#Putting this one on the bird blog as well as main because I would like more people to see it. Incredible work OP

[birds-in-posts]

Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura)

sunlight

[post-punk-revival]

“It’s obviously valid to be bugkin but you also can’t just expect people to get over it when they have a genuine fear!”

I’m afraid of dogs.

Dogs put me extremely on edge. I avoid them while outside and if one’s in a room with me I’ll try to leave or else start to panic. Especially medium-sized and larger breeds. Mere images of dogs may not give me a panic attack, I will admit that, it's not a phobia. But if you want to talk hypocrisy, if you're opening up that discussion:

Hey dog therians, dog otherhearted folks and clinical cynanthropes, what if everywhere you went, the unspoken attitude of the alterhuman community was—

Don’t post dog photos or talk about being a dog in the main alterhuman tags. Don’t talk about your shifts, your instincts, or your kind in the main tags. If you’re a CZ, don’t talk so openly about your biological reality. It’s extremely triggering for people with cynophobia. The idea of physically being or becoming a dog grosses them out to briefly think about, so try not to discuss your literal existence. If you must, at least trigger tag yourself with #tw dogs or #tw dog mention so people can stay safe by censoring things that will hurt their mental health. It’s okay if you’re dogkin but in my DNI I'm going to write something like, don’t follow me if your blog hosts too many graphic close-up images of dogs doing dog things, even if you censor them. Don’t add dog photos to open posts in the alterhuman tags, you have no idea who might be sent into a panic attack by images of yourself so you should play it safe and only put them on your own posts. And stop being so offended by people who comment on posts about pet dogs or dog facts saying they want to bleach their eyes or kill it with fire, they can’t help having a phobia.

Not great, is it? Fortunately, and I do genuinely mean that, this is a sentiment you will only see once, on this post, completely satirically. Except it’s just a real sentiment for bug therians/hearted and other invertebrate alterhumans. Of course what I said was satire. But if it pissed you off when you thought it might not be, please, contemplate on that reaction, really spend some time on it.

Also, if you're wondering what I mean by "other invertebrate alterhumans", (and I'm sorry for how heated I got when I was writing this part last night even after editing it down)

You know I’m a bug zoanthrope too, not just a bird? And see above if you're wondering why I never said shit about it, just said I was a centipede therian and even then said I was just questioning and didn't really talk much about it. Am I allowed to talk about it without tagging it #tw body horror, even though I obviously don’t fucking find my own body to be horror? Can I talk about it without tagging it #tw bugs like just the very thing that I am needs to be censored for people's well-being? I'm sorry if I come across judgmental. Offline I constantly interact with people saying they’re a nature lover but centipedes are the only thing on Earth that they still hate. And I have to come online knowing that any of those people could be bloggers in the alterhuman tags and it’s my responsibility to tiptoe around them. “Because centipedes are scary and disgusting.” Because I’m scary and disgusting. My brain is not capable of hearing a difference and I can’t change that. It is so much my reality that it's the same emotional mix of anger and anxiety and hurt that would be (has been, lol) triggered by someone ranting about how much they hate Jews or trans people to me.

[ranticore]

I wanted to keep drawing some pern dragon stuff because I'm now writing a full AU set in weyr but I didn't want to put this stuff on my main blog or patreon due to it being basically for my own reference, though i felt others would like it too! so here is My Take On Dragon Wings By Type...

It's no secret I love drawing bird wings and prefer them a lot over traditional dragon wings. Growing up, I read the pern books featuring cover art of dragonfly-like wings with lots of little translucent panels, which I always loved. So I thought I'd try to nail down some wing shapes & structures by blending those two things i like together. I am aware dragons fly by telekinesis but I prefer a more realistic type of creature design so I will be choosing to ignore that fact. I do not care about strict canon compliance but I do like to keep some of that framework there as well, for fun.

The wing is made up of three main sails, as well as a propatagium sail (in front of the elbow). They are relatively polymorphic and can expand or contract to an extent to change the shape of the wing in response to flight demands, like the wing of an airliner. The trailing edge can expand and the slots between the spars of the 1st wingsail can deepen or become shallower (where those are a feature). The main structural matrix is opaque, while the membranous 'sails' are translucent and let light through like stained glass. These are a bilayer of membrane with air sandwiched between, which forms part of the air sac & respiratory system.

It makes sense for the original engineers of dragons to diversify dragon wing types by colour so that when fighting Thread, there's a dragon for every conceivable aerial job.

[individual descriptions under the cut]

Queens have the longest wings, though the largest bronzes can rival them for surface area. Gold wings are high endurance - a queen can fly further than any other dragon in active level flight, leaving even the swiftest bronzes behind if they can't muster up the energy reserves to catch her. She is an effective flier at all elevations and can pass very low over terrain without issue as well; she is an expert at taking advantage of the ground effect, where extra lift is generated within one half of a wingspan above land. This way, she can pass low below the main wings fighting Thread to catch any stragglers without expending too much energy. However, she is not very agile and may need a bit of a run-up or cliff-edge to get airborne.

Bronzes are suited for command positions during Threadfall, rising highest and maintaining that altitude effortlessly by soaring on thermals. From this vantage point they can easily survey the wings of riders below and make tactical decisions to direct the tide of battle. They have the size and stamina to chase queens, but might find it difficult to keep up on the flat, so they continually select for fitter hatchlings as only the best manage to mate. It takes a very clever and agile bronze to catch a green, if they are so inclined.

Browns are swift, highly agile, and the fastest vertical fliers, ideal for diving through the Thread mass from top to bottom while the other types pass horizontally. During earlier Passes, browns were capable of using their speed to catch queens, but as queen & bronze endurance gradually increased, browns struggle to keep up if they haven't managed to immediately catch their mate in the starting scrum, which is unlikely due to the bulkier bronze dragons being able to shove the browns aside.

Blues are fast on the flat and nicely manoeuvrable, with enough endurance to last a full Threadfall. Good all-rounders with a characteristic vertical take-off, they work best in the horizontal plane in battle but really they can do a little bit of everything. They often beat browns to catch greens, being very precise in flight and almost as manoeuvrable as their green mates.

Greens make up for their low stamina with their extreme manoeuvrability. Their short and elliptical wings let them turn on a dime, hover, and even fly backwards if they are sufficiently skilled. They have the fastest wingbeats, flying with a distinct thrumming sound. Of all the types they are least likely to be hit by a stray Thread, but they tire easily on the flat and have no soaring ability at all, often tapping out midway through battle in favour of replacements. In battle, greens excel at catching odd and skewed clumps of Thread that don't fall as predicted, or ones that are missed by the other riders. Green mating flights are a whole different beast to gold mating flights, where extreme aerial acrobatics are favoured instead of endurance and altitude, and these flights may be over within seconds. You need to be able to withstand a Lot of G-force to be a green rider.

[kacievvbbbb]

I’m not someone that particularly cares about a ship being canon or not, in fact I would rather the media I consume have no romance at all (giving my blog confusing yes I know)

But there is something about the canon ties between Shanks and Mihawk that drives me feral with need to see what their whole deal is.

Because like there are so many little inconsequential details that when taking separately seem pathetic and weak. But then put together it feels like it paints the picture of a larger undeniable connection and understanding between two wildly different men.

The fact that their main color is both red (Mihawk’s is a more wine dark red than Shanks’ bright red and a little more “subtle” given that Shanks is literally called red hair) but even then their main symbols, their identifying features, are red! Mihawk’s eyes and Shanks hair (yes while I love the gold and think that’s better I cannot ignore the fact that Oda consistently colors in Mihawk’s eyes red even though the gold is infinitely more popular)

They have the same birthday, are practically the same height, both with the promises to our two main protagonists to meet them at the top with a parting “gift”, both serve as a mentor to the protagonist (mihawk literally thought zoro how to kill him 😭), both with the bird(ish) iconography.

The fact that Mihawk, Mihawk! A man whose introduction was that he didn’t care much about anything and caused destruction on a whim, cares enough about what Shanks thinks to mentally apologize before trying to kill luffy (what the fuck).

The fact that whitebeard felt the need to reference his duel with Mihawk in his conversation with Shanks, despite not really being very relevant to the conversation and the fact that this is the first we’ve seen shanks in years and it is brought up in the same context as his relationship with Buggy (an already established relationship) reveals his relationship to Roger seems to point to the fact that this duel between Mihawk and Shanks is an important relationship to shanks. It couldn’t just be to show strength because he was about to clash with whitebeard the strongest man. It’s also hard to notice that those two relationships didn’t end particularly well for shanks.

Also the fact that it was Mihawk out of every character , Mihawk that brought luffy’s bounty to Shanks. Something he obviously knew would mean a lot to him. I used to think the scene was just there to show us how big a deal Shanks actually is like look at that fun childish alcoholic gang inspired our main hero? He’s actually a super big deal and he used to spar with the strongest character by far we had seen at that point (it wasn’t even close) and they fought on equal footing. It added a new layer of mystery to Shanks.

But it’s also the fact that even now with Mihawk’s bounty Shanks was mentioned and he’s the only one who this was mentioned for. Crocodile is just for his df and intelligence and they don’t mention that he literally tried and almost succeeded in subjugating a country and he was beat by luffy “or smoker given how many marines actually know the truth” even buggy who was literally Shanks’ sworn brother under the pirate king doesn’t get a mention like that. But Shanks and this duel is so integral to Mihawk’s character that it’s mentioned along with the only other long lasting fact we know about him and that is that he is the World’s Strongest Swordsman. Isn’t that fucking insane.

