#I would also say I made her a bit more color accurate as well

[minty-sweet-art]

Ah yes sentient carnival minty art now with more fluff, collar thing and a pretty little bow.

Still lineless like the older one

Non sentient carnival minty designed 

Carnival au by sm-baby

[bunninophia]

Hi! I'm Bunny and I'm redesigning the whole cast for hazbin hotel

{PLS READ THE WHY SECTION BELOW}

Anyway.... Onto my designs! I'll be detailing the stuff I changed/added

First is.,..!! Sir pentious! Weird right? You would think it's Charlie but uh nah, he's my favorite character and I wanted to make him similar to my tastes.

Yes he is trans! I have a small little HC that the egg boys are his boys...

And he is much longer/bigger due to this because of sexual dimorphism! But we love him for who he is now he's so silly :). He also has a barbed tail that I would say is used as a 5th hand! To grab stuff. He already has 4 arms cause why not? He needs to push himself around already..

Next is.. Angel Dust!, he doesn't have an alt version because I feel it's not needed but here he is!

I added pedipalps, those are the mandible looking things. They are a part of spiders I think are so cool and I wanted to add them! Unfortunately they're not counted as legs and adding another set of legs to angel I couldn't figure out... But good enough!

I also changed his eyes! To include a spiderweb, I'm not entirely sure why he has that black eye, so I thought I would change it up a little bit.

A friend gave an idea that his sight from that eye is kaleidoscope-like so I'm implementing that too! And how could I forget! The spiderbutt! Without it it's kinda weird looking so I wanted to add it in cus it's so cute

Next up.... Husk! He's one of my favorite characters so.. kinda went all out on him

I didn't change much about him besides his patterns and colors, but generally his silhouette is the same!

I wanted to add a lot more feathers and fluff to him! And putting on the casino style bringing back the spades and hearts to his wings again!

I thought the spades were funny

Up next.. Vox!

I found his design interesting that he is a flat screen TV even though he died in the 50's? So I decided to change that! Turning him into a box TV again!

And giving him a cable tail, I thought it would be clever that when sleeps he charges himself up for the day!

Next up... niffty! She's the last character I've designed so far!

Also while looking up her historically accurate date I found out she's 22??? Weird... But yeah she did end up looking a little older here I'm glad, but I really wanted to give her a bigger needle! What's she gonna do with that small thing?

And her dress is based on 50's maid outfits! With the addition of an embroidered poodle!

.

Why?

Well first I'm crazy and second, I've been now made aware that the show itself does a certain type of representation so disgustingly that I'd rather make my own designs and fix what they couldn't do.

I don't support viv or the show.

If you want to read into it yourself I advise a trigger warning for S/A. It happens in episode 4.

[annabelle--cane]

okay here's a tma thing that's been bugging me for like three years: I've seen a bunch of people say that jon needed to extract statements in order to live, and thus the others making him stop was equivalent to forcing him to starve to death, so I'd like to say that that isn't actually canon. that idea seems to come from this bit of mag 152:

and he explicitly says that he isn't certain, it just feels that way, and I don't believe we ever actually see an avatar die from starving their patron; we can presume that the alexandrian archivist from mag 53 hadn't fed in nearly two millennia, and it was still alive. this also comes during a short series of episodes where, having accepted that he isn't being puppeted into taking statements, it seems like a part of jon is on-and-off-again trying to come up with other reasons why he actually has to do it (he'll die otherwise, he has to be strong enough to protect the others, it must be harder on him to resist his patron than daisy and melanie with theirs, etc), so I think that colors the way he talks about it. not that I think he's lying or anything, I just think he's subconsciously magnifying any pieces of information that would make him feel better about taking statements again. I don't begrudge him that, because a) like, duh, of course that's his mindset, wouldn't it be yours? and b) he doesn't actually fall off the proverbial wagon at any point, he just thinks himself in miserable circles and feels Bad. but still, I don't think it's a full and accurate assessment.

anyway, the situation we're presented with here is more complex than "it's like making a lion stop eating gazelles," because jon neither kills his victims nor is he in actual immanent danger of death if he doesn't "feed," the real question is of extended pain and suffering. jess tyrell only tells martin about her experience two weeks after it happens, so she may well improve with more time, but as she tells it, jon not only attacked her in public and made her feel perpetually unsafe and paranoid, but he also undid five years of recovery from a traumatic event, making her viscerally re-live it every night so the terror and trauma is always fresh. jon may not die from only reading old statements, but his quality of life nosedives, he gets weak and tired and irritable with no way to ever make it let up, an even more significant problem for him than most people because of the frequency with which superpowered monsters try to kill him and everyone he cares about, and it appears to get gradually worse over time with no plateau. like, I'm not pointing this out to say "jon was complaining about nothing and basira was right to threaten to kill him," his situation was plenty bad as-is and I 100% sympathize with his whole deal, but I think saying "he needed to or he'd die" flattens the conflict and makes it overly neat and digestible.

[emotsper]

Hi!!!!!!!!

You’re like the szai person on tumblr, and even tho I’ve been playing proseka for like two years, I still don’t read a lot of the stories………

So as the certified szai tumblr person, since you kinda own the tag, would you like to explain to me why szai is such a popular ship? I really didn’t read much of anything…

Have fun!!

let me be brief (1/350) (no bc its actually gonna be a long ramble. apolocheese.) (also sorry if formatting is awful im a mobile user and I literally just type whatever)

FOR REAL THOUGH. PLEASE JUST DO ME A FAVOR AND READ MMJ MAINSTORY...... not only its a good source of szai cocaina you get to experience the entire mmj mainstory. i was normal before mmj mainstory and i was less normaler after mmj mainstory.

it simply went even more downhill when i read tenshi no clover. genuinely the one event story that first made me cry (second one was ice drop event but thats a bit biased)

okay now lets get to the main meat of it. szai.

admittedly i was kind of normaler early on but one of my tipping point was Chasing the radiance event especially chapter 7. please read/watch it. please. this specific chapter sent me into my trip of insanity when it comes to szai. it also opened my eye to specific scenes in their side stories/mmj mainsto that i skimmed early on especially bc im a jp only player so fan tls may not be super accurate back then 💔

to start off, airi was a girl that was often made fun of for being tomboyish, and seeing idols for the first time made her feel a glimmer of hope that maybe she can also bring hope to other people. she finally manages to reach her goal and became an idol after several of failed auditions (very deserved especially after her hard work) while shizuku became an idol purely out of luck from the idol grand prix context her friends convinced her to join 😭😭 From the start their relationship feels a little bit doomed with how jealousy is kind of unavoidable from airis side. but against all odds, you get to see airi go to shizuku and cheering her up by giving shizuku her towel and telling her to wipe those tears especially with such a pretty face like hers (MACHINE CLANG CLANG RACK SFX) they are so crazy for this. especially when you realize that shizuku kept the towel until now. (the towel is her area upgrade item)

from this point, airi thought nothing much of shizuku yet other than her being her new rival (and that shes rly pretty) but shizuku sees airi as her main reason to keep going in this idol stuff at that time, and that was enough.

(okay purely for this next part im forgetting a bit so do remember it may not be fully accurate 🙏)

after training minori for awhile, szai went thru a mini divorce arc where airi was telling minori that being an idol isnt all fun and games and that minori should consider quitting, continuing on with how she flopped in the industry bc she was more popular as a reality show figure. but shizuku disagreed and kept saying how airi was an idol through and through and that she shouldn't have quit, but that just tipped airi off and she shouted at shizuku, unloading all her pent up jealousy that she had for awhile now. iconic as hell scene in the most angsty way possible.

u can easily tell this wasn't received well by shizuku. at all. airi you done fucked up. shizuku left her idol group the next day.

