#drawing parallels between two awesome things

[rebornofstars]

SEPFEMBER 2024 PROMPTS LIST

HERE WE ARE! AT LONG LAST! THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN (HOPEFULLY) WAITING FOR! GIRL MONTH!

I honestly can't believe this is actually happening. This event was a shower thought a few months ago.

Here's a recap of the event: to participate, make at least one fanwork of any variety during September that features a woman or women from the Zelda franchise as the main character/s. All Linksmeets are welcome in this challenge, as well as general LoZ fans!

Before I drop the prompts list for those who are looking for a little direction, I'd like to mention that I have made an AO3 COLLECTION FOR THIS EVENT. It's open and unmoderated so you can add your works to it freely. And if you post on tumblr, please tag #sepfember !! I'll be scrolling through the tag every day looking for things to reblog and gush about 👀

If you have any questions at all about this event, or you want to chat about it, my askbox is open! I will also respond to comments and reblogs of this post.

Now, onto the prompts. Disclaimer: you DON'T have to use all/any of these prompts, or only create things for certain characters on their featured day. This list is just a GUIDE for those who want it. If you have other plans, go with your heart!

At the end of the day, this is a celebration, and all that matters is that you have fun. I hope some of you will join me next month in giving our girls some time in the spotlight, but if you can't, that's okay! There's no pressure! This is just a passion project of mine, really, and I am overjoyed that people are interested 💛💛💛

(apologies in advance for the terrible quality of these pics and the equally terrible commentary. i thought it would be funny. also, i've never had to come up with a prompts list before and it shows.)

DAY 1: SKYWARD SWORD ZELDA + PURPOSE

(we start at the beginning of course 💛)

DAY 2: MARIN + WASH

(it was SO hard to find a screenshot of her that didn't have link in it. they're both cute but this ain't about him.)

DAY 3: MEDLI + GIFT

(i didn't know she played the harp until i saw this screenshot! i obviously have a lot to learn.)

DAY 4: TWILIGHT PRINCESS ZELDA + FREEZE

(how creepy does she look here?! so awesome)

DAY 5: HILDA + GHOST

(SUCH a good character for real. she has depth!!!! she has a thematic purpose!!!)

DAY 6: URBOSA + LOSE

(two words: LIGHTNING POWERS ⚡⚡⚡)

DAY 7: SPIRIT TRACKS ZELDA + MISTAKE

(babygirl you are 2 entire pixels.)

DAY 8: FI + ORDER

(oh she is everything to me)

DAY 9: MIDNA + SWORD

(she looks so soulful right now)

DAY 10: HYRULE WARRIORS ZELDA + SUMMON

(what a FIRE camera angle??? her armour is so impractically attached but SHE HAS A SWORD‼️)

DAY 11: GODDESSES OF HYRULE + EYES

(hylia, din, nayru, farore, the list goes on...)

DAY 12: ZORA PRINCESSES + TRUST

(mipha, ruto... poor suckers... it can't be fun, falling for link...)

DAY 13: OCARINA OF TIME ZELDA | SHEIK + FATE

(note: I personally hc this character as a trans man, but since this isn't explicitly confirmed in-game and might not be shared with everyone, I've given them a celebration day anyway. you are free to do what you wish.)

DAY 14: MALON + GUARD

(she is adorable. look at her)

DAY 15: IMPA + BOUND

(HOTTEST MOST SEXY MOST BADASS WOMAN IN THE FRANCHISE ‼️‼️‼️ I LOVE YOU IMPA YOU ARE PERFECT. SHUT UP I DEFINITELY DON'T PLAY FAVOURITES—)

DAY 16: FOUR SWORDS ADVENTURES ZELDA + PORTAL

(i loved her in the fsa manga. she's barely in it but STILL. go read it.)

DAY 17: FAIRIES + TIRED

(the great fairies, navi, ciela, tatl, proxi...)

DAY 18: TETRA + LEGACY

(isn't she KICKASS?!)

DAY 19: EPONA + BONE

(our lovely loyal girl 🥰)

DAY 20: A LINK BETWEEN WORLDS ZELDA + HOME

(SHE IS SUCH A GOOD PARALLEL TO HILDA PLEASSSSSE)

DAY 21: SARIA + WISH

(a classic character! isn't this picture so peaceful)

DAY 22: BOTW/AOC/TOTK ZELDA + PEACE

(SHE IS EVERYTHING TO ME. SCREAMING CLAWING CRYING. MY DARLING, YOUR FANARTISTS WERE THE ONES TO DRAW ME INTO THE ZELDA FANDOM. I HOPE I CAN RETURN THE FAVOUR ONE DAY)

DAY 23: CIA + LANA + STUDY

(technically, she's one person. between the two of them they certainly only wear enough clothes for one person... )

DAY 24: ARYLL + HUG

(sister to the hero! but what's her story?)

DAY 25: ECHOES OF WISDOM ZELDA + ARREST

(YEAHHHHHHHHH GIRL MONTH GIRL DAY GIRL GAME!!!)

DAY 26: CD-i ZELDA + HOLIDAY

(hehheehehehe. i bet you weren't expecting her. neither was i tbh)

DAY 27: PURAH + FIRE

(SHE'S CLEVER! I LOVE CLEVER WOMEN!)

DAY 28: ILIA + ERUNE + MEND

(listen. i know erune is a very niche character - she literally only exists in the four swords manga - but consider. i love her)

DAY 29: ALTTP/OOS/OOA/LA ZELDA + MISSING

(she has no canon personality. you know what that means. get the building equipment out fellas)

DAY 30: LINKLE + FAREWELL

(and here we are - LAST DAY!)

THE END! YAY! I CAN'T WAIT FOR SEPTEMBER - CAN YOU?

[chasing-posts]

What's funny is with most stories, there's an argument to be made that two characters never get together, because "they never kiss." Or "They didn't even hold hands." Or "we never see them on a date!" Its a total anti-ship narative to shut a conversation down and those should usually be ignored (because they're buzzkills. Ship what you want!)

But then you have an author like Kishimoto, who hates drawing any couple related stuff, so even the canon couples never get that romantic treatment! So everyone is forced to theorize instead based on how close a bond they share.

Temari and Shikamaru: never kiss, but we all knew!

Sai and Ino: Nothing. But we all got the hints.

Naruto and Hinata: It took an entire movie years after the war arc to get that smooch, and Kishimoto turned away when it happened because he got embarrassed.

Sasuke and Sakura: Don't make me laugh. There are more on screen moments of them trying to kill each other than there are moments of affection. And even then, he's smacking his girl in the forehead!

The only reason we know these couples do anything more than banter and hold hands, is because we actually see their kids in Boruto and are like "oh. So they did get/stay together. That's awesome."

All this to say, it's VERY funny when you have a couple like Gai and Kakashi, who do just as much couple stuff as any of the canon het couples, in fact there are literal parallels between Minato and Kushina of Gai doing the exact same thing or saying the exact same lines as Kushina (watching from behind the trees~, my man of destiny, childhood to adult partners~), and there are people who are STILL like

"Oh they can't be together. They never kissed. Or held hands!"

Bitch, neither does anyone else in this universe! The only on screen kiss Kishimoto ever depicted, was between Naruto and Sasuke! And clearly, they wern't end goal!

I'm just saying that if either Kakashi and Gai had a vagina, we would repopulated the Hatake clan in spades!

[dev-solovey]

So I just read this awesome LGBT extreme horror book:

(description in alt text)

Content warnings: gore, cockroaches, sexual assault, discussions of prison, gender dysphoria, transphobia

I want to give some context about the author, based on her interview with Asher Dark on YouTube as well as my own conversations with her (she's super sweet!). This was her first book, which she wrote while she was in prison - AND while she was transitioning. She began her transition in prison, and the intersection of those two experiences informs the narrative as well as drawing parallels between imprisonment and dysphoria.

The story surrounds a transgender woman named Vera who's staying in a cabin alone for the summer so she can focus on writing her next horror book. As she becomes increasingly paranoid due to isolation, her writing gets more disturbing - writing that is threaded into the narrative about a killer who defiles women in some of the worst ways possible. Vera is disturbed by this writing because something about this killer feels too real.

