#started drawing with My Kind of Present playing in the background

[andthendk]

❄️🔥Holidays spent with your fav person are the best🔥❄️

*cough* time management failure to have this up before Christmas, favorably with the other TT members but eh this year is full of twists and turns *cough*

🎄Merry (belated) Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year fam!!🎄 Hope the next year has something great planned for all of us ✨

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

It's a quieter week as a few shows have just wrapped and the next wave hasn't started yet, but there is still Japanese ql airing, including what is shaping up to be an all time fav. Both of these current airing shows are on Gaga and I highly recommend watching!

Love is Better the Second Time Around

This show is so good, and so mature in exactly the way I hoped. And I don't mean mature as in explicit--there is sex in this show but it's not some wild heat level. It's mature in that it's a story about characters who know themselves, know what they want, and draw boundaries. Both Iwanaga and Miyata are going down as favorite characters for me; I especially love that Miyata is a more knowing and self aware spin on a really well known bl archetype (think Rain from LITA but if he actually knew exactly why he was reacting the way he was to Payu and was mad about it instead of just overwhelmed and confused). This week we got a lot deeper into his teenage hurt over Iwanaga and now have a firm understanding of why he's alternately giving into and resisting this attraction. I am looking forward to Iwanga figuring out how to repair the damage he caused and earn his trust back.

My Strawberry Film

This was easily my favorite episode so far of this meandering little show. Every week I am left wondering what exactly this drama is trying to say and be; it certainly doesn't feel like a bl. We have spent the vast majority of our time on doomed het romance while Ryo quietly pines for his oblivious friend in the background. But this week we finally got to know Minami outside of Hikaru's narrow gaze, and I like her a lot. Her scene with Ryo where they discussed their romantic woes and established each other as a safe zone was very sweet, and showed how perceptive she is about all these dynamics happening around her. I was discussing with @bengiyo whether the show is going for an aromantic read with her, and I'm not sure. I see the makings of it, but the presentation of her feelings on romance feels a bit muddled. I loved her calling Hikaru out on being self-centered and having absolutely no patience for his petty jealousy. Hikaru thinks he likes her, but he doesn't actually know her (or his own best friend). I liked the final scene between Ryo and Hikaru as well, and the terrible angst of Ryo's confession that he immediately took back. The way the lights and audio from oncoming traffic played over his face in that scene was a really fantastic way to communicate both a moment of clarity and a moment of fear in the aftermath. I'm curious to see where this show takes the ending; a romantic conclusion for the two boys would not feel genuine to me at this point, but I could see them leaving us on a note of burgeoning curiosity and hope.

Bonus: No Touching At All

I recently watched this 2014 jbl on @twig-tea's recommendation, and I really loved it (I have already watched it twice and will definitely be doing so again). This is a classic office romance between a young gay man, Shima, and his "straight" boss, Toga. It's a simple story but well executed, and the film has a strong sense of place that I really loved. Shima and Toga have a fairly instantaneous attraction, and Toga is the kind of laidback character who simply never gave much thought to his sexuality and doesn't care about the fact that Shima is a man; he likes who he likes. Shima, however, is carrying a lot of internalized homophobia and trauma from closeted men messing him around in the past, and has a hard time believing in Toga's sincerity. I really love the way this conflict plays out in the story, and I especially love the way Toga talks to Shima. He's a no bullshit kind of guy and he tries his best to reassure Shima, but he's not a pushover, either. Ultimately Shima has to work through his own insecurities and make the choice to be brave to make the relationship work. The ending of this one is amazing and left me feeling very confident in this couple, and I can't recommend it highly enough. It's the grey for this one, unfortunately, but if you have trouble finding it in HQ let me know and I'll point you (don't watch it on YT, the version on there is potato quality).

[static-sulker]

Okay, so I’ve been drawing an unholy amount of blood weave in between my homework recently that has given me a new headcanon. Gale cannot stop himself from infodumping or over explaining about literally anything. Like, not even JUST magic. It could be about like migration patterns of like hook horrors. He can does this for a WHILE if hes not interrupted. He especially does this about his times with Mystra and does NOT have a filter. He also struggles to think internally at times about things, leaving him to mutter constantly if needed. The responses are normally mixed when hes in speech mode. Astarion? hates it. But it grows on him after awhile. Like, first few days of camp, he gets pulled into a deep rooted explanation of conjuration magic and its benefits. He practically tunes him out the moment he starts talking. Mainly from constant practice of just letting people talk themselves into his charms back when he was still a slave to Cazador. But as time progresses, he finds himself actually seeking out Gale for "One of your silly history lessons" during a long rest. It's comforting enough to keep his mind off of things. This is one of the many things that make Astarion start to fall for Gale. Full stop.

Karlach LOVES it in the way a child likes talking with a parent about adult topics. She has NO idea what he is saying at times, very few topics actually giving her some background grasp on it, but she is happy to lend an ear when he needs to speak out his thought process. She originally begins to do this in order to get him more comfortable, seeming to be a bit out of his element. She doubles down when she finds out about the orb (especially during the first week or so after Elminster

Lae'zel thinks its fucking stupid for about 80% of act 1. Just a weird human not knowing when to shut up. That IS until she finds herself on the end of a ramble about old battles against elves and dwarves long before the events of most of their lives (he had to study it when he was an apprentice) and Lae'zel finally gets to sink her teeth (haha Astarion moment) onto a conversation about old war tactics.

Shadowheart finds it a bit strange, but never intrudes. She is a good listener and knows when and where she should speak off somebody when they get to have their big talks. She is the kind to at most play a devils advocate for his debate styled moments, just to keep his brain pumping. Gale lives for that type of shit. So Shadowheart lets him have it. In summary? Gale Dekarios would be the one who would make slideshows about his hyperfixations and present them to his roommates.

[tinandabin]

Another gen z reader pls!

YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND.

Yandere Muzan x Gen Z! Reader.

Also, this will contain TRIGGERING THEMES!! It could be anything, like mentions of murder, blood, obsession, anything yandere related. Basically dark content, so if you are NOT comfortable with such stuff, please do not read this post!

Okay, so before we start this shit, just know that Muzan here is kind of gonna be like, only good to you and shit.

"My love, I'm back-" Muzan announced as he started taking off his coat like they did in those 90s shit. Or not. God, my memory is fucking shit. That does not matter, for the only goal in your mind at the moment is to find a excuse to get away from this ugly orange of a demon.

"Oh no, I forgot to water my baguettes! I am so sorry, I must take my leave right now!" Just as you said that, your baguettes in the background screamed, "Hydrate us, [Name]!"

I can't even properly tell you how hard Muzan face palmed at your so stupid attempts to try and escape his affection??? And he doesn't even wanna know who you bribed to wear baguette costumes and say to hydrate them.. What did you even bribe them with???

One of them was probably Enmu.

Muzan, himself doesn't know why the fuck he finds you so amusing. It's probably because you are like, literally playing with your life. Literally.

Evidence is the time when you once tried drinking bleach because first, it looked tasty, and second, you wanted to know what bleach tastes like.

And my God, it did not taste as good as it looked like! IT WAS A SCAM. No one ever scammed you this hard. It tasted like extremely concentrated swimming pool water.

Oh that reminds you of the time when you drank swimming pool water-

And in the Taisho Era, there is no shit like fanfics or memes so Muzan can more than often find random drawings...which are memes but his boomer brain can't process what's so funny about it. Like, talking croissants are funny- no, not the ones you find on Kids YT.

But as I said there are no fanfics, and my goodness do you love reading, proof is of you reading this. So let's hope you like reading books too.

No fanfics. What can you do? Probably read Shakespeare. I'm bullshitting my way through this, please deal with it.

Of course, after reading Shakespeare your grammar and vocabulary got a lot better! Which Muzan liked, a lot.

But,,,,, you being you, now even have more ways to insult Muzan. Like,

Thou base decayed ingested-lump!

Thou perfidious weather-bitten writhled shrimp!

Thou fawning fool-born filthy rogue!

And you could go on and on, but let Muzan have a break.

It's so funny to the uppermoons, especially Douma, when Muzan is just 'scolding' them by 'gently' smashing there heads in and you come in and go, "Awww, mama duckling scolding her ducklings..." As you pretend to make a video with your phone which you don't have because Muzan broke it because he's an asshole.

And as soon as you come in, somehow all the blood disappears and everything is normal as he kisses your forehead and asks, "What are you doing here, darling, did I not tell you to not leave your room?"

Everyone present could feel the temperature drop when Muzan said that, and that was not a good sign.

