#I don't have a clue which drawings I've posted where

[strawberrycartt]

He's once again asking for financial support

Based on this post:

[circletakingthesquare]

this is so stupid and far fetched

ok so i went ahead and searched DRAAG on google and found out about this 1973 science fiction film "Fantastic Planet". DRAAG on this planet, Ygam, are basically blue creatures with pretty long-life spans who can alter their appearances during meditation ceremonies led by the Grand council. So, the DRAAG society is governed by the Grand Council, they represent the hierarchical pinnacle of legislation and direct the spiritual life for the entire Draag civilization. They're kind of the leaders of the planet Ygam. This Grand Council consists of five members.

this is a picture of the Grand Council (which looks prettyyyyy familiar). Also i have no clue where the fifth council member is at in this, this only pic i could find. ANYWAY basically, the Grand Council are cruel and apathetic to the suffering of the Om's - who are a sentient species like themselves however smaller in stature. Oms are not originally from this planet but were brought from the planet Terra.

So, i think they may have taken some inspiration from certain aspects of this storyline. Like maybe The Black Parade was taken to MOAT, similar to how the Oms were brought from Terra to Ygam. On Ygam, Oms are kind of forced to act as pets and inferior beings to the DRAAGS. You could definitely draw a connection to how the dictators portrayed in MCR's recent posts are forcing The Black Parade (IN THEORY IN THEOOORRYYYY), to perform for them (or like perform for people idk just performing maybe not necessarily for them) in MOAT, similar to the role of Oms in the planet Ygam. In short, they both have that inferiority role in the hands of authoritarian leaders, kind of kept captive sort of part in the storyline. They're both captured from one place to another (Ygam and MOAT in this case) for captivity and control. I still don't really know what MOAT means but it could be a different location where The Black Parade has been forced to go?? Idrk

If I wanted to go supppppppppperrrrrr far i could say that IF they used some inspiration from Fantastic Planets, you could predict some things that might happen next. In Fantastic Planets, Oms eventually rebel against the DRAAG dictatorship, which could maybe sort of kind be possible with the Black Parade too? The Black Parade could come together (as the Oms do) and rebel against the DRAAG dictatorship and gain freedom again. This is SO far tho im just thinking. In Fantastic Planets, very similar to MCR's new lore, there are obviously some political undertones about oppression, elitism, and fascism. I cant say what these are exactly in regard to MCR's recent posts, but in Fantastic Planets, these themes are portrayed through the authoritarian rule of the DRAAGS and subjugation of the Oms. So, you could use your own theories and interpretation of the MCR lore to make connections to these themes.

Im honestly not super sure about this AT ALL this isn't like a crazy theory or break through or anything, but I found the connections kind of interesting but ik this is so far-fetched so don't take it too seriously at all LMAO. Also, I've never even watched the movie and there are some parts of it I'm leaving out I just kind of wrote down what I thought related to MCR's new lore. But the general idea of Fantastic Planet kind of struck me as a little similar. Also, it makes A LITTLE bit of sense since Gerard Way is really into sci-fi (not confirming anything just an observation). Who knows tho

[pianostarinwonderland]

maybe skully isnt dead 🤯 [half copium half srs]

listen. ik ive been on copium for a while. ik we all are, ive seen twitter, tumblr, and everyone’s tags on my posts when they reblog

BUT PLS HEAR ME OUT. IM SO SERIOUS RN WHEN I SAY: if u wanna be technical about it, if u wanna stretch it out somehow, you can argue that the game never outright states that skully is dead, only that the skully we met was from hundreds of years ago.

“but mamsir pianostarinwonderland, how in the fuck can that be???? we HEARD that invisible kiss” LET ME COOKKKKKK 🔥🔥🔥 I SWEAR EVERYONE, I AM COOKING U JUST HAVE TO HEAR ME OUUUUUUUUUUUUUT— knocked out

Ok serious time, let me mansplain to you all the possibility of Skully being alive

Establishing first of all, Twst has kept Skully's nature vague

Simply put: we don't know if Skully is human. In his live 2D, Skully's ears are completely covered. Even in his illustration, we can barely see his ears. It's an interesting design choice. However, in his chibi (which wasn't revealed until Episode 5), we can see his ears aren't shaped like a fae, but are round like that of a human.

However, it's pretty hard to think he's human either, when we consider his "moshi, ne moshi" greeting in Episode 1 and its connection to the supernatural. Voiced, to be noted. Exactly what kind of creature he could be is currently unknown, but because this part was voiced, it's something we need to pay attention to at the very least.

In regards to his mortality, the only clue we're really given is Skully himself saying that he may never meet us except through Halloween, which implies a lifespan similar to a human or something similar. But Skully doesn't know how far into the future that the cast is from. Heck, does he even know of his nature?

Now, addressing that invisible kiss...

I feel like this is the main thing that told all of us that Skully is long gone. Heck, if you catch me in my right mind, I might just tell you that yeah, that should be enough proof that Skully is dead! Little signs from the dead such can manifest in similar ways to what Jamil and Leona sensed: hearing a kiss and feeling a kiss on your hand.

(unfortunately i'm not in my right mind so you're getting my dumb reasons why i'm arguing for otherwise)

However, if Skully is gone, I find it interesting that this is the way they decide to show it. We already know from the very first Halloween event that ghosts can manifest all year round in Night Raven College due to the high concentration of magical power in the area. Outside of that, they cannot be seen. If they really wanted to confirm with the audience that Skully is a ghost, they could have had him appear as such at the end, when they all returned to Night Raven College.

But they chose a scenario where people can draw a lot of conclusions from it: Is their senses getting fucked over as they wake up? Are they still reeling from the magic of the book? (though rationally, we know that Leona is not one to be easily stunned, so the first question is at the very least easy to dismiss)

I've also seen some people theorize that he's using invisibility magic during the invisible kiss scene. And well, while I find that funny, it makes me wonder if he could be some other kind of spirit that's not dead. Like an undead of some sort, which the residents of Halloween Town are. Heck, Azul's card line about Skully talks about how he seems to fit right at home with the Halloween Town residents. Again, we don't know Skully's true nature, but the possibility of him being a species that can turn invisible is interesting.

Moving on, we have what Dire Crowley stated about Skully

At the end of the event, Crowley tells us that he found Skully’s portrait while rummaging through the storage and shows it to us and the 11 boys who went inside the book

What he tells us is that Skully J. Graves is a NRC graduate from hundreds of years ago, before Crowley was Headmage. Note that he only was appointed for the position 100 years ago; the Skully we met is at least from around 200 years ago. During his NRC years, Skully got to share Halloween to NRC. It was a hit, and when he graduated, he spread Halloween all over the world in his travels.

I'd like to take a little detour first to discuss something that's been weighing on my mind: Some people have thought that Crowley is lying to us when he speaks about Skully and his achievements, but... I don't see why he would lie. For one, there is a decent chance that Crowley might not have gotten to see Skully. Even if he did, it's even more unsure if he was involved in Skully's affairs.

However, there's one main reason why I do think that Skully got to live a fulfilling life instead of facing an overblot that killed him or some other tragedy. I'd like to dedicate a longer post to this matter, but to make it concise, I think through Skully, Twst is starting to establish something new regarding their history. I think that historical teachings, folktales and stories, and rumors that are well-known tend to be lies or twisted truths. Whereas those that are obscure and not known are actually what occurred. Skully is called the King of Halloween who's done so much to spread the holiday to the world, yet not even NRC students, who should be the first to know considering that Skully is an alumna, know of him. Although there may be other reasons why that's the case, I like to think that at the very least, Skully's obscurity indicates that he did live the life he wanted and succeeded in working for a future that generations after him can enjoy.

Anyway, that actually isn't the main point of this section of the post, but I kind of want to air that out first. The main point is that Crowley only really said that Skully is a former NRC student from hundreds of years ago who traveled around the world to spread Halloween. But he never told us where he was buried or whether he saw his ghost roaming NRC. He never said anything about Skully being dead.

He probably said the hundreds of years ago bit, carrying the assumption that of course, Skully may have passed away. But we have to remember that we have long-living species in Twisted Wonderland. Fae that were students 200 years ago are very likely to be alive now. Crowley himself is a long-living creature, having been Headmage for 100 years. I think with that in mind, it's important for him to emphasize that Skully's gone if he really is. But he never mentioned it. Therefore, there is a good chance that Skully might just be somewhere else. That or Crowley just doesn't give a fuck where his alumni go, and I might be thinking too deeply about the absence of certain words. Honestly, that's a pretty good chance too.

Lastly, we have the scene where Jack Skellington gets shot down but survives it

Here's where it gets a bit more into speculation, but you're going to have to hear me out.

In the movie, Jack Skellington gets shot down by the military for impersonating Santa Claus. When the Halloween Townspeople watched it, they all despaired, and the mayor started declaring to all that Jack has been blown to smithereens and proclaimed him dead.

But that's not what happened: we find Jack landing on an angel's statue, alive and definitely not blown to smithereens.

And considering that Skully is still very much twisted from Jack Skellington... do you think the writers are pulling a similar move? Making us think that he's dead, just as the townspeople thought he was dead, only for us to learn eventually that he's alive.

This of course depends on what happens eventually in the sequel. From the way things are proceeding, what happened in the Lost in the Book with TNBC is events prior to the movie, and we could very well have the sequel be set during the movie events. (If you ask me, I kind of doubt that actually. I feel like Skellington got inspired by Skully's love for Halloween, enough to stay true to his identity as the Pumpkin King, which would mean the movie wouldn't happen the way we know it. So if anything, I feel like TNBC 2 would focus less on the actual movie and more on the side games where Oogie takes over Halloween Town and even kidnaps Santa and other people, but I admit, that's a stretch, especially considering that we will get Santa giving Halloween Town a taste of Christmas)

Of course, this post is really just to let some of my copium out. Rn, it's still safe to assume that yea, Skully's dead. And though I am coping hard for Skully to be alive, with the way Twst treats the dead, it's not exactly a bad thing. Ghosts continue to stay in NRC like they're living people. They honor the dead, and let the dead live among them. And even if he is in the afterlife and not stuck in the mortal plane, I have faith that Skully did live a fulfilling life that may have been forgotten but clearly changed the world. :'D

[all-you-need-is-paul-mccartney]

Why Don't You Stay; We've Got Tonight II (Paul McCartney x Starr!Female!Reader NSFW)

Find Part One Here

A/N: Y'all asked, y'all shall receive. Thank you all again for the support; I love writing for every single one of you.

I would like to also personally thank my Brainstorming Buddy/ Editor @strawb3rri-le. the last three or four fics I've posted, including this one, would not have been possible had it not been for you, so I thank you from the literal bottom of my heart for being the Lennon to my McCartney in this writing journey. Here's to many more wonderful stories to come! <3

Summary: You and Paul get intimate after agreeing to be there for one another.

This is also inspired by Bob Seger's We've Got Tonight, so be sure to listen to that for your own listening/ reading pleasure!

WARNINGS: SMUT, please don't interact if you're under the age of 18, I'll call your mom. Fluffy unprotected sex (Wrap it before you Tap it amirite?) ANGST; this fic gets SAD midway through, mentions of cheating/ exes being stupid, but there is fluff in the end which makes it all better. Swearing is a given, maybe a few typos.

This one is rated 18+ or R, so tread with caution ONLY if you're of age please, I cannot stress that enough!!!

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"I really am."

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

Paul was watching you from what little light was flooding through the window of his room. He could have asked you that question a hundred more times; but he just wanted to make sure you were comfortable.

He opened his mouth to inquire yet again, but you stepped towards him, lips connecting with his to ease his worries. You felt his tension melt away slowly, hands drifting down to hold your waist as you placed one hand on his chest, the other resting on his shoulder.

You pulled away slightly to glance at his sweater, and Paul watched you intensely as your hand slid down the fabric painfully slow, your fingers dipping into every clothed muscle on his torso until they were toying with the hem at his hips.

"... This should go," you suggested in a hushed tone, and after a moment of letting the recommendation settle in both of your minds, Paul let go of you, pulling it up and off him with your help, and the sweater fell to the carpet with a soft thud.

