#i’m just saying the yellow motif is there

[winnieinthemeadow]

crack theory of the day: cassie is cassidy and that’s why she’s going to save gregory/c.c. (cause they have that bond from fredbear)

[z3nitsusgf]

paper bag

roman roy | reader

tw: fem!reader, toxic relations, manipulation, l*gan roy, romann is sick in the head, Roman says a slur (unsurprising), dog motif, teasing, dirty talk, ooc roman bc he's scared of pussy irl, this shit long af I’m sorry, backwards storytelling bc I’m inconsistent

The room is sticky. Sweltering in a post-august heat. The box fan churns and spits out whatever puffs of air it can muster, but the both of you still sweat on the linens of the motel bed.

The walls are stained from years of misuse and neglect, tinged a dirty yellow. You can’t tell if it’s oil or something more debauched that clings to the plaster, probably the latter.

It’s late into the night, too late for anything to be open and too early for it to be acceptable to up and leave. So the two of you are rooted here, stuck till daybreak.

The sounds of people arguing, a car horn blaring, and the buzz of fluorescent whir through your head. There’s a small box TV, it fizzles and pops every time you try to change the channel. Gurgling in a pre-2000s war cry. You could almost laugh at the circumstances.

You wonder how the fuck you’ve managed to snag New York’s brattiest billionaire, even more at how you’ve convinced him to fuck you in a shitty motel just outside of Hell’s Kitchen. Or to even fuck you at all, you only know rumors of his… strange bedroom endeavors.

You stifle an un-humored chuckle, Roman is lying like a royal Persian cat across the bed, shirt long gone and covered only in his boxers. A brand you've never heard of laces his hips, something expensive and out of reach. Just like most of him.

“What?” He asks, head resting on a closed fist. He draws shapes on your leg, neat nails dragging along the soft skin. He likes the smell of your lotion, something girlish and fresh like linen. Almost like something Shiv would wear, or a nanny from his memory. All he knows is that he likes it.

“Nothin’, just thinking.”

He likes your accent. It reveals your upbringing, obviously not the stupidly refined wealth that Roman inhabits but something humbler. It’s a little rough around the edges but not crass. Your words are straightforward and clear, unlike his family's. The bubbling words they offer to air up a conversation, you cut straight through that.

“Thinking about what?”

You give a smile, taking a long drag of your American Spirit and tipping your head back to blow it up to the stained ceiling. The smoke curls and swirls around before dissipating into nothing. He's not used to the smell, it gives the air a hint of pine-tinged outdoorsy aroma. Warm, comforting, familiar, and terrible all at once. Like something Logan would smell like when he came home, on the rare occurrence Roman was around him long enough to get a whiff.

“How I just bagged the Roman Roy, and how it’s gonna look in the papers.”

You joke, obviously. You’d never tell your endeavors to the pressing public or the sneaky little journalists that gripe for your small breadcrumbs about the family. Even if it is technically your job.

Roman hums, “Waystar son indulges in debauched acts with local journalist slut.”

He makes a gesture with his hands, eyes lighting up and going wide. A dopey grin rested on the plane of his cheeks, a row of sparkling whites glimmering under the citrusy glow of the lamp.

“Fuck you.”

You kick him haphazardly in the chest, his laugh rings around the room like a bell. Roman grabs your ankle, curling his fingers around the bone and yanking you down towards him. He’s uncaring of how you slip down the headrest, watching how you squeak and mumble small profanities.

“Prick could’ve dropped the ashes on me.” You mumble, not serious in the slightest.

“What would your father say?”

You snip, reaching down and dragging a hand through his hair, tussling the already licked-up sweaty strands. He practically melts into your touch, eyes closing and lips parting at the contact. He memorizes how your nails feel on his scalp, visualizing the soft pink of your polish running through the strands.

It feels good to have you touch him so effortlessly. As if he was nice to hold and caress, something soft to be sentimental with. Not a bad dog locked in a kennel for once but allowed to curl up on the bed.

But that's exactly what he is, isn't he? He is the dog that sleeps on the floor at the edge of the bed. Curled in on himself, happy to just be close. Nosing at the sheets, contempt with the presence of its owner. Even if he's cold, shivering from the floorboards - you just being there is enough to keep him warm. The few pats on the head allow him to sleep through the night. He is the dog that never leaves your side, sitting off to the right of you and waiting.

He lets out a bitter giggle, a small grimace twitching his lips. It hides the shimmer of despair that is pooled in his head.

“He’d probably be glad I got some pussy for once. Maybe he’ll stop calling me a fag.”

He laughs when he says it, even though a part of you knows he’s dead serious. You've come to learn he always is when it comes to his father.

The sadness cuts through the raunchiness of his words and you fight off the frown that wants to stitch itself across your face. A part of you wants to reach out and mend together the brokenness, another wants to pull out your journal and backlog it for later. A rotten, benign part of you wants to take this man apart and study it to smithereens.

Roman doesn’t say much, surprisingly. He’s reserved in his intimacy, holding back all the love and care that he wants to pour out. He's been starving for decades, yearning for a love that won't come. He's resigned to the fact he is broken. Besides, he’s not here to cuddle up to you for anything more than to get you to not publish your story on the Roy’s. You're both fighting for the same thing, just on different sides.

You respond the only way you knew how, “Fuck, that’s really fucking depressing.”

Roman admires your brutal style, honesty is a rarity that he treasures when it comes. It's why he noticed you in the first place, your articles about the wealthy family in the tabloids caught his eye. Especially the ones about him -it sounds different when you say it, not like you're vying for an undercut but like you're genuine.

He laughs.

You both laugh. Tipping your heads back and howling with laughter. He's got tears in his eyes, and you can't breathe.

///

“Not really your cup of tea, huh?”

You teased, flinging off your shoes and laying on the questionable sheets.

He gives you a snarky grimace and raises a brow, “Careful, you might get scabies or a fucking STD just from breathing in the air.”

It’s not the sort of place you’d expect to see Roman Roy occupy. You can hardly even wrap your head around the fact he’s here now. You imagine the Roy in lavishness, draped in silken white and cashmere. Sipping champagne from a crystal glass brought by room service. Watching the glittering of New York from a floor-to-ceiling window on the billionth floor of a hotel that costs your entire paycheck for just one night.

No, you can’t even pretend that Roman doesn’t look completely out of place here. With his no-tie, popped collar, Tom Ford wannabe pretentious ass. He’s comically out of place. It makes you want to giggle to hell at the way he looks so uncomfortable.

A pretty little rich boy who’s never had to worry about being in anything other than a 5-star. Who now stands in a seedy motel that looks more like a crack house than the Arlo in Midtown. And in place of the champagne, he chugs your shitty beer and water bottle vodka. Cracking open a six-pack of michelob’s and cringing at the taste. It’s painfully cheap, but alcohol is alcohol.

“Come on, don’t act so high and mighty. Relax.”

You pat the empty space next to you, scooting over so he can tentatively sit. You have your thick black journal resting beside you, inside containing all the juicy details and bits about the Roys that would burn down empires and topple over conglomerates.

You’ve hidden most of it well, you’ve had to, or else you get a hit put out on you from the man himself, Logan Roy. Using different names when publishing your work, making interviews anonymous - hell, you feel like Batman with the way you work in the shadows.

Roman inches onto the mattress, eyeing the notebook at your side. He knows, vaguely, what it contains. The secrets, the stories, untamed facts about the company and his family. Usually, he wouldn't give a rat's ass about what a snoopy little journalist had to say about him and his family.

He’ll admit your stuff is good, great even but it's all fluff, a buffer that fills up the sides of newspapers so they have more meat to them. And most of the time it's always the same thing; how horrible his father is, the treatment of Waystar employees, how disconnected the children of the billionaire were. But you- you dug deeper than that.

He never had a reason to look into you until now.

Your stories were revelations for the public. The lies, the coverups, the shady business that their media team works day and night to conceal. You spill it all. And now that you're gaining more traction, more popularity, they're losing revenue quickly. Business deals are turning to dust, stocks are dropping, and employees are quitting on the spot. It's making Waystar crumble from the inside out. And Logan refuses to lose from a puny little journalist, let alone a woman.

When Gerri and Karolina uncovered who was behind the articles, they wilted. If they had told Logan who you were - what you were - he would've squashed you like a bug. Completely ruined your life till you had nothing.

So they took a different approach, a softer more merciful route. They sent Roman after you, and like the loyal dog he is, he went. Mingling with over-eager, latte-sipping, pretentious journalists to get your contact info.

It wasn't as easy as he thought, more work than he wanted to put in. But regardless, he eventually a friend of a friend of a friend gave you up. Not soon after you got a very informal email from the COO, asking to meet up for an "interview" on the pretense of discussing your stories. Or your "allegations" as he liked to call it.

To say you were surprised was an understatement, you nearly passed out in disbelief. It started with meeting him on neutral ground, a coffee shop. Somewhere public and clean, nothing seedy or easily misconstrued.

And when Roman strutted into the small shop, you were very aware of how real this was all becoming. The starkness of his wealth is evident in comparison to the rest of the shop.

"Ah, if it isn't the little paper-pusher I've heard so much about."

Those were his first words to you.

“Mr. Roy, a pleasure to meet you.”

He sat in front of you, pulling off his jacket and haphazardly throwing it over the back of the chair. You're 100% sure it costs more than your yearly salary. At your words, he gives an obnoxious giggle.

“Please, don’t call me that. Makes me think we’re in some sick porno.”

You raise a brow at his crassness, “Ok.. pleasure to meet you, Roman.”

He stifles another giggle but reaches a hand across the table, shaking yours.

Once he’s pulled back he claps his hands together, “Alright, what do you get from this shithole. And don’t tell me you’re one of those hipster-loving morons who gets like matcha or some shit.”

Your eyes widen at how loud he’s being, uncaring that staff or other customers might hear his openness. You know what kind of person he is, you’re just not used to the oozing brattiness in person.

You can only gawk, “Well, um, usually I get a macchiato or just a regular cup of coffee.”

He nods, “Hmm, I see. Ok. I’ll get whatever you get. Throw in a Danish too, I’ll pay.”

