#SHE DRAWS THE LINE AT CENTIPEDES

[bluuxriising]

Bluu can levy entire towns, summon typhoons to sink naval fleets, and call upon monstrosities from the Mariana trenches, but will scream bloody murder if she spots a centipede crawling on the wall and will beg you to kill it for her.

[voidedjuice]

had a dream i was in a grimdark magical girl yuri setting, so when i woke up i made it real (and bug themed)

bonus details under the cut:

So basically, a small town was secretly holding onto a box containing an evil god, that the local group of magical girls accidentally stumbled on and opened. The thing inside it wasted no time in starting to destroy the world, and for an unknown reason, one of the magical girls even joined forces with it. The rest of the girls managed to beat them, saving the world, but ended up dying from the curse it left on them soon after.

After dying, butterflies girl looped back in time before the box got opened, and decided to keep the box for herself, to make sure its evil influence (box thing yapping at you to let her out) wouldn't get to her beloved friends. Box thing constantly draws in her allies to the town to break her out & tries to convince butterflies girl to please let her out.

Also here's a really rough relationship chart for your interest:

[the-s1lly-corner]

TADC cast x supportive!reader (platonic)

except its hyper specific and applies to my oc specifically because i need a little pick me up today reader is like the circus members anchor as well as a generally serving as a support system and has been in the circus for a while. havent decided on how long but definitely getting close to kinger in terms of how long theyve been stuck. kind of gives off dad energy have not shared the oc here on this blog but i have shared them elsewhere, wont say where because im embarrassed </3 this was originally gonna be a ship chart dynamic but im too tired to draw everyone plus this feels more fun using 'you/your' pronouns for the reader even though its an oc so you guys can at least like, insert yourself REMINDER requests are closed, this is a personal request from myself. any requests sent now will not be answered even after they reopen. please respect that and understand that requests are closed

CAINE:

saved caine for last (yes i know hes the first one in the list hush i dont actually write these in order) i think you and him would have friendly back and forth banter. youve accepted your place in the digital circus long ago so you dont see much point in trying to interrogate him for information on a possible exit. and sure, i dont know if caine can abstract, but i think he enjoys the conversations between the two of you... that said, given how accepting you are with everything as well as having a "roll with it" outlook on the digital world, he probably uses you as plot stuff and props for IHA; be it as a false hostage or as a means to progress the adventure... definitely has a soft spot for you, i think... jax and bubble have a dark bet on when you will finally abstract/j

RAGATHA:

ah yes the optimistic duo, the hopeful pals, the sillies. you two are probably the main reason why everyone else is... mostly... fine, i mean i think having someone be so friendly and open cane make things a little easier for other people. as well as this you two mutually lean on each other for support and uplift one another when things get tough. i mention it in kingers part, but you too are also afraid of bugs but you would help ragatha clear her room of centipedes in a heartbeat, even going as far as to collect them with your bare hands.. so uh... take that as a testament to yalls friendship

JAX:

now im a little stumped on this one because i really dont think the "reader" would be buddy buddy with jax... or maybe they would be... hmm.. on one hand i can see them scolding him for pushing his pranks 'too far' (ex. the ragatha centipede thing, assuming he actually did it), but i can also see a "supportive figure and rebellious kid" dynamic. except jax isnt a kid but you are old enough be his dad, probably.. i think ill just leave that here since i dont have any other ideas

POMNI:

youve been here for a while, so i think naturally pomni would gravitate towards you in order for possible solutions and escape routes, perhaps she would approach kinger, too... but this isnt about kinger </3. fine line between outright shattering their hope but also instilling it, neither are great options... one can lead to despair and the other to obsession; both will lead to abstraction... but theres also the fact none of your past attempts at escape had been successful, nor did you ever find any leads. as for actual potential friendship i think you would take the same route as ragatha in the pilot; show her around and explain things to her in a fairly digestible way. as well as this you tend to gravitate towards her during her first IHA until she gets the hang of them; typically making sure she doesnt get lost or hurt, as well as giving her pointers that could help with the task at hand

KINGER:

writing kinger first, you guys are like the dads of the circus. you more so because you still have a decent hold of yourself. you were there when queener/queenie abstracted, and you were there for kinger during the still on going grieving process. as for actually friendship ideas, you two just sit and talk to one another. thats it, really. i could go on about all the things you two do together, and i probably would since kinger is my favorite and this post is literally about my oc... but i truly dont see these two getting up to anything insane outside of IHA. kinger needs someone to help him fill the silence, and you would be there. and vice versa, i think... bonus, you dont like bugs but you still grin and bare it while listening to kinger rattle on about his cool bug facts... i think that would be nice..

ZOOBLE:

optimistic dad who likes fishing and moody teen who bullies kids on roblox. thats literally the dynamic, except again, zooble is an adult and the reader has no kids... but hey its the same energy. tries to get zooble to engage with IHA but not in a pushy way but more in like... an inviting them to pair with them for comfort and security kind of way. sure you understand that they dont like them because theyre just so over everything but you want them to be included, especially since the IHA are meant to stimulate your minds and keep you guys grounded

GANGLE:

honestly i think you just adopt half of the cast at this point, the only people who arent your kids are ragatha caine and kinger... everyone else gets passed around in split custody/j now onto gangle, you probably try to give her peptalks to make her feel better as well as fixing her comedy mask anytime it breaks. as well as this i think you and her sit down and do arts n crafts together, perhaps even making new masks altogether... i like to think gangle hears a few... things about the others and knows things since shes so quiet and in the background so theres definitely some 'gossip' between the two of you... but not in a shit talking way, no i dont think either of you are like that, rather more so just talking about the others

BONUS STUFF:

you call gangle, zooble, jax, and pomni generic 'dad nicknames' so like. think sport, champ, bud, pal. stuff like that, with varying reactions... i think gangle wouldnt fight it and actually appreciates it. zooble scoffs and rolls their eyes, jax plays into it while loudly and obnoxiously calling you dad. (whenever you ask him to do something he loudly goes like "okay DAAAAAAD" before likely not doing the thing that was asked of him), pomni is just confused really since shes not all that used to it. huh. guess youre a dad of 4 now

you and ragatha tend to clean up after the others, leaving you two alone and you guys just. talk as you clean. probably do impressions of the others in a really comical and dramatic as well as exchanging stories

you and kinger hunt for new pillows to add to his fort. you try to coax him into stepping out of the tent and explore the grounds, so far you're unsuccessful

touching on the gossip thing from gangles part caine probably tries to ask you for some "juicy drama" about the others. who is having issues with her, whos crushing on who, stuff like that... i think caine would try to play matchmaker if there actually is someone who has a crush on someone else... this goes for the current cast as well as those who have come and gone from the digital circus (cough cough abstracted)

[thesparklytoast]

human centipede only one mouth to feed

zoey belongs to @ntls-24722

Don’t worry, no model was harmed during drawing this painting

and don’t worry the food was

Now for the apology

I am so so so so so sorry I know you thought of something to probably less than this and I know this is inappropriate but I swear to God I didn’t let her eat anything inappropriate. This is the ingredients I swear, and I don’t know how to apologize to her, even though she was chasing me the whole time I was trying to draw this I managed to came out like that and still she laughed at me because of my terrified face (I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to put. It’s in my main blog so I put it here because it’s more comfortable for me.) there is anything that you think is an appropriate. Please do tell me and I know it took such a long time and I’m so sorry for that. You probably forgot about it. But I swear