When your hand returned to his chest, now bare, you examined just how toned he was. You had no clue someone of Paul's stature could be hiding such a body under simple knit sweaters and turtlenecks; but it was a pleasant surprise.

As your palm drifted around his skin, feeling the light hairs on his chest, his own fingers couldn't help but drag along the uppermost edge of your own pyjama top. His gentle touch left a trail of goosebumps on you, his eyes following his fingers as his hand slowed to a stop above your heart.

"And, perhaps this, as well...?" Paul asked rather innocently, eyes flitting back up to meet your own gaze. You nodded a little, watching as he ran his tongue against his bottom lip. "Lift up."

You raised your arms for him, and felt your top slide up and off you, his fingers grazing your sides gently as he removed it from your body. Paul held it in his hands for a moment, eyes drifting down a little to look at the sight before him. The top fell to the floor, along with his discarded sweater, and you both stared at each other for a moment.

Paul's eyelids lowered and he sighed at you, hands reaching out to hold you again. He cupped you at the base of your ribs, his thumbs drawing nonsensical patterns on the skin under your breasts as he closed the gap between you again. As your lips pressed together, Paul slowly walked you back to the edge of his bed, where you lowered yourself to sit when you felt the mattress against the back of your legs.

He dropped to his knees in front of you, finally pulling away to look at you again. His hands moved up carefully to cup your breasts, and you shut your eyes. He gauged your reaction to his touch, and feeling his thumbs run gently over your nipples made your head drop back. You whined a little, that familiar, yet longing feeling you hadn't experienced in a while was making itself known deep within you.

His hot breath was fanning against your skin, and Paul asked you in the most delicate tone, a simple, yet effective, "May I?" And all you could do was nod to him.

You whined again when Paul's lips made contact with your breast, his left hand kneading the other carefully as his right squeezed your side in affection. You slid your hands up through his hair, and you felt him moan against your left nipple as his other hand rolled your right one between his fingers.

You both had to try your best to keep on the quieter side since it was so late; and no one else should have known what you two were doing. Unfortunately, Paul's... handiwork... wasn't anything to be quiet about.

"Paul," you choked out, tilting your head up a little, and he removed his mouth from your nipple to look you right in the eyes.

"You like that?"

"Yes," you nodded your head rather frantically, spurring him to get right back to work, but switching sides, lips and tongue teasing your right breast as your left now gained the attention of his fingers.

Your knees fell away from one another as you tilted your head back again, breath ragged as Paul worked his magic. You felt his hand slide down your waist to drag along the band on your pyjama bottoms, but he was in no rush to tell you to take them off.

His hand actually continued to slide down to your thigh, and he squeezed you gently as you felt his tongue swirl around your nipple, and you rolled your hips against his body on reflex, choking out another whine as you tugged at his hair a little harder. He smiled with a pleasant hum before pulling his mouth away from your body.

You huffed at the cool air hitting your wet breasts, but he placed another warm kiss on your lips, one of his hands holding the back of your neck, and your discomfort faded away almost instantly. His other hand was still on your thigh, but slowly trailing back up to the waistband on your pyjama bottoms.

Paul deepened the kiss just for a moment as his finger hooked into the band. When you both separated again, he rested his forehead against yours, heavy eyes opening to look at you.

"Isn't it about time these go, too?" There was something so carnal about his words, yet they still held an abundant amount of respect for you, and your comfort; and, dear God, it turned you on so badly.

You didn't even respond to his question. You just removed your hands from his hair so you could support yourself from the mattress from your elbows, raising your hips off the bed a little so he could pull the rest of the clothes off your body. You watched as Paul did just that, your bottoms relinquished to the pile of clothes building off to the side, your legs not so spread apart anymore.

It looked as if he were in a trance, hands on your thighs as he examined your nude body in fascination. You watched him watch you, still propped up on your elbows, and you felt almost embarrassed under his gaze until he mumbled, fingers kneading into the tense muscles on your legs, "perfect. Absolutely perfect."

You blushed as he tenderly spread your legs open, unhurriedly, and he groaned at the sight of just how wet you were for him.

"Oh, Darling..."

Your face felt so hot, especially when you watched him lick those damned lips of his again.

"I want to taste you, you look so damn sweet." His thumbs continued to massage between your thighs, and you could feel yourself getting even wetter. You felt like you needed to return the favour.

"I... Did you want me to--"

"No," Paul interrupted lightly with a simple shake of his head. It was like he read your mind. "Keep moaning, keep pulling my hair. Those beautiful noises you're making have me feeling the best kind of way right now."

Every word he said contributed to enhancing the pit of arousal you were feeling within, and you were almost speechless. No one had ever spoken to you that way before, not even your ex, the one with whom you felt you shared your most intimate moments with. But after what had already happened in that room, between you and Paul, comparing them was out of the question.

You could feel his breath against your heat, your blood pumping loud in your ears.

"Paul, please..." you whispered, but he just stared at you, fingers still rubbing your thighs.

"Please what, Lovely?" You knew he was doing this on purpose, especially when he rested his head down onto your left leg to give you those alluring puppy-dog eyes.

"I can't give you what you what you want if you don't tell me what it is you need."

Your mouth formed a few shapes without you making a sound. You sighed, breath shaky as you gathered enough composure to groan, "I need your mouth. Please."

"Where?" Paul asked innocently. You were secretly loving the way he was teasing you, but on the other hand, you were beginning to feel desperate for his touch. His left hand reached up towards you, and a single finger rested against the skin between your breasts.

"Here?" He questioned softly, dark eyes watching you as you shook your head. He dragged his finger so painfully slow down your body, stopping at your abdomen to ask again.

"What about here?"

"Please," you were begging him at this point, but Paul continued to take his time, drawing his finger lower, and lower, until he was just above your folds.

"Just little lower," you pleaded to him desperately, and when you finally felt him pull his hand away to hold your thighs apart, you knew he was done playing games with you.

He gave you one more sultry look before dropping his head between your legs, tongue gently lapping away at your arousal, and you cried out his name. He opened his eyes to watch you react from his place as he continued rolling his tongue against you at an even pace.

You lowered your back to the bed, legs instinctively trying to squeeze together at the feeling of Paul's sweet mouth where you needed him most, but he continued to hold a firm grip on your thighs to keep them in place.

His beard scratched at your legs a little, but in the best kind of way. His nose bumped against your clit and your hands found their way back into his mess of locks again, tugging and driving him closer to you. He moaned against you, the vibrations shooting a chill up through your body.

He pulled away a little, mouth shining with your arousal, and his eyelashes lowered over his eyes as he mumbled, "Oh, my dear, you taste better than I ever dreamed you would."

Your heart was pounding against your ribcage, the idea of such a beautiful man dreaming about being between your legs and tasting you, and wanting this had you feeling some kind of way.

"Please, don't stop," you whined gently, and he responded with a quiet laugh.

"Oh, my sweet girl, I'm nowhere near being done with you yet. Don't you worry."

A mix of relief and lust rushed your emotions, and Paul's eyes continued to watch you as he let go of your right leg, hand coming up to his face before putting his middle finger in his mouth.

You stared in anticipation as he pulled his saliva-covered finger out from between his lips before plunging it right into you, and you cried out again, tears of pleasure welling in your eyes as you pushed your hips up against his hand.

It was Paul's turn to stare, and you felt him curl his finger inside of you before adding another and repeating the beckoning motion again, free hand pressing your hip down to keep you from moving so much.

"You okay, Lovely?" He asked in a low tone, watching as your body twitched and writhed with everything he did.

"Yes, keep going, Paulie," you whimpered, encouraging his hand to quicken before he dipped back down, lips wrapping around your nub, and all you could see were stars. Your hips rocked up again, and Paul released your waist a little to let you squirm around.

"Paulie, I'm gonna..." you stumbled over your words as you felt your orgasm nearing quickly, your hands balled into tight fists in his hair still. One more finger curl was all he had to do before you released all over them with a cry. You mumbled nonsensical speech as Paul pulled back a little and admired his achievement, your arousal dripping down his hand as he let you ride it out.

"That's it, do whatever makes you feel good, my angel." His praise was addicting, your eyes rolled back as you revelled in this state of euphoria. It wasn't long before your hips fell back onto the bed, and you sighed out when Paul removed his fingers from you.

You took a moment to fixate your gaze on him. His pupils were blown, staring at you in the face with his lips parted. You relieved some of the tightness in your fists so you weren't gripping his hair so hard, mumbling a whispered apology for being so harsh with that.

Paul responded to you, not with words, but by stalking up your body slowly, silently, as a predator would to its prey; and he pressed a kiss to your mouth, tongue pushing its way past your teeth so you could taste yourself.

You groaned, sitting up slowly as to not break the kiss. You reached down towards the belt wrapped around his hips, undoing it blindly and pulling it from the loops of his jeans. You needed him, and he was strained so tightly in those trousers, you knew it couldn't have been comfortable for him. You parted from the kiss, but keeping the distance close between you two.

"Are you positive you don't want me going down on you?" Your question seemed as innocent as if could have been, and Paul just smiled a little with another head shake.

"Baby girl, as long as you're getting off, so am I."

You hummed at his response. You hoped he wouldn't quit with the pet names. Your eyes glanced down to the jeans you were in the middle of taking care of, and Paul was already popping the button off them.

His eyes trailed back up to your face before he put his palm innocently over your heart, pushing you down onto your back again.

"Just lean back and relax, my sweet thing. You just stay there and look pretty while I take care of you. Make you feel good."

You watched him from your lying position as he moved to stand by the foot of the bed, dropping his jeans to the floor after wiping his hands off on them before he turned back to you. His stare didn't seem all that possessive and dark anymore like it had been during foreplay.

He was looking at you with a type of sincerity that brought warmth to your soul.

You were under a spell, unable to disengage from his stare, even when he climbed back onto the bed, and spread your legs apart again. He briefly looked away from you to position his cock properly, and you watched the concentration on his face morph into mild enjoyment as he circled the head around your pussy teasingly.

Your eyebrows furrowed as your legs crossed around his waist, and he looked up at you through his eyelashes. Those perfect pink lips of his parted, and he whispered to you with one more squeeze to your thigh, "are you ready?"

Your hands reached out for him, fingers clasping together at the back of his neck as you nodded your head. "I need you, Paul, Please."

"Don't worry, my Love. I'll give you exactly what you need."

And with an unhurried push of his hips, he was inside of you, and the most beautiful sound escaped his lips, in limbo between a moan and a whine, and the look on his face was blissful, eyes shut and mouth hanging open at the feeling of you.

You let out a deep, concentrated, pleasing sigh. It hadn't been forever since you last had sex, but it was definitely long enough. The stretch from his member filled you up in the greatest way; and Paul took it real slow for you.

"Fuck, you're so wet. So tight," he mumbled under his breath, exhaling deeply with every roll of his hips. His eyes drifted back open to watch your face, lowering his brow and whispering to you, "my Love, you promise to tell me if I'm ever hurting you?"

Your face flushed red at his words, and you nodded a little.

"Yes, Paulie. Absolutely." Your quiet response was uttered though little moans, a hint of emotion laced in your voice.

You were partial to that specific nickname. You felt you maybe liked it too much, but there was no denying that responding to it felt so right, and Paul, you felt, seemed to think regarding you that way was okay, as well. It made you feel like you were actually wanted, and you'd be lying if you didn't say you hadn't felt that way in a very long time.

Paul leaned down, arms on either side of your head as he kissed your lips, and you kissed back, fingers unclasping so you could once again run your nails along his scalp and through his hair. He groaned at the attention, rocking a little deeper now, and you pulled away from the kiss to whine at Paul's actions.

You arched your back as his movements sped up, and you could hear his breaths quickening as he settled on a steady pace. One of his hands slid in under your back to hold you closer, and he dropped his head into the cook of your neck.

He started placing kisses along the side of your throat, and then on your collarbone. "You have no idea... fuck... how long I've waited for you." He mumbled those words against your skin, and your conscience shot right awake from its besotted trance as you hyper-focussed on his words.

