#so didn't have time to do a more elaborate piece but also I spent a while playing minecraft haha

[onehundredfallenpetals]

Some Ozlice, since it's been a long time since I drew them last

[seafoamsol]

The best years of my life...

... what I wouldn't give to have them back.

I had the great pleasure of working with @spiderscribe on a DeadCeptor work for the @tf-bigbang, which you can (and should!) read [ HERE ]!

Details and artist commentary under the cut!

Okay, first off, I just wanna say, thank you so much to @spiderscribe for picking up my very loose scribble and taking the jump. She's an absolute champ, and I IMPLORE you to read her writing. She did a knockout job on the fic, and guaranteed, these two pieces wouldn't have been so elaborate without her. If you're a fan of deadceptor, parallels, lovers to enemies to apocalyptic teammates to ???s, I'm sure you'll find that and more in there.

[ HERE ] is the link to that, if you missed it the first time around.

The background for the supermarket was a MASSIVE undertaking. I ended up blurring it in the final to keep the dream-like quality, but there is a lot happening there! Most of the time I spent on the background was (jokingly) complaining though.

Anyone who works retail will know the agony of customer-misplaced stock. The little canisters of energon additives seem like prime candidates to be placed willy-nilly.

The little warning sign... My favorite soda, apple sidra, has a carcinogen warning, so I'm familiar with it. It was slightly surprising to me that those warnings are not countrywide, despite the fact that they very clearly say "California Proposition 65", and well. Not something else, like "Federal" or whatever.

The bags of nuts and bolts below, I asked several people what flavor they would be, and I suppose I failed in my job, because I wanted the purple to be the "regular" flavor, and the green to be the "sour". But grape and lemon-lime work as well!

The tub is full of rust-sticks. I have no idea if that came across. My friends kept calling the individually wrapped ones slim jims, which I mean, I guess!

The car batteries... My idea was that they were similar to shots, in a way? So that's how I ended up with a battery with enough terminals to rival an international airport. It's also sunset-coloured, because, I don't know, that's what Party Flavor is to me.

Okay. The second illustration. This one was a headache, mostly due to my own lack of planning, and the fact that I lost the file for... basically everything I did, including the above illustration. So it was a bit of a rush job.

The background bots started off as these very vague silhouettes, which I'm a little proud of. Look at how nice and somewhat readable they are! Okay, now what if I ruined it? What? You don't like that? That's rather unfortunate, because that's what I proceeded to do. In fact, if I take off all.. 10 or something adjustment layers, they look like this:

My process went: Shadow block> Fill rest of form> Color randomiser> Copy and skew (to populate background)> Hue adjustment> Gradient map> Fill Light> Chromatic aberration> Vignette> Levels> Curves.

The.... Magenta cube is there because due to the nature of the color randomiser, the foot had a high value, and stuck out like nobody's business in the end.

Here's what it would look like without the cube. Begone, distracting white blob! (I didn't have to worry about the lava arm because Percy happened to cover it up. What a save! But if he didn't then... there would have been a second cube.)

Basically, it was a mess. But... at least it came out fine in the end! I hope!

I'd love to have speedpaints on hand, but I was switching between CSP and PS for a good majority of the work.

I'd say that's it for these two pieces! I actually have more, but those demand more time. I'm much slower at doing inks than I am at painting, but I hope you'll get to see them soon.

[thecrowsart]

people: omg we finally get to see hyper! me: omg we finally get to see more angles of kusuriuri's clothes! observations and (A LOT OF) ranting under the cut:

1.)

The inside sleeve design has been revealed! It's pretty similar to the outside design but instead of that four-petal design, it's a gold circle. Also, it looks like the large eye is shared by both sides, but based on how the sleeve looks in other images, it must be really really big..... I guess they can get away with it lol. Like, if you laid out the sleeve fabric, I think it would look like this:

2.)

THE BACK OF HIS OBI. What the hell kinda knot is this actually... like, does anyone here know about obimusubi because I'm not very good at knots but if it comes down to it I will learn how this works. I already thought this based on the promo art but it seems like his obi fabric is double-sided, with purple on one side and the check pattern on the other, with a red trim. That lighter salmon color in the knot seems to be a different fabric, maybe an obiage? It's not tucked into the front so I'm not sure if that's the right term, but in any case it's some kind of extra fabric. If the purple and check are really one piece of fabric, then the knot is like... a hitch? It's some kind of one-loop bow, and it's quite bulky so he might have an obimakura in there. Whatever it is, it's considerably more elaborate than OG Kusuriuri's obi, which was that red brocade just tied into a large crooked bow. Who is helping movie Kusuriuri get dressed in the morning? (I'm sure he can do it himself and I commend him for the dedication to the aesthetic lol).

3.)

His mirror is now kept looped around this thick cord that kind of comes out of nowhere and disappears into his obi. First of all, how is the mirror staying up like that since the string is only looped once. Second, the thick white cord looks the same as the one that comes out of the left side of his obi and loops around his back, but I'm not sure how they would connect. Logically, they probably are the same cord and it goes through his obimusubi somehow. 4.)

This one was actually noticeable in the very first trailer as you can tell, since the second screenshot is from that trailer, but I somehow never noticed it until now. Kusuriuri has neck markings now! In a different frame I caught a glimpse of the part that goes into his collar, it looks like a circle, though it's not visible in either of these screenshots. But from the first screenshot and some other frames I saw, it looks somewhat off-center. I wasn't sure if it was just a weird frame at first, but it looks consistent the few other times (time?) that part of his neck is visible. It looks like the strip of red that leads down to the circle curves off to the left rather than going straight down the center. I didn't realize this before but his neck is actually concealed in most of the promo images.

5.)

A better look at the back of his socks, plus two things that were visible this whole time but I didn't notice: first, his black leggings have this folded layer you can probably see on top. I'm not sure how to describe it and I don't know exactly how it works. It seems weird to me that he would have three sock layers (outer black, inner black, white), so I think the two black layers are probably still part of the same sock. I'm just not sure exactly what's up with it. Secondly, his geta have metal corners on the teeth! I don't think I've seen that on real geta, so maybe it's just a random detail, but if it's a thing on some real geta, I wonder if it's to keep the wood from wearing away there. Also another think I'm just noticing, there's a reinforcing wedge of wood under the front part of his geta that overhand the front tooth. You can see it a little in the second image.

Overall, that's all the new design stuff I noticed. Since I just drew him twice and spent like all day thinking about this, I've realized his design is way more elaborate than the original one. He has a bunch of little doodads, like the ties around his ankle or that decorative tie that comes out of his ohashori:

which still bothers me because I've never seen the back of it. Where are those strings going. And how is it secured in the first place? is it tied or pinned underneath his ohashori, like on the tie under the obi (not sure if there's a name for it)? What is it? Why does he have this here?

These details as well as things like the corners and wedge on his geta, the red trim on the obi and the check pattern, and his elaborate eye make up are all design elements that could never really have worked for a tv show. It's impressive to me even that OG Kusuriuri had that hand drawn brocade texture and the designs on his kimono that he did. It's the type of thing animators usually avoid, lol.

I like the movie design visually, but my god is it a pain in the ass to draw. Due to the aforementioned details of course and the wider variety of colors. Oh yeah, my last (for real) observation is that this Kusuriuri looks a lot less human than our OG friend. His skin is entirely whitish-grey, and he has that white/purple and red hair, and now he has markings on his neck instead of just on his face. (Unrelated but I feel like they made his lip tattoo less prominent and it makes me sad because it's one of my favorite things about Kusuriuri's design). But Hyper, from that very small glimpse we caught of him, looks more mundane than the original. I think it's the combination of his black hair and his markings being red instead of gold. I wonder what the rest of him will look like.... It was interesting to me that his face is drawn differently from Kusuriuri. In the TV anime, they have the same face shape and features, but their hair and coloring is different. And OG Hyper had a slightly different version of Kusuriuri's clothes. We can't see this new Hyper's clothes, but his face is more square looking. He looks like a different person... interesting lore implications.

Okay, I really must stop there.

[coupsie-daisies]

Kinktober '23: Free Use | Jeon Jungkook and Jung Hoseok

Pairing: Boyfriend!Jeon Jungkook x Girlfriend!Reader x Jung Hoseok

Genre: Smut (minors DO NOT interact), established relationship

Summary: Jungkook knew that you were his dream girl from the moment he saw you, but when you agreed to be the band's free Use stress toy, he knew he was a goner

WC: 1.7k

Warnings: free use, cumshots, unprotected sex, pet names (pretty), threesome, oral (male receiving), fingering, light overstimulation, praise, homoeroticism lowkey, Jungkook is kinda a simp

A/N: Unedited because, I won't lie, I've been writing and rewriting this for ages and I just keep not being satisfied, so hopefully you guys enjoy it and I'm being overly critical. let me know!

Tags: @dragonofthenorth0726 // @wooyussy // @burningupp-replies // @bunnypig18 // @decaffedthoughts // @brownieracha // @ferrethyun // @moonchild0325 // @wonuqrtz // @mixling-blog // @wonwooz1-blog

Main Masterlist

Kinktober '23 Masterlist

This fanfiction is property of @/coupsie-daisies, reposting on any other platform is prohibited

When Jungkook met you for the first time, his entire world shifted on its axis. He thought you were the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen, and he could have sworn that when you spoke to him it was like music to his ears. But Jungkook didn't believe in love at first sight, he was a big boy now, long past stories of fairytale sorts.

So he took his time, he took you on dates, some elaborate beyond measure, and some mundane as anything, he learned you inside out, top to bottom. The most difficult part, he'd discovered, was letting you learn him back. He wasn't always good at opening up to people, but he found that with every piece of him that you became familiar with, it was easier to give you more.

And Jungkook gave as much as he received in return. He knew within months that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you, but his fate was sealed completely on a late autumn night. Him and the boys had just gotten back from a particularly long schedule and he was enjoying his night with you over drinks. He knew as well as you did that you were something of a lightweight, the alcohol streaming through you always loosened your tongue and brought out a more relaxed side of you.

But once you were settled on his lap, your mouth inching down his neck, the moment took an unexpected turn. Jungkook gripped your hips as they rolled over his, head tipped back against the couch as he revelled in the feeling of you pressed up against him.

"Missed you so fucking much," You mumbled, nipping at the skin, but hardly enough to leave a mark. "Wish you'd just taken me as soon as you got home. Need you inside so bad, Kook,"

"You were cooking, babe." He laughed breathlessly as your hips rocked over his again.

"Don't care. I'm yours whenever you want me. Don't even have to ask, just fuck me."

So he had fucked you then, and again after that, and maybe a third time in the shower. But it was when you were laying in bed, curled against his side for the first time in ages, that he brought up your words again.

"You mean I could fuck you whenever I want? No matter what?" He asked you. You nodded sleepily against his shoulder.

"Within some pre-discussed limits." You answered. "If you wanted to. But that's not everyone's thing." You answered simply. Jungkook couldn't imagine anyone not wanting practically unrestricted access to their partner at all times, but he figured some people just didn't get it.

The limits discussion came in the morning, long and in depth, paired with safe words and mutual agreements. And after that, many more rounds until the both of you were spent. From that day forward, Jungkook took full advantage of your little kink, and you were happy to let him.

The allowance of his band mates to use you was his idea. He'd seen how stressed and frustrated his hyungs were, and sure it was easy for them to get laid, but it was also stressful to protect themselves as world famous idols if they did. So, he suggested they use you as their stress relief. You were more eager to help them than he'd expected. So another round of discussions came around, time frames when you were at their beck and call. And before you knew it, you were theirs to play with as they pleased.

