#i may or may not post the actual final drawing when it's done but i'm sort of conflicted at the same time... idk

[creatediana]

“O. Sketch” - a brief practice done 1/17/2023 in #2 graphite pencil of someone I’m drawing as a birthday present for a friend, before deciding to use a different reference picture entirely

[dunmeshistash]

G'day, I hope you are doing well.

Ever since I finished the story of Dungeon Meshi (all supplementary material included) I've been writing down bullet points on characters in addition to in-depth synopses as a way to tidy up my rather busy mind. To this end I've also greatly enjoyed reading other folks' interpretations of particular characters, as it gives me further insight into aspects of that character I may have glossed over.

However, there's one character I'm struggling to write a cohesive synopsis about, that being none other than 'miss enigma' herself, Falin Touden. I get that her whole shtick is that she's kind of a mystery, but I find myself drawing a lot of blanks when it comes to her as a character, and while I have nailed down some important bullet points, there are a lot of different interpretations on her, all of which starkly contrast one another. Though perhaps it's just the wording. Hard to say.

It could very well be that I'm being too dense i.e. perceiving "Falin is willing to risk killing others to save her friends." and "Falin, in the heat of the moment, when faced with certain death, was willing to face the prospect of harming potential passersby in a final Hail Mary to get her friends to safety." as entirely different observations. I have a hard time with those kinds of things.

With this being a hub for all sorts of observations, interpretations and cool trivia, I was wondering if you'd perhaps be willing to share how you yourself perceive Falin as a character, so I can compare notes and perhaps gain a more proper understanding of her as a character as a result. I know this question is very broad and kind of vague, but if you could spare the time I'd be most grateful.

Other than that, I wish you an excellent day.

Hello!!! I love Falin!!!!!

She *is* a mystery, we mostly know Falin through the perception other characters have of her instead of a direct deep look onto who she is, which I find very interesting. I think the best post I've seen about her (which as usual I can't remember where edit: someone linked it thank uu) I think called her perceived altruism/love "selfish" and I've been thinking about that ever since.

In that sense the way she cares so much about the comfort of people around her might be a way to keep *her own* comfort because she doesn't want to see other people suffer.

This girly died and came back to life from bones and the first thoughts she has is that she caused trouble for her loved ones

She probably has felt this way since she was a child, "because of her" that her family was torn apart "because of her" that Laios left, her mom was sick, her father had to send her away. (wasn't actually her fault but she might think it is)

I imagine ever since then Falin has done her best to not cause trouble and to make the people she loves happy, everything we know about her and the things she was doing was always for the people she loved, that's why I enjoy the post canon comic where Toshiro asks her hand in marriage again so much. The first time she considers accepting just because "might as well" while for the second time she finally wants to live for herself.

I think Falin herself has lost who she "really is" by trying to accommodate everyone around her and that's probably part of why we ourselves don't really know her, so much so that the most cynical character is uncomfortable around her (probably cause he notices Falin is "hiding" something)

I think Falin is quite the melancholic character to be honest, someone who has lost herself in self sacrifice and who is only now learning how to live for herself doing what she wants.

Both the teleportation scene and the bit about healing show "cracks" in the selfless front she puts out tbh. By context I don't think what she did was only due to "desperation of the moment" she says out loud "Even if I end up hurting others I want you and my brother to live on". She weighted out how much suffering she might cause and decided she wanted to save them anyway, and I'm sure in that calculation she knew that they would suffer because of her sacrifice too.

Falin is saving them for herself, I'm not great with words so this is all over the place and maybe sounds a little negative about Falin but the thing is, you cannot live your life for other people, you can't sacrifice yourself for other people's happiness, you shouldn't erase your own presence so others are happier and I think Falin is starting to learn that by the end.

I'd probably keep rambling without getting anywhere and missing a lot of more meaningful moments but I'll stop here, if anyone has recs for Falin analysis please share!

[leafy-m]

Because I'm autistic and because I love Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen, I page-by-page compared the recent Kodansha USA English release of volume 1 to its Japanese and fan-translated counterparts.

If you've read the official English translation, you may have noticed that some of the big Orufrey moments are.... a bit underwhelming, word-wise. You may have even noticed that the word "wine" is suspiciously missing from the final chapter's WillowGrape Wine recipe, in which wine is kind of an important and obvious factor in it! And you would be correct!

While most of this manga volume is pretty accurate to the original text, there is absolutely a concentrated effort to tone down the more tender Orufrey moments, as well as minimize the alcoholic nature of the final chapter's recipe and related contraptions.

And that's frustrating!

The entire draw of this manga spin-off is seeing these gay witch dads take care of each other and their four daughters in an idyllic countryside setting while also making yummy food that you the reader can try make too. Why is Kodansha USA trying to no-homo these gays?? (Is this a reflection of how bad things are in the USA now?) And while you might say, "But Jade! Qifrey and Olruggio are not actually dating in canon!" — and I would agree with you! But there is nothing straight about these mens' behavior in this comic, and if Qifrey is going to look in Olruggio's direction while tenderly saying his name in Nearly Every Chapter, I expect to read that in English, dammit!

So I'm activating my autism trap card and presenting ya'll with a thorough comparison of every mistranslated and omitted Orufrey or wine moment, complete with discussion and screenshots from the Japanese, fan-translated, and USA English versions. This post is ridiculously long and maxed Tumblr's 30-image limit so chapter 10's discussion is actually in a reblog (sob sob), so I'm putting it all under a cut (you're welcome), and you can be sure that I'll be doing this again if need be for the translated volumes releasing next year.

For now? Let's go.

CHAPTER 1: pg 10

Japanese: フフ...

Fan translated: Heh heh

English version: Ahh...

This is a small moment, but it's important because it's foreshadowing. Qifrey is "airing out" the kitchen, but what he's really doing is sending those delicious smells into Olruggio's room. He's trying to lure him into the kitchen! And that little フフ/heh heh panel is evidence that he's up to something. If you've noticed in the main series, whenever Qifrey is doing something shady or it has a double-meaning, the 'camera angle' focuses on this side of his face with the dark lens.

But the English version obfuscates this by changing フフ to "Ahh..." like, 'isn't that better,' even though it keeps the ellipsis thought bubble indicating that something is up. Why the mixed messaging?

CHAPTER 1: pg 13

Japanese: オルーギオ!

Fan translated: Orugio!

English version: Excellent!

This is the first of many moments where Qifrey will directly say Olruggio's name, and yet the English version will translate it to something else, or drop it entirely. And no, "there wasn't enough room" is not a valid excuse for most of these. Especially when Olruggio's name can (and often is) shortened to Olly.

Look at Olruggio's little smirk at making Qifrey beam happily like that. My God. Kodansha USA/translator Stephen Kohler, why would you take this from us.

CHAPTER 1: pg 14

Japanese: 二人共 今日も一日　お疲れ様でした!

Fan translated: These two people are together tonight. Another day's work well done, you two!

English version: Here's to another long day... ...and a well-earned break!

The omnipresent narrator from the beginning of the chapter is back, and clearly highlighting that 'these two people' are together tonight. And yet the English version removes all that. It may be redundant since we can see they're together in the illustration, but the whole page has that type of text redundancy, like focusing on 'eating that first bite,' or how 'a laugh bubbles up' with Qifrey. And combined with all of the other later omissions, this becomes an obvious trend of targeting these specific types of moments.

Update: Thanks to Farlynthordens for additional insight on this Japanese phrase!:

二人共: (the) two of you [the "tomo" implies the narrator is talking "to" them rather than "about" them] futari-tomo means in a literal sense "(you) two people who are together", but in terms of actual usage/definition it's just identifying a specific pair of people who the speaker is talking to.

今日も一日お疲れ様でした: the rest of this can't really be separated. this whole phrase is meant to be like "good work for all the things you did over the course of this whole day". the fan translation seems to have not understood that the two text blocks were meant to be all one sentence. so if you put this all together, it's like "Good work for everything today, guys!"

Knowing this, I'll still keep it as part of the list because it does omit addressing the two of them in the English version, which follows that trend of minimizing these moments between them. But thank you for the clarity! 💕

CHAPTER 2: pg 28

Japanese:　料理も魔法器も相手のことを一番に考えるのは　君の美德だね　半分ずつだ オルーギオ

Fan translated: Whether you're cooking or performing magic, you always think of others before yourself. It just goes to show your good character. We'll share it, Olruggio.

English version: I've always admired that about you. Whether in your work of in the kitchen... ...You always think of others' needs before your own. All right. Let's split it, then.

The English version has two mistranslations here. I'll start at the top. In it, Qifrey is observing how Olruggio puts others first, and then compliments how it shows his good character. The 'good character' bit is changed to "I've always admired that about you," which at first I thought was sweet! Points for Kohler. But now that I really look at it, there is still some shady translating happening here.

In writing and communicating, what is said last has the most importance. This is how people "bury the lede," by hiding important information in the early part of a speech or amid other sentences, and then distracting them with other stuff.

In that English version top panel, even though Qifrey is complimenting Olruggio, by having it be said first it makes the second speech bubble (and therefore Olruggio's flustered response) be about Qifrey remarking on Olruggio's own behavior, rather than Qifrey's nice compliment about his character. Which changes the meaning of what's going on here. Olly is not flustering because he puts others first, he's flustering because Qifrey is saying something really nice about him, right to his face!

And then of course, in the bottom panel, Qifrey saying Olruggio's name is once again removed.

And I have to say, this bothers me not just because of autistic AcCUraCY! needs, but because he is very specifically saying his name. They are the only people in the room, it's very clear who Qifrey is addressing, and yet here he is once again, putting that man's name in his mouth.

It is intentional.

It is heartfelt.

STOP REMOVING IT!

CHAPTER 3: pg 36 and 37

Japanese: (Olruggio): キーフリー それいらないならこっちに..してくれ (Qifrey): オルーギオ　ひとつおねがい!

Fan translated: (Olruggio): Qifrey, if you won't be needing those, send them my way. (Qifrey): One pot please, Olruggio!

English version: (Olruggio): Mind if I grab those breadcrumbs from ya? I'm gonna use 'em as a binder for the patties. (Qifrey): Could you bring that pot over here for me?

This is a sweet segment because it shows how well Qifrey and Olruggio work in tandem in the kitchen. As someone who has repeatedly failed at working harmonically with others while making food, them being in sync in the kitchen is more fantastical than the actual magic.

And once again, Olruggio and Qifrey saying each other's names are removed. The Olruggio panel translation is also a bit misleading because (as you can see in the larger fan-translated photo), it's Qifrey who is controlling that wind spell! Olruggio is not "grabbing" the breadcrumbs from him, it's Qifrey who is sending them to him. It also lends to the back-and-forth of these moments because as soon as Olly's done with that pot, he gives it to Qifrey to use.

CHAPTER 3: pg 41

Japanese: ありがとうオルーギオ　行ってきます

Fan translated: Thank you, Olruggio. We'll see you later.

English version: Thank you, my friend. We'll be on our way now.

We're now at the part of the manga where Qifrey saying Olruggio's name is changed to "my friend" in the English version. Which is a phrase I'll admit I have some Daevabad baggage with, so idk, is this some platonic ray-beaming or is it code for tender feelings for that person you like but aren't ready to date yet because of trauma and societal complications? Is Stephen Kohler a Daevabad fan? So many unknowns. Still counting it as a wrong though.

CHAPTER 4: pg 56

Japanese: (Olruggio): ま... 眩しくて眠れやしない (Qifrey): がんばれ! オルーギオ

Fan translated: (Olruggio): Really... I can't sleep with all this shimmering... (Qifrey): Do your best! Olruggio.

English version: (Olruggio): Hmph. How's a man supposed to get some sleep with this thing sparklin' away over here? (Qifrey): Keep at it... ...my friend.

Qifrey literally made a bouquet of rose-shaped tarts for Olruggio to cheer up his room, so of course the English translation needs to tamp down that gayness by unnecessarily bringing up Olruggio's manhood when he complains about not being able to sleep from the tarts' sparkling. Even though this chapter's cover image is of Olruggio sitting in a field of flowers, pondering quietly as he holds one in his hand. Maybe later chapters will have Olruggio edited so he's sitting 5 feet away from Qifrey.

And again, Qifrey saying Olruggio's name in the bottom panel is changed to "my friend" in the English version.

CHAPTER 6: pg 95

Japanese: いい出来だろ? 家事の分担が大変だなんて思ってたら こんなものは作れねえぜ

Fan translated: Turned out pretty good, right? If I really thought sharing the housework was a pain, then I couldn't make something like this.

English version: Whaddya think? Not bad, huh? Sorry for leavin' you stuck with all the chores these last few days. I figure this is the least I can do.

Of all the mistranslations, this one bothers me the most. Olruggio is a wonderful malewife! He is constantly trying to help Qifrey out with the Atelier chores, in Kitchen and the main series. And yet the English translation changes the entire context of what these panels are saying.

The right panel is Olruggio proud of how good the soup tastes (it's even in a fancy bread bowl!), and yet the English translation downplays it by saying, 'Not bad, huh?'

Then the left panel, with it's sparkly background and close-up on Olly's face, goes further into how if he thought helping out with the housework was a pain, he wouldn't be capable of making stuff like this. Which is an understated way of saying that Qifrey can rely on him for things like this. (and he says it more outright in other chapters/the main series) But instead the English version is treating this soup like it's an apology for not helping out more. It's also really stupid because Olruggio was not making the soup as 'the least he could do' for Qifrey — he made it because he was hungry and wanted to eat it now! He literally admits this a few pages back!

Olruggio is not someone trying to do the bare minimum, he's someone trying to tell his control-freak of a friend that he wants to share in helping out. And the English version disappointingly misrepresents that here.

CHAPTER 10! Has several issues both Orufrey and wine related, and has several comparison segments. But because I maxed out Tumblr's 30-image limit, I can't include it here and so have to post it in a reblog. UGH. 😔

(Here is the link to the Chapter 10 comparison/discussion!)

In the meantime, image credits! The Japanese scans are from Comic-Days.com, the fan scanlations are thanks to Don't Quit Your Day Job, Robot Garden Scans, Brimhats/Nyaruhodou, and Kirbypoyopoyo, and the English version photos are from my own copy. And thank you AskeFinns for help with reading Chapter 2's kanji 💖

If chapters weren't mentioned, it's because I didn't notice anything significant enough to comment on. But if you know of something I missed, do let me know! And thanks for reading this far!

[fishsticksloser]

Hi! So, I've been thinking about this request... We know how skilled the turtles are when it comes to battle, and it's even shown that April is really skilled in a lot of things, even when it comes to combat. So I thought of a request that's, I guess, would look better in a short fic form, or maybe something like what you did in the "First Kiss", and it's about how the reader(gn) is anxious about how they might be a burden, "a third wheel" since they aren't that skilled or helpful, and this feeling could be multiplied after the events of the end of the second season when April is said to be a part of the family and even played her part in the final battle against Shredder.

