#(lots of other people have dubbed these comics already so it's probably fine?)

[4ce-of-2pades-inkwell]

Instead of getting back to answering asks like I should be doing, I put together a fandub of some of Brightgoat's original Casino Cups comics using audio that I recorded back in, like, December.

This isn't super well-made. The audio quality is awful, and I didn't bother with any sound effects or anything. Hopefully the voice acting is good enough to make up for the deficits.

I present to you: At the Reaper's Expense & Mortal Blues

All art belongs to the legendary @brightgoat.

[oleander-nin]

Hello my lovelies! Just a quick little PSA in regards to something that happened to @yanteetle.

If you're going to steal work, at least give credit. Reposting work is already awful enough, but doing so w/out credit? I know this most likely wasn't y'all, but this is just a warning for everyone.

Yesterday, Yanteetle discovered some of her work had been posted on YouTube, Tiktok, and Wattpad. On YouTube(the main focus of this), two were edits, and one was voice acting. Both of these videos relied heavily on her work, and two of them got up to ten thousand views, with the other amassing one thousand two hundred views. That is twenty-one thousand views, or people, seeing her work and enjoying it, all without knowing who it's from in the first place.

One of the videos even had hundreds of comments asking who the artist was, and the only thing they(the poster) gave as a response was that it was "on Tumblr".

This person knows the art isn't theirs, knows where they got it from and how to find it, yet still never once credited Teets for her artwork. I don't know what goes through their brain when you do that, or how they can care so little for the original artist, but never do this.

The second instance I'm most mad about is the third video(the voice acting). This one was just someone going through and voice every artwork Teets made, and the title of the video makes it seem like their claiming it to be their own AU(When I first saw that, I assumed they were just going to base an AU off of her work, but NOPE! It's just them voice dubbing her comics.)

I checked the description, hoping they would add something there. NOPE. Even in the comments, only one person asked and they never responded. I DID however find a people who were:

Encouraging them to make more(which would mean more misuse and stealing of Teets or others work)

Telling them they were going to make videos based off this video, which means more spreading of it because they all promised to credit the thief

Praising 'their' work and their voice, which is directly showing them they can get away with what they're doing(not really to the fault of the commenters, but I digress)

Call me overbearing or crazy, but this does not sit will with me in the slightest. Yanteetle never had to post. She never had to take requests. She never had to put as much effort into her work as she does, yet everyone takes it for granted, and people take her work.

Some of you may be thinking "Oh, but didn't Teets say you could repost her work?"

And to that I hit you on the head because her full clause on usage of her work is "Disclaimer: reposting is fine as long as proper credit is given, but tracing and claiming it as your own will not be tolerated."

In my opinion, every single one of these are taking Teets work as their own. Until you give her name, there is no other belief people can have other than the assumption you made it yourself. Humans find patterns and assume things on default, this isn't on the shoulders of the consumers. I already have my own opinions about her reposting disclaimer(which I've kind of discussed with her, but it's her choice), but even if it were stricter, I can guarantee you this still would've happened.

Taking work without credit is not a cool thing to do, and will earn you a lot of hate and problems you probably don't want to deal with. I personally go through every account that follows and likes my stuff because I want to see who's interacting with me. Do I think any of y'all would do this? No, not really. But you are the only audience I have. Do not take work from others, and especially don't do it without permission and credit.

If anyone has a similar problem and needs someone to speak up for them, just hit me up and I'll try my best.

Thank you for listening and have a good day.

[squidpedias-fanart]

Character requests are open but before you send one:

I’ll probably just do requests of characters I already know going in, doing research to figure out who I’m drawing is just a bit draining for me sorry!

If you’re not sure if I know the character since I’ve never mentioned the series (i.e. rose from steven universe? i dont think ive mentioned su on here?), feel free to shoot the request anyways, its worth a shot!

Try to avoid utdr/uty, this is where I go to take a break from that (and I’ve found I’m extra picky with utdr requests i’m sorryyyyy i’m still afraid to draw those fucking skeletons to this day)

If I’ve already drawn the character before, its cool to request I draw them again! Chances are if I posted a drawing of them then I like drawing them. Request I draw them as many times as you like please

You can send multiple requests but try not to spam all at once please! If you’ve sent 3 in one go, maybe wait it out for a bit

if you make an okko request you are only allowed to request professor venemous what who said that

I’m aaaawwfuul at responding to asks. We’re at 150 unanswered asks now on @squidpedia . Some people have admitted they were worried I thought i was weirded out by them when I didn’t respond. I promiseee thats not the case. My energy to respond to these things just wavers a lot and I even get nervous sometimes, so I don’t pressure myself to respond to every last one.

Also yeah you’re free to just use the askbox for questions thats fine too👍

Before reposting my work to other sites (including comic dubs), please ask for permission in my messages. I will more than likely say yes, its just a boundary of mine.

[xitsensunmoon]

Main FAQ

First of all, let's make it clear - this blog is my home. You're not a "customer" and you're not "always right", you are a guest. If you don't like anything that happens here, just leave, scroll away or block. I will not change anything just because you don't like it.

Before sending an ask, please also check my bio. Surprisingly a lot of people don't do even that. Let's go.

Can I use your work for a profile picture/wallpaper on my device? Can I print your stuff?

You can take my work for personal use if you don't get any profit from it. If it's online - credit me.

Can I dub/translate your comics?

Yes but with few conditions.

1. You credit me as an original creator. If it's a video you put the credits in the video, not in the description. If it's a post you put them in the post itself, not in the comments.

2. You do not put your watermark on my work/do not erase my watermark. You also don't colour it/don't "fix" it. It's my work and my work alone.

3. You do not change the dialogue/add phrases that weren't said by the characters. Again, it is my work, it's my interpretation and I will not tolerate you taking my work and changing it to your liking.

4. If you want to profit from my work - you don't have my permission.

5. You take down videos/posts with my work if I ask you to.

If any of these don't suit you - you don't have my permission.

Can I make an AI bot of your character?

Hard no. Roleplay bots are almost always using public fanfiction without the consent of the authors, not paying for their hard work but using it for profit, it's theft and I'm not going to contribute to that. I'm already considering removing my own bots from Character AI, as ch.ai still doesn't tell the public how they're training their bots so we'll see about that.

Anything that is absolutely off the table when sending an ask?

- Please don't vent to me. I'm not a professional phycologist and I never agreed to play the role of one. I also avoid questions like "I had a bad day, can you draw[ ]?" because after them my inbox becomes a venting place. Please seek professional help if you feel like every day is worse than the previous.

- Please do not send me anything NS///FW. As much as I can support suggestive content, explicit stuff will be immediately deleted and if you make me uncomfortable I probably will block you. No hard feelings but Tumblr is an SFW place for me. If you see me reblog something not SFW, it was probably made by my friend or with previous discussion and proper mature labels for everything.

Can I send you a DM, not an ask?

After some not-very-pleasant experiences that made me uncomfortable, I closed my DM's for everyone except my mutuals. But you're still free to send me asks about anything(within reasonable limits ofc).

Can I write a fic based on your art? Can I use your ideas in my works?

About ideas - ask first. I can get protective over one idea but completely don't care about the other one. If I said yes, credit me as an original source.

Can I draw a fanart/write you a fic?

Of course!! I'm absolutely happy to see anything! Also please tag me when you're done. If it's one of my au's - use specific tags for fanart so even if dumb Tumblr doesn't send me your tag, I will eventually bump into it browsing the tag!<3 (you can also tag me again if you think I didn't see your fan work, I absolutely don't mind!!) Also, feel free to drop an ask with a link too!

Can I tag you in other stuff?

As I already said you can absolutely tag me for any type of fan content(it doesn't even need to be yours). Memes are fine too, just don't do it every day alright?

Why don’t you answer my ask?

It can be one of these reasons:

1. I want to answer your ask with an art piece/comic. It takes time.

2. Your question contains spoilers so I'm keeping it for later when the truth can be revealed =]

3. I'm busy. Yeah.

4. I've already answered something similar/I don't want to answer your question so your ask got deleted.

When will you continue working on [insert whatever]?

When I can. I'm not pausing my things just to spite you. Most of the time I'm just busy or I simply don't have the energy to do anything. To everyone who says stuff like "oh well we've been waiting for a few months already!!" - I'm not here to entertain you. I'm here to have fun and share it with other people and you're currently ruining it. I will block anyone who is doing this continuously.

Can you draw my characters?

For free? No, I don't accept requests like that. You can commission me though. When my commissions are open of course. I will open DMs when it happens.

What content are you okay/not okay with?

Admiring of any of these in real life: terrorism, racism, rape, war, sexism, misogyny, transphobia, homo/queerphobia, pedophilia, sex trafficking, mental illnesses. If the content tries to show how terrible these things are I am mostly okay with it.

Is there anything I should watch out for on your page?

Dark themes, suggestive themes, and sometimes negative ones. I'm not afraid to draw violence, blood and gore. Dark humour. In general, I don't recommend anyone who's under 16 to be here but it's always your responsibility for what you're about to see.

In your bio, it says russians DNI? Is it about every russian or only those who support the war?

I don't care if you're a good russian or not, I don't care about your opinions and worldview. I don't want you in here. I have no time nor desire to try and understand how good you are. As a Ukrainian, I have all the right to tell all russians and people who admire anything connected to them to go fuck yourself. It's my safe place and I don't feel safe with zz's in it. Do you feel like I'm being "too categorical"? Don't make it my problem and leave. End of conversation.

Even WITHOUT war context (which I actually huge and should NOT be ignored) this post explains pretty well why this boundary exists.

What is your stance on reposting your artwork/fics?

The only cases when I allow reposting are dubs/translations with credits and all the other rules that I mentioned earlier. In other cases, no, do not repost my artwork. Doesn’t matter if you credit, I said no.

I saw your art somewhere but I'm sure you weren't the one to post it.

I post on Tumblr and Tiktok, my nickname always contains "xitsen" in it. You also could possibly see the dubs of my stuff on YouTube, as I allow these. Please send me an ask with a link to the repost if it's somewhere else. I will try to solve the situation myself.

Can I use your work as a reference? Can I trace/copy it?

Reference? Yes. If it's very obvious - credit me too. Trace/copy? No. No. And no. It's straight-up stealing.

What pronouns do you use?

She/they. Please don't refer to me in masculine terms.

What art program(s) do you use? Drawing tablet? Brushes?

For art pieces 90% of the time it's Paint Tool Sai 2, sometimes Photoshop and Krita. For animations, it's rather Toon Boom Premium or Krita.

My tablet is fucking 6 years old, Wacom something. They don't sell these anymore so I couldn't even find the model lmao.

Brushes - standard SAI brushes, watercolour for shading and brush for line art. If it's textured I use my custom one, you can create it yourself if you use SAI.

Don't mind the text quality please lmao. I literally had to copy it from Google for English translation. But the settings are mine yeah

Your "r" looks like "z"-

I know. Just let me be with my handwriting please lmao.

If you struggle with reading it this post with my alphabet can help you.

Why do you call [character] a whore??

It's an inside joke that suddenly became bigger than we expected. A silly, a funny, a goofy. It's not slut shaming if you thought it was. I love to joke about characters being whores in the most affectionate and lighthearted way possible even when the character clearly has no bitches. It even doesn't need to be sexual. Just a hee-hee ha-ha.

Probably gonna update it in future because I'm fucking sure I forgor something.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

See I agree with you that GX got better with time (though I loved it from the start) and I just love Judai so much <3

I love him too. In fact I would actually make a case that, while I'm not sure if I'd say GX is the best of the first three series', Jaden is probably my favorite protagonist.

It's tough, because Yugi and Atem have a unique situation where they're basically written as a team. Neither would stand as well without the other, and Jaden's spiritual companion didn't come in until much later, nor was she ever a lead like he was. Yugi and Atem, together, make up a perfect duo, which is why the Ceremonial Duel is so heartbreaking. Yusei gets points for being the most capable of the main characters, like he's a badass and I love the whole concept of his deck being made up of "trash" that people threw away. He was an intense guy.

Jaden, though. Jaden didn't even really get that interesting until Yubel showed up. But he had such a distinctive personality compared to other Yugioh protagonists, who could all be a little stoic and focus on the #PowerOfFriendship. Which is fine, but it made Jaden a bit more unique. He was just so full of life, he was such an easygoing guy, and he's exactly the sort of person who would collect comics and cosplay in real life, so Elemental Heroes suit him perfectly. (They also came at a perfect time, when superheroes were cool, but before Marvel made a lot of people get tired of them.) No matter what villains he faced (in the first two seasons) he kept to his go-lucky attitude. But then Yubel showed up.

Yubel is probably my favorite GX character, and she might be my favorite villain overall. Well, maybe. I could also give it to Rafael. Talking about singular villains, by the way. When it comes to factions, The Dark Signers win hands down. I'm getting off topic. The point is that her personality was so out there and so twisted, and I love it. Her motivation was so personal. Apparently she was corrupted by the Light of Destruction? Which is a neat bit of continuity, but she already seemed a bit disturbed even when Jaden was a child. Also, Amber Mammoth in the room here...Yubel is apparently trans in the japanese version? But this was censored in the dub? Yeah, thanks a lot 4Kids. But she was in a male body when we first see her, back when she was human. As far as I can tell, Yubel does use she/her pronouns even in the subbed version, so I'll continue to do that. But if I'm wrong, please correct me.

Anyway, back to Jaden, and the journey of GX. Because at the start, GX was a bit...well, empty. As in, the show literally didn't have a plot for about twenty-six episodes. This was Season 1, as well. The first impression. I genuinely thought as a kid that GX wasn't supposed to have a plot. That it was just an episodic sitcom about these kids at a school, playing card games. Kind of like Zoey 101 (which was also airing at the time) But then, boom. Halfway through the first season we get the Shadow Rider storyline. And it's...not good. It really isn't good. Like, they could only fill half of the season and I'm pretty sure that's because there's nothing original here. The Rare Hunters, excuse me, I mean the Doma Cult, wait no, I mean the "Shadow Riders," all possess Millennium Items. Wait no, I mean "Shadow Charms." And they're trying to get their hands on the forbidden Egyptian God Cards. Oh, I'm sorry, "Sacred Beasts." Actually, I'm not sorry, because they are literal re-skins of the God Cards. Not only is the story the same, but they look like knock-offs. What gives? None of the Shadow Riders are even interesting save for Amnael. One of them literally uses Red Eye Black Dragon as his ace, because there's literally nothing original about this storyline.

Okay. Season 1 rant over. Season 2 is...fine, I guess? I dunno, Sartorius always felt pretty generic to me. The Light of Destruction is a neat concept I suppose, but even as a kid, it felt fake to me that Sartorius was able to set up his own dorm at the school to expand his power. Like, how did he get away with that? The Domino City arc was also just kind of meh. Aster Phoenix just feels like the writers trying very hard to give Jaden a foil, and it completely falls flat for me. The guy is so dull. His backstory about his Dad should really earn my sympathy...but dude, calling Jaden out on live TV just makes you look petty and bizarre. You need to peace with the fact that Duel Monsters cards are mass produced and you are not the only person who uses the Heroes. It's not like they're exclusive. Speaking of, The Neo Spacians. Wow, looking back, there's a lot of essential stuff in this season, It's not a skippable chapter. But even though this season introduced Neos, eh...I guess it is a bit of neat wish fulfillment that Jaden got to invent his own cards.

