#getting off the wrong foot

[dammbi]

Bring back Princess Tutu fr, she deserved better 😤

[pestilentbrood]

VERY long Ramble incoming

honestly now that I'm looking at the auraboa lore situation, I'm just disappointed. There was such POTENTIAL in the idea of the Loop and the horror of a new generation inexplicably being disconnected from it, forcing the newly hatched children into a world totally separate from that perceived by their parents (I mean, hell, they perceive TIME differently!).... but then the writer(s?) just fell ass backwards into Icky Tropes.

I feel like I can see what the idea was, especially with the recent alterations to the Encyclopedia entry... It seems like staff fundamentally understands the true Horror potential here, but... Instead, through the short story, they proposed it through the lens of a condescending outsider character, turning the fears of the older generation into something trivial. And also weirdly demeaning the Auroboa's situation by portraying them as overreacting.

Why... why would you do that? Like, from a storytelling perspective? What's gained from that? Why not embrace the true horror and even Emotional significance of that disruption? Why instead go for "ohh we NEED outsider help we NEED to be saved because we are so helpless and it is so Silly that we, creatures who have never experienced such things, do not know what sleep is"????

And if they WANTED to have a condescending outsider, I feel like they COULD have done that, but it would have to have that character realize the horror at some point. And make it obvious that their attitude towards distressed parents and children facing Eldritch Shit and the Sudden Deconstruction of it was not cool!

(or at the very least be a bit more...idk. Consistent with said outsider character? Juniper just goes from "omg I am so honored that the fascinating creatures of the behemoth have chosen me to speak to" to "oh their wasting my time because they don't know what sleep is. I'd rather be sleeping!! 🙄" like girl... c'mon now. Why are we trivializing it like this. Do you want me as the reader to be invested in their plight or not.)

I mean come on. They're beings connected through one networked hivemind-like system, yet each still maintains a silver of individuality that allows them to move freely throughout the Behemoth that they care for. And they've got an eldritch understanding of time that no other dragon could understand. They're seeing the future, past, and present unfold simultaneously. They're witnessing the birth and death of the world at the same time, and have no way to communicate it to other dragons. The best they can do is maintain their home, and even then, they see its roots spread and decay all at once.

And then the newest generation is suddenly disconnected. An inherent link between parent and child and all dragons in-between, that has existed since the creation of their species, is just suddenly GONE for the newest births. With NO explanation for it. The children have no easy way of communicating with their parents. The children are experiencing time in a way that was not meant for their species. They've forcefully been shoved into a circadian rhythm that they are Not! Built for!

The only way a parent could communicate properly with their child would be when the latter is sleeping, something that is also completely foreign to this species. It would be terrifying for all involved!!!

They are literally experiencing eldritch horror from the perspective of the eldritch being forced into the mortal.

Like why WOULDN'T there be panic!!! And why would that panic be trivialized! Why are we only shown the perspective of an outsider who looks at this situation and goes "Oh the silly tree beasts are being so silly over nothing, it's no big deal!"

That and the way the auraboas talk to outsiders. Like. There was such potential there. Real opportunity to explore how ancient, time-bending beings would communicate to someone who couldn't even BEGIN to understand the intricacies of it.

Instead we got what feels more like baby talk (even described as though they were hatchlings enunciating their first words, which... I dunno man, maybe we don't want to compare them to children like That) and less like... Beings that experience all of time at once. I mean, the hatchlings and the adults speak the exact same way, and that doesn't make any sense given the literal time barrier going on.

I totally get why people thought there was just a language barrier and that auraboas had their own language, thus causing the disjointed speak, and not that it was because They Do Not Experience Time Like We Do. And I feel it would've been far easier to get it across by just... I dunno. Do anything else?? I saw someone on here suggest they speak in the "wrong" tenses, or using multiple tenses in the same sentence, which I think would've been far more clear.