It was during one of those time frames that Jungkook came home from a schedule, finding you laid out across the couch, legs pressed wide and Hoseok's fingers buried inside of you. When you noticed his presence, you buried your face in your arms, hiding from your lover's hungry gaze. He had already been looking forward to having a little fun with you, but he hadn't expected his hyung to be getting you warmed up by the time he got home.

"Starting without me?" He asked, crouching down beside the couch. Hoseok looked up, grinning at the younger man and continuing to scissor his long digits inside of you.

"Barely. Just got here." He answered. Jungkook reached up, pulling your arms away from your face and leaning down to press his lips to yours.

"Having fun, pretty girl?" He asked. You whined in response, Hobi's fingertips brushing against the spongy spot inside of you and making your hips jerk. "Look at how pretty you are. Always so embarrassed like you're not begging to be used."

His filthy words were still laced with a gentle affection that had your head spinning. Hobi pulled his fingers out of your pussy, pressing them to your lips and watching as you sucked them in. You had only just finished cleaning your arousal off of his fingers when Jungkook was turning your head, moving you so your face was pressed against the bulge in his boxers. You hadn't even noticed him stripping off his pants.

You mouthed at his cock through the fabric, suckling the tip and leaving a dark spot over it, wet with his precum and your saliva. Meanwhile, Hobi moved quickly, stripping his top half, then shoving his pants and underwear off his long legs. You wanted to look, but you couldn't turn your head far enough with Jungkook's hand pressing firmly against your jaw.

"Take it out," Jungkook told you, and you reached up, tugging his boxers down until his aching length was exposed to you. He didn't even have to tell you what to do, just sitting pretty while you wrapped your lips around the tip, tongue dipping against his slit. He grunted quietly, slowly rocking his hips to press his length deeper into your warm mouth.

Hoseok lined himself up with your weeping hole, tapping his cock against your clit and listening to the muffled whines you let out around his friend's dick. He pushed your thighs wider, and you winced at the stretch in your hips, but then he was sinking his cock into you and all thoughts were wiped clear from your mind.

Jungkook stroked your hair, fucking lazily into your mouth and letting you swirl your tongue along the vein running up his dick.

"Look so pretty taking care of us." Jungkook purred, fucking into your mouth deeper until you were gagging around him, spit trailing from the corner of your lips, and as far as he was concerned, it was the prettiest sight he'd ever seen. Nothing compared to watching your body be used to help his friends.

"She clenches on my dick so hard when you gag her like that," Hoseok hissed through clenched teeth, his hips rocking into yours and big hands gripping your hips so tight that there would probably be bruises. "Fuck her throat for me."

Jungkook didn't have to be told twice, holding your head in place and thrusting into your throat like it was his favorite toy. You squeezed your eyes shut, fighting to breathe with the tip of his dick kissing the back of your throat. He reached down, using his thumb to pry your mouth open a little more, drool and precum leaking down your face. Hoseok sped up, fucking you with deep, hard thrusts in time with Jungkook's hips. The feeling had you on cloud nine.

Your body had gotten used to the feeling of being used by them, but it wasn't often that you took more than one of them at a time, and it was even more rare for them to treat you like a total slut. Your chest was aching for breath when Jungkook finally let up, pulling his dick out of your mouth and allowing you to greedily gulp down air, coughing and spluttering and looking up at him through the tears spilling down your cheeks.

"Make me cum," He told you, bringing your hand up to wrap around his spit-soaked dick. You took over immediately, stroking him as well as you could with Hoseok's thrusts driving you up the couch. Jungkook groaned, feeling his orgasm building at the sight of you going dumb on Hobi's dick.

"Close," You warned, head tipped back as you swirled your thumb around the tip of Jungkook's dick. Every thrust Hobi made was dragging deliciously against your sweet spot, and your legs were trembling around his hips, pulling him in deeper. He reached down, expertly swirling his fingers against your clit and sending you careening into pure bliss.

The sight of you cumming was too much for Jungkook. He wrapped his hand around yours, tightening your grip on his dick and thrusting into it faster until he was spilling his cum onto you, some of it landing on your chest and neck, the rest dripping down your hand and along your wrist.

Hobi bit his bottom lip, fucking you through your orgasm until you were squirming away in overstimulation, then pulling out to jerk his cock a few times, his own cum painting your thighs. You closed your eyes, tired and sensitive, and a little too embarrassed to look at the two of them.

"Get her cleaned up, I'll get water." Hoseok said, standing up and pulling his boxers on. Jungkook still looked a little high off his orgasm and the sight of his beloved girlfriend getting fucked, but he nodded, using his boxers to wipe the cum off his dick and your hand before leaning down to kiss your forehead.

"Feeling okay, pretty?" He asked, brushing your hair out of your face. You nodded, blinking up at him. "Good, you were so perfect for us. Gonna go grab a towel and get you cleaned up and then you can relax again."

With that promise he was off to the bathroom to wet a rag to clean you up, and you were content to melt into the couch with the two of them pampering you and thanking you for taking care of them. Even if it left you exhausted being the personal stress toy for all seven boys, you wouldn't have turned it down for the world.

copyright 2023 coupsie-daisies, all rights reserved

[nozunhinged]

I need to get this list off my chest so I can move on and it's so long that I'm gonna mark it with a spoiler line because holy fucking shit (in no particular order I ain't rewatching that ever again)

- THE FUXKING TIMESKIP

- the mislead that pohrjai is going to marry mhok

- the fact that they never talked but night and pohrjai still trying to play cupid

- day blocking mhok on everything

- and still them playing cupid

- mhok reapplying for his visa, knowing full well he will see day at their wedding and also knowing full well he wants to pursue him again

- how mhok snuck up on him to guide him, don't make him an amazing caretaker just to have him be predatory in the last fucking episode

- and day said NOTHING about it

- same in the bookstore fucking tell him it's you

- "are you dating anyone" followed by just touching him like that I— 🤢

- mohk literally BABYING him even though this man is running his own business now

- he spent the last TEN episodes being an excellent caretaker just to turn into a clingy overprotective fuckboy for the last 30 mins??? PLEASE

- days fucking smug face when mhok groveled at his feet I wanted to smack him

- mhok groveling like he fucking killed days entire family WHAT THE FUCK MAN

- mhok flirting like that spoiled fucker didn't shatter his heart into a million pieces and ignored him for three years

- and didn't even apologize or explain

- the second chances bullshit and apparently even his parents reconciling???? Bro

- the "second chance" pohrjai described was so fucking forced just for the narrative I almost puked

- also I was totally with day if I hear the word second chance one more time I'm gonna riot

- day being scared HES GONNA DO IT TO HIM AGAIN HE DIDNT DO ANYTHING TO YOU YOU LITTLE SPOILED BRAT

- his mom (I'm not gonna elaborate)

- the fucking SECOND eye donation

- and it worked

- day still not telling mhok he's handsome

and last but not least

"thank you for breaking up with me"

You know what?! I'm out

[cherryfennec]

what do you think would have happened if Timpani hadn't found Blumiere at the base of the cliff and he would have died? do you think the prophecy would have still happened? if yes, then do you happen to have any theories about who would have carried it out and would they have succeeded?

So this is a very difficult question! The topic of the prophecies in the Dark Prognosticus is just in general one of the more trivial things to consider.

So let's go through over the main scenario: Blumiere falls from a cliff and is probably hidden well under the rubble. Timpani, who happens to be in the area, can't really see anyone under the scarp because of the dirt and rocks so she assumes the pieces fell naturally due to a small earthquake or wind and there's no one there. While she walks away, Blumiere unfortunately is too weak to make it out of the rubble and ultimately dies.

Now...

What would this mean for Timpani and the Tribe of Darkness specifically? Well first of all, neither of them would end up dead/gone.

It is implied through the short snippets of the main villians backstory (which appear in-between chapters) that ultimately after losing his beloved and becoming Count Bleck, Blumiere wipes out his clan, which is rather gruesome but not unexpected for this game tbh. With him dissapearing instead (cause theres a chance they might've not even found him) everyone in the Tribe lives and he himself would be portrayed as an innocent person until the end, the loss of whom only brought sorrow to his family and friends. Other than that the civilization would still thrive for years to come.

As for Timpani: without having met Blumiere, she would've probably spent her days living a normal daily life, not even knowing someone like him ever existed. She could expand her hobbies, travel, make friends etc. She could even find a partner but... it wouldn't be the same and I'll elaborate on that in a bit. In general she would have had more time to discover herself and enjoy the little things.

What does this mean for the prophecy?

The Dark Prognosticus is kinda weird because it describes the future that relies on the book being read. Basically it knows that it will be opened, but because it will be opened the prophecy will happen in the first place, which it also knows. It gets confusing when you think about it too much. In any case the 'end of the world' requires someone to kickstart all the events.

Blumieres and Timpanis love was a very rare kind of love, an extremely strong and dedicated one. And if not for that fact, Bleck wouldn't probably go as far as to destroying everything just for her sake. Now without our specially picked out Champion of Destruction, would it even be possible for the prophecy to happen? As we said before if the Count died at the cliff, the book would absolutely know about it. With this in mind there are 3 options as I see it:

The prophecy couldn't be fulfilled/it wouldn't exist in this timeline. Basically: There was no other person that could play the role of the catalyst nor had the means to obtain the Prognosticus/didn't know it existed and so the danger never arrived and everyone lived happily ever after. (yipie no trauma for the Mario gang and especially Luigi yahoo)

The prophecy could be fulfilled by a new character who also fits the requirements and basically fills in for Count Bleck. Simply put: the book found someone else good for the role and it all plays out as written. This is where the plot is up to interpretation because there are just too many factors to take into consideration.'Who would reach out for help to Mario?', I don't know, maybe this new character could also be doing this for the sake of someone else I and that's who would be our Timpani replacement or something I guess.'Would Mimi and O'Chunks be there to help?', probably not because the reason they joined in on the plan in the first place is specifically tied to the person that the Count was. But you know who would definitely be there?

Technically we don't really need a new character and it's going to be a little obvious who I'm about to mention. The prophecy is much more altered in this scenario, and it basically revolves about Dimentio carrying it all out. So from the gossip you get from the barista about everyone on Team Bleck it is implied that Dimentio was the one who actively sought out the Count, not the other way around. From this we can deduce that he was aware of the Dark Prognosticus's existence and was out to get it by all means. Out of the known to us characters he'd really be the one person who would end up tied to the fate of the book in most cases. So in this scenario he simply steals the book from the tribe and tries to work it out by himself. 'Would he be able to carry it out alone?' I'd say there's a chance he could do it. Being built on deceipt and using others he might've been able to work from the shadows and make his way to the end goal. 'How would Mario learn about it?' Again, I don't know. It's up to the ones interpretation really. Imagine if Dimentio just goes around taking people who have the slightest trace of green on them and thus becomes like this underground villain and no-one knows anything him about other than his existence. He's like this rumour that people like to scare kids with. One day Mario hears about it, laughs it off then Luigi randomly dissapears and the chase is on, during which the red plumber learns about this mysterious figure and it's intentions bit by bit and theres like a side Peach and Bowser plot which ends with Dimentio taking up a fake persona and tricking them into saying their vows to create the Chaos Heart IDK.