From here on, there are spoilers. Also, this is an extreme horror/splatterpunk book, it should go without saying that things are about to get really, really gnarly. This is your one and final warning about that, you are not allowed to whine in the comments beyond this point. Dead dove, do not eat.

So the prologue is arguably one of the most brutal parts of the book. It ends with this killer sexually assaulting the woman he's kidnapped by binding her hands and feet, then putting a jar of cockroaches in her pussy and lighting a flame beneath it, sending the cockroaches fleeing from the heat up inside her. Extremely shocking beginning, but the things that stood out to me most is the parallels to prison.

Prison really is the ultimate violation of autonomy. You're being literally locked up, physically and mentally, in a where things like sexual assault and pest problems are rampant and inescapable. When Carietta told me that this book represents everything she felt and experienced in prison, I didn't expect those feeling to punch me in the face so quickly, but I'm glad they did. It's terrifying and uncomfortable, but that's the point - it sets up what this story is about.

The first chapter tells us a bit about Vera's life - she has a conversation with her (very sweet) fiance, Connor, where they establish that she's going to be at this cabin alone while he's off doing field research for his own profession. From there, the story whips back and forth between Vera writing and going about her day, and the brutal actions of this killer.

Throughout the story, we see more and more details about this killers envy of women, and Vera's own struggles with dysphoria. Much like in prison, she can only talk to Connor over the phone, and she feels she's growing more distant from him to the point where she becomes increasingly envious and thinks he might be cheating on her - a thought fueled by her returning dysphoria. Later in the book, we see that the killer's motivations for tormenting women come from a hatred of them, a hatred which is later revealed to be jealousy in disguise. He wants to be a woman, but believes he can't be - and that makes him want to torment attractive women because it's not fair that he can't be one too.

The two parts of the story meet at the end, and you realize that the killer is what Vera could have become if she repressed herself any longer. As a transgender man myself, I absolutely loved this metaphor. Many people who are trans, before they realize it, put themselves through their own personal conversion therapy, where they tried to stuff down the other gender as much as possible. And that's essentially what this killer is doing - he's not just tormenting some woman he's kidnapped, but metaphorically, he's tormenting the woman within Vera, chaining her up and keeping her trapped and oppressed.

The torment that he enacts really makes the reader squirm, as it should - it's intended to evoke ever-present discomfort, which is exactly what gender dysphoria is too. As I read, I think on some level I always knew how it was going to end, even though it still kept me guessing. Because it matched up with my own experiences so well, I had the suspicion that the killer was just another side of Vera, but I never knew how the two elements were going to come together until the very last page.

The storytelling structure of Unmarked Grave is non-linear, very unconventional. If you're looking for something plotty and straightforward, this isn't it - it's a reflection of personal experiences, which are always messy and never fully resolved. It's raw and brutal.

The extreme horror serves it well for that reason. At best, dysphoria makes you uncomfortable, and at worst it makes you feel like you're going insane. A genre like extreme horror is perfect for evoking that feeling. The constant s itching between points of view is also extremely disorienting, and while that made it occasionally difficult to follow, I see why the author made that choice, as it serves the metaphor well.

I highly recommend this book to any queer horror fans out there - you can purchase it on Amazon, where you can also find Carietta Dorsch's other works, including a short story collection she released just last month. If you want to learn more about her, she did an interview on the Unveiling Nightmares channel with Asher Dark, where she goes into more detail about her work.

Lastly, I wanted to share some pictures of my copy of the book - I purchased a signed copy, and what she did with the packaging was so neat I just have to share it with everyone:

She packed it in an envelope designed to look like police evidence, and included a few horror movies stickers and fake cockroaches to go along with the theme. My favorite touch on the evidence package is under remarks, where it says "STAY OUT OF THE WOODS".

And of course, here's her signature:

If you read it, don't forget to leave a review - much like small businesses, indie authors live and die by reviews. If not, please reblog and share to support a trans horror creator!!

[24hrsoda]

This is gonna be long and prob uninteresting so feel free to skip but I saw that you wrote that you didn't think of species when drawing bats for your au and that we're free to interpret them how we want and though Large flying fox wouldn't match what you've drawn super well (outside of colour) cause they've got small ears and are raven sized(up to around 1kg in weight and 1.5 meter wing span), it'd mean that Cass could very easily hitch a ride as long as she's a normal sized bat(like a black myotis, though all vesper bats are prob too small so a species of leaf nosed bat might fit better but she doesnt have a leaf nose).

Also Cass having small eyes but being able to echolocate while Bruce has big ol eyes and can't would be a fun parallel to Cass's mask not having visible eyes and her whole 'body language as a native language' thing(like... both being an extra sense kinda deal).

I really hope this isn't a bother i just love bats and will use any excuse i can get to word vomit about them, they are such an awesome group of animals(they make up a fifth of all discovered mammal species(1300) and the smallest have a weight that's like 1/400th that of the biggest! Not to mention the variation in noses and ears!) and your au is very cute(Not to mention all the other awesome art)!

Hope you have a good day! Also, please look up the Lesser mouse-tailed bat if you haven't seen it i love them, ghost bats(woag... like the ship) are really funny looking too. Most bat species are fucked up little freaks and i love them all, they might be part of what got me into batman ngl 👉👈. I'd def recommend looking through bat species just for the hell of it cause they really are awesome, theres some real cute and bizzare ones out there. I've personally used dif species as inspiration for dif batman designs.

Ok i'm restraining myself so hard to not write more i want to write about the bird eating spectral bats so bad but this is. So long. And unsolicited.

Ghostbats are ugly-cute little gremlins! I’ve come across so many pictures of them while looking up ghostbat (the ship) related things!

I do find a lot of bats to be strange and funny looking but cute in their own way :3 I just don’t have enough bat knowledge to decide which species of bat first best for each Bat family member lol. But plenty of people seem to have better ideas than i do!

These are all interesting, Anon! And the differences between Cass and Bruce would make for some super interesting and cute connections between the two of them.

(I did go back and do some research to find the photos i used as references when i first started sketching the AU and i believe i used pictures of fruit bats, which may be why i colored them brown!!)

and speaking of ghostbat…maybe Khoa needs to make an appearance or two in this AU…and i have a pretty good idea of how to do that :3

[sparklyeevee]

Honestly I feel like the biggest error in how Aran'gar was handled is like, there's a thing with the female Forsaken. Most of them, a woman on the side of the Light kinda... chooses one, with varying degrees of actual choice in the matter, identifying some flaw or defect of character her particular Forsaken has that she believes she shares, with... varying degrees of accuracy and relevance.

Nynaeve picks Moghedian, in the midst of her whole "Oh, no, I'm such a coward, I wish I could be brave like Elayne" thing. Obviously Nynaeve's assessment of herself as a coward is substantially off the mark, but that's where she's coming from.

Moiraine chooses manipulative, obsessive Lanfear. Yeah that's, uh, that's fair. Gotta note here that the show seems to be aware of this pattern, because we've got Moiraine talking about Lanfear's casual cruelty like, a minute after she kills a horse she probably didn't need to and threatens a woman she absolutely didn't have to threaten (this is also like, the 4th time in two seasons she threatens someone when it would literally have been easier to get what she wanted by asking nicely).

Egwene chooses Mesaana, who is explicitly described as the Forsaken who holds the most hatred. This also, is fair, actually, but Egwene keeps a lid on hers in almost every circumstance. Egwene is also notable here for explicitly drawing a parallel between herself and Mesaana.

Cadsuane, who also explicitly identifies a parallel, chooses Semirhage for her inflexibility, her inability to tolerate indignity or people not being suitably impressed.

Aviendha, who perceives her relationships with Elayne and Rand, and her time in the wetlands, as having made her soft, should have gotten Graendal, who turned away from a hard, acetic path to embrace self-indulgence. She didn't, quite, there's no real enmity there, no interaction to speak of, but Sanderson must have gotten this on some level because the final confrontation with Graendal is hers.

