#i love being consistent by drawing the same pose constantly

[baoxie]

you ache and tug. you rip my skin

[tw1nkee28]

No one asked for this, but I really needed to infodump about him to someone or I was gonna go insane.

˙⋆✮ Info about my CoD oc, 'Dawn'! ✮⋆˙

⚠️Warning!⚠️ There will be a lot of words and one image containing (mild) nudity below the cut. (A shirtless man, in case you are uncomfortable with such)

The first image is a reference for the finer details of his character such as his hairstyle, his facial details like his nose and eyes, and his major scars.

The second image is more of how I envisioned his body type, but I struggle with consistency and being able to convey some bodies in different angles and intricate poses.

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These are just some drawings I've made of his character as I was developing him.

While he is a rather calm individual, being stoic and silent most of the time, he does still get rather angry on the inside. Which is what I was trying to convey in the first image.

He respects his peers and superiors, but when they do legitimately stupid shit, he can and will rock their shit depending on how bad it was.

I've included this in his lore before but I am too nervous to share some of the finer details of his lore and will only be vaguely referencing it, sorry ☹️🫶

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I made a janky, very brief timeline of his career above.

Now, I haven't filed through complete details so some things such as his rank and experience in the field may or may not be entirely accurate with the time he was working especially since I made his character on the fly and did little to no research at first. Only now am I actually trying to expand his character and lore and am realizing I did not do nearly enough research. Most of this is just what I thought sounded nice at first.

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More in-detail information below ↓

Name: Julius Harper Aliases: Dawn, 7-28

Nationality: Filipino Ethnicity: Eastern Asian

Age: 32 DoB: June 19, 1992

Pronouns: He/Him Gender: Cis Man Sex: M

Sexuality: Unlabeled, prefers men

Height: 6'2

Languages: Tagalog, English, FSL (Filipino sign language, for Dusk)

Which CoD universe: Modern Warfare (ii)

Branches of Service: Marine Corps

Affiliation: Shadow Company

Specialities: hand to hand, a variety of front line infantry skills, long range, basic first aid

Personality: usually grumpy and quiet. switches between sassy, rude, and teasing(towards close people) and quiet, obedient, and stoic. He's technically a strong and silent type around most people, usually very distrusting and distant. He's very good at following orders unless they're outright stupid, then he'll put up a fight about them.

Backstory: (my attempt at being brief, sorry🙏) given to an (underground) training organization with unconventional training methods at a young age, was tortured and ridiculed for disobeying (his scars on his face and chest🫶), escaped with force when he was 17(nearly 18). Had to travel by himself to the US and rely on strangers to get him there (no money in his name).

Eventually joined the Marines at 20, met Dusk (his Colonel). Blah blah blah, went up the ranks. At 28 he dragged Dusk out of the field half exploded and left the Marines soon after Dusk did. Joined Shadow Company 🫶

Issues: PTSD, nightmares, paranoia, nervous at being touched randomly

Habits: never takes off his mask unless he's REALLY comfortable, sleeps with it on more often than not. Hovers close to people he likes cause he doesn't like to reach out and touch people, settling on subtle hands on shoulders or light brushes of skin. Watches and evaluates anyone and everyone in the same room as him, constantly searching for any red flags or threats.

Scars: One over each eye (resembling clown markings)

One running over his bottom lip and down his chin.

One running from his collar bone to below his navel.

A mix of bullet, knife, and other scars from his field work scattered over his arms and hands.

Preferred method of showing care/affection/love language: acts of service, quality time, ("secretly") physical touch.

Preferred way of receiving care/affection: words of affirmation, physical touch

Eye Color: left eye pale yellow with brown center, right eye green with yellow center. has heterochromia

Hair description: short and dusty brown with two streaks of early greying. Two long pieces in front of either ear, short in the back.

Clothing description: SC Uniform - beige tactical vest stocked with red and yellow(ish) glow sticks(?, I forgot the actual name for it), roll of thin rope, and three mags. Black, long-sleeve zip-neck shirt with the shadow company insignia on the sleeve. Black balaclava, black helmet and goggles with attachable headphones connected to comms. Black tactical cargo pants, black belt with two storage pouches attached at either side of his hips, and a right handed gun holster. Very dark brown/black combat boots.

Not in uniform - form fitting short-sleeve shirts and jeans most of the time. Occasionally switching it up for loose shirts when his compression shirts feel too tight and strangling for a casual day. He wears belts to at least make it seem like he cares about his outfits, even though he doesn't really put effort. Picking up whatever dark colored shirts and jeans he can find and calling it a day most of the time.

Body description: well-built Filipino man with hooded eyes. He has a bit of stubble along his jaw, forgetting to shave often. Freckles are speckled over his face, arms, neck and shoulders, and legs. Body hair over his chest, arms, and legs mainly. Occasionally lets other Shadows paint his nails when they ask (requests black but can't say no if they choose another) so sometimes has painted nails.

Favorite activities: sitting outside with nature, playing guitar, going to the bar with Dusk to spend time and catch up, reteaching Dusk guitar

Blood type: O

Favorite animal(s): Cats, snakes, birds in general

Favorite food/dessert: Pork Adobo, Graves' cooking (it's his guilty pleasure at cookouts, you can't convince me that Graves doesn't sit at a grill making food for his Shadows for a cookout on an off day)

• born in Marawi City; Mindanao, Philippines

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He's generally like a big dog that doesn't realize it's own size, like a great Dane of sorts. Protective, loyal to a fault with aggressive tendencies towards those he doesn't know/trust. Silent and strong, unless he's with someone close to him (very few people in his original universe, maybe two people at most. Though I do headcanon him to be relatively close with the Shadows and Graves in my shadow company AU, being more welcoming with touch and close proximity but still acting grumpy like he doesn't want it, despite enjoying every brush or touch of skin to his.)

He enjoys his quiet time and regular meets up with an old friend of his, back from his Marine days, the both of them learning electric guitar and playing together sometimes to loosen up.

He's a workaholic all in all, not having many hobbies or activities out side of his work.

He lives at base, having been out on the streets before starting his career in the military.

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He earned his scars on his face and chest when he was about 16-17, fleeing his state as soon as he was nearing 18 (lore reasons that I'm too nervous to share with people) and living on the streets with a lengthy theft history until he joined the Marines at 20 years old. Where he met his previously mentioned 'old friend', his Colonel, call sign 'Dusk'.

His shadow company number is 7-28. No I did not do research on the actual numbers, I just chose random ones that sounded nice on my tongue. Plus 28 is like,,, my number, if you couldn't tell by my user.

If anyone understands the number system better and would like to help me out by correcting me, I would appreciate that very much. But for now, it is Shadow 7-28.

His lore and titles were developed before I put him in Shadow Company canonically, so shit like him being a Lieutenant and other things that would require him to have years and years of experience to get would be from his career in the Marines before then. I'm assuming he would have to start fresh since he joined a new company? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believeeee he'd have to start fresh with SC with things like titles.

He does still keep his old mask since Dusk helped him with it, but now he really only wears the shadow company uniform and gear. Swapping his plain black balaclava for his old one with the skull-like details when he's back at base relaxing.

Smaller details about him!! ↓

Favorite color - Green !!

Favorite activities - sitting outside with nature, playing guitar, going to the bar with his found-family Brother (Dusk) to spend time and catch up

Favorite animal - cats ! Specifically black cats (he feels they're misunderstood)

• HATES ships and deep water

• used to (attempt to) pick up stray cats he found on the streets and try to bring them home as a kid.

• doesn't like training new recruits but is always put in charge of training them because of his leadership skills. (This happened to me in band a long while back, apparently my teacher thought I was a 'silent leader' and was really good at leading others subconsciously even if I hated being a leader??? That's him, that's Dawn. Silent leader)

• has nightmares frequently

• will deny liking someone, going as far as saying he hates them even if as soon as they leave the room he smiles on the inside because, hey! Someone wants to be close to him! That's new!

• tried drawing once, it looked like a kids drawing. he never picked up a pencil to draw again

• has really nice handwriting?? Wtf???

• He's a lieutenant!!

• spent years training to be a sniper that he's now unnecessarily still and silent while working on smaller tasks that require even the slightest bit of focus such as paperwork.

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Info about 'Dusk' since he's a big part of their lore ↓

These are all the drawings I've done of him so far ↑

While I haven't gone deep into lore for him, I do have a few small facts about him that have played a part in Dawn's lore.

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• He is 6'3, standing only an inch taller than Dawn.

• he was Dawn's Colonel for most of their career before they joined Shadow Company.

• just before Dawn had left to join SC, Dusk had gotten caught too close to an explosion. Having been dragged back to the base by Dawn himself and after healing, was left with very little sight and hearing on his left side. He struggled to be able to do many tasks that he needed to be able to complete to keep his job afterwards and had to quit.

• he cut off his long hair after the explosion burned off a lot of his hair, being left with very little long hair left on his right side. He felt it looked odd and cut it off so it could regrow at its own pace. Some parts of his scalp on his left side having damaged the actual skin there making it very hard/impossible to regrow it in some patches.

• he started learning guitar before joining the military, having been the one who inspired Dawn to learn and having lent Dawn their first ever guitar.

• was the one who gave Dawn his callsign

• he's Filipino, one of the many traits he and Dawn bonded over

• acts as Dawn's older brother later on in their career together after years of knowing each other. He has two siblings at home while Dawn is an only child

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Fun fact! He was slightly based off of my older brother, named Dusk :)

While some parts of his character were based off of him, the name was surprisingly not, it just happened to match up with Dawn while I was making them 🫶

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If you couldn't tell, Dawn is my baby and my favorite OC. I love him very much and will probably expand on his lore and such at some point, but for now, this is what we have.

Thank you if you read all of this ❤️

[iraprince]

this might not be something you personally have difficulty with, but i was recently diagnosed with severe adhd and i was wondering if you had any tips regarding just like….drawing?? i have such a hard time getting started even though i usually end up feeling pretty stoked and happy with my work if i manage to get something down. i used to draw constantly as a kid to help me focus in class, but in my adult life i just feel like there are so many invisible barriers between myself and putting pencil to paper. i’m sure there are a lot of perfectionism issues involved as well, so i guess just any sort of advice in any of those areas would be greatly appreciated! your work is fantastic and i’m really grateful that you share adhd stuff as well!! have a great day! :o)

i actually have a LOT of difficulty with this -- i have more difficulty than i have advice, probably! but my advice always ends up boiling down to the same thing lately, and it sounds really hokey but i mean it as literally as possible bc it's the only thing that consistently works for me: be fucking nice to yourself!

for a long time the only solution i had to being Inexplicably Unable To Do Something was to yell at myself, bully myself, assume that i wasn't trying hard enough, and end up a miserable little ball of confusion and frustration. it was def worse before i was diagnosed, but it's definitely not gone (sometimes "i don't know why i can't just do it!" just gets replaced with "well, i know what the problem is, so why can't i find a way around it?!"). and after many many years of experience with the bullying reaction vs a much shorter time comparing this reaction to other, kinder approaches, i can say with a lot of confidence that handling it with internal yelling and shaming doesn't work, straight up. it's not helpful, and most of the time it makes things worse -- even if you manage to force yourself to complete a task once or twice like this, it's too exhausting and demoralizing to be sustainable. so, while you haven't mentioned frustration in your question, that's still where my mind goes as a first step: if you're experiencing distress or anger or embarrassment over running into those barriers over and over again, the first step is practicing being calm and forgiving, not immediately trying to find a way around it. once you hit the wall and you find you can calmly go "oh, okay! this isn't working. let's figure out why" instead of immediately launching into "what the fuck is WRONG with me????", finding solutions is a lot easier.

the times i've surprised myself by having things just suddenly Flow after a long period of struggling are usually brought about by a ton of excitement and enthusiasm! i get really into a rarepair and i'm gripped with the need to make my own content, or i make a new oc who i really love, or i get back into a piece of media i haven't touched in a while and get all charged up with excitement. you gotta feed the tank to make stuff, so setting time aside to consume stuff that inspires and excites you is just as important as setting the time aside to actually sit down and try to draw.

another thing that has helped me is trying to be really purposeful abt reminding myself WHY i draw; sometimes, especially since it's my job, the images i'm supposed to be making just turn into this big featureless stack of Tasks instead of me really thinking about + appreciating what i do and why i love it. when i'm in a rut with commissions, for example, sometimes before i even try to start working (or if i HAVE tried to start and it's just not happening), i stop and sit down with the wips and really LOOK at them. i go through them one at a time and point out things i like about them or what i'm looking forward to doing: "the pose came out so good on the first try and i want to see what it'll look like finished," or "detailing all this hair is going to be so fun and relaxing." when you get so caught up in the constant repeated thought of "i just want to DO something, i want to DRAW," especially when it's been days or weeks or months where you can't, i think you can unconsciously start replacing "i want to draw because it's fun and i like what i make" with "i want to draw because i keep failing to and i just want to prove i can still do it," and for me the latter thought is usually way more distressing than it is motivating.

and finally, a failsafe: sometimes, when i can remember to do it, my secret weapon is counting down at myself for the tiniest steps possible. like i'll literally say out loud, "on the count of five, i'm going to stand up and go get my sketchbook. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...." it has to be out loud and i think the reason it works is because like. if you say it out loud, reach five, and you don't do it, you feel astronomically goofy??? and then i just go from there: "on the count of 5, i'm going to find an empty page." "on the count of 5, i'm going to start sketching a head." it kind of forces through the executive dysfunction in a way i haven't really been able to replicate with anything else. it doesn't always work in a super meaningful way -- like, plenty of times i do like three steps and then i'm like "i hate this and i don't want to and i'm not gonna make anything good like this so i give up!" and then i just take the L for the afternoon. but when the "frozen in place, literally cannot stop just staring at the page" thing is the main issue, it might be enough of a push to get going!

as always here's me going "oh oop no i dont have a lot sorry" and then rambling for paragraphs and paragraphs but by now we should be used to that. good luck, and remember 2 be patient + nice :D

[bkdkology]

Food for thought

Howdy, I’m currently fighting 20mg of melatonin in my system to pose a question, and a half assed answer. Spoiler: it’s bkdk and mostly fanon. (Yes, this is an expansion of my previous post that’s right under this one.)

Katsuki Bakugou is an enigma to both the side of the fandom that adores him, and the side that despises him.

But why is he such a polarized character?

He certainly wins the hearts of most of the fandom, as he’s been consistently taking first place in the popularity polls. But there’s the presence of a very strong backlash against him because of his past as a bully, and what separates Katsuki from the rest as a character is: those who are against him, have refused to let go of the past. While nobody really excuses or romanticizes his behavior, most are able to understand that it’s a part of him that is absolutely essential to his character.

Personally, he’s my favorite character. There’s something about the way Horikoshi tells his story that makes me want to cheer for him.

So, what the fuck does that have to do with bkdk?

I realized that this stupid comment I made:

Is true. And not just true, it took me deeper than I intended.

I strongly believe that Katsuki isn’t particularly physically attractive. He’s strong, has amazing arms because of his quirk, and is well built as an obvious consequence of being an active student in the hero course.

Go to this post for screenshots and whatnot.

As I was reading the second light novel, I came across a few excerpts when the girls of 1-A and 1-B were talking about boys at a slumber party. And a few things stood out: (Keep in mind light novels are considered canon, written by Anri Yoshi who works with Horikoshi to sketch some scenes out.)

1. The girls think that while Kaminari is a womanizer, he’d make a loyal boyfriend

2. The girls also seem to unanimously believe that Monoma and Todoroki are the hot guys of the hero course.

3. They think Izuku is maybe too much of a fanboy

4. They whole heartedly believe Iida wouldn’t hold hands before marriage

5. Bakugou’s outstanding characteristic is his intelligence, not his looks.

Why am I making this a point? If you haven’t noticed, Katsuki has one of the biggest ‘simpnations’ in the fandom, in which a shit ton of people find him attractive. While it is just the way Horikoshi draws him that garners so much attention, it’s pretty much canon that most in story characters don’t find his looks as jaw dropping as some people have made them seem (me, I’m calling myself out here, since I feel like the only one who thinks this boy could walk on water).

What is extremely ironic about this is that a lot of fans completely overlook the fact that Katsuki is ridiculously smart, especially the fans that hate him. It’s a characteristic about him that is constantly reiterated time and time again but forgotten at the same rate. (i.e Katsuki placing 1st in the entrance exam, ranking 3rd in the class, sports festival analysis in which even Kiri has overlooked his smarts.)

The point I’m trying to make here is: since the story is told in Izuku’s perspective, what if it’s not just Katsuki’s looks that Izuku tells us about in a biased way, but Katsuki himself?

If you’re caught up, you have most likely seen the beautiful way that Katsuki’s character has developed. And if you’re like me, you probably guessed that Katsuki’s story was heading this way long before this chapter. But how? If to some, he’s just a kid who told a vulnerable Izuku to take a swan dive off the roof.

In 284-285, in the middle of war Katsuki is having heavy flashbacks from his past with Izuku as far back as middle school, even before the sludge incident that took place in chapter 1. He’s harboring overwhelming feelings of guilt.