(addendum i forgot to add. shizuku truly believed that airi was the first and if not, the only person who sees shizuku as shizuku hinomori herself, without all the idol filter that people plastered on her. so when airi admitted that she was jealous w shizuku getting everything good in the industry, that basically broke shizuku. (color of myself is a nice one to read when it comes to this 🙏 also the i am we are event is a crazy good conclusion to shizukus current arc))

at this point airi realizes just how much shizuku was influenced by her past actions without her fully knowing about it. girl you done fucked up.

this scene is still one of the biggest and strongest kryptonite for szai fans. especially with what happens after.

after confronting shizuku about her choice knowing full well its airis fault, airi, angry at herself, goes immediately to cheerful*days training place (she knows the place since theyve kinda shared the spot iirc) while the rest of mmj follows. she started threatening arisa and almost threw punches but she held back and told the rest of cheerful*days that shizuku is more of an idol than everyone in the room (i may be hallucinating this one. do lmk)

they finally leave the place, and both apologies to each other. at the same time, they both admitted that they were each others idol

and then shizuku goes to tackle hug airi. what the queer

that only concludes the mainstory section btw. upon realizing it may be too much of a recap instead of actual explanation ill be brief w the rest of it (keep in mind i dont read EVERY szai story, just ones i was made aware of bc im playing on jp and story content is a bit harder to see/consume)

Main szai crazies for szai fans

1. chasing the radiance ch7. airi yet talks again about how shizukus hands are slender and elegant while hers are short and chubby (she compared her hands to a manju) and shizuku was mad at her about this and went on a long tangent about how airis gentle hands were the ones who pushes minori and shizuku forward when they think they couldn't.

this is probably the fifth time ive read this story and it still gets me. i hate these fruitsssss. please read the full chapter ive linked it near the start this chapter is so special to me.

2. my ideal idol (airi 5, jp only event for now)

Bro i Dont Even Know What Else To Say. Just Look At This Card

but if we're being serious . lets talk about this one specific card and the story shall we.

this card was a blast to the past; pre-mmj szai again.

we start off with present mmj getting ready for their turn in the joint performance with a new junior idol group that they were paired with. airi was a bit nervous and shizuku noticed it. so she offered to do something that would hopefully lessen the nervousness for both of them. shizuku softly puts her head on airis back and whispered several word of encouragements. shizuku reminisces to the past.

pre-mmj szai. shizuku was very nervous as she was waiting for her first performance ever as an idol. airi was also there, and it was going to be her first too. airi shows up to say hi to shizuku but she noticed that shizuku was really nervous and at the verge of crying. airi knew she had to do something and told shizuku to turn around, shizuku did. shizuku lets out a little surprised yelp as she feels airis hands and head pressing against her back. she could hear airi muttering some encouragement but we never get to hear what the words were, only that shizuku thought about how warm airis hands were. (i need to be euthanized)

back to the present, shizuku says that she hopes that this gesture can somehow "repay" for what airi did to her back then. i think im losing it. sorry

OKAY IM DONE IM DONE ITS ALMOST 1 AM MY BRAIN IS NOT GOING TO WORK ANYMORE IF I KEEP TYPING..... my brain can handle so little. anyways i hope this wall of text ramble can convince u to read mmj mainsto and consume more mmj stories........ i admit its not perfect or whatsoever bc i haven't read the mmj mainstory for awhile and i have a wee memory issue thats paired with my deafness so. yeah. enjoy. haha.

[joyce-stick]

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

[missedditart]

Along with my Lackadaisy hyperfixation I've also become obsessed with under the devils moon by @libras-interactives. I absolutely love their ocs and can't wait to see more of them in the story. I made some fan designs of them and thought it couldn't hurt to share them. I had a lot of thoughts about their designs so anyone who is interested can read about that below. Also, English isn't my first language so please ignore any spelling mistakes and such.

Malwina

Malwina's design was really fun, also the first one I did. She is described as having black fur and hair and orange eyes. I knew if  I wasn't careful she could end up looking like Ivy, so I made her hair color brighter than her fur color and also made her hair curly/wavy. I also emphasized the eyes as they're often pointed out in the text as big and pumpkin-like. I wanted her to look curious but maybe a little unsettling if she stares at you too long. I also gave her soft shapes and rounded years since she is very friendly albeit a bit pushy.

Máire 

for Máire just mostly followed the description we get of her, calico, auburn hair and green eyes. The thing I had to think about for this drawing is what kind of clothing she would wear. I went between thinking she would prefer something stylish or something comfy. I'm not an expert on 1920s fashion so I mostly looked at old clothing catalogs to get a feel for the clothes she could wear. I settled on something more in between a comfy shirt with a stylish skirt. I based the tarot cards in her hand on Pamela Colman Smith’s designs. Also since she is wearing a shirt I couldn't show off the heart fur pattern on her chest but it's definitely there.

Sylvester

Sylvester doesn't have a very striking design but that's the point. For his facial structure i took some inspiration from Asa Sweet and Bobby Bastion from the comic but I also tried to make him stand out on his own. Other than that I kept close to the text, gray suit and graying fur. I was tempted to give him a colorful gaudy tie, maybe something his wife insisted he should wear. To make him more interesting but again he was supposed to be drab and unassuming. So I decided against it. (I still headcanon that his wife gives him gaudy ties and insists he wear them and he cant say no to her.)

Flynn

Flynn was the one I had the most ideas for but also the one I'm the least happy with the result of but might as well share it. We haven't gotten many physical descriptions of him and what we get is somewhat vague. I also haven't played all the backstories so there might be something there that I've missed. But from what we do get he is often described as odd eyed and two faced, this gives me the impression he has a chimera pattern. We haven't been given any specific color so I chose what I thought fit best. black and bluish gray to make him cold and dark looking, i gave him green as an accent color. I probably went a bit heavy on the devil shape language but it's fun so… I also wanted to color the tip of his shoes white or gray to make them look like goat hooves but they ended up looking too much like bowling shoes so I decided against it. He still has a hoof-like pattern on his shoes which probably isn't very historically accurate for 1920s men's shoes haha. And lastly his cane is only described as black and ivory but nothing specific on the shape. I figured giving it some interesting motif would be fun so I went with a snake. specifically a black mamba witch don't look dangerous until you get too close or they open their mouth. I'm sure a fitting metaphor could be made from that. My design for him will probably change if we get new info about him later in the story but so far this is how i imagine him.

[dollsorwhatever]

Creeproduction Spectra

Figured this would be valuable to post here as well since these are so new lol Despite spending almost an entire day complaining about Creeproduction Spectra having the wrong head sculpt and polypropylene hair, I did actually buy her from Paulmart the day she was first listed because Spectra is one of my favorite MH characters (along with Cleo ofc, and Wydowna- please make a collector or G3 Wydowna Mattel I am begging you) and because I was curious to compare her with my original Sig Spectra that came from the very first batch and is slightly different from later batches of Sig Spectra lol Original on the left, Creepro on the right!

Some things of note: -Can confirm she has poly hair! Appalling. I get that kanekalon is discontinued, but there are nearly identical saran matches for Spectra's original hair colors, so this was purely a result of Mattel being incredibly cheap. Mattel has recently made a pretty significant effort to make new saran batches of g3 dolls that originally had poly, so I really do not understand why they would do this for a reproduction doll that is primarily directed at adult collectors lol It's also horribly layered in a way that I find baffling? Sig Spectra has always had weird layers but the creeproduction has, like, a mullet. I'm not even bothering to style it because she's getting a reroot ASAP.

-Creepro uses the less detailed Spectra sculpt with less prominent cheekbones that was introduced with the final batch of Signature Spectra and used for most of her subsequent dolls until 13 Wishes. It also sits a lot lower on the neck than the original sculpt, which is why she looks slightly less relaxed than my original.

I honestly hate that they chose to reproduce this sculpt instead of the original (her HC doll also lacks cheekbones btw) and she would have been lesser compared to my original even if she didn't have poly. Spectra's original sculpt is one of my favorite MH heads they've ever done so it's pretty annoying to see them using the simplified version for her new dolls, especially considering they made switch in the first place because corporate allegedly thought the original was "too scary" for children. Despite my disappointment at her lack of cheekbones, I do actually really like her face and I find it a little hilarious that I managed to get such a good one after all the complaining I did lol

-While Creepro Spectra has a shorter neck than her original doll, she has a longer neck than the other Creeproductions; this is because the other Creeproductions (both waves) have shorter necks than their original dolls, but Spectra's original doll already had a much longer neck than the other characters. I guess she had some extra neck to spare compared to the rest lol (it's more accurate to say that the neck length is still the same, but all of their heads sit lower on the neck knob than their original dolls for some reason) -Her screening is mostly based on the version used for the late batch of Sig Spectra, but interestingly has a side glance! The only other version of Sig Spectra with a side glance is a variant from her second or third batch (with cheekbones) so it's interesting that they chose a side glance for the reproduction.

