#i was like oh ill just do a quick sketch

[xxplastic-cubexx]

chat if i may speak

[todayisafridaynight]

whatever //blasts your old man with the butch beam//

[mitchmotch]

day 6 of 30 min sketch mondays w @revalito! i love falin lots and tried to do a color study w her ^^

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

God. I'm writing again and I'm remembering just how into comedy I am.

Desperately trying to hold myself back from just writing back to back comedy sketches

[heartfullofleeches]

Hello Mr. Devil! I'm head over heels for the night gallery cast... May I request how would the cast reacts if night guard reader suddenly collapsed in the middle of the work/maintaining them. Or when the reader is injured on the way to the gallery. Will they try to go out and search for the culprit?

(Most of the artworks themselves can't leave so we'll go with the first option)

RoseBud

Absolute chaos. Their Roses react to their emotions, not to mention they care for you on their own so they're definitely in a frenzy. Rosebud tries to calm them down while tending to you. It's one of few times they'll leave their statue as they carry you to a nearby bench in the garden and fetch you some water. They'll try to reach whoever's available and have them pick you up. They leave one of their roses in your pocket in case your condition worsens.

The Scavenger

Your nurse for the evening. With their grabby hands, they likely to have some medical supplies somewhere in their horde and use them to help you feel better. Will steal whatever you have on hand as payment, but doesn't drag you into their painting just yet.

The Faceless Angel

A crybaby. Even if they can see you breathing, the angel weeps for seeing you in such a state. A home isn't so homey if one of its members are ill. Wraps you up in their robes or wings and sings to you, for they don't know much else to do.

The Lady in White

Poor dear. The only one who will bring you into her painting. She can care for you better there. Lays you out on the soft grass and makes sure your rest goes undisturbed less you show signs of distress. When you feel better, it's time for the wedding

The Painter

Oh, my! Such raw beauty! Surely there's enough time for a quick sketch.... no- you must be in prime condition if they are to capture your essence. Lays you on a bench and covers you up with a spare tarp.

Anri

They got you covered. Brings you to the breakroom and covers you with their coat, despite the discomfort losing it will bring. Takes this time to notice the differences between you. How warm your skin is compared to theirs. Your pulse. It's probably nothing. Your health is more important that whatever that could mean

Juilan

Made things ten times easier for him. Takes you back to his apartment and gets you in bed. Stopping by a local bakery while getting you medicine to celebrate you coming home

The Director

Checks that you're well enough to be left alone and leaves you outside the museum after alerting your boss. If it happens a second time, you won't be getting out

[sempsimps]

Gregory violet song scenarios

so this is a bunch of random scenarios and head canons i have of this emo boy and i even made a playlist for it becuse im so prepared for this also i do edit the lyrics a tad to fit the time its set in and vibe of the shorts so like if that bothers you sorry i guess (also i wanted to experiment with the tumbler coloured text i think it looks so cool) but this is mostly x reader so sorry if that's not what you want im just brain rotting at this point i cant do this lmao also i would like to say i unfortunately dont have the manga so i actually dont know whats going to happen sorry

starting with the honourable runner ups i think these songs fit but i couldn't think of what to write for them

Necromancing dancing - bear ghost (pun intended) "when im necromancing, everyone's dancing, no one can stop me i dare you to try! the dead are infused with sentential grove"

i don't wanna fall in love - she wants revenge

ramblings of a lunatic - bears in trees "would anybody listen to this the ramblings of a lunatic"

everything is temporary - cavetown "sticks and stones they say that we dont have bones inside our brains"

mamas boy - Dominic fike "m-a-m-a-b-o-y mamas boy mamas boy"

im not a cynic - Alec Benjamin "i swear im not a cynic im just being realistic"

cats - the living tombstone "meow meow meow meow memeow"

they/them - atlas, jhfly

house of wolves - my chemical romance

plucked - destroy boys "take a bird from the sky and you wonder why she wants to fly"

nobody - mitski

underachiever - NOAHFINNCE "nothing beats the life of an underachiever"

the adults are talking - the strocks "dont go there you never return and i know you think of me when you think of her"

(lowkey heathers the musical JD looking ass)

WARNING ANGST IS HERE

your stupid face - Kaden macay (oh no + verse 2)

Gregory in third person pov - the realisation he liked you

he was zoning out at the swan gazebo and drawing some sketches with his charcoal pencil. The first bit of the facial anatomy was done, and he used French bread to remove the lines. to make the face he slowly did the eyes and made them defined and full of life, the nose features, and soon enough he had nearly finished carefully doing each strand of hair falling perfectly around the face he wasn't even thinking about who it was but when he stopped to finally look at it realised who it was. 'Oh no,' looking at it more, he tilts his head back, closing his eyes shut to not let the sun make him dizzy. 'noooo' now he was roughly pressing the charcoal to the paper. 'i just really like you face' drawing the smile you always wore around him. 'Ugh, you don't have to look so happy..' he kept drawing, now to try and get it just right. remembering all the times you expressed it. 'im not really into the love that you flaunt in some bright font' smirking to himself 'but if that's what you want ill make it snappy.- wait what' he looked around noticing no one was looking at him he sighed 'i just feel so out of place' he finished your face. 'but not when you near me' moving on to the shoulders. 'when your gone, I'm like a plant with no root' he made quick work of the shape and made the clothes 'or a ball that's on mute' he smiled looking at his work 'don't you dare call me cute, you should fear me' a hand on Gregory's shoulder makes him jump, it was bluewer telling him he needs to sort out a purple house conflict, and to bring cheslock to sort out a fight. sighing and carefully putting his sketch away, a small smile on his soft features. 'Now i like your stupid face'.

