#but here we are and at least i'm drawing something

[awriterinthenight]

"I Have What?"

requested: @narkissistikos

words: 3267

warnings: swearing, suicide references, reader gets attacked, (I know the title is kinda bad, but if you read the story, then it's kinda funny), Miranda is actually a bitch like I hate people like her

summary: You're a mortal who keeps seeing weird monsters, but everyone thinks you're crazy, so when you're at an amusement park and get attacked by a monster, you meet the one and only Luke Castellan

Everyone said you were crazy, that none of it was real. Your parents didn't believe you, they thought you just had a wild imagination, your friends tried to ignore the weird things you told them about, and everyone judged you when they would you talk of monsters. Monsters weren't real was what everyone told you, but you would swear on the gods that they were, and that you could see them.

Eventually you were brought to a doctor, but they also called you crazy, an attention seeker, or that you just had a wild imagination. Everyone thought you just saw these things because you were always cooped up in your room drawing fantasy creatures from old myths. Your doctor recommended going outside, hanging out with friends, and trying to forget all the weird things you believed you say.

So once your parents told your friends, your friends decided what better to do than bring you to an amusement park. How could you not have fun there with the endless rides, greasy food, and the sound of hundreds of screaming kids? So fun (I'm being sarcastic).

You needed this, which was a major lie your friends and family told you. Just like every rich family, they can't have their little screw up who might be crazy, being shown out in public that way. So now here you are, three doctors, a bunch of medication that didn't work, and about 20 cover ups of your "stunts" (as your parents called them), later in your own personal hell, have fun.

"First we should do the Tilt-A-Whirl, then we can go on the bumper cars, then get food, then head to the Ferris Wheel," Stephanie said. With her everything had to be planned out, which wasn't so bad, but sometimes it sucked since then no one could divert from the schedule.

"I think that guy is looking at me. Do you think he's cute? Cause he's cute," Miranda said, looking at something that looked like it crawled onto Earth. Miranda was one of those girls who only talked about guys, and by the time you had a full conversation with her, you'd wish someone would pick her already.

Now you might be thinking, 'why would you be friends with those two if they made you want to jump off the top of the Ferris Wheel'. Well Little Sally, the only reason we hangout with them is because we have to. Stephanie was your mom's best friend's daughter, so if you two weren't friends then apparently your mom's had failed as friends, which made zero sense, but whatever. And Miranda was apparently a package deal (that no one ordered) with Stephanie.

The only decent one in your group was Christina. She didn't talk much, but the glances the two of you sent each other were louder than Miranda's laugh when a guy was around. Christina had been your friend since the beginning of middle school, and for some reason stuck around till now. She was your only real friend in your life, and the only one who cared. She might've thought you were also a bit crazy, but hey, it at least made you funny.

"Let's just get this over with," you said, walking towards the Tilt-A-Whirl.

Miranda groaned, "Don't be such a bummer, we're here to have fun," you and Miranda probably would've murdered each other by now if it wasn't for Christina reminding you that colleges don't accept you if you have a murder charge.

You rolled your eyes, turning away from her as Christina spoke to you, "If you don't upset her too much, then I'll buy you a slushie as compensation."

"Fine, but only if it's blue," you only drank blue slushies, they were like crack to you. You had made it through the Tilt-A-Whirl without hurling the two girls off the ride, and had made it through bumper cars with running them over either, so a wins a win I guess.

You were getting food now, since you were more likely to murder someone on an empty stomach, which was not a good thing when Miranda was around. Christina was busy getting you guys slushies like she promised you, while Miranda was flirting with the cashier when she was supposed to be getting you burgers. You stood in line for cheese fries when something caught your eye.

'Was that a snake!' you questioned yourself, as you swore you saw a snake slither out of the hat the cashier at the popcorn stand was wearing. You tried to slow down your breathing since it sped up from the shock. 'It's just another reason they think you're crazy. Don't let them think you're crazy’ the words everyone told you ringing through your head again.

