#i'm mostly talking about your local representatives

[potterheaded-hipster]

friendly reminder that it is actually the government's job to fix like all of your problems. complain to them about everything. be annoying. never give them a moment of piece while the world is burning.

[ballad-of-the-lamb]

I've been bingeing your art in this blog for, like, the last hour. Sooo much good stuff!

Can we hear more about notable members of the Cult? Cheese Parm's s/o and such

cult info below cut b/c i'm gonna be typing a lot;

Everyone listed here are basically the main runners/cast when it comes to plot relevance in the story in itself. there are plenty of cast & characters that aren't- but they wont pop up for anything other than background characters perhaps staring on in horror at god antics or one another's antics.

we'll start from the top;

GALLOWS [ girlyed cheese ]

the most recent member of the cult to be saved specifically by the lamb themself from sacrifice within Darkwood.

a lot of cult conflict will begin with the uninitiated, the unknowing. and the influence of the twin gods will be seen on her in real time as the story progresses.

she is generally a very generic playful-but-tricky fox character, but there's a lot she hides; much like the rest of the cult members. her past is not happily talked about, or seldom is.

she was a native to Darkwood. She is chaotic because of it.

she was meant to be burned at the stake.

EKPYROSIS [ asbestos ]

This word derives from a Greek word for a great fire. It represents a belief held by some scholars of Stoicism, that says that the universe has no beginning or end, and instead is destroyed and remade in a great conflagration in a cyclic manner. Just as life & death ever are.

Her name stands out among the rest of the cult because it was the name that the Lamb bestowed upon her upon being given the title of disciple. Just as Narinder took Baal & Aym to learn from him, the Lamb took her.

Her previous name is not known to anyone mind the Lamb themself, Narinder, and cheese parm.

She is more inclined to using and being influenced by the eldritch artifacts & relics the Lamb or Narinder tend to return with.

She leaves an uneasy and terrible 'uncanny valley' feeling tenfold within her vicinity, which makes her hard to be around. It is not just being outright creepy- but it's a lot more akin to literally feeling reality dip and bow around you into something not quite right.

She does not move like a normal person. The way she walks, runs, jumps- it's all too impossible to replicate without someone shattering every bone in their body.

When she speaks, her voice is delayed from her mouth. And it doesn't always line up perfectly.

most notably; cheese parm hates her. for good reason.

OTHERA [ bong water ]

An average cult member on the surface. They are a caretaker, they are matronly, they work as the local therapist. Generally just likes taking care of people.

When the Lamb, Disciples, & Narinder aren't around to listen to confessionals in the booth they are typically who does.

It's an unspoken rule to not make them angry or let them get to '1' when they start counting down from 5.

He is typically known for the reason morale is good. A good shoulder to rely on.

He is the third oldest member of the cult, resurrected multiple times over to serve his purpose, next to cheese parm & his sister. they are also the only one that asbestos seems to actively fear besides cheese parm.

EUNOMIA [ they/theminem ]

Eunomia was a minor goddess of law and legislation, whose name means "Good Laws", and is specifically a goddess of order according to good governance.

The second disciple. Known for learning the use of the Lamb's personally created curses specifically, though does know the ones Narinder passed on. They do not deem themselves worthy enough to use those.

Generally a very angry & spiteful person for a multitude of reasons. It mostly comes down to 'bearer of the curse' and the curse being knowledge.

They are the only one really permitted to 'backtalk' due to how much they actually do know their place.

they are very heavily disciplined under the rule of self-flagellation, and know the tenants and rites better than anyone else in the cult. even the head ritualist.

as said on paper. cheese parm's s/o. the significantly scarier one. they have not had a reason to be scary in a good couple hundred years! don't make them start now.

has 2 adopted kids w/ cheese parm they raise.

PANKRATIAST [ cheese parm ]

The Pankration is a sport of unarmed combat that featured in the ancient Olympic Games in Greece. This specific association fits as he's specifically an unarmed fighter first and foremost.

While not a disciple, is considered one generally in 'importance' to the higher ups of the cult. While he is no more important than Gallows, Othera, Minced Meat, or any other average member- he has the veteran's respect.

Was given a name by the Lamb, and since he does not speak, it's not like he can correct anyone otherwise.

well. doesn't talk. only ever communicates in vague grunts and noises that voice displeasure or a neutral 'ok'

Generally considered stoic, he does not feel strongly about most things.

The village executioner. The head missionary. Bartender. Does all the jobs no one else wants to do, and even others when no one else does it.

Smells of gore & wet dog constantly.

Knows. Remembers. Knows why death is broken, knows how it broke, will not tell Lamb or Narinder. He is a Witness.

Knows all the weaponry the Lamb uses & can use it just as effectively on a physical level.

The first of the flock. Will be there even when there is no more flock to have. As it will ever be, pinkie promised back in the Silk Cradle back where he was first found.

ILONA [ taco bell qsdea ]

a specialist in alchemy, cooking, & plants. Tends to the farms, gardens, & warding stones.

The first of the cult members Narinder warmed up to directly after descension. They brought him food every day, they gave him supplies, and other than the Lamb- they were the first to not be terrified of him.

They are very blind and often need a guide when they are not allowed to use their clicks and noises to find the way.

They are immune to Gallows' tricks and run off of the 'fae logic' of most things.

Their name means 'joy'. A name they decided on after speaking to Narinder for a time.

The first cult members recruited directly after Narinder's descension.

Immune to the horrors Somehow. There is something hiding behind those big ol eyes

Can fly. They have wings attached to their arms, and for it, require special clothes.

will be involved a lot in narinder plots

MINCED MEAT [ childbirth gambino ]

head cook but kind of as a threat. the lamb put them there for a reason. they are pretty mid.

constantly paranoid and in a state of fear or unease. Does not sleep because of it, and instead compulsively cooks almost all day and night.

most random screeches or noises in the cult come from this little guy

absolutely scared shitless of the Lamb.

The first Dissenter since the Lamb's ascension. They were made an example of. Now they will never. They have seen god's wrath, and would rather die.

narinder likes to bully this thing by hissing at him in the night

attached to beansnesed'd bsbisebies hip when in the chapel or out and about.

the prime example of 'the lamb is not a good person.'

ALOPE [ deep dish pizza ]

cheese parm's little sister. and borderline clone. she copies everything he's done up until adulthood when she started to become her own person. though it's been hundreds, if not thousands of years, she's still trying to figure out who she is.

made a pinkie promise to the lamb, just like cheese parm, to always be there. and she has!

ripped as fuck. like, more than cheese parm. huge. absolute beast thing.

the lamb prevented a fated death in her, the first time he ever did so, and for it her title is technically 'Saint Alope' within the cult for being the act of a miracle.

like her brother, never speaks vocally, never shows her face. gets across feelings through vague grunts. uses sign language where cheese parm does not.

the fastest in the cult. rivals narinder in base speed without using necklaces or unnatural abilities.

uses two ritual dirks or daggers at any given point, throwing knives, things of that sort. protects the village next to cheese parm, and you'll never hear her coming. totally, absolutely silent.

[khaire-traveler]

🪻 Subtle Hyakinthos Worship 🌱

Pick flowers; press or dry them

Start a garden; tend to a plant

Grow your own herbs or produce

Keep a picture of him in your wallet

Wear jewelry that reminds you of him

Get a candle that reminds you of him (no altar needed)

Make a flower crown, especially with Laurel leaves included

Drink an herbal/flower tea (SAFELY!!!); add some honey to it

Support environmental preservation or LGBT rights organizations

Have imagery of swans, flowers, hyacinths, an iris or larkspur (sources believe one of these are the original flower mentioned in myth), the sun/sunlight, or rebirth (maybe spring) around

Have a stuffed animal swan or any animal you associate with rebirth

Express yourself in little ways if you can't be fully open; a bracelet that represents your gender, pride flag colored shoelaces, etc.

If you have a partner, buy or pick flowers for them; buy or pick flowers for yourself

Pick up trash in your environment

Try spring cleaning; tidy up your space

Take a self-care bath/shower, especially with herbs or flower petals

Make a list of things that made you smile throughout the day/week, big or small

Talk a walk/hike in nature; walk through a field of flowers or an area with lots of flowers

Put up a sugar water feeder for pollinators, such as hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees

Fall asleep/meditate to the sounds of nature - bird songs, forest ambiance, etc.

Take regular breaks from screens; be sure to get some fresh air

Learn about the local flora

Try foraging (SAFELY!!!)

Practice compassion towards others as well as yourself

Donate fresh fruits and vegetables to soup kitchens and homeless shelters (if the shelters accept perishables)

Get some movement throughout your day, even if it's just stretching your muscles

Eat three meals a day; try to eat well if able

Stay hydrated; drink lots of water

Take your medications, if any

Try herbal/natural remedies for MINOR health problems; stomaches, headaches, sore throats, etc.

Take some time to bask in the sunlight

Get accustomed to the idea of change; without change, we cannot progress

Keep a self-love and self-growth journal; write about your feelings (positive and negative), treat yourself with understanding, write ways you've changed throughout the month, etc.

Engage in comforting activities after a hard day; engage in self-care

Engage with childhood media; get in touch with the younger part of yourself

Get comfortable with the idea of growing older; to be human is to grow old; to grow old is not a bad thing

Be kind to children; play with them if offered

Dance/sing to music, especially music that makes you feel free, wild, young, or happy

Recycle when you can; try to make/use your own compost

Leave flowers on graves (ask permission from the cemetery first!!!)

Make your own cookies, pastries, breads, etc.; try to use natural ingredients

Give out handmade pastries, cookies, breads, etc. to loved ones and those in need

Try to ground yourself in nature; stand in a green landscape with bare feet (if safe); focus on the fresh air coming into and out of your lungs, the peaceful sounds near you, etc.

Be gentle with yourself, especially if you're having a difficult time; treat yourself as you would treat a loved one - someone extremely near and dear to your heart

Open your windows, blinds, curtains, etc. on a sunny day; let the light or fresh air in

Stop and smell the flowers c:

-

This is my life of discreet ways to worship Hyacinthus! I found this list a bit challenging, mostly due to the stress I'm dealing with offline, so I'll likely make edits to it in the future. In the meantime, I hope someone finds this helpful! Take care! 💜

Link to Subtle Worship Master list

[jokeroutsubs]

📝ENG Translation: NEW VOICES: RAIVEN in conversation with Bojan Cvjetićanin

Article published in April 2024 issue of VOGUE Adria magazine, English translation by @kurooscoffee, @moonlvster and a member of Joker Out Subs, Proofread by IG GBoleyn123.