soundproof - destroy boys (verse 1 before chorus)

panic attack from social anxiety (if uncomfortable then skip it) - he got amongst the dancing and hated it

it was after the big cricket game that he had to be there for appearances, empty streets are just as soundproof as studios and big crowds. and there were people dancing already. It was making him dizzy, just looking. 'keep me away from here' but when he somehow ends up in the middle of the hall he starts to panic 'how'd i appear on this stage' he was amongst all the dancers getting in the way of some getting bumped into. 'im taking up too much space.' his head was spinning from all the movement, and he felt eyes on him. 'Look away, please don't look this way.' Feeling a hand on his arm leading him out of the hall, too dizzy and unfocused to see they walked outdoors, the fresh air bringing him back down to earth. not sure who it was, but he thanked whoever it was as he started to calm down, taking deep breaths. 'i don't ever want to hear myself ever again'

disco! in the panic room - bug hunter (chorus 2)

in your pov third person - dancing again i dont know im losing the plot as i write. sorry to the amab readers this one this feminine

i was in disguise at the school, as ceils older brother, as I saw him as one. and missed being in a dress. so after the cricket game was announced, and shown it was underway, i went behind the door to get into a dress. i was hiding one underneath my cloak, i let the dress fall from the purple robe it set nicely, and i just simply wrapped the fabric around my waist, like a bow. and headed out to find Gregory, he was still upset about the fire, and wanted to leave as fast as he could. and i understood, but i wanted to dance with him just a little. He was just out of view of everyone trying to leave, and i pulled him into a room with a bright smile. "hiya, would you like to dance in the panic room violet?" He simply smiled. "I made a promise so sure." he held my hands, and i started to slowly waltzes in a random backroom. away from the crowed and prying eyes and i could see that every few movement he was getting more and more pale, as we turned slightly in the dance "Now I feel nauseous, As if I drank a cup of stuff you clean your countertops with" i giggle a little as we stop. he lets go of my hands, to hold his head, he feels dizzy but i come prepared knowing about this, with some water in a canteen. "you probably did But Lysol won't solve this, so have some water." i handed his the medium sized flask, to which he hesitantly took a sip with shaky hands. "im out of options, arnt i?" he softly smiled after a few moments, and i was satisfied to get a little dance. making sure he was okay. but i felt bad. "you can head back now i understand this was a lot, sorry" he sighed "oh its okay and thank you, It's past my bedtime and I'm honestly exhausted" i smile as he hands back my water flask. "But if you want me, I'll be here." Gregory and i walked out of the room and said out good nights before he went wherever, and i returned to the ballroom to see Elizabeth and everyone.

fire on fire - sam smith (chorus 1 like half of it)

Gregory pov - looking at you from outside the purple house fire (and i realise that the song is more about love but i want the angst so deal with it)

i stood there, my eyes filled in fear, as the boarding house burned. i couldn't move, I don't say a word stuck in place, you grab my hand i should be used to it, But still, you take my breath and steal the things I know. just like the fire that i couldn't look away from, a soft hand leading my face away to look at you. There you go, saving me from out of the cold, but i couldn't do anything. but blankly stare at you. tired and scared features, eyes slowly morphing to cry. Fire on fire would normally kill us, and this was on the inside. i was breaking down as i saw how distraught everyone was. I couldn't keep it in much longer. but then the other prefects showed up, and i didn't have time for it, so i pulled my hood up to hold it in, letting go of your hand to do something.

Love me not - eimi (verse 3?)

the part that's always on TikTok but it is a good song- anyway this is at the dating stage and you try to get help from your friends idfk

Sitting on the grass, in front of the bench in the middle of a courtyard, talking with Ciel, soma, and your best friend, the latter two interested in how the relationship was going with Gregory. so far all you could describe it as was confusing, when they asked how. you stood up and started pacing in front of them finger to your chin like how a detective dose it but moving to act out and get you point across better. "Does he really love me? Does he think I'm too much." My pacing stops as i shook my head and returned to walk around. "Am I hanging by a string? Am I pushing my luck?" I looked at the two with confusion, hands out, doing some gesture. they were still intrigued, and i just wanted an answer. "He says I'm his beloved. He says I'm enough. but every time I kick and scream, he tells me to shush!" waving your arms up and down in frustration, and at this, the friends pay more attention. shock on soma's face, making an o shape. "He told you to what!" My best friend joining in, equally surprised. "he told you to, huh!" Ciel bored of our shit huffed out a sigh before speaking. "I think you shouldn't really worry. and you're blowing this up," and I hastily replied, almost yelling. "But I'm falling in love! Does he wanna break up!?" I gripped the hood of my purple house uniform, pulling it over my face, which was red in embarrassment, and I felt some paper in there. taking it off my head a small envelope fell out of my hood, it had a clear purple wax seal with the house cress. 'That wasn't there before'

