#id believe it. you people are cartoonish | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

intertexts · 7 months ago

Note

OK OK SINCE U ARE PRETTY FAR INTO PD NOW. I NEED TO ASK. DO U HAVE A FAVORITE CHARACTER. do u have a favorite moment. whos backstory are u the most interested in seeing. what are u excited to learn about the world . I AM PUTTING UR BRAIN UNDER A MICROSCOPE AND DISSECTING IT IVE GOTTA KNOW. what villains are u most afraid of. write me an essay on ur feelings about mark winters. etc etc etc etc WHATEVER U WANNA TALK ABT RN im standing in the middle of a field like a scarecrow and just SCREAMING at the sky

OHHHHHH MAN DUDE LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CHOOSE A FAVORITE OF ANYONE. FUCKK. GOD.

ok putting all of this under a cut because its so fucking long???

ok ok ok. lets see. they r all so so so good it's impossible 2 choose but also iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii really fucking like dakota dude..... i like him so much. so much. i will admit. i am a massive fucking fan of a character who stays silly. massive fucking fan of the emotional king dedede hammer that comes down when the silly guy drops the silliness. i love it when characters literally r incapable of processing their emotions. gebuinely i don't know what he put in that guy but it is cartoonish the way my neurons light up at him its not quite akechi from p5 levels of FUCKKK YEAH THIS GUY MY FUCKED UP LITTLE GUY!! but it is Getting Close!!!

whose backstory.... fuck. okay. Most interested in wiwi's backstory. of course. i AM really interested in vyncent's whole deal but i feel like his fucked up knife that possesses him (?????????) is slightly more of a specific thing than backstory. and i DO wanna know howww the jrpg protag isekai'd here but also like. consider... wiwi. also i wanna know if im right & ashe/ashes fucked up demon grimoire r responsible for his mom's death. ALSO I WANNA KNOW WHY MARK'S A LIZARD GUY.

FAVORITE MOMENTS SO FAR.... i LOVED the spirit world shit it was all so cinematic it was so lovely. usually im dogshit at like, visualizing descriptions in my head? but all of that was very much oh, yeah for sure, ive seen this cartoon! i know whats happening! that whole episode went hard as fuck. can't believe we got vyncent with a gun ashe going holy shit why am i fucking doing this imgonnadie william having a horrifying crisis over eating a fucking soul & dakota getting murked in one episode. & mal is just. on just. such a different level such a different world from Anything else they've experienced. its so good.

also i still really love the winding-down end of that amalgam island ep (5?) where they r exhausted & coming off so many huge emotions & stress & stuff & tide arrives.... that's really the scene that fucking hooked me i think. going ohhh yeah theyre just fucking kids and everyone at this table Knows theyre kids in a world where people will just fucking kill you. like,, yeah, it WOULD be fucked up if you were seventeen and ran into an island full of horrifying human and animal experimentation & abuse!! and theyre not playing it as a motw adventure where its just sillygoofy? ok. ok!! maybe these guys know where theyre taking it. like i can count on one hand maybe the amount of times ive been like "yeah im sure whatever the creators do will be good they've always done good & thoughtful work. i don't have to continually be delegating brain space to how im dissatisfied with this story." so i guess. i just like the show a lot!!

what am i most interested in about the world... ohhh man i love cape worldbuilding it's maybe like one of my favorite things. so i guess i'm interested in All of It?? in an overall probably-wont-be-answered-because-its-not-that-genre way i'd love 2 know what religion looks like in a world where JESUS IS A TRADEMARKED SUPERHERO & kids can come back from the dead. id love 2 know more ab the dynamic btwn politics & the cape world here thats always interesting? i really enjoy the approach they took 2 the kid heroes in the beginning, as in: these guys are literally still students they are not Supposed to be doing big hero shit. theyre not supposed to be doing teen titans or x-men shit & it is in fact a massive massive fuckup on their guardian's part when they Are in those positions. i'm a big fan of that i like it a lot more than the alternative. (unless yr like in a world like parahumans where there Is a narrative & in-universe reason why child & teen cape teams exist)

what villains am i most afraid of....... ok i kind of feel like being afraid of mal is like, being afraid of hurricanes or something. like sure i can be nervous about him but i can't fucking do anything if he's coming this way. so it's better i think to not think about it until it comes up & then pray. so i guess i AM really concerned about the overlord stuff. i dont know where it's gonna go but i know it'll be nowhere good & i know it'll end up getting people hurt. so.!!!!!!

#ahhghghgbhhgghhh. ok. ok this is it for now i think believe me i COULD write a whole essay on mark winters & my feelings on the Winters #Family Shit. maybe i will do that later today actually. god. really good show i havent felt normal since i started it!!!#pd lb #mac tag!

11 notes · View notes

miiilowo · 2 years ago

Note

I love asking questions heck yeah

How fucked are your William's joints? I feel like this is something you may have mentioned before? But I'm asking anyway bc good lord the springlock scars design in the tse graphic novel are so very prominent on th e joints

Ooh actually do you any thoughts on how getting springlocked affected William in general? Physically or mentally? And mayhaps how being springtrapped affected him too?

Ooh what are his feelings on Springbonnie

Ahh this afton focused is it? Sorry I just love the springlock suits in general . Hmm. Any reasons he may like the color purple, or be associated with it? Do you imagine his car actually is purple like the minigames? How is William's driving?

i lovw you <- youre asking me specific questions about stuff id never think about on my own

BONES !!!!!!! i have not thought about this before, somehow. ive thought about michael, but not william. i guess he would be pretty fucked up in the pain department, honestly. while the scars appear to just be skin-deep, whose to say it didnt hurt like a bitch when you have them Clamping Down On Your Fucking Joints? like, i briefly-and i mean BRIEFLY- dislocated my knee and it snapped back into place on its own, and it's still a lot more sensitive and weaker than the other one, so i have no trouble believing that he'd have physical pain like that. doesn't help that he is also an old man, and people generally hurt more as they get older

As for how it affected him mentally, I cant really be sure. Since i dont have like, a detailed description of what happened and how, its hard for me to try and put myself in his shoes and extrapolate from there. He clearly isnt too bothered by it, considering how much he adores the suits (and especially the spring bonnie one. for obvious reasons. which we can also assume probably springlocked him initially)

post-springtrap though? im conflicted. i know in the novels he makes a point of saying that he likes being springtrap, and hes fucked up enough to view him as a character-a role that he wants to play, a comical over the top villain. and while i do love that for him, really, theres something about how hes presented in fnaf 3; that quiet, barely audible groaning as he moves around the building, the relentless approach thats only stunted by the suit forcibly moving him toward sound due to its programming...................................ouuugggghhrghh. look. im a fucking sucker for horror, and i love how horrific fnaf 3 is when you get to thinking about it, so im biased toward it. we can use the novel springtrap as a fun way to learn about his personality, and how it plays into how hes cartoonish bastard, but i generally prefer the idea that it fucking sucks to be stuck in that suit. like, getting springlocked is bad enough, but the fact his chance to enact revenge was stunted by the suit moving his half-intact body around, probably causing immense pain? that shit fucks. really into that

as far as his opinions on spring bonnie....i dunno. hed like him. hes his character, after all, his.....literal fursona, in some ways. i dont think its a coincidence that he chose a spring bonnie related form to represent his digital consciousness, nor is it a coincidence that he repeatedly chose spring bonnie to be his physical form (see glitchtrap & burntrap; different bodies from springtrap, yet still spring bonnie. he did not have to do that. but he did)

The purple thing is also related to this last one. Its the accent color he used on spring bonnie (see glitchtraps vest & springbonnies bowtie), so he was probably rather fond of it. hes almost equally represented by yellow, so i think thats a top contender for favorite color too, but purple takes the cake. his car is a 1970 plum colored doge challenger with black accents To Me. i havent really thought about his driving. id imagine it fine, hed probably actually be good at it after getting used to driving 3 children around in it and having to focus on the road and them at the same time

