#i love drawing jacques all pretty

[wheredidalltheusersgo]

"He loves me so, that funny honey of mine~"

[oleafia-art]

Landgraab High School Yearbook, circa 2014

This is an illustration of some of the teenage townies from the Sims 4 in a school yearbook. This is based on my own story I’m making inspired by these characters, which is why some of them look different to their original Maxis counterparts (I gave them in game makeovers since they’re important characters).

The main characters of this story are Cassandra Goth, Hugo Villareal, Wolfgang Munch, Morgan Fyres, and Malcolm Landgraab. Luna Villareal, Sofia Bjergsen, Yuki Behr and Darling Walsh are all important to the story as well. And of course all of the family members of the characters mentioned are very important. The story is a coming of age mystery drama with a little bit of romance and comedy. It revovles around the daily lives of these teen characters but takes a turning point when Bella Goth goes missing, which leads Cassandra and other characters to start an investigation looking for her. There is of course the whole matter of Jacques Villareal and Nancy Landgraab running a whole underground crime ring as well, so things get pretty crazy and dark secrets about the families are revealed as the investigation continues.

I’ve been really obsessed with drawing these guys lately, but I’ve barely had any time to play the actual game, so most of the story is in my head or written hastily in my notes app lol. Let me know if you guys want to see more Sims art inspired by my townie story! I’d love to delve more into each character and their relationships with one another. Maybe even make some comics?

Please feel free to reblog if you like!

[pascalcampion]

Jacque Tardi In the France I grew up in, Art was everywhere. I was interested in Graphic novels so I looked at everything I could. Not always understanding what I was looking at. Not always realizing the impact it had on me. Some of the books  I liked a lot have left very little mark on me.

Other books made a huge impact on me but it is only as an adult that I realized how much.

The work of Jacque Tardi is this second kind.

I would see his take on Nestor Burma in the pages of “A Suivre” and never read them.

It was gray. Dark, there was an inherent sadness seeping through the pages. Something about a world where people got the short end of the stick and knew about it

Tardi captured an essence of what French Life was like, away from the glamour of the Rivera or the lights of the Champs Elyse. This was NOT Louis De Funes.

It was all about small streets, rainy weather, cheap motels, the other side of the tracks. Literally!

The number of images depicting industrial warehouse by train tracks,  around the Paris area are innumerable in my mind’s eye.

I never EVER understood the stories. I don’t think my 12 year old brain was experienced enough to relate to the seemingly depressed mood permeating this world, and why people did what they did because they always seemed sad in the end

 No matter what the outcome was.

BUT

The artwork!!!  It was palpable. The smell of rain, the feeling of long, cold winter Sunday afternoons in a city. The mood of the nights, the smell of alcohol and cigarettes( which every French kid knew since it was EVERYWHERE , the smell of hard wood floor and worn out leather. The scope of the relationships. So human you could see it on the page.

The drawings were simple, clear. They were deliberate. 

I didn’t find them pretty, but it was clear they were MEANT to be this way.  They WROTE the feelings.

I collected everything I could find of his and barely read any. I would make my own trips in his world. It was that powerful.

Much later, Tardi started doing books on World War 1. Memories of his father who had served. 

The French perspective paralleled with the German perspective. Just like his Burma days, there was nothing pretty about it. It was gruesome, cold, and it felt real.

The people spoke the way people speak in the street. They looked like real people, they drank, lived and die without pizzaz. 

I find his later work to be some of his stronger works. 

His art is visual writing. 

It is not for everyone, I understand this. It is probably an acquired taste I didn’t ask for, but I love seeing his work and try to read/watch everything he comes out with. #Jacque Tardi

[averagemrfox]

2 for the ask game for each member of team RWBY!!!!!

Alright I’m home from work and have had time to think

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

First of all this goes for every single one of them and my individual answers might overlap with this we’ll see. I love how much they’ve all grown and persevered! They’ve been through so fucking much both together as a team and separately and have come out on the other side of it. They were kids!! They made bunk beds and had food fights and were starting to figure out the types of people they wanted to be and then got thrust into Remnant’s Worst Divorce™️ and throughout all of it have only grown closer as a team (not friends family!!) and still have hope that they can make the world a better place (Keep moving forward!!!) (They all need therapy tho fr)

Ruby: she’s perfect just the way she is!! This is supposed to be about the canon things I love about these character but god do I want Ruby to see herself as an individual separate from Summer. I think she’s getting there after her talk with the blacksmith. She’s just so accepting of people without hesitation. Penny is a robot? Don’t care new best friend. Little is a talking mouse? Don’t care new best friend pt 2. I’m sure there’s other examples but she’s always so ready to just let people be who they are and I wish she’d give herself that same grace

She’s also just a giant fucking nerd. About weapons about comics about video games

Weiss: 🗣️🗣️I DONT KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE BUT LET ME TELL YOU WHO I AM. I AM THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF A HERO AND THE CHILD OF A VILLAIN. I AM A CITIZEN OF A FALLEN KINGDOM AND AN HEIR TO NOTHING. I WILL NOT BE DEFINED BY MY NAME BECAUSE I WILL BE THE ONE TO DEFINE IT. I AM WEISS SCHNEE AND I AM A HUNTRESS🗣️🗣️

Also I love that she’s canonically a fairly well known (at least in atlas) singer. Now I’m not sure she’d do that by choice based on what we saw in v4 but it’s super cool that that This Life is Mine is canon to remnant because of that. Also Jacques made her sing and she was like alright bet and then roasted him in song on stage in front of all those people and we don’t talk about that enough I think

Blake: I say that’s my baby and I’m really proud

Blake tells Sun she joined the white fang 5 years ago in v2. She was TWELVE she was a BABY!! If I had to give Blake a word the way she gives others a word it would be conviction. She never gives up on what she believes in. And she does her best to support others in doing the same, in v7 she tried to encourage ironwood and in v9 she tried to encourage Ruby poor girl got shut down both times but she tried!!

I also love how Blake is canonically a good artist and would like to see more of that. crwby show us a drawing Blake made of Yang

These:

Yang: this girl can fit so much love in her god. She goes to any and every length to protect the people she loves even if it’s to her own detriment (which someone really needs to have a conversation with her about) the Yellow Trailer tells us straight away that there’s more to her than meets the eye and yet there are people who fell into that trap anyway and criticize her character for “not being fun anymore” as if that isn’t the point!!

She’s so confident and cocky until a pretty girl Blake flirts with her I love the disaster lesbian representation.

She punched god in the tiddies!!! And she’d do it again I bet! Maybe we’ll see her punch one or both of the Brothers next I’d like that

This:

[miloscat]

[Review] Sonic R (PS2)

Peak Saturn vibes.

I’ve now got much more Sonic experience under my belt. I’m thrilled that I can now have informed opinions about the series! But now it’s time to play some spinoffs from over the years that I’ve always meant to try out. First up is the franchise’s first racing game… that people really like (the Game Gear had the two Drift games but it doesn’t seem like they made much of an impact).

British studio Traveller’s Tales had proved themselves with the isometric game Sonic 3D Blast so Sega commissioned them for an original title for the Saturn. As it turned out this would be Sonic’s only full new game on the system as the highly anticipated 3D debut Xtreme never came to be, and the only other titles were a 3D Blast conversion, the Mega Drive compilation Sonic Jam, and a cameo in Christmas Nights. I played the version included in the Sonic Gems Collection on PS2, which is based on the enhanced PC port.

