#i say girlies but i mean it in like

[deoidesign]

How I save time on backgrounds as a full-time webcomic artist

Hi! I make webcomics for a living, and I have to be able to draw a panel extremely fast to keep up with my deadlines. I draw about 50 panels a week, which gives me about 45 minutes per panel if I want any semblance of a healthy work-life balance.

Most webtoon artists save time on backgrounds by using 3d models, which works for them and is great! but personally I hate working in 3d... I went to school for it for a year and hated it so much I completely changed career paths and vowed never to do it again! So, this is how I save time without using any 3d, for those of you out there who don't like it either!

This tactic has also saved me money (3d models are expensive) and it has helped me converting my comic from scroll format into page format for print, because I have much more art to work with than what's actually in the panels. (I'll touch on this later)

So, first, I make my backgrounds huge. my default starting size is 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. My panels are 2,500 pixels wide, so my backgrounds are 4x that, minimum. Because of this, I make them less detailed than I could or that you might expect so it doesn't look weird against my character art when I shrink portions of it down.

I personally find it much easier to add in detail than to make "removing" details look natural at smaller sizes, but you might have different preferences than I do.

I also make sure to keep all of my elements on separate layers so that I can easily remove or replace them, I can move them to simulate different camera angles more easily, and it's simple to adjust the lighting to imply different times of day.

Then I can go ahead and copy/paste them into my episodes. I move the background around until it feels like it's properly fitting how I want.

Once I've done that in every panel, I'll go back through the episode and clean up anything that looks weird, and add in solid blacks (for my art style) Here's a quick before and after of what that looks like!

This makes 90% of my backgrounds take me just a few hours. This is my tactic when I'm working in an environment that an entire scene, or multiple scenes, will take place.

But many panels will inevitably have a location that's used exactly once, and it would waste time and effort to draw a massive background for those. So in 10% of cases, I just draw the single panel background in the episode. I save all of these, just in case I can re-use it later (this happens more often with outdoor locations, but I save them all nonetheless!)

I generally have to draw about 2 big backgrounds per episode, and 3-5 single-panel backgrounds per episode! At the beginning of an arc/book the number is higher, but as the series is continuing and I'm building up an asset library of indoor and outdoor elements to re-use for the book, the number generally goes down and I save more time.

My series involves time travel and mysteries, so there's a lot of new locations in it and we're constantly moving around. If I were working on a series that was more consistent in this aspect, this process would save me even more time!

Like I said earlier, this also saves me a lot of pain and gives me a lot more options as I'm converting from scroll format to print format!

panels that look like this in scroll format...

can look like this in print!

because I drew the background like this, so I didn't need to go through the additional effort to add in the extra detail to expand it outwards at all.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone! As always if it doesn't help, just go ahead and disregard. This is what I do and what works for me, and I feel like I only ever see time-saving tips for comics that involve 3d models and workflows, which don't work for me at all! I know there's more people like me out there, so this is for you!

Enjoy!

Also obligatory "my webcomic" if you want to see this in action or check it out!

[bruciemilf]

“Jason would be a firebender” “Jason would be an earthbender” Jason would be a kyoshi warrior, you indefensible fools

[turtledotjpeg]

girls who go 🧍

[randomsufff]

HEHAHBFKI More South Park doodles I think I’m going insane.

Actually this is kind of the product of me being liking South Park way back in high school but was too embarrassed to draw them when I was bored in class and now it’s all kinda flooding back 💀

Read below if you want to know more about my New Kid and my thoughts behind some of the doodles cause this turned out longer then I though 💀

Anyways- introducing my New Kid. No name cause I literally have no idea. Whatever the cannon name is ig- though I’d think it’d be funny if she was referred to New Kid by literally everyone like in game. I like the idea that a lot of people have with their New Kids that they liked the makeover section with the girls during the Stick of Truth a little too much. I also like it cause… uh… I didn’t play Stick of Truth. (The combat system is not my cup of tea) So it’s not until the start of TFBW does she know shes really a girl.

