#but i want it to be in a separate post

[canarybell]

About The Metatron's motivation to promote Aziraphale...

...why people usually dismiss this part?

Unlike other The Metatron’s ‘compliments’ made as an ‘argument’ to why Aziraphale should be a new Supreme Archangel, this one is made in later part of the conversation (not in the French restaurant, but right before the elevator, and right before ‘we call it the Second Coming’ bombshell). Unlike those ‘compliments’ this one isn’t a blatant lie – Aziraphale is familiar with ‘Earth ways’, not perfectly, but better than most angels.

And, unlike The Metatron’s earlier reasoning, this one can be true (or at least part of the truth).

Heaven are preparing a new Armageddon. The last one attempt was prevented mostly by humans, with aziracrow acting as a support at best. If The Metatron researched it properly to avoid mistakes of Hell, he should know about that. So humans of Earth might be considered as a significant threat to a Great Plan* - probably more significant than two defectors, even if these two are somehow powerful (if The Metatron is even aware about their 25 Lazarii miracle).

 (*also, remember: The Big One would be All of Us against all of Them, with Them meaning Humanity)

There might be a reason for The Metatron to start to go on Earth and “blend in”, to the point of understanding how to order coffee and have a small talk with a barista: to understand the enemy in general.

And tell me, isn’t Aziraphale an angel who spent more time on Earth than any other angel - literally all of its 6000 years? Doesn't he have the most experience with humans and their antics? Wasn’t he there when humans ruined Hell’s plans of Armageddon, meaning he should (at least in theory) understand how they did it and for what would a half-human Messiah reject their purpose?

And he is smart. Wouldn’t it be a waste to not use this source of knowledge for the benefit of Heaven? Of course, this one angel won’t just agree to work with Heaven again (we heard him refusing a few times in S2E6), so there must be something that will convince him – this part, how he was convinced, was discussed a lot of times and isn’t the point of this post, though.

I think, it also can lead to Aziraphale’s memories not being wiped in S3 and him having some (if very limited) capacity to act on his own. If The Metatron’s main purpose is just divide aziracrow or something like that, then wiping angel’s memories looks like the most logical action of his part. But if his main purpose is using Aziraphale's knowledge and experience, if angel’s memories are the main reason of why he is needed on Heaven – then memory wiping doesn’t look like a very good idea anymore.  

[shyaringan]

time travel fix-it but make it Spooky (based on my monster!jon post)

[mysticalcats]

i believe he is slaying as the kids say

[shikisei]

ok stupid question my bad

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

Hot take maybe but I think Bertie would be FAR more likely to survive the first two months of Dracula than Jeeves would be. Bertie has a healthy sense of self-preservation. Jeeves consistently underestimates how dangerous a situation might get (Steeple Bumpleigh, the club book) because he’s overconfident about his level of control over any given situation. He'd handle Dracula masterfully if they faced off in England, but on Dracula's home turf? Much more doubtful.

I realize this might be a tough sell, so I will explain further (or it's not a tough sell, and I'm going to explain further because I want to). (criteria taken from @canyourfavesurvivecastledracula) Without further ado.

Would Jeeves and Wooster survive Castle Dracula?

Jeeves

Jeeves' survival will depend on how long Dracula finds him more entertaining than irritating. On that basis, I don't think he's long for this world. On the one hand, he has a huge wealth of knowledge about English society and culture that he can recite perfectly from memory. That should buy him at least a little time with noted teaboo Dracula.

On the other hand, he would be absolutely no fun as a vampire plaything. Jeeves cannot be got. Sneaking up on him while he's shaving will yield zero reaction (though that's at least good for his short-term survival--given that, although he DID take the crucifix from the old woman out of politeness, he certainly isn't going to wear it. The rules of fashion don't go out the window just because you're in a spooky castle). Then, although managing the whims of rich jerks is not an insignificant part of a valet's job, Jeeves usually does this by bending his employers to his will. Dracula is not the sort of employer this will work on. It'll just add insult to injury when on top of being impossible to scare, NOW Jeeves is telling Dracula that his favorite cloak is several centuries out of fashion and he's not allowed to wear it anymore.