You blink vigorously, “Oh no, it’s alright Mr. Roy-”

“Roman.” He corrects, giving a cheeky grin.

“And don’t worry about it, you’re not gonna break the bank with some cheap-ass coffee.”

You wonder if this was a good idea at all, but you quickly come back to reality. You’re here for business, you can’t treat this like a nightmare date from hell. Even if that’s what it feels like. So you do as he says, ordering the coffees and two danishes, even getting an extra muffin to-go.

Time quickly flew by, as much as you hated to admit it. You managed to tug the man back into the conversation you came for - Waystar. Though Roman was more elusive than anything.

Tapping on the table, leaning his chair back, and distracting you with other topics that most certainly were not work-appropriate. Like if you were just making all this fuss because you just wanted to get finger-blasted by the COO. That one made you flush and snap at him like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

But he was so charismatic, in his own twisted way. Like a car crash, you couldn’t look away from, the smoldering flames and heated looks were more than you thought he was capable of.

After hours of talking he drew out your more playful side, the snarky little wit you don’t usually use with the people you’re working with. It was inevitable. And soon, it was late into the evening. With the coffee shop getting ready to close for the night.

“Looks like it’s time to wrap it up for the day.”

You moved to stand, dusting off crumbs from your lap. And Roman is quick to jump up, “Aw, you sure? I mean it’s not that late, wanna maybe head out somewhere?”

He’s vague with his words, you give him a smirk.

“Are you trying to get me alone with you, Roman?”

He chuckles and puts on his jacket, “Of course, I mean, how else am I gonna murder you?”

You both laugh, “Murder me? Sweet little me? What for?”

The two of you walk onto the sidewalk, the crisp night air breezing through your hair.

“We both know you’re not sweet.”

You smile, tucking a lip between your teeth. He’s magnetic, in a venomous and dark way. You know it’s wrong to do this, to get close like this. But sometimes you have to do things in order to get what you want.

“I know somewhere we can go.”

///

That’s how you got here, at least how you remember it. It’s all blurred from the copious amount of alcohol you’ve drank.

Now you have a very not sober Roman Roy on top of you.

He’s flushed, there’s pink smattering across his heated cheeks and he’s got blown pupils the size of the moon. He leers over you, his hand cupping your throat. He’s close, too close.

You can feel the curve of his lip on your cupid's bow, the prickle of his stubble. He smells like Costa Azzurra, citrusy and woodsy. It clouds your drunken brain, making you want to pant and sink your teeth into his neck.

Roman is mumbling, you can’t quite make it out but you feel the warmth of his breath across your cheek. It feels dizzying, like a waking dream.

“I’m gonna kill you. Not gonna let you leave, you’re stuck with me.”

He huffs against the warm apple swell of your cheek. You giggle at that; he feels the warmth of your laugh. The scent of lime and lone star on your breath. There’s a certain giddiness that flutters in your tummy at the words, a sick satisfaction.

One that a dark part of you craves. A feral depravity lies in between your teeth. One that aches to chew on his marrow and swallow him whole. When they trust you to completion, it makes you want to crush them completely.

“Oh yeah?”

You’re hazy. Starry-eyed with droopy lids, face hot from the alcohol and closeness. There are bruises in the shape of his teeth. Ringed purple marks that fade into shimmery blue and greens. Speckled aches across your thighs and neck - all from him. Like rabid animals fighting the very nature of their beings, you claw and tear at one another like beasts deprived.

He buries his face in your chest, trying to hide himself within it - claw his way in and sit inside your heart. Plunging his hands into your back and holding you to him like you were the only ones on earth. He kisses your skin, brushing his lips along your collarbone, down to the center. Straight in your solar plexus, like he could see through it.

As if he could see that beating organ as if he could reach in and take it.

“Yeah. Wanna keep you, like a pet or a girlfriend. What’s the difference?”

You squirm at his hot breath on your neck, the humid air making you needy. You grab his face in your hands, lifting his face up to you and pressing your mouths together in a sloppy kiss. He groans, he doesn’t even wait before he slips his tongue in. Sliding across your lips and flicking on the roof of your mouth. You make a choked sound, the feeling of his tongue invading your mouth.

You can feel the hard bulge of his cock pressing against your stomach, it makes you ache with need.

“Roman,” you pant, “I wanna fuck you.”

He hums, “Wanna fuck you too, wanna fuck your pussy.”

You moan, you want to tear him apart at the seams and eat him whole. Crack that soft apricot heart and bite down into his tissue. You bet he tastes just like it too, sweet and sugary like jam. You want to rip him to shreds, consume each sliver, and savor him like he’s raw slices of strawberries on your plate.

///

He spreads your thighs, gripping your ass in rough hands, practically moaning at the sight of your fucked out pussy. There are silvery webs of slickness that glisten along your cunt. You’re panting into the sheets, fisting them as you shiver from the cold AC.

“Jesus fucking Christ, you’re so wet.”

His thumbs graze along your swollen lips, and you twitch - whining like a puppy that wants a kiss. Hips jerking into the mattress when he grips the fat of your ass and swipes your folds.

“Look at you, so fucked out. And you still want more?”

You nod, humming breathy whimpers each time he gets close to your clit. You let out a sharp yelp when he slaps a hand across your ass, hands flailing and thighs instinctively trying to shut.

He keeps you spread, knee coming up to prevent you from ruining his fun.

“Gotta say it, babe. Can’t read your mind.”

You’re trembling, lips swollen and drooling as you try to push out the words.

“Yes, I want more.” You mumble, face buried halfway into the sheets.

He’s mean with it, pressing the pad of his thumb onto your pulsing clit. Rubbing till he hears the sloppy sound and you’re jerking away with a scampery yip.

“What was that? Couldn’t hear you.”

You could cry, wet tears pooling on your lash line. Your cunt throbs, empty and flushed and fucking aching.

“Please, please I want more. Want your cock-“

He’s groaning, yanking you back till your ass is in the air. Spine arching and you feel the brush of his cock on your folds.

“Yeah? Want my cock?” You can hear the smile in his voice, hips shaking in his hold.

His tip is kissing along your entrance, and he watches with hearts in his eyes at the way you coat him in slick. Rutting the length between your folds, dipping in to watch you clench on nothing. Wetness clinging to your inner thighs and painting your pussy a shimmery diamond-esque.

“Mmhm, want it. Want you to fuck me, want it so bad.” You moan, half brain-dead with how stupid you sound.

He giggles, high a girlishy. Slipping in fast and quick, hips jerking till he’s flushed with your ass. His pace is like a rabbit, practically humping you into the mattress. You yelp at the feeling, cock splitting you in two.

“Roman-!”

“What was that?”

You can hear the smile in his voice. It makes you whine, gripping the edge of the bed as he slams harder.

“I couldn’t hear you over the sound of you getting fucking pounded.”

You let out a moan when he hits deep. Slotting all the way, flushed against your ass. His tip is kissing something untouched inside you, sticky head brushing along the cushiony pucker of your cervix.

“Fuck you-“

You choke on your words when he bucks his hips. Slamming impossibly farther.

“Huh? Speak up, baby. Can’t hear you, your wet pussy is too loud.”

You bury your face into your arm. Biting at your lip to keep the drool from spilling over your mouth.

“How’s it feel? Feelin’ good? My little paper-pusher like how I fuck her?”

He makes you insane.

You fist at the sheets, nails digging into the soft gray linen. He’s pushing you into a pretty arch, thumbs keeping your ass spread so he can watch himself fuck your cunt.

“God, your pussy is insane.” His hips are smacking against the backs of your thighs. You’re on the verge of tears from how good it feels, you can feel the veins of his cock pulsing in you. Mouth parted and spilling sticky moans.

“Fuck, how are you so wet?” He murmurs, shivering at the feeling of your tight walls gripping along his length. At this point, his thrusts are sloppy and uneven, but the tip of his cock is still able to hit that special spot deep inside of you.

“Oh fuck, Roman, m’gonna cum-”

You absolutely lose your mind when he rolls his hips against you, scratching the sheets.

“Yeah? Gonna cum all over my cock?”

You nod, waiting for the pit in your tummy to explode. But it doesn’t come, Roman pulling out in one even jerk.

You cry out, “What the fuck?”

“If you wanna cum you gotta promise not to publish that little article of yours, babe”

You’re hazy and desperate, in the back of your mind you know what he’s doing. And it clips your chest. But the pulsing of your cunt overrides all sanity. And you’re too fucked out to even care at this point, you just want to cum.

“What’ll be, huh? Wanna get pounded till you gush over my cock, or do you want to post a dumb story about me?”

You whimper, you’re dangling on your own leash of longing. He’s pressed against your back whispering all the fucked up things he promises to do to you if you just give in. Just let go, he murmurs.

Temptation licking the back of your heels like hellfire. It doesn’t help that he’s pawing at your tits, squeezing your tender flesh like clay. Cock slipping and sliding against your sodden cunt, slick with want and need. Dripping a honey-thick desire so brutal you’d think he was a demon sent from the inferno.

“Ok! Ok, won’t post it, just fuck me! Please, Rome.”

He groans, a hearty whiny thing that makes you clench around nothing.

“Good girl, good girl.”

It’s immediate, the way he slams back in and drives home. Your sticky skin slapping against his, thighs shaking with burning effort, stretched cunt a dripping mess against his cock. You’re babbling, hands reaching back to grip his thighs, nails digging into his flesh.

It’s not long before you’re gushing, clamping down, and seeing stars in your blacked-out vision. Hearing Roman moan and whine before he’s pulling out to cum over your back. The warmth spreads over your spine. He’s shivering, thighs twitching, and abdomen clenching. It’s never felt that good before.

You both pant and heave, body relaxing into the sheets. You’re exhausted, eyes lidding and drifting, faintly feeling the sensation of a towel wiping across your skin.

“Holy fuck-”

You smile softly, eyes closed. Roman plops down next to you in bed, watching as you roll over and sit against the headboard. He’s sweaty and so very good-looking. You smile in a chagrin manner, brushing a finger against his cheekbone.

“How’s that for an interview?”

You laugh, swatting his arm.