To give context to the top right drawing- I couldn’t remember the dialogue Wendy says in the alleyway if you say you’re a trans girl- but I do know what she says if your a cis girl (I always knew you were a girl) cause I did a second play through as a cis girl. And I don’t know if there’s supposed to be a huge time jump between the end of Stick of Truth and TFBW but I think it would be funny if it was just the next day- so combine these two fact to get “Wendy always clocked New Kid as a girl but NK just found out yesterday 💀”

Anyways- she’s such a cutie, I love her and her cool superhero outfit I gave her. Outside of the game- I’d like to think of her basically exactly how she acts in game. Mostly non-verbal, with the occasional zingy one liner, and just kinda goes along with the crazy shit the happens in South Park un phased. Like if she was in a episode- the plot would happen and she would be on screen, but wouldn’t say anything, and anytime another character would address her, they’d respond however as if she spoke lmao. Aroace, just like me, so she’s just friends with everyone (except Cartman) and vibes with everyone.

The mini Style comic I though of cause 1) I wondered if Kyle had the same elf ears as the other elfs did in game (again, never played and it’s been a while since I saw gameplay so whoops if it’s confirmed or whatever) and 2) I thought it would be funny if Stan was caught lacking and tried to /rp his way out of it (I wanted to add an extra bit where Kyle would be like “Oh, are our characters gay for each other??? (ARE YOU /SRS OR /J STAN)” and Stan would have to just “yes, and” his way out.)

The last three images were kinda of a stream of consciousness put on paper and made neat lol. I really like showing that all the costumes the kids wear are homemade and stuff- either stuff taken from their parents or visibly taped together etc- cause I think it’s charming. Anyways- I though Kyle’s little robe could be like one of his parents bath robe- and it would be a little too long for him to run without eating shit so he’d have to hike it up like a skirt/dress. Which lead to me thinking that Cartman would say some shit about that and how Kyle, who has a literal Golf Club, would smack his ass up. Which then lead to me thinking about how since Kyle’s the Elf King and Stan’s basically his right hand how he might lift it up wedding dress style if needed (/RP GUYS, RIGHT?RIGHT???) and how Cartman would react, which lead to that one JoJo meme cause thats literally how they’d retaliate.

Always- I’ll probably have at least one more post about South Park I swear. There was a period of time before I stopped watching (I gotta pick it up again) where I would doodle a bit of whatever was happening in the episode, each episode. Crazy I know, but not only did it improve my drawing skills but it helped me remember what actually happened in episodes cause I have shit memory and definitely don’t remember some of the episodes I watched. So I might redraw some of those- see if anyone can tell what episode they’re from.

[necrotic-nephilim]

jealousy really is the driving force of DamiTim as a ship. love that for them. love how Tim has the Robin mantle ripped away from him and he has to suffer the jealousy of watching Dick and Damian bond. how possessive over Dick Tim can be, to have him stolen by Dick.

even more so though, is the jealousy from Damian. how on earth do you cope when you finally get to be Robin, a role you've convinced is your birthright, and no one really likes you? every prefers the Robin who came before you? Dick regularly reminds you that he can always go and call Tim back when you act out? like the complex Damian has over Tim is unreal. Tim, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had everything handed to him his whole life. he never had to struggle or fight for his place like Damian did. Damian has spent his whole life fighting and proving himself, and yet he can't ever seem to truly claw the mantle of Robin away from Tim. even when Tim lets it go, becomes Red Robin, they seem to share it. Tim can slip back into the role of Robin whenever someone like Dick or Bruce need him to, because *he's* the Robin who they need. he's the Robin who was able to find Bruce. he's the Robin that Ra's wants an heir out of. he's the Robin who even Jason respects. in Damian's eyes, everything Damian has fought tooth and nail for, was handed to Tim.

so of course he's going to react to Tim with violence and aggression, especially after finding out Tim has contingency plans for him. no matter how much Damian proves himself, he's never going to be enough, especially not to Tim. and so his deep refusal to see Tim as family, to acknowledge Tim's legacy is all driven by such an angry jealousy. Tim understands aspects of Bruce's legacy that Damian doesn't, like the need to sweet talk and play nice with the elites of Gotham, even if they're corrupt. they exemplify different aspects of Robin, and the aspects that Tim exemplifies are the aspects that Damian knows he'll never fully understand and therefore holds such a deep contempt for. he wants to fight criminals, not play nice with politicians. Tim understands the side of Gotham that's utterly foreign to Damian. if anything, he represents that side of Gotham, to Damian. a pretty little rich boy who's nothing but a know-it-all and not a real son of Bruce. he can't be a Wayne. he can't be Damian's family.

