#I took the excuse to draw hands XD

[ratstuckinamarble]

You want to hold a woman’s hand…? I volunteer as tribute 🤭 (this is one of your mutuals by the way. If you guess who I am, I’ll give you a big fat virtual hug) /hj

Offer accepted :0

[eirenical]

For the WIP game, laugh??

Well, you just gave me an excuse to post a very belated...

WiP Wednesday

...so, thank you, @thehumantrampoline! ;D

[If anyone else wants to send words for the WiP game, please do! And if you want to try specifying a fandom, you can do so. If it's a fandom I've been in, odds are I have a WiP for it. XD]

Set about 6-12 months after Li Lianhua visits Tianji Hall to impart a little Yangzhouman-healing to Fang Duobing...

[Earlier snippets of this fic in no particular order.]

Li Lianhua put the latest of Xiaobao's letters into the box with the rest and tucked it away.  Most of his letters were much the same: effusive thanks, admonishments to take care of himself, threats against Wuyan's imaginary thieving impulses, offers of hospitality… and now this.

Li Lianhua lifted the box that had come with this latest letter.  He'd ignored Xiaobao's offer of gifts and assistance, because such things hadn't been necessary.  They had their garden, they had his doctoring skills, and Lao Di had numerous accounts that no one in Jinyuanmeng was even aware of, much less would notice if they were utilized.  They didn't want for anything… at least not anything money could buy.

It seemed, however, that Xiaobao was determined to send gifts, regardless of their need or lack thereof.  Li Lianhua slowly opened the box, then sucked in a breath.

The hairpin was delicate silver in the shape of a branch, with little fans of needle-like leaves sprouting from the forked end.  It was delicately made, but had a comforting heft to it, sturdy enough to take some rough handling.  It wasn't the quite the lotus theme he had been thus far drawn to in the hair ornaments he'd worn in this new life, but it was close kin.  Li Lianhua rans his fingers over it, a smile twitching onto his lips in spite of himself.

It was beautiful.

It also wasn't an entirely appropriate gift for a child to give an adult.  The craftsmanship was masterful, the detailing exquisite; it must have cost a small fortune.  And if Li Lianhua wished to spend that kind of money on his hair ornaments, then he would have done.  He didn't need a child picking out his accessories.

…then again, the money was already spent.  So what was the harm?

Later on, as he was making dinner, gentle fingers ran themselves along the new hairpin, where it was threaded through his hair, before drifting down his neck in a gentle caress.  Li Lianhua shivered as those hands were replaced by lips and a hint of teeth.  Just as Li Lianhua was about to put down his knife and forget about dinner for a while, those hands and those lips disappeared, replaced by a low grumble of a voice.

"The hairpin is new."

A pause.

"Fang Duobing?"

Li Lianhua returned to chopping up the vegetables for dinner.  "How did you know?"

"He might have mentioned it one or two letters ago.  Sent a drawing.  Asked if I thought you'd like it."

Li Lianhua snorted out a brief laugh.  "Did he, now.  And you neglected to warn me about this, why?"

Those hands returned, this time wrapping around his middle, A-Fei's body pressed all along his back.  There was still enough of a chill in the air from the last vestiges of winter that Li Lianhua appreciated the heat that came with the cuddling, but it was going to be far more difficult to cook with A-Fei hanging off of him like an octopus.  "That isn't an answer, Lao Di."

A-Fei buried his smile into the crook of Li Lianhua's neck, along with a few scattered kisses.  When he eventually lifted his head, Li Lianhua's own head was spinning just a little, and he'd almost forgotten his own question by the time Lao Di answered it.

"I wanted it to be a surprise."

Li Lianhua took a moment to regather his widely scattered thoughts before responding.  "…why?"

Lao Di stepped back, taking all that lovely warmth with him, as he slowly slid the hair ornament out of his own hair and began to strip off his outer layers.  Li Lianhua found himself shivering again… and not altogether from the cold.  By the time A-Fei had reached the bed and stretched out on it, he was completely, gloriously nude.  He crooked a finger in Li Lianhua's direction, and for just a moment, Li Lianhua had no idea how he was supposed to respond to all of that on display in his bed.

Then A-Fei smiled.  "Don't you want the rest of your present?"

…maybe he could get used to surprises.

[rachi-roo]

hello! i hope you are doing well on this cold evening

i saw that you said art requests are open- i'm not too sure how to go about that, so i'm sorry if it's incorrect, but perhaps a request of lee!chuuya and ler!dazai with some foot tickles?

remember to take care of of yourself, have some water and get plenty of rest 🫂

slap of the century loading...

OH GOD this took WAAAAAAY too long, I'm so sorry for the wait! I love you and your patience!!! *huuuuuugs*

Here we have some drunk morons doing drunk moron stuff XD Dazai won't remember this night and not because of the booze (/ー￣;)

What a waste of fine wine! Tragic, but at least Chuuya got an excuse to wack Dazai XD

(No one said I'd have to learn to draw feet as well as hands! I want a refund on art! (｡-｀へ´-｡) )

[knightowl-studios]

“This is a warning for Kray Foresight - free all captive Burnish immediately, or I’ll burn Promepolis to the ground!”

Many hours, layers, micromanaged bg assets, and egregious amounts of colorpicking later, it is finally done //passes out

As soon as I watched Promare I was legally obligated to draw the dragon.

Please do not reupload without permission!

(Very ramble-y) process notes and wips below the cut:

[[Shoutout to Tamberella’s wonderful city brushset, the bg would not have been possible otherwise!]]

I had to cross-reference so many stills and gifs from the movie in order to try and recreate the atmosphere and style XD This whole drawing was also the perfect excuse to whip out the polyline tool again, it’s one of my favorite things to draw with but I don’t actually use it much for...some reason lmao.  Habit?  Who knows...

As you can see, it was initially supposed to include his lil arms, but I couldn’t find a way to make them flow well with his line of action and had to exclude them (which was a bit painful as I was really happy with how the claw shapes turned out).  I figured since the film seems to cheat it the same way, it was fine for me to do it as well XD Though I don’t have a capture of it, originally his body was also in a more straightforward loop-de-loop kind of shape.

I wanted to put special focus into the pose and sense of action (two things Trigger really excels at), namely when it came to the head and jaws.  I noticed that in a couple of shots the dragon’s jaw is “broken” - opened at an unrealistically wide angle - to better emphasize the action, and while I didn’t take it as far as Trigger did I wanted to try and capture something similar in my own way.

The windows required SO much micromanaging.  I blocked out a “template” of windows using one of the brushes in the mentioned set, grid-warped it to align with the perspective, and then copy-pasted it onto each building and then manually went through each one to make sure every patterns of “lit” windows was unique and felt believable.  The process had to be repeated twice, for both visible sides of the buildings.  As far as individual parts of the pic go, that step probably took the longest.

I also really wanted to somehow incorporate triangles into the drawing since they’re so representative of the Burnish and the Promare, and adding some around the face seemed the most intuitive way to do it.