“You’re crazy.”

He smiles at you, strangely content. A pinprick of emotions swells in his chest, and you feel that influx of rot starts to crawl its way up your chest. He’s so beautiful, that you’d hate to see him crumble when he finds out you already sent your paper to your editor to post.

But for now, you enjoy the small moment of peace between you two. You laugh and joke and keep this sweet until morning until he realizes what you’ve done.

[angelbunny-arts]

Behold,,,,. Every hermit design I’ve created over the past year and a bit: with heights and chibi versions of wings included>:D

Species, fun Details and height sorted version under the cut !!

- Grian

A parrot avian in some universes, a shapeshifted watcher in others, it’s a 50/50 which one I decided to go with

Avians in my mind take on the wing patterns of a bird they connect with, which usually happens at around 18-23. Instead of facial hair they grow feathers around their cheeks and in their hair.

His earring is a present from mumbo ^^

The gold detailing on his wings have the watcher symbol and suns on it, and his shoes have suns too! (why suns you may ask? “Grian” is the Irish word for sun, and according to my myth/history nerd friend there was an Irish sun goddess named Grian)

-Mumbo jumbo

An albino enderman

He dyes his hair because it looks cool, you can see a bit of his natural roots

A feather keychain on his belt from Grian

- GtwScar

A half-allay

He’s got heterochromia with the HOTGUY colours>:)

His ears and canine teeth are rounded! In contrast to half-vexes who’s features are sharper

Him and cub have matching vex magic earrings

His design is probably the one that keeps to the original skin the least, but it also happens to be one of my favourites to draw so

- Cubfan

A half-vex

I don’t have much to say here, he’s just kinda silly? I suppose there’s the fact that I decided that convex gets a diamond as their shape, so he’s got some of that detailing

He was originally supposed to have glasses however I am terrible at remembering glasses even though I wear them so they just kinda vanished

His hair is probably one of the most fun to colour too:D

- Geminitay

An elf (the antlers are accessories)

She’s got a whole bunch of little leaves everywhere:DD and some cute gold detailing too, otherwise a pretty simple design with not much to say on it

-impulse

Just a regular dude tbh he’s just a guy/pos

He’s got five visible places where I’ve snuck an “i” on him (but there’s one more on the bottom of his shoes)

The yellow In his hair also matches with my skizz, who has blue in his hair

- Pearl

Either a human or an avian, it’s another 50/50 and depends on what I went for with Grian as well if I have him included

If I go the avian route, her wings are small and usually kept under her jacket.

The moon detailing changes with the moon phase! Her hair also gets more floaty depending on how full the moon is

The knot on her shirt is in the shape of a moth

- Tango

A soot fairy, they’re known for working with and manipulating fire and creating machinery.

He’s got heels and he’s absolutely slaying. That’s really it I can’t pick my favourite detail it’s all fantastic. Look at it

I looked at fire/firemen vests for his jacket? That’s a fun fact

- Docm77

A creeper/goat hybrid

There’s like.. so many butterfly motifs on this man it’s fantastic. I also love the horizontal pupil

He looks like a mix between a tired dad and a mad scientist, which was initially not what I was going for but I’m keeping it

————

And, as promised, the height check (for people that are the same height I put whoever looked taller first)

(also disclaimer I made most of these heights up and are not accurate to the ccs)

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

It Had To Be You

Before I get into my big explaining rant, reblogs are very much appreciated! I know this is usually a rant blog but when I spend so long on a drawing I want to have people see it and stare at it like I do LOL

Also for the ALT text, a lot of the details are going to be explained below so if you’d like extra details please read!

So, my designs! I really hate Husk’s design; as in I hate drawing it. It’s too red and tiny for me, Husk is very orange and round to me, he’s like a really chubby cat that you flip over in the bed and smack their belly and kiss em. He also kinda reminds me of Tigerstar from Warriors but like if he was a more morally correct person. Kind of. I removed all of the red from Husk and replaced it with little motifs of orange and brown like in his ears, his eyebrows, wings, and the little patch on his snout. For his wings I tried to base them around a Brown Thrasher because they fit the colour I needed and they’re very defensive birds which is a trait I’d like to see in Husk more. Seeing him protecting others with his wings in Episode 8 was a very cute touch and I want more of that. Oh and the little orange bit on his snout was based on one of my old cats named Whiskey and I thought that was fitting cause yknow. Whiskey. 🥃. Also it’s cute!

Part of Husk’s orange colouration also falls under some inspiration I received from @bluehazardanonymous whom you may see on my blog again. But they sent me a very interesting colour chart and it made my brain go funny

Husk’s design has a lot of orange, yellow, and small hints of red like his undone bowtie and hat band/ace of hearts card. The orange for gluttony is mostly related to alcohol and such, meanwhile the yellow in his eyes, shirt patch, and on the button on his hat are to show greed from things like gambling and possible leftovers from being an overlord. I don’t think you can just go from being all powerful to some random bartender and NOT have some kind of thirst for power right???? That also bleeds into the red parts (haha cause blood red) to keep his design on the warm side and have a little bit of anger in there.

His clothes are also supposed to look a bit sloppy and kinda sad cause I mean. He is. But they are also all relatively formal items of clothing. By the way I’m never drawing this guy shirtless, sorry you need to beg and pay for that/j

Now for Angel. With Angel being pink-ish and how I usually draw the rest of Hell, I try to make Hell more gross looking and greenish/sickly, generally unpleasant, so that Angel is more eye catching and pops out more like a celebrity would. A lot of the cast in my head is more orange/maroon coloured, not a lot of pink or salmon colours. Of course pink is under lust on the colour wheel, but I personally don’t like chalking Angel up to just his job, nor do i really like using “true” pink. I always keep him in this range:

Also that white is not for him it’s for other things, I always make him a cream-ish colour. I like pink with red undertones always, especially for Angel. It shows his job very blatantly if you take a simple glance at him, but if you’re nuts like me and colour pick from these that I use, you’ll see a lot of them are closer to red, rather than the bright pink-ish-purple colour for lust. And also closer to his original more purple design!

I think it goes without saying that Angel has a lot of pent up anger and frustration that he hides with his persona and humour, and I think trying to show some of that in his colours is a lot more interesting than just haha pink gay spider. I dunno.

Also I thought these little cowlick flip thingies on the side were really cute

I was originally going to make the sign in the back purple since that’s usually the colour of most XXX signs in Hazbin, but the yellow makes everything else look a lot more dingy and gross while still being bright and I love that. Also the yellow is kind of a shallow jab of my own at the adult entertainment industry, a lot of this stuff is just people being exploited for money but I will go on a tangent about this if I don’t shift topic!! Anyway. A lot of the background isn’t super visible, but based on the colours I was kinda going for a more envy & wrath & greed section of the pride ring. Just seems like a good place to smoke. The rain doesn’t hold much symbolism to it but it is there to make the area seem more unpleasant. Yknow how it rains sometimes and the sewage in the street comes up? Like that.

Im really happy with a bunch of stuff in this art. 10 hours, 184+ layers, and 11751 strokes is probably the most I have ever done for.. anything????? Even if you don’t like the art I hope you appreciate the long rant LOL

Be sure to have a good day and drink something ‼️

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

NEW FAVOURITE COVER?

NEW FAVOURITE COVER!

Chapitre 201 - The Truth from within the Ruins

Oh this is just beyond gorgeous. Who can stand against the pure concentrated adorable that is Tsubasa Babies Family Photo? Now with all four of them!

I’m in love with all the tiny details that they clearly spent so long on - all the lovely folds of Sakura’s dress, the intricate detailing on Fai’s robe and staff. Lava Lamp is in his ceremonial garb, and tiny Kurogane IN HIS FANCY LITTLE OUTFIT. (AND HIS POSTURE? GET OUT. Incredible)

 Kurogane doesn’t have Ginryuu yet (since this is Happy Childhood AU, so his father will still have it. Still has the moon though!) but Lava Lamp has the Syaoran Family Sword all ready to go. His outfit would be incomplete without it - they’re all wearing clothing from their home worlds, or maybe their families? I’m technically not sure which world Lava Lamp comes from, but his outfit is Family Legacy all the way down. I’m dying to know if Fai’s outfit is in the style of Seresu or Valeria - I don’t think they’re all that different, but I think I would put my money on Valeria based on the position of the fur and the curl motif. In which case it’s fun for me that his Happy Family AU is in Valeria instead of with Ashura. (sorry not sorry Ashura get fucked)

I suppose in this version he never had reason to leave Valeria in the first place, so it’s a very nice touch that the outfit doesn’t immediately resemble the clothing he wore in his backstory, since that’s all so closely linked to the death of his twin, who would be alive here. Very nice visual choices all around, especially with each of them in their own unique colour pallette. Oh, and even with the colour differences they all have bits of yellow somewhere on them, showing their connection.

The left/right split between them is really fun too - sword wielders on one side, phenomenally powerful magic users on the other, cats vs dogs, unique child/parent pairings, etc. It’s very funny to me that they found a super fancy chair for Sakura and a cushion for Kurogane, but nothing for the other two. But Fai draping himself over the chair is such an incredible piece of character flair, which I am in love with, but also, the TOUCH? The little touch of tiny hands? Sakura reaching back to put her hand on the back of Fai’s? Tiny Lava Lamp’s little grip on Kurogane’s arm? OH it’s so touching. 

And behind them all? THAT WINDOW. Such a clear symbol positioned directly in the centre frame. At first I thought it might be an eye, but this is Happy Family AU so there should be no Evil Wolverine to spy on them. What I’m voting on instead is CLAMP playing with Tarot symbols again and this being the Wheel of Fortune, or a similar idea of a wheel of destiny. They use the latter idea a lot in their earlier works (RG Veda and X/1999 say hi), but I think the tarot symbol in particular really shines through with the ideas they’re playing with in Tsubasa/xxxHolic, and has a very strong parallel to the idea of hitsuzen. 