And like I feel insane scrapping all these details together as proof of something because they are all (besides the duel) the barest bones of a connection but god it is actually driving me insane.

And I’m not saying Mishanks is going to become canon or that it should or that I even particularly want it too. What I do want is to see how deeply these two are connected. What are these red strings of fate tying them to each other. Why can’t apparently ten years of little contact sever it? I swear to god if it’s actually nothing much I will lose my fucking mind. If nothing ever comes of all of this I will actually go insane. How can some people look at this and not see foreshadowing!?!?!!

[orionhelluvaranting]

Okay, now let's talk about smth positive, shall we?

Mammella! (or Golden Goose if you wish)💰🦢

Recently I think about them a lot. It's like a brainrot and I can't help it! They're just perfect together 💕 So today I wanna talk about them. Sorry, I've cloged the entire critical fandom up with them, I hope you're not mad at me for this 🥺👉👈

I've attached the Shipping Chart so it wouldn't be so empty right here 🎪 Credit: divider by @saradika-graphics

What are the cons of this pairing? Well, for starters, they definitely have a lot in common:

extroverts;

over-reactive;

evil but entertaining;

rich and royal, proud to be like this;

repulsion toward 'plebs' and those who are close with them (classistic asses, in short);

enjoying being in the spotlight (probably)?

As you can see they have similar worldviews and life priorities. Great chemistry could be built on this.

Also they seem to suit each other's preferences. From "Mastermind" we've grasped that Mammon likes royal rich women who wouldn't mind going out into town with him (i can see Stella enjoying this kind of activity). And Stella during conversation with her friends complained about Stolass being a boring stiff and having a scrawny twig ass; she clearly doesn't like his imp-fucking tendencies too (it's easy to guess Mammon have none of this).

There is visual compatibility as well. Their bodies are predominantly white which is basically an universal color. And the clothes/aesthetics - green for Mammon and pink for Stella - are complementary.

Besides I think they could bring something unusual into Hellaverse. I'll go from least to most interesting:

1) No twinks 🥢

It's not a secret Vivziepop adores twinks. They're her type or something because ALL of her OTPs (Stol!tzø, F!zzarozz!e, VoxVal, Angelhusk) contain at least one twink. And here we are having a 'woman x chubby man'. There's the beauty in their twinknessless, don't you think? Look, I have nothing against twinks. You're cool, guys, just a bit overrepresented in Hellaverse.

2) Royal x royal 👑

Also Vivziepop loves putting power dynamic into her ships. Stol!tzø, F!zzarozz!e, BeeTex (is that their ship name, right?) are quite obvious examples. Even Lucilith and Chaggie kinda fall into this category too. However, Mammon & Stella aren't like that at all. They were born nobles and would prefer to remain as ones forever. Yes, Mammon is one rank higher but come on, it's such a small difference.

3) Villain couple 🃏

There are a lot of antagonists in Helluva Boss. Almost as many as couples! So it surprises me these two elements haven't crossed paths yet.

4) Uplifting the stakes 🎰

Many peeps in the critical community would likely agree on two things:

Stella is a highly relevant antagonist; essentially, the greatest evil of the (Stol!tzø) story. But she's powerless at all points.

Mammon is a highly powerful antagonist, the most influential, authoritative and rich of all. But he's completely irrelevant for the main cast.

Therefore, if these characters united, they'd complement each other's villainous potential. Mammon - being interested in Stella - would have a better chance of noticing the main characters. And Stella - being under Mammon's protection - could've gained more resources for her revenge on Stolass and the company. Moreover, it would be extremely difficult for them to defeat her.

Finally, I'm gonna list the tropes they match to:

Size difference. It's not that big of the deal (pun is unintended) but I know a lot of people like this sort of stuff;

Celebrity Power Couple (kinda?);

Birds of a Feather;

Unholy Matrimony

That's the potential I see in this couple. However, I know they'll never be canon. It's for the better though! This way they could never be ruined for me.

Anyway...

If you find this pairing interesting then maybe you'd like to visit my main blog. There are a few arts of them. Recently I've posted some suggestive content with a poll so you still have time to vote if you want to.

Thanks for your attention, folks!

[nerdieforpedro]

It’s Worth The Paper It’s Written On

Chapter Six of A Safe Place for Us

Dieter Bravo x Aisha Smith (plus size OFC)

My entire masterlist and blog are for readers 18+ MDNI. I do not consent to my work being used in AI, recommended on TikTok, borrowed or plagiarized.

Summary: Aisha looks over the papers Dieter gave her and has an answer for him. Also, a trip!

Warnings: Paperwork!, mean oldies (just the one), oral (male receiving), Zoom call, doctor’s appointments, medical jargon (possibly inaccuracies because Mother/Baby was the class I got a C on in nursing school 👀 I like caring for adults. They can tell me yes or no. Kids can’t and you gotta argue science with parents.), a happy surprise

Word Count: about 2.8k

Notes: So turns out I had posted chapter five, it was chapter six I didn’t post. 😎 Whew, memory is a funny thing. So chapter seven should be next month and a I’m going to try for a monthly schedule. I make no promises as inspiration is fickle.

Dieter Bravo Masterlist/ Main Masterlist/ AO3 Link

Aisha says nothing for a full hour. She’s reading, highlighting, circling, letting out soft hums and flipping pages. All the while sipping her coffee and ignoring Dieter’s pacing.

He’s second guessing doing this, he should have just kept things cool, maybe continue to take her lead on the situation. “Hell no.” He mutters to himself. Who knows what that would have led to? Dieter knows from his wealth of failed relationships that certain things need to be in writing, especially concerning kids and pets. Well, in this case primarily kids, he doubts Aisha will want to take Cookie, his spotted goat, away from him. Dieter then announces that he is going to take a walk outside.

He had to come back as he forgot a shirt and to put his crocs on, but left again.

Aisha on the other hand is stunned at the level of detail put into the document which is essentially stating how involved Dieter wants to be with their child and it would apply to any future children they had. There’s different rules and levels for when he’s in between roles and on location or on press tours. That she would need to bring the child along and be present so they would have equal time with them. There was a long list of private schools in California and New York and that the choice was up to her depending on which would suit her writing career best. It also stipulated that the more children they had and the longer they remained living together, she was entitled to a larger monthly stipend, which started out at four grand a month when the paperwork was signed.

What threw a wrench in her thought process was toward the end, it mentioned a college fund or trust dependent if the kid decided to go to school or just enter the workforce, but after that was that Aisha would have to live with Dieter, agree to staff coming to the house to keep him apprised of her health as well as their baby and in the event that he had an untimely demise, she would oversee all financial decisions concerning his estate and their child’s trust. A final addition had included that this would all stand no matter if they married or not but it would be null and void if Aisha decided to have a child with someone else. She circled that part and wrote next to it, only if I was criminally insane and hell froze over.

Rationally, she understands why he feels he has to have his team, she assumes, draw up such paperwork. Dieter is a public figure and one that’s had people try and steal from him by any means. She isn’t a fan of a monthly payment just for living with Dieter, but it might be his way of making up for her losing her apartment which she’s immeasurably fond of. He likely had that in mind when he brought it up the other day. Since he hasn’t returned from his walk yet, she calls him. “Dieter you haven’t got lost in your own neighborhood have you?”

Rolling his eyes as he watches some older woman in a yellow track suit walking a poodle and eyeing him like he doesn’t belong, he flips her the bird as she stomps away, “Nope. I did give the finger to this old woman looking at me like I’m a round peg in a square in my own damn neighborhood. She’s one of those that would calm the cops for dumb shit.” He pauses a beat, “You finished reading? Anything you wanna ask?” The older woman yells some obscenities while her dog barks at its owner’s behavior. Dieter pays no mind and starts circling the tree he’s standing next to, trying to work off some of his anxiety. “First impression at least, give me something Aisha. Any direction you might be heading with it.”

“My first impression is that this is a hellova document and a unique way to propose a life with someone. Most people do it in bed, with a ring, over dinner, a trip or actually talk about it first.” The light tone she’s using helps Dieter relax, she’s not scared at least. “You know this is my neighborhood and not yours right?”

“I’m not most people Scribbles and neither are you. Plus I’d best lock you down before you get tired of me and decide on some other method of getting a kid.” There’s a gasp and a pause. Did he just stick his foot in his mouth? Quite likely. The older woman in yellow has returned with a younger man in a red track suit who’s shaking a fist at him. Dieter gives them both middle fingers and starts back toward Aisha’s place. He’s here often enough it should be his neighborhood too.

“Come back Dieter. I need to talk to you in person and not over the phone.” Aisha stands and meets Dieter at her apartment door where he rushes in and hangs up the phone. He describes the older woman and Aisha laughs knowing that woman hates everyone. “Glad you made it away from her. She needs to retire somewhere.”

“So what else did you think besides it being a bad way to propose?” Dieter kicks his crocs off at the door and plops down on her couch, Aisha takes a seat next to him and pats his thigh, she then cups his face and speaks.

“Dieter, I’ve chosen to have a baby with you. We've been having sex damn near every day and often several times a day. I don’t plan on having a kid with anyone else. I told you I love you, you big goofball. I don’t have an issue with moving in with you. I’m already locked in. I promise.” Dieter runs his hands along her forearms and down her sides to try and move her onto his lap but she shakes him off. Dieter’s face contorts with confusion but Aisha grabs a pillow off the couch and kneels in front of him and tugs at his pants. “You’re also letting me suck your dick before your afternoon zoom meeting. She needs an afternoon off but she’ll be ready tonight.”

