#a beacon of cool ; aesthetic

[deltamb3r]

Your CotL OCs (Narilamb children I guess?) are so cute! I wish I could see them more.

And, yeah! I think I've got an idea! Let them meet their uncles and aunt!

A little late but here you go! I've completely redesigned my NariLamb children! owo (Clothes may change along the way tho)

And while I cannot yet show any children/bishop interaction, lemme tell each one has their bond with them :3

We have:

Mia, the eldest child

She's the little princess of the cult, very well behaved child and a beacon of light for the lives of those around her. She takes both good and bad traits from both her parents. Sometimes she acts a bit spoiled when not in a good mood, but generally she's good at heart. She bonded with Shamura the most.

Ovinnik, the middle child

Ovi for short, he takes his looks mostly from his dad, even though he's a bit of a scaredy cat. He doesn't have lots of self esteem, little by little he's improving his skills both in cult managing and fighting. He tries to act cool sometimes to hide his insecurities, but the cat gets out of the bag very quickly. He wants to become as strong as Baal and Aym someday. He bonded with Kallamar, obviously.

Sole and Luna, the Lamb twins and youngest children

Agents of chaos in the cultgrounds, always trying to elaborate pranks and making their parent's life much difficult. Both their names and Aesthetic is dedicated to Baal and Aym, which they love to play with. Sole looks like a really young Lamb, while Luna takes more from Narinder. They bonded with Leshy and Heket the most, as they enable their prankster behavior a lot, much to their parent's exhaustion.

[tswaney17]

@azrielappreciationweek | Day 1: Cool Quiet

For cool quiet, I wanted to explore the imagery surrounding Azriel. He’s often symbolized as Hades, and he and Elain have been given the Hades/Persephone aesthetic by Sarah. Azriel born of darkness is searching for his light and I just know Elain will be that shining beacon of hope for him. 🦇💙

[junk-story]

Interview Archive 2, 5.1994 - Ongaku to Hito Special Edition

This interview is on pages 62-67 of the magazine. Footnotes can be found at the bottom of the text.

ISSAY – the aesthetic man who “continues to spin round and round in a dead end with nothing to do”, from DER ZIBET, who debuted in ‘85 as “the founders of Japan’s aesthetic-style rock revival”. Sakurai Atsushi – the aesthetic man of “complete self-deprecation, going mad in any case”, from BUCK-TICK, who debuted in ‘87 as “the first aesthetic-style rock band dominating Japan nationwide”. This will be the first interview between these two. Whether you call it visual kei, makeup kei, aesthetic kei, or Japanese-style decadence kei, this movement became dominant in Japan’s current rock scene before we knew it. Although it’s been analyzed from various perspectives, in a nutshell, I wonder if at the center of this movement is “an exceptionally large desire to escape a difficult reality”. Not liking to look at reality, they seek out a place of repose that’s “somewhere that isn’t here”, and they hide thoroughly within themselves. And while Japan is a peaceful country and they were born during this moratorium [on violence], they are “hippies”. Those who have become the beacons of this are, without a doubt, Der Zibet and BUCK-TICK. With that, a meeting of two giants who rely on each other – but it really suits these two.

Ichikawa: I’ve had pending questions for when this interview happened for a long time, since I was working at a certain other music magazine, but now that we can finally do it, somehow I’m still feeling shy.

ISSAY: Hahahahaha.

Ichikawa: First, I’ll start with the perfunctory questions.

ISSAY: The story of BUCK-TICK and DER ZIBET’s formation?

Sakurai: Hahahahaha.

Ichikawa: Hahahaha. I’m tired of hearing that sort of talk already.

ISSAY: Alright then, how we first found music? (laughs)

Ichikawa: (Ignoring him1) Sakurai, around what point did you learn of DER ZIBET?

Sakurai: Around when I was 19 or 20, wasn’t it? I’d come to Tokyo from Gunma, and during the time I was living together with a friend, I borrowed a tape from someone and listened to it.

Ichikawa: Was your first “Violetter Ball (Murasaki no Butoukai)”?

Sakurai: Yeah. I thought it seemed good and listened to it. And then, by chance, I was passing by Eggman in Shibuya...and it was written there, “DER ZIBET LIVE!”. I thought, “I wonder what sort of feel it’ll have, this is my chance” and bought my ticket for that day. That was the first place I watched them…

Ichikawa: Der Zibet are decadence at its finest, aren’t they.

ISSAY: Yeah. We’ve been told by those around us to tone it down. (laughs)

Sakurai: By the way, ISSAY-san, you were singing with a mask on.

ISSAY: Really? ...That’s not great! (laughs)

Ichikawa: (laughs) The first time you saw them it was that sort of live?

ISSAY: ...I think it wasn’t that sort of pantomime pantomiming, at the time at least.

Ichikawa: What hairstyle did he have?

Sakurai: The same as now, I think. Yeah, like that.

ISSAY: Was it black? I think maybe it was red. Red or green, one or the other.

Ichikawa: (laughs) This guy, he was giddy2, wasn’t he?

Sakurai: No...well, I thought he was cool…

ISSAY: I’m glad! (laughs)

Ichikawa: Hahaha. Did you listen to Der Zibet after that too?

Sakurai: I think after that was around the time when I had first started with BUCK-TICK, not yet as the vocalist, but as the drummer.

ISSAY: Oh?! Atsushi, you were the drummer at first?

Sakurai: Yeah.

ISSAY: I had no idea. (laughs)

Sakurai: After that, while we were touring around during our indies era, at Nagoya’s ELL, DER ZIBET’s video was playing. I thought again that they were cool. Then, when we came back from touring, among our few (laughs) fans, there was a kid who loved DER ZIBET, and they gave me that video. I watched it again and again in my room like I was devouring it.

ISSAY: You watched it again and again! (laughs)

Ichikawa: What parts of Der Zibet did you like? Don’t worry; just be honest.

Sakurai: Hmmm, well I’ve performed vocals as well, so that’s where my eyes go, don’t they. ISSAY-san was cool.

ISSAY: (laughs) See~?

Sakurai: It wasn’t just singing...the added value of his performance on the stage was really impressive.

ISSAY: We were trying various things at that time. Like where I’d sit on top of a stepladder and sing, or I’d have an enormous clock.

Ichikawa: Wahahaha. You’d go onto the stage holding candles.

ISSAY: Not candles! A lantern. All four of us wore black coats and appeared on stage holding lanterns.

Ichikawa: You did as much as you could underground, didn’t you.

ISSAY: When I think of it now, I wonder if was Japanese gothic. (laughs)

Sakurai: Hahahahaha.

Ichikawa: Is this guy embarrassed, I wonder?

ISSAY: No no. (laughs) Well, performing something itself isn’t really embarrassing. Just, when it’s said right to your face...that is embarrassing, a bit. (laughs) There’s a kind of embarrassment when someone says, “A long time ago, we all went to this picnic, right?” and they bring out a picture of you from your high school days, right? It’s embarrassing.

Ichikawa: So Sakurai, you felt there were some commonalities with Der Zibet, right?

Sakurai: …...Hmmm…...how can I say this – I felt like they were a young boy’s words. There’s a boy who has his own world and there is a girl who yearns for him in it, like that? Yeah, it may have a girlish perspective to it. Or it could be like a so-called father complex.

Ichikawa: Sakurai, you’ve had a complex about your lack of personal worldview as an artist, on that note.

Sakurai: Because I still can’t express myself in words, I haven’t gotten to that point yet. The person named ISSAY-san who has already achieved it is right before my eyes…

Ichikawa: Then, the heart of a young girl longs for him, and he also ends up a father figure – a person having difficulties, and you are too. (laughs)

Sakurai: (laughs) I envy him, that’s the kind of feeling I have.

Ichikawa: The first time ISSAY saw BUCK-TICK was in London in ‘88, wasn’t it. This was while Der Zibet was recording “GARDEN” and BUCK-TICK “TABOO” respectively, and you performed in a foreign country.

ISSAY: That was my first time seeing them live. However, the first time I met them was at the public TV recording of Meguro’s Rokumeikan.3

Ichikawa: That was the time that SION, Der Zibet and BUCK-TICK all were recording on the same day. When you went to the dressing room, they were there and you became acquainted?

Sakurai: (embarrassed laugh) Yes.

Ichikawa: Was that around the time BUCK-TICK debuted?

Sakurai: Yes, right around the time we debuted.

Ichikawa: When you went to the dressing room, there were these boys with their hair straight up.

ISSAY: That’s right. But they were such good kids. (laughs) Atsushi and Imai were adult-like, but the two on rhythm (Anii and Yuuta) really talked to me a lot. It was just a “We’re BUCK-TICK!”, “Oh, hello” sort of exchange, but. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Sakurai didn’t speak?

ISSAY: He said, “I’ve been to see one of your concerts once.”

Sakurai: (embarrassed laugh) Is that so?

Ichikawa: The Sakurai of that time was a guy that consistently didn’t talk. Right before their debut, when I was doing my first interview with BUCK-TICK, Sakurai and Hoshino, they were a fleet of silence, the two of them, you know? Despite their gaudy hair standing straight up. (laughs)

Sakurai: (laughs) Waah, we were useless guys.

Ichikawa: Well, you were eyewitness to BUCK-TICK’s live in London.

ISSAY: There was a message from Atsushi in my voicemail. “I heard you’re going to London to record around the same time as us, so if you can meet up, let’s meet”, something like that.

Ichikawa: Sakurai, what are you embarrassed about?

Sakurai: Nothing, nothing. (laughs)

Ichikawa: You’re blushing like a schoolgirl, you know. (laughs)

Sakurai: ……...(laughs)

ISSAY: Hahahahahahaha. So, I heard that BUCK-TICK was going to perform live there, so I went to watch them with the other members [of DZ].

Ichikawa: I think I can ask this now, but, performing live in London was tough, wasn’t it?

Sakurai: Yes, it was tough. But, well, it was just a rush of performing and coming back home. I didn’t think I could perform sober, so I don’t remember it, but. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Just drinking up like crazy before the show. (laughs)

Sakurai: Yeah.

Ichikawa: Sounds desperate. (laughs) Were Der Zibet your only Japanese audience members?

Sakurai: It looked like there were a number of exchange students as well.

Ichikawa: Wasn’t it embarrassing with Japanese people being there?

Sakurai: And they were in the front row. (laughs)

ISSAY: Right. I was thinking that they may have come all the way from Japan to see them. I thought, “Wow, BUCK-TICK is awesome.” (laughs)

Ichikawa: Bottom line, what were your impressions from the live?

ISSAY: I thought they were doing their best. (laughs) They had a lot of spirit. I think it was the ending, that was amazing. Like BOOM, BOOM.4 It was like, “ooh, they’re really doing it.” (laughs)

Sakurai: Hey, that’s something you’d say about a sports player. (laughs)

ISSAY: It felt like you guys were like, “Listen to this, you bastards!”

