#if the rest of their design is distinctive enough to still tell who it is

[5qui99l3draws]

warmup that kinda kept going after the warmup part

timelapse:

[gabessquishytum]

So we’ve seen a lot of Mafia AU stuff, but may I add my Mob Collections Department Hob to the mix?

Morpheus’ heart flutters a little in his chest when he opens the door one day to a stranger, a gentle professor-looking guy with a messenger bag slung across his chest. But then the man slips his hand into the bag and pulls out a crowbar. His deep chocolate eyes go hard as he steps over the threshold, and Morpheus instinctively retreats.

He knows exactly who this must be. This is the guy who breaks your fucking kneecaps or legs or fingers or whatever when you can’t pay back what you’ve borrowed.

Morpheus knew he shouldn’t’ve gone to a Mob loan shark to pay for Art School, but his family wouldn’t help him get a “useless” degree, wouldn’t cosign the loans, and he won’t be 24 till the end of this year, so he can’t even be considered independent! What the fuck else was he supposed to do?!

The stupid thing is, his heart is still fluttering.

Actually, it’s fluttering harder. There's a distinct possibility that Morpheus’ circulatory system is deeply confused and currently mistaking terror for arousal.

“I… I’m an artist,” Morpheus stammers. Maybe he can live without functional kneecaps, but if this guy smashes his fingers, he’ll be destroyed.

Hob nods, casually resting the crowbar against the back of his own neck as he looks around. He’s in no rush. His target is a skinny pale thing that Hob is pretty sure he could break across his knee if he had to. He hopes he doesn’t have to. Sometimes just walking in the front door is enough to get people scrambling for the cash they “forgot” to pay. Though… this poor guy might not be so lucky. The man Hob’s been sent after today — what was his fancy name? Morpheus?  — lives in a nearly empty studio apartment, entirely furnished with vivid canvases and one fold-out mattress on the floor. Hob reaches back to lock the door while he takes in the expansive scenes of… some fantasy world? It’s like nothing he’s ever seen. A dreamy mix of magical creatures, starry galaxies, keen eyed ravens, and glittering abstractions. 

Well, maybe if he’d gone into graphic design — made some boring logos or something — he’d’ve been able to pay his bills.

Morpheus is madly tallying his resources in his brain.

He’s got about 18$ coming in from Patreon. If he does a sale on prints, he might be able to move a few extra, but the profit would be less… He’s already skipped anything fresh at the grocery store this week, subsisting on spaghetti, diced tomatoes, and baked beans — the only things the calories-per-dollar calculation would allow. 

No matter how he does the math, it comes up short. 

When the man takes a silent step toward him, Morpheus panics. His mind goes utterly blank. His heart is still doing it’s fucking stupid thing. 

He kisses the man.

Hob’s used to this. Plenty of people try to pay their debts with their carnal talents. He’s not usually interested. The problem is this: Morpheus is hot. The kiss is deep and warm and… feels oddly real? Like genuinely passionate? Morpheus’ long fingers send tantalizing chills through Hob’s skin. Now, the broke artist is sliding to his knees, and when he looks up, his pupils are so thick with arousal that his blue eyes are almost black.

Sigh. 

Fine. He can suck Hob’s cock this one time, and Hob will take care of this payment out of his own pocket. He gets paid well and is good at his job — people like him, he's not your typical goon, he's pleasant until he needs to be otherwise, and gives them every chance to search the couch cushions, so to speak. So the cash isn’t much to him. But in this business, paying other people’s debts is a bad habit to get into. Anyone would go broke doing that. 

But Morpheus’s lips feel so good, and Morpheus is, like, into it. Like laving Hob’s balls and working his fingers into his cleft and over his asshole. He opens his throat so Hob can really ram himself down there. And by the time Hob comes (gritting his teeth & trying/failing to tell himself it’s not that good), he actually feels kinda bad that he’s gotten such a good deal on a quality blow job.

Two weeks later, Hob is resolved to be the consummate professional — strictly cracking bones or collecting cash, whichever’s appropriate, but definitely not getting off on the clock.

But Morpheus opens the door without hesitation, and he’s wearing black joggers, slung low on his jutting hips, and… a lacy body suit that plunges almost to his naval, is so high cut it frames said hips, and is sheer enough in the right places that his pale rose nipples poke through deliciously.

SIGH.

Fucking fine. 

Hob can bend Morpheus over the counter and fuck him hard this one time. But he makes sure to get in a few good hard spanks on that creamy ass. Hob’s not completely derelict in his duties, and this is an enforcement job.

(This is not even remotely the deterrent he hopes it is. For the next two weeks, every time Morpheus squirms as he sits on his bare hard floor as he paints, he will think of Hob’s sharp hands. Even when the pain fades, he will recall it acutely in his imagination as he strokes himself.)

And Hob pays Morpheus’s second installment.

It might surprise you to learn that the interest on a Mob loan shark’s loan is… not exactly competitive. By the third time Hob visits, the amount owed has barely gone down, thanks to sky-high rates that would put the payday lenders to shame. The third payment would be massive for anyone, but for a starving artist it’s catastrophic. 

But Morpheus is creative and determined to give Hob the full value. 

This time, Hob spends the entire night on Morpheus’s folding mattress on the floor discovering new ways to come undone in the artist’s clever hands and pulling Morpheus apart in turn. (Figuratively.) Morpheus begs to take his punishment from the sharp sting of Hob’s hands again, and Hob turns his backside beet red as every moan and cry from Morpheus’ lips goes right to his dick until he’s jerking himself off and coming on Morpheus’s back, marking him like he’s Hob’s own. Like neither of them belong to some cranky old Mob boss, but it’s just them, signing their names into each other’s skin.

By morning, they’re lying in each other’s arms and just talking. 

Morpheus tells Hob about going to Art School even after his parents tried to force him into something useful. He confesses the difficulties of making a living as an artist and on the internet especially. It’s not as easy as people think. He would do something else, but the pictures in his head just need to come out. Exhausted and trembling, he speaks of the way they grow in his unconscious, expanding to take up everything else, bringing chaos and cracks in his foundations if he doesn’t give them form and allow them an orderly outlet on the canvas.

Hob holds Morpheus tight to his chest as if that could ease the pain there, and he opens up, too. Hob didn’t used to be this. He was a History professor! He has no right forcing other people to make money! But then his wife had gotten ill. And this doctor — an arrogant prick who’d never taken anyone’s concerns seriously, who had years of secret complaints against him but was too much of a “star” to get fired — botched the surgery. And Eleanor and their unborn babe had died on the table. Hob had gotten a — frankly insulting — settlement from the hospital. Then he’d hunted down the doctor (who’d had connections in some shadowy parts of town — he hadn’t become a star by being good at medicine), and taken his revenge. The underworld had taken notice. 

And this paid a lot better than adjunct work.

Plus, unlike at the university, Hob’s skills are appreciated. Most humans of the twenty-first century are a lot easier to find and pick apart than the evidence on post-plague upheavals in labor relations in the fourteenth century, and Hob spent seven years doing that for his PhD. He’s persistent and meticulous. Not sloppy like some enforcers. Hob knows how to cause damage that hurts like hell but heals well. He’s done his research. (Something he’s finally getting paid for after over a decade in academia!)

Hob doesn’t even like debt collecting! It’s not his calling. When he’d been slogging through History essays, he’d fantasized about opening a pub. Sometimes he still does — his skills could come in useful breaking up bar fights, throwing out the jerks, keeping things peaceful. 

As the sun comes up, he kisses Morpheus softly on his lips. 

He pays the massive third installment.

On the fourth visit, Hob slips his hand into the messenger bag again and Morpheus’ heart thuds in something like fear. But instead of the crowbar, he pulls out a thick, wooden paddle. When his eyes rise to meet Morpheus’, there’s only a little of that old hardness left but mostly a question. Morpheus moans at the sight, the blood already shooting to his cock.

He really should borrow money from the Mob more often. 

He lets Hob bend him over the counter and ply the paddle all over his ass till he’s crying and begging for release. And then Hob is fucking him and biting into the meat of his shoulder and stroking him hard and fast as he thrusts against Morpheus’ bruised ass. They wind up tangled in the sheets long past morning. (The fourth payment is even bigger than the third.)

At some point, as Morpheus is boiling spaghetti for two, Hob decides fuck this job. 

Of course, it’s the Mob, so he can’t just put in his two week’s notice & shit on the boss’s desk like decent people do. So later, Hob — whose a genuinely nice guy when he isn’t cracking your skeleton & has built up his own little following within the business — pulls a Red Wedding and eliminates the entire current leadership. Fuck those guys. They were assholes anyway. People are happier now. (Anyone who wouldn’t be happy was invited to the wedding.)

Hob doesn’t actually want to take on the responsibility of a large crime syndicate, so he hands the reins over to a trusted buddy. Then he and Morpheus get the fuck outta there and start new lives in the big city where Morpheus can do real art shows and Hob can run his pub and feed Morpheus only the freshest food and lots of it, and every beating is strictly desired and thoroughly appreciated and never involves a crowbar.

BESTIE THIS IS SO GOOD!! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW GOOD THIS IS. This is the most amazing mini fic.

Ngl I wish Hob would come around here with his "crowbar"

Honestly I love this concept of Mob Hob so much. I feel like it works so well with his canon storyline. It's not hard to imagine him reluctantly (but very effectively) smashing in kneecaps. And yeah he feels bad about it, but hey. Hob has had his own struggles and he wants to keep a roof over his head.

But he's not immune to a pretty little Dream, huh? He's not a nice guy, he just wants to get his dick wet. He's not in love or anything. I mean, he's not gonna shake up his entire life and risk everything by going up against the gang he's supposed to be working for.

.......right? 👀❤

[thefuchsianeko]

As a "fun" design exercise I decided to mess with the Hazbin characters' designs... Not really "redesigns," but more so "refined-designs"-- Keeping their overall look or "essence" while trying to simplify them and clean up their colour palettes, as well as making sure they all look distinct from one another.