Season 3 though, is where the show gets amazing. First of all, I love Jesse. Southern drawn and all. He's a cinnamon roll, and I shipped him with Jaden as a kid. I like how this season tears down Jaden's status as the hero and has his friends doubting him. The duel against the Brron is second only to Zane VS Syrus in Season 2 for how intense it gets. The Supreme King arc really works for me, even if "hero falls to the dark side" arcs are a dime a dozen. It really did feel like something about the other dimension woke something up within Jaden, something buried deep within. I've talked already about how great Yubel is as an antagonist, but this reason also delved into the concept of fusion more, connecting the main dueling gimmick this series explores with the plot. I love the whole concept of Jaden being afraid to use Polymerization, and of Super Polymerization, how powerful it is and god knows what Jaden did as The Supreme King to finish creating it. But that last duel, all those twists and turns, and Jaden's final choice. Heartbreaking. Genuinely heartbreaking. And the dub ends here! It ends on Jaden's choice to fuse his soul with Yubel! It leaves the viewer to think Jaden died!

Ah well, it's not a terrible ending. Better than what they do to the dubbed ending of 5Ds, that's for sure. Anyway, Season 4 is the shortest and also the most intense. Very glad they didn't include a couple dozen filler episodes to pad the season, they would not have fit here. Jaden's redesign is BALLER. I'm saying it. In general, the whole concept of his soul being a fusion of himself and Yubel is so damn cool and it's realized perfectly. When I was a kid, I thought this was the most creative idea ever, it made Jaden like a demi-god or something. And it changed him! It's so, so important that it changed him. But not only that, his adventures up to this point have changed him. Throughout the season, Jaden is genuinely battling depression, and probably some identity issues. Not to mention feeling isolated from his friends, especially once they discover what Jaden did in the other dimension, that Yubel is within his soul. He's very mature in this arc, but he's lost his sense of wonder. That final duel is spooky af, I really dig the design of Nightshroud's true form. Wouldn't be surprised if that design alone influenced the choice not to dub Season 4. Also, not for nothing, but this is the second time a minor recurring villain has turned out to be the final antagonist, after Bakura. I honest to god suspect Sayer might have been given a similar treatment if 5Ds hadn't scaled back the cult aspects.

Don't have much to say about the Yugi/Jaden duel. It helped Jaden climb out of his depression, it book-ended the series, but for the most part...I kind of suspect it was fan-service? Y'know, like how Pokemon gave fans the battle against Red in the Johto games. Especially since it featured time travel just so Atem could cameo - though I do appreciate that Yugi fought most of the duel himself. I wouldn't have minded seeing Jaden duel an older Yugi in present day, but this is fine. Still, I have a lot more feelings about the Nightshroud duel. I feel like that really got the point across, like, the general theme and message that Yugioh tries to send (or at least what I take from it.) The idea that darkness will always be out there, but we mustn't despair. That the future may be uncertain, but all we can do is our best. If we stand together, we can build a better tomorrow. 5Ds goes into this a lot more, but that was the general idea of Jaden and Nightshroud's ideological debate. The original series kind of fumbles this though, because Atem is told that the darkness is defeated forever, and will never return. Which was never going to work unless they had just made Yugioh a standalone series without any sequels. So yeah, that was a lie, and the darkness continues to return and manifest in different forms. But that's okay. We'll face it when it comes.

[davyjoneslockr]

mista for the ask game?

Hell yes my beloved guy

favorite thing about them: I love memeing about how funny it is that the personification of his soul is just six little guys, but also there's a lot of layers with his stand that I adore so so much. Like, the fact that he actually has to take care of the Pistols, combined with his sorta protective behavior regarding the rest of the gang (esp Narancia), is really sweet and kinda heartbreaking in hindsight. Also, I definitely read a lot of his superstitions as OCD-related (he's just like me woah), and the Pistols keep him on a comforting routine, so there's that angle, too. Also the thing from PHF that mentions stands in multiple parts/colonies being representative of something deeply sad or broken in the user... yeah :)

least favorite thing about them: I'm always torn about the opening scene from PHF because I love both Mista and Fugo dearly, and I can definitely see where they're both coming from (in fact, I'd say I sympathize with Mista a little more), but like. At the same time. Buddy. That's your friend. Chill out.

favorite line: Every single line he says in the dub plays in my brain on loop 24/7

brOTP: Oh I have SO many. I adore platonic Fugo + Mista and Torture Dance Trio obviously, but I also think (in an everyone lives AU where they don't hate each other post-VA lol) his friendship with Giorno is super funny. Just Local Disaster Man looks at Scarily Competent Maybe Evil Kid and is like "we are best friends now :) let's go to mcdonald's I'll get you a happy meal :)" He definitely tries to give Giorno life advice, and it's mostly terrible, but Giorno will sometimes take it seriously because there's a part of him that thinks of Mista as his cool big brother. Also, Mista and Trish are canon bffs, they hang out at the mall and paint their nails together

OTP: Good evening Naramis micronation <333 While they're sort of high-strung in their own ways, I like the concept of them being able to just be chill with each other, and just. Y'know. Do stupid things together, and find contentment in a way that their lives don't otherwise allow them to. They strike me as two people who just naturally work well together. Also, I love the dynamic of "chaotic dumbasses who probably spend their dates setting things on fire in a Target parking lot, but are somehow role models for a super well-adjusted and healthy couple"

nOTP: oh no fingers crossed I don't wanna start discourse I don't like Giomis tbh. Their platonic dynamic is fun (and their like. weird beef in PHF is super interesting), but I just cannot see them working romantically at all. Mista, especially, I can't picture ever developing feelings for Giorno, even in an AU where everyone turns out fine. Idk, it seems boring at best and toxic at worst.

random headcanon: Oh I have so many and I think I've already shared a bunch, but I feel like talking about the "Hol Horse is Mista's dad" thing. I know it's like a popular joke theory because Guns, but I think it's also legitimately interesting if you draw parallels between Hol Horse/Dio and Mista/Giorno. Like, the PHF bonus chapter, to me, is really reminiscent of the scene from SDC where Hol Horse tries to shoot Dio, but ultimately backs down and is sort of manipulated into keeping his loyalty. Maybe someday I'll write an elaborate post or a fic about this or something.

unpopular opinion: He's not just stupid comic relief!! He's not just Generic Cardboard Cutout Horny Man to throw into spicy fanfics!! He's an interesting character and I love him dearly!!

song i associate with them: Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head by BJ Thomas. He just wanted to have a simple and pleasant life, smh canon.

favorite picture of them: I love the color palette in this scene so much it's so fucking sick

[shadowscans]

Translation of natalie.mu's Interview with Soumatou

Source: https://natalie.mu/comic/pp/shadowshouse03

With the TV anime “Shadows House” starting its broadcast on the 10th of April, Comic Natalie is running a special feature on the work. In this third installment of the series, the original author Soumatou makes their long-awaited appearance. Here, we are given the chance to hear them talk about the behind the scene of the production, the sense of speed that comes from the short amount of time between the adaptation decision and the broadcast, the background behind the creation of the original work where the characters have no face and whose expressions cannot be seen, as well as the story behind the creation of the 2-person unit Soumatou, with Nori in charge of design, and Hisshi in charge of drawing. It should be noted that in this interview, they are answering not as Nori and Hisshi but as Soumatou.

“It’s probably a work that’s hard to adapt into anime”

──Soumatou-san, when did you hear of the anime adaptation?

In 2019, about 50 chapters were made free to read online, and amidst the great response, we learned that the anime adaptation was greenlit.

── Making something open to the public has such an effect, huh?

When “Shadows House” started, it was a relatively subdued serialization. With the chapters being made free to read, people started sharing their thoughts through various means like Twitter, and the paper volumes were selling out. In regards to the public release, back when the person in charge proposed the idea, we approved of it since our impression was that “If not many people were reading it anyways, then let’s just give that a try.” Therefore, in the midst of all that, when we heard of the anime adaptation, we were very surprised. “Is there such a thing?” Because production starts immediately after the decision, it was very speedy.

──With how short the time period is between the decision and the start of broadcast, it doesn’t seem like you have much time to rejoice huh (laugh).

We were happy at the time of the decision of course, but apart from that, “It’s probably a work that’s hard to adapt into anime” was what we thought. In the first place, we’re the type that only believe in something we can see, so it didn’t really sink in for us. We were thinking something like “This project might not even fall through” (laugh). That is why ever since the anime adaptation was publicly announced, the feeling of joy finally sinked in.

──Soumatou-san, in what ways were you involved with the anime?

We supervised roughly all the main processes. When the anime adaptation was greenlit, since the person in charge advised me that “If you will be involved, then be involved with everything. If you won’t be involved, then don’t be involved with anything at all,” we thought “If it’s going to be like that, then we will do as much as we can.” However, the supervision of the script was quite hefty, and having to do that concurrently with the serialization was rather physically difficult.

──I had the chance to watch the first episode, and the thing that surprised me was the original development related to Emilyko’s establishment. Was it difficult to supervise these parts?

We had thought to draw that in the original work, though we decided not to since we thought it wasn’t particularly important. That was just a story from the original work which was added on. However, what was difficult were the adjustments made based on the decision at the script meeting to also depict elements or episodes which are not yet revealed in the original work. We have to think two steps ahead of the current plot of the ongoing serialization, then we have to put in stories or elements that would put us closer to that in the anime. It was a maddening task (laugh).

──If that’s the case, then it seems like it would be fun to compare the original work with the anime huh. Even though it’s difficult, was it refreshing to work on the anime?

Yes. Since we didn’t know anything about anime, or rather, we had no production know-how, so at first, we had no idea how everything would progress. To begin with, we gave them the material created for the serialization. Because we have already created a vast amount of material like the building’s 3D layout, it was easy to say “This is what the layout looks like.” In addition, even though the creation of the colored edition was intended for overseas readers, that material seemed to have been of use for the creation of the colors in the anime. In that sense, there might have been little materials that must be created when it comes to adapting it into an anime.

Supervising as far as the way soot is emitted and the movement of the Clingers

──Soumatou-san, what kind of impression did you have when you saw the anime?

We were amazed by how much more profound the atmosphere was than what we expected. We knew the character’s line drawing and the colors that go on them since we supervised it, but we can’t visualize the final image with just that. However, when we saw the processed recording with the background attached, we felt it was close to the impression of the original work.

──How about the directing?

Expressions that aren’t possible in the manga, such as the movement of the soot, Emilyko rolling on the ground or the inclusion of the song that the Living Dolls sang to themselves, left me with a strong impression.

──As for the soot, I was convinced that it would move like that. Was that also supervised by you?

As for the soot and the clingers, we were shown a few patterns, then we fine-tuned it from there.

──By the way, what kinds of patterns were there?

As for the soot, there was a difference in how it was emitted, be it softly or firmly. For the clingers, there was a difference in the movement, like whether it would move slowly like a cockroach or quickly. Such were the patterns that were there. We did quite a bit of trial and error.

Only the voice actors for Kate and Emilyko were entirely decided by others

──Did you go to the dubbing location?

We only visited for the first time to say hello. The voice actors went through the performance about 3 times. As we listened to the anime staff's directions without giving any input ourselves, we felt it fit our image. On the other hand, when the voice actors were asked by the director “Is there any part you want to re-record at the end?,” they responded with things like “I want to re-record this part” or “would this part be better like this instead,” one after another amending it. It was also the first time we observed a dubbing session, so we were very impressed.

──Well then, did Soumatou-san have any particular request?

There were one or two scenes where we thought “This doesn’t seem to come through, so we want it like this,” and asked them to redo the intonation. However, because anime has a fixed length, I felt that it was better to leave it to the director to draw out the best performance within that time limit. The rest of the time, it was alright for us to really just watch.

──That’s roughly how I imagined it to be. Well, then, please tell us about the impression you got from the main characters. First , how were Kate’s by Kitou Akira-san and Emilyko’s Sasahara Yuu-san?

The rough images of Kate and Emilyko’s voices in our own heads were just “calm” and “cheerful.” That’s why we were able to express our wishes after the audition for the other characters. However, just for these two, we only said, “Please use the person that fits the best'' and left it for others to decide (laugh). When we heard the audition, our impression was that Sasahara-san would fit Kate’s voice, and Kitou-san would fit Emilyko’s voice. However, when we looked at the results, it turned out to be the other way around. There are differences between the performance they did at the audition and at the start of the dubbing, though now we felt that this way was definitely more fitting.

──The other shadow and living doll pairs are played by one person each. What was your impression when you heard of that?

We stated in the original work that the shadows and living dolls have different voices. However, for the anime, when the idea to have the same person performing the roles was proposed, we told them that “we are looking forward to the voice actors doing their best.” The voices are altered based on vocal ranges, and I think the end result is that you will be able to enjoy the voice actors’ varied performances.

──Currently, the cast for four sets of characters has been announced. Please tell us your impressions about each of them.

Sakai Koudai-san’s duet between the hearty, easily carried away John and the cool-headed Shaun is very amusing. Both characters sound good, and their voices are cute. As for Sakura Ayane-san, she was able to portray the very different atmospheres between the lively Louise and the calm Lou.

──Those two consist of clearly different characters so it might be easy to work with, but I felt that the remaining two seem difficult.

Indeed. Kawashima Reiji-san has to play Patrick and Ricky - two characters whose voices and personalities are quite similar, so we thought it was quite a hard role. However, he was able to perform the roles with the understanding of the fine differences in the character of the two. For Shimoji Shino-san who plays the role of Shirley and Ram, there is a lot of dialogue with the imaginary friend, and she has to portray a different image than that of others. She said that “It’s a type of character that I have never played before,” but her voice fitted perfectly.

The pair’s 20-year relationship

──Well then, let’s move from “Shadows House” and let's hear about you Soumatou san, and your past works. You two work together as a pair, but when did you get to know each other?

We have known each other since when we were students, so it is already a roughly 20-year relationship.

──Why did you two start making manga together?

When Hisshi stopped submitting to manga awards, they no longer drew their own manga and ended up settling down as an assistant. I thought that this was a waste of potential, so when I quit my own job, I told Hisshi that I would write my own stories and asked Hisshi to draw them.

──Afterwards, you seemed to have created doujinshi for a while huh.

Yes. Because Nori normally doesn’t read manga and had not created a manga before, we thought to make a lot of them and send them to publishers. Since around 2008, we made a few and showed them at exhibitions. Afterwards, we were able to thankfully get in touch with Shueisha.

──It sure is amazing that you called out and said that you would “make your own story” even though you had no prior experience. Nori-san, what is it about the manga that Hisshi-san made that drew you in?

The composition is very skillful. To phrase it slightly poorly, even if the story is not that interesting, the skillful composition has the power to make you read from beginning to end. That is why Hisshi was able to receive rewards from various magazines.

──I see.

However, since I’m the type to make a manga from whatever episode or idea I want to draw, I have a good grasp on it, but I’m bad at putting things in order over a long span of time. I can draw one-offs, but they did not lead to serialization at all. It seemed like I was slowly running out of things I wanted to draw.

──How do you two divide the work for making the manga? For example, please teach us the making of a single chapter of “Shadows House.”

Firstly, Nori describes the entire course of events, then after bouncing the ideas off of Hisshi, it’s all put together into the plot. With that as the base, Hisshi makes the mini storyboards, which Nori then uses in the briefing session with the editor. Afterwards, Hisshi draws up the real storyboards, and after another meeting with the editor, we head to the rough draft. Hisshi checks that rough draft, then we work on things like new characters, backgrounds, minor characters and the frontispiece’s design. Then, Hisshi inks a pen sketch while Nori does assistant work around the characters. Finally, Hisshi puts the finishing touches and the manuscript is complete. Also, Nori makes the final adjustments to the dialogue right before submission.

