#sorry this post got so long 😭

[catsi]

What's the rest of Miffys party like?

ohhhh i'm so glad you asked TT__TT yay i have so many images to answer this with. ok. the party are called The Whorlpool, and from left to right in the pic above, the (original*) party consists of: Reno Kaseno, a Lalafell Gunbreaker; Purpetua Deutros, a Miqo'te Arcanist; Miffy, a Viera Black Mage; and Wandering Anchor (aka Anka), a Roegadyn Dragoon/Paladin.

*i say original because they have since inducted a DMNPC into their party: Cardamum Sartorius, an Au'ra Red Mage. she's the daughter of the BBEG! more on her later. also Andymion kind of counts too

Reno Kaseno is the character of my dear friend @doppelgender! Reno is a gambling man from the city of Treno who loves a good card game and hates owing people money. Reno is pragmatic, funny, and easily the heart of the group. he's deeply charismatic and a fantastic liar when he needs to be. Reno's quick thinking and excellent charisma have saved the party's ass on multiple occasions.

Miffy relates to Reno the most out of anyone in the group; they both have people in their life who they feel as though they have allowed to come to great harm as a direct result of their own actions, and their interactions with that person are deeply infected with that guilt. also they're the two best dressers in the group (Anka and Purpetua only have drip because they let Miffy dress them).

Reno's greatest priorities are his friends, his money, and the opinions of others. he has little desire for power and little love for his home.

Purpetua Deutros is played by my lovely gf @purpearls! she is from the spiritual apex of Oaxia, the holy city of Ennewhorl. she is also the spiritual center of the party, and the one with the closest connection to Leviathan (the major deity of this shard).

Purpetua used to be a medic for the Church of the Broken Wave, but used magic to heal a fellow soldier once which was a grave sin in the eyes of the Church. she deserted shortly thereafter and has been feeling like she is trying to atone for her time with the Church since then.

she is easily the most collected member of the party and frequently has to be the voice of reason when the others have terrible or dangerous ideas. though sometimes she has incredibly terrible ideas of her own

Purpetua is compassionate, intelligent, and idealistic. she tries to meet others where they are and connect with them whenever she can. her priorities are her friends and their health, as well as love, praise, and the truth! she has no interest in fame, wealth, or power - she's very pure of heart.

also she and miffy do a lot of dancing around each other sapphically. miffy's constant engagement with evil shit and unethical magic + purpetua's commitment to remaining Moral and Good makes their courtship very interesting lol

the final member of the original party is Anka, who is the character of my good friend @catmanjohnson. Anka is a former pirate who used to intercept and raid Church sea vessels. her original crew sailed on a ship called The Whorlpool, and they disbanded after their captain was killed as the result of a battle. Anka was the one who suggested we name our party 'The Whorlpool'.

Anka is the muscle of the group for sure, and has no problem being the bearer of bad news or causing problems for other people LOL

Anka is confident, aggressive, and EXTREMELY impulsive. she loves drinking and being loud and having a good time (who can blame her!!!). her priorities are her friends, family, and power. things like praise, love, truth, and fame are not major concerns of hers.

also Anka has a necromancer-biochemist now sharing her body who gives her cool powers and nags at her

then there is Cardamum Sartorius (we call her Cardi for short)!! an NPC played by our wonderful dm @whoreofavalon. she is one of the daughters of Saint Sartorius, the leader of the Church of the Broken Wave (the BBEG)

Cardamum originally met the party outside of Leyfall where she pretended to be a nervous young mage who just wanted guidance and safety. she was, in fact, completely intending to betray us and throw Leyfall to the wolves, but our DM said that we treated her so kindly and patiently that they couldn't bear to have her betray us (': so she's part of the party now yaaaay!

Cardi is kind, thoughtful, and far too good for the evil ass family she was born into. she is still trying to figure out who she is in the context of being her own person, but she's doing a great job and we're all rooting for her!! she lets Miffy pick outfits for her also (':

Andymion (also a DMNPC) is technically a member of the Whorlpool too? but he like doesn't come along on our missions or fights or anything so he's not really part of the "party" if that makes sense? Andymion is an intelligent, passionate, generous man who stretches as far as he can to take as many people under his wing as he can. he is well intentioned, and a good person, even if he did break up with his last girlfriend by insisting they move somewhere else together but that she go first, and then sending her a breakup letter via owl once she had settled down. unforgivable.

[batbabydamian]

Hey, I started reading Robin son of Batman because of your recommendation (I literally have a print of your post on my phone to not forget lol). Honestly? One of the best things I ever read!!!

Thank you for opening my eyes! Damian has been one of my favorite characters for over a year, but I didn't read/watch much of him because of school, life (and probably an executive dysfunction in the mix).

Maya is incredible. I loved her.

I haven't finished all the issues yet, but do you have any other recommendations?

WAH this makes me so happy, i'm glad you still gave it a shot even with how busy life is!! ;v;

i’d love to give reccs, and i’ll try to go a beginner friendly route! tbh you can pick up whatever here, but since you've read R:SOB i’d immediately follow up with Batman and Robin (2011) #1-8! this first arc is what’s referred to in Maya’s introduction, and it's just. so good.

Main Books

Batman and Robin (2009)

Dick as Batman with Damian as his Robin!

#20-22 Tree of Blood: Dark Knight vs White Knight arc is done by Tomasi and Gleason, the team for the next Batman and Robin series

*Batman and Robin (2011)

Bruce and Damian figuring out their relationship as both Batman & Robin and father & son

imo you can enjoy the ride and read straight through this but i’ll add context to avoid as much confusion as possible since there’s the occasional tie-in or offscreen events, like Damian’s death nbd

Batman Incorporated (2012) #1-10

events leading to Damian's death - affects Batman and Robin (2011) from issue #18

kind of a tough read especially with how Talia's written, but a lot of iconic bits like Batcow, Damian's vegetarian declaration, Alfred the cat, "We Were the Best, Richard."

