#Sorta but not really but kinda but also not really

[cellar-whales]

Yesssss thank you! I absolutely need to replay the game with all these meta posts (yours and others') in mind because augh. The depth. Mira is... she just IS. y'know?

i really love how intensely Mirabelle reacts to act 5 Siffrin botched friendquest.

Isabeau is mostly operating out of concern and, eventually, hurt. he already knows something’s up before Siffrin gets to him. he knows something truly awful must be wrong for Siffrin to be lashing out like they are, and as soon as he can’t handle the situation anymore, he leaves and asks (with strained cheer) for time apart to cool off.

most of Bonnie’s anger comes from being upset and afraid that Siffrin would willingly put themself in danger for no reason, when that’s exactly why they’ve been so unsettled since the eye incident. they hate that Siffrin values their own life so little, they hate that they’re the cause of any pain or loss for him, and here he is, putting himself in that situation AGAIN. on purpose. it’s loud and explosive, but it’s familiar, too, being “hated” by Bonnie for this reason.

Odile pushes, and keeps pushing, until her concern overwhelms Siffrin and they strike where they know she’s most vulnerable. she gets physical, just for a moment, grabbing his collar before controlling herself and letting go. her fury shuts down into cold detachment, and she walks away.

but Mirabelle—dear, sweet, gentle, loving Mirabelle, “the most wonderful being on earth,” with her secret “ruthless side” that largely involves lightly badmouthing people behind their backs and then apologizing—slaps them. immediately.

and then COMPLETELY RENOUNCES THEIR FRIENDSHIP.

not just “we’re not friends anymore,” but “we were never friends in the first place.”

that’s!!! pretty extreme!!!!

of course, she ALSO starts by asking what’s wrong. something must have happened for him to act like this. but as soon as Siffrin brushes her off, she jumps past that line of questioning and dives headfirst into re-evaluating everything she thought she knew about them as a a person.

if he could say something like that to her and not see anything wrong with it, then she was wrong to treat him as a friend, wrong to read camaraderie into his teasing, wrong to think they must care about them all under their aloof demeanor.

that’s how Mirabelle phrases it—“I was wrong about you”—but i think that there’s a hidden layer of I was right about you, too.

she talks about the way they tease her like she had to convince herself that he was doing it in a friendly way. she says they talk like they “know better than her” like that’s a thought she’s had for a LONG time.

“Always soooo mysterious, Siffrin, always talking as if you're better than me! As if you know me!!! But you don't, Siffrin!!! You're just as lost and useless as I am!!! So stop!!! Talking!!! As if you know me!!!!!!”

none of this comes across as a new, sudden way to view Siffrin for her. it doesn’t shock or confuse her. it makes her angry, defensive, almost like she was waiting for something like this to happen at some point. the feeling of resentment, frustration, jealousy, being patronized and condescended to—this is something she’s been actively pushing down and rejecting this entire time, but they’ve given her ample reason for it all to boil to the surface. violently.

Mirabelle’s kindness is not inherent or easy. it’s a choice she’s making. she treats Siffrin warmly because she gives him the benefit of the doubt—refusing to act based on anxiety-fueled, cynical speculation, and reassuring herself that his actions are driven by care and friendship even if she can’t quite see it.

“I was wrong about you” doesn’t mean she always and without question believed them to be a fundamentally kind, caring person from the beginning—it’s that her first, colder instincts were right, and she was wrong to convince herself otherwise.

never mind that she asked what was wrong at first. she barely gives them time to speak in their own defense, to explain what they really meant by what they said. all of her suppressed doubts and frustrations are getting aired out now, now that all the trust she’d so deliberately placed in him has been betrayed. her pain feels bigger than this singular moment, so when she hurts him back, she makes sure it extends back through the entirety of their relationship for him, too.

“You're awful. You're not my friend, not my ally, not anything. You never were.”

like the others, she goes back to the clocktower and tells Siffrin not to come back until later. but there’s a finality to the way she ends this confrontation that isn’t quite there with the others. Isabeau and Odile reach their breaking point and remove themselves from the situation, asking for space to cool off but still somewhat leaving the door open for Siffrin to tell them what’s really going on at some point. Mirabelle is the only one who tries to fully cut ties—after everything else she says, her “I don’t want to see you until tonight” reads to me somewhat as “I don’t want to see you anymore unless I have to.”

