#i will be drawing more of them i think. i’m brainwormed now

[kyannnite]

t4t cumplane commission for @peerlessbellbird :)

[lisafication]

This post is uh, extremely normal I swear

So hello yes I am absolutely On My Bullshit regarding my new favourite game. 

That’s right, it’s the cannibal incest game, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. And I’m here to shove five thousand words of pretentious analysis down your throat because, and I do not exaggerate, I think it is one of, if not the best written game I have ever played. And I have played a lot of games, including Baldur’s Gate 3, Final Fantasy XIV and Undertale, to name a few narrative luminaries to come to mind.

That wordcount is not an exaggeration. My brainworms are extremely powerful and now you can share them with me as I walk you through my insane skyscraper of inference-driven analysis.

Or you can click away. I really wouldn’t blame you, it’s quite a lot.

Content Warnings: …Yes?

(To drop the bit for a moment, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley covers extremely disturbing material and challenges you to examine aspects of living in this world that many have taken for granted all their life, it is not a comfortable game, this will cover similar topics and will often echo the game’s unremitting scepticism on basic principles of society and humanity and you should look after yourself first. My Content Warning is framed as a joke, but it’s also quite real in that the game is designed to make you uncomfortable and there’s no shame in that not being for you.)

This was originally posted on and formatted for Sufficient Velocity, and you can probably more easily read and discuss it with me here.

With that said, let’s dig in. I have had to split this into multiple posts because tumblr will only allow so many images. There will be spoilers for all endings.

She’s excited, are you?

It’s All About Ashley

It really is, isn’t it? I mean, for approximately eighty percent of the total game as currently released and the entirety of Episode 1, you’re in control of Ashley, just as she’s in control of her and Andrew’s relationship for 80% of the game, up until the various ending sequences where it begins to slip. The only other characters who really matter at all in and of themselves are Andrew and her mother — and the former is under her thumb, and she eats the latter. It’s all about Ashley. Even her obsession with Andrew is, ultimately, about Ashley.

But who is Ashley? What is Ashley? Why is Ashley, even? Let’s take a look.

Ashley as presented to us in Episode 1 is very straightforward, so let’s list off the traits we’re given — she is malicious, she is fearless, she lacks empathy, she doesn’t have anything resembling a conscience, she demands Andrew belong to her and her alone, she has him at her beck and call.

In Episode 2, we’re ostensibly shown how she has him at her beck and call— she leverages the threat of reporting Nina’s death over him and had him swear to be with her forever. We’re shown that even as a child she was “just, like that” — but as a child, she hadn’t learnt to live with it yet, to laugh at the farce of it all.

Yeah, exactly like that!

And she does this throughout Episode 1 — The Coffin of Andy and Leyley is a remarkably silly game much of the time, finding moments of absurdity and levity against a backdrop blacker than pitch — and most of the time, your internal narration is coming from Ashley and the jokes will not-infrequently come at her own expense.

She will later get negged by her human sacrifice for her poor ritual circle drawing

Her reaction to being told that her soul is as dark and viscous as tar is “You guess you already knew that” — it’s confirmation to her, not new information. Ashley knows who she is. But who taught her this? There’s layers to this, nothing in this game is as simple and straightforward as it appears at first sight, which is why I’ve been obsessing over it for days.

While it’s common in fiction, the truth of the matter is, most ‘bad people’ really do think they’re good people. But Ashley has never once thought of herself as a good person — or perhaps better put as a person worthy of love — as we learn across Episodes 1 & 2, with our flashbacks to Andy and Leyley and the VERY VERY QUIET!!!

I really wish I had space in this essay to talk about this, but I’d like to touch on these being traits usually more easily forgiven in young boys than young girls at some point.

If she removes all other options, only then can she expect him to like her.

This is something that is echoed in the modern day — her seeming self-assurance is easily shaken and she reaches out to the world — usually Andrew — to affirm and validate her, soothing her insecurities, using any tool she deems necessary. Even when her life is on the line when Andrew has her by the throat at the climax of Episode 1, the only ‘compelling reason’ she can give Andrew to not kill her is her ability to soothe his nightmares. When he tells her there are sleeping pills for that…

Most people would have a bit more to argue for their existence.

While she, unlike Andrew, acknowledges having had friends before the quarantine… you know she’s got a point that they didn’t even bother to answer her calls, that was clearly not something the state was interfering with given Andrew’s calls with his mother and his girlfriend, and given her general demeanour it’s not hard to imagine that… they weren’t ever very close. When we see her and Nina talk in the infamous ‘box scene’, it’s clear that Nina doesn’t like her very much, despite Andrew’s assessment of Nina as being one of Ashley’s friends.

We see further support for her general lack of companionship in her dream sequence in the Burial route — Leyley and Leyley Alone. No matter what you do, you can’t place the pink plushy at the family table, the flowers won’t bloom if you give the Julia and Nina plushies her own as a companion instead of Andrew’s — and if you’re bold enough to go for the ‘incest route’, in the ‘Love’ room you see that no one ever looks happy to be with her in the childlike depictions of her history, nor is she happy in turn, save for when she’s with Andrew. In a bit of heavy-handed metaphor, the player then overwrites all of these tense, upset, hard moments with Andrew, having him fill in for everyone else in life — and happy with her.

Once Upon A Lousy Life…

THE END

And that’s why she needs him to affirm her, because no one else ever has and no one else ever will. It’s even included in their comic beats — when the siblings are getting along well, they’ll often play a game where Andrew dramatically overpraises Ashley while she demands more; it’s a comedic bit but I mean — it really does matter to her!

For the record, she opened a door. She gets a little heart in a speech bubble after this exchange.

We have a great example of this dynamic, that of insecurity and affirmation, in Episode 1, after Andrew has killed for her, butchered for her, his girlfriend broke up with her, he’s seemingly thrown his entire life away for her… she’s still insecure over her relationship with him, she’s uncertain of her control and she needs him to reaffirm it for her.

This is her victory, surely?

Andrew affirms her once, with his usual dead-eyed look.

But she's still not so sure.

He actively reaches out to affirm her again with cheer.

Look how happy she is!

While it’s most obvious and clear cut here, it’s hardly the only case. Let’s look back to the aftermath of Andy and Leyley and the VERY VERY QUIET!!! (I’m not using the other name). Leyley is, after similarly extreme acts — he murdered a girl and hid her body for her — convinced Andy doesn’t like her and she needs this leverage to keep him around, to meet her basic needs for survival. Because that’s what this is — she receives no care of affection elsewhere, so she forces it out of the only source she sees available through the means she sees as necessary.

I really hope we see some of their earlier childhood in Episode 3

What exactly made her like this? Was it just neglect, or something more specific…

She needs this to be the case because otherwise she doesn’t believe he’d stay.

This pattern repeats throughout — Ashley’s insecurities are hit on and she reaches out to Andy to affirm that she is not alone, and she will use any and every tool to exploit her ostensible control over him and force him to be what she needs him to be — and as long as she has that, as long as she is everything to him and it’s not possible for him to leave, she’s happy. As long as she thinks he loves her in her very particular, very peculiar view of love, she’s content, come what may. As long as Andy and Leyley are together, they can take on the world.