"I have been dreaming about this for so many nights... for so many years..."

You couldn't believe what you were hearing. Sure, you'd known Paul for a while, but never in your life did you think he was even remotely attracted, to you let alone actively fantasizing about the very moment you were both experiencing.

Your chest burned, intensely aware that as soon as this night was over, this feeling of togetherness, intimacy, and affection was going to die out like a candle flame, and you were going to be alone all over again. Your eyes were glassy with tears as you tried to draw Paul closer, opting to remove your fingers from his hair to wrap your arms around his body.

You began to push your hips back against Paul's, recieving a pleased hum from him. Your hands rubbed tenderly over the hot skin on his back as he continued to pour his heart out to you, breaking yours more with every word that left his mouth.

"My sweet Love; to think I've wanted you for so long... and now I have you. I'm the luckiest fucking guy in the world."

"Paul," you whimpered, head resting up against his shoulder as tears streamed down your cheeks from your eyes. You weren't entirely sure what came over you, but before you could even think, you were whispering to him, "please don't leave me."

"Never. My Love, I'll always be right here." His response was so effortless, and quick, and your ears seemed to be ringing again. He put his other hand at the back of your head, pulling you in closer as your bodies continued to rock together.

You could feel another orgasm nearing, and Paul must have known from the sounds coming from your mouth. He pulled his arm out from under your back to reach between the both of you, thumb toying with your clit as you cried out again, hips jerking harder and quicker against him, his own pace stuttering as he could feel the walls of your heat contracting against him.

"I-- I'm gonna..." you choked, and Paul rubbed between your legs even faster.

"Come undone, my Love," he encouraged weakly as he tried his best to keep going for you. You dropped your head back against the pillows and you cried out as another orgasm rushed you, more tears falling down your cheeks, as you returned to that feeling of ecstasy you were in only minutes before.

Paul leaned up, forehead and chest shining with sweat as he continued to pound into you, long hair matted against his skin as his pace fell apart, shuttering as he pulled out of you and came all over your stomach.

His head fell back, eyes falling shut as he called out your name, cum leaking out of him and all over you, but you were far from caring. His breaths were heavy as he gasped for air, and after a moment of allowing the both of you to come down from the high, he slumped back onto his arms, head rolling to the side so he could open his eyes and look at the mess he made of you.

"Oh, Love, I'm sorry about all that. Let me just..." Paul took another deep breath before rolling himself off the bed, wandering on wobbly legs towards the connected bathroom. You could hear the faucet running for a moment as you stared directly up at the ceiling, beginning to wake your body up with a little wiggle your toes.

That was, without any doubt, the best sex you'd had in your life. And as Paul returned to you, two damp cloths in-hand, you figured the intimacy was over; that you'd clean yourself up and be kicked out of the room.

But when he took a seat at the foot of the bed again, and he reached up to your tummy to wipe his ejaculation off your skin, you found yourself falling into another daze.

The cloth was warm, and Paul took his time sliding it over you to clean you up, not a single word coming from his mouth. When he felt he cleaned your stomach well enough, he reached for the other cloth, wiping the sweat gingerly off your neck, and chest.

Every move was calculated, and even when he moved to wipe up the mess between your legs, he was careful of how sensitive you were, free hand caressing your thigh while he remained largely focused on cleaning you up.

You felt the assault of tears burning your eyes again as you watched Paul tend to you, and when he looked up to your face and realized your expression, his own fell to one of worry.

"... you okay?"

You nodded your head weakly, that was until you felt him squeeze your leg again. Your bottom lip began to tremble, and your hands came up to your face as you sobbed into your palms.

"Hey, hey, Darling, what's the matter?"

Paul even sounded worried, climbing up the mattress to be closer to you. You curled up into a little ball on your side, and Paul put his hand on your arm, rubbing it up and down to comfort you.

"I... I..." you didn't want to tell Paul necessarily what you were feeling, because then that would have meant telling him you enjoyed him a little too much. More than you thought was maybe appropriate.

"Please talk to me, tell me what I can do to make this all better," he begged, and you took a while to respond to him.

"Hold me," you whimpered, and Paul, without another second passing, swept you up in his arms, cradling you as you sat in his naked lap. His right arm circled your back as his left coaxed your head onto his shoulder before he began stroking your hair.

Your arms lazily circled around him as you cried into his shoulder, and Paul pressed his lips into a line, tears of his own threatening to fall.

"Did hurt you? Did I do something wrong, Love?"

"Please don't think that," you choked back. "You did everything so right. And that's the problem."

Paul's eyebrows, which were knit together in frustration and confusion, began to relax at the realization of your words. You both knew you were going to have to elaborate a little more at one point, but Paul didn't pry. He just continued to stroke your hair and rock you, soothing you of your negative emotions.

You pulled your head away from the crook of his neck eventually, and you looked Paul in his sweet, doe eyes. "You're so kind. Too kind," you sniffled. "Half of me wants to actually listen to the words you said, but it hurts too much. After what he did to me..."

You thought back to your ex for a moment. That slimy, cheating bastard.

"I can't even pretend to believe someone would love me like that again, because he stripped me of all that trust."

Paul seemed a little hurt at your words, taking a moment to decide what he was going to say next.

"... You don't have to believe it now, but I know everything I said to you was the truth."

You felt your bottom lip quiver again, and he pulled his hand from the back of your head to cup your face.

"Everything. Even when you asked me not to leave. I can't be certain you were being serious about that, but I want you to know that I'm serious. I won't leave you if you don't want me to."

You couldn't help but tilt your head into his touch as your red eyes drifted closed. He placed a kiss on your temple, mumbling into your skin, "please believe me when I say I did have some doubts about all of this. But having you here, in my arms right now... I have never felt so sure about anything in my life. I'm never going to let anything happen to you ever again."

"But how can I be so sure?" Your question was barely above a whisper, and Paul held you tighter, and closer.

"You've occupied a special place in my heart for a long while, now. If anything were to try and hurt you, and I'm there to protect you, I'd be doing everything in my power to keep you safe."

You could feel Paul turn your head towards him, and you opened your eyes.

"I know our last relationships didn't end well. I know we're still hurting from the past... But you make me so happy. Like I have something worth living for, and can think about the future without wanting to look back at the pain I'm wanting to desperately leave behind."

You had more emotions stirring in your heart again, but they were ones that made you feel fuzzy inside.

"... Would it be so wrong of me to tell you I feel the same way about you?" You asked him carefully. You couldn't believe how poetic he could be just talking to you. He had all the right words to say at any given time.

"Absolutely not," he replied easily, one of the corners of his mouth twitching at the relief that the feeling was, in fact, mutual.

You reached up to cup his face, thumb drifting against his beard as he leaned in to kiss your mouth. And you let him. It wasn't to initiate anything, only to project affection unto you.

He pulled away after a moment, breathing a quiet "Please, Darling, stay with me, tonight."

You smiled sadly at his request, but you shook your head a little. "What about Rich? He's gonna find out everything." That was another nail in the coffin, Paul decided, he needed to pry out.

"Well, he's just going to have to deal with the fact that I need you," he responded matter-of-factly, and your heart ached at that.

"I don't think you have any idea just how long I've restrained myself from talking to you, let alone flirt or try anything with you. I used to care so much about what Ringo thought, but all that matters now is you."

Paul removed his hand from your cheek to caress yours holding his own face. He pulled your hand off so he could kiss your fingertips, smiling just a little to try and encourage one on your own face.

"It's just us now. No one else. Okay, my Love?"

All you could seem to do was nod your head, but that appeared to be enough for him. He gave you one more peck and a little hand squeeze before sighing. "Let's splash some water on your face and get us ready for bed, hm? I don't know about you, but the last ten minutes have been an absolute workout for me."

You blushed a little when Paul sent a wink your way, but you shifted off his lap and stood up, as did he. He took your hand in his again and guided you to the bathroom, and as you wet your face with the water under the faucet, he tossed the damp face cloths in the laundry bin next to the toilet.

His attention was back on you, and he tucked your hair back behind your ear, placing a kiss under your earlobe. You smiled a little at the gesture as you watched him through the mirror, turning the faucet off and dabbing your face dry with the towel on the counter. Paul settled another kiss at the crook of your neck, and then one on your shoulder.

"You feel any better?" He asked lowly, his words vibrating against your skin. You held back a chuckle by biting your bottom lip, setting the towel back down next to the sink.

"A little, yeah."

"As long as the answer isn't no, I can live with that." He smiled at your reflection, arms wrapping around your body as he kissed your shoulder one more time. You placed your hands overtop his, which were planted on your hips.

"C'mon, now," he whispered, one of his hands unraveling rom your body to drift to the small of your back and leading you back out into the bedroom. He left you briefly to pop the window open a little, and you climbed in under the covers, him following suit just a few seconds after.

You rolled to your side to look at Paul, and he did the same, propping up on his elbow and dropping his head in his hand, other arm reaching out so he could cup your face again. He looked so happy, having you so close to him. It was such a contrast to how you found him earlier that night, and the difference made you feel rather glad you were still awake at such a late hour.

"Thank you for everything tonight," he offered gently. "The drinks we shared, the dancing, the intimacy, for letting me confess everything to you, for staying... thank you for being you."

"Aww, why can't I say anything that romantic and poetic to you?" You whined a little, and Paul laughed gently, his hand drifting down to squeeze your arm lovingly.

"Y'know, there will be so much time in the future for you to woo me."

"If I can learn to be as quick on my feet as you, perhaps," you argued back playfully, shifting forward a little so you could curl up into Paul's chest. His hand dropped to your spine so he could pull you in a little closer, thumb rubbing gently against your skin.

"You'll get there, Lovely. Sweet dreams." You hummed a little as your eyes fell shut, the feeling of Paul's thumb caressing you, and the sound of the trees rustling in the wind outside, as well as the rise and fall of Paul's chest had you lulling to sleep in no time. He, on the other hand, remained awake for a long while, holding you close to him as if it were his only purpose in life.

He wasn't worried about anything anymore; not even about whether Ringo would find out about the both of you before either of you planned... Despite leaving the evidence of two alcohol glasses still sitting pretty on the coffee table in the den for him to find first thing that next morning.

Paul eventually fell asleep as well, arms enveloping you from the cool night air seeping in from the window leading outside. His heart was feeling fuller than it ever had before, and it was all because of you.

______________________________________

A/A/N: I hope this lived up to your expectations, I haven't written anything NSFW in YEARS, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Don't forget to like and comment, I love reading the comments on these :')

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[acourtofthought]

My husband finally put into words for me something that has been the main problem with this whole Anti Gwynriel because of Gwyn's past narrative.

According to Anti's, it's not ok to ship Gwyn with Az because she's not healed enough and hasn't shown that she's ready for a relationship.

According to Anti's, fanart of Gwynriel in provocative positions are not appropriate because it's disrespectful to Gwyn due to her SA, that she needs to first give verbal consent before we're allowed to imagine what a HEA for Gwynriel might look like.

And at first, it almost feels like a gotcha for them because you question whether you're disrespecting real survivors by saying, "she doesn't need to give consent for us to ship them since it's a book." This statement is true, I don't think readers should be forced to abide by real world morals when it comes to possible paths a characters arc might take, however it makes you pause for a moment to question whether what you're saying is disrespectful to those who have been victims.

But he actually flipped that entire thing on it's head when he said, "if the issue is about consent, then why is only being applied to a SA victim? Shouldn't consent be applied to everyone?"

It was kind of a lightbulb moment for me because those Anti's never vocalize how it's wrong for people to ship Eris & Az, Mor & Emerie, Vassa & Lucien (SA victim), Lucien, Jurian & Vassa, the LoA & Helion (because at this point they are not a consenting pair), Nesta & Eris. There are a bunch of non canon, non consent ships in this series and nobody has an issue with those. Nobody takes up the crusade arguing that it's wrong for people in the fandom to imagine those pairings together or drawing fanart of them in NSFW positions. Most of the time they're celebrated but has Emerie consented to having a sexual relationship with Mor? All she did was call her beautiful and Feyre had done the same in ACOMAF. Why do they never call out fanart of that pairing? Or Neris after Nesta harshly rejected him? Where Eris is currently suffering torture at the hands of Beron and we've got no clue as to his sexual preference. Also, Elain only consented to a fully clothed kiss in the bonus (remember, she grew up with human morals which she still holds fast too, she didn't jump right into bed with Graysen), we have no evidence she wanted more yet there's plenty of NSFW E/riel artwork out there and I'm betting some existed before SF, before she even consented to a kiss.

