#draw attention more to the main subject (the characters) and to have it be less work for me

[unknownarmageddon]

Squishes you

HOW DO YOU BACKGROUND

UH i do not. really know

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

ngl ever since i learned that rook might intern as an archeologist to explore ruins (which is crazier when you realize the world of twisted wonderland is very mysterious and fantastical; i'm sure those ruins are genuinely dangerous) i totally see him as someone who'll just get shadier and more strange over time. i wouldn't be surprised if he ends up with an energy similar to Undertaker from Black Butler or one of those shady magical pawn shop owners that knows way too much and has a million secrets. like, he's ALREADY like that and he's just a 18 year old boy, just imagine the menace he'll be someday--i can't even imagine where Jade will end up as well.

Eh, I'm sure he'll fiiiine in whatever ruins and archeological sites he ends up at it's Rook, I'm pretty sure the dangers out there are afraid of him instead of the other way around/j 🙃 I definitely feel like Rook won't be growing out of his eccentricness anytime soon. He's going around collecting more and more secrets every day at NRC already; the difference now is that he has just changed locations and is now being paid to do it. When he comes back for graduation day, he'll be Too Powerful...

As for Jade, maybe he can use his internship to learn more about the mountains and/or the land flora and fauna?? He could also look into magic pharmaceuticals, since he excels in that subject. They seem to be special interests of his--though he does hate to be bored, so I see him maybe doing something different each semester of internship (there's three max, I believe; you can take on a different one each semester or decide to stay at the same one). I think he'd learn a lot of valuable information that could help with expanding the "Leech family business" and connections to the land, as well as supplementing the business with knowledge of untraceable poisons :)) I could also see Jade taking up much less conspicuous internships where he's in more of a supportive role so as to not draw attention to himself, or just in a powerful enough position where he can collect useful information while maintaining his facade. Some kind of business-oriented or information collecting role where he's handling sensitive information (like client files?), maybe.

I'm not sure if TWST plans on progressing time to this extent in-game (maybe the next main story arc will be the following school year?), but I would love to see the third years as fourth years and the second and first years moving up a grade! (Plus incoming first years!) Then we can get new students, dorm leaders and vice dorm leaders being succeeded, and see old favorites going on their own internships and graduating 😭 I'm super interested in seeing the life and career directions each student takes, especially since we've gotten bits and pieces hinted to us in voice lines and vignettes. (For example, Riddle's mom wants him to pursue medicine, but Riddle has also expressed interest in law due to his time at school; Azul seems to have an interest in law and/or business but also hospitality, as he runs the Mostro Lounge.) Where each person decides to go and what they want to do can tell us a lot about their character and their ambitions, and it can also open up avenues for exploration and growth. (Kalim is going to inherit the Asim family business, but has also expressed before that he feels he isn't mature enough as he is now; Cater isn't quite sure what he wants to get into yet, since he's so used to putting on a cheery "mask" around other people, etc.) There's tons of interesting possibilities! (Imagine NRC's class reunions 10 years down the line though??? Their roster would be so stacked with important and influential people in a variety of fields and specialties.)

[canmom]

l'aventure de canmom à annecy - épisode deux: XR

so I'm going to abandon all semblance of chronological order at this point.

just like last year there was an VR room operating on a morning booking system - each thing had two headsets and a signup sheet. I didn't get to try every one but I did get most of them. enough that the volunteers noticed me coming back every day x3

^ some random people immersed in the Wired

this is easily the longest annecy post so far... so please read on for a big old discussion of the unique difficulties faced by VR film as a medium, and how this year's annecy films meet them... or more often don't.

so annecy's vr films section is for essentially linear vr projects (i refuse to write "experiences") that can be watched/played in less than an hour. i don't know if that's a hard rule but that's how long all the ones here were!

let's get the technical stuff out of the way: the Quest 2/3 was by far the headset of choice. some ran natively, some were PCVR with a wire connecting to a computer, and some were 360° videos which played back on the headset with 3dof tracking. some had a degree of interactivity, up to about a 'walking simulator' level. the average runtime was between 20m and an hour.

the preamble: on the limitations of VR

the big question I have with XR movies is basically... how well does it actually use the medium? like, is it doing anything that wouldn't work better as a flatscreen game or a film?

this might seem like a high bar to clear, like why shouldn't it be in VR - but VR is uncomfortable, the headset is expensive etc etc, and that's before even the formal stuff I'm about to get into. so that's 'why not'. and also, this is a new medium, I want to see what unique features it has to offer!

I'm sure I've said this before, but despite on the face of it being more 'inmersive' than traditional flatscreen games or films, VR is actually a pretty restrictive medium! compared to flatscreen games with their many 'buttons', you are very limited in the possible interactions. your main interaction is to 'pick up' and 'hold' objects, but this is close enough to actual physical interaction to highlight how much it isn't. what it actually means is that you position your hand or controller in a trigger and press a grab button or pinch your fingers, at which point the object snaps to your hand and moves weightlessly with it.

you also can't accelerate the pov too much without causing motion sickness, etc etc.

ok, what about film? well, compared to film, the big big thing VR lacks is the frame of the camera. you can't cut, you can't frame a subject, you don't have long shots or closeups, you can't even rely on the player/viewer looking in the direction of an interesting thing.

since movement is also tricky in VR due to the motion sickness problem, you're also limited in your ability to steer the viewer to interesting sights with Valve-style 'vistas' using the level architecture. it's not impossible - Valve themselves have their familiar vistas in HL Alyx - but it's something that depends on the player being able to move through a large space, so it doesn't fit these kinds of movie-like project so well. otherwise you can draw attention to a direction using various means, like visual effects that converge on a spot, or just keeping most of the action in the same area.

what you can also do, closer to camerawork, is move the viewer's point of view, and shrink or enlarge their surroundings. the language of VR 'shots' is still far from defined, but we have a few recurring ones: standing in a normal sized room, the giant's view in a tiny city, the floating perspective looking down on a diorama, the ant's eye view inside something regular sized.

how about theatre, which also has most of these limitations? well, compared to being in person with a real human being, you're limited by the capabilities of realtime animation systems and the rendering tech available on the device. you're looking at the character in a slightly fuzzy low resolution and unless you have AAA money which noone in VR does, you're a bit limited in the 'acting' you can pull off. this may change if the apple vision pro gets popular - apple already have a 'gertie the dinosaur' style demo where a very detailed dinosaur emerges from a portal - but it's definitely out of reach of most teams working on the Quest.

so compared to all these other media, what does XR offer?

compared to film and theatre, there is the game aspect of agency: a story feels different if you are the one doing it. so most VR narrative games have characters interact with the player somehow, though this introduces the problem of how to write the player into a story without feeling like you're railroading them or that they're superfluous to the real story.

it's very easy to undercut this sense of agency by having an amount that's not zero but still too small, e.g. if it just feels like the player is touching a button that lights up then you wonder why they even bothered.

the role that most games put the (vaguely defined) player character in is 'terrifying violence doer'. this is a fairly easy role to write around, and it gives the player a lot of control of the 'how' while letting the writer control the 'what' and 'where' and 'why'. similarly if the player's role is something like 'puzzle solver'. but for a purely narrative presentation, these roles don't exist.

still, this is the idea that a lot of VR rests on: an 'immersive experience' which puts the player into the story.

the other big thing that VR has is the joy of experiencing visual effects in 3D. particles, trails, transforming geometric shapes etc are cool on a flat screen and even cooler in stereo vision where you can move your head around. another benefit is spatial audio by default - something that is gradually coming to games but provided 'for free' by vr consoles.

in the land of games, you also have incredibly precise position and direction input... as long as it's in arm's length of the player. the most successful genres of VR games (so far) use this: a lot of shooting games, and some games that let you interact with physics objects, offer 3D jigsaw puzzles, or simulate sports to provide some real exercise. it can be really good for rhythm games as beat saber demonstrates.

VR is also really for social games like VRChat - similar to MMOs but with the benefits of more complex tracking in lieu of canned animations.

but... none of these fit the form of a predictable 15-50 minute narrative sequence! they're not films! so the VR films category at annecy is a tough problem to crack.

last year, the VR project that most impressed me was one that put you in the seat of a novice spotter in a bomber in the second world war. this was a great fit for a lot of reasons. you are in a vehicle so you have no reason to move from seated; the scenario is full of loud scary sounds that can make full use of spatial audio; your 'character' is well-defined but also doesn't have much reason to speak within the scenario. this had a small amount of interaction (by pointing your head) which you could actually fail, making it a bit closer to a game, and also giving you reason to play close attention to the bombed out cityscape below you. it did a fantastic job of capturing the tension of a dangerous air mission, the pilot character interacting with you was compelling, and overall it really benefited from being in VR.

this year's films

sadly nothing I saw this year comes close to that. but still, some are interesting, so let's go through them!

My favourite this year was probably Flow - completely unrelated to the movie in the main competition, though they share the trait of being completely wordless, conveying their story simply through imagery and music.

Flow's big trick is a very cool visual effect where characters and objects are conveyed the trails left behind by little particles, causing them to appear ghostlike . At first you're just flying through a cityscape, passing various people on the street and in the subway, with the particle trails conveying the breaths of the passengers; gradually a storm brews, the trails becoming the wind that tears at everything.

I believe this was a prerendered film, with only 3dof tracking - i think i saw some compression artefacts at some point. So it's less technically impressive than if they managed to do it realtime but it does make full use of the power this gives to render loads of particles and move rapidly through different scenes. it was also an effect that benefitted from the ability to put you in the middle of it - something that would not work as well on a flat screen.

But it also benefitted a lot from being more film-like. It has an original soundtrack, and progresses without input from the player. There's no awkward 'player' character to write around, no space you stand about in. The film can simply unfold and let you appreciate it. In this case, no interaction is better than bad interaction.

My Inner Ear Quartet from Japan did not do anything particularly novel with the medium, but to my mind it had by far the most compelling story. It tells of a young, introverted boy who habitually digs in the dirt for objects that other people would consider trash. The title refers to a string quartet which he hears when he cries, imagined to be in his inner ear; also there is a pair of tiny shrimp which he saw grow in a net.

The first half is narrated by a man who turns out to be the boy grown up, now a hearing aid salesman. While the boy abandons his box of treasures, as an adult he returns to collecting and documenting abandoned objects as a kind of urban explorer.

The geometry here is stylised in a kind of rough, children's drawing way. I think this could have been pushed further with more complex shaders but it works. For the most part, you're watching as an invisible observer seated on a floating chair. At certain points, the viewpoint is taken inside the boy's ear, or into the tin of treasures, where you can grab the objects and get the boy's brief, poetic description of each one.

I liked this story because it had substance, but left enough up to interpretation to be engaging. By showing the treasures to us with the descriptions we get to understand why they might be significant to the boy. It plays well with the classic anime theme of objects as vessels for emotional significance. I think it would have worked just as well on a flat screen, but I enjoyed my time with it.

Now the rest...

The Age of the Monster had some things going for it, but honestly I think this one shouldn't have been in VR. It's basically a film about how bad we're fucking up the planet, putting us in the house of a man who works in the nuclear industry in the 70s up to a future where the cooling towers lie in ruins. The 'monster' is a giant anthro catfish, seen first as a B-movie monster and dream vision and finally as a real kaiju scale creature in the final future scene.

We're told about the economic circumstances that led to the man getting this job, and his relief at working in nuclear during the oil crisis; we're told about the infamous repressed oil industry report about how climate change is gonna be a thing; we're told about the man's fraught relationship with his radical daughter who is furious about his extractivist ways. Then we get a collapse and humans learn to take the force of nature more seriously, i forget the exact phrasing they used.

The main problem is? These are mostly things you are told, by voiceover. There is some environmental storytelling in the evolution of the house but not enough to convey much without the v/o. the film does not seem to have the confidence in its imagery to show us what it's trying to say.

I feel like the film's vision of the post-collapse future, with flocks of birds flying over a wide river and collapsed overgrown cooling towers, is a huge missed opportunity. Here's an opportunity to apply some true visual imagination of how humans might live in a climate changed future... but nah, giant catfish kaiju just kinda hanging out there.

t

The environmental message is generally a stance I sympathise with, but the film doesn't make a good case for it on a propaganda level. We see the cooling towers outside the window and eventually the house, flooded, but it does little to make the collapse narrative emotionally compelling - and I question a little the choice to make it nuclear focused in a film about climate change. It's probably based on an actual guy, right? Maybe someone's parent? But... despite putting us in his shoes i don't really feel like i understand him very well.