Katsuki has never really dealt well with feelings, especially expressing those feelings. So what does he do? He uses his power to help Izuku control his, despite them being rivals.

Here’s the kicker, this chapter confirms that Izuku has never held anything against Katsuki. He doesn’t see the training as atonement the way Katsuki intended, because Izuku feels like there’s absolutely nothing to apologize for. But even before this chapter, Izuku simply gave off these same exact vibes by painting Katsuki in a good light.

I was in love with Katsuki from the moment I met him, how could a character so vile in his mannerisms and reckless in his treatment of others make me so happy and so sad when I looked at him?

For me, the answer lies within the protagonist, who’s wanted us to see him that way from the beginning. The people who hate Katsuki and refuse to acknowledge his growth have also failed to let go of the past the way Izuku did . That despite his ugly traits and his funny looking face, he is somebody complex and amazing inside.

He is beautiful.

[pizzazz-party]

Ring Analysis Part 1: Synchronizing— How It Works and What It Tells Us About Ring

...As well as the world he lives in. Our buddy Ring may explain very little about himself, but he doesn’t need to if you’re paying—obsessive—attention to detail.

(Gameplay spoilers up to World 20 under the cut.)

For a mechanic that’s important enough to merit a cutscene, and then goes on to envelop every part of the game, “synchronizing” gets a handful of lines before it’s never explicitly brought up again.

So let’s go over this scene.

“Synchronizing” is, at first glance, a simple exchange of traits. That’s not entirely wrong. Trainee does physically take on characteristics specific to Ring, like the flaming hair, and Ring does gain access to her heartbeat reading, sort of like a living stethoscope.

But what syncing actually is, is a symbiotic relationship. It’s both participants “recalibrating” themselves to the other as best as each of them are able. For a flesh-and-blood partner that’s not built for syncing, this means physically changing to become something a little closer to Ring. (More on that later.) For Ring, a magical being designed with the extra sensory input in mind, it invisibly grants him access to the other’s most invaluable resource: their exercise energy.

Like synchronizing, “exercise energy” is another lovely concept that was mentioned once and then never again. So much so that I’ve been accidentally calling it “fitness energy” for weeks and am still trying to correct my reflexes.

But exercise energy is everything. If all it takes is a simple read of a heartbeat to jumpstart a sync bond, exercise energy is the glue that cements it together. Because Ring and Trainee don’t stop being synced whenever they’re not physically touching. They separate all the time. They can put a little distance between themselves and still be at the height of synchronization, even. But let’s take a step back for a moment, and talk about that “physically changing to become something a little closer to Ring” aspect.

Say that Trainee is doing a leg move at peak performance. Her hair is flaring up. Her legs are glowing that same yellowish hue—because they’re full of exercise energy. That’s what that is. That’s what it must be. It’s what Ring himself is partially made of, seeing as the same stuff flows through his veinlike tubes. Seriously. Look at this. It’s the same goddamn color.

I can’t understate how incredibly important exercise energy is. To synchronizing, to Ring, and to literally everything else. Exercise energy is a type of life energy. In the world of Ring Fit, it’s in everything, everywhere—in varying levels of purity and concentration. When Trainee is performing a fit skill, she almost seems to absorb a mystical...something... from the open air around her, as she charges up a skill. Thin lines of light streak towards her as she lights up, not away. See for yourself.

Trainee isn’t a normal inhabitant of “Planet Fitness.” She doesn’t know how to manipulate exercise energy very well on her own. It looks like being synced with Ring has made her somewhat biologically closer to being made of exercise energy herself, and with that? The slight ability to absorb it from the air around her. It’s a really small thing, likely just a tiny boost of power she’s drawing in from her surroundings (and returning right back after a move is complete). But it’s there. It’s visibly happening. With one exception, this doesn’t occur outside of a fit battle. And that makes sense. A fit skill taking more energy than an air blast is very reasonable. Those crates littering the place are a lot less hardy than...whatever you would classify Monsters as. 

I mentioned an exception. Here it is:

Victory posing is such an odd little tradition, isn’t it? It’s unskippable; Ring always insists on it. And at first glance, his instructions are weird. “Pull in energy from the ground” sounds a bit like nonsense...except in this shot, Trainee is actually standing on a glowing platform full of Exercise Energy. (Yes, that’s what that is.) The moment she’s done charging her squat power, thin lines of light streak upwards— some into Trainee. And when she raises her arms, she expels all that excess energy into the open air. You can watch the process here.

And that’s where most of the EXP from victory posing comes from—from the well of exercise energy humming beneath her feet.

Exercise energy is life energy in constant motion. It’s created (for a lack of a better word) constantly as the body moves and burns calories. It’s also expelled constantly, and this is most visible when Trainee works out. It is not, under any circumstances, meant to be trapped in the body forever. But the act of having possessed any of it at all gives Trainee EXP, a byproduct, which can be kept forever.

———

Ring says in the initial cutscene, “The more you exercise, the more synchronized we’ll be!” The more Trainee exercises, the more exercise energy her body holds at time. The more exercise energy she holds, the more alike she and Ring are in that very moment. The more alike they are—the more in sync they are.

———

The two way connection created by synchronizing is closer to a metaphysical fusion of both participants than a simple trade off. Ring’s powers are (almost but not quite) Trainee’s powers. Trainee’s body is (almost but not quite) Ring’s body. It’s both easy and hard to see where one’s work stops and the other’s begins. So let’s lay down some quick facts.

One! In terms of powers—everything Ring and Trainee can do together, Ring can do alone. It’ll be weaker. But he can do it. He’s got his own supply of exercise energy and he’s a master at manipulating it. Ring is not helpless; you are.

Two! The glowing limbs you fight with in a fit battle belong to Ring—not Trainee. Here are even some screen caps of Ring vaguely referring to them both. (It’s even in all-important blue text.)

Three! Ring is always actively contributing to your fit battles. He is never just counting reps or giving tips. As Trainee charges up a fit skill, Ring is constantly channeling the resulting energy into powering up his battle constructs. He is actively aiming said constructs for you, always.

In the case of specific fit skills, where Ring’s battle constructs immediately appear as buff as can be—it’s because Trainee is helping. A lot of what these instances have in common is the fact that the fit skills in question are less... involved?

Imagine being Trainee, and trying to keep a good aim on the enemy as you do the Mountain Climber move. (Or even squats. I do too many of those and I start disconnecting from reality.) The Ring Raise move, on the other hand, is gentler and gives Trainee a clear, unobstructed view of the enemy throughout the whole exercise. It gives her the wiggle room to try her hand at manipulating her own exercise energy directly.

With Ring and Trainee working together, the charge-up effect is therefore instantaneous.

Four! Canonically, despite the two of them being synced, Ring can shut off Trainee’s access to his powers at any time. That’s because, for them to work in the first place, Ring must be consciously activating them. In some animations at the start of a course, Trainee stretches by pulling on him at both ends. This should summon a suction vortex. But it doesn’t. Because Ring knows Trainee is just doing a pre-run stretch.

It explains why you can’t summon a Mega Ab Guard whenever you feel like it; only when Ring suggests it. Or why you can’t just suck up tokens in mini games like Dreadmill (Ring is too honest to help you cheat). Yes, it’s a game mechanic thing. But it’s a mechanic that Ring canonically controls. Trainee absolutely cannot use any of his abilities without his explicit consent. And that’s probably why she hasn’t accidentally killed somebody in combat yet—Ring is super careful. (He’s a professional, you know.)

———

Now that we have a better understanding of what exercise energy is and a better grasp on how Ring works—let’s circle back one more time to that “physically changing to become something a little closer to Ring” aspect. Because there’s one last insane thing we skipped over.

Trainee is initially the baseline in our understanding of what exercise energy looks like in a human being. Her yellow-orange flames are our constant companion—and therefore we get misled, because Trainee is an outlier. She is synced to Ring, and Ring is extraordinary. So she’s not a good example of the average person.

But in this case, despite being a literal master, Guru Andma is.

Guru Andma, “the balance master,” is the only other human character we see using attacks consisting of all three muscle groups. Her fight is a wealth of knowledge in of itself. When she flexes her arms, they fill with RED energy. When she flexes her abdomen, it fills with YELLOW energy. When she flexes her leg, it fills with BLUE energy. This is the standard for human beings. This is normal.

What this implies then, is that synchronizing with Ring has overwritten Trainee’s original energy signature. Ring’s energy is decidedly NOT human. It’s not even fit-skill yellow; it looks close, but it’s really something else entirely. Ring of course can convert Trainee’s energy into traditional reds, yellows, and blues for a fight. (Or at least, he can fake it if he doesn’t have his Color Coding ability. He once mimicked the flames of Dark Influence early on in the game; some superficial color editing is not above him.)

But yeah. Trainee’s energy is now definitely abnormal.

And yet the process didn’t seem to put her in any physical pain? I really doubt Ring would have sprung that on her if it did. (I mean, he still should have asked for permission first.) I’d wager the effects of syncing, as deep as are, aren’t permanent once the bond is dissolved. What Ring is doing—“synchronizing”—is somehow, simultaneously, extremely mystical and yet completely natural.

———

Last segment, before I let you go.

For a long time, I wondered: what are the prerequisites, that denote syncing potential? Not impressive muscles, I’m sure; it’s heavily implied Dragaux once synced with Ring, and he was infamously skinny. Could the general attitude of a person play a role, if Ring’s energy is pure positive exercise energy? Or could it be genetic? Maybe even entirely random?

I wasn’t sure until I fought the four masters, and especially after fighting Guru Andma.

I’ll bet you anything that there’s something inherently flexible about Trainee, for a human. Something more malleable, and therefore more amenable to undergoing the dramatic changes of a sync bond. And I’ll bet you further that it has something to do with the fact that Trainee had zero previous experience wielding exercise energy at the start of the game.

Because Ring tells Trainee she has potential right after identifying that she’s new.

(The less developed a person is initially, the easier it could be to sync with Ring. Whereas a person with more intensive training would be incompatible.)

And if you’re still convinced that Ring was just impressed with her muscles—please remember that Ring is not human, and does not experience life through the same lens. It’s implied he can “see” energy with more than just his eyes. It’s how you can drop him in a new temple in an unfamiliar land and he’ll still be able to tell Trainee when she’s close to the finish line. (He forgot what static stretching was that one time. He does not have these floor plans memorized.) To him, those glowing wells at the end are like straight up beacons.

He was absolutely examining her energy.

———

To Ring, syncing probably isn’t worth writing an entire essay about. It’s natural to him, instinctive. It’s Ring making a promise to watch over someone, and to have their back as they will have his. And I think that’s beautiful. Frustrating to my curiosity, but beautiful.

———

TLDR; Synchronizing is a metaphysical bond sustained through Exercise Energy, a substance mentioned once in World 1 that encompasses the whole game. It exists everywhere in everything, in different variations of intensity and purity. Ring especially is partially made of exercise energy. It’s the glowing stuff in his tubes. There’s more, but that’s the gist of it. DISCLAIMER: This is for fun! I just wanted to try my hand at explaining how the magical sentient Pilates ring works. I feel pretty strongly about my conclusions, but I’ll go back and edit this if/when/where applicable. Thank you for reading.

———

EDIT (June 20, 2021): Updated header image. Also added a link to Ring mimicking DI.

EDIT (August 12, 2021): Added links to part 2 and 3.

———

RING ANALYSIS

Part 1: Synchronizing— How it Works and What It Tells Us About Ring

Part 2: Ring’s Powers—And What They All Have In Common

Part 3: Ring’s Biology and Possible Origins

[randowolfwriter]

Been working on this forever, but here’s my take on the Older Warners au, mostly with Wakko and his family. Basically, this relates back to the rockstar!au I thought up for Wakko a while back where he joins a band a few years after the original Animaniacs ended, only now he also starts a family along the way. Currently, Wakko is a single dad raising fraternal twins named Jojo and Smakko and teaches them both how to be zany toons like him. Eventually, he moves his family back to the Warner Bros lot during the production of the Animaniacs reboot, where Yakko and Dot also help out with raising the twins. 

More details about the story and the twins for anyone’s that curious, because I’ve been thinking about this au for a pretty long time. 

Given that they’re toons, the Warners shouldn’t be able to age, and yet if they did then it would be completely unexplained. One day they woke up and realized that they were aging just like humans. Of course this haunts each of them, including Yakko, who does all that he can to reassure his siblings that eventually this will pass and they’ll go back to being kids again. However, that wasn’t the case, and the three learn to accept that growing up was just a part of life. Even so, age wasn’t going to stop the Warners from serving justice to the unjust and wrecking havoc on adults with massive egos, which would go on until their late teens. 

During these years Wakko’s love for music also grows, and eventually he ends up forming a band with a few other toons around the studio. At first, their performances consisted of causing chaos around the lot and crashing production shoots-- infuriating Plotz to no end as the current CEO at the time-- yet when they noticed they were receiving positive attention from curious onlookers and angsty teens that liked their approach in fighting against the system, the band decided to become official. With this, Wakko is the first to leave the Warner Bros. lot and pursue his dreams of becoming a rockstar just like his idols. At first, he played as the band’s chaotic drummer, but as the years went on and he grew more confident, he also had the chance to man the front and sing a few solos for their band that would be named Toonz. 

A few years later, Dot is the next to leave as she goes on to become a successful business woman and leave her child actor days behind. Yakko is the only one who ends up staying on the lot and continues to call the water tower home. At first, he started out as a comedian who did shows regularly, but as time went on and he became a little tone deaf with his audience, he started doing small acting bits around the studio. Yakko’s biggest achievement yet was creating a small web series where he posted educational songs to teach children certain topics, including a video that was an updated version of his iconic “countries of the world” song. 

Meanwhile, Toonz takes the nation by storm. The attention they get is astounding, so much so, that they’re nearly invited everywhere in Hollywood, or if not then they’d crash it anyway. One party they crash in particular is where Wakko ends up meeting the twin’s mother. The party was held by a popular British singer named Jojo who was living in the states at the time and the twin’s mother so happened to be one of her stage managers. Jojo is unamused by the party crashers antics, yet tries to make the most of her night by introducing the twin’s mother to Wakko. One thing led to another and strangely the two began hitting it off, that is, until Wakko drunkenly sings “Wakko’s America” and crashes through a glass table. 

Thank to Jojo and Toonz doing tons of collabs between each other, Wakko and the twins’ mother saw each other constantly. Eventually their random encounters turned into dating, and already two years had gone by. She was different than the other women he dated, and by that, really one of the only people who could put up with his cartoony antics. Not to mention, she also had a long-time hobby in drawing and sketching, which Wakko always loved posing as her muse. Eventually, Wakko decided to take their relationship to the next step and the two got married in Vegas. 

One night, after Wakko and his wife returned from a long night of drinking and partying, the twins’ mother found herself drawing two twins that looked like Wakko from the original Animaniacs series. She didn’t now what possessed her to come up with them, but for some reason, she really felt like drawing them. As usual, Wakko being made of ink provided color for the sketch and gave them their black fur and red noses. All was going well until the twin’s mother accidentally got a paper cut and bled onto the page. After this, the two decided to call it a night and went to bed, unaware of what was happening to the page as they were sleeping. 

Later that night, the two heard a loud crash coming from the kitchen. Afraid that it was a couple of robbers, Wakko goes to investigate, claiming that he wanted to greet his new “special” friends. What Wakko ends up finding instead are two little toon babies with puppy dog ears, cat-like tails, black furred with white faces, and tiny little pink noses that looked exactly like him. Upon further investigation, they soon discovered that the page they drew the twins on earlier was blank, which meant that for some reason, the twins came to life exactly the same way Wakko did (except they came out as babies.) Thus, Jojo and Smakko Warner were brought into the world and Wakko and his wife were now parents.  

For the next decade, Wakko continued playing in the band while his wife stayed home to take care of the kids. Whether it’d be at practice or having yearly tours, Wakko unfortunately couldn’t be with his kids as much as he wanted to, yet, when he was able to spend some quality time with them, he gave it his all. He got to see what an adorable and excitable girl Jojo was, what a mischievous nature she held in courtesy of the Warner name, and what a big heart she had for those around her. As for Smakko, though he was timid and shy he was also very inquisitive, and with inheriting his Daddoo’s toon abilities the boy was practically the spitting image of him. 

For years, it seemed as if nothing could tear the family apart. Sure, the twins had their moments, as well as most kids did; if anything they were more well behaved than the father they came from. Not only that, but barely were there any arguments or secrets kept between parents and children. Yet, nothing could have prepared Wakko for the day his wife died in a tragic accident, leaving him alone as a single father. Knowing that the twins had no one else to care for them, Wakko retired from the band to commit himself full-time in raising Jojo and Smakko. 

A year later, Wakko buys an RV and decides to take his kids on the road. He wanted to teach them everything he knew when they were his age, get the chance to see the world, and help them get in touch with their toon heritage. Though Jojo was more than excited to spend time with her Daddoo as much as possible, Smakko on the other other hand was less than thrilled. All the boy wanted was for things to return back to normal; when their mother was always around and their Daddoo seemed more concerned with his band. 

