#i love how drawing so many different animals gives me a great reason to go through all of procreate's brushes

[bluishfrog]

I've returned to request armadillos again 👬(there's no armadillo emoji :()

@ everyone: Send me your favorite animals and I draw them as dnf :D

[kaybreezy3000]

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Sometimes your fanfic best friend gives you a shout out in an anon ask reply, and then you get excited and make your quickest Five fanart and first-time sort of animation based on a pairing she mentioned and that you wrote years ago. 😄

Link to Bad Kitty's ask

Link to my other art and stories on Tumblr

Link to my long read/3-part Five Centric TUA story with Five paired with a character similar to the one above (and yes-she has Harley Quinn vibes but don't worry if you don't like her-she is not her, I just borrowed some of her wild and fun and qualities. 😉)

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Updated note added late 6/28/24 after a continuous thread of harassing comments from one user that now has been blocked. No this is not 'AI' made or traced like that person repeatedly said it was. I did not steal someone else's art like they accused me of with no back up other than ripping me apart with more mean comments about what looks so bad about this. They also said my other art posts are 'AI,' and that I have no drawing skill or understanding of how clothes fold.

The AI accusation is a very mean thing to say and it's happening to so many people on here and in the actual profession art world. I do agree that I am not great at art or writing but that doesn't mean I am using AI and claiming it's mine. It's very sad that people feel the need to attack art in this way when it's clearly not even good like mine.

This picture/animation was done with me doing a very bad, very fast sketch, and then hardly correcting my lines before I quickly color filled the drawing that I MADE based off the fact that I have drawn Five in a suit more times than I can count and I have basic drawing skills, not great skills but basic. The reason the hard lines are both gray and black in some spots is because I went in after to correct stuff like gaps that needed to be filled for color filling and I did that in a different layer with black rather than the gray I used the first time. It's an error but one I was aware of but didn't care about because this was supposed to be fast and messy.

So yeah... this is NOT TRACED, and from what it was supposedly traced or 'stollen' from, I have no idea what this user thought that was because they never backed that up with some image that they seem so sure I used. This was based on Five with one of my original characters, so that image they claim I stole didn't exist until I made it.

I'm just trying to have fun with my friends on here while learning to draw better digitally. I am not an artist, and I definitely don't get paid or try to make people support me.

To those like the user who did this, please just chill with the mean comments and be kind to art makers on here and writers and all content posters. If you don't like something ignore it or keep your negativity inside instead of spreading hateful intentions and saying things that are not true about people and their work or their ideas.

Sorry to go off about that on here when it was just supposed to be silly and fun, but this stuff isn't okay and needs to be shut down. I am not always going to post 'proof' pictures of my works in process. I have done that before, but it's not what this is about for me, so I don't even think to do it normally. I have other art posts on AO3 with hand drawn stuff so I figure I don't need to prove I can draw. If someone wants proof, it isn't hard to find it through my posts.

I know most people are only here just for the fun stuff and let's have more of that. ❤️ Peace and love to you all.

[nateconnolly]

I made a Patreon lol.

Here's the free sample post:

THE CREATION MYTH OF KILL 6 BILLION DEMONS

INTRODUCTION

I love fantasy religions. I love it when fictional humans try to understand worlds like Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Tolkein’s Middle Earth through a religious lens—especially because in those books and in many others, the fantasy religions are somewhat true, and somewhat false. It’s really fun to look at a fictional universe through the eyes of a character who might not see things objectively. Religion usually plays a role in that. But, if I’m being honest, a lot of fantasy religions are just Christianity wearing a fun hat. Don’t get me wrong, I am fascinated by Chrisitianity, and I really enjoy a lot of fantasy versions of Christianity. But it’s a great special treat when a fantasy story goes the extra mile and portrays another concept of the divine. That’s one of many reasons that I love the webcomic Kill 6 Billion Demons. The webcomic’s fictional religion Atru has parallels to Taoism, Gnosticism, Advaita Vedanta, theothanatology, Biblical divine nomenclature, the list goes on. I just threw a lot of big scary words at you, but I promise, this is a beginner level essay. I’ll break everything down into bite-sized pieces. I just wanted to list out some of K6BD’s religious influences to show that they are complicated, and diverse.

This is specifically a essay about the creation narratives. K6BD is an amazing comic—later on, it tackles questions about time, free will, and optimistic nihilism, but I won’t dig into that stuff here. Those things would require their own essays. Here, I’m going to try to explain how the seven-part world came to be. More specifically, I’ll examine the stories that White Chain, Cio, Michael, and the old devil’s tale tell us; then I’ll look at fictional holy texts found in the Concordance.

I’ll also compare and contrast with a lot of real world religion and philosophy. I want to be clear that the creator Abaddon and I have never spoken. I don’t know where he got most of his inspiration. I’m not revealing any information that wasn’t already available, I’m just compiling it and offering my own thoughts. Unless I specifically quote Abaddon, assume that I’m not even talking about his inspirations. I’m drawing parallels because it’s fun, even though it probably won’t give us new insight into how the text was created.

I promise I’m not trying to convert you! I genuinely don’t want to make other people believe the religion that I believe—or any religion at all. I’m just trying to show you how understanding some real world religious and philosophical concepts can deepen your appreciation of K6BD. Obviously, there will be tons of spoilers, so go read the webcomic if you haven’t already. It’s absolutely genius.

Lastly, I want to say I will discuss suicide and murder.

Ok, let’s get started.

PART ONE: THE FIRST AND GREATEST DIVISION

Let There Be No Genesis

White Chain begins the history of the universe with the words, “Let there be no Genesis,” closely echoing the in-universe fictional Psalm I. “For indeed, there was [no Genesis]. God has always existed and has never existed.” As White Chain tells her story, we are shown the god YISUN. This figure is sometimes described with it/its or she/her pronouns, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to follow the example of the fictional Psalm I, and use he/him. I might call him “YISUN” or “God” with a capital G depending on the context.

YISUN was eternal, and the “undisputed master of the entire omniverse.” He predates everything else, and without him, nothing would exist.

YISUN has at least twelve bodies, probably more. Some are smiling, some look mad; some resemble insects or animals; most hold weapons; and all are different colors. The central white body has four arms. Abaddon has said that YISUN’s appearance is directly inspired by the Hindu god Vishvarupa.  Hindu gods are frequently depicted with multiple body parts, an artistic tradition that Doris Srinivasan calls “the multiplicity convention.” She explains some of the religious and artistic reasons that many Indian gods have multiple body parts in her book “Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art.” The tradition of Hinduism is long, and diverse, so the multiple limbs in one text can mean something very different from the multiple limbs elsewhere. Srinivasan closely examines a vast expanse of Indian history, and I don’t have time to present all her ideas. I would like to specifically focus on the interpretation that multiple limbs represent the manifestations of a singular godhead.

Srinivasan writes that “Multiple versions of a myth are facilitated by the idea that there exists multiple aspects or manifestations of a godhead.” Think of the difference between Greek and Hindu goddesses. Bruno Snell suggests “that these four women signalize the four aspects of all womanhood,” but Srinivasan qualifies his interpretation. The Olympian women “are not multiple forms of [one] Divine Woman, as is the case in Hinduism.” Artemis and Athena are different people who are both women, plural. Parvati, Sati, and Uma together are Woman, singular. Zeus, Demeter, and Poseidon are gods, plural. Shiva, Vishnu, and Krishna are God, singular. That’s not how all Hindus see things, but it is one Hindu perspective that I find especially comparable to K6BD.

Similarly, the multiple bodies are only manifestations of a single God: YISUN. All of his bodies are a single person. In Hinduism, the plurality of the divine can be seen as empowering and liberating. Multiple body parts signify that the god is a well-rounded entity. But Abaddon makes it look like a curse. He turns the artistic convention around. Using the same symbolism and metaphysics, he tells a radically different story. As White Chain says, “Being was only circular.” “YISUN had no equal… It was a wretched life, without meaning or perception. Imagine infinite stories to tell… and nobody to tell them to.” Perfection is lonely. At this point, YISUN is the only thing that exists, and that can’t be fun. All those arms and heads cannot satisfy YISUN’s need for companionship. It’s fascinating to me that when White Chain says YISUN had no one to whom it could tell its stories, Abaddon chose to illustrate multiple heads right next to each other. Even if those heads told each other stories, the speaker and the listener would still be the same person. Dissatisfaction with isolation is why YISUN created the world.

Although not all Hindus follow the school of Advaita Vedanta, in this case, I think it will be helpful to compare and contrast with Advaita. As Ram Shanker Misra writes in “The Integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo,” “Brahman [ is] perfect, absolute, infinite, need[s] nothing, [and] desir[es] nothing…” Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that [Brahman] wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible.”

But that’s exactly why YISUN created this world. He wants to gain something that he does not have: companionship.The universe is God’s escape from himself. There was no Genesis, but there was “the first and greatest division: division of self”: “God committed holy suicide.”

2. The Divine Suicide

White Chain’s story is similar to Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous claim that “God is dead,” but Nietzsche did not mean God was a real entity that had literally died. He meant that intellectually, it was impossible to continue believing in God, and that all intellectual achievements founded on belief in Him had to be abandoned. Nietzsche’s claim is a famous example of a philosophical school of thought called death of God theology, also called “theothanatology,” which means “the study of God’s death” in Greek.

“Death” can mean a lot of different things in this context. Sometimes it’s metaphorical, sometimes it’s literal, and usually, it’s a very confusing mixture of both.

Nietzsche proposed the death of God as a social claim about humans. He’s talking about what we can believe, what we should do, and what we need to accept. God never really existed, but as religion loses followers and influence, even the idea of God has begun to “die” because it no longer has power over the real world.

“Death” can also mean God exists, but in a way radically different from what people usually mean when they say “God.” The Rabbi and philosopher Richard L. Rubenstein thought God exists as a “ground of being,” but not as a supernatural entity that made a covenant with Abraham. Rubenstein proposed the death of God as an intellectual change in what humans think the word “God” means.

