#Like once is just a fun reference but two points make a line I'm going nuts

[gaykamenriderdreams]

Kamen Rider (1971) episode 47,,,, the emotional damage I sustained is immeasurable

hey what's that rabbit doing ther-

OH NO. OH GOD

PUT HIM DOWN THAT IS NOT HOW TO PROPERLY HOLD A RABBIT

[Short PSA]: Rabbit spines are very graham cracker glowstick please lay them gently across one arm when you hold them so their backs are supported. If you let them brace their feet against your arm and body they will assist you with proper positioning (sometimes that proper positioning is Just Put Them Down They Don't Want To Be Held Right Now). Don't dangle them like this- it's dangerous and stresses them out. Don't Be Like Shocker.

Alright now that that's outta the way, back to the episode

This show just can't stop comparing Hayato to a bunny I tell you what

IF HE'S COLD YOU'RE COLD STOP IT

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[batbabydamian]

BATMAN AND ROBIN (2023) #14 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Javier Fernandez! rambling about the new team and arc!! a jumping-on point for anyone wanting to read recent Bruce and Damian comics 🦇🐥

setting the stage with action!! mystery and intrigue!! expectations for further character exploration for Damian!!

if that's not enough to pique interest, here's a rendition of one of the many cute grumpy Damian panels

first of all THE OPENING ACTION SCENE OH MY GOD (this splash page hello!!)

i love...the collaborative effort in comics...it shines through right from the start, especially when it involves traditional inks 😭

using this single panel as an example from Fernandez’s ig:

Fernandez lays out most of the groundwork in his inks - the fully inked silhouette of the driver in the foreground, the shading suggesting the lighting, the white ink/paint lined and splattered for the rain!!

then off to colors with Marcelo Maiolo!! he elevates the panel to emphasize how it's a shot from within the vehicle looking out the windshield - the lightly tinted inks, the bright lighting from headlights, and the slight window sheen + bokeh!!

one more similar example, with comparison by the man himself - Fernandez already implying the glare, scraping white against Batman and Robin's silhouettes. then punched up with Maiolo's colors/lighting!! WOW!!

OKAY SORRY ONE MORE along with Steve Wands’ consistently lovely lettering, Fernandez included his own sfx in his inks of this page!! not sure how often he does it past this, but SO cool!! ever since seeing Juni Ba's sfx lettering in his inks, it's such a sick extra detail to me 😭

ANYWAY i can go on about what i love about each panel for this scene but gotta move on from the explosive intro of Batman and Robin to the more grounded side of Bruce and Damian (which ends up being just as explosive)!! 🥺

there's small details carrying over from Williamson's run like Bruce making Damian vegan meals and Damian creating comics; otherwise, we have a much more engaging writing of the two almost reminiscent to Tomasi and Gleason's run!

one example being his attitude towards a fancy event interrupting his and Dick's patrol in Batman and Robin (2009) #20

the first line from Bruce and Damian's disregard for a fundraising event is a bit of head scratcher to me when Damian is plenty compassionate, BUT for the sake of a jumping-on arc for new readers it’s a clear point of reference for Damian’s character - a kid who believes more in Batman and Robin work than what could be done outside of those masks. it becomes a matter of how Damian's perspective might change around this subject and how he'll take action in helping outside of Robin 🤔

another similar Tomasi-esque moment is Damian's snark about his grandfather lol, a sentiment that carries over from Batman and Robin (2011) #1

PKJ references his Ra's al Ghul story from Gotham City Villains Anniversary Giant! especially curious when the final line by Talia is "...you will see my father again", when Ra's is currently dead. a fun lil callback or also a convenient nod to future plans? 👀

NOW THE MYSTERY AND INTRIGUE OF IT ALL...

Bruce's attention is caught by this man shouting "You sit atop the wheel" which i'm guessing is in reference to the Wheel of Fortune, especially if we're going by a literal interpretation of the rich and poor (depicting the group among tents and carts).

i'm really reaching here, but wondering if Bruce calling himself “Jack” at some point is also related to the arcana. the only relation i could find is the Page of Wands, and the Jack once being referred to as a "knave"

EDIT: an anon reached out to inform me that Bruce called himself “Jack” during his training! seems to be first introduced in Batman: The Knight (2022) #4

THE REVEAL OF THE NEW VILLAIN, MEMENTO...the first page opens on a deceased person's face, and the last dialogue is "We will see your face again." AND OH BOY WE CERTAINLY DO! 😭

the flames casting a harsh light against the plaster (or stone??) of Memento's mask, and how he looms over Bruce...SO EERIE...

FINAL RAMBLY THOUGHTS

Damian being colored with noticeable melanin...🥺 i can only assume this was a deliberate choice made by PKJ since the editors haven't changed, and for the past issues Damian's colors have been independent to the colorists - the only edit being after Rex Lokus gave him green eyes in #5 but were returned to blue in #6 (for consistency ig). along with the classic teen asian haircut, this feels intentional on PKJ's part and i hope Damian will continue to be colored brown here and other books 🥺👉👈

one of the things PKJ teased in an interview was the idea of Damian wondering if he even wants to still be Robin, much less Batman (begging this is where main canon Damian gives the Batman mantle up lol). so presenting Damian here as someone absorbed in that life makes me wonder what triggers those thoughts - is it going to be this incident or later? more currently, will Damian be able to protect the civilians that Bruce entrusted him with? especially after getting familiar with a few, however reluctantly?

anyway, a banger first issue that leaves you with just enough crumbs to know what you're expecting but still beg for more: what's the mysterious new group/villain, and their connection to Bruce? will Dr. Bashar and the Wayne grandparents have more to do with the story? how will this all affect Damian outside of being Robin? Talia and Ra’s?? so many questions!!

[narfin-frood]

Silly question but how do you art?

Or more like, how is your process to draw? Your lines and posing are so loose and show the feeling of a character so well, like, how do you make your art so real with only a few lines is what most amaze me. Anyway I hope I'm not bothering you and that makes sense, thanks for reading!<3

you're not a bother, don't worry! i'm not sure if there's an appropriately concise answer to a question like this, but i'll try to explain my process for poses a bit, and if there's anything else specific you'd like to know about my process, feel free to ask, and i'll try to answer!

for posing, i find it's very helpful to start by thinking about what situation the character is in. you don't need a location or a background or anything (unless you're being #serious about it). for this, i chose "picking up something way too heavy" (cont. under cut, wall of text ahead)

keeping it very simple is key!!! do not worry about details!!! i am very bad at this. i love to add a little detail or two, like his eyes or his little expression, but i have to catch myself before i get too into it, otherwise i'll forget the point of what i was doing and/or get bored. use just enough strokes to get the point across, and stop there (for now).

i draw fast and loose, with long strokes, which also happens to help with the problem that happens if you start with any specific part of the body. it's important to start with... everything at once, or else you won't be able to see what needs to be changed or fixed until it's too late and you've already decided on where you want the head and the left arm to be!

to display effort & strain without just contorting the character's face, you gotta think about just how heavy the object is, how one would go about grabbing it comfortably, and whether your character is smart enough to lift with their legs.

wander is great (read: BEST CHARACTER DESIGN EVAR. i love him kisskisskiss) because he's not grounded in any sort of reality until necessary, and his limbs have no bones, but he still has specific proportions and volumes to refer back to if you get carried away with the wackiness. posing a character made up of several noodles of varying widths is very simple, because you can do basically whatever you want to push and pull and make it as clear (and/or as funny) as possible.

start with your line of action, in this case the long line connecting his neck and his left foot. think about where the floor is, so you can make the feet of your character and whatever else is touching it coexist in the same reality. think about clarity: big, simple shapes are your friends, and if you're not getting the gist of the pose through the silhouette alone, try again! there's NO shame in hiding the first layer and doing a couple more sketches until you land on something you really like. Don't polish a turd, especially if you yourself think it's a turd. it'll make you feel like you're wasting time, and drawing is about having fun and experimenting, so if it's getting boring or frustrating, it's time to try something else.

wander and other characters with no bones and no rules are great for posing because you can do things like make their arms bend the wrong way just to play with the clarity of the pose. this:

un-breaks the arms and makes a little more sense for somebody with elbows, but some clarity in the action is lost when the arms don't curve upward and away from the very heavy object he's straining to pick up.

grounding your characters is both more complex and easier than it sounds, and it unfortunately requires you to think about perspective (i know. i know. i know it sucks and it's confusing. i hated it for a very long time but once it clicks, you'll have it in your brain forever)

fudging a perspective grid is fairly easy, just draw several parallel lines and have them get closer to each other as they recede into the distance, and then do it again in the opposite direction. you can use the transform tool in whatever program you use most to fudge this for even less effort, by just getting a png of a grid and fucking with it

now that you've got your floor, think about those feet. the grid makes it fairly easy to envision how a shoe would look sitting on that floor:

this is also where having an understanding of volumes comes in handy, because things farther in the distance will in fact look smaller, but it's up to you to figure out just how much smaller it would be in comparison to the other identical thing with the same volume that's closer to the camera. usually it's almost negligible, but it becomes easy to spot if it's a little off.

and here's the pose i settled on! i made his noodle arms more extreme for extra XD factor and i put him on his tippy toes for that extra bit of height!

a lot of the principles i'm talking about in this post i mainly pick up from consciously watching my favorite cartoons (and live action shows) and if i really, really like the way something is done, or if i see something that i've never really registered before, i'll screencap it or i'll pause or i'll just keep thinking about it until i draw again.

this is called "building a visual library" and it's the #1 easiest and most important way to practice. it requires no drawing, unless you want it to. look at lots of art by artists you love, and if you see something and you think to yourself, hey, this looks really good, by all means, absorb it.

art is great and it's really fun and there's literally nothing wrong with taking inspiration where you can find it!! seriously!!! absorb your favorite parts of every art style you find cool and fun and put it into your own! you're the only person who can draw the way you draw, and while replicating an art style is fairly easy (or it can be, depending), matching it perfectly is Literally impossible, so don't worry about being derivative. Nobody will notice, and if they do, it's okay to say you're inspired by them! encouraged, even!

my own art style, like everybody else's, is a frankenstein's monster containing all of the things i've loved before!!! and i think thats beautiful and if anybody tries to tell you you've gotta be 100% original and have "your very own style", they're a filthy liar and they're definitely (consciously or not) already taking inspiration and reference from the things they themselves find cool and awesome.

ANYWAY. wall of text over.

TLDR: draw quickly, use long strokes (try not to pet your lines), have a specific situation to put your character in, get familiar with volumes and proportions, and have fun!!!

[sunarots]

so high school ━━━ atsumu miya

09. practice ♡

For the first few hours, you were sitting at the side going between applying for jobs in the area and watching the team’s itinerary. They started with warm ups, running laps and press ups, stretching out in ways you remember doing in school. When they broke off into groups, you found your eyes wandering over them and seeing things that they did. Atsumu didn’t hit the ball as much as the others did, mainly passing it to them. For the first while, everything was going smoothly.

That is, until it was nearing lunchtime when your attention was grabbed by the sounds of two of your roommates bickering. You couldn’t make out what was being said, but it couldn’t have been anything nice. Your eyes drifted back down to your phone, continuing to respond to your friends in Tokyo.

Atsumu threw a finger in Sakusa’s face and was ready to start screaming insults at him, when Meian insisted they take a breather and an hour lunch break. Sakusa took that invitation to leave, grabbing his jacket from the bench and leaving with mutters under his breath, cursing out his teammate.

"Hey, hey, will we get lunch? I want to try that new cafe down the street. Apparently their cakes are the best!"

Atsumu never looked at Bokuto, picking up the ball from the floor and making his way to the back of the court. "Need to practice my serves. See ya in an hour."