The guy behind you seemed to notice that you seemed a bit out of it, "Cool shirt," he said, referring to your AC/DC shirt.

It caught you off guard, and you had to look down at what shirt you were wearing, "What- oh, uh thanks," you managed to stumble out, a bit embarrassed since the guy was kind of cute, but you have bigger problems right now.

"Are you okay?" he asked, seeming to be concerned about you in your shocked state. I'll take things that have never happened before for 500 Alex.

You looked up at him, taking in his brown hair and the scar on his face, "I-I'm fine," you told him, trying to think of an excuse since telling a stranger you saw a snake in someone's hair is something only bat-shit crazy people say, "I just witnessed someone sneeze into the popcorn, not something you usually want to see when you're about to eat," you lied, or at least tried to. How the fuck does someone know if their bad at lying or not? Welp, guess it's up the gods if he thinks I'm weird or not, oh look nothing new.

Surprisingly he let out a small chuckle, "I never trust any of the food here, I'm just getting some for my friends," he said.

You nodded, your mind still a bit distant. The strange guy nudged you a bit, "Hey, you're next," he said, since the person in front of you left.

"Oh, thanks, sorry," you said, quickly before walking up to the cashier. That was the last you said to the mystery guy, since he didn't talk to you again after you ordered. You made your way over to your friends, sitting down next to Christina.

"Oh my god," Miranda started, as you started to want to gouge out your eyeballs, "Who was that guy you were talking to? He was so cute, do you think he has a girlfriend?" she asked, then continued to talk about him, asking a million questions that you wouldn't know since you talked to him for not even a minute, and it was a lie you told, so that you didn't look fucking crazy.

"I don't know Miranda. I talked to him for like 30 seconds and it was about some lady who sneezed into the popcorn, by the way, don't get popcorn," you told her, fed up with her million questions.

Stephanie eyed you and said, "You don't need to be so rude, she was just asking," that's it you were jumping off the Ferris Wheel.

Christina could sense the tension, so she intervened, "Did you guys see Evan and Quinn walking around? I didn't even know they were going out," she gossiped, since it was the best diversion to use on the two. You zoned out, preferring to keep you sanity. Which was ironic since when you looked at the lady at the cotton candy stall, you swore she had wings, fangs, and claw-like hands. Okay, maybe you were fucking crazy.

The other weird thing was then when you looked back she looked like a normal person again. Even weirder was that the brown haired stranger looked at her too, then right at you. Something was definitely going on, but you sure as hell don't want to know.

You and your friends were about to head onto the Ferris Wheel, but something inside you told you not to.

"Stop being such a loser," Miranda complained, since she always had to have a problem with you.

"Stop being such a bitch, then maybe I will," you said, walking away. That wasn't your best comeback, but it'll do for now. You stood by yourself against a fence, contemplating why you didn't get on the Ferris Wheel. Was it A) the thought of being high up with Miranda was too tempting to push her off, and you didn't need a felony charge, B) that food was not sitting right, or C) did it have something to do with that the lady from the popcorn stand who now had wings, fangs, and snakes for hair, was about to attack the brown hair boy from earlier. If you picked C) then ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.

Shit.

You ran forward, pulling the boy back by his shirt before she could attack. His friends turned to look at the boy now on the ground, as you felt the greatest humiliation ever. The lady was gone, now making you look like a crazy person who attacked someone for no reason.

"What the hell is wrong with you," he yelled out in anger, dusting himself off as he stood up.

You stumbled back, confused to what had just happened, "I-I," you could barely make out any words, "I swore I...fuck," you said, running into the nearest bathroom to hide in.

You were crazy, you were bat-shit crazy. You were seeing things. Everyone was right. There's something incredibly wrong with you. Why would you do that?

In the midst of trying to call yourself down, you didn't even notice the woman next to you washing her hands, "You're really pretty, it's a shame what I'm about to do to you," she said, making you scared? confused? You didn't know anymore.