──You sure communicate in great detail.

We think we go back and forth more than others whose original works and drawings are separated. Furthermore, we also consult each other when we come to a standstill in our work.

Both “Kuro” and “Girigiri out” have the same ingredients

──Well then let’s return to “Shadows House”, please tell us how and from where you got the idea for the work.

I was staring at a mannequin at a clothing store when the idea suddenly flashed in my mind. The rest is a mishmash of things such as Hisshi’s specialty of clothes and backgrounds, as well as our shared interest in buildings and everyday life in a strange setting.

──Even if you have come up with the idea, it must take courage to make the main characters pitch black, right?

Mangaka are tasked with doing works like drawing facial expressions, though we wondered whether it was possible to present emotions without facial expressions in “Shadows House.” Nori simply thought that “It can be done in novels, so it should be possible in manga too,” and Hisshi hates drawing characters’ faces (laugh). Hisshi even says that “I just want to draw clothes and backgrounds” all the time. Of course Hisshi tries to draw the characters cutely, but that’s without a spontaneous desire to do so.

──That’s surprising to hear, since in your previous work “Girigiri out”, the charm of the beautiful heroine is pushed to the forefront.

Originally Nori was a graphic designer, and Hisshi was a Mangaka’s assistant, so it was deeply ingrained in us to accede to others’ demands. There wasn’t anything that we could say “We want to draw that!” about as Soumatou. Because of that, basically, we are the type to start by fumbling at themes and genres that the editor has an interest in. From there, we come up with various things, and the engine gradually starts. Moreover, at the serialization meeting, among the three works we submitted, “Girigiri Out” was a discarded idea to give the impression that we were trying our best. We thought that if we submitted three works at the serialization meeting then it could look as if we’re trying our best (laugh). Since we didn’t think of anything aside from the 3 chapters submitted at the meeting, when the time came for the serialization, we were worried about what to draw from there.

──”Girigiri Out” is about a situation surrounding a girl who wets herself when she’s nervous, and a boy with the power to suppress someone’s urge to urinate through touch. Even though you have only thought of 3 chapters, during the serialization, you drew quite a few variations on wetting oneself huh.

Generally speaking, we were motivated to make every chapter a different situation (laugh).

──Furthermore, among your previous works, “Kuro” has parts that felt connected to “Shadows House”, but “Girigiri Out”’s style was surprising. I understand now that it’s a story that started from fumbling about with themes and genres of interest to the editor.

However, maybe it’s hard to notice, but the themes drawn in “Kuro” and “Girigiri Out” have quite a bit in common. Everyday life in a strange setting, strange characters that are not people, restlessness, action, surreal jokes, familial love, release from trauma, folk beliefs… the packaging is different, but “Shadows House” also has roughly those same ingredients.

We want to do a gag manga next, but it might be difficult?

──Please let us hear a bit more about “Shadows House.” The story was carefully foreshadowed from the beginning, but just how far ahead did you plan at the start of the serialization?

Since the beginning we have faintly thought about what happens very far ahead into the future, and from there we flesh it out. However, we don’t know how long each part will take if we haven’t drawn it, and parts do change due to the characters’ relationships. For example, at first we had planned for the Debut to end in about 3 chapters.

──In reality it took a volume and a half. That sure is a big change.

We have a bad habit of putting off thinking about the minute details.

──The garden in the Debut also had such a complicated map that I didn’t think it was planned to end in just 3 chapters.

The person in charge is someone who likes exciting and shounen-like things, so we were told that “If I go to the garden then I want a map of the garden.” Though, since we haven’t thought of anything, we spent the next day making a map of the garden as well as all of the gimmicks (laugh). We feel like without that, the story would have been aimless, so we appreciate the advice.

──It certainly has an exciting adventurous feel to it, so the Debut looks like something that would shine in an anime huh. By the way, when I was reading “Shadows House,” the thing that surprised me the most was how screentone was not used at all. I’m sorry that it’s a simple question, but isn’t that quite difficult?

It normally is difficult (laugh). Originally, for a drawing method that suits the work, we wanted something that is reminiscent of old printed works. It started when Nori, who was simply bored, lightheartedly suggested that “This time let’s use hatching (Method of filling in space using uniform parallel lines).” It limits the range of expressions, so now we do regret it a little bit.

──I will continue to enjoy your wonderful drawings from now on. Lastly, you mentioned that “there wasn’t anything that you wanted to draw as Soumatou,” but when you finish drawing “Shadows House,” please tell us what genre you want to tackle next.

Let’s see… how about gag manga? We originally started with drawing gag manga, and the works submitted together with “Shadows House” at the serialization meeting also had comedy in them. However, the gag portion was so hard to do that the editor was put off by it. It might be difficult, but it would be nice if we could publish it some day (laugh).

[tatatale]

FAQ:  Some questions already answered in case anyone is interested! [Updated; September 2023. I forgot I had a FAQ.]

* Fav Undertale/Deltarune characters?

Undertale: Undyne, Papyrus and Sans! Deltarune: Susie, Queen and Lancer!

* Can I dub your comics? Can I translate your comics? Can I do fanarts/fanfics/etc? Can I ship your characters with others? Can I roleplay your characters? Can I use your characters in my AU? Can I make fusions/shipchildren/alt versions?

-Yes to all! You are free to do whatever you want with the A L I V E characters (and if you tag me so I can see it, it would make me happy!). 

-However, If you take my own comics/illustrations (for dubs, translations, etc) I only want you to credit me with a link to my tumblr (please, don’t repost on websites famous for stealing art like Wattpad/Pinterest, on websites dedicated to uploading your own art, or on websites where I already have an account! Sites similar to Tumblr, like Lofter, are ok!), and if you are going to dub my art and you have your channel monetized, that's fine, all I ask is that you donate a part of that money to charity. Please do not dub or translate commissions.

-If you create your own stuff with the A L I V E characters you don’t need to credit me, but it’ll be nice if you do! Just don’t forget to credit Toby Fox as well, and follow his rules!

* Can I ask the characters?

The main comic finished, so the ask for characters is OPEN! However, the characters get a lot of asks, so it's possible that your ask may take a long time to be responded, or not at all. Please don't be sad if that's the case! Note that I'm a person with a fanblog, not a company!

* Do you take commissions/have a KoFi/how can you be supported?

I do take commissions and have a KoFi! I will reblog the commissions post every time I open them!

* Since when are you in this fandom?

This is weird but despite Undertale is from 2015 I just discovered it in march 2020 ; u ; ) I wanted to do this tumblr when I saw there were AU’s and roleplay stuff, but I was afraid I couldn’t find time to make updates and that’s why I didn’t do it before. But in the end I was so excited and really wanted to do a lot of fanarts, that I created this blog.

This blog was just to post my fanarts, and at first I didn’t want to start an AU due to lack of time. But in the end I decided to do something simple, like some characters in the void with their stories and asks. …It ended up being an AU.  ( ｡•́‿•̀｡)

* What is Lytta’s gender? And their age?

Lytta’s gender is neutral, like Frisk and Chara (they/them). I never chose a gender for them so if you want to think they’re a woman or a man and want to use she/her or he/him, it’s ok! Just don't confuse people, since the canon is still non-binary. So please, for asks to this blog keep using they/them. 

IRL Lytta is 20 years old in the first and second season, and 21 in the third season. Their avatar in game is Chara’s face in Frisk’s body, so their appearance is the same as them. In this AU classic Frisk have around 12/13 years old, like Chara’s appearance.

* What is the name of this AU?

This AU is called “A L I V E”. You can also use “Alivetale” or “Alive AU” if you want, I don’t mind. Remember; “Tatatale” is just the silly name I gave to this blog, and it has nothing to do with the AU or myself! You can call me Kao.

* How would Insans react to (character name)?

-If they look human, he’ll be mad. He’s trying to be a good boy now, so he probably won’t attack and just hide behind a friend. Past Insans would try to kill them.

-If they look like Papyrus, he’ll be scared.

-If they’re another monster, it’ll depend on how they meet. (You don’t treat someone who is polite the first time you see them in the same way as if you see that same person attacking you.)

I want to say sorry if my English is awful, since is not my mother language, I just try my best.

I update the main comic when my free time allows it. I’m sorry if I can’t update like before.

And I also want to say THANK YOU to all the people supporting this blog.

YOU. ARE. AWESOME.

That’s all.

-

| Ko-fi | UT Twitter | UT DeviantArt |

[winx-reimagined]

Ships & Relationships in Winx Club| Romantic

ToC

Okay, it's obvious that a lot of the relationships in Winx Club suck. In this specfic post, I'm mainly going over romantic relationships but I'll make another for friendships & family and I'll either squeeze enemies and more gray relationships on that post or they'll have their own post.

The two biggest issue couples, Musa & Riven and Bloom & Sky. At least with Musa and Riven they both tried to better themselves. They were both toxic too, it wasn't only Riven -although it was mostly him.

Riven & Musa.

Riven's selfish, beyond rude, and of course there was that time he bretrayed them. Musa doesn't even try to understand him and she only want to argue back, she just fuels the flame. From what I've seen, neither of them have any mutual hobbies or interests, they can't communicate like friends meaning they sure as hell can't communicate as lovers. As bad as this is, if Winx was more realistic and much more mature, I feel like their relationship would be purely sexual. Which is fine in general, but not so great in a supposedly committted relationship. Just sucks that they're trying to play off a toxic and abusive relationship as "fixing the bad boy."

Speaking about committment... Bloom & Sky.

I hate this couple the most. To be fair, most of us do. At least with Riven and Musa they somewhat learned from their mistakes and were held accountable. But Sky, barely was. I can't remember a time Bloom did anything serious (although I'm pretty sure in one of the dubs for season 4, it was made obvious that she wanted to cheat on Sky), the worst she does is just get really angry -usually for no reason- and refuses to listen. But Sky literally led on two girls.

Despite how close Bloom and him were getting, he never tried to tell her the truth. I don't care if he lies about being a prince because he doesn't want the attention -which is actually pretty stupid because Eraklyon is one of the biggest kingdoms it's strange that no one recognized him like, hmm I don't know, Stella- but that isn't a good enough reason to lie to your bestfriend and girlfriend.

Now him being in an unwanted arrange marriage and cheating, sure. It's like a forbidden love trope and in my books doesn't count as cheating. And I could maybe understand him not saying anything to her since it'd most likely get her in trouble. But I still question why he has that framed picture of Diaspro on his desk 🤔, it's almost as if they're close. Hmm. Sure she could've given it to him but there's no reason he couldn't just throw it out or lay it flat.

Before I move on, I need to talk about their relationship as a whole. They're so similar. Of course, you need similarities to make any relationship work but they're like really similar. They're both peacekeepers -which is ironic to say the least-, they're both agreeable -again, ironic- and this just kind of makes their relationship really boring. Boring doesn't mean there's no drama, there's just no interest. You don't watch the relationship grow like with Stella & Brandon or Aisha & Nabu. They never have any actual conflict nor any actual arc, I can't even call it a linear relationship. How do they relate on anything? Their lives are so different, the most the could talk about is what literally happened three episodes ago. Even if they didn't have these petty issues, it's still be a bad relationship.

More about boring couples... Flora & Helia and Timmy & Tecna

I have more to say about Timmy and Tecna for a different manner but like these two couples are so boring. That's probably because they're mainly in the background. But I do think Flora and Helia are kinda cute, but their kept in the background so much, I literally don't know enough about their relationship to make an actual conclusion about them.

But Timmy & Tecna... 👀, they're okay. My most vibrant memories of their relationship is Tecna constantly calling Timmy weak, pathetic, or a coward. I don't give a fuck how angry you are at someone, that is NOT a reason to constantly abuse them like this. And it is abusive, it doesn't help that Timmy sees Tecna as amazing. He lowkey praises her.

I do like the idea of them being very "emotionless" or not being able to recipicate said emotions very well then learning to open up. This is mostly for Tecna, but there are times Timmy falls under this like when Tecna was stuck in the Phantom zo- I mean Omega dimension. He abandoned any sense of reasoning and only went off his emotions, believeing she was still alive -to be fair, he was right. I actually have very big plans for this dynamic, that mostly has to do with Tecna. I'll be making a post about Tecna's Issue soon 😉, but to say the least, he unlocks more than just her emotions. (I swear if that post comes out before this.. A/N it did)

Aisha & Nabu

Out of all of them, these two are the best relationship. Although it is EXTREMELY weird how they set them up, with Nabu stalking Aisha. The way their relationship grew was beautiful and they were about to get married but then Nabu died. Which I would've enjoyed the tragedy of it, if 1. it meant something afterwards and 2. if it wasn't the only man of color this happened to (not to mention the only black woman is the one to ignore all sense of reason and go apeshit).

Nabu is most likely going to stay alive in my version.

I almost forgot about this one... Brandon & Stella

They're cute. They're one of the best couples in the series. Really the only issue I had with them was their petty arguements which, like any Winx romantic drama, had to do with "cheating." It's stupid that they'd accuse each other of cheating if they're literally comfortable with dozens of people flirting and complienting their partner. They even compete over it. It goes to show how much they trust each other yet they still get in a tizzy when their SO stood near the opposite gender.

I've just noticed something about all the relationships. They characters are matched up with someone who is almost basically the genderbent version of themselves. Bloom & Sky; peaceloving leaders, Stella & Brandon; vain, comical characters; Musa & Riven; damaged goods, punks, and so on. It's not the worst thing you could do, but when it's for all of your characters, yes.

Just to address it, I don't have anything to say about Icy's relationship with Tritannus.

I just realized the best way to describe the Winx relationships, and it's just teenage couples. Their relationships never seem to mature except for Aisha & Nabu's relationship.

Now for the SHIPS! There's many I won't include, just because I don't want this post to be very long and I don't know too much about too many, but maybe I'll come back to them or I can just answer asks.

Were gonna start with the ones I hate :) which isn't many

p.s if you ship any of these more power to you, I just don't like these ships in particular, I'm not attacking you as people.

Bloom X Valtor...

I cannot even begin to dig into this one... alright then, let's begin. To get the moral/ethical issues out of the way. Valtor is much older than Bloom. Sure she's 18 by season 3, she's an adult in most places but it's still really gross. Besides what does a thousand year old (wait, how old is he?) have in common with an 18-year-old teenager? He helped kill, if not killed her parents. Look, forgiveness is a beautiful thing... but that's too much. It's fucking unforgivable. His very existence is to destroy the dragon flame. His like, literal reason of existence is to destroy her magic, her family, her world, HER. Ignoring the whole age thing real quick, they just wouldn't work. There's no chemistry between them that won't lead to an explosion.

Now about the intrigue in the dynamic; you know hero x villain, I get it, but the conflict in their relationship isn't romantic.

I also cannot believe one of the official winx club channels made a video for this ship. It's just...

Bloom X Darkar...

I'm pretty sure this is somewhat unpopular but it still exists, which is just like... I have no words. To be fair, I do like them, but as a platonic ship, I'll explain in the continuation of this post. Darkar is a fucking entity he's even older than Valtor. His goal, I feel, is a little less defined other than "he's doing evil things because he's evil", he's a god of darkness not fucking evil.