I can’t wait to never see you again.

even back at the clocktower, Mirabelle doesn’t really defend Siffrin’s place in the party when Odile suggests leaving them behind out of concern for their trustworthiness on the most important day of the journey. Isabeau and Bonnie protest out of sentimentality and faith in Siffrin’s abilities and connection to them, and Mirabelle agrees, but…

“I agree, but... B-But would he even agree to come with us, still? Maybe they won't even come back tonight...”

she doesn’t say much outside of that. maybe the stutter and hesitation here are signs of regret about how things happened, but she lacks Isabeau and Bonnie’s confidence that Siffrin even wants to come back to them in the first place. she doesn’t trust that their bond was real anymore. maybe it never was in the first place, or maybe she broke whatever was there herself.

and she’s still mad when they finally catch up to Siffrin at the King! and she makes sure Siffrin knows that—after saving them, assuring him that he no longer needs to fight, that they’re all there for him. she still cares, of course she still cares—she’s still hurt, too, but they can figure that part out once there’s less world-ending stuff going on.

she’s the first to say that they all reserve the right to still be angry at Siffrin later—and that they’ve already forgiven him.

she’s also the first to say we want to stay with you, too. it’s not just you.

she was wrong! she thought they didn’t care but they care so much, it’s overwhelming, it’s world-ending.

i think she’s gonna be wallowing in guilt post-canon the moment she remembers what she said and did TO SIFFRIN and not just what Siffrin said to her. especially now that she knows Siffrin’s exact hangups, and especially especially if she figures out what Siffrin was trying to say.

they put themself through hell out of loneliness and fear that none of the others cared about him the way he cared about them, he was going insane from repetition and exhaustion and hunger and trying to keep them all safe and together, and all they did in the midst of all that was say something kind of mean to her one time (that turned out to not even be MEANT to be mean it was supposed to be HELPFUL they just SAID IT ALL WRONG) and she SLAPPED THEM? and told him that they WEREN’T FRIENDS AT ALL??? how could she!!! she should have known better!! what they said hurt a lot but still!!!

so when they eventually manage to try to talk about it, they end up almost in, like, a guilt competition.

Mirabelle apologizing for how she reacted, that she shouldn’t have yelled or hit him, that she doesn’t want to be the kind of person who acts that way out of anger and she’s sorry that she made Siffrin expect that reaction from her, she should have known better and believed in him more and they only messed up like that because they were losing their mind in a time loop but what’s HER excuse—

and Siffrin going nononono stop I deserved it—(HUH DON’T SAY THAT NO YOU DIDN’T)—and that he should never have said such awful things to her, ever, and she was under so much pressure already with the weight of the country and everyone’s lives and futures and her religion and their whole party counting on her to do this impossible task because she’s the only one who can, all this unbearable expectation and hope crushing her, and they KNEW that but they thought they could skip to the ending as though her feelings didn’t matter at all, like helping her wasn’t as important as saving a little time—

until they’re just. in tears together, apologizing for all the horrible things they did in between complimenting each other’s strength and kindness and resilience and how much they admire each other and saying that no, everything you did was completely understandable, actually, the only one who sucks here is me. which neither of them will accept coming from the other!!

they’re so similar, in ways they couldn’t really understand, before.

warm, affectionate, perfect Mirabelle, the resolute hero, a beacon of compassion and hope for all those around her, who wears her heart on her sleeve, her fear making her courage shine all the brighter—nothing like the insignificant, forgettable Siffrin, too terrified to be known, too fragile to touch, too selfish and disgusting to bear letting go.

cool, mysterious, unflappable Siffrin, the worldly traveler, as charming and silly as they are confident and skilled, who brushed off losing an eye like it was nothing, accepting the risks of this journey with barely more than a shrug—nothing like the anxious, stagnant, underserving Mirabelle, a fraud and a nobody crumbling under the weight of a mission too important to be entrusted to someone like her, doubting herself, doubting her friends, doubting her mentor, doubting her faith, too weak and brittle to bend and change the way the world needs her to without breaking.

not worth bothering others with their problems. they should be able to handle this alone. stay positive, stay calm. breathe in, and out.

they’ll struggle with it, still—the hiding, the minimizing—but now, they understand each other a little better. they can hold each other accountable for what they leave unsaid.

it’ll get easier, eventually. they have plenty of time.