I tried to stick close to the original's style but I couldn't help using thick lines, lol. Along with the simplified shapes, it gives them an early 2000s cartoon vibe I think.

For the colours I tried giving them more unique palettes, as well as making sure that they had enough contrast (the colour value of this show tends to be... not great). Also the lineup at the bottom isn't my final selection, it's just a selection to get a better idea of how they all might look together side-by-side.

Eh, tell me what you think. I could keep editing these but like, I'm tired of looking at them lol. More info on each design (plus a speedpaint) under the cut. It gets wordy, sorry.

Charlie: Not much to say besides she needs more contrast in her colours. I changed her shirt to the same colour as her corneas (yellow) so it doesn't blend in with her skin. I wish her eyes were still black (not only does it bring better attention to her face, but it works better with the idea that she's a doll-- yknow, painted on eyes? Does that make sense lol). In retrospect, maybe it would've been good to try some browns with her colours? Idk. I kept her red since she's the princess of Hell, and Hell's main colour seems to be red. Oh also, I gave her some lines on her face and hands just to make her look more like a puppet/doll. The rest of her body would have the same kind of joints/segments.

Vaggie: Ok I know her hair technically looks more moth-like in her og redesign but... it just seems like too much? Yknow? It's kind of outrageous. Idk how well my solution works but I tried simplifying it. I simplified her bow as well and made her stockings more like leggings. Her X-eye now hides behind her hair. Her gloves are shorter. Also I took away that thing around her waist that.... seems to be a different colour than everything else??? Idk what's up with that. Sorry I took away her feet. I tried out some blue and purple with her, I think it looks nice. Only thought about keeping the red bow because I thought maybe it'll match her with Charlie. Also sorry I took away her boobs 💀💀💀

Angel Dust: So unsure about how I drew him... Specifically, his 2nd set of arms looks so floppy and tacked on, and his legs... Idk I'm not great at digitigrade legs but I'm pretty sure that's officially what kind of legs he has. His head is weird. I think I got the idea of giving him big feet from Meppity's redesign video (her redesigns are some of my faves). I took away his bowtie because... too many of these guys have bowties, and he already has a choker too. Also I had the funny idea of all the Hotel employees wearing bowties/bows of some sort, and Angel is a patron but not an employee... Anyway. Kept his gold tooth to link him to Val (who also has a gold tooth), and kept the dots under his eyes since I THINK they're supposed to be representative of his spider eyes? They can be taken away if need be, though. His gloves don't go all the way up and kind of look like dish-washing gloves again but, the way his gloves go all the way up and his sleeves go into them... it just looks so weird to me. Idk, maybe I should've just given him shorter sleeves, or even no sleeves at all 🤔 And honestly I still have no idea what's going on with his pants. Are they short-shorts? Underwear? Didn't change them anyway. For the colours, I made sure all his gloves were the same colour (still don't know WHY they decided to make his 2nd set not only a different colour, but the SAME colour as his skin/fur????). Turned down the saturation on his hot-pink, and gave his right eye the light pink instead of that almost-black colour (still kept his eyes different colours because I remember seeing a really old sketch page of Angel that insinuated that there was a reason for his eye being black). Made some of the darker parts straight-black just because I've been using that in all the other character's palettes, but this can be changed to his almost-black colour. Also tried a more purple palette to get away from all the pink, kinda really like it.

Alastor: I originally tried his coat with coattails, but wasn't sure about it and made it the original shape. Took away his monocle because fuck that it's unnecessary and clutters his face. Made his antlers bigger. Swapped out his shirt collar to be like the one Charlie's og redesign has, because the way it goes all the way up like that gets on my nerves? Idk maybe I just don't know anything about fashion design but it doesn't scream 30's-suit to me. You could probably take away the collar, though. I wanted to try a lot of darker colours for his palette since he's like... kinda the bad guy. Dark colours would work well for him. I'm worried about his arms getting lost in the black of his coat, but that's why his cuffs and hands are a different colour. Really wanted to give him more than just red so I spread out the yellow of his teeth; I like how it looks for his shirt, it also works well with his eyes to draw you towards his face. I also tried to (again) lessen the saturation of his reds and pushed them more towards orange to better match the yellow. Kept all the brighter colours to his upper body to keep your eyes there, too.

Husk: I think Husk was one of my least favorite designs when the pilot came out because he's a real mess of detail. His wings are the worst. His redesign isn't much better (like dawg why's he got these random-ass hearts everywhere). Simplified his wings to just have some circles and rounded shapes. Kept some heart shapes (like his nose, bowtie, and paws) but added a couple diamond shapes, too (mainly his suspender buttons and the shape of his white chest-fur). Really wanted to have more blatant club and spade shapes too (to add to the poker theme), but didn't want it to get crowed and decided the rest of the rounded and heart shapes worked well enough. Made his eyebrows shorter and more square-shaped. Didn't have many ideas for colours but knew that I wanted to try some oranges and yellows. Made his eyebrows a darker colour, and changed his eyes to yellow corneas with black pupils. Stands out more that way, I think.

Niffty: Did you know her name is spelled with two Fs? I didn't. I don't like it... Anywayyyy. Swirled her hair a little more, and took the yellow streak out. Added some fluff under her dress just to match her apron. Kept the dots on her shirt (though there are only two now instead of three) because I'm assuming it'll make sense later (like idk maybe she was shot to death and that's what they represent), but I wonder if you can take those away for a cleaner design? Gave her more rounded shapes. I said before that all the Hotel employees would have bows/bowties of some sort for these designs: Niffty's would be her handkerchief (yknow, it's tied into a bow in the back? That works right...? Eh.) I took away her cheekmarks 1) to clear up her face and 2) to make Charlie's cheek marks seem more unique and doll-like. For Niffty's colours, I (again) turned down the saturation on her pink. I wanted to try using some green and purple on her, since her inspirations include B-movie aliens and the song One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eater. Tried using different colours for her skin, since a lot of characters in Hazbin have white skin, and for Niffty specifically I think the white skin along with her white apron dries-out her look (if that makes sense?) Though I do agree her having yellow skin is NOT good if she really does end up being Japanese. I think pink skin works well for her, though. Oh! And again, it helps make Charlie's design more unique with her white skin, making her seem more porcelain. I made Niffty's eyes yellow like her teeth, and then used the same colour for her apron to unify the palette.

Cherri: Ok Cherri's design was my ABSOLUTE least favorite from the pilot, too many senseless details I HATE her ripped pants. So hard to look at. Idk if you noticed in the time lapse but I had to re-sketch Cherri because 1) her pose was too similar to Niffty's (I was making their poses similar to their official art) and 2) her hair was giving me trouble... I kinda hate how her hair hovers to the side like that? Tried re-shaping her hair and now it looks like she uses a TON of hairspray or something, lol. Took away her tattoo but kept her freckles. Took away the skirt thing(?) she's got on her pants. Took the symbol off her shirt, but added an X to her pants (can be taken away, though). Simplified the rips on her pants to just be ripped knees. put a heel on her left shoe so she doesn't look unbalanced/uncomfortable. Made her gloves shorter. For colours, I again took away her white skin for the same reason I took away Niffty's white skin (less "dried out" palette and makes Charlie look more unique/porcelain). Afaik Cherri's not Asian so yellow skin could work for her, though I also tried green skin. Since one of her themes is cherries I wanted to use reds, pinks, greens, and blacks. I tried some green for her clothes (and again her skin), and also turned some of her pinks more red. Made her hair darker for more contrast, and tried using some red for her hair instead of pink (I like the pink hair, but again... red like cherries). In general her colour palette was the hardest to figure out but I think I found some interesting things.

Sir Pentious: Sir Pent was my 2nd least-favorite pilot design by only a little 🤏. It's all his eyes. He's very hard to look at. I took away all the eyes on his tail, and turned down the saturation on the rest of the eyes EXCEPT the ones on his face (maybe I should have just made those reds much different colours, but it still looks a lot better with just the saturation down). Took away his stupid-ass goggles and made the face on his hat a lot simpler (combined the mouth with the hat band; it can still emote btw). Replaced his bowtie with... *quick google search* A jabot? It's supposed to be a jabot I think. I think that's what it's called. More 1700s than 1800s, but eh. Maybe I should've given him *quick google search* a cravat maybe??? Eh, eh, not a fashion expert but anyway. I thickened his mid-section so it eases into his tail better because, the way it is in the official design it always made him look like a slug to me? I looks too... squishy. Banana-slug-lookin' ass Also took away his red-tipped claws and made them straight black. For his colours, I think the grey and yellow works for him already, though I do wanna see how he'd look with more green or blue. Most of what I did colour-wise was the eyes, but also his suit; still grey, but trying both darker colours and pushing it more towards blue and purple. I wonder if I made his skin a little too dark? Is it kinda hard to see his features? Idk. Idk how I feel about these colours. Bleh.

[headbitchruby]

Emperor’s Coven design drabble

so apparently segmented thigh armor is a sort of late 1500′s early 1600′s thing (so something a young Philip would have definitely seen), and I’m not sure if this is a happy accident or fully intentional.

Part of me wants to think it’s an intentional design choice given all the things that can be read in the design of the rest of the Emperor’s Coven uniforms

the main two things to note here are

1) the plague doctor theme running through basically every rank but the very top

2) the distinct lack of armor of any kind (other than that one guy who is mostly a- high ranking and b- dangerous enough to necessitate armor)

I will say the lack of general armor through out the coven can be explained a lot by magic (most of the attacks coming at you would be magical, and since your best defensive moves are also magical, heavy armor that may restrict movement probably isn’t ideal) but I would like to think there is also a layer of story telling going on here in that Belos doesn’t see his underlings as worth spending the time and effort protecting. They generally don’t have armor cause he over-all doesn’t actually care if they get hurt. (hence why the Golden Guard always is seen in the most armor in the whole coven-- he’s not only the emperor’s loyal knight, always by his side, but that’s also my emotional support grimwalker brother replacement, and it would be a shame if something were to happen to him (other than me. ...again.))

but so the plague doctor stuff-- I think it’s a good clue into how the emperor thinks of his coven; they’re his force to “cure the plague that is wild magic”-- that he actually thinks of as a plague himself. He basically sees the whole boiling isles as one big plague.