Does this seem harsh? I know full well how involved vr dev is, and even simple things can take weeks. But i also want someone to make the most of this medium. To make something as compelling as the best short films on the main screens.

Gargoyle Doyle tells another 'skipping though time' story, depicting a gargoyle on an 800 year old church from its construction through to demolition. I would compare this one perhaps to a puppet theatre - it certainly stands out in terms of character animation, with Doyle played by Jason Isaacs as a classic grumpy old British theatre guy, his foyle foil a goofy statue of monk acting as a drainpipe with a penchant for puns.

I didn't get to watch this one in full, since I got to sub in for someone who left early (thanks to the volunteer who took pity on me when it was fully booked lol). So I didn't see the full arc of this. What I saw was... definitely edutainment material, but pretty well done. The player is cast as a visitor to a future museum and nature reserve built on the site of the church. It seems like this was originally shown in a real museum in Venice, with the 'in the museum' sections portrayed in mixed reality; obvs this wouldn't work at Annecy so they have these virtual too.

The narrative as a whole seems a tad self congratulatory and pat, with Doyle learning a valuable lesson about not being a cunt to his only friends as he's resurrected in the museum, and it doesn't do a whole lot with the VR framing, but taking it as an educational puppet show, it works pretty well - the voice performances are good and the jokes, while a little predictable, work for the kid-friendly style it's going for. I'm not sure it really needed to be 40 minutes long, but I can see they wanted to go maximalist for a proof of concept like this. It is kinda limited by the rendering capabilities of the Quest, the lack of shadows in particular, and could definitely benefit from some baked lighting given the relatively static scenes, but I give it a lot of credit for the character animation and VA.

Apparently the jury liked this one too because it won the competition!

Nana Lou has been in development a few years apparently, casting the player in the role of a psychopomp spirit whose role is to ease the passing of a woman dying of a stroke. Visually, this is one of the best looking, with elaborate forest scenes and strong environment design.

What I really like about this one is its use, at times, of a diorama-like presentation where the player looks down on tiny characters in a room. This is a concept I've wanted to try in VR for a while, and it's cool to see someone do it.

I found the kind of spiritual aspect of the story a lot more underwhelming. The player is accompanied by two other spirits who explain everything that's going on and point out the significance of all the imagery. The player is informed they have an important role, but they don't have a name and can't talk back, and the only interaction is to grab floating photos to initiate flashbacks.

I wish this film had had the confidence to trust in its acting and visual storytelling. While Nana Lou's life is a bit too lacking in serious conflict to make the premise work, it would still be far more interesting and compelling with the frame story largely trimmed. You could still cast the player as a psychopomp but you don't need to have a greek chorus telling them what to click on!

The actual story concerns Lou's relationship with her daughter, who became estranged when she quit university to raise her child, instead of staying on as Lou thought she should. This caused them to spend decades estranged. Finding out this story frees up the daughter's spirit as well, and the penultimate scene has her speak to Lou and make up.

There's definitely something to work with there, but the main delivery mechanism is rather ponderous narration triggered by interacting with objects, with the dramatic scenes largely having taken place off screen. Like The Age of the Monster, it suffers a severe telling-not-showing problem.

It's a shame because there are nice touches here. When you are beside Lou's bed in the hospital, your touch leaves a glow effect which is very evocative. The acting is solid, though the script undermines it a bit.

I don't think narration is evil - evidently, Yuri and I used it in our film, it's a very efficient way to convey information - but I do think it requires a lot of thought put into style and rhythm.

Spots of Light... ok. This one tells the story of an Israeli soldier who lost his sight in the Lebanon war, and later regained it temporarily through surgery. Given my general feelings about the Israeli military (presently carrying out a genocide), I was definitely not disposed to like this one. Nevertheless, it was the only one free so I decided to give it a shot.

This is one of those films where you interview someone and then put an animation to it. So this guy tells you what it was like to be blind and then not blind to see his family briefly, and it's illustrated with various images. And (if i remember right) some parts are on tvs showing video (and if you're using vr to embed a flat screen what is even the point??). When he's blind, everything disappears except vague outlines suggested by small points of light.

Ultimately this is a film about blindness, not the war (of course, meaning this is a person who could leave the war behind - though not to make light of the cruelty of conscription). Making a film about the experience of blindness in a purely visual medium is a choice all right, and I don't feel like this film expressed anything unexpected about it - he was sad to lose his sight, glad to see his family, depressed to lose it again but ultimately at peace. Which is conveyed, of course, primarily by narration.

So yeah this one didn't do much for me!

Stay Alive My Son, now. Agh. This one was... this one was a mess.

So this one is about the Cambodian genocide, right. It's based on a memoir by a survivor of the genocide, Pin Yathay, who became separated from his wife and son while fleeing the Khmer Rouge.

The way this is presented is essentially a walking simulator that takes you through a dungeon-like environment full of skeletons. Every so often you encounter 3D films - filmed with some kind of depth camera - showing actors playing out scenes from the life of the family. There is also a frame story where you visit Pin Yathay in his modern day house, where he sees a digital reconstruction of how his son might look as an adult

This one is difficult to review because it was severely marred by technical issues with the spatial audio, which caused the sound to cut out when you turned your head the wrong way or moved it to the wrong place. It would probably be less of a rough experience if the audio worked as intended. Nevertheless, I have plenty of reservations with the way the story is told as well.

It seems the director of the VR experience (fine! I'll write experience, there isn't a better noun for this kind of thing that sits between game and film) met Pin Yathay, there's video of her speaking to him at the end, but he had pretty minimal creative input beyond providing inspiration through his memoir. So this is a Greek/US interpretation of the Cambodian genocide. The narrative it tells is basically: Yathay and his family are living a pretty idyllic life, then the Khmer Rouge happens, seemingly not for any particular reason. Yathay and his family are evacuated and then put to hard labour growing rice; eventually, their son is put to work too, so fearing for his life, they flee into the jungle.

The Cambodian genocide is - obviously! - one of the worst atrocities of the whole bloody 20th century, and the circumstances surrounding it are worth reading about (though pretty unremittingly bleak). But you won't learn much about, say, cold war geopolitical alignment, Prince Sihanouk, the absolutely horrific civil war, the different ideologies in play in the Marxist milieu that influenced Pol Pot, or the spillover from Vietnam and the massive bombing by the Americans here which helped put the Khmer Rouge in power. You definitely won't learn much about the Cambodia that existed before the war. Instead, you're mostly traversing a dungeon that could come from any horror game, shining your torch on the things you're told to in order to unlock another segment of narration from (the actor playing) Yathay. It is, in pretty literal terms, a tour of atrocities.

Unfortunately the '3D film of actors' conceit doesn't really work because... even audio issues aside, the acting is pretty unconvincing. For some reason - perhaps that subtitles are tricky in VR - the dialogue is in accented English rather than Cambodian, and it's pretty quickly evident that they just have one guy in the role of 'Khmer Rouge soldier' and the lines he's given are kinda awkward. The horror game aesthetics of the environments and the amateur actors and costumes all clash pretty badly. The 3D filming is also kind of jank, only really working if you're fairly close to the camera position, so you aren't really free to move too far even if the audio didn't crap out.

The basic feelings it's trying to explore - the horror of living through a genocide, separation from a child, guilt for abandoning him, not knowing if he's alive or dead - is definitely worth depicting, but honestly this would have been far far better expressed as a 10-20 minute film than a slow 55 minute VR walking sim. The more abstract bits toward the end with paper plane imagery and a Buddhist temple (where you have to put a block in a slot to unlock a door) also feel too jank and videogamey to really have much impact, though by that point I had been wrestling with the audio for nearly an hour so I wasn't in the most receptive mood.

But all the execution flaws aside, that leaves the question of what even is the right way to portray a genocide artistically? This approach is very abstract, reducing the events to dislocated symbols - propaganda posters, the tree against which children were dashed - which perhaps might reflect how fragmented memory becomes, but seems to be wasting the potential of VR to establish you in a place. But then, I guess rice fields are harder to render than enclosed dark rooms.

Speaking of rendering, this was PCVR, so your torch casts shadows and it has other features that would be hard on realtime. But the lack of ambient light and general harshness of the materials adds to the 'horror game' feel.

There is something here about how genocides become associated with certain images. For Cambodia, it is primarily phrases like 'killing fields' and the stacked skulls in the genocide memorials such as Choeung Ek - few people know the name of the memorial in the west, but I think everyone who's heard of the genocide has seen the big stack of skulls. I imagine this is what all the skeletons in this experience are supposed to call to mind: they're representatives of the many ways people died. The problem that this kind of environmental storytelling has long ago been made kind of camp by videogames. A photo of a stack of real skeletons still has power to disturb, but less so a low poly 3D skeleton.

Should it have tried for a realism? The idea of trying to realistically simulate the experience of living in Cambodia though the genocide is kind of ghoulish, and I'm glad they didn't take that approach. But the 'tour of images' approach falls flat. I think The Most Precious of Cargoes elsewhere in the festival makes a stronger case for how to approach a topic like a genocide in a consciously constructed way, but it also has the ability to be in dialogue with a lot of other films made about the Holocaust. There is less in English about the Cambodian genocide - the viewer can't even be assumed to know what happened.

Overall, I think it would be possible to make a much stronger film about the genocide in Cambodia. But I'm not sure what that film would look like. I did learn one thing from this story, which is that there is a reality show in Cambodia which shows survivors of the genocide being reunited with their families. Not much is made of this here, it's something of a background detail. What would it be like to grow up in the shadow of an event like that? I wish the film had been willing to portray more of modern Cambodia - and I hope at some point someone in Cambodia will have a film at this festival, in VR or not, which can talk about it all from the first person.

Is there a good way to try to answer the curiosity of people who live safely in rich countries about what it is like to go through an actual genocide... using a Meta Quest 2 VR headset that costs a few hundred quid? I don't really know, but this film could have done with being a bit more reflective, I feel. So it goes.

the others

there were three films I couldn't see - The Imaginary Friend, Oto's Planet and Emperor. If I get some other chance to try them I'll write about them too!

Overall I felt a bit disappointed with the VR this year, but also I kind of want to put my money where my mouth is and try my hand at making this kind of thing. I do have the technical knowledge at least!

If you read all this, thank you.

[harukadrawsthings]

EDIT 7/10/2023: Wow, in less than 24 hours I already got the 5 slots filled! Thank you to everyone and my apologies to those who didn't manage to have a slot in time. There's always a next time! As soon as the replies become ready I upload them but there's no deadline. Stay tuned!

---

Original post 6/10/2023:

Hello, everyone, hoping that this start of Autumn is being good for you!

I've been a little busy dealing with mental health and quotidian stuff but over two thirds of the next part of the comic of Soul(mate)s of Light has been already developed. Thank you for your patience once again, expect its upload in the near future once it's ready to show.

In order to maintain the focus on the comic strips creation I'm re-opening the Ask box for a very short time once again. This post will be updated as soon the inbox gets closed.

After validating the questions of 5 different users made that include at least one to AU characters I'll temporarily close the Ask box once more. First come, first served. So if you were saving questions in the meantime, hurry up and ask them now while slots are available!

BEFORE SENDING AN ASK:

Last time in August when I was checking the pending messages and validating the questions that were suitable for replies I’ve observed a few things that I want to bring out some attention, as well reminding about a few factors:

There were users not respecting the “Maximum three character-directed questions per user” rule. Please consider there are other people that send questions and it’s not fair for them to have to wait longer because somebody made more asks.

For a better management of posts, I also want to ask to please make those three questions in a single post whenever it’s possible instead of sending them separately.

If someone sends me more than 3 character-directed questions per wave of replies, I’ll either only respond to the three first questions and suppress the others, or select the best 3 questions of that message.

Please don’t ask the characters questions about crossovers with IRL IPs unrelated with Pokémon. It’s 99% certain I won’t answer them. I reinforce that I reserve the right to not reply to questions that I find them inadequate to my AU standards or for other reasons not listed in the rules.

Although I don’t forbid questions done to characters that aren’t part of the main/secondary cast of the AU story, please consider that questions made to characters outside that circle are subjected to be unanswered if I conclude that replying them doesn’t bring anything relevant either to the readers or to the AU itself.