[flightyalrighty]

MY THEORY IS THAT SONIC SPIKEY SPIN-DASHED IVAN AND THATS WHO HE KILLED SIMPLY BECAUSE I WANT TAILS TO LIVE >:( (also cuz like assuming thats when sonic got infested, ivan maybe heard him say the silly phrase and then repeated it because sure why not and got spikey spinned to DEATH and that would explain why sonic was DRENCHED in blood rather than parts of him being bloody [also it feels like it was foreshadowed in the train scene]) !!!!

this is like an amalgamation of every kinda This Kinda Ask in my askbox. It's like, it's all the hits, y'know? There's Tails death denial in multiple forms here, like the insistence that Tails couldn't possibly be able to drench Sonic in blood --

(because a creative design choice for a more impactful visual makes the Bipedal Blue Hedgehog Running At The Speed Of Sound Horror Comic otherwise unrealistic -- You guys would never survive Sekiro)

-- so that means it MUST have been Ivan who died here + The angry "I want Tails to live," both there despite me stating multiple times that the intent was for folks to understand that Tails is dead pretty much immediately. That it wasn't some big twist. That some lack of Tails death wasn't a big twist either. I've emphasized the importance of this death. Many times!

AND THEN! ON TOP OF THAT!

Acting like how G.U.N. dealt with Shadow's situation like a conspiracy of some sort or like it's some sorta writing flaw or plot hole to cinema-sins style ding at me about just because the characters in the story don't know as much as you do -- While completely forgetting what certain characters are capable of.

And really, "ivan maybe heard him say the silly phrase and then repeated it because sure why not"? You have to ask yourself right now if that would be a satisfying way for a story to actually play out.

Like, idk! Maybe let's wait and see! Maybe trust the person making the thing a lil more! 12 hit points!

[project-sekai-facts]

Are there some cards with anatomy mistakes? like those old bl mangas

(okay not THAT bad ToT)

my fav example is tsukasa's arm on this card like what is going on here. awful. hate this card because of that alone.

the legs on these two cards look a bit weird if you stare at them for too long

i'm not sure if this is on-model or not. prsk characters have really long bodies and legs sorta like fashion illustrations but nene's body in this card feels way too long. also the leg she's bending looks kinda weird now that i think about it.

okay this one wasn't planned it's not really bad anatomy but i was looking through old cards and what the fuck is this pose why is her right leg facing inwards i think i always corrected it in my brain and never noticed until now. that doesn't look comfortable. im also putting luka here bc i think the anatomy is fine but the pose is fucked

it might just be the perspective throwing me off but her leg/foot looks too big in this card

only example i can think of that isn't a really old card. her right leg is a bit fucked up here

[doomedtoxicyaoi]

doflamingo looking like zoro without his glasses is so true actually, i always have do a double take when i see fanart

Literally! Doffy's two defining traits are his glasses and his smile so without them he just has his balding hairline 😭 and sorta buzz cut is very similar to Zoro's. I think it tends to go under the radar a lot because Zoro usually frowns when he's in a scene because he likes trying to act cool while Doffy is grinning ear to ear like a madman 90% of the time.

