#i'll probably add this to the main post as a reference actually

[toast-tales]

What’s the cast’s official physical appearance? I want to draw fanart so bad~

EDIT: I've drawn busts of the main cast!

**New Height Reference Chart with human measurements**

First of all, I'm absolutely flattered you want to make fanart <3

Second, if it's not stated outright in the story, most of the cast's appearance is up for personal interpretation! I don't have a reference for every character, but I'll try and do a quick sum-up of how I personally perceive the characters (but again, if you have your own headcanon? That's fine too!)

I’ve linked some Picrews and fanart but they are NOT official physical descriptions, more like...pointing in the direction of what the character might look like. Picrew has its limitations, so they might not have all the right details. I’d LOVE to commission art for all of my characters at some point, tbh. If it’s not described below, you can probably just take creative freedom with the appearances. 

Christopher: long, straight black hair to about his shoulderblades, usually half-up in a bun. Dark eyes, sharp features, aquiline nose. Olive-toned skin. He’s pretty tall (think like 6′3" ish in human terms), but not very muscular. Kind of a beanpole tbh.

Danny: Red hair, usually worn down, straight but a little messy and parted to the side. Blue-green eyes, thicker eyebrows. In human terms she’d be about average height (like 5′6-8″), but if we’re talking relative to giants, her normal height is about 4″ (though under the growth serum, she’s more like 11″). She’s generally barefoot and physically, pretty lanky as well. 

Nathan: Brown, messy hair, curls just a bit and is pretty short. Brown eyes, soft features, freckles, a little bit of facial hair along his chin. Kind of short (5′7ish), a bit of a heavier build, but he’s actually pretty physically fit, considering he does farm work often. 

Sam: They’ve definitely got that slightly curly “more on top” haircut with the sides shaved, dark hair, pale skin. Hazel eyes. Average height, about 5′9″ or so. They’re kind of lanky like Christopher, but they actually work out, and have a good bit of lean muscle, especially in their arms. They have several piercings in each ear - specifically, they wear small black gauges, two helix piercings around the middle/upper edge of their right ear, and a flat piercing in each ear. Their tattoos are up to personal interpretation, they've changed in the fanart a lot which I find fun. But I do like the floral design on their left arm and a snake design around their right arm, along with lots of smaller, random tattoos along their arms and legs. They usually wear a flat-billed cap from their collection. They’re AFAB so they generally bind their chest and dress androgynously (they’re nonbinary but use they/he pronouns). 

Sybil: Very tall, even for a giant (think closer to 6′8″ - like, she's definitely able to look down on even someone like Christopher). Strong features, a bit older than the rest of the cast (in human terms, in her 40s/50s). Dark skin, golden eyes, black hair - usually braided and tied up with gold braid cuffs. She wears loose, white linen clothing most of the time. She is definitely very strong, and has a rather imposing physical presence. Sometimes wears golden, half-rim glasses for reading or looking at human-sized details, but not usually.

Cyrus: Very large, portly man, maybe about 5′11″-6′. He’s got a rough sort of face with a short, scraggly greyish beard, mostly balding. Probably in his 40s/50s, just like Sybil. 

Max: Very pale, almost to an unhealthy degree - messy dirt-brown hair, gray eyes, and rough stubble. Older, in about his late 30s but he looks much older due to...a stressful work environment.

Ryan: Blond hair, in a style kind of similar to Nathan’s - a bit unkempt but otherwise short. Pale, generally has bags under his eyes and somewhat gaunt features - very skinny. Dark greenish eyes. In his early 20s. Wears glasses once he sees an optometrist in the human city.

Maria: Brown skin, long, curly dark brown hair that’s thick and generally tied back (if possible). Similar to Ryan - very skinny/frail and has a sickly pallor to her skin at first. Warm, brown eyes. In her late 20s.

Alice: Pale blue eyes and long, light brown hair, generally worn up in a bun and tied back with a headscarf (if possible). Kind, motherly, but slightly worn features - in her early/mid 30s.

Stan: Tanned skin and dark gray hair with bits of white poking through. Has a thick mustache and well-trimmed beard (when possible). Stern features, has a slightly haggard face with a few scars. In his late 30s, but like Max, looks a bit older. 

John: Blond hair that's going slightly silver with age, long enough to pull back into a short ponytail. Pale skin, kind, green eyes, wears thin-rimmed glasses. About Sybil’s age, maybe closer to his 50s. Generally dresses pretty well, wears a button up shirt, slacks, and loafers most of the time. 

Nora: Blonde hair in a chin-length bob with bangs, wears several piercings in each ear. Generally dresses very nice (similar to John). Very pale skin, light blue eyes. Slightly older than Danny, in her late 20s.

That’s honestly about all I’ve got. If you have any specific questions about any characters, I’ll do my best to answer them! 

[maxthelordagain]

FIVE PEBBLES!!

recently got into Rain World (like 6 months ago) and i've been into it LIKE,, REALLY INTENSELY. unfortunately for me, i've also been enduring an 8 month art block, so i wasn't able to do much fanart for it either, BUT HERE WE ARE!! I'M DOING REFERENCE SHEETS FOR ALL THE CHARACTERS (INCLUDING THE SLUGCATS, STARTING WITH PEBBLES, because he has favorite character privileges.

CLASSIC MAIN OUTFIT, decided to add a bit of cyan to the design, due to it complimenting the pink really well, plus cyan seems to be his color anyway

probably my favorite campaign story-wise. i have learned that i cry really damn easily, i'm practically bawling my eyes out every other campaign, this definitely being one of them. anyway, i read Backwards through the Snow on AO3 quite recently, and the idea of the cyan cloak resonated so deeply with me, i just HAD to add it to my design. i literally ordered a custom Pebbles slugcat plush with a cyan cloak, CAN YOU TELL I REALLY LIKE THIS IDEA? if the writer of this fic is by chance reading this, this may not be direct fanart of this fic, BUT I LOVE YOUR FIC SO MUCH, THANK YOU FOR WRITING IT

okay so i said i cry really easily,, i uhhh,, i really went through it in Saint's campaign, LIKE GUYS. YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND, I WAS LITERALLY SITTING ON THE FLOOR CRYING ABOUT SILLY PIXEL GAME. i am so weak for this stuff, i really put myself through it by having to draw this. i finished it earlier today, i've lived today off of a coffee, a soba and 3 hours of sleep and you can probably tell by this post. uhmmm anyway, this post was meant to be me talking about my design, but i definitely did not do that. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY RAMBLINGS ANYWAY, maybe i'll actually go in-depth on this design tomorrow, WE'LL SEE

[furinana]

The undertones behind Walter and Jonathan's relationship that you might not know about

I'll be calling attention to traits present in their dynamic that are unknown to most players in the West due to incomplete localization.

Now... where do we begin? Oh, right. In the part after you're done with Naraku and get to spend the holiday with the other two.

This scene is presented in almost the same way in both languages but Jonathan's reaction seems emphasized on a specific word in the Japanese script.

"T...t-t... that's crude, Walter. I would never... such a thing like that to women..."

In either case, if this ended at Jonathan's response, it would be mostly nothing worth commenting on. Jonathan is the Law representative raised by a family that worked in the Monastery so naturally he's gonna behave in a more chaste way, correct?

But then you have Walter's posture becoming uncomfortable followed by immediately changing subjects as if he's already in the know of what Jonathan was anxious about compared to the player (thus Flynn) being rather out of loop about what was going on.

The thing is... the meaning was actually already available for the players, even prior to SMTIV's release! That is, if you accessed the official website and clicked on the interviews with the Japanese voice actors (which included in-character voice clips). All of the translations presented in this post were done by takujilvr

"I'll only tell you this because it's you, all right? Only because it's you! I'm afraid I can't bring myself to like women very much. Being raised in a household with two elder sisters and one younger made me lose any illusions about them I might've had. You're a man, so I feel much more at ease with you."

Certainly, he doesn't seem to specifically refer to anyone in this clip. It could be Flynn or probably anyone else as long as they're a male.

But there are other voice clips aside this one that point towards a more definitive interpretation.

"Enough of that "Ooh, you'll catch cold!" drivel, Jonathan, you sound like a naggy old wife. I can't abide being constricted, this chest must stay bared!"

"S-Stop pulling my hair, Walter! It won't straighten out, I got it from my mother!"

They don't have voice clips directly acknowledging anyone else, leading to the impression that Walter and Jonathan were being more marketed as a duo over their dynamic with the main character.

But the shocking reveal comes with this one:

"I'll only say this if you promise not to tell anyone! Cats, I just love 'em. When I see one outside, I can't help but crouch down and give it some pets! Wait, no. I mean, listen, I can't stand fish. And they can take it off my hands, can't they? That's why I love cats. Right."

A player that reached the part where the party gets hit by Yaso Magatsuhi's scent in Roppongi will thus connect the dots:

How one interprets the twist of this scene might change entirely with the voice clip in mind. It opens the possibility that, differently from many players' assumptions, Jonathan was acting like a feline not because he's secretly a cat lover. But, most likely, due to WALTER liking them. And he would have no way of knowing that unless Walter told him off-screen.

To summarize...

