The Reserve Course had died for Izuru’s sins.

The process has been reversed once and for all.

It's hard to tell if there's any Izuru left on the surgery table. Their body had been mutilated so badly, it could read only as a pile of gore in the shape of a cross. How despairing it was to be turned into the very thing they despised, that they used to be. Was the body ever even theirs? They are erased, just like the person who once inhabited it so long ago.

The Monokumas lift the corpse off the table, ready to see how their little experiment fairs in the real world.

It falls to the ground as soon as they let go. 

Splat! Experiment success.

[new-berry]

well since you're so mindspinningly deliciously enviably good at complex magical realism and also you asked for it:

pairing + idea GO

bale/ramsey with erm how comes you never said you were a demigod

madders/trent with fucksake how have you got trapped in the body of my guard dog

hendolish with I injured myself on the pitch but according to the physio I literally have medically diagnosed broken heart as well

Broken heart. I’m sorry I loved this idea so much I made it Alex Isak!! (Copy and replace the name it will be fine. There are no descriptions of Alex yet.

Alex stares at the scan. They’d asked him if he’d wanted to have a support person, a friend, the nurse stumbled over the words, or his coach.

Alex waved them all off. Bad enough to talk about it. The thought of someone else being there… He can remember the conversations his dad had had with him. Not looking him in the eye. Voice getting slightly high pitched.

A conversation full of pauses and ellipses, sentences that trailed into hand gestures. Sweden was very different. The girls talked about it more, the girls talked about everything more, but even some of the guys.

Even on the bus after games talking about the changes and and the shapes. It was so bizarre. Alex had hidden in made up school work or headphones.

He’d been forced to see his. It’s in an envelope that is sealed. But you had to know what it looked like to make sure everything was okay in sports.

His parents had been horrified. They prayed for weeks. Explained how they had never seen theirs and the lord was the only one who should know. In church they prayed for the influencers that put up theirs for shock value.

Normally you only saw them in photos in school textbooks or very dry academic research. They were usually black and white photos but even seeing them like that had felt too intimate.

Alex had squirmed in his seat in school and the next year got a religious exemption from the relationship part of the curriculum. He’d sat with the girls in their headscarf’s and the sikhs.

But he’d seen his in vibrant glowing colour. The four valves of his heart in the shape of urns, endless flowing into each other. Gold and silver and bronze and a starry shiny platinum.

And now the bottom urn was cracked and the circle was struggling to complete.

He thought of the girl on your tube who had shown her heart scan blind, like a gender reveal but for herself and had been horrified it was red green yellow and blue and four turning cogs. That was the most common shape and she was so sure she was special.

Alex had never seems urns before.

[bastart13]

When did they change artists? I had no idea that happened :0 is there any noticeable difference in the drawings since then to you, like how some people can tell apart different Pokemon artists?

Fool! You activated my art style nerd trap card!

TL;DR: The main stylistic difference between the two main artists, Dana Rune and Gabriella Rosetti, is that Dana Rune's style is very angled and asymmetric. She uses a lot of sharp, varied shapes, while Gabriella Rosetti's style is slightly more rounded and even. Veronica Liwski is most similar to Dana Rune's, but with more detailed and shiny rendering

Detailed thoughts on each artist and my attempt to sort the CGs

Top Group: Unsure artist. The way Muriel is drawn leans more towards how Gabriella Rosetti draws him, with slightly more texture and less defined rendering in the hair. However, there's a slight discomfort in drawing Muriel's squarish face and nose (I relate) and a change in rendering style that suggests a separate artist was involved.

2nd Group: Dana Rune, the original artist and art director for most of the game. She designed all the main LIs, Morga, Vlastomil, etc. She mostly drew Julian and Asra's CGs, along with some of Nadia's and a few of Muriel's. She draw characters with sharp features and loose, detailed hair. Her rendering focuses on bright colours and stark lighting, and her lineart has a lot of weight variation. As art director and creator of the style, she still had a lot of influence on the other illustrations, presumably redlining and giving advice on how to draw her characters.

(Note: Dana Rune designed a lot of the characters alongside another original creator, Nikolai Ladizinsky. Their art style is very distinct from Dana's so I'm pretty sure they didn't do any in-game art, but they still had an influence on the style and aesthetic)

3rd Group: Gabriella Rosetti, the current main artist and art director. They designed most of the courtiers, the Satrinava and Alnzar families, Arcana, and many of the later outfits and characters. They drew all of Portia and Lucio's CGs, along with some of Nadia and Asra's. Their art style is softer, with a more natural edge than Dana's, primarily seen in how they draw hair. Their lighting is less saturated, featuring more daylight scenes with neutral tones.

4th Group: Veronica Liwski, an additional artist who designed Natiqa, assisted with Nasmira, as well as some CGs for Asra, Julian, and Nadia. They also drew some backgrounds. Their art is incredibly detailed and focused on rendering. There's a lot of shine to textures and a focus on detailed hair and clothing. Their lighting is a bit more complex and painted than the other artists. Their art is angular, similar to Dana Rune's, though with a bit more natural weight to the figures.