Like, as opposed to "saplings wilt! saplings silent!" just "the saplings will wilt in silence, they've wilted in silence, they are wilting silently." Said all at once like all things are true simultaneously. And if we're going for hivemind, have each auraboa speak in a different tense, all at the same time, and have them switch it up every time. Have our outsider get confused and be like "which is it? are they wilting now, or have they already wilted?" and the cluster of auraboas respond in a cacophony of yes's, no's, and maybe's all at once.

Would've probably gotten across the "alien" vibe they were supposedly going for far better than wide-eyed desperation for an outsider's guidance conveyed through disjointed, in-world described as baby speech.

And also maybe would've had less accidental connotations. Because as it stands, I completely see why people have made the connections to the real world where they have. This doesn't read like eldritch timey-wimey intrigue, or even a respectful look at how younger generations can become detached from their families' cultures over time and the struggles that come with it. It reads like a culture being perceived by an ignorant outsider who (despite supposedly respecting these dragons) scoffs and rolls their eyes because the tree beasts with their funny words are being silly again, and that Hey, isn't it actually a great thing that the children are fundamentally different in all manners now? Because now they can join the rest of us in the "real world."

Yknow. Ick.

(I Personally think it would've been better to have the perspective be one of the Auraboas themselves, especially one of the children, to really understand what was going on here. Give us the full brunt of the mind of a creature experiencing all of time interwoven as one shape. The waters fall and the oceans crash with waves. They've now fallen to drought. The ocean has yet to be born. Caves have been carved out through the waters' currents. And when I break from this timeline, I open my eyes to see a child, the child not yet born, the child born now, the child born yesterday. Why can't I hear it? Why couldn't I hear it? Why won't I ever hear it?)

I dunno. People more qualified than me to speak on this matter have already torn the lore apart, I'm just... dropping my own two cents. Potential got weirdly squandered and we ended up instead with unfortunate implications and tropes that could be connected a liiiittle too awkwardly to irl situations.

*Also, before anyone points out: Yes, I know the hatchlings aren't COMPLETELY detached from the Loop and can join it when they sleep. But the fact is, these thangs never had to sleep before. That wasn't in their species' nature. So that's still weird and foreign for them on both sides. And since the hatchlings now have a circadian rhythm, they can't stay connected to the loop permanently. And also Also, seeing as the previous generations aren't experiencing time linearly, who's to say they even recognize when their child joins the loop? They'll speak with an echo of their child when that child was last asleep ages ago, not knowing that it's not them presently, because there is no 'present' for the older generations.

[officialmiintee]

a similar kind of loneliness

[fujii-draws]

OKAY! Chatot rant in tags below! Read at your own discretion.

[electrozeistyking]

Will Uzi Come back for good in a new body?

Willshe be able to touch n or her daughter when she a ghost? I'd imagine that be a sweet scene

How is V in this au, it's mentioned she's a cool aunt? Does she have a family of her own yet? Or is the plan for her to get with N?

How the other characters like khan or Tessa doing?

Uzi can only possess low-functioning AI... not that she knows that yet. But I got some cool plans involving that, so keep them googly eyes on me!

As for V? Yeah, she's Beanie's wacky Auntie V now! She does not have a family of her own (due to trying to keep N from collapsing in on himself from grief and loneliness), and at this rate, I don't think she ever plans on having one.

For all she cares, the Doormans ARE her family. Beanie is a goofy, clueless kid (gets that from her dad), but she is perceptive. V will believe she's a silly little kid, only to get hit with an observation that she never noticed - like how N's footsteps only thump loudly when he's not feeling well. Which she realizes happens a lot....

Sorry to the Envy shippers, but the plan is not for N and V to get together. After Uzi's death, V finds that even considering the idea is a lil bit weird. She knows it's odd to feel this way, but she likens it to stealing Uzi's husband, or replacing N's wife. So, she's instead happier to be N's other sister.

Khan's does alright. He's a bit creaky and old now, but can somehow stay on his toes around his chaotic granddaughter. As for Tessa and J... well, they're somewhere. Doing things. Speaking of J, I definitely think Beanie would not like her. Like mother like daughter, amiright?