After some much safer googling it looks like the “Wheel of Fortune” in Tarot can mean change or cycles or inevitable fate, but on the flipside could also be lacking control. I think the reversed meaning of the card really speaks to me the most about their situation in general, as it describes bad luck and misfortunes thrust upon you from external forces, that you are fighting to take control back from an unwinnable situation. That fighting it is impossible, that continuing to fight it can only bring more suffering, and that the only option is to let it go. To stop blaming yourself for the thing you did wrong, or the thing that you think was your fault. To forgive yourself, to accept it all, to let yourself move on, to accept that change is inevitable, and to finally be able to move forward and just let everything happen. 

Because if that’s not exactly the whole situation we are in I don’t know what is. It’s a mirror for the things that Fai and Kurogane have already been through, and for what Lava Lamp Guy is still currently fighting, and CLAMP love to do drop these symbols all the time. 

And this is a bit of a tangent but who’s gonna stop me? Clamp LOVE their tragic destiny pairs, especially in their early works - the couples deeply love but also cursed by fate, like Kendappa and Souma, Ashura and Yasha (flavoured differently in RG Veda, but still fitting this cycle again in Tsubasa), Subaru and Seishirou, Sorata and Arashi (unfinished), Kamui and Fuuma, etc. The characters who are so different from each other, so diametrically opposed, but in love still, and it burns so strong that they either have to kill each other or let the world burn around them - or both! They’re always fighting destiny, just like the reversed wheel of fortune, and they fight it to the point of obliteration. 

AND THEN we have Tsubasa, and I think it’s so endlessly interesting that they took the same pattern and turned it around. Syaoran and Sakura definitely fit the theme (and wild that they took the Cardcaptor Sakura happy couple deliberately to make the most universe shattering tragedy out of it, but I still haven’t seen how their story ends, whether one will have to tragically die to save everything or whether they’ll get out somehow). But what I mostly want to talk about (surprise surprise) Kurogane and Fai, who fit the pattern exactly. Complete opposites, diametrically opposed, set up as antagonists and destined to kill each other but fall in love instead. That they both fight against the tragic pasts that defined them and eventually change their mind. Eventually, slowly, they accept love again and realise that they can actually live with themselves and each other if they let it all go. 

And I think what really gets me is that if this was an earlier Clamp work they absolutely would have tragically died - they would have killed each other in the climax of Seresu and it would have been beautiful and terrible and no-one ever would have ever emotionally recovered from the complete and utter devastation. 

BUT THEY DIDN’T. 

CLAMP spend all of Tsubasa revisiting all their old works, taking us through a parade of the various tragedies they’ve sung across the years, all leading up to them ultimately breaking their own pattern and letting Fai and Kurogane save each other from the same Clamp fate that claimed every tragic pair before them. They choose each other and get out alive. They stop blaming themselves for the unchangeable parts of destiny and finally forgive themselves. And it’s just very emotional to me that it’s these two that make it, these two that get to recover and choose each other and live their lives inseparable from this point on. The two that had arguably the most tragic backstories also get to face their trauma, survive, and live. 

And it’s just so beautiful to see how the CLAMP storytelling method has changed over the years, and to find out that after all these years, the big destiny story they really wanted to tell in their longest and most detailed work was about the two men who fell in love, against all odds and saved each other. Despite absolutely everything saying that it should be impossible, it’s Kurogane and Fai that finally flip the tarot card back around and live. 

And I’m extremely interested in what this means for Lava Lamp and Not!Sakura.

[no-name-publishing]

Manacled by SenLinYu

My 8-month marathon on this project has finally come to a close, and I have a ton of pictures to share!

We’ve got a split-board binding with made-endpapers and a built-in tab for extra support. Hand-sewn endbands with silk-finish cotton sewing thread. Done in a millimeter binding style with black leather, and a hand-drawn and -painted floral motif across the middle. Final page count is just under 1.4k. I figure altogether this was around ~50 hours worth of work for the whole binding, from beginning to the typeset to pulling the final book out of the press.

More pictures of the binding and typeset under the cut! If you have any questions or want more info about the process don’t hesitate to ask!

In truth I over measured/estimated the needed length of my leather; this and my poor pare job is definitely visible through the cloth lol, but I’m still jazzed with the result since I’d never touched leather before this. I designed the spread digitally in Procreate, printed it, transferred it to my cloth using carbon transfer paper, then painted using Jacquard Lumiere Metallic gold paint and a refillable .75mm paint pen.

Printed:

Transferred:

Mid-painting:

From starting the drawing to finishing the painting I’d say this part took ~15 hours. Close up of the spine:

Each endband measures around 3 3/4″ (9.5cm) in length and took around 5 hours to complete. The core is 4-ply hemp cord that I coated with PVA glue. Wrapped with a single strand of red silk-finish cotton thread, and one strand of polyester yellow thread, since it’s kinda shiny. Last I counted it was something like 300+ wraps of thread for each band. The uh, cat hair here is just an added bonus I suppose. Like when you buy a new pair of jeans and get that free sticker.

Some progress shots:

The tie downs. I usually will try to tie down every other signature. With 68 signatures you can understand this ate up a metric shitton of thread.

Different angle. Also a good few of the top of the textblock, which was trimmed painstakingly by hand with a wood chisel.

Smooth as a shark etc.

And some shots of the innards!

Each chapter page when through four rounds of printing: 1st through an inkjet, for the floral; 2nd through a laser printer for the number; 3rd through a laminator for the gold toner-reactive foil; and 4thly for the rest of the text.

Half-title page:

One of the attempts to foil a crane. The toner may have been too thin a line for it to work, or perhaps not dense enough tonerly. I don’t have control over that setting on our Xerox unfortunately.

A second shot of a golden crane. This was slightly more successful but lord knows why. Luck.

Fun fact is that this Daily Prophet page ALONE was about 8 hours worth of typesetting. I do all my typesetting in Word, and this page was recreated line-by-line individually. A few of these elements I also had to redraw by hand since there were just no good alternatives online. Anywho though, good payoff.

Nextly, some in-progess shots I don’t have a good segway into lol. A detail you can’t see on the book but I know is there, is hand-dyed scarlet linen thread, drip drying on my shower curtain rod:

Freshly sewn. 68 signatures, no waiting:

Rounded and backed:

And a close up of the special tab/made-endpaper construction. Stupidly I didn’t take any shots of gluing the split boards on, but I think the idea is pretty easy to imagine. Just picture this tab getting glued in between the cover boards.

You can kind of see it here:

And finally, the behemoth on the shelf. This bad boy tips the scales at just over 4 pounds (about 1.8 grams). Glad to have it; more glad to move on with my life.

Thank you for reading!!

[ccrose-art]

Hey !! I just wanted to say your art is CRAZY good and I was wondering if you had any tips on picking color palettes?

Sorry for taking forever to respond, but hi!!! Thank you so much!!! wahh always wild when I am percieved, makes me v happy :)) As for color, your ask got me really excited since it my favorite part of the artistic process! So sorry if this post is very long and wordy, but I really wanted to talk about colors.

The long and short of it is that I like to use color theory (complimentary, analogous, triadic colors, etc) to minimize the amount of color in my work while using a variety of saturation and value to create the variation! Complimentary being colors across eachother on the color wheel, analogous are the colors next to eachother, and triadic are colors equidistant from each other,,, triangularly.

I typically don’t like starting out with a rigid number of colors of specific shades when I do my work cause it feels really limiting, and I enjoy adding color when it feels right. However, when I do color pick, I like to get a main big overall color scheme in mind then start placing various shades and saturations within that minimized pallete. The important part for me is not to stray too far from my pallete without some intent.

For example, when creating my character Peter, my goal was to make her a very warm colored character. To do that, I used an analogous color scheme of oranges and yellows with green sparingly. By minimizing the amount of different colors used, it helped the piece feel far more cohesive, but the amount of saturated and desaturated forms of the color created a lot more energy. And even though the colors I used were all next to eachother on the color wheel, the green provided a cooling contrast that I used in the eyes and portion of her costume to connect the two and emphasize. I also tried to use saturation and value to separate her from her outfit. Her skintone, hair petals, and markings are all very bright, while the outfit is desaturated tones. This made the seperation of the two more apparent to the viewer that this is body and this is clothes. I also like throwing in multiple color schemes to create even more visual interest. For example, for the lineart I used a deep saturated blue since blue is the complimentary to orange, her main color. This caused the lineart to stand out against her even more so than black lineart would.

To the upper right I also sketched out a different costume for her while maintaining the motif of orange and green (though some of the colors I’m not necessarily happy with).

Here are examples of some of my other stuff to show the “main colors” of the work. And as a secret, if a color isn’t matching my scheme, I like putting a color from my color scheme over it with a lower opacity and color pick from there ;) helps with melding it into it.

Of course these rules are not set in stone and I break them when I gotta, but this is generally how I like to find my colors. Anyways,, I hope this made some sense!! I’m not very good at writing my thoughts down, but I really enjoy color :)))

[i-am-a-fan]

Dude. I need to know about the tails.

I

Am

Invested

In that headcanon. I wanna hear a whole lore dump on your thought process on the latest peice

(If ya want ofc)

so. You wanted to hear my whole lore dump huh?

Please keep in mind that I am well aware that this is SUPPPEERRR off script for the show. This is just kinda like me playing with it like silly putty.

Link to artwork

Spoilers underneath and also long text.

Okay. So it stems from a lot of places.

First I’ll talk specifically about the tails since I think they’re the easiest to explain.

Tails:

The tails from from the season 4 special and the idea that Mk’s Kaiju form has three tails. That’s kinda what inspired it at the beginning.

I’ve outlined what I believe to be the tails in red so it’s easier to see.

Then we have Mk’s name sake in the Chinese dub (I think) Qi Xiaotain which roughly means “little sky” or “little heaven”.

If Wukong is the Sun, and Macaque is the moon, then would it not make sense that Mk, the one caught in between them is the sky?

I always try to draw Wukong’s tail to look like a fire ball, Macaque’s tail to look like a crescent moon, and Mk’s tail to look like a cloud.

Thus, you get the three tails that make up the controlled Kaiju form :D!

I also added the detail that the cloud swirl, what it outlined in orange, comes before wukong’s and Macaque’s tail to show that this feature is special to MK.