"YOU AREN'T MY MOM." As soon as you said that, you ran away faster than light because you are....idk. You were able to run away mostly because Muzan let you, but trust me when I say that he wasn't angry at you, more so at the demons who he kept at your room's door to prevent you from leaving the room.

And those poor, poor demons who were now begging for their lives as Muzan glared at them, "I gave you one job, one job.."

That's just when you had to again come in, "CUT!" You yelled, "Do it again, but this time, with more feelings." The demons and Muzan nodded, "ACTION!" You said as the scene started again, this time, with more feeling.

One time you just pointed at one ugly demon and said, "This does not spark joy," Muzan killed it. And then after seeing what Muzan did to the ones you said that to, "This does not spark joy," you said to Muzan. Pointing at him.

And after that, he was seen sulking the whole day because he thinks you hate him, which you do. I hope. I don't know.

MASTERLIST

[twilightangel83]

A Ghostly Message

October 5: “You better pray I don't get up this time around. (Whumptober)

A 1-1.5 on my whump scale (see the series definition for the scale)

It’s never good when an ‘all hands on deck’ call has to go out. It’s even worse when it included even the younger teams. But at least they all knew why they were being called before arriving. It was hard not to know.

Nightwing grimaced to himself as he watched more and more heroes pour into the largest meeting room of the Watchtower. Most looked serious. Many were confused or concerned. Everyone was mulling around, checking what others knew. He couldn’t blame them, the whole situation was a mess, but he didn’t join them. He knew the meeting would start soon.

“Alright.” Batman’s amplified voice cut across the room, drawing conversations to a close as the various heroes turned to look at where he, Superman, and Wondereoman were standing on the elevated stage alongside Constantine and Zatanna (Deadman had elected not to be involved in the presentation for some reason it seemed).

“You all know why we’re here,” Batman continued once the chatter had died down. “Several hours ago a message began broadcasting across all televisions networks and radio frequencies worldwide outside of those being used to help keep people safe. Such as air traffic control and Emergency Services. And this message has been playing on loop since then. Strangely enough, while the message appears to be the same around the globe, everyone who hears it hears it in their own native language. We do not currently understand how that is possible, but we will attempt to figure that out at a later point. For now, to make sure we’re all on the same page we are going to watch the message together. Please do your best to keep quiet while it plays.”

That said, Batman and the others moved off to the side as the screen against the wall lit up. It was static at first, the same kind of static that Nightwing knew played for about ten seconds between each round of recording. But soon enough the static cleared to show a young man that looked maybe twenty at the modest standing against a black stone background. The first thing many would probably notice was that the young man had white hair that almost seemed to defy gravity and lazarus-green eyes. But that would soon be overshadowed by how bad he looked. His skin was deathly pale, there were bags under his eyes, and a number of still-healing wounds could be seen even around the regal-looking robes he was wearing. Distinct, precise-looking wounds. Wounds that had alarm bells ringing in Nightwing’s mind the first time he’d seen them (the bells weren’t gone, just currently on the backburner). Then the man started talking.

Finish reading Here

[starrysharks]

could you show a little bit of your art progression over the years? your style is absolutely magnificent btwbtw!!

sure ! i've done a similar post, but that was focused on shape language and didn't go over all of my art progression. i'll link it at the end of this post!

anyway, i started digital art around 7 years ago, but all of the art from that period is essentially lost. at that time, it was just deviantart bases and various furry/warrior cats fanart made in MS paint. while i'm not a fan of vivziepop anymore, she was a big inspiration at that time, as well as a handful of popular animation meme artists at the time. around 2019, i started making art in krita using a mouse. and later that year, i started making art in ibispaint (mostly skullgirls fanart). unfortunately, practically everything from before 2020 is lost because it was on reddit accounts that i had deleted out of cringe. don't delete your old art ever!!! i do have this piece though, made in 2020 on krita with a mouse. my main inspirations were invader zim and other cartoons.

my artstyle took a lot of dips and turns around this time. i got back into anime, and it influenced my style in a way that i think made it really ugly and bad looking. i also refused to ever flip my canvas. i think this era actually held me back. here's an example.

anyway, by 2021, i had gotten into more anime that influenced my style in a different way. i forget the exact ones, but i did watch a lot of stuff from trigger (like BNA and LWA) at the time, and also got into enstars which influenced my compositions a lot. it's also around the time that nova in her current "space astronaut bunny" concept was born. i started experimenting with backgrounds, color palletes, and colored lines, which was crucial. i look back at this era pretty fondly. though i still refused to flip my canvas :D

by 2022, my artstyle looked like this -

(this is actually from dec 2021 but like. it's still what my artstyle looked like)

i had played world's end club and rewatched panty and stocking, and it changed my brain chemistry. i decided that my artstyle would be "60% anime, 40% western cartoon", and despite some shortlived phases where i'd go for a slightly different style, i still kept it up. looking at least year's art summary, though, you can see that i broke away from that style for something more anime. and also, i hardly ever experimented with colors anymore because i was focused on character design. i'm gonna be real i think everything after july looks like absolute bootycheeks. i hate this weird single tiny dot reflection style i had going on it looks like dogwater.

after 2022, my art was in a miserable transitional period where i had zero clue what direction i wanted to go in. but despite all that, this piece in particular is crucial. because i used halftones in the background. it's foreshadowing!!!

i continued like this for a while, until the time where i decided to play around with shapes with those vocaloid big 8 drawings. people really liked the shapes that i used in that one, and i found them fun to draw. so i started exaggerating more, and after i rewatched panty and stocking for the 307492020506th time, as well as invader zim for the 2nd time, my cartoony roots came back.

and then, when my art was already steadily improving, across the spiderverse dropped, and i watched it. funnily enough afterwards i had a big art block because i was just thinking, "you need to draw if you want to work on something as big as that! improve!!!!" which kind of held me back. but after all that, i decided to take a note out of ATSV (and comic books in general)'s book and start using halftones in my work. as well as that, i started focusing on lineart way more, and tried to play around with lineweight. which brings us to present day, where my latest art pieces look like this :

i still think that my artstyle needs a lot of work. even these pieces have issues when it comes to symmetry, values, and the like. but nowadays, though my art takes far longer now (as i've abandoned special pens and just do lineart with the hard dip pen in a kind of tedious way), i'm having more fun with it than i have in years. i think halftones fit my artstyle really well, and they're a unique way to "fill up" areas. now that i pay attention to lineart, i think it makes my art feel 'fuller', at least with more depth. did i mention my inspirations for this current 'phase' of my art? :0 i've been playing a lot of muse dash lately, and my pinterest boards are always full of stuff from TWEWY and megaman. there's far more than that, but in short, i want a sharp and striking style with bright colors. i know that you said a little bit of my progression and i basically dropped a whole essay 😭 ,,, but i really like talking about art in general even if i'm not very good at it. i hope this was interesting at the very least! here's the other post also:

[py-dreamer]

And here's the finished piece y'all!

(here's the WIP for comparison \'/\'/)

I will say, I do hope this was worth the wait and there are noticable improvements!

Honestly pretty proud of this piece!

(Also sorry I couldn't post this earlier, I had to complete some work before finishing this ^u^')

and see! I did promise Bai He the spotlight and y'all received!

I will admit, I MIGHT have gotten a bit carried away with the embelishments and embroidery but COME ON.

I know practically speaking, there wouldn't be this much embroidery and pattern on her outfit for someone living in the wild and well... a monkey BUT STILL

I just wanted her to match with Mac and achieve that gypsy look is all! I already went full force with him so why not give a little pizazz to his daughter?

(BTW, ALL members of the shadowalkers fam will eventually get their own tulle shawl/wrap thingy. You'll just have to wait for me to design Wukong & Mk)

Headcanon that Mac & Bai He made parts of their clothes together and while Mac was busy doing his own thing, Bai He befriended a cat but it got it's paws in the paint and walked all over her shawl. Then Mac comes back to the mess and Bai He decides to keep it like that. XD

Also Bai He was learning sewing and stuff (cause she rips her own clothes so often she needs to learn how to patch it up) and did the embellishments by herself and was so proud of it afterwards. (Like if Mac can get clouds on his robe in canon, then Bai He can have flowers and butterflies on her dress)

Actually y'know what? No this isn't headcanon. This is canon to the au now.

I was originally going to place the embellishments at the hem of the dress almost like a trim, but that looked too uniform so then I remembered Mirabel's dress and took inspo from that.

Additionally, I kind of retconned the purple dress in Mac's piece. I knew pink was kind of Bai He's signature but I just didn't know how well that pastel/barbie pink would fit into the foresty background but hey! We got there eventually.