Sonic R is an unconventional racing game in that, while it still plays not unlike a standard kart racer, many of the characters are on foot, and the game includes platforming and exploration elements. While I’ve played other games that include some of these ingredients like Rayman Arena, Beetle Adventure Racing, and arguably Sonic Rivals, the mix is intoxicating here, helped by excellent track design and immaculate vibes.

Rather than multi-track cups, you just play each track on its own. Well, there's only five tracks total and one is unlockable (a consequence of a quick development turnaround) so it makes sense. You can go for first place but the more satisfying goal is learning all the side paths and shortcuts. These dense little environments, designed by Sonic Team, have depth to make up for their paucity, and finding their secrets (in the form of tokens and Chaos Emeralds) unlocks new racers and the final Rainbow Road-esque track which is more a victory lap to speed around with your overpowered unlocks. Rings scattered around can be paid to open doors or enhance your boosts, and item tokens can help a bit but there's nothing as unbalanced as your typical Mario Kart game.

The racers have an interesting amount of variance to their stats. For instance, Tails is slippery and nimble while the Egg Robo has much more inertia. Sonic double jumps, Knuckles can glide, Robotnik in his hoverpod can shoot homing projectiles (they're not very debilitating), while Amy uniquely drives a car(!) which funnily enough is relatively slow but gets a boost on cooldown. Along with Metal Sonic, R introduces new counterparts in the form of Metal Knuckles and the fan-favourite Tails Doll. I would have liked to see them go all-out with even more characters but it's a decent selection and acts as a pretty good send-off to the Classic era before the characters got redesigned in Adventure. These low-poly renditions are just adorable!

Another way of remixing the racetracks is a weather system that changes the lighting and conditions. It makes the inevitable replays that much fresher, and of course the smooth tunes will draw you in as well. Veteran composer Richard Jacques nails it with a catchy Eurobeat mix, each track accompanied wonderfully by vocals from TJ Davis. It's a transportive soundtrack that gives the game a singular feel; this is truly what video games were made for. I was shocked to learn that this game's music is considered divisive! It's great!

Anyway, I had a breeze with this one. I did turn the difficulty to easy so I could focus on the exploratory aspects without worrying too much about winning (you do need to place well to keep the emeralds and unlocks), and I have no shame. Sonic R is a lovely little treat. This is Sega at its best: experimental, collaborating with international partners, and with vibes off the charts. Also, the framerate is rock solid which I've learned is never a guarantee with Sonic games. I know that later British-developed Sonic racing games are also excellent, but in between I still need to investigate the Riders series of hoverboard racers. Until then!

[gascon-en-exil]

Ranking the Jock Studio Love Interests, Take 1

The first demo for BLits's Jock Studio has been out for over a year now. Now there's a second demo on the horizon slated to release before the year is out, one that promises to show off more of the distinctive mechanical features that are helping it to stand out from the crowd of the numerous gay dating sims that go light on gameplay in favor of focusing their efforts on interesting and clever writing and/or hardcore porn.

The demo we currently have though is very much focused on hooking players with those two elements, something I have to say it does fairly well. Based on that, in this post I'm going to be talking about each of the six love interests and what most grabs my attention about their writing and...other assets...in the first demo. As we get more prerelease material leading up to the full game coming out whenever it does (2025, hopefully?), I'll surely be revisiting this topic. But for now, here's the love interests ranked according to how personally engaging I find them. I also have my opinions on the two featured NPCs in the demo, as well as on (shockingly) the main character himself, but I feel like we need more info on them and what they're going to be doing in terms of the naughty stuff before I can really express my thoughts on those.

Note that while the pics in this post are SFW, some of the opinions are decidedly not.

#6. Leo

The twinkiest of the love interests which already doesn't do an awful lot for me. His explicit content calls attention to his feet which is also not something that gets me going. Personality-wise he's unfortunately rather bland at this point, being rather sunny (sun motifs are all over this guy) and maybe a little too involved and eager to please for his own good. His storyline will almost certainly feature some level of burnout and needing someone - the MC and/or the other jocks, because that's supposed to be a thing - to get him to focus on himself for a change. Again, not really a sexual vibe that interests me, nor is it likely to be character development that wows me.

I don't hate the guy...he's just the one that catches my attention least. Kind of a shame too, because unless NPC Jacques Laurent gets a bunch of unexpected development related to his being French and not just having that name because it's turned into wordplay to make the game's title Leo's the character who's most likely to be culturally relatable for me.

#5 Yuuto

He's hyperactive, makes weird non sequiturs, and is Japanese. That sums Yuuto up pretty well, to the point that he can feel a little exhausting while oddly being not that interesting if you're not into the "exotic" vibe of his theme instrumentation, food preferences, and uh...underwear. (This game taught me what fundoshi are.)

I do like that his zaniness includes a casual nudist streak because that's always good for some silly sexual situations, and also that his masturbation scene in the demo actually plays with his hyperactivity by having him cum too fast and then needing the MC to coach him through taking it slower for the camera. Generally speaking, I like that the demo emphasizes a different professional dynamic between each love interest and the MC when they're making their videos.

#4 Zayne

Insincere, self-assured playboy vibes - flirts with and possibly sleeps with a lot of people (women and men?) but is surely going to have to be taught the meaning of love. Not really my thing, nor am I really into his various piercings including studs on his dick although I'm sure those would feel interesting. It's a little hard not to compare Zayne to Claude from Fire Emblem Three Houses minus any sort of political angle, because he's got the same gimmick of being casually friendly and flirty coupled with the sense that he's hiding something and more guarded than he appears.

How that will play out in his storyline remains to be seen, but as with Claude I find it tougher to get into characters whose biggest draw comes from how mysterious they are. Here's to hoping that will translate to some fun stuff in bed...or on the filming couch, as the case may be. Basically, he's a character I could be really into, but I'll need to see more before I can make that call. It's possible too that something could be done with his apparent bisexuality, as he flirts publicly with his many female admirers while turning on the charm just as much in private for the MC.

#3 Avan

The bossy, overworked student council president...even though I'm not entirely certain that US universities even have student councils, and that this isn't just a carryover trope from anime. But anyway, that angle will hopefully play into the academic and student life sides of gameplay that prerelease info has been touting, to say nothing of him having some level of oversight on the game's titular club. Avan's definitely going to be busy during the special seasonal arcs that were part of the game's many stretch goals; getting him horny and relaxed is no doubt going to be on the table.

Twunkier than I'd normally be into, but his assured, slightly bossy vibes can be fun and could go a number of ways in sex scenes from power bottom to the uncommon twink/twunk top.

#2 Derek

Has the soft Dom energy I most often end up sleeping with in real life, and obviously a treat if you're into muscles and big dicks and probably total tops although with as much as these games are promising it wouldn't surprise me if every guy turns out to be at least a little vers.

More than that though I like Derek as a former adult film star with clearly mixed feelings on the industry even as he's getting back into it. Like Full Service, another dating sim I've covered, Jock Studio is ripe to explore the world of sex work (and male sex workers specifically) from the perspective of its participants, which is naturally something I gravitate toward and something that I hope gets handled with finesse. Derek in particular is an established professional working with a bunch of guys just getting into the industry, so I can see his storyline being something along the lines of his mentoring role getting subverted by the MC discovering he has some hidden baggage about his former work that he doesn't want to share with anyone else. Good stuff all around.

