#Leeds School of Art

[geritsel]

William Gilbert Foster - Whispering Eve, watercolor, 1897.

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

The Golden Ratio - Part One

Pairing: Michael Gavey (Saltburn) x f!reader Warnings: Derogatory language, angst, mentions of parental death, mentions of infidelity. Word count: ~4.5k

Chapter summary: Her relationship strains under the pressure of long distance, though she has her classmate, Michael, to help distract from the worst of it. Series masterlist.

Author's note: For @assortedseaglass. No tag list. Please follow @ewanmitchellcrumbs and turn on post notifications. Community labels are for cops.

She is sweaty and exasperated as she drags her suitcase over the cobbles of Holywell Street. One of the already precariously wonky wheels had finally given up the ghost and broken off as she’d dragged it up the stairs of Oxford train station, making the fifteen minute walk to her accommodation more tiring than it needed to be.

But she was here, finally. Oxford University.

Her dad had sold the car to make sure she had money to live on until her student loan and maintenance grant had been paid to her. He didn’t want her taking a part time job to make ends meet, she’d worked hard to earn her place here, her focus should be on her studies. Coming from a low income family meant she had qualified for the maximum amount for both maintenance loan and grant, but her first set of application forms had been misplaced by Student Finance, so she’d had to send in a second set, meaning there would be a delay with her first payment.

An unfortunate consequence of her dad not having a car is that she’d had to get the train to London Victoria, a tube to Paddington, then another train to Oxford. But it is not the fact that she is seemingly the only student whose parents aren’t obstructing the pavements with their cars in order to drop them off that makes her feel like an outcast, there is something deeper, more sinister feeling.

She sees it as she struggles to get her bag across the lawn of the Halls, people grouped in little clusters, as though they’ve been friends forever. They dress in Juicy Couture velour tracksuit bottoms and brand name Ugg Boots, while she wears her mum’s old Dr. Martens and a tartan skirt she’d bought in a charity shop for one pound fifty. She doesn’t fit in. She feels she may as well wear the word “poor” across her forehead like a scarlet letter.

Having checked in at the Porters’ Lodge and been given directions to the accommodation, it’s lonely as she unpacks her things, her room feeling empty and quiet. The only sounds are muffled talking and laughter coming through the closed window from outside. She feels lonelier still when she pulls out the framed photo of her and Rich. They’re both smiling, his arms wrapped around her waist as she leans her head against his. It had felt like their relationship would last forever when that picture was taken. That seemed like much less of a possibility over the last couple of weeks.

She had met Rich at the beginning of sixth form. Having attended Chatham Grammar School for Girls, she had decided to stay on there to do her A levels. The mathematics department was decent, and she had heard Russell Group universities were more likely to consider applications that came from grammar schools. Rich had transferred over from Robert Napier School. Where she was shy, quiet and reserved, he was lively, outgoing and sociable. His zest for life had shone a bright light on an existence that was, for her, otherwise dull and grey.

They were an unlikely pairing. She was logical, analytical and studied maths and physics. Rich was creative, free spirited and guided by emotion. He studied art and music. They had been together for two years and she had thought he was the one. But then it came time for UCAS applications, and where she had applied to Oxford, Cambridge and York, Rich had applied to Leeds, Brighton and Glasgow. It seemed that no matter where they were accepted, they were destined to be apart.

When she had received an unconditional offer from Oxford she had been elated, however, the crushing devastation upon hearing Rich had been accepted into The Glasgow School of Art with a conditional offer had quickly dulled her excitement.

She had never felt like an outsider or a loner when she was with Rich. Basking in his sunny disposition had felt effortless, she never felt alone. He was going to take all of that away, and she was unsure of how to cope with it.

“We’ll make it work long distance, don’t worry,” he’d told her, and she’d believed him.

But then he had actually gone to Glasgow. Fresher’s week in Glasgow started a week earlier than it did in Oxford, so Rich had moved away first. It didn’t take long for the texts and phone calls to dry up into nothing. She had heard from him once in the last few days.

She sighs as she slides up the screen of her beaten up Nokia. Still nothing. She had text to let him know she was leaving for Oxford today and he couldn’t even be bothered to reply. She knows it’s his first week at university and he’s likely busy and having fun, but how was long distance going to work if they never actually spoke to each other?

Despite the loftiness of the dining hall, it feels stuffy as she moves through it later that evening, taking a seat at a long table crowded with other students. She had hoped that the Fresher’s welcome dinner would be an opportunity to make friends, but everyone seems to be deep in conversation already. The chatter hums loudly like white noise, until it comes to a sudden stop.

“FUCKIN’ ASK ME A SUM THEN!”

She turns, mouth agape, to look at the pair of boys sitting a few places up from her. One is darked haired and seems nervous and uncomfortable, shifting awkwardly in his seat. The other is blonde, an angry, intense expression on his face, shadows cast across it from the lamplight on the table, as he stares in wide eyed anticipation. It was him who had shouted, clearly.

“Four hundred and twenty three times seventy eight,” the dark haired boy asks quietly.

Instantly his friend replies, without missing a beat, “thirty two thousand, nine hundred and ninety four.”

Involuntarily her eyes widen in surprise. She sits there and does the calculation in her head, though much more slowly than he had. 

Carry the two, eight times two is sixteen, plus two is eighteen, carry the one…he’s right. How is it possible that he came to that answer so quickly?

When her gaze lifts he is looking at her, observing her doing the working out in her head. He holds her stare, a smirk curving the corners of his mouth. He knows she knows he is right, and it’s clear he feels smug about it.

Quickly looking away, she reaches for her water glass, wanting something, anything, to distract her. There was something about the way he looked at her that made her feel uneasy.

God, I hope I don’t have any classes with him.

She holds her timetable for the week in her hands as she moves her way through the corridors towards the lecture hall the following morning. The first week looks to be fairly light touch, with an introductory lecture for each of the courses; algebra, analysis, probability and statistics, geometry, dynamics and multivariable calculus. Today is the introduction to analysis, and she is excited to study under the tutelage of Professor Helen Byrne. Her research focuses on the development and analysis of mathematical and computational models that describe biomedical systems, with particular application to the growth and treatment of solid tumours, wound healing and tissue engineering. Professor Byrne is someone she has admired within the field for as long as she can remember, and she is very much looking forward to her tutorials with her.

Her excitement fades when she enters the lecture hall and immediately sees the angry guy from the previous evening.

Just my luck.

The only available seat is next to him, so she sits down, dropping her bag to the floor by her feet.

A hand extends out towards her in her peripheral vision, taking her by surprise and she turns in her seat towards it, shrinking back slightly. 

He seems utterly unperturbed by her reaction, keeping his arm extended. “I’m Michael Gavey.”

She blinks, regaining her composure as she leans forward, shaking his hand and introducing herself in return. His palm is clammy against her own, and she can still feel it there even after having let go and wiped her hand on her jeans.

“I saw you last night,” he says matter of factly, pulling his arm back and resting his elbow on the desk in front of him.

“Oh, yeah,” she says with a tight smile, nodding, “so you and your mate…is that like a party trick or something?”

“No, no party trick,” he says with a demure smile. “I’m a genius.”

She forces herself to laugh politely, assuming he’s making a joke, but she stops, her brow furrowing slightly when she sees he doesn’t share in the humour. He’s being serious.

Opening her mouth to ask a follow up question, she’s interrupted as Professor Byrne sweeps into the room. Her and Michael both face forward in their seats as she introduces herself to the class.

Over the next hour they are given an introduction to the course and what to expect in their first year, including an overview of the papers they will need to write and examinations that will be sat. She pays rapt attention, scribbling furious notes, until the lecture begins to wrap up.

“As it’s the first week, I will go easy on assignment setting,” Professor Byrne tells them all, “but there will be an assignment nonetheless.”

A loud, collective groan echoes around the lecture hall. Her and Michael are the only two not to join in.

“Now, now, settle down,” she chastises, “it’ll be fun. I’m sure you’re all aware of the Fibonacci Sequence, a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. Mathematically we can describe this as–”

She turns and scrawls xn= xn-1 + xn-2 on the chalkboard, before facing the students again.

“--I’d like you all to find an example of the Fibonacci Sequence in real life and present it back to the class during next week’s lecture. You’re to work in pairs, so buddy up, and see you all next week.”

Professor Byrne places the chalk back on the desk before striding back out of the lecture hall. The room is instantly a buzz with chatter, as people move between seats to find a partner.

She stays rooted in place, suddenly wishing Rich was here. It’s in moments like these that he flourishes, allowing her to take a backseat as he effortlessly navigates them through social interactions. Instead, she is alone and the space around her feels bigger and scarier with every moment that passes.

It’s only when she turns her head that she notices Michael has yet to move too. Gathering all the courage she can muster, she clears her throat and speaks to him.

“So…er…did you wanna partner up for this thing then?”

“I don’t like to work with others,” he says matter of factly, keeping his gaze fixed ahead.

“I’m not exactly thrilled about it either,” she says with a sigh, “but for this assignment we have to.”

“You’ve picked me because I’m a genius. You’ll expect me to do all the work while you get pissed with your mates.”

He fixes her with an accusatory stare, and she feels the heat of anger prickle her skin.

“Haven’t got any mates,” she mutters darkly.