“Fuck…no objections here Aisha.” Dieter’s more than happy to allow his pajama pants down to his ankles and watched as Aisha moved between his legs, placing a hand on each thigh, her lips kiss the tip of his hardening dick. She sticks her tongue out and runs it along the bottom toward the base, moaning the entire time. Bravo hasn’t seen this side of Aisha and is keen to see more. He reaches for her and she intertwines her fingers with each of his.

“Just watch and enjoy Dee. Be good for me?” Her eyes peer up at him to watch him slowly nod while she moves her mouth down a bit further to nibble at a spot between his cock and his heavy balls. Dieter can’t help but throw his head back and groan her name, pressing on her hands. He wants to put his fingers in her hair, on her neck, cheeks, but she won’t allow him to. Aisha is being purposeful in her restriction. She’s going off what she’s writing rather than experience, she’d rather not her neck hurt in addition to her cunt. It won’t be a sweet ache from how rough she knows men can be. Hearing him trying to bite his lip and hold back is something she’s unaccustomed to as Dieter is more all or nothing. She finds him attractive in this manner too.

Using her nose to glide along the base of his cock, Aisha kisses his head once more before sticking her tongue out to drool along his shaft. Dieter’s got a fair bit of precum, but it’s dripping on her breasts, dress and thighs. With an audible “Omhp!” She swallows a third of his length letting it sit in her mouth, warming it. Dieter in the meantime, has let out a string of curses, feels his hips sputtering and is apologizing for not being able to keep still. Aisha chuckles when she makes eye contact with him again. His pained expression at failing to control himself after she told him to ‘be good’ and that he’s begging her to start sucking. He feels the throbbing in his balls and he knows that it won’t be too long. A pop is heard as Aisha lets his dick fall from her mouth.

“I forgot to ask Dieter. Did you want to paint my breasts, face or the inside of my mouth?” Her question is followed by using her tongue to grab some precum that’s leaking from his tip. Dieter’s lips are quivering, he can’t think straight and he’s dry heaving in panic that if he doesn’t answer she'll stop and he’ll be on Zoom like this.

“Mouth, I-I-Inside your mouth. And swallow please. Just don’t stop Ai. Fuck me…when the hell were you like…” His hips jut toward her as she just smiles and nods, wordlessly taking him back into her mouth and bobbing her head. “Damn! Your mouth nearly feels as good as your pussy…I’m damn lucky she needed a time out….” Aisha snorted at Bravo’s ramblings while she tried to take more of him in her mouth, she was able to make it a little more than halfway before the urge to gag was too much. She hollowed out her cheeks while Dieter’s small rolls of his hips forced himself deeper into her mouth and he finally spilled down her throat with a growl. Aisha gulped three times before letting his softening dick hang. She made sure to lick their combined mess from his cock, balls and thighs before finally letting go of his hands.

Immediately, Dieter cupped Aisha’s cheeks and nibbled at her lips, getting her to open her mouth so he could taste her saliva and his come. “We always taste good together, Ai.” He slid down onto the floor and pressed his body against hers. He hadn’t been able to feel anything except her hands and mouth so he wanted more. Dieter always wants more. As he swallowed some of the spend that had been in Aisha’s mouth, he looked down at her panting face. Her caramel skin has a damp sheen over it, he laid his head on her shoulder. “We’re good together.” Aisha’s fingers scratch Dieter’s scalp and cradle his head, she lets out a “mmhm.” In agreement. The pair help each other off the floor and Dieter goes to do his Zoom call.

There was a question of what had dried in his beard, but Dieter said that he was saving it for later and Aisha snickered from the room.

The following week saw Dieter, Aisha and their lawyers sit down to iron out the contract that Dieter had presented Aisha with. It stayed the same, except for that part that mentioned if she had a baby with someone else. She wanted that part removed because like she told Dieter, she wasn’t planning on it. Things were notarized and signed with a trip to a few houses in LA that were for sale. Aisha was still coming around to the notion that she’d have to move, but was becoming more open to it.

Next month, they flew and looked in New York. Dieter took Aisha to a few shows while there and she was asked to consult on a production of “Cats” for their script. It wasn’t something she normally did but she found it fun and challenging. It had been quite awhile since Dieter had seen her working with scripts but it brought him back to when they first met and her being in writer’s rooms.

While staying in NY and getting accustomed to taking the subway and looking at houses, Dieter noticed that Aisha was getting up early in the morning so he followed to the bathroom and ensured she had a warm washcloth to clean her face. The nausea she had off and on was normal depending on what she smelled for years but the vomiting started last week before they flew out to NY. Dieter was upset that Aisha hadn’t mentioned anything but more than that he was worried. “Are there going to be other things you don’t tell me about? You’ve got to be honest with me Aisha.”

Aisha hadn’t wanted to ruin the trip. It’s been years since she’d been to New York and it’s her first trip with Dieter. She just wanted to enjoy it being the two of them a bit longer, rather than worrying about their expected third they’ve been working hard to make. The fact that she thought that at all was why she felt ashamed, like it was wrong to enjoy time alone with Dieter because she is the one who asked him to have a baby with her. Considering how much she’s enjoyed the process of trying for a baby, she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to allow herself to enjoy other parts of the experience. “I know I sound completely insane Dee. I swear I make no sense sometimes.”

Dieter walks her back to the bed and they lay down while he is her big spoon. “You’re not insane. Just scared to be happy. Honestly, I am too. We just have to learn how to enjoy things while they’re happening.” He kisses the back of her neck and she sighs.

“You’re right, Dieter. Let’s get some sleep. We’re going to see more places tomorrow right? I’ll call tomorrow morning and see if I can move up my OBGYN appointment to the week we get back.”

“Yeah we will, but I think we can’t wait to see your OBGYN at home. We should find one here.”

Bravo insisted on going and Aisha agreed, she did still call her OBGYN to let them know and to get their fax numbers and such so things could be sent over from NY. Seeing Aisha in stirrups led to several jokes about horses and if he should get something like this put in the house. Aisha was against the idea of seeing stirrups outside of a doctor’s office. So far, vitals, blood work and urine tests were good with the doctor and nurse entering the room with grins on their faces and telling Aisha not to get dressed yet.

“So Ms. Smith, it looks like from your urine, you’re pregnant! We’ll do an ultrasound to confirm and see how far along you are. You and your partner need to make sure that you’re going to all your appointments.”

Aisha was in shock, it only took three months? Initially when she had discussed the issue with her OBGYN, the doctor had said it could take up to a year since she’s starting later in life and is overweight. She looked over at Dieter who was sitting very still. It seemed the reality was hitting them both, there’s now a baby. Especially, after the nurse and doctor spread that cold jelly on her stomach and there’s a small heartbeat with a woosh sound. Aisha is laid across the table with Dieter kissing her forehead and holding her hand. She looks up at the screen on the ultrasound machine and sees a small big-headed kidney bean shape.

It’s there. Their baby is there. Looks totally weird, like it could be on the X-files but it’s there. Their baby.

Chapter Five Chapter Seven

Peeps who are looking for the truth in kidney beans 🫘: @readingiskeepingmegoing @megamindsecretlair @soft-persephone @soft-girl-musings @rosecentaur1916 @westside-rot

@angelofsmalldeath-codeine @mysterious-moonstruck-musings @schnarfer @yorksgirl @guelyury @gwendibleywrites @survivingandenduring

@pascalsanctuary @harriedandharassed @baronessvonglitter

[sharp-silver4795]

Erhh were peter a good husband at least? I really enjoy your blog dude

A Happy Couple

Oh, yeah!! He was a great husband!! Just a shit “dad.”

⚠️CW!!: gross alpha-male-on-twitter style bullshit, gross purity shit, I basically took gross people on twitter and shoved it into this dude, abuse

Speaking of Couples!!

Some of the dynamics between Liu and his mom are based on my husband!!

He’s Chinese and the religion I describe here is the one that he follows. I actually named some of these people that I mention here after him and his family. That being said, this might have a mildly different tone and such because he’s like- (I’m using the name as an example)

Him: what the fuck are you doing, no! Last name first.

Me: but how do they know if I’m taking about her or her husband.

Him: put her first name afterwards!

Me: …

Him: also, you’re spelling that wrong

Me: HUH-

I Done Goofed

That being said…

I realised I’ve been spelling her name wrong this whole time omg! He pointed out I had been spelling her transliterated name wrong… so, the name of the Chinese one I had put in is also wrong… GODDAMNIT

湯申 [Tang Shen] > Maiden Name

韓沉 [Han Shen] > After Marrying Han Shang

Sorry for the long-ass intro 😮‍💨

Let’s get into this now lmao

Their Meeting

You can find how they met here! I’m just gonna summarise the main points

They met in China. Peter was there for work shit and well… Shen was just there.

This man barely understood Chinese but pretended to in order to fill the gaps.

This man literally missed entire stories about Shen and Liu. He figured she was talking about a friend… nah dude that’s her damn CHILD!!

Peter’s Gross View on Women

He wanted a virgin, untouched, pure, wife.

He figured, if he was gonna find that anywhere, it would be in East Asia

<*insert my Chinese husband gagging*>

He figured that, by default, she was a virgin. This was proven wrong as soon as she came to the states.