#1 Bryce

Oof. Bryce is already a polarizing character, and while evidently I'm a fan of what it looks like BLits is doing with him I've got a case to make here for putting him in my #1 slot.

BLits's earlier games, Camp Buddy and its sequel, exist in a world where men just aren't straight and it's basically never remarked on that literally every guy ever gets horny for other men. That's great for wish fulfillment, but it can get rather ridiculous at times. Jock Studio, by contrast, is going for a very different tone right from the start, with Bryce being a homophobic gay4pay frat boy who swears very loudly by his heterosexuality. While I understand how this could be very off-putting, even when you know from what kind of game this is that Bryce isn't really straight, I appreciate it as new territory for these developers. Internalized homophobia is a goldmine for character drama, and as with Derek there's also the opportunity to comment on elements of the gay porn industry: in this case, the fixation on "str8 acting" men and on porn scenarios involving "tricking" or "converting" straight guys into having gay sex. There's a lot that could be dug into with Byrce past his abrasive surface.

Additionally, of the three larger love interests Bryce is the one that comes closest to appealing to those who like softer/chubbier builds, even if he's still got the big glam muscles that Zayne and Derek have. His explicit scenes - and the MC's goofy intro to him - call attention to his sizeable pecs and ass (also armpits if you're into those), so that's fun. A lot of people are looking forward to Bryce turning into a big needy bottom...which would indeed be quite entertaining.

[divinecomedyproductions]

RWBY Saints of Remnant Notes: Adam Taurus, Surrogate Brother, Liberator, and former slave worker

WARNING: This post contains is a radically reimagined Adam Taurus in a positive light in a heavily reimagined RWBY AU and has cliche and a ship that may turn you off due to Canon, if Canon Adam has given you a permanent bad taste in your mouth, I understand, this is an AU, just please do not come in with bad faith and ignore me instead.

Said AU is connected to The Emperor-Verse

Now following my altered Jack Schnee is Adam Taurus

Now given the whole grievances the RWDE tag as made about him, and looking back on him myself, I'd had figured there were two options for him, at least in my opinion

Either make him anti-villain or initial antagonist turned ally, which I have chosen for the latter. Either way, I threw out him being Blake's ex because I honestly thought it was kinda dumb and melodramatic.

Though FRWBY as I heard has done a good job tweaking that to make it work as well as Adam as a villain.

But I chose to go for something else, Adam being something of a surrogate older brother for Blake instead.

For this specific backstory, Adam is from Mistral, from a small village led by his father, a respectable Huntsman.

Now I'm trying to figure it out but with my Altered SDC and Jacques post, Arthur Gray(Watts) megacorporation GigaWatts Incorporated has outsorced work, and much like the SDC in Canon!RWBY Adam's family worked at one of their factories in the East under poor working conditions which claimed the life of his parents.

Adam much like his Canon counterpart, also worked pretty much as a slave, and his eye injury I chasing between either branding or a factory accident.

Now this draws on Fritz Lang's Metropolis which I feel like doesn't get enough love, and I will use this clip along with Metropolis when I get to post about the not-so-good doctor, his mega-corporation, and the current state of Atlas later.

But basically, Adam was emotionally drained at that point. A zombie of a young man who felt hopeless.

One day in his younger days The White Fang's Eastern Branch attacks the factories. And the one leading the charge was the current White Fang leader, a spider Faunus by the name of Rina Kumokage(first name a placeholder) and her second-in-command Sienna Kahn. Seeing them in action reinvigorated and inspired him and joined them instantly when the two offered a hand.

However, this wouldn't be the liberation that he thought it was, at least not entirely.

Rina's leadership was questionable over in the East while the other branches of the other three corners were busy, Rina seemed to be driven more by politics than the morals of common decency, and had abusive tendencies towards Adam and later on Blake whom she also took under her personal tutelage due to knowing her late father Kuroto(aka Ghira) who was a high ranking member of the White Fang.

But it wasn't all bad, for while Kumokage was a cruel teacher, Kahn on the other hand was the closest thing he had for a mother after losing his parents, and she herself was often downplayed by the current WF leader.

Soon Adam began to realize Rina saw the White Fang as a means for political power, a demagogue exploiting a legitimate cause for mercenary motives. But he wished for no outside help, for reasons I am trying to figure out, but partially the same reasons for Blake of being introverted, not to hurt those close to him.

Now for his allusion, there's always been the argument he was the beast and Blake was the Beauty

But after remembering an analysis post I can't remember where on Tumblr I figured

What if Blake and Adam were both the Beast? like a collective allusion? Which is based on my RWBY collective allusions theory but that's another post for another day.

Adam's individual allusion however is not the Bull Demon King, but Red Boy, with his late parents being The Bull Demon King(his Father) and Princess Iron Fan(his mother), both of their lessons sticking to him. So unlike his canon counterpart while his sanity may had been bent, it wasn't broken.

Now Sun in this AU is the 'Beauty' to Blake's 'Beast' and as for Adam, the ‘Beauty’ to his ‘Beast’ is and hear me out here...

Yang Xiao Long

now I know what you all are thinking...

But here's the idea

Adam as a good guy I would imagine being this grumpy kinda no-nonsense dude and something of a ham(he writes poems in his downtime) and I feel like that would compliment Yang's 'flirty party girl' personality and would play off Black Sun too

Two ships that are similar, yet different, and I just don't mean in a gender bent way.

But not only that, Yang’s role is also to mend the strained brother-sister relationship of Blake and Adam. Adam isn’t obsessed with Blake but was kinda like “Blake, what the hell?” When she left. He’s kinda pissed, but not a flat-out murderous lunatic.

And Yang being an older sibling herself can relate to Adam and talk it out with him, notably all the good things Blake has told Yang about him.

And then of course Yang does try to resort to some spicy flirting, but Adam being taught about earning the blessings of the parents and abstinence, doesn’t reciprocate the same way.

Spoiler alert, Adam is flustered by Yang’s midriff but also know it’s not good for practical purposes in her line of work. Yang notices and tries to tease him further, only for him to tickle her mercilessly to make his point, leading her to make a wardrobe upgrade for “V2”

And I’d be lying if my this was not somewhat influenced by my Catholic faith about modesty and no sex outside of marriage, but I’d think it be kinda cute and funny to ship Yang who’s flirtatious and likes to flaunt it with a very honorable and kinda traditional dude. Expect lots of disappointed pouts from Yang.

Now his altered personality I was inspired by 2 sources

Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender

But also Grimlock in Transformers: Fall of Cyberton which the game is also an influence for my reimagined Arthur Watts

For those not in the know-how, Fall of Cybertron due to it success had become the reboot basis for all G1-esque Transformers stories onward.

In it, Grimlock is the commander of the team and had been captured by Shockwave, who is a scientist, to be painfully experimented on which would turn them into Dinobots. Grimlock, driven by furious vengeance free's his comrades and seeks to destroy Shockwave.

Now Grimlock is still a good guy and believes defending the weak and migh-for-right, but he's bad tempered, stubborn, and headstrong really doesn't see eye-to-eye with Optimus Prime, seeing him as a weak leader and barely accepting him as leader due to the Matrix.

So it's kind of the same principle with Adam, with Watts being the 'Shockwave' to his 'Grimlock', though to be specific, Adam has a vendetta against the one running the factory he and his family worked at. Will get to him in the future.

