#narrative environments

[mecachrome]

Alex Albon for High Performance

It was this weird thing, because — for example with Yuki, I wanted to take his seat! He was a potential candidate that I could replace. And I remember having that chat with Helmut Marko, and he told me at the time, "You need to driver-coach this guy." And I was like, "I'm not going to. That's a potential seat." And he said, "No, he's already signed. He's guaranteed." So I was like (throws hands), "Okay, fine. Then I'll help him."

[prismatic-et-al]

taz ethersea is really just like. hey listen. this story is about grief. it’s about anger. it’s about mourning the things you had to leave, but if you hadn’t left you would not have survived them. it’s about hating where you came from but knowing deep down you can never, will never be from anywhere else. it’s about the need to become better than a past you still wish you could go back to. it’s about “we celebrate the burial of the architects of our unjust world” and “I do not want to be only resentment but when I see your face resentment is all that I am” and “I just wanted you to see it once.” it’s about finding a way to become something new in spite of every weeping ache torn into you by the past. it’s about the stubborn and deliberate persistence of life in the face of a hostile environment. ethersea says this story is about hope. it’s about consequences. it’s about effort. most importantly it’s about how nermal’s pile has a sale going on right now don’t miss out on this week’s deals

[estoybienestoybien]

Old Moth Shop .gif

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 251

so like remember when i said i was gonna be mentally ill about utena

[hirodraga]

Even after the death of flesh, a hollow wandering spirit can find purpose on the joy and adventure in their seek for final rest.

All pages of Assombro!

Made for my final in illustration class last semester :) It took four weeks to make, from nov to dec of 2023. It was a very personal work to me and also the very first narrative i could start and finish, i think its a win haha.

[pinkeoni]

One selfish reason why I like Will creation powers theory so much is because it does make him stupidly powerful in a way that makes Vecna look like a total loser in comparison. Oh you had to mind control half the town into drinking clorox so you could make your one (1) big monster meanwhile twelve-year-old Will is blasting out sentient monsters and perfect replicas of Hawkins without even realizing it. You wanna be him sooooo bad

[aragornsrockcollection]

Reading the Silmarillion and everyone is just *powerful demigods for days* *running around stabbing things* *screaming and making bad decisions*

And then reading Lord of the Rings where everything is like *intentional slow grind towards success* *overthinking everything* *lots of little guys*

And it just makes you want to pick up characters from one and put them in another.

Like my narrative brain wants to pinch Feanor running to fight all the balrogs on his own by the scruff of his neck and zip him through time really quick and drop him so he’s actually charging the gates of Morannon and just watch him go through everything they throw at him like butter.

And then we’ll scoot Sam Gamgee back to just before Aqualonde so he can make an impassioned speech against anyone getting on a boat ever, and also distract everyone by being a hobbit.

[brother-emperors]

THE BROTHERS PAOLO AND VITELLOZZO VITELLI

man. the fucking. cycles of violence going on here. war, condottieri brothers, the execution of paolo vitelli (but the on the matter of guilt: questionable! no proof besides the absence of potential violence, but what conspiracy-betrayal wants to leave behind proof? torture and execute him anyway. maybe machiavelli has a point! unfortunately you left a surviving brother), the congiura della magione, all of it coming together at the strage di senigallia. just blood and gore and war all the way down, never stopping for a breather, already on to it's next battlefield. also malaria is there!

in other news! it turns out if you want to draw a comic about the strage di senigallia, you have to figure out designs for all the people in the room, but if you draw vitellozzo, you also have to draw his brother because he's like. there. in a dead way. something something vitellozzo's desire to avenge his brother manifesting in his desire to brutalize florence for their role in his brother's death.

that said, I did not want to draw military armor for an illustration that was partially designed to test out some splatter brushes. in the future though….I will have to revisit that visual…..

[izloveshorses]

it’s so beautiful to me that what triggers anya’s memory of her past isn’t some big national secret or something inherently tied to the politics of her family or even her social class, it’s just a simple sensory detail of sitting in a carriage on a hot day and catching sight of a boy running after them

[bitchthefuck1]

"Kaz is Wylan's dad" "Inej is the mom of the group" "Matthias is like their grandpa" can you just let characters care for each other without trying to force it into a weirdly normative nuclear family setup.

[luminarai]

I like to think that after the comic ends, jack and kent make an effort to sit down like adults and talk their history through and apologise to each other. and maybe afterwards they strike up a tentative friendship, especially after jack receives a little package for his birthday containing a pair of bi pride shoelace locks for his running shoes. jack is delighted (bitty is both a little touched and a little furious because somehow the fluorescent neon yellow sneakers are even more of an optical assault when mixed with pink and purple)

and maybe later, kent receives a belated birthday present in the form of a snapback with a rainbow floral pattern, and maybe he doesn’t feel comfortable wearing it in public just yet but it still makes him smile every time he sees it

[ziskandra]

listen, listen

I know this is gonna be a controversial take, but the more I think about it, the more obsessed I am with the idea of Varric voluntarily helping The Crimson Knight (especially in a worldstate where Hawke was left in the Fade).