You might also notice that her wristbands are present this time!

Maybe as she got older, Macaque started teaching her how to make more stuff (he is an artist after all; made his own plays, drawings, a video game) he helped her make her wristbands.

At first they were just going to have her name engraved into it but then I remembered Macaque's lantern and how it used the character for light in it's design and I thought that was super cool so I kinda stole it for my design heh...

Mei was actually a bit last minute cause Merlin wasn't in the original shot but I wanted to give Mei some screentime too since she is rather underrated. And it was a fun challenge to shade her feathers

Not much to say bout' MK, he's just good ol Mk in this one.

I will admit the hair was a little tricky here cause again: shading dark hair is a pain in the &ss but the yellow sunlight made it a bit easier

Surprisingly the hardest part of this was the background

Turns out colour picking directly from screenshots won't ALWAYS work (^~^')

hope u had fun listening to my lil au!

reblogs > likes

[deadmomjokes]

Betwixt Christmas gift cash and Steam Family Sharing workaround shenanigans, the husband and I have finally started Baldur's Gate 3.

Went in basically blind except for knowing the names of the companions and the fact that Astarion is a vampire (couldn't miss that cultural osmosis).

We also came in on two different meta-levels as players.

He is very familiar with D&D, D&D-based games, computer games in general, and these sorts of games specifically. He's also that kind of person that plays things on Extreme Difficulty Mode for fun. He quits when something isn't challenging enough. His idea of relaxing, rewarding gameplay is ultra-hard-mode Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

I, on the other hand, am bad at games. Full stop. I have lost Wii Mario Kart to a 6 year old, repeatedly. I get hopelessly lost even when there's detailed maps, trackers, compasses, and flagged waypoints. I also panic in combat situations and have no strategic ability aside from "stand there, hit it, and hope it doesn't move." I'm more of a low-stakes visual novel sort of gamer. Stardew Valley is as intense as I get.

He is playing a Seldarine Drow warlock in a pact with an archfey. She's a noble with a ridiculously high Charisma score, a perfectly balanced spell loadout, and an even more balanced overall stat build. She's DPS without being totally squishy and helpless, and has advantage to almost everything. She also has an impeccable fashion sense and always looks put together, even when on death's door to a brain worm. Or, to put it in a way my husband would loathe, she got that drip.

I am playing a ginger himbo of a high elf fighter with -1 to Charisma and a -1000 to common sense. He's an impulsive maniac with, somehow, a +3 to intimidation despite being a truly gentle soul that believes every sob story he comes across. He's a sweaty, dusty, grubby little feral child (outlander background) with the world's messiest ponytail and greasepaint-turned-eyeliner that a 90s ex emo kid would be proud of. And that's him trying to look presentable. Despite having an impressive dexterity score, my natural disadvantage to dexterity (and Wisdom and Intelligence) as the player makes it so that this man bumbles his way into everything and only gets out by making horrifying threats he has absolutely no intention of following up on, or by being forced to stand his ground and take it on the jaw.

So this was going to be An Experience no matter what. And boy, it sure has been.

Thus far, we have:

Accidentally pacifism'd our way into every Goblin/Absolute aligned settlement we've encountered on the pure luck of husband's choice to play a Drow because he thought it would add an interesting dynamic. That interesting dynamic, he thought, would be difficulty. He thought being a Drow would make it harder because of the general hatred toward them. He's technically good-aligned, but, y'know, planet-of-hats racism means he was expecting it to work against him, which he likes because he likes when things are hard. Only now it's basically a free pass into all the areas we'd normally have to fight or sneak into. Great for our shared pacifist tendencies, but LOL

Lost a full hour of progress because my computer screen is tiny and bad at graphics and I hadn't learned all the controls yet, so while trying to investigate a hole in the floor of an abandoned church I tripped in face-first and got us into an unescapable, imminent-TPK situation, whereupon the game immediately autosaved for the first time since waking up on the beach. We have since learned to spam the quicksave button liberally.

Accepted a ton of mutually exclusive quests, half of which we have no intention of doing, just to try and get out of situations without combat, so now the mini map now looks like a cubist rendition of a simple sun drawing and I'm SO worried it's going to come crashing down and get us shanked in our sleep.

MET BEST BOY DOGGO I WILL DIE FOR SCRATCH 😭

Discovered husband's character is, build wise, a carbon-copy of Wyll. This was 100% unintentional and he's BIG mad about it LOL RIP

Impulsively pushed a button in a crypt without saving and woke up a bunch of skellies we weren't prepared for, but were somehow also saved by that same impulsivity because I had previously run around the entire area and looted every single skeleton no matter how useless it was to my character, so they all woke up without their weapons so HAH take that I TOLD YOU being a klepto would pay off

Immediately after this fortuitous stroke of fate, having learned exactly nothing, my impulsive maniac opened the shiny sarcophagus before consulting anyone or healing. Luckily it wasn't cursed or trapped or full of enemies (it was Withers, and I'm love), but I'm now not allowed to open or interact with anything bigger than a crate without announcing it first so husband has the chance to go NO WAIT LET ME SAVE FIRST

Sneaked into a secret underground passage, whereupon my husband sent his invisible'd familiar around to carefully scout the area, discovering the button that would turn off the overpowered guardian statue. My character then readied a crossbow shot to hit said button, but in trying to move out of the way of the other party members, stepped right into the statue's attack circle. I panicked, tried to move, but couldn't figure out how to unselect the attack I could no longer use, and tried to fix it by pausing. But all of that just resulted in me standing there, doing nothing, until I finally dropped dead. Luckily I passed my saving throws, and more luckily still, my husband managed to stop laughing long enough to eldritch blast the statue to pieces and come get me.

So anyway, we're having the best time. I know we're late to the party, but it really is so good. I may have even teared up a little during the dream sequence with the psychedelic neon light guardian warriors. This is going to consume my brain for the next few months, and I'm happy to have paid for the privilege. 10/10, absolutely deserves that GOTY and the $60 price tag both.

No spoilers please, we're only level 3 and just encountering the Goblin Camp. (We've met everyone but Karlach, I believe.) But rest assured, as we learn and discover more I will come yelling and seeking those who will screech with me. Probably mostly about my new sons that I've acquired, namely the lying purple sadsack trash wizard with some horrifying kind of chronic illness and/or addiction, and the prettiest most specialist murder machine who definitely won't admit it but is definitely gonna need a hug when I finish breaking down those obviously performative emotional walls.

Also, Lae'zel scares me. Please stop yelling at me, you cranky fish woman, I'm trying my best here 😭

[minty-sweet-art]

Wow look an update relationship chart for the carnival au Minty (“the plushy”)

The non sentient relationship chart is assuming everyone else in the chart is not sentient as well

As always au by sm-baby also here a link to the template

Did not feel like drawing a new face so I just use the old one from the old relationship chart

Here my original post about her if you want to read it

More in-depth information about the relationship below and the old relationship chart along with full photo of my carnival oc.

Because I love making lore but hate having to actually drawing it out because I don’t know where to start.

Minty room is straight up a bedroom with lots of books, art supplies, and other things. The main game was to help organize items. Before her sentient she was more active also going over to visit room just like jax but she often was just in the background watching. After her sentient when everyone became more aggressive she became more fearful and stayed in her room for long periods of times.

Non sentient (“the Plushy”)

She hasn’t meet Caine or Bubble when she was non sentient but she would of been neutral towards Caine and found bubble adorable if they ever met when she was non sentient and they basically felt the same towards her.

I’m not sure if Able was present when everyone was non sentient but she would of find him nice and Able would of just slightly liked her character but not to much making him pretty neutral on her AI

She would have find Gangle very friendly and nice. she loved to sneak in and watch all the plays and even willing participate when asked. They both had a fondness for creative activities and she especially loved all the Fantasy story. Gangle found her very nice and friendly when she was non sentient even though she wasn’t the best actor.

She found Jax very fun to hang out no matter if he was planning a prank or not. Jax always did like hanging out with her in her room finding it both comfortable and entertaining with all her items she had in her. They often exchanged art supplies since they both were fans of creative arts. He did consider her a good friend to hang out with.

She always did love Kaufmo jokes even puns which she was specifically a fan of. Kaufmo loved that someone to laugh along his jokes and was happy to find someone who was a fan of puns since not many found them funny.

She loved how nice and kind both Kinger and Queenie And she looked up to them both on how lovely they were. They both found her adorable.

She found Zooble nice to hang around with since they were more of a chill person and pretty reasonable. Zooble find her in general nice and didn’t mind when she would come to hang out with them. Though they didn’t hang out alone much.