"Wha-what," was all you could stumble out, taking a step back.

She let out a breath, "You keep getting in my way, and I can't have that," she shouted at you, before lunging to attack. You had some self defence lessons, plus the skills from random rich people activities like fencing, plus great fight or flight instincts, so before she could rip your throat out, you dodged to the side. She ran into the sink, breaking it which probably hurt like a bitch.

Are you crazy, or are you crazy? Is what you kept asking yourself. The weird lady (more like a creature thing, since she had her wings and fangs back) lunged at you again, but you ran out of the bathroom this time.

You'd made it a good distance away from the bathroom when you accidentally ran into someone, literally. Your face hit their chest, making you stumble back a bit, and you would've fallen if it weren't for someone else catching you.

To your horror it was the boy and his group of friends from earlier. And to make it worse he was the one who caught you, "I got you," he said, "Now where is she?" he asked, his voice sounding rather urgent.

Your brain was still spinning as you tried to process everything, "Wha-what, you can see them?" you asked, entirely confused as to how they knew the things you kept seeing.

"Yes, but that's a conversation for later. Where did you last see her?" the girl of the group asked, and may you add, she seemed a lot scarier than everyone else.

You took a moment to catch your breath, "The bathrooms by the food stalls. It was the one from the popcorn stand, she tried attacking me," you told her, knowing that sentence sounded a bit crazy.

The boy still holding onto you nodded to the rest of the group, which consisted of 2 others, "Stay here," he said, as he started to head off with the others.

You snapped out of your dazed state and caught the boy's hand, "Wait, first tell what those things are," you demanded, finally wanting to know what the things you were seeing actually were.

"Later, just stay here for now," he said, trying to pull his hand away, but failing. Luckily for you (and unluckily for him) you were a pretty strong person.

"No," you said, standing your ground, "I've spent my entire life terrorised by those things, and now I have a chance for answers, so just tell what they are."

The boy seemed to have to bite back a smile, "You're feisty, you know that," he said, only making you more annoyed.

"And you're an asshole, are we going to spend the entire time naming each other's flaws, or are you going to tell me," you retorted.

He let out a sigh before speaking, "Let me go and I'll tell you, promise," he said, you had no other option so you let go, and trusted he would tell you, "Their gorgons, but I'm guessing you've seen other monsters. Do you know both of your parents?"

That was a weird fucking question, but not the weirdest thing to happen to you, "Why would you ask that, what relevance does that have to any of this?" you questioned.

"I-I just-" he said, trailing off when his friends had returned, but this time being attacked by gorgons, "shit." He then left you standing there, as he pulled out a sword from some random object. What the actual fuck is going on.

You watched the three people fight, as the people around you minded their own business, steering clear of the fight. How were they so calm, could they not see what was going on? You were too caught up in your thoughts to notice the dagger coming straight at your face. The boy turned around, a look of horror, then relief washed over him, as the blade went straight through you, falling onto the ground.

At that moment the boy realized you were mortal, and you realized your life is fucked up. Once again snapping out of your daze, you say the girl on the ground with the gorgon about to attack her. Without thinking (let's be honest, when do you ever think) you grabbed the dagger, throwing it at the gorgon. It hit her straight in the neck, causing her to fall to the ground and disappear.

The two boys quickly killed the other gorgon, helping up the girl as they made their way towards you, "You okay?" the brown hair boy asked.

"Oh, you know just another Tuesday," you said, your voice full of sarcasm.

"It's Saturday," the other boy said, not getting your sarcasm.

The girl hit him on the chest, "She's being sarcastic, dumbass. He's not the brightest person."

You nodded, "So, why can I only see the monsters, what are these monsters? Who are you guys? Why could no one see what was going on? Why did that dagger-" you were cut off by the boy with the scars, whose name you still didn't know, which was annoying.

"Woah, calm down," you shot him a glace, since that definitely wasn't the best thing to say in this situation, "You can see the monsters cause you have clear sight," he explained as if that made any sense.