Let’s talk about that view of love, because there’s always more layers to unpack here I’m only scratching the surface with this essay — Ashley consistently refers to anyone else Andrew may have befriended or spent time with as a whore, a slut, a bitch — highly gendered insults that bring to mind the idea that he’s cheating in some way. But it’s not even about sex — when Andrew mentions that their parents had friends, she accuses them of cheating on each other in the same way!

There’s a lot to unpack about Ashley’s view of femininity and the role the patriarchy plays in their relationship.

Any kind of emotional engagement, any kind of commitment, any kind of life outside of your significant other is, to Ashley, cheating. Because that’s what she needs from Andrew, a seeming complete and total commitment, secure in her place as the only thing in his life, because she cannot understand anyone picking her if they have a choice.

This insecurity she has in her relationship is what drives her to empower the trinket — he can’t leave her as long as she can protect him with prophetic dreams, after all. She needs every kind of leverage she can get because until she succeeds in being everything to him, in devouring him so completely she has him in her thrall mind, body and soul she can’t be sure of herself — hell, her dream sequence in Burial has you placing Andrew’s signature green plushy, ‘the best thing in the world’ in a cage far away from anything else.

Ultimately, it really is all about Ashley — even her seeming obsession with Andrew ultimately comes back to her own insecurities. If she is everything to ‘the best thing in the world’, some of that ‘best’ must surely reflect on her! 

But that’s enough about the more normal, straightforward and understandable sibling. 

That was not a joke.

Andrew’s Rank 100 Deception

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he did not exist.

Let me explain.

You might have noticed that in the previous section I often use language such as ‘ostensibly’ or ‘seemingly’ to describe Andy and Leyley’s relationship, and there’s a good reason for that. From the beginning of the game through to its end, Andrew is lying to you, the player, without ever falsely representing or misinforming you about events that occurred.

The common, or obvious ‘initial take’ on Andrew as presented in Episode 1 is fairly straightforward. The game primes you to think this way, it frames things and strings reveals just right so as to make it very easy to overlook the incongruities it introduces in Episode 2. He’s a victim. Plain and simple, Ashley is his abuser and he is her victim and would be fine, a normal albeit kinda depressed guy without her.

It really is not a difficult conclusion to draw

You can go all the way through the game, have him try to accept his mother’s olive branch and enter the Decay route as a method for him to finally actualise his desire to get out from Ashley’s thumb and it makes sense, it’s a reasonable way for the story to go, given his character.

You see him this way because the game primes you in Episode 1 to view their relationship like Andrew does — he’s lying. He’s lying to himself, he’s lying to Ashley and he’s so good at it — Deception Rank 100 — he even lies to you. Without misrepresenting a single event or otherwise misleading you directly, the game gets you to buy into his preferred self-perception. Nina? Ashley. Julia? Ashley. The murders they commit in the course of the game? Ashley, Ashley, Ashley, it’s not his fault he’s not to blame he’s just a doormat at the beck and call of his demonic sister.

But he wants to be there. From the very outset, the very first puzzle, that’s made clear. Does anyone else remember this exchange, from right at the beginning of the game?

Ashley wants to investigate the music!

Andrew disapproves…

…Or does he?! 

Like. Listen. Okay. You do not frown when saying ‘Nope’ and then smile when saying that you’ll instead tag along if they do it if your heart is at all in the no. That’s not an objection, that’s using Ashley as his excuse. Especially if you immediately throw her the balcony key that she could not possibly have gotten from you by force (more on Andrew’s ability to use force later).

This is the very first time you control both characters together with Andrew following Ashley instead of off on his own, the first adventure, the first puzzle! 

But put a pin in that for now, let’s talk about his initial framing in Episode 2 first. Episode 1 has set us up to, generally speaking, believe the superficial framing of the siblings as portrayed in its promotional art:

The question that we then ask, right at the heart of it is… why is he a doormat? We explore this in his dream sequence in Episode 2, which does make it clear that the boy’s not okay but— it’s real easy, given the priming from Episode 1 to make you think that he’s the one with the originally functional moral compass, to think that that him being fucked up is damage done to him by Nina’s death and being bound to Ashley for his entire life. She corrupted him.

But, well, is that the case?

You're primed to ignore this as manipulation (which it is) but the best manipulation has some truth to it.

Precisely two things spur Andrew to action in the entire game, consistently — they are the fear of consequences and Ashley. And the first incident of that fear, the very first time we’re shown his seeming moral compass as a kid — the first time it’s really hammered home that it’s a fear of consequences rather than any true moral qualms is after Nina’s death. And why does he fear consequences here?

……

The ‘natural’ read that many take away from this sequence, particularly those who have only played Decay, is that Ashley browbeat him into doing this against his will, using emotional blackmail to overwhelm his objections, and then used the event itself to bind him to her forever as her personal doormat.

In a strict sense, this is true. But this doesn’t match up with the details, something the game uses shock to encourage you to overlook. That outburst is before any kind of threat has been made, and absolutely nothing either of them say anything about it being morally bad until Ashley weaponises ‘you’re a bad person’ against Andrew — morality didn’t seem to enter his mind or the equation at all until Ashley brought it up. More than that, his greatest fear and driving motivation even prior to that is, as shown above, being taken away from Ashley.

She, of course, recognises this and uses it against him. But she never needed to, it didn’t change anything about Andrew’s attachment to her, it was there to address her own insecurities.

Just like to touch on how a lot of his affirmations are preceded by him confirming her insecurities.

I adore this phrasing

There’s a second prong to this as well, to the question of ‘who really calls the shots here’ because — Andrew can, at any stage, apply an ‘ultimate veto’ of physical violence. The game is very clear to the player that that is on the table — even when they were children, when Andy swears their blood oath, he briefly considers killing her — and take note of how he ultimately got a ‘winning’ condition out of her by not specifying there wouldn’t be others and she is forced to accept that, there. Even outside of their most serious confrontations, Ashley is portrayed as having to convince, manipulate or otherwise coerce Andrew into going along with her schemes — she really can’t make him do anything, she doesn’t have the supremacy in violence and, to a lesser extent, capability that would allow her to. 

Andrew, you are like ten years old.

The truth of the matter is, Ashley can only make Andrew do anything because he lets her. I don’t mean in the sense that I’m saying abuse victims let their abusers emotionally abuse them, I mean in the sense that he is clearly considering his options on the table and choosing to discard those that could stop her, or bring an end to any of this. He needs her.

But it’s true that he hates her, too. He has to hate her, because if he doesn’t hate her, if he isn’t forced to have done this, that means… he’s responsible. And nothing, at the start of the story, is as important to Andrew as avoiding the consequences of his own actions, not even Ashley. By the midpoint, he loves her, he hates her, he can’t live without her, he wants to kill her — by the end… well, that depends if you’re on Decay or Burial, but more on that in a bit.

A great scene to study for this dynamic is the climax of Episode 1, when Andrew grabs Ashley by the throat and considers strangling her to death. She’s pushed him too far with hurtful words and assault, and he’s seemingly had enough.

It’s still framed as a question of risk, of consequences happening to him. 

Like, this is not the usual behaviour of someone who’s been pushed past their breaking point.

He tells Ashley that he wants to kill her, because she’s just going to throw another fit and that’s a risk to him. She is… not framed as being able to fight back (she does have a gun here, and more on that in a later essay, maybe). He’s so calculated in how he approaches his use of violence here, which isn’t at all what you’d expect of someone about to commit a crime of passion… but it’s very easy to overlook because of the abuser/victim narrative that the player fits his behaviour into the narrative that the game primes them to accept, brushing incongruities under the carpet.