A lot of miscellaneous things were added at this point, such as the ground flares (polyline tool my beloved), the smoke, and smaller details like making sure the dragon felt more “sourced” in the scene by clipping the tail behind a tower.  The background was also blurred, to help sell the perspective as well as keep the focus on Lio.  The flares were one of the hardest things to manage in the latter regard, too, as due to some oversights in my initial color choices they were actually brighter than Lio and stole his thunder!  So it took several different tries to find a way to successfully de-emphasize them without inadvertently making them some weird sickly color XD

If you read through all of these notes, thank you so much, I love you!!  //hands you a cookie

Bonus layer screenshot:

[chibishortdeath]

Free will strikes again, these were some really fun doodles :3. I think Simon is allowed to be a little visual kei sometimes. Idk I just know he’d vibe with it. Explanations under a cut—

And also a couple unfinished doodles that were just intended to be rough pose/anatomy practice sketches, but ended up accidentally more detailed than intended 💀💀💀. It’s nothing graphic, but ⚠️slight artistic nudity warning⚠️ anyway in case d(>_< ).

Hehehe, this is based off of a photo from Malice Mizer live, it’s Simon in place of Mana and Fuma in place of Gackt. Very fun pose to draw!!! Especially cause it’s a pose with a whip and also cause idk why but I find poses with one or both arms up pretty easy to draw. And yeah yay, Fuma inclusion yippie :3!

I don’t have any other explanation for why this exists other than dresses are cool. So I made him one :D. The coord has a half caplet that connects to a shoulder paldron on the other shoulder by chain with a little cross. Under that there’s a blouse and skirt combo with patterns similar to his SQ armor and some rose thorn patterns around the ends of the sleeves and collar. Over that is a corset and under is a cage crinoline made to look like crosses peaking around the edge. Shoes carry outfit motifs like the roses on the bow tie and headdress and the lace throughout. Also, an eyepatch with cross on it because yeah, cute :3. I’d probably wear this if I had uh any skill in sewing at all (TwT ).

A not chibi version of the above outfit! Except probably without the crinoline with how the skirt fabric is sitting lol. Tbh I think Simon would probably be fine with this for a little bit and then get uncomfortable about having so many layers on. I don’t think he’d like tights at all 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀. Hmmm I’ll have to draw a version of it that’d be more comfortable for him hmm maybe tomorrow.

Another Simon holding Dracula’s heart artwork. Shout out to how this guy just carries this thing around for so long lol.

Simon facing off against his worst enemy: stairs! This one was practice drawing characters in backgrounds, since I’m so rusty at actually drawing those two things together (ToT ). I can draw a separate background fine, but the second I have to put someone in it I just completely forget what I’m doing XD.

This one is also a practice! He’s running up to the altar in Drac’s basement. The lighting was fun for this one, but I forgot to draw the whip in his hand 💀.

This one was an attempt at drawing a skeleton and keeping the same proportions in a drawing of someone (Simon) who is uh not a skeleton. Fun fact! It took me like 5 tries to get the skeleton to not just look like Papyrus Undertale cause holy heck do the skeletons from that game take a hold of some part of your art style and never let go 💀💀💀💀

CASTLEVANIA JUDGEMENT HAS HATS??? AS LIKE AN UNLOCKABLE?????????? So obviously I had to draw Simon (x2) with the bow options. Pink probs looks really nice with his hair tbh. And the striped bow was black and white so it fits with the Judgement design’s outfit. If I ever actually play this game again (I suck so bad at it), I’ll be trying to get these for the very important reason of Simon cute. :3

—

Ok now these two. The first one was a different attempt at that Mana pose, but a bigger scale and a bit less exaggerated. I ended up having to do a ton of edits to it cause I kept making things too big or too small lol. And the second one is just a couple dynamic posing practices. They’re also excuses to draw more arm up poses cause they’re fun X3. He was just supposed to have like a generic placeholder rectangle er um uh there, but some of the sketchy lines ended up looking like what’s supposed to be in that spot, so I just didn’t wanna risk these being on main tags out in the open 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀. Though, tbh, I’ve seen more explicit things on the tags so eh, better safe than sorry tho (- w - )

[universallydestinytaco]

A Wild Nerve-Ending on a Friday Night (Oneshot)

*mood music*

Well, tonight is the end of S2, beautiful friends…it’s been a lot of fun. I’d like to thank each and every one of you who made this off the wall, chaotic shitposting journey with us. This blog wouldn’t have been anything without y’all! Hopefully this show left us with some good memes….

So, until S3, I’m gonna keep writing silly little fanfics like this! Stay gold, critters.

….bang. /ref

Inspired by this post from @friendlysmiler

Pim is canonically quite the party animal himself from what we saw in everyone’s favorite episode so who knows what hijinks the little pink imp gets into? XD

Side Note: Bill and Smormu are not only both alive here but they’re a wlw couple here, Bill is a he/him lesbian and Smormu is transfemme and sapphic, because that’s how I roll.

Monday, 7:15am

A fresh start to a brand new week at the Smiling Friends charity has officially began as everyone punched in and awaited their breakfast Alan theatrically-prepared while he channeled his inner Joichiro Yukihira in the breakroom kitchen.

Charlie was scrolling through his phone while smirking at old Rage Comics from over a decade ago with Glep watching on his shoulder and making a similar goofy smirk while Pim happily drew a picture of his co-workers in colored pencils to stick onto the fridge while quietly singing a song from one of his comfort shows.

“Take a moment to think of juuuust, flexibility love and truuust~”

Once Pim colored inside the lines, he hopped out of his chair and scurried to the fridge to display his masterpiece. “Excuse me, I’m just going to grab the cheese to melt over our deluxe omelette.” asked Alan in his usual monotone voice while Pim let out a nervous squeak while stepping out of Alan’s way. While Alan grabbed what he needed he inspected Pim’s drawing a with an impressed smile. “I really like your picture here, you even perfectly replicated my scales.”

Pim started excitedly fidgeting his hands as he chirped: “Thank you, Alan, I always find it weird whenever people draw you, they tend to forget or deliberately leave it out. I think your scales are beautiful!” Alan got a bit bashful while trying to stay focused on finding the cheese grater, uttering a somewhat-shaker “Thank you, you’re too kind….damn can’t find it, don’t want to burn the omelette so I’ll just-“ Alan grabbed a knife and precisely peeled thin-layers of cheddar to gently lay on top of the fluffy eggy clouds seasoned with garden-fresh herbs and spring onions.

Charlie couldn’t resist making a cheap shot at his slinky red co-worker: “Hey guys, Alan cut the cheese.”, such was a line that caused him and Glep to burst into laughter as if they where in grade school. Alan, who was serving plates carrying slices of the omelette, wasn’t amused and was tempted to gift the two wisecracking ingrates each an equally-tasteless surprise of pulling a Glep into their food, but took the high-brow road with a classy remark: “Let’s switch the conversation to a topic with actual substance…so, how did everyone’s weekend go?”

