#and the fins!! those were fun :D

[iknaenmal]

Fefetasprite based on this sprite by @lepiosprites !!! I had SO MUCH FUN with this, I can't believe I had never drawn her before wow

Edit: click for better quality it is better if you do I swear

[practically-an-x-man]

Cuddles!

16 for whoever you want!!

Ooooh thank you!!

16. needing their cuddles even though they have something else to do (Cuddle & Snuggle Prompts)

Gonna go with Madison and Alex for this one! I've got a fun idea for this one- doesn't fully fit the prompt but I think it'll be good anyway :D

____ Dance Fight

Word Count: 1.0k Content Warnings: Some light sparring and banter, nothing serious

Crossposted on AO3

____

He twisted his arms around Madison's neck in a perfect headlock and squeezed - not tight enough to cut off her circulation, just enough that she couldn't break away. Alex ducked his head against her shoulder before she could headbutt him, his lips nearly brushing the shell of her ear.

"Wanna go out tonight, Mads?"

She drove her elbow into his gut. Alex coughed, his grip on her loosening, and she darted away before he could recover. Madison bounced on her toes, the old sparring mat sinking under her bare feet.

"Sure. Dinner?"

Almost before she'd even finished speaking, she ducked in for her next attack. Alex blocked the first hook she swung at him but missed the second- it landed low, right on the bony crest of his hip, and he was sure he'd find a bruise there in the morning.

"I was thinking-" he started, pausing to block a fierce kickboxing shin-strike. He trapped her leg against his body and gave it a brisk tug, sending Madison tumbling to the mat. "Maybe we'd go out dancing? Hank found this place that teaches you square dancing, I thought it looked like-"

Madison swept his legs out from under him and knocked him flat on his ass. Alex exhaled just in time to keep from knocking the wind out of his lungs.

"Fun." he finished, quickly kicking himself back up to his feet. Madison was only a second behind, though she kept her stance low and guarded. Her eyes were calculating, but her voice was light and conversational when she spoke.

"I don't know how to dance."

"Neither do I." he admitted, "But Hank said they'll teach you."

He swooped in, intending to fake her out, but instead Madison planted her foot on his thigh and managed to swing herself onto his shoulders in some sort of flashy judo move. Alex wondered if Raven had taught her that. It seemed like her style.

He reached up to try and pry her legs off his shoulders, but felt those spiny fins on her thighs flare out before he could get a grip. Alex scoffed.

"C'mon, how's that fair?"

"Just using what I've got," Madison fired back, "Think this counts as dancing?"

He felt her weight shift backwards, intending to throw him back down to the mat, and Alex dropped down to his knees instead. He ducked his head, using the momentum to toss Madison forward, off his shoulders and onto the mat below.

She folded her fins and rolled, nearly sliding off the end of the mat before her momentum stopped. It only took her a moment to kip herself back up to her feet (he was sure Raven taught her that one), and Alex grinned at her.

"Think that counts as a dip?"

She barked out a quick laugh in response, her answering smile visible for only a moment before her form dissolved into indistinct mirror-shards. He could see only motion, shapeless motion, knew she was moving nearer but couldn't tell how much nearer, and risked a quick jab out.

His fist made contact - closer and with more force than he really meant it to - and Madison blinked into view as she staggered back a step. He'd clocked her straight on the collarbone, right on that little protrusion at the base of her throat, and he could already see a bruise beginning to darken.

"Easy there, Hotshot. Wouldn't want the other dancers to know you beat on me." she teased, utterly nonplussed despite the budding wound.

If it were anyone else to fire that sort of joke at him, Alex thought, he might have winced - the whole "broody ex-con" reputation didn't exactly do him any favors in that department, even if the only bruises he'd ever given his partners were in training sessions like this one. But with Madison, he just laughed and shrugged it off. She'd never have gotten so close if she thought he'd hurt her. She'd never have stayed if he did, even once. His reputation had never mattered to her - what mattered was that she trusted him, and she was safe with him.

"Maybe we should call it quits on the sparring, then?" he suggested, dropping his fists in a blatant show of surrender.

Madison's posture straightened up, the subtle tension of the fight dissolving from her muscles, and she gave him a loose nod.

Before he knew it, she'd grabbed him around the middle and tackled him straight down the ground. Alex hit the floor with a grunt, Madison's weight pressing down on top of him and pinning him to the mat. Her knees bracketed his abdomen, and she set her palm firmly against the center of his chest in an exaggerated show of keeping him in place. Alex's heart thundered against his ribs - and not just from the suddenness of the tackle.

"Now that's just cheating," he muttered, though he couldn't stop a wild grin from breaking across his face.

"Technically I never agreed to be done." she fired back, drumming her fingertips against his sternum.

"You nodded."

"I'm sure that'll hold up in court." she replied, "Do I have to wear a dress?"

"Hm?"

"For the dancing thing tonight. Should I wear a dress? 'Cause I might have to borrow one from Raven."

"Uh- yeah, I mean, it's square dancing. I think the girls wear skirts."

"Guess I'll have to rustle something up, then." Madison agreed, "Or hope Raven has anything that reaches knee-length in her closet."

She slid off to the side, off his body, though her palm stayed pressed to his chest for a moment longer. Madison curled her fingers into the front of his shirt and ducked down to steal a sudden kiss. She lingered a moment or two longer than he expected her to, and Alex pushed himself up onto an elbow to deepen the kiss.

Finally she pulled back and stood up, leaving him sprawled-out and breathless on the mat.

"Oh, and-" she said, just a few feet from the door, "If Charles gets on us for skimping on morning training, it was your idea."

[p2ii]

hiya, love the spg fic rec collection!! i have two gen fics i really love that i wish got more attention-- a rough day at steam powered giraffe cafe (incredibly charming coffeeshop au that really gives a lot of love to every character) and dal signo al fin (a lil slice of life with six and the bots that i think also does a cool job of showing their thoughts processes). im not sure if these are addable, but i do think they def deserve more reads!

hello! tysm im really glad :D i saw your reblog of the post and went back to check which fics were yours XP i absolutely LOVE "Passivition"! the way to characterize the characters aswell as their thoughts/ internal communication with each other (such a cool detail) is incredible ty soso much for writing it! i dont know much about Fallen London but i also really enjoyed "Welcome, mechanical friend" the dialouge/general atmosphere was hilarious/super emmersive.

sure id love to check those fics out! from their summaries alone they sound very fun. thank you for sending me them ^-^

EDIT:

here's a link to the collection in question lol I totally forgot to add it 😭 also both the linked ficw have been bookmarked.

[aro-iceland]

not really a drawing request but id love to know more about your ocs??? from what you’ve posted they look amazing??