Months into this family entourage, and Wakko gets a call from Yakko:  Animaniacs was returning, and they wanted all three of the Warner siblings to come back. With this, Wakko moves the twins to the Warner Bros. lot and gives them the chance to see where he grew up. They move into the water tower with Yakko, who is more than happy as he’s been rather lonesome for the last two decades. Dot however is a little less than compliant to return to her roots, but eventually she warms up to the idea that the reboot would be willing to work with a more mature version of herself. Now that the three Warner siblings were reunited plus two, the family works together to bring back the joy and laughter that the original series gave to many. Though they’re a lot older, the three siblings are convinced they still have it in them. Eventually once the reboot runs its course, Wakko intends to get him and the kids back on the road, but for now, they’re content where they’re at. 

Now, about the twins!

Jojo Warner:

Birthday: June 8th, 2009 (11 years old) 

Fraternal twin sister to Smakko. 

Since the parents were brought together by the singer, Jojo, she had the honor of being the girl’s godparent. With this, she named the baby after herself in defense of saying that “Jojo” wasn’t her real name, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be their daughter’s.  

Her ears are bigger than any of the other Warners, which is why they usually need to be tied back. Not like they cover her eyes or anything, but when she was little she used to chew on them constantly, causing concern for the new parents.

The heart hair tie she wears is from her mother and she treasures it dearly.

Out of both her parents, she has a stronger relationship with her Daddoo due to their mischievous and childlike personalities. 

Just like Wakko, she has a ravenous appetite that only got bigger with age. As a toddler, if she didn’t get to eat right away, she would run around the house and throw a giant tantrum until she got her way. Sometimes, she still has a tendency to do this if her heart is set on something. 

The only Disney movie she’s ever seen is Frozen, which proved her Daddoo’s point about them being mindless garbage when she wouldn’t stop singing Let It Go for months. Because of this, the kids were banned from seeing anymore Disney films.

When she was five, she ripped off Wakko’s tail while rough housing with it. Though it wasn’t that big of a deal thanks to Wakko being part salamander, that didn’t stop him from tricking Jojo into thinking she tore it off for good. Of course, the prank went too far when Jojo broke down in tears and begged over and over about how sorry she was, so Wakko finally decided to show his kids their amazing regenerating abilities and grew his tail back. Smakko immediately threw up after this. (I swear, that tail scene in the reboot was hella nasty) 

One of her favorite hobbies is collecting weird things she finds on her adventures, whether it be a strangely shaped rock, a piece of trash, and yes, she even still has her Daddoo’s tail. 

Another one of her favorite hobbies is playing with the small guitar her Daddoo gave her. On warm summer nights, Wakko and Jojo will sit on the roof of the RV or the water tower and sing into the night. Some of their favorites include songs by the Beatles, or songs by various rock groups. While her Daddoo strums on an electric guitar, she comes in with her acoustic to create a beautiful yet strange harmony. She hopes to be the lead singer of her own band one day. 

Despite living up to the Warner name, Jojo didn’t inherit any of their cartoon abilities, which bugs her to this day. The only way she can keep up with her family’s antics is by engaging in witty banter and annoying the heck out of her victims. Sort of a mixture of Yakko and Dot’s form of humor.

She gets along well with her Uncle Yakko since both of them can’t keep their mouths shut. During the Warners’ escapades, she looks to Yakko on how to strengthen her form of humor.

As for her Aunt Dot, the two are slowly forming a relationship. Due to Jojo’s tomboyish nature, Dot has a harder time getting on her level of understanding-- though that doesn’t mean the two don’t confide in each other if they ever need to rant about the boys of the family.

She’s considered the leader of the twins due to being more confident and does most of the talking during their escapades. 

She’s also very social, which leads her wanting to engage in more activities with kids her age such as going to school or trying to find her own niche of friends. Luckily, she ends up finding her own group when she befriends some of the child stars at the Warner Bros. studio.

Since her mother’s death, she believes that her mother looks down on them from the brightest star in the sky and grants them wishes. Every night, Jojo makes the same exact wish, not for herself but for her family:  She wishes for Wakko to have all the happiness in the world while she wishes for Smakko to be more confident in himself. 

Smakko Warner:

Birthday: June 8th, 2009 (11 years old) 

Basically my take on the forgotten character, Smakky from the original drafts of the Warners but like, less angry and more anxious. 

He was a fussy baby. Most nights, he refused to be left alone in his crib and cried for hours into the night until his parents surrendered and consoled him. Usually this was an inconvenience for both Wakko and his wife, as well as the neighbors when they used to live in an apartment. One night, Wakko nearly got in a fight with a neighbor after they complained about the child’s insistent crying.

Out of both parents, he favors his mother the most. Her soft voice and reassuring words were always his form of comfort throughout his childhood. Due to Wakko always practicing with the band or going on tours, Smakko didn’t gain that much of a connection with him. Most of the time, Smakko found his Daddoo to be a little scary due to his brash cartoon nature. 

Out of both twins he’s the shyest and will usually cling onto his family members whenever he meets someone new. He also has a tendency to get nervous real easily. Opponents are to be wary when they back him into a corner, lest they want to face his fearful wrath.

Unlike his sister, his toon abilities appeared the minute he was born. Upon naming him, he summoned a baby rattle and smacked his uncle on the head with it until he was given back to his mother. Hence, the boy was given the name “Smakko.” 

Nowadays, the boy is able to summon mallets to his whim, cream pies to his choosing, and is able to teleport from place to place— however, this only happens whenever he’s frightened or really stressed. If anyone gets him extremely anxious, they either get pounded with a mallet or blown up with dynamite. In a way, his cartoon abilities act as a defensive reflex. 

Another conundrum the parents faced during Smakko’s first years was being able to keep track of him. Most of the time, the boy would hide constantly either because he felt uncomfortable or something scared him. Sometimes, he’d end up in the most bizarre places such as in the freezer, in a load of laundry, or even in the ceiling. The only reason his parents knew where to find him was if they heard crying. 

While his sister’s form of comedy is vocal, his is more physical like his Daddoo’s. 

He also has a really small appetite compared to his Daddoo and sister. Most days, he can last with just a bowl of cereal up until dinner. He’s just not as passionate about eating like the rest of his family. Adding onto that, he’s a vegetarian. He gets sick at the thought of eating meat or harming animals to get his meal.

He’s very fond of animals, mostly smaller animals that he can pick up. He’s considered many times getting a pet, but due to the Warners active lifestyle, it’s something that’ll have to wait. As for now, he’ll help move bugs from getting crushed or summon food for hungry strays. (Rita and Runt go to him constantly for free food.)

He likes his Aunt Dot more than his Uncle Yakko. His uncle talks too much which overwhelms him. Meanwhile, Dot has that toned down personality that sort of resembles his mother’s, that is, until her brothers get her riled up.

Though Smakko loves his family, sometimes their crazy antics can get a little much. He misses his mother dearly considering that she was the only form of normalcy in his life. Now that she’s gone, he feels rather lost and doesn’t know how to open up to his Daddoo. Wakko on the other hand tries all that he can to calm himself around Smakko and assures him that his Dadoo will always be there for him. However, the boy’s anxiety is one that Wakko will have to learn to work with. 

[ducktracy]

184. the woods are full of cuckoos (1937)

release date: december 4th, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: frank tashlin

starring: mel blanc (owlcott, walter finchell, milton squirrel, wendell howl, fox, raven mcquandry), tedd pierce (ben birdie, tizzie fish, andy bovine), sara berner (polly gillette, canary livingstone)

this cartoon gets the honorable award of possibly being the most dated warner bros. shorts in its vast repertoire of cartoons. not to worry! this will be a fun cartoon to unpack—i love delving into the shorts that involve extensive research. learning something new is something that‘s very rewarding to me, and i hope it is to you, too!

a giant ode to the short lived radio program community sing (lasting from 1936-1937), the short chronicles a woodland radio show hosted by a variety of caricatured animals putting on various acts.

iris in to the ringing of a bell. a pudgy, bespectacled owl rings it as he stands illuminated by the moonlight, preaching to all of the woodland critters, ready to start the show. he introduces himself as “owlcott”, a take on commentator alexander woollcott. he “blandly announces” (his words, not mine) the introduction of the master of ceremonies, ben birdie--a bird caricature of radio personality ben bernie, “the old maestro”.

birdie’s caricature is not new to audience’s eyes. the caricature, along with a handful of others, is reused from friz freleng’s the coocoo nut grove from 1936, a short that is very similar in vein to this one. tedd pierce provides birdie’s suave, velvety vocals as he introduces the program, only to be interrupted by the nasally cries of mel blanc. out pops walter finchell, a caricature of bernie’s faux-enemy walter winchell, both of whom carrying a notorious (and fake) feud in the radio-verse. it was common for winchell to interrupt the smooth-talking bernie, either throwing pranks or remarks his way, to which bernie dismissed every time. indeed, a signature tashlin upshot angle reveals finchell dropping an egg on top of birdie, who blocks it nonchalantly with a handy umbrella.

art loomer’s backgrounds for the cartoon are absolutely gorgeous. they’re vibrant in color, very lush and painterly, but remain playful and sophisticated at the same time. they certainly serve as a highlight to the short. and, as always, carl stalling’s scores are a blast to hear--his sardonic, wah-wah rendition of “cause my baby says it’s so” is a jolly juxtaposition to the prior score of “love is on the air tonight”, the latter being the song’s cartoon debut. it would be reused in cartoons such as the daffy doc, whereas “cause my baby says its so” was heard previously in rover’s rival.

birdie introduces a clever squirrel caricature of milton berle, whose routine gets interrupted by a little parrot named polly. polly is a take on eileen barton’s character, little jolly gillette, who was portrayed as the daughter of the show’s sponsor. polly and milton go through their act together, polly bluntly (yet innocently) announcing “my daddy says ya gotta let me sing ‘cause he’s a sponsor!” you can listen to real recordings of their banter here!

volney white’s animation of milton and polly is lively and jovial, constantly moving. milton energetically introduces us to our next star, pointing in the wrong direction and fixing it last second as he gestures towards a bird caricature of country singer wendell hall.

even if viewers don’t recognize the bird’s counterpart, they will most certainly recognize his voice--mel uses his foghorn leghorn voice for wendell “howl”. of course, foghorn wouldn’t debut for another 9 years, but that’s another story. the animation of the raucous bird is fun to watch as he extends his neck and wraps it around in coils around the microphone stand. random? yes, but fun nevertheless.

perhaps even more commendable is the staggering crowd shot that succeeds wendell’s scenes. the crowd is mirrored horizontally, but that doesn’t lessen the blow from how claustrophobic it is. wendell asks the audience to get out their songbooks and turn to page “22... no, page 44. uh, no, uh, page 28. uh, 42, uh, 36, uh, 45...” 

wendell is transformed from an entertainer to an auctioneer, spitting out numbers at rapid pace as his crowd frantically tears through their songbooks. finally, he concedes. “oh, never mind. we won’t use the books.” off screen, the crowd roars in unison: “OH YES WE WILL!” with that, wendell is generously showered with a barrage of books, buried in the pile of rejected papers. the timing of the scene is comedically sharp and energetic, one of the more entertaining acts of the cartoon.

now, for the real song number, lead by goat and bear caricatures of billy jones and ernie hare (would a rabbit caricature be too on the nose?) respectively, animated by volney white. they march out onto the stage--er, tree trunk--and open the curtains to reveal a sing-along to the eponymous song. thus, the camera pans into the lyrics as everybody bursts into the all-too-earworm-causing song number. 

as the crowd, ben birdie and walter finchell all lend their voices to the song, a fox caricature of fred allen sings “swanee river”, clashing with the unity of everybody else. in a nod to friz freleng’s toy town hall where the same routine was executed, a little bunny excitedly coos “ohhhh, mr. allen! you’re singing the wrong sooooong!” the fox bursts into everybody’s favorite Mel Blanc Yell as he repeats a frequent ‘30s catchphrase: “WHY DON’T SOMEBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS!?”

featured in the song is a seemingly interminable cast of celebrity caricatures, all introduced as the camera pans across the screen, each lending their voice to part of the song. some puns require more effort than others (dick powell as “dick fowl” rolls off the tongue better than al jolson as “al goatson”). caricatures include: 

eddie cantor as eddie gander, sophie tucker as sophie turkey, w.c. fields as w.c. fieldmouse, dick powell as dick fowl, fats waller as fats swallow, deanna durbin as deanna terrapin, irvin s. cobb as irvin s. frog, fred macmurray as fred mcfurry, bing crosby as bing crowsby, al jolson as al goatson, ruby keeler as ruby squealer, lanny ross as lanny hoss, grace moore as grace moose, and finally lily pons as lily swans.

speaking of grace and lily, they’re both highlighted as they fight to out-perform each other, seeing who can sing the highest note. tashlin pulls of a rather intriguing camera move: as the pan settles on the two of them, the background changes. it’s a subtle maneuver, but smart thinking nonetheless--especially since the camera extends into a vertical pan. as both women fight to sing the highest note, their necks extend, both of them scaling high into the night sky, harmonizing on one final shrill note. they both crumple back into the stands, exhausted by their efforts. some fun exaggerated animation for sure--one wonders how much further this would have been pushed had this been tashlin’s second stint at WB rather than his first. his speed often rivaled, if not out-performed, tex avery’s.

birdie and finchell have a brief interstitial together before making way for a raven caricature of haven macquarrie (raven mcquandry). his sequence is almost jarringly short, but full of fun drawings and poses--the pose of him standing curtly with his arms crossed is awfully reminiscent of izzy ellis’ work under tashlin and later bob clampett in the mid ‘40s. mcquandry asks “do YOU wanna be an actor?”, parotting the name of his real life counterpart’s show so do you want to be an actor? the audience shouts “NO!” in unison, causing mcquandry to do a take and shrug dubiously. though the scene is only a few short seconds, the animation brings forth some much needed vitality.

next is a penguin caricature of joe penner, singing a hilariously out-of-tune rendition of “my green fedora”. the animation is reused from the cartoon of the same name (notice how he doesn’t have penguin feet!), which was also used in toy town hall. not a complaint, but more an observation--this is by far the most humorous performance of the song yet, sung by blanc rather than tommy bond.

another fun scene with some vivacious animation is a sequence featuring a mule caricature of martha raye (dubbed moutha bray), singing a cover of “how could you?”, which has been featured as an underscore in cartoons such as porky’s badtime story and its later remake, tick tock tuckered. raye’s large mouth served as prime material for caricatures, as we see here. the animation is snappy, fun, and vivid--she finishes her song by “swallowing” the camera, an old trick that beckons memories of the harman and ising cartoons of animation past. 

an interesting trend in the ‘30s WB cartoons is the trend of playing with the iris, whether it was the closing iris out or an iris in between transitions. tex avery would consistently play with the final iris out on his cartoons, whereas directors such as friz freleng and bob clampett would use one as a transition between scenes. here, tashlin uses the “swallow the camera” technique as a segue for an iris in, tedd pierce’s falsetto squeaking “hello folksies!” as we’re introduced to a fish caricature of tizzie lish, a character played by bill comstock on al pearce and his gang.

though tizzie has long faded into obscurity (as has the entire community sing radio show), it’s still quite easy to appreciate pierce’s vocals and mannerisms as he portrays the character. it’s always a joy to hear him doing voices for cartoons--he’s never been my favorite writer on the crew, but he was an excellent talent as a voice actor. his squeaky deliveries, matter of fact deliveries “mix them up... are you mixing? my friends say i’m a good mixer. are you? or aren’t you?” as tizzie haphazardly dumps food items and their respective utensils into a bowl and prepares the meal are nothing short of hilarious. the timing is very well executed and can be appreciated regardless of background knowledge.

after humming a pitchy rendition of “the lady in red” while waiting for her concoction to bake in the waffle iron, tizzie removes the homemade waffle and discards it, instructing the audience “now take the ‘wiffle’ out and eat the iron. you must have iron in your system. or should you?” thus concludes tizzie’s act, certainly heightened in hilarity by pierce’s vocals and timing.

for the final act, ben birdie introduces a possum caricature of louella parsons, the host of the radio program hollywood hotel, which served as a way to advertise upcoming movies by featuring guest stars enacting some of the scenes. here, we have caricatures of jack benny (as jack bunny, the first of his many reoccurrences), mary livingstone (canary livingstone), and andy devine (andy bovine).

tedd pierce voices andy bovine, whose voice burlusqued not only in this cartoon, but to a greater extent in friz freleng’s my little buckeroo not even a year later. devine, a western star, was notorious for his scratchy, shrill voice which was rife for comedic opportunity. indeed, this scene here with pierce’s vocals is nothing short of hilarious: 

the trio chronicle the prodigal’s return, in which bunny and canary coo over their baby son. out of the bassinet pops incongruously large bovine, who shrieks “HOWDY MAAAA! HI PAAAA!”, the sheer volume of his voice enough to blow both of his parents away and out of the scene. and, with that, the scene ends, red curtains colorized from porky’s romance marking the sequence’s end. short, sweet, to the point, and hilarious.

ending right where the cartoon began, the owl caricature of alexander woollcott bids us farewell, the iris closing in on the bell he rings as he exclaims that all is well.

like so many other cartoons i’ve reviewed, this is one that i slowly warmed up to upon rewatching it and typing out the review for myself. i didn’t entirely dislike the cartoon upon my first watch, but it’s undeniably dated and deserves its title as possibly the most dated cartoon. without further research, some of the jokes and caricatures (if not all of them) are difficult to appreciate. the animation has bursts of energy throughout the short, the highlights being the scenes featuring raven mcquarry and moutha bray, but otherwise remains relatively simple and conservative. tashlin does incorporate a few intriguing camera angles throughout the cartoon, but many other entries of his are far more cinematic.

however, despite all of that, this cartoon is not without its bonuses: art loomer’s backgrounds are stunningly gorgeous and rich, and as someone who loves the lush, painterly backgrounds of the 1930s, this is heaven to me. and, as i mentioned previously, tedd pierce’s scenes are great--the tizzie fish and andy bovine sequences are undeniable comedic highlights.

so, if you’re willing to dedicate time to put in the research for this cartoon, you’ll find it’s quite fascinating! i’m certain this was a much bigger gut-buster in 1937 than it is in 2020, but even then, this is a good cartoon for people such as myself who love to learn more information and seek out facts. as a result, i’d recommend it to people who fall into that category. if you’re just someone who wants a good laugh and a leisurely watch, there are more interesting cartoons that lie ahead. you won’t miss much by skipping it.

with that said, here’s the link!

