#i simplified it a bit of course because i was struggling a little bit

[angelfoodscake]

me last night: hheeeeeeugggg im so sleepy i should go to sleep early tonight i slept so late last night

my brain: RECREATE THE ENTIRE SS FLAVION IN MINECRAFT RIGHT NOW

[celestialprincesse]

🪐🩷

I write sm of Simon with like super cutie patootie sweet softie gf's and today is not one of those days!! What about Si with a sassy, snarky spitfire of a partner.

He's kind of always thought that he'd want some soft, gentle, domestic partner to offset the general frustration and struggle of his work life. Some bird in a frilly apron to coo and preen at him like a wounded puppy.

And then he meets her.

She's some intelligence officer brought on by Laswell in hopes of attaining information on targets before missions to keep things running that little bit smoother.

She's had to not only survive, but thrive in a cutthroat mans world industry for years, and she takes not one single ounce of shit from anyone.

Price will occasionally (and very much unintentionally) simplify things for her in mission briefings and she just kind of sits there with arms crossed and a raised eyebrow until he gets the memo that he doesn't need to baby her.

She never has to actually go out into the field, so whilst the guys are all training in the gym, she sits and plays games on her phone or reads some smutty romance novels.

She didn't expect to fall flat on her ass for Simon Riley, but something about how quiet and level headed he is makes her very much metaphorically swoon.

He knows it, obviously. He's observant as fuck. He sees the way she pulls her bottom lip between her teeth when she has to crane her neck in order to look up at him, or when he casually helps her with boxes of files and she shifts bashfully from foot to foot, trying not to ogle his biceps.

When they start dating, she's not even afraid of the others finding out because they're too scared of her to tease the two of them.

They move in together and she designates the guest room for all of his man stuff, only to find out that he has like three personal items and some chargers. "The fuck you mean you don't have an ugly PC?! You're a guy?" He's so confused at her confusion until later in their relationships when she tells him that all of her past partners were kind of (major) dicks and that's why she didn't really date anymore, until she met him of course.

She tries really really hard to hide when she cries before he goes off on deployment, and works ten times harder to find useful information that will increase his chance of getting home to her safe.

He buys her really sentimental presents and she tries to hide how touched she is by calling him the softie even though she shamefully piles all of his clothes on the bed with her when he's away because she misses him so much.

She buys him a dog in secret on the same day that he comes home with a cat for her and they just sort of stand there in their front entrance like that Spiderman meme where they all point at each other.

The dog and cat love each other, almost as unlikely a pair as their owners.

She and Simon go into work one day and she's got a unique, delicate little ring on her left ring finger and the guys are like 😦"You got married and didn't invite us?" "No you fucking plebs we got engaged."

Never did anyone think they'd see the day where Simon Riley got engaged and thought about settling down.

They also thought the two of them hated each other until Simon casually is like "Oh, yeah no she and I went to this great place the other night. Good steaks."

[identitty-dickruption]

i think i get why saying everyone is a bit autistic/adhd/etc is bad but could you elaborate on your opinion on why?

thanks :)

yeah of course!

first and foremost it almost always comes across as incredibly dismissive and invalidating. this is usually because “everyone is a little bit [insert thing here]” tends to come up in response to someone talking about their own experiences with that thing. for example, if I say “I can’t read tone due to my autism”, someone else responding with “oh everyone’s a bit autistic” completely dismisses the struggle I’m trying to voice

it also tends to simplify the issue or make it one-dimensional. as in. when people say that everyone struggles with a particular thing, they have an image in their head of what that thing looks like. when they say “everyone has an addiction”, they are (by definition) not acknowledging the complexities and realities of addiction. the same is true for any other problem that someone might claim is universal

and that’s the thing, right? these problems aren’t universal. we put a name to problems for a reason, and usually the reason is that we are different from most other people in the ways we interact with the world and in the ways we struggle. if addiction or autism or adhd or whatever else were universal, we wouldn’t need those labels in the first place!

I’m not saying we’re completely different from all other people or that people aren’t allowed to relate to us. it is true that everyone loses focus sometimes and everyone has experienced miscommunications and everyone has felt shame etc etc etc. it is a good thing that more people are able to relate to us and (for some) to feel more compassion towards us through that

it’s just that there are limits to that, and someone who does not share a particular disorder/experience will never be able to fully understand or capture the full complexities of those experiences (and that’s also okay!)

hope this helps :)

[mistress-of-vos]

At the chance of angering people... I wanna talk a little about the difference between this scene in the manga versus the anime and why it annoys me a little bit...

The manga is, of course, the original version. There's a conversation I'd like to have about how the anime changed the design of both Haru and Legoshi in certain details and how this changes the perception of the audience but that's for another day.

So, the scene. They are waiting for the train, with a Legoshi that just realized he's in love with Haru after seeing her smile to Louis and a Haru that's confused at why Legoshi approached her. The sequence is basically the same, with very specific differences:

- In the manga, there are people in the background all the time, whereas in the anime we don't see anyone but Haru and Legoshi for a while, which I personally think can be interpreted as Legoshi *feeling* like there was no one but them.

- Legoshi in the anime comes out as less scary (which is a general thing but here in particular it's easy to notice) and the atmosphere between him and Haru feels more comfortable.

Now the point I wanted to make... Back to the manga, Legoshi grabs Haru way more roughly after she says she wants to go in another car. Her reaction is inmediate anger, demanding to be let free. Her face is drawn bigger and less adorable as she screams: She's a small herbivore with no chance against a wolf like Legoshi, but she hisses and demands anyway. We see her anger.

And we see Legoshi's anger too.

His expression starts as concerned, perhaps not understanding that he's applying too much strength on Haru's arm, more likely unused to grab someone else like he's doing. But when Haru demands to be let free, his face goes from concern to annoyance. "No" he says, in a cold, cruel face.

Haru screams again, louder and with more fury in all her body. And the way Legoshi is drawn can only mean he's even darker and scarier than before. "No" he repeats, in bold letters. Louder, rougher. He's in power here, not her.

And then he realizes people are looking at them, and his anger and possessiveness is gone.

The anime, in the other hand...

Legoshi's expression through the whole sequence is sad and needy, like he's a dog begging his owner not to leave. Haru doesn't show pure anger either, she's closer to be offended and sad too, and the way in which they are voiced go according to this: They are having a sad argument, all possessiveness and power dynamic erased.

But what does this mean? Well, simplifying, the anime gives Legoshi and Haru a more innocent relationship via changing details like these ones. By making Legoshi cling to her sad and desperate rather than rough and possessive, it's easier to transmit that he's in love with her. However this also erases part of their conflict, with Legoshi having more explicit hunter behavior towards Haru in the manga.

Similarly, Haru is already inclined to love Legoshi back in the anime version. Her reactions are less intense and she has little to no fury. In the anime we are given a more mature Haru, something we can also appreciate in the way her screaming towards her bullies changes in the anime version, with her being more confident, arrogant and brave, whereas in the manga she's exploiting and more childish not only in that scene but many more.

These changes make easier to portray Haru and Legoshi's love, because he's more heroic and sweet while she's more mature and confident. And while this can be good when writing a relationship, these changes... Sort of change the conflict they face, and erase many elements they struggle with. The fact that people are scared when seeing Legoshi close to Haru is lost, and his sweet attitude makes unfitting all the moments where people close to him think he might hurt her. In the other hand, Haru loses certain core of her character, being less innocent and pushed towards a more stoic behavior. Both her re design and new attitude change the implications that their manga relationship has...

It's not wrong. But it is different.

[yvtro]

imo the more interesting tim&jason dynamic /is/ the "they're only like 2 years apart" one (esp wrt "jason was tim's robin"? seems (to me) to have more potential if it's like "this kid who is my age is doing cool shit, I want to do cool shit like them, because they're my age and that hits close to home") personally am genuinely unsure why "tim is a poor little meow meow" seems to be more popular despite how it fucks both their characterizations lol

i will answer to both of you here, as it's related to the same post!

just in case i want to say that there's plenty of aspects of tim's storyline that have lots of potential. and there certainly could be an interesting one involving jason too. alas.

i think in general fanon tim is just a poor little meow meow. it's really ironic how when he was introduced, the writers wanted to make him more "likable" than jay, and they didn't want batman to play a full-time dad, so in place of jay's insecurity and need for parental love tim gets two living parents and is, for the most part, self-assured. there's some canon progression which disturbs this status quo of course, but it's fanon that turned his storyline into one about neglect.

so apparently all writers should have done to make the new robin a fan favourite was keeping jason's struggles and just making tim wealthy. real "what's cool when you're rich but trash when you're poor?" moment. having attachment issues, apparently.

and don't get me wrong, there is place for meta about tim's parents being neglectful, even if the creators originally wanted to achieve the opposite. but i find the extent to which fanon pushes this idea and makes it his sole source of personality a bit astonishing, especially that canon tim, for the most part, doesn't share any of these issues. and personally, his initial motivations that stem from his fascination with vigilantism seem much more appealing to me.

as you said: "this kid who is my age is doing cool shit, I want to do cool shit like them, because they're my age and that hits close to home." maybe it's a bit simplified, but tim being just a child who gets himself into something much bigger than himself without really realising the consequences – and essentially both traumatising himself as a result (while also finding family, one does not exclude another) is a pretty fascinating concept.

and like. canon tim is plenty weird about jason, okay. so i think their confrontation at some point would be interesting. and probably awkward.

btw we don't actually get to see jason and tim's first interactions after jay's resurrection. i said it before, but for christ's sake, the teen titans tower incident is no longer canon, and for a good reason, especially that in that era jason is portrayed as having a psychotic break and tim hates his guts and calls him deranged?

how do you derive an enemy to caretaker trope from this is beyond me tbh. it sounds good in theory, right, because it refers to jay's inherent kindness, but you do have to make them "enemies" in the first place, or at least jason the aggressor – which you need to follow the ableist storyline for (i really doubt jason would actually care about tim much if he was more stable, and he definitely wouldn't want to hurt him), and all i can ask is: why. find something new.

i don't know, if there's any actually interesting tim & jason fanfics that don't follow these cliches you should let me know, because the majority of the tag definitely isn't for me.