She found Ragatha room was her favorite since it was mainly nature and she loved her garden. But they didn’t really hang out much. Ragatha found her nice and friendly but she didn’t like how messy her room was though she did allow her to have some home grown food if she asked politely.

She loved how friendly Pomni was and she would say she was very close with Pomni both having kinda personalities when they were non sentient. It did help that they were both around the same height as well. Pomni would say she was a welcomed guest and enjoyed her presence.

Sentient (Minty)

Before Pomni was sentient she would often sneak off to her room and ramble to Pomni trying her best to pretend everything was normal after everyone else gained sentient. She find some sense of peace since everyone became more aggressive.

(Now I’m going to first person to reference everyone gaining sentience. I tried my best to make it in character but it not great and I’m also bad at spelling)

Minty— It’s kinda awkward to talk to someone that you been basically having a one sided conversation with for so long. At first I was worried she also would become overly aggressive like the other but she seems nice. I wonder if she remembers all my rants and rambling.

Pomni— She seems nice. Her room does seem like a huge mess and she doesn’t interact with the other much….

Minty— she honestly scares me. While she kind at first but she often screams and tries to attack me after I make some dumb mistake it is my fault after all for being so forgetful so I don’t hate her. I think she worried about me sometimes because some days I would find fruits,vegetables, or seed after I haven’t left my room for a while. I wish I could visit her room more often because I love the seanery in there but I fear upsetting her.

Ragatha— She such a slob and her room always a mess. She practically a dust bunny with how much a mess her room is. She really should clean after herself more. She really needs to get out of her room more often it not healthy to stay locked up in their for so long. I worry for her health even though she such a mess I guess she means no harm.

Minty— I never knew they were so strong before I’m honestly kinda impressed. They aren’t as mean as everyone else and they still seem kinda chill it just kinda awkward to talk to them now…

Zooble—She seem really reclusive I don’t really talk to her much. She seems nice at least.

Minty— She was always so nice to me and I get her anger when it comes to the collar. Often times I don’t even remember what I did before I shocked . It must of really hurt to get shocked over and over again.

Queenie—She still sweet as always. Such a tiny little thing. Hopefully she stays out of trouble.

Minty— He seems really out of it sometimes he the nicest and sweetest, sometimes he of on some odd tangent. He really scares me the most when he more … manic? Almost like he on some crazy power trip and when I’m around I’m kinda on alert due to how fast he changes. I don’t hate him at the end of the day. I just miss when things were simpler. I do like his bug collection. My personal favorite is the brown June bug. They fly so silly and they are always so ticklish when they walk on my hand. I always feel bad when I see one walking out in the open so I always try to put them in a place where they’re safe. I kinda relate to them in some ways. Maybe that why he called me a scarab.

Kinger— Little scarab! Yeah she such a sweet anxious little scarab. I wish she would get out of her room more.

Minty— I’m glade he tried to keep making jokes after everything even if they did get more depressing over time. I really do still like most his jokes do distract me just for the tiniest bit.

Kaufmo—I’m glade my joke are helping at least one person.

Minty— It’s awkward to say. He terrifies me. I mess when we used to be friends. It kinda scary how much one person can be so aggressive. When he was locked up I used to just spy on him to see how he was doing. It honestly makes me more scared of him to see how much he spiraled. When it first started he used to come into my room and take out his anger on some items I had. Almost like a wreck room since my room can reset. Then I snapped I yelled at him to get out after and I just started throwing items. That when i think it first started for me. We tried to make up after a while but after a while our relationship went on a down hill.

Jax— What about the celler rat. Yeah sure she whatever…..

Minty— She seems a bit manic. At least she not too aggressive. Just more bossy…

Gangle— While she not performer she quite adorable at least she trying but she need to do better. She great at setting up higher up props.

Minty— Honestly he seems nice and friendly I like him. He does seem to care and at least he never broke any one of my items in my room.

Able— Her room a mess of course I had to clean it up. Sadly the resets make it hard to keep it clean for long.

Minty— If Pomni can trust him he surly must not have any bad intention. I do like his personality in general he a very happy person.

Caine— it’s seems like her sentient have effected her very differently compared to the other. She not as aggressive as the other but it does seem like she doesn’t want to leave her room and seems very attached to all the items inside despite how her room is.

Minty— Bubble is really adorable and looks so huggable.

Bubble— She smells like mint.

[tiktokitssinoclock]

Weight- Marc Spector

... ʰᵉʸ ᵉᵛᵉʳʸᵒⁿᵉ.

No I'm not dead, and no I really wasn't that busy until the semester started up. I fell off the writing wagon a few months ago and still kind of feel that way. Just recently I've been working on some stuff again so I hope I'll get back into the flow of things soon, but I don't want to risk burn out. I won't be posting as often as I used to, but I'll still post sporadically here and there. Hopefully that changes as inspiration comes back to me! :)

SFW// Minors and ageless blogs, DNI // You will be blocked

Summary:

You have a really important day tomorrow, but can't get to sleep for the life of you. Fortunately, Marc has the perfect suggestion.

Word Count:

1.5K

Warnings/Triggers:

None

One of the things you loved about the boys' place was the sounds of the traffic around the building. The soft 'whoosh' of cars as they passed by, the muted squeaks of tires cruising along on wet pavement when it rained, the surprisingly welcome harmony of whiny breaks and car horns when a light turned red. Steven had his complaints about it, and while you could sympathize with him, you yourself never truly minded. It worked almost like a noise machine in the flat, the London hubbub providing a constant hum in the background.

Tonight, however, as you found yourself laying quite awake, you were starting to better understand what he meant. Every time you closed your eyes, trying in vain to get some sleep, the smallest noises from the street were trying their damnedest to get you to open them again.

The hardly audible road rage between two people might as well have been an argument just outside in the hallway. The chirp of a parked car getting locked seemed to echo throughout the room. Hell, even the slamming of a car door was almost enough to make your ears pop.

You let out a quiet sigh as you continued to catch bits and pieces of the ongoing squabble, pinching your eyes shut before opening them once more in defeat. Of all the nights for the sounds of distant traffic to fail you...

Sweat was beading on your brow but you opted to ignore it, the usually inviting cotton sheets feeling much too warm. You tossed over onto your side, your nails digging into the pillow in your grasp as you tried to focus on the sound of Marc's slow, even breaths.

There wasn't much else to distract your gaze from straying, which wasn't helping, either. Like a moth to a flame, you find yourself stealing glances at the laptop perched on Steven's crammed desk. Again and again, however, you forced yourself to stare at the wall beside you. You were playing a game of cat and mouse, it felt like, and the universe was doing everything in its power to work against you.

Your usual white noise was practically blaring. You'd long since kicked the sheets off your body, the material bunched awkwardly at your feet. The sliver of moonlight peeking through the blinds glinted off the laptop's reflective case, only drawing your attention towards it even more.

You found yourself staring at it again before you could help yourself, eyes squinting in annoyance as you chewed the inside of your cheek.

A few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

As you slowly began to sit up, knuckling the sleep out of your eyes, your mind was already racing with things to do.

I haven't got the numbers from quarter two completely memorized yet, and it wouldn't look good if I have to keep referencing that slide during the meeting. And honestly, I don't know what I was thinking adding all those slide transitions. I'll have to edit them out. Maybe I'll pack a quick lunch for myself, too, that way I can just eat at my desk instead of having to pop over to the cafeteria. Yeah, that'll give me more time to finalize everything.

Your legs swung over the side of the bed as you lazily rolled your shoulders, a few satisfying 'pop's greeting you.

I could probably iron out my outfit, as well. I'll never hear the end of it from Jen if there's a wrinkle in my top when I'm presenting. God forbid clothing does what clothes are known to do-

Before you had the opportunity to stand up, however, you felt the weight of the mattress suddenly shift. A pair of arms wrapped around your waist, lips warm with sleep meeting the back of your neck.

"Where're you going?" Marc mumbled against your skin, his voice sleep logged.

You refrained from leaning back into his touch, fingers lightly circling around Marc's wrists.

"Bathroom," you offered, shooting him a reassuring smile over your shoulder.

When he was barely awake, Marc seemed much... softer than usual. His hair was lightly tussled, bits and piecing sticking out in various directions. The usual bags under his eyes didn't seem so pronounced, the gleam in his gaze ever present. You could stare at him for hours, it felt like. The only things tarnishing the view, however, were how his eyebrows began pulling together and the way his lips were pressed in a thin line. Despite just waking up, he was onto what you were up to in an instance.

"I'll only be up a few minutes."

"No you won't."

You could only look at him for a moment before finally speaking again.

