#masks ladies aesthetic project

[bomberqueen17]

stuff

well, covid is thusfar just a mild sore throat. i would not have tested except that i had been so uncomfortable in that crowded bar with no masks anywhere on saturday night. to be perfectly clear, i was not wearing a mask either. i was drinking a beer and i was tired and i realized that i'd be stuck there so long that taking the mask off to drink and putting it back on again would be pointless, going without a drink would make the entire experience miserable, and if i wanted to talk to my companion, he'd need to read my lips because it was loud in there, and i just thought, well, this is it. and i was right; that's how i got covid. so if you can keep your masks on like i had been doing for the previous almost three years, you might just make it, though i'm hearing from other people that they're finally getting it now too, it's just too omnipresent.

however, it does also seem to have become less severe. so far, for me, it is, anyway. i genuinely would not have bothered with testing, over this; my temperature is stubbornly 97.5 degrees, normal for me, and i have no other symptoms. which is awesome i am not complaining. i'm just worried that the mild throat congestion will do what colds like this always used to do to me, and go down into my chest and become bronchitis. i really really don't need covid bronchitis thanks. so i'm taking dextromethorphan and guaifenisin and drinking hot tea and taking vitamins and i do plan to try to rest, i just haven't so far.

anyway.

i'm occupying myself in textile projects, as one does. pictures behind cut. yes sorry i know dreamwidth, the cuts don't work. i'm also told the polls come through looking absolutely bonkers, so congrats and i hope you enjoy the aesthetic of it. i would like to come up with a good way to make it more obvious what's an original post by me and what's a reblog but the tags don't consistently work and i can't think of any other way to do it, but i mean, this has been a years-long project, so. sorry.

anyway pictures:

firstly, i inkle-wove a hatband of Dude's own design for a hat he bought in Cartagena. He plans to secure it with an amber brooch. He has great taste. He needs to wear hats more.

[image description: an inkle-woven band in progress, warped on an inkle loom; it's about 1.75" wide, and is a gradient of stripes in red, burgundy, and orange.]

I got a book about inkle pattern drafts and such so he studied that and came up with this, which is an objectively cool design I fully intend to copy in blues and greens next. I also should do it in pink, purple, and blue because of my next project.

I continue to enjoy the Cashmerette pattern club, and the latest design was a puffer vest. I remembered that I have a garbage bag full of wool garments, unpicked-- someone painstakingly unpicked a bunch of really nice wool ladies' garments (I'm assuming, from the size and colors), laundered and ironed the fabric, and then it got donated to the quilting club Dude's mom is in, and she was like we... don't... quilt in wool, and gave them to me and I've sat on them for years trying to think of The Perfect Thing and lo, it's this. A puffer vest? Of nice formalwear wool? Heck yes. And by coincidence, the center front fit on a pair of unpicked vivid-navy trousers, and then the side seams with the big princess shoulder scoops fit on a deep purple former skirt, and then the back fit nicely with some sort of off-center but straight at least seams onto a large magenta skirt, so I have an accidental bi pride vest. And I'm going to stuff it with some carded wool, from the fleece I roadside-scavenged in 2017 or whenever that was; I have a bunch scoured but it's not ideal for a beginner to hand-spin, and now i have a whole new fleece to hand-spin, so i might as well card this into batts?

Anyway here's the experimental section I'm doing, which I plan to launder to see whether I get bearding or felting. (I backed the wool with some thin silk habotai, to prevent the carded wool from poking through.) I wasn't sure what to make with the finished item but Chita has claimed it, so I'll see if she wants it as a bed.

[image dscription: a gray cat sits on a square of pieced wool fabric in shades of purple, pink, and blue, with safety pins holding it together; one corner shows fluffy undyed wool fibers poking out where I haven't quilted it down yet.]

Not the finest quilting work but it's a rough draft and anyway it's got charm.

i'm hand-quilting most of it but i do intend to do the binding by machine and also do a little bit of machine quilting because i need to determine whether i can machine-quilt this vest or if i want to do it by hand. my hand quilting is sorrrrt of terrible, is the thing, but then so is my machine quilting, and this is going to be janky anyway, so i have to figure out if i lean into that or if i try to do better. It's an artistic process, y'know??

[skullchicken]

heyyy you can help me out if you like because I have choice paralysis about which project to work on while I take a break from my other projects ;_;

More Info/Synopsis under the cut!

(Sorted from how long they've been rotated from most to least so far)

Action/fantasy webtoon about a cursed school where students turn into monsters:

The class clown turns into an actual monster-clown, the sporty girls become cheerleader-zombies, the annoying little elementary school brats turn into screaming dolls and the teachers turn into boss monsters.

The only three people seemingly unaffected are Miyako (metalhead, bff of Cally), Cally (goody two-shoes, Miyako's bff) and Achintya (nerd, unrelated). With the former two, the reasons seems because they're not quite human themselves. But what's up with that shady little nerd? And he seems to know more than he lets on...

Whatever the case may be, they must lift the curse before things escalate.

Okay, so, imagine a Shounen Manga, except the demographic is all genders and women are people. Miyako, since she's secretly a demon, takes after a typical shounen battle protagonist, while Cally is a fairy and falls more into the magical girl mold. As for Achintya... he's complicated.

Shadowrun-action-romance-novel about fixing malicious DRM on cyberware, m/f

Working title: You owe me

A story about maliciously designed cyberware, trust-issues, debt, being in your twenties, guilt and a wrestler-elf and hacker-dwarf being dumbass idiots who pine for one another and secretly think the other person is the best thing since sliced bread. Slow-ish burn.

The good news is, I have like a hundred pages already written. The bad news is, I would have to rewrite a lot of it because my writing process has changed a lot. But let me say no more, take a gander at our romantic leads, ladies, gentlemen and those that lieth betwinxt:

64.media.tumblr.com

64.media.tumblr.com

He is wearing a gorilla mask for plot-reasons.

Webtoon fantasy/romance remake of a story where a girl marries the carrot king

There is an german fairytale written by the guy who also wrote the nutcracker which is bonkers and hilarious and I'd looove to adapt it into webtoon format. I wrote about it here: click meee

I would update the story so it takes place in modern times and deals with the issue of aesthetics versus being... (think e.g. cottagecore versus actual farming) in short "it is fine and dandy to dream, in fact it's very important... but if you're too keen to only believe what you want to be true, you're gonna get duped."

But most importantly it would give me ample reason to draw a carrot with a handsome anime-face.

Shadowrun-mystery-novel about the worship of dragons (Blackout Sequel)

I wrote a shadowrun short story about loneliness, vulnerability, yakuza and mysterious lemon cake. I have ideas for a sequel - granted they are quite nebulous as of now, but I'm confident I'm reaching the point where I can start fleshing them out. This time around the story would be longer and more involved. The theme would be the worship of dragons, not just in the literal sense, but also in how people relate to power.

We would also see how the relationship between Hanne and Amanda progresses. I personally wish friendships would receive as much attention and nuance as romantic relationships and here I would attempt such a thing.

Webtoon-action-romance about the housing market and identity, f/f

Anansi and Muu meet, one day, via the matrix, when they stumble upon each other trying to get entry into the same matrix club. The reason they're here are quite different. Muu, a corporate princess, just hit her thirtieth birthday, only received presents she didn't like and has a minor crisis about it. Anansi, who is a technomancer, is always on the run and here to meet a Mr Johnson.

While Muu's journey is, at first, internal, as she starts to try out different avatars to figure out who she even is, Anansi holds on for dear life as a squatter and, gets screwed over with the payment and sets out to find that damn Johnson to make him pay one way or another.