Every woman in this situation deals her Forsaken a serious setback, and in some cases final defeat, although none of them actually kill theirs. But Aran'gar just doesn't get one of these relationships, or even anything that looks like it was maybe gesturing at where one ought to have been. The only character who even seems to have beef with her is Chesa(sp?) - and honestly, I think it would have been awesome if they'd had some kinda proper confrontation, but I could see other ways.

[theprinceandthewitch]

Eclipse Lake is very funny, but also super annoying. The plot for this episode makes no sense, because the writers want me to suspend my disbelief and believe neither Eda or Luz can figure out there is Titan Blood in the key. Even though Eda has had the key and doorway for 30 years and Luz has been using this doorway up until the end of season 1...

... Amity figures out there's titan blood in the key towards the last third of the episode - after Hunter says you can't get to the human realm without it... She puts two and two together in this moment even though she knows her literal girlfriend has been using this key to travel between worlds.

Luz is trying to build a doorway back home, and neither Eda or Luz think "hey, we don't have to go to Eclipse Lake to get Titan Blood because we already have it in this key. All we need to do is find the right combination of ingredients to build the door."

Luz and Eda don't put two and two together because they want Hunter to take the Titan Blood back to Belos. So, Luz and Eda get lobotomized for contrived plot progression.

HOWEVER, this episode is soooo funny to me, because they insert some weird pseudo-drama between Luz and Amity that serves no purpose to the story. It just exists to take up screentime. It also doesn't benefit Hunter to make Amity feel shitty about her relationship with Luz.

At first, Hunter is trying to draw parallels between him and Amity - how unlike Eda and King, they actually have alot at stake.

... BUT THEN the focus pivots to Lumity because they created "conflict" between them at the start of the episode.

Then Hunter continues on about how Amity and him are The Same...

Hunter being the Biggest Lumity Hater doesn't benefit him at all in this scenario. It doesn't contribute to Amity's decision to unbind him. She just does it because she, Luz, and Eda need to be braindead for the plot to move in the direction the writers want it to move in. That's why despite Amity straight up saying she doesn't trust Hunter, she let's him go. And Hunter hating on Lumity doesn't give Hunter an edge over Amity in their fight for the key.

They could have just had Hunter try and find commonality with Amity because of their similar upbringings. Hunter would know Amity's history - why wouldn't he when The Blights make Abomitrons for his family? Hunter is also smart enough to be able to get an idea of someone's intentions and personality just by monitoring their behavior. That's how he's able to tell Luz was bluffing in HP. Amity is also in her Trying to Be Nice like Luz Era, so Hunter would have had a relatively easy time manipulating Amity into freeing him from her binds. He could have just made up a backstory that was similar to Amity's to get her to trust him.

But nope, bringing up Amity's past would mean Amity is allowed to be anything more than Luz's awesome girlfriend. So, we gotta insert meaningless conflict between Luz and Amity... which doesn't even work as conflict because Luz has no idea her gf thinks she's not good enough for her.

It makes you wonder why they chose to insert psuedo-drama into the first episode featuring Luz and Amity as a couple. Why did they skip Lumity's honeymoon phase and just barrel into pseudo-relationship drama?

They really had Luz's type of boy make Luz's type of girl feel shitty about her relationship with Luz... okay, interesting... why did they do that? Why was that a thing lol. That's, hmm, that's very interesting how you did that knowing you wrote a whole spoiler episode where Luz kisses a prince.

That's so interesting... too bad the conflict in this episode means absolutely nothing and will not be relevant later on! Like, at all!

Hunter trying to homewreck Lumity and Amity feeling insecure about her relationship with Luz means absolutely nothing - not in this episode, or to the story as a whole. There are no potential consequences for Hunter and/or Lumity - Luz doesn't even know her girlfriend is feeling insecure over their relationship. It's just there to remind you that Amity will only ever be Luz's awesome girlfriend and nothing more.

Basically the Lumity "drama" is there to distract you from this episodes nonsensical plot.

Oh right, and the other reason why I love EL is because they had to write Luz out of the episode. Luz literally couldn't be there, because: 1. Luz would have made sure Hunter couldn't take any titan blood back to Belos. She destroyed the door at the end of season 1, once she figures out Belos rebuilt the door, she's gonna name sure that Titan Blood never gets back to him. So they had to lobotomize Luz via magical disease.

2. They didn't want to decide if Hunter would win or lose in this fight, because they didn't want to deal with the consequences of this choice. They wanted Yesterday's Lie and Hollow Mind to happen - so they're gonna do it in a way that is easy for them to write. If Luz was at EL, it is entirely possible for Hunter to lose this fight without it feeling forced, because he values her opinion of him. That's... literally why he bulks and tells her his name in Hunting Palismen after Luz shows the slightest bit of disappointment in him. So, the writing team decided to make their lives easy by writing Luz out of Eclipse Lake.

In conclusion, while this episode is annoying and braindead THAT'S the reason why I think it's very funny and enjoyable. I am particularly fond of the way Eclipse Lake tries to dress itself up as a Lumity episode in an attempt to distract you from its contrived plot.

[starkkawajiri]

im feeling better and i had a brilliant brilliant genius idea scoob. (EXPLANATION BELOW)

okay class what was the author trying to say

fatui harbinger au. SHOCKED EMOJI

sub-au. an AU of an AU (marvel impact) because three things happened to cross paths in my big empty mind:

1. "man i would love an evil stephen au"

2. "man i need to draw genshin mordo"

and 3. "i love the harbingers" and when the idea lit up like a flame in my brain i exploded out of bed

this au consists of the best magic users ever being fatui harbingers (rip traveler) because evil hot and crazy sexy, instead of adding more harbingers they replace already existing ones because one two three enough fatui for me

so basically evil evil magic users au

((before moving on for ppl that do play genshin but dont know much about the fatui harbingers, there's 11 of them and they're ranked based on strength, personally i wouldnt even know how to scale them based on their powers so i didnt touch the ranks, just switched out the characters))

NOW EXPLAINING EACH OF THEM IN ORDER OF THEIR 'RANK' starting with lowkey

Loki is pretty self explanatory, he takes The Tsaritsa's place because cryo archon.... ice...god.....

i was initially planning on making loki take scaramouche's place because i found scara's "YOU'RE INTERRUPTING A CONVERSATION BETWEEN GODS......" dialogue in the sumeru quest so funny and because the idea of loki being a fake-god seemed cool, but her as the cryo archon and overall leader of the fatui was too good to put aside

IMPORTANT NOTE/EDIT: NVM YALL LMFAOOOO I DECIDED (iwas MANIPULATED /j /aimed) TO CHANGE LOKI BACK TO TAKING SCARAMOUCHE'S PLACE there's a lot more things they have in common and it sets an interesting dynamic between him and other characters in this au, including thor ("better version of him"), strange (using loki as a vessel to create a god) etc

Wong's the baddest bitch in this post theres no other explanation

im (half)joking (hes so fine) theres an explanation

it was between that and making him take Il Capitano's place, which would have been Rank 1, and he would have still ranked higher than everyone else (besides Loki) so i looked at their wikis .