#william afton #aftonisms #<- a little bit. mostly HC but theres some stuff in there

59 notes · View notes

mushroomjar · 1 year ago

Note

hey whats the deal w diana and calliope

[ID: Scribbly drawing of a person looking up at the viewer with big puppy eyes, smiling. End ID]

KICKING MY LEGS AND GIGGLING OMGGGG OKAY OKAY

You're right, what IS the deal with them? KSKSKSS Okay I'll tell you a bit about them, but like always, under a read more, because I always get embarrassed talking about my OCs here lol

Btw I'm in the middle of writing my response and I have to say omfg I feel so embarrassed pleeeease don't be mean I will cry

I guess I'll just start by showing what they look like, which I made in a Picrew, like always (if anyone wants the link to the Picrew let me know, I use this one all the time lol)

So this is Diana (she's actually supposed to have light blonde hair, not white, I'm a bit lazy to change the photo rn but yeah):

[Image Description: A cartoonish Picrew of a white woman with long white hair and blue eyes sat down in an alley, smiling. She wears a white frilly button-up under a white apron dress, white shoes, and has a rosary tied around her wrist. There's a knife sitting next to her. End Image Description]

And this is Calliope:

[Image Description: A cartoonish Picrew of a white woman with a dark brown mullet and dark brown eyes sat down in an alley, frowning. She wears a black shirt with a dark red skull, black pants, white socks and black converse shoes. There's a kitchen knife sitting next to her. End Image Description]

I'm probably gonna skip a lot of details in this (but if you want more details you can always DM me), but the gist of it is Cal and Diana had been dating for a very short amount of time (think 2-4 months), and one day while in Diana's house, Calliope finds out that Diana eats people, and she gets freaked out, and Diana tries to explain herself because she does it out of love, but Calliope just leaves, and she doesn't do the "call the police" thing (though she does almost do it) but she just spends a couple of days without talking to Diana and just thinking by herself, and she realizes after a while that she's not just thinking "holy shit she's insane" but she's also thinking "I want to see her again, I need to see her again", and it's this mix of thoughts "she's insane what's wrong with her I love her we need to still be together but why she's EATING PEOPLE-"

Anyway a couple days later Calliope goes back to Diana's house, and when Diana opens the door for her Cal's just like "Show me," and Diana's like "Show you what?" And Cal's like "Show me how you do it. Eat" (those aren't the exact words but it's just to give you an idea of what happens)

And so she does that, she lets Calliope in and she takes a part from one of the bodies she has and she cooks it and eats it and Calliope's watching her do all of that, and while a part of her's still like "what the fuck am I doing she's insaneee", what she's finding is more of... it's not as bad as she imagined it would be. Gruesome, sure, but not as much as she feared. And she realizes not just that she doesn't mind, but also that... she kind of gets it. There's something about how Diana does everything that makes her believe her when she says that she does this out of love. So after the wonderful dinner they have a basically sort of Q&A where Calliope lets Diana speak, explain herself, and she listens, and once they're done Calliope says she's gonna think about this for a couple more days, and leaves, and then she does come back some days later and says that she's still very much in love with Diana and that she wants to be with her and support her in all her ways of showing love

So that's basically like the first chapter in their story, as you can tell I skipped out on some details, mainly because there's some stuff about it that I might change, like I said this is all still a huuge WIP, but that's basically the start of their relationship. Btw they're both insane, Calliope later starts killing people, but I don't think I'm gonna tell you about that in detail because all of the scenes I had for that are even bigger WIPs than what I just told you and I'll probably have to re-write all of them anyway, just know their dynamic later turns into "Calliope kills people and Diana eats them"

But at the heart of the story is just... fucked up messed up ways of love, I'd say, both because of Diana's cannibalism being fundamented on it being a way for her to show love in the deepest most profound manner she can think of, and Calliope later becoming fully devoted to doing everything just for Diana (she starts killing people to keep Diana safe, at least in her eyes). That's something that I always want to emphasize on whenever I'm talking about them to my friends or something, they're not "oohh they're delusional so that's why they're together," like yeah they are fucked up, but they truly are both in love with each other in the deepest way you can think of, like the story would not happen the way it does if they weren't in love with each other. This, too, is yuri

Also in case you're wondering if Diana's going to eat Calliope at some point too, I still don't know but for now, taking into account how willing Calliope is to be eaten and how willing Diana is to eat the people she loves, the answer is a "probably." At the very least Calliope is willing to sacrifice a couple fingers to sate her girlfriend's needs (she's willing to sacrifice a lot more but Diana might feel bad about that so she's cool with settling for some fingers. At least for a while)

Aaaaannnnnd yeah, that's about all I can think of, I am pouring my heart out to you and I hope you will take it in gentle hands like a wounded animal, because that's how I feel after typing Calliope and Diana's story for the fourth time in my life. A wounded animal.

Also no I've never watched Hannibal

#cat answers #oc: diana #oc: calliope #oc tag #my id #dani tag

8 notes · View notes

kodiescove · 2 months ago

Text

There is a particular trauma I have, because of a particular person, that just... Doesn't feel real when I think about it.

Not because of dissociation, but because the things that happened, the things he did, the way he was just sound so... Fucking fake and outlandish and cartoonish. They sound like the things you read in fiction. They don't sound like things that happen to real people.

No one knows what he did to me. Not even my counselor, who I was seeing at the time.

No one knows what I went through.

Yeah they know the outline, the jist.

But they don't *actually* know what happened.

They don't really know what went on.

Cause what happened was so fucking bizarre, I don't think they'd believe me. Id don't think that was a real person and I'd honestly not blame them for that cause I have a hard time believing it myself even though I'm the one who went through it.

0 notes

vhvrs · 7 months ago

Note

6, 15, 16 for the fandom ask (for any fandom you are currently in or want to talk about) :3

ty ty ty :3c

answering these under the cut since the images r kindve long...

6) Show us a bit of a WIP!

most of my art wips i think ive shared or are incomprehensible messes but ig this counts - currently doing wip brainstorming for potential merch lineup (charms in this case) for a VERY potential con n hopefully online sales bc id love to get back into that... i have others but these r the only ones ill share mainly bc i can use this as an opportunity to gauge the actual interest lmao

since this is an art AND fic ask game heres wips of the only fic im kinda working on (miami rick/reader)

15) Have you noticed your style change over time?

definitely! in two different ways i suppose:

when i first draw things i tend to get trapped in more... realism n an inability to stylize n its a process i repeat every new fandom i go into until i get comfortable enough to draw the stylized versions?? idk if this is noticeable to others, but its very noticeable to me haha

on a similiar note i think over time ive just grown more comfortable leaning into stylized or cartoonish art - this was originally an active process when i was like. fresh adult bc i didnt like my art at the time but i think abt ten yrs later ive hit a point where im able to draw more than the same face over n over. or i hope so lol. i have shapes i repeat a lot but ive been able to draw a lot of things n make them work in my style in ways i just couldnt b4.

i believe all art styles have a lineart + color combo that fits it n i think ive found mine! but ive also learned to be comfortable in being inconsistent n wildly different :3

ig tldr old art drop. i feelive gotten to a point w my art i can get close to what im seeing in my head lol

2016 -> 2022

2016 -> 2023

2018 -> 2023

fic wise i think ive gotten more floral to overdescriptive lately due to older feedback from also a decade ago abt it being hard to decipher what was going on sometimes. ill reread old fics n be impressed by my ability to cut to the chase lmao. i need to find a better middle ground...

