#((and her hands are smaller))

[ask-the-pioneer]

Am lizard... am bring food... want... hunt with... creature... can... creature hunt... with... me?...

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[unlikelyapricot-art]

redraw of the pjsk card 'one who laughs at the world' but make it mira and change themed >:333

monochrome under the cut and some rambling in the tags <333

[sunnysock]

TOGACHAKO REDESIGNS KINDA!!!!!

these were so fun teehee the faces look a lil weird cause i wasnt focused on them lol ANYWAY list of changes/things i added! Himiko has pointy ears cause i thought that was fun :D i tried to make Himiko made up of a lot of sharpness and triangles, and Ochako lots roundness and circles and hearts. i love shape language!!! Himiko has stronger looking legs cause the majority of her fighting style to me is running around being fast. and then Ochako is buff all over cause of training. you cant see it in this cause i didn't draw their mouths open but Ochako has a tooth gap and Himiko's fangs are sharper and bigger and freakier!! i gave Himiko a bunch of moles, and Ochako a bunch of freckles (if i draw Izuku i'd give him even more teehee) Himiko has big eyebags (as always) but i gave Ochako small ones. (they get bigger during her fight with Himiko and after Himiko dies) Himiko is taller than Ochako, except when Ochako is in her hero costume where her boots make them the same height. i made it so Himiko's villain accessories are red, because she spray-painted it all red (like blood) to be cuter!! and i changed her shoes to big chunky sneakers because i think thats cute, and i gave her shorter messier socks the same colour as her cardigan :D i redesigned a few things on Ochako's costume; put hearts like everywhere as little details, changed the line on her crotch(??) to a heart design on her belly button (thats where Himiko holds the all might keychain while shes giving Ochako blood <3 ) and i made her overall costume a little looser.

but anyway this will (hopefully!) be how i draw them from now on!!! i will without a doubt forget details like their freckles and moles but ill do my best :) HOPE YOU LIKE THESE!!!

[wildstar25]

Honeymoon pt.3 - Kozama'uka

"It's just as you said, my love, the sights Kozama'uka are marvel to behold. Such vibrant wetlands... I can understand now how you were reminded of that of Lakeland. Let's settle here for lunch. I would love to hear this tale of Alexander that Y'shtola mentioned earlier in Earthenshire."

<<prev//next>>

[musubiki]

moments of overflowing desire

[molagboop]

Noise game.

[homestuckreplay]

Mysterious Spooky Girl vs Mysterious Spider Girl

(page 2132-2145)

Hello to Aradia Megido! How lovely to meet another troll, see her bedroom and learn all about her interests. I mean, what? No bedroom? No interests? In my webcomic about kids hanging out in their bedrooms and expressing their interests?? What is going on here.

The command to ‘Render [Aradia] in a more symbolic manner’ (p.2133) is the first time Homestuck has drawn attention to specific art styles, although it’s similar to Spades Slick needing to flip his sprite so that Droog could patch up his eye (p.1300). There, it was a ‘rule’ that Slick’s sprite had to be facing the same way as his effigy, and here it’s a ‘rule’ that we cannot be introduced to someone unless they’re in their small sprite template form. Which is pretty funny, because Aradia immediately goes and breaks the other introduction ‘rules’ with her lack of bedroom and interests. Simply cannot get this girl to cooperate.

Aradia hears the ‘voices of the dead’ (p.2134), while Sollux heard the ‘psychic screams of the imminently deceased’ (p.2076), creating a sort of pathway between them. If Sollux hears a voice, they will soon get passed on to Aradia, like Death harvesting souls and handing them over to an afterlife for safekeeping. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but Aradia’s mystic ruins look very similar to Problem Sleuth’s depiction of Hell, both featuring purple stalactites hanging down into the panel over an orange-brown backdrop. It’s very striking and with no lusus and no home in a dangerous place like Alternia, surrounded by the dead with no sign of the living, it’s easy to imagine Aradia in some kind of metaphorical hell.

Aradia has lost interest in her former passions, and struggles to remember what emotions are like, asking Sollux ‘what d0es anger feel like’ (p.2085), and her days are mostly characterized by boredom, which could all be a representation of depression. Her introduction panel, a zoomed out shot of her in a flat, neutral expanse has the same emptiness. In writing, I think that giving a name to a character’s mental health condition – for example, Sollux having ‘debilitating bipolar mood swings’ (p.2076) is more of a minefield and carries a responsibility to accurately represent that named condition, which I’m not sure is happening with Sollux. But keeping it vague and unnamed gives more flexibility to represent something that might not be perfectly accurate to real life, but might still be relatable to some readers.

I am. Truly and deeply horrified. that Sollux has named his game SGRUB. These cleaning implements may not exist on Alternia but all I can think about is ‘Sgrub Daddy’ and a scouring sponge made in the shape of a grub. Also grubs are just the things that he programs games on? So it’s like naming a game Scartridge?? Act 5 is so canceled.

Aradia’s passivity about her existence and her decision to just wait things out extends to her fetch modus too, Ouija, a modus Jade owns but has never used. Page 2136 also provides a handy Alternian translator as it shows the whole alphabet (read right to left and top to bottom). Which may actually be the purpose of the page, now that I think about it.

But even though Aradia is spooky and possibly depressed, every character in this comic is a little big silly. And Aradia unearthing the Crosbytop on an archaeological dig and using it because of its ‘bizarre novelty’ (p.2138) is definitely her version of whimsy. Another example might be when she goes up to Sollux’s hive and uses her psychic powers to levitate his bicyclops and sit in its spot to message her friends even though there was an entire roof for her to choose from. Completely pointless use of powerful magic, very funny, no notes.

