#because that’s what most of my old icon drawings used to be

[forlorn-crows]

Hi, so I had a thought bumping around my head about rain or dew, I'm not picky and I can see either of them doing this, sending mountain a picture of them mid orgasm because why wouldn't they torture him like that? What mountain does about that is up to you

😘

you know that gifset going around of dew's little chest heaving when he breathes really hard on stage? yeah, i think he would use that to his advantage >:)

Steam follows his feet from the bathroom, trailing across the old tile and wisping across the hall. Mountain sighs as he returns to his room. He steps directly into a warm patch of setting sun, and he stretches like a lazy, contented cat. His bed sings its siren call to him, drawing his loose, tired body into its freshly-washed blanketed clutches. 

The earth ghoul lets out an oof as he hits the mattress, groaning with delight at its comfort. Somehow, it feels the most comfortable after a long day of manual labor. He’s starfished out, eyes closed, for no more than thirty seconds before his phone buzzes on his bedside table. 

Mountain grumbles. Blindly reaches for his phone and brings it to his face. Two notifications from Dew fill the screen.

fire lily: video file [118MB]

fire lily: drop something big guy? 😏

Mountain squints at the screen. Huh? He unlocks the phone and taps on the Messages icon, pulling up Dew’s contact. Brain power at close to zero for the day, he clicks Play on the video without really looking at it. 

The video opens on Dew’s face, flushed and screwed up in pleasure. Sweat beaded on his forehead. The corner of Mountain’s shirt, the one he chopped wood and raked leaves in all day, is tucked between Dew’s teeth, and the wet schlick schlick sound of his cock being jacked sounds off-screen. Holding the phone in one hand while masturbating with the other. 

“Fuck, you—” Mountain pauses the video and drops it, eyes as wide as saucers. He furrows his brow, craning his neck to look at the pile of dirty clothes he had deposited at the door. Huh. Indeed, his shirt was missing from it. Where would he have dropped it and not noticed? Did Dew actually come into his room while he was showering and steal it? Lucifer, how long was he in the shower? Or did he just—

His face snaps back to the phone, now semi-dimmed but still paused on Dew’s half-smug, half-pleasured face. Mountain’s brain goes fuzzy, already tingling down south. He rewinds the first few seconds and presses play once more.

Video Dew repeats his smirk, top fangs showing over the fabric of Mountain’s shirt. His eyes blow wide with mischief and desire as his hand flies over his cock. 

“Fuck, you smell so good,” he grits through his teeth. He’s panting, little chest heaving and shoulders lifting with each breath like they do when he gets overwhelmed, close to cumming. “Couldn’t help it.” 

Mountain throbs hard against the mattress as he watches Dew’s eyes flutter, unfocusing for a moment before returning to look at the camera with a hitched moan. The sound of his hand on his cock grows more frantic, his other hand getting shaky as he works to keep his face centered in the frame. Dew’s eyebrows twitch upwards. A little nn-hn sound soaks into the t-shirt. 

“Oh,” the earth ghoul breathes. His jaw stays dropped, and the hand not holding his phone unconsciously grabs at the sheets. 

The sleeve of Mountain’s shirt, damp with saliva, slips from Dew’s mouth. Fabric disappearing completely off screen. He cranes his neck a little to look down at himself, and Mountain can hear the shwish of fabric being rearranged, shuffled about. “S-seven hells,” he keens, head falling right back down. There’s no more sounds of a hand sliding over pre-cum-dampened skin, but the motion of Dew’s arm remains unchanged, signaling to Mountain that he’s bunched up his dirty shirt to hump against as he winds the band of his pleasure tighter and tighter. 

Dew’s breathing grows quicker, more ragged, filled with little uh uh’s as his eyes fight to stay open. A line of drool dribbles from Mountain’s mouth unnoticed, hitting the back of his hand as he watches Dew’s face open, growing lax as his eyes roll back with a long, low groan. The video blurs as Dew presumably hits Stop and flings his phone away, depriving Mountain from watching him finish. 

“H-oh, Belial.” Blood rushes to Mountain’s dick so fast that he doesn’t even have the option to get up and do anything about his secondhand ruined orgasm. Though the fire ghoul resides a mere twenty steps down the hall, Mountain shoves his pants down and props his phone against the pillow, humping at the bed as if Dew were beneath him.

All he can do is groan into his own arm when he soils his fresh bedding with a load far bigger than it should be. 

[luv-indigo]

okay so, redesigning nadine for the third and (hopefully) final time. i felt she looked too similar to soraya (my keyframes fall mc) so i changed nadine up a bit. also!! i was trying to find oc templates to fill out for my visual novel ocs and although there’s so many out there, none were exactly what i was looking for soooo…. I made my own! i’ll post my other our life ocs with them soon but first, nadine ! (again)

I’ve also changed my own mind. Nadine will be my MC for Qiu’s route.

Nadine introduction <3

Nadine spent much of her early childhood moving from place to place, all within her home state of California but oftentimes in different cities. Moving around so often made it hard to keep in contact with friends and after a while made it especially hard making friends in the first place.

When Opal tells Nadine they‘re moving once again, Nadine is surprised to learn they’re moving to Oregon, their neighboring state. This time, she learns it’ll be a more permanent location. Nadine doesn’t know exactly how to feel. She’s so used to moving around that being in a place for so long sounds foreign, weird and new. However, part of her can’t help but feel excited, especially since she gets her own room now! But no matter what, she knows mama will be with her every step of the way.

Upon meeting Qiu and Tamarack, Nadine quickly feels they can be the best of friends. Nadine has always been more of a quiet person but not necessarily shy. Spend enough time with her and you’ll find she can talk quite a lot. Yet she’s perfectly content with simply listening as well.

Nadine is mostly a rule follower. Rules are there for a reason right? She prides herself on being neat and orderly. All her belongings are pristine and in their place because that’s just how she likes it. During step 1, Nadine strongly dislikes getting dirty. Which can be difficult to avoid if you’re playing outside in the woods.

Step Two !!

After four years, Nadine has adjusted well into her new home. Although Nadine needs glasses she very much prefers to use eye contacts instead. It’s also the most convenient when ice skating. She’s taken on ice skating as her main past time and she’s fairly good. Her transportation of choice has been rollerblading so it makes sense she got into ice skating as well.

Her other hobbies are more on the creative side. She enjoys crafting and drawing on occasion. Cosplaying is also one of her major hobbies. For years she has worked on making her Halloween costumes with the help of Mama.

During this time Nadine becomes more of a shy person. During her earlier childhood, she had no problem voicing her thoughts and opinions but it seems now that sort of thing gets harder to do as you age. Thankfully, she has her two close friends to turn to whenever she needs a hand, and in turn she will be there for them as well.

Step Three !!

Nadine has less and less time to do things she wants. If this is how adult life is she wants zero part of it </3

Nadine has always prioritized their studies (although that became much harder to do when middle school started due to her procrastination habits). Now college is weighing on their mind. Nadine still very much enjoys ice skating yet she struggles to make time to practice. Similarly, cosplaying has turning into a year long project (for Halloween of course). Doing multiple cosplays a year is something she doesn’t have time for anymore. Although they are often busy, Nadine will always make time for a special someone and her best friend, Tamarack.

Step Four !!

Nadine’s all grown up </3

Throughout many years Nadine has learned things about themselves and grown into the person they are today. Her experiences and the people she has been around since she was ten years old have impacted her life to mold her into who she is, for better or worse. And honestly, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

And finally this little thing I made with all of Nadine’s doll icons. I had to edit many of them to fit the hair style and clothing options I wanted and it literally took forever </3 ouGh

Also, I apologize for the quality. I tried to preserve it as I was inserting the drawings into the template but resizing may have messed up the quality </3

[viccharine]

do you guys ever listen to a band so much that you end up making fake merch for it?