Samadhi Fire/ Teal Coloring:

The real thing that started everything was my crazy theory that Mk is the next person to get the samadhi fire.

The original smashing fire was also blue, which is why I made the painting be mixed with teal and yellow.

Link to Mk and the Samadhi Fire

I go into a LOT more detail in that post, but I’m almost certain that one of these 3 things happened to the samadhi fire in the show.

1. It got destroyed with the Lady Bone demon

2. Redson got it back and is unaware of it

3. Plot armor/ unexplained disappearance.

If it’s the first one, then onto the next topic.

Celestial Monkey(?):

I really hope that Mk turns out to be yet another celestial monkey, and if he is, I think it would make the most sense that he’s the “Connected Arm Gibbon” who can “seize the sun and the moon, shorten a thousand mountains, distinguish the auspicious from the inauspicious, And manipulate planets and stars.”

To me it makes the most sense since Mk is already somehow connected the the heavens and the planets.

More so, when Mk uses the Skeleton Key on himself, we get this frame… one that shows us a type of cosmic entity.

Plus, all the times that Mk has a cataclysmic power that shakes the universe.

If you combine this with the eye theory by @ imminent-danger-came , it seems like there’s some other version of MK that is watching and controlling what is happening to the Mk we are following.

- Eye Theory/ Eye Motifs with Mk

- Other Mk theory

There’s also the saying that the fate is written in the stars, and there’s a storyline relating Mk with destiny/ fate and how he can either be doomed to repeat it or change it.

If a version of Mk can truly control the stars, maybe by doing so he can change his fate as the harbinger of chaos.

Adding on, and with @spoofyleaf ‘s contributions, other Mk might be some protective seer of our MK. As seen in “Cooking with Chang’e” episode, Mk seems to simply be able to gain abilities from time to time and lose them.

Tang even comments on this and questions it, and if tang is our Normal Guy ™ who stands in as a Narrator and informant for the audience, then we can assume that this is not normal.

Referencing back to that image, look at the protective stance that the celestial version has over Mk, it’s almost protective of them (how I got inspired for the stance in the image).

Which brings me to the last part:

Reality Manipulation:

If Mk can gain new abilities when it is needed, and has the ability to control fate, does that entail that he has some sort of affect on the reality he’s placed in?

If so, that’s where I took creative liberties. If the Samadhi fire WAS destroyed, and it WAS the ultimate weapon for anything, wouldn’t someone who is obsessed with keeping everyone safe, try to reforge it? Wouldn’t the perfect person be someone who can change reality as they see fit? Wouldn’t that be someone who can distinguish the promising from the unpromising? Wouldn’t it be someone whom the bone demon tried to recruit again, and again? Wouldn’t the ultimate wildfire be wielded by chaos itself? Wou-

[crystallizedday]

Aight.

I’m feeling silly today, so imma do something that may or may not make me look like the craziest person on this platform.

So

As some other @the-ooftroop fans may already know, Springtrap & Dr. Hare have a striking amount of similarities, such as… *proceeds to take out & unfold a comically long piece of paper*:

•Both have a history of kidnapping various children

•Both have used “mind control” to create followers

•Both are fused with a rabbit or rabbit-like object (with Harvey’s mind being fused with an actual rabbit’s while Springtrap was just physically “fused” with the suit)

•Both of them have a tendency of never permanently kicking the bucket against all odds & “always coming back” one way or another

•Both come back alongside other iconic antagonists in the series at one point (referring to Super Villain Island & Pizzeria Simulator respectively)

•Both have an interesting connection with vents being used as a way to easily get from one area of a building to the other (referring to the vent system the player uses to traverse the factory in 24 Carrot Island & the vent system Springtrap uses to traverse the horror attraction in FNaF 3)

•Both are “mad scientists” (which… I mean, William is practically messing with fucking soul energy or whatever the fuck remnant’s supposed to be, so sure, I’ll take it)

•Both are pretty much the faces of their respective franchises

&, according to Ooftroop…

•Both have “baby forms”… that are the most “what the fuck” things from both franchises that I’ve ever seen, just on two COMPLETELY different levels…

& I don’t even KNOW if this is all of them, there are a SCARY number of similarities.

But then I realized something this morning.

The Binary Bard, the OTHER mad scientist from Poptropica, shares some of these similarities as well, namely being:

•Both of them have a tendency of never permanently kicking the bucket against all odds & “always coming back” one way or another

•Both come back alongside other iconic antagonists in the series at one point

&

•Both are “mad scientists” (even if Bard is more so a mad engineer… but even so, that only fits William more cause… I mean, remember fucking Afton Robotics??)

But all those similarities are just things Bard already has in common with Harvey, so that doesn’t say much (& my old psych-statistics professor would kick my ass if I didn’t acknowledge this overlap).

You wanna know what DOES say a lot though?

How both this funny little jester & the smelly rabbit man

•Are a “fusion” of man & machine

•Have been horribly disfigured in an accident by their own machinery (or, assuming William didn’t design the springlock suit, machinery they used to aid their goals at least)

•Are considered to be the most deranged &/or unhinged but also the most threatening character in their respective franchises

•Have purple & yellow as their prime color motifs (mainly when William was alive & using the not-rotting Spring Bonnie suit)

&, most importantly of all…

•They’re both British… probably. Bard doesn’t have a canon voice actor, so I’m just going off of how they were at least European considering their medieval hometown.

So where am I getting at with this?

… I dunno.

I just thought it would be funny to point it out & joke about how Scott “copied Poptropica” or something ridiculous like that.

Or give you all this absolutely disgusting visual.

Because I despise myself (/j). WJWODKWODOKWODKSKEOKEOWJDWIIR

[waitmyturtles]

Friends. It’s been a HELL of a week, no? For those of us watching BOTH the Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy X ATOTS episodes AND Our Dining Table (AND STEP BY STEP RETURNS NEXT WEEK, FUCK). I mean. I had purposely NOT taken on new shows to hoard my mental health resources to handle Our Skyy 2/BBS/ATOTS, but I give up, I’m just a bowl of cocktails, melted ice cream, and mental tears. 

I held off on watching Our Dining Table, episode 9, until today to recover from episode 2, part 4/4, oh holy Jesus of Our Skyy 2/BBS/ATOTS this week, but I’ve caught up on ODT, so here we go. 

The dearest wonderfriend @lurkingshan wrote a fabulous piece about the family dynamics at hand in the meeting between Yutaka and his adoptive family. Everyone knows now that that wasn’t in the manga, and I want to take a few guesses as to why it was included in the screenplay. 

I haven’t plunged into the tags as much as Shan, but it seems like some folks may think that Yutaka misjudged his adoptive family as he grew up. I’m more interested in the why of that, and Shan certainly touches upon it as an effect of Yutaka losing his parents so young. We know Yutaka has a fear of abandonment. It’s how it gets expressed that’s affecting his whole life -- including, in the words of @wen-kexing-apologist, the LONG FUCKING PREGNANT PAUSES (lol).

Yutaka was so shattered by the initial behavior of his adoptive brother when he was first taken in -- after his parents died -- that he utterly retreated into himself, and COULD NOT SEE the subtle changes of Yuki Oniisan over the course of the rest of their childhoods, as Yuki tried to reach out. Yuki ended up thinking that that was the way Yutaka just was, when in fact, this was Yutaka’s protective shield.... a sheild that ended up being mostly who Yutaka ended up being as an adult anyway.

I absolutely LOVED seeing this motif being played out in a non-canon scene, LOVED IT. I LOVED how that scene was set up, with almost HOSPITAL-LIKE lighting, SURGICAL lighting, COLD and white (yuuki means snow, funnily enough EDITING TO CORRECT, thank you to @sliceduplife for correcting me because I was only hearing “yuuki” by sound, and the kanji of his name actually means courage + tree, so please ignore the snow comparison to the lighting!) -- while the flashback to Minoru and Tane was full of warm, yellow, sun-like light. 

This was an EXAMINATION of Yutaka’s mind and heart. After talking with his adoptive family, Yutaka realized his perspective and perception was off. He’s missing subtle details about his interactions with people. His shield is SO strong that he missed fully embodying HIS OWN FEELINGS FOR MINORU -- even though, as he says to Minoru in the playground, that he KNEW what those feelings were. He just didn’t know how to act on them.

And we’re going to see, in the final episode, another instance of this, another experience of a feeling that Yutaka hasn’t had before, but one that he KNOWS HE NEEDS TO FEAR, because he lost his parents. Now that he has something GOOD -- he knows there’s a chance he’ll LOSE IT. And as friends like @respectthepetty and @troubled-mind have noted, the last episode will feature Dad Ueda-san in a turn that will not disappoint regarding this. 

But now, this fear of LOSS. Y’all and me -- we all know people, and/or we are these people, that always have something on our minds that we’re anxious about. I’m that kind of person -- I don’t feel normal if I’m not stressed about something. I just bet that this is Yutaka’s defense mechanism against any more pain, and what we’re witnessing is the embodiment of it. 

Y’all know this by now since I’m late in writing this, but next week’s episode is gonna be emotionally EVERYTHING, so get your tissues ready. I, for one, am definitely not ready, and he has a lot to do with this, so yes, I DO blame Aof Noppharnach for cliffhangers AGAIN airing his damn Our Skyy shows while the best BL airing right now is ending. COME AWN, AOF! 