Liu wasn’t often with her when they met up for… obvious reasons-

Why would a 4 year old care about what grownups are saying?

He thought they should all be devoted catholics and that this was true all over the world.

In reality, She and her son followed a folk religion.

Their Religion Clashing

I mentioned some of it here

The main issue was food.

Birds, Shrimp, and Pork are a BIG no-no. Pork was ok but after the way they were domesticated, it isn’t anymore.

However, Catholicism says nothing is wrong with that!!

Of course, little Liu isn’t gonna allow that and even stops his mom from eating some of the stuff.

A lot of sugary things like rich cakes and chocolate are a no-go. So, when Peter brought her chocolates and such, she politely declined.

Peter was actually respectful towards his wife. But NOT his stepson

Holidays and Such

He was always sure to give her flowers on valentines.

He gave her special treatment on her birthday.

Treated her to dinner on Mother’s Day since she works so hard.

Kisses her before sleep every night.

Makes sure she’s taken care of, even if he’s not the one working.

He lets her sit back and relax once she gets home.

He’ll (sort of) take care of Jeff and beat Liu while she’s out

“In our faith, he would be cast into darkness after death” - My Husband

She was Oblivious

The only way this woman would have no clue her son was getting the shot beat out of him every other day was if her husband showed zero red flags.

He was always so kind to her.

He couldn’t have possibly done anything bad…

Dividers by sisterlucifergraphics and adornedwithlight

[au-drayton-shenanigans]

//ooc

Art I did at church (several weeks worth)

First up! I had wanted to sketch out a design plan for a vampire au Drayton :] A lot looks cool about him but it ain't perfect

Wizard being a disney princess again. He's always like this when people aren't around. Nobody know this except Cloak Guy (because he spies for the drama) and the Amarys from Wizard's universe (because they're friends. She's like the only non-creature he gets along with voluntarily). Might tell the story of that if someone wants. Preferably by annoying Wizard about it :)

Cloak guy in one of his many bird forms. With the apocalypse au squad. Kieran (the werewolf) hates him. Carmine (the small bat) also does. Bat is hoping there's not about to be any blood to clean up. Not sure what Crispin is doing but he's very amused. Cloak guy himself is taunting Kieran because he thinks it's funny up until the death threats come out and he starts apologizing pathetically to Kieran. Average tuesday.

I should learn how to draw Nightmare in his .. nightmare form. Since it's kinda hard to tell that this Drayton ain't normal without looking closely. He's still scared of his loyal followers. If he looks calm, he's actually having a moment of not being all the way there if ya catch my drift. Poor dude. Those horrifying puppies(?) and the big one only want love

If I could remember how to draw pokemon better I probably would. Mainly if I draw pokemon I stick to the ones I think I remember well enough. But Cloak guy can go to other universes so it's not exactly inaccurate to imagine a scene like this. That singular torchic is pretty confused though XD

I don't draw Kieran much so I don't know if I got anything wrong

(I was very tempted to not put context behind that because the idea of forgetting Kieran so hard he becomes a horse got to my broken humor. I promise I don't hate Kieran. Broken humor is just broken humor.) Anyways. Why's he a horse? Apocalypse au Kieran is just weird like that. Well not exactly. Full context would be too long for this post but basically he gained the ability to turn into a centaur thing after gaining control of a previously thought uncontrollable power. Surprising even cloak guy. But he's also a werewolf. Imagine how it would be if he went wolf while in centaur-form. It would look pretty cool I think. The bag placement is intentionally like that because apocalypse au Kieran wears his like that. Oh and Bat is in the picture too- in bat form. Figured it would be weird to not have a Drayton in the picture if I want to be posting my art on here. Could post it on my main blog since it's not Drayton exclusive and then reblog it here mentioning it for the Drayton pictures technically but I don't wanna.

Cloak guy was happy to discover that Abra-Star has interest in weapons too. Now he has someone to play in the weapons room with. Nobody is leaving that room without cuts because they're both immature immortals who are about to stab each other recreationally

Cloak guy's interest in weapons is purely because he thinks it's fun to pose with them. Meanwhile there's something more sinister hidden under Abra-Star's seemingly perpetual calmness.

Anyways that's it

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 4/7/2024

Lots of stuff to listen to this week. I really need to stop starting these writeups at 11:30pm on Sunday evening.

Loved the new Dear Liisphyra this week. I thought that the sponsor for this episode was really funny. I laughed out loud and looked like to an insane person to some guy I was walking past when they said that every weapon box comes with 50 feet of hempen rope.

Season 2 finale of @backagainpodcast! Man I love the themes of this show. It's such a well written tragedy, the dramatic irony is so good. Also I desperately want to know more about the other Soldier. We know several very relevant details about him but very little else.

New @spoutlore-blog was fun. Billie is such a good character, Jessica plays the "immortal child" trope so well. This show really puts the coolest worldbuilding you've ever heard with the dumbest dick jokes in existence. I still haven't gotten over the spider and the hummingbird.

Speaking of Spout Lore, the new Rude Tales of Magic episode has Abdul Aziz as a guest. He was a great guest, his style of humor fits perfectly with the setting of Piss Harbor. Are all the characters he plays street rats with a heart of gold. Excited to see who they bring on as guests in the future. They had Zac Oyama a few episodes ago, I would be excited to see more Dimension 20 people.

The new @midstpodcast was super interesting! Every episode in this season they've introduced another way that the Trust is incredibly fucked up. Why can't we go back to the Mother's Merciful, they were so nice.

Somehow I fell behind on @storiesfromylelmore. I'm not sure how that happened, I think my podcatcher didn't update or something, because I've been listening to new episodes of this show immediately. The second most recent episode was great, with Rion going through werewolf puberty. The most recent episode had some really good character work, with character development for all 3 main characters. I love this show so much.

New episode of SCP: Find Us Alive. A new Dash Two being created is really interesting, we've only had Dumptruck and Hiway Robbery for so long it's weird for there to be a third one. Where did they even get a bird?

I reached the crossover with Forgive Me in @kingmakerpod. Forgive Me is such a grounded show, especially by audiodrama standards, which tend to be way out there, so it's so funny when they cross over with shows that have such a wildly different tone and premise. The character interactions were on point though.

@camlannpod the fairy world! This show continues to have really cool takes on myths. The idea that you can shed a Name simply by going by something else is interesting. Could some random person start going by Lancelot and gain magical powers? The reveal at the end was great too, both from a worldbuilding standpoint and a character perspective.

Man that really was a lot. Lots of stuff to look forward to next week as well!

[merinmerklins]

BEHOLD! THE CONSEQUENCES OF MY ACTIONS!

Various hlvrv characters as ponys (: A full list does indeed exist, BUT! These are the silly guys I've drawn for you today. Under the cut, as I! Have now gone into WAY more detail than I thought I would haha.

Player- A Pegasus, inspired by the European Turtle Dove and Komorner Tumbler Pigeon! (He is not pictured here BUT. I also have a Saxon Fairy Swallow assignment set aside for Power Trip) I'd probably give him more armor in the future for the HEV suit, BUT! Little leg guards is what he's got for now. And also a little band on one leg like you see on pigeons for tracking and scientific purposes. Because SCIENCE and BLACK MESA! And honestly I thought it'd just look cool for him to have the little lambda band on his leg after all's over with and he isn't carrying around an entire HEV suit anymore. The other front leg is where he would put anything else, like friendship bracelets or "hey hold onto this for a minute" or what have you.

Doc- A Pegasus, BUT BETTER! After an accident in the Green Department of the rainbow factory, he now glows... GREEN! Surprising! And also she has various bat pony traits Which she now uses her epic and cool inventions to help with. Like the robot arms! He's inspired by a Rufous hummingbird, mostly. Actual flight is finicky because of the hummingbird and bat pony wing combination, BUT! They can indeed hover and zip a little! As they deserve. (This drawing was done before I picked hummingbird specifcially, but now she's got much tinier wings like a hummingbird, that are feathery at the base but extend out into more bat-like wings!)

Loverboy- As Gordon B he would be an Earth Pony, BUT! There's this wonderful wonderful Generation 3 episode where- [I am sent to the abyss for referencing this single episode for the third time on blog] WHERE THE EARTH PONYS GET HUGE MAGIC GIANT BUTTERFLY WINGS THAT LOOK SO AWESOME AND COOL. Loverboy is that (:

(THE EPISODE IS CALLED TWO FOR THE SKY)

Sleepless- A Griffon! Violet-Backed Starling is the main inspiration, but I DID take a little bit from the White-Breasted Ground Dove as well. The other half that isn't a bird I used a Clouded Leopard because. cloud... fog... the purple stuff... it was a REACH, but it looks cool so I win either way. I didn't draw it in this one, but I imagine his regular sleeping mask is a little more like a cowl you'd see in Falconing. One of the masks that slide on and cover the entire upper face. Also I know Griffons are basically pony sized, but also I write the canon here and Sleepless gets to be taller than ponies by a large margin. Just for fun, a little treat for me.

Valentine- A Unicorn! But as opposed to other unicorns I have slotted in the hlvrv roster, they take a lot of inspiration from that classic unicorn look. You know the one, probably. A lot of MLP redesigns change the unicorns to look like it and its SO cool. But Spork and Valentine are the only ones I really did that with this time around, other then a couple guys who got the little unicorn beard. You also probably know the one. I think I stole their cutie mark from somewhere by mistake, so apologies for that, BUT!! In other news, Valentine and the Love Letters all very VERY specifically have the little heart-shaped hoof thing going on. For the Aesthetic, y'know?