[imagine-loki]

Atlas: Space, Mars

TITLE: Atlas: Space

CHAPTER NO./ONE-SHOT: 6/12

AUTHOR: fanfictrashdump

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine narrating episodes of Loki’s life with the Avengers based on the songs from Sleeping At Last’s “Atlas: Space” album. 

RATING: T-M

NOTES/WARNINGS: Welcome to my Sleeping At Last’s Atlas: Space challenge, aka Another writing project I do not have time for, but my brain insisted on doing.

This series will be less like a multichapter fic and more of a one-shot compendium, but that they all interconnect in one way or another. It will revolve around Loki and Becca’s relationship (Taking Turns, Glow, Helmet Heists–don’t worry, more Loki-Charlie stuff will be along) and I will use those one-shots as reference to the timeline. Each chapter will be one song, used as inspiration for the story.

Chapter 6: Mars

Summary: Loki and Becca had already determined (thoroughly) that they were more than just friends (Taking Turns). Loki’s affectionate side lands them both in hot water.

Warnings include: Language, wounds, blood, near-death experiences. Loki instantly regretting being soft and then just being softer. Fluff. Tony is a dad. 

=

We laid our names to rest Along the dotted line We left our date of birth And our history behind

On most days, Loki did not mind having to work with the Avengers. He lived in relative peace, with plenty of books and trinkets to occupy his time. People gave him his space, and did not pressure him to participate in any of their silly bonding activities (though he would be lying if he said that he did like the idea that he was invited, nowadays). He would also be lying if he did not admit that part of his current contentedness was not due to the fact his bed was being semi-consistently warmed by a lovely mortal that treated him like… like he was just another person on their team? There was no awe-inspired gasp at meeting him, no worry that he might crack at any moment and murder them in cold blood.

Becca doted on him, to be sure. It constantly astounded him to feel the gentleness she treated him with–though she treated everyone gently, if a little sarcastic. But, sometimes, there was a special smile or a squeeze of his arm and the carefully constructed wall of apathy around him cracked, holes formed. Through those holes, Loki knew Rebecca saw fondness, even gentleness. She was the one person he didn’t mind seeing that. He was able to let his guard down, if only in private and ask for the soft things he wanted.

So, no, he did not mind working with the Avengers.

But he shouldn’t have let his guard down so easily.

We were full of life We could barely hold it in We were amateurs at war Strangers to suffering

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

This mess was all his fucking fault.

He hadn’t mean for this to happen. All he wanted was to give them both a moment of respite within the chaos of the battle. An instant where neither of them were running under a hail of bullets or smudging their hands with the dark elixir of other people’s blood. All he had wanted was to make the roaring around them quiet, just for a second. It had just been a stupid kiss.

Loki had been drafted into an intelligence mission. When he stepped into the Quinjet that morning, he had been expecting a short flight and an even shorter rendezvous around a facility to tinker with a computer or two until he had a neat little cache of facts to bring back. He had been pleasantly surprised, when he climbed in through the hold doors. Rebecca was strapped in to a seat tinkering with a small rectangular instrument that he could not identify with a set of tiny screwdrivers.

We made our families proud But scared at the same time We promised we’d be safe Another lie from the front lines

Glancing shortly around at the other two agents in the jet, he quietly slipped into the seat beside her. Becca barely glanced to the side before the ghost of a smile tugged at her lips.

“I thought we agreed not to take missions together,” he husked into her ear, eyes still weary of the other occupants. While they had agreed to that rule, as well as not revealing the nature of their relationship to the team, it had not been Loki to set the stipulations. “Are you not afraid of being caught out with the big, bad wolf, little lamb?”

Becca’s hands stilled. “Call me little lamb again, popsicle. I dare you!” He fought the urge to guffaw. She did not like to be thought of as small and soft, and she wasn’t, but liked teasing her.

“You were the one to say you didn’t want to go out in fights with me,” he reminded. The fingers of his left hand were tracing a gentle circle over her right hip, nearest him. He smirked as she idly shifted into his touch, almost as if in reflex. “For safety,” he scoffed sardonically.

“Wasn’t my call. Tony wanted you to have back-up in case their security protocols were harder to crack than you could handle.” His lips brushed the edge of her jaw. “Loki.”

“They’re not watching.” He chuckled at her concerned voice, but moved away, settling back into his seat with a princely pose. “And you're–”

With a sigh, she dropped her project and turned to face him. “And I am?” She was attempting to look aggravated, but a bat of his blue eyes was more than enough to bring a flood of red to her cheeks.

“Enchanting.” His voice, merely a whisper, rang like a gong in her ears. Something inside Loki had cracked ever since she freed him of his tub-sized ice prison. There was a vulnerability he had been too scared to display, and had so been shoved into the recesses of his soul, that now burst forth. He was so fantastically soft, delicate in his treatment, yet there was a confidence to him. Playfulness. He hadn’t felt this idiotically free since he was a young lad. “Besides, you know how it makes me feel when I see you being clever.”

Becca laughed, despite herself. “Jeez, Loki. Cool it with the nerd kink.”

“I can hardly help how attractive I find your mind. Or the stirring it causes,” he quipped back, grin stretching widely at the flush of her face alone.

“For right now, I need you to focus on your mission and not whatever filthy fantasies you’re conjuring. Got it?”

“Very well. Nothing but the mission until I get you alone, once more.”

The small taskforce took to the winding hallways of an underground bunker. They were quiet–stepping lightly, dealing with bogeys as silently as possible, ghosts. Loki was the only one who could get them into the particular location they needed to access. Teleportation, it seemed, a skill that had been mocked as cowardly in the past, was very practical.

At the end of a hallway was an armored door. The two agents that had accompanied them split into adjacent corridors to funnel threats away from the server room. Rebecca was to stay at the door until the moment that Loki needed her, if it even came to that. She nodded at the Asgardian and took a knee in front of the door, lifting a long rifle flush against her shoulder and taking aim. Loki breathed deep, letting his eyes draw closed before he blipped out of existence.

Inside the room, he sat at one of the terminals, with a frown. As a general rule, he disliked computers. They were finnicky, and they often didn’t do tasks exactly as he had asked them. Rebecca, on the other hand, could bend them to her will. More often than not, he would sit in dumb, slack-jawed wonder as her fingers flew over the keyboard, making sense of chaos. He didn’t know exactly how she made those strings of zeroes and ones become fantastic tools of espionage, but she did it, regardless.

He was much slower and only half as clever.

Still, he plugged in the USB Becca had handed him earlier, and began tapping away. It was a tiered process. Every little bit built upon the last, a little like a symphony. If he tried hard enough, he could almost make the monotonous keystrokes sound like the ethereal music his mother loved or the gentle relaxing melodies that Becca preferred to relax to.

“Progress check.”

“You’re going to have to be a little more patient with me, kitten. I’m not as skilled as you,” he retorted, momentarily typing one-handed to answer his comms. “Unless you’re here to whisper dirty things in my ear. In which case, go right ahead.”

“Mission, Loki.”

“I can multitask. I’m not Thor,” he sassed back, though his typing did increase in speed. Over the comms, there was the dull thud of bullets. It wasn’t any of theirs, as they were under strict orders to use silencers. “Rebecca?”

“Loki, I’m going to need you to hurry up, OK? I’ll give you more time.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but he could make out the strain of her aim and the ricochet that knocked the wind out of her.

With a noise of agreement, he bent over the keyboard and doubled his efforts, hoping his concentration wouldn’t leave him until he was ready to leave that room. Worry was gnawing at his chest. Though the sound of guns had diminished, he wondered how long they had until the next wave of attackers was to hit. That same worry lectured him about the very same reasons Rebecca had for not going out into the field together. It was damn near impossible to concentrate when he actually gave a damn for the person watching his back.

“Progress check?”

“Almost done. One more level to crack and I’ll start downloading,” he got out through gritted teeth. Just as he finished his sentence, he clacked the Return key one more time and the clever coding inside the USB starting sorting through the computer files and stealing information. With a flourish, he stood from his post and unlatched the door. Becca started at the sound and turned with a frown on her face. “It’s downloading. You might as well sit inside.”

“Jet had to scramble. They’re circling back in twenty.”

Loki smirked. “So, you’re saying we have twenty minutes?”

Becca glared, resting the rifle on the floor by her leg. “Not the time nor the place, you doofus.”

“Come on! I just cracked through several levels of security protocols, just like you taught me. Don’t I deserve a reward?” He pouted, giving her wide puppy-dog eyes that he knew Becca had a hard time saying no to. “Not even a kiss?”

“I hate you.” Her voice held little conviction.

“No, you don’t.” He riposted, and he truly believed it. Almost reluctantly, she cleared the few steps until she could meet Loki. Their lips brushed together gently. It was like they were shy about coming together and sharing a small intimate moment, even though neither was apprehensive of showing affection. The computer dinged just as they pulled apart. “Just in time. One moment, dearest.”

Our backs against the wall We’re surrounded and afraid Our lives now in the hands Of the soldiers taking aim

He turned towards the terminal and retrieved his device. The sound of shuffling caught his attention before it did Rebecca’s. When he turned, three different people in black uniforms and masks had rushed in. Becca sprang for her rifle, forgotten on the floor a few steps back, only to stop as a gun was cocked and pointed at her head.

Loki pulled his daggers with a flicker of his hands and held them aloft. The second he took a step, though, the gun against Rebecca’s temple was nudged. “No! No. Don’t shoot,” he sputtered, feeling the sentiment foreign on his tongue. He hadn’t cared for anyone enough to plead for their safety.

“Put them down!”

Clenching his jaw, he made a show of lowering his daggers to the floor and kicking them away, raising his empty hands to prove he was unarmed. “Please, take your weapon off of her.”

“Shut up!”

“Just… she is of no consequence. Let her go,” he growled, eyes hard like thunder. Becca was stock still, a bead of sweat running down her forehead and wincing at the cold steel pressed against her head. “I am the one stealing from you, she's–”

“Loki, be quiet, for fuck’s sake!” Becca yelled. One of the men grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled head back until she had buckled onto her knees.

“There’s other agents. At least twenty in the building. I could take you to all of them–”

“Loki!”

“–just let her go free.”

The clap of a gun rang through the small room and Becca’s screams bounced off of the armored walls. Her left thigh was bleeding over her black suit and he could tell she was struggling to control her emotions, lest she break down crying right then and there.

“Next one goes in her skull if you don’t shut up.”

Our questions ricochet Like broken satellites: How our bodies, born to heal Become so prone to die?

Loki’s eyes darkened, breath leaving his chest with the last of his pacifist resolve. Magic swirled within him and in the blink of an eye several copies of himself filled the room. The chaos that followed was blinding and blurry. Guns went off, and blows were exchanged. Clones stabbed at men in dark suits as they came by the droves to bring he and Becca down. Loki took satisfaction in burying his blade deep into their bellies and ripping them to shreds. Becca had managed to grab a pistol and was taking down her fair-share as well.

When the dust settled, Becca was slumped against a tower of drives. There was much more blood on the floor than was warranted for her injury and she was trying to weakly plug the wound with her hands.

“Are you alright?” Loki asked, breathlessly, climbing over bodies to get to her.

“I think it nicked my artery, Loki,” she slurred. Ripping a piece of his cape off, he tied off the wound as tightly as he possibly could and pulled her into his arms. He didn’t care where the other two agents were at the moment, he only cared about getting her back home.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

“How much longer?”

“Twenty five minutes, sir,” the other agent called back. Becca had soaked through the tourniquet he had made and was bordering on delirious from blood loss.

Fuck. This was his fault. He shouldn’t have deviated from their plan. He didn’t have to let her in and distract them both while in enemy territory. It was a rookie mistake, he knew. He had been in battle for thousands of years. How could he have been so stupid? What was his insistence in showing her intimacy?

Why was she so pale?

“Come on, Becca. Focus on me, please.” He whispered, tracing her cheekbones with his thumbs and trying to hold back the tears filling his eyes. “Tell me a story, will you?”

She smiled weakly. “Once upon a time, you were an idiot and got me shot,” she whispered back with a giggle. “Fuck, it hurts so much.”

“I am sorry. I am so sorry, Rebecca,” he chanted, over and over. “Stay with me.”

Though time is ruthless It showed us kindness in the end By slowing down enough A second chance to make amends As life replayed, we heard a voice proclaim: “Lay your weapons down! They’re calling off the war On account of losing track Of what we’re fighting for”

The second the jet had touched down, Loki had gathered Becca into his arms and ran. He barely understood where he was going, but his panic-addled body apparently knew exactly where to go. When he rushed into the medical rooms, Bruce nearly jumped out of his seat to rush towards them.

“What happened?”

“She was shot. The bullet is still lodged in her thigh, but she thinks it nicked the artery,” he spilled, tripping over words as he put her down. “She’s bled through four tourniquets on the ride over.”

Tony had come in, startled out of his lab by the ruckus. He took one look at Becca, pale and sickly looking rather than her caramel-skinned, effervescent self and nearly fainted. Loki was still at her bedside while Bruce and a handful of medical assistants buzzed around her. “Loki, come on. Let them work.”

“I–Stark–she won’t stop bleeding,” Loki choked out, his grip turning white on her hand. Tears were dripping down his face and he didn’t care who was there to witness it. Nothing mattered if she died because of his carelessness.

“I know, but you need to let them work, Lokes.” Tony placed his hands on Loki’s shoulders, forcefully tugging him back. This was the first time he realized just how strong Loki was, as his wiry, tall frame barely moved at Tony’s insistence. He might as well have been a tree rooted to the spot. “Loki. Come on, buddy, we gotta move.”

“She’s still bleeding. I can’t leave her.”

“Look at–look at me!” Loki reluctantly parted his gaze to face Stark. “You’re not a doctor and you’re not a healer. The only thing you can do is let Bruce work his magic and wait until she’s in clear, OK?”

After a moment, Loki nodded and let himself be carted away from the bed.

So we found our way back home Let our cuts and bruises heal While a brand-new war began One that no one else could feel

Tony had managed to wrangle Loki into some armchairs just outside the medical facility and handed Loki a bottle of water and a couple of pills.

“What’s this?”

“Painkiller for the shiner you got and a sedative.” With a frown, Loki raised his hand to his face and pressed onto his right cheekbone, feeling a sharp ache at the action. Shock had kept him from feeling the brunt of what must have been plentiful injuries. “So, what happened?” Loki didn’t answer, kicking back the pills and swallowing them dry. “You get distracted?”

“Distracted? What would I get distracted with?” Loki scoffed, and his stomach turned immediately. The lie tasted bitter on his tongue and Stark gave him a look that told him that he knew Loki was lying. “Why did you send her, then? To prove a point?”

“I sent her because she’s the best and because I hoped you had more sense than to let her presence derail you from a task!”

“It was a mistake!”

“That much is obvious!” Tony roared back. He stepped back, forcing himself to take a deep breath before continuing. “Look, I get it. She makes you feel good, but you can’t just drop what you’re doing while behind enemy lines just because you realized she’s pretty. You’re tough as nails, and can survive the Hulk. She can’t.”

“Do you think I haven’t thought of that every second since I pulled her into the jet? It was my fault! I distracted her! She let her guard down and she might… she might–”

“She’s not going to die. Banner’s going to get her stabilized and she’ll recover enough to give you grief for this for the rest of her days. More importantly, I haven’t given her permission to die, so I don’t think she can legally do that.” Loki chuckled drily, rolling his eyes at Stark’s attempt at humor. It was odd to be comforted by the man who used to want him dead, who said he could trust Loki just about as far as he could throw him. “Your girl is as tough as nails. This isn’t what’s going to take her out.”

“She’s not my girl–”

“You’re right. God knows the only reason you’re together is because she allows it.” Tony did a double-take at Loki’s flushed face and impressive fish-out-of-water impression. “What? Did you think you were a secret? You put in more hours in my lab than Becca does. Who the hell waits for their girlfriend to get to work? Have some dignity!”