Also Doll's missing now. Well, she's actually been missing for eight years... but I'm sure she's fine. Probably.

[faaun]

we sang in the aeroplane over the sea tgth ☆

[corrodedcoughin]

Thinking about steddie future where they're both just average guys. No rockstars, no basketball players just two Normal men living a normal life because honestly? they deserve it. They deserve soft domesticity and happiness.

They both have jobs they like but don't love and they're happy with that. Eddie maybe becomes an electrician, working for someone else's company. His coworkers are chill, he gets to get out and work with his hands and that's more than he could have asked for. Steve is a physical therapist, or a manager in some business. He likes his team and the steady hours. He's not working for his dad which is a plus.

They buy a house together, that's not a mansion but it's not a trailer either. Steve does a lot of the dishes because Eddie hates it, hates the feeling of old food on the plates and cutlery. So Eddie will kiss Steve on the cheek and does the laundry because Steve fucking hates laundry. And sitting on the floor watching TV while he folds clothes is honestly sort of relaxing?? Love is doing the chores your partner hates.

Steve and Robin go out for brunch at least once a month, where they catch up and gossip for hours and hours and Steve comes home lighter with updates on Robin and Vickie. Eddie will have nightly phone calls with Wayne, where they talk and laugh and Eddie will eventually hand the phone over to Steve so he and Wayne can talk sports together. When he's in town Dustin will come over and stay in their spare room and they laugh and joke so much it's just like old times. They go over to Jeff's house for dinner on a semi regular basis, and it's nice having normal friends.

They adopt a very annoying cat who will climb all over them in bed and meow in their faces when they don't wake up to feed it breakfast in time. Steve will go for jogs on a Saturday morning, coming home to Eddie reading in bed. Some old western book Wayne recommended to him. There's a steaming cup of coffee waiting on their bedside tables that Eddie's prepared.

They take time off of work and go on a week long vacation because they can do that now. They do dorky touristy things and Eddie buys a mug to send to Wayne. Steve takes a lot of dorky photos of the two of them.

Idk they deserve to be normal and alive and happy with no upside down anymore <3

Oh I love this! I had actually been thinking about tradesman Eddie for a little bit I am so, so glad you’ve come up with this!

I can so completely see him learning a trade and just getting employed and put through his time by a small local employer! He has to go through his exams and that part of it worries him when he first gets the job but his team end up being really supportive and Steve stays up late with him, practicing circuits and wiring and quizzing him on currents and volts. Eddie returning the favour, letting Steve mark up his muscles and be a living anatomy dummy. Sure it gets a little sexy from time to time but more often than not it’s just them testing each other as Steve identifies bones and Eddie talks about parallel circuits.

The monthly brunches mentally and physically revive Steve after working extended hours with patients that he really does want the best for but a jobs a job and it can get pretty tiring. They joke that they rebalance each others chakras but they really do feel realigned after their meet ups. Eddie can see it to, sometimes he’ll come pick them up when it’s been a boozy brunch and delights in seeing them happy and light, clambering over each other to tell Eddie something about one of the waiters or an especially good dish they ordered. When he drops Robin home Steve sits in the front and looks at peace and Eddie feels the same way.

Their weekends are for them, sometimes that means staying home and cleaning the whole place between ordering food in and sometimes that means going on a day trip and taking Wayne around all the antique spots around the county and seeing what horrors they can uncover. Top spot currently sits with Wayne’s find of a doll whose limbs had been replaced with horse legs and had the head of a fish. Of course they bought it.

Every time they go on a holiday they make sure to send postcards to everyone, including themselves, seeing if they’ll get home before the postcard does. Steve keeps them in a photo album, each with a Polaroid of them next to it. Sometimes taken by a stranger, sometimes just a close up of their faces squashed together. It’s Eddie’s favourite thing to go through on their anniversary, or any day really, just loves being reminded that this is the life they get to have.

It’s mundane, dare say even normal, but they love it. Steve comes home every night, happy to put his scrubs in the washing machine next to Eddie’s uniform, happy to be where he feels loved.