absence - Rio Romeo chorus + verse 3

Gregory in third person this is angsty, and sad. description of dying

he was thinking about what was going to happen all the experiments, but he unwillingly took part in. he couldn't shake it a feeling of impending doom. he knew the things he did, and that didn't warrant him to be sorry for himself, but he couldn't eat or sleep, even drinking something seemed impossible. then his thoughts came back to his friends. He couldn't stop thinking about how they would react, to him dying. 'If i just vanished, do you think you'd manage' laying in his bed contemplating how you would miss him. 'Or would you disappear right besides me?' A tear came into his eye. As he continued to think of you, how would you react to what he's done, more and more tears came out, little by little. 'Do you think you're ready? When i went unsteady,' his tears ran down his checks, smearing the eyeliner. 'lover, please prepare for my absence.' he stifled his cries with the ball of his palm, keeping it in. lipstick smearing on his hand as he bit down harder, more tears rolling down, landing on his pillows staining them. 'absence makes the heart grow stronger', wiping away his tears with the back of his hand. 'pray my baby will not squander everything to gain by my leaving' taking his hands away from his face, to look at them they shook, as he starred at them blurry vision from crying, the bite mark on his right one blending red. 'and if i return the favour.' thinking to all the sweet parts you shared together. 'pray my baby always saviour, every moment we were both present' sitting up to hunch over head in his hands quietly sobbing, the walls were thick and he knew it but it hurt to cry louder.

oh boy that took some effort i was going to so many more but i just cant but i do kinda love what i did i think it matches his character well I hope it matches at least and again here is a link to my playlist i hope it works if not i have the same name on Spotify but non the less i hope my writing doesn't suck :) (feeling like the Q.A from welcome home "I want it out open open open" lmao MAYBE IM A LITTLE DELULU RN WHO KNOWS) ALSO ive never written angst before so i hope that was good idfk

https://spotify.link/tg5qbp9ZgJb

[electrosweaters-arts]

Question!

Is Victor in the cryptid college universe? What’s he like, if he is?

Victor IS in CC! In fact, he's already appeared in two pages during the prologue

He's kinda a silly little guy but I'm going to PREFACE real quick by saying: Victor in CC is probably the MOST canon-divergent in terms of personality you're gonna get in CC, at least depending on your interpretations of the OG book characters, but he's pretty different from how either of us actually view him in the book.

CC Victor isn't an exactly an evil mad scientist trope or anything (being a mad scientist in CC is basically like being a mathletes nerd but a bunch of you keep dropping random children off at other peoples houses) but he's just a bit of a general asshole, SPECIFICALLY because placing him in a modern college where EVERYONE is a monster changes who the character is a Lot. A lot of his base traits come from the book, but amplified as a parody like we do with all the CC characters (so yes he does get tropey on purpose) + some changes based on how being in a monster college changes his and the creature's story.

While not uncommon for mad scientists in this universe, he's pretty self-centered, he believes himself to be the superior scientist of his class and can often be rude and dismissive of other students' work. (Though he IS actually incredibly good at what he does, he's top 3 in the class and would most likely be #1 if Griffin didn't have a grading bias towards experiments that can help him with world domination)

(going to be using some LOVELY sketches from @internetwerewolf now <3 theyre the person currently drawing episode 1 of CC <3)

Also, before I forget to mention! CC victor is gay and autistic and both he AND both of the creatures have chronic illnesses that leave them with a lot of joint pain. Their illnesses are based off my own so since *I* don't have a medical diagnosis for my joint issues I can't put an exact name to what they have but ???? maybe Fibromyalgia? again, can't put a name to it but their joints are stiff and HURTY. Adam and Victor's symptoms usually manifest in more invisible ways, from time to time they will need a mobility aid of some sort but most days they get by with painkillers and compression-wear. (Mary almost always uses a crutch or a cane and from time to time will use a wheelchair)

And oh right, the creatures! Let's talk about the creatures, I'd say they're pretty important to Victor's character, wouldn't you? (^another @internetwerewolf doodle of Adam and Mary at Victor's dissertation)

Starting with Adam, Victor made Adam in his first semester of Freshman year at CCU (if you don't know, the school Oracle acts as the head of admissions for the school and is particularly in charge of inviting new mad scientists to the school, which is why characters like Victor or Jekyll were accepted and allowed to know about monsters before having made their experiments themselves, the Oracle knew that they would make them eventually) his reasons for creating and then abandoning the creature are mostly the same as in the book, the death of his mother gave him a fascination with restoring life to the dead but once he actually gave life to the creature he was horrified an ran out on it. Adam was left in Victor's dorm room alone for about 3 weeks before being found by an RA and due to school policy on mad science experiments he was given free room and board for the course of his college degree, he was also taught english directly from classes at the school and found a copy of Paradise Lost among Victor's old things, which gave him the idea for the name Adam.

Adam never actually killed anyone in CC, but he DID ask Victor to make him a family member. He was incredibly lonely from being unable to connect with any of the other students and wanted someone like him, Victor obliged before he and Adam got into an argument which ended with him partially destroying the other creature and leaving Adam to do the rest of the reanimating work himself. (This is why Mary is not quite made right, the stitching on her limbs is very loose and she's missing an eye)

The creatures' and Victor's overall relationship is rocky at BEST, most days they can't STAND each other and squabble any time they pass each other in the halls. Though Victor's family is all still alive AND Adam got his second creature so from time to time they can get along, if a topic in interesting enough for both of them Adam and Victor can hold a conversation for a few hours, and they will sometimes help Victor out if provided a good enough reason to. Mary's less likely to talk to Victor but that's mostly because she just...doesn't like talking to people. They treat him like a shitty dad, and as seen in the prologue they DO like to rough him up a bit from time to time for fun but they wouldn't ever really want to KILL him. (Hyde would. Hyde wants to kill him. Adam has to hold him back from it.)