If the Ask Button isn’t available it’s because I’m not accepting character-directed asks at the moment. Do not use this thread to send character-directed asks. Please wait for a reopening and save your questions for next time! 😊

Author-directed questions are quicker to be replied than character-directed ones (especially if there's no character-directed ask included in the entire message). If I see it helps to speed up the inbox cleanup I can consider giving priority to answer this type of questions.

A reminder about the original rules to also be considered

Be polite, don't use foul language/swearing.

SFW asks, only! NSFW asks will never be replied.

Gore scenarios are very unlikely to be replied or if it involves a trigger subject that requires a real graphical depicting as well.

I reserve the right to not reply to a character ask if I find it inappropriate or for any other reason not mentioned here.

Maximum three character-directed questions per user. If author-directed questions are included alongside with character-directed questions, please don’t surpass 3 character questions and 2 author questions (making it a total of 5 questions per user).

Due to my personal life and the development of a new comic, replies to the asks won’t have a fixated deadline to be developed and published. Please be patient!

If I find the asks to be suitable for replying I might take some time to draw the character answers since it's something I have to do in parallel with ongoing projects like AU comics or illustrations (and there's my personal life to consider as well, of course!).

The more questions in the same ask message I receive, the more time I'll need to draw them as well since I have to submit every answer on the same post!

I give priority to draw answers for the asks I receive first in my inbox. Asks sent after someone has done it first will be in the drawing queue.

While I don't discard the possibility of drawing replies to questions directed to characters that don't have much relevance to the AU I can consider to do them if I conclude it's doable. However, I recommend that the questions are done for characters that are more prominent to the story.

I highly advice that the questions are asked in English, although I understand questions done in Portuguese or Spanish without having to use automatic translators for other languages.

Thank you in advance!

[mauesartetc]

hello maue! ive seen you talking about helluva boss and hazbins character design and the like, so i was wondering if you could critique the character designs from the game doll eye? specifically the main three characters: alfred, mystery and kao. i have my own opinions about the subject matter, but im curious to see what yours are.

Interesting!

So right off the bat, I'd like to highlight a major issue all three designs have. Fun game for those at home: Without looking it up, guess the species of each of these characters.

(Answers below the cut)

Left to right: Alfred- Shiba Inu. Dr. Mystery- Oriental Longhair cat. Kao- Ram.

If you answered all three correctly, congrats! That's three more than I did. Alfred much more closely resembles a fox or coyote than a Shiba Inu (and his nose is so tiny I actually thought he was human at first glance). Dr. Mystery looks... somewhat feline, but the thick, striped tail reminded me more of a raccoon. And my gut reaction to Kao was "mouse", judging by what I thought were his gray cheeks, pink nose, and whiskers. And that's the thing: A character's species should be so clear that your gut reaction will be correct. If viewers can't see the resemblance, the design isn't communicating the information it should.

Another thing is that their poses are a bit boring since they're too symmetrical; like tell me you used symmetry mode without telling me you used symmetry mode. A symmetrical pose for a character is fine for orthographic/turnaround sheets so you know how they look from a perfect front view, but for a main pose it's kinda stiff and doesn't show much personality. It gels okay with the art style, which appears to be very flat and graphic. But there's no harm in giving even heavily-abstracted characters a little dimension.

Lastly, these designs are extremely bottom-heavy, with the feet taking up a disproportionate amount of space. Because of this huge disparity of visual "weight" between the feet and faces, our eyes keep moving to the feet, which isn't ideal. Generally (not always, but the vast majority of the time), you'll want to direct the most attention to the character's face, as the face expresses the most emotion. "The eyes are the windows to the soul" and all that. What are feet the window to? Blisters?

Anyway, here are my notes on how the designs are working on an individual level.

See, the thing about making a symmetrical drawing is, you better make sure one side doesn't have any awkward tangents, or they'll reflect on the other side as well.

And now, here's how I would redesign Alfred:

I mainly just made the face and ears look more Shiba-like, made the tail more prominent in the silhouette, and shrunk down his legs and feet a tad so the proportion gap between them and the face isn't so huge. I experimented with keeping the shaggy hair on the sides of the face, but it made him look more like a wolf or a Husky, and Shibas have pretty short fur. Also, I realized his shoes looked a lot like work boots, which wouldn't make much sense for a teacher to wear in a school setting. So I replaced them with dress shoes, which would be more appropriate for the environment.

Now let's look at Kao:

Not much of a change on this one. I lengthened his face, enlarged his horns so they're more visible, puffed up his collar to make room for his pointy chin and mouth, and did away with the ear. At first I thought just making it smaller would suffice, as its huge size was part of why I thought this guy was a mouse at first. But there's a lot going on up there already, so in the end I figured it would make things simpler if his ears weren't visible. I also incorporated eyelids that imply where his pupil-less eyes are looking.

Finally, Dr. Mystery.

The first order of business was determining the facial structure. Oriental Longhair cats have long faces and defined cheekbones, so I wanted that to come through in the drawing. The ears and bangs are now simplified, and the layering of the lab coat, pants, and tail makes much more sense. I also added a streamlined version of the tail fringe I drew in the initial redline, and separated the boots from the pants. The Meowth whiskers are gone; while they did provide a strong hint that Mystery is a cat, the face already has enough going on with the eyelashes, the bangs crossing over it, and the mouth jutting out at the side. I do think this version reads as "cat" without whiskers, but if they prove necessary, a simple line for each should do the trick.

In all three I tried to stay faithful to the angular, abstracted art style while making their species more clear and making certain features more logical and/or readable. This was a fun challenge! Thanks for asking!

[aotopmha]

Can Yoshi-P please stop justifying skin colour changes in his games with awkward walls of text?

First it's that "It's fantasy, but also reality."

But now it's "It's fantasy, so we're doing what we want."

The FF16 one is at least understandable considering the subject matters the game deals with, but it's still imperfect because you can do PoC without that baggage.

Saying "we mean no harm" after all of those flimsy excuses with Y'Shtola feels so dumb to me.

I can absolutely understand the 2.0 lighting issues. Fine. That change wasn't that extreme.

And I even defended this because in a bunch of in-game artwork in ShB she's still pretty tan, but I'll believe it when we see a concept art saying she's by design supposed to be tanned, not PoC.

I'll even believe they pay this detailed attention to character design.

It's so annoying because in a new panel for Dawntrail they also say they're paying special attention to PoC representation for this expansion because they've not always done it right in the past.

And there they mentioned it's fantasy, but there is the need to still respect the irl cultures they draw from.

It's a inconsistent mess because whitewashing is still fairly common and "they're just tan" is a pretty common excuse that Japan isn't immune from either, even if it isn't entirely delibrate or conscious. (In Japanese context there is also making characters "more Asian" by removing their tan.)

And then there are some of the disrespectful outfits in Mogstation.

I still get the sense the underlying implication is that the game got more popular and Y'Shtola's tan became "less appealing" from a marketing standpoint, but they just can't say it.

But hey, going by a good faith interpretation, they better be consistent with it.

Everyone should just be tan after Dawntrail.

Then I might believe it.

FFXIV has many good to great PoC characters with complex, complete storylines, but it still falls into some pretty annoying tropes.

Most of them either die (Teledji, Ilberd, Conrad, Ahewann), are written out after their story is basically complete (Hermes, Lahabrea, Ericthonius, Lolorito) or are pushed to minor roles or were minor roles to begin with (Raubahn, Pipin, Gaius, Arenvald, Lyna).

Truth is, Y'Shtola is the only character that truly has gone through this pretty noticably, so this adds credence to her "just being tan", but I think she's also the only main character who could be 100% read as PoC along with any PoC WoL designs because she was "tan" for so long.

Currently, only Arenvald, Raubahn, Pipin, Gaius, Vytra, Cyella and Lyna could potentially become relevant in the future without "bringing them back" and as said, half of these are pretty minor characters or also have pretty complete stories.

Erenville looks to have a more major role in Dawntrail, at least.

And I think Cyella and the entire group on the First might end up getting a secondary plotline restoring the 13th along with Zero after Zeromus is defeated.

(That 6.5 screenshot is super intriguing.)

XIV is probably better about PoC than 90% of popular fantasy, but it still has its flaws and wierd justifications like this really don't help.

[hamliet]

Your post about The Glory is everything I’ve thought but couldn’t articulate properly, thank you! It’s just revenge porn and I’ve seen people praise it because it’s “the one drama that doesn’t make you sympathise with the bad guys etc” which I feel is very shallow? Nobody is born bad. It got me thinking about other dramas who do sympathise - in Signal (2016) an abuse victim went on to kill others because of his horrific childhood and the main character felt sympathy for him, in Voice (2017) a character with a neglectful mother went on to hurt women in his adulthood and the main characters stated that they wished they had gotten him help in his youth so he didn’t turn out this way, in 18 Again one of the side characters was a bully and they later revealed that 1) he has a abusive father 2) he bullied the person because they saw the abusive father hit them and didn’t want it to spread; got a redemption arc as well. I feel like stories like these have a lot more weight to them.

OMG I'm not alone? I'm not alone! Lol. Listen I've kept this to myself and two friends for months but it has been simmering, so when I got that ask I was like--I have some self control, but not enough for this. Time to unleash it all.

Bad guy bad is honestly the most commonly told story in existence. Like, if they wanted to frame it as fun revenge romp, then use fun framing. If you wanted to frame it as a serious psychological drama, then you have to actually study that psychology to portray it accurately. You can't do both.

It's also like--with this specific issue, it's irresponsible and makes the problem worse, not better. People will be motivated to bully people in the name of ending bullying; it's literally what Twitter is all about, after all. You don't reinforce that. Every bully thinks their victim deserves it (they don't, obviously). Kudos for drawing more attention to an issue in a way that will create more bullying victims, not less.

That the director turned out to have been a high school bully was also not surprising at all, because the entire story was so lacking in self awareness that it was exactly how a high school bully would write an anti bullying story. It's actually quite sad though, and I hope he receives nuance and empathy along with taking responsibility in a way that enables him to gain a new perspective on a subject he clearly cares about. Looking in a mirror and discovering things about yourself, discovering empathy, is always much, much more interesting than "put down the baddie."

[pgy4611fiu]

Final work by: Emily Rosario

title: Girlhood Core

My two main inspirations were the photographers Melissa Haugen, and Juuso Westerlund. I came across both of them on Pinterest. I was immediately drawn in by the way that they present movement in the photos. The photos capture a sense of animation and youthfulness that I would also like to present. I also appreciate how their images romanticize the ordinary life of kids as they go about their day.

One of my other sources for inspiration is the 2017 film, The Florida Project. This strong film follows the story of six-year-old Moonee and her fellow playmates. Living in a shoddy motel off the highway right next to Disney World, Moonee lives a rough low income life with her struggling single mother. Despite the harsh reality of her life, Moonee has no trouble living in her childlike world, where her worries are those of getting enough playtime while the sun is out.  This reminds me very much of my eight-year old sister who still maintains her bright and lively character even after our family has gone through traumatic events and difficulties. This theme of innocence and childlike naivety to the realities and sufferings that adult are forced to confront. 

Project Description:

"Girlhood Core" is meant to evoke nostalgia with my viewers that revolve around childhood memories that we may have forgotten with the passing of time. The main subject is my little sister who was my main source of inspiration. In a time where children are growing up faster than they need to, partly because of the internet and social media, I want to capture these moments where my sister is thriving in her vibrant, and imaginative world and emphasize the special and wholesome nature of what it means to be a kid. My photographs are meant to give a blurry or fuzzy effect, alluding to our hazy memory of childhood.  I wanted my photos to be primarily candids, which makes the context less artificial and therefore more easier to relate to. My angles are different in each photo in order to change the perspective of the viewer that helps engage them with the activity that is happening in the photo. I used low angle shots to add drama to the scene. I also purposely obscured my sisters face in some photos to draw attention to the activity she was doing, so that way the viewer can place or see themselves in her position. In each photo, I wanted to keep a dynamic composition so I made sure to move her around the frame and have her in different positions. I also wanted to keep the frame busy, since I wanted to capture the disorderly fun of childhood. Overall, my theme is the enchanting world of childhood that is a sadly fleeting thing. 

For this project, I used my Nikon D5100. I would incorporated techniques such as large depth of field, short depth of field, contrast, color balance and overall composition. I also experimented with different exposure times, depending on the time of day I am shooting at. To achieve the film filter effect of my images, I used both the Adobe Photoshop 2024 and the MacBook Air Photos gallery edit feature. On Adobe photoshop, added a layer of the photo filter Sepia, which is a warmish orange. I edited the Noise/Grain to about 50% to create the blur like effect. I also added a Curve Adjustment layer and made a reverse ‘S’ shape. On the Photos gallery, I lowered the contrast and added a vignette. I reduced the saturation to add the vintage look while bumping up the vibrance to retain the sharpness of the colors.