At the start of Episode 2, we get to control Andrew for the first time, and the first obvious holes in his cover start to show. Some of this is optional — you only learn that he’s been faking having nightmares in order to share a bed with Ashley if you choose to go back into the motel room and check the bed, for example — but not all of it.

----(See reblogs for the second half)

[critterbitter]

Do you think you'll draw the nimbasa trio catching their first Pokemon that's not their starter on their journey?

Definitely! It’s just a matter of getting there, haha. I am but one vaguely man shaped blob with a hyperfixation. Mortal needs like sleep and hand pains stop me from vomiting every brain idea I have.

I actually got this question multiple times, so to answer! I am not going to be drawing the nimbasa trio getting another pokemon until their late teens unless a brainworm strikes. (So no new pokemon during the current snapshot series haha.)

Why?

From a canon perspective, well:

Most npc trainers you meet on route have 2-4 pokemon, so I’m gonna try to keep within that amount until the trio settles in Nimbasa and have the revenue/space to upkeep a full pokemon team.

From a meta perspective, wellllll:

Another caught pokemon means character development, and I, ah... right now, I just wanna draw a candle, a zebra, and an eel. I love painting. But fitting seven or more characters on a canvas is, er… Make me draw more guys and I’ll melt like a vanniluxe on a summer day.

If people are curious for some pokemon headcannons though (note that this is not canon— pokemon gave me a puddle of information, so I’m taking the shovel to dig an ocean.)

- ingo saw a colony of dwebble collecting rocks while in the desert, and he’s been enamored ever since. He’s been trying to convince a dwebble to join his team for a while. Unfortunately, Ingo’s very excited and dwebble are naturally shy. (It doesn’t help that litwick can get mean when jealous.)

- emmet loves double battles and teams up with a lot of wild pokemon— but he doesn’t click with anybody until much further in the future. Me thinks his expectations are a tad too high from having such a good start with tynamo. He’s worked with multiple growlithes and thinks Helping Hand is the coolest shit ever.

- emmet’s first “caught” pokemon would be archen. More like “lab grown” and “lovingly hatched”, but it’s the thought that counts. Thinking once again about squab archen…

- elesa found her two emolga in the trash. She was going to release them after fostering, but got attached.

For future plans:

(The pokemon the twins live with and are officially part of the team (named at what stage the twins meet them! Note that everybody becomes fully evolved at somepoint.)

Ingo— litwick, dwebble, drillbur, and axew.

Emmet— tynamo, archen(lint roller), joltik, and durant.

They also have pokemon coworkers that don’t live with them, but agree to help in battles for exp and wages— kliklank twins, garbadore, shelmet and karablast, boldore (atlas), and gurdur)

And for our favorite electric gym leader:

Elesa— blitzle, the emolga twins (em and molga), stunfisk, mareep

(She has pokemon coworkers Eelektross (eela), zebrastrika (motorbreak), and Galvulanta (Lanta) who have a similar set up to the twins— the pokemon agree to work with Elesa for exp and wages, but otherwise have their own lives.)

(Fun headcanon: pokemon who are raised by humans tend to keep human nicknames. It’s not always the case, but it’s a common enough trend for research studies.)

[callsign-relic]

cityspeaker Ultra Magnus/Minimus.... yesssssss!!!!!! that'd be so so good in a post-IDW au... my heartttttt

or!! OR... ppppost? war? au?? maybe even no war au. anyway an AU where Megatron and Minimus have never met before. Megatron has had several cityspeakers in the past before but none interact with him like Minimus does. None have bothered to speak with him more than necessary, if at all. wardens very rarely need to speak to their prisoners.

Minimus comes along and just... quietly greets him the first day. for such a simple act, it sure draws Megatron's attention.

i think this would be particularly fun in a version of the AU where Megatron IS inhabited (be it in root mode or city mode. TF please give us more cityformer continuing to have ppl living on them in root mode. please please pleasr) because what better way to pay your dues than being of Literal Service to the people? Ultra Magnus gets hired on as cityspeaker/enforcer (what better way to enforce the law than having optics and audials everywhere as part of the living city...) because they are hoping that with him being a stickler for the rules, it will help keep Megatron in line. except instead of doing his job as intended, Minimus ends up befriending Megatron and making the city better for those living there.

wait silly thought for a second- Minimus walking around and taking notes of all the unsafe places around the city/Megatron. there needs to be a guard rail here. this lighting isnt up to code. those overhead pipes are a safety hazard. these stairs are too steep, regulations state that each step must be so tall, and so on. Megatron fixes them by the next day.

anyway cue dramatic chase scene where Megs gets to shift around Minimus as he's getting chased down by the other enforcers. if you want to be particularly poetic about it, he might even use the safety regulations against the oncoming pursuers (whoops there went that guard rail. totally forgot about it. those stairs? Minimus or Ultra Magnus sized now. he can get up them easily.)

hhrhghgrh them. they. augh. i need to write another ask. <- (trying desperately* to convince myself that no i don't need to write a fic or draw something based on the titan au!!! i don't!!!!!!)

*trying desperately and failing. adds it to my list. someone write smth for this so i dont have to hhrhhghgdh my list of projects is too long

- initiate

IM GOING CRAZY IM GOING CRAZYYYYYYYYY (positively)

It’s official. Titan au is my newest brainrot 👍 I encourage any and all asks pls I’m going insane the voices the brainworms the auahgauahaha

All of these ideas are genuinely so good I love them so much holy shit. Oh my god the part about different structures not being up to code in particular… what came to mind for me is Megatron having been carrying out his penance for so long and being so wrought with the guilt he failed to take care of himself as well, his internals a dilapidated city. Meanwhile Minimus is just very matter-of-factly going around assigning OSHA violations to everything he sees and…

…Megatron finds he doesn’t feel apathetic towards it.

Perhaps Minimus was right… it would be nice if his citizens had guard rails. Oh, those stairs were in poor shape, and it would only take him a second to clean them up…

Just. Minimus helping Megatron both literally and metaphorically pick up the pieces of himself after showing he cares for him

Also oh my god the shifting the environment around to help Minimus escape? Insane. I’m in love with it. Even better if Megatron never really let Minimus close to any of his more sensitive spaces before, only to lead him right to his spark chamber and seal off any exit to ensure Minimus’ safety. Right there, in the place Megatron never allowed anyone near, he knew Minimus would be safe.

Also PLEASEEEE PLEASSEEE send more asks or make art or write fic!!!!!!!!!!! It would genuinely make me so happy 😭😭😭 ough speaking of art I’m already imagining titan!Megs’ design… imagine him having big cuffs on his wrists and ankles or anywhere else they might fit really to symbolize his imprisonment in his punishment. And his imprisonment in his own guilt. Perhaps chains as well idk

I am just brainrotting severely so PLEASE keep talking about this to me 🙏🙏🙏

[veinsfullofstars]

-trips and drops all my eggs on the ground-

(ID: A small compilation of Kirby series fanart featuring Magolor in various silly and disconnected scenarios, with guest appearances by Marx, Kirby, and the rest of the Dream Land 4 as well. More detailed descriptions and transcripts under the cut. END ID.)