And, finally, “death” can just literally mean “death.” The Protestant theologian Thomas J.J. Altizer wrote “we shall understand the death of God as an historical event: God has died in our time, in

our history, in our existence.” This isn’t a social claim about humans—it’s a metaphysical claim about God.

Death of God theologians usually mean more than one thing when they say God is dead. Nietzsche wasn’t just trying to convince Christians to become atheists; he was also trying to convince many atheists that they disbelieved in God in the wrong way. Altizer had radical thoughts about what human beings are able to believe.

White Chain means that God is dead in the literal sense. She is proposing a metaphysical belief that God, as a historical figure, chose to actually kill himself. White Chain is not rejecting or critiquing religion—she’s asserting that her religion, in which God has died, is fact.

You can see slight parallels to Nietzsche, Rubenstein, Altizer, Hegel, Zizek, and Blake in White Chain’s version of the fictional religion Atru. But there is no better comparison than the king of sad philosophers Philipp Mainlander.

Mainlander was an atheist—but not in the sense that people usually mean when they say “atheist.” Mainlander believed that there was a God at some time, but that time is now over. There isn’t a God anymore. Mainlander is pretty unique among death of God theologians because he explicitly describes God’s death as a suicide. Whittaker explains that Mainlander thought “[a]ll things have their origin in what may be called… the ‘will’ of the absolute being… to annihilate itself.” Essentially, the cause of the universe is God’s suicidal desires.

God was a “real unity,” but his death caused a “collective unity”—that’s the universe where we live now. God had been a total and undivided One, but now the universe is made of distinct parts. God cut himself apart into the pieces of the universe. God created the world by becoming it, and he became the world by dying.

Mainlander said “the knowledge that life is worthless is the flower of all human knowledge.” He thought suicide was desirable, and ultimately, he put his money where his mouth was. The biggest difference between Mainlander and White Chain is that she doesn’t seem to think ordinary people such as herself should follow God’s suicidal example. Even beyond the views of a specific character, the story of Kill 6 Billion Demons reads as an affirmation of life’s beauty and value.

But the webcomic clearly argues that making a better world is a bloody project. So it should come as no surprise that making the world itself involved bloodshed. First and foremost, the blood of God. What’s so interesting to me is that both White Chain and Mainlander equate God’s suicide to the creation of the world. Our life comes from God’s death. Creation and destruction aren’t opposites—they’re different ways of looking at the same process. At the end of Book 2, Allison destroys Mottom’s evil tree and a lot of her palace—but this destruction is also part of the creation of a more just and free world.

So, what did God’s destruction create? What came after YISUN?

3. The Duality of Un and Yis

The destruction of the total unity creates duality. I know that’s a little confusing because YISUN had many faces, but remember that behind all of those faces was one God, and only one. Not anymore. “From division was birthed duality. White Un, Lord of empty and still places, master of all that is not. Black Yis, infinite mother of the rampant flame. Master of all that is''

I cannot avoid comparing the White and Black gods to the Yin and Yang—a spinning black and white symbol usually associated with the religion Taoism. Yin and Yang represent a cosmic duality. Yin is associated with femininity, darkness, passivity, and even numbers, among other things. Yang is associated with masculinity, light, activity, and odd numbers, among other things. Mainstream Taoist philosophy asserts that the universe can be understood through duality. So, why are these pairs important? And why do things get paired together in the first place?

As is written in the foundational Taoist text the Tao Te Ching, “Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other.” What’s so interesting about the pairs is they “create,” “support,” “define,” and “depend on” each other. Black can’t exist without white, and white cannot exist without black.

As the Encyclopedia of Philosophy puts it, “...yinyang is emblematic of valuational equality rooted in the unified, dynamic, and harmonized structure of the cosmos. As such, it has served as a heuristic mechanism for formulating a coherent view of the world…” Essentially, neither of these opposites are “dominant” or “truer.” Choosing one side won’t help you understand the universe because the universe is their partnership. Their equality gives “structure to the cosmos.” That structure is order, not chaos, but it is differentiated. There are two different things: Yin and Yang. They contradict each other, but at the same time, they make the universe. Yin and Yang are a productive paradox.

I’d like to return to the notion that “being and non-being create each other.” At this stage of creation in K6BD, UN and YIS could not exist without each other. Their very existence is the fact that they are not a unity. If there was only one of them, then there wouldn’t have been a division—and they are nothing more than the product of division. Just like how being and non-being create each other, the Master of All That Is and the Master of All That Is Not create each other. YISUN was characterized by his totality—he was the total sum of the omniverse, there was nothing else. After the division, Un and Yis experience otherness. The first otherness in the omniverse. It’s difficult for them to find balance—in fact, they immediately went to war for seven years. At the end of their seven-year war, Un and Yis made love for seven days.

I want to be very clear that this is not a depiction of actual Taoism. Yin and Yang are not gods with faces and minds. Notably, the Tao Te Ching asserts that yin and yang are “older than God.” so make of that what you will. But I think Taoism is thematically relevant to this era. Two opposites have to come into balance with each other. The whole universe is a duality of interconnected forces.

K6BD repeatedly emphasizes the need for community. As Allison says at the end of King of Swords, “I couldn’t have done this without any of you… We make mistakes. We learn from each other. We all still have so much to learn. Once I saw that as a weakness, now I’m certain it’s not. Someone who lives still thinking like that… struggling to do everything themselves… I can’t help but think how alone they must be.”

YISUN had to do everything all by himself, and we saw that Allison was right—isolation was a struggle, even for God. But the struggle is over, and in its place is duality. Partnership. The first community.

These are the first four parts of a fourteen-part critical essay. You can read the rest here.

Bibliography is on the free Patreon post.

[transsexual-dandelions]

Weekly tag Wednesday !!

Thank you Kat @mybrainismelted for the tag :D

Name: Dean :D

Age: 18 :)

Location: Maryland

top sheet, yes or no?: nah, don’t care, I got better blankets to use even in the summer

how many stuffed animals do you own?: a shit ton, there’s a gap between my bed and the wall so I just line them up there to fill in the space, plus they make great pillows. Some I can live without, some are dying with me. Id estimate 20 or more?

the names of your pets (and the explanations behind them): if we’re doing just my pets, starting with alive, I have a black cat named Salem we adopted in October so we tried to give her a spooky name. Her name before that was like princess starshine or something? And now to dead ones, I had a cat named sox, bc her fur pattern made it look like she was wearing socks and I thought it was cute. When I was a kid I had a white rabbit whom I named snowball for obvious reasons, before her was a rabbit named furball, don’t remember how I got to that. Other honorable mentions I would not be able to explain: Bailey (dog), mr. jingles (cat), 8 ball (dog), Roxy (dog), Shelby (dog)

favorite color: yellow, which was also my assigned color as a kid, and what people always associate with me

Any tattoos? No, but i plan on some!!

how you transport your belongings (purse, tote, hands, pockets, etc.): depends on where I’m going and what I’m doing but usually pockets, the jacket I always wear has SO many pockets and can hold so many things perfectly and easily. If I’m going out on a day trip I have a small backpack I’ll use, especially for stuff that won’t fit in my jacket pockets (water bottle, extra meds, etc)

the last movie you watched: me and my friend started the perks of being a wallflower the other week except I fell asleep 20 minutes in. Otherwise I’ve been watching psych which has movies

how long does it take you to get ready in the morning?: getting ready itself is a 10 minute affair, waking up takes an hours worth of alarms

favorite weather: anything hot, if it’s below 75F I’m cold, and I prefer it to be 85-95. It’s 91F and I had to fix the pool and I’m living my best life. I love a good summer rainstorm too

relationship status: single but there is a guy I like :)))

ice cream flavor of choice: cotton candy, cake batter, coffee, mint chocolate chip, vanilla

first fandom: Harry Potter

how many books have you read this year?: I don’t think I’ve finished a book but I’ve started some? Most were for ap lit which sucked, “the road” I hate you !! Started “the night stages” by Jane urquhart before school got in the way as it always does. Maybe once my brainrot dies down I’ll read more books.

first 4 words of your last notes app entry: it’s a drawing of me showing different cursive Cyrillic letters to explain why I’m struggling (specifically, cursive о and д )

and finally, if you had to change your URL tomorrow, what would you change it to?: I have absolutely no idea. I used to change my url to have it match whatever fandom I was into but I was moving between them a lot it got hectic so I wanted something not associated with anything. I have a supernatural backup saved, so either that or dandelions-from-Dean, or something else flower related

Tagging !!

@especially-fuk-u @spookygingerr @mickittotheman @jademickian @atthedugouts

@sleepyheadgallavich @mickeym4ndy @em-harlsnow @thirstyvampyr @roryonic @jrooc

@iangallagherisadeadman @iansw0rld @lee-ow @deathclassic @mmmichyyy

@burninface @heymacy @thepupperino @softmick

[captainjacklyn]

Another DOL post..I'm never stopping with these, it's just fun for me to share my characters which I am disappointed to not be able to draw. My art skills can be easily bested by that of a six year old's hand paint.

He indeed identifies as a male though if you saw the previous post about him (the first post about him really) Elias can change his genitals, due to his human DNA being mixed with several different animals.

Degrees of Lewdity :

ReLaTiOnShIpS :

ROBIN

"Robin? You better be careful with him, if I find out that you're planning something- Uh? Oh, you just want to get to know him? Very well, I guess that's alright, I'm not even sure why I got worked up. It's his fault if he gets into trouble...doesn't mean I wouldn't go out of my way to protect him."

Looks after Robin.

Acts like a mother for him, highly strict and demanding when interacting face to face but behind the scenes, he does everything he can to look after him and make sure he's safe.

The only one Elias genuinely cares for.

*pat pat* you stay there and play games while I sell my body to take your debt okay?

Good.

Manipulates this one like crazy, "I'M DOING ALL OF THIS FOR YOU HOW DARE YOU TALK BACK TO ME-"

His words not mine.

