#but this i feel is more refined...

[capnhanbers]

you're a bitter kind

i love you so

(from chapter 141, more words under cut)

I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG...i've been lost in the gamer zone, but also this has been one of the absolute hardest chapters to write so far, because i took a difficult structure (dives) and made it even more difficult by combining it with action!!! it took a lot of thought and tweaking to make it work, from a technical and conceptual standpoint.

the only constant throughout it all has been that song. Tenenbaum by the paper kites. it's one of the oldest "kiddo" songs and it completely drove me through this chapter and this art. call them radiant, call them mother's eyes...... don my clothing robes of ancient white..... like this is the song they share with az, just like Nothing Arrived by the Villagers is the song they share with frisk.

i hope it comes together for you readers like it SOMEHOW, IMPOSSIBLY, came together for me!!! these scenes were years in the making!!!

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[mewguca]

Nya Significant Harassment

[dromaeo-sauridae]

walk cycles of varying degrees of effort.

1- equine run/gallop cycle

2- hexapod trot cycle

3- quad trot cycle (with raptorial third pair of limbs)

4- quad walk cycle (with raptorial third pair of limbs

hexapods include felines, some small species of deer and unicorns, and treedogs. hexapods with centaurism (raptorial forelimbs) include wolves and dogs, plains horses, larger species of unicorn. pegasi could technically be included but they have wings, not raptorial limbs

[verflares]

new guy just dropped

[twstgo]

so I am Very Normal about how Jamil's voice sounds in this particular card

[cold-neon-ocean]

Another VashMeryl wip I’ve had in my pocket :)

[gutsfics]

i dont think that the metal plate in Ford's head is made out of magnetic metal bc Why Would You Do That

HOWEVER. it being magnetic is sooo fucking funny

post series Ford ending up in the hospital for one reason or another & a doctor orders an MRI but hes like "sorry. theres a magnetic metal plate in my head i cant get an MRI" but the doctor doesnt believe him until he takes a magnet from his room's whiteboard and sticks it to his head

and the doctor just. 🧍‍♂️

[batsplat]

your tags electorate please please please https://www.tumblr.com/batsplat/765272327445446656/the-rossi-posse-uccios-still-ready-to-fight-for

(link) a gif from 2015 of... actually, I think it's probably fine to include the gif as long as it's linked to the original? full credit to the-rossi-posse obviously, much appreciated

and here's the tags:

and, well, this is clearly correct. there's plenty of toxicity in motogp, but 'toxic yuri' is its own specific thing with its own specific set of tropes and themes attached. which are very obviously on full display here. first off, the valentino and uccio dynamic is toxic yuri staple. a childhood friendship that becomes a lifelong bond that at its core is fantastically codependent. valentino is not the most trusting soul but he trusts uccio completely and without restraint. uccio would quite literally burn the world for valentino. valentino relies on uccio to keep him grounded, keep him sane and tethered to what he came from - someone who actually knew him as a person before he became valentino the character. a character the whole world thinks belongs to them... how easy it could be to lose yourself in that. and uccio would follow valentino anywhere - his entire life is centred around valentino, to the point where he has subsumed his identity entirely in this role of 'valentino's friend', 'valentino's confidante', 'valentino's assistant', 'valentino's lackey'. toxic yuri is all about intense codependent dynamics, a pair who cannot bear to be separated, who rely completely on each other not just in practical matters but also in their sense of identity, their sense of meaning... it's capturing the intensity of the prototypical female friendship, right, and ramping it up to the max - and the devotion is such that at least one half of the pair would be willing to do quite literally anything for the other. see also: uccio and valentino not talking for a month when they were 16 because valentino romantically pursued someone uccio was interested in, during which time uccio deliberately knocked valentino off his bike and injured him? almost feels cliche. dramatic friendship breakups due to romantic competition that lead to somewhat excessive acts of vengeance are... look. they're toxic yuri