-Her earrings match the first batch Spectra (black chains instead of silver like subsequent batches), but the rest of her outfit is more reminiscent of the batches that came after. For example the belt on the first batch is much more simple than the one used on later batches, and the creepro comes with the more detailed belt. -Skirt is slightly shorter and her boots are also darker (improvements imo) -The silver necklace and bracelet shackle are made of a much more transparent plastic than the original (not an improvement) -Her top is mostly the same but the construction is slightly less fitted and the pleather feels a bit cheaper.

As much as I actually sincerely like her, I think it's overall a mixed bag; the poly is the worst part imo. I can look past the sculpt being wrong because she is really gorgeous despite that, but it's unacceptable for any doll to be rooted with polypropylene, and especially not a reproduction. And I can't help but think about how amazing she would have been with her original sculpt. Luckily I can reroot and I look forward to giving her knee length saran hair..... but I shouldn't have to do that! According to the retailer who first got these, they will get a wide release on Amazon exclusively in April of 2024 and he only managed to get them directly from Mattel because they hadn't decided to make them Amazon exclusives until after he ordered stock. So keep an eye on Amazon in a few months! Also according to a very reliable inside source on Reddit, there will also be a new batch of wave 1 Creeproductions in 2024 as well!

Don't buy from scalpers!

[yosajaeofficial]

JUNE UPDATE

WASSUP BROS AND HOES, IT’S ME, YOSA FRICKING JAE. BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH ANOTHER UPDATE ABOUT THE JMC 🔥🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️

Last time, I remember saying it’ll be different and things will spice up, and I am indeed gonna provide more stuff piled into these updates because the debut comic is taking so long. I wanna make sure you all get full when consuming these updates instead of being like “oh, nothing happened lol”. I have a good chunk of shit to talk about that’s outside of the comic itself, but it’s like behind the scene stuff about it :3

With that out of the way, let’s finally get started!

The Comic

(W.I.P OF THE OFFICAL DEBUT COMIC)

The comic is slowly making progress, the first thing that’s changing is me showing progress of the comic itself and giving ya’ll w.i.ps in order for me to give you guys content to look over, and because I just want ya’ll to see it yk? The honest truth is that it’s moving slow because of burnout. It was huge and made me wanna give up on the comic and leave the fandom, I was struggling for a good while but my best friend told me it was best to take a break and recharge instead of pushing further. They told me to do something else so I can regain my motivation and passion for the project, and she was right, because I’ve been having fun hanging out, watching her play Stardew Valley, and letting loose without the pressure for the debut comic to come out. I have to prioritize my health and well-being before anything else, and I know the comic will be done!

Also for you all to know, the team I had disbanded, and right now I don’t have a full official one to help with the debut. I have amazing friends that have helped look over the script, one did some sketch compositions, one helped fix up grammar in the script. They helped me greatly and I’m so grateful for them and their loving support even through all of the rough patches. For the most part, I’ve been doing everything on my own, and it can get stressful easily because of how much I’ve had to change my plans and shuffle around when the team disbanded. I’ve been the one doing the scripting, sketches, lineart, color, management, and just everything. Even if I try to act like things are fine behind the scenes, I definitely got more anxious and depressed after events occurred, so this break (not hiatus) has helped me recharge after going through a bit for this comic. To end this section on a good note, I’m feeling so much better and I’m recharging absolutely greatly, I even renewed my love for Donnie after a friend drew him 🦐 Sooooo…The JMC is still in good hands.

Bonus Content: The Villain

YosaJae, what is this? This is the section that’s hella new, the place where I show you guys some cool concept art, ideas, and plots that show the origins of the JMC or even scrapped/cut content. Today we’re gonna talk about the villain of Arc 1. Fun fact, two were created at the same time but one of them was finalized to be the primary villain for Arc 1!

(First ever concept art of Archie Gomez)

Here he is! The cat himself, ✨Archie✨ I needed some variety and needed an anthropomorphic character since Rise has lots of their mutants and yokai. Archie was a character that was a lot more serious and hella threatening but he was toned down after more arcs were created. For some reason, I included freckles because I originally thought, “Ginger people…..” then included the freckles to make him more recognizable. Let’s just say that they weren’t as rememberable as I thought because I forgot them after a while-

Fun fact, Archie was originally gonna be a native Spanish speaker but not be able to speak English. The actual conflict was gonna be about the turtles and Archie fighting due to language miscommunication, but it was later scrapped because of the issue with translating each of his sentences and being truly accurate with his dialogue. He also at first was a one off character that would never return, but he was popular that he became the reoccurring bad for Arc 1.

(Archie Gomez Evolution 2022-2024)

Archie had went through a good bit of design changes over the years and I changed him to be more easier to draw by giving him a more unique silhouette by drawing his head as a pentagon instead of a circle. The transition was at first a circle to triangle, but then the shape was too complicated to recreate so I had to go with a pentagon (as an accident at first too). That changed him A LOT but I was hella happy with the way he turned out because he started to look more unique and iconic. Pretty cool, eh~?

Aaaand that’s it! Thank you all for stopping by and coming in to read this update! I hope it was fun to go through and very refreshing. I wanna make my updates more like this instead of what was said above. Especially because this is taking so long, I wanna be able to go over behind the scenes with you all since ya’ll at least deserve that; I can’t keep being mysterious about the comic since it is taking years for it to be made, but it’s trial and error so I gotta do this in order for it to be worth the progress. I’m strong, I can do this! Hopefully your day/night is amazing, and take care until next time 😋🫶💜

[kkeidawrites]

If you haven't already could you write a pt2 for jacob holland x mermaid! Reader IT WAS SOO CUTEEEE I rlly enjoyed it. :3

p.s. please take care of yourself and take breaks 👍

🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️

The next two weeks passed through without any major disturbances from the ocean. The carpeting business he had created the year before was slowly reaching an all time high. The demand for boats was coming in full force as the fishing season was coming in in less than a month and so far, the boats Jacob was able to make easily was the dinghy.

However, this particular order was taking far much longer than he originally thought when he made the outline for it. But, it was a boat where it was asking for a lot of designs and Jacob had to hire a couple more hands to help him with the project.

Although, the project wasn't what was on his mind, a certain fish tail was making him more occupied.

For years he knew that the creatures of the sea were both dangerous and mysterious, but from his previous experience with the red Bluster anything is bound to happen at this point.

Jacob pressed on with his life, Maisie was enjoying her time in school practically leaving their home to go and come back home to tell him all about what she learned that day. He returned to his contented life, finally understanding that he would probably never see that mermaid again.

The shed that he had built after his house was finished, held most of the wood he owned and perhaps where he spent most of his time working on his projects.

With some nails in his lip, Jacob hammered the curved wood on the right hand side of the unfinished dinghy he was working on and then wiped his brow. It was day two of his project, and a wet one. It had rained the day before, putting his schedule back a couple of days because the wood he used was also wet.

Sighing, Jacob pushes away another completely soaked piece of wood into the mounting pile of its predecessors and picks up another to feel the weight of it and inspect any large wet spots on the wood.

"Da! Da!" he turned his head to look at Maisie approaching him with a large grin on her face. He sets down his hammer and piece of wood to catch the girl in a hug and grins.

"Hey there kid, how was school?"

"Good!" she exclaims as he sets her down. Digging into her school pack, she pulls out a large book and thrusts it into his face.

"Look! They changed the story about Red!" she says excitedly. Jacob flips open the red spiral book and sees the progression of their story, scarily it was very accurate to what happened. Pretty sure Maisie had something to do with that. A proud father he was.

"Oh and there's someone here to ask you about making a boat for them." she tells him and Jacob frowns in confusion then looks up to see someone approaching.