(reblogs greatly appreciated!!!!)

close ups and commentary under the cut!

about the poster itself: do you guys know how hard it is to make art for a band that hasn’t been active in 13 years? the answer is HARD (yes, i probably could done research and looked for old interviews for inspiration but who has time for that)

—> the icons related to “take a vacation!” are inspired by lyrics from the song “take a vacation!” (haha, did you see what I did there?) specifically, the lines “we’ll leave the waves at the ocean” and “we’ll leave the sand in a suitcase”

—> the Jon Walker and Ryan Ross icons are taken directly from the album cover (it took ten years off my life trying to figure out how to get them on here w/ the color palette—graphic design may be my passion but I never said i was GOOD at it)

—> the heart imagery comes from the fact that the band’s called “the young VEINS”—although it annoys me IMMENSELY that i technically drew more arteries than veins in the icons (my anatomy teacher would be so disappointed, but alas, anatomical accuracy had to be sacrificed to make it. yknow. look nice)

—> i did hand-lettering for all the text except for everything that’s in Helvetica (i did THAT in canva). the art program i use has a basically unusable text tool so I was forced to draw all of it, so I choose to believe that the reason why it doesn’t look. the best. is because of the caffeine shakes

some extra commentary: am I the only one who’s genuinely REALLY bad at listening to music? i don’t really get into bands as much as i just find songs that sound nice—to illustrate the extent of this issue: i did NOT know that Brendon Urie was a part of Panic! At the Disco. I’m not even kidding, I thought the artist who made Death of a Bachelor and the artist who made A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out were completely different and just. didn’t bother to check if I was right.

also, I’m not the type of person to be interested in band lore???? I rarely know the names of band members if even I’ve listened to the band for years (I really couldn’t care less in most situations)

case in point, i did not know who the FUCK Ryan Ross was!!! i knew he was in p!atd but that’s literally about it—before a couple of days ago if you asked to me pick out either Ryan Ross or Jon Walker from a line up I would not be able to get even CLOSE

anyway, my friend/manager is really into band lore, so I basically got a crash-course in all things “early to late 2000s emo band” and subsequently found out about the Young Veins (i was also extremely disappointed when I found out they only had one album and hadn’t been active in over a decade) THEN I realized that decade old, inactive bands don’t usually have merch, so I made my own! “merch” used lightly—i don’t think this is actually fit to sell lol

anyway that’s all k thanks byeee :D!! (and go stream the young veins!!)

[seasideoranges]

S1, S2, S3, or post canon zukka?

ooo this is fun! gonna go over all of them haha. S1: This one is pretty fun and underrated in my opinion! I adore S1 Zuko, and Sokka, my beloved grump, is at his peak asshole behavior in this season, which I love, so seeing the dynamic of those two together is real fun and can be quite comical. Whether you chose the more 'canon' route, or a non-canon route where Zuko joins the Gaang early (either by choice or by force due to whatever circumstances), it can lead to a lot of hilarious moments seeing Zuko try to navigate around Sokka, Katara and Aang.

S2 and 3: Putting these together because these are pretty iconic and what you see the most when looking through Zukka works. Ba Sing Se is such a fun environment to write/draw about, and with this you get teashop Zuko + more Blue Spirit Zuko, and pairing that up with Kyoshi Warrior Sokka leads to so many fun high jinks, and it's even better if you throw in Jet, the Dai Li, Suki etc. Again, I love the trope of two characters who hate each other being forced to work with each other, so it's really enjoyable writing S2 Zukka having to work together. Then you have S3 - OBVIOUSLY great. You have Zuko finally with the Gaang, having fun banter with Zuko, the Boiling Rock - it's just a great time all around. Post Canon Zukka: Now THIS one is my favorite! I enjoy exploring Zukka, and the rest of the Gaang, the most when it's post-canon. I really like thinking about how they would handle the world after the war, the politics, their traumas, how they interact with the people around them - it's just. SO damn good. It's interesting because I wouldn't exactly call Post Canon Zukka 'underrated'. Tons of Zukka works take place post canon, and you see the trope of Ambassador Sokka, which is really popular. But when you start getting towards the LOK-era, I barely see any Zukka works based in this era, which bums me out because there's so much potential! But it also doesn't surprise me much since people are pretty harsh towards Korra and don't like to explore this era much. I love middle aged Zukka. I love seeing them get together when they're older. I love the Gaangs kids and seeing them interact with each other (Uncle Sokka supremacy over here, get out of the way Iroh your time in the uncle spotlight is over). Izumi and Sokka is so fun to explore, and it always leads to a good time, I love seeing Sokka plan out pranks with Izumi and watching those two get up to no good. I ADORE GRANDPA ZUKKA HELLO!! GRANDPA ZUKKA IS SOOO FUNNY AND CUTE I need these grumpy old grandpas now!! Throwing in three Zukka fics I really enjoy that are based in this era! Everyone Who Left Us We Find Everywhere by @sulkybender, Your Love, So Sweet by verdanthoney, and Everlast by @syciaralynx!

[m0chisenpai]

sprung

˚｡⋆ mike schmidt x black!fem!reader

in which mike finds himself sprung for the school's librarian that abby raves about. the iconic sunshine x grumpy pairing

Mike would love to know just what was enough to catch Abby's attention in school for her to leave her backpack at school, and just what possessed him not to check her as soon as she hopped into the car. Now here he was having to do an entire u-turn and rush back to the school before the teachers left out.

Thankfully a teacher was walkign to her car right when Mike had shoved his car into two parking spots and jumped out the car with Abby trying to keep up.

"Leave something behind?" The woman asked offering Mike a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, uh do you know if Ms/Y/L/N is still here?"

"Oh yes, she keeps the library open just a bit for the stragglers." The woman gives Mike the directions but Abby takes the lead immediately, her hand pulling Mike along as he tries to avoid the looks of teachers brushing by.

"She's super duper nice. On Fridays she lets us get a treat from her jar and read, I sit on the pillows by the window cause it gets warm and I take a nap......"

It's unusually quiet for an elementery school, save for Abby's stories, till they reach a pair of open doors and a voice that could only be attributed to warm milk and honey pulls him into the library. It smells of aged books, the late afternoon night pours through the windows which are filled with plants and crafts.

Abby disappears through one of the rows of the bookcases and Mike finds himself trying to as quietly as he can catch his sister. "Abby!" but one of the kids shushes him and he grumbles sharply whispering for his sister again.

When he's finally out the maze of books he's in front of a carpeted area where children sat on a plush grassy green carpet watching who he assumed was Ms.Y/L/N. She was anything but what Mike expected her to look like.

Librarians were suppose to be mean old grannies. Old women who looked decades old and bitter. Not beautiful angels with a voice like yours that read the frayed fairytale book that you held with the most absolute of care balanced upon your crossed knees with poised grace.

Your glasses sat too perfectly on the curve of your nose. Your hair was pulled into a low bun in the back but your bangs were curly and framed your face.

"Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

Your eyes looked up and fell onto Mike who sheepishly held up his hand in a pathetic excuse of a wave which you enthusiastically returned. You dropped a bookmark in the book and leaned forward.

Had he known he would be meeting this mysterious beauty he would have made an attempt to shave and fix his mess of a curls that sat disheveled on his head.

"Alright loves, silent read for me while I help this new friend out ok? Or you can rest your eyes in your bubbles" the children disperse or cozy themselves into worn beanbags or at small tables littered with crayons and half finished pictures.

You stand up and meet Mike halfway with a warm smile, "how can I help you sir?"

"My sister left her bag here" Mike whispers and you hum with a tilt of your head.

"What's her name?"

"Abby."

"Ahh so you're the infamous brother in her pictures" your smile lights up. "She speaks so highly of you. And her drawings are filled with you too." Mike gives a nod and his lips turn upward into what he hopes is a charming smile though it feels more like a grimace and he hopes that he isn't screwing this up.

Geez what was she telling you, Abby had no filter on her mouth. She spoke mind freely. A bit too freely, but at least she was opening up more. "She's not giving you much trouble is she?"

You quickly wave a hand between accompanied with a shake of your head. "Not at all, Abby's a wonderful girl. Lovely imagination too, i couldn't imagine her being any trouble at home."

"You should see her after school" and your giggle gives Mike hope back that you aren't convinced he's some grumpy parent. "She talks about you all the time." That definitely didn't sound stalkerish.

"Good things I hope?" You ask holding his gaze. And he smiles a small step closer.

"All good, and then some." And now you're finding yoursef, pulled into those big warm brown eyes. Is he leaning in? Are you? You don't know, because you're snapped out this trance from the fast pitter patter of feet.

"Got my bag Mike!" Abby skips over to his side. "Thank you for the extra book Ms.Y/L/N" she steps forward wrapping you in a hug whihc you quickly return.