Thank you VERY much!!! i forgot how much i love to talk about them

(sorry for the old art or picrews, i am too excited to not talk about them and simultaneously not patient enough to redraw them)

All picrew links: Kit + Kevín + Lilly Annalise Piper + Cecily Mikael + Claire Princeton

here's a general overview of everything that exists:

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

part 1: em groups

you should at least be vaguely familiar with my em. every single au and whatever hetalia character i feel like grabbing for that day goes in there. interesting little tidbit that somehow hasn't come up so far is that in more human AUs of mine he's part irish! ~20% of icelandic males and 60% of females actually have irish/keltic ancestry!!! ireland being his mom hc is going WILD in me. he's also very magic because that headcanon singlehandedly started the ice obsession in me. how well in tune he is with it and how exactly it looks like depends on the au . i also make him closer friends with swe and fin because i can👍

(excerpt from my em content dedicated whatsapp group with just my (non-hetalia) best friend and me: )

le is there a lot because i love him so so much. incredibly phoenix coded man

there's also monaco, gwendolyn or gwenny to me. she's a permanent resident because i support women's rights (slaying) and wrongs (gambling addictions)

a notable not fully formed character is faroe islands! petra sometimes, emma other times. i genuinely don't know where those names come from. i heard the faroe islands and iceland being referred to as "kind of like twins" and as each othere's "best friends" *somewhere* and i am VERY normal about that too. oh SO normal

part 2: mikael's world

a fusion of 2 groups put into one world, connected by one flimsy tie. it's mostly analogous to real life but no homophobia👍

Group A: Pentagon

Mikael started out as a swedish micronation oc but we don't talk about that. he has a chicken called omelette because of inside jokes during... my wattpad era... shudders. i project onto him a lot and lots of his design is just wish fullfillment. while i love my ocs suffering and angst, because i put so much of myself in him, ultimately, his story is one of healing. major point of difference between us though is that his parents abandoned him and mine... didn't.do.that. 💀👍

Claire and Piper both actually started out as minecraft skins i made for fun!! and then i made them kith:3

Cecily and Kit were added becaue i felt like something was missing to complete the friendgroup!

Group B: menace club

Kevín and Lilly are my ACNL and ACNH side accounts...... and Annalise was some pretty trans woman i drew one day there's nothing much to this

Part 3: D&D

so.. confession: i haven't actually played d&d yet! but my friends love it a lot, i love a couple ttrpg podcasts so.. yeah i have a couple concepts!

The Leighlar Pilayden, or blueberry bitchfuck as i like to call him, Half Elf sorcerer who was abandoned as a babg and raised in a cult which, in a world with multiple deities, somehow ended up believing in the *one* that doesn't exist! he's a sorcerer but they all think his powers a blessing from their god

MY BABY MY SOBBING WET CAT SON! PRINCETON INTEKONA!!!

TIEFLING BARD I might get to play as him soon... negative strength, the only reason he has such a high charisma stat is because everyone pitties him... he accidentally ended up in a criminal gang... he plays the pan flute and bagpipes... pathetic baby

Part 4: Miscellaneous

All the Characters that are alone in their worlds!

(^aesthetic wise but he definitely kins larry)

Brian is the brain cell a friend and i are sharing and also the last one we have. he's a SOO overworked office worker. he has to handle EVERYTHING he's so exhausted please give him a break. he recently got a boyfriend. good for my him

Recently re-named Ailbhe used to be Avery and is a genderless, fully white skinned(as in colour not the skin colour we associate with the word. imagine porcelaine!) and neon yellow haired fallen angel/ex-demi-god!! not much lore but... lots of potential!!

Firenze is... idk he just happened in one history lesson in 2018 and now he's here. bunny boy with lots of responsibilities around the palace!!!

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

and ... phew. i THINK that's it? mostly? oh my god. if. there's anyone you wanna know more about... tell ME

[cerenemuxse]

Finished another Magma board /.w./

First time drawing Arthur! (Not really. First time I drew him was only his face though.

I tried painting his face as best as I could. He looks a little "meh." I gave him three moles for a but more detail. I actually have an idea on the new layout for thise moles. >:] (btw CGI Emily's face looks like Arthur's face. They look too similar.) He's mostly the same apart from his real life basis, which is LMS 1203 instead, and the lettering on his tanks is NWR instead of LMS. He was one of the many engines saved from scrapping, Emily being the first.

Also drew Rebecca and oh my goodness, she's absolutely adorable. Very out of proportion and not accurate but very cute. Look her happy face. <3 I love her sm. I decided to use her real-life basis' current livery, which is SR Malachite Green with Sunshine Yellow lining and lettering. Might add some red for additional lining (making it look similar to the BR livery, the only real livery worn during their service). Her basis is 92 Squadron, btw!

Remember those T&F and Sailor Moon connections I made awhile ago? Yeah, here you go. >:]

Here's whose who:

Edward - Sailor Moon

Rebecca - Sailor Venus

James - Sailor Jupiter

All of these were based off that promo containing the entire Steam Team (old and new) with a few guests labeled with Zodiac signs. I was surprised to find Edward be labeled as a Cancer (which is my Zodiac sign!!! :D). James was labeled as a Sagittarius and Rebecca was labeled as a Libra.

And meet a new OC, Chelsea! Her real-life basis is BR W14 Fishbourne. She existed because of the Little Blue Tank Engine found in the early books of the RWS.

Her face is supposed to resemble a fish. Her eyes and eyelashes resemble fins. Her irises are based on actual fish eyes. The creases underneath her eyes resemble gills. Her lips resemble the lips of a fish. Pouty and cute, right?

And then Debra! She belongs to my friend @nightsinfoxx15. She was fun to draw though it feels like I could've done better, tbh.

Oh yeah and there's Edward and James hiding (somewhat) with their pride flags! :D

[mossfeathers]

I'm excited to hear more about your au. It sounds like it's gonna be a lot of fun and that you've paid a lot of attention to details when creating it which makes it more exciting. Can't wait to hear more about sirens, especially since you mentioned it'd be a whole other post. So whenever you're ready to share I'm excited to hear about it.

Also! In my head, siren!BigB had fins there too! So that's cool that it lined up. Thanks for sharing your designs btw ^^

I honestly wanna ask so much, like about the sirens of your world in general, Scar & BigB's backstory, if there's a reason the current name is sweethearts siren au, are Jimmy & Grian like on a vacation or have moved here permanently, how you plan to share/tell the story... I didn't want to seem overwhelming or weird tho so I've been trying to figure out just about all day, which question I should ask first and how I should word it. I still haven't quite decided (tho I was leaning towards asking more about the sirens) but that's because I didn't want to step on your toes if you were already planning out some posts.(which is why I said whenever you're ready to share) And I hope admitting this doesn't make me seem weird or overly excited... I just want to be honest tbh lol.

(Thanks again for sharing your au, I really do want to learn more about it ^^)

anon i love you sooooo much thank you for asking so many lovely things about my au :D Please never be worried about being too enthusiastic or asking too many questions, this is genuinely so fun for me and I love being able to talk about and think about this au in depth (under cut since there is a lot!!)

Ok so you wanted to know more about sirens? I have 600 words of worldbuilding on this so I'll try to condense it a little? Sirens are pretty neat, again I did kind of remake them as a species to better fit this au but a lot of the basics still stand. They aren't strictly romantic seduction, and leans more heavily into just really strong compulsion of any variety, though that still is a thing (i just don't plan on implementing it much). The specific aspect of luring people to their death also isn't a strict necessity, but definitely still common (and I do want to incorporate this into the au). Sirens can have any fishtail, but it does matter on their location/habitat. Scar's a lionfish, and I haven't quite decided on B yet but it's going to probably be a blue one. Either type of ear (the pointed ones or the webbed ones) are pretty much random, but both have scales on the face. The main thing that distincts sirens from any other merfolk (in terms of physical appearance) are the hands, much more clawed and very scaley. I liked the idea of jewlery being very ingrained and important in siren culture, so that's why you'll see a lot of necklaces and earrings andstuff on both my Scar and B designs (though noticeably a lot more on B, no real reason for that quite yet). Sirens also have much longer lifespans than humans, and thus it's a bit hard for some to understand the idea of mortality when it comes to the killing aspect. Still, some sirens don't like the general idea of control and/or murder and choose to live as regular merfolk, but that's really tough to do as sirens aren't trusted by pretty much anyone who isn't a siren. Their voices don't work on other sirens but do work all other animals, though it does still impact relationships amongst sirens (as can be seen in B and Scar). Siren voices are pretty cool! They develop throughout childhood, starting with none (using the term 'voice' to refer to their ability to control btw, probably should have established that sooner) and slowly turning small persuasions into full control. Not super well documented in-universe due to nobody but sirens hanging out with them, especially in youth. Practice is also necessary to get 'good' at using one's voice. As in, those who use it frequently can fade into it near seamlessly without letting on that they're using it until it's in full effect and can easily start using it most of the time. For those who aren't as accustomed to it (either from deliberate lack of use or inexperience in general), using the voice can be much more noticeable, with a very noticeable shift in tone and volume. It's also much more difficult to start, requiring a lot more concentration and effort. Much like learning to use a new muscle, i'd imagine. Moments of stress, high pressure, or other extreme emotions or factors hinder both skill levels, and can even be worse on those with experience as it might be their only way out of a very tense situation. That's most of my siren worldbuilding? As time goes on and this hopefully expands more there will probably be a lot more to add.