and then there's the sete/valentino rivalry, which also just happens to be the valentino feud that is the most toxic yuri-coded. their first recorded interaction is them spending a week together at kr sr's training ranch in 1998, sete teaching valentino the art of rear wheel steering and all that... and then a year later, it's the older, well-educated and well-spoken sete reaching out to valentino and offering him some advice about how to ride the 500cc bikes at valentino's first test. this is the moment where valentino essentially steps up into the adult world - and sete's counsel is part of that introduction (enough so for the episode to warrant a rare sete mention in valentino's autobiography). valentino is still so young and cocky and rough around the edges that he ignores sete's advice and gets a bunch of nasty crashes for his troubles... sete is mature, gives off the vibe of someone who feels he is somewhat above the primal nastiness of his peers, wryly amused at whatever dramatics he is watching unfold. he is also clearly amused by lively young valentino and his antics, enough for them to have struck up a friendship at some point between 2000 and 2003. partying in ibiza together during the summer break with one of your competitors? extremely toxic yuri-coded. again, it's this fondness, this sense of taking this wild kid under your wing... it's not an intense friendship per se but it is an intense friendship when they make the transition from competitors to rivals. sete's the one who inflicts on valentino his first... actually, come to think of it, only string of wheel to wheel defeats in proper duels valentino's had in his premier class career. he's the one who's initially getting under valentino's skin, not vice versa. and while valentino is still in relative command of the championship... there's still this feeling he's been taught a lesson. and it's not a nice feeling! the time between sachsenring 2003, valentino's most painful 1vs1 loss that left him feeling like an idiot, and brno 2003, where he reverses that loss... in that summer break, he's once again with sete on ibiza, he's getting his hair dyed red, he's reinventing himself after this painful defeat... idk man. getting some toxic yuri set-up vibes here

sete's amusement at valentino's prisoner celebrations at brno 2003? more of the same. I can't actually remember another example of a fellow competitor engaging so much with one of valentino's pre-planned celebrations. sete is clearly interested in the convict's garb and actually like... kicks the ball valentino is carrying around with him when they're standing on the podium. without delving into any other possible subtext of valentino putting himself in chains, it's just notable that you have this like... playful engagement. not mocking, not condescending, but certainly a rider who believes himself to be sophisticated and composed enough to be gently amused by these antics rather than actually being affected by them. sete's not like biaggi, you see - he'd never let himself get annoyed to the point of distraction by valentino's antics, he'd never let a rivalry get so uncivilised, he knows how to handle this kid. the judas kiss sete gives valentino when he seals the 2003 title? judas kisses, in the least blasphemous way possible, are low key kind of toxic yuri-coded. and gradually, this relationship is being transformed by an unexpected competitive edge... the innocence of the initial friendship, where neither of them would realistically have expected to be fighting for titles, is gradually being eaten away at. we've introduced a note of envy into proceedings, wherein valentino takes note of how sete complains about how parts are allocated within honda and assesses just how much he's going to interpret this as a personal attack. valentino is told by friends that sete watched him laughing on tv and said valentino wouldn't be laughing so much next year, valentino detects glee in sete when he informs sete that he will be departing honda. suddenly, the playful dynamic is inflected with a wrinkle of condescension after all - of sete thinking valentino is overestimating himself, is in over his head, will get the joy knocked out of him soon enough. valentino knowing that sete covets what he has... that for all the pretence of a friendly, respectful, sophisticated rivalry, in truth this rivalry is just as hateful as all the rest of them