He observes her for a few moments, elbow propped on the desk, jaw resting against his fist, and she fidgets self consciously in her seat. No wonder the other boy from last night had looked so uncomfortable. It feels like he’s studying her.

“Let’s go to the library,” he says simply, standing and picking up his bag.

“So, you’re a genius?” She asks, opening her notebook once they’re seated opposite each other at a table in the library, nervously tapping her pencil against the page.

“Hmm,” Michael nods, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger, “I don’t even like maths, really. I can just…do it. Anything. In my head.”

She’s struck by how blunt he is, sucking in a breath as she considers what to say next. There is something so disarming about him, she gets the sense he’s analysing her every word and action.

“Right,” she begins, “so, er, for this assignment I was thinking about how Leonardo Fibonacci used rabbits to prove his theory. One hundred and forty four pairs of rabbits can be produced from a single pair of rabbits in a year, based on the sequence.”

“That’s fucking stupid,” Michael replies with a sigh.

“What?” She asks irritably, annoyed by his dismissal.

“What are you expecting us to do, go to a pet shop and buy rabbits? We’ve only got a week to do the assignment, we need to be more practical.”

She rolls her eyes. “I was using that as an example, not saying we do that exactly! Come on then, genius, what’s your suggestion?”

“Spirals,” he says with a slight shrug. He leans across, placing the tips of his fingers on her notebook and sliding it towards himself, before picking up her pencil. “There is a special relationship between the Fibonacci numbers and the Golden Ratio, a ration that describes when a line is divided into two parts and the longer part - A - divided by the smaller part - B - is equal to the sum of A + B divided by A, which both equal one point six one eight. This is represented by the Greek letter,” he stops to scribble a φ on the pad. “The ratio of any two successive Fibonacci Numbers approximates the Golden Ratio value.” He stops again, scrawling 1.6180339887 on the page. The bigger the pair of Fibonacci numbers, the closer the approximation. From there, we can calculate what's called the golden spiral, or a logarithmic spiral whose growth factor equals the golden ratio.”

She is stunned into a silence for a moment, a combination of his audacity to simply take her belongings, and awe at the rapidity with which his mind works. Collecting herself, she blinks a few times, looking up into his eyes.

They’re so blue.

“So…er…how do you propose we present this data back to the class?”

“A simple table is sufficient, look–”

His hand moves rapidly over the page, a complete table there on the paper when he drops the pencil into the gutter of the notebook and sits back in his chair.

“We present that,” he tells her, his eyes fixed on the page. “Using the values of the sequence as the edge length of squares arranged in the table, a spiral is generated.”

She leans over, sliding the notebook back to her side of the table, marvelling silently at his work. He is fascinating to watch. He’s right, he can just do maths.

“It’s good,” she says, eye flitting up to meet his, “solid. But it’s fucking boring.”

This time it’s his turn to be annoyed. “What?” He asks, eyes narrowing.

“Everyone is going to present something like this, because it’s easy,” she explains, “Don’t you want to stand out to Professor Byrne? We should do something outside of the box.”

“Hmm. Go on then, what are you thinking?” He rests his cheek against his fist, leaning against the table as he stares at her.

She feels herself grow warm under his scrutiny.

Does he always have to be so bloody intense?

“There are loads of examples of Fibonacci numbers appearing in nature. We could look for some? Flowers, perhaps.”

“I’ve got hayfever,” Michael states simply.

She sighs.

Of course you do.

“Then we’ll get you some Piriton! Come on, there are studies that show seed heads, pinecones, fruits and vegetables all displaying spiral patterns that when counted express Fibonacci numbers. This fits perfectly with the brief of the assignment and will leave a lasting impression.”

He moves his hand away from his face, resting his arm flat on the table and quietly drumming his fingers against it for a few moments. “Alright then,” he finally concedes.

“Great,” she grins excitedly, tearing out a page from her notebook and writing on it hurriedly. “Here’s my number, so we can meet up to work on it, and also my Hotmail address, in case MSN works better for you.”

He huffs through his nose as he takes the paper from her, a soft laugh escaping him. “The countess at hotmail dot co dot uk,” he reads with amusement, “very droll.”

“Shut up,” she grins back, “I made that in secondary school. Thought it was funny.”

Back in her room that evening, she’s excited to see she has a text from Rich, finally.

Hope ur enjoying it. Having so much fun here!

She sighs, throwing her phone down on the bed side table. No kisses, not even an “I love you”. 

Watching out of the window, she sees the giggling groups of students making their way out into town, readying themselves to spend the night drinking, making friends and having fun. Just like Rich is doing, not giving her a second thought, while she stays cooped up in her room without a friend in the world.

Suspicion nags at her, so she turns on her laptop, loading up MySpace. Rich takes number one place on her top eight friends, and she clicks on his profile. It looks much the same as it always does, but she decides to snoop further, clicking into his friends list. She can see he has recently friended a girl named Sophie.

Sophie is pretty, bright pink streaks in her hair, and a nose ring. Exactly Rich’s type. Her most recently uploaded photos are of groups of people, clearly all taken during Fresher’s week. A pit forms in her stomach as she sees that in almost all of them Sophie and Rich have their arms around each other. Worse still, Rich occupies space eight in Sophie’s top friends.

She closes the browser, blinking back tears. Surely, she is just being paranoid. They’re just friends. Friends have photos together, and it was normal that he would make new ones when he went away to uni.

Opening MSN Messenger, she hovers over Rich’s username. Unsurprisingly, he’s offline, he always is these days. She smiles when an add request from mgavey628318@hotmail.co.uk pops up. Of course he’d have Tau, the mathematical constant, in his Hotmail address. She clicks accept and he immediately appears in her online contacts. Looks like he isn’t out tonight either.

Double clicking his username, she chuckles to herself upon seeing his display picture is of Pythagoras. Such a dweeb.

“Want to work on our assignment tomorrow?” She types to him.

Barely a few seconds pass before she sees him typing back. “Yes. When?”

“We could meet at the Water Meadow at lunch time?”

“See you then.”

Straight to the point, no idle chit chat. She shakes her head and closes the messenger window, though finds herself strangely excited by the thought of seeing him tomorrow. She reasons that it’s because Michael is the closest thing she has had to a friend since arriving at Oxford.

She visits the nearby Tesco Express the following day, buying a meal deal for each of them and a packet of hayfever tablets for Michael. She has no idea of what Michael even likes, so plays it safe by buying a bottle of Oasis, a Crunchie bar and a ham and cheese sandwich for them both.

At precisely noon, Michael stands at the entrance to the Water Meadow waiting for her. She smiles as she looks at his t-shirt; maroon with a diagram of a circle on a gradient with a downwards acceleration of 9.81 meters per second, with the slogan “that’s how I roll”. A mechanics pun.

“Like your shirt,” she says as she approaches him.

He grins. “Thought you might, considering your email address.”

She averts her gaze. There is something about the fact that he’d thought of her when he’d chosen what to wear today that makes her tummy flutter.

Stop it. You’ve got Rich. Michael’s weird!

“I got you some hayfever tablets,” she tells him as they start to walk along the pathway that’s flanked by green space on either side. “Do you wanna have lunch first and then start looking for flowers?”

They settle, cross legged on the grass, Michael already having taken one of the tablets, chased with half a bottle of Oasis, and she spreads out the food between them.

She watches in fascination as his eyes widen at the sight of the Crunchie bars, snatching one up and tearing off the wrapper. Her mouth falls open slightly as she sees him hold it sideways, biting into it from the side, before devouring each of the pieces it inevitably breaks into.

“You like Crunchie bars then?” She asks, a little grossed out, but curious nonetheless.

He swallows, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Mother didn’t allow me to have sweets growing up, bad for your teeth, she said.”

She nods, a feeling over pity replacing the disgust that had roiled her stomach just seconds ago.

“So, is it your mum that pushed you into studying maths?” She asks, fiddling with the lid of her drink bottle.

“Sort of,” he says. “Mother never married, but she wanted a child. She used a sperm donor - a physicist, apparently - and was artificially inseminated to have me. She was thrilled when I showed a natural aptitude for maths, and has always encouraged me. It’s why I do it, why I accepted the scholarship, to make her proud. She’s been through so much to have me, it’s the least I owe her.”

Her face falls, a feeling of sadness overwhelming her, making her heart ache for Michael. There is something so tragic about the fact that he has lived his entire life adhering to the expectations of the person who had created him for their own selfish want of a child.

“What about you then?” He asks. “The bank of mummy and daddy paying for you to be here?”

She shakes her head. “I earned my place, just like you did, with straight As, though I don’t have a scholarship. Have had to take out loans to cover the cost. It’s just me and dad since mum passed away.”

“Oh,” Michael says, blinking rapidly, obviously surprised. “Apologies, I’d assumed a pretty girl like you would be the same as the rest of the vapid cunts studying here, if you can call it studying.”

She hums in acknowledgement, considering his words, turning her own Crunchie bar around in her fingers, focusing on the way the foil wrapper slides against her skin. His compliment makes her heart beat more rapidly, even if it is backhanded. “Like I said yesterday, I’ve got no mates. It was always Rich that was better at that sort of thing.”

“Rich?” Michael asks curiously, cocking his head.

“My boyfriend. He’s at uni in Glasgow.”

“Three hundred and sixty two point nine miles,” Michael states simply.

“Pardon?”

“That’s the distance between Oxford and Glasgow,” he explains, as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “How are you planning to make a relationship work with that sort of distance?”