"Of course, let me know what you think of the ending I think you'll love it" you give her a playful wink. "And it was a pleasure meeting you,Mr.Schmidt."

"Call me Mike."

"Alright, until we meet again Mike" and you turn on your heel to return to your seat, a gentle sway to your hips, legs crossed with the book resting on your knee once again. Abby has to tug on Mike's hand multiple times to get him to finally turn his back. Your gentle voice continuing to read the fairy tale.

"She's single ya know?" Abby hums as she swings their arms.

"Mind your business" Mike grumbles and Abby only giggles. Cause when she looks up at her brothers face, he's got a sense of relief in his eyes at this piece of information.

[oliveroctavius]

I got this ask on main but thought I'd pick it up here, my comics history/fashion ramble blog. I'd been wondering this exact same thing recently, and Google initially wasn't much help—Rocketeer replica jackets describe themselves only as "Rocketeer jackets" and the one Lobster Johnson cosplay thread just suggested ordering one of those.

The most curious part is the double seam and horizonal row of buttons that mark out the entire front as possibly being an unbuttonable "bib", like a plastron front. (Please don't ask how late in the game I worked out that "plastron" is the right word for that.)

The closest genuine Golden Age example of a plastron jacket I found was the military tunic style uniform of Blackhawk, created in 1941.

(Pics from the '52 movie serial (right) really show how awkward it is to combine open lapels + plastron. On a double breasted coat, that chest panel IS the bottom lapel, folded shut.)

Here's the thing: This outfit mirrors that of the Nazi ace pilot he fights in the origin issue, von Tepp (middle). And compare further to the far right: real life WWI flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, AKA the Red Baron, in imperial German Uhlan (lance cavalry) uniform.

"The Germans had designed such great costumes, we decided to use them ourselves," co-creator Cuidera is quoted as saying in Steranko's History of Comics, which (more dubiously, in my opinion) compares the look to the Gestapo or SS. Breeches or jodhpurs weren't strictly a Nazi thing at the time, but they do add to the overall effect.

Compare two other military tunic themed costumes from 1940, on Captain Marvel and Bucky Barnes. These are asymmetrically buttoned, and switch to a more classic circus strongman look below the waist.

But somewhere around 1975, with the Invaders book, Bucky gets a buttoned bib! There's something infectious about it—the symmetry, maybe. (Even re: the characters we started with; Mignola didn't draw Lobster Johnson with buttons down the right side, but every artist after does. And Spider-Noir wore a sweater under his coat until Shattered Dimensions introduced the double-breasted vest.)

If it didn't reach his belt, Barnes' button-on front + shirt collar combo would resemble a bib-front western shirt, like the one that became the Rawhide Kid's signature look in '56. (Or Texas Twister's in '76.)

This shirt entered the old-West-obsessed public imagination in the 1940s/50s largely because John Wayne wore it in several cowboy movies. In reality it was rare among cowboys, more common with firefighters and civil war era militia.

Military tunics, Western shirts, alright, but does anything match the style and material and era, or are these jackets a total anachronism? I tried looking into 1930s leather flight jackets and was surprised when the closest-looking results were marked as Luftwaffe.

It took me a bit to work out why: USAF and RAF issued standard flight jackets with a center closure. The Luftwaffe instead let their pilots buy non-standardized ones. The 'weird' double-breasted black German flight jackets were in fact fairly normal (but repurposed) motorcycle racing jackets.

Far left is an English biker's jacket that dates back to the 1920s. Even without the bib, this may be as close as you'll get to an authentic Rocketeer. The jodhpurs were pretty common to complete the look. (What was an early motorcycle anyways, if not a weird metal horse?) The first biker jacket with the now iconic off-center diagonal zip was designed in America in 1928 and yet as far as I can tell, not a single actual pre-war pulp hero wore one.

The greatest weakness of this post is that I haven't been able to find any of these artists' notes on how, exactly, they arrived at similar versions of this iconic Pulp Front Panel Jacket. I'm sure I've missed some things. But as far as I can tell, this jacket is an odd bit of convergent stylistic evolution from the above influences that's picked up enough momentum to now be self-perpetuating.

The problem with pulp heroes is that for the most part, they just wore clothes. The appeal of this jacket is actually very similar to what the 1940s thought the appeal of the bib-front shirt in westerns was: It's alien enough to feel "old". It looks like something invented before zippers or synthetic fabrics. It looks formal and militant but also renegade, rebellious. It also looks a little mad-sciencey*. It's a costume, but you can nearly fool yourself into thinking the past was weird enough that you could find something this cool on the rack.

If I wanted to end on some grand point, I could try to argue that there's a thematic throughline between fascist fashion, John Wayne movies, and throwback pulp. A manufactured aesthetic valorizing the violence of a fictional golden age... but I think the noir stylings of the post-Rocketeer comics in this lineup mean that, at least on some level, they know the "good guys" didn't dress like this.

*If I had another couple weeks of time to burn, I'd try to trace the visual history of the Howie coat in popular culture and investigate its possible connections to this. Alas, I do actually have a life.

[deedala]

🌞 Art Tag 🌞

thanks for tagging me to play @gallapiech @suzy-queued @spookygingerr @sgtmickeyslaughter @heymrspatel!! 💖💖💖

Have you always been interested in creating art? oh yes, i was a tiny doodle machine

What's your favourite medium to use? If digital, what programs do you like? i love sketching out a plan form my brain with pencil and paper but then i take it to painttool sai (my beloved)

Do you create outside of fandom? yes

Share something you haven't finished and/or never got around to posting hmmm this is tricky because i am simply too tired to go turn on my pc lol...lets see what i can find in the ole tumblr archive!!

here we go, i believe i intended to redraw this gob gal digitally and then actually color her but never did!

Favourite piece you've made? i truly do not have one favorite piece but here's one of my fav pieces ig

Draw your icon in a minute or less - pass sorry i have nothing to draw with rn lol

An underrated piece you've made in your opinion

Do you do art in a professional setting? yes i do a type of art for work (but i work from home)

A piece you don't like but did really well on social media

im sorry you guys but there is so much wrong with this one it drives me fuckin nuts lmao

Post an old piece and compare it to your most recent, what are the similarites? i still do be coloring the same way huh

Have you ever collaborated with another artist/s? yup!

What piece has the most notes? Are you surprised? kinda? i feel like the one i did of morrigan was executed better but the fact that its a dragon age art makes perfect sense.

Who/What is your favourite subject matter? blorbo from my shows of course

Show us something not from fandom you've made

Where do you like to create? at my desk!! in my house!!! <3

Do you have a tag that you use to group your creations? Tell us so people can follow it #my art and #myshameyart if you just want the shameless stuff lol

Give yourself a shoutout, where can we commission/buy/follow you for more pieces? i dont do commissions but you can buy print on demand stuff here: deedylovescake.creator-spring.com/ redbubble.com/people/deedylovescake/

and i'll go ahead and tag a few folks if you'd like to play or just feel beloved 😌✨@michellemisfit @steorie @salesmain @marianchurchland @crossmydna @vintagelacerosette @gallawitchxx @loftec

[chaos0pikachu]

Filmmaking? In My BL? - The Horror Influences of Dead Friend Forever

Okay off the bat I'ma say that this isn't me definitively saying these specific films or tv series are what inspired 100% DFF. I simply do not know what stuff the screenwriters were pulling from influence wise when writing the script, nor what the director was pulling from when directing the series, with 100% flawless certainty.

Rather, this is a chance to talk more about horror, from films, comics, visuals, and sub-genres and how these various mediums are what I see in the fabric of DFF's horror makeup. Also, general point, this post will be discussing minor spoilers of: Scream, DFF, and Girl from Nowhere. So like, be aware~~

This post is partially inspired by an ask from @italianpersonwithashippersheart in which the anon had mentioned Scream.

I couldn't really respond to this in detail before cause I hadn't watched the series, but I have now and I can say that the show is very thoroughly nothing at all like Scream. I'm not confident in much - other than my inability to reach the top shelf at the market - but I am confident in saying that lol

But this got me thinking, what type of horror IS DFF? I've seen a lot of folks say it's a slasher, and I both agree and disagree.

Horror as a genre is vast with sub-genres, it's probably one of the most universal and popular genres globally, and every culture has their own horror legends, cult classics, mainstays and shlock.