The only time I've ever heard anyone argue for consent or argue against NSFW art is in relation to Az and Gwyn and the message they're sending is that only female characters who have been SA need to give consent before fans should be shipping them.

That's when the shipping agenda makes itself known because if no other non-canon / non-consenting pairing disturbs them to the point they need to create post after post surrounding how wrong people are for shipping them, then it's clear to see that it's only Gwyn being shipped with Az that they take issue with and when only E/riels make these arguments, it seems highly suspect.

Gwyn's SA is irrelevant in terms of consent because EVERYONE should have consent before engaging in physical acts with others no matter their past. However, Gwyn's SA should not be the weight dragging her character down, the scarlet letter on her chest that means the fandom isn't allowed to give her the same treatment that all other characters receive. Where we're free to imagine and create fanart / fanfiction / headcanons (even the NSFW variety) for any pairing that we desire, regardless of their past or preference, even those who have never expressed romantic interest towards one another, except for Gwyn.

Consent in the actual book will be important but consent having already been given in our imaginations so we can imagine possibilities beyond what is currently written is the right of any reader.

[kingmagnificoofrosas]

Further proof of Our King's anxiety and trauma: His body language. He has a habit of putting his hands behind his back. It's a self-soothing and self-preservation gesture. But then when he's more relaxed, he doesn't do that.

Case in point: Look when he meets Asha. At first you don't see his hands. They're behind his back. When he does bring a hand out briefly, it goes behind his back again. But when he warms up to her, his hands come out.

The same goes with when he's addressing his people about the magic. His hands are behind his back, and they stay there unless he brings one hand out to do something and then he puts it right back. He's uncomfortable, he's guarded and it shows.

Which is why his people should have known that something was VERY wrong when he came out on stage possessed. His body language was VERY different. He was stumbling around drunk, but his hands were both visible. His body language had drastically changed because he was essentially inebriated on dark magic. That should have been a BIG clue in that something was WRONG, not that the king was suddenly evil.

YES! THIS! 🤌🏼

I've been stressing from the beginning about this! While hands loosly clasped in the back can be a sign of confidence and relaxtion, Magnifico's way of hiding his arms is different most of the time.

Now, I have always been good at reading people but then I studied psychology for a while and trauma conditions, the mental impact it has and how it shows.

Magnifico oozed trauma the very first minute I saw him. And when he mentioned what happened, plus the burned wall-rug, I knew it was deep! All his behavior clicked for me.

That is also a big part why haters villanizing him gets me fuming mad. If I was to follow their logic, then Elsa is a villain for running away and leaving her kingdom to freeze die, or Maui, who stole Tefiti's heart and caused destruction, or abuela Alma, for treating Mirabel like trash, or Imelda for forbitting music in her family, Abuela Elena for smashing Miguels guitar!

The hypocrisy is off the charts!

And the worst thing is exactly what you mentioned last. The people of Rosas not being able to see that something was horribly wrong with their king. He was so clearly not himself and no one gave a toot. It's easy to explain though. The didn't know their own king and nor did they care. All they cared about was their wishes. Their needs. Their desires. Magnifico was just their source for favors and when that well ran dry, they dropped him like a stone. Talking about selfishness!

Magnifico was never evil. Did he make some wrong choices because of his trauma? Yes. But nothing he ever did made him a villain. The only villain there was, was the book! The book, or rather, the evil force/entitiy in in! And yes, we saw that demon-thing drawn on the page. Not to forget the green clawed hands! No, magic itself isn't a conscious living, thinking being, it's a supernatural ability used by a fessel. And as a christian I can tell you the only thing behind "dark magic" are demons.

You will see this whole topic deeper explained in the upcoming cooperation post "the Magnifico case". But here is a little thing from it.

This isn't Magnifico

This is!

This isn't him

This is!

The fact that people cannot differentiate between this and understand what a possession is ...

Anyway. Anothing very interesting thing I wanna draw attention to is what comes out of Magnifico's mouth once he is full on possessed. He says things that are 100% contradictory to everything he stood for and fought for.

See the reflection thing in the fountain? It's where the quote "I win!" Falls! Why is this so deeply unsettling? Because there is nothing he won! All Magnifico ever truly wanted was happiness and savety for others around him. Magnifico's trauma had caused him to be immensly fearful and paranoid when it came to the savety of others because what happened to him left scars in his soul as deep as a canyon and he wanted no one else to ever have to suffer like he did. He didn't want power, he didn't want fame! He only wanted what's best for others and in return get some love and respect for what he did. Which, yes, he deserved anyway!

Back to my two cents of my christian opinion. It's pretty clear that the evil side does nothing but steal, kill and destroy. It's all it ever wants. To hurt and wreck. That thing that has been trapped in that book must have waited eagerly for who knows how long to get a victim it can use to destroy and use to destroy. So when that thing had taken control over Magnifico's clear consciousness, it obviously said "I won!"

Even sadder is that we could see the exact moment, the entity leaves Magnifico and he is left with confusion and panic because all he sees are the wishes floating away into the nightsky.

Also, where did the green enter and leave? Into and from his heart!

This is the same fear only increased!

And NO! God NO! It is not "Ah, no, I don't wanna lose my power and control over the people because I'm a malicious beast and I wallow in their suffering and enjoy them not being able to make one of their wishes come true!"

No. Just. No. This is ignorant, this is stupid nonsense. This is seeing evil where there is none. This is villanizing trauma!

And then some people go "Oh God, what a monster! What a evil man! Poor kid! It deserves to swim! How dare he not let the kid swim!"

Compare this to a father, who previously had lost a brother or even his first child to a drowning accident. Now the next child is old enough to swim and is running towards the water. Everyone knows the kid will jump in, swim and have fun, but all the father can think of is the potential danger of his child drowning as well. Maybe it will get a cramp, or a shark will bite it, or it gets stung by a jellyfish, steps on a venomous sea urchin, gets a heart attack, gets pulled away by a current ...

You see where I'm going?

And then the father runs, sweaps the child in his arms and forbids it to go near the water and swim because it is too dangerous. He tells his child.

"You stay here with me, as long as I deem it saver! I'm your father, it is my responsibility to keep you as safe as I can! I only want the best for you!"

And of course the child is pouty.

"

"Well, if there is a shark, it can be stopped. I might just bite one leg off of the child ...oh well...The father clearly doesn't know what he's doing! And I must know, I don't even have children!"

"Everyone call the police! Let's put this father behind bars! He's so cruel and abusive to his poor child!"

"And good heavens! He snapped at the child for saying it is old enough to decide if it wants to swim or not! And he replied that he decides if the child swims or not! What a narcissistic psychopath! He needs to be stopped!"

Anyway, I'm very excited to soon share that big boy of a post with you, where I dive into each and every aspect as deep as ever with the help of Magnificolover from instagram. 🎶

How does that sound? And now imagine one of these judgemental, entiteled, selfrighteous, ignorant people calling the police. And the police arrests the man and no one at the beach does anything. No one thinks "wait a minute! This is wrong!"

I can already smell the haters cooking new arguments 😂 feeling snubbed at their toes cause we defenders are right! And you know what? We will only get louder! We are already the vast majority! Including children!

They're mad at us and our defense? Good! Maybe then it is time to ask themselves why it is that the majority is on Magnifico's side! Or why children starting by the age 5 (my cousins son for example) can clearly conclude that the only reason Mags went nuts is because of the evil book. Better yet, they see that Asha and the people of Rosas are in the wrong how they treat their king. And children are brutally honest.

Stay loud my fellow defenders! 🔥

[coraniaid]

A random ask if you're up for it: what's a terrible take about the Buffyverse you've seen on tumblr but have not yet publicly kvetched about?

I'll be honest: this question prompted a moment of minor panic on my part because my very first instinct was to say something like "hmm, no, I don't think I've ever seen a bad take about Buffy on here I've not immediately complained about". Which is an admission that, were it accurate, should probably prompt rather more introspection on my part than I'd enjoy.

Thinking about it though, I don't think that is really true. In fact, I probably don't say anything negative about most of the bad Buffy takes I see, either because they're not particularly widespread (I try not to publicly disagree with other people's headcanons or even argue against popular posts if it would be obvious who I was responding to) or because they're about characters who I just don't talk about on here at all (either because I don't find them interesting or because my understanding of them is so at odds with the wider fandom's we'd be talking at cross-purposes).

(Or, sometimes, I don't say anything negative because I'm too busy enthusiastically reblogging the post in question, if we're being brutally honest about what counts as a "bad take".)

One concrete example I don't think falls under those headings and which I don't remember complaining about before is the way people talk about Buffy's speech in Selfless. Now, I'll be honest: I don't really like Selfless that much. It's in the top half of Season 7 episodes for me, possibly even the top third, but that's a pretty low bar. But what I do like a lot are Buffy/Faith parallels, and this episode has a big one in Buffy's speech towards the end of the episode:

At some point someone has to draw the line and that is always going to be me. You get down at me for cutting myself off, but in the end the Slayer is always cut off. There's no mystical guidebook; no all-knowing council. Human rules don't apply. There's only me. I am the law.

Obviously this reminds the audience of Faith's similar speeches in Season 3's Consequences, when she tells Buffy that the two of them are "better" than ordinary humans and then later that "you know I'm right. You know in your gut we don't need the law. We are the law."

We obviously aren't meant to agree with Faith in Consequences. (The fact that she follows this speech up by almost immediately defecting to work for the Mayor, commiting at least one cold-blooded murder, having a sobbing emotional breakdown where she begs somebody to kill her and then turning herself in to be judged and punished by the very human laws she sneered at earlier is something of a clue.)

A lot of people point out the parallel but then try to explain that what Buffy is saying is actually substantially different from Faith, and that Buffy is right while Faith was wrong. in Myth, Metaphor and Morality Mark Field (who I don't think is actually on Tumblr, technically, but who I'm referencing to avoid talking directly about the many people on Tumblr who agree with him) ties this in to the wider themes of Season 7, and describes the difference between Buffy and Faith as being that Faith is trying to avoid responsibility (for accidentally killing Allan Finch) while Buffy is taking responsibility (for doing what has to be done and killing Anyanka).

And yes, Buffy is doing something different to Faith here. She is not trying to say that she doesn't have to be accountable. She is not making excuses for her own mistakes or bad behaviour. She is trying to do (what she perceives as being) the right thing.

But Buffy is wrong as well. She is proved wrong within this episode. She doesn't have to kill Anya: in fact, she fails to kill Anya (indeed, given what we see of vengeance demons in The WIsh and in Older and Far Away I don't believe Buffy could possibly have killed Anya, but I know that vengeance demon lore is even less rigorous than vampire soul lore). The problem of Anya being a vengeance demon is resolved, not by Buffy, but by the people she was giving her speech to. The people who she was arguing didn't have a say.

Buffy is wrong, too, within the show's established lore. There is a mystical guidebook (even if her Watcher didn't have her read it), and there is a Council (even if they're far from all-knowing, Buffy could have been making use of their resources ever since she asserted her importance to them in Checkpoint, but she chose not to do this). And Buffy isn't alone. (At least Faith got the number of Slayers right in her speech!)

And Buffy is also wrong in terms of the wider season arc. Season 7 is not about Buffy saving the day by heroically taking all the world's burdens on to herself and making all the decisions. Her attempts to beat the First this way end disastrously; cutting herself off from her friends and her family and the very the Potentials she's trying to protect.

(Yes, the climatic scene in Empty Places is poorly written, but the season does very deliberately have Buffy fail to establish any sort of rapport or connection with the Potentials and spend less and less time with her friends. Buffy isn't blameless for those relationships falling apart, even if having her friends and sister kick her out of her own house is absurd.)

