#and my most important question of all:

[raspberryjellybrains]

yknow a moment from the comics i think about a lot is, when the fates slash morpheus' face, he bleeds and keeps the scar. the entire series, we see him face all kinds of adversaries, taking damage as much as he deals it, and never once does he bleed. there's no scars on his body, and we see all of it. he's smooth in a way that feels chosen, time and time again, until the idea of choice loses meaning. he's like that up until his final hours, and when he meets his end, it's with one, large, jagged scar on his jaw.

when matthew asks him why he kept the scar, he says that alianora had promised before she left that one day, they would bear matching scars. he could've healed it with a thought, but he didn't, because he remembered that promise. but why did he adhere to it?

did he realize he had wronged her, and wished to, in some way, repent? did he want to face death with a badge of that repentence? was it an admission of guilt or a cosmic balancing of scales? was he simply fulfilling some obligation to narrative symmetry?

he admits, once prompted, to having wronged alianora when talking with desire disguised as himself. when did he realize he was wrong? as soon as she left? when calliope left, too? was it related to pulling nada back out of hell? did it take seeing her, one final time as her dreamworld collapsed? what prompted this realization, and would he have admitted that to anyone, let alone desire? is facing his sister and his most trusted advisors and the cosmic entity witness to all his crimes that admission, or is it something else entirely? what does it mean that he shows off the most corporeal, emotional, fragile, and mortal part of himself as he dies? how is any meaning added to or taken away from because he takes on the wound whilst protecting his people?

it's just a lot, and there's no answer to any of this because its one of the last things morpheus does. my personal interpretation is that he sees the scar as a way of showing that he has changed, and understands he can never change enough, and that's why he needs to die. its equal parts admission and final grasp at control of his own narrative, saying "I must die, but I will die fittingly and with honor." and you don't have to subscribe to this interpretation! if you have a different one, by all means, share! i just think its a very interesting detail to include and dissect.

[chalkrub]

art trade w/ thrak800 on twit - love this fella !

[cassielsunstone]

Precious Little Brother

[fatedroses]

More than just the Demon.

[sleep-nurse]

purgatory / the nothingness

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

rough art tips to learn and then break at your leisure.

the distance between your eyes is roughly one eye. the corners of your mouth dont extend past the middle of each eye. ears are roughly in the middle of the tip of the nose and the eyebrow. the eyes are in the very centre of the head. the neck is just a Little slimmer than the width of the head (varies with fat distribution, but fat tends to build up under the chin). hair is easier to draw when you plot out the hairline and then where it parts. leaving appropriate distance on the side of the face (cheekbone area and back to ear) contributes to making characters look more realistic/hot as hell. i dont know specific tips for that so use reference. an amazing reference/study site is lineofaction.com . if you think of the face in planes it makes it easier to construct (look up tutorials). if you draw a spiral like a tornado it can help you figure out awkward perspective for extended limbs (look up foreshortening coil technique). tangent lines are when two lines intersect and cause visual confusion (when it looks like a line that defines an arm is part of the line that defines a building, for example) and avoiding them makes your art way easier to comprehend. quick trick to good composition: choose a focal point (where you want your viewer to focus), detail that area the most, and make sure various elements of the piece are pointing to that focal point. you can use colours to contrast hue, saturation, and brightness and make certain elements of your drawing stand out. drawing in greyscale can help you figure out values. using black in a piece isn't illegal but you should know what you're doing when you do use it- it desaturates a piece and if used as a shading colour can desaturate and dull whatever youre shading too. if you use almost-black lineart and then add black to darken the very darkest areas it will do a lot to add some nice depth. the tip of your thumb ends just above the start of your index finger- your thumb also has two knuckles and all your other fingers have three. if you see an artist doing something you like (the way they draw noses or eyes or hair or anything else) you can try to copy that and see if you want to incorporate it in your style <- this is ENCOURAGED and how a lot of us learned and developed our styles. there are ways to add wrinkles to faces and bodies without making the character look a million years old, you just have to keep experimenting with it. The smile wrinkles around your muzzle dont connect to your mouth or to your nose; there should be a small space in between smile or nose and the wrinkle line. eyes when viewed in profile are like < aka a little triangle shape. think of the pupil like a disk and apply foreshortening to it (it looks like a line when seen from the side instead of a full round dot). subtle gradients can add a LOT to a piece. texture can also add a LOT. look up Tommy Arnold's work (his murderbot pieces are some of my FAVOURITE) and zoom in. find those random little circles he added and try to figure out why he added them there. light bounces. there's lots of way light bounces. sometimes it even spreads through the skin. i do not know these light tricks yet but i want you to know that they exist. draw a circle to indicate hand placement, draw a straight line between that circle and the shoulder, and then (normally at a right angle) draw a straight line on top of that line to find the placement of the elbow. elbows are normally placed Just above the hip when standing and your arm is at rest. there are no bad colour combos if you're brave enough about it, just fuck with the saturation and brightness until it works. keep playing. try new things. add your own tips to this post if you want or even expand on some ive mentioned here. good luck go ham etc