If I could continue this project, I would love to recreate scenes from famous movies that I watched as a kid. For example, The Parent Trap (1998), Cat in the Hat (2003), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), or Matilda (1996). I would also love to include more of my sister's friends or cousins, to have the atmosphere more lively and vibrant. 

[bookshelf-full-of-bruises]

Tea Party

I decided that I wanted to christen my new writing blog with something warm and light. What better subject than a young Rosalind coming into her powers while playing make believe? If you found this place because you follow my main blog, you likely are already familiar with she and her father Robbie. If not, you’re in for a treat! Enjoy some pure tooth-rotting fluff as morning breaks over my new domain 💛

“How wonderful of you to join us, Robert. Please take a seat. We were just about to begin.”

Robert Gardner beams from ear to ear as he is granted entry, stepping through the doorway without missing a beat. He wears a white dress shirt beneath a spring green vest- the latter patterned with playfully sprawling vines- and khaki slacks. A warm brown tailcoat completes the ensemble, and his shoes have been freshly shined. His hair hangs in ornate braids that have been fussed over for the better part of an hour. He is ready.

“Thank you, your Majesty. You are too kind. Please excuse my tardiness- I’m afraid the royal stables are still in a bit of a tizzy from the arrival of Pepermint. I’ve spent all morning attempting to sort out her care schedule. She is with the smith now, and is being fitted for her winter shoes,” he explains, bowing gracefully towards the table set for tea.

Pepermint is the most recent in Rosalind’s collection of plastic ponies, gifted to her a few days ago on her sixth birthday. Oh, how her eyes had sparkled when the tissue paper was pulled away. Like charoite beneath the setting sun. She’s not yet old enough to wear the color contacts to help draw less attention to herself, and he can’t help but be so grateful for that every time she smiles. She has no reason to believe she needs to hide herself, yet. No reason to be afraid.

Against all reason, he hopes that will never change.

From her seat at the table, his little girl giggles, and it is a sound that could melt the thickest ice. She waves him over, hands clad in the white gloves from her dress-up trunk. They’re ruddy from frequent use, and her tiara is a bit crooked, but in all his many years, Robbie cannot remember ever seeing a more beautiful princess.

“That’s alright, daddy. Come sit! We have cookies! And I need my royal ‘visor.”

The table she invites him to is set for four, which gives him a moment’s pause as he moves to take his seat. Sir Milton is present, as always, and so is Dawa. But the fifth place setting that usually appears beside her beloved rabbit’s is surprisingly absent. “Is Puffball not going to be joining us today?”

His daughter sighs so dramatically that he has to force himself not to break character and giggle. She’s scolded him for that before- it’s not realistic if you don’t pretend right, daddy- and so he’s trying to be better about it. “That’s what I needed to talk to you about,” she says, as though it’s obvious.

He nods sagely as he reaches his seat, trying to keep up. “Ah, I see. Well, then, let’s get started, shall we? Milton, my good sir, it’s always good to see you. And Madame Dawa, you are looking quite lovely today. Have you done something different with your hair?” Bowing to each guest in their turn, he pulls his chair out to take his place. He takes great care in ensuring the coat of his tail falls correctly as he stoops to sit, ever the picture of poise. It’s only befitting of the Princess’s royal advisor, after all.

Said sovereign grins impishly as she reaches to pick up her little paper fan. It takes her a second to get it opened, and she has to manually spread it the rest of the way when her initial wrist flick proves insufficient, but she gets it figured out all the same. Raising it to cover her nose and mouth, she pretends to fan herself lightly.

It is then that the magic begins in earnest.

Milton, the Furby frog, is the first to respond. The click-clack of his beak and eyes have always unnerved Robbie a little, but he’s careful not to show it. The little guy one of his Rosebud’s favorites, and has to be treated as such. No matter how creepy he may or may not be. “𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕜 𝕪𝕠𝕦. ℝ𝕠𝕓𝕖𝕣𝕥. 𝕀𝕥 𝕚𝕤 𝕘𝕠𝕠𝕕. 𝕋𝕠 𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦. 𝕋𝕠𝕠.”

She’s getting better at projecting the tone she wants; the croaky rasp of Milton’s voice is almost strong enough he can’t hear his daughter’s sneaky whispers beneath it. Pride flares brightly in his chest. She’s amazing. His daughter is absolutely amazing.

“𝒴𝑜𝓊’𝓇𝑒 𝒶𝓈 𝓉𝓊𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇, 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹,” Dawa speaks up, then. Her button eyes almost seem to glimmer in the glow of the tea lights. “𝐻𝑒𝓇 𝑀𝒶𝒿𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓎 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝒶 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓈𝑒𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒷𝑜𝓌𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝐻𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝒾𝓇𝓉𝒽𝒹𝒶𝓎! 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀?” The head of the plush bunny tips a bit to the side, allowing her ears to fall in a way that shows off the floral barrette. The motion is still a bit rigid- the accent, a bit wonky- but for her age, it’s incredible.

“I think it’s absolutely lovely. The Princess was kind, to share her gifts with you.” The creasing of his little girl’s eyes speaks to the smile that blossoms behind the worn paper fan. She wiggles in her chair a little, too happy to sit still as her father reaches to pick up her pretty tea pot and begins to pour.

“𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈! 𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑔𝒾𝒻𝓉𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓊𝓈. 𝐼𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒽𝒶��𝓅𝓎.” As Dawa finishes, though, Rosalind clears her throat to draw attention back to herself. She does not set the fan down, keeping it close in hand, but she does stop hiding behind it for the moment.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, but there is business to discuss.” She doesn’t even wait for him to put the tea pot down before she’s going for the sugar cubes: one in Milton’s cup, two in her own, one in his, and one in Dawa’s. Then a splash of milk in all four, just like normal.

“Yes, of course. You wanted to discuss Puffball’s absence, right?” He retrieves his spoon, then, and begins stirring the contents of his teacup. The tea is not hot enough to risk burning anyone, but it is warm enough that the sugar dissolves in fairly short order.

“I did,” she answers after a moment, voice taking on an almost solemn tint. It makes Robbie focus in a little more, caught off guard by the shift in tone. Had something happened to the Popple in the last….26 hours since he’d seen it last?

As if hearing her father’s internal questions, Rosalind continues with her explanation. “She got hurt during our walk this morning. The Healer sent her to the hot springs to get better, but she hasn’t come home yet. I fear for her, Robert. What if she can’t make it home on her own?”

Ohhhhh. So that’s why Jessamine had been running the washer this morning. He had been curious, knowing that he’d finished the last of the laundry last night, but…not enough so to get up and check it out. While his girls have always been early risers, he is…decidedly not. And that’s before taking into effect how little sleep he was able to get last night.

That’s why Jess had decided to take Rose to the park in the first place: to let him get a little more rest before today’s big to-do. He feels a sliver of guilt about not being there, but he also knows both would call him silly for it. They need their bonding time just as much as the next mother and daughter anyway, and everyone needs lazy mornings. Still, he always feels a sliver of regrets for the moments he misses in passing. One day, he won’t have a tea party to attend when he wakes up.

“Ahh, I see. That is troublesome.” Deciding against waiting any longer, he takes a sip from his cup. The warmth washes over him like a sunrise, and he closes his eyes to let the feeling of this second in time sink in. No matter what the future brings, they are together, here and now. And when he opens his eyes to find hers looking back at him, that is worth more than anything he’s ever owned.

“Perhaps when we’re finished here, I can go and escort her home myself?” He’s pretty sure he heard the dryer going not long ago, so with any luck, she should be clean and ready to go. If not, they’ll figure out where to take the story from there. For now, however, the suggestion seems satisfactory.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Rosalind nods sagely. “Go carefully, but bring her home safe.”

“Then it’s decided. I’ll go as soon as we’ve finished up, your Majesty. Now you really should try your tea; it’s magnificent.” He takes another sip in demonstration, then, and casts her a goofy grin when he returns the cup to its saucer. “Just like you.”

She giggles again, and it sets his world alight. “Thank you, daddy.” The play momentarily suspended, his heart melts. What could he ever have done to deserve something as precious as this moment? This life?

He may never know. But the one thing he does know is that he will protect it with every last fiber of his being.

“You’re welcome, my Rosebud.”

[decaffeinatedartichoke]

She's Not There: The Watermelon Woman, Black Queer Female Sexuality and Absence

In her book “Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality" Evelynne Hammonds discusses black women's sexuality as it is often compared to a void. Cheryl Dunye's film The Watermelon Woman explores and comments on this concept. Hammonds includes this quote in her book

"To name ourselves rather than be named we must first see

ourselves. For some of us this will not be easy. So long

unmirrored, we may have forgotten how we look. Nevertheless, we

can't theorize in a void; we must have evidence." (O'Grady 14)

This quote relate to the plot of The Watermelon Woman as the main character, Cheryl, spends the majority of the film tracking down and compiling the history of the mysterious "Watermelon Woman", a beautiful silent film actress who was cast in stereotypical "Mammy" roles. She is credited in her films only as "The Watermelon Woman". Cheryl becomes obsessed with learning more about this woman whose story has been more or less lost to history. This connects with Hammonds' writing as Cheryl works to expand and educate herself on the history of a queer black woman. Cheryl's mission can be described as a pursuit of the evidence discussed by O'Grady to fill in the void that often surrounds the history of black women and their sexualities. The film being named "The Watermelon Woman" references this void as the character not being credited by her name can be seen as a allegory for the larger absence of black women's subjectivity from history. The end of the film also references this as The Watermelon Woman is revealed to not be real. This is a commentary on how queer black women "must name [them]selves". Dunye works to create a story to fill in the absence of a queer black feminist history that hasn't been silenced and in doing so works to draw attention to the presence of the absence.

[impoverishedrat]

In-Lecture Exercise B

Description

For this in-lecture exercise, I have chosen an artwork by computer graphic artist Wuheqilin, a Chinese artist who is known for his satirical art targeted at Western entities. The artwork, titled 敬呼吸 (literal translation: In Honour of Breath), was first published online in late May 2020, a number of days after the passing of George Floyd.

In this artwork, an American policeman towers over several citizens who seem to be in a state of fear and helplessness. The policeman is in a crouching position and it looks like he is about to crush the citizens or the viewer anytime with his knees. It is notable that his physical appearance bears close resemblance to Chauvin, the policeman who knelt on Floyd’s neck, leading to his death. The artwork makes explicit reference to the incident, as evidenced by its caption, “Floyds, Can you breathe?”. Overall, the artwork evokes fear and feelings of oppression.

Analysis

The viewer’s attention is directed to the policeman due to his position. The policeman is in the centre of the artwork and occupies most of the space, which makes him the main subject. Additionally, the artist makes use of contrast. The city in the background is relatively lighter and blur, drawing attention to the policeman due to the darker lighting. Besides that, the policeman is positioned at a low angle, which is further reinforced by the use of shadows below his knee area, signalling to the viewer that the policeman is towering over them. In terms of size, the policeman is very much a giant compared to the other people in the artwork, perhaps 10 times their height or more, further highlighting that he is the focal point in the artwork. Generally, dull colours are used which produces a solemn mood.

Interpretation

The viewer is forced to adopt a POV where they are looking upwards from a vulnerable position, which allows them to better identify with the emotions of the citizens in the artwork. Furthermore, by referencing George Floyd’s incident, the artwork allows the viewer to imagine the sense of helplessness and fear that he experienced in that moment. The caption also appeals to the viewer to think about the many others who are existing or potential victims of such unjust oppression, seen through the use of the plural form, “Floyds”. Perhaps the artist is trying to increase awareness about the issue of racial and systemic injustice, and he is rallying for people who are in a more privileged position to do something to improve the situation.

Judgement

I really liked the use of the low angle in this artwork. When I viewed it on my computer in fullscreen, it really felt as though I was trapped in a situation like that and I hated that feeling, so I thought that the artist did a successful job in conveying fear as the primary message. I liked how real the policeman looked too, especially the folds on his pants. The same effect would not have been achieved if the policeman did not feel like an actual human being, say, if he was drawn as a cartoon character instead, with less attention to detail.  