Feeling Useless

RotTMNT x gn!reader

Warnings: angst, insecurity, fluff, comfort, not written as hcs, post movie (like... right after, they're still injured) :))

A/N: I can't believe how much I got done before my break... I'm actually really proud. :))

Donnie

Donnie was laid on his stomach, his arms around your waist, head in your lap. He was grumbling again.

Everyone, including you, had banned him from his lab. Sitting his shell needed to heal so he needed to rest, not be in his lab working for days on end.

"I'm useless if I'm not building something." Donnie huffs, flopping his head in your lap, exasperated.

"You can't be serious." You roll your eyes, the caressing of his head pausing. Donnie chuffs in frustration that you've stopped petting him.

"I'm the most serious I could possibly be, darling." He answers, nuzzling your hand, a silent plea for more pets. He looks at you, that signature deadpan look on his face. "What use am I right now?"

"I dunno, you make a pretty good weighted blanket." You shrug, your tone playful and teasing, seeing a hint of amusement reflected in his eyes. Donnie rolls his eyes, a small smile on his lips. "But seriously, just because you're not making anything doesn't mean you're useless. Mikey isn't cooking or painting, Raph isn't training, Leo isn't skateboarding. Are they useless too?"

"That's not—"

"It's the same." You cover his mouth, seeing his eyebrows draw down. "If they're not useless, neither are you. If anyone here is useless, it's me."

That caught Donnie's attention, frowning at you. "How could you say that? You're the one who fixed me up... You're the one keeping me sane when I'm not allowed me in my lab." Donnie sits up, now sitting in front of you, holding your hands. "How could you say that about yourself? You're not... You're not useless. Not to me."

Leo

"Hey, babe, what's up?" Leo greets, seeing you sit in his room. He crawls into his bed with you, kissing your cheek. Leo tosses some pillows to the foot of the bed, propping his cast up.

"Oh... Um, nothing. Just came to hang with my crippled boyfriend." You answer, trying to hide your insecurity. Leo laughs, nudging you.

"Good, your crippled boyfriend was told to come back to bed." Leo chuckles, kissing your temple. He wraps his arm around your shoulder, pressing a harder kiss to your hair. "But, I can tell something's up. Hit me with it, sweetheart."

"You guys are so... Strong and skilled. I mean, it took seven of you to stop an alien invasion..." I began with a heavy sigh. Leo was always good at detecting emotions.

"All of us almost died in the process, but go on." He nods, his hand rubbing your shoulder and arm comfortingly.

"Even April and Casey..." You continued, shooting him a look which made him clam up instantly. Leo listened intently, his free hand finding yours. "You all are just amazing... And I'm worried that I'm not... Useful."

It's quiet for a moment, Leo's comforting rubs stop as well. You turn to look at him, seeing his brow furrowed.

"Useless?" Leo mumbles, he turns to face you, his hand cradling your face, squishing your cheeks a little. "Absolutely not. You may not be a fighter... But you're always here, ready to help. You learned how to make a cast!" Leo motions down to his leg, his voice slightly playful. He sighs, leaning forward to rest his forehead against yours. "I couldn't ask for anyone better. You're so amazing."

"You may not be a fighter, but you're always there for me. Always here to stitch me up, to comfort me."

Mikey

Mikey hated not being able to do things as normal, Leo got mad anytime Mikey did anything with his hands. So he laid with you next to him. You were rewrapping his hands and arms, seeing him pout.

"I know, Mikey... I wish I could be more useful." You sigh, tying the wrap to keep it secure. You move to his other side, unwrapping the old bandages.

"What do you mean?" Mikey asks, frowning at you. The hand you weren't working on cups your cheek, wanting you to look at him.

"I just... I mean, if I was able to fight, maybe things could've been different. Maybe you wouldn't be hurt." You answer simply, like it was the most obvious thing.

"I can tell you right now that it would've had the same outcome. Not because you're useless, but because this is what it took to win..." Mikey tells you softly, his unbandaged hand moving to cup your other cheek. "You're far from useless cause I need you..."

Raph

Raph was isolating himself. From Leo mostly, scared of trying him and scared that he'll try to hurt Leo again. You were the only one allowed to visit because you never saw him when he was infected. So here you were, laid on top of him like a weighted blanket, his claws lightly trailing up and down your spine.

"Raphie, I promise you won't hurt them. All that alien junk is out of your system." You mumble, feeling the smooth rumble of his churrs. "They miss you..."

"Raph knows..." He sighs, his churrs fading out. He rolls, making you fall next to him, both of you facing each other. "Raph's just... Scared. Havin' nightmares about it."

"You're gonna have to face them at some point, can't stay stuck in here forever, big guy." You tell him, watching as he nods in acknowledgement. His eyes sad and scared, but filled with understanding. He kisses your palm, giving you a deep churr of gratitude.

˗ˏˋ ꒰ ⋆｡❤️ ｡⋆꒱ ˎˊ˗

"I just... Don't know what to do. I feel useless..." Raph hears you talking to Mikey, his heart breaking at your words. "I just want to help him..."

He can't hear what Mikey says, but he retreats to his room, sitting to collect his thoughts.

You felt useless? How? Did he do something wrong?

When you come in, Raph's head snaps up to look at you. His eyes full of guilt and sadness. But he didn't want you to know he'd heard. Instead he pulls you to him, biting his face in your chest.

"I... I think I'm ready..." He mumbles, keeping you pressed against him. "But I need you... Will you stay and help me?"

[mysteryanimator]

Here ye here ye, another breaking down processes post from yours truly!

For this animation, my plan was to make something I'm proud of AND also something to force me to take my time since with all previous animation works they were all rushed. I normally tend to speed through work as someone whose illustrations are painterly and I like to keep them rough. Also lets be totally honest my other plan for this animation was to animate Mizrox being so sickeningly sweet.

Fun fact, this animation was going to be longer. I had tried to plan out Olrox climbing on top of Mizrak during the kiss to lay on his chest. There was an attempt trying to rough that out and several ref videos It was scrapped because for the life of me I could not figure it out. Also hypothetically if I was going to keep it, I would cut to another angle (perhaps Mizrak's face close up) and then cut to another angle that would make it easier to see that climbing over the top. OR, consider Olrox already sleeping on his chest (im just rambling now but this is basically 'if you were able to do this again' section).

I wish I actually went through a more proper tie-down process because the jump from going from my rough straight to clean was rough (badum tsk) for the first few seconds. Defintely learnt my lesson ALSO Olrox is surprisingly really fun to draw from behind.

I challenged myself to see if I could get the idea of "bigger movements, less in-betweens, smaller/slower movements, more in-betweens." Though the effect of Olrox rubbing his face against his arm may be a little too jarring and I steered quite a bit away from my rough and self-reference video in hopes of making the face rubbing more apparent because I thought the character acting was too subtle and wanted a contrast to the other half of the scene. I reconfigured my CSP animation workspace for this too so it definitely made the process less tedious when cleaning up the animation.

(Which by the way I do record a lot of self-references depending on the section! For things I can't do/uncomfortable doing, I'll end up looking up videos. It's the easiest for me to catch subtle things in body language and also get a feels for the motion.)

Also I'm really satisfied with Olrox's anticipation before his smooch and the shoulder roll at the end even though technically the arc doesn't complete itself. MIZRAK THOUGH, when cleaning up I realised my rough wouldn't make sense because he's already looking at him so there's no need for a turn, and then the lack of a shoulder movement felt jarring, so all of that was done without any thought, wish I did think about it more though.

Now compositing was a monster in its own right and basically me jumping back and forth between turning on and off different layers, but here are all the new things I did; I duplicated and blurred the lines of the lineart, beveled the shadows so it was lighter on the inside, and added a rim of blur so the focus drew towards the couple. Also will absolutely admit that my fanboy ass went "... be crazy and try to mimic the show." The final did not go that route because I thought it was more important to emphasize the mood/atmosphere (Also Olrox is intentionally stylized differently because i wanted him to be softer here and I had to give him eye highlights for plot HELP). THOUGH to say I did not try to mimic the style, the #2 lighting test was my 'attempt' LOL 😭 I can never consume media normally.

Here are the lighting tests I went through. I definitely knew I wanted to go with a morning vibe, though I tested out a night ver for fun and did some edge lighting which led to mixing both version #2 and #3 to make #4.

Fun fact, I almost went with #2 due to fear of getting too heavy-handed with compositing and therefore losing the animation (even though I really liked #4 at the time). Thanks to a friend, they also shared the sentiment of liking #4, though pointed out it felt like midday and encouraged me to make the colours warmer and deepen the shadows. It is a really tough balance but I think for a softer scene like this, the more additional layers of comp worked out in the end.

The edge light was a last minute thing because someone told me to add sound and to have light stream in. Also at this point I deadass forgot that you know, Olrox, is a vampire, but hey rule of cute overrules. We can pretend its light not from the sun LOL

Also yay I got to show off my own style a tad, I love paintingggg. It's not as completely fully rendered coz I knew that it would get covered up but I still made sure it was quite clean regardless. I didn't realise how much of it would be covered up even though I did make sure they would fit/make sense for bg LOL

Now we are done!

If you've gotten this far thank you! There's gonna be less frequency of these animations due to the semester starting back up soon and I don't get many opportunities to actually 2D animate (despite it being an animation degree RAH). Also I remembering cringing and laughing a lot when I immediately started putting colour down going "oh i can see the end of the horizon, i have too much power as an artist, people will see this i cant let them see me be crazy"

[Here's some memes I drew over while my friend was reviewing my work]

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

What Is and Isn't a Fish: an Essay and Guide by Fishyfishyfishtimes

A simplified list of the animals I discuss can be found here!

Hello folks! I created this post to have a kind of definitive essay/explanation of what is and isn't a "fish", starting with defining the term and going over animals that fit and don't fit the bill. As other fishblr artists, writers and educators must know too well, some people are confused about where this term begins and ends, mistaking other aquatic animals for fish. I have my fair share of arthropods and cnidarians as fish fact requests in my own askbox, heck, some years back a friend of mine asked me if clams were fish. The event that finally made me decide to write this was someone requesting that a fish-only account draw a crustacean, pondering to themselves if they count as fish.

I don't want to hold it against these people. It's impossible to know something when you've never been taught! So that's what I'm here to do, hopefully achieving a pretty correct and universal view ^^' If I make any mistakes please correct me. I'm learning all the same as everyone else is.

Definition of fish

Immediately, we run into a bit of a problem with the definition of fish. See, what the term "fish" means has fluctuated for centuries! For a long time, pretty much any animal that lived in water was a "fish" — I say "pretty much any" instead of "every" animal because for a long time sessile animals like sponges or corals were thought to be plants. This is why we have such remnants in our language like shellFISH, starFISH and jellyFISH, they lived in water so they were called such!

Occasionally these definitions would be changed for cultural convenience too. Many Christian churches take part in Lent, and in the Catholic church red and white meat is forbidden on Fridays and Ash Wednesday. In the Middle Ages, in my own country, Finland, this abstinence of red and white meat could last up to 140 days! To make fasting easier, many animals were labelled fish for convenience so they could be eaten as well. These newfound "fish" included seals, beavers and swans, pretty much just anything that was aquatic or semiaquatic in nature.

Nowadays just going off of looks or behaviour won't do, though. There has been much more of an effort to define fishes coherently based on their anatomy and phylogeny, which is great! Problem is, that's easier said than done: fishes are an extremely diverse group, and uh.. not really a single group, either. I'll show you:

As you can see from this heavily simplified phylogenic tree, fishes are not a singular group like, say, mammals are! The animals that we group under "fish" are actually a part of several distinct lineages of animals, some more closely related to us than each other. Heck, tetrapods, which include amphibians, reptiles*, and mammals, are fish themselves! Phylogenetically speaking. Our ancestors were lobe-finned fish, and, well, you never stop being the previous taxon even when you evolve into something else. If you try to exclude tetrapods, no such unified group as "fish" exists. Still, when discussing fish, we tend to want to avoid talking about every vertebrate ever and instead focus on the very specific aquatic ones we mean when we say "fish". This is why many definitions of the term "fish" still exclude tetrapods, even if we share a common fishy ancestor. "Fish" describes more of a lifeform than it does a clade, much like the term "worm"!

(*birds are reptiles! This could be a whole post in and of itself, but I'm not here to write about that. Someone else has most likely taken up the task!)

Hooray, it's definition time! As stated previously, fishes are an extremely diverse group of thousands of species, and what terms might apply to the Atlantic cod may not apply to the yellowfin tuna or giant mudskipper, let alone a Pacific lamprey! Encyclopedia.com defines a fish as "an ectothermic chordate that lives primarily in water and possesses a cranium*, gills that are useful virtually throughout life, and appendages (if present) in the form of fins". Encyclopedia Britannica notes that "the term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines", instead highlighting five classes. These five classes are left partly unspecified, but ones that are mentioned are jawless fish, cartilaginous fish and bony fish (which still includes tetrapods, however), and the two classes left can be assumed to be two classes of extinct fish. Wikipedia defines a fish as "an aquatic, craniate**, gill-bearing animal that lacks limbs with digits". Tim M. Berra, an academy professor and ichtyologist, defines fish as "poikilothermic***, aquatic chordate with appendages (when present) developed as fins, whose chief respiratory organs are gills and whose body is usually covered with scales".

(*cranium=upper part of the skull **craniate=an animal with a skull ***poikilothermic=an animal whose internal temperature varies considerably)

From these more or less detailed definitions we can gather many defining features for fish: a cranium-having chordate, primarily aquatic, gill-bearing and uses gills as their main respiratory organ, lacking any limbs with digits, instead having their limbs be in paired and unpaired fins when present. Most fish are also ectothermic, meaning their body temperature is determined by their environment, but some can heat up parts of their body or their entire body in the case of the opah. Most fish also have scales, but not all, just like how most fish are fully aquatic, but some like lungfish or mudskippers can spend considerable time out of the water. Such is the way of these magnificent and diverse animals!

Finally, with all this out of the way, we can get into...

What is a fish!

Here, I will be detailing animals that are fish! Well, at least the broadest strokes; there are more than 30 000 fish species and if I listed them all we'd be here all life. I shall instead go over the major classes and list, in short, some groups that belong in them.

Jawless fish (Superclass Cyclostomi)

Jawless fish are often a topic of debate, especially in matters of their relation to each other and to jawed vertebrates. Evidence seems to point to hagfish and lampreys being closest related to one another and to lampreys being more closely related to jawed vertebrates than to hagfish (which would make hagfish craniates but not vertebrates). In the phylogeny tree above I decided to portray hagfish and lampreys as a monophyletic group, as molecular studies and microRNA analysis seems to point to a monophylegic superclass. Please note that this could go either way, though.