Charlie piped up first: “I played through the entirety of this one cool RPG for two days straight then when I finally beat it I celebrated getting wasted at the bar before getting kicked out for starting another brawl and spent all Sunday sleeping off my hangover.” He lifted his right sleeve to reveal the cherry on top: “On the way home I got this bitchin’ tattoo.” Lovingly detailed on Charlie’s arm was a crudely-drawn snake-dragon thing with arms breathing fire.

Alan then turned to Pim, asking: “How was yours?” to which Pim casually replied: “Oh, nothing much, the highlight was me and some friends hanging out at a pool.”

…

Friday, 6:00pm ~ Three Nights Ago…

Pim was sneaking around with a group of familiar faces as the moon hung in the sky like a charm on a bracelet, a chorus of snickering harmonized with the chirping crickets and the hooting owls. They stop at their final destination: the fence barring access to a familiar estate from the common folk….that didn’t stop the wild bunch from helping each other break in by climbing over and slipping through. Greeting the mischievous party was a grandiose pool yard just begging for the crowd to jump in. “Ah, the perks of having connections with an A-List Celebrity….” Pim monologued to himself, before taking his shirts and shorts off revealing underneath was a hot sparkly teal one-piece with a star-shaped hole at the back for his pollywog tail to peek through. Smormu, who wore a pink floral-print bikini under her button-up and capri-pants whispered to Pim: “Are you sure we’re not going to get caught?” Pim replied with a grin: “Don’t worry, love, Mr. Frog’s out and about somewhere, probably at a crummy bar, and probably causing his usual commotions there so he isn’t too concerned with whatever’s happening here.” As Duncan and Dj Spitz set the mood by the former playing a 90s bop out of a retro boombox and the latter breaking out the booze, Everyone stampeded over to the pool in unison, each individual jumping in the cold crisp waters in various amusing ways as the loud victory cry of “GERONIMOOOO!!!!” bursted out of the ever-excitable Filmore’s mouth like a firework into the sky. It was a rip-roaring time with just a hint of good-old-fashioned chaos, just the way Pim liked it.

Just three nights night ago around this time, Pim was uncontrollably sobbing to himself in a pillow over the fact that his fickle sister Amy invited literally everyone she knew to her wedding… except for her ever-loyal and loving baby brother, bragging about having Mr. Frog as a celebrity guest. Sick of crying his eyes out and being excluded from his family’s lives on a daily basis, he figured he could have a celebration of his own! The only downside was his co-workers having plans of their for that weekend, otherwise he would have invited them over for this late-night dive.

“A toast to our dear comrade and member of the Pennsylvania UFO-Hunting Squad, the ever-lovable Pimling!” Bill proposed as he raised his glass, everyone followed suit, chanting Pim’s name, except for a heavily-intoxicated Dj Spitz pounding in his chest and hollering out: “FUCK YEAH ROCK ON LIL PINK MAN!!!” Of course Pim immediately got flustered, his face turned a vivid shade of hot pink as a result of all the positive attention while mustering the confidence to reply until grinning sheepishly and raising his own glass, stuttering: “T-thank you everyone, you’re all too kind…all this hype about little ol’ me.” In a rush off of the praise and the sheer audacity of his actions, he chugged his drink down without a second thought. Everything after that was a string of vague, discombobulated visions of what happened in-between the rest of the night…

Saturday, 5:02am

It was a very early morning when the dizzy, light-headed Pim woke up front-facing the twilight sky melting into daytime, getting up and finding himself floating inside Mr. Frog’s grandiose fountain in front of his house until he immediately snapped out of it upon just noticing the strewn toilet paper and graffiti all over the statue. In a panic, Pim swam out and scurried around looking for everyone else and making sure nobody was left behind, his heart raced discovering more of the shameless if not karmic defilement of Mr. Frog’s property: overturned lawn chairs with one thrown into a window, discarded junk inside the pool and the jacuzzi, more TP strewn around like party streamers and someone’s trunks (presumably Duncan’s) hung like a flagpole like a comical take on a windsock. It seemed everyone except Pim had taken off before sunrise if not gotten arrested. Combined with the panic attack he was getting and the unambiguous symptoms of a hangover reeking havoc on his body, Pim tried to reach for a trash can to stress-vomit until he collapsed and relieved his bile in the jacuzzi. Minutes went by as Pim felt weak like a newborn kitten, prepared for the legal trouble he was about to get himself in if Mr. Frog wasn’t going to maim him Spamtopia-style first….just then a familiar voice rang in Pim’s ears that filled him with relief, Pim’s eyes cracked open as he started upward at a sober Bill holding the hand of his stumbling partner, Smormu. “Morning, buddy, need a hand?” Pim responded without so much words as it was a tired grunt and raising his stubby pink hand to initiate Bill and Smormu helping their friend up. “Let’s hurry and get out of here, unless we wanna throw a party in the county tank.” Bill chuckled.

Later that day saw a double-dose of tea and drama Pim was secretly and gleefully catching up with, from Pim’s mother recanting to Pim how much of a disaster Amy’s wedding was when Mr. Frog showed his ass once again by getting drunk and trashing the place, even spilling red wine on her wedding dress. Then the news that Mr. Frog came home to his place utterly savaged, claiming he’d seek revenge on the purp but considering the type of person he was, everyone assumed that Frog did it himself after coming home from the wedding he was invited too and was too drunk to remember.

Monday, 7:27am

Pim finished with an uproar of laughter from his co-workers plus Mr. Boss, all of them in shock and awe that the one always perceived as the cute little “goody-two-shoes” of the Smiling Friends charity was capable of getting up to some serious frat boy-level shenanigans. Charlie felt as if he wasted his time spending his weekend the same as the last, so he asked his best friend: “Hey Pim, you think I can hang out with you next weekend?” Pim made an innocent pose, putting his finger on his lips as if he was a kid who got caught stealing from a cookie jar. “Well, maybe not same-the-same-place but I know another celebrity’s pool yard to break into! I hear the Krombledashians are hosting the Meep Gala next Saturday…”

[adhdnojutsu]

Previous Anon sound silly. This is Fandom. Itachi can have any sexuality we want. Ever heard of bi or pan people previous Anon?

Right? People can have a girlfriend today and a boyfriend tomorrow and an enby or agender partner after that, so even if we get some filler episode where Itachi eats Izumi's face without looking as miserable as he always did when he shared a screen or a page with her, he'll never beat the "not entirely straight" allegations XD

this was a choice

Mans is pigeon-toed and primed to practice his Morning Musume dance routine

name a girlier man on that show I'll wait, even Sasuke has more bone and they took him for a girl

the polish is Akatsuki polishy, but is the length?

Someone's looking sheepish. Yes yes filler but when did he look this blissful in an Izumi filler shot, I'll wait

the needlessly emphasized elegance of that moment and every single hand motion of his ever

Official art. Conservative wall flower Itachi with a bare midriff and armpits and little ankle bangles excuse me NONE of the others are that exposed OR that bedazzled OR had their hair done for the occasion. I swear 2/3 of the people drawing Itachi for official purposes have certain thoughts about him, you can't change my mind.