However, the object in the upper right corner felt slightly confusing. When I first looked at it, I thought it was a gun (perhaps because I associated it with the policeman). After searching up images of pistols, I concluded that it looks nothing like a gun, and so I thought it might be another weapon like a cannon or something. Or a tank. Something that shoots, basically, since it was black and had that cylindrical protruding part. It wasn’t until I scrutinised the other aspects of the artwork that I realised that it might actually be a traffic light (because of the one in the bottom left corner). I am still unsure if it actually is a traffic light because I have never seen one from such a low angle before, so I have issues associating it with one. That might be a flaw but not a major one since it doesn’t detract from the central idea of the artwork.

[whetstonefires]

see see op this is an excellent example of how things like movement and vocal style, not to mention narrative framing, carry as much or more weight than fashion sense in character portrayal, but then get translated into simpler visual language on reproduction.

sephiroth has never worn a shirt ever, but he does not appear to be aware sex exists. when he's flipped his shit he comes across as a (mostly metaphorical) sexual predator and commits some mind-rape, and these behaviors have been sexualized in the fanbase since 1997, but in the bulk of CC he is a sexless entity.

he is objectified by his environment and the narrative at various points, but even when this involves his beauty it's always tied to his potential for violence and status as a monster/weapon.

angeal probably knows what sex is but doesn't present in a way that makes him easy to perceive as a sexual object. he's a private person; he wants to be seen in his function as a SOLDIER first and foremost even though he's less reducible to it than Sephiroth. his heavily muscled bare arms emphasize masculinity and the potential for agency he repeatedly fails to grasp; they may be sexy but they don't really invite sexual attention.

he acts to objectify himself in terms of monstrosity at certain points but generally this has a desexualizing effect, moving him toward the animal without really building up his sensual physicality.

zack knows he's hot shit and might know what sex is, but pretty clearly thinks of it as an aspirational step in a romance.

he is also there for the audience to project onto, so his subject-object tagging is different than the other characters.

genesis on the other hand is acutely aware of his own beauty, and mugs for the camera about it.

he preens. he draws attention to his mouth. he gestures from the wrist. he frequently moves through space as a performance, inviting the eye to appreciate his body, and the camera plays along.

he speaks in a heavily affected, emotive manner that often veers into artificial intimacy.

visually, his coat disrupts his affiliation with SOLDIER in a way Sephiroth's does not, both because of color and because Sephiroth is so closely identified with SOLDIER that anything distinctive to him becomes something SOLDIER-esque.

because the exposed arm muscles of the SOLDIER uniform emphasize masculinity, covering that skin doesn't make Genesis less of a sexual object.

the closest any of these four men get to canonical sex lives is 'Sephiroth being stabbed by and stabbing Cloud' and 'Zack flirting heavily with his girlfriend.'

and yet Genesis is the one who comes across as 'sexual.'

because the visual language of the game, the character's movement style, and the character's speech style all come together to encourage us to experience him as decorative and appealing in a vaguely feminizing, yet forceful and threatening way.

a sexually aggressive feminine entity is a slut. therefore, genesis clearly would dress like a whore, because he is whorish. QED. zero thoughts going on here it's 100% vibes, and some of them are kinda rancid ngl.

'presents himself as a sexual entity' getting blurrily translated into 'would put his body on display in scanty clothes (for sexual reasons)' is mostly just people not really thinking through the chains of association they've internalized, but the 'why are we not giving the other CC mains the same (slut) treatment' brings forward how this is very much tied up in gender shit and norms about what it means to signal sexual availability.

i’m one of those people that wholeheartedly believes genesis is a total whore and wears slutty things all the time BUT IN CANON HE DRESSES LIKE THIS

NOT AN INCH OF SKIN IN SIGHT! LITERALLY NOT EVEN HIS HANDS HES 100% COVERED FROM THE NECK DOWN! but you know who shows more skin, and is literally technically shirtless throughout the ENTIRETY of ffvii? SEPHIROTH!

EVEN ANGEAL AND ZACK, IN THE STANDARD SOLDIER UNIFORMS, SHOW MORE SKIN THAN GENESIS! WHEN WILL WE AS A COLLECTIVE START GIVING THEM THE SLUT TREATMENT TOO?! even tseng at least shows his wrists and has those tiny cutouts in his gloves! i think genesis is literally the character that shows the absolute LEAST amount of skin in this whole series! (dont quote me on that, i could be wrong)

[waitimcomingtoo]

Dummy

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Synopsis: Peter is the only one of the Avengers who doesn’t tease you for being a little slow 

Masterlist

Now you weren’t exactly dumb.

You were just a little slow.

When you joined the Avengers last year, the team learned pretty quickly that your mind moved at a different pace than everyone else. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing and it didn’t keep you from doing your job, it just meant you were the butt of most of the jokes. Every time one of your blunders happened, your intelligence would be mocked in some way. You knew it was all in good fun, but it hurt to it feelings every now and then. The only person who never poked fun at you was Peter. And for that reason, he was your favorite on the team.

“How are there 23 minutes left in this movie and I still don’t know any of the characters names?” Steve wondered as you all sat in the couch in Stark Towers, watching a movie on a particularly rainy afternoon.

“I think the main kids name is Phoenix. That’s all I got though.” Sam shook his head, just as confused as Steve.

“The dogs name is Benson.” Bucky mumbled quietly.

“Who names their kid Phoenix?” Peter wondered out loud as he shoveled popcorn into his mouth. The two of you were tucked into the corner of the couch, sharing a blanket and bowl of popcorn. You looked at him like he was crazy when you heard his question.

“Ummm, Joaquin Phoenix’s parents.” You scoffed and rolled your eyes. You turned your attention back to the movie as a silence settled in the room. You felt everyone’s eyes on you after a minute and looked around to see everyone staring at you with a dumbfounded expression.

“What?” You asked shyly, shrinking down a little in your seat in discomfort.

“That’s his last name.” Sam stated, chuckling a little under his breath. You realized your mistake and felt your face heat up.

“Oh.” You mumbled, your voice getting drowned out as the rest of the Avengers laughed at your expense.

“Did she really just say that?” Nat looked at the group with a playful smile. Everyone, excluding Peter, nodded as their laughter died down.

“Oh my God.” Steve chuckled. “That’s so stupid.”

There was that word again.

He didn’t mean it maliciously. Steve was the kinda of guy who ushered spiders into a magazine so he could let them outside. And yet, it still stung when he said that word.

Stupid.

You smiled sheepishly and tried to focus on the movie, snuggling closer to Peters side until it ended. You were fully aware that he was the only one who didn’t laugh, and you loved him that.

And maybe you loved him for a few other reasons too.

~

“Alright. Who has money for the subway?” Sam asked the group as he patted his empty pockets. You were on another late night trip to get cookies from a specific shop in Times Square, leaving without Tony’s knowledge. Everyones hands went to their pockets and collectively made a face.

“Not me.” Rhodey shrugged.

“I don’t have any.” Bruce added.

“I don’t even have pockets.” Nat realized.

“I have gum.” Peter proudly produced a silver wrapper from his pocket. “Oh wait, it’s just a wrapper.”

“You’re telling me we’re earth’s mightiest heroes and we’re broke?” Sam shook his head is disdain.

“I gave my last dollar to a guy in the subway for playing music.” Peter defended himself.

“What was he playing?” You asked him as you tiredly leaned against his arm.

“A mandolin.” Peter answered, making your face scrunch up.

“That’s a language.” You laughed at him slightly, feeling empowered by having the upper hand. Everyone looked at you and a few of them snorted.

“Mandarin is a language.” Bruce said gently, not wanting to embarrass you further. “Not mandolin.” 

“What?” You blinked in confusion and looked to Peter for answers.

“A mandolin is an instrument, dummy.” Sam chortled. You smiled tightly as the group laughed at your mistake, looking down to hide your blush.

“Oh. Sorry. My bad.” You laughed shyly as you tucked your hair behind your ear and pretending to read a nearby sign.

“That’s okay.” Peter spoke up in your defense. “They sound really similar. Plus like, French, French Horn. Who knows what’s going on?”

“Yeah.” Bucky said softly. “Or like, bra’s aren’t pointy anymore.”

Bruce nodded like it made perfect sense and Sam just shook his head as he texted.

“What?” You whispered to Peter, not knowing what he meant.

“He’s from the 1920s. He’s still adjusting.” Peter whispered to you out of the corner of his mouth before looking at Bucky. “That’s the spirit. Kind of.”

“FRIDAY is sending a car.” Sam informed the group. “This is never happening again. The cookies aren’t that good.”

“They’re pretty good.” Rhodey shrugged, but wanting the late Nate tradition to end. Sam looked at him for a moment before breaking into a smile.

“Hell yeah they are. Let’s do this again tomorrow.”

~

Bruce found you in the lab the next day with a pin between your teeth and a pencil behind your ear. Papers with drawings of suits were scattered around the table as you measured a piece of black fabric.

“What are you doing?” Bruce wondered as he took a seat across from you. You glanced up at him before marking a dot on the fabric.

“Mr. Stark asked me to help him with the new suits. I’m trying to make a fabric template for Nat’s gloves.” You told him as you smoothed the fabric out.

“Is it hard?” He asked, watching you intently as you worked.

“Not really.” You shrugged and took a step back to examine your work. “Okay. How many holes do we need? 1,2,3,4,5.” You counted your fingers. “Okay. Five holes.”

You sat back down and put five dots where her fingers would be to mark where you had to cut. You heard a slight chuckle from Bruce and looked up at him curiously.

“Did you just count your fingers?” He asked slowly, wanting to make sure he saw what he thought he had. “To know how many fingers Nat has?”

Your face burned when you realized how dumb you looked, in front of a scientific genius no less.

“Oh, Uh, yeah.” You stammered, feeling very insecure with him watching you now. You moved slower than before and second guessed moves you’d already made a hundred times. Bruce sensed your discomfort and got out of his seat, tapping the table twice as he thought.

“Have you ever heard the expression “the lights are on but nobody’s home’?” He asked you and you were grateful he changed the subject.

“Yeah, I think I have.” You smiled, proud of yourself for knowing something.

“It reminds me of you.” Bruce said so politely that you didn’t realize it was an insult at first. He left the lab to find Tony, leaving you feeling embarrassed and a little hurt. Everyone knew Bruce could hurt you ten times worse with his words than the Hulk could with his fists, you’d just never been his target before. You slumped down in your seat and continued making the gloves, your mood significantly dampened from before he came in the room.

~

You walked into the kitchen the next morning, sleepily rubbing your eyes. You pressed a chaste kiss on Peters shoulder as you passed him, also more affectionate to your best friend when you were half asleep. You smiled at Rhodey, who was seated at the bar and skimming through a newspaper.

“Did you eat yet?” You asked him through a yawn as you got out yogurt and fruit for yourself.

“No. I needed my coffee first.” He smiled sleepily at you and held up his mug.

“Oh, you mean your sugar with a spoonful of coffee?” You teased him. “Yeah, it’s good you got that out of the way.”

“I prefer it this way. The sugar wakes me up.” Peter defended his drink as he took a sip.

“That’s what the caffeine is supposed to do, mi amor.” You laughed as you ruffled his bed head ridden hair. He was about to make a comeback when his stomach rumbles loudly.

“Someone’s hungry.” You remarked. “Do you want eggs?”

“No thanks.” Peter shook his head. “I can’t eat eggs alone.”

“Well I’m here. And Rhodey’s right there, so you’re not alone.” You told him. “And I can grab Steve and Bucky. They’re just in the other room.”

Rhodey looked up from his newspaper with raised eyebrows and looked at Peter. Peter set his mug down and made a face at Rhodey that told him not to say anything. You looked between the two of them in confusion as you wondered what was going on.

“I meant alone as in without toast, sweetness.” Peter said gently, not wanting you to feel dumb for misunderstanding. “But I am glad you’re here.”

“Oh.” You faked a smile and shrugged like it was no big deal. Peter had handled the situation with ease and you didn’t feel as embarrassed as you normally would. That is until…

“You know, Y/n, it’s a good thing you’re pretty.” Rhodey nodded before going back to his newspaper. You froze with your spoonful of yogurt midway to your mouth and looked at him. He didn’t actually call you dumb, but it was implied. You looked at Peter to see if he was thinking the same thing, but his face had nothing but kindness on it.

“You are pretty.” He agreed with Rhodey. “But you’re a lot of other things too.”

You cracked a smile and rubbed his back for a moment in appreciation.