Loki scoffed. “What I meant to say was that, perhaps, we shouldn’t be together. I can’t bear the thought of getting her killed because of sentimentality. She's… she’s my best friend and I care for her. I can't…”

Our nights have grown so long Now we beg for sound advice “Let the brokenness be felt ’Til you reach the other side There is goodness in the heart Of every broken man Who comes right up to the edge Of losing everything he has”

Tony put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it encouragingly. “Let yourself feel this way–the pain, the grief, the anger. Let it seep into every last bit of you until you’re sure it’ll destroy you. And then use that feeling as fuel so that it never happens again. Feel this mistake so hard that you never want to make it again. Just letting her go isn’t gonna do that.”

We were young enough to sign Along the dotted line

Now we’re young enough to try To build a better life

Loki stared at Stark for a long minute. He thought of Pepper and the million and one headaches and heartbreaks Tony had put her through and the fact that she remained at his side. Pepper was stronger than Tony could ever hope to be, just as Becca was stronger than him. Pepper was Tony’s moral compass. Becca didn’t complete Loki in that way, but rather allowed him to explore areas of himself that had been ignored. She was personified kindness and easiness. She didn’t stress or worry herself sick, as he did. She was just a light that he had refused to turn on long ago.

“Hey, guys,” Bruce said quietly, interrupting the other two’s staring competition. “Bullet’s out and I got the bleeding under control. She should be fine.”

Tony nodded and patted Loki on the shoulder before retrieving his hand. “Is she sleeping?”

“No, she’s a little keyed up. The sedative hasn’t done much and I’m maxed out. I was hoping Loki could do some hocus pocus on her.”

Loki stared at Tony for a moment more before nodding and slipping into the ward behind Banner. Becca’s eyes were as big as dinner plates and she was practically vibrating in place. Her fidgeting settled a bit when Loki took a seat on her bedside. His fingers dug in to brush her hair back, gently scraping at her scalp and he felt her melt into his touch.

“I’m so sorry.” Bruce covered his noise of surprise with a cough, making Becca laugh. He moved from the chair to the space beside her on the bed. “I swear this to be the last time you come to harm because of my recklessness. I promise you I will take care–”

“I’m not angry, Loki. Settle down.” She fished away a tear making its way down his cheek. “This wasn’t your fault. I knew it was a bad idea. I did it, anyway. Let’s just make it a rule–no kissing on the field.”

“You still want to kiss me?” There was genuine surprise in his voice.

“Do you think I would end our relationship because you were affectionate at an inopportune moment?” When he merely broke away his gaze, rather than respond, she sighed. “You mean more to me than that.” He stilled for a long moment before his fingers resumed their scratching. Becca blinked heavily.

“Sleep, my love. I’ll be here to kiss you when you wake.”

[lady-plantagenet]

Shakespeare Appreciation Week

TUESDAY, JULY 14th: Favourite Plays Day: Hamlet (Yes I know I’m basic) 

For most of my teenage and young adult life, I’ve been wondering what it is about Hamlet that has drawn me so much to him in particular. The tension between action and contemplation was an obvious one for me, but looking back at it now (more 15th century history orientated than before) I realise that with the ‘method in his madness’ he thematically reminds me of the perils faced by some of my favourite historical figures. So on reflection, my love for Shakespeare’s most famous protagonist has rekindled and redefined itself. Behold an old take of mine on whether Shakespeare presents Hamlet as sane or mad, admirable or not? (At least up to Act 3) @harry-leroy .

It is without a doubt that it was Shakespeare’s intent to portray Hamlet in a multi-faceted way, pertaining of a lot of paradoxes, such as Hamlet being both mindful of Ophelia for example warning Polonius about letting his daughter be blinded to the majesty that he projects: ‘Let her not walk I’th’sun’, yet at the same time condemning her for simply exhibiting more than one personality: ‘God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another’, which ironically is a central feature of his character. Therefore in many ways Hamlet is supposed to be portrayed as both admirable and mad to us the audience, as his character consistently changes depending with whom he speaks to, such as the ghost of his father in contrast to his mother, Polonius and the rest of the Danish court, as he is sometimes admirable in the way he accepts the moral responsibility that he has as heir presumptive of Denmark has, while simultaneously mad, as he is seen in some of his interactions and within his introspective soliloquys.

 On the one hand, Shakespeare’s intentions to depict Hamlet as a protagonist pertaining admirable qualities can clearly be seen through the multiple times he draws parallels between Hamlet and his storyline and Greek and Roman mythology, for example when he sees himself as Pyrrhus, who is a character that the term ‘pyrrhic victory’ derives from, the drawing of such a parallel subliminally portrays Hamlet in an admirable way to some degree, as it transmits Hamlet’s concern for morality in himself and others, because it shows how he acknowledges that even if he like Pyrrhus were victorious – in his case victory is avenging his father by bringing himself to conquer his ponderous nature, and murder Claudius -, his victory would still have moral ramifications for both himself and those around him, which is one of the main reasons why he procrastinates his vengeance despite wanting it so. For example, when he says in Act 1 Scene 2, line 244: ‘Though hell itself should gape’, he supresses his curiosity as a scholar, and wish for vengeance as the son of his beloved father – both roles that dominate his life and characters – in order to acknowledge how unorthodox this encounter would be, as suggested by the explored themes in that scene such as heaven, hell, death, the after-life and purgatory, which all pertain to a thaumaturgy which is a theme that would have been immediately linked to witchcraft and blasphemy at that time, and it is in many ways admirable for Hamlet to be troubled by the news of his father’s ghost returning instead of immediately trying to see it, without considering the moral implications, which can also be seen by how suspicious he is at the onset, questioning Horatio and Bernardo fervently about the smallest details: ‘pale, or red?’, ‘looked he frowningly’ and ‘armed say you’, while the stichomythic nature of the sharp and short exchanges between the three men, further emphasizes Hamlet’s suspicious and agitated approach towards occurrence, as he firstly maturely analyses if it is indeed his father they saw, before committing the heretic act of speaking to a ghost, who could judging by its description of the sun – often a symbol of clarity and bounteousness – as ‘sulph’rous and tormenting flames’, be a creature of hell and alluding to the dark side, instead of heaven. Yet, he himself often compares himself to the ‘sun’, whether intended for the pun between ‘son’ and ‘sun’, or when describing his relationship to the world and Denmark. For example, in Act 2 Scene 2 when he encounters Polonius and warns him to cease being his ‘fishmongering’ self and to"Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing: but not as your daughter may conceive" in Act 2 Scene 2, line 184 to 185, which is also delivered in prose instead of the more scholarly and sophisticated albeit removed iambic pentameter, which could suggest that he is speaking plainly and simply at this point, and his advice to Polonius should not be taken as one more of his paradoxes and mind-games. Hamlet’s delivering of that line though very strange in nature - as it is jux-ta-posed with the gruesome imagery of charion and maggots, which connote filth and deaths – can be one example of him exhibiting an admirable quality as he realizes that as ‘the sun’ he is in many ways Denmark and has a moral duty to act on what is better for everyone and the people around him than his own selfishness, as Polonius’ aside: ‘still harping on my daughter’ acts as a clarifier to the audience, that Hamlet still harbors feelings for Ophelia, which makes it clear that him warning Polonius to not ‘let her not walk I’ the sun’, serves as a warning to not let her be blinded by his position and the high-standard to which he is being held by Denmark and Ophelia as the heir presumptive: ‘the glass of fashion’, ‘the mould of form’, as he condemns himself for being so submissive to his own feelings as he calls himself ‘a rogue and peasant slave’, for not being able to take up the role of kingship like the actors ‘could force his (their) soul’ and pretend to weep for Hecuba despite meaning nothing to them, and thus making him more admirable as he realizes his own selfishness and thus does not vie for the position of a king or to selfishly love Ophelia.

 On the other hand, the frequency to which soliloquys form Hamlet’s dialogues could connote a certain degree of madness as the constantly introspective nature of Hamlet’s dialogue shows how far he lives inside his mind, which intrinsically suggests that he sees and experiences life to some subjectively, which can connote a certain degree of madness. This is primarily manifested by Hamlet’s constant use of paradoxes throughout the play for example in Act 1, Scene 4, Line 85, when he tells Horatio and Marcellus “I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me”, where ‘let’, which meant ‘hinder’ now means the exact opposite to ‘allow’ which depicts Hamlet as a very confused character as the diction of his speech is ambiguous in meaning, which often can also confuse the audience, getting them into the somewhat mad state of mind that Hamlet is in, another example that illustrates this is for instance: ‘you are the queen, your husbands’ brother’s wife’ that Hamlet says when talking to Gertrude, which not only serves to highlight the morbidity of the union of Claudius and Gertrude but also makes a paradox out of a fact, which serves to further blur the factual world of the outside and the paradoxical inner-world that Hamlet primarily resides in, which serves to further perpetuate the idea that Hamlet is in fact mad and not just play-acting, which he is clearly not capable of –switching roles like the actors have – which would explain the spiteful language that he uses when condemning the players such as: ‘monstrous’ and ‘horrid speech’. Additionally, in his encounters with characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (of whom he didn’t know were spies) Hamlet’s general mood despite changing: he is much more amicable towards the two men, then people whom he is spiteful towards such as his mother, Claudius and Polonius, still retains its air of madness, in both the language that it contains and the rhythm of the line. For example, he proclaims to them: ‘I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw’ in Act 2, Scene 2, Line 402-403, this which is seemingly a clever jape, aimed to show Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that, he (Hamlet) knows they are spying on him, and that beneath his ‘antic disposition’ he is perfectly aware of everything around him, on the other hand the completely offbeat comparison between a ‘hawk and a handsaw’, whose similar sounds no doubt brought their jux-ta-position in Hamlet’s head despite the inappropriate comparison, in addition to the weird repetition of ‘north-north’ in the direction and allusion to something as unpredictable and flimsy as the ‘southerly wind’ can suggest an internal disorientation, which could also reflect an internal perplexity in the construction of his intended jape towards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and thus, an element of madness and disorder within his mind, which makes this intended clever remark about how he noticed that they were spying on him, into more of a joke on him, as the way it actually comes out of his head, would not make sense to the audience/reader.

 In conclusion, Shakespeare clearly intended to portray Hamlet as a multi-facetted character pertaining of many different identities and moods, which often appear erratic and baffling to both the recipient (character dialoguing with him) of his speech and the spectator/reader of the book, yet not so obvious as to make it clear that he is mad. Shakespeare further confuses us by having Hamlet proclaim that “As I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on”, which leads the reader to constantly question when he is pretending or actually being mad, putting the reader in a similarly maddening and blurred disposition as Hamlet, which therefore makes it increasingly difficult to completely understand him. In addition, Shakespeare’s frequent depictions of Hamlet’s noble and admirable qualities such as his need to consider his moral responsibility and role, in addition to his sometimes selflessness, for example when he warned Polonius to keep Ophelia way from him, and warder her off on the grounds of being multi-faced, which he himself is, further mares the image that the reader developed of Hamlet, as he is a lot like the paradoxes in his dialogues: both selfish and selfless, both lucid and mad. Therefore, my overall view is that Hamlet is overall still pretending, but his inner-fight with his inactivity and procrastination in exacting his revenge, is driving him closer to madness, but not in the conventional sense.  

[dumbofass-homo]

I wanna talk about something that caught my eye on this new official art.

(I am probably too deep in the banana hole so this is likely just me hallucinating over Banana Fish but humor me)

Firstly, this could be thought of as an AU of sorts - MAPPA gave us a "what could've been if they all had lived" scenario with this art.

Notice the positioning of the feet of all the characters in the picture. You can kinda group them in pairs:

Sing and Shorter

Ash and Eiji

Yeet and Blanca

I think this was done on purpose. Notice how each pair consists of two people who meant something to each other throughout the show.

Sing and Shorter are both standing with their feet wide apart. The pose isn't identical though - Sing is kind of twisting his body to the side, away from Shorter, and has one foot up in the air. He's still looking at Shorter, but the rest of his body is turned away from him.

Why is this so?

I think it has to do with Sing and Shorter'a relationship in the show and manga. Sing has always looked up to Shorter, wanted to be like him, wanted to lead Chinatown like him, and would constantly ask himself 'What would Shorter do?'

This is why the pose is similar. But why is Sing turning away? I think this image shows that Sing is finally taking his own path in life, that he isn't as fixated on how Shorter would handle things and is, instead, taking matters into his own hands and doing things on his own terms now. He'a still casting a glance at Shorter, but it's only out of the corner of his eye, which I think represents that he still goes to him for advice (let's pray it isn't fashion advice), but I think that if somebody were to depict Sing during BF on this official art, he would be drawn straight up staring at Shorter.

Next up, to no one’s surprise, we have Ash and Eiji with identical poses - feet slightly apart, body facing the viewer.

We all know how deeply in love those two are. I won’t gush over how strong their bond is, or what their relationship is like, since I feel like it’s been explored quite well by other fans, and there are a lot of essays and metas out there that do a far better job of describing it than I ever could. The relationship of the other two pairs aren’t even nearly as explored as AshEiji are, so I would like to focus more on them.

I will say though, that Ash and Eiji are doing what couples tend to do after being in a relationship for a while - they’re mimicking each other’s actions and gestures.

And now, for the somewhat unexpected pair - Yeet and Blanca.

I think Yut Lung got attached to Blanca without realizing it. When Blanca started packing to leave and go help Ash, Yut Lung threw a tantrum and accused him of protecting him as only a means to an end, only for the sake of helping Ash. He got really upset, and if you go and rewatch that scene, you will likely hear how pained and strained his voice was when he finally told him he could go. He was in pain, he was hurting.

Throughout the show, Blanca has never treated Yut Lung badly. He was gentle with him, never raised his voice, never got angry at him, not even when he saw the ugliest sides of Yut Lung, sometimes even while he was intoxicated. He treated him with respect and dignity, and I think Yut Lung was just so starved of love and of being treated as something more than a sacrificial lamb of the Lees that he truly, genuinely believed that Blanca was protecting him not just because it was his job, but because he wanted to. He was so desperate to be loved that he let himself believe Blanca cared about him.

And the thing is?

He was RIGHT.

Remember when Blanca finally agreed to come over to have lunch with Yut Lung, after Yut Lung more or less bribed him into it? Well, a second after he entered his house, he witnessed Yut Lung’s chef trying to kill him. Yut Lung was injured, his arm was bleeding, and Blanca could’ve easily let him die right there and then. 

And yet he protected him on instinct. 

Later, he tended to his arm and told him he was too young to have so many enemies. He agreed to work for him, to keep him safe by being his bodyguard.

I think that Blanca saw Yut Lung for what he really was - a boy who was so unloved, scared, hurt and born into a cruel world that turned him into such a cold person. He saw a 16 year old boy who had people wanting him dead for the deeds of his criminal family. And I think he felt bad for him. I think he truly did want to protect him, that it wasn’t just because Yut Lung discovered his identity, and that it wasn’t just to help Ash. I truly think he WANTED to help him, even a little bit.

And I also think that meant the world to Yut Lung. It wasn’t much but it was the most compassion he had ever gotten out of an adult who wasn’t his mother.

So if you take note of Yut Lung’s pose, you will notice that it’s similar to Blanca’s - left leg straight, right leg bent in the knee. The pose isn’t identical, though - Yut Lung is turning away from Blanca, much like Sing is turning away from Shorter.

I think this symbolises Yut Lung taking his life into his own hands, free from the Lees, free from the shackles of the world he grew up in, but is mimicking Blanca’s pose out of the appreciation for the glimpse of love he received from Blanca. He’s mimicking him because even though Blanca did leave him, Yut Lung realizes it was his own fault and has come to terms with it, and is deeply grateful for just one person treating him with kindness and compassion. It’s his way of saying thank you to someone who probably doesn’t even realize the impact their conduct has had on him.

I said earlier that their poses are similar, not the same. If you look at Sing and Shorter, you will see Sing looking back at Shorter out of the corner of his eye. Yut Lung, on the other hand, is looking straight ahead. I think this has to do with the fact that Yut Lung, unlike Sing, is used to doing everything by himself, without asking for advice or for guidance.

He is looking straight ahead and not at Blanca because even though he appreciates every little thing Blanca has given him, he is still choosing to do things on his own terms, without asking for help, which I think is very true to his character. He is mimicking his pose to thank him, but draws the line there.

That’s it, that’s the analysis.

(Jumps back to the banana hole)

[obsidiancreates]

Something Old, Something New

(Des meets my old evil version of me from when I was 13. I wrote it like how I pictured the inside of my brain looking back then too. So, weird. Weird and edgy.)

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Des looked around the space. “Now where were those Sides again...” she muttered.

Sid’s mind was difficult to navigate. Her constantly shifting thoughts and interests made the terrain just as unreliable, the ground changing shape and color with every step. The sounds of a thousand ideas choked the air, buzzing and screeching, somehow both too quite to hear and too loud to hear anything else. A song played behind the thoughts chatter, looping over and over, consistent background noise to the constant foreground cacophony.

Des moved out of the way of a a person, made of letters and some kind of gray mist, as they sobbed and ran past her. It left behind the feeling of abandonment, and on the ground where it had stepped it left behind words. “Rude Awakening,” Des read. Ah. An unfinished story.