I don't make the rules

Getting teased for liking sweet stuff and feeling compelled to explain that food has no gender. "Bla bla filler bla" okay well exactly, why isn't there any canon anime appearance if she was so important? They didn't even animate her actual novel appearances and reduced her to an annoying, whiny friend with zero commitment, zero romantic foreshadowing, non-canon scenes instead, because IT MADE NO DIFFERENCE. AFTER Obito mentioned a lover on screen. All of Itachi's flashbacks of loss were Shisui and his parents. Must have gotten over her pretty fast.

Oh and also, Obito "meaning her" when he said "his lover" is a problem when Pierrot included that scene, but then had Obito kill her. So who was the lover "Itachi killed" in the anime? Until his fight with Danzo, Sasuke didn't question that Itachi killed *drum roll* Shisui. So in terms of anime-only consistency, that lover wasn't Izumi.

[yarbofoxglove]

Excuse me as I continue to post Wizard fanart. I reaaaally like drawing magic hands XD

Forgot I took the WIP screenshot. I think I learned a few things while rendering this.

[ramblingoak]

Mr Casino's Bride pleeeease ♡

This is the working title for Secondo’s cowboy fic. I’ve written a few things off and on for it I just haven’t really decided what it’ll be about. I’ll probably get a better idea once I start working on Terzo’s.

Currently it involves Mist hiring the reader as a worker at the casino and it turns out you’re on the run from a former boss. But I was toying with the idea of there being a kid involved because at the time I needed over protective Secondo in my life. Well…he’s initially reluctant about it XD.

So for fun here’s what I wrote MONTHS AGO (so excuse how bad it is):

“Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Alice.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I live here.”

The kid gave him a look he remembered a young Terzo giving him many many times and his eye started to twitch.

“No you fucking don’t. Mist!”

“You use bad words a lot.”

“Only when the situation calls for it.” Like right fucking now. “Mist!”

He stared down the kid, Alice, until Mist finally waltzed in. Looking way too calm for Secondo’s liking.

“I could hear you shrieking all the way downstairs. What's the problem?”

“I wasn’t shrieking.” Secondo pointed at Alice who was busy drawing something from where she was still seated on the floor. “Why is this child in my office?”

“We—“

“No, let me rephrase. Why is this child in my casino?”

“Her mom works here.”

“And? That’s not answering my question.”

“Her mom works here and she lives here. So I’d imagine that would explain the kid.”

“This place is a lot bigger than where we lived before.”

Secondo turned back around to glare at her briefly before turning back to Mist. He caught the Ghoulette with a fond smile on her face which she quickly dropped when she noticed his glare.

“I need you to start at the beginning. Now.”

“Well, do you remember a month ago when our housekeeper quit because you yelled at her too much?”

“Define ‘too much’.”

“Then a few weeks ago you got tired of Zephyr bitching about cleaning the rooms.”

“I’m always tired of Zephyr’s bitching.”

“Then last week you interrupted me interviewing a woman for the job and wh—“

“I didn’t interrupt you.”

Secondo’s hand flexed near his belt when Mist glared at him. He’d seen that look many times before and whoever was on the receiving end usually didn’t live much longer.

“You told me to hire her. So I did.” When Secondo gestured at the kid again Mist sighed. “I tried to explain she had a daughter but listening wasn’t on your to do list that day.”

“Why did you think this was a good idea?”

“I didn’t actually but, once again, you didn’t want to listen.”

Secondo groaned and looked down at the floor. Lucifer below. A casino, especially his casino, was no place for a child. This wasn’t going to work. He began to tell Mist this when something tugged on his hand.

“Mr. Casino, I made you this.” When he looked down at her he immediately saw a piece of paper in her hand. Tentatively he took it from her, not taking his eyes off of her yet. She stood up on her tiptoes and poked her picture. “It’s you.”

When he finally looked at the paper he froze. That was definitely his face glaring up at him from her drawing. It was…surprisingly good considering how young she seemed to be. He wasn’t good with kids’ ages.

He wasn’t good with kids, period.

“Wow kiddo, you got his glare down.”

Secondo glared at the Ghoulette out of the corner of his eye. She had moved closer to see what the kid had done and Secondo turned to face her fully. He heard the girl mutter ‘hey’ but ignored her.

“This is no place for a child.”

“This isn’t really a place for anybody, Papa. But their only other option was the street.” He wasn’t used to seeing a soft side to Mist but it was evident on her face that she did care about the new housekeeper and her child. “Or the Medusa Lounge on the other side of town.”

“Absolutely not.”

Secondo’s reaction surprised even himself. It had been spoken with such vehemence even Mist seemed taken aback. He looked back down at the kid, at Alice, when he felt another tug on his coat.

“Mr. Casino I’m hungry.”

“My name isn’t Mr. Casino. It’s Mr. Emeritus.”

“Okay.”

The ‘y’ had been dragged out way longer than necessary. Secondo started having another flashback about a young Terzo questioning everything around him.

“Find her somewhere else to do…whatever. She can’t stay in my office.”

“Yes, Papa.”

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

So anyway I wrote this way back in like May?? So it’s all subject to change. At the very least be written better 😅

Masterpost for the cowboy verse!

[linda-likes-to-draw]

Ok hear me out

Chrysanthe as a dad. (+Miraak)

I actually had these finished a long, long long time ago but never uploaded them xD so here they are! GHD Timeskip!AU featuring Chry and Miraak as dads. How wholesome. This was all just an excuse to draw family shenanigans with Chry and Miraak sksksk

(the first two panel did not happen btw. it was a joke from the server xD Chry would be So Not Thrilled to know their baby is stolen and their parents killed by Miraak.)

After the whole Alduin Business they decided to get a baby from an orphanage! Hooray! I have never actually decided what the baby's name should be. Maybe @99corentine you'd like to choose one for them? 👀

And also have these two where. Chry has like 4 babies because we thought ''hey let's give them MORE'' and boom.

Info about the babies below!

Basically the Nord+Altmer kid is their lovechild(as in their biological son) gifted by Mara(cuz you know. they gay. can't really give birth.) Chry & Miraak got really confused but still kinda rolled with it. This baby has both Chry & Miraak's traits, having slightly pointy ears and a mix of white + golden hair, and has mostly Miraak's fight-y personality but still listens to Chry if he scolds them. They are Miraak's favorite and so they feel proud about it.

The Snow Elf, however, was made bc I accidentally misinterpreted @/mellowscrolls' convo and thought Erandur somehow got another child from Mara and was told to give them to Chry xD they are very shy, and clings to Chry the most. Miraak scares them a little due to his ominous aura lol They also like Erandur a lot! cuz he was the one that took care of them first hehe

The HERMAEUS MORA ONE, HOWEVER, is there simply and solely bc HM wanted to mess with Chry & Miraak. So after he heard that they got so many babies, for some reason, snatched/created a baby himself and corrupted it with his daedric dark magic or something. and just. left it at Chry's front door lmao Chry and Miraak did NOT take them well at first. Miraak in particular, as he refuses to even acknowledge them. Chry was afraid of it, thinking they could be HM's pawn. But, this kid was, in fact, just a kid. They are corrupted by Mora, but they were actually not influenced by him at all. They still maintain their toddler mind. And so Chry refused to kill them, as much as Miraak suggested to.