Robin (2021)

another self-discovery adventure, particularly after Alfred’s death and a fallout with Bruce (and questionable writing choices from his last Teen Titans run)

Batman and Robin (2023)

currently ongoing! after a number of events, Bruce and Damian are back as a duo

Damian Dynamics!

Batman: Streets of Gotham (2009) #7, 10-12

arc where Damian meets one of his first Gotham friends, Colin Wilkes

Batgirl (2009) #5-7, #17

Steph and Damian dynamic! "the bad cop, worse cop" dysfunctional duo

Red Robin (2009) #13-14

early Tim and Damian dynamic that of course includes fighting haha. funny enough, accidentally my first intro to Damian LOL

Teen Titans (2003) #89-92

Dick!Batman has Damian join the Teen Titans. Start of Damian and Rose Wilson dynamic that’s extended in Robin (2021)

Batman: Gates of Gotham (2011)

Damian meets Cass and has a brief team up

Gotham Academy (2015) #7

Damian meets Maps Mizoguchi! they have a few other meetings, but outside of that the series itself is a great read!

Robin War Event (2015)

Robin War (2015) #1, Grayson (2014) #15, Detective Comics (2011) #47, We Are Robin (2015) #7, Robin: Son of Batman (2015) #7, Robin War (2015) #2

Duke and Damian dynamic! not exactly beginner friendly but these are the main issues in order for the event! you can also read the TPB version for everything including Tie-Ins

Nightwing (2016) #16-20, #42, #43

#16-20 Nightwing and Robin arc!

#42 Dick on a mission to save Damian! the one appearance of "Wiggles" the dragon

#43 Dick, Roy, and Damian team-up

New Talent Showcase 2018 "Catwoman: Pedigree"

Selina, Damian, and Alfred the cat

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding - Robin vs. Ra's Al Ghul (2018)

Selina, Damian, and Cheese Viking - Damian's fav game shown in Nightwing: Rebirth (2016)

Monkey Prince (2022) #1-4

Marcus Sun Shugel-Shen's main comic, but Damian features as a fun dynamic here before they're in more serious circumstances in Batman VS Robin (2022)/Lazarus Planet event

Superman (2016) #10 - 11

the beginning of the Super Sons! featuring Maya!

Super Sons (2017)

solitary arcs but there’s a few event tie-in issues later

Adventures of the Super Sons (2018)

literally more Super Sons adventures lol galactic shenanigans yeehaw

Challenge of the Super Sons (2020) 

Super Sons time shenanigans feat. the Justice League

Robin 80th Anniversary (2020)

"Boy Wonders" - brief Damian feature as Tim considers his next step in life

"My Best Friend" - Jon's thoughts on Damian and their dynamic

"Bat and Mouse" - refers to Damian's unfortunate Teen Titans (2016) run at the time of release which follows up with Teen Titans Annual #2 where Damian briefly gives up Robin

Extra Comics!

Superman/Batman (2003) #77

Kara and Damian in a Halloween team-up! also the appearance of "Li'l Matches" lol

DCU Halloween Special '09 "Cavity Search"

Damian out on a solo mission for Halloween night. Immediately after is Tim's Red Robin story "Then and Now: Our Father's Sins" which is more somber in contrast but also a good read!

DCU Halloween Special 2010 "Robin the Vampire Slayer"

a Dick!Batman and Robin story featuring the vampire Andrew Bennett

Cursed Comics Cavalcade (2018) "The Devil You Know"

Halloween themed comic with a sweet short story of Damian alongside Solomon Grundy

DC's Terrors Through Time (2022)

"Trick or Treat" a Super Sons Halloween story

"The Haunting of Wayne Manor" Damian and Deadman story - in the end, Boston kinda refers to Nezha's possession of Damian in Batman VS Robin (2022) which was happening at the time of this release

Batman: Li'l Gotham (2013)

lighthearted series that instantly makes me smile with the silliness and Dustin Nguyen’s art i love this dearly

Secret Origins (2014) #4 "A Boy's Life"

a retelling of Damian's origin story

Detective Comics (2016) #1001-1005

Batman and Robin vs the Arkham Knight (unrelated to the game)

Truth & Justice (2021) #6/#16 - 18 Digital First version

cute story of Damian’s birthday! Juni Ba’s art is so fun!!

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration (2021) “Special Delivery”

short story about Damian! and poisoned pizzas. completely forgot the artist Sami Basri drew Rebirth Damian here before catboy Damian lol Cass’s story “Sounds” is also cute! Marcus makes his first appearance in "The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes"

DC VS Vampires (2021)

Damian makes appearances throughout this elseworlds book, but the one-shot DC VS Vampires: Hunters (2022) is vampire Damian-centric!

Batman: Black and White (2021) #5

“Father & Son Outing” short story written and drawn by Jorge Jimenez!

Batman: Urban Legends (2021) #20-23

#20 “My Son” Talia and Bruce focus

#20 - 23 “The Murder Club” 4 Parts

Tiny Titans (2008) #33, #39, #45, #47

a few appearances but SO CUTE, LOOK AT HIM

*Batman and Robin (2011) reading guide

i'm mostly trying to avoid the "what did i just walk in on?" kinda feeling when i first started reading comics LOL i'll list the comics where events take place, but you don't necessarily have to read them to go through this book since things are usually explained as quickly as possible in the first page or so

#0 Someday Never Comes

Talia and baby Damian before he grows up to meet Bruce

#1-8 Born to Kill

just an incredibly solid arc for Bruce and Damian!