"I have what?" you asked, still confused.

The boy seemed a bit apprehensive about telling you more, due to...issues we won't get into right at this moment, so the girl spoke up, "It means you can see through the mist," which once again did not help.

"That also doesn't explain shit, what even is the mist?" you asked, wanting someone to explain to you what was fully going on.

The other boy spoke up, "Should we tell her everything, or maybe bring her to Chiron?" he asked.

The boy went to speak, but the scary girl spoke first, "We can't just leave her clueless, we have to tell her."

"It could make her life worse though," the brown haired boy said.

They continued to argue until you spoke up, "Are you going to keep talking about me like I'm not here, or are you going to explain?" you asked, frustrated by what was going on.

"Look just let us talk for a moment," he said, before leaning closer to you, "Then we'll tell you everything, I promise," he said, his voice now rather low.

You knew better than to trust the word of a pretty boy, but dam was it hard not to, "Fine, but you better explain everything." The boy nodded, walking over to his friends as they huddled to talk. They weren't that quiet so you could hear almost everything. Something about a camp, and someone named Chiron, and how it would be a lot for you, and blah blah blah.

Their huddle came to an end when the other boy who didn't talk much shouted, "Would your parents care if you were missing for a little bit?"

Normally that would be a weird question, but nothing seemed to bother you anymore, "I don't even think they would notice if I disappeared for a year," you shouted back.

The boy approached you again, his friends standing a little ways away from you two, "We're going to take you somewhere where everything can be explained to you. You don't have to go, but if you want answers it might be your best bet, since it's a lot," he explained.

"I want answers, but why should I travel to some mysterious place, with three strangers whose names I don't even know," you countered, a bit sceptical.

"Fair point," he said, "Then here, I'm Luke Castellan," he held out his hand for you to shake.

The dumb gesture made you smile, something you hadn't done all day, "Y/N L/N," you introduced, still holding onto his hand.

Luke could feel his heart speed up a bit from how you were still holding his hand, and the fact that he made you smile, "Will you come with us now?" he asked hopefully, "I promise you won't regret it."

"That's usually something someone says before they do something regretful, but fine, I'll go," you said, watching his face light up with excitement.

"Great, my friends will get us set up to go, just know the way there may be a bit unconventional," he said, still holding onto your hand.

"I would expect nothing less," you joked, excited about what the future held for you.

You two waited for Luke's friends to come back, and made small talk trying to get to know each other, "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," he said, referring to when you made him fall down.

"In my defence I was trying to save you from a gorgon," you said, trying to not be embarrassed by your actions.

"My hero," he joked, as his friends arrived with the chariot.

"I don't think anything can surprise me anymore," you uttered, no longer surprised by the weird things you saw.

Luke let out a chuckle, "Oh trust me princess, there's a lot crazier things in this world that will surprise you," he said, the name sliding off his tongue by accident.

You tried to not let the effect the name had on you show, but you rather liked it. You didn't know what the future held for you and Luke, but you were rather excited for it. Unlike Clarisse and Ethan who already wanted to jump out of the chariot.

Current Taglist (ask to be added)

@almost-gabrielle @scarlett-8 @atashiboba @that1deerpersondownstairs @herondale-lightworm

[olderthannetfic]

re it being lonely to have an uncommon kink

One of my own kinks, Dolcett, is almost exclusively a het thing, and I get frustrated that I have to sift through mountains of boring sexy ladies to find just one fic or drawing that depicts it happening to male character of any kind, much less a male character of my type. It's frustrating and lonely, I *know* there are other gay guys out there who are into it. At the very least there should be straight folks who like a genderswapped femdom version of it. But it's just not very common.

This doesn't mean there's something wrong with me. It's no more weird than shipping an rarepair with with only one fic on AO3 that you wrote yourself.

It's slightly ironic that I'm anoning up to send this ask, but if I can shake the "there is something wrong with me" feelings in re fiction about sexily enslaving, slaughtering, and cannibalizing people based on social status and/or gender, you can do the same for fiction about urination during noncon.