She’s fine she’s completely unharmed (I was going to draw the stitches on her mouth, but I didn’t have enough space in my storage, and I almost lost the drawing. So now we have this I want to make him more official about her being the human centipede for Halloween that I will not even be able to have enough storage to draw the stitches so here we have it the final piece I didn’t add any glitches because when I did add it and look weird, it took off the bloody vibe away)

look, she’s fine look

She’s just sitting there, crunching on the cereal (and if you found her in the main picture her mouth looked very similar to them to the picture you end up answering me with how her mouth mechanic work is because I couldn’t draw it and I really really don’t have time because I have plenty of exams and I really need the time for her because I really really really like her personality even though I don’t really have a a fully good image of her real personality, but I think she will be a very sarcastic and very pun filled person and that’s the reason why I wanted to draw her I just needed any excuse and somehow made a hole in inspiration for me in the red flag song by tom cardy the line “ human centipede only one month to feed” as you can see it, and I’ve already explained it😭

and I think I beat it a little bit of my fear towards the human centipede but still, remembering the image, or remembering, the name my my imagination goes wild, and I would feel like my guts are moving around and it makes me gag

[butchhamlet]

Hiii :3 since we are talking Macbeth lately, have you by chance watched Throne of Blood(pretend a question mark is here my question mark key on isn't working rn sob) It's a 1957 Macbeth adaption that places Macbeth in feudal japan as a war drama and it is!!!! Like!! Well first of all the actual film on a technial level is very good imo, beautiful costumes, acting, writing that somehow mimics the original plays poise and beauty without taking any lines verbatim. There's some super fun imagery like Macbeth's analogue Washizu being constantly associated with centipedes in his home and war flags while Banquo's analogue Miki is associated with rabbits, some crazy fun to dissect symbolism there if you draw from Japanese mythology and folkore as is probably intended. Theres some plot shifts that like. Make me absolutely foam at the mouth ( spoilers now so come back later I suppose if anyone reading this wants to watch it and be surprised by the changes, its quick about 2 hrs and available on archive.org free and all that good stuff, also TW for child/infant death in it and in discussion going forward) Macbeth is actually happy to let the films Banquo and Fleance take over given his lack of heir but the thing that makes him change his mind and attempt to kill them is Lady Macbeth telling him she's expecting. Later in the film the child is stillborn and rather than Lady Macbeths death THIS is the death that pushes Macbeth over the edge to total tyranny and into his final battle and the 'out damned spot!' scene is reinterpreted as in part being, well, the child's blood. It's :( mh.

But yeah, its good, major recommend, love myself a guy thats doing so, so bad, which of course mackers is, the whole time. Also Macbeth is killed by his people, all firing arrows at him at once rather than any one guy, I think thats neat!! Good scene!! The betrayer is betrayed by his own people, violently, publicly, collectively, decimated by the ones he claimed to be fighting for. Good adaption.

OH MY FUCKING GOD???? I WAS GONNA GO "OH IS THIS THE GUY WHO MADE RAN? (THE KING LEAR MOVIE)" BUT THEN THE SPOILER PART KNOCKED ME OVER THE FUCKING HEAD HOLY SHIT. also that ending. ough

[dirtanddistance]

West Coast Running Odyssey - Alternate Title, How to RunMaxx a Three Day Weekend/Bay to Breakers Race Recap and More

Some weekends were made for running, and for this BC runner, Victoria Day Weekend was without doubt that weekend for me. Saturday morning started with an early alarm drawing me groggily downstairs to make a cup of tea and grab a bagel. I could hear the ominous beating of the rain outside. Checking my messages, it quickly became apparent that the group planning a run up to Tunnel Bluffs would not be convening. I texted Elise to check if she wanted to bail, and thankfully, she was prepared to get out there still. We enjoyed the meandering drive up Sea to Sky and got to trekking. Calling this a run may have been a slight exaggeration, seeing as we were hoofing it uphill a good amount of the way up. However, the trek paid off as we reached the bluffs to a view out across the sound. Perhaps not as majestic as a truly clear day, but braving the rain on the sparsely traveled trail up was worth the extra care scrambling up the final rocky sections. We logged our names on the little message station and beheld a soggy plush dog stationed in a stump overlooking the water, pondering his role and how he reached this place. Is he meant to tell us something? On the way back, much faster and with higher spirits, we gleefully ignored the building fatigue in our quads as we pulled into the parking lot with jelly legs, feeling incredibly fortunate to have not gone back to bed. And, because I have no chill when it comes to maximizing my run opportunities, I hopped on a plane to San Francisco shortly after.

Bay to Breakers is an event without comparison in North America. I'd participated around ten years ago, and would describe the event as a 12k long party rather than a 'race'. Between the costumes, the absurd spectators, the flying tortillas in the staring gate, the adult full frontal nudity, and the centipede category, you are guaranteed to see something you've never seen before. This year was no exception. We rocked up to the starting line as a party of three; two of us dressed in a rather obscure pop culture reference duo costume as Taylor and Matty for our best Tortured Poets Department impression. We'd ordered our race packets to be mailed to us, but when there was no hint of them the day before the race, I frantically emailed the help desk and was told I could pick our numbers up morning of. This went quite smoothly, if it was slightly disappointing to not have had the pre-event mailing work out. The starting corrals were well organized, but within moments the trademark ridiculousness took root with fajita size tortillas flying through the air. After being buffeted by a number of the delicious discs, I flung one back into the void, promptly striking someone in the face (sorry!) and earning a high five from my compatriots. As they released us into the streets through the starting gate, the real adventure began. I can confidently say that the sequined shorts were perfectly fine to run in with their protective nylons guarding them from my skin, which was possibly the largest surprise of the day. The first entertaining stop was a reverse piñata station, in which two rows of people dressed up like piñatas with inflatable sticks wallop runners passing through. After that, we encountered an entire crew dressed as crabs. This would turn out to be the most resilient and entertaining group of the day. The swarm of crabs would later be seen partying long into the afternoon in the park, absolutely in sync and on some kind of divine crab wavelength that the rest of us could only imagine existing within. As all three of us were originally from Florida, Hayes Hill was the most fretted portion of the event, and where we began walking. The amount of concentrated hype attached to this portion of the course is understandable given the mild elevation profile of the rest of the course. I quickly discovered as I forced us back to running on the downhill that my legs were not particularly pleased to be doing another downhill run after yesterday's blitz back from Tunnel Bluffs, but I ignored this inconvenient fact in favor of pressing onwards. We passed a Pit Stop in which a crew of spectators dressed in race car pit crew outfits slammed runners into camp chairs, poured some beer down their throats, and then shoved them back onto the course in a brutally efficient demonstration of debauchery. We walk/ran the remainder of the trek out to the Pacific, and even had someone recognize our costume along the way. Finally, the finish line and the breaking waves beckoned, and we collected our pretty sick finisher medals and oodles of snacks. 10/10 event, did 0/10 serious racing.