As the sun sets in the distance, the rays were bouncing off the skin of the woman approaching them. He wipes his hands on the rag he keeps on his hip and squints a bit to see something shimmering on the woman's neck and arms.

Thinking nothing of it, Jacob's eyes widens as he realizes who was approaching and couldn't form any sentences in his mind to speak.

"Hello, you're Jacob Holland right?" Her voice was sultry and soft.

"Um, yeah, I mean yes! Yes, I am Jacob Holland." he holds out his hand to shake her hand and she smiles in greeting.

"I'm Y/n, I was wondering if you could build a jolly boat? I'm a...I help clean the ocean with a very private organization and one of our boats was lost to the sea because of...the rain we had yesterday." she brokenly explained.

"I understand. How soon do you need it done?" he asks, taking the pencil and notepad that Maisie had handed him.

"Well, preferably in two weeks if possible." she says, Jacob nods.

"I can do that. Any color or designs you wish to add?"

"No, it can be however you want it to look." she reassures him and he nods again as he is writing down the possible wood he would need to purchase and add up the total.

"Okay, if there's nothing else that you may need then it will be seven gold pieces for the materials and the time it would take to do the project." Jacob explains.

Y/n pulls out a small pouch from her hip and hands him the correct amount then adds four more pieces to him.

"Just in case," she says to him with a smile.

Shaking hands again, Y/n waves to Maisie and departs from their home sneaking a quick look over her shoulder to Jacob again before turning her head and continuing on her way.

Jacob watches her go and sighs in bliss, Maisie is looking at the gold that she grabbed from her father's slacked hand. Bringing it closer to her face, she noticed something odd about the gold piece.

"Da, look at the money she gave us." she says snapping him out of his stupor.

Jacob looks close at the currency and sees a triton on the gold. The rarest of gold that can only be found in...Jacob shakes his head and puts the gold in his pocket, letting Maisie have the one in her hand for a treat.

"Let's get some dinner then, eh?"

"Yes! I want to show you the high marks I got on my test this week too!" Maisie says as she grabs his large hand and the father-daughter duo return to their home.

With Blue

The little blue creature pushed his head into the open palm for more pets by Y/n as she crouched on the beach to give him some love.

"We'll meet again Mr. Holland, much sooner than you think." her gills flutter softly along with her scales shimmering.

[worldsokayestmagicalgirl]

The first batch of pictures for Amoré's character journal are here! Also I have been so super sick that I've literally had nothing to do but to work on this for like almost 2 weeks so...

The cover to cover tour officially starts here. All I can say about the front & back is that I lament my lack of experience with my Cricut when I made these decals. I only had 2 "fun" colors to work with at the time & I was still getting comfortable drawing in Procreate, so my silhouette art leaves a lot to be desired compared to some stuff I've made recently. I also found it's incredibly easy to burn this leather book.

But she's volume one, everything with her is a learning experience, & I realized as much as it helps to have a mini heat press for tight corners & small spaces, the cloth barrier they suggest you use between the vinyl & the iron tends to make things harder to press on this scale. So instead I gotta quickly tap straight on the transfer film & hope I don't burn anything around it :(´◦ω◦｀):ﾟﾟ

So at the risk of thoroughly exposing my inner theater kid, Amoré set the precedent with how I went forward creating campaign characters. I started off collecting 5 songs to make a mini story arc (almost like a show choir set list 🙃) that helps me figure out an outline for the kind of story I wanna give them.

Somehow Amoré ended up with a truly horrendous blend of rock & theatre. Absolutely incredibe. No wonder she's always such a dramatic bitch.

It was a lot easier to go in & add little decals around these lyrics. I'm definitely cursed with the Too Much™ gene, but I enjoy the little pops of color they give ✨ plus it justifies me hoarding all these vinyl scraps printing stuff this small lol.

Stat sheet!

In all honesty, as my first character I had no fucking clue what I was doing when I placed these & if I could go back & change one thing I'd probably swap her Intelligence & her Wisdom. She’s definitely more people smart than book smart.

But everything else is...very accurate. She has all the upper body strength of a chicken nugget. Plus on top of the (already) negative I traded disadvantage on everything DEX for magic crystal shoes that can be periodically harvested. Just a way for her to carry around the family fortune without actually having to return to the vault✨

For something that started so average, her CON became a monster & always comes in clutch for her alcohol tolerance. I've played variations of her across a few different one shots & I always manage to roll well for anything alcohol related. The dice do respect a bit 🤣

Spells on the other hand, I floundered with a lot at first because we’re not a combat heavy game, but then I found Chaos Bolt & that was that. It’s essentially Amoré in spell form & I’ve had a ton of fun with it over the years. Also Mage Armor cuz my girl is SO DISTRESSINGLY SQUISHY.

Cantrips were more or less a bit of a toss up. Message was fun for the sheer idea of her using it to talk shit during social events without being caught. But aside from Light serving fun backstory purposes the other 3 are kinda just what looked fun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ unless you count the idea that she would absolutely delight in zapping handshakes.

From there, I wanted to extend the world map made by our wonderful DM @cappierong into a full scroll. Ya know, for the aesthetic ✨

Our campaign started in Civania, where Amoré's main Estate is. I just wanted a quick mock up to reference, so I edited a preexisting picture I found that checked all the boxes (large, on a plateau, accessible only by bridge) and then absolutely smothered it in flowers.

But anyways... This is primarily where Diana & Amoré grew up together in their decade of backstory ✨

There was probably waaaay to much back & forth trying to keep the continuity between stuff I've already drawn & this big reference. But I think it turned out pretty ok? Not like if I make a mistake anyone will really know lol.

Scaling was also another big issue I had, & I moments where I thought something was too big I just kinda handwaved it away like "ehhhhh she's from a stupid rich family." But now I have a NEED to draw baby Diana & Amoré around like, the statue gardens or something cuz I feel like certain parts of this place are definitely ominous 👀 especially for children...

And lastly we have the back cover & the High Noble political relationship map! I normally have this closer to the front but for layout purposes it'll be here. I kinda feel like I need to do more for the decoration of it but I can’t think of anything else to add at the moment.

Sam if u read that no you didn't.

But now! Other than a family portrait that I've always wanted to draw, I think I'm ready to move onto the art for Season 1 : Arc 2. It's a pretty hefty amount of art in comparison to others, so I gotta get busy. Especially since I think I'm gonna have to draw a few comics *sobs*

If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! I'm always excited to talk out our little idiots so thanks for indulging me ❀(*´▽`*)❀

[jonquilandlace]

So anyway I was bored and this was fully out of my typical fandom but I found this forest fairy maker by @elequinoa on my old favorite dress up game website from when I was a kid, Doll Divine, and proceeded to brainrot and say hey what if I made all the Disney Fairies in this, except creepy and weird and more my idea of fey? So anyway here's all of the fairies and the goofy redesigns (under the cut because I feel horrible for people who were never in this fandom having to scroll past seven sets of fairies lol)

Tumblr crop is bad so I apologize in advance. (Also disclaimer for minor photoshop on Rosetta and Periwinkle to make their body colors more unearthly, as my intent was None Of These Fairies Should Look Human, and to make Periwinkle's mask an arctic fox instead of a fox; I attempted to look at TOU and it seemed like this should be alright, but if not, I apologize for overstepping!) (Also minor edit for less pixelated banner image)

Fawn - She was the first one I did and wound up more muted in color scheme, but I really like how she turned out. She was meant to look somewhat like a moth or bark, with some faun-ish inspiration, as well.

Iridessa - As a fairy focused on light, there were two ways I could see taking her (the alternate being distinctly holographic), but in the end liked the double entendre of "light" when leaning towards "biblically accurate angel," so there's bird motifs and just general cherub vibes.

Vidia - The opposite of Iridessa, really; the goal here was to lean into lightning motifs and dark or gothic elements to emphasize the opposite elements in comparison to Iridessa's classical elements. Dragonfly wings for speed, of course.

Rosetta - As in her original, meant to resemble a flower, just amped up a bit to where she resembles a rococo/art deco fusion when viewed naturally, but could literally flip upside down and pretend to be a flower if she wanted to.