This was WAY longer than I expected, kinda incoherent, feel free to ask any follow up questions if you'd like! I LOVE talkin about these guys :3

[totaleclipse573]

I feel like I don't know Evelyn very well. Could you tell me a bit about her? (Also, do you have art of her?)

Oh sure! I love talking about my oc's :D

Here's some art of her to start (I need to draw her more)

That one's a bit old, but it has all the colors and basics and stuff

And heres a newer sketch of her that I drew just to compare her height to all my other oc's (she's the tallest one) I forgot the markings around her eyes in this one but WE CAN JUST IGNORE THAT

First, simple info :

Species : Silver fox

Age : 18

Ability : Gravity Manipulation (with the usage of her gem. Because if Sega will keep not using the variety of magical gems they have besides the Chaos Emeralds I WILL, AND ILL MAKE MORE TOO)

So in terms of alliance, she's on the villains side. In the past, she was a normal Mobian with a love for exploration. At some point she fell into a cave and lost all her memories but her name, the first thing she found down there as an amnesiac being that gem she has on her hand (gotta keep up with the “evil characters that can use magical gems” squad) She has no idea what it’s called, (Totally not bc I had no ideas yet.) All she knows is that it has the strange power to manipulate gravity around her (Think kind of the void wispon from Sonic Forces.)

Shortly after that, she ran into Eggman, who took an interest in her apparent lack of understanding who she is or how she got here, and the gem she has. He could always use another lackey. Due to now thinking she was part of the Eggman Empire before losing her memories, she "rejoins." There, she also meets and rivals with a very annoying platypus fanboy. Despite how similar they are to everyone else, they HATE ONE ANOTHER.

Nowadays, she's left the Empire as well, and hangs around and allies with Doleon and, MUCH TO HER DISAPOINTMENT, STARLINE. AGAIN. She calls the three of them "Team Gem" (mostly because it gets them angry, what a stupid name.) She's like the annoying little sister of the group 😅

As for her personality, I used the symbolism of the fox itself. She’s cunning, intelligent, a quick thinker and a bit of a trickster/mischief maker. She also has a bit of an anger issue, getting frustrated easily when nobody is listening to her or doing things as she planned them. She considers herself the leader of everything she does, and has high expectations for herself. She's also a BIG sass talker. Some extra things about her :

Sometimes she gets the slightest idea that maybe she WASN'T part of the Eggman Empire before her amnesia. Some things don't add up, but that doesn't mean its ALL wrong...right?

I imagine she drinks A LOT of coffee.

She can be both thoughtful and reckless with her powers. Depends on the situation.

She has a whole routine for her hair so don't you DARE mess it up

[pingunaa]

HIIIIIIII PALEONTOLOGIST 🦕 🦖

I figure yr getting out of school soon and I’m so so sleepy so I just wanted to say hi and I hope you had a good day !!!! You made it through week 2!! Already 20% done with this term 💪💪 so proud 🥹 I love that emoji omg

I need to go back to doing those drawings omg

Today iiiiiiiii went to lunch with my grandpa and sister and got to see my grandpas dog, and we had steak to celebrate my moms bday, andddddddd I talked to my friend a bunch and talked to his mommm and iiiiiii drove TOMATER all the way across town and back😮‍💨 it was soso scary but I made it. TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE PULLED OUT IN FRONT OF ME IM SO MADDDDDDDD 😭😭 next time I’m not stopping idc

I have schedule pickup and school photos on Wednesday and I’m not ready to go back 😭😭 but I also think it’ll be good for me 🤑🤑

HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY ILL BE BACK IN A FEW HOURS

Have some Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen :)

JUST 8 WEEKS LEFT OF SCJOOL BEFORE IBGET SNOTHER TWO WEEK BREAK ✊✊✊ thank uuuuuu 😋😋😋🫶🫶🫶🫶

RAHHH I LOVE DOGS 😡😡😡😡 unfortunately i don’t see them much unless i go to my friends houses 😔

I LOVE TALKING TO KY DRIENDS PARENTS 😍😍 literally like hesss lovee!!!!! wait hold on quick TOMATER sketch on my phone

that’s the best i could do oh my gif wait it’s starting to rain i’m gonna start running

ok i’m home cool

BOO TO THE STUPID DRIVERS THAN CANT SRIVE 🚌🚌🚌🚌🚌

omg scho photos… what a nightmare. NONO cus i had my school photos like feb right?! GOD I WISH I CAN SHOW U. they decide to blur everything right? my beauty marks n everything right? BUT THEY MADE ME SHINY. i guarantee u i am not that shiny pls. ANDANDAND!!! i am looking in two directions in my photo 😣 i swear to god its so bad. i hope urs turn out so much better than mine omg

RHABK YOU’nn!!!!

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I didn’t plan things this way, but it turns out it’s Mental Health Weekend in my stand-up comedy watching. By which I mean the three stand-up hours I downloaded to watch this weekend happened to all tackle that subject, in wildly different ways. Which isn’t that massive a coincidence, I guess, as a lot of stand-up hours do this. But these ones really find three quite different and specific takes on the subject.