5th Group: Also unsure, but with even less of a guess. These don't appear in portfolios or have a lot of the distinct traits of specific artists. The original ending CGs for Asra, and the Upright CGs for Nadia and Julian have a more painted texture to the rendering style. Asra's Reversed especially has very different colouring to create its atmosphere. I'd guess they were Gabriella Rosetti's, but the Portia CG has a change in rendering more similar to the sprite style. Gabriella Rosetti tends to draw the faces with more detail.

[distinguished-slacker]

Please ignore this post I am just creating a checklist for when Mitsuba will get screentime so I will know how many of the facts (including silly ones) I brought up these past years about her have been addressed:

☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️

Mitsuba’s demon debut (I hope it’s not another child-looking one…)

The mitsudomoe tattoo on her demon’s chest (does the tattoo imply the demon is Mitsuba’s or the Sangū clan’s possession? does Aoi’s demon have it too?)

Both fanbooks and the Bloody Blades game saying Mitsuba’s axe’s ability is to manifest an infinite number of demons (yet we only see her manifesting three at most so is she perhaps not using her cursed gear to its full potential or is it just Yamamoto not wanting to draw all that?)

Fanbook 8.5 stating there is no difference in strength between the demons of first to third rank (so Mitsuba’s demon shouldn’t be weaker than those of her squadmates)

What the hell was that time when some of her arm was sliced by Crowley, there was blood but then the next chapter she was surprised that there was no injury?

The similar names of Mitsuba and Aoi’s demons (note: Tenjiryū “Heaven-shaped dragon” and Chijiryū “Earth-shaped dragon”; are their demons perhaps related too? siblings? twins? halves of each other?)

Why is Mitsuba’s demon named after the sky and yet her manifestations come from the earth she cracks?

Why is Aoi’s cursed gear golden?

Why does the hilt of Aoi’s cursed gear have three-leaf clover symbol and drawings? (note: Mitsuba’s name means “three-leaf clover”)

Mitsuba backstory flashback chapter when?

The Sangū clan curse making all of its members blonde (note: the LN mentioned both hair colour-related curses of the Jūjō and Sangū clans but only the Jūjō’s backstory was explained)

Parents (were they good parents and why the hell did they appear out of nowhere?; judging by Mitsuba’s reaction to seeing them I feel like they were good…at least to her)

Did their parents name their daughters that way for a reason or was it just them being silly? (note: “Aoi” refers to a two-leafed plant while “Mitsuba” refers to a three-leafed plant yet they are the first and second daughters; is there perhaps another one?)

Why Mitsuba has such a bad relationship with Aoi?

Her feelings for Aoi

Did Kagami intentionally make Aoi start serve Kureto the same year Mitsuba was born? (Aoi was 7 at the time, the same age gap she has with Mitsuba, suggesting that Aoi was never around since Mitsu was born)

When did Mitsu join the army and how long did it take her to join the Vampire Extermination Unit?

Why did she join the army? (nepotism? forced to? had a desire to prove herself?; note: in one of the CD dramas Shinoa had to ask that question to her squad and Mitsuba was the only one who didn’t answer because she was too uncomfortable to say it)

How was her life with her previous squad?

How was her life after her squad died?

Why is she not loyal to the Hīragis?

When and under what circumstances did she meet Shinoa?

The weird stares she gives at Shinoa when she is with Yuu (I am placing my bets she is not jealous of Shinoa and rather she is just intrigued by her sudden emotional moments when she is with Yuu because the Shinoa she knows has always kept everyone at a distance…maybe she was also hurt that Shinoa appreciated more Yuu worrying for her in chapter 99 than Mitsuba worrying about her since Shinoa kinda half ignored her in chapter 86…also read a theory saying she fears Yuu and Shinoa getting together and leaving her behind just like Aoi did with Kureto)

Her feelings for Yuu (please don’t let her have an ‘officially confirmed’ crush on him)

Her feelings for Shinoa (note: in the fanbook 108 she said she worries for Shinoa the most and that Yuu comes second; it would be so good if she tried to get knock some sense into Shinoa for um…well, you know)

Her inferiority complex towards her squad

How she felt when abandoning the army

How she felt after failing to prevent Yuu from getting kidnapped

How she felt after being left alone when the war broke out

How she felt when she did was the only one of her squad to not contribute in the defeat of Shikama Dōji

If she is aware she is never contributing during conversations

Her view on the resurrection plan (is she actually going to resurrect her parents?)

Mitsuba’s desire

✔️: if the point is partially addressed

☑️: if fully addressed

✅: if one of the possibilities/theories mentioned becomes true

I hope that by the end of this year at least 2 of these points are addressed🤧 A lot of years ago Kagami said there is something awaiting Mitsuba and in the autograph session last Autumn he confirmed he has plans for her. So let me hope🥹…