#drawing a line in the sand

[drconstellation]

Obligatory Reminders and Crossing the Lines

Have you been wondering why Shax tries to do a mail delivery to Crowley as he escorts the shop keepers to safety from Aziraphale's Eldritch Ball? It seems a pretty random thing to do at that moment.

SHAX: I brought your mail. CROWLEY: Why? SHAX: It stacks up by the front door. CROWLEY: Keep it for now, not a good time.

It's not the first time Shax has tried to give Crowley his mail. We first see her hand a pile over on the park bench in S2E1, while they have an introductory spy vs. spy catch up, in St James Park.

SHAX: I brought your mail. CROWLEY: Anything interesting? SHAX: Bills, mostly. I don't understand why they won't just deliver them to your car. CROWLEY: Send the bills to Hell's finance office. SHAX: I did. They say they can't accept my signature as your replacement.

Bills, mostly. That aren't being accepted by Hell's finance office, unless Crowley signs them. And they expect to find him in the official residence of Hell's ambassador plenipotentiary to this corner of Earth, in Mayfair.

Next, we see Crowley redefining all that mail as "junk" and discarding it.

uh huh. Lets ignore the conveniently placed disposal unit for the moment...

We need to stop and define what those "bills" actually are. Because they are not actually the financial type of bills. Well, they could be. But this is the GOmens AU, so they have a second meaning as well. Paying your bills is also meeting your duties and obligations to another party, and this is something Crowley is refusing to do right now.

I don't think its as simple as Hell being short staffed and they just haven't got around to doing the change over (I know I suggested the latter recently, sorry) and that's why they aren't recognizing Shax's signature. It's that Hell actually hasn't let Crowley go - he is still "on the books," so to speak, despite all that has been said and done since the Nope-ocalypse. He might call himself a "former demon," and he might call Hell his "former side," but that is definitely NOT how Hell sees it, despite the fact they aren't harassing him or giving him tasks to do.

Actually, that should be haven't been harassing him, because since Gabriel "disappeared," they have been back on his case. The mail is a warning sign, but Lord Beelzebub's summons really should have given you the chills.

Crowley protests that they had a "generalized understanding" that he would be left alone, but Beelzebub declares that "we don't."

Ah. So all is not as it appears. They are just playing nice because they want something (Gabriel) and in reality Crowley's position in relation to Hell really is fragile. Yet outwardly he seems more worried about Aziraphale.

It goes downhill from here. Shax begins to stalk him.

This image of Shax is just delish. The sharp "V" of her her decolletage reminds us of a stork's bill, her avatar animal, and it's stabbing down at the snake on her belt. She might be seeking the Frog Prince who escaped Heaven but she's also got a certain snake in her sights.

Shax can't can't cross the threshold of the bookshop without an invitation from Aziraphale. This plays into the old belief that supernatural creatures such as vampires, demons and faeries can only enter a house if invited in. We also see this extended to the Bentley, once "ownership" is extended to the angel, but the door of the bookshop is the important border here for now.

Then have this threat of war being declared:

War on Aziraphale, not Crowley, as they still consider Crowley to be on Hell's side. They don't see it the way Crowley does as Us and Them, to Shax there is still only Heaven and Hell.

So we come back to the second round of mail delivery:

Crowley is about to escort the human shopkeepers to safety and Shax confronts Crowley right on the threshold with his duties and obligations. He really doesn't want to have that conversation right now, not here and not with Shax. As far as he is concerned, he has no obligations to Hell any more, and he's not taking any notice of their demands in any form, either, so Shax may as well just get out of the way and take the mail with them.

And with that, Crowley crosses the threshold, leading the humans out.

At this point in the story you might be asking what's the big deal about that? Crowley has been going in and out over that doorstep several times a day lately, and has crossed it hundreds of times over the last couple of centuries since the bookshop was built. It's not a barrier to him.