Dan Rath – I’m Not Doing Well, Folks (2023)

Do you like Sam Campbell? Well, meet his weird Australian friend! Seriously, I’ve also heard the show Greg Larsen was doing last year, and I’m increasingly convinced that Sam Campbell is the normal one among his people in Australia.

I’d heard Dan Rath’s pervious show, Cockroach Party, which was released as one of the ABC comedy podcasts. I liked it, but I think I kind of listened to it at the wrong time, while on break at work. Listening to this one while at home doing nothing makes me think his shows deserve more attention, because there were a lot of jokes that I would not have caught if I’d been less careful. Anyway, for whatever reason, Cockroach Party made me like him, but I’m Not Doing Well Folks (which was his 2023 show and was just released on YouTube) has made me think he’s brilliant and has moved far higher on the list of people I’d love to see live.

I laughed out loud so many times when watching this, hard and uncontrollably in the way that you usually don’t when just watching something on your own in your room. The whole show was constant and quick and ever-changing so you never really settle down and stop laughing so much.

There were only a few topics that he stays with for a significant period of time, one of which is mental illness, so that’s why I said this was on theme. It’s very much not “let me be confessional and vulnerable about the dramatic mental illness I’ve suffered” (not that there’s anything wrong with that, the other two shows I watched today were that and they were also great). It is jokes about autism, in what would be a case of “Oh, you can’t say that” if he weren’t autistic. At least, I think he’s autistic. He repeatedly says he’s autistic, and the vast majority of what he says during this show is clearly not true, but if there’s one claim in this whole show I don’t find it hard to believe, it’s Dan Rath being autistic.

It's not storytelling comedy, it’s definitely not sketch or anything like that, there are a few one-liners but most bits are longer than that, it’s not not character comedy but not the way Anna Mann is a character. The way Joe Wilkinson is a character. It’s a really, really funny character. His stuff about serial killers made me nearly cry with laughter. It had a few little bits that I recognized from Cockroach Party, but most of it was new, and I thought nearly every single bit was good. His disarming way of saying something offhandedly and then immediately moving on got me every time.

I’m going to have “I don’t give a fuck if the robots take over. I’m autistic, they’ll hire me as an interpreter,” stuck in my head for a while.

Lulu Popplewell – Actually, Actually (2023)

I have to admit: I mainly watched this show because I fucking hate Love, Actually. I didn’t see that movie until last year, which I guess was too late in life to watch it. Too late in my life, and too late in history, as a lot of the shit that apparently “seemed okay at the time” really no longer seemed okay by then. Though I’m pretty sure I’d have thought this even if I saw it when it came out. I turned 13 in 2003, and I spent a fair bit of 2003 telling people that various things on TV were sexist, and getting told to stop being oversensitive, and then as an adult I read these articles that say “Wow, I can’t believe all the blatant sexism and homophobia in the sitcom Friends that no one noticed at the time!” Well I noticed! But no one listened!

I didn’t watch Love, Actually in 2003. I watched it in 2023, because my mother talked me into it. It’s been a running thread between my mother and I since about 2003 that she always wanted a daughter to do things like watch romcoms with, and when I was 13 I’d just say no and it would turn into big fights, but as an adult, I try to occasionally be more flexible. And sometimes they’re good! Sometimes I learn that my knee-jerk hatred for all the feminine-coded things that were forced upon me in my youth is misplaced, and these things can be fun. I’d thought Love, Actually might be like that. Not really my sort of movie, but if I agree to suspend my disbelief and buy into the world of romcom tropes, then it can be fun.

Love, Actually was not fun. Love, Actually was pure shit from start to finish, no matter how much I tried to remind myself that you’re supposed to relax about the less believable bits. There is a certain level of romanticization of workplace sexual harassment that I’m willing to overlook for the sake of trying to enjoy a romcom with my mother, and this movie was many times over that limit. I was truly amazed by the large number of different types of terrible people they managed to fit into one movie. I’d heard people say before that “You know, when you really think about it, that story in Love, Actually isn’t even really romantic, it’s creepy and mean that he tries to steal his best friend’s wife.” As though that’s that biggest problem! As though attempted infidelity is even worth commenting on, when it’s next to severe sexual harassment by literally the most powerful job in the land! Or that other workplace harassment where a guy follows his non-English-speaking employee to a different country? And then Alan Rickman is just walking around cheating on his wife in the background. I think Martin Freeman was all right, oddly.

I don’t mind a movie about terrible people, but portray it that way! Give us a movie about creepy horrible people getting away with it all the time. Not a movie where we’re apparently supposed to hope things work out well for some of them. Honestly, I’m shocked that this got by even by 2003 standards.

Anyway. I know Paul Sinha’s done a show talking shit about that movie, and I wish he’d recorded that because I’d love to see Paul Sinha apply his brand of intellectualism to taking that apart. But this week I saw that NextUp has up a show that Lulu Popplewell streamed from Edinburgh in 2023. She played one of the children in Love, Actually, and is now an adult. From the description, I got the impression that a lot of the show would be her taking down Love, Actually. I watched the show because I wanted to see that.

So you can imagine my surprise when it was in fact a show about mental illness and addiction, and the Love, Actually thing was just a little bit of structure around which she tied it. Luckily, it was quite a good show about mental illness and addiction, so I don’t blame her for clearly using the eye-catching fact that she was a child actor in a very famous movie to sell it in her blurb. That got me to watch, and I liked what it turned out to actually be. And there was some talking shit about Love, Actually.