Silvermist - Yes this picture isn't from the first movie I couldn't find a good one lmao. Anyway, her wings reminded me of that specific type of dragonfly that skims over my uncle's lake, so I riffed on that alongside the almost pseudo-waves of the petal shirt. She is more directly meant to be an embodiment of water, but more lake or even bog-ish water, where she could peek out of the water at the top and an onlooker would only register her as perhaps a frog, as emphasized in the monochrome eyes, or a ripple in the waves.

Periwinkle - Where options did really start to limit what I could do, lol. I decided to lean into the mysterious and crystalline vibes of the winter, with her visage taking on the arctic fox and even reindeer-ish antler look of something moving in the snowy woods, but yet draped in a finery like freshly fallen snow. She's also the only one with "normal" fairy wings, but I could see it for her, with them perhaps being made of frost.

And finally, Tinkerbell - One that I definitely took some more risks with in design, she is nevertheless the most openly friendly-looking of the fey batch, despite her green hue, which is really in character for a fairy best known for hanging out with Peter Pan and being fascinated by humans. For clothing, I leaned heavily into artificer and witch vibes, mirroring a bit more of the human world, with a touch of goblin to temper it. I did shift away from her typical dress in favor of more adventurous wear, more suited for pretending to be a mushroom or even mouse in the corner of someone's eye.

Overall, idk, I just really had fun with this mini-project. I don't intend to do anything with it, ofc; it was just for fun, but I had a fun time with it!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Fekthrud

Happy Liminalmas, everybody! We've got fewer results than usual this week, which I would speculatively credit to a variety of factors:

Weird liminal space at the end of the year

It's Another Bird

Not a ton of fun details

It's easy to guess what the animal is

Anyhow, if you want to see the context for this, the page where I collect these posts is here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. (Hmm -- looks like I forgot to update the page last time around. Maybe that's part of the issue too.) And the entry that people are working from is here:

So, our results, roughly chronologically:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has given us these very well-rendered pheasant-like creatures. They've given their Fekthrud a head like a Pachycephalosaurus*, which I think is a great way to interpret the whole business about the hard skull; like, that had not occurred to me when reading the entry, but now that I see it, it makes perfect sense. In general these are excellent birds here, and you can see some brief notes on design decisions in the post linked above. I like the justification that a ground bird makes the most sense if they're adapted for falling on rocks and/or running into stuff head-first.

*Proud of myself for spelling "pachycephalosaurus" correctly without looking -- being a former Dinosaur Kid pays weird niche dividends.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to impress with her medieval-style drawings. (And to provide alt-text, thank you.) I really like how colorful and generally very pretty she's made her Fekthrud. I also appreciate the decision to show them attacking someone who is trying to take that "iron rod" advice. Very correct response -- get 'em, birds. If you click the link to her post above, you can see some discussion of design decisions.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has made the excellent decision to pose their Fekthrud like it's giving a speech. (And the generous decision to provide alt text, thank you.) This bird absolutely looks like it's saying "Ave!" -- I can clearly imagine it addressing the Roman Senate. Cheapsweets has also taken inspiration from Pachycephalosaurus, and I love that two of our artists got there independently -- like I said, it's an idea that makes perfect sense once you think of it. The post linked above contains a detailed discussion both of their design decision and of their artistic process, including an image of their tools and materials. Go read it.

@pomrania (link to post here) has decided that, rather than make the actual bone of the Fekthrud's skull thick. it should have a thick cushion of feathers. I don't know much about birds, but I feel like that makes sense: thick and heavy bone might be a weight issue if this thing is supposed to fly, so a feather cushion might be more practical protection. The goofy look with the tongue lolling out is also quite charming. In the post linked above, you can see some brief notes on design and process.

And... that's it for this week. Like I said, not a lot of people did this one. So, the Aberdeen Bestiary version:

Yeah, so, of course this one is the parrot.

The medieval illustrator is actually pretty close, I think. And they've used one of my favorite styles of Generic Medieval Plant, even though it doesn't look like it can support the parrot's weight.

The entry is broadly accurate, except for the bit about the skull and the iron rod. There are parrots in India with the coloration described -- multiple species, actually, as far as I can tell. They do talk, though I can't speak to the tongue anatomy thing.

Moreover, if you were a parrot trainer in India who wanted to impress medieval Europeans with your talking birds -- maybe so you can establish demand for them in a new market -- of course the first thing you'd do is train your parrots to greet people in Latin and Greek. Latin is the obvious catch-all, and Greek is the majority language in Constantinople, which is the trade hub you want to target. So I bet all the parrots from India that medieval Europeans saw really did say "Ave!" and "Kere!" (And we do know that people in the Byzantine Empire had pet parrots, so I guess it worked.)

I've never heard the thing about parrots having a hard skull and beak. I kind of wonder if, at some point, someone saw a parrot being struck by its owner (or the aforementioned hypothetical merchant) and asked if it was really necessary to beat the poor bird like that -- and got a line like "oh, they have really hard skulls, it doesn't hurt them as much as you think"... and then that just stuck.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Hope y'all are enjoying Birds because you're getting another one next week.

[kris-mage-fics]

asking for Kyrahlise, of course 💓 I wanna know all the stuff about her

@bigmeandragonlady and @kingdom-dance asked about her too, and who am I to deny the people? Or three people anyways, lol! Oc asks Most is under the cut because it got a bit long. Also, please note question 8 is about food, and I briefly mentioned someone trying to physically harm Kyrah in question 17. Please skip those if they are issues for you.

1. Full name: Kyrahlise Niriviel. I doubt I'll give her a middle name because I don't think they are really a thing in Blest, and it took me forever to come up with her first name. I'm not keen on going through that again to find something that feels right, lol

2. Best friend: Going by that stats, everyone! Which is accurate, because whenever I try to pin down who her best friend is I always start going in circles. Though her deepest friendship is with Red because of their history together.

3. Sexuality: If you asked her, she’d say she likes people sometimes. But more precisely, she’s bi and demi romantic + sexual.

4. Favorite color: “I can’t pick a favorite when all colors are beautiful and have an important place in the world,” is what Kyrah would tell you. Green. The answer is green. Even though she will deny this.

5. Relationship status: Single. (Technically. Depending on the romance, I think she knows she's in love somewhere around Chapters 5-7.)

6. Ideal mate: Kind people who have a sense of humor, or enjoy hers. They don’t have to be a nerd or artist, but she wants a partner who will appreciate those sides of her. Someone who takes the time to get to know her, and has some overlapping interests with her.

7. Turn-ons: Hm, do they mean like as in green flags in a relationship, sexually, or something else? Because if it’s the first, the answer is the same as 6 above. If it’s the second, well for as rare as it is for her to be sexually interested in/attracted to someone, it doesn’t take much to get her going once she is. ;)

8. Favorite food: Tbh, her favorite food rotates so frequently, it’s hard to pin down. It’s pretty much whatever the most recent food she tried and loved! But her comfort foods are: 1) The braided bread her mom made stuffed with different combinations of fruits, nuts, cheese, and herbs. It’s one of the only things she knows how to bake. 2) Lavender dumplings from Capra. 3) Biscuits and gravy, particularly if the sausage is spicy!

9. Crushes: Before joining the Shepherds, she had all of three crushes. The first was Red, and they dated for a little while. Then a woman she met a few years later, but that faded quickly because she found out her crush was straight. The third person, well I’m not going to spoil how that went, because I’m in the middle of writing a fic about it.

10. Favorite music: Any music she can dance to!!! It doesn’t matter the tempo, style, or mood of the music, if she can dance to it, she loves it!

11. Biggest fear: To die before she can accomplish her goals. One of the big ones is she doesn’t want to be the only person left who remembers Vale, so she wants to finish writing all she can remember about it and her life there and have it printed. Likely only given to the folks she trusts, unless she’s old and the world is much more receptive to Diminished.

12. Biggest fantasy: Ridding Blest of Endarkened, and then living a normal life where she can practice magic in peace. (Something tells me it’ll be downright impossible for the Hero of Haven to ever have a normal life.)