Jonathan is unable to feel attraction for girls and feels more comfortable with guys which would be inevitably an obstacle for his future considering his conservative background

Walter has phobia of fish despite what his family does for trade and has a soft spot for cats specifically because they eat them for him which would be defined as a 'weakness' to his self-reliant image

1 and 2 are each most's intimate secret and they revealed them for each other

"But how much does this add to the main plot?" Even when pushing aside subtleties from this extra material, attentive Megaten veterans would notice that the Law & Chaos representatives from SMTIV have an explicitly close bond compared to most characters of opposing sides in other titles of the mainline series.

[Jonathan was the most visibly affected by their breakup]

This extra material essentially adds more to the range of interpretation regarding their intimacy while also making them more relatable beyond their surface of Law & Chaos pieces.

On this note, moments where they "crack" their own alignments also happen briefly in-game.

They were two boys of the same age that became instant close friends however became unable to conciliate the differences emphasized by their caste system and reach the understanding of what would be the best for everyone.

All of this leads to the player's realization that Jonathan and Walter ultimately didn't perfectly antagonize each other as humans but were "pushed" towards their extreme roles by ulterior forces that would subsequently be further exposed in the sequel.

[mythosidhesdollhouse]

Shibajuku Girls: The Return?

Soooooooooo I've been debating whether to post about this at all because I doubt anyone will find it very interesting, but doll gossip is thin on the ground these days and I'm not quite ready to go to bed yet, so eff it let's go--

Alright so, those of you who follow these things may remember back during this year's Toy Fair it was announced that for some inexplicable reason the Shibajuku Girls doll line was planning a comeback. For reference: These 13" dolls from the Australian toy company Hunter Products originally turned up on shelves in the US back in the mid-2010's, to a fairly lackluster reception. Between their unusually high price point ($30-$35, a good deal above the average for fashion dolls at the time) and the fact that they are a rather blatant knock-off of Pullips, no one seemed to be that into them. In a way with their hair play gimmick (a lot of charms and hair clips) meant to interest children in Japanese street fashion I suppose one could see them as a precursor of the Decora Girlz, albeit with far lazier and less successful execution. I did end up buying one--Yoko--for the big head collection, and she's...fine, if forgettable. I like having her in the mix for variety, but I could never quite work up the enthusiasm to get another. The demise of ToysRUs around the time of their release probably didn't help matters any, as it was one of the few places that stocked them. These dolls lingered on the shelves of my local Target seemingly forever, before quietly disappearing to absolutely no fanfare.

But to bring it back to Toy Fair 2024--

For reasons that NO ONE I've heard speak on the subject can quite understand, seemingly out of nowhere Hunter Toys showed up at Toy Fair this year with a display of older dolls from the first two waves of Shibajuku, plus a wall of these mock-ups for a projected third series of anime-inspired characters. If you look closely at the 'prototype photos' in the boxes--not actual dolls--they appear to literally just be restyled Pullips. A lot of people (myself included) speculated that they may have put the money into creating a new head sculpt that more closely replicated the doll this line was always made to emulate, and the lack of actual dolls in boxes was a sign that this Shibajuku 2.0 head had yet to go into production in time for the event.

Turns out--no. That's not what they did at all. So--

A few days ago through a series of random browsing encounters I stumbled across listings for two of the five proposed 'Shibajuku Anime' dolls on Walmart's website. They are showing up as out of stock, but if you put them on your wishlist you can add them to your cart from there (though not check out), which is a pretty sure indication that they're expected in stock online and in stores soon.

So...what to say about these. First of all they quite obviously have the same old Shibajuku face. The fashions have considerably less detail than the prototype photos, which in itself I'd be willing to forgive for reasons I'll get to in a minute, but the main thing that overwhelmingly stands out to me here is that Kiki, one of the two characters shown with a darker complexion in the mock-ups, has gone from having tan skin and white hair to pale skin and black hair. Which, yeah no fuck that. No way of knowing if this was the brand's decision or a specific request from Walmart, but whichever way you slice it, it sucks. Lack of diversity was a huge issue with the first iteration of this line, and after the promise of a course correct it looks like we're back to more of the same. I will definitely be bending a critical eye on them to see if the other dark-skinned character, Sakura, receives a similar whitewashing :/

Now, with that rant out of my system, is there anything good to say? Well, the price, for one. These are set to retail for $19.98, which is significantly below what they sold for originally. No doubt the lower quality fashions and lack of accessories have a lot to do with it, but on the whole I'd say it's a plus. Also...as much as as I would have loved to see the ensuing drama if they had had the audacity to churn out a more blatant Pullip clone, for continuity's sake if nothing else I'm glad they stuck with the old face. She's a weird little bird and despite it all she deserves her place in the wider family of Big Head dolls, however derivative that might be (I mean, if anything Pullip needs MORE clones, Blythe has such a start on her in that arena....).

And finally (FINALLY) to wrap things up--will I be buying one? Perhaps surprisingly--yes! I plan to order Akira when she becomes available to ship. I think she's decently cute--you all know my bias for green hair--and I have a purely academic curiosity to compare her to my 'classic' Shibajuku. Plus, despite all my dismissive snark, I would actually like to see this relaunch be successful. I'm always in favor of diversity in the doll market, and this particular type of doll has been sadly under-represented of late. There is plenty room on the shelves for more big head girlies! MGA is daily signing that real estate away at an increasingly rapid pace XD My hope is that they do well enough to warrant the release of the other three dolls from the proposed new line-up, and that maybe--MAYBE--if the Dolly Gods are kind we will see Sakura with her original dark skin tone, as intended.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee ok that's enough sleep-procrastinating for one night, I'm done. If anyone else cares about this at all I'm sincerely curious to hear your thoughts.

[gold-rhine]

(can answer privately if u want)

how did you manage to write enjou stirring shit up. i need to know for Reasons

(Reasons being: i wanna write him doing that as well so i need to know how you figured that specific brand of Manipulation out)

oh, i love talking about Enjou, he's so fun to write.

Okay, Enjou's main rule is that he doesn't *technically* lie. If you've ever written fae with no-lie rules it should be similar. Everything he says should be true, even if he's seemingly joking - like when he tells traveler you never know what can happen in magic rituals, I could turn into a flame-throwing monster haha! He only lies by omission or by using leading questions. He often answers direct questions with his own questions, which lets him evade, or by what he makes look like a joke.

Like in Enka when traveler arrived and asked him who he is, he asked question in return, like Didn't they tell you there's gonna be a priest who will guide you? Traveler went yeah, they did. Enjou was like Great! You can't be expected to learn new language haha! i'm here to help translate.

He didn't say "I'm the priest who Kokomi said will help you," he asked a leading question to make traveler think about the priest with connection traveler trusted, then he didn't directly confirm he IS the priest and instead re-directed to his function "I'll help to translate", which is true!

Enjou's second rule is that he's a little shit and also a corny nerd. Like there's often a boring stereotype of manipulators being cool and sleek and charismatic, but Enjou is not that. He's a jokerified librarian. He consciously acts lame and corny to make the other person underestimate him and roll their eyes. He loves repeating how he's just a weak bookworm. He will go on info-dumping tangents to bury the lead of manipulation.

He also loves playing with his food, burying little inside jokes which only make sense in hindsight, like "I could turn into a flame-throwing monster". He likes doing the weak nerd routine, he enjoys watching the other person feel superior to him, while knowing he's in control of a situation, and he says corny shit on purpose to make it more pronounced. He should sound corny and just a bit unhinged. He says shit like "Exactomundo". I had to physically restrain myself, bc Enjou absolutely would say Exactomundo while watching a man's world crumbling before him, but I didn't want to ruin the tone for the reader.

So, to write Enjou's brand of manipulation you need to first formulate his end-goal, like what is the purpose of this manipulation? I assume you read my fic since you reference me writing enjou stirring shit up, so i'll use it as example of my thought process. One of the examples in my fic, he wants to convince rizzley that Neuvi gave him the title to buy his loyalty. What are the true facts here? Neuvi did fight hard to give rizzley the title, he says it in his own voice lines. What do we need to add? Malicious intent.

Enjou can't say "Your title was a bribe", bc that's a lie. Instead, he starts with "you know what I would do if *I* was the Hydro Sovereign with an ability to take human form? <...>I’d make sure I have people loyal to me in some key positions. Such as Royal Duelist… and the Warden of the Fortress.” It's not a lie, bc if Enjou was a sovereign, he'd probably really do that. On paper, he's talking about himself, but in context of overall conversation it will be obviously extrapolated to Neuvi. This is a form of switching the goal posts from Enjou to Neuvi without outright saying so.

Then, he says true facts:

“He didn’t make me the Warden,” Wriothesley gritted out. 

“No, but he did make you the Duke, didn’t he?” Enjou smirked with a wink. “Our sources say the Court was not thrilled to give the highest noble title to you. And if the Iudex did not throw his own weight behind it, it would have never come to pass. How generous of him.”

It's true, it was actually generous, he doesn't lie. But in context of previous implied accusation, it will be read as sarcastic, as saying it was done with selfish reasons.

And then he reinforces with “Ah, you’re starting to get it, don’t you?”, which is a leading question that again, doesn't say anything false outright.

he should also offer the person hes manipulating to beat him up repeatedly, bc hes a freak.

[makerofmadness]

What's with Balloon Boy and the Daycare Attendant?