I could try writing up a specific scenario for this but it'd require more time to plan out if I were to actually do it, I'd basically be writing a completely new story which tends to be difficult. (I'm currently trying my hand in writing a spm fic based on the 'Bad End Trio' Luigi design of mine and barely reached over 2k words. I'm not even near done and it's already been taking way longer than I thought it would. That's exactly why I very much respect writers.)

[o-uncle-newt]

I guess the only person who can really be trusted to describe the greatness of Agatha Christie is Dorothy L Sayers...?

A while back, the always-sharp @thesarahshay sent me an ask that caught me up on something that I'd carelessly written in some tags- I said that Agatha Christie was good at writing romance into her detective fiction, without really elaborating. I then spent multiple paragraphs attempting to elaborate, I'm not sure with how much success. Essentially, and you can click above to see for yourself, my thesis was that while Sayers was a much better literary stylist (and certainly better at writing romance) than Christie, when writing a detective novel, her seams show; Christie had a natural talent for knowing exactly what belongs in a detective story and creating and fitting all the right pieces together that create a seamless detective story, including motivations drawn by romance (though I think the actual romances are among the weaker elements- still MUCH better than those written by most of her peers, for the record).

I'd had trouble putting into words what I wanted to say (there was a convoluted metaphor about Barbies and Lego in there), and I'm not sure I was too convincing; but turns out that the person who said what I wanted to say the best was, in fact the great DLS herself.

There's a fabulous book that I 100% recommend called Taking Detective Stories Seriously, which is a compilation of about two years' worth of detective story reviews that Sayers wrote. I hadn't heard of most of the authors, and even when I had heard of the authors I'd rarely read the books, but it didn't matter, frankly. She's just such a great writer, so thoughtful and incisive and passionate about both the genre and good craftsmanship (not to mention good English), that everything she has to say including on novels that haven't been in print since the 30s is worth reading. She has generally great taste, though she has a much higher opinion of Margery Allingham than I do and doesn't like Ellery Queen's The Siamese Twin Mystery as much as I'd thought she might (though the fact that a character in it insulted Unnatural Death may not have helped lol); but she also likes, to pick two very different writers who I too enjoy, HC Bailey and Mignon G Eberhart, and so she clearly has a good eye. (It's also entertaining to see her slowly force herself to admit that she likes Perry Mason...)

BUT ANYWAY.

She has three reviews of Agatha Christie books in the volume: Murder on the Orient Express, Why Didn't They Ask Evans, and Three Act Tragedy. She reviews all of them very positively, but it's her review of Three Act Tragedy (in my opinion, funnily enough, the weakest of the three) that she really gets to the core of Christie's genius. And it's actually fitting that it's for a book of hers that's on the more meh end of the scale- because it just shows how even meh Christie has an element of genius that other authors have to work hard for even in their best works.

She says:

Some time ago this column contained the statement that Hercule Poirot was "one of the few real detectives." It was a well-sounding phrase, and I have no quarrel with it, except that I am not quite clear what it meant. What I meant to write and what I thought I had written and what I now propose to write clearly with no mistake about it was and is this: Hercule Poirot is one of the few detectives with real charm. Plenty of authors assure us that their detectives are charming, but that is quite another thing. I don't know that Mrs Christie has ever said a word about the matter. She merely puts Poirot there, with all his little oddities and weaknesses, and there he is- a really charming person. And it is true, too, that he is "real," in the sense that we never stop to enquire whether his words and actions are suited to his character; they are his character, and we accept them as we accept the words and actions of any living person because they are a part of himself. Le style c'est l'homme. Indeed, when Mrs Christie is writing at the top of her form, as she is in Three Act Tragedy, all her characters have this reality. She does not postulate a character- retired actor, West End mannequin, family retainer- and put into its mouth sentiments appropriate to its station in life. She shows us character and behavior all of a piece. However surprising or enigmatic the behavior, we believe that everything took place just as she says it did, because we believe in the reality of the people. Poirot is charming, not because anybody says so, but because is is, and all her other people exist for us in the same objective manner. This is the great gift that distinguishes the novelist from the manufacturer of plots. Mrs Christie has given us an excellent plot, a clever mystery, and an exciting story, but her chief strength lies in this power to compel belief in these characters. [emphasis mine]

Sayers then proceeds to compare another author (or rather authors, the husband and wife pair GDH and M Cole) to Christie in this regard, moving on to another review. But in these three paragraphs she has, I think, said it better than anyone- that Christie's skill is in her naturalness, and how that naturalness compels us to believe in and immerse ourselves in her world. She is effortless and seamless.

To be clear, Sayers praises a lot of people in this book, and a lot of people's writing; but mostly she is praising their skill and ability to create what they have created. Here, she isn't quite praising that- she's praising the fact that the final product is so good that you can't even see the craftsmanship behind it, and that's, I think, what separates Christie from her peers. It's a power, and not one that can be broken down by a critic. She just has it.

I've said before that I don't think Sayers had this as a mystery writer, and I think she'd probably be the first to agree with that assessment; she certainly had a seemingly effortless skill as a prose writer (as these reviews show), but as a novelist she took construction seriously and wanted us to know this. That said, another person who I don't think has this, who I mention because he's someone who a lot of people compare Christie to (often negatively), is John Dickson Carr.

I've seen plenty of people say that Carr is a more sophisticated version of Christie, not just in mystery construction but in writing style, and equally prolific, creative, and versatile. I don't agree with this on most counts, but I think, honestly, that Carr is fine- but you can see the seams easily. He might have been prolific but his formulae are visible and his writing required intentionality on his part. By which I mean- Carr when he's trying to be funny is generally hilarious. Carr when he's trying to be scary is generally spine-tingling. But Carr when he's just trying to get to the next good bit is dull and mechanical. He needs to be paying attention and making an effort in order to be good, and we notice him doing this. Christie never has this problem; even when the actual stuff she's writing isn't high quality, she's never dull. Everything feels purposeful and organic, somehow.

Obviously, all of this is fundamentally subjective, and if there's one redeeming element it's that an incredibly smart lady agrees with me (by my interpretation, at least) and says it extremely well. But I'll be holding on to this one, if nothing else.

[yetanothergreyjedi]

Left and Returned: Definitely Nothing Wrong

Danny Phantom x Supernatural Crossover

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 part 6

Ao3 (includes additional notes)

Chapter 7: Bleed the Same Light

Dean wasn't going to dwell on the chick flick stuff. They got the kid home. They stayed until it was awkward again. They went back to hunting. They spent a week unraveling a spell of a Mesopotamian goddess, revealed some creeps,  and hopefully prevented a childhood of bullying. 

They'd established that Sam sees nothing wrong with using demon controlling powers for exorcisms and that nothing Dean can say will change his mind. This is partially because Dean can't articulate why the fact that something demonic should in itself be a red flag. He didn't think he'd ever need to explain that, but here they were. The argument hung over their heads, waiting to be revived when either of them had something to elaborate on, this wasn't that unusual for them, if Dean was being honest.

For now, they're hustling pool, also like usual.

And it was going well, they were about to get five hundred off this guy and—

"Keep the money." Sam tells the man, already walking to the other side of the room. They were about to take 500 dollars?! That was a hunt or two's worth of supplies.

"Keep the money? What—" Dean follows his brother's path. There's a woman by the windows and Dean can tell immediately that something is off about her. Off enough that maybe they can scrounge enough cash to hustle someone else later.

"What is it?" Sam asks her.

"I just have some info, and then I'm gone."

"Okay." Dean frowns. Sam didn't mention an informant of any kind, but it also hadn't come up and there was plenty to cover of the past year. It didn't explain… Dean hated it, hated the word that Danny had so neatly infected into his vocabulary. Her vibe was awful.

"Girl named Anna Milton escaped from a locked ward yesterday. The demons seem pretty keen on finding her." 

Demons?! Okay, who is this chick and why would she have the inside scoop of— oh. "Ruby?!"

"Hi Dean,” It's like flipping a switch, how she goes from conspiratorial to mocking. “How was it down there?"

He doesn't dignify that with any response more than a glare. Sam stays on topic.

"And who is she?"

"No idea…” Ruby turns back to Sam. “But I'm thinking that she's important, 'cause the order is to capture her alive. Thought you might want to find her first."

"Dean?"

"Sam?"

"What do you think?"  Oh... okay, so Sammy was gonna let him make the call. Weird. And really not what he was expecting after the fight about demon controlling powers.

"Why bring this to us." He asked the thing wearing a girl.

"I brought it to Sam."

"Because you want him to use more freaky demon magic." She glared.

"I'm just delivering the news. You can do whatever you want with it."

Dean sighed. He was going to regret this.

---

Trickery, disguises, and emphasizing the right words at the right time, gets them the girls sketchbook.

The sketchbook told them they were dealing with something very real. Broken seals and familiar symbols, their names repeated again and again in a fervent skrall that covered pages, the word ‘inevitable’ in oddly neat letters under a pocket watch, only tiny pieces of the book made sense. But the little sense it did make was very real and very terrifying.

Her home had been invaded but the church she grew up in seemed firmly in-tact.

It was their only guess. And they were right.

"Anna? We're not gonna hurt you." They lower their weapons. "We're here to help. My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean."

"Sam? Not Sam Winchester?"

"Uh, yeah."

"And you're Dean. The Dean?"

"Sure. The Dean, I guess." This was weird.

"It's really you. Oh, my god. The angels talk about you. You were in Hell, but Castiel pulled you out, and—" she rambles, telling them about themselves as if they didn't live it... or maybe just, assuring herself it's not imaginary?

They ask their questions. She answers, she hears them, doesn't talk to them, she's just tuned into the angel messaging radio frequency like he's tuned into the weird vibe thing. And it all started the day he dug himself from his coffin.

"First words I heard, clear as a bell -- 'Dean Winchester is saved." What does it say that he hates how she says it, quotes it really— like its capital S saved, like its missionaries knocking at your door saved; but what other way is there to put it when you pull someone out of capital h Hell?

There's not time to dwell on it. Because either the church's attic doesn't count for some reason or Ruby is apparently strong enough to tread on holy ground.

"You got the girl. Good, let's go."

"Her face!" Anna shrieks, and Dean remembers how her true form looked.

"Yeah, she's an ugly mother—"

"We have to hurry."

"Why?" Seriously, this whole trip has been pretty casual for someone the demon's want so bad.

"Because a heavy hitter's on his way, that's why."

"Conveniently right after you showed up, huh?"

"He followed you from her house." Says the one who just happened to get here first anyway. "We go now ."

"Dean," he follows Sam's gaze. A decorative statue cries bloodly tears.

"Too late." Ruby growls.

She's right.

In the next minute, Anna is shoved in a closet, Sam fails to use the magic exorcism that Ruby had insisted on and instead gets thrown across the room. Dean tries to stab the demon. He's disarmed. The demon introduces himself. Alastair, the only bastard Dean wants dead more than Lilith, taunts him as Sam lands a hit with the blade Dean dropped. But it's not a killing blow, Ruby's gone and the closet is open, Alistair grins as he pulls their best weapon free from his shoulder, the only escape is to shatter through an attic window.

---

They're in pain but they're alive. They stitch flesh back together and force joints back into sockets. And Dean acknowledges to himself that while Sam hasn't told him everything about his time while Dean was in the grave, he's been good about bringing things up when they're relevant.

He sighs. "I remember Hell."

"Dean," Sammy's startled, and that's fair given he hasn't exactly given context.

"I never forgot it. I just..."

Sam nods. "What is it?"

"I know Alistair. We need to find Anna."

"She's with Ruby."

"Great! So she might as well be handed over already."