13. Bad habits: Smoking charch sometimes. Falling asleep random places because she overworks herself. Being snarky, or swearing under her breath in Elvish when she’s annoyed, then lying about what she said if anyone asks. Drawing to calm down, but accidentally breaking the pencil from holding it too tight. (She has a lot of short pencils now.)

14. Biggest regret: Besides what happened on her Flower Day there's also leaving the Circle, and [redacted because it's in a fic I'm working on].

15. Best kept secrets: Up until Chapter 3, it was the truth of “the birthday of doom” I think you once called it. Beyond that, she doesn’t have any secrets per se, it’s more things she chooses not to talk about, but if someone close to her directly asked, she’d give an honest answer.

16. Last thought: At the point where we are in Chapter 9, she just silently sent a prayer to the old gods, “Please let this work!”

17. Worst romantic experience: As I’ve mentioned, she’s pretty dense when it comes to romance. There have been a few times she went on dates without realizing it, because the other person wasn’t really clear about their intentions. One such time, the woman who asked her out got belligerent and attempted to slap Kyrah when she refused a kiss. She was 18 at the time, and it really messed with her head for a while. She started to feel like most people only cared about fucking her, and didn’t respect her or her wishes. Thankfully, she got over those issues in time.

18. Biggest insecurity: That she’s actually a dangerous monster deep down and people will, at best, leave when they find out. And that she will never be enough no matter how hard she works or how good she is.

19. Weapon of choice: Magic, or her ability to talk her way out of things (through charisma or intelligence). As for physical weapons is a bow and arrows, though a sword is a close second.

20. Role Model: Canon characters: Her parents, and Archmage Tevanti Characters I've made for her backstory: Leonadil (the woman who dragged encouraged her to go to the Circle), and Wenefreda (the elderly cook at the Circle)

[kazoosandfannypacks]

chapter summary: ezra reunites with hera and chopper and meets jacen. sabine realizes she still has a home on the ghost, and it's just like old times— but with one critical difference. chapter word count: 3.1K a/n: as i wrote this chapter, i started thinking about coffee creamer in the star wars galaxy. would it be blue? like their milk? what color would it make the coffee if you put enough in it? i decided to test this theory— though i didn't have blue food coloring, i did have purple for some reason, so i just used that, and, well, let's just say i know firsthand that sabine's description of ezra's caf in this chapter is 100% accurate. and i have made terrible mistakes. taglist:@laughingphoenixleader@accidental-spice@kanerallels@piraterefrigerator@jedi-nurse@dootchster@lucasbridger@redroverrider@light-umbra@commander-tech {if you’d like to be added to or removed from my Sabezra taglist, let me know!}

also on ao3!

Chapter 3: Sha'kajir

 Sabine tried to keep a straight face as the shuttle ramp lowered. She and Ezra had had plenty of time to discuss how to make an entrance upon Ezra's return to the galaxy, and she wasn't about to flub up their plan.

 She stepped off the ramp as seriously as she could, watching the faces of the confused New Republic soldiers in front of her as they lowered their weapons. She was sure most of them didn't even expect her return at all, especially so soon, or in a recovered Imperial transport.

 But the face she was watching most expectantly was General Syndulla's.

 "Sabine?" Hera asked, motioning for the rest of the troops to stay back as she walked across the hangar to her.

 "General," Sabine nodded, a smile tugging the corner of her cheeks.

 Though anyone else would've seen it as a breach in protocol, the general was the closest thing Sabine had to a mother anymore, and a reunion hug was inevitable.

 Hera quickly pulled away though, most likely equal parts remembering who else was watching and recalling Sabine's usual aversion to physical touch, and also because so many questions had still been left unanswered.

 "Did Ahsoka make it to you okay?" Hera asked, "did she make it back? Did you find Ezra?"

 "Ahsoka found me, yeah," Sabine said, "and she and Huyang made the jump back here with me."

 "And Ezra?" Hera asked.

 Sabine bit her lip, enjoying Hera's suspense too much to risk accidentally spilling it.

 "Did you find Ezra?" Hera asked, "is he…."

 "I'd say he's doing alright," a voice behind Sabine said, and she and Hera both turned to see Ezra standing in front of the shuttle ramp.

 "Ezra?" Hera asked, and Sabine took a step to the side.

 Ezra nodded, and before he could say anything more, he found himself in a long awaited hug from Hera.

 "Welcome home," Hera said, quietly enough that the only people who could hear it were Ezra and Sabine.

 "I've missed you, mom," Ezra said.

 Hera laughed a little, and after another moment, pulled away.

 Chopper rolled up to Ezra, beeping something about how he definitely didn't miss Ezra at all, and jokingly complaining about not giving him back his room.

 "Good work, Sabine," Hera said, "I'm proud of you— both of you."

 Sabine hadn't seen Hera happier since they returned from Krownest all those years ago, when the whole crew was together again for the start of the very last time. Mingled with the joyful disbelief on Hera's face was a sense of pride— though it seemed not just in her kids, but also in herself.

 "It's not all good news," Sabine said, "unfortunately, Ahsoka and Ezra aren't the only ones who came back from Perida."

 "You don't mean…"

 Ezra nodded sadly. "Somehow, Grand Admiral Thrawn returned."

 The light in Hera's eyes faded, years of conflict and turmoil rushing back at her, like everything they'd worked so hard for was beginning to crumble. She shook her head, biting her lip, then nodded, and the confidence returned.

 "It's alright," Hera reaffirmed, "Thrawn's return is nothing the New Republic can't handle, and now he's lost his element of surprise. Chop, let Senator Organa know. Notify the New Republic forces immediately."

 "And what are we gonna do to stop him?" Sabine asked.

 "That's the New Republic Council's call," Hera said, "until then, I think Ezra's gonna have a lot of catching up to do."

 "You have no idea," Ezra said, the same overwhelmed look on his face that he'd had any time Sabine tried to tell him about everything that had changed over the last decade.

 "But first," Hera said, "you need some rest. You two have just traveled across galaxies. There'll be time for a family reunion after you've gotten a good night's sleep."

 "Yes ma'am," Ezra teased, jokingly saluting. Hera put a hand on his shoulder and turned him around.

 "You've still got a bunk on The Ghost," Hera said, leading him to the door, "as long as you don't mind sharing your room with a force-sensitive ten year old."

 "Sabine told me all about the kid," Ezra said, "and it'd be an honor. Besides, if I could put up with the smell of Lasat for as long as I did…."

 Sabine watched as they walked away, Chopper rolling along behind them.

 "You did it," she thought, "he was counting on you to bring him home, and you did it."

 She shook her head, trying to stave off the burning question of "now what?"

 "Hey, Sabine!"

 Ezra had stopped in his tracks and turned back to her.

 "You coming?" he asked.

 Sabine searched her words. Of course she wanted to join them— and Ezra's smile as he turned back to her was welcoming in a way nothing else could've been— but she hadn't stayed on The Ghost for years, and didn't even know if there was still a place for her.

 Hera spoke up before Sabine could voice her hesitations.

 "I've still got your room just like you left it, too," Hera said, with that motherly tone of voice that turned a suggestion into a command.

 "Alright," Sabine said, "who am I to argue with that?"

 Sabine joined them, and they left for The Ghost together.

 — — —

 "Hey, Jacen," Sabine knocked on the door as she entered the room, "you awake?"

 If he hadn't been awake before, he certainly was now, as he jumped out of his bed and into her arms to give her a hug.

 "Aunt Sabine!" he laughed, "you're home!"

 "You're right I am," Sabine ruffled his shaggy green hair, "and I brought back a friend."

 Jacen looked past her to where his mom stood in the doorway, Ezra walking in past her.

 "Jacen?" Ezra asked, taking a few steps into the room, "I know you don't know me, but…."

 "Uncle Ezra?" Jacen asked.

 "Yeah," Ezra said, smiling as he knelt down next to Sabine to get closer to Jacen's level, "I take it you've heard of me."

 "Yeah," Jacen said, "mommy and Aunt Sabine and Chopper tell me stories about you all the time."

 Out in the hallway, Chopper beeped something to the contrary.

 "You do and you know it!" Jacen argued to the droid.

 "Well, I'm glad to finally meet you," Ezra said, placing his hands on Jacen's shoulders and nodding, "Sabine's told me a lot about you, too."

