#and it just will be discovered quickly

[swimming-karyss]

sci-fi au!

the romance dawn trio!

I was reminded that I actually really love sci-fi and I was physically unable to keep myself from putting Strawhats there

it's mostly designs and base information, so details under cut!

The distant future! The humanity had conquered numerous star system, built colonies there and even met aliens! Even if it seems like we now know everything about our galaxy, there still are dangerous and uncharted planets. And only one man is rumored to explore them all. It was Gol D. Roger a notorious space pirate, later bearing the title of the pirate king. He has built a great fortune and left it all on one of the planets on the very outskirts of the galaxy, for the future generation to find!

okay, I just wanted to say that :D

and, well, as can be seen this au is just One Piece but in space mainly inspired by Cowboy Be-Bop and all the sci-fi books I've read (very similar to star wars but more casual) with some differences. (I also didn't want to go full cyberpunk)

Roger was a space pirate and explorer. He did cause quite a lot of trouble, but people closest to him know that his biggest crime was being so free, that even gods became jealous of him. He travelled the whole galaxy, explored unknown planets and visited most dangerous places.

Since unlike the Grand Line the space isn't linear and the further they go the less signs of civilization they encounter, Strawhats have to return to established stations and run some errands to earn money to buy supplies, repair their ship. Of course, they take the most exciting jobs, which is why they go to wonderfully dangerous and interesting places and meet wonderfully dangerous and interesting people. Actually running around the whole galaxy seems to prove rather beneficial to their searching of Roger treasure. Since no one has any idea where he left the clues to it! It just so happens that idiots think similarly and planets that Roger was interested in pique Luffy's interest as well!

(and the side jobs they take are mostly bounty hunting (is taken care of by Zoro and whoever is free), aiding scientists by going to places no one wants to go because no one wants to risk their lives(and, you know, scanning the surface, checking on research stations placing probes etc) and sometimes even giving people(various people, not many of whom are lawful civilians. revolutionaries know Strawhats and love them) a ride, for money, of course)

Unfortunately, since Zoro's story is rather simple and I want to talk about Luffy's a bit later, so here is some trivia about Nami and Arlong Pirates. (and yes minks, fishmen, and longlegs and longarms are aliens :D )

Did you know that when space probe are launched into space, their route and time of the launch are set in the way to make the most use of the gravitational pull of the planets to save fuel? That's what Nami does! Her job is to calculate the best route for their ship to take. And while computer offers the safest way, she is willing to take risks :) which is why Strawhats travel faster than most other space sailors. Nami wasn't born on Earth, she and Nojiko were brought here by Bell-mère. Arlong pirates take control of settlements on asteroids and moons, and even some towns on Earth which are too small for the government to care. Nami, just like Zoro, had went into space before Luffy, but didn't go further than solar system.

[shootingstarrfish]

small experiment, i wanna revisit this kinda style but id definitely go about it differently next time

[seyaryminamoto]

My latest completed commission may have been a bit ambitious... because I went wild with it. But I certainly relished in doing so :') Combining my favorite ship with my favorite-ever Disney movie is, uh... a dangerous concoction :'D

The commissioner specifically requested for Azula as Mulan, Sokka as Shang, and Xin Long (my OC dragon from Gladiator) as Mushu. The rest of the cast was up to me to choose, and I pretty much went wild rewatching this movie and picking out some of my favorite moments to recreate them in my style, with these characters. I came up with a lot of correlating characters between both ATLA and 1998's Mulan, but I couldn't hope to draw EVERYTHING, unfortunately. Still, if you want my reasoning for the cast correlation... check out the Read More! Beyond that, feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to commission me, or if you want to join my Patreon!

The Herbalist as Mulan's grandmother might feel arbitrary but she honestly felt like the ATLA elderly lady with the most similar personality to Grandma Fa. Fickle, with a unique connection with a seemingly perfectly ordinary animal, old and sassy? Figured it fit! So for once, the Herbalist is Azula's grandma! xD strange notion, I know, Azulon/Herbalist is not a ship I ever thought I'd accidentally put out in the world but there have been wilder ships than that in this fandom...