16) Do people irl know you participate in fandom?

yep! i both have a what ud call special interest in fandom culture & then pretty much uh do not do anything else so it makes my only hobby fandom -> ppl know. i dont really talk or hang out w ppl irl but like i was raised by and around nerds so i dont try to hide it haha. i have infodumped fandom bs at former coworkers too... its a curse. fandom is too much of my life for ppl irl to be able to NOT know

#repurposedmeatlocker

1 note · View note

b-h-ann · 2 years ago

Text

Breathe: An Excerpt

This version of my short story "Breathe" initially appeared in FSU's lit mag The Onyx in the Spring 2023 edition. Due to the number of submissions vs. the number of pages in the mag, I had to submit an excerpt which is roughly half the original. Because of this, the piece which appeared in the mag (this one) has had content removed. Asterisks (***) denote where content has been cut out. I do not believe this excerpt accurately depicts my original intentions with this piece, as an entire subplot has been deleted. If you wish to read the full piece, you can find that one here.

Breathe: An Excerpt

by B.H. Ann

***

Daisy despised the idea of someone in her room. She had had the same one every year since she started college. The entire point of her having a double-as-a-single was for the silence and solitude. The idea of someone else invading her space, making noise and having company over, having a completely different schedule than Daisy. The thought made her shudder.

Her phone buzzed softly in her hand. Daisy's brow furrowed as she saw the text from an unknown Instagram user.

Hi! This is Bree! Can't wait to meet you.

Daisy felt creeped out that this Bree had sought out her private Instagram account without even meeting Daisy yet.

***

She grabbed her backpack, placing it on her lap and fumbled with the front zippers. Inside, she shuffled through seven notebooks and matching folders, an extended pencil pouch shaped like a cat and a half full pack of bubblegum before finding a slim wallet. The outside plastic slot displayed a white student ID card. The picture showed Daisy four years younger, face framed by frizzy bangs and long, unkempt hair. Unsmiling, dark purple bags under her eyes giving her a haunted appearance. Daisy remembered the scratchy feeling of the cotton shirt she'd forced herself into for the photo.

As Daisy made her way back around the building she dodged chatting students on the pathway who just didn't seem able to grasp that the sidewalk was capable of allowing travel in both directions. Most were returning from their last class of the day, some were just stopping by their rooms to ditch their backpacks between class and extracurriculars, others meeting up with friends for study groups or... whatever it was people did when they gathered in groups and pairs. Daisy watched her own beaten Converse scuffing on the pavement, not meeting anyone else's eyes. At the door, she scanned her idea, mumbled something that sort of sounded like "no problem" to the person on their iPad at the desk, and meandered across the newly redone tile floor in the lobby to the stairs. She took them one at a time, counting the steps as she went, and making sure both feet were placed on the step before trying to make it to the one below.

The halls were lit with harsh overhead lights, and contrasted with the new white tiles, making the hallway washed out, the only contrast being the brown doors evenly spaced apart, each room being a double occupancy, some of which were used as doubles-as-singles. Like Daisy's used to be.

Despite being forbidden, the hall gave the heavy skunk scent of weed, and as Daisy passed room 104, she picked the faint whiff of alcohol. She rubbed at her eyes until she saw stars. This is a fucking nightmare.

All the way at the furthest end of the hall, by the fire exit, and tucked into a corner was what used to be Daisy's room. The whiteboard on the door used to remain blank, and there used to be just one atrocious neon green name card posted outside of the door. Someone, presumably her new "roomie," had drawn a cartoonish blue alien with Expo marker. Daisy's head felt like The Powers That Be were taking a hammer to her skull. Everything got all hot, and she found it hard to focus on the door. Alright, Daisy, thought, what are you trying to do? Open the door. How do you open the door, Daisy? Use the key, dipshit. She found the metal key assigned to the room. She didn't need to tell herself the rest of the steps.. Except when she went to turn the key, she found that the door was already unlocked.

Of course she would get the roommate who leaves the door unlocked. Of course.

Daisy paused on the cool, metallic handle, took a shaky breath in, and released it in the same movement she pulled down the door handle, opening the door.

***

It was completely foreign to Daisy the way in which the beds were now pushed apart on opposite sides of the room, the few feet of white tile floor a seemingly uncrossable distance.

Daisy had meant to hastily ditch her backpack on the bed and get out. Maybe hide out in the library listening to music and waiting for the intruder to fall asleep. Or better yet, leave. But as soon as she set foot in the room, she was stopped by the minefield of baggage. A sturdy green roller suitcase lay open directly in front of the door, its contents--an assortment of brushes and glass bottles full of dark, paint-like substances--were in dire danger of being broken across the tile.

"Oh shit!" A figure exclaimed from the other side of the room "I'm so sorry, let me move that!" The exclamation was followed by a vibrant whirl of...feathers? Daisy squinted in confusion as she tried to follow the flurry of movement, but the muchness of it all made her turn away. When the motion was finished, the floor in front of her was cleared, and she found herself staring instead at collarbone? No, that wasn't quite right. She fixed her gaze upwards, until she found the face of the person in front of her. Thick, black lashes framed wide brown eyes. Daisy looked away. She sidestepped the obstruction, crossed to the left side of the room, and tossed her bag on the desk. The pens in the cup there rattled.

"Hi,” The girl said loudly. Daisy closed her eyes at the sound."I'm Bree! We're going to be roommates!"

Daisy didn't turn around. She riffled through her backpack, pulled out three of the notebooks and folders and tucked them away in their respective slots in the white file holder on the desk. Her throat felt like something was blocking it, and she felt a twist in her stomach. She knew Bree was behind her waiting for a response, but her brain kept spinning, and any answer she conjured felt like the wrong one. Daisy pretended she was looking through her backpack, but it was really just to hide her trembling fingers. When did the room get so warm?

The silence began to draw on. Daisy could hear the hum of electricity in the air, growing more prominent with each breath. She knew by now it had reached an inappropriate amount of silence, but still, the words felt like paper in her mouth.

“Hello? It’s nice to meet you?” Bree said, an edge of annoyance coating her words now.

Jesus fucking Christ just say something, anything. She probably thinks you're weird. It's too late now. She hates you.

Shut up shut up shut up.

"Hi," Daisy said, or tried to. She cleared her throat. Louder, but still facing away from Bree, she managed to repeat herself. She forced herself to turn around, but Daisy could not bring herself to meet her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Bree."

***

#b.h.ann #excerpt #writing #fiction #short story #ocd #anxiety #mental health #i hate it when they make me excerpt #the onyx

0 notes

pronouncingitwang · 1 year ago

Text

[ID: Character design drawings for Aziraphale and Crowley. Each character has a sketch and a semirealistic version drawn. Aziraphale is fat and has dark skin and short, white, afro-textured hair. He wears a grey cable knit sweater, white bowtie, pearl earrings and necklace, finger braces and wrings, and blue sneakers. Crowley is thin and has medium brown skin and slicked-back black hair. He wears sunglasses, earrings, a white dress shirt and black suit with a red tie, a white belt, and white heeled shoes. They look at each other with a neutral expression, their eyes connecting.