Also real quick looping back to the Golden Guard armor and it’s time period influence-- Philip would’ve seen this kind of armor (probably not in person he looked p rural in those pictures) when he was a little kid, and massive part of his whole character is how he’s actually still pretty childish at his core. (see that whole “witch hunter general” correction in King’s tide and him being paired with the Collector who is also massively powerful and stuck in a childish state)

anywho, design ramble over *throws pocket confetti*

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Would I be able to ask what is your opinion and thoughts of representations of Plurality (DID, OSDD, Etc.) in media?

I feel like people like us are both severely underrepresented and severely misrepresented in a negative light and are often used as a narrative device to do "oh wow this person is secretly evil half the time because ooooh scary second personality!".

I just highly respect all of your analyses and wanted to see if you've collected any thoughts on this!

Also as an after note (even if you don't reply to this) I wanted to thank you for all of your work on Youtube and various platforms, it's very nice to have someone who examines different media in a positive way with an open mind! It makes me (a transfem disabled person) very happy and makes me feel like there's a safe space even for someone like me in the league community.

I don't know enough about plurality as a set of psychological diagnoses or experiences to feel comfortable framing any kind of authoritative opinion on it. I defer to the opinions of people who either have lived experience or have done more substantial research.

But if you're asking, and you want me to express my best understanding, I'll give it a shot.

My opinions on it aren't especially deep or insightful, I think. As you say, in character design it has this really unfortunate Jekyll and Hyde baggage which is difficult to dismantle and which you always struggle against when trying to tell stories about it. Most people's point of reference for DID would probably be something like the Gollum/Sméagol system, or horror movies like that M. Night Shyamalan film Split. It is habitually treated as essentially a kind of demonic possession, and conflated with what I would consider very Christian ideas of sin and virtue.

Even on the positive end, I believe it tends to get exoticized, where a character might have several distinct personalities each of whom has distinct sets of superpowers or abilities, which... I mean I guess it's nice to frame it as a form of empowerment and something positive rather than horrifying? But it still kinda reinforces this idea that DID is some sort of magic, or a fantastical condition, like being bitten by a radioactive spider or transformed by alien space rays. I feel like it still sort of dehumanizes the condition, turns it into something other than just another way to go through the human experience.

And I don't know how you untangle those things - Jekyll and Hyde and its derivative narratives are compelling because the experience of not being in control of your own worst impulses is a near universal human experience. The experience of wearing multiple masks and faces in multiple different situations and grappling with existential questions of selfhood between them is a universal human experience.

So that's probably a kind of story that we're going to keep telling, it is a human need to express human experiences. But telling those stories shouldn't tar the experiences or nature of plural people by association, it shouldn't be necessary to exoticize or demonize these things to frame a compelling narrative about them.

What exactly the positive middle-ground between these things looks like, I don't know - again, I really don't feel like I have a strong enough foundation of knowledge to speak with authority, but a good place to start is probably with plural people creating stories about their experiences, and the rest of us taking our cues from that.

(Idly, if anyone has a book or comic recommendation for a story that does plurality well, do let me know in the replies.)

[mr-miss-anonymous]

Stowaway

Word count: 1,565

Pairing: Swerve/Overlord

Rating and warnings: M; implied immobility, belly kink, cockwarming

Despite being one of the only locations available for good drinks and quality service, Swerve prided himself on being the best of the best. His selection of alcoholic beverages and good, relaxing energon concoctions was something he’d spent decades perfecting, and it was no surprise to him when the bar was full to bursting day in and day out. On an average basis, he quite enjoyed the company of his customers, and he tended to put of closing down the bar as long as he possibly could. Given the shift in circumstances, however, Swerve no longer had the opportunity to do such things, and he often ended up shutting things down long before they neared closing hour.

Still, it was for a good cause. A very, very good cause.

Having organized his space so that the berthroom and connected commodities were directly above his bar—more for saving space and convenience than anything—Swerve could hear every little sound that came from either floor at all times. In the early days of his business, he’d set it up to keep his precious stock safe from any thievery, but things had turned around rather quickly for him, and the minibot had grown accustomed to listening for other distinct sounds during the day than he did the sound of some poor soul trying to break into his bar.

It was often subtle, but Swerve had grown accustomed to making out the quiet, distinct creaks and groans of the ceiling panels above. He couldn’t help the goofy smile that spread across his faceplates every time the crack of floorboards grew louder and more frantic, as if the inhabitants on the floor above him were rearranging heavy furniture or something.

That was one way to look at it, he thought to himself, having finished delivering a second round of drinks to a rowdy table when the ceiling sounds had begun again. It was like clockwork, at times, and he knew from the sounds of it that he needed to start closing down.

It was a little difficult to shoo his patrons out of the door that evening, but Swerve had managed. He gave a few of the regulars a good thirty-minute heads up before going around the room and gathering the tabs of everyone else. Once he had finished, nearly two-thirds of the bar’s inhabitants had already left, leaving behind those who were either too inebriated or too stubborn to leave right away.

“Here,” Swerve had said to one of the larger, bulkier mechs still sitting at the bar stool. The bot went by the name Blaze, though given his patchy purple paint job and the assortment of scars dotting his frame, Swerve could only guess that the designation had been a half-assed attempt at keeping his past under wraps. “Lock up when you’re done here, will you? I’ve got a few more deliveries to make, and I don’t have time to do it myself tonight.”

Blaze—or whatever his real name was—gave Swerve a nod and a smile (was it a smile? Swerve couldn’t tell past the resting murderous expression Blaze always wore) before accepting the keys with a mumbled agreement. He had been one of the establishments first and last customers, and having lasted so long without moving on, Swerve had grown to trust him with his very life. Well, maybe not his life, but Swerve trusted him enough to know he wouldn’t try to steal half of his inventory.

They didn’t exchange words so much as share a passing look of acknowledgment before Swerve was hoisting a varied box of energon goodies and alcoholic beverages on one hip and heading for the stairs. Whether or not Blaze had caught on to what was really going on, Swerve wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter much, of course. It wasn’t like Swerve was hiding an entire Decepticon leader in his private quarters.

Okay, maybe he was doing just that, but still. Swerve kept it under wraps, and so far, nobody had ever become the wiser. He was still very much an Autobot at heart, and he’d decided long ago that neither his preferred kinks nor his chosen sexual partner mattered much as long as he kept to himself. He was a talker, sure, but even he could keep a secret.

As he climbed the stairs, the box of energon treats and drinks jostling against his side, Swerve found it becoming harder and harder to suppress the excitement he felt. The routine had become a sort of daily practice that Swerve indulged in, and though his income was starting to stretch thin from the sudden rise in energon demand, he wouldn’t put a stop to it for the world.

The room was dim, but not dark, and as Swerve climbed to the top of the stairs, he could make out the familiar silhouette of something—no, someone—sitting at the far end of the room. What was left of his berth, which had originally been propped up a few feet off of the floor, now lay smushed under thousands of tons of bulging mesh and broken armor plating. Swerve panels grew hot between his thighs as he shuffled further into the room, taking in the sight that lay before him as though it were his first time seeing it.

“Primus,” he gasped, nearly dropping the box of energon in his grasp. “You’re massive, Overlord.”

“All thanks to you, little bot,” Overlord said, a cruel smile lifting the corners of his lips. “Come over here. Show me what you’ve brought.”

On average, Swerve would have believed that he was the one in charge of their relationship. He made all of the decisions, he was the one to top during their more intimate moments, he was responsible for feeding and indulging Overlord’s current state. Even then, sometimes even he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to simply obsess over the massive mech he had helped make.

He loved getting the chance to slip sweet, decadent treats past Overlord’s plump lips while he fondled and rubbed and worshipped the large folds of mesh between his fingers. He would have given anything to be able to spend the rest of his existence in that room, Overlord’s spike pressed deep into the folds of his valve while he fed the Decepticon one little morsel at a time until the mech’s mass took up the entire room. Overlord could hardly move in his current state, and Swerve adored it.

Before he knew it, his fans had clicked on, and a gush of lubricant had begun to pool behind twitching valve panels. Swerve moved slowly, taking in the gigantic mass that was Overlord before he set the box of energon goodies aside. It was still in reach, of course, but he was desperate for a little foreplay before they began the official process.

Overlord lifted his helm to the sky, his neck arched so that the tender mesh between splitting plating was revealed. Swerve immediately pounced, his legs spread against Overlord’s protruding middle and his now-unsheathed spike grinding into the folds of fat as he sucked and kissed the exposed mesh of Overlord’s neck. He groped the flabby folds of fat that bulged underneath Overlord’s chest plating with loud, needy whines, quiet gasps and groans escaping him as he panted for breath between kisses.

“Miss me?” Overlord chuckled, one large, plump servo coming up to fondle the closed seams of Swerve’s panels. It didn’t take much prompting before said panels retracted, a gush of fluids flooding out over fat fingers. “You’re eager tonight, Swerve.”

“Open up,” Swerve said, pulling back just long enough to shimmy downwards. “I wanna take your spike.”

Overlord did as he was told, and with a loud hiss, his plating retracted and his spike pressurized. Swerve was quick to slide onto the erect member, his helm falling back with a satisfied sound as the squelch of lubricant accompanied the steady process. Before long, Overlord’s thick, large spike was all but gone, having been pushed far enough into Swerve’s valve that part of the minibot’s belly bulged outward from the intrusion.

Swerve gave a little shimmy to get himself comfortable before he reached down for the box of energon goodies, one servo clutching the folds of Overlord’s mesh to keep him steady. He brought the entire box up and balanced it on the bulge of Overlord’s middle to keep it in easy reach, then began shuffling through the contents.