[yatobunbun]

friendship!

[tomcat-testosterone]

my highly specific taste thing with divinity kink is that if they actually fuck it's just not hot anymore. the unequal, inherently kinda fucked up relationship between deity and devotee IS the sex part. the sex is when a goddess briefly touches your cheek and smiles at you. put your fucking dick away.

[laur-rants]

My Print Store is now OPEN!

Store Link

With new prices for 2024, as well as new prints! I will be adding to this store as the year goes on, as I hope to add more original work to the store as I complete it! Things you can look forward to this year:

Fanart illustrations Digital illustrations Linocut prints Woodblock prints (!!) Original Painting prints

And more!

Shipping is currently only in North America; I will be adding international shipping in a few months, if only to examine pricing and what to expect over time. These are also not going through a drop-ship site, but instead my own website, so please give a few weeks for processing! I have to print some of these by hand, you know.

Thank you for supporting my work, and I hope to bring more to everyone very soon!

[green-tea217]

so it’s canonically canon that Leo can fit in a 7 year olds cloths right? So for that to happen Georgina and Leo gotta be around the same size. Google says Leo is 5’6. I think it was supposed to be a haha Leo is short type of thing but y’all- 7 year olds average height is around 4 feet. I don’t think Leo is abnormally short I think Georgina is abnormally tall-

[brittlebutch]

SUCH an autism moment to me -- not only for the mirroring but also the strange, tense way Spock moves to do it. Like he's not at all confident in his ability to move his limbs in the right configuration to reach the desired endpoint and he's not even 100% sure if he wants to try -- Dyspraxia moments my beloved; Mr. Spock i'm Love you <3

[thelastspeecher]

Uhhhhhhh here's more Horse Boy Stan. I've actually been sitting on this for a couple days lol. It takes place immediately following this.

——————————————————————————————

                 Stan, Lute, and Tuesday arrived at, according to Lute, who chattered the entire trip, the McGucket horse ranch.  There was already somebody waiting for them when Lute led the two horses into the stable.  A middle-aged man stood in the middle of the stable, his arms crossed.  He looked very similar to Lute, with the same dark hair and large nose.

                 His dad, maybe?

                 “Howdy, Pa!” Lute chirped.

                 Yep.

                 “Lute, why did the auction house call me sayin’ I had to pay fer a new stallion?” Mr. McGucket asked.  Lute gestured to Stan.

                 “I had to rescue Stan, here.”

                 “Stan?”  Mr. McGucket looked at Stan.  “Leo said the horse didn’t have a…name…”  Mr. McGucket’s eyes narrowed, then widened.  “Hoppin’ taters, he got the gift!”

                 “Ya see now why I had to get him,” Lute said.  Mr. McGucket walked up to Stan.  He circled the stallion, looking him over curiously.  “He seems awful confused ‘bout his sit’ation.”

                 “Well, when the gift was new to the fam’ly, it was confusin’ to ‘em.  Am I right that this is new to ya, Stan?”  Stan nodded.  Mr. McGucket stroked his chin.  “Hmm.  What’s Stan short fer?”

                 “Stanley.  Stanley Pines,” Stan neighed.  Mr. McGucket nodded.

                 “All right, Mr. Pines.  I think we can get ya into somethin’ a bit smaller, but I ain’t sure how long it’ll last.”

                 “You- are you saying you can make me human again?” Stan asked eagerly.

                 “Until ya go back to bein’ a horse,” Mr. McGucket said.  Suddenly anxious, Stan shied away from him.  “Look, ya got the gift of switchin’ ‘tween horse ‘n human forms.  Since ya got it recently, ya won’t be able to control it well just yet.  It’ll take some practice, but ‘fore ya know it, you’ll be able to take either form as easy as breathin’.”

                 “What makes you say that?” Stan asked warily.  He blinked.  Suddenly, instead of a middle-aged man, a dappled gray stallion stood before him.  Stan gaped.