Notes are written around both characters. Copied from under the cut in the original post, they read:

from top to bottom, left to right, aziraphale's commentary reads as follows: - in the top left, some floating text reads "doesn't change his clothes enough (doesn't need to), so it tends to droop & mold to his body. he's worn his shoes for so long that the lace-ends have fallen off!" - an arrow points to the cartoon aziraphale's sideburns, and reads "cloud poof sideburns" - an arrow points to his fingers, and reads "manicured (duh)" - an arrow pointing to his thighs reads "STAIN CITY!!!!! (he miracles them all away. he knows it's there, but that doesn't stop him)" - an arrow pointing to his shins says "a little baggy" - an arrow pointing to his shoes says "popular with nurses & fast food workers" - an arrow points to the semi-realisitic aziraphale's hair, reading "hair tex based on a man from my local post office!" - an arrow points to his neck, reading "droopy bowtie" - detail drawings of his earrings, rings, finger braces, necklace, and bookshop key are blown up. each is labeled as such. the earrings and necklace are matching pearls. the rings are all simple silver bands, with the exception of the right pointer and middle fingers, which are simple silver finger braces, similar to the style used by people with ehlers-danlos syndrome. the bookshop key is the solo key on a large carabiner, hidden in the drawing by his sweater, but shown in the detail image. an arrow points to the key, and reads "just one key, but he wanted a "ring of keys" sooooo bad (he's not a lesbian* but he believes in their beliefs)." the asterisk on "lesbian" leads to a footnote reading "usually." - an arrow pointing to his shoe reads "woman's orthopedic"

from top to bottom, left to right, crowley's commentary reads as follows: - an arrow points to the semi-realistic crowley's head, and reads "F. mercury shades." the shades are mirrored aviators, similar to the style freddy mercury is known to have worn. - detail images of crowley's sunglasses, rings, and earring are blown up and labeled. the earring is a simple black hoop stud. the rings are a snake that wraps around your finger, and a simple dark band. the sunglasses are at an angle that obscures the style of the lens, but the arms are more visible then in the main drawings, revealing that they bend in a severe up-and-down wave pattern between the lens and the ear rest. - an arrow points to his nails, which are painted black, and reads "manifests pre-chipped" - in between the semi-realistic crowley and the cartoonish crowley's feet is text reading ""white" snakeskin shoes match belt and watch" - an arrow points to the cartoonish crowley's head, reading ""he looks like a bug" shades. the sunglasses this crowley is wearing are large circular lenses. - an arrow points to his left ear, reading "pretend this is the gay ear (i forgot)." forgot is misspelled as "forgor." - an arrow points to his chest, reading "this hot pink bitch is named breakfast" - floating text near his leg reads "magic pockets mean the line of his suit is never ruined (which he never rmbrs to take advantage of) - text below his feet reads "those are his hooves you bitch"

the shared commentary is as follows: - between aziraphale and crowley is a line with a starburst in the middle, showing that they are making eye contact. - above this, they are both thinking in a shared thought bubble "i should send him a spam email.*" the asterisk leads below the eye contact line; to a footnote, also in a shared thought bubble. it reads "*in a sex way" - on each character's detail image of their rings, one ring for each has a asterisk. this leads to a footnote between them, centered in a large patch of negative space, reading "gay ass wedding rings"

/end ID]

day 1 of @book-omens-week : character design!! commentary transcript is under the cut :)

the shared commentary is as follows: - between aziraphale and crowley is a line with a starburst in the middle, showing that they are making eye contact. - above this, they are both thinking in a shared thought bubble "i should send him a spam email.*" the asterisk leads below the eye contact line; to a footnote, also in a shared thought bubble. it reads "*in a sex way" - on each character's detail image of thier rings, one ring for each has a asterisk. this leads to a footnote between them, centered in a large patch of negative space, reading "gay ass wedding rings"

#long post #I LOVE THEM #good omens

64 notes · View notes

spinaroos-47 · 2 years ago

Note

Can we have some Salem facts? I Adore them

- He's a manlet! (at least compared to Belos) Like, pretty much around Hunter's height, just a few centimeters taller or so, like this drawing shows. So like, about 1,65/5'4"

(still taller than me, though fjsjdnfnd)

- They're also pretty religious, which is a reason why they like going to the Knee, since its a very important place for witches to connect with the Titan. Which is another point of identity crisis and etc when he discovers that Belos might be lying about a lot

- I based his scars on Dell's, or at least the lineless ones. Those are all Belos related. I do actually have a post queued for either today or tomorrow that explains most of the ones he has on his arms.

He also doesnt really dwell or feel bad about his scars, at most theres just some annoyance about their hand tremors but even then they are managing it okay-ish

- I have songs and colors that I associate with my GGs and on Salem's case it's Honey I'm Home by Ghost and their theme color is white/very light grey

- They're very blunt and go on a bunch of thought tangents, which makes it fun to write from their pov. But theyre not very introspective and doesnt question much if they dont have a reason to.

- The way I see his not that great behaviour is cruelty and indifference for the ones he's harming most of the time, and distancing himself from the actual harm he's doing. i didn't want to make them very over the top cartoonish evil or anything very quick to spot.

He's cruel in the way people who seem nice are, hidden and excused by well meaning pretendes, which is quite hard to illustrate, i don't actually draw much exploration of them in their own little story besides near their death because of it and also because contrary to Cain, Salem doesnt really have anyone for me to work him with besides Belos and like, random scouts. And i also haven't drawn much of that because Im still figuring out what exactly he has done.

This is all very rough still. A lot can change

(they do believe they are doing the right thing but that also coexists with them not feeling much remorse when they are intentionally and knowingly cruel)

- Ironically they are very squeamish about death and etc. Kind of a Robespierre kind of deal, if I am getting things right about that. Executing this from a distance for most of the time. I have been wondering if they would have a nickname like The Golden Fist or something like that.

-Maybe if he lived longer he would have had a big change of heart and stop being so blindly obedient and would try to help people instead of hurting them. That would have him killed too though. Just later than when it actually happened.

- He was one of Belos' favorite grimwalkers, so much so that he is actually on the GG mind graveyard, which was where i took inspiration for their hair when it isnt in a bun

- As far as how close they look to Caleb, theyre actually like, third in closest resemblance. In second place theres Orien and then in first its Hunter.

- His whole story and not so great personality were not actually with him from the start. When i made them, they were basically just a design and name, and slowly i added them discovering about grimwalkers being what ends up making them "betray" Belos, and they were actually nice, but i had been looking at some posts about how not all grimwalkers must have been nice people and I wanted to make at least one of mine like that and they were the most interesting one for me to do that.

Him not being nice was decided after i made that whole sheet/reference post about the basics about him.

I didn't think id have much to say about them but apparently i do gjdjfjf. I know that i draw him a lot but its usually just mindless sitties or outfit drawings, not really exploring his character like I do with Cain. Hope you liked these Salem facts!

#ask #toh #prev ggs #salem #golden guard #long post

45 notes · View notes

spacesnaill · 4 years ago

Note

Holds you at gunpoint. Every question for Jupiter. (you can skip some if you want-)

i love you, you motherfucker 🔫

1. what is your character's relationship to the traveler?

jupiter is aether’s and lumine’s big sibling, so they all get along very well. i like to think aether and lumine are way more brash and “act before you think” kind of people, while jupiter usually is the one who takes lead (both because of the big sib energy and because they are way more analytical). that being said, jupiter is aware that the twins are very much capable of surviving on their own and fighting if there is any need for that, which is why even after losing touch with them in tevyat they know that the twins will manage somehow, they just need to find them

2. is your character proud of, ashamed of, or indifferent to their feelings towards members of a certain gender?

i’d like to think that the species/society the trio comes from doesnt give a fuck about gender and sexuality so jupiter would never feel ashamed or upset about their feelings towards specific genders. i dont think they would rlly label themself but they are definitely not straight. as to having feelings towards others: they are usually straight forward in their approach

3. what is your character's relationship with themselves?

jupiter knows their purpose and objective very well, but that often clouds their true desires. i like to think that they havent really been thinking for themself up until they were stranded in tevyat and had to rely on themself. they came to realize their own opinions and perspectives that they carry with themself everywhere they go. tho, their views are rather flexible, because they are very much willing to learn if an oppoturnity arises. that being said, they dont quite know themself well just yet, they are still learning after all

4. what is their favorite region? why?