SYDNEY

"He's my partner if that's what you were wondering, I've spent quite a good amount of time with him. Don't fill his mind with too many lewd thoughts if you plan on seducing him, his purity is rather useful. He even gifted me a dress last week..Mhm? Yes..I am fond of Sydney."

Elias doesn't particularly understand his own emotions.

He just likes having Sydney since his privileged life/status makes it easier for him as well.

Did go out of his way to spend time with him at the beach, proceeded to question every single idea which led him to do so.

WHITNEY

"Whitney tried to use me for quick money making on multiple occasions, you ram your knee in the balls and run, he doesn't take hits there very nicely."

Yeah no.

They don't get along.

Elias just ignores him whenever he tries to interact, will dismiss him when the time comes.

I've tried to allow it, but from the shaming to the constant abusive scenarios, there isn't much to allow.

KYLAR

"He got his ass thrown into prison, and for all I know, he just belongs to the asylum. I assure you that I attempted to aid him, he wasn't treated very kindly so I assumed to have found someone I can understand and relate to. Turns out he was a perverted psycho...Oh really ? I'll give you this one fact, Kylar never loved me, he just wanted to keep me as a possession."

Dismissed Kylar.

You think this guy wants to make out with the equivalent of a pathetic wet rat ? He doesn't even know if he likes the librarian who treats him with kindness.

Nuh-uh.

Nah.

Stans are coming after me, but my boy openly defended a dude who decided to stalk him in response.

BAILEY

"...What about Bailey? He has done many things for me as a child, I know that our hearts have never been one, I see that now. But if it means seeing her again..I'll pay him off, I'll pay Robin's debt along with my own and we'll run from this god forsaken swill of a town."

The first reason as to why Elias is so hardworking is because he believes that once his debt is fully repaid, he'll be able to see Monika.

Otto Hightower and Alicent toxic dad and daughter~

Woohoo and the line of trauma doesn't stop there cause Elias also treats Robin like SHIT-

The pressure of needing to save those he cares for is so great that it causes him to install his own suffering on them as well.

You're stronger than you think Elias, you're strong enough to stand as a wall between Robin and Bailey, between Sydney and Himself, between the Orphans and this Fucked up Place.

Burn your feelings to the ground and carry on.

Woah too emotional on the last one chill-

[jelleefiish]

Need to write this down somewhere so:

Fairy Tail and Gender

A self-indulgent Essay on why I enjoy Fairy Tail!

[Before I get into this, would like to say this is mostly personal opinion and I will not be debating anyone :)]

So, this all began when I had begun to wonder, "Why don't I enjoy One Piece when I love Fairy tail?". They both stem from pretty similar themes and plots, and I admit that One Piece is a good show! It's just not something I could bring myself into for some reason.

And it gets me to thinking, objectively Fairy Tail is pretty not great. The writing can get repetitive, arcs are forgettable, and just overall it's kinda mediocre. But nonetheless, I ADORE it! It could be partially due to nostalgia, yet around the time I started Fairy Tail as a kid, I had also picked up and dropped One Piece, so what stopped me then?

It all came back to one thought! Treatment of different genders.

Of shounen anime, I can't think of many that make female characters on equal power standing as male characters (never mind even having them as main characters).

As great as One Piece is, their treatment of women in story and relevance is something that always draws me away from it.

Fairy tail is very good at making women who are equal power standing to the male characters, with some of them being even stronger! Not to mention the story treats them with equal relevance and gives them the same amount of depth that the male characters get. Lucy, Erza, Gray, Natsu, (and the many side characters that I adore) all have rather equal amount of back story. Though there is some power gaps, for the most part these characters are all really strong, and grow with each other as well!

Now let's get to the part we are all thinking about and why Fairy Tail has its reputation: The fan service.

Fairy tail had an ABUNDANCE of fan service and raunchy humor, but one thing I can admire on this subject is they acknowledge it! 90% of the show's fan service consists of characters knowingly making raunchy jokes, and this goes for both genders!

I will like to clarify that they do go into some pretty strange territory sometimes, and there is no excuse on that but for now i'd like to focus on the more comedic bits.

For example, every joke about Lucy is usually balanced out with a joke about Gray! Any fan service with the women characters as subjects will then often be turned over to the men ALSO being subjected to fan service!

This essay is getting messy and unorganized but idc its a tumblr ramble.

My other point I really appreciate is the women are very self aware! The show doesn't write the fan service as "oh this helpless and cutesy girl doesn't know shes teasing men by existing with big boobs :(". The women are well aware of their surroundings(for the most part) and will joke about it themselves! The women who are used mostly for fan service do it of their own will, rather than it being an accident of some sort? MiraJane chooses to model for sorcerer weekly, Lucy purposely uses her "womanly charm" and so on! It's all things they chose to do and not pushed on them!

Overall I just think that the show is pretty good at its gender balance and keeping the men and female equal. Whether it's on power levels, intelligence, back story, social consciousness, and yes, even fan service.

So as bad as the writing can get for main plot, the vast amount of well written characters with varying experiences, as well as how the characters are treated balance it out for me!

[pastelwhile-art]

it'd absolutely make my day too some makokuu from you (i loved that illustration of them im insane about them)

what about some domestic makokuu 👀 them spending time together at home :3 no pressure ofc

Help I know I asked for saiki k requests TWO months ago and I had a really fun idea for an illustration, but my brain is a smooth cube. so that idea stays up in the air.

For now take a really quick silly crack doodle about one of the many possibilities I think Kusuke/Makoto telling Saiki/Teruhashi would go. Spoiler alert: it’s hilariously horrible.

(Saiki thinks they’re messing with them and Teruhashi is seething. Are they pranking them? Who knows.)

And ya know what? Beneath the cut take my redesigns of these guys and my notes for them because I made several months ago ‘cause I haven’t touched them since :(

Warning: I talk a lot.

A quick note! These designs aren’t meant to say ‘fix’ the original-they’re just for fun! Even if I think elements of mine look better, clearly the original works and are well loved. Also I’m not especially fond of these anyways JAJSJANW

Saiki doesn’t change much other than his palette is a more balanced. Also I really like designing hair, and wanted the idea that Saiki really tries to sleek it down to something very generic and unassuming, but the hairpins get stuck in the way and his hair sorta moves outwards from there. Continuing the idea that his powers make him subtly less normal. It also accidentally made him look A LOT more like his parents, oops.

Also I drew a comparison from his canon hair to his redesign, because I didn’t think it was particularly clear until side by side.

Also I actually gave this one a proper illustration lol.

Teruhashi’s design was actually partly inspired by @lu-kario’s human mlp designs because they’re really good :^ She’s also pretty standard except her hair and color (which I’m not too satisfied with.)

I like the idea of the Teruhashi Siblings being a bit supernatural, so along with weird shine effects, they also get constant wind effects! Like in all the anime where they have flowing hair at just the right times even though it wasn’t windy at all before? Yeah! Except that’s more Makoto’s thing while the shine stays Kokomi’s.

Also what ethnicity are these characters now? To me they’re still Japanese, but I think people don’t ever use a range of skin tones for the same ethnicity. But really these are just fun designs I didn’t really think too hard.

Kusuke! He was the first one I did and an absolute PAIN. He was also the reason I did this, because as much as I love Saiki K and respect the author, I just got to know what is going on with his debut clothes.

Well not like I did that much better… Kusuke is stuck with four alt palettes because I can’t decide which shade of weird yellow and purple to make his head and gown (I’ve resolved to draw his hair a different shade of yellow in every drawing.) His eyes also match Saiki with purple eyes, because I think they look better lmao.

Also, that’s his Cambridge gown he’s wearing. And fun fact-they have a great amount of rules on what color does gowns get an accent of based off what subject people are taking! I decided to not think too hard on that and just gave him a better looking gown.

And I really like the hair I gave him, the original to me just lacks a bit of anime shape style. Also his headgear is shaped like a graduation hat now lol.

He also has a silly little doodle for what he’d look like with his lab coat. It’s not here, but I like to think he always puts a ponytail up!

Last and also least xp, Makoto! He’s uhh about the same with the points I said with Teruhashi. Just very angular now. I swear I tried to design a better fashion for Makoto but I just ended up with the same.

I tried to style his hair how Japanese celebrities would, but I don’t know if I succeeded. His hair as I said is constantly blowing to the left lol. Also he has a hair clip now! In my head Kusuke gives him a telepathy canceller disguised as a hairclip.

Also anyone can draw or get inspired by these designs if you wanted lol Though I don’t really like these, I still use these hairstyle for drawing them cause I think they look cool lol.

[kokusfluffyhair]

Tahomaru Modern AU Headcanons

Someone on here (you know who you are) got me into Dororo 4 years too late and now I'm obsessed. Let's see if this reaches anyone from the probably dead fandom of this underappreciated anime.

I really got captivated by Tahomaru. I probably see too much of myself in him. I can't stop imagining him in the modern world now.

(In this Modern AU, Tahomaru and Hyakkimaru grew up together as brothers and there was no contract with the demons.)

Tahomaru is a minor, so I will only write SFW headcanons.

+ He's gone through a lot of different style stages, from preppy (to look like the good boy to impress his mother) to sporty (trying to seem more athletic to impress his father) and found himself switching up between emo and luxury streetwear.

+ He really likes Italian designers like Gucci and Versace. (His parents are rich, so why not) Yes, he thinks he looks cool in those flashy, overly-printed items.

+ He either wears those clunky trainers with 'BALENCIAGA' written on them or DocMartens.

+ He is probably damaging his hair with the amount of product he uses in it. That hair's gotta be SPIKY.

+ The reason why he's so into his style is because it helps him to hide from his low self-esteem.

+ He compares himself to Hyakkimaru a lot, especially when it comes to their appearances. Tahomaru is bulkier/bigger-boned than his older brother and has a rougher-looking face. Hyakkimaru always got more attention from girls, which Tahomaru blames on his appearance.

+ He complains that he's fat (even though he's not) but he loves fried food and won't give it up.

+ He tries to make up for what he's lacking by being loud and overly-extroverted. But it seems to backfire.