Jeeves will 100% go exploring in the areas he was told not to go-- though to be fair, he MIGHT actually get away with this, what with his superpower of appearing in rooms without being seen or heard. Said superpower might save him from the brides as well (though this is by no means guaranteed). Since I find it doubtful that Dracula would come to rescue his annoying ass, not being noticed is his best defense.

There are a couple other things working in Jeeves's favor; the question is just whether they'll be enough to save him.

He DOES know shorthand, and could try to send coded letters. He might even have the foresight to squirrel away some extra stationary where Dracula can't find it. But could he get them posted? Would it even do him any good?

He certainly has enough cultural literacy to figure out what his new boss is pretty quickly. If he didn't chuck the crucifix out the carriage window, he might start carrying it around in his pocket.

Psychology of the individual, sure, but the individual in question is a 400-year-old vampire who lives in an isolated castle in a foreign country and is regarded as a terrifying mythological figure in the surrounding villages. Jeeves has never come up against anything this alien before, he's cut off from his normal resources, and opportunities to play people against each other are limited.

He probably has enough upper body strength from all that shrimping and fishing to climb the wall, so he COULD escape if he wanted to, if he survived long enough. It's just, again, that overconfidence, and also Dracula has a vast library full of rare old books that are entirely at his disposal. He's keeping his eyes and ears alert for potential escape strategies, of course, but I don't see him being as desperate to get out as Jonathan was.

There are just a lot of "depends on"s here, and I'm not convinced that luck would shake out in Jeeves's favor, all things considered.

Bertie

Bertie is so perfect for the job of Castle Dracula Prisoner it's like it was made for him. Think about it. Being held against his will in big manor houses comes more naturally to him than breathing. He's afraid of things that are scary. A lifetime of dealing with Aunt Agatha has made him the world's preeminent expert in "curl[ing] up in a ball in the hope that a meek subservience [will] enable [him] to get off lightly." He will NEVER go exploring in places he's been warned away from if nobody is forcing him to (Rev. Aubrey Upjohn's office notwithstanding. There were biscuits in there). He's both fun to talk to and easy to toy with (and extremely English). A+ prisoner. Dracula adores him.

In my opinion, Bertie is at Castle Dracula either because Aunt Agatha got some wires seriously crossed and thinks he’s going to meet an eligible potential bride (I mean, there are certainly brides there), or because Dracula has something Aunt Dahlia wants him to steal (far less likely, given that one of Dracula’s THINGS is famously not owning anything silver). Either way, he's shown himself entirely willing and able to escape down drainpipes if a sitch gets too scaly.

He DOES take the crucifix, and DOES wear it (which is what will save him during the shaving scene, because you KNOW he's going to jump a foot and cut himself like the dickens). He's read enough supernatural goosefleshers to be genre savvy about terrified old women cryptically pushing crucifixes into one's hands. I also think his sunny disposish endeared him to the villagers, and they were particularly vehement about urging him not to go. He doesn't speak German or Romanian, but he's empathetic enough to recognize Pure Terror. So by the time he actually gets to the castle, his imagination is already running wild and he's plenty aware that he is in imminent danger.

I think the biggest risk to Bertie will be the brides; whether or not he's susceptible to trances, if he thinks they're trying to marry him, it's against the code of the Woosters to turn them down. But that only becomes an issue if he comes face to face with them, which, luckily, I think is unlikely on account of the aforementioned "won't go exploring" (and if he did, Dracula would definitely rescue him).

I'm inclined to say due to his drainpipe-escape habits that he WOULD be able to climb the wall and MAY attempt to sneak into Dracula's room to look for the keys if his desperation grows to outweigh his fear. Whether he does or not, though, he does NOT have the stomach to attempt shovel murder, and therefore won't get magic brain fever, and may very well simply walk out the front doors when the people come to take the boxes away. OR he climbs his way out like Jonathan did. Either way.

When Bertie tells this story at the Drones later, Tuppy will say that no doubt it's been greatly exaggerated and all that probably happened was that he spent a couple months in an oldish house entertaining a weird loner.

[freshfrenchtoast]

Kageyama's backstory only being revealed near the very end of the series is really interesting from a meta perspective.