[razzafrazzle]

another character from die as lovers may, my funney vampire story... had this design bouncing around in my brain for years honestly

[image description: a reference image for an original character named dr. pranali guin, a fat, older dark-skinned woman that has black hair with a white streak pulled into an updo. she is wearing a tight white dress with a cropped black jacket and an orange ribbon around her neck. next to her are blurbs stating that she is 55, that her pronouns are she/her, that she is an aroace woman, and the following: "acclaimed sexologist who is rather humorless. incredibly suspicious of rowan, but isn't quite sure why. not as stern as she looks. has really bad eyesight, but refuses to wear glasses out of spite. loves melodramatic soap operas and keeps a journal detailing every plot point in them. probably autistic." end id]

[ratatatastic]

god forbid you make a goalie pick between goalies in a theoretical scenario! god forbid it! but said goalie will get giggly about it anyways

florida panthers @ utah hockey club | 1.8.25 (x)

[scentofpines]

have you ever considered...that identifying out of woman/girlhood because you don't relate to the societal implications, expectations, etc... contributes to making womanhood (feel) even more restrictive? maybe you feel better when thinking of yourself as anything but a girl/woman because you do not feel like a woman (what does that even mean?) but in my opinion you just added another brick into the prisonwall that is gender.

[moondrifterr]

excellent news! i may have found a beast simera form i finally enjoy! rejoice!!!

but keep in mind he is a terrifying magical beast and dangerous creatures the likes of him should be taken seriously

he likes tomatoes and green bananas

[erros429]

now, you’re pretty obviously a farcille shipper (and tbh who isn’t lol). but i’m curious. do you think it’s the most important relationship in dungeon meshi?

i don’t think comparing relationships is really how someone should view a narrative at all. farcille is my favorite relationship in dungeon meshi, yes, but i don’t think it’s the most important. sure, i’m a big shipper and i’m open to the fact; i’m also not blind enough to the plot to know that fundamentally the story is about laios and his sister.

yea, almost none of the plot would have happened if marcille wasn’t so devoted to falin. but also none of it would have happened if laios wasn’t equally devoted to saving falin. both can be true at the same time.

i’d even argue that falin and marcille’s relationship is equally as important as laios and marcille’s relationship. though i read the former as romantic and the latter as platonic, that doesn’t mean the romantic one has more value.

almost all of marcille and falin’s relationship is only seen in flashbacks and in their respective motivations as characters (like how marcille’s greatest desire is to keep her loved ones alive longer. and how falin was very ready to let people die if it meant her loved ones would live). on the other hand, marcille and laios’s relationship is at the forefront of the story and actively develops with the plot. again, they’re both just completely different dynamics.

and if we’re REALLY talking about the importance of relationships in dungeon meshi, i could even argue more abstractly that laios’s relationship with monsters and food is the most important driving force for the story. but i don’t think you had the abstract route in mind, so i won’t digress further.

TLDR no dynamic is similar enough to justify comparison. they’re all equally impactful, and the story would not be the masterpiece that it is if these relationships didn’t work in tandem with each other.

[fightwing]

the implication some version of animated teen tita.ns vaguely like ttg exists in comic canon.... i desperately need to know who in dick's life is a die hard show fan and how many times he rants he's 'not like that'

[cybergothvox]

At the end of the day, is kin just someone who identifies as their kintype or not? Is it anyone who actually identifies as their kintype, or do they have to perform all these 'correct' behaviours and social dances to prove that you kin- pardon, that you are kin- correctly?

[giantkillerjack]

Uh-oh! You are like, SOOO awkward!!

You're so awkward that it is occasionally mildly uncomfortable for people!

You're so awkward that sometimes people are confused by you and then there are awkward silences!

You're so awkward ...... that ultimately no one is harmed!!

Oh damn!!! What a vile crime you have committed! What an unforgivable thing it is to make a fellow human briefly confused!

