#All the refs are from these various iterations:

[camarilla-arts]

A stray thought about all the less often used, or concept art only, Mutant Turtles from throughout the TMNT Franchise lead to this AU that haunted my brain for a week. So here's some sketches from a universe where the main cast never existed and yet four turtle siblings still work to save the world.

[variousqueerthings]

A Smallish Masterpost On The Doctor And Asexuality/Aromanticism

Back in 2019 I apparently made this post about The Doctor and asexuality and aromanticism on my other blog and I have nooo memory of it. so, updated version that's got a bit more going for it:

A small masterpost of various people talking about The Doctor's "Asexuality" - feat. asexuality, aromanticism, demisexuality, demiromanticism, allosexuality, alloromanticism, and a whole squiggly set of queer concepts, as well as discussions about sexism

NOTE: additions are welcome, and forgive the rambles

So classic!who presented the Doctor as a type of asexual, in which the asexuality was a facet of alienness, rather than necessarily based in any community identification of the label -- in the real world, there's documentation of the word asexual since at least the early 1900s (so in tandem with the increasing use of homo, bi, and heterosexual, if not as widespread), as well as overlaps with other communities and labels, such as bisexual and lesbian communities (which both include/d ace people), dandyism, etc. -- so a rich, complex history bubbling beneath all of this (the most famous coining of asexual is in I believe a manifesto from 1978 off the top of my head)

this real world stuff was not what was going on in the world of Doctor Who when it was called Asexual as far as I'm aware - although, I mean... I'm sure there were actual ace and aro fans...? - but it's interesting to know that it was definitely going on, and so no matter what the intent was (alienness, the doctor intended as patriarchal/teacher-like, the doctor intended as for children, etcetc) there is some real overlap with actual asexuality at the time, including within the word itself

and then a bunch of people got really pissed off when the Eighth Doctor broke the rule that the Doctor must always be totally disconnected from romance- waaait but that's not asexuality. And yeah, that's the other thing. Asexuality is used interchangeably as being both aromanticism and asexuality and aroaceness, because people just don't know better- we'll try to make distinctions, but it can be difficult, with how others were conflating, so be Prepared for that in below

in Nu!Who the doctor seemingly got a bit friskier, so let's take a look at that as well

1. First some general Doctor Who – the first asexual Doctors:

The question of the Doctor's sexuality was a controversial one. It was fanon for decades that he was asexual; fans used the Fourth Doctor's line in City of Death that Countess Scarlioni was "probably" beautiful as proof. Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker agreed with this theory, saying, "Love is a human emotion and the Doctor isn't human." (REF: The Television Companion) Both Matt Smith[6] and Tom Baker (DOC: Getting Blood from the Stones) have identified that their respective Doctors are asexual and clueless to human sexuality; both exploited this for visual humour

(note: Steven Moffat made the comment that the eighth doctor “hit puberty” which were very controversial, but Moffat has often made controversial statements in regards to asexuality, suggesting that he finds it “boring” to write in relation to Sherlock Holmest:

It’s the choice of a monk, not the choice of an asexual. If he was asexual, there would be no tension in that, no fun in that – it’s someone who abstains who’s interesting

(it's ironic that Sherlock Holmes is his other show considering Holmes himself as an asexual icon being sexualised more and more in recent iterations -- but also that arguably Elementary's Sherlock was kind of aromantic and allosexual, which is a Very Very Rare Thing To Write)

These gifs of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy pretty much sum up the idea of classic!who smooching People

CB: He's an alien, so what's he doing messing around with human women for? For heavens sake SM: You know Doctor Who had been very successful for 30 year without canoodling anywhere

Both of these have a tad of the "asexuality is for aliens" + "allosexuality as a whole is not for this show" (which isn't quiiite true, considering the objectification of several of the companions, who did canoodle with some people... just not the doctor)

This video is a great little rundown of the queer history of Doctor Who and includes this nugget from Steven Moffat back in the day of Discourse around the Eighth Doctor being a bit less Asexual than previous incarnations:

"What on Earth (or elsewhere) is the fuss about the Dr snogging his companion? Nowhere in the series does it *ever* state that the Doc is asexual (it's purely an assumption on the part of the fans) and the fact that he has a a grandaughter might lead the pedants among us to conclude otherwise (and no it wasn't a term of affection - that's just another assumption and an entirely baseless one at that.) We know that humans and Time Lords are mutually sexually attracted (Susan and Whats-his-name, Leela and Thingummy, The Doctor and that-Aztec-woman) and that the Dr favours bimbos in mini-skirts (what, you think he was choosing them for their brains?) The most you could conclude from watching the show is that he's a little reticent about involvement (not surprising when your inability for commitment extends to your entire home planet!) So if the Doc's vow of celibacy is a fan assumption which flies directly in the face of the established continuity, why would you think a new series would pay any heed to it? Steven Moffat P.S. I mean, the guy has one snog in thirty years of saving our planet and you're all complaining! You utter, utter bastards!!

I think what's also interesting about this comment is the inevitable link between allosexuality and sexism that also exists in Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner. how does one show a [man] into a [woman?] By making her wear short skirts and having the dude make comments about it of course

Also very funny it actually hits upon a very good point -- there are allosexual Timelords (I'd disagree about the Doctor and that-Aztec-woman) (second note here about how even in this message it's kind of clear how secondary romance was for DW, the romantic partners are Not memorable characters), so if the Doctor is sort of... not like the other Timelords, then the asexuality and aromanticism is not alien... it's the Doctor

2.  A bit about the show's attitude towards writing the Doctor as asexual and how that interest has waned over the years:

But that was then and this is now, and the discussion over whether or not the Doctor is still an asexual character has certainly become very heated. Many fans have asked whether or not the Doctor can still be considered asexual, given the nature of the current show. John Richards, in a brilliant and surprisingly funny essay for Queers Dig Time Lords titled “The Heterosexual Agenda,” lamented the aggressive assertion of the Doctor’s heterosexuality

This is the Confidential episode around The Girl In The Fireplace around the Doctor and "snogging" and ways in which fans might read it (fans can "explain it away" as "she kissed him")

In it we get a bit more about Moffat's whole... deal... around women and the Doctor. It's interesting because he argues that it works because Madame de Pompadour is a "match" for the Doctor due to being well-educated and civilised and multi-talented... "if the Doctor was going to settle down, it would be a girl like this," in the season in which one might argue the main romance is with Rose, a working-class woman who never finished highschool

so a bit about the ways sexism, classism, and heteronormativity also play into the writing of a "more allosexual" Doctor...

It also includes DT saying they had an extraordinary relationship that was over before it began -- I just like how he refers to it without attempting to label it

the framing of the confidential episode is very romantic, just so you're prepared. It also has more unintentional framing of the Doctor's potentially "falling in love" as a more "human" emotion (in contrast to alien emotions of not falling in love)

as you can hear, it conflates allosexuality and alloromanticism throughout

3.  Eleven, He's A Little Confused But He's.... kinda? Got the Spirit (and an unfortunate slice of sexism/heteronormativity):

One thing has been a constant, though — the Doctor himself has been entirely asexual, save for the notorious on-screen kiss during Paul McGann’s performance as the Eighth Doctor in the one-off special made during the show’s wilderness years, a kiss that had fans outraged precisely because it was so out of character and proved that the producers behind the telemovie had no idea what they were doing.

It’s interesting how recent Doctor Who has, if anything, emphasized this idea of the Doctor’s asexuality; Matt Smith said earlier this year that his version of the character was “more asexual than some of the others,” and in 2011 he answered a question about whether his version of the Doctor is at all interested in sex as follows: “No. The Doc’s idea of an orgy is playing chess with an ostrich. His brain doesn’t work in that way. He would find it weird and peculiar. He finds women peculiar. He is quite asexual.”

The idea that the Doctor “finds women peculiar” is probably one that says more about Matt Smith than it does about the Doctor’s character — 30 years of Doctor Who history rather contradict the idea that the Doctor finds women any stranger than men, and in general he has been characterized by his enduring affection for humanity in general, regardless of gender.

In general the way people talk about Matt Smith’s doctor to me, often has a bit of infantilisation along with it - of course we can read him as ace, because he’s boyish, hyperactive, and distracted... he's weird and alien

There's also this cute little fan-video that has some Nine, Ten, and Twelve but is mainly focusing on Eleven's asexual Vibes in a couple of scenes, which actually is something I've always struggled a little more with, because Moffat had Eleven doing sexist shit occasionally and was also soooo male-gazey, but it's also got one of my favourite ace moments for the Doctor period ("I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!????")

(the scenes with Amy in this exemplifies so much of what I dislike about Moffat, but it's also fascinatingly The Tightrope Of Asexuality -- Amy is essentially violating the Doctor's consent over and over, but it's fine because "he's" a "bloke" -- she then goes on to show the Doctor's former companions on screen.... but notably only the women, and making a biiig mistake in including I think both Zoe and Ace, who were teenagers when they travelled with the Doctor... implying that that was... idek......)