[a-flux-uchiha]

I’ve been meaning to post these for a while, we’re not technically done, since I haven’t done Mikoto yet, but what can you do.

From top left to bottom right, it is Dot(Grimoire), Tenten(Tome), and Mai(Archive), then on the bottom it’s Ivy(name undecided), and Kushina(Kitsune).

The top three are the focus of Shuriken, Spikes and Swords, a crossover magical girl au I’m still working on, although it is fully planned out, just not fully written out.

Kushina and Mikoto were the generation before them, so they function a bit as mentors. I'm hoping to write out some shenanigans from when they were active. I've been meaning to get around to doing Mikoto, although I haven't managed it yet. I have a sketch for her, I just have to do it.

Ivy will be introduced in a second fic, something I had been intending to do anyway, just because it's been a lot of fun working on SSS. I had been intending to just continue with the three from the first one, however...I am not active in loz anymore, and that is very much on purpose, so I'd rather not have a fic still involving that. So, we're swapping Dot out. She'll just be moving away and Ivy will take her place. Ivy will be a couple years younger then Tenten, so just a year younger then Dot.

Please ask me about this au, I love it dearly, I have so much for it.

It got Long, so design notes under the read more.

Design notes going from top left to bottom right:

Dot: Her colors were a little rough since, well, almost all of her associated colors are already in Tenten or Mai. Pink, Red, and Teal all show up in one of those two. So it was a bit of a struggle to work that out. I think it worked out alright in the end though. Her design was originally a bit more complicated, then someone noted that her design was more complicated then Tenten and Mai's, so I ended up simplifying it a bit in the final version. She does have a cape, although it's rather hard to see. I swear it's there though. The bag at her side holds her magical item, which is a book, a grimoire you could say. It holds spells and potions and other such things. Her and Tenten were designed first, then Mai, so I could work out what things the two of them had in common and make them show up in Mai, since she had the least direction as she doesn't have any particular typical outfit from her anime. If you're wondering, the golden orb is magic and yes it's fully there to hide the fingers of that hand. We don't talk about that hand. Oh yes, please note the crown as well, that blue diamond is something you can note shows up on Tenten, Mai, and Ivy. It's a sort of team identifier thing. It's used when multiple teams of magical girls are in the same area, for something like a natural disaster usually.

Tenten: I settled on that hair option after it was decided to be the superior one between it and something similar but with braids. That one's probably more fun, if very Sailor Moon ish. Oh well. Her outfit does look very similar to one of her canon ones, which of course is on purpose, although note her forehead protector has the blue diamond on it instead of the Konoha symbol. She has a thigh pouch, and the bag hanging from her waist holds her magic item, which is a scroll similar to the ones she used in Konoha. When she's transformed it holds seals for all weapons she used in Konoha, when she's not, she draws her own seals on it, and those work like normal seals where she needs to put something in to take something out, as opposed to the transformed seals, which just spawn things in for her. There's a good chance I designed her first, since she's got the easiest design. You'll notice the waist belt system thing also shows up on Kushina and will show up on Mikoto, that is on purpose.

Mai: There was no particular reason for the boob window, Mai just wanted one and thought it was fun. Which, fair. It's mostly blocked by her hand in the drawing though. She's holding her magical item, which is a binder she writes in. She uses it to keep track of things, including the kinds of monsters they're seeing and in what quantities. She's got a couple other uses for it too, but that's the big one. She's technically a support type magical girl as she does not have magic from a past life, but she does still have magic she can use. Her specific ability is to briefly slow down time. She can't use it for very long though, as she doesn't have much magic. She's got blue diamond earrings, and if you're wondering, no one can pull on them, they're actively not technically attached to her ears. Not just a design choice they're actively not attached. Grab one and pull and you're just going to pull it away. It'll reattach itself when you let go. Notes I had when designing her outfit primarily were the skirt design, the lining of the top and sleeves, the gloves length, the bag, and the presence of the blue diamonds. Oh and the boots being like that. Her hair is held back by a headband, to go with the forehead protector on Tenten, and Dot's crown and hair bow.

Kushina: Her name is Kitsune, I'm sure you can guess why. She originally did have the long elf-like ears the others do, but after she figured out she could change her transformed state, she swapped them out for the big fox ears. It doesn't really matter as long as the ears aren't human. (Editor's note, here I realized while looking at my Ivy design that I had forgotten to do the long ears, and hurried off to fix that, this post has the proper version.) The whiskers on her face are fully because she knows Naruto had em in the other world, and she remembered his birth(and her death) soon after she became a magical girl. So there are very very few pictures of the times Kushina didn't have whiskers or big fox ears. Her magical item is the necklace, Mikoto's is also a necklace, although hers is a hawk. If you're wondering, Mikoto does have giant hawk wings, just because she could. And she should match Kushina. Kushina's actually wearing shorts under the green over dress.

And Last but Not least, Ivy: I lowkey almost forgot to draw the long ears on em. Luckily I remembered before posting this lol. Most important thing here and now: I'm going with a genderfluid Ivy! Mostly since I think it'll be fun. There is gender stuff going on with the whole magical girl situation, and while this isn't on display with any of the others, I figured I might as well get someone on board who could show off that side of this. that's mostly why I ended up picking Ivy out of all of my options for who would replace Dot. I'll just be using she when describing Ivy this time, but I'll probably switch it up in future posts. Ivy's one of the rare genderfluid magical girls who doesn't mind being active when they're not a girl, many genderfluid individuals who become magical girls are only working essentially part time. Whenever they comfortable with it. They're only found in teams of 3 or more because of that, so there's always at least two active magical girls. Actual design notes now: She's wearing kind of a variant on what she's normally wearing in the show, just without the jacket. Her magical item is Sora, although the slime only comes alive when she's transformed. Otherwise it's just a cute little plushie she carries around. She does have a fourth bag in the back attached to the belt around her waist, similar to in the show, and she can pull about anything out of those bags that she wants to. Similar to Tenten's scroll, they just spawn in the item she needs, although they are temporary. The blue diamond is on her bag strap, so still visible. Sora often hides out in the red bag, and is capable of healing large injuries, as well as smaller scrapes. Can and will eat bigger things now as well, although still prefers the potions Ivy can toss it. You will note that Ivy doesn't match Tenten and Mai quite as well as they match each other and Dot, that is on purpose, that's fairly typical for magical girl teams where one person was added later, since Ivy didn't become active at the same time as them, although they are her first team, she's technically considered a latecomer, which isn't bad. It's fairly normal for magical girl teams to switch up who's in them, especially early on when everyone is in college and early adulthood. Oh yeah you can note that her bangs are slightly off, particularly in the front, that is on purpose on her part, they look like Lattrua's.

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Trolls World Tour

So I'm learning more and more that the Trolls franchise is not what I was led to believe for such a long time now. Because I really did actually like the first one a good bit. So how does its sequel hold up? Well...

We once again follow Poppy and Branch, this time on a quest to stop Barb, the Queen of the Rock Trolls, from stealing the six strings that create all music types in the world of the Trolls (Rock, Pop, Funk, Classical, Techno, and Country). Barb's plan is to unite all Trolls under Rock exclusively, so its up to Poppy (who is struggling to learn what it means to be a good queen) and Branch (who's struggling to confess his feelings for Poppy) to save the day.

Yeah, pretty simple, very "questy" premise here, kinda feels like the structure of a video game in a weird way? Like our crew rolls into the various territories of the other Troll tribes and we get to see a little taste of who they are and how they live but none of it is really that in-depth, which is... fine, I guess, whatever. There are certainly some... interesting themes they're trying to get across here, like historical rivisionism and even overcoming racism??? I think?? But of course, because this is a kids movie, its all very simplified into "we're all different and that's ok!" because well, they're not gonna make it that complicated for the little kiddo brains this is clearly targeted for.

As a result, we get a much simpler movie than even the last one, which was already pretty simple. The characters from last time around are all pretty much the same as before, Poppy is still upbeat and eternally positive (though her arc here is pretty satisfying of her learning to listen to others and that she doesn't know best all the time), Branch is still The Best Character in this goddamn franchise, the side characters are all just... there. And as for our new characters, none of them really stood out that much except for Barb. She's a pretty fun villain! Very punk rocker, very sassy and sharp, and she even gets a few good moments to give her depth by the end and make you ok with her eventual redemption. She's cool.