- I need to rant real quick, I have such an intense love-hate relationship with darkness being evil and light being good. I love it because it's easy to make out and the whole forces of good and evil really gets me going, but like I hate it cause it's always light is good and dark is bad. To be fair, I do appreciate it when it's mudded in which some light creatures turn/are evil and dark creatures turn/are good. Like if there's a lot of gray, I'm happy. Not everything is in black and white.

Anyways, they also only interacted for a short period of time and that wasn't enough for any sort of real relationship (of any sort) to bloom. Although, Darkar is like one of the nicest characters to Bloom which is strange. I get he was just using her but I'll explain later why it doesn't make sense.

These are the two romantic ships that I hate. It's mostly because of age, like if Bloom were older and Valtor was younger I could see them being an interesting enemy to lover ship, but it'd still be a stretch to me. But Bloom and Darkar I can't see romantically, but that's probably because I see them differently.

For the ones I could somewhat see or somewhat like, bruh by this point I'll have to come back and make a continuation post just called THE POTENTIAL...

SunFire, Bloom X Stella...

They're bestfriends which is already a good start, although in the series I don't think they actually act that close, it tends to be more of a rare sight. They're always supportive of eachother (that is until all attention went to Bloom) and Stella was the one to help Bloom's "gain" powers and showed her the magic dimension. Stella immense confidence would be a nice boast for Bloom, since I personally see Bloom as not being very confident in herself and having low self-esteem. They're very cute too.

Tecna X Riven...

Honestly, I think they'd work. They both have common interests for machinery (and presumably sports), they both have emotional issues that would be interesting to see them work out together. I also think they're relationship would be more interesting than their canons ones.

There's always the issue of... y'know, Riven being a piece of shit. But Tecna strikes me as a "takes no shit" type and I feel like that would be their dynamic. I also feel like Riven would like that sort of confidence.

Riven X Darcy...

I also think they'd work. I know in some dubs Darcy used her powers to control Riven, which really just feels like an excuse for his actons. But in the Rai dub, the one I grew up on (is it the original English Dub?), Darcy just had a way with words and was easily able to calm Riven down.

They seem to be able to relate to eachother, and I would like to think that, despite the finale, she still cares about him. (Also I could see them as being a trans couple, I can see both of them being trans so there's something for them to relate to)

Soundwave, Aisha X Musa...

I love this ship. They have a lot of relatability, a lot in common, and have a lot of screentime together. Musa is the one that made Aisha feel accepted in the Winx Club and they found solidarity in each other. In comparison to everyone else, they just seem so much closer and honestly I don't remember a time they fought. Except for maybe the time Nabu died, but Aisha was fighting with everyone.

Speaking of which, I would write them together if I didn't find Aisha and Nabu so cute. Of course, if he dies, yeah, she can move on and be with Musa but I don't know if I'm going to kill him. So this is honestly a huge maybe for my rewrite.

Icy X Bloom...

Honestly, they're most likely going to be canon in my rewrite.

Their similar backstories are incredibly interesting especially since they basically took two different paths. Same cause, different outcomes. Which makes their relationship and dynamic pretty thrilling since to be together they have to be on the same side, so will they be good or evil together. It's almost like a game of tug of war, if you will.

It's hard to find any common interests between them in the series and I haven't read the comics, so I'll talk more about headcanon stuff. Neither of them get what they want in life, they always seem to be unlucky. Both of them are very lonely, usually it's their own fault; and (after the first encounter with Lord Darkar, where Bloom turns evil) Icy tends to find peace in Bloom when they're not fighting. I'd imagine them both to be very artistic, Bloom loves to draw (which is something they dropped in like the first episode) and I could imagine Icy liking sculpting.

Plus, it's the rivals to lover trope, that'd could actually be a healty rivals to lover trope. Which I love, literally one of my favorite dynamics.

Diaspro X Bloom...

Damn, a lot of these have to do with Bloom.

If Diaspro were to see how bad Sky was she'd probably want to be around the one that originally called him out, Bloom. Diaspro can actually be really fucking sweet, but only to people she likes which in this case, is Bloom. Although, she'd probably be very clingy. We don't get any information about Diaspro's interests or her actual personality because she's eViL. So it's difficult to see how they'd work out.

But it'd be cute to see Diaspro teach Bloom how to be a princess and to act like a "proper lady."And to see Bloom teach Diaspro to be more free-spirited and less uptight (I'm thinking about the second Mulan movie now). I'm really tempted to have them be somewhat hinted at in the story; like Diaspro likes Bloom but Bloom doesn't like Diaspro. We'll see...

Brandon X Sky...

Similar to Bloom and Stella, they're best friends which is a good start. They seem to have known eachother for a long time. Really if anything, they're just the male version of Bloom X Stella, but like a little calmer.

Diaspro x Icy...

I've seen this ship here and there, but to be honesst I really know what I think about it. From what I remember, they don't ever interact. And I guess they can just be a villaness power couple. Or hard and soft relationship, where like Icy's a hardass and Diaspro's her surprisingly sweet significant other. Well, sweet only to her.

Stormy X Musa...

They're both punks. They'd either always butt heads or they'd always vibing together. I think they'd be kinda cute tho, just two gals being wild.

Stormy X Flora...

A hardass and a softass, since Flora's gonna be like 5'10-6'0ft in my redesign and Stormy is absolutely shorter than her; they'd be the small, angry and big, soft dynamic. And I think that's kinda cute. Plus, they're both forces of nature. I could see Stormy allowing Flora to be more chaotic and open up about her more negative emotions, especially if these emotions have to do with the rest of the Winx. And Flora could allow Stormy to chill out and be calmer, I could see Stormy picking up a gardening habit because of Flora.

This is kind out of left field, Professor Palladium X Professor Avalon

I half-jokingly, and half-actually shipped them when I rewatched season 2, then I was surprised to find that people actually ship them. And that it was kinda popular. There's really not much to go off of, but they're really cute and I just really want them to be together. Palladium seems very anxious and is really sweet and Avalon seems like he has a lot of self-esteem, I don't know where I'm going with this so make due with these observations as you please.

There's like a million more ships and maybe I'll talk more about them if some catch my eye, but I'm stopping for now. I still have to work on platonic and enmity ships.

Honestly, writing about my thoughts on these ships and canon relationships kind of opened my eyes to possible pairings. Once I'm done with all of these, I'll definitely have a lot to think about when writing these character's relationships. Oh, and sorry about the long ass post. If it's an issue, I'll just separate it into parts.

[tinderboxofsillyideas]

ARTISTS! COMIC DUBBERS! ATTENTION, PLEASE!

I have a story for y'all and this story is not so bright and beautiful. I thought I would not talk about it in public, but I can't leave the situation like this, because it's important. I just have to do that, because I don't want people get in the same situation.

I will talk about you @undertalecomictv​. No offence.

One year ago I get a message from David - owner of "Undertale Comic TV” and "Sans Comic TV" on YouTube. He asked me about promotion and using my videos (animations and memes) on his channels. I had a terrible headache at that day and this offer was a little bit strange to me. I asked to clarify how it supposed to work and for some reasons I said "yes" at the end. That was a dumb decision, because I didn't realize what I'll get and why I even said yes. But I don't have any regrets, because I can say a lot of things now. This how our first dialogue looked like:

I have to mention – we DID NOT talk about comic dubs as well, I just made a suggestion like "It will be cool to see comic dubs from you in the future, but that's just a thoughts". We did not talk about any agreement, I just said it and that's all. After half of the year, I got a message with dub of one of my Kustard comics. I was happy to see it, because this dub was very cool and this was the first time when somebody made a dub for me. I was too happy and did not see what I missed. I just… enjoyed. They leaved a links on me in the description and in the video too, so that was totally fine and I shared this dub with my followers in both communities – foreign and Russian.

All was good, I got a couple of more dubs, and I loved them really much, but in one day I saw something what made me feel like "???".  I saw a video on SCTV with a frame from my animation (Bloom meme). It was used as a thumbnail, with erased reply from echo flowers. This video contained comic of my friend @nsfwgarbagedump​

The most important – there was a several pages what me and @hakkids has colored. In this video was no credits in description. Only nicknames of Crude and me (Hakki was not even included but we worked together on coloring and we're still making colors for the rest of the pages). I was confused, because frame from animation was cropped out of my video (I did not post this pic anywhere, I remember that). When I gave a permission to use my videos I did not think they will be used in this way. That's just not nice.

I saw a part two and there was my art again, but none of my content in the video. There was rest of b&w pages and I can't understand why my art was used for the thumbnail if there's none of my stuff in the video. They could use one of the pages or frames from comic for a thumbnail, but they used my stuff because it looks good? That's a clickbait, you know?

Crude had a conversation with them and after that they deleted their comic, both of the parts. I was sad about the fact they did not leave the credits on us like LINKS, because some of the people having a problems with searching artists, and that would be better to leave the links, not only nicknames:

I was too disappointed and had a thought about ask them to stop making dubs on my stuff. I messaged them with this offer, even if I loved their dubs before – there was no way out. I got an answer like this:

After that, I was confused a bit more. They made a dub of our modified Kustard before in one of the compilations. I was happy to see that at first, but Hakki told me one thing, which turned all the tables. They messed up with voices and some specific details, includes the fact they DID NOT asked about permission from Hakki about using Ras (modified Red) in the dubs. Yes, those comics was made by me, but Ras belongs to Hakki and I got a permission to use him in my stories, because hell – we are friends, so we allowed to use our boys in our comics.

If somebody giving you a permission to make comic dubs (but they did not get a permission from me on this either if we look at the situation a bit closer) you have to ask again before using Fan-Characters/Original Characters in dubs. They can have some specific differences and it's always better to ask. Much better to send SAMPLES too, because some people can be picky. If you don't want to make all those "difficult" stuff – just do not touch FC's and OC's. And ask ALL the artists if you want to make dubs with two (or more) characters which belongs to different people. The first one can say "yes, sure!" and the second one can be against it. Respect people! Ask them about their characters!

I asked to delete all the videos with our modified Kustard (or at least cut out the fragments with them), and when I told this was not only my desire, I got a message which made me super confused and angry at the same time. I got an excuse like "we worked so hard, give our permission to keep your videos". I was triggered about it, because I'm already told about the reasons why I asked to delete those videos.

I told about that again and said about I worked hard too, because that's true. Artists spend a lot of time when they working on one picture, so that's no need to talk about making comics or animations. So I had to ask to delete the modified Kustard, OR I'll ask to delete ALL my stuff from the channels. If they'll refuse – I'll strike them down. You can see my full answer below:

And who knows what I will get on my simple ask to delete only modifications…

I don't know, maybe I'm cruel piece of garbage or what, but I HATE when people use excuses like family and stuff. That's super lame and I can explain why I think in that way. You know, all of us have families, somebody has children too but people didn't use this fact as an excuse to make shit and break the rules. If you have a sweetheart and babies – how can you use them like this? It looks like you're only worrying about yourself, and did not want to pay attention to feeling of the artists which works you're using in dubs. I can understand all those things, because I have a family too, just like other artists do. I even have some ill people in my family and we have to pay big amounts to help them, plus bills, buying food, etc. BUT! I DID NOT use all this stuff for this kind of situations! I just continue to work and that's all!

That's the same situation like ask the artist to make you an art for free because you're poor little creature and you have no money to pay for your bills, clothes, etc. NOBODY have to work for free and nobody have to break the low to get something what they want! That's an awful shit, don't do that!

About monetization, huh? You know I don't like liars, I disrespect them, but I disrespect the greedy ones liars even more. My videos was monetized on those channels and NOBODY WARNED ME ABOUT THAT. I just got an excuse like "I asked some artists in the past and they was okay with monetization". Well duh? If one person said "yes" that doesn't mean you can just being a sly shit and don't ask people about monetization their content ever again. You HAVE TO ask artists about that! Somebody can be against it! This content is NOT YOURS, so that's terrible to make moneys on works of artists who probably get NOTHING for their works. Nothing but love and appreciation, and sometimes they even doesn't have this too. And that's sad.

I can understand you have to pay dubbers for their voices and work, David, but you had to ask about monetization anyway. That's just not cool. I don't know about people in your crew and I don't know are they even know about that, but I'm really disappointed. I can say thanks to Jordan Woollen for his voice. Btw – he's good in voice acting and I can be grateful to him for those minutes of happiness. I don’t think that is his fault.

If keeping of these channels is too hard for you – maybe you should find something what will fits you more? Something where you will not need to lie to people or making something like this. I dunno, maybe you can be a better person? Or you just like to make people feel bad or thinks about they're cruel with you… Who knows? You told my stuff has been deleted from your channels, but you didn't. Some of the videos are hidden, and I can see that because I have links. So why are you lying to me again? Just delete them, I'll not allow to bring them back. Because I can't trust you now.

Limited is not the same thing as deleted, my friend.

That was heartbreaking. I LOVED those dubs with all my soul and I couldn't even imagine all will end like this. I just disappointed and this story was broke me on a couple of days. But after I recovered myself, I decided to make this post. I just can't hold it in my soul anymore…

If I got a true apology with something like "yes, I understand how hard to be an artist and how much strength you spent to make arts and comics, so I'm sorry. It was my mistake that I did not tell you" maybe I could allow you to continue to make dubs. But you started to feed me with excuses about how hard that was for you. You totally forgot about my feelings. I don't have any hate to you, David. And I don't call people to hate you for what you've done. I just told them my story. Maybe you lied some of them as you done with me, and now they will decide what to do by themselves. But think about it and stop acting like this to people. Please.

Dear voice actors, I begging you – please, ask permissions before making dubs, talk with artists about all the issues. Ask them about monetization, about their characters, credits, etc. Please, respect their feelings and make a good things! I love dubs and I'm always want to support good dubbers, so don't play with feelings of people. We're doing are best to make a cool stories which you could dub. And some of us ready to pay you for this. Because you’re bring some good vibes with your dubs when you making them with love and desire.

Dear artists – be careful with some kind of offers. Talk with dubbers and ask them about everything. Do not be shy to make it, and if you don't like something – tell them about it before it's too late. Don't be such a softie like I was.

Guys, do not be a dicks, respect each other and try to become better on the next year. Artists, comic dubbers – y'all great while you respect the work of each other. We all have hard work, so be good people and don't lie to anybody. Thank you for your attention, Marry Chrysler and happy holidays!

[tinyteenia]

Siren’s: Analysis

 Hello, here’s my first Lore Post for Borderlands. I’ve been pretty silent in the fandom, only playing the games and whatnot.

Warning: Spoilers for ALL three main games below!

In Borderlands, as we all know, are magical beings that can use their powers depending on which ones they have. The origins of the humanoid siren is sort-of unknown but assumedly they come from Eridians which aren’t humanoid but the power was passed on and that’s still how it is. It’s possible that all Sirens can choose their successor, we see that Maya and Angel have chosen one and we can see that it’s pretty direct too. As soon as one Siren dies, the powers can be passed on. There can only be 7 Sirens at a time, why this is hasn’t been stated or probably never will. Before 3, we were told 6 Sirens could be in existence at a time but as Nyriad reveals in 3...

“You must never find the seventh...”

Now, despite all the speculation that can be done. To try and find the 7th Siren would probably be impossible for its a character that’s yet to be revealed or is so obscure to guess them would seem rash and sort of silly, especially with the amount of characters who barely have any background. Not to mention it’s made to sound like they’re hidden in some sort and have never been seen.