I will also acknowledge here that while I don't think Moffat ever got... super comfortable writing queerness, he did get much, much better and stopped constantly referring to the doctor as a "bloke," who does bloke-y things (like objectify women, care too much about machinery/the TARDIS, and be a playboy who whisks away young girls in order to seduce them, I guess?)

and I personally think that the gender component plays into the Doctor's increased asexual vibes in his run (which is ironic considering where Moffat started lol), but I'd have to do wa-HAY more of a deep dive to actually confirm that... just a theory.... but also interesting that asexuality and aromanticism is more fine, because the Doctor is not a bloke......

it's complicated

4. Ten, The Jessica Rabbit Effect (just because you think they're hot doesn't mean they want to fuck)

[Patrick Troughton and Sylvester McCoy] would hardly have been much cop as Casanova; the 2005 TV role for which Tennant won much praise. Perhaps that's why the Times christened him "the first Timephwoard". "That's the Times?" he boggles. "It's, er, quite surprising..." Or why the Pink Paper voted him the Sexiest Man In The Universe, above Brad Pitt and David Beckham.

in general, it seems unequivocal to me that ten doesn’t like getting hit on, even playfully [...] not only does he seem consistently uninterested in these advances, but in most cases, a bit confused and/or unsettled by the idea of being hit on by anyone. contrary to the ‘space casanova’ narrative frequently espoused by magazines and interviewers, in reality ten is no stud. far from it. apart from with rose, he never reciprocates flirtatious behavior, nor does he ever seem pleased to be on the receiving end of it. 

https://tenscupcake.tumblr.com/post/126914939560/dunderklumpen-that-smug-face-needs-to-be

[Link to a gifset in which The Witch in The Shakespeare Code tries to seduce the Doctor and he answers “now that’s one form of magic that definitely won’t work on me.

the second/third/fourth gifs are of David T saying: “she nearly kisses me. I don’t nearly kiss her. It’s an important distinction.”

This interview is around the time the final RTD/DT episodes were beginning to air

Interviewer: Lots of snogging you've done, there was- DT: Not lots Interviewer: More- I'm trying to think now I don't remember any of the previous doctors- DT: More than Jon Pertwee did, yes Interviewer: Yes a lot more than Jon Pertwee... what-how come...? DT: I can't help it if the ladies of the Universe are flinging themselves at me, you know? Its not, you know, it's just part of the job I have- It's- usually it's not a sexual thing with the Doctor. He's a fairly asexual character. Interviewer: So what's with the kissing then? DT: Well, I don't think- there's a genetic transfer as it was once... or, and you know these women just can't help themselves, I don't know-

5.  12, Too Old To Be Romantic?

Capaldi talking about his relationship with Clara, noting the age-difference as reasons why they would never be a romantic couple (the subtext here is non-sexual as well, although it conflates the two).

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/15/doctor-who-needs-lots-more-kissing-according-to-peter-capaldi

[Capaldi] said there was “no romance, but deep love” between the Doctor and Clara, played by Jenna Coleman.

“It would have been completely creepy,” the star told the Radio Times. “It’s fine if you have handsome young men like Matt [Smith] and David Tennant, but as a father I felt it would be inappropriate.

Capaldi laughed off complaints that his first full episode last year was promoting a gay agenda after it featured a kiss between a lizard woman and her human wife. “I think it was good,” he said.

“Actually it’s not just lesbian. It’s across species, which is even worse, presumably. It’s crazy if people get up in arms about it. There should be lots more kissing in Doctor Who. So long as it’s not the Doctor and Clara.”

Honestly I wonder how much the hype died down because he was no longer young and "hot." Skill issue honestly

6.  The Doctor and The Master/Missy 

I feel like I don't have enough on this, and that's also a facet of the whole "is the Doctor now allosexual and alloromantic." It seems to only really come up in relation to the [seemingly] het relationships

I don't really see much in relation to the Doctor and Jack (who's canonically in love with the Doctor) or the Doctor and Simm's Master -- I mean, fanfic, yes, but not bigger article-worthy discussion...

(and Jamie and the Doctor and Adric and the Doctor and Alan Turing and the Doctor......)

so if anyone has a bit to add on that

Most of it is in relation to... Moffat's sexier "Missy." (sigh). However very interested in what Michelle Gomez (who was excellent as the character!) had to say about it:

She added a female time lord "blows open all these new possibilities for different relationship that couldn't have happened before" but denied the idea of sexual chemistry between Missy and the Doctor.

"You're reading into it something I've never even thought of," she said.

The Scottish star added: "With [the Doctor’s young companion] Clara, it would have been straight away, ‘What is the romantic connection, does the Master fancy her?’ No. We can move past that, into something much more interesting, much more detailed, which is life. That’s what life is. It’s not all black and white."

Idk, she seems to get something intrinsic about the possibilities of all this that many others don't

Gifset of The Mistress (being questioned by Clara on the nature of Missy’s/the Doctor’s relationship): Try, nanobrain, to rise above the reproductive frenzy of your noisy little food chain and contemplate friendship.

I find the whole post quite charming actually, it's a small moment in Doctor Who fandom from a specific person. I don't even remember how I originally found it

7. Misc

I don't really have anything on Thirteen currently, because I haven't seen all of those seasons yet. I know Yaz/Thirteen is very shipped, I assume I'll prooobably feel similarly to all the other Doctor/Companion ships in that I'll be going at it from an aromantic lens

I have seen discussions about how the Doctor’s perceived romantic and/or sexual relationship with this person or other (insert your preferred person here, Rose, Madame de Pompadour, River…) has made him too human, too normal. Discussions that assume that romantic and sexual attraction is an inherent part of human experience, so removing them from a character makes him alien.

This is about the way "Asexuality" (meaning aroaceness) applied purely to alien creatures isn't... great... for aroace people

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve heard fans discuss wanting a more alien “asexual Doctor”, which is generally taken to mean “no romance in the Tardis.”

It often goes back to the same questions: is the Doctor's "Asexuality" (that is, asexuality and aromanticism) purely used to indicate the alien? When John Smith is human he falls in love and asks "what sort of a man" the Doctor is that falling in love didn't occur to him. Many classic actors (whom I have a great deal of affection for) tend to use alien as the reason for the so-called Asexuality, and that seems to lie at a lot of the fans discomfort with a more "sexy" Doctor of nu!who, rather than anything to do with character or portraying asexuality and aromanticism in sci-fi

and on the flipside, people who very much like an alloromantic and allosexual Doctor dismiss aroace Doctor reads because of things that are absolutely within the purview of an aroace experience (I've seen anything from having a grandkid to being hot to caring about others to knowing what sex is)

I wonder if actually consciously writing an aroace Doctor would make people really uncomfortable as well, since it would remove the "alienness" from the idea of it... also it would make people who really really like allosexual and alloromantic Doctor angry too... so no winning I guess

I wonder how Ncuti Gatwa alongside RTD's queerness will redefine the subtext of it all once again...

[raintailed]

AUUUUUUUUUGH *disintegrates into a pile of ash*

this reference took WAY too long help

This is Bramble (aka Rough Patch, aka the Ambush) (they/them), who is a funny modified slugcat thing based on the scrapped Rough Patch enemy from A Hat in Time

Bramble was kidnapped by modified by an iterator to be a pet. Bramble accidentally escaped the iterator's can and got lost. Then they got yoinked and joined the Assassins Guild, where they now make way too many masks and help cause trouble.

Like all of the assassins, Bramble has a funky crystal that lets them teleport to various iterators! Their crystal is attached to their collar, which Cruller helped them make.

Transcript under the cut, plus another version of the ref :]

Notes transcript:

Bramble, "Rough Patch;" they/them

Left side

leafy coat!

threat display: reveals hidden thorns, puffs up tail

yellow/orange colors glow (except in coat/on collar)

doesn't like to walk on 2 legs

prehensile tail

Right side

optional mask

has acid spit

coat changes color to match environment!

blooms in spring :]

Version of their ref without their whiskers and mask, so it's easier to see how their leaf coat is drawn:

[doxiedreg]

hi guys, so sorry for suddenly going more quiet i had a really really rough week and im still in recovery from it but now im at least well enough to get on my laptop again and tackle various chores. To celebrate my return I will be sharing my main characters first iterations vs their current iterations like the trend on bluesky (and twitter probably also but i dont go there) First up we have 2014 sickly zombie looking Thorn vs The Chad 2023 Behemoth Thorn

Next up we have fucked up T-Rex looking rechor from 2013 vs Flamboyant Fuckboy Assasin Rechor from 2022

I will put the rest of them under the cut because I respect your dash space and dont want to color of the sky it

2015 slimy mean Edward who looks like he is high on something vs golden boy edward who hit the gym from 2023

Then most egrigiously we have 2013 Snow who just looks so freaking silly and noodly and not menacing at all

vs the beefy demon dragon boy he is now

(he has always been a stubborn persistent aggressive idiot though, that never changed)

2015 thorn's first anthro appearance as well as the first iteration/conception of my world when it was still called king of thieves!! (it didnt get very far because colors!3D sucks for rping and schedules never lined up fdkjgld)

and his current iteration from 2023. He got slightly taller, a whole lot older and actually stylish. (his suit used to be a solid dark brown with a white collar and like why)

the ever elusive aurora when she was first conceived in december 2013 vs her latest iteration in 2023. No I still dont have a solid fullbody ref of her that im happy with so im not showing her old fullbody design.