Sakurai: We might have seemed like nasty guys. (laughs)

ISSAY: No, not at all, there wasn’t a feeling of nastiness to it; you were greeting them with smiles and properly did the MC in English.

Ichikawa: MC!!!

ISSAY: In the middle, speaking English got troublesome so he ended up speaking Japanese, but. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Woooooow. (laughs) This guy who can’t even speak for the MC in Japan, there’s no way he could do it over there, right?

ISSAY: Hahahahahahaha.

Sakurai: Right. It was impossible.

Ichikawa: But this is a nostalgic story.

ISSAY: Yeah, nostalgic. But I remember stuff from that time.

Sakurai: Me too. And I was glad you came to our dressing room.

Ichikawa: Thinking about it, both BUCK-TICK and Der Zibet recorded internationally as a one-time thing.

ISSAY: For us, it’s because when we go there, we end up making dark stuff. Like, the dark and extremely heavy “GARDEN” that was so heavily criticized by the people invested in it, when we listened to it in London it seemed normal. You don’t think it’s dark at all.

Sakurai: That’s right. Ichikawa-san also completely disliked our “TABOO”, so. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Well, when you go to London, it suddenly ends up feeling quite frightening, doesn’t it? And artists need to have a strong sense of themselves.

ISSAY: I ended up having the constitution for it, undoubtedly. I had fun, being in London. Wasn’t that the case for you?

Sakurai: Certainly mentally speaking, it was very comfortable.

Ichikawa: But Sakurai, you’ve been on vacation to Hawaii before.5 (laughs)

Sakurai: That place is totally harder. (laughs) There’s this obsession of like, if you don’t go outside you’re missing out...(laughs)

ISSAY: Aah, I get that! (laughs) Well, did you end up going outside?

Sakurai: I did end up going out.

ISSAY: Did you swim in the ocean?

Sakurai: I did. (laughs)

ISSAY: Isn’t that nice~, that you swam in the ocean~? (laughs)

Sakurai: Hahahaha.

ISSAY: Let’s go next time, it’ll be fun. Let’s go, let’s go. (laughs) Last summer, for the first time in 15 years, I also went to the ocean, sooo (laughs)

Sakurai: What sort of fun? (laughs)

Ichikawa: Decadent people going for a swim in the ocean. (laughs)

ISSAY: After that, we’ve met in passing a number of times. Definitely, I think it was when we were coming back from touring in Nagoya or somewhere, but we were refueling our gas in the parking area off the highway and (laughs) these guys with long hair came in. I was thinking, “Huh? I’ve seen these guys before”, and there was the bassist. He went, “It’s BUCK-TICK!” (laughs) And from the back, making an extremely embarrassed looking face about it, came Atsushi. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Wahahahaha.

ISSAY: I was like, “Oh, it’s Atsushi!” (laughs) Besides that, we also met up in front of Nakano Sun Plaza when Peter Murphy had a concert there.

Sakurai: I remember that well.

Ichikawa: Because events like that are few and far between, right. You guys live withered lifestyles like retired old men. (laughs)

ISSAY: Definitely. (laughs) Events that move me are few and far between. But look, I was moved at first when I met up with Atsushi, I was like, “It’s Atsushi~!”

Sakurai: Hahahahahahahaha.

ISSAY: Atsushi, you’re a homebody too, right?

Sakurai: Going by car from a metropolitan area to a suburb is okay, but getting to the point of leaving my room is difficult.

Ichikawa: This guy would probably be happy if you came over to his room to hang out. (laughs) You would just be idling away the time, though.

Sakurai: Well, there are no enemies from the outside there. (laughs)

ISSAY: You get tired of it right, the stuff that comes with going out.

Sakurai: Yeah, it’s tiring. I wonder why that is.

ISSAY: Because people other than you are there. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Wahahahahahaha.

Sakurai: Hahahaha. 100%. (laughs)

ISSAY: Thank you very much.6 (laughs)

Sakurai: For me, even though I’m at this age, I still happen to get embarrassed and scared about it. I want to go to Toukyuu Hands7, but I can’t, things like that. (laughs)

ISSAY: I can’t go either, you know. (laughs)

Ichikawa: Sakurai, what do you want to go to Hands for?

Sakurai: My light bulbs burnt out, so to go buy more. Places like supermarkets don’t sell them, they’re a special kind. In the end, I had someone else buy them and bring them to me. (laughs)

ISSAY: Right? I do that too.

Ichikawa: That’s no good, you guys. (laughs)

ISSAY: For me, there was a time where I wanted a takoyaki set, so I sent the manager to buy it for me.

Sakurai: Ah, I bought that too. The one from Toukyuu Hands, right? (laughs)

ISSAY: Ah, really? Next time, let’s have a takoyaki party, just the two of us. (laughs)

Sakurai: We’ll do it, we’ll do it. (laughs)

ISSAY: A dark, decadent takoyaki party. (laughs)

Ichikawa: While listening to the Sisters of Mercy.

Sakurai: Hahahahahahaha.

Ichikawa: I’m coming too.

ISSAY: Please do. (laughs)

Ichikawa: So, in “Masquerade”, the song you costar on in Der Zibet’s “Shishunki II”, it became a “decadent duet between teacher and student”.

ISSAY: Weren’t you the one who planned that? (laughs) But, that really was extremely fun. (laughs) And the finished product is quite interesting.

Ichikawa: Like the way the qualities of your voices are so similar.

ISSAY: Right? (laughs) Like, there are many parts where you can’t tell if I’m singing or if Atsushi is singing, even for me.

Sakurai: That’s been said a lot.

ISSAY: I was surprised by that. So, if you listen to how Atsushi normally sings, it’s completely different from me, right? But, when we happen to be doing a part in the same artistic style...you know?

Ichikawa: By the way, ISSAY, what do you actually think about the music BUCK-TICK is performing?

ISSAY: I haven’t listened to all of it completely, so I don’t know for sure, but I think it’s interesting. It’s weird, isn’t it? There aren’t guys performing that kind of music on major labels, are there? So I’m really happy about that, and that it’s so well received. I think that’s a really good thing. From the time they came out, I’ve thought, “This went major. That’s great!” (laughs) Even though the things they perform are quite often actually grotesque.8

Ichikawa: I think the people at Victor who gave them the OK are great too. Here are these “amateurs” with incomprehensible lyrics who didn’t know the fundamentals of their instruments, so you get a lot of weird sounds. At an average record label, they would have ended up getting the boot.

ISSAY: Normally, most likely.

Sakurai: I think so too. (laughs)

Ichikawa: If I’m speaking frankly, and I’m still thinking this, but I can’t help wondering why they were sold on BUCK-TICK.

Sakurai: Fufufufu.

ISSAY: Me, I somehow understand. I suppose the melody was easy to follow and that had a lot to do with it. I don’t think it’s necessary at all to persist in that, but as an element of their work that’s easy to accept, I wonder if it wasn’t a big part of it. Although their lyrics seemed muddied, and although their hair was done like it was. I think their melodies were amazingly alive. I wonder if they really felt that.

Ichikawa: Well, if Der Zibet had also debuted four years or so later, maybe they would have sold big.

ISSAY: Hahahaha. I wonder. (laughs)

Ichikawa: But you know, on the point of how what we call aesthetic kei or visual kei’s “weird sounds” movement gained a following in Japan, I think BUCK-TICK’s contribution is huge. Especially when you think about how aesthetic kei is currently flourishing.

ISSAY: I think so. You’re great, Atsushi!

Sakurai: (laughs) Not at all, the me of today wouldn’t be here without ISSAY-san.

Ichikawa: You guys are so creepy. But lately, the number of lovable “aesthetic fools” are getting increasingly scarce, aren’t they?

Sakurai: Because fashion comes first.

Ichikawa: Stylers9 are born on after another, but it’s just the shape of one. In the amateurs, in indies, and on major labels too.

ISSAY: Hahahahahaha. Styler (laughs)

Sakurai: (laughs) What is that exactly, a styler?

Ichikawa: Hm? Someone who personifies STYLE10.

Sakurai: Hahahaha. What a great way to say it.

Ichikawa: In the middle of the ‘80s, there was an underground aesthetic music scene centered in Shinjuku, and it was nothing but fine fools, wasn’t it?

ISSAY: It was, it was. Jean Genet11 was doing well.

Ichikawa: (laughs) There were no bands that I think a major label would be willing to spend production and advertising costs on thinking like, “This will sell!”

ISSAY: That’s right. But it’s because they had power.

Ichikawa: That underground power, it comes from a scene that has a sad history where, regardless of how good they were, their values were different from the above ground, and for this reason alone they were not recognized, right?

ISSAY: But isn’t that how it ends up in the world?

Ichikawa: Der Zibet is also still the odd one out among that group – because even while ISSAY’s “aesthetic of spinning circles in a dead end” stands out, the sounds have also been properly done.

ISSAY: It was still weird though. (laughs) However, we really were criticized for it. At the time we first put music out, it was written about as “kayou rock”.12 If you had slightly melodious lyrics, you’d quickly be branded with that.

Sakurai: We were as well. (laughs)

Ichikawa: But now there are no fools. And that’s regrettable. Because as I see it, rock is pulled along by fools. It improves the expression and the like.

ISSAY: Well, but…

Ichikawa: Guys like us need to keep going, is what I’m saying.

ISSAY: That’s what you meant. (laughs)

Sakurai: Hahahahahaha.

Ichikawa: I’m asking this right at the end, but ISSAY’s solo album production project is actually now going on in secret, but of course, Sakurai Atsushi, I think you must be obligated to participate in it in any case, right?

ISSAY: Hahahahaha. Will you do it?

Sakurai: I’ll do it!

1 This is literally noted in the text, lol. 2 This could also be “restless” or “flippant”, but those fit less well to me. 3 A live house in Tokyo. The internet tells me this show was on January 17th, 1988. 4 Onomatopoeia translation hard. 5 I felt this transition was weird in English, but it’s clear in Japanese at least that he’s implying London shouldn’t have been comfortable compared to Hawaii. 6 This is basically the first time in the whole interview that ISSAY speaks formally, and it’s for exaggerated effect. Very opposite of Sakurai, who has been 100% formal. 7 Now just “Hands” – a home center store for housing and lifestyle products. 8 “Egui” means a lot of things, but it’s apt for B-T’s music: dark topics on emotional things, taboo social subjects. 9 I spent like 5 minutes trying to figure this out before reading on. He made this word up. Sakurai and Issay didn't know what he meant either. Thanks for keeping me on my toes, Ichikawa. 10 “Style” was written in English here. 11 This appears to be a reference to this playwright’s style of work more than he himself. 12 Better Japanese music historians may know more than me, but this seems like the pre-Band Boom name for this kind of music. THE ALFEE, for example, is listed as one of the founding groups of this sound on JP Wikipedia.