CLOWN NEO FUNNY GUY CLOWN NEO!! Neo himself is an Earth Pony, BUT! In Nightmare Circus? He has all that cool dressage that carousel horses and circus ponies wear SUCH AS! One of those cool decorative head pieces that are meant to make them look like a unicorn. EXCEPT. Because this is a dream and you can do whatever you want, It ACTUALLY works as a functional magic horn and he can pull all KINDS of magic tricks and shenanigans with it!

AAAAAND PING FOR FRIEND WHO RAMBLED WITH ME FOR HOURS ON THE MATTER TO HELP ME ASSIGN THEM ALL! YES, ALL OF THEM! @bbeeohazardd

[anarcho-physicist]

Hi, hello ^^

I just saw the post about describing your research in 4 words, and I saw you work with bird flocking math, that's so cool! I have not gone through your blog yet, so I literally know nothing more, still I have a question if you don't mind: I assume this is about the movement of birds who fly in big flocks, is their movement similar to some other material movement, is it like fluid or resembles air currents or idk? I assume you work on the math part more (I really should have looked you up more before this ask, there are too many assumptions here lol), are you considering bird behaviour or is it just trying to model the flocking based on recorded data? Do you know, or do you think their movements are similar to schools of fish or other animals who move in big groups?

Sorry that's a lot of questions 😅 You don't really have to answer them all

Main thing is I think your research is cool and I hope you're having a good time :))

Thank you for the interest!! I love talking about this stuff so I'm always happy to practice my writing skills

So potentially disappointingly, I don't actually study the real, living animals that most people mean when they refer to birds; I study what a theoretical physicist would call a bird, which means any particle/clump of matter that:

Has a broken polar symmetry (meaning it has a well-defined head and tail)

Is actively self-propelled in the direction of its polarity (e.g. by wings in air, or by fins or flagella in water)

Changes its direction of self-propulsion in response to interactions with other birds around it (e.g. aligning its polarity with its neighbors to form a flock)

When you have a bunch of "birds" (which in nature might be actual birds, or fish, or bacteria, or in experiments might be tiny colloidal particles or robots) that are densely packed together and interacting/aligning with each other, we call that phase of matter an "active polar fluid". Just based on the symmetries of the flock of birds/fish/whatever, we can propose different specific mathematical models for how the fluid evolves in time, and try to explain/predict what sorts of large-scale behaviors it exhibits. But because the different models are constrained by the symmetries of the fluid, they'll all exhibit some universal behaviors.

I've been studying and trying to understand the bifurcation structure in the equations behind one such behavior, the formation of long-wavelength density waves (like sound waves) in such flocks. These are seen both in natural flocks and precisely controlled experiments of synthetic flocking colloids. So I spend all day manipulating and simulating these equations, which are one of the simplest models you can write for a flock:

My hope is that once I've finished putting together some results that I've been deriving for the past few months, they might lead to a prediction about the dynamical phases exhibited by real, living polar active fluids. If I get to that point, maybe then I'll get to look at some real birds!

But until then it's just math, with some occasional pretty graphs

[popculturebuffet]

Uncle Scrooge: The Secret Santa Spell Review (comission by WeirdKev27)

Happy Holidays all you Happy People. It's that time of year again, time to haul out the holly and the breadcrumbs because we're talking about ducks again. Yes while I haven't talked about ducks nearly enough on this blog as of late, finding a Ducktale for christmas has always been a priority.

This year though Kev took the reigns on this one after realizing this was a tradition, and found me TWO. We were originally going to do the darkwing duck christmas special, something I didn't know existed and still know little about on purpose and still plan to next year.. but then... he found this. See back in 2021 I reviewed the Carl Barks comic a letter to santa. You can find the review here.

But the main takeaway is it features THIS iconic scene

Look saying i'm a simple man would be a boldfaced lie, but sometimes it's the simple things like an absurdly rich duck and his nephew fighting to the death with heavy machinery so one of them can give their nephew's the remaining machine as a christmas present that bring me joy on this holiday season.

That said after years of basking in the warm glow of having randomly found a comic about Scrooge and Donald battling to the death with steam shovels, I found something just as holly jolly.. and just as gloriously, wonderfully nuts. My friends it's time I introduced you to the Secret Santa spell.

Again Kev, my producer of sorts, deserves the credit here: he found this in Disney Christmas Parade, IDW's christmas anthology they printed every year for a while, and god bless him for it as this story is gold. It's a genuinely good, well done Magica story that thanks to taking place on christmas and involving a claus somehow less thought out than the one where if you kill Santa you become Santa, figgy pudding, a murder tree, and a volcano finale, is also completely bonkers and I love every second of it. This is a geninely fantastic scrooge story and one worth taking a look for yourself if you can find it online since it's out of print. For those of you who can't or simply don't wanna, come with me under the cut as we explore the hap happiest christmas since bing crosby tap danced with danny fucking kaye while Donald and Scrooge tried to pummel each other with steam shovels.

This story comes to us from writers Fransico Artibani, Lello Arena and artest Silvio Cambolli. I hadn't heard of any of these people before this as i'm not really up on my itallian duck comics but they do an excellent job here and I certainly will be looking out for more of their stories.

For this story we open at the bin a few days before christmas as everything's winding down for the holiday and Donald's doing one of his last bits of slave labor for Scrooge when two Scottish obviously suspcious carollers show up. Scrooge apparently gets so many that both are and aren't villians in disguise he's worked up a bit of an extreme solution.. granted he wanted to just pour oil on them but then legal got involved.

So he has to go with the Virtuetron 3000, an elaborate setup he had gyro work up that puts MIND READING HELMETS

Yup i'ts magica.. I mean I can't blame Scrooge for being suspcious, turning her shadow into a teenager to sneak into the mansion only for said teenager to fall in love with scrooge's daughter, this ain't, but i'm less concered with Magica and Co's half baked scheme and more concered a man who underpays his employees, quite literally owns the town, and already has a fairly sketchy moral compass has MIND CONTROL technology.. and giant killer robots

You'd think this would be an out of character expendature... but he got it from a reliable presidental source

Scrooge did all this so he could have a restful christmas. Magica.. isn't having the same as she has some uninvited guests.

Okay so some introductions are in order as i'm sure some of you had the same reaction I did

Thankfully Inducks also indexed who they are. Starting with the one I DID recognize, the little tyke is Magica's niece Minima, the basis for Lena and Magica's exact oppisite: kind, selfless, cheery. The only thing she isn't inverted on is magical talent, as Minima has a knack for it.

The two strangers are Rosolio and Gramma DeSpell. Yes GRAMMA, that's magica's grandma. What's intresting is there's two distinct versions of the character that don't really contradict each other, with this one in the 90's becoming a bigger fixture, and there being nothing to say this isn't the same character given a Sabrina the Teenage Witch style makeover, just a few years BEFORE Zelda and Hilda's got there's in fact. Go figure. She's a bit of a hippie and tries to talk down Magica from her schemes.

Her sidekick here, and sexual harasser, is Rosolio, a mildly inepet magician who followed her from italy to hit on her.

So Magica's about ready to just abandon her magic shop and go.. fuck off or whatever when Minima innocently brings up something...

Yes folks, this is indeed our premise: Santa put in a clause in his magic that's somehow weirder than "If tim allen shoves you off a room tim allen become santa claus" or "If tim allen dosen't find a wife in time he ceases to be santa claus" or.. let's just say anything tim allen adjacent. If you wish for something seven times and happen to be some sort of spellcaster, you get it, regardless of morality, intent or what it actually is. Which DOES mean good news for one little boy man robot

But still raises a LOT of questions. It's not a bad concept, that asking for something enough means santa will take pity but why isn't their restraints? Why has Magica, someone Santa would objectively not liked asked 7 times? why have we only heard about a magic version of the junior woodchuck guidebook this once? why didn't we get a fourth season of ducktales so Frank could adapt this? These are the things that keep me up at night. This is also a thing that keeps me up at night.

Donald just admit you need glasses instead of taking it out on your children, for all our sakes!

So Magica goes to the north poll to deliver letter 7 personally while Gramma.. only stops Rogoilo from going with her then hopes she'll be okay.

Magicia isn't as an elf being pulled by a sleigh full of pengys and getting there late notices her. Honestly we wouldn't have this plot at all if the best boy pengy wasn't busy.

Magica is frozen solid and is revived by 30 cc's of hot chocolate. I don't know if Tom Hanks sang to her, he was also busy that christmas

Magcia repays this kindness by busting up the north poll, going on a rampage to find Santa since the elves handle letters. Keep in mind this ENTIRE act of the story, her getting frozen, her going on a rampage, her bringing an evil dead tree to life before fighting an army of teddy bears and snowman

YUP. You didn't think the insanity stopped at mind policing, killer robots, santa clauses and improperly placed penguins did you? Nope we get a full on offscreen lord of the rings battle complete with ents simply because Magicia wants to gloat in person. And despite this section being padding.. it works. of COURSE magicia would want to gloat to santa, of COURSE she coudln't wait for Christmas day. It's totlaly in character and her singing oh christmas tree or spitting out hot chocolate are just.. such nice character touches. Of course she's so dedicated to being evil she hates something sweet. OF COURSE.