and all of that angry jealousy leading to unhealthy obsession turned a weird, angry crush from Damian is just my bread and butter. that is how DamiTim should be. to me. Damian obsessed over hating Tim Drake so much he accidentally ends up sort of in love with him and that only makes Damian angrier. because he can't prove everyone right by *also* liking Tim. he can't let Ra's win like that, because frankly why wouldn't Ra's be delighted by Damian and Tim getting together. and it builds and builds with angry passive aggression towards Tim that culminates in angry hate-fucking-that's-not-just-driven-by-hate. love and hate are always viewed as opposites in shipping and i think they're the same intense passion just in different directions. and for the best ships, they're very intertwined. what is DamiTim is not the peak of that. "i put so much of myself into hating you i had no choice but to fall in love with you somewhere along the way" core. love that bleeds into hate and hate that bleeds into love. "you make me so angry i regularly passively try to kill you but not with any real effort because who would i obsess over if you were actually gone" core. murder attempts as a form of courting. contingency plans to take each other out as a love language. they're unwell.

[heatwavering]

rewatched TG:M all the way through for the first time in a couple months, and god. hans zimmer did not have to put everything he owned into that singular swell. and neither did literally everyone else.

maverick: terrified and alone, realizing his son basically just blew up in front of him

cyclone warlock and hondo: different levels of hopelessness, expediting the mourning process so they can continue with the mission

hangman: physically stops breathing. can’t focus. he has to hyperventilate to get oxygen back in his body. all he’s thinking about is bradley seven summers ago, when they were still okay. and now he’s never going to be able to apologize for everything. it’s his fault. he’s the better pilot, everyone knows it, but bradley had the winning hand, the ace in the hole. so he should’ve tried harder with maverick, not picked as many fights, flown better, flown faster, fought harder, been different, done everything different. you can physically pinpoint something inside himself dying alongside bradley.

[looseinthecatroom]

Dreams just like us fr

He really saw Hob Gadling in 1589 and went: “You’re stable?? Happy?? Heterosexual*???

Boring.

I’ll be over there chatting with the art twink if anyone needs me.“

Then Hob comes back in 1689 like “I’M FILTHY, TRAUMATIZED, MISERABLE, YET FULL OF HOPE” and Dream is really like:

“At last. A blorbo.”

[dhmis-autism]

(so so bitterly) people need to get weirder with it when writing RG.

[singsweetmelodies]

"noooo, there go my red bull charles dreams" GOOD RIDDANCE

[allastoredeer]

Aren't you guys kinda over feminizing Alastor a little bit????? like I get it that we want him to sub/bottom, but aren't you guys doing the same thing you hate that people do with Lucifer???? Like Alastor to me would never wear a dress? unless like he's joking or something??

....Alastor wore a nun outfit....out of the two, he's canonically worn a dress.

If you're going just by the show--no headcanons, no fanon, no tropes, no fan-art--Alastor has exhibited more fem-like qualities, has acted more feminine, than Lucifer ever has. I'd go as far to say that Lucifer is actually pretty masculine in the show, he just happens to have a pretty face.

And I mean, we don't know if Lucifer would wear a dress either. He's only ever worn pants, shirt, and a jacket, we have no evidence that he would wear a dress. But people like to put him in them anyway because of ✨vibes✨ - which I totally get. Vibes are important. It's not like I don't think Lucifer wouldn't wear a dress. I totally think he would and he'd rock it.

As for Alastor only ever wearing a dress for a joke, I definitely agree, but I think that guy would do anything for the bit. He'll do whatever it takes to get the last laugh. He trolls for the sake of trolling. He's a menace. But it's not like he wore the nun outfit as a joke, it was more of a manipulation tactic when you think about it. He's as faithful as a nun 🙏 see how faithful he is, Charlie? He'll never lead you astray.

I love Alastor's masculine and feminine sides. He does both so well. If I have been leaning more into feminine Alastor recently, well, it could be on account that I haven't come across a lot of content of him being feminine, and make the content you wanna see, right?

But thing is, I don't think we have been over-feminizing Alastor, at least not to the extent that Lucifer has been feminized, in my opinion. I mean, Lucifer has been feminized to the point that he's--in some cases, not in all cases--unrecognizable from the show. Whereas with Alastor, at most, I've been posting gifs from the show of him being his girlypop self. Something's not mathing, because it's not adding up. These two things feel very different.

Tell me if I'm wrong, cuz I very well might be, but I'm getting the vibes that this is going back to Alastor's ego being the reason he wouldn't wear or act in a specific way.