and now we can finally get to the toxic bit (always my favourite). the thing about toxic yuri is that it takes a lot of potentially negative things that are generally coded feminine and essentially takes them to their natural conclusions - lets us actually have some fun with the whole thing. sete and valentino are both deeply preoccupied with image, sete in particular is seen as vain and self-obsessed (cf the comic described by the assen 2004 commentary joking that valentino could beat sete by attaching a mirror to the back of his bike)... obviously an unpleasantly gendered element to all this.... but, well, let's have some fun with it - the point is that sete is clinging onto an image that is increasingly far from the reality of their situation. sete thinks this is a respectful friendly rivalry right until the second that it isn't, all the while unwittingly planting the seeds of his own downfall. he makes snide comments about how the italians must have done a rain dance to hand valentino the victory at mugello, he reacts with a cold blankness to valentino almost knocking him off on the last lap of assen... not willing to openly state his grievances, either to valentino directly or in the press conference with valentino sitting next to him, only able to openly state later that he is angry when valentino has already offered his explanation for the incident. it's all very indirect, aloof - sete thinks he's too good for angry outbursts, wants to be more sophisticated than that, but in doing so carries himself in a manner that increasingly reads as dishonest to valentino. they do not party together at ibiza that summer, for the friendship is beginning to fray... but neither of them will openly acknowledge it. tags under the mugello post:

the 'stunt' in question, incidentally, was valentino playing doctor on his yamaha at catalunya, declaring his bike fully fit after beating sete in another dramatic duel in front of sete's home crowd. 2004 is about putting on a show! 'what a spectacle', right, it's about image and performance and hidden truths. about appearances and reality and the tension between the two, etc etc. and then when it comes to a head at qatar, the whole thing is extremely smoke and mirrors - a game of who said what about the clandestine manipulation of the starting grid under the cover of night, who exactly reported what and for what reason and who formally made the complaint and so on... accusations flying everywhere, from every side. valentino's weekend goes up in flames, he coldly smiles in interviews as he talks about the treachery of sete and his crew chief - and then to cap it all off, he puts a curse on sete. curses. you will find. are extremely toxic yuri. valentino practised witchcraft to torment and ruin his rival because he felt betrayed. that's toxic yuri, baby

everything about sepang 2004 is obviously also toxic yuri. we have a press conference that very much doubles as a friendship breakup, and it's the specific vibe of the friendship that tips it into toxic yuri territory. valentino ignoring sete as he enters the room!! sete publicly insisting that the relationship between them is fine, until it becomes extremely obvious that it is not fine!! "in qatar you say you were searching for an excuse to not talk any more with sete" is quite frankly quite possibly the most toxic yuri-coded question anyone has ever been asked in a press conference. just two girls being a little bit dramatic about whether they're still on speaking terms or not and making it everyone's business, while also fighting for a world title. this valentino expression while sete is calling him a 'good guy' -

- and this sete expression when valentino essentially confirms that he has not, in fact, moved on -

- again. I think this is about as close as anyone can get to toxic yuri within the constraints of motogp. they really went as far as it is possible to go here. I cannot explain this to you with actual facts and logic BUT there is something supremely toxic yuri about valentino's post-race celebrations at sepang... how he literally ignores sete attempting to shake his hand on the cooldown lap and then goes all in with the humiliation of the grid sweeping celebrations? idk it's just so mean girl-y, like why are you using the seven days between races to come up with custom shirts in order to mock your ex-friend. who does that. focus on fixing your finger. the phillip island duel is the natural continuation of that, valentino taking risks it is unreasonable to take at this stage of the championship because he has to stop sete from winning again, followed by his 'che spettacolo' helmet. like, the glory of this whole stretch of races is this intermarriage of the joy and the cruelty, where these aren't just two separate sides of valentino but they are instead the same side, inextricably linked. it's a show, he's having fun, look at how thrilled he is... sete's there somewhere too btw, thoroughly tormented

downright angelic while at his most malicious? that's what we in the business call toxic yuri