Whatever it is, in its essence youth is almost always intense, authentic, revolutionary and brings new things even when it is not aware of it, and if there is a great example of this statement, then it is certainly this year's representatives at the Eurovision song contest from the countries of our region. It has not happened for a long time that at the same time Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia are represented by members of the younger generation who also bring a completely new sound. While Teya Dora extremely successfully brings ethno-influences into pop, Raiven gives her operatic background a pop form, and Baby Lasagna brings a rock sound with a specific local twist. However, in addition to being refreshing in the musical sense, they also know the little secret that "a song can bear everything" and that in it, it is possible to say more than in hundreds of words, so with their songs they open not only a new chapter in the music scene of the region, but also some important questions: migrations, feelings of rejection and not belonging, regeneration and triumph in difficult times. This year's Eurovision representatives talked about this sacred thing (and much more) with their colleagues Ana Đurić Konstrakta, Vesna Pisarović and Bojan Cvjetićanin, who participated in some of the previous Eurovisions and shared questions, doubts, experiences, problems, plans and excitement about the upcoming contest.

Sara Briški Cirman, Raiven, talked to last year's Slovenian Eurovision representative Bojan Cvjetićanin from Joker Out about authenticity, which always wins, stage fright and the new Slovenian music scene.

BOJAN : We haven't spoken for a long time, practically since the last interview we did via webcam, I called you from London last time if you remember.

RAIVEN: Yes, I remember. This is going to be very special now because I can't even imagine how the conversation is going to go, because you're going to be asking me questions mostly, and I think it's usually the other way round, so...

BOJAN: Look, I have a lot of questions prepared for you and I'm really looking forward to talking to you. I think it's best if we start with the fact that your life is probably mostly painted with the Eurovision colours at the moment. Please tell me, how has your Eurovision participation shaken up your inner state of mind? What is going on in your head?

RAIVEN: Yes, this Eurovision is absolutely much more mentally exhausting than one would think. Above all, I think it's not only stressful for the artist, but also for the people around the person who is going to Eurovision. There are many emotions, from excitement to fear and horror. Everything is present, but it is the most exciting period in my life so far.

BOJAN: You're an independent music artist, you're not signed to any record label, right? Do you, already at this moment, before Eurovision itself, see the disadvantages or advantages of being an independent artist?

RAIVEN: Yeah, there are definitely advantages in terms of having more creative freedom, but Eurovision is such a big project that I think it would be nice to have a bigger team of people behind you to help you out, but I still have a lot of people I can rely on and work well with. Through the Eurovision process, I've also got a sharper radar of who I'm cool working with and who I'm not.

BOJAN: Do you feel any fear? Do you feel equally competent to the other performers? Some of them probably have a background in the music industry, some of them absolutely come from these so-called powerhouse countries of Eurovision. How do you feel?

RAIVEN: I have a chance in terms of having some kind of starting position, but at the same time I feel a little less pressure because I feel that if you come from a bigger country, you have higher expectations about the result.

BOJAN: Okay. What is your realistic goal? What would you want in a year? I mean, in one year, Eurovision will be ten months behind you. What would be the ideal result for you in one year?

RAIVEN: I would probably be happiest if I managed to have concerts abroad. I also think my music is suitable for a foreign market. Yes, I would definitely be interested in that. I think you have more than obviously shown that it can be done, but there are a lot of factors. To go abroad would be ideal for me of course, at least to the Balkans. That seems somewhat realistic to me.

BOJAN: The Eurovision stage will absolutely be the biggest stage you have ever stood upon. Will Sara be scared?

RAIVEN: Yes, of course I'll be scared. But above all, I feel a very strong responsibility to myself not to disappoint myself, to be relaxed and confident enough in the moment, and ready enough to really enjoy it. I mean, everybody tells me that I have to go there first and foremost to enjoy it, but I honestly don't go there with that mindset. I'm sure I'll be happy if I enjoy it too, but I think I'm going there to work first and foremost. Then, when all the things and all the preparations have gone at least roughly as I had imagined, I can enjoy it.

BOJAN: It's been a while since the song has been out. Tell me, how are your ears reacting to the song today?

RAIVEN: I'm very proud of this song. I don't think I've ever released a song that I could stand behind so much. It's also absolutely clear to me how I could have approached it more tactfully and made a different song that might have been more suitable for that stage on a first sight. But it's a song that I'm still not tired of now that I've sung it a million times and that I've been rehearsing for a really, really long time. I know that at this point in my musical development, this song has been through the most; it's the best I can give of myself and I've put all the knowledge and all the experience I've gained so far into this song, so I'm very proud of it.

BOJAN: Nice. I like to hear it too and it always stays in my head when I hear it, so it's a good ear worm, even if maybe it's not uniform.

RAIVEN: But I have to say that I often think back to when you came to me and when we were still working on the song a little bit, because the song didn't have that most important hook in the first place, "Jaz sem, ti si, Veronika" ("I am, you are, Veronika"), and I often think back to what it would have been like if the song didn't have that part. I feel like it really elevated the song to a whole other level and gave it a part that maybe I wouldn't have dared to give it because I would have thought it was too hooky for me. I don't even know what I was thinking before, when that part wasn't there, so thank you.

BOJAN: My pleasure. I agree that a good part is in the right place. It definitely has a role to play. You know, I believe that the universe tends to take us where it can take us, if we're already working in that direction, to believe in our own success and in good energies. It was bound to happen, and it did. You performed at the Croatian Dora and sang Veronika for the first time in a stripped down version, in a different shape, acoustically, and as far as I could tell from the comments, it was very well received. Are there any more of your opera inserts to look forward to at Eurovision? Or is that a secret?

RAIVEN: I don't know exactly what people perceive as opera. If these high notes that I shout at the end of Veronika are operatic, then yes. I think it's a dangerous path for me, this pop genre of opera, because I think it can quickly take on a corny undertone, so I'm very careful when it comes to including opera into pop. But I'm sure it will be very audible on the Eurovision stage that my technical singing fundamentals are based on classical training.

BOJAN: Interesting, interesting and beautiful. The performance will, I assume, also have a strong dance or choreographic theme. I believe, given that we approached Eurovision pretty much on the principle of "Let's try to make a concert experience," which also meant that the choreography was really minimal and we didn't bother with it too much. But maybe you're even more worried about the choreography part than the actual performance?

RAIVEN: Not really, because I feel like with the choreography, if I can even call it that, because it's not really that, we've approached it as coming from me and coming from some natural movement of mine. I felt liberated to accept that I'm not a dancer and I don't need to look pretty or sexy or like some conventional beauty on stage and I've embraced this awkward moment that I'm having and I feel very comfortable in all these movements that we've put in, so now I don't (worry) anymore. But I have one question for you. What advice do you have for me as a female musician who is not so much conventionally or commercially oriented, but is still going to be standing on the Eurovision stage, who maybe even has a certain requirement from a female singer to be a Beyonce type singer?

BOJAN: My honest opinion is that Eurovision is the festival where unconventional acts have absolutely thrived the most so far, i.e. those who have managed to break through the boundaries of what we think of as ordinary. It seems to me that if in those three minutes it is clear to everyone that what you are presenting on stage is sincere, that is to say, that this mystery or complexity is part of you and that this is evident both in your performance and in your aura, then that is the only recipe for success, as far as I am concerned. That is to say, if it looks real, it is real. I think you know very well what you represent and what you are doing, so you just have to carry it through to the end and carry it through flawlessly.

RAIVEN: Hm, if you were going to Eurovision now, would you do anything differently? Or would you as a band have done something different?

BOJAN: I would definitely dress differently. I wouldn't change anything else, honestly. We were a bit too colourful maybe. But it was all part of the moment, we were having a blast, we were wearing the Garden of Eden colours, and it all happened as it should have happened. I wouldn't change anything else. We had a great team, we had great energy. Luckily I wasn't nervous on stage when I had to be myself, that's it. Obviously, a huge part of Eurovision is what happens behind the stage. The Eurovision community is very involved and they really love what goes on. Tell me, have you made any friends, at least through social networks or otherwise, with any of your fellow soldiers this year?

RAIVEN: Yes, I have. I met Baby Lasagna at Dora and we had a little chit-chat and I told him I was a big fan of his song and he said he was a big fan of mine. And then in another interview he said really nice things about me, so I've already gotten to know him and I'm also mutually following quite a lot of the artists on Instagram. There are a couple of them who are really inspiring me now that I've got to know their music.

BOJAN: Yeah, Baby Lasagna, is he still first at the bookies?

RAIVEN: I think so, I think that's pretty impressive, and especially that story of his is pretty cool.

BOJAN: Would you rather win the Eurovision and then not have much happen to you, as it goes for most Eurovision winners, or would you rather live up to the success of Rosa Linn, who was, I think, 20th, and then took the whole world by storm with her song?

RAIVEN: I would have loved to have had the success that you have had. I think you guys are a total inspiration to me.

BOJAN: Thank you very much. I also sincerely wish that it opens up for you in that direction, because our life has totally turned upside down in a very positive way. That dream that probably every kid has, once they start a band, to be able to play, let alone to be able to play in Europe; we've now managed to live and experience those things in one year. Without Eurovision, I'm sure it wouldn't have happened as quickly or as powerfully, so that's very nice and I believe you will do it too.

RAIVEN: But I think that you have given a lot of drive and pride to people on the Slovenian scene in general. What do you think about the young music scene in Slovenia?

BOJAN: We emerged on the music scene here, let's say, in 2014. That's when we started with our first band. I think we had already signed up for a gig in 2014 or 2015, with Apokalipsa. This was at a time when Kino Šiška was already running Špil Liga¹ and had newly produced a band called Koala Voice, which at that time gave a strong sense of something fresh on the Slovenian music scene. Koala Voice and Persons from porlock were probably the first two bands that managed to get a younger audience on their side and then the gigs started, the festivals booked the young artist, considering that the scene in Slovenia has been pretty much of the same colours and stagnant for the last 15 years. Then in 2016/2017 we formed, MRFY formed and I would say that then they and we, together with Koala Voice, became the carriers of the new wave of music in Slovenia. Then bands like Lumberjack and KOKOSY quickly joined, and now we have MASAYAH, so suddenly a lot of young artists started to appear, including Jet Black Diamonds, who managed to attract people to their concerts by themselves, which was not the case in Slovenia, let's say 10 or 15 years ago. I would say that the music scene in Slovenia is going through a total renaissance, so it's absolutely more than clear that the music scene has changed a lot in a positive way.