The door falls shut, an odd silence fallen over the court. Atsumu lifts the ball, staring down his arm and picturing where he needed it to land. He takes a step forward, tossing the ball in the air and putting all his frustrations into hitting the ball. It flies through the air, slamming into the wall behind the court.

Deep breaths in and out, he rests his hands on his hips and scans the empty gymnasium. Rather, nearly empty gymnasium.

He could have sworn you'd left with Bokuto. He walks around the court and collects the balls scattered around. Clearing his throat, Atsumu finds his eyes wandering up to you sat by the side of the court, eyes fixed on your phone screen. "Have ya ever played before?"

With that, you lift your head and furrow your eyebrows. Realisation setting in, you laugh. "No, I haven't. I'm not really the sporty type."

"Here, I'll show ya how to play."

It takes a moment for you to realise he's being serious, and part of you wishes you'd left with everyone else. When did everyone else leave? "Um..."

"Come on, it'll be fun. I'll go easy on ya."

Knowing this wouldn't be an argument you'd win, you set your laptop and phone aside and become suddenly grateful for choosing comfort over style today. "Okay. Sure, let's do it." You pause, looking down at the sliders you put on this morning when you had no intentions of playing volleyball. "Oh... I'll just, take them off?"

"I'd lend ya mine but, doubt they'll fit."

You roll your eyes at his comment, tucking them under the bench by your bag. "Hilarious."

"Don’t I know it, darlin'." Atsumu grins, leading you out onto the court. "Stand back in the middle of the court." He stays by the net, spinning the ball between his fingers and waits for you to get into position.

You drag your feet behind you, not fully convinced this will be an enjoyable activity for you. "So, what do I do?"

"Right, run towards the net and jump straight up once ya reach... Here." He points to a random spot, moving over to become in line with it as a better reference. "Don't jump towards the net, just jump straight up, okay? Oh, and reach as high as you can with yer hand."

You nod your head, taking in a deep breath and doing exactly as he said. When you plant your feet back on the ground, you spread your arms out to steady yourself again. "Like that?"

"Yeah, now do it again."

He has you repeat this a few times, giving you different tips and tricks, before flashing you a smile and saying, "Now ya hit the ball."

"Really?"

"Yeah! It's easy, look. All ya do is hit it, and make sure it goes over the net."

"What if I can't reach the ball?"

Atsumu feigns a gasp, hand over his heart. "I'm offended. I'll get the ball to ya, darlin'. Now run and jump."

You sigh, taking steps back and once again doing as you were told. Atsumu throws the ball in the air and, sure enough, it's in your reach. You slam the ball as hard as you can with the palm of your hand, the ball landing in the middle of the court, your palm stinging from the force.

"Nice! See, yer a natural!" Atsumu goes in for a high five, waiting patiently for you to catch your breath and return it. "Here, now yer gonna pass the ball to me, and I'll show ya different types of spikes."

You take the ball off him, happy to get some kind of break from the running back and forth. "Sounds good. So, what I just did, that's a spike?"

He nods his head, backing up into position and flashing you a cocky smile. "I'm a good teacher, right?"

Atsumu shows you all the different tips and tricks he can think of, occasionally switching with you so you can practice what he's shown you. You're on your third attempt of trying to get the ball to land where Atsumu instructs when his teammates start returning, neither of you noticing.

"Damn." You watch the ball hit the net, falling back towards you and landing by Atsumu's feet.

"Happens to the best of us. Here, one more time. I believe in ya."

You give him a thumbs up and tiredly trail back to the same position. "I don't know how you do this all year round. It's been forty-five minutes and I think I might die."

"Yer doing great. I'll even buy ya dinner since yer poor."

You spin around with your jaw hanging open unattractively. "Wow. How generous of you," you laugh through your words.

"I know. I'm a charmer, what can I say?"

You roll your eyes at him. "Just throw the fucking ball."

"Whatever ya say."

This time, you manage to get the ball exactly where he'd told you to. You raise both hands in the air as a celebration, turning to face him. "I did it!"

"See! What did I tell ya?" Atsumu raises his hands and high fives yours, only now noticing the team. “Did ya see her?”

You turn around, feeling your cheeks heat up. How long had they been there? Still, you can’t help but feel your heart swell with pride.

“She’ll be taking yer job soon, Omi-Omi,” Atsumu teases, lightly nudging your shoulder. “Thanks, darlin’. I needed that.”

You give him another thumbs up and a high five before making your way back to the bench. You pick your laptop back up, tuning out the noise around you and trying to find literally any job positions open that you were qualified for.

masterlist. previous | next

summary. after your best friend reveals he’s moving out of your shared flat, you’re presented with a tough choice: let one of the creeps who are begging you to let them move in with you, or find a cheaper flat in another area of town. a do-over couldn’t have come at a better time for you, but your only option for a place to stay is with someone your best friend knew from high school, and his two teammates.

taglist (open!). @reignsaway @yuminako @thiisisntlovely @diorzs @aboutkiyoomi @spicana @bakingcuriosity @kr1nqu @savemebrazilhinata @dazqa @sereniteav @beckxisxinxlovexwithxjin @sleezzsister @hermaeusmorax @giocriedpower @sophosphorescent @gigiiiiislife @zazathezaer @rrosiitas @iaminyourfloors @writing-for-the-hell-of-it

[olsenmyolsen]

Fallout

master list

dark master list

Fallout/Marvel AU (Gender Neutral Reader X Wanda Maximoff)

Summary: You and your wife, Wanda Maximoff, are finally living your dream life in WestView. It was perfect until the bombs fell.

Word Count: 1.3K

Content: Fallout TV Show and Video Game references. Not a happy ending. I wrote this in like one hour.

Yakety Yak played from the tiny radio resting on the end table next to the couch as Wanda Maximoff, dressed in a red A-line skirt and Oxford shirt, reading through a lifestyle magazine her neighbor Agnes had lent her.

"Wow, is the death rate of single men really that high?" Wanda quietly questioned to herself before you came in through the front door. Sweating and out of breath.

"Gosh, it's a scorcher out there!" You said as you huffed and puffed in the middle of the entryway to the house. Wanda smiled at your voice and rose. "Let me grab you some water, dear." You smiled as she whizzed by you. Her perfume and infectious personality making you feel hotter all over.

"Honey?" Wanda pulled you from your thoughts as she handed you a tall glass of water. You accepted it and chugged the whole thing before handing it back to Wanda, who only took a single kiss as a form of payment.

"So I take it the lawn is done?" Wanda asked as she came back from the kitchen. You nodded. "It's perfect. Way better than Norm's." You smiled with a goofy grin while Wanda shook her head and chuckled at your stupid rivalry. "I'm sure it is." Wanda stepped behind you and started to push you to the back room. Where your bedroom was. "Now, why don't you take a shower so that way when I kiss you again, I'm not worried about getting a grass stain!"

Wanda was proud of her joke and let the inviable audience loudly laugh at that one. You playfully rolled your eyes and accepted it, but not before reaching out and grabbing your wife's hand.

"You know a shower is only fun if I have help?" You made your eyebrows bounce. Wanda smirked. "Really? You managed yesterday without help, so I think you'll be just fine." She scrunched her nose and began moving you once again. You went to reply, but the doorbell interrupted you. "Shower!" Wanda pointed back with a smile and laughed at your pouty face. But yet you retreated and went to take a shower as Wanda answered the door to a man dressed like a salesperson.

"Hello is this the Maximoff residents?" Wanda clasped her hands over themselves in front of her. "Yes, it is." The man was holding a clipboard and looked at it as he began marking some stuff off. "Okay, great! And there are two of you, correct?" Wanda nodded as she looked over the man.

Who was he?

"I'm sorry, but who are you? Who are you with?" Wanda asked as the man lifted his eyes to her with a smile. "Oh, I'm sorry. Please forgive me." He stuck his hand out. Wanda took it gingerly. "My name is Steve Rogers and I'm here with an opportunity for the future!"

The man was a mix of nervousness and overzealous.

"The future?" Wanda questioned as she looked the man over. Steve cleared his throat before speaking up. "Why yes, Ma'am. You see, Vault-Tec is the foremost builder of state-of-the-art underground Fallout shelters."

Wanda tilted her head with her eyebrows scrunched. She had heard of Vault-Tec, but why was a salesperson at her door? "Vaults?"

Like safes? Wanda wondered.

Steve nodded. "Yes Vaults! Luxury accommodations for you and..." He looked down at his clipboard. "Y/n Maximoff to wait out the horrors of nuclear devastation." Wanda's eyes went wide. "I'm sorry!?"

Steve kept going.

"If you haven't noticed, Ma'am, excuse my language, but this country has gone to heck in a handbasket. Now more than ever, people need to be prepared. The big kaboom is inevitable. Sooner than you may think. If you catch my drift." He said the last part softer and quieter. But he said it with a smile.

Wanda took a step back.

Steve noticed. "Now, now, I know you're a busy woman, so I won't take too much more of your precious remaining time. I'm here to tell you that you and your partner have been selected and pre-approved for our own local Vault. Vault 89!"

Wanda seemed a little surprised but nodded and smiled. She didn't like the feeling that was turning in her.

"Wow, well, thank you!" Wanda politely said while Steve nodded and tipped his hat to Wanda. "Thank you for trusting Vault-Tec with your future!" He turned on his heels and walked with a purpose off the front porch. Wanda watched as the man admired the lawn before hopping into his car.

As Wanda locked the front door, you were leaving the main bedroom. All dressed and clean. "Who was it?" You asked, startling your wife. You looked at her wide-eyed as she shrieked and composed herself before laughing. "Sorry." She said before fast walking to you and wrapping her arms around your body. Your clean smell invading her nose, making her feel better.

"No need to apologize." You replied as you held Wanda. The two of you softly swaying in the middle of the living room. "Are you going to tell me who it was, or do I have to guess?" You kissed the top of Wanda's head. "It was Vault-Tec." She said with her Sokovian accent slipping after she turned her head to face you.

"Vault-Tec? The company Cooper Howard promotes?" Wanda nods to your confused face. "Promoted. But yes. We've been selected for a Vault. Vault 89." Wanda said as she was reading your eyes. "Now, why in the hell were we selected?" You questioned, only to earn a shrug from Wanda. "Maybe only the house with the best lawn gets in," Wanda said as she couldn't hide her bright smile.

"Oh, you think you're funny?" You asked, looking into your wifes green eyes. She nodded. "I saw him admiring all your hard work before he left." She squeezed and poked your arms as she said it.

You laughed and untangled yourself from Wanda as you brought the two of you to the couch. "Well, I guess that means the Vault will be free of Norm." Wanda threw her head back and slapped your arm at your comment. "Honey!"

You chuckled before flipping on the TV. A weatherman was complaining about how hot the rest of the summer would be for WestView before a producers ran on screen and the broadcast suddenly cut. A singular tone and a screen that read Please Stand By followed.

Wanda's smile faded fast, as did yours.

It can't be.

"No, no, no," Wanda whispered as her voice broke and quivered. You immediately rose and went to the window. You didn't see anything through the shudders until it was all white.

What followed was smoke and fire.

The glass broke and sent debris flying above you as you protected Wanda.

"But this is our home!" Wanda screamed as you tried lifting her.

It was real. It was happening. Fallout was coming.

Wanda thrashed about in your arms as she didn't want to leave the house you and her worked so hard for. She has the deed that you bought hanging above her bedside table. Pictures of family scattered around the house. Your music collection and hidden snacks would be forgotten to time. You didn't want to leave either. But you needed to survive. You couldn't do this without Wanda.

"Wanda, please let's go!" You yelled as the noise outside was growing louder and more chaotic. But only one thought processes through your wifes head as Wanda escaped from your hold and runs into the bedroom. Returning out of it moments later with one thing in her hand.