[fashionschoolreject]

Stella (Winx Club)

As a little kid, whenever I played Winx with my friends or we’d contemplate “what Winx character am I?” I would always be ✨ Stella ✨

(something in me just loves a bitch with a heart of gold 🥰)

**Stella is based on Cameron Diaz**

The show’s design is giving Mormon family vlogger mom - it just retains none of the original style or charm. Stella is supposed to be fashionable. I keep hating on the show, but I’m going to say it’s not the costume designer’s fault - when involved in it you really have to go based on what flies with the production design and cinematography and that’s just the vibes she had to work with (the costume designer is Rebecca Hale btw - apparently she’s worked on some Dr. Who)

Now.. my interpretation of ✨Stella✨

[Winx Club Styling - 2/8]

canonically, Stella is the richest of the Winx Club (she’s the crowned princess of Solaria) and while her style is fun, a lot of it appears to be extremely luxurious and expensive as money is no object

girlie just wants to look good

lots of yellows, oranges, pinks, greens

headbands!!!

like Bloom’s, there’s a lot of 70s influence (I just know Stella would listen to ABBA religiously)

of the Winx, Bloom and Stella have the closest sense of style because they are both based on different aspects of American culture at the time : Bloom is the average middle-class girl next door but Stella represents more affluent and stylish teens from areas like LA

style is meant to seem more grown up (you can just because of who she’s based on)

obviously trendy - even if a bit odd at times (she wears with confidence)

sun and moon motifs

[boombambaby]

Drabble; The Win-Win Meet-Cute Pt. 1

“—We’re receiving a shipment of wool from the higher regions this afternoon, which will be distributed—“ “Yeah, can you make it a passion fruit smoothie this time? If I drink one more mango smoothie, I’m gonna start to look like one! Hah!” He laughs loudly at his own joke, the sound of it echoing off of the walls of the cavernous recreation room and interrupting the monotone droning of his day planner. It’s a startling contrast to the gentle lapping sounds of water brushing against the artificial banks of his indoor lake, and Kuzco can see the day planner cast him an unimpressed look over the top of his scroll from the corner of his eye.

The room was designed with one specific purpose in mind; relaxation. His own personal oasis within the palace, where he can go to clear his mind and rejuvenate himself after a long advisory meeting, or a busy morning. The walls are a muted yellow, in a stone motif that continues on to the floor surrounding the built in lake in the center of the room. Natural trees, shrubs and rock line the banks of the lake, giving the room an outdoorsy feel— despite the small walking bridge and the waterslide sitting on one side, of course. In short; It’s paradise. Over the top extravagant? Sure, but it was built before his ‘nice guy’ transformation, and just because he’s changed for the better now doesn’t mean he can’t still enjoy it. “Very good sir, will that be all?”

“Yeah, for right now. Thanks, Manu.” Kuzco heaves a contented sigh once he’s calmed down from his laughing fit, and readjusts himself on his floating lounge chair. The butler— Manu; He’s making a point to learn his staff’s names and to become more approachable— takes it as the dismissal it is, and turns to leave the room. Undeterred by the interruption, the day planner clears his throat and resumes reading from his scroll, following Kuzco from his place on the banks of the lake as he drifts lazily around in the center. “As I was saying, sir. The shipment will be distributed first to the city—“ “Your highness!” The panicked voice of the Royal Record keeper shatters the serenity of the room once more, startling both the day planner and Kuzco who almost upends his floating lounge chair in alarm. Huffing as he makes his way into the room, the stout man skids to a stop at the edge of the bank nearest him and beckons him closer with a frantic hand motion. His day planner sighs, throwing his hands up in frustration at the realization that his schedule is a lost cause, and turns to leave the room in the direction the Royal Record keeper came from. Kuzco would find it amusing, if not for the sense of dread falling over him at the sheer panic in the record keepers face. “You know this is supposed to be my no-work zone, right? It’s the relaxation room, not the ‘stress-Kuzco-out-beyond-belief room’, . . .room.” Despite his words, Kuzco weakly paddles his way over to the bank with his hands, sloshing water around as he goes. “I understand, sire. But you have to see this! When we were going over the books, we came across a previously undiscovered clause in the prior Emperor— your father’s—  decree that directly impacts your right to the throne.” Now fully alarmed, Kuzco tries to gingerly disembark his floating chair so he can see the scroll for himself, and instead manages to upend it, sending him splashing into the water of the lake. It only takes a moment for him to come back up, heaving in a lung full of air as he does so and stubbornly ignoring the amused look on the record keeper’s face. “Okay yeah, great— dad got a little crazy with the pencil back in his day. What does that mean for me?” Kuzco grunts, wading through the water with angry strokes as he makes his way towards the rope ladder that will leave him out. “Well, uh. Plainly speaking, it means that unless you— “

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

“— Unless I pick a bride, or earn a diploma stating that I received a formal education, I forfeit my right to the throne! Can you believe that?!” The scroll in question is slammed down atop the dining table in Pacha’s hut, a seething Kuzco breathing raggedly as he waits for vindication for his anger from Pacha and Chicha, who are staring at him with matching blank looks of confusion. When he’d first heard about the decree from the records keeper, he went on a rampage— demanding to see the previous decrees and insisting this was a mistake, or some sort of obvious trick set in place by Yzma in her jealousy. A week went by with royal historians scouring through the archives, and Kuzco worriedly pacing the halls of the palace while he waited for confirmation.

When the verdict returned, the very first person he thought to go to about the matter was Pacha. After everything they’ve been through, he’d begun to think of the peasant as not only a friend, but a fatherly figure of sorts. If anybody knew what to do; it would be Pacha. And Chicha; that woman is a force to be reckoned with. So without further complaint, and against the record keeper’s urging for him to keep this knowledge to the inner circle of advisors, Kuzco packed his belongings and announced that he would be heading to his summer get-away hut once more. “It was supposed to take effect by my eighteenth birthday, but I guess with me being ‘dead’ and all, and Yzma taking over the throne it got overlooked. Oh! I bet that’s why they were pushing so hard for me to pick a bride! It all makes sense now!” Kuzco realizes, slapping a hand against the side of his head in exasperation. Pacha and Chicha share another look, and Chicha reaches out to take the scroll so she can read over it herself. “What am I gonna do? Unless I find a bride in the next few days, they’re going to make me go to the local school I funded years ago to get the village council off my back. Me! In public school. With peasants!” He groans, overdramatic and allows his head to fall down to the table, completely missing Pacha’s dry look at the mention of being stuck with peasants. As if he wasn’t sitting in a peasants home right now, asking for advice.

[medusapelagia]

26 AU-gust: Lighthouse - Part 4 (the end)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Rating: Mature Relationship: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson WT: Monsters, unconventional mermaid AU, tsunami, secondary characters death WC: 3324

Steve goes back to the lagoon.

Eddie is still hiding somewhere.

“Did you know it?” he asks “Did you know about the portals?”

Steve sees a movement with the corner of his eyes, and those yellow eyes are staring at him.

“You did. Didn’t you?.”

He doesn’t answer.

“I am your friend! Why are you keeping secrets from me?!” he yells, and a webbed hand grabs him and drags him under the water.

He tries to free himself to swim toward the surface, but Eddie’s voice in his head says.

Do you trust me?

Steve stills his eyes into Eddie’s eyes.

He is too stupid. His father always told him.

He nods in the water, trying to fight the impulse of swimming away.

He needs air.

Oxygen.

The surface is so close.

He can see it.

He is going to drown because he is a fool.

Eddie releases his grip and drags him toward the surface, holding Steve tight as he coughs and tries to get out of the lagoon, then he swims back to his hiding place.

The door opens and Hopper is pulling him away from the water.

***

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Hopper is scolding him, while the boy keeps coughing with a blanket around his shoulder “You could have died, you fucking moron!”

But he didn’t and Eddie wasn’t going to kill him. He knows that. It was a test, and he really hopes that he passed it with flying colors because it was terrifying.

“You ok?” Joyce asks him, offering him a cup of tea.

“I’m fine.” he replies, holding the hot cup in his hands.

“What happened? What did he say?”

Steve looks at them surprised and that’s when he realizes “You don’t hear him, do you? That’s why I’m here. Because he speaks to me! If not you would have left me to die on that fucking island !” he yells and no one denies it.

For every little truth that they say to him there is more that they are hiding.

There is a motif if Eddie never speaks when there are other people around. He speaks only to Steve.

That’s why Brennan wanted him in the first place, and that’s why they are keeping him there.

“It’s not what you think.” Hopper tries to deny it but the little trust that he had in this man is definitely crumbling. 

“What do you want from him?” he asks, holding tight to the blanket, fighting the shivering.

“We want to know what he knows.”

“He is a hybrid born in a military facility, what do you think he knows?” Steve yells.

“The siren. The black one. She was like a queen. She was able to get into people’s minds. That’s how she convinced Wayne to take away het little fish.”

That’s what happened? Did she convince the man to take Eddie away? Or did he realize that they were doing something awful?

Eddie has kissed the picture.

Eddie has told him that Wayne helped him when he was injured.

Is it possible that Wayne was something more than a mere executioner?

Is it possible that Wayne was… a father?

There are some similarities between the hybrid and the man in the picture.

He would like to ask Hopper how they impregnate the sirens’ queen, but he is not sure that he wants to know it, so he keeps his mouth shut.

The other two boys at the facility, Billy and Jonathan, try to convince him that Eddie is in good hands, that they just need help to close the portals and everything will be back to normal.

But sirens, mermaids, and so on have lived in fairy tales since forever, which means that there are more portals than the one he dreamed of.

Joyce shows him a map, with some red crosses.

There are so many. All around the world. 

“These are all the portals that we were able to map down. The majority has already closed on his own, but ours” she points at the big crack so close to the island Steve lived on “This one is the newest. And the biggest. And we are scared of what can come through that portal if it becomes big enough.” she explains to him.

“And you want Eddie to close it?”

“Not exactly. We have a sort of laser that our engineers have designed during the years we have known about the portals. But we got different ideas on how to use the portals. Us, meaning me, Hop, and all the people that work in this base, thought that the only thing to do was close it once and for all and be ready to close another one if it will ever appear. Others, like Dr. Brenner and his scientists, thought that we could have got more by exploiting the portal and the creatures that came from it.”

“And what will happen to the hybrids that are in our dimension when we close the portal?” Steve asks, talking generically but thinking at Eddie.

“We don’t know.” she admits “We don’t know what will happen once we close the portals. We have no studies or anything else to give us an idea of what will happen.”

She is lying.

Maybe it’s true that she doesn’t know but she has an idea. An idea that she is not going to share with Steve.

“And you want me to convince him to help you close the portal right?”

Hopper gets closer to him “These creatures are dangerous. They almost killed you and your friend Robin! Have you already forgotten?”

No.

He hasn’t forgotten about the monsters that tried to eat him, but he hasn’t forgotten about the creatures in the tanks either. 