“Thanks Peter.” You said softly and went back to your breakfast. Not wanting to worry him, you ignored the way Rhodey’s comment made you feel and tried to push it from your mind. But no hard you tried to focus on other things, you had one thought prodding at the back of your head.

You were dumb.

~

A week went by without anyone poking fun at your intelligence. You had a sneaking suspicion Peter had something to do with the lack of comments, but you said nothing. It was nice to have a break from all the teasing and it made hanging out with the team more enjoyable. You all lingered around the kitchen one day, eating all different kinds of lunch when Tony came in the room.

“Eat up, funky bunch.” He clapped his hands. “We have a mission in Alaska to train for and I need all hands on deck. Cap, do you think you can teach Peter that spinny thingy you do?”

“I can try.” Steve looked at Peter and nodded.

“Great. I’m getting a manicure. I’ll be back around noon.” Tony informed you all.

“Wait, I thought you said all hands on deck.” You tilted your head at him.

“I did. Which I why I have to make sure my hands look the best.” Tony waved flirtatiously, wiggling his fingers around like a teenage girl. He smirked as his action was met with some eye rolls and a few chuckles before leaving the room.

“I can’t believe we’re going to Alaska.” Peter nudged you excitedly and you smiled with glee.

“Is Alaska the same as the North Pole? Or am I thinking of Antarctica?” Sam wondered out loud.

“No. The North Pole is all the way at the top. Alaska is below California. Like by Texas.” You said confidently, proud that you knew information that someone else didn’t. Your pride quickly dissipated when you saw the teams faces twist in amusement.

“Wait a minute.” Steve looked at you like you were joking. You shrugged, letting him know you weren’t. Sam burst out laughing and clapped his hands as the rest of the team began to laugh.

“Absolutely not.” Sam grinned as he wiped a tear from his eye.

“Yes it is.” You insisted. “Look at any US map. It’s on the bottom by Hawaii.”

You were getting angry now. You knew you were right this time and they were still teasing you.

“No.” Bucky shook his head is dismissal. “No.”

“Alaska is below California on every map I’ve ever seen. You’re telling me I’m wrong?” You our your hand on your hip and stared at them.

“100%. I am 100% telling you you’re wrong.” Sam said between his laughter. Peter came to your side and showed you a picture of a map on his phone.

“Alaska is US territory but it’s not connected to the rest of the states. They just put it below California on maps to show it’s a part of the US. Thats not actually where it’s located.” He said quietly. You looked at the map for a few seconds before you realized he was right. And if he was right…

You were wrong.

“Oh.” You smiled apologetically and averted your eyes. “Oops.”

You turned around and pretending to clean up the kitchen to hide your searing blush. Your fingers clenched around your sponge when you heard the teasing laughter from behind you.

“Sometimes I wonder how you made it out of high school.” Steve joked as he threw out the crusts of his sandwich. The comment stung you and you began to scrub the counter faster so you could leave the room sooner. Peter could see your shoulders tense and put a reassuring hand on your back. You gave him a tight lipped smiled before putting your dish in the sink.

“I’m still wondering how she made it out of first grade.” Nat teased you and she poked your side.

“I can’t believe she made it out of the womb in the first place with nobody telling her where to go.” Sam said, making everyone laugh loudly. You abruptly threw a dish in the sink, making everyone go silent. You tuned around slowly and faked a smile.

“Haha. Yeah.” You forced a laugh. “I’ll catch you guys later.”

You swiftly left the room before anyone could catch your tears. You felt stupid for even getting upset over it, but their words hurt. Feeling like you were always the dumbest person in the room was taking a toll on you, especially when you weren’t the only one who felt that way. Peter watched you leave with sympathetic eyes, feeling his own frustration bubble at the sound of the team laughing at you. He thought they had listened the first time he told them to stop making fun of you, but they clearly hadn’t. After seeing the pained look on your face, Peter made a decision.

It was never going to happen again.

~

“Ugh. I’m never gonna get this right.” Peter groaned as he messed up the move Steve was trying to teach him once again.

“You’re getting too much inside your head. Just let it happen naturally.” Steve instructed as he resumed his stance. Peter tried the move again, wiping out and landing on his side with a thud. You watched him out of the corner of your eye as you spared with Nat.

“I can’t.” Peter got up and rubbed his arm. “I can’t do it.”

Steve nodded, like he was accepting Peters defeat. You stopped sparing and looked at Peter.

“Yes you can. Come on, Peter.” You encouraged him. “Everyone told Van Gogh that he couldn’t be an artist because he only had one ear but he did it anyway.”

The room feel silent, as it often did when you spoke, and everyone looked down.

“Oh dear Lord.” Rhodey sighed and hung his head and he snickered. You could see everyone else fighting back laughter or cracking a smile, yet saying nothing.

“What?” You crossed your arms in annoyance, looming to Peter for help.

“He chopped his ear off after becoming an artist.” Peter said kindly. “He wasn’t born without one.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but Tony beat you to it.

“Speaking of ears, do you think of you shone a light in one of Y/n’s ears, it would come out the other ear?” Tony quipped, making everyone laugh. The tips of your ears burned as that feeling of stupidity sunk in again. You undid the Velcro on your boxing gloves and pretended to wipe sweat from your face as you rushed to the bin where the gloves went. You kept your back to the group and pretending to be putting your gloves away when you were really concealing your pained expression.

“Yes.” Nat jeered. “Yes I do.”

Your shoulders slumped with exhaustion as you turned around, making every effort to keep your face neutral. Your face didn’t give away any signs of sadness, but your knuckles turning white from how hard you were gripping the bin gave your true feelings away. Peter noticed this and felt his jaw clench. If you weren’t gonna tell them to stop, he was.

“Leave her alone, guys.” He commanded the crowd before looking at you. “Thanks for the encouragement, Y/n. I’m gonna keep trying.”

“It’s fine.” You nodded curtly. “I’m gonna hit the showers. I’ll see you guys at dinner.”

You walked out of the gym, pausing in place when you heard Sams voice.

“Hit the showers?” He laughed. “We just started.”

“Shhh. Don’t confuse the poor girl any further.” Bruce joked back. You looked back at the gym with your eyebrows knit together, taking a quiet step closer to hear what they were saying about you without you there.

“She’s probably like, ‘whats this magic closet that makes rain?’” Rhodey imitated your voice, making you sound as dense as possible.

“Knock it off guys. It’s not funny.” Peter snapped, but the teasing continued.

“Or like, ‘this shampoo says it adds volume, but I used it and I can’t hear any louder than before’.” Tony mocked you, skipping around a little like a child. Your face contorted in misery as they made fun of you. You knew who they really were, and they were good people. They didn’t intend to hurt your feelings, they were only joking around like they did with everyone. Steve was teased all the time for his old fashioned dialect and no one lets Tony live down the kimono incident. Still, all their insults and mockery cut you like a knife.

“Ahh, I love that girl.” Nat shook her head with a smile. “She’s so dumb.”

“She may be slow, but she’s entertaining as hell.” Sam nodded in agreement.

“I said knock it off.” Peter repeated, getting a reaction this time.

“Aw. Peters mad because we’re teasing his girlfriend.” Nat pouted and pinched Peters cheek. She quickly realized how wholesome she was being and punched Bucky in the face to maintain her lethal assassin persona.

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Peter grumbled. Now that you were out of the room, he was the next target.

“He’s right. Hey, maybe that’s why you guys haven’t gotten together yet.” Rhodey shrugged. “She’s too stupid to realize you’re in love with her.”

That was all you had to hear. You ran towards your with tears running down your face. Thanks to Peters advanced heating, he heard every heavy footstep.

“Okay. Maybe she is a little slow.” Peter shook his head in disdain at the team. “But you guys are idiots.”

~

You were quiet the entire way to Alaska, keeping to yourself and silently looking out the window. Peter attempted to talk to you once or twice, but he could tell you wanted to be alone. The Avengers completed the mission within a few hours with minor damage to the area. Peter focused on his job but found himself looking for you every now and then, being as you usually stayed together during missions. He didn’t see you anywhere and assumed you were doing your own thing on the other side of the field. He heart rest assured when he saw you boarding the jet, still looking reserved and aloof from the rest of the team. You took a seat by the window and rested your chin on your hand, looking out at the bleak landscape in front of you as the jet took off. Peter didn’t engage in small talk with the rest of the team and wistfully stared at you instead, silently willing you to cheer up.

“I think that went pretty well.” Rhodey nodded and the team agreed. “But where were you the whole time, Y/n? Picking daisies?”

Peter held his breath as you slowly turned around. You gave Rhodey a frigid smile and shook your head.

“We came during a blizzard so I used my powers to create a heated force field around the area we were in to prevent frostbite and give you guys and easier time seeing in the snow. We were also at a higher altitude than any of us are used to so I kept the air pressure to sea level standard.” You said simply. “And I assumed there would be smoke from the battle so I rounded up the nearby animals and made a separate for field around them to protect their lungs.”

The room went silent, something you were used to at this point. But instead of everyone falling silent because they were laughing at you, they were impressed.

“Oh.” Rhodey blinked in surprise, not expecting the answer he was given.

“I also picked this flower.” You smiled proudly as you produced a Forget Me Not from your lap. Peter couldn’t keep the grin from breaking through on his face. You were the center of attention once again, but in a good way this time. Everyone was pleasantly surprised with what you had done and it showed.

“I didn’t think about the altitude.” Nat realized.

“I had no idea there was a blizzard.” Steve added, looking dumbfounded.

“Because I kept you from knowing.” You shrugged. “I wanted you guys to focus on the mission.”

“I mean, I knew. I just didn’t tell you guys because I was so distracted by my buffed and polished nails.” Tony twiddled his fingers again, showing off his freshly manicured nails. You all laughed, breaking the tension in the jet.

“Well look at that.” Sam looked impressed. “Y/n knew something we didn’t.”

It was almost a compliment, but it still made you feel insecure. You didn’t want it to be this mind boggling every time you did something useful.

“Thanks, Y/n. That was really smart.” Peter said softly as he patted your knee. You put your hand over his and squeezed it. It was the first time someone called your smart, and it made you feel good.

“It was really smart.” Sam said skeptically. He stared at you for a moment before poking your side.

“What are you doing?” You swatted his hand away.

“Just making sure you’re still in there.” He eyed you suspiciously. Peter could sense the attention was making you uncomfortable and changed the subject.

“Are we almost home?” He asked Tony before peering out the window. The flight was a little over 7 hours on a normal plane, but the Stark jet was much quicker. The flight would only take a few hours, but Peter was not known for being patient.

“Yes, Peter. We are almost back at the tower. You can get your diaper changed and your bottle as soon as we get back.” Tony sassed him, making him shrink in his seat. Your body language had completely changed and your were now sitting straight, facing the group. Peter was glad you were feeling better and didn’t even mind Tony’s comment.

“Guys, let’s be civil. We’re all tired. We all want to get home.” You said calmly. “Let’s just focus on how pretty the sky looks tonight. Isn’t is pretty, Peter?”

He gazed at your profile as you looked out the window at the stars, admiring how pretty you looked from the side.

“Yeah. It’s beautiful.” He conceded without ever taking his eyes off you. You shot him a smile before looking straight ahead at the dashboard.

“Wow, the moon is huge!” You pointed time a large yellow crescent that could be seen through the window.

“That’s literally the reflection of my banana on the windshield.” Tony deadpanned. He may have been right, but it still looked pretty.

“Should we make a wish?” You asked Peter, ignoring Tony’s comment.

“On the banana?” He asked.

“Yes.” You nodded. “On the banana.”

“Why?” Rhodey asked. “It’s not like people wish on the moon.”

“It feels like we should.” You said with confidence.

“Yep. She’s still in there.” Sam chuckled. And just like that, your confidence receded.

“I hate it here.” Bucky sighed heavily and tuned out of the conversation.

“It must be so peaceful being you, Y/n.” Tony remarked.

“Why do you say that?” You wondered.

“Because instead of thinking about your problems and mistrials, you simply don’t think at all.” Tony said suavely. In only a better for minutes, you’d gone from being the hero to the laughing stock of the group. The sly comments and taunting laughter made you feel like you should stop opening your mouth entirely. You faked a smile and turned back towards the window, tuning out the rest of the way home. Peter chewed his lip as he stared at you, feeling useless to helping you out. The team just wouldn’t let up, no matter how many times he told them to stop. Knowing you weren’t in the mood to talk, he scooted closer to you and put a comforting hand on your back. You smiled warmly at him and rested your head on his shoulder, listening to him point out the constellations the whole way home.