Chry starts to warm up to this half-daedra a little, but he is always unable to stare into their face, which is covered with numerous Hermaeus' eyes. Does HM have the ability to spy on them through those eyes? Nobody knows. They can also summon tentacles, which freaked Chry & Miraak out very much, so this ability was never brought back out again.

Because of both parent being wary of them, this baby is more mature and understands how different they are and does not blame either of them. They are actually a very sweet kid and takes care of all their siblings. But they know how much of a ''monster'' they are. They know about HM, they even hear his whispers to hurt Chry & Miraak when they sleep, and so they despise him, even if he was their ''creator''. They love their new parents and would never hurt them.

As they grew, maybe Miraak finally took pity and hand-carved a wodden mask for them to wear outside. They treasure this gift with their whole being as it was the first time the nord father cared for them.

Chry needs rest.

[panda-puma]

I'm a little baffled by your post about the one piece anime, because while I would also recommend people read the manga instead, it still is a vastly more accurate adaption than the opla? like, opla is lovely for what it is, but oda being involved in it doesn't change the fact that they took huuuge liberties that the anime just... doesn't? which is perfectly fine for an adaption, I'm just mentioning it because it sounded like you were focused on the character dynamics, which are just... vastly, vastly different in the manga AND anime vs the live action. I'm thinking about Nami and Sanji in particular (and Usopp as well to a degree), who all kind of feel like watered-down versions of their actual selves (Nami isn't greedy enough, Usopp not cowardly enough, Sanji... well, I'm not saying Sanji being different is a bad thing asdf). Again, perfectly fine for an adaption that doesn't mean to adapt its source material beat for beat, but it just leaves me really confused over how the opla is possibly a more faithful/a better adaption than the anime? Which, as far as I can recall, has severe pacing issues, annoying fillers and leaves out things like the cover stories, but still sticks waaaay closer to the actual story and dynamics as they are in the manga.

(First of all: you can like the Anime. As I said before, I've watched the entire Anime 3 times this last year. But you can enjoy something and still know it's flawed. Very flawed, even.)

Uf, I will try to make this as short as possible xD If i sound dry or "angy", sorry, English is not my first language ^^

What baffles me is that most people really think the Anime of One Piece is a faithful 1 to 1 adaptation, or that everything on it is canon (except the fillers), or that Oda approves the changes they make. For context: it was very common in the 90s/2000s to just take a manga that was doing good and make an animation that took the characters and story and did whatever they wanted with it. One Piece is not the only victim of this treatment.

I respect the animators and Seiyuus, they do their jobs good and are what makes the Anime enjoyable. But I really can not understand the Directors and the changes they decided to make to the characters (and this applies to the whole series, not only 20 years ago).

The changes you see in OPLA are necessary to translate a drawing (Manga) to a series acted by real people. Also, condensing 95 chapters of Manga in 8 episodes and trying to bring the essence of the characters to the screen, translating Japanese funny gags to an International Audience and also having the input of 25 years of Oda thinking "huh, maybe this could have been explained better" it's obviously going to make things change.

The Anime has none of those excuses. It's also a drawing so no need to tone down, supposed to have the same Audience (even tho they really tried to make it for little kids and it shows), they clearly don't have an issue with the length of the series and they don't ask Oda for nearly any of the changes they make!

Pretending Oda being involved or not doesn't matter is just so weird to me. You know all One Piece characters are Oda's OCs, right? He is the original creator of the characters. He knows them better than anyone else. He knows where the story is going, what is acceptable, what is on character and what is not. Just because they are very famous characters it doesn't mean they are not someones Original Characters. He loves them and cares for them. Not respecting him as the only one that can say something is canon or not is completely disrespectful and dehumanizing.

About watering down characters in OPLA: again, they are real people acting the characters. In the Manga they are exaggerated to a comical effect that wouldn't translate as comical if it's real people who do it, it'd just be weird. That's because it's different mediums and different audience. But the core of the characters is very present, just less cartoony. On the other hand, the Anime reduces the characters to just this comical effect, taking away nearly everything else of the characters, making them just gags.

Answering to the specific points you make about OPLA:

Nami not being greedy enough: Nami's greed before Arlong Park Arc is just her trying to save enough to free her people. We don't really see her greed until after she is free. We haven't reached this point yet in OPLA, apart of her wanting to dress nice and enjoy a bath.

Usopp not being cowardly enough: they can not spend 5 minutes of an 50 minute episode showing him screaming around or running away. But they did show him running as first reaction in Kaya's Mansion, twice. They showed him wanting to go back home after encountering Garp. He does say cowardly things all the time, like wanting to leave, stay on the Merry, not fight the Fish Men, running away the second Chu payed attention to him… It's just less cartoony. They are also not showing inner dialogue of the characters, it's just shown by their acting.

Sanji not being a pervert: Not only is Sanji's perversion waaaay exaggerated in the Anime, to an unpalatable degree, it's also a very Japanese Funny Gag that wouldn't translate good to an International Audience. Sanji in the Manga has, on top of everything else, a friendly relationship with Nami. He can talk to her like a human being. They are friends that can agree or disagree without drama, that join forces to fix things very often and act very calm around each other unless something "special" happens and Sanji is lovestruck, but even so, he usually comes back to being normal pretty fast. Of course he likes her and he is attracted to her, but he also sees her as a person... unlike the Anime. This translated to into the Live Action to a man that tries to flirt and has no success, but that can take a no as an answer without being offended. Also, Oda probably wanted to show on the Live Action that the real reason Sanji is on the crew is no other than him following Luffy (that is also a thing that the Anime waters down: Sanji's dedication to Luffy)

The main point is: yes, OPLA is an Alternative Universe where things are shown a bit differently, but the core of the characters is the same. You see them and you see real people, just like in the Manga.

And let's see about the faithfulness of the Anime... just because the Arcs are called the same and things kind of happen the same, it doesn't mean it's a faithful adaptation. The most important thing in a story is the characters and how they interact and react to the world. These are just some differences between the Anime and the Manga that I can think of off the top of my head, just from the East Blue Saga. (without any particular order)

-- Zoro's real backstory (Manga) is that he had been in the Shimotsuki Dojo probably since birth, practicing his 2 Sword Style and only starting the 3 Sword Style to carry Kuina's Soul with him. [((spoilers from Wano: now we know Zoro is also a Shimotsuki, so he was training in his family's Dojo. It also explains why Koushirou gave Kuina's sword to Zoro so easily: they are family, and Zoro would carry the Shimotsuki name to the top of Swordmanship))].