The music is a little more varried this time around too, because well, it has to be given this movie's premise. So we get some tastes of country and funk and rock alongside the usual pop, which is still the most prominent genre for sure. There are even hints of classical, raggae, even goddamn k-pop because lord. Though I will admit, when they started singing Gangnam Style I think I lost about three years off my life jesus christ.

The visuals are just as lovely as the last though, dedicating itself to an even more arst and crafts asthetic than the last. The homes of all of the other types of trolls are really fun and varied and fit nicely with the style of music they're trying to embrace. There's nothing too fantastic going on here with the animation, but its still very nice to look at all the same.

So yeah, Trolls World Tour is... fine. It's perfectly watchable, just like its predecessor was. I would dare to call it mid, which explains the score I give it below, I guess. It just... exists. And that's all I can really say about it.

Overall Rating: 5/10

Verdict: WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU TWO ALL MOVIE?!?!?!?!

Previous Review (Abominable)

Next Review (The Croods: A New Age)

[igotanidea]

Mutually beneficial: The Sandman fanfiction

What can go wrong when a wrtiter loosing her inspiration meet the Lord of Dreams and Nightmares who's rebuilding his kingdom? Can this meetup be beneficial for both of them?

Pairing: Morpheus x reader

Word count: 6 101 (the longest I've written up till now)

I take liberty of tagging anyone who expressed their interest in the story (hope you don't mind): @paulina15 @tree-of-blue-squirrel @mind-of-a-girl @gods-fools-heroes @pinksirensong

***

- I quit! I have enough! There is nothing left in me and I can’t do this anymore.

- You can’t just give up, Haylee.

- Can’t I really? Watch me! – she scoffed and started walking towards the door.

- Stop where you are. Take a breath, will you? Calm down and think rationally about it.

- Rationally? To hell with rationality! How can I even keep on working with you?

- What do you mean? Is it such a nuisance for you?

- That is not the point! – she exclaimed in exasperation throwing her hands In the air – it’s just so frustrating, you know. I can’t come up with a single writing idea whilst you seem to explode with them. How? I’m just so jealous of you! You are going to kick me out of business.

- I don’t plan on that. –I smiled towards my friends. If only she knew the truth I was desperately trying to hide.

Me and Haylee were both in a writing business, if you can even call it like that. To simplify, let’s say that we were writers in the same publishing agency. For quite a while now, my best friend was struggling with her afflatus. In her own words – every work seemed worthless and featureless, flat and imaginative. Haylee was the one with such great ambitions that it sometimes stopped her from taking any action.  Her publishing debut was widely applauded and praised by critics and instead of it lifting up her spirit it made her limit and overly critical. That was the reason behind her riveting and being jealous of my inspiration. In my case, it was quite different. I was writing a lot, but none of my writings were masterpiece. Of course, it gave me popularity but I was just one of many, many average writers. And ironically, I was wishing to be on Haylee’s place. To be similar to Harper Lee, for instance – writing two books of a lifetime that became canon. I guess the grass is always greener  on the other side of the fence. Besides, for a while now I was struggling with coming up with new ideas. Up to the point it did not show up, because I always had some backups, but even those started to run out. I was frightening the day I would be left high and dry with emptiness in my head.

-God! I wish I was you – Haylee reached for  a bottle of wine standing on the table in front of me. – Maybe getting drunk will make it better – she took a sip straight from it. – I’m quitting this job.

-Come on, get yourself together, this was supposed to be a nice girls’ evening not a pity parade.

-No, you know what? You are right.  – she hiccupped and I noticed she has already emptied half the bottle. – You said you get your ideas after night’s sleep, didn’t you? So how about … - another portion of hiccupping – I get wasted and fall into some crazy dreams? Hmmm? What do you think?

-I think you are already tipsy and I wonder how and when did it happen. Now, give me back that wine – I tried to reach for the bottle but Haylee squealed and spun on her heels so fatally that wine slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor causing the liquid to stain the carpet. – Haylee!

-Ups! Sorry – she giggled clearly losing touch with reality.

-That’s enough, girl. I’m going to drive you back home. Like, now. And then I will deal with the stain.

-But we are having so much fun here, aren’t we?

-I don’t know about you, but my definition of fun is slightly different

-Just slightly, though, right? Just a little, little bit, like this little – she stuck her thumb and middle finger leaving  a minimum space between them

-Yeah, right. Almost no discrepancy. Now, let’s get you into the car while you can still walk on your feet.

Not without effort, I managed to drive my friend home avoiding any further adventures (even though she was close to vomiting inside the car). Instead of clearing my mind I was now even more stressed. Being left alone with my own thought and a flashing cursor in the empty word document was both depressing and infuriating. Maybe there was some truth in my words that sleep was helpful during writer’s block? A little nap would do no harm, right? Having that in mind, I decided to lay down for a while.

***

Do you know what they say about trying to force yourself to sleep? When you want it, most probably you will never get it. After starring at the ceiling for what seemed like eternity I was even more anxious. Nothing was helping. It was like the barrage of thoughts left no place for rest. Damn it! Whatever god or deity is in charge of dreams and sleep, they better come and do their freaking job now. Where are, Pasithea, Selene and Khonsu when a girl need them? I feel back onto the couch closing my eyes in silent despair. What I noticed when I opened them was highly disturbing since I was no longer in  my apartment, more in some kind of foggy forest, which made no sense at all. I don’t know how, but I instantly knew that I was dreaming. I mean, it must have been a dream of mine and hence I was the one in control of it. With a single thought the fog dispersed and I noticed a clear path between the trees. Curiosity burst inside me and I shifted forward instinctively wondering what this is about.  

-Don’t.

-Why? – I spun around only to see a dark, tall man in a long coat standing behind me.

-This is my Realm and you shall not walk through it freely.

- Ok, fair enough. But can I at least get some answers

-I suppose that would be right.

-Am I dreaming?

-Yes. However it’s quite unusual you do realize that. I wonder how you do that? Are you a vortex?

-Not that I know of, regardless of whatever that thing is. Are you some sort of God or deity?  

-I’m a King of Dreams. And Nightmares.

-Which one? – I asked slightly narrowing my eyes – Are you Hypnos? Or maybe Mani?

-I am Dream of the Endless. 

-Oh, I see. Lord Morpheus then, is it?

-You are awfully acquainted with the stories, aren’t; you.

-I read a lot – I shrugged – so it’s nothing big, really. Why am I here.

-I called upon you.

-Ok. -  I just nodded my head saying no more.

-What? – Morpheus asked when the silence prolonged and was slowly turning awkward.

-I thought you were going to explain why did you do this.

-You might be of use to me.

-This is getting more and more interesting with every second. Mind if I sit, my Lord? – when he approved I slumped onto the nearest tree trunk looking at him carefully. – Of use?

-You are an artist. A writer.

-Running low on ideas.

-I know. I saw that.

-By reading my mind?

-By entering your dreams. Ones of the most entertaining to tell the truth. You have quite the imagination – he smirked.

-That is not true. I do not dream very often.

-You do. You just don’t remember them. At least not consciously. But they affect your writing.

-Wait. How do you know…

-You ask a lot of questions.

-I know. I hate it too because I feel like some lost girl – I rolled my eyes. – If you could give me something to explain the situation that would be so much better for both of us.

-I suppose that’s true – he hesitated. – I called upon you because I have a proposition for you – he stopped short in almost testing way, but I did not word another question – you lack ideas, so how about I give you some?

-And what would like in return, my Lord?

- A bit of inspiration myself.

- That’s a bit twisted is it not? You give me ideas which will inspire you? Can’t your own ideas do the work?

- You misunderstood me. My part is to make you remember your dreams so you can write about them in real life. Your mind will inspire itself, not because of me.

-And then you will get ideas for what? Improving your Realm?

-Yes.

- Ok. I’ll take your deal, Lord Morpheus. I just got one more question.

-How surprising.

-Why me?

- Don’t think yourself special.  There are many other humans who might serve the purpose well enough. You were simply bold enough to call the names of all the gods of sleep which drew me to you.  

- Oh, I guess knowledge comes with a price then – I smirked. – When shall we start our little exchange, Dream?

- Soon. For now, this Dream is over.

Before I was able to blink, I was back in my apartment. I just made a deal with the King of Dreams and Nightmares. Better than a deal with the Devil. And who knows, maybe it actually will help me a little bit with my work. Starting from the fact, that I actually slept through the whole night without any disturbances. That is good. However, since the new day is upon me I have to go back to work and pretend like I know what I’m doing. Just to survive the next couple of hours and then… then we’ll see.

***

-Ok, Dream. Now would be a good time for some creativity, so …. appear. – once again I sat in front of my computer looking at that empty word document with empty brain. Does it even work like that? Should I summon him in some crazy way? Does he expect any offering? I mean, I am the offering in this deal, or rather my brain and imagination are, but still….

-greetings y/n.

- Hello there. How lovely to see you, Dream. King Dream? How do I even call you?

- King seems appropriate. – of course it does – now, sleep – he blow a bit of dust my way and send me to his Realm. Straight to the palace to be precise.

- You may enter the library, now. I believe Lucienne is already waiting for you. I served her a notice of your arrival.

- Library? I shall go there immediately. Thank you my Lord – I made a curtsy and run straight toward the direction he pointed.