In terms of hair, the main difference is that Zoro has more of a square shape to his hairline that extends to somewhat longer sideburns. Even looking at their eyes doesn't help either because most of the fandom also subscribe to 'Doffy is missing/has an injured eye'. I think the eyebrows are the only real difference - or lack thereof in Doffy's case

And it works the other way as well, when you give Zoro the Doffy glasses, he looks like Doflamingo. (also I can't get over how cunty everyone looks in the second image like they really are top tier glasses designs)

Also it's funny to me that when I was looking for references I found the moments that Doffy looks the best are usually when he's frowning lol. Not to say they're aren't some good moments of him with his signature smile, but he tends to look a bit too silly for me, especially when he has his tongue out. And the anime doesn't help since Dressrosa has tons of wonky off-model moments for all the characters and Doffy's no exception.

i guess

most of the time we see him smiling it feels very forced which I think is kinda the point. The shape of his glasses kinda resembles smiling eyes and most of the time he will have that same 'evil' grin. Drawing him with any kinda of emotions is genuinely so hard because you can't just slap on some eyebrows and call it a day, which I imagine is why we have that goofy vein sound effect to show his rise in blood pressure every time something goes wrong.

like he's so pissed in all of these images but its hard to differentiate that from his goofy grin because he's basically angry all the time. The grin is just kinda something he does to unsettle people. And in this translation from The Library of Ohara they even mention that he just kinda does that automatically?

Whereas you look at the few times Rocinante smiles and it's clearly very genuine.

and the funniest part to me is that between the two of them, Law clearly did not take after Corazon when it came to smiling because like...

and Zoro has also been known to have that sorta bloodthirsty looking grin

[lume-ish]

Yall i got super carried away

I wanted to draw some ideas I had of Trollex and Synth's parents and ended up with a sorta au and a little techno troll worldbuilding.

"Egg? I think you mean ball"

I like to think that Trollex was one of those kids that absolutely hated the idea of a sibling. One of those kids that gives the parents the meanest/most concerned side eye when he's first introduced to his sibling.

I think part of it is also cause Trollex had a very poor understanding of what a sibling was. Like his mom told him something like

"its like having a best friend for the rest of your life!"

"the rest of my life???" and he then thought Synth was going to stay small and crying for the rest of his life.

Idk I thought it was kinda funny.

But as they grow up they get more used to each-other and they argue(as siblings do) but they do end up becoming each other's best friend.

Anyway I imagine Synthia traveled a lot before meeting unamed other mom. Like her genre of music is still techno, just like techno adjacent?

Like I really like the idea of there being other smaller groups of techno trolls, like deep water techno trolls would be like maybe 2bit game-type music. Fresh water might be like idk techno pop, since they're closer to the other troll kingdoms. Oh wait no they're vocaloid.

Hatsune Miku Techno Troll.

Other mom is currently unnamed, I thought about calling her Beat-atrice like a play on Beatrice? She'd go by Queen Beat or Bea(Synthia would call her Bea) But idk, l'm still unsure. Anyway she's the Queen and I wanted her/her side to look more like Synth than Trollex cause i think it'd be fun to explore the feeling of a young King Trollex still trying to figure out how to rule without his parents' guidance and the fact that he looks so unlike his mom/past rulers would kind of be like the cherry on top yknow?

As much as he knows its foolish to think part of him wonders if Synth would be a better King than him, Synth is like the spitting image of their Mom/their Grandad.

When his mom was alive, she was always busy with Queenly duties and he never spent much time with her, (I have lore stuff for her too, I went a lil overboard) but one thing he does remember is that his Mom admired his grandad for being a good strong ruler. Thats why he's named after him. So he can't help but wonder if he's doing things right, if he's a good king, if his parents would be proud, if he's doing his grandfathers name justice and ruling the techno trolls in the right direction.

Uhh what else, I feel like Trollex would see his mom a lot in Synth. Mostly cause the 2 look so similar, but since Trollex never got to know his mom he doesnt realize that personality-wise he and his mom are super similar.

They probably would've gotten closer and formed a really tight bond as he grew up and was learning how to rule from her. Too bad that didn't happen.

Also Synth doesn't remember his parents. At all, he's seen their pictures so he knows what they look like but thats all he remembers them as, as pictures. It kinda killed Trollex when Synth told him that. Everyone else remembers them as rulers, but he remembers them as his moms, and even his memory of them as his moms have faded and warped overtime.

I have more tumbling around in my brain, most of it revolves around unnamed mom and her grandad/her family but I've got some ideas about Synthia's character and her life/family too.

Idk of I'll make more art or about it tho, might just write a bunch of words and post it lol.