"I don't think so."

"You don't."

"She's had opportunities to betray us before."

"She's a demon."

"And that means she can't change?!"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"She's a demon!"

"Fright Night changed. And I'm sure Danny knows others."

"And Fright Night went back!"

"So that means everyone else will?"

"And how do you know we can trust him?" Dean points out, because it's very easy to get caught up when the kid is around, and— “We don't actually know what Jack Montgomery is doing. We don't even know that the Coconut Vampires were even real! All we know, right now, is that Danny's philosophy means you're comfortable leaving a helpless girl with a demon!”

“A demon who hasn't ever done anything to hurt us! Look at what she's, done Dean, not what she is.”

“and all of this is coming from him, and he's not human!"

Sam flinches. And Dean abruptly remembers Sam talking about a DNA test.

"Sammy, I didn't mean..." He meant that leniency towards monsters might get people killed. He meant that Danny was more than a little biased. But he cant say it, he watched a cloud of darkness curl and wither as the kid ran it through. 

There's a knock at the door. Ruby, as housekeeping, tells them their next location. They go. They don't continue their discussion in the car.

---

Ruby is at the door when they arrive at the address she gave. "Glad you could make it."

"Yeah, thanks, " Sam walks into the old house. "Anna, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I think so. Ruby's not like other demons. She saved my life."

Dean frowns, but doesn't refute it. "Yeah, I hear she does that..."

He glances at the demon, he can't help but wonder who's face she wears. But there's not time for that yet, Ruby asks about the knife, Anna asks about her parents and they have to inform them that both are gone. So they get to deal with fury and grief (respectively) until there's a knock at the door.

Angels, of course the angels were getting involved now . "Please tell me you're here to help." Dean didn't quite beg. "We've been having demon issues all day."

"Well, I can see that." Uriel glares at Ruby. "You want to explain why you have that stain in the room?"

"We're here for Anna." Castiel ignores his coworker.

"Here for her like... here for her?" Dean checks, because the last time he spoke to them they talked about obliterating a city.

"Stop talking. Give her to us."

"Are you gonna help her?" Sam demands, mimicking Uriel's posture.

"No," Castiel tells them. "She has to die."

Dean sighs.

"You want Anna? Why?" Sam demands again, it doesn't do much better than the first time.

Uriel pushes him to the side. "Out of the way."

Dean has to scramble to keep someone in  between them. "Whoa, whoa. Okay, I know she's wiretapping your angel chats or whatever, but it's no reason to gank her!"

"Don't worry. I'll kill her gentle." Uriel tells him. You know what, maybe Ruby isn't so bad, forget that she's down to sacrifice virgins whenever.

"You're some heartless sons of bitches, you know that?"

"We do not have mothers," Castiel informs, "but the sentiment may be correct."

"And? Anna's an innocent girl." Sam asks, still disbelieving, still hurt that these are angels.

"She is far from innocent."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Uriel explains. "She's worse than this abomination you've been screwing. Now give us the girl."

"Sorry." Dean snarks, wondering if Jazz is also a monster or if Uriel has drastically misread the situation. "Get yourself another one. Try JDate."

"Who's gonna stop us? You two? Or this demon whore?" Uriel throws Ruby against the wall in a move eerily similar to how the demons do it. Either he's going for irony or... or Dean will finish that thought when he has time for it.

He lunges for Uriel, surprising them both when he knocks him to the ground. His punch connects, but this is probably what punching superman is like! OW!

Then in a flash of painful pull Uriel is gone. Dean's head throbs as he whips his head to see— Castiel is gone too. Sam is laying on the ground, out cold, and Ruby kneels to help him. Anna steps out of the other room, dripping with blood.

"Anna! are you..." he trails off, seeing the sigils she's drawn in blood on the old cracked mirror. They're not like Danny's, they're like the ones in her sketchbook.

"Are they -- are they gone?"

"Did you... kill them?" That would be cool, terrifying too, but also very cool.

"No. I sent them away... far away."

"You want to tell me how?" It would be very useful if they end up in another city that's an acceptable loss.

"That just popped in my head. I don't know how I did it. I just did it."

"Angel frequency?" Dean asked, because what else could it be?

"I don't know, maybe?"

Dean sighed, but the fear in her eyes was real. "Right, well, lets get you patched up. We've got bandages in the impala."

"We need to get out of here." Ruby added, and she was right, the angel's might've been sent to the outfield but they'd definitely be back.

---

Ruby slumps to the ground as she crosses the FentonWorks 'employees only' door , well her body does, the dark angry cloud that is actually Ruby swirls in violent circles. Dean crosses the threshold to get away from her storm.

"Demon?" Danny asks, checking the girl on the ground's pulse, then he frowns.

"Yeah, the body's a Jane Doe, a coma patient, the hospital was going to pull the plug..." Sam explained. "Ruby said the spirit had left?"

"She's right." Danny told them. Dean wavered, unsure whether to trust this information. But if it was true... maybe he's been a little unfair?

Danny flips a wall switch that doesn't appear to do anything? Ruby the cloud rushes back into Ruby the human. He flips the switch back on after she crosses. "Ethically sourced physically form. I appreciate the effort."

"Glad someone does," She sits up.

"Flip the switch before and after you cross, I'll key it to your signature so it won't zap you."

"So the switch... makes the place demon proof?" Dean asks.

"The barrier." Sam corrects, pressing his hand against something solid in the middle of an empty doorway. "It's kinda hard to interact with, I barely notice it."

Dean waves his hand through the air where Sam's clearly touching something. There isn't anything there?

"I thought it was the lights." Ruby complains.

"That's kinda the point. Ecto-sheild blocks any ectoplasmic entity that isn't tethered to its form. It works better when people don't know its there." Danny tells them. "Should work against the angel's too. Regardless of if their host consented or not. If they really want the angel in their body they can scoot back out."

"How do you know the angel's aren't..." what was the word he'd used? "Tethered?"

"Cause you shot and stabbed Castiel. If he was fully utilizing his flesh he'd feel it, regardless of healing abilities. Guy didn't even flinch."

"Huh,"

Anna waved her hands through the doorway before crossing. "It tingles."

Danny tipped his head at her. "It does?"

"Yeah, like when a limb falls asleep but..." she holds her hand to her heart, "but here..."

"That's... can I ask a weird question?"

"I mean, my whole life has gone weird, what's one more thing?

"Have you ever died?"

"Um, no? I don't think so...?"

" Huh ."

"Is that a problem?"

"No, not at all! I just don't usually see humans have a reaction to the shield without ectoplasmic exposure. Most commonly, it’s brushes with death. Plenty of other stuff could cause it though, we don't have to make it an interrogation."

"Oh, okay..."

"Please, make yourself at home, go upstairs, nap in a guestroom, raid the fridge. Whatever makes you comfortable. We're going to figure this out."

---

Sam and Dean left to search up some background. They were apparently worried about some spell she casted to banish angels. They're right that something like that would be robust magic, but Danny’s less concerned. Anna's aura reads clear to him. Ruby's on the other hand is like trying to dig a pebble out of a mud pit filled with teeth.

When Anna's settled he asks the demon. "Can I get a blood sample?"

"What?"

"A sample of your blood, for testing. We've tried some substitutes for Sam and they're never quite right. Having an actual sample would be helpful."

She blinks at him.

"You're not going to try to stop him?"

"He's tried to stop. It almost killed him. I'm mostly worried about the human element."

"And what does that mean?"

"If you’re not around to donate, and don't say you will be, we both know you can't control that with the price you've admitted is on your head. Current stuff is okay, but it won't cut it long term and that sort of hunting…” Danny shudders, he was very glad they'd worked out the ghost hunger stuff. 

"How much has Sam told you."

"I don't know how much there is to tell. I know about the blood stuff, about Lilith, about how everyone's panicked about your loyalties."

"But you're not? Even though I'm a demon ?"

"You're an ectoplasmic entity, ectoplasm is malleable. What separates you from countless other entities are traits derived from nature, and nature is made up of by choices. If you think you're defined by it, then you will be. But if you don't want to be a demon, then stop being one."

She scoffs, "If it were that simple—"

"It's not."

"What?"

"It's not simple. It will be the most difficult thing you've ever done, and it will probably take a century or three." Danny smiles at her. She was standing on the same crossroads Fright had long before Danny had existed. Danny wonders if anyone had tried to help him then, if any of those people were still around. “From what I understand, you've made a good start. Just keep making good choices, and keep ignoring everyone who says it's impossible."

Danny doesn't know what to make of the look on her face, she holds his gaze for far longer than he's really comfortable with but he doesn't look away until she finds whatever she's looking for.

"So a blood sample?"

---

"We're back!" Dean announces at the base of the stairs. He listens, trying to decide whether they should go down to the lab or up to the living area.

"Up." Pamela tells him, moments before the announcement comes from above him.

He steps aside so Pamela can take the steps first.

She'd already berated him about how she can see and doesn't need his help, so he doesn't guide her by the arm, but he's still nervous about it. He doesn't exactly understand how heavily impaired eyesight works when you also have psychic knowledge, so he'll stay out of her way but be ready to help if she asks. Sam managed not to offend her, but he still follows suit.

They hear Danny's cheerful "Pamela!" As she makes it to the top. He makes introductions that she interrupts to show off her magical ability to tell everyone's names.

They share their findings about Anna's childhood psychosis, and their... admittedly a bit far-fetched plan to hypnotize her back to the time where she believed her father wasn't her father and the real one wanted her dead. They'd ask child Anna some questions, and hopefully get some context.

Preparations, triple confirmation that Anna was okay with this, and one hypnotherapy session began... Anna's pleas make it nearly impossible to get answers and their attempts to calm her only stress her futher.

Then the lights flicker, once, twice. The nearest light bulb shatters and Danny swears and runs for the fuse box. A humming whine fills the room, Anna's words echo in its call but there's  something more. A cry for help.

"Anna," Dean approaches, his boots crunch glass as he reaches for her.

"Dean, don't." Pamela warns.

But he has too. The only other person who might hear her plea is stopping the building from frying itself.  She needs to know she's not alone. He touches her arm and the world stops.

Where the second lightbulb had broken,  tiny flecks of tiny glass hang in the air. Everything is utterly silent, then Anna breathes sharply and everything is back to how it was. Er- kinda. But there's no more unnatural whine and the power's been successfully shut off.

"It's okay, Anna." He says, and she settles back into the weird semi-consciousness that is hypnosis. Her hand claspes around his. "We're here with you. We'll keep you safe."

"I believe you." She says, and across the room Danny makes meaningful eye contact, though Dean couldn't guess what he's trying to say.

Pamela carefully continues.

"Who is your father? Why does he want to hurt you?"

"He's God. And I disobeyed."

"Most children disobey their parents, what makes this different?"

"I fell."

"On the ground?"

"To earth. I became human."

"Wait a minute. I don't understand. So, angels can just become human?" Sam interrupts. Pamela glares in his direction, but Anna answers.

"It hurts, like cutting your kidney out with a butter knife. That kind of hurt. I ripped out my grace."

"Your Grace?"

"My grace. It's... energy. Hacked it out and fell."

"Her core," Danny whispers, horrified. "She split it, that's why she can feel the barrier... but... ask her how she's human?"

"How did you become human, Anna?"

"My mother, Amy, couldn't get pregnant. Always called me her little miracle. She had no idea how right she was."

"Did you remember?" Danny asked, and Pamela doesn't give him a dirty look for some reason.