Maybe we both want to keep our usernames and main blogs off of our squicky kinks, but we can also both just high five each other in the back of the extreme kink emporium. There's no shame here.

--

[andikiramman]

hey riot

quick question... ಠ_ಠ

can you plz explain to me why this had to happen :)

like other than the fact that you hate us and want us to suffer for some weird reason :D

but like, seriously... i genuinely do not see the point in jinx dying.

maybe i'm fucking slow and missed some major plot point that made jinx dying a reasonable plot point, but i'm seriously drawing a blank here.

(edit: okay so i just saw a post basically explaining how jinx actually escaped the explosion and only faked her death, so please disregard everything i said after this… i really did miss something, didn’t i lmao)

i know at this point, jinx feels that there is no reason for her to be alive anymore. she truly sees herself as the root of all the bad things happening around her. but we the watcher know that that's factually not true. recall the hexless AU ekko and heimerdinger traveled to. there, literally everyone was alive except for vi. and even then, notice how she was able to cope with it in a healthy way and didn't become jinx???? maybe, just maybe, that's because she was never the problem. y'all already got rid of the guys that started all this shit just a few minutes prior, so literally what was the point of this?

maybe i'm just lacking some media literacy, but for the latter half of this season, jinx and vi were getting along and reconnecting. of course, it would have never been the same as before, but in my personal opinion, from the way they built their relationship up, they made it seem like jinx would get at least something better than this...

and honestly, i get it, that whole "conversation" she had with silco while she was in prison about killing being a cycle sort of alluded to jinx dying. in her mind, as long as she's alive, the people around her that she loves will keep dying (mylo & claggor, vander, silco, isha)... i guess this was her own fucked up way of protecting vi, because she fears that if she got too close to her for too long, vi would end up dying too.

but i'm still not satisfied, sorry ┐(´д`)┌

and legit what sense does it make for vi to lose her sister... she's already lost everyone in her family. genuinely i do not see the point. if someone could please enlighten me, i would very much appreciate it.

[adobe-outdesign]

Thoughts on mega jynx? They finally found it in the leaks…

(Note: I'm not doing proper reviews of beta Pokemon, because they're basically WIPs and it's not fair to judge designs that were never meant to be seen. That said, I'm fine just offering quick opinions and whatnot.)

Kind of amazing we have a design for Mega Jynx at all after vaguely knowing about its existence for years through audio files. Finally, after years of speculation about what the design was and why it was scrapped, we finally get to see it, and it's... kind of mid?

In terms of it being a mega, not much seems to have changed in a way that gives a sense of progression, if that makes sense. The dress is different, but not really more complex. The eyes are different, but once again, not really in a way that connects to the original design. The body shape is the same, minus maybe the breasts being bigger (which, side note, is the last thing I really wanted to see progress here). The hair is drastically exaggerated, but when people think about Jynx, I don't think hair is the first thing that comes to mind.

I do like some of the changes made here—the eyes seem to have a vague hypnosis idea to them because it's a psychic-type, and the dress in particular looks very winter-y and actually gives the design something to make it look like an ice-type, something badly missing from regular Jynx (side note: where are its legs??). But as a whole, it doesn't really look like a mega Jynx; almost looks more like a regional form or something.

To address the elephant in the room, we have confirmation from the leaks that this design was scrapped due to fears of controversy. I don't think it's any worse than regular Jynx—things like the eyes in particular at least move away from the worst parts of Jynx's design. However, I think a mega Jynx, in general, is a bad move because this is the alternate design. Any form where you have to draw attention to regular Jynx all the time is kind of a poor idea. It's why I've advocated for Jynx getting a regional, as that's the one form where you wouldn't need to interact with the original in any capacity.

Overall, though, I think scrapping this was a good choice. Controversy aside this was kind of a bland design anyway, so I don't think Jynx fans are missing out by GameFreak cutting this one.