Instead of being the lone voice of judgment, Buffy beats the First and saves the world by not isolating herself. By working with her friends; by realizing they can do things she can't; by sharing her power with the Potentials (because "my power should be our power"); by reconnecting with Faith; by accepting help from Angel and from Spike; and by realizing that the people who "made up the rules" for Slaying thousands of years ago made a mistake.

The whole point of Chosen is that it is a refutation of the vision of being a Slayer that Buffy outlines in this episode.

Quoting it uncritically as if it sums up who Buffy is as a person is like, well, using Andrew's speech about "the Dark Slayer" to describe Faith. (Which ... oh, yeah, people also do.)

[tobias-wants-to-write]

Hey just letting anyone whose interested know: I have a side blog for short original stories. This blog is for original stories but its more about my books I want to write or are currently writing like Alma's Grave. (By the way if you want to hear more about that or want updates just send me an ask)

My side blog is @here-have-some-stories. I have about three stories on there, two of them complete and one of them still in progress, but chapters come out like chapters on A03.

The first one is Silent Laughter. Silent Laughter is a short horror about a sleep paralysis demon and a boy named Jimmy I think. I forgot my own characters name. He's pretty much alone in the town and is slowly being hunted and tormented by the demon. A lot of it is cliches but I'm actually kind of proud on how it turned out. That one is complete so if it sounds interesting and you wanna go check it out, you can read the full thing right now.

The next one is Massacre Masquerade. This ones my favourite. I actually care about the story and I love the characters. This one is about a kind of alternate universe where there are modern day knights. The new knights who are just about to start their jobs are having a masked ball as a celebration. The disasters that are not accidents start to happen and people get murdered. The building gets put on lockdown and no one can leave until they find a clue of who did it. The murderer planned multiple "accidents" though, and while everyone is locked inside, more murders occur. The main characters are Deacon, Leon and Bailey. The entire thing is a murder mystery, and I'm proud of this one as well, even though this is the other one that isn't complete. I've already planned everything about this story and I'm excited for when I get it finished. If this sounds like the type of thing you're interested in, then go check it out and rate my writing skills. Also it is a gay romance as well, but that's not the main point its just a bit on the side which is how I like my romance

My other story is a two parter called Paper Love. Paper Love is heavily inspired by that one queer animation about those drawings who are in love and try to be together, I can't remember what it's called. Paper Love is about two drawings, one a fairy and the other a steampunk elf and they could see each other from across the room since they are hung up on different walls, and even though they don't know each other, they're pretty much already in love. And yes, this is also queers. They're my pretty little lesbians. Go read it if you want.

I also have two short stories I wrote in English that I felt like posting:

The Slide - Something about murder that happened on a slide (read the warnings)

Just Need Time - Something about depression and getting help with that

If any of this sounds interested, feel free to go and check out that blog. I very much welcome it, and not a lot of people have read it so I'm trying to find more people to read it and give me feedback on whether its good or not.

[whiteboardartstudios]

Goodbye, Gendaen

fan art for @mtqcomic

Thoughts and LONG ramble under the cut! (includes spoilers!!!)

A while ago (like last week maybe?) I realized that I've been following this comic for almost a year, and I still haven't drawn Mysta yet! I figured that with the recent end of Chapter 3 and that *huge* lore drop (I was NOT expecting that oh my goodness the theory wheels are turning in the void that is my brain) now would be a pretty good time to draw her! So that's where this came from! :D

I thought that it would be fun to draw Mysta looking sort of like a knight? Partially because it makes for cool posing and composition but also because I think that if she was in D&D she would be a paladin due to the whole "Hero sent by Destiny" thing (I considered sorcerer or warlock as well, but her moveset is mostly melee at the moment so I thought that paladin fits better. Plus this opens up the possibility of Gendaen being an Oathbreaker paladin, depending on how that whole situation with the Crimson went. (also now I kind of want to put the main cast of mtq in D&D even though I don't actually know a lot about D&D ToT. I think Eth would be a ranger maybe multiclassed into something magic-related, because rangers have a favored enemy mechanic that gives them advantages on fighting a certain type of enemy, which could be Crimson enemies for D&D Eth. Yele is (kind of obviously) a druid because of the whole dryad thing, and Zaïl is definitely giving rogue energy to me.)) Anyways, D&D-related sidetrack aside – hello??? End-of-chapter-3 lore drop? (/positive) I have SO many questions. First of all, what happened to convince Gendaen to switch sides? For someone who allegedly spent his entire life trying to cleanse the Crimson, it would've taken one heck of a worldview-upending revelation to get him to join it. With the information we currently have, it seems pretty clear that Gendaen isn't mind-controlled or corrupted or anything – not just because of the reasons Eth gave in page #169, but also because from all the interactions we've had with Nelun Soma'o/Gendaen, he seemed to be pretty chill? I pointed out in my first fan art post that it doesn't seem as if Nelun Soma'o is being built up to be a villain character and is instead more of an antagonist with a slight mentor role, and I think that still kind of holds up now. Gendaen definitely wants Mysta to help him and/or the Crimson with something, and as Yele said in that recent comic, things aren't really adding up. I'm still slightly suspicious of the Order of Learning as well (insert person pointing at conspiracy theory board meme here lol), since you would think that if Gendaen and Eth are really close then Gendaen might have told Eth about the whole Crimson situation, right? On Page #250 (which is marked as 150??? probably a typo but idk) Gendaen says that he didn't want Eth to be roped into this whole situation, which could be a reason for keeping him in the dark – though if he knew Eth really well then he might have suspected that Eth wouldn't just let him disappear and would go searching for him. Another possible reason (in my theory) if the Order is evil or something and Gendaen learned something that he shouldn't have learned, maybe he knew that Eth wouldn't believe him because of his loyalty to the Order? I may just be connecting random dots and calling it a picture here but *something* is going on and until we get more clues on what that may be, I'm sticking with this theory lol :P EDIT, I was rereading Gendaen's character sheet and it says there that he has a strong code of honor and fights for the underdogs (not the exact phrasing but it's close). 👀 does that mean the Crimson is in some sort of underdog position? 👀

Anyways back to the drawing a little, I gave both Gendaen and Mysta a sort of braid-like element in their designs to sort of tie them together a bit visually (Mysta's is on the sides of her head, which is kind of hard to see so I added a little ribbon to show that parts of her hair is tied back, and Gendaen's is in his golden hair accessory thingy). I think that there's definitely some sort of correlation between Gendaen's disappearance/switching to the Crimson and Mysta being sent to Sol Ybberia, and I also think that both of them are going to play an important role in whatever happens in the future, hence the braids (to show that their destinies are kind of intertwined, as the two Heroes of Sol Ybberia). I also thought that it would be fun to put Gendaen in a stained glass window instead of actually physically being present, because up until the Nelun Soma'o reveal, all the things we know about Gendaen are basically all from Eth's recollections of him, which for me definitely paints a bit of a "Character haunting the narrative" kind of vibe. I also think that with the Nelun Soma'o reveal, the somewhat glorified (for a lack of a better word – I think Eth might be a little biased when it comes to Gendaen, considering that Gendaen has been missing for about 5 years, if my math is correct? 5 years feels like a long time to me and I think that if a person important to me has been missing for that long then my impression of them would definitely start warping to how I want to remember them/who I wanted them to be and I might start unintentionally ignoring the things that doesn't quite match that image in my head. Speaking of/case in point, Eth's reaction to the Nelun Soma'o reveal!) image of Gendaen that we had got thrown in a metaphorical blender with our idea of the Crimson at the time, and it just makes things a whole lot more complicated in a very interesting way. (If you look at the bottom right of the image you can see Nelun Soma'o's cloak coming out of stained-glass Gendaen's cloak, which I thought would be a fun little detail to include). Hence, the stained glass is kind of the "perfect Hero who disappeared to advance the plot" Gendaen and we can see Mysta kind of splitting the glass with her Rotted Fork from a composition point of view, referencing that huge lore bomb she dropped a couple of pages ago and how that changes our (or at least my) perception of Gendaen as a character entirely. I really do like the plot twist, as I think it makes Gendaen a more 3-dimensional character with more complicated motivations and narrative significance, as before I mainly knew him as "predecessor to Mysta" and "one of Eth's sources of motivation", but now he my understanding of Gendaen also extends to things about Gendaen himself and not just about his role in relation to other characters (for example, "Gendaen is helping the Crimson for reasons currently unknown" or "Gendaen is planning something that involves Mysta??? and he's in the Void??? And apparently Mysta is supposed to jailbreak him out at some point in the future?" He definitely has something planned behind the scenes, I don't know what it is and I want to find out).

MORE THINGS about Gendaen (can you tell that he's my favorite character at the moment ToT), what's up with those last words? If I'm correct (and I think I am, I scrolled all the way back to the page where the gods were introduced just to check this ToT), Nomù is Compassion? How is compassion related to Gendaen's alliance with the Crimson? I mean, when you think of the Crimson, compassion definitely is NOT the first value that comes to mind. Right now it seems that to me, Gendaen's plan with Mysta and the Crimson and the Void is connected to Nomù somehow? (the "I won't disappoint you" is definitely interesting). I don't have a lot of thoughts or theories on where this might be going, I just thought that it was something interesting to metaphorically chew on for the next while. It definitely seems like it has some sort of narrative significance, at least.

There might be more things that I wanted to talk about, but I can't really think of them off the top of my head right now (it might be due to the fact that it's currently quite late in my time zone ToT I am sleepy) so that's all from me for now :D (Also dropping the version of the drawing with just the lineart here because I think it looks really cool)

I hope you have a really nice day and/or night! :D

*a starry rift in space opens up in front of me and I faceplant into it like it is a mattress* (gotta make that dramatic exit!) [Image ID: The first image is a colored and rendered image of Mysta from the Mysta's Terrarian Quest webcomic standing in front of a stained glass window of Gendaen. She is holding the Rotted Fork spear from Terraria, and she has a determined expression on her face. The stained glass shows Gendaen with his back turned to the audience, and one closed eye is visible. His cloak is flowing to the right of the image, where it emerges out of the stained glass as it fades from green to dark grey. Crimson vines, green trees, and white clouds surrounds Gendaen in the stained glass. Outside of the glass portrait, real crimson vines are creeping along the stone walls that the portrait is on, framing the portrait and Mysta in the middle. A red light source is shining down from the upper right corner of the drawing. End ID.] [Image ID: The second image is a work-in-progress version of the first image without any color and only some minimal shading, with all shades being in monochrome. Mysta's lineart is noticeably darker compared to the line art of the background. End ID.]