the commentariat at jerez 2005 thinking sete should have punched valentino in parc fermé, or at the very least threatened him, whereas sete instead goes for this sort of dignified silence as he clutches at his arm in pain... valentino breaking the fourth wall to gesture at sete and grin at the camera as they walk to the podium... it's mean - and again, it's all so PERFORMATIVE. playing to the spectators, always!! how indirect it all is - compare that to the most infamous podium staircase interaction between valentino and biaggi, where valentino just straight up punched biaggi. see how sete still can't quite allow himself to stoop to valentino's level, and how he pays the price. how valentino leverages sete's attachment to image against him. and all against the backdrop of bitterness and hurt and this old bond between them twisted into something uglier and ultimately irreparable... the commentators at mugello 2006 chatting about how valentino and sete couldn't even be IN THE SAME ROOM to do press, "because they didn’t feel comfortable around each other"!! a friendship breakup so toxic it has become literally everyone else's problem. joyful nights spent together on ibiza now turned into this mutual unbridled hatred and contempt. valentino's vicious desire for vengeance unravelling sete's whole career. it's how FAR valentino goes, like toxic yuri needs to be over-the-top and destructive for someone and... well, it sure was for sete. valentino ruined him!! take that for consequences. their earlier dynamic, where sete could still be aloof and amused, is unravelled - now, instead, he is being ritually humiliated, no hope of pretending to remain detached from what is being done to him. sete did not know valentino was capable of doing something like this, certainly did not think valentino would do that to him... but when pushed, valentino transformed in front of sete's very own eyes and gleefully trapped sete in a living nightmare. sete saw a new side of valentino at the precise moment when it was already too late

which is how we get to the gif. this is now years later, of course, after sete and valentino's supposed detente in 2009. in truth, neither of them had moved on from what happened. they still haven't moved on... neither of them will ever truly forgive or forget. like, this is 2015 catalunya, right - just for reference, it is a mere three races after valentino refers to sete's 'dirty games' in a press conference. the intricacies of their post-rivalry relationship is a topic for another day, but there still is an element of... well, show. of performance. of both of them playing at having moved on from what happened... they have somewhat different motivations here, go about it in slightly different ways - but for all intents and purposes, they are in alignment here. they both don't have any real interest in publicly reawakening the feud, both of them want to paper over their continued bitterness towards each other. always attached to image, always paying attention to how they are being perceived... which makes it so fitting that valentino punishes sete by essentially erasing him from the story altogether, obviously most noticeably in his autobiography. if anything, the indirectness makes the whole thing even nastier. there is something more dignified about being openly, honestly despised

so here, then, we have the meeting between these two grand toxic yuri narratives... sete chatting to valentino in the yamaha garage before uccio shows up and seems to slightly push back sete - away from valentino - in essence inserting themselves between them. valentino continues talking while it's happening, though his gaze tracks the motion. at the end of the gif, both sete and valentino go in for a hug. and still, next to them, there is uccio... who was of course by valentino's side for this entire story, from the time valentino initially befriended sete to the moment when valentino pledged to destroy him - quite literally, given valentino made his promise to uccio (and davide brivio) that sete would not win another race. uccio's there organising the shirts and helping come up with the sweeping celebrations and all of it. he's the one who is always wariest of valentino getting too close to his rivals... which, well, this is inescapably a very toxic yuri-coded pattern of behaviour. it's the immediate urge to defend valentino from his old enemy, the desire to keep the pair of old friends apart - valentino noticing it but not reacting in any way. the possessiveness of the gesture!! literally one of THE defining toxic yuri tropes. uccio is the one guarding valentino from threats, always, protecting valentino while simultaneously keeping valentino for himself. and if valentino ever even considered forgiving sete, uccio certainly would not - because any injury inflicted upon valentino is treated as more grievous than if it had befallen uccio himself. uccio, barely able to tolerate the proximity between the two of them. valentino, who has come to implicitly and completely trust uccio to have his back. sete, whose gaze also follows uccio's hand - who is chatting with a polite smile to the man who repeatedly humiliated him. the pair of them, valentino and uccio, operating in perfect harmony as they form a united front in all of their schemes and machinations. and sete the interloper - who was once valentino's friend and thought he would be spared the sort of behaviour valentino levied at biaggi, only to be treated to worse. the threat posed by sete has long passed, but uccio for one is never going to forget it. rivals may come and go, but uccio remains