~

The next day, you and Peter were sitting in the balcony, working on some new gadgets for Mr. Stark when Peter made a startling discovery.

“Where’s my right web shooter?” Peter stood up in a panic when he realized it was missing. “I left it right here.”

“Maybe a bird carried it off.” You shrugged as you twisted a tiny screw into Peters left web shooter.

“I’m being serious, Y/n.” Peter stated. “Mr. Stark is going to kill me and turn me into a decorative rug if I lost it.”

“I’m being serious too. We live in New York and I see birds around here all the time.” You told him as you continued your work. “And you know the pigeons here are feral. A bird probably stole it to pay for his child support.”

Peter usually entertained your antics and joined in with his own batch of sarcasm, but he wasn’t in the mood. His web shooter was missing and their were actual stakes involved. Without his web shooter, he couldn’t be Spiderman. And without Spider-Man, he couldn’t be an Avenger.

“Can you be serious for once?“ Peter whined, picking up everything on the table to look under it.

“I’m just saying it’s possible, Peter. You never know.” You insisted as you put your screw driver down to help him look. You began looking in the flower pots on the windowsill that you and Peter had planted. Peter stopped his search for a moment, growing angry with you for wasting time. He didn’t know if you were joking around or genuine believed his web shooter was in the flower pots, but it made him frustrated nonetheless. A combination of his lack of sleep and stress over losing the webshooter manifested into a moment of unchecked rage.

“No, it’s not possible.” He snapped. “A bird didn’t steal my web shooter. God, do you have to be so stupid?” 

 The word hung in the air for a moment, settling in to the both of you. Peters eyes immediately softened, feeling instant regret for what he had said. You stopped trifling through the plants and slowly turned around.

“What?” You asked quietly. Peter tightened his lips into a line and tried to justify what he had said.

“I try to defend you but you make it so hard. Can you help me out a little here and not be so…” He trailed off when he realized he had only made it worse. Your face hardened and you looked disappointed in Peter, which killed him. He would have preferred anger or even sadness, but the disappointment killed him.

“So what?” You shrugged. “Finish your sentence Peter.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“No, really, go ahead.” You stated coldly. “You got this far. So what, Peter?”

He looked at you for a moment, getting that feeling of wishing you could turn back time just a few seconds to fix a mistake.

“So dumb all the time.” He finished his sentence with an unsteady voice. Your face scrunched up in a pained expression as you sucked in and let out a shaky breath.

“You were the only one who never called me that.” You whimpered before moving past him and going inside. Peter watched you through the open balcony doors as you disappeared into the hallway with a heavy heart. His mouth was open to apologize, but you were long gone. He’d seen you being ridiculed so many times already, and now he was the one doing it. All that talk about it never happening again, only for him to be the reason it happened. Peter couldn’t live with himself for another minute without you knowing how sorry he was. He took a step towards the doorway until he heard a pigeon land on the table. He watched it curiously for a moment as it pecked at the screwdriver you had been using before picking it up with its beak. It flew over to the edge and began to walk along the railing, still keeping the screwdriver in his mouth. Peter followed the pigeon, walking all the way down the balcony to find a large nest in the corner. He watched as it dropped the screwdriver into its nest, right next to his web shooter.

“Holy shit. A bird stole my web shooter.” Peter said in disbelief. Peter watched as baby pigeons poked out from inside the web shooter to greet the other pigeon.

“Holy shit. A bird stole my web shooter for his kids.” Peters eyes widened even more than they already were. Realized struck him and his shoulders slumped.

“She was right.” He mumbled, angry at himself more than ever. “I yelled at her and she was right.”

Peter wasted no time in rescuing his web shooter from the birds, offering them a nice biodegradable coffee cup in its place, and ran to the kitchen to make you a peace offering. He knocked softly on your door and didn’t wait for an answer before going in.

“I made you this cup of tea as an apology.” Peter stiffly held out a mug with an awkward smile on his face. You looked at Peter from your bed, eyes puffy like you had been crying. You stared at each other for a long time, you with a death glare and Peter with his awkward smile. Neither of you said a word as Peter continued to hold out the mug. After two full minute of silence, a bead of sweat ran down Peters face as he looked around nervously, never breaking his smile. You let out an angry sigh and decided to throw him a bone, crossing the room to accept his mug. You looked into the cup for a moment before looking back at Peter.

“This is empty.” You deadpanned.

“I don’t know how to make tea.” Peter whispered, never breaking eye contact.

“I’ve seen you make it.” You snapped.

“I forgot how to do it.” Peters eyes shifted nervously to the side.

“Bucky was in the kitchen, wasn’t he?”

“I know he hates me.” Peter talked over you as you groaned. “I know he does.”

“Just go away.” You tried to close the door but he kept it open.

“No.” Peter said firmly. “I came in here to apologize.”

“You see this?” You held up the mug for a Peter to see. “It’s my cup of care. And look at that” ,you dumped the cup over, “it’s empty.”

Peter stared at your demonstration with raised eyebrows, surprised that you were still able to be sarcastic when he hurt you. Peter took the mug from your hands and set it on the ground before slowly looking up at your face.

“You’re not stupid.” He said softly with all the sincerity his heart could give. You scoffed and folded your arms, looking to the side when you felt tears sting your eyes.

“Yes I am.” You said like you fully believed it, which was Peters worse fear. “Everyone says so. Even you.”

It hit Peter like a sheet of glass when you looked at him like that.

Like he was someone you didn’t want around.

“I didn’t mean to say that.” Peter apologized. “That is not how I feel. At all.”

“Don’t act like you’ve never thought about saying that before.” You laughed sadly. “Everyone on the team calls me dumb. It was only a matter of time before you did it too.”

“I didn’t mean it.” Peter repeated. “I don’t think you’re stupid.”

“Bullshit.” You snapped. “You’re so full of bullshit.”

“I’m not full of bullshit.” He whined like a child and gave you puppy dog eyes. “I’m full of regret.”

You chewed the inside of your cheek as he gave you his best pout, willing you to forgive him. Finally, you caved and cracked a smile.

“I hate you.” You stamped your foot and hung your head, frustrated with yourself for not being able to stay mad at him. Peter opened his arms and you walked into them, arms still folded angrily. You bumped your forehead against his shoulder before moving to rest your chin on it as he wrapped his arms around you. Peter nestled against your hair and sighed, happy that you had forgiven him but still saddened that he had hurt you in the first place. He could see the pile of used tissues on your bed and it killed him to know he made you cry.

“I didn’t mean to call you that. I really didn’t.” He said softly. “I’m the one who’s been trying to stop people from saying that.”

“But they still do it.” You sniffled. “Everyday I get called dumb or stupid or scalene.”

“I think it’s obtuse, not scalene.” Peter reluctantly corrected you. You pulled away and little and let Peter wipe the tears from your face.

“Maybe they’re right.” You shrugged and looked Peter in the eyes. “Maybe I am dumb.”

Peter kept your face between his hands, staring at you for a moment before sighing.

“I once sneezed so many times in a row that I peed my pants.” Peter deadpanned. “I was 17.”

“What?” You chuckled as you wiped your nose.

“I saw Bucky try to take a piece of toast out of the toaster with his metal arm and electrocute himself.” He continued. “And I constantly see Tony bumping into glass doors.”

“I don’t understand.” You squinted your eyes, but sure what point he was trying to make.

“Steve still picks up the phone and asks for the operator. Nat leaves her curling iron plugged in all the time. I do not think Sam knows the address of where we live and I’m pretty sure Rhodey can’t do laundry. He gets all his stuff dry cleaned, even his socks.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” You asked.

“Because were all dumb.” Peter concluded. “We all do and say dumb things. You don’t know where Alaska is and no one in this tower can read analog clocks. If we’re all dumb, then maybe none of us are dumb. Or we all are. Who cares?” Peter shrugged, making you laugh. “And you were right. A bird did carry off my web shooter. So no, you’re no dumb. Or stupid. Or obtuse. You’re, uh, you- you…” Peter looked down at he fumbled over his words.

“I’m what?” You raised an eyebrow. You could finish his sentence last time, but this time you were lost.

“You’re…” Peter tampered off again, staring at your confused expression for a moment before pulling you into a kiss. Your hands clenched into a fist and slowly uncurled as you relaxed into the kiss. Peter pulled away too soon and let his eyes flutter open. They met yours and you shared a moment of hesitation, not knowing what happened rest next.

“I’m gonna be honest lovey, I didn’t really have an ending to that sentence.” Peter chris joes softly, his breath fanning your face. “That was mainly improv.”

“You’re pretty good at improv, Parker.” You cracked a smile and wrapped your arms around his neck.

“I did a little bit of theater in high school.” He shrugged smugly, making you giggle.

“Mmm. I severely don’t want to hear about that.” You teased before kissing him again.

“Oh, I think you do.” Peter remarked. “Because I once went to the bathroom during intermission with my mic still on and the entire audience heard me peeing.”

“Oh my God.” You laughed. “You’re so stupid.”

Tag List 🏷

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[azureflight]

Navier’s Patriotism vs Heinrey’s Ambitions: The Coming War and Its Consequences.

Something that has been on my mind since I finished the first season of The Remarried Empress, was how Heinrey’s planned war with Eastern Empire would pan out. And now, as we are some what decently into the second season, I have some thoughts:

Last season too had moments showing Navier’s dutifulness and connection to her people and land was beyond just being about their empress. Surely, there was an aspect of it that was drilled into her head as part of her training for her future role. Yet Navier displays something other than just following the motions on what she has been taught. She isn’t doing it because she is this pure hearted super good person either. This is not a case of fantasized “model aristocrat” who just loves their subjects. No, what she displays, is something we have seen in a few other characters, mostly in the western empire.

Navier is a patriot. She loves her homeland and her nation, because that’s her homeland and she is part of that nation. She has a nationalist consciousness, a sense of identity, community and belonging beyond noble bloodlines and  birthrights. This is very different than showing fealty to a king or lord. Because the loyalty is independent of individual actions one faces in their personal lives. One man does not make or break it. No, Navier loves Eastern Empire, in ways most people in our modern world love their countries.

This here, in my opinion, is the foundation upon which the real main conflict of this story is based on. The conflict that is coming and will be the true challenge and climax of the story. The war between the Eastern Empire and Western Empire.

I say a conflict is coming, not only because we already know Heinrey’s plans to start a war. I say it is coming, because Heinrey, does not seem to be aware of Navier’s loyalty and patriotism towards the Eastern Empire. He seems to think, since Sovieshu has hurt and antagonized Navier, then Navier’s connection and affection to the land must also be over. He is in for a rude awakening. They both are.

If there is one thing I can say about the second season so far, it is that it is too happy. Way too happy...Almost like it is setting up for a major fallout. Heinrey is sweet, cute and loving, Navier is getting sentimental and comfortable, lowering her guard... Once the war plans are revealed, it will come down like a house of cards.

There is no greater source of resentment or conflict like violated expectations. Heinrey is expecting Navier to be fully on board and be fully on his side on every matter. Navier is clueless about Heinrey’s more ambitious and insidious side, seeing only a handsome young man who is very nice to her.

When Navier learns that Heinrey is very enthusiastically preparing to raze her homeland to ensure the ascendance of the Western Empire, she will be less than thrilled by it. And Heinrey, once he realizes that his beloved empress is not in on board for the destruction of the Eastern Empire, is certain to be disappointed.

There are many reasons why this is being built up as a hidden conflict between the two of them. However, the one that draw my attention the most is the ideological dissonance.

Heinrey is very patriotic himself. Several characters in Western Kingdom (Soon to be empire) have shown a national pride and patriotic fervor, including the nameless mob character who unknowingly expressed distrust of Navier over her potential lack of loyalty due to being a foreigner. 

Yet we see no such sentiment expressed in Eastern Empire save for Navier and maybe her parents. People in the Eastern Empire seem to be far more invested in the feudal loyalties and class politics than a nationally unifying identity. People are loyal to the crown, to the emperor, or they favor some other noble faction, or they are on the “side” of the commoners and despise nobles and vice a versa. Ironically, this means Navier is detached from the general public notions, the psychosphere of her own nation. She is more like Westerners.

Heinrey, for his part, is suffering from information bias. He knows the people of Eastern Empire do not have the patriotism culture of his own kingdom. They are, dare I say, old fashioned and backwards, in their attitudes and loyalties. So he automatically assumes the same goes for Navier. And since the loyalty and devotion between Navier and Sovieshu completely broke down, she should be fine with waging war against her ungrateful cheating ex’s realm, right?