The reason for sweethearts siren au is simply because that's my personal duo name for Grian and B (It's really cute I think, with 'sweet' coming from grain/breads and b's affinity with cookies, and hearts coming from the heart Grian built in double life and their general connection to the life series. And because it sounds adorable and they are sweethearts, /p or /r) and they're kind of the 'main duo' as far as I've thought? As in, I have the most complex interactions and dynamics that i've laid out for them thus far and they're the most developed so far. Also, I don't have a duo name that I like/know for any of the other characters and especially not specifically these 4, and i'm not clever enough to come up with one just yet. So, sweethearts siren AU for the time being. Grian and Jim are here as fishmongers just to make a living, pretty much? This au was created around when I first got *super* into stardew and especially the fishing mechanism (I maxxed out the fishing skill while at 0 for pretty much everything else), so I really wanted to just put some of my favorite guys into a fish situation. Aged pretty well, I'd say, with Grian's recent obsession with fishing. But yeah, just fishermen and/or small farmers on the side (the stardew leaking into this again) trying to make a living in a coastal area until they discover The Sirens. I will say, the one thing that I do have down very solidly is Grian and Jim's absolute oblivion to the presence of sirens at this specific ocean/town, and Jimmy being the first one to interact directly with them (specifically, Scar). I don't really feel like doing the whole skeptic-of-the-supernatural-until-its-glaringly-obvious thing, but I might add it a little bit in Grian's character if I feel the story needs a bit more to spice it up. I also really love Jimmy and Scar's dynamic, especially how easily Jimmy falls for whatever ploy Scar's doing so I think that would fit perfectly into the siren dynamic. This au's 'story' starts pretty much right when Grian and Jim move, but in terms of chronological order I really don't have much down solidly. I struggle a lot sometimes with telling the story I want to tell and keeping everyone in character, so it's pretty difficult to make sure the siren's use of their voices, *especially* Scar, is realistic and not too drastic. I've been toying with the idea of the big first event being something with Scar putting Jimmy in danger (something like taking him underwater to the depths and malicious use of his voice, potentially) and that forcing B and Grian to make a tentative alliance to get him back, but I don't really think that's too in character of an action for Scar to make so it's very annoying. As far as telling this story goes, probably mostly through exposition-like posts like this, for the most part. I'd love to write some stuff for this au, obviously, and probably will do small things, but that would probably be a much longer project for me that wouldn't get done for ages. Also posting art of it, even if it doesn't have much context or is what builds the context itself. This is part of the reason i'm really glad people are sending asks, since I don't have any plans for posts about this since I don't know what specifically to talk about or what people want to know and also don't want to seem too annoying (?) with excessively posting about this lol. Thank you so much for the ask, and especially if you actually read all of this. I love talking about things I enjoy, and if you have any more questions I would absolutely love to hear them. It gives me a really good chance to think over what actually happens and the specificities of this which I really appreciate :D

[starlit-hopes-and-dreams]

Word Find Tag

Catch up p5! Moving into June (thanks for everyone's patience :')) And thanks for the tag, @thegreatobsesso!

My words: fire, water, air, and user’s choice of any word that’s got to do with nature, earth, trees, dirt, or whatever’s in your WIP for the last element

Your words: flame, flight, flow, and fracture

Gently tagging: @sam-glade, @dogmomwrites, @verkja, and You, if you would like :D (Open Tag)

Ooo, an elemental tag :D How fun! I have a fifth element in my world, so I'm gonna slip aether in here as well.

From Shattered Soul, bc I've got the doc open and uh. I like that wip lol.

Fire Serin

Serin bit the inside of his cheek, praying to the Mother she would get away. Marcus' back pressed against the crystal, but he wouldn't be able to step through without Malachiah's guidance. Alaia's compulsion forced him to keep trying, though, which would have been amusing if Serin wasn't so terrified. Blue light flared around Alaia's body, protecting her from the next lash of fire Malachiah sent her way. "Leave me alone!" she shouted. The outline of her body behind the blue light shimmered, and then she was gone. What the fuck had that been? Serin watched with increasing trepidation when fire flared around Malachiah as she vented her rage. The drugged mist was beginning to wear off; the ache in his shoulders from the tightness of the chains holding him in place was becoming noticeable. Marcus and Malachiah burst through the crystal. Serin thought it was the first time he had ever seen fear cross Marcus' face as the goddess turned to him with fury blazing in her pure black eyes.

Water Alaia

As soon as she recognized it, she halted, her body going hot and then cold and then hot again. Beads of sweat broke out along her forehead, and her vision began to flicker before she realized she probably needed to breathe. The memories she had worked so hard to bury since the night Malachiah had come for her threatened to break free again, so she wrapped her arms around her waist and closed her eyes, concentrating on her breathing. "Human, what are you doing?" Their voice mimicked the rhythms of the ocean this time, but when Alaia turned towards the water, she recognized that green kelpy hair. The aicaya's pearl-white eyes and faintly green scaled skin featured in her dreams at night, before they turned into nightmares. "Ah yes, since you went through the Veil, I suppose it's no longer appropriate to call you human, is it?" The aicaya was reclining in the shallow water, tendrils from their green tail fin moving up and down with the waves. "What should I call you, then?"

Air (suppose i could've used this for all of them, huh lol) Kadin

Kadin walked through the wide, glass-paned double doors into what had been stylized the Chamber of Elements, and stopped directly inside the entrance. His wings mantled as he glanced around. Had things gotten worse, or was he just imagining things? The elements were supposed to be balanced throughout the fortress, but the effect was most visible in this room. Soft, loamy earth made up the floor, a nod to the humans, while multi-colored sparks of aether, the fae's element, infused the silver-veined black stones of the walls. Air swirled lightly throughout the space from dozens of small openings in the wall behind him, and the blue, seemingly cloud-covered ceiling rose high above, providing plenty of space for a seraph to spread their wings and fly. Landings along the dome's curved walls provided convenient perches for those who wished to remain in the 'sky'. To his left ran a wide, blue-green stream, mirrored by a channel of molten lava to his right. Both water and fire cut a thin path horizontally across the earthen floor, culminating in a large circular pool in the middle of the chamber, with each half separated by a wide strip of earth. The gentle gusts of air filling the chamber swirled around the pool, carrying motes of shining aether on its winds. But—

Earth (direct continuation from air) Kadin

The earth Kadin stepped on felt brittle, dry. The air felt warmer than usual, not as refreshing. He couldn't tell if anything was off with the water, but the aether… He was the Draikon, lord of dragons, and as such, carried a well of Reyanel's essence inside him to replenish the dragon's lifeforce. The time he'd spent in Siiluriah had shown him how sensitive he'd become to the fae's element, and it was telling him now how dull the aether in this room felt.