+ He once tried to trim and groom his eyebrows, thinking it would make him more attractive, but he ended up trimming them too much. His mother giggled at him. His father got angry and insulted him.

+ He tries to spend as little time at home with his family as possible.

+ He has trouble making friends and often ends up pushing others away by being a brat.

+ He's gone through the phase of picking up skateboarding.

+ He's gone through the phase of trying to learn the guitar but smashed it out of frustration because it was too difficult for him.

+ He's also gone through the online gamer phase, but it was short-lived after he got into fights with too many people on the internet.

+ He tends to get into trouble. He doesn't shoplift or anything like that, but he would skateboard where he's not supposed to, loiter where he's not supposed to, do something stupid like knock over a bin on the street when he's angry.

+ He does okay in school. He doesn't fail anything but he doesn't get great marks. (Neither does Hyakkimaru, though he does better than his younger brother does.)

+ He once tried going to therapy, ended up doing some extreme trauma-dumping on the therapist that led him to burst into tears, and then refused to go back out of his own personal feeling of shame.

+ He acts tough, almost like some wannabe gangster, but he is really sensitive, hurt, and broken inside.

+ He does all he can to avoid having to face and deal with his own shit.

+ He likes to draw, and he's pretty good at it. He has to hide it from his father, who thinks art isn't manly enough of a hobby. His mother isn't very encouraging either because no matter how brilliant he is, whatever Hyakkimaru does is better.

+ The first time he had a crush, he spent hours writing a love letter in beautiful, calligraphy-like handwriting. He was brutally rejected.

+ Now whenever he tries to confess to someone, he does it through these cocky, lame pick-up lines that get him laughed at, and also rejected.

+ The worst time was when a girl agreed to go out with him just so she could get closer to Hyakkimaru.

+ Whenever Mutsu tries to give him tips on talking to girls, he doesn't listen.

(I wish I could write something more positive for him 😭)

[gemtopia]

Avatar: The Way of Water Review

This is my opinionated movie review of Avatar 2 and will contain many spoilers… So, here’s what I got.

For starters, I have been a hardcore Avatar fan from the beginning. The first movie came out when I was in 5th grade! I am now 24 years old and have literally been waiting for this movie for 13 years! And just like the first one, I give this movie a full 5 star rating.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely loved this movie and felt that this one was way better than the first one. The acting was great, the story was great, and as always the world of Pandora was breathtaking. However, with this being said, there were a few things about the movie that frustrated me and left me over all confused. So here some things that I loved and hated about the movie.

Spider/Miles Quaritch - HATED

For me, Spider wasn’t a terrible character. He had the potential to be an amazing character but I almost felt like the writers just didn’t really know what to do with him. In a lot of ways you can’t help but feel bad for him because really doesn’t have anyone and feels connected to the Sullys and is very close to Jake and especially Kiri. He seems to be very kind and understanding and only wishes to be apart of a family but part of me also kinda wished he wasn’t a character. Spider is a little too much for my taste and has too much of a Tarzan vibe. I was rooting for him at first, that is, till he started to “bond” with his father and the other soldiers. Then, when it came to the scene where Spider saves his father from drowning my husband and I just looked at each other and agreed we were done with him. Overall I personally wish they had killed Spider off instead of Neteyam but I guess he’s here for a reason or at least I hope he is.

Kiri - LOVED

There’s so much to be said about Kiri. She is kindhearted, loving, beautiful, strong, and is most definitely my favorite character. Not only do I relate to her on a spiritual level for being strange and different than most Na’vi but I also love what she represents. A lot of reviewers have been referring to Kiri as a “Jesus-like” character which isn’t entirely wrong. While everyone else is confused on who Kiri’s father is and how her mother Grace even got pregnant, I think it’s pretty obvious where Kiri came from- Aywa. Kiri is not only Grace’s daughter she is also the embodiment of Aywa herself just in Na’vi form. I find this to be very beautiful and can’t wait to see what James Cameron has in store for her.

Omatikaya/Metkayina Clan - LOVED

One of my husband’s favorite things about the movie was the beautiful representation of Pacific Islanders. My husband is half Comanche and has always loved the idea of all the different Native cultures put together in the Na’vi tribes and we were both fascinated with how they represented the Islanders. I’m very curious to see what the other clans of Pandora are like and what cultures they will represent.

Neteyam’s Death - HATED

All I have to say is this… Neteyam was a precious boy who deserved better and was taken far too soon and far too easily. His death was a travesty that brought out a barbaric side of Neytiri and I would have done the same.

The Tulkun - LOVED

Despite it being hard to watch at times, I absolutely loved the Tulkun. They were such beautiful and majestic creatures and I hate the way they were so brutally hunted in the movie but at the same time I loved that James Cameron shed a light on the exploitation and near extinction of animals. I’m a huge animal lover and animal right activist and some scenes with the Tulkun were very hard to watch. It’s nothing new to see James Cameron drawing attention to protecting the earth and preserving wildlife but he always seems to do it in a way that really breaks your heart as makes you think about things. This is an important part of Avatar that I hope he continues in the future.

If I had to sum this movie up in one word it would be

Spectacular

So if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly suggest you go see it for yourself. Yes, it’s a three hour movie but if your a true Avatar fan you won’t be disappointed. Also, keep in mind that there are always going to be critics who say the movie is “racist” and should be “boycott” but just ignore all that shit. Avatar was never about “who plays who” or any specific culture, it has always been about how we as humans need to start treating each other as brothers and sisters and start taking care of our planet. James Cameron just wanted to show us this in a really epic way and I think he’s achieved that goal.

[gardenofsubjectivity]

READ BEFORE INTERACTING

Hello! This is my intro, FAQ, and DNI. Please respect that when viewing my blog.

Name: Just my username or an abbreviation. I have no interest in getting close or forming friendships with anyone online- just to share ideas and opinions I have. So, a nickname is unnecessary.

Age: Adult, but not comfortable giving personal info.

Pronouns: I don’t care.

DNI

Do not interact if you are a minor. At all. I discuss and reblog adult topics and don’t want minors exposed to it. Please respect this.

Do not interact if your intention is to bully or harass. I am totally up for disagreements and discussion! That’s how the marketplace of ideas works! I just don’t want to waste time with unproductive conversations. Thank you.

FAQ

Are you a paraphile?: No. I’m not diagnosed with any paraphilias or paraphilic disorders, nor do I identify as one. I am a kinkster but not a paraphile. I just find the attitude society has towards them to be very unempathetic and want a space to show that even non-paraphiles can have compassion for those who are different.

Do you think children, animals, or dead bodies can consent to sex?

No. I do not. I personally find it morally wrong to engage sexually with any of these groups. The idea heavily disturbs me and I do not advocate for the “liberation” or “freeing” of these groups sexually. Children are not mentally developed enough to consent, and there is documented tangible harm caused to them when this happens. Animals are not mentally developed enough to consent, and there is documented tangible harm caused to them when this happens. Dead bodies have no ability to consent and having sex with them brings great harm to the family/loved ones of the deceased- not to mention it can cause great mental harm to the living, as the vast majority of people don’t seem to like the idea of being touched once they’re dead. It can make dying an even scarier experience. It’s also dehumanizing to reduce dead bodies as objects, as I’ve seen a few people say.

Again, no. I don’t think they can consent and they shouldn’t be victimized by anyone- paraphile or not. (And, yes. Non-paraphiles can sexually abuse these groups. Whether that be for the feeling of power, ease of access, etc.)

Are you proship?: If I had to be labeled as one or the other I’d be considered a proshipper. I use the proshipper tags and interact with the community. So, if you want to label me as a proshipper then that’s fine. However, I don’t personally identify myself under that label. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but it would be too long to type out on an already large introduction post. So, I’ll just say my beliefs on the subject.

I do believe that art is a place that’s meant to explore complicated feelings and the human condition. That includes dark things and aspects of life that make us uncomfortable. Unless there are tangible victims (such as published sexual art depicting real life identifiable children, art that is purposefully meant to be a threat to someone else ((even implicitly)), drawings that use things like CSEM for reference/tracing etc.) then it’s morally fine imo. No one, and I mean no one, should ever be harassed, doxed, or otherwise harmed because they made art that is simply offensive to someone. This applies to things I’m even offended about, like certain political artists or particular fetish art.

What is your contact stance?: Certain paraphilias and/or paraphilic disorders can’t be explored to its most literal extent without a victim being involved. For example, ped🅾️philes can’t have sexual relations with children without creating a victim. Obviously I am against that. However, they can explore this part of themselves via ethically-made art, an adult partner in consensual sexual roleplay, etc.

Honestly, I would much rather people have an outlet for their desires rather than let them build and build and build until it becomes an issue to not just themselves but others. I mean, how many times are we going to see anti-gay politicians for example turn out to be gay? (1, 2, 3) And no, I don’t think that paraphiles or people with paraphilic disorders are inherently LGBT, nor do I think there should be paraphilias added on the LGBT acronym like “LGBTP” or “LGBTZ”. I am simply saying that repressing one’s sexuality is unhealthy imo.

Said opinion is based off of data. For example, there have been multiple studies showing that countries with easy access to pornography of any kind have significantly less sex crimes committed than countries who don’t. (1, 2) (And no, I am not a supporter of CSEM being legal or anything like that obviously. I am simply presenting data to show the effects of pornography and outlets. Instead of these countries allowing the victimizing stuff, I think they should only allow victimless forms of it.)

So, I would say I believe paraphiles should be able to have contact with consensual adults, art, etc. as an outlet for their desires. But now with the real thing unless it is a victimless paraphilia like plushophilia or objectophilia for example.

Are you pro-recovery? I find this to be difficult to answer because there are certain implications with the question I don’t agree with. This would be like asking “Are you pro-recovery?” in reference to someone with an anxiety, depressive, or schizospec disorder. I want people to have easy access to resources if they’re struggling, and let’s be honest, almost all paraphiles are struggling in one way or another. At least from what I’ve seen. But what I hear when seeing “pro-recovery” is “Do you think paraphiles should be ‘cured’?” You can’t “cure” paraphilias in the same way you can’t “cure” the disorders I listed above. You cant “recover” from them because they aren’t going anywhere. People recover from events that happen to them, people recover from trauma, people don’t recover from things hardwired into their brain. (1)

Do you believe everyone who consumes “problematic”/taboo fiction (sexually or otherwise) wants to do those things in real life?

