#born naked

[altrbody]

"I ought to have been born by the sea – any sea – and I have a strong suspicion that this inclination is present in all human beings. The ocean calls us for it is the ancient and original home, not only of mankind but of all life."

--Farley Mowat, Born Naked

[venusmage]

twitter guys sure are something.

[seyaryminamoto]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ZUKO.

ZUKO IS YAO.

YES.

I'M NOT EVEN SORRY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

... but this isn't all.

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

WHY ZUKO AS YAO, THO??

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

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

He treats Mulan as his RIVAL.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[ranticore]

baby kobold.. so cutes

this one was born "cold" ie to a parent who was in a cold temperature zone for key developmental stages in the pregnancy. so it has a full down coat

it could fit inside a teacup

[natjennie]

can't stop thinking about how when they started production on dungeons and drag queens, brennan was really considerate and asked the queens what would make them most comfortable, like do they want brennan in drag do they not etc and bob came back with "well what's your drag?" and then brennan got to live out his larp camp dreams with that look. something about the perspective of drag as a personal expression and not one established set of rules for dressing up like.. idk I just love the way bob expressed that. like yeah the elf ears with dangly earrings and a leather shoulder piece is brennan's drag. that's all there is to it.

[nachosforfree]

I've been wanting to play more with my Human Bill design and concepts since reading the book :) so here's a comic that I want to continue on (after I fill some other obligations T_T)

[sporkberries]

The overwhelming urge to bite your X.O.

[dyannawynnedayne]

Who Has The Most Gender?: Round 2

Asha: art by laurellerual, AWOIAF Page

Brienne: art by lupotterdraws, AWOIAF Page

BRACKET LINK

[thepromiseofsin]

“their adventures were perhaps of a more ordinary sort…”

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

People (radfems mainly) think that the dichotomy between butch women and femme women is that femme women put effort into their appearance. They put on a gendered performance through their hair, makeup, clothing styling, and mannerisms. While the more feminist butch women do not do these things.

But this dichotomy is false.

Butch women DO put effort into their gender performance. Butchness isn't the inherent state of a woman, it's a specific gendered performance. Butchness. It involves conscious choices regarding hair, makeup, clothing styling, and mannerisms.

A woman who doesn't put effort into her appearance, doesn't wear makeup, and styles herself solely for comfort can be a butch woman but isn't necessarily. Because butchness is stylistically distinct, though obviously varies culturally. A lot of women who dress for comfort would not be called "butch." Because "butch" doesn't mean "any woman not wearing obvious makeup or pretty dresses" like many radfems seem to think.

[sunset-unbound]

i dont necessarily think this is materially true but conceptually i think most things can be made hot with enough gender dynamics layered on it. and by gender i mean social roles in general

[octoooo]

My eyes have been Opened to ✨Pengiyuuin✨

Beloved @tidalwaveoctave helped me see the light (look at their Pengiyuuin) <3

The mental image of a penguin unsheathing a blade is so fucking funny like

🐧 <- That,,with This -> 🗡️?? Genius & Silly

Some doodles

Was attempting Bearded Vulture Kyojuro, still working his anatomy out but the Rengiyuu bird love was <3!! & I Had to draw it

Tanjiro & Nezuko are currently penguins for the adorable convenience (,,,Giyuu warming them I—the thought was too cute)

^ THAT COULD BE PENGIYUUIN WITH THE KAMABOKO SQUAD AAAAA

[morganbritton132]

One time when I was kid, my sister and I were putting dirt in a frisbee to sit out in the yard because it was about to rain (as you do). My dog jumped up and knocked the frisbee over on him, and my sister said, “Way to go, Tigger, you got dirt on your freaking beak.”

[fornpt1]

Lanaaaaa peppersss

[dbphantom]

15 trips and a love that won't die

[this-is-a-podcast-fanblog]

restoration (a mother Lauren fic)

Mother Lauren surveys the dead.

She sees them simultaneously as the spirits hovering wherever they actually are and as a collection of souls in the sand wastes. Some writhe and howl. Some cower in much the same way that the living do when her long arms sweep over them. They are afraid of her, but they speak to her when she calls voicelessly upon them.

Who killed you? she asks one. The ghost is still mostly intact. Strexcorp, it rasps back. Mother Lauren giggles. Oh, she says. Oopsie.

Night Vale is full of ghosts the way that clouds are full of water and bodies are full of blood. In truth, Mother Lauren isn't sure why she came through the portal. There's something old inside of her, very old, and far wiser than the Lauren Mallard she used to be. It compels her arms to move and lurches her body forwards towards some destination. She allows it. She's curious to see how this will end up. Besides, now that she's in Night Vale, things are becoming much clearer.

Mother Lauren speaks to the dead as an act of necessity, as easy and thoughtless as breathing. She inhales their memories and exhales ash. She can see over the tops of the buildings around her as she floats through the city, even though she is simultaneously in the sand wastes cutting the soles of her feet on tumbleweed.

Who are you? Mother Lauren asks a ghost. This one is familiar. Its body is hollowed out, spattered with acid and partially digested. Its clothes are charred. It is the Pastor from the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God. She knows the name before the ghost actually speaks it, but it does speak anyway: I am the Pastor from the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, it says. Night Vale chapter. I was devoured by the Smiling God. By you. It's all I ever wanted.

I'm not/I am the Smiling God, Mother Lauren says. I am the High Priestess/The Mother of Cruelty.

You came to me as a giant centipede, the pastor's ghost says. It doesn't look at Mother Lauren, which is honestly kind of rude. You were so beautiful. You swallowed me. Inside your belly I felt true religion, and I felt you crawling over the sands and slithering through the streets of Night Vale. I felt your stomach acids dissolving me, so beautiful, like baptism. Then suddenly I felt pain, great pain. And you burned to death with me still inside you. It really hurt. It was not beautiful. I want to be alive again so that you can digest me properly this time. If you had just digested me properly I wouldn't be here.