For reference, his chapter is 387 out of 402. That's 96% of the way in.

To contrast, other characters like Tsukishima and Yamaguchi's backstories are shown in Chapters 87-88.

Now, we do get the explanation for his "King of the Court" title in Chapter 6, at the start of the series, but we don't see how he got to that point, or why he started playing volleyball in the first place like Tsukishima's and Yamaguchi's stories show.

It creates this situation where, despite being the deuteragonist, the character our protagonist, Hinata, is practically glued to the entire series, we barely know anything about him.

We don't even know he has a sister until that point whereas other characters' siblings like Natsu, Saeko, Akiteru, Alisa have all made appearances way before then. Even Oikawa's sister, though we don't see her, we at least know she exists because of Takeru.

He's both closed off to us (the audience) as well as the other characters in the series, and this results in them finding him rude or disliking his character in general (see: the "Kageyama is abusive" discourse that somehow keeps popping up even now).

Chapter 387 takes place in 2018 and was published in 2020 so it takes him 6 years of in-universe time and 8 years of irl time to really open up.

And the catalyst for all of this is Hinata fulfilling his promise of beating him.

You see, another thing to note is that, whenever Hinata thinks of Kageyama, he's always looking at him from behind.

His internal image of him is someone who's always up ahead, someone he needs to catch up to, meaning Hinata can only see one side of him, he cannot see all of Kageyama until he catches up and passes him.

Which he finally does here.

In this shot Hinata is finally the one who's looking back at Kageyama. At this moment, Hinata (and by extension the audience) can see him for all he is, can see how he was just a lonely boy who's been waiting for someone to meet him where he is, to keep running alongside him and not quit the race.

Someone he doesn't have to go easy on. Someone who would actually tell him to hurry up instead of slow down for a change.

His someone better.

[chimchiri]

Doodling Harrow is a good start to get into drawing again.

She reminds me of a messy, sweaty, angry kitten.

[itsdabatt]

Are you cowering yet

(FLASH WARNING)

Full animation here

[scalierpepper]

Canaan crew appreciation post ^

(All scenes from Reinaeiry's Take Me to Church but it's EPIC video.)

Also, there was a lot of thought put into the details and compositions for this video, and it was like 4 months of my life so I want to talk abt it ! For lack of better place to do so I've dumped everything under the cut again:

Some details/process I personally enjoy:

I used images of pluto as my color scheme for the ninth house:

And last but not least, perhaps one of my favorite details of the whole project...we took inspo from religious and classical imagery for a big handful of the compositions or poses. The art I chose to pair with each scene was very intentional:

[xitsensunmoon]

My first ever comic con! And first cosplay too. Of course it's gonna be my boy :] Ramblings about the process are under the cut(Let me know if?? You would want me to elaborate with process images for any of the steps?)

The costume took me forever to make, as I've never done any machine sewing, sculpting, fabric dying or spray painting before but learning all of these was so fucking fun!! I never realised just how many different skills go into making a cosplay but it was so worth it!!!

Almost all of the clothes(except the hat) were purchased first as bases, but all of the detailing was added by me. All of the fabric used was originally just scraps that I was given for free so I needed to learn how to dye and dye all of the stars, they were originally white.

The sewing machine was its own beast that brought me tons of frustration from the lack of skill and knowledge (it was devastating to find out that 95% of fuck ups were my fault and not the machine's lmao). But as a result, a hat sewn from scratch, all of the fur trims, embroidery on the corset, stars and the collar(which is very hard to see on the pictures unfortunately) was all added manually. The stars and the stripes(on the back of the cape) were attached using heat-and-bond adhesive (I WISH I knew about such thing just when I started working on this. It would save me so much time and nerves.)