Jawless fish is a group containing two extant fishes, hagfish (class Myxini) and lampreys (order Petromyzontiformes)! Jawless fish are more "primitive" than other groups, for example both lack true vertebrae and scales. Still, they both have craniums and gills and they are aquatic, and so they have earned their place among fish!

Cartilaginous fish (class Chondrichthyes)

Surprisingly, I've found that this group has a lot of confusion surrounding it. I have received many a request confirming if sharks are fish, or asking if I'd cover a shark "even if it's not a fish". So I'll say it now: good news, sharks are indeed fish! So are their cousins, rays, skates and chimaeras, also known as ghost sharks! All of these fish have a primarily cartilaginous skeleton, tooth-like dermal denticles and lack gill covers and a swim bladder. Out of all the sharks, I also want to highlight that the whale shark, despite its confusing name, is a shark and not a whale. So, it is a fish!

Ray-finned fish (class Actinopterygii)

Name any fish, and there's a 96% chance the species name you said belongs to a ray-finned fish. Unless, like, you really like sharks. But this isn't about them.

Ray-finned fish are the biggest group of fish and incredibly diverse! It has your seahorse, your pufferfish, your bass, your tuna, your anglerfish, your clownfish, your salmon, your sturgeon, your lanternfish, your perch, your oarfish, your gar, your sardine, your moray eel... and this is only a tiny, tiny fraction of the groups that belong to this class! Defining features of ray-finned fish are that they tend to have a swim bladder and a bony skeleton (some exceptions though. Sturgeons, for one, have evolved a cartilaginous skeleton but they're still ray-finned fish). The largest group of ray-fins, the teleosts, also have leptoid scales, which are thinner and more flexible and grow with growth rings.

I want to bring special attention to some members of the ray-finned fish which tend to have a lot of confusion surrounding them and their heritage: eels and seahorses. Many people think these two are not fish due to their strange anatomy, like lack of scales or (many) fins and their elongated bodies, and I wouldn't blame them! Seahorses belong to family Syngnathidae, which also includes seadragons and pipefish. Eels, meanwhile, make up the order Anguilliformes. All of these long friends of ours are fish!

Lobe-finned fish (clade Sarcopterygii)

I shall merely focus on the fishy fishy fish individuals of this class, which excludes tetrapods. Lobe-finned fish house the two extant species of coelacanths, and six extant species of lungfish! These fish are bony and their fins are placed at the tips of fleshy, lobelike stalks, resembling the limbs of tetrapods. It is thought that the common ancestor of coelacanths and lungfish and tetrapods had similar structures that then became the four limbs the members of our clade typically have. Coelacanths and lungfish are wonderful fishes and deserve a lot of love and respect, not only because they're our closest cousins but because they're unique and we have so much to learn about them!

So, these are the fishes! There are also extinct groups of fish, namely class Placodermi (armoured fish) and class Acanthodii (spiny "sharks"). I'm moreso an extant fish account however, and so I shall move onto...

What isn't a fish?

Now we get into the real meat of this post. Without further ado, here are some aquatic friends of ours that can be mixed up with fish very often!

Crustaceans (subphylum Crustacea)

Many of our hard-shelled many-legged friends belong here! Crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, isopods, triops, barnacles, copepods, you name it! Even though many crustaceans are aquatic or semiaquatic and have gills, you'll find that they're invertebrates that lack an internal skeleton (so no cranium, not even vertebrae)! We still love them though!

Mollusks (phylum Mollusca)

Creatures both soft and hard-shelled! Cephalopods like octopuses, squid, nautilus and cuttlefish, bivalves like clams, mussels, oysters or scallops, gastropods like sea slugs and snails and chitons go here! These friends of ours are also aquatic and have gills, some even have the suffix -fish (cephalopods used to be called inkfish, even!), but their lack of an endoskeleton is even more obvious than the crustaceans'. They're invertebrates, and therefore not fish!

Chelicerates (subphylum Chelicerata)

This group has many animals that are very hard to mistake for fish, namely spiders and scorpions, but horseshoe crabs and sea spiders are two groups of extant marine chelicerates! Both groups are aquatic, and horseshoe crabs have gills. However, they're both invertebrates, lacking a cranium or vertebrae. Other aquatic chelicerates exist, but they're usually very small, like water mites.

Cnidarians (phylum Cnidaria)

This phylum has the sessile corals and sea anemones and the usually more mobile jellyfish and siphonophores (includes the infamous Portugese man o' war!). I imagine corals and sea anemones are mistaken for fish less due to their sessile nature, but they're good to bring up nevertheless. None of these animals have a backbone, or, any bones really. They lack gills, they lack fins, they even lack the bilateral shape of fish. Jellyfish, despite the name, are indeed not fish! Some people suggest the name sea jellies be used for them instead, and I think it's much cuter.

Echinoderms (phylum Echinodermata)

Animals like starfish, sea urchins, brittle stars, sand dollars, sea cucumbers and feather stars go here. It seems that this pesky "-fish" -suffix is hard to shake off, as now we have the starfish. Once again, all of these slow-moving bottom-dwelling friends of ours are invertebrates, as they lack vertebrae or a cranium. Interestingly though, they are among our closest invertebrate relatives! So we ought to give them some props for that. I also want to mention that starfish can also be called sea stars, which ought to lessen confusion about their being too.

Comb jellies (phylum Ctenophora)

Comb jellies look a lot like jellyfish, but they belong in their own unique phylum! They have the same deal going on; they are invertebrates, they lack gills, they lack a cranium, they are simply aquatic.

Lancelets (subphylum Cephalocordata) and tunicates (subphylum Tunicata)

A double feature, because I wanted to save space didn't want these guys to be all alone! Lancelets and Tunicates, like sea squirts and salps, are chordates, which you can find in the phylogenic tree I drew all the way in the definitions section. They share many a feature with vertebrates, like a bilateral bodyplan, a notochord at some stage of life and a post-anal tail, but I'm afraid they're still not fish. They lack a cranium and their notochord does not develop into a vertebral column! Sorry friends, you tried. We can still hang out at the chordate convention.

Annelids (phylum Annelida)

The infamous bobbit worm, bone-eating worms, sea mice, giant tube worms, feather duster worms, spoon worms, bristleworms in general, leeches... many, many worms go here! Pretty self-explanatory: they are invertebrates, even when they live in water. They're extremely cool invertebrates too! I suggest taking a look at some of them, there's many interesting species.

Flatworms (phylum Platyhelminthes)

Flatworms are another very diverse group of worms, having many species both terrestrial and aquatic, however mostly I want to put attention into the free-swimming marine flatworms. They may swim beautifully (and fence with grace), but they are nevertheless invertebrates! Flatworms can live a variety of different lifestyles, from predators to parasites.

Amphibians (class Amphibia)

We've made it into vertebrates now! Amphibians include frogs, salamanders, and caecilians. While they have limbs with digits in their adulthood*, they can be easily confused for fish in their larval stages! This is no surprise, as they use gills to breathe underwater and tadpoles lack any limbs at all for a while. Many amphibians later transition into a terrestrial or semiaquatic way of life and lose their gills, not to mention gain their digit-having limbs.

(*excluding caecilians)

...Well, many amphibians do this, but not all. It's important to mention there are also species of aquatic salamanders which can bear great resemblance to fish with their elongated bodies! Amphiumas, which are sometimes mistakenly called "conger eels" (which is an actual species of fish), are aquatic salamanders with small residual limbs and both working gills and lungs. Giant salamanders and mudpuppies/waterdogs have lungs and gills as well, and lead an aquatic lifestyle — olms are close relatives of mudpuppies. Sirens, meanwhile, lack hind limbs and only have small front limbs, along with retaining their gills in adulthood. Among aquatic salamanders I also want to bring up one most often talked about species: the axolotl! They remain in their larval form, have external gills and lead an aquatic lifestyle. It can be hard to tell with aquatic salamanders sometimes, but these friends of ours are amphibians and not fish, even if they've rejected the land life.

Caecilians are a bit less known overall, but they can also cause a lot of confusion due to their long, limbless body. While most caecilians live underground, some are aquatic in nature, and can therefore be mistaken for fish! However, caecilians breathe via the use of their lungs and through the skin and don't have any gills at all.

Reptiles (class Reptilia)

Most commonly mistaken for fish in this group are sea snakes, sea kraits and water snakes, sea turtles, turtles, penguins, and other (semi)aquatic birds. Sea snakes and water snakes bear a very strong resemblance to eels, but they are indeed just snakes adapted to an aquatic or a semiaquatic lifestyle! The same goes for sea turtles, turtles overall, and penguins. They all need to breathe air and they lack fins, even if their flippers, webbed feet and built-in paddles may look like fins! They also have wholly different types of scales (or feathers!!) than what fish have, even if they share the feature. I assume that other aquatic reptiles, like the marine iguana and crocodilians are better read as reptiles thanks to their limbs with digits, but I want to give them a reptile shoutout anyway. They’re aquatic or semiaquatic, but they are air-breathers and fin-lackers all the same!

I also want to mention one specific extinct group of reptiles, ichtyosaurs! These marine reptiles were rather shark- or dolphin-like in appearance, which is actually a really good example of convergent evolution! Like all other reptiles, they also needed to breathe air and they had... erm... well, I'm not sure if I can call the bones in their flippers digits, but, that's what they used to be, so...? They were cool reptiles and among my favourites! There were many other aquatic reptiles too, but I will only mention just the ones now. A paleontology account would be better-suited to list you allll the marine reptiles.

Mammals (class Mammalia)

Our home class! Some of the aquatic friends we have in this class include whales like baleen and beaked whales, dolphins (orcas go here), porpoises, belugas, narwhals and sperm whales, pinnipeds like seals, sea lions, walruses, and sirenians like manatees, (occasionally known as sea cows) and dugongs! We also have some semiaquatic buddies like hippopotamids, otters, beavers and platypuses! Whales and pinnipeds especially often cause a lot of confusion due to their very streamlined, fishy appearance. They are, however, air breathers that feed their young with milk (some dolphin calves are even born with some hair), and their ancestors were land mammals! The same goes for pinnipeds and sirenians too. True seals, fur seals and sea lions still have fur even! Hippos, otters, beavers and platypuses are a bit more obvious as mammals with their fur and.. distinct air-breathing.. but I wanted to mention them anyway. Their adaptations to aquatic life are just one example of how fascinating evolution can be!

And here we are! A hopefully comprehensive list of fishes and non-fishes, beginning with the ever-shifting story of the term "fish", phylogeny, and why some animals are called fish when they really aren't. I hope you have found useful and interesting information in this post, and perhaps learned something new! I bid you a farewell! :D

[azaracyy]

to the next stage of our adventure! digimon survive week 2024 day 7: post-game / future personal thoughts under the cut - less about the artwork and more about shuuji and lopmon themselves. a long rambling containing major spoilers and heavy topics. will cause whiplash. proceed with caution.

other than the fact this may be boring and long-winded, cw and tw: there will be mentions of self-harm and suicide. if these topics make you uncomfortable, please step back. if you're sure, then alright. i'm aware this is a weird place to ramble about shuuji and lopmon considering the notorious highlight of their story would match the themes of day 5 (villains) and day 6 (dark & loss) better. unfortunately (ironically?) i never planned to feature them for those days, so... pretty sure i'm not the only one feeling this, but when i discovered that a good part of the fandom seems to loathe shuuji with utmost passion, even after they claimed to have completed the game, i was confused. the way his death happened and (understanding) the cause made me uncomfortable for a while, but never drove me to the point of hate... once i recovered from the initial shock, what i felt towards him was more pity, then respect (on truthful route). i feel shuuji should have been one of the most appreciated characters in survive. yet it was the opposite that happened. (between you and me though, knowing there was this discourse with the fact digimon survive is a visual novel, i'm not that surprised it turned out this way...) from my point of view, lopmon evolving into wendimon then killing shuuji symbolizes suicide, the act of taking one's own life. it was the climax of shuuji's mental breakdown, leading him to basically self-destruct, causing damage to everyone around him and ultimately himself. lopmon evolved, just like he hoped. but failed to do it like other kemonogami partners (maintaining control of themselves and fending off enemies). the next and final outcome was death, through his own partner actually eating him alive too. it reminds me how when someone thought they have prepared well for something important yet it failed spectacularly, the devastation and frustration would eat them in the same way from inside. and they probably would for one second think, "i'm better off dead". the more i pondered about it, the more it hit home, so of course, the last thing i could do is hate him, when his struggles sound similar to my own - having to rely on consistent achievements to prove your value, to feel you are worth living and not a waste of resources. the part where shuuji went all abusive on lopmon felt like the equivalent of pushing yourself to the extreme to reach your goal, to the point of neglecting your own needs. it's like a student so absorbed in their study, sacrificing food and sleep, until their body eventually snaps and shuts down for good (...this in fact happened to one of the students at my previous workplace. she was in her last year of high school. life was just about to truly start for her when her classmate informed us of her sudden death). even in truthful route where shuuji and lopmon survive that point, things aren't immediately nice and easy for him. you can see that he still has self-doubts, and what i think is impostor's syndrome. he could be making a great contribution to the team and still put himself down for having done "nothing". i have found it interesting that artists and writers tend to be especially fond of shuuji. so perhaps it's not just the matter of one's upbringing - whether you were raised in a harsh, competitive environment and/or with family with (unreasonably) high standards so you can relate more easily to him - but also whether one can see just what every struggle shuuji and lopmon went through symbolizes shuuji's mental state. out of all survive characters, i think shuuji and lopmon pulled off this thing called "surviving" the hardest, no joke. which is why i almost always gravitate to drawing them happy because that's what they deserve :') after all this, what i also would like to say is, it's okay if a character makes you uncomfortable. it's okay if you hate a character. but never, ever bring down the character to people who like them or even consider them their favorite or comfort character. if you must, do it in your own space and only with like-minded people.

[desmond69miles]

An Artists Eye

I don't know why but every time I try to update a post it doesn't work until I do it three times?? Boo. This isn't exactly how I wanted it to turn out but I'm semi-happy with the finished work, soooooo have fun.

I'm working on a 'part-two' (it's more of a part one, it takes place before this). Not sure when it will be posted, but it'll be out sometime. (Read it here!)

Arno finds your sexual drawings and offers to live them out with you.

AO3 LINK

Warnings: Fluff and smut, Google translated French, oral (r receiving) fem!reader, vaginal sex/fingering, unprotected sex, creampie (I hate that word), grinding/dry humping.