Sorry kid, no can do, says Mother Lauren, and moves on. She feels that she could bring the ghost back to life if she wanted to. It's just that she doesn't want to.

Her mission is becoming clear: Night Vale needs to fall. It needs to, because it's been annoying her since before she even became The Mother, and because she is so hungry. She could mind control that radio host to speak for her again; he's enough like Kevin that it would be easy. Mother Lauren left him chanting into his microphone, but she decides that's okay for now. He can wait there for a little bit while she figures out what to do with him. She walks through the dead, parting them with her long arms. They claw at her cloak. They cry for resurrection, and for eternal death, and for damnation. They cry for Mother Lauren.

Mother Lauren reaches the end of the sand wastes. It's a point of space that shouldn't exist, since the sand wastes should stretch on forever. Yet, here it is, the end of the sand wastes; it just... stops, the sands turning to glass and the tumbleweeds turning to dust and a jagged mountain like a wall against the edge of the world. There's only one ghost here. It is a woman.

"Hi," says Mother Lauren. "The sand wastes aren't supposed to end. They are meant to stretch on forever/forever into the great glowing coils of the universe, where there is only Mother Lauren/Mother Lauren."

The spirit doesn't look at her. In fact, she doesn't even turn around to face Mother Lauren, just keeps doing whatever it is that she's doing by the base of the jagged mountain. "The sand wastes are made of physical matter," says the ghost. She walks over to the left a few paces, leaving bloody footprints on the glass ground. "Everything that is made of physical matter has a start and an end. That's how space works." She shouldn't be able to walk, because she doesn't have legs. They are splintered off at the knee, leaving visible bone and dripping gore. Her arms are at impossible angles. Half of her head is shaved and the other half is broken skull. Mother Lauren can see the ghost's brain.

"How are you walking?" Mother Lauren asks, intrigued. She doesn't know the answer before it appears this time. "You shouldn't be doing that."

"I'm dead," says the ghost. "I'm not doing anything." She's writing equations on the wall of the mountain, spelling them out in her own blood. "None of this is actually happening. I'm sorry, can you leave me alone? I'm kind of in the middle of something."

That's a very rude thing to say, and Mother Lauren should punish her. "Look at me," she commands. Even this ghost cannot resist the booming tones of Mother Lauren. She turns around. One of her eyes is missing and she wears only a pair of broken glasses. Actually, she's kind of hot. Mother Lauren sinks to her knees before the ghost. Her robe flutters around her, rapidly flickering from gold to purple to green. "I walk among the uncounted dead and seek one for the mission within me, which is eternal/brand new," Mother Lauren tells her. "I have to destroy Night Vale."

"That's cute." The ghost's tone is patronizing. She dares condescend to The Mother, the High Priestess of the Smiling God. Not only that, but Mother Lauren is pretty sure she's going to let her get away with it. "I tried that, you know? I tried so hard, for almost an entire year, with absolutely meticulous planning, but oh ho ho!" She laughs. "Look at me now! I fought, and I mustered an entire army of scientists on hardly any funding - which is insane, by the way - and I still died. So trust me, destroying Night Vale isn't worth it. You'll end up dead too, if you're not already. I mean, I'm having a conversation with you, and I am literally dead! Dead! And when I realized I was dead, my first thought was, there's no such thing as the afterlife, what the heck am I doing here? I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

"No," says Mother Lauren. "Please continue."

"Thank you. What was I saying? Oh, the afterlife. I mean, the human body is powered essentially by the brain and the heart, if we think about things in simplest terms. When that... bastard dropped a dead cow on me, it collapsed my skull and drove bone fragments into my brain. It shattered my ribcage and squished my heart like a teeny tiny little grape. But I'm. Still. Here." The ghost curls her fingers into claws. "This doesn't make any sense. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be anything. I'm dead."

Mother Lauren's heart stirs with pity. Pity is sometimes the cruelest emotion of all. "I am so sorry for your loss," says Mother Lauren. "You seem like a very wise individual."

"Thank you. It's nice to be appreciated."

"What is your name?"

"Janet. Dr. Janet Lubelle."

"Excellent." Mother Lauren scoops up the ghost of Dr. Janet Lubelle in her hands like so much sand. The ghost yelps as Mother Lauren lifts her to her face. "I'm going to call you Jan."

"Do not call me that."

"I will bring you back, Jan." And with her eyes that are God's Mother Lauren sweeps her gaze over the broken body. She restores the legs that her soldier may walk but leaves the brain as it is. It's kind of sensual, to see Jan's insides on her outside. The sins of the flesh have always been Mother Lauren's favorites "I will give you another chance, and you will serve me. Mother Lauren will save you from being a ghost." This is going to be fun, so much more fun than Kevin or Cecil. This is going to give her what she actually wants.

The being trembles in her hands, small and human. "Listen," she says. "I appreciate the sentiment, but what you're describing - it isn't scientific. It isn't possible. You can't resurrect me."

Tiny human. So stubborn, and ultimately still so limited. "'Can't' is not a word that carries much significance for the mother of all cruelty." Mother Lauren pats her new plaything on the top of the head. "Now, go forth and destroy/destroy."

She turns and walks out of that place that should not exist, back the way she came. She ignores the other spirits and ghosts as they vie for her attention and her mercy. Mother Lauren has enough mercy only for one. She walks out of the sand wastes, and at the same time, she walks down the main street of Night Vale, and her arms are as long as shadows at sundown.

And at the same time, on the edge of town where a cow is decomposing, a hand breaks through the earth.