"The older I got, the longer I was human, the more the memory faded."

"Well fuck. I don't think you all appreciate how completely screwed we are." Ruby exclaims. Anna whimpers. Danny throws a pillow at Ruby.

"Any more questions, or should I wake her up?" Pamela asks before they can devolve further.

"Wake her up." Dean decides for them.

"Wake in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Anna... Anna? You all right?"

Anna sits sharply, she doesn't let go of his hand.

"Ruby's right. Heaven wants me dead."

"And Hell just wants her. A flesh-and-blood angel that you can question, torture, that bleeds. Sister, you're the Stanley Cup. And sooner or later, Heaven or Hell, they're gonna find you."

"I know. And that's why I'm gonna get it back." Apparently they were breezing past the fact that Anna not only remembered her past, but also remembered what happened while she was under. Pamela seemed much more disturbed than everyone else.

"What?"

"My Grace."

"You can do that?"

"Yep." Danny said.

"If I can find it." Anna agreed.

"So where is it?"

"Lost track. I was falling about 10,000 miles per hour at the time."

"Wait. You mean falling, like, literally?" Sam asks.

"Yes."

"Like the way a human eye can see? Like a comet, maybe, or a meteor?"

"Please say yes." Danny adds, grinning wide.

---

Danny is a nerd.

Dean knew this, but having a list of every meteor landing site in the country already mapped and dated on his wall... Danny was a nerd.

"Meteorite." Danny corrected.

"What?"

"Anna didn't burn up in the atmosphere, she'd be a meteorite, not a meteor."

"It felt like I burnt up." Anna ponders.

"It really does. Heat shielding is such a good invention and I really could've used it."

"What?"

"What?"

"He's messing with us." Dean concluded.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Here?" Sam asks, "Kentucky, In '85, there was an empty field outside of town. Six months later, there was a full-grown oak. They say it looked a century old at least."

"The Grace. Where it hit, it could have done something like that, easy."

"So grace ground zero -- it's not destruction. It's..."

Anna speaks at the same time as Danny.

"Pure creation." "The Ideal becomes Form."

They look at each other, eyes narrow like they agree but also both want to argue about choice of words.

Dean will let them argue as they drive. All that's left is to find the stuff and hopefully they'll have less worries tomorrow.

---

"This is definitely the place, I can feel it," Anna tells them as she steps out of Danny's van. She looks to the magic tree. Danny follows with his scanner.

She places her hand on the oak's trunk. "It's not here... someone took it."

"I'm picking up some other ecto-signatures. I think I know who."

Danny holds out the device. Sam takes it and frowns at the screen. It gets passed around and Dean catches a glimpse of meaningless numbers.

"You're gonna have to clarify."

"That's Uriel's signature."

"We need a plan."

---

"You're sure you have to do this alone?" Danny asked as he follows Ruby out into night air. The ground would frost completely tonight and probably linger throughout the day tomorrow. Danny had left his jacket inside and he was pretend to shiver around her.

Ruby turned, hesitating. "I don't think they'll  believe you're on their side."

"They're not going to believe you are either. We're already counting on them thinking we just want out of no-man's land."

She sighs, "I don't think it's going to be that simple."

"All the more reason to have backup."

"So go give backup to the three humans."

"They have specter deflectors and Anna has her banishing spell if they need it. You can't wear one, and your banishing spell requires components you don't have." She glares, probably annoyed that he knows about that. 

"We need to get far enough away, and I can't teleport us both." She argues. 

Danny lets his transformation wash over him. He falls back, floating off the ground a bit. "I fly fast, where are you thinking?"

"Fine."

---

The field is in the middle of nowhere, it has enough space for a proper fight  without alerting any potential bystanders if it come to that. Danny nods his approval and settles back into human form.

Then, after a second thought, he pulls Soulshreader from her pocket dimension and lets her materialize a sheath on his belt. Ruby's eyes catch on the blade.

"You're not Samhain."

"Obviously."

"How—" She opens and closes her mouth, trying to word her question.

"Samhain is dead." Danny tells her, Soulshreader hums a grief filled note. She'd only awakened after Fright had shed his old name, it had been a painful and confusing time after the summoning.

" You killed him?"

Danny nodded.

"And you took his blade?!"

"Not exactly." Soulshreader was allowing him to carry her, keeping her unwillingly would be... just no.

"That sure looks like it."

"She. Soulshreader prefers she." Ruby made a face, and Danny checked to make sure he wasn't growing a second head. Usually he was aware of when his body felt the need to be weird, but when people looked at him like that... no head #2, and all his limbs were correct. "What?"

" Her ... her name is Soulshreader...?"

Danny nods.

"Right... sorry..."

Soulshreader hums.

"She accepts your apology."

"...Right... I'm just gonna," She holds out the lighter and the hex bag.

He nods.

"Out of curiosity, is there a reason you can't like, chuck it in the woods or something?" He asks while it burns.

"What?"

"So you can collect it later instead of making a new one?"

She starts to answer, but is cut off by the appearance of someone new.

"Hello, Ruby."

"Alastair."

"I have to say, I'm surprised to find you out in the open like this."

"Yeah? Desperate times."

"That they are. You looking for this?" Alistair pulls the blade Sam had lost. "Your gawky human friend gave it to me."

"Keep it. I just came to talk."

"About what? About how a demon is protecting an angel? We really must revoke your membership." Was that a thing they could do? It might make Ruby's next steps easier, if she really wants it.

"Look, I know I'm not employee of the month, but this— I never wanted to get in the middle of this."

"Why are you here, Ruby?" Alistair asks with new interest.

"I'll give you the angel."

"Will you? And in return?"

"We walk away." She gestures to Danny, forcing Alistair to stop ignoring him. Not that Danny minded, being underestimated helped. "Us and the Winchester boys, both of them. This angel business is none of our business."

"Hmm. You know...I'd always heard that you were a devious, cowardly little slut. You don't disappoint."

"So, what do you say?"

"It's interesting... Prudent. But, uh... Let me make you a... counteroffer."

Danny is grabbed from behind, and he throws an elbow back before he truly processes what's happening. It connects, earning an "Oof" from his attacker.

He whirls, grabbing at the demon. Note: he means grabbing at the demon, not the human host. You might think it's impossible to grab their smoke-like forms, but in reality, smoke is less their actual shape and more of a human brain's approximation of their shape. Danny, as a thing who is also capable of being fluid-like or gaseous, is more than able to grab the demon themself. And he does so, a twinge of intangibility helping him free them from their host's flesh.

He brings Soulshreader up with his other hand—in a move that is horribly unbalanced and annoys her greatly, but that's just as effective as he intended— and slashes at the thin line of black, sending the demon to Soulshreader's realm.

It won't hold them forever, the place of nightmare is not that different from Hell, in Danny's opinion, he hasn't actually been to Hell to compare. But it will hold long enough to keep them out of this fight. The host falls back on the grass, looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Run." Danny tells them, and they do. He turns back to Ruby only to see that she's stopped struggling in favor of gaping at him. As much as he wants to sigh, he turns back to Alistair, Soulshreader at the ready. "And here I thought our offer was perfectly reasonable. Do I need a counter-counteroffer?"

"Who, exactly, are you supposed to be?" Alistair tries for demeaning as his aura flairs. It's hot and angry— a fire core— but not enraged, he's still assessing.

Danny replies with a flair of his own, cold and determined. Alistair shivers, and Danny knows that if this turns, he has the advantage. The demon lives in an inferno, the night air that isn't nearly cold enough for Danny's tastes is already well past Alistair's comfort zone.

"Let her go, then we can bargain."

"You are not in a position to make demands."

"Aren't I? We have what you want, and you'renit the only ones looking for her." If the bluff is going to fall apart it will be now, Danny's not the best of liers and if his distaste for the concept shows through… Alistair tips his head to the demon to the demon holding Ruby.

"Hurt her, and you make an enemy." Danny warns, this he can say without hesitation. 

Alistair frowns, "And here I thought you already were?"

"I'm not your ally, I don't like you, and I'm going to help my friends. But I've never gone out of my way to hunt you or yours. I only bother with them when they go after mine ." Possessiveness was a trait most ecto-entities understood.

"I let her go, you take us to the girl."

"And."

"And we won't touch you or yours..." Alistair caught himself, adding quickly, "Tonight."

Danny carefully kept his grin off his face. Alistair hadn't asked who he counted as his. "Deal."

---

"Little early for that, isn't it?" Anna asks as he puts down the flask.

"It's 2 a.m. somewhere." He says instead of explaining that it is just water and he uses the flask because he's broken far too many plastic water bottles to keep bothering with them, the large ones are too large to comfortably carry around anyway and this flask has held up since his dad bought it when he was a kid.

Though maybe if he had said all that she wouldn't be asking "You okay?".

"Yeah, of course." Just extremely nervous. He'd feel much better if he knew Ruby and the demon party were also on their way.

The doors burst open behind him. He knows it's Castiel and Uriel by the feel of their presence, he turns to look anyway, unsurprised.

"Hello, Anna. It's good to see you." Castiel tells her, ignoring the rest of them.

"How? How did you find us?" Sam pauses, buying what time he can. "Dean?"

No one crashes through the other doors, not yet, every second counts. He turns to Anna, hoping the angel's will let them give goodbyes. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Sam asks him.

"Because they gave him a choice. They either kill me... or kill you. I know how their minds work." Anna explains, and wow, that's scary accurate. Dean hadn't described his dreamscape, only told them they were coming. Anna kisses him. Not as long as earlier, and as much as Dean would love to see how long the angel's would put up with this, she pulls away.

"You did the best you could. I forgive you. Okay. No more tricks." Hah! "No more running. I'm ready."

"I'm sorry." Castiel admits.

"No. You're not. Not really. You don't know the feeling."

"Still, we have a history. It's just—"

"Orders are orders. I know. Just make it quick."

"Don't you touch a hair on that poor girl's head." Dean never thought he'd be glad to hear Alistair's voice, but here they were. He stands at the other end of the room with another few demons and Danny and Ruby.

"How dare you come in this room, you pussing sore?" Uriel demands.

"Name-calling. That hurt my feelings... You sanctimonious, fanatical prick."

"Turn around and walk away now." Castiel also demands.

"Sure. Just give us the girl. We'll make sure she gets punished good and proper."

"You know who we are and what we will do. I won't say it again. Leave now... or we lay you to waste."

"Think I'll take my chances."

All as planned, Dean presses against the wall as demons and angels scramble at each other. Surprisingly enough, rather than killing each other, they preform exorcisms, angels sending demons back to hell and Alistair apparently knowing how to do the opposite to angels. Dean watches Alistair pin Castiel and shout words in Latin and he wonders if he should do something. Castiel never tortured him, but Alistair never threatened to destroy a city. His indecision holds him in the spot, but Anna, out of some old loyalty, hits Alistair over the head with a crowbar.

Alistair turns, lunging to attack her with his friggin knife but, he freezes even before he even gets in range of specter deflectors shock.

Danny notices, and practically drips with satisfaction. "You really should've taken Ruby's deal. She binds with the spirit of the law, but I bind with the letters ."

Alistair snarls at him, and begins to move, but this time notices the fighting freeze on the other side of the room.

Ruby holds a shining pendant over her head. No, Ruby holds Anna's grace in triumphant threat. "You should leave now." She tells... Dean isn't sure who she's threatening, other than the fact that she's definitely threatening Uriel.

Uriel throws insults but doesn't dare to get closer. No one does, even Alistair afraid of what she might do.