The air gets frigid when he shakes his head, denying them his help.

Joyce's warm smile becomes glacial when she declares that Steve is not going to be left alone with Eddie anymore.

The last time that they see each other, Eddie’s face is half submerged under the water, all he can see is the crown of his head and those strange eyes, always fixed on him, like a dark warning.

***

Steve starts to live with the two boys of the facility, Jonathan and Billy. He eats his meals with them and they spend the majority of the time together. Jonathan is a very shy boy but Billy is eager to talk and share his story. He tells him that he is from California, and that the first time he saw a mermaid, his father didn’t believe him and hit him so hard that he lost consciousness. He tells him that he was never scared of them, not even when the creature was so close to his surfboard that he could have killed him in a moment.

He tells him that the adrenaline that he felt when he was surfing above the waves and saw the shadow of a mermaid under him is the highest he has ever felt.

He and Jon were best friends, and when Jon’s mother asked him to move and join her in her mission, Billy followed, leaving behind a life of abuse.

“We don’t want to hurt him. We just need his help!” Billy tries to convince him, while sipping a beer “Have you seen what the big siren has done to the facility you were in? Can you think about what he is going to do with the same power? He could call every siren, every mermaid, and make them work for him, closing the fucking portals.”

But that’s not what Steve saw. What Steve felt.

He felt that the black siren waited for his vengeance till she saw her son. Then she destroyed everything, without even caring if Eddie was still there or not.

Steve stares at the ocean. He can’t leave the island, he would die before getting to the shore, but maybe Eddie could. 

He starts planning Eddie’s escape at that very moment.

***

Eddie and Steve don’t talk anymore.

They don’t spend time together.

But when Steve dreams, he dreams with Eddie.

He still dreams about colorful corals, fish, and red shadows.

He dreams of the crack in the ocean floors.

He dreams of humans.

He dreams of the sirens.

He dreams of the light that filters from the sky to the abysm.

He dreams of sharks, colossal squid, and the creatures that live in the dark.

And he dreams of himself.

He dreams about his golden skin, decorated with shells, and pearls.

He dreams of kisses, and bubbles of air under the surface.

And every time, in the dreams, Steve whispers “I’ll set you free.”

***

“They want you to close the portal.” Steve says in a dream they are sharing, they are resting on the shore, with their feet in the salt water.

“I know.” Eddie replies in that voice that he has only in their dreams.

“You think you could close them?” 

“Don’t know. Difficult.”

“Would you like to try?”

Eddie takes his hand in his “Goodbye?”

“Why? No! I’ll stay with you! We’ll find a solution and…”

“Portal. Goodbye.” Eddie repeats with a voice that it’s not his and Steve can’t stand the idea of losing him.

He turns, boxing him between his arms “No goodbye.” he states.

“Do you trust me?” Eddie asks again, always testing the connection between them. But Steve’s resolution never falters.

“I do.”

***

There is a subtle sound reverberating in the entire facility. Something so light that Steve can’t hear it. What he notices are the people that keep coming back injured from their mission.

More every day.

“It seems like they are attacking us.” Steve hears Hopper say to Joyce, the woman nods in agreement but says nothing.

“We can’t keep sending boys out there if we have no plan!” he protests.

“Their sacrifice is not useless Jim.”

“They are just kids! Would you be so calm if it was Jonathan out there? Risking his life? That fucking sirens get closer every day and there is no way our defense will keep them outside of our waters for long.”

“You knew it would have happened and you insisted on getting the hybrid boy. What do you want me to do Jim?!”

Hopper grunts and leaves the room, banging the door behind him,

“I know you are here. Come in, Steve.”

Joyce's voice is calm and collected, but dangerous.

“I know you heard what we said, and yes, sirens and mermaids are getting closer to the facility searching for your friend. He is subtly calling them.” she sits on the big chair, sighing “He thinks we don’t know that he is communicating with them but we do. I just want you to understand that we are not the enemy.”

“Neither are they!” he retorts angrily.

She caresses Steve’s face “You love him, don’t you?”

Steve shakes his head, ready to deny it, but finds no words.

“I know how it feels to love someone dangerous. You are always ready to make excuses for them. But the truth is that his real nature is dangerous for you. That he could kill you at any moment. He already tried, don’t you remember?”

Steve thinks back about Eddie dragging him under the surface.

He thinks about the dreams and the kisses.

He thinks about iridescent bubbles of air, and when he turns he doesn’t see Joyce’s face. 

He sees Eddie, the beating heart of the portal, right in front of him.

So dangerous and beautiful.

“I love him.” he admits easily “And I will not let you put him in peril.”

She brushes Steve's hair away from his face “I hope you made the right choice, sweetie.”

***

The day the world exploded, is not a day at all. 

It’s night and Steve is looking at the ocean. The tile has retired and the water has disappeared, leaving the ocean floor obscenely bare.

There are small fishes trapped in the sand. Starfish. Shells. Seaweeds. A beautiful marine garden just in front of him.

He takes a second too long to understand what he is looking at, and then starts running toward the facility screaming “TSUNAMI!”

***

When the water comes back with all his force, it shatters the windows, breaks the concrete, and drowns everyone so unlucky to be on his path.

The entire island gets washed by the salty water.

Steve survives, tight to a palm, and when finally the water reeds, there is only disruption and death.

And a small submarine that he never saw before, is lying on his side, like he was resting after a hard day of work.

Joyce’s forehead is bleeding, but all her attention is on the little submarine. She is screaming orders and some of the survivors are trying to see if they can fix it.

It seems so similar to the one that Steve saw in his dream.

There are bodies on the shore. Broken bodies that were crushed by the power of the waves.

Steve runs toward the little lagoon, calling for Eddie. The door was ripped off and the room is full of debris, Eddie’s clear blue water is a brown mix of mug.

He screams his name, trying to get to the bottom of the lagoon, but it’s too dark and too muddy.

“He did it! He did all of this!” Joyce screams, dragging Steve out of the muddy water “Look at this! Look at this destruction and tell me that they are not dangerous!” she yells.

But Steve knew that, whatever Eddie was up to, he couldn’t have caused such destruction.

“It was a tsunami.” he tells her, quietly.

“What?”

“A tsunami. It’s a natural event. It’s not Eddie’s fault.”

Joyce stills and then runs towards the control room, they have no electricity but an old seismograph has traced an intricate drawing of lines.

Joyce looks at the paper and says “It’s happening.”

“We need more time!” someone protests.

Jonathan stares at his mother, astonished “Is it breaking?”

“What… what does it mean?” Steve asks, confused.

“The portal is breaking. Something bigger is trying to get through and if we don’t stop it now we are destined to perish.”

“How can we close it?”

“The submarine. It has a laser that can weld the edges of the portal. But we never really tried it and I don’t even know if it’s working anymore.”

“We have to try!” Billy interjects “We can’t stay here doing nothing!”

“We don’t even know if it would work and Hopper can’t drive the submarine with a broken leg!”

Steve turns around, noticing only at that moment that the big man is not there.

They have other problems. People are injured, the facility is almost disrupted, and he has no fucking idea where Eddie is or if he is alive at all… but if something is really trying to break through, they have to close the fucking gate.

“I can drive it. If it works, I can drive it. I just need someone to teach me how to use the… sealing thingy.”

“You would?” Joyce asks him, surprised.

“If there is something that is trying to break through, we have to stop it before it’s too late.”

“I can use the laser.” Jonathan meekly intervenes.

“Jon! No! You can’t!” the woman complains.

“We all have to make sacrifices, that’s not what you always say, mum?”

The woman desperately tries to find a reason to stop him, but finds no one, and when the submarine miraculously turns on Joyce puts his hands on Steve’s shoulder “Bring him back. Please.”

***

Sealing through the debris and the muddy water is not easy, but somehow Steve manages to get where the water is cleared and fresher.

They dive down, down, as he had done so many times in his dreams.

He misses the sensation of the water getting colder on his skin, but he keeps diving down.

"Do you know where you are going?"

Steve nods. He has seen that red glowing crack so many times that he feels that he knows how to get there.

He realizes that Eddie is calling for him only when the yellow light of the submarine catches a glimpse of a familiar dark green tail.

"What now?" he asks Jonathan who is looking mesmerized at the portal.

"I'll start the laser and then... we prey."

There are hybrids everywhere around them but no one tries to attack them, the majority are swimming toward the portal and they gently slide through the glowing door that leads to another dimension.

The portal is bigger than Steve remembered and some tentacles are trying to escape from the other dimension to their.

Jonathan's laser hits one of the tentacles which quickly retires and then comes back, trying to hit them.

Steve drives even lower, they are almost on the ocean floor, and Jonathan tries to quicken his work while he keeps crying out loud "We are going to die, we are going to die!" but when a tentacle tries to hit them again, a couple of mermaids stop it. And then there are more and more, and all of them are keeping the tentacles away from them, pushing them back, and then they slide through the portal too.

There is only one mermaid left and just a little part of the portal left.

With me? Eddie asks.

"I can't."

Trust me?

Steve hasn't the time to reply because a tentacle gets out from the portal and starts to strangle Eddie.

He screams, while Jonathan quickly closes the portal and the severed tentacle falls.

The mechanical arms of the submarine take the unconscious mermaid and Steve drives the submarine toward the surface, getting to the mermaid as soon as they are out of the water.

***

Steve keeps dreaming about the ocean.

He hears the muffled sounds.

The gentle rolls of the stones.

Eddie is stuck.

Not totally mermaid, not totally human.

His face is suffering and Steve's heart is breaking while he holds him. He doesn't know how to make it better.

He knows nothing about parallel dimensions, portals, and mermaids.

All he knows is that he cares about this mythical creature that shouldn't even exist and that now is lying in his arms.

"Don't leave me..." he whispers on Eddie's wet skin.

"Always... here..." Eddie murmurs, touching his chest, just above the heart.

But that's not enough. Not for Steve. He can't accept that!

Steve digs into their connection, digs into Eddie's mind as he never did before.

Digs until he finds the answer that he wants.

***

Steve is reading a book when Eddie opens his eyes for the first time.