The Balloon World arcade machine exists, it's in the DA's room and both characters are involved in it. It's probably one of the most cryptic minigames in the FNAF series as a whole, but while we could ponder what exactly it's supposed to mean (maybe I'll do that for all the security breach minigames eventually), the main question I have is this:

WHY Balloon Boy specifically? Why is the minigame about HIM?

Is there a connection between the two characters? Or was it a completely random decision?

Out of nowhere, thinking about Balloon World, I came to a realization:

The Lights.

Balloon Boy's entire gimmick in FNAF 2 was that if he got into your office, he would disable your flashlight and vent lights (...somehow. I know we all make the jokes about him taking the batteries [and then that FNAF 57: Freddy In Space thing in FNAF World said he just straight-up steals your entire flashlight], but you never see the battery icon disappear or appear empty in FNAF 2 itself when he gets into your office. And the vent lights also stop working, so unless they also operate on batteries, then... does he actually take them from you?).

What's the one rule in the daycare?

Keep the lights on.

His mechanic is the antithesis to what Sun wants and exactly what Moon would want. Balloon Boy doesn't keep the lights on. He prevents you from turning them on at all.

(which also makes me kinda sad there wasn't a Glamrock version of BB. Then again, I don't know how exactly he would've uniquely affected like anything. Regardless I am hoping for the day someone in the fandom makes a glamrock bb who is arch-enemies with sun and gets along well with moon skseijdndndnd-)

It feels kinda obvious and I'm guessing I'm not the only person to think about this, but I have never seen anyone else bring this up. Not on YouTube, not on tumblr, nowhere. Maybe if I go looking for it I'll see, but i'm surprised I haven't bumped into anyone else saying this just naturally. I go into the BB tags a LOT, surely SOMEONE would've said something, right? I don't even see it noted in the trivia on the page for the arcade game on the fnaf wiki.

...but is this supposed to mean anything? Or is it just a cute little reference or callback? it's hard to say, especially with how ambiguous the minigame is.

Though I DID think of ONE thing... (possible minor spoilers for Ruin under the cut):

Saw this pointed out in a youtube video that the BB World screen (with Eclipse, who makes their proper debut in Ruin after effectively being foreshadowed by the minigame in SB's base game) can be seen on the ceiling in the DA's room. Which makes sense, obviously, but also take note of the pirate-themed windows in the hallway leading to it.

...now, which character do most of us tend to associate with Balloon Boy? His "tag-team partner," of sorts?

Foxy. The Pirate.

With this, I found that there's more Foxy-related stuff associated with the daycare area than I had previously realized because I had never made any connections before. I mean, Kids' Cove is directly linked to it for god's sake.

Like. I hope i haven't forgotten to mention anything (I've been writing this post over the course of hours 'Cus I had stuff to do in the middle of it all). My brain's kinda starting to fry. But basically: Was Foxy originally meant to be the Daycare Attendant, in-universe? Was there gonna be a Glamrock Balloon Boy with him, like as his first mate or something??? Were they gonna be connected to Fazbear Theater????? (Uh basically Sun/Moon to my knowledge from confirmation in the books and a lot of more subtle implications in-game mainly involving environmental pieces were originally meant to be in the Fazbear Theater as a stage animatronic but got moved to daycare duty instead and being reprogrammed. Which actually explains a lot about them when you think about it-)

Like. Ok I'm forgetting where I was going with this, I'm sorry, but I guess it's food for thought/adds to the weird connections between DA and BB, I guess. Idk. I can't focus that well right now to keep making new ideas.

felt like sharing my interpretation of the Balloon World minigame itself at least since earlier I did kinda finally get it down concretely:

I kinda developed a theory that Eclipse is Sun/Moon's "safe mode" and that rebooting DA reactivated Eclipse as a result. Like, they're their own AI that was at one point implemented. but then Vanny happened and locked them out thanks to the whole Glitchtrap virus thing (albeit it only seemed to reach Moon, while Sun remains seemingly unaffected. Guessing it's because they're different AIs [finally implied/basically confirmed by their Ruin dialogue). Eclipse has seemingly not been active for some time, or at least never post-pizzaplex closure, given how they're seemingly completely oblivious to the fact that this place is closed with no signs of opening.

So the minigame was foreshadowing Eclipse's existence and implying their "trapped" nature, which also could be seen as paralleling Vanessa's whole "Vanny" situation, especially given how iirc one of the messages related to princess quest can be found near the arcade machine.

[cacodaemonia]

1st of all big fan, devoured RC!AU. It's fantastic

2nd of all, I could get lost in your sw resources tag that thing is awesome

3rd Do you have any references for Waxer and Boil's buckets? (Sorry in advance if you've already posted them, and thank u again for all the boxer content 💖)

Aw thanks! <3 I haven't written in the main RCAU for ages, but I'm still plugging away at the Open Skies sub-AU haha 😂

Ah I'm glad that's been helpful! I mostly tag for my own organizational purposes and I know there are some gems in there—especially from @gffa and @fox-trot! My 'sw refs' tag has a lot of overlap, but also includes a lot of image references for fanart or describing things in fics, so that one might be useful, too?

And yeah! I'm not sure if you want Phase I, Phase II, or their ARF helmets, haha, but I know I've got plenty of refs for all of those, so I'll toss them in here...

Boil:

Waxer (The second image shows the back of his Phase I helmet, which is hard to find shots of, in the background behind Boil being awkward 😂 So he had the little droid silhouette on his helmet back then, too):

And some shots of both of their helmets (Waxer is on the far right in the last image—you can see his tally marks):

Their ARF helmets seem to cause a lot of confusion, as I've even seen merch that doesn't show the little Numa painting on Waxer's helmet, and most people seem to mix up who is who in that Landing at Point Rain episode (probably because the writers seem to have done so, as well, since they gave Boil the more cheerful dialogue while having Waxer complain—but maybe he was just having a bad day! 🥺).

There's also the horizontal band of gold paint Boil has under his visor attachment to match the paint on his regular helmets, as well as a grey stripe along the top of the helmet that's lined up with the red triangle on his visor attachment. Waxer has his 'crest' stripe of gold paint, of course, and it continues under his visor attachment a little bit, too. Then he's got his tally marks and snoot triangle. :D

One thing that I only noticed recently is the very faded ship silhouette (or however you interpret the black design on his other helmets) on the left side of his ARF one. In the second-to-last image above, you can just barely see something on his left side, but the only way I knew it was more than just dirt was because I have a little figure with the shape painted on it. Which is also not very visible:

(Thankfully, I don't think I've actually done any images where you can see the left side of Boil's ARF helmet, so I shouldn't have to add that to any of them, haha. Hopefully I haven't mentioned anything about the lack of symbol in any of my fics, though... XD)

I'm still unclear what is going on with the paint on his and Waxer's spaulders in the ARF episode, because it's obviously faded/been scuffed in places, but sometimes, Waxer seems to have an unpainted right spaulder, and sometimes there's a stripe??? His little figurine is the opposite, though, with a striped right spaulder and an unpainted left one. Meanwhile, Boil's left spaulder looks like it could be all painted gold, like in the figure above, but other times, it seems to be a normal stripe??? Who even knows—I'm guessing that the texture for their models got messed up during the production of the episode, so they're inconsistent. Personally, I'm just sticking with 'matching stripes on both sides,' like the rest of their armor. 😂

Anyway, I hope that helps!

[amerricanartwork]

Current digital art process!

Acting on @shkika 's request because making my redraw for this post actually ended up giving me more confidence in my digital art process! As such, I'm gonna use it as a reference. And if this walkthrough of sorts turns out nice, I might do it again as my process evolves!

I started off with a quick sketch of sorts, trying to focus both on movement and volume, and get the general idea of where each element is located. I edit the image dimensions and placement of things a lot in this phase, as my ideas often tend to change once I actually begin drawing them. In this case, as I got it down, I decided I wanted it to look like some cheesy animal motivational poster, so that influenced where the text was.

From there, I began to clean and sometimes edit the sketch, mainly by thickening the lines to make the shapes more definite, and erasing what wasn't necessary and interfered with other parts. Volume is one of my biggest focuses in my drawings, so I try my best to get the volume of each character at least hinted at with the lines. This is something that will probably remain in my process for a while, as I quite dislike doing separate lineart and like the messy, sketchy feel anyway.

I also wanna mention, in addition to having references and such in other windows, I've recently begun having a second mini window of my current drawing off to the side so I can see what it looks like overall more easily, regardless of how much I zoom in on and flip the main window. It's quite helpful!

For reference, this is what the final sketch looked like:

Then, I went on to add the flat colors. Another tip: I almost always set my sketch layer to "Lumi & Shade" because I think it makes the line colors a lot richer, but since it's based on what colors are underneath, it colors the lines a lot more individually than changing the sketch color as a whole. Here's some comparison to a version without the effect (left):

Then, I add some shading using a (really nice) marker brush. This is honestly one of my favorite parts of the process, just trying to carve out all the volumes, especially since I usually use a pretty blue color for shadows!