"Don't be silly," you said, gently pulling yourself out of his grasp.

"Honestly Marc, I'll be back. You need the sleep and- hey!"

Marc ignored your protests, pulling you in until your back was pressed against his chest and he could lazily throw his leg over both of yours. His cheek pressed itself against the back of your shoulder, each of his soft exhales fanning across your neck. You ignored the goosebumps his breath left in its wake, the frown on your face deepening.

"Marc."

"Hmm?"

"Please let me go."

"So you can agonize over your keyboard until the sun comes up? Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm stressing out- and rightfully so. There are so many ways I could be productive right now and instead I'm just... I'm laying here."

You sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm not getting to sleep at this rate. I might as well make something of my time."

"That's a horrible idea," Marc replied bluntly, his voice still tired.

"How so?"

"Because-"

Marc interrupted himself with a groan as he gave a stretch, nonchalantly readjusting his position.

"You're gonna tell yourself 'Oh, I'll just review this and I'll be done', right? Then that'll turn into 'I'll rearrange some things real quick' or 'I should make a better version of this table' or whatever else you think up."

You couldn't see his face, but you could practically feel one of his eyebrows arch.

"Am I wrong?"

Too stubborn to confirm or deny his train of thought, even though he was very much correct, you only locked your jaw and sat in continued silence. This hardly phased Marc, however, so he continued.

"You'll just keep changing and adding, changing and adding, until you've got an entirely new presentation you're unfamiliar with. Then by the time you have to present it, you'll get overwhelmed and trip up because its nothing like what you practiced with. You'll be tired, too, which doesn't help. That's what happened last time, from my understanding."

You leaned further into Marc's chest, appreciating the feel of his skin against your own, and let out a heavy sigh.

"Things have to go perfectly to make up for that. I want to prove to them that I can do better."

Another kiss pressed itself against your skin.

"And you will, if you get some rest."

"I... I just can't. I'm all wired up right now and I don't know if I'll be able to get any sleep."

Marc was silent for a beat, only giving you a low 'hmm' in response. Several minutes had passed and you almost thought he had drifted off before he was speaking again.

"What if I laid on you?"

You rolled your eyes with a scoff, earning a chuckle from the man.

"No, not like that. What if I literally laid on you?"

You frowned, turning in your boyfriend's grasp to better face him. his tired eyes and a small smile greeted you.

"I don't see how that would help."

"It would be kind of like using my body as a weighted blanket. I think you mentioned having one in your apartment, right?"

You considered it for a moment, silently appreciating the way his thumb drew small circles on your hip. It was true- you did have a weighted blanket you often made use of back in your flat. And you would be lying to yourself if you said you didn't regret bringing it with you...

"You can say no if you want. It's just a suggestion."

"I know."

You toyed with your bottom lip, pondering the idea. What did you have to loose in trying?

"Let's give it a go, then."

"Fine by me."

Marc briefly released his hold on you only so he could roll himself on top of you, resting his head in the crook of your neck before he let his arms lazily circle you once again. You hummed contently at the shift in pressure Marc's weight provided, an instantaneous calm buzzing through your limbs. After several quiet moments of laying together like that, both your rapid heartbeat and breathing finally slowing, he groggily spoke.

"Better?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Good."

Just a few minutes later and the two of you had peacefully drifted off, the noise from the busy streets below falling on blissfully deaf ears.

[skania]

Hello, what do you think about the parallel between

Hikaru Kamiki—Airi Himekawa to Aqua—Akane

And

Hikaru Kamiki—Ai Hoshino to Aqua—Kana.

If Aqua as Kamiki so they said Akane is Airi because they both a famous actress and Kana is Ai because she is famous idol.

Will the story repeat itself? will they have the same story? but i didn't think so. The patterns are similar but the stories are different.

But seeing from the storyline, Akane—Aqua is similar to Kamiki—Ai. Akane and Kamiki come from the same theater and they are both very talented actors and actresses who have star eyes. And Ai—Aqua came to Lalalai when there was a project workshop.

I also found Akane's lines and the lyrics of the same Idol song. Where Akane says "Lies turn into truth" and is also present in the lyrics themselves, broadly speaking the core meaning of the song and Ai's own story match very well. Where Ai also wants the lie to become the truth. So far I've only seen "lies become truth" in Akane and Aqua's relationship. This can also be seen clearly from the development of the story between Akane and Aqua.

Indeed, the Kana-Aqua relationship looks similar but it looks more like Goro-Ai. Aqua and Kana have the power to motivate each other. Kana who hides her potential as an idol and actress is motivated because of Aqua's support. Meanwhile, Aqua, who no longer had any interest in becoming an actor, was motivated when he saw Kana and Himekawa Taiki's acting. The funny thing is that Aqua entered the world of actors (again) thanks to Kana's request. and Kana entered the Idol world thanks to Aqua's request. Their pattern never looks to romance (only on Kana's side and no reciprocity from Aqua).

Meanwhile, Akane and Aqua seem to have reciprocity and their relationship is developing towards romance. I'm neutral and care about the storyline. This is from my perspective as a manga reader and anime viewer ONK. I've read the manga many times and the thing I caught was like this.

And also some people believe that Aqua—Akane—Kana similar to Tokyo Blade relationship between them. And will be like that in the story.

How about you? Your opinion always blows my mind. You are a neutral person if it goes to the storyline even though you are an Akane stan. It's rare to find an open-minded ONK fan.

Hi there anon, thank you for the thoughtful message! To be honest with you, I'm holding off from drawing any parallels between Ai-Kamiki and Aqua-Anyone because we just don't know enough about their dynamic yet. I feel like once we finally see this Ai in motion, we'll all be able to have a clearer outlook about her relationship with Kamiki.

For now, I get the feeling that when she met Kamiki, Ai found that "somebody to practice [loving] with".

It's hard to tell whether Kamiki was looking for the same thing because we don't know enough about his background just yet, but it's safe to assume that he was every bit as broken as Ai was—likely even more so, if his murderous streak is anything to go by.

But yeah, all in all, I'm kind of stuck here waiting for more information. I don't really like trying to predict Aka because he can sometimes do things on a whim, like the fact that Ai wasn't supposed to die at all when ONK started serialization lol

I'm actually kind of shocked to learn that people are already trying to draw parallels between Kamiki-Airi and Aqua-Akane though, because we haven't even gotten a single flashback involving them. The only thing we know is that there was a very inappropriate age-gap between them, which seems to imply Airi was a very messed up individual who took advantage of a child. I fail to see how in the world people can relate that to Aqua and Akane.

As for Tokyo Blade, I do think it's more complicated than some make it seem. Akane plays Sayahime, who was supposed to be Touki's love interest until the mangaka caved in and started pandering to fans, but Akane doesn't fit that role in the actual story. She was never presented as the main heroine, so Tsurugi never stole her place. If anything, Akane's role in the story for the longest time was to be Aqua's ally, so she is the one playing Tsurugi's role.

Yet, Kana doesn't quite fit Sayahime's circumstances either, because her screen time didn't lessen and most people do seem to ship Aqua and Kana over Aqua and Akane.

So I don't really think either girl is a 1:1 fit for either role. I do, however, think Aka's biggest meta commentary was this panel right here:

This is the way people saw Akane up to that point, and Aka knew it so he lampshaded it. He even has Akane acknowledging that if she allows things to carry on that way, she won't stand a chance:

It's also interesting to note that from this arc onwards, Akane truly steps up to be the one standing by Aqua's side. So once again, it's a matter of seeing where Aka is going with it, though I completely agree with you that Aqua and Akane are the ones who have gotten all the big development milestones.

Even when you isolate their moments and simply put them side by side, the magnitude and intimacy jumps out to the eye.

I feel that we can objectively say that there is just no comparison. Aqua and Akane are out there saving each other's lives, getting to know each other, guarding each other's secrets, hugging, kissing, dating, breaking up yet still fighting to keep the other safe, etc. Meanwhile Aqua and Kana seem perpetually stuck, the distance between them hasn't lessened. Their relationship hasn't evolved.

Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that they won't end up together either way, because this is a fictional story after all and the author can do whatever he wants. But it does beg the question of why in the world has Aka kept his supposed endgame so static while Aqua and Akane got all the mutual development lol

Thank you once again for the compliment anon! I think it's because I've won and lost love triangles many times, so I've learnt to recognize the signs that point towards both sides of the equation 😂 There's also the fact that I'm in this for Akane, so whether or not she ends up with Aqua is besides the point as long as Aka does justice to her character and to their dynamic.

edit:

I forgot to mention that Tokyo Blade-wise, I've always felt like this scene may be foreshadowing! If anyone is mortally wounded, I am fully expecting Aqua to get his miracle (be it through his own medical merits, through the Crow Girl or by any other means).