No. I don’t. As much as I think more people are interested in taboo art than many would like to admit, I don’t believe that is the only reason why someone would be into the “weird” stuff. There are many reasons. Trauma, neurodivergence, early life experience that weren’t necessarily traumatic, things you’re just born with, and many other reasons I don’t even know. It’s a complicated topic, but I think art is not always literal and two people can look at the same piece of art and get two completely different experiences and interpretations of it. In the same way playing violent video games doesn’t make you violent, but violent people may gravitate more to those games; consuming taboo art doesn’t make you a paraphile, but paraphiles may gravitate more to those art pieces.

Do not interact if you are a minor. At all. I discuss and reblog adult topics and don’t want minors exposed to it. Please respect this.

[inganikki]

Out of curiosity, why do you hate One Piece? I know that the character designs for the women Aren’t Great and Usopp also has some unfortunate design choices, but other than that I haven’t heard many major complaints about the show/manga. However, I haven’t watched/read one piece so all the info I have is secondhand

Ok so this is my subjective opinion as a person who used to be absolutely obsessed with One Piece as a child. I still read it when I find the energy to do so and I've read up to volume 100. The reasons I dislike OP now are

Oda's misogyny, part 1: As you said, women's designs are Not Great. They've gotten boobier and more and more sexually exaggerated as the series goes on imo. OP does have cool female characters and cool female character designs, but when Oda wants to draw a conventionally beautiful female character, he just draws variations of the same woman. When it comes to conventionally beautiful female characters, I also struggle to tell apart who is who because a lot of them have the same face (and same body) syndrome.

Oda's misogyny, part 2: A lot of this comes up in extra-textual materials such as the reader Q&A sections he does in the manga volumes. I don't have these volumes with me at hand so I'm only paraphrasing what I remember but he's said stuff about how he draws OP for boys first and foremost, and how female fans just don't "get it" the way male fans do. This honestly broke my heart as I was the biggest OP obsessive when I was in primary school. I loved OP as much as any boys, but my passion is diminished just because I'm a girl? I cannot respect someone who thinks like that. (and unfortunately a lot of male creatives in Japan have said stuff like that). There's also some gender-bend art he drew that was pretty insulting. Also the time he drew OP characters as old people where male characters got to look like proper grandpas while female characters weren't allowed to show age. It's all so boring.

Racism, part 1: Yes you're right about Usopp's design (I love him though...). Also Oda does a weird thing where whenever he draws coloured artworks, he paints all the characters' skin in the exact same orange-pink tone. No one in OP manga has dark skin afaik because everyone has the same skin tone. I've always found that strange, especially when characters have all sorts of different hair colours and design quirks, somehow skin tone is the one thing he refuses to diversity. The anime improves on this at least by giving different characters different skin tones.

Racism, part 2: I hate that they retconned Nico Robin to be light skinned in the anime. Give us our brown skinned Robin back. Fuck.

Homophobia and transphobia: The usage of the word "okama" is a controversial one and I'm not in a position to speak on it as I'm neither a gender non-conforming man nor a transgender woman, but I don't think it's appropriate to use it so much in a manga meant for children. I understand that some queer people in Japan do self identify as okama, and Oda uses "I have friends who are okama" as an excuse but I still think the liberal usage of okama in OP a bad idea. Also one time Sanji got stranded on an island called Kamabakka ("full of okama") Kingdom and the joke is that all these caricaturized ugly cross-dressing men (?) want Sanji and he is grossed out by them.

The art style. I used to love Oda's simple, cartoony art. And it got more and more complicated and maximalist and again, modern day OP gives me a headache because it's like everything is going on eveywhere (all the time). That's my personal taste of course. I just find it to be too much. Also this ties in with my previous point of "too many characters" - new OP characters look more and more grotesque and monstrous because Oda needs to introduce a character who looks distinguishable from all the thousands of characters that appeared before (unless this new character is a conventionally attractive woman, then she looks the same). I just think it's ugly… I don't like it.

I also think it has gone on for far too long. It's gotten so sprawling and complicated that I don't find it fun anymore. Too many characters and too much history to keep track of. Whenever I read a modern OP volume it kind of gives me a headache while I try to understand who is where and doing what for what reason. I'm not invested enough to pour in the energy needed to keep track of everything anymore.

Nationalism?: I find it kind of cringe whenever a Japanese artist wants to insert their own version of Japan into their fantasy work (eg. Hiizuru in Attack on Titan) because those Fantasy Japan countries tend to be portrayed as a cool awesome place where you will find many strong honorable people yay <3 and I'm like "okay, Narcissist". The Wano-kuni arc felt so self-congratulatory. It was a bit painful.

This one is just petty stuff that's entirely my taste thing again but even as a child I found some of Oda's writing traits to be cringe lmao. Some of these attack names are so dumb (Zoro's onigiri, I get that it's a pun, doesn't work for me lol), and how different characters have to have their own weird laughs. Also OP never got me invested enough in the character of Ace so the whole Enies Lobby arc just bored me and sapped a lot of the interest I still had in OP. I just don't care anymore.

You asked a simple question and I'm sorry I wrote a long ass post but like I said, I used to be a massive fan so I just have... a lot of Thoughts. Thanks for asking.

[garaksapprentice]

A Brief Overview of Alpaca Farming in Australia

Originally posted at my blog: https://garaksapprentice.blogspot.com/2023/09/alpaca-in-australia.html

I went to the royal show on Monday, and I chatted up the rep at the Alpaca Association booth, and then I blogged about it. Enjoy.

---

The Royal Show is on this week. Being in need of free entry civic minded, I volunteered to help man the spinner's and weaver's guild stall.

This gives me half a day to wander the showgrounds, and half a day where I stand at the booth, spindle spinning for the public, and blowing people's minds with random facts like "This is how people spun thread for most of human history, the treadle spinning wheel was only invented in the 1500s" and "It took longer to spin and weave the sails for a Viking longship than it did to build the ship itself". Kids in particular love to see how thread is made.

My first shift this time was a morning one (I only slightly regret that choice, being that I Am Not A Morning Person). So of course the first thing I did when I knocked off was go and talk to the alpaca breeders. (They were easier to find than the sheep.)

I must have arrived at a good time, because I had a great chat with the rep manning the Alpaca Association stall in the building. I have a keen interest in the local fibre industries, for obvious reasons. So I always take the time to talk to anyone involved with it, in any capacity.

So how are alpaca doing?

While alpaca have only been in the country for 30 years or so, herd numbers have been growing dramatically in the last half decade as farmers start to focus on fibre production (and to a lesser extent, meat) as well as genetics. The rep (I regret not getting his name now) reckons some sheep farmers, who have traditionally been resistant, will likely start switching over to alpaca in the next decade or so as they start to realise the advantages alpaca have. (Personally I think integrating alpaca alongside other things is the way to go - diversity creates stability, resilience, and higher yields.)

One of the reasons for his prediction is that alpaca are simply better suited to large chunks of the climate here than merino sheep. (Merino are, to put it politely, too overbred for wool production to cope.) They're softer footed, for one. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but Australia's soils are ancient. They were absolutely wrecked within fifty years of sheep, cattle, and other hard-hoofed animals being introduced. Returning to soft-footed grazers, in conjunction with regenerative pasture practices, would go a long way to fixing the damage and sequestering carbon back into the landscape.

Genetics, fleeces and microns, oh my!

Many farmers are focussing their breeding programs on two things - extending the amount of time their animals keep producing a low-micron fleece, and improving the consistency of micron count across the fleece as a whole.

In "unimproved" animals, the fleece will be coarser in some areas and finer in others. Think about human hair - different parts of our body have coarser or finer hair, too. In alpaca, the finest fleece is found on the saddle and neck. The belly and legs are coarser, and have more guard hairs (they're the tough, prickly ones). Breeders have been working to bring the fleece as a whole closer to the same fine-ness for a couple of decades.

(Please forgive my drawing skills. I couldn't find a better, copyright free image.)

Fleece quality changes as alpaca age, too. Unimproved animals usually give a year or two of fine fleeces, and then the wool gets coarser with each clip. The rep I talked to said that his herd's animals now hold their fleece consistency to about 5-6 years old. (He has one dam that has held her fleece for 8 years - he's really hoping those genetics can be passed on to her young!)

Why is this important? Because finer, more consistent fleeces are worth more. (There's a limit to how fine you want to go, though - commercial machinery doesn't like extremely fine fleece, so the ideal is 18-24 microns. That's still next-to-skin soft, for most people.)

Part of the complexity of raising commercial alpaca fibre is the range of colours (there's two dozen recognised in Australia), that you then have to sort and grade by micron count (there are four grades used by the industry), into 150kg bales for sale. Most farmers choose to breed either suri or huacaya, not both, because of that complexity.

(These are just four of the colours alpaca comes in. The top two fleeces I bought from different local fleece farmers. (The grey in the upper left is from dirt trapped between the fibres - the whole fleece is actually the same light, smoky grey.) The bottom two came from friends of friends who own hobby animals or livestock guardians - you can see how much dirtier the non-commercial fleeces are, compared to the commercial ones. (Yes, the bottom right fleece came off one animal - piebalds and spots are recognised alpaca colouring.))

Alpaca fleeces that only have two grades of fibre, or even one, are quicker and easier to sort at shearing time. That means less expense for the farmer, and a better profit margin. 

Another way farmers cut the complexity is to focus on breeding specific colours, such as pure black, that are in high demand from the fashion industry.

Shearing and staples

Alpaca, like most sheep breeds, have lost the ability to naturally shed their fleeces. They must be sheared regularly to keep them healthy.