Now before we move on, let’s get deeper into what is a Siren. So... What is a Siren? Well, outside of Borderlands, Sirens are:

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. 

According to Plato there were three kinds of Sirens: the celestial, the generative, and the purificatory / cathartic. The first were under the government of Zeus, the second under that of Poseidon, and the third of Hades. When the soul is in heaven the Sirens seek, by harmonic motion, to unite it to the divine life of the celestial host; and when in Hades, to conform the soul to eternal infernal regimen; but when on earth their only job to "produce generation, of which the sea is emblematic". (Source)

However, it’s confusing since this doesn’t seem to fit any of Sirens. They don’t generate themselves with kin, purify anything(as we know) aren’t really celestial beings by this definition. You could say they are celestial due to the magical background, nevertheless it’s possible this connection is yet to be revealed. The Borderlands manual guide and Nyriad says that Sirens have also been called “Witches”, “Oracles” and “Angels” as well that “No official term exists” however by Borderlands 3 that seems that every term has been used for thousands, if not millions of years. Siren being the most common.

In the games and comics, however, Sirens are being of unknown origin, typically female, that have powers based upon certain things such as creating physical attacks, moving things, teleportation, machine manipulation and leeching power/life. At some time in the distant past, Sirens and Eridians lived side by side, possibly due to their similarity in ability. Sirens also have Tattoos/Markings on their body which singles them out especially. Another obscure and rarely seen ability is the ability to imprint memories and events onto objects via strong emotion such as excitement and trauma.

Some extra things about Sirens is that they and the vaults are definitely connected, Lilith even says she feels as if the Guardians wanted her to be in the Vault in the Pre-Sequel. What this connection is has not been revealed as even in 3, despite visiting many vaults, nothing happens any of the Sirens in the game that visit them despite the number of Sirens and Vaults being numerous, Sirens can also charge Vault Keys, making them usable. Another thing is that all Sirens typically find each other at some point, furthermore all Sirens will at one point be drawn onto Pandora at some point in their lives and it seems that point is true as every Siren, minus the 7th(as we know) have visited Pandora. All Sirens also have wings, usually in a very powerful form. Lastly, to use their powers more effectively, Sirens use Eridium. However, using Eridium is like a Drug, normal use is fine however, one can become addicted or even dependent on it to the point of death from withdrawal depending on the intake. Angel is so dependent once her source is removed, she dies. Lilith seems to just be mildly addicted, needing it and showing obvious signs of withdrawal. 

Then, let’s talk about each Siren in the Series.

Sirens

(The below list and subsequent descriptions of each Siren will have spoilers regarding Borderlands 2 and 3, including some very important moments, do not go below if you do not wish to be spoiled on Borderlands 2 and 3.)

Here is a list of every mentioned/shown Siren, minus the Comics for apparently they are considered non-canon:

Lilith

Commandant Steele

Maya

Amara

Angel

Nyriad

Troy Calypso

Tyreen Calypso

Patricia Tannis

Ava

Lilith

The Original Siren as some would say, she first appears in Borderlands 1 as the playable Siren class, she holds the Phasewalk ability, aka teleportation. Nothing spectacular about her happens in 1, in 2 she is a leader of the resistance against Handsome Jack and regularly takes action in fighting with you. Lilith says in the Tiny Tina DLC that she used to be a DND nerd, which means she was probably an outcast from society especially due to her tattoos and interests and she was bullied as a child. In Borderlands 3, her powers are taken by Tyreen for the majority of the game and gets them back by the end. At the end, Lilith flies into Sun, saving Elpis and Pandora, her Phoenix symbol embedded into the planet. However, it is never said if Lilith is dead or alive, leaving it up to be a mystery. So whether Phasewalk will return as the next Siren’s powers is unknown.

Lilith’s name shares the her name with the true first Woman in Judeo-Christian lore, however she was turned into a demon and is closely regarded in evil.

Commandant Steele

Steele is considered the main antagonist of Borderlands 1, however, her appearance is extremely short-lived and to say she was dissatisfactory would be an understatement. Steele’s design closely resembles Lilith’s older design, which isn’t surprising. Her power is unknown and could be anything but Phasewalk. She also awakens the Destroyer or at least a part of it.

The only notable things about Steele is she proves(or is the first to prove) that Sirens can be on the wrong side. While this isn’t surprising, it’s juxtaposed to most Sirens that are on the quote-onto-quote Good Side and that the only things all Sirens share is fate to meet each other at some point. She also speaks in a Slavic accent.

Maya

Maya is the playable Siren Class in Borderlands 2. She’s from the planet Athenas and was used against the people of the planet to keep them in fear. However, she learned of the scheme and killed the religious leaders and then came to Pandora to become a Vault Hunter, during boarding the train she catches the view of Krieg who becomes infatuated with her. Maya’s Siren power is Phaselock, being able to create gravitational pulls and force to levitate things and people.

In Borderlands 3, Maya plays a more important role mentoring the young Ava and has chosen her as her heir of Maya’s Siren powers. She says Ava seems special and it’s not said why this is or revealed why, yet at least.

Maya is killed when Ava goes to the first Vault despite Maya telling her not to. Unbeknownst to anyone, Tyreen and Troy have already come to the Vault. Troy ends up leeching Maya and takes her powers, which kills her. Why this killed Maya and not Lilith isn’t entirely clear.

Amara

Amara is the playable Siren Class in Borderlands 3, she is from the Planet of Partali and due to her nature of fighting against evil she has been dubbed the “Tiger of Partali”. Her Siren power is Phasetrance, she is able to summon physical forms of energy to attack. She has no real importance to the Siren story so far other than sharing attributes with other Sirens.

Angel

Angel is an interesting character as she was in Borderlands one and plays a much different perspective of character. In Borderlands one she practically acts as an A.I guide to prevent the opening of the Vault and furthermore, the release of The Destroyer. However, the ultimate goal is getting Eridium from the Vault so that it can fuel Handsome Jack’s plans to feed Angel’s Phaseshift powers which allows her to interact with any technology she can and manipulate it thusly.

In her Childhood, Angel learned she was a Siren at a young age and began to manipulate the tech around her. One day, she was kidnapped and was going to be sold. Handsome Jack, her father and Angel’s mother can to rescue her and by accident, Angel killed her mother after activating a turret out of fear. This lead to Jack keeping Angel in solitude in fear she’ll kill more people. This fear of course is irrational as when Angel got older she was able to control her emotions.

In Borderlands 2, Angel acts the same as her role in Borderlands 1. However, this time she helps the Vault Hunters much more and even turns against her father in the end. Nearing the end of the game she has the characters assist her from being removed from her Eridium supply, killing her. Her death leads to Patricia Tannis getting her powers, when this decision was made or why is never explained.

Nyriad

Nyriad is an Ancient Siren, presumably human. She lived along the Eridians and seemed to know a lot about Sirens in general, meaning that this knowledge was probably more well known and supposedly lost to time. It is also said she is one of the last to learn the Eridian Language directly from the Eridians.

Nyriad used her powers to seal the Fake Vault that holds The Destroyer and fed The Destroyer all of the Eridian souls so that it made be satiated, even for a while. After this, she traveled to Nekrotafeyo and sealed herself and her ability to pass on her powers. However, when Typhon DeLeon and his wife opened the Vault, it caused his wife to transfer Nyriads Phaseleech ability to Tyreen and Troy.

Nyriad also left behind many recordings across the Borderlands using the Eridian Language, revealing that the Sirens used to form a “Sisterhood” where they would all come and join together even if one died, the next Siren is said to have always found her way to the Sisterhood.

Troy and Tyreen Calypso

Troy and Tyreen are a special kind of Siren. Tyreen is obviously the main Siren, however, Troy being a parasitical twin also gained Siren powers being possibly the first and only Male Siren. They are the Children of Typhon DeLeon and his wife and were born of Necrotafeya. Their powers initially are Phaseleech which allows them to leech the power and life from anyone they come in contact with and subsequently use their powers against. They inherited their powers from Nyriad.

During Borderlands 3, Tyreen and Troy are the leaders of the Children of the Vault cult, a vicious and murderous cult that obeys the Twin’s every will and command. Their desire is to open the Grand Vault and release The Destroyer and become literal Gods. During the story, they manage to steal Lilith and Maya’s Siren abilities and by the end, Tyreen absorbs Troy and soon Tyreen fuses with The Destroyer, but is ultimately killed.

Whether or not Phaseleech will be the ability of the next Siren character is unknown, but without many others left. It’s to be assumed.

Patricia Tannis

Tannis is a long-running character in the franchise. She’s an Autistic researcher and now Siren. Her ability is Phaseshift and inherits it from Angel. Nothing about Tannis being a Siren or before her status as a Siren is important. However, she is very intelligent and does take action when necessary. It seems by the end of Borderlands 3 she has become an incredibly important character as she is essentially the new Lilith.

Before Borderlands 3, she was alone at a research site which lead her to become delusional and psychotic.

During Borderlands 3, she unleashes her Siren powers after being contained and is able to save the Vault Hunter.

Ava

Ava is the pupil of Maya who has chosen for Ava to be her heir of the Phaselock ability. Ava became a pupil after Ava’s family died, Ava became a Ship Stowaway and soon lived in extreme poverty.

In Borderlands 3, Ava is a very immature characters, regularly acting out and speaking about how unfair she’s treated due to her age. This is ultimately what would get Maya killed in the events of Borderlands 3. Ava plays a very unimportant role in the game until the events of the second to final Vault where she awakens to her Siren abilities and is able to assist the team.

After this, it seems as if Ava will become a very important character to the Series.

End

Borderlands 3 in particular drew a very important note to Sirens, suggesting their upcoming importance in the near future. Not to mention the way in the Guardian’s Warning in the Pre-Sequel. Something is coming up for the series and it seems Sirens will play a very important role. What that is isn’t even hinted at but I theorize it’ll be something that involves the Vaults, Destroyer and Eridians. This of course is not surprising but to say there’s barely information to guess would be an understatement. 

This post I will admit was just lore spattering and not really theorizing. I will update this post with more thoughts and more information as it is pretty generic “spout of what we already know”. But, I hope you enjoy anyways. I will try to make more Borderlands lore posts in the foreseeable future. Especially character analysis as this series has tons of good characters.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 03/04/2021 (Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO”, Mimi Webb, Russ Millions & Tion Wayne)

So, we have a #1 debut, and that’s pretty much the only story here in the UK Top 75 as we get a filler week before Demi Lovato, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Tjay run in and cause havoc. As for now, “Wellerman” is replaced at the top by Lil Nas X’s controversial “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)”, spending its first week at #1 after making pretty sudden gains assisted by the video and alternate versions – the mid-week projection had this at #15. Elsewhere, we just see the fall-out from Bieber. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

It’s a quiet week – only seven new entries, and none from Rod Wave, 24kGoldn or AJR as I had predicted. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some stuff to talk about within the chart, or particularly off of the chart, as we have a fair few drop-outs switching their places with returning entries. In particular, we have Justin Bieber’s “As I Am” featuring Khalid being swapped out for “Anyone” at #25, as well as drop-outs for “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence – slightly premature, I’d think – and all of Lana Del Rey’s songs from last week. We also “Anxious” by AJ Tracey, “Heat” by Paul Woodford and Amber Mark and “Toxic” by Digga D exit the chart, but the only real notable loss was “34+35” by Ariana Grande ending its 21-week run on the chart. Returning to the Top 75 in its place – which I cover – we have “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers of course at #73, as well as “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus at #72, “You’ve Done Enough” by Gorgon City and DRAMA at #70 (really hope this one becomes a hit) and “Don’t You Worry About Me” by Bad Boy Chiller Crew at #66. In terms of climbers and fallers, we do have some notable gains and losses. For songs travelling down the chart, we have “Patience” by KSI featuring YUNGBLUD and Polo G tanking a sharp drop in its third week to #18, “Streets” by Doja Cat shaking off the video gains at #22, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo continuing to collapse at #27, another sharp drop for HVME’s remix of Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps” down to #34 probably due to ACR, which was probably the fate for “Get Out My Head” by Shane Codd at #46. The same probably can’t be said for Drake’s losses, as “What’s Next” is at #40, “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” featuring Rick Ross is at #41 and “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby stalls at #55. We also see falls for “Money Talks” by Fredo and Dave at #50, “Bringing it Back” by Digga D and AJ Tracey at #51, “Sweet Melody” by Little Mix on its way out at #57, “Headshot” by Lil Tjay featuring Polo G and Fivio Foreign down to #61 off the debut (although it’ll rebound thanks to the album as soon as the next week rolls around), “Ready” by Fredo featuring Summer Walker at #62, “You’re Mines Still” by Yung Bleu featuring Drake at #63 and “Day in the Life” by Central Cee at #69. Where it gets interesting are our gains, such as outside the top 40 with “What Other People Say” by Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer which could very well get even higher next week thanks to the album. We also have “Track Star” by Mooski at #53 off of the debut and a couple of tracks entering the top 40 for the first time, those being “Heartbreak Anniversary” by Giveon at #39 and Majestic’s remix of “Rasputin” by Boney M. at #38. Elsewhere in the top 40, we have “Let’s Go Home Together” by Ella Henderson and Tom Grennan at #13 and two songs marking their first week in the top 10, those being “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #10, a song continuing to sour on me, and “Your Love (9PM)” by ATB, Topic and A7S, an EDM song at #8 that I initially mocked for its soulless repackaging but has honestly got me pretty hooked since. I’m excited to see how this one does. For now, however, let’s get on with our new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#64 – “Cloud 9” – Beach Bunny

Produced by Joe Reinhart

Beach Bunny is a power pop band who last year released their album Honeymoon on Mom+Pop and it’s basically a modern r/indieheads staple in that it’s an accessible, airy pop-rock record fronted by a woman. It’s not anything unique, really, or different if you look further into it but that’s fine because there’s a lot of vaguely “indie” or music snob releases pushed out every year that miss the charts entirely. It’s a different story, however, when a year later, it gets viral on TikTok and streams its way onto the chart. In that case, we have “Cloud 9” by Beach Bunny, a pretty simple but sweet love song about a guy who just makes her feel a lot better about herself in times where she can’t pick herself up from the rut she’s in. Again, it’s a simple track but enhanced by the wonderful and unique vocal performance from front-woman Lili Trifilo and some pretty great production making sure no guitar lick is missed in this mix, especially in that chorus which is such an ethereal blend of the electric guitar dubs. I would argue that this actually should end at that second chorus even if it ends feeling abrupt as the transition to the final chorus feels a lot less cathartic than it does awkward, especially if the bridge is going to be a simplistic, quirky instrumental meander that doesn’t go far enough to be a guitar solo and hence feels kind of like a worthless addition. As is, this is a pretty great song still, just not the most fully realised once it loses that initial tight surf groove, though I’ll let it pass if we’re going to get rock this good on the charts again. I know this won’t really get more traction for Beach Bunny – or power pop for that matter – but more of this, please.