It's something neat about this comic: i'ts bonkers, no question.. but it's also simply fantastic on it's own merit. The idea of Magica getting a santa wish is neat on it's own, but the story then uses Minima to anchor it: she's frustrated it seems her aunt will never be happy and always obess over the dime, and thus teleports to the bin to take it from her, not understanding WHY it's precious to scrooge or WHY her aunt wants it, simply wanting to make her aunt happy. No one even knows; the thought police helmet's don't scan ill intent.. because there isn't none. It's just an innocent child wanting to bring her Aunt christmas. This version of Minima reminds me a LOT of 87 webby, and it's in the best way: innocent , kind, selfless.. all the good things.

Anyways Santa finally goes to confront magica, wondering why she's doing this the answers no.. and forgetting his own stupid policy until it's too late, with her asking for the dime and him entering a trance to go get it.

It's christmas eve and Scrooge is bored as nothing's going on. Disturbingly he wants to know how litigatoins are going. Those orphans aren't going to be forced out into the snow themsleves, ghosts of past buisness partners be dammned!

Scrooge is interuptted from taling to Mrs. Quackfaster byt he arrival of santa. Thinking it's magica in a disguise , he sicks a robot guard dog on her he turns into a sheep.

But then we get the crowner, the weirdest, best, and most wonderful thing in this story.. I present...

I"ll level with you all, while holiday shopping was easy this year, i've still been dealing with a lot of seasonal depression and regular ole depression. It's been a long month with loved ones in the hosptial (nothing serious but also nothing you need to know about in full), work piling up and me not even taking the time to enjoy some of my gifts. I've had plenty of kind people, thoughtful gifts, and wonderful friends but sometimes the stress of this job, as much as I love it, and the world can get to you. So getting to just relax and review a comic where Santa turns Scrooge's bin into a giant figgy pudding while under hypnosis.. it helps> it warms the spirit and reminds me why I do this. For the joy of good stories.. and for the wonder of nonsense.

For those who like me wondered what Figgy Pudding actually even is, wonmder no more: it's a traditional british pudding made out of animal fat. You no doubt have more questions but we have more story

So Santa snaps out of it once he gives Magica the time and she teleports out. Scrooge asks santa to go get it.. but despite you know having TURNED SCROOGE'S BIN INTO PUDDING and stolen his prized possesion, he's .. less than helpful.

I just.. dude... man.. santa dude man claus... Christmas is important. It brigns joy to children and it's why youd o this. I get that. But how does "I need to return the dime I stole while BRAINWASHED due to a stupid bit of magic I never bothered to undo or work up a backup plan for", equate to "greed begats greed'.

For starters the Dime.. isn't just a dime.. and you should know this. Your santa. You know everything about a person, it's your deal. This dime was the first bit of honest money Scrooge ever earned, a reminder of what he started, something he dearly loves and treasures not because it's MONEY but because of what it means. And even not knowing that Scrooge didn't start any of this shit. Scrooge has to constantly ward off Magicia's crap, something you DO for a fact know as you rejected her wish till your dumbass magic kicked in. She's not trying to steal his hoarded gross amount of money, she's trying to take the dime and she's trying to do it for an evil plan. YOU KNOW BETTER SANTA.

Granted this could be a christmastime grift as Santa gets Scrooge to promise a big dinner and bonuses for everyone in duckburg, so he could've simply been fleecing scooge.. and I prefer that interprtation as it fits santa better: Santa would WANT to make up for what he did with magica and WANT to stop her because Santa is a kind, caring person. And even if she hadn't used the santa spell against him, she still attacked his elves out of spite. I prefer to think he would've helped anyway but knew Scrooge deserved to be taught a lesson which, fair play to the big guy.. Scrooge ABSOLUTELY did.

So they go to stop him while Magica goes to show off her dime.. and minima realizes Magica didn't open her present and thus dosen'jt know and is about to make an oopsie.

So Scrooge and Santa go to stop her, but can't... luckily thanks to Minima giving Scrooge a chocolate coin instead of giving her the midas touch, the spell gives her...

It's an excellent brick joke on Magicia hating chocolate, and a great visual. it temproarily makes her the sweetst duck in the world.. which leads to some shipping bait

But a genuinely sweet ending for Minima who, if for one moment and only thanks to magic.. gets to enjoy her aunt. I mean Magica becoming sweet thanks to choclate magic is KINDA Messed up.. but it's hard to not enjoy a child who simply wanted her aunt to be happy.. getting that for one breif moment.

I still feel bad for her as this won't lass, Magicia will be back to her abuse hateful self.. but I can't begrudge a kind, innocent little witch her happy ending. I just don't have it in me. It's not forever, Magicia gets herself back.. but for one day.. she'll treat her family how they deserve. And Rogilo how he really dosen't but you can't have everything now can you?

So because we can't just end on the sweet moment, Santa assures Scrooge the figgy pudding bin will turn back after christmas.. but until then.. he has a promise to fufill.

Every christmas story should end with the whole town eating a rich man's property. Hell EVERY christmas should. Eat the rich's buildings kids!

This story is excellent. Really werid? yes. Having a pretty bonkers ending for no reason? Yes. Is said ending hilarious, the throughline of Minima heartfelt, and the zanier stuff also really funny? Entirely. It's a well done Scrooge story set around christmas with santa's indgiance at helping scrooge being the only thing I really don't like. Had he phrased it less as "you brought this on yourself" and more "you don't deserve it after how you've treated your employees" it'd make more sense. Still one little bump dosen't ruin the figgy pudding.. I think. I don't know how figgy pudding works. I do like this story though and highly recommend it. Thanks for reading.

[mariyekos]

Netflix Devil May Cry Episode 1 Thoughts.

This is essentially my live blog. For context, I haven't watched any of the recent trailers, to keep my reactions fresh!

It feels ironic that NDMC is going for more of the old aesthetic than the newer games.

I don't like the Force Edge (?) being in a museum. This defeats the purpose of it serving as the main seal.

I do really like that the White Rabbit apparently paid these people the 2.5mil for the job, goes with the White Rabbit being the one to pay Dante to find Alice in the Manga.

:| so yeah it is the Force Edge. Why is it in a museum....and not in Hell. I liked the whole idea of Sparda having to leave a piece of him behind in Hell in order to protect the Human World. When the Force Edge was in Hell, he didn't have the option of reclaiming it or ever seeing that power again without breaking the barrier. Here, though, Sparda could've easily/theoretically nabbed it at any point. Less symbolic that way. Less dramatic.

The White Rabbit: "Ironic, isn't it, that such a holy place would house the most powerful weapon of Hell" -> But not IN Hell. Because they took it out of Hell for this edgy comment. Maaaan.

Thinking about it now, this also defeats the whole point of Arkham being corrupted when he took the Force Edge to access Sparda's power, because the White Rabbit uses it with no repercussions!! Shankar has put the power not in Sparda, but the Sword here, which again just. Agh! Yes it was in the sword in DMC3 too, but there's a difference; in DMC3, the Sword Contains a Power, but in NDMC, the Sword is Powerful, if that makes sense.

Alleyway graffiti: "I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg" -> This appears to be from Peter Pan! Very fitting for the child scene.

Dante saying "Hey look, the three stooges came out to play" is fitting, I thing. Him also saying Jackpot on such a mundane kill is a little ehhh, because I like him saving it for a big moment in his brother's return in DMC3. I normally think of it as something he sort of...locked away, until Vergil got back. Because it was what they (we) used to say. Unless I'm forgetting and Dante says it all the time in DMC3 anyway. I was thinking Vergil had a line, but maybe my memory IS fuzzy. I need to replay DMC3!

Dante not hesitating at ALL when the demon shot at the woman is something I'm also hmmm about. On the one hand, Dante's really cocky, so this shows he had full confidence in himself. However, Dante also doesn't want to hurt humans, and I think it would've been great if he hesitated for a moment on this one, especially because this was a blonde woman trying to protect her child.

I've seen some griping about Dante not being able to immediately come up with a one liner, but I think the way it was integrated was really well done, actually! He's younger (even if he doesn't look it...at all) and still building his skills. He DOES come up with one in the end, and there's a certain...childish quality to him having to set himself back up and then saying one. I like it!

As a side note, the Amulets actually look broken in this show. I have not played Reboot DMC, all I know is that the amulets apparently look like the ones from that game. But in my mind, while it is good representation of there being two halves of a whole, I preferred the identical halves with the outer chain being different. The same at their core, and something that could more obviously pretend to be whole on its own, but isn't. Great symbolism for Dante and Vergil. Them being Red and Blue (Cyan) puts them more at odds, make it seem more like fate for them to be separate and fight.

OHHHH WAIT. IN THE INTRO ANALYSIS POST I WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT THE BAT WING GUY NOT LOOKING LIKE SPARDA BUT. WAS IT SUPPOSED TO BE CAVALIERE ANGELO??? At first when I saw this I was thinking "oh you're kidding me, the White Rabbit channeled Sparda's power just from the Force Edge ALREADY!?" but looking at it again, the ridges and shoulders make me think Cavaliere Angelo. I wonder: did the White Rabbit already have access to all these guys, or is he using the Force Edge to get to them?

Oh. Oh. You are KIDDING Me. "The radical left is already using this to push their agenda that America should step down from our role as, quote-unquote 'global policemen.' But as the greatest country on Earth, we have a moral responsibility to lead." while there's a fake Fox News logo in the background that says "FACT NEWS". Man. Maaan. How unsubtle, Shankar :) (that is me being facetious I am not smiling.)