[pilot-boi]

Thinking about how Ruby is a Pokemon girl (and Weiss and Jaune), while Yang is a Yu-Gi-Oh/Magic girl (and Neptune)

And take all these with a grain of salt, because I don’t play any of these games

Ruby’s decks all have themes for the specific game she wants to play, but also she just flat out refuses to not use her favourite Pokemon in every game, regardless of if it’s a good match or not. She knows every Pokemon

Weiss gets into Pokemon at Beacon because of Ruby, and is immediately obsessed. Weiss of course immediately sinks millions of lien into getting a whole collection. She keeps them in one of those laminated folders with the individual slots

Jaune has a collection of foil cards that he maintains in perfect condition, but the others in his deck have scuffed edges and bent corners from shoving them in his backpack

Yang, meanwhile, of COURSE plays Yu-Gi-Oh. Just look at her with Remnant:The Board Game, that’s a girl who plays card games with convoluted rules. She probably also plays Magic, let’s be real

Everyone thinks Yang was a jock growing up, sike suckers, she's a huge ass nerd. She’s like my friend, who seems like he was one of the Cool Kids during school, but he actually spent the whole time playing DND. Yang has the jock aesthetic, but not the jock mentality

Slight tangent, but I like thinking about the gang hanging out with people they don’t in canon, because god dammit all of these kids are friends

For instance, Yang definitely plays Magic with Neptune. I also like Neptune being able to drop his cool guy persona with Yang, because he sees that she ALSO has this jokester persona. They’re just filling the roles they think people want them to. But when hanging out together they can just be the geeks they really are

Again, these are all based on vibes. I have never played any of these games lol

[tales-of-wocdes]

(This got very long sorry, I just enjoyed the demo a ton but had a lot of questions LOL)

Curious what the rationale behind the protectors wearing their armor all the time is. Armor certainly isn't as cumbersome as some media portrays it, but as everyday wear wouldn't it still get in the way a bit? Is it made something special like mithril so its generally easier to manage?

With these people supposed to be around kids frequently, I'd assume the armor has some precautions like making sure all the edges are rounded so no children cut themselves on it but its still solid metal and I'd assume that would be a bit of a safety hazard? Ironically I can actually understand carrying a weapon more than wearing armor, the weapon can be sheathed and tucked away where kids wont grab it but the armor is constantly present for kids to bump into or get fingers pinched in.

This may involve spoilers but is there a threat that justifies being constantly armored? I would have assumed that there would be some armored gate guards, and maybe some on the wall, but within the orphanage itself the protectors would wear something more practical. (In my head to preserve the aesthetic of silver protectors I picture a lot of white clothing accented with silver bits).

Don't worry about the length, I tend to ramble on and on so I have nothing to complain about :D

Now then, let's see here:

The armors of the Silver Protectors are made from a rare metal (let's call it "like mithril" for now) and enchanted. Also quite custom made. This is supposed to be an elite order founded by the Ancients after all :D So they are not as hard to move in as regular armor, nor as unsafe for the kids. Not that regular armor as far as I understand is that restrictive, there is an old youtube video about mobility.

The rest goes under the line. Talking about why they wear the armor.

Identity: For a new order, untested and unproven, the armor is a part of their identity. They are an elite order found the by the Ancients. There are great expectations on them, and they are proud to have been chosen to serve, and of the faith placed on them.

Symbol: The Silver Protectors are meant to become a beacon of safety and strength. Of Protection. They are meant to become an order that everyone knows and easily recognizes. A gleaming suit of silver armor is something everyone can associate with them. To the kids, who can come from various backgrounds and situations, the fact that their protectors wear armor could be a significant factor of actually feeling safe. Also probably cool.

Routine/discipline: No better way to get used to the armor than wear it all the time until it is just something that they are not bothered by in the least. The Silver Protectors are expected to be among the best.

Preparedness: What use is armor if it is not worn? That one time you would get caught off guard, and you are not wearing the armor and everything goes to shit because of it. Consider it from the Ancients point of view: If the armor is needed once in a 200 years, then that justifies always wearing it in the eyes of beings that time has no meaning to. Is it overkill? Absolutely. Is it something that jaded ancient paranoid beings would enforce. Absolutely.

Does any of this actually justify wearing the armor? Maybe, maybe not. Is it foolproof logic? Of course not.

You are right that perhaps inside the orphanage it could be a hazard. Even if the armor is enchanted to avoid more common issues, the armor is still metal, and I may need to consider that. You do have a good idea with the aesthetic.

Thank you for pointing this out :D If other people have opinions, then do please share.

[nillan-e]

Discovered Beacon Pines and absolutely loved it

So the other day I started an indie game called Beacon Pines.

I had never heard of it before, I only got it because it appeared in my recommandations after playing Night in the Woods, and the aesthetic looked nice.

So I started the game without any expectations. I only played a few hours til now, but it turns out I absolutely love it! Graphics are beautiful, the soundtrack is nice, the characters are cool, and the story is awesome.

Best part is clearly the game mechanics and the way it uses storytelling. The concept is super fun and original, at least for my part I never found another game that makes you play with narration that way.

If you liked NITW I think you'll definitely enjoy this game! And if you never played NITW well you can still check on Beacon Pines.

Huge recommandation!

[razorblade180]

So you said that if you had theoretically infinite cash, you'd make a full-scales RWBY game. On that note, if you had to pick an already-existing game (standalone or franchise) to have a collab with RWBY, which would it be, why, and how would it work? I've had brainworms on the topic and they've been craving roommates and/or food.

I think this is cheating but a some sort of Dynasty Warrior collab would be cool specially for that gameplay style. Somehow our heroes end up in the time period where the Great War was happening in Remnant; there’s your excuse for new maps and fighting more enemy types than grimm. Have a special mission that’s the fall of Beacon.

This is also cheating but a collab with almost any Tales Of game. I’m biased to Xillia but I’d listen options. Once again, the franchise’s battle system really leans into multiple characters fighting together and using team attacks. Also many of those games have an endgame location that always ends being some realm in between realities where they add characters from their other games, so getting a collab to show up is pretty easy. There are weirder things in that series than walking through a portal that leads to Remnant.

I’m really thinking in terms of gameplay aesthetic and genre. This one kinda doesn’t make sense but Nier x RWBY would be fulfilling to me in the sense that I would very much like to be RWBY characters in a giant open world where I could run, dash, use my abilities, and snappy fighting. Just thinking about going through the amusement park in Automata as Blake or Weiss feels nice to me.

In the same vein, my brain is going “the cast in a BotW world would be wonderful, but I don’t want BotW gameplay” which annoyingly leads me to think “so Genshin Impact” and the last thing I want is farming for them in a gacha. If ZZZ wasn’t a gacha then I wouldn’t hesitate about the idea of putting RWBY in a game with flashy fast paced combat. Honestly as I’m typing this I’ve come to an interesting thought. If you mixed the some of the structure and mechanics of Zenless with Scarlet Nexus, you’d probably end up with pretty good foundation for a RWBY.

[shikantazaart]

From Retro Roots to Modern Marvels: The Rebirth of the Pirate Menu Aesthetic

Ahoy, Nostalgia!

If you were a computer geek in the 80s or 90s, you probably remember the thrill of booting up a freshly acquired piece of software and being greeted by a "pirate menu." These were no ordinary start screens; they were vibrant, animated showcases, often accompanied by chiptune music, that hackers and crackers used to flaunt their digital prowess. These menus were as much a demonstration of skill as they were a distribution method for cracked software and games. It was a unique blend of artistry and rebellion, a way to connect with like-minded individuals in a pre-internet world.

The aesthetics of these pirate menus were distinctive and unforgettable. Neon colors, pixel art, and scrolling text formed the backbone of their visual appeal. They were DIY masterpieces, created in bedrooms and basements, meant to dazzle and entertain. Beyond their flashy exteriors, these menus communicated messages, credits, and even embedded jokes, forming a subculture that was as much about the community as it was about the content.

Shikantaza Art: Reviving the Rebel Spirit

Fast forward to today, and the digital nostalgia is real. Shikantaza Art has tapped into this rich vein of retro coolness, bringing the pirate menu vibe into the modern art world. By blending old-school aesthetics with contemporary design, Shikantaza is crafting pieces that evoke the same sense of wonder and excitement that those old pirate menus did. The work is a fusion of pixel art and modern graphics, often featuring animated elements and interactive components and linking to original works by consent and with collaboration of their creators.

We're not just creating art, and we're not just showcasing art; we're reviving a movement, a culture, and a way of connecting with audiences that feels both fresh and familiar.

THE FAEWAVE MENU Project: An Ode to the Past, A Beacon for the Future

Enter the FAEWAVE MENU project, our latest brainchild aiming to capture the spirit of the pirate menu era. This project is a digital platform that curates art, music, and independent video games, presenting them with the same visual flair and rebellious spirit of the old-school pirate menus. FAEWAVE MENUS are like stepping into a time machine that propels you forward, blending nostalgic aesthetics with cutting-edge content.

The project doesn’t just mimic the look and feel of the past; it harnesses it to create a community-driven space where creators can share their work in a visually engaging way. The menus are interactive, featuring music tracks, games, and art showcases that harken back to the days of floppy disks and CRT monitors. Yet, they are designed for the digital age, accessible from any desktop device with an internet connection.

FAEWAVE MENUS are more than a project; it’s a movement that resonates with both the old guard who lived through the original pirate scene and the new generation discovering its charm for the first time. It’s a testament to the timeless appeal of creative rebellion and the power of digital art to bring people together.

Check out THE FAEWAVE MENUS so far...

If you have work you'd like to feature on a FAEWAVE MENU, get in touch in the comments here, or on X.

[samairuart]

YOUR OCS ARE SO COOL i would love to learn more about them

Aw thank you!!! I have a few out there and many more inside my brain that refuse to make it out on paper 🫣

Not sure if you’re asking about these two!!! But if so, they are Sutara and Hawthorne 🫶🏽

I’m a big fan of light and dark aesthetics. Hawthorne is part of the Night Dynasty, a family of powerful shadow beings that rule and protect the Duskrealm. Hawthorne enters the Dawnrealm undercover to find and assassinate the Sun Warrior, a beacon of strength for the Dawnrealm. He’s very perplexed at finding a girl hidden away in a tower instead 🤷🏾‍♀️ who is she? What is she being kept locked up for?

[hit-tab]

Guess who's back! Yep, it's @insufficientchill's Conall and @ritens' Lane! I took a few too many screenshots, so brace yourself. <3

Yeah, bud, that's the whole point of this party comp. I thought it'd be fun. Don't you worry about it! It'll be fiiine.

I'm sure Conall and Lane only have the best of opinions after seeing me fail this levitation-jump five times in a row because I refused to waste a harpy snare beacon. I mean, it's a jump over the brine so I can try as many times as I want without consequence...except for the rapidly dwindling respect of my pawn's friends.

Speaking of, check out this cool underwater shot I got while getting eaten by the brine. Neat, huh?

Here's a shot of Conall being awesome. Fire suits him so well! Mage vocations have such a cool aesthetic, I swear.

And here's Lane kidnapping a knacker(?) that knocked me down. It always tickles me when pawns do that.

"Lane, was that your arrow?" "'Twas not me." "..."