Word count: 3,491. It's been awhile since I wrote something this long.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Three years ago, you had the pleasure of Arno knocking you over. The streets of Paris had been bustling one fall morning, and you were late to a client meeting, scuttling down the street with your sketches haphazardly secured in your arms. You weren't looking - or maybe you were but didn't process it in time - when a man walked straight into you. It was somewhat theatrical--your papers flew up as you fell down. The man immediately bent down to help collect your sketches while muttering apologies, but it was too late; a good majority of your work had fluttered straight into a muddy puddle you narrowly missed. 

As the brunette picked up what papers were still preserved, you worked on dusting yourself off. Once the two of you stood, you finally looked at the man's face, one of his gloved hands moving to push his hood back. "Je suis vraiment désolé, madame," he said, "I'll buy you a new stack of sketching papers." You blinked at his offer - somewhat distracted by his handsome face - and politely rejected it. "Non, c'est bon. I wasn't looking where I was going." The man nodded and handed you back your work, dismissing himself with a slight nod and smile before disappearing back into the crowd. You stood there for a few seconds while people passed you, their shoulders occasionally bumping yours, and you moved to put the papers in your messenger bag. 

A few days later, the man randomly arrived at your door around eleven at night. When you opened the door, you were no less than shocked - he actually brought you a new stack of sketch paper! Then you asked yourself, how did he find my house? "Bonsoir Madame," he said. His brown eyes danced over your face, the same you had done when he knocked you over, and he extended his hand with the cartridge paper that was wrapped in a thin cloth to keep from dirtying. You take it from him, and your mouth flubbed open in search of some words. Finally, you decided on nothing more than an awkward "Merci... May I get your name?" The man chuckled, "Arno Dorian, and yours, madame?" Arno repeated your name once you said it, nodding along in confirmation. He left after denying your offer for coffee with a goodnight, and after you returned to your sofa, you undid the covers to the paper. 

A small card with a fancy gold trim sat on the stock. You turned it around and looked at the fancy swirls of writing--If you wish for more paper, run into me at Café Théâtre. You couldn't help the wide smile that formed on your face. 

Now, it will be your and Arno's second anniversary in a day.

You sat in front of your easel that held up your latest work, and one of your hands mixed up a beautiful blue on the wooden pallet held by your other hand. It was seven-ish, the sun hazily setting in the dimming sky, and the warm air of summer blew through the open windows of Arno's chambers. The ambient buzz of crickets and the fuel of early nightlife gave way to your soft humming of a lullaby. Occasionally, you'd hear the claps from the Cafe down below, a recitation of Hamlet playing tonight, and you've seen the show so much that you found yourself rehearsing the lines to yourself every so often. Your fingers plucked through your paintbrush jar until you found a suitable one and began to paint the shading colors of Arno's coat. Shading was the last thing that needed to be done, an easy task that could be completed quickly.  

Arno was indeed your favorite subject to draw. Often, when you found yourself unable to sleep, you sketched him while he was resting--or when you found yourself with free time, you drew his body's familiar lines and curves in practice. Sometimes, these anatomical figures found themselves in... precarious positions, such as in nude drawings. Those were your personal favorites, your sexual admiration for him going past just intercourse, but that sketchpad had been stowed away in the very back of your closet in a box. Hiding your drawings wasn't something you liked; you were proud of your work, and you didn't shy away from drawing nude bodies. In fact, Élise's favorite work of yours was of a sexually deviant nun she had nicknamed 'The Sin.' But, you always hesitated to show Arno the drawings and paintings you have done of him. Neither of you was sure why; you argued they weren't perfect, and Arno argued you were worried that he'd judge (in truth, you were a little more than embarrassed to show the numerous sexual positions you had put your lover and yourself in through pencil). 

However, you decided to face that embarrassment with your second anniversary, hence your eagerness to finish this portrait of your lover. Hours had ticked by reasonably quickly, and soon enough, you heard the grandfather clock chime twelve times, indicating the strike of midnight. You pause to look over your final work and give a more than satisfied smile, grabbing the canvas sheet you had and covering the painting so Arno didn't see it (you also had to make sure he didn't peek; he seemed fond of doing that). Your hands had been stained with colors, and your apron had a few new splotches--you didn't mind, but you still hung up your apron carefully for washing and quickly scrubbed your hands clean. 

With your hands a tad bit achy from the repeated holding of brushes, you stripped yourself of the painter's gown. You didn't even bother with a chemise or undergarments and instead grabbed one of Arno's button-up shirts that had a smear of purple paint. The mark was seemingly impossible to get out of the cotton, so he had unofficially gifted it to you, telling you that he'd wear it if you ever wanted to fling paint at him again. You grabbed one of the two pillows Arno claimed and tucked one between your thighs for comfort--the pillow usually replaced by his thigh. That, sadly, was the reality of being with an assassin; most nights, he wasn't around to fall asleep with. Thankfully, it seemed like you always woke up in his arms, your lover either sleeping soundly or admiring you. 

You heard the chime of 12:30 on the grandfather clock before you shut your eyes for the night and fell asleep. 

Awaking in the morning was a chore. The bed was so warm, cradling you like your mother did when you were a babe, and when you shuffled to get comfortable, an arm tightened around your waist. A knowing smirk cast onto your lips - Arno was back and pressed tightly to you. "Arno," you whisper, quiet enough so he could hear if he were awake. No response. Good, you hoped he was asleep - allowing you to get up and prepare your present for him. 

So, carefully, to not wake him up, you moved Arno's arm from off of you and gingerly rolled out of bed, slowly standing up so as not to make the wood creak. Once your feet were planted on the cool floor, you stretched fully before walking away from the bed. Your easel still sat in the same position with the canvas sheet covering it; the oak stool pushed out to the side with a dirty jar of brushes resting on top of it. You noted that Arno had closed the windows and drawn the curtains, only slivers of sun peeking through. You first moved to open them just a tad so the chambers would be more illuminated--mainly so you wouldn't topple over something. Then, you moved over to your easel. 

You took a deep breath and hoped that it looked okay after drying. Your hands gently took the cover off, and for the second time, you smiled proudly, hands clasped together. It wasn't alright; it was... almost perfect. Something was missing, and you couldn't put your finger on it. Then, it dinged in your brain. The drawing of us! You made your way back to the bed, but instead of getting in, you opened the dresser beside it and rummaged around until you found your trusted sketchbook. You flipped through it until you found the page already torn out and signed with a small love note. You paused, though, and your tummy did a flutter.

You forgot about this drawing. It was one of the first sexual ones you drew, a rather raunchy drawing of none other than Arno laid on his stomach, arms wrapped around a faceless woman's thighs and his face pressed to her cunt. This was still when you were too ashamed to draw yourself in these drawings - hence the faceless woman - but it made you fuzzy. 

It wasn't like you and your boyfriend never had sex; quite the opposite. Many nights you had been spent on the bed, Arno deep inside you while some serious French kissing went on (not to mention the time when Arno's mentor had walked in on you deepthroating the brunette's cock in none other than the Assassin's base under Cafe Theatre, but you're too embarrassed to talk about it. You still get hot when you hear Bellec calling Arno 'pisspot'). While you've had amazing sex, you've never got the confidence to ask for oral. Arno offered it, but you said no; what if you taste bad or do something Arno doesn't like? The thought of a mouth down there always intimidated you, but that doesn't mean you haven't fantasized about it. 

You were so caught up in staring at the drawing that you jumped when a loud crash came from outside, dropping the sketchbook onto the floor. "Merde," you almost immediately cussed, recoiling your foot from the damage of your toes being hit by the journal. It was enough to wake Arno up, and while you bent down to retrieve the book, he sat up and ran a hand through his hair. "Everything alright, cherie?" He said, and you were startled like you were caught doing something bad. "Oui, sorry to wake you." Arno gave you an understanding smile, sliding to the edge of the bed and leaning forward to find your waist. You tucked the sketchpad to your chest as he pulled you in for an embrace, his face resting between your shoulder blades. 

"What were you drawing?" Arno muttered, and you tensed for a moment. "Sketches, love, it's nothing too important." You replied, and he hummed. "Everything is important when made by you." You didn't protest when his hand snaked from your hip up to your hands, his fingers grasping the edge of the book and pulling it free. His head moved back but still rested against you, and you heard him chuckle. Your face warmed, and for a moment, you willed the floor to open up and swallow you or for you to turn into a gnat and fly away. 

"Is this woman you?" He asked, and you quietly said no. "Then you envision me eating another woman out?" You let out a defeated breath, shoulders slumping. "Non, it is me." 

"But you did not draw your face?"

"It was awkward."

"Ah, then we should make it less awkward. Experiencing it may give you confidence."

Your head turns to peer at him from behind your shoulder. He has a cheeky grin that he knew he was doing - and you chewed your lips. "It's our anniversary, too. How will I marry you if I've never tasted you?" You blinked and chose to ignore the marriage comment, but as he pulled you into his lap, you knew you weren't getting out of this one too quickly. "I've heard from other women that it's relaxing if that quells your worry." One of his hands slides up your thigh and rests near the apex of your legs, thumb rubbing small circles into your flesh, and he kisses your cheek. You turn your body, legs swinging to rest on the bed and lean into Arno. He gives you a sweet look, brown eyes filled with what could only be described as love, and kisses your lips. He didn't get far once he pulled away; your hand brought him back in.

Your fingers undo the red ribbon, keeping Arno's hair tied while he bites your bottom lip teasingly. Once his hair was free and you could run your fingers through it, you allowed his tongue to slip past your lips and tangle with his. He tasted faintly of expensive red wine, and you drank the groan he let when your nails scratched his scalp. The hand resting on your thigh slid under the shirt you wore, warm fingertips running over your curves. Your noses bumped accidentally when you moved to tug on the buttons of his nightshirt, and neither of you went too far from the other. Your breaths still mingled as his hands aided yours in tugging his shirt off, the fabric falling onto the floor. Arno then moved both of you, so now you were lying against the pillows with your lover hovering above you. You exchange soft, loving smiles, eyes studying each other. Your hands ran down Arno's arms and rested against his wrists.

"Do you want to try oral?" He asked, genuinely curious, and you pondered. "Will you go slow?" You query, and you get your answer with the gentle, warming kiss Arno places against your forehead and then lips. His hands grab a pillow you are not resting on, and he says to lift your hips. You comply without question, and Arno slides the pillow under your butt, then moves your thighs apart so he can adequately slot himself in between them. The pillow gave a perfect angle for his hips to slot against yours, his semi-hard cock pressed into your inner thigh, and you could feel the wettening of your folds. 

His lips find yours for a small kiss before he moves to your neck, sucking in a few light marks that can be hidden, and one of his hands trails down your body to your stomach, resting there patiently until you give the go-ahead. The attention placed on your pulse point made you let out a quiet whimper, and you circled your arms around Arno's shoulders so you could tug his body closer to yours. His bodily warmth was nothing short of what you called home, the south trail of his hand at your happy whisper of 'more,' the press of his thumb against your clit--it gave an almost sentimental feel. 

There was loving, and then there was loving. 

And he loved you like you loved him. 

The way Arno loved you was nothing short of amazing? Spectacular? supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? There was no word for the way he treated you. 

After slicking his fingers in your cunt, he pressed a final kiss to your lips before descending your body, leaving kisses every place he could reach. You shifted awkwardly once you two were positioned like the drawing--Arno on his stomach, his cheek pressed into your thigh, hands holding your legs apart. You did have to admit that it was an ego boost to see your lover between your legs with such a hungry look in his eyes. Arno pressed a kiss to where your thigh meets your leg, impossibly close to your cunt, and you felt his breath over your puffy clit. It caused you to shift your hips, a hand coming to rest on his, and Arno peeked up at you from his position. 

Your insides became mush--there was absolutely no right for him to look heavenly, and you moaned as his index finger teased against your slit. "Do you want me to?" Arno asked, dipping his finger inside, teasingly curling in a way that he knew wouldn't feel terribly pleasurable. You debated--a new experience and most likely an intense orgasm, or you'll have to listen to your girlfriends rave about cunnilingus without knowing what to say next time you all met up. Most, if not all, your nerves of appearance had vanished and instead replaced by the anxious want of indulgence. Arno pushed his finger deeper, pulling back and repeating those actions slowly, awaiting your response. 

"Mhm, oui. I'd like you to." 

Arno smiled, and when he exhaled, you wiggled at the cool air against your warm cunt. "Merci," he hummed and leaned in, pressing his lips to your clit. Arno was gentle at first, careful not to overwhelm you. The rough pad of Arno's tongue pressed flat against your clit, and he let you move your hips, allowing you to draw your pleasure in what felt good. Once he thought that you had enough of a taste, his hands moved to your hips and pushed them down into the pillow. Your hands moved between Arno's resting ones or his head, moaning loudly when he sucked your clit with fervor. "Dieu," you exasperatedly said. Your thighs closed around Arno's head, not tight enough to hurt him but snug enough to keep him there, eyes closing when the tip of the pink muscle drew figure eights on your cunt. His finger slipped back in, this time pumping with a little more vigor, and when he curled them just right, that beautiful edge came into feel. 

"S'il te plaît, oh mon Dieu, s'il te plaît," you whined and swore you could feel Arno smile into you. Your hips rocking against his face as well as your thighs clamped tight around his head, caused a slight burn from his stubble, but, shit, you couldn't care as long as he kept going. Arno's lips move up once again and slurp your clit, and "There, fuck! There, Arno, don't stop!" pours out from you. Another finger adds to your wet hole, and he gives a rough suckle just before you send hurdling over the crescendo of an orgasm. Arno lets you ride it out by grinding on his face, his nose bumping your clit in delicious aftershocks, and you eventually come down enough to release Arno's head from your thighs. 

His head popped up from between your thighs, and he crawled up, bouncing down onto the bed beside you. One of Arno's hands rested on your stomach, and he asked, "How was it?" You gave a weak chuckle, "Le meilleur, fuck, the best." 

"Another round?" He suggested. 

"Always another round." You enforce. 

Before Arno could move, you crawled on top of him and gently pushed your hips down so your saliva-and-slick-ridden cunt pressed perfectly against his hard cock. He gave that devilish smirk, hands finding your waist to push the nightshirt over your head, and you moaned as his hips met yours with equal enthusiasm. In more-or-less semi-clothed dance, you rocked against each other until Arno's hands slowed you, one going to slightly push you back just so he could free himself from his now wet undergarments. The fabric didn't get farther than his knees before you scooted back up and took him in your hand, running the head of his cock through your folds. After a few teasing passes, his tip catches your hole, and you slowly - yet easily - sink onto him. Once your lower half was pressed against his pelvis once more, Arno gave a few shallow thrusts and cupped one of your breasts, squeezing the soft flesh and playing with your nipple. 