Their paths in life are quite different, yet they keep running into each other and, despite everything, find themselves drawn to each other.

And then it turns out their worlds are not as far apart as suspected.

I would be quite excited about this one because I've never written a f/f romance before, despite being very, very bi (granted I've also never finished writing a m/f romance, but still). Mostly I just really like the characters and I think the story would be solid and not too convoluted... as mine tend to get sometimes :,)

... but I'm equally excited to do all of these! What do you say?

[essayofthoughts]

what would you think of Percy with a Scottish accent? a friend of mine said a few of his lines in his Scottish brogue and he told me that Percy might have sounded even cooler and more intimidating if Tal had chosen that for him. but I'm not sure how I feel about that.... as a Percy enthusiast what do you think??

Uhhh.

TL;DR: No offence to your friend but no, I don't think it'd work.

To Explain:

Percy is very much the posh British schoolboy (with all the arrogance and hubris that entails) and per Taliesin, he's not even meant to be cool. He's meant to be kind of an arsehole. A complete dork. A bit of an idiot. The coolness is an accident - purposefully doing something to make him "cooler" would undermine that.

And then, secondarily, we know that a lot of his intimidation is a thin veneer over his own anger and terror and trauma - making the intimidation more sincere would again undermine the narrative arc and the depth of his trauma.

And then, from that - why a Scottish accent? Why does that make him cooler and more intimidating? Americans often find Scottish or Irish accents (though not Welsh, I've noticed, which is a shame, because Welsh accents are lovely imo) more cool and fun than British (which is the stereotypical villain accent) but that's an outside opinion imposed on the accent.

As for intimidation - is that the Angry Scotsman trope in play to some extent? The Drunk Glaswegian? The idea that because Scotland had to be "civilised" by their superior (British) neighbours (who did a colonialism, in a way, with the goddamn highland clearances!) because they're angry and barbaric and dangerous? Is that leaning into unhelpful stereotypes by using an accent to convey something where the personality and character alone should be able to provide that?

Changing something purely for your own satisfaction in your art or fic is absolutely fine - sure, go ahead, do that. But remember that by making a change you (general you, to be clear, not you Nonny specifically) are saying that, in some way, this change is important, if not to the story then to the person making the change. And from it, people will infer things about the story (okay, if Percy has a Scottish accent then that implies Whitestone might be more culturally Scottish, does that make Melanie de Rolo a bit of a Lady Macbeth, does that shift the culture of the area?) or about the writer who imposed the change (did they just do it because they think it's cool?) and not all of what they infer will be what you intend.

From your ask, this isn't about fic. This is just in general. And... I always think it's a bit arrogant to think one knows better than the creator, who picked an accent for the character on purpose. And we know too, that Taliesin had full rein over Percy and that he has thought a lot about the character. He picked the posh British boarding school boy accent out on purpose - to convey the education and arrogance and hubris and even entitlement that were parts of Percy's character. While I don't think Percy's entitled on stream so much, he almost certainly was prior to the Briarwoods and we get that from choices made in how he's presented to us, accent included.

These things have meaning, they speak to upbringing and culture and history, and if we change them we have to ask what those changes mean. What they imply about everything else. Otherwise they're purely aesthetic and can undermine something originally made with intent.

And in Percy, there is intent. He's not meant to be cool - the coolness is an accident. His intimidation is a sham meant to hide his own fear and trauma - he wears a mask to be intimidating; it's not a subtle metaphor! Making him more cool and intimidating misses the point of his character which is that he isn't really either of those things.

He's just kind of a mess and a bit of a dick.

TL;DR2: I think your friend may be projecting some of their own opinions onto the accent without necessarily thinking them through or how they necessarily apply to the character in question.

[whatthecrowtold]

#unhallowedarts - Castles, Swords and Nimble Wits. Hal Foster's Prince Valiant as Demon.

“For the sake of fair Ilene Val dares pit his nimble wit against the might of the Ogre of Sinstar Wood and all his followers.”

Maybe drawing ladies’ underwear for catalogues is not the worst job a young graphic artist can land. It was the first steady creative work young Harold from Halifax did. Back in 1912, for the Hudson Bay Company. And after moving on from drawers to drawing the Lord of the Apes, finally, in the early 1930, Hal Foster had a chance to prove what he dab hand he was in narrating stories with pictures. With a friend, he cycled the 1,000 miles from Canada to Chicago, to take art classes, studied the Great Ones from the Golden Age of Illustration and especially the American masters did it to him. With something close to his contemporary Leyendecker’s aesthetics, it were Maxfield Parrish and especially N.C. Wyeth who proved to be a major influence on one of the milestones of the development of graphic novels into a serious artistic medium: Hal Foster’s “Prince Valiant”. What looked like quite the adaption from Wyeth’s take on the rich imagery of “Le Morte d’Arthur” by Thomas Malory, published some 15 years before as “The Boy’s King Arthur”, Foster’s masterpiece of depicting a narrative was first published in the “New Orleans Picayune” in February 1937. And no one less than press tsar Randolph Hearst himself recognised the potential of Foster’s talent and tale and granted him full creative control and regular publication of what was to become the story of “Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur”. For the next 30 years, until Foster finally left the project in 1971.

“Prince Valiant” is, taken all its high artistic value for granted, Foster’s brilliant use of chiaroscuro and highly detailed, cinematic illustrations, as historical as a typical Hollywood history flick. Which means: not in the least. The 5th century late- and post-Roman world in Foster’s imagination is populated by Vikings, Muslims, Knights from the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance tech and what not. And we do have a historical date. Young Val witnesses the murder of Flavius Aëtius in Rome in September 454AD. That witches and wizards and dino-like swamp monsters disappeared from the story during the 1940s is hardly noticeable in Foster’s heap of broken historical images. But that usually doesn’t spoil a good story. At least if the hypocrite lecteur is not a true-blue historian who had archived his own sense of wonder somewhere in a deep cellar where spiders and dust bunnies nest and the ghosts of heroic epics walk the night. And as ahistorical as Foster narrates Val’s story, imagery and ideas remain brilliant, especially when his hero uses his brains instead of the magic “Singing Sword”, a downright loveable and inspiring trademark feature of the story.

One memorable take was published early on, already in August 1937. Young Val, still Sir Gawain’s squire, sets forth to wrest the castle of Maid Ilene’s parents from the clutches of a robber baron, appetisingly known as “The Ogre of Sinstar Wood”. And what sounds like the typical onset of a chivalric hero quest, climaxing in blood and thunder, is solved in an Ann Radcliffe-style Gothic charade. Making a devil’s mask from the skin of a captured goose and using his black cloak as something that looks like bat wings, Val invades the castle at night, doing quite the aerial acrobatic routine with a rope on the side, scares the Ogre to death and drives his henchmen from the castle by haunting the place for days in his demon guise. Mission accomplished, without a sword being drawn. And no one of his numerous successors in drawing chivalric – or other – adventure stories managed the same tongue-in-cheek humour and innovation in their take on epics than Foster did. While only few rival his artistic talent.       

For a quick glimpse into Hal Foster's art and Prince Valiant's tale - below is a medium quality online edition of the first volume from 1937 - 1939

[ludic-nebula-collective]

Possible(?) Headmate List

I've been thinking about the gang today. I haven't really popped off about them yet, but I like the idea of a masterpost for everyone.

I'll try to put everyone in order of how prominent they were during their time. TW - IFS / Internal Family Systems mention: They were the parts I made during IFS that had a bit more autonomy than they should've and the main reason why I'm questioning so much. (I've mentioned in my pinned post that I don't agree with IFS as a practice and don't condone it, but these guys are very important to me.)

Masterpost under the cut!