So yeah, that's my Adam so far.

[fayestardust]

for bob tours: was there a moment (or more than one) at a place where you felt ~connected to a scene from bob/the real events?

All the tours I’ve been on have special moments, though some more than others. Thank you for asking me about this, as I love recounting these memories. Some of this is actually what you asked for; the rest is just me being sappy.

Okay, ready? Behind the read more because it's SUPER long.

Eindhoven tour, April 2022

This was the first WW2 tour I’ve ever been on and the first of We Happy Few 506’s Band of Brothers tours. Special for that reason alone. It was a one-day tour with a Q&A the day before, and only four out of six actors who were supposed to join actually made it over to Eindhoven. First up: Matthew Leitch (Floyd ‘Tab’ Talbert), our fierce leader on all of the tours so I won’t mention him every time. He co-founded WHF506. He’s kind of a very annoying older brother to me now. Also there were Tim Matthews (Alex Penkala), Doug Allen (Alton More) and Mark Lawrence (William H. Dukeman).

I enjoyed the Q&A, though at that point was far too insecure to ask anything about Band because the room was filled with much bigger WW2 nerds (at the time, I’ve now caught up) who all seemed to ask very profound questions. I also shied away from taking any photos with the actors because people pretty much swarmed them, and I’m slightly claustrophobic.

I was making art already at that point, and for this trip had managed to draw Matt and Mark. See here a moment of joy for me.

The next day was the day of the tour, and I was pretty nervous about it because I’d never done a bus tour before, but in my experience, buses aren’t particularly wheelchair-friendly. Such was the case here, too, but the moment I approached the daunting steps of the Megabus, guests (special and not) flocked over to help me up them. All doubt evaporated. I got appointed the spacious back-of-the-bus seat, with my cousin on one side and Mark Lawrence on the other.

I’ll single Mark out for this tour because our conversations on the bus were very real and important to me. But also because one of the most moving moments on the tour happened when we visited the Crossroads. This is where Mark’s character and the real Dukeman died. If you ever get to visit... the Crossroads in the show looks exactly like the real location. Easily one of the most true-to-life set locations. And Mark had never been to the Netherlands. It tore him up. We all sniffled, watching him cry. The thing you have to realise is that he feels like he owes his entire life to the show. He met his lovely wife because she saw him on tv, and they fell in love. He has Dukeman’s service number tattooed on his body. And he’s the kindest, sweetest soul.

Later, months after the tour, he called me up to sing me happy birthday at six in the morning.

Both Doug and Tim remain my friends to this day. I’m perhaps most grateful for the connections made on these tours. Some of the other guests are now also like family.

Bastogne tour - part 1, November 2022

Bastogne is a magical place for me. I took one of my geekiest friends on this second tour. Special guests were Freddie Joe Farnsworth (military advisor on both BoB and the Pacific) and Phil McKee (Strayer). Not the most well-known people in this fandom I think. But interesting. And funny. 

This tour was led by Reg Jans, and he’s THE guide who knows everything you could ever want to know about the Battle of the Bulge. So, during this tour, I feel like I learned a lot more about that, beyond what we see in Band.

Of course, we also visited Easy Company’s foxholes in the Bois Jacques. There was no snow (stay tuned for that on a later tour), so it’s not like it is in the show. But the woods are eerily quiet. I don’t know if I believe in anything supernatural beyond things like intuition, but if I were to start anywhere, it’d be there. Freddie Joe explained the consequences of sleep deprivation for your brain to us, to help us understand the soldiers better. Sometimes, they were their own worst enemies. They were freezing, underfed, underdressed and barraged by artillery, and most of the time, could not even see the Germans.

We also visited where John Julian was pinned down by Germans for hours. It’s still unclear what exactly happened to him, or when or how he died. We only see seconds of it in the show. It's like that with many things in the show actually. All the battles took a long, long time.

This tour isn’t my favourite - there’s a better one right after this, but this did solidify the idea that I would go on these tours just to see the people I’ve met while there. 

Bastogne tour - part 2, January 2023

Here it is, my favourite tour. Barely two months after the last one. Bastogne in the very dead of winter. Let me tell you: it was COLD. But it would have been, for the soldiers of Easy.

The special guests on the second day of the tour were Shane Taylor (Eugene ‘Doc’ Roe), and Lucie Jeanne (Renee Lemaire). Doug (Alton More) was also there, and it was lovely to see him again. But as you can guess, having Doc Roe and Renee on the tour in Bastogne is pretty amazing. Eugene and Renee never actually met each other, one of the few dramatisations of the show. It serves a purpose, though, so it’s mostly seen as acceptable. Renee’s story is quite tragic, and she died very close to where she had lived with her parents and her body was wrapped in the fine silk of parachutes and brought back to them. 

There were also some good hugs at the 'Nuts' bar! But the absolutely most amazing part of the tour happened without them. Our second day started really, really early. We got up at 5 am, got on the bus, and drove to the Bois Jacques. It was still pitch black when we got out, freezing cold and fresh snow crunched underneath our sleepy feet. 

Reg Jans was on this tour again, and he had something truly haunting in store for us. We all stood in a circle around him with our (mostly just purchased for this trip) head torches on as he recited a prayer by Lt. Col. Robert L. Wolverton, commanding officer of 3rd battalion, 506th PIR. 

Here it is.

Men, I am not a religious man and I don't know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask His blessing in what we are about to do: God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world. We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right. O Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you.

And into the woods, we went. You have to remember, there are no cars at this hour. It’s dark. It’s quiet. We were told to be quiet. We were told to sit in the foxholes in the snow. We switched off our lights. No one was shooting at us, but we felt, in part, what the men of Easy Company would have felt. And then we watched the sun come up. It’s the closest thing to a religious experience I’ve ever felt.

I met one of my favourite people in the world on this tour, too. He took these wonderful photos of me and inspired me to take up photography again, myself.

Normandy tour, June 2023

This tour was a bit of an odd one out. It felt chaotic because it was scheduled around D-Day, which made Normandy really poorly accessible. It’s so busy, so our tour was mostly improvised around areas with the least amount of traffic jams. 

It did have its moments, though. Normandy is a cool place. And we had the amazing Pete McCabe (Donald Hoobler) with us. 

The day before the tour, I actually got to meet three Normandy veterans. Humbling, to say the least. I also met several more Band actors (Peter Youngblood Hills, Alex Sagba-Brady, Christian Black, Nolan Hemmings) and Scott Gibson, who played Captain Haldane in the Pacific. We still keep in touch. Christian Black is now a Still Photographer, and mostly shoots Tom Cruise’s movie stills. He also took this photo of Nolan Hemmings, this painting of him and little old me. 

I was really glad to see many friends again. And I brought my own camera and took amazing pictures (teehee). We saw most of Easy’s known landing spots in Sainte Mère Eglise, like Winters’ and Lipton’s, to name a few.  

Our guide here was Paul ‘Woody’ Woodadge, an English guy married to a French woman. He’s nice, but critical of Easy’s fame, not so much on account of Easy, but mostly because Easy was just one of the many companies that did incredible things. We visited the area around Brécourt Manor, where we learned that other company Paratroopers cleared the way for Easy’s famous mission.  It doesn’t make it less impressive, but it adds loads of context.