I sketched out most of these months ago while I was playing through KRtDLDX for the first time. The Epilogue was giving me thoughts and the brainworms were feeding. Still, I didn’t really have any big piece ideas for these, so I figured I’d just slap them all into a comp, throw some lines and color on, and call it done. A little loose on context, I admit, but I think they came out okay in the end. I just love drawing this wretched man (and the clown that bothers him).

Sketches started 02/28/23, render started 11/02/23, finished 11/04/23, updated for color correction 11/02/24. NOTE: This was originally posted on my deleted account on 11/04/23.

---

Image desc. & transcripts (in no particular order):

-Magolor points to a barrel, smiling pleasantly, and says “Trust me, it’s foolproof! Now get in~” Marx looks on unimpressed.

-Magolor (in his tattered gray outfit) grabs his head with a look of fear on his face, saying “No one told me there’d be consequences to my actions!”

-Magolor (in his Tome Trackers outfit) winks and twirls his mustache, saying “Of course I’m trustworthy! You can tell by my mustache and ridiculously high IQ!”

-Shopkeeper Magolor holding the Gem Apple sapling and giving the viewer a thumbs-up, saying “That’s right! Spin-off games have canon in ‘em! It’s all over for you lore bitches!”

-Magolor happily lifting Kirby by the hands via Helper mode

-a large human hand squeezing a frightened and very unhappy-looking Magolor

-Magolor smiling smugly while the RtDL gang (off-screen save for their hands) all point their weapons at him (see the Knife Cat meme)

-Magolor showing Marx a Gem Apple, a look of wonder in the jester’s eyes

-Magolor weeping and clutching his head as a pair of large hands reminiscent of his Soul form loom around him, ready to grab

-Shopkeeper Magolor smiling with his hands together, an arrow pointing at him reading “no longer evil :)”

-Magolor (in his tattered gray outfit), first standing neutrally, then looking down at his hands, then shrugging with his eyes shut, saying “Oh, well. Time to learn nothing.”

-Shopkeeper Magolor showing off a Gem Apple to the viewer, saying “This apple cured my sociopathy! Imagine what it could do for you!”

-Magolor and Marx sitting back-to-back on the floor, the former fixing a pocket watch with a screwdriver, the latter propped up on his side watching a Minecraft let’s play on a purple childproof tablet; Mags says, “So, anyway, that’s how I lost everything to a baby, went to hell, fought my demons, and ultimately grew as a person.” Marx responds in disinterest, “Uh huh, sure, buddy.”

-Magolor winking at the viewer with a hand on his chest, saying “Of course I have a heart. Several, in fact! In really nice glass jars.”

-Magolor and Marx holding hands (er, well, Mags holding the end of Marx’s hat like a hand), facing away from each other, looking flustered and nervous; an arrow points at them reading “Shhh… they’re on their first date

-Marx smiling innocently at the viewer, eyes shut, one tooth peeking out, waving the end of his hat; an arrow points at him reading “causes problems on purpose”

-Magolor looking at something off-screen, a hand over his eyes as if to block the sun

-a tear in the background shaped eerily like a smile, a goopy drip connecting top and bottom, a blank red eye in the center peering out from within

[indieyuugure]

Now that we're entering into 2024, I'm asking some artists and writers that I follow:

1) What is the one piece you're most proud of from this past year?

2) What are some pieces that you would have liked more people to see? If you can include links, I'd love to go check them out!

3) What were your top three favorite pieces (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

(As always, no pressure to respond! Feel free to just ignore, or let me know if you'd rather I not send you these kinds of asks in the future.)

Sure, why not!

1-I’m by far the most proud of Rise of the Parallel. I’ve never made a complete comic like that before, and while there are several single drawings that I’m really proud of, I think ROTP takes the cake!

2-I don’t read a ton of fanfic(I feel like I barely have the time) but the ones I did read this year that really were so under appreciated were probably Zapped, which is a 2012 human-tmnt fic on Fanfiction.net by CelandineGranger; Black and Red/TMNT Dimension M, which is a future AU on tumblr by @zibanitu6969; Brainworm AU, which is a 2012 tmnt AU on tumblr by @cupcakeslushie

3-My favorite pieces others have made this year were probably, Duct Tape AU by @somerandomdudelmao, they dropped the idea, but it’s still absolutely fantastic and I actually really love it; basically all things made by @ezgurple because I would literally die for their art and comics, here’s one for example

Some others that I fell like didn’t fit into either category but are still super good are @truths33k3r4 AU fic, @gomengo50 AU art, and @linkeduniverse comics(Legend of Zelda, not TMNT)

And I think that’s my entire tumblr feed this past year 🙃

Good questions! :]

(Sorry if some of you didn’t wanna be mentioned)

[gammarailgun]

so this is a bit random for my blog but ive been dredging up my old magic the gathering hyperfixation because of friendgroups that play EDH and i had some random thoughts

ive always clicked weirdly well with the red/white color pairing but the reasons have shifted over time

and ive had this nagging brainworm that

magic as a whole is doing RW wrong.

allow me to explain

fair warning: this is going to get a bit political, a bit philosophical, and very strongly informed by who i am as a person

so

the core axiom here is that human nature in the absence of external factors is inherently good and altruistic. we know this because we are social creatures, and the fundamental basis of early social structures is coming together for mutual benefit. oppressive systems and harsh upbringings can and do quash this in favor of learned hostility and abusiveness but that core is always there. it’s why redeeming the villain is such a common fictional trope - if it wasn’t possible to change and grow and deconstruct learned harmful behaviors we wouldn’t write about it nearly as much now would we

magic as an ur-setting recognizes this to some extent. we see snippets of the kindness of strangers in Innistrad even amidst the horrors and the distrust and the paranoia, we see the selfless unity against the Eldrazi on zendikar drawing in all five colors of the pie, we see countless other examples throughout the planes

now, what does this axiom mean in the context of the color philosophies of red and white?

simple

red and white are not enemies at all

red is about freedom and impulsivity and emotion

white is about peace and justice and selflessness

both of those are deeply emotional, deeply raw, deeply human ideas!!

and the intersection of those ideas isn’t a controlling power structure, it’s compassion

and compassion is hardly oppositional - it’s cooperative and synthesistic by its very nature, it’s a harmonization of what those two colors are!

now admittedly this is where my perspective as an audhd trans girl comes in. i’m someone that the world’s power structures reject, someone that doesnt fit the status quo, someone who’s constantly shoved into boxes that i don’t fit by people more powerful than me. and i have kind of a thing for the color aesthetic of Boros, so trying to turn something i like aesthetically into something that meshes with and permits and supports who i am is a reasonable bias to assume

but i still feel like there’s a core truth to be considered here

games are a form of art; there’s plenty of evidence i think that the people making Magic realize this. but that drags in the corollary that all art is political. all art says something about the world, about the systems we live in. and what does the Boros say? that combining the philosophies of freedom and selflessness is a contradiction and leads to yet another oppressive power structure. it’s a subtly anti-revolutionary, status-quo perspective that could be done far better

more importantly, it’s eschewing that compassion

boros is a police state and a military structure, one that exists to enforce rules and make demands and enact violence

it’s not an institution of compassion

and frankly no top-down power structure can be, not at a systematic level

so, what would doing red-white right look like in my view?