Why stop at two back to back days of iconic running destinations when you can stack up three? Only someone without a searing ambition to add a trail run to their San Francisco weekend would leave their Monday bereft of more miles. That, and I really didn't want to do another long run on my usual home route. Desperation leads to curious destinations, and that curious destination for me was the top of Hawk Hill via foot from Haight Ashbury. Like any sensible person who never drinks coffee, I decided that morning was the perfect one for my caffeine sensitive self to slam a soy latte before taking the 7 bus with my husband into town proper. After he picked up a bike and we picked out some waypoints, I was off and running. I have to say, I was running up inclines I would never even consider runnable during the first hour of this journey. I bounded up the stairs to Inspiration Point before bobbing down again to the start of the Golden Gate bridge. In my caffeinated stupor, I thought to myself that I might not be so pleased on the return route going back up, but decided that was a problem for mile 17 me and instead tackled the puzzle that was 'how to get onto the sidewalk that would take me across the bridge to the sweet sweet dirt and plants on the other side of it'. Now, I would understand if you were expecting me to have some kind of awe inspiring account of what it's like to run across this iconic piece of American engineering. This instantly recognizable more-orange-than-red bridge is the default bridge emoji. It links a storied American city with a massive national recreation area. Running across it, therefore, must be a religious experience. Perhaps it is, given that most of what I hear of religious experiences in America are filled with rage, inefficiency, and lack of consideration of anyone other than oneself. It was an infuriating experience. First of all, it's loud. Many cars and big water means much sound. Second, it's packed. This was a non-holiday Monday and it was packed. That's enough of a challenge, but I've been to Tokyo and seen that humans are capable of being very concentrated and also very orderly. This bridge traffic did not get this memo. Not a soul on this sidewalk had ever conceived of a single file line. The existence of pull-off areas for photos and pausing was completely ignored in favor of random stopping in the most congested sections. As someone who very minimally experiences what one might consider 'road rage,' I was shocked at the internal frustration building within me. Thankfully I refrained from externalizing that experience and made it to the other side, where I again had to go full Dora The Explorer to find the way to the other side of the bridge and finally get to the promised land - TRAILS.

The trails did not disappoint. As a friend pointed out to me later, Marin was the location of the North Face Endurance 50k years back, and understandable why they chose this location. Although most of my journey out was uphill, it was gradual enough to be fully runnable, leaving my cycle-bound husband in my dust. At the top of Hawk Hill, I enjoyed a fresh jam sandwich I'd bought with my coffee and ferried all the way up with me, in true trail run fashion. The trek back down became a bit more interesting as I took a different trail back along the ridge instead of along the road. I spotted a couple ahead of me, and then promptly tripped on almost nothing and ate dirt, in front of the only other humans I would end up seeing on the trail that day. I quickly waved them off in my embarrassment so I could cry quietly about it for a few minutes, and then hobbled along with the sad acknowledgement that I would not be flinging myself back down the hill with the ache in my knee now gnawing away. Each time I stopped it got a bit stiff, so I quit doing that and dragged my dusty, bleeding carcass back into town to meet my husband back at the Whole Foods, which seems like the only appropriate post-run meet point in San Francisco, for a post run kombucha (I kinda would have done anything for a classic Red Dye 40 packed Gatorade, but I was also not willing to expend any more effort than necessary seeking one out in my condition). While I felt bad for myself in my sticky and bloody state, I have to say I've been pretty fortunate to have made it about a year since my last dirt-eating debacle. I can't even mitigate it by saying it was super technical, or a dicey downhill. I was going uphill. There was probably some tiny rock. I'm going to take it as a good omen that I completed my mandatory knee scrape early in the season and that it will again bless the remainder of hot trail runner summer.

Looking back on the absurd trifecta of runs I was lucky enough to get to do, I was reminded of just how awe inspiring running can be - from the bonds we form with those we run with and friends we make along the way, to the absurdity one can witness from the vantage point of the street, to the majesty of the places our feet can take us. No matter the place, no matter the pace, going for a run is always a good idea.

[josephines-library]

Worms in Dirt 🪱

word count: 975

warnings: mentions of bugs, spiders, and worms of course, and possible death of some bugs

my first ever post!! and a (mostly) true story! enjoy :)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

In the spring, when the ground grew softer and the grass grew greener, my sister and I kneeled below our monkey bars, not caring if the mud soaked through our jeans, and peeled back the rubber mats to reveal rectangular imprints in the earth. Spiders and centipedes scuttled away to the grass from the sudden harsh sunlight, not wanting to be exposed to fierce predators, like birds or mice or little girls.

My fingers glided along the surface of the smooth, packed mud; I traced the worms’ winding tunnels. They looked like reliefs carved in the dirt, half-finished drawings or glyphs of some alien language.

I gently scraped at the soil, producing loam and grit that settled under the white crescents at the tips of my fingers, outlining my nails in dark brown. I scooped up the worms inching along in their tunnels or just under the surface. They wriggled and writhed in my hand, twisting around each other and under my fingers, trying to dig back down through my palm.

Within minutes, my sister and I each had a small fistful of wiggly spaghetti. We frolicked over to the warm, flat slabs that lay between the porch and the grass. There we served dinner for the pair of robins that returned each spring.

Their home was nestled high in a towering pine tree, where they kept a cluster of eggs the color of the brightening sky. Sometimes I found the remains of the eggshells far across the yard. Robins carry the evidence of their defenseless young far from the nest, my dad taught me, so that predators are thrown off their track.

Then we started to see what appeared to be snowfall out our windows: the soft downy feathers of the hatchlings blowing in the wind. The birds were growing quickly, and the parents had to work very hard, waking up early each morning to search for worms and bugs to feed their young. So, my sister and I did our best to help.

We carefully laid out the smooth pink creatures onto the warm rock, laying them out in lines that quickly fell, or rather, squirmed, into disarray. After failing to convince the worms to lay still in any sort of order, I stood up and wiped my grubby hands onto my newly washed shirt, leaving streaks of brown on purple. I grabbed my sister’s hand once she had done the same and dragged her off to the swing set. Hand over hand, we climbed the rungs of the ladder that led up to the treehouse-like structure. There, we laid in wait and argued over who got to use the green plastic binoculars that were there for such occasions.

We watched the worms with eager attention. The mama bird was going to come any minute now! Don’t look away, you might miss it! We waited and watched, but soon I grew distracted by crumbling the dry leaves and poking the old spiderwebs that had collected in the corners.

I picked up a leaf that was sitting next to me. This one was old and brown, ripped up by the wind. I squeezed the leaf in my palm before opening my fist and

letting the flakes rain down onto my lap. I was so enthralled by the confetti that I didn’t hear when my sister asked me if we could play fairies. She poked me gently with the stick she had been playing with, complaining how I never listened to her; but of course I wanted to play fairies, I always did, so we slid down the slide and ran off towards the looming pine tree that the robins called home.

Here, I pulled back the lowermost branches of the tree that were even longer than my father was tall. The limbs stretched out, reaching like spokes of a wheel. My sister scampered under and over and around the branches to the section in the middle where the limbs were bare. I followed her before letting go of the branches that then swung back into place, scattering short green needles that rained down to the spongy soft ground. The space beneath the pine tree was big enough for us to stand under, so long as we avoided the thick branches that intermittently spanned across the space. We felt small, insignificant in comparison to the massive structure, which made this the perfect place to play fairies.

We knelt in the pine needles and built structures with sticks dipped in the clear, pungent sap that leaked from the tree trunk, made mud pies with the leaves and things on the forest floor, and collected pinecones to investigate what lay in the pockets that seeds had long abandoned.

