#i've missed kat and i've missed her and ben a lot!

[legaciestold]

a breath is taken in, deep and calming as benjamin meets her gaze and then looks away. a variety of factors were at war within her mind, all of which carry their own weight. she is thankful general kerr has avoided a worse fate than being delayed and if she thinks too much upon such she may have to admit her own bias which accompanies such favor she shows upon him due to the nature of their connection. (he was not her blood but he was her family.) instead, her mind considers the soon to be ramifications of what has caused the delay, mulling over her thoughts for a moment before ben's words register within her mind.

'i am thinking far too much.'

a strange memory is sparked as she lets her gaze fall back upon the map. images of healing wounds and the soft and relieved gaze of her brother meeting her own as a man stood before them with an offer and a world much larger than they had ever known presented. centuries had passed since such moments yet now she can recall when her eyes had been opened to so much more than the provincial life she'd known. when knowledge and vampires and histories had been shown her and it had been all too much at once and not enough all the same. such had shaken and conflicted her in the moment both because of it's vastness and the simple fact her and kasper's parents had kept such larger truths from them. (to protect them, she reminds herself, though such had been harder to accept then.) perhaps it is not quite the same, yet she understands a modicum of the journey of knowledge she's set forth upon him. this was new, it conflicted in many ways with his understanding of the world prior. but he trusted her and she trusted him. that was what mattered now as the realities of the world were coming crashing back.

'i am thinking far too much, but the primary source of contention is hickey, bradford and lee. the fact that any of them are roaming free right now is an insult -- having hickey isn't enough.'

a surge of painful soreness meets her neck upon his words, a reminder of darker aspects of the previous night awakened by the names mentioned. she releases her breath unevenly, unrealizing she had held it. "i can not testify to bradford or lee." katarzyna reminds him, frustration in her tone though she is sure of their involvement just as much as she is assured of her own willingness to put an end to the three men for good in a most brutal fashion. however, this was a new world and the men were not hers, but washingtons'. she had to concede to a middle ground if this alliance was to work.

"we shall have to see what comes of our time with hickey.. though, i would much rather rid us of the three of them immediately, confessions or not." she confesses with a sigh though her tone conveys she's conceded this was not a present option.

with his shift in question her light hues move back toward tallmadge's features. "delayed is not the same as thwarted. kerr's end goal remains the same. i have no doubt word will come soon enough of his success now that his path is set. as for what this delay means... while unexpected and certainly not ideal at present, it may perhaps present us with a stronger advantage in the grand scheme than we could have had if not for how such has chosen to play out." she states then quotes in chinese before translating into english. "the enemy of your enemy is your friend."

katarzyna steps closer then, just for a moment. "i will have to teach you chinese so you can read that book i brought you in it's truest form." she's fairly certain he hasn't gotten a chance to truly look over it given the events which have unfolded since she slammed such down upon his desk. "alas, let us go deal with the traitor first." perhaps it's because she knows it surprises him when she speaks other languages, or merely because she seeks to lighten the moment for a brief second before they go out into the darkness of the day and away from the place they shared during the night, but she speaks such in latin this time.

There was a thickness in the air, curling like smoke as Benjamin made his way inside the war room. Even though Katarzyna was at his side, it felt as though there were walls between them -- not out of animosity, but because he felt lost, adrift, condemned by the curious gazes being cast their way.

A few exchanges were stated in Greek -- a familiar and welcome language -- yet out of respect, Benjamin attempted to tune out the words since he knew they were not meant for him. To his right, a soldier dressed in all black spoke to him, and he offered what he prayed to be a courteous bow.

On the table in front of them, the shapes on the map twisted and danced free of the page, and on impulse, Benjamin jerked upright. As an officer, he was trained to be prepared for any sudden movements -- he just hadn't expected to see it in such an inanimate manner.

Katarzyna drew nearer, and by instinct, he sought her warmth by taking a step closer in tandem. To touch would be inappropriate, so he merely kept his gaze focused on the other attendees in the room.

She spoke of General Kerr and a change of course and frustrations, and by the time the room had cleared, her shoulders seemed to sag beneath the weight of their meeting.

"No," Benjamin softly agreed, "nothing ever goes according to plan...my attempts at impartiality being a clear indicator." Watching as her eyes lifted to his, soft and crystalline, he smiled before looking away, no longer quite able to handle her eyes on him. "I am thinking far too much," he confessed, "but the primary source of contention is Hickey, Bradford and Lee. The fact that any of them are roaming free right now is an insult -- having Hickey isn't enough."

The brightness in his eyes dimmed. "If Kerr has been thwarted, what does that mean for us?"