Guys I know you're very excited to pal around but please look out for monsters.

I think René misses being a warrior...

I managed to get a cool shot of Lane, finally. Look at him! He's so ready to wreck face!

My new favourite hobby...equipping a bow specifically so that I can kick rocky saurians. And maybe also other saurian-type monsters. I'm really not too picky.

The whole team is working together! Look how cool everyone is! It's so rare to get them all in one shot that doesn't look like they're all doing their own, random thing.

Conall helping me out after I got wasted by a goreminotaur...thanks, man. Sorry it wasn't the monster you were after. Where's Lane and René? Just over there? They're high-fiving and/or fist-bumping? Oh... ;-;

I was trying to capture a bunch of little victory poses and Lane was having none of it haha.

I don't think Conall knows how to deal with René's shenanigans, the poor guy. (Also check out Lane hiding in the tall grass like a wild pokemon pft.)

Look at these two and their lining up perfectly and their matchy bows. I forget what they were aiming at...probably a bat.

René, buddy, I'm not sure that's going to work. Max rank and he still isn't quite sure how to be an archer smh. Glitches are fun.

Er...Conall? I'm not sure we needed this spell for one teeny little minotaur that had a sliver of its health left, but at least we completed your quest.

René is way too happy about the meteors.

Camping: miserable and wet edition. The poor pawns sitting in the rain...

I had so much fun with Conall and Lane this past couple of sessions! We all got a little dinged up (no tank no real healer) but that might have also been because I went wandering around the volcano area and everyone kept stepping in lava rip. Nothing a little more resting couldn't solve. Sorry in advance if they complain about their burned feet when I send them back.

I actually did Lane's quest first, but sadly didn't get any pictures of us fighting the golem...s? I think we fought two of them. Yeah, one on the volcanic island and another in mainland Battahl, I'm pretty sure. Something about golems makes me forget to take pics I swear.

Anyway, this party comp is surprisingly viable. I only switched to my magick bow for things like spooky ghosts and dragonkin. Everything else was three bow one sorc baybee! SO much fun.

(I haven't sent them back yet! Will do soon.)

Bonus victory pose I have never seen:

Behold. René's applauding. And because there's an enemy in the distance, he's applauding angrily!

I love it so much?? He just-- looks SO mad haha.

[halcy0ng1rl]

rises the moon | sable x mikaela

w/c: 3.3k

synopsis: Sable was exhausted. For what felt like days, she had been tucked away in a corner table at the Moonstone trying and failing to find material for her show, yet there Mikaela stood, shining like a beacon on the blackest night.

fluff, wlw, winter aesthetic

But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same,

Rises the moon. 

December: Downtown Greenville, 2010, 7:45 pm. 

Sable was exhausted. For what felt like days, she had been tucked away in a corner table at the Moonstone, diving through shady internet forums on her prehistoric laptop in a feeble-sounding attempt to research new material for this week's episode of All Things Wicked This Night. The table was buried in curled-up notepad paper, discarded sticky notes, pens, and drained cups of coffee. 

Sable, dressed to the nines in a big white hoodie with her hair messily thrown up in a clip, pressed her fingers to her temples and frowned deeply. The jukebox was routinely stuttering out what was supposed to be relaxing jazz, but only intensified Sable’s rising level of irritability. One more trill of a saxophone, and she would be inclined to throw her fists at it. 

Her fingertips were sore and pink from rapidly slamming her fingers against her computer’s worn keyboard, typing yet not making any worthy progress. Eyelids thick with sleep, she took a moment to escape the cold brightness of her screen and instead looked at Mikaela, a much warmer sight. 

Momentary solace washed over Sable’s tired body as Mikaela smiled and caught her eye from behind the plant-covered barista counter. A calm amidst the storm.

She was wearing a big knitted turtleneck the colour of tumbled amethyst, the sleeves tightly rolled up to reveal the rows of gorgeous golden bracelets adorning her wrists. The smooth, intricate lines of her forearm tattoos stood out beautifully against her porcelain skin and made Sable think, for a moment, of what it might be like to trace them with her fingertips. Her dark blue apron was tied alluringly tight around her waist, an intricate bow securing it in place at the back. Hazy electric blue emitted from the neon sign hung on the wall and mingled with the topaz glow of fairy lights strung around the pillars, casting a gentle contrast of warm and cool to grace her features.

Her delicate hands were busy crafting what was most likely the fiftieth holiday-themed coffee ordered that day, sprinkling red and white bits of crushed peppermint onto a generous accumulation of airy whipped cream. Her haphazardly kept apricot curls danced in front of her face for a moment as she leaned over the counter to hand the steaming cup to the night’s final customer. 

When the door shut and the bell chimed its last, Mikaela let out a relieved sigh and hurried over to flip the neon sign to closed. She hung her star-speckled apron on the rack and let her hair tumble down her shoulders, a visible serenity crossing her freckled face. Distracted, Sable tried to focus on her screen again, but all the words on the tab she had opened blurred into indecipherable blobs. The back of her neck throbbed with a dull ache that wouldn’t go away no matter how many times she stretched. 

Sable typed away, now laser-focused on the matter at hand– she loathed the idea of facing an unfinished document in the morning. As she worked, doubts corroded her tired mind. What if she had to cancel this week’s episode and leave the broadcast dead, subsequently disappointing her listeners? Would she take one break and feel compelled to take another, and then another? Was she losing her spark? 

Absorbed in the suddenness of this overwhelming melancholy, she raved nonsensically without thought on the document, each new sentence becoming less coherent than the last; Is it possible that the Yamaoka family was subject to an unwilling act of demonic intervention years before Rin’s father committed his vile crime? The sword that he used may have been an heirloom, passed down as a curse. It is stated that Mrs.Yamaoka’s body was chopped up. Almost in ritual? Goddddd there’s too many theories. Aliens! A fucking MAGIC SWORD! This case is so OLD Oh my GODDDDDDDDDDDDyihbwdjnxmjhghhhhhhhhhh i’m hopeless. 

Needless to say, she wished she had chosen to write about an obviously fake chain mail story, cryptic text post or even a fake ghost sighting instead of something so convoluted—at least then, she could have extended some creative liberty to her craft. Sable retreated further into her hoodie, drearily remembering that she had chosen to waste her day doing this instead of studying for finals. 

“Tired yet?” Sable jumped at an unexpected voice interrupting her frazzled thoughts. Her posture eased when she realized that the voice was not that of a demonic spirit conjured out of her subconscious despair—but Mikaela’s. 

She leaned against the chair across from Sable with a wry smile gracing her lips, forehead painted with concern and slight amusement. 

Sable stretched and finally met her soft eyes, of which she had their undivided attention through thick circular lenses. 

“You don’t know the half of it.” 

Mikaela laughed sweetly, “Look at who you’re talking to,” she gestured toward the cluttered table with one gold-ringed hand. “I’ve been here a thousand times.” 

“Yeah? And do you always feel like gouging your eyes out?” Sable didn’t intend to sound venomous, but the remark bit acridly when she spoke it. She slumped further down in her chair, this time in remorse, and buried her face in her hands. Forlorn. 

Mikaela gently closed Sable’s laptop and stood closer to her. “Only when I overwork myself– which is most of the time,” 

“Terrific.” 

“I think you should take a break from the show for a while,” her voice turned syrupy, and she gently brushed the tips of her fingers along the purple shadows beneath Sable’s right eye. “It’s draining you.” 

Sable let out a relieved breath and leaned into Mikaela’s touch, savouring the momentary solace. “It’s the only thing keeping me sane,” she breathed, knowing as she said it that it wasn’t the full truth. 

In Greenville, being different means being ostracized. Stared at on public transport. Spoken to with overbearing passive aggression. All Things Wicked This Night was a way for Sable to connect with people who understood her, even if from miles away. That fleeting, yet fulfilling feeling of being heard for even a second in the comfortable dark of her attic, alone yet not wholly, made her feel like she wasn’t neurotic for being the way she, to the dismay of onlookers, was. 

She felt as if she owed it to her listeners to be there for them like they always are for her. 

Yet, there was also another constant in her life who was always there for her, patient and understanding and always right around the corner. 

“Maybe being insane for a while could do you some good,” Mikaela laughed, tucking an errant strand of violet behind Sable’s ear. Sable felt her defences weaken, and her heart thrum with a steady adoration. As per usual, Mikaela was right. 

She sighed, looking up at her with a small, accepting smile. “Brace yourself, then.” 

“I’ll be right here.” As Mikaela bent down to kiss Sable on the cheek, she caught a whiff of sweet, vanilla perfume lingering on her neck and welled up with honey-sweet reverence. Her lips were softer than silk, the touch of them a gentle, forthright promise that healed a part of Sable she never knew to be fractured.

 Sable pulled Mikaela down closer to her chest, and for one infinite second, basking in the familiar warmth of her embrace, the bickering in her head faded away into listless murmurs of violet and velvet. She felt herself come back to earth as her fingers dug into the inviting fibres of Mikaela’s sweater, her face kept safely in the crook of her neck. 

She inhaled once, letting the soft, soothing notes of cacao and amber envelop her delicately like a whispered confession. Sable let go as the moment slipped away, feeling a dull, yet content ache settle within her chest as time visibly passed her by. 

Mikaela smiled– her seafoam blue gaze tender and deep and full of emotions that could not accurately be named– and clasped Sable’s icy hands warmly within the sanctuary of her own. Mikaela ran her thumbs over her cracking, stiff knuckles, easing away the discordance weaved into each bone as if to say it’s okay, I’m here. 

Sable latched onto her again and closed her eyes. She could hear the faint whistle of a blizzard raging outside the window, shaking the barren trees. 

“I’ll make you a tea,” Mikaela unclipped Sable’s hair and smoothed it out with her fingers, staring for a moment out at the puffs of dreamlike snow falling beyond the frost-covered glass before walking back to the counter. 

Sable curled her knees up to her chest and held herself together, cradling the tendrils of warmth Mikaela’s touch left behind close to her heart. She pressed her nose to her sleeves and inhaled, delighted to find a scintilla of her perfume interwoven in the fibres. Her eyes followed Mikaela fondly as she began to mosey about the small kitchen space– they were in their own little world where it was just the two of them, along with the ever-falling snow. 

The kettle bubbled and hissed, and Mikaela’s bracelets jingled musically as she procured Sable’s tea. She gathered small drips of golden honey onto a spoon and stirred them soundlessly into the steaming mug like a witch stirring her misty cauldron– a comparison that made Sable chuckle softly into her sleeve, too low for anyone to hear– then softly whispered an incantation with her eyes closed. 

Sable could feel the warm blessings seeping into her chilled hands as Mikaela handed it to her, outfitted in a familiar chipping cup with little moths painted on it in gold. Hot steam spilled from the lip of the mug and swirled up to tickle Sable’s nose, emanating a sweet, herbal aroma. Memories of past sick days flooded her mind along with an eruption of mushy gratitude. 