She talked about a bunch of things I find interesting, the way addiction can be an underlying personality trait and if you’re addicted to one thing you’ll probably keep getting addicted to other things, and addictions to “obvious” things like alcohol can be deeply interconnected with gambling or shopping or video games or disordered eating. I said at the beginning of this post that comedians talking about mental health is hardly rare, which it isn’t, but she definitely covers some of the “harder stuff” than what you normally hear, or than what most people experience (in as much as most people experience some amount of mental health difficulty). She talks openly, but while acknowledging the awkwardness that can come with that kind of openness, about psychosis and addiction and rehab. In addition to a specific perspective she has on how misogyny affects women in the public eye.

And she makes jokes. That seems worth pointing out, it did make me laugh. It started a bit slow; for the first fifteen or so minutes I was thinking this might be one of those shows where she says interesting things but doesn’t make me laugh much. But the more she established herself within the show, the better her jokes got, and by the end she made me laugh out loud several times. I thought the second half of this show was definitely stronger than the first, but none of it was bad. Her persona went very fast from “privileged child star” to “absolute mess” (as it so often goes with child stars), though she keeps reminding us that she’s in recovery now and is in a place to talk about it with some perspective.

I enjoyed this one, and like I said, I did get some of the complaining about Love, Actually that I’d hoped for. I’m glad I watched it.

Richard Gadd – Monkey See Monkey Do (2016)

I was reminded of this show’s existence by the fact that his new TV show Baby Reindeer has just come out, which I haven’t seen but would look to watch at some point, it looks very interesting. That reminded me that last year I had a quest to see or hear every Perrier Award-winning show for which I could find a recording. I’d never seen the Richard Gadd one that won in 2016, so I looked it up, and found that it did get filmed for those Soho Theatre sessions. I added that to my collection. In case anyone wants to keep score with me, my folder with (audio or video) recordings of Perrier Award-winning shows now has the winners from: 1999, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2017 (x2), 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023. If anyone knows of others that have been recorded, please let me know.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this show. I’d read that it was pretty conceptual, and I’d read that it was about trauma, but I hadn’t expected just how much of both those things it would be, until I watched it. It was a lot of both those things. It wasn’t stand-up with a couple of props in it – it was a story told via recorded audio and video and a man in a thematically relevant costume who runs on a treadmill for most of the show, which is a very physically impressive feat, aside from anything else. And it wasn’t just a show that gets into trauma – it was 47 minutes of trauma. And I thought it was great.

I hesitate a bit to say too much about it, partly because it feels weird to “rate” something so personal (even though all comedy is subjective and “rating” it is always kind of bullshit). Partly because I don’t watch a lot of comedy that gets to this level of “conceptual”, so I don’t feel confident in my ability to know good stuff from bad stuff when I see it (though I’m not the only person who thought this one was very good, they gave it an award and everything). And partly because I found a lot of it so impactful that if anyone is considering watching it, I don’t want to spoil too much (though it’s a show from 2016, I don’t think spoilers are a large issue).

He got into a bunch of interesting stuff in this show, about masculinity and sexual assault and mental illness, presenting in what I found a very immediate and hard-hitting way. Especially the sounds and whatever else he was doing to bring to live his descriptions of anxiety.

It often annoys me when comedians comment on how an audience “isn’t sure if they’re allowed to laugh” at something they’ve said – because often, the comedian is overestimating their own edginess, what they’ve said wasn’t “too uncomfortable” to laugh at, it just wasn’t that great. In this Richard Gadd show, he never said “I can see the audience trying to decide whether they’re allowed to laugh right now”, but there were multiple points when I could tell the audience were trying to decide whether they were allowed to laugh at that funny bit. Or maybe I’m just projecting, because that’s what I was doing.

This very much was one of those shows people make jokes about because they’re a bit overdone and can be painfully embarrassing if not done well – a comedy show that lets itself have significant portions that aren’t funny, they’re a person telling us very honestly and intensely about something harrowing. But I do like those shows when they’re good, and this one was, and about something important. And some of it was definitely funny. I would like to watch his new TV show at some point.

[bosskie]

Explaining myself

I wanna explain myself and talk a bit:

I prefer to keep a low profile, be basically invisible, when it comes to my art too. Therefore I'm quite asocial here but I'm still observing what others are doing and talking about. I still suffer from an awful self-hatred and it affects me a lot... I'm gonna have a short therapy next fall but in the meantime, I just have to try to figure out by myself what could help me. I'm still not alone with this but this is my responsibility and my mind just does its best to deny everything positive about me... I don't even wanna think about how many times I have just wanted to be gone... No matter what I have achieved in life, my mind keeps telling me that I'm nothing... It's heavy to deal with this and I know that I can be heavy person to follow... I feel sorry for everything my disorder/illness causes, even it's not my fault that my mind is not okay...

I still wanted to doodle something for this post since I really appreciate people who can stand me and wish to support me, even I cannot understand why:

A rough, quick-ish Molluck sketch. This took under two hours. I might continue this one day but I'll see... My refined pieces take about ten times more time than this. Frankly, I still feel like I cannot draw Molluck properly... He is challeging to draw and I'm still studying how to draw him.