Aether Darian

A heaviness descended in the room, and he sobered immediately. It's my brother, isn't it? Has he woken? As far as he knew, Kiral had been brought back from Iahel and chained to his bed in his suite of rooms at their home in the grove. He had been unconscious from whatever Alaia had done to him, and he knew his parents hoped the aether from the grove seeping into his body while he rested would break the coercion. Darian knew better. It had all been tried before. He's beginning to stir. No one can reach his mind. He growls and thrashes in his restraints every time someone tries. Darian held Alaia closer as he closed his eyes, the pain of knowing he was losing his brother knifing through him. The title of crown prince would fall to him, leaving him with even more responsibility weighing him down. He didn't know if he could do it, if he could kill his own brother, even to bring Kiral peace. But he would have to find the strength.

[quasitsqueeries]

Decadence, Degeneration & the Drukhari

I think the Eldar are really interesting. While other Xenos in 40K, like Orks and Tyranids, represent a sort of general external threat, Eldar bring some other ideas along with them. I’m afraid we’re going to have to talk about Fascism again, but there’s some other fun stuff too.

So Eldar represent two things that Fascists don’t like (see my previous post if you want evidence that the Imperium is a Fascist state). The first is intellectualism. Fascism demands an uncritical adherence to national myths, and intellectual movements tend to question things like that, so Fascists are by necessity suspicious of intellectual “elites”. Eldar are depicted as more psychic and more cultured than humans of the Imperium, and they’ve been around longer, so they have greater knowledge of things. It’s the Eldar who maintain the big repository of information about the galaxy, in the form of the Black Library. (Maybe someday we can look at the weird relationship the Inquisition has with the Eldar, and how that organisation seems to simultaneously seek out knowledge and supress knowledge) The second thing is that Eldar, shall we say, fail to live up to the Imperium’s heteronormative models of gender. The Imperium, like all Fascist states, venerates hyper-masculinity, I’m not sure I need to argue this one when I can just point at a Space Marine. The Eldar, by contrast, are represented as somewhat efette; elegant and graceful, but physically weak. Orks used to refer to Eldar as “pansies”, GW seem to have realised that maybe getting rid of that bit is a good idea in the 21st Century and so it seems to have been retired. The fact remains, though, that Eldar’s relationship with gender is a bit queer. From the start Eldar have been depicted as androgynous, they’re slight of build, wear form-fitting clothes and tend to wear their hair long. In 1998 GW first released Dark Eldar, which complicated things. Dark Eldar are kinky, but they’re also much less androgynous than Craftworld Eldar or Harlequins. Wyches in particular are really interesting. They’re the first genuinely mixed-gender unit I remember GW releasing, (there were also some Craftworld and Dark Eldar plastic kits around the same time that included a single chest piece with boobs) the miniatures were explicitly gendered, and they were really kinky, there was a lot of skin, a lot of spikes, and a lot of whips. Basically Craftworld Eldar are sort of gender neutral and Dark Eldar are chaotically genderqueer. All of this is the kind of thing that Fascists hate. Fascism centers the role of the heteronormative family unit, which has the role of making more “racially pure” babies (the Nazis called in the Lebensborn program), queer people who reject the gender roles that that unit relies on are therefore instantly suspicious to Fascists. So, to the Imperium, the threat of the Eldar is not just that they’re Xenos, they also present an ideological threat. The Eldar’s intellectualism and knowledge about the galaxy is a threat to the Imperium’s narrative and myths about itself and the universe it’s up against. Their queerness is a threat to the heteronormative gender roles that the Imperium is structured on.

At this point maybe some people are thinking “but aliens and daemons and cults and unsanctioned psykers are a real threat and the Imperium does need to keep throwing bodies into wars to stop them.” The thing is, Warhammer 40,000 is a fantasy about what would happen if all those threats really did exist out there, it’s the aesthetics and ideas that are important. In the real world Fascism is never justifiable, its arguments are never coherent, it only makes sense in 40K because 40K is fantasy.

So, decadence and degeneration, the things I put in the title. If you’ve ever been called a degenerate by some keyboard Fascist, just know that you’re being interpolated into a long tradition. Around the Fin de Siecle (the end of the 19th and start of the 20th centuries) there were some ideas about decadence and degeneration doing the rounds in Europe. Now I’m probably going to mess this up a bit, but the theme is that due to the rationality of Men, civilisation generally advances on an upward trajectory. I assume this idea came out of the enlightenment, reason leads to progress and makes society better (obviously there are some Colonialist ideas that come out of there). Maybe it’s useful to call this process generation (idk, I’m really winging it here), but anyway, these men are distractable, and if they allow themselves to be distracted by aesthetic things, like the colour yellow, or the taste of absinthe, or the feel of high quality brocades, or the skin of other men, they might become... decadent. Decadence is supposed to be when you give up rationality and hard work to focus on a life of sensation. Obviously there’s an implication here about sexuality. Oscar Wilde was regarded as a decadent. Too much decadence, it was thought, could lead to the reversal of a civilisation’s progress, degeneration, in other words. Versions of this idea pop up all over the place, certain Conservatives regard Western Civilisation as having fallen from the ideal state embodied by the Ancient Greeks (and I don’t doubt these people would blame decadence), and it’s also really common in fantasy. In the Lord of the Rings, the state of the world has fallen from the Númenorean and Elvish civilisations of the distant past, and Elric of Melniboné describes a previous civilisation brought low by decadence.

But, Eldar. So the story of the Eldar is they had this big galaxy-spanning civilisation before humanity reached the stars. As their civilisation became more advanced and the automation of their physical needs freed up their time they started to become decadent, and as they pursued various pleasures and became more and more jaded, the decadence gave way to sadism.

The descriptions of the dying days of the Eldar civilisation sound like being at the worst kink club you’ve ever seen, where nobody’s heard of consent and everyone’s really into knives and medical role-play. Various groups of Eldar began to leave their empire. First the Exodites, who went to live a sort of monastic existence riding dinosaurs about on idyllic worlds as far away from the Eldar empire as possible (it’s a travesy that GW have never made models of them because they’re the coolest thing in 40K).

Then the Craftworld Eldar fled. All the bad and horny psychic energy released by this debauchery built up in the warp (because Eldar are very psychic) and gave birth to Slaanesh, the Chaos god of excess and decadence, exploding all the heads of the decadent Eldar and ending their civilisation. Those Eldar left are supposed to be fallen from civilisation. There’s a sense that they’ll never be able to regain their old empire and their only role now is to become extinct with as much dignity as they can.

The fall of the Eldar is exactly the kind of thing that the Imperium would use as a cautionary tale to frighten its citizens. “Get too curious, or too decadent, or fail to uphold the family model, and your civilisation might collapse.” I wonder sometimes if the whole story was originally just meant to be Imperial propaganda, but these days the game certainly treats it as real. Now, I’m not sure there’s a heap of evidence to suggest that 20th Century Fascists were particularly interested in the concept of degeneracy (although the Nazis thought it relevant as regards art). 21st Century Fascists seem to love the concept. I think it’s fair to say that ideas of degeneration formed part of the cultural millieu of the early 20th Century that fed into Fascism. In any case the ideas that some cultures are more civilised than others, and that decadence can cause a culture to fall into a less civilised state, are consistent with Fascism.

So, again, we’re talking about a piece of fantasy media here. Saying “the Eldar were decadent and degenerate” or “the Imperium’s rejection of the Eldar’s degeneracy makes sense because they did give birth to Slaanesh” is meaningless. The Eldar are a piece of media that express an idea, they play with the concepts of degeneracy and and decadence to tell a story.

[vivisols]

Is there a ref for Vanessa in the future stares back? I don’t know if there’s any mention of it, but I keep imagining her with a bunny nose and I think that would be so cute if it’s true!