“A blend of lavender and chamomile, with a bit of honey,” Mikaela smiled softly and sat across the table from Sable, who was too awestruck to say anything. Her fingers tapped endlessly against the side of the cracking ceramic. 

A rare, tiny smile poked at the edges of her lips. 

“I– I don’t know what to say–” she fumbled with her hands, staring into the dark abyss swirling around inside the cup. “Thank you. So much, Mikaela…” her words faltered, becoming quiet and dreamy. She didn’t know how to articulate her feelings– of which there were many. Mikaela simply huffed out a small, doting laugh in response. 

“You’re welcome,” her lips settled over her teeth to form a smile that reached her eyes, and she gazed lovingly at Sable with one hand atop hers. 

Bliss. 

After a few, heavenly minutes of sipping and talking idly in the low light of the empty cafe, Mikaela looked at her watch and sighed. 

“We should probably get going, I was technically supposed to close half an hour ago,” 

Sable dejectedly gathered all of her things, bones the consistency of a smooth jello– her mind had grown tired hours earlier, but now her body was finally catching up– and walked out into the frigid night with Mikaela’s gloved hand in hers. The snow hit their faces like small specks of cold ash and had dusted nearly every rooftop with candy-like mounds of powdered sugar. The wind carried itself through the barren trees, causing the branches to crack against each other like a rumble of soft, mute thunder that filled Sable’s heart with joy. 

“My place?” Mikaela asked, breaking the icy silence. 

“Please.” 

They sighed simultaneously as they found refuge from the cold in Mikaela’s pale green beetle, cheeks still red from the frosty chill. Pearlescent crystals jingled from a gold chain wrapped around the rearview mirror and shook as Mikaela put the vehicle into drive, pulling out of the snow-dusted parking lot and onto the slush-filled roads of night. 

In Sable’s bleary eyes, the headlights looked like thick strokes of paint among a mosaic of red, yellow, and green reflections. The colours blurred together into a beautifully dark painting that made her feel right at home. She dreamily imagined what creatures may be lurking in the trees as they passed jagged forests, and found solace in her imagination with her head slumped against the cold window. Dreaming. She could picture spindly limbs peering out from a fallen oak, or a grotesque anomaly beckoning an unsuspecting hitchhiker to come closer. Children’s laughter echoing from a forgotten cabin. Maybe even a witch would flourish past the full moon on her broomstick. That thought made her laugh inwardly. 

She smiled when she felt Mikaela gently place a hand on her thigh. 

“What’re you thinking about?” she whispered as they stopped at the lights. Sable blushed a bit, still staring out at the woods. 

“Ghosts and supernatural phenomena.” 

“See anything?” 

“Not yet,” 

Mikaela laughed sweetly. “Keep me posted.” 

Bright street lights interrupted Sable’s daydreaming when Mikaela pulled into her apartment complex’s parking lot and parked the car. Squinting, she shuffled back outside and felt relieved when Mikaela waited patiently for her to tiredly stumble up the frozen sidewalk and into the lobby, never dropping her hand for a second. 

Her apartment was warm and familiar, lit by soft amber light bulbs and mismatched lamps with stained glass shades. Tapestries hung from the ceiling, blessed with sigils and depictions of the moon, effervescent and feminine in her wake. The walls were painted rich plum, and most of the surfaces such as the towering, full bookshelves, were deep, glossed brown and carved out of wood. Green plants spilled from gold planters on the shelves, brightening up the space and giving it an earthy aroma that reminded Sable of an enchanted forest. A large CRT television sat atop the console, stacked VHS tapes intertwined with clusters of crystals resting next to it. 

Sable shuffled off her shoes– worn black canvas sneakers with miscellaneous doodles all over them– and sat down on the purple velvet sofa with a huff. Curled herself up in between the side table and oriental pillows and closed her eyes as Mikaela flitted around absently. Sable identified the comforting sounds of her hanging her coat on the rack and pouring three drops of oil into the diffuser. 

At the click of a button, the soft scent of lavender filled the room, accompanied by the gentle raindrop-esque sounds of mist funnelling from the diffuser. Sable felt her head loll to the side, ready to drift off right there, and groaned playfully when Mikaela motioned for her to get off the couch. Off to bed with you, her eyes seemed to say. 

Sable collected a few personal belongings she had left for nights like this from one of the drawers in Mikaela’s plant-covered dresser and got the shower running. She scrubbed the lingering taste of coffee from her mouth with minty toothpaste and revelled in the feeling of relaxation that settled deep in her bones as she glided under the warm water. Taking a moment to take care of herself, she lathered her whole body with one of Mikaela’s homemade soaps and luscious store-bought vanilla body wash– she’d have to buy more for Mikaela later as a thank you– and wove thick globs of matching shampoo into her hair. 

When she stepped out of the shower, she felt renewed, fresh. Like she had put on a new set of skin. Dressing herself in silken, moon-spotted pyjamas, she wondered when the last time she had felt like this was and frowned when she couldn’t come up with a memory. The girl that was reflected in the foggy mirror was one she hadn’t seen for a long time. It felt strange, yet good, to see her again. 

But also, she didn’t want to stare too long. Her hours of work were catching up, and quick. 

Mikaela was lounging, expectant, on her bed. She smiled, and sat her book down on the nightstand, letting her eyes travel over Sable, lingering for a little longer than she should have before finally meeting her eyes. Sable closed the distance, now heat-stricken and suddenly wishing more than ever to be asleep, by collapsing into her arms. Mikaela placed a tentative hand on her back, folding the soft material of Sable’s shirt over with her fingers and admiring the fragrance of her freshly washed hair. 

“I won’t take long,” she pulled back, skimming her fingers along the little v of exposed skin by Sable’s chest, letting her thumb find respite along the shirt’s first button. 

Sable exhaled softly, wandering into the depths of Mikaela’s eyes and wanting more than anything to stay, locked in her embrace forever. Something like desire poured from her heart into the room as mist, rolling around the atmosphere like sugary pink perfume, pulling her closer. The soft amber glow from the ajar bathroom door silhouetted her orange curls in an angelic halo of light, mesmerizing and encapsulating as a forgotten Goddess. Sable wrapped her finger around an errant curl, feeling their heartbeats synchronize like ocean waves as they pressed their foreheads together. Cars whistled past, but they were only murmurs in the background. Inconsequential. 

“Okay,” she mumbled, reluctantly parting. 

“I’ll be right back,” Mikaela responded, gently kissing Sable’s forehead before picking up her change of clothes and closing the bathroom door. An electric toothbrush powered on, and the water resumed. 

Sable slumped down against the cushiony bed, staring out the window at the luminous moon, milky white like a dollop of whipped cream amidst the mauve winter sky. Clouds shuffled past, stars twinkled if she squinted. She looked at the moon again, settled right in her line of sight. Staring. Watching. Full. Something wasn’t right. 

She lifted her hand and held it up to the window longingly as if maybe she could find the impossible answer to her question that way. Her skin glinted in the moonlight, and her eyes, heavy-lidded, sparkled with a feeling like home. The moon, stood, effervescent, and echoed a soft glow. Warmth washed over her, a celestial kind of touch. 

She bathed, atop the covers, drinking in the pale moonlight. Thinking, waiting, breathing. Ruminating over her life and finding comfort in the fact that she didn’t feel compelled to think too hard. 

She was too relaxed. 

A smile played on her lips, slightly awestruck in its wake. 

The bathroom door clicked, and Mikaela emerged from the now-dark room. She looked like she was about to say something, but Sable didn’t notice. She was still staring out the window. 

“What phase is the moon supposed to be in today?” she lolled her head toward Mikaela, who stood, confused, near her dresser as she buttoned up her pyjama top. 

“Waning gibbous,” 

“It’s full.” 

Mikaela hummed and settled herself next to Sable on the bed, twirling a lock of fading purple hair around her index finger as she, too, locked eyes with the moon. Similarly awestruck. “That’s sweet,” she said slowly before guiding Sable’s eyes back to hers with a gentle flourish. “She’s trying to help you.” 

Ribbons of light from passing cars flickered along the poster-covered blue walls as they shuffled under the covers, Sable curling herself up against Mikaela’s breastbone and Mikaela caressing Sable’s back through her silk top. The symphony of tires gliding over the falling snow and wind carefully being carried through barren trees ebbed and flowed along with their heartbeats, lulling the city around them into a gentle hush that could be forgotten among the sanctity of touch. 

Vanilla and Lavender danced in the night and settled, slowly, but wholly, around Sable’s shoulders as she mumbled against Mikaela’s freckled chest, a small but tender “Thank you.” 

Mikaela kissed the top of her head sweetly, in promise. Uncharacteristic tears pin-pricked at Sable’s weary eyes, drifting slowly away. 

“It’s okay, you can rest now.” 

Dec 23, 2010

xMoonlitSablex: Hey, going to take a small hiatus from ATWTN for the next couple of weeks. You’ll probably find me skulking around the graveyard :p Xoxo, Sable

26 notes 

_mikaelareid_: <3

Supersusie99: did u see the new marble hornets entry? Slender acc shows up ROFL 

[problematic-rwby-shipping-poll]

A/GE GAP BRACKET - ROUND TWO: IRONYANG VS IRONIKOS

Propaganda is below the cut.

IRONYANG

"Literally James' best ship, the connection they had since vol3, the shared understanding as people with disabilities, the contrasting warm and cool aesthetics, they're beautiful."

IRONIKOS

"Pyrrha's soul power is literally control over metal and most of Ironwood's body is made of metal. If that isn't some kind of metaphor for domination (in a good way) then I don't know what is."

"Imagine a universe where Pyrrha survives Beacon, obtains the other half of Maiden powers and is taken to Atlas for her own safety. There, she becomes one of Ironwood's trusted confidantes on the level of Winter and the Ace Ops and then they fall in love."

[metawatts]

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen Part One

I've been workshopping this review for a week it is 9 fucking pages but anyway: It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!

Table of Contents

#1. Introduction: Not for DC Fans

#2. Starting off: “The Good-

#3. Propping Up RWBY over the Justice League

#4. The Texas Character Massacre

#5. Oh boy lets talk about the writing

#6. Other General Notes: -The Bad, and The Ugly”

#7. Final Scores!!

TL:DR- They better not make the 'part 2'. Let's get into it.

#1. Introduction: Not for DC Fans

Let’s get this out of the way: this is a movie made for RWBY fans. It’s made for people who are familiar with RWBY, with the characters, with the worldbuilding, and it’s made with the idea that the people watching are RWBY fans, with DC fans as the backburner. The first reason why I think this? The DC characters get a lot more exposition on who and what they are, while the RWBY characters get to exist and be ‘cool’.

The second reason? This movie is, lets face it, mean-spirited towards DC. And yeah whatever, a DC comic writer wrote this, but to be fair with the state of comics nowadays that says absolutely nothing about respect given to the characters that are popular and well-known (hint: it’s not RWBY). This movie is drenched in schoolyard meanness. It’s all about pointing and laughing at the DC characters. Our introductory scene to this film involves Superman being systematically humiliated in his first scene (unable to use his powers, having his hero codename be mocked, etc.), and that sets the tone.