With tears running down her face, she opens your hand and placed it down. "Wanda..." You flip the plastic stick over before the air left your throat. "You're..." Wanda nodded and cried harder.

She was pregnant.

Tears fell onto the carpet below your feet as you brought yourself closer and kissed Wanda.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

You did everything you could to get Wanda to the Vault that day. Through crowds of panicked people. Through the incompetent security of Vault-Tec. Through the white flash of another bomb being dropped.

The two of you made it.

But that same day was the last time you saw Wanda before she was separated from you at the Vault checkpoint.

You don't remember anything after that until today.

Time passed. She's not here anymore.

So, as the doors open and the sun blinds as you stand dressed in blue and yellow, you're prepared to find Wanda and your children. Whatever it takes.

You're prepared for Fallout.

dividers by @/benkeibear

[nightowl33art]

How To Make A Toxicsona- A Master Post!

!This page may update over time! So I was looking at my inbox and noticed I got sent an ask. Likely due to site bugs, I was not able to answer directly, but I'm sure the asker will be able to see this post.

Hello Anon! Firstly, thanks for the fun ask! Keep in mind this post will apply to most toxicsonas. I'll be using my own designs and process as examples. What I recommend does NOT have to be followed. In the end it's your design and it should be for fun most of all. I'm just presenting what the "ideal and average Phisnom toxicsona/toxic blob oc" should have.

For those tuning into this lengthy post with no idea what I'm on about, I'll be excerpting the toxicsona submission form Phisnom/Phil made for his toxicsona review streams. (Phil being the leader of the Toxic Cesspit community, though you don't have to be in it to make one if you just feel like it.)

(Despite "sona" being in the name, a toxicsona does NOT have to be representative of you! Toxicsonas can also be regular ocs!) Now to the advice!

1. READ UP!

Read the Toxicsonas For Dummies character guide! This image contains all the basic lore and traits for toxicsonas! What I say going forward may reference it. (Reading may also give you some fun ideas!)

You should also peep this from the toxicsona submission form:

In order to have a toxicsona you need* a:

Dark body for a base with accents (ie lines) that must be neon/brightly colored.

Mouth(s) with sharp teeth. Ideally will have at least one extra mouth somewhere on the form.

Unique pattern image for the body.

*You may not need it but it's more or less what makes a toxicsona a toxicsona. I'll be going over each point in detail later!

2. Purpose

What purpose will your blob fill? Are you creating an oc, a sona for yourself, or something else? This will affect what you create and how. If you have a preexisting design/sona you want to toss into the slime, reference off that design! Use what you know about that character/person to create this new form!

Starting from scratch? What I do is come up with a basic idea to concept off of! Think of something you want to design! If you need help, try using one of the countless idea generators out there or put your head together with others and see what you come up with! Moodboards, playlists, and Pinterest albums also serve well! Whatever type of brainstorming gets your inspiration bug flying, go for it!

Regardless, one thing to make note of is who was this design in life? Most blobs were once living beings. They all come from a liquid superorganism called The Substance. When a living being with a consciousness foreign to the slime (like a person) is absorbed into The Substance, it'll be spit out and reanimated anew if it has a strong will. Your blob must've been alive or had a connection to living things. Then it must have undergone some sort of transformation after making contact with The Substance. Asking who your blob was before the slime will be very helpful!

3. Body

You likely either have an idea of what your design will be, or you're jumping headfirst into the doing part. Either is okay! Everyone's process is different. If your design is based off a preexisting one, you're likely to make the new form into a similar shape. Some things to think about when coming up with a body:

A slime body is meant to reflect the ideal self. What are your toxicsona's ideal traits? If you're making a sona, what are YOUR ideal traits?

What were they when alive? Were they a feral stray cat? A human? You may want to stick to a shape that resembles their former appearance, especially if they are in denial of being a slime.

Who were they when alive? Did they like a certain animal a lot? Give them physical traits of said animal! Maybe your toxicsona wanted freedom, so they develop the wings they always envisioned. Maybe they believe they were a terrible person and so deserve the devil horns on their head. Were they two-faced? Give them two faces!

Is this the only form they have? Do I want to add a simplified blob form? Do I want to make a bigger/smaller form? If my character has an alter ego disguise, should I make a form for it?

(Most toxicsonas have a simplified little blob form, reflecting what they looked like at default after The Substance. They're super cute and puntable!)

How much mass do they have? The more mass a blob has, the more they have to work with physically, the more developed they are. What appendages have they formed with this mass? Many toxicsonas lack legs, including Phi himself, who is simply too lazy to use legs. Why your blob does/doesn't have legs can have a reason too!

What colors are they? Common dark colors for the majority of the body include black, gray, and dark shades of any given color (ex dark blue.) The neon can be just about any color! If the design is a sona, pick your favorite color(s)! Keep the color vibrant- it's supposed to stand out from the dark color! Your slime will always be surrounded by a dark/black outline around the very edge.

Where's the extra mouth(s)? The best designs have a mouth placed with thought, but not all are. Thoughtfully placed mouths have significance to the toxicsona. Scars/important wounds on their living body can become mouths. Perhaps if they were a gluttonous or starved person, you'll put a mouth on their belly to represent their hunger. If they're anxious about their mouth or general appearance, maybe it's hidden. (Ideally let the mouth be visible. It's visually appealing.)

(Dutch's extra mouth is on his back. Wings were always a big part of him, both appearance and story-wise, so the mouth emphasizes that. His wings come out of the mouth like tongues!)

Being a cartoonist, we're personally big on shape language and like to have designs with strong, recognizable silhouettes, but you do not have to do this.

Some advice on basics for drawing your slime!

Here's how I create the lineart, clothing coloring, and the outline that surrounds the blobs. (Some steps may be done at the same time or skipped entirely. This is the Nightowl 33 method so your mileage may vary.)

Draw lineart.

Alpha lock lineart layer. Recolor it to neon color.

Clip new layer on lineart. Color clothes black.

New layer for body color.

Move body color layer under lineart.

Color body colors. (I clip different clothing coloring layers on the main color layer. This main base color layer gets colored black when ready.)

Make a folder. Place all lineart, lineart coloring, and all body coloring layers in the folder.

Add a dark color outline in a layer beneath the folder. (I use the "stroke (outer)" tool in my art program, ibisPaint X.)

How I draw eyes!

Draw eye lineart.

New layer, clip on lineart layer, draw dark circle.

Layer sclera coloring under lineart layer.

Add pupil layer below lineart layer and above sclera layer.

(Coloration used to show different steps/parts of the eye!)

(Without the weird example coloring, your end result should look like this!)

4. Pattern

Much like how everyone has their own unique fingerprint, every toxicsona with a well defined identity develops their own unique pattern. Coming up with the right pattern is tricky! Patterns are made up of symbols, lines, or a combination of. They have a rhyme and reason to them. A pattern to the pattern, so to speak.

(Here's a bunch of example patterns, created by me (sometimes with the help of CrystalKleure), or Phil and StupidButterfly. Stare at them for a while and take some notes on what rhythms you recognize.)

For maximum appeal, your pattern cannot be too complex or simple! Try to select 2-4 symbols/lines to create your pattern. These symbols/lines should be thematically relevant to your blob. Ex: A spiderweb pattern for spider-themed toxicsonas, checker pattern for a blob that likes checkers/chess, a UFO for an alien slime, eyes for an angel slime or a slime that loves/fears being watched! (You may also want to reference off the emotion patterns if your blob is heavily associated with an emotion. Ex: sparkles for a very happy/excited slime!)

Feel free to pick basic shapes, like triangles and circles, for one or more symbols.

Create a few variants of your chosen symbols. Draw them big, medium, and small. Fill some of them, leave others empty/"hollow."

Patterns are seamless! This means when you apply a pattern to your toxicsona's clothing or body, it must be able to consistently loop! While you may wing it, below is a handy lifehack to easily make a seamless tiling pattern by @crystalkleure !

1. Draw a base design 2. Split that design in half, and arrange the two halves like this. [You might want to use guide lines/a guide grid to make sure the pixels line up in such a way that these two halves will stitch back together correctly, so they'd make clones of the base image again if you were to tile sets of these halves horizontally.] 3. Stitch the two halves together by adding more to the design 4. Split the image again like you did in step 2, except this time split the top and bottom apart instead of the sides. 5. Add more stuff to the design again, in any way that crosses the "seam" made by step 4 [where the top of the bottom half meets the bottom of the top half]. And if you lined up the pixels correctly while you were splitting and rearranging the chunks, you now have an image that tiles seamlessly both horizontally and vertically. The trick is just splitting an image into halves, swapping those halves' places, and then adding more to the image to hide the seam made by splitting and rearranging parts of it like that. Do it with the sides and you get a horizontally-tiling image, do it with the top and the bottom and you get a vertically-tiling image, do it with both the sides and the top + bottom and you get an image that tiles in all four directions.

Here's a speedpaint where I make a pattern using this method! While creating, double checking that your pattern looks good when looped is important! Don't forget to experiment with placements!

(Wow! What a cool pattern!)

Your pattern doesn't have to be insanely unique, hell you don't even HAVE to have one, but it's honestly better if you come up with one. There's no reason NOT to have a pattern unless it's for lore reasons, such as a confused identity or a mimic character. (Do NOT copy others' patterns and make them your own, especially without permission!)

(Phee, Pho, and Phum have the same default pattern as Phi because they're copycat scammers! They try to convince others they're related to Phi to get what they want.)

Gradient and pattern application!

Now you may want to give your slime a gradient! Gradients tend to appear on the lower halves of blobs but can be placed anywhere! Below is a guide to show how I apply the pattern and gradients to the body! While defaults apply to many toxicsonas, like Phi, they do not have to be followed.

Clip pattern layer over body color layer. (Pattern transparency default is 47%.)

New layer (add mode), place under pattern, clip over body color layer. Draw gradient. (Gradient transparency default is 40%.)

Alpha lock the pattern layer.

Airbrush the upper half pattern layer with the dark body color.

The pattern is often the same color as the neon lineart, while the gradient is often a darker version of the color.

(Weird bright green coloration used to emphasize the layers clipped onto it.)

(The finished gradient, sans weird example coloring, looks just like Phi's!)

Here's how to apply a pattern to clothing! Create a new layer with the pattern. Clip it to your base. (Pattern layers on clothes are usually somewhat transparent. The default is 65% but you can deviate.)

5. Outfit

Clothing is a HUGE self expression that extends to the world of toxicsonas! Blobs can harden mass they acquire, turning it into wearable cartilage clothing! Below are some tips but the bottom line is DESIGN WHAT YOU WANT.

Who they were before the slime often heavily influences their outfit(s). Ex, if your blob was a clown when alive, they may dress the same as a slime.

You'll often find the body pattern on the clothes, but you don't have to do this.

A popular addition to blob fashion is caution/hazard tape! While often black and yellow, feel free to deviate the colors.

(A bunch of fashionable slime outfits with caution tape themes that I made or had a hand in making!)

Phil does not like hoodies on toxicsonas but you can totally join the #hoodiesweep nation. (It would be super funny.) That aside, many do put their blobs in hoodies, so avoiding a standard hoodie is preferable if you want to make a super unique design.

You don't have to give your blob any clothes, especially if they're non-humanoid. Accessories are still recommended to personalize your design and make it stand out from an average ...whatever it is.

Unlike the rest of the slime body that has colored lineart, clothing almost ALWAYS has black/dark color lineart.

Any slime overlapping atop non-slime materials requires a black outline, including over clothing.