Shearing season in Australia is usually an annual event, due to cost. It starts about now (September) in the greater Adelaide region, has been going for a month or more up in Queensland, and the highlands here and in NSW/Victoria won't start until October or later. Every animal gets done at the same time, starting from about six weeks old. That way the animals are happier over summer, and it keeps their fleece quality higher.

Part of that fleece quality is the length of the wool, or staple. The ideal staple length for fleeces is 80-120mm - that's the sweet spot for both commercial processing machinery and handspinners. While handspinners definitely have the capacity to spin short fibres, most aren't interested in a fleece with less than 80mm staple. (I am an outlier in that if a fleece is nice, I don't care what staple length it has. I will find a use for its yarn.)

Another factor is the amount of VM (vegetable matter, such as grass seeds - clover burr is a particular problem) and dirt in the fleece. You can't do much about the dirt - alpaca *love* to roll, it helps to keep their coat healthy - but farmers do their best to keep VM low. Commercial buyers and handspinners alike appreciate it. (The example fleece the booth had out for touchies had too much VM in it to sell to handspinners. It didn't look like much to me, but again, I have lower standards than many of my kind.)

Personally, I love spinning alpaca. I find it easier to process than sheep since it doesn't need scouring. Dirt falls right out as you're spinning, and in the washing of the yarn (I spin it unwashed in the traditional Andean way). The natural colours are gorgeous, and it takes dyes well. The one downside for me is that it's so much warmer than sheep. Great for the being outside in the depths of winter, not so good for the rest of the year.

Overall I'm excited to see where the local alpaca industry heads over the next decade. I think there's great promise for improving the sustainability of our fibreshed, and for alpaca farming to be integrated into broader regenerative agriculture practices.

[mindfogs]

Ok I'm very curious about your thoughts on the features for dreams do please say

kissing you on the mouth anon thank you i love giving my opinion on stuff so

DISCLAIMER

If you like the app, if you find it easy to use, if it's more accessible to you for any reason at all (INCLUDING THE CHEAP PRICE) i'm so happy for that, more power to you! if it makes it easier for people to approach animation that's great! i just think there are some really really awful features and limitations maybe especially if you never animated some thy in your life. for reference i studied animation using toon boom so maybe it's just too different from what i use, maybe in a week of getting to know it better, dreams will be my best friend and i'll feel stupid for this post, but also i animated stuff in the supposed "professional way", even complete, rendered stuff (specializing in storyboard and rough animation) so here's my first impressions after using it for less that 24 hours with no visual tutorials only the written ones. if i say something wrong or missed something or if any of the things i say below has an easy solution PLEASE LET ME KNOW i'm. plenty happy to be proven wrong :)

ok now, time to be a bitch

Startin with the biggest offence imo:

WORKING WITH FREE FRAME TIMING IS HELL

in animation you got your frames right? 24 each second yall know the gig. once upon a time, in disney golden era you used to do one drawing for each frame but nowdays you hardly do that. most people just put a drawing when needed which means one drawing could last 2 frames, one 4, one 8 up til as many you could need. more often than not you'll change the duration of each frame many times as you are doing your animation, making them longer or shorter and adjusting each frame before or after based on that. most programs will let you make a drawing shorter or longer and automatically adjust the frames around it, meaning it'll move them as needed.

procreate dreams doesn't do that. if you shorten a drawing it'll leave a space between the one you shortened and the one after. if you elongate a drawing..... you can't do that. yes. you. can't. do. that. to be more precise, you can't do that if there's a drawing right after because it'll just won't let you move past it..... "but that's fine" i hear you say "just move the damn frame blocking it", great idea! you can't do that either. you can only move one frame at a time. even if you select more of them you can only move one at a time (WHY). to move more of them you need to group them and ungroup them all the times. hope you understand how tedious that is.

tied to this point: THE TIMELINE OCCUPIES HALF THE SCREEN you'll see why in a minute

you can zoom in and out of the timeline as you please but it occupies half the screen regardless. you can't possibly shorten it to occupy less space even if you have only one track. "you can go into *whatever i don't remember the name* mode-" NO YOU CAN'T. whatever mode let's you draw full screen, with a supposed "timeline" limited in a corner. this timeline only offers you 3 frames to flip from: the one you're working on, the one before and the one after. if you paid attention you noticed i said frames and not drawings. this means that if your drawing occupies more that one frame you'll have to flip through all of them. no, you can't enlarge them. can you imagine what could be like storyboarding like this? where a panel of a rough board usually last around 2 seconds? can you imagine flipping through 48 frames til you reach the next panel?

so the choices of interface are: timeline where you can see more frames at a time but it occupies half the screen or full drawing but only one frame at a time... ok

YOU CAN'T MOVE LAYERS UP AND DOWN

with layers i don't mean tracks, i mean layers, the ones procreate has. this program treats each frame as a drawing with layers but you can't move the layers up and down from each other. the first layer you make is always going to end up on the bottom because it creates the next layer on top so good luck if you want to color your lineart. (you could i guess prepare each drawing beforehand with multiple frames but i think i'd go insane)

"just make the color/shadow/whatever on another track" if you have frames for each drawing it's an ok solution, but again, if you work in anything other that one drawing each frame it'll be hell matching the timing.

so, in conclusion and also TL;DR: you either are a master animator that does one frame per second, animates without sketching (you also can't lower opacity on tracks, only layers in drawings), keyframes (adding in-betweens seems equally tedious as moving a frame for the points said before), and never makes mistakes or you'll find it extremely difficult i think to do frame by frame animation.

it could maybe be a good program for motion grafic and video editing. make those animation after effect style? not my field so can't really make a statement on that.

i know it just came out and they'll probably fix some stuff in the future, but for now? looks extremely tedious and user unfriendly. i'm extremely grateful for the procreate team to try and make animation more cheaper/accessible and i'm aware it can't have all the features toon boom has for obvious reasons. they surely had their limitations but for something that (if i recal correctly) was supposed to revolution the animation industry and was supposed to be a program where you could do ANYTHING from pre, to post production i was extremely disappointed... will probably continue to try and make it work while i wait for updates!

thank you for coming to my ted talk, please don't hate me. this is mostly coming from sadness rather than rage

EDIT: WHERE IS THE SELECTION TOOL I'M GOING INSANE

[evelhak]

Old art #12: Fate/Once Upon a Time

Some more ancient history. I used to be obsessed with Fate/Stay Night and could not swallow the ending of the Fate route of the visual novel/2006 anime when I was in high school, so obviously I drew several hundred pages of fan comic to fix it. I used to post it on DeviantArt, but life got in the way back then, so I left it in like chapter 3. (Yes it took like a hundred pages per chapter because I'm me). And I had something like 52 chapters planned, I think. I still pretty much remember the story, so I've been considering reposting the pages somewhere with a summary of how it would have gone, to give closure to people who loved it back then, even though it's very late, and it's pretty unlikely anyone from that time would stumble across it anymore.

At least I had been able to draw and post the whole reason why I began to make the comic, by the end of chapter 1, so I wasn't completely torn about it when I wasn't able to continue. Anyway... in case anyone was curious, this is kind of where I come from. This was my start in fan works. It was a fix-it comic that consumed my life for a while. (Two years, I think.) I could not stop, I was drawing every minute I could. I remember carrying a folder with me everywhere, not only was I drawing on breaks at school and secretly in class, literally even during my folk dance groups' training camp I was already in some corner drawing if we had a five-minute break, same at backstage while someone was braiding my hair for a performance. I could not waste a minute. (My days were full already.)

This was the first long story of mine that had readers I didn't know, who left comments and begged for me to continue. That was really something. I bet that really marks a turning point for a lot of storytellers. I had had ideas for fan works before, but I had always resisted because it "isn't original". Fate/Stay Night was the first time my need to create was too strong, it made me throw that philosophy out the window for a while. (I'm glad it did, obviously, even though part of the reason I quit was because I decided I had to focus on my original fiction at the time.)

My English was still not great, and I had even more problems with anatomy than I do now, but this project definitely made me develop both of those skills a lot. It's always the uncontrollable need to create something that makes me get better at things, because there's just no other way to accomplish what I want than to acquire the skills I need for it, and my brain just doesn't accept not succeeding. If it weren't for this fan comic, I probably wouldn't have done a lot of things I have since then. So I feel like I owe a lot to Fate, and I have many fond memories of this project.

Obviously, I also got mansplained a lot, since it was a pretty male dominant fandom. Guys who hadn't even bothered to read my story yet came to me like "Uuuuh do you have a clue how Fate works, I bet you don't so let me go on paragraphs of monologue" of things that I of course knew just as well as them. Or telling me that my story wasn't even possible because X, Y and Z problems would need to be solved before there could even be another Grail War as the Grail was destroyed... like, really? You thought I didn't think of that? You didn't even consider that maybe I actually have a brain and came up with entirely new concepts that don't exist in canon? (Not to mention, a gigantic franchise with multiple contradictory routes for the same story is a really stupid place to start telling people what is or isn't possible, geez. Why so small-minded?)

Or they were just dismissing me because my story "looked like a shojo manga". (Lol, I know, and that's not an accident. That's what's so great about it, actually. When you combine the high stakes and suspense of shonen with the aesthetic and emotional expression of shojo, how can you lose? When you combine conventions from two different sources, you'll always end up with something that doesn't exist in either of them. A union, a synthesis, is more than the sum of its parts. That's my philosophy, anyway...)

And appearances can be deceiving. Once these guys actually read my story, they told me I was "so good at creating suspense!!!!" and the emotional catharsis of a particular scene had them writing to me that I made them cry. Hah. In your face. (I certainly thought that, even if I had too much manners to tell them.) Don't you just love changing people's minds?

Anyway, looking back at this more than a decade old thing made me quite emotional.

Shiro x Saber forever. 💙💙💙

[danikatze]

How about B, I, K, M, N, O, U for the alphabet ask thing?