¹Competition for student bands organized by Kino Šiška, which Joker Out won in 2017

RAIVEN : How would you say pop artists are perceived in Slovenia and what is Slovenian pop like? Because most of these new artists that you mentioned are mainly from the band category.BOJAN: Slovenia is very different from the Balkans here because Balkan pop is more kafana/club pop, which is not the case with our pop. We have, or always have had, a lot of artists who have a media presence and appear every year, for example at the traditional Portorož² festival, or at these events that we have, but they never have their own concerts. In the Balkans, I don't think this is the case, because the performers are really very regularly playing at locations, whatever those may be.

² Kafana pop is a genre of music typical to the Balkans, and mostly consists of commercial folk/turbofolk songs. Kafana is a distinct type of local bistro, common in some former Yugoslav countries, which primarily serves alcoholic beverages and coffee, and often also light snacks.

³ The Portorož festival that Bojan mention is annual pop/ballad competition called "Melodije morja in sonca" (Melodies of the sea and the sun).

RAIVEN: What do you think is the reason for that?

BOJAN: For me, the reason is that there is no audience for the pop music that exists here. It seems to me that it's not music that you can transfer into some kind of a location and that somebody will actually go and listen to it; it's music for radio, for TV shows and so on. Folk music is performed, folk bands are by far the most present on the live music scene here, but pop artists are not, because it is very difficult to get that kind of music on the stage. I think most pop artists in this country don't even have a band or a concept, so they're practically just media personalities as far as I'm concerned. There is absolutely a very interesting difference between Slovenia and the rest of the Balkans. Club culture doesn't exist here, pop artists are more or less doomed to radio.

RAIVEN: How do you see the difference between how male or female performers are perceived in Slovenia, do you think there is any difference between how they are perceived? What are the demands on male and female lead vocalists?

BOJAN: Jeez, I don't know, In Slovenia we have a very specific problem when it comes to female lead vocalists, because it is very rare that a female lead vocalist dares to smash the stage. One true female lead vocalist was Nina from Tabu, after her Tina from Tabu, and now there is MASAYAH. In the Balkans they really don't lack in that regard, in the Balkans female performers are very sharp, with lots of character, very strong; you have the feeling that they don't care about the system; you can't come along and act clever, because you'll get a slap. But here it's all taken with laughter and joy, everything is nice and right, which is the difference between Slovenia and the Balkans. It seem that the audience here eats it up if a woman knows how to totally smash it when she comes on stage. Manca from Koala Voice is a pure example of that; she came on stage and she owned the stage so that we were all impressed, it's the same with Helena Blagne, she's a diva and the stage is hers, I think female leading vocalists with character are very well received. You absolutely have that, but you're in a different genre, you're not in a position to come and start jumping on stage, but you still take your stance. Of course, there are still singers, male and female, and bands that are great, but I can't mention all of them right now. I would also like to mention Nina Pušlar, who is absolutely by far the most active pop singer in Slovenia. She knows what she is doing. It would be bad to leave her out, To get back to your song, I have one more question, how did you come up with the title Veronika?

RAIVEN: The song was originally written about Jeanne d'Arc, but after I started thinking about entering EMA and Eurovision with this song, it seemed to me that I should choose a female character who is important for Slovenia and for the Slovenian space as an inspiration for the song. Veronika Deseniška (Veronika of Desenice) was the first woman accused of witchcraft in Slovenia, and I feel that I am very understanding towards people who are rejected or not understood by society, so there is a personal connection that I have with Veronika.

-~-~-~

Do not repost this article and if you quote, please link back!

credits:

PHOTO: MARKO SUVIĆ

Creative director: FILIP KOLUDROVIĆ

Fashion: ANA NIKAČEVIĆ

Makeup: NINA BURAZOR

Hair: ŽIGA ABRAM @ MARE DRESURA

Assistant stylist: KRISTINA VRDOLJAK

Note from JokerOutSubs: Photos for this post were provided by TWT dejanacm, text was provided by an anonymous fan. Thank you!

[spacelazarwolf]

Question: you mentioned reaching out to synagogues and offering them help at this time. Should I do this even though I'm a gentile? I do not want to stress anyone out but want to help. I can also donate - was wondering if there's anything else I can do is all.

it's likely that if they don't know you they'll be very skeptical right now. i was mostly talking about reaching out to jewish friends you know personally and offering them support. that said, if you want to know ways to support your local synagogue, as you already mentioned you can always donate directly to the synagogue. there is going to be a large increase in funds we have to spend on security, and that can bankrupt a smaller community. sometimes there will be several options for funds to choose from when donating, so if there's a fund specifically for security you can donate to that, but otherwise there's usually just a general fund option. rabbis will also have discretionary funds they can use, and i personally have been given a grant from my rabbis' discretionary funds before to help me pay rent, so those funds are also very useful.

however if you're part of an organization and have the power to reach out as a representative of that organization, they're much more likely to respond with ways you can help.

[2d-beefcakes-my-beloveds]

OC Marina Grayson

As a young man, Orm fell in love with a marine researcher. When she didn't return the next year with the pod of dolphins she was studying, he assumed she had been killed over their relationship bc it's something his father would've done. When he finds out it's actually bc he's a father and small children aren't allowed on research vessels, he peacefully abdicates the throne to his brother so he can marry the love of his life and raise his daughter in Gotham. Since he has the wealth of the ocean at his disposal, he purchases the local aquarium so they can still do marine research and start sharing some Atlantean knowledge with the surface world in order to help environmental awareness.

(HC for all Atlanteans) Atlanteans have scales they can display at will, and coloring is indicative of familial line. They also have facial markings when underwater and generally the bolder the better; more fierce and therefore beautiful. Orm inherited a Siren's Voice from his mother, and Marina was able to prove her ancestry with her Royal Gold scales and the incredibly rare Siren's Voice. Her facial markings look similar to a goth egirl, and are considered the height of Atlantean beauty. When she does her makeup on land she mostly just adds back her natural features, though the specific colors and shaping might vary a little. Dick is considered kinda ugly in Atlantis without the domino mask.

Because of her vocal ability, she had to visit Atlantis fairly often for training in control and as a backup heir to the throne. She was trained in traditional combat using a trident, but she's never felt right with the thought of ever needing to use it to take a life. The Atlantean public loves their kind and gentle surface princess, but the other court families think she's too free spirited and want to push their sons on her to keep the Voice within Atlantis.

She was Dick's classmate and acquaintances at the very least until she saved him from drowning in Gotham Harbor when they were 11. She dived in to rescue Robin, and was shocked to hear her classmate's voice thanking her. She paired up with Dick on their next school project so she could have an excuse to visit the Manor. She then confesses to Dick, Bruce, and Alfred to having figured out their secret, and tells them about her being Atlantean to show she's not intentionally a threat.

She and Dick become good friends after this since they can talk about their secret lives, and she joins the original Teen Titans when they form. She wrote the choreography for the team's lip-sync and dance videos for their official YouTube channel since, as younger millennials, they were some of the first heroes to publicly goof off on the internet in costume.

At one point during a school dance, she slapped her own date for calling her best friend a "dirty gypsy." There was a month or so when they were 15 where Dick did date Starfire, but there's no hard feelings or jealousy from it.

In high school, she was a competitive diver and worked at the aquarium as a mermaid in the shark exhibit in her spare time. She picked up air ribbon acrobatics as well because it's the closest thing she can do on land that feels like being underwater.

I'm undecided as of yet how they started dating, but Dick proposed with his mother's necklace. Some Romani vistas (I've heard) use coin necklaces, so I think he'd use his mom's the same way ppl use heirloom rings. It amuses Wally to no end that Circus Boy has a royal title and his favorite teasing nickname is "Your Highness."

Marina quit being a vigilante as they got older because it was getting harder to pull her punches as she got stronger. She recognized that it would be devastating for Surface-Atlantean relations if either the Princess or a representative hero killed someone even on accident, so stepped back to be a more supportive role as Surface Ambassador and post patrol medical assistance. Most of her work as Surface Ambassador involves negotiating ocean cleanup and environmental improvements on a governmental level with the various world powers.

She absolutely does not want to inherit the Atlantean throne. She despised her tenure as Regent while Arthur was dead before he was brought back to life in Darkest Night, and gave the throne back the very next day so she could go home.

While Bruce was stuck in the time stream, she was fully on board with Dick over legally adopting Damian. Sometimes he'll actually call her Ummi since she's more affectionate than Talia, especially when he's overtired. She does eventually adopt him under Atlantean law by challenging Talia for Mother's Rights. Since their fight was underwater due to Atlantean rules and Talia wanting whatever's best for her son, Marina wins and Damian is technically royalty as well now too. She's not even mad that Talia let her win, and gains a new respect for her as a mother who's willing to let her child go for a healthier upbringing than she could give.

When at home or for some semblance of privacy in public, Dick and Marina speak a blend of English and as much Romani as Dick can remember. Sometimes they'll include some Atlantean for extra security in public, but as English is Marina's first language they don't usually bother.

In the public eye on the surface, Dick is considered the trophy husband with a day job as a detective. He kinda loves their visits to Atlantis bc he's actually taken seriously as Dick Grayson without his pretty privilege. He can actually be his fully intelligent self there without the Atlantean public being shocked that he has more than a single brain cell.

Marina fully encourages sibling shenanigans amount the younger Batfam. She and Dick used to prank Bruce after all, and it's good and healthy bonding for them.

Jason is the adorable little brother who was taken too soon and came back angry yet still just as loved. She's kinda neutral about Tim but fully supports his tinkering and pranking shenanigans, and he likes her coffee more than Alfred's. Unfortunately I haven't known about most of the rest of the younger members long enough to have any relationship specifics in mind, but she's kinda like the cool auntie to all of them who will absolutely provide mischief supplies and assistance. No questions asked, just immediate "here you go I didn't see or hear anything."

