#so excited to participate this year

[rail-of-light]

First Friendly fire✨

[ardentastronomer]

....

hes right behind me isnt he

(johndave week 2024 day 1 - movies / video games)

i fucked up the prompt im sorry gang. have it anyway

[aolechan]

Namor Week Day 7 - Free Choice Namor and His Powers | @namorweek

[skrrtscree]

I really need to draw her more, she has a great design 🥲💗

[2hoothoots]

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

[ki1ldeer]

Working on my art fight refs because I suddenly realized it’s almost June which means I don’t have much time left

Guys be honest would this sell you on attacking him (in the art fight sense, I don’t want to know if you’d beat him up (plz don’t))

Edit: ahaha since you’re all here… maybe I’ll just leave this link to my art fight ahaha

[skeletondoggy]

ARTFIGHT!!! WHAT A YEAR!!!!!!!!!! Here's all the pieces I was able to get done for it!!! Felt so exciting painting again and tackling so many cool charcaters too!!!!

Credits under the readmore (AND PLEASE GO CHECK ALL THE COOL ARTISTS OUT TOO!!!!!!!)

FIRST IS a piece of Hue Man (AND FRIENDS(??) for @binalakai ! SUCH an endlessly interesting character with a ton of depth, wanted to create a piece that sort of both idealized the mundane "Family" feeling while also emphasizing his own issues!!! SUPER FUN CHARACTER!

A little more of a moody piece of Mirko for Deepfryer, the various injuries and sort of "down on their luck feel" felt deserving of something a little more isolating, but still nice!

A piece of Selexium, @lemonscreams EXRTREMELY cool hylics OC! Was very pleasantly surprised when I saw the design, so tried replicating the color and style a bit to really capture that odd and grainy feeling!

Some twilight skies and a nice grassy fields to put Jose, @gabenguyocs' VERY very fun character, wanted to play with perspective a little more for such a straight to it and neat design!! Characters that have a wonder for life always get me emotional and felt a little look at a sweet bird would fit the mood!

It's ARIA!! A TADC character created by Ashley404error!!! Love good stars and a singer and wanted to make sure she got center stage too! Really fun colors to work with, figuring out the string in the composition was super fun!

SUCH a fun design, TOMODACHI (created by BalladOfSin!!!!) was a treat to draw. Getting to translate the dynamic shapes and fun colors and try to capture that sort of imaginary feel was such a blast!! Pushing perspective is always fun but it helped to be working off of Ballad's extremely cool style!

A bit more of an experimental piece of Strangelove, an EXTREMELY interesting Limbus created by the great @himefujoshi! Seeing such a cool interpretation of a classic really gets the gears going, and getting to incorporate so many fun aspects of the design into a composition that all clicked together was a fun challenge too!! Usually don't work with black and white but had to pay homage, such a cool character for real!!!!

AAAAAAND FINALLY CAPPING OFF AF! IS!!!! THE WONDERFUL AND AMAZING Bearer of the Curse, Pines Apple created by the EXTREMELY cool @curlytsunamiart!!!! Pines already paints such an interesting and clear picture with their big hat and flowing cape, NEEDED to give them a cool shot especially with one of DS2's best set pieces!!! Figuring out how to draw the crossbow was super fun and absolutely need to do more Aimed At shots!!! SUPER COOL!!!

THATS ALL FOR THIS YEAR AND I HOPE TO DO TWICE AS MANY NEXT!!!!!! SHOUTOUT TO EVERYONE FOR HAVING AMAZING CHARACTERS

[zeldonovan]

[id: a stylized digital drawing of archbishop fettucina alfredi from a crown of candy, dressed in a long flowing cream-colored dress with gold accents and jewelery. she sits on a chaise holding a flute glass of water, with a repeating pattern of the phrase "speak in falsehoods" and a bright burst shape behind her head. /end id]

@d20zinejam BUNDLE NOW LIVE YAYY !! alfredi for candy couture vol 2 !!

[mike-wachowski]

you read the meme, people, we are so back!! My third tumblr anniversary is coming up this March 15th (one month from today) and to celebrate were bringing back the Mikerowave Tumblr Birthday Creators Event Extravaganza!

Like the first event, were going to try and do a Draw This/ Write This/Gif This In Your Style, based on this dialogue prompt: 

"You made your choice.”

“You don't understand. I chose you."

And as always, works from all ships and fandoms are welcome, even OCs!! I hope to see a bunch of different works, so create whatever speaks to you!