After what felt like no time at all, we were getting hungry for something other than mud pies and leaf sandwiches, and our hands were collecting dirt from the sticky sap. I once again held back the branches for my sister to step back out into the real world, then I followed. We walked up the path, across the backyard, towards the porch, when suddenly, my sister cried out and ran over to the slates where we had left the worms. They were gone!

Looking back on it, surely the worms had escaped and found their way back into the dirt, only displaced from their homes. But my younger self truly believed that we were helping the birds raise their children.

When walking home from class this morning, I stumbled across a worm on the sidewalk, inching along, desperate to dig through the hard gray cement. I gently scooped it up, giggling and smiling for the photos my friend took of me. I gave the creature a quick (air) kiss and a blessing before settling it beneath the brush where the mulch looked soft and the birds couldn’t reach.

[roseofhybrids]

My favorite drawings of 2023

January A poppet character I designed for a Pathfinder game. Strange lil panda-horse guy

February This is the only one I have from February this year, so this clown monster wins by default. He was a DND enemy, hand puppet possessed by a demon.

March A short concept comic featuring Hermes, a ticket taker from a dream world, and Amuri, the ticketless child that he's trying to escort to the main ticket office so she can get back home

April A fancy'll dressed Jacob's ram. Still really happy with this one

May The first of many. The month I finally got around to watching Murder Drones (and then proceeded to watch the first 4 episodes multiple times a day for about 2 weeks). A lot more drawings to pick from for the rest of the months. I don't know what it is about MD and Circus, they just check so many of my favorite trope/element boxes.

June Was really close call between this one and Night Stalker. Night Stalker is definitely more detailed and took more work, but this one is just so nice.

July Nothing like a bit of monster anatomy

August As said before: Nothing like a bit of monster anatomy!

September It's a bit messy and chaotic with the centipede body in the background, but I still love how the color and CYN herself turned out in this one. Especially the hair, probably my favorite part of it.

October Wasn't able to finish Inktober after having my wisdom teeth removed, but of the days I did do, Junji Ito shark is hands down my favorite

November What can I say, it's END MY SUFFERING Uzi

December (for now) The month is 3/4 of the way done, so there's still a chance I might make something in this last week that steals my heart. But at the moment, this one is my favorite. I love how the line art and shading turned out.

Absolute favorite of 2023? September - "Gentle Drone's Tea Break"

There's a reason it's my dashboard header. Little gremlin took ~27 hours, give or take, to complete. For the last couple drawing sessions, I worked on it while listening to these two video essays by Keyan Carlile about the Suite Life of Zack and Cody that combined lasted about 9 hours. The title is a reference to a song from the game Chulip that I listened to at some point while drawing. A strange song from an even stranger game.

[wifelinkmtg]

Cruel Angel’s Thesis intensifies

Technically, it’s “Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty” and not “Neon Dynasty Kamigawa” but only the latter facilitates “get in the robot, Shinji” jokes when you tap your pilot token to crew your Thundersteel Colossus, so. Anyway, none of the mecha cards are relevant to this project - it would have been too much to hope for a POWER DoLLS situation - so really, the moral of the story is that I should have saved the Samurai Jack title joke for this edition.

TODAY ON WIFELINK: GUSHING ABOUT CYBERPUNK FANTASY JAPAN

NDK was a great set, you have to understand. Do you remember how one of the few unequivocally good things about Legend of Korra was this project of imagining a 1920s industrial setting derived from (mostly) East Asian art and architecture? Yeah, similar story here. Just one example: the Imperial mecha look like someone did origami to sheet metal, which is super cool and lends their faction a distinct visual identity. The art in this set is gorgeous - soaring architecture, grungy neon alleyways, sick cyborgs, spirits (in the original Kamigawa block, spirits had some of the weirdest creature designs Magic had ever had, and this continues that legacy) - sagas! saga art is in-universe visual representation of a story that’s important to the people of the world, and NDK sagas are told on ornamental fans, wall scrolls, porcelain jugs, the carved hilt of a katana, a silk dress, in a leaf carving and vector graphics AND, the best saga art ever, on the back of a biker rat’s leather jacket. (I would be remiss at this point not to recommend Rhystic Studies’ extremely good video on sagas.)

And the mechanics! Sagas turn into creatures when the story is over, sort of living memories. Ninjutsu made a triumphant return, the channel mechanic multiplied interesting choices, and so did the reconfigure mechanic, which let you either use a mechanical centipede as a whip attached to one of your creatures, or let it operate autonomously as a creature in its own right (which led to one of the best type lines in MtG: “Legendary Artifact Creature - Equipment Jellyfish.”)

The draft environment - and I know I’m way off-topic here, but I’m about to say some mildly unkind things about this set and I need to preface it - the draft environment was the best I’ve ever encountered. There were so many different viable archetypes, so many different cool choices you could make during drafts and gameplay. The blue-black ninjas deck, fast red-black artifact sacrifice, recursive green-white enchantments - all felt powerful and fun. The whole set was flavorful and compelling, and there are not that many good wifelink hits, I’m sorry to say.

THE QUALITY OF A MAGIC THE GATHERING SET IN TERMS OF THIS PROJECT IS NOT AN IMPORTANT INDICATOR OF OVERALL SET QUALITY

Heiko Yamazaki, the General (art by Magali Villeneuve)

Heiko makes it where her cousin Norika (also by Villeneuve) doesn’t for two reasons: one is that I find Heiko’s broody expression indicative of a rich and stormy internal life, which always hits me like the smoky scent of a fine scotch or a cup of lapsang souchong. A woman with inner turmoil draws me like a moth to a bug-zapper, which I suppose is why I keep getting into trouble with older women in troubled relationships. “If I simply provide enough unpaid therapy, she’ll leave her abusive husband back in [REDACTED FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC] & also the closet she’s been in for forty-five years & stay in the United States with me!” Yeah, that’ll happen, idiot.

The other reason is that Norika is a cop.

Tamiyo, Compleated Sage (art by Chris Rahn)

There are a lot of planeswalkers I don’t care about, personally, and I’m not only talking about the male ones. If I’m being honest, my engagement with Magic story has always been kind of shallow on account of Magic story is frequently (but not always!) bad. Like, pursuant to the previous entry, I did enjoy the apparently-uncredited story about the Yamazakis Wizards published back in February. It’s compelling! There’s juice to that relationship. We will never get anything else about these characters.

See, it turns out that the incentives of creating a collectible card game are not terribly aligned with those of creating rich long-form fantasy stories. Novelty sells cards. We hop around. Those few characters who do enjoy a prolonged spotlight often wilt under the attention as we all collectively get sick to death of the fucking Gatewatch or whoever else. Magic the Gathering is still compelling media, or else why would I be doing this, but to me it’s a kaleidoscopic whirl of mostly detached ideas, characters, settings, and vibes.

ALL OF WHICH IS TO SAY that I never knew much or cared to about Tamiyo. She was some nerd from Kamigawa who didn’t save Avacyn, whatever. Then the Phyrexians got her and turned her into an ichor-weeping cyborg brainwashed into working toward the universal expansion of New Phyrexia, a biomechanical plane of horror, corruption, and ego death, so now she’s hot!

Go-Shintai of Hidden Cruelty (art by Johannes Voss)

I don’t think I can explain this one, to be honest. Sometimes you just wanna get fucked up by a magical bone machine.