Then I found out about polymorph(mouldable plastic) and it has become the next thing I wanted to learn, to sculpt the claws and the fangs(yes, they're handmade jfksjs). The claws I then primed and painted in trillion coats because I wasn't satisfied with the colour of the spray paint. The fangs I moulded to my own teeth and then stained with tea to match the colour of my teeth :)c

As for makeup, I used Mehron Paradise water activated paints. At first I wanted to try to save money and bought myself Snazaroo instead, which unfortunately turned out to be a waste. Snazaroo didn't hold on my face for longer than 2 hours, cracking and peeling awfully. Mehron on the other hand survived 11 hours of me smiling, talking, emoting and such and didn't even crease at the smile lines(I'm actually shocked about that). It obviously works like any other makeup which means your skin texture and wrinkles won't go anywhere but Mehron's elasticity pleasantly surprised me. It did obviously smear from sweat and saliva(if you're eating and licking your lips) but if you don't touch the skin it just dries again, self setting. But if it's dry it's fully smear-proof. Highly recommend!

And last but not least, I've decided against painting my hands as it was very risky that I will stain everything I touch at the smallest hint of sweat. So instead I got myself gloves-tights(? Not sure how they're called but it's made from the same fabric as tights) and painted them with normal acrylic paint(did you know you could dye fabric with acrylic paint? I personally didn't), then heat set with an iron and voilà, they're reusable, my hands are not stained after an exhausting day and I don't stain everything I touch. It worked wonderfully which honestly was a surprise as I was really sceptical that acrylic paint will somehow stay in place.

I think this whole thing took me minimum of 6 months with big-big breaks for my school and life in general. But I'm really proud! This project taught me so many new skills and I couldn't have been happier about learning new knowledge, even if it sucked to fail in the meantime.

Everyone at the con was really nice and gave me a large confidence boost even tho it was my first time and I had no idea what I was doing. Taking photos with other people was really awkward/new for me as I hate cameras so I really had no idea how to pose/behave in front of one. But that's okay I think. This whole experience definitely made me want to do this again, so I think that will come with experience. Thank you for reading this far, hope you enjoyed this little summary :)

[meltedmush]

This is definitely the largest bulk post I’ve ever done,,,,

[choccy-milky]

insatiable clora and (barely) resisting seb from my latest chap🌡️💕

[boatemlag]

grian is so funny to me because he is all about posturing and performing. he has a strict moral code that he came up with which is divorced from everyone else's sense of correctness, but he loathes this. he hates the rules. he came up with the rules. it's entirely unnecessary to follow the rules, because they're his rules. but he has to be Correct so even if he hates it he performs like he's following the rules, even if that means abusing loopholes that he invents within his own moral code. sometimes he forgets himself, too! like he's not always successful at performing Correctness. but then he'll go back and justify it (im not red so the trap on dogwarts wasnt my fault it was scars) (guys i had to betray you to help king ren because thems the rules!) (i had to kill jimmy and mumbo because they attacked me)... he has to make a show of dragging his feet because he often questions his own rules, why they even exist, or even outright disagrees with himself! but because Those Are The Rules he has to follow them

[akakumoeteru]

This piece was originally drawn for the JP audio drama's 2023 illustration contest of which I was one of the third prize winners. MDZS's French publisher asked to include it with volume 3 of the French edition, so I made a few edits for them and that is the version you see here.

(You can see my other guest contributions to the French edition of MDZS by browsing this tag.)

[eclrrtwo]

twt yuri recs full canvases… whew !

[hedgehog-moss]

Some August & September greenhouse photos 😊 Since it wasn't a very sunny summer I've had few tomatoes—but astronomical quantities of cucumbers, courgettes and green beans, and a respectable amount (considering I only had 1 plant) of these cute purple hot peppers. My fruit trees produced very little so I was glad I had all those pickle jars to trade for plums and apples to make my compotes. The 1st photo is 80% cucumber leaves but in the planter on the left you can sort of see my little basil forest. I feel like I've spent the whole past month making dozens and dozens of jars of basil-rocket pesto, and pickling pickles and courgettes.

Here's about 2/3 of my summer harvest—minus all the jars I traded, or gifted to summer guests

—and minus the soups, my freezer is full of soup I made with the courgettes, potatoes and cabbages from my vegetable garden. Also the berries ripened later in September so I now have blackberry jams & elderberry syrup to add to this family photo.

The past ten days were quite cold and rainy so I got to make a fire in the evenings and destem elderberries while listening to the wind and rain outside—perfect weather for syrup- and soup-making <3