Also then you have the guy with the southern accent and missing tooth being the one to point out there are demons coming from Hell. Nothing like kicking southerners too, huh?

Moving on from the things that make me really mad, okay so Glasses Guy is VP, and he really has the red, white, and blue thing going on. Hello America. Remember when Dante and Vergil were supposed to be British (despite the fact that they had US American VAs)? I'm not really upset about this, just pointing it out. If the president is the guy on the left like I assume, that'll be funny. Great look going on. But back to VP, he has gloves on too, which is immediately suspicious.

As a reminder from my original analysis of the intro, there's a scene where the White Rabbit (WR) transitions into the VP with a glasses flare. The WR wears white gloves, while the VP has black, but would be interesting if they were one and the same... What color are the VP's eyes I wonder? WR's are orange. They could just be associated. But anyway VP supports the idea that there are demons sooooo

Per scientist, "demons [...] are a related but separate evolutionary branch from Homo sapiens." So is this how Dante and Vergil managed to exist? Do demons have the same number of chromosomes, lol. I think this uses the DMC3 Manga lore that the Human World and Demon World were once one. "They are natives of another universe, one that exists parallel to our own." Over a picture of a bipedal bug demon. Not Sparda, but a bug.

Interesting image. They're dissecting a demon while it's alive. Are they doing that so it doesn't disappear, or because they can't kill it?

"My current hypothesis is that one of our common ancestors found their way into this other universe-" [over a picture of humans worshiping a giant three headed snake with wings, chimera style for body] "-where they adapted and became stronger, able to survive the more hostile environment." -> If this is canon to the NDMC universe, it sure isn't canon to my heart, and probably the DMC series.

I will say I'm regarding every piece of information in this show as non-canon unless later used in the games or novelization by other DMC folks. This is its own universe with its own rules. I will enjoy it and then move on.

Back to the common ancestor thing, I could say "okay" to that, but I HC that the Demon World's environment straight up kills humans, and also there wouldn't be much edible food there, so humans would not survive long enough to procreate and evolve. The phrasing sort of makes it seems like demons came from Homo sapiens, but I'm going to read it as demons having branched out before humans reached Homo sapiens, to allow more adaptation time.

These two circles split from each other, very similar to the ones in the intro. Did the mitosis / telophase into cytokinesis split.

"We've discovered an interdimensional rift that acts as a bridge between the two universes. However, it has been blocked for millennia by a field of quantum interference." Then he goes on about how natural disruptions create portals, and the stars shift over to the human side of the diagram. Explains it allows lesser demons through, but the portals are too unstable to accommodate larger/stronger demons

Wait this guy looks rad. I like this design!! But it's probably too complex for the animators to animate, hence why we get the bootleg ninja turtle demons in the clip I DID watch.

Dark Realm Command is one of the things we see in the intro. I thought Glasses Guy was with it. Is VP the secret head of DARKCOM? Was I misattributing something? Oh nope, the VP admits to partially funding it like 3 seconds later. The dangers of commenting on something second by second.

The WR invites them to find the hunter. Don't tell me the government is going to try to hire Dante. I already don't like the government being so involved in this (I prefer smaller scales, or the government turning a blind eye to things) but okay. We'll see.

The VP wants every demon hunter that can be found brought to him. We already had the Plasma Baby grab at Dante's necklace. Is he doing this for the necklace? Amulet. And man his eyes reeeeally look like they could be orange behind those glasses. Big theory is that he IS the White Rabbit.

LUCIA!??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EXCEPT WITH LIGHTER SKIN (SAD)!?!!?!?!??????????????? WHAAAAAT DID THEY GO TO VIE DE MARLI TOO OR IS SHE ON THE MAINLAND.

Freddi's is Fredy, that's funny. Was it always Fredy?

Aw Cindy doesn't have roller skates. Is cute that Dante's timely enough for her to prepare the sundae in advance though. Also the guy next to Dante at the bar reminds me of a skinnier version of the one who likes Cindy in the OG Anime.

Dante with super speed! I do like this insane reaction time. We know he's fast, especially with some of the DMC5 scenes, but it's fun to see that in action here. He can teleport, yeah, but he's operating at a different speed than everyone else.

I really don't like that "Vergil" appears so soon. Also while he doesn't have that nasal quality of the OG VA, he does have some gravel to his voice. I feel like they didn't like that Dante had the lower voice of the two, so they reversed it here, because it's usually the bad guy with the low voice or something.

Earlier in the episode, they zoomed in on the White Rabbit having this blue gem on his ascot.

yeah that's absolutely the same gem. Why does the White Rabbit have Vergil's pendant...? Is this an AU where Vergil DID get kidnapped into Hell as a child? I CANNOT imagine Vergil giving it over willingly. No way. The amulet was way too important for that. If Vergil gave it over to the White Rabbit I'll be pissed.

I WAS RIGHT. THIS GUY *IS* ENZO!! I wonder if part of the reason they changed his design was to avoid issues with Bayonetta. He does look sleazy this way though, so it's fine either way. Gets the same idea across.

so the WR wanted Enzo to hire Dante. To distract him while everything else was going on? To have an excuse for the VP to bring Dante in bc the VP knew the demon hunters and Enzo would be brought in, and thus established a connection? Also Dante's not going by Tony! Why does Enzo know Dante's backstory? Dante should not be open about that. Did demons tell him, or is this just exposition I shouldn't think too hard about. They have to tell viewers somehow.

Okay Dante is 6'2 / 188cm! And also only 171lbs, this guy is really skinny. Jalen Brunson is 190lbs and Stephen Curry is 186, and both are also 6'2". Hm.

The resume is taking me out. Also either this isn't DMC3 manga age Dante or Dante started hunting demons at 13/14. Which I kind of dooooo HC, but that's more out of self-defense.

LOL Dante went AWOL from 5 separate jobs because he got bored. I'm going to go with those cases being not too dangerous. Dante wants to protect humans. We know he isn't really interested in taking on non-demonic jobs from the DMC3 Manga, and he DID kind of let Fortuna be destroyed in DMC4 because he was taking his sweet time having fun with Nero, so he's not always super on top of things. But I'd like to think there would be a difference between him not taking a job (where someone else can and could solve the problem) and him leaving halfway through (so whoever's involved gets hurt). Unless, of course, the job wasn't that dangerous, or there were other people on bored, in which case yeah he could leave no problem, someone else would take care of it and he wouldn't get anything worthwhile out of it anyway.

Oh hey, Dante crushed his guns!! I really like that detail, it's from the DMC1 novel. He's too hard on them. A normal human couldn't do that, but Dante's not a normal human soooo

Also the Plasma mentioned that Dante doesn't know what he is. Great! Makes me think of the Cerberus battle in DMC3: "Cerberus: You are not a human, are you? Dante: Who knows? I'm not even sure myself"

ENZO TALKING ABOUT HOW SOME DEMONS ARE TOO POWERFUL TO CROSS OVER SO THEY PROJECT THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS INTO OUR WORLD AND POSSESS THINGS. THIS TIES INTO THAT FIC I STARTED ABOUT MUNDUS KIDNAPPING THE BOYS DURING THE FIRE VIA POSSESSING A SUIT OF ARMOR AND DRAGGING THEM THROUGH THE PORTAL. Also the White Rabbit in the manga possesses the toy of Alice. And oh. Enzo says that's what the WR is on the next line. I've gotta stop doing this!

There's our crew of Agni, Rudra, Echidna, and Cavaliere Angelo.

Sparda's horns are so sad here. This looks like a hat, not horns.

Enzo says Sparda cast a spell, creating a wall between the realms. He says it was the power of the sword that let Sparda do that. With the help of a magic Amulet....which is purple. I miss when it was red. I guess they're going for equality between Dante and Vergil here, and it does make sense somewhat given Sparda's human form was purple...but his demon form has all this red to it so it would still work!!

Okay.... so each half of the amulet emits the signal to keep the worlds separate with the Force Edge being the decoder. Yeah this isn't at all how it works in DMC3. In DMC3/the actual DMC universe, the amulets open the portal, while the Force Edge maintains the barrier from the other side, sort of. I'm going short because I've got to finish this episode and do other things, but that's the gist of it. Scientist Fisher says that if you brought both halves of the amulet together and put it into the sword, the transmission would cease, there'd be no wall/interference, and the realms would merge.

Oh they straight up say at the end of the episode that the Rabbit already has one piece of the amulet. Just in case we didn't notice I guess.

And credits.

Um. Okay! These credits are so cringe but also remid me of my feeling seeing the Faust scene in DMC5 so I'm both laughing and cringing so hard, especially with the music.

WAIT THAT WASN'T THE CREDITS IT WAS DANTE PLAYING DDR (NTO ACTUALLY DDR BUT YOU GET IT) AND ACTUALLY BEING REALLY BAD. It reminds me of playing Just Dance on the Wii and being really upset because when I did the full dance, I wouldn't get good scores but if I lazily moved the Wii-mote it would give me perfects. Poor Dante.

OKAY ACTUAL CREDITS ARE A FEMALE VER OF DEVILS NEVER CRY!!!!!!!

And so ends episode 1!

I have to turn off my computer in a minute so I need to post here but. Closing thoughts in brief are I'm enjoying this so far. Some of the big picture things don't work with actual game Canon which doesn't surprise me, and some of them really miss the point of the games, but since this is a separate universe, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it. Will make a better write up later.