with how much of the game is available rn, liyue is definitely their favorite so far. it’s culture is incredibly rich and full of fascinating stories and legends. i personally am looking forward to the release of sumeru, but what will come out of it is yet to be seen

5. what is their relationship with Zhongli? do they have one at all?

oh they very much do. while his charm and politeness are qualities that they very much enjoy, what originally drew them closer to him was his vast knowledge over liyue’s traditions and customs. at first during their stay at liyue harbor they would wait to catch him during his afternoon and evening strolls around the city to ask him things and carefully listen to everything he has to say. id like to think that zhongli appreciated having such an active listener and even a conversation partner at some point. eventually their little friendship grew into fondness for each other and they would seek each other’s company, until jupiter straight up confessed. id like to think their relationship is fairly innocent and very much founded on mutual respect and admiration. they both value honesty and communicate with each other rather well. and even though, zhongli hesitated before agreeing to travel with them, leaving liyue behind, he doesnt regret doing it

6. who is their love interest? If they do not have one, who is their closest friend?

while zhongli is both their love interest and their dear friend, venti is their first close friend. during the events of chapter I they both bonded. venti seemed like someone containing a vast amount of knowledge that jupiter was eager to discover. it quickly became apparent to them that the bard doesnt particularly like to talk about the past in detail, but venti still would surprise them with how much he knew about art and the culture surrounding it. they are both pretty light spirited so they always enjoyed each other’s company and their bond only grew stronger during their travels.

7. what do they think of Mona?

they are curious about and intrigued by her methods. they can also very much relate to her pursuit of lost/forgotten knowledge. they like to ask her about astrology and theorize with her, asking her to teach them little things for an exchange of a hot, homemade meal

8. what do they think of The Knights of Favonius?

their opinion on the knights is mixed. they can very much see that most of the people working for them are underqualified and not cut for the job or only doing it for the renown. while the idea of a city without a ruler is appealing, in practice the knights are the ones ruling over it and jupiter was left feeling sceptical when thinking about their methods and the possible future. they dont have anything against the individual people in the organization, but they do think their approach is highly flawed

9. wine is Mondstadt's most popular drink. do they drink wine?

while they do indulge in alcohol from time to time, they dont seem to be able to get drunk or even tipsy. they’ve concluded that since their body is built differently than a person of this world’s, its very probable that they dont react to certain foods and products the same way. alcohol is like any kind of a drink for them and many people are terrified when they see them consume it in large quantities

10. what do they think of Kaeya?

they like his playful nature and think he is a highly intelligent person, who doesnt show anyone what he is truly capable of. his methods, while very cunning, seem rather brash, which somehow reminds them of their siblings. while they are very much curious about his motives and history, they dare not to pray if it isnt welcomed. during their stay in mondstadt they would often times catch kaeya lurking in the tavern and spending time with the local gangs and bandits in order to extort information from them while drunk. in the rarer occasions where he would be alone, they would sometimes keep him company, filling the night with talks about nothing in particular

11. if they were forced to make the choice between killing their love interest/friend or killing themselves, what would they choose? why?

that very much depends on when that would happen. pre-separation with their siblings, they would very much operate on the hard logic of “whoever has more information/more important information should survive”. however after spending time in tevyat and meeting its people, jupiter learns to greatly value life and their inicial stance would change to a more selfless one. the more they get to know about the world the more they are willing to put their life on the line to preserve life in it, especially if its the life of someone they hold dear

12. what do they think of Childe? 16. is there a canon character your character hates? why?

at first they were open to the idea of being childe’s friend, however with time they started noticing that something was wrong with his overt friendliness. when he revealed his true intentions, jupiter was not surprised, but learning what he had chose to do made them absolutely despise him. staying in liyue has taught them a lot and made them care about the people living in this world. however childe seemed to have no disregard to them. they will not hesitate to fight him if their paths do cross again

13. do they carry a lot of Mora?

having a large amount of mora is basically a requirement when travelling with zhongli and venti. jupiter does take on a lot of jobs and comissions, though mora is mostly a secondary issue for them. they do find themself owning quite a lot of it at times until they overspend with their companions and are forced to rely on their survival skills in order to save up enough to get a roof over their heads

14. does your character side with Kaeya, Diluc or neither?

when it comes to the family feud: neither. jupiter doesnt like to pry into family matters and they understand both kaeya and diluc never talking about their issues with one another. while they cant imagine siblings behaving like that, due to their own experience, they dont feel like its their place to judge.

when it comes to the knights of the favonius: jupiter slightly leans more on diluc’s side, recognizing the many weaknesses of the organization as it is, however they both come from different places when critiquing it.

15. what do they think of Venti?

venti has become their best friend and they value him deeply. they worry about him sometimes, aware of the origin of his appearance and the history behind it. they like how venti seems to perceive life in a very poetic way and are fascinated by it. they get along very well and venti often fill their time during their travels by his songs, both known and not yet named

17. how did they acquire their vision?

they seem to be blessed with the same ability as their siblings when it comes to being granted powers without aquiring a vision themself

18. what is your character's weakness?

their curiosity and hunger for knowledge

19. what is their strength?

they utilize the knowledge they have gathered into things they can use to their advantage be it in battle or daily life

20. what is your character's theme song?

pure gold by half·alive

21. what weather do they love the most? why?

they love when its sunny. jupiter very much enjoys the feeling of sunlight on their skin

22. what do they think of Paimon?

jupiter would be Ecstatic to get to meet paimon. her vast knowledge in all matters would make her a valuable companion. in the current story they have no idea who she is as of now though

23. what do they think of the Fatui?

while they do not approve of the fatui’s methods, they cant help but think that something much deeper must be going on. jupiter wants to believe that the tsaritsa cant be simply evil and that perhaps she has some other, hidden motivation for her actions. having spent time with and got to know the fatui in liyue, they also know that not all of them are cartoonish bad guys

24. what do they think of the archons?

overall the concept of archons seems very new and intriguing to them. they do try to get as much information about their godhood out of venti and zhongli. they wonder whether this world really needs the archons as much as it claims to

25. what is the worst thing that could happen to your oc?

either losing their siblings or losing their memory (its a great fear of theirs)

26. what does your oc want the most?

their long term dream is to write down all the knowledge they’ve gathered so far and make it accessible and understandable to anyone willing to read it

#genshin impact #gi #genshin impact oc #gi oc #original character #oc #the third star au #ask #friends #jupiter

13 notes · View notes

megs-writing · 5 years ago

Text

Coffee Never Tasted Romantic Before (Remile)

(So a writing prompt I was thinking of was a remile cafe au where Remy just walks into his normal Starbucks and like they got a new barista who is wearing a dress and oh god remys gay panicking and it’s fluff because I’m soFT)

Ships: Romantic Remile, references of platonic Sleepxiety Warnings: Dating, homophobia, caffeine/drug addiction Word count: 1669

Remy wore all black today, his signature jacket, a T-shirt that appeared a bit tighter than his normal ones, and a black skirt that reached a few inches above his knees- not enough to show anything unwanted but enough to make him feel confident matched with low-inch heels that slightly boosted his height and made small ticking sounds as we walked on the sidewalks. Behind his sunglasses, brown eyes were lined with black eyeliner, the only makeup he had enough practice in to actually look good, though it was hard to tell it was on behind shades. Of course this came with a few stares, but they were easily blocked out. Music in his headphones muted the sounds of chatter and general sounds of the city. Virgil had got him addicted to the Danger Days of MCR, which was much more pleasant to listen to than random people’s conversations and footsteps, not that his own weren’t mixed in with it.

This was his daily routine. 7:30 AM, the nearest Starbucks was five minutes away in a normal 15-minute walk. His class didn’t start until 9:30, which was plenty of time to walk to Starbucks and back and possibly spend some time at the shop with the known friends he made going there every day.