Syren "Sy" 💫 ➺ based on my love of astronomy ➺ it/sol/voi/they + mirrors ➺ a living star, has both a more human and more star-like form ➺ was most often around when I was dissociating ➺ wasn't really the nicest, but it meant well

Maera ✨ ➺ based on my love of animals, mythology, and space ➺ she/it/they/star/woo/kit/🐕/🐾 + mirrors ➺ she's based on Canis Minor! blond border collie girl! ➺ always happy and always hyperactive, she's a sweetheart ➺ made me raise a brow when I realized she didn't seem to represent any negative "part" of me...

Evren "Ev" 🍯 ➺ based on my love of pastels, learning, "kawaii"/soft things, and possibly cartoons? ➺ ey/ve/ne/they/she ➺ I've been trying to see if these "parts" are more personas than other people, that's why this account is framed around one ➺ a demon in a human skin, but you wouldn't know if ey didn't have eir horns :) ➺ one of the ones that popped up cuz my brain said "hey, this guy's here too" out of nowhere lmao

Raine 🌧️ ➺ based on my love of oceanography and marine biology ➺ ve/xe/they/she ➺ human-adjacent, ve grow spikes on ver body (especially on ver head like a tiara) when ver angry ➺ ve mask quite a bit, more than any of the others ➺ ve also like to go by Marsh! it's like a screen name for ven

Homura 🔥 ➺ based on my strong Pyra (Xenoblade Chronicles 2) kin and my love of vtubers ➺ she/they/fie/e ➺ she's a lady with short reddish hair and circular glasses. the tips of her hair burn slightly ➺ the mom friend of the group, but she usually lets people walk all over her... ➺ if she was a vtuber, she'd call her viewers her sparks!

Saige 🌱 ➺ based on my Ground-type Miku (Project Voltage) kin and my love of the desert, botany, and the song Sand Planet ➺ dune/fie/kit/she ➺ green hair and deep pink eyes, like the flower on a cactus ➺ the one that pops up when someone needs brutal honesty ➺ kind of a hardass, but done absolutely means well

Juno / Lyra "LJ" 🥤 ➺ based on my love of Pokémon and possibly silly/colorful things? ➺ e/they/bu/🫧/she ➺ eir the middle stage between Marill and Azumarill, but as a human girlie ➺ here's where we get to the ones that weren't/aren't present enough to have a lot of info. I think e's pretty goofy, though ➺ couldn't decide between the two names, so e use both!

Wrenly "Wren" 🥀 ➺ based on my love of weirdcore as a genre ➺ xe/ink/voi/star/wy/it ➺ a tall, lanky, possibly staticky creature that's both mute and nonscribal ➺ xer whole thing was like. I can feel them physically inside me. is that weird? xe would claw at my stomach whenever i felt dysphoric or dysmorphic

Angel 💗 ➺ gonna be real, I don't really know what she's based on. my brain told me one day that I had another dog girl in me, so here she is lmao ➺ she/her, possibly more? ➺ a shel-Aussie dog girl! ➺ literally would just. make yapping noises. I'm dead serious. we love her for it, though

Sidney "Syd" 🗡️ ➺ based on my gender expression (feminine enby) and love of punk aesthetics and heavier music ➺ they/xe/ey/ne/fie/ink/voi ➺ they have two appearances based on their gender expression, but they're mostly a taller woman with shorter white hair and blue eyes ➺ wasn't really around. I think it was because they were suffering in silence

Addison 💾 ➺ based on my love of tech ➺ wy/ey/ce/ne/it/they ➺ I've never really been able to see or interact with the headspace, but I've realized it's a series of interconnected planets in its own solar system (if it exists). wy is the one that created it ➺ wy is a living computer program, so wy powers down as a means of running from their problems and trauma. I haven't really heard anything from wir at all

??? 🦗 ➺ also based on my love of Pokémon ➺ they/them ➺ I don't really know if they're here, but I wondered for a while if LJ had eir own part based on a shiny Lurantis OC I have

That's the crew! Again, I'm still not sure if they count as headmates or not, but while they were created to be parts of me to help me get through my trauma, they were very much their own people that only really "fronted" during specific times. It's all very confusing, but they still mean a hell of a lot to me.

If anyone has any questions on or for any of them, feel free to leave a comment!

[suth-sardian]

the one with the perfectly steady hands: Qataqenthe

[inposterumcumgaudio]

On a Pedestal

"A statue of me. That's not creepy at all."

People make a lot of this statue in Byng's safehouse and while it is indeed creepy under the circumstances, I think people got the wrong shape of it.

Mostly because I think people are not terribly interested in actually examining Byng's motives to begin with. It's generally assumed that Byng is obsessed with Sally, that he thinks he is in love with her.

Nope! That's Verloc. Or was, anyway.

Byng's relationship with Sally has always been explicitly understood as transactional. There was never any pretense to it. This was not a courtship, it was a mutually beneficial agreement. Manic pixie dream girl shit in exchange for protection from both her ex and the Executive Committee (and if we're being real, Byng probably bankrolled her lab too). The agreement is that Sally is ready to answer when he calls, and out of the way otherwise. She even claims he hasn't visited in weeks when she goes to his office to ask for a Letter of Transit.

So if this statue isn't a shrine to his obsession with Sally, then what the fuck is it?

Let me show you something.

When Byng is left to his own devices to decorate, he tends towards a traditional, stately style with a slight imperialist, Rudyard Kipling bent to it, per his work during British military movements in India. He's utilitarian about it, also per his military background, but he has an aesthetic.

We know this is the way he prefers his living spaces because Victoria, who idolizes her father, also decorates this way. She's more ornate about it, more feminine, and you won't find an elephant foot umbrella stand in her house (she's trying her best not to look foreign or exotic), but all the same basic tastes are there. She swaps her father's military elements for equestrian ones, befitting a proper (and pointedly) English lady, but she's got the same gilt picture frames and leather seating.

But the safehouse isn't decorated this way. Save for his own office space which has a depressing, cobbled-together (utiliatrian?) mid-century modern thing going on...

...Byng has emulated Sally's decor style.

"I wanted it to feel like home," he says.

And maybe you're thinking, okay, but this still looks like a shrine to Sally.

And it does! But you know what?

So does Sally's own house. It's exactly like home! A+, Byng, no notes.

Now I'll grant you Sally may not have been thinking she was designing a shrine to herself in her apartment. Joan Collins has a portrait of herself over her mantle but it was painted by Patrick Nagel and if Patrick Nagel painted me, I'd hang that fucker up over the mantle too. But there is other art in the game. Four giant Sally face masks in the living room instead of any of the many abstract art pieces available in the assets? This was a choice. And if you're looking at Sally's psyche from the outside... well, the self-obsession is what you're going to take away from it.

But still, a statue is a bit much.

So we continue to wonder: what the fuck, Byng?

Byng, specifically because he was not in love with Sally nor blindly projecting his idealizations on her (in fact, there's a few times where it's clear he thinks she's acting like a foolish child and tries to tell her sense), was the one character in the game who understood her best. They're very similar, in fact. They're out for their own and they're both quite mercenary about it. His understanding was not complete, it was shaded with his own biases, but it was closer to the reality of Sally than Arthur's or Verloc's or anyone else's.

And a thing Byng probably pegged about Sally early on - probably exactly during that meeting where Verloc thought she was flirting with Byng and trying to impress him - was that Sally wanted to be appreciated and to get credit for her chemistry skills and not just her looks.

And so he puts a monument to her in the safehouse, a monument that for once acknowledges not just her beauty but also her talent as a chemist. She's the only one who will ever see it, but she's the only one who needs to once the fall of fucking Rome goes down out there. It's not like Byng planned to stay in that safehouse with her fulltime. He had a boat to escape! His office in the safehouse looks like a poorly-coordinated thrift shop because he wasn't planning to be there that much.