Also how far are certain attributes for evolved humans? Like you mentioned merfolk have varying looks (scales and no scales as an example), is that the same with skyscrapers (if I remember the name correctly) and rabbitfolk?

How many different types of folk are there? You don’t have to say specific species, but like just a number of the different branches human evolution took would be so fun!

And is there any crossbreeding? Can a merfolk and a skyscraper make a seabird? Flying fish?? Or has their common human ancestry evolved too much to make that a possibility?

If any of these questions are spoiler territory, sorry ^^ I’m just super interested in this world you laid out before us! I love your work so much! I also need to catch up with recent chapters as well so if any of these questions have already been answered in the work itself, sorry!

May you keep having fun writing! As I will always have fun reading! ♥️

WOAHHHHHH IM GIGGLUNG KICKING MY FEET YOU ASKED SO MUCH DJHASDHFASJKD WOAHHHH!!! I LOVE ANSWERING ASKS ABOUT THE LORE YOU ARE LIKE PROVIDING ME A GOURMET MEAL HERE ANON!!!! answers under the cut because I WROTE SO MUCH LMAO

there is INDEED a Vanessa ref, though ive never posted it! she doesn't have her mask here, plus ive been meaning to clean it up and work on it with all the other refs in the main lineup but alas ive. been putting it off LMAO

(ironically she, along with 2 characters who only appear later down the line, are the only refs I actually have finished...)

you can have it here before i. eventually post it as a separate thing with the finished line up! as a treat :3!

i needed to incorporate a vanny motif SOMEhow... and you were right about her having a bunny nose x3c i think she looks so much cuter with it!!!!

you're also right about the attributes! Current humans all look wildly different from each other, even within their own species! though in skyscrapers and rabbitfolk (also known as luprime in universe, but they're more commonly known as rabbitfolk! im impressed with how you guessed it, but then again it was pretty obvious LMAO), their variations in appearance are a bit more subtle than the ones in merfolk

for skyscrapers it's all about the amount of feathers, but they'll always BE feathered. some skyscrapers only have a thin layer of feathers or they'll only have feathers along the underside of their arms, but its extremely rare to not be completely covered in feathers.

for rabbitfolk, it's the amount of fur they have and also their facial structures. particularly the nose! some have more fur than others and some have no fur at all. having a proper bunny nose and much more rabbit like skull is uncommon but not rare! those without just have flat noses instead. vanessa does have fur too, but her jacket covers it up :3

and thats not accounting for various differing body shapes and differences in things like teeth and skeletal structures from within the same species...

there are at least 8 different types of Current human species with 4 distinct branches that human evolution took!

the actual number of Current human species is unknown due to how spread out everyone is now as well as lots of subbranches and variation and nuances within every single species, but at least 8 main ones is the most widely accepted answer. for now ;D!

crossbreeding is both a yes and a no! offspring from, as in your example, a mer and a skyscraper is 100% possible! it would likely adopt traits from both, but end up as mostly one or the other. for example it might have the much larger hands and the same arm structure that a skyscraper does while also having a mer tail! or it might have fins and webbed hands while also having legs!

sadly, having both scales and feathers at once is impossible due to the types of required genetic materials, so they'll either have neither or have the one that whichever side of traits they get more of does (i.e. if they're more skyscraper, they'd get some feathers)

although its certainly 100% possible and has happened before, some species are able to pair better than others. merfolk typically have a hard time with others that aren't also mers no matter what, as theyre VASTLY different from most other Current humans in their biology

anyways that's enough from me on this post LMAO!

anon i hope you know am absolutely THRIVING answering all these lore questions i love talking about worldbuilding and lore i normally dont get to mention in the fic AKSJDASK!! i feel so incredibly flattered that you like my silly little fic this much to ask THIS many questions hahaha akljsdkkalsdjshdf THIS MEANS SO MUCH TO MEEE AAAAA!!!!!!!!

[lildoodlecat]

At last, it is complete! Tales of Destiny Director's Cut Stahn's story is done :D

(I'll be playing Leon's story next)

I loved it a lot!!!!! As I suspected, the addition of skits really expanded my affection for the characters, but I also rather enjoyed the changes they made. I honestly can't remember what exactly comparatively was different all around, but the changes to the depiction of Leon's final moments got me really hard,,,, idk if it was more similar in the original jp since I played the official English release of Destiny (I hear there were skits in jp? that might've helped my understanding lol) but I really really liked the director's cut take on things.

See my posts crying about Leon for those exact reactions lmao (they can probably be summarized with ;w;)

I also actually liked that we didn't have to see him come back as like. a raised husk or whatever it was og Destiny did bc even tho his fate seemed definite, it's still ambiguous. I haven't played the sequel obviously but I think?? the Leon looking guy is actually Leon???? idk. maybe it's a bit of a retcon. but yk

Anyway I actually liked every character quite a bit this time!! I liked my fav characters even more (coughcough Stahn and Leon living in my brain now) bc the extra conversations and voice acting were fantastic ✨✨ It really helped the emotions hit for me. I don't remember it all super well since I took so long to play it but I was a giggly little bastard abt the relationships and got a little teary at parts.

Cried at the end despite it all,, Stahn finally finished writing a letter like he was attempting for his family and it was for Leon ;w; That plus just. Tales credits. got me just a liiiittle teary lol. I liked it soso much. Also the reunion at the end made way more sense to me this time around lsjfd;lk just bc of some added dialogue and whatnot

The final boss is kinda meh as a character honestly but the overall story despite that guy was awesome!! I have a lot of fondness for the character arcs of Stahn, Leon, and Rutee, and also just the overall party dynamic was quite fun :3 Silly little creatures, the lot of them.

I missed having anime cutscenes after playing Destiny ps1 alksdjl; so they definitely got me there even tho they really only had character ones at the beginning and the end. But it's not like they do too many of those anyway.

Briefly on the character designs: they're goofy. I can't deny they're goofy. I love them sm they're unique lolol I'm attached to them

Oh yeah I LOVED the tie in to the title lol it was heavy handed as hell and it was perfect.

Bouncing back to what I said abt og Destiny, the dungeon designs were still kinda interesting here and there but less cool than the original, however the combat was definitely some of the best in the series. It's a serious learning curve but very fun!!! It was fun to see how they adapted the puzzles as well; a lot of them were similar but the final dungeon was way different. Hated the mirror area way way more than in og Destiny laskjdfkl;dsj I got stuck for a while but I do like the split party collaborative puzzles!! I remember Abyss did the same sort of thing an I liked that quite a bit, so it had that factor going for it too.

Umm final gist is it was really really fun and even tho it was actually pretty hard for me a lot of the time, but I think to a point that made it still fun. Except the 3-ish hours I spent on the final boss goddamn.

In any case, this definitely bumped up into the favorites!!!!! Stahn is an especially endearing protagonist to me and his relationship with the party was fun to watch develop <3

Fin~

[delopsia]

hello so flowers in november. let’s discuss. because I read it for the first time like a month ago and it? changed me? I had to sit down with my lil queer self and have a tête à tête about how good that fic was. I PROCESSED, computer style. like your capacity for worldbuilding is so gorgeous and well rounded and complete and that in and of itself would have me hooked but then the nuance. the soft, horny cowboy of it all. the ROMANCE and the CREATURES and the ROUND! PIZZA!! BOXES!!!

reading that fic is like watching a rube goldberg machine with all these tiny, whimsical parts coming together in gentle little plinks and plonks to accomplish this incredibly simple task SO EFFECTIVELY and you’re just grinning and loving the whole fucking journey of it. like I feel BAD for you that you don’t get the sheer pleasure that was getting to read that work for the first time and being taken around each blind corner into this thrilling reveal that just builds Rhett and his world and his relationship and I could literally gush about it for another 2000 words and still not say all the good things I want to say!!!!!!!!