[papaya-inspiration]

This is really interesting! I hope you don't mind if I do a bit of analyzing of your loglines, because this is also something I struggle with and I'm interested in seeing what I can learn by breaking down the ones you've posted.

Some quick context first: I haven't read any of your longform fiction. I know from my sister (she's a fan) that they would probably be right up my alley (and I fully intend to read WtC, it's just long and I haven't quite gotten to it yet.) So I can't how accurately these capture the actual stories, but I can analyze them from the perspective of someone in the target audience who might pick up one of these books on the strength of the logline.

The thing that stands out to me most is that nearly all your loglines break up nicely into two parts: the first clause sets up the context of the story and the second clause provides the main thrust of the plot. In your stronger loglines, it is immediately apparent how those two things play off each other. In the weaker ones, the two parts feel disjointed or don't have an immediately obvious connection, and thus are missing the "twist" or "hook" that draws potential readers in.

Let me explain through some examples. I think your strongest logline here is the one for Shadows of the Limelight. The set up is both clear and snappy ("In a world where fame gives you power") and the plot hook immediately sets up several dramatic questions (what is protagonist going to do with all this sudden and unexpected power? what expectations come with it? how does the hero he saved feel about this? how does the protagonist's status as a "fanboy" affect with that?) The relationship between the set up and the plot is immediately obvious and it comes with the "twist" built in.

On the other side of things, I think several of your other loglines suffer from the same issue, particularly The Dark Wizard of Donkerk and Millenial Scarlet. Both have a set up and a plot hook, but the relationship between the two isn't clear. For Dark Wizard, how does "being raised by dark wizards" affect going on an adventure? Does it hinder the protagonist, or prepare them to approach their quest in a particularly unique way? Does it make them a particularly unlikely duo with the wayward princess? Are adventures a normal thing for this world? I think a stronger logline would tie the protagonist's unique background to how their quest will go down, which also has the added benefit of preparing the reader for what the tone of the story will be.

Similarly for Millenal Scarlet, the logline would be stronger if we got some sense of how the dead mother's plans came into conflict with the protagonist's job. I love the set up--"gig-economy demon hunter" is an inherently interesting premise (at least to me) and it sure seems like the kind of job that could bring you into conflict with a loved one's last wishes. But the logline doesn't actually tell us enough about the nebulous "plans" to show that there is a conflict, or what it is going to be.

So yeah! I hope something in there is helpful to you, or at least minimally annoying to receive. It was fun to look over your examples and think about why some of them jumped out as more appealing to me than others (and hot damn I really do need to read WtC one of these days.)

Also, in the spirit of practicing and improving I'll tack on attempts at loglines for two of my own stories (though they are currently not available to read publicly anywhere, alas):

Zivanka at Baytown - In a harbor town ravaged by unpredictable storms and unfriendly to outsiders, an orphan girl discovers the lengths she will go to secure a place for herself.

Death and the Doctor - Accompanied by the personification of Death itself, a plague doctor must free a village from a strange malady with otherwordly origins.

Save the Cat is a snappy read, and only 8 chapters, so I'm just doing a liveblog of them unless I get bored or distracted.

Chapter one is about the pitch, the logline, the title, what you put on a poster and how you sell it. It doesn't necessarily come first, but I get the sense that for Snyder this would be his preferred way of doing it. (A logline is just the one-sentence "what is it about" that you use to sell people on the idea.)

Snyder says that writing loglines is awful, soul-crushing work, and I agree there. I'm awful at it. But Snyder also says that if you don't have a good logline, maybe there's something wrong with your movie, and that I don't agree with.

I think there's a fairly wide set of stories that have good, snappy, easy loglines, and are also good stories. But I think there are other stories that are good stories and don't have a great way to pitch them. The lack of a good pitch can exist for a lot of reasons, and sometimes it's just that it's more complex than can be summed up in a single sentence, or even a handful of sentences. I think in practice writers will often dumb down the story for the logline, lying about what's contained within, just to make sure that it will sell, that people will want to know what's inside.