Momo became Cri-Kee, I wasn't 100% sold on it but when I considered that Avatar features soooo many hybrid animals... I figured he could be a hybrid cricket-lemur. Weird, I know, but eh? Better than nothing xD

Aang as Chien-Po was a no-brainer. He's the only character I settled on instantly, never even considered anyone else for the role. Their personalities line up really well, and Chien-Po's tendency to be OP and resolve things that are outside of other people's reach sounded like he was prime Avatar material! So, while their dietary preferences are an obvious difference between them, I decided to go for it nonetheless considering all their other similarities!

Kino (another Gladiator OC) is Ling, and he actually did give me a ton of trouble to choose. I considered many characters for the role right up until I realized that Kino's personality actually lines up fairly well with Ling's, down to being a class clown type (who ABSOLUTELY would have cut gym class!) and breaking out in song about the hypothetical woman he'd like to fight for? Yeeeeah that's right up his alley xD but there's another reason why I picked Kino...

... And that is my likely unexpected choice for Yao:

ZUKO.

ZUKO IS YAO.

YES.

I'M NOT EVEN SORRY.

(For the uninitiated, Aang, Zuko and Kino are best friends in Gladiator, very often together, and they make a really good team, so that's the extra reason why Kino became the obvious choice for Ling aside from having really similar personalities, definitely closer personalities than, say, Jet, for instance.)

People have likened Zuko to Shang a LOT since ATLA aired. This is the main reason why I'm even making this huge note! I suspect it's primarily because of the aesthetic, let's be real here, and because he becomes Aang's teacher, but people have exaggerated Zuko's alleged similarities with Shang, or taken them out of proportion, in many ways. I actually remember an AMV ages ago with "Be a Man" and it was Zuko "training the Gaang"?? It... didn't feel right to me. Obviously, someone might rebuff with "well, how does Sokka make MORE sense than that, though?" And believe it or not, I have arguments for that... (when do I not...?)

Not only is this what the commissioner specifically requested (and it obviously lines up with the ship we love!), but let's examine the actual reasons why Sokka as Shang adds up:

Sokka actually had to train a bunch of toddlers who weren't paying any attention to him. You know. Kind of how Shang had to train the unruly soldiers who weren't getting anything right. Sokka has a positive relationship with his dad (Zuko, ofc, does not). Shang also has a positive relationship with his dad! And not only this, but there's a military component to both relationships, specifically with Shang wanting to follow on his father's footsteps and aid him in the war... so much like someone else I know, who jumped at every opportunity to rejoin his father in the war, even wishing to join him as a child until Hakoda tasked him with protecting their Tribe instead (kinda like Shang is tasked with training soldiers rather than joining a battlefield).

And the final cherry-on-top that I'd loooove to hear Zuko fans try to argue against... is sexism :') didn't Sokka get characterized as a sexist guy for four episodes, which made people decide that this was his main character trait even if it went away that quickly? Um, yes, that happened. Shang literally sings the memorable song that's a crazy ode to masculinity, including the rather sexist line of "did they send me daughters when I asked for sons". Shang outright abandons Mulan once they discover that she was a woman all along (while, admittedly, choosing to abandon her rather than KILL HER, which as we saw from Chi-Fu, he was NOT supposed to spare her!)...

So, is this REALLY what Zuko fans, who willfully believe their boy is a feminist king (... why? beats me...) are trying to compare their unproblematic blorbo to? :'D Me? I have no problem linking Sokka with Shang due to Sokka's beginnings and due to the fact that both Shang and Sokka have similar growth when it comes to accepting femininity is as valid as masculinity, and as they both learn to respect women as fighters and potential heroes! (I simply do not believe Sokka's ENTIRE tenure in ATLA was about that, though, and that's what I continue to clash with the fandom over...) So... all this is why I've reasoned that Sokka is a VERY solid choice for Shang, in fact, better than Zuko could hope to be.

... but this isn't all.

Maybe some might accept my arguments for Sokka-Shang. And then, they might ask:

WHY ZUKO AS YAO, THO??

... And the truth is it took me long to see it, myself, but HOLY SHIT, DOES IT FIT!

What is the primary thing we remember about Yao in Mulan? This guy is constantly itching for a fight, to prove himself, surely riddled with insecurities that he exteriorizes through overcompensation of masculinity. He's funny as fuck, but he's taking himself 100% seriously as a manly man all the time, and he's always ready for violence. But there's one more thing...

He treats Mulan as his RIVAL.

And more often than not? SHE SCREWS HIM OVER. Intentionally or not.

What does that sound like? Why, yes, it sounds a LOT like Azula and Zuko's sibling relationship!