(While the consistency of this rule varies with established toxicsona art (ie Phi), I personally try to apply it as much as possible, even when slime overlaps slime. It makes things look nicer and allows the neon lines to stand out more. It's also easier to make out what's going on when looked at.)

Misc. tips!

Bananas are the main unit of measurement in the cesspit! Giving your blob a height can help people draw them to scale, especially when drawn next to other blobs! To get the accurate height: 1. Conjure a length of your choice. 2. Convert your length to inches (in). 3. Divide the inches by 7. (Because 7 inches is the average length of a grocery store banana.) 4. Congrats! You have banana height! Now you can also reverse the order and get standard heights!

Too gay or lazy to do math? Click here for faster conversion! http://bananaforscale.info/#!/ (Note the results will be slightly shorter than my method above but the measurements are about the same so who really cares about that.)

Come up with a backstory for your toxicsona! If you haven't already made one during the design process, you may want to now! -Consider what life was like before they came in contact with The Substance. How did they feel about their old life? -How did they come in contact with The Substance? (Preferably avoid the basic backstory of accidentally falling into a vat. It's overdone, mainly due to how vague lore was before the toxicsona review streams. I'd suggest letting Phi lure them into the slime or tossing them in, if you want something traditional. Phi's goal is to make a blob army, after all.) -What is their life like now, post-Substance? How do they feel about their new life?

(Canon backstory comic on how Phee, Pho, and Phum became blobs!)

Feeling social? Working with other cesspit members (or your own ocs), you can develop links between your toxicsonas! Make your friend's blob their friend! Or maybe enemy! Why not ship them? GO NUTS????

(Phee is a massive flirt in the cesspit. Mr. Sex/Noctus belongs to @corovusin !)

-Consider how your blob may feel about others. Are they a social butterfly or a shut in? Who do they like? Who would they rather avoid? -What are their thoughts on Phi, the leader? (Generally avoid giving them a super strong, personal bond with Phi, such as relatives, best friends, or close partners of any kind. Phi does not have a family and she's a total bitch to just about everyone!) -Phil says there's no love in the cesspit but he's literally just a hater. Make your ocs gay kiss!!

Feel like cooking a little more? Why not design a pre-slime form if it doesn't already exist?

(Phee and Phum before their fatal scam attempt on Phi.)

Many cesspit users also create a "living disguise" form for their toxicsonas, so the slimes can wander among others without rousing suspicion! Blobs have the ability to learn to shapeshift. It's a skill that must be mastered with experience and time, so disguise forms often have "flaws" that give away an inhuman quality, like extra mouths, eyes, patterns, or gradients on their skin.

(Dutch is very good at shapeshifting, so his disguise lacks most flaws. The flaws that are there are mostly intentional, since he's proud of his slime qualities. A blob who perfects the skill of shifting can look like an ordinary human, but where's the fun in that?)

Most toxicsonas can change color based on emotion. (They may also change based on other factors so feel free to get creative with it.) -As a slime has a base pattern and color of choice, these will change based on their mood and that mood's assigned color! Many toxicsonas share patterns and colors with Phi (like red and triangle pattern for mad, blue and flowered squiggles for sad, etc.) but this is not a rule. You can assign any color to any mood. You are not limited to Phi's emotion set either! You can even make your own patterns for your blob's moods if you feel like it! -Some color changes are very subtle in some slimes! Is this true for yours? -Modifying the design of your blob to match their mood is a fun way to create expressive and interesting variants!

(Dutch's hair, horn shape, halo, face, and hands can change with his mood! He has an array of emotional patterns, both preset and custom-made, to match the different colors/moods.)

(When Goober was alive, they had DID. Mimicking the behavior of their former life, the three alters, Ziggy, Skrunk, and Wumbus, became separate blobs. They still need to work together to function properly. They combine to bodily become "Goober." Goober's left eye functions as a collective eye, while their right eyes that can emote separately reflect their respective alter.)

(Goober's default color is green, indicating all alters are co-fronting. When there is a primary fronter or two, the upper body color changes to match!)

Design a shell for your toxicsona! Shells are foreign objects blobs use, often to live, sleep, or hide in. Shells are protective. ANYTHING can be a shell. Not all toxicsonas need one, but those that do often have a thematic shell that relates to who they are. (Ex: Phi-barrel, Bucket-bucket, Collette-chocolate box.)

(Thanks to his angelic theming, Dutch's shell is a reliquary- a display container for holy relics, often being remnants of holy figures. Goober's shell of choice is a mini UFO!)

Stuck? Want to grow your design with less work? Collaborate with others or take their advice if you like what they give you. Ask people what they'd change about your design!

You should NOT be designing just for the approval of Phisnom, You should design for YOURSELF (or whoever is paying you- I see you, adopt/custom ppl.) He's just another person out there. Yes, a creator of the species, but he does not have to dictate your choices or give your design an S tier ranking just to validate it. The satisfaction should come from inside, not outside.

Hope these tips help, best of luck creating your own toxicsona, and feel free to ask any additional questions regarding this! ✌️ Open to suggestions/new info on this post too, just send it my way

[aris-has-a-paracosm]

ArisArisArisAris Aris Aris please I'm begging you canwe see wips for Deepfrost drawing

please please please can we be permitted a tiny glance inside the brain of tumblr artist aris-has-a-paracosm?

Yes can do! <3 Here’s a little bit about my art process for the Deepfrost art :)

So here’s a screenshot from the sketch. (It wasn’t completely done at the time, but it’s the only screenshot I still have of that part.)

I sketch in any color other than black so I can more easily see my lineart later, and red is often what I default to. I also had two-point perspective grid lines set up, but I didn’t really adhere to them. As you can see, DF’s face did undergo a little bit of editing before the lineart happened. I opted to go for a toothy grin rather than the open-mouthed smile he originally had here.

Speaking of lineart:

Regardless of what brush I use, I always make sure that my lineart connects neatly to itself for each part of every drawing (separate lineart layers for each component.) There’s no gaps anywhere, so it makes it to where I can easily use an inverse selection to put a base color layer directly beneath. My base layers are always in gray going from lighter in the background to darker in the foreground.

Next up was rendering the background:

This is- … this is definitely a “rest of the heckin’ owl” kinda thing XD. The buildings were in three layers with the windows drawn in vertical lines and then erased in horizontal lines.

Here’s a gif to show that? Please excuse my atrocious Timelapse quality :’)

Once the windows were all on there, I used alpha lock on the layer and then just randomly recolored windows based on reference photos of cities at night. Once the windows were done, I used some airbrushing for ambiance.

Next up was the base colors for the foreground:

Here, I was mainly focused on the outfit and ice detail. All of this was important to get the way I wanted pre-render, and absolutely nothing about lighting was considered here.

Afterwards was DF’s rendering:

I had two separate shadow layers and one light layer, keeping my light source and his three-dimensionality in mind the whole time. Here was where I also did lineart recoloring and cleanup.

And then all I had left was to render the ice, the rooftop, and add the snow! I don’t fully know how to explain this part either, but I primarily used a soft airbrush and a medium nozzle spray paint brush as well as an eraser in both of those settings as well.

So yeah! That’s the basics of my art process! I like to joke that when I draw, my brain lives in my hands so I don’t think too much about the process while drawing. I had a lot of fun with this and hope you liked seeing the process :D

[yuseirra]

Seriously though, it’s so, so strange… Really strange.

What’s odd is that, just now, I opened the manga to reference it for my work, and I’m thinking… Why do I still feel like Ai chose the best possible person among those she could have? Even after seeing everything that became of him?

Why do I still feel like she found someone truly good—someone absolutely worthy of love? If I were the writer, I’d want Ai to meet such a person. So emotionally, I can accept this, but looking at how the story is unfolding, I’m confused about how it’s supposed to make sense. I want it to end this way, and emotionally, I’m convinced it will. But logically, it’s hard to imagine what path the story will take to get there.

How can I still be so strongly convinced that Ai’s boyfriend, at his core, has one of the most genuinely good personalities in the entire series? No one’s ever told me he was a good person. In fact, there’s been a lot of negative impressions about him, but somehow, this feeling pushes through all of that. How?

I can’t shake the thought that someone with a nature like his couldn’t just twist like this on his own.

There were bad circumstances, despair, incredibly poor luck, and the guilt he’s carried—sure, that’s all there. And narratively, it makes sense. He’s written in a way that he couldn’t help but deeply, deeply love Ai, so after her death, of course, he wouldn’t be okay. How could he be?

But something else pushed him beyond the point of normal breakdown. It feels like something shattered him far more than what he could have endured naturally. It’s as if something made him lose his mind completely. It’s too strange. Why do I feel this way?

But when the line about him having a “noble soul” came up, I accepted it immediately. I thought, of course. It felt so obvious to me that I wondered why it hadn’t come up sooner. It was exactly what I expected.

Ai really did find someone who wanted to be with her forever, someone truly good. I am convinced yet again. That feeling strikes me really strongly.

But how did he end up like this? I have some ideas, but I can’t know what the author has in mind. And no matter how much a reader tries to predict a series still in progress, ultimately, it’s up to the author, right?

He’s barely appeared in the story, yet why do I feel so strongly about this?;;; Why do I feel like this? But I’m still relying on that feeling when I draw fan art.

It’s so strange…

He’s an extraordinarily kind person, I think? but… this is strange. Why do I feel this way after seeing everything?;;; What’s going on? Why am I like this?

The good thing is, with a personality like that, I know I can handle him well. I always love these types of characters, so drawing him would be fun. But really… is this right? I mean, he’s someone who is accused of having killed many people and even tried to kill his own daughter—how could this feeling even be correct?

One more thing I’ve noticed—if just two or three good things had happened to him along the way, Kamiki wouldn’t have ended up so broken.

When I think about what the author is trying to show by completely destroying a character who was once so gentle…

I think I get it. There could be a message that can be derived from it, if I'm inferring things right. But… I’m not sure because I'm not the writer themselves, so… haha.

Ah, if I couldn’t sense anything, I’d just shut off my brain and go along with whatever, I wouldn't care at all. I keep feeling like I see something faint, though, so I keep talking about it. But since there’s no certainty, I feel like I’m making a fool of myself.

Ah. Really… I rarely misread these kinds of things. He’s such a fundamentally good person… I wish they’d show more clearly how he ended up like this. He’s worth studying. Since both of the authors are so skilled in psychological portrayal, I’m sure they’ll express this in a way that makes sense. I feel like I could predict it, but it’s still too vague for me to say.

These intuitions are so hard to explain. But they’re usually right. I don’t get these things wrong often… So for now, I’m just writing it down because feelings are fleeting and I would think of different things at different time. These little notes live in the now.

[aotopmha]

In celebration of spoiler embargo lifting I want to talk about probably my favourite dungeon in Dawntrail so far and how it examplifies the shift in dungeon design while also being really cool narratively.

This dungeon is Tender Valley.

First, I think this might be one of the few dungeons in the game I absolutely love all of the bosses from on a gameplay level.

Barreltender flexing between attacks is super fun, but almost all of his attacks being broadening AoE effects makes him a really fun dance. You have just enough time to react to them.

I think the exploding cactusses are the hardest to dodge because the safe spot is so specific and fairly small, but you never have too much downtime and always have to pay attention somewhat.

It's a great example of bosses being more engaging, rather than necessarily "harder" and I think a great fresh take on a classic Final Fantasy enemy.

Anthracite, on the other hand, has a really interesting dance that you need to read your environment for solving.

There are the obvious big AoE bombs, but there are also two different shapes of holes that lead to the labyrithine sewer system.

If a bomb falls into the round opening on one side, the attack will go through the round openings on one side of the arena.

If the bomb falls into the square hole on the other side, the attack will go through the square holes you can see on the other side of the arena.