The Director (Pierro) handpicked certain Harbingers, two of which being Il Dottore and La Signora (in this au, Strange and Wanda) so that was just the stars aligning for this au

Strange's gotta be even more self-explanatory than Loki's

il dottore. the doctor.

need i say more (no but i will)

i need at least 34084 aus of this man being evil idk i cant control myself

Sufian and Zandik (Dottore) already had a lot in common or parallel in the marvel impact au, both expelled students from the Akademiya, positive/negative relations with the dendro archon, man kissers, insert il dottore wiki

i want him to be scary and feared now and then, is that too much for a man to want from another man (rip eleazar patients)

clea had to be arlecchino/the knave because. because

clea in a suit primary excuse

arlecchino's cool hair secondary excuse

woman kisser back-up excuse

theres little to no explanation here i just sensed it spiritually (arlecchino is the best ily arlecchino) + the theory about arlecchino being half-hilichurl?? or something like that? because of the cool gradient on her skin, which is rlly awesome, so non-human bonus points

need more insane, cold, calculated, manipulative, insane, insane, deceiving, insane women sometimes

mordo he exists hes here save me mordo

im gonna be so fr with you guys rn

pulcinella is just there, i forget he exists often times

only mordo can fix that

after deciding on making Wong the Director, i considered making Mordo take Il Capitano's place or Pantalone's/The Regrator's, but i was really really unsure, he didn't seem to fit either of them and by making him take the Regrator's place I would be putting him in a rank that is wayy too low (9) and considering how little there is about Pulcinella (literally almost nothing), I would have a lot of creative freedom

wanda had to be one of the easiest to sort out....la signora..... alternatively "crimson witch".......? come on they forced my hand atp

im so sorry red bisexual i didnt want you to get such a low rank (8) i had no other choice

la signora is such a badass im tired of pretending shes not (+her Crimson Witch form is amazing)

consumed by grief and anguish, destroying themselves in the process? they twin

fandom theories about their resurrection? they twin

that was it i love being normal about any interest i have . ever

[space-wizards]

SATISFACTORY 1.0: COMPLETE

5 save files in, it's still a phenomenal game. 10/10, I've spent 365 hours on it, go buy it.

Completing Phase 5 took 2/3rds the time I spent completing the old (wildly inflated) Phase 4 requirements, and I needed a lot less space than I expected, too. I attribute that to a few things:

Start each Space Elevator part as soon as you can. Fight your instincts! Don't wait to do them all in parallel!

The Dimensional Depot saves you so much goddamn time, you have no idea. The "only draw straight conveyor belts" mode, too.

Using Somersloops to double one or two machines (in exchange for way more power consumption) is an absolute game changer. Nearly got me into trouble when making Nuclear Pasta, but I had enough batteries to make it through.

Speaking of power, I didn't need any power generation other than Coal and normal Fuel (with the Diluted Fuel recipe). Compacted Coal? Turbo Fuel? Nuclear? Nah.

Blueprints, some alt recipes, and some recipes getting simpler in 1.0 made a lot of production easier. Computers, Motors, Heavy Mod Frames, various smelters, all ended up as cubes I could just slap down in a row.

You can abuse leverage the AWESOME Shop to get milestones done early. I was able to set up fuel generators alongside my first plastic/rubber refineries, skipping petroleum coke entirely.

I didn't cover my factories in walls. Building walls is a trap you set for yourself, "locking in" whatever's inside it and making it harder to diagnose any problems.

Pictures of my final factory (and the ending) below:

These are all taken from one spot, a radar tower on the big pillar on the northwestern coast. The one significant base I didn't take a picture of is my aluminum smelting operation, which is behind the rocks in the last picture (you can just see the water pumps and a particle accelerator I was using for making diamonds). There's also a coal generator base on the river between the rocky desert and spire coast, and some SAM/Quartz in the long cave, but those aren't important.

And finally, shots of the final Space Elevator, and the ending:

[ottpopfic]

“Hey, you remember how I've been wanting to get my Legion tattoo covered?” Uncle Jason asks

---

god dad fluff

It's a fall Friday afternoon and Katie is done with class

She's cuddled up in on a couch in the library with the fairy lights on, two Cocoa Puffs curled up on her and a brand-new sci-fi novel that Uncle Jason brought her when he came to camp this week. He is coming over for dinner after he's done with his priestly duties for the day. She thinks Dad is making a fall chili if the cornbread mix and the squash she had to hull up from the last grocery order says anything 

Things in her novel are moving out of the character and world-building and into the meat of the story when she hears a knock on the window. She looks up unphased, because with her life it could be anyone, and sees Uncle Jason. This is pretty typical for him and she gets it, if she could fly Katie would also be entering every building like a Ninja Turtle. 

She has to detangle herself from Puffs and blankets to let him in, both hellspawn complaining the whole way like she didn't place each on their own pillow. The spider-looking one grumpily climbs the wall to fold into a shadow at the corner of the ceiling. 

“Your early!” Katie greets excitedly as she throws open the window and screen “I don't think Dads started on dinner”

“It's cool,” he says as he climbs in “How's the book treating you?”

“Good so far!” she gushes excited, Uncle Jason has always been awesome about letting her infodump “The zinophysiology angle has been really interesting, I'm looking forward to where they're gonna take it” 

Katie pops back on the edge of the couch and the Cocoa Puff clambers back into her lap vibrating for scratches that she happily provides. Uncle Jason sits down next to her

“Hey, you remember how I've been wanting to get my Legion tattoo covered?” he asks

“Yeah?” 

They have been talking about it for a while. Katie has a friend from Hecate who's been working in enchanted tattoos and it got Uncle Jason thinking about getting his old SPQR tattoo covered. She doesn't blame him, it's filled his whole forearm for most of his life, and it's never suited him either. Not like her dad's tattoos, which were personal and felt natural on their bodies. Uncle Jason's has always felt like a barcode, or a brand

Katie and Uncle Jason have always enjoyed talking about art, whether it's what they were working on or something they have seen when they're out and about. Uncle Jason is a modest artist, but his work with the temples speaks for itself. And Katie has a lot of good memories sitting with him as he sketched, parallel play at the max. 

“I got the design, you want to see it?” but he's already pulling out the folded printout from his inner jacket pocket to give over to her excited grabby hands.

At the top is a mandala-style design of the big window at the Way Station. Below it there are two trees; one is obviously Aunt Thalia’s tree, the shape and golden fleece make it indistinguishable. But the dragon in its branches is more serpentine and made of metal, a stylized Festus if she's ever seen him, raising his head up towards the window motif. Katie doesn't recognize the other tree off to the side of Aunt Thalia’s , smaller but equal in the composition. Between them sleeps Grandma Lupa, regal as always, underneath a night sky with the trees as a frame. She thinks she recognizes the leo constellation front and center in the rich starscape.

“It's great!” Katie tells him, impressed, “Did you do it all yourself?”

“I did most of the planning and a sketch,” Uncle Jason says “But the tattoo artist I found did the final drawing. I'm into the city tomorrow to get it”

“What's with the second tree? Just to help cover more?”

“No, it's a poplar tree” and Uncle Jason is watching her face “A balsam poplar”

“That's me” Katie breathes, touching where she and Aunt Thalia’s branches merge and overlay in the picture. They had figured out what kind of wood she was made of last time she was at the Way Station for her quest. 

“Is that ok?” Uncle Jason looks a little worried, rubbing the hair at the nape of his neck “I wanted to get my whole family in it, but I don't want to overstep-”

“Of course it's ok!” she laughs, throwing her arms around his neck. The Puff squeaks in her lap “It's wonderful!”

Uncle Jason hugs her back, warm and solid as always. Big arms and a wide chest, pulling her in tight and safe, the greatest of hugs. He smells like heat lightning and smoke from the offerings, he's the absolute best and she loves him so much

“Would you like company,” she asks him after they separate “When you go to get your cover-up?”

“I would love that!” he tells her all smiles

[gethellbcnt-m]

screaming my thoughts about s2e8 into the void because i need to to scream it somewhere n i dont wanna bother people SO--

the song was fun, the visuals were comedy gold, and i thought the escalation from playful horniness to Anxiety-Fueled Dread was very entertaining !

LOONA YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOUR FATHER FEEL BETTER ! you know he's gotta give that bird the ultimate stuffing to keep the book ! WHY WOULD YOU SAY THOSE THINGS--

Moxxie being supportive of his boss is adorable... even if Blitz technically caused a divorce, but those two were on their way there anyway so it's fineeeeeeee !

Cleatus, Keenie, imma need you two to shut up- i know the dhorks are kinda dumb when it comes to taking info with a pinch of salt, but this is just sad. speaking of : WHY ARE MY TAXES BEING USED ON THIS INSTEAD OF BETTER SCHOOL LUNCHES-- i'm also getting incredibly vague lion king vibes from the shot of those priest clones... and is that Collin foreshadowing i see in the interrogation room ??

sick robot suits, loving the parallel between the IMP and team CHERUBS. i wuold've preferred if the cherubs kept to the background more and saw that hell isn't too different from heaven, and that the hellborn are just vibing to the best of their abilities wherever they live.