The fact that Yao is a temperamental dude who lashes out easily at things (oh, something he has in common with Zuko!), that he specifically resents Mulan (in this case, Azula, just as Zuko does!) and is either constantly looking to defeat her and prove his superiority over her (... wait, just as Zuko with Azula??), that he has a black eye perpetually across the movie, and it's his LEFT EYE (just as Zuko's scar is on his left eye! :'D), that he's friends with a pacifist he has basically nothing in common with, personality-wise (just like Zuko and Aang!), and that he pretty much has a REDEMPTION ARC in which he goes from a bitter, asshole rival to Mulan to treating her as a friend and ally, to the point where he was disappointed to leave her behind and THEN joined her at once when she says she has a plan? :') I have always been critical of Zuko's redemption arc, goes without saying. But if ANY of these characters redeemed himself in any significant way, it certainly seems to be Yao to me, and with people gushing NON-STOP about Zuko's redemption? Why, he ought to be the character who goes from bitter rival to loyal friend, right?

So. I'm not even sorry. Zuko is Yao. And I'd dare say that he should be flattered by the comparison, even, because Yao ends up being cool as FUCK!

I don't really talk about this much nowadays, but Mulan was my favorite Disney movie growing up, it ABSOLUTELY had a formative influence on me as a little girl, and Mulan was my favorite female character for a looooong time. Thus, any excuse to rewatch this movie makes me happy as heck. With the wisdom of age I know, of course, that it's not perfect, it's not what China wants, it's not the most thoughtful depiction of Chinese culture or the most faithful adaptation of Mulan's poem (... but I'd also dare bring up that the 2009 Chinese adaptation ISN'T all that faithful either...), but it has a kind of magic in it, a solid storytelling flow, so many memorable moments one after the next, that I could hardly choose which scenes to depict... Disney has never again seen the storytelling heights it reached with Mulan in 1998. I don't even care if that's a controversial opinion in any way... this is their best animated feature for me, and nobody can change my mind.

So... depicting Azula, my beloved, in all these scenarios as this character I adored and idolized as a child, was so damn fulfilling for me. While some might think that, personality-wise, these two ladies don't have much in common, the fact that Mulan is sent to a matchmaker who basically tells her she looks good but is going to be the worst wife ever...? Our girl Azula, with all those insecurities about being unloveable and a monster, probably would relate big time to that.

Mulan is also an INTELLIGENT soldier rather than a brawny one, which is how she starts to make progress in the army, it's how she manages to overcome the huns with that avalanche... and Azula's primary difference with most other antagonists in ATLA is that she's smart as fuck. She is very strong, no doubt, but a LOT of that strength comes from her intelligence, from assessing situations in unique ways, from planning and strategizing. The way Mulan finds the most unexpected solutions that still pay off reminds me a lot of how Azula achieves unexpected feats through rather unorthodox means, capable of taking over a city with basically no bloodshed while her nation has spent 100 years trying and failing to do so through major army incursions and who knows how much senseless violence. Obviously, I'm not saying what Azula did is GOOD and it's kind of dumb that we always have to point that out... I'm merely comparing the magnitude of the feats, and the fact that they both come from ladies who use strategy and intelligence to achieve their goals rather than muscle and physical power.

And while anyone would rage at me for the comparison between Fa Zhou (her dad) and Ozai, the truth is the dynamic between them CAN be compared, if loosely: Mulan literally goes to war to keep her father safe. Azula goes to war under her father's orders. Hell, she makes herself BAIT in the Eclipse to make sure the Gaang won't get to her dad?? While it's very much possible to say that both characters have different personalities and attitudes in life... I'd also bring up that their contexts are evidently completely different. I wouldn't say for certain that Azula, had she been raised outside a Royal Family, would be EXACTLY like Mulan... but they might have more similar traits than one might expect. Ultimately, though... I love them both. And this opportunity to swap their places was pretty much a dream come true!

Alright, that was plenty of rambling xD ultimately, I had a blast doing this commission, as I'm sure is obvious by now. So! If anyone wants to commission me, feel free to check out my prices right here and hit me up if you're interested!

[lil-oreo-crumbles]

Doodle of Toffee in the Realm of Magic?

It started as a doodle but then it kinda spiraled out of control and now we’re here!