Another thing that I found incredibly moving was the reading of Lt. Meehan’s last letter home. It’s easy to forget how young these men were. And how wise. Meehan’s plane crashed in a field, and nearly 80 years later, you can still see where it landed because while the field is fully planted, there’s a part near a hedgerow that remains barren to this day. Haunting. 

We also visited Marmion Farm, where many famous Easy Company photos were taken (it’s where they more or less come back together after the jump).

One of my favourite stories, though, is that of medics Robert Wright and Ken Moore of the 101st Airborne. They treated 80 injured American and German soldiers and a child in a church in Angoville-au-Plain. There are still bloodstains on the pews. 

So, as you can tell, not everything had to do with Easy, because we also went to Omaha Beach, where I got out of my chair and walked. Just to walk where these brave men had walked and really feel the history.

Eindhoven/Arnhem Market Garden Tour, October 2023

My second favourite tour after Bastogne in winter. Our guest here was Mark Huberman (Lester Hashey) who was meant to come on the original Eindhoven tour but couldn’t. He’s delightfully Irish, and had the best anecdotes from the set. Also absolutely hilarious.

Many of my friends weren’t on this tour, so going on to it, I couldn’t have guessed it would rank among my favourites.

It was split between two things. Some Easy Company sites and stories (some repeats from the first tour, but often with a slightly different angle or experience), and the British side of Operation Market Garden!

By the way, did you know that Hoobler picks up the Luger that ends up killing him in Bastogne, at the Crossroads? I think they changed it in the show to let the story flow better.

Anyway. I loved this tour. We visited Schoonderlogt and the Crossroads again. This time I sat in the grassy field while everyone else did the famous run across. It’s such a long way!

But the stories of the British troops were perhaps even cooler to me. Because that all happened right on my doorstep. I knew the bigger picture, but we had Reg Jans on this tour again, which is synonymous with really personal stories. So for our British troops day, we followed in the footsteps of leaders and soldiers alike, until we met them again in their final resting place in the military cemetery. A really rewarding journey. Mark also read a letter by Ivar Rowberry, which I posted about here. There’s an audio recording of it too, which is well worth a listen. 

If you want to read more about any of these tours (I’m a bit tired of writing so much, check out my actual - non tumblr - blog over here. There is an entry for each one, there.

[copperbora]

For some reason I've been procrastinating about posting a life update here. 😅 Beware... plenty of angst below.

- On August 2nd my mom passed away in hospice at the age of 61 after tenaciously battling her rare and virulent cancer for eighteen years. I'm really hurting. Grieving is exhausting and I miss her so dearly; part of me is still waiting for her to come home. I wrote her obituary. No amount of knowing for months that her death was coming has made this wretched experience at all easier. I cropped my hair in grief; I hate when people complement me on it. I think that it's the same brand of insensitive as complementing a cancer patient's bald head.

- Before my mom passed I started a marine aquarium as a form of self care; it's doing pretty great with only one known livestock casualty so far. (I have no idea what the hell my smaller cleanup crew members are doing most of the time as my little reef(-to-be) has very extensive rockwork and cave habitat.) I did lose my skunk cleaner shrimp, Jacques. I only have two fish right now.

- I haven't done much writing, so no updates on any of my fics. I miss them.

- I am working on completely relaunching and rebranding my shop and having a serious go at making it a career. I can still draw while very depressed and grieving.

- I learned today that perpetual loneliness is as physically harmful as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. So I am slowly dying of loneliness; this explains a lot why my doctor insists every visit that I need to get a dog. I wish that my dad understood; I wish that I didn't need to care about his opinion but he's my housemate, kin, and landlord. He doesn't get mental health at all. He said he was worried about me falling into a deep depression the other day, apparently somehow unaware that I have been deeply depressed already for years which felt so invalidating. And of course we are grieving too. I feel helpless.

- My finances are shit; I barely have my nose above water.

- We're currently under threat from nearby catastrophic wildfires. Fun times. I just love breathing toxic wildfire smoke smog, don't you? * sarcasm * It's preventing us from doing healthy grieving stuff like hiking and attempting to enjoy these dregs of summer, living again after the horror we've suffered in watching my mom slowly die three decades before her time.

- I found the new Backroads Mapbook app and good grief I can spend spend hours on it. If you're in Canada and you like exploring our land seriously go download it, it's really fun (although also sad right now for me because: wildfires.)

At least Casper is permanently cute.

[thatsouthernstate]

So I have to ramble about something for a second…. I went to see Andrew Scott in Vanya in London on Saturday…. I honestly think I’m still in shock…. Because I got to meet him too 🥹 I’ve been internally screaming since then. Like honestly. I don’t even know what to do with myself. But now I’m finally back home from London and can think a little bit clearer. Just a bit though 🫠🙃🤭

Going to see him on stage was already a bucket list item I got to check off. I’ve been dying to see him in a play in person and, my god, he didn’t disappoint. He was absolutely incredible! Spectacular. The fact that one man has so much stamina and emotional energy to play all of these characters by himself for almost 2 hours and make it funny and exciting and heartbreaking but somehow uplifting with no breaks at all… At one point he sits on the stage and sings “If You Go Away”, the English version of that Jacque Brel song and I nearly cried. It was so beautiful. And he has such a lovely voice! He really can do it all. I wish I could have stayed in London longer. I’d absolutely see it again in a heartbeat. Anyway! I continue to stand by the statement that he is one of the greatest actors of our time. I will die on this hill 😌

But then I actually met him…

I think I can now confidently say he may be the sweetest man on earth. Being a fan of his for awhile, I had no doubt… But he was just so… wow! You know how people say to never meet your heroes? Well, fuck that. Meeting mine was everything.

I’m pretty shy in general and knew for sure it’d be ten times worse in front of someone like Andrew who I admire so much, but I lined up anyway. First of all, there were so many people in line and he was so generous with his time! I was towards the front so I didn’t even see where the line ended but I’m pretty sure he stayed until every single person got their program signed! He was genuinely so friendly and chatting to people when he could while his security tried to keep the line moving. Of course when I got up to him, there was no way I was able to say anything but thank you. Luckily my mother, who tagged along with me to the play, did all the talking for me. Moms really are the best, aren’t they? We ended up having a whole damn conversation with him! I honestly don’t even know how it happened.

He’s so soft spoken and just… delightful! There’s no other way to describe him. At one point, my mom mentioned my Fleabag “It’ll pass” tattoo and since it’s on my wrist, I showed him quickly. I don’t know what I expected exactly, but he was like “oh my god that’s amazing!” I melted. Then he goes, “You know that’s my handwriting, right?” and I just about fuckin fainted. I told him yes of course I know and made a combination of these faces: 😭🥹🥰 Like for real. I have no doubt I looked like a complete idiot while this was happening. Because of course I had no words to explain that I got it in his handwriting because of how much he and the show have inspired me. I may have slightly blacked out actually. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same, y’all. And now every time I look at my tattoo I can only hear him asking me about it 😂🙈

Anyway, let me show the actual pictures now…

The stage!

And the man himself!

Just Andrew, drawing hearts all over on my program after seeing my Fleabag tattoo 🥰😍😩🥹

As a side note, this theater was absolutely gorgeous.

Okay, now I’ll shut up and go back to my little corner of tumblr. Just had to share for any Andrew fans who’d want to know — we stan an absolute sweetheart!

[lyriquette]

Old RWBY AU description from the Frosen Steel chat server - 1/25/2021

This is a continuation of the Salem and Ozpin reincarnating into Penny's head (/prior post if queueing is working properly.). The Qrow and Winter convo about sobering up is probably the one I'm most proud of.