Why, if *I* were ever briefly confused and kind of uncomfortable as a result, I'd be devastated.... by the absolute net zero change in my happiness and health! - From which I might never recover!! Yes indeed! No punishment can ever be enough for you!!

So you better absolutely hate yourself for it.

Better be SO MEAN to yourself about every single missed social cue so you don't forget your horrible crime! Meaner than you'd ever dream of being to someone else for the same thing! This is YOUR responsibility!

You need to show the world that you KNOW you are bad by punishing yourself constantly! After all, think of all the people who BENEFIT from you punishing yourself! - No, really! Think about it! Think about who benefits from your pain.

Think of alllllll the definitely-good people that your definitely-necessary self-torment definitely helps! I mean, you can't just cut off their definitely-life-sustaining supply of your suffering, right?? Sure, everyone else has a breaking point, but you're probably the only person in human history who doesn't, right? Best not to question it probably. Sure, it's a symptom that billions of people with trauma have had, but who knows? You could be a one-in-seven-billion exception. Anything's possible!

Instead, better just accept that idea that bullies carry like guns in holsters - the idea that people who have trouble with social cues deserve to suffer. Better carry on the burden they placed on you until you drop. Aid the cause of the callous by enforcing shame and suffering upon yourself extra hard; try your best to do their work for them. They're very busy.

Better not recognize that you need patience and kindness to heal from your trauma. Better not find out that it was trauma rather than personal weakness filling your head with self-hating thoughts. Better not find out it wasn't your fault.

Better not find out that awkwardness is not inherently harmful or unkind, and, in fact, the people who act like it is *are the ones enacting harm and being cruel.*

Better not get righteously angry when you realize just how much unnecessary damage this has done to you. After all, if you get mad, you might realize you deserve better. You might even feel brave enough to DEMAND better! You might build boundaries that keep you safe! You might make other people think they deserve to feel safe too! And we obviously can't be having that, so...

Better not show yourself even a little kindness a little bit at a time.

Better not make a habit out of it after all that practice.

Better not get confident.

Especially if you can't first wipe out every trace of awkward. (And you probably never will. Because people who experience absolute social certainty at all times tend to be insufferable assholes that enforce the status quo. And you just don't have the stock portfolio for that.)

Better not be confident and awkward because then you might confuse and delight people

- you might accidentally end up making other people feel less shame for their social difficulties

- you might make isolated, traumatized, and shy people feel like they deserve to be included in social situations

- you might even make them feel they can be themselves around you

- you might start loving the effect you have on a room

- you might enjoy conversations more

- you might forgive yourself and bounce back from shame more easily and frequently

- you might come to enjoy some of those moments of harmless confusion you cause because NOBODY expects the Confident Awkward, and that can genuinely be an advantage in social situations

- you might stop apologizing so much.

- you might find that socializing is like a video game: it requires practice but also a safe space for it to be fun and positive.

Or if you can't become assertive and confident, better not remain awkward and shy and quiet, and then love and forgive yourself anyway!

Why, it would be carnage!!

In either scenario, you run the risk of finding out that it's not your fault that safe spaces full of kind people can be really hard to find, create, and nurture. You could end up building a skillset that helps you do those things if you're not careful!

If you start giving yourself even the tiniest amount of grace at a time, you will find that you've accessed a gateway drug with extreme long-term side effects:

- You might realize that it was never your fault that it took so long to like yourself.

- You might realize that you were always worth talking to, even when you didn't like yourself and communication felt impossibly difficult.

- You might realize that you'll still be worth talking to even if communication becomes harder as you age and/or experience disability.

- You might come to know that you deserve to be heard even on bad days when words come slow and blurry.

You might discover that you were always deserving of kindness, first and foremost from yourself.

So. As you can see, it's FAR too much of a risk to start granting your awkward self free pardons for your many heinous and harmless crimes. Better to just leave it there.

[razzledazzletrassh]

no major fic updates just yet guys TAKE MY WOY OC I MADE LIKE. April of last year IM PLUGGING SOME INFO ABOUT THIS GUY IN THE TAGS.

I may also redesign her soon or something. Make her more bug-like with some stuff. I can cook guys let me cook !!!

[the-way-astray]

I think it's hilarious how you go from "Shannon when I catch you"(about keefe) to "Shannon is ten different kinds of genius"

(@alaydabug2)

what can i say sometimes shannon is a genius. but most times she's just. why