“We’re doing long distance,” she argues, feeling herself growing defensive, scowling at him.

“Yeah, I bet that’s gonna work out great,” he scoffs, eyes widening, clearly mocking her.

“The Glasgow School of Art was the best choice for Rich to study what he wants to,” she retorts.

A grin spreads across his face. “Art?! I suppose you should be grateful he’s hundreds of miles away then, he sounds like a moron.”

She huffs, hurriedly shoving her things back into her bag. “Let’s just look for these fucking flowers and get this over with.”

The pair work for the rest of the afternoon in silence, the atmosphere is tense and angry, but they are productive nevertheless, settling on a patch of sunflowers to use for the assignment.

They look at the spirals of seeds in the center of the sunflowers and observe patterns curving left and right. Counting these spirals, their total is a Fibonacci number. They then divide the spirals into those pointed left and right to get two consecutive Fibonacci numbers.

Cutting down a couple of sunflower heads to use as examples, Michael also makes a diagram in his notes for them to present with their findings.

She feels satisfied by the time they part ways, but an uneasy feeling has settled over her that has dread gnawing into her gut as she thinks about Michael’s criticism of her and Rich’s long distance relationship.

Unsurprised to see she has no missed calls or texts from him when she goes back to her room, she opens up her laptop and logs back onto MySpace. This time when she looks at Rich’s profile her blood runs cold as she sees that Sophie now occupies space number three in his top friends. He’d had time to log on and change the position of a girl he’d met a couple of weeks ago, but couldn’t be bothered to send her a single message?

Before she can stop herself, she’s pulling out her phone and calling his number. She doesn’t care if this wastes all of her credit, she needs answers.

It rings for ages, and she anticipates being sent to voicemail, until he eventually answers, sounding breathless and distracted.

“H-hello?”

“Rich, it’s me,” she says quietly.

There’s a pause before he answers. “Oh…how’s my little nerd? Everything okay?”

She ignores the familiarity, keeping her tone neutral. “I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me.”

Not giving him an opportunity to respond, she pushes on. “Has something happened between you and this Sophie girl I’ve seen you on Myspace with?”

Another pause, except this time she hears him inhale a deep breath. “I was going to tell you when we came home for Christmas break. It felt wrong to break up with you over the phone.”

It feels as though the bottom of her world has been ripped away, her heart twisting painfully as her vision blurs with tears. She swallows thickly, anger bubbling alongside her devastation, so that her tone is venomous when she replies “So, you were just gonna keep stringing me along for two months, so you could look like a good guy?!”

“Babe, no, I didn’t mean for this to happen, I just–”

“You’re a piece of shit,” she cuts him off, “fuck you!”

She hangs up, chucking her phone down onto the bed, and immediately bursts into tears, holding her head in her hands as hot tears stream down her face, her shoulders shaking as her nose grows snotty.

Two years. Two fucking years and he’d chucked it all away for someone he’d known for two weeks.

She walks towards the sink in her room, looking into the mirror and sighing at her reflection. Her eyes are red and puffy, she looks a mess. Splashing cold water onto her face to rid herself of the worst of it, she then flops down onto her bed, opening her laptop.

Immediately she is met with her MSN chat window with Michael from the previous evening. He’s online.

Without thinking, she types out a message to him.

“Do you have any alcohol?”

Within seconds he’s typing a response.

“Would you like me to have alcohol?”

[not-xpr-art]

Len and Tommy's life told through nine photos ~

A fanart based on the Inside no 9 episode 'Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room' because I loved it so much!

(09/2024)

See below for close ups and unnecessarily detailed explanations of each individual artwork lol

First wanna say that I spent wayy too long on these (like 25+ hours), especially trying to make them look like actual old photos lol... also trying to get their likeness right for the various ages was really bloody hard lol, but hopefully each photo has the essence of each character even if it might not look 100% right pfft...

Second thing is that the dates & locations are very much my own subjective thoughts on their life and not particularly rooted in the canon of the show lol

Also I did go really heavy with the colour symbolism lol...

Ravenhill School, 1965.

The year they met, both are around the age of 10 (give or take). Len is 3 from the left in the top row, Tommy 2 in from the left on the bottom row (also I tried to include references to the other 2 League Of Gentlemen guys... Though I think the only vaguely recognisable one is Jeremy pfft)

Also shout out to @lapis-lazuliie for the idea that they met at school!

(side note, this is the least detailed of all the paintings not just because I was too lazy to render all those children's faces pfft but ALSO because of the significance of them being less recognisable or prominent in each other's lives in this point...)

I was planning on making another childhood/early teen photo but couldn't really think of any good subject matter that could also fit thematically with the episode (also the fact both are coming from poor families who would have had limited access to cameras in this era means we can just pretend that there are just no photos that really exist of them at these ages pfft...)

Photo booth in Leeds, 1974.

Both in their late teens, they'd (well, mainly Tommy) gone to a photo booth in Leeds with the intention of getting some professional looking photos only for Len to immediately make Tommy laugh once they got in there lol

The middle photo is covered in lines as Tommy had planned on throwing it away, only to find he couldn't bring himself to do it in the end... Is it platonic? Romantic? Both? Who knows, you decide lol! I mainly wanted it to be a candid moment between two people that love each other lol

(final one is them play fighting because that's kinda just what 19 year olds are like pfft... also I think photo booths technically gave you 4 photos? so let's pretend there was another photo that they did throw away for whatever reason lol...)

Rehearsals, 1979.

Deep in the midst of practising their routine for some of their first performances!

I'll admit this photo was mainly me wanting to include something more episode specific lol and also to get in some much needed heavy handed symbolism (the crease in the photo separating them, the bottle in front of Len's face, etc)

Polaroids taken at Tommy's flat, 1985.

In-between shows the two often spent a lot of time at Tommy's place (featuring that god awful sofa the previous home owner had left). I did originally plan to have them in the sofa shot together, but was finding it hard to figure out who would have been taking that kind of photo so figured it made more sense to make it shots they took of each other.

Also marks the beginnings of Tommy's weariness (& Len's over drinking...)

Outside the Glasgow Pavilion, 1988.

The morning of that fateful performance...

Ok not much else I wanna say about this other than the reference I used for the pose had Reece sorta awkwardly clasping his hands in front of him which I really liked but unfortunately in my art it just looked like he was trying to cover his crotch so I had to change it pfft...

Tommy standing at Len's grave, 2024.

The sixth anniversary of Len's death, and the sixth time Tommy has travelled across from France to lay flowers at his grave. Photo taken by Leanne from the inside of a taxi (I'd like to have had more references to her in these photos but was unsure of dates/ages where it would have fitted...)

She couldn't get her phone to not focus on the raindrops on the window as she tried to take a picture of Tommy at her father's grave but then realised that she actually liked the pathetic fallacy and had it made into a print anyway lol (look I'll be the first to admit that this is the least 'realistic' in terms of a photo that people would take, but I couldn't resist the symbolism of it lol...)

There were a lot more ideas for photos I wanted to do but for obvious reasons had to keep it to just 9 lol

Also will be posting these on my ao3 with snippets of stories to go with each photo so keep an eye out for when I share that link!

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @scottlava

Scott Campbell has illustrated numerous children’s books, including SKULLS!, Sleepy the Goodnight Buddy, and Zombie In Love. He was author/illustrator of the much-loved HUG MACHINE. He enjoyed a long career in video games, where he art directed the critically acclaimed game Psychonauts and Brutal Legend for Double Fine Productions. Great Showdowns is his ongoing online series. Scott’s work has appeared in galleries and publications around the world. You can see more of his work at ScottC.com.

Check out our interview with Scott below!

How did you get your start in art, and more specifically, with Great Showdowns?

I went to art school in San Francisco and have been painting, making comics, and designing video games ever since with Double Fine Productions. The Great Showdowns began at the first Crazy 4 Cult exhibition at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles back in 2007, an exhibition of artwork inspired by the cult classics of cinema. The first 10 little paintings were intended to be snack-sized pieces for people to easily collect. They began with perhaps the most iconic of wild west showdowns from A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood. I pulled some of my favorite moments from films like Ghostbusters, Predator, Exorcist, and Planet of the Apes and placed them all in simple little dust-colored squares as if they were in the dirt streets of a wild west town. They began as good versus evil but grew to all kinds of showdowns between people and objects and often moments of great love between people. I started a tumblr for them a few years later, and I have been posting them ever since. We have published three Great Showdown books and have had 3 solo exhibitions along with worldwide scavenger hunts. There are over a thousand of them up on the site by now, and i do not plan on stopping any time soon.

Which 3 famous artists (dead or alive) would you invite to your dinner party?

I would like to gather Jim Henson, Walt Disney, and Richard Scarry together for dinner and chats. They have all created my favorite and most joyful worlds. I think we would have some of the most delightful chats.

What is a medium that you have always been intrigued by but would never use yourself?

I love collage, but every time I try it, I get frustrated and just quit. Someday I will get into it when my kids are old enough to really mess around with various mediums. I plan to have boxes of textiles and magazines for them to just annihilate.

What does your work set up look like?

Oh, it’s just a table with an old mug for water and an old plate for my watercolors and not much else. I share a studio with a bunch of very inspiring people who make wonderful things, from fabricated creatures to VR experiences and films. I have probably the simplest little area in the space. I do have an old oak flat file that I love to look at.