So that's what I'm going to talk about in this post, the slasher genre, why I don't think DFF 100% can be boxed into that sub-genre, what type of horror I think DFF is, and the influences I see in DFF's filmmaking and thematics.

So if we start anywhere, we gotta start with Scream (1996) since that's a comparison I've seen being made a lot.

The main reason I disagree in the comparisons to Scream is that Scream is considered a work of satire first and foremost. Through the power of capitalism and franchising, it's also consider a "whodunit" series.

“Scream” is the first movie of its kind to execute a satire genre within a horror movie, which is one of the most iconic and memorable elements of the film. The original movie makes many references to other well-known horror films and mocks them, while simultaneously leading the same plot points. [...] Although the following films in the “Scream” franchise do not follow as much of the same mockery of horror films, they are still considered to be satirical because of their use of mockery toward the movie franchise. “Scream 2” mocks film sequels and “Scream 3” mocks film trilogies." (source)

[sidenote one of my favorite examples of satirical meta horror is Wes Craven's New Nightmare]

DFF isn't satirizing anything in horror, it's almost entirely self-serious. Sure there's a couple of moments of hilarity - dick biting, and scooter snatchin' - but overall the show plays things pretty straight (gay sex notwithstanding). I've seen some folks claim it's subverting horror tropes, but I don't see that either (would be interested in discussing that tho cause I'm curious).

I get why people make this comparison though, Scream is a 27 yr old franchise, and probably the most relevant slasher franchise currently. The new Halloween movies were...cute but aside from the first Halloween (2018) the rest of the reboot franchise had diminishing returns; each film made less than the previous, and received lower critical scores.

However, Scream has actually grown as a franchise in the States in terms of box office draw. That said, Scream is actually not a huge earner overseas, Scream IV (2023) earned more than 60% of it's box office revenue domestically. In Thailand, according to reports, it only earned about 300,000 (compared to other international territories like Brazil where it earned around 4,600,000).

So I don't think DFF is pulling much from Scream in terms of setting, tone, or story. I do think the show most resembles Scream in directorial style, specifically in the imagery of the Killer's design and in the slow-crawl mask reveals that have happened so far.

[very obviously spoilers for all the scream films watch at your own risk etc, gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses]

So what is a slasher film or story?

"A slasher movie is a horror sub-genre that involves the murdering of a number of people by a psychopathic killer, typically via a knife or bladed tool (such as a scythe).

In general, the horror genre is known for its fear, violence and terror. It will typically feature a menacing villain, whether it be a monster or a supernatural evil spirit, for example." (source)

Other common but not inherent secondary characteristics of a slasher story will include: young adults as central characters, sex (typically as a means of punishment "sex gets you killed"), the killer is motivated by revenge, lots of gore and/or violent kills and a "final girl".

I point out common but not inherent because the main tenants of a slasher story is the overall body count, female protagonist and a mysterious (typically masked) killer.

For example, in Scream (96) Ghostface is motivated by revenge, however in Halloween (1978), Texas Chainsaw (1974), Prom Night (2008), You're Next (2011) and Wrong Turn (2003) the killers are not.

If there is a western horror franchise or film that the setting of DFF more closely aligns with, it's Friday the 13th (2009). Which was a sequel/reboot to the original Friday the 13th (1980) starring Tumblr's own Jared Padalecki as one of the leads (that was an interesting year as Jensen Ackles also starred in a remake of a classic 80s horror film My Blood Valentine).

In Friday (09) the bulk of the story takes place at a mansion styled cabin in the woods near Crystal Lake owned by one of the characters rich parents. Jason eventually hunts down each of the characters, killing them in various ways, and they even find his home with a shrine to his mother there. There's also like, a lot of sex and nudity in Friday (09) none of it fun or sexy as it's pretty, unfortunately, misogynistic.

Being in an isolated area, like the cabin in the woods in DFF and Friday (09) is also not a requirement within the slasher sub-genre.

Many slasher films, especially American classics during the genres 80s peak, actually take place more often in suburbia rather than in isolated locations like the woods. Which reflected real world anxieties from predominately white communities and a turn towards more conservative politics of that era in America.

"Those same well-kept neighborhoods and quiet backyards of my childhood were also the battlegrounds of the ’80s horror movie, a radical pivot in the genre’s history. The decade’s opening years were bracketed by the kidnappings of Etan Patz (which inspired the Missing Kids on a Milk Carton program) and Adam Walsh (which inspired his father John Walsh to later create the TV show "America’s Most Wanted"). Combined with the conservative turn in crime and punishment law brought on by the Reagan administration, horror appeared to turn from the supernatural curses of the decade before ("The Exorcist," "The Omen") to a homegrown product of our own sins. Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger are psychotic loons but also human beings who come not from afar but from down the street. The possibility that one of them could be lurking just beyond the sliding back door of a sleepover birthday seems too darkly delicious to pass up, a fictional killer standing in for a warning your parents and society gave you about “stranger danger,” real-life evil lurking in the dark." (source)

Isolated settings, while can be a setting in slashers are more often found in psychological horror films: The Strangers (2008), When A Stranger Calls (1979, 2006), Hush (2016). Also the Evil Dead (1981, 1987, 2013).

[The latter has it's own interesting history of wanting to be psychological body horror, to horror comedy cult classic, back to psychological body horror. Honestly if any franchise has influenced the "horror set in a cabin in the woods" it's Evil Dead, which is paid major homage to in Cabin in the Woods (2011).]

Sooooo is DFF a slasher?

Hm, for me, yes and no. Slashers require a high body count and pretty gory deaths. So far we've only had 3 deaths, only two of which were even committed by the killer themselves and not even by their own hand (ie directly).

For me, the slasher elements of DFF exist in the directorial styling of the film, meant invoke a classic slasher film but that's not where the true horror of the story exists.

I'm a big slasher fan, so I'm not trying to discount the sub-genre at all, lots of slasher films are good, and when done well, they're truly scary. But they also tend to be straight forward in design, the fear comes from the feature of being stalked by an unseeable and unstoppable force infiltrating what should be a safe space (your home, your school, your neighborhood, your camp grounds etc).

Which is why slasher films are also the most common horror sub-genre to be parodied (Scary Movie franchise) or made into horror comedies like Freaky (2020), The Final Girls (2015), Happy Death Day (2017), and Totally Killer (2023).

[sidenote slashers have this in common with the zombie sub-genre of horror as zombie films in America have also tended in recent years to be horror comedies or horror action like: Little Monsters (2019), Cooties (2014), Zombieland (2009), Pride Prejudice and Zombies (2016)]

I'd argue that DFF is much more in line with psychological horror than slasher horror. Because it is anything but straightforward and also has a strong emphasis on relationships and isolation as does most psychological horror.

Films like: It Comes At Night (2017), Us (2019), Perfect Blue (1997), A Tale of Two Sisters (2004), The Forgotten (2017), Dark Water (2002) all have similar elements in terms of tone as DFF.

The isolated setting, the allure of the mundane normality being a veneer for the violence lurking beneath the surface, the existence of the paranormal, the use of drugs to increase fear, the unsettling paranoia, and slow burn crawl towards all the characters being unteathered from themselves, the growing distrust between them and their loved ones, the plot twists and turns, the emphasis on human relationships and the horror that comes from those.

The backstory with Non is what pushed the show past slasher horror to psychological horror for me. Because Non's "downfall" as it were, feels more akin to the slow burn psych horror rooted in a lot of Japanese, Thai films/tv shows, and modern A24 style horror films.

The horror of Midsommar (2019) doesn't come from jump scares, or violence, but in slowly watching the protagonist grow more and more unteathered, mistreated, gaslit, more and more with each passing moment, slowly inducted into a horrific cult and being able to do nothing to stop her descent.

A big influence I saw in DFF was Girl from Nowhere (2018); the school setting, the crimes committed by a group of students against a singular student, class exploration, structural violence, the exploration of retribution are all topics explored in the first season of Girl from Nowhere.

Even the series trailer for GFN and the pre-release trailer for DFF are similar in production design and tone:

Titled "BFF" the two-part finale from season 01, is about a high school reunion, where a group of now established adults come back together for a party (their reunion) only to be confronted by their past via Nanno (the shows protagonist for lack of a better term).

Through Nanno we learn about the chars past misdeeds in high school - bullying, physical assault, stealing, the works - and their current crimes as adults. As more and more layers of the truth, lies, and betrayal are revealed, the friend group begins to crack, fracture and turn against each other, growing more and more paranoid and angry.