It took me a bit to figure out there were two different shapes, but combining this with the base AoE can make for a little more involved dance, since, once again, you can't sit still for long.

This boss is a great example of also testing your environmental awareness in a little more of an inventive way than maybe some other encounters.

As you move towards the third boss, the environment changes and enemies styled after the Skydeep Cenote.

Or are they?

And then there's an interesting mob situation where you enter a room, which the mob essentially uses to attack with lasers while you have to use the walls in the room to dodge them.

But just like with Skydeep Cenote, the reference point is now pretty obvious.

This is strangely similar to some of the mobs and contraptions in Qitana Ravel.

And who else is the final boss, but the Greatest Serpent of Ron-Tural!

Yes, Tural!

I has such a grin on my face when I saw it.

It's a great punchline if you've done at least even the starting part of the questline in Rak'tika with Quinfort and his dreams suddenly fit perfectly within lore. He just had dreams of The Source.

It's like a perfect capstone to that questline.

I suspected the Ronkan connection the moment I saw Y'Shtola with those tablets in the trailer, but considering the Ronkan principles of "history being learned, not remembered" and in turn their similarity of the Yok Huy's principles of "we die when we are forgotten", it all falls into place in a great way.

Very smooth ties here. Now that we have this setup all nicely established, I wonder what else they plan to do with it.

It's "minor" enough on its own that it can just stay as a fun bit to further confirm Source/Shard connections, but I feel like Ronkans and the Yok Huy just might have some more important lore stuff coming.

We have the Shard travel plot line with Unukalhai and Cyella and the 13th and Ryne and Gaia also still truly looking to restore the First.

I'm curious if Rak'tika might just become extremely important regarding these plots now since we have this clear connection.

But this also is an optional dungeon.

We'll see.

To finish off talking about the dungeon itself, though, The Greatest Serpent of Ron-, I mean Tural, combines the two aspects of engagement of the previous two bosses.

You have the reactive aspects with reading the Bouncy Council (great name) and the various AoEs and the environmental aspect with Greatest Labyrith, where you have to find the correct path of arrows out of the maze.

I think there are varying solutions for the maze, but I'm not entirely sure. It's another great call back to Rak'tika, though.

I enjoyed the puzzle solo duties a bunch and I still think they're some of the more cool and unique ones from the game.

It's a very specific kind of "great" to me.

Some are really great at specifically gameplay/story integration (Amaurot, Dead Ends), some have really great set pieces/bosses (Matoya's Relict, Bardam's Mettle) and some just combine some really cool important "side" lore elements with great bosses (The Twinning).

Tender Valley feels like a Twinning moment to me where technically it is all "side" stuff, but not really because it is still connected to pretty important big picture stuff.

I'm curious what they'll do with it. And honestly okay with the answer is "nothing much", but I also don't buy it wouldn't have more importance in some way.

[carlyraejepsans]

I really respect your dedication to these characters and the fine nuances in writing them with pinpoint accuracy but lord it must be really really hard to find any amount of fanfics by people who feel the same and don't unintentionally do something kinda ooc once that makes you stop reading a story. With short comics and art and whatever you have to go out of your way to mischaracterize characters since there's not a ton of internal substance, they're just kissing or telling a line of dialogue, but with fic it's so descriptive and so much more thought on how a character's inner workings carry on, and I feel a lot of people have fun writing fanfiction in a way that does not result in 100% accurate characterizations because that would take so much continual, constant effort and very thorough character analysis skills and applications to get right pretty much all of the time. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say beyond it must be tough for you specifically to find stories that don't annoy you- or perhaps that is not accurate! I don't read much fic so I don't know, it just seems like it'd be exhausting from an outside perspective

BAHAHAHA the eternal struggle of the Hater. I'm kind of obsessed with how you described it here. You're mostly correct! And kind of missing a crucial detail at the same time.

It's true, it is extremely difficult to find fanfiction that agrees with me--especially for a fandom like Undertale with 1) a very young audience and 2) a very heavily character-centric form of storytelling, which inevitably results in nuanced personalities that are hard to grasp without full context (which means analyzing the canon... a lot!)

There's two very important things you should note though!! Undertale is a HUGE fandom. As hard as finding really accurate fics might be, they ARE out there, and when i find them I'm so invested in their accuracy and analysis that I enjoy them 10000 times more than someone who just... doesn't think about this stuff. It's about quality over quantity.

The other thing is: being this ""picky"" and analysis focused doesn't actually stop me from reading fanfiction. Just lately I've been going through the entire fandom tag on ao3 in reverse alphabetical order and trying out anything that doesn't immediately put me off via tags/summary. Is there a lot of stuff that reads ooc or that I just plain don't like? like, a LOT of it? absolutely. But at the end of the day, that ALSO becomes an exercise in analysis. Why did this portrayal come off as ooc? Was the character voice accurate to canon? If not, what made them differ? Was it the way the character acted, rather? Is this the author's bias or exaggeration? Why do I feel like it would be at odds with the person they are in canon? Would they ever be driven to behave like this? What would push them? Was that accurately justified in this fic? and so on.

it's true that engaging with fandom on the regular can heavily skew your perception of the original, but i feel that engaging with fanon and habitually returning to the canon as a point of reference, as contrast, as fact checking, is one of the best ways to truly understand both the characters and the fan communities that they gathered around them. overall, it's good fun!! well worth the occasional cursed content, and even then it gives me something to inflict psychic damage on my friends with.

[zerobaseonefics]

ZB1 : falling asleep on them (middle line version)

ZB1!middle line (matthew, taerae, ricky) x gn!reader (hyung line here)

genre : fluff

warnings : maybe i implied that reader does not love taerae back.............

note : bro i struggled writing this cuz i was going out of ideas and was too lazy to write anyways...... bUT HERE IT IS. (clap for me plz) hope y'all will like it 🤭

• matthew

the music was playing loudly at that party you went that night.

sitting on the couch, talking loudly with matthew over the music, keita knew it was time for him to get up and leave. he noticed how matthew's eyes were no longer on him, and he saw how his friend's face lit up. the japanese man didn't have to look at the person coming to them : it was you. and there was no way in hell he would sit down and thirdwheel you two.

the oldest gave a friendly tap on matthew's shoulder, getting up. matthew eyes finally landed on him.

"where you going?" he asked, confused.

keita didn't have to answer, matthew would forget about it pretty easily. it was already done, as his eyes fell on you again while keita left. a sparkling grin on your face, you made your way to your boyfriend. mirroring your smile, he reached your hand with his own, pulling you toward him to make you sit on his lap sideways.

"'i'm so tired", you whined as you let your head crash onto his shoulder. matthew chuckled, bringing one of his hand on your head to ruffle your hair.

"you don't seem tired, though" he replied. you could see why he would think you weren't, considering you were having fun with your friends just now and came to him with the biggest smile and energy. however, you really were tired. resting your head on his shoulder, you let your eyes shut close as he started playing with your hair.

feeling your breathing becoming more steady and calm, matthew knew that you were falling asleep.

"should i sing you a lullaby?" he playfully proposed. you chuckled.

"i think there's enough music like that", you replied, referring to the loud music playing. matthew only kissed the top of your head as an answer. little by little, you felt yourself falling into morpheus' (or at least matthew's) arms. and matthew is probably gonna rant to keita tomorrow and tell him about how amazing you are for being able to sleep despite the music.

• taerae

it was definitly not your day. this morning, you arrived late to school because you missed your alarm after a night where you couldn't sleep. it was already enough to ruin your day. however, things didn't stop there. you got a bad grade on a test you were confident you aced, you forgot your lunch at home, and now it was raining as you were waiting for the bus to come with your friend, taerae.

"can you believe this? i feel like the world is against me, right now" you spit as taerae was patiently listening to you complaining. his hand was on top of your head, as a poor attempt of protecting you from the rain because none of you had an umbrella.

"even the bus is late! and it's raining."

"i know, y/n, but look. the bus is coming", he said, his finger pointing the end of the street where you could see the bus at the stop before the one you were at.

you sighed heavily. taerae looked at you, biting his inner cheek as he was worried about you. it was not only because you were in a bad mood, but because he knew you barely slept that night. it was evident you were losing it mostly because you were exhausted. the bus finally came and taerae let you get on it first before following you.

it seems that life was finally on your side as you found two places where you could sit with taerae. you sat next to the window as the bus started again. once again, you sighed thinking about how long the ride to your home was. you were feeling tired, so you decided to rest your head against the window... but soon enough, you gave up because it was shaking when the bus was moving. shyly, taerae tugged on your sleeve to get your attention.

"i can lend you my shoulder if you want to take a nap."

"lend me your shoulder?" you repeated, confused.

"yeah...?"

"what if people see us and get the wrong idea?"

"well, you can sleep on your friend's shoulder, i don't know what's romantic about it.."

you looked at taerae with confusion. wouldn't it be weird if you sleep on his shoulder? but as he said, it could also be a friendly thing. you just didn't want to deal with your classmate teasing you two. however, the urge to sleep was stronger than this, and you just decided to let your head rest on him as he froze. "thank you", you muttered to him as you made yourself comfortable. he didn't even dare to respond, looking away to act like he was not absolutly freaking out over how close you were to him. taerae played with his own fingers nervously, while still doing his best not to move so you can sleep easily.

after a few minutes, you already passed out on his shoulder, and he linked his arm to yours to make sure you wouldn't fall forward (he's a liar and just wants to be close to you.)

• ricky

after a fight of exactly twenty minutes and twelve seconds, ricky ended up losing. you wanted to do have a movie night with him, but he was against it. everytime you two did that, you always fell asleep around the middle of the first movie, leaving him alone when you two where supposed to hang out together.

when the blonde boy saw you laying on the couch to put your head on his lap, he categorically refused, knowing it was just gonna make you fall asleep faster. but who was he to say no? in fact, you became kind of a spoiled brat because of him, considering the fact he always said yes to anything you'd ask him.

but accepting his defeat didn't mean he was wrong. he was absolutly right about you, because the first movie was reaching its end and you were peacefully sleeping with your head on his lap for more than twenty minutes now. if he found it annoying at first, the feeling of displeasure was now replaced by a new one.

people always see ricky as an intimidating boy, but little did they know he was pretty much far from this. delicatly, his fingers reached your face, caressing each of your features in admiration. he was struck dumb with love as his lips slowly started to form a small smile. but no matter how soft he felt looking at you asleep on him right now, ricky will not lose the opportunity to complain about it tomorrow.

[my-hybrid-moments]

bubble wrap - danny jones

a/n: i'm soooooo sorry for how long this took!!!

this was so sad to write but oml i LOVE it !! tysm for the request @sejanusxfan i hope its okay !!

i would just like to point out that bubble wrap hurts my fucking soul SO MUCH

but we <3 it

i also <3 lyric fics they're the most fun thing EVER i might do more if yall dont object 👀

as of now my requests are closed temporarily - i'll make a brief post on this soon to explain more!! i'm working on requests that have already been sent in however (all of them are coincidentally dougie poynter so get ready 🫡)

(yall also might be getting a harry judd fic bc i feel like writing one, my boy is criminally underrated ,, yall also might get a tom one so i can write for each of the boys at least once bc dougie is next on my list <3)

love yall !!

summary

danny jones break up angst (fem!unnamed character, referred to with she/her pronouns) featuring comfort from tom fletcher aka david walliams' worst nightmare 🫡 (harry and dougie also make a brief appearance)

warnings/things to consider

(attempted) angst, burning shit with fire,, also js consider the fact that this is very poorly written ,, i had a wicked wave of the flu the entire time i was writing this 😭

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

"I wish I could bubble wrap my heart"

if someone asked danny to guess what his girlfriend was doing before he stepped foot in the door, he wouldn't have got it right. he'd probably say she was taking a nap or something along those lines - he never would've said she was packing her bags.

but that was exactly what she was doing when he got home.

