#hmm hmm hmm

[brain-rot-hour]

I have a goal of incorporating more backgrounds into my art this year. I've always loved doing landscapes and King Baka's new fic [iHanyou] provided some gorgeous inspiration 💚

[yloiseconeillants]

Have you ever had the sensation of being pulled away from reality?

(continuing from here)

[keep-on-trying]

Wait, why is Mirai 20 year old and Liko is 19 year old. I thought they were same age. Or is the timing supposedly before Liko's and AFTER Mirai's birthdays o.o

(I was reading translated profiles on twitter)

[pommigranite]

memento mori 🖤

ok so y'all remember that cute art i did last night?? oops angst brain~

close up and comparison under the cut <33

[lavenderrpages]

WHAT COLOR CHARACTER ARE YOU ?

purple character.

Purple characters are strong leaders and fierce people with a strong moral compass. They tend to be lost in the background, occupied by characters with louder personalities, but these characters are dependable and wonderful in their own right. They are poised and collected and can remain calm under pressure. They are also charismatic and supportive. They aren’t likely to accept half-assed excuses, but they are still compassionate. In addition to leading, they also often take on mentor roles with the people that they lead. People like following them, and while not particularly witty, they have a good sense of humor and an easy nature to them that causes others to enjoy spending time with them. They can vary between being very uptight and stern, as well as chill and lighthearted. They are affectionate towards the people they care about, but they can come across as intimidating to people who don’t know them. They usually establish themselves as generally friendly, but people know not to seriously upset or cross them. Although they are great and well-rounded people, they can become unsure of themselves if their leadership fails in any aspect. While they are patient, they can also become quite frustrated by people not understanding their perspective. They aren’t necessarily inflammatory, but often prefer fighting first and conversing later. They can jump to conclusions and stick to decisions that the people around them don’t like following, in order to not be seen as pushovers or indecisive. Purple characters need people in their life who allow them not to lead and to just join in the fun like everyone else, while also reassuring them that they are an important part of whatever group or organization they have found themselves in.

tagged by: @platiinums - my dearrrr thank you <3

[cowboylament]

fic where Lucien falls in love with a siren. their evasive flirtatious luring vs his upfront flirtatious charm.

[definegodliness]

Spoke the tree

Man looks to the sky, Signifies the stars in patterns, the planets, The vast emptiness in between.

Man looks to the sky, and imagines: God, Direction, purpose, Homes away from home, an escape route;

Man looks to the sky, Because he Has to.

He cannot look down, For shame stains Every sedimentary layer; He would see he has never sown a seed Void of his own will, wishes, and benefits.

He cannot look down, For he would find it too harrowing To inherit an Earth that Will not justify his kind's creation; That bears the marks of his presence Like scars of pestilence.

Callous are the eyes that look to the sky, They shine entitled expectation; Hungry, rapacious.

Callous are your hands, When all they do Is reap.

--- 30-11-2022, M.A. Tempels ©

[menciemeer]

It's interesting to me that (unless I really missed something) after the point where Hannibal sends Dolarhyde after Will's family, Will stops framing his work on the Red Dragon case as something altruistic.

Prior to that, Will talks about saving people. He even, immediately before the attack on his family, tries to convince Hannibal to help him via an appeal to his better nature (!!!)

WILL GRAHAM Do you know who they [the family that Dolarhyde is going to target] are? HANNIBAL Yes. WILL GRAHAM You're willing to let them die. HANNIBAL They're not my family, Will. And I'm not letting them die. You are.

(Which, just, listen. Hannibal is maybe the single least likely person, ever, to be swayed by the argument "maybe it would be better if fewer people died." Honestly.)

I just think it's interesting that after the attack on Will's family, that whole motivation (or pretense-at-motivation) is quietly dropped. It's not about saving the next family and it's not even really about the fear that Dolarhyde will try to finish the job. ("I can't go home until the Red Dragon is out of the way" reads more psychological to me than a statement of actual physical danger, although the viewer does also have more direct insight into Dolarhyde than Will does, and we know that he doesn't really seem interested in trying again...)