in conclusion. this gif. is toxic yuri. obviously, there is more than one way to do toxic yuri. terrible relationships between women can take many forms #feminism. but the term in its conventional usage does bring with it a particular vibe... codependency, possessiveness, a certain level of obsession. guarding what is yours. making each other WORSE. the absolute blind faith of knowing the other will always look out for you. alternatively, when it's toxic yuri in an adversarial relationship... well, the toxicity still comes from the intimacy - at one point, there was genuine friendship, even if it has now been ruined beyond repair. emotions intense enough that affection can easily become hatred... until all that is left is a desire for revenge. in all cases, these are relationships with disastrous consequences for someone. and if you arrange things correctly and get yourself a triangle, you can unlock bonus levels of toxicity. congrats to these three! also, and I cannot stress this enough, there's a CURSE. curses are toxic yuri. I rest my case

[miundy-again]

Does Chara and Frisk know how to draw? If so, i'd like to see them attempt in drawing each other

♡＼(￣▽￣)

Do they?

Let's see, show us what you did? 3...2...1 !

Drawing so nice the EYES appear

(I know it's a common idea in the fandom that Chara can draw but I like it. )

Thanks again for the ask it's always a delight to answer them. 😘

Also I want to take this opportunity to say that I'm not drawing much lately and the last posts are asks but! You can ask questions! Don't hesitate to ask even it's cool. :)

[wyfy-meltdown]

I FINALLY DID IT!!! SHE IS DONE!!! Meet my first Madoka Magica OC: Komoe Mimura!!!

Below the cut is more info about her ♡✧⁠*⁠。

Bio / Base Information

Name: Komoe Mimura

Wish: "I wish I could grant wishes!"

Age: 16

Height: 5'2

Weapon: Magic Wand

Power: Grant Wishes*

Soul Gem: Purple, Rabbit Head Shaped

Witch Name: Velveteen

*Her ability to grant wishes is limited to things that can be created or destroyed.

Ex: she can grant the wish "I wish I had lots of money" but she cannot grant the wish "I wish I was rich" (one implies gaining something while the other implies altering the current reality).

Ex2: she can grant the wish "I wish [Name] would break up with his girlfriend" and/or "I wish [Name]'s girlfriend died" but she cannot grant the wish "I wish [Name] broke up with his girlfriend" and/or "I wish [Name]'s girlfriend didn't exist". (1&2 implies events that can occur in the future, 3 is past tense [meaning it would have already had to happen, thus altering the reality], and 4 would alter reality).

Personality

Design Breakdown

She has a very optimistic outlook and determined personality. She tries her best to get to know everyone, and her soft voice contradicts her upbeat personality. She absolutely loves magical girls to a stalkerish extent: she's willingly gone into witches labyrinths with hopes of meeting magical girls, and has a diary where she keeps all her information on the "magical girl secret world". She's very girly, and loves feminine things: dresses, long hair, and cuteness are all things she adores. Her favorite pastimes are watching tv, sketching, and hanging out with friends. Often times she can come off as pushy or intimidating (especially to girls she scouts to be magical girls) but she genuinely means no harm, and doesn't ever realise she's acting poorly. She takes great pride in being a magical girl, and her current goal is to thank the magical girl that saved her.

Trivia

I'm not sure if I fully like the design (mainly the waistcoat thing, and I should've given her gloves) but I'm happy I managed to actually draw her. This was a very self-indulgent design (not a sona though) and so I included ungodly amounts of ruffles and pastel pink!

Underneath her skirt is layers and layers of ruffles to the point her legs are not visible, and she has a double sleeve situation (also with ruffles underneath). The teacup & saucer hat is... rough, but I loved the concept and wanted to include it! Her rabbit ears are attached to a headband which has a ribbon on it. Her soul gem is located on her monocle chain; the alternate locations were the rabbit ear headband, one of the hairtie ribbons, and an anklet. I went with heterochromia because I could not decide whether I liked the pink or purple more (I also debated on mint, but I wanted to keep the colour palette analogous), I also struggled with very light purple vs very light pink for the hair; and went with very light pink (but I'm not sure how I feel about it). Those hair flicks near the top of her head aren't real rabbit ears, but are meant to resemble floppy rabbit ears. I wanted her overall design to invoke the feeling of "magical girl" strongly, and I hope I succeeded in that!