I was listening to a song in my work car today (I love you always forever, Betty who’s version. fuckin bop.) and listen I KNOW it was set in winter but every part of that song gives FiN Rhett and his person, just the adoration and the soaring feelings and the simple core of the message behind it and I got so up in my feels in the middle of the fucking city about it. because that’s what FiN has, for such a fun fantasy alternate reality bop— every narrative beat connecte to this indescribable core feeling of adoration and whimsy and magic and the good and bad that lives in all of those things, in such whole and finished way that it makes me feel A Thing. and then I hear or see or smell something that has a moment of the same Thing and among all the other wonderful things that have that whimsy and magic that immediately pop to my brain I’m like “oh man flowers in november tho”.

you have such an incredible gift for writing. thank you SO MUCH for sharing it with us!!!!!!!!

aaaaa! Thank you so so much, lovely! :D This was an absolute blast to find in my inbox, despite Tumblr briefly trying to eat it...I truly was not expecting to hear much about that story ever again since it's a few months old now.

The World for Flowers In November was so, so much fun to craft and put together; I still get excited thinking about it because Rhett's world gave me so much creative freedom 💃 But for a while there, I really thought the round pizza boxes and magical creatures were a little too far😭

I'm so thrilled that it all came together like I was hoping it would! I had entire documents and guides dedicated to getting the world to hold together properly.

Exhibit A:

But! That! Song! I've never heard it before in my life until you stopped by, but now I keep replaying it 😭 I wasn't expecting for it to fit so well?? The first time I listened to it I had to stop what I was doing and stare at a wall because, wow.

Its reminded me of a deleted scene that never got into the final cut because it didn't add much to the story at the time. Maybe I'll have to dig that out of the drafts sooner or later 💃

Thank you so much for sending this, lovely! 🌷 You've got me wanting to return to that story, now 💐

[squid-ink-symphony]

im really liking story mode and splatoon 2 in general so far, and i just got to the 4th area, so here are some random thoughts i have on it in no particular order.

I rlly like that Marie is basically the only other character here. I may be biased cuz she's my second fav character (shiver is number one ofc) but i just rlly like her commentary. But not have Callie here to also say random stuff is kinda sad..... Like at first i was like yessss lets go only Marie(no offense, i love callie). But i miss her :(

I may be one of the few sheldon enjoyers as someone who actually likes reading all his dialogue, so i appreciate him also being here.

THIS IS HARD. I know i suck at video games... but some of these levels just feel so LONG. And making me fight enemy octolings with a charger is evil. Anyway yeah i need some easier levels spread out between these like splat 3 had. Cuz this is..... not good. I have to keep taking breaks cuz the long levels do be mentally taxing. Like hello this is funny squid game i cant be bad at smth intended for kids. I havent straight up failed a level yet but ive come close.

Hello?????? The ruins of ark whatever its called salmon run map is so cool????? Why dont we have this in splat 3 yet. Its so fun.

speaking of salmon run, not being able to throw eggs or have the movement of splat 3 is so cursed. like, what do u mean thats not a thing????

Yeah the not being able to do the lil charge thing up wallls is so unsatistfying.....

I had to play as a guy cuz i wanted my splat 3 hair. (the ponytail) which i dont usually care about in games, but the girl inklings have cuter voices.... Oh well i am a dude now lol. Luckily gender is a game to me so i dont actually care other than the voice difference

Pearl and Marina my beloveds.... HOW COME WE DONT DONT GET STAGE SPECIFIC DIALOUGE IN SPLAT 3????? not only do deep cut not get many chances to speak in story mode they also have repetitive news segments...... so sad.. its ok i still love them. But yeah i love these funny creechurs. why are they like that. they say so many insane things. pearl and marina are so funky :D

Forcing me to use the hero charger for certain levels is so evil and messed up. I only like dualies, rollers, and sometimes brella. They cant do this to me.. I cannot aim....

As with splat 3 i am enamored with the backgrounds in the story mode levels themselves. i love just wasting like 5 mins just staring at them. I want to make literally any of them my desktop background but idk how to get a good pic of them.... man especially the upside down city looking one in 3. its so pretty and just UGH ITS SO GOOOD/

I am so poor..... what do u mean clothes cost money/?? i have to play the game??? all i want is to dress up my funny lil squid... i need a splatoon spinoff that is just a casual game thats like a dress up/room decoration game. maybe w like a cooking minigame too. thats ideal. like animal crossing or smth but squids. Shooting ppl is stressful.... (dont ask me why i play splatoon if i dont like combat cuz its scary. i couldnt tell u)

WHY ARE ALL THE INK COLORS IN THIS GAME SO MUCH PRETTIER THAN THE SPLAT 3 ONES???? ITS NOT FAIR. Some of these blue's are so pretty... i want...

none of the multiplayer maps have rlly stuck out to me in any way. Like they all just kinda feel the same lol. I think like maybe one or two i thought were cool? but idk the names. i def like the aesthetic of a lot of them.

I wanna just try all the weapons and specials but noooooo i gotta level up. just gimme everything ok

i also wanna explore the stages but as far as i know there isnt recon. I was just gonna do a private battle but turns out u cant do those w one person. And i was so excited cuz there were splatfest stages availbe too...... so sad i just wanna check out the maps but idk how to/if i can do that.....

the amount of times ive fallen off the map in the main level select area of story mode is more than i can count. its not even funny at this point

I also just cannot find some of the scrolls/sardines in some levels despite playing them mulitiple times. Not to just expose myself as incompetent over and over today, but i am 100% gonna need to look up a guide cuz i do not have the patience for this.

Also the rhythm game is surprisingly one of my fav things so far??? Like i am having the most fun ever with this thing. I want it in splat 3 so bad w all the new songs. Its actually just so fun. Like idk maybe better than story mode somehow. Maybe i just have my priorities wrong tho lol

Anyway yeah tats all i have 2 say for now... I think. idk im having fun w the game so yeah

[artisticbunny]

Hello I’m back again! :D

Are you excited for spring break Omg!! —Unless of course it’s not currently going on where you’re at. (if so don’t mind me just being deranged haha—) I got a loose set of plans I want to set into motion for the week off I get from academic activity. I lose my mind without structure in a day, so arranging dates is my forte! This week’ll be full of fun!

But, pleasantries aside, I am back yet again to give you a persistent bombarding! Yep! This time, the character of choice is:

No one! (No this has absolutely nothing to do with apr fools—)

Can you maybe give us a little background on like, Brook’s world in its own? Like I know it’s full of magic and little creechurs and stuff but, like, is there a tale of the land? Any rules of thumb?

Any wars? Nuclear activity? Current rulers? Climate? Just Yk, basic background on what type of place Whispering Willow is situated in, because I’m a (partial) geology nerd and it has been a plague on my mind for a considerable amount of time.

(On a side note, tried to draw Terra at school, I got the fins and claws but I messed up the hair. Also tried to draw Kat, but I’m not good at hair ough. Also, if you do have any spring break plans, I’m willing to hear them! Wanna know what you might be doing because well to put it simply: I’m nosy. Completely up to you tho. I won’t be mad lol. <333 Enjoy your time (either in or out of school) anyways! And keep being wonderful!)

I’ve already had my spring break actually, but I really hope you enjoy yours!!!

I’m so sorry in advance this is going to be SO disorganized, but I’m gonna infodump on the world and it’s geological features and it’s lore!

