#this is so you inspired

[cistematicchaos]

ID: a post by @ / myceliumgirl from Sep 16th, 2022 reading:

"Call it solidarity, call it the evolutionary drive towards mutual aid, call it friendship, call it camraderie, call it community. Call it whatever you want, but understand that it is love."

I love this post. It's poetry, it's beautiful and it's true to me. But I also think a lot about how (I think it was) @jacuzziwaters who pointed out that the last part of it doesn't apply to plenty of us. Like, obviously, all of these things are connected and it's glorious, but your foundation for these things doesn't have to be love, love doesn't even have to be part of the picture.

I know the idea of loveless connections, relationships, ect is just completely unfathomable to some people but they're here. They exist and they're beautiful and important too.

Obviously, solidarity/community/ect can be shitty as well, falling into abusive structures and patterns and/or existing solely for bigoted reasons but if we're gonna acknowledge their beauty, I think it's definitely worth pointing out love isn't what makes these remarkable. Or rather, it doesn't have to be love; there is beauty in these connections alone, in community dedicated toward taking care of its own. Loveless relationships/connections prove that all the time and deserve the acknowledge for it, honestly.

[starrysharks]

ghanaian miku

[eggsistential-breakdown]

Okay, but hear me out -- what if his parents weren't usually red and blue?

[itsbrucey]

Big fan of sun motifs in characters not necessarily being about positivity and happiness and how they're so " bright and warm" but instead being about fucking brutal they are.

Radiant. A FORCE of nature that will turn you to ash. That warmth that burns so hot it feels like ice. Piercing yellow and red and white. A character being a Sun because you cannot challenge a Sun without burning alive or taking everything down with them if victorious.

[edlucavalden]

Learning to eat with your hands.

[beybuniki]

origin - rising

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[novaneondream]

it’s our turn to make you smile

[nuheyenuh]

Against the current.

[callisteios]

Would you like to find out what you would be the god of? Take my new uqiz to find out

[3rdsday]

Tommy basically said "the DSMP was good because it was, and still is, loved" and that basically sums up my feelings on the matter too.

[maedictus]

Aragorn

[stil-lindigo]

bite of winter.

a comic about a princess who died in the snow.

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creative notes:

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all my other comics

store

[lgbtlunaverse]

There's a version of the "don't go grocery shopping while hungry" rule specifically for writers where you should never under any circumstances be allowed to touch your draft within 3 hours of reading a really good story. Because sometimes when you read something great your head goes "fuck this is so much better than my stuff I should make that more like THIS instead!" Look at me. That's the devil talking and you should close the document NOW.

[batbabydamian]

rooftop storytime with Dick and Damian

for fellow Dynamic Duo 2.0 enjoyer @gotham-snark!! wanted to complement her amazing art here!! 🥺💙

[macbethz]

I AM A HIGHER DIMENSION LIFEFORM. I AM A COMPLEX SPACE-TIME EVENT.

prints!