A few more seconds passed, and with a quick kiss to Arno's forehead, you tensed your thighs, hands pressing against his chest, and you began to set a steady rhythm of riding him. Your lover met your thrusts halfway with quick motions that effectively created a shlick shlick when either of you moved. The friction inside you felt good but just not enough to reach climax again, and Arno knowing this, moved his fingers to rub small circles against your clit. Arno cursed and rolled his head back onto the pillows. You watched his Adam’s apple bob with each thick swallow, and his thrusts became unsynced--a tale tail sign of impending orgasm. 

With a few more messy thrusts, Arno pulled your hips flush to his and spilled deep inside of you. The warmth of his cum had made you unexpectedly orgasm, toes curling as you moaned. You stayed still and savored the moment, your spine failing to keep you upright, so you lay down on Arno's chest instead. Arno rolled over onto his side and took you with him, grabbing the closest blanket and covering you both up to keep from getting cold. 

"Je t'aime," Arno whispers against your hair, and you softly hummed. "Je t'aime plus," you countered, but he won the battle with an "I love you the most." 

"I peeked at the painting," he said after a peaceful silence, "I love it. You'll have to paint me nude next time."

[anulithots]

I got to chapter 236.

And maybe I'm finally getting closer to fully analyzing Gojo. Because.. this made a lot of sense of his character actually, and to me it does not seem out of character for him to seem 'less caring for his students' compared to empathizing with the king of curses himself.

I think that Gojo drew the line after Riko's death, because meeting Geto was the first time he allowed himself to be anyone but just 'the strongest'. He had fun and joked around and enjoyed himself.

But... the confidence given to him as 'the strongest' was taken from him. He wasn't strong enough to defeat Toji. So he doubled down on making himself stronger, and fought with a crazy streak.

From here on out, he was simply 'a living creature'. I'd even go as far as to say that he never let himself get as close to anyone as he did with Geto and Riko. He would love them, he does love them, but he had to 'draw his line', lest the same thing happen again. If he isn't the strongest for one moment, people he cares about die.

He couldn't allow himself to be around Geto as much. He needed to be stronger.

After Geto left, Gojo says he can only save those who want to be saved.... and I think that was Gojo's motive from then on out. (Like when he talks to Megumi about being selfish, he doesn't say anything until Megumi asks to be trained.) Because he couldn't save his best friend. He couldn't save anyone that mattered. Not even as the strongest, not even after he isolated himself to be the strongest.

Gojo portrayed himself as the strongest, the one who would handle everything and no one would see him as human. He wasn't human. He loved them, but he kept his distance. He'd protect them. But he'd keep his distance.

He'd make sure that everyone else could be strong enough to protect themselves without experiencing his loneliness.

Because the corrupt system makes it so. If you're strong, then you are lonely. If you aren't strong, then you'll still die alone.

Gojo's going to do everything he can to give them companionship and happiness... and the strength to protect themselves from the system.

Because he could only have one or the other. And he chose strength because... he was the strongest after all.

Gojo himself doesn't see himself as anyone but the strongest. The moment he allowed himself to have friends, they were taken from him, so he went back to being the lonely sorcerer he once was, regretting everything that happened.

In this way, he mirrors Itadori:

Gojo does regret the way he's lived.

I don't think Nanami would honestly say this. He may say something along these lines, but he wouldn't say it like this.

This, I think, is Gojo's perception of what others think of him. Because he doesn't do it just to satisfy himself, if that were the case, then he wouldn't have been a teacher or done all he did to protect his students (to the point where the moment he was sealed a lot of people got screwed over)

The only one who understood Gojo was Geto, but as @ellionwrites pointed out in this post, Geto left with the words of 'are you just 'the strongest'?

And to Gojo, it's almost like there's no hope for him now. He's the strongest, but what power does that give him really? In this society? He 'gave it his all' and in return he only got solitude from everyone else, who thought of Gojo as above them.

The only solution he can think of is:

Fix society so that way no one is alone anymore.

(not that Gojo himself would be alleviated from his loneliness...

One last thing:

Gojo might've lived with regrets, but he didn't die with them.

... sorry for rambling! Really tired right now. I'll try to make a condensed version of Gojo's character like I did for pre-shibuya Itadori soon.

@justrustandstardust @lmskitty @bygeto

[angelpuns]

The Igloo - TMNT Minific

( Herr's my fic from the @turtlestogetherzine !! I kept forgetting to post it ;-; )

It had taken him nearly all morning, but his masterpiece was finally complete!

Donnie stepped back to admire his creation - a real-life igloo! 

He turned, hearing a couple of shouts behind him. Just as he predicted, Leo had dragged Raph into a snowball fight - which meant Donnie was gonna get cold snow shoved into his jacket at some point. Not this time, though! 

He wasted no time crawling inside. 

He'd been planning this for months - he'd done a ton of research in igloos and how they worked.

If he remembered correctly, the super packed snow would help keep him warm. At least, a little warmer than it was outside. 

Donnie dragged the tools he'd brought in behind him, setting them in a corner of the igloo. He could at least make it a bit more homely in here, since he was gonna be stuck til their snowball fight finished.

He spent the next few minutes working on the inside - drawing out diagrams in the snow walls and imagining it was actually an elaborate laboratory. He'd been wanting to start one for a while, but Papa was not being reasonable. He could be safe with a propane torch! 

Donnie only stopped when someone poked their head in the igloo - his plastic shovel held up in defense. 

"Whatcha doin' in here, Dee?" It was just April, but Donnie found her coy smile a little too untrustworthy.  

"I decided to make a fortress. I've been researching igloos for months now and decided this was the best way to prevent getting roped into yet another snowball fight," He explained, still holding up the shovel, "it's my safe-haven."  

"Mind if I join ya? It's a bloodbath out there." She sounded friendly enough, but Donnie could see from here that she had her hand behind her back - likely a planned ambush. 

"Sorry, April, but I cannot let anyone in without a security check."

April scoffed, poking her head even further into the entrance, "Let me in or I'm telling Splints about your little scrap yard escapade last month.” 

Donnie grimaced at that, quickly compiling a pros and cons list of why he should agree. 

No matter which way he put it, letting April in was his best choice. 

Donnie sighed, setting the shovel aside and gesturing inside. 

"Fine. But don't you dare bring any snowballs in here, " He muttered, pulling his arms in close and zipping his jacket further up his neck, "I worked hard to keep the heat in!" 

April shrugged, a snowball plopping onto the ground next to her. As always, he was right. 

April crawled into the igloo, eyes widening when she saw how big it was inside. It could fit all of them if he really wanted (he most certainly did not).  

"Wow, Donnie! This is amazing. You built this by yourself?" April sat cross-legged across from him, admiring the dome, "What's with the drawings?"

Donnie flushed a little, shrugging, "I was pretending it was a lab…but yes, I did build it myself. Did you know that the tighter the snow is packed the more heat it keeps in? And, the reason it doesn't melt is cause-" 

"WOAH! Donnie, did you build a house!?" 

Donnie frowned when he was interrupted, turning to aim a glare at Mikey. His younger brother had poked his head in the entrance, but was craning to see farther inside. 

"Actually, Michael, it's called an igloo-"

"COOL! Can I please please pleeeeaaaase come in?" Mikey poked his head a little further in, "I'll be the goodest hou-igloo  guest ever!"

"First of all, goodest is not a word. Second, no you may not. I only have so much room in here," Donnie scoffed. He was stretching the truth a bit, but what did Mikey know? He was only six!

"But…but I said I'd be the goodest- the bestest house guest ever…" Mikey murmured, his expression quickly falling into the sad puppy dog eyes. 

Donnie hesitated, before quickly shaking his head, "Sorry, I can't bend the rules for you, Mikey."

April gave him a look, but that wasn't what made him change his mind. Sniffles came from the entrance of the igloo, Donnie regrettably glancing over. Mikey was fully sobbing, huge crocodile tears slipping down his cheeks. 

"Oh- don't… Sigh. Don't cry, please don't cry, Angelo…" Donnie attempted to soothe him, crawling over to the entrance and beckoning his youngest brother a bit closer, "I…guess we have room for one more. Just please don't cry." 

Somehow Mikey's tears always ended up getting to him. He felt so…icky making him cry. 

Mikey brightened up at that, crawling inside and practically tackling Donnie into a hug. 

"There…there. I let you in so now you can't cry," He murmured, giving Mikey a couple of pats on his beanie-covered head. 

Mikey rubbed his face a couple times on Donnie's coat, no doubt leaving a trail of slime and who knows what else. Eugh. He really wished he'd thought to bring tissues. 

"Thank you, Dee. You're the be-bestest." Mikey murmured, happily squeezing Donnie once more before thankfully moving away. He wiped his face and sat cross-legged next to April, watching Donnie expectedly. 

"Soooooo, what now?"

"Well I didn't exactly plan for visitors. I suppose I could finish explaining the thermal capabilities of the igloo itself, but-" 

"You guys havin' a party in here or somethin'?"

Donnie groaned, scrubbing a hand down his face and dead panning towards the entrance. 

"No, Raph. I've simply been a weak turtle," Donnie explained, Raph just giving him a slightly confused look, "Sigh…I suppose you're going to try and convince me to let you in?" 

Raph blinked at him a couple times, before grinning, "I got just the thing!"

Donnie opened his mouth to argue that it wasn't an invitation, but Raph quickly left. Donnie didn't know what he'd try to convince him with, but he wasn't going to let it work. Even if it was lunch (he was getting awfully hungry…) 

Raph was back moments later, poking his head in with a grin. Donnie was relieved he'd made the specs so large. Even if he hadn't anticipated guests, he adhered to the phrase 'go big or go home'. 

"How's this for an invite?" Raph shoved several blankets through the entrance, watching Donnie with a grin. 

Donnie thought for a moment, before audibly sighing. The igloo could only keep them so warm anyway. One more body and several blankets wouldn't hurt.  

"Alright. Make yourself comfortable, but be mindful of the walls," He warned, watching as Raph slowly crawled into the igloo. April and Mikey had already grabbed blankets, the both of them scooting over to make room for Raph.

Raph pulled a blanket over himself as well, though it was severely lacking in size. 

Donnie grabbed a blanket for himself as well, relishing in the warmth for a moment before sighing. 

"Everyone comfortable?"

Nods around the room. 

"Alright, finally. As I was explaining earlier, the igloo obviously doesn't have a heating system, but it keeps the person inside warm through a very specific building process-" 

"GUYS!? WHERE'D EVERYBODY GO!?" 

Donnie groaned, pulling the blanket up and over his head. Of course Leo still found a way to interrupt him. He just wanted to explain how the igloo worked! Was that too much to ask!?

Leo's shouting grew louder and louder until it was just outside of the entrance. Donnie grabbed his plastic shovel, holding it up to defend himself. 

A moment later Leo poked his head into the igloo. 

He was crawling inside before Donnie could stop him. 

"Oh, hey! You built a igloo-"

"Stay back, Leo. You're not allowed in here." Donnie huffed, moving to block Leo from coming in, "It's supposed to be a sanctuary."

"Sanctuwhat..?" Leo poked his head in a little further to see the rest of the group. He frowned, turning back to Donnie, "What, everyone else is allowed but me? I'm your twin!" 

"So? You're not allowed in cause you're gonna start another snowball fight." Donnie scoffed. He felt a little twinge of guilt, but he knew Leo. And he knew he'd figure out a way to rope Donnie into a fight. 

"You let Raph in!" 

"He came bearing gifts," Donnie retorted, holding up the corner of his blankets, "Anyway, I have a sign here. No Leos."

He pointed to the wall, where he had in fact scrawled a sign that said 'no Leos'. 

"I can't even read that!" Leo scoffed, "Just let me in, Dee, you're not playing fair!" 

"I said no, Leo. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some explaining to-"

"What if I promise no snowballs?" 

Donnie shook his head, fixing Leo with a stare. One that he hoped was intimidating. 

Leo stared back, expression just as hard. But then his eyes drooped a little and he hurriedly turned away. His boots crunched the snow around the igloo for a moment before fading.

"Wow. I didn't think he'd actually listen..." Donnie chuckled, tossing the shovel back in his bucket, "Now as I was saying…" 

"Donnie, don't you think we can let him in? Raph feels a little bad…" 

Donnie sighed, "No, Raph. I wrote a sign and everything. I spent a long time on this and I don't want it to be destroyed by hurricane Leo." 

They were silent for a moment, Donnie clearing his throat to start again. Only to be interrupted by Mikey. 

"But…Leo can play nice if you ask real polite! " He added, "And- and he promised no snowballs!" 

Donnie groaned, "I know, but that was probably just a lie to get in. I do not plan on having snow shoved down my jacket today, alright?"

He glanced at April, "Have anything to say or can I do my speech?"

April just shrugged, "Go ahead, Donnie. But I'm leavin' once you're done" 

Fine. He didn't invite her in anyway. 

"So! The way the igloo keeps in heat-" 

"...Donnie?" 

"What is it now!?" Donnie turned towards the voice, only to see Leo poking his head in again, "Leo, I said no. What do you want?" 

"I just thought you guys might be hungry…" He murmured, holding up a lunchbox and a thermos, "Dad made hot chocolate. and sandwiches."

"Ooh hot chocolate! " Mikey crawled out from under his blanket, fumbling his way towards the entrance. April followed. Raph glanced between Donnie and the entrance, before making his way over as well. 

Donnie watched them go with a frown. Fine! He hadn't wanted guests anyway. 

He pulled the blanket tighter around himself, staring at the No Leo sign. So what? He wasn't hungry. His stomach growled in response. Okay, he was a little hungry. 

He made another pros and cons list in his heads, potential mishaps flooding his brain. Donnie groaned. There were - unfortunately- more pros than cons. 

And he was hungry. 

And lonely.

He had to tell someone about how igloos worked. 

So, he set his blanket aside and crawled out of the igloo. He squinted against the sudden sunlight, his family a few feet away.  

His brothers and April were all sitting in the snow, sipping from the thermos and eating their sandwiches. 

Donnie walked over, hands shoved deep in his pockets. He hated being wrong. And he hated doing apologies. But he…wasn't playing nice. And that was probably why he felt so icky. 

"...Do you all wanna eat in my igloo?" He murmured, staring at his feet, "It's warmer in there."

"Donnie-" 

Leo cut April off, “I never thought you'd ask, Dee! You gonna tell us how that thing works or not?" 

Donnie stiffened a bit at that, nodding. He didn't move, the rest of them gathering up their lunch and heading for the igloo. 

Leo stopped and held out a sandwich, "Here. I know you're real bad at 'pologies. But that's okay." 

He wrapped an arm around Donnie's shoulder and gave him a warm squeeze, "I promise I won't start another snowball fight….yet.”