Just like Dream predicted Lucienne was already waiting for me with some volumes I was supposed to study since Morpheus believed them to be helpful. Usually, I am the kind of person to take a lot of time to open up to people, but with Lucienne it just happened naturally. A couple of sentences, a few questions and we were already getting along. I wouldn’t say we became friends instantly, but there was definitely a spark.  I was just sitting calmly in my corner, indulged in the lecture when Lucienne spoke.

-You are quite unusual, you know.

- The King seem to have different opinion on that. I frankly I agree with him, I am entirely average. I don’t know why you would differ.

-You are a human who happen to be fully aware of the fact you’re dreaming. You are sitting in the library in some other Realm, filled with fantasy creatures, dreams and nightmares in material form and you’re just completely quiet. Don’t you have any questions?

- I do. I’m just this kind of person who prefer to observe and draw conclusion by myself. Constant talking can be exhausting. I suppose I learn as I go and this is the perfect example – I sighed and put the book aside. – I think cracking it all by myself instead of taking the easy way and getting answers on the plate might be beneficial to the purpose of my being here.

-Well then, you should go outside and explore the Dreaming instead of being here.

-Isn’t it against the rules? Dream was very specific about me wandering around.

-Yes. Lord Morpheus has a tendency to be strict about the regulations he creates, but if you were to be accompanied it wouldn’t do any harm, right? – she looked at me carefully waiting for me to confirm

-Of course not. I mean, what can a human do in the dreaming. It’s not like I have any power here, do I?

- In fact, you do – a male voice chimed into the discussion – and you will not set a foot off this walls.

- My Lord… - Lucienne started

- That is my final decision. And you both shall obey hence I am the Ruler of this Realm.

-I accept that. It’s your home and it’s only fair for you to set boundaries – I nodded in agreement – however, as much as I love books I;m not sure if I can create something unique out of the ideas that were already used.

- You will. – he said coldly turning towards me.

- Of course I will. It might just take a bit more time than predicted.

***

And so it went. For the previous couple of weeks I’ve been regularly visiting Dreaming and Lucienne. It resulted in a bit of stories, but nothing long or original. I guess I was expecting a lot of myself and probably was pushing myself a bit too hard. So one night I decided the need to explore more of the Kingdom then just inside of the castle arose and my curiosity had to be satiated. I did not care at all about the fact that curiosity killed the cat.  

This time, when I arrived in the castle I turned around on my heels and went the opposite direction that to the library. I was walking on my tiptoes not to get too much attention, not because there was anyone inside the palace, but because I was well aware that Morpheus knew what was happening in every corner of his Kingdom. He was the Dreaming after all. Luckily, I was able to walk outside without any disturbances, so the first part of the plan was accomplished. Now, for the harder one – exploring. During my lectures I learned a lot about Fiddler’s Green, dreams and nightmares that use to spend the waking hours there, so naturally my first though was to go there.

Fiddler’s welcomed me with silence and deep sense of peace. The greenness of the trees, the gentle wind on my face, the smell of grass and warmness of the sun made me think of vacation and generally summer time. Those months when due to the atmosphere, life seemed lighter, happier and better. Where every worry on your mind was easier to bury because you knew that no matter what sun will always shine on you again. A distant memory of the times when I was a kid playing around on the beach, flying a kite, hiding in the forest…. When I did not have to worry about inspiration or creativity, because when you are younger a floor can be lava, walking the stairs equals climbing the highest mountain and a simple stick can me a sword, a magic wand or a lightsaber. I closed my eyes, taking a big, big breath. For the first time here, I really sensed that this was in fact the Dreaming. The Kingdom build on dream (I just overlooked the other part). Those emptiness just asked for filling it with creatures. And so did the Waking – in the stories. And since I was a creator in the Real world I was capable of everything. Like literally everything. I smiled widely and with a squeal fall on the ground on my stomach. The warmness and softness of the earth was nothing like the one I knew. I felt genuinely happy throwing off my shoes experiencing it fully and running my fingers through the blades of grass, slowly turning around so I was lying on the back facing the sky. And, oh, the clouds…. Did I mention that when I was little I used to stare at them looking for the hidden shapes. Well, nothing hidden here. They were just flowing taking different forms every second. An animal? Sure. A book? No problem. A hippogriff? There you go. A very angry Morpheus with a pout and frown? As you wish… Wait. A very angry Morpheus?!

-Are you enjoying yourself? – he was standing in front of me, shadowing the sun on my face and was very, very real.  And not so happy as I was just a second ago.

- I am – I looked down – but I’m sorry. I overstepped the rules.

He was completely silence, perhaps a bit surprised that I gave up so easily.

-But Dream, your Kingdom is just so ethereal – I fixed my gaze on his face, my eyes were glowing with excitement – and to think you created all of this. That is just .….

- Is it so hard to believe that this is my creation?

-You don’t really show that part of you, you know. Is this why you wanted me confined inside? Hey – I raised my eyebrows – no matter what, I still think you are frightening in this dark coat. Especially when you just awkwardly stand in a distance – I squinted and he smirked in come crazy sort of relief. – I think this is what I needed and if my disobedience benefited our deal maybe you could just… let it go?

- Oh, not at all. You shall be punished.

- Oh – I gasped preparing myself for the worst. – Well then, what shall be my curse?

- Ideas.

-I’m sorry?

- You wanted ideas. Now you will get them. And they might haunt you during your waking hours to the point when you will not know how to get rid of them or how to find any time to put them into words and on paper – he smirked but his eyes was actually sparkling which gave away his twisted sense of joking. 

- I throw myself on your mercy, Dream Lord.

-Morpheus.

- That’s your name…. Oh, you want me to call you that? Are we friends now, then?

- this dream is over – he waved his hand not bothering the answer, but I knew we were. Even if he didn’t realize it yet.

***

Morpheus for sure knew what he was saying using the word haunting ideas, because sure as hell they were. Therefore I was back to being one of the most prolific writer in my generation, but what and how I was writing has changed. It was more mature and way more complex. The plot and characters became polysemous, leaving a lot of place for discussion and interpretation. For instance, there was one scene happening at unreal meadow where a girl, called the Imaginator was talking to a man, called Creator. They were discussing the possibility and ethical aspects of shaping the reality, making new beings come to life. This was probably one of the hardest and most time-consuming thing I have ever created, but for sure worth it.  Not to mention that this discussion really did take place, just not in reality.

-So, if you create a dream or nightmare what does that make you? Their father? – I laughed tilting my head and leaning onto the tree behind me trying my best to find comfortable position.

- That is an outrageous idea. I am their King. They obey me.

-So you give them no free will?

- These beings are to serve only their purpose. To exist in humans’ night hours. To make them terrified or delighted, depending on particular case.

-Yes, I know the definition of the words, Morpheus. But have you ever considered, that since those creatures are in fact living being, even if it may be a bit different living then with humans they are also capable of change? Of evolving? Of having  a mind of their own?

- They do not modify their goal.

- Now you are acting like a tyrant, Dream – I shook my head and he gazed at me coldly and with warning in his eyes – No, but seriously, just listen to me. Even God gave humans free will.

- Dreaming is nothing like the Silver City. And I am nothing like the Creator who made the world and then abandoned it. I supervise my Realm.

- Taking it to the very extreme.

- If I were to change the rules, to overstep them, like someone I know – a glance toward me – the conscious of dreamers would consume me.

-Oh, Dream. I’m not talking about letting it all loose. Just maybe, try not to be so strict about it? Trust me, I am the oldest kid in the family, I know what happens when you have no ground rules. But on the other hand, too many of them cause havoc and rebellion.

- None of mine would dare that. My wrath…

- Yes, yes, of course. I know you are terrifying when you want to. – I stretched my back and stood up – I think I’m about to wake, so I’ll say my goodbye – for now – and you just think about it, will you? – Consider this a parting hug since neither me nor you are fan of closeness – I drew my arms towards him without really getting closer and making any real physical contact – see you Morpheus!

***

I woke up to a beautiful day, almost like if I drew it straight from the sunny Dreaming. It was October but luckily the weather was gentle. My plan was simple – after weeks of working hard, many hours a day I finally had time for some rest and doing whatever the heck came to my mind. Watching Netflix all day? Why not? Lying all day just doing nothing and enjoying the aura? Living in the moment? A hundred times YES. Anything, but writing or my brain will be set on fire.  I stretched my back lazily, free of the rush and tension that was pervasive for so long. Nothing can spoil this day. Not even Dream Lord sitting casually in my living room watching TV. 

-Long time no see, Dream – I stamped my foot waiting for some explanation – how did you manage to turn it on – I pointed towards the TV. – Though you were not exacly up-to-date with human technology.

- Can you believe that some people in fact dream of it? Watching this… this box with films?

- In fact I find it quite believable. – I plumped on the sofa next to him, keeping some distance, but it still caused him to shift eyes. That was the moment when I realized I was still in my pajama – shorts and oversized Harry Potter T-shirt – being extremely opposite to his attire. Not that I cared – it was normal for me – but  Dream’s expression changed into something like ….. admiration. No way, I must have imagined that. – Some people lack ambition and have low expectations of what entertainment mean. But I don’t think you’re here to talk about electronics?

- I thought about what you said. I realized, however reluctantly, that it might be …. of value…. To experience this free will you mentioned. So…. maybe…. You could show me? – he dropped the gaze in embarrassment. Dream Lord asking human for help? Unbelievable. Since I know how hard it was for him and I admired it I decided not to be a tease.