#9 Court of Owls Tie-In Issue

Damian VS a Court of Owls Talon. While Bruce is occupied with a home invasion of Talons, Alfred makes a call for allies to protect targeted Gotham public figures from Talons. During Batman (2011) #1-11

#10-12 Terminus

Damian challenges the previous Robins sans Steph

Batman Incorporated (2012) is occurring at this time where Talia has placed a bounty on Damian and there's small mentions of that

#13-14 Eclipsed/Devoured

mostly solitary arc! end of it leads into the Death of the Family event

#15-16 Death of the Family Tie-In Issues

Damian and Joker face-off... Alfred's been kidnapped by the Joker, and Damian goes looking for him. During Batman (2011) #13-17

#17 Life is but a Dream - Death of the Family Epilogue

a sort of subconscious check-in through the dreams of Damian, Alfred, and Bruce. Nightwing (2011) #17 features Damian encouraging Dick after Death of the Family events

#18 Undone "Requiem"

Bruce dealing with Damian's death from Batman Incorporated #8

other reactions to Damian's death: Dick in Nightwing (2011) #18, Tim in Teen Titans (2011) #18

#19-23 Denial, Rage, The Bargain, Despair, Acceptance

Bruce through the stages of grief with some batfam appearances in each. also introduces Carrie Kelley into continuity as Damian's acting tutor.

Batman (2011) #19-20 also addresses Bruce's loss

#23.1-23.4

these could be skipped - villain stories, also related to Forever Evil event.

#24-28 The Big Burn

optional Batman and Two-Face/Harvey Dent arc, #23.1 is part of this story!

Damian's resurrection and return

#29-32 The Hunt for Robin

Ras took Talia and Damian's bodies from their graves, and Bruce goes after him.

-> Robin Rises: Omega

continues events from #32. if you don't want to jump to this, basically, Glorious Godfrey and a bunch of parademons from Apokolips are here for a chaos shard which Ra's put in Damian's sarcophagus. at some point, Bruce gets a hold of the shard where he sees a vision that leads him to believe Damian can be resurrected. Godfrey ends up taking the shard, along with Damian's body since it was emitting the same energy.

#33-37 Robin Rises

Bruce hellbent on retrieving Damian from Apokolips and reviving him

-> Robin Rises: Alpha

necessary to read and continues events from #37! Damian's back with a bang lol

#38-40 Superpower

Damian adjusting to having superpowers and being alive again

Annual #1 2013 Batman Impossible

sweet (and funny) one-shot of Damian sending Bruce on a meaningful scavenger hunt around the world while Damian gets to be the cutest Batman for a bit

Annual #2 2014 Batman and Robin: Week One

one-shot takes place during Damian's absence. after Bruce and Alfred find a mystery gift left for Dick, Dick recounts a story he had told Damian from his Robin days.

Annual #3 2015 Moonshot

one-shot Batman and Robin adventure on the moon!

...and of course after Batman and Robin (2011), Damian's story continues in his first solo Robin: Son of Batman (2015)!

[fairyofshampgyu]

he’s literally so beautiful and handsome

[ghost-proofbaby]

hey y’all!

so i’ve been considering this a lot in the past few weeks, and figured i’d make an official post so you all know i’m alive and what not since i have been very much inactive as of recently.

i’m taking a break.

not forever! not because of anything in the fandom! this break is solely due to personal life reasons and the fact i just can’t be as active on here right now between my jobs and personal affairs. and it also won’t be long — i’m going to be off here probably through the end of november. if i have the time/mental capacity to come back before then, i absolutely will 🖤 but right now, tumblr isn’t something that fits easily within my days and also, writing for my fics hasn’t been something i can easily do not due to lack of inspiration but lack of time.

again, this is just due to my own personal life currently. nothing happened in the fandom that motivated this decision (i honestly don’t even know what’s happening on here currently solely because i haven’t had the time to scroll lol) and it’s very much not permanent, and will HOPEFULLY be very short. like i said, until the end of november. i’ll still be writing in my free time, and my hope is to be able to update fics once i’m back and worse better than ever! 🖤

see y’all in december <3

[naofaun]

i see people asking what morro's appeal to the fandom is, and after some thought, i think i realised what it is.

it's the tragedy of his entire story, from start to finish. the helplessness of it all, the grief, the longing, the parts of your past that haunt you forever (ghost pun not intended).

you look at morro and you don't see the big scary monster that the writers painted him as. you see a boy, a child, who spent his entire life pursuing one single goal that was just barely out of reach. you see a child who died for that goal suffocated in toxic fumes, who lost his home and family and safety for that goal.

we don't know why he was cursed. but as if he hadn't been through enough agony, as if the world hadn't broken this child enough, he wound up in a realm flooded with evil. his mind couldn't handle the trauma of what happened. as if he wasn't fixated enough, his desire became stronger.

he wanted nothing more than to prove himself.

you can see it in the way he talks and acts. he doesn't care about taking over. he doesn't care about the preeminent's goals. if anything, dying in that cave on that night made him all the more determined to prove himself worthy.

he had so much anger, so much terrible sadness in him that he didn't know what to do with it. he had to blame someone. the only person he could reasonably reflect his agony onto was sensei wu, the only man to ever help him.

he came back to ninjago years and years later. the person who got the green gi was no more than a little boy, who had never been trained like he was. who never spent years and years of his life pursuing this goal, dedicating everything to it. hell, he didn't even want it?