I KNOW THIS ONE HAS BEEN REALLY TALKY ALREADY BUT I GOT SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES STUFF TO SAY AND A SET WITH ONLY THREE HITS SEEMS AS GOOD A PLACE AS ANY

Well, only three hits that I can find high-quality images of for. I suppose I could be using card rips of Tia Masic’s Moon-Circuit Hacker (reminiscent of my introduction to cyberpunk via Shadowrun, a bad setting paired with a bad system which nevertheless compelled me to consume more cyberpunk, most of it also bad) or Wisnu Tan’s Spring-Leaf Avenger (a delightful vaguely-orchid-mantis bug ninja) but that would look like

and

...oh wait that actually looks fine, at least to me on desktop. Okay, then, I’ll incorporate those into my strategy as an acceptable last resort going forward. Actually, while I’m at it:

Junji, the Midnight Sky (art by Chase Stone)

The dragon’s hot, man, I don’t know what to tell you.

THE OTHER THING IS ABOUT WHAT WE WILL GENEROUSLY CALL AN “UPDATE SCHEDULE”

Phyrexia: All Will Be One releases the second week in February and I am goddamn well going to review that as soon as it’s out, because I played Cyberqueen at the young and impressionable age of twenty-two and now “quasi-omnipotent dominatrix corrupts you into a biomechanical horror ecstatically enslaved to her will” is the hottest thing I will ever get out of Magic: the Gathering unless Ashiok decides to start force-femming planeswalkers, so I am going to be tearing through one set a week for the next three weeks.

Next time is New Capenna, the Art Deco Metropolis of organized crime, bad draft experiences, and well-muscled arms, followed by a return to Dominaria where my excitement for more Phyrexians will be tempered by the fact that my favorite characters from the last Dominaria set are not quite so hot this time round.

[the-consortium]

To Saqqura:

Have you seen Urizen? I know you tried attracting him. But bird will be birds.. maybe set up a lil feeder?

To Herik:

Have the geese attacked you yet?

The air in the biosphere atrium is cool and damp. A film of condensation quickly forms on every part of the armour. And you'd better wear armour when you come here. Palm-sized spiders - responsible for fertilising the bromeliad-like epiphytes - and forearm-length centipedes occasionally drop from the plants snaking towards the wide skylights. A deep roar resonates in the infrasound range under the canopy of leaves and from the upper galleries with their thick vegetation. Every now and then the pale, simian face of one of the mutants from the Noise Marines' garden can be seen, having extended their hunting grounds into this area.

In one of the back alcoves, towards the large windows overlooking the ruined structures outside, tables are lined up close together with all manner of experiments, with crates full of freshly grown seedlings and vats of fertiliser.

Arrian looks at the set-up. "And what exactly is this again?" - "An altar," Saqqara replies smugly and adjusts a rat carefully prepared by Duco, on which a bowl of selected seeds sits enthroned. Blood drips to the floor and is mixed with the ground by spherical beetles.

"Aha. And it needs an altar? The seed bowl alone isn't enough?" Arrian raises a thick brow in amusement, his scars twisting.

Saqqara senses irony and ruffles the metaphorical prickles, frowning and drawing his brows together. "Of course not. He can get seeds anywhere around here!"

The Word Bearer adjusts a heat lamp, dousing the macabre structure with red light, and pushes the bowl of water half an inch to one side.

"And now?" Arrian's voice is surprisingly gentle.

"Let's wait."

Saqqara kneels in front of the table, places his hands on his thighs, lowers his head and murmurs soft prayers.

Arrian sits down next to him, but remains attentive.

Which is why, unlike Saqqara, he notices the little bird, so very red, which drops from one of the trees as lightly as a feather and lands silently on the diabolist's neck armour. The little cardinal tilts his head. The dark eyes have a barely perceptible golden gleam.

Saqqara continues to pray with great concentration.

Arrian smiles.

---------------

Several kilometres away, somewhere far below the surface of Urum.

Duco's private laboratory is as dark as is comfortable for him. His black eyes hurt in the normal brightness level of the glaring operating lights, which is why he has set up his dull, red-glowing refuge here.

For Herik, everything here is stuffy and cramped and makes him irritable. Every now and then he endures the dark atmosphere, but he never wants to stay longer.

"This is silly!" The Emperor's Children ruffles his wings as much as he can here.

"No, no - just try it!" - "All right, then. But just once."

Herik puts down his playing cards. "King's ladder. She can't beat that!"

The goose, who is sitting opposite him in front of a shelf of cards that Duco has put together, pulls out two of them and flings them at the three already lying messily in the centre. Herik lets out an incredulous bird call. "Hand of the phoenix! How did the beast manage that?"

Duco laughs and there is a lot of pride in it.

[silverislander]

some caitlyn hcs. brain full of she

i have def mentioned this before but i like to hc her as trans sometimes just because :)

and her parents helped pick her name! caitlyn wasn't one of the ones they suggested but they were pleased with it anyway and they've always been very supportive as is normal for the cities (canon no homophobia/transphobia FUCK YES)

had a week or so where she was going by a new name every day bc she hadn't found the right one yet ("hannah, could you-" "i'm not hannah, i'm trying abigail today"). it was a nightmare to remember but by the time she settled on it her parents felt it was worth it because she was so happy

again not an uncommon one but she's autistic!!

i'm projecting but she did a lot of people watching growing up bc she was sure she could figure out how to make people like her if she just studied others hard enough. it did not work unfortunately

she likes animals :) is not afraid of bugs either! she just likes them all pretty much. probably terrorized her poor mother bringing neat-looking centipedes into the house to show her

either had or has at least one dog i KNOW it. even if the dog wasn't hers, technically, it was her best buddy

did music as a kid but was never much of a musician

sometimes she still sings tho, mostly to the radio (canon pop music fan)

was on debate team in middle school. was exactly as determined about it as she is about everything else. caitlyn did not join debate to make friends she came here to Win

people assume she's so neat and organized and all bc of the everything about her but she so isn't, her notes are a disaster of a system only she understands. why are there multiple overlapping piles of papers on your desk. she doesn't get stains on things, but that's really her only rule

def read those kid detective books growing up

i love the hc of her actually being a Competent Lesbian i really do but i also like the idea of her just being a very charming very pretty nerd. she's not going to deliver a perfect pickup line but would you like to hear an in-depth explanation of methods of transport and be treated with genuine kindness (also known as the Oh I Can't Not Fuck Her effect)

snuck girls in through her window, but only snuck out once in her teen years because the guilt was eating her alive

(she did it more as an adult- it was more about her parents not knowing where she was if she was in danger, so by the time she could handle herself she was Gone whenever she wanted to be lmao)

jayce wasn't the first time her parents decided she couldn't be friends with someone anymore, but it was one of the last

after she meets vi she becomes fascinated by the undercity bc she just knows so little about it! she just wants to know everything (this is basically canon but You Know)

has always been very good at being a little rebellious, mostly because she's very smart and she knows that people assume that girls like her are well-behaved

coffee drinker i'll die on this hill. tea is for relaxation coffee is for work and pulling yet another all nighter no its not too late she can stay up a little longer its FINE she has things to DO

super awkward around children younger than their teen years like. what is she supposed to talk to them about. hextech? is that what kids are into nowadays is it hextech

very rarely, when cassandra has free time, the kirammans play board games as a family :) certain games are banned because caitlyn and/or her mother got too competitive and ruined family game night