“I hope you’re hungry,” he said, bringing out a large bottle of dark liquid to start with. “I’ve got quite the selection for you tonight.”

Overlord licked his lips in anticipation, his optics gleaming with excitement. He knew he could rely on Swerve to keep him nice and plump, and today would be no different. Still, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to gently jab at Swerve’s confidence.

“You really think a little bot like yourself could fatten me up?” Overlord asked, leaning back until there was little room left, the mass of his middle pushing the small box tightly against Swerve’s front. “I’d like to see you try, Swerve.”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” Swerve said, returning Overlord’s smug smile with a grin of his own. “Once I’m done with you, you’ll be begging for more.”

Overlord’s optics brightened with joy, and Swerve couldn’t deny the rush of excitement that filled him. He couldn’t wait.

[ihopesocomic]

I really like the character visual designs of all the Golden Grove lions!

One of my issues with My Pride (and som other animal animations) was all the lionesses just looked like recolors of each other. I mean I guess Hover had a hair tuft but none of them had different body shapes, sizes, silhouettes, or anything other than fur/eye color to distinguish them, let alone convey their personalities or family relations (I honestly would not have guessed Nothing was Powerstrike's daughter just by looking at their designs, even their colors aren't really similar, and all their other features like I mentioned are practically copies of the same exact drawing just like every other lioness in the show)

Whereas with Vicious, Careful, Clever, and Hopeful, for example, they look similar enough to immediately tell they're family, but distinct enough to tell them apart even in uncolored outlines, AND get a sense for what their personality might be like. Like Vicious is "sharper" to convey her harshness, while Hope is very rounded to convey her friendliness, so when they're side by side you can tell they're mother and daughter but can also tell how they're different. (And that's without having to rely on Hope's leg/eye or the fact she's young. She'd still look unique even when you ignore that) With other characters too, the offspring actually LOOK related to their parents and siblings, as opposed to being random colors painted onto the same cookie cutter outline. Heck, even Adamant, she has a hair tuft but it isn't the ONLY thing distinguishing her outline like it is for Hover, and she takes after her father a bit more visually but without looking intimidating like he does

It is refreshing to see more thought put into character designs that are effective for not only telling the characters apart, but also giving the right impression for who they are as a personality!

THANK YOU! One of my favorite things to do is design entire families. I really put all my amateur knowledge of character design to the test here, to make their shapes and colors to get those exact points across about their character. There was some stuff I knew I absolutely wanted to have for specific characters, like I wanted Hope to have spots on her face, but I didn't want her to share 100% of her mother's traits, so while I did intentionally make her look closer to her mother than her father (like how I made Adamant closer to her father than her mother) I still wanted her to inherit something from him so she could at least somewhat believably be his kid.

But then when she's next to Clever, you can tell through other features that Hope is closer to Clever in appearance than you'd initially think.

And I try to make it a point that they can be told apart even without their colors. It's easier for me to do with humanoids than for some animals, because shaping something /too/ different can change the species entirely.

So it makes me really happy that those details are being appreciated.

Picking colors was hard because I wanted them all to be different but similar. But still be lion-colored. Hope was gonna be Diamond's colors but they're honestly more the colors of a puma than a lion, but oh well LOL I liked what her colors ended up being. Brownish-gold but not yellow like Simba. Part of me does want to go back and change her markings and colors a bit just to make her more similar to Clever, but eh that's a lot of work to redo. (I also have personal nitpicks on the rest of the Golden Grove family too that I wish I had time to go back and change.)

But you're right. Just looking at the MP lions there's no defining physical features for the characters. There's different heights /sometimes/ but good luck picking out consistencies. I'd say maybe the mane shapes, but even then those aren't consistent (I almost thought Proud was two different lions on two different occasions LOL) I've seen people say Hover is the most interesting-looking but lol I disagree. (I think the most interesting thing about her is her ability to change colors multiple times in one scene.)

It's just an interesting problem for the show to have because Cow of the Wild's designs, while some are a bit nuts, you can mostly tell who's related to who. And if its meant to be ambiguous, it is. It felt more thought out cuz it was important who was related to who.

Maybe one day I'll do some alternate designs for the Golden Grove pride for funsies. But I doubt they'd be used. Thank you again! - Cat

[deidremercer]

A Slightly Less Formal Opinion of Sparkle On, Raven! - The Life Of Drill Girl. Episode 4 - Room 424

The new episode of Sparkle On, Raven! came out and man is it a good one! Please check out the episode here if you haven't already:

So, what did I think? Well, I think this one is my favorite, actually! This episode plays a lot with the idea of "monster of the week" obviously, and I love that all of the threats are specially students from other clubs because it fleshes out the worldbuilding a little bit "after-school blades" and "world domination" feel like perfectly reasonable topics for a club to have when you put them next to cyptids, ninjas, and pirates. All the designs were very fun, and I appreciate the callback to the classic "Ninjas vs Pirates" motif that permeated the internet back in the newgrounds era, it helps cement the series as a celebration of not just fanime, but also internet animation in general.

The art in this episode was weird and I can tell you exactly why, some earlier shots feel messy and unfinished (see the few of them where the sky and Raven's skin are both just fully white) which, while it might just be that particular animator's style, but either way it was a bit jarring, but that's probably because they put so much effort into the later fights in this episode, that shit runs smooth as butter it is incredible.

Jokes in this episode are also very good! Nothing that rivals Slash's sword getting cut in half, that is still my favorite gag, but there's a lot to love here! My personal favorite gag of the episode was the transition from Raven fighting Zero, who is such a copy of Goku I think his dialogue was mostly just straight up taken from dragonball? That or it's someone doing a very good impression, but transferring from this very much legally distinct Goku to just Paul from Tekken is the funniest shit. This works on multiple levels for me, initially just the fact that it's Paul Phoenix from Tekken is wild and then you realize you went from a character who was very much like a studio trying to avoid a lawsuit by making a very similar character to this actual character ripped from another game. And then you think, why Paul? Normally I'd expect to see like Ryu or something, someone more well known by a common viewer, but taking a Tekken character is funny because not only is it a bit more of a niche series, Paul isn't even the protagonist of that game, he's just some guy.

CORRECTION: These scenes actually aren't back to back but they happen close enough to eachother that the gag of going from Zero to Paul still works very well!

I also really enjoyed the callback to "I love this school! I want to LIVE here!"

My only real complaint with the episode is that we didn't get to see Slash return to help out the rest of the gang during the final fight, nor did we get any reference to the fact that Raven is now a member of the After-school Blades Club, which I think would've been a cool touch, but thats just nitpicking because I really like Slash

Sparkle On, Raven! - The Life Of Drill Girl continues to be one of my favorite projects to keep up with on the Internet, it is absolutely packed with charm and wit and I already can't wait for the next episode

[ammo-never-runs-out-of-knives]

jail birds

Done for a prompt over on discord.

-Person A and Person B sitting in jail together- Person B: So who should we call? Person A: I’d call Person C, but I feel safer in jail

Using Legend and Wars for this because I don't think people write enough of them being partners in crime and I love their snarking.

--

“Well, this certainly isn’t something anyones going to ever let us live down.” Warriors lightly banged his head against the window bars. He’s long since tested their strength and pasted them off as a possible escape option. The small square of an opening wouldn’t have been wide enough to fit either of them anyway. 

Legend, laying down across the only bench in their cell, groans loudly. “Wind is going to laugh himself sick.”

“And Twilight will definitely try to give us that Look.” The Caption watched as the people down below started making their ways home for the evening. The sun was starting to go down, and their designated meeting time was creeping closer. “The one he copied from the Old Man.”

The groan of pain Legend let out at that would have had him checking him for mortal injuries. “Oh, Goddesses strike me down.”

Warriors understood the sentiment. Still, they’ve looked over every inch of this cell, thrice, and there was no way out. They’d even entertained the idea of using some of the Vets magic, but apparently their jailers were smarter than that and the whole place was warded to hell and back. Anything the Vet had tried had just bounced right off and had gotten their guards doubled. 

There was only one thing left to do, as much as it pained him. “We’re going to have to use our one letter.”

“No.” Legend thunked his head back against the wood of the mentch. “No, I’d rather rot in here for the rest of eternity.”

“It’s not like the others aren’t going to find out about this.” It was true. They might not be in any of their times, but gossip travels fast in any thriving community. And they were very distinctive, the…scene they’d caused, very public. Warriors was still quietly steaming over that. But he’d fall back into another bount of brooding if he let himself think about it too much, so pushed it aside. “And I’d rather be the first one to reach out then have them make fun of us for not being able to break out. This way we can just tell them that we didn’t want to cause any more problems for the locals.”

“Control the narrative.” And now Legends sounded thoughtful. 

“Exactly!” Finally turning to look at his companion, he gave the Vet a winning smile. “The question is: Who do we address the letter to?”

“Not Wind or Four,” Legend said right away. “The guards wouldn’t even let them through.”

“Same with Hyrule and Wild, I think.” 

“Maybe Sky?”

“Hmm, let's leave him as plan B,” Warriors said thoughtfully. “I don’t even know if he’s had to deal with jails, up on those floating islands of his.”

“Twilights out of the question.” Legend said it like it should be obvious why, and he was right. Twilight would both try to be ‘disappointed brother’ and ‘shit eating friend’ and of course, the aforementioned Look. Not that they don’t love the other man, but neither of them look forward to having to deal the extra layer ‘bailing them out of jail’ would add to the shit that he’s going to give them. “So that leaves….”

“...Time.” 

It’s Wars turn to groan. “I’d feel safer in jail.” 

[ninamonday]

hi nina! i'm a big fan of your writing, and i was wondering if you could maybe give me some help/advice. i recently got into txt and would like to write some fic for them, but even though i've watched a bunch of their videos (to do, logs, etc) i still don't feel like i have a good enough sense of characterization;;; do you have any tips for characterization, or maybe guides or anything you could recommend to help out?

Thank you so much! Both for the compliments and for the opportunity to talk about the nerdy side of story craft which I love SO much.