Advice you would give to an aspiring creator?

The biggest thing I would push upon everyone would be to not fret about one’s visual style. The style will grow and present itself as you experiment with mediums and expose yourself to various cultural delights. Just have fun and try all kinds of things.

What is one interaction you had from a fan of yours that has stuck with you over the years?

I gave a game design presentation many years back on a game I had art directed at the time called Brutal Legend at a game conference in Leeds. The game followed a roadie to the age of metal in the land of metal, with demons and chrome volcanoes and hot rods growing from the ground, and rivers of happy and cheering fans. After the talk, I spoke with someone whose work I had seen in earlier portfolio reviews at the conference. She was very shy but incredibly talented. She came up to me after the talk feeling pretty emotional and inspired to the point of tears and sobbing. It was probably the most extreme reaction I have ever gotten from someone, and it touched me deep down in my guts. That’s why we make things! To bring on the tears!

From video games, to illustrations, and children's books, you've worked on many projects. What was the most challenging, yet rewarding one?

Video games take an enormous amount of work over a long period of time and rely on the skills and talent of many like-minded people. It is sometimes difficult to corral such an effort, but it is incredibly rewarding to see it all come together to create such epic worlds. That said, though, children’s books are very enjoyable in a cozy way. It’s just me right there working on a world and all the pressure is on me. I cannot rely on all the talented people around me to make it look great.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

I love perusing old fashion and film blogs and artists like Bob Jinx and Neil Sanders and collections like Its Colossal.

Thanks for stopping by, Scott! Be sure to check out the Great Showdowns over at @scottlava!

[casp1an-sea]

Cassander “Cas” Armyn My Spidersona

(the second one is what Ey looks like in Eir universe. Scroll all the way down to see more outfits and character designs)

Age: 18

Gender: Transmasc

Height: 5’1.75”

Pronouns: He/Him/Ey/Em

—————————————————————————

none of these are completely 100% accurate to how I view them in my head because I am always changing his character and universe

———————————————————————— Universe: 131313

best described as an abstract art piece that is alive. Gravity shifts changing up to down and down to up. like in the art piece “Relativity”. It’s almost like a normal city, but the gravity shifts cause it to look like skyscrapers are jutting out at random angles, or even just floating in the sky. (kind of think mirror dimension from Doctor Strange) color, ships and changes as if it’s a separate being creating, a black-and-white inky world with the floating colored shapes. some are small while some are big covering home buildings but they never stay in one place or stay the same shape or size for long. The color of this universe is almost alive. (Similar to the color in “Sith” the first episode of season, two of Star Wars visions) for example, touching an object, would push the color of the object away as the color of your hand displaces it. The color that comes off with your hand when you touch things is unique to every person. And it seems like it has a mind of its own, making constantly shifting works of art around you. Technology is about the same as our universe but the animals and foliage is otherworldly and everything has a painterly feel and the “line art” is always sketchy and smudgy similar to my own. The grass is purple and liquids float.

Canon Events:

Spider bite

Close person death

Commander death

—————————————————————————

Extra:

Has been Spider-Man for roughly 4 years, in the Spider Society for 2

Movement signature: Uses alot of elements of acrobatics and gymnastics so tends to do complex jumps and flips. Enjoys falling as long as possible before catching Emself.

Goes by both his first and last name

Flaps hands when nervous or excited

Has Eczema and psoriasis

His color is bright orange 

Produces web naturally so doesn’t need web shooters but in order to continually produce silk he does eat it

Has fangs but has no clue what they do as he has no desire to bite anything 

Can see extremely long distances and also see in UV color spectrum 

Carries a spiky shield on his back resembling a yellow kite spider (can also use it as a weapon by attaching a web to it so he can throw it and pull it back) (I swear I made this up before I got obsessed with Captain America)

Shoulder panels lift up on the suit and can shoot out small needles, inspired by the tarantula; they act similar to whistling birds from Star Wars, however they just knock people out rather than exploding

Suit is decorated in paint markings to resemble real life spiders; like most art in the universe they shift and change

Has heat receptors over the eyes on the suit

—————————————————————————

Backstory: In Cassander’s  universe Alchemax was a company that closed down years ago. Casander grew up with his parents and younger sister in brooklyn. They always had a strained relationship. When Cassander way 15 Ey moved into Peter Parker’s house where he was living with his aunt and uncle so that he could attend Peter’s school. Cassander was best friends with Peter and later Harry Osborn. Peter was often bullied at school and wanted nothing more than to be popular. He used his friendship with Harry as an In to the popular kid cliche but they really only ever teased him and Cassander often had to deal with the aftermath. Cassander never hung around Harry at school much because Harry was still friends with the popular kids like Ned Leeds and Flash Thompson. While Harry did try to get his popular friends not to pick on Peter they often gave him too much slack which is something he and Cassander argued over a lot. One day the  popular kids told Peter that if he wanted to join their click he had to do an initiation ceremony. He had to stay the night in the abandoned alchemex building. Cassander tried to tell Peter that this was just to make him look stupid and asked him not to do it because it was dangerous but  Peter refused. Cassander tried to get a hold of Harry but he wouldn’t answer so instead Cassander decided that he had to go in as well and make sure Peter stayed safe. That was the night Cassander was bitten after brushing the spider off of peter. They also stumbled upon a laboratory Norman Osborn had been using to make the green goblin serum, but saw nothing because of green fog that filled the room. Peter got cut on some glass So Cassander talked him into leaving. When they exited Harry had arrived. The next day Cassander discovered Eir spider abilities. That night Cassander snuck out and decided to return To Alchemax alone to try and find the spider. Instead He had his first encounter with a Green goblin. Cassander decided he would forget about his powers and try to live normally. Harry stopped hanging out with Ned and him and Cassander got together. The next Peter looked a little strange and was acting weird.  Throughout the week peter began to act stranger and stranger. Finally one night Cassander realized he was acting like a green goblin and assumed the cut had become infected. Cassander revealed this to Peter, revealing Eir spider powers in the process. Peter wanted to return to Alchemax but Cassander said no. The next day Harry asked Cassander to go out and eat dinner with his Dad (Norman aka green goblin). Harry ended up running out of that dinner cause his dad is a bitch. Little did Cassander know he was going to Alchemax because he had stayed after Cassander and petter had left the other night and discovered his dads lab. Norman asked Cassander to stay in the desert. He reluctantly agreed but things got tense and. Norman started acting strange, violent even, Cassandee ran away in fear accidentally stumbling upon Norman’s green goblin mask. He rushed home to tell Peter but when he got home Peter wasn’t there Cassander knew that he  had gone back to Alchemax. It was too late he had been killed by green goblin, Who Cas did not know was not Norman this time but Harry. Peter's death inspired Cassander to become Spider-Man. As spider man he often worked alongside police captain Gwen Stacy until she was ultimately killed when Cassander couldn’t save her. Norman Osborn as green goblin accidentally killed himself in a fight with spider-man who hid Norman was green goblin for Harry’s sake. Harry believed spiderman had killed him. infected by the goblin serum became mad hunting down spider man. The two ultimately found out each other's identities and it was revealed that Harry killed Peter not Norman. They’re relationship is on an indefinite break, but they haven’t technically broken up, it’s complicated. —————————————————————————

Other Cassander Outfits, I was too lazy to edit the pajamas

—————————————————————————

Harold “Harry” Osborn “Green Goblin”

Unlabeled gender, He/They

—————————————————————————

Peter Parker

Male He/Him

—————————————————————————

DR. Chuwi Quispe Mamani

(This universe’s Dr. Strange)

Agender They/Them

————————————————————Aaron Davis

—————————————————————————

@xen-blank, @thehollowwriter, @l7k-a, @ferris-the-wheel, @keii-starz

@krenenbaker @elenauaurs @the-banana-0verlord @edith-is-a-cat @dove-da-birb

@theosb0rnway @fizzydreamz @ravenwing0110

@diabollicallyangelic @xentari94 @tomatette

@dragonflies-draw-flame @sunshinechildskywalker @silly-little-goober-core

[english-history-trip]

There's a popular misconception that swords were historically too heavy for women or small men to lift. Thus this comparison chart was created based on the actual weight of historical swords in the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, UK. If you're strong enough to pick up a baby, you're strong enough to lift and to wield the heaviest sword. Swordwind is a Historical European Martial Arts (aka HEMA) School where men, women, and teens of all sizes, races, ages, orientations, and physical abilities can (and do!) learn historically accurate sword techniques. We, as a group, intend to continue to disabuse notions that historically accurate martial arts must be limited to large, heavily muscled cis men.

Lifting a sword is the first step in the process. Anyone who can lift it is capable of learning, of practicing, of sparring, and with enough practice and dedication: of winning.

Image Credit: Carrie Patrick

[dweemeister]

Children of a Lesser God (1986)

In narrative art that features individuals with deafness or hearing loss, these films tend not to portray such characters on their own terms, failing to centralize the story around them. Neither Jane Wyman’s character in Johnny Belinda (1948) nor Patty Duke’s portrayal of Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962) frame their respective films; both movies rely on a hearing character to do so. Looking beyond the United States, the same is true of The Shop on Main Street (1965, Czechoslovakia) and the anime film A Silent Voice (2016, Japan) – once more, it is the hearing character who becomes the audience’s proxy. No deaf or hard of hearing actors played the roles referenced in this paragraph.