(they eventually add vi to family game night as well and it becomes much less stressful for tobias. he no longer has to calm both of them down/get accused of taking sides. he's very thankful for this)

after s1... i genuinely think she could wind up a bit afraid of jinx. not in a sense where she's going to draw back from finding her, but if jinx goes to her gun/tries to smack her, caitlyn's going to flinch hard

by "i'm a misfit too", i kind of interpret that not so much as her never having friends, but more so like... never feeling close to them? she's had friends, probably has some now, but they're not close. if it came down between her and something else, she knows she's never been anyone's first choice

a Winter Enjoyer. gets cold easily tho/runs cold in general

[tippinghatterart]

First one down! This is Iris, she is a god for a dnd campagin I am slowly working on (I am trying to draw all the "main" npcs). LITTLE LORE, just for the folks that like lore. Iris is the goddess of Illusions in the campaign I am working on the island players are gonna be on is run by gods that embody the types of magic Illusions, Enchantment, necromancy ect. Iris is the goddess of illusions, she loves extravagance and as well as playing tricks. I would say personality wise she kinda acts like royalty, but in the self centered and I like that and this is mine sort of way she is also big on THEATRICS! I will say all the gods/goddess I am making have an alternate form (think Kaiju) and her's is a mix of a centipede and a moth and is HUGE!! Next one I am working on is the deity for abjuration so if you look at the line art that I doodled for the designs and shared previously maybe you can guess!!

[breezespirit]

Warning!!! For abuse, attempted murder, drowning, blood, wounds, and scars.

- Goes by the pronouns they/them

- They are a loner but were once a jewelry maker of Gardenclan. Gardenclan is filled with cats who have bug like traits, such as wings or antenna.

- They have a snail shell and little antenna. They are also a munchkin cat!

- They often make wedding bands for new mates or cats wanting to propose. They still work for Gardenclan as well as Vernalclan and Tidalclan

- They got their prefix from their snail like traits.

- They got their suffix from their markings.

- Their father, named Centipedeclaw, is the deputy of the clan and their mother, named Ladybugswirl, is a loner. They aren't together anymore and did not leave each other on good terms. In fact, Centipede had Ladybug exiled after she wanted to break things off. Snail lives with their mother.

- They were born with two sisters who died young. Their names were Junekit and Milipedekit.

- Centipedeclaw tried to kill them by knocking them into the ocean. Luckily, a she-cat was there to save them. Snail went back to the clans camp and told the clan what their father did. The leader of the clan, a cat named Atlasnectar, exiled Centipedeclaw. Ladybugswirl was allowed back in the clan but chose to stay as a loner and this when Snail decided to leave.

- They have a girlfriend who lives in Tidalclan. Her name is Orcasplash. She is the cat who saved them.

- They absolutely love to make jewelry for others and will make you a charm bracelet after knowing you enough to know the right charms for you.

- They are particularly deaf and have been from birth. They can read lips, which they use for understanding cats around them.

- They speak in signs which is kinda weird to the clans because they don't really know what they are saying but their friends and family think it's adorable. They mostly uses signs to express themselves but they can speak when they get overly emotional. It hurts them a lot to do so though.

- They normal wear rose petals in their fur. They will have yellow rose petals in their fur most times because they are their favorite.

- Their charms on their bracelet mean a few things to them. A moth for the symbol of their clan. An orca for Orcasplash. A mushroom for their favorite food. A snail because they really like bugs and snails are cute.

Ahhhhh!!! They are done! I loved drawing them again. I missed them. Dearly. My sweet little snail. Their family is a mess but I liked writing the lore for them. I really hope you all like them as much as I do! I hope you have a great day! I'll get into the bugs now soooooo.

Snailmottle is obviously a snail. I made them a common garden snail.

Ladybugswirl is a Ladybug. Not too complicated.

Centipedeclaw is a centipede. I had to do research for the antenna, and I gagged. Centipedes and millipedes are the only bugs I don't like.

Junekit is based off of a ten lined June bug.

Milipedekit is a milipede. She looks a lot like her father.

Atlasnectar is an Atlas moth. Nectar is the leader suffix.

Orcasplash is based on an ocra, my favorite animal!

[the-s1lly-corner]

Hiya!! Can u do pomni, jax and ragatha x cold bug reader who makes silly bug sounds plssz:33 tysm!!!!

Pomni, Jax, and Ragatha x reader who makes bug noises!

i wasnt sure what counts as bug noises and what doesnt so i kind of made guesses! hope thats okay anon! writing this between waiting for my bacon to cook so if i lose my train of thought every now and then in my writing thats why </3 todays plans are all wonky since i got stuff i need to do and stuff i wanna do

POMNI:

probably thinks its an actual bug making the sounds before she realizes its you! a little put off by it but thats only because i can kind of see pomni being vaguely scared of bugs though im on the fence about that one... that said i do think over time she associates those noises with you, and thus, comfort! visibly eases up when she hears you chirping; bonus if sometimes your noises are your version of a purr and you start making them while you two are cuddling. i think she'd just melt right into you... hmm.. given that i already made the purring comparison i like to think she falls asleep against you while you're doing a long drawn out set of chirps, just very slightly vibrating as you do so. very nice very comforting

RAGATHA:

i think she would find it cute! shes only scared of centipedes, after all! loves when you make chirping sounds when she pats your head or gives you scritches... i know you said bug noises but assuming the reader is also bug like, ragatha like scratching between your antennae. like a funky cat! i dont think she would draw much attention to your noises, especially if theyre involuntary; though i think every now and then she might let a comment slip on how she thinks its endearing... hmmm... just dont make cricket sounds at night or when someone tells a bad joke it will drive her nuts/j

JAX:

speaking of cricket sounds, imagine making the noises when jax tells a really bad joke or one of his pranks fall flat. it drives him nuts, but he'll play it off with a half hearted "boooooo" and a thumbs down... you start using it as a subtle means to keep him in line/from going too far with his pranks/j except i think that might actually work though im unsure of the ethics behind that. i think sometimes he teases you for your noises, and i think this simply comes with being with jax but expect nicknames based on your bug like qualities. playfully swats you with a rolled up piece of paper every now and then. might sometimes subconsciously mimic your sounds. cant explain that one i can just see it

[kinmokusei-stars]

My Inuyasha oc Kouko's last reference sheet was a bit outdated, and hard for me to properly use and colorpick from, so I figured I'd make a new, more in-depth, easier to use one! Now with a nicer formal outfit, because the last one was an eyesore- LMAO SUPER happy with how this came out though! o(≧▽≦)o This should make drawing her a lot easier, and just all around looks nicer.

Kouko Yoshida, Also known as 'The Sapphire Swordmaiden', is a stoic demon slayer wandering on her own with nothing but her sword, her horse, and her wits. Though her height, with her standing at about 6'2, and her closed off demeanor can make her look a bit cold if not downright intimidating, deep down she's actually just a warmhearted softy with a habit of feeding fish and other animals she comes across on her adventures and picking up pretty rocks. She's more of a gentle giant than anything else when it comes to people or animals, even if she harbors a deeply set grudge against near all demons for reasons she refuses to share.

She meets the main cast through a misunderstanding started through her having a jewel shard or two on her person that ends in the crew gaining two more shards, and a new party member.