- It will be my genuine pleasure, Dream. Thank you.

- For what?

- For trusting me with this part – I smiled lightly – even if you don’t have much humans to ask I still appreciate it. Just give me a minute, I’ll dress in something more presentable.

- I think you look perfect. – he mumbled almost inaudibly.

- What did you say? – I spun not believing my ears.

- Nothing. Just get ready. I got other duties to tend to in the Dreaming. I shall waste no time.

***

So…. What can you possibly do or show to the Dream Lord who actually oversee the dreams of all human beings? Is there anything that can capture his attention in the Waking World? Having in mind that he is an expert on anything supernatural, I decided it would be best to focus on the most common little details that make life bearable. Like a simple walk in park or feeding the birds or a bike ride. Or… groceries.

-Don’t you ever eat? – I asked lifting a heavy bag  filled with fruits

-I don’t.

-Oh my, you miss so much. Like… here – I reached inside the package and retrieved an orange – try some.

Dream was just looking at the fruit most probably not sure of what to do with it. He was just holding it in his hand awkwardly which made me giggle.

-It’s not that hard you know. You just have to peel it.

-Peel it?

- Yes. The rind. You can’t really consume that. I mean, you are not human so maybe it would do you no harm, but still … I don’t recommend it. – I continued,  but he still didn’t seem convinced. – You wanted my help, didn’t you.

-Not help. More like a display of human world.

-Same thing. Now, gimme that back. I’ll do it if you can’t -  I put the bag on the bench, sat down and started peeling the orange – sit – I motioned towards the place next to me.

Unfortunately for me, this damn fruit was so juicy that my fingers were immediately soaked. Since, I had no tissues I had to lick it from my fingers which seemed oddly weird as Morpheus was carefully watching my every move. His eyes fixed on my every activity.

-Could you stop staring – I muttered quite embarrassed – it’s annoying.

- How so? Do I make you feel uncomfortable.

- Yes. To be honest, you do. Just taste this orange, ok? Focus on the flavor. That is, if you can do that. Do you like it?

-It’s sour. And sweet at the same time.

- But do you like it?

 - I don’t know. I can’t compare it with anything I know.

-Compare it? Dream, life… - I hesitated – human life- I added – has too much to do with comparing. We compare ourselves with other people, we compare out possession with whatever other thing others have, we compare our clothes, look, the way we live, what we do – I waved my hand – it’s crazy, you know. I’m better of just living in the moment and enjoying it. It’s the little things that count.

- I’ve always believed myself to focus on greater things.

-Like the Dreaming? Like the fact, that you Dream of the endless are so much better and bigger than any mortal?

-Yes.

-And how does this work for you?

- I suppose it has been better.

-I know. I see that, no matter how hard you’re trying to hide it. There it is.

-What?

- You act like everything’s fine but your eyes have this look.

- I don’t have a look.

-I’m just glad you’re here, you know?

- You are?

- Yes. – I looked right at him – because now I can make our deal even. I was in the Dreaming, now you are here. Like we said before – mutually beneficial. How do you like your orange, now?

-I think I like it.

- Good, good. That’s a progress. So, now we are going to do some volunteering.

-What now?

- Volunteering. It’s the thing you do when you help people and expect nothing in return.

- What is the point of that?

- Satisfaction, Dream. Satisfaction. You don’t only get it from your own accomplishments, but also from the feeling that you did something good. – I lift the bag, but he was quick to intercept it. Not a word though, just some silent show of deep internal thinking which I didn’t want to interrupt. In mentioned silence he followed me towards the orphanage when some kids were playing outside.

- y/n! – one of the girls yelled when she saw me and before I knew a bunch of children surrounded me clinging to my legs.

-Hey, guys! Take it easy or I’m gonna fall. – I laughed – how are you all today?

-We missed you!

-Yes, we missed you.

-Well, I missed you too, loves. But I came with gifts. Some sweets for you to make the day better, do you think this will do? – I grinned while the kids cheered loudly. – My …. – I hesitated wondering how to call Morpheus to avoid any emotionality. Do I call him friend? He was not a fan of that word… - my acquaintance got it all, so how about we ask him  for it? Hmm? – I pointed towards Dream, who once again was just standing in the distance awkwardly clutching to the groceries. It seemed more like the bag was holding him than the other way round. The kids was not eager to approach him either. They were just eying each other almost like they saw an alien, which made me giggle and become the center of attention. – Look, we are all good here, right? This is a friendly place, no one is going to hurt anyone so no need to get all defensive and shy. Now, dream, give the kids our gifts and they will gladly take it. Right? – I gently pushed the first kid toward him.

This whole situation was truly hilarious. The kids were slowly moving forwards and as soon as the chocolates and other sweets were within the reach they just sprinted, grabbed it and moved back. All that looking at the ground, avoiding any eye contact. Their faces were the greatest sign to cut the visit short. With a hundreds promises to come again soon we said our goodbyes and me and Dream headed back to my apartment.

-Wasn’t that exhilarating? The kids were so happy we visited. Those poor souls have no families of their own and just crave for any show of affection and friendliness.

-Do they? – Morpheus muttered

- Yes. And what is even more amazing about that and about children in general is that they are not afraid to show it, you know. No inhibitions. Just saying or giving away what they need. Complete honesty. Shame that adult are quite more insular – I looked at him, but he didn’t get the hint. I sighed – do you want to see anything else from the Waking or….

- I think I’ve had enough for one day. – he stopped by the door to my flat – this was… interesting . I believe I should thank you, y/n.

-I’m just glad I was of help to you. Hopefully, this will be beneficial in your efforts to restore your Realm.

- Hope …. – Morpheus muttered his eyes fixed in some point in space, but quickly regaining his composure.

- Yes. It hold o lot of power. Shall I see you in the Dreaming than? – I asked and without waiting for his answer raised on my tiptoes and briefly kissed his cheek. He didn’t make any move when I disappeared inside and leaned my back on the inside door wandering what the hell got in me.

***

-Imaginator – a familiar voice caused me to raise my eyes from the computer. My presence in the Dreaming and effect I had on its King got me this little nickname, which, speaking freely, I absolutely loved.

- Hello, Matthew. Such a wonderful surprise. What brings you here?

- Boss require your attendance in the Dreaming.

-Did something happen? – I frowned in confusion. Usually, he would just wait till I fall asleep – Why hurry?

- I don’t want to babble….

- Mahtthew… We both know that’s not true….- I eyed the Raven.

- Ok, fine, I’ll tell you! But only because you forced me ­ -he cawed emotionally charged and I shook my head smiling at his behavior – he made some changed and created some new dreams and I believe he just want to brag.

-To me? – I tilted my head – well, who am I to refuse the King of Dreams and Nightmares? 

***

- y/n – when I feel asleep (due to some invisible help, not by my own power, of course ) Morpheus was waiting for me in the Fiddler’s Green.

- Hi Dream. I see you made some renovations. Home makeover? – I grinned

-   A few changes – he smirked – how do you like it? – another smirk, clearly a reference to what I asked him while tasting the orange.

- Let me see – I took a few steps – it seems … lighter and brighter here. Almost like the creator had some weight lifted from his shoulder. But that is just the surrounding. What about the residents, anyone new sprung out of your mind?

-Some new nightmares. And one dream….

- Only one? – I eyed him – I mean, that is great, really, but …

- I want you to meet her – he interrupted

- Oh? – I gasped but before I could form another sentence he waved his hand and a figure emerged from the distance.

- Imaginator – the dream bowed – it’s an honor to meet you.

- An honor? I don’t understand – I squinted and looked between Dream and Morpheus.

- Visergie was created by you.

-By me? – I still couldn’t get the grasp of what I was hearing – I didn’t ….

- You are the archetype of this dream. She is based on you – Dream spoke with that dark, silky and somewhat gentle voice. Well, now that I knew I could see some similarities in little details like eye color and the hair, but that was still something behind my comprehension.

- Leave us now, Visergie. Attend to your duties – Dream ordered and with a blink she was gone.

- You  build a dream based on…me? – I turned around with disbelief in my eyes.

-I did. And I shall not discuss it further – he glanced at me but quickly looked away. However,  I was able to notice some softness in his eyes. – Some of your new books appeared in the library….

- Those are nothing special, really. Just an expression of many, many ideas I magically get – I grinned.

- Magically? – he smirked.

- Wasn’t it some sort of magic? – I smirked back – Anyway, I suppose now that we both got what we wanted the deal is off?

-It had come to an end indeed. But my gift is still there for you.

- I don’t think I’m in need of it anymore – I fiddled with my fingers nervously.

- You refuse it? – his voice turned cold but when I lifted my head I saw a bit of hurt on his face.

- I wouldn’t dare. I just think it’s time for me to move on and rely on myself instead of exploiting you.

- I would never allow myself to be exploited.

- Of course not – I turned my gaze – However, I uphold what I said. It’s time for me to go.

- Is it your final wish – he insisted, clearly wanted me to change my mind.

- Yes. This is farewell, Dream.

- So be it – he reached for my hand and kissed my knuckles making me blush involuntarily –Goodbye, y/n.