Such is also the case in Randa Haines’ Children of a Lesser God, with one significant exception – a deaf actress, Marlee Matlin, plays the deaf main character. In the late 1980s, such representation was a revelation, and simply unheard of. Matlin, deaf since she was eighteen months old, came to the producers’ attention after starring in a Chicago-area stage play. While auditioning for the role, she and actor William Hurt struck up a relationship – questionable timing, as both actors got the part (more on their troubled relationship much later).

Haines’ film, distributed by Paramount and from a screenplay by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff (adapting his own stage play of the same name), is a capable romantic drama with two great performances. Its portrayal of a deaf character by a deaf actress was indeed significant for its time; the decision to position the film through the hearing character’s experiences fails to distinguish it from its fellow films and numerous films since.

Somewhere in New England, James Leeds (William Hurt) arrives for his new job: as a teacher at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing. His enthusiastic teaching style rubs off on most of his students, as he emphasizes that, as important as it is to sign and read lips, they must also learn to speak. Also working at the school is Sarah Norman (Matlin), a former standout student who works as the school’s custodian. While the school’s hearing staff, for reasons initially unclear, dislike Sarah, the students appreciate her. James falls quickly for Sarah and they eventually begin dating, after a few rebuffs on her part. What follows is a romance where our two protagonists navigate through his desire to help her adjust to the world beyond the school walls and her lack of trust in others. Drifting in and out of the film are the school’s hearing principal, Dr. Curtis Franklin (Philip Bosco), and Sarah’s mother (Piper Laurie) to give both main characters advice, encouragement, and dramatic obstacles.

Children of a Lesser God suffers from its emphasis on James’ perspectives. Between James and Sarah, it is James who demands the most in any compromises between the two. When he first asks Sarah whether she would want to move in with him, James’ approach is, at times, more demanding than it is a genuine query. His insistence on Sarah speaking phonetically to hearing people, from the onset, seems to disregard whatever personal reasons Sarah might have for refusing to do so. Late in the film, the most heated discussion between the couple on this topic comes in perhaps the most inappropriate way – he wants to hear her say his name during sex. Both James and Sarah carry into this relationship sizable foibles and broken pasts, but the former’s communication style can be abrasive and domineering. At times, it makes Children of a Lesser God seem like yet another savior narrative.

Certainly, Sarah’s reluctance to speak phonetically is a defensive mechanism – one to shield her from the pain of past interactions with hearing people and a refusal to have anybody to speak on her behalf. The film also implies that she may be a survivor of sexual abuse. Matlin is magnificent in this role (my goodness, does she sign quickly or what?) and there are a few key scenes where, as Sarah, her character truly shines without James’ input. Interestingly, both scenes involve music. The first instance comes on their first date at a restaurant, when Sarah insists on dancing to “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers. Feeling the vibrations of the music “through [her] nose”, Sarah grooves, eyes closed, to the music. Rather than shaking her hips and moving her head with the beat, she sways, and gracefully moves her arms to the song – released from the bounds of the musical and lyrical phrasing.

Later in the film, Sarah does not betray any irritation when James claims he cannot enjoy his favorite piece of classical music (in this case, the second movement to J.S. Bach’s Double Violin Concerto) because she is unable to enjoy it. Instead of showing her discomfort or lashing out, she asks James to “show [her] the music”, similar to how she “felt” the music on the first date. James fails to do so, but not for lack of trying. Here, Matlin, as Sarah, is fully observational – one can see, through her eyes and face, a sincere attempt to understand what the Bach “feels” like. Where others might point out Matlin’s emotionally fraught scenes in this movie as the best exemplars of her work (any of the fights with Hurt’s James, her jealousy while watching the school show, her reconciliation with her mother), Matlin’s command in these less dramatically important moments also deserve praise.

Matlin’s performance, however, cannot stop Children of a Lesser God from depicting Sarah as the otherized character that must change the most. The film, released in a decade of popular cinema with a more cavalier attitude towards relationship violence than previously seen, puts so little on Hurt’s James. It is fine to portray an imbalanced romantic relationship in a movie. But the film seems tepidly interested in Sarah in stretches, and fails to truly allow the audience to connect with her in moments where that might be possible. Additionally, whenever Sarah or anyone else who is deaf or hard of hearing signs in the film, there are no subtitles. Instead, it is up to James or another hearing character to verbalize the sign language – disallowing the opportunity for any viewer to find, in Sarah, a chance to see the events of the film through her. This, like CODA (2021; which incidentally also stars Marlee Matlin and concentrates on a hearing character, albeit a child of deaf adults), makes Children of a Lesser God a film not for the deaf or hard of hearing community, but for hearing audiences. Sarah’s deafness becomes an obstacle in this film – indeed, some of this is on the original stage play, but there surely were ways to address this.

The chilly New England atmosphere of this movie lends it a coziness that no stage play could possibly replicate. John Seale’s (1996’s The English Patient, 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road) cinematography and Michael Convertino’s (1988’s Bull Durham, 1994’s The Santa Clause) electronic-heavy score (electronic-heavy scores tend to date quickly, and this is no exception), however, are merely functional. Children of a Lesser God, lacking in any technical accoutrements, relies solely on the strength of its actors and its adapted screenplay and the odd autumnal landscape of red-orange tree leaves and mist wafting over water in the early mornings. Director Randa Haines had never made a theatrical film prior to this, with her directorial career only covering network television and television movies until Children of a Lesser God. Her direction is here is unremarkable, but at least is sufficient for the purposes of this adaptation.

Hurt and Matlin began a romantic relationship shortly after auditioning for Children of a Lesser God – establishing a tricky situation of power dynamics on set during the making of the film. Matlin, seen as the ingénue, knew she had much to learn from Hurt (one year removed from his Academy Award-winning role in Kiss of the Spider Woman and one year away from Broadcast News) and everyone else on set. Matlin has always praised her fellow cast and crew members for that education in filmmaking. She moved in with Hurt shortly after shooting ended on Children of a Lesser God, but that was the beginning of the end of their relationship. The relationship, marked by drug and verbal abuse and rape, continued through the 59th Academy Awards in March 1987 (that evening, on the way home, Hurt questioned the legitimacy of Matlin’s Best Actress win, callously comparing Matlin to the other four nominees) but ended several months thereafter. In later years, following the publication of Matlin’s memoir detailing the worst aspects of their relationship, Hurt apologized for any harm he inflicted on Matlin and her family, wishing them all well. After Hurt’s death in 2022, Matlin reflected on her time making Children of a Lesser God and noted that Hollywood had “lost a really great actor”.

When Children of a Lesser God received five Academy Award nominations and won Marlee Matlin her Best Actress Oscar, speculation abounded regarding changes in the portrayals of deaf characters and opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing actors. Matlin was the incarnation of a potential groundswell of such representation in Hollywood. That groundswell has been less dramatic than anticipated (as are all such movements to address underrepresentation in American films), but Matlin’s win has, slowly, in its own way, opened a wealth of new opportunities for deaf and hearing-impaired actors in the United States in film and television. Children of a Lesser God might not be the revolutionary film that many non-viewers may have heard of. Nevertheless, its positive impacts continue to create small ripples through American filmmaking, belatedly, more frequently than ever before.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[adarlingmess]

Meet my Spidersona Phoebe L. Peña, also known as the Spider-Widow!

She's definitely not affiliated with Natasha Romanoff and other Widows in the Marvel universe though. I'm going to my cyberpunk-loving roots and made her futuristic and glowing neon. Have a slightly long-ass, slightly angsty, and definitely self-indulgent backstory below because you guys know how I love hurting my own feelings

Phoebe is the granddaughter of the Ned Leeds of her universe, which serves as the Uncle Ben counterpart of her canon. Her parents departed from the USA to live in the Philippines and go back to their roots, but Phoebe found herself moving to the USA after her parents died. She stays with her Lolo Ned who's happy to get to know and dote on his granddaughter like his lola did to him in his youth. In her adulthood, she pursued an art degree in a NY art school.

At some point, she meets her universe's Miguel O'Hara and the two started dating on and off thanks to their busy college schedule. Once he secured a position in Alchemax, they started taking their relationship more seriously, and ended up tying the knot.

When Tyler Stone started to pressure Miguel into conducting more ethically questionable experiments, he decided to turn in his notice. Phoebe is one of the few people he opened up to, so she knows the company's practices to some extent.

In order to keep Miguel on his leash, Tyler sends his goon to kidnap his wife. She gets drugged with Rapture, and the only way to cure her was for Miguel to come back to Alchemax. A botched attempt to save her life ends up mutating her, splicing her DNA with that of a Black Widow spider. Tragically, still delirious from the drug, Phoebe ends up biting her own husband. That killed Miguel's counterpart of her universe.

When she came to her senses, Phoebe mourned him and swore vengeance against Alchemax. At some point, she joins the Spider Society... led by an older, worn-out version of her dead husband from another universe. Searching for a higher calling that didn't involve revenge, she joined up. She changed her surname back to her maiden name to avoid any confusion and to distance herself from the Miguel O'Hara of Earth-928B. Phoebe pushed her longing down and dove headfirst into work in an attempt to distract herself from her grief, and her new boss.