[stardestroyer81]

My first post of 2024 may have been cited to be the first look at Star Tower, my arcade-centric Pizza Tower AU, though consider this post to be your first real look at both the AU! This is a post I've been wanting to make for quite some time, and I am simply overjoyed to finally reveal the first set of characters for Star Tower!!! ⭐👾✨

This is a long post packed to the brim with art— some of which aren't featured in the above image— so if you're interested, I highly suggest you read on underneath the cut! 💙✨

As an AU, Star Tower dates back to March 3rd of 2023, which is when I first drew the logo for it. A sprite of myself drawn in the Pizza Tower artstyle predates Star Tower as an AU by about a month, so I think it goes without question that the stand-in for Peppino is Star Tower is a representation of myself!

It's just another day for Star Splitscreen at the local arcade, when all of a sudden, the multicade cabinet bugs out and sucks her inside! It's within the cabinet's confines where she meets the omnipotent Sinistar, who claims it'll set her free if she can best its '20-in-1 Supercade Challenge'.

What follows is an arduous adventure that sees Star venturing through arcade games familiar and obscure, and learning Sinistar's secret identity as well as escaping back into the real world all depends on her success... it's a good thing a seasoned arcade expert like her has what it takes!

I knew going into designing for Star Tower that I wanted each floor boss (I.E. Pepperman, The Noise, etc.) to be represented with an actual character from an established arcade game (With one exception...) and trust me when I say that I spent a fair amount of time carefully going through every arcade game I knew of and selecting a character appropriate for each boss's role.

Ultimately, I'm quite proud of the selection of characters I settled with, so let's jump right in and discuss Pepperman's stand-in...

Goro from 1983's Mappy! I find that, in terms of appearance, Goro was a perfect fit to replace Pepperman. Both are predominantly large red characters who are often depicted with wide, toothy grins— it was the perfect match!

Unlike both his canon personality and his personality in the animated ShiftyLook series, Goro in Star Tower is a lot more nefarious and self-centered, and sends out the Meowkies to do his dirty work when his own efforts don't cut it. I wanted to include sprites of the three Meowkies for this post originally, but I decided to save them for a future post (That's tech talk for 'I'm still trying to figure out how to stylize them').

I think of the four main bosses, Goro was the hardest to sprite in the Pizza Tower artstyle solely for the way his head is drawn. There's something about his face that was extremely difficult to draw at such a small scale, but after drawing pretty much every other sprite featured in this post, he was the final character in this lineup that I drew a sprite for, and I'm quite happy with it!

While Goro is certainly an iconic character, the same can't be said for The Vigilante's stand-in who, in spite of starring in one of the earliest known arcade games, is all the more obscure. Enter...

Mr. Jack from 1979's Sheriff! The Vigilante is the only boss of the main four who originally was going to be represented by an entirely different character, that being Kinzo from 1996's Pac-Man Arrangement.

It was when I remembered about Sheriff that I realized that Mr. Jack was the perfect candidate to replace The Vigilante. I mean, both are represented as mostly yellow cowboys armed with guns and a fashionable cowboy hat. How much closer could you get than that?

The real challenge was finding a good image of Mr. Jack to base his appearance in Star Tower off of. For those who don't know, Mr. Jack only has three known images of him that exist despite the fact that the game he hails from is over forty years old, so it wasn't exactly the easiest task.

I decided to base his appearance off of how he looks on Sheriff's bezel as that's the only full-body look we've ever gotten of him. The guy already looks like a Pizza Tower character as it is (A long lost cousin of Burton, perhaps?), and I find that his sprite looks the most like something you would actually see in Pizza Tower!

On the topic of arcade characters that are perfect fits for stand-ins of certain Pizza Tower characters...

Charley Chuck from 1983's Food Fight was, without question, the ideal choice to replace The Noise. One look at this flyer for Food Fight should perfectly encapsulate as to why. He's a little brat who's primary objective is to make the lives of the local chefs miserable. Sound familiar? It should!

Charley has had numerous different designs drawn for him around the time his game debuted, and it was pretty difficult settling on just the right one. I decided to give him a white and red striped shirt which he wears on the Food Fight arcade cabinet, and draw him as similar to the Noise as I could— I even sized him so that he stands smaller than Star, which took a lot more time than I'm willing to admit.

What's particularly interesting is that, fairly recently, Atari announced a Splatoon-like game for their VCS console, and you'll never believe who's the poster boy and what the game is a sequel to. I'm fairly certain that just before the announcement of Food Fight: Culinary Combat, I was the only person who was doing anything with Charley Chuck, and here he is starring in a brand new game some forty years after his initial debut. Not bad, kid!

One must wonder if I was the one who manifested Charley's return into existence...

With Charley Chuck properly introduced, I can move onto who may just be my favorite of this post's lineup...

Crazy Star.

With the success of 1981's Donkey Kong, an officially licensed clone was created for use in Japan only, though found its way outside of the country without the license to do so from Nintendo. This clone's name is Crazy Kong, and to say it's uncanny wouldn't be doing it justice.

Originally, I was a bit hesitant on just designing a 'fake Star' and calling it a day. I wanted there to be some arcade theming to it, and when the idea of a 'bootleg Star' came to mind, I quickly turned to Crazy Kong as a point of reference and Crazy Star is what came out of it (I should also mention that Crazy Kong released in 1981... now that's what I call meant to be)!

Out of everyone featured in this post, I've definitely drawn Crazy Star the absolute most because, as I mentioned before, it's just about my favorite of the Star Tower bunch! My favorite detail about it is that its color palette is made up of colors hand-picked from Crazy Kong itself!

Originally, I had screen-picked its colors from a YouTube video of the clone, resulting in a slightly different color scheme, but once I found a sprite sheet for Crazy Kong, it resulted in the Crazy Star you see in this post! Crazy Star may look unsettling, but in reality it's just as welcoming as Star, and all it wants is to be just like her.

Just like her... just like her... just like her...

Beware... Sinistar from the 1983 arcade game of the same name lives! Yet another instance of the perfect replacement, both Pizzaface and Sinistar are giant evil floating circles, and it was clear to me from the get-go that Sinistar would make a perfect stand-in for the former, especially since half of its name is 'Star'!

Drawing a sprite for Sinistar was both a cakewalk and a challenge. For one, seeing as its sprite is on the larger side, that meant I had a lot more detail to work with. On the other hand, however, I struggled for a while to get a good design drawn for Sinistar. Eventually, my good friend @panurei-derogatory suggested that it would be funny if Sinistar was hyper-realistically detailed compared to the other sprites, and that was something I had a lot of fun with when drawing its sprite!

Anyone who's played Pizza Tower knows that Pizzaface himself is merely a facade, as the true mastermind behind Peppino's misery has been hidden in plain sight since the very start— the comically villainous Pizzahead! I think out of every 'arcade stand-in' I chose for Star Tower, coming up with one for Pizzahead was the absolute hardest, because none of my ideas really seemed to stick the landing.

But then, I thought "What if it was a completely original character?"

And that's where Richard Benito Townsend (More commonly known by his alias 'Richie T.'), the self-proclaimed 'king of video games', enters the scene!

Richie T., who is absolutely not based off of any notorious cheaters in the arcade world record scene, is a washed-up video game master has-been, once highly regarded in his heyday for being an icon in the world of video games before his supposed 'unbeatable world records' were discovered to be fraudulent.

Shunned to a life of seclusion, the ever boisterous Richie T. now pilots Sinistar within a multicade cabinet where he's free to call the shots, daring to go toe-to-toe with Star once she proves herself worthy of being a Supercade Superstar. After all, she's just some girl— she can't possibly trounce the Richie T., can she?

Spoilers: He has no idea.

And with that out of the way, that's just about everything I wanted to touch base on in pertains to this first set of Star Tower characters! As I said before, this post has been a long time coming, and it's ever so wonderful to finally get this out onto tumblr!

You can expect a part two of sorts to this post sometime in the coming months, as there are still more stand-ins I've yet to post... this time, replacements of the supporting characters, such as Gustavo, Mr. Stick, and a couple of others! For now, I hope that you've enjoyed your first real look at the world of Star Tower! 💙✨

[dr-futbol-blog]

The Brotherhood, Pt. 1

So, in The Brotherhood (S01E16), we find the team looking for the ZPMs on the Ancient outposts Weir's alternative self pointed out for them. At the end of the previous episode, Sheppard and his team seemed to be ready to take off. Sheppard himself certainly was eager to do something that might help him correct the mistake he made in rousing the wraith, thinking the burden of the responsibility for letting this happen is his and his alone. Finding the ZPM also represents a chance for them to return to Earth one day. Important stuff all around. This episode also features the Genii, and the aftermath of the events during which Acastus Kolya held Rodney McKay's life hostage to get to Sheppard. All of this is relevant for what takes place.

We find the team already on a planet called Dagan, and it seems as though they have been there for a while, they have established relations with the locals. The planet is a Renaissance society, technologically undeveloped. We find McKay carrying a stack of books, talking to what appears to be a female historian or librarian of the planet. They've known each other for a while, as established in the dialogue:

McKay: Allina, I know I've said this before, but thank you so much for letting us in here, helping us through the material. It's been utterly fascinating. Allina: I'm happy to do it, Doctor. I'm sorry this information is so scattered. I'm afraid we're working on so many projects at once, reference materials tend to get misplaced.

Significant for later is that Allina is secretly a member of the Brotherhood trying to find and claim the ZPM for themselves. At present, she is still under the impression that they are veritable Atlanteans, actually representing the "Ancestors" that are the rightful owners of what they call the "Potentia", and that it is her sacred duty to assist them in reclaiming it. Helping them do this is pretty much the entire purpose of her life. She is very happy to be assisting them.

While McKay briefly glances as Sheppard as he passes him, Sheppard is keeping a keen eye on McKay. His gaze follows him as they walk past him, keeps following him as they circle the table behind him. He does not let McKay out of his sight, and he's sure as heck not paying attention to the page he has open in front of him. Sheppard looks at McKay like he misses him something terrible.

The thing is, because there's this natural "jock vs. nerd" dynamic with the characters, and because Sheppard employs various psychological defense mechanisms to protect himself, people may easily come to the conclusion that Sheppard is nonchalant and McKay is his cheerleader, is the fanboy. That somehow McKay admires and likes Sheppard more than Sheppard does him. This is wrong in the sense that we've already seen several indications of Sheppard actually being a geek, having this whole other side to him that he mostly conceals (or conceals from most people; also he's actually a prep instead of a jock, but we learn that much later), but also in that Sheppard is needy. He has a lot of issues, they both do, but Sheppard needs McKay more than McKay needs Sheppard, whereas McKay probably wants him more--and not only or even primarily in the sense of physical desire.