***

Two weeks later

This was not a mistake. I made a right decision- I was trying to force that though on myself for the last 10 days. At first I even believed that, but damn it if I didn’t miss this weirdo in a black coat Dreaming. I missed Dreaming. Nothing else. Since we kept each other’s part of the deal and parted I didn’t come to the palace ever again and it felt like a part of me was ripped off. After all, I was the spark behind its’ change. For God’s sake I had a dream created in my shape! It was natural to feel like that. If only….. No! Not going to think like that. It’s behind me, nothing I can do to reverse it.

-Imaginator! – a single caw stopped my spiraling – Lord Morpheus want to see you in the Dreaming. – I could feel the greatest grin forming on my face.

- Well, Matthew, who am I to refuse the King of Dreams and Nightmares?

***

Once again we met in the Fiddler’s Green. Just inches away from each other when his eyes met mine.

-Welcome back, Imaginator.

[faenemy]

Another Sillie had been added :D

process thoughts below cut- (WARNING- they long lol)

Has this barely changed from the wip I posted earlier????

not really but i need to talk about character design for I am FERAL so L moment i guess

SO my personal favorite brand of character design has been, for as long as i remember, drawing more complex designs from simplified mediums. Think Minecraft or roblox skins, and some chibi avatars. Hand me something that is blurry and up to interpretation and i will simply go buck-wild. Mark is of course the only character to truly appear on camera. We see both his drawing of himself and his [puppet?] form. Now you only ever see donovan and cupcake monster as drawings, which leaves their appearance more up to interpretation.

When i first translated Marks design, i tried to stay as accurate as possible. The second iteration is more of my own twist on it, elongating the body, trimming down the fluff for a clearer shape,and adjusting facial proportions slightly. Note: this isn't to throw shade at marks original design. He's a puppet irl and he looks like one, i just suck at making puppets look like they have any life behind their eyes, so design tweaks it is. Mark is adorable and its a me problem that i struggle to recreate that.

Now my Mark design is obviously based off of the puppet, (his actual self,) as opposed to the way Mark draws himself. In the drawing, there is a bit less fluff on his body, compared to the real thing. This is important as it affects some of the decisions I made for Donovan.

Donovan caused a few hurdles when i tried to work on a design for him. First, I'm working with very little information, so creative license time. Since I don't have much to go off of, I started with a real simple drawing, similar to the one from the drawing in the show, just to try and capture the vibe. The most notable things about Donovan from this first doodle, was that he had a slightly smaller nose than Mark and that it was triangular and that his eyes were slanted. This gives me two prominent facial features to work with.

Following this, i started on a more detailed design. I began by plotting his proportions out similar to marks. To make him more cat like, I tried to make him a little taller and thinner[better for slipping out of cages], so that he had an elongated appearance, and to capture that sly you-cant-contain-me- cat energy that meow meows have. I wasn't sure how cat i wanted to go originally, but then i gave him paws....

I went full anthro cat on Donovan, adding in whiskers and a tail [still questioning that decision] even though they weren't present in my reference. Now is a good time to note that all these designs are pre-Billy, so no scars or anything. I bring this up because I gave Donovan claws, and I image Billy would have at least tried to declaw Donovan.

The next problem came with Donovans eye. So Donovans eyes are two slanted lines, very simple. Since these are one of Donovans few unique canon features, I wanted to keep them. I wasn't sure how to keep them simple yet still allow emotion. Playing around with this idea, i felt i could effectively convey emotion just by changing the relative direction of the eyes. However, I changed the eyes to be more tear-drop shape as well, partially to add more interest to the face, but also so i could add more detail to the iris of the eye if desired.

Finally, all my Mark and Friends designs have the characters wearing clothes, because I work at a clothing store and see too many damn clothes every day. [everything i know about fashion is against my own will] So since this canonically takes place in 1997, my designs are based roughly off of children's clothes at the time. For the monsters clothes, I want them to all have a somewhat fun shape, flare outs, wrinkles, cuffed sleeves and pants etc.

This is where i really struggled. Not so much with the actual design of the clothes, but with colors. As you can probably tell my this illustration as compared to the reference image, I am allergic to bright colors [they hurt my eyes :,(] So i shifted most characters to a more muted/pastel pallette. Now i really wanted each of the three friends, Mark, Donovan, and Cupcake Monster, to have the others "colors" per see, present in their outfits. Mark is obviously Green coded (lol), Donovan is orang, but outlined in red, so my boy gets a red association cause primaries of light. This leaves Cupcake Monster with Blue, the color they are outlined in.

I really wanted three designs to flow together, and though i haven't finished Cupcake Monster yet, I think the first two go nicely together. By giving each character a main color, I let them stand out from each other, but by adding bits of those colors back into the others outfits, it lets them flow together better in group images and keeps anyone character's pallette from feeling out of place.

Marks outfit is mostly cream, but with accents of Blue, and Red. Donovan's is about 1/3 cream 1/3 blue and a 1/3 blue. I struggled with the color distribution on donovan, as the reddish orange and blueish green i had chosen contrasted a lot more than i wanted. The light blue and cream worked as a nice base though, and making only the stripes green [the shirt is specifically cream with green stripes] it lets the green not overpower Donovan, which was another problem I was facing.

But yeah, this are my current designs for the sillies, if you read all this thank you! have some pie :]

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Hiii, I was wondering if you could help me out a bit on how do I make shoes (to walk in city environments) for digitigrade characters :’) I have a few sketches that might be ok-ish but none of them feel really good

Idk, it just seems like it’s a lot of waste of shoe to have it go to the first articulation? But also, it doesn’t seem very secure on just the toes, help :((

Ah yes, the struggle of making shoes for non-human feet. I often avoid it by making everyone barefoot, but that's not always a possibility.

I think what you have here looks pretty good! I might suggest not having the shoe come in between the toes so much, because that looks a little uncomfortable. Digitigrade toes tend to have a bit more connection between them. If you have a dog or cat that's chill with having their feet handled, you can see this for yourself very easily. So having the shoe come down closed over the toes or have an opening for all the toes instead of separating them, that would work a little better I think. Maybe just one center bit like on a flip flop sandal, if you think the shoe needs it. You can have it be adjustable at the top and right over the toes, so it can be tightened down properly. But also, the joint of the toes is the part of the foot that needs the most flexibility, so dont make it too stiff there. I've tried to make some diagrams here of how you might make this work.

(Image description: a few pen drawings on paper showing a dog-like foot with a simplified shoe outline from a few different angles. Notes on the drawing point to areas like the toes, ankle, and sole with little remarks about them. These notes say: "weight support higher on the foot", "more sole near toes", "tighter at the top", "little more space in the middle" and "sole support can be segmented for flexibility". Some notes also point out where the shoe can be stiff or flexible, and label one drawing as "closed toes" while the other two are "open toes". End description)

These drawings are more focused on the running shoe style, but you can adapt it to have a thinner sole for other shoe styles. The main areas of flexibility are the toes and the ankle, so as long as those areas aren't stiff it should be fine. You can of course also make the shoe taller. And for real life examples, you can look at dog booties, especially for sled dogs. Sled dogs do a lot of running in snow, and people have been putting booties on them for generations to protect their feet.

For the most part, with the naturally tough soles and toe beans, paw feet don't need shoes as much as our feet do. They may need them for specialized activities and fashion reasons. For fashion-only shoes, they could be more like jewelry than functional shoes. Just soft fabrics, metal decorations, etc.

Hopefully that helps!

[lets-try-some-writing]

Pray tell, what does Raising Sparklings entail?

Raising Sparklings is a little idea I have had kicking around for a while where the team are struggling to figure our how to educate Raf, Miko, and Jack.

It's a bit ridiculous but I found the thought of Optimus raging internally at incorrect history funny. Also Ratchet being an old tin can and flipping a table at the "new math" that Smokescreen insisted was proper. Also Arcee staring at the assigned reading like the Winnie the Pooh meme, having no idea why sparklings are supposed to read all that propaganda. And Bulkhead spending days going over his old school files in order to try and figure out if he has been living a lie regarding that one fact about that one random thing. And of course Ultra Magnus sitting in the back of the base trying to decipher if he has been pronouncing that one word wrong for centuries with confidence. Then Wheeljack staring at the science work with complete confusion because "Why would you need to know this slag? This and this go together and then they explode! What else do you need to know!?".

All the while Bumblebee, having been raised by Optimus himself and grown up speaking Ancient Cybertronian would find himself looking at the language work in horror because "Why would they simplify it so much? That is the wrong conjugation! And that right there is just disrespectful!". All the while Smokescreen stands there saying that what the team are freaking out about is perfectly normal and that there is nothing wrong with it.

[twobruhsinahottub]

Just a PSA that it takes nothing but some patience to help someone with a disability (in this specific instance, an intellectual one). You may even make a friend in the process.