pretty simple: it would be a bottom-up portrayal of the color pair. one where the defiance of red and the justice of white stand in opposition to an existing power structure, one where the righteous fury of the downtrodden feeds into both colors’ fundamental natures and binds them together

so uh

yeah

thank you for coming to my ted talk

okay so a couple final disclaimers

- the last time i seriously caught up with mtg lore was around Magic Origins, with sporadic involvement stretching out to Guilds Of Ravnica. i’m not terribly familiar with any of the expressions of RW since then, and i’m mostly focused on the lens of Boros specifically because they’re the faction that got me into the color pair. if there have since been counterexamples i will gladly accept infodumps, new blorbos to build TTS EDH decks around are always welcome (winota my beloved) (the cat ears,,, 🥺🥺🥺). this also extends to my understanding of magic’s development and philosophy as a whole, so if it seems like arguing from a Magic-cultural context that’s several years behind the curve uhhh yeah that’s probably why

- i’ll admit i’m not tremendously well-read in terms of firsthand literature in terms of leftist/anarchist theory, queer theory, or Magic’s color philosophies, and so most of my information is secondhand - if i’ve grossly misunderstood something feel free to explain (although if you’re going to be a TERF in the reblogs about it you can kindly go shit yourself)

- i mean no ill will and make no particular demands or anything towards the writers themselves who came up with boros or the ideas they’ve expressed through the faction/color-identity; it takes a certain perspective to notice these things and assuming people will just Get It is unreasonable, and i’m not here to like. Annoyingly Insist that the game i have a tangentialhyperfixation on conform to My Vision Of What It Should Be

and uhhh yeah! trans rights are human rights, free palestine, and wishing all capitalists a very fuck you!

sierra out, roll credits

[chipped-chimera]

There's a fire in her eyes, and a city ready to burn.

Watch me accidentally draw screenshot parallels to the Cyberpunk teaser trailer that gave me brainworms for this game since before it was even out hahahaha

Finished those eyes I was talking about (after a very inconvinent power outage right in the middle) for my V and I'm super happy with them! Working on her tatt means I've been thinking about backstory and making myself sad and her choice of optics and replacing her 'ganic eyes were kind of a big lore thing so I wanted to give them a personal touch.

I was trying to ride the very fine line between obviously fake but still organic enough that they might pass as only slightly modified at first glance. Inspo for these was actually thinking back to piercing stores I’ve been in and the jewellery I like, which is usually anything with a synthetic opal in it. This took a stupid amount of passes despite eyes taking very little time for me to make, just trying to hit that exact right middle point. A lot of this is excessive blending of opal and iris textures + effects plus some hand painting.

MASSIVE credit to Kala for her Pupil Glow Ring Eyes which I used as a base for my personal edit!

Now I just gotta make sense of the unique eyes framework myself so I can make more than just overrides ... [Edit: CRACKED HOW IT WORKS HAHA! Think I'd been reading it with jello brain or something before I guess]

[no-where-new-hero]

If I may, I would absolutely love a commentary on a following paragraph from "A Dream of The Woodland" (let me just say the whole story is absolutely stunning! I love it! I, unfortunately, haven't read your "Tale of Nine Tailed" fanfics yet, because I need to watch the series first. But thank you so much for sharing your stories):

The paragraph:

“Yes,” said Valancy, and it was as how she had said everything else that evening: with faith and belief in him, and certainty of her own choice. It felt momentous—almost a bit religious. He stepped closer and took her cold hands over the top of the gate, wishing he had something to offer. He remembered the soft, lifeless touch of Ethel’s hands as he pushed the ring on her finger, but Valancy’s fingers wrapped around his hands, responsive and sincere. She had asked him not to pretend—and yet he felt even more vulnerable than if he could have gained refuge in the pretense of passion as he said,

“Of course I’m not in love with you—never thought of such a thing as being in love. But, do you know, I’ve always thought you were a bit of a dear.”

Thank you in advance!!! Please, don't feel pressed for time, I'd be happy to receive your commentary anytime!

Thank you so much for the ask!! I love talking about my work lol and I’m glad you picked this part from “A Dream of the Woodland!” So much of what went into that story was very subconscious, so I could never really pick one thing to talk about, but this section probably had more conscious thought than most.

First of all—hands. LMM frequently uses them to signal emotion, and I always enjoy using them to show character, and I draw on both here. All throughout the beginning of this fic, Barney has been comparing Valancy to Ethel, and what you’re supposed to infer, of course, is that Valancy comes out superior, a mature and equal wife for Barney’s own maturity. But in this part, I try to make it most overt. Of course now, Ethel is just a ghost to Barney, part of his own dead past, but I wanted to suggest here that even while he was living through it, there was something kind of dead about her. He could never have built a happy life with a woman like that.

“…wishing he had something to offer.” I admit I stole this (unconsciously, I think, but I very much see the parallel now) from the very last scene of the 1995 Little Women where Professor Bhaer, in his stumbling proposal to Jo, says “I have nothing to give you, my hands are empty.” Jo, then, takes his hand and says, “Not empty now,” and I think that’s such a beautiful way to think of love? That giving yourself to the other person is the real treasure? Barney is still thinking materially, a holdover of his upbringing, but of course all Valancy wants is him. She grasps onto him in return, an active participant in this moment of touch, as opposed to Ethel who—as a “good” and unloving and utterly boring girl—refuses to react at all.

As for him wishing to gain pretense in lying…you know, sometimes it’s easier to be hyperbolic. The Barney in this scene is very much still shedding off the false chivalry of his youth. For him to tell Valancy the truth—to say she’s “a dear” and that he never thought of loving her (even though, in this moment, he might be starting to) is harder than a grand declaration of passion. Not that Barney would really prefer that. But it would be familiar, and he badly needs something reliable in this topsy-turvey evening!

Thanks again for sending this in! If you have any more, please send them my way (and certainly so after you've seen TotNT and read the result of my brainworms about it lol)!

DVD Commentary for Fanfic Ask

[tartppola]

Fine day, if I may leave a message (that I wish shall lift the sides of your lips for today), I would like to say,

YOUR SILVER AND YUULIS COMICS ARE SO!!!! DCRUMPTIOUS I AM SO EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN IT ESPECIALLY THEM AS KIDS ITS SO ❤️😭 that i wanna go cROOWWOmpCHustomMMRP (I tries making it slubd like the sound im making rn and im not sure if its fallin thru) BUT YEAH I LOVE IT

Especially like,,, lilia and your yuu??? I wanna see more from them honestly the dynamic is so funny like its just the rhing youll take out to get a good laugh on before going on to the rest of your day + your yuu is just so interesting in general that i wanna know more of them and their syory in general and plus,, your art????