Nanno tells the group that they've also all been drugged with poison and there's only one vial of antidote left, the "friends" all horrifically murder each other in order to get the antidote. In the end, no one survives. EXCEPT, it was all a mass hallucinate and the group wakes up, remembering everything, and quietly leave one-by-one. No longer friends, no longer not-friends, everyone forever changed by the experience.

It's an unsettling ending that leaves things open ended. This group of friends were responsible for the bullying and death of Nanno (she's fine she's like immortal or something I'm pretty sure GFN was partially influenced by Tomie by Junji Ito) and they simply refused to acknowledge what they did to her, nor talk about her, eventually forgetting she existed until forced too through a traumatic retribution by Nanno herself.

[Nanno from Girl from Nowhere, Tomie from Junji Ito's Tomie series]

DFF has a lot in common, from my perspective, with GFN in terms of tone, themes and even parts of it's story.

Nanno isn't doling out "justice" she doles out retributions, punishments, sometimes they're outright torturous. Whether the recipients "deserve" these punishments or not, is really up to the viewer. The show does a good job of showcasing a wide variety of characters who are unrepentant, sympathetic, and somewhere in between. The fears it plays upon are more slow burn, it boils the characters rather than setting them on fire like slashers do.

DFF is similar in this aspect, it boils the characters. Watching Non's story, you already know at the start it's nothing good. We know from the first flashback something bad has happened to Non, but it's not really something, it's many things - so many things - that have led to whatever tragedy the main group must pay for.

It's these compounding factors one after another that brings Non to a boil, and the same thing happens with Tan/New. The horror of DFF is more about getting under the skin, causing the characters discomfort by forcing them to confront the sins they've committed (is there anything more horrific than being seen? Especially if you ugly?).

I mentioned Junji Ito in reference to Girl from Nowhere, to say Ito has been influential on horror feels like an understatement. His series Tomie has been adapted into 7 different Japanese films, he's won 3 Eisner awards (the highest award you can win in America for comics publishing), along with a slew of awards in Japan, his series Uzumaki has been referenced in super popular anime like Jujustu Kaisen.

A big factor of Ito's work is body horror and psychological horror. His work unsettles, and is very visceral. Since Uzumaki was referenced in DFF I think rather than being influenced by specifically Uzumaki (which DFF doesn't have much in common with in regards to general story) I'd argue the show is more influenced by Ito's desire to unsettle.

[from Uzumaki], 1998]

Also potentially to take symbols of piety, faith and protection (the temple, the cross at the chars high school) and turn them into places of horror for the characters.

Like Ito did with the spiral motifs in Uzumaki, said Ito in an interview:

"The "spiral pattern" is not normally associated with horror fiction. Usually spiral patterns mark character’s cheeks in Japanese comedy cartoons, representing an effect of warmth. However, I thought it could be used in horror if I drew it a different way." (source)

[I am also begging y'all to check out Junji Ito's book Cat Diary it's hilarious, even more so b/c his style of art is so rooted in horror]

I think DFF is actually very Thai in it's exploration of what's unsettling and horrific to youth culture in Thailand currently. The feeling of haplessness, judgement, an inability to exert control over one's circumstances, mental health, consent, bullying, these were themes and topics explored in both seasons of GFN but also some of these were explored in The Whole Truth (2021) a Thai horror/mystery film.

There's a scene in The Whole Truth in which one of the protagonists school friends secretly films their younger sister getting undressed without her knowledge, and when caught, the classmate threatens to release the clip publicly and claim the sister is "a slut". One of the protagonists is also bullied at school - including by this disgusting classmate who they still consider "a friend" - but puts up with it in order to be in a friend group at all (this bullied char also has a physical disability which contributes to their mistreatment at school).

I think DFF is exploring a lot of these same topics but most of the characters are just gay this time around.

Okay I'm losing steam here a bit, this has gotten very long, but overall I'd argue that DFF is much more psychological horror than a slasher, in terms of it's tone, and story. Whilst invoking slasher imagery in it's directorial style.

That said it's much more in line with Thai and Japanese horror than American horror in regards to it's themes. If the series was going to be boiled down just to the basics, I'd quantify it as psychological horror mystery.

And those are my thoughts on DFF and horror, I guess lol I'm not 100% satisfied with this but god damn I'm tired this took forever lmao if y'all made it this far, bless and stay safe out there cause the ship wars are wildin out in these parts.

Check out other posts in the series:

Film Making? In My BL? - The Sign ep01 Edition | Aspect Ratio in Love for Love's Sake | Cinematography in My BL - Our Skyy2 vs kinnporsche, 2gether vs semantic error, 1000 Stars vs The Sign | How The Sign Uses CGI | Is BL Being Overly Influenced by Modern Western Romance Tropes? | Trends in BL (Sorta): Genre Trends

[like these posts? drop me a couple pennies on ko-fi]

[snarky-art]

I swear I dont wanna be mean but why does everyone keep making stella fat. Why is it that the most attractive character, whom everyone finds beautiful inside the show, is the one who is always turned fat. Like... No one would find her attractive if her canon design was like that. I promise im not being mean but I feel like the artists are always projecting themselves onto Stella and wanting to be loved like she is, cause usually the ones making her fat are fat too, like I saw your selfies and you're a bit curvy. I promise im not being mean im just curious.

For starters, send me more fat Stella’s if you can I haven’t seen that many made and would love to see more varied takes on her appearances in redesigns.

Secondly, I made her fat because I think it’s nice to have the character that’s canonically considered to be the most beautiful girl in all of magix, a fashion icon in the magical dimension, a very celebrated trendsetter, be something other than the stereotypical concept of socially acceptable fashion tropes. She isn’t an hourglass, she has cellulite and stretch marks, she’s super pear shaped, and that can be and should be considered something to be normal, since they are, and shouldn’t be seen as things that need to be hidden. Having that put on a loud and proud fashion girly seems good imo and it can only really contribute to good stuff for body image stuff and representation. I did it so people like you could reconsider that beauty is something that comes in multiple forms and shouldn’t have to fit one type of standard. If we wanna get super technical too those standards also very from culture to culture and I image that’s extended even further in Winx club.

The girls are all aliens from different worlds. There’s bug people. There’s a lady in the miss magix episode that has tentacle hair, a blue body, and tentacle hands and feet. I highly doubt beauty standards in canon would be the same as what you’re saying, ie that no one would consider her beautiful. As if people who look like her irl also would inherently be considered not beautiful too. I know lots of people who have people that think they’re the hottest thing ever and they have all sorts of different body types and traits. Lets just call it realism lol

I’m not really projecting any of my physical stuff on her also, outside of I guess stretch marks and cellulite?? But I put those on other characters too so I don’t really think that holds up. I actually put my old body type on Flora since she’s my favorite, but now I’m way more midsized, like a slightly thinner Bloom from my stuff (love this unit of measurement gonna start using the gorls as a reference point for my appearance going forward lol). I’ve always had the “socially acceptable” fat type of body, ie hourglass with even proportions and a super snatched waist. I just think it’s tired and trite to constantly reenforce the idea that “the hot fashion one” needs to be tall and thin all the time, and if she is made fatter, that she needs to look like I did ie not much of a tummy with super equal proportions, big boobs, and a big ass.

Kinda related to that also, I made a post about a lot of character design “rules” too that I think are kinda outdated and annoying, at least to me, since I’ve seen them a million times. We all have. So I decided to do something different that I think would be good for normalizing traits outside of what we consider typically acceptable for that kind of character.

I’m already very loved also and don’t need to project anything on Stella lmaooo

I got multiple partners, great friends, do modeling, and am slaying with my own fashion and appearance stuff outside of that too. That’s all independent of whatever I’m doing with her physical body type when I draw her.

Gonna level with you also, you going “I’m not trying to be mean” doesn’t erase how weird this ask is. Sounds like you have your own gripes that you need to work through. Like, if you consider those traits on Stella ugly, that means you definitely have some internalized hatred for fatness, skin blemishes, scarring, and other peoples’ general appearances if they don’t fit some specific molds that aren’t realistic for the majority of people. Even if it is just genuine curiosity, being aware of this stuff going forwards and reevaluating how you view beauty standards and bodies in general would do you a great benefit imo.