Smol trivia about her name: Peña is my maternal grandmother's maiden surname, and Phoebe is how she and some of my relatives pronounce my name🥹

[beepingmemesauce2727]

Plans for future Spidey-Villains if I were in charge of continuing The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Mac Gargan / Scorpion:

• Private Investigator hired by J. Jonah Jameson, like in the comics

• Fails due to Peter using his spider-sense to evade him, leading to him being fired by Jameson, which not only causes him to lose his job, but also leaves him homeless, but is offered a second chance by a man claiming to work for The Kingpin

• Registers for an experimental operation by Wilson Fisk and Alastair Smythe, the idea behind the operation being to essentially create a genetically-enhanced police officer

• He is injected with multiple steroids that enhance his physical strength, and his outfitted with bulletproof armor equipped with a cybernetic tail

• Same story as in the comics basically, he is sent to capture Spider-Man, but over time, the chemical augmentations start affecting his brain and drive him to insanity, leading him to paralyze Smythe, and attack J.J.J., Peter promptly defeats him

• Eventually joins a new version of the Sinister Six

Roderick Kingsley / Hobgoblin

• Perfume company CEO, wants to buy Oscorp, but Harry doesn't like him as he thinks Oscorp is the "Osborn Family Legacy", Roderick doesn't like Harry either, seeing him as a nepo baby, (which Harry kind of is)

• Has a twin-brother named Daniel, but is less successful than Roderick, leading to constant belittling by his older brother

• Secretly does shady business deals, like in Season 2 where he attended the auction with NYC's various crime lords

• Hires a spy to infiltrate Oscorp one night, that thug discovers the Green Goblin's tech, spy steals it and brings it back to Roderick

• Roderick sees an opportunity, and creates a new persona, The Hobgoblin, and learns that Osborn used performance-enhancers to gain his superhuman powers

• Creates a chemical compound that includes all of the effects of the original Globulin Green with none of the side-effects

• Roderick decides he can frame other people as the Hobgoblin so he can get away with his crimes scott-free and take control of Oscorp and expand his business

• Multiple people are framed for being the Hobgoblin throughout the third season, including Ned Leeds, Harry Osborn, Emily Osborn, J. Jonah Jameson, and even Roderick's own brother Daniel

• Enters a turf war with Wilson Fisk

• Eventually, Roderick is outed as the Hobgoblin, and is imprisoned

Art by TheJikaruss on Deviantart

Micheal Morbius / Morbius the Living Vampire

• Born in Greece in 1939, raised in America

• Was raised by his single mother, his father left his mother before he was born

• His mother died of a rare illness which caused her blood cells to rapidly degenerate, and eventually, Michael develops this disorder as well

• He meets Emil Nikos, and they become best friends, Nikos finds out about Michael's condition and vows to help him create a cure

• They won a Nobel Prize for their achievements in hematological research, and used the money to conduct the experiment that would cure Michael of his condition in 1971

• The experiment involved injecting Michael with a serum derived from the DNA of vampire bats, and electroshock therapy to enhance Michael's mutated blood cells

• The experiment goes awry, and Michael is transformed into a hideous creature resembling a vampire

• Michael kills Nikos in a bloodthirsty rage, and only regains his senses when he has completely drained Nikos of his blood

• Wracked with immeasurable guilt, Michael attempts suicide, but saves himself as living is a habit

• He roams the world for decades, eventually stumbling upon the house of Curt and Martha Connors, who he attacks while Peter is on a school field trip to the Florida Everglades

Morris Bench / Hydro-Man

• Demolitions expert, as he is in the show

• His wife divorced him a few months prior to the series, so he's a bit depressed

• He is brought to an experiment taking place on a cargo ship overseen by Oscorp, where there are experimenting with a device that can filter out hazardous chemicals in the world's various oceans

• The ship is attacked by the Hobgoblin, who is trying to steal technology, a fight breaks out between Spider-Man and Hobgoblin, and in the scuffle, Morris is knocked overboard

• Morris' body reacts strangely to the generator's radioactive materials, which causes his body to break down and then reform itself into a body that can transform itself into living water

• Hydro-Man escapes the hospital he was held in, and runs into the Hobgoblin, who convinces Morris that Spider-Man is responsible for his condition, and Hydro-Man swears revenge against the web-slinger

• He battles Spider-Man, who defeats him by freezing him with liquid nitrogen, and handing him over to the NYPD

• He is imprisoned, but eventually thawed out to join a new version of the Sinister Six

Cletus Kasady / Carnage

• Cletus is revealed to be a serial killer like in the comics

• He was born to Roscoe and Louise Kasady, and after he tortured and killed his mother's dog, he was sent to the St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children

• After he burned down the orphanage and killed the staff and its students, he murdered his parents as revenge for locking him up in that hell-hole

• He went on to murder several more people, until he was arrested, where the judge labeled him insane and had Cletus sent to the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane, where he "befriended" Eddie Brock

• After the Venom Symbiote returns to Eddie in his and Cletus' cell, Eddie turns into Venom and causes a break out

• Little did Eddie know, the symbiote had produced an offspring, and it bonded to Cletus' bloodstream, turning the symbiote red and giving it full control over Kasady's cellular structure, making him much stronger than Eddie and Venom

• Cletus became Carnage, and resumed his killing spree, but on a mass scale, turning anyone in his way into his symbiote possessed minions

• Spider-Man realizes he has no choice but to team up with Venom. He also joins up with Black Cat, Cloak & Dagger, Morbius, Sandman, Prowler, and Silver Sable to take down Carnage and his drones

• Carnage is eventually defeated, and the symbiote hordes are returned to normal

• Cletus is imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D., due to the catastrophic event he just caused, and that's the last we ever see of Carnage

• Or is it?

Hobie Brown / Prowler

• He becomes friends with Peter in Season 3

• He has a bone to pick with Harry Osborn due to his doping in Season 2

• However, his girlfriend Mindy McPherson is kidnapped by the Hobgoblin's men, and he takes matters into his own hands

• He dons the Prowler suit for the first time, and takes out mutiple caches of Hobgoblin's goons throughout the city in order to get to Mindy

• He runs into Spider-Man, and they get into a disagreement on how to take down The Hobgoblin, Peter just wants to simply defeat Hobgoblin and bring him to justice, whereas Hobie wants to kill Hobgoblin, and they get into a fight

• They eventually stop fighting, and put their differences aside to save Mindy

• They defeat Hobgoblin and his men and save Mindy, but Hobgoblin escapes before he can be arrested

• Prowler eventually teams up with Spidey again during the "Maximum Carnage" event

John Jameson / Man-Wolf

• Still in Ravencroft after Season 2

• He's still obsessed with the strength he obtained during his time as Colonel Jupiter

• He is visited in his cell by J.J.J. and Miles Warren, who offers to give him back the power he so desperately wants

• He is injected with a steroid that turns him back into Colonel Jupiter, and he becomes an ally to Spider-Man again

• Warren secretly installed nanites into John's bloodstream that would activate under lunar rays

• During one night out on patrol, John keeled over in pain and transformed into a hulking canine creature dubbed The Man-Wolf

• Man-Wolf eventually attacked his father at the DB, but Spider-Man used an antidote on John that eliminated the nanites in his system and turned him back into a human

• John was eventually turned back into Man-Wolf, and kidnapped by Kraven the Hunter and forced to fight Spider-Man again during this show's adaptation of "Kraven's Last Hunt", (Man-Wolf takes the place of Vermin) but after Kraven dies, Spider-Man goes after Man-Wolf and turns him back into a human again

• Warren finds a strand of Man-Wolf's hair, and keeps it along with a sample of Globulin Green...for safe keeping

Prof. Miles Warren / Jackal

• He's taken Dr. Connors' place as ESU's science division

• He has an assistant named Debra Whitman

• He was behind Molten Man and Man-Wolf, and will be the ultimate mastermind behind the Clone Saga

• He creates a clone of Peter and Gwen, the Peter clone is used to tarnish Peter's reputation as Spider-Man, while the Gwen clone would become Miles' surrogate daughter

• Miles' wife and daughter died prior to the series in an accident, and Gwen reminded him of his daughter

• So that when she died, Miles had a mental breakdown and decided to use his expertise in cellular biology to create a perfect clone of Gwen

• But Peter and his clone eventually put aside their differences, and confronted Miles in the ESU lab

• As a last resort, he injected himself with a serum comprised of canine DNA and Norman Osborn's Goblin serum, turning him into a monster called The Jackal

• He's eventually defeated, imprisoned, and returned to his human form after a vicious fight with Peter Parker and Ben Reilly

• He later escapes prison and creates a newer, stronger clone he calls Kaine, he brainwashes Kaine and sends him after Peter and Ben

• Kaine is eventually freed from his brainwashing and kills Miles for all the people he's hurt, Peter, Gwen, Curt Connors and his family, Mark Allan, and John Jameson

Art by Lunamidnight1998 on Deviantart

Martin Li / Mr. Negative

• Was experimented on by Wilson Fisk's head scientist, Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, and was imbued with Light & Darkforce powers

• Runs a soup kitchen with Aunt May and Nathan Lubensky called F.E.A.S.T.

• Secretly a crime lord called Mr. Negative and forms a group called the Inner Demons

• The experiments by Dr. Ohnn also created Cloak & Dagger

• Becomes the third wheel in The Kingpin and Hobgoblin's Turf War

• Eventually depowered and redeemed

Thank you for reading! :)

[venomlion3]

Wahoo I've been working on this dude on-and-off since June 2023 when I saw ATSV in theaters!! I'll probably find more things to tweak right after I submit this but I'm tired of looking at him and I wanted him up in time for Art Fight so I'm releasing him from containment 🏃 More info about him under the cut!