 "Like what?" Jacen asked.

 "For one, she said that you're a lot like your parents."

 "Did you know my dad?" Jacen's eyes lit up, "you knew him, right?" "Yeah," Ezra nodded, solemnly, before lightening the mood again, "how about I tell you about one of our adventures? As a bedtime story?"

 He glanced back at Hera as he asked, and she nodded

 "Just don't go too long," Hera pointed at them, "you boys have a busy day tomorrow."

 "Okay," Jacen said, already climbing into his bed.

 Ezra sat down at the end of Jacen's bed. "It all started when we were on the roof of The Ghost, while your dad was trying to teach me how to become a Jedi.…"

 Sabine watched him over her shoulder as she left the room. Ezra seemed to have clicked with Jacen immediately, probably due to either the way the boys were both so easy to get along with, or because of their strong connections to the force. Either way, it was endearing for her to watch.

 Sabine felt Hera's hand on her shoulder.

 "Let's get you settled back in too," Hera said.

 "Alright," Sabine said.

 She followed Hera down the hall to her old room, and found that, just as Hera had said, not much had changed. The walls were still covered in more graffiti than an abandoned factory in the outer rim, and the old cracked mirror on her dresser still had yet to be repaired.

 "Just like you left it," Hera said.

 "Yeah," Sabine rolled her eyes, sitting on her old bed, "that was quite a day."

 She almost felt ridiculous by now, with how excited and hopeful she'd been at the start of her training with Ahsoka, even though the mere thought of her training carried with it so much tension and stress now.

 She got up to look through the drawers of her dresser, and was confused by a few things she found in it.

 "I don't remember owning this shirt," Sabine said, holding up a gray and tan shirt with long sleeves and a snappy collar.

 "I didn't think your old clothes would fit you anymore," Hera said, "so left a few of my old things for you."

 "You did?" Sabine asked, looking through the drawer "how did you know I'd even be back?"

 "I didn't know," Hera said, "but I had hoped. I know you've moved onto bigger things than our Spectre days— we all have— but I always wanted home to be here for you if you need someplace to crash."

 "You mean a place to have an exciting landing?" Sabine asked.

 "Yeah," Hera laughed.

 Sabine gave Hera a sidehug.

 "Thanks," Sabine said.

 The past few years had been really rough. Every other idea of home she'd ever had was gone for good, but somehow this place remained— probably due to the stubbornness of her Captain.

 And somehow, no matter how much time passed, she always found her crew again.

 "It's good to have you home," Hera said, "now, I'd suggest you change so Chop can get your clothes washed, and I'll have something to eat ready in just a few minutes."

 "You don't have to…" "Sabine," Hera said, "I insist."

 Sabine smiled and rolled her eyes as Hera left the room.

 — — —

 Seven minutes later, Sabine was in the galley, wearing one of Hera's shirts and a pair of her old oversized pants, drinking a cup of caf and talking with Hera like nothing had ever changed.

 "How's your Jedi stuff going?" Hera asked, from where she stood by the stove.

 "It's," Sabine took a sip of caf as she looked for the right word, "interesting." "Interesting good?" Hera asked.

 "Yeah," Sabine said, "while we were on Perida I actually managed to use the Force a little."

 "Well, that's good," Hera said.

 "I don't know," Sabine said, "it only worked there and I haven't tried it since. Probably had something to do with the planet itself."

 "Ah," Hera smiled, "the Force has a funny way of working sometimes."

 "Yeah," Sabine said, unsure why she said it the way she did, like there was something more to this story that Sabine didn't even realize she was getting at, "it wasn't anything major anyways."

 "Don't listen to her," Ezra said, as he walked into the galley, "if it wasn't for her connection to the Force, we never would've made it home."

 Sabine smiled at Ezra, and noticed that instead of the clothes he'd been wearing all week in the closet, he now wore a familiar green shirt that Hera must've lent him. "Sounds like quite the story," Hera smiled, as Ezra sat down next to Sabine at the table, "and speaking of 'stories,'" Hera poured a cup of caf for Ezra just the way he liked it— with enough creamer that it ended up the same color that Zeb turned the time he got food poisoning, "you did make sure to remind Jacen that climbing on top of The Ghost for Jedi practice should only be done with direct adult supervision, right?"

 Ezra took a sip of his caf and sighed with contentment, as if he hadn't heard her question.

 "I've really missed this," he set down the cup, "you know, they don't have creamer like this on Perida. Granted, they also don't have caf."

 "Ezra," Hera asked, arms crossed.

 "Don't worry, Hera," Ezra said, "I'll remind him in the morning that any stories I tell him are on a strict 'do as I say, not as I do' basis."

 "Alright," Hera said, grabbing a couple plates off the counter as she changed the subject, "now, I hope you kids are hungry."

 She set down a plate of purpleish pancakes in front of each of them.

 "We've eaten nothing but decade-old Imperial rations for the last week," Sabine said, "I'd say we're long overdue for a home-cooked meal."

 "Besides," Ezra said, already with his mouth full of food, "I wouldn't even turn down a stack of Jogan Pancakes if I'd just had a full Life Day Feast."

 Sabine smiled as she took a bite of her pancakes, with not nearly as much reckless abandon as Ezra did— just like old times— but still wholeheartedly.

 "These are amazing," Ezra said, "just as good as I remembered them."

 "I do my best," Hera said, and instead of taking pride at his compliment, she looked away almost wistfully, "I know they're not as good as when Kanan would make them…."

 "They're great," Sabine and Ezra both said, then looked at each other with a smile.

 "Glad to hear there's an agreement," Hera said, as she sat down with a stack of pancakes of her own.

 In between mouthfuls— very full, borderline greedy mouthfuls— Ezra kept the conversation going.

 "Does Jacen have any of his dad's cooking skills?"

 Hera smiled, "he's the only one who can come close to making Kanan's specialty."

 "You mean that meatlump stuff that tasted a lot better than it sounds?" Ezra laughed, but only a little, followed by a sigh.

 "That's the one," Hera said, and despite the sour look on Ezra's face as he mentioned it, Hera's expression was one of delight.

 "Kanan would be proud of him," Ezra nodded.

 "I know he would," Hera nodded, "and I am too."

 They each took a few more bites, before Ezra spoke up again.

 "So, Sabine," Ezra said, "Jacen mentioned you've been telling stories about me?"

 Sabine bit her lip. Maybe she'd told one or two or seventy-five stories about him, but that was no reason for Jacen to bring it up.

 "Once or twice," Sabine said.

 "Which ones?"

 "Oh, you know," Sabine took a sip of her caf, "that time Chopper unscrewed the bolts from your bunk…."

 "Seriously?" Ezra asked.

 "What?" Sabine shrugged, "I had to say something when he asked about the funny drawing of Uncle Zeb on the wall of his room."

 "You actually kept that up?" Ezra asked.

 "You could've washed it off anytime when it was your room," Sabine suggested.

 "What can I say?" Ezra asked, "I liked being your inspiration."

 "Then you're gonna love what I've done in the comm tower on Lothal."

 "What?"

 "Nothing," Sabine said, quickly covering her tracks, knowing she probably couldn't find a way to say she'd been living in his old house the past few years without it sounding creepy.

 Ezra shrugged as he finished off his stack of pancakes and got up to grab some more from the counter by the stove, Sabine trying not to let her gaze follow him too intently.

———

 "You'd think we'd be sick of each other by now," Sabine thought, as she and Ezra sat next to each other at the table in the galley, long after the pancakes and caf were finished and Hera had gone to bed, "and yet? I could probably stay up talking with him all night."

 She tried to ignore the fact that she'd almost done just that, that there were only a few hours left before they'd have to wake up, and that Hera had reminded them not to stay up too late tonight.

 "Hey, Sabine," Ezra said, "you good?"

 She'd spaced out in the middle of one of his stories, so focused on how much she enjoyed talking with Ezra that she'd forgotten to focus on talking with Ezra.

 "Yeah," Sabine said, shaking her head as she came up with an excuse, "sorry. Just zoned out a little."

 "I think you need some sleep," Ezra said.