even his defeat was tragic. you can see him panicking, doing everything he can to escape destiny. destiny will always wrap its chains around him once more though, because he was finally dragged down to the depths. once more, he would fail his goal. once more, he would watch everything he dedicated himself to simply fade away before his very eyes.

he could have saved himself. he could have taken wu's hand, dragged himself onto that dragon and started a new life.

but he didn't want to. i love the “morro takes wu’s hand and redeems himself” aus as much as the next person, but he didn't want to. he made the active decision to shove the crystal in wu's hand and let death take him once more.

because in the end, he'd lost so much that living wasn't worth it anymore. his goal was never going to be achievable. he was never going to be truly happy. he never learned how to stop and appreciate life, how to love himself and reach his true sense of self like the rest of the ninja.

he died before he could reach his true potential, guys. that dragon was not his, it was lloyd’s. he died before he even got the chance.

unlike the ninjago villains both before and after him, morro has genuine emotion and life to his story. he's not bad for the sake of being bad. he's not just another enemy for lloyd garmadon to defeat. he's a kid who got in over his head, who wasted away trying to break free of his own fate. and he failed.

if anyone reading this has seen day of the departed, then you know morro came back only long enough to warn sensei wu of what was coming for him. the other villains immediately picked up their weapons and scurried off to cause mayhem for the sake of it, but morro was different. he changed. he let go of his grief and accepted his role in the world.

he helped the ninja despite his prior hatred for them (although i truly believe it was jealousy fueled by insecurity and grief, not hatred). sure, he taunted wu a little at first, but you could tell that it was nothing more than a little fun. he was a boy again, he was okay again. there was no reason for him to hurt anyone. he's moved on.

no one knows what happened to him in the departed realm, or why he healed and the other villains didn't. i don't think i want to know, though. it doesn't matter. all that matters is the fact that he's better now.

so, yes. unlike the other ninjago villains, morro’s story is so painfully and breathtakingly human. he has emotion and development that no other antagonist like him got to have. or at least, it certainly didn't feel as raw as his did.

[adzy-drawz]

the abstrabbit fankid Pix!! made by @undeaddrabble

teen/more grown up version, i had such a hard time with the colors on the legs and arms and neck i swear-

i love drawing them. jax and zooble are not great parents but thats ok 🥰

i like to think that if Pix picked up her parents' personalities, it would pretty much just be a mix of smug asshole and short tempered with an attitude, thus creating an absolute menace to the whole circus.

[professionallydorkish]

Hi it is so unfair the grip that Reth Palia has on me. On us all.

[moonfromearth]

On Repeat - an oc tag by @elderwisp

"rules are pretty simple, pick as many (or as little) oc's as you'd like and find a song that you relate to them the most! feel free to mention why too! o and tag some more ppl too! that would be cool!"

I may have gone a little overboard 😅 To be honest this tag came around at just the right time! I'd just gotten a new song association and have been working on schoolwork so much that I really needed to do something creative 😆

Originally these were all going to be in similar editing styles (more like Corey's) but somewhere along the way that stopped because I had different ideas that I really wanted to do. Also I cheated a little and a few got more than one song... 🤫

I'm really proud with all of these in the end, and if you want to read more about the stories behind them you can check below the cut! ❤️

I know I'm pretty late to the party now buuut I'll tag: @igglemouse @swiftviolets @stargazer-sims @auspexsims and @seniorpollinationtechnician. Feel free to ignore though if you've already done it/don't want to! 😁

[deep dive under cut!]

COREY ALTMAN

"Holiday" - Green Day:

This song being here is random song association at its finest. The trail pretty much goes "Holiday" by Green Day > Surf's Up > Beach Vibes > Sulani > Globetrotter Challenge > Corey Song. If that makes sense... 😂 Pretty much, you can blame the Sulani round of the Globetrotter Challenge for it, plus the fact that I feel like it's the type of song/genre Corey would use in his own music.

"Catch Me If You Can" - Set It Off:

Now, it would be a crime to talk about songs and Corey without a song by Set It Off. Corey was created when I was listening to their songs a lot, and it definitely rubbed off on him. From his aesthetic to the songs I imagine him playing, a lot of it came from Set It Off. Even his name was derived from the band's lead singer (although changed from Cody to Corey because that's the route my mind took with it idk). So, this song in particular specifically reminds me of Corey for... Honestly probably obvious reasons 😆 "Catch Me If You Can" was pretty much the theme of his Globetrotter Challenge, where he was constantly moving on the run from the law. A line I really like though for him is the part that says, "I only feel at home when I'm on the run," because I feel like that leads into the deeper aspects of Corey. He really isn't at home anywhere, he's always on the move, even when he's not evading capture anymore. There's a certain non-permanence to everything he does. Something funny about the image itself is that it originally wasn't going to be edited to look like the back cover of a CD. When I took the picture of Corey with the guitar I kind of thought "this looks like the back cover of a CD" and when editing I just needed a way to fill the space at the bottom and it turned into a CD back cover edit 🤣 It actually kind of fits though since both of these songs are the sound I associate with Corey's own music so it worked out in the end.