First of all I think you're on the right track with this question, asking for general tips about characterization. A lot of times in rpf we talk about characterization as a matter of consuming enough content to render the truth of the person or what they would do in a certain situation; I think that approach has a pretty low ceiling of usefulness, and that it is more constructive to think about creating a character.

In a basic, literal sense, a character is not a person—it is a text construct designed to undergo a certain kind of development in the confines of a story. We're borrowing some ideas and concepts from a real person to create a new and distinct construct. I usually think of a story as always returning to a central problem—characters are problem-solving entities, using a collection of obstacles and tools in their world, in a series of events that makes up the plot.

I'm kind of describing the classic western/masc hero's journey there, but thinking of it more simply as the story problem is more useful to me. That's just one thing I can always come back to and make sure the world, plot, and characters are on track—what does this have to do with the central problem?

So if I'm looking at canon content for characterization, I'm looking for how they solve problems—how do they identify them, what tools do they use, what comes naturally or requires a stretch, when do they tend to succeed or fail, how do they contradict themselves? Also I think it makes my writing better to do this as nonjudgmentally as possible—not looking for strengths and weaknesses but simply for traits that might serve in one situation and hinder in another.

If I use for example my taejun fake dating fic "Friction"—that's a story where Taehyun tries to solve the problem of his romantic inexperience with the cool logic that usually serves him well, and finds himself in a mess he didn't account for. Yeonjun doesn't see the same problem Taehyun does—he's afraid Taehyun is going to hurt himself solving it his way and so he is fake-going along and hoping it will work out. He is someone who tries to solve problems by floating on the vibes but in fact feels tremendous responsibility and anxiety. It does not serve him and he has to give up the game and admit to his deep un-chillness to actually solve the problem.

I don't think it takes deep canon diving to establish that Taehyun is an enthusiastic tryhard and Yeonjun is an ambivalent tryhard—I think the practice is more boiling it down for myself and communicating that to readers.

I don't usually use character guides—I feel like a lot of them waste my time answering questions about eye color and favorite snack. For me the process of character development is about asking this one question of how do they solve problems over and over in different ways.

I do think plot guides can be useful, though! And as we've now established, plot is character! There are a lot of common ones (the hero's journey, three acts, skin the cat) and I think exploring to find some that work for your brain and the stories you want to tell is worthwhile. The nice thing with these is that you can start with what you know you want to do and then fill in the rest like a puzzle. I really like Dan Harmon's story circle for a few reasons, but one is that the circle shape makes the story a mirror that can help me figure out what I need to seed to pay off later or what images to bring back.

Creating characters in rpf is mostly about cherry-picking a few qualities but I do think I get a lot of mileage out of the stuff left behind. T-logs and stuff aren't rules, they're opportunities for random stuff to pull and use. Canon easter eggs go a long way to making fic feel convincing. Finding ways to incorporate your character's contradictions and edges also makes them feel more real, for all characters really but I bet especially in rpf. And as you expand into situations we don't see these real people in, guessing at how they would act in ways that stretch past the ways we actually see them act can be really rewarding when it works.

I must also say that it is very normal in the kpop fandom environment, rich with content, analysis, and feedback, to make choices that readers disagree with, that new canon renders false, or that you feel like you change your mind about later. Some of that gets better with practice but some is an unavoidable part of the gig, and either way it's not something to let stop you.

And one more thing: before I wrote "Friction," I'd been out of writing for a while and had very little experience jumping into writing a new group. I was watching some content, and I don't even remember what I was doing, but I thought, "Those two should fake date for sure. Ah, maybe one day, when I know them better." And then I started writing like two days later—in some ways I got to know them while writing them. Or, if you'd asked me two hours before I started writing my current project if I had a svt wonhan kdrama novel in me, I'd have told you no, none of those things. When I started trying I did not seriously believe I could do it. But I figured it out as I went along, and apparently I could. Which is a long way to say, just go for it. If you try it, you might like it—and if you don't you can stop and try something else. Good luck!

[sergeantgoggles]

Title: Through the Static Ship: Tecker [Tech/Wrecker] Rated: G Summary: They've always protected one another. That will never change, even if the problems do. Warnings: ND Tech, Regs being mean (light fat shaming) Word Count: 779

For Protective Anon: I hope you like it! I'm not used to writing Tech/Wrecker, so this was new for me!

.[Tech POV].

All clones were engineered to be the same. That was what the regs were told from day one, however, that is not the case for special unit 99, and the regs always made sure they knew it. Of course, it was obvious. There were very distinct visual differences in their appearance in comparison to a standard clone. It just so happened that Wrecker’s was his size, and there were many Kaminoan facilities and equipment that weren’t designed for someone of his size even as a cadet.

So, when the chair buckled from under him in the mess and he collapsed to the floor, it was no surprise that the surrounding regs made a scene. Raucous laughter filled the large room, but even that wasn’t enough to drown out the insults slung at Wrecker. Hunter and Crosshair were quick to help him to his feet, but Tech…

Tech had just about enough.

“You think you are all so much better than Wrecker, but where is the individuality of looking the same? If anything, you are all boring copies!” He pointed out a few of the regs with as menacing a look as he could manage. “Besides, he could take you all blindfolded! I have scientific data to prove it!”

In his defense, Tech had tried, but the regs laughed in his face, too. The datapad in his hand shook as his other hand balled into a fist. The next thing he knew the room had fallen silent. One of the regs had a broken, bloody nose, and his datapad had fallen to the floor next to him.

“Do not laugh at my brother!” Tech hopped down from the table and smiled broadly at Wrecker who still had unshed tears of embarrassment in his eyes. “You do not need to worry. If they bother you again, I will protect you.”

Wrecker sniffled and hugged his smaller batchmate tightly. “You’re the best, Tech!”

Even back then, Tech acknowledged that the words made his stomach flutter. “Yes, I know.”

.[Wrecker POV].

That was years ago, but Wrecker remembered it like it was yesterday, which is saying something, because he couldn’t even remember if he even ate breakfast yesterday, or if he did, what it was. Still, he’s able to recall those details vividly, and he thinks about it now with Tech curled in his bunk, eyes slammed shut and shaking.

Tech was different, but not in the way that they were all physically different from regs, but his brain worked differently than all of theirs. Sometimes he would get like Hunter, and touch and sound would be too much, but unlike Hunter, who had gotten used to all of that, Tech seemed to shut down. Wrecker was never able to pinpoint when it was going to happen, but it seemed to be in larger crowds when things were very much out of his control.

But it had been hours since they left the races, and Tech was still rocking to stimulate himself and try to keep his thoughts in order. Or maybe it was that the thoughts were too loud? Wrecker sighed. This was all very confusing to him, but he wanted to help. He spotted Tech’s bucket nearby and remembered that at those times Tech would put it on and drown out the noise.

Without another thought, Wrecker snagged it and plopped it over Tech’s head. The rocking stopped almost immediately, but Tech’s hands were still squirming.

Wrecker frowned. “What’s wrong? Didn’t that help?”

Through the filter, Tech sighed. “There is a small black button on the earpiece. Could you press it for me?”

Obliging, Wrecker leaned forward and flipped the small button in question. He couldn’t tell what purpose it served, but after a few moments, Tech started to relax, and he slumped forward to lean into Wrecker. He reached a large, gentle hand around his back and rubbed, soothing away the rest of the rigidity. After several more minutes, Tech wrapped his arms around Wrecker’s neck and allowed himself to be held the way Wrecker liked to, close and consuming.

“I…apologize,” Tech huffed, devoid of energy. “It has been a long time since I have had an episode of that magnitude. Thank you for staying with me.”

Wrecker smiled. “Aw, anytime, Tech. We protect each other. That’s what we do.”

To further prove that it was no bother to him, Wrecker pressed a kiss on Tech’s bucket where his lips would be. He couldn’t remember when they had started…whatever this was, but he knew that it felt right.

“Besides,” Wrecker continued, “you’re the best, Tech.”

“So you like to remind me,” came the playful exasperation, “but it is no less appreciated.”

[kilannad]

As the Stars Burn On Chapter 12

Ao3. Masterlist.

The Impregnable Base of Navarone

Vice Admiral ‘Chessmaster’ Jonathan took his time walking around the ‘ghost ship’ that had landed in the lake of his base. Navarone, technically designated G-8 on his multitude of paperwork, was lauded as an impenetrable base, second to only the three judicial islands directly under World Government control. Yet here he was, his lovely midnight fishing excursion thoroughly interrupted by an empty ship. Jonathan had no doubt, however, as sure as the coffee was delicious, that it was no ghost ship. Not while flying a straw-hatted jolly roger.

“Your orders, Commander?” Lieutenant Commander Drake asked, clutching one of the aforementioned coffee cups. Jonathan didn’t need to sample it himself to recognize the distinctive brew--or know it was delicious, when Drake was so willing to bravely try it. 

Decisions, decisions. On one hand, as G-8 hadn’t seen battle in months--years, technically, but Jonathan maintained that the yearly mega albatross migration constituted a state of emergency--it had become something of a habit from HQ to send green marines straight from the academy here to gain some simple experience under their belts. No doubt these very enthusiastic soldiers thought themselves well prepared, but if asked to bet between a crew of bountied pirates over half a dozen strong and two hundred well-rested but inexperienced young adults… no contest. Announcing that this was a ghost ship would spook the men, no doubt, but at least there wouldn’t be mass panic about the Straw Hat Pirates invading Navarone.

On the other hand, Jonathan had to remember their unusual guest. Was that why the Straw Hats had made their way here? Thunder God was described as having a strange Devil Fruit and marked internally as a person of interest; there was no telling what his motivations were. If they were here for the prisoner, then there might be a leak in the marines--or it was a huge coincidence and the pirates were there for another, unthought-of reason, which might be more concerning.

Either way, if Jonathan didn’t get this mess cleaned up by tomorrow night, when the HQ bigshot got there, then he could kiss G-8 goodbye. 