Blitz's shopping spree was such a joy to watch, and it shows how much effort he's willing to put into the visits he makes to Stolas in order to keep his business and friends financially secure. i'm waiting to see if one/the mnm's will get a similar sequence in the future.

these shopkeeper designs fucking ROCK and i want to know more about them ! even if i know they're probably one-time characters and will never see them again lol

love love LOOOVE Fizz and Ozzie's toy/entertainment selection !! i can't stop looking at everything in the background because A] it's so colorful and B] i'm a pervert who wants to draw my muses in some of these hehehe

the remainder of IMP vs. the CHERUBS were so fun to watch ! i feel bad for Ozzie though, he and Fizz are definitely having a talk about Blitz and his team being surpervised if they're ever allowed to visit the Lust ring again after all the damage they caused.

Stolas... didn't just start the conversation by giving him the crystal, first ? asking about the book first -- Blitz's only reason that his business is still running and keeping him AND his employees financially afloat -- and seeing the underlying fear and uncertainty on Blitz's face before Stolas doubles down... God, it hurts. ' i can always do better ' just... OUGH.

i am going to out myself as a Blitz enjoyer here because i relate to him a lot on a concerning level.. but also because i've been to that scalding, steaming pit of self-hatred, too ; i've long since climbed out of that pit, but i can understand his position because i've been there. you feel like you're alone, even when you're in a room full of company that you enjoy being with. you feel like even when you're surrounded by loving family/friends, you have this feeling in your heart that they secretly hate you regardless of how much praise or support they give you. something just feels... off. any signlas that Stolas may have given him just whooooooshed over Blitz's head because he's too caught up in his own self-loathing to see it.

additionally, i've ALSO been fearful of someone with higher authority who's able to decide whether or not i keep my job depending on their opinion of me. to have such low self esteem and be at a disadvantage in The System just freaking sucks donkey balls, bro.

i'll give Stolas credit where it's due : the communication is FINALLY happening ! but you know what's awesome about that process ? learning to LISTEN !! he knows that Blitz is a guy who uses humor in the way he communicates, and i feel that it would not have taken more than a few seconds for him to have said, ' Blitz, i'm being serious '. would it have not lead to Blitz blowing up at him ? i don't know ! would it have lead to Blitz calling out Stolas and having his emotional rant anyway ? it's entirely possible !

both characters are so caught up in their pains that, if they took a little more time to clarify themselves and their feelings, it's very likely that their confrontation wouldn't have ended the way it did.

[bitacrytic]

Hi Bit,

After seeing a couple of your posts on My Stand In, I wanted to ask what is going on in MSI? The posts I'm talking about are the ones where you draw comparisons/ parallels between MSI leads and Vegaspete and from what I understand, VP are less toxic??? How does that happen. I loved KPTS but lost interest in MSI very quickly, does it get interesting? I think it has some body migration plot, so is there a plot for that or is the plot focused only on the Romance?

Oh Anon, I will try my best to clear up the confusion. Sorry if my posts have been crazy and all over the place because most times, that's where my head is at, lol.

1. About vegaspete being less toxic than joeming, I guess that's just a matter of perspective. I see it from the POV that-

Pete knew what he was getting into when he went into the lion's den, but Joe (the guy from MSI) did not.

Vegas was honest with Pete from day 1. When he wanted to kill him, or turn him to a pet, or torture him, Vegas didn't pretend to want a romantic relationship. Ming used Joe as a sex doll to quench his thirst anytime he wanted to fuck the guy that Joe looks like. I mean, eventually, it became more than that, but that doesn't matter if Joe never consented to being a toy in the first place.

Vegas learned. Vegas changed. Vegas cuffed Pete after sex and sent Pete into suicidal depression and the moment he found out that Pete would rather die, he changed his tone. Never treated Pete like an object again. But... Ming literally drove Joe to his death, and now that Joe has come back to life, Ming is doing exactly the same things he did before. He's rude. He's controlling. He's invasive of Joe's privacy. Pete left and Vegas changed. Joe fucking died but Ming stayed the same.

Pete and Vegas are two very horrible people in a very horrible world. But Joe is a good boy who thought he was living in a relatively normal world until the day he woke up from a hit to head with his hands cuffed behind his back.

So this is why I view vegaspete as a healthier relationship than joeming... even though I wouldn't wish a vegaspete relationship on anyone who isn't my enemy.

2. Like you, Anon, I LOVE KINNPORSHCE. So please believe me when I say that MSI is a very good watch.

Adult characters

Unconcealed toxicity

Pretty actors (even the characters I hate have pretty actors)

No school uniform

No guitars (so far)

A plot that is PLOTTING

Horny main characters

Angst (oh the pining and the pay offs)

Even if ep1 may have moved too slowly for you, it gets more tense with every episode. (I will admit that ep5 slowed down a bit but that was more of a transitioning period from past to present. I expect that we're about to go back to the regular gbas gbos from ep6.

3. There is body migration. The show starts off with that so it's not a spoiler to admit it. Boy 1 dies, wakes up in Boy 2's body and then goes on to make the same mistakes he made in his first body. It's ridiculous and awesome at the same time. There is a lot of play on thier differences and similarities, both with the body migration plot and with the fact that beyond thier names, thier bodies are almost identical. So there's that. Which is funny because this ALSO plays heavily into the sex lives of the characters.

4. Yes, the plot is focused on the romance, but it doesn't abandon the body migration. Like I said, it plays into every part of the main character's life. His work, his love life, his relationship with family and friends. The body migration bit is integrated with the plot pretty nicely, if you ask me.

-

Anon, please watch it.

Or better yet, wait till it's done and watch it because I'll be honest. Waiting for weekly updates is a proper bitch.

[mieux-de-se-taire]

Give 'Em Hell, Kid - MCR Interviews

Matt Schichter Interview - 11/30/05

6:17-7:00

Interviewer: A lot of people don't know "Give 'Em Hell" was the first single. Was I right in saying that? Gerard: Yeah, yeah, you did your homework. It was supposed-- Interviewer: A little bit Gerard: Well, it-- at the time-- well, here's the thing, we don't write singles, so...we just write the songs. But at the time, the only thing the label and Howard had heard as a single was "Give 'Em Hell." Interviewer: Who's Howard? Gerard: Howard Benson, our producer. Interviewer: Okay Gerard: Everybody was kinda like, "Oh, 'Give 'Em Hell,' 'Give 'Em Hell's' the one." But at the time they hadn't heard what we were currently working on, and it was so many great songs, like, whereas in the end "Give 'Em Hell" ended up being like this kind of song where, it was an awesome song but they were like, "Wow, there's so many other songs that are way better as a single we'd like to use."

/

Rage Interview - Dec 2005

3:32-3:42

Gerard: [Dear You by Jawbreaker] is one of the biggest influences to Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, our record, especially this track "Fireman." I kinda copped the chorus for "Give 'Em Hell, Kid."

/

MTV Interview - Aug-Oct 2006

3:15-3:17

Gerard: (Drawing parallels between Dear You by Jawbreaker and Three Cheers in terms of song structure, 2:57 for context) "Give 'Em Hell, Kid" is basically "Fireman."

/

Two Minutes to Late Night Interview - 8/15/22

8:15-8:26

Gwarsenio (Interviewer): And song number two on the record, start-- they both have these-- Frank: Oh, "Give 'Em Hell, Kid," yeah. Gwarsenio: "Give 'Em Hell, Kid"-- Frank: Well, "Give 'Em Hell, Kid" is us basically trying to write a Jawbreaker song, that's "Give 'Em Hell, Kid."

[writebackatya]

Alright, I’ll go double here. E, H, R, and W for the fanfic writer ask.

All right, about time I answer this {cracks knuckles}

E. What character do you identify with most? Is there a certain fic of yours that captures these qualities particularly well?