This was just the continuation of their previously agreed upon arrangement, that she's ready to entertain when he comes calling, out of sight out of mind when he doesn't.

The statue was for Sally, not him.

[misano17]

My next ShuMika fic, (After Schwanensee)

Hey guys, I've already begun planning on my next ShuMika fic.

I drew a piece for it cuz I was mad inspired to draw something for this. Also the image quality.

So from here onwards Imma be describing the world building and concepts I have so far.

So the setting was inspired by Vampire Knight, The Promised Neverland, and Honkai Impact.

Vampire Knight esc stuff:

There is a ranking system for vampires based on the amount of Nox Flectum (Think like vampiric energy but I gave it a funky name) in their blood. The amount of Nox Flectum in a vampires blood directly corelates to how powerful they are.

Purebloods have the highest concentration, and are treated as royalty because of this.

The governing system is more of a free for all. Most vampires keep themselves safe by aligning themselves with a war lord or noble house.

It is taboo to drink another vampires blood if they are of a higher status. (This is to keep weaker vampires from gaining any sort of power)

When a vampire drinks another vampires blood the concentration of Nox Flectum in their blood goes up.

Also, Purebloods are practically immortal. Even with silver bullets it would take launching one of those mother fuckers from orbit to do shit to a pureblood. And that might not even do it.

The Promised Neverland esc stuff:

There are humans in this world.

Meat farms.

There are quite a few older humans that have been tasked with raising the younger ones.

Humans are sometimes used as servants by vampires because of how weak humans are. Usually by high ranking officials because it'd be very difficult for a human to assassinate them.

There are also experiments being done on younger kids and teens to try and give humans Nox Flectum without making them into vampires. This is being done for a few reasons. 1. Legal loophole to make extracting Nox Flectum completely legal, cuz humans don't have the same kinds of rights as vampires, 2. Making human meat more sought after by higher ranking nobles and officials.

These experiments are trying to avoid giving humans any sort of powers, so they can't rise up and all.

Honaki Impact 3rd esc stuff:

Ight this one is mainly based on the setting but it also has a lot to do with the overall aesthetic.

The main story takes place in a futuristic city reminiscent of the future tech in Honkai.

So think massive neon lights everywhere and a very dense urban environment.

However the lands outside the city are very different. Those lands are mostly covered in dense forests and ruins. Very few vampires live out there. A couple humans have made the ruined countryside their home but they are few and far between.

Anyways, plot stuff, (This synopsis is likely to change and is not indicative of the final fic, I'm still working a lot out lmao):

Mika was raised in one of the meat farms

He was selected for participation in the Nox Flectum experiments

He gained the power to manipulate and assimilate into shadows from these experiments so he was deemed a failure and set to be terminated

He escaped this period of time and wandered in the woods until he spotted the bright lights of the city.

He uses his shadow powers to survive in the city

During one of the many scuffles he gets himself involved in a pretty vampire lady notices him and decides to approach him

She offers him some silver jewelry in exchange for being her eyes and ears on the street

He is very suspicious of her but she makes a show of how the silver burns her skin and handing what could be murder weapons over to someone she just met shows her trust in him or something so they start working togther.

The lady is Arashi btw, she really looked at this feral street man and was like "New personal project :)"

She is a minor member of the noble house of Itsuki.

Arashi helps Mika conceal his identity and sets him up with an apartment

She also gives him new clothes and a mask for when he goes out

He starts going by "The Crow" on the street

Anyways the plot progresses from here with Mika killing Vampires he is ordered and getting embroiled in a political clusterfuck

Also did I forget to mention that Shu has the power to control crows, and is called "The Lord of Crows" by his followers, so when he hears about some vigilante calling themself "The Crow" that is going around killing vampires he gets pretty fucking offended and makes it his personal mission to hunt whoever "The Crow" is down and beat the ever loving shit out of them.

Also these bitches are soulmates and Vampires recognize their soulmates through eye contact

Mika is wearing a mask that stops other people from seeing his eyes. Do we see the issue here :)

Can't wait for Mika, who isn't a vampire, and has no idea about vampire soulmates to fight Shu and make eye contact with him and be like "What in the everloving fuck is this awful feeling in my head."

Anways, some of this may change but overall I'm really enjoying how it's turning out so far

Also pairings and tags that will probably get included:

Shu/Mika, for obvious reasons

Shu and Arashi friendship, it's a fic by me, what else did you fucking expect

Arashi and Mika friendship, they are besties

Shu and Rei friendship, this is a vampire fic, Rei gets to show up and be awful like usual (he's also my favorite character to write so he gets to be here)

Rei/Kaoru, yeah that's right mother fucker, there's a side pairing, less side and more secondary cuz like, Kaoru is gonna be very important later on and has a lot to do with the info I omitted from this post cuz I don't want to spoil everything, ya know?

Graphic Violence, the swan fic doesn't have enough body horror or fight scenes like my usual work, so I will be rectifying that with a separate ShuMika fic, you're welcome.

Slow burn, I mean, come on.

Prince Shu, it's my fic and I get to chose the class dynamics between the two leads.

Enemies to Lovers, If you know me in real life, no you don't.

Anyways, that about wraps things up. There's a bunch of stuff I left out that y'all will have to see in the fic when I get around to writing it. I need to finish Schwanensee first tho, so it's gonna be a bit lmao.

Thank you for reading this and putting up with my brainrot lmao.

[springsaladgaming]

The ROs get invited to a masquerade ball! What masks would they wear? + Maybe add our family and their masks?

Ooooh, this is an interesting and fun one! Excuse me while I absolutely dive into this.

Alex would wear something that was wiry and lacey so that it's elegant and fancy but accentuates the natural features of their face. It would be gold or silver with modest use of colorful accents—enough to make the mask pop, but not so much as to be ostentatious—in the form of gems or pearls. The overall design would likely be asymmetrical, leaving certain parts of their face bare.

Teagan would wear something fairly simplistic in design and also probably an angular but full-face covering. Decoration would also be relatively simple, probably more geometric in nature, using either negative space or raised filigree or both. The mask would be a single, dark color, like black or a dark bronze.

Ansel would wear something that covers the eyes and nose in a symmetrical fashion (in terms of shape) but is asymmetrically decorated on the face as well as the right and left fringes. The decoration on the face of the mask would be inspired by designs often depicted on jester masks while the fringes would be decorated with feathers. No matter the colors used, the asymmetrical pieces would be contrasting.

Cherry would wear something modest that doesn't make her stand out too much but still caters to her tastes. The mask itself would probably cover her whole face, being one solid piece with filigree in floral designs. There would be light floral decorations along the edges. The mask would overall be white in color with the accents and decoration being varying shades of pink.

Lucia would strive for something bold yet elegant. She would want bright colors, but they would complement each other more than contrast. Her mask would be an asymmetrical shape with the designs on the mask being inspired by stained glass works. It would have accents in dark filigree that create bold flowing designs along the rim of the mask.

Rene, being ever the artist, would strive for something with an especially artistic pop that he would make himself. I'm thinking he'd attempt to make a mask out of origami pieces, using all different colors of origami paper. (Think a mask base with a bunch of small origami pieces puzzled together, not a folded mask.) The mask itself would end up being asymmetrical simply by the nature of putting a bunch of different origami pieces together.

??? would wear something extremely elegant, asymmetrical, and dark in color. I could see her going for a butterfly motif that uses black, purple, and blue as the main colors. Alternatively, she might want a mask with a tree or flower motif, with branches meandering from the mask. Still with dark colors—she absolutely wants to project dark vampire lady vibes. (So now you know her aesthetic.)