One of the other main points of the chapter is that a good logline has irony to it, a twist inherent in the title, some kind of thematic tension, and I disagree with that too, maybe not from the standpoint of selling a script, but from the standpoint of storytelling.

Why does everything have to have an irony to it? Why does everything have to have a twist? Why can't we have stories that are just well-told explorations of conflict and character? It's like at some point people decided that they only wanted Distinct Pieces of Media, so if you wanted to tell a story that's been told before, something with its own unique texture, you're just shit out of luck.

I find this all the more irritating because often the twist/irony/idea/pitch is good, and then the execution is shit, and then people don't want that idea again. It's not like you can say "like that thing that flopped, but good".

Blake Snyder is trying to tell good stories, but he's also trying to sell stories, and this is a good thing for authors to know how to do. I accept this. I just don't like it.

So as a writing exercise, here are some loglines for things I've written, without the amount of care and polish and revision that a good logline needs:

Worth the Candle - A teenaged dungeonmaster gets thrust into the worlds he's created, where his recently deceased friend is a historical figure. (This is bad, not short and snappy enough.)

This Used to be About Dungeons - Five young adults team up to delve dungeons and bake pies. (I don't know man, I said I was bad at this.)

Thresholder - A man travels through portals to different worlds and genres, gathering powers and skills as he fights other people just like him.

Shadows of the Limelight - In a world where fame gives you power, a fanboy saves the life of the world's greatest hero in full view of the public.

The Dark Wizard of Donkerk - An orphan raised by two dark wizards adventures north with a wayward princess.

Millennial Scarlet - A gig-economy demon hunter grapples with the death of his mother and the plans she set up before she passed.

Alright, I found that less soul-sucking than usual, but I don't think that these are the oiled, muscular, perfectly toned and smiling loglines that are necessary to sell, just to be clear. The marketing unit of written fiction is not really the logline, though that helps, it's the blurb, and I am equally awful at writing those. I just don't agree with Blake Snyder that a blurb or logline coming poorly is a sign that you don't know the story.

[bowelfly]

menaces you

[manasurge]

Just the WIPs/sketches of Mourynn's Greatsword(s) progress before I start lineart and colouring. I just wanted to show how she cultivated her Greatsword from a seedling/bloom as it grew to a dagger->sword->greatsword, and then how she Reforms it with broken Caladbolg later down the line, using her parasitic vines and magic to graft them together. I figured that after doing that poll deciding which weapon she should us (which ended in a tie lmao), I thought it would work even better if it reflected her own life as she and the Scion were both grafted together as they were both broken and weak (and this is the same method she uses on her "minions"), and it's sort of bittersweet to as she loves her GS (I'll give it a name later) and seeing it get completely mangled will hurt a lot (it's her baby), and seeing as how Caladbolg was also broken, it works thematically for her to put it together (using her own unique magic). I'll probably wind up repeating what I said here in the finished drawings lsjfldk. I just wanted to provide some context. (Also for reference, this is for my Gw2 OC for non GW2 goers. I often see Gw2 stuff mislabeled as DnD when they're not specified) Also under the cut here is what her Greatsword is based on:

It's based on the Pink Quill Flower! It's funny bc it was absolutely not what I was expecting to find when I was looking for "plants/flowers shaped like blades". I mean, look at it!!!! Also I just put a compilation of my refs together into one image to make it easier for me lmao

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[flythesail]

Yep I saw so much of that after the finale! For certain, at least some of the "Amandla can't act" was just racism. (I mean the instagram comments were horrible.) But there was also quite a number of people who seemed to genuinely not understand Osha either when she killed Sol or in her decision to join Qimir. Like you said, in their minds anger would be bold and loud. But I bet a lot of women watching would find her silence/seriousness on the outside with anger boiling beneath more relatable. That is what makes the acolyte important. It's an opportunity to connect with someone you might not "see" yourself as. Yet it's still star wars for everyone. That's the beauty of media but a lot of people are just not willing to interact with a character that isn't a carbon copy of themselves, despite the presence of so many universal themes. Family being a big one.