[returntosunder]

HOLY HECK, WE CAN INFO DUMP ABOUT OUR AUS HERE?!?!?! /Pos

Okay! Me and my sibling made an Au together called Dragontale, and imma dump the lore here. We've decided that there wasnt really a war, but since monsters have two forms, their usual monster form and a dragon form, humans began becoming dragon hunters, so the monsters hid underground to stay safe!

Most of the main og cast were the original hiders, like Asgore, Toriel and everyone's favorite character to debate on, W.D. Gaster! Sans and Papyrus were still lil guys back then though, so they don't really remember the change from above to underground.

Monsters can still technically go above ground, it's just very unsafe, so nobody really leaves.

Oh yeah, Undyne and Alphys were born underground lol.

Chara and Frisk are probably the only humans to have ever fallen, Chara being adopted by the Dreemurs and dying in some way we haven't decided on yet. Frisk is really interesting, cause they grew up in an orphanage hearing magical tales of dragon hunters, leading to them wanting to become a hunter as well, but once they fell down and actually met the dragons that they've wanted to kill for so wrong, they had a DRASTIC change of heart!

Color schemes for horns and tails, which all monsters have in their normal form, is based on soul traits, for example, Sans has yellow and light blue things! Dragons are usually that big, usually a wingspan can go from 10-45 feet, depending on the size of the monster.

Also, we've sorta based the dragon designs off of WoF dragons hehe, like, Undyne is seawing based, W.D. is Nightwing based, and all that :) /INFODUMP :D

Anyways, this is really long lol, but we've recently started up an ask blog as well! @ask-dragontale if your interested /nf

Erm, I really admire you, thank you, bye! <3 /p /POS

DRAGONSSS OMG I LOVE DRAGONS!!!

OMG I LOVE YOUR SANS AND PAPYRUS DESIGNS!! THEY ARE SO CUTEE!!!!

So they can shift into bigger dragons? Omg im now just picturing tiny frisk or chara on dragon Tori and its so cute oml

Now that I think bout it, do the monsters have much room to actively shift to dragons? Cause living underground, i can imagine is kinda cramped, and they can't really fly as bigger dragons :(

This is such a cool idea I actually love it, Ty for sharing this ^^

GUYS I LOVE READING YALLS AUS THEY ARE SO COOL IM CRYING /VPOS

[egforsakentakes]

back with more twotime thoughts incredibly headcanony self indulgent ones

so i saw one twotime design where one of their eyes instead of being like. eye was pure white with the spawn symbol inside and i loved it and adopted it for my own design of them and i was thinking about WHY itd be like that if itd be a 'blessing' from the cult or born with it or something else but ive landed on the idea of it being a glass eye and i really like it

either them willingly sacrificing their eye to Spawn or my main thoughts of their eye getting damaged somehow snd the cult doesnt really have proper medical care so the only solution is just sorta. cut it out and replace it!! and ofc the glass eye made by the cult for them having the spawn symbol

i imagine this would happen sometime around them being like 15-18 age (since in my mind they are 27 during forsaken period) so theyve had it for a while and are pretty used to it. they also Do Not Think to bring it up to the other survivors ever

this leads to my really stupid thought of them at one point muttering 'theres something behind my eye..' during intermission and the others just kinda assuming they are being yknow. twotime. until they PULL THEIR EYE OUT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE- they are completely oblivious to the fact no one else is aware their eye is fake yet and also i think half the survivors just had a heart attack hsjsjsjs

sorry this is so much and so self indulgent i wanted to ramble about my design / thoughts for them hfjdjdjd

.

[keferon]

I don't know if you know this but, Blurr not being able to find Swindle in Armada because there are so many 'fake' ones is so funny to me cuz-

This is the actual Swindle in Armada (the minicon on Star's shoulder) Oh my god so Starscream really just stole Blurr's man like that, adopted him any everything just so Blurr has to call him dad-*gets shot*

OH MY GOD I FORGOT THAT ARMADA SWINDLE IS STARSCREAM’S MINICON OH THIS HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL JSKSJCNFJMFNV

And that potential completely different depending on the timeline. Imagine if Blurr gets in the Armada universe after IDW? He is not only depressed because all his life was left in another universe but also like. There’s this bot who LOOKS like weird Swindle and absolutely adores Blurr but it’s actually Sideswipe??