Totally figured you meant like full Toffee in the Realm of Magic (which I’ll probably draw anyway) but me being me decided to interpret the prompt lol

(Me when I use a doodle as an opportunity to tease future plot points and characters >.>)

[gingersnaptaff]

In my feels about Guinevere again and thinking about the False Guin incident and how that must've affected her. Just something about having your whole identity stripped away from you by a person who looks exactly like you and you know who you are, you do, but nobody else does. All your protestations that you're the True Guinevere fall on deaf ears and you can't do anything but escape before you're executed. You'd be so fuckin traumatised and heartbroken particularly because the plot was done by somebody who bears your blood. There's just something so unsettling and awful about it.

(Also, in terms of Welsh mythology, Gwenhwyfach just utterly betraying Gwenhwyfar. It would be so so heartbreaking.)

[quatregats]

In hindsight (knowing that I probably had the flu) everything I've done over the past week and a half is a little bit unhinged. Day after I start feeling a little bit lousy I decide what I need to do is go to Target to buy boxes, which I promptly forget at said Target until I have walked three blocks and paid my subway fare and have to go back and retrieve them (but this is totally fine and I'm not out of it at all). Next day I remain fully convinced that I'm going to give my lecture on Wednesday but instead of working on that I write 2500+ words of fanfiction. I email the professor I'm TAing for being like pretty please let me come to class and lead my sections, then I text my friends and they're like you're insane stay home so I have to send another email being like jk maybe the whole "fever with chills" thing isn't conducive to coming to class. The professor is like yeah no you fool stay at home and also probably you should not give the lecture on Wednesday (I view this proposition with extreme suspicion). The next three days I spend in denial about the prospect of not giving the lecture, and also having constant chills despite taking ibuprofen at bottle-mandated intervals. This is fine and normal which is why on Thursday, just to test if I'm fully recovered, I decide not to take ibuprofen, which leads me to fall into possibly one of the most intense fevers I've ever had in my life. Friday I feel like I'm getting better and also Saturday but then I go out on Sunday and am immediately fatigued. I choose to ignore this and lead my sections bravely on Monday, and then immediately come home and fall into a several-hour nap from sheer exhaustion. Like at this rate I don't think I should be trusted with any decisions actually, I think they should give me a clean bill of health before I am even allowed to think about rejoining the world

[divorceblogger]

I get the impression that I’ve become such a movie guy lately (160 movies logged this year…. 🚬) because I tend to have a harder time discovering and collating good books for my tbr. letterboxd offers many interesting lists and the ratings generally tend to correlate with the objective merit of a movie so I think I also find movies pertaining to specific genres and themes very easily? anyway how do all of you discover good books ❤️

[tinglecannon]

For @fordtato's hilarious smash or pass Bill Cipher contest. Enjoy a quick sketch

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

also, we haven’t actually looked at our ford playlist in a long time, we’ve just been adding stuff and moving on

so imagine our surprise when we look at it and it is, one, so long and, two, nearly THIRTY FULL HOURS

ae think we’ve accomplished our goal of having an absurdly long ford playlist (that doesn’t mean we’re gonna stop adding songs of course >:])

[yumeurl]

i need to share this here... albus adopting tom fic and its happy at first but fucks you over along the way

[padfootastic]

No, tell us about the dorm parties and Lily finding out about them, pretty please

ooooh a tag question! love these too hehe

okay so. a lil bit of backstory: i had a semi-wild teen life, ykno? like. not as crazy as ~american high school movies but in the context of the country i grew up in? pretty unreal. there were parties and alcohol and weed and a lot of hooking up. so much petty drama. so much irreverence.

point is: i dont like it when teens are portrayed as some pure, untouched, prudish creatures who've never heard of fun or drugs or sex. it just doesnt fit with what i know.

and i fully believe that hogwarts--a boarding school where kids have MAGIC (which really just means unending possibilites)--was a place where the students went wilddd. one of the ways? dorm parties. u have these private spaces for just you and like. 5 others. u can do a shit ton with ur wand. why wouldnt u use it for parties ykno?

so yeah, i think the common room had larger parties after like. quidditch wins and end of exams, but bc its more people and more younger kids, u had to be more careful. dorm parties tho? smaller, more intimate, and ur with the people u know/trust so crazier shit will happen.