Sometimes, I honestly just leave drawings finished at this step, because I adore the sketchy look so much, and because I really don't like the tediousness of more realistic rendering in the painting process; from what I've seen/experienced, it often involves having to basically paint the entire image over again, which I've realized I find REALLY boring (and is also why I clean the sketch instead of making a new lineart layer). As such, one of my hopes is to reach a point where I could almost completely avoid having to clean up the image in a traditional painting method, instead being able to lay down lines and colors so well that they convey nearly all the volume necessary on their own, still have that sketchy appeal, yet also look finished and professional.

Alas, I did do a bit of clean up on this image, but I think it still turned out alright!

Here's the finished drawing! I'll have to practice with this process a bit more to truly solidify it as my digital go-to, but nonetheless, I think this came out adorable! Thanks again shkika for the ask, and thanks to @mintscampi for the sweet prompt! I hope you guys like it!

[fatguarddog]

Welcome 🐾🔞

Follows from @follow-fatguarddog (inactive old main but I gotta keep it to keep this blog)

Feedist Kinktober 2024 Prompt List

Hey, I'm Hutch, 28/UK/M, icon by @droolfang

I am not a gainer. I'm a chubby alt male feeder/feedee who enjoys stuffing and being treated like a dog ❤️

This is my space to explore my kinks, mainly weight gain stuff and slightly more aggressive pet play I'm trans, only use he/him pronouns and prefer terms like dick/cock and tits when referring to my body. I've had top surgery but enjoy fantasising about growing tits/moobs I like people of all genders, but do lean t4t ❤️

I love hearing other people's fantasies/ideas so ask is always open! You should probably scroll down a bit and read my Hard Nos first before sending one though (please no more slob-leaning asks) ❤️

DMs are open, but please only message if you're 23+ I offer custom audio commissions, find out more HERE I have a Ko-fi HERE if you ever wanna throw a dog a bone or treat me into something in particular 🦴

My Kinks

I'll be tagging my posts in case you want to search for or block something in particular - original stuff will still be 'hutch posts,' but here you can also find 'hutch photos' for pics of me and 'hutch audios' for little fat fantasy recordings Also to reiterate that whilst this is a weight gain-centric blog, I'm not in a position to actually gain weight nor am I a gainer, I just like fantasising about a world where I could be a lazy fat dog. Please don't send me asks about tips for gaining weight because I'm afraid I can't help you, I have always been roughly this fat and have no experience with consistent gaining

🐾 Fuck yes: feedism, weight gain (magical, slow, rapid, forced, etc.), ass/belly/breast expansion, general belly kink, monsterfucking, bondage, praise kink, intox kink (alcohol and weed), biting, pet play (think of me as a rough but loyal dog or a maybe pig boy)

🐾 Yes Please: breeding, cnc, some degradation, corruption kink, primal urges, hucow/lactation, inflation (favs are pumpkin, honey, berry and milk), plushification, force masc and force femme (not in a detransition way, just like how a cis guy would be into it)

🚫 Hard Nos: detransition kink, slob stuff, death feedism, gore, piss/scat, ddlg type stuff, incest, birth, feet, immobility in weight gain scenarios (I'm ok with it in more fantasy-based tf scenarios though, e.g. pumpkin inflation/transformation)

Taken anon emojis/sign offs: 🪞, 🐮💓, 🫐🐈, 🐶❤️, 🐑🤍, storm anon, 😻, 🎃, 💋, 🐳, 🕹️, ghost anon, 🎃☕, 🎃🦣, 🥛, 🥓🐻, 🐉, 🍩🐶, 🍒🦝, 🐷 🤓, 💜, 🧊🐺, 🎤, 🐺, 💣💥, 🐊, ⚡️, 🐇, 🔵, 🐗, 🎀, seal anon, doughnon, 🍰, 🦌, 🍔🐱, 🥨, dogboy, 🐐, ⚕️, sleepy cowboy, 📼, 🦇, 🦕, ☢️, 🍄, 🐷🐶, 🚙, 🌀, eldritch weight gain anon, ♉️ Emojis/sign offs help me know who I'm talking to if you've sent asks before, so feel free to add them! If you want to interact with me, please don't call me a puppy! Just dog/big dog/fat dog is fine, but puppy doesn't do it for me in referring to myself

BLOCK LIST

Under 18s or no age in your bios, you’re not welcome here

Same if you’re over 45, no disrespect it's just not comfortable for me

Misgendering and thinspo blogs, no thanks

Literally anyone who makes me uncomfortable at my discretion

Feedism jars filled out under the cut if you wanna know more

[transmascpetewentz]

Intro + Basic Stuff

It has been 5 days since a transandrophobe has been horrifyingly disrespectful of a gay trans man who died of AIDS on one of my posts or in my inbox.

It has been 3 days since a cis gay man has whined about his genital preference in my notes and/or inbox when I didn't ask.

If you're here because someone accused me of being a TERF, please know that I am not. Read this for more details.

I can't think of a name to use on this blog so just refer to me either by my URL or a silly nickname. My BYF as well as a few blinkies are under the cut.

my pronouns are he/him, but any are fine if you're clearly using them to show that you respect me. they/them is generally okay as long as you aren't using them to dehumanize me.

i prefer gendered terms (boy, girl, enby) over neutral terms, but i will block you if you use "girl" in a misgendering sense. malewife and similar terms are fine. also, this is highly unlikely to come up, but please don't call me "queen."

i'm USAmerican, and when i'm talking about issues, i'm likely talking about USAmerica unless i indicate otherwise.

i'm currently having brainrot about: fall out boy, american idiot, red white and royal blue, fallout new vegas, and velvet goldmine (the 1998 film).

i also post untagged discourse on this blog, specifically talking about transmasc issues, trans liberation, queer liberation, and how to be normal about transmascs if you aren't one.

i'm also looking into converting to judaism, and as such i might post about conversion and judaism in general. filter #judaism if you don't want to see it.

i'm part of a system, so it might not always be the same person answering asks. i probably won't post about it mostly because i want to stay out of syscourse.

all original posts are #wentz.txt, asks are #asks. if i ever have photos of myself on here, they'll be #wentz.jpg.

this blog runs on a queue, so just because i post doesn't mean i've been online recently.

this is my alternate account. i have a main blog that i'm ignoring due to harassment. if you have me blocked on my main and try to follow me here, i'm blocking you for your own sake.

cis women are welcome to follow but don't touch any of my posts making fun of cis gay men or i will bite you.

blog rules:

no, i'm never sharing my age on here.

tag filtering: flashing, eyestrain, loud, violence cw, sexual assault cw, pedophilia cw, self harm cw, suicide cw, not worksafe, long post, anon hate, arguing with bigots, fascism cw.

please do not ask me about whether i am pro or anti ship, whether i support endogenic systems, or my views on intracommunity issues i'm not part of.

i'm autistic and as such might not understand if i'm making you uncomfortable. please either block me or DM me and tell me to stop doing something.

i won't reblog your callout post, reblog bait, guilt tripping, or donation post. an exception might be made for your donation post if we're mutuals.

if i don't block you, then i don't mind you following me. i don't softblock. please don't softblock me either, just block or else i'll refollow.

if i have reblogs enabled on a post, i'm fine with anyone reblogging it. if i have replies enabled, i'm fine with anyone replying.

if you're going to send anon hate, it has to be interesting, original, funny, and/or creative.

also, if you're going to send anon hate, please refrain from calling me slurs, sending me death threats, sexually harassing me, or misgendering me. also, please censor the name sh***a, or don't use the name at all in your ask.

i don't really have a dni, but i will block you if: you fetishize gay men or trans men, you support capitalism and/or cops, you glorify the actions of the ussr, you deny that transandrophobia exists, you think that feminine cis men are more oppressed than feminine trans men.

actually, i have to add a dni now: please dni if you falsely accuse gay men who died of aids of sexual assault. yes, someone like this tried to interact with me.

That should be it for now!

[oxceen]

Introduction, since I probably should have a masterpost

Hey all! My name is Quinn and although I prefer no pronouns, they/them is perfectly fine :)

I am a 15 year old artist and animator (hobbyist) and I'm very friendly so feel free to interact!

Some things about me:

I'm aromantic and asexual

I'm Chinese-Australian

I identify as nonhuman/alterhuman, specifically a therianthrope, fictionkin, and otherhearted

You can learn more about my nonhuman identity on my sideblog

I am an age and pet regressor

Asks are OPEN - ask me literally anything, I'm happy to respond to any questions about me, my ocs, etc

Art requests are OPEN - however, spamming art requests will not be appreciated

DNI:

Basic criteria

Z00s/P3d0s

NSFW blogs

Proshippers

Pro ED, s/h, etc. blogs

Anti agere/petre

Fandoms I'm in, tags, alt blogs and misc info under cut

Fandoms I'm in:

AvA/AvM

Lackadaisy

Murder Drones

The Amazing Digital Circus

The Hunger Games

Warriors

Wings of Fire

Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official's Blessing

the Gone series

EPIC: The Musical

SMG4

Roblox Pressure

Tags I use:

#valleylily.exe videos, art and other stuff with my main oc Lily of the Valley

#oxceen's ocs anything featuring any of my ocs

#therian userboxes userboxes that I made! They are all f2u, but please credit me!