[asavt]

I DO GENUINLY WANNA ASK ABOUT YOUR KIRBY HEADCANNONS!!! the idea that the mirror reflects what the looker wants to be is something ive never thought of before, o please please please just rant about your headcannons I beg of you/nf /lh

MUAHAHAHAHHA YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO MY TRAP. I WILL NOT SHUT UP NOW!!!!

Ever since the inclusion of Dark Meta Knight in KSA I've been... microwaving him in my head, marinating him in the juices of teories and ideas and headcanons, gripping him in my little corner even when I haven't been doing any art of Kirby...

He is a very simple character, he is often presented as an edgy(-er) version of Meta Knight, his freaking mask is made to look as if he is always frowning (it's funny). He is characterized as a bit petty in some manga (as far as I've seen), kind of a trouble maker.

I hyperfixtated on him for a long time, which eventually led me to search about all the info I could get on the Mirror World, the Amazing Mirror and, of course, the characters affected by this artifact.

Sectonia's case was the one that made me come up with the headcanon. It evolved from the fact that it was the mirror's influence that made her want to become what she ended up turning into. (It also led me to another headcanon about how our Taranza's Sectonia might not actually be dead but that one is long gone lmao).

I don't believe the mirror had the power to create dark ""evil"" versions of whoever looked into it originally. Perhaps it was an artifact made to show how far an individual could go, an artifact that was also a direct, faster gateway to the Mirror World, one that got corrupted by Dark Mind.

I like to believe that Dark Mind corrupted the Mirror itself and that that corruption was never truly "cleaned". It made sense to me then, you know? Having a kind of stronger version of Meta Knight (someone that, as far as I am aware, is constantly looking into improving and getting stronger), the Queen being corrupted (the apparent desire to look 'beautifull', the fact that, if the Amazing Mirror was never cleaned from the corruption, it could lead to the results given in Triple Deluxe).

With Kirby I can excuse it with Kirby's supposed "pure soul", apparently being the reflection of a little being that can fight gods and win even if he is just using a goddam truck to isekai them back nullifies the effects of the corruption. I also could say that Shadow Kirby's intentions could reflect what Kirby wanted during The Amazing Mirror (wanting to protect his home).

As for Dedede... it's a bit more tricky. What I could get is that the king, like Meta Knight, wishes to become stronger than he is, so there's that, maybe, I'm unsure. I need to do more research for this.

(I am not considering Dark Taranza in this because I think of him as exclusive to Kirby Clash Deluxe and it's universe).

Now. To get into more detail about our beloved dark knight.

Yobanashi Deceive starts to play in the background

Where's that music coming from--?

As I said before, he is a very simple character. Not a lot is really going on there so that pretty much just encouraged me to just make something for the guy (It might be just that I like the black/white/red tho).

The way I came up with the current humanizated design was by taking in count this headcanon about the Mirror. He is not only supposed to be a corrupted version of Meta Knight's views of how he wishes to become stronger, but also a desire to look into his past. Kind of like the longing for simple times but also refusing to go back there, there's no way to go back, there are only memories but unfortunely for him a very annoying Dark Knight is there to constantly remind him.

I wanted to specially get this across by giving Dark Meta the loose hair, opossed to Meta Knight's tied up hair. I have it in my mind that, if I were to draw the younger Meta and talk about his past headcanons, I would draw him with long, loose hair.

With all of this and Dark Mind's corruption and control over the mirror in mind, and the possibility of this eyeball being dark matter as well, the idea that Dark Meta didn't have much control over his own thoughts came. He was pretty much being mind controled into doing Dark Mind's will and didn't know but much about not being rude, or angry, or attacking on sight after Dark Mind was gone (even if sometimes he'd get those flashes of memories that are not his, where he sees through his eyes what kindness is like). He plays the role of a edgy guy to keep an image up, after all he, unfortunaly, has some of Meta's own traits and concerns about public image.

This thing about the mind control too.. it's what lead me into my own vision of how the fight against Meta went in KSA:

Dark Mind's corruption never truly went away, but he manages better nowadays.

[maryoliverdotcom]

portrait de la jeune fille en feu: an analysis

portrait of a lady on fire (2019) dir. céline sciamma. major spoilers ahead.

okay i am having intense brainrot over this film and i cannot hold it in anymore. let's start with the parallels.

héloïse and marianne as orpheus and eurydice

"in solitude, i felt the liberty you spoke of. but i also felt your absence." this is the main principle on which orpheus turns and brings forth his doomed faith. he feels "liberated" knowing that eurydice is finally about to return to him, but then he feels her absence. he misses her too much to not look back at her one last time. and so he does.

"or perhaps she said, turn around." héloïse brings this up when sophie, marianne and héloïse are debating on the reason behind orpheus turning back towards eurydice. the scene ends with this dialogue, showing that everyone present in the room agrees with héloïse's sentiment. later, when marianne is leaving, she plays the role of orpheus, with "eurydice" running behind her. and then, true to her word, héloïse says: turn around. and so she does. within a second, the background turns black (like that of an abyss which eurydice fell into) and the door closes as héloïse's image fades away. her role as eurydice is complete.

as the FSU Students Union puts it,

"....outstanding characteristic of this film is its use of Greek mythology. The writing draws delicate parallels between the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the two protagonists’ relationship. These parallels also foreshadow the fate of the characters and allow for a brilliant and heartbreaking callback scene (which will not be described in order to avoid spoiling the ending of the film). The film uses mythology as an allusion instead of a device to excuse fantastical elements. There is no unexplained supernatural intervention, nor does Orpheus make an appearance onscreen. Instead, it is the tragedy of this myth that repeats itself in Marianne and Héloïse’s lives."

[scene ends.]

2. page no. 28

an excerpt from an interview regarding page no. 28 and that scene:

Céline:  “There is a contemporary effect in this scene that is huge. Finally, we have loose hair, we have no costume, we have shoulders only, we have naked bodies. We no longer know where we are, we no longer know in which period of time we are.”

Adèle: “The moment when I say 28… originally there was a justification behind it, which was “why 28? - “Because it’s my age", but we cut it. And that decision making on set allows the creation of a new mystery. Because suddenly there is no explanation to 28. I say…”

“And when I say “28” I tell myself that I am going to create a kind of treasure, like something that we’ll never know about. But it will have a lot of meaning for the character in that moment.”

in the end, when marianne sees the portrait of héloïse with her daughter, she feels her heart break. but when she catches a glimpse of her keeping a finger on page no. 28, she realises that her lover is sending a message for her and only her to understand: i still love you. when the camera pans to héloïse's eyes in the portrait, it feels like she's smiling at marianne, a kind of tragic smile that says hello again.

i mean, just look at her face. she knows they'll meet again, perhaps in another life.

[scene ends.]

3. paintings and scenes

i love how this film makes us see everything through marianne's eyes, through the eyes of a painter. a few scenes can be compared to renaissance/baroque paintings, such as:

traveller contemplating a sea of clouds by caspar david friedrich in 1818 // héloïse looking at the sea, slightly shrouded by rocks

also note that when placed side by side, the fog lines in the painting in the left seem to melt into the rocks in the scene present on the right side (this is probably a coincidence, however it is fun to observe.)

ampio orizzonte by ettore tito, 1910 // héloïse and marianne in portrait of a lady on fire

ampio orizzonte was also used in a tumblr post captioned "art that depicts women not posing seductively or gracefully but simply existing as human beings", and that is exactly the mood this scene in portrait of a lady on fire is portraying. a pure moment between héloïse and marianne just existing comfortably around each other.

[scene ends.]

4. the ending scene.

the ending really delivers the message that even though we may be kept away from each other, art shall bring us back together. this can be seen in other, important scenes where héloïse and marianne hold onto their lost loves through their painting.

art does not simply stop at paintings, however, and the ending delivers exactly that message. art also means music, and in this case, the orchestra marianne had attempted to recreate for héloïse now being experienced live by héloïse herself.

the camera slowly zooms in to héloïse's neutral face as marianne stares at her. her expression gradually changes into a grief-stricken one as her chest heaves and her jaw clenches.

slowly, her lips stretch into a smile, probably at the thought of marianne trying and failing to recreate that part of the orchestra. it could also be héloïse trying to console herself with marianne's words of reassurance: "don't regret. remember."

(this line could be a nod to sappho's fragment 147, “μνάσασθαί τινά φαιμι †καὶ ἕτερον† ἀμμέων.” - “Someone I say / will remember us / in another time.” although it's unlikely, it's fun to think about.)