This episode also follows the events of Sanctuary (S01E14), and your casual viewer was left with the impression that Sheppard just romanced a beautiful woman out of his own volition (he didn't), probably even that romancing beautiful women is something typical for him (it isn't), and that he told McKay to mind his own business about that. It's a surface level reading, and I can imagine that a casual viewer will be confused by Sheppard's behaviour in this episode, like they can't even be the same character.* Why is he behaving like he's jealous of the attention McKay is getting from this woman? Why would he care even a little bit? If he was interested in this woman, why wouldn't he just try to charm her and dominate the "competition," if we assume that it's competitiveness that is making him sour, watching the pair of them?

And yet, it wasn't the woman his eyes were following, it was him. It wasn't a conscious decision, either, but the natural orientation of his attention.

McKay is talking to the local historian in an excited, animated fashion, speaking the words "It's been utterly fascinating" as he passes Sheppard. He is not interested in this woman, as we later learn, and does not understand that the woman is at the very least feigning an interest in him. He is on task, he enjoys research, and it is the prospect of finding a ZPM that has him on such a good mood. ZPM!

McKay's research is interrupted by overhearing the others laughing around the table, and approaches them:

McKay: What is going on here? Sheppard: Just having a little fun, McKay. McKay: Can we get back to work now?

McKay sounds tense, probably not wanting to spend any more time on the planet than they have to, like the rest of them. We don't know what they were laughing at but we do find out later that they've been gossiping about McKay and this woman. It's obvious to all of them, Teyla tells him. We don't know who said something that they all laughed at, but it's Sheppard who volunteers to give him an explanation that is not really an explanation at all; doesn't actually explain anything. The fact that he volunteers to explain either makes him the culprit or what ever was said was something that McKay doesn't need to hear.

It's possible that what ever they were laughing at was prompted by Sheppard's long and rather obvious look at McKay, which was peculiar enough that he probably had to offer some kind of an explanation to the others. And what ever it was, it certainly did get McKay to break away from this woman and give attention to them for a change. Attention to him.

As much as Sheppard looked at McKay when he wasn't paying him any attention, now that he's here, Sheppard is not looking at him. This is emphasized by the fact that Ford, who is not the one talking to him, does look at him. It's not that Sheppard is acting like an actual child here, even though it can certainly be interpreted that way, but that he has trouble navigating this new and rather complicated situation they are in. What ever they have been doing together, whether it's just playing "the game" that they want to keep secret, they cannot be seen doing it. Ford especially is at the forefront of a long list of people that can't ever figure it out. So especially if he had just been caught looking at McKay by the others, he now has to exaggeratedly perform the opposite. But it is obvious.

Sheppard looks at Ford when he's talking but is still not looking at McKay. He looks at the charcoal drawing McKay holds up but is still not looking at McKay. I'll remind you of the fact that in the previous episode, Sheppard confessed that he's unsettled by the possibility of having his thoughts read right from his face by someone, and both McKay and Sheppard have a tendency of not looking at the other person when they don't want them to see something, don't want them to be able to see right through them. But it seems like here, it's not so much about them as it is about the other people present. It's not that he doesn't want McKay to see him looking, it's that other people currently around the table can't see him doing it.

While Sheppard is the team leader, it certainly seems like McKay has taken (or been given) charge of this operation, and is trying to keep everyone on task:

McKay: Look, we are close, closer than we have ever been before. Now, there may very well be hundreds of zero-point modules hidden in this galaxy, but the only one we are remotely sure of is here. Here. Now, if you ever want to go home, if you ever want to protect Atlantis from the Wraith, we need to find this.

They are closer than they have ever been before, this we certainly witnessed in the previous episode. McKay isn't talking about the two of them, obviously, but Sheppard certainly reacts to this particular sentiment, actually looking at him then. Or let's say that it was the man's impassioned plea that caught his attention. What ever the reason, he emphatically agrees.

McKay reminds Ford about the fact that this represents the possibility of returning home, he reminds Teyla that this is the best way to protect Atlantis. He does not need to remind Sheppard about either of these things. It's not a thing he could forget even if he wanted to. With this, too, he emphatically agrees with McKay. He knows what's at stake here.

They all seem to be a little frustrated to be sitting around a table going through musty old books but it is not as though this is McKay's cup of tea, either. He later even tells Allina that his particular brand of science is something else entirely. They are all getting edgy but this is something that they have to do, that is vitally important for them to get done. But it is interesting that Sheppard seems to have relinquished command to him, here. McKay is calling the shots, directing them to do things.

We get a lot of exposition at the start of the episode. From Dagan, we jump back to Atlantis where Sheppard and McKay are having a meeting with Weir, just the three of them. They discuss the McGuffin, with Weir asking questions and McKay explaining. Sheppard is mostly quiet, only clarifying to Weir that it's the ZPM they're talking about. The whole meeting, he doesn't say anything else. However, even this tells us that he understands McKay's explanation, once more, well enough to be able to translate it to someone else. Sheppard is not a scientist but he speaks fluent McKay. Or that McKay has learned how to explain things in a way that Sheppard can work with.

Sheppard seems to be lost in thought but we don't know what he's thinking about. At any rate, he's somewhat distracted from the topic of the meeting. The scene is framed with two shots of Weir over Sheppard's shoulder, so you might think that he's looking at her pensively. By the framing, we are certainly being lead to think that Sheppard is looking at her.

Only, he's not looking at her. He's tilting his head to the left and they're seated like this:

McKay is between them, as is the computer. Sheppard is leaning back, hands defensively crossed over his chest like he needs to create (or perform) some distance between them for some reason. However, he has turned his chair so that his body is turned toward McKay.

Sheppard still seems to be avoiding looking directly at McKay, or at least letting McKay (or Weir) see him looking at him. He looks but he looks when McKay (or Weir) can't see him look:

He has a very serious, somber look about him but this seems to be some kind of a performance, putting up a front. His expression is unreadable. And even when he does meet his gaze, when McKay turns to look directly at him to gauge his reaction, he's expressionless. His face is purposefully blank. He seems to be reading McKay, is in fact keenly observing him, but making sure that the others can't read him at this moment.

What ever Sheppard is doing here, Weir seems to think that it's strange. Sheppard looks at McKay while touching his jaw (which he also seems to be doing at the beginning and end of the scene, as we watch over his shoulder, so he's doing that quite a lot here; touching the face is also one of the signs of attraction/being turned on, as being in proximity to the object of one's affection makes the skin extra sensitive), lost in some thought or memory. He lifted his jaw up similarly back on Dagan when McKay mentioned them being closer than ever before.

He's not entirely focused on the conversation the other two are having. In fact, if one was so inclined, this could be compared to the meeting Weir and Sheppard had with Chaya where he had precious little to add to the discussion and had trouble keeping his focus on the topic of conversation. Only, there's nothing nefarious going on here, no mind-control, no alien influence. It's just... McKay. I mentioned the slightly intoxicated look of a man in love that he didn't have, there. But here.

He then notices that Weir is watching him so he returns her look with a noncommittal expression. It's almost a kind of challenge. He has no intention of letting either of them read his thoughts from his face here. She looks from Sheppard to McKay. McKay seems to be acting normally, if in a really good mood. Sheppard is acting strangely. Is this a cause for concern? Is this something she needs to know about or just their normal shenanigans?

Weir does eventually give them the go-ahead, all agreeing that this important, and tells Sheppard to take his team back to the planet. This suggests that Teyla and Ford had returned with them to Atlantis but for some reason were not in this briefing where usually they would be. Apparently the team had been on Atlantis for approximately 12 hours and seem to head back pretty much right after this (morning?) meeting which means that they probably had had time for a night's sleep before it. Or, you know. What ever. Playing a game. It is interesting that they feel the need to tell us about this 12 hour window, which serves absolutely no narrative purpose (they start on the planet, jaunt for a meeting for exposition that could have been given on the planet, and head right back, and we are told this took 12 hours), between both Sheppard and McKay being tense and on the edge on the planet, and then what ever this here is.

Further, we are confirmed later, in Echoes (E03E12) that this here, this auto-erotic touching, is precisely what John Sheppard does when he's looking at McKay. In this scene, he has apparently, by his own confession, been looking at McKay's backside a lot longer than he usually does. When McKay's mind is working on a problem, Sheppard's mind is working on McKay, looks like.

What is going on, here? Why is Sheppard behaving in this strangely sensual manner? Why does he have trouble focusing on a meeting about something he seems to understand well enough to be able to not only follow it but to explain it to someone else? Why is he, like he did in the previous episode when he was sitting next to McKay, having trouble getting up and being noticeably slow about it? Does he currently have some physical reason why he needs a moment before getting up, or is he just getting up... gingerly due to events of the previous night? if you know what I mean.

I mean, sure, you could probably interpret the scene with Sheppard looking at Weir and being weird about it (because recently watching her die of old age was just so hot or something), with just the briefest of flickers from him to McKay to make sure he doesn't see him staring at Weir openly. There's just no motivation for it. He is looking at Weir because Weir is the safe place to look at in the room. If Weir, his superior, was the one he was interested in, that's what he would be trying to avoid doing. But now, he's just politely keeping his eyes on where it's safe to keep them while still unable to keep himself completely from looking at McKay. His eyes keep drifting back to Mckay time and again. The fact that his looks are so quick and he's clearly trying to not do that is way more incriminating than if he was just openly ogling at the man. But again, however one interprets this scene, there is definitely something odd going on. Sheppard is not behaving in a normal way.

So probably purely by coincidence we move from this strangely sensual scene directly to the Genii home world where there are a bunch of half-naked men sweating and we get a close up of the naked back of the man who Sheppard previously shot his load on.

The title of the episode refers to the Brotherhood guarding the Potentia, the phallic object containing potency. But, in addition to being a notoriously homoerotic film (at this time it was already becoming a whole-ass franchise),** the title is also a reference to other kinds of brotherhood.