She sticks near Kagome and Sango a majority of the time when she isn't alone, mostly because they seem the most trustworthy, with her being unsettled and freaked out by Shippo, and giving Miroku a near constant silent treatment after their first interaction. Though oddly enough Inuyasha seems to be more on her good side than either of the other guys on the team, with her seeing being half demon as being more trustworthy than a fullblooded one. They do end up falling in love, but that's only way later down the line after a long buildup.

I'll write down some little extra little facts about her below, but if you're interested in Kouko's backstory and relationship with Inuyasha more in-depth, you can check out her backstory post, and my “Get to know my ship!” Post

- Her horse is named Aiko, who she takes with her everywhere. She's had him for years, and he's her baby, she'd kill a man for that horse if needed, and likely has at some point. (I intend to draw Aiko in the future!)

- Her favorite hobbies are fishing and collecting rocks she finds pretty. Fishing soothes her mind, while also being a good way of getting food, and collecting rocks is just a culmination of her "Oo shiny" mentality and makes her happy LMAO She has a small bag of all of her favorites she's found over the years.

- She prefers meat over a majority of sweet foods, whether it be fish, chicken, or something else, she's happy with it. One of the few exceptions though is persimmons, which are her favorite fruit, and hold a special place in her heart.

- She has a lower, soothing voice. It gets rumbly and purr-like when she's tired or extra relaxed.

- She's afraid of bugs. Not things like Mister Centipede, but normal, run of the mill bugs. She gets so startled everytime Myoga pops up.  Huge demons are light work when compared to the actual two to three inch bug, and her excuse is how easily they could wriggle their way into things like clothes and bags, but they mostly just ick her out.

- Her emotional weakness is fire or smoke in general. She hates the smell of it, and tends to sit a ways away from any campfires they group has, either polishing her weapon, or sewing up rips in her clothes. This only changes later on, when she's gradually brought closer to the campfire little by little, and reassured that she's safe with them over time.

That's all for now! Any other little details will be shown throughout drawings or small comics!

[klysanderelias]

Okay so I finished watching the Ring, let's get this fucker started

So the beats of the movie are pretty similar, so if you read my play-by-play of Ringu, you more or less know the idea, and I'll be working more on the parts that the American version changes.

Awright.

First thing I noticed was the blue-greenish twilight filter. I swear to god, it looks so much like twilight especially right out of the gate. The whole film is washed out and the brightness of Ringu really doesn't echo here. I kind of don't like it partially because the darker atmosphere is a stereotypical horror movie thing, and to be honest, that's kind of my problem with a lot of The Ring. It's such a horror movie. I feel like they kept having to stop and go 'wait, this is a horror movie' during the script. It's shoehorned in, in a lot of places, and a lot of the shots are technically good but just don't... fit. Or at least, they feel like they had a quota to hit, instead of actually deciding that this was the best way to shoot the movie.

Anyway, the opening isn't quite shot for shot, but it's close. One note - no one in this movie seems to like each other. Especially at the beginning, it was jarring because all the characters in Ringu feel alive and connected to each other. In The Ring, everyone feels like self-centered douchebags.

The two girls from the beginning didn't feel like friends, they felt like Mean Girls extras. Rachel (Ringu's Reiko), the main character, is introduced yelling at her boss and coming late to pick up her kid Aidan after school, AND ignores the concerns her kid's teacher voices. Noah, Rachel's ex (I think boyfriend, not husband) and Aidan's father, treats Rachel like shit for the opening, clearly doesn't believe her about the tape, and acts like it's all no big deal and she's being an anxious bitch. Rachel's sister, the mother of the victim from the opening, doesn't even seem to really grieve her daughter's death - it feels like she skips the grief and goes straight to suspicion and anger. It's subtle, especially in some places, but the whole tenor of the movie shifts because of this characterization. It's such an American horror movie experience. They just don't like each other. It feels like everyone is in the line at the bank, tapping their foot impatiently for their turn at the counter.

There's still the same 'kid wanders the house alone' scene, and here, it's much more explicit that he's on some level following the girl's footsteps. The problem is, I don't think he's supposed to be psychic in this. I never got the feeling that Aidan had anything like that going on. It just felt like he was a weird kid, and all the strange occurences around him were Samara's (Sadako's) doing. And there's the same smash cut to the face of the victim, but it comes earlier, and it's just not the same because again the mother doesn't have the grief. It's not unsettling, it's just a jumpscare, and I think partially it doesn't hit as well because I just watched it this morning, but also the victims in The Ring have this pallid, distorted, bloated look to their bodies that just doesn't hold up. There's more CG, there's more effects, and it doesn't look as good because it's twenty years old. Ringu looks better again because it's makeup and practical effects, not filters or processing overlaid on the actor.

There's a recurring bit in The Ring where people who've seen the video start unconsciously drawing long hair over women's faces, and there's a lot of foreshadowing put into the movie. I know I asked for a little more in Ringu, but I felt that The Ring did too much here. Again, I'm sure if I hadn't just watched Ringu it would hit better, but it's also so on the nose. The cursed video, for example, is much more just straight evocative shots of weird things, like a box of fingers or a centipede crawling around, or a bunch of wriggling maggots, and also again just super on the nose shots of like, Samara's mother jumping off a cliff. I don't think it's bad, but especially at the beginning I kept going 'holy fuck we're 40 minutes into this 2 hour movie and they're already on day 5.' It just felt like they were speedrunning so much of the plot so that they could, again, fill the horror quota.

Rachel goes to the cabin, watches the tape. There's a super long scene in the office with a guy who I at first thought was Stephen King trying to do a magic trick at her. I will say, the cinematography when she's sitting down to watch the video is great, with the sunset creating a red patina over half the cabin.

She calls the ex over to look at the tape, he acts like she's worried over nothing and tells her not to worry. Oh yeah, he's a video analyst in this one, not a researcher/professor. The phone rings, and she doesn't answer it, and deletes the voicemail. He asks her to make him a copy and leaves.

She brings him the copy, they watch it together again, they're scrubbing through the video, and a woman shows up who's clearly dating Noah, and it gets real weird real fast, because Rachel's obviously jealous about it. This woman comes back in like one other scene, that doesn't feel important at all, and I'm left wondering why they had to include this beat.

Rachel goes to the hospital (read: asylum) that the other girl from the beginning was put in, and asks her about what happened to the victim. It's not great partially because I think the way mental health patients are used in horror movies is gross and exploitative, but also it's just kind of flat. The girl basically goes 'you're gonna die, and it's four days now,' and I go 'why the fuck do you know that'

There's a good scene where Rachel is scrubbing through the video again and pauses on a scene with a fly in it, and she notices that despite the video being paused, the fly is moving. She pinches her fingers on the screen and pulls the fly through by the wing. It's a good shot, it's a good touch, I'm very positive on the fly.

Rachel researches some of the things she's found in the video and tracks down the woman brushing her hair as Anna Morgan, a horse breeder on a small island. Her storyline is that she really wanted a kid but kept having miscarriages, she and her husband went off somewhere and just kinda came back with a kid, and then everything went to shit. All the horses kept drowning themselves, she jumped into the sea, etc.

Rachel asks her sister to watch Aidan for a few days, and while she's on the phone she starts gagging and pulls what I originally thought was black hair but is actually a sensor electrode thing out of her mouth. It's a scene that again feels like they went 'wait fuck this is a horror movie' and jammed in quick to get the gross-out.