Your art is so cute, irs simple, sure but i can see it, the absolute hardwork in it and how it feels so special that when i see it, i know its yours and not anyone else??? Bc its kind of ingrained in a way plus it looks so,, warm? And nice i cant explain it eloquently enough rn mb mb 😭 but i hope the sincerity and genuinity comes through plus how dare you make me so invested in ace + deuce+ yuu so much more like?????? I can't believe youve done this to me and now w how much im invested bc each time i see your artwork of those three (+ grim) its now lowkey ngl my oasis in a scorching desert because i barely see content for them and stuff so now when i see your work i just go !!!!OHHHH!!! Whooooahh!!! Or just :) its them! (Cue me kicking my feet later about it when i think about it)

Oh and if i remember righr??? YOUR KALIM COMIC!! i think its the first one i saw from you the hiwagang ganda(?) Or somrthing where kalim just goes ... wow... while seeing yuu in a crowd and stuff its so cute and everything began falling for me there bc then you began hunting my recommendations feed and im so glad you did thank you, blessed, tskr, and I hope you have a nice day and everytime you finish a drawing you will always smile and feel content

And also i think i recall a post from you making a copypasta(?) Of lyrics and that was so weirdly funny in a way that for the next weeks of it, whenever i think of it i just smile like,,,?? AHHAHA but anyways sleep well and tqke care od youtself and everything and sorry if i gave you a syroke w this 😭 (like the misspells and stuff)

AHSGSHHFKF omg!! sorry this took so ling to respond i get like super overwhelmed when i see big blocks of text but aaaaa tysm!!!!

i’m so honored that you feel that way about my art hhhabdkf ngl i haven’t been able to do more than doodles as of late cus of college + zines but im so glad you still like my silly littol doodles uhuhuhu

i’m also glad that you’ve taken a liking to my guy yuulis uhuhehdhf theyre just my silly little guy! NOT GONNA LIE.....they don’t have that much lore HAHDHAHHDD ( only like super close oomfs know their lore 👁👁 ) but I do have a separate canon divergent version of ch.7 where I hamfist Yuulis lore into it HAGDHAHAHA but I want to see how ch.7 goes first before finalizing it.

and also aaa i’m so glad you like the Young Silver + Lilia comics! they’ve been such a comfort to draw and think about lately hhgrhg

AND IM ESPECIALLY GLAD IVE INFECTED U WITH THE ADEUYUU BRAINWORMS EHHEHEAAAARGHH Ace and Deuce compared to other characters are already so,, so hard to find individually,,,ITS ALSO EVEN HARDR TO FIND STUFF OF THEM AS A COLLECTIVE UUUHUHUHU,,, i’ll definitely draw them more!

[keithhoward]

Five Comfort Characters, Five Tags

tagged by: @ofthepuzzle​ ty!!

DANSE. The brainworms are so deep that I have to literally restrain myself from listening to a recent podcast his character was featured in because I know it will wreak a havoc on my mindscape that can’t be wreaked right now. He literally sparks so much joy and I made a lot of wonderful friends in the fandom through him. What can I say, I just really love asshole characters that have a massive fall from grace. And also have beefy arms and stubble.

GLaDOS. My wife who is mean to me. Honestly the entire game of Portal is just a huge source of comfort for me, any time I’m stressed or just having any kind of block I usually end up booting it up and running through the whole first game. After all these years GLaDOS never fails to make me laugh, and even though I don't play the second game as much (because it takes longer then 45min to play lol), I love how you get to work with her and have your bad breakup with her at the end.

Princess Carolyn. I think for the rest of my life I'm going to have her in my head going "You need to get your shit together!" She hit insanely home with me and devastated me to my core, and I would've rioted if she didn't have a happy ending.

Patrick Bateman. Don't worry about it.

Regan and Snowy, from my mind. I didn't want to use OCs for more than one point so I'll lump them here lol. Regan is my Fallout 3 Lone Wanderer but she has other iterations, including a YGO one. The YGO version is kind of shallow and just for fun but her OG version is very rich and a little personal at times too. Snowy is a Digimon OC, and currently is getting a Pokemon version so I can write her more, as both her Digimon iterations ended up having their stories cut short. I probably commission them the most nowadays lol, I find them both so fun to write and draw and get drawn.

tagging: @bad-decision-central, @chronicparagon, @mutogamingco, @redeyesblackjou, @ofanswerssought

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Messed-Up Rescue.

This way!

*Kaede, Kuripa and their combined forces make a mad dash down the hallway, avoiding and battling as many Monokuma’s that come their way as possible. Eventually, they reach Ando’s lab, shut tight by a large steel door.

Three...Two...One...

HAAGH!

*CRAAASSH!*

AAGH!?

*Kaede and Kuripa simultaneously ram into the door with their weapons, blowing it off it’s hinges.

Kaede!

Shuichi!

Nrgh...!

*With many Monokuma’s in the room with him, who square off with the Future Foundation, Ando grabs a vial, uncaps it, and runs over to Kyoko.

!!??

*squeal!*

*The brainworm writhes around in his hand and shriekes violently, as he holds it close to Kyoko’s face.

Take another step, and I’ll use her as my own personal test subject, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!

Stop it Dr Ando. There’s no way I’m gonna let you-

Alright. Do it then.

do tha-whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

What!?

Huh!?

E-Excuse me!?

You wanna brainwash her? Go on! Do it! We’re waiting.

Soldier: S-Sir, what are you doing...!?

Kuripa...If you’re doing this just to screw around, you picked a very bad time...!

I-I’ll do it! I SWEAR I’LL DO IT!

Yeah, I WANT you to do it! Didn’t you say something about how these worms’ll bring us to the next stage of evolution or some bullshit? What kind of doctor are you if you can’t show the results?

I have no idea what it is you’re trying to pull here, but are you sure you want to do this...!?

Yeah, just...bare with me, I wanna see how it works!

I don’t think KYOKO wants to see how it works...!

No! I don’t!

Aren’t you guys supposed to be detectives? Patience; the more we know, the better.

Hehehehehaha...!

*Ando’s hand draws closer to Kyoko, the worm reaches out towards her.

I disagree!

So do I

Yeah, me too!

Aw come on. Where do you think he’s gonna slot it? The ear, the mouth or the nose?

Hahahahahahahaaah!

I...think the nose...

KAEDE!!?

Uggh...I sincerely hope this is part of the plan...!

Isn’t it always, ma’am?

A-Alright...I’ll do it...But drop your weapons!

Huh?

I said drop them!

So...if we drop our weapons, you’ll brainwash her...If we don’t, you won’t? I think you’ve got it backwards, doc.

I don’t think HE’S got it backwards. You’re the one who doesn’t seem to know what the word “rescue” means.

Akamatsu, please, I wanna test something...

Fine! Whatever...Do as he says.

*Kuripa drops his sword.

I...You heard him guys. Drop your weapons.

*Kaede and the soldiers all drop their own weapons as well.

HRAAGH!

*SHRIEEK!*

GRGH!

MRS KYOKO!

*Shuichi cries out, as Ando drops the parasite, which immediately jumps and slithers on Kyoko’s face and up her nose. It seems to explore her head, poking out of her ear and mouth.

UUUUHUUUUUGH! That’s so GRIM!

*As the parasite corrupts Kyoko, Ando takes the other vials off the shelf and packs them neatly into a suitcase container, while the Monokuma’s draw in on the unarmed Future Foundation.

Hey...I wanna try something...Here’s the plan...

...?

*Kuripa whispers in Kaede’s ear as Ando finishes preparing.

My survival down here is integral to Zetsubou’s future...And I know I cannot keep you away from me for long, Future Foundation...That’s why I’m going to give you a choice...!

Fine by me. So long as one of the options is KICKING YOUR ASS...!

Grrrrrr!

Hm...How about...Capture me or...

Save your LOVER! HAH!

*PTOOOM!*

*SHRIIEEEK!*

AAAAAAAGH!

*Ando carries his case towards the door, taking a two devices out of his pocket. He throws one towards Shuichi and Kyoko, and one towards the Future Foundation. Upon impact, they explode and dispense multiple parasites, which immediately wriggle towards their targets. As soon as he lobs the bombs, he rushes out of the lab and down the hallway.