EDIT: Forgot to add image ids, they're here now TwT

[dragonroilz]

Hey there! I've come across your art ever since I got into Risk of Rain 2 (better late than never, I've been sleeping on this game for years, jesus), and I'm enamoured with it, to say the least. Is there any advice you could perhaps give for an aspiring artist?

you're getting an essay whether you like it or not.

tl;dr of it if you dont want to read

- learn how to take critique

- dont skip fundamentals

- tracing is okay*

- be mindful when drawing

- you wont see good results for a long time

ok firstly, glad you like my art! i try my best on pretty much everything i make so the compliment is greatly appreciated!!

secondly, you have NO clue how much i love yapping about how to draw. im not an expert on how-to-draw-ology but i like to think i know enough to help other people not swing in the dark when it comes to getting better.

learning how to take criticism is THE most important part. not getting butthurt or at least listening to peoples critiques when they mean well is critical to improvement because its specialized advice for you. you have no clue how many young and/or new artists have gotten mad at me for giving critique when they specifically asked me for it. if youre looking to improve you gotta bite that bullet. not all criticism is valid(dont listen to people who are just tryna make you upset), but good and valid criticism can come from anyone. dont unvalidate someone's critique just because theyre not an artist or "not as good" as you. try and get as much feedback as you can and move onto the next piece instead of fixing something to perfection. you will get obsessed in a very destructive way.

learning fundamentals is another step to getting better. that means actually learning perspective, hands, anatomy, and all of the other stuff people hate drawing. its like lifting weights. most people dont like it but if you want to get stronger you need to put in the time to do the painful stuff.

chris christodoulou(ror's composer) actually made a similar comment about the topic of improvement in his field that was along the lines of "if you want to write music, stop playing video games and read a book". he got a lot of shit for saying that but honestly its true.

you need to treat art as a discipline if you want to get better at it. draw as much as you can for as long as you can before it becomes a health hazard. when im not resting i tend to draw at least three hours a day, not counting the 3 to 6 hours additional hours a day i draw during college. obviously a beginner doesn't need to draw that much but drawing daily is a good start.

if you want resources on where to look for fundamentals, Sinixdesign and Ethan Becker were who I turned to for advice that is relevant to the industry. There's definitely others out there but I tend to do more self studying so i don't know the more recent stuff.

something that they'll bring up is that tracing isn't bad AS LONG AS YOU DONT POST IT AND CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN. it's a good way to see how other people deal with stylization, but its absolutely not okay to post that stuff online. treat it like how traditional painters do master studies. its for your own education, not clout. and you shouldn't be drawing for clout anyway.

last but not least, draw what you love and you'll always love drawing. dont be afraid to hyperfixate and lose interest in things. it will help you continue your art journey. a lot of people in my art school have little to no motivation to draw outside of college because they have no interest in drawing outside of assigned work, which is not a great relationship to have with art if you want to pursue it in the long run. draw what you want to draw when the motivation hits you. if that motivation is risk of rain? draw it. if it's leg muscles then fuck yeah draw that too.

you can stick fundamental practice into your casual art by being mindful of what you are drawing. that can be done by asking questions about what's going on to further the progress of your art. its kind of hard to explain in text, but its basically just keeping in mind how your lines influence the piece.

in the beginning youre going to have ideas and none of them are going to translate to paper. its going to take years before anything will ever compare to whats in your brain and thats just the sucky part. ive been drawing seriously for about 5 or 6 years and theres still a ton of shit i do NOT wanna touch but i have to if i want to improve.

we're all sisyphus pushing that goddamn stupidass boulder and the only thing we can do is acknowledge how far we've come while still knowing that there's more work to be done. but thats kind of the shit that i live for.

[ryuladrawslove]

Okay, so hear me out- There is this AMAZING Hobbit fanfic that started in 2014, called Love Pays No Indemnity by Jana. Go check it out. I'll wait.

Now, I know Bilbo/The One Ring, Bilbo/Sauron may LOOK crazy, but I promise you it is genuinely one of the best things I have ever read IN MY LIFE. No, I know, Listen To Me. Every time I start reading this fic it consumes my life until I finish, and in fall of 2016 (which is the year I started reading) I actually started painting a comic of it.

Buuuut.... thanks to job hunting, working, exhaustion, depression, and a global pandemic, and then MORE WORK and EVEN MORE exhaustion I.... stopped painting. Not just this- for like two whole years I stopped painting, drawing, sketching entirely.

I was so tired, I had no space or energy to make any art, nevermind painting something this intense. I mean- I've never made a comic before! I've never tried to re-write a novel-style work into comic format! I don't know near enough about kerning or typesetting or whatever! If you squint at the image above you can see that I didn't even plan where to put the word bubbles! I just painted pretty pictures!~

Obviously, I had no clue what I was doing back then, and honestly I still don't have a clue now. But, I lost my job and searching for another one is both tiring and somehow even more soul-sucking than having a job is. Which means, I need to do something just to stay sane.

I was planning to revitalize my old artblog and post things there again, and I still will, but when I pulled these pages out of their dusty drawer and spread them out on my floor, I felt the urge of joyful creation. I loved painting this, I loved reading LPNI (for the fiftieth time), and I want to keep feeling that for as long as possible, so I decided that YES. I'm DOING IT!!

I am going to paint the rest of this comic chapter!

There's a lot to do to get there, but already, I'm planning more pages, getting more painted, figuring out how to do the word-bubble-thingies- it's going to happen!

Posting will begin on Friday- one page at a time! (look, I'm sorry, but these are 12"x18" paintings. I NEED TIME) If I get enough done, I might post more often, we'll see.

Wish me luck and if you choose to follow this crazy endeavor, give the fic a read and send Jana all your love!

[morroodle]

The Ninjago Battle Box: the best investment of my life

A reveiw

A few days ago I got bored and made a somewhat impulsive decision to buy the ninjago battle box which I've been wanting for a while and it finally arrived today so I'm gonna reveiw it cause I haven't seen like anyone talk about it. It dosent even have its own wiki page even though it is chock full of fun facts and information and pictures

Contents:

A 2 sided map - one side is ninjago city while the other is ninjago as a whole (kinda)

Book of battles

Ninjago world guide

30 cards

Lloyd minifig

Garmadon minifig

The map:

HOLY SHIT THIS IS COOL. As far as I'm aware this might be the most detailed map of ninjago we've ever gotten and no one is even aware of it! What I think is the most interesting and what makes me question how cannon this is is that the main map of ninjago only covers like... 1/4 of the whole ninjago island? Kinda odd how like all the locations are in this tiny chunk when they have a whole island they could cover but hey its still a super cool map and an amazing piece of art!

The book of battles:

Kind of a weird thing and I couldn't find any information on what it was until I got it. Basically each page is a rough (and not 100% accurate) summary of one of the battles of ninjago, a vague but still pretty obvious clue about where the battle took place, a prompt to play and a neat art piece based on the battle. It's not so much a history book as it is a book of play ideas, your meant to use the clue to find where the battle took place on the map and then use the little battle dojo, the minifigures and the cards to play out the battle however you want. Very cute and I love it. One weird thing I found though: in one of the battles it calls the serpentine the serpentai? It's done 3 times so I don't think it's just a typo. Don't know what's going on there but its cool. Here's an example of the best page, they're all formatted the same

It only has a handful of battles, not nearly all of them, but that's to be expected and it's still great

Ninjago world guide:

It's like a little encyclopedia of heros, villains and artifacts. It includes the main ninja, the elemental masters, all the villains (up to season 15 and strangely excluding the overlord), and a bunch of non people important things like the bounty and the realm crystal. Pretty much nothing I don't already know but still neat! It's kinda cool how it's split into 2 sections, one half being heros and good artifacts and the other being villains and bad artifacts. I don't know how to describe it but theyre kinda facing different ways? It's like 2 books in one, both starting on the outsides and meeting/ending in the middle like so.

Here's Morro's page (again most of the pages are formatted the same):

Cutie pie <3

The cards:

I wish I could show off all the cars but sadly tumblr has a limit to how many pictures you can have in one post. Cards include heros, villains and artifacts, similar to the world guide but not quite as many things, just the important ones. Theyre pretty simple, with just the name/title and a drawing of the character/item. Theyre meant to be used to play the battles in the book of battles. Morro's is the absolute best one look at this little cutie pie!

Hes so sweet and adorable he has never done anything wrong in his life and I love him

The minifigures and the box itself:

Nothing really special about the minifigs just a basic Lloyd and Garmadon. Interesting to note that despite wearing his season 8 gi Lloyd has his legacy hood on. Not complaining, I hate the smooth round hoods.

The box that everything came in doubles as the little play area :D its a little dojo setting with some cute nicknacks scattered around. It needs a bit of encouragement to stay flat though. Oh also here's the outside of the box

Conclusion:

The best $25 I've ever spent. I can't believe almost no one knows or talks about this! It's from 2023 and covers up until seabound. I might have to see if I can add this stuff to the ninjago wiki, more people should know about it. If anyone else is interested in getting one (you should be) it's on the scholastic website for $17.99 + shipping, not the actual lego website.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

A bit of an out of the blue question but do you think the new event outfits are offensive or innacurate in any way?

I saw some people have started using this, Cater's New Year's outfit and Diasomnia's dorm uniform as an example of why Twisted Wonderland and Yana Toboso are offensive.

Note: I am not saying Twisted Wonderland is an offensive game in the slightest but I've seen a lot of people have issues with certain things in the game they find problematic.

[Referencing this post!]

Okay, so 💦 we’re going to get into a lot of heavy topics about real world events and cultures in this post, so please take note of the tags and content warnings before proceeding!

I also want to preface this with the disclaimer that I do not intend to speak on behalf of the groups affected by this, nor am I am an expert in matters of world history/various cultures. I am only presenting you with the preliminary knowledge that I have so that you can come to your own conclusions.

I will, of course, give my own thoughts on these situations, but please bear in mind that it shouldn’t be my responsibility or obligation to do the research for you or to tell you right from wrong; that’s a decision you need to learn to make for yourself.

***CONTENT WARNING: discussion/mentions of war, racism, colonialism, Nazism, orientalism, genocide, and imperialism!***

To make things easier for everyone (including myself), I’m going to begin with responding to the latter 2 asks above.

I will then address the immediately relevant topics regarding the clothing in the Sunset Savanna event, then work backwards chronologically (so the section after is about Cater’s New Year clothing, and the final section is about the Diasomnia uniforms). I will have my general thoughts at the very end of each section, and then my overall thoughts.

On “Orientalism”

To the second ask's Anon 💦 I believe you’re not using that term correctly. “Orientalism” refers to appropriating or condensing elements of specifically Asian cultures (which includes the Middle East), not African cultures. By definition, the outfits of the Sunset Savanna are not “orientalist” because the clothing is meant to draw inspiration from African sources, not Asian ones. "Orientalist" is not a synonym for the word "racist", but rather orientalism can be an example or a component of racism. Please be more careful with your wording.

On Ruggie and the “African Poverty” Stereotype

This part is to address the Anon in the third ask!

I don't believe that Ruggie is a stereotype of African poverty. It can appear that way because we have such a small sample size of students from the Sunset Savanna (3). In statistics, the conclusions drawn are significantly less reliable or accurate if you're pulling from a small pool of data. I think this is also the case with Ruggie. It's an example of representation bias, where seeing one extreme makes an observer assume that this extreme says something about the whole group without looking at other context clues. Even if we were to accept that comparing Ruggie to the other two Sunset Savanna students is an acceptable measure, the stereotype still doesn't hold. Neither Leona nor Rook are destitute, which would seem to imply that Ruggie's impoverishment isn't the norm in their country, but an outlier. Even other minor mentions of characters from the Sunset Savanna do not imply poverty (ie Sebek's grandfather, who is said to come from there).

Secondly, I think that Ruggie being the only "poor" character in the main cast is a conscious decision, but not one made from racist roots. Each of the TWST characters borrows heavily from their respective Disney counterparts, and as you've stated yourself, the impoverished background that Ruggie comes from harkens back to the struggle of the hyenas in The Lion King. This is different from the other six movies whose villainous characters are twisted, as they largely do not have circumstances which focus on socioeconomic class differences. The closest other example we get to that is Aladdin, but this doesn't hold up since we don't have a formal twisted!Aladdin with which to contrast to Kalim's enormous wealth. Jamil is twisted from Jafar, who is the Sultan's advisor, and thus would have a great amount of wealth himself (hence why this is reflected in Jamil by having the Viper family also be fairly well-off). This means that Ruggie was very deliberately designed to be the way he is because of his Disney inspiration. It's a large part of his character, right down to several lines he speaks in episode 2--all that talk about how even hyenas can "become king" at NRC.

Regarding NRC, we need to remember that it is considered a VERY exclusive private school. If it’s anything like upscale learning institutions in the real world, most of the students attending will be from wealthy/influential families or just middle class or upper middle class ones in general. Look at how stacked the NRC cast is; Riddle’s parents are healers (his mom being very highly respected), Leona and Malleus are royalty, Vil is a huge celebrity, Cater’s dad is a banker, Rook and the twins are implied to be from important families, Idia is the future director of a secret organization, Kalim is loaded, etc. It makes sense that there would be far fewer impoverished students compared to privileged ones (though I do think it’s unfair 😔).