Once he entered the shop he set his back down in his normal spot and wrapped his headphones around his phone so he could interact with the normal workers and get his coffee. Only the one at the register wasn’t a normal worker, and the only one working the register on a slow morning, of course. From a distance, the man looked about as tall as him, with brown hair brushed over his forehead and pink glasses framing his eyes. Underneath the green apron was a brown dress reaching past the counter where he couldn’t see, and he could see a collection of Disney themed hot-topic pins pinned to his apron next to his nametag. He was talking to a customer, not noticing Remy was still staring from his normal table, and that’s when it hit him. You know if you want coffee, you have to talk to him, right?

Remy’s face started to turn red. Talking to the workers here wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t that, but talking to him. A completely new worker, at least, one that he’s never seen here before, that dressed like a strangely attractive gay teacher with a Disney obsession. Age wasn’t a problem, they were both college-age and working at separate coffee shops trying to get some cash. He’s seen him around campus before only walking by on the streets, but he blended enough to where conversation wasn’t needed. He never knew his name. If this went well, that could change. He just needed to get his coffee and get out to recover. Without stuttering, hopefully. Maybe he could learn his name.

Mentally scripting the interaction, he finally gathered the courage to step in line behind only one person, much less time to prepare than he had hoped for. He had his order memorized, but should he try and make a conversation? Compliment his dress or the unique pins? He was able to talk to every other worker just fine, but this was different. How exactly? No idea. But this was different.

The customer in front of him moved, leaving barely three feet between Remy and the barista. The worker moved to a few of the machines to make the drink, buying him a few extra seconds of stalling. Up close he could see details, his black stud earrings and glitter in his glasses, and chipped brown nail polish on his hands. The dress stopped at his knees with soft-looking black leggings underneath and sneakers. Remy made an effort not to stare, knowing what it was like when people saw him wearing short skirts in public, but he wasn’t trying to judge. It looked really nice on him.

Remy froze when the barista turned back to him. Up close he finally saw the nametag, Emile, written in cartoonish handwriting with a star dotting the i and a few stars scribbled around it. He moved his eyes from the pins to his face, where he was supposed to be looking. He had been quiet too long and didn’t hear whatever it was Emile said to him when he first turned. “...Are you alright?” Another silence. “I need your order.”

“Right- I… I like your dress. A-And your buttons.” That was not in his mental script. Not the first thing he planned on saying to him, anyway. Emile smiled despite Remy’s stuttering and returned the compliment, and after a deep breath, Remy finally got his order and left, not staying after and hanging out with his friends like he had first planned. But he now had a coffee and a lot to think about before coming in the next day. Maybe he would see him again. If he did, he could have a second chance to make an impression and possibly befriend the new worker, maybe even more if it really went well. The caffeine in his drink was starting to calm him down. Tomorrow he would try again.

_ _ _ _ _

Emile dressed masculine the next day, wearing a soft brown sweater matched with a pink tie hidden underneath his apron. Remy took his place at his normal table, sliding his headphones back into his bag without losing any of the confidence he gained on the walk down. On a weekend, the shop was a bit more crowded, and Emile wasn’t the only one working with the register and making the drinks. Still, he would put effort into talking to him again. He knew the other workers well, so maybe he could get one of them to set them up together? They’ve only talked once, and that one time was him trying to compliment his outfit and order a coffee. Trying to, anyway. Finally he stepped into the line with Emile on the other side.

The first part was routine. The line died down, and Remy ordered his normal drink and gave him a good tip after paying. He slid out of the way for the next customer to walk up as Emile started working on his drink while he waited at the counter preparing his words.

“Coffee for Remy-“

“Emile, I’m really sorry about yesterday.” Picani stopped, turning back to Remy behind the counter. “I believe I didn’t make the good first impression I wanted to yesterday. I guess I’m kind of a regular here and most of the workers know me well. You seem really cool, I thought I would get to know you as well.” Remy was smiling, leaning against the counter next to his drink and talking to Emile with genuine confidence, unscripted. Emile saw his small smile, the faint outline of his eyes behind sunglasses, and almost fell in love at second sight.

“Can you meet me here at 10:30?” Remy’s smile was brighter with his success, as he pushed himself off the counter and went to grab his drink. Emile gestured over to the table with Remy’s bag. “That table there. Coffee on me.”

“You don’t have to pay-”

“It’s fine. Trust me.” Remy turned and grabbed his backpack from the table and made his way out in the smoothest way he thought possible and trying to hide his smile until he made it out of the building.

_ _ _ _ _

On Remy’s claimed table there was two of his favorite drinks, and Emile’s backpack on the seat to officially claim the spot as he worked. His shift ended at 10:30, now less than 10 minutes away. He had everything prepared. Two of Remy’s drinks ready on his table, and Picani’s own freshly made hot chocolate hidden behind one of the machines for later. All of this, if he decided to show up at least. Remy was the one to ask him in the first place, technically, but he never technically agreed when Emile asked him out today? Was this even considered a date? He had no idea if Remy was even straight, but he definitely didn’t look like it. He’s never seen a straight man confidently wear a short skirt in public before. He remembers the pride pins in Remy’s bag. Yeah, definitely not straight. He might have a chance.

Remy had changed his outfit since that morning. He dressed feminine again, wearing his black heeled shoes and eye liner behind his sunglasses. With his leather jacket he wore a red flannel tied around his waist, something that looked feminine and felt like a skirt and matched the fall mood, even if he was unsure it matched the jacket. It just felt right.

When he walked in Picani was finishing the last of his work, and turned to his table to wait for him to finish. All the drinks were ready. Two of the same drinks he ordered each time, and in the other seat Picani’s bag, littered with the same Disney pins he had in his apron. Picani had noticed him walk in, but pretended not to as he was working. It took less than a minute for him to come over with his own drink and sit across from him.

“Are these both mine?”

“Yeah. I don’t usually drink coffee and I knew you wouldn’t be against having two.”

“Oh yeah? Then what do you have?”

“Hot chocolate.” Remy smiled at the innocence. Not that drinking hot chocolate really made him innocent but he was lucky not to be addicted like he was. Picani waited a second before speaking again. “...Is this a date?” Remy perked up. “It- It doesn’t have to be if you’re uncomfortable with it. I don’t think you really like me like that and you just want to be friends-”

“No. I do. I thought it would be the other way around.”

“So… you do? I guess this is a date then.”

“I guess it is.”

Taglist: @winterrs-child @remusthedukeofdeodorant @thecatchat @stop-it-anxiety @znikitrash @awkwardandanxiousfander @nowletmeseeyourkezzhands @prox-xima @hela-daughter-of-loki @arcticfrostdoesthings @yalltookmyurlideas @id-rather-go-live-in-a-trash-can @soupgromlin

#megan's writing #remile #fem!remy #emile #ts sleep

32 notes · View notes

ultravioletsoul · 4 years ago

Note

sorry for this ask but i wanted to tell you that i'm really enjoying your makarov fic and how he seems like this character you can empathize with despite how awful he is. here's me hoping you can update soon but i'll be happy whenever you can do it :) reading your other posts i was wondering about the reader's abduction and how did he react to the news. having that bastard come to my rescue is really appealing to me so i just had to ask. hope you're doing okay and take care.

Aaah, sorry for the late reply! A lot has been going on in my life atm and most of it not very pretty but hey, thanks for your ask 💗💗💗 I hope I can go back to that fic soon orz.

I know Vladimir is a terrible man and his actions can't be justified but I wanted to do a different take on him. Rather than portraying him as a s.o.b. right off the bat, maybe make it something gradual :'v I don't think he was a goody two shoes but I don't want him to be a cartoonish villain either. So in a way I want to make it clear that he's not a good man because he doesn't act like one, and does very questionable things, but I want to show that he may have some moments in which some shred of humanity surfaces and he's not just a monster.