AKAMATSU! NOW!

HYAAGH!

*FWOOOOM!*

*Kaede recalls her spear, then switches it into Hacker Mode. She aims downwards towards the parasites and fires a Burn Bullet at them. Upon impact, the parasites disintegrate into ash.

Holy crap, that worked!

Yes! Haha! “Kill it with fire” always works!

*Kuripa dives through the Monokumas and retrieves his sword.

DAAUGH!

GAAGH!

HOOAAAGH!

*Kaede and Kuripa slash and blast their way through the surrounding enemies. The soldiers with them also start tackling the black and white bears and laying waste to them, some grabbing their weapons and blasting them through the head.

HEY! I need some HELP HERE!

HRAGH!

*FWOOOOM!*

Phew...!

*At Shuichi’s shout, Kaede spins round and fires another burn bullet towards the parasites closing on Shuichi, which also disintegrate into ash.

Hmph...!

GUGGH! Hah...haaah...

*With the Monokuma’s all dealt with, Kuripa strides over to Kyoko, reaches into her mouth and forcefully pulls the parasite out of her system. She chokes from the motion, but Kuripa throws the worm on the ground and stamps on it, ending it’s life. He and Kaede then work to untie the captive detectives.

You ok Bosswife?

I’d be better if my head didn’t hurt so much. 

Yeah, sorry about that. So, what’s it like being brainwashed? Even if it was just for a few seconds.

Kuripa, I don’t know if you’re genuinely curious, or if you get some sort of delightful, twisted joy in torturing me.

Why would you ever think that?

Shuichi, are you alright?

Yeah, I-I’m ok...Just had a bit of a fright is all.

Hey...Muffin? Next time we’re in a situation like this, how about you kill all the Monokuma’s, AFTER you rescue me?

*Kaede rests her forehead against Shuichi’s as she hugs him.

Hehe...A little “thank you” would have been nice~

Not to butt in, but I’d appreciate it if you two could hold off on the flirting until we get out of this place.

All things considered, I think that went pretty well. We’ve rescued you two, and hopefully, Munakata should have arrived at the bomb room by now.

Then I guess there’s only one thing left to do.

Right...

*Kuripa turns to the soldiers.

We have any casualties?

Soldier: Negative sir. All Monokuma units have been dealt with.

Good. Grab your weapons. Let’s find that doctor!

[lordarsonizzzzt]

I think we did and I absolutely adore it!! Also, consider, Gears expressing himself in subtle ways. He finds a little lapel pin in the shape of a spider, and he wears it when he gets lunch with Julian. Julian comments on the pin, and Charles thanks him, saying it made him think of the spider he now kept in a little terrarium. Charles ends up talking about spiders, which he read about religiously within the first few months of Finn being there, and became an interest of his. Julian stares at him in absolute fascination.

“Sorry, am I… I got off track.”

“No, it’s great! I’ve… never seen you this passionate. It’s a good look on you.”

Charles pauses for several long seconds, mind mulling over those words.

“Thank you.”

They become friends, writing emails back and forth whenever Julian is away on long missions. And as time passes, Charles healing by little slivers, rebuilding himself like a spider re-weaves its web, they fall in love.

There’s a sort of balance between them, a give and take. Charles keeps Julian grounded when that old rage wells up in him, and Julian coaxed Charles back into reality when he disassociates.

They’re not the same people they were when they met— it’s plain to see. Charles’ grown his hair out a bit and shows emotion, and Julian is more muscular and scarred from his adventures. They’re not the same, but they’ve changed for the better. Even when they’re not together, Julian smiles whenever he sees a spider, and Charles leaves site 19 to see the sunset as much as he can.

I’m obsessed with them, your honor

-Brainworm anon

im sobbing im going to draw about this when i wake up and when im done with other rqst, BUT GOD FVHEARJUHIG and Charles just infodumping on Julian about spiders??? I can see Julian just looking at this man with love eyes while he talks about spiders eating their preys in the most graphic way and everyone around is grossed out but him

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Venomous Teachings au: The Underworld Duo

Talking more about this au bc I’ve got brainworms, so I’m starting off talking about my blorbos: Garmadon and Nya

So Nya is captured by the Skulkin like in cannon, and she’s taken to the Underworld.

After a few days, she gets a visit from the man behind the Skulkin, Wu masquerading as the Dark Lord Garmadon. He’s wearing a mask and a big cloak and has something that changes his voice, so she doesn’t recognize him as the weird old man who came by the blacksmith shop just before the Skulkin attacked.

He says some ominous stuff, telling Nya that she won’t be harmed, he just needs something from her brother, and then she’ll be released. Nya gets pissed, yelling at him to stay away from Kai, and when Wu ignores her and turns away to leave, she throws her shoe at him, knocking his mask off and recognizing Wu.

This pisses him off immensely, and he then tells her that she will never leave the Underworld now, but he isn’t going to kill her yet bc she might be useful with something. He Samukai to have her locked up deep in the Skulkin’s base, and then he leaves.

While being moved from where she’s being held, Nya is rescued by Garmadon in a Skulkin ‘disguise’, which is just a big cloak and a kinda crappy mask. It’s very effective.

He has one for her to wear, and the two are able to make it to a rather run-down Skulkin vehicle that Garmadon stole years ago and escape.

They make it back to Garmadons ‘home’, which is a cave, where Nya learns what’s really going on; the weird 6′10″ man-cat that just saved her is the real Garmadon, they guy who kidnapped her is his evil little brother Wu, and the fate of the world rests on Wu not getting ahold of the Golden Weapons that Garmadon hid years ago

When Garmadon realizes who Nya’s parents are, he realizes that Wu went after the siblings bc he needed Kai to get the Sword of Flame, and Nya was probably taken to give him a reason to help Wu

Nya immediately wants to get back to Ninjago to shove her other shoe up Wu’s butt, but there’s a small issue.

The only way to move between the Underworld and Ninjago is with one of the Skulkins vehicles, but the one that Garm stole had that part severely broken, and he hasn’t been able to figure out how to fix it. The fact it was broken was why it was so easy for him to steal it in the first place.

With Nya’s help and mechanical talent, they get the vehicle fixed

After one year

During this year, Garmadon is helping Nya master her elemental powers, teaching her Spinjitzu, combat, survival skills, how to cheat at poker, etc. The two wind up growing close during this time, forming a familial relationship. But while all this is happening, Nya is...changing, in an unexpected way

((I gave Garm a new outfit bc 1) it looked weird to me to have him not change when I was drawing these and 2) I gave him and Nya some of each others colors to symbolize them having formed a bond))

I’ll go into more detail about these lore changes in a future post, but while most Elemental lines started with the First Spinjitzu Master gifting elemental powers to certain trusted humans, Wind and Water come from being direct, physical descendants of Wojira.

Much like Garmadon, being in the Underworld for an extended period of time started to bring Nya’s not-human heritage to the surface. If either of them were normal humans, being stuck in the Underworld for a long period of time would have slowly killed them.

Neither of them know any of this, and both think its some form of corruption from the dark energies in the Underworld. For now.

Anyway, the two are eventually able to get back to Ninjago, but due to their changes and Garmadons unearned infamy, they have to cobble together some...interesting disguises

If anyone asks, they just say they’re uncle and niece, and that a rare skin condition runs in the family.