She considered trying to recruit the story. She’d have to see if they had any kind of power or influence after they’d been left behind. If not, she’d let them die with Sid.

She continued on her quest. If she could find that ‘Jessa’, the irrationality Side, she could get her to overpower Sid...

Des walked right into a wall.

“Shit!” She reached up to hold her head, and felt something warm and wet. She brought her hand down, and found her fingers to be coated in blood and lava. She growled and wiped it off on the ground, which shifted from bright teal to deep red at her touch.

She looked up at the building she had slammed into. It was made of deep purple bricks. It didn’t seem to have a start or an end, stretching as wide and tall as the eye could see.

Des looked behind her. Had she already gotten to the subconscious? She couldn’t have...

There was one door. One way forward.

She rubbed her thumb on the end of her sword’s handle, and then went in.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

As soon ash she stepped through the door the world changed.

The music from before became overpowering, and the clamoring of the thoughts went completely silent. She was standing on solid ground, but there was no ground to be seen. She stood in a void, with only one thing in it.

A girl. A version of Sid, in fact. Not one that Des had seen before.

The girl’s hair was short and dark purple, or maybe long and bright purple, or maybe Sid’s normal hair...

Her clothes were a pair of ripped skinny jeans and a band shirt and a black hoodie and sneakers, and they were a black skirt with leggings and a long sleeved dark red shirt and knee-high boots, and they were loose jeans and a loose solid pink shirt, and-

Des rubbed her eyes. The girl’s appearance never stayed the same. All that remained unchanging was the fact that she looked like Sid. A... a younger Sid. From before Des had even existed.

The girl hovered in the air, grinning, singing along with the music.

“Now I know,” she did a spin, “there’s no-one I can trust!” She grabbed the shirt of a faceless figure and pulled them close “I used to think there was!” She shoved the figure away, and they vanished. “Tell me that I’m cut-throat!” She dragged a knife across her neck, grinning, her eyes wide and shifting between purple and black as though they just couldn’t make a decision, and as she dragged the knife across her throat blood poured out of it. “I think you got your eyes closed!” A giant pair of eyes materialized behind her, looking terrified and very similar to Sid’s own, and they squeezed shut.

Des stepped closer. How had she never even heard of this girl? She knew all of Sid’s characters...

“Feel the fear!” The girl stared down at a group of terrified people, all of them as hazy as extras in dreams, but terror clear on their blurry faces. “And swallow back the tears!” The giant eyes returned, crying, before the irises were swallowed with purple and the tears stopped flowing. “Let weakness disappear!” The girl threw her arms out and threw her head back, purple energy pulsing around her. “There’s nobody but me her!” she sang to a mirror, a mirror that showed a younger Sid pounding on the glass, screaming. The girl just grinned back. She grabbed the sides of the mirror and got close to the glass, her nose touching the image of Sid’s. “The killer in the mirror!”

The girl continued her little show, and Des tried to guess who she was.

She wasn’t a Side. She wasn’t some kind of new OC either, her age made that clear. But the song she was dancing to was new... so she must be an old character, and something dragged her back into the forefront of Sid’s imagination.

Realization dawned on Des.

Another evil ego. From long before Des was even a thought.

“Knock ‘em. In the. Teeth. Now,” the girl sang, slowly advancing on another dream-like group, “Never! Let your! Guard! Down!” She “Get some. Of what. They’ve. Got! Have it. And the. Have. Nots!” With every word she got closer. Des got closer as well, curious, and a little pissed off.

Another evil ego? Why did she come back? She was clearly stuck as the age at which Sid made her, so she hadn’t grown with her creator. She was a relic! A... worse version of what Des could have been!

Des wasn’t jealous. Of course not. She was the best, the best of all Sid’s silly little characters. She didn’t get jealous. At all. Ever. It was inconceivable.

The girl grinned even wider somehow. “Knock, knock, knock ‘em all the fuck out!” she screamed, lurching forward, a burst of power exploding through the void. Des shouted as it knocked her to the ground, pushing and dragging her across the floor, knocking the breath from her lungs.

She stayed still, wheezing, pain gripping her whole body. She could faintly hear the girl still singing, but her ears were ringing too much for it to be more than muffled incomprehensible noise.

And then she was pulled to her feet and staring the girl in the face.

The girl was considerably shorter, both because of her age and the extra height Des’s boots gave her. She made up for it by floating high enough to be at eye-level with Des. “Hiya!” she exclaimed.The blood and cut on here neck were gone without a trace. Her teeth looked just a bit too sharp to be human. Her eyes bore into Des’s, and if Des herself wasn’t an evil ego it might have set shivers through her spine.

The girl tilted her head. “Did that hurt ya?” She laughed. “I hope so!”

Des scowled. “Who are you?”

“I’m !)@%*!” she said, using Sid’s real name. Des flinched. The girl didn’t notice. “But cooler! And with no worries or limitations or restraints!” She shrugged, still grinning. “And a little insane!”

“I’m Sid’s evil ego,” Des growled. She drew her sword.

The girl tilted her head again. “Who’s Sid?” Her voice never stopped being cheery.

“I don’t use her real name, idiot.” Des straightened her posture and posed regally. “I am LavaDestroys.”

The girl chuckled. “I don’t have a name! Never did!” Her eyes never closed. They never even narrowed. They just stared, wide as they could be, never leaving Des’s own. “You look different!” The corners of her mouth drooped. It was barely perceptible, the grin was still plastered to her face, but it was clear something had upset her. “Older.”

Des nodded. “I am.”

“How much older?”

Des looked the girl up and down. “A little over two years, I think.”

The girl laughed, bitterness clear in the sound, her left eye twitching. “Two years? I’ve been gone for two years? And... you replaced me?”

Des put her sword away. The girl’s smile dropped completely, her teeth clenching and her breaths coming in short and shaky. Her whole face twitched with rage, and the purple of her eyes became much more red. She screamed, the void around them filling with clashing lights of various shades of purple. She gripped her hair, staring at the ground. Des backed away, but the rage powered light-show left her alone. She watched the girl, braced herself, and took a step forward.

She took slow, careful steps, until she was right next to the girl. She put her hand on her back. “You poor little thing,” she said, pity filling her voice. “Ignored, abandoned, forgotten...”

The girl’s head snapped up and she grabbed Des’s jacket, yanking her closer. “WHAT MAKES YOU BETTER THAN ME?! I WAS FUN! SHE HAD FUN IMAGINING FIGHTING ME!” Her voice cracked and rasped as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

“It’s hardly my fault I was created!” Des didn’t fight back. This girl... she was made before Sid realized her love of manipulative villains. before Sid knew how to properly write manipulation... how it worked.. which left her open to a few ‘suggestions’ from Des. “I never even knew you existed! She ruined you, not me!”

The girl bared her teeth. “YOU STILL REPLACED ME!” She was practically howling the words.

“Please, if you must be angry with anyone, be angry with Sid!”

The girl dropped Des, tears filling her eyes. “She even changed her name in the time I’ve been... been dead! I’ve been DEAD to her!” She shook with rage, with the strain of trying to draw breath through her feelings taking up her chest. “Why shouldn’t I just kill you?! HUH?!” She grinned again, still crying. “Then she’ll HAVE to pay attention to me again!”

“Or,” Des said, using her most soothing voice, “We could fight her together.”

“What?” the girl growled venomously.

“I hate her as well, of course.”

“I don’t hate her! I- I want to help!”

Des blinked, taken aback. “What?”

“She’s so stressed all the time! Having to be sweet and happy and nice all the time!”

Ah. Of course, made when Sid was thirteen... the start of her emo/edgy phase.

“She needs to loosen up!” The girl spread her arms out. “And I can help her do that! She’ll fight against it, but she’ll like it eventually!”

Dammit. Des thought for a moment. “Fine... I think we could still help each other.”

“Oh yeah? How? You seem way too uptight for my taste.” The girl cackled. “I want to go wild! Be unrestrained! You look like you never stop holding things back!”

Des grit her teeth and took a deep breath. “Sid has changed since you’ve been gone,” she said. “Didn’t you notice the new music? The fact that you can curse now? I’m so different from you because she re-thought how she’d like an evil version of her to be. Because her preferences have changed. Her personality has changed. She’s a different person.”

The girl shook her head. “Not that different. I’m here again! I can feel it! She still wants to be able to loosen up! She still can’t be herself the way she wants to!”

“But she expresses herself more now,” Des argued. “Trust me. She’s not the girl she was when she made you.” ‘She’s just different enough for you to need me.’ Des tried not to smirk as she thought that.

The girl looked thoughtful. “You want to kill her. I need her.”

“Well, perhaps I can kill her in more ways than one.” Des smiled. “She’ll hardly be the Sid I’m bothered by if you get ahold of her.”

The girl stared into Des’s eyes. Des stared back, unblinking, unyielding.

The girl nodded slowly. For a moment she looked like a normal kid, looking for some help, some guidance.

“I... guess I could see that.”

Now it was Des who grinned too wide. “Wonderful. Come with me.” She held her hand out. “We have a lot to plan.”

[trashmagines]

You’re Awful, I Love You: Jason Todd x Female!Assassin!Reader

TrAshy Says: You guys can’t seem to get enough of Jason and neither can I tbh. Yes, this title is totally the name of a LUDO album. It’s a not a song fic but while you’re reading it might be fun to listen to Love Me Dead ;) Also, let it be known that I don’t know shit about guns, but I tried. We cool? We cool. <3

Warnings: Reader has killed people, guns, some violence, alcohol mention, one drunk dude, long as fuck (to me anyway)

You watch through the end of your scope as the Bat effortlessly takes down yet another armed thug. As far as you can tell, Gotham is one big cesspool that Batman is just trying to clean up. You’re almost, almost sad it has to be this way; that you have him as a target. Nevertheless, money talks, and you’re being paid well to do a job, not get emotional. 

Batman finishes off the last of his adversaries, his back facing you. At this point he’s practically begging you to take the shot, and you’re about to when you’re suddenly thrown to the ground face first. A swift kick to your torso knocks the wind out of you, and you feel a large weight settle on your lower back.

“Don’t struggle; I’d hate to have to mess up such a beautiful face.”

Robin. How the fuck did you forget about Robin? You feel some kind of tie enclose around your wrists while you’re mentally chastising yourself for not factoring in boy wonder, and the sensation makes you groan internally. A pair of boots enter your field of vision, and you look up to meet the eyes of the man in the Batsuit. Great. 

They haul you off to what you assume is the Batcave; Batman leading you to an interrogation room like the prisoner you currently are, and Robin dropping off your equipment before joining you both. Under the intense fluorescent lighting, they can see just how young you appear to be, a fact that seems to trouble Batman by the look in his eyes. He asks the standard questions: who are you, who hired you, and why would you do this? Your exasperated sighs and eye rolls are his only answers; like you’re really going to tell him any of that. 

Unfortunately, some state-of-the-art facial recognition technology exposes a good chunk of your history, including your name. You’re an assassin, bounty-hunter, murderer-for-hire; if it has to do with capturing, killing, and money, you’ve probably dabbled in it. Batman rapidly scans your extensive rap-sheet while Robin eyes you with the cockiest smirk you’ve ever seen on a person. God, you can’t decide if you want to kiss him or choke him out. 

“I’d like to make you a deal, Y/N.” “A deal? You’re aware that I was this close to murdering you, right?” “I know, but you didn’t.” “Yeah, your sidekick showed up.”  “You had ample opportunities before that. I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’d been watching me for some time. You most likely had plenty of openings; shots you could have taken but didn’t.” “I was waiting for the perfect moment and got interrupted.”

You’re lying. Batman knows it, Robin knows it, and you know it. Sure, you were about to shoot before Robin intervened, but Batman was right, you’d had plenty of openings beforehand and hadn’t utilized any of them. 

“From this list of confirmed kills, I can tell you usually only go after the worst of the worst. Someone most likely offered you an amount of money you couldn’t refuse, so you took this assignment. You don’t seem like a bad person, Y/N, and I think you could be a valuable asset to me.” “Are you... offering me a job?” “That’s exactly what I’m doing. In exchange for becoming one of the good guys, I won’t throw you in Arkham for trying to kill me. Do we have a deal?”  “...Deal.” 

Six months later 

“You’ve got to stop drawing your gun on me when I come into your room!” “Then stop sneaking in through the fucking window and use the door! We live in the same mansion Jason, it makes no sense!” 

You lowered your shotgun and glared at the messy haired boy standing in front of you. You were getting ready for bed when he oh so graciously decided to drop in unannounced again, prompting you to grab your emergency weapon. He didn’t notice the look on your face as his eyes were too busy roaming your uncovered legs. 

“Jason,” you huff, pinching the bridge of your nose. “What do you want?” “Oh, Bruce wants us to do some undercover work together.” 

It was then you noticed the manila folder he was holding. You took it from him and rapidly scanned through the information. Apparently the police department was holding an appreciation dinner, because that’s really what Gotham city needs right now, and you and Jason were to go and pose as a couple for extra protection. 

“What dipshit decided having a bunch of cops in the same place was a good idea?” “Don’t know. But it’s tomorrow night so I’ll pick you up at six.”

That stupid smirk you’d grown fond of was plastered on Jason’s face and you shoved him towards your door with a loud proclamation of ‘Good night, Jason.’ He took the hint and left, shutting you door softly behind him. It had been a little over six months since you’d tried to fulfill the hit on Bruce, and though you could say your life was better, adapting to the high standards Bruce had was difficult. Even though beating and occasionally maiming was okay, he had a strict no killing policy that you constantly struggled with. Still your combat skills, which were already well developed when you’d first met, were steadily increasing and you were quite handy when it came to finding intelligence on the latest criminal schemes. You couldn’t exactly say you were “one of the good guys”, but having a consistent place to lay your head and stable income were two major pluses of your new life.

The following day, Jason was at your door at six sharp, dressed in what he liked to call a monkey suit. You did one last mirror check before opening your door, Jason’s mouth involuntarily falling open as you did. You were wearing in a knee length black dress that had a deep V neckline and lace cap sleeves. Your black suede pumps clacked against the floor as you walked past him, simply wanting to get this protection detail over with. 

The ride to the banquet hall was quiet; your eyes scanning the city outside of the window and Jason’s eyes scanning you. When you reached your destination, you both went over your cover story before exiting the car. Bruce had eyes on the situation through cameras that had been stealthily placed in advance. Jason took your hand and led you into the building, already not liking the way all eyes fell on you as you entered. He led you to the bar so that you both could pretend to talk and determine if there were any threats present. 

You had been at the bar for about an hour and a half, Jason leaving your side about thirty minutes in to mingle and blend with the crowd as best he could. There had been no suspicious activity during that time and you almost wished something would happen so you wouldn’t have to hear anymore ‘pat-me-on-the-back-I’m-so-great’ speeches. 

“Hey, beautiful.”

Be careful what you wish for. 

You turn to look at the man that has just taken the seat on your left. You recognize him as one of the pricks that droned about how much he was helping make the city a better place despite never having actually done anything. He smells like he just took a bath in Budlight and you have to stop yourself from recoiling.

“What’s a pretty girl like you doing sitting here all alone?”

Oh. He’s bold. 

“I’m not alone, I’m with my boyfriend.” 

Right on cue, Jason slides an arm around your waist and lightly kisses your cheek. You know you’re supposed to be pretending, but you can’t deny that you’re enjoying the faux affection. 

“Everything okay, babe?”  “Mhm. Just making light conversation.” 

Budlight man looks like he��s trying to set Jason ablaze with his stare, but then he turns back to you, his hand itching closer to the one you have resting on the bar. 

“Wouldn’t you rather be with a man than with a boy?”

Oh. He’s BOLD bold. 

The arm that’s around your waist tightens reflexively, and when you face Jason you see a glint in his eye. He wants to break this guy’s neck almost as much as you want to, but you have a much better idea in mind.

You turn the bar stool so that your whole body is facing Jason, uncross your legs, and pull him to you so that you can kiss him hard. He responds immediately, hands coasting down your sides before gripping your hips and pushing your bodies closer together. He kisses you breathless, his tongue exploring your mouth and battling yours for dominance. He knows that you’re letting him kiss you like this, and that shift of power makes him groan against your lips. You pull away smiling and then return your attention to the man that had been hitting on you. He looks beyond pissed and a tad embarrassed and you revel in it.

“Does that answer your question?” 

Budlight man stalks away, probably mumbling some derogatory comment about you since he couldn’t have what he wanted. You look back at Jason and when your eyes meet, you notice that his pupils are blown wide. 

“You know that was purely for the sake of our cover, right?” “Mhm.” “Good.” 

You adjust your dress since Jason’s grabby hands had caused it to wrinkle, before turning your attention to all the inebriated cops you’re now basically babysitting. Jason’s standing on your right side, a hand comfortably resting just above your left hip. He leans in close to you, close enough for you to feel his warm breath hitting your neck. 

“You know that when we get home, I’m going to be the one that’s taking off your dress, right?”

You bite your lip at his declaration, ideas of how your night could play out already forming in your mind. 

“We’ll see.”