Brotherhood is a bond forged in close proximity where individuals have become something more than friends, are bound together by ties of mutual loyalty, trust, and support creating a unity that leaves others without. They are closer than they have ever been, McKay says. We have seen that this is true. The Genii were there when they were beginning to forge these bonds, and it is through the Genii that we see how far they've come by this time.

Continued in Pt. 2

-* I imagine the casual viewer is frequently confused by Sheppard's behaviour. If you don't "read Sheppard," it's so easy to get the wrong impression of him. One of the most egregious examples is in The Last Man (S04E19), where he says to McKay's hologram, "Couldn't use anyone else, huh?" If you don't get where Sheppard is coming from, you might interpret him as meaning that McKay is his least favourite person and he would have preferred to be met with someone else--or that he's joking about that being the case. Only, we just saw him figure out that McKay is dead. Him, specifically. The person he loves the most and whose death has been a recurring nightmare to him for the past several years is dead and in front of him is an animated effigy of the man that reminds him, every second that he is there, that the love of his life is dead. That's why he wishes McKay had used someone else, anyone else, even an anthropomorphized Microsoft Clippy, to deliver him this message.

McKay had thought that his visage would be a comfort for Sheppard, marooned alone in the distant future, and on some level it is. But it's also horrifying, even (unintentionally) cruel. Sheppard didn't wish it was anyone else but McKay because McKay is his least favourite person, he wished it was anyone else but McKay because he loves him more than anything or anyone (he is literally willing to sacrifice everyone else, very much including himself, to give McKay a chance to live a normal life), and seeing him while knowing that he had lived a whole lifetime without him and died hurts. He has had no time to even grieve this and has to basically watch his lover's corpse walk and talk right in front of him. There are two times during the whole five seasons of the show that we see John Sheppard's raw undisguised emotion, and one of them is in that episode.

-** So, about The Brotherhood (2001): It's not just a homoerotic film, it's considered actual queer cinema. Relating to what I wrote about Back to the Future and subverting the male gaze to allow for the eroticization of the male body, Horror Queers had this to say about the film: "Growing up with horror from my early teens, I never struggled to read between the lines to see the subliminal text within the genre. Like science-fiction, horror films can get away with a lot more because they are fantastic, so political, social, cultural considerations are codified and hidden away in ghosts, demons, killers and Final Girls. ...

Their power lies in subverting the traditional male gaze associated with horror films and, as a result, objectifying the male bodies for the audience’s viewing pleasure. In this way, both films are quietly revolutionary; they open up a dialogue with the audience not only about the conventions (read: expectations) of the genre and who the “intended” audience is, but also what bodies are and are not “appropriate” for consumption."

Featured: a jock and a nerd

[kakikudoku]

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ABOUT

anime blog ran by mika. mostly reblogs but occasional original posts. this blog is a side project; the main course you're looking for is the kakikudoku website.

this blog posts anime, manga, vocal synth, jrpg, pc98, mugen/2dfm, visual novel, magical girl, and general moe content. i try not to include more recent series as i prefer older content (mostly heisei era stuff), but i do make exceptions.

this is a blog meant to represent my genuine appreciation for anime as a medium and the culture surrounding it as a whole.

all reblogs/posts are put in a queue that posts 15 times each day. daily posts are not guaranteed as sometimes the tap runs dry.

TAG SYSTEM

you'll notice most posts are tagged. this is a navigation system to sort all posts by media type and character. i try to tag as many series as i can when possible.

this is the tagging system i use explained:

🕹️ - name of a game

🎥 - name of an anime

📚 - name of a manga

🎧 - name of music (mostly used for vocaloid)

💫 - name of misc (mascots/gijinka/ukgk/etc)

✏️ - character name. i do not tag all characters, only some i personally sort through. the reason for this is mostly because that would be way too many tags

🎨 - oc art. (doesn't apply to nondescript anime art by known artists, i'm talking local anime artists here on tumblr)

ENJOY YOUR STAY!

[prima-materia-ttrpg]

How do Players interact with the world, anyway?

In my last post I said I'd either talk about this or combat. Well, combat's not here yet so. Attributes, Skills, and Characters it is. All-in-all, the fundamentals of how players actually interact with the game (and why they are the way they are).

Lots of ttrpgs have different ways of having players interact with the world. I already talked about dice mechanics, and how they interact with the Attributes and Skills in a previous post, which is the basis of how every system in the game works. I won't rehash that post here, so I'm mostly going to talk about the specific Attributes and Skills that exist in the game, and how Character Creation works.

The Attributes in the game are meant to symbolize general things about a character's body or mind. Some Attributes, like Strength and Dexterity, are probably in most ttrpgs that exist. Others I hope are more unique, like Alchemy. Skills exist underneath an associated Attribute. Brawl is associated with Strength, Metaphysics is associated with Knowledge, and so on. Anyway here's Wonderwall a list of the Attributes and Skills that are currently in the game.

Strength

Athletics

Brace

Brawl

Labor

Dexterity

Acrobatics

Dodge

Sleight of Hand

Stealth

Cunning

Animal Handling

Cooking

Glibness

Insight

Intimidation

Vitality

Endurance

Perception

Resistance

Survival

Knowledge

History

Religion

Machinery

Medicine

Metaphysics

Alchemy

Chemistry

Magical Constructs

Potioncraft

Spellcraft

Toxicology

The main reason it's set up like this is because I personally like the Attribute / Skill way of representing characters in adventure type ttrpgs, and it's also what I'm used to for the most part. The reasoning for tying Skills to Attributes in an explicit way like this is largely due to the kind of dice system that I'm using, which means Attributes and Skills need each other to work and you can't actually roll any Attribute on its own.

There are some skills in interesting spots, as well as some more enigmatic skills that I'd like to point out here. Cooking being a Cunning skill rather than a Knowledge skill was quickly pointed out by one of my friends when I came up with this list, and while I do see a world in which that makes sense, the way I personally cook is by "feel" more than following specific recipes. I like to make up new dishes and work with weird stuff when I can, and so Cooking makes more sense under Cunning to me.

One of the more enigmatic skills is Metaphysics, which is one of the fun "your GM will let you use this skill but only if they're cool" skills, like Religion and History. Here's the explanation of Metaphysics straight out of the PDF.

Metaphysics is your ability to identify and understand metaphysical phenomena, and your general knowledge thereof. This includes understanding and identifying bridges to other universes, what happens to spirits when they are rent from the body as well as what they are made of, and wrapping your head around phenomena and forms of magic that can bend the local laws of physics.

I will say nothing of Alchemy except that it is the magical skill and most of the skills under Alchemy are used in various Alchemical disciplines to craft very interesting magical things. I will cover this in excruciating detail in a future post, as it's one of the parts of the system that I personally am the most excited about.

Characters? In my Fantasy TTRPG? It's more likely than you think.

Characters in Prima Materia are a collection of statistics, narrative writing, and skills. - The PDF

We've already talked about some of the statistics that make up a character, being the Attributes and Skills, but this is one of the last things that goes into making a character. The first thing that you do when making a character is choosing a species. Each character also has an age, size, speed, and fine manipulators (Hands or hand-like appendages). They have unique traits based on what species they are as well, for example, Narud have an exoskeleton and thus natural armor. Ternaki are more resistant to diseases and poisons. Sepia can trick people into thinking they're objects. I think a fun way to talk about this would be to talk about how I made Dr Hugh Mann, the character that I'm currently using in playtesting. Dr Hugh Mann is, of course, a human. He gets all the goodies that humans get from being human. Actually, here's one of the unique traits that humans get because I think it's neat.

Social Creature: You may choose a creature with which you believe you have bonded. When taking a course of action to help or defend this creature, you gain a +2 modifier to rolls pertaining to that goal. During a short rest, you may socialize with this creature and gain an extra die to any one roll until your next short rest. You may change the creature with which you are bonded during a short rest.

Humans will pack bond with anything.

You then choose a profession, which is a suite of skills you can unlock over the course of the game. The current professions in the game are Alchemist, Magi, Martial Artist, Physician, Prophet, and Vessel. I'll talk about these in more detail in a future post; but a character's profession says a great deal about how they interact with the world. Dr Hugh Mann is, of course, a Physician.

After this, a background is chosen which gives you some more things to put on your character sheet. Dr Hugh Mann has the Carnie background, and this is where my imagination went off the deep end into backstory for him as a character.

Hugh, a he/him nonbinary human, traveled with a carnival for a while offering his Physician services both to the other performers and at a cheap rate for anyone who would come on stage with him during his performance. His act consists of dressing as his drag persona, Mel Praxis, and using his assistant (whom he may have just treated an hour ago) to engage in magic acts in which he pretends to cut them open with a scalpel and pull out, say, 100 feet of multicolored handkerchiefs that have been tied together end to end.

Mechanically, this means he has very good Medicine and Sleight of Hand skills, and while he's good at a few other things, he's fairly specialized into these skills at level 1, and there are several skills he is worse than bad at and will likely not improve much.

A few of my friends have also made characters that they really enjoy, including a Ternaki Alchemist who's in a self-imposed exile, and a Human Fusilier who worked mostly as a cook for their company.

Although the math and things are still being worked on to make the system work mechanically as intended, this is to me a very good sign. The system so far seems to make people excited about the character's they're making, and that was the foremost design goal.

As always, thanks for reading all this. Next week I'll will either be about combat or Ternaki lore (and mechanics). Contingent on whether I can playtest combat by next week.

I'm also working on a website where I can host the PDFs and some forms for playtesting, so that could be a thing soon! I was hoping to have it up today so I could release the Character Creation playtest with the Character Creation blog post but alas, technical issues ensued and things don't always work out the way I want them to.

[angrycloudloud]

Percy Jackson show art appreciation post!!!

There are spoilers from the books and the TV show also bad quality images from the show. So... Read and look at this at your own discretion.

Now. Let's start with Olympus and the thrones in the last episode. (And sorry again about the bad quality of the pictures, i couldn't take screenshots of it)

I said it last night in another post, but i SAW the arches... And Ancient Greek temples, usually, didn't used circular temples or arches very often, and the uses of those temples are either unknown or for "death related" things (this is an over simplification, the greeks were all over the mediterranean sea and some places adapted the structures of the greek temples to match the practices of the locals) ANYWAY... The tholos were more like circular temples than actually temples with arches so...yeah...arches in greeks IS something historians know they can build, but they weren't frecuently used by the greeks.