I just don't see how his ego would stop him from wearing a dress. It's not like he has anything against feminine clothes or attributes, nor do we have any evidence at all that he would be against it. If anything, I get the vibes that he appreciates and respects femininity more than masculinity. I don't see why he would be against being in a dress, or appearing feminine, when he's done both in the show.

It smells of misogyny. My boy is many things, but a misogynist he ain't.

[oceans-beloved]

Meme dump yayyy🥳✨️

(off to make more now muhahaha >:3)

[epickiya722]

I think about how some people actually hate on Yuji, Nobara and Megumi and get confused because I went into JJK and by episode 3 I adored them.

[theroguequeen]

I need another daemon and rhaenyra scene where it's just them, reconnecting, just a few hours of escape for both of them, exploring each other's bodies again and again, whispering sweet nothing in high valyrian and daemon holding rhaenyra in his arms, because this time he is back while knowing that it will mean his death and trying to remember every move she makes, every little noise, her voice, the smell of her hair and the way her skin feels under his fingers, moments that just belong to them, little smiles and a lot of moans and feeling each other's presence before finally falling asleep and feeling safe even if it's just for the night. They deserve this so much.

[miss-menhera]

FAIR WARNING: Oversharing thoughts about lusting over how Adam would taste like somehow turns into a ramble about how Angels ACTUALLY taste like. Messy brainless drabble.

(I am legimately mentally ill and an oversharer if you're squeamish I advise you not to interact with me cuz I always say weird shit, I am absolutely shameless and unconcerned by backlash and I associated borderline cannibalism with pure adoration so bear with me😭)

You know when someone is so cute, you go "you're so cute, I could eat you" yes? No? Either way I legimately could take a bite out of someone I adore. I know people get this urge with animals, so perhaps it's more normal than I think

So I was thinking about Adam's cock, and what his cum would be and what it would taste like,(I came heh to the conclusion it would probably be alot, so thick, hard to swallow and salty asf due to his diet) then if that couldn't get any worse I started thinking "What if I bit his 40 inch dick off the moment he starts boasting and saying demeaning stuff", AND then that somehow went into even more unhinged territory and turned into what if I bit and swallowed his dick too?

Then I came back to my senses and I was like wow, that would be kinda gross and cruel huh?

Then I also thought meh it's gonna grow back in like 3 seconds cuz he ain't human and he'd probably be all scared or incredibly mad, and I dont mind either of those options so it's a win-win no matter what, he could either fuck me with pure rage or scramble away leave me a edged mess.

Then I stopped thinking horny and my thoughts went to "AH I love him so much I could bite a piece of his arm off T- T" to "Hold on a second what do angels taste like.."

You know what guys? The cannibals were kinda based in Hazbin Hotel?

Like honestly I myself, kinda wanna know what Angel's wings taste like? I feel like they'd be like huge chicken wings, and also Angels bleed glowy GOLD? That can't taste like blood, what does that taste like? Their blood looks like shiny sweetsour sauce, what if fried angels taste like chicken tenders marinated in sweet n sour sauce. Adam is 11 feet tall and fat ast he'd be literally delicious and he could feed whole cannibal town for a week.

..I guess this means Adam isn't a dick, he's a cock heh.

No seriously what if I took a bite out of him? Then what? Who's gonna stop me? Salmonella? Nuh-huh. Is (fictional)cannibalism a love language? Can it be actively practiced? Should I take my pills? Should I stop thinking about eating men I like? What sin do these thoughts represent? Lust? Gluttony? Even if there's 0 malice in my words? Is this what they call girl thoughts? Should i stop? Should I go dry my hair? I think I should go dry my hair.

This will get me on some sort of blacklist and blocked by alot of people I think

[myimaginationplain]

Imagine genuinely going: "only MY favorite character is allowed to like flowers and be seen with flower imagery. her sister being drawn with flowers is STEALING!!1!1!" Like that's a real point of contention for you. wtf is going on with #that side of the fandom.

Yes, Arya does indeed like flowers. Sansa also likes flowers. Most people like flowers in some capacity. It's not some super-special hyper-individualist personality trait, lmao.

(In my opinion, Arya cataloging the different species of flower she sees on the Kingsroad & being willing to get dirty picking flowers for Eddard is mostly about her inherent connection to & comfort within nature. Arya paid attention to the flowers, yes, but she also paid attention to the animals & the trees & the mud. She’s the Maiden of the Tree. But Arya's connections to these other parts of nature are rarely emphasized the way her connection to flowers is, because they can't be used to over-state her femininity. It's extremely obvious that's what's happening here & I hate hate hate it.)