Zoro's backstory in the Anime is completely changed to make it look like he is a random funny kid that came out of nowhere and one day appeared in the Dojo. His signature 3 sword style is also made like he just "wanted to use as many swords as possible".

I don't think it's very necessary to explain why this changes are just... terrible for the character and continuity.

[Edit: the following is not correct! Check the reblog for the correction :D] The Anime also makes Zoro's departure from Shimotsuki Village like something he planned to do, saying goodbye to Kuina's Grave and Koushiro… when in the Manga he literally tells Luffy he was kicking pirates out of his village and he got lost and didn't know how to get back. [/end of incorrect part]

Changing Zoro's character at every turn is something they love to do in the Anime.

--

Usopp in the Manga wants Luffy&co. to meet Kaya, because he cares about her well being. He wants her to make new friends, to be able help them and feel useful doing it. Usopp knows what Kaya needs is contact with the world and tries to bring it to her.

Usopp in the Anime is jealous and secretive of her. He doesn't want the others to go meet her, even knowing they are good people. He'd rather have her to himself.

This is a fatal change to the character of Usopp. He is a kind hearted lovely man that wants what's best for his friend... but the Anime just shows a jealous asshole.

--

In the battle against Cabaji, Zoro cuts his own wound, so his opponent can't use it as an advantage anymore.

In the Anime, he lowers his defense on purpose and lets Cabaji cut his wound.

The first one shows how far he can go to prove himself, also shows he is not at all worried because he doesn't consider Cabaji up to his level. I'm not sure what the second one is supposed to show apart from "children can not see self-harm".

--

Also in Orange Town in Manga, Luffy is fighting as much as possible against the cage he is trapped in, biting the bars. And afterwards he is very worried asking Zoro to leave him and not carry him or he will get worse from his wounds. In the Anime he is just surprised that Zoro can carry him like that. He doesn't really fight his predicament.

The Anime usually shows Luffy as an uncaring friend, which is sad when he is a character that cares so much and has so much empathy.

--

In the Manga, Zeff cuts his own leg and eats it to survive after giving all the food they have to Sanji.

In the Anime, Zeff lost his leg because it got caught in the ships broken pieces, and he had to cut it to survive. (i guess he survived 80 days thanks to the Holy Spirit or something) (again with being palatable to children)

--

In the Manga, the first encounter between Tashigi and Zoro is brief, Zoro gives her back the glasses and carries on (even tho tilted by her looking so similar to Kuina).

In the Anime, Zoro breaks Tashigi's glasses with the shock and she proceeds to be the meanest person ever insulting him in many ways (isn't she supposed to be a good person?) and forcing him to work for her to pay her glasses back, even tho she has no need for the money.

The Anime shows Zoro as a pushover, when in reality he is not. He was "pushed over" by Luffy out of the blue because it is Luffy, not because Zoro would let someone random do that to him. This type of "Zoro gets messed up easily by anyone" is very repeated through the Anime, taking away the importance of his relationship with Luffy and the other few he pays really attention to.

--

In the Manga, Sanji wants to be famous and have his face seen in the Newspaper. That's why he gets mad when Usopp is in Luffy's Wanted Poster and he isn't.

In the Anime, he is already a famous cook. We can see it in one of the many filler in Loguetown, where another cook has been wanting to surpass him for a long time.

[((spoiler of Whole Cake Island: This collides directly with how his Wanted Poster makes his bio Family looks for him to use him, after knowing he is still alive.))]

--

Also in Loguetown, in the Manga Luffy goes directly to the place Roger was executed.

In the Anime they make him get lost a hundred times for comical effect. He also meets Smoker, Buggy and others on the way… taking away all the surprise.

--

In the Manga, Zoro and Luffy are pretty confused with Sanji's romantic reaction to Nami. They don't get why she's getting special treatment. Zoro even wonders if she bewitched him somehow.

In the Anime, as soon as Sanji starts flirting with Nami, Zoro gets irritated and Luffy gets uncomfortable.

In the Anime they try hard to make Zoro have a romance with any girl that shows up, adding reactions that are never present in the Manga.

--

And well, a huge one that needs more elaboration, because it is the core of the Manga: Luffy is shown observing and judging situations and people constantly. Every time something is happening that shows the true nature of people, he is specifically shown paying attention.

In the Anime this is translated as him being an empty headed kid that barely thinks or cares about anyone. He is a shell of a man, who only repeats that he wants to be King of the Pirates...

--

This is a very tiny list of examples that explain themselves without going into extensive detail…

I can go on and on about more changes that make no sense or change characters personalities, but if I do, I will dedicate its own blog to it to not clutter this one. I need bigger posts to explain the changes I see in dynamics between the characters xD

And as I said: if all of these changes were approved by Oda, I would be happy to accept them. But sadly they are not.

So to me, the One Piece Anime is just a fan-made adaptation that takes too many liberties. Or, as Animes are really considered in Japan: just advertisement for the Mangas.

On the other hand, OPLA changes were approved after negotiations and struggles and years of back and forth. Oda was very invested in it, trying to really show his vision and his world as good as possible. That's why i consider the Live Action as a faithful adaptation of the story.

Of course you may not consider these things important, but they are for me. In the end, you are free to enjoy One Piece as you wish! ^^

Anyways, thanks for reading so much! xD This ended up not being short at all, but i controlled myself as much as possible, i swear uvuU

[jojo-schmo]

Another batch of Forgotten Land Roleswap asks!

Look under the cut for answers and a behind the scenes sketch page! ;D

Thank you for the kind words!

Meta Knight doesn't have Mouthful-mode in my particular AU- Combo-mode is more Sworn Partner-flavored which is I why I went with it. But also for some reason I literally cannot bring myself to draw Meta consuming automobiles and vending machines. Too wild of a concept for me! But if anyone reading this is capable of doing so, I welcome the possibility HAHA

I had to hold onto this ask for a while because you gave me some really good food for thought! As of now I don't have plans to swap any of them since they don't play a big part in the comic but if I get struck by divine inspiration, I'll have you to thank for putting the idea in my head!

Stubborn knight!! I think he's so used to being self-sufficient that he dislikes being "coddled" by others and prefers to take things into his own hands. This is actually something the comic will explore down the line! I've interpreted some other possible reasons why he's so stubborn about this but it will have to be revealed in the future ;)

Aww thank you!! I'm glad you like his design, I put plenty of love into it! Maybe this is a good excuse for me to share the page I designed him on and some of the backstory behind it:

The above were my very first Roleswap drawings back in April 2022! It was born purely out of my desire to see a badass Bandee boss fight and I had just finished the Forgotten Land game. I started at the top and ended up with the designs at the bottom right- with a few additional changes these became the final versions! I wanted him to have more of an Awoofy silhouette since I figured they're a great equivalent to Popstar's Waddle Dees!

An AU creation fun fact: I initially just swapped Bandee and Dedede! I drew the above that same month- this is supposed to be the cutscene before the Winter Horns boss where the big reveal happened! Kirby was P1 and Dedede was P2. I didn't even create Roleswap Elfilis yet!