Well, I guess I could easily answer Della, but I can also see a good case for Fenton, Gandra, and Dewey. Both Fenton and Gandra are characters around my age so it makes me very easy to relate to them in their struggles to get recognized for their own work and to have the world see them for who they are. Also I'm mixed race and I kinda headcanon both Fenton and Gandra as mixed race. (I mean come on, Crackshell is such a white name. You know, cause eggshells are white. sometimes.). As for Dewey, a lot of his characteristics remind me who I was as a kid and bit of who I am now. Also I'm a middle child so that's another thing we have in common.

But back to Della, I think like most Della fans I love the fact that Della isn't perfect but that's why we love rooting for her and seeing her succeed in the end

Like her brother, she has bad luck but it's a bit different from his. It can affect others around her often unintentionally. Some times Della can cross a line without even realizing it, even if her intentions are good

She has a lot of pride in herself and in the people she loves. She's so damn supportive of her family and is always amazed with their own talents and abilities that they have. Della is just one of those characters that sees the awesomeness in herself and others

I guess a story of mine that I found myself identifying with Della the most would be The Three Caballeros (and Della)!, a pre-canon story where both Della and Donald are young adults who steal borrow their uncle's plane while he and Duckworth are gone for the week so that they along with José and Panchito can have awesome Spring Break in Mexico. Even though this story so far only has one chapter for it, I have a feeling that I'm going to mainly relate to Della in this story

Both Della and Donald are at a point in their lives where things are changing for them. They each have a path they want to take and hoping the other will go along with them. Della is contempt with the adventure life she has with her uncle and brother and wants to keep that going; while Donald is trying to break away from that life and create something for himself

I think both Della's and Donald's wants are both sympathetic (at least that's why I'm trying to convey) and the two do have an understanding of one another but don't fully get it. Both Della and Donald are not ready to have that conversation about their future out of fear hurting the other. They both want each other to have what they want, but they also don't want to compromise what they want their own future to be

I grew up with a lot of siblings and saying goodbye to people who are not only family but in a way, close friends is something I always found difficult to do

Also Della makes the best puns in the show so I always make sure to give her the best puns in my stories. Also she's bisexual cause I'm bi and I say so.

H. How would you describe your writing style?

A friend from work once told me that my sense of humor was like someone's little brother who just discovered the internet, and honestly if I showed her my fanfics I'm sure her opinion on my sense of humor wouldn't change.

Overall my writing does lean towards the comedic side sorta playing off whatever character the story is focused on. To me the characters are always the most important part of the story. I noticed that a lot of my stories focused on the character's traits, their relationship with others, and how they're similar and different towards the characters they interact with in their stories. I absolutely love drawing parallels between characters, I often do that with actions, repeated dialogue, etc. I guess another common thing in my writing is back-and-forth dialogue, it's often used to push the story forward whether it be about the characters at hand or the plot itself.

I try to make my descriptions in my stories fun and exciting. I'm guilty of throwing in puns and alliteration in there, occasionally unintentionally, when that happens I usually keep it because I'm a sucker for puns and alliteration.

And while things in my stories can occasionally go to a dark place whether it be humorous or serious, I don't look at my works as mean-spirited or cynical; in the end our heroes grow and the bad guys get their much deserved comeuppance.

R. Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

In terms of fanfic, I'd say Korkorali and tsundereanubis and their fanfic Closets and Moons, and How They're Alike is what motivated to start writing. I love their work and I still think it's really cool that tsundereanubis beta reads my stuff and always gives me good feedback

And even though I have not read those books in ages, I would say Lemony Snicket and his A Series of Unfortunate Events books had a big effect on me. Along with the stories and the characters, I always looked forward to his narration for the story. His voice was very dry and really really funny. Heck I remember reading one of those books late at night and the scene I was reading was Klaus reading late at night, exhausted. Mr. Snicket thought it would be funny to repeat the same lines over and over again when he wanted to make it clear to the reader that Klaus was so tired he found himself reading the same lines over and over again. And it was funny! I too was tired but thata did not stop me from giggling

An author who recently got their influence on me is the late and great Sir Terry Pratchett, the author of the Discworld series. I started reading him back when the pandemic started and instantly fell in love with his writing style and humor. Just the way he can describe his world, the characters, they way they speak, act, etc is both very descriptive and very funny. I'm slowly making my through the series and have loved every book by him so far, he's someone I wish I got into sooner

Lastly, I would say Mel Brooks and his movies had a big influence on me. Now it could be answering this because I recently finished his autobiography All About Me! (which I highly recommend reading if you're a fan of his works) but I've been a fan of him since I was in grade school and my mom and dad rented Spaceballs from BlockBuster for me cause a few classmates told me about knowing I was a Star Wars fan. (Side note: something I noticed is that people my age's first Mel Brooks movie they've watched is either Spaceballs or Robin Hood: Men in Tights, just thought that was worth brining up)

Anyway, I love Mel Brooks movies. Besides their humor, his movies are often great stories on their own filled with memorable characters, beautiful music, fun musical numbers, and a lot of heart. Something I think that gets ignored when people talk about his movies is the heart they have (it's always "WoW pEoPlE tOdAy ArE sO sEnSiTiVe! YoU cOuLd NeVeR mAkE a MoViE lIkE tHiS!!). Sure Blazing Saddles is parodying the Western genre, but it's also a brilliant satire attacking racism with some touching moments. The scene where Bart reunites with his brother always tugs at my heartstrings. Or even if you think about Spaceballs. The whole movie is a Star Wars parodying poking fun of different sci-fi movies and tropes let the love story between Lone Star Princess Vespa is probably the only element that is played straight albeit with some jokes getting in the mix

W. What is your favorite pairing to write? Favorite pairing to read?

I guess currently my answer would be Fendra, which I never would have guessed when I started writing. After I was done writing Ground Control to Della Duck! (as well as Legalize It! but that legit took me less than a day to write and was posted the same time as the other story) I wanted the next story in Indi-Quack! to not feature any of the McDucks or Ducks so I went with the story idea I had where Fenton accidentally gets high because of Gandra. And I was quick to realize that I really loved writing for Fenton and Gandra, both as a couple and as individuals

They both just compliment each other really well. I just love how bubbly and optimistic Fenton is while Gandra is more dry and cynical. But most importantly, they're really supportive of each other's works and see the potential the other has better than everyone else. I just love having them work together whether it be something science related or adventure related. They also have qualities that can make them be the "sane one" when it comes to comedic situations so I like alternating between the two on who is less crazy than the other. I also love implying that Gandra tops Fenton because hell yeah she does!

But I would be lying if I said I don't love showing my love for Weblena whenever I have the chance. I've only written one story that is a Weblena story, but in every story that features the two there is always some sorta of dialogue between the two that is 100% meant to be taken as "Yeah, these two are SOOOOO in love with one another." (My personal favorite is when Webby referred to Lena as "My Beautiful Goddess" when Lena was dressed up as Selene for Dewey and Webby's Spear of Selene movie). I do plan on writing a Weblena story for Indi-Quack!, it'll be the next story in that series so hopefully we'll see more of this wonderful couple in more of my stories

As for reading, I will just say Della and her two moon buddies. I love reading Dellene and Dellumbra stories. I just wanna see the duck be happy, and both Selene and Penumbra are great for Della. You know what, she deserves to end up with both. They'd make a lovely throuple

Currently I am working on a WIP that'll have Della with her two moon buddies, but they're not the main focus of the story. One story I have on the backburner is about Della going back on the dating scene and it'll go over the many ships I've seen Della shipped with, but its been awhile since I last touched it, but I haven't forgotten about it. So yeah, maybe someday I will actually be able to tell a story about the couple I like. Of course Legalize It! was a Dellene a story, but that was super short and the whole thing was leading to one punchline

[astronomyforastrologers]

Engaging Eclipses ~ 12 Oct 2023

Engaging Eclipses ~ 12 Oct 2023, Philip Sedgwick

Today, Mars in the primordial degrees of Scorpio, travels between the dwarf planet Haumea and the centaur Elatus. This transit serves as a preset of sorts for Saturday’s “ring of fire” solar eclipse in Libra as well as Sunday’s Ceres in Scorpio opposition of Jupiter in Taurus.