GA: I Thought Id Be Friendly Though GA: And Remind You That You Do In Fact Have A Hand In All The Terrible Things That Are About To Happen GA: Because Thats What Friends Are For (p.2139)

I’m really excited to see grimAuxiliatrix again here, and it’s fitting that she talks to Aradia right before the game begins, the two of them hanging out at their respective frog temples. Their attitudes are very different, though – AA feels nothing about her role in the end of the world as she knows it’s much bigger than her and totally beyond her control, which lets her absolve herself of responsibility. GA, on the other hand, seems to feel genuine remorse for what she’s about to do, to see herself and her friends as complicit in the apocalypse despite having no choice. Later, of course, GA will actively troll the kids while Aradia will refrain.

AA: and we twelve will behave simultane0usly as the pawns and the 0rchestrat0rs of the great und0ing (p.2085)

^ In this framework, Aradia is thinking more like a pawn while GA is thinking more like an orchestrator. Aradia is at the blue frog temple and part of the blue team, typically a cool and detached color, while GA is at the red frog temple and part of the red team, a warm and passionate color. Two teams and two outlooks, which will come together into one Incipisphere, and one apocalypse.

GA: Ill Be Here To Help GA: If You Need Me (p.2139)

In this chatlog GA perfectly lives up to her chumhandle – which, from a post I made six months ago means ‘serious, foreboding or gloomy, and Latin for a female assistant or helper’. She sure is acting foreboding while still offering to help! According to Karkat’s introduction, the Trollian chat client is a new beta release (p.1994), so these trolls just chose their handles recently. And while the initials are destined, the specific words they chose aren’t. GA could have stood for greenAnteater if she was scuffling for bugs in the sand or glowingAntidote if she was a potion seller making healing draughts or gallantAdventurer if she was secretly Jade’s pen pal, that’s all the same to Skaia. I know that the trolls’ first and last names were chosen by fans, and are full of mythological and astrological references, and I think the work they’ve put into picking these names is cool but I’m far more interested in the chumhandles because they’re how these trolls choose to represent themselves.

After a recap of Aradia’s earlier conversation with Sollux where she reveals that Sgrub won’t save the world after all, she talks to arachnidsGrip, wreathed in mysterious shadows and sat in front of a large spiderweb. Her pincerlike horn matches the one seen to the right of the screen in the meteor lab (p.1715), so ‘I guess we'll chalk another riddle up in the solved column’ (thank you eternally to Rose Lalonde for this evergreen quote).

Aradia and AG are having two different conversations throughout this chatlog. Aradia is responding to AG as though they’re having a mutual back and forth, while AG is charging ahead and either not reading Aradia’s messages or misinterpreting them to impose her own meaning. She knows how she wants this conversation to go, and will brute force it into going that way no matter what Aradia says.

Aradia’s introduction mentioned her involvement in a roleplaying accident, which also led to the death of her lusus, and this chatlog implies that AG was also involved. When we see her visually on the next page, she’s got a robotic arm, so her injury must have been the loss of one arm. Just a few pages ago, she was making fun of Tavros and Terezi for their disabilities (p.2122), while her disability might no longer be affecting her since she has this high quality prosthetic. So her insults are partly projection – she’s insecure about her own disability – but also shares a logic with people who are like ‘well I got an entry level job right out of high school and worked my way up the corporate ladder, so why are you still poor?’ It’s a mindset that ignores a lot of reality and individual difference, but makes sense coming from someone who struggles to see from others’ perspectives, and can’t see why not everyone would have access to their workarounds or even want them.

AG: 8ecause I have a present for you. It's a surprise, and it's going to 8e great. From me to you. […] AG: I can't wait to see the look on your face when you see. (p.2144)

I don’t know what this present is, but my guess is that AG wants to be the person to make Aradia actually feel something again. Whether that’s excitement from a great present or hurt from a terrible and offensive one, or maybe hedging her bets on either. Because right now Aradia doesn’t have any kind of look on her face! she’s bored all the time! And AG seems self centered enough to give gifts for purely selfish reasons and to want to be at the center of things, so, being the one to snap Aradia out of her depression would fit.

On a personal note, I love spiders, they’ve been one of my favorite animals since I was a kid. My Pathfinder character is a spider and she’s a cool as hell firework maker. If AG does spiders dirty and gives them an even worse name than they already have, I’m gonna have some shit to say.

[myokk]

my two snakes🥹💓

[tiniest-hands-in-all-the-land]

I don't know how to describe it, but yesterday I had thoughts about how there's something so tender about having your hand gently clasped by a strong hand clad in a thick, battle-worn glove

Or I might have just been thinking about Haurchefant again, one of those two things

[starz-n-stuff]

Do you think that when Percy first began to heal in the water at Camp he was finally able to breathe properly?

Gabe was a smoker (I may be confusing fanon and canon), so Percy very likely had second hand smoke from cigarettes, so do you think when he first submerged in water to heal he could finally breathe properly? Do you think he felt relief at being able to take a deep breath again?

[radioroxx]

chat what should i name my new baby mini fan

[reminder-that]

This image has a lot of wonderful things in it (including the True Hero of FF12, his hair, his bare hand!, and some platisheep plushies, all bathed in aesthetic lighting), please enjoy it.

The background for this one is genuinely amazing too. Imagine walking into the angel's office in Dalmasca, light shining and reflecting in magical (literally and metaphorically) ways on all that's around you, and a bunch of platisheep plushies strewn about amongst the surroundings.

[loveridden1999]

i am a mother (of my cats)

[error-silence]

He carries his friends with him

[lethalwizard]

can anyone explain why my stupid beast curls into the smallest ball physically possible in the coldest spot in the house when there’s like 10 warmer places including the bedroom that gets sun literally all day