#52 – “You All Over Me” (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) (Remix) (feat. DaBaby) (Part 2) (Radio Edit) – Taylor Swift featuring Maren Morris

Produced by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner

Sadly, this does not feature DaBaby and is not the remix, radio edit or sequel to any previously released song. Jokes aside, I guess brackets are the next big comeback for pop music, which goes hand-in-hands with remixes and re-releases, hence why Taylor Swift is dusting off this leaked Fearless-era cut for a new recording with country singer Maren Morris, who you probably know from her contributions to Zedd’s “The Middle”. Now whilst Swift is a great songwriter, I do often find myself frustrated by how she treads common ground all too frequently without establishing much different with how a song is structured or how it emotionally connects. This is true not just lyrically but especially sonically as of recent, as despite being written in 2008, it has too much in common with the less interesting cuts off of folklore for me to really care that much. That’s especially if Taylor’s going to undercut the clean acoustic guitars with flourishes of harmonica and crow sound effects, showing some genuine intrigue here before refusing to let any of that develop past a couple stray melodies or notes further back in the mix. I’m trying really hard to be compelled by these re-recordings and re-releases of her back catalogue as I do consider myself a fan, but it’s tough to pay attention when any new compositions we get sound like folklore leftovers with Maren Morris only put to use as decoration, much like HAIM on “no body, no crime” – and we already got an album full of folklore leftovers. I’m not a fan of this, sorry – I can see the appeal, and I do think this has enough of a country tinge to it to make it at least somewhat interesting – but this goes in one ear and immediately out of the other.

#48 – “Tonight” – Ghost Killer Track featuring OBOY and D-Block Europe

Produced by Ghost Killer Track and Kenzy

Screw the formalities and screw the analysis because D-Block Europe are back to add another D-Block to their EU collection – and since they’re Londoners, their only – and that’s Paris, and contrary to the British nature, we’ve let French rap chart in the top 50 out of the fact that they collaborated with two of the most comical rappers in British history. They’ve also linked up with producer Ghost Killer Track, also from France, as this is ostensibly his song even if he intends not to prove himself with this dull piano-based beat and oddly-mastered bass and percussion, which are really just DBE staples. Unfortunately, past the initial comedy of that first line in the chorus, neither Young Adz or Dirtbike LB deliver any stupid lyrics or funny inflections, instead just resorting to being as boring as they can in their constant flexing as possible. I guess the French guy here, OBOY, commands a higher energy in his verse if only through his comical “no, no, no” ad-libs, but he’s the only French speaker in an otherwise basic British trap song that I just cannot see the appeal in when we’ve had song after song from these guys for three years now. This won’t be the last we see of cookie-cutter UK rap this week though so brace yourselves for that.

#47 – “Last Time” – Becky Hill

Produced by LOSTBOY

It’s almost as if the charts are trying to send me off to sleep as here we have Becky Hill, a singer hedging the line between a non-presence and mildly annoying, which is arguably more frustrating than downright infuriating as her slightly smokier voice does not sound bad, just lacking in texture in every way, especially if the multi-tracking is going to be this minimal on a royalty-free deep-house beat produced by Getty Images with a pretty worthless drop, a generic and simple melody of piano stabs for major chords, and a whole bunch of reverb on the vocal take... but it still ends up feeling dry as there’s nothing here to quench that thirst for a tighter, bass-heavy house banger or even a more ethereal, dreamy trance track, deciding to stick to a healthy medium of boring and utter garbage. Yes, that was a singular sentence. I’m not awake enough to form a cohesive sentence less than 40 words long, and this new Becky Hill track is just worsening that if anything. Speaking of...

#21 – “Body” – Russ Millions and Tion Wayne

Produced by Gotcha Bxtch

Who’s Russ Millions? He’s Russ. No, not that Russ. British Russ – or Russ Splash, stylised as Russ splash on Spotify and nowhere else. This confusingly-named fellow appeared on the charts a couple times and possibly most famously with “Keisha & Becky”, a song also featuring Tion Wayne that is referenced on this very track. Sigh, I usually like Tion Wayne but even he can’t be bothered to delivery his usual brand of suave charm or sinister menace, instead opting for a more growling but ultimately completely monotone cadence that doesn’t flatter him or Russ, who one of my friends described as sounding like one of the aliens from Toy Story. This is a pretty by-the-numbers drill beat too, and it’s pretty safe to say that neither Russ or Tion Wayne here are going to bother with wordplay, even when they start pretty smoothly trading bars and Tion Wayne goes for a more unique chopper flow in the second verse. This is just not of any note. Once again, speaking of...

#17 – “Good Without” – Mimi Webb                        

Produced by Freedo

I assumed Mimi Webb debuted this high because of a talent show she won or something because I’d never heard her name but instead, she just happened to have a major label deal before her unreleased song just happened to go viral on TikTok and just happened to be supported by one of the women who just happened to be the biggest creator on the platform. Yeah, and this song just happened to be garbage, suffering from every possible millennial pop trope and then some, from the mix dressed rather too overtly in reverb, the ugly guitar pluck, a generic indie-girl voice that you swear you’ve heard before in one of those dreadful piano covers of popular songs they use in adverts, as well as this ballad being undercut by badly-programmed trap percussion. I can tell this label is trying to create somewhat of an Olivia Rodrigo phenomenon from this and I for one am terrified of the Poundland knock-offs to come. Screw this.

#1 – “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)” – Lil Nas X

Produced by Roy Lenzo, Omar Fedi and Take a Daytrip

At least Lil Nas X will bring some passion into this chart week? Well, not really, as when I hear this I recall that Pitchfork review of his EP, a much-maligned critique that featured the ever-so pretentious questioning if Lil Nas X really enjoyed making and listening to music. It reminds me because I think I now fully get it – at least when Lil Nas X was making slap-dash pop rock with Travis Barker or meme-worthy country rap with Billy Ray Cyrus for less than two minutes apiece, there was something invigorating in the execution or at least in concept. That 7 EP is still not a bad debut at all, but this new single “MONTERO”, a long-anticipated record that went from constantly-teased demo to Super Bowl commercial to Satanic-panicked videos of Lil Nas giving Satan a lap-dance to own the conservatives, has the same remote dreariness to it as “HOLIDAY” did late last year. The acoustic, Latin-flavoured guitar loop reminds me of his much better track “Rodeo” from that aforementioned EP that used its energy for similarly lighthearted subject matter but with some genuine energy, a Cardi B feature and a lot less subtle moombahton creeping in. With that said, I can’t say Lil Nas X didn’t try, as his vocal performance, whilst largely insufferable and strained, gives some energy to an otherwise aggravatingly stunted beat, and makes it a lot more infectious than it has any right to be. Content-wise, the song is essentially about a full circle where Lil Nas X becomes increasingly desperate for a man who starts off lonely and in a bad place, and the irony is that Lil Nas gets more explicitly sexual and crazed due to a combination of the LA life-style surrounding him and the fact that he’s simply, for lack of a better term, “down bad”, despite the fact that this guy doesn’t seem particularly desirable. Lil Nas knows this, though, and acknowledges it in the pre-chorus where he outright says that this guy is living the cocaine-addled celebrity life, but not living it right without Mr. Bullriding and Boobies in his life. I’m happy about the video and the outrage it seems to cause not just within conservative spaces but also amongst the hip-hop community, particularly Joyner Lucas, and I’m pretty happy with how out and proud Lil Nas X is about his sexuality, even if it leads to lines like “Shoot a child in your mouth while I’m ridin’”. I’m just really not a fan of this song past its content, which could really be interesting but falls flat with this plucking production that wastes time in barely two minutes with humming interludes. It’s not bad at all, just not for me.

Conclusion

And that concludes our week, and wow, what a bad week this was for new arrivals. Admittedly, it’s a filler week so only “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)” will probably last – or at least we can hope as even if I don’t like the song, I still have to give out an Honourable Mention to someone, and it may as well be Lil Nas X trying to put the effort in. Best of the Week easily goes to Beach Bunny for “Cloud 9”, far and away the only good song here, with Worst of the Week also going out pretty easily to Mimi Webb’s “Good Without”, which is the type of soulless, unmemorable garbage that makes pop music look uninspired, and as a person who writes about the charts constantly, it’s a misconception I don’t want proven or revisited. Dishonourable Mention is a toss-up but I guess I’ll give it to Russ Millions and Tion Wayne for that sprinkle of drill disappointment that is “Body”, and that’ll be it for this week. I predict some impact from Demi Lovato, Lil Tjay and especially Olivia Rodrigo next week, but for now, here’s our top 10:

Thank you for reading – sorry for the grouchiness on this one – and I’ll see you next week!

[araminakilla]

Again, almost nobody knows this movie or the franchise, but I found a really intriguing description of the third movie of Tadeo Jones:

https://letterboxd.com/film/tad-the-lost-explorer-and-the-mummys-curse/

"Tad would love for his archeologist colleagues to accept him as one of their own, but he always messes everything up. Tad accidentally destroys a sarcophagus and unleashes an ancient spell endangering the lives of his friends: Mummy, Jeff and Belzoni. With everyone against him and only helped by Sara, he sets off on an adventure that will take him from Mexico to Chicago and from Paris to Egypt, in order to put an end to the curse of the Mummy."

And before asking if the link is true and not fake, the answer is: I don't know BUT there was a case I remember about all the sinopsis of the second movie saying that Sara was kidnapped by an evil rich guy. That's it, those well known pages said he was a rich guy, but there was this little page I found (sorry I got no link of it) that said the evil rich guy's name was Jack Rackham. At first I didn't believe it until some months later where the new sinopsis said that was indeed his name. In conclusion, I take that plot of the third movie as official until proved wrong.

Today in this post I will analyse the sinopsis and give my opinion of it.

"Tad would love for his archeologist colleagues to accept him as one of their own, but he always messes everything up."

We start good with this. It's already confirmed that is the problem with Tadeo. I assume that he has graduated and become an archeologist by this point, and the plot makes it sound like the new guy trying to be with the cool kids of the group, but failing miserably because of him being clumsy or him breaking something, which leads us to...

"Tad accidentally destroys a sarcophagus and unleashes an ancient spell..."

No surprise here, I told you he is clumsy. This is interesting because the Spanish plot says he encounters an egyptian mummy, but this says he breaks her sarcophagus, if I were a mummy I would be pretty angry too, enough to put a curse on anyone who did that. But there's a catch, it says that it was an ancient spell, so it was planned for some poor unfortunate soul who is dumb enough to annoy a female mummy. If nobody knew about this curse until the lady mummy broke free I understand but if not, Tad... WHY WERE YOU EVEN TOUCHING THAT THING!? Ahem, sorry. Then there's this part:

"...endangering the lives of his friends: Mummy, Jeff and Belzoni."

First of all, it seems that the curse works only for the friends of the offender, not the tresspaser himself. Clever move, in my opinion. Some people say friends are your biggest treasure so maybe the egyptians mummies in this movie thought that if humans take away their material tresaures, they will take their emotional ones. But Sara is not affected, maybe because she wasn't there in the moment or because she was the damsel in distress in the second movie so I'm glad that she isn't in danger again.

As for Tad's friends, Jeff and Belzoni just happen to change heads in the concept art, making many pet shenanigans so they will be fine (unless their lifes are in danger if they don't make it in time and they eventualy die because they don't have their respective heads, but that's too dark for a family movie). I'm more worried about our Mummy, the Inca Mummy who not only he already has a curse imposed into him about 500 years ago, but now he gets ANOTHER ONE all because his best friend made a mistake. Talk about bad luck. But that's not all, he gets transformed into a well known monster in the egyptian pantheon. The creature devourer of souls called Ammit. This Godness (yeah, she's female... so Mummy is going to become one too?) is among the most feared monsters to the egyptians (she doesn't have wings but hey, wings are cool so nevermind that) It's possible that like what happened in the movie "Brave" with Elinor and Mordu, our Mummy will begin to lose his human side/soul (or what little he has) and become a heartless soul eater monster. This will be the life that is in more danger. He could lose the little he has of his humanity, that's just cruel and unfair!

Now we get to the best part:

"With everyone against him and only helped by Sara... "

Wait Wait WAIT. What is this? According to a concept art, Tad travels with Sara, the pets and both the Inca and Egyptian mummies. So what happened? Is this a spoiler to a part of the movie where Tad only has Sara's help? I mean, it's obvious that the lady mummy doesn't like the explorer but what happened to his friend/brother Mummy? I have many theories but those are the more possible:

1) He was influenced by the egyptian mummy to leave him and Sara: Maybe the lady is a female fatale and one of the antagonists of the movie (not the main one, that title goes to a human woman apparently) and convinces him that the humans will betray them and only they can lift the curse without anyone's help.

2) He begins to show a more animalistic side as the curse grows and decides to leave the group to protect them: Having little control over his body leaves Mummy powerless to stop himself from hurting his only friends and decides to leave them for the best, which only would make more conflict because great not only we have to arrive to Egypt before the third day or whatever, but now we have to add finding a leopard/hippo/cocodrile monster being to the list.

3) The Mummies are captured by the bad guys: And it's the job of Tad and Sara to free them before the curse becomes irreversible.

Or the most possible one:

4) Tad "betrays" Mummy and the monster leaves the explorer to find a way to lift the curse himself:

It's more likely that Tadeo wants to be a famous archeologist. The question is: How far he will go to archive this? What discoveries or secrets will he reveal to have the respect and admiration of his fellow archeologists?

I didn't think this before, but Tad is basically best friends/brothers with probably the most important and prized discovery of all time. How this fact is going to affect their friendship? Maybe Mummy starts to notice this, or maybe Tad exclaims without thinking "I wish you stayed in Paititi!" in front of the bad guys or other people. This will bring back the promise for the first movie and it's sure Mummy will leave Tadeo for a moment, because I'm sure he will be back somehow (this is Tadeo Jones, not The Fox and the Hound after all)

And the last part of the sinopsis:

"...he sets off on an adventure that will take him from Mexico to Chicago and from Paris to Egypt, in order to put an end to the curse of the Mummy."

Why Mexico if the Mummy in question is an egyptian? I have a theory: Ratings. Latinoamerica is the place where the Tad movies have more reception (good reception) and Mexico is the country that made a lot of money probably because Belinda dubs Sara. Other country is Peru because the first movie was about this place. So I think they want to please the Mexicans by showing their country but... Wasn't a better idea to have the mummy being an Aztecan? That way she would have more common things with the Inca mummy as both cultures ended with the Conquistadors (and Pizarro and Cortés were actually distant cousins, weird but true) but oh well they want to go the Egypt.

After Mexico we have Chicago, where Tad lives. I think they are going to the museum Tad went in the first movie to see his profesor friend.

So wait... Does that mean Incan Mummy and the lady Mummy are going to see all the frozen mummies in that exhibition? Wow, that's actually dark (but kind of hilarous if they both scream)

And finally we have Paris. I'm betting they are going there for the Louvre Museum which has the form of a pyramid. And Paris is know as the city of love which... Yeah... I can see this is where both mummies fall in love or something (I don't like this idea, it's very cliche but this is kind of a cliche franchise so... yeah)

About the bad guys and what they want... I have no idea, only that it's probably a woman.

And that's all I got for this sinopsis. Again, I'm sure everyone will scroll over this but I wanted to get all of this out of my head.

I'm glad that Tad's Mummy is going to become a very, very important character in this third movie according to one of the directors, so that means he's going to become more than just some "comic relief"

[starryknight09]

Unforeseen dangers ch. 4

Summary:  As Peter recovers from his capture by Ross, a photo of him with Tony and the Avengers leaks and is splashed all across the media. Luckily, no one can figure out who he is and everyone thinks the buzz will die down. However, the public’s interest has been ignited. While Tony worries it’s only a matter of time before Peter’s identity is exposed, Peter isn’t as concerned. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen anyway?

Read on AO3.