So the starting setting is basically just a normal woodsy area… what I picture when I write this area is my local woods! So think like a rocky New England type environment :)

this area leaks into other areas, the first of which, the mesa reefs, USED to be a large sea that has since dried up due to some prehistoric event that’s details have been lost to time. Although it is unclear what caused this sea to vanish, it is generally accepted that it was caused by some sort of magic extinction event. Residual magic can be found in this area’s resources and the resident organisms tend to have a higher magic tolerance than other creatures. The salt deposits found in this region, containing traces of remains from the long extinct species from the original sea, also still contain bits of the magic from both the organisms and the extinction event that has yet to dissipate. The land here has large amounts of iron in the rock and soil, causing a rusty red coloration to the surrounding area. There are a lot of rocky cliffs and slopes that would have originally been drop-offs in the prehistoric sea. There are still many dips and pockets of water dotted over the deeper drops of this biome which contain surprisingly large amounts of beautifully colored species of fish, corals, and aquatic plant. In the deepest of the salt-water lakes, sirens may also reside. The borders of this area start rather abruptly, immediately transitioning from a cooler climate to the blistering heat of this desert-like area. If you were to cross the mesa reefs, you would find another abrupt cut off to another woodsy area that slowly transitions into a beach, and then into an ocean. Though, as of right now, I don’t think our band of adventurers need to head in that direction ^-^

Also connected to the woods where Brook starts her journey is a mountain range. This mountain range is known for its many cave systems, however, the most well known of those would be Dread Caverns. This area is infamous for its housing of most of this world’s population of the fear consuming beasts (which unfortunately I am STILL trying to give a better name for than “fear beasts”… they deserve it!) dread caverns being BY FAR the most populated by these. It is unknown if they flock to this location because of the cave system’s unique ability to “bring your fears to life”, or if they cause it by releasing their venom into the cave themselves. This mountain range is fairly long, and is much easier to cut through than find a way around. There are many thinly laid, winding paths through, but it doesn’t make traveling THAT much easier between the thinner air, risk of avalanche, and the fear eating creatures living in many of the crevices waiting for their next meal.

Beyond the mountain range is more of a jungle-type area with HUGE trees that the people of this area have carved out into buildings and homes and the like. The canopy is filled with rope bridges and pulleys! The ground is kind of empty, mostly just wilderness and shrubbery-type plants :) the the majority of the population of this kingdom have wings, but there is also a lot of accommodating infrastructure in order for the denizens without wings to also get around

This is the main area where mushroom hat bugs are found! The little buggy dudes that hollow out shells and use them as homes! They’re actually rather large for bugs, and are often kept as pets in this tree-kingdom

This world is set in kind of a medieval but not really setting, where magic can be used for a lot of the stuff we had to invent in our world, so they didn’t really bother with trying to invent some of the things we have, but they have a few things that we do as well! They have pretty far along medical knowledge and have a lot of magical equivalents to things like television and radio! :)

The people in this world are also pretty diverse! Fairies, vampires, werewolves, elves, dwarves, they all exist! There’s actually a surprising amount of ghosts still hanging around in this world and living their afterlife in towns! There were a few wars between some of these more “monstrous” races and the more “humanoid” races. These wars being over the fact that these people were often shunned for being more scary and “dangerous” and were often hunted down and killed just for living. The wars ended with the more “monstrous” races getting more rights and protection, though there are still people that will still turn their nose up at these people. “Halloween” in this world is instead a celebration for these races, showing themselves proudly, sharing their culture, and having fun. The majority of this world’s population is pretty accepting and will often join in on the celebration ^-^

(Also quick fun fact because I can’t remember if I’ve said it before but Sam is a half elf!)

I’m going to be totally honest with you and say I haven’t really thought up names and backstories for the leaders of any of these areas I’m sorry!!! They aren’t super important to the story I wanted to tell!!! Sorry!!!!

Art tho???? 👀👀👀👀 if you wanna share it I’d LOVE to see!!!!! You have NO idea how happy it makes me that other people wanna draw my characters OUGH!!!!

[femmeleatherface]

Spooky Movie Marathon 2024: Week 5

Day 27: J'accuse ! (1919) - French version; unknown restoration info

Day 28: 13 Ghosts (1960) - 2D version :(

Day 29: Un monstre à Paris (2011) - English dub; loosely inspired by Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux

Day 30: The Werewolf (1956)

Day 31: The Tingler (1959)

BONUS! KIND OF! Day 32: Coraline (2009)

closing thoughts:

J'accuse ! (1919) - it is... so long... and because it's a silent epic i can't even work on something else while i watch because i need to pay attention to the intertitles so i know what the heck's happening. aghGHGh. but okay. it is an interesting film! there's early use of a moving camera, quick cuts, and montage editing, which is all really neat in a film history way. there was also a lot of location shooting, including in real ww1 battlefields and of the battle of saint-mihiel, which is both extremely impressive and extremely unsettling in a "how much of this is an unintentional snuff film" kind of way. and in terms of its unsettling aspect, it's far more of a romantic war drama than a horror film, but there's certainly horrific elements. i'd classify it in the vein of social horror akin to freaks (1932), where it's primarily a human interest social drama but when the characters are not permitted to pursue their own needs and desires due to larger societal issues, horror elements are drawn on toward the end to leave a final lasting terror in the audience for their own complicity in those issues. (let's call this "horrific social drama.") in freaks the larger issues are ableism and the eugenics movement, in j'accuse it's the devastating impact of ww1. this is scattered throughout in the film's hilarious repeated shot of the grim reaper and his dancing skeleton minions, then culminates in a proto-modern!zombie "return of the dead" sequence at the end. idk, i don't love it as entertainment since it's not really my thing, but it's interesting. also, random note, but i like how they handled françois's character... he was a scumbag abusive husband but got decent character development and felt like a fully-dimensional person. still a scumbag, but a well-realized one.

13 Ghosts (1960) - oh shit, new fave movie dropped. this movie is so fun!!!!! genuinely creepy but also with a goofy 3D gimmick that combined doesn't always work, but is presented with such classic william castle ballyhoo that i can't help but be charmed. i should be irked by the completely ridiculous ending where the (blissfully not annoying) kid watches a man who was about to kill him gets freaking MURDERED and is clearly traumatized by it and then the next day is just like "wow :) this house is great! i hope we never leave!!! :D," but i am too busy adding "watch this in the original illusion-o vision" to my cinematic bucket list.

Un monstre à Paris (2011) - felt kind of lousy and decided to go for something light. got exactly what i needed <3 this movie is really cute! the human characters are all either kind of boring or not very original, but francœur the monster has all of my heart, which combined is pretty standard for monster movies so i am okay with this. the music was also really good, and as poto-related media goes, i really love that the voice they picked for francœur is a very high, soft voice. not only does it make me feel great about MY voice, but if i remember the book correctly that's the voice erik has (or at least how i interpreted it) instead of the deeper "sexy" voice he tends to get given in adaptations. i've only ever seen/heard one erik with that kind of higher and gentler voice before, peter straker in the ken hill musical, so this was really exciting for me and i loved it a lot. that said, this movie SHOULD have been a 2D animated film oh my god. the concept art and storyboards they had in the end credits were SO gorgeous and i think would have really made the film pop much more than the pretty standard and unappealing 3D animation we got.