Thanks for going through my old selfies tho it was pretty weird of you but at least make sure to leave a like on them. I looked hot when I was fatter and I look hot now too sharing this with the world is the least I can do💕✨💕✨

[knuckles-junior]

🧜‍♀️💕

Here are tonight’s highlights from tonight’s watch party! This is my very first time doing this so without further ado, here are the following highlights:

“Sea Scouts”

•I’ve never watched any of the old Donald Duck cartoons lol

•The cartoon ended with

🍑

“Something Fishy”

•this is my first darkwing duck viewing ever.

•I’m the only one that thinks that Neptunia’s design is so odd.

•Missy simping for Darkwing (I will not bother doing the thirst count).

•3 Bonks were heard.

•Neptunia loves litter lol.

•Missy: Litter killed my grandma.

WHY MISSY WHY 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

•Overall this episode was really random. I have no idea what was happening. lol. Moving on.

“The Lost Harp of Mervana!”

•THE BEST EPISODE IS NEXT.

•Me geeking out over mermaids throughout the episode.

•HUEY AND SCROOGE MOMENT 🥹🥹🥹

•Missy being a simp for Della as usual. XD

•”Arming torpedoes”

•Me: WEBBY IS SO ME RN!!!

•PART OF YOUR WORLD REFERENCE!!!

•SO. MUCH. MERDUCKS. IM IN HEAVEN.

•I quickly forgot that I made my Mervanan Scrooge AU back in 2021 💀

•Me: Scrooge made some really adorable drawings! Why reject them?

•Me: BEAKLEY IS SUS.

•EVERYONE BOW DOWN TO DONALD DUCK

•”Namaste.”

•Me: WHY IS DELLA PLAYING TIC TAC TOE ALL BY HERSELF????

•”I have no family.”

-Della Duck

•SCROOGE BEING TOO CUTE IN THIS EPISODE ISTG

“Peace and Love! Follow your bless!”

•Scrooge would be the merman ever.

•”It’s just okay.”

•I think we can all agree that Louie is the best at motivational speeches. Can we appreciate him for that?

•TIME TO DRAW MORE MERDUCKS.

•SHES FIBBING FIBBING FIBBING.

•Will: Bye! See ya in the finale!

The wonders of the deep

•We could’ve gotten the au’s during the scene where Mickey and Donald saw Minnie and Daisy as mermaids.

•Their designs are the prettiest!

“The Little Mermaid (1989)”

•This is my favorite Disney movies of all time and I’ll never get tired of watching it again and again.

•Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Kermit made a cameo in the beginning of the movie!

•Also @puffywuffy8904, I f*cking hate you for calling this a 🍆 castle.

•Missy: King Triton is kinda…

•Violet asked her to behave for me lol

•Ariel being adorable throughout the movie.

•King Triton being a bad dad.

•Iconic song incoming 🧜‍♀️✨✨ 🎵

•Max my beloved.

•Reprise time 🎵

•Stitch interrupting other Disney movies was mentioned by Will.

• @violetganache42 shared a little mermaid lorcana card every time a song came up. Starting with the reprise.

I won’t share all of that were shared due to the 10 photo limit.

•Another iconic song incoming.

•The art for the lorcana cards are incredible.

•Everyone talking about Triton being an awful dad because he IS ONE. Until the end of the movie.

•SEBASTIAN BEING A SNITCH.

•ERIC STATUE GETS THANOSED.

•Ursula’s best song incoming.

•BODY LANGUAGE. ✨✨🍑

•Ursula giving off Magica vibes.

•LA VOCE TO ME!!!

•Ariel being the most expressive character ever. ❤️

•Ariel and Eric being the cutest couple. Some we’re discussing that the remake improved on the relationship between them and I do agree with that.

•We were also talking about some of us that watched the remake really enjoy it, including myself. Halle Bailey really nailed the role for Ariel. Screw those racists. Sebastian in that version is not that great.

•ARIEL’S OUTFITS

•”Fish are friends. Not food.”

•melcat33 getting hungry for seafood.

•🎵Kiss the girl🎵 ✨✨✨

Also please listen to Ashley Tisdale’s version. It’s so good.

•Eric littered. Someone call Neptunia.

•Everyone pumped up for Vanessa before she kicked Max. Poor dog.

•The contract reminding some of us of the papyrus of binding.

•Stabby Stabby 🔪

•Triton being a good dad for once in the end.

•Sebastian slay ✨✨✨

•I love everything about this movie and the remake and I will cherish them equally.

I had a lot of fun making this highlight and I hope you enjoyed reading it as well. If you have any highlights that you’d like to share, please do for those who participated in the watch party! Special shoutout to @writebackatya for making this watch party happen and has thought of me as a mermaid fan! Thank you! And Happy Mermay! 🧜‍♀️✨✨💕💕

[barbielore]

There's another collector's doll that was relatively recently released, but I didn't include it in my round-ups because I legitimately had no idea what to make of it.

I have never felt so old and out of touch as I did when I saw this and realised that I had no idea what noonoouri meant. As it turns out, Noonoouri is a "virtual influencer" - a fashion icon and a pop musician.

I've seen significant mixed information on whether Noonoouri is a CGI creation, an AI creation, or some mix of the two. I have the impression that most people I have seen talking about Noonoouri from that perspective are, much like me, fumbling through trying to figure out something about which they have no frame of reference. In any case, I guess Mattel wouldn't have any qualms about collaborating with an AI brand if that were the case, given how they have been using AI to "design" their packaging recently.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by noonoouri (@noonoouri)

The official story of the Noonoouri / Barbie collab is that Noonoouri took on a physical form through her friendship with Barbie and Barbie went digital for Noonoouri.

To capture this distinctive design, they have custom faces and bodies. Conceptually that's really interesting but this is also somehow deeply unsettling.

The German designer behind Noonoouri, Joerg Zuber, describes the Noonoouri as being borne from him being an introverted child who wanted a friend. You can naturally see from here the connection with Barbie as well; and Zuber draws this link, but notes that as a child, he was not free to express his interest in Barbie due to Barbie not being seen as appropriate for a young boy.

Carlyle Nuera is the Mattel designer behind this collaboration, and I guess I must say hats off to him, because they certainly do stand out.

[doshiart]

ART TAG

thank you @deathclassic @suzy-queued @kiennilove for tagging me!! <33 it's hard to be social, but it sounds so cool and interesting, so here i am!

Have you always been interested in creating art?

i guess so, but sometimes it's really a struggle thing. i've always liked it, i've always tried to draw, but after any failure i dropped it. i started drawing more consciously in 2020 and i got a tablet. now i'm proud of my skill development, even though i'm not good enough and i know nothing, but i think that's everyone's trouble

What's your favorite medium to use? If digital, what programs do you like?

digital, clip studio paint, i love textured brushes

Do you create outside of fandom?

yes, i draw for myself. i have oc's in two different universes, somethimes i draw YCH's and adopts for sale

Share something you haven't finished and/or never got around to posting.

1 - it was jan 24. i wanted to draw gallavich on a bike, but it didn't work, so i just dropped it

2 - recent practice sketches

3 - feb 2. it was a masquerade of gallavich fic, and i volunteered for prizes, so i had a sketch for snowballs and sneaking out by @gallawitchxx 🖤 i thought it was very raw, so i never showed it,,,

Favorite piece you've made?