"You define your own nature, Ruby." Danny tells her, gently and sympathetic. Then he says,  "We are not what we eat."

Which might be a joke?! Ok. Dean didn't know what he was afraid was happening here but that was worse. Dean didn't know what eating a chunk of angel power would do, but that was clearly exactly what Ruby wanted to do. She holds Danny's gaze for an eternity, then she does the same to Sam.

She lowers her arm slowly, her decision clearly made but which decision none of them know. She looks to Anna, who takes slow, careful, steps forward. It's another eternity before they're within reach, and Ruby's hand shakes with the effort of holding the glowing light.

Gently, she presses it into Anna's hands and Dean breathes too soon.

Uriel lunges. Anna shrieks, "Look away!"

And it's all Dean can do to follow her instruction as the world burns with radiant light.

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

My Demon: Theories and Analysis for Eps 1-6

Hi Readers!

Let me start this post by saying what I originally wrote was just deleted after I hit the "save draft" button on Tumblr. I'm so pissed because I had spent hours working on this post!! For those who have followed my blog for a very long time, you know I usually provide a very in-depth analysis of dramas. 

Given what just happened and time constraints, I will keep this post very short. I may make mini posts next week to further elaborate on some points discussed here, but it just depends on if I have the time.

If you have any questions, please feel free to hit the "ask me anything" button and I will try my best to answer them promptly. I hope "My Demon" fandom won't be as toxic as the "Alchemy of Souls" fandom and misuse the "ask me anything" button to send me death threats or insults. If you don't like what I write, you can simply scroll along. The end. Also, don't plagiarize my shit. This was a huge issue during AOS and I really didn't appreciate it at all. If you want to use my ideas, give me credit for them.

Ok, let’s put on our thinking caps. Time to analyze and theorize!

Demons

In the context of this show, “demons” are individuals who used to be human but are now forced to fulfill human wishes in order to keep on living forever. The terms are simple: humans get their deepest desires fulfilled but will die in 10 years and go to hell. For demons, as long as they sign new contracts and collect souls, they won’t combust and be wiped from existence. It remains unknown how often demons must sign contracts/collect souls before they start to combust. Before demons were loan sharks, they were guardians of humans. 

We start this drama with Jeong Gu Won, who has lived happily for the last 200 yrs as a demon. Gu Won has no recollection of his human life. We don’t know if this aspect of Gu Won is something present in all demons or just him. Gu Won’s perfect little world is turned upside down after he saves Do Do Hee from Rash Dude aka Jeffrey Dahmer. Now, we don’t know why his tattoo was transferred to Do Hee but it’s implied the full moon and water had something to do with it. If you have read other posts of mine, you will know that when there’s a full moon it usually means a transformation and a new start. The whole falling into the water could be viewed as a sort of baptism, symbolizing the end of an old life and the beginning of a new life. I feel like before this show ends, Gu Won and Do Hee will end up in the water under the full moon again to symbolize Gu Won’s full transformation into a human. Like right now he’s like a quasi-demon haha. His transformation into a full human is currently ongoing. I think that as he starts to develop more human emotions/remember his human memories, his powers as a demon will begin to decline. 

Gu Won’s Past Life…A Story of Crime and Punishment

One thing I’ve learned from analyzing many dramas over the years is when a writer shows us a book or mentions a movie, we should look into them if we want a glimpse into what will happen in a drama. Now in Ep 1, you see #2 Wild Dog reading, “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky which was hilarious because he didn’t strike me as the type to read such a dense piece of literature. Seeing this book took me back to my high school days when we had to read and analyze this book. For those who don’t know, Russian works tend to be very long and are usually about suffering haha.

For the sake of time, I’ll you a very brief overview of what happened in “Crime and Punishment”. The story begins with a law student, Rodion Raskolnikov, who quits school because he can’t afford it anymore. The guy then has a mental breakdown of sorts and decides to kill the elderly owner of the pawnshop and her half-sister. He justifies his actions by rationalizing that by killing the pawnshop owner, he could take the valuables within her pawn shop and use them to fund his education which would eventually earn him a well-paying job. In turn, he would use the money earned to benefit the greater good. 

Raskolnikov saw himself as an Ubermensch (if you don’t know that means, I had briefly talked about it in my DAYS posts). He believed that since he was above everyone else, he was allowed to cross all societal, ethical, and moral lines because his success would help the greatest amount of people. The rest of the novel is about Raskolnikov’s internal struggles with what he did. He goes back and forth between confessing or not confessing to the murders. Eventually, the love interest in the story, Sonia, a devout Christian and source of morality for Raskolnikov, convinces him to turn himself in and confess. Raskolnikov ends up only having to serve a total of 8 years in a labor camp for the murders. While there, he finally realizes the errors of his ways and feels guilt for his past actions. He then was like “Sonia’s love saved me and I feel bad for making her suffer so when I get out, I’m going to repay her with infinite love for all she has done for me”. And bam! That’s where the story ends…with the start of his journey toward redemption haha. 

Gu Won is Raskolnikov in the sense that he thinks he’s better than everyone else and can therefore cross any line he so chooses. Based on a flashback in Ep 6, it seemed Gu Won had this kind of mindset even before he became a demon. So, what crime did Gu Won commit that landed him in Hell in the first place? I wouldn’t label it so much as an actual crime like murder but Gu Won probably got Do Hee’s past self killed. The guilt he felt after her death is probably what led to him become essentially trapped in a mental Hell, much like Madam Ju. Eventually, this guilt prevented him from entering heaven after he died. God/Lady probably took pity on him and offered him salvation in the form of becoming a demon; alternatively, it could be that God/Lady offered him a "sweet" contract where he could work as a demon in exchange for a second chance and a happier life with Do Hee in the future. Regardless of whatever the case may be, the important thing is that Gu Won needs to remember what happened in his past so he can seek forgiveness from Do Hee in the present and start his path toward redemption much like Raskolnikov. The truth sets you free haha. Gu Won is taking a step in the right direction though by protecting Do Hee. He could be like Raskolnikov and choose to give Do Hee infinite love for the rest of his life to make up for the horrible things he did to her in the past haha. Oh, one more thing for this section, the tattoo being on Do Hee’s wrist could symbolize that she was the reason why he became a demon in the first place. 

Murders of Do Hee’s Parents and Madam Ju/Who Is Abraxas

In my original post, this section was long, but as I previously mentioned, the stuff I wrote was deleted. I’m just going to give you the overall gist of it. I still think the person who killed Madam Ju was Ju Seok Hun and that the person who killed Do Hee’s parents was Madam Ju’s little brother/Seok Hun’s father. I don’t think Madam Ju directly killed Do Hee’s parents, but she felt guilty for their deaths because she covered up the incident to protect her little brother. After which, she cut him off and exiled him to Peru to live a hippie life haha. This is completely speculative though. Like we have two choices for who murdered Do Hee’s parents and Madam Ju. Choice #1 is Noh Suk Min and Noh Do Gyeong and Choice #2 Seok Hun’s father and Seok Hun. One argument I made for choice #2 is that if Suk Min and Do Gyeong were the real killers, wouldn’t the actor who played Do Gyeong be a main lead instead of a supporting character? Another argument was that Seok Hun has too many conflicting qualities about him. For example, he is a hippie who works in the corporate world and despite portraying a goody-two-shoes image, he suggests Do Hee should engage in some ethically questionable business practices like letting Mirae Investments buy shares of Mirae F&B to offset the losses. 

It’s also important to remember what Do Hee said about “sweet” things and how they’re always fake (except for Gu Won haha). Seok Hun is faker than acrylic nails. He puts on an act that he cares about her well-being when in reality, he hopes she dies. He must continue with this nice guy act because he doesn’t want her death to lead back to him. Just think about some things for a moment, if Do Hee died, who would the police suspect killed her? Would it be the people who openly voiced their disdain for her or the person whom she had a loving relationship with? It would be the former. The scene with Do Gyeong at the lockers is essentially Seok Hun setting him up to take the fall for Do Hee’s murder. At the end of the day, human greed is what drove Seok Hun to do what he did. Who knows, maybe his greed stems from being subjected to a frugal lifestyle while growing up. 

Crosses, Numerology, and Tarot

Amen, we are nearing the end. Ok, let’s keep going at record speed. So, crosses and Catholicism/Christianity are heavily present in this show. The same goes for numbers and tarot. They’re all connected. Some religious crosses can look like an “X” which looks like the Roman numeral 10. The number 10 is everywhere in this show. For example, the little girl was celebrating her 10th birthday and the Wheel of Fortune is the 10th tarot card in the Rider Waite Tarot Deck. Connecting numerology with tarot, the wheel of fortune represents the end of one journey and the beginning of another…1 + 0 = 1, where 1 symbolizes completion.

The clock in the promotional poster has a hand pointing at 10, which is different than the clocks seen at Gu Won’s place that only go from 0-9. While we are on the subject of 9, “Gu” means nine. Every time Gu Won started a new life, he named himself the next number following his current one. For example, he was Il (1) Won, then I (2) Won, and so forth. Now in his 9th life, he is called Gu Won. Get it? Ok, cool. What comes after 9? 10. After Gu Won completes his transformation into a human, he will be called Sip (10) Won haha. Additionally, did anyone notice the number 91 on the cake Do Hee baked for him? What’s 9+1? 10. 

Pay attention to the numbers in this show people! Always ask yourself what each number means and what it's connected to haha. When God/the Lady said, "I’m betting on all the odd numbers", many were like what does that mean? She’s referring to the numbers on tarot cards (Rider Waite Deck), which represent Gu Won and Do Hee. For example, which cards represent them? For starters, the 15th card aka the devil. 1+5=6 which is the lovers card. Another odd-numbered tarot card that is representative of Do Hee and Gu Won is the 9th card which is “The Hermit” because let’s be real here, they both were hermits before they met each other. The last major arcana tarot card in the deck is #21…THE WORLD aka GUARANTEED SUCCESS. So this is what God/Lady meant when she said she’s betting on all the odd numbers. It’s the writer’s way of telling us we are going to get a happy ending after all the chaos that will occur. 

One more intriguing number is 17. If you sniff around, you’ll notice that 17 is the number of years that have passed since Do Hee’s parents died. 17 is also the number of the coin locker where Jeffrey and Seok Hun exchange stuff. Hilariously, Gu Won’s passcode to his safe is “666”, which is the number of the beast/devil haha. In the newspaper clipping about the Sunwol Foundation, it said the theater was completed on June 7, 1977 and Gu Won’s name during that time was Chil (7) Won haha. The number 7 is seen as lucky in Korean and many Western cultures. 

MISC

The cross necklace Gu Won wears probably belonged to Do Hee’s past self or was given to Gu Won by Do Hee…..OH I just made another connection…..In “Crime and Punishment”, Sonia gave Raskolnikov a cross necklace. Also, in Crime and Punishment, Sonia was a prostitute and Do Hee was essentially one during the Joseon dynasty…. Kisaeng and prostitutes are basically the same thing haha. It’s also interesting that both Gu Won and Do Hee wear two necklaces, one silver and one gold. I wonder if there’s any meaning behind that.

In the newspaper clipping about Sunwol Foundation, the term 'Sun/Seon' is written in hanja and translates to 'to return/come back.' This element was part of Gu Won's original name, Yi Sun/Seon. Additionally, 'wol' means moon. Therefore, I interpreted 'Sunwol' to mean 'Sun and Moon' or 'Moon That Returns.' In a broader sense, Sunwol can be likened to the Taj Mahal—a building or monument constructed in memory of a beloved. One could also view Sunwol as a place that narrates the love story of the Sun (Gu Won) and the Moon (Do Hee) or as a place built with the hope that Gu Won’s beloved moon would return one day.