We already know Navier misjudged the intentions and perspective of the Western Empire. Back during the first season, she assumes they are ambitious rivals, but not enemies. This is probably due to the fact that Navier does not have access to the more sensitive intelligence or any real information about matters of national security. This has been mentioned a few times, regarding the separation of duties and access between her and Sovieshu. And Sovieshu is notorious for his failure to communicate with Navier.

These past two chapters have particularly emphasized how Sovieshu essentially ruined their marriage. He behaved erratically and antagonistically, due to the his lack of sharing. He didn’t share his wants, his fears, his plans, the secrets of their fertility problems, nothing. Instead he went ahead and aggravated her by having half a conversation with her in his head. And then he made this ridiculously convoluted plan, all the while assuming Navier would just go along with it, due to his own misjudgment of her character.

And now... Heinrey is doing the exact same thing! He has these grand dreams about how they’ll rule and what they will do... But does not share any of his real ambitions and desires with Navier. He just assumes she will go along with the war based on her falling out with Sovieshu.

I don’t know how they will resolve this conflict. The story can certainly just handwave it away for the sake of some happy ending, but I don’t see it. So far, for all the cheese and jokes in it, The Remarried Empress has been quite internally consistent and rational in setting up actions and consequences. The rules of the world has not been abandoned, ignored or bent for the sake of plot convenience. 

One of them will need to break and relent. Because you cannot have “a little bit of war”. You either have war or you have peace. No “special military operation” here. There can be a compromise position where Navier convinces Heinrey to take over without open war, but that too requires Navier helping Heinrey essentially subjugate her homeland. 

Now, it will certainly be interesting to see who choses what, but one option has been the most pressing on my mind: They reach no agreement and Heinrey just goes along with his plan. How would Navier react to that? Would she bite it down and play along while hating it all on the inside. We know she is good at suppressing her own pain. She is the kind to spit blood and claim it was cranberry syrup.

Or would she leave Heinrey too? Where? Back to Sovieshu? With Kaufman? Or just back to her parents’ side. And then we have Kosair, who very easily switched sides and seemingly serving the Western Empire comfortably. I can definitely see him being perfectly okay with the war, seeing it as a way to get revenge on Sovieshu and the rest of the nobility he never got along with. But I cannot see him siding against his sister, or even sit aside if he realizes she is upset.

It is definitely a possibility that the story of Empress Navier ends with another dead on the inside marriage, keeping up public appearances, this time with the added burden of being a willing enemy to her homeland. 

Or it could end with Navier going back to Sovieshu and playing mother to Rashta’s child after all that happened. Not because she cares for the man, but for the empire.

Or if she gets pregnant after all, then she maybe find herself divided into impossible pieces, for her children’s inheritance and safety will depend on her loyalty and service to the West.

They have certainly emphasized the issue of heirs and children or the lack thereof, a pattern of secretive, extremely presumptuous (dare I say entitled) male love interests, and among all of it, her patriotism.

Or maybe something happens that takes the decision out of their hands and diffuses the tension for them. We don’t know. I don’t see Heinrey giving up on his ambitions, not easily. If Navier is to convince Heinrey to stop, then she needs to put up one hell of a fight.

Overall, I am quite exited to see that plotline and how it unfolds. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, and this is on top of the internal challenges they will face in the Western Empire. A trial by fire for the second marriage!

[lemon-sugarcoats-nothing]

I hear you Mocha, and I understand your struggles <3 I know it can be hard sometimes, feeling like your art is and will never be good enough. This feeling is normal, and please please please understand that you're not alone in this! Almost every artist thinks this way from time to time. This isn't to take away from your problems, but for solidarity in knowing that even the artists you look up to most either 1. Feel this way right now or 2. Have felt this way in the past. Myself included.

As for the base usage, thats okay! A lot of artists start out that way, and it doesn't make you any less of an artist. I've seen a lot of improvement with your free-hand art, and I think using bases has helped you with that to an extent. Just remember that it never hurts to branch out from using bases, and you don't have to use them to make something pretty.

I love you Mocha, and I dont mean to lecture or pressure you. I'm here if you ever just want to talk about this and just leave it alone. For that reason, I warn that if you're not looking for any serious advice, disregard the rest of this reply. From here I'm just gonna give tips for expanding your art and getting it where you want to go 💛 Its okay to stop here and come back to it later (or never). Im no authority on any of this, this is just information I gathered through hundreds of hours of hyper-fixation and study through the past....sssiiix years???

If you're looking to change your art style into something different

(whether that be more detailed, more defined, etc.) I heavily recommend you do art studies. Try art styles that maybe you're not familiar with, maybe even not a huge fan of (cough, that would be cubism for me, cough) and see what techniques you might like to incorporate into your own style. With each one ask yourself;

-What do people generally like about this style?

-What makes this style interesting/unique/different?

-What do I personally like about this style?

-What do I NOT like about this style

Try looking at;

-line art (is there any? is it thick? is it thin? Does it have line-weight variations, or is it very same-y?)

-color use (Pastel? Bright colors? Dark colors? Muted? Monochrome?)

-lighting style (Is the shading very detailed and realistic or very simple to get the point across? Is it blended? is the shading hard-edged? Is it a mix of both? is there any shading at all?)

-For character art styles, what Kinds of characters do they draw? (Thin girls with big boobies? Punk/alt fashion and characters? Larger body types? A wide variety of body types? Cartoony, anime, or semi-realistic? etc.)

-What kinds of shape language do they use? (Sharp edges and triangular shapes? Round, soft shapes? Do they use a mix of both?)

-How do they show their subject matter in 3D space? (Do their subjects look like they have weight and form, or are they flat like a sticker? How do they show that?)

-If applicable, look at their youtube speedpaints and watch how they draw; See if you can copy their techniques!

For all of this, there are no rules for what you keep and apply to your own art, and what you discard and choose not to use. I do recommend at least trying out some different styles, and then finding something to practice working into your drawing habits.

For character and fashion design

Again, look at artist's designs that you like! This is also where pinterest will especially be your best friend. Look for references of the type of outfits you want to draw, and see how you can hodgepodge them together into something new!

Some things I like to keep in mind, that i learned from artists like ABDIllustrates;

-It's generally a good idea to keep your pallets limited to just a few main colors, but with every rule in art, theres always room to bend or break them

-Balance your colors through your designs, and focus on where your colors draw your attention when viewing it as a 3rd party. (it might be helpful to take a few hours break from a drawing to do this, or ask a friend) If it draws attention away from where you want it too, then see how you can move colors around or alter them to make it work.

-References are your BEST FRIEND, and dont be afraid to have more than 10 references. The more references you have for a style, the more likely you are to both create something original and something that really feels like a part of that fashion subculture.

-pay attention to how the fabric lays on the people wearing it!

Other than that, all I can really say is just- binge watch ABDIllustrates redesigning his old RWBY characters, his Heartless series, and (if it interests you at all) his Disney D&D designs series. (I also recommend watching his speedpaints if you want to learn from a style that balances cartoon, anime, and semi-realism very well without it getting too complicated)

For line art and sketching

If you also happen to ever feel like your art feels too stiff, these are some little tips that have helped me (whenever i consciously use them ^^;)

-Do not death grip your pen, oh my god do not- This will save you from so many hand cramps and will let you draw longer; Hold your pen comfortably, but try not to put too much pressure on your fingers, or on the pen to your paper/tablet. I know this is a hard habit to break, but instead of trying to hold your pen vertically, try holding it at about a 45 degree angle from your surface and reminding yourself to hold your pen looser.

-Stretch your fingers periodically through the day! This helps ease tension (duh) and can help with the point above with the death grip.

-Take breaks. If your hand starts to hurt, let go of your pen, stretch, and take 5 mins break; If after, your hand STILL hurts, run it under warm water, massage it gently, and do something easy on the hands until your hand feels normal again.

-Try to use long, fluid strokes in sketching. See how long you can sketch before lifting your pen! Go wild dude, and try not to worry about it looking good just yet. do a REALLY rough sketch just to get your idea out there, then a clean up sketch before lineart if you have to. This is especially good if you dont really know what you want to draw or dont know how to draw what you want to. See where your hand takes you!

-For lineart, i have no valid tips for on paper...But digitally! I tend to try not to take to long on a single stroke. I do the strokes fast, and extending past where i want them to go (of course undoing if it doesnt match what i want, and cleaning up any cross over on my lines) Really though, all of it is up to your preferences and how you want your lineart to look. (now or acquired through art studies)

I could keep going, but this is already getting long and anything else I have to say, I'm pretty sure you're already aware of (Figure sketches, gesture drawings, studying realism, etc.) I just hope at least something in this post helps, Mocha.

-Mod Bee 💛🐝

Slight Vent 🍫

I feel like a fake artist. My art's not good unless I use a base, vaguely trace the shapes in an image, or even trace a nice artist's drawing on Pinterest and change it up enough so it's not a blatant rip-off of someone else's hard work. I am not an art tracer, and when I use a base or something as a heavy reference I do credit the original artist. (Save some asks here and there because the reference usually comes from Pinterest and I can't find the original artist for the base because the links back to the source material bug out or I forget to actually look)

All my friends have amazing artwork and styles that are recognizable or likable and the only comment I ever get on my art is "cute". "You're art style's so cute!" "Oh that's cute" cute, cute, CUTE. I want my art to be more than just cute! but I can't draw anything that isn't cute. even if I try to make something scary or different it just ends up being "cute" or inappropriate. This isn't to say I hate the "cute" compliment, but I just hear it and only it so often it feels like that's all my art is ever going to be.

I've tried to own it, but I've seen and still see art styles "cuter" than mine. I also suck at outfit design. hell, it's why Cinna's only in generic dresses, hoodies, and t-shirts. "Design an outfit for a fancy party mocha" I can't because i'm SHIT at fashion design. I can't draw clothes, I can't make anything without a reference, and everyone's better than me. I got straight up rejected from an art school and the art program at my top college. The college i'm going to doesn't require a portfolio and my grades helped me get in. I suck at art and it's frustrating as hell.

..but it's whatever..

🍫

[eisforeidolon]

"...but for me it's just easy - this is a separate show, so if I don't like it, I don't give a fuck. Like the other hundreds of tv shows I don't like or even think are dumb don't affect me. Would have felt the exact same if Bloodlines or Wayward was picked up. Separate show. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ "

Yeah, exactly!

I do not get the people who are so mad about the prequel's mere existence at all and I think a lot of them just use "the legacy" as an excuse to be outraged about it.

Personally, I will definitely watch the prequel because I'm very curious about it and want to see what they have planned plot and canon-wise, but if I don't like it, I will... just stop watching it? It really is that easy. No need to on 853 angry tirades about it.

Also, even if it really turns out to suck - thousands of shows, movies and books have prequels, sequels and spin-offs that suck. This is really not a unique situation in any way and rarely affects the "mothership". People usually just pretend the offensiv add-on in question does not exist and ignore it (e.g. "The Cursed Child" in the Harry Potter fandom for example. No one likes it, but its existence hasn't affected the main series and the fandom at large in any way)

To be fair, I think a lot of it comes from the fact that SPN is now a legacy fandom and people are still kind of adjusting to that. The show isn't airing anymore, but there are still a lot of us that have strong feelings and attachment to it and want to engage over it. But it's also an old enough fandom that a lot of subjects have already been done to death, so the attraction of something new to talk about is pretty compelling.

But there's not going to be any new episodes. Cons are less frequent than they were before. Particularly right now during the summer hiatus, there isn't even much to say about J2's other projects. So the closest thing to a new development for this fandom to engage in most days? Is speculating about The Winchesters, which I think we can all agree they have released very very few substantial details about. I can see how that easily keeps drawing the attention (and ire) of even people who are decidedly Not Interested when there's nothing much else doing. Which is, of course, exacerbated by those who are determined to dunk on it and Jensen forever specifically because of prequelgate.

Cursed Child I think is a really good example. It messes around with the canon characters in ways fans largely didn't like on top of a bunch of really odd time travel fanfic-y chicanery, and most of HP fandom just said, "Eh, doesn't count," and went about their business. People concentrate on their favorite eras of Doctor Who while ignoring others all the time. I hope maybe once TW is a concrete thing that's airing, it will feel more like a separate entity because all we have now is aimless speculation about the inconsistences with the parent canon.