Nya pretends that her horns are a part of her headband.

The hat does nothing, Garmadon just thought it completed the look.

But, the first thing they do is head to where Garmadon hid the Map to the Golden Weapons to try and make sure it doesn’t fall into his hands. They have their first confrontation with Wu’s ninja team there, but that’s for another post.

[missbonekitty]

twisted wonderland chapter 6 stuff

so i and some friends had brainworms earlier today talking about chapter 6

these are not all my thoughts/theories

  THERE’s A LOT OF RAMBLING AND HEAVY THEORYCRAFTING, SERIOUS BRAINROTTING AND GOING DEEP INTO SOME ANGST AND MENTIONS OF DEATH.

so please read at your own discretion.

 CHAPTER 6 SPOILERS AHEAD

and a lot of what if’s

so basically Idia saying that the “Subjects” Charon had come to collect were actual people, not phantoms, and were capable of reasoning (paraphrasing bc i dont have the exact quotes) so they should be more careful/gentle.

Phantoms are most likely the creatures that we see behind those who OB. We know that STYX is an organization that’s dedicated to studying Overblots and we know that they collect mages who have Overblotted, Leona saying that those they take rarely come back. But I think that htey also usually only take mages who are probably still in the midst of an OB or haven’t recovered/have lasting effects. Hence why they rarely come back. (i bring up why i think they took the recovered students further on)

But what if phantoms, like the one we see in the dwarf mines, are the results of mages who were taken over completely by Overblot. They were never disconnected/torn away from the phantom (which, in the fights at least, almost seem like they’re puppeteering the mage its attached to) so they become one with/are absorbed by it.

Still alive within it, to an extent, but no longer have their own will.

---

This ties into a huge brainworm that I got about what may have happened to OG Ortho.

I was re-reading Ortho’s card/personal stories and there are a lot of little asides and things he or Idia say that clearly hint towards a medical thing with OG Ortho.

I think it’s Ortho’s alchemy uniform card? Where Idia forgot that he gave him a small arm that could get into narrow spaces (he was fixing/taking apart something.)

Idia: ...what was I trying to do, giving you all of these different functions. There’s not even any reason for those cutting-edge medical tools at this point...

Idia: I mean... I mean, originally I was...

Think it’s the same card with Ortho going out and tending to Silver’s sprained ankle. He has immediate access to (not including that he has a 3d printer on him) bandages, disinfectant, gauze, etc.

So I started wondering if maybe the original reason for the robot that is now Ortho was like.. a medical bot for OG Ortho, who I know a lot of people headcanon as having been probably frail or sickly (I heard that there might be mention that Idia and Ortho couldnt go outside much? I haven’t looked for it yet) so I FEEL like that’s a possibility given all of the medical tools built into him, and also the fact that Idia was very.. weird about it when he talked about it. Ortho also, after Idia says the above, immediately tries to cheer him up and tell him to not think about it.

  (Also, despite Silver only having a sprained ankle, Ortho is extremely worried and tells him this.

Ortho: You may be sick in ways that you haven’t even realized yet, and if you don’t attack them now it could be too late.)

Which made me think that he could be referencing what may have happened to OG Ortho. told you i was deep in the brainworms.

  ---

  Then of course there’s the theory thread that OG Ortho may have Overblotted and didn’t survive.

Which... got the brainworms going again.

What if.....

(if Phantoms are the creatures/manifestations that we see behind mages who are currently in Overblot and seem to be puppeteering them since i touched on this up above)

...what if OG Ortho Overblotted somehow back then, but they didn’t know how to stop it or separate him, and he was absorbed into the Phantom. Perhaps OG Ortho isn’t actually “dead”.

  And S.T.Y.X., a company run by/created by(?) Idia’s family is so fixated on studying mages who have Overblotted because they’re trying to find a way to save/remove him from the Phantom. They’ve taken/kidnapped all of the students who have Overblotted and survived and are normal again.

  Which then lead into me being like what if (if Idia is the one who ends up Overblotting at the end of Chapter 6) they try experimenting on OG Ortho’s Phantom to try to draw him back out but something goes wrong, and the Phantom disappears without OG Ortho being able to be removed.. effectively meaning they lose him.. again. I think that would make Idia OB.

  I went full angst and SERIOUS THEORYCRAFTING ON A CRAZY LEVEL.

Like.. the horror of 5 year old Ortho having been still “alive” for 11 years, but trapped/absorbed inside of an Overblot phantom,only existing that way.

...

I need all of this to not be true, I want Ortho to be okay and I want Idia to be okay. and I’m positive that the students will be fine.

 take all of this with the biggest fucking grain of salt because i’m desperate for more lore and i want to know what the fuck is happening/happened in the past and also i was exhausted when i was thinking about all of this. NO SLEEP THEORYCRAFTING :)

[narastories]

one reason why thurston niles is evil and one reason why he’s really not that bad

I do like some fictional guys with questionable morals, okay? And I would never defend them and state that they are half-decent just misunderstood people. However, I like to study where and how they draw their crooked little lines in the sand. It especially helps when I blorbofy them and write fanfic so. Niles.

The big bad industrialist of Sunder City who seduces people with technology so they turn away from magic and give up the hope of it ever coming back. Exploits the disaster that befell the world to fill his own pockets. Hendricks thought him threat enough to go to extreme measures although that whole thing is very complicated and I’m not opening that can of worms today.

There’s also some social commentary in there about guns which I also won’t walk into since I have never set foot in the US. But fact is the Niles brothers went to Victor and they didn’t care about his better inventions, they just wanted to mass-produce his guns. And when Victor said no, Thurston made him work for his company anyways a la mob style.

On top of that he’s actively trying to erase the past and manipulate public opinion by framing past events in certain ways. Fake history and firearms. Yikes. Yes, he is pretty vile.

At the same time, he’s also not. that. bad.

The thing is, the Niles Company isn’t Mortales. I think it’s very interesting how this was pointed out in the last book when Fetch saw the Mortales logo on the buzzer at Larry’s house. Obviously, he still thought it’s practically the same, he just has two enemies now, but Fetch is also a bit of a dummy.

@nijinskys made a brilliant list about potential things in book 4 including General Taryn as an overarching villain and the more I think about it the more I like that idea. Especially for Niles lol

I think Fetch often confuses Niles’s views with the Human Army’s views.  And yes that’s partially Hendricks’s fault and partially just Fetch being Fetch and seeing everything in black and white and swinging from one extreme to the other like a pendulum.

Yeah, Niles doesn’t want the old world back. He cares about profit so he doesn’t want magic back and he doesn’t want his kind to be handicapped again. At the same time he has no ideological issue with magic. He employs Magum and he treats them decently. Or if he doesn’t it’s not because they are Magum but because they are in his way and did I say he’s not really taking no for an answer? Pressure-tactics and torture, anyone?

I recently watched the latest season of Peaky Blinders so I have to make the comparison that Mortales are the Nazis and Niles is “just” the mob boss.

I think it would be very interesting if Fetch had to confront Mortales and Niles turned out to be the lesser evil. Maybe they even formed a reluctant alliance, that would be yummy. they could also kiss a little as a treat just my opinion

Anyway, those are my brainworms, if anyone has anything to add, please feel free and if for some reason someone wants to read Niles bending Fetch over a desk I actually wrote that whoops