Her magic wand shots a magic beam(?) thing from the top (between the ears) and functions like a whip; the hand-guard is based off a rapier's, and the bottom has a sphere that looks like a rabbit tail. Her soul gem features a rabbit head on top, and a clock face (sorta) as the bottom symbol. ALSO! I promise her purple eye is the same colour as the soul gem, the glass shading from the monocle makes the eye look lighter!

Her original wish was "I wish to be a magical girl!" but Inkyuu (the resident incubator) told her to pick a different wish since she'd become a magical girl regardless

She was aware of magical girls before being approached by Inkyuu due to being saved from a witch by a magical girl; she has gained an obsession with magical girls as a result

She uses her power of granting wishes to scout potential magical girls for Inkyuu

Her white rabbit theming is because she leads girls down the rabbit hole of becoming magical girls (the day I stop using metaphors and symbolism for everything is the day I die)

[Adding onto above] She has no particular love of rabbits or Alice in Wonderland, but thinks her theming is cute and so plays into it

She'd either be a mentor figure or an antagonist or possibly both

She either knows the secret of witches or if she found out about the secret of witches she'd probably be supportive of incubators (maybe even intentionally becoming a witch[?])

She hasn't been a magical girl for very long, but is very enthusiastic about it so she's fought many witches

She's very close with Inkyuu and carries him(?) around with her

[spiritsong]

my monster, come to find me

[deoidesign]

Hello! I just discovered your blog and I immediately became captivated by your webcomic, but I'm unsure where to read all of it. I know it's on Webtoons, but I can see it hasn't been updated for a while, and you still post about it.

Are your physical novels just prints of the webcomic? Are they a continuation? Is the story complete? Thanks in advance!

Hi there!

Glad you found me and are enjoying my comic!

It's only on webtoons, and the story is not complete yet! We're 2/3 of the way through right now. It's currently on hiatus, and it's scheduled to come back in about 2 months!

I'll explain why it's been so long if you're curious, but also for my followers who might also be wondering about it under the cut. Sorry, it's pretty much just me complaining haha

I took a month off I took 2 months to get the books printed I took a month to prepare my next comic and I took 2 months to write the rest of the series (I knew the character arcs I wanted, but not the time periods or mysteries!!!) I've been working on actual episodes since then

I had to take some time off because of some pretty extreme burnout due to the sheer amount of work it was to draw over 800 pages and write 6 complete stories in a year and a half... I was getting sick almost weekly due to the overwork, it was really really bad honestly. I was having to work 60+ hours every week just to keep up...

The nature of the comic itself is also difficult... Each of the arcs is a complete, self contained story which can be read (ideally) without context, and my arcs need to be about 10-13 episodes each... And since I have an exact number of episodes to work with, it's even harder.

It takes a ton of planning and a ton of refinement, and working week to week with no breaks I was forced to put out second or even first drafts, so I just wasn't happy with the work I was doing... And to do that for the rest of the series? I wouldn't be proud of the work I did.

Plus... To be entirely honest, webtoon has treated me quite badly IN MY OPINION... They deprioritized me before I launched (I had to beg for more promotion, I'm not exaggerating), they outright denied me the opportunity to even ask for a raise, I don't make any money on fast pass and they pay me less than my partner makes working at trader joes. My first editor left me completely hanging, my second editor (who I loved) was fired... And they told me I wouldn't get a third season before my first season even finished. So it was just repeatedly completely demoralizing.

I'm sorry it has taken so long, it'll have been 10 months by the time I come back. But I realized... I won't get promotion either way. I won't get more episodes either way. I won't get more money either way. So to finish everything, to make it feel good, to make it something I'm proud of, I chose to take longer to make it better.

I am fully aware I will lose a significant amount of my readership for this and it might genuinely affect my career moving forward. But it's what I had to do! So I'm sticking to my guns on it, and I'm confident long term it'll be worth it. It never could have been this good if I didn't take this much time.