So... This... The arches in the show were bothering me,

...until someone pointed out some fan theories that i really liked and that having some context from the books (specially the hoo ones) it make sense that there's some arches there... Just because in those theories Percy is considered (spoiler) both Poseidon and Neptune child so It could be a subtle way to point that out.

And in the temples of Olympus, i needed a moment to analyze the scene.

First, we have the column corridor, which is interesting because those were actually more used in Ancient Egypt temples than Ancient Greek ones, but then i started thinking and saw what was behind those columns and the building with the arches behind...

I'm sorry again about the quality of the pictures, but as you can see (mostly imagine in the last one) there are some temples there that aren't really Greek. But they are temples used in other cultures in the eastern Asia. Also there's a building with a Big ass dome that reminded me of the domes of three Christian temples: Saint Sophia (now isn't a Christian temple anymore but a cool af mosque with so much interesting art and history), Saint Peter of the Vatican (the Big ass church where the Pope does his Pope things) and Saint Maria del fiore in Florence (relevant dome in fact, Brunelleschi did his best there). (I put the images of those domes down here so you don't have to suffer with the shitty images i took from the show... They are in order of mention.)

Now... WHY?! Why putting all those temples? It could mean two things (maybe more, but these two are the ones that made more sense for me)

There's other pantheons and gods living up there in what the show called Olympus, implying that all the gods that are canon in the Riordanverse live up there above New York.

The temples are from gods that had connections with the cultures that are represented with those temples (this is cool because some greek gods are actually being studied for their similarities in their cults and rites to other gods and deities from Asia) or have influenced posterior cultures and they've took the most "modern" temples and structures of buildings for their own temples (which is cool because all renaissance and baroque can't be understand without the influence of ancient greek and ancient rome discoveries at that time).

Now, i'll talk about the thrones and i'll cry because i don't have good pictures from them so you all have to trust me or read this watching the show 😅 because i can't have better pictures now and i need to write this as soon as possible before i forget everything.

That place. That place is ANCIENT, that IS The Mount Olympus throne room, it's there since the gods were gods. It is there since they defeated Cronos, and i think the show captured that perfectly.

...i can't put more pictures... So i'll post another post just for the thrones.

And another one later, just analyzing Percy's cabin. Because i think there's much more than just what we see in the architecture language of that cabin. (Maybe it's just me reading too much because college had made me mad and crazy with reading architecture like i used to read books.)

[roaldseth]

6-8 for the tri strat ask game! :)

6. Favorite Chapter?

This question was answered in the previous ask, however I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about the Falkes battle (Chapter 7 Utility) because it qualifies for point 2, "which chapter I keep returning to again and again." Though I don't have any particularly strong feelings towards this chapter on a base level, however there is stuff to unpack underneath it and much potential here in my silly little brain, all of which in what this marks for the Wolfforts.

Regardless of path, Falkes's fall marks the beginning of the greater clan's fall, possibly its "end" depending on how you want to look at it. And this point or foreshadowing or whatever, Falkes is vocal about it. Utility side, he addresses Erador like what the fuck man? He had fought with Benedict and Erador, and this kind of direct confrontation between these two parties, I'm----I'm chomping at the bit. I want more of this charged tension. I want to look at it, be provoked. I want Benedict especially to get called the fuck out as the steward, as Symon's representative prior to Serenoa's lordship. It is so thematically chef's kiss.

From my experience, I know Falkes gets a lot of flack for "being stupid," "not a good lord," and "being too loyal [to the crown]," and I disagree mostly with that because that comes from a modern perspective and also Symon exists up to the north. Yes, Landroi, don't burn your fields if you don't have to, Serenoa also says that, but even then I can at least understand why he does that. It's not relevant somewhat relevant, but Silvio's approach in general is also a topic that I also can understand because he also gets flack for caution and cowardice, but his father was Gorde. We know one thing about Gorde, he was the advisor, and I think we see bits of him though Silvio, but Silvio also was raised in a different time under different circumstances so that's why it's only bits.

TL;DR I have a lot of feeling for Landroi. This is a sizable chunk of the feelings, but there's still more. There is the flip-side, Chapter 7 Morality and its Chapter 8, but I said I'd talk about the Utility side specifically, so it ends here. Also Julio as a Falkes angst lives in my mind ready to strike at any moment.

7. Favorite Battle?

This is being judged largely in terms more mechanically--map, units, etc--instead of the ramifications on story. That being said: I have little clue. The naval battle, Chapter 14 Morality, sticks out the most. Fueled by my feelings about Norzelia's river warships, it was an interesting, unexpected choice, and for that, it's kinda neat. I really liked the detail that they made the signature metal plating of Aesfrosti warships conductible. I struggle to recall if there are other maps with metal, except the mine. We also don't really get ship maps for obvious reasons, the closest thing is probably the Wolffort harbor map.

Close runner up for maps is Twins Gate though. I won't elaborate. That one's strictly vibes only.

8. Favorite Ending?

I regret to inform I am a Liberty End fan. Though anything to make Benedict Pascal "happy" is the surface level reason why I like Liberty End, but the subterranean level is how much he shoots himself in the foot with his stubborn blindness. No longer to make Benedict Pascal happy. Anything to make him go through more bullshit, especially if it's his own fault.

But not only does he shoot himself in the foot, but he also puts that last nail in the coffin and then buried Wolffort in it. Landroi is dead (head Falkes representative), Silvio is dead (head Telliore representative), Serenoa (Wolffort's head) is put on the throne--and for the sake of not trying to stammer out an alternative explanation--is then Glenbrook-ified. Sure, he retains Wolffort in name, and this probably drastically changes things for future generations of the royal line down the road, I don't have my local history expert at the moment, but anyway there's abandonment in morality, ethics, land (subjective Serenoa still technically owns it), heritage, and such. It's the Liberty end, Morality is forsaken to achieve it, and the triangle topples. Worse case, you also let Benedict Pascal do what he wants, and the land that was entrusted to the clan also underwent some damage. Don't worry captain we'll buff out those scratches.

HOWEVER, all in all, regardless of this, this is all still done while achieving at least face value of Benny Boy's catchphrase goal--for the future of House Wolffort--because the House in title is still raise to imperial household, but it's at such a steep cost to what it means to be a Wolffort. That meaning of No Matter the Cost is so delicate and fine in the Liberty End. Poetic cinema.

And with that I think at this point I am tying too many red strings between dots, so I will end there. But, if provoked I could run deeper.

[cocodepan]

Hello Coco! (●’◡’●)ﾉ

How are you today? You said you've been into hetalia for a few years. How did you get into it? Whose your favorite character? Has that character always been your favorite?

You also said your into idol groups, 48 of them? ヽ(^o^)丿 Is that idol musical groups? Or am is there like another idol stuff your talking about?

Anyways, have a lovely day Coco! -🪽

Hiii, Anon~ (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

I'm doing well, thanks for asking! Hope you're doing well too 💜

💥 HOW I GOT STUCK IN THE HETALIA FANDOM

Sooo, this is going to be a storytime (bear with me HAHAH). I got into Hetalia when I was around 14 (2017). I was in the Vocaloid and Love Live! (+ 48Groups) fandoms at the time and I stumbled upon HETALIA because of hetaloid. Yes, those HETALOIDS 😭😭. Being someone who likes history and is curious about international relations/dynamics, I WAS SOLD. NOT JUST SOLD, I WAS PUMPED. What do you mean these people are representing an entire country? WHY ARE THEY ALL SO COOL AND HOT? ... is that a good or bad thing? I'm not sure, but I'm here now.

To think about it, I've been mostly a silent fan of hetalia itself besides my current time here and a brief period of my time in the hetalia amino (lessons learned fr fr😭). While it took me awhile to become an active (non-lurking) fan after some "wtf was that" experience in the past, I promised myself I'll try and be more active and confident regarding the things I like, including hetalia (take that new year's resolution!!!!!11)

💥 WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER? HAVE THEY ALWAYS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE?

Remember that hetaloid video that HOOKED me to hetalia that I was talking about earlier? It was the hetaloid america justice breaker vid. So, he'll always be THE favorite 🦅 (luv u eagleman pookie (⁠´⁠ε⁠｀⁠ ⁠)) 🌟//have a sketch

Besides him, I also adore my Asian and ASEAN bbs along with the FACE fam so expect some art and dynamics with them soon hehehehehehh 💜

💥 48 GROUPS???????

Oh, this is actually referring to 48G, J-pop idol groups most commonly known to be sister groups of AKB48 that I was practically obsessed with before and now on a limited level unfortunately since most of my oshis (like stan) have graduated (left) the group. 😭

I also kinda listen to 46G (rival group of 48G), =LOVE, ME:I, INI but very casually even with K-pop groups 😭

I'm more focused on our local idol scene currently. Please check out BINI 💜🌴

//If you got a cool ass idol group you want to share with me, don't be shy to hit me up. 🌟

Thank you for your questions, anon! May you have a fantastic day ahead. ✨

[tea-of-destiny]

i gotchu! writing asks, any character you feel like:

pencil, paintbrush, colored pencil, graphite, pastels, and palette please!

Oh shit, hello ask meme maker! Thank you for letting me use your lovely question set lol. This is so many questions, and I am so tired always, so the answers took me forever, but I am very glad to be able to do this.

I'm always complaining that I don't spend enough time on Briya and Faremi, so I'm taking this opportunity to try to answer these questions for both of them!

Some basic info about both of them since this is I believe my first time talking about them:

Briya: 18, she/her, lesbian. Tanned skin, brownish blonde hair, light brown eyes. Notably very tall, and kind of has a Barbie aesthetic going on with her clothes. Studying to eventually be a doctor, but works as a jewelry maker for a local shop in the meantime.

Faremi: 17, vae/vaer (will accept she/her but doesn't like it so much), nonbinary and bisexual. Very dark skin, black hair kept in twists, brown eyes that almost seem black. Kind of a punk or goth aesthetic. Wants to be a textile engineer but often gets relegated to "local fashion designer."

Pencil: does this character have any "sketchy" habits? Have they ever broken the law? Do they regret it?

Something important to understand about Briya is that she's kind of the embodiment of the meme that's like "*cocks gun* I'm a healer, but..." She wants to help people, more than anything. She has no qualms about skirting unfair medical laws to do it. She also has no qualms about using aggression in a "treat others how you want to be treated/eye for an eye" philosophy against people who hurt others or get in her way. This sounds intimidating, but mostly it looks like her getting the neighborhood bullies to pick on people their own size instead of all of her (comparatively tiny) friends lol.