Introducing Steven "Seth" McLilliard Stryker, or the Spider-Man of Earth-40712! Also known as the Peacock-Spider or Spider-Lily, he's been his city's "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" since he was 15 y/o. As of now he's been the host to two separate symbiotes--his first being Scourge/Calamity (Scourge is what it went by when bonded to Seth, Calamity is what it currently goes by) and his second/current being Malignant/Goliath. Seth is kinda both Spider-Man and Eddie Brock/Venom in his world--moreso the Sonyverse trilogy Eddie/Venom than anything. Anyways, he's in a polycule with Malakai “MJ” Jeriah-Watson (eventually known as Jackpot), Harvey “Harry” Edwin Leeds-Osborn (still debating on if he becomes New Goblin/Hobgoblin/whatever), Feliciano “Felicia” Hardy (also known as Black Cat), and Malignant/Goliath of course. Prior to them he did date a few other people, notably Gavyn “Gwen” Stacy in high school and Dr. Oliver “Liv” Osnick Octavius (later known as Doctor Octopus and eventually [REDACTED]) in his early college years. Still workshopping names but we're getting somewhere! Also still figuring out his villains--Calamity is meant to be his version of Carnage (although I might still make canonical expies of Peter/Venom/Carnage/etc in this verse, not sure yet), and outside of Doc Ock I've got ideas for Green Goblin and the Kingpin (the latter of which is actually his uncle 🫢). But you can expect most of Spider-Man's regular rogues gallery to show up at some point!

I'm really happy with how he came out! I'm still not super confident drawing humans but fixating on this guy's ref really forced me to push through any anxiety I had! His costume went through a few designs before I got it where I wanted it (a bunch of WIP shots will be shown in his TH gallery), but I think I did ok for my first ever fanmade Spidey design :] In regards to his canon event it's gonna suck so much for him, but I'm going to keep details regarding that a secret for now ;3c All I can say is that post-canon-event he's almost exactly like MCU!Peter after Aunt May's death. Think when he's fighting Green Goblin and he goes to stab him with his own glider, only Raimi!Peter isn't there to stop him,,,

ANYWAYS I could yap for hours about this guy but so take these instead:

-Here's a link to his Toyhouse page! I spent a good chunk of time making it all pretty and even though it isn't done yet I wanna share it with y'all 🤠

-And here is a link to his playlist! It's got songs mixed in that fit with other Earth-40712 characters, but 98% of the songs in there are related to him!

[c-e-s-a-r-i-o]

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone’s well, and if not, I wish you better. Anyone doing anything interesting for the remainder of Summer Break?

Today, I’m going to be doing something different. I’m going to post two (2) times today, this post here and another later today, possibly later tonight.

Currently, I want to bring focus on a musician. Jasmine Wembankoy is a musician on TikTok and is currently trying to raise the funds to go to Abbey Road Institute. She was offered a place at this highly exclusive Advanced Diploma for Music Production and Sound Engineering.

Unfortunately, while she wasn’t accepted for a scholarship to the school, the panelists have offered her a place at the school if she could pay her own tuition.

Coming from Islington, London, she initially got into music because of her love of a certain video game. Starting from obsessively researching on how the Assassins Creed II’s soundtrack, produced by Jesper Key, was created, she has now grown to post her own music, of which can be found under the name Safii Koii.

She has grown through the years, and she is most famous for her cover of Kate Bush’s Army Dreamers, by far her most popular cover. Though that’s not her only experience in being in the spotlight in her corner of the internet; after attending East London Art and Music in 2017 and then moving to Leeds Conservatoire in 2019 to chase after a degree in music production, of which she was the only black girl in her class, she has had many wonderful opportunities. She has composed her own music for a film at just eighteen, has had her voice play out of the radio, and has played in her first festival. Her GoFundMe goes into much greater detail for you all, so if you have the time please go read her story!

She is currently sitting at £9,895/€15,920, which is thankfully enough enroll at Abbey Road Institution as it is enough to cover five (5) installments for tuition fees! But she still needs continued support for the rest of her time in the Institution. Even €5 helps, so please help Jasmine reach her goal and be able to go to Abbey Road Institution without having to worry about if she’s going to have enough to continue attending the university. If you don’t have the funds for even €5, you can simply spread her story and GoFundMe!

Her TikTok is @safii_koii and her GoFundMe is https://gofund.me/1767b391

-Lyfrassir(🪷) and Lucy-Grey(🎤)

(P.S. She has another GoFundMe in the linktree in her bio, leading you to a campaign of a family trying to raise the funds to get out of Gaza when the border reopens. If you can, also donate to them!)

[phanfictioncatalogue]

Dates Masterlist

2017 (ao3) - outphan

Summary: Dan and Phil go on a date at the Singapore Aquarium.

Arcadia (ao3)-  legdabs (scvlly)

Summary: arcadia: n. believed by ancient greeks to be an earthly paradise. or, date night in the south of france.

Babe, You're a Masterpiece (ao3) - ditl_manchester

Summary: Dan and Phil go on a date to an art museum and Phil thinks about all the reasons he loves Dan.

Blanket Fort Date Night (ao3) - MaeTaurus

Summary: After six months of touring and two solid weeks of editing their movie, Dan and Phil finally have some time to relax. Phil surprises Dan with a special date night in.

Date Night - imeanwhiskermeup

Summary: Dan, Phil and Pj are in a polyamorous relationship and it’s date night.

Date Night (ao3) - scifi

Summary: It’s date night and Dan surprises Phil with some champagne and a bubble bath.

Date Night (ao3) - phansuniteinluv

Summary: Just a fluff-filled cute date at an aquarium!

Dinner Was Nice - jilliancares

Summary: Dan and Phil go out on a date to a fancy restaurant that they made reservations to three months before.

Dirty Date Night - adayinthelifeofphan

Summary: Dan and Phil go out for dinner, but Phil has a little surprise for Dan.

Double Date (ao3) - dangirlphillie

Summary: When Dan accidentally asks out a lesbian couple on a double date, he and Phil are forced to pretend they've been dating for years on a night out a town.

Graffiti and Tattoos - bumblefizz

Summary: Punk!Phan goes on a cute date to the ‘graffiti museum’ on the summit.

It’s All Fun And Games (Until You Get Blackmailed) - doomedhowell

Summary: Dan and Phil are in a relationship, but everybody at school thinks they hate each other. In order to have a fun date night, Dan and Phil travel out of town so nobody recognizes them. They think they’re safe, but are they?

late nights (ao3) - orphan_account

Summary: Phil takes Dan to a diner.

life is but a dream (ao3) - redactednp

Summary: Dan and Phil go on a rowing date.

Long Way Down - phanetixs

Summary: Date night in Leeds. Phil would say he planned it, but he really didn’t.

Suit And Tie - eboyjwz

Summary: Dan and Phil go on a date and Dan has to wear a suit. He complains and fluff follows.

The China Platter - phanlight

Summary: A dinner date turns into something quite unexpected.

tour bus date night (ao3) - calvinahobbes

Summary: sometimes romance just means low voices and barely speaking and being gross together.

Under Vegas Lights (ao3) - LunarLoverrr

Summary: It's the last night of their Nevada road trip, and Phil has the perfect date planned for his boyfriend. However, he hopes this date will be a stand out among the rest.

What We Want - velarisstars

Summary: Dan and Phil have a date night, which eventually leads to them realizing what they both want for their future together.

[ao3feed-narlie]

'Together' Edition

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/mvbY5B8 by a_book_dragon This is a series of standalone works that share a theme: N&C finding each other with alternate meet-cutes. Sometimes it's easier to share your feelings with strangers who can deeply empathize than with your friends who can sympathize. For this fic: • N&C haven’t met (yet!) • Charlie, Tao, and Isaac are 18 years old, and finishing year 12 at Truham • Nick is 19 years old, and he attended St John’s Sports Academy, attended the fall and spring terms of his first year at University of Leeds, and returned home to Kent • Tori is 19 years old, and is finishing summer term / her first year at University of Bath • Olly is 13 years old, and he is finishing year 8 at Truham • Elle is 19 years old, and attending Lambert School of Art • David is 24, lives in Paris, and is still basically an everything-phobic twatwaffle Online IDs: Charlie 🌈 / Nick 🏉 / Olly 🎧 / Tori 🧃 / Elle 👑 / Isaac 📚 / Tao 🎬 / Michael 🐧 / Tara 🩰 / Darcy 🥳 / Sai 😎 / Otis 👕 / Christian 🎸 / Sarah 🌞 Words: 2764, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 2 of Heartstopper's N&C Will In Fact Find Each Other In Any Universe Fandoms: Heartstopper (TV), Heartstopper (Webcomic) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Oliver "Olly" Spring, Victoria "Tori" Spring, Isaac Henderson (Heartstopper), Tao Xu, Elle Argent, Nicholas "Nick" Nelson, Charles "Charlie" Spring (Heartstopper), Sarah Nelson Relationships: Nicholas "Nick" Nelson/Charles "Charlie" Spring, Nicholas "Nick" Nelson & Charles "Charlie" Spring Additional Tags: POV Alternating, Angst with a Happy Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Boys In Love, Good Parent Sarah Nelson read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/mvbY5B8

[modernistdelights]

A Leeds University Public Art trail Mooch [10/08/24]

In order:

Roger Stevens Building

Perhaps my new favourite university building, sorry to the Renold Building x

Barbara Hepworth - Dual Form

I believe there's also a Barbara Hepworth sculpture in one of the courts at Lancaster University, which I didn't find out about until last year, due to my minimal attendance on campus while I was a student 🥴

Mitzi Cunliffe - Man-Made Fibres

A gorgeous stone carving, commissioned as part of the Clothworkers Building South to reflect the progress in the field of synthetic fibres.