[nocturnalserenade]

my first entry for @senshixshitennouweeks!

Rei x Jadeite Week - day 1: Pride

For this first prompt I give you art and a headcanon to go with it!

So I think that in the Silver Millennium, Jadeite had a very hard time trying and getting closer to Mars. Even in the midst of all the plans and efforts to strengthen the bond between the Moon and the Earth, while the Moon people and the senshi were generally welcoming of the Earth people and doing their best to promote good relations between the two Kingdoms, Mars would mantain an unfriendly and detached attitude towards them. She would refuse to interact with them in any way except for the bare minimum courtesy, even in formal circumstances—she wouldn't accept a dance at a party, she wouldn't make small talk during meetings etc. Just to remind them that the favour and friendship that was being extended to them weren't to be taken for granted. So Jadeite had to think about something less conventional to approach her. Lucky for him he's the Knight of Perseverance (and bad ideas) so he wasn't going to give up easily! :D

She was the Princess of Mars, so her domain was battle and war. He thus started to boast about his exceptional and unmatched fighting techniques whenever she was close by. Making sure to be extra pompous about it. Being the prideful warrior that she was, of course she took the bait. She had to teach this arrogant man from Earth a lesson. So she challenges him to show her his supposedly amazing fighting prowess, planning to thoroughly humiliate him and put him back in his place. They start sparring occasionally, and he finds out that she is in fact much more inclined to communication and to physical proximity in a fighting context. She is not completely unapproachable anymore. So he obviously uses these opportunities to try to impress her (which mostly fails—he's the one more and more impressed) but most of all to at least start a conversation (even if it's mostly snarky little banters at first) and of course to be a little flirty now and then.✨

I was planning to make a second piece from a different perspective so that the pose and dynamics of the scene would be clearer but couldn't make it. I was never fully happy with it and I didn't want to waste any more time on it and decided to just post this and be done with it. ;_; I'll just link the music video I used for reference so you can check it out to have a better idea (the fighting sequence is at around 2:40)!

[houjicha]

Random Baccano thought of the day--Firo following in Maiza's footsteps is making me emotional.

In 1930, Firo mentions that Maiza is sort of seen as a coward by other associates, and I think it's interesting that even with Firo being the way he is, he still defends Maiza (even when he personally is kinda unsure how strong Maiza is). In 1927 Firo gets worried about Maiza going into the casino alone because he's the math guy, but it's not in a contemptuous way; he just feels guilty for causing trouble.

Firo being mistaken for Maiza in the epilogues of 1930 is actually one of my favorite little twists in the series, and one of the reasons for that is that it shows how much Firo has come to accept Maiza's approach to being a gangster.

I've rambled in the past about how Firo tries to fit himself into this narrow and kinda toxic box of what it means to be strong, and Maiza is his primary role model for genuine strength that can also be gentle and thoughtful and intelligent.

Not that he's the only role model Firo has, of course, but both Maiza and Firo have personalities that are a little outside the norm in the criminal underworld. (I'm thinking of Maiza's conversation with Firo in early 1930, when Firo is thinking about how Maiza is a little strange, and of the Gandors' assessment of Firo in 1934-1, especially the "suited to be a gangster, not to being a criminal" comment.)

Plus, Maiza also struggled with being raised in an environment where he was expected to conform to a pretty shitty standard of behavior, and it really messed with him until he found an outlet in alchemy.

I just love so much that Firo's character development is visible in his resemblance to Maiza. I love that they're both the type to carry too much alone, and that they're both the type to ask "Are you okay?" Maiza is so goddamn lonely, even though the Martillos do care about him--and as strong as Maiza is, I like that Firo doesn't always take for granted that he's okay.

Anyway, it's been a while since I reread the full series so I'm sure I'm missing things, but...I just think they're both really important to the other healing and it makes me feel things

[sockdooe]

Shiro redesign kinda sorta :)