Jonathan gave another slow look around the ship. There were seven cups in the galley, still warm, and six hammocks with one bed. Three men with bounties--two confirmed Devil Fruit users--and too many unknowns. It was like staring down at a Queen’s Gambit and having no idea how to play chess. 

How absolutely exhilarating.

“Men,” Jonathan started, projecting his voice across the ship. All around, the night shift turned their attention to him, pausing in their gathering of evidence. If anything would come of this, at least the marines would be able to fill out the Straw Hat files sitting nearly empty in their cabinets. “I won’t lie to you; this will not be an easy day. The Straw Hat Pirates have invaded our base and disappeared into the night. But Navarone will not fall! We are not called the inescapable base for nothing, and I trust each and every one of you with our pride. Together we will capture these pirates, we will defend our home, and justice will prevail!”

As expected, a roar of approval rose from the gathered marines, loud enough to no doubt wake whatever sack of potatoes had remained unconscious through the alarms. Jonathan gave a few orders to move the ship and have the forensic team do a more thorough sweep and ordered someone from intelligence to be present to compile a folder for the HQ profilers. He didn’t know who would be coming for the prisoner, but Jonathan would be damned if he wasn’t in perfect shape when they showed up. G-8 would close down over his dead body.

☉

Hidden in the thick forest on the edge of the lake, Robin grimaced as a roar went up from the Merry. Next to her, Usopp chewed on his bag strap, weeping over the ship being put in danger. Robin was far more concerned about the rest of the crew--they’d scattered when the alarms went off, everyone disappearing into the night. They had no way to communicate and, she assumed, most of them would have no idea where they were.

Robin had broken into one or twenty marine bases over the years. She tried to avoid it, but sometimes she had no choice if she wanted to stay ahead of them. It meant that, looking over a huge lake, encased with cliffs on all sides and a central tower of stone and steel rising up in the middle, she knew there was only one possible place they could be. Grandline Base 8, aka Navarone. A death sentence for all of them.

Of course, their luck would dump them right into the middle of one of the greatest strongholds in the world. She didn’t know why she was surprised.

Why couldn’t she have joined a normal crew?

☉

Zoro stood on the edge of the cliff, cursing as he dodged another group of marines storming past. He couldn’t see any of his crew, but he trusted them to take care of themselves long enough for him to find them. He might even have enough time to hunt down some sake. 

☉

Chopper clung to Lucy’s legs as she stared at the towering marine base. They were at the central column with no idea where the rest of their crew was, the Merry was in marine control, and Lucy was ninety percent sure she'd read somewhere that a Vice Admiral trained by Akainu was in control of G-8.

“Will the others be okay?” Chopper worried. 

“Of course,” Lucy lied. Something at the edge of her vision caught her attention and she pressed further back against the wall. A squad of marines was patrolling just over their heads. She strained her ears, but couldn’t make out whatever they were murmuring about.

“Nami’s going to be so mad,” Chopper muttered, looking pale at the thought.

“What do you mean?”

“The marines. They said they found a fortune of gold on the ship and moved it all to the vault.”

Lucy could only imagine the warpath Nami would go on if she ever found out marines had touched her gold. She was fairly certain there wouldn’t be enough left of the base to bury. 

“Right,” Lucy breathed, looking around. The patrol had moved on and in the distance, she could see the first paling of the sky. They needed to find the Merry, get the crew together, rescue the gold, and preferably be gone before the Vice Admiral decided to implement some of HQ’s preferred methods of dealing with pirates. Namely, copious amounts of violence. Lucy was pretty sure she could go undercover if she covered up her tattoo, but Chopper would draw attention. 

She scowled, wishing Laxus was there. He no doubt already had a seven-step plan. Too bad they would all have to figure this out themselves. 

“Okay,” she started, crouching down to be eye level with Chopper. “I’m going to get back the gold, then go undercover. They have to have an information division here which would give me a good chance to find the way out.”

“What about me?”

“I want you to find the infirmary. Stock up on whatever meds we need and wait for someone to contact you for our escape.”

“You’re leaving me alone?!”

“I’m trusting you, Chopper.” She placed a hand on his hat, grinning down at him. “Only you can do this.”

He wavered, then determination set in. He nodded firmly, and they split up, both with their own missions.

☉

Luffy tapped his foot, staring at the four tunnels in front of him, one after the other. He knew there had to be meat somewhere on the island--it was just a matter of finding it. But which of the doors would take him to the kitchen? 

His stomach growled.

☉

Laxus pulled Nami behind a tree, muffling her mouth with his hand. Several marines clomped their way through the trees, branches snapping sharply under their feet. The sky was slowly beginning to lighten, and the marine base clunked to life like one giant machine, men and women quickly falling into patrols and searching for the crew. It wasn’t a large island--just a ring of thin forest and one towering monolith of stone in the center. It wouldn’t take them long to be found like this.

“We should go undercover,” Nami murmured, detangling herself from him and peeking through the foliage. “Otherwise we might as well just hand ourselves over.”

“Agreed,” Laxus said. “But I’m too recognizable.”

“Bounty, right.” She groaned, thunking her head against a tree. “Why did we have to land in a marine base of all things?!”

“It could be worse.” She glared at him from the corner of her eye, but he only shrugged. “We could have landed on Impel Down.”

“Not. Helpful.”

He huffed a laugh, before quickly scanning the area. Besides the one group that had already passed them, he couldn’t make out any other unusual scents. Lucy would be fine, he was sure. She was smart, and between Shé and Gemini, would be able to blend in better than the rest of them. The rest of the crew he was a little more worried for.

“C’mon,” he said, slowly inching between the trees. “Let’s see if we can’t get you a uniform or something.”

“What about you?”

“With my senses and teleportation, I should be able to avoid detection long enough to hunt down the rest of them.”

“Oh yeah,” Nami muttered sarcastically. “Because a giant bolt of lightning is so subtle.”

☉

“Well fuck,” Sanji cursed, stubbing out his cigarette before it could give away his position in the trees. “I hope the ladies are alright.” He contemplated the long list of crewmates he had, the size and response time of the base, and came to the rather inevitable conclusion. “Luffy’s going to get caught immediately, isn’t he?”

☉

“Commander Jonathan,” LC Drake saluted. Jonathan hummed in acknowledgment but didn’t look away from the chessboard in front of him. It was balanced precariously on a stack of bounty posters he’d been looking at recently, a full list of any and everyone who might possibly be interested in the prisoner. It wasn’t a very long list.

“Report, Lieutenant.”

“So far, no sightings of the Straw Hats. Sections 5-10 of the base have been thoroughly combed, and the pirate ship is under guard at dock 88.”

“Tighten patrol routes to be closer to the main tower. They’ll have had the time to infiltrate fully by now; look out for suspicious figures.”

“You’ll think they’ll try going undercover, sir?”

“Undoubtedly.”

The door to his office blew open, an Ensign saluting sharply. “Sir! A group of marines carrying the yearly inspector are outside the seagate and demanding entry. They’ve been heavily damaged by a storm and are gaining casualties.”

“Absolutely not,” Drake snapped. “We are on high alert-”

“Let them in,” Jonathan countered. He’d forgotten about the yearly inspection getting closer, what with the news that HQ was sending someone for the prison transfer. He’d sort of assumed that it would end up canceled, but if it hadn’t then he wanted to be sure this wasn’t some ploy by HQ to shut down the base. Besides, the influx of strangers might make the Straw Hats cocky and cause them to slip up with their disguises. 

The Ensign scurried away and Jonathan slowly moved a rook forward. On the other side of the board, seven white pieces stood tall. 

“What of the prisoner?” he asked after a moment of contemplation.

“Guarded, though the…thing…that came with him is asking for a glass of milk.”

“Let him have it,” Jonathan waved dismissively. “Keeping them happy might get us better results than previous attempts.”

“If you say so, sir. I have one squad standing guard at the entrance. Should I add more?”

He considered it for a moment, before shaking his head. While the prisoner was the only thing he could assume the pirates would be there for, that didn’t mean it was a certainty. “That should suffice. We don’t have the staff to put all our eggs in one basket. I want a copy of the forensic reports. You're dismissed.”

☉

Whistling to himself, the marine was idly glad for the decent weather. There had been that brief storm, but he’d taken the time to stop and nap until it went away. Now, it seemed as if everything was clear skies until he hit his destination. Taking his bicycle had been the right choice after all.

☉

Sanji carefully dragged Luffy into the closet as various men swept into the dining hall. Looking around, he began shoving clothes at Luffy to put on before donning them himself. At least in the kitchen, they might blend in a little. 

Now if only Laxus would hurry up and find them. What kind of strategist was he?

☉

Nami tugged at the nurse's uniform, uncomfortable with the mass of injured men all scattered about the infirmary. She hadn’t meant to get caught up in all of this, but Laxus had shoved her toward the room before disappearing toward wherever his nose drew him. 

“Nurse,” a deep voice commanded, and she jumped. “Get this patient 5 CCs of morphine.”

“Yes, doctor,” she squeaked, turning to find the biggest, broadest, hairiest man she had ever seen. Honestly even…wait. “Chopper?!”

☉

Zoro took the third right turn in as many minutes, cursing when it did not, in fact, bring him to booze. He didn’t know what marine architect had figured out a way to make the hallways move, but he swore he’d end up killing him. Zoro decided to turn the other way, figuring there had to be another turn somewhere. 

He went up, then left, since that was usually where booze was kept--the shitty cook should try a new hiding spot--but instead of finding the kitchen found a study of some kind. Zoro groaned, kicking idly at the desk to see if there was any sake hidden in it.

“That’s rather rude,” someone said. Zoro turned to find a tall, redheaded man in his forties wearing a white suit. “What did my desk ever do to you?”

“Thought it might have booze,” Zoro told him honestly. There didn’t seem to be any reason to lie. “Who are you?”