Meanwhile, the RWBY characters are introduced with action set pieces and knowing about the world they are in. The DC characters are the ones who are comedic relief, who need to be ‘taken down a peg’, who must struggle and prove themselves to RWBY to get the ‘honour’ of working with them, while RWBY doesn’t have to struggle and instead gets to just be ‘cool’. And that’s detrimental to the RWBY characters as well too, by the way, so don’t think I’m being unfair. No one in this film has a character arc, except Jessica, supposedly, and Batman, unfortunately, and you would think that coming off the back of volume 9, often called the ‘character development’ volume, people would be complaining that RWBY and JNR are quite flat, in how they progress through the film.

Basically: The RWBY characters are set dressing; the Justice League are punching bags. With that as our thesis, let’s review this movie. (warning for spoilers)

#2. Starting Off: “The Good-

Now, I won’t pretend this movie was enjoyable for me by any means, but I’m not unreasonable, it had its positives. Four, specifically.

The first one is obvious: the Spectacle Fight Scenes. This movie had a bunch of fights packed away in it, and the overall quality of them was on the whole, in the higher tier of rwby’s Maya fight scenes. Bar a few bits of wonkiness and the general writing surrounding the fights, they were fun. A particular shout-out to my favourite one at the end, Hacked!Flash vs Everyone, that one was fun and fast and highly enjoyable.

Number 2: Batman’s semblance. I’ll fully admit that I’m pretty sure my enjoyment of this power implementation was purely because I like Batman: Arkham Asylum, and this is literally just ripped right from that down to the aesthetics, but, well- I like Batman: Arkham Asylum, and therefore I like Bruce’s Detective Vision semblance and how it was used pretty creatively compared to most other semblances.

Third times the charm: Superman was my shining light, my beacon of hope in this film. He was kind, he was polite, he was supportive and brave and friendly and also, surprisingly for RWBY, managed to do all this without being spineless, he was willing to stand up for himself when he thought he was being treated unfairly (at least, 80% of the time). I wouldn’t even normally consider myself a massive Superman fan, I like when he’s well-written and I notice when he isn’t, but this movie had me actively rooting for any time where he was on screen, he was my absolute highlight in this film, love him even if his fit is fuckin ATROCIOUS. (and his voice acting was, by and large, one of the strongest performances, beyond Kilg%re and Hacked!Barry, who were just clearly having a delightful time villain monologuing)

Number four: the idea of Grimm absorbing dust. It’s a brilliant idea that really ups the stakes in RWBY fights, considering dust is their go-to offensive weapon and literally powers all their bullets, and, amazingly, it was also a cool idea that was carried throughout most of the film. Every Grimm in this film had the ability, more or less, and they used it often and to great effect. Very nicely implemented.

(Final tiny shout-out: the Justice League’s superhero outfits in their own world, that we regrettably only see in a few flashback images, looked GOOD. I wish they kept them instead of getting the outfits in the film proper)

But alas, this film really did have a lot more negatives than positives, so lets get into the first big flaw, and the one I would consider the movie’s biggest failing:

#3. Propping Up RWBY over the Justice League

I mentioned it in the intro, but this movie is consistent in how it utterly devalues the Justice League characters and does everything in its power to showcase RWBY and JNR as ‘better’ in every way. Now, the argument is that this is intentional, seeing as the villain deliberately nerfed the JL characters into being teenagers to weaken them. To which case I point at probably what is probably the most referenced episode of the Justice League cartoon in regards to this movie, the one where they’re turned into literal children, appropriately named ‘Kid Stuff’, and I’ll also point out the lesser known episode of Justice League Action called ‘Trick or Threat’, which had the added bonus of wiping the JL character’s memories of being superheroes.

Now, why am I bringing these up? Its because both of these episodes had the same villain idea as this movie: de-age the Justice League to weaken them, and both of these episodes also did something that the movie failed to do: keep the characters in-character and acting their age, and treat them with respect. I’ll get to the character issues in the next section, but the idea of treating characters respectfully is not done in this film.

Superman, as stated prior, is nerfed, his name is made fun of, he’s talked down to constantly, he’s insulted, he’s distrusted, and not just by team RWBY. But he is not the only one. Wonder Woman has a mishap when trying to get the hang of her new abilities and Blake and Yang laugh at her. Flash, Vixen, Cyborg, and Green Lantern spar against JNR and despite still maintaining most of their adult memories beyond the immediate, and supposedly their skills minus powers, end up on the defensive. Against JNR, not even against the main team RWBY or against Pyrrha. They are outclassed by the side-character team. Batman, the hand-to-hand specialist, is outclassed by Weiss in close-quarters and then a few random SDC guards, Wonder Woman and Superman mostly escape unscathed, beyond the new drawbacks of their semblances, but it’s telling that most of the fight scenes are more focused on the cool things RWBY and JNR do instead of the JL characters (bar the Big Three). Cyborg’s biggest combat moment that’s given any narrative weight is him powering up Nora. Vixen doesn’t even get a moment, and Flash’s only moments come when he’s being the Villain and not Flash. The JL characters are supporting characters in a movie that’s supposed to be about teamwork.

Second point: they really hype Grimm up as scary, even stating ‘Grimm aren’t like your normal monsters, they’re soulless beings that only care about destroying and killing’. And it’s treated as a big moment of internal revelation and horror for the Justice League. Let me say that again, the fact that monsters only care about destroying things, is played as horrifying. For the Justice League. The guys who faced down, canonically in this film: Vandal Savage, an immortal sadistic genius who literally just wants to destroy the world consistently, and Brainiac, a hyper-intelligent alien android who’s goals range from ‘destroyed krypton in some continuities’ to ‘hobbies include horrifically mind controlling people to do evil and shrinking Actual Cities for his snow-globe collection’.

But yes. Grimm are scary now. These are the same Grimm that basically act as cannon fodder in all of RWBY’s actual run time, bar one-offs, and exist just to give the protagonists something they can guilt-free rip their way through to show off. Those Grimm. Those are the scary ones now, supposedly. Despite this artificial attempt to make RWBY seem more badass then the league for fighting monsters, the Grimm are still cannon fodder, the movie doesn’t stray that far from RWBY’s conventions.

Finally, there’s a consistent running theme that ties into the leadership qualities of Ruby vs Clark, but mostly ends up as ‘the Justice League try to come up with ideas and plans, and team RWBY and JNR yell at them for daring to tell them what to do’. Most particularly, it’s Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman who actually spark Team RWBY into realising that there’s a problem that needs solving. It’s them that comes up with 90% of the plans, and its them that put their money where their mouth is on being not only a good team and smart heroes, but also as friends (more on that later). But instead, whenever they come up with good ideas, it’s shut down, mostly by Nora, and also Yang, as ‘I’m not going to listen to you/don’t tell us what to do/you’re not the boss of me’.

There’s a very big sense of undeserved ego there, especially since the RWBY characters haven’t actually given a reason why they shouldn’t listen beyond general contrariness. But also, it’s a sentiment that does not work on a battlefield, and it does not work in a movie that tries to have a theme of ‘coming together’. Mostly because in a standard plotline about ‘working together’, the disagreements usually require resolving, or meeting in the middle. There is none of that here. The Justice League just bends the knee and goes with being mistreated by teenagers who have not shown their chops as heroes, but it’s still given the ending of ‘we’re all friends now’. The first of many character assassinations throughout this film.

#4. The Texas Character Massacre

This one’s a doozy. No one escapes. Not even Superman, who is almost entirely spared, even he gets a dose of a ‘RWBY Heroic Speech that is just Empty Token Hero Stuff’ (AKA the thing that’s been plaguing Ruby since vol4). But I’ve used Superman already a lot, and he’s probably the least egregious of what happens here, so let’s get into the meat of this topic.

Everyone and their mom on twitter has been commenting about how Batman does not feel like Batman in this. And it’s true. Batman, the self-admitted ‘I haven’t been a kid since I was eight’, the man who is so obsessed with Gotham City it will one day kill him, the man who, even if in this continuity is not a father of 4-8+ adopted children, still has Alfred who he would die for and would die for him, the man who in the current comics run of RWBY in the DC universe says with his mouth ‘I don’t want this semblance, relying on it is detrimental in the long-term’. This Batman. Wants to ditch Gotham because he has wings and powers now.

‘Batman getting powers’ is not new ground, by the way, but the absolute moping this version of Batman does is not only annoying and actively unlikable, it also makes no sense. In the span of ten seconds, in the same conversation, he goes from ‘I want to go home’ to ‘I want to stay where I have powers’. This isn’t presented as a conflict of interest either, by the way. He just completely switches his mind because Weiss said ‘hey stay here’. There’s no consistency, there’s no internal character motivation, it felt like they just wanted to have one character conflicted about leaving HoloRemnant and decided just to throw a dart at a board without caring who it fit. So yes, Batman? Massacred.

Wonder Woman also got severely screwed over too. I had this in my notes that Wonder Woman only acted in character when she was reuniting with the rest of the Justice League and was allowed to show kindness and compassion. The rest of the time, Wonder Woman, a character defined by her love for the world (and was created to showcase feminine power, btw), is a Strong Female Character, and I do mean that in the Negative Way. She’s literally got a Batman Growl on her voice for 99% of her lines, she talks about how tough she is, about the ‘warrior’s life’, and she’s the first character to get violent in a situation. Yes, even beating out Yang ‘punch first, talk later’ Xiao Long. This feels like a parody of Wonder Woman written by someone who read the Whedon Wonder Woman script and took ‘some crazy strong bitch in a tiara’ as their entire central concept for the character. It’s not a Wonder Woman who believes in anything, she’s just a sidekick for the bees to prop themselves up with as ‘warriors’. I could write a million thinkpieces on what makes Wonder Woman an excellent hero character, but all I’ll say is this film’s Wonder Woman would not count.

Green Lantern will get her own post on how this movie handled her so fucking badly because that would balloon this review to a massive size when it’s already a Longk Boi, but suffice to say: she was whitewashed, her anxiety was mishandled, and fucking HELL I miss Simon Baz, why are we erasing Jessica’s friendship with Simon for some screentime-sucking white boy. (Racism and islamophobia, the answer is racism and islamophobia)

Cyborg, Flash, and Vixen all aren’t really characters in this movie as much as they are there to fill out the cast, but suffice to say, they were handled badly. Flash was at his most interesting when being visibly possessed by the villain because beyond that he was just entirely forgettable to the point that you will not notice he has been written out of a fight scene until Vixen goes ‘where’s Flash’. Vixen herself literally is the most sidelined of all the characters in this film, she doesn’t even get a Cool Action Moment, and has just two character traits: Sassy and Vaguely Animalistic Sometimes, not just because she’s a faunus, but her first scene we’re introduced to her sniffing a paper plane for what is literally the only ‘plot point’ she’s involved in, namely, that Flash ‘smells wrong’. And Cyborg. Man, Cyborg. They literally handed the hacking plotline to Weiss with the excuse of ‘the tech here is weird’ and instead shoved Cyborg into some weird jealousy triangle where he was so disrespected by Ren and Nora that even his goodbye to them is met with disdain. Cyborg and Vixen deserve so much better, guys.