Another thing to consider is that while Ruggie is definitely the most extreme case of poverty in the main cast (again, due to being twisted from the hyenas), there are others in less-than-ideal situations too. We cannot discount them in this discussion. Deuce is from a single parent household (which most likely means a smaller income than a two parent household), and it is implied in episode 5 that Epel’s entire village was struggling financially until Vil stepped in. Poverty is a spectrum, and we see this in lesser forms in the other students. As you’ll notice, even when we count Deuce and Epel, “poverty” is a small fraction of the main cast, which, again, is similar to patterns observed in real world posh private schools.

The final point I will make here is concerning Lilia and Vil. Yes, they’re unorthodox picks for a Sunset Savanna event, but this doesn’t mean there is ill intent behind them going. We can’t say “it feels like the devs made this decision to clown Leona” because the event is not out yet and therefore has not had an opportunity to explain why those two specifically joined the group for the trip. I don’t even think it’s particularly weird to see Lilia and Vil traveling in general; it seems like they do that a lot anyway (Lilia has canonically traveled a lot and Vil has traveled with his dad and must travel sometimes for his job). Leona also appears to dislike a majority of the main cast, not just Lilia and Vil; if anyone else had been picked, he’d probably be just as grumpy about it. (Leona probably doesn’t like that Kalim is coming along either; why is the hate presumed to be directed only at Lilia and Vil?) It’s grossly preemptive to make conclusions about the reasons why Lilia and Vil are present and how Leona feels about them going with him before the event has come out 💦

Sunset Savanna Clothing

While coding certainly exists (ie when fictional things are stand-ins for real world people, objects, concepts, places, etc), fiction is also able to draw on real world inspiration WITHOUT being a one-to-one parallel of the real world AND without necessarily being racist. This is true of media such as Avatar the Last Airbender, which exposits many eastern philosophies and concepts, such as balance with nature, balance, and destiny, while also having designs and a world heavily inspired by a number of Asian groups. Although it is clear that each of the four elements has a main inspiration (the Air Nomads draw from Tibetan monks, the Water Tribes draw from the Innuit people, the Fire Nation draw from Japan, and the Earth Kingdom draws from China), these are not absolutes. For example, Song, a healer from the Earth Kingdom (based on China), wears a hanbok, a piece of clothing which is traditionally Korean. Avatar intersperses ideas from many Asian cultures in a thoughtful manner because these are just parts of their world WITHOUT ever claiming to be “Chinese” or representative of Chinese. These real-world concepts and ideas were appropriately adapted for a fictional world, and it is not appropriation because it is not done in an exploitative or disrespectful manner.

I would argue that Twisted Wonderland is capable of doing the same, as we’ve seen places such as the City of Flowers (which is basically twisted Paris without explicitly BEING “just Paris but with magic”). You can tell from the food and the language spoken that the City of Flowers IS meant to be “French”, but they have a customs and traditions of their own that isn’t tied to real world Paris. Twisted Wonderland is never claiming that “oh, this fictional country is supposed to be a version of [this country in the real world]”; they are adopting ideas and making them into new lore for their own world. This is also true of other areas we have visited like Harveston and the Scalding Sands. The only reason conclusions are drawn that parts of the TWST world are “equivalents” to those on our world comes purely from fandom speculation and interpretations.

Some will think that the TWST world should be exact representations of the real world, and others choose to make the divide between fiction inspired by reality and reality itself. This distinction is important to consider in navigating this conversation, as the stance adopted will definitely play into whether one believes content to be in poor taste or not.

Yana herself has stated that the Sunset Savanna event has been in the works for 2 years now, so I’d imagine that a considerable amount of research and planning went into this event. I won’t speak on the quality of said research, as we can never know for sure. However, if previous homestay events are of any indication, the research was most likely NOT to make a one-on-one 100% “accurate” recreation of any African culture but rather to integrate elements of African culture to create a part of the TWST world which can exist as its own entity while still remaining respectful of its inspiration. We must also remember that the event itself isn’t out yet, so we can’t accurately judge if there is appropriation or offensive use of its inspiration with just some visuals. A similar situation happened when Rollo was first announced and we hadn’t even met him in the game yet; people jumped the gun and claimed that because the character he is inspired from is racist and genocidal that Rollo too is problematic—yet when the story actually unfolded, Rollo was not either of those things. He still borrowed ideas of self-righteousness and contempt for sinners (magic users in this context) from his Disney counterpart, but he was not the exact same as that counterpart.

With that being said, let’s talk about the new event outfits. The question on the table is “are these clothes offensive or inaccurate in any way?”

Firstly, is important to understand that Africa is NOT a monolith. It would be impossible (and frankly reductive) to boil down a whole continent to a single unified style of dress. Gauging the “accuracy” is simply something that cannot be done, as it appears that Twisted Wonderland borrowed from many areas of Africa when designing the looks. It wouldn’t be 100% accurate to any singular part of Africa, just as Avatar would not be 100% accurate to any singular part of Asia.

Secondly, we cannot speak for others or over others. If you want to know if the clothes are offensive, ask an African or someone who can speak wisely on the matter. It’s not that others cannot hold an opinion on it, but I think it's just as valid, if not moreso, to hear from the ones whose cultures are being represented rather than just the people who claim to speak for or defend those cultures while not being a part of it. Someone with knowledge of and experience of a certain culture can speak for themselves and how they feel about this. They just may choose not to, especially in the cases where they aren't deeply upset with the representation (because if they don't feel a strong emotion toward it, what is there for them to react to publicly?). The spectrum of hurt is also vital to consider here. When we focus only on the loudest voices (no matter where it may come from), it creates this false assumption that more people are upset than there actually are, or that one/a handful of comments reflects the thoughts of the entire group.

I personally don’t find the clothing offensive, but take my opinion with a grain of salt, as I’m not super familiar with African fashion. (I’m not counting a few Google searches as enlightening me on the full extent of it.) From my understanding, the outfits seem to borrow heavily from the designs of The Lion King’s Broadway musical and even Black Panther (two Disney productions that have been positively received by at least the African American community). I see a lot of similar patterns and accessories in Leona and crew’s outfits; my thought is that if the latter two pieces of media also borrow from many different African cultures and were not widely criticized for inaccurate or offensive portrayals of their costuming, then what is the issue with TWST’s? No one in any of these productions (TWST included) is claiming to be presenting Africa as a monolith but rather is borrowing elements from many countries, tribes, and even other cultures entirely to come up with their costumes. Again though, I wouldn’t take my word as gospel; please look around the community and see if there are any African fans that do take offense to the design direction that TWST has taken. (If anyone that is familiar with African fashion and/or culture does see this post, I'd love to hear your thoughts and broaden my understanding of this situation.)

In saying that, I also want to stress that you aren’t “wrong” or “bad” if you disagree with this take. I do not mean to discredit or to invalidate people’s thoughts on this matter; I understand why people feel so strongly about this, especially when popular media has historically not been kind or accurate in its depictions of other cultures. When a pattern has already been established, it’s so much easier to be wart of new content. You have a right to find whatever material you encounter as offensive or not offensive; all ask is that you respect differences in opinion, and at least give the event a chance rather than letting your thoughts prime (set expectations for) the perception of every bit of lore to come in the new event 💦

Cater’s New Year Outfit

The issue that people take with Cater’s outfit is associated with the particular design of it, which is very reminiscent of the style that was worn and popularized during the Taisho era of Japan. For those who may not know, the Taisho era is not remembered fondly because it is characterized by Japanese imperialism into significant parts of Asia, such as China, Korea, and Taiwan. There’s more grueling history there, but I’m going to cut it short for the sake of brevity. You’re free to do more research into this if you’re interested.

For comparison, here is Cater's New Year attire and here are some examples of Taisho era clothing:

As you can see from the linked images, Cater has some elements of Taisho clothing while also sporting a modern twist to them. The cut of his shirt imitates the cut of the nagajuban, and instead of an obi, he wears his usual Heartslabyul sash at the waist. Additionally, it can be argued that the Heartslabyul jacket worn over that is meant to be similar to the cloaks characteristic of Taisho fashion.

In any case, what I said for the Sunset Savanna clothing also applies here; please listen to the voices of people who were impacted by Japanese imperialism. Their feelings are valid, and if they find discomfort in Cater wearing the clothing, then those feeling should be respected. However, individual opinions will widely vary and are not representative of the entire group. If one Chinese person says they are offended by Taisho clothing, it doesn’t mean ALL Chinese people will find it offensive.

At the same time, someone is NOT automatically a bad person or supportive of imperialism just because they enjoy the fashion or excuse Cater for wearing it. Some will believe that clothing is just clothing and that there isn’t a deeper message behind it unless the one wearing that clothing acts in a way that glorifies what they wear. And indeed, it is possible to appreciate the fashion of a time period without condoning the things that occurred or were promoted during that same time period. For example, if someone were to wear Edwardian inspired fashion or just straight up Edwardian era clothing, it doesn’t mean the individual supports colonization. Clothing CAN be used to project a message, but it does not ALWAYS project a message.

This is actually something I feel I can speak on, as my family comes from one of the areas directly impacted by Japanese imperialism. I don’t personally take offense to Cater wearing what he is. I’m of the opinion that so long as he’s not acting in a way that glorifies imperialism then it’s fine; to me, wearing it alone does not promote imperialism, just as “problematic” material appearing in media does NOT mean automatic support of that material). That being said, I also have friends with similar backgrounds that are offended by Cater’s clothing. We are able to disagree without acting morally superior to one another or insulting the other’s views, and I feel that this is something that should extend to others when discussing this topic. At the end of the day, we must accept that one opinion does not define a whole country and that there is no clear “right” answer here; it’s all left to individual interpretation.

Diasomnia Dorm Uniforms

I’ve already previously addressed the Diasomnia uniform controversy here.

To quickly summarize, it appears to have been a mistranslation of a particular term; this most likely occurred due to the context of the rest of the sentence not being taken into account when translating. OP’s translation has since been deleted, but the Reddit thread of responses still exists and in it, OP apologizes for this error.

Personally, I don’t see a point in assuming the worst of people when the context clues all point to it being a translation error and not purposefully meant to invoke imagery of N*zis. To me, it looks like a general military look with some elements of equestrian fashion and nothing more than that. As is the case with Cater’s New Year attire, I have friends who think otherwise. While they concede that there was a mistranslation, they still perceive the Diasomnia uniforms as questionable in design. These opinions can coexist, because everyone’s perceptions will vastly differ based on their own world knowledge and experiences.

I want to reiterate a point I bring up in the Diasomnia post, as it relates to “problematic” or sensitive content in general:

[...] we should not make assumptions in such broad strokes about another person based on what they create. People are capable of creating things for reasons other than “I support this”. They may want to call light to something or critically discuss it in a way that isn’t possible in real life. This is true of much of literature, from the classics to contemporaries, fiction to nonfiction.

Depicting insensitive things in media becomes a major issue when “bad” things are glorified or treated like they are “good”. The presence of a “bad” thing in of itself does not necessarily make the entire work “evil”.

General Thoughts

When it comes to issues like this, I feel that the immediate reaction is to take sides, then throw terrible words at the opposing side or assume the absolute worst of the devs. Honestly, I don’t think that’s the best thing to do. It’s very narrowed minded and short sighted 💦and ultimately, it’s unnecessarily inflammatory and won’t make anyone want to hear you out if you do feel uncomfortable with something the game has presented. It’s all very reactionary rather than stopping to critically examine the context and looking at more informed opinions.

Of course, this isn’t to discount gut reactions. Sometimes they can be very strong, and rightfully so. This also isn’t to say that TWST, or Disney/Aniplex has NEVER screwed up, because they most certainly have. (For example, I don’t think using the term “exotic” was in good taste for Fairy Gala; they should have used another term. A lot of Disney’s attempts to portray certain cultures also fall flat and come off as reductive.) It’s just that these particular scenarios are circumstances in which I think the fandom is either oversimplifying the matter or shouting too loudly over the people that are actually impacted by this and may have something to say about it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that whether you’re offended by their clothes or not, both sides are entitled to feel how they do. You’re not “right” or “wrong” for believing what you believe; just don’t go out of your way to claim the people who don’t agree with you are bigots or evil 💦and please, please, PLEASE listen to other opinions, especially those coming from the potentially affected groups. Don’t assume that just because there is a ruckus being kicked up that it is representative of everyone in that group, because it most definitely is NOT. Don’t take everything you see or hear at face value, LOOK INTO THINGS YOURSELF (I even encourage you to fact check everything I’ve told you in this post!). Lastly, if you’re going to discuss these topics, please remember to do so in a respectful manner!!