1 - my oc's from the fantasy universe // june 3, 2024

2 - hitoshi shinso from bnha // feb 25, 2023

and i have a new fav drawing with my oc's that i drew recently and i'll show it bellow

Draw your icon in a minute or less

An underrated piece you've made in your opinion

i don't know, maybe this. i like the lighting here and this scene. illustration for camp bullfrog by @sickness-health-all-that-shit and @heymacy

Do you do art in a professional setting?

no and i don't think i'm capable of being in professional settings. i've only worked on personal commission with other people's oc's

A piece you don't like but did really well on social media.

i wasn't really happy about it, but when i read 7 minutes in heaven by @crossmydna based on this art, i was very happy

Post an old piece and compare it to your most recent, what are the similarities?

omg exactly three years ago. what are the similarities? pretty guys with cigarettes. i guess eyes and noses, but better now, love for backgrounds

oct 4, 2021 // neil josten from aftg

oct 4, 2024 // my oc's dave and cas

Have you ever collaborated with another artist/s?

yes! one and other one

What piece has the most notes? Are you surprised?

this art got the most reach and i don't know what i feel about this, not that i really don't like it, but i don't know… there's something wrong

Who/What is your favorite subject matter?

i love to draw characters and showing their existence

Show us something not from fandom you've made

commission for mental health supporter Rho on twi

Where do you like to create?

sitting at my computer desk, and preferably with the door closed because it helps me focus

Do you have a tag that you use to group your creations? Tell us so people can follow it.

all my art // gallavich fanart

Give yourself a shoutout, where can we commission/buy/follow you for more pieces?

commission info // bsky // twi // inst (don't like this app)

for commission me you can just use dm here or discord (doshiart)

tagging @konaiiro @heymrspatel @spookygingerr @lingy910y @michellemisfit 🖤

[fayoftheforest]

vampire kyle & historic antisemitism

DISCLAIMER: this post is not intended to incite drama or discourse, I simply want to share my thoughts on a complex topic. Just because I’m Jewish does not mean I speak for the entire community. We’re not a monolith, there is great diversity of opinion among us, discussion and debate is a beloved part of our culture, etc etc :) ok on with the post!

But wait, Fay, I hear you interject. Vampires aren’t even real! How can they be sayin’ stuff about Jews? Well, my dear friends, I have some rather grave news for you: much of pop culture is Sayin’ Stuff About The Jews. And very little of it is positive :/

I’ll quote Jewish author Deke Moulton to establish the basic links between vampires and antisemitism:

The problem is tied to the conspiracy called the blood libel. If you’re not familiar with it, the blood libel started in Medieval Europe in the 12th century and claimed that Jewish people needed the blood of Christian children to make our Passover matzoh. For context, Jewish people are prohibited from consuming blood at all – we will salt kosher meat to draw out blood. Despite being very old and very wrong, the blood libel idea still persists today (albeit usually with slightly less obvious framing).

There is also a common trope of vampires operating through a secret, worldwide council that often governs ‘vampire affairs’ but also may dabble in controlling other aspects of the world’s governments. While some people can see a similarity to the Catholic Church, often times this calls upon the antisemitic trope of the ‘cabal’—that Jews secretly run the entire world (which is another strange antisemitic trope, as Judaism doesn’t have any central religious figure like the Pope). The word ‘cabal’ itself is a bastardization of the word kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. If you combine this with a trope of vampires hoarding large amounts of money (especially gold?), you’re using yet another antisemitic trope that says Jewish people control the world’s banks.

Even things like being adverse to the sunlight can have antisemitic implications – the early Church claimed that, because in Judaism days start at sundown and thus our time of worship happens at night, that gathering at night to worship was proof of us being evil and satanic.

So, all vampires are bad and wrong, and vampire Kyle AUs are a hatecrime, and everyone who’s ever done one should go straight to jail, right?

Well. No.

Because really, it should be noted that this extract is from an interview on Moulton’s novel “Don’t Want To Be Your Monster,” a book which not only features blood-sucking vampires, but a blood-sucking Jewish vampire. Interesting, interesting... it's almost as if this topic is nuanced or something 🤔

Many iconic vampires are based on antisemitic stereotypes. Perhaps most famous is Dracula, with curly hair and a hooked nose, is an Eastern European immigrant who has the intentions of “infecting” British society. Another example is Nosferatu, who also has an exaggerated hooked nose, is thin, pale and hunched, and is topped by a skull cap. There are modern exceptions to this trend, though! Twilight comes to mind. Edward Cullen is far more inspired by Stephanie Meyer’s Mormonism than Judaism as a whole. Explained so aptly by The Quietus, “As vampiric portrayals become more positive, they tend to also become less connected to Jewish representation.” Come on, you guys >:( Jewishness can be hot and sexy too, I swear!!

From what I’ve seen of Vamp!Kyle AUs, portrayals tend to lean more towards the mysterious and alluring Cullen-type than the bad-to-the-bone Dracula. Ultimately, I think this is what redeems our fandom’s vampire Kyle. Because crucially, whilst vampires can be antisemitic, they are not innately antisemitic. When you show Kyle brooding behind his high-collars and flashing toothy grins at his love interest, it’s not typically symbolic of the ultimate evil that we are expected to fear and ridicule. It's intended to be cute, or cool, or hot, or whatever.

My advice is thus: if you want to make something deeper or complex with the AU, just have a think about what you’re using his vampiric traits to represent. Are you drawing from unfortunate stereotypes or feeding into antisemitic fears? Are you validating or justifying the “othering” or ostracisation of Jewish people from wider society? You could consider finding a Jewish beta/sensitivity reader, if that’s accessible to you. But generally speaking, so long as you’re not presenting Kyle as an all-powerful predator to pure, innocent Christian society, I reckon you’re probably alright :)

[tcustodisart]

Hiiiii! I hope you're doing well 💖

May I ask if you also make traditional art outside of digital/fanart? If so, what is a piece you're the most proud of?

Not as much now as I used to (in 2015-2019 i used to do more traditional art than digital, mostly ink, watercolor and colored pencils). I try to "force" myself to do stuff with ink every October (started with Inktober and then in 2022 I created Faustober, a month were I draw Faust with ink). I sometimes sketch with colored pencils when I'm not home (I don't have a tablet to take with me and don't really feel the need to own one, so offline drawing it is).

As for stuff I'm most proud of:

My icon that I use is actually an acrylic painting, that's a part of a two piece that hangs in my living room.

This linocut I made at uni ages ago (it was during my vulture culture phase).

These Faustober pieces

These three pieces of my oc Skulldeer (watercolor), Cliff Doom Patrol (colored pencils), Leshy (ink)

This almost 10 year old doodle of Mikey Way that keeps randomly popping up in my notifications (I'm mostly proud of this one because holy fuck guys it's been 9 years and you still manage to dig it up).

These skull studies (I used to do a lot of these, I lowkey miss it). And while we're at studies sketches, I'm going to throw crow feet pics here as well.

[bacusdraculacape]

I was discussing with @misskattylashes about what our big ideas about what people in the AM-verse seem to be teasing about or whatever. Then I got a Brianstorm of Big Ideas admist it...

First things first. Some relevant history; Arctic Monkeys first formed in 2002. They’re first live gig was 13th June 2003 at The Grapes, an Irish pub in Sheffield, UK (where AM are iconally from and formed). In 2004, some other icon stuff happened:

> 14th of August 2004; marks the first known live performances of: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor / Bigger Boys Stolen Sweethearts / Choo Choo! / Dancing Shoes.

> 8th of October 2004; marks the first known live performance of: Fake Tales of San Francisco.

> 3rd of November 2004; Marks the first known performances of: When The Sun Goes Down / A Certain Romance.

> 12th of December 2004; Marks the first known performances of: Stickin’ To The Floor / Settle For A Draw.

AM’s demo album: Beneath The Boardwalk first surfaced in 2004 also.

As well 17th of October 2004 marks the official debut date of Am’s first ep / single: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.

Moving onto the next iconic year of 2005:

AM’s first ever global tour started and happened in 2005. Introducing them to stages all over: UK / Ireland / Europe / and a couple stages in US.