[scene ends.]

[antialiasis]

Chess - Original London/1990 US Tour

So I have accidentally consumed two more versions of Chess.

On Sunday I decided to give the actual original London production a go, which is indeed more or less the same as Chess in Concert but with various little differences. The pacing is even worse, bless it (I didn’t actually have the patience to watch the video for the entire thing so I had it playing in the background while drawing and swapped to it when the interesting bits were going on), but it was neat to see how it was originally staged (from what I can make out of the blurry blobs of this 80s bootleg), I definitely feel a lot better commenting on the London version knowing exactly what that originally entailed, and the differences were interesting.

In particular, there are little dialogue bits in Sydney that are actually straight from original London but were elided in Chess in Concert, for example. It’s also considerably clearer about the status of the chess matches, though I don’t really like that it presents the outcomes of the chess matches in a bit of an overly simplistic way, as if their chess performance is just a perfectly deterministic function of their relationship with Florence (I think Freddie won every game until “Mountain Duet” and Anatoly won every game after it, or something about as contrived, where Chess in Concert had a more realistic sequence of matches). And just after “Talking Chess” Freddie admits he only ever made the wrong moves with Florence, which I kind of like as part of the sense of Freddie genuinely getting over himself and growing up a bit, even if it put “Pity the Child” too early.

I was going to sort of have that as a little note at the top of the post I was writing with final overall Chess thoughts and leave it at that. But then today, when I was going to go finish that post and post it and move on with my life, I accidentally wound up also watching the 1990 US tour, which I had seen a few posts about and which a couple of people had mentioned in the notes on my other posts. This one’s Broadway-based, so I was kind of expecting it to be more or less like Long Beach, in the way that original London was more or less Chess in Concert - the same story but some insignificant tweaks or cuts or additions to how it’s told. But no, turns out this is yet another vastly different version that just kind of completely rewrites most of it. Here I thought I’d experienced the four major strains of Chess so I could start commenting on it as a whole, but apparently nope. I am left with a deep sense of paranoia that absolutely any production I do not watch is liable to be a counterexample to any statement I might make about Chess in general. Tim Rice, why have you cursed me so.

Where Long Beach actually successfully sold the romance and made it kind of cute, this one managed to have the absolute worst Florence/Anatoly romance, hands down. In the Long Beach version, Florence and Anatoly have some banter before “Terrace Duet” where they’re both laughing and enjoying themselves; in the tour version, instead of that, Anatoly tells her he has no intention of apologizing and arranged this meeting just so he could get to know her, she’s pissed about it, he snaps at her, she goes out to the terrace and starts to sing the song, and after the bit about how the meeting doesn’t matter anymore he approaches her, she tries to move away, and he just grabs her and kisses her anyway? And then when Freddie arrives Florence tells him she’s so sorry and it’s all her fault, and Anatoly calls her at the hotel, and she tells him not to call again so he physically comes to see her instead and just generally will not take no for an answer? I had seen this Anatoly given the nickname ‘Creepatoly’ but I assumed that just meant the actor’s performance came across as a bit unfortunately creepy, whereas he has actually just been entirely rewritten to be a total creep. Please throw this entire man in the garbage.

As a result, instead of being indifferent to the romance, here I just find it deeply enraging that Florence wants anything to do with him at all and am rooting for her to kick him in the nuts, but instead I have to watch her singing all the same love songs no matter how little sense they make, and I hate it. (Here, rather than helping Anatoly defect, Florence is about to fly home when Anatoly just follows her and insists that while she thought they had no future he can’t see a future without her (so obviously she should just give in, I guess?), and then somehow she launches into “Heaven Help My Heart”?! Including the line about how she never planned on “doing all this for the love of a man”, when she has literally done nothing to facilitate this, only repeatedly told Anatoly to please leave her alone? God. Who wrote this version and why did they think this made any sense at all.)

Meanwhile, this version does cut Freddie’s misogyny verse… but it doesn’t replace it with anything, and as a result it feels very much like something is missing: him kind of briefly snapping at her in a way that’s honestly less bad than some of his previous remarks still has her react as if he just crossed some whole new line. It made perfect sense the misogynistic rant finally gave Florence the nerve to leave, but not really as much so here. I’m definitely not opposed to cutting the misogyny verse, it makes sense for Freddie’s particular issues and all but it is super yikes and I’m surprised cutting it isn’t more common when every production makes cuts and rewrites to other stuff left and right, but you do kind of need its role in the scene served by something. Have him yell something more vicious about her relationship with Anatoly there or something, you know? (I also don’t think I’d have cut the “I should have guessed, woman / that if pressed, woman / you’re on nobody’s side but your own” bit, personally, since that sets up his issues a little while staying within more regular asshole territory and I like the callback to “Nobody’s Side”, but that’s just me.)

Also, here Freddie straight-up cheated at chess – he staged the walkout so the game would be suspended and he’d have more time to figure out how to force a draw in a situation where he was down some material. Any Freddie who cares about chess would never.

In this one, nobody ever suggests Florence’s father might be alive, despite slightly more setup about her father being a famous chess player who wrote a book that inspired Anatoly. Florence and Anatoly plan to ditch the final match and elope so they can live together somewhere; however, when Anatoly goes to inform Freddie about this and congratulate him on keeping his title, Freddie tells him not to, that he doesn't want to win the title by default and Anatoly won’t be able to live with himself if he quits and Florence must have put him up to this, and when Anatoly refuses Freddie taunts him, saying he’s just scared he’ll lose. It’s almost sort of a little bit like “Talking Chess” but not really; no because I love chess, no Freddie having gotten over anything. (This is one of the versions that put the full “Pity the Child” just after “Florence Quits”, so that’s not something that just happened, either.)

And then Anatoly does show up for the match (but still late, as in all these Broadway-derived endings). Florence isn’t lyrically involved in “Endgame” at all; Svetlana berates him as he plays and he just responds with the original “Nothing you have said is revelation…” verse rather than the Sydney/Long Beach bit about thinking of Florence and her father and not wanting to betray them (of course, given her father is just plain dead here, that wouldn’t have made sense as is), and then he says he’s found out his only obligation, to chess… right before he apparently throws the match anyway, talking about how I cannot go on hurting all the people who have trusted me. This is a bit strange because as far as I could recall, in this version nobody had actually asked him to lose the match! I guess what he’s trying to accomplish by losing is to stop the Soviet government threatening his family, but I’m pretty sure Molokov at some point literally stated that they don’t care if he wins or loses, they just want him home? All in all I’m not quite sure what the point of doing that was once he had shown up, other than to obligatorily have the Broadway outcome. Afterwards, Anatoly tells Florence that he realized he didn’t know who he would be in her life and that he ultimately is a chess player, which I guess is fair, but then why not win the match? How was he betraying anyone any less by losing than by winning? Mayyyybe he didn’t actually throw the match and just made a genuine mistake there as he was thinking about how he can’t go on hurting people? I don’t know.

After they have their goodbye and Anatoly leaves, Molokov offers Florence a seat on a plane and an apartment in Moscow to just stay there as Anatoly’s mistress, which she refuses (“Would this make me Anatoly’s mistress, or the mistress of the Soviet Union?”). Then Walter arrives and explains the whole political plot to Florence (we’ve seen basically none of that at all before this point), in which the Soviets made some kind of vague handwaved concession in return for the West making Anatoly’s life miserable until he returned. That is, the plot twist is that everything about Anatoly’s difficulties, including the guy telling him his nephew was injured (which was a lie), was orchestrated by the US government, not the Soviet one. Then Walter tells her Freddie’s waiting outside in a limo for her – he needs her inspiration! – and Walter took the liberty of packing her luggage for her. She angrily tells him to bring her luggage back and get out of her sight… and then sings “Someone Else’s Story”, which is actually a choice I kind of like? Florence wishing she could have warned herself to leave Anatoly? Not all of the lyrics make total sense for that context but I can get behind it, especially with this fucking Anatoly.

All in all, Freddie is somehow the most sympathetic character in this version, but mostly because everyone else is either terrible or inexplicably in love with Anatoly, who is terrible. I can’t say I was a big fan; I think it makes some decent structural choices here and there like the placement of “Someone Else’s Story”, I kind of appreciate having some vague hint of “Talking Chess” in there even if this Freddie doesn’t care about chess, but Creepatoly just made me deeply annoyed with pretty much every song that had Anatoly or Florence in it, which is most of the songs.

(Or, wait. One of the other Russians, who gets like five lines, is Nikolai, who is just a wholesome chess nerd who wants to play against Anatoly and get Freddie’s autograph. He is the most sympathetic character. He cares about chess!)