The Werewolf (1956): puts my grubby gay fingers all over the celluloid. this movie is a metaphor for being gay in the 1950s! you've got this average family man doomed by an encounter with two mad scientists who work and live together in a tooooootallllllyyyyy heterosexual way who then infect him with evil gay werewolf disease (that is related to nuclear stuff because it's the 50s and everything needs to be about nuclear stuff). he forgets his hetero identity and the wife and son he has waiting for him at home, promptly goes into a bar where a man asks him to buy him a drink and then attempts to rob him, leading to them lying on top of each other in an alley while a little old lady gawks and screams at the horrible sight of their entangled man legs. then mr. average family man kills the evil propositioning man and goes and kills more men, turning into an evil gay werewolf by his emotional reactions to them. he doesn't want his wife and son to see the monster he has become and avoids them, seeking solitude so he won't shame them and be tempted to murder by the sexy murderificness of men. and then of course in the end he dies by mob violence, forever doomed to never return to the non-lycanthropic heteronormative life he once knew. A+++++

The Tingler (1959) - my favorite vincent price and william castle movie ever... an underrated masterpiece of meta horror. i've seen this movie before, and ugh! everything about it is perfect to me. if ever anyone wants to understand me better they should watch this because it's got everything: vincent price, a goofy concept played completely straight, meta filmmaking, a really amazing partialized colorized sequence... this is a movie i need to see in a theater SO BAD, but only so long as the percepto gimmick is in place for peak experience.

Coraline (2009) - this was unplanned but we needed to endurance test a room over an extended period of time at work, and the best way to do that is by watching a movie, and this is what got picked! i had to step out to run and errand in the middle of it, so i didn't technically see all of it, but that's okay, i've seen it before. definitely need to see this one in theaters someday when i get the chance--just watching it on a large projector screen with all the lights off and blinds closed was great, the colors and stop motion really really really POP and are so gorgeous and UGH. i love it. this movie shows in theaters every year in the area where i live, but never at good times so i constantly miss it and then am all >:( because everyone i know keeps getting the chance to see it instead of me. someday, though! someday...

okay. phew. this was fun. i don't normally put this much thought and attention into all the things i watch, or watch movies back to back like this, and for good reason because it. is. exhausting. fun, but EXHAUSTING.

no more! i return now to my vegetative tv viewer state... at least until i do my pride movie marathon in june. but that's another story <3

concluding rankings, ratings, and lists (bonus extra sorting into needless categories for my personal amusement):

top tier masterpieces, faves or new faves

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (duh)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The Tingler (1959)

Planet Terror (2007) was good! will definitely watch again

The VelociPastor (2018)

The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

13 Ghosts (1960)

The House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Coraline (2009)

The Black Cat (1934)

The Skeleton Key (2005)

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980)*

Son of Dracula (1943)* glad i saw it, might not watch it again (at least for a while)

Un monstre à Paris (2011)

Witchcraft (1964)

The Werewolf (1956)

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)

The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

Willy's Wonderland (2021)*

Lyle (2015)*

Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007)*

J'accuse ! (1919)* could have been better except for one thing...

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

White Settlers (2014)

The Mummy (1959)

Bijo to Ekitai-ningen (1958)

Prometheus (2012) eugh

The Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

XX (2017)

Mary Reilly (1996)

Death Proof (2007)

Encounter with the Unknown (1972)

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

AKSJHUKDYFDB not me realizing I never actually reblogged and gushed about this art when I went to reblog and gush about the dinosaur art D: BUT NO MATTER, NOW I CAN REBLOG THEM ONE AFTER THE OTHER!!! Like a proper set!!! :D

I fully maintain that Eli was a Shark Kid, and one of the only ways Demetri could get him talking at length was when he prompted him to infodump shark facts. Most Shark Kids™️can and will tell shark facts to anyone within earshot, but we know Eli used to be shy as hell!!! Likely he wasn't brave enough to infodump to any adults or other kids, so Demetri was his one safe space where he could go on and on about how sharks can't smell blood from a mile away, actually, they just have really good electroreceptors and can sense minuscule electricity changes in the water around them!!! And that's something that can be so personal 💙

(I'm now choosing to believe he subconsciously picked the hairstyle he did because it reminded him of a shark fin akjduhlshf)

I like to think they took this aquarium date (or "totally platonic aquarium hangout", as they kept insisting it was) when they were still tryna get back in the swing of things after Eli's Evil Arc™️. I think @asphodel-storm pointed in the reblogs to the dinosaur pic that this seems earlier in the timeline than the museum date, and that checks out!!! There's kind of an air of melancholy, but also like, hope??? If that makes any sense??? Like "a lot of shit went down, but we're well on our way to being in a better place."

The lighting in this picture is honestly so gorgeous??? The way the blue of the tank is reflected on Eli's face (and scar)!!!! The way the hammerhead is reflected in his eyes!!! The light beams in the bottom picture!!! Fantastic attention to detail and I am obsessed with the Vibes of this 🦈🌊🦈🌊

Also, like!!! GOD!!! Look at all those cool sharks!!! And even a skate in the background, too!!! These boys are sooooo so spoiled because you can't get a big-ass shark tank like that just anywhere, that aquarium damn well has a BUDGET.

Love that Eli's hair matches the tank, and love that Demetri's shirt matches Eli's hair 💙💙💙 High fashion kings!!! I like to think they definitely planned this. The color-coordinated gays of all time!!!

Love Eli's purple shirt also. I think I remember it from Season 4 (during the purple 'hawk's 2 minutes of screentime ;_____;) and it's a very good fit!!! He should bring it back.

Demetri gayzing at Eli is absolutely slept-on territory, I fear. Like everyone and they mother making mega compilations of all the times Eli has gayzed at Demetri (which is, admittedly, A LOT), but no love for the massive amount of gayzing Demetri has done??? Thank you for capturing one such gayze so beautifully 💖💖💖 Demetri really be out here staring in wonder at this little mohawk weirdo every chance he gets, and we as a society need to talk about this more. Like Eli will breathe slightly and Demetri's like T H E M A J E S T Y ✨✨✨ T H E W O N D E R ✨✨✨T H E S H E E R P O W E R ✨✨✨ He's like "who the hell needs museums when I can be awed and enriched by Eli Moskowitz any time I like???"

And how incredibly fitting is it that just a few days after I saw Sue the T-Rex, I saw a big shark tank just like this at the Minneapolis Zoo??? t felt like I was completing the story arc, albeit in probably the opposite order as the boys ^^; But there's something nice about the symmetry, I think!

And not some of the side fish being gray with yellow tails, just like in your picture!!! Like what are the chances!!!

Idk, it feels like it means something. Not sure what, but something.

Thank you for this, and for bringing together two things that I love very dearly together--sharks and the binary boyfriends! I hope they had fun on their aquarium date and kissed dramatically in front of all the sharks 🦈🩵

Aquarium nerds for @ckreversebang

[more-than-a-princess]

@awesomeuchuu asked: monomono :D - still working on my Dangan!verse but for Eichi and Kanata~? ♥

Send 'monomono' to receive a gift from my muse courtesy of the monomono machine! - Accepting! For multis, please limit to two muses only.

For Kanata:

FISHING ROD PEN

A fishing rod made so that you can have fun fishing anywhere, anytime. It can shrink down to the size of a ballpoint pen, leaving you free to carry it around.

"Look, Kanata-san! With this pen, you'll be able to attract fish wherever you go! Won't that be wonderful? I know how much you adore those who are scaled and finned, so you shall capture their attention often!" It has, unfortunately, not crossed Sonia's mind yet that said fishing rod might come at the expense of the fish. And that her friend may have some moral objections to eating them.

For Eichi:

ROLLER SLIPPERS

Slippers with wheels in the heels. They were invented so that one could move around comfortably in their own home, even though nobody ever asked for such a thing.

"I hope these will be useful for you, Eichi-san!" Sonia exclaimed, handing him his new indoor shoes. "I know you are often at home or in the hospital often. These shall make your stay more fun, I'd imagine, and will keep your feet warm too! You can skate circles around your doctors and nurses, fo' sho'!"