(I might forget to add these tags to something)

Alt Blogs:

@jackdaww-draws is where I will post art that is not AvA/stick figure related [now abandoned bc I just continue posting art here now]

@feathers-fins-and-fangs is my nonhuman blog

MISC:

I mainly draw AvA related things, and mainly my ocs

My main oc/semi-sona is Lily of the Valley/Lily (who's currently my pfp), but she's got a looooot of lore attached to her so if I'm depicting me as a stick figure I'll use my actual sona:

Here are my three main ocs' reference sheets

Here is my main oc Lily's most recent ref sheet

user boxes cuz I love those:

[drretroregretevator]

Intro post!!

Hiya! This'll be a DrRETRO roleplay blog, note that this is my first time making a rp blog of any sorts, and I basically have no idea how to use tumblr

Also please note that I'm still working on how to portray Retro's character! If I make any mistakes, please inform me!

for out of character things I'll use '[ooc]' and then whatever I want to say

If you want to refer to me out of character, call me Ruby or Puppeteer!!

Notes and boundaries:

Please don't mention (IRL) parasites, I really don't do well with those Don't be a weirdo, please, I'm a minor since apparently this one needs clarification: NOTHING SEXUAL IN MY INBOX. I want NO mention of: sex, genitalia, etc. ALSO DON'T JOKE ABOUT RAPE??? Y'all need some serious help. Another thing: Please don't send anything about pregnancy either, it makes me uncomfortable.

No slurs. The fact I had to add this says enough about you all. It's not funny. You're not "edgy" or "cool". Just don't. When it comes to shipping, I'm mainly fine with it, though note I ship RetroHammer, so any other ship-type interactions would be one-sided There's a likelihood that drawings for answers/responses won't be common, but if I have the motivation, there will be a drawing! I have two artstyles right now, a lined one and a lineless one, so the artstyle in art posts might vary! My way of drawing Retro might also slightly vary overtime, as I'm still not completely sure on the fullbody design I have of her rn!

Magic anons are allowed, just make sure they don't last too long or are inappropriate!! (For example: You can make Retro an ordinary cat, but maximum 10 asks)

I post when I feel like it, this can mean long periods of inactivity!

Do NOT take anything I say on this blog as actual medical advice or anything of that sort, I am not a professional, if you have a genuine problem, please have a professional look at it!

Some context on OWP for those confused: OWP is my main OC who I decided to involve into Regretevator, she often hangs around Retro and tends to be chaotic and odd in general, she'll be interacting too sometimes!!

Main blog (Often inactive but I post art sometimes): @slimygreasestain OWP blog (will mainly be used for reblog interactions and such): @theonewhopuppeteers

Some tags I'll probably use:

General: #Regretevator #Regretevator Roblox #Roblox Regretevator #Ask blog Retro in general: #DrRETRO regretevator #Regretevator DrRETRO

ask answers as Retro: #Retro Answers

Random posts from Retro: #Retro posts #Retro rambles OWP in general: #OWP chaos ask answers as OWP: #OWP answers Random posts from OWP: #OWP posts #OWP rambles

Interactions: #Retro interacts

[warm-cat-burrito]

This is legitimately just my spam blog. I have two other sideblogs, one for art/my OCs (@fennmeow) and one for therian/autism/ADHD stuff and general thoughts (@fennthetalkingdog). All I'll probably ever do here is reblog cool stuff I find, but the main reason I'm making this intro is just so I can organize all the tags I'll be using here. It'll change all the time (if I start to reblog something that requires a new tag, I'll add it here), so this will continually change.

For reference, though, I like:

Yu-Gi-Oh, Dungeon Meshi, and other anime/manga

Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, Tower of God, and other webtoons/webtoon anime

Persona 5 Royal (both the game and the manga <3)

Wings of Fire

Warrior cats

FNAF

Spiderman

Writing

(Some) K-pop songs, Vocaloid songs (Ghost and Pals <3), and music in general

Alt stuff (especially poc alt stuff)

Autism, ADHD, and therian stuff (will be limited tho since some of it will go on my sideblog)

so I'll definitely be reblogging that stuff. And I occasionally have hyperfixations, so that list is also subject to change, lol. Also I'll be putting real life stuff into either the #real life tag or the #advice tag (depending on what it is). Other stuff will be organized in one of the tags attached here (hopefully).

Also here are the links for the daily clicks for Palestine/Sudan thing because I keep forgetting and maybe you did too:

Okay so it looks like I'm gonna run out of tags soon so I'll put them under a cut (I'll save the actual tags for important and relevant ones):

🐾--------🐾

(Note: If tags have another tag next to them in parentheses, that's their spoiler tag; I try my best to use only one. And related tags can be listed in bullets beneath a parent tag—in this case all posts with the specific tag will also be tagged with the parent tag. If two tags have a "/" between them, that means they're interchangable and all posts with one tag will have the other too.)

General Trigger Warnings:

#tw blood

#tw drugs

* #tw weed

#tw eyestrain

#tw sex mention (literally for anything that mentions sex)

* #spicy (spicy stuff that may imply/describe sex but don't show it)

* nsfw (full-on nsfw stuff - I shouldn't be posting that? But just in case)

#tw syscourse (most will only be reblogged privately tho)

#tw periods

#tw politics

* #international news

* #congo

* #gaza/#palestine/#free palestine

* #haiti

* #sudan

* #tigray

* #usa news

* #us presidential debate

* #us politics

General Art Tags:

#animatic

#character design

#comic

#cool art (for art unrelated to a mentioned fandom)

* #anthro

* #artfight

* #fennmeow/#my art

* #monster

* #oc art

* #scenecore

#human designs

#suggestive

Anime:

#dungeon meshi (#dungeon meshi spoilers)

* #farcille

* #labru

* #secret lab!au (also under #crossover and #scp foundation)

#jujutsu kaisen

#mob psycho 100

* #transfem mob

* #transmasc reigen

#oshi no ko (#oshi no ko spoilers)

#tower of god (in this category since I'll barely reblog ToG webtoon stuff probably)

* #tower of god anime

#welcome to demon school iruma kun/#marimashita! iruma kun

* #iruma kun mafia if story

#yugioh

* #yugioh gx

Webtoons:

#omniscient reader's viewpoint (#omniscient reader spoilers)

Videogames:

#deltarune

#fnaf

* #fnaf movie

#legend of zelda

* #breath of the wild

* #tears of the kingdom

* #wind waker

#off game

#persona 5 royal

#slay the princess

#the stanley parable

#ultrakill

#undertale

Books:

#stormlight archive

#virals

#warrior cats

#wings of fire

Other Media:

#actirangers

#crossover (a tag for crossovers - I've gotta go back and retag stuff tho)

* #secret lab!au (dungeon meshi x scp foundation)

* #twin runes (undertale x deltarune)

#gravity falls

* #after canon AU

* #fiddleford

* #billford

* #bill(ford)^2

* #the book of bill

#lackadaisy

#musicals

* #cats the musical

* #hadestown

#my little pony

* #equestria girls

* #my little pony friendship is magic

#scp foundation

#spiderman (almost each character has their own tag in this category)

* #into the spiderverse (#into the spiderverse spoilers)

* #across the spiderverse (#across the spiderverse spoilers)

* #meows morales/#spidercat

#total drama island

#what we do in the shadows

* #my familiars ghost

Relating to Me:

#alterhuman/#nonhuman

* #otherkin

* #therian

#college things

* #major stuff (stuff about my majors)

* #minor stuff (stuff about my minors)

#for future fenn

* #for irl friends

#languages

#music

* #video game music

* #vocaloid

* #hatsune miku/#miku worldwide

#neurodivergent

* #autism

* #adhd

* #intellectual giftedness

* #overexcitability

* #stimming

#plurality

* #tulpamancy

#pride (for queer stuff in general)

#writing

* #fanfiction

* #mha fanfiction/#Rowan Call and Toby (my own mha fanfiction)

General Tags:

#important

#advice

* #drawing advice

* #job applications

#cats

#friend interactions (things like chain posts with friends)

#mental health

#pretty people

* #drag

#real life

* #comedy

* #disability

* #fundraiser

#resources (only for linked resources)

#stuff for atlas (stuff for my friend Atlas btw)

#tumblr

* #historic tumblr posts

* #poll

* #tumblr folks doing the usual

I apologize profusely for any untagged or badly tagged posts—I reblogged a bunch of stuff before I began my tagging system and some past stuff is still untagged or weirdly tagged.

[deaft-punk]

Intro Post :)

Thought I'd finally make an intro post because I can't sleep and I'm bored so here we go

My name is Melody, I'm an agender lesbian but I honestly don't give a shit about how you want to refer to me

I'm deaf and autistic so please bare with me when I have my slow moments :')

My current hyperfixations are Ghostbusters (specifically Phoebe Spengler and Checkmatch) and tenrecs

I'm in too many fandoms to list them all lmao but some of my main ones are: Ghostbusters (obviously), Marauders, Dead By Daylight, Stranger Things, Criminal Minds, Stanley Parable, Sleepy Hollow, Scream, and Spiritfarer

My current favourite artists/bands: Hozier, Adrienne Lenker, Matt Maltese, Sufjan Stevens, Radiohead, Mitski, Sandi Thom, Billy Joel, Scissor Sisters etc etc

I will die on this hill for these ships: Checkmatch, Jemily, Wenclair, Ronance, Elmax, Wiseflower

Note for donation asks: As much as I wish I could, I unfortunately can't donate as I'm a minor and don't have any money :(

Content info under cut

I'll probably add more specific tags in the future but for now I'll be tagging my future shit posts/reblogs with #melodys yaps🪶 and #melodys reblogs🪶

I'm planning on making fanart and AUs when I get my bedroom back so I actually have space to do many evil things >:] (which is hopefully soon)

I'm more than happy to take requests for fanart and AUs. I'll update this post with request boundaries as soon as I can

I also have another blog for me to yap about my ocs and the silly little stories I've made for them. @deaft-punks-oc-archive is the URL, however, there's nothing on it at the moment so don't get your hopes up

[luminouslumity]

I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile now, and since it'll still be awhile before the album's fully complete, why not do it while only three are out? And what is it exactly? Essentially, comparisons. I've done quite a few similar posts with the Monkie Kid series already, in which I would talk about certain characters and the mythology behind them, with Journey to the West being my main reference point.