the marauders were invited to a lot of them in the girls dorms (and vice versa) and ykno. they went to a lot. bc teen boys and girls. it was all very scandalous--booze and short skirts and shirts unbuttoned off their shoulders and hazy smoke filling the room and lipstick marks smeared over chins and necks and the like--and incredibly fun. just kids being kids, yeah?

lily, though. i've long been playing w the idea that her friendship w snape (and chastisement of james--and sirius, to a lesser extent) came w a substantial social cost. her defending someone who was so shady didnt win her any points and i hc as her a person who hid her insecurity w self righteousness (on top of just. being a bit of an abrasive person) which didn't win her additional favors. so even her dormmates maintained a certain distance and the dorm parties didn't often include her. she only found out accidentally when she went up to the room it was happening in to get a book back and saw everyone buzzed out and dancing and more relaxed (intimate) than she'd ever seen.

it was genuinely a huge shock when she saw the boys sprawled across the room in varying stages of undress (james had a girl and a guy on a thigh each, arms wrapped around both waists; sirius was hanging upside down w a joint dangling from his lips and its a wonder he didnt choke himself to death) and she squeaked out of the room in a moment of severe cultural shock.

it was only later that she worked herself into moral outrage and just. hurt-filled anger type stuff, ykno? her roommates sort of had to give her a reality check in that moment. the marauders only blinked at her in bemusement, amused at her high-handed attempts to manage them.

[pawnedprince]

⭐️ my roleplay pet peeves

☎️ my first character i ever roleplayed

my experience in the roleplay community ⭐️ — my roleplay pet peeves

when people don't have their name and age clearly displayed on their blog somewhere, i've seen some without one or both and it's just confusing. and if you're not up front about your age (or at least age range) i'd rather not interact with you at all.

just liking a promo and not reposting it. maybe it feels silly but the whole point is to distribute the promo so that people who may not have seen it can have a chance to find you.

people who make vague posts regarding their rp partners or followers rather than discussing the issue directly with someone. this is literally a communicative hobby, how are you gonna not communicate with people when you have a problem?

some people just take things really personally when they don't need to be and i think it's good for us to all log off every once in a while [calm down greg, it's tumblr rp meme.jpg]

☎️ — my first character i ever roleplayed

oh my god i genuinely couldn't tell you ..... it's been, uh .. [does some quick math] jesus fucking christ eighteen years???? at least? and i got started on fan forum boards, so i genuinely couldn't tell you. it had to be some cringe alta oc, i just know it. i feel it in my heart.

[charrfie]

Shocked to find I haven't posted some of my older art here from the past few years that I'm very proud of, would any of you guys be interested in seeing some of that work?

[vim-flam]

[kanene-yaaay]

one day i will sit down and actually write all the mdzs tickle headcanons I have and then it will be all over for you guys (<3)

For the moment tho:

Lan Zhan taking his sweet time to copy all the rules of the Lan sect in Wei Ying's back. Sitting on his legs with a book in one of his hands and the other holding one the softest brushes he has, movements precise and serene as ever as he keeps his strokes the straight as possible with his husband squirming and trashing non stop under him, giggling and snickering all the teases and provocations and begging and promises he can imagine. Lan Zhan huffs in a light kind of exasperation when another character gets crooked and he has to put his book down to take the damp, fluff fabric he brough just for this and srubs the paint before he can continue. Wei Ying's laughter get just a tad more hysterical, quickly descending back into high pitches giggles as Lan Zhan dutifully goes back to his work, lips twitching into a soft kind of smile reserved just for those moments. He dips the brush in the ink and continues, almost hipnotized by the way his lover's laughter and reactions changes with every new character, but he refuses to get distracted.

There is still 2,000 of rules left to copy, after all.

~~

And since we're talking about the Lans and everything. No one can convince me that Lan Xichen is NOT simply the biggest tickle monster that ever existed. I can perfectly picture him walking calmly, kind and calm smile on his face as he follows his next prey, reminding them that it's forbbiden to run in the Cloud Recess when they realize what is about to happen and are caught in between running away anyway - not the smartest choice, he will catch you anyway even before you can blink - or staring him with wide eyes while trying to back away - also not the best choice, he is getting closer and the antecipation is a killer - OR just accept the fact that their fate is going to be a very giggly and tickly one in a few minutes. Full of teases and smiles and kind words and a sweet 'thank you for expanding my collection with all of your lovely reactions'

[e-the-village-cryptid]

my arrangement of the andor main theme for flute!