"In case I fall and break apart"

he entered their shared room, confused at the sight of his beloved putting her belongings in a suitcase laid out on their bed.

"what's all this, love?" he asked, unsure what she was doing.

she paused briefly, debating whether or not she could stomach it right now. but she ultimately knew that lying was out of the question by now. this was it.

"I'm not God, I can't change the stars"

she looked up from her things sprawled out everywhere and met his eyes, but the eyes danny was looking into weren't like the ones he knew. no, these were cold, numb eyes - not nearly the ones he'd gotten lost in a million times over, not those warm and inviting eyes he found a home in.

after a moment of silence, hoping he'd get it, she eventually spoke knowing she really did have to explain this.

"i can't, danny."

"you can't what? darling what's going on?" he was evidently putting the pieces together, but the picture he was creating was one he never wanted to see.

"i have to get out of here. out of this. out of us. we're no good, danny. it doesn't work. it's about time we acknowledged that." she spoke not quite in a whisper, but low enough to hear the intention she had.

"And I don't know if there's life on Mars"

danny stood in a shocked stance, not sure what was causing this. had he done something? had he not done something? why were you leaving him all of a sudden?

the contradiction of the two right now was palpable. while she wrapped her valuables in a protective bubble wrap, danny's heart had just been shattered as if it was common, as if it were replaceable, insignificant.

"what are you talking about? why are you doing this?" he said, shakily.

"i have to. i need to just get the fuck out of whatever's making my life a living hell."

danny was taken aback by this. he made your life a living hell? for the life of him he couldn't figure out where he went wrong to ruin your life so much. for a moment, the room fell silent.

"But I know you hurt the people that you love and those who care for you"

"what did i do wrong?" he asked in a quiet, defeated voice.

when she met his eyes again, she was practically unrecognisable. the smile he loved so much was replaced with a resting frown, the eyes he'd got so comfortable losing himself in... long gone. the woman he adored was right there, yet just out of reach.

"you didn't do anything. i just... we're not right together. you know that-"

"no, i don't know that. what i do know," he moved to hold her soft, familiar hands in his own, "is that i love you... i don't understand why you're doing this, why can't we just sit down and- and talk this over... whatever it is, we can fix it, i promise." his voice broke throughout, his emotion clear. "please."

"I want nothing to do with the things you're going through"

there was a pause, hope hanging in the air between them. hope that was soon torn away along with her hands when she took them from his grasp.

"i've made my mind up, danny. i'm staying with my sister until i find somewhere. we're over."

"This is the last time, I give up this heart of mine"

with those words, danny knew she was beyond convincing - but he couldn't let go. he couldn't wrap his head around it. this was it.

they would never share an embrace again, nor another loving, tender kiss. she wouldn't curl into his side for warmth in the night, she wouldn't wrap her arms around him with her chin resting atop his shoulder, she wouldn't take her place in his lap to kiss over his face, she wouldn't be his again.

"I'm telling you that I'm a broken man who's finally realised"

then he thought back to the last few weeks, how distant she'd been. how hadn't he noticed? kisses were short, embraces too. sex was non existent and god only knows the last time they'd went out for date night. he'd suggest it all the time, but she'd always be busy or cancel last minute for some work project or prior plans. he'd say there was no hard feelings, that they'd take a rain check, but deep down it stung. he wanted to love her but she wouldn't let him.

"You're standing in moonlight, but you're black on the inside"

she'd known for a while that they were over and until now danny was completely oblivious. but still he didn't know where he went wrong. it was devastating. it made him upset, it made him confused... but what made him angry was that she had the nerve to cry over it.

"Who do you think you are to cry?"

danny watched in disbelief as she packed the last of her belongings, tears streaming as she did so.

"you're serious? you're crying? you're leaving me and you're crying? its clearer now more than ever - i dont know how i didn't notice before now - but its clear to me that you've known for ages that you were done with me! you were just waiting for the right time but you had plenty of chances to bring it up and fix things, so who do you think you are to cry over this?!" he raised his voice slightly, something he'd never done before, not directed at her anyway. but now it was. every emotion he felt - rage, love, sadness, despair, confusion, anger - it was aimed at her.

"This is goodbye."

when she said nothing, only beginning to let more tears fall from her eyes, danny only saw her as a stranger, trapped in the body of someone he saw his future with. he couldn't stand the sight anymore, so he grabbed his keys and made a run for the door, willing her to be gone for good when he returned. for now he simply drove to the first house he thought of.

"I'm a little dazed and confused"

when he arrived at tom's, his only goal was probably to drink and cry a bit. he wanted someone to prove he was dreaming but he knew he'd never find that, so the drinking and crying was more of a plan b.

he entered right away, not bothering to knock in his flurry of emotion.

tom heard the door open and, knowing it would've been one of his bandmates, made his way out to the hall only to be met with a dazed, confused and slightly disheveled danny jones.

"she's done with me."

"But life's a bitch, and so are you"

once tom had properly brought danny inside and got him sat down, he got a couple of beers and joined him in the living room.

"right, start from the beginning. what happened when you got home?" tom asked, wanting to try and figure this out before anything else.

"i dunno man, i came home and she was already in the bedroom packing her suitcase. she won't tell me what i did wrong, when things went downhill. i don't know where i fucked up," danny's voice cracked as tears finally began to well up in his eyes, "she was just... done with me. like what we had meant nothing."

"she didn't give you an explanation at all? nothing?"

danny shook his head, which in turn broke tom's heart. how could she leave him without even telling him why?!

"All my days are turned into nights"

danny spent days at tom's, knowing the house would be empty when he returned, but couldn't quite find it in him to face it.

they shared that home, and he just knew it wouldn't be the same. her things would be gone, leaving the house feeling empty, and she'd be gone along with her belongings. he wasn't ready to sleep in that bed on his own.

"'Cause living without, without, without you in my life"

the time he spent at tom's was lonely. sure, tom kept him company, constantly trying to cheer him up, but it wasn't filling the hole in his heart where she used to be. he loved her, but he truly resented her too.

"And you wrote the book on how to be a liar and lose all your friends"

she'd been lying to him for months. she knew they were over, but she stayed and led him on, strung him along until she was ready to break his heart. it made him question what else she'd hid, if she'd lied about anything else...

"Did I mean nothing at all? Was I just another ghost that's been in your bed?"

tom and danny were sat in silence one night, before danny broke that with a low whisper.

"did i mean nothing at all...? was i just... a ghost in her bed? something she could phase out?"

tom stayed silent for a moment, feeling his heart ache at his dear friend's words.

"she refused to see the real you, mate. if she did then she wouldn't have left. she made the worst mistake of her life leaving you, she'll realise that soon." at this point, tom was unsure where to take his comfort, having pretty much used it up over the last few days. honestly, he knew nothing he could say would make him feel much different, but he had to try.

"'Cause this is the last time, I give up this heart of mine"

"you need to take time for you, danny, keep your heart for yourself instead of giving it up... we all hate seeing you in such a state. it's not like you at all, mate." tom spoke in concern for his dear friend.

"I'm telling you that I'm a broken man who's finally realised"

"i don't know what she's fucking done to me... she's fucked me up man, i'm broken. i dunno how to fix that." danny replied, defeated.

his breakups before had never been this bad. they never had him fucked up like this. he had no idea what was happening to him, why this was so different.

"You're standing in moonlight, but you're black on the inside"

"you need to let her go."

"easier said than done."

"i know," tom continued, "but she's eating you alive. she's completely fucked you up and it's scaring me, its scaring all of us."

"i know that," danny paused, "but i don't know how to let go. that's the problem."

tom sighed, racking his brain to try and find something, anything that could help him let go.

"do you still have anything of hers? anything she got you as a present or anything?"

danny thought for a moment, "probably. why?"

"burn it."

"Who do you think you are to cry?"

"right, what am i doing here then?"

the boys had since made their way outside, joined quickly by harry and dougie who came to watch. tom started up a bonfire while dougie sourced anything in danny's possession that she gave to him.

"you're letting go, that's what you're doing. you're gonna take it one thing at a time and you're gonna burn it all, thus frying any connection left to that heartless snake. and if that doesn't work then tom's got beer in the fridge." harry said matter-of-factly.

danny sighed, not entirely convinced that this would help.

"this is the most stupid thing, it won't work."

"just get it over with!" dougie exclaimed impatiently. he just wanted to watch things burn, the little weirdo. he handed danny the first item, a small note she wrote for him to simply say she loved him.

"this is pointless-" danny started, before the others interrupted with a small repeated chant of 'burn it'.

he knew he wasn't getting anywhere unless he listened, so with that he very hesitantly threw the note into the blaze. a chorus of cheers erupted from his bandmates, tom patting him on the back proudly.

"the goodbye has officially begun."

"This is goodbye"

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

[dichromaticdyke]

hey another thing since my brain is broken and i have an MA in literature i'm gonna analyze the lyrics of "aortic desecration" and "SOS."

under the cut this time since last time my brain vomited a bunch of aotd analysis it went on for way too long sorry.

but seriously i wrote a fuckton here over the course of two sleep deprived sessions, so you'll either think i'm a madman or a divine genius.

okay for simplicity, "aortic desecration" lyrics are gna be in red and "SOS" lyrics r gna be in green. i hope tumblr made those colors distinct enough for ppl with colorblindness.

[intro] we're all going to die [x3] eventually [verse 1] toxic waste, acidic paste degradation crushed by a plane, driven insane mutilation cranial glitch dumped in a ditch gangrenous stitch

this is already a lot. nathan's coming at this with the idea that he has to write the most brutal and fucked up song of all time, so he just reminds everyone of their mortality and lists a fuck ton of ways that might happen (many of which do happen during the performance of this song). but even his point of adding eventually after saying how everyone wil die is interesting—it's like that was also tacked on during the performance like, "yeah but not today please haha." not a whole lot to go into here, except the way the first verse ends.

failure has entered your soul

now first of all, some sources have this line as "madness has entered your soul," but i've only ever heard "failure." and i think that makes sense—before this song even started, nathan realized that he wrote the wrong song but it was too late. i think once he got through the majority of the first verse, he went off-script, so to speak, and instead of singing about death, he started singing about realizing his own failure and mistake and how that was about to lead to the apocalypse. this continues into the next verse

[verse 2] how could you be so fucking naive? you fled for refuge and fell to your knees you spoke the words and brandished your heart you left yourself open to be torn apart, torn apart

hi brendon small i would like some recompense. he's speaking exactly to himself, how he was so naive to think that a song of salvation would be a song of death, how he was running from everyone and tried to do this all on his own. he sang about death because that was what he believed was the only thing he knew how to do, he refused to actually do some introspection and figure out what salvation was. and now here he is.

[chorus] aortic desecration how could i be so wrong? disemboweled publicly this is the dying song [bridge] look out bleed [x8] [chorus] [outro] aortic desecration atrial annihilation pulmonic devestation

so this chorus and the outro are fun for me because they're doing that thing that brutal death bands do where they just throw in a bunch of big words that sound scary and fucked up. and they are! aortic desecration essentially refers to a violation of the heart, since the aorta is the main part of the circulatory system and it's been desecrated. nathan broke his own goddamn heart by doing exactly what he feared—causing the apocalypse. he says as much in asking how he could be so wrong? as for being disemboweled publicly, well, here's what my literature MA ass immediately thought of. in sylvia plath's The Bell Jar, she writes about being suicidal and depressed, and one of the ways she considers killing herself is by disemboweling herself in her bathtub. this also reminded me of the way the god character killed himself in the film Begotten. so my initial thought, as gruesome as it is, is that nathan has kinda metaphorically killed himself in front of the whole world by singing the song that he knew was wrong. historically speaking, disemboweling people while still alive was also a form of torture and capital punishment, so that checks out. then he says "this is the dying song," fully recognizing what he's done. the final lyrics of the song once again refer to fucked up shit happening to the heart, with the atria being your heart's upper chambers, and "pulmonary" referring to your lungs, though typically in the sense of bloodflow.

then of course we get him chanting for the world to bleed, but also proclaiming, "look out." now at first i thought this was just kind of an ad lib—it's not uncommon in music to have lyrics like that that are added just to help the flow but don't actually add much to the content of the words. i don't think this is the case especially when comparing this to "SOS," but for now i'll start by just pointing out that "look out" very easily could've doubled in meaning as being a warning to the world. like, this isn't just fun and games any more—actually look out, you're actually going to die.

as for "SOS"...