2018 twink bald crom vs the burly seaweed haired beast he is in his 2023 rendition

And lastly as a reward for sitting through all that... Ye old 2012 drawn in oekaki on chickensmoothie (digital pet website) wienerdragon vs him now...His essence has never changed

I hope you enjoyed this journey through my artistic past and journey :)

[angelofchaos001]

Wings of Rain lore hehe

EDIT: Art already made a cut, womp womp. I'll adjust that real quick.

EDIT 2: For anyone who sees this, it's the old lore.

Art and lore under cut!

Meet Queen Lilypuck/Queen Looks to the Moon!

Also, meet Garnet/Five Pebbles!

I'll get these goobers some proper refs at some point

Lore under cut

When the ancients first made the iterators, they were just superstructures. They didn't have puppets, but instead were just the computation components of the iterator. They were still built to find a solution to the great problem and all, and eventually the ancients did have to move to the cities on top of the structure.

Now, the ancients didn't have the gates to the cities that they do in canon rain world, and due to an increased scavenger/slugcat population in this AU, they often kept trying to get into the cities to avoid the rain. On top of this, the scavs and scugs would often try to steal pearls while in the structures, or try to take scraps of metal to build with. To combat this, the ancients made robots to defend the cities. This job was originally done by trained Ancients, but they wanted the job to be automated with a purposed organism from the very start.

These robots were also hooked up to the structures (not physically, but as in they are extensions of the structure) to correct the oversight of communication with the computers being rather difficult. But, still, the puppet's main purpose was to defend the city, the structure, and any valuables from thieving creatures, in any way (usually violence).

Once the ancients ascended and left their puppets behind, they still followed their programming of defending the city and it's valuables. Scavengers and slugcats, at some point, learned to tolerate each other to team up in raids and building things together.

A normal cycle for the puppets might look like patrolling the city, looking through any overseers for stragglers, talking to their friends (via broadcast or flying over there), or resting. Sometimes, they have to deal with stray scugs/scavs or entire raiding parties, where each iterator has their own unique skills and combat styles to deal with it.

The puppets are mobile (powered in various ways, earlier ones tend to be solar powered, newer ones tend to be battery powered). They can fly, have claws and jaws (no digestive system, they just bite), and most are well-equipped in using spears, explosives, or other weapons (Wind has a fucking sword, for example, and Suns mainly uses nets). The tails are for balance during flight. Usually, they wear their cloaks, but the second they detect a threat in their structure they toss their cloaks for a freer range of motion (The tail and wings are naturally outside the cloaks, there's slits for them)

The two names are because they have their iterator names, but they also have their self-given nicknames that are often only used by the group.

Now, as for these two specifically, let's start with Pebbles. He's based on a SkyWing, and as such, has huge wings, tons of stamina, and can breathe fire. His fighting strategy mainly relies on chasing his prey until he can get a clean shot/bite on them, and as such, he was built to be able to fly for almost forever. He's battery powered and can go several cycles before needing to recharge. Pebbles notably struggles with finding hiding scavs/scugs, and used to have a problem with a hidden group living in his city (Used. Guess who solved it.) Things get slightly interesting with him when he discovered a unique plant in his region, and after asking his group, Suns explained it was a plant that could control creatures. Pebbles dubbed the plant the Hivemind, and after testing it on scavengers with success, he ingested it himself (burned it and took in the smoke) with hopes of controlling the scavengers.

For those who know Wings of Fire, he pulled a Hawthorn. It ended about as well as it did for him. The plant controls Pebbles instead of his hopes, and while he's normally himself, the plant sometimes makes him do weird shit.

Pebbles has two slugcats that he refuses to kill, and has given them special markings to dictate to other iterators at a glance that these two should not be killed. The pair is a maroon mother slugcat and a single green pup who help him fight off raids. He almost killed them when he first met them, but then the mother proved her worth by killing the scavs that chased her up and Pebbles decided that her skills could be useful. He just also protects the pup.

Moon, on the other hand, is based on a Rain-Sea hybrid. The smaller teal spots can glow, and she can also camouflage similar to a white lizard when she wants to. Her tail is prehensile and often used to hold/throw objects during raids. She also has a pair of elongated fangs that can inject and spit a highly corrosive acid. However, she rarely uses it as she is not immune and there is no cure. Moon is solar-powered, but her fighting strategy usually relied on hiding with her camouflage and jumping enemies when they least expected it. She also was adept at fighting crowds with the aid of her tail. Moon is the oldest, and as such, was given the title 'Queen Moon'.

Her biggest lore point was shortly after she had finished defending against a huge raid. She was chatting with NSH over broadcast, resting, when she heard scratching in her structure/city. Moon went off to deal with it, despite NSH's pleas to wait for him to get there (NSH is a prophet and foresaw something bad happening)

Moon fought against a scavenger, a slugcat, and a slugpup. Expecting an easy fight, she instantly killed the pup, but a spear ended up pinning her wing to the wall. While trying to get free, the scavenger and slugcat began to inflict serious harm, and Moon ended up breaking her wing off to get free. However, she was shortly after knocked off her structure, falling below the clouds. Without her wings, and since they're not able to climb, she has no way to get back up. NSH got there after the duo had already scampered off with as much as they could carry.

Sorry for anyone hoping Moon would have the lapcat of Ruffles, but Rivulet is like other slugcats and dislikes iterators, and Moon hates slugcats and scavengers due to A) what happened to her and B) the fact that she is in a very bad spot. Pebbles is the only one who managed to befriend an adult slugcat, and it was very circumstantial.

Any questions can be directed to my main asks, whether they be OOC asks about lore or RP asks to Moon and Febbles (and others once I make them)

[sportsthoughts]

Sorry if I missed this lore drop previously, but how'd you get into the Pens? I love your gifs and positivity that you bring to the lb!

Buckle up anon. I thought about one line answering this but I enjoy the phrase 'lore drop' so much I think you deserve the deep dive. It'll take a while to get to the pens but you asked for lore so...

I have been sportsthoughts on tumblr since 2015 ish - maybe slightly earlier - and this has always been a sportsblr/sports rpf-y type blog in various iterations.

This blog was originally used for liveblogging UK Premier League and La Liga football matches. I have always been a huge football fan (my childhood team is Arsenal - north London forever ❤️ etc etc) and when I moved away to university at 18 none of my new friends were into sports and I really missed watching games with my family.

Finding other likeminded fans online who were also watching games and liveblogging them was such a beautiful experience and I have amazing memories of 2015-2018ish when I was a very active football blog, spent a lot of the time in the Arsenal/FC Barcelona communities here and had some beautiful trips to Barca.

I do have a sideblog where I still dabble in that space but in truth I very rarely liveblog football anymore because nowadays it's returned to being something I watch with friends and family so I'm not on my phone during games.

Here's where the pens come in - sort of. I've scrolled back through my AO3 bookmarks and can see in 2015 I also got into sports RPF for the first time. There are some incredible football RPF fics out there (let me know if you'd like some recs!). Somehow - probably through raiding people's bookmarks - in early 2015 I ended up reading a Sid/Geno fic called And Never Been Kissed and I was absolutely hooked. At the time of reading this I had:

1. Never watched a game of hockey in my life (side note, I don't think I can understate how little hockey coverage there is in the UK. Even the most ardent sports fan would probably not be able to name a single NHL player or team. Not even Sid! Not even Gretzky!)

2. I had no idea, nor any desire to look up who these people actually were. It was just like reading really well written original fiction.

For the next 7 years I thoroughly enjoyed hockey RPF and created (in my mind) entire personalities and appearances for Sid and Geno, along with all the other 'characters I came across regularly in hockey fic. Sid, I got pretty close to the mark. Geno, not so much. One day I will try and find some reference pictures for what I thought they looked like because it’s quite hilarious. When I re-read fics I love from during that time I laugh because I remember my Sid and Geno and how different they were from reality.

So, hockey was sort of in my life from 2015 but exclusively in the form of fics. I would scroll through the actual hockey bits of works because I didn’t understand the rules and why every single fic was an AU where professional sports people were allowed to fight each other mid game.

At this point I’d left university, and because I no longer liveblogged football games, I found I really missed sports fandom. Another sport I grew up watching and loving was Formula 1 so when lockdown hit in March 2020 I started liveblogging F1 races to pass the time (and still do sometimes - now over on @vroomlive). I loved/still love F1blr, but it didn't quite fill my fandom itch because:

1. We joke about it, but F1 is a deeply unserious sport run by a dire organisation (Liberty Media). They change the rules every week and it's managed badly to the point of being comical. There have been a few major cock ups over the years (including the 2021 championship literally being taken away from the rightful winner and given to someone else. To put this in hockey terms: imagine a completely valid goal being overruled in the last 5 minutes of the Stanley Cup final and then the ref deciding to give the other team a 5 on 3 powerplay Just Because) all of this is quite disheartening for long term fans - and has resulted in quite a fractured and angsty fandom.

2. There are only about 20 F1 races a year - so it's just not a sport that's on regularly. I love sports, and I want to watch sports all the time - so a sport that only gave me content every third weekend or so just wasn't really enough for me.

At this point, when I was feeling rather sports fandom bankrupt, the wonderful work of Sid/Geno writers and the influence of the tumblr dashboard converged. I worked this out by scouring my AO3 bookmarks - in April 2021 I read a Sid/Geno fic called Game Plan that I fell head over heels for. I’m still not quite sure what about this fic grasped me so deeply but I started reading a lot more hockey RPF.