A lunar eclipse follows the solar eclipse by a fortnight also straddling the Taurus-Scorpio axis. This eclipse coincides with Ceres in Scorpio reaching across the sky on approach to an opposition that contradicts and tantalizes Uranus in Taurus. At the same time, Mercury with Mars in Scorpio stand pretty much directly across from Jupiter in Taurus.

Sounds intense. That’s because it is.

During a solar eclipse, subconscious emotional reactions overpower logic, reason and the conscious mind. For those who think through feelings, this is awesome news. There’s going to be an emotional reckoning or three during the next weeks. Regardless, for all souls incarnate on Earth, expect sensitivity levels to rise to the boiling point. Consider tapioca as a metaphor. Constantly stir the pot in an attentive and conscious way to prevent sticking while conjuring dharmic delectable events for consumption by hungry spirit urges.

As a lunar eclipse occurs, mundane matters dominate the emotional landscape. Concerns about the real world push front and center, demanding fair and full consideration all the while emotional priorities, philosophical beliefs and soulful pursuits simultaneously argue to maintain their importance in consideration and decision-making. The solution is to notice what people, places and events draw your attention and which push back in an uncomfortable way. Find your proper lean and do that leaning thing.

This weekend as Ceres engages Jupiter a pattern of passionate transits, hellbent on total victory in one form or the other, commences. This pattern consists of the Sun, Mercury, Ceres and Mars swimming through Scorpio each opposing the gaseous giants Jupiter and Uranus ambling the pastures of Taurus. The transits in this energetic surge last until 13 November when the Sun opposes Uranus.

For those looking for solace in these turbulent world times while navigating the path of personal pursuits, recall that Pluto turned direct a couple days ago and in slightly more than three weeks, Saturn resumes prograde motion. Given these planets do what they do in the collective, the foundational steps of meaningful progress inch forward for those balanced, focused and intentionally determined.

There’s more solace to be found, too. While Ceres and Jupiter two-step across the sky, keep in mind it was Jupiter who arbitrated between Ceres and Pluto such that Persephone could be returned to her mother. Jupiter reminds all while in Taurus that life is not zero-sum. No ground need be lost during negotiation and the results likely enhance ones footing in life.

The footing issue looms huge. There is a sense of vertigo as the planets pound out opposition after opposition. The antivertigo antidote consists of two transits out there: Eris and the north lunar node conjunct in Aries; Mars currently bracketed by Haumea and Elatus in the first few degrees of Scorpio.

First the Aries thing (naturally it’s first). The node and Eris push each individual incarnate to find a position, a station in life, that truly suits ones nature. Go totally Goldilocks with every aspect of life. Get enough, not too little, not too much - just the perfect amount for soulful satiation. That will do the trick. It keeps one in bounds, in ones own lane, without the need to swerve and potentially cut off other path pursuers. Those things that do not further simply do not require pursuit, attention or plotting to achieve.

Second, consider the parallel psychic agendas of Elatus and Haumea.

Elatus, in attendance at one of those infamous centaur wine debacles got in the way of a poison arrow bowed by Hercules. The arrow was a through and through shot, clearing Elatus and then wounding Chiron. Elatus crossed through the wrong place at the wrong time. His deflection symbolically denotes meddling and interference. Should one have no function in a situation, step back and permit those with utility to do their things.

Haumea, a goddess of unlimited creativity, birthing fecundity and the ability to feed the masses, strongly objected to any triangulation or interference that others posed to her personal agendas. Should she sense such interpersonal meddling, all bets were off in terms of what she would do to impede the interference.

Mars, the feisty, aggressive, impetuous, exceptionally proactive, eager to get it on planet now stands between Elatus and Haumea.

On the cusp of powerful oppositions involving planets subject to action and irritation as well as the largest planet and as well as the crankiest planet, here are a few suggestions to consider while navigating the next month or so as the sky seems supercharged.

Consider intended objectives and consequential outcomes prior to taking action. Assess if any skirmish confronting you is a battle or a war, and if it is worth engagement. Locate where in your being the most visceral reactions reside. Notice when hackles rise and inner incitement rises to the threshold of impulsiveness. Reconsider objectives and outcomes. Engage fully and passionately any situation you know serves your soul and do so as if there is no tomorrow. For any engagement, enter the arena fully equipped with creative solutions realizing that every solution offered will require modification to fit the needs of the broadest spectrum. Shine with proactive positivism. Remember that allies and enemies stand on opposite sides of the same agenda. Finding the delicate fulcrum leads to potential agreement and eliminates the threat of scorched Earth. Finally, enjoy the pulsing passion of life. It’s what’s called for by the transiting triggers saturating the sky!

More soon.

One Stop Shopping Order Form Astrological Textso

Meteoric the Movie on Vimeo ZAP! on Vimeo

[mapsofnonexistentplacesremade]

Ooh I have a random question ! Do you have some favorite fighting games artworks/concept art/designs and can you show them (if you want)?

you’ve activated my autism ABSOLUTELY

immediately what comes to mind is like gg1 and x2 baiken…. genderful swag and also i love her claw hand being part of key art. i know it’s supposed to be like a secret weapon thing but there’s some draws of her where the chain makes for an AWESOME composition they need to bring that back. i just like how 'rusty' she looks in older art shes super ragtag and it’s fitting

aba is also probably one of my favorite character designs ever she’s so distinct both as a fighting game character and just A Design. she’s edgy and sickly and she will die of the common cold and it shows i love her key motif i love how she’s constantly drawn dragging paracelsus around she’s got a lot of consistent body language and stuff between art it fucking rocks. so so well done she needs to exist again any time

^ honorary mention of vastedge chipp also because it feels like a funnier version of his xrd design which is my favorite.

general artwork though i always remember this millia and zato one i fucking looooove the composition of it. circle shapes as borders parallels between the two and their beasts etc it’s just a really solid piece

this pic also it’s so grimy and gross looking and it rocks VVVV

as for like concept art directly i can’t think of any i’d be able to find at a reasonable speed…. there was this one sketch of anji done for xrd I THINK where he just had a bunch of scarves and his hair was tied up and i think that’s a cute design direction for him. i also remember a jack’o design that reminded me of like a flight attendant which i think would’ve made her more distinct AND funny

[maxwell-grant]

What are your thoughts on Jekyll/Hyde and his archetype of the human periodically changing into a monster ?

Jekyll & Hyde was the 2nd horror story I read following Frankenstein, I got it off the same library and it always stuck very strongly with me even before I got into horror in general. I even dressed up as Jekyll/Hyde as a kid for a school fair by shredding a lab coat on one side and asking my sister to make-up claw gashes on my exposed arm and paint half of my face, although in hindsight I think I ended up looking more like Doctor Two-Face than Jekyll/Hyde, but I was 12 and didn't have any Victorian clothing to use so I had to make do. The first film project I tried doing at film school was intended to be a modern take on Jekyll & Hyde, and I didn't get much farther than a couple of discarded scripts

Much like Frankenstein, Mr Hyde as a character and a story is something that's kind of baked into everything I do artistically. And it's not just me, as even in pop culture itself, none of us can escape Mr Hyde. I would go so far as to argue Mr Hyde may be the single most significant character created by victorian fiction, if only by the sheer impact and legacy the character's had.

(Fan-art by guilhermefranco)

Part of what makes Mr Hyde such a powerful and lasting icon of pop culture is that the very premise of the book invites a personal reading that's gonna vary from person to person. Because everyone's familiar with the basic twist of the story, that it's a conflict of duality, of the good and evil sides, but everyone has a more personal idea of what those entail. Some people make the story more about class. A lot of readings laser-focus on sex and lust as the driving force, and there's also a lot of readings of Mr Hyde that tackle it to explore a more gendered perspective, and so forth.