                 “‘Cause that’s how it is fer everyone in my fam’ly,” the stallion neighed.  Lute rolled his eyes.  He walked Tuesday into a stall and began to remove his riding gear.  The stallion, who was clearly somehow Mr. McGucket, cleared his throat, drawing Stan’s attention.  “This is a very simple method to get ya to move ‘tween forms.  It ain’t the best method ‘cause it don’t tend to last long, but I’d like to just get ya back to human to help yer mood, however brief it winds up bein’.”  Stan nodded.

                 Even if it’s only five minutes, I’ll take it.

                 “Good!  Okay, what ya do is ‘member how it feels to be human,” Mr. McGucket coached.  “Standin’ on two feet, havin’ fingers ‘n toes, only really havin’ hair on top of yer head.”  Stan closed his eyes.  He visualized what it was like to be human, reliving the sensations that, after a week as a horse, he missed dearly.

                 A jolt of pain suddenly shot through him.  Stan let out an agonized grunt.  He fell to the floor, overcome by what felt like severe muscle cramps across his entire body.  His skin prickled and burned, like he was being stabbed with needles all over.  His chest ached as though he had been shot, his heart thundering like a champion racehorse.  Then, it stopped.

                 “Excellent job!” Mr. McGucket’s voice said.  Stan opened his eyes.  He was on the floor, but instead of on four knees, he was on his hands and knees.  Stan choked back a sob.

                 I’m never gonna take having hands for granted again, holy shit.

                 “Yer quite the quick study,” Mr. McGucket said, kneeling next to Stan.  Stan felt himself begin to shake.  “Lute, go fetch some clothes fer him.”

                 “He won’t stay human long, what’s the point?” Lute asked.  Mr. McGucket frowned at him.  Lute sighed.  “Fine.”  Lute left the stable.

                 “Oh.  Right.  I’m naked,” Stan mumbled to himself.  The gentle evening air was chilly on his now fur-free bare skin.  He looked at Mr. McGucket.  “You are, too.”  Instinctively, Stan averted his eyes.

                 Catching some guy naked in the locker room is one thing.  This- this is different.

                 “Yer a bit thrown off by that, huh?” Mr. McGucket said with a chuckle.  He got to his feet and walked over to where his clothes were sitting, neatly folded.  “If ya plan to stay here long enough to get yer shiftin’ under control, you’ll get used to seein’ folks as god made ‘em.  We don’t tend to be as concerned about the propriety of that.”  Mr. McGucket began to pull on his clothes.  Stan frowned at him.

                 “How’d you fold your clothes before you turned into a horse?” he asked.  Mr. McGucket chuckled again.

                 “I have my ways.”  The barn door opened.  Now fully dressed, Mr. McGucket looked past Stan, towards the door.  “I thought I told Lute to grab the clothes fer our guest.”

                 “I wanted to see the feller m’ self,” a female voice said.  Stan turned around.  A short, very cute blonde young woman about Stan’s age stood in the doorway.  She met Stan’s eyes.  A gasp escaped from her.  The folded clothes she was carrying tumbled to the ground.  “It’s you!”

                 “What do you mean?” Stan asked.  He coughed, trying to clear the taste of alfalfa from his mouth.  The woman crossed her arms.

                 “Yer the feller what rode me!”

                 “Huh?”  Stan squinted at her.

                 “Are ya sure, junebug?” Mr. McGucket asked.  The woman walked up to Stan and glared down at him.

                 “I’d know that face anywhere,” she snarled.  Stan’s eyes widened.

                 “You- you were that yellow horse?” he choked out.  The woman’s eyes were the giveaway.  Once she got close enough, he could see they were the same blue as the yellow horse he had ridden a week ago, in a desperate attempt to escape from the police.  She scowled at him.

                 “I ain’t yellow.  I’m palomino.”  She kicked the clothes away from him.  “And ya don’t deserve my fam’ly’s gift after what ya did.”  She turned away and stormed out of the barn.  Stan turned back to Mr. McGucket.  He swallowed nervously.  The man’s face, previously kind and warm, had turned stormy.