Around the same time an F1 blog I followed started posting about Mat Barzal All. The. Time. I had no interest in this man and did not know he was a hockey player but over the course of about a year I became vaguely exposed to hockey content on Tumblr through that blog, and at some point in early 2022, saw Sid on my dash for the first time. I don’t remember the exact post but I remember seeing the name, doing a double take and thinking oh Shit! That’s Sidney Crosby from fanfiction! I was flabbergasted because in my mind Sid was in his early 20s tops, so seeing this early thirties, bearded, fat bottomed man on my dash and realising that that was Sid was such a shock. 

My hockey lurker era lasted from mid 2022 to early 2023 and I spent a lot of time, um, lurking. That sounds so creepy. I suppose I had never thought about actively joining a fandom before because my fandom engagement (one direction > football > f1) had all happened really organically so actually choosing to join a space as an adult was quite an interesting process.

By summer of 2023 my husband’s job changed again meaning he works away from home most weeknights and suddenly my late nights were extremely free because I’d hang out with friends and then go home at 10/11 to an empty house which I hated. I really found myself wanting to make fandom friends and have an at home hobby I could do late at night before going to bed so taking on a sport that happened 12am-2am (timezones!) seemed like a good fit. 

Alongside this on a totally separate track was my longstanding interest in fandom - most of my professional work/research is pretty standard psychotherapy stuff but I’ve done a little bit of work over the last few years looking at sex therapy (not as sexy as it sounds) and I have a real interest in the role that fandom and especially shipping/fic plays in shaping and expressing sexuality. It’s a bit of a back burner research topic for now but I suppose over the years researching fic and expressions of sexuality via fandom and shipping has just made me fall in love with fandom itself a little bit.

Plus having lurked around the edges of hockeyblr for a while I was just like, yeah, I really want in on this, this seems like an awesome community. The reason why I chose the pens was pretty straightforward - I felt like I knew Sid and Geno and after exploring the real life hockey, I, like most of us, was quite struck by who Sid is as a person and was just completely enchanted. Another side note - hilariously, when my husband first saw a picture of Sid last year he immediately said “Oh, he looks like me!” - do with that information what you wish. 

I really eagerly awaited the start of the 2023 season and without sounding too soppy, had already fallen in love with you guys before I ever watched a live hockey game. Every fandom has its difficult corners (pensblr included!) but I can honestly say - especially after the chaos of spending my teenage years knee deep in 1D fandom and my early and mid twenties in various parts of sportsblr - being part of this space has been the most lovely, fun, friendly, lighthearted, positive and beautiful fandom experience I’ve ever had. I feel like it’s the goldilocks zone of all the previous fandoms I’ve been in and I love it.

So yeah! That is the extremely long winded answer to your question, anon. I hope this is the ‘lore drop’ you were looking for lol

TLDR: I stumbled my way through sportsblr until I accidentally ended up here and I’m never leaving.

[cherryblossomventi]

SIKE Alternate Solution Love Of Life ref is here NOW! Also The Solution the slugcat is there too. Fuck tons of lore under the cut plus Bio.

The Solution (They/It) is a purposed organism created by a currently unnamed Iterator not long after Saint did their thing. The Solution has the ability to absorb echoes, communicate with intelligent life forms, absorb Rot, and convert negative karma into Rot.

The Solution is unable to ascend, but they can travel to the Void Sea freely, as they exist outside of the cycles and thus does not have Karma. They have two jobs.

The first is to find Echoes and absorb them into itself, it can only absorb one echo at a time, when an Echo is near or freshly absorbed, The Solution takes on the first appearance. Then the Solution makes their way to the Depths, as they do so, they convert the negative karma that prevented the Echo from ascending into Rot, during which they slowly transition from appearance two to appearance four. By the time they reach appearance four, they always make it to the Depths. Once at the Void Sea, the Solution proceeds to release the Echo into the Void Sea where the void worms are, and after that, they expel the rot into void liquid, which destroys it permanently. Once they are free of rot, they take on appearance five.

The second job is to absorb and eat rot itself, The Solution goes from appearance five to appearance two when absorbing small amounts of rot, such as Brother Long Legs and clumps of immobile rot, though as they consume more and more they'll take on appearance three through four. If they absorb a Daddy or Mother Long Legs, they immediately take on appearance four. Like the first job, The Solution travels to the Depths and expels the rot into pure void liquid, destroying it for good.

Alternate Solution Love Of Life is The Solution turned into an Iterator, uses she/her pronouns. After their creator found an alternate method of getting rid of the rot, The Solution temporarily shut down their creator and proceeded to comb through their memories and data until they found a way to turn themselves into an Iterator. See, whenever the Solution went to The Void Sea, they saw slugcats there, reuniting with their families and happily ascending, they also saw slugcats on their travels, all living happily in their cycles. The Solution came to the conclusion that it would be more beneficial to turn Echoes into slugcats so that they would be able to live again and ascend without issue. By doing this, they could also turn Iterators into Slugcats, as they did with their creator, so they could finally ascend. Thus, Alternate Solution Love Of Life came to be, using her creators new rot removal method to destroy all rot and turning said creator into a slugcat so they could travel to The Depths or just live a nice life. Now Love spends her time using various creations of hers, including a mobile puppet, gathering Echoes and Iterators to turn into slugcats... Whether they wish for such a fate or not.

Anyways yeah, have my silly girl. Pls ask me about her.

[tammyhybrid21]

Generation 1 Iterators

(Some Highlights)

By no means is this going to be, or intended to be an extensive examination of Generation 1 Iterators. If anything this is just kind of another headcanon babble thing. With bonus highlighting of some gen 1 iterators.

Mostly Looks to the Moon. Definitely mostly Moon. Plus some bonus references for my designs at this point, none of the OCs or GS at this point though. Anycase, in that lineup above this is the characters by order, Left to Right:

Two Shots In Darkness, Sliver of Straw, Looks to the Moon, Wayward Hopes Upon Starlight, Echoing Silken Seas, Spoke On The Wheel, Gazing Stars, “Acres”(name still in progress), Bronze By Nine, and finally Deactivated Monsoon(from the Milthm crossover)

Which oh yeah, I have reasons for the choice of what character but-- Honestly it boils down to this is what seemed to offer the most fun and potential for me... An aside, when I get around to proper refs for everyone, some of these designs will likely change, or be corrected as I go.

For now though, here’s the first three Refs for Gen 1 iterators. All the canon characters, well mostly. (Sorry, Gazing Stars, no ref for you right now). Immediate thing I want to point out is I flipped SOS’ dress for these, and added The Saint to her reference sheet for... reasons. These are the basic canon designs for my Rain World stuff, plus a few “extras”.

Generally in Timeline Order as well. Also I’m not good in the 3D space for turn arounds as of current time. Anycase;

Sliver hase base design, “ascended” and “echo” designs for now. This is mostly because I kind of don’t know if I truly believe that Sliver did fully succeed in her ascension so much as it’s interpretable. Also just the various ways things can be interpreted. You have a grab bag option here, Sliver Ascended, she failed ascension and became an echo or... Moon is of course the base, post-Monk, bonus: kind of fanart design for Backward Through the Snow and then a bonus design based on a dream I had where it was a PMD crossover and someone dropped a Time Gear into where the Rarefaction Cell is supposed to go. This may or may not get expanded on more later. Finally there’s Deactivated Monsoon who is again, from the Milthm crossover. Which, while I doubt that’s got anything canon, I just decided to YOINK the character because it’s there. Questionably canon, and we get another canon character with rot and with the implied events of that game’s story been pre-mass ascension, well DM here gets the dubious honor of been the first Iterator to get rotted in my mind.

For all three of the refs you just kind of have my Avatar to the side as a height thing. Not the most accurate but well, better than nothing for myself later.

SPEAKING OF STUFF FOR MYSELF.

Here’s a bunch of headcanon scribbles actually. Mostly relating to Moon, but there’s a few other good tidbits in here.

More of my Gen 1 iterators were never built to do more than work on the problem initially propaganda. As well as a few bonus notes, like, I love the idea that they were seen initially as gods, or at least godlike. A view that was... lost a bit over time. I also love grumpy young Moon headcanons. Mine and a few others I’ve seen, it also ties nicely with some Autism headcanons, Moon even still dislikes been interrupted even by Slugcats.

I also imagine that for Moon there was a lot, lot of stress involved in the early cycles of been group senior. And even before her collapse, a lot of responsibility and stress and weight to the role. And can’t really count on others, she got taught a bad habit, something ironically handed down. The siblings really share flaws guys, as well it been the ND experience as well.

Relatability for sure.

Also petty Moon is best Moon.

Speaking of character development. I really do think Moon mellowed out over time. Not completely at all, but interacting with others definitely helped her to get over the early days of not wanting to be interrupted and been very, very focused only on the problem. Not that she ever really got better about the Ancients. No she was quite happy to let them go off to live elsewhere.

I also have some subtle ideas here about how the taboos were a bit... not so perfectly implemented with Gen 1 iterators... but that’s not exactly the easiest thing to scribble out. So really all you get is a little bit of hinting. For example Moon’s prioritization. Some of that is just sibling things, others of it is because well--

She looks at Pebbles and he will always be her little brother, and high up on her priority list. My first thought is always that line in Rivulet’s campaign. “You know how protective of you I am”-- Other fun things on this sheet...