And then Starscream joins the Autobots and brings all his minicons with him and like

Blurr: oh I see you brought those three little guys with you. How cute

Starscream: Oh no. Four actually. Those three are Sonar, Jetstorm and Runway. (Takes a tiny red guy out of nowhere) And Swindle.

Blurr: Ah……..hi

Mini Swindle: beep boop boop beb pebpub

Blurr: Smoking isn’t enough I need to fall down the stairs

OR! If we take this to the time when Swindle already found his way into the isekai???? Imagine IDW Swindle pressing “the travel button” or smth and thinking it can’t be too weird right? WRONG. GET SHRUNK LOSER. You are now palm sized and cant properly talk. The comedy possibilities are fucking ENDLESS

[egophiliac]

EGO EFO EGO OVERBLOT SSR ANNOUNCED OVERBLOTS SSR ANNOUNCED MALLEUS' HAS BEEN SHOWN BANGS POTS AND PANS EGOOOOOO

OH NO

[babyblankyerror]

Alexithymia

[5-7-9]

I must have fish memory because this is too meta Doylist with no overlap with canon and Idk why past me didn’t say anything. Duke has made plenty of mistakes around the Batfam. He also is usually an openly angry guy. I don’t remember this being a struggle he had to face??? It kinda sounds like how fanon tries excusing why Duke is the “perfect angel” that never feels emotions or gets into trouble, when that’s never been Duke in canon ever.

I’m pretty sure Duke gets compared with Jason only because they’re both sorta on the lower class end, sassy, and is default angrier than others are. The concept of Duke being jealous of Jason is something that doesn’t hold up… anywhere??? Why would he be jealous of Jason lol???? He has more reason to envy Tim or Dick than Jason.

Duke insulting Jason behind his back is actually the big reason why I didn’t exactly enjoy this callback to their dynamic in other canon. This is a reference, ahah, i noticed! But yeah, I think it could’ve been more sarcastic or more funnier somehow. I’m not really sure how to make it better and that’s why i never pointed it out.

okay is it still too soon for me to say that I thought these two panels took me out of the story lmao.

Duke calling Jason a cunt could've been funny as hell, but honestly? I think the two of them giving each other shit face-to-face is too fundamentally different from Duke insulting him while he's not present. Those things show two distinct types of relationships to me and this made the moment feel out of nowhere, to be blunt.

"If I pulled a fraction of what Red Hood pulled..." In his last appearances (going back to over a year, my god... it's rough here), Jason has 1.) gotten brainwashed/chemically crippled by his father, 2.) accepted a plan that required him getting killed by his father's robot proxy, 3.) gotten chased by the cops and by Batman himself when he dared go after the Joker. He was also pointedly not present in that cheerful "this is our new family home!!" reunion (where Duke was); it wasn't mentioned whether he refused to attend or wasn't invited, but no one raised any questions about his absence so I think assuming the latter is safe.

If Duke acted the way Jason does (even if that hasn't included murder in years now, tragically xD), he might be shunned from society (YMMV on the Bats)... and so has Jason LOL. If Duked acted like Jason, yes, his race would likely get him treated even worse (for example, in TMWSL, chances are the cops wouldn't have just said they're happy with waiting for the good news that Jason's got stabbed in prison, instead of dealing with the paperwork themselves if he comes to harm on their watch). But well. It's a moot point because Duke doesn't act like Jason. Duke and Jason are on different sides of the line. Jason is explicitly on one that is considered unnaceptable by the other Bats and polite society in general, even one that has grown to accept other forms of vigilante violence.

Duke's vigilantism is more comparable to those "accepted" vigilants. If you were going to point out how white privilege lets some Bats get away with things that Duke would get judged far more harshly for... Bruce and his steady relationship with law enforcement while he performs unlawful surveillance, b&e, arrests, etc. vis a vis how many times Duke got in trouble with them when he began as Robin is a much better example.