But the more I explored the possibilities, the more roles I swapped. It took me like another month to actually have the Sworn Partners be the "playable" characters, shuffle the Beast Pack around, and finish the rest of the swaps.

That was a long-winded way of saying, thanks for liking Roleswap Bandee!! I owe the little Awoofy Dee a lot because without him I wouldn't be having a blast making this AU!!

Ahh thank you so very much!! Combo moves were so fun to make haha. I love some good teamwork.

And yes, I love writing their dynamic too! I figured if they already understood each other perfectly at the beginning of the story, it would be kinda boring. Don't get me wrong, they are already pretty close in the beginning- enough to tease and be prickly idiots with each other while still maintaining that respect between them! :P But they are going to have some nice opportunities to get to know each other better, build even more trust, and reach a deeper understanding~! <3

Oooh! Interesting theory~ *whistles a non spoilery-tune*

These are more comments than questions but I still wanted to share them! Ya'll make me laugh!

If you've made it this far, I leave you with a tag from @what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me on Pages 31-32. It made me laugh until I choked. xD

Thank you all for continuing to brighten my inbox and feed with your great questions and comments!

[akirakirxaa]

[ blend in ] receiver tries to blend in at the ball and remain unseen, but sender notices and approaches them

[Ball/Parties Prompts. Decided this is the perfect prompt for the Solus x Valeria meet cute, so y'all get an early sneak peak. :D ...Early as in I haven't started writing the fic yet so I'm going a bit out of order. xD]

Valeria milled about in the ball room. It was a grand affair, decorated with more flowers and banners and garland than she could even fathom at the cost of, let alone the price of importing said flowers from warmer climes. Ladies muttered to each other behind fans and scarves, dressed in impeccable gowns that flowed about them like large, heavy clouds. The men clumped together, suits all blending together like a flock of birds, switching between laughter and seriousness as their various topics called for them.

No one had approached her thus far. The families of lower status assumed she must be of a higher standing, and the higher status assumed the same in reverse, she imagined. She smoothed the front of her own gown, a rather dated garment that once belonged to her late mother, and accepted a fizzing glass from one of the servants bustling about the room with trays of food and drink.

Just look like you belong and no one will be the wiser, she thought to herself, taking a little sip. No matter the danger or how temporary, it was nice to escape home for a few hours and have some fun. There were so many people here that she felt much more secure in her virtual invisibility than when she was planning this in the first place. She watched various couples spinning around the ballroom in time with the quartet performing at the head of the room.

One of the spinning couples twirled just a little too close then, one of the two slamming into her shoulder and knocking her off balance. Her glass slipped from her grip - I was enjoying that, she couldn't help thinking grumpily as it smashed on the floor- and in her attempt to regain her balance, stepped on her dress hem and tumbled to the floor. So much for acting like I belong. How embarrassing.

"Are you alright?" Valeria jerked her head in the direction of the voice to find a tall and rather well decorated man with black hair, just shorter than chin length, offering his hand. She glanced him over, trying to place him from what little she knew of the elite. White streak in his hair, bright gold eyes, the sheer number of medals and ribbons...

Oh no. Oh no no no.

Valeria tried to reason out if it would be worse for her to be found out by the Emperor himself or to instead commit the insult of running for her life. She wasn't given the choice in the end, though, when he took her hand and pulled her to her feet when she hesitated.

"I don't think we've met," he tilted his head just a bit as he examined her.

"W-we haven't," she stammered, rapidly running through the list of excuses she had prepared for...well, not this scenario but in case someone engaged her in conversation. "I'm a bit of a recluse honestly. Normally not one for big affairs."

"I see. May I have your name?"

I can't give him my real name! she panicked. If he finds out I snuck in I may as well be signing my death warrant. Why didn't I think to come up with a false name to begin with?

"J-just call me Val," she managed to stammer out. Only her friend Noelle called her that, and she knew that the hyur woman would never give her up. His eyes flashed, and she wondered if he knew she was...well, not quite lying but not giving the whole truth either.

"Well, I do so love this song, would you honor me with a dance?" He asked smoothly, giving her hand a little tug towards the dance floor. I was trying not to draw attention!

"I, uh, of course," she stuttered, too far in to back out gracefully now. "The honor would be mine." A pause before she remembered. "Your Radiance."

"Now, now, let's not muddy this up with titles and addresses," he gave her a charming smile and he was going to be the death of her, she swore. "Just Solus is fine."

"Yes, your- Solus," she agreed quickly, and as he pulled her out onto the dance floor she couldn't help but wonder what she'd gotten herself into.

[ikatako38]

Chapter #19 Sneak Peek

The chapter’s not going to be done by this Monday. I’m sure you all know the drill by this point. Up to another week before the chapter is actually out, but in the meantime I’ll do my best to hold you over with a couple sneak peeks!

In case anyone cares, the excuses this time are the start of the new school semester, getting excited about the anniversary special and spending too much time working on it, and the worst bout of writer’s block I’ve had in a while (I don’t get it very often thanks to how much I’ve planned ahead, but it’s still tough when it happens, especially when combined with ADHD-paralysis). Anyway, here’s your sneak peek!

~

He took both of Eight’s hands and helped him up to his feet, then gave him a kiss.

He coughed. “Ew, you’re all dusty! You should take a shower. Meanwhile, Tsuku and I are going to find somewhere to put this beautiful drawing!” He waved it in front of Eight.

“Oh… okay.”

“Say something nice about the drawing!” Three whispered, hoping Tsuku was short enough for the words to not make it down to her ears.

Eight gave him a strange look that Three had never seen on him before. “Yeah, it’s great.” And then he walked away into the bathroom. The door slammed shut ever so slightly louder than usual.

Did Eight just sass him?

~

The young women do seem to be engaging in some aggressive behavior 👀

As always, thank you for your patience! At least I’m always late in some sort of consistent fashion, right? XD

[villain-in-love]

your father's day post has me curious! does katarina like to do anything special with undertaker to celebrate father's day? do they like to visit somewhere together, or does she perhaps give him gifts instead? also does she have any silly nicknames for him, or does he have nicknames for her?

dad!undertaker is so funny and endearing to me, i can imagine him constantly cracking dad jokes at every opportunity he gets.

i would love to ask more about your black butler and twst s/is but don't want to flood your inbox XD but please feel free to share anymore facts about them here if you want, i'd love to hear them!!

Undertaker definitely cracks a lot of awful dad jokes, sometimes because he genuinely thinks that the jokes are funny, sometimes because seeing Katarina frustrated is funny.

Anyways, it made me research if Father’s Day was even a thing in Victorian England. Aaaand it wasn’t. This holiday was invented in 1909, which means that they most likely won’t celebrate Father’s Day.

By the way, I’m not sure if I can answer your questions in a way you probably expect – I’m one of the least sentimental people one could possibly meet, so nicknames and celebrations, doesn’t matter if it’s platonic or romantic, is something mostly foreign to me.