But I'm still trying to fight, even it can be difficult... Sometimes, I think that even Molluck deserves someone better than me, that I should 'leave him alone', stop doing anything related to him... It's basically just my self-hatred since Molluck is such a big part of my daily life...

It's difficult to be a content creator when I also tend to feel that I'm just ruining everything... Sometimes, I feel that I'm ruining the Oddworld feed here too... My self-hatred is just this bad... I know that I have no reasons to hate myself but I still hate myself... I still try to post my art here, even it can be difficult for me... When I think this stuff, it keeps reminding me of my Soulstorm tattoo design submission; I was about to delete my submission after I had submitted it.

I thought that this was nothing like they wanted but I was so wrong... I won. Right now, I feel that I would change this a bit but I'm not sure if it would look any better... And if someone wonders why I thought that this was nothing like they wanted, well, I just thought that my drawing looks crappy and not tattoo-like enough, being just a some kind of portrait. But the reason why I'm talking about this is that it's just such a good example of how severe my self-hatred is... Oh, and OWI hasn't contacted me yet, still, but right now, I have no will to contact them either. I'll see that later on. I have felt so depressed recently, again... I have felt better too but now, this mood hit me.

I just wanna be honest with you. I'm not perfect but neither is anyone else. This is my fight and the others have their own too. I wish that my story could have a happy ending but it's not a sure thing... I still don't know if it's even worth it... I feel too often worth of nothing, for no reason...

I feel so sorry, even this is not my fault... Mind can get sick like body too. I appreciate that you stand me, even wanna support me... It's making me cry... I feel quite often like someone to be forgotten, someone not to love, to be erased... But like my winner piece was titled, 'Don't give up!'. It's not easy but I keep trying my best.

[todayisafridaynight]

twitter goin through my old aoki posts and girls i miss aokiposting....

[rivertalesien]

Sorry if you've already been asked this a friend showed me your blog and I'm new to Clexa but wanted to know if you ever broke down that terrible terrible ending for the show? Did anyone understand what happened? Did everyone die? Why can't the ones on Earth have babies? None of that made sense to me. Thank you for reading

Hello there, I don't know if there was a discussion about the ending, I think I just posted the details, but I don't remember. You should check around some other blogs like @Butmakeitgay, they may have written up more about it?

The ending was pretty silly, like so far over the shark it might as well have been a completely different show from where it started and that made the "Earth is the dream" moment (showing a quick flash of Clarke sketching on the Ark) particularly sour.

Jason's logic for this ending appeared to be that there really was an advanced race of aliens out there (no name for them, but the ones the cast interacted with were called "judges" with the understanding that they were somehow judging humanity for unknown reasons before offering them a ride on their way to some higher hive mind destination).

So the people who died, like Bellamy, "died." They didn't get to move on with the aliens, but everyone else got the choice of going off with them (if we take this literally, then their "souls" or consciousnesses were uploaded to this hive mind while their bodies became mini Groots), or staying behind on Earth.

Clarke didn't get this choice because she's Clarke (and shot someone in front of a judge), so her so-called friends and a bunch of people who barely knew her much less liked her, decided to stay behind so she wouldn't be alone.

The one person who should have been able to come back (by the logic of the story) and stayed behind with her was, conveniently, and very recently, killed off. Again.

The bodies of the ones who did come back (only implied, who knows what the thinking was) cannot reproduce. Why deny them fertility? Not as if that small handful of people was going to repopulate the planet again anyway. These judges got to decide the end of the human race and it was just a Whatever! moment that didn't really line up with anything else.

Except it was clearly playing on the Flame, and toyed with Lexa returning (she didn't, she was shot and killed a SECOND time while in the Flame). The Flame: a hive mind revolving around this idea of "higher things" and instead of nightbloods, everyone gets to join (the alien version), except Clarke, who was a "Chosen One" kind of character (like Lexa), but she wouldn't be allowed to go on with the others as per the usual Hero's Journey where the hero is so changed by their experiences they are no longer really part of the original group.

If the story followed from where it began, or at least where season 2 was leading, Clarke would have either found another group of survivors or been captured and used as a pawn by the Ice Nation. This could have put her in direct conflict with her own people or with Lexa/Polis and made some good drama as Clarke uses her cunning to outwit the Ice Queen and maybe have some kind of half-assed and ill-fated revenge against Lexa.

A subplot about the Grounder origins with characters like Octavia and Raven taking point to learn more of the mystery and connect some dots that lead to...Becca? Some hidden government monitoring all of it? Surviving First Nations rebuilding out further west and doing it right vs. the Grounder shenanigans?

Anything would have been better than the Miners Lost in Space with a Broken Ship Oh Let's Go To Another Planet Because Monty Can Make Those Decisions for Everybody and Knows How to Program a Flight Path Across Thousands of Light Years No Problem that we got.

If the Flame had to be part of it, it could have been a leftover of a government project, super soldiers or the like, or something more like Dune's mentats (human computers).

Instead, Rothenberg kept introducing pop culture references to other films/shows instead of building anything coherent. Just a complete waste.

Sorry you're here after the fact, but there's so much amazing Clexa fiction and art out there, you really don't have to linger on the show at all.

Thanks for writing.

[shiniesroverrated]

the team

augh it just hit me!! i never mentioned all the pokemon in my home at the moment! or my team aside from passing remarks oh no!!! augh that must be remedied right away ok ok. this should be a long post. ill put a cutoff right here but read on if you wanna hear a bit about my crew, especially if you plan to ask about them! ill probably put in sketches of them too, im known for having some. artistic tendencies.