“Vice Admiral Jonathan, Commander of G-8.” Oh shit. Zoro knew, vaguely, about marine rankings from his bounty hunting days. He’d never met a Vice Admiral; they were never stationed in East Blue. The Vice Admiral gave a very pleasant smile, which nonetheless made Zoro feel like he was staring at a panther. A massive, slobbering, hungry, panther. “You, ‘Oni Hunter’ Roronoa Zoro, are under arrest.”

☉

Getting the gold back was almost laughably easy. Three cheers for Virgo.

That taken care of, and the world safe from Nami’s wrath, Lucy turned her focus elsewhere. Namely:

“What the fuck, Robin?”

Lucy stared at her crewmate, thoroughly disgruntled by the long marine coat, darkly tinted glasses, and, oh yeah, the tied-up, half-naked body at her feet.

“Inspector Major Shephard,” Robin said as if that explained anything. Grudgingly, Lucy admitted it did. “I overheard someone mention that Squad 6 is information.”

“Noted,” Lucy responded, easily summoning Gemini to copy the inspector’s form. “Thanks, guys. Is there anything that we need to know now?”

The twins looked exactly like the middle-aged man with awful skin and too-big ears. “He’s here to try and shut down the base during its yearly inspection,” the twins replied. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Robin said gratefully. “You’ll be alright, I presume.”

“Of course. If nothing pushes our hand, plan to meet up at Merry at sunset.” Robin nodded before vanishing down the hallway. Lucy turned to the twins just as they poofed out of their transformation. “Will you pass everything you found out to Shé and Crux, please?”

“Of course, Miss Lucy.”

“Be safe.”

The gate closed, and Lucy was left to infiltrate a marine base. It wasn’t hard, especially considering everything she’d heard about Navarone. She called Gemini out one more time to copy a passing patrolman, which got her the general layout of the base and the various squads. She stole a uniform and slipped into the library where all the files were kept, glad and unsurprised to find it empty. The Commander must have figured it was a waste of marines to keep it guarded.

It wasn’t a huge room, but certainly bigger than she expected. One wall had three Den Dens plugged into a few machines for faxing and the like and the rest of the room was taken up by tall shelves, shoved tightly with books, files, and evidence boxes. 

Summoning Shé was easy and quick. No reason not to take advantage of this perfectly good information source. 

“Right,” Lucy said, tying her hair up. “Start scanning and loading as many files as you can get your hands on, with a special focus on any information they have on us or Poneglyphs. I’ll look into how to get out of this place.”

“Very well, Miss Lucy. Would you like me to upload the Den Den connection as well?”

“Yeah, sure--wait. You can do what?!”

☉

Laxus kept himself pressed firmly against the wall, listening closely to the various puzzling conversations. One caught his ear.

“We have the Oni Hunter.”

“No way! How the hell did he get caught?”

“Walked straight into the Commander’s office, I heard.”

Groaning, Laxus broke his concentration long enough to despair about his crew. “Stars damn you, Roronoa.”

☉

Usopp stared up at the Merry, glad beyond belief that she was alright. He’d worried when he saw her being towed across the lake near dawn, but they hadn’t seemed to do anything terrible to her. It looked as if someone had even put additional repairs along her hull. 

“I wonder who their shipwright is,” someone nearby muttered. Usopp turned to find a hunched old man wearing an orange jumpsuit and liberally sipping from a flask. He smelled of wood and iron and had a toolbelt hooked around his waist. Usopp felt pretty confident in guessing he was one of the dock workers. 

“Oh?” Usopp asked, trying hard to be nonchalant-but-casually-interested. “You think they do a pretty good job, eh?” Nailed it.

“Not at all.” 

Usopp sputtered but swallowed back his offense. Undercover, he reminded himself. Very big marine base, itsy-bitsy Usopp. Must. Stay. Undercover. “Heh, heh. Surely he’s not that bad?”

“Half the nails are bent, he didn’t prep the mast right before putting the plates up, and the hull looks like a first-year seamstress tried to play connect the holes!” Usopp felt each word like a nail to his soul, crushing his will a little more each time. Was he really so bad at taking care of Merry? “Yep,” the old shipwright assured, smacking his lips. “That ship is more loved than any I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah,” Usopp muttered despondently. “Connect the holes. Bent nails. Loved shi--wait. What do you mean, loved?”

“Can’t you tell?” the old geezer guffawed, waving one stick-thin pale arm roughly at where the ship was dry-docked. “A moron with no background in ships trying so damn hard to keep this one well cared for? What else could it be if not love for their home?”

Joy bubbled up, deep and warm. The Going Merry had been the first real home Usopp had since his mom died, and he’d be damned if he let her get too hurt. She was the ship of the Pirate King, and nothing would change that. “You think the ship knows that?” Usopp said wistfully. “That she’s really loved I mean, even if they can’t fix her up properly.”

“Oh, I’m sure. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if a ship like this has a Klabautermann.”

“What’s a Klabautermann?”

“You don’t know? Well, let me tell you all about it. See, in the old days when pirates still followed the Code and people respected their ships…

☉

Lucy slammed the latest folder closed. Her eyes were swimming, the tiny, curling letters dancing across the air. She wondered if marines had to take classes to make their handwriting as physically unintelligible as possible; if so, whoever was in charge of the local base files must have passed with flying colors. 

“Shé,” Lucy groaned. “Please tell me you have something interesting to report.”

“Quite a bit, Miss.” He adjusted his glasses, the golden screen of his magic lighting up the dark room. “Two pressing facts that are rather connected.”

“Hit me with it.”

“A prisoner and something marked as ‘unknown living weapon’ were transferred to G-8 a week ago from a classified location.”

She blinked, frowning at the information. “Any details?”

“None that are filed here. There is only one note in the document. Which brings me to the second fact: a marine from HQ has been sent to pick up both the prisoner and the weapon.”

“Of course,” Lucy muttered. “Because not only did we land in the middle of a marine base, we did it while they had a top-secret prisoner with reinforcements on the way. Fan-fucking-tastic.” She buried her face in her hands, mumbling out, “When are they getting here?”

“Tonight.”

She sobbed, only faking a little. Looked like their timeline had just moved up.

“Also, Miss Lucy?”

“Yeah, Shé?”

“I just intercepted a Den Den call to Vice Admiral Jonathan. It seems as if Usopp has been captured and taken to the cells.”

Lucy sobbed harder. Why, oh why, couldn’t she have a single competent male crewmember?

She gave herself a whole ten seconds to despair before she pulled on her big girl panties and stood up. “Right,” she sighed. “I always thought this plan would be used to bust Gray out for public indecency, but I guess it’ll work just as well here. Time for Operation ‘Trojan Horse’.”

☉

In the depths of Navarone, where the few cells the prison boasted were quickly becoming full, a shadowed figure caught the distant murmur of footsteps. Humming a little tune, they contemplated how much longer they should wait. 

After all, they were starting to get hungry.

[baihujun]

So what do you think of Jason Todd’s canon Green Lantern design from his Dark Crisis run? I like it but I also don’t like it because I would have never known it was Jason from that design.

Ps. Your Green Lantern Jason is absolutely gorgeous and I can tell with one look that it’s Jason and not some new character!

It's weird. I get the feeling that they wanted something very distinct and eye-catching for the Green Lantern/John's bubble world, so they gave the marquee characters these crazy design overhauls (see: Jason, Kyle).

What I love about the Lantern Corps suits has always been their iconic simplicity. Like, the suits are distinct enough between each lantern (who isn't just some background mob character) to give personality, but similar enough that they look good together and give the sense that they're a united corps. They're sleek, stylish, and striking, and hug each curve. Even Guy's suit with his snazzy little jacket still fits this.

Jason's Dark Crisis: World Without A Green Lantern outfit just feels so mismatched and clunky in comparison. And for some reason his duster coat and khaki shorts and scarf are like... brown? With red accents because god forbid you don't get that this is Red Hood lol. It doesn't help that the rest of the corps still has their normal sleek suits so Jason sticks out like a sore thumb. Kyle's full fantasy robes look is also odd but at least it sticks to the color scheme. It's kinda giving a bit of Guardians-chic. Kinda.

I get it. They wanted something bold and fresh for the crazy illusion world. Still feel like the execution could've been better, IMO.

Natasha Irons' Green Lantern look is pretty sick though.

[crysdrawsthings]

OK, im tottally curious about Measse. Tell you tell me more about her????

(´･ω･`)?

With great pleasure! So, I am not sure how exactly much you know about Silmarillion and related stuff, so i will try to be non-specific in this post and then expand on exact things later, if you would like it!

In any case, be welcome under the cut for more deets and a short bio! Short disclaimer, is that it is a very heavily AU outlook on Middle-Earth that is set in the Crys Semi-Original Daydreaming Universe.

Also a tag for @lukans to learn about my first Cringe Child.

So, Measse... Is not a Tolkien character of the same name, to clear up this possible confusion, but she does adopts to fill in for this lady, kind of and takes up the name as a sort of job designation. And because every second person was mixing up her actual human name.

Art is an oldie, but a goodie.

So, in the simplest and shortest possible way Measse is a questionably lucky human, who, by jumping through a series of hoops ascends to be a quasi-deity in an attempt to save her family from an upcoming catastrophe. Also hoops were on fire.

Going into more details: not-yet-Measse was having a very normal day with her friends on a roughly modern Earth.

Following a series of odd accidents they find themselves in a different slice of reality, specifically on the shore of Aman, land of gods (well, not really gods, but like, close enough) in Middle-Earth.

Whoops.

This obviously causes a fair share of confusion from all parties involved. But in the end they are offered lodging and wait for a good moment for locals to yeet them back where they came.

Because locals have the literal End Days to be dealing with, which is not something that happens every other Thursday.

In the end, she is a given an offer. That, as mentioned, involved jumping through far more hoops that anyone would deem reasonable, but not-yet-Measse was a woman of focus, commitment and sheer fucking will (c). She shrugged and accepted to do or die trying.

During their stay in Aman not-yet-Measse and her friends find out that there is a catastrophe that would happen in their world, on Earth and have different reactions to it.