In this case, I'll of course be using the Iliad and the Odyssey for sources, specifically the Emily Wilson translations. I'll also be referring to other sources when necessary. They'll be pretty brief and will only cover up to where we are now, but here's your spoiler warning just in case (yes, even for a tale as ancient as this). Basically, think of this as a way to provide extra context. I intend to do this with each saga that's released.

Now, without further ado, let's begin. And as a disclaimer, I by no means claim to be an expert, I'm just someone who loves mythology and also happens to read a lot.

THE HORSE AND THE INFANT: Lots of names are being dropped here, so let's start with the main man himself, ODYSSEUS (Ὀδυσσεύς)! He is the son of LAËRTES (Λαέρτης) and ANTIKLEIA (Ἀντίκλεια), who is a granddaughter of the god HERMES (Ἑρμης), which I'm sure many would agree would probably explain a lot! In some versions, Odysseus' biological father is said to have been SISYPHOS (Σίσυφος), another mortal trickster, albeit a far more villainous one. Either way, clearly this runs in the family! He also has a sister named KTIMENE (Κτιμένη). And of course, there's his lovely wife PENELOPEIA (Πηνελόπεια), more commonly known as Penelope, and their son TELEMAKHOS (Τηλέμαχος).

Speaking of Penelope, the following story comes to us briefly from Pausanias' Description of Greece. Born in Sparta to King IKARIOS (Ικαριος) and the river nymph PERIBOEA (Περιβοια), it's said Princess Penelope was allowed to marry only after someone had beaten her father in a footrace. Of course, that someone ends up being Odysseus, but here's where the interesting part comes in: when discussing AIDOS (Αιδως), Modesty, Pausanias adds that Ikarius attempted to convince Odysseus to stay, and failing that, pleaded with Penelope. Odysseus, rather than challenge Ikarius or speak over his new bride, let her make the choice. But Penelope said nothing. Instead, she simply placed her veil over her face, her silent answer clear as day.

Next, we come to Telemachos, who was a newborn when his father left. However, it should be noted that Odysseus really didn't want to go. So much so that he feigned madness to try and get out of it, which was only foiled when PALAMEDES (Παλαμήδης) seized baby Telemachos and placed him right in front of where his father was recklessly ploughing the fields; Odysseus stopped immediately after noticing his son, but was then forced to join the war afterwards.

DIOMEDES (Διομηδης): one of the more notable Greeks during the Trojan War and a favorite of the goddess of wisdom alongside Odysseus, Diomedes was an intelligent and valiant soldier, to the point where he had even wounded the god of war himself. He also directly assisted Odysseus in Troy's downfall.

AGAMEMNON (Ἀγαμέμνων) and MENELAOS (Μενέλαος): Okay, these two have their own stories that I could make an entirely different post on, but for simplicity's sake, Agamemnon is the king of Mykenai and commander of the Akhaioí (Greeks); much of the Iliad concerns his feud with AKHILEUS (Ἀχιλλεύς) over the captive BRISEIS (Βρισηίς). Meanwhile, his brother Menelaos is king of Sparta and had been married to the reason this war started in the first place.

TEUCER (Τεῦκρος): one of the greatest archers, Teucer actually had Trojan blood through his mother HESIONE (Ἡσιόνη), who was the sister of King PRIAMOS (Πρίαμος), or Priam. Through his father TELAMON (Τελαμών), his elder half-brother is AIAS (Αἴας), or Ajax, the Greater.

AJAX THE LESSER: By the time of the Trojan War, there are two characters by the name of Ajax, with the Lesser referring to Ajax of Locris. He was known for having been a spearman and the fastest of the Greeks, but like many of his comrades, never made it back home after having earned the wrath of the gods.

NESTOR (Νέστωρ): the eldest of Greek army, he often offered wise, albeit long-winded, advice. At the end of the war, he was among the few who managed to return home safely.

HELEN (Ἑλένη): And now we get to the Reason. Well, sort of. Married to Menelaos and then PARIS (Πάρις), to blame the Trojan War solely on Helen would mean to disregard a lot of other things, such as the idea of KLEOS (κλέος)—glory—three powerful goddesses, a little golden apple, and even an entire plan to depopulate the earth. Sources vary as to whether Helen even left with Paris willingly, and that's not even getting into the versions where she didn't even make it to Troy at all! What is known, however, is that by the time we see her in the Iliad, Helen is nothing short of resentful. For example, during a confrontation with APHRODITE (Αφροδιτη), she says:

“You, goddess? Why do you want to trick me in this way? Will you keep leading me to yet more cities, in Phrygia or in fine Maeonia if any other mortal takes your fancy? Now Menelaus has defeated Paris, and wants to take me home with him again, although I am so hateful. Is that why you come to me now with these tricks of yours? Then go to him yourself and sit beside him! Give up the path of gods and let your feet never turn back again to Mount Olympus! Spend all your time on taking care of Paris, crying for him, until he makes you either his slave girl or his wife! But I will not ever go back. It would bring retribution. And I will never service that man’s bed. All of the Trojan women in the future will blame me if I do, and in my heart I will endure more pain than I can measure.”

Aphrodite threatens her immediately following this, forcing her to go and comfort her new husband, but not before Helen tells him:

“So you came back from the fighting. I wish that you had died out there, defeated by that strong man who used to be my husband. Before, you claimed you were superior to warlike Menelaus in your strength and hands and spear. So go on, challenge him! Call Menelaus back again to fight you! But no. I order you to stop. Do not make war and fight with ruddy Menelaus. It would be idiotic. You would soon lose and lie dead beneath that fighter’s spear.”

According to a fragmented poem called Ilias mikra ( Ἰλιὰς μικρά), or Little Iliad, when Odysseus and Diomedes are sneaking into the city to steal their PALLADION (Παλλάδιον)—a wooden statue fashioned by the goddess of wisdom herself and said to be Troy's protector—Helen recognizes them, but never alerts the people in the walled city.

In terms of family, Helen had at the very least a daughter—HERMIONE (Ἑρμιόνη)—who had been about nine when she left (sources vary on whether she had other children or not), and she was also a first cousin of Penelope on her father's side. Though speaking of TYNDAREUS (Τυνδάρεος), prior to Helen making her choice of husband, one of the suitors present had suggested that should she be taken by anyone else—of which there actually had been a precedent for thanks to a certain Athenian king—they would all take up arms against that person to get her back. This would become known as the Oath of Tyndareus. What a brilliant idea, Odysseus.

NEOPTOLEMOS (Νεοπτόλεμος): son of Akhileus and called PYRRHOS (Πύρρος) at birth, Neoptolemos joined towards the end of the war and helped bring about the fall of Troy. Though young when he was called to arms, many sources often emphasize his brutality during this time, while others—such as Euripides and Sophocles—show him to be kinder, albeit torn in regards to the situation he's in.

And as for his father, Akhileus had actually been killed by Paris of all people, though not without divine help. Paris himself would later be killed by the archer PHILOKTETES (Φιλοκτήτης), and of Priam's remaining sons, Neoptolemos is credited by the Roman Quintus with having killed the following: POLITES (Πολίτης), PAMMON (Πάμμων), and ANTIPHONUS (Ἀντίφονόν).

JUST A MAN: Which brings us to ASTYANAX (Ἀστυάναξ), the infant son of HEKTOR (Ἕκτωρ) and ANDROMACHE (Ἀνδρομάχη). He is indeed killed because the Greeks feared his potential retribution, but the exact details aren't entirely consistent. In one version, he's killed by Neoptolemos, in others by Odysseus, be it directly or indirectly. In Seneca's The Trojan Women, the child even leaps off the walls himself. It's only in much later traditions does he survive.

As for his father, Hektor was said to have been the greatest fighter of the Trojans and had shown great kindness towards Helen for all of the twenty years she'd spent at Troy (yes, according to the very end of the Iliad, Helen specifically had been at Troy for twenty years at that point). The poem ends with his funeral.

FULL SPEED AHEAD: EURULOKHOS (Εὐρύλοχος) is not only Odysseus' second-in-command, but also his brother-in-law. His home is near Ithaka, on the island of Same. Polites (different one, of course) meanwhile is a very minor character in the Odyssey, but is still referred to as Odysseus' devoted friend.