Sungjae would have a symmetrical raven mask (long beak included), black in color with feathers decorating the whole. There wouldn't be any details besides that to detract from the overall look. Because Sungjae can sometimes have a sense of dramatic flair, the mask would look more spooky than it would elegant.

Arthur (Dad) would wear an understated mask, something that's decorated just enough for him to blend in but not so much that he would stand out from the crowd. Color and shape doesn't matter to him so much as function—he wants something that will let him float around the masquerade and collect gossip inconspicuously while also being able to look respectable in a one-on-one conversation.

Miranda (Mom), in the same vein as Rene, would use the opportunity to tap into her artistic side. She would probably make or acquire a mask with a white base that she could paint herself. I imagine she would try her hand at painting something using watercolors, which she doesn't use very often. She's probably attempt to paint fairies. Failing that, she'd focus on something floral.

Thank you so much for the fun ask, anon! I love masquerade masks, and this was extremely fun to think about!

[vasiliquemort]

Archon Aurd Nimrode

~ Create your own sorcerer lord in a dark fantasy setting ~ This meiker was created specifically to complement my visual novel, Secunda, so that you can create your own female character sprite in the original setting, aesthetics and style - the lady of the northern island, Nimrode, the ruler of the arts as dark and gloomy as her eternal land of nights and storms.

As the project and the history of Archon develop many new sections and elements will be added - new clothing styles, decorations, cloaks, armor, masks, seasonal and stylistic sets, backgrounds, and the next meiker will be the ability to create a male / neutral character in the world of Secunda. Create your own sorcerer, alchemist, blood mage, priest or ambassador of Nimrode - choose from the characteristic northern features and details of appearance, clothes of exquisite lace, silk and velvet, copper, silver and pearl jewelry, snake hairstyles and backgrounds from history.

At the moment, the work is awaiting a review, yet as soon as everything is complete I will share our news and a link* --- *

[princesssarisa]

It obviously won't happen in real life because Disney's next Snow White project will be the live action film remake, but I'd love to see a stage version of Disney's Snow White that combined aspects of the 1979 Radio City Music Hall production with 2004's Snow White: An Enchanting Musical from Disneyland.

Like the Radio City version, it would be full-length, not condensed into a half hour. But the aesthetic would be more like the Disneyland version, with its more sophisticated visual effects (especially the gorgeous animatronic magic mirror) and its richly textured, less cartoony costumes. In particular, as at Disneyland, I'd want the dwarfs to only have prosthetic noses and foreheads (and in Dopey's case, ears), leaving most of their real faces visible, rather than wearing the slightly creepy full-face masks of Radio City. I'd want them to be played by actors with dwarfism as they were at Radio City, though. I'd also like Snow White's animal friends to be portrayed by ballet dancers in elegant stylized costumes, as at Disneyland, though some of the little birds and squirrels could be played by puppets like at Radio City too.

For the opening, I would draw on the Disneyland version and have the magic mirror set the scene as a narrator, then show Snow White working as a scullery maid at the castle (more extensively than the animated version does) and being bullied Cinderella-style by her stepmother. Interesting though it was for the Radio City version to have Snow White's father be still alive and give the Queen an evil lady-in-waiting who secretly takes Snow White to a poor village to force her into hard labor, it's more poignant and creates more sympathy for Snow White to show her as an orphan directly abused by the Queen. If we wanted to expand the opening scenes and prevent them from being too dark, we could add several other castle servants to the cast and show them exchanging some friendly, lighthearted dialogue with Snow White before the Queen sweeps in and sets them all quaking. Other castle maids could serve as a backup chorus for "I'm Wishing" the way the village women did in the Radio City version.

I'm also in favor of both versions' expanded roles for the Prince. I like the Disneyland choice to have him converse for a few minutes with Snow White before breaking into "One Song," giving them at least a tiny bit more space to fall in love, and I also like the Radio City choice to have him come back later in search of Snow White, sing the new song "Will I Ever See Her Again?" when he can't find her, and then meet the Huntsman and learn from him about the Queen's evil plot.

Since this hypothetical production would be staged now, and not in 1937 or 1979, I think I'd be in favor of Snow White's slightly spunkier and less naïve characterization from the Disneyland production. I might even approve of keeping the Disneyland choice to emphasize that Snow White's inner beauty and love are what make her more beautiful than the Queen, even if that rewrite is slightly corny in its political correctness. But I'd hark back to Radio City by keeping Snow White's classic operatic voice and coloratura. That's the kind of voice the songs were written for and it's a part of Disney Snow White's identity. Why get rid of it just to be "modern"?

I wouldn't particularly care whether the Queen's final fall was from a cliff (as in the film and at Radio City) or from a balcony at her castle (as at Disneyland), but since this would be a full-length, full-scale production, I assume there would be space and budget for a cliff.

One departure I'd like to make from both stage versions, though, is to include the film's instrumental "Chorale for Snow White" over a wordless pantomime of the dwarfs mourning at Snow White's coffin. The animated film's portrayal of the dwarfs' grief is the most poignant I've seen in any Snow White adaptation so far, and both the Radio City and Disneyland productions sped over it.

Both the Radio City and Disneyland productions were very good but imperfect. Combining them in this way would create the ideal stage adaptation of Disney's Snow White, at least as far as I'm concerned!

@ariel-seagull-wings, @superkingofpriderock

[logo-comics]

Fortune Lover Superheroes DLC

Fun Fact: This was almost a Hero School DLC, but I wasn't sure if that was the intent, so I went with full-on superheroes.

Welcome to the City of Sorcier, Home to the Superhero Team The Guardians!

Meet Maria Campbell! Recently moved to Sorcier, she is secretly the detective superheroine, Miss Flashbang! What she lacks in superpowers, she more than makes up for in ingenuity, kindness, and more gadgets than you'd expect someone her height to be able to carry on their person!

Join her as she meets the local superheroes who make up The Guardians:

Flame Prince: Geordo Stuart - The leader of The Guardians, he wields control over flames, utilizing specialized gloves to generate the spark he needs with ease. Ruthless on the battlefield, is there more than meets the eye behind that flame-styled mask?

Iceheart: Alan Stuart - Geordo's twin brother and his partner before the founding of the Guardians, he can generate ice for various purposes using the water in the air. A cool professional, can any warmth be found in his heart?

The Duke: Keith Claes - Cocky, flirtatious, and somewhat arrogant, he has such control over the earth that he can create "dirt dolls" of any size from any form of stone or earth. Always looking for the next fling, can such a wild spirit be tamed?

Windbreaker: Nicol Ascart - A skilled master of the wind, he is not usually one to leap into action without prompting, and often acts as Everywhere's voice when interacting with others.

Sirius: Raphael Walt - Formerly the host of Miss Flashbang's archnemesis, the villainous ghost "Dark Mage," he has dedicated himself to protecting people from magical threats using a talisman he received from his mysterious benefactor "LS" ever since the foul villain was finally exorcised from the mortal realm. Can he be saved from the shadows of his past?

Lady Garden: Mary Hunt - A refined gentlewoman who can control plant life, she is the definition of grace and poise, even as she strikes down her foes with enchanted vines. Can she be taught to let loose?

Everywhere: Sophia Ascart - Formerly Winter Wind, she had to retire from fighting when she realized she lacked the durability for sustained combat, but refuses to let that stop her from helping save the day! The coordinator and researcher, she is the best at what she does and what she does is vital. Can anyone crack the code to her heart?