Now, onto team RWBY and JNR. Remember how I said they were flat characters? Yeah, this bit’s gonna be a bit shorter. Ruby had probably the most ‘characterisation’ in the film, in that they literally just took volume 9’s idea of ‘Ruby has self-doubts’, slapped it on her, explored nothing, and then Clark gave her a quick Friendship Speech and she’s all smiley again. Weiss has a bit of flirting with Batman, suddenly gained hacking abilities out of nowhere, and is mainly the ‘nice but snobby’ archetype she’s been in main RWBY for ages. Actually, Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Jaune all mainly exist to serve plot points in some way. Weiss and her little storyline with Batman is just designed to reveal the villain, Jaune is there to push Jessica’s storyline of getting her powers back by Literally Curing Her Panic Attacks, and Blake and Yang? Well, they get Wonder Woman to the places she needs to visit, first Beacon, then Atlas, and then Vale again. Oh, and they have Moments. Your mileage may vary on if that’s good or not, it’s mainly superfluous to the film overall. Ren and Nora don’t actually contribute anything, beyond Ren being jealous of Cyborg and Nora, and Nora getting mad at both of them for being overly protective (I think it’s meant to be pushback against misogyny but. It’s poorly handled).

Actually, I lie. Blake does have at least one big thing of characterisation. But I’m going to put it in the next section, because it’s more of a writing problem. The final other characters in the film are Kilg%re, our villain, who is laughable, and the simulated versions of Glynda, Kali, Jacques, Ozpin/Oscar, and Pyrrha. All of whom are there just to… show that it’s a simulation, or something. They don’t do anything beyond Pyrrha being so obviously a trap for Jaune and Jessica that of course only Jaune ignoring Jessica’s common sense could have made it worse. Now, Onwards!!

#5. Oh boy lets talk about the writing

So. The Faunus racism plotline. Listen. It’s bad. We all know its bad. I’m not going into it because there are a million people smarter then me who already have done elaborate and well-thought analyses on why its bad. Can we just accept the Faunus plotline is horrendous and go from there? Okay? Okay.

So: Blake introduces the concept of faunus by describing her own race as ‘humans with ears or a tail’. As I saw someone else put it when the movie dropped, ‘people don’t describe themselves as a white person with darker skin’. Anyway, the faunus plotline. It’s not really touched on in this film beyond Jacques being racist towards Bruce and Blake being generally weird about it, and the idea that ‘the animal-themed superheroes are faunus now’, but it’s a plotline that RWBY will never escape and therefore must be mentioned as having some impact.

So lets talk about the actual racism in the movie and mention how the black woman is a Sassy Side Character, the two men of colour are shoved into a jealousy plotline over a white girl (again, reiterating: Weiss and Bruce have the hacking plotline), and the Latina girl has a white boy solve her mental illness for her after her character design was whitewashed. While I don’t think it’s intentionally racist, it is a bit of a pattern for all of RWBY’s stuff that characters of colour are either written off, villainised, or sidelined. I also want to mention: Oscar shows up in this literally just to get slammed hard into a pillar by Wonder Woman. They really can’t go five minutes without beating up this kid). This movie is not kind to the characters of colour, whether its by Actively Fucking Whitewashing Them or by just making them non-characters, and it’s just, unfortunately, exactly what was expected from a piece of RWBY media.

The mention of Oscar above reminded me: the simulation characters are… handled oddly. Ozpin is the most obviously fake, even before he starts glitching between his old self and Ozpin. But what’s strange is that out of all the simulations, Jacques of all characters has the most personality of them. Kali was always a side character, Glynda just creates exposition and sets up a fight scene, Ozpin isn’t even given a character he’s just Creepy Hologram, and Pyrrha has about one minute of ‘no wait its totally me’ before she goes The Most Evil (sidenote, they keep bringing Pyrrha back just to be evil, I hope that’s not another pattern). It’s just… strange. The way the whole villain thing in this film works is strange. Which leads me to:

Kilg%re. When I found out who the villain of this film was I went on the mother of all rants on discord. And I will post it here for posterity, just so you know exactly what the gut reaction was.

As for why this reveal sucks: well. I mean, first of all, if you introduce the concept of your surprise villain as a joke earlier in the film, which they did, then it doesn’t really make them feel all that villainous. Sure enough, it gave Kilg%re a chip on the shoulder in his villain monologue, where he was whining about being ‘the one who finally trapped the Justice League’ (bestie they’re a superhero team from comics, they get trapped once a week and twice on Sundays, you’re not special, babe, sorry). And a character desperately yelling at the screen that ‘no I’m really cool trust me’ is not… fun. It’s just sort of awkward. Sorry, Kilg%re, they treated you badly. Also, they didn’t reveal the second villain on Remnant’s side beyond saying ‘he’, even when setting this during the Vol7 Montage, so I guess that’s a mystery for the next movie, if it’s ever made (personally I’m hoping for Dr Merlot, why not).

On the flipside of villains being written badly, this film also has romance written badly. It’s just jealousy and love triangles, jealousy and love triangles. Not even interesting love triangles either, just ‘character A shows interest in character B, which makes character C get really possessive and (in all but one case) mean to B’. The As: Cyborg, Yang, Bruce. The Bs: Nora, Diana, Weiss. The Cs: Ren, Blake, Diana (again). It’s not cute, and it’s especially not cute when it’s repeated three times in the same film. It’s just boring.

Finally: and this is the thing that truly, genuinely, made me want to write this whole thing because of how rage inducing it is, is this monologue given to us by Blake:

"They sound lucky. They've never had to worry they were gonna die just from going to school. To train like your life, or worse, your friends' lives depend on it. To have to live with the fact that there's a real chance you're gonna lose them. They had a childhood."

Lets count it down, people!!

Superman: literally an allegory for illegal immigrants, refugee orphans (an alien who was adopted and raised in America after his home was made unsafe) and in many case Jewish people, what with all the Moses Allegory. Had to hide the fact that he was an alien all his life, starting from childhood.

Batman: watched his parents get gunned down in front of him at age 8. This is so integral an event that it is a fulcrum point not only of his character, but also of most of the main Dc Universe that Bruce’s Parents Die.

Flash: his mother was murdered in front of him by a time-travelling speedster and his father was arrested for it. Barry grew up with the stigma of having a murderer for a father who he is generally seen as visiting constantly in jail.

Cyborg: he is a disabled black man whose father fused him with alien technology to keep him alive after a near-death experience that also completely replaced 90% of his body and meant he had to give up on his dreams of being a sports star. Usually also has a dead mom around there too.

Green Lantern: a Latina woman who had a decent childhood by most accounts in the comics, but had the unfortunate luck of witnessing gangsters hiding a body while out hiking with her friends. Watched her friends get gunned down around her, spent the next four years extremely agoraphobic to the point of never leaving her apartment because of her trauma and the fear that the gangsters would finish the job. Family’s alive, but that was only the start of the ‘Jessica Has A Bad Time’ train.

Vixen: Mari’s backstory is a bit more nebulous as long as the main points of ‘was born in an African village, got the tantu totem, moved to America and became a superhero and usually also a model’ is met, but she also tends to have a dead mom or dead parents floating around too most of the time, whether that’s by poachers, warlords, or some other awful human-caused tragedy.

Wonder Woman: raised on an island that was in comics literally called 'Paradise Island' by her loving mother, trained with all her Amazon family to become a warrior, the island is explicitly protected from all of the evil of Man’s World by magic, and willingly chose to leave to go do good and protect people.

So we have one princess raised on a paradisal island ethnostate with loving, caring parents telling another princess raised on a paradisal island ethnostate with loving caring parents that ‘yeah your friends have horrific backstories, but they were lucky because they didn’t do what we did and WILLINGLY sign up for a job as a monster killer where we get four years of training and preparation and also are paid well for our actions instead of freelance vigilante work for charity, so if you think about it, us RWBY kids are the real victims/warriors here’.

Just in case anyone was wondering why I think Wonder Woman’s OOC in this film.

Oh also this monologue is an allegory for gun violence and school shootings, as confirmed by the writer in this article and I am including the quote for posterity and also so people can’t say I made it up: https://animemojo.com/other/exclusive-interview-with-justice-league-x-rwby-super-heroes-huntsmen-writer-meghan-fitzmartin-a14773#gs.w1iou8

“These kids are warriors and these RWBY kids are a really good look at what we’re putting a lot of kids through today. There’s a statistic I saw recently that said 1-in-5 kids will die in gun violence in America. That sucks. That’s the level of warrior stuff we’re putting our kids through and it’s a good example of what’s happening to this current generation. I wanted to make a point of saying, ‘What does that do to us?’ Looking into the leadership or what these characters go through, it’s interesting to see what they have to give up to give future generations a chance. I think that resonates a lot with kids today.” - Meghan Fitzmartin

Just. In case anyone else wants to be angry about this with me. Hey, RWBY, you can’t have the actual tagline of your show be ‘it’s also a gun’ and then go ‘gun violence is bad tho’ because oh man then your main characters look like real monsters for all the times they pull guns on people (such as all the unarmed civilians or people who they pulled guns on first who then pulled out their own guns in self-defence). Also, if this is one of the themes of the movie, then this is also the only time it’s touched on. The concept of ‘being a warrior’ becomes instantly watered down to mean ‘badass fighter’ and not ‘person carrying constant fear of death by rising gun violence’, so it’s also a really shallow use of an actually serious theme, which is par for the course with RWBY but is also still very annoying when it happens.

#6. Other General Notes: - the Bad, and the Ugly”

The music in this film was very weak. No hate to the composer but it’s barely noticeable and doesn’t really have anything of note. Normally I find a lot of DC stuff has decent music and RWBY in particular is praised for it. This was disappointing, audio-wise

The designs: Listen, RWY and JNR were fine, the Beacon designs are serviceable even if they aren’t my favourites overall. But anyway, lets rank the Justice League, best to worst!

#1. Vixen: even, somehow, in the world that is RWBY modelling, Vixen slays. She simply cannot look bad, ever. The focus on black and orange contrast instead of a million eye-searing colours, the sleekness of the jumpsuit, the fact that it’s not overly complicated, and that she actually has hair with curls in it? If not for the tail and the fact that it is literally just Harriet’s model, top points. You cannot keep a bad bitch down.

#2. Cyborg: Listen. It could have been worse. It could have been. So much worse.

#3. Wonder Woman: girlypop’s gonna cut someone on that chin, and her arm muscles look like braided bread. The ponytail would be passable if not for the way they modelled her hair tendrils, and the outfit… also could have been worse.

#4. Superman: The babyface and the way his hair is plastered to his head does not work, but I like how expressive his eyes are. The outfit is an atrocity to god but they all are from this point so at least his boots are cute and the whole denim jeans and denim jacket would work if they didn’t have that massive gold S on the shirt or the Fake Cape.