The significance of this boundary line has been highlighted to us in S2. We have Shax actually telling us that she knows she can't cross the "threshold" in S2E3, then she asks again in S2E5 where the boundary line is just before Mr Brown is hauled off into the demon Legion. But its even more than that.

On one level its the line that Crowley has drawn for himself. He's not going back to Hell if he can at all help it, and he's quite resolute about that. It's his side or no one's side, from there on in. He reinforces that when talking to Aziraphale in the Final Fifteen.

On another level, I'm wondering if we could consider this a step on the eponymous Hero's Journey? Crossing the Threshold is one of the early stages of the journey where the hero crosses into danger or the unknown. We're shown things aren't normal outside by the mist and green light. Then he diverts off unexpectedly to Heaven with Muriel. Just throwing it out there to see if its worth exploring a bit further. I'd say we've only got the early stages of the journey in S2, with the remainder to come in S3.

[teleportzz]

assimilationism is so wack i actually can't. like do you idiots not understand that queerphobes can't tell any of us apart and don't care to? in the eyes of conservatives, we are all faggots. kissing ass and throwing the rest of us under the bus for table scraps of liberty only creates the false image of progress if you're white, abled, neurotypical, and fall under one of the few labels they can easily understand. yet even for you, it's not real. they'll create the illusion of a good life for you in exchange for oppressing your own community members and then turn around and feed your face to the leopards.

like sorry not sorry, man, but we are all in this together whether you like and appreciate it or not. you're sharing your labels and safe spaces with neopronoun users, he/him lesbians, slur reclaimers, old label adopters, drag queens, loveless aromantics, gnc folks, and the kinksters. we've always been part of the community. it isn't our fault you don't value your own history and vehemently refuse to learn it. we still aren't going anywhere. cope.

how sweet is the blood of your queer siblings as you lick it up clean from the boots of your own oppressors? hope it tastes real fucking good

[loganslowdown4]

Janus: Darling, can you do me a favour?

Remus: I would literally cover up a murder you committed, plant my DNA at the scene of the crime, and take the blame for you-

Janus: Cool, can you do the dishes?

Remus: No

[travelling-hydaelyn]

Lahabrea possessed Thancred before this questline even started which means these are back to back Laha interactions. Here is how he greets the WoL in the Waking Sands immediately after his Disney villain introduction.

Meanwhile in Minfilia's solar:

presumably he took a brief break from running Alphinaud's errands to go dramatically laugh at the WoL

[probablyanalienindisguise]

Blows them up

[r0tt3n-gvtz]

wanna know a fun fact??? :3

they could prescribe u any illness u'd like if u define the symptoms of ur ailments >_<!!!!!!

and another,,,, u could sing a pretty malady like a black canary but a crow stll dont know the smell of carbon monoxide!!! X3c

alssooooo, a question!!! how many years have you been on that couch??? cuz yk... they could've quilted u in the throws by now....

[lesbiansforangusmcdonald]

Fig, this episode: “I don’t think I wanna be a bard anymore.”

Me, already planning out the set list for the junior year tour in my head: WHAT?!?

[depressedsteverogers]

[faaun]

we sang in the aeroplane over the sea tgth ☆

[cozymochi]

HIIIII, I’ve followed you for a while but I just wanted to take a moment to say how cool I always find your art 😭 I’m sorry people have been so weird about it!! I know it makes it much harder to then keep positive and not punch down on yourself when other people are being rude, so just letting you know to keep at it! It WILL help your mindset eventually, I promise.

Also just saying I admire how you draw in the twst artstyle SO MUCH, as someone who tries myself sometimes to study it I know it’s way WAYYYY harder than it looks 😔 I’m just SO IMPRESSED when I see your stuff <3 I’m so glad you’ve been more open about your oc’s recently as well.