Undertaker and Katarina don’t “officially” consider themselves to be a family, even if they act like a father and his daughter, and mostly it’s just something they joke about often, seemingly not treating it seriously. Though gradually Undertaker starts to realize that he does care about Katarina as if she was his own child, he just doesn’t say it directly.

Katarina, on the other hand, internally decided that Undertaker will be her new dad right from the start but said nothing about it because she didn’t want to bother him even more, since she’s already lucky that he took responsibility for her at all.

(She got isekai-ed from our world, not because I actually think it’s a good way to start a story. I mean, it’s something I came up with when I was eleven, but for certain symbolic reasons that are very important to me, I decided to keep this part. Plus, it's precisely because she's from another world that she will develop some issues, and it's the thing that will lead to her eventually becoming the abomination currently known by the name “Death”.)

…

Though if Father’s Day did exist at that point in time, they would definitely pay some attention to it.

Katarina, throwing a funeral wreath at Undertaker: "Congratulations for adopting me."

Undertaker would also try to use Father’s Day as an excuse to throw some of his work at her to do instead (well, only if he’s sure that she can handle it) because heeey, it’s his holiday. Which means that his only daughter should appreciate him and at least try to do something nice once in a while.

I’m not the type to give nicknames, but you know, I remember when I watched "Katekyo Hitman Reborn" years ago, Fran would obnoxiously draw out vowels when calling Mukuro “teeeaacheeer”, and I imagine Katarina would often address Undertaker the same way. In the most annoying tone she can manage.

Whatever nicknames Undertaker tried to give Katarina at first did not stick, so apart from her name, sometimes he just address her as “kid”.

Well, she’s a “late teenager” going on “young adult”, but for someone as old Undertaker, he would obviously mostly see her as a kid. Especially since she has very little idea on how to function as an adult, so now Undertaker is kind of “fixing” the mistakes of her actual parents' and tries to push her towards independence more. He's not particularly protective (or doesn't allow himself to be) and implements casual approach: if she has to deal with some trouble, he will give advice, maybe provide a bit of help, but she has to figure out the most by herself.

I had an incorrect quote somewhwere...

"Katarina: Hey teeeacheeer...What would you do if I was kidnapped?

Undertaker: Oh, nothing. I'd just wait thirty minutes until they let you go voluntarily."

...but surely Undertaker is a fun dad. That's the entire thing, I always wanted a father who would understand me instead of judging me for every wrong move, and Undertaker seemed to be much more similar to me than my actual dads are. He's eccentric, morbid, understands the value of information and entertainment, and is also smart and capable of thinking deeply and broadly, even if he might be just a bit insane.

...

Well, that's a messy wall of text I got here, maybe it got a bit personal, but I don't really care at this point. I didn't think too much about what I'm writing for the sake of being able to answer while it's relevant.

[pajorko]

So! About the Champions League in Katowice:

Eventually I found a bus that was heading to my city after the game, so I didn't have to spend the night in Katowice. So I made a quick decision that I had to be there since everything came together well.

The first match between the hosts, i.e. GKS Katowice (or Gieksa as the fans call the club) and Lokomotiv Stara Zagora the girls played in the heat in full sun. Unfortunately, not many fans came, which was probably due to the thrashing that Gieksa got from Anderlecht on Wednesday. At that time, more than 2,000 fans came to the match, which is a record number for Polish club football. It's a pity that I couldn't experience that great atmosphere, but the smaller attendance also had one plus: as the match went on and the sun moved, you could change seats so that you sat in the shadow the whole time XD

Sports-wise, the match itself was rather dull (maybe because of the heat) - although Gieksa had the advantage, this did not result in goals or even shots on goal. The match ended 0-0 and it took a penalty shootout to decide the third place in the tournament. Luckily Gieksa won, mainly thanks to a great performance by goalkeeper Weronika Klimek. Apart from that, watching live only confirmed that I really like Anita Turkiewicz's game. She is Gieksa's fullback with an offensive mindset, who plays fast, runs a lot and can make great passes and crosses. And although she didn't score from a penalty kick, I think the name is worth remembering.

To Gieksa's excuse, they have lost four key players since May due to cruciate ligament ruptures. I saw that all of them were at the game, cheered hard and participated in the team huddle and celebrations, which was lovely. I wanted to stay longer in the stadium to maybe catch some of the players after the game, but the security guard asked me to leave as they have to close the stadium before the next game. Well :(

By the way, I watched the penalty shootout of Eintracht and Juventus in the break before the penalty kicks. There were a lot of draws that day 😅

There were three hours until the final between Brann and Anderlecht, so I went to the zoo near the stadium. There I met Sveindis.

I grabbed something to eat (btw who adds pickles to zapiekanka? Heresy!) and went back to the stadium. For some reason the ticket people remembered me from the previous game. Maybe because I had trouble getting through the gates, or maybe because I was a new face among the fans, I don't know, because I don't think my look is unusual in anyway xD Nevertheless, it was nice. They were wondering who to cheer for, you could see that they genuinely felt sorry for Gieksa. I was rooting a little harder for Brann, but mostly I wanted to see a good and interesting match.

Unfortunately, only a handful of fans came 😔 Let them regret it, because they missed one of the best women's club football matches in Poland and that beautiful sky above the stadium during the warm-up.

The stands were rather behind Brann thanks to a strong representation of probably the club's board, who cheered loudly from the VIP stands. Although there was a girl sitting in front of me who was someone close to one of the Anderlecht players (Stefanie Vatafu I believe?).

I enjoyed the match, the fans around me were impressed by the pace. I was particularly impressed by Larissa Crummer and Amalie Eikeland. Unfortunately, Andrine is injured, so she didn't come to Katowice 🥺 I also watched Anderlecht's Tine de Caigny especially closely because of her past in the Bundesliga.

At the beginning of the second half, Gieksa coach Karolina Koch appeared on my stand. I'm naturally shy, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity and asked for a photo. She was surprised, but very nice. We even managed to talk for a while. She asked if I play football (I played as a child), where I came from ("you drove 300 kilometers?!"), if I support Gieksa (not really, but I couldn't say that after all, so… I was assigned Gieksa fan by Karolina Koch) and how I liked the matches. We were both impressed by Brann and Anderlecht. She was very disappointed with Gieksa's performance in the tournament, but I assured her that nothing was wrong, that I was sure they would learn positive lessons, and wished her good luck in the fight for the championship this season. And although the coach was disappointed, she didn't complain about the players and was very motivated to improve next season. A week has passed, and I am still very positively impressed by the encounter.

(I'm not posting my face, sorry, but I was grinning, believe me)

Brann won 3-0. I couldn't stay longer in the stadium because I would have missed the bus, so I didn't meet the players. For that, on my way out I heard them singing loudly in the locker room. It was cool 😁

That's it. I'm glad I took the opportunity to be at the tournament. All in all, it was a cool experience!

I see you went to the Champions League games last week. How was it? Are you willing to share your experience?

I didn't think that anyone would be interested in that, but sure! After the Bayern's game 😊