Juanjo Novella - Curtain

Detail shot.

Staircase at the Henry Price Building

An unnecessarily extra, geometrically askew staircase, especially delightful coming west from St George's Field.

School of Chemical and Process Engineering building

Staircase detail shot.

School of Healthcare

Staircase detail shot at the rear of the building.

Quentin Bell - The Dreamer

Inspired by a magician's trick that Bell saw as a child. There's something melancholy about the sculpture at situated in a quiet courtyard, surrounded by leafy vegetatation. It's been moved several times but this feels like the right place for it.

P H Y S I C S

At the rear of the Physics Research Deck.

Bank House

And finally, away from the campus, en-route to the train station, the striking former regional headquarters of the Bank of England. Via British Listed Buildings:

Inverted ziggurat of in-situ reinforced-concrete construction with grey Cornish granite and bronze cladding. 5-storeys plus basement

—

The Public Art Trail at the University of Leeds is inexplicably only available to download as a PDF, but is well worth it. I far prefer architecture to sculpture, but luckily this has both, and anything which gets me on a guided walk is a win in my book.

[whumpily-ever-after]

Whumpy Book List 2

Welcome to my second whumpy book list. This list has been a long time coming. I read a lot but most of the books I read recently had no whump in them. I finally feel like I have enough books to make this list!

I always welcome whumpy book recommendations and/or suggestions. Please feel free to send any whumpy books my way.

List below the cut...

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell

Summary: “While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat's rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam's cousin, the disreputable Kiem, in a bid to keep the rising hostilities between the two worlds under control. But when it comes to light that Prince Taam's death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war... all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.”

Whump tropes: Not the whumpiest book out there, but about half-way through there is a decent hypothermia scene, attempted brainwashing also occurs in the second half of the book

Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson

Summary: “Stephen Leeds is perfectly sane. It’s his hallucinations who are mad.

A genius of unrivaled aptitude, Stephen can learn any new skill, vocation, or art in a matter of hours. However, to contain all of this, his mind creates hallucinatory people—Stephen calls them aspects—to hold and manifest the information. Wherever he goes, he is joined by a team of imaginary experts to give advice, interpretstion, and explanation. He uses them to solve problems…for a price.

His brain is getting a little crowded and the aspects have a tendency of taking on lives of their own. When a company hires him to recover stolen property—a camera that can allegedly take pictures of the past—Stephen finds himself in an adventure crossing oceans and fighting terrorists. What he discovers may upend the foundation of three major world religions—and, perhaps, give him a vital clue into the true nature of his aspects.”

Note: This book consists of three (3) short stories about Stephen Leeds and the personalities in his head. I don’t remember all of the whump tropes in these stories, but I remember that the third story, “Lies of the Beholder,” had the most whump.

Whump tropes: From what I remember it includes being trapped in a facility and the main character’s “aspects” are forcibly (and possibly painfully) taken away from him.

Guardian by Priest

Summary: “The Special Investigations Unit is a covert organization that no-one in the city knows about, dedicated to investigating bizarre occurrences beyond the comprehension of the living. The Chief Zhao Yunlan isn’t a simple guy either, being the inheritor of the Guardian order, he has always been a righteous conformist, excelling between realms of the living and the dead. While investigating a school suicide case, Zhao is attracted to the calm and reserved Professor Shen Wei, but the Professor seems to be rather fickle towards him…”

Whump tropes: Angst, hurt/comfort, sick character, there is so much more, but I am drawing a blank at the moment

Note: I read a fan translation of this book on the interwebs but I believe it will be available for purchase (in the US) sometime this year.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance (The Tithenai Chronicles #1) by Foz Meadows

Summary: “Velasin vin Aaro never planned to marry at all, let alone a girl from neighboring Tithena. When an ugly confrontation reveals his preference for men, Vel fears he’s ruined the diplomatic union before it can even begin. But while his family is ready to disown him, the Tithenai envoy has a different solution: for Vel to marry his former intended’s brother instead. Caethari Aeduria always knew he might end up in a political marriage, but his sudden betrothal to a man from Ralia, where such relationships are forbidden, comes as a shock. With an unknown faction willing to kill to end their new alliance, Vel and Cae have no choice but to trust each other. Survival is one thing, but love – as both will learn – is quite another.”

Whump tropes: Arrow wounds, magical exhaustion, betrayal, captured characters

Note: Heed the warnings for this book!

Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters by Ennis Rook Bashe

Summary: “Vessel is a monster living in a dimension-hopping dungeon where his only solace is mercy-killing human prisoners. When one of these prisoners leaves Vessel a diary about his life as a monster hunter, Vessel imagines a new future for himself and takes on a human identity in an attempt to survive. Rescued by married monster hunters, Rhys and Sera, Vessel quickly finds himself overwhelmed by his secret, by the demands of pretending to be human, and by the intensity of falling unexpectedly in love with the pair. But if Rhys and Sera find out the truth, Vessel knows heartbreak won’t be the worst thing he’ll face… This book features a trans character in a setting where being trans is no big deal, badass disabled monster hunters, an enormous gruff swordsman who would do anything for his adorable bard, a back brace that doubles as armor, and a soft bisexual eldritch abomination learning what love really is. Please note, this book contains discussions of assault, cissexism, body horror, and violence.”

Whump tropes: Chronic pain, torture, monster/nonhuman whump, conditioned Whumpee, hands-on magical healing

Note: I have not read this book myself but it looks to be plenty whumpy!

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

Summary: “A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death.

Fleeing into the unknown she is drawn into a team of outcasts: A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home. A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother’s shadow and claims a purpose of his own. An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact- one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe.

On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful, and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation. But with each passing moment, doom draws closer. Who will claim the starless crown?”

Whump tropes: Attempted kidnapping, trapped in a dark mine with no light while bound at the ankles, betrayal

Antrax by Terry Brooks

Summary: “Brave explorers led by the last Druid, Walker Boh, traveled across unknown seas in search of an elusive magic. But now it seems that Walker and his team were lured there for sinister, unforeseen purposes. As the crew aboard the airship Jerle Shannara is being attacked by evil forces, the Druid’s protégé, Bek Rowe, and his companions are being pursued by the mysterious Ilse Witch. Meanwhile, Walker is alone, caught in a dark maze beneath the ruined city of Castledown, stalked by a hungry, unseen enemy. It is alive, but not human, coveting the magic of Druids, elves, even the Ilse Witch. It hunts men for its own designs. It is Antrax: a spirit that feeds off enchantment and traps the souls of men. And with it, the fate of the Four Lands hangs in the balance.”

Whump tropes: Captivity, voice stolen, chased, dramatic rescue

Note: This is the second book in a series. But it has one of my most re-read whump scenes that I couldn't resist including it.

Note: The next two entries have teenage (minor) whumpees. If this is not your thing, stop reading here.

The Extraordinaries Series by T.J. Klune

Summary: "Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right? After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Gray, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life).”

Whump tropes: Kidnapping, emotional whump, betrayal

Fragile Remedy by Maria Ingrande Mora

Summary: “Sixteen-year-old Nate is a GEM – Genetically Engineered Medi-tissue created by the scientists of Gathos City as a cure for the elite from the fatal lung rot ravaging the population. As a child, he was smuggled out of the laboratory where he was held captive and into the Withers – a quarantined, lawless region. Nate manages to survive by using his engineering skills to become a Tinker, fixing broken tech in exchange for food or a safe place to sleep. When he meets Reed, a kind and fiercely protective boy that makes his heart race, and his misfit gang of scavengers, Nate finds the family he’s always longed for – even if he can’t risk telling them what he is.

But Gathos created a genetic failsafe in their GEMs – a flaw that causes their health to rapidly deteriorate as they age unless they are regularly dosed with medication controlled by Gathos City. As Nate’s health declines, his hard-won freedom is put in jeopardy. Violence erupts across the Withers, his illegal supply of medicine is cut off, and a vicious attack on Reed threatens to expose his secret. With time running out, Nate is left with only two options: work for a shadowy terrorist organization that has the means to keep him alive, or stay – and die – with the boy he loves.”

Whump tropes: I have not been able to get my hands on this book, so I don't know the exact tropes. But the summary makes it sound pretty whumpy.

[portraituresque]

Raymond Coxon - self-portrait - 1921

Raymond James Coxon (18 August 1896 – 31 January 1997) was a British artist. He enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, the Royal College of Art, and became a teacher in the Richmond School of Art. The creative work of his long and successful career—singly and in various art groups—included landscape and portrait painting, abstract works, creating church murals and serving as a war artist during World War II. In particular he was known for the bold style of his figure and portrait work. After  World War Two his paintings became more abstract.