LIZZY ALTMAN

"Unopened Windows" - Set It Off:

So this one is the context behind this post lol. It's been like two years since I started working on this plotline I have to finish it eventually 😆 Anyway, Lizzy's been teased in many tag games so far, but without a name or much information (note: and this name's not final I'm not sure yet). Here you can probably guess based on the song choice how her story goes 😅 Going back to the epilogue of the Globetrotter Challenge, we see that something is going on, and it leads to Lizzy and her dad being separated. So, the entire song lyrically I really felt spoke to them and their situation (more in a future gameplay 😉). Bonus points for it being a Set It Off song, who I associate with Corey, and thought music could have been something that they bonded over and enjoyed together. I have a few things to say about the image itself because it was a struggle but I looooove how it turned out! It turned out essentially how I imagined it with Lizzy playing guitar in the foreground with a sort of memory of her time with her dad in the background. I probably had about five or six different poses that I put in the background because I couldn't decide which one I liked the best 😆 This was the last image I had to work on out of the four, and I was having trouble with how I wanted the song title to look. While I was browsing for overlays and stuff I came across a lot of cutout style poems and ended up adding in some of the lyrics because I thought it would help explain the concept behind the image. In the end this one is one of my favorites which is unbelievable considering how much I thought it was not going to turn out like I imagined 🥰

*UNNAMED*

(Sorry I don't have a name for her yet and don't want to commit to a temporary one 😭)

"Little Chaos" - Orla Gartland:

In a wonderfully serendipitous coincidence, this was the song association I was very into when getting tagged, and was already planning what became this edit! I rarely have song associations for sims/sims stories (despite how many ended up coming together here) so that's why I'll never get over how well timed this all was (thanks again elderwisp!!) On to the song, it has to do with my upcoming gameplay story centered around the For Rent game pack, and starring the pictured sim (who doesn't have a name yet sorry! 😅). She's going through a bit of a tough time where she's very lost and I thought the lines, "And it's a good day for a meltdown. All my thoughts getting too loud," fit really where she's at, especially at the start. Plus, the vibes are perfect. The image itself was inspired by the song's MV and one part in particular, but it looks a lot different now (I was limited by the poses I could find because I refuse to sit down and learn to make my own yet). I liked this idea of the torn pages framing the image, especially because it plays into the plot, which sees the main character do a lot of journaling throughout the story. So, the lined paper had to do with that, and it doubled as being good for making the letters stand out, which I wanted to be big and misaligned to be more "chaotic," though I think that could have been done more/better. Aaaaand the background is a picture of Tomarang, where the story takes place. To be honest this will probably be the cover image once I finalize a name and get started on playing it 😉

GHOST COWBOY

(no he also doesn't have a name yet same as above 😆)

"Ferryman" - Schafer James and Will Wood:

I've actually been having a lot of fun with this character since initially creating him back before the Horse Ranch pack came out (more on him coming out in a few days for the outlaw challenge 😉). So this song.... The entire concept of our ghost cowboy is that he, being somewhat half dead and half alive, winds up being a good source of convincing "unwilling souls" to cross over, and works with the character Death to do so in exchange for finding out why he's not entirely dead. I'll explain it better another time, but I also really love this song and just thought that the concept of the ferryman and the ghost cowboy as ferriers of the dead.

"Toss A Coin To Your Witcher (Epic Version)" - Samuel Kim and Black Gryph0n:

Liiiiisten... My family made me watch three seasons of The Witcher I had to get something out of it 😆 I joke a lot that this character gives off Geralt vibes but honestly they are definitely super similar just based on their overall aesthetic and horse companions. I wanted to be special though and chose this epic cover instead of the original... Just for fun 😁 There were some cool piano covers too that almost made the cut. This is probably a good place to talk about the actual image (yay!). I hope the visibility on it isn't too bad because it ended up waaaay more cluttered than I originally intended, plus the mist effect definitely makes it harder to see the characters. I made his (also unnamed) horse a little more transparent to try and give off this ghostly see through effect so I hope that comes through. The font isn't the kind of "wild west wanted sign" font that I wanted, but I think it's close enough lol.

Credits:

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

[dykedalecooper]

emma frost punisher au?

emma frost punisher au diverges from 616 canon after genosha. in 616, emma returns to the mansion and snaps cassandra nova's neck, who comes back to life and is shot by professor x, presumably killing her. emma then rejoins the x-men as a teacher once again, this time for the xavier institute. in my au, emma doesn't come back to the x-men. she takes the phrase "perfect faberge killing machine" literally- she becomes the punisher.

one of the things i really love about this au is that for emma as the punisher, it really is about the children in a way that it isnt necessarily for frank castle (this is not the place to discuss my punisher opinions but i do have them).

this panel from new x-men #116 is really interesting to me because contrary to jean's argument, emma isn't trying to be magneto when she becomes the punisher. she isn't looking for this widespread social political change. she's not a spearhead for change like magneto or professor x. she's emma frost and she's a diamond. she is by definition her own best friend and she doesn't need anyone else. she's the punisher. there's a very individualist philosophy at the core of emma frost as the punisher that doesn't stop with rejecting magneto or the professor's ideologies. when emma leaves mutant society to become the punisher, what that means is that she will never be a teacher again as long as people are threatening genocidal violence on mutants, because her students will be attacked and she will survive having failed to keep them alive.

because of her diamond form, emma isn't as worried about like. staying alive and out of bodily harm as frank castle as the punisher is- she's practically invulnerable. she's also not as proficent with weapons, and relies on her brute strength in diamond form to compensate. because she's in diamond form so much, she uses her telepathy less. punisher emma using her body as a weapon in a very violent way is really interesting to me because it's a very clear contrast to everything about emma frost and the way she positions herself.

like she says in classic x-men #34, her body is her weapon, and her mind is what she wins her battles with. an emma frost in diamond form being the punisher is using her body and mind in very different ways to the classic emma frost

another thing i love about punisher emma is that she doesn't need body armor because she is the body armor in diamond form, so she just wears her typical emma frost outfits. she also still wears white, so she's just constantly covered in blood. they start calling her the red queen eventually.