OPEN ARMS: The LOTOPHAGOI (λωτοφάγοι), or lotus-eaters, were a race who—when consuming from a specific plant—would fall into a state of apathy to the point of never wishing to leave. This incident in the Odyssey is actually incredibly brief, with the crew arriving and then leaving immediately after Odysseus forces the men who ate from the lotus back on the ship.

WARRIOR OF THE MIND: Throughout both the Iliad as well as the Odyssey, ATHENA (Ἀθηνᾶ) acts as Odysseus' patron goddess. The boar "only the best could kill" is likely in reference to the famous Kalydonian Boar Hunt, which Odysseus is actually never mentioned as having taken a part in, but his father Laërtes did, depending on the source. The poem does reference a boar hunt, though, one that caused Odysseus to get scratched when he was still young.

POLYPHEMUS: In this song, we officially meet, well, POLYPHEMOS (Πολύφημος), the KYKLOPS (Κυκλωψ). Odysseus and his man arrive at his island immediately after they leave the land of the lotus-eaters, find a cave filled with cheese and sheep, and...

My crew begged, ‘Let us grab some cheese and quickly drive the kids and lambs out of their pens and down to our swift ships, and sail away across the salty water!’

That would have been the better choice. But I refused. I hoped to see him, and find out if he would give us gifts.

Obviously, this doesn't turn out to be the case. What needs to be understood, however, is that Odysseus and his crew were technically guests, so he would've expected Polyphemos to uphold XENIA (ξενία), sacred hospitality, something he even makes clear in the poem. He hadn't anticipated for Polyphemos to have no fear of the gods. The next morning, Odysseus gives him wine gifted to him by a priest of APOLLON (Ἀπόλλων) named MARON (Μάρων); Polyphemos finds it so delicious that he even compares it to nectar, the drink of the gods. Yet still, this wasn't enough to persuade the kyklops to free them.

SURVIVE: In the original poem, Odysseus is mentioned to have had several men eaten by Polyphemos, though the only one actually named is ANTIPHOS (Ἄντιφος).

REMEMBER THEM: It's worse in the poem.

‘Hey, you, Cyclops! Idiot! The crew trapped in your cave did not belong to some poor weakling. Well, you had it coming! You had no shame at eating your own guests! So Zeus and other gods have paid you back.’

[...]

My crew begged me to stop, and pleaded with me. ‘Please! Calm down! Why are you being so insistent and taunting this wild man? He hurled that stone and drove our ship right back to land. We thought that we were going to die. If he had heard us, he would have hurled a jagged rock and crushed our heads and wooden ship. He throws so hard!’

But my tough heart was not convinced; I was still furious, and shouted back again, ‘Cyclops! If any mortal asks you how your eye was mutilated and made blind, say that Odysseus, the city-sacker, Laertes’ son, who lives in Ithaca, destroyed your sight.’

Then it's immediately revealed this had been part of a prophecy.

Like MY GOODBYE, I honestly don't think there's much for me to talk about STORM and LUCK RUNS OUT, at least not at the moment, so let's move on to KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE, where we meet AIOLOS (Αιολος)! His island in the sky is named, fittingly, Aiolia, and he lives there with his wife and twelve children. Though initially receiving Odysseus and his crew warmly, once the bag of winds was opened and returned them to the island, Odysseus tried to ask for his help again, but Aiolos simply demanded that they leave, figuring the men were disfavored by the gods.

And finally, we have RUTHLESSNESS! After being rejected by the wind god, the crew come across the LAISTRYGONES (Λαιστρυγονες), giants who ate the crew and destroyed the ships until only one vessel remained. According to Hesiod, they sprang from Laistrygon (Λαιστρυγων), whose father was POSEIDON (Ποσειδων).

Poseidon as he appears in many myths is, in one word, ruthless, cursing Odysseus almost as soon as his son Polyphemus prays to him for vengeance. In certain myths, he is also portrayed as a rival to Athena, such as when the two competed for dominion over the then unnamed Athens; Poseidon offered them the first horse and Athena the first olive tree. To quote Emily Wilson:

Whereas Poseidon favors the untamed world of the stormy sea, Athena loves fixed settlements and the olive tree—a crop whose oil was used in archaic Greece for cooking and skin care. Poseidon makes the earth shake; Athena makes even the most rugged, barren landscape available for cultivation.

As far as the Trojan War itself is concerned, according to many sources, Poseidon actually helped build the famous walls of Troy alongside Apollo, but when the king at the time, LAOMEDON (Λαομέδων), refused to pay them, Apollo sent a plague and Poseidon sent KETOS (Κητος), a sea monster which would then be slain by HERAKLES (Ἑρακλης) just before the monster could eat Princess Hesione; Laomedon, having learned nothing from last time, refused to pay Herakles, who would then go on to sack the city in retaliation. Poseidon would later side with the Greeks during the war, but here's the interesting part: while the Trojan War has no set date, one proposed theory is 1275 BC, as that was around when historical Troy (specifically Troy VI) was believed to have been destroyed by an earthquake. Furthermore, what animal was carved out of wood for the final ambush? A horse!

[slaviclore]

thanks to everyone who responded to last week's translation challenge (which you can see here, or under the cut below)! All your answers have been really fantastic and useful. 303 people voted, of which 119 are Polish speakers. I tallied up the votes from the Polish speakers (i changed your vote if u expressed regret in the tags after voting), and I summarize under the cut the various takes on this question and add my 2 cents (or possibly more like 2 dollars, as this is a Long Post). Read on to learn some things about the Polish language and Chopin history. :]

context again:

This is the opening sentence of a letter written by Fryderyk Chopin (who I'll refer to as FC for convenience) to his friend and/or boyfriend Tytus Woyciechowski (TW) in 1829. He's 19/20 years old (we're not sure about his DOB), and he's been spending some time with Prince Antoni Radziwiłł and his family at their palace in Antonin (near Poznań). Radziwiłł is a huge music nerd, and Chopin is having a great time over there. The mood of the letter is mostly positive and upbeat, and you can probably expect him to be at his cheekiest.

There are 3 published English translations of this letter, which I included as options in the poll. None of the 3 professional translators are native Polish speakers. They are: EL Voynich (option 1), David Frick (option 2), and Arthur Hedley (option 4). Option 3 is my own take on the translation (I am a native Polish speaker but not a professional translator).

why is this important?

1) it's an interesting grammar problem where the combination of a referred statement (FC is summarizing what TW said), a command, and a reflexive (się) makes it unclear who is to kiss who. Can we figure out what TW's original statement was based on how FC referred to it? Did he say some version of "kiss me", or "kiss yourself", or something else?

2) We have 22 letters from FC to TW, but we don't have any from TW to FC, so it's useful to piece together the way he may have written to him -- especially since we're not sure what their relationship actually was.

3) FC has a habit of teasing TW for not liking to be kissed, which historians have taken a bit too seriously, if you ask me -- this was some inside joke between the two of them. But if this short exchange was part of that joke, it gives us a chance to understand them a little better.

4) Arthur Hedley was a prominent Chopin scholar in the 20th century. His translations are the ones that are usually quoted to this day, and the choices he made in his translations and biographies have had a huge impact on the field. Some were good choices, and some were bad. Today, he's a controversial figure. I don't think he can be dismissed or blindly trusted, but rather critiqued point by point... we can take on one such point here.

The full original sentence from Chopin's November 14 1829 letter:

Ostatni twój list, w którym mi każesz się ucałować, odebrałem w Antoninie u Radziwiłła.

here's some definitions:

Ostatni twój list -- your last letter

w którym -- in which

każesz -- a command word in the second person present tense: you tell/you command

ucałować -- to kiss

mi -- me

się -- a reflexive to indicate the self, non-specific for gender or person (can be me, you, him her, etc)

odebrałem -- I received/I picked up; first person past tense

The main issues of this translation are:

the order of the 3 phrases (separated by 2 commas)

word choice, especially what to call the kiss

word order of the middle phrase, i.e., who is to kiss who

Several of you mentioned that this sentence is weird. Yeah. Sigh. Unfortunately, Chopin is very dead and has made that everyone's problem. No one specified why it's weird, but I guessed that it's the order of "mi" and the reflexive "się" in the middle phrase, so I asked you in a separate poll if another order would be better. 25 people voted on that one, of which just over half were Polish speakers. No one said that the sentence was weird for some other reason, which explains why the available translations could not agree on how to interpret the directionality of the commanded action (who is to kiss who). Voters were also split pretty evenly among those who preferred an alternative word order (especially "...w którym każesz mi się ucałować..."), and those who said that there's nothing wrong with the sentence or that changing it would change the intended meaning even if it does sound better. I therefore propose that we give Chopin the benefit of the doubt and assume that he said what he meant to say, even if it was awkward.

Some poll responders were not concerned about the kiss at all, and focused almost entirely on the order of the phrases in the sentence. They argued that starting the sentence with the "I received" fragment rather than the "Your last letter" fragment shifts the emphasis away from the location (Antonin), which is the main point of the sentence, and that the kiss is only a secondary point. Those who mentioned the kiss agreed that calling it anything but a kiss is not helpful, but the second most popular translation was the only one that replaced this word. Arthur Hedley's preservation of the sentence order, and maybe his dampening of the kiss subject, is likely what earned him second place -- 20 people voted for this translation (option 4), or 16.8% of the Polish-speaking voters.