And, of course, what sort of superhero story is complete without villains, or in this case villainesses! Meet the four major players of the opposition:

The Villainess: Katarina Claes - The undisputed center of a criminal empire despite having no superpowers of her own, she might look odd in her medieval-styled dress, but it is vital to never mistake eccentricity for foolishness, as she single-handedly conquered all of the criminal organizations in Sorcier by the age of 7 and is always looking for a new hero to turn her attentions to.

Anne: Anne Shelley - Katarina's loyal servant, she is her undisputed right hand woman. Dressed in formal maid attire, if there is something that her employer asks of her, it will be done.

The Network: Sienna Nelson - Formerly the heroine Whisper, she was considered a twelfth stringer in the superhero community with her power to use the wind to have her voice project any distance at any volume. Where hero groups saw little value, Katarina saw potential and made her into her spymaster. Can her pure heart be mended?

The Modern Villainess: Noelia Flores - The only person who calls herself by her villainous title, Noelia views herself as a better Katarina due to having a modern aesthetic while failing to have Katarina's level of control or menace. Hiring thugs from out of town, she is a frequent opponent in the game's combat mechanic, in contrast to the other three.

And then, of course, there's our brand new content!

Combat and Stealth!

Investigation Mode!

New Romance Targets Among The Original Cast!

New Romance Flags!

Go Up, Up, And Away in Fortune Lover's Super Romance DLC!

Addendum: Admittedly, we should have expected for there to be an interest in romancing a supervillainess version of Katarina when there was the Sienna route available. You can find the Katarina Route patch on our website to download it for free!

[gaeilgeoirgay]

My laptop died and I hate making online posts on my phone, so the app will do. I’ll fix the post tomorrow once my laptop gets charged

Anyways, here’s day five of Spideytorch! I used the general theme of New York for this one

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34211572

@spideytorchweek

Cass is 90% that the three men who’ve been behind her for the last three blocks are about to jump her. She has pretty good hearing and the way they’ve been talking about her for the at least fifteen minutes is a good indicator of what they want.

She’s not near any busy intersections and this part of New York was built before the city started getting crowded and they had to maximise space so there are a lot of alleyways.

She’s taken self-defense classes before of course, most New Yorker women have, but Cass isn’t too confident about taking on three men at the same time. All of the classes had emphasised getting away rather than defeating your attacker but if they surround her she might not be able to run.

:readmore:

Cass debates pulling out her phone and faking a phone call but that’ll take time and it would distract her enough that the men might attack. On the other hand, if there’s a possibility they might be overheard, they may decide to leave her alone.

Cass is about to take out the phone anyways when she hears bickering from above her.

She looks up and there’s two red and blue clad legs dangling over the edge of the building and flames rising gently from it. She panics at the thought of fire for a second before she realises who it must be.

“Oh come on, Torchy! That’s it, I’m getting a neutral arbitrator.” Comes a voice before the legs transform into a full body, that of Queen’s favourite hero. The men behind her slow a little as Spider-Man drops to the ground in front of her, the Human Torch following suit.

“Fair lady! Please tell my idiot boyfriend that pineapple does not belong on pizza.” Spider-Man says emphatically and Cass stares at him for a second. The Human Torch groans and puts his head in his hands.

“It does belong!”

Cass laughs despite herself and considers her answer carefully. “I don’t eat pizza that often, but yeah, I agree with Spidey. It just doesn’t fit with the pizza aesthetic, you know?” She says and the Human Torch collapses dramatically against the wall.

“Betrayed by the very citizens of my home!” He wails and the expressive eyes of the Spider-Man mask roll incredibly obviously. “It’s my home too idiot. And of course, said citizens agree! It doesn’t belong!” He says exasperatedly.

The three men behind her finally make a move to pass her out and one tries to cop a feel as they go. His hand is caught by Spider-Man as the Human Torch straightens up and glares at him.

“Try that again and I’ll break your wrist.” Spidey says simply and the man gulps. He nods hurriedly and runs off as soon as Spider-Man lets go. Then the hero turns to Cass, all trace of threat gone from his posture.

“I could hear what they were saying, enhanced hearing and all. It must’ve been horrible to have that directed at you. Do you want us to walk you home? Or wherever really, if you don’t want anyone knowing where you live?” Spider-Man says sincerely and Cass raises her eyebrows, slightly taken aback.

“It’s not a bother, honestly. We just want to make sure you end up somewhere safe.” The Human Torch says, smiling earnestly at her, maybe sensing her hesitation. That cements her decision.

“There’s a café about two blocks from here where one of my friends works. He’ll probably bring me home but I, uh, wouldn’t mind an escort there.” She says and Torch beams. He bounces upright and takes a place on her left while Spidey stands at her right.

“Lead the way, fair lady!” He says, bowing, and she smiles. “Cass is fine.” She tells him, liking the odd duo. Spider-Man nods solemnly as if her name is some top-secret information that he has to keep safe

.

“Now, where were we? Right, pizza. What do you have against pineapple, Webs?! It’s a perfectly good fruit!” Torch says indignantly and Spider-Man sighs loudly.

“Because! There are certain things you put on a pizza and pineapple is not one of them! You eat pineapple at, like, a beach or something. Pizza is weekend takeaway at eleven PM, made with meat and cheese and bread, like a medieval peasant but fancy. A pineapple is not a simple workmans food, Johnny!” Spider-Man retorts and funnily enough, it makes sense to Cass.

He’s right about the medieval peasant but fancy bit, she supposes. Where do pineapples come from again? She thinks it might be South America. European peasants probably would’ve never come across one, but bread and cheese and meat would’ve been their main meals.

“And besides, a pineapple is technically a berry not a fruit!” Spider-Man says, snapping Cass out of her thoughts. It is? You learn something new everyday, she guesses. They turn the corner and Adam’s café is right where it always is.

“I thought you’d be happy to see me being healthy, Spidey.” Torch pouts and Cass giggles. Spider-Man smirks victoriously, somehow making it visible through the mask. He’s definitely won the argument in Cass’s book.

The two heroes drop her off with Adam, who looks starstruck at their appearance. She’s so gonna tease him about that later, but for now, she’s gotta tell someone about the bizarre conversation that Spidey and Torch had been having.

Peter and Johnny share a smile as the woman greets her friend, who barely manages to wave at the two of of them. They wave back of course and his face goes bright red.

“I’m glad she got here safe.” Johnny says. “Even if she has awful opinions on pizza.” He continues and Peter snorts.

“You mean sane rational opinions right? Anyways, everything we do has an impact. I hope we made a good one for her.” Peter muses and Johnny smiles. He wraps an arm around Leter and tilts his head towards his own.

Johnny plants a light kiss over the mask before drawing back. “I think we did. And even if we didn’t, it’s nice to talk to the people. It reminds me of why we do this.” He says and Peter hums in agreement.

“If you ever need a reminder, just ask. We’ve come a long way since we started and people like us now. Won’t be hard to find a conversation. We just have to listen.”

[tigerstrikesasteroidnetwork]

NY / Rose Tint

Saskia Fleishman, Ascending Moon (Crescent Beach), 2020, acrylic and sand on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

Rose Tint curated by Kate Mothes August 14 – September 19, 2021

Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York and Young Space are pleased to present Rose Tint, a five-person exhibition curated by Kate Mothes, featuring the work of Bianca Fields, Esther Ruiz, Leah Guadagnoli, Mark Joshua Epstein, and Saskia Fleishman. There is a psychological phenomenon called rosy retrospection, in which people judge the past in a disproportionately positive light than they judge the present. In the predilection to overlook the challenges of the past, something sinister lurks beneath the enthralling surface of nostalgia, as one can wrap themselves up in it and yet find it more and more difficult to leave it. It’s easy to forget the conflicts and challenges of bygone eras when what we face now feels more difficult than ever before. How will this time be remembered? It seems impossible that we might view it as “simpler” after a few decades have passed, and yet we probably will find a way. The present is always too immediate to place in context. Another psychological phenomenon called the fading affect bias suggests that people have much stronger emotional reactions to positive memories than to negative ones. May we always live in interesting times.