Okay okay so first of all we’ve got Squiggle or Squiggles, the Spinda 

he’s a little bit goofy, being a spinda, but otherwise actually quite talented and pretty smart, has a few well developed psychic type moves, is my partner, a lovely little creature honestly.

second we have sundae, the girafarig!  

she’s part of the main team too, lovely for my outings where i need quick reactions and coordination (no offence squigs, dont look at me like that.) to find rare pokemon!! she’s a rescue and a friend :) 

next up we’ve got sugar, the main team birdie, a doduo with only one head!!

 real strange one, this bird. she tends to get lonely, like she knows shes supposed to have a companion in that little fluffy bird body. raised her from an early age, she’s adopted and beloved. those are the main team members though all the others are just the current residents.

to get the other bird out of the way as well, here’s deeby the natu!!

little guy stuck around because he’s vain and enjoys the snacks, i think. likes to pose for photos and sketches, and likes to take MY CHIPS when im not looking. often seen riding his little scooter.

next is a much more recent addition to the house, this is Shredder the buneary

has some anger issues like most buneary do, i might have to take them out battling to get some of that energy out. has a strange fur texture and is a dark color, im trying to find the origin of that difference as well as trying to locate more buneary of the same variation. my best guess is theres some other pokemon species that came into the environment and cross-bred with them to produce some sort of variant but. eh who knows it could just be an adaptation to the environment too. 

im gonna end this on a lovely little regular visitor, dandelion the jumpluff.

this one likes to come around every once in a while, im not entirely sure why, i think it just likes to play with the rest of the pokemon around here?? lovely presence though.

theres a few more pokemon around, like the mareep herd in the distance but these are the ones i interact with the most! feel free to ask about them :)

[domi-scu]

01-03/03 The adventure begins

a.k.a the very unexpected start to our holiday. But we’ll get there. Let’s talk about the travel first.

It was surprisingly uneventful although incredibly long. I’m very happy we made the decision to sleep at Heathrow the night before our flight so we headed out on Wednesday evening right after I finished work. That being said- what a horrible idea to work the same day we’re leaving! More stressful than I like my days.

If you ever stay at Heathrow at the Thistle Hotel (as I think it belongs to them), I highly recommend travelling from Terminal 5 with the driverless Pods. It’s usually not free but the little car thing looks like a tic tac and is probably a lot more fun than it should be. I say usually not free because we got a free ride from them since our room had no hot water.

As we had an early morning and a long travel ahead of us, we ended up only having a quick drink at the hotel bar with the view of the runway (which I get way too excited about) and went to sleep.

Honestly the day of travel is already pretty much a blur. We woke up at 5am and spend good 30h either flying or waiting at airports (Zurich and Bangkok,- about 5h each). We didn’t manage to get much sleep as we were incredibly uncomfortable and Alex is also ill on top of that. So doing all that on almost no sleep is not ideal. By the time we got on our final flight to Chiang Mai I was barely standing but at least Alex got a small nap in Bangkok so it wasn’t too horrible.

We did pop outside the Bangkok airport to have a quick look around and something felt off to me. The air felt a lot more polluted than I remembered but I just figured- big city with millions of people, the air is bound to get a lot worse since the last time I was here was 10 years ago. Not a big deal right? Well it wasn’t a big deal until we were landing in Chiang Mai and it looked very foggy. I still didn’t think much about it because I know that Chiang Mai generally has pretty clean air and lots of green around it so like… Maybe it was raining and this was just fog? A fog bad enough that we couldn’t see the sun

Unfortunately, the driver picking us up from the airport ended up recommending face masks ‘because of the smoke’. Uhhhh what smoke? Well… Basically, what happens is that at some point between December and April, people up North burn all the crap on their fields to prepare them for new crops being sown. What this results in is SMOKE. And a lot of it. Apparently the pollution is about 23x the healthy amount. It’s recommended that people stay indoors, use air purifiers and definitely avoid going to the jungle as the fires are all over the place and pretty dangerous.

The annoying part is that Chiang Mai was the bit of our trip that I looked forward to the most and have been wanting to come here since my parents first visited around 2007. But predicting when the fires happen is not really that easy because we know someone who was here just couple weeks ago and they had no issues. Oh well, I suppose we’ll just have to visit again another time.

So running on 2h of sleep within the last 30+ hours, we had to come up with a new plan. First things first, we really needed a new hotel for tonight to be able to get some sleep and think straight again. 

The one we originally booked was not only giving a bit of a sketch vibe (basically it very much looked like a hotel where English tourists come to party and hook up), but the insulation on the windows was non existent so we may as well be sleeping in an ashtray. Which is a recipe for a good chest infection without even considering that Alex has a pretty bad cold as it is. Also what in the world is this on the bedside table?

Thankfully my mum was on it while we had some dinner. She booked us a place a bit outside of Chiang Mai (where even the air outside was a little better). And although all direct flights down to Krabi (our next stop) were sold out, she found us one with couple hour layover in Bangkok. Two extra flights with stuffy sinuses (and therefore horrible earache on the plane) are not ideal but better than a chest infection! Off to have some well deserved sleep.

[ninawolv3rina]

I'm incapable of drawing anything but them rn