There is a girl in my class, lets call her Athena, Athena struggles a lot with understanding, both due to an ID and due to English not being her first language. The teacher told her she will not pass because she doesn't understand. The other students laughed at her. I will be honest with my intentions here : I chose to help her because I want to be a teacher aide and i thought of helping her as great practice. Whether these intentions were good or not is not the point but i want to be transparent. I knew it may be frustrating to try explain things in a way she understands, because i am advanced intellectually and often think in very "elaborate" concepts and words, so it takes a concious effort to sort of simplify my thoughts, but i thought about my wanting to be a teacher aide and realised i need to get over the frustration, so i helped. In the end, she got her project done really well and retained the knowledge from it as well. All it took was time and patience and a bit of simplifying my thoughts and explain what certain things mean. In the process of helping her eith her work, i got to onow her as a person as well, abd turns out shes really fun to be a round, we plan to meet up this weekend at a coffee shop and do some more studying because she reall liked how i helped her and i enjoy spending time with her as well. I was hesitant help her, but realised quickly that shes super cool and a great person to hang out eith, and also turns ouut im a pretty good teacher too! I'm looking forward to our coffee meeting on Saturday i think ive made a great new friend. Also, another girl in our class spoke to the campus manager about how our tutor (well call her Tracy) treated Athena and so hopefully Tracy can better understand in the future that the way she treated Athena wasnt okay and that neurodiversity (Tracy mentioned taking a course on neurodiversity and teaching neurodiverse students) is more than just a little social quirk and can also mean someone needs a lot more patience when learning / being taught.

All in all, this isnt to say im some wonderful person for helping Athena, my intentions were iffy, but more to say that helping people is kind and takes nothing from you but some time and patience, and if all goes well, you can make a great friend by doing it.

[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

Uncanny X-Men #195- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

Last Issue Recap: A routine stakeout on Juggernaut turned nasty when Nimrod showed up and started blasting. He was barely driven off thanks to a clutch move by Rogue, but the X-men's decision to let Juggey go without a fight has landed them in even hotter water with the public. Meanwhile, Ruskies are scheming and Storm's off in Africa.

This cover is so amazingly dumb and beautiful and I love it. Like, its literally Wolverine about to murder a child. Everyone's expression is gold. Of course its a fakeout, Wolverine isn't going to murder a child this issue, but I'll be damned if its not effective at grabbing my attention. I vaguely recognize these kids from a Thor comic from the same era they should up in but I'll be damned if I remember a thing about them. I guess Marvel was pushing them really hard at the time. Edit: after doing some research I have discovered the Power Pack was actually created by one of the Marvel comics editors, which explains a lot about their seeming omnipresence.

The opening narration gives a brief summation of who these little rascals are (they are called Power Pack, a quartet of siblings who were given powers by a dying alien Green Lantern style) which explains them I guess but also doesn't explain them at all.

We see the Power Pack in bed with their parents, awoken by the sound of thunder. Because, its a Dark and Stormy Night, get it? What a waste of a good title, why would you name an X-men story "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" when Storm isn't even there?! A great pun, flushed down the drain.

I think the following dialogue is a good example of Claremont's limits as I writer. Even though I can tell he's trying to simplify his style for kids, this dialogue is still quite longwinded and a bit too verbose. Of course, struggling to write convincing child dialogue isn't a Claremont specific problem, I don't recall Power Pack sounding any more natural in the Thor comic they showed up in. But in the Thor comic, the characters I actually cared about showed up pretty quickly. We spend the first third of this comic with these kids as the only focus, so the awkward dialogue starts to really grate. Doesn't help that the art on the kids is not so hot, their bodies are sometimes weirdly proportioned, and their faces misshapen. Kids are clearly not John Romita Jr's wheelhouse, although he's a great artist.

The Power Pack realizes their parents and neighbors have forgotten who they are, and what's more, all their possessions have been cleared out like they never existed in the first place! This is an excellent setup that will quickly become an extremely stupid plot hole.

The phonetic accent is... certainly a choice. It's Claremont in the 80s, could be worse I guess. But more importantly, these children call themselves the Power Pack... and their their last name is "Powers"... and they don't even wear masks! Wikipedia tells me they had secret identities, how the heck did they keep that up?!

The kid's parents are about to call the police, so they make a run for it, using their powers to blast a hole through their apartment building and causing massive property damage rather than leaving like normal people, I guess because we needed to establish their powers. This doesn't really help me understand their power sets at all, though. Also their personalities are pretty much interchangeable, except for perhaps the youngest, so no matter how many times they repeat each other's names I'm not going to remember them. Best I can gather, the youngest girl absorbs (matter? energy?) to make things explode, the brown haired boy turns into mist, the older girl has Canonball powers but with the pansexual flag, and the oldest boy does gravity manipulation?

The children decide that this series of unfortunate events must be the doing of Annalee, a Morlock who'd previously attempted to forcefully adopted them, with the help of another Morlock with memory manipulation powers. You might say to yourself, "but Fix, this makes no sense because if the Morlocks could access the Powers' house and steal all their stuff why wouldn't they have just kidnapped the kids as well?" You would be right! Unfortunately, so are the kids.

The kids decide to confront the Morlock's themselves, rather than try to find help in the city where literally every other person is either a superhero or related to them, which does seem like the sort of idiotic action a child would take.

The X-men, Spiderman, Cloak and Dagger and Thor?! Jesus, these kids must know everyone in the MC(omics)U! Hell, give them a few more issues and they may meet Jesus too!

The kids enter the sewers, quipping the whole time. Actually, they've been quipping throughout the entire issue; never let it be said that a mood-killing sarcastic comment in a Marvel Movie is not comics accurate. They're confronted by the Morlocks who (unsurprisingly) overpower them quickly. Only the youngest, Katie, escapes, but not before being disfigured by one of Morlocks, Masque, who has plastic surgery powers. The damage to her face is hidden from us and from the way Masque's fingers stick to Katie's flesh in a previous panel like it's hot play-dough, it must be pretty nasty. I kind of enjoyed the brief body horror here, its definitely an interesting idea, I want to see Masque again used to her full potential.

Exactly my reaction if some stranger approached me talking like that.

We finally cut to the X-Mansion and Kitty having her morning breakfast/midnight snack, where its revealed she apparently does some work for the Power Pack's father. Not sure if she's a student assistant or an intern or what have you, especially since she's supposed to be a highschooler, but it doesn't matter because this will never come up again!

She living my life fr fr. Love the little detail of the milk missing the bowl.

We finally get a reveal for what Masque did to Katie's face and I'm going to be honest it really doesn't look that bad. Nowhere near as horrifying as Kitty's mullet.

Kitty and some of the other of the X-men rescue Katie. Not Nightcrawler, though "he's on another mission." Boooooo. I might as well just stop reading. Unfortunately, my completionist tendencies urge me onward, although I expect the next issue to be a totally Nightcrawler-centric or I'm going to write a letter to the editor.

Rachel recaps the first half of the issue via telepathy for the X-men, who vow to help the little tyke.

No she's fucking not, she was literally introduced kidnapping torturing and attempting to rape Angel! I seriously don't get how the X-men manage to gloss over that in all of her subsequent appearances, or why she's ever written as remotely sympathetic (aside from the fact Claremont wants to get stepped on). I'd put her on par with Mastermind for deplorable levels.

Kitty is unanimously elected Team Leader. You got to love a team of people so dysfunctional that the teenager is their current most competent member. This does explain why the best boy has been so unceremoniously left out this week, as Nightcrawler probably wouldn't enact a plan as boneheaded as "rush head-on into Morlock territory with one of the children you're trying to rescue. I can't blame her, though, she is literally a child.

We get a cute little character moment where Wolverine comforts and bonds with a scared Katie that I kind of mentally glossed over because I don't care. It's not that it's poorly written or anything (although it is longwinded), its just I'm really not invested in these kids we never met and their emotional struggles I've been introduced to five minutes ago. I just want to get to the part where people punch each other already.

And get to the punching we shall! The X-men find the room where Annalee is keeping the children, and their stuff.

Average College Dorm Experience.

To the X-men's shock and horror, the Morlocks have mutated the other Powers' children to be slightly uglier as well! They've also brainwashed them to think Annalee is their real mother. Again, why this couldn't have been done when they snuck into their house to steal all their furniture, I don't know.

The X-men start brawling with the brainwashed kids, plus a menagerie of Morlocks. Rogue is kicking ass but gets whammied by Leech, who whammies himself in the process. I'm really enjoying the creative scenarios that Rogues' powerset can create. She's definitely the highlight of this issue.

Leech temporarily strips Rogue of her powers, meaning she'll have to take out the Morlocks the old fashioned way, which she does no problem because Rogue is a badass.

Damn, Aang really let himself go.

Meanwhile, for the rest of the team (sans Rachel who just disappears for a couple pages?) the mooks start coming and they don't stop coming, so Kitty Pryde slips off to rescue the kids herself while Wolvie performs gratuitous offscreen violence. She gets Annalee to surrender with a quick "what would your dead children think?" speech, at which point peak femcel Callisto shows up, just in time to be useless.

The plot is resolved, and Annalee finally processes her trauma from her children's death and makes peace with the Power Pack. And then Rachel and her rattail show back up to let the team know they're being summoned to the X-Mansion... by Magneto, for Secret Wars II!

Wait didn't we just have Secret Wars?!

Oh god, we're entering the Age of the Event Comic, aren't we?! There's going to be a new one every year (at least every 12 issues!) and its going to be convoluted and my completionist ass is going to read every single one of them. But not here because I don't want to.

Anyway, this was a waste of an issue. Usually I'm chill with a breather episode, but I don't care about Power Pack and this wasn't really that fun. The X-men weren't given a lot of time to shine, especially Rachel and poor, poor Kurt. Especially since now I'm going to have to speedrun through Secret Wars II real quick just to make sure I'm all caught up on the drama (expect a brief, unhinged review coming soon).

[logarhythm-bees]

To Unearth and Back Again; ⛅Chapter 7

Chapter Six | Table of Contents | Chapter Eight

See ronithesnail's absolutely wonderful art for this story!