Ok, folks, that concludes this very brief TA post. WOOHOO! Sorry if there were any grammatical mistakes or typos, and if this post seemed a bit disorganized. I really have to get to bed and didn't have time to edit this haha. See you all next week maybe!

[blazehedgehog]

ICYMI: My Sonic Frontiers Criticism/Essay Is Out Now

So here's the last four months of my life come to fruition: the longest piece of edited criticism I've ever put on my Youtube channel, clocking in at just over an hour. For those of you that may be new around here, I am pretty against making long videos. I don't know if I overthink things too much or what, but it's rare for me to have much tolerance for feature-length reviews of things. They can wear me out just watching them, and it definitely wears me out to make them.

But sometimes you just have a lot to say. And I didn't even necessarily say everything I could have said here; there were things I would have added if not for the looming deadline proposed by the video sponsor. That's not a complaint -- sometimes you need someone else to tell you "be done by this date or else." Limitations foster creativity and toiling away at perfection can sometimes be just as toxic as crunch.

What I was trying to say is it's a big video, and it was hard keeping everything straight in my head because there was so much. One of those times where I was glad how I planned things out in advance, because sometimes the thoughts you had four months ago are not the same thoughts you have today, and the thoughts from four months ago were better.

It's already proving to be a bit of a divisive video, given I am going against the grain here. But I'm a big boy. I've spent time on the front lines of these sorts of things before. I know how to handle myself. I mean, half the reason I started my tumblr back in the day was pointing out some of the truly deranged takes I'd get in the replies to my Sonic 06 video.

Though I do worry. I'm getting a lot of people who are... politely declining to tell me what they think. More than a few "I don't agree with you, but I'm glad you released this video" that then never elaborate further. And that makes me feel bad? But why? Do I want to argue with my friends? Not particularly.

But more to the point, are people afraid to argue with me? Do I get too aggressive? I've picked up on a vibe, not just from friends, where people seem to go out of their way to avoid arguments with and/or around me. I mean I literally just said I started my Tumblr blog as a "get a load of this guy in my comments" spotlight (which, for the record, I don't do anymore). I don't want to be scary. But is it scary, or is it a strength? Or am I just imagining the whole thing? History says it's probably that last one, but it doesn't stop me from wondering. It's a lot to chew on.

At the end of the day, I do think parts of this script could have been better. I do kind of get a little mean at a couple points in ways I could have written around. A lot of people are bristling at the opening spiel, where I get more than a little "you people" about the Game Awards voting situation. There's another part later in the video where I also feature actual comments from a previous video and as I was editing it together I thought, "this sounds mean." But given I was less than 24 hours away from that deadline, I just had to roll with it (so I at least blurred the names and cropped the avatars out).

I'll end this post by quoting what I wrote on Patreon day before yesterday for the early access version of this video:

What a march this has been. I've worked on some videos that felt like they took forever, but nothing like this. This felt like the project that would never end. Some of that's because, after pushing myself so hard on the Sonic Adventure 2 video, I tried to be a little more casual with this one. I think I started the script around the end of April, a couple weeks after finishing the game on-stream. The idea was to avoid burnout.  And then the script grew, and grew, and grew, to be the longest script I've ever written. After doing voice over, I had three hours of material I had to cut down. I captured more than 60 hours of gameplay from more than 50 games. Thank goodness I took the time to stop and "storyboard" out this review like I did with the SA2 video. It actually proved to be extremely valuable here -- with a video this long, that takes so long to put together, it's hard to keep all of your ideas hot and ready in your head. Often I'd fall back to the storyboard and realize I planned something months ago that was way better than what I was doing in the moment.  And then in July, a sponsor came calling again. Suddenly I had a real deadline. The last four weeks have been a race to move this mountain of material into something resembling the shape of a video. The last couple days in particular have felt something like a miracle. A work ethic I hadn't tapped into in years suddenly roared to life as I locked down 20+ minutes of video in a matter of hours. It may have involved several actual panic attacks and me running on about four hours of sleep, but here we are. I was revising the script all the way up until a week ago. In retrospect, the sponsor segment probably leans a little too much on SAGE content, but by the time I realized that the train was barreling down the tracks too fast to stop. Thoughts for next time, I guess.

Patrons get a PDF of the script I used, including an unfinished earlier draft I abandoned where I think I was actually even meaner about it, if you can believe it. They also get a PDF of what my "storyboarding" process looks like (which is all just text).

I'll probably toss up a post for all the art I made for this video, too.

[gellavonhamster]

13 books meme

Tagged by @littlestsnicket (thank you ❤)

1) The Last book I read: One Piece Novel Heroines by Jun Esaka, which I've already been posting about enough not to elaborate here

2) A book I recommend: can I copy your homework plagiarize the answer to this from the person who tagged me? Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I know a lot of people find it too long or just not their cup of tea, but it's one of my all-time favourites, one of those books that feel like they were written for me specifically, and I cannot help recommending it to others :)

3) A book that I couldn’t put down: I remember reading TFOTA #2 and #3 (The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black) in a single day. I was feeling unwell, and it was cold outside anyway, so I just spent most of the day reading in bed. I recall being surprised by how engrossed I was - the first book of this series didn't grow on me until well into its second half.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more): I have this sideblog on Twitter where I post a quote from Dracula per day (yes, manually, I don't know how to make bots lol). I just move down the text and skim it and pick sentences that catch my eye, and when I reach the end, I start from the beginning again. So, in a way, I am constantly in the process of rereading Dracula

5) A book on my TBR: Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval and a bunch of its continuations, Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

6) A book I’ve put down: the thing is, if I don't really enjoy a book but still can find a good thing or two about it, I will keep reading and hoping it will improve eventually, and if I don't enjoy a book at all, I forget about it as soon as I put it down. Out of sight, out of mind - unless I particularly hate it. When I try to think of any books of the latter kind, the first to come to my mind usually is A Discovery of Witches. I found the worldbuilding really interesting, but damn, the protagonists were so annoying that I wasn't going to struggle through that brick of a book for it.

7) A book on my wish list: I need to get a copy of The Bad Beginning, The Wide Window, and The Hostile Hospital, and then I'll have the entire ASOUE collected! Would also love to get any other Snicketverse books; I only have Poison for Breakfast - bought it literally last weekend. I could buy them online, of course, but: 1) I prefer to avoid online shopping if there is realistic possibility for me to come across that item offline; 2) accidentally stumbling onto these books in bookshops (especially second-hand ones) when I least expect them feels like such a right experience for this series that I am inclined to continue acquiring them that way.

8) A favorite book from childhood: Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner... truly formative shit, responsible for at least 50% of my sense of humour

9) A book you would give to a friend: I was at my friend's place recently and noticed she had the exact same copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury as I do. When I told her about it, she told me it was I who gave her that book (I forgot 🤦‍♀️) and that she loves it and rereads it almost every autumn :') So this one has definitely passed the test.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own: I have a whole shelf full of poetry books, in fact. At least half of them weren't bought by me, but by my family members long before I was born, but presently all of them are considered mine :D Those that I bought myself include collections of poems by Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Oscar Wilde, and Marina Tsvetaeva, among other things. And Useless Magic by Florence Welch!

11) A nonfiction book you own: I stumbled upon The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard in the same second-hand bookshop where I bought all the parts of ASOUE I currently have and couldn't believe my luck - I really wanted to read it after watching Black Sails! It's great.

12) What are you currently reading: Tristan and Isolde. Restoring Palamede by John Erskine. Really enjoying it so far; it sort of demystifies/disenchants Arthuriana but without excessive cynicism, with the narrator being understanding, perhaps even compassionate, when describing the characters' very realistic, human flaws. Technically I'm also reading E. W. Hornung's short stories about Raffles and Bunny through the Letters from Bunny Substack, but it's more like "desperately trying to catch up and failing". The stories themselves are delightful, but I was right to suspect that this way of reading books is not for me.

13) What are you planning on reading next? Dracula in Istanbul (the Turkish translation/adaptation of Dracula), courtesy of @seawilde <3

tagging @afoxnamedmulder, @seawilde, @lefresne, @uupiic, and @snckt; as always, feel free to ignore if you don't want to answer :)

[hinamie]

3 & 8 for the fanartist ask? hope youre well <3

WAH HIII thank uuuu i am doing well ty fr asking <3 <3 <3

3. what sort of compliments do you love hearing?

gJHSG i'm not picky at all tbh any compliments r enough to make my day :'> i read tags like the morning news n if i see something particularly sweet i screenshot it n put it in a lil folder on my desktop to look at when i need a pick-me-up.

I wld be lying if i didn't have favourites tho :'>>> don't get me wrong keysmashes n short and sweet compliments r never unwelcome but whenever people leave extended tags rly explaining what they like about a piece or how they interpret certain details i included,, or if they have a bit of art knowledge themselves and are able to comment on specific technical elements i use...thts the good stuff . i eat tht shit up it is like crack to me

I also get a special kind of thrill when i get ppl crying/telling me they're in my walls/yelling at me threateningly (pos) in the tags of an angsty drawing sdghjfgj ik those r not exactly compliments but it means i have done my job well so it counts :3

8. what inspires your art style?

I mean i'm a fanartist so i think it goes without saying that the themes and look of the media itself will inform how I approach making art for it hjdsfk . like, in my fruits basket era my style definitely leaned cutesier than it did/has for tg/banana fish/jjk. in the same vein, the work of other artists also in those fandoms has always been something that inspires me almost as much as the source material. everyone is so fucking talented sdhjhgfdsj no matter how happy i might be with my own progress at any given moment i'm always looking at other artists and styles I admire and trying to kirby them into my own stuff :)

but as far as parts of my actual /style/ tht transcend whatever fandom i'm working in, I think above all else I'm inspired by things I see in real life and find beauty in

in the past I have spent a lot of time doing more. static (?) fanart where the main focus was often the character's clothes moreso than where they were or what they were doing. ik part of that was definitely because I wasn't comfortable enough in my technical skills to push myself to draw more elaborate scenes, but it was also due to the fact that at that time in my life, I was mainly inspired by fashion and people I found beautiful. lately i've been much more focused on emotions, intimacy, and little pockets of time--i want to draw moments that make you want to hold them between your fingers before they slip away. lately i find myself thinking about what it's like to be loved or left and overall just the nature of time passing, and i think those themes have definitely made themselves known in my work. the light the colours the themes i use,,. it's all hopeful and sad and fleeting and beautiful to me, or at least i try for it to come across that way.

fanartist ask game

[outeremissary]

Okay, with Art Fight officially concluded as of yesterday, I'm going to reblog all the stuff I did for it again one time to see it all together. Personal retrospective ramble under the cut- a small self indulgence ^^;;

It was very cool to take part in it for the first time, and despite the fact that I let a lot of things I was doing for it spiral out of control I feel really grateful for the amazing creativity I got to see and happy with the art that I was able to make- 19 whole pieces of it, wow!! Wound up learning things about not burning myself out completely in there as well, which is good haha.

And although it might sound kinda cheesy I think there's also something about it that was creatively healing after I spent a lot of June pouring energy into really elaborate projects that I felt disappointed by after the fact- either because I felt disappointed by the results or because it felt like things kinda flopped compared to similar things I'd done in the past and it was hard to understand why. After years of posting, the numbers truly have gotten to me in the end. I finished June burnt out and frustrated and feeling like I didn't really have creative worth. I didn't really start July great mentally either, but it felt good to be able to make smaller, quicker things for specific people that could make them happy. I really loved everything that I did for AF and I only wish I could have done more.