[charlotte-family-apologist]

What.. Do you think Sonya and Kenshi's relationship would be like 👂

Okay this one has me thinking-

Sonya and Kenshi, compared to their respective partners, are quite reserved. Though they both have an attitude problem and I can see them bickering a lot, but not to the extent that they do with Johnny or Suchin (it’s playful bickering but bickering nonetheless). I can see them easily losing track of time by talking to each other or simply resting side to side in silence.

As for conflicts, I feel as if their stubbornness would be a big issue. In getting together and communicating. I do feel like Kenshi would be the more understanding of the two despite his pride. Their combined impulsiveness is also a problem and I imagine them to argue about that. Kenshi being a wanderer and freelance spy (idk how to word what Kenshi does 😭) and Sonya being content in one place leads to them not seeing each other for periods of time.

As for them getting together 😈 it was Sonya who made the first move, though it wasn’t with romantic intent in the beginning. Sonya being the coffee shop fanatic she is (personal headcanon) asked Kenshi to meet her at her favorite one to work on a joint case, something she does occasionally to relax while still getting work done. He accepts and they meet there several times before finishing the case.

It becomes a tradition for them to go to said coffee shop whenever they get joint cases. And one day Kenshi comes into office and notices that Sonya’s having a bad day and brings her a coffee from there, having memorized her order long ago. He starts to do this when they don’t have joint cases and one day she, somewhat awkwardly, invites him to get coffe with her outside of work and things evolve from there 🤭

I’m not sure how Takeda would react but considering his telepathic abilities he’s not having a good time (he already has to deal with subscorp why his bio dad too 😔 I do think he’d be reluctantly happy for them though). Cassie goes through the 5 stages of grief after the announcement before deciding, yeah, Kenshi’s pretty chill and her mom deserves to be happy. I don’t think she’d ever call him anything relating to dad but rather uncle or something.

Cassie does has some resentment over the fact that her parents won’t ever be together but she doesn’t want to cause drama. Johnny’s conflicted about the whole thing as he still loves Sonya and had been getting closer to Kenshi the past few years but he’s also happy for them and is loud about it.

(There is kencageblade potential here 👀 if we want to go that route)

[msphagime]

On this season on "reviving this blog for another fandom" we have: Thramsay, feat. my AUs that I just can't get myself to write. This time it's my Witch/Vampire AU...

Click for better quality ✨✨

[piosplayhouse]

what are your controversial wwx views? 👀 (asking as a fellow controversial wwx view-haver)

In the grand scheme of things I personally think my opinions are pretty lukewarm but I got a lot of shit a while back for making a post saying that it's important to acknowledge that wwx has privilege as a male cultivator member of the gentry and certified genius, and that that's important because even though he knows that his position in society is extremely tenuous and that so many people are willing to fight to force him to lose it, he still chooses to stand up for those even lower in society (in that post I was thinking specifically of the women in mdzs, particularly the brothel women because they're basically never considered). And then? A bunch of people started shittalking me because apparently wwx is the most underprivileged character in the story? And he's lower status than even the non cultivating sex workers because he was homeless as a kid?

I'm also neutral-positive on Jiang Cheng and made the great sin of making a completely neutral poll asking for people's opinions on him correlating with if they grew up with siblings and got a bunch of accusations of being a wwx anti, rigging the poll, and misrepresenting the answers (the results of which were completely even btw) based off . The fact I used a picture of grapes as the poll banner. Yeah . Wwx was never mentioned in the poll at all also. You can probably still find all that shit if you search my username, anons were just fully accidentally pinging me and everything, it's why I don't name search any more even though I know some people make posts based off my ideas but are afraid of pinging me (don't be btw!!! Please ping me 🥺🥺)

I actually really didn't like wwx in my first read-through of mdzs because I really related to teen lwj and felt very personally about the idea of overly pushy boundary breaking teenager attitudes, but I definitely grew to like him lol. I don't know how much that shows through in my posts, I think I've made a few comments about thinking that he was definitely a little bit of a dick as a teen but I don't know how controversial that is

So overall I'm sorry to disappoint, not very controversial opinions, but I've gotten so much grief for them anyways you'd think I posted some shit like wwx is my least favorite character in all of fiction 😵‍💫😵‍💫 there's probably more stuff that could be considered controversial but I'm so disconnected from mdzs fandom at this point that I don't really know what the general consensus is. I'd love to hear yours though!!!! Feel free to anon or message or whatever you feel comfortable with, I won't judge

[thedrotter]

not-yet-dead-person

silly comic of a conversation in-game i thought was too funny not to make something proper for instead of a doodle ww

(timelapse + wip images (thus silly process commentary in read more if you like artist commentary :3)

i think the sketch looks silly and goofy and funny so i find it important to share with you the mere presence of the faces i drew on it. i drew it on top of the boxes without staying inside its borders because i find my proportions can get wonky if i draw them cropped in a restricted space. and I feel trapped otherwise and i will draw BAD!!! give me spaceeeee to go wild!!!!

the head circles are there for emotional support

very low res speedpaint because truth is the canvas was much bigger than the space where my comic was placed. i didnt account when exporting my timelapse in 720px that that tiny space would look so pixelated ... but it's able to be percieved, so its okay.