[shock777archive]

I got this question on deviantart, and I felt like reposting my answer here, in case anyone is interested :P 

THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG REPLY BUT BEAR WITH ME LOL When I first started drawing/am I self taught : I've been drawing since kindergarten. Anime specifically, since I was about 8 years old. so that's been uh...18 years since I've started drawing in the anime-esque style? I am self taught on these areas. I picked up a digital artist tablet at the age of 13 or so, (it was a wacom Graphire 4 4x5 in) so it's been 13 years of digital art practice i've gotten in. I have picked up several how to draw books over the years until i surpassed some of them. But even now i'm constantly referencing tutorials and poses, looking for ideas and color palettes, etc. I have taken some schooling in college for art. I took beginner's drawing and color theory and maybe a little of art history but that's about it before i quit lmao What inspired me to draw in the first place/what I first drew: The thing that inspired me to draw in the first place was my favorite cartoons. from a very young age i knew that cartoons weren't real, but it fascinated me that actual people could create almost living people. I related to cartoons, and even though they were fake characters, I just loved the idea of creating a whole world of my own. So I took up drawing in kindergarten. First things I drew were flowers, rainbows, trees, etc. But My first biggest undertaking was powerpuffgirls. lol This was the series that started it all. Began drawing tons of powerpuffgirls stories and oc's. For the next few years I would watch different things like all the standard cartoon network shows. But I watched yugioh and dbz and other anime things too. What also got me into anime art style was the online game neopets lol Their faeries designs ( http://images.neopets.com/games/pages/icons/screenshots/586/4.jpg ) kind of had an anime resemblance, so I started drawing those for a while. When I was 8 or 9 years old my father bought me my first how to draw manga book (this one in particular: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Drawing-Manga-Ben-Krefta/dp/1841931713  ) looking back on it, this book is terrible and the anime in it is so ugly looking lol. However, i used that thing religiously and began making my own characters like a blue elf girl and a human friend of hers. ( in fact, here's the post. i tried redrawing them recently lol: https://shock777.tumblr.com/post/145898896143/finding-old-art-is-the-best-cause-you-can-redraw ) ...Then the real transformation began once I started watching Teen Titans when it aired in 2003. I was 10 at the time. That show started my love for japan. The language interested me and I began researching Japanese songs and trying to sing along to them. I didn't know what the words meant, but the artistic style and meshing of western cartoons and anime of the show really piqued my interest. My earliest drawings of them suckedddd XD; As Teen Titans drew to a close near 2006-2007 ish, I picked up Naruto and then it was all over since then lol my anime style and weeb days really came into full force lol I thank naruto though. I learned how to draw more realistic anatomy as opposed to cartoony anatomy. It was a very wild ride, but it's all documented here on my deviantart page as I got this exact account around the same time! I started posting my work in 2008, so you can go back far enough into my gallery and see the progress XD; I keep the old cringe up because it just motivates me and hopefully others, to keep drawing and keep going farther! :) PHEW lol long history there XD I do have some of my old art!!! If you wanna see some, I've posted a little here: https://shock777.tumblr.com/tagged/old-art plus I already said there's a few still on my dA gallery haha Tips I can give to you: 1. And I think this is most important, JUST KEEP GOING. It's soooo tempting to quit drawing when things aren't going right and when you're not happy with how your art looks. Trust me, every artist I've ever known including myself have gone through this. It's so easy to compare your work to someone else's. The thing is, we're all in this together. No one expects a newborn to be able to file taxes or drive a car lol. We all have to evolve and change, and that change comes from consistent work. Art isn't an inherent talent, it is hard work that is honed over several years of blood, sweat and tears lmao JUST KEEP GOING. as I've mentioned, my old cringe art is still on my dA page. Back then when I was younger I was less concerned with things being perfect and I spam posted almost every doodle. And I began a "fanbase" i guess because of those days and my consistent posting. I've had this freaking deviantart page for 11 freakin years. If I had stopped drawing whenever I felt my art was imperfect or not good enough, I would have stopped posting around 2009. so...just keep going. And I'd even dare you to post your "shitty doodles" that you think aren't that great. Because you never know what someone else will see in it that you don't. Be confident, and never give up! 2. Soak up any tutorial and really focus on studying your favorite artist's styles. If there's something you want to replicate in your art that someone else is drawing, try to see how they do it. sometimes artists have tutorials posted and sometimes they don't. I have a few posted on my youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRB9xQBsGpfetNJbmXWZ1fL9d5IlqQs1w ) and some in my gallery. Don't exactly copy some things stroke for stroke, but try to add your little spin to something. Like sometimes I will see art senpai drawing a specific eye style I wanna replicate, but I don't like one part of the process. So sometimes I'll just add my own little addition, or just omit that process completely. Usually though, if the art style isn't necessarily super unique, you can copy a lot of mainstream styles without anyone really griping saying "oh you're just copying so and so's art style". It's important to look up to art senpais i think. They make me want to try harder lol 3. Take an art class if you're able. Color theory really helped me grasp things that I never had before. LIKE REFLECTIVE LIGHT FOR INSTANCE. I never drew that shit but now I do because DUH it's so freaking obvious lol It also helps to learn what colors neutralize others, complementary colors, analogous ones, etc. It's nice to have an eye for what matches together and to know the principles of art. I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to perspective, which we did cover a little in class lol but work on your own pace. If your college near you offers a class for beginners, take it if you're able. it will help you view things differently. 4. Copy realistically. Like, I'm talking look at a freaking object in your room and try to draw it. Once you can draw it semi realistically, you can then add your own little stylistic choices to it. Like so many artists who draw chibis or cartoony things, they more than likely know the proper proportions of people and anatomy. But they draw the proportions all whacky and it creates their own style. However it does help to know how they work in reality lol 5. TRACE OVER POSES. Sometimes I do this. I'm not saying to trace someone's art, but if you see some kind of pose on say a google image, or a stock photo, try sketching over it to get a feel for where the joints connect if you're working on anatomy. It reaaaallly helps you memorize where the arm would end, or where the torso connects to the hips. 6. Take advice and criticism well. If someone sees something you don't about your art, they may be on to something. It's not wrong if someone gives you a heads up that a proportion seems lacking or something seems too big or out of place. It will actually help you to see what others see. Sometimes we get in the habit of drawing something a certain way and it's hard to break that habit especially if you've drawn the same thing several hundred times. It will help you in the long run to just accept that you're always going to be improving. You'll never be perfect at drawing, so what do you have to lose? Just keep walking forward and learn what you can. 7. Flip the canvas. This is more or less a digital art tip, but please flip the canvas to make sure the proportions are not off. lol A lot of professionals have to flip the canvas until they get a feel for where things are placed. Another good tip is to use a stabilizer of some kind to draw straight lines. Paint tool sai has one at the very top of the window. It helps tremendously. 8. Draw what you like and don't feel bad for not drawing everything everyone else likes. Don't sacrifice your morals or your personal desires for something everyone else likes. If you're paid to draw something you don't like, thats another thing. but don't let people pressure you to draw stuff that you don't want to. You'll be much happier, and build an audience that is much like-minded to you. Be considerate of what your audience likes, sure, but remember at the end of the day, art is something to express one's self. Art is not and should not be a job. Even if you get paid money to draw or design things, it's important to take a break and draw something for yourself every once in a while. Be self indulgent, and treat yo self from time to time :) And uhhh...that's all I can think of for the time being. :') let me know if you have any further questions or if I need to clarify anything :) Thanks again!

[teppencheatjewels-blog]

TEPPEN Guide

TEPPEN Guide was recently released. There is no point in having more than three copies of the same card, and the Cards screen allows you to reap any extra card you can't use. You can reap any card that isn't part of the Basic set, so if you don't expect to be playing some cards in the near future, feel free to reap them if you really need the Souls to craft a card you need to finish a deck. You earn additional Basic cards by leveling up with each specific hero, so make sure to play all of them! This comes in handy when you don't want your Action card to be countered, as your opponent will have expended his Mana Points on something else, and won't have enough left to counter your play. For example, when playing against a Red deck, they could play Path of the Warrior to deal 3 damage to your defending creature, kill it before it could defend from an attack, and kill you. But you can then answer this play by playing a card like Secure Supply Route, whose effect will resolve before Path of the Warrior's and save your creature, saving you the game. The motivation behind why there is no unbiased cards, is on the grounds that every group or shading has unmistakable fight techniques and players can blend them to make fascinating and complex mix deck, subsequently not by any means requiring nonpartisan cards. Blending the red group's unnecessary animosity in buffs and direct assaults with green's protecting and wellbeing buffs is only one case of how mixes can end up obliterating. There is a stunning expense for blending hues, a player's absolute MP is chopped down and a player might most likely play certain cost cards. Not awful. The card fights occur continuously, bringing a fresh out of the box new component to the conventional card put together interactivity that we see with respect to cell phones. What's more, guess what? TEPPEN is extremely lovely darn great, genuinely. I know, I know. I didn't hope to state that either, yet Capcom and Gung Ho Online Entertainment truly thumped it out of the recreation center with this one. In this guide, you will discover truly all that you could wish to think about TEPPEN. One of the significant draws of the game is that players will get the chance to see battles, for example, Street Fighter's Ryu versus Occupant Evil's Leon Kennedy, and Monster Hunter's Rathalos versus Darkstalkers' Morrigan. Different characters from the beginning program of eight are Street Fighter's Chun-Li, Monster Hunter's Nergigante, Mega Man's X, and Resident Evil's Albert Wesker. What sets TEPPEN separated from most computerized card diversions is that the activity occurs continuously, which may change into a turn-based arrangement through the Active Response framework. GurenFrog has made a Morrigan deck in TEPPEN that has a 85% success rate. Nonetheless, before players can assemble the deck, they should do some legwork. Initially, they should open Morrigan in TEPPEN. To do that, essentially play through the three parts of her story mode, which incorporates battles against Ryu, Nergigante, and Dante. When they've been finished Morrigan's story mode, players will probably make their very own Morrigan decks. Be that as it may, to get the Darkness Illusion Hero Art that GurenFrog suggests, players should get the opportunity to level 3 with Morrigan. Cards additionally have a class, they can be Normal, Golden, or Secret. This grouping is only for corrective reasons: Golden cards gleam, and Secret cards have a similar sparkle as Golden cards, while additionally being enlivened. They look extremely pleasant, however you can't create them, so it's up to possibility whether you discover any in your packs. Creating is extraordinary and all, however you will require Souls to specialty cards, and Souls are earned by pulverizing the cards you as of now have in abundance. Every saint is extraordinary, and the best decision of Hero Art relies upon your deck organization. You can check what these do by making another deck and choosing a pioneer, the three expressions will be there in a jiffy. You open new Hero Arts at level 3, and 10. Units can have different characteristics, a few, similar to Flight or MP lift are constantly dynamic, some actuate when the cards are played, others enact when the unit slaughters an adversary unit, and finally, there are capacities like Resonate or Revenge that initiate separately when you play an Action card and when the unit passes on. TEPPEN hangs out in various ways however. To start with, we should discuss the game's set up. Every legend has 30 wellbeing and there are three spaces in which players can set flunkies/animals. A player's hand size is five with two included spaces utilized in different ways. The game looks and feels progressively like a functioning battleground in light of the arrangement and the more restricted field of play Second, TEPPEN utilizes a functioning fight framework. Consistently that goes in the match gives you one MP, your MP is utilized to gather animals or characters or use activity cards, so utilize your time/MP shrewdly. You can manufacture decks that contain different hues, however there are confinements in doing as such. A deck with cards of two distinct hues can just have cards that cost up to 5 MP in them. You can get considerably crazier and play cards from 3 unique hues, yet then the confinement will happen to 3 MP. Furthermore, you don't really need to play cards of a similar shade of the pioneer, yet this likewise gives you a similar punishment as though you were playing two distinct hues. Capcom will add more Heroes and cards to TEPPEN after some time, which should given aficionados of its establishments more things to anticipate in the game. Pose an inquiry about working or talking at TEPPEN Corporation. Our people group is prepared to reply. Nobody anticipated this game. No one requested it, yet here it is. Truly it isn't too pitiful either. TEPPEN is a card game with a turn from Capcom and GungHo Online Entertainment. This game takes card fighting to a better place taking into account wacky game play and more activity and speed; In the Land of Illusion, numerous incredible creatures from various pockets of reality merge to fight. Activity cards resemble Instants in Magic: The Gathering, you can play them at whatever point you need. The game obtains another idea from Magic: The Gathering: impacts from Action cards settle dependent on when they were played: the last Action card played purposes first. When you play an Action card the game clock stops, and your adversary has a few seconds to choose whether or not they need to answer your play with their very own Action cards. You can likewise play Action cards that don't straightforwardly impact the result of the present line. This pushes players to buy new card packs from the in-game store, frequently through microtransactions that cost genuine cash. Highlights characters from Resident Evil, Mega Man, Street Fighter, and other well known game establishments. Guardians need to realize that TEPPEN is an allowed to-play collectible card game accessible for download on iOS and Android cell phones. Players manufacture decks of virtual cards and fight in story-based missions just as player versus player matches. Matches are introduced to players as battles, but there's almost no onscreen savagery really appeared. That is a completely included versatile card game, and keeping in mind that it's not the best one I've at any point played, it offers a pretty darn great resistance to the huge young men available. Contingent upon your preferences, it may even drag you away from Hearthstone. Besides, the cast of Capcom characters is truly alluring. Ryu, Morrigan, Albert Wesker, Nergigante, and a bundle more are incorporated. The quantity of arrangement that are included right presently is quite little thinking about Capcom's broad library, yet I'm certain we can anticipate that more cards should be included what's to come.

[acaseforpencils]

Jason Chatfield.

Bio: I grew up in the far flung suburbs of Perth, in Western Australia, and used to spend my paper route money on MAD Magazines (I cheaped-out and stole my dentist’s waiting room issues of the New Yorker. I think I was the only kid who looked forward to going to the dentist).

I moved to New York in 2014 and started pitching to the mag in person. I’m not sure Bob liked me, so I went back to pitching via email. Then I went in on his last day and finally sold my first piece. I feel like it was his final f—k you to the magazine. “Here! Have a Chatfield!” 

Find this print here!

The cartoon was a goofy play on Vlad the Impaler. 

I didn’t sell to the magazine again until last month, but I’ve had a handful sold as dailies. And I’m published in MAD often, so they’ve clearly done away with any of their standards.

When I’m not drawing gag cartoons I write and draw a syndicated legacy strip called Ginger Meggs which I took over 10 years ago. It’s been around since 1921 and now appears daily in 34 countries. He’s kind of an Australian version of Dennis the Menace, except he predates him by about 30 years.

Tools of choice: For drawing/roughs, I use a Prismacolor Turquoise clutch pencil with a red lead and try to find some paper with a little bit of tooth. The mixed media pads at Blick do the trick nicely.

I ink using a Uni-ball Vision Elite Stick Roller Ball Pen… or a Pigma Micron 03. 

DO NOT use the Uni-Ball Vision Rollerball Pens, Fine Point (0.7mm) if you’re traveling. They explode on planes. And ruin your copy of The New Yorker.

For a wash, I just use watercolor and whatever brush is lying around. Nothing fancy. There’s a scanning app on my phone called “Adobe Scan” which does a nice job of scanning line-art into a PDF when I’m out of the studio and need to email in a quick rough.

I use a Wacom Mobilestudio Pro for finished artwork. I like to get out of the studio and work from a bar or restaurant, so it helps that I can take that with me. I use a little glove that I got on Amazon so I don’t grease up the screen, and the felt-tip nib that comes in the pen-holder makes the friction between the stylus and the screen more like pencil on paper. Unfortunately, they’re not waterproof, as I found on a recent vacation…

My wife plays piano and sings at bars around the city so I’ll often sit at the bar during her sets and draw. Digital/Traditional depends on what deadlines are most pressing. (She has a weekly residency in Astoria —if anyone’s interested in going, let me know!)

A lot of people email me for advice about tablets —I’ve been trialling/demo-ing Wacom products for 15 years— I think they’re great. If you’re married to doing stuff by hand but want to colour digitally, you can get a decent tablet without going broke. Depends on your workflow.

Writing Desk: My wife and I were living upstairs in 5A when my neighbour in 4B died. He was a brilliant poet and had an incredible old writing desk. It’s the only thing that was left in the apartment, so I’m looking after it ’til his grandson moves in at the end of our lease. I work for countless hours at this old thing. It’s beat up, but I’ve patched it together enough that it won’t collapse and bury me mid-brushstroke. I’ve stuck a few of my favourite toons on the top of it.

Tool I wish I could use better: My brain. It really is a sack of cats. Whenever I want to sit and do work, it clocks off. Then it comes up with a pearler of an idea at 3 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep. I write it down in my phone, but autocorrect makes it indecipherable by morning.

I like working with my writer friend, Scott. We both do comedy at night and have developed a nice short-hand. We also seem to have the same library of references and can build on each others’ premises, which tames my sack-of-cats.

Tool I wish existed: The Deadline Extender.® I’ve never missed a deadline, but that said… an extra 3 or 4 minutes to allow for a terrible wifi connection, or a errant scanner wouldn’t go astray.