Beware that the rest of this post contains mature themes and deals with the topic of forced pr0st1tuti0n. You're all warned.

Anyways, in response to your ask, concerning Rea-tan's abduction... I haven't really decided on the details yet, but she was supposed to be abducted in order to be sold into a pr0st1tuti0n ring. According to the information Shepherd has gathered on Vladimir's past, it's known that the latter was involved in several instances of human trafficking (possibly before and after joining the Ultranationalists, I don't think it was ever specified). Mostly women from the poorest parts of Eastern Europe were targeted and convinced with lies of well paid jobs to leave their country and travel abroad. It's said that Vladimir worked on the logistics behind it, transporting these people. I think it's unlikely he looked for and targeted these individuals in a vulnerable economic situation himself. That sounds like the kind of thing others would do. At least in my fic, he only dealt with the transportation.

And I say this as someone who lives near the border. I've heard stories of women transported under fake IDs (illegal immigrants of poor background, brought with promises of well paid jobs as well, but we know these are all lies). There was even a scandal in my town because the (former) mayor and other authorities were involved in these illegal activities and used their position of power to run those operations. Heck I even know the story of someone who used to work for a bus company and how they brought in people who wanted to cross the border, making them pose as tourists to the immigration department. There was a logistic behind it too, and a lot of money involved.

All in all, Vladimir would have a cynical view about it. He's not necessarily proud of the crap he does but neither does it keep him awake at night. It is what it is. He'd think that if those people were stupid enough to believe in those lies, that's their problem.

And though it isn't the case of Rea-tan (it was actually the fault of someone else) maybe it's the first time he actually worries because he knows damn well what happens to those girls. He knows that she's going to end up in the lap of an old depraved man, drugged and forced to do all kinds of nasty things. She's going to be beaten, raped, filmed, and if she's lucky maybe she'll die soon and not suffer anymore.

He's not unaware of the obscene fate that awaits these blissfully ignorant girls, but it wasn't his problem at the time. However, Rea-tan is the granddaughter of his boss's friend and her grandma begged him, crying non-stop, to bring her home. It's his freaking problem now because he made a promise to them and he can't fail. If he shows Zakhaev he's incapable of handling something like this and disappoints him, then he's going to lose a chance to prove himself (keep in mind that I'm talking late 90s and Vladimir had recently gained Zakhaev's favor). Still, deep down he actually likes Rea-tan and doesn't want her to be hurt or traumatized by the aberrant perversions of others. He wants to bring her home to her family and then he'll ask Yuri to help him tie up loose ends.

Rea-tan didn't fall for those scams, even though on a few occasions she told her family her classmates talked about these 'modeling' agencies that were recruiting young girls outside her school. Her grandparents dismissed it as something stupid and that she shouldn't pay any attention to it, that it was all a scam though they wouldn't tell her exactly why— maybe to spare her from some nasty details. Vladimir, however, was more crude and told her the truth. That it was all a lie to ensnare young clueless girls and then take them away to sell them into sexual slavery. She was shocked and disgusted, but nonetheless thankful that he was sincere with her.

But yeah, I would say that Vladimir is an unlikely hero :v

Thanks and you too take care! ;u;

#vladimir makarov #call of duty #modern warfare #call of duty modern warfare #cod mw #fic ref: a mans weakness

12 notes · View notes

animentality · 5 years ago

Note

Wait. So you’re saying it’s ok for the world to kill the innocent population of an island they kept imprisoned for years out of fear and ignorance? Eren is wrong and the world is wrong. There’s no winner. If Eren does but the world gets away with what they did to the people on that island and what they want to do it’s still a shit ending. Isayama wanted everyone to die at the end. I hope he has the balls to keep that. That whole universe has no room for forgiveness. They’re all trash.

It's a trash story because he wrote himself into a corner by establishing that the only "solution" is killing everyone.

Like you literally just confirmed it yourself!

The story is trash because either way, Isayama wrote himself into a corner, damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Genocide is ok because eldia deserves to survive vs genocide is ok because the whole world doesn't deserve to survive!

My god. I can't believe you just said that, you just utterly proved my point! The man's a lunatic.

That's the very stupid reality about the series.

Edgy gray morality has always existed in snk but at least before the basement reveal it had themes about survival in the face of extinction from an external source.

At least it had themes about people being driven to the brink by struggling to survive.

Making it about human violence against humans shifted the genre and shifted the mood in total.

It said look, it's one race against the entire world!

It said look a Nation thats hated by every nation can defend itself by any means necessary.

It said this special race has magical powers and it's oppressed for them. It has real life parallels that are uneasy, gross in a lot of respects just because of its implications, and it's narratively aiming for a no win scenario that teaches nothing except that ultra violence is in always an option.

You can fucking argue that what's happening in snk right now is realistic or that it displays the all too real human tendency towards violence and oppression to solve its problems.

But in my opinion, if I wanted to see that, id just look at the news. I'd look at a news report on China and its concentration camps, or America's.

I don't need some Edgy Dark Fiction to tell me humans suck.

On a less deep level, snks story is flawed in many other ways. It suffers from stupid and zigzagged pacing, asspulls, too many flashbacks during critical narrative climaxes, benching important characters on and off just because Isayama doesn't know what to do with them, PATHS, certain characters being passed The Idiot Ball when the plot demands it.

But I think the fundamental flaw of the series is that like Naruto and Bleach and Tokyo Ghoul, it lost the substance that made it so interesting to begin with.

It lost the spark that ignited the fandom fire to begin with.

If you had started snk with the Marley arc, with overly convoluted political and military drama, no one would've picked this manga up.

There's a reason people became so obsessed with season one of the snk anime. Because it was a strange but interesting concept of people flying around with grapplehooks and steam power.

It was interesting watching humans fight enormous monsters and try to survive the day.

It was cool to see so many nuanced and unique anime characters who felt like real people.

Now everyone is just...an asshole.

An almost cartoonish genocidal asshole.

The "good" characters are overshadowed by a lame plot that forces them to act powerlessly or not at all.

Eren Jaeger is utterly intolerable right now and only edgy 4chan keyboard warriors like him now and that's just because they're a bunch of pseudo fascist shut ins who think a race war is coming and believe in white genocide.

Armin Arlert is a pathetic weirdo who's obsessed with an unconscious girl because I suspect Isayama is also a creep.

Mikasa still suffers from obsessed with Eren syndrome and has been since day one. Her modus operandi is to be Eren's happy ending, and all you have to do is go into the Mikasa tag to see evidence of that.

Connie, Jean, Hanji, and Levi are the idiots who just sat around taking orders and passing important exposition whenever the plot demanded it.

Connie and Jean weren't even relevant until this last chapter where they finally did something other than express dismay that their buddy Eren was being an asshole.

Gabi, falco, Porco, Pieck, and Reiner are all just There. They move around because Isayama decides they should get the spotlight for the month, and it's usually to hammer in the usual tired message that "there's two sides to every story!!!"

Even though he already did that with bertholdt and Reiner and Annie already. And we got it back in 2013.

Snks entire plot has just become so convoluted and full of magic bloodlines this and magic bloodlines that.

It feels like...oh God it feels like Naruto.

And for my next trick, the Pull-A-Titan-Out-of-Your-Ass No Jutsu!

But anyway back to my original point.

Do you not see how writing yourself into the position where you have to tsk tsk tsk at the human race and say well genocide is justifiable sometimes is bad??

Like.

As a writer myself, I just cannot fathom how other writers, or even just readers, don't see that?

You decide the direction of the story you're writing, you plan it ahead in advance.