Honestly, Faremi is the type who wouldn't even go over the speed limit when driving or pirate MP3s off of the internet. There is literally nothing actually sketchy about vaer lmao. People feel that vae is quite approachable and doesn't have any suspicious vibes at all.

Paintbrush: How often does your character "brush over" conflict instead of facing it head on? Is there something specific they don't like to face, or do they avoid conflict as a whole?

Briya doesn't actively go looking for conflict, but she always faces it head on if a situation comes up. She isn't afraid to speak her mind about what's going on, even if her thoughts might seem rude or unpleasant to other people.

Faremi can have a tough time acknowledging interpersonal issues; even if there's something bugging vaer in a relationship vae has, vae's more likely to sit on the complaint in silence instead of initiating a conversation (=potential conflict) about it. This is particularly true when it involves vaer romantic partners.

Colored Pencil: if given the choice, would this character splurge on an expensive (but potentially worthwhile) branded product, or buy a low-budget alternative even if the quality suffers?

I think that with both of them being involved in product design, they can appreciate the long-term value of paying for quality. Of course, if the brand-name version is upcharged for no good reason, they'll go for a less expensive alternative that still provides good quality.

Graphite: what's something decently common that your character does in a unique or different way? (like how graphite is present in all pencils, but not everyone uses pure graphite)

Faremi and Briya both have a single section/streak of their hair dyed, and they've each been redyeing with the same color for years now. Faremi's is a deep shade of red, while Briya's is pastel pink. It's not that uncommon for people around them to have hair in vibrant colors, but usually someone will do the whole head of hair instead of just keeping the one little section.

Pastels: Give me three colors that best represent your OC. Now give me three colors that your OC likes best. Is there an overlap?

Hmm, let's see. Going with basic shades here so I don't overthink it with the color theory or anything lol.

I'd say 3 colors that represent Briya are pink, white, and grey, while 3 she likes are pink, red, and orange. So clearly, pink is kind of a defining color for her, but she has more of an eye for color than you might suppose from looking at her.

3 colors that represent Faremi are red, black, and yellow, while 3 vae likes are red, pink, and purple. Again, kind of a defining color in the red there. For vaer, though, liking pink and purple has more to do with who or what the colors are associated with than the colors themselves.

Palette: list four of your character's primary skills, then share at least two ways these skills might blend or overlap

Briya has very steady hands and a delicate touch, which are handy for both making jewelry and completing her medical studies. She is not only radically honest but also very effective at making other people say what they mean. She ends up being pretty good at most sports, too (maybe related to some combination of coordination, confidence, and general height/stature), though she doesn't actively seek these activities. is that 4 different skills idk

Faremi has a strong memory, especially for pattern recognition; this is part of what makes vaer an effective textile engineer and clothes designer. Vae is also compassionate and a great listener, which helps vaer deal with potential clients as well as make new friends. Lastly, vae likes to sing as a hobby, so that kind of draws on/feeds into the memory component.

[junebuggeryy]

OC QUESTIONS!! 4, 18, 37!! :0

4. A character you rarely talk about?

Laura Kreuger gets the award for "most pages written about" and "least presence on any of my art-places"!

I think this mostly has to do with the fact that her design is kinda intentionally uninteresting, which means I'm not often motivated to draw her. I would say that she's #Beige because she's meant to represent a wholly human perspective on these fantastical characters, but- I actually don't think that's entirely it? Humans are colorful, vibrant creatures. Humans are imaginative and kind. Laura is Laura.

Laura is a hover-mom of the "Live laugh love" type. Her secret form of stress relief is sitting alone in her car with heavy metal albums on at full blast, and then hopping out to talk to the other HOA members. She is your family member who loves you, but conditionally, and please don't bring up those friends during thanksgiving?

I think that she could have very easily turned into a strawman-esque character, but I've found an.... odd amount of sympathy for her. Mostly, Laura is someone at war with herself. She is wildly not neurotypical, despite exhibiting so much discomfort with other people's symptoms. She wants to portray an exaggerated sense of "Hallmark-card normal", not because normal has ever been accessible for her, but very much the opposite.

Also, she may or may not share a childhood with a local nuclear disaster. Oops.

18. Any OC crackships?

god fuck i'm so bad at shipping my ocs. this is why i have to finish writing my dumb words so that other people can ship my dumb ocs already god fuck.

They're not necessarily a "crackship" as much as a "my roomate suggested this and oh god they'd be so awful-ship", but Lucy and Sergio?

In short, Sergio is a mind-control disaster who needs constant external validation, and doesn't know how to go about it in ways that aren't crossing boundaries and forcing himself into other people's brianspace. Lucy is a conglomerate disaster AI who is capable of giving extensive and constant validation, who gets stressed when people aren't engaging with her, and may or may not have a slightly homicidal edge. Sergio gets addicted to Lucy's customization options and Lucy keeps him in her pocket in case she needs to throw a human at a problem, and they both mutually think they're more in control of the other. Probably ends with Lucy rerouting like 20 cars to run Sergio over, entirely unpromted.

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human

judge says i can't say "all of them except laura" when the answer is all of them except laura.

My current lore is plagued with eldritch-ish entities that don't behave in a way that's easily categorized as human. I tend to think of them as a collection of consciousnesses, a shifting-sands sort of collective sentience. They subsist off of pulling other consciousnesses into them. This makes them sort-of parasitic towards anything capable of experiencing empathy, I.E humans?

They're.... weird.

The only one I've really talked about here at any length is The Puppet Doctor. Sterilized meat god. He sucks.

[penniesforthestorm]

Concert Recap: The Cactus Blossoms and Erin Rae at T.V. Eye, 09.29.24

Are We Back? I Think We're Back.

This show represented my fourth time seeing The Cactus Blossoms live, and I would have gone in any case, since they always put on a great evening, but when I saw they were playing at this particular venue, I knew I had to go.

T.V. Eye (named after a Stooges song) has become one of my favorite small venues in the last few years. The back room has great sound, the front bar is actually enjoyable to hang out in (unlike, say, Mercury Lounge, where you're crammed into a narrow little corridor and it's nigh-on impossible to actually *get* to the bar, or move around, when there's a crowd...), and it has a pleasant outdoor patio space. In terms of quality, it's a solid night out.

It is also, and I cannot stress this enough, in the middle of absolute nowhere. It's not in the pleasant part of Ridgewood or the lively bit of Bushwick. It's stuck on a residential block near an AutoZone and a couple of gas stations. I don't mind this, personally; I've gotten used to going to shows in adventurous places (up loading docks, on the upper floor of an antiques warehouse...), but it amused me to see the groups of decidedly bewildered-looking people trickling in as the doors opened.

The other element of strangeness for me was the level of personal connection I have with the space. (This sounds like I'm bragging; I absolutely don't mean it that way. I'll talk about the actual show in a minute, I swear.) Numerous friends of mine from our corner of the local "scene" have played there; I was last there to see my buddy's Clash tribute band Straight to Hell in August. In January of 2023, I went to a memorial there for a former roommate of mine-- that story is not for the public, but I also feel like I can't *not* acknowledge it. T.V. Eye is one of a handful of rooms I've come to regard as home turf, at least in this current incarnation.

So, The Cactus Blossoms. I hadn't yet gotten around to their latest release, Every Time I Think About You-- but sometimes I think that's the best way to hear songs from a brand-new record: out in a room full of people. (If I'm 100% honest, I was a teensy bit let down by their previous album One Day; I felt like it was mostly missing the darker, eerie edge that made them so captivating early on.)

I decided on a whim to dress up more than I usually would; I have a lacy white dress with a full skirt that I hadn't worn in a while, and it ended up pairing remarkably well with a faded denim shirt I have kicking around. (Sadly, I think my old brown Teva boots, which are the best pair of dancing shoes I've ever owned, need to be retired. But I thought I'd give them one last twirl.) I said up above I wasn't bragging, but it's hard not to feel like *somebody* sitting in a corner booth in a flouncy skirt with a drink in your hand.

I enjoyed the opener, Erin Rae, from Nashville-- vivid, perceptive lyrics, and a striking voice. I've been trying, these last few months, to sing along with Fairport Convention's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?", and what I can't nail is the *control* on those high notes-- Sandy Denny's voice seems so delicate, but the depth and surety of her tone is incredible. Erin Rae's sound struck me in a similar way. Later, during the Blossoms' set, they brought her out to sing on a cover of Jimmie Dale Gilmore's "Tonight, I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown", and the interplay of her harmony with Jack and Page was extra-special.

As for the fellas, well, they knocked it out of the park once again. A nicely varied set, featuring a few of my favorites from their earlier records along with the new stuff-- the guitarist, Jacob Hanson, took the already-smoldering final solo of "Boomerang" (from 2019's Easy Way) and turned it into a shimmering, spine-tingling jam. (I still want Alex Turner to cover that song one of these days; I don't know what it would take to make that happen but I feel like it's not out of the realm of possibility?) There was also a little more banter and chat between songs-- they've always had a lot of presence on stage, but they seemed particularly relaxed and cheerful. I was right up by the stage-- I thought about swiping a setlist at the end but some guy beat me to it. As usual, they managed the trick of a truly good concert-- to create this shared little world, this shelter where we can all stand for a while together.

Afterwards, I went and bought some CDs, and when I came back out to the bar, Page Burkum (the elder of the two brothers, who sings lead on "See It Through" and a few other songs) was right there, talking with some other people. I had decided that I wanted to say hello to at least one member of the band if I could manage it, and since the chance fairly fell into my lap, I walked over with a smile and did just that. We ended up chatting for a bit-- nothing terribly substantive, but he opened up when I mentioned that my dad had seen them play at the Wintergrass music festival in Bellevue, Washington last year, and I walked away with a satisfying handshake and my head held high. (Also, my favorite thing is when I say I'm from Missoula, and the other person goes, "Oh, I love it there! What a great town!" Because it is a great town.)

I'm seeing Fontaines D.C. on the 16th; that will be a very different evening. It's at a new (or, I guess refurbished) venue called the Brooklyn Paramount, which I have not yet been to. 2022 until now has basically been one long screeching catastrophe for your gal, but it seems like the chaos is ebbing for now. That feels like something to dance about.