Rachel travels to the island while her ex goes to the asylum where Anna was treated before she killed herself. On the ferry to the island, Rachel fucks around with a horse in a trailer and it panics and breaks loose, eventually jumping off the ferry and into the water. It's not a clean jump, either - the horse catches a foot on the railing and tumbles hard. It's either great prop work or effective CG because it looks good, and it also looks organic and nasty because it's such a clumsy fall.

Rachel finds Anna's husband while Noah breaks and enters into the records room. Anna's husband is a piece of shit, he's far less interesting than the old man in Ringu, but he does get a good line. He says "What is it with reporters? You take one person's tragedy and force the world to experience it, spread it like sickness" which y'know, themes, but also it kind of falls flat because he's just not worth the screen time. He rebuffs Rachel's questions and sends her away after she admits to having seen the video.

Rachel goes to the island's doctor to ask about Samara, and mostly it really is just 'why do we bash deadbeat dads when maybe the kid just sucks?' The doctor basically says 'the kid sucked, and we're all happy she's dead', and I felt like this whole character and scene was wasted.

Except, there's a really good exchange here that really doesn't hold water in the context of the scene, but it was such a good moment I have to praise it -

Rachel: "Was there anything wrong with [Samara]?"

Doctor: "You mean medically?"

Rachel: "I mean whatever you mean."

Rachel goes back to Samara's family house and snoops around. She finds a video of the 'treatment' Samara was getting that was like, prison solitary confinement vibes. They really put that little girl in an empty all white room with nothing to do for 14 hours straight. I found it much harder to sympathize with Samara in this one, but still, I was like 'man this poor fuckin' kid.'

As Rachel is watching the film of Samara in the psych ward, the father comes up behind her and hits her, before going upstairs and electrocuting himself in the bath. Again, it's a dumb scene, it feels forced, I don't get why he's trying to kill himself, and honestly I don't know why he's still alive! Out of anyone in the fuckin' world, why did Samara not kill this fucker as fast as she possibly could?

Noah shows up and he and Rachel go into the barn to find a little attic area with a bed and a shitty TV that apparently Samara's parents made her stay, instead of like, letting her sleep in the fuckin house???? They see a burned depiction of a tree on the wall and realize that they need to go to the cabin instead of being here. I think in both versions it's not really clear why the well Samara/Sadako is in is so far away from her family home.

I will say, at this point in the movie, there's like 30 more minutes to the movie and I've completely lost track of time. I'm not sure what day it is, I'm not sure how much time Rachel has left before her seven-day-deadline, and I don't think the characters know or care either! Her looming death seems completely sidelined in favor of the rapid-fire reveals, and I think it's a pacing issue because they really shoved all the important information into the last few days. In Ringu, there's a pretty steady feed of information over the days, and by the time they reach day seven, there's not much to do except go to the well and start searching.

Anyway, they get to the cabin, which is a full ferry ride away and who knows how much longer of an overland journey, it was night in the last major scene, and now the movie is reminding us how Rachel watched the movie at sunset. Again, I've lost the time frame, and I'm not worried that they're going to run out the clock because no one has been watching the clock for like the last half hour of the movie.

They break through the floor to find the well, open it up, and all this time, the nails in the floor are starting to rise up, there's water pooling, and the TV comes on. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, uh, Samara, you DO remember that Rachel's safe, right? What's going on here?

And then the whole fucking thing comes apart and I get so mad.

The floor drops and the TV rolls down into Rachel's back and knocks her down into the well. She doesn't choose to climb down, she's effectively pulled in. She opens her eyes and struggles to the surface and I'm struck by how fuckin' clean the water looks. Like, when she's above the surface, it looks grimy, but there's a number of shots where things in the water are crystal clear as soon as they're anywhere close to the surface.

Once again, Samara's fingernails are stuck in the wall, it looks good.

Rachel messes around in the water for a second and comes up with a handful of black hair. Samara's hand comes up and grabs her arm, and throws her into a flashback.

A flashback of Samara, standing in front of the well, singing, and Anna (which I was like, huh, not who I expected) comes up behind her and says 'isn't it beautiful. All I ever wanted was you' and THEN takes a piece of plastic and smothers Samara. She drops the girl into the well, and as Samara hits the water and eventually opens her eyes, she sees the lid of the well covering it up and blocking out the sunlight, showing us the titular ring.

Samara's body floats to the surface and Rachel scoops it up as the mark on her arm fades. Samara's body looks like a normal human, until Rachel strokes her forehead and says 'it's okay,' at which point the girl's body dissolves in a pretty bad CG effect. Looked not great.

At this point, Rachel's holding the skeleton, and she lets it fall back into the water.

I'll get mad about this later.

She stands there shivering in the water as Noah shouts down at her.

The cops show up, they're outside in blankets, and the worst fucking dialogue of the movie starts.

Rachel says [Anna] wanted that child more than anything else in the world, and says [Samara} just wanted to be heard, and then says "sometimes children yell or cry or draw pictures." And then she says "I want to go home."

And I'm like.

Damn.

Sometimes children DO be yelling or crying or drawing pictures. Not sure what the fuck that has to do with anything that you just experienced, but y'know.

They also explicitly say shit like 'I wonder how long you could survive down there,' beat, 'seven days.'

Again, too on the fucking nose for me.

And then they go home, and it keeps getting worse, because Aidan and Rachel are in bed and wake up and Aidan asks 'what happened to [Samara], is she still in the dark place' and Rachel says 'no we set her free' and Aidan sits up all freaked out and goes 'you helped her?' and Rachel says yeah and he says 'you weren't supposed to help her' and she says 'don't worry she's not going to hurt you'

And she pulls up his sleeve to see the hand mark on his arm and he says 'don't you understand Rachel she never sleeps'

And I'm like... I don't understand. The whole thing is that it doesn't matter if they went down into the well or not, because the video's still cursed. It's not like they reactivated the curse by setting her free or some shit. It's a beat that feels like they forgot? what the movie was about? Or at least, that they put in because they were worried you might have otherwise gotten up and left thinking the movie was over?

Anyway, Noah dies, it's a scene that again just doesn't hit because it's twenty years old, man. They have this overlay on Samara's actor, there's this glitch-teleport-jump she does that doesn't look good any more, and she just kind shrugs her shoulders as she walks? They should have put makeup on her, and they DON'T SHOW HER HANDS

Rachel shows up, finds Noah's dead body, cries and asks what she did that he didn't, and realizes that it's the copying and showing the tape to someone else.

She takes Aidan to make a copy of the tape, he says 'it's going to keep killing isn't it' and Rachel says 'it's okay you're going to be okay' and Aiden asks 'what about the person we show it to? what happens to them?'

And she just kinda... looks? at him? And then the movie ends?

Which to be honest, is better than what was supposedly in the original script, which was that Rachel sent the copy of the video to a convict on death row? But also apparently the DVD release ends with her taking the copy of the video and putting it in a video store, which at least is something real to end on. This ambiguity just doesn't feel good, and that's without even making the comparison to Ringu's ending!

I think overall, The Ring is a solid 6.5/10 horror movie. It's technically sound, it's gross and consistent, and every time I was like 'oh damn this is cool' it was always tempered with the feeling like, well, i watched the good one already.

I think it's fine? It's one more American remake that strips a lot of the soul and passion away for effects and thrills, and I think fundamentally fails to understand a lot of what I enjoyed about Ringu. It's the bones of the same story but Rachel drops the skeleton, and Reiko cradles it and lays her cheek against the skull.

None of these people care about each other.