Bianca Fields (b. 1995) Bianca Fields (b. Cleveland, OH, 1995) is a visual artist based in Kansas City, MO. Fields received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH (2019) in Painting. Field's work introduces a manifestation of her perceived imagination and material sensibilities within the paint itself; inviting animals and the world of cartoons along for a frenzied ride of happiness and fear. Her paintings are what she considers her aesthetic, guttural response to pop cultural phenomena. Amplifying the screams and yelps from her beloved exotic creatures, such as the mandrill monkey, she often crowds her compositions seeking to create visual noise and tension within her paintings. A selection of recent exhibitions includes shows with Dragon Crab and Turtle (Kansas City, MO and Bologna, IT), Steve Turner Contemporary (Los Angeles, CA), Ruttkowski;68 (Paris, France), and Bellevue Art Museum (Seattle, WA).

biancafields.weebly.com / IG: @beeyonkerz

Esther Ruiz (b. 1986) uses a minimalist vocabulary to create relics of imagined experiences. Of her creative process, she says: ”The imagery I work with is born out of exploring and researching fictional places imagined in my mind... Ultimately, my work exists as an effort to visually explain an emotional state of mind with mathematical acuteness.” She begins with a collection of emotions, memories, impressions of light, and sounds, then translates them into an abstract geometric aesthetic. Selected recent exhibitions include Torrance Art Museum (Torrance, CA), Cleo Gallery (Savannah, GA), Art in Buildings (NY, NY), De Novo Gallery (Washington, DC), Ladies’ Room LA (Los Angeles, CA), Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA), Collar Works (Troy, NY), Jacob’s West for SPRING/BREAK (Los Angeles, CA), and Field Projects (NY, NY).

estherruiz.com / IG: @esther___ruiz (3 underscores)

Leah Guadagnoli (b. 1989) lives and works between Brooklyn, NY and the Hudson Valley and is represented by Hollis Taggart in NYC. Her work incorporates elements of sculpture, painting, graphic design, and architecture into whimsical, idiosyncratic works that defy easy classification. Often drawing on the aesthetics of her Midwestern upbringing, the artist appropriates designs and patterns from the 80s’ and 90s’ -- often considered kitschy -- presenting them in fresh and dynamic ways. She received her BFA in Painting and Art History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her MFA in Visual Arts at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Recent solo exhibitions include Asya Geisberg Gallery (New York, NY), Victori + Mo (Brooklyn, NY), Sadie Halie Projects (Minneapolis, MN), and 247365 (New York, NY). Recent group exhibitions include Cooke Latham Gallery (London, England), Hesse Flatow (New York, NY), Allouche Benias Gallery (Athens, Greece), Hollis Taggart Contemporary (New York, NY), Freight + Volume (New York, NY), Hashimoto Contemporary (San Francisco, CA), Ortega y Gasset (Brooklyn, NY), and White Columns (New York, NY). Her work has been reviewed by The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Art F City, Cultured Magazine, and Architectural Digest, among others. Guadagnoli has an upcoming solo exhibition at Hollis Taggart this November.

leahguadagnoli.com / IG: @lavenderladysupreme

Mark Joshua Epstein (b. 1979) received an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College London, and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Selected solo or 2-person shows include SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NY, NY), Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY), NARS Foundation Project Space (Brooklyn, NY), Caustic Coastal (Salford, England), and Vane Gallery (Newcastle, England). Throughout the past several months, he has reconnected to a vital focus on pure pattern as an expression of entering into a new environment and settling into its pace and local culture. Influenced by geometric abstraction, Op Art, and Pattern and Decoration Movement of the mid-1970s and early 1980s, Epstein’s exuberant patterns explore queer ornament and geometric excess in their hugged edges and dancing colors. The details are precise yet intimate, highlighting the intricacy of Epstein’s process of patternmaking that underscores the presence of the artist’s hand. He is currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

markjoshuaepstein.com / IG: @markjoshuaepstein

Saskia Fleishman (b. 1995) graduated Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 with a B.F.A. in painting. In her recent paintings, landscape photographs are recomposed as geometric abstractions derived from the color studies in Josef Albers' ”The Interaction Of Color.” This process involves tilting the image, flipping the horizon line, cutting out a part of the landscape, or creating colored transparencies with chiffon. These gestures serve to suggest an alternative way of thinking and identifying our memories embedded within landscapes, where nothing is absolute, and everything is relative. The paintings pair flat and smooth masked airbrushed gradients with textural materials such as sand and burlap.

Fleishman has been an artist in residence at Jentel Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Wassaic Project, PADA Studios, ChaNorth and Trestle Studios, and a curator in residence at Otis College of Art and Design. Saskia’s work has been exhibited in a recent solo exhibition at Silo 6776 in New Hope, PA, and in group exhibitions across the United States, and in Rome and Portugal. Fleishman is based in Philadelphia, PA.

saskiafleishman.com / IG: @flesh___man (3 underscores)

[prettywarriors]

Mini Mahou March Week 4

Hey everyone and welcome to the fourth and final week of Mini Mahou March! You can find the main post for the event here X.

The Prompt for the week of March 22nd-28th is...

Pirate themed Phantom Thief/Kaitou!

The sub-genre of magical girls that needs more love, the phantom thief has a long history of non-magical girl entries such as Lupin and Magic Kaitou. MGs include Shadow Lady, Saint Tail, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, and the recent Phantomirage.

Magical girl kaitou often steal with good purpose- returning stolen goods like Saint Tail, or exorcising demons like Jeanne. With a much smaller pool of inspiration to draw from, there is very little consistency in designs for these characters, although they always have a way to make a quick escape. They often leave behind a calling card, sometimes as a form of cheeky flirting with their officer rival.

Pirates are sea-faring thieves with just a good aesthetic. You know. Captain Hook. The Jolly Roger. Patchy from Spongebob.

I’m only looking for a visual character design, something as simple as a single fullish-body picture, but you are more than welcome to go as wild as you want with trinkets, backstory, information, alt outfits, all that good stuff. Also I say girl but girl boy nb other as long as it’s a magical humanoid gender be damned, thumbs up. (Also nothing 18+ please. Your characters can be, just not your art for this)

Make your post and tag me before end of day March 28th (11.59EST) and I will be re-blogging participants here next Sunday/early Monday, with everything tagged Mini Mahou March.

Saint Tail uses stage magic to distract while stealing stolen goods and returning them to their proper owner while leaving calling cards for her crush who is the detective trying to catch her. Shadow Lady uses a magic eye shadow pallet to transform into different forms depending on the color, and steals, well, for fun until the plot happens, while the local cop is in love with her thief form. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne transforms with assistance from her mascot to remove demons from pieces of art which makes the art disappears, and her rival is transformed boy who wants to stop her (and her best friend is the obligatory cop) D.N.Angel is the long accept magical boy, and he transforms into his older alter ego to steal magical artifacts made by the ancestor of the obligatory cop who has his own magical alter ego and there’s a love square Phantomirage has girls transform to steal evil jewels from the hearts of people transformed by (extra)evil magic cops, and the head of the magic cops eventually becomes a magical cop Tuxedo Mask just steals jewels because he’s looking for the physicals manifestation of his gf’s soul to get his memories back, and Phantom Ace was an idol who also stole people’s energy because he was a villain but look I gotta post what we have and it’s not a lot okay?