(i will now comment on my process and it is not brief sorry)

usually i would try to clean up my sketches and figure out what goes on top before jumping into linework, but since there are multiple panels and drawings i chose to jump into inking right away for the sake of brevity. i just went in with a brush that uses pen pressure and drew what was needed. i added extra line thickness and contrast in areas around the face because it helps direct your eyes there more easily that way.

according to her equipment rei has a chain belt but i only remembered it existed once I was going to color, and i did not like that discovery... I chose to ignore it to maintain my peace. i already have the color palettes for these characters figured out, and i didnt really want to think about a new element at the moment www I tend to overthink those things a lot so i skipped it

the rest is rather straightforward! not that anything else wasn't, but in here i could turn my brain off and sing. linework and sketching require mumbling so i cannot turn my brain off. just block in the characters with a solid color so i can have a mask (something along those lines,) where the color can stay inside. then just color in !!!

Base colors just had slight cell shading on the skin, and for the hair i airbrush a bit of the skincolor in low opacity near the forehead... I'm not sure what it means, but i can look at the faces easier with it somehow. i like the gentle subtlety it adds even if you cant really tell. it makes things look nice.

background was just me blocking in the color of the wall and floor, shade the wall a bit, then slap a noise and free use wood texture on top. work smarter not harder ! yet it took a bit to make it look stylistically fitting with the characters, and even now i think bottom middle panel looks odd. whatever!!!

for the middle panel i thought itd be funny if the background was a solid silly and colorful one to contrast the next panel's sketchy black one. a contrast to how the word widow is seen. on that note my handwritting is not pointy. i gaslighted my hand into thinking that it was indeed pointy in that moment so i could write "not-yet dead person" in letters that didn't seem cute. my hand did not fall for it but it complied anyway

that's basically it! I'm not sure what else i could say that doesn't feel barebones because it really is that straightforward. if you're curious I used clip studio paint for this. only special brush used was for linework (a brush named Lemon Brush), the rest used were just the default. my computer gets the least credit. it was trying to convince me a 20mb file was going to nuke it all the time and hardly let me save multiple times so i do not appreciate it

[octoagentmiles]

@poisonedbasil

Gladly <3

First of all, Captain Barnacles:

He was born, and raised through the Polar Scout program with his twin sister Bianca. Through this program, he met Professor Natquik and Tracker (and possibly Boris the Narwhal).

At some point during his scout days, he met Professor Inkling, who had found himself trapped in the Arctic somehow, and had to be rescued by the cubs (including Barnacles).

Natquik was Barnacles’ mentor and father figure who was forced to leave the Arctic so he could do research in Antarctica. Tracker joined the Polar Scouts soon after he left, and he never made it back home. He was stuck in the Antarctic for at least 20 years, maybe longer.

When Barnacles was a cub, some ice cracked from underneath him and he got stuck in a very deep hole for a very long time, and he now has PTSD from the event.

Sometime after he graduated Scouts, he got a position on a ship called the MV Manitoba. It’s very likely (but not canon...... yet-) that he met Tweak on this ship.

The ship crashed, he returned home to the Arctic, reunited with Tracker, and trained him to run the Polar Emergency Post Station.

After that, he was asked by Professor Inkling to be Captain of the Octonauts.

Kwazii. This cat has so much story potential but I will say right now that a LOT of it is speculation/theory. MOST of what I'm about to say is canon though:

Kwazii is different from other pirates, and has been since he was little. Pirates are scary and mean, just like the legends, but Kwazii is kind and good.

Kwazii was born to a huge family of pirates. His grandfather, Calico Jack (aptly named after real life pirate “Calico Jack”), is one of the most famous pirates who ever lived, and they look a lot alike.

Calico Jack left his family/crew behind “in search of the Hidden City of Gold” (so he said), when Kwazii was just a little kitten.

Kwazii was abandoned by his family for being weak (kind, soft, etc.).

He chose to NOT be a pirate at one point in his life...

(This might be what caused his family to abandon him; ie. he made a big show one night about not wanting to be like them, and they were like “ok walk the plank then.” and he did.)

...but then RECHOSE to be a pirate again after learning about his grandfather.

He was a pirate of his own making for a while, with no crew,

Before getting found by Barnacles/The Octonauts and joining them.

All cats in this universe seem to be pirates, plus Kwazii wears an eyepatch and speaks generally very piratey, so despite being an Octonaut creatures are always afraid of him because they recognize him as a pirate--

and it’s very sad because all he wants to do is help but he keeps getting attacked-- [*sobs*]

Peso:

Lil guy was SO insecure in seasons 1-2+½.

He was very dependent on others, and always compared himself to his friends (mainly Barnacles and Kwazii).

He has a HUGE family, including a little brother, big brother (his name is Pogo but we haven’t met him yet, he’s mentioned in the blobfish episode), and one million cousins.

It’s possible that growing up around so many other penguins, that he did get compared to them quite a bit, and/or never fully got to shine. Which is why he’d get so flustered being in the spotlight in s1-2.

His dependency issues are interesting, because Peso gets his best character growth moments when he’s forced to be by himself. (Vampire Squid, Aggregate Anemones, Spookfish, CONE SNAIL, and more.)

He’s also the youngest and newest recruit on the Octopod, so that’s fun. He hasn’t been around for very long; we see him going through training in season 1, so he probably joined off-screen sometime right before the first episode.

Shellington:

We don’t know too much about Shellington, but we DO know that he is a sea otter who is allergic to urchins: meaning he literally cannot do the one thing sea otters are expected to do (eat urchins so they don’t destroy kelp forests) and y’know that’s gotta be pretty stressful.

He discovered the Vegimals himself, and named all of them. He incubated and hatched their eggs in his lab, and has been studying them ever since, and that’s how he picked up their language.

Dashi doesn’t have much going for her, not gonna lie. The most she’s ever gotten is in The Caves of Sac Actun, where they revealed she did cave diving with Ryla.