[drawnaghht]

Gotta post about this b4 I forget about it but basically;

went on TVtropes yesterday, found the SRTUC page again, started adding to trivia and though, hmm, I've been getting "earlier anthro action cartoon" vibes from this show for a while now.... wonder why that is?

and guys, adding some of the art peeps there no the TVtropes trivia, I noticed that supervising producer ben jones actually worked on SWAT KATS as a character designer for 3 eps! what a connection to make!

my brain at that moment:

edit 1(27.06.2023) - ok, turns out I just mixed the actual show up with this show.... but it's sorta nice for me bc I like reminiscing about Swat Kats haha xD

on with the old post!!

actually, swat kats is a cartoon I was obsessed with for a while as a kid after we got access to cartoon network and they started airing it here. i think it'd seen a dubbed version of it before but it was exciting to see the english original, . it was fun and rompy as I remember, but also I loved the music and action elements after bikermice ended and I missed it so much, seeing something with similar musical cues felt like a consolation almost, like "oh there's more cartoons like this". now admittedly, i don't really remember that much abt swat kats anymore. it aired alongside other H-B cartoons and there was a lot to watch and pay attention to, so i kinda haven't retained more of it than memories of memories of loving the intro, memorizing the music and feeling cool while watching it. I remember the shift to more "serious" storytelilng (if I remember it right at all lol) and both feeling a bit critical/apprehensive at Callie (bc I'd thought, "why is she the only one who gets a more human-like appearance) and loving her design/fawning over her ("oh no, girl hot") but also it was just interesting to see a girl character given a mayoral role which made her seem more important than I'd seen from other action cartoons directed at boys so far.

like, i need to rewatch this series now that I've seen the cast/crew list, and just see also what it was about this show that I loved so much it left some kind of artistic impression on me.

lol idk what other connection with SRTUC it has, but when I'd read that Ben Jones was on it, I suddenly also thought, "well, not it makes sense why the antrho designs in samurai rabbit actually makes sense" There are so many shows, comics and so on before which have made different kinds of attempts at anthro/furry designs, and they all might make sense within the context of their show/media piece, but what I liked about Samurai Rabbit was how it didn't "humanize" the animal designs *too much*. Resulting in awkward designs where women look much more human than their male counterparts. which might not bother a kid much, but will bother an artist like me concerned with consistency lol. like in the og usagi yojimbo it makes sense how the animals look a little more human depending on their role or function in the story/scene, Stan Sakai is very good at making his cartoony style work with these ideas of "basically human, but represented by animals" but also literally animals. And I like that the show takes this same idea and runs with it in it's own way.

All this to say - Experience builds on experience.

so Ben Jones and many other veteran animators/artists/writers in the field working on it, but also the numerous visdev artists, animators and other visual folk with similar vested interest in a UY adaptation, give this show such an unique flair among other furry/anthro shows.

sdfsdf ill continue writing this later, I am soooo exhausted after work today, but, this was cool to think abt yesterday and ive been mullting it over in my head during quiet hours. so cool to have a brain that keeps noticing all these names and all these similar things and then running with it. like the animated things you like are so connected thru their staff knowing each other or having worked on same/similar things before, you wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it all the time.

[ssweeneys]

3, 6, 13, 19

BASED ON THIS MEME

3. Can you tell us about your 5 most nostalgic muses?

1. Brooke Maddox is hands down number one. I've been roleplaying her since late 2016 and even though she's a canon character, she's basically an OC too at this point considering the amount of headcanons, meta and deep diving I went into her backstory to flesh her out. She is and always will be my baby and my longest running muse to date.

2. Isabelle Samson. Her story is dark but there's a lot more to her than meets the eye. She may be one of my most controversial characters. I've probably played her for 5 years now on and off? I've had people steal her and try to recreate her themselves, she's been on the receiving end of jealousy/hatred. And despite the roller coaster ride it's been developing her, I wouldn't give her up for the world. She may even make it into a script or future novel one day so ...

3. Madison Maddox is Brooke's future daughter and next gen. She's my bisexual queen. To this day, her threesome with her best friend and her bff's boyfriend lives rent free in my head. It was a wild time. She's grown so much and she still has ways to go. She's definitely flawed but I also think that's what makes her so realistic?

4. and 5. Sienna Fox and Cassie Howard are also nostalgic characters and have earned a spot on the list. I haven't played them as long but they're two others I've spent a lot of time developing on my own.

6. Who are some of your favorite faceclaims right now?

Carlson Young (always), Ana de Armas, Aslihan Malbora, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Ben Barnes, Lucien Laviscount, Nick Sagar, Minka Kelly, and Theo James, Melisa Asli Pamuk, Hande Ercel, Alperen Duymaz, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Melissa Barrera.

13. Who are some of your favorite underused faceclaims?

Lucien Laviscount, Nick Sagar, Lily Rose Depp, Zach Gilford, Bensu Soral, Bahar Sahin, Greta, Onieogou, Kristin Kreuk, Erica Durance, Alisha Wainwright, Scarlett Byrne, Bryan Craig, Kat Graham, Jenny Ortega. Ugh soooo many I’m prob blanking on.

19. What do you miss about old roleplay? (Roleplay before 2017?)

I love this question because... EVERYTHING. Early roleplaying days were so much more chill and laidback. People only care about aesthetics and being liked that they put 95% of their focus on themes and graphics and less than 5% on actual writing. I hate prose with a passion lol. To me... it’s not really writing but a confusing collection of words no one actually uses in real life and people only looked up on thesaurus and threw in. I miss groups before they became way too toxic and policing. I miss chatting with friends over IM (yes), skype, etc and writing back and forth until like 7am sometimes. I feel like a grandma sometimes who reminisces on the good ol’ rp days that sadly just don’t exist anymore =////