[hopeswriting]

imagine you're luce, and you're born the heir to a mafia family. you're mafia-born, and so of course also mafia-raised, and then also a donna-to-be. you're raised to be able to take on the role, to be good and capable at it, are taught to make one of your core beliefs about how the many must come before the few, because the family must always come first. you're going to be the donna, of course you must always prioritize the family above all else, it's your foremost and most important duty.

if caring about the few too comes at the price of the many, comes at the price of the family, is it even worth it? if the happiness gained from it comes at the price of a greater suffering for others, is there even any meaning to it, even if it's your happiness we're talking about? you understand, don't you?

you're not sure if you do, but you care about your family, love it, want to do right by it once you become their donna, so you nod, listen and learn.

(you don't have to be taught the pain and loss and guilt and anger and bitterness is a fair price to pay for the pain you decide has to be inflicted and the sacrifices you decide must be made, including by yourself. it's the least you could do, even.)

imagine you're luce, and the gift of foresight runs through your blood.

you would not call it a gift. you did not ask for it either. and you'll never come to see it as something wanted by you.

you can see the future, and it happened exactly as you saw it would, so of course it's exactly the way you wanted it to go. you can see the future, and it happened exactly as you saw it would, so of course you didn't care to try hard enough to change it. you saw the future before the shape of it had yet to be breathed into existence, and who's to say it didn't come into existence only because you saw it happen? you saw the future, and it happened worse than it had to for it.

you can see the future, but you still can't make it anything else than what it was always going to be. you can even make the visions happen at your will, but you still have no say on what you see or how much you see. you still can only be the witness of it before anyone else can.

it does mean double and longer the happiness sometimes, means relief and gratefulness and hope beyond words, and it'd be cruel of you to voice out loud your feelings for others to hear the many more times it means something else.

you can see the future, and it doesn't make it any kinder on you than on anyone else, does not give you any more power or control over it than anyone else, but at least you can see the future. you're given the time to make peace with it, to brace yourself for it, to bargain with it, to plead and beg and fight against it however desperately and hopelessly, even if in the end it still happens exactly as you saw it would.

(you can see the future, and it still doesn't hurt you any less than anyone else when it happens, but you don't expect anymore for anyone to hold you any less responsible for it anyway. it would be nice for someone to do it one day, but you understand.)

you can see the future, and you decide it's a kindness to both yourself and others to keep it for yourself as much as possible whenever you can.

imagine you're luce, and your family has this set of rings they've looked after and protected for as long as your family has existed. they're one set of three of the most important artifacts in the world, ones that help in safeguarding its existence and balance. they're duty, the very first one and the most important one your family was created for.

the pacifier around your mother's neck is duty too, and the most important and powerful artifact among twenty-one in safeguarding the world and its balance. it's been passed down in your family too, from mother to daughter. it's duty, but less tied to your family and much more to the blood running through your veins. it's a curse, in fact, as it demands heavy sacrifices the rings don't, and one that can only be tied to the blood running through your veins.

(your mother looks at you as if expecting some kind of reaction from you, and you can only wonder at which point you weren't supposed to see it as a given. duty and sacrifices have been one and the same for you for a long time now. is it even duty if it doesn't require any sacrifices from you?)

imagine you're luce, and your mother dies for duty. she's the donna, and so she dies for your family. she's the sky arcobaleno, and so she dies for the world. she's your mother, but she dies anyway, doesn't fight it either, even knowing she will leave you behind, even knowing she won't ever get to see what you look like all grown-up.

everywhere you look, duty stares back at you, from your mother and the pacifier around her neck, her love for your family and the life she gives up for it, her love for you and how she dies anyway while you're still only a child. duty, from your family members and how they die for you and kill for you, how they do both at your command, how their lives are in the palms of your hands and how they weigh only as much as you allow them to at a time. duty, from the knowledge your foresight gives you and the shackles tied to the blood running through your veins.

your mother's only duty while she lives too. she loves you, but she'd have had to give birth to you anyway even if she didn't. she loves you, but she still gave birth to you even knowing the kind of life you'd have to live, the kind of hands you'd inevitably end up with, the burdens she'd have to lay on your shoulders, passing them down from her own. because she loves you, she finds the resolve to raise you to be able to face all of it head-on and come out on top, but she'd have had to raise you much the same way anyway even if she didn't.