[verse] last breath skyward dark sign closing line no time to mend this life take this hand this last time

alright this is pretty straightforward. this is their last chance to get it right, if it isn't too late already. but there's also that line of "skyward," which is the first instance in this song of recognizing the doomstar itself. there's no mention of the doomstar at all in "aortic desecration," which is kinda strange if you think about it. not even in the dying song is there an acknowledgement of why the apocalypse might be happening, mainly because the dying song—once nathan realizes what it is anyway—is primarily about hopelessness and fucking up. why even acknowledge the greater power at work when this is nathan's fault (in the context of the song)? but instead nathan acknowledges that the focus has to be on the doomstar, but also on everyone coming together and standing against this force that is greater than all of them. this song immediately establishes the haste in what they're doing, immediately countering the deflection in the dying song. nathan tried making the dying song work by saying, "we're all going to die eventually," but nathan here has the perspective to realize, no. people will die now, are dying now, it might already be too late to fix this, but dammit they're not giving up yet. [chorus] we're the shadows of the infinite we stand alive we're nothing but the soil of time beasts in the night reach with my open hand bound for all time in the shadows of the blazing star fused, we're the light

"shadows of the infinite" is an acknowledgement of their godlike powers, which they've either been completely ignorant to during the majority of the series or just didn't want to admit (think back to "how can i be a hero?" when none of them wanted to step up and do what they had to do). yet despite this acknowledgement of their divinity, their power, they are also recognizing that they are still just people. they can't do anything by themselves, they have to work with other forces. being "nothing but the soil of time" is a reference to being a gear in the wheel of the klok—clock, time, etc., yet also being "beasts in the night" refers to this unhinged power and danger they still hold. "reach with my open hand" is the most obvious line, with the animation in this scene directly reminding us of nathan's conversation with the whale prophet. once again, a reference to the doomstar, and the final line foreshadows nathan using the dethlights alongside both dethklok and the army of the doomstar. these are the people that must work together with this divine power to take out something greater.

it's also worth noting that while the official line seems to be "fused, we're the light," i can ALSO hear it is "fused with the light." so it can be interpreted either as, nathan and the band and the army of the doomstar all coming together to becoming the light/dethlights, or nathan and the band and the army of the doomstar being fused with the light/dethlights. it's not that much of a difference i guess, but a slight different implication of whether or not they themselves are the light or if the light is a separate entity. [bridge] now rise (rise) [x8] movin' out, movin' out [chorus]

this is the part that convinced me to make this a comparison. this is a direct parallel and contrast to the bridge in "aortic desecration," with calls to bleed being replaced with calls to rise. they even chant it the same number of times, guys idk what to tell you. PLUS there's an echo repeat of "rise" throughout this bridge, and while it could very well be a literal echo, who else wants to believe it was all the other members of dethklok singing it? kinda like the "die, die" in the duncan hills jingle? and then the "ad lib" of "look out" is instead replaced with "movin' out." instead of nathan telling everyone to run away, be watchful, be fearful, he's calling on them to come with him and fight with him.

have i talked enough about how brendon small is a fucking genius?

plus based on a few shots from this performance during aotd, i think toki might have been playing lead. which would be super cool, because this would make this the second song that is confirmed to have toki in the lead, the other being "blazing star."

anyway i've fooled you all because now i wanna talk about "blazing star." i know this song has been out for a decade now and has been analyzed a bunch, but i wanna look at it specifically now with the context of the movie.

first off, before i get into the analysis, i'm pretty sure the performance of "blazing star" at the end of the doomstar requiem never happened. i think it was purely non-diegetic, just like half the songs in this whole opera, but it was presented as a proper dethklok song to symbolize the band being reunited and looking towards their next big hurdle of the actual metalocalypse. my main reason for thinking this is that the idea that dethklok saved toki, wrote this song, performed it for the world while announcing, "hey toki's back and he's okay," is DIRECTLY in contrast with the opening scene of aotd where the band makes their first public appearance since saving toki and a standard dethklok performance trigger's nathan's ptsd. i know metalocalypse isn't known for continuity, but they would've mentioned dethklok having a performance post-rescue. and nathan in aotd is so ready to not face his destiny, there's no way he would write and perform a song about exactly that. he's also adamant that he doesn't sing about hope or life, but that's exactly what "blazing star" is about.

enough preamble let's look at that song.

[verse 1, nathan] the glowing clouds, the diamond's birth the spiral cluster descends to earth the nebulas conspire to bring the signifier and the death of a king

already with more context from aotd, i'm obsessed with this. it's setting up the doomstar and the destiny of the doomstar being either the death of salacia or of nathan. i haven't spoken yet about the parallels between nathan and salacia, that's something that's going to take a WHILE to work out, but the long and short of it is, they're powerful beings who can only achieve their full power when being reunited with four other souls/people. GUYS. they are very clearly meant to parallel each other. knowing now that the doomstar is a portal meant to reunite salacia with the "four souls," it's unlikely that this "death of a king" is inherently meant to refer to salacia, because the doomstar would have to be inherently anti-salacia, which it's not. at that, it seems like this "king" is probably meant to be nathan, or all of dethklok, since it's through their deaths that salacia would be reunited and the metalocalypse would happen. it's hard to tell tbh, the doomstar is a neutral figure—all we know is that it can bring death, and it holds power that other figures can harness.

i'm a man with a tortured sight i fear this dream will end tonight the water beasts continue singing we try to wake but we're not dreaming

THIS i find incredibly fascinating. it's no secret at this point that nathan had been dreaming about the whale prophet for who knows how long, and this is very clearly referring to that. the first line of this section even foreshadows nathan being the only one to remember the night they rescued toki. what i find interesting is the contrast between nathan "fear[ing] this dream will end" but also "try[ing] to wake but [isn't] dreaming." these are directly contradictory at first glance—he's scared of this dream ending, but he also wants to wake up? unless these are two completely different dreams.

the first half of aotd, nathan, pickles, skwisgaar, and murderface aren't rescuing toki, aren't even letting themselves think about him. they're only focusing on partying around the world, and they sing a whole song about how they love being useless billionaires and don't want to be heroes OR regular jackoffs. i think that's the first dream—being DETHKLOK, having no problems, doing whatever they want, that's the dream nathan is scared is ending. because after that night of rescuing toki, of harnessing the dethlights, everything has gotten so real. they can't ignore it anymore.

at the same time, realizing that there are greater forces out there trying to destroy the world, trying to use them to destroy the world, everything with the church of the black klok—that must feel like a dream. that's the dream he wants to wake up from.

he wants to stay in his dream of being rich and powerful, but he doesn't want to be stuck in the dream—the nightmare—of the literal apocalypse.

i'm gonna find you i'm running out of time i gotta play this part this is my lot in life with this power i am endowed the end is coming so bring it on now

again, another reason i don't believe this song was diegetic. this is the first moment of clarity he had about the metalocalypse, about how he had to do something about it, whether he wanted it or not. again, in the beginning of aotd, he had no interest in this. i guess it's possible he went back and forth on that (i wouldn't be too surprised), but again, this is a pretty hopeful message, all things considered. he even says "bring it on" to the fucking apocalypse. tell me again about how you don't write songs about hope, nate. i only buy that if he never wrote and performed this song.

[verse 2, pickles] oh the keeper wields his scythe oh you gotta kiss this life goodbye there is another place beyond we'll meet in time and i will greet you all in the next life, yeah

having pickles sing in general is based, but i've never fully understood why he was in this song. like if anything, this song feels like the kind of ballad that would have EACH member of dethklok sing a little bit, so it's strange to have just pickles and nate. it gets less strange with the hindsight of aotd, where their relationship was the primary emotional focus. but let's actually look at what pickles is saying here. it's pretty standard stuff: death is looming, but if worst comes to worst we'll be together in the afterlife.

i wanna fucking throw up (positive). what was that offdensen said to pickles in aotd? "be a true friend, even if it gets messy." pickles's verse is NOTHING but, "hey nate things are getting bad but i'll always be with you." I'M NOT REACHING THAT'S ALL THIS IS.

[chorus, nathan] the blazing star, it burns so bright the darkened power, the dethly light bring it on now, this is our time we're the new regime, together we'll fight

again, standard stuff. doomstar, dethlights, fighting together. all things considered, this could have been the song of salvation. there's not much i can really say other than the fact that since it wasn't, it must not exist in the metalocalypse world, right?

toki had the solo on this song. i don't have to speculate for that, it's made abundantly clear with the animation in the ending sequence of the doomstar requiem. he had the solo because this whole song is about the band coming together to face something greater than them, and they wouldn't have had the power to do that if they didn't have toki with them. it's also them recognizing the worth toki has in the band—at first, it seemed like his worth was just making skwisgaar play better (that was certainly the implication at the end of "the duel"), but it's greater than that.

let's say i'm right—let's say i'm right and toki also had the lead/solo during "SOS." what does that tell you that toki is granted the opportunity ot have the lead SPECIFICALLY DURING SONGS OF HOPE AND CAMARADERIE?? he, much like murderface, is foundational to the band. murderface is the voice of dissent, toki is the voice of hope.

and let's say i'm wrong, and toki only had a solo during the song that doesn't actually exist. that's fine too, because if "blazing star" is meant to be a symbolic, non-diegetic song, then that still proves my point of toki being foundational to the band ("even if you don'ts do nothings") and, more importantly, their divine power.

wow that was a lot if you got to the end pls like comment and subscribe.

[lovely-showtimes]

soft moments . . . ♡ (part two.)

characters - tsukasa, mafuyu.

type - scenario.

warnings - reader is referred to as handsome once (tsukasa), i wrote all of these in reader's pov but mafuyu's is mostly from her pov just for a bit of fun

a/n - part two, featuring the last two characters i didn't include. i hope you enjoy ~ and here's part one for everyone who missed it and wants to read it!

"Enough, villain scum!" Tsukasa declares, pointing at you with a stern expression. "I shall not let your reign of terror affect this land any longer!"

You let out a low chuckle, smirking in (what you hoped) was a suitably evil way. "Foolish hero... You really.... uh... you really think you can stop me?!"

You point your weapon at him (which was just a spare pencil of Tsukasa's). "You're far too, um, determined! You should've known when to quit! But now, I shall show no mercy!"

Tsukasa shakes his head, pointing his own sword (a.k.a pen) at you in response. "Then neither shall I! Enguarde!"

Tsukasa drops his arm and grins at you, putting his hands on his hips. "That was perfect!! Thank you so much for helping me with that scene, my dear partner!"

You chuckle awkwardly. "Aw, I'm glad I could help... Although, I felt a little out of place next to you. You're basically a professional actor, and I kept forgetting my lines, ehe..."

"Oh, it's fine, really." Tsukasa shakes his head, laughing. "It was enough to help me practice the lines I needed. Also, I'm not sure if I'd say I was professional yet, you know? We only just became freelancers."