Will starts drifting further into Dolarhyde's mindset right at the end of the season, and by the time the final fight at the cliff house happens, it doesn't really feel about anything other than self-actualization. Will enacts his own becoming upon Dolarhyde. It's not about who Dolarhyde is or what he might do in the future so much as it is about Will, and what Will wants.

Anyway. The whole point of this is that it's a fun alternative (and, yes, compatible) motivation for Hannibal to direct Dolarhyde at Will's family in the first place. Will came back to the FBI and he came back to Hannibal, but he wrapped himself in a shroud of morality that doesn't align with Hannibal's view of Will's underlying self. Beyond the jealousy angle, Hannibal is making Dolarhyde bad in a way that is immensely personal to Will, so that Will can't deny that how good it would feel to hurt him.

[illicien]

Snippet in my head, will I ever write it fully? Who knows. I have so many things started already so have this slight concept snippet:

He could smell blood. Fear.

For the amount of pain he'd seen Zemo happily endure, smelling his fear was alarming - the man had a death wish, and had as long as Bucky had known him.

The stockade was more effective on him than Bucky wanted to admit, struggling in place as he tried to find Zemo within his limited scope, before sounds to his left resulted in the Baron being dumped in front of him in a graceless heap. He was broken - bones jutted out in places they shouldn't, and the deep purple colours that looked so good on his clothes were instead painted on the inside of Zemo's skin. Internal bleeding.

Fuck.

"Well, this has been fun. But he's about fulfilled his purpose, hasn't he?"

The man sounded altogether too pleased with himself. A super soldier. A target. The man's hand rustled Bucky's hair, met with a snarl as Bucky jerked again, feeling the stockade jerk but not release.

"Even if you get out soon, you're not getting him to a hospital in time. Not from here." The man stood, pacing slightly in his spot, before giving a twisted little smile at Zemo's groan of pain. "Ah, I know."

A familiar blue vial was placed in front of Bucky's face. "Since I broke your toy, perhaps this will help. Choice is yours."

The door clicked shut, and the moment it did the stockade released Bucky, leaving him to jump to his feet, quickly reaching out to his ally with some uncertainty.

"J..."

"Don't. Just... Stay still, Zemo. You'll be fine."

He grabbed the vial in one hand, taking a few deep breaths and ignoring the way Zemo's eyes settled on him, out of focus.

"D-don't--"

"You can be pissed with me later. When you're alive."

[thetarttfuldickhead]

“If no one’s passing to Jamie we can always drop him to midfield.” 

Okay, so I’m don’t think Nate’s motives for suggesting this back in 2x03 were entirely motivated by an understanding how to best utilize Jamie, but he was the first to suggest that our number 9 might play in another position. That, in combination with how they both spotted Colin being open in the lastest game against City… I am very interested in seeing how Nate’s to Richmond will jell with the team’s Total Football approach and Jamie’s new position in it.

Roy does say that Nate’s great at the things Roy is shit at, and back in 3x07 Jamie had to be the one to tell the coaches how to best use him in their new game plan. You have to think that if Nate had been there, Jamie probably wouldn’t have had to that, yeah?

Think there might be something here. Something intriguing. 

[thatswhatsushesaid]

In a Muppets version of The Untamed (in the style of Muppet Treasure Island or Muppet Christmas Carol), who would be the one human actor of the cast?

Related, which iconic Muppet is which character? 🐸

inspired by that one piece of iconic muppets mdzs fanart of the wangxian confession scene, i am forced to concede that jgy is the most likely candidate to remain human amongst all the rest. i just went hunting for the fanart and could not find it, maybe one of my followers can do us a solid and find it for us.

as for which character is which muppet, god, i can't even begin to decide. this feels like another poll tournament in the making tho, ngl.