Moon’s friendship with NSH comes alongside a hobby, I 100% think Moon likes to catalogue things. NSH makes them, Moon catalogues them. She also had to suffer irritating co-workers in other seniors of different groups. Ones making extra cameos here are Two Shots and Wayward.

Also Moon couldn’t be more relieved to no longer have citizens. No more interruptions or stupid requests to deal with.

My final page here is... mostly talking about Sliver. My Sliver of Straw is... kind of basic I suppose. She never really got to get character development truly. She was still in her pride stage, as well as deeply, deeply involved in her work. She was rather socially awkward I think, and because she didn’t know how to communicate or deal with others she just fell back on her work and pride in her work.

I might ship it, but in a distant maybe in another world, a kinder one way. Moon didn’t really know Sliver enough... a now never can.

Monsoon on the other hand. Oh, DM, DM, DM. What an actual failguy he is. Absolute failguy. I don’t know if anyone’s played through the Milthm crossover, I did, I’m not great at rhythm games, but I wasn’t passing up the lore. So I read it and while I don’t think it’s entirely applicable, the implications of Monsoon absolutely fascinate me. So they got to come over into my acceptance of canon.

Here’s this fool who thought he had the solution, only he messed up and got rot... and it’s implied the catastrophic failure also spread to well... his citizens didn’t get out in time and while it’s open ended whether anyone came to help well...

He’s now a known cautionary tale to other iterators... and one of the sources of Moon’s worries for Pebbles whole state with the Rot.

Final Bonus:

I am likely to draw rot on DM and Five Pebbles differently every single time... but man, I’m proud of how it came out this time.

[nim-lock]

Hey nim quick possibly loaded question:

What did you study to get better at anatomy? I know a lot of different artists out there say to study bodies and poses as well as art that you enjoy…but I feel like it’s not adequate. I’ve always enjoyed your human pose drawings and the bobadin drawings of yours to a ridiculous extent, so I thought you would be the person to ask.

Thank you for your help! I hope you enjoy the rest of your day/evening, and please say hi to the shrimp for everyone (*´∀｀*)

To preface, you are witnessing the current iteration of a language I’ve been building for years. 

The other folks aren't wrong. Perhaps your dissatisfaction is in the perceived enormity of the task. There is no secret shortcut, but perhaps there are different ways to think about the journey. 

Now, everyone approaches art in a different way, for different reasons. To keep the language analogy going, some people learn enough to google translate their way through a trip to another country, some think it’s fun to roll their R’s, some just happened to move here & are figuring it out as they go, still others need to be fluent for work purposes—the potential diversity is limitless. What makes each individual voice interesting however, are the little details about themselves & that which they hold dear that naturally appear in the process of translating the world into the words, tone, and sentence structure people have. 

Anatomy is one part of it. Like all “rules” around art and language, you learn enough to know what you’re doing, so you can then play and expand and mess things up with intention. 

If I were to give general advice on shit to do:

Find a thing to care about. It’s much more enjoyable if you’re able to be interested in something, ANYTHING, that’s tangentially related to the thing you have to learn

Draw real people who happen to be physically in front of you, because all those books and techniques are cool and everything, but real bodies are all different, and generally tend to deviate from the tutorials.

More resources [post re: timed gestures online] [post 2 re: sketchfab]

[Quick note on how I study (esp from tutorials): copy the diagrams in the books, maybe write down 3 things that you noticed from them that you didn’t know before, translate those ideas into application. Most often when I use ref, I have An Idea already in mind of some fictional character situation, and I double-check reference to make sure I’m not far off the mark.]

Morpho book on fat and skin folds The other morpho books are also very good

Andrew Loomis books (Figure drawing for all it’s worth is a good starting point), you can find PDFs online free

Foreshortening with coil technique video 

Going on a dive on youtube for various ways people construct bodies; you may find a way that works for you, or a piece of a thing that you’ll integrate into your own working knowledge

Fixate real hard on some characters who happen to be human, because ho boi fun fucking shit to follow it down the rabbithole. Even now, I am finding new details on Boba Fett that I never noticed before. 

-- At the end of the day, forcing yourself to learn a thing will only make it less enjoyable, so if the goal is “Get better at [Skill]”, the way to get there is to trick yourself into finding things you like on the way to figuring it out. People are just more complicated plants, sometimes we gotta run circles around our brains to sneak something in there. 

Also, to manage expectations, it’s not about “Getting Good™ Immediately”, but “to observe and be able to describe one thing better, one piece at a time.” Every single thing in your life, including all the times you aren’t doing art, will bring added depth to your work. Take a moment, look at the sky, flex your hands, shove your face into a cat.... 

Thank you for your kind words, the shrimp are doing well.

A one-person circlejerk under the cut 

Hrmmmm how I got here myself :V 

A) a shit ton of fixating

B) a childhood of “ehehe cartoon drawings”, 2013-2018 of concentrated effort to study and Get Better, and 2018-current day of mulling things over and adding a few pinches of spices

Also I went to art school, that’s a giant factor. BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute.

If it helps you quantify anything, know that I am currently on my 23rd sketchbook? Sketchbook 1 was started ~2013

I was the sort of bastard who found diagrams FASCINATING.

Very few of my sketchbook pages were assigned schoolwork; I just did that shit on my own because I had an unhealthy existential dread of being unemployed after school, and I also fucking LOVED learning.

Nothing in here is printed out; I copied things out and studied them, goddamn. I no longer have the patience for this but I’m glad younger!me did.

You can tell I got into Yuri on Ice (above). Those studies are from looking up a youtube video on skating, and pausing the video every few frames to sketch the pose. Also the muscle diagram on the above right is fun because I drew the top black lines part on see-through acetate, which you can flip up. There’s more. There’s so much more. Whatever people see now is the culmination of everything I picked up along the way. 

Honestly I definitely forced my own nose to the grindstone wayyyyy too much in college. Think of the person who skips most social events because they’re too busy working, who's perpetually anxious when out on social gatherings because they could be doing work—that was in no way healthy for me, and I never plan on repeating it. I had “motivational” quotes on post-it notes all around my workspace that said toxicly positive things like “think of all the time you spend consuming other peoples’ work, vs. how much time you spend making your own. Only one of those will make you remembered.” 

However, I can’t be upset at past-me because I absolutely did the best I could with the coping mechanisms I had, and I’m really proud of him for trying this hard and still being ALIVE at the end of the day. 

That’s a page from one of my 2017 sketchbooks; drawing was a stim for me + helped me stay awake in classes, so I’d draw the whole way through. 

All sketchbook images above are from my “concentrated learning” phase of 2014-18. Since then I've lowered my own standards and now it’s about the vibes and not the 100% accuracy. Fuck the accuracy, shapes that real humans are can look “fake” or drawn incorrectly if you translate it into 2D. And sometimes it’s some visual prejudice you didn’t realize you had, due to the media you grew up seeing. Maybe some pieces have fucked up anatomy, but I’m not hung up about it (just add a lump when unsure). But yes, this is definitely “keep in mind I have thousands of studies under my belt and thus even if I’m not actively thinking about it, I’ve osmosis-ed enough from the stuff I’ve done previously to make something look like it’s got convincing shapes”. It also doesn’t come out great All The Time! That’s life. You can get here also; just take it in bite-sized chunks, and give yourself plenty of time to rest and go back into your own comfort zone. 

I am not trying to make anyone demoralized; this is simply the path I took myself. Sometimes, even if you’ve barely taken three steps, it’s nice to encourage yourself and be proud of making it this far. 

If you’'re still here for some fucking reason, here’s a shrimp reward. 

--

The art I am often most drawn to are the ones that tell me something new, often about something familiar. “That’s a line I never thought of using to describe the ears”, “That’s an application of color and texture that I would have never thought of myself but makes SO MUCH SENSE” etc. 

I too, have a long ways to go. The rest of my life actually! And what a wild journey that shall be. 

Well wishes on your own. 

-- Reference Tag | Tip Jar

[crouton-knight]

My nerd(affectionate), my aquantence, my funny lil guy on a screen-

Tell me about your ocs

I'm spesificaly curious about your pfp (are they an oc? Self insert? Im fairly certain you drew them, but did you?) But also I wanna know abt any other lil fellas youve got! I want Refrence Images (if you hve any)

HELLO I'M SO EXCITED TO TELL YOU the one in my pfp is not an OC though, that's just Karkat Vantas as a trickster. I did in fact draw him! But technically he's not mine, just the design is.

I can post the full image below! Among many others.

Due to who I am as a person, at least some of the images below will be uh. Suggestive. Proceed at your own discretion.

Trickster Karkat

I've actually drawn him like three times but this is my favorite iteration.

OKAY OC TIME

I'll start with my homestuck OCs. These aren't all of them, just most of them. I still have some highbloods to draw.

Pommeh Granit and Pemlow Matahr (originally Pomelo Tomato) are a couple of minor characters in an old fic of mine that's been bouncing around forever. Pommeh doesn't get much if any screentime but in another world he'd be some highblood's sugarbaby, sweet to their face and an absolute terror to anyone else. Pemlow is much nicer, and the tattoos on his shoulder are meant to be symbolic of the system he grew up in (as he's not an Alternian troll, he's from a colony world.)