#SilvergategiveDashisomeloreplease2022

aaaaaaaand I can’t go too deep into Inkling or Tweak without significantly spoiling Season 5, but there is a little bit I can say about Tweak:

She grew up the in the Florida Everglades with her father, as a creature tracker and outdoorsy kid.

Somewhere along the line she started building gadgets and gizmos.

She then [REDACTED SPOILERS], and eventually (again, not canon yet-) joined the Manitoba crew where she met Barnacles.

She was the first ever official Octonaut, as she was there before they were even called "The Octonauts".

She built the first Octopod. It crashed; she built the second Octopod. She built all the gups.

and the rest that I could say about her is just theory and speculation 😅

AND I really wanna ramble about Calico Jack real quick: He has a VERY mysterious past—he is kind and good like Kwazii, but it's implied he wasn't always like that. He was hiding out in the Amazon River for almost 20 years, claiming he was "stuck", but was able to leave with ease the second he had a reason to. He's terrified of disappointing Kwazii, and Captain Barnacles too now that he's an Octo-Agent, and I just think that's really interesting. 👀👀

also not sure if it counts but in the books there were cities, towns, and kingdoms, so a lot of people like to imagine that there are still cities full of animal-people out there somewhere in the showverse. especially since there's multiple instances of the Octonauts picking up trash, including tires, grocery bags, etc., that's polluting the ocean that they say "was thrown away", Tweak mentioning "ordering parts" from somewhere, plus Dashi's side gig with "National Seaographic".

There's ALSO like,,, a whole Thing regarding the difference between animals and animal-people that's been sparked by Above and Beyond, because there's been a lot of non-anthro cats, bears, there was a picture of a bunny at one point, plus the entire Red Fox episode directly addressing the topic of animal instinct and the differences between arctic foxes (Natquik) and red foxes (new non-anthro character); but we don't know how far they're going to go with this.

and that's pretty much it???? i think???? if I think of more I'll let ya know lol <3

[olibensstuff]

hey this is maybe out of the blue, but I wouldn't mind some human Donnie content, the one we're Donnie is pretending to not be Donnie and Casey is well... Kinda in love... You sead you had some writing of that and well, I uh, I would really like to see it... If it's okey with you

(has this been asked already, idk sorry)

Thank you by~

SO A WHILE AGO I MENTIONED I FOUND THESE OLD SCRIPTS AND ASKED IF ANYONE WAS INTERRESTED IN ME REWRITING THEM AND COMICIFYING THEM and most people said yes so I kinda maybe perhaps did 🥺

and said scripts kinda maybe perhaps definitely were the scripts for human Donnie au🥺

I still wanna know if people are interested in me actually making it a comic for sure but I have ALL the scripts done which is most of the project for this specific comic! Cause I kinda wanna comic these maybe I don’t want to spoil BUT I CAN GIVE YOU A QUICK RUNDOWN AND A LITTLE SCRIBBLE SO

Basically the story follows Donnie who after a fight with his sibs meets a chameleon mutant with the powers to turn anything into anything (sort of) who turns him into a human. Things get crazy when it turns out the mutant is a bit crazy and a bit silly and has a couple conditions to the deal to make him human. Which is where he winds up having to pretend to be human full time and act like he doesn’t know who Donnie is at all? And then he meets Casey and they’re in love because🥺💗 the rest of the comic is shenanigans whilst Casey learns about the turtles and donnie’s ‘disappearance’!

The original comic was sort of a character study on Donnie!! He’s the smartest, but he overthinks a lot! The situation that makes him have to pretend to be human is something only he would land himself in because a lot of it is based on schrödingers cat type stuff where his fears might or might not be real. Donnie’s a HUGE overthinker and I wanted to play into that a lot!! He’s also the least happy about being a mutant in the show so I thought it would be interesting to see how I could play into that also! Now that I’ve rewritten the scripts they’re a lot more comedy based to fit in with the rest of my comics, but I did try to keep the same themes!!! Anywho if anyone’s interested in me actually comicing this au lmk!!

ANYWAYS WITHOUT FURTHER ADO here’s another tiny doodle of human don!

[cryptids]

I think that both Gaara and Naruto are very emotional people who have also struggled a lot with emotional regulation... like their reactions have always been very intense and would sometimes overwhelm them (anger and sorrow/distress especially hit them really hard)

It's like... they both have trouble "feeling too much" as a consequence of their trauma and have emotional responses that sometimes veer out of their control. It's really clear with Naruto pretty much every time he starts to go kyuubi mode and/or breaks down crying whenever something reminds him of his childhood. And I think people tend to forget Gaara is like this too bc he went from being so unhinged (like "anger problems" would be understatement of the century here lmao) to always being so calm and rational, but even after that change you can tell from his internal dialogue that his feelings surrounding his trauma and loneliness etc. still run very deep.

Another thing that sort of ties into this imo is the way they both really yearn to feel loved and wanted by the people around them. Gaara decided to become Kazekage for basically the exact same reasons Naruto wanted to become Hokage, thinking it would give them the opportunity to gain people's admiration so they'd feel needed... and what Gaara said about how Naruto achieved their dream of becoming necessary presences in the world, bc both of them grew up feeling like their existences were unwanted and meaningless. I'd say they both are the kind of people who need a lot of love and attention and emotional support/reassurance, but neither of them will ever demand or even just ask for it bc they both feel like it's their responsibility to have to 'earn' it.

Anyway I'm not really going anywhere in particular with this lmao, just some random thoughts..... I think it's one of the many things that make them so similar deep down despite being such different people? Like their whole being mirror images of each other thing that gives them such a unique ability to understand each other