                 “Is she tellin’ the truth?” he asked in a dangerous voice.  Stan held up his hands.

                 “Look, I didn’t have a choice!  I needed to get away and my car broke down!”

                 “So ya decided to steal a horse?”

                 “I wasn’t gonna keep it!  I mean, I let it- her-”  Stan quickly corrected the pronoun at Mr. McGucket’s thunderous expression.  “-go as soon as I was safe!”

                 “That’s still theft, even if it weren’t fer long.”

                 “I swear, if I knew she was a person, I wouldn’t have just jumped on her!” Stan said desperately.  Mr. McGucket pursed his lips.  “I thought she was a regular horse!  I didn’t-”

                 “I believe you,” Mr. McGucket said softly, cutting off Stan.  “And I’d like to know exactly what ya were runnin’ from, but that can wait.”  He frowned.  “Of course, no matter how innocent yer intentions were, yer actions weren’t good.  My daughter was upset fer days that some feller rode her like a pony at a fair.”

                 “I didn’t mean to,” Stan muttered.

                 “I know.  It don’t fix things, though.  Not right now, at least.”  To Stan’s relief, Mr. McGucket seemed to have calmed down somewhat from his earlier furor.  Mr. McGucket stood and retrieved the clothes.  He handed them to Stan.  “At least it explains why ya got the gift.”

                 “What do you mean?” Stan asked.  He began to put on the worn and stained, but clean work clothes.

                 “The very first McGucket what got the gift, he got it from survivin’ a ride on a kelpie.”  Stan frowned, confused.  “A kind of fae what takes the form of a horse.  Kelpies, they do whatever they can to get a rider off ‘em.  But my ancestor, he stayed on no matter what.  So the kelpie gave our bloodline the gift to take a horse form, too.”  Mr. McGucket met Stan’s eyes.  “My daughter told me that no matter what she did, she couldn’t get ya off.  You survived the ride.  You were given the gift.”

                 “I- I don’t want it!” Stan burst out.  Mr. McGucket sighed.

                 “There’s an awful lot we still have to talk about.  But I think it can wait.  We don’t know how long it’ll be ‘fore ya return to a horse, and I reckon ya want some human food.”  Stan’s stomach rumbled.  Mr. McGucket managed a small smile.  “Come on in the house.  We’ll get ya somethin’ to eat what ain’t alfalfa.”

[jeremiahthefroge]

Every appearance of the red-haired menace that is early Laurence forces me to sit here and stew upon how I will fix his introduction in the rewrite. As a coping mechanism. Unfortunately since I can't remember the parts where his character isn't just harassment so I can't cook with the themes the way I'd like to. Like the way he calls Aph "my love" after she very explicitly in the text of the game tells him not to do that... bad vibes. I think I could rock with his character if he'd done the same sort of approach in hitting on Aphmau as heavily, but the moment she lays down an actual boundary, he backs way the hell off. I could even fuck with her trying to be subtle about the boundary and him not getting it and continuing to make her uncomfortable before she snaps at him and he apologizes, saying that he truly didn't mean anything by it, and he respects the boundary she lays like his life depends on it from then on out. It would create some immediate complexity in his need for explicit communication, and backs up the sort of deeper character hinting they seem to try to do when he's talking about Castor and Cadenza, this idea that he deeply cares, if being a bit pushy on accident. It would also make a good detail fueling the conflicts later on with the love triangle that can sort of prevent Laurence from looking like TOO much of a dickhead (him being unaware or misinterpreting situations, and the delicate nature of it making him uncomfortable asking questions, is a compelling reason to see somebody hurting his friends' feelings, and makes him significantly more sympathetic, opening him up for feelings of remorse and guilt).

[stuckinapril]

might have a parisian girl era soon. we’ll see

[girlbob-boypants]

Alistair and Morrigan's early conversations give me very big...writer inside joke about their "rivalry" that isn't funny cause it just feels stilted and uncalled for???