[siqueiroscribbl]

Originally posted on the Finding Me Blog

Animation Level 2 Updates and More News

Animation takes a lot of time to do, and the only reason I had uploaded as much as I have is because I had stockpiled over a year’s worth of progress…I hope to consistently show you monthly updates of my work, but here is my progress from the past month:

Laughing and Sneezing

I want to come back to improve this because sometimes when I’m scared to do something, I try halfway to meet in the middle, but I want to go back and reimagine this with a different character from Deltarune, Kris Dreemurr. For now, have Susie, based off her in-game animation. Later I will upload a version of this with sound if I’m able to get my Animation Level 2 video funded.

I also colored this one for fun (and to explore the best way to use vector layers) while trying to practice general spatial awareness, as if she were in a room or something…I didn’t want it to be too serious or otherwise become intimidated…I wonder how Kris laughs…maybe its a creepy laugh or chuckle that sounds evil even though they are generally just mischievous?

For sneezing…was a lot easier because it was so easy to remember…for this exercise, I used my mom as an example. Even when I was in the womb, her sneeze would startle me because she has a sort of loud/shout sneeze. I’ll just have to show you!

I even put 2 sneezes in because we both definitely sneeze more than once…I think I captured it well…hearing it is another story…

Incomplete but in progress right now is this animation that’s coming up, exercise 19 which is Reaching for an object overhead, which I’m having fun challenging myself for this one unnecessarily…there is a scene in Deltarune Chapter 2 where the protagonist Kris, goes to one of the bookshelves and the player tries to read the book about humans, and against the player’s will, Kris slams the book shut. All you know as the player is that their mom, Toriel, has checked out this book numerous times. There is a lot of evidence suggesting that Kris is uncomfortable or avoids the concept of their humanity compared to their monster peers. Here is a background for that scene in the library, referenced from the game maps of “Hometown”:

Nothing terribly fancy, but I’m reminded of a little Nemo that was obsessed with getting the details right, and by that I mean my mom recalls how I would make sure to draw every book on a bookshelf in the background. Things have come full circle it seems. All I have to do is include striped bird just around the corner and I’ll be combining 2 exercises: walk cycle, AND the reaching for an object overhead, and what better example than reaching for a book?

Animated Music Video Project

I don’t want to share too many details, but I have completed a storyboard for an animated music video project that I’m working on with a friend! As of right now, the sketches for the main cast are nearly completed, and I’ll be excited to share more details as I see fit in the future. If you like vampires, you may be interested!

Other News: Pause & Play Radio Program

This is a new radio program that I’m working on locally on the topics of Video Game and Cinematic Music, and since I’m very obviously excited about Deltarune, I’ll be talking about Undertale and Deltaune music in this program along with other songs I grew up listening to in my favorite media, inspired by finding my old RCA player and the emotions the songs I had on there that stayed with me. As of this post (and not sponsored by Toby Fox or Undertale or get any affiliated payments in any way) and until March 20th, 2025 Undertale is available to play for $1 on Steam/PC! I just think its a really fun and emotionally impactful game that I recommend you check out if you have not heard about it or had the chance to play it yet!

[analog-horror-arg-blog]

Prehistoric Emergence Is Bad Part 1

So I have came across a few people promoting a analog horror series called Prehistoric Emergence as a good piece of analog horror or dinosaur horror, without putting any actual criticisms in and ignoring glaring issues. So I decided to do it myself. Keep in mind the information in this post should be used to harass the creator of said series.

So first off the most major problem with this series is it uses "ai." When watching the videos it clearly use images that can be found on the web. Said images are moving a bit but not really and have a certain uncanniness to them. This is because the images were placed into one of those "ai" programs that turns a image into a "animation." While of course not letting it last long enough to hallucinate. The voice over might be "ai" but I can't tell all the way.

That being said aside from being lazy for just using "ai," it is lazy in another way. It doesn't go through any effort to create any original images, art, or models of these creatures. Instead opting to just use other people's hard work and basic Jurassic Park renders. And since it is not actually animating anything and just using images, it is on the lower end of analog horror with the lowest level of effort. In comparison you have The Invasion of Godzilla by Jacob Animations which actually goes through the effort of hand drawing and at least animating the kaiju. Or Godzilla Found Footage by Lost Utopia Films which to my knowledge is using their own animated models. Or even Weird Birds by Archesuchus which is done in the style of a unfiction blog making updates and photos of dinosaur done using practical effects.

Some while there is some video footage, it is all taken from other people's video such as Sea Monsters Dangerous Dives.

Now for the main part, scientific inaccuracies and bad world building. So while the concept is interesting and plays off of the idea seen in Journey to the Center of the Earth, but it executes it poorly.

For starters, you have several different animals coming out of the same location, each of which not only come from different periods but different eras. For example, Mosasaurus from the Mesozoic Era, Dunkleosteus from the Paleozoic Era, and Megalodon from the Cenozoic Era all coming out of the same hole. How did all the creatures all end up in the exact same location.

On top of that how did they survive all this time? what were they eating? Because there is no mention of things like sharks, ammonites, and whales also coming of the Blue Hole? So what have they been eating this whole time?

It also seems like these 3 were only chosen because they are popular and well known, as opposed to what would make logical sense. For example, Megalodon would not make sense as a threat to humans to the point where we would have to avoid the waters. Sharks already don't attack(shark accidents don't count) let alone eat humans in the current day. So why would a shark that primarily fed on large marine life such as whales have any interest in eating a human. On top of that most animals don't really try to eat humans let alone would waste the energy to try to if they very large. So why is Mosasaurus a problem? The only one I could see possibly trying to eat humans is Dunkleosteus. That being said why not opt for a smaller species of Mosasauridae or other prehistoric marine creatures? The answer is obvious and that is because the other species aren't as well know so they opted for the more popular one rather than what would make sense.

Speaking of Mosasaurus Hoffmannii, due to them just using random images they have several conflicting depictions of Mosasaurus either like their tail fluke, counter shading, chunky body, or smooth scaly skin. I also recall Dunkleosteus has been found to have skin over it's teeth which makes sense. Note, I am not going to go over every single inaccuracy.

Part 2

[pichlive]

Main

Hello! I'm Pichu/Peaches.

This is my liveblog-- currently liveblogging Immortality.

The way this will operate is I'll mainly focus on one media at a time-- if I want to explore said media more, or finish up extra content, I'll be putting those on separate blogs dedicated to said media. I'll still be using the tags I used here though.

I'll also review things once I've finished them, and give my final thoughts on them-- or at least as they're finished so far. Some stuff I'll play on here will be technically incomplete.

I'm always happy for suggestions! Just be patient. It can take me some time to get through stuff. Some things because of the category they're in or length may go onto a different blog-- more on that below.

My policy on any content that could be spoilery for a tag is that I'll put it behind a read more, and then after a month or so, it'll be unspoiled-- if it needs more time behind a read more, please tell me!

My tastes on this blog will vary a huge amount, and thus, i cannot guarantee that everything will be sfw (anything too nsfw/nsft will be warned and behind a readmore). Minors can follow, but at your own discretion.

I'm also going to say that if you don't like something that I'm liveblogging, that you either filter that particular tag or block the blog in general. Otherwise, for the most part, I'm not down to be bullied or lectured about for what I'm playing on here. There may be some exceptions here and there, but they're more likely to be very circumstantial (ergo-- more likely to be more indie projects wherein the creator is doing something extremely harmful and I feel like my liveblogging is spreading their influence further-- but again, extremely niche situation).

No strict DNI, will block if needed. Bigots blocked on sight.

Some content is segmented into different blogs-- usually because the length of said content would make it very hard to focus on other things on this blog, or because I just find that other blogs make it easier for me to focus on other content I'm also curious about.

They are as follows:

Archie Sonic

One Piece

Ultrakill

Slay the Princess

Undertale Yellow (other than True Pacifist)

Webcomics

Chao Garden

Past liveblogs (to be catalogued-- many of my past liveblogs are tagged in such a way that it makes it difficult to find them due to not using the tag systems I do now. I'll try and find and catalogue as many of them as I can)

Lily's Well

My tags are also as follows:

#pichlive is my general tag

My liveblogging tag for things will be #pichlive [name of media]-- if you want to filter out my content in the media tag, just blacklist that if you don't wish to block.

#pichlive answers is for answering asks

#pichtalk is, for, well, general talking

#pichreview is for whenever i review content, typically after i've finally finished it/done a general playthrough or whatever or whatever.

#pichstop is for any mid-reviews of what i've done so far of the media i'm consuming.

#reblog

more will be added as needed.

Current To-live-blog list:

dream barbecue

fursona maker 3

Don't look outside

The Heilwald Loophole

Memoralysis

in stars and time

great god grove

romance the backrooms

amanda's adventure 2

I cannot Drown

Lost Cartridge: Cold Read

penthos

shipwrecked 64

bastion

Catboi game series

dialtown

hi-fi rush

caligula effect: overdose

caligula effect 2

I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

my friendly neighborhood

ghost trick

needy streamer overload

Milk outside of a bag of milk outside of a bag of milk

Oxenfree 2

chants of sennar

Ddlc +

Scarlet Hallow

Mecha-Ude: Mechanical Arms

spec ops: the line

utena

sorry we're closed

Paradise Killer

30 birds

american arcadia

pizza tower

f is for family

Infinity Train

Amphibia

Mob psycho 100

Will add as I find even more stuff I wanna experience