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A knock sounded on Peter’s bedroom door just as he finished the last equation of the problem set in front of him.

“Kid, can I come in?” Tony’s voice came from the other side of the door.

“Sure.” He answered.

His dad walked in, a tense expression on his face.  He wondered if it was from the same thing that’d put a similar look on Pepper’s face.

“Doing your math homework?” Tony asked when he got close enough to see the open textbook and the sheet of paper with the completed problem set to the side of it.

Peter nodded.  “I just finished it.”

Tony ruffled his hair.  “Want me to check your answers?”

“No I got it.” Peter said, trying to fix his mussed up curls.

His dad watched him fondly for a moment, amusement warring with worry on his face.

Peter frowned.  “Is everything ok?”

“Everything’s fine,” Tony answered quickly, “but there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Peter’s heart leaped to his throat.  Had Tony figured out Peter’s plan to change his name?  Was he unhappy about it?  But how had he found out?  Pepper wouldn’t have told.  Had someone else?  Or was it just his dad’s uncanny ability to somehow know everything that happened in his Tower?  Maybe FRIDAY had squealed?

“Um what-what’s up?” He asked, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt.

His dad sighed, sliding his homework off to the side so there was a clear spot on his desk where he could sit down.

“Watch any TV recently?” Tony asked.

Peter blinked.  That was not at all what he’d been expecting.

“Um I watched a few episodes of Love it or List it last night.”

“I thought I told you that show would rot your brain.”

“I like it.”

Tony shook his head with a sigh, but Peter could tell he didn’t actually care.

“What about today?  Did you watch anything today?”

“No.  Why?  Did something happen?”  Had some sort of world catastrophe occurred that he was unaware of?

“Yes…and no.” Tony answered.

“Wow that’s cryptic.” Peter joked, trying to lighten the solemn mood that’d fallen over his room.  “Are you actually going to tell me or am I supposed to guess?”

Tony took a deep breath as if to bolster himself before he answered, “Someone leaked a photo.”

“Ok…” That answer was just as vague.

“A photo of us.”

Peter’s mouth fell open as he tried to absorb the words and what they meant.  “What?  But who would—?  When did—?”  He could only get out clipped, incomplete fragments, but his dad seemed to understand all the same.  

“Some government aide leaked the photo of us together on the couch after the Accords signing.  The press is having a heyday with it.” Tony answered.

Peter winced.  Oh.  That was bad.

Tony continued, “It’s playing on all the major network stations.  Everyone wants to know who you are and what your connection is to me.”

Peter frowned, staring blankly at his math homework for a moment as he tried to process the news.

“What-what does this mean?” He asked, looking up to meet Tony’s worried eyes.

Tony licked his lips and answered slowly, “It means…we’re going to have to be a lot more careful in the future to not be seen together.”

“But why?  If they already know who I am?” Peter didn’t really understand.  Why did they need to be careful if the cat was already out of the bag?  

“No.  They don’t know.” His dad shook his head.  “The photo isn’t very good quality.  I can barely tell it’s you.  They just know I was sitting with some kid.”

Peter scrunched his nose, not really loving that description.  “So what are we going to do about it?”

“Nothing.  We’re going to do nothing and let it run its course and eventually it’ll die down.  We’re not telling anyone who you are or what your relationship with me is.  But like I said, we’re going to have to be careful.  We can’t go out in public together for the time being.  One good photo and they might be able to figure out who you are.”

“And that would be bad.” He said, but it came out more as a question.

Tony frowned as he answered, “Yes Peter, that would be bad.  If the press found out you were my son, they’d hound you nonstop, and it wouldn’t be for only a couple weeks.  It’d be forever.  The unfortunate curse of being a Stark.”  

Peter swallowed hard, thinking of the paperwork he’d just signed to officially make himself a Stark.

“And that wouldn’t even be the worst part.” Tony explained, looking stricken.  “Certain people might see you as a tool they could use to try to get to me.  You’d never be safe, and I don’t want that for you.”

“They could try,” Peter smiled, trying to reassure his dad, “but I’m Spiderman.  I’m not so easy to get to.”

“Don’t underestimate the crazies.” Tony shook his head.  “It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”

“So, if we’re not going to do anything about it, then why are you telling me?” He asked.

“Because I want you in the loop.  In case things come up or go wrong, I want you to know how serious it could be.”

“Ok.  I guess that makes sense.” Peter’s brow furrowed as another thought struck him.  “Wait.  Is this the emergency Pepper got called back to deal with?”

Tony nodded.  

Peter immediately felt guilty.  Because of him, because of something to do with him, Pepper had needed to run back to work to deal with the fallout.

Tony must’ve seen the guilt on his face.  “Don’t worry kid.  Compared to some of the things I’ve put her through, this is nothing.  And the game plan’s simple.  We’re doing nothing.  We’re not confirming or denying anything or making a statement.  It’s literally no extra work for Pep.”

“I don’t know.” Peter mumbled.   “She looked pretty stressed.”

Tony waved a hand in dismissal.  “She’ll be fine.  Believe me.  The woman’s as tough as nails.”

That got a smile out of him.  “I know.”

“Good.” His dad ruffled his hair again and he groaned in fake complaint.  “You’re done with your homework, right?”

“Yeah.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.  He’d done the problem set he’d been working on, but he still had a mountain load to do by the end of winter break.

“What do you say we go down to the workshop and work on the new updates to my suit?”

“I’m in.” He stood, always eager to work on the Ironman armor.

Tony got off the desk and wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they walked out of his room and to the workshop together.  It should’ve been comforting but Peter still didn’t feel completely at ease.  Even though Tony had tried to reassure him, he couldn’t shake the troubled look on his dad’s face from his mind.

“Hey Ned.” Peter answered his phone as he laid on his mattress.  Tony had sent him to bed an hour ago but he still hadn’t been able to fall asleep.  The phone call was a welcome interruption from staring at the ceiling.

“Dude you’re on TV!  You’re famous!” Ned erupted in excitement.

Peter groaned and rubbed his eyes.

“Have you seen the news?  Like literally everyone is talking about you.  I’m friends with a celebrity!”

“I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve heard.” Peter sighed.  “And no one can know it’s me Ned.  You have to keep it to yourself.  You can’t even tell your parents, got it?”

“Oh man.” Ned whined.  “Are you serious?”

“Yes.  I mean it.” Peter reiterated.  “Tony will flip if someone finds out that I’m the one in the picture.”

“You don’t think someone’s going to figure it out?”

“I don’t know.  Tony didn’t seem to think so.  I guess it’s not that great of a picture.”

Ned hummed.  “Yeah it is pretty blurry.  I might not have even known it was you except I knew it was you.”

Peter snorted.

“That sucks though dude.  I thought I was going to be famous by proxy.” Ned said with disappointment.

Peter grinned.  “I don’t think it works that way.”

“I already had an awesome tag line idea for my twitter.”

“Uh huh.”

“Do you want to hear it?”

“Sure.  Why not?”

“It was going to be, ‘Best friend of Ironkid.  Friend of the Avengers.’  What do you think?”

“I think maybe keep working on it.” Peter laughed.  “And my name wouldn’t be Ironkid.”

“Are you kidding?  The media’s not all that creative.  If they found out you were Ironman’s kid I’m pretty sure they’d dub you Ironkid.”

Peter made a face in disgust.  “Oh god I hope not.  That’s reason enough to make sure they don’t find out.”

Ned laughed over the phone.

“So I guess for now I have to stick with secretly being Spiderman’s guy in the chair?”

“And Peter Parker’s best friend.  Sorry.”

“It’s all right.  I like that role better anyway.” Peter could hear Ned’s honest smile in his voice.  “Besides, we both know I probably do better work behind the scenes than out in the spotlight.”

“Yeah and it might sound fun at first, but it would totally suck to not be able to go anywhere without being recognized.”

“Yeah you’re right.  Although, I bet we could get some sweet Comic-Con tickets if people knew who you were.”

“Tony can get those for us anyway.”  Peter rolled his eyes.  “And if no one knows who I am, we can go and not get mobbed, and actually have fun.”

“I guess you have a point.” Ned agreed.

Peter heard muffled voices coming from across the speaker of Ned’s phone.

“Um sorry dude but my mom says I have to go to bed.” Ned said.  “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Ok.  Good night Ned.” Peter said with a smile.

“Good night.”

Peter plugged his phone back into the charger and set it on the nightstand.  Fatigue leadened his eyelids, and he closed his eyes as he settled into his soft pillows.  Talking to Ned had at least helped him finally destress.  Sleep was no longer so hard to find.

“How does that feel?” Ross sneered at him as he stabbed a knife straight into his thigh.

Peter couldn’t hold back a cry of pain.  He instinctively tried to grab the offending object but he couldn’t move his arms.  They were tied behind him as he sat helpless in a chair.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Ross said with grim pleasure as he slowly twisted the knife.

It burned.  Electric shocks of agony danced through his leg.

“Stop.” He moaned and crumpled forward at his waist, but he only had enough slack to make it a few inches.

Ross snorted in amusement.

“You want me to stop?  Oh no.  We’re just getting started.” Ross said and ripped the knife out of his leg.  It hurt almost as much as getting stabbed in the first place and Peter cried out again.  He panted as blood bubbled from the wound, too much too fast.

Ross leaned forward and placed the edge of the blood coated knife on his bare chest.

“No.” He pleaded.  “Please.”

The corner of Ross’s lip twisted up in a crazed smile and he pressed down.

Peter watched as blood flowed out and around the knife as it carved into his skin.

“No!” He tried to thrash away but he couldn’t as Ross trailed the knife across his chest to form a burning line of red.

Peter couldn’t help it.  He was crying now.  It hurt.  And there was so much blood dripping down his chest and out of his leg.  He was going to die.  Oh god.  Ross wasn’t going to stop.  He was going to keep going until he slowly killed him.

The man placed the knife a couple inches below the line of open skin and repeated the process, forming another crimson line of open flesh.  Peter didn’t want to look but he couldn’t help it.  The cuts were deep enough he thought he could see flashes of white bone underneath.

“Stop.  Stop!  Please.” He begged through his sobs.

Ross ignored him and continued the process, dragging the knife over his skin to make a third line.

Peter screamed.  He didn’t want to die.  He didn’t.

“Help!  Someone please!  Help!” He yelled hoarsely even though he knew it was hopeless.  He was all alone with Ross.

“No one’s coming to save you.” Ross taunted.  “Not even Daddy.”

Peter whimpered at that.  He wanted his dad.  Ross carved another slice across his front.

“Dad!” He screamed this time, clenching his eyes shut at the pain.  He knew it was pointless and that Ross was right.  Tony wasn’t coming to save him, but he couldn’t help instinctively calling for him.  “Dad!  Help!  Please.  Dad!”

Ross gripped his shoulders and gave them a firm shake.  Why had Ross stopped hurting him?  Peter’s eyes snapped open in confusion.

Instead of Ross, all he saw was a darkened figure leaning over him, holding his shoulders.

“You’re all right.” The figure soothed.  Not Ross.  Peter blinked and immediately recognized his dad.  He took in the rest of his surroundings.  He was in his room.  In bed.  He spread a hand across his chest but there was nothing there.  His leg was fine too.  Nothing hurt.  It’d all just been a bad dream.  Ross didn’t have him anymore.  Right.  Tony had saved him.  And Ross was dead.

Tony sat perched on the edge of the bed and Peter wasted no time in sitting up and wrapping his arms around the man.

“You’re all right.” His dad repeated softly into his hair.

Peter closed his eyes and melted into the comfort.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled.  He had no idea what time it was, but Tony was wearing pajamas so Peter knew he’d woken him up.

His dad shushed him and rubbed a hand over his back.

After a long minute of silent comfort, Tony said, “You were calling for me.”

Peter knew it was a question as much as a statement.  His dad was offering him a chance to talk about his dream but he wasn’t going to force it.

“I was back there.” Peter whispered into Tony’s chest.  “Ross had me.”

Tony made a sound of displeasure but Peter continued, “He was hurting me and he wouldn’t stop and I couldn’t get free and no one was coming to save me and I just wanted you.”

“I’m right here.” Tony said, squeezing him even tighter.  “You’re safe.”

“It felt so real.” Peter mumbled.

“It wasn’t.” Tony tangled a hand in the hair at the back of his head.  “You’re not there.  And Ross is gone.  He’ll never hurt you again.”

“I know.  It’s stupid.  I’m sorry.”

“It’s not stupid.” Tony said firmly.  “What you went through was traumatic.  Someone took you, held you hostage, and hurt you.  I’d be surprised if you weren’t having nightmares about it.  Hell, I’m having nightmares about it.”

“You are?” Peter pulled back and saw the truth in his dad’s eyes.

“Yeah.” Tony tried to smile as he palmed his cheek, but he just looked sad.  “Of course.  Someone took you from me and hurt you as a way to get to me.  That’s the very definition of my worst nightmare.”

“Really?”

“Yes.  Really.” Tony rubbed a thumb over his cheek.  “You’re the most important thing to me.  How many times do I have to tell you that before you finally start to believe me?”

“Lots.” Peter said and grinned.  “Maybe because I like to hear it.”

Tony let out a short huff of amusement and dropped the hand on his face so he could ruffle his hair.  “You seem better.”

“Yeah.” He agreed.  He did feel better.  With his dad so close, the fear from his nightmare seemed miles away now instead of lurking in the room.  “Thanks.”

“Think you’ll be able to get back to sleep?” Tony asked.  “It’s still pretty late.”

“I think so.” He said even though he wasn’t sure.  The yawn that escaped him a couple seconds later seemed to contradict his doubts.

Tony nodded and stood, fluffing his pillow for him and then gently guiding him backward to land on it.  Once he was settled, his dad pulled the covers up to his chin and brushed the hair off his forehead before lightly pressing a kiss there.

“Get some sleep.” His dad whispered.

Peter hummed in response, eyes already drifting closed.  He expected to hear the door click shut as Tony walked out, but instead, a few moments later, he felt the other side of his bed tip.  Peter cracked his eyes open and watched with a frown as his dad crawled into the other side of it.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Shh go to sleep.” Tony said, reaching a hand across the space between them to place it briefly over his eyes to close them.  “I’m keeping the nightmares away.”

“Mine or yours?” Peter joked.

Tony chuckled.  “Both.”

“Night dad.”

“Good night kiddo.”

“I love you.” He mumbled as sleep pulled irresistibly at him.

“I love you too.” His dad said back and Peter could hear all the fondness and love infused in the sentence.  “Now go to sleep.”

Peter hummed tiredly in agreement.  With his dad next to him, a sense of safety encompassed him, and he had no trouble slipping quickly back to sleep.

[monsterkingdom]

Heya! welcome to the masterpost I’m making to keep track of how I view my Wandersong AU that I’ve dubbed

Eya-Born

Read below!

Concept

The concept of this AU is very simple! Kiwi -- our Bard-- is a being made directly from Eya. That is to say, they are basically a demi-god.

When setting up to finally have the passing of the Universe -- Singing her song again-- Many know of the Hero who is sent to usher out this task within its final moments.

What if, before even that prophetic dream and entities start truly deteriorating-- She made a being to also challenge the idea with the knowledge of the ever so elusive Earthsong. That’s where this AU comes in!

Beginning

Eya created a being to see how much the world truly is in disarray and attempt to remedy it in their own way. A being free from fate. Free-will was her emphasis... as well as her attunement to magic-- which by default meant music.