All the yellowbloods (Hanyak Tayana, Kimchi Spanch, Javila Kanyao and Praspa Tradam) are also background characters from various unfinished fics that I sometimes give their own lives anyway. Hanyak and Praspa are roommates, and very toxic for each other. Kimchi is the only thing keeping them from killing each other. Javila is just there for the ride, and to provide narcotics.

Maeleo is actually my first fantroll! He went through a bunch of redesigns though. I think someone once said he looks like a pokemon trainer? I think I might lean into that lol. Champion Fiduspawn player.

Tassit, Sazaly, and Lasusa are also some older characters who've gone through some redesigns (Lasusa the least, she's always been scrungly). The three of them are from the same fic as Pommeh and Pemlow, as maintenance crew (Tassit) and medical crew (Sazaly and Lasusa.) Hareer used to be a Beforus troll but then I made them an Alternian bounty hunter.

Yadmir is a smuggler who runs both cargo and people off locked down planets like Alternia. He only shows up in a couple scenes in one of my more recent (unfinished) fics but I think he's kind of charming, in a slimy way.

Claris is just horrible and I'm pretty sure she eats people. Like not even grubs, straight up people.

I also have Lilnas Rodey and Candra Somvar, both of which I need to actually draw myself at some point. There's more than these but... yeah, still no refs.

DragonFable OCs!

I still need to draw most of them. But here's the ones I've already drawn.

Dave, a fan-child for Notha and Remthalas, cloned mostly from Rem's DNA but with a little Notha in there for variety. He's a menace and I love him. @oddeyesight and @valorousowl (as @justanothalyehr) are partially responsible.

Duroc, Elemental Spirit of Vivacity. He's a hedonist and a bacon-aligned spirit, and I mostly made him because I thought it'd be funny.

Somnarine, another abyssal elf. He's an old friend of Rem's who was away when the other abyssal elves got taken out by Kathool. Lots of headcanons involved in both his design and backstory. His skirt isn't actually that short, he ties it with his belt when he's on land. Right now he's traveling among other water elf settlements to try and gather as much of his people's history together as he can. Very much a lover not a fighter, and needs rescuing *often.* (Kind of a simplified sketch, will do better eventually.)

I've only recently gotten back into DF though so again, more OCs, not that many refs.

Puella Magi OCs!

I have. A lot of witches. Which I will not list, because I mostly use them for RP, and they die pretty quickly lol.

But here are some of my magical girls!

Chiyako Watanabe, my first Puella Magi OC. Rich girl, very polite and sweet on the first few meetings, but actually really intense and even a little violent. Has a pretty fragile ego, and a tendency to not ask for help until it's too late.

Tsukiko Usada, 18 or 19 years old, living on her own, and actually really shy and nervous around everyone. Has an interest in idol culture and fashion, but doesn't think she'll get anywhere with it, mostly because she's trans and still needs to get over her own internalized issues. (Her outfit was originally just blue but then I did the trans flag palette as a joke and thought it looked much cuter.)

This one's much rougher due to the situation around the image; a few people from the RP + myself wanted to make a manga but it didn't really get off the ground. Olivia here was one of the main cast; she's really cold and bitter outwardly but actually kind of a crybaby. Also half-Belgian, hence the name.

I have one more, but she still doesn't have any art; will hopefully get around to that sometime.

Non-fandom OCs!

Surprisingly, this Madoka-looking girl is for an original project that I've been pinging around in my head for a few months. Miko Sugihara, an unlucky magical girl who works for the Yakuza due to them holding her mascot critter hostage.

Knoell here is... something. He was abducted by Krampus and transformed into what he is now. Really I made him for smut.

Nikolai here is basically my self-insert! I do not own any of this outfit in real life, alas.

Hoo, that's already quite a lot, so I'll stop here for now. Might post more if anyone asks again. Thanks for dropping by! Feel free to ask details about any of them.

[thecreaturecodex]

Dung Beetle Knight

Image accessed at Imgur here

[Commissioned by @thetygre​. I have not played Kingdom Death: Monster. But I get the impression that it is mechanically complicated. Each monster has an AI deck of actions they can take, a Locations deck describing where they get hit, and a deck of various body parts and other treasures they leave behind when they die. I couldn’t incorporate all of that into a Pathfinder monster even if I wanted to... but I also couldn’t find all of that information. I could only find the names of the cards in the deck, and even a summary of what the dung beetle knight’s combat strategies were in the broad sense was difficult to find. Trolling reddit and fanpages got me an okay, if still somewhat muddy picture, so I apologize to any KDM superfans out there if I got something wrong.]

Dung Beetle Knight CR 13 N Monstrous Humanoid This humanoid figure stands nearly three times as tall as a man. It is covered in a suit of armor made from its own chitinous body, and a pair of membranous wings and a suite of antennae grow from its shoulders. It carries a sword in one hand and has a long horn. As notable as itself is what it pushes along—a foul smelling ball of dung, nearly ten feet in diameter.

If dung beetle knights have a name for themselves, they do not share it with outsiders. Each dung beetle knight is a lone wanderer, traveling in the wake of powerful monsters to collect their droppings. These it incorporates into its dung ball, a massive construction often decorated with leering faces, battle standards or other images of power and intimidation. Although a dung beetle knight can eat from this dung, and does so when it requires healing, its primary food is animal matter—including adventurers that pursue it.

In combat, a dung beetle knight treats its dung ball as an enormous football, kicking it into foes and knocking them over. It moves frequently in combat, keeping up with its missile, but it is capable of fighting separately as well. Each dung beetle knight  carries a sword made of resinous secretions, and can also strike with its clawed hands and enormous horn. They have a few overtly magical abilities—they can create crushing pits, protect themselves with clouds of biting flies, and bounce their dung balls between opponents to strike multiple foes at once.

A dung ball is a dung beetle knight’s greatest treasure, and they fight to the death if enemies appear to be attacking the ball and not the knight. This ball is how dung beetle knights reproduce—each dung beetle knight is born pregnant, and after their dung balls are diverse and large enough, they lay these eggs into the dung ball and promptly die. The dung ball acts as an incubation chamber, causing the grubs within to develop into new dung beetle knights. Whatever the grubs do not eat becomes the foundation for their own dung balls, and the cycle begins anew. The mutagenic fluids within the dung can heal other creatures, but at the cost of both their mental and physical integrity.

A dung beetle knight stands about fifteen feet tall. They understand Aklo, but speak rarely and haltingly.

Dung Beetle Knight            CR 13 XP 38,400 N Large monstrous humanoid Init +8; Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., Perception +11, tremorsense 60 ft. Defense AC 28, touch 18, flat-footed 19 (-1 size, +8 natural, +1 dodge, +10 natural) hp 189 (14d10+112) Fort +12, Ref +17, Will +10 DR 15/magic and bludgeoning; Immune disease, nausea, sickened; Resist acid 10, electricity 10 Offense Speed 50 ft. Melee resin sword +23/+18/+13 (1d8+9/18-20x2), claw +17 (1d6+4), gore +17 (2d6+9) or 2 claws +22 (1d6+9), gore +22 (2d6+13) Ranged dung ball +21 (6d6+13 plus trip and distraction) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks distraction (1 round, Fort DC 25), feculent healing, powerful blows (gore), ricochet shot Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +18 1/day—cape of flies (DC 18), hungry pit (DC 19) Statistics Str 29, Dex 26, Con 27, Int 6, Wis 13, Cha 18 Base Atk +14; CMB +25 (+27 bull rush); CMD 43 Feats Dodge, Improved Bull Rush, Mobility, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Precise Shot, Spring Attack Skills Acrobatics +19 (+31 when jumping). Climb +19, Perception +11, Swim +19; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics (+8 when jumping) Languages Aklo SQ fancy footwork Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization solitary Treasure special (resin sword, 1d4-1 doses of feculent healing) Special Abilities Cape of Flies (Sp) This functions as cape of wasps, except that a creature that takes damage from the swarm is instead exposed to filth fever. The disease has an immediate onset, and the initial save DC for infection is that of the spell. Further saves are made at the disease’s normal DC. This is the equivalent of a 4th level spell. Dung Ball (Ex) A dung beetle knight’s dung ball is a Large object with hardness 2, AC 9 and 150 hit points. A dung beetle knight is considered proficient with it as a thrown weapon with a range increment of 30 feet. Without the dung beetle knight’s ministrations, it collapses into an ordinary pile of dung within 24 hours. Fancy Footwork (Ex) A dung beetle knight does not need free hands to throw or move a dung ball. As long as it is adjacent to its dung ball, it can move the ball through unoccupied squares at its normal speed. Feculent Healing (Su) A dung beetle knight’s dung ball contains a reservoir of magical fluids that the dung beetle can consume as a standard action three times a day. When it uses this ability, the dung beetle knight heals 4d8+14 points of damage, and is exposed to a neutralize poison spell at CL 14th. Up to three doses of this liquid can be recovered from a dung ball with a successful DC 25 Craft (alchemy) check, but any creature except for a dung beetle knight that consumes them must succeed a DC 25 Fortitude save or be exposed to a fleshwarp mutation. The save DC is Constitution based. Resin Sword (Ex) A dung beetle knight’s resin sword is treated as a masterwork scimitar. In the hands of any other creature, it has the fragile special quality. If a dung beetle knight’s sword is broken, it can craft another one by spending 1 hour. Ricochet Shot (Su) Once per day as a full round action, a dung beetle knight may make iterative attacks with its dung ball. Each attack must be made against a separate target, and each target must be within 1 range increment of the next. When it has made its attacks, the dung ball returns to a free space adjacent to the dung beetle knight.