__

lilac — 01/25/2021 10:52 PM

Soo...>>. just gonna yell more background involving the au with Salem and Ozpin reincarnating into Penny's head.

Jacques had managed to get away from the White Fang that day by using his children and his bodyguards as bait, but it did not come without its consequences. When Jacques Schnee held the press conference to salvage his reputation, Momma Schnee, in an unprecedented act of assertiveness, threw a slap to his face before throwing the divorce papers right into his chest.

“Get away from my kids. I don’t want to see you ever again.”

“What is the meaning of thi-“

Willow pressed a button on her scroll, and the quiet background music was replaced by an audio clip.

----

“Both of you, stop following me! They’ll spot us easily from the bleeding!”

“Father!” Whitley exclaimed.

“Sorry, son. We have to part ways. The Schnee Dust Company will fall without me. I’m too important to die!”

A startled cry could be heard, followed by the soft sound of something falling. Numerous clicks, reminiscent of a safety coming off, could be heard.

“Stop following me.”

“You monster!” Weiss’s voice growled out, “Ordering people to draw guns on your own children.”

“Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good,” Jacques said self-righteously.

The audio clipped shut out.

----

Willow didn’t quite get custody of the kids. Jacques didn’t manage it either. Turns out being an extreme alcoholic who neglected her kids for a good number of years worked against her. Though at this point, anything would be better than awarding custody of the Schnee kids to a man who purposefully put them in a situation where they could get killed.

It didn’t stop the Atlasian Government from trying though. The man nearly won custody because he had the “means to take care of them”, and it took a mysteriously-appearing stack of information appearing on General Ironwood’s desk involving the recent financial transactions of the jurors and judge that made the head of Atlas himself act.

Willow just wanted her kids out of the house, even if they couldn’t come with her. It would hurt, but she’d understand. What probably prevented Jacques Gele from fighting as hard as he could was that she offered to let him keep everything so long as he never interacted with them again. Faced with both his greed and an Ironwood ready to lay down the law, Jacques reluctantly let go of his rights to his children.

However, Ironwood was also uncomfortable with letting a woman who, by all counts, seemed to have neglected her children for a greater part of their life, a lot of it because of alcoholism. So he required her to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and set her up with a mentor who had beaten his alcoholism, though he didn’t come willing at first. He had to call a favor from Headmistress Goodwitch who threatened Professor Ozpin who in turn called the man in question, Qrow Branwen.

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

Willow works as both a programmer and security specialist with one of the local businesses in the area. The business had its misgivings at first, but when Willow breaks into their core security with nothing more than a shitty laptop and some social engineering, she’s hired on the spot. Pretty soon, everyone, even the big boss, begin to see her as the boss, because she knew her way around corporate bureaucracy and navigated through it well. In a couple of years, they’re one of the top ten digital security companies in Mantle.

The Schnee family’s new home is now located several blocks from Penny’s house, a place they continued living in despite Willow’s success. To her, the people were more sincere here, but more importantly her family loved it here compared to the central city of Atlas where they had to constantly put up a façade.

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

Qrow and Willow slowly test the waters in their first meeting and eventually have a heart-to-heart. He begins to tell her his tale.

Like Willow, Qrow had to pick up his life after alcoholism. He was one of the rare Hunters in the business along with his sister after Mantle cleaned up the local bandits in the area. Going on the run, they sought refuge in Vale and eventually enrolled into Beacon under Headmistress Glynda and Assistant Headmaster Oobleck. Team STRQ was going well until they encountered the real world. There was no such thing as fighting the good fight, just eliminating the enemies of the Kingdom – people who have been neglected and oppressed by society and could only survive by fighting back – people who could empathize with having lived as a bandit before. He eventually quit being a Hunter but because he had no physical reason for why he couldn't perform his duties, Vale forced him into a dishonorable discharge and prevented him from getting benefits during his stint in the military.

He eventually got into an unfulfilling bodyguard gig and sunk deep into his alcoholism because of the unfairness of it all. When he started arriving to work drunk, he got fired. He probably would’ve been out on the street If it weren’t for his savings he accumulated over the years from the military.

--

“How did you decide enough was enough?” Willow asked.

“…”, the man shifted uneasily, the question clearly uncomfortable for him.

“Err. I’m sorr-“

"No. No. It’s a valid question,” Qrow waved a hand shaking his head, “I just…I just never told anyone about it before.”

“I wish I could say it was a piece of cake. That I did it through my own strength of will and flipped my alcoholism off as though I flicked off a switch,” Qrow said with a rueful grin before sighing, “But it’d be a disservice to you. And as much as James and I dislike each other, he trusted me enough to give you sound advice.”

“You’ve met my niece earlier, Ruby,” Qrow said.

Willow furrowed her brows at the non-sequitur.

“Yes. She’s a nice girl, even if my youngest daughter doesn’t want to adm-“

“What if I were to tell you that I nearly pointed a gun at her when she was 8?” Qrow deadpanned.

Willow stopped speaking upon hearing that, her words caught in her throat and her eyes wide in horror.

“And that I nearly did it over a stupid prank?” Qrow took another breath as he continued, “Because all she wanted was attention from the uncle who ignored her for most of the weekend cause he was drinking?”

His hands shook as he quietly pulled out a silver flask from his vest.

“So she hid all the alcohol in the house while her uncle was asleep,” Qrow frowned deeply as he stared at his reflection in the well-polished flask. Loathing and hatred and a burning urge to hurt could be seen in his eyes, causing Willow to step back instinctively. “And when he woke up in need of something to curb the hangover and figuring out what his niece did…” the man then bellowed, “he started to desperately demand where his drinks were and began to lose his patience with his niece who still thought everything was still a game.”

“And then it stopped being a game. Because in that moment all I saw was an enemy who had to be dealt with so I could get what I needed.” Qrow let out a sigh and let some of the tension in his limbs go, “And I think she saw the difference too, because she started looking at me the same way you’re looking at me now.”

Willow’s breath caught in her throat.

He shuddered.

“I’m grateful,” Qrow smiled faintly, “For that tiny bit of clarity that stopped me from pulling out my pistol that day,” he said, “When I saw her face full of fear, the only thought that ran through my head was ‘what the hell was wrong with me?’ I hugged her and apologized and played everything off as a joke and promised to take her out for pancakes, and everything was okay again.”

“But it wasn’t okay. Only I knew that day how close I came to pulling my weapon on my niece,” Qrow closed his eyes solemnly before opening them again.

“And now you do too.”

“Qrow…” Willow truly didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t reconcile the playful, rogueish man as a guy who would pull a gun on a kid, much less a niece as adorable as his own. And though he didn’t direct his emotions at her specifically, she could feel the anger and rage and self-loathing he felt as he recalled his painful past for her own sake.

“I checked myself in to a rehab facility as soon as Tai picked Ruby up,” Qrow continued on, running a hand through his hair, “During my first year alone, I relapsed twenty-two times and sent myself to the hospital around half of those cause my alcohol tolerance no longer matched my bingeing.”

He paced back and forth, clearly trying to figure out what one recovering alcoholic should be saying to someone who wanted to stop. <c> 73

“It’s going to be hard at parties,” Qrow continued, “Seeing everyone around you enjoying their drinks while you’re forced to sip on some non-alcoholic Tomato-Lime Sipper will eat at you inside.” He frowned at the mention of the drink before he added, “It’ll be even harder when you’re stressed out, knowing that blissful numbness is only two blocks over.”