Alphabet Asks

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

hahah well TJ.. as you know you've been very influential when it comes to ships - especially for Naruto. First one that comes to mind is KakaGai, but there's also YamaSai and KankuSai and ShikaCho. All of them I still love <3 Also, thanks to you I shipped GaraShir before I even watched the show. And there are just countless ships from other fandoms that I'm not (really) a part of that I have a soft spot for, because you sell them so well :))

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

Errr I guess you could say HP? But that's not Tumblr's fault - all it did was share the messed up things Rowling said and did and gradully all of the moments HP got tiny kid me through rough and lonely times started feeling like a very big lie and I can't even think of it fondly anymore.

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

Oh gosh, so many, but let's go for Fjord from Critical Role. All the little and big steps he takes towards learning to accept himself throughout the campaign and the way they don't come all at once but are spread out over like a hundred plus episodes, including inevitable steps backward. The strength it took for him to walk away from the one who gave him conditional power and to accept unconditional love that is extended by his friends and the Wildmother. His arc just makes me so emotional and happy every time I think about it. I love him and I love his journey and I cannot wait to see it animated.

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Yamato from Naruto seems like a perfect friend. He's kind and loyal and usually a reasonable, level headed person who can calm you down in stressed situations. But he's also someone you can have fun with!

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

For Saraiya Goyou: 1) anyone other than me making stuff for it lol. Usually I don't mind it so much, but sometimes I almost desperately wish I would see the tag update and it's not something I made. 2) drawings and fics from the past are mostly for Yaichi and Masa. I'd love more art and writing for other characters and pairings (romantic or otherwise) 3) sneakily shared fan translations of the prequels and spin-offs would be great lol. They're never going to be translated officially, but scans are taken down immediately as well. I bought Futagashira but I have no way of reading it unless I learn to read Japanese myself ^^;

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Shuffle produced Pulling Teeth by Green Day. "I'm all busted up, broken bones and nasty cuts, accidents will happen, but this time I can't get up." That's definitely Meg and Zagreus from Hades. They beat each other up on a regular basis lol and I was so bad at this game in the beginning I got Zag killed by her a lot (sorry Zag..) Not top 10 ship for me, but I like them well enough!

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

1) Matsu from Saraiya Goyou: during my first reread the manga, after I learned that he loved Yaichi, I fell in love with him through his subtle and heartbreaking expressions. That's when I really got to know and understand him more. I love that he's charming as can be for his job, but doesn't know how to behave around his friends. He's so skilled and he knows it, yet has such a low self esteem. He's just a highly skilled, very pathetic little grumpy guy that deserves all the love in the world. And I give him as much as I can. 2) Caduceus from Critical Role: perfect, big, chill cow man who has the best advice and calming words for others, but can't recognise his own problems, let alone how to deal with them. He's so dumb and wise and I love him. 3) Gerry from the Magnus Archives: he's one of those people that seems to be full of contradictions. He's so bitter and stubborn and impatient and crude, but in a way that feels friendly? His life was so full of grief and horror from the moment he was born and he just wants a break from it all, but at the same time he can't stop himself from helping people who are about to fall - or have already fallen - victim to the horrors. The fear and defiance he lived (and died) with is heartbreaking and admirable.

[coolunclebruno]

The Play's The Thing

“...And I was thinking he should have a terminal illness, to really spice up the drama,” Bruno said. He was sitting on the floor of his room, while Miguel sat in a chair behind him, brushing his hair.

“Okay…what kind of illness should he have?” Miguel asked, gently pulling the comb through Bruno’s curly hair.

“Hmm…lung problems from smoking?”

“I don’t know…if that were me, I’d want to stay away from a smoker.”

The two of them were currently discussing one of their favorite topics; plots for potential telenovelas. Bruno was currently struggling with creating an actual plot for a telenovela, so, he enlisted the help of his lover, as well as getting some much-needed hair care.

“But I smoke sometimes, and you stay with me.”

“Well that’s different,” Miguel said, taking a pause from combing Bruno’s hair to kiss Bruno on the top of his head. “You’re mi melocotoncito, so I’m fine with you smoking.

Bruno blushed at the nickname, drawing his knees up closer to himself. “Aww, thank you for enabling my smoking habit.”

“Anytime, mi amor,” Miguel joked. “Is it alright if I braid your hair? Mirabel has been teaching me how to do that.”

“Hm. Go right ahead.”

So, Miguel got to braiding Bruno’s hair, and Bruno was lost in thought, going over different scenarios in his head.

“Bah,” Bruno sighed, frustrated.

“Mi amoooor…,” Miguel sighed concernedly.

“It just feels so damn disconcerting…why can’t I think of anything? Am I out of ideas?”

“I don’t think so, I think you’re just going through some writer’s block. The inspiration will come to you eventually, when it wants to.”

“But why can’t it be now…”

“I don’t know, mi osito,” Miguel soothed Bruno, working on the small, thin third braid. “But I’m sure that when it does, it’s going to be amazing.”

Bruno leaned into Miguel’s hand. “Gracias, mi amor.”

“Anytime. Now, do you want me to tie some bows into the braid?”

“That would be…wait, hang on…,” Bruno trailed off, the dusty cogs in his brain finally starting to turn.

“Hm? What is it?”

“I’m getting an idea…,” Bruno said, heading off to his desk to quickly write down his incoming thoughts.

“Ay, que chido!” Miguel exclaimed, quickly following Bruno.

He watched as Bruno jotted down his notes, marveling at just how fast he wrote. It was one of the many things Miguel loved about Bruno, how writing was like breathing to him.

“Keep the rats…but what about the human characters…replace those with rats too…”

“What are you thinking?” Miguel asked him.

“Okay, what about a different take on Cinderella?”

“What kind of take?”

“How about we make them all rats instead! And we can have the settings be underground and…”

As Bruno delved more into the details of the story, Miguel admired how excited and animated Bruno was getting. It was one of the cutest things about him, he thought, how he would lightly flap his hands when he talked about something that made him happy. You couldn’t help but feel happy alongside him.

“...And I was thinking that they could both be guys, y’know, help expose the villagers to that more.”

“Huh? Oh yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“Were you even listening?” Bruno asked teasingly.

“I was, I was just appreciating how beautiful your face is…”

“Hmm, you can’t flirt your way out of this…,” Bruno said, failing to hide the blush on his face.

“It sounds really good so far, Bruno! I can already tell it’s going to be great,” Miguel said.

“Aw…thank you, mi amor,” Bruno said, giving Miguel a peck on the cheek.

The two spent the night fervently discussing the plot of the story, papers strewn about the room and rats watching them with curiosity, all the while bows sat in Bruno’s braided hair.

“Hey mi amor, I brought us lunch!” Miguel called out as he entered Bruno’s workspace, which was really his old spot inside the walls, stepping over boards of wood.

“Oh, hey Migo!” Bruno said, looking up from the backdrop he was currently painting, which was supposed to look like a ballroom, but also looked like a beach on a sunny day for some reason. He was surprisingly not wearing his ruana, but a pale yellow tank top instead, with his hair in a ponytail. “What’d you bring?” he asked, pointing to the little checkered bag Miguel was holding.

“Just some arepas! Nothing too fancy,” Miguel said, sitting down on the floor cross-legged across from Bruno.

“‘Nothing too fancy’? Excuse me, but arepas don’t need to be fancy to be amazing! They’re easy to make, you can have them at any time of day, and they are delicious to boot!” he said, scooting over to meet Miguel, grabbing an arepa from out of his hand and taking a bite out of it.

Miguel chuckled. “Sounds like someone is a little on edge today, huh?” he said, playfully reaching over to twirl a lock of Bruno’s hair around his finger.

A hum from Bruno signaled his agreement.

“It’s just been a very busy day. I’ve been working on the set pieces and backgrounds all day,” he said, motioning to the finished and unfinished props and backdrops needed for the play.

“I thought Luisa and Isabel were helping you in that department?”

“They are, but Isabel is just making the paint I’m using, and Luisa is taking a break from building the stage, so I’m just making the set pieces and backdrops .”

“Aw, I’m sorry, cariño, you must be exhausted. Maybe I could help you out with some things?”

“Gracias Migo, but you don’t need to do that,” Bruno hesitated, picking at the loose threads of his ruana. “It’s pretty boring and tedious, and I wouldn’t want you to waste your time with that-”

“Nonsense! I would love to help you, Brunito, it’s honestly not a problem.”

“Well…ok,” Bruno relented, putting his half-finished arepa down for the rats. “Since you have carpentry skills, I need you to work on the little tables and chairs. I’ve already started on them, but, to be honest, I don't think they're that good, so do you think you can do them while I paint the backdrops?”

“Of course, mi luz".

And with that, Miguel started working on the rat-sized tables and chairs. Normally, he would be crafting bigger, more human-sized furniture, but he wasn’t worried. When Miguel was younger, his mother would craft dioramas, often including Miguel into her little projects. It was one of the few things from his childhood that he fondly looked back on.

Miguel took a small break from carving a mini-table leg out of a block of wood to sneak a glance at Bruno, who was diligently painting the background for a set (it looked like it was some sort of burrow). He took in the appearance of Bruno with his ponytail, which Miguel really wished he would do more often, and his exposed arms, with his scars running up and down his arms in little faded lines.

In the last couple of months, Bruno was really starting to become less and less ashamed of his scars, and was even starting to wear short-sleeved shirts every now and then. Miguel couldn’t be more proud of him, it was always important to take steps like this.

Plus, he was happy to see his bare arms, which Miguel found to be perfect, soft yet strangely a little strong, but no one needed to know that right now.

“What are you painting?” he asked.

Bruno looked up, slightly startled out of his intense focus.

“O-oh, uh, it’s supposed to be the ballroom of the castle.”

Miguel moved closer to Bruno, to get a closer look.

“Ohh, looks like it’s coming along well!”

“Aw, gracias,” Bruno blushed. “But I feel like it’s missing something…,” he mused, rubbing his hand on his chin in thought, getting paint on his face in the process.

“You got a little something on your face, Brunito…,” Miguel pointed out, gesturing to his own chin.

Bruno looked down at his paint-covered hand, realizing what had just happened, then at Miguel, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

“Bruno-”

Before Miguel could say anything more, Bruno took a glob of paint from the palette he had set on the ground and smeared it across Miguel’s face, who recoiled back.