[camarilla-arts]

I finally have a colored ref for Shadow Jones in TMNT? she quickly became one of my favorite allies as was drafting the plot early on and i am so excited to get past the prologue so I can start writing her proper. Its so hard to pick any singular mask for a vigilante who's whole goal is to figure it out as she goes, so various points of the comic she will be wearing different masks, all refs to other versions of Casey Jones (and one of splinters) masks I've liked from various iterations.

[spookiserenity]

Hi! Long post, as an addition to this post on LFD!

Blaine is a character who has been around for a WHILE, in several different iterations. Blaine takes inspiration from various fictional characters, and my own personal aesthetic. Which, of course, means that their beta design is a wreck. Lets take a look!

Ha. haha. um.

Yeah they were a disaster JKHFDLKGJSFG

Talina is an OC that is Over nine years old. She has gone through a number of designs, and comes from a time where I still often had to consciously result to shape theory. Her current design has two variations, as seen here, and she's based vaguely off of designs from Avatar, (TLA, and TLOK) and Kingdom Hearts. Because that's what I was into at the time.

Talina is the most effort I have EVER put into a design and a character. She is happy, bubbly, and always willing to help. Her design is made of all kinds of shapes, to give the impression of a well-rounded character, and she is a dark, cool color, while having warm reds and oranges as her outfit. Talina is a testament to how insane character design is when you get down to it.

This is a design that existed before it's ref was made, but not for very long. She is a very basic character, but it matches her somewhat basic personality! Of course, her basic personality is a front. She likes to fight people. Bazze is a very good mono-color design, in my opinion. It makes use of various shades and tones, and black and white.

And, for my last trick,

DOMRI.

Domri is another older OC of mine, they are a keykid for Kingdom Hearts! I made them in one afternoon in order to enter a contest, and just went from there. Domri's design came naturally, seeing as not only were they based upon myself, Kingdom Hearts had been my main interest for years at the time. I knew that keykids had bright designs with lots of belts, and the pink and green color scheme is definitely something I would wear in that environment.

(These are alternate outfits created for a specific event.)

The point is that, in order to really, well and truly understand character design, you must be ready to intake information, and not be afraid to recreate it in your own light. Creating a design that's just an edited version of your favorite character is completely fine! It's the easiest way to learn what you like in a design, and how you'd use that for yourself.

So, in the end,

The answer is that if I really want a design to succeed, I'll think about it for a long time. Even if I've already determined what it looks like, I'll go back and make edits as I see fit. Character design theory is a very helpful thing to know and learn, and once you have it down, you'll be using it without even realizing. And using outfits and color schemes from your favorite things ain't never hurt anybody.

[cryptocism]

So since pretty much everyone agrees that Tim needs a name change, and I think most people dislike the first two RR costumes (I dislike the pretty much Robin one too, because it seems like he hasn’t accept losing Robin, when I feel a lot of his comics right after Bruce W died was about that?) which leads me to: What do you think Tim’s costume would look like if he got a good outfit, and what name?

o yeah i was not a fan of the cowl. and the n52 design is just… so busy and excessively accessorised (excessorised???) - i drew it a couple times for this project im workin on and the whole process was me squinting at reference panels and whispering softly but passionately “what the fuck” - and i agree on the rebirth RR design, it looks more derivative of dick and jasons retconned robin costumes than inspired by tims og 80s design (however. the unternet costume - its simple and appealing and clearly nightwing-inspired and i am a fan, also the giant scythe/halberd/mace thing was so ridiculous i loved it)

which is why i thank pat gleason for my life bc tims new outfit is such a good modernisation of his original robin design. so i mean to answer ur question i think tim has a p good design right now (although not for long i guess since they announced hed get a new look/codename soon) BUT if i were in charge of debuting a new design and name… hm……….

whatever his new name is, it’d preferably have something to do with wherever his personal storyline is headed, which i dont know, and for all my complaining abt how red robin is a shit name i dont actually have great alternatives lol. i did see somewhere the suggestion for the name “Cardinal” which i dont hate, so ill use that as a placeholder for now (although “Halcyon” is an interesting option)

tangentially, my personal preference for his robin graduation would be a miniseries featuring tim and damian both as robin, begrudgingly having to work together to fight some greater enemy and becoming true brothers along the way. ending with tim giving damian his blessing to be robin (a post-mantle blessing but still) with the first amicable passing on of the robin title literally ever

as for Look: his new design should a) accurately reflect his character b) mesh well with whatever tone his personal storyline is going for c) be a natural progression of gleasons newest iteration while still d) able to stand as its own iconic look

i always thought tim would do really well in a more grounded noir-style detective story, both using and especially subverting the tropes of the genre (for instance tim befriends every femme fatale and romances absolutely zero of them. theyre pals and have weekly movie nights or smthn) obvs using some of the mystery elements to springboard into classic comic wild times etc etc. theres also a great opportunity to include some more cyberpunk aesthetics to the look and feel ofthe story

i.e. tim is part of the waynetech r&d teams, working with them to develop new technologies, and proceeding to test out some of the prototypes while doing vigilante work (bc terry had to get his rocket boots from somewhere ok). gotham is still gotham, but its starting to see some of that neo-futuristic/blade runner flavour from batman beyond.

so. cyberpunk detective story starring cha boy tim drake. im not gonna draw it rn but lemme just gather some ref elements here in case i ever do

first off - motorcycle, obviously. redbird is back babey and this time its a two-wheeler. all his gear would be modded the hell out of, but the motorcycle itself would be an approximate balance of 70% ducati and 30% tron lightcycle situation. a speedy bike with ample room for the edgy overkill batfam aesthetic, with maybe a little akira in there who knows

same goes for helmet; 70/30 on this modern/cyberpunk situation. heres a quickly photoshopped “cardinal” helmet lol 

although theres totally room for some daft-punk leds in there. serving as a heads up display AND a fun neon aesthetic. I really want to play into that John Wick neo-noir situation.

besides that… ive got a preference for street style over the superhero spandex, so… detective jacket. every detective has a good jacket. norm breyfogle made a comment on his early tim robin designs that itd be pretty either/or on jacket vs cape, merging the two looked a little silly. for robin they probably decided on cape to keep things classic, but for cardinal i can do what i want

and i want to bring back some of this popped collar.

which i basically did for that other tim design i drew, which i still like, so this one would probably be at least a lil borrowed from that. 

attempting to merge cape/jacket might end up smthn like these:

which admittedly i like. 

admittedly… i do also like the concept of wings introduced in tims n52 design, i just think they couldve been hidden/incorporated better

greig rapson had a sweet robin design that had a sort of flight-suit (which dove into the actual mechanics??? i love) and since id want to dive into tim testing out waynetech prototypes, its a pretty good natural progression from him to terrys glider thing

the whole ensemble would be fairly understated however - enough to semi blend in with any crowd, hero or civilian. after all the story focus would be just as much about solving the mystery as it is punching the bad guy

the various interchangeable gadgets would be both prototypes of terrys eventual batsuit, and also all the failed prototypes that never managed to get off the ground. just to add an element of tension/plot devices wherein tims gear could break or malfunction pretty much anytime.

im fixated on this rocket boot situation though so itd be a paired down version of terrys eventual seamless/invisible design. still noticable and clunky, but working with the sleek modernish style outlined by gleason

smthn almost similar to the prowler actually from spiderverse - as in: Clearly Rocketboots, and clearly diy’d the shit out of, but still working with that Aesthetic

(most of the screencaps of prowler are dark af so im taking this from jesus alonso iglesias concept art) 

im debating on the addition of more overtly birdlike/cyberpunk elements, so ill add this here cause its dope as fuck (from ahmet atil akar). 

and a lot of batclan capes tend to end with that concave spiked look, which works great for bats but not really for birds. a tailcoat might emulate the bird tail, but it also might evoke Penguin a lil too much idk.

also in the interest of keeping everything within the same sort of design language, i would Love to see some new villains emulating deconstructionist/architectural kawakubo fashion:

like could you imagine the supervillain potential

so uhhh yeah. budding cyberpunk detective story with a little noir and a little technological advancement progressing in fits and starts. taking from the gleason foundation with heavy black featuring brighter coloured accents and modern sleekness, made a little dorky via prototype technology, with some extra neon blade runner shit thrown in there.

depending on how much i love or hate the new codename/design reveal i might draw this via inspired motivation or spiteful motivation lol

[mechanicalriddle]

Journal Time

HERE it is, my Exalted Secret Santa journal for this year! Sorry for being late on this, whomstever my secret santa is, I’ve been a little busy finishing my last semester of college but I had a spare couple of hours today to get this out.

BROKEN STAR is a day caste, and a loyalist under the command of the bodhisattva anointed by dark waters. In life he was the youngest detective in Onyx PD’s homicide division. He can never shy away from a good mystery, though if he'd learned some restraint he might still be alive...