#5. Batman: ugly as sin. He has No Hood, Cowl, or Mask, his hair is bad, the scar on the eyebrow is the one cool thing, his outfit is awful, and when it’s folded up it looks like Weiss is swinging around an empty pizza box. Gotta say, at least the ears in the comic were kinda cute, the bat wings are just bland in comparison.

#6. Flash: Sir your zipper is in the shape of a zigzag and it’s very cringefail of you. The one redeeming feature is the visor but like, the hair? No. The scarf? No. The way they placed the colours on his outfit? Yikes. Throw the whole man out, Kilg%re did.

#7. Green Lantern: they put her in a blender with Ben 10 and hit ‘emulsify’ (this is insulting to Ben 10 which I am very sorry for, Ben 10 didn’t deserve this but then again neither did Jess). Her long curly hair is gone, her melanin is gone, her cute jumpsuit is gone, her brown eyes are GONE like I had my issues with the comic designs but at least it was a design and not just Ugly Bad Wrong.  

Final note: they really want us to believe that Batman beat up a guy and stole his tuxedo to blend in but during the entire time he was changing out of his hero costume and into a suit he somehow didn’t notice a pair of big honking WINGS on his back. Yeah right.

#7. Final Scores!!!

Plot: 2/10

Characters: -100/10

Spectacle Fights: 4/10

Themes: 1/10

Overall score, not including the points for ‘characters’: 2.5/10

Do NOT make another fucking movie with this premise. (I will write up Jessica's personal meta in the future, keep an eye out).

[axisdesigners1234]

The Future of Sustainable Architecture: Innovations by Axis Designers

In the face of growing environmental challenges, the architectural industry is undergoing a significant transformation. At the forefront of this change is Axis Designers, recognized as the Best Exhibition Company in India, committed to integrating sustainability into every aspect of its designs. This article explores the innovative approaches and groundbreaking projects of Axis Designers that are shaping the future of sustainable architecture.

Embracing Sustainable Design Principles

Axis Designers operates on the core belief that architecture should harmonize with the environment rather than disrupt it. This philosophy is evident in their commitment to sustainable design principles such as energy efficiency, the use of renewable materials, and minimal environmental impact. By incorporating these principles, Axis Designers ensures that their buildings not only meet the aesthetic and functional needs of their clients but also contribute positively to the environment. As the Best Exhibition Design Company in India, their projects reflect a deep understanding of sustainable practices.

Innovations in Green Building Technologies

One of the hallmarks of Axis Designers is their adoption of cutting-edge green building technologies. From solar panels and green roofs to rainwater harvesting systems and advanced insulation materials, the firm employs a variety of technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of their projects. Their use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) allows for precise planning and efficient use of resources, ensuring that every project is as sustainable as possible. This approach cements their status as the Best Exhibition Service Provider in India.

Case Study: The Eco-Friendly Office Complex

A prime example of Axis Designers' commitment to sustainability is their recently completed Eco-Friendly Office Complex. This state-of-the-art building features a host of sustainable technologies, including solar panels that power the entire building, a green roof that provides insulation and reduces rainwater runoff, and a smart lighting system that adjusts based on natural light availability. The building's design also maximizes natural ventilation, reducing the need for artificial cooling. Projects like these showcases why Axis Designers is considered the Top Exhibition Design Company in India.

Community Engagement and Education

Axis Designers understands that sustainability extends beyond individual projects. They actively engage with communities to educate them about sustainable practices and the importance of green architecture. Through workshops, seminars, and collaborations with local organizations, Axis Designers fosters a culture of sustainability that inspires others to adopt eco-friendly practices.

The Future of Sustainable Architecture

Looking ahead, Axis Designers is poised to continue leading the charge in sustainable architecture. Their commitment to innovation and sustainability sets a benchmark for the industry, proving that it is possible to create beautiful, functional buildings that are also environmentally responsible. As the world grapples with the realities of climate change, the work of Axis Designers serves as a beacon of hope and a model for what sustainable architecture can achieve.

Conclusion

Axis Designers is not just an architectural firm; they are pioneers in the movement towards a more sustainable future. Their innovative designs and commitment to green building technologies are paving the way for a new era of architecture that prioritizes the health of our planet. With each project, Axis Designers demonstrates that sustainable architecture is not only achievable but also essential for our collective future.

[pilot-boi]

So I know that your favorite one is obviously Arkos, but what are your thoughts on the other Jaune ships? The ones I have in mind are Lancaster, White Knight, and Arculus Rift (Jaune/Penny, ik that one's not used much because there's no basis in canon but they're so funky in my head and I think they would have the absolute funniest interactions), but as The Jaune Enjoyer Ever™️ your insights on any ship would be based beyond mention.

Gonna state right off the bat that I’m not much of a shipper. I like characters being in close platonic relationships rather than romantic or sexual ones. That’s just my personal preference

While I’m not a shipper, I’m pretty chill with people shipping to their hearts contents! As long as the characters are made wildly OOC, as can happen ESPECIALLY with my boy. But you seem chill, so it’s all good

So as “The Jaune Enjoyer Ever” I will do my best :]

I do adore Arkos, it’s true. They were perfect and precious and CRWBY why do you have to keep tormenting us

After V9 White Knight has honestly been growing on me. They’ve both come a long way since Beacon, and they’re obviously close friends, so if it progressed from there that would be super cute

I like the whole knight aesthetic they’ve both got going on, and their dynamic is excellent. So yeah I’m on board

Lancaster is cute. It squicks me a bit personally, since they act more like siblings than any other pair of mains other than the LITERAL sisters

Don’t get me wrong, I can see why people ship them. They’re very close and deal with very similar problems. And there’s nothing like shared trauma for bringing a relationship together

But just me personally, I’m not a fan. Strictly platonic for me, thanks

Arculus Rift is a cool name, first and foremost

Secondly, I know it’s a crack ship but I could only see this relationship happening from when Penny comes back in V7 on. Not during Beacon. I’m not sure they even KNEW each other then

They would be adorable though, don’t get me wrong. They’re both such dorks, after all. It would be HELLA angst material though, given that Jaune’s former partner/first girlfriend KILLED Penny

And ya know. The fact that Jaune kills her at the end of V8. That’s some JUICY angst right there

But yeah, those are my thoughts! Hope they were fun to read, if not very insightful lol

[hmmarble]

HMMARBLEDESİGN - DRAGON+ (3)

Hmmarbledesign, where elegance meets sophistication in interior design. In this blog post, we’ll explore the breathtaking beauty of marble, focusing specifically on its transformative qualities in bathroom spaces. Whether you’re looking to create a serene oasis or a stylish statement, incorporating marble into your bathroom can elevate its aesthetic and functionality.

Hmmarbledesign

When it comes to transforming your living space, Hmmarbledesign stands out as a beacon of elegance and sophistication. Specializing in exquisite marble designs, this brand redefines luxury interior aesthetics. From stunning countertops to breathtaking flooring options, Hmmarbledesign offers a vast selection of high-quality marble products that seamlessly blend durability with aesthetic appeal.

One of the highlights of Hmmarbledesign is its commitment to sustainability. Sourcing marble from responsible quarries, they ensure that every piece not only adds beauty to your space but also adheres to environmental standards. The meticulous selection process guarantees that only the finest materials make it to the final product, ensuring longevity and timelessness.

With an array of colors and patterns to choose from, Hmmarbledesign allows homeowners and designers alike to unleash their creativity. Whether you are looking for classic whites, deep blacks, or unique veined patterns, there’s a marble option that can cater to your unique design vision.

Additionally, Hmmarbledesign understands that the installation process is crucial for achieving the perfect look. Their team of skilled artisans is dedicated to delivering impeccable workmanship, ensuring that each piece is flawlessly integrated into your design. This attention to detail is what truly sets Hmmarbledesign apart from the competition.

For those looking to elevate their spaces, Hmmarbledesign provides more than just products; it offers a complete design experience. From consultation to installation, their commitment to customer satisfaction ensures that your vision becomes a reality. With Hmmarbledesign, you are not just investing in marble; you are investing in a lifestyle of luxury and elegance.

Marble Bathroom

When it comes to designing a luxurious and timeless marble bathroom, the use of natural stone can elevate the aesthetic of your space dramatically. The beauty of marble lies in its unique veining and rich textures, providing an elegant backdrop for any style of decor.

A marble bathroom serves as a perfect sanctuary to unwind after a long day. The cool touch and polished finish of marble create a serene atmosphere, making it an ideal choice for bath surrounds, countertops, and flooring. Choosing the right color of marble, whether it be classic white, soft grey, or bold black, can set the mood for the entire room.

One popular trend in modern marble bathroom is the use of large marble slabs for walls and floors, creating a seamless look that feels both contemporary and sophisticated. Pairing marble with wooden accents or matte black fixtures can also help to balance its opulence, giving the space a fresh and inviting feel.

Additionally, it’s essential to consider maintenance when designing your marble bathroom. Natural stone requires sealing to protect against stains and moisture. However, the effort is well worth it when you see the stunning results.

In conclusion, a marble bathroom is a symbol of luxury and style. Whether you opt for a full marble retreat or a few understated elements, incorporating this material will undoubtedly bring an air of elegance into your home.

White Marble Bathroom

A White Marble Bathroom exudes elegance and sophistication, making it a popular choice for homeowners and interior designers alike. The bright, reflective surfaces of white marble can create an airy and open atmosphere, ideal for relaxation and rejuvenation.

One of the primary benefits of choosing a white marble finish for your bathroom is its timeless appeal. Whether your bathroom design leans towards modern minimalism or classic opulence, white marble seamlessly complements any style. Its versatility allows for pairing with various materials, such as sleek chrome fixtures or rustic wooden accents.

In addition to aesthetic appeal, white marble is highly durable and resistant to heat, making it an excellent material for countertops, flooring, and shower walls. However, it is essential to understand that while marble is sturdy, it requires proper care to maintain its pristine appearance. Regular sealing is advised to protect against stains and etching.

Creating a stunning white marble bathroom involves thoughtful design choices. Consider using large slabs of marble for countertops to minimize seams, thus enhancing the material's natural beauty. Floor tiles in varying sizes can add visual interest, while wall-mounted fixtures can help highlight the elegance of the marble.

Another valuable tip is to incorporate lighting effectively in your white marble bathroom. Natural light can accentuate the beautiful veining unique to each slab, while strategically placed artificial lighting can create a warm and inviting ambiance during the evening.

For those looking to enhance their white marble bathroom, accessorizing plays a crucial role. Select decor items in soft colors that harmonize with the cool tones of the marble. Fresh plants, plush towels, and decorative trays can all contribute to a serene and welcoming space.

In summary, a white marble bathroom not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of your home but also offers a luxurious and durable space for relaxation. By integrating thoughtful design elements and proper maintenance, you can enjoy the timeless beauty of marble for years to come.