I’ve talked before about how I view Meredith as the type of person who is motivated by her desire to protect her own at all costs, and how this leads her down the path of Well-Intentioned Extremism, and culminating in becoming the embodiment of the uh, Knight Templar trope.

And Varric is obviously motivated by his motivation to protect Hawke: he shielded them from the Inquisition, and when push came to shove and he was forced to expose Hawke to the Inquisition anyway, it can result in Hawke’s death. The Inquisition fails Hawke, who is basically Varric’s moral compass — without Hawke’s influence, he defaults to siding with the templars at the end of DA2.

Most of the Inquisitor’s inner circle scatters over Thedas and Varric returns to Kirkwall. Varric loves Kirkwall; he’s a Kirkwaller through and through: even though he’s never envisioned nor wanted a life of politics, he becomes the fucking viscount, because there’s nobody else left who wants one drop of the poisoned chalice of that role.

And Kirkwall is a city that has always been dependent on its templars for protection. They are the city’s military force, and the city is noticeably weaker once the templars abandon it — depending on world state, it can lose a significant portion of its territory to one of Varric’s former companions. If someone he knew and trusted can do that to Kirkwall, who else might take advantage of Kirkwall in its weakened state?

Varric is isolated and alone, away from anyone who might be able to help him see the situation in a different light: his main support network is Aveline and Seneschal Bran, neither of whom are known for their ardent support of mage rights. They’re doing their best to clear Kirkwall of the impacts of the war, of the red lyrium, and even though they’re doing their best to avoid exposure, being around that much red lyrium cannot be healthy. Slowly, the paranoia and increased penchant for violence settle in. It becomes impossible to resist spending more time around the substance — and sometimes, it talks! And it sounds like Meredith Stannard.

Varric is desperate and scared and has lost everyone he has ever loved. The Inquisition has been downsized or disbanded, and his only purpose is to serve his city: the same intention with which Meredith started, the same intention and fears that the red lyrium feeds upon in them both.

Varric fears becoming his parents: people who failed to protect him because they were too caught up in their past mistakes.

But sometimes, as people, in our attempts to avoid our fears, we end up barreling into them headfirst instead.

[nettleandthorne]

the unique nanowrimo joy of 'no i don't know where this scene is going but it has to go there for at least 500 more words because i have goals to meet'

[thodi]

FEBRUARY '23 READINGS

Only English Would Try to Shorten a Word This Way • prose

In the Shadow Library • prose

The Archive Of A Vanishing World • prose

@thingsorganizedneatly

Dear Neighbour • prose

Ocean Vuong on Taking the Time You Need to Write • prose

The Physical Traits that Define Men and Women in Literature • prose

Poet Mary Oliver: a Solitary Walk • interview transcript

How India's lattice buildings cool without air con • prose

BookTok’s Busy Year: Plagiarism Scandals, Period Drama, and CoHo, Of Course • prose

The Darker Side of Jane Austen • prose

How are you doing? • visual essay with activities

Crow, Donkey, Poet: Sumana Roy on the Useless in the Poetic • prose

How Airports Liberate—and Constrain—Those Who Pass Through Them • prose

Is There Something Wrong with Me? • prose

Welcome to the Ambaniverse • visual list

Beware a world where artists are replaced by robots. It’s starting now • prose

Violent Delights • prose

Why I Had to Get Older to Write About Youth • prose

Everyday Wellness for Everyday Creatives • prose, list

Our Struggle • prose

Sleazeballs are hot again • prose

Gwen Stefani: "I Said, 'My God, I'm Japanese'" • prose

Is Social Media Making You Sick? • video

Vigilantes for views: The YouTube pranksters harassing suspected scam callers in India • prose

The Mechanical Imagination • prose

Trying to stay awake • prose

Here's How Author James Patterson Writes 31 Books at the Same Time • interview transcript

The Heart Wing • prose

“What I Said on My Private Island Was Taken Out of Context!” On Celebrity Apologies • prose

The Pain Scale • prose

"They're coming for every second of your life." - Bo Burnham • video

Empyrrhical Evidence • prose

Liquid animations ✨ • video

Life Is a Particle Time Is a Wave • video

[oblako]

she is just a girl who is so so scared </3

[horn-of-leo]

Hyoga has one of the funniest character introductions in both the anime and manga

In the anime, he's just fucking around and visiting his dead mom when he was called back to Japan for the Galaxian Wars tournament. He immediately gets the Cygnus armor behind a glacier implying he could've done it anytime but just wanted to hang around a bit longer because he misses his mom a lot.

In the manga, he actually refuses to go back to Japan for the Galaxy Wars but only decides to return when he receives a letter from the Sanctuary that ordered him to kill the bronze saints and directions of where to find his armor(which he also mentions he was granted the status of a saint a while back). Meaning this whole time, he was just sitting around just visiting his mom because he couldn't actually find his armor because I guess Camus never bothered to tell him during the 6 years of training where it actually was.