And agreed, the development of Osha and Mae was subtle and fantastically done. To me, that's the appeal of the show - it's really as deep as you want it to be. I can sit here and say, yeah the lightsaber fights were so fun and it was cool to see Osha turn evil. But I could also sit here and write a whole essay on themes of belonging/acceptance or the nuance of good and evil lol. The material is there and in some cases people do refuse to interact with it on a critical level - or beyond what's spoon fed - and that's where you get some of those odd takes where it's like, were you watching the story being told or the one you expected from *your* perspective?

As for ahsoka, I'm not all that opinionated on it but I will say I think it's another example of DLF digging themselves into a deeper hole. From the trend toward turning anything animated into live action, to the fact that it's just not... something you could watch without context (you'd at least need to watch rebels and the clones wars and maybeeee mando too). Yet they could also see it as a safe bet in that they're drawing on the nostalgia of other shows and relying on an existing fan base.

But! I also just read s2 of of ahsoka is being written to work as an ending because s3 isn't guaranteed. And it's just so odd because what is going on at DLF that they can't commit to anything anymore? The acolyte is a particularly crazy case because it's a new era and could have jumpstarted the next decade of content. We know there were talks of a writers room, a LOT of tie-in material for s1, and they were looking for s2 directors before they called it all off. So to hear ahsoka is up in the air too, it just has to be a mess behind closed doors. Even tying up mando with a movie is weird imo after the shakiness of s3.

Which just makes this all so frustrating as a fan. It's star wars and they have disney money. They could make shows or movies about literally anything. Instead, they throw away anything new and recycle the rest.

Okay last thing for now! But I did start rewatching the other day, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people dropped the acolyte after episode 1 and 2 because they're slower. Yet I'm not sure... what you can do about that other than stick with it. Because more exciting episodes like 5 and 8 or even 6 won't be exciting without that intro. You can't start the show with everyone on khofar. And even when andor first premiered, remember what the #1 critique was??? It. Starts. Too. Slow. But now two years later, no one is saying that. Most people are looking back on andor like it's the best thing star wars has done. A lot of this probably is because of the streaming model. It creates a pressure to like a show from the very first second and to watch it as quickly as possible. (Idea being the quicker you like it, the quicker you finish, the quicker you move on to another show so these companies can sell you on the Next Big Thing.) It's just capitalism! But that means we also don't get to take our time with art as much because where's the profit in savoring. With the acolyte, people would have come around too, especially as the hate it got died down. But by canceling it so early on, you give people no reason to. It's like creating proof for a problem you created.

[herrmit]

not to start shit but. tell me you didn't understand princess jellyfish without telling me you didn't understand princess jellyfish

[hobsyllwin]

how I look working really really hard on a drawing based on a piece of media no one following me is familiar with knowing when I post it it's gonna flop like nothing ever has before even though it fucks like hell

[clonerightsagenda]

vynofiron please update us if you find out

Last I heard they were wandering around the area looking for promising looking holes and might try dumping red dye into the street the next time it rains so I will certainly keep everyone posted on the slapstick routine that is my life

[sleepinglionhearts]

You bring me so much joy

And then you bring me more joy

You bring me so much joy

And then you bring me more joy

[bacchuschucklefuck]

would you like to elaborate on any gender analysis or headcanons for the bad kids?

I love th way this is worded. what if I wouldn't like to where would we be

[starflungwaddledee]

i need to stop drawing things that i cannot share and won't be able to post for weeks or months because they are huge spoilers... but will i??? 😭😭😭

[scuddle-bubble101]

Puuuuud!!! I missed you guys

(Sorry I haven’t interacted much ^_^;)

Oh hey Lumina-BHRYBGRHVRUVNRUVNRHJNVIJRNHBGHFHVGNFV