 "I've been in a closet for a whole week," Sabine said, "I've gotten more than enough rest."

 "Sabine," he titled his head and raised an eyebrow, with knowing disappointment at her self-destructive tendencies.

 "And what about you?" Sabine threw his accusation back at him, "don't you have a big day tomorrow?"

 "I'll be fine," Ezra said, glancing at her with a smile and a glimmer in his eye, "besides, I slept much better this past week than I have in a long time."

 "Why's that?" Sabine asked.

 That's how she knew she needed sleep. She was pretty sure of the answer to that question, and if she'd been more awake, she'd've deflected this kind of conversation.

 But, since she asked, Ezra answered, by sliding closer to her and gently putting a hand on her shoulder. He leaned towards her a little as well, and lowered his tone, somehow to something deep but still soft; gravelly but still smooth.

 "I've missed you."

 Oh no.

 In the good old days, when Ezra tried something like this, it had always bothered her— because she didn't feel the same way— because there was no way she could ever find herself liking Ezra. She'd thought those feelings he had for her had gone away, but the look in his eyes said it all: though it had taken many forms over the last fifteen years, his love for her had never died.

 In the good old days, she would've pushed him away immediately at this realization, not wanting anything more than his friendship. By the time she'd thought she might even be able to start feeling the same way, he was already gone. But as she looked into his eyes, she realized she'd more than just begun to catch feelings: though it had taken her fifteen years, she'd finally fallen in love with Ezra Bridger.

 She wasn't in the good old days anymore, and it was terrifying.

 She liked Ezra.

 Ezra liked her.

 And now instead of being galaxies apart, they were together— alone together— and he was leaning close to her and whispering to her in a tone of voice that could've made a textbook sound romantic, and she liked it.

 It was all too much to take in at once. Her familiar friend had become unfamiliar territory— by no fault of his own— and she didn't know how to respond.

 "I should go to bed," Sabine said, sharply, turning away from him so she didn't have to see how his face fell— though she saw it anyway.

 "Sabine," Ezra said, "wait, I…."

 But she was already out of her seat and on her way out the door. She thought she heard him get up and walk to the doorway after her, but she didn't turn around to check.

 Sabine wasn't running from Ezra. It wasn't his fault he'd finally gotten through to her heart this time.

 No, she was running from her feelings for Ezra. How else could she respond? She'd never been in love before. What else could be done in the face of this, besides what she did with any other new problem that couldn't be solved with a detonator?

 She ran.

[mary-queen-of-longbeach]

Behold, the true monarch of the ocean: RMS Queen Mary! She may well be the world’s most beloved ocean liner barring, of course, Titanic; her existence has touched lives the world over and she continues to be a cultural staple today. She’s high up on my list of favorite ships, and as such I decided to draw her not as a gijinka, not in her current hotel-slash-attraction form, but as the record-breaking liner she was built to be. Here she is, thundering across the waves, racing the sky itself as she sets a new speed record for Britain and Cunard.

And, of course, here are the notes:

I started this drawing more than a year and a half ago, in the spring of my first year at college. For context, as of posting this it’s the fall semester of my third year, so quite a bit of time has passed. The piece was stalled for so long because coloring the hull was so daunting - I didn’t want to mess anything up, and I knew it would require a lot of graphite!

Originally, this was going to be a fully inked and colored piece. However, the way I shaded the hawsepipe and the top of the funnel just looked too nice to erase or color over, so I switched to making it a pencil-only piece instead.

Despite how realistic I made the drawing, there are some elements that are missing or otherwise incorrect. The horizonal poles (which I believe are cargo booms) attached to the foremast are absent; you should be able to see one of them from this angle, but I left it out because, when I first started the drawing, I wanted to simplify things slightly. I ultimately changed my mind, but by then it was too late in the process to add that in. That’s also the case with the simplified instruments on top of the bridge.

The rigging is simplified, but I tried to be accurate with the stuff I did add.

I made the smoke and water look like that by coloring them in normally and then smudging the pencil with my fingers. Then I added darker areas in the smoke for shading, and finally I used an eraser to make the lighter parts in both the smoke and water. Realistically, Queen Mary wouldn’t have actually produced such a dramatic smoke plume, as she was an oil-fired ship rather than a coal-fired one, but the bigger cloud looked cooler and more dynamic. Also, the smoke should be blowing backward, but it isn’t for similar artistic-license reasons; this, at least, can be explained by saying she must be sailing in some pretty strong wind!

I was originally planning to smudge the hull too in order to smooth out the coloring, but I changed my mind.

I based the drawing on this photograph!

[littleliongirl16]

Assigning Moths and Butterflies to the Magnus Archives Cast!

Cw: discussion and pictures of insects

So I drew Mothman Melanie a while back. Because Jon has massive Mothman energy and gets tons of cool Mothman fanart of him but I also stand by Moth Melanie because her dad cannonically used to call her Little Moth. And also idk, her constantly traveling different places at night for Ghost Hunt UK also gives me moth vibes.

Anyway all this to say I'm assigning moths and butterflies to TMA characters!

Jon:

Squinting Bush Brown (Bicyclus Anynana)

Okay technically this is a butterfly not a moth and it does feel a bit like a crime to make the most notoriously mothman headcannoned character not a moth. But I saw it and it just reminded me of him. It has so many eyespots! Eyes for days! Also it's very small and we all know Jon is like two feet tall.

Also most of the search results for it are of people running experiments on this type of butterfly by modifying their genes to learn things about how genes code for butterfly wing patterns? Jon is like 40% mad scientist, 60% mad scientist's experiment in terms of his energy so this feels right to me.

Martin:

Peppered Moth (Biston Betularia)

These moths are what every high school class or whatever uses as an example of natural selection. They used to mainly have the primarily white, speckled with black pattern on the bottom, because it allowed them to camoflauge with tree bark. A few of them had a mutation that made them black, and those moths weren't particularly successful until the industrial revolution literally stained a lot of surfaces they would perch on black with soot. Suddenly, the black moths blended in better than the speckled ones and became a lot more plentiful because more of the speckled ones and fewer of the black ones were getting eaten by predators.

That's the simplified version, I'm not a scientist and haven't done enough research to tell it totally accurately. The gist is I think a moth that's so extremely well known for a story about its camoflauge works really well for Martin, whose powerset makes him invisible and forgotten, who's scared of being invisible and never understood but finds safety in it. Also I'm definitely a Martin's hair turns white in the Lonely headcannoner, so I think his color palette matches the white speckled peppered moth at least a bit.

Sasha:

Viceroy Butterfly (Limenitus Archippus)

Not!Sasha:

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus Plexippus)

So I wanted to assign Sasha and Not!Sasha an insect and one of its mimics. And the Monarch and the Viceroy are a pretty famous example of that.

What I initially thought was that the Monarch was poisonous, and the Viceroy wasn't poisonous but mimicked the Monarch so predators would think it was poisonous and wouldn't eat it. So I was like! Great! Sasha can be a Monarch and Notsasha can be a Viceroy, since Notsasha mimics her!

This isn't how Monarchs + Viceroys work, though, and apparently scientists have known that was wrong since the '90's but the general public understanding has lagged behind ig. The Monarch butterfly and the Viceroy are actually both poisonous, and evolved to look more and more like one another so that they could essentially both benefit off of eachothers' reputations. If a predator has eaten a poisonous monarch and gotten sick, then sees a viceroy later, it'll think they're the same butterfly and not want to eat it. If it eats a viceroy and gets sick, then sees a monarch, it'll think they're the same butterfly and again not want to eat it.

So in the world of butterflies, this is super beneficial and symbiotic for both species. But in terms of their reputations among humans (which butterflies don't really care about but shhh) the Monarch is just as much of a mimic as the Viceroy, but everyone thinks it's the original, nobody even knows that the Viceroy is the real deal and also poisonous.

Which in my mind is Very Not Them, so I think Sasha is actually the Viceroy, thanks for coming to my Tedtalk.

I'm going to do more of these, I'm gonna do more detail on Moth Melanie but need to do research and potentially fix some things first cause I think I mistook a butterfly for a moth... and also I will assign Tim a butterfly at some point.