Here are the rules: 

Go wild

Go crazy

Write/draw/gif whatever you want, as long as it relates to the dialogue in some way

Anything from notebook sketches to multichap fics welcome! 

Pieces will probably be start being posted on March 15 (my anniversary) but there's no deadline so no presh! (Last time we did this Bench and I's fic dropped like, two weeks after the actual party)

Tag your piece with #mikerowave3year once its posted, send it in my DMs, mail it to my apartment, whatever it takes :D 

Most of all have fun! It's been so so lovely spending this time here and getting to meet and know all of you. I can't wait to see what wonderful work everyone accomplishes!

PS: if youre confused about the event, feel free to check out the tag #mikerowave1year for past event pieces!

[amokslime]

Sangcheng week day one — Family

Sometimes a family is two miserable men in their 30's, their ghosts and mistakes, their new beginning, and their spoiled cats who live like royalty.

And Jin Ling. And Wei Wuxian. And so on and so forth.

[septiseph]

Remember M!Alearcryst zine I talked about before?

Now available via Booth!

Here's the Japanese version:

And here's the English translation:

Please note that the English version only includes comics,

while the Japanese version has comics, fanfics, illustrations and extra contents (like commentaries, extra pages for nsfw artworks, etc).

It'll be available till January 2024. Order while you can! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

There are also alearcryst merchs & books by the zine's organizer

[tomkittycat]

ok nvm my mom is so happy that i’m taking a dance class this year, i’m gonna shove all of my trauma aside and do this for her

[flowerakatsuka]

i'm feeling so blessed in this hybrid oden tonight....

putting this under the cut bc i'm gonna get a lil mushy for a second. i really wanna say thank you so much to everyone who drew kuroba for artfight!! sometimes, it feels like i can't properly put how grateful i am or how much i love every peice of art i've received into words, but knowing that people like my silly little oc really means the world to me and makes me so happy. everyone drew them so beautifully, getting to see them in everyone's style made me so freaking giddy!!

this last month was kinda rough on me since i finally caught covid after successfully avoiding it for 4 years, but all of the kindness everyone has shown me ( on af and on here ) really helped keep my spirits up. so uh. thank you again for all of that, it really means a lot!! 🥺✨️

[nyoomerr]

ah, maybe i should consider joining the bingyuan minibang next time it comes around... i'm watching all the releases now and everyone's having so much fun, i want to play too ( ╥ᆺ╥ )/ ....

[lostfanboyarts]

I've been doing a bunch of prep for Artfight, so I haven't had anything really fandom related to post recently, but for those who participate, here's my AF info! I'll happily attack and revenge as many people as I can >:33 Hope to see you all there!

[gointothevvater]

Kloktober day 1: favorite character or OTP

Charles is my favorite character, and cheelie is my favorite ship, so this sorta counts a both! Just in case you couldn't tell, this takes place in the Snakes N' Barrels era!

.

"You aren't even thirty," St. Cecilia was saying. "Can't believe you're already going gray."

Charles hummed noncommittally, his gaze downcast, reading through an interview the band had recently done with Rolling Stone. It hadn't gone well. Pickles had shown up drunk, St. Cecilia had wound up punching the interviewer out when he'd groped her, and the rest of the band just hadn't cooperated. They rarely did. Charles understood their riotous bad boy image needed to be upheld, but it was getting rather ridiculous. They'd been at this for years. "It must be stress," he said.

St. Cecilia stood behind him, applying dye to his hair. The rest of the band was down in the hotel bar, but she'd elected to stay here with Charles, given she was the only one of them who regularly dyed her hair. "What've you got to be stressed about?" she asked, though there was a tinge of laughter at the edges of her voice. "You're just babysitting four manchildren."

"And a womanchild," Charles added.

St. Cecilia gave his hair a tug, and he fought back a smile. "I'm the least stressful, though," she said.

She couldn't have been more wrong. She was nineteen now, more than of legal age, but Charles was still hesitant to let her get too close. There were seven years between them, and considering her age, it was just too much. And she was his client besides. It was massively inappropriate, and that just made him want her more.

"Purple was an interesting choice," she was saying as she got back to work. "I figured you'd just want to go with your natural color."

"Purple?" Charles swiveled to stare at St. Cecilia over his shoulder. "You're making it purple?"

She winked at him, and it was almost enough to get him over the fact that she was dying his hair purple. "It's better than gray, isn't it?"