I don't particularly take much notice of the Jekyll & Hyde adaptations partially because the novel's premise and themes have become baked so throughly into pop culture and explored in so many different and interesting ways, that I'm not particularly starving for good Jekyll & Hyde adaptations the way I am for Dracula and Frankenstein. The Fredric March film in particular is one that orbits my head less because of the film itself (although I do recommend it), but because of one specific scene, and that's when Jekyll first transforms into Hyde on screen.

Out of all the things they could have shown him doing right that second, they instead took the time to show him enjoying the rain.

Just Hyde taking off his hat and letting it all cascade on his face with this sheer enthusiasm like he's never been to the rain before, never enjoyed it before, and now that he's free from being Jekyll, he gets to enjoy life like he never has before. It's such an oddly humanizing moment to put amidst a horror movie, in the scene where you're ostensibly introducing the monster to the audience, and it makes such a stark contrast to the rest of the film where Hyde is completely irredeemable, but I think it's that contrast that makes the film's take on Hyde work so well even with it's diverging from the source material, even if I don't particularly like in general interpretations of Hyde that are focused on a sexual aspect.

Because one, it understands that Jekyll was fundamentally a self-serving coward and not a paragon of goodness, and two, it also understands one of the things that makes Hyde scary: He wants what all of us want, to live and be happy. He's happy when he leaves the lab and dances around in the rain like a giddy child, he's happy when he goes to places Jekyll couldn't dream of showing up, he's happy as a showgirl-abusing sexual predator. Hyde is all wants, all the time, and there's not that much difference between his wants, his domineering possessiveness, and the likes exhibited by Muriel's father and Jekyll's own within the very same film, which also works to emphasize one of the other ideas of the original story, that Edward Hyde doesn't come from nowhere. That no monster is closer to humanity than Mr Hyde, because he is us. He is the thing that Jekyll refused to take responsability for until it was too late.

(Art by LorenzoMastroianni)

While many of the ideas that defined Mr Hyde had already been explored in pop culture beforehand, Hyde popularized and redefined many of them in particular by modernizing the idea. He was the werewolf, the doppelganger, The Player On The Other Side, except he came from within. He was not transformed by circumstance, he made himself that way, and the elixir merely brought out something already inside his soul. To acknowledge that he's there is to acknowledge that he is you, and to not do that is to either lose to him, or perish. Hyde was there to address both the rot settling in Victorian society as well as grappling concerns over Darwinian heritage, of the realization that man has always had the beast inside of him (it's no accident that Hyde's main method of murder is by clubbing people to death with his cane like a caveman).

I've already argued on my post about Tarzan that the Wild Man archetype, beginning with Enkidu of The Epic of Gilgamesh, is the in-between man and beast, between superhero and monster, and that Mr Hyde is an essential component of the superhero's trajectory, as the creature split in between. That stories about dual personalities, doppelgangers, the duality of the soul, the hero with a day job and an after dark career, you can pinpoint Hyde as a turning point in how all of these solidified gradually in pop culture. And I've argued otherwise that The Punisher, for all that his image and narrative points otherwise, is ultimately just as much of a superhero as the rest of them, even if no one wants to admit it, drawing a parallel between The Punisher and Mr Hyde. And he's far from the only modern character that can invite this kind of parallel.

The idea of a regular person periodically or permanently transforming into, or revealing itself to be, something extraordinary and fantastic and scary, grappling with the divide it causes in their soul, and questions whether it's a new development or merely the truest parts of themselves coming to light at last, and the effects this transformation has for good and bad alike. The idea of a potent, dangerous, unpredictable enemy who ultimately is you, or at least a facet of you and what you can do. That these are bound to destroy each other if not reconciled with or overcome.

You know what are my thoughts on the archetype of "human periodically changing into a monster" are? Look around you and you're gonna see the myriad ways The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde's themes have manifested in the century and a half since the story's release. Why it shouldn't be any surprise whatsoever that Mr Hyde has become such an integral part of pop culture, in it's heroes and monsters alike. Why we can never escape Mr Hyde, just as Jekyll never could.

It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character that almost every country in the world has learned to fear and despise. Our Barbie-doll president, with his Barbie-doll wife and his boxful of Barbie-doll children is also America's answer to the monstrous Mr. Hyde.

He speaks for the Werewolf in us; the bully, the predatory shyster who turns into something unspeakable, full of claws and bleeding string-warts on nights when the moon comes too close… - Hunter S. Thompson

There is a scene in the movie Pulp Fiction that explains almost every terrible thing happening in the news today. And it's not the scene where Ving Rhames shoots that guy's dick off. It's the part where the hit man played by John Travolta is talking about how somebody vandalized his car, and says this:

"Boy, I wish I could've caught him doing it. I'd have given anything to catch that asshole doing it. It'd been worth him doing it, just so I could've caught him doing it."

That last sentence is something everyone should understand about mankind. After all, the statement is completely illogical -- revenge is supposed to be about righting a wrong. But he wants to be wronged, specifically so he'll have an excuse to get revenge. We all do.

Why else would we love a good revenge movie? We sit in a theater and watch Liam Neeson's daughter get kidnapped. We're not sad about it, because we know he's a badass and he finally has permission to be awesome. Not a single person in that theater was rooting for it to all be an innocent misunderstanding. We wanted Liam to be wronged, because we wanted to see him kick ass. It's why so many people walk around with vigilante fantasies in their heads.

Long, long ago, the people in charge figured out that the easiest and most reliable way to bind a society together was by controlling and channeling our hate addiction. That's the reason why seeing hurricane wreckage on the news makes us mumble "That's sad" and maybe donate a few bucks to the Red Cross hurricane fund, while 9/11 sends us into a decade-long trillion-dollar rage that leaves the Middle East in flames.

The former was caused by wind; the latter was caused by monsters. The former makes us kind of bummed out; the latter gets us high.

It's easy to blame the news media for pumping us full of stories of mass shootings and kidnapped children, but that's stopping one step short of the answer: The media just gives us what we want. And what we want is to think we're beset on all sides by monsters.

The really popular stories will always feature monsters that are as different from us as possible. Think about Star Wars -- what real shithead has ever referred to himself as being on "the dark side"? In Harry Potter and countless fantasy universes, you have wizards working in "black magic" and the "dark arts." Can you imagine a scientist developing some technology for chemical weapons or invasive advertising openly thinking of what he does as "dark science"? Can you imagine a real world leader naming his headquarters "The Death Star" or "Mount Doom"?

Of course not. But we need to believe that evil people know they're evil, or else that would open the door to the fact that we might be evil without knowing it. I mean, sure, maybe we've bought chocolate that was made using child slaves or driven cars that poisoned the air, but we didn't do it to be evil -- we were simply doing whatever we felt like and ignoring the consequences. Not like Hitler and the bankers who ruined the economy and those people who burned the kittens -- they wake up every day intentionally dreaming up new evils to create. It's not like Hitler actually thought he was saving the world.

So no matter how many times you vote to cut food stamps and then use the money to buy a boat, you could still be way worse. You could, after all, be one of those murdering / lazy / ignorant / greedy / oppressive monsters that you know the world is full of, and that only your awesome moral code prevents you from turning into at any moment. And those monsters are out there.

They have to be. Because otherwise, we're the monsters - 5 Reasons Humanity Desperately Wants Monsters To Be Real, by Jason Pargin

(Two-Face sequence comes from the end of Batman Annual #14: Eye of the Beholder)

For good or bad, Hyde has become omnipresent. He's a part of our superheroes, he's a part of our supervillains, he's in our monsters. He lives and prattles in our ears, sometimes we need him to survive, and sometimes we become Hyde even when we don't need to, because our survival instincts or base cruelties or desperation brings out the worst in us. Sometimes we can beat him, and sometimes he's not that bad. Sometimes we do need to appease him and listen to what he says, about us and the world around us. And sometimes we need to do so specifically to prove him wrong and beat him again.

But he never, ever goes away, as he so accurately declares in the musical

Do you really think That I would ever let you go...

Do you think I'd ever set you free?

If you do, I'm sad to say It simply isn't so

You will never get away FROM MEEEEEE

(Art by Akreon on Artstation)