“You’re probably going to fail. Multiple times even. Other people won’t understand,” Qrow said, “They don’t understand how much we…need this. How unnatural being without drink is; they can’t appreciate that we choose to go without anyway. Others will judge you for being ‘too weak’ or ‘not having enough willpower’ or that we don’t care for the reasons we stopped drinking enough. It’s why us recovering alcoholics stick together, because we can at least understand each other’s struggle.”

“It’s going to be hard. But as long as you remember the reason why you stopped drinking – and keep picking yourself up when you fail, things will get easier. I promise you that.”

A pensive silence.

“…Thank you, Qrow. For sharing. For everything,” Willow said sincerely, “I think I understand a little bit better now.”

“Don’t mention it,” Qrow said with a faint smirk, the playful rogue returning before her eyes.

He opened up the flask and took a sip from it.

Willow could only look on incredulously with wide eyes.

Qrow glanced at Willow confusedly and then at his flask with an understanding expression. His teeth lined up in a grin.

Closing the flask and tossing it to her, Willow caught it awkwardly in her hands, and prompted by a nod of his head, she opened it and took a sniff.

“Apple juice?”

“You really think I’m that shameless to drink alcohol after my whole schtick?” Qrow said with a chuckle.

Willow couldn’t help but laugh to that before closing her eyes and nodding her head.

“To apple juice then,” she said before taking a swig of Qrow’s flask.

“To apple juice,” Qrow laughed.

[cchipollo]

oh wow!! ok ok bet let me try respond and also clarify some things

ALRIGHT so the first image and the second last image are connected. it’s more like tapestry if picard actually looked 21. q copying him sorta because i like the idea of him doing that, almost like what he does in star trek picard. the one of them in the bed is sort of like. evil tapestry bed scene.

the writing “i need to relax i think” was just me writing to myself but interpreting that as dialogue is really cool i dig it.

the second image is homestuck bs. now i never read it myself, but ive always really enjoyed classpecting. classpecting has always been ultra intriguing to me cus character’s personality dictating what powers they get is fun as hell. my friend (who IS a homestuck fan) classpected picard as a mage of light and q as a lord. i suggested q being a lord of breath and we went with it. search up classpecting character analysis, it’s really interesting actually.

THE 80S AU! honestly the accuracy of the au jumps back and forth up and down depending on what we (mark and i) want for the au. heres the doc i’ve made for it (it’s pretty bare bones but theres some stuff in there). we also have a playlist lol. i don’t imagine it being as qcard focused as the other aus i’ve made, the qcard focus is purely because they are in my brain all of the time. honestly its mostly an excuse for me to associate characters with music genres i like lol

the relationship between q and picard in the 80s au is. um. very intense. won’t go into too much detail but q and picard do things that neither is incredibly proud of lol

human q drawing exists for two reasons: 1) scenario where q remains human for longer and what happens in naked now is pushed back to this point 2) bums are funny

the multiple au drawing was poking fun at the amount of aus mark and i have made but the scenario you came up with is awesome lolol picard is so tired… give him a break

when i first watched qpid i really loved the idea of q and vash striking a friendship and immediately going off on adventures with each other. i hadn’t realised there were romantic implications until my friend brought it up to me and i remember being lowkey upset about it haha. now though, i really do like the idea of friends with benefits/relationship for all the wrong reasons between the both of them because it really opens them up for so much character analysis. why rebound to each other? are they monogamous or is it extremely casual? why does q say he left vash when vash seems to think she left him? is he lying? why did she leave him? why was q so desperate to keep vash with him in q-less? does it have anything to do with his deal with picard? etc etc . in my head i have an animated miniseries about q and vash going on adventures with each other haha i started drawing more of this idea out and was even thinking about making a fake pitch bible (which i’ll probably end up keeping to myself lol) also maybe something about tng picard talking to stp q … who knows

jacques is such a little tragic character because his parents are. them. younger jacques takes after q so i reckon picard has to deal with two different entities who both desperately want his attention lolol

as usual, another really fun post :oD i really like reading thru these long reblogs of yours

qcard drawings from the past few. uh. since whenever i last uploaded ig

[cindersalad]

THEY ARE IN OUR WORLD? Is there any story for the monsters? Or is it like an alternate universe?

As for the characters, I may have latched onto Kaleo for a bit, so bear with me with the possible questions! ...that I don't know rn so! May I ask for something you love about all three of them, but haven't mentioned yet?

Once again sorry it took so long to answer! I barely checked Tumblr and hadn't got time to answer, but now I can! :D

And yes, they kind of are! Gea is based on our world, but where magic is fully a part of everyday life, with all the mythology and creatures tied to it. It developed in a very similar way our world did (it's somewhat mid to low fantasy, in that sense) but many things are different, and me and Gio are working a lot on them lately to fully understand how exactly different they are. :3c

And please, do ask anything you might wish to know! ❤ I'm only happy to talk about my characters, and seeing your interest makes me feel even more happy!! 🥺 Kaleo is one of my personal favourites, he grows up so much through the stories! Despite he has to also go through some... uhm, unpleasant things...

And something I love about all three of them, you say! :3c WELL... surely, about Humbert I love the way he feels emotions and doesn't hide them. He's the opposite of toxic masculinity in that, haha, when he feels something he usually feels it strongly and won't hold back, tears included. I think he's the character of mine who is less concerned about people seeing him cry, and I love that!

Of Jacques I love his easy attitude, he's someone that adapts easily to pretty much anything because he has no problem with it. Rarely you will hear him complain, in any situation he's able to at least appreciate the experience, if anything! And Kaleo follows Jacques' steps pretty well, but the thing I love the most about him is, I think, his willingness to listen. Since when he's young in Humbert's story he knows he has a lot to learn and is willing to listen, observe, and learn. He grows so much thanks to this, and quite ironically... it's when he stops doing that that he goes through the heaviest parts of his story. But that's for another time, and for the comics, when we'll draw them. <3

[rynwritesstuff]

Hello, may I please request a blurb or HCs with Jacques impregnating a prostitute and recognizing the child after their birth and then marrying the reader?

I decided to just write the beginning of this as him impregnating reader, but if you'd like to see more, I'd be more than happy to write it!

Impregnating whore!reader + Jacques Le Gris

NSFW: PIV sex, unprotected sex, non-consensual impregnation

The brothel is nearly empty when Jacques walks in one gloomy afternoon. Naked women sit around the room, their curves out for all to see. His cock twitches at the sight, and he hums softly.

You see him from across the room, and your eyes meet. He looks you up and down. You're wearing a thin robe, one that might as well be sheer, and he likes the sight before him.

He walks through the brothel, and women fawn over him as he goes. They all want a piece of this strong, tall, handsome man. 

But he’s got his heart set on you, and he pays no atteniton to the women that rub their breasts on him and touch his chest. 

“What’s a pretty woman like you doing in a place like this?” Jacques asks you, grabbing your hand and gently pulling you to your feet. You hum. 

“Girl’s gotta make a living somehow, sir,” you say, smiling up at him. Your nipples are hard, he can see them through the robe, and he pinches them between his fingers. Your breath hitches. 

“I suppose you’re right,” he says. “Take me to your room so I can have my way with you, harlot.”