So uh. Complicated romances & police enemies with possible overlap in those categories, transformations range from ‘new dress’ to ‘new body’, stealing is good sometimes. It’s not my fault there aren’t more Kaitou MGs we deserve this sub-genre c’mon Toei. Pierrot? Anyway there’s always non magical girl kaitou like Skye from Harvest Moon or whatever is happening in Persona 5. Masks are generally not a magical girl thing beyond proto-senshi and a couple of weirder male-target series, but it is a thief thing so your call.

Is Captain Grace from Magical Girl Raising Project really the only magical girl pirate? We have Multiple cowboy/wild west gunslinger magical girls and somehow just Grace? Symphogear girls have some pirate outfit variants, and the Madoka gang had pirate alts in one of their mobile games back when, and for a series with Sailor in the name, you’d think there be more than one furoku of the senshi as ‘pirates’

https://symphogear.fandom.com/wiki/Senki_Kaizoku_Dan:_Kaij%C5%8D_Dai_Gekisen#Concept_Art_

https://mobage.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=mahou_shoujo_madoka_magica+pirate

Why yes I did just combine two topics magical girls are lacking and say go at it but jokes on ya’ll this was the first prompt I came up with. Both groups steal and look good doing it what more do you want a word list? 

Yeah okay. Pirate Words: 

ship 

peg leg 

bandana 

hook hand 

parrot 

buccaneer 

mermaid 

sails 

ropes 

eyepatch 

tricorne 

skull & crossbones 

saber 

canon 

pistol 

gold & doubloons 

treasure & chests

gems 

flag 

ocean 

anchor

I have no prompts in me tonight. But I believe in you. (magical girl who scatters fake gold as a distraction while she robs rich people who underpay their workers and robin hoods the goods to said employees)

You are obligated to play fast and loose with the concept, and I know you'll be creative, so I hope you have a fun time!

[nikkywrites]

Firetruck Linen

Summary: This should not be hard. It was a simple purchase. Right?

This was for a pride week color thing thing originally, but I’ll just repost these as their own things. The writings, anyways. I don’t know if the aesthetic/moodboard things are gonna make it over.

Jackson is introduced! I still stand by the fact that not all my hero world characters are dumb teens. There are adults too who are decidedly less dumb. One day you will meet them.

A couple typos were fixed. that’s it. No warnings.  An anxious boy just tries to buy some linen at a craft store, totally not being awkward while doing so.

*****

Jackson hates the color red.

Which is kind of idiotic (and ironic) considering it wears it on a regular basis. Considering it’s a part of him as much as his blood is, something he willingly dons because of what he’s allowed to do when he’s wearing it, the freedom it grants him.

Red is a color he dislikes because it’s his freedom and his prison. Jail bars he can only ever peer out of to see the outside world. Something so simple that determines so much of him.

He figured out he had a power when he was eight. He’s spent every year since, minus that first one, hating it and most of it he also spent trying to repress it, smothering it in his chest like it’ll sputter out in the confines of his ribs to dissipate like ash in the wind.

All it does, however, is gnaw at his intestines like a parasite, burning away the lining to send smoke up his throat.

Heroing isn’t something he really has a choice in. He has to, if he doesn’t want to get hyperthermia or heat stroke or both. (He did, once, when he was nine in was the middle of winter when it made no sense. He was nine when his choice of his future was taken from him). He hates it, but at least he knows what he’s going to do when he graduates, so there’s that. 

That doesn’t make buying fabric in front of the eighty-year-old grandmother manning the register any easier, though. Especially since he’s, you know, a teenage boy in a craft store trying to buy half a yard of linen. But hey, sometimes you have to do hard things. Or awkward things. This was definitely the latter.

Sometimes he thinks he’d almost prefer the hyperthermia.

“This is crafting fabric,” she tells him, voice croaked and thin with age.

“I know,” he sighs, fists his hands behind the counter where she can’t see. “My, um, mom asked me to pick some up for her.”

Lie.

His mother was too busy for a time-consuming hobby and was absolutely horrible at crafts and sewing. But it doesn’t hurt anyone to fib about it. It’s just a little lie, not a crime (like unsponsored underaged vigilanteing). It was fine. Normal, even. Moms sent their sons on shopping errands all the time. 

She picks up the strip of firetruck red fabric with her nails. “So she sends you to grab half a yard of red linen? That’s all she needs?”

“That’s... what she told me to grab, yeah. I think she was running low?”

“Are you asking me?”

“No? No. That’s... that’s all. Please.”

“Alright.” She presses a few keys, pulling the fabric closer to peer at the tag. “Half a yard of red linen.”

He nods, feeling like a bobble head. “Yep.” He pops the ‘p’ and winces. “Half a yard of bright red linen for, uh,” his mind blanks on anything that can be made with linen, “...something. She didn’t say what.”

...and he wasn’t asked a question. Cool. Yeah. He was totally acting normal, just running an errand for his mother. Buying fabric for a perfectly normal home project and not to use as a half-baked mask that was going to be ruined in about a month, if he was lucky.

He knew he was somehow making this much worse than it needed to be, but he doesn’t know how.

He does know, however, that if he acts too off she might know what he’s really doing. Buying fabric to DIY a superhero costume. For vigilanteism. A punishable offense on two parts — unsanctioned Supers weren’t allowed to roam the streets and he was a minor.

Minors aren’t allowed. Period. It was too risky, too stressful, too much for any child to bear. He really wishes he had the option to wait until he was eighteen.

“Are you alright, dear?”

“Yes.” He responds too quickly, a little loud for the quiet bumble of the shop, snapping back into the situation at hand and not his runaway train of thought. “I’m fine. Why— why would you ask?” He narrows in on her eyes, wondering how people can see a soul past them. He just sees brown.

“You seem a little jumpy.”

He shakes his head. “No— I’m not... jumpy.” He laughs and it’s forced so he stops. Did that sound suspicious? It probably did.

She hums unconnectedly. “Alright. This’ll be $8.49.”He grabs at his back pocket and hands her a ten. “Keep the change,” he says, pretending his anxiety is the only thing making him think she knows. He smiles and it feels like the exact wrong move.

This would’ve been so much easier if he was a girl. He wouldn’t be questioned so much than and this could be a smooth experience.

“Here you go,” she says, holding out his now-bagged purchase, the curl of her lips smug.

He grabs it and ignores how his fingers fumble for the handle. “Thank you.” His heart pounds a rhythm in his chest, stirring up an urge to puke. He feels sick — does she know? Is she going to call this in? Is he done for? Has he finally been caught because he thought he had one more spare mask when he hadn’t?

That’s why he was here, though, because linen was supposed to be harder to burn than cotton. He needed something less flammable.

“Have a good day, hun. Be safe.

”His breath stills and he idly wonders where all the air went. “Yeah.”

Definitely. He was totally... going to do that.

Not.

Dang it, she really knew what he was actually doing, didn’t she?

He walks out the door and slaps his palm against his forehead as hard as he can. “Dang,” he whispers. “Should’ve just ordered it online and waited. Stupid. I was a wreck. That was horrible.” The heels of his hands press against his browbone, the plastic bag crinkling against his skin.

He sighs, feeling like the water running down the street and into the drain. He shoulda just — not done that. That was bad. That was really bad.

God, how was he so awkward? How did people hold normal conversations? He feels like his chest is about to implode.

He jimmies his phone from his pocket and types a note one-handed to his list of things to remember. He writes the name of the shop and in caps (for emphasis so later him will remember) writes not to ever go there again. Ever.

The little old lady behind the counter knew who he was. Maybe.

That, or he was just really paranoid. Or bad at reading social situations.

Something along one of those lines, probably.