They were sent to the Earth the Wandersong Universe knows... Specifically to a woman living in a city in the midst of industrial change. Riddled with loneliness due to a husband who got too into his work and guilt.

Seeing such an ailed child on her doorstep, a scenario one only hears in fairytales... She took the child in wholeheartedly, worrying who would leave them in such a state. After searching for the origins to no avail, she decided to raise them as her own.

Under the name Jack. Named after the fabled protagonist of many fairytales and rhymes... it seemed fitting based on their circumstances.

And thus, begins the bard’s life.. full of normality in every sense of the word.

....almost every sense of the word.

The magical properties of their music were always something they grew up with. Though, it didn’t do too much... Their mother assumed that the child was most likely part witch. As simple as that.

As least... as simple as trying to mask their child’s slightly pink tinged hair with several different hats upon growing up. Thankfully, Chismest was starting its headstrong course on being perpetually cold and gloomy by the bard’s early years and being bundled up was definitely inevitable indoors and out.

Cutting forward to the events of Wandersong, many of everything ended up panning out the same. The prophetic dreams, ghastly encounters, universal fates amounting to nothing, so on and so forth...

The not-so-Earthsong was sung. The world was saved... the zip and zap from the dreamtower was done and the dialogue with Eya congratulating them begins. However... as she starts prepping to send them off. A rumble occurs... the clouds separate and palms grasp the platform the three of them stand on.

Reunion

(now please enjoy this minor comic I did half a year ago)

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(ok end back to writing)

Kiwi then began-- as Eyala once put it-- “vicariously feeling Eya’s love through everything in the world” (paraphrasing this btw)

However, there’s... quite a lot of love to feel. Especially when you’re not used to it. That happiness... that joy... starts feeling a bit weird when you can’t turn it off.

Needless to day Kiwi didn’t adapt well.

Though... Eya, in all her overseeing capabilities... seemed to have a detached reaction to the whole situation.

“Oh fine fine...” she waved her hand slightly... the hue in Kiwi’s face settling a bit, though their face still bore an expression that showed they were still under some of the emotional weight of the whole thing.

“I suppose it is a bit much all at once... You’d probably be better off having it opened but unleashed through your own discoveries.”

Before Miriam could question further, the goddess’ gaze shifted to that of her Angelic assistance, who was watching the whole thing rather speechlessly.

“Eyala, dearest...” the melodic voice of Eya’s godly tones spooled out toward her, “I’m putting you in charge of guiding them through the basics.”

“M-Me, Eya?” She hesitantly replied, “I mean... of course!” she sputtered out.

“Eeeeeeexcellent” she chimed, “We can see they’re already experiencing increased empathy... maybe in due time they’ll be able to discover their other properties. The bard may excel beyond your basic prowess later on, Eyala, but your knowledge is a wonderful base for the poor dear...”

Eyala wordlessly nodded, clearly not about to speak up about the whole ordeal Kiwi had gone through in front of the goddess herself,

“In any case... I am greatly pleased with your performance, child. As a reminder, this is my gift to you. The locks are now undone... all that is needed is for you to learn. Maybe then you’ll be ready to take it in this way.” she smiled, eye crinkling with pleasure as Miriam helped Kiwi to their feet,

“Eyala will assist you in any way she can... She’ll probably teach you how to contact her with ease after this. However, I must leave you now... re-establishing the universe that was saved and all” she chuckled about it, hair slowly enveloping her face before she began receding into the clouds once more.

The godly presence left in an instant, leaving the trio to stand bewildered on the platform once more.

“So...” Eyala began.

“...Is she... normally like that?” Kiwi wheezed out, finally gathering their bearings.

“Yeah... she didn’t sound empathetic like the tales blab about her being.”

Eyala frowned at the two of them and clapsed her hands together, “She tries her best... but, she doesn’t get to experience things as much as she used to. Though, her love for everything is still here...”

The angel sighed and floats closer to Kiwi, holding their face slightly. A bit more tenderly than the goddess did to them previously,

“We’re gonna make this easier for you, lil’ B. I promise.”

Learning

Kiwi-- being a direct piece of Eya as opposed to a simple messenger like Eyala-- had a lot more going for them in terms of connections to things. As someone who normally was pretty darn good at burying their feelings into the dirt, suddenly feeling a good amount of what everything else did along with their own weird doubts was quite a bunch to take in.

They went through with their hellos and good-byes, keeping their misty tears in as best they could. They met up with their mother during... trying desperately to hold their tongue as she rambled on about their ‘long lost’ father finally come home... hoping all of them could live normal again. That they could be normal.

They were whisked home in the  late evening after staying with Miriam for dinner... holding her closer than ever in their ever-so-tired arms... before letting her drift into the night sky and drift to their bed.

Only to be unable to sleep due to all the sudden emotions they felt. Realizing... ever suddenly.. a lot of them were from the people they interacted with. It was like having thousands of voices and waves of feelings hit you in a chaotic, nonsensical cacophony. It all felt like static, their brain muddled with thoughts not quite their own. They shook their head and for the first time in a while... they cried.

They felt the immense weight of these feelings drag down their face, the tears building and washing over their cheeks relentlessly. They couldn’t tell if they were happy, scared, or sad. Or if it was even them that felt this way.

A hand touched their shoulder, a familiar glow next to them. Kiwi needn’t even look to know it was Eyala again. checking in on them, most likely.

“Hey... Lil’ B.” her voice whispered, “I know it’s... a lot. You’re being left on a pretty bad note.” Kiwi turned,, face still full of tears and their voice caught in their throat from.. well... everything. They simply nodded in agreement.

Even Eyala could see the visible strain on Kiwi’s face.. and very well knew the reason why, “ Here. Let’s start with this instead... and I can help with the contact stuff tomorrow. We gotta help you filter this all out.” She held their hands in hers, rubbing their palms with her thumbs, “Just... focus on me. Okay? It helps to have something to think about other than people... “

Kiwi nodded... and looked Eyala over. Her hair effortlessly floating behind her in its usual ever-shifting hue... her smile, small, but visible. They could read the concern on her despite having most visible features omitted... Eyala was good at that. Expressing herself through motion and all. It reminded Kiwi of themself.

Without realizing it-- they found their head suddenly empty... well. mostly. There was still that static tingle in the back of their head. Near their neck, it felt. Almost like forgetting something important... but they pushed it down. Much like anything else they felt in the past... and let out a shaky sigh.

“That better...?”

Kiwi nodded again, looking at their hand for a sense of stability now.

It glowed... not much but. It was just a tinge... ever slightly lighter than the darkness surrounding them and Eyala, “So...” they scratchily started, “I’m really...”

“A real child of Eya. Not just in... like... a collective universe sense. Yeah.”

“Wow...”

--WIP ATM BC BED--

[ducklooney]

Even if you think the Quack Pack VAs for HDL are more age appropriate, would you say the DT 2017 ones do a better job in terms of the more emotional and dramatic moments seeing how DT 2017 has more of those than Quack Pack?

Depends. Not everyone's tastes or opinions are the same. Again it depends on the convergence of views. As for Huey, Dewey and Louie in the Ducktales reboot, I don't think they are bad, the good thing is, as many would say, that they have different personalities and that they are different and that the series will definitely focus on them because when you give them traits (I don't mean you, I mean the creators of that series), you have to reshape them with virtues and flaws and process them in a cartoon series. This has been shown in the previous two seasons and now in the third season, which you yourself know is divided by triplets, that Dewey got the first, Louie the second, and Huey the third season. In addition to the shared traits, they are also given specific problems with them. Please don't take this as an insult, but they were given something that doesn't suit everyone's children. I say this from my experience and from my view. Does that mean it's bad? Certainly not and such things should be paid attention to. What did I mean by specific problems? I was thinking primarily that Huey, as far as I’ve noticed is partly autistic, Dewey is hyperactive, and Louie is (I don’t know how to say it) suffering from materialism. I repeat, it does not mean that it is bad, if such problems are dealt with and which should point the way for those children, I mean boys, to face their problems and become better people.

But there are certainly problems with that. As you mentioned at the beginning, the votes for HDL in Ducktales 2017, are very strange to sound like that for your age. I know that many will not like what I am going to say now, but I really don't like how HDL sounds in Ducktales 2017, it can be seen that voice actors don't know how to imitate boys' voices so well, but use their natural voices. Don't take this as an insult or an attack on those actors, the voice actors are ok and they play HDL well, but they are grown men, not 11-year-old boys. I consider that one of the main mistakes in that series, but if you think it's okay, then it's okay, I respect your opinion, but I don't think these things should be repeated in the future, if the next incarnation is used, ie a new version of HDL . If you were listening to Boyd, then you should know that this is how HDL should sound. In other dubbings, a different thing is being done, so that, as far as I know, in Spanish (I don't know if LA or European Spanish) dubbing, in Ducktales 2017, boys play boys, that is, female voices play boys. In the Hungarian dubbing, HDL are played by a boy, so they really sound their age (here's a recording of that:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zreXadB1Cq8&feature=youtu.be ). Even if you don't understand that language, just listen to how they sound and you will really feel a part of boyish maturity. It is unfortunate that in the original dubbing, in English, HDL will not be played by boys or female voices. What I have to show is that in the classic short, very interesting, in the educational short "Scrooge and Money" from 1967, HDL sounded just like boys, but played by men, that is, their group Mellomen. Here it is:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWTjJZxS64Y

This is just proof that children's voices can be imitated, even by men, but only if they can. I know that Ducktales 2017 is not the only modern cartoon series that suffers from that, there are others, where the main characters are mostly children, who sound like adults. But again, HDL are the original characters that have been around for decades, while other characters have emerged recently, so they could do that to make the boys sound really their age. 

Not to be outdone, what I don't like next is how they look, in terms of the style used in the Ducktales reboot, they have square heads and blunt beaks and I still wonder why they used such a style, to be totally different from the others Duck media. But well, someone loves those styles and they don’t even mind the fanart which can be much better than in the original series (I mean the current Ducktales 2017 series). Again, I would prefer them to have round heads and straight beaks as they should, as they should. The next thing that is a problem with them is the somehow uneven focus on them. It's okay to make them totally different from other versions of HDL and to be totally new, but they are triplets and should be together and work together. I'll explain later why I prefer HDL from Ducktales 1987 and Quack Pack, but for now I want to say, HDL doesn't work together anymore since the series started. At first, they were together at the beginning and they acted together and I'm glad about that, they even quarreled and all that, as befits them. But probably because of the mystery of their mother it began to separate them, so Dewey acted independently of them and then got into big trouble with the brothers, after which they reconciled. Yes, then their mother Della Duck returned, with whom she has different relationships with her sons. Especially when you look at the relationship between Dell and Dewey and Dell with Huey and Dell with Louie, totally different. Donald Duck treats everyone equally. I’ve already said that the series focuses mostly on them, which certainly doesn’t suit everyone and we have less Donald and Scrooge, but I’ll talk about that another time. Although they have supported each other in the previous episode with Ragnarak (one of the few good things in that episode), they still don't act together anymore. I say this because if they are triplets and since they are together, they should be together all the time. Unfortunately, I hardly see that in the series. As for the uneven distribution, I speak for the reason that most of the series focuses on Dewey Duck, even though he got his first season and he is the most represented. Whether the point is that the writers of that series like the blue triplet the most, I don't know, depends on them, but he can't stand out in the series compared to his other two brothers. It shattered their togetherness. It's one thing when fans create their drawings and write their fanfiction and point out their favorite triplet, which is fine, but when you do it in the official series, then it can become a real problem. Also, the problem as far as I can see is that the creators of that series knew what to do with Dewey and Louie in the series, but with Huey, as far as I can see they don’t know, which also shows a big problem. Yes, I know, it’s not even the middle of the third season, but we only got two episodes focused on Huey, while future episodes as far as I can see, won’t be focused on him (I’d love to be wrong, but we’ll see what the next episodes show us). But then again, I can’t make such conclusions until I see by the end of the third season, whether it’s really Huey season, as many say. I apologize for this long description of the answers, I hope you don't mind and if you don't agree with me, it's okay, I respect your opinion. Feel free to ask me what you are interested in and what is not clear to you and I will answer you.

I wrote this at length to point out the problems I have while watching HDL in that series, but that doesn’t mean they are bad. But is there a better version than that? Definitely yes. I prefer Huey, Dewey and Louie, but in the classic version, as they were in the original Ducktales, but also in comics (especially Carl Barks and partly in Italian and Dutch comics, where Huey, Dewey and Louie have a special role), where unlike the classic shorts, although they look almost the same (they still wear different colors of clothes), which sound similar but different (Russi Taylor did a great job playing them in the original Ducktales), and the gag that the triplets didn't break. I know it doesn't suit many and they think that gag is outdated, but I don't think so. There are still people today who are triplets and look the same, and yet they do different things. Not to mention that there are a lot of references regarding that gag. Quack Pack made them even more different, but in accordance with their ages, so that from similar little boys, they became youth boys who look both similar and different. After the classic version, I definitely like the Quack Pack version as well, which I consider to be the teen version of HDL from the original Ducktales, precisely because of the features they have, but they are more different. Yes, the voices in Quack Pack, where the voice actresses played the boys great, were great and it’s a shame they weren’t used afterwards. There are people who would prefer the boys in the Quack Pack rather than the Ducktales reboot, but with good reasons. Although the boys are different and I know that the problem was supposedly "imitation of the 90s, hip and cool and similar nonsense), I don't think so. They also behaved like brats, as befits the characteristics of these triplets, and they acted together. , they have fallen together and risen together, even though they have different characteristics.That is what I expected from HDL in Ducktales 2017, but I see that unfortunately there will be none of that, although I would like to be wrong.As for emotional and dramatic scene, yes there was more in Ducktales 2017, because as far as I know this series is a drama, so it was with HDL, but what I miss in Ducktales reboot, are the adventures as they were in the original Ducktales and comics. those dangerous adventures would be more like a Quack Pack version, yet they are older and more experienced than that. And I love how HDL got older, they can't be boys all the time 10. Yes, there were problems in the Quack Pack, but it's probably due in part to bad scenarios in certain episodes, and sh it's about "too many made them cool and hip", isn't there such a problem in Ducktales 2017 as well, considering that as far as I can see this series is also comical, and it constantly tells us "Everything is great, we're great, let's we laugh... Hahahaahah... ". While many critics criticize the Quack Pack for it, I could point to the problem that Ducktales 2017 does the same, so I would tell critics not to whine, but to really give good reviews, not criticism like the past, let’s face it let's forget. This may sound vague to you, but I want to say that there are double criteria, and I watch both series and I have an insight into what it is about. I think  HDL are from Quack Pack, no matter what problems they had (I forgot to say, HDL were great with Uncle Donald, and they handled great dynamic relationships between Uncle and his nephews there too, which unfortunately Ducktales 2017 didn’t show how should), deserved that version reappeared and that the creators of Quack Pack did a good job of separating them, but still to work together. And they sounded really like teenagers. I mean, the point is not, which version is better and which version I or you will prefer, but the point is to format HDL properly. You prefer HDL in Ducktales 2017, which is fine, I prefer HDL in Quack Pack, we have different opinions and we don't match, but I mean, there are problems with HDL in Ducktales 2017 and they are not perfect as many think. I wanted to point this out to you and apologize that this turned out to be a long novel and I hope you are satisfied with my answers. Sorry if I offended you in any way and feel free to ask me, I definitely like to argue with you.