“Ay, what’d you do that for!” Miguel gasped out.

“I figured we could match!” Bruno joked.

Miguel came over to Bruno, took some of the paint, and smeared it across Bruno’s cheek.

“There, now we’re even.”

Bruno started to laugh.

“I guess I deserved that!” he gasped out.

Pretty soon, the both of them were doubled over in hysterics, completely forgetting about what they had been doing before.

“No, no guys, not like that!” Bruno called out from his chair to the rats standing on the mini-stage. “Antonio, please tell them that I wanted them to move towards stage right, stop, then have Fabricio take Iago’s hand, not stage left and cuddle.”

Now that the writing stage was essentially finished, all Bruno had to do was the rehearsing, which Antonio kindly agreed to help him out with in his room.

“Ok!...what’s stage left?”

Although, there was only so much that his young mind understood.

“Oh, uh…it’s the right part of the stage from where the actors are looking.”

Antonio just gave him a quizzical look.

“Then, why isn’t it just called stage right?”

“Dang, he is so insightful for a five-year-old,” Bruno thought to himself.

“Uhh, how about you take a break, Toñito? I can hold down the fort for you while you’re gone.”

Antonio just shrugged and left the Prophet’s bedroom, but not before bumping into Miguel, who was just heading into the room.

“Tio Miguel!” the young boy greeted excitedly, throwing his arms around Miguel’s midsection in a hug. “Do you wanna play hopscotch with me and Chispi?”

“Sure, little guy, but maybe later? I came here to help your tio with his play.”

“Alright,” he agreed, before whispering to Miguel; “I don’t think tio knows his directions, so he needs all the help he can get!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to help him every step of the way,” Miguel slightly chuckled, ruffling Antonio’s hair before letting him on his way.

“Why does no one understand theater?” Bruno asked dryly, helping the rats get out of their little costumes.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s only for a select few to understand,” Miguel offered, hugging Bruno from behind. “How’s the play coming along, mi vida?”

“It’s going okay, it’s just…,” Bruno trailed off, picking up Fabricio, the lead rat, and petting him and scratching his head. “...the rats are having trouble with this specific scene, and it’s really frustrating.”

“What’s going on?”

“It’s the scene where Adolfo and Esteban meet in secret for the first time, and they talk and flirt, and all that stuff. It’s supposed to be really emotional and romantic, but they just don’t seem to be interested in it…”

“Maybe they need an example?”

“What do you mean?” Bruno asked.

“How about we rehearse the scene for them so they have an idea of what they need to portray?”

“Hm…that’s not a bad idea!” Bruno said, getting up from the chair.

“Ok, so you will be playing the part of ‘Adolfo’, the charming and handsome prince, and I’ll be playing ‘Esteban’, the humble and kind farmer’s son,'' Bruno explained.

“Okay, got it,” Miguel said.

“Alright, I’m just gonna go over here, and…action!”

Bruno walked forward towards Miguel, shyly turned sideways, and looked down, leaving Miguel confused.

“Um…you’re supposed to say your lines now.”

“O-oh, yeah…,” Miguel stuttered, then cleared his throat. “Qué agradable sorpresa verte esta hermosa noche”.

“Ay!” Bruno exclaimed, playfully waving his hand dismissively. “¡Sólo estás diciendo eso!”

“Lo digo en serio. Estuve pensando en ti todo el día, pensé que me volvería loco.”

“¿Oh sí?”, Bruno said, raising his eyebrows. “¿Qué tan loco?”

“¡Pensé que estaba a punto de declarar la guerra solo para poder ir a verte!” Miguel said.

“Y habrías luchado a través de feroces señores de la guerra, fuertes soldados y arqueros astutos solo para reunirte conmigo en mi pequeña cabaña,” Bruno flirted, batting his eyelashes towards Miguel.

Miguel had never noticed before how beautiful Bruno’s eyelashes looked.

Shaking himself out of that distracting thought, he walked closer to Bruno. “Eso y más.”

Bruno blushed furiously, and was silent for a few moments, before clearing his throat loudly.

“That was…that was good. Let’s move on to the next scene!”

“¿Por qué tenemos que seguir encontrándonos así? ¿No soy lo suficientemente bueno para ti?” Bruno stated, face sculpted in emotional pain.

“No, no, por supuesto que eres lo suficientemente bueno!”, Miguel argued back.

“Entonces, ¿qué es? ¿Tienes miedo de ser degradado si te atrapan estando con un humilde campesino como yo?”

“¡No entiendes! Si nos atrapan, ¡podríamos estar en grave peligro!”

Bruno walked closer to Miguel.

“¿No crees que yo sabía eso? Sabía que al aceptar tener una relación contigo, me pondría en peligro. ¡Pero estaba listo para eso porque te amo!” he shouted, throwing his arms out wildly, and leaving Miguel legitimately stricken by Bruno 's performance.

Watching this, Miguel had the realization that, wow, maybe Bruno’s actual gift was acting, cause that was quite powerful.

“Miguel? You there?” Bruno asked, waving his hand in front of Miguel’s face.

“Huh?”

“We’re moving on to the last scene, the one where they leave the hideout.”

“Oh, ok. What do we have to do?” Miguel asked.

“Okay, we just have to be sappy and lovey-dovey…and I was thinking of adding a quick kiss in the end, to make it more sappy.”

“Oh, I see…are you sure you didn’t add that in just for us?”

“N-no!” Bruno shouted, blushing like a tomato. “It’s a romantic drama, it needs romance for it to be a romance story…”

“Alright, if you say so…”

Bruno walked back to where he had been standing.

“Okay, you’re gonna be starting the scene this time, alright?”

“Got it.”

“Okay, and…,” Bruno took his position, acting like he was about to leave the room. “Go!”

Miguel looked down at the script and read aloud. “¿Cuándo nos volveremos a ver?”

Bruno looked and slowly walked back towards Miguel.

“¿Qué tal este próximo viernes? No estoy demasiado ocupado entonces.”

“Yo tampoco.”

“Entonces, nos encontraremos entonces,” Bruno, as Esteban, said, before turning around and beginning to walk away, before stopping.

There was a beat of silence, before Bruno mumbled; “Te veré entonces, ¿verdad?”

Miguel walked to Bruno, before gently pulling him into an embrace.

“Por supuesto que lo harás. No puedo levantarme sin ti, mi sol.”

Bruno melted into the embrace.

“Mi luna…”

Bruno raised his face up to meet Miguel in a deep kiss. Pretty soon, the kiss became more passionate and vigorous, with Bruno running his hands up Miguel’s chest and Miguel holding onto the back of Bruno’s head.

Then, Miguel hoisted Bruno up, and laid him down on the desk, putting his hands underneath Bruno’s shirt and running them up his chest, earning a pleased moan from the man.

“Did…did you plan that…that kiss…?” Bruno barely got out.

“Oh, yeah, totally,” Miguel whispered curtly, before returning to kissing Bruno senseless.

Their make-out session grew more intense, before Bruno suddenly stopped, and looked towards the rats, who were still sitting on the mini-stage and watching the events unfold, with what Miguel could’ve sworn were expressions of judgment.

“Um, guys…do you mind giving us some privacy?”

The rats sneezed, before turning around and scampering off to wherever.

Bruno looked back to Miguel, with a sly grin plastered on his face.

“Now, where were we…?”

The big night came, and it went off without a hitch for Bruno! The audience loved it, the actors did great, and the rats played all their parts realistically! His sobrinos y sobrinas were all so helpful as the backstage crew, and surprisingly, the audience took well to Bruno being the narrator!

Camilo was even talking about doing it again, but Bruno said he would have to think about it.

Everyone was now gone, and Bruno was cleaning up backstage, folding up the little costumes for the rats on the floor, when one popped out of his ruana.

“Oh, hey Gloria! I’ve been looking for you, I wanted to tell you how amazing you were out there!” he congratulated the sandy, brown rat who he was now holding in his palm. “I mean, that part when you told off the Baron? Absolutely amazing!”

The tubby rat gave a little bow.

“I think that performance was worthy of a prize,” he said, pulling a small piece of cheese out of his pocket.

Gloria took the cheese and skittered away, just as Miguel entered the room.

“Well, look who it is! The man of the hour!” he congratulated Bruno in his booming voice. “I’ve been looking for you, your family is having a big dinner to celebrate!”

“Well, tell them I’ll be there soon, I just want to finish up cleaning here.”

“Well, how about I give you a helping hand? After all, two hands are better than one, and it’s sure to quicken the pace.”

“No need, I only have to finish folding this pile up.”

Miguel nodded, and walked closer to Bruno, before giving him a hug.

“You were amazing out there, mi amor. I could tell that you were in your element,” Miguel said, holding Bruno in his arms.

“Oh, psh,” Bruno brushed off. “It was nothing, I didn’t do much.”

“No, I’m serious! You had the audience in the palm of your hand, you changed their mood at the snap of a finger! I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”

“Well, I honestly couldn’t have done it without your support, Migo,” Bruno said, cupping Miguel’s chin in his hand. “You were with me every step of the way, helping me with every little thing. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“Oh, mi amor, you don’t need to worry about ‘deserving’ me, because I will always be here, no matter what.”

Fighting off tears, Bruno gave Miguel a loving kiss on the lips, which Miguel happily accepted.

“C’mon, mi familia is probably waiting on both of us now,” Bruno said, getting up from the floor.

“Sí, you’re right,” Miguel said, getting up as well. “I saw your sister making a big pot of Cuchuco that had my name on it.”

“More like my name on it, because I’m going to have that tasty first bowl.”

“Not if I get there first!” Miguel said, before he ran quickly out of the room, with Bruno chasing right after.

“And after our dinner, I have a little surprise for you…”

“Oh, really? What’s that?”

“Two words: Candles and wine.”

“That sounds nice, amor, but I also have two words that are even better: Wine and sleep!”

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If you'd like to read this on AO3, you can find it here!