Am I going to have to watch original Broadway too just to make sure it doesn’t do something totally different that my adaptation nerdery brain needs to know about? And the 1990 UK tour, which in the masterlist of bootlegs is said to be a “Mostly London-based script with elements from Sydney and Broadway”? The 1989 Swedish narrated concert of the concept album? I don’t know. Chess is going to be the death of me.

[saladbroth]

as much as i'd love to just make fun of akk for how truly, truly awful he is at hiding his feelings, and give my salute to ayan for being generally batshit, i feel like this episode has really presented some interesting aspects of their characters and i wanna talk about it so please bear with me here (long post ahead i'm sorry asjfksdg)

so far in the first three episodes of the series we've seen akk and ayan act basically entirely out of one motivator: their wants. what they want drives them to interact with each other and the other people at the school in certain ways, and it's what they define themselves by. the issue is that now they are starting to desire, and that is going to interfere with their wants quite a lot.

what do i mean by that? well

lets start with ayan: ayan wants one thing - to find out what happened to his uncle. he wants to bring down the government the system of the school and ruin everything the institution stands for. he doesn't care what kind of impact that might have on others, because in his mind it's just going to be positive. he wants to see the school go up in flames, and preferably for anyone who upholds the rules to do the same. he wants revenge, and he's going to do everything he can to get that

akk wants many things: he wants to stay in the school, something now being more obviously hinted at - he doesn't come from a wealthy background like kan does, for example. to stay he has to be good, has to be the most well-behaved and the one who follows all the rules and enforces them no matter his own opinion because he wants to stay at suppalo and he wants to get the approval from teacher chadok. he wants to fit in, with his friends and with his peers and with this society that is more or 'better' than what he has at home (presumably). akk wants to be normal and to pretend a bit, i think, that he is someone different

akk and ayan are similar in that they both have their wants, and while aye is driven by his singular one akk is driven by many, they both show willingness to go to extreme lenghts to achieve what they want.

(important to note: both of their wants are placed upon them by expectations from others, for akk it's society and chadok, and the way the school works, and for ayan it's his uncle, who may not have said it but expected him to carry on his legacy anyways. their wants are not truly theirs, but something that was made for them)

the issue now coming into play? desire

with episode 4 done, it's something neither akk nor aye can truly deny anymore, try as they might. they desire each other romantically and that is an issue.

i truly do not believe that aye was seriously flirting with akk before the end of episode three, because yes he's still bold as fuck, but to me it just feels like he was having fun. he was teasing, trying to draw akk out of his shell and disrupt the orderly routines - maybe make him do things he normally wouldn't. all of that falls very much in line with his want for revenge because, well. akk is part of that system and he's easier to take jabs at than the school

thing is, aye is very confident in his sexuality. there's a lot of great posts out there discussing how different each of them carry themselves in regards to their attractions so i'm not getting into all of that, but we can all agree that aye is queer and he's not afraid to show that. it's something he can use casually, like his wittiness and general assholery because it's not a big deal to him and flirting with akk isn't doing anything for him except work in his favour and then akk comes over and falls asleep on his hand, and suddenly ayan doesn't see a representative of all the things he's against, who he can flirt with as a way to be a nuisance, but he sees a kid and he's pretty, and he's just following something he thinks he wants and that's his first litte oh. i think that ayan realises that he sees akk in a different light than he thought, then and the end of ep. 3 solidifies it for him - that he's attracted to akk for real, not just for arbitrary reasons

akk is, well. he's a poor kid who doesn't know how to deal with his feelings and attractions because it doesn't fit together with what he wants, who he thinks of himself as. of course the flirtations are going to catch him off guard, because there don't seem to be many openly gay students at suppalo (for good reason) and even then they're not directing that at him. he doesn't want to be gay because it doesn't fit, and i think that maybe subconsciously he also sees that as a reason to try and stop aye from doing whatever he's doing, because then he can go back to fitting in and what akk thinks, or at least is trying to convince himself is 'normal'. and then he goes over to aye's and aye catches him and looks at him, and akk feels seen for the first time. not as a tool or a student or a friend, somebody he's molded himself into to fit and be the best he can to get to his goal, but as a person and as he truly is.

which leaves us with episode 4, and an ayan who's distinctly aware that he's attracted to akk, and that akk is attracted to him but can't admit it verbally (actions speak louder than words and akk's actions are screaming at the top of their lungs). akk is still in denial, even though it's getting harder and harder to keep that facade up for himself. he's still clinging to that whole spiel about finding out about ayan's plans, but keeps getting derailed and distracted and getting caught in his feelings to a point where it deviates him from his want. without ayan there's not a chance in hell he'd have asked a teacher to lift the punishment on another student, probably not even his friends.

so now what? ayan is aware. ayan is yearning. ayan is flirting, still, but it feels different - more sincere even if he tries to hide behind his scarcasm. he allows vulnerability and for akk to get away with his tomfoolery (at least for a bit), and he acts on what his heart tells him he wants: akk, but romantically akk is still torn, and struggling, and he can't for the life of him admit it but i think he still has sort of accepted the feelings for ayan, at least a little bit. he lets himself be soft for a bit, lets himself be guided by what his heart desires, rather than what his brain wants.

and that's the point of this whole thing: it's heart against brain now, desire against want, love against rules and revenge and expectations that neither of the boys have placed on themselves. they're stuck at a point where they have something they want, they desire, that comes from within them and them alone, and it's oh so different from what they think they want because they have to.

with the episode 5 promo, i think it's safe to say that it's going to be incredibly hard for both of them to figure out what to do, now that their hearts and their heads are at war. it'll be terrifying for akk to let go of the normalcy and expectations and rules he's put in place for himself. he'll have to accept himself, and that he is different and that that's a good thing. it'll be hard for ayan to realise that there's a grey zone, that he can't just declare things right or wrong anymore because that'd mean that loving akk is wrong but it feels right to him anyway.

decisions are going to have to be made, on both of their ends. life-changing decisions that both boys are terrified to make and so they'll try to avoid them and fight and god knows what else the show has in store for them, but it'll be incredibly hard on them and also me, personally, because of my emotional attachment to them

TL;DR: akk and ayan so far have been going about their lives following the things their heads tell them are right - what they want is right and unshakeable. now their hearts come into play, and what they desire doesn't fit what they want at all, and they won't know what to do, so they'll fight and suffer and struggle against what they think is right and what they yearn for, and hopefully find a middle ground

[prickly-problematic-programmer]

a few friends and i are participating in a 26 week challenge called the ✨ Alphabet Superset ✨ where we do something creative each week with a prompt starting with a letter of the alphabet, one letter each week!

i’ll be using the tag #prickly’s-superset to catalog the art i make for the challenge. this isn’t primarily an “art tumblr,” so if i ever make one the challenge would move with me over there.

for more incredible art surrounding this challenge, check out @gothmothart for paintings and @mrdoctorb for micro mobile games! my friends @clockquark and @wanna-alphabet-on-it are also participating, although i’m not sure if they’ll be posting anything on it.

my theme: original characters! whether they’re current characters from a book i’m working on, TTRPG characters from various campaigns, or old cringey self inserts from middle school, they’re all fair game. their name must start with the letter of the week.

my medium: a sketchbook page with a fully illustrated and colored scene. i’m doing this challenge to work on my character design, coloring, backgrounds, and anatomy. in my sketchbook, i’ve been focusing mostly on drawing profiles or sketching directly from references. i’m using this challenge as an excuse to break out of my comfort zone and hopefully get more comfortable making full pieces!

this week’s oc: Aether

more info on the oc under the cut

year created: 2019

what they were used for: dnd campaign

description: Aether is an air genasi wizard who was abandoned as a child and raised by night hags. One of his eyes was replaced by a hag’s eye, which the coven uses to spy on him and influence him even now that he’s escaped. He learned magic from a kind old wizard that took him in after finding him alone in the woods. Disturbed by the thoughts the hags would channel into his mind, he ran away shortly after beginning to learn magic, resolved to teach himself everything he needed to know on his own.

present day notes: Aether was a lot! His entire backstory was inspired by taking one look at the “Haunted One” dnd background and saying “oh I could work with that.” The more I play bg3 the more I wonder if I should’ve just made Aether but as a half elf or something for the dark urge play through. I haven’t thought about him in quite awhile, but he still holds a special place in my heart. If I was to rewrite his backstory again, I’d probably change a lot of things around, but this whole challenge for me is about embracing the choices I made in years past, so we’re sticking to the backstory, agnst and all.