(she doesn't die for you, doesn't fight to be able to keep living with you, and this, too, is your mother surrendering to duty one last time.)

(you're so sick of it, so angry at it, so hateful and resentful against it. you're so stifled by it to the point you've stopped being able to breathe for a long time now. or you would have been if they had taught you how to face duty in this way too.

it's for the better they didn't. a silver lining, sparing you pain that isn't necessary for you to go through. everyone you turn to only teaches you how to keep holding your breath longer, and you listen and learn, obedient and dutiful as you've ever been.

you're grateful for it too. really, you are.)

everywhere you look, there's no room for you to so much as question any of it, let alone anything more. duty is commendable, something you ought to look up to and strive towards, strive to achieve. duty is the right thing to do. of course it is.

(you exhale a breath of relief that shakes you down to your very core.

thank god, it's at least the right thing to do.

you're grateful for it beyond words. really, you are.)

imagine you're luce, and before it even happens, you know the choice you'll make when climbing that mountain, when standing on top of it, when waiting for a bright light to shine down on you from above. you know the choice you'll make then, even when pregnant with your daughter.

it doesn't matter since how long you knew, be it years, months, days, hours or minutes before. all that matters is that before you can even contemplate the idea of making another choice and all its implications and possible consequences, before the thought can even come alive in your mind, you already know the choice you'll make.

(you can see the future, but just because you already saw it, it doesn't mean it's now set in stone.

you can see the future, but just because you're given the chance to fight to change it, it doesn't mean it still won't happen every bit like you saw it.

it doesn't mean it can't still happen even worse than how you first saw it happen because you fought to change it, no matter how already dreadful it originally was.)

imagine you're luce, and before it even happens, you know they'll be others with you standing on top of that mountain. you're the only one who'll know it before it happens.

(because you can see the future.

and oh, you did not ask for it.)

they're strangers, people you don't owe anything to. adults who choose to show up at the first meeting, and to show up to every following mission after that. the chosen seven, whose ambitions and prides lead them to walk the path of the seven strongest too once laid down in front of them.

you don't force their hands in making any of those choices for them. you're not responsible for any of them.

you become coworkers then, accomplices, your hands stained in blood to various extent, but now dipping in the same pool of blood as you strive towards the same goal together. you have each other's backs, learn each other's strengths and weaknesses, learn each other's personalities, likes and dislikes. you keep having to spend more time together as the missions keep coming your way.

inevitably, you come to care about them. even more damning, they come to care about you in return. enough so they'll look after your daughter even after what'll happen on top of that mountain. enough so they'll look after your granddaughter too, warmly and fondly enough she'll call one of them uncle.

you're still the only one who knows they'll stand together with you on top of that mountain, not knowing what'll happen on it like you do.

and you do care about them, you swear you do. really, you do.

(you care about them the same way your mother cared about you, and how she still raised you to have steel in you and be made of sharp edges you know how to use. you care about them the same way you care about your family, and how you still send them to their deaths as needed so the rest of your family you care about just the same can keep on living longer and safely. this is the only way you've had the chance to learn how to care and love.

duty and sacrifices have been one and the same for you for as long as you can remember. it doesn't matter at which point sacrifices came to mean love to you too.

and most of all, you love your daughter more than anything else in the world.)

imagine you're luce, and this is who you are. this is who you've been raised to be, the only way you've been given room to grow up to be. this is the life you've lived and the kind of life that has shaped you as the person you are now. this is what you've been taught and told is the best version of yourself you could have grown up to be. this is who you ended up being by what you've been taught and told are all the right choices to make.

you're still the only one who knows what is about to happen on top of that mountain. it hasn't happened yet. the fate of the world hangs on what'll happen on top of that mountain, the same world you'll have to give birth to your daughter in. the same daughter you're currently pregnant with.

now imagine you're luce, look me in the eye and tell me you'd know how to even form the thought of the possibility of there being any other choice to make. look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't look at the only choice in front of you, and know deep in your bones it's the only right choice to make. that it is right of you to make it. because it simply has to be.

(imagine you're luce, and you're not doomed by the narrative. of course, you're not.

why would you need to be when the narrative has painstakingly shaped you all your life to become its perfect, faithful and dutiful sacrificial lamb?

and then, imagine you're luce, and you're even grateful for it, so, so very grateful it held up its end of the bargain too.

truly, you are.)