I always feel like somebody's watchin' me And I have no privacy (Oh-oh-oh) I always feel like somebody's watchin' me Who's playing tricks on me?

-Somebody's Watching Me, Rockwell

Janus stuck his hands in his pockets as he was walking away from the breakfast table, sighing. Yet another struggle of a breakfast–by no fault of his own, of course. Janus had been a wonderful conversationalist, in between flirting with the boyfriends that Roman and Virgil did not particularly enjoy him flirting with (or having in the first place) and eating some frankly delicious blueberry pancakes (Logan was a good cook, even if he preferred the chemistry of baking). It wasn’t Janus’ fault that Roman and Virgil didn’t want to talk to him. It wasn’t any of Janus’ fault that any of this had happened at all. 

Definitely not.

Let sleeping dogs lie, he thought to himself. He had better things to do.

He hadn’t formed much of a plan for the day, besides that he and Patton were going to try to cook vegetarian alfredo later in an ongoing effort to shift the cooking responsibilities off of Logan, who was the primary overseer of the stove and its goings on because he was the only one they all universally trusted around an open flame despite the fact that their stovetop was an electric one. Remus had managed to make s’mores on it anyways in a brief moment where he’d managed to get into the kitchen unsupervised, so they all generally classified it as a safety hazard and stayed away from it unless Logan was present.

Janus had come to Patton figuring that the two of them were probably capable of making something without employing Virgil’s mandatory weekly fire safety drill training skills and suggesting that it would be nice to let Logan rest some nights instead of cooking dinner, so they’d been working their way through simple meals with minimal issue and mostly edible results in the great adventure to learn how to cook without endangering their local wildlife. 

Janus’s personal favorite so far had been a fairly simplified version of Ratatouille; Though they’d gotten the idea from the film, they opted for the traditional recipe over the picturesque version from the movie, because neither Patton or Janus wanted to try to slice and line up all those tiny little pieces. 

It had turned out pretty well, in Janus’s humble opinion, and Logan agreed to let them all watch it while eating. Virgil had lit up a little bit when he tried it, and hadn’t even tried to hide it- probably because they were all watching the movie and he hadn’t thought Janus was looking, but nevertheless. It made Janus happy that his and Patton’s work was good. 

He’d been nervous about the recipe. There was definitely no other reason it made him feel so warm to see Virgil smile like that at something he’d done. 

Janus shooed those thoughts away in lieu of tossing open the door to his room to look for his cookbook. He’d been keeping a binder full of their culinary trials and prevaliances at Logan’s suggestion, decorated on its cover with stickers of hearts and little animals gifted to him by Patton. He’d been incredibly meticulous with their placement, putting the tiny glittery kraken and jackalope in just the right spot next to the bird and frog and snake and little puffy spider sticker collected around the words “Janus’s Cookbook.”

He was pretty sure he’d left it on his desk, but when he entered the room, it was sitting conspicuously on his bed, pages opened to a recipe for homemade green tea biscuits, one of the first recipes he and Patton had tried to learn.

Janus stared cautiously at the binder, sitting unassumingly on his bed and definitely not seeming suspicious at all. He reached for the binder slowly, looking behind his back and around the room contemplatively.

It seemed empty. But that didn’t necessarily mean anything by the mindscape’s rules.

Particularly when it came to Remus, and come to think of it now, he had been acting rather strange at breakfast. Not a single joke about non-monetizable content, and he’d kept winking at Roman. Exaggerated, unsubtle winks that implied he was definitely up to something.

Janus would prefer not to be involved in that something. 

But he needed his binder.

Pausing for another moment, Janus darted forwards, making a grab for the binder. He clutched it in his hands and backed away, nearly stumbling over the carpet. Breathing in the 4-8-7 pattern, he looked around for any signs of booby traps or buckets of slime. To his surprise and satisfaction, nothing seemed to be out of place. Not even the binder seemed to have been tampered with, he thought, inspecting it, even if it had been moved.

Maybe Patton had just come in to check for a recipe, Janus thought, smiling to himself, thinking about how much Patton had adored the green tea biscuits when they’d first made them. Maybe he should head to the kitchen, see if Patton was baking already. Maybe Logan would be there too–he was the best at baking out of them, it being so similar to chemistry. Plus, he was the only one who completely understood the weird dials on the stove.

Too caught up in his own thoughts, Janus stepped out of his room off his guard. He didn’t notice the figure in the hallway until it was behind him, and by then it was already too late to defend himself. There was a cloth over his mouth, and the unfortunately familiar smell of chloroform and garbage filled his nose.

“You’ve got to stop doing this, Remus,” Janus mumbled, and then blanked out.

[deltastra]

Just gonna share my thoughts on Chaos island and Tails’ story in Sonic Frontiers!

This is from a casual fan’s perspective

SPOILERS FOR CHAOS ISLAND

Sonic slowly getting more and more corrupted was an interesting sight to see, especially since his idle animation changes too. It really feels like Sonic is getting weaker, and yet, it just makes him seem more strong because he’s fighting it just to rescue his friends. I love it.

Another thing I love is how Sage and Sonic’s relationship feels more…sarcastic? Like Sage asking Sonic “what will you do?” sounds less like an actual question and just her trying to mess with him. And when Sonic got away from Knight, all she basically says “Yea, obviously I knew.” Which was kind of funny!

Holy shit I genuinely felt sad for Tails when he asked this. Poor kid struggles with a lot of self-doubt. I love how Sonic tackles this. He defuses the severity of his conclusion with humour while at the same time, acknowledging his feelings and providing evidence to back up his claim that Tails is everything but a burden. I loved this

HAHAHAHAA IM SORRY I GET THAT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE TAILS TRYING TO CONVINCE SONIC THAT HE REALLY IS USELESS…

But come on! This feels like they’re trying to throw shade at the previous games’ handling of his character…

Okay, hear me out…

I think this symbol represents “completion” in some way…it only appears when the Kocos complete the goal they had in life. Once they complete it, they can ascend and be at rest. They’re finally complete, spiritually at least. I don’t know, that’s just what I believe.

I’m sure the symbol will have some strong meaning later on in the game.

Here we go! All three friends have finally stated that they want to go off on their own! I don’t know why, but it means so much more to me when it’s Tails saying this. I guess it’s cause it’s nice to see him grow up and wanting to be more independent.

But what I loved more was Sonic’s response to this…

Unlike Amy and Knuckles, where he seems so supportive of them wanting to go off alone, he hesitated for a moment with Tails. And I love this! It shows that Sonic isn’t as perfect as he may seem. This is Tails, his little brother. The fox that has always been by his side. He knew this would happen eventually, but it’s still a shock to him. That short hesitation is something I adore.

But of course, he is 100% supportive and even admitted that Tails grew up faster than he expected…

I love Sage’s character. Seeing her determination waver bit by bit while also saying that things would’ve been much simpler if they were just enemies, it just feels like at the end of the day, Sage is just a child. She just wants love…

Also turning blue?? What does that mean? Is it just her turning “good” or am I over-simplifying this…

And finally…

THIS BOSS. MAN THIS WAS SO GOOD

THE MUSIC WAS SUCH A BANGER. I LOVE HOW IT SOUNDS LIKE INFINITE’S THEME BUT LESS EDGY AND MORE HOPEFUL AND MOTIVATIONAL.

AND WHEN SONIC GRABBED THE BLADE AND CUT THE TITAN IN HALF?? PEAK.

I did not like the shield riding part tho. The missiles hitting me from all angles was so confusing and tedious to do cuz I kept getting hit back

[0verthinking1t]

Unpopular attempt at a meme time for my undiagnosed or diagnosed late friends, but...

While you were flying under the radar getting treated like other kids, I was studying the blade (and a bit of psychiatry, counselling, neurology, advanced social skills, harmful self discipline techniques....) The sum of our experiences are not the same 🤺

Ok for real tho let me explain, because legit I have nothing but respect for folks who are just finding out there's an explanation for why life has always been so shitty and hard. I sincerely hope you're finding relief in the community and resources that are open to you now, and I'm glad you're here with us. It's incredibly difficult going through life not knowing your game is set on hard mode, but in a weird way, I wish I could have been you.

I made a post a while ago about a hypothetical conversation with young me to try and demonstrate the unspoken double standard some neurodivergent kids may be held to, and how it becomes the root of a lot of symptoms later in life. Being diagnosed at 6 years old, I had the advantages of knowing, of parents and teachers knowing, and of having a way to ask for help, and that advantage has given me a huge leg up even now. On the flip side tho, that double standard I mentioned comes with the feeling of added responsibility for my mental problems starting at an age I was too young to even understand what "responsibility" meant in that sense— 'you're ADHD, so you have to manage your mood swings. You're ADHD, so you have to make more of an effort to get along with others. You're ADHD, so you have to know more about how your brain works than most adults. You're ADHD, so you have to learn extra ways to fit in with everyone else.' To simplify it with a metaphor, if we're each given a sort of "rulebook" for life as children, I feel like folks diagnosed young get one twice as thick as everyone else's. Neither way of struggling through life is preferable over the other, of course.... But I kind of wish I had gotten to experience life without the extra rules as a kid, just for a little while. I wish I knew a time when I didn't feel like the burden of emotional responsibility was solely on me.