Not-yet-Measse decided to go to the local gods, Valar, and see what it would take for them to take her family to Aman to be forever immortal and happy.

This is objectively such a wild request from a person who ended up in your backyard after accidentally sneaking in after one of your colleagues went to grab a beer, yes.

The gist of an offer was to, pretty much, make it her permanent job to help fix all the stuff that got wrong with Middle-Earth because OG Dark Lord - Melkor (he is also the guy who went to grab the beer from a few paragraphs above) had a temper tantrum and decided to be evil.

Basically, Middle-Earth is going to be reborn alongside the End Days, but someone still needs to clean the stuff up and Valar could have used a hand with both this and keeping Melkor in check.

You may be wondering, how it would be expected from a human whose only distinctive features are having the resting bitch face of the century and loving her family very much.

Well, of course by getting essentially cursed, but as a sole positive thing about it being able to (maybe) utilize a fraction of the power Melkor got in the divine lottery.

List of possible and expected side-effects? Enormous. Includes transforming into eldritch horrors, losing yourself and becoming a mindless puppet, delusions, etc.

And so while her friends were having a relaxing beach filler arc, more or less, not-yet-Measse was trying to discreetly from them figure out how this whole thing works and having her "objective: survive" filler arc, because Melkor was very genuinely trying to off her.

Why would he need a leech sapping on his power AND being there to kick his butt later, after all?

Her main hobby, outside of her "job" is to take care of dragons, obviously. Who doesn't like dragons, after all. Also being a doting older sister for Lily, a second child in the family.

The end result is that not-yet-Measse survives for long enough to get comfortable in utilizing these loaned powers and is reborn into a quasi-deity in a bath of very actual fire.

She takes the name Measse as the world falls apart in the End Days and following it's rebirth is reunited with her family and goes on to have her new life.

[noblechaton]

Well I for one would love to hear that story!

okay! um. I'm gonna try not to get too personal or w/e but I've also never really............talked about this before so uh here it goes! also sorry this is gonna be long lmao

I've sorta always known that I was........well. queer! and I mean that seriously too - I still remember feeling weird and different as far back as kindergarten in a way that lasted thru my entire school career despite obviously not really understanding any of it way back when with that sorta being how things were as I kept going thru school. like I knew I wasn't like everyone else around me but of course I didn't know like why or how or what it meant that I thought both sides of the room were cute or why I'd had feelings towards friends of the same gender and it was something I just sorta sat on for the bulk of my life up till into high school where I started learning more about LGBTQ stuff on my own time and finding it represented in places (like funny enough in Doctor Who) that helped further my curiosity and with more knowledge I sorta started understanding myself more as a result and like I think I realized I was (or at least identified most with being) bisexual* around sophomore year? and honestly it was really liberating to embrace how I'd always felt with like an understanding to it and I definitely wasn't shy about it lmao. it came up a few times actually and I was proud to tell ppl I wasn't straight and it felt really good to know that instead of just feeling it which ik might sound weird but it’s the best way I can put it and it was like I’d put an element of my life that I didn’t understand for the longest time to rest thinking that was it

that said.......................there was more to it - more to myself - that I've been sitting on and admittedly have been intentionally ignoring and denying for just as long

and I mean it's been something I've kinda been aware for as long as I can remember now with some distinct memories of believing I was "born in the wrong body" (which is a thing I remember saying to and thinking about myself a lot) as far back as kindergarten too and there were times where I aggressively denied this and a few times where I've even gotten mad at myself for thinking such a thing with the most recent instance of this being um. y'know. a few days ago. which is kinda where that anxiety stuff comes in and how like I guess I just feel bad for thinking like this despite not....looking the part or feeling ashamed for....thinking that way mostly out of my own sense of self depreciation. I’ve dealt with an immense self hatred for the majority of my life now and this sort of thing has been used to just kinda throw more fuel on that fire

but despite that I’ve also gotten better about self depreciation over the recent years too! it’s been a long work in progress but I think I’ve made a lot of strides in at least not feeling so down on myself and embracing the more positive aspects of the things I do and say and my personality and existence and all that. it’s definitely a healthier way to live actually finding things to enjoy about urself and accepting the way u are

and like another big aspect of this is that well.....no one’s ever really asked?? what my pronouns are or which gender I am and with that in mind over the last ~10 years I sorta slipped into feeling more comfortable being seen as more nonbinary since I've never felt too much like a boy or a girl for various reasons and I've kinda been fine like that for a while and I'm even still p comfortable there as is! I love ppl perceiving me as they want to perceive me and I want folks to continue doing that! 

but lately it's been on my mind again and I've been thinking about it and kinda passively watching others as they talk to and about me and I've kinda gradually been realizing that as far as self designation I definitely agree more with one gender than the other and even have been sorta subtly dressing more in the style of someone of the opposite gender than the one I was born with and even sometimes refer to myself with those pronouns and like when ppl refer to me like that too it usually just like feels better to me mentally and like despite my own reservations and fears and uncertainties at this point that it’s felt hard to deny that I might actually be that way

it’s all kind of confusing and I’m very nervous about....embracing it like this not bc of the reaction or responses I might get from certain uh sects of ppl online or other ppl in general (which again has been great so far honestly) but bc I guess I’m kinda subject to that fear of like not believing my own feelings on the matter are real or valid - that I’m not actually this way even tho a lot of signs and my own beliefs tell me I am that way. y’know? but especially lately I’ve been embracing it more as a fact and feeling better mentally as a result despite my own reservations

all of this to say that I'm still sorta figuring myself out and that while I might not have had all the answers right away I’ve still be gradually piecing things together over my years and while it’s been....scary honestly to even sorta consider it’s also all sorta been getting clearer the more time I spend actually embracing those thoughts and feelings rather than shoving them away or otherwise ignoring them so. uh. I guess u could consider this me coming out in my own way

I’m trans! 

and I'm proud to be who I am! 

and hey hopefully in saying all of this and talking about it further if ppl wanna know more or w/e maybe I can help someone else feel more comfortable in their own identity too!

[funkyphonophorae]

Tell me about the cubes.

assuming you mean geometry dash, unfortunately there is no angsty gd cube lore for you to hear of, but i can tell you about some of my favourite levels in no particular order!!!! (decoration and vibes-wise, i am not about to actually beat these anytime soon unfortunately)

xo by krmal

xo is a very controversial level because many think it is "lazy" as it uses extremely basic blocks with no decorations on them whatsoever. the most complicated it gets decoration-wise are the effects which are cool but not particularly flashy. this is why people don't like it and don't think it is worthy to be officially uploaded onto the servers.

however, i really like xo!!! it has genuinely incredible music sync, surprisingly well thought-out design and extremely interesting structure for the limitations the creator was putting on himself!!! levels like xo are great because of how original they are. in times like these ones for the community, where most extreme demons are generic glow with tight wave spam and straightfly as the only reason they are difficult, xo isn't afraid to completely challenge the oversaturated market of extreme demons by prioritising making an interesting level over making one that exists only for it to get attention for being on the demonlist (top 150 hardest levels in the game).

i'll put the rest under a cut because WOW i didnt expect to rant that much about xo...

2. LIMBO by mindcap + more

limbo is very hard to describe because, as cheesy as it sounds, its less of a level and more of a visual experience. even just watching a run of this level (which almost every player will have to do since it is very difficult) is surreal. there is so much creativity poured into every section of limbo that sets it apart from other levels. it is also incredibly consistent for a megacollab (a level where lots of people made small parts of it) but each part still feels distinct enough to be memorable while keeping to a central theme.

3. killbot by boldstep

killbot has one of the coolest concepts for an extreme demon out there. the supposed "story" behind the level is that the player has downloaded a corrupted computer program that is out to kill them (hence the name, killbot), and throughout the level textboxes appear showing the system attempting to delete the killbot virus. the level starts out green and as it progresses, turns into red and black as the virus corrupts more and more parts, until finally at the end the virus is said to have been forcefully deleted.

the level kinda hurts to look at because of all the flashing and general air decoration but still maintains a very cool atmosphere. it does not look fun to play though.

4. decode by rek3dge

finally a level within my skill range! decode is a simple level, but very effective. it has a great song, a certain iconic wave section, and it technically isn't anything special, but who cares. i've never seen anyone hate decode. it's a universally loved level, which is incredibly rare for the gd community, and even rarer considering its rated demon (albiet only easy demon).

fun fact: spaceuk, the perpetrator of one of the game's most shocking and destructive hacking scandals, beat decode as his first ever demon level.

5. emerald realm by castrix + more

this level is based on ori and the blind forest/ori and the will of the wisps, which are great games so that already makes this level super cool. but i think i speak for everyone who's ever seen this level when i say that emerald realm has some of the most beautiful decoration in any gd level. you can appreciate emerald realm as a piece of art regardless of whether you've played the ori games or not. (yes, culuc's part is obviously the best one, all hail culuc, etc).

6. jigsaw

nothing extraordinary about this one...but it's a saw-themed gd level that looks super cool. so of course it's one of my favourites, even if it's not had a huge impact on the community.

7. congregation by presta

(insert funny congregation jumpscare meme). congregation is controversial, similar to xo, because it has less than 40,000 objects, which doesn't sound like much to someone unfamiliar with the game - but the current hardest level has over 200,000 objects. so naturally some people were irritated when congregation was rated - another case of a level being seen as "lazy" by a large number of the community.

but...congregation is so cool! it has a technological atmosphere emphasised with a fitting song that creates a feeling of mystery, unease, and the incredibly long build up to the drop of the level as more and more things begin to appear that makes it surprisingly suspenseful. the second section of the level does bring it down for me but this is still a great example of an extreme demon that stands out from the rest.

also, it has no wave or ship, the gamemodes that extremes usually rely on to create difficult segments, which makes it even more original!

8. b by motleyorc and scorchv2

b is a medium demon set in a beehive. you must navigate the beehive while avoiding some scarily large bees with ._. faces. simple but effective level that pretty much everyone loves.

oops it is now 11:21pm i should probably sleep now. yay