I’m sorry if I sound worn out by now or if I sound like a broken record but I’m just 😔 sad and tired, I guess?? These ARE important topics to discuss, and I will always support critiquing the media we consume, but I don’t enjoy it when such broad and instant assumptions are made. I wish people would be less reactionary, take a step back, evaluate the information being presented, do some research of their own (even into stances which clash with theirs), and then decide for themselves whether something is upsetting to them. As I said in the beginning, it shouldn’t be my responsibility or obligation to do the research for you or to tell you right from wrong; that’s a decision you need to make for yourself 💦

I also wish there would be more respect for those that take opposing opinions. Instead, there is a lot of hearsay and assuming that said hearsay is automatically correct just because there is an intense claim or emotion behind it, and a lot of judgment of others’ moral character based on these disagreements. It unintentionally leads to shaming people who are genuinely excited for new content. It’s all very tiring, it kills hype, and it makes people afraid to demonstrate their excitement 💦 I wish we’d just let the content come out in full and speak for itself before evaluating it so harshly... As for myself, I’m going to remain optimistic but still reasonably cautious 🥲

[cboffshore]

how to give yourself pointless homework and enjoy it: a guide to worksheet style analysis and an incomplete Skybound character study

Or: this is me making good on what I said in this post. Under the cut we go!

Step one: find something that SEEMS sort of inconsequential, but probably isn't. It's best if you don't consciously choose this something. For me, that was a single line from the mop prank scene that occurs just before the end of "My Dinner With Nadakhan", which popped into my head COMPLETELY unbidden and made me go, hey, I could make an analysis of this:

(Note: I forgot about the "well" when I hinted this was an eight word line. To keep my numbers and reputation tidy, let's all pretend "well" is just an utterance like "uh" that's not exactly a word for my purposes.)

Step two: open up your note-taking device of choice and start thinking about the surrounding context of your chosen something. For this one, that's most of the episode, plus my constant, underlying quest to kick the Jay Angst Hand Hook Eye Gouge and Unfair, Disgusting, Reductive Nadakhan Characterization genres in the metaphorical kneecaps. Which means my central loose question became:

What can this say about both Jay and Nadakhan?

Step three: attempt to sift through those thoughts to find a few cohesive mini meanings. Or just one. For instance: my chosen line implies that there was a prior discussion of this prank's outcome amongst the crew. Prior planning is a given, but the fact that they seem to have laid bets opens up a new, more reckless angle. It also raises questions about Nadakhan's honesty, specifically when in the series he's ever fully honest or when there starts to be a noticeable change in his honesty. (And I do believe he has moments of it, self-serving as they are, but that's a whole other deal. Just needed to mention that real quick.)

Step four: convert those mini meanings into questions. Ultimately, I stopped at four, although two of them sort of blur together and I likely could have kept going, but unfortunately I did this over a single lunch hour and ran out of time. This gave me the following worksheet lineup:

How can we trust that this is a genuine comment on Nadakhan's part?

What might it mean (for either character) that Nadakhan thought Jay would run?

Why would Nadakhan risk this prank if one possible outcome is Jay leaving?

Based on the implied discussion and the structure of the prank itself, especially the aftermath, where might Nadakhan be at on the trusting-his-crew scale? Conversely, do they trust him?

Step five: answer the questions, essay style or even just as fragments or a stream of consciousness freewrite. Go one at a time. Cite other context clues, if you'd like; you can go as detailed or vague as you want. I ended up taking comprehensive notes that didn't properly cite things but did mention existing concepts, which I might post later. I also kind of blurred 3 and 4 together into a single answer, because the answer I had for 3 transitioned nicely into an exploration of 4. I just forgot to draw that dividing line.

There's no formal step six, but it might look something like turning your chosen answers into something more cohesive! Maybe there's another similar thing you can examine using those same questions (adjusted as needed) and cross reference with this first set. If I wanted to do that, maybe I'd look for a scene where Jay expresses an expectation of Nadakhan (or, since I don't know if that even exists, just a general expectation).

And.... that's pretty much it! I'm still not sure why I did this, but I've been buzzing to do some proper character analysis lately, and this format was a nice way to ease back in.

[starrysharks]

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

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

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

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

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

by 2022, my artstyle looked like this -

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

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

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

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

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

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

[dndeceit]

Today was my birthday, so I'm going to do a rare thing and treat myself by posting a bit of a teaser for a fic that I've been working on for about a year and a half (at least April of 2023). The story is very close to being finished (I'm on the last chapter!) but it's going to take a lot of editing, so I don't know when it will be ready to start posting it properly on AO3. Overall, the fic will run twenty chapters (about 100k words by the time it's ready to post).

The story is called Salt for Salt. It's a Janus-focused supernatural AU about friendship, family, and finding home (and also sea monsters).

Cover art and the first half of the first chapter can be found below the cut.

(This sneak peek is rated T for mild swearing. The full fic may carry a higher rating due to its horror elements.)

Janus's father had been a con artist and a thief who—in his son's expert opinion—never failed to ruin everything he touched, Janus's life included. When the handling of his father's will revealed that his identity had been built upon forged documents, Janus had watched the life he had worked to build for himself fall disastrously apart. Expelled from university, burdened with debt, and barred from most employment, Janus was left almost aimless in the aftermath, with only the support of his closest friends to keep him afloat. Years later, stuck in a rut and with little left to lose, Janus decided to take a gamble. Following the trail of one of his father's old stories, Janus set out in search of clues about the other side of his family—whoever they turned out to be. That search has led him to the cold, remote island of Inch Murrough. Now it should only be a matter of navigating the social complexities of a small town and the colorful characters that lived there… (Needless to say, drawing the attention of the local sea monsters had not been part of his plan.)

Chapter One: Stars in the Sea

The moon was a narrow sliver, casting just enough light to frost the wispy, fast-moving clouds with a delicate silver glow. Patches of the night sky peered through where their cover was broken, lit with more stars than Janus could ever recall seeing in his life. Yet as beautiful as it was, the sky held nothing to the wonder that stretched out before him. Dark, frigid-looking waters roiled with a fraught energy, tossed by winds that felt only a breath shy of a storm. And somehow, it seemed the sea was on fire. The peak of every wave was capped in a brilliant, pale blue light. Sparks scattered as they crashed and broke against each other, twinkling softly as they dimmed, turning the black waters in front of him into a second field of stars...

It was captivating, and magical, and so alien to his experiences that at first Janus felt sure that he was dreaming. But the wind whipping those waves was strong and cold. It tugged at the fabric of his clothes and stung his cheeks and nose where they had grown damp from the sea spray. The roughness of the wood beneath his bare feet was very real, and his wonder shifted quickly, first into confusion and then alarm-

Because Janus had no idea where he was, nor any idea how he had gotten there.

Pulling back from the sparkling waves, Janus crossed his arms against the cold sea air and tried to take stock of himself and his surroundings. He stood alone at the end of a wooden pier overlooking a modest harbor which, beyond the boats rocking fitfully where they were moored in the rough waters, appeared to be basically empty. It was night time, and it was cold, and he was dressed in nothing but his pajamas. His feet were bare and they were sore—the soles tender and his toes freezing—like he had been walking around barefoot for a while. And it may have been the sudden shock of coming to awareness the way he had, but his blood felt like it was buzzing, like he had just stepped off of a roller-coaster. His throat burned, and he felt lightheaded and shaky-

And Janus supposed if he was going to be wandering around at night barefoot and half-frozen he might as well get sick from it. But seriously, fuck his life.

He didn't have his watch, so he couldn't guess how late it was, and he didn't happen to have his phone in his pajamas pocket because when had he ever been that lucky? The harbor was silent except for the wind and the waves and the sound of the boats at their docks, illuminated where the water lapped at their hulls by the same strange blue light that had held him mesmerized. There was nothing familiar about it, which only meant that it wasn't the same harbor where the ferry had docked when he first arrived at the town of Tam's Landing. On an island the size of Inch Murrough, there would of course be more than one, but at the same time it was hardly large enough that he imagined there could be that many...

There was only so lost one could get on an island with just the single town, right?

He would hope that he was still on Inch Murrough, at the very least, because finding himself elsewhere would make this whole alarming situation a much bigger problem than it already was. The last thing Janus remembered was lying down to sleep in his bed at the boarding house. He had booked his room for the week, assuming it would take him at least that long to find what he had come all this way for. There was supposed to be a resort hotel on the western side of the island, but he had learned that it was unfortunately seasonal and wouldn't be open until the summer. Though it was just as well, truly, given his limited assets. On his voyage out, the ferry captain had offered his recommendation for the bed and breakfast on the north side if he could afford it, or Greene's Boarding House to the south and it's...colorful landlord, if he couldn't.

(As it turned out, people didn't exactly trip over themselves forgiving student loans after you'd been expelled halfway through a degree for enrollment fraud. He was more than used to seeing his choices dwindling before him by this point.)

For better or worse, Janus found himself shaken out of this dreary thread of recollection by a tap on his shoulder. Then another on the top of his head. Sure enough, as he looked out over the strangely-glowing waves, the dark water became speckled with glimmering ripples as the thickening clouds the wind had drawn in from the sea began to release their burden. Janus cursed the weather, cursed his luck, and cursed his father on top of both for good measure because why not. If he wasn't sick already, he definitely would be if he stayed standing out here like a fool.

Questioning how he even got there was something he could worry about once he got himself out of the damned rain.

By the time he escaped the waterfront and reached the shelter of an awning on an adjoining street, the rain had begun to fall in earnest. The flannel of his top was damp and heavy on his shoulders, and was rapidly wicking away what little warmth it had previously allowed him to hold onto. Poorly dressed for it as he was, in the chill of a late autumn night the rain had just shifted his situation from uncomfortable to genuinely dangerous. And whatever the hour, Janus only knew that it was late. Late enough that it was probably early. The streets were that eerie sort of empty, and the clatter of driving raindrops chased every other sound out of existence. He shivered in his sad, isolated little pocket of misery, closed off from the rest of the world by a curtain of hissing rain.

Consequently, he was so caught up in that misery that he missed the approach of someone else arriving to intrude on his pathetic little scene.

A flash of movement and color at the corner of his eye was what finally caught his attention, and Janus looked up to find himself being watched. The man looked like he sat on the early border of his thirties or thereabouts. He had brown hair and brown eyes—currently wide with surprise—that stared back at him from behind a pair of black-framed glasses. Though, perhaps the most pertinent detail—or at least the one most pertinent to Janus—was that the man was far better dressed and equipped for the weather than he was. In particular, Janus found himself looking at the man's green, frog-eyed umbrella with an almost violent amount of envy.

"Oh, gosh," the man stammered suddenly, clearly trying to shake himself from his earlier surprise. "Are you-"

"Freezing," Janus answered through clenched teeth before the other could finish.

He imagined the question was likely meant to end differently. Still, in his mind, his answer was the only truly important one in that moment. His throat pinched on the word, reminding him once again of its soreness. He chose not to elaborate further.

With a surprised blink, the man winced sheepishly.

"Of course! I-" Looking around the empty street, perhaps expecting the rain to offer some solution, he stumbled toward the awning. "How-"

He cut himself off shaking his head.

"Never mind, it doesn't-" he said, mostly to himself, as he held out his umbrella. "Here. I- I'm not sure what we can do about-" His eyes flicked down, taking in Janus's lack of shoes. "But I- I mean- We're not far from where I work. You can wait it out there—or at least get dry."

Janus might have bothered to stutter out a thank you, but he doubted there was much he could meaningfully express through chattering teeth and a tortured throat. Still, as he ducked silently under the offered umbrella he was grateful nonetheless. He was even more grateful that the man, clear questions aside, did not stick around to chitchat once he had.

"It's just down the street."