"Ah, right," your cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "Sorry! It's just that I forget you're not professional yet sometimes. To me, you're the greatest actor in the whole world!"

Tsukasa suddenly loudly coughs and turns away, covering his face with his hand. That didn't stop you from seeing the red hue overtaking his face.

"I-I mean, um, of course I am! I, ah, I'm certainly the most brilliant star in the world...!" He says, face turned away from you and not making eye contact - definitely not for any reason! Definitely not because the utter sincerity in your eyes you have when complimenting him is what makes him feel so embarrassed in the first place.

You catch onto this and can't help feeling gleeful about making Tsukasa go so red. You love him, of course, but you also love seeing him like this. His reactions are just... cute.

"Of course you are!" You continue on, grinning innocently. "Not only that, but the prettiest star in the whooooole galaxy!"

"Ack-!" The way Tsukasa responds makes it sounds like your words alone have injured him. You wonder how he manages to be so unintentionally dramatic sometimes.

"Well, ah, I think you're incredibly handsome yourself." He finally manages to say, lowering his hand and looking at you again.

You bound over and hug him, resting your head on him. "You're too sweet! I love you!"

Tsukasa takes a deep sigh as he calms himself down again, before he puts his arms around you and smiles softly.

"I love you too, my dear co-star. Now! Shall we continue with our practice?!"

It's that time of year again, when her classmates complain about how cold it is and she can see her own breath in front of her outside.

She wraps her jacket around herself a little more tightly as she walks beside you through the park. According to you, it was the quickest way to your home from school. Mafuyu usually just walked through the city, though.

Her gaze drifts to you, who is shivering beside her as she walks. It's curious to her - you look so cold, but you never accept the scarf she tries to give you, even though Mafuyu doesn't feel that cold. And yet, despite being cold, you're still looking around in wonder at the colorful scenery in the park. The oranges, reds and browns of the leaves in the trees were very pleasing to the eye.

And yet, you looked at them like they were the prettiest thing in the world. Mafuyu wonders how someone could have so much joy for something they've likely seen many times by now.

"Oh, Mafuyu! Look!" You suddenly race forward and pick a leaf off the ground. It's a beautiful shade of red.

"I've never seen a leaf so colorful!" You exclaim brightly, holding it out to Mafuyu. "Here, you should keep it."

"Why?" She asks, turning her attention back to you. "It's just a leaf, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but it's pretty!" You pout. "Please?"

If you were so insistent, then Mafuyu thought she might as well. She takes the leaf from you, studying it for a few moments before putting it in her shirt pocket so she won't forget about it.

"Yay! Thank you, Mafuyu~!" You cheer, before taking her hand and hurrying off. "Now, c'mon! I wanna get home already, it's super cold out."

Mafuyu makes sure to follow you at the same pace to not drag behind. Even though you're cold, your hands still feel warm.

--

The two of you make it back home safely. You visibly relax the minute you step into the home as you regain heat in your body again. You rush into the kitchen, calling behind you - "I'm gonna make us hot chocolate! You go wait in the living room, okay?"

Mafuyu watches you go for a few moments, before walking into your living room and sitting as you told her to. She pulls a pillow into her lap and leans on it as she waits for your return.

When you come back, you're holding two mugs of hot chocolate, topped in whipped cream and marshmallows. Mafuyu hadn't ever had something like this before, her mother thought it was too sweet and would be bad for her.

"Here!" You set down the mug on the table in front of Mafuyu and sit down beside her, drinking it happily.

Mafuyu takes a sip. It's warm - on her tongue, and on her hands, where she holds the mug.

Warm. Just like you.

[ilions-end]

ayyy euripides' electra time (ian johnston transl.)

i really feel i approached the three electra plays in the perfect order. the libation bearers to get me hooked, sophocles to make me frustrated and want more, and now euripides to fullfill all my secret fantasies

that is to say WOW what an initiative electra!! like in aeschylus, her path is so much clearer to her than orestes' is to him, she carries all her hate and resentment on the outside, but while aeschylus only lets her put the plot in motion and then retreat into the shadows, THIS TIME SHE PARTICIPATES. this time HER HAND IS ON THE SWORD!!! oooh delicious

i think this one also balances the weight of both murders (clytemnestra and aegisthus) more evenly than the others. personally i really like how aeschylus underlines how insignificant aegisthus is even as he dies, but now this is kinda my second favourite portioning of revenge

i DON'T MEAN TO COMPARE THE PLAYS SO MUCH, it's just i'm starting to develop LAYERS OF UNDERSTANDING here. whoops

also euripides MAKING FUN of aeschylus' electra comparing her footprint to orestes', by making her go "pshh obviously his footprint would be a different size to mine"?? i want to go back in time and tell euripides "did you think when they said their footprints were alike they were talking about SIZE? bro. omg." i am so annoyed by an ancient playwright misinterpreting another's play it's actually embarrassing.

i did enjoy euripides throwing in "hey, this might be crazy but uhh have we considered that maybe poor people can be noble and rich people can be morally corrupt" every other scene though. i bet that blew the mind of the upper class athenian audience

electra going "you dare imply that my brother would SNEAK into argos and our father's burial place like a COWARD? like a fucking LOSER with NO GUTS?". priceless

WAIT WHAT, that one-line reference to castor once trying to seduce electra. that took me by surprise. EW EW EW THAT'S YOUR SISTER'S DAUGHTER, DUDE. i'm not usually surprised at incest in greek mythology but i want to bap his nose with a rolled-up newspaper. YOU'RE A DIOSCURI, ACT LIKE IT.

yesss we love a despicable aegisthus. the vicious insecurity, the effeminate coding. myrtle flowers in his hair. electra saying whenever he gets drunk he goes to agamemnon's grave to throw stones and kick and shout abuse. oh little man you feel your own inadequacies so strongly, don't you.

but also mmmmm how this version makes the most of out of orestes' abuse of the laws of xenia. he is invited in as a friend! he's honoured with sacrifice, and turns around and commits murder with the sacrifical tools! he does the honourable thing in the most perverted way, OH it's so crunchy

i'm so emotional about electra speaking her grievances, both directly to her mother, and also how orestes encourages her to vocalize all her anger at aegisthus' corpse.

she yells at dead aegisthus what a fucking IDIOT he was to think he could seduce a married woman, marry her, and expect her to be faithful to him. it's so true it's so true

clytemnestra continues to have a point about everyone making a big to-do about her infidelity, when her husband brought back cassandra and was just gonna be like "yeah i'll have two wives (one a mad, enslaved priestess) it's fine it's normal why are you judging me".

augh how electra and clytemnestra's big confrontation made me nauseous, it's so realistically a portrait of an abusive mother who CARES about her daughter, as if that excuses the way she treats her. as if all the abuse is the fault of the child. "Why do you let your husband be cruel to me?" "That's how he is. And you have a stubborn nature." MAKING ME ILL!!!

ELECTRA'S HAND ON THE SWORD. FINALLY SHE'S ALLOWED TO HOLD THE WEAPON, TO KILL HER MOTHER.

and then OF COURSE comes the well of emotion, of bitterness, of sadness, of affection. "There. With this cloak i'm covering up one who was loved and yet not loved." AUGH AUGH AUGH IT HURTS SO GOOD

[ruanbaijie]

Heloooo, I’m here for an request I hope you don’t mind - Do you have any tutorials on how to remove the background of a gif in photoshop??

(P.s- I love all all your works- they are the best)^^

hello! nope idm at all! and tysm~ (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)

i'm gonna assume that you're referring to something like these below (the main b&w scene of the gif on the left and the anime crop of the gif on the right) and not sth like recolouring backgrounds!

scene selection: i would usually go with static or more or less still scenes for these, just because it's much easier to mask. if you really wanna do a moving scene, it's not technically impossible it's just really tedious because you'll have to mask the scenes frame by frame which is... not fun _(:3 」∠)_

there are two main ways i go about doing these, depending on whether i'm removing the background of a live action show or an animation. the logic is pretty much similar, they differ in how you get rid of the stuff you don't want!

live action: BRUSH TOOL

this is how the scene looks like as it is - there's minimal movement here and it appears more or less static, but even so when i was doing this the movement of the gun was already problematic enough

with your gif layer selected, add a layer mask using this button here at the bottom

once your layer mask has been added, make sure you have your layer mask selected, then use the brush tool (B) and select a soft brush

brush over on the layer mask. you can use a larger size first to get rid of the easier and larger areas first, but as you go to tighter/ smaller areas, you can switch over to a smaller size

what it looks like in the end, before i've done by colouring and added in the other elements!

animation: (MAGNETIC) LASSO + MARQUEE TOOLS

the original scene with the background - absolutely no movement at all besides his mouth ✨ PERFECT ✨

again, add a layer mask, and with the layer mask selected, select the magnetic lasso tool. you might have to right click on the original lasso tool (L) and select magnetic lasso from the drop down, or if you're lazy and want to use shortcuts you can keep clicking shift+L to scroll through the lasso tool variations until you reach the magnetic lasso

then, start tracing out the area you want to crop out. with the magnetic lasso, you don't have to click anything; it will automatically lay down points that adhere to the lines based on the difference in colours like a magnet (hence, magnetic)

in some areas that are too tight or where the difference between colours is not large enough, you can still click to lay down a point so before the magnet does

trace out the whole area and close the loop. the magnetic lasso is not perfect; as you trace along, the magnet might lay down points at parts you don't want it to, but don't fret about that it can still be fixed!

TO ADD AREAS THAT ARE STRAIGHT (e.g. the base or top or sides): with your original selection still active, select the marquee tool (M), hold down shift, and mark out the area you want to be added to your selection. when you hold down shift, there will be a + sign on your cursor. remember to hold down shift!!! if you don't your original selection will disappear

TO ADD AREAS THAT ARE MORE ORGANIC (e.g. everything else basically): same logic as the marquee tool, but now you'll use the lasso tool (L) instead to draw out the area you want to add. again, as you make your selection, remember to hold down shift! in this screenshot here, the dotted lines indicate the original selection and the solid line shows the new selection to be added

TO REMOVE AREAS: similarly, with either the marquee or lasso tool, draw out the area you want to remove. this time, instead of holding down shift, hold down option (mac) / alt (windows) - not too sure for windows, i think it's this. this time, your cursor will have a - sign

once you're happy with your selection, use the paint bucket (G) to fill in the selected area on the layer mask

right click and invert the mask if you have to so that it shows the area you want

alternative to the above step, right click your selection and select inverse so that the selection goes from the area you want to keep to the area you want to remove

and similarly, fill in the area you want to remove with the paint bucket

OR if you had done your selection before adding a layer mask (this is what i usually do actually), just add the layer mask with your selection active and the layer mask will automatically remove the unselected area

LIVE ACTION VS. ANIMATION

just as an ending note, i usually use these different approaches bc live actions tend to have ~softer~ edges and outlines vs the background (like irl) so if i were to use the lasso/ marquee way of doing it, it's technically possible by adjusting the feathering, but it's a lot more tedious than just using a brush to block out the areas you don't want

you also very rarely have scenes that are absolutely still in live action shows unless you're giffing a non-animate object; living things tend to move around after all. so it won't look that good and clean if you have a very solid crop in a live action show (which is what you'll get if you use the lasso/ marquee method without any feathering)

meanwhile, animations tend to have very defined outlines and there are some scenes where your subject is absolutely still - just like the example i've used here. while it's definitely possible to use a brush with solid edges, imo it doesn't look as clean and nice and might end up being more tedious because you'll have to keep varying the size of the brush whenever you go from big to small areas, and it's much easier to accidentally eat into areas you don't want because the brush is round. (also, when you get to hair tips... it's a nightmare)

hope that answered your question!