#are very static

[fridgedeeznuts]

[shadowtraveled]

"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.

but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)

mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…

the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.

every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.

first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic

which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.

which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.

the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.

walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?

well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.

you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?

it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.

when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.

and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.

kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.

yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.

[visismu]

This is my gift for @duck-in-a-spaceship for the @palestaticexchange! I tried my best to draw Harry having a Shivers moment. I hope you will like it! Thanks again to the organizers!

(close up below)

I almost ended up cutting the whole drawing like this at the last minute lol

[leifey]

"Your outie made a character inspired by the fast and furious"

Joel making a Severance themed intro is feeding into my Severance brainrot

[scatterbrainedbot]

its only just barely technically still February where i am so idk if this counts for the 2al redraw event BUT i had a blast working on these and Big Leo interacting with grown Sprout makes me emotional so.

original panel by the magnificent @intotheelliwoods here!

bonus panel and ramblings under the cut <3

so originally i actually intended to redraw a panel from like a more plot-relevant moment but then ell posted this moment and it just really hit home for me — one of the things in 2al that i love so much is just like how much hope there is throughout. how much love and joy. like the leos are literally stuck in this horrible looping pattern of loss, almost a doomed destiny narrative of sorts, but throughout the whole narrative theres levity and light even in dire circumstances — and it comes from loving yourself and those around you and participating in the joys of the present moment and just idk man like.

yes there are terrible foes that feel impossible to face alone. yes life has taken a lot from me. yeah. but. i will put on my shirt today. i am going to have a good day today.

so ofc i had to draw this one, but tbh im not super thrilled with how sprouts face came out in the end?? SO i went through some of my fave mini comics and did the one with Big Leo and Sprout bc, again, im emotional.

thank you for this amazing story @intotheelliwoods its been a wonderful ride

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 164

“Dude, of course you’re having rage moments, have you like, ever gone back to the Zone after you got revived? Or at least like, found a familiar to take the edge off all that excess ecto of yours?” 

“... what.” 

“I’ll take that as a no, come on. My Dad can open a portal and we can find you a friend if you’re gonna’ insist on being in the living world!” 

“Wait a fucking minute- what the fuck-”

[st-hedge]

MGSV sketch dump. The brainrot is thriving

[ricky-mortis]

Some pose practice with my favorite spy

[ruby-static]

Anyways. Arcade's dork-ass 'heh'.

[jyou-no-sonoko19]

I took part in the @palestaticexchange! And was matched with @visismu who asked for anything with Disco Elysium's female cast. Upon scouring her blog for clues, I saw that she wanted to see more art of Elizabeth Beaufort, aka "Lizzy", aka the "union fixer". Which seemed like an excellent opportunity to draw her as more law-graduate and less "just a gardener". Because I fully believe she'd be a power-dresser, even for casual meet-ups with the Hardies.

(No UI, true colour and gradient-mapped version below the cut)

[dragon-subway]

ok but what do you think cemeteries on coruscant are like?

[smallishdoggo]

That "I am the parent and he's the child" line being entirely divorced from its context is the bane of my existence.

Veth says that to a group of people who are convinced that she is a child being manipulated by Caleb, who is her adult guardian. She's cornered, alone, and everyone is trying to tell her that she's being manipulated into acting against the group. It's an assertion of her agency and adulthood. It's a refutation of that specific misunderstanding of their relationship. She is saying that she's a grown ass adult who knowingly allies herself with Caleb above everyone else, and that Caleb is not controlling her.

Please for the love of god, put that line back in the context in came from or so help me.

[cryptids-do-autism]

Happy holidays to everyone! I say several days after the holidays are over.

[theboarsbride]

🧶Y a r n a b y📺

Been fucking with this new Poppy Playtime chapter so here's a Don Bluth-y interpretation of Yarnaby i did on my phone🥺

Alt version below the cut

[raining-its-pouring]

Rainworld fans when they don’t know how to interact with a female character without calling her a mother or a bitch: “yeah moons too boring :/// I like when she’s a bitch! Let her be mean!”

Moon very rarely displays anything beyond (Understandable) bitterness at her situation and some passive aggression. If you want to make aus or explore an alternate canon where she DOES act more “bitchy” go ahead. I support women’s wrongs. But I find it very disheartening that people see Moon’s sheer willpower, that she chooses to be kind again and again and again, as a weakness. As a “wrong” reaction to the situation she was put in.

I’m not gonna deny that some of her politeness is a hold over from etiquette back in the Ancients’ day. But I simply do not think her peace and kindness is wholly a weakness, or something subconscious she is unaware of. (OR uninteresting. In a world that is DESIGNED to make you feel small, a world designed to be unkind, having a character who chooses to be the opposite is SO interesting imo.) And I do not exactly think reading her angry moments as “bitchy” is a normal thing to do with the only prominent female character in the whole game.

[keldabekush]

@dragon-subway you chose 4 and got Type O Negative! I picked Cody and ‘Haunted’ :)