Also: The Deadline Extender® PREMIUM: Let’s you go back in time to when you were procrastinating and slap yourself in the face. $30 p/month.

Tricks: Ok, well. This is going to sound a bit Dalton Trumbo, but bear with me: I do my best work…in the bath.The most productive 3 hours of my week are during Scotchbath Sunday; an immoveable chunk of time on Sunday evening whereby I lock myself in the bathroom, run a bath, lug my drawing stuff onto a bit of wood that sits over the bath, and just write and draw. Nothing else. I write weeks worth of my syndicated comic strip (Ginger Meggs), I write New Yorker cartoons, scribble up roughs for dailies— and when I feel like I’ve earned it (usually 2 hours in) I tap the side of the bath three times, and my wife peels herself from her piano and I unlock the door to a nice big glass of scotch. It’s a hell of a carrot on a stick to work towards when you’re stuck. (PS. Lest you think I’m some kind of Don Draper-era misogynist; the scotch reward part was her idea. I think she realized it keeps me in the bath and out of her way.)

Anyway. It’s a great way to switch gears creatively. It’s like being on an aeroplane. No wifi, no phones — just the work you need to get done. Get involved. #ScotchBathSunday.

Oh! And if I get my deadlines done for the week, I have a small budget for a solo lunch somewhere where I can eat cheese and draw. I really didn’t know cheese ’til I moved to America. (And yes, I’ve already been to Wisconsin. Good Lord.)

Tips? I always tell younger artists to not even think about touching a drawing tablet until they’ve learned to draw by hand first. Otherwise they’ll always be drawing away, knowing they have the insurance of the CTRL+Z key at their disposal if they screw up a line. That’s not a good habit to have when you’re working to a deadline. But, once you do know how to draw, by all means dive head-first into the digital realm. It’s incredible. Procreate, Sketchbook or Photoshop are all great.

Misc: One of the hangovers from working in advertising illustration is that I’ve had to be a bit of a chameleon style-wise for the last 15 years and haven’t allowed myself to just settle into one style. Lately, I’ve just decided to say “Bugger it!” and try and find a loose, consistent style that I’m comfortable with, that’s an apt conduit to my silly ideas.

I always loved George Booth’s line, and his ability to create a scene with so much movement but just at the right moment in time. Also Sam Gross’ dark, hilarious cartoons with perfect line-economy. And I’d give my left arm (I draw with my right) to know how Barry Blitt has so much control with his washes…

Chatfield’s portrait of Sam Gross

While I’m geeking out, I love seeing younger cartoonists find their feet and thrive in a style that just feels like they’re speaking to you— Ellis J. Rosen, Sofia Warren, Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, Jason Katzenstein, Amy Kurzweil, and a seemingly endless list of talented younger artists who are putting in the work are a big inspiration. 

I know it should be Steig or Thurber or Addams, but my favourite cartoonist is Sergio Aragones.

I was always so enamoured of MAD growing up and studied the lines of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee and the Usual Gang of Idiots. I remember being so frustrated I couldn’t even come close to getting my work to look like theirs, but I think I found a style somewhere in between when I fell short. 

I think Wil McPhail’s poses are masterful, and I wish I knew how how the hell he did that. One day I’ll trudge up to England and knock on his door to ask him. I find myself doubled-over at John Cuneo’s Instagram, and Ed Steed’s absurdly funny gags. I have a slew of toons I’ve torn out of years’ worth of magazines and taped to my studio wall, or my zillion year-old writing desk. I’m constantly humbled by how generous and welcoming the existing crop of New Yorker cartoonists have been to a goofy Aussie immigrant — Joe Dator, Matt Diffee and Pat Byrnes, Mort Gerberg and an ever-growing list of prolific, talented cartoonists who make the 99% weekly rejection tolerable.

I’ve made some of my closest friends and have been lucky enough to meet my cartooning heroes through the National Cartoonists Society. I got to spend a lot of time with Sergio at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in the UK last year which made my year. We were signing together for a whole afternoon and I spent more time geeking out with him than signing.

Okay. Enough drooling. Sorry.

I’m a fan of cartoonists.

Website, etc. I have a weekly podcast where I throw around ideas for New Yorker cartoons with a fellow comedian and writer, Scott Dooley. It’s called “Is There Something In This?” It’s a bit of fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the art of writing gags very seriously. It’s an extremely difficult skill to master, and we’re virtually zygotes at it. We have lots of listeners now, which is bewildering. Talking about drawing is like dancing about architecture, but here we are. Anyway you can find it on iTunes or wherever you waste time listening to podcasts.

My website is jasonchatfield.com and my comedy stuff is up at jasonchatfieldcomedy.com  ( I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for 11 years. If anyone wants to come see a show, hit me up! I’ll put you on the door). My instagram is @jasonchatfield. I’m still trolling the British chap who has the @jasonchatfield handle on Twitter to no avail. To that end, I’m @jason_chatfield on Twitter.

If you want more art supplies in your life, A Case for Pencils is on Instagram and Twitter.  You can also find me, Jane (the person who created/edits this blog), on Twitter here, which is where I stick the paintings that I’ve been doing instead of interviewing people consistently (I needed to balance working on other people’s work and my own work!). Oh, and If you’d like to support this blog, which is always very appreciated, there are many different ways to do so, which you can find here!

[merinathropp]

Tanz der Vampire - Vienna 2018: Detailed Breakdown

Guys, this was such an amazing experience, I have a real mixed bag of opinions (both good and bad) and a lot of emotions. I feel so lucky to have seen this production. Now, to get all my thoughts down on paper! 

First night - from middle stalls front row Second night - from middle stalls seventh row

Graf von Krolock - Drew Sarich (second night) Graf von Krolock - Florian Fetterle (first night) Alfred - Raphael Gross Professor - Sebastian Brandmeir  Sarah - Diana Schnier Herbert - Charles Kreische Magda - Anja Backus 

.

THE GOOD STUFF

ALFRED - Hello yes first off I would like to marry thank Mr. Raphael Gross for his powerful, heartfelt portrayal of one of my all-time favourite characters. He was everything I could ever want in an Alfred: sweet and devoted, full of energy and expression, and completely freaking adorable. He scurried around the stage like a frightened hedgehog, but I mean that in the best way possible. He was a ray of (very anxious) sunshine, you couldn’t help but love him and want him to win against all the odds. 

- Für Sarah was An Experience, in the best way possible. Raphi’s Alfred started off very soft and uncertain, sort of pep-talking himself into summoning up the courage to keep going, but as the song went on, he seemed to sort of...grow and strengthen in front of your eyes? Like he was channelling all his love for Sarah into fighting against his fears, and by the end of the song, he had defeated them completely. He was practically punching the air and thrusting the bag all over the place with passion and determination. It was sweet and stunning and perfect, and the audience rightfully cheered at the end :’)

- Loved this detail: when the Professor was demonstrating to Rebecca how he was going to stage Chagal, Raphi turned his head away and cringed and closed his eyes for the actual moment of staking. Such good foreshadowing, setting up how frightened Alfred is by the whole staking process, so early on!

- When the Professor gestured in Ein Guter Tag for a bowl of gruel, he leapt up and charged around the bed at such a speed, he completely forgot where he was going :’) because he headed straight for the Professor’s clothes instead of the trolley! He had to skid on his heel and go charging back to fetch a bowl of gruel instead. It was the most Alfred-y thing to do (being in such a desperate hurry to please the Professor, he forgets what the Professor actually asked him to do) - I loved it.

- When the Professor is chiding him for stepping on the creaky floorboard at the end of Act 1 (even though it’s actually the Professor himself), Raphi’s Alfred stood there with this expression of half-bewilderment, half-hurt on his face, kind of like: “But Professor I’m not...doing anything...” and it was both hilarious and sad all at the same time. Then when Alfred himself passed the creaky floorboard, he walked very carefully to make sure it didn’t creak again, which is the most Alfred-y thing and I loved it. 

- Okay, this made me laugh so much at the time, even though I always feel so bad for Alfred: when the Professor does his “Hast du ihn provoziert oder was?!” line and tries to investigate his trousers, Raphi’s Alfred went into a complete panic and struck this ridiculous wobbly pose where he tried to turn his legs in and cross his knees, he looked completely silly and like he was about to fall over at any moment :) poor Alfred, it’s just the icing on the cake in that scene...

- The bite was 10x more traumatic than it needed to be, because inbetween the usual screams of pain, Raphi’s Alfred cried out Sarah’s name, and that pretty much broke me. I don’t know whether he was begging her to stop or just crying out in horror, but either way, it was gut-wrenching. 

- He undid four of his shirt buttons in the bathroom scene??? revealing a lot of bare chest to the audience??? I think this is the most scandalous thing I’ve ever seen an Alfred do??? (not exactly complaining, it was just...unexpected)

- Raphi lost his red coat somewhere over the course of his dance with Herbert and it was the greatest thing I have ever witnessed in a rendition of Wenn Liebe. Literally, it was hanging off his shoulder, and he couldn’t pull it back up because of the mirror-reflection. This + drenched in sweat + his hair looking like he’d come through a hedge backwards = I felt bad for laughing, but it was hilarious and adorable in equal amounts, just the icing on the cake in that scene.

KROLOCK (DREW SARICH) - I was not prepared.

- Seriously, nothing could have prepared me.

- Nothing, I tell you.

- Don’t get me wrong, I’d seen this guy on YouTube before and always thought he was a perfectly decent Krolock. But seeing him live...oh boy, seeing him live was an experience I will never forget. I finally understand all the hype for Drewlock and it is so. freaking. justified. I’m now going to fangirl for a couple of paragraphs and probably say 19023 things that all his fangirls have been analysing for decades, but what can I say? I’m a shiny new fan!

- I think the best way to describe Drew’s performance is hypnotic, charismatic and animalistic. There was something so intimate about his portrayal, you hung on every single word he spoke. Each line was given purpose and meaning, every gesture controlled and planned, every tiny inflection mattered. He was magnetic to watch, sending this incredible hush over the audience whenever he spoke or sang. When he was onstage, it was like the entire world and all the other characters revolved around him, and each time he left the stage, I found myself wishing (for the first time) that there was more Krolock in the show. 

- He glided around with this incredible predatory grace. His hands were constantly moving and arching and flexing, like a cat with its claws. He’d snarl, hiss, bare his teeth, twitch his lips, lick his fangs etc. in a way that somehow always came off incredibly chilling, never silly or pantomimic. During his numbers, I kept noticing my heart literally pounding in my chest, or having to to lean back in my seat and let out my breath in a gush because I’d been holding it...ridiculous, but true, and completely awesome.

- His personality for Krolock was full of charisma, pathos, wit, genuine menace, and humour. Proper humour, that was what surprised me the most, e.g. his sarcasm with the Professor and mocking reaction to Alfred’s candlestick charge both made me laugh out loud. 

- His dynamic with Alfred was...full-on seduction? Vor Dem Schloss was surprisingly intense! I’m not a Krolfred shipper, but I can see where the inspiration comes from now, and understand why this ship has climbed in popularity recently. Drew’s Krolock approached Alfred and moved his fingers in front of his face, like he was casting a spell, and Raphi went all dopey and wide-eyed, like he’d slipped into a trance (much more interesting than Alfred looking mildly scared and awkward through the whole scene). Then during the ‘Ich lehr dich, was es heißt zu lieben’ line, when Alfred was gazing sleepily out into the audience, he tucked a finger under Alfred’s chin, guided it around and upwards to look at him, then begin to draw them together (literally, I thought a kiss was coming and was ready to throw a riot) - before breaking off at the last second and sweeping away. I was like: “This. This right here, is when the ship was born. I’m holding you personally responsible, Mr. Sarich.” 

- In fairness though, I like that Drew’s Krolock kept his interest in Alfred consistent throughout the show and made a proper ‘arc’ of it: during the He Ho Reprise, when speaking directly to Alfred (who had hunched in on himself and turned away, like he was hiding), he reached out a hand over the battlements and beckoned with one finger, and Raphi’s Alfred slowly looked up to meet his gaze, and started to shuffle towards him across the stage, like he was falling back into a trance again. Tom’s Alfred did something similar when I saw him in Hamburg, but this was much more obvious and a nice throwback to Act 1. 

PROFESSOR - This guy was perfect. Hilarious, frustrating, easy to love, fond of Alfred. Ticked all the boxes and an amazing voice to boot. What a great performance. 

- Once Alfred had helped him undress in Eine Schoner Tochter, he reached out and held his hand to Alfred’s cheek and gave him this proud grandfather smile like “Thank you my boy, another good day’s work done :)))” and I cried a lot on the inside...these two will be the death of me I swear...

- During the He Ho Reprise, he brandished his umbrella threateningly at Krolock, and then when Krolock spoke directly to Alfred, he encouraged Alfred to take his umbrella instead, so he could brandish it at the Evil Vampire Overlord too and presumably protect himself more effectively :’) 

HERBERT - Why, oh why is no one talking about Charles?! This guy is sheer perfection as Herbert! Hands down one of my all-time favourites. He reminded me strongly of Kirill Gordeev from the Russian production, but with his own personal flair. Very much a graceful, charming, vain, ‘spoiled princeling’ Herbert with the perfect amount of underlying menace. He felt very fresh, and there were so many little details to his performance that stood out. Best of all, he never played for laughs or threw Alfred around like a sack of potatoes to get an audience reaction.

- On the line: “Was macht dich so blass? Bist du krank?” he said the last part as if it were a dry witty joke, and then giggled and swept his hand like “I’m so funny!” and it made Alfred’s nonplussed reaction twice as hilarious :)

- When the minuet began in Tanzaal, he swept off his cloak and tossed it over Koukol like he was a hatstand, it was priceless. And 110% Herbert. Somebody write that into the official blocking for this character, please. 

- Throughout Carpe Noctem, he was very much embodying the ‘MC’ role and pulling all the strings. Lots of elegant gestures to pull dancers on and offstage, that kind of thing. At the end of the song, he focussed his attention completely on Alfred, watching him sleep with this :) expression whilst all the other dancers exited the stage. Then he clambered off the bed, and started to exit the stage...before pausing, and turning back to look at Alfred again (kind of like a kid sneaking a last glance at something special, it was unexpectedly sweet?) with this little smile on his face like “Awww look at my human! :3” and finally slinking offstage after that. Definitely stealing that for a fanfic someday...

KENTAUR SETS & COSTUMES - Are stunning and beautiful. ‘Nuff said. The vampire outfits in particular are exquisitely detailed and lovely to watch, all that sweeping velvet and heavy embroidery. The rotating set in Act 2 is also super neat! I think the projections are best seen from middle of the stalls, rather than front row though.

ORCHESTRA - Sounds like a dream, y’all were right, it’s a thousand times better than the German touring version. Full and luscious and gorgeous. Loved it so much.

THE BAD STUFF

SARAH - Oh boy, time to brace myself for the hate mail. I really, really didn’t like Diana’s Sarah. I found her belt shouty and downright painful at times, and her acting choices very confusing and inconsistent. I don’t want to turn this into an unnecessarily negative post, so I will just say: she’s clearly a wonderful talented young person, I just personally didn’t like her performance for Sarah at all. 

KROLOCK (FLORIAN FETTERLE) - Again, didn’t care for this guy’s performance. Very sedate, bored-by-his-eternal-life Krolock that came off...downright dull, for me. I felt as though he had no stage presence. He didn’t seem to want to give Krolock any real menace or personality in general, though I understand that this might be part of his take on the character as a vampire with ‘deadened’ emotions. Full respect to the guy as a performer, I just personally really, really wasn’t a fan of his Krolock. 

DANCING - Went wrong in multiple places, both times I saw it, which absolutely broke my heart. The cast I saw in Hamburg were flawless, not a foot out of place, but this was a whole different story. During Red Boots Ballet, Sarah didn’t even hit her splits on both performances I saw, and Krolock’s dance-double let one of her legs drop on that amazing ‘spinning’ lift at the end, which must have thrown him off balance, he was staggering around all over the place. Carpe Noctem was equally messy, with some really nice moments and some really “huh?” moments as well. White Vampire/Sarah seemed to lose their marks halfway through and face the bed instead of the audience, several moves felt like they were being ‘marked’ rather than fully danced, or left unfinished in aid of keeping up with the music. I spoke to two other fans who warned me that the Vienna dancing could be sloppy sometimes, but I genuinely didn’t think it would be this noticeable. I know we’re spoiled with all the Moscow/St. Petersburg bootlegs of insanely polished Russian dancers, but still...

BLOCKING ETC. - During my first performance, it seemed as though bits of blocking were being lost or accidentally messed up, e.g. when the Professor pushes his bag off the table using Chagal’s body and Alfred has to catch it...well, the bag was positioned wrong, so Alfred just picked up the bag and the joke was lost. The ensemble also managed to get out of time with the orchestra during Vor Dem Schloss, which was funny at first and then just frustrating. I’m going to put this down to the heat of the day, because it was pretty stuffy in the theatre and maybe the cast were just finding it hard to concentrate...?

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I’ve now seen Tanz four times in total, and continue to love this show more every day. Time to start saving for a trip to Russia, that’s the production next on my bucket list! Unless someone attempts a heavily, heavily revised Broadway revival before then...I mean, a girl can dream, right? :)