You nod, breathless as you take his hand and lead him down the hall. 

You open the door and close it behind him. 

Jacques is on you the moment you’re alone, and he’s pushing you up against the shut door. You gasp softly. 

“What’s your name?” you ask as he yanks your robe open. 

“Why do you wish to know?”

He takes your breasts in his big hands and squeezes them. 

“So I know what to yell when you’re fucking me,” you tell him. Jacques hums out a soft laugh. 

“Jacques,” he tells you, pulling you towards the small, rickety bed that sits in the middle of the room. “What is yours?”

You tell him as he shoves you down onto the mattress. You gladly let him. In this moment, you’d let him do just about anything to you. 

He’s undoing his trousers, then, and he knocks your legs apart, revealing your aching sex to his eager eyes. 

“Ah, there we go,” Jacques hums. “Pretty little thing, aren’t you?”

You’re throbbing and trembling in anticipation, and when he pulls his cock out . . . Dear god, how your mouth waters. 

“Jesus,” you say softly as he lines himself up with your entrance. “You’re huge.”

Jacques smirks as he thrusts into you, muscles tensing as he does so. 

“Is that so?” he asks with that smug smile of his. You groan. 

“Fuck!” you sigh. “Take me, Jacques.”

“No need to tell me twice,” he says before he begins to fuck you harshly. Your breasts bounce with each powerful roll of his hips, and christ, he loves the view. He loves everything about what’s happening in this moment. 

“Ah!” you groan. “Please!”

“Please what, needy girl?” Jacques asks, gripping your hips. 

“Faster! M-More!”

He smacks your thigh, but fucks you faster anyway. You tip your head back, moaning loudly as he fucks you. 

He doesn’t warn you when it happens, and panic flares in your gut. 

“Jacques--!” you exclaim as he cums inside of you. He’s groaning and sighing, and you shove him away as you close your legs and shut your robe. 

He reaches out to touch you, and you flinch away, glaring at him. 

��Merci,” he says, smiling softly. He dumps a handsome sum of money into the dish beside your bed, but the damage is already done. You let out a shaky breath before yelling: 

“Get out!”

Taglist: @safarigirlsp @thepalaceofmelanie @clydesfavoritegirl @mrs-gucci @iamburdened @mrs-zimmerman @eagerforhoney @i-cant-draw-faces @icarusinthesea @candycanes19 @danidanisara 

(Let me know if you’d like to be added!)

[philosophicalpug]

yeah hes pretty flat as a character, i like him because he has a bit of snark to him, and i love to think about how he could warm up to others. theres also something to be said about how the schnees fit into the whole Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn dynamic with Jacques. Whic i think is part of the draw of him even though theres likely no more screentime for him would be natural if whitley has some issues with how seemingly every single family member left him behind with his abusive father. And theres some debate on which one hurt him the most, Winter, the eldest sister which often times serves as shield in these family dynamics up and went to the military. weiss, unused to the burden that winter left behind and winter likely her only source of a positive family dynamic, couldnt deal and skipped to beacon as soon as possible. Leaving whitley alone with their abuser. While one may come to understand that yeah shes an immature teenager looking to get away, i feel like that lack of consideration for whitley really drives the point home. (Admittedly, this relationship is the one that suffers the most due to whitley clearly being thought up much later than weiss and winter, since whitley isnt established till volume 4, it makes it seem like weiss really doesnt care for him at all, which is saaaad) and perhaps worst of all, though im pretty certain whitley doesnt think it is given the... everything hes going through, Willow. She wasnt a mother, whe wasnt really present in their lives and just, let all of this happen? We can all understand that its the worst thing second only to jacques, because shes a fully adult woman and a mother to boot, she should be there. But i dont think whitley even realizes it because its just so normal to him.

Confession #166

[neversetyoufree]

what makes vanitas such a good character i love him so much but i can’t put it into words

I think, funnily enough, a big part of what makes Vanitas such a good character for me is that way that he’s allowed to be, well, bad. He’s deeply traumatized, and as we learn more about him throughout the series, we see more and more ways that his past has affected him, and despite him acting so heightened and theatrical, at his core, he just feels really real. He’s not just some ~damaged badboy~, he’s genuine person with issues, which means sometimes he lashes out and acts like a petty little bastard, or a misogynistic creep. And we can see and sympathize with his hurt, but at the same time see the ways that he genuinely kinda sucks. And that makes for really interesting reading!

Like, we’ve all seen the “generic asshole with a heart of gold” trope before, and Vani could have so easily been that, but he really isn’t!

He’s an asshole, yeah, but only in ways that feel warranted based on his past. He loathes people that try to selflessly protect others, especially himself, he hides information constantly, and he tends to try and hurt or cast aside anyone that strikes too deep at who he really is. And that’s just a few of his issues; the list could go on! But the thing is that, looking at all of his flaws, they all feel like they have a reason to be there. He’s not just a jerk for jerkiness’s sake. The issues about protection? It all goes back to his guilt and history with Misha. The withholding of information? It’s his dislike of talking about himself and his (pretty justified, to be honest) assumption that neither Chasseurs nor Vampires ever want to listen to him. The aggressive evasiveness about his true self/emotions? He’s just fucking defensive and scared. In full context, Vanitas’s assholery ends up making him look sad and hurt, rather than edgy and cool, which makes him a lot more interesting than your run of the mill jerk character.

And as for the “heart of gold” part, that really doesn’t apply to him either. He’s not a bad person by any means, but he’s not exactly an unambiguous good guy either. He’s definitely got goodness in him, but half the time he insists on viewing that goodness as a weakness and trying to repress it. He’s just, like, a trainwreck of a guy. His morals are a mess.

He’s doing a great good by saving vampires from being cursed, but he’s doing it only for himself, with no regard for whether they want his “salvation.” He shows a lot of selflessness in Gévaudan, drawing on his Mark’s power and damaging himself in order to save Chloé and Jean-Jacques, but he does all that only after Noé insists to him that they should stay. Before that, he was so stuck in his uncaring persona that he was ready to walk away! (Though I’m sure he would have regretted that if he did). He can’t stand others getting hurt for his sake, but he’ll never admit it, and he puts on a show of hiring “shields” only to try to hurt or discard them if they actually shield him willingly.

He’s got less of a heart of gold, and more of a heart of silver *at best*, but he isn’t overly condemned by the narrative for this. He’s just presented as is, selfishness and trauma and all. And now thanks to Noé’s influence, he really is starting to mature into a better person.

And of course, I think the context of the series as a whole also helps how well he works. A character like Vanitas wouldn’t fit in every story, but one of VnC’s biggest running themes across all of its main characters is trauma and the way that it changes people, which means he fits quite well. He’s not just complexity for complexity’s sake. His history and issues are all thematically relevant.

Also, on a more meta level, I think he’s just really fun to dig into. He’s so dishonest, always trying to put on a show of being this suave, unaffected coolguy despite being so hurt and sad underneath, which means there’s layers to almost everything he does. Why is he doing anything at any given point? You could ask him, but he’d never give you an honest answer. It’s up to us (and Noé) to figure it out! And that makes him really compelling to read about, because he’s just begging for analysis. I look at him and I just wanna peel those layers! (Insert Shrek joke here).

Tldr: Vanitas is kind of a messy shithead, but presented in a way that feels both justified and really honest and real, which makes for a fascinating character to read about.