[applestorms]

questions of pacing aside, i actually think the progression from one set of kids to the next in homestuck is quite good, and also at least in part explains why the comic shifts so heavily into the more blood-based relationship/character dynamic focus in Act 6 and onward, as opposed to the more breath-based plot emphasis that was more present in the first half.

the most basic way you can see this is in how the characters age over the course of the story, actually. you start off with the beta kids--13 years old, four humans, related by blood even if not explicitly stated from the start--who generally stick to the plot and keep away from the relationship drama. john doesn't seem particularly interested in romance other than through celebrity crushes and as a plot point in his movies, rose is (presumably) confident in her lesbianism and doesn't converse w/ jade enough in-canon to push much of a dynamic there. dave is the main one that very obviously (and, imo, cutely. d'aww) has a crush on all of his friends, but his latent internalized homophobia (and the uncomfortably Freudian implications of the Other One) means that jade is the only real candidate he can pursue. jade herself ends up being into the idea too, so there ends up not being much of a struggle anyways, at least at the beginning.

the trolls are also 13 years/6 sweeps old, but notably they're coming from an entirely different social context, one that pushes the necessity of relationships much more strongly (note the underlying "fuck or die" implications of the imperial drones). there's also 12 of them, meaning a lot more potential options for romance, not to mention the 4 quadrants for pursuing it in the first place. fitting, then, that the introduction of the leader-ly blood player adds more romantic drama to the story.

karkat bitches about his fears of troll/human sloppy makeouts enough that the story was destined to devolve into some degree of that at some point, but the rapidly rising number of troll/human interactions in A5A2 in general was bound to add to the already present interpersonal drama that drove a lot of A5A1. even looking past the burgeoning powerhouse that is rosemary at this point in the story, terezi, dave, & karkat have enough drama amongst themselves to power a fucking rocket, and that's before you add people like vriska, jade, & john into the mix.

so by the time you get to the alphas it really doesn't surprise me that so much of the plot of their early pages revolves around The Jakestakes and it's corresponding drama. the kids are also 15 going on 16 and a lot more explicitly horny by this point (bound to happen w/ the smuppets & blue women, roxy's overwhelming Thirst aside), pushed to new levels by the similarly new levels of isolation almost every character is surrounded by. the kids want interpersonal connection, and it seems natural to me considering the (human) Society they're coming from that they would default to romance at this age, REGARDLESS of whether or not they are actually interested in it. (i see you, aromantic jake headcanons.)

the same thing happens with the dancestors, actually, who are probably the most explicitly horny set of characters in the comic iirc? or at the very least, the ones who have the most canon basis for that kind of relationship history, even considering how little they show up in general. i see this as a combination of both being around 19 years/9 sweeps old and being stuck in the dream bubbles, honestly. what else is there to do but delve into a bunch of nuanced relationship drama and awkward post-death situationships, really? (unless you're cronus, of course.)

but anyways, alongside the age difference resulting in more relationship drama, there's another thing the progression lends itself to: identity crises!

this is maybe less clear in the dancestors, but it's definitely clear for the first three groups. where the beta kids all have fairly distinct, natural identities revolving around their interests (maybe more strongly stated in the case of dave & rose, fitting considering their level of maturity in comparison to the prospit kids), a lot more of the trolls are concerned with the Image they project out into the world. take rose's pre-grimdark interest in the occult & psychoanalysis, fairly genuine interests i think that do shape her identity into something fairly distinct, in comparison to the fucking Lifestyle Choices of vriska & terezi with their respective mindfang & redglare roleplay. not all the trolls are that level of dedicated so they make for a smoother transition from the betas, but there's definitely a lot stronger of a theme of personal reflection & identity within the trolls, especially in how they view/treat their ancestors.

the alpha kids take this to another level, which again i think is fitting considering their age. the alphas are a bunch of fucking liars, yes, but the key thing to note here is that when they lie to themselves, it's probably just cause they don't really know who they are yet? like, dirk is certainly Aware of some core, unchangeable parts of himself, yes-- but none of these kids have really gotten the chance to figure out who they are yet. when roxy talks about being a sick haxxor bitch, or dirk about being a multitasking, hyper-competent puppet master, or jake about being A Goddamn Adventurer-- they're playing with costumes. they're rp-ing, and trying to figure out who they actually are in the process, what parts they're willing to show the world and what parts they're more inclined to hide. even jane (or perhaps especially jane?) is just fitting herself into the role she's been placed under since childhood.