THANK YOOOU 😭💜💜💖💜💜 I’m still learning though. And most of the time I’m just kinda doing whatever. Unless I wanna do a fake card (rare) then a homie has gotta LOCK IN 👁️👄👁️

Believe me, my punching down is mainly a me thing. Tried not doing it and for 10 days I managed to, but it’s gone back to 0 days after an episode lol. BABY STEPS. Though, this is like a 10 year long existing habit that’s still in the process of being dismantled.

Trust, I’m only open about the OCs because people keep asking about them 😭💖 It’s why 90% of their posts are in response to prompted asks. I still don’t exactly have the nerve to do anything like… what’s something normal people do? Information compilations on text posts? Granted, I don’t think those are my style at the end of the day. So, I probably won’t be doing that ever. I don’t have much to say in words anyhow that can’t be done in a drawing that probably speaks for itself. There’s benefit to slight some interpretation legroom, I think.

[anetherealpoetess]

if you think about adaptations as lifetimes then galadriel and sauron really do meet each other in every lifetime

[screamingwiththewolves]

Henry, dear, sweet child, this is an awful idea. DO NOT tell this woman to basically form her own Sinister Six.

[princessfanonanona]

Something I've noticed lately, and has become really prevalent, is the idea that a "warmup doodle" is anything less than a full illustrated completed piece.

Which is NOT correct.

When I was in school, and it follows every single sport I ever participated in, it was taught that a warm up is a way to physically warm up and loosen muscles to prevent injury which is why you also have cool down stretches to help get any lactic buildup out of the muscles to prevent cramps.

So it should follow that a warm up drawing should be movements to loosen and relax the muscles in your drawing hand/arm to prevent injury before actually working on a piece. This means drawing squiggles, loops, hatching areas, just absolute nonsense. (There's also a whole slew of physical stretches that you can do as well to help, but that's for another post). The point of warm up drawing is to physically warm up and loosen the muscles directly related to holding your stylus/pen/paintbrush/charcoal/whatever before you actually work on the piece you actually want to work on.

"But this isn't a fully illustrated art that took me bajillions of hours to complete, so its obviously-"

A sketch! A practice drawing! Drawing exercises! A speed test! A draft! Concept art! There are so many other words to use to describe your art!

A professional soccer player doesn't just warm up and go play in a match. They have drill practice, they have mock matches, they have exercises and trainings and everything in between.

Your art is the same.

You need to practice, anatomy exercises, line exercises, shading practice, point drills (draw a bunch of dots and connect them with as smooth of a line as possible without a ruler), hatch shade practice, color exercises, etc. You know what a lot of classical artists did before painting on the giant canvases? They sketched the image over various iterations to get the shape and form and layout, they did a rough painting to show what colors and where they were to go, and did it over and over before working on their final pieces.

Just because it's not perfect, does not mean its just "a warm up doodle." Please expand your vocabulary and understand a "warm up" is to prevent injury not "imperfect illustration." You are not only hurting yourself physically, you are going to hurt every young artist who's still learning.

[warmcoals]

the absolute rapture of being a trans girl, ~For Me~ (i said it out loud dont get mad etc), is shedding every possible aspect of man-and-boyhood from my life. i will never use he/him pronouns. i will never ID as a boy or phemboy or girlyboy or boygirl. i will never need to humor an unfunny man again. i will never need to lie and say a man looks good ever again. i will never need to have physical intimacy, or emotional intimacy even, with any man ever again. i am a girl living for girls. more than that, i am a tranny living for trannies, tgirl 4 tgirl only until i die one way or another. we can share the same interests and tastes and desires and games and kinks and be in delicious harmony, if not perfect alignment. i do not need to contend with the other of men, ever again. no dads, no brothers, no boyfriends, no husbands. i am truly free as a freak and a girl. i recommend it

[every-captain]

I am never making or drawing a character who is not transgender ever again.

[veganslenderman]

The scene where Carpenter and Faulkner discover the Wither Mark at Bellwethers except its Arin's LOOK WHAT WE'RE FUCKING DEALING WITH rant from Game Grumps.