Donnie chuckled a bit at that. 

"Just let me win, okay?" 

[munkiey]

Hey I saw some Macaque fanart that looked eerily similar to yours and just wanted to let you know (I might be making a deal of nothing but yeah I'll include a screenshot of the art):

Alright so.

1: This is likely someone who is doing screenshot redraws from the same images I did that came from a published show that is accessible to millions.

2: Tracing is actually a great way to learn.

Now, credit should be given obviously but there is a huge stigma from folks online about tracing. I can almost promise you that some of your favorite artists out there will look at a work they like and go 'how did they do this?'

Best way to get into the head of another artist? Trace it.

I've done traces of other artists that I admired and honestly I learned a lot from doing so. Did I post these or ever claim them as my own? Absolutely not, that is when you're stealing.

Thousands of professional comic artists, or almost every skilled artist you can think of has traced. This little waltz is like a baby bird taking its first haphazardly drunk steps across a ice pit. We call them screenshot redraws today, but in the fine arts spectrum, they're called Master Studies.

Because you're looking at someone who has already accomplished something and you want to see how they did it, how you can apply it, and how you as an artist can grow.

The beauty of art is that we can take aspects of things we like and add onto our own work. Its an amalgamation of influences that compound together to create the concept we call an artist. I love seeing where people draw their inspiration from.

3: Personally, I think that it's good that this person is taking some steps into digital and learning. Looking at the line weight and the way they use their tools it seems that they're still learning how they want to navigate the digital platform. This is a great way for them to improve an if they had, allegedly, used my images at reference then I'm honored they saw something to admire in it!

The fact that they practiced at all is way more than I can say for others that say they want to improve but don't put the effort in.

4: Now, final point here.

In the future, please do not come to me like this.

I appreciate you trying to give me a heads up, but I'm not going to sit here and reprimand or police people. This kind of message to me feels like a rather deliberate attempt to stir up drama, which if it was not your intention and you genuinely were just looking out for me, I appreciate you trying. The way I see it though, reporting people like this or going after what may very well be kids trying to learn creates a toxic mentality that I don't want anything to do with. I've been there, done that, and been on the receiving end of that nastiness.

I've learned a lot through my time online and the big lesson sometimes is just to let people do what they're gonna do.

Seriously though, who ever did this has a very cute style. I like the smile headshot there in the middle.

Stay wild <3

[thelunarsystemwrites]

💙The two hundred follower DTIYS results!💙

We had some extravagant entries!! But alas, only our top four five will be receiving a prize! ^^'

In fourth place, may everyone welcome to the stage....

@somehhuuuhh!! who will also get my personal declaration of most creative entry!!

In third place, shining the spotlight on...

@and-bone-appetit!! I love love love what you did which the vines!!

Coming in second, rolling out the red carpets for... there were many to choose from, we actually have TWO second place winners, it was a tie!

@waxysketchd AND @determinedfanartist!! I loved both of these equally, and couldn't pick between the two! Which is when I remembered, it's my DTIYS and I can pick two second place winners!

...And finally, the one most akin to the original drawing, and first place, let's open up the curtains and let the moonlight in.... our first place winner is!...

@pixieperson19!!! This was EXTREMELY close!! I loved how absolutely on point you drew it!! While adding in your own creative touches!!

Also! Honourable mention to @largefound and @marisunshine903 for their unique perspectives in their drawings!!

PRIZES! I can't remember exactly what they were since I can't find the post, but I'm pretty sure they were the following!

FIRST PLACE: A fully/coloured shaded full body!

SECOND PLACE: Coloured nearly half body! (Thighs up!)

THIRD PLACE: Coloured shoulder up shot!

FOURTH PLACE: a doodle/sketch, ranging from half body to headshot depending on what's wanted! ^^'

RULES!

You may ask for any UTMV sans/oc, or your ocs as long as there's a full reference. Monster/nonhuman are my strong suit, but humans/humanoid is allowed too!

You may also request something like scenery, not sure why you would but you can! ^^

I will not do art of your irl face!

Once the outlines are done, it'll be sent to you, this is your last chance to ask for changes before I colour/clean up. Afterwards, what you get will be your prize ^^"

You may repost the art/use it as you wish, but no commercial use, no AI training, no tracing over it! Make sure to credit me if you repost!

I will only post the prize art if you'd like me too!

ABSOLUTELY NO com/proship related uses!

Don't request NSFW ^^" suggestive is okay

I HAVE THE RIGHT TO DENY YOUR REQUEST in which case you'll have to make a new one.

Uhh I think that's everything! Understand It'll take me awhile!

I'm bad at poses but I'll try!

Thank you to everyone for participating!! The next DTIYS will not have prizes sadly, and will be at 400 followers! <33

Once again, thank you everyone who wanted to join, who joined, who commented and reblogged, and more!!

Stay safe crescents!

Byeee!

(ALSOO I will be posting about prizes soon!)

[itsquakey]

Q&A Time!

I haven't done a Q&A in a while so let's bang out some asks from the askbox and answer them.

Without really saying much, things have kinda gotten better, but I am def in a hole right now from multiple pretty saddening things happening to me all within a month. I'm having a lot of issues drawing but I don't think it's burnout-more likely I'm just a sad lump. I'm sure I'll improve though once the year finishes us.

Kind of...I plan to make either a epilogue for Revenge of Pike Knight or an entirely different comic about his process of letting go but also forgiving himself for her actions. He never goes back to being sweet bandana waddle dee but she does manage to loosen up as time goes on.

Mago gets stripped of any and all power that the average doomer doesn't have. So yea. He's a little guy you could punt like a football.

It's honestly really hard to say what my favorite food is, as I am someone who struggles with food (I blame it on the fact I almost died of starvation as a toddler and it ruined my entire digestive system but who knows it could be crappy genetics too). However here are some foods I enjoy that people may like! (Recipe Links are in the names)

Banoffee Pie: I usually like it without the bananas though, they are too soft texture-wise for me so it's really more Toffee Pie. Just remember if you are making the toffee from scratch that it is basically like making a bomb and you HAVE to make sure timing is correct otherwise pressure will build and either you will die or your kitchen will get a nice brown coat of sugar-paint (Personal experience here).

Chocolate Souffle: I always have this for my birthday so it's a fond treat. It IS a souffle though, so it's very hard to make if you do not have the experience.

Quiche: I love quiche, it's something that is eggy but also a pie and I can eat it any time of the day. I usually like just cheese in it but meats and some small greens are also good.

And finally- Zucchini Brownies (Or just walnut brownies): Which I actually haven't had in a while but man am I craving them. They sound weird but you can't taste the zucchini and it brings a nice dampness to the brownie.

When Powehi was little his sisters loved to tease him even though he would give little to no reaction. They seemed to have a decent relationship as children but I would not be surprised if Powehi doesn't really like his sisters a whole lot when he's an adult. They're still as annoying as before but now they act more like their father (a pet peeve of his). However they are still his sisters at the end of the day, so he puts up with them.

Since I don't know if I have the post up anymore- ANY FANART OR INTERPRETATIONS/INSPIRATION OF MY WORK IS OKAY. If it is fanart or is heavily based off my work all I need is name credit or an @/. If you @/ me, there's a very high likelihood I will see it and reblog it!

As someone who worked with various animals including tarantulas for a while- I love them. I love their fuzz and their little claws and paw pads and the fact they're chill (but at the same time very anxious) little dudes. I think they get a bad rap but they're nice.

If I remember correctly, the death of Meta Knight comic was originally artist trolling. Yes, I made the comic to purposefully get a reaction from you all and laugh evilly while you cried over his death. However that comic is the backbone of Nextgen and I'm glad I made it.

Yes, I will get to that art eventually. I'm just taking my time for reasons. I will/am also uploading art that is old but was never released on my account. Eventually once all the old art is posted new art will start up again.

Meta works his way up the ladder to become a Reaper. Not really spoilers but his design will be brought back soon. But yes, he can still see his friends with the help of Morpho. Also Galaxia shattered in the death comic, so she's long gone as well but returns to Meta in the afterlife at some point.

Dedede ain't dead yet! He's still kicking. Meta would have to meet him in the mortal realm as a little buggy.

Yes, however I highly doubt I will ever cover them in Nextgen, so it's up to fan interpretation at the end of the day.

Yes he does, he takes the form of a beetle much like Morpho takes the form of a butterfly in the mortal realm and gets to visit his friends when he can.

Apologies, but only my girlfriend can hug me : )

I imagine if the situation calls for it he does use his tongue. However he mainly chooses the sword and his fabric arms.

In Nextgen I like to imagine Kirby's copy abilities change as they grow up instead of someone upgrading them for him, hence why they look different when he uses copy abilities.

Powehi has always had some of Marx's powers and grew up with them normally. However as he gets older he begins to really not like them because it makes him different in a way others may be intimidated by.

In Nextgen Chilly and Magolor never got nor will get married. They're off again on again exes because it is way funnier that way and honestly aligns with the one manga more.

Magolor and Chilly met during the events of Star Allies, and their relationship/personalities are kinda based off that manga in a minor way.

Arthur showed up out of nowhere on Castle Dedede's entrance and ever since then Kirby has taken care of him.

In a surprising turn of events, no. The waddle dee from Kirby 64 in Nextgen is actually Bandana's/Pike's older brother who is the sole reason Bandana/Pike went down the path she did. The stories that were told about the adventure and the heroes his older brother worked with got her to be inspired enough to actually work alongside Dedede and later Kirby and the others.

Because that belt buckle is the last remaining piece of who he used to be. His robes are gone along with everything else but that buckle. He is now nude.

All Noddies are biologically and magically tied to the Dream Fountain which is the thing that gives them their dreams and tiredness. The only way Castella can have nightmares is if there's some kind of tampering with the Dream Fountain that effects it negatively.

I don't think canon Bandana would enjoy the fact I assassinated his character for some plot lmao. But for the sake of the funny just imagine them interacting like that one sonic and shadow clip from Sonic Adventure 2.

The cycle of matter only affects Dark and Light matter/ anything in between that. Matter like that usually will never see a reaper in their life because their souls almost never make it to the afterlife and instead are in a constant cycle of reincarnation, hence the name. Meta Knight was merely lucky enough to have Morpho break the rules for him just like how Necrodeus broke the rules for him when he was Gala and took his soul to the afterlife. Normally living things are taken by reapers to the afterlife when they die though. While non-matter characters like Dedede, Magolor, Marx, Pike, etc will be able to have a one way ticket to the afterlife, I'm keeping it vague for Kirby as not to spoil future ideas.

That's all for now! I'll be answering more asks in the future don't worry.

[soumarhea]

So I watched Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue some months ago and I found the characters and their dynamics so interesting that I've been thinking about them ever since. (And by "thinking" I mean editing the TvTropes character page for months now.) And then I found a post here about Wings of Fire au and that's my final straw. Two of my favorite things together?? Planes F&R Wings of Fire au had been living rent free in my brain for nearly a month now and I'm blaming @amethyst257 for it.

I'm gonna be honest, I read WoF Arc 1 nearly ten years ago, there's not much I can recall (aside from Clay is an adorkable himbo, Tsunami killed her dad and her mom is a helicopter, Glory is a sass queen of two tribes, Starflight went blind, and Sunny gave herself princess status). I haven't even start with Arc 2 but at least I know those exist, because I only know about Arc 3 this year. And I have not the time to refresh on Arc 1, much less start with Arc 2 and/or 3. But! I have read Wings of Fire: A Guide to the Dragon World to completion. It may not be entirely flawless info, and I still have zero idea about Arc 3, but now I at least understand that Jewel Hive is the best Hive to live in if you're a SilkWing (I confidently claims without actually knowing). So! Zero idea about 66% of the story and a very hazy 33%, this headcanons will have so many lore holes and may not even fly, but I'll be damned if I didn't try. I'm shoving all this headcanons off a cliff, so it better fly. "Planes" and "Wings" are literally in the name, that's double the flight power!

Since I can't draw dragons to save my life, I'll just colors Joy Ang's line arts of the dragon tribes instead. Trying to incorporate elements from the Planes characters (like the three white stripes and chevron patterns that the Air Attack team had going on as their Non-Uniform Uniform) is one hell of a thing. Who knows trying to translate vehicles into dragons would be absurdly hard (evidently, I don't). They wouldn't be using paints, so maybe ink or henna as staining materials? Nail Scale polish?? Iirc tattoo is a thing in WoF right??? Maybe I should just give the dragons some T-shirts instead.

So far I only colored Blade and Windlifter. That would be 2/12 (not counting size comparison pic). Will edit the pictures in as I'm done with them.

Edit [31/07]: Updated Blade and Windlifter's picture, added Cabbie and the smokejumpers' pictures (that'd be 8 out of 12 now, wow). Everything written in green is new added info (except for Windlifter's name, duh).

Edit [05/08]: Updated all existing pictures, removed the "outdated" size comparison pic, and added Nick, Maru, Dipper, and Patch's pictures (12 out of 12!) Everything written in purple is new added info (except for Patch's name, ofc)

Kinda long post ahead.

Air Attack team from Pantala

Blade

Blade would be too self-conscious to look this aggressive tho. I would pinch his mouth shut if I could. At first I tried making his chevron pattern to look natural by the color arrangement of his scales, but then I thought it'd look better if I just said Maru paints it on with scale polish. I changed his chevron pattern again. I am indecisive sue me.

A HiveWing with color mutation; he have white scales and blue eyes. His HiveWing fight/defensive mechanism is the one where he can spray boiling acid from his stinger. I would give him the "horrible stench" one just for shits and giggles, and for the smokejumpers to call him stinky, but nah Upon further revisions I decide to also give him nerve toxin (that he didn't even know about, since he never stab other dragons for shits and giggles), and you can't stop me. So now he can spray boiling acid from his tail stinger and inject nerve toxin from his wrists stingers. (Isn't that overkill? No its not.)

Grew up in Vinegaroon Hive, moves to Jewel Hive later on for a change of pace. This is where he met Nick and Maru. (He didn't know he already saw Nick before, when Nick performs at Vinegaroon Hive.)

Elaborating on the point above, while still living in Vinegaroon Hive, he dabbled in all sorts of professions; he had joined and led successful hunting trips, joined research expeditions as a research assistant and conducting studies on Pantalan wildlife species, and even took up culinary. It was fulfilling for a while… until it wasn't.

He moved to Jewel Hive after he heard about the lavish parties thrown every now and then from one of his acquaintances. ("So you're telling me, everyone partied all night long and woke up the next day, at midday, with a massive hangover? Alright, sign me up.") He just wants some excitement in his life at this point.

Nick and Maru spotted him at one of the parties, actually. Everyone else was ridiculously glamoured up, and Blade… was sorely underdressed. He sticks out like a sore thumb, and Nick wasn't about to let this crime go unpunished. The rest is history.