I often really miss the direct interactions from Twitter, so I'm really thankful to have had those little moments of contact, especially at a time in my life where I've generally felt very isolated.

So yeah uhhh AF good thanks to everyone for putting up with the posting. Lol. So much of it, Christ

[a-wolf-at-the-door]

Hey so not an ask but I just had to rant. I had a day off so I figured I would binge the howling series, And by God I am having to sit with the weight of it. It was depressing it was joyful there were times I literally screamed. I didn't know I could cheer out at snort but okay! Like it felt more of a psychologically driven epic than a fanfiction. Sometimes I forget why I don't watch TV or movies that much this is why you can't get this much of a character driven story as much as TV and movies are great.

Like Martha's moments with her family and how she feels so much in the shadow of her siblings. How kind of wishes for everyone's approval but doesn't need it! The scene at 42 genuinely hits some nerves when they were in the space pod.

And oh God the doctor as he's slowly to deteriorates through the book, but you get it If you read book one and book two. He spent literal lives fighting his love. just to lose her at the last second, And how even though he wants to live with her memory He's just tired. In every possible way, And how unfairly he's kind of putting so much pressure on Martha. But again you get it!

Just in a sick twisted way the master kind of a character piece, how he is everyone's toxic relationship whether that's platonic or romantic or domestic. He's just a slimy being! Who totally gets what he deserves so glad that Lucy comes in clutch, And just like everyone else I forgot that she was a thing! And I watch the show! I should know everything that happens!

Ugh, a part of me is kind of upset that I didn't wait for season 4 (book 4 whatever you want to call it I'm just calling it seasons now because this is better than the TV show). To binge the whole thing, And I'm kind of on the fence and if I'm going to keep up with season 4 or just binge it like I did with this one.

But by God if you could give a standing ovation over a screen I would. Amazing work. Beautiful time spent. And by God Rose just needs to come back and fix this man!

pal you legit just made me tear up... i'm going through a rough patch lifewise rn that i don't particularly feel a need to elaborate on publicly, but suffice to say it's been too easy for my brain gremlins to focus on negativity (guilt for not updating sooner, shame for struggling so much with this section when it's by rights the one i started writing this series for in the first place, embarrassment at the lil mistakes or perceived shortcomings in the work, etc.)... so it's super meaningful and gratifying to hear how much you and others love this work and believe in me and want more :)

i've also been doing a reread to try to get myself back into the writing of it and remember what I was doing with various plot threads (i have notes but like, i also have adhd... so they aren't all notes that make 100% sense to read back through lol)

i'm doing my best to fight off the brain gremlins and life gremlins and find the fun again, and i really do hope to get more content to you all soon! in the meantime thanks so much for your ongoing support and engagement and i hope very nice things happen to you

[vincord]

5 12 and 35 for the artist ask game!

yaaaay more questions!! and sorry for the late response. ___

5. how would you describe your art style?

Already answered it here ^^ ___

12. describe your process while drawing

Usually it's constant nerves and a few hours spent just in front of an empty open file, because most often, even if I have an idea/ image in my head, it seems to me in advance that I won't succeed and I'll ruin everything, and then why even start.

I also often get distracted by social media or watching some random videos, I can just mindlessly switch between tabs on my laptop or walk around the room back and forth. I get distracted by games, I get distracted by toys, I get distracted by any random object that catches my eye. Therefore, it may take 4-5 hours, and at the same time I drew only a couple of sketch lines.

From time to time I record a speedpaint so that at least something keeps my attention on the drawing (like, "oh no, people are looking at me. I can't get distracted and I have to show that I'm really drawing.")

Sometimes it's tears, sometimes it's anger, sometimes it's the eternal transfer of art to the trashcan and back from the trashcan and back to the trashcan and back from and.

If we talk about the drawing process itself, then I usually do a primary sketch first to outline the main idea. Then I make another sketch the next layer, but more elaborate to indicate the details and so on. Then there are the lineart. After that, I make the main color for each detail in a separate layer and shading over everything on the same separate layers, after which I combine everything into one layer. After that, I add the effects. It happens that I add details, such as hairs, on top of the finished art.

For example:

Clear lineart is rarely saved anywhere, because, as I wrote earlier, at the end of the work I combine all the layers into one.

Sometimes I also draw an approximate arrangement of shadows. But this rarely happens.

If we talk about the art that I draw in another art program, then I draw everything there without sketches and on one layer. Just the way the hand goes. No difficulties with layers, details and a bunch of everything. Like

___

35. if you had one piece of advice to give your younger artist self, what would it be?

Never start drawing.

I remember as a child looking with big eyes at all these popular artists, whose audience was tens of thousands of people, and dreaming of becoming like them. I guess I just didn't get into the most successful era of the Internet, where my drawings were ridiculed by various people for a long time, including my loved ones, and my parents saw it as either a useless activity and "draw me a picture for free, otherwise I'll take all your gadgets and beat you," or they considered me as a bag of money that will make them rich.

As a result, drawing, I think, brought me more pain and unpleasant things than good emotions. Plus, all my life I've been doing is studying at art schools and colleges, where there's just an incredible race in terms of the number of works and their quality. And this further fuels my dislike of what I do.

I mean, I'm really glad that my art evokes emotions in people and in recent years, pleasant comments have finally begun to outweigh the negative ones. I've written about it enough times already and it's still true. But I guess I would just like to have as little of this negativity as possible.

I have a difficult relationship with drawing. So I don't even know what else I could say to my little version. Don't look at popular and cool artists as gods?? Yes, this, in general, can be recommended to absolutely everyone.

[vro0m-but-not-cars]

Okay @sweatyflytrap asked for my final opinion on the one piece live action and I have a lot of things to say as always so I'm making a post.

Light, unspecific spoilers, but well.

First of all it's not bad. But also it's not good. I don't feel excited about it, but I didn't have as much of a hard time watching it than I thought. Except the first episode. I spent the first episode messaging all my friends about how ugly it looked.

About the story adaptation :

Some changes they made I understand, because the East Blue Saga is overall pretty rough in terms of rhythm and also kinda unthetered to how the story develops later on. Of course, it's very important and necessary as far as world building and putting the crew together go, but none of the more long term plotlines are there yet, or at least you don't know that they are, and that doesn't really work with live action tv shows or it makes them look like sitcoms. They had to introduce some more middle- long- term stuff to let people see that there are bigger things happening that are worth keeping up with the series. But it feels kinda weird when you've been reading and watching the manga and anime for fucking ever. Spoils some stuff that were big moments in the original story. But again : understandable.

Some other changes I just. Don't. What. Some were weird, some confused me, some were uncalled for and honestly kinda pissed me off (re: Usopp, iykyk).

One thing I was happy about is that there is, just like in the manga, some clever, more or less obvious, foreshadowing. Well played.

About the characters :

I saw a lot of people being very happy about the cast, I... Have doubts. I'm kinda sad some of them lose important character design aspects although I understand it would have been difficult to make them look like they're drawn. Usopp without his long nose is ??? I mean it's inherent to who he is so taking that away takes away from his characterisation for me. Also is Sanji really Sanji without the curly eyebrows? I like Nami, I think she's played by a good actress as well. She's the one who felt the more solid to me. Zoro looks okay, I kinda hate how they turned him into some edgy vocal-fried annoyed teenager but well. Hopefully he'll gain more depth as we go. Hopefully they all do. We've barely seen them yet.

Now Luffy... I mean it's tricky, obviously. I just don't understand his character in the LA tbh because he's supposed to be super naive and carefree and not very smart, and sometimes he is, and at other times he says elaborate things that don't match up. Seeing him more or less seriously plan and strategise at times is intensely OOC and really took me out of it. Also it would always have been difficult to translate in LA but I find his smile very sinister at times. Overall, because he's sometimes smarter than he's supposed to be and because of that smile, you get the idea that he's acting stupider than he actually is and it gives the impression he's more calculated and manipulative than happy-go-lucky. I can't really read him well. He feels weird.

And I sure hope they get a better wig and lenses budget in the future but seeing how the Witcher characters look in their third or whatever season I highly doubt it. Seeing them with shitty synthetic dry AF hair really really takes me out of it. I cannot possibly take Shanks seriously when that's what he looks like. Don't even get me started on Mihawk. Also I've posted about this before but why in hell did they turned tall glass of water future daddy Ben Beckmann into a short jowly pot-bellied 50yo? I'm sad. AND don't try to convice me that Alvida is ugly because what the hell. Please take me on a date, I will definitely tell you you're beautiful. Also not a problem but why the fuck is Garp Welsh?

Another issue I have discussed with friends is Sanji's characterisation. Obvi they couldn't make him as creepy as he is in the manga and anime where he's straight-up harassing women but this very central aspect of his personality is almost completely lost in the LA which makes him seem very weird. It makes it difficult to understand how he acts towards Nami at times, when they're supposed to be one of the most well-matched duos in the crew. In parallel, LA Zoro and Nami have sexual tension for zero reason. Their chemistry works much better than Nami and Sanji's at this point. It's fixable in the next seasons but in this one it's kinda weird when you know their characters.

About the production :

Okay so one thing I will say without any further "but" is that Sanji's and especially Zoro's fighting scenes look very good. They're well choregraphed, and badass, and dynamic.

Luffy's fighting scenes are bad though. The gomu gomu fruit abilities look bad. He barely uses them most of the time (I guess it's costly and difficult to create visually). He looks weak, and slow. The rhythm is terrible. Also it's difficult to see him sometimes use gomu gomu to be rubbery and thus fully flexible and sometimes see the actual actor jump and bend like a more or less normal person, thus lacking the elasticity Luffy is supposed to have. It's like sometimes the rubber ability is activated and sometimes not and he just becomes a normal human being. I fully understand that it's not realistic to half animate him all the time to make it fit but again, it was very noticeable to me.

I also struggle with the overall vibe of the LA. Some things feel overly childish, like all the discourse around dreams etc. It is there in OP though, it is generally key in shōnen, no problem. But at the same time, it's quite violent and sinister at times. Buggy is scary af, he feels incredibly creepy. Which is also fine, the OP world is violent and weird. But it doesn't look that violent and weird when it's drawn. The juxtaposition of the child-like, naive, idealistic themes and the creepiness is a bit confusing to me. I'm trying to think who's the target for this aside from the obvious OP fans. It seems a bit too grotesque for children, and it feels a bit too "✨the power of friendship✨" for teens and adults. But well. It was the case in the manga as well initally and it got darker and more serious with time so whatever, I'll reserve judgement.

Conclusion :

I still don't know what to think because I started with loads of questions and now I just have even more. Mostly about how they intend to adapt the rest of it. Are they gonna buy their wigs and lenses elsewhere than Claire's? What the fuck is Chopper gonna look like? What about Brooks? Are they gonna make Ace and Law ugly as well? Because if so I might burn Netflix's headquarters for ruining them for me. Is Luffy gonna get better at fighting or do they intend for Zoro and Sanji to do most of the work forever? Is Bon Clay gonna be extremely offensive or are they somehow gonna manage to make him tasteful without ruining him? Is he gonna be there at all? I mean I could go on and on.

Anyway, as I was saying it's not bad, but it's not good. I think it works much better for people who haven't seen or read OP yet.