--

Arthur Hedley, Selected Correspondence of Fryderyk Chopin (1962), pg 36:

Your last letter, in which you send me your warmest greetings, reached me at Radziwill's place at Antonin.

--

Kisses are thrown around left and right in Chopin's letters, regardless of who is writing or receiving them (friends, family, any informal context). While "ucałować" is literally "to kiss", Hedley's goal was probably to remove the ambiguity with which a kiss might be interpreted by an English-speaking audience and instead give you (the suspiciously British) "warmest greetings". This is something he did regularly in his translations and has made himself rather unpopular for it. Even if he is basically correct and the fundamental goal of the kiss is just to offer a warm greeting, replacing the word removes your ability to make the following 2 arguments, should you choose to do so:

Though a kiss is indeed a common greeting/sign-off, when FC refers to the **whole letter** as the one where you tell me to kiss you(/myself/send me a kiss), this creates emphasis not generally afforded to greetings and sign-offs. Presumably, TW wrote other stuff in that letter (if he literally only wrote "kiss me" and nothing else, holy shit i'd have fainted) -- but FC has relegated the rest of the letter as less important than the kiss, even if TW himself didn't give that bit a second thought. It's like if Harry wrote you a whole email with a bunch of stuff in it and signed off with "love, Harry", and then you wrote back, "Harry, i got your email where you say you love me". I'm not going to argue whether this is flirting or not, but I hope you see how it might be.

(watermelon sugar is playing as I write this, but u can have any harry u want in this simulation)

FC's emphasis may also be a reference to whatever inside joke these two seem to have that makes him insist (in other letters) that TW doesn't like to be kissed. So FC's intention may be the very troll-like: i got your letter where you tell me to kiss you(/send me a kiss) but i **thought** you don't like kisses?? interesting!!??

🤔🤔🤔

Either way, Hedley robs us of the TW eye-roll we deserve, so I think he blew it on this one, even if similar choices worked well in other contexts.

For me, the main difficulty in the translation was whether TW's original command was "kiss me/give me a kiss" or "kiss yourself/give yourself a kiss", with FC's rephrasing therefore being either "...to kiss you" or "...to kiss myself", respectively. So who gets this imaginary kiss? TW or FC? and which of them is supposed to give it? David Frick takes the most ruthless route to this answer (option 2), and 17 of you agreed with him, or 14.3% of the Polish-speaking voters, giving him 3rd place.

--

David Frick, Chopin's Polish Letters (2016), pg. 143:

I received your last letter, in which you tell me to give myself a kiss, in Antonin at Radziwiłł's.

--

Some of you said that this is the most grammatical choice -- while others brought up the very valid point that... why would anyone be told to kiss themselves? and how does one go about doing that?? Maybe Frick imagined TW's original command as something along the lines of: since I'm not there, give yourself a kiss for me.

I think this is a good take, even if FC made it weird and Frick refused to save him from his own grammar. In a stark contrast to Hedley's method, Frick tends to stay close to Chopin's wording and syntax. Though I do find some over-interpretation in Frick's translations and annotations, some of which I think is incorrect, his translations are very good, and I defer to his choices unless I have a good reason not to.

One poll responder brought up the alternative interpretation that actually TW's original statement was hostile. After I read Frick's translation, this did also cross my mind, and I imagined the exchange as something like this:

FC: kiss me

TW: oh ffs, kiss yourself

FC: i got the letter where you tell me to kiss myself

😔😔😔

hilarious. If TW really is as allergic to being kissed as FC insists, this interpretation is a viable option. Unfortunately for my personal amusement, I don't think he's really so allergic to it. Also, if this were the case, I would expect FC to emphasize "himself" with something like 'sam się ucałowac'. Here "sam" is a type of "self" you use to say you're doing it (by) yourself/oneself.

In this scene from Borat 2 (with which I have a conflicted emotional relationship that belongs in a different post, but I did laugh my ass off at this scene) Borat's daughter says, in reference to the monkey that was dead in the crate (in their fake language that mixes Hebrew, Slavic and Near and Middle Eastern languages), something like "sam się zjad" which is probably meant to be a Slavic "he ate himself", when it was clearly she who ate the monkey:

I think the commenter had something even harsher in mind for the interpretation of TW's letter, though, like where kiss yourself is a euphemism for fuck yourself. I don't know how people told each other to fuck off in 19th century Poland, but now I'm desperate to find out. Dearest Tytus, your last letter, in which you tell me to go fuck myself, I received in Antonin...

oh my lord this is sending me. I suspect this Bieber-esque usage is modern though, but I'm not sure! Either way, the rest of FC's letter is very affectionate so it doesn't seem super likely that he just got told to fuck off, unless he absolutely cannot take even a single hint

Since FC frequently signs off his letters with kiss me/give me a kiss, it's reasonable that TW might do the same. My translation was option 3, which keeps the structure of the sentence and assumes that FC's rewording is meant to say "kiss you/give you a kiss". This was the most popular option, with 68 votes or 57.1% of the Polish-speaking voters.

--

Me, tumblr, 2023:

Your last letter, in which you tell me to kiss you, I received in Antonin at Radziwiłł's.

--

I can't tell if Frick's "kiss myself" or my "kiss you" is the more grammatical interpretation -- if u have an answer for this from the depths of Polish grammar, I'd love to see it. But! I think it doesn't really matter! Since this is a personal letter, all we can safely assume is that FC is being rational, not necessarily that he's being fully grammatical.

On my first reading of the letter, I didn't consider Frick's "kiss myself" possibility at all. I just assumed it was "kiss you", and some of you echoed that sentiment. After I read the published translations, I ran the sentence through google translate (the least reliable of all our translators but still useful for comparisons), which agreed with me. As GT is trained on modern content, I was concerned my translation may be a modern artifact... which may also explain why many of you voted for it -- the professional translators may have simply known better.

I wondered if I could find historical precedent for this sentence structure being used to refer to the giver of the command (kiss TW) rather than the one being commanded (kiss FC). I found this in a prayer called "Litania o Milosci Bozej" or "Litany about God's Love". here is a fragment with the relevant grammar in bold:

Boże, któryś mnie sam wprzód umiłował, zmiłuj się nad nami.

Boże, który mi każesz się miłować, zmiłuj się nad nami.

My translation:

God, you who loved me first, have mercy on us.

God, you who commands me to love you, have mercy on us.

--

I haven't been in a church in a thousand years, so someone who goes to Polish church, pls tell me if I'm getting this wrong. Here, God commands the individual saying the prayer to love Him (not to "love yourself"). The grammar is the same as in FC's sentence. The last word is the specific verb (love for the prayer, kiss for Chopin), 'każesz' is 'you command/tell', 'mi' is 'me', and 'się' is the reflexive:

the prayer: który mi każesz się miłować

-- you who commands me to love you

chopin: w którym mi każesz się ucałować

-- in which you tell me to kiss you

I don't know how old this prayer is or how long it's used this specific wording, but I found a version of it from the early 20th century -- it might be a lot older. While this doesn't tell you what FC meant in his letter, it does offer precedent for the "kiss you" translation and argues that TW having asked for a kiss is, at least, a viable take that's not necessarily modern.

--

EL Voynich, Chopin's Letters (1931), pg 73:

I received your last letter, in which you send me a kiss, at Antonin, at the Radziwiłłs'.

--

Though it may not seem like it, Ethel Voynich's translation (option 1) actually comes to the same conclusion as Frick's -- Voynich was first by 80 years, tho, and the first person to translate Chopin's letters into English -- but she got the fewest votes: only 14, which is 11.8% of the Polish-speaking votes. Like Frick, Voynich switched the phrase order, which may have put some of you off. She also packaged her interpretation in a simpler way that may have felt false to poll responders. In her translation, like in Frick's, FC is the recipient of the kiss. It's just that, here, the kiss is sent to him, rather than administered by virtue of his own action, as Frick would have it. The same is true for Hedley, actually, where FC is the recipient of the greetings. Most of you, and I (and the robot), thought it was TW who should be getting the kiss instead.

One poll responder suggested a hybrid option, which agrees with my interpretation of the middle phrase but Hedley's choice to rename the kiss: "Your last letter, in which you tell me to send you greetings, reached me in Antonina".

So what do you think? Was TW's original statement something like "kiss me/give me a kiss", or more like "give yourself a kiss for me", or even "kiss yourself (hostile)"? Or did TW always intend FC to be the passive party in receiving the kiss or greeting? Was this flirting? Was it part of the "TW hates being kissed" inside joke? There's no right answer to these questions, and a consensus doesn't mean the winning answers are true. We will probably never know for sure what TW really wrote... the best we can do is guess.

Some of my takeaways:

it's useful to look at multiple translations to see where translators have disagreed and where the uncertainty lies

if you remove ambiguity in the translation of a Chopin letter (like Hedley did) or complexity (like Voynich), you're in danger of removing nuance, which Chopin stuffs into his writing like it's build-a-bear.

but if you go with the direct meaning (like Frick), you may end up trying to convince the world that Chopin was asked to kiss himself somehow for some reason

and if the only one who agrees with you is a robot, you'll probably have to dig up an ancient prayer to justify your possibly modernized take (like me).

This is the curse in a nutshell.

Thanks for reading! hope you had as much fun with this poll as i did