His entire life he's been taught about how great HiveWings are for winning the Tree Wars, and how the SilkWings should be thankful to them for protecting their "defenseless" tails against those "barbaric" LeafWings. Blade approach that topic very differently. ("Doesn't that just means we should keep protecting them instead of treating them so poorly?") He very much is in the "unpopular opinion" group and bullied by his peers for it.

After Queen Wasp's dethronement, he followed Maru and moves to LeafSilk Village. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia. Presumably, for another change of pace.

He just wants to be alone, but Maru have a different plan… And Windlifter have even more of a different plan. He got dragged to school against his will, and his life will never get anywhere near lonely after that.

How did he ended up as chief of Piston Peak Air Attack (PPAA)? (it wouldn't be called Piston Peak, there is no pistons in Pyrrhia and I might not even stationed them at any Peak here. But "Pyrrhia Peak" doesn't sound too bad. hmm...) I haven't come up with anything for that yet, but they're going to build their own Hive in Pyrrhia (its nowhere near as big as the Hives in Pantala). Its somewhere between Jade Mountain and NightWing Village (for reference), and the team calls it the Air Attack Hive, their base of operation.

Nick (I'll just sneak him right here)

Not sure if I manage to live up to the "most beautiful/prettiest SilkWing" description with this, but my reference is literally a helicopter with police livery. Also, Nick wouldn't look this submissive. If I could crammed him full with cheeky confidence and flirtatious charms I would. Also also, WoF canon of SilkWing can't have black scales is dumb. Most if not all butterflies have black in their palette, what do you mean SilkWings can't have black??

A typical SilkWing... and one of the most beautiful around. Even gets himself nominated as the prettiest SilkWing multiple times. And more often than not, wins.

Grew up in Jewel Hive. One of the best artisans, but well-known particularly for his charms and theatrics. Upon revisions;

Grew up in Jewel Hive, he's well-known for his charms and theatrics, which lands him the profession as a performer. He puts on plays and concerts for the HiveWings and travels from Hive to Hive. Nick had performed in every Hive and comes to the conclusion that; he's never going to travel to the other Hives anymore. Like, "damn, those Hives don't deserve me tf". (He's not impressed by how those Hives treated SilkWings.)

When Maru was stationed at Jewel Hive, he decides to work for Nick instead of his employer. The second Nick gave him the opportunity, Maru quits his old job and moved in. (I'm giving these SilkWings too much power, they're going to unionize atp)

Nick caught glimpse of Blade during his short stay at Vinegaroon Hive. They didn't get to interact since Nick was performing on stage and Blade was all the way at the back seating. By the time the play was over, Blade was already gone.

How did Nick manage to notice Blade when they were so far apart? Blue eyes are not only uncommon for HiveWings; they're unusual. Nick had always wanted a closer look, and boy did he get it. When they spotted Blade in one of Jewel Hive's parties, Maru had to practically peel him off of Blade. ("What's the matter with you? SilkWings have blue eyes more often than not." "Yeah. But have you seen his??") Nick thinks they're very pretty.

From Nick's experiences with HiveWings, they're generally rude and condescending towards SilkWings. Even in Jewel Hive, SilkWings would sometimes get objectify to sit around the shops and look pretty to attract customers. He was ready to be disappointed, but when they approached Blade and he treats them no lesser than himself, Nick was pleasantly surprised. They were inseparable since, until... y'know.

Maru

Just imagine his tail is prehensile. Also, Maru wouldn't look this submissive either, if I could give him shit-eating grin I would. Also also, I am still not satisfied with the lifeline pattern, so I might change it to something else. Maybe as part of clothing article or something. Stealth edit is stealthy ;p

SilkWing with major mutation; his tail is prehensile. (Presumably inherited from the RainWings who fled to Pantala along with the BeetleWings, the LeafWings, and the SeaWings all those centuries ago. Don't ask questions! He need this because;) He uses his tail like an extra arm, specifically to hold his coffee while he work.

I would give him flamesilk ability but then he'd be one of Queen Wasp's flamesilk production slaves, locked in a dungeon somewhere, so nah.

Studies in Mantis Hive and moves to Jewel Hive after he graduates. (Heavily assuming Maru even gets to enroll into the universities since, y'know, he's a SilkWing. Probably Definitely not but shut up. I'm keeping this.) He's not only good with works, he went above and beyond. But he was still assigned as web workers (a "lowly SilkWing" profession) despite being one of the best inventors in the Hives. (This is an exaggeration; you can hear him exclaiming "It's better than new!" even if you're in TseTse Hive while he's in Mantis Hive. For reference.)

Despite getting his profession assigned to him, he still do whatever tf he wants, much to the disapproval of his HiveWing employer. They told him to fix the webs, he did… and make them better! And he got yelled at for it. So he ditches them to work for a fellow SilkWing instead (it is, of course, Nick).

Once Blade enters the picture, Maru spends more time trying to get Nick on schedule. Why's that? Nick just wants to spend time with Blade instead of doing his work.

After Queen Wasp's dethronement, he moves to LeafSilk Village together with Blade. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia… along with Blade. Personally, he just wants to be there for Blade.

Windlifter dragged them both to Jade Mountain Academy. And by "them both", I mean Blade. Windlifter dragged just Blade specifically. Maru would be eating popcorn or honey drops (if he packed any) watching it all go down.

He built the Air Attack Hive with the team's help and made it even better than the Hives back in Pantala.

Windlifter

I might tweaked his design a little bit more. I'm still not satisfied with this. Alright, I change the white chevron patterns to yellow-ish, hoping it look like it's stained using henna instead of painted on with white paint. Did I changed anything? I did tweaked something, I forgot what.

A LeafWing with leafspeak ability, just like his parents.

Grew up in the SapWing Village. He was just a little dragonet when the Tree Wars starts warring properly. Which means he's around 50 years old. (Dragons live up to over hundreds years old right? So about time Windlifter having mid-life crisis.)

After the Tree Wars conclusions, he moves to LeafSilk Village. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia. Personally, he wanted to broadened his worldview and to learn more about all the other tribes at Jade Mountain Academy. It's "life long learning" after all.

Despite being in the same continent, in the same village, and in the same group when they flew to Pyrrhia; Windlifter officially meets Blade and Maru only upon arrival at Pyrrhia. He dragged them along to Jade Mountain Academy, much to Blade's annoyance.

Windlifter's justification for dragging Blade along is due to his own prejudice against HiveWings, he wants to know them better. And Blade was (unfortunately) within his reach at the moment. The two did have a rough start, and Maru is there as the peacemaker with popcorns making sure they don't kill each other.

Windlifter sets out to understand other tribes, especially the HiveWings, better. But ended up understanding Blade, as his own person dragon, better.

Cabbie was an enigma at first, but doable (mainly because they shares some common grounds). And Dipper... took him the longest to understand. By the time he finally gets her, Dipper calls him her best friend, which he agrees.

(This point is entirely inspired by C130's fic on AO3, specifically Q is for Quarantine Chapter 48) By the time Dusty joins Air Attack, Windlifter already found himself a partner and have two dragonets. His partner is named Tulasi, a LeafWing who grew up in PoisonWing Village. They first met at LeafSilk Village when everything on Pantala started to settle down. Their relationship begins on a friendly terms and they maintained that even when Windlifter went to Pyrrhia for studies (only returning home for a short time whenever possible) but they manage to make it work.

Air Attack team from Pyrrhia

Dipper

Dipper wouldn't look exactly like this, this is a typical SeaWing line art. Dipper's dorsal fin would tapered off to a SkyWing's spikes; her tail is slightly narrower than a SeaWing's but still thicker than a SkyWing's; she wouldn't have the barbels on her lower jaw or the webs between her talons; and her wingspan is greater than the typical SeaWing's but are still inferior to the SkyWing's. And as mentioned below, her bioluminescent stripes doesn't function. She put more effort to her chevron patterns than her three white stripes.

A SeaWing/SkyWing hybrid. She looks like a SeaWing… maybe a little funny-looking here and there… and a little too yellows and reds instead of greens and blues (did I say a little? I mean a lot). She have gills, but not the webbed talons. Her bioluminescent stripes are non-functional, and she can breath fire. (not underwater though)

Since she looks too different than the regular SeaWings, she grew up alone in one of the many islands in the Bay of a Thousand Scales. Being all alone by herself made her a bit loony… and socially stunted.

She did try living underwater with fellow SeaWings but since her bioluminescent stripes doesn't functions, she simply can't converse in Aquatic even if she knows a word or two.

So her next best move is to live on one of the islands and hoped fellow SeaWings would surface and socialize with her above water. But after a few attempted socializing, her visitors dwindles out until none for months. She'd be lucky if she even gets a visitor within a year.

By behaviour, you'd think she'd be on the young side… She's older than Windlifter. (Between a few years to a decade older.)

One day, she got word about Jade Mountain Academy, and was interested to see "what's up with that? sounds fun!". She was apprehensive at first, but it's worth a shot. She thought it would just be a short trip; just a little visit and then go back home. "No need to overstay your welcome". The risk she took was calculated, but damn, was she bad at math.

This is where our Pantalan trio just picked up strays whenever they could. Windlifter, Blade, and Maru thought she's a norm, and by the time they realized that she's an outlier, Dipper is already a part of this "not quite, but not so dysfunctional famil—I mean, group".

Cabbie

This is where I took even more creative liberties with the lore. sue me

Cabbie wouldn't look this friendly. Maybe a bit more aloof. Also, this is a typical MudWing line art. Just imagine he have the SkyWing's wings instead. That red thing on his backside isn't a scar (though I should give him some scarring from his wartime) or the blood of his enemies (honestly, he would have some on him just because), it's his red chevron pattern painted on with scale polish by the smokejumpers (its' messy, and they waste bottles of scale polish on it) and so does the three white lines on his hind legs. Gave him some scarring, and the smokejumpers insist on painting the "51" on his face as part of their bonding activity. Someday, Drip and Blackout would paint "PP" on his right wing and Avalanche would (unhelpfully) adds "F" to it. That's how Cabbie got his PPF 51 call sign. A lot of scale polish will be wasted that day.

A MudWing/SkyWing hybrid. Bred for war in the past. He's built like a MudWing with the SkyWing's impressive wingspan. Easily pass off as a MudWing. You know volcanic mud? That's his coloring. (see picture above lol) He can breath fire without the MudWing's "need to be warm enough" rule.

~120 years old. Lived through wars and he didn't want to live through another one so he sits out the SandWing Succession War. One war in a lifetime is more than enough for any dragon really.

He lives in a cave somewhere between the Sky Kingdom and Mud Kingdom's borders, somewhere close to Diamond Spray Delta.

One day he went down to the Mud Kingdom for some mud bath; unintentionally discovered several MudWing nests; and noticed some of them contains blood-red eggs. Long story short, "no thoughts, head empty. ooh shiny!", he took all the red eggs with him and by the time he flew back home, he realized he have five blood-red MudWing eggs to look after now. Why didn't he just leave the eggs? Being a hybrid, he's wired differently than purebred MudWings. And, they're his now so shut up!

Being a single da— I mean uncle to five very loud, very messy, very energetic, young dragons tire him out really fast. So he went to drop them off at Jade Mountain Academy for the weekend. And what an adventure that would become.

The smokejumpers

From top to bottom: Dynamite, Drip, Blackout, Pinecone, and Avalanche. I tried so hard to not make them look related but still maintains their vehicle coloring, and also stick to WoF canon of MudWing coloring, which means Dynamite, Drip, and Avalanche all have eye color mutation. Dynamite and Drip still looks like they're related fml. I'm going to add the smokejumpers' team logo and their call sign numbers later. The logo would be their tattoo and the numbers will just be painted on. So I also added reflective scale polish on their wings' scales to evoke those reflective safety vest. If they could get their way, the jumpers would be painting themselves head to toe with it. Maru made sure they don't waste a single drop of it, that scale polish was costly.

All of them are MudWings, hatched from blood-red eggs, so they have fire resistant scales. And quite the bunch of daring little dragonets. They even make a game out of jumping over bonfires. Cabbie lovingly calls them "smokejumpers".

Since Cabbie egg-napped them from their original nests, they're not actually blood-related. But that doesn't make them any less siblings than the blood-related MudWing siblings.

Dynamite is the big wing. She wouldn't have been the big wing of her original siblings. So in the siblings of smokejumpers, she turns out the smallest. From smallest to biggest; Drip (only slightly larger than Dynamite), Blackout, Pinecone, and Avalanche.

Pinecone and Avalanche would've been the big wings of their respective blood-related siblings.

If you think "Avalanche" doesn't sound like a MudWing name, it was either that or "Mudslide". He picked "Avalanche" because it sounded better and badass.

How did they get their names? Dynamite suddenly sneezed fire once and gave Cabbie a heart attack. Drip always dripping with mud and trailing messes everywhere, and Cabbie clean up after him of course. Blackout accidentally put out their bonfire once. Pinecone collects funny shaped pinecones as a hobby. And Avalanche caused a landslide once, he pleaded not guilty. (Saving these from tag limbo, should've been included in post proper from day one.)

Cabbie sent them to study at Jade Mountain Academy so they'd stop giving him more mess to cleanup. They made messes along the way anyway.

At this point in the story (of them going to Jade Mountain Academy), they're tween to young teen dragonets, so 3-4 years old (6-7 is the dragon age of maturity iirc). By the time Dusty joins Air Attack, they'd be somewhere in their mid-late thirties, still as energetic, playful, and daring as they were.

How did they determined who get what number to paint on their faces? They roll two dice; Dynamite got 22; Drip got 36; Blackout 25; Pinecone rolled 1 and lost the second die, so she got 10; after they search for the lost die, Avalanche rolled 55; and they got Cabbie to roll 51. And then they get to painting the numbers on each other's faces. It's part of their bonding activities.

Patch

WoF canon: NightWing can have dark green eyes, Me: lime. Same as Maru, I might change how I want the lifeline pattern to look, maybe as an arm band (leg band??) instead. xp

A small NightWing, due to genetics but mainly, malnutrition. She have future vision, but she can only see as far as… 2 hours into the future.

Grew up in the volcanic NightWing Kingdom. She's somehow lucky enough to manage to hatched under one full moon… even through all the soot and smokes from the volcanoes, and the clouds. Everything just lines up exactly right for her to be under one full moon when she hatched. How did her egg got out in the open instead of safely in the caves with the other NightWing eggs? Well, some dragon manage to misplaced it somehow idk.

Currently lives in NightWing Village of the Rainforest Kingdom.

One night, she dreamed about going to Jade Mountain Academy… and interesting things happens. So she went. And interesting things did happened. It's a fated assembly.