Star is 21 years old, a goofy, immature try-hard who worships his boss religiously, despite the fact that his new un-life is kind of a deeply traumatic nightmare and all his coworkers think he’s obnoxious. With a little time and a more thorough brainwashing he’d make an excellent enforcer for the bodhisattva’s secret police, though whether he will even make it that far is questionable at best. Currently he’s lost in a distant corner of creation thousands of miles from home, after a detour through the labyrinth separated him from his company and also resulted in the neverborn being wired directly into his brain. He’s joined forces,  much to his master’s chagrin, with a pair of unaffiliated deathknights who had also gone in search of the invisible fortress.

Appearance-wise, he’s a little on the short side (5′5″) with a compact, athletic build, also the victim of some overenthusiastic necrosurgery. the little extraneous metal bits are the result of the artifact he wields, which are wings made out of knives, i don’t often draw the knives in detail because its a huge pain in the ass. No the wings do not come off (though the feathers can); neither does the mask, that’s holding his brains in! Overall he is just sort a nasty boy. He wears like two outfits because everything has to be custom-tailored but you can put him in whatever you want really. Also his anima is a writhing mass of frantic black birds dark enough to blot out the sun.

I have a lot of pictures of this guy. No really. Like a lot of fucking pictures. Here is his main, most updated ref; a lot of the other pictures I linked are from various previous iterations of his design. You can also look through his tumblr tag though it is mainly jokes about birds and also his mortifying dietary habits; he has an aesthetic tag as well though I don’t often update it.

---

TEPET JERAI is an ex-dynast wood aspect. He used to be part of the tepet legions, but bailed after some shit went down and fled eastward to spend a few decades as some kind of forest hermit. 

Jerai never really “got” his family’s competitive mentality, nor their taste for violence, conquering, and forcing the weak under their heel. Despite this he recieved instruction in the art of military strategy and wartime medicine at the House of Bells; it took many more years to unlearn what he had learned there. He has not been home since long before the Bull of the North laid waste to a third of the house’s scions, though he delights at his family’s misfortunes. Among the Tepets his name is spoken only in harsh whispers.

Jerai is real small (5′2″). Don’t let the dad bod fool you, he’s significantly stronger and faster than he looks. Clothes are mostly made of natural materials; he tends to wear and carry a lot of things, though his fashion still has a bit of a dynastic flair to it, it’s pretty subdued. Overall he has kind of a rolling plains-based schtick which shows in his aspect markings (dandelions in his hair in the spring and summer, dead grass in the winter) as well as his anima, a field full of tattered banners and broken, rusted weaponry. His horse (?) is a boon from a nature god; she is a baby and rascal.

Here is an updated ref I made of him for secret santa. I also have a bunch of older pictures of him you can reference as well: (x)(x)(x)

i have ONE more character for this writeup, which is one I don’t believe i’ve talked about on here before

---

GRIN PORTENT LOOMING OVER FIELDS OF WAR, or Grim, as she is known, was once one of First and Forsaken Lion’s most terrifying singular forces of military might. She is a Midnight and a war supernal, once as vicious, callous and cruel as they come. But one day, something changed. 

Grim exists in the Hour in Black universe (same as Star), set about 5 years after most games traditionally are. She has been on many-a-campaign, and conquered many-a-city at the whim of her Master. On one of these, a troublesome rogue appeared to thwart her plans. The trickster came back, again and again, always with some new wrench to throw into her plans. Eventually she confronted them, when the two stumbled into the claws of a Raksha, and were trapped in its reality-warping mind prison for several weeks. When finally they had escaped, working together with only each other as company, they had come to an understanding. 

The lunar, Prince of Strays (owned by @heedra​), became a frequent visitor of Grim’s personal manse. The satisfaction of violence and total dominion began to dull, and the fulfillment of her duties as a deathknight began to tire her. Even more, they disgusted her. Eventually she had made a slip-up which forced her hand, and the two ran away together to a remote forest in the northeast. There they live in a cabin, miles from any sort of civilization as a necessary precaution, and together raise their two mortal daughters.

Grim wears two faces- one she hid behind a helmet, and another she is still only just becoming comfortable with.  Tall and muscular enough to be intimidating to most, she converses in a curt, military cadence, though she is slowly learning to find softness again. She has locked away all her most dangerous effects in a place where tiny little hands can’t mistakenly grab them, but is still ready to don her dreadful soulsteel plate again should the need arise. 

She wears simple clothes in muted tones, loose shirts with long skirts or trousers. Here she is in a set of lamellar, this is sort of the nicest picture I have of her and it’s really a shame there aren’t more. Her anima is... ehhh, I think it may be a city in ruin, shrouded in darkness, under a looming crimson sky.

addendum: “where is tedeo what have you done to him!!” he is fine! he just got a picture last year, so I felt like some of my other Guys should have a chance. you can draw him if you want though you’re gonna have to dig up some refs for that yourself.

Feel free to take some liberties, if you want to design them a new outfit or anything like that, by all means, go nuts.

Good luck, and godspeed.

[screechingcollectivecowboy-blog2]

No longer manufactured: Rolex Explorer II 16570 watch

When discussing Rolex watches, a few words have lost all meaning. At this point, "underestimated", "sleeping" and "underestimated" may not be completely meaningless, but we are rapidly reaching this goal. Social media and frankly speaking, articles like this will not help the enthusiast hunters there, but you will be surprised to find how many people I have met who know nothing about Explorer II. In this article, I will introduce the Explorer II reference. 16570 is a fake rolex watches  40mm version produced 22 years from 1989 to 2011. ExplorerII 16570's low-key design, dual time zone function, near-indestructible appearance and tenacious non-luxury posture may be the best choice for modern Rolex sports watches there.

Of course, I am a bit biased towards Explorer II. I have always been my favorite Rolex sports watch. In fact, the first Rolex watch I purchased was a 216570 fake rolex day date watches black dial (for this I made a frontal comparison with Submariner). Submariner, GMT-Master II and Daytona have attracted much attention, while Explorer II has been Rolex's low-key utility watch and has been a real travel watch for decades. Explorer II is the scum of the Rolex sports watch family, Prince Prince of GMT-Master II (this is interesting because I think Harry is wearing Polar Dial Explorer II).

Launched as a cave explorer's watch, the Explorer II design has features over form. The darkness in these caves makes it impossible to tell whether it is day or night, which is the reason for the 24-hour hands and fixed bezel. And the original Explorer II reference. 1655 does not mean to be a travel watch at all, and 16570 introduces an independent hour hand, which makes the watch a dual time zone travel watch in function.

Fully refurbished Rolex Explorer II Ref. The 16550 was produced between 1985 and 1989 and is regarded as the original “transition” model between 1655 and 16570 seen in this article. Compared with 16570, they are difficult to find and more expensive. For better or worse, 16550 has brought Explorer II into the Rolex sports watch series. The sapphire crystal, the new Mercedes hands, the time scale and the 24-hour hand are all reminiscent of the GMT Master of the time. It is also equipped with Calibre 3085, which adds the aforementioned independent hour hand function.

The 16550 also uses a black or white (aka Polar) dial, and introduces two dial options that remain today. Polar dial models have paint defects, causing the dial to slowly turn milky white, making it popular among collectors. In fact, the price of these products is usually higher than the old Ref. The price is high. Also known as "Steve McQueen" in 1655. I was shocked when I saw that the cream dial 16550 sold for more than 1655, but this is not uncommon.

Fast forward to 1989, Rolex released the Explorer II Ref. The 16570 had been running for nearly 22 years before it was released in 2011, 216570. The 16570 iterated on the 16550, using the new 3185 movement and minor but substantial changes to the extreme dial model. By replacing the silver outline hands and indexing with black, and by really emphasizing the white dial, the readability is greatly improved. Similarly, the font used on the border number has changed between 16550 and 16570, which is only a problem.

Explorer II 16570 is water-resistant to 100M, 40 mm wide, 12.2 mm thick, and 47 mm ear-to-ear. It is an ideal size for smaller or larger wrists. Wearing on a 7.5-inch wrist, my complaint is zero and I find the size is just right. I personally prefer to be a little bigger, so I prefer my 216570, which has a width of 42mm, a thickness of 12.5mm, and a lug of 50.1mm. Compared with Submariner or GMT-Master, one of the advantages of Explorer II is that the 24-hour bezel tilts down, making the case look slimmer.

The 16570 movement is equipped with a 3185 movement (the model after 2006 has slightly updated the 3186 movement), which was launched in 1988 for Explorer II and GMT-Master II. This is the first time that Rolex uses a movement with an independent hour hand, and it also has a seconds function. The 3185 has 31 jewels, runs at 28,800 vph, and has a power reserve of 50 hours. Of course, considering how many Explorer II watches containing this movement have been produced in 22 years, whether repairs are required depends on the specific situation.

Although they are actually the same watch, for many years, the Explorer II 16570 watch has various serial numbers, and there are subtle differences between these serial numbers. The pole model you see in this article is the Y serial number, while the black dial is the F serial number. Although both of these have solid end links, the lugs of the Y dial of the polar dial have been drilled to facilitate the replacement of the bracelet or belt, while the F dial of the black dial does not.