It takes many other times to get him self-aware, but Steve is patient. He has waited for this moment for weeks.

Eddie is in his human form, as he has been for the last three weeks since Steve started to give him his blood. His human blood.

That is something that Brenner theorized. That human blood or mermaid blood would have made the hybrid more human and the human more mermaid.

He was right and Steve is really glad that he found that memory hidden in Eddie's brain.

“Human?” he asks, confused.

“More human. But not totally.” Steve explains to him with a smile “Enough that you could live at the lighthouse if you want to, and swim by night in your true form.”

“Other hybrids?”

Steve shakes his head “They either went back to their dimension or died during the tsunami. I’m sorry.”

“I stay?”

Steve smiles at that little voice that is not really Eddie’s

“If you want, you stay. With me.”

They hold hands.

Eddie’s skin is still a little bit too green and not totally human.

That night when Steve dreams he dreams of Eddie’s cave and a little pod just for the two of them. 

The song that he hears is full of love.

tag list: @yourmom-isgay

[loppiopio]

tagged by @whamss i’m currently not doing anything so i will do this.

last song: i was thinking about heathers musical last night and put it on to loop while on a mad surugaya shopping spree. i was imagining it again earlier today and put on the end of our love is god just to listen to that part where kurt gets shot. i don’t even like the whole song that much but i kept looping some of the fun motifs from it in the other songs with my mind radio.

favourite colour: uhhhhh pfffff kinda suuuck at choosing one favourite colour but i vibe with this soft  green #cccc66 that’s the colour of this little water bottle i got, and also the awesome yellow #e4bd18 on the cute crossbody itabag i also got.

last movie/show: when i watch shows or movies it’s usually with note who’s been busy with granblue relink as of late so i’ve just been catching up on connor vods (last one i watched) (what i'm watching right now) an actual movie or show I last watched…… i swear it must’ve been episode 5 of scott pilgrim from november last year with note? this was before i strapped in committed to making that video, and then travelled afterwards.

sweet/spicy/savoury: idk i like treats of both the sweet and savoury variety (separately) i think this is a weird question for me to answer. actually buying nice treats is costly so most of the time i’m just eating savoury for sustenance? preparing something sweet myself is a hassle.

relationship status: single and fine with it.

last thing i googled: this sucks the last thing i looked up was “sustenance” to make sure I got the word right, my last few searches have also been “episode 6 scott pilgrim” “episode 4 scott pilgrim” “granblue relink” i’m literally going through my history right now and everything in the last 24 hours is just me checking what i might be saying or checking what i was buying from last night.

current obsession: i’m not deeply obsessed with it right now but my active interest is still durarara at the moment, still thinking of and not finishing a bunch of things i want to do for it and last night was a deep shopping spree for mostly durarara merch. i do get like, pretty invested in some of the games connor plays in the moment though, like super mario rpg went hard (such a charming game) and still thinking about detective grimoire which he played for like 10 minutes i wish he’d play for more. i do just watch that guy a lot. i’ve also got genshin back in the schedule again (sorry) and am pretty into the card game, which oddly enough is making me feel like reading some fic.

i am afraid to tag mutuals that apparently follow me because i barely post anything on here like you said but we should harass @euclidpaws more into posting too because i haven’t seen them say a word. @rosa-maltz @stray-tori i talk to you guys enough and we are registered mutuals you can do this if you want.

[dkniade]

Regarding those Edwin doodles, why was he beaten up? Who was talking to him? 👀 Also, moomoo Edwin is so cute >:3c 💕💕💕

context

Oh, it was no one in particular (Maybe a rival gang member if I were to specify…? Probably not his former creative partner Thea though. She’s not that violent haha..) (I haven’t thought of details of Thea and Edwin’s backstory in a long time now, and surface personality traits are hard to pin down without a backstory.)

The joke was that in the first scenario he was painting and in the second he was in pain because of the meme (?) that there’s “pain” in “painting” haha (I don’t believe painting/drawing has to inherently be a painful process though, or that only painful emotions make good art)

Also I wanted to draw him beaten up (either it was just for fun or I was maybe frustrated? Probably just for fun though.) I like drawing characters looking up defiantly even as they’re beaten up✨

moo moo Edwin hahaha— Thank you! I’ve heard that cows can be fluffy…

Come to think of it, I dunno what animal motif he’d have if he were to have one.

A cheerful artist… with some sort of identity confusion due to winter depression (old 2019 concept. Looking back, the severity doesn’t seem to match my knowledge of winter depression)(if he’s ashamed, does he feel it so deeply that he voluntarily uses a slightly different name, uses a mask to cover his face, AND grows out his hair & dyes it, all for the sake of… having his orange look be the happy/cheerful/friendly one?) (If he hides himself in plain sight, if he can’t accept this as part of himself, this can lead to some troublesome identity issues…)(unrelated to gender)

-

“I’m Edwin! Nice to meet you too!” —Edwin, usually in spring/summer

“Hey, just call me Devin for now. No, it’s not because I want to change my name or anything. It’s, uhh… an… alias…? Haha…” — Devin, on the outside probably, in winter

“What is this ‘Devin’ name to me? Am I even allowed to feel this way as myself? God, but what am I supposed to do? I can’t just tell people that it comes every winter and gets better in spring.” —Edwin, on the inside probably

-

(…I almost want to compare him to “Childe” Tartaglia Ajax simply for his multiple names/identity thing but uhh, that guy’s on a whole different level. Venti/Barbatos? Hmm but to my knowledge nothing particularly bad happened to Edwin.)

What would be an animal that emphases this duality I wonder… An animal that looks friendly and colourful but isn’t what it seems…

…poison dart frog???

(SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder)

[Start transcript

first image: the concept sheet

a flat colour sketch in upper corner is labelled True Palette. A cartoony waist-up version with bright warm colours is labeled Edwin and an anime headshot version with desaturated colours is labeled Devin. Another flat-colour shot of Edwin/Devin is labeled flat sample. A full body reference of both is labeled Project SAD Palette. Edwin is labeled spring/summer (“usually”) and Devin is labeled under effects of SAD

second image: the mock magazine cover

knees-up greyscale illustration of Devin sitting with his winter coat and mask, looking at the viewer, his hands in fists. His eyes and hair clip are light green. Behind him is a black circle outline with two sharp black triangles pointing at him. White magazine header: SYMPTOM. separate subheadings in green: questions, sunshine. separate text in white: What does SAD stand for? What are some symptoms of winter depression? What are some symptoms of summer depression? What hormone does sunshine trigger the brain to release? What is an alternative to sunshine? In the right corner, in green: A solution to your problems!?

third and fourth images: sketch of Edwin/Devin with some information

Edwin. he/him, 20. yellow barcode piercing (right ear). left-handed. neutral expression looks surprised/confused. hard to read based on expression & body language. has a secret he’s ashamed of. (he doesn’t have to be though.) arrow points to him, saying spring/summer.

Devin. he/him, 20. black triangle frame piercing (left ear). left-handed (still). Edwin winter an Alia’s & disguise. wears mask not for physical health (in his opinion). seasonal affective disorder: winter depression. tried to hide his symptoms but isn’t good at it. ashamed of his winter depression. wants to separate his depressed self from his usual self. arrow points to him, saying autumn/winter.

end transcript.]

[eldritch-muppetshow]

spoilers for the new dhmis series under the cut. i apologize for the length, i just have a lot of thoughts

is it just me, or does the friendship episode feel like a callback/parallel to the love episode of the original series? i made this point in a discord convo w a friend but i’m just gonna repost it here and elaborate on it.

1. a seemingly trustworthy figure that claims to be looking out for yellow guy’s well-being during a period of conflict with his friends, but turns out to want to use him for their own gain

2. the motif of characters calling an entity a bird when that’s not the case (“eagle”/“little baby pigeon”)

3. the bright and colorful fantasy worlds that are initially presented as a sort of haven/respite for yellow that quickly take a turn for the dark/disturbing when said seemingly-trustworthy figure shows up in it

4. the use of the “pesky bee” line when duck (intentionally or otherwise) kills the lingering result of the figure and yellow’s encounter

and while shrignold and company are never directly referenced in the new series to my knowledge, warren seems to actively be trying (and of course failing) to invoke what easily came to shrignold; shrignold had his followers’ and yellow guy’s respect and was clearly in a position of power within the love cult, but warren can’t even get imaginary people to respect or like him and it’s pretty much stated that the “okay, stop” kicked him out for one reason or another.

there’s also the factor that shrignold was able to carry out his lesson because yellow was alone and there wasn’t another outside perspective around to call his teachings out as bullshit. yellow’s friends look for him and initially see him flying through the air, but remain unconcerned, don’t see his encounter with the love cult, don’t intervene (and depending on how you interpret their appearance in the background toward the end of the song, they may have even been in on it!), and presumably remain unaware it happened for the rest of the series.

by contrast, yellow initially isn’t alone with warren, and the three (plus colin) team up to verbally tear him and his teachings to shreds. and even when warren does get yellow alone (technically the brain friends are there with them too, but still), duck and red do their best to get yellow out of that space and back with them. of course, that’s kind of offset by the fact that their friendship/family relationship/whatever you classify them as is still dysfunctional— and to be clear, i don’t necessarily blame web series!duck and red for not intervening shrignold’s lesson, their cameo in the song could mean a lot of things and it’s entirely possible that they couldn’t have helped anyway— but i feel like it’s worth mentioning.

i’m not really sure how to conclude this other than saying that as of the time i’m writing this, i can’t really hate warren as a character— as a person, he absolutely sucks, but i do find him kind of interesting because with this angle in mind, he’s essentially a shitty knockoff of shrignold and both the other characters and narrative tear him apart for it. it’s entirely possible that these parallels are all one big coincidence and warren is meant to be taken at face value, but with the amount of callbacks to the original series present in this new one, i find that kind of a stretch. of course, this is all just my take on it, and i plan to watch both the love episode and the friendship episode back-to-back at some point to see if there are more specific/blatant examples than what i cited here.

tldr; warren is wannabe shrignold and the friendship episode is “episode 3 but if someone called the love cult out on their bullshit”