WoF headcanon; the respect that HiveWings and SilkWings have towards NightWings borders on reverence (all thanks to Clearsight). Therefore neither Blade nor Maru will argue with Patch. If they didn't know any better they'd worship the ground she walks on. The two would eventually grow out of this blind respect to actually respects her for who she is.

Size comparison is its own post now.

I have plans for the Propwash Junction peeps too, they'll have their own post. Dusty won't have his picture here (he's not counted in the 12 pics at the start of this post) but I need to include some info about Dusty here before I forgot anything. So,

Dusty

A small RainWing/MudWing hybrid. (I haven't come up with anything else)

Suffers a serious, near-crippling, wings injury due to Ripslinger (I haven't come up with what the injury is, or whether Ripslinger is responsible for it directly or indirectly) so Dusty needs support equipment to help him fly (I haven't come up with what invention Dottie made to support Dusty yet). So anyway, by the time Planes F&R events happened, that support equipment starts to fail, and they're out of materials to make a new one. And that's how he joined the PPAA team.

[melodiousmonsters]

Firstly I know you all don't mind three posts in one day but I'm still pointing out that I have done so, I had the day off of school with an ungodly hyperfixation on drawing. Secondly I'm going to utilize my newly developed Spurrit obsession to give some information on the seasonals in the melodious monster chronicles universe.

There's one of each seasonal in this universe (not whiz-bangs though they're special and aren't really seasonals anymore) each of them are the common varient with a few slight differences made to further portray their personalities than what's capable with an 100% cannon design. Spurrit has a beard for example.

They also have names yet again like the celestials do, but that's only important to the hypothetical comic I may make after my monstiary project is done. Speaking of, that's only able to be finished once all the fire, ethereal, magical and mythical rares/epics are released, so that's going to be a few years : ] I'm just as happy as you are about that information. At least my art will be much better then( not saying my current stuff is horrible, I'm actually quite happy with my art, mainly the subject matter but the artistic quality is alright)

Most of the seasonals came into being as a living essence of their holiday that's kept alive solely by that holiday being celebrated. Subconsciously they're programed to keep up their holiday so they don't dissipate back into nothingness. Because their ability to live is solely dependent on their holiday being celebrated they don't age. Each of the seasonals are stuck at an age and they don't physically or mentally develop beyond that.

They can also magically conjure up objects related to their holiday with that same energy from the belief in their holiday. Hypothetically this could be used to summon infinite food for example but the seasonals can't actually comprehend the idea of doing this for more than a few minutes, and they can only come up with the idea in the first place if someone else tells them about it. Some mental inhibiting is needed when you are an immortal god-like organism to not break reality.

Now Spurrit is a bit of a weird case. Firstly his name is just Spurrit, or at least he goes by that, and he uses he/him pronouns as you could see. No one really knows where Spurrit came from but because the other seasonals also seemed to come from nowhere he was just lumped in with them. It's also because the first time he unveiled himself to the monsters early in modern history(which is at most all the knowledge a monster has about the history of the monster world) he actually started perplexpore as a holiday to try and get them to stop focusing solely on rebuilding the basics of soicety after it fell during the catyclysm and you know, explore, do some science. This only sort of worked, some basic machines and the sorts were discovered solely to aid in that previous goal, but it was something and Spurrit was accomplished in his goals. and that just happened so long ago that people mostly forgot that he existed before the holiday, but some seasonals like Carillong(doesn't have a final name yet) DID exist before their holidays were started so even then people still just count him as a seasonal. Whatever he is, he seems to be immortal as he's nearly as old as the monster's perspective of history itself, there's only one of him, and he gets along quite well with the other seasonals. Well, most of the time. (Btw he also has a brittish accent)

[thiefking]

i need to draw/speak more of my narutos. "my narutos" meaning specifically the versions of every character that exist in my head, of course. i wanna draw hinata and gaara (besties of all time) especially. because other than the fact that they have the most fully realized design changes in my head, they are perhaps the defining aspect of My narutos, as opposed to everyone else's. their friendship to me is like "ok i'm going out...! (wearing some extremely Please Don't Look At Me outfit)" "not dressed like that you're not." "better? (she is now gothed the fuck out with an invader zim handbag)" "yas bitch slay." this is how they work. to me

i want to draw Literally Exactly That what i just described there as a meme but i do also kind of want to write or draw sometjing more substantial because i am The Hinata And Gaara Understander. as individual characters and as a pair of besties. amd i need to explain to others why it makes perfect sense because i just Know that i am one of extremely few to look at these two, of all characters, and deduce that the character arc hinata SHOULD have had is one that would be so obvious to gaara & something he would encourage. or maybe the only one, but the fandom is/was so big that it feels statistically unlikely... if we're talking CURRENT fandom i may actually be uniquely insane about this. i don't know for sure i haven't really interacted with the fandom i've been fucking around in my own skull this whole time that's how i even arrived at "hinagaara bffs" in the first place

but like... listen. hinata's thing is basically (in an inconsistent, half-baked, and never fully realized form): "i can change to improve myself and finally meet everyone else's standards and prove them wrong...!" as she is trying to emulate naruto. ... "prove them wrong", but she is not subverting anything if she meets an expectation that was explicitly set. hinata is not naruto. naruto's expectations were that he is worthless and nothing and not worth having any expectations for in the first place, and basically all of konoha thought this way. if naruto accomplishes basically anything at all he proves someone wrong, even if just a little. hinata had expectations set on her, specifically by her family, that she is not meeting. even though what hinata WANTS to do is prove them wrong, what she is fundamentally DOING is trying to please them by doing exactly what they want her to do. yes, when they think she won't even meet their lowest expectation and she does meet it, she is TECHNICALLY proving them wrong... but she isn't really achieving meaningful personal growth by doing this, is she? all she has done is meet their standards and essentially fall into their evil ghoul trap and accept EVEN MORE PRESSURE as a "reward" because now that she finally met this one single goal, they can move the goalpost. she will only ever be the failure who occasionally surprises them, she will always be lagging behind the others, and every single time she fails she gets sent back to square 1 in their eyes. meeting all their expectations or even surpassing them entirely is always going to feel hollow and fragile, because in the back of her mind, if she slips even once she has to do it all over again. she deserves better than constant paranoia

gaara (and pretty specifically gaara) can rightfully point out the problem with hinata's current mindset because hinata's hardships are way closer to GAARA'S than naruto's, to be honest. it's not lacking a family; it's having a family that doesn't feel like a family, and that family isolating one child and encouraging the others to treat them like shit so that one child never has anyone on their own level when they're at home and they are constantly forced to be aware they lack some ambiguous something that seemingly everyone else has that would make them "worthy" of being loved by their own family

hold on let me put yhe rest under a readmore this post is long as fuck

the hyuugas treat hinata like shit and call her weak, and because her parents gladly and openly call her weak and because she's supposed to be heiress to the clan, her sister and neji (the only family who were close enough in age and rank to not intimidate) were made to hate her, think she is weak, be jealous of and resent her for being heiress despite her weakness, and treat her like shit like the other hyuugas do, thus completely isolating her within her family. and rasa treated gaara like shit and had given up on him LONG before he snapped (let's be fucking real here if gaara had to learn that "love" makes emotional pain feel better at age SIX... and not to mention the entire yashamaru """plan""" was utterly and blatantly fucking NONSENSE on all levels like nice going rasa you just turned your kid almost irreversibly insane... seemingly on purpose...? i can only assume it was on purpose and you just wanted to be a spiteful bitch to the kid who killed your wife because literally what else did you think was going to happen with that but that's a rant for another time.), he tacitly encouraged temari and kankuro to not even bother with gaara and to be afraid of him like everyone else is because RASA was also OBVIOUSLY SCARED and not only that he was constantly literally trying to murder gaara so temari and kankuro also had reason to believe from a very young age that associating with him might make rasa treat THEM like that too, essentially forced gaara to straight up kill his uncle who was the ONLY family member he had who talks to him like he isn't a monster (and inexplicably decided that he should also tell gaara outright that he is not and was never loved by anyone), etc etc etc; gaara was also isolated within his own family and made to be the odd one out, over and over again. naruto knows what it's like not having a family at all, but he never experienced having family— non-metaphorical, blood relation, "entire reason you were born" family— who hates you. naruto knows how it feels to be neglected and feared by an entire village, that's how he relates to gaara. hinata was hated by her own family, the people she depended on for life itself, but she was never hated by the village at large, even if she perceives herself to be. naruto can empathize with this and put himself in her shoes, but like... gaara KNOWS, firsthand, what hinata is experiencing. that is why gaara is fairly uniquely capable of pointing out the problem Very Directly because he would see it way faster than anyone else

naruto could see it too, and he could say all the same things, but he wouldn't do it how gaara would. and i think hinata needs to hear someone speak to her, bluntly and authoritatively, and say "you deserve better than this." because normally whenever she hears someone (her own family) speak to her bluntly in an authoritative tone they're telling her she's weak and pathetic and subpar and needs to improve, and every time she is spoken to like that she believes them and marks that weakness off as something to fix. hearing incredibly matter-of-fact validation and encouragement spoken the exact same way primes her to believe that encouragement, and now her compulsive need to please people who speak to her that way is going to force her, even fleetingly, to take it seriously. especially because gaara would tell her something she is doing wrong, which will feel familiar, but he actually has HER best interests in mind. there is no benefit or advantage for him if she succeeds. he is unaffiliated, not even from konoha, he gains nothing from it. gaara doesn't tell her to try harder nor to give up and accept mediocrity. gaara tells her it's okay to give up and try something else, and sometimes it's the people around you who are the ones who need to change, not you.

gaara looks at "i will change myself to prove myself to others", and he says instead: "you need to stop caring what other people think about you and stop morphing yourself to their perception. just because YOU aren't doing that in a 'if you all want to call me a monster then fine, i'll be a monster' kind of way, like i did, that doesn't mean that isn't still an unhealthy way to think. you should figure out who YOU are and live as who YOU are, unapologetically, until they get the point that they can either accept you as you are and realize they were wrong, or they can fuck off. this is a situation where it is Not Your Fucking Problem that other people are disappointed with you especially because of how hard you've already been working to try and meet their arbitrary standards. this isn't about talent or hard work. this is about whether you even Want to be doing what everyone else wants you to do. and it is difficult and terrifying and lonely to be the only person who knows who you really are. it is hard work to figure it out and it is hard work to convince others, and at times it will feel hopeless. so i won't let you be the alone. i won't let you have to try and fail all alone, like i did. i will be your first victory, i will give you listening ears, i will be your silent dressing room mirror while you try on different hats before you figure out which one fits, i will be here and i will not judge you or decide on your behalf who you are, and i will be your family if no one else will. literally. if they cast you out you can come home to me. temari and kankuro have already accepted me as i am, i'm sure they'll accept you as you are too"

and then with time and gentle coaxing hinata decides to stop trying to be what her family wanted her to be and starts being a goth weirdgirl and pursues her interests in mycology and psychology and entomology and starts fucking THRIVING

i could go on forever. i should stop now or i never will. some of the parallels between them or the reasons that gaara would specifically want to support her in the specific ways i envision came about entirely from headcanon (coughs. even more headcanon than... the rest of this... coughs) and i FORGET that it's headcanon. for example "gaara created his good reputation in sunagakure through brute force good deeds. like people were so scared of him that they wouldn't let him CASUALLY prove that he was trying to be better, so he basically had to scare them even more just to prove that he was no longer scary. things like using his sand to hold people in place... so that he can physically put money into their hands and say 'this is yours and you will take it and use it to pay rent and buy your child that toy he wants. i do not want anytjing in return and i will be leaving you alone now.' because otherwise people would run away before he even gets the chance to be nice. literally just has to hold them still and pointedly do something nice for them and then let them go without hurting them while they tremble in misplaced terror like he;s a wildlife vet wrangling an injured seagull". this is part of why he would say "be unapologetically you and they can accept that and realize they were wrong about you to begin with, or they can fuck off". NONE OF THAT is explicitly canon... but there is so much & it makes perfect sense to me. aauuugaghh hinata my hinata my hinagaara besties my hinata. i could go on and on and on and on. goddammit I WILL GIVE HER THE CHARACTER ARC SHE NEEDS & DESERVES... GIVE HER TO ME KISHIMOTO.... WHAT IF THE FACT THAT HINATA HAS 3 PERSONALITY TRAITS IN CANON ACTUALLY MEANT SOMETHING AND WASN'T JUST BECAUSE YOU, MASASHI KISHIMOTO, SELF-ADMITTEDLY DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WRITE WOMEN? WOULDN'T THAT BE SO MUCH LESS EMBARRASSING FOR YOU? I CAN MAKE IT REAL! I CAN MAKE IT MEANINGFUL!!!! I CAN MAKE IT ABOUT REPRESSION!!!! I CAN MAKE IT ABOUT WORKING HARD TO BE WHO YOU WANT TO BE, AND SAYING "SCREW YOU" TO PEOPLE WHO TRY AND DECIDE WHO YOU ARE ON YOUR BEHALF, AND THE REJECTION OF THE STATUS QUO, AND EMBRACING THE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU DIFFERENT AND MAKING USE WHAT UNIQUE STRENGTHS YOU HAVE INSTEAD OF TRYING TO MATCH WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING, AND HOW HUMAN LIVES ARE INHERENTLY VALUABLE EVEN IF EVERYONE AROUND YOU SAYS YOURS IS WORTH NOTHING!!! JUST LIKE WHAT NARUTO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! I CAN EVEN SPICE IT UP A BIT AND USE MY MAGICAL WOMAN-UNDERSTANDING POWERS TO MAKE IT ABOUT HOW WOMEN ARE ACTUALLY JUST REGULAR PEOPLE WHO ARE AS VARIED AS MEN AND HOW THE SOCIETAL CONCEPTS OF WOMANHOOD AND PROPER WOMANLY BEHAVIOUR ARE RESTRICTIVE AND OPPRESSIVE, AND THE MANY WAYS THAT SOCIETY WILL FORCE TOTAL CONFORMITY AND PUNISH EVERYONE WHO STEPS OUTSIDE OF THAT FRAME (AND EVEN THOSE WHO REMAIN WITHIN)!!! I CAN MAKE IT ABOUT COMPULSORY HETEROSEXUALITY!!!! I KNOW YOU'RE AFRAID OF GIRLS MR KISHIMOTO WILL IT MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER IF I ALSO MAKE IT ABOUT NEJI WATCHING HINATA COMPLETELY REJECT HER CAGE AND DISCOVER HERSELF AND HOW HE FEELS ABOUT IT AND MAYBE JUST COVER YOUR EARS WHEN I START TALKING ABOUT EGGS!!!!!! MR KISHIMOTOOOOOO PLEEEEEEEASE