23 October 2005; AM’s debut single IBYLGOTDF went straight to No.1 on the charts.

In 2005 more live debuts to Am singles were:

> 7 (22 Jan ‘05) /

> The View From The Afternoon / Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But.. / Mardy Bum / From The Ritz To The Rubble (4th Mar ‘05)

> Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured (5th Apr ‘05)

> an unknown new song (23rd April ‘05)

> You Probably Couldn’t See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me (26th Jul ‘05)

> Wavin’ Bye to the Train tr the Bus (23rd Aug ‘05)

> Still Take You Home (11th Oct ‘05)

> When The Sun Goes Down (21st Oct ‘05)

> Leave Before The Lights Come On (22nd Oct ‘05)

> Riot Van (3rd Nov ‘05)

> Fake Tales Of San Francisco (15th Nov ‘05)

Onto the most iconic year for AM: 2006

Their first world tour continued in 2006

Other songs saw their live debuts such as:

> AM’s cover of Love Machine by Girls Aloud (19th Jan ‘06)

> Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? (27th Jan ‘06)

> Cigarette Smoker Fiona (1st March ‘06)

> Despair In The Departure Lounge (13th March ‘06)

> No Buses (24th Mar ‘06)

As well as the debuts of:

> their debut album: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (21st Feb ‘06)

> When The Sun Goes Down SINGLE ALBUM (17th Jan ‘06)

> I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor SINGLE ALBUM (14th March ‘06)

> Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys? SINGLE ALBUM (25th April ‘06)

> Leave Before The Lights Come On SINGLE ALBUM (14th August ‘06)

Music Videos:

> Leave Before The Lights Come On (4th August ‘06)

> Fake Tales Of San Francisco (14th August ‘06)

(info above sourced from setlist.fm)

As i’m penning this it’s currently the year is 2024, next year is 2025, and the year after that is 2026. Currently, AM have been a band for 22 years. They started playing at giggs live 21 years ago. They began performing their original songs practically 20 years ago. I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR is gonna be 20 years old 17th October 2024. So this ongoing train of thought starting thus metaphorical ball running in my mind:

What if the AM are working on an AM 20th anniversary thing? To celebrate 20 years of still being a band and to celebrate two decades worth of fans, and remarkable once in AM-verse lifetime memories, and everything fabulous that came about because of AM forming 22 years ago? Maybe that’s the mysterious thing that they have been planning at?

If it is an AM anniversary thingy here’s a list of theories of what it could be if that ever is in the cards for our beloved Arctic Monkeys:

> An AM greatest hits album. With B-sides from TBHC & The Car. Sorta similar to AM Live at Royal Albert Hall album that dropped in 2020. Cause sure if it was a new album it would likely be reported already. Also during The Car Tour Alex would have wacky beautiful moments playing random stuff on the piano and making Alex sounds sometimes before playing: Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?

> An AM documentary. - AM photographer: Zachary Michael I think it is, has been seen tagging Alex Turner around in a number of Alex Turner recents post the finale of The Car Tour. What if that’s to get shots for the AM documentary?

> An AM book / photo album. Think Alexa Chung’s IT, but if it were AM recounting their career with lots of snapshots and stills of them over their career being fabulous? Also, I can so imagine physical photo album books are still Alex Turner’s thing. I say still because Alex Turner was born in 1986, so he probably grew up with the likes of physical photo albums years before digital camera roles came into place.

> Also for either of my documentary or photo album thing; what if the AM recents with Nick, Jamie, Alex etc have been teases to them visiting iconic AM hotspots / venues etc that AM became and are famous for and that they’ve lots of gratitude towards those locations for giving them that boost in their career/ E.g. Mojave Desert & New York City & Los Angeles where AM recorded Humbug / Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield UK where AM recorded some of their first ever songs at. / Vox Studios LA, La Frette Paris France where AM recorded Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino / The Grapes & Leadmill where they played they’re first ever gigs? -Jamie was spotted attending a concert in Yellow Arch Studios the other week for a Sheffield originating band.

> Strings added to AM songs. Think Glastonbury 2013 where’d AM had a whole orchestra add strings to Cornerstone and Mardy Bum. Exactly. Also, think back to the last four The Car Tour gigs. AM played in Ireland all 4 days with James Ford and an orchestra doing strings on a few songs. What if those four last gigs were the foreshadowing / prelude of Alex’s and AM’s big ideas of what's to come?

Also, Alex isn't seen much public-wise these days at all. If he’s working on an Anniversary thingy it would make so much perfect sense for his ‘hibernation’ / disappearance. Whatever you wanna call it. What if he’s just hardcore hyper focused on getting that right if that is what him and the band are working on?

Another wild thought I have: What if AM bring back songs in the Anniversary thing from Beneath The Boardwalk etc like songs that we’ve never heard the light of day of yet??!!

Thanks @misskattylashes your help and contribution 😘

[tyrantisterror]

To bring this chain of asks full circle, what are your top ten favorite Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi monsters and why? Either on the basis of biology, design, or even story significance? What are your favorite dishes from Delicious in Dungeon? 😋

I thin the chapter that introduced Dungeon Meshi's take on living armor is the moment where most readers realize they're in for something special and more than just the gag manga it could have been. For me, it's the epitome of what makes Dungeon Meshi's world-building so special. Living Armors are a stock monster in fantasy fiction, and normally the thought that goes into them begins and ends with "a suit of armor moves on its own because magic." That's all they have to be for an audience to accept them and move on, and in most fiction, that's all they will be.

Dungeon Meshi, by contrast, came up with the most creative explanation for why a suit of armor would walk around and attack people I've ever encountered. It's so bizarre that it's fascinating on its own - BUT THEN, just to show she's a fucking master of story-telling, Ryoko Kui makes the process of our hero discovering the nature of living armor vital to stopping them, saving his friends, and making his way through the dungeon. Dungeon Meshi took a monster archetype that is usually little more than a footnote and turned it into a crucial and iconic story beat, one so important that it continues to figure in to the plot thereafter in the form of Laios's living sword, Kensuke.

Griffins are a monster I have a great deal of fondness for, and one I feel should be more prominent given how iconic they are. There should be more kickass griffins in fiction, more memorable griffin stories, more griffins in general! Dungeon Meshi didn't reinvent the wheel with its take on griffins like it did with Living Armors, but its griffin/hippogriff arc is nonetheless one of the most important emotional beats in the story, and also led into the changeling arc, which is one of the funniest in the entire manga. They also gave griffins the gravitas as a monster that they rightfully deserve. A+ griffin use.

The vegetable lamb is one of my favorite obscure medieval folklore monsters and seeing it show up in this manga made me so happy. It is exactly the kind of bonkers idea that fits perfectly into Ryoko Kui's fantasy world, perfect addition, no notes.

I'm of two minds on how Quetzalcoatl has been reduced to a monster in pop culture instead of, you know, the benevolent god he was originally, but Dungeon Meshi's coatl at least gets a lot of gravitas and even plays a semi-heroic role in some scenes, which is better than most knockoff Q's get. Also the one in the manga itself is covered in psychedlic flower pictures because of SPOILERS and it's really cute.

...Falin's chimera form is ridiculously hot in ways that make me look long and hard at myself in the mirror and wonder why I'm wired like this.

On a less existential side of things, Laios's Ultimate Monster design is, for my money, the absolute best running gag in the manga, with the PERFECT punchline at the story's climax that you'll think you've guessed but trust me, you haven't quite. If you're looking at it and thinking, "That looks like what a four year old would draw when making a monster," you are right, and that is the gag, and trust me, it is ALWAYS funny when it pops up.

How many slots do I have left? Four? Fuck it, let's talk about the dragons, we can go over I don't give a shit. The Red Dragon is the Heavy for the first third of the manga, and it's built up impressively throughout all the monster-eating shenanigans, so that when it finally arrives as this small-scale kaiju who makes the dungeon tremble and quake in its path, you really get a sense of dread attached to it. A lot of modern fantasy fiction gets lazy with dragons, content to let their cultural reputation do the work for them, but Kui made sure that when a dragon entered her story, it feels like an EVENT.

I haven't watched the anime yet, but what I've seen shows they did a good job handling Kui's design, which has this wonderful blend of T.rex, sauropod, and crocodile to give it this primordial reptilian strength. I also love how they animated its Thor Thimble, it's a great touch.

About the only thing I'd change about the Red Dragon is its lack of wings, but then you see how the other dragon species look in Dungeon Meshi, and it makes more sense. Another trope of modern dragons I dislike is giving them all one body plan, when their mythic predecessors could have all sorts of arrangements and numbers of limbs. Kui's dragons follow suit - the red dragon is a stocky quadruped, green dragons have the hexapodal look with two wings and slightly more gracile proportions, we've got two-legged and two-winged wyverns, two-armed wyrms, multi-finned leviathans, Asian-style dragons, and even a big fluffy arctic dragon for those freaks out there who don't want dragons to have scales for some inexplicable reason. All of them are still very much dragons, but each one feels unique and broadens what a "dragon" can be in the setting. It's great, I love it, A+ dragon usage.

Oh, yeah, there's one other dragon species I forgot to put up there - the Nightmares, which in your dreams look like, well, a nightmare, and in the waking world look like... shellfish. Apparently it's a Japanese pun that doesn't translate easily into English. They're not really my favorite monster but I knew if I included all the other dragons and not these guys then at least one person would feel compelled to "Um, actually" me. That nightmare form for the Nightmare looks pretty wicked, though.