Doylist-wise, this is just a writer picking the morally "worst" Bat as a point of comparison without pondering if the comparison holds up. Watsonian-wise... I can make it make sense for me. I can think of it as Duke now being on the same train of scapegoating Jason as the others are; of how it'd happen, and why. If I was a prime-earth-canon fic writer I would run away with that and dig deep into it. What I can't agree with is the idea that these panels hold some "objective" truth about the dynamics at play, or the idea that they are in line with previous characterisation without accounting for some change in the middle *shrugs*.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

they tried to rebrand as The Criminals but riz is literally the city council's treasurer and also turns out people in their late 20s don't really name their friend groups. so now they're The Intrepid Heroes

[marciaillust]

I added some colours to her :)

[salamispots]

working on a smaller guy here and there ('m also pleased with how the sky is more galaxy-feeling then just dark tones compared to other backgrounds I've done)

[huaidanta]

So I just had the horrific realization that I accidentally deleted a specific detail from the finished version :)

I originally intended to have Kazui's faint ring mark in the panel, with the posing sorta "showing it off"...

With the comic I really wanted to depict Kazufuu with complicated emotions where they're aware of what's developing but also in denial and too afraid to commit to anything. However, bury it down as they may try, they're already ~past the point of no return~ (ooOOooOOo).

Well, while I'm at it, it might be fun to show off some details and also go into why I decided to do certain things!

Despite struggling to draw hands, I included hands a lot in the comic. The ideas I wanted to get across with this work are seen really evidently in the hands!

I included panels of Kazui reaching out to and touching Fuuta in a way that teeters between simple care and affection. Kazui touches Fuuta but it's to check his temperature. He does it again but he does so in a joking and light manner that can be seen as friendly or familial — an incredibly weak attempt to potentially put up barriers between them. Kazui is indecisive and so instead of fully committing to acknowledging the feelings between them by outright pursuing or pulling away, he does this messy in-between.

This is then juxtaposed by the climax, in which Kazui's troubled mind becomes increasingly chaotic until it all gets ripped away by the memory of Fuuta reaching out to him during Kotoko's attack. Fuuta reaches out to Kazui and he clings. It's unfortunate that I ended up cropping most of it out but Fuuta holds onto Kazui pretty tightly during the flashback.

Also, here's a close up of Kazui's reflection in Fuuta's eye!

Despite Kazui trying to skirt around Fuuta's obvious feelings, the truth is that they had already reached the point of no return for their relationship before the comic even started. The apple has already been bitten and is in decay.

It's kinda funny to say but I made Kazui extra wide on this page so that there was more space to work with the stains. I wanted the giant, bloody hand smears on his chest to show how Fuuta had already left such a deep stain on Kazui's very being. This event had not just wounded Fuuta, but Kazui as well. This is their shared pain.

My original pitch of the idea for funsies:

If it wasn't already obvious, I just adore depictions of love and relationships as something messy and scary and violent. With Fuuta's colour being red, I just can't get over the idea of Kazui ~being dyed in his colours~. As I was working on the comic I wondered if it was too confusing or pretentious, so seeing the responses from everyone really made it worth it!!

Aaaand on that note, abSINthe will be taking part in the 2nd MILGRAM web-only event on September 13/14 !!! But with a much more casual project plan in mind 😁. I personally won't be doing another comic but rather a series of illustrations. I hope to see you guys there!

Extra little thing I didn't know where to fit in:

In the double page spread leading up to the climax, there are a bunch of panels that were fully drawn despite being mostly covered in the finished version. This was so that I could move panels around and experiment!

Point of No Return

My piece for the abSINthe 0703 anthology that was exhibited at the MILGRAM web-only event!

I tried something kinda experimental which was definitely a bit risky as someone with little comic experience and a 10 page limit 😅 I hope you like it!

[CW: depictions of blood and violence]

[velvetwyrme]

I literally adore your cybug au. I'm going through the Worst first part of my year but coming to your blog and seeing these dorky little bugs is literally the cutest. Jazz is obviously my favorite of em so far but that's the jazz bias. I love these bugs so much. Give em lil headsets and kisses

im really happy to hear the funny lil guys have been helping! i am. also Going Through It atm, so drawing funny little guys is my way of making it through the hard times. may the year get better for the both of us 🥂