this is one idea i think the epilogues/post-canon content really missed in its interpretation of the alphas. these kids aren't uniquely terrible, their relationship drama is not world ending (despite how it may feel. looking at you A6A5A1x2), they are not harboring some exclusive seed of evil deep within them. i honestly think that if you had chucked the john/vriska/terezi/karkat/dave/jade love hexagon from hell into a different context it would look no different to the alphas' English Sweepstakes.

which kinda leads to my final point, actually: the third thread. miscommunication.

communication gets more and more obtuse the further along in the story you go. i feel like i've mentioned this before, but hussie really starts taking advantage of the medium of pesterlogs the further in you get w/ the whole concept of Biased Narrators (also see: doc scratch, homosuck), which is part of the reason why i think the story gets more and more misread the further into it you get as people skim more and pay the price even harder.

prospit/derse differences about directly vs. indirectly saying what you mean aside, the kids get more and more cagey as the story progresses. this development is actually the clearest imo when you look at how it goes from the beta kids (friends talking to friends) -> trolls (online strangers, ready to fuck w/ you but ultimately sympathetic in their own right) -> doc scratch (literally just an internet predator). as who you're talking to online increases in potential danger, so too must the required level of Fuckery.

caliborn might be a little shit w/ some violent tendencies & questionable taste in art when he's talking to the alphas (in particular, dirk & jake), but he's also the future (V)illain of The Comic and shouldn't be taken too lightly. at the very least, the power that he and calliope both have over the story as a whole is nothing to scoff at.

as much as it doesn't feel like it at first, the alphas take a lot of the themes previously established surrounding the more personal/emotional/relationship-oriented aspects of the beta kids & trolls and crank it up to 11. everything just feels so much more intense, even if the game mechanics and plot shit is dialed down significantly in turn. it's no wonder A6A5A2 (the tricksters) and A6A5A1x2 (the conversation on the quest beds) play out the way they do-- i mean, those two acts alone basically sum up the Entire dynamic of the alphas & all of their interpersonal problems in one big dramatic swoop. more lonely, more longing, more confused about who they are and who they love and who they want to be. the alphas got it all.

[supportingfire]

ty new itto event you gave me thoma back from the war.

also full disclosure the urge to bring my cy.no to tunglr has grown exponentially since finishing his quest.

[forbelobog]

the questions sunday posed got me thinking with gep brain and how he would answer them and not me talking to ray abt gep kind of living in a metaphorical cage his whole life due to expectations and duty and he was too young to keep his sister from it but she! broke free! but at a cost. and how robin was injured, would he keep lynx from a journey if it meant keeping her safe and like idk man as much as i want to say he'd just let her do her own thing he also has a skewed view of protection and the cost of it and i've just been thinking about that for like 24 hours ngl

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 12, day 9

Back to cloaks! Thank goodness I have a bajillion WIPs, my brain did not want to work on shading tonight, it wanted to draw something XD

In canon the different "evolutions" of the cloaks are basically the same thing just with more embellishments/accessories, so I'm redesigning the second "stage" of Echt to actually line up with that concept. That means pauldrons! Why? Because I like pauldrons ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[peppertaemint]

TIL that Minho and Tedros acted in the same series? Hwarang? Ooh I though it was only those woogah squad people who were there. Interesting how minho is not a part of the tedros woogah squad

Anon, you have me lol-ing hardcore. Minho is the kind of person who is nice to everyone, I think. He's the kind of person who goes to everyone's bday party and wedding - always invited. But yes... he is not a part of the CisHet nightmare that is the tedros wooga squad. I don't even think Minho has gone to a tae bday type thing (but then again, why/how would I know this?). Anyway, because I think drama, I would love to see what would happen at a run-in. If Jimin is close with TM, and Minho and TM tend to share friends, and then Taehyung is close to Jimin... VMin 2Min dinner? Lol. It's just a fanfic now.