People argue that snk has always been about genocide, that titans are "a race," and Eren has been about killing them all from the start, but people never remember that Eren was growing away from that angry 15 year old kid.

He was growing compassion and learned that the world was more complicated than that...until he decided wait no I'm genocidal actually.

Isayama could've taken it the other way.

But he made the choice to present Eren as ax crazy again, but this time turned up to the extreme.

I am so vastly disappointed and almost hurt by how hard this series dropped, no, hurled the ball.

I spent so many years defending snk from the outside world that now being made to look like a fascist fool by a Japanese imperialist feels like it's almost deserved.

14 notes · View notes

xtruss · 3 years ago

Text

The Middle of the Road to Hell

"But the Facilitator of this Evil is Not So Much the Perpetrators at the Top, Nor the Hypnotised 30%. Rather, It is the 50-60% in the Middle."

— Rob Slane | Friday December 31, 2021 | Source: TheBlogMire

We are accustomed to thinking of great evil as instantly recognisable. From Nuremberg rallies to the squalor of the Gulag, great evil is something obvious and unmissable. Or so we think. Unfortunately, we have developed such a cartoonish idea of what evil, villains, and devils look like, that as a people we are entirely unprepared for the entrance of evil dressed in a very different cloak. As C.S. Lewis warned us decades ago in his Preface to the Screwtape Letters:

“The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.”

Yet it is not only that great evil itself can be seemingly mundane, but it is often facilitated and allowed to grow by the ordinary, the middle-of-the-road. This has been the case in many totalitarian states, where the inaction and unwillingness of millions to confront the evil taking root and growing before their eyes has allowed it to thrive and take over their society like bindweed, and this is what is happening in our society right now.

The Belgian psychologist, Matthias Desmet, has done a number of interviews discussing the phenomena of Mass Formation (or Mass Psychosis) over the last two years. Amongst his many insights is the idea that totalitarian systems tend to see populations split into three broad groups. Firstly, there are those who are utterly hypnotised by the propaganda. Secondly, those who are not necessarily in thrall to the propaganda, but who nevertheless tend to go along with the demands it exacts on them. And thirdly, those who seem to be not only immune to the propaganda, but who oppose it as they are able.

Although Desmet puts this split at approximately 30%, 40%, and 30% respectively, I would put our current drift into totalitarianism at around 30%, 50-60%, and 10-20%. The numbers in the latter group, whilst low, have certainly increased this year, as many more have come to understand that the alleged response to a virus was actually nothing to do with public health, but rather about a manufactured public health crisis being used as cover for the reordering of society into a totalitarian hellhole, replete with Digital ID, Social Credit, decimation of SMEs, and the transhumanist dream of a fusion of our physical, biological, and digital identities — as Herr Schwab puts it.

But the facilitator of this evil is not so much the perpetrators at the top, nor the hypnotised 30%. Rather, it is the 50-60% in the middle. By and large, this group tend to go along with every absurd regulation and restriction, not because they really believe it to be necessary to “fight a virus”, but rather because they believe it to be their best hope of getting back to normal life, and they are worried about standing out from the crowd. And so they cross their fingers, “do the right thing”, and hope it will all go away. What they don’t seem to understand, however, is that you don’t defeat evil by appeasing it. You defeat it by opposing it. When bandits come along to pillage your peaceful and quiet village, you don’t get rid of the problem by agreeing to their every whim, closing your eyes and hoping it will go away. You get rid of it by standing your ground, even if it costs you dearly.

But what if the 50-60% don’t realise they are being pillaged by bandits? What if they think the bandits are not really bandits, but are trying to do them good? Well, after two years of being pillaged, it can surely be only the most unthinking who fail to see that something is up, something is amiss, something stinks. Most must have at least a gut feeling that their lives are being upended for reasons which are vastly different that the ones they are told. Yet they choose not to listen to that disquieting voice, because to do so would mean having to awaken from inertia and taking a stand.

Why people behave in this way is something that the Czech dissident and later President, Vaclav Havel, pondered in a letter to Gustav Husák, leader of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1975:

“Why are people in fact behaving in the way they do? Why do they do all do these things that, taken together, form the impressive image of a totally united society giving total support to its government? For any unprejudiced observer, the answer is, self-evident: they are driven to it by fear.”

This fear is of course understandable. One has to work, eat, live. But as Havel explains in his essay, The Power of the Powerless, what drives the acceptance of lies, rather than speaking out against them, is a propensity to put a higher value on materialistic considerations than on a desire for truth and integrity:

“Is it not true that the far-reaching adaptability to living a lie and the effortless spread of social auto-totality have some connection with the general unwillingness of consumption-oriented people to sacrifice some material certainties for the sake of their own spiritual and moral integrity?”

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, who also lived under a totalitarian regime built on lies, writes in the same vein:

“Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world. In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future.”

Both Havel and Solzhenitsyn saw the issue very clearly. It is this: we can either stand for truth, or we will get falsehood; we can either retain our integrity, or we will invite deceit.

Jesus taught his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world — the implication being that salt is needed to stop the putrefying effects of sin, and light is needed to scatter the darkness. Without this salt and this light, corruption and darkness will surely prevail. There is therefore no neutral ground in the fight against evil. The Middle-of-the-Road is not some neutral place where we can await a return to normality. Every time you willingly agree to go along with these restrictions and regulations that are poisoning and destroying our society, you are doing your bit to fertilise the ground upon which this totalitarian bindweed seeks to grow and to take over our lives completely. The Middle-of-the-Road is a road to a Totalitarian Hellhole. My hope is that those currently in that middle group will urgently see the need to get off it now, and start opposing the insidious but unmistakable creep of totalitarianism and great evil in our day.

0 notes

lost-highwayy · 3 years ago

Note

first off, completely agree!! aw thank you🥰, an no prob! im always trying to get more people into that series lol

thank you!! hoping it'll be a good one. getting a covid booster so im hoping i won't have a bad reaction. i love playing jeremy, cherry pie, hell is for children, and interstate love song the most, and i need to fix up gypsy road(some of the tab was wrong, and i keep forgetting to releaen it), but im learning hallowed be thy name and damn that one's hard! like, im fine with the speed, but the rest is like 'ok gonna try this and then spend x amount of time trying to get it right' yknow?

my mom and i have our nutcracker tradition, and we dress all fancy for that, but my favorite is to drive around on christmas eve and look at the lights!! we have a couple houses that are completely COVERED, and some even sync up with the radio (it's crazy how much time people put into that, but it pays off)! haha yeah, definitely hoping! it was close to 70 today so maybe the rest of the month will be better.

i love to draw wolves(and other animals ig), and rockstars, but like. i struggle with realism, so it's all cartoonish. id love to draw you something when you're able to know who i am!

i hope you and your family are able to celebrate together this year!!

ooh that's cool! had no clue rob halford had a christmas album, i should check that out! aw dude that podcast sounds fun!! that's awesome you got to do it for your university!

do i have any dreams about my profession(im guessing that's what you meant?) sometimes, yeah. i can see myself having fun with a band, or making it in the art world. id love to make those a reality, but ive gotta have more confidence in my own playing, and work on my portfolio as well.

what's your favorite way to spend a snow day? or a rainy day?

- 🎁

Oh, I hope your covid booster goes well and there won't be a bad reaction!

Oh you love to play such cool songs! I'm sure that sounds amazing. and I understand that it can be difficult to learn something and you have to spend a lot of time, but when you succeed, you will feel the joy of what you were able to overcome and you managed to play it!

wow! these are very interesting traditions! it seems to me that this is very cool and there is a sense of celebration.

I'm sure your drawings are incredible! and thank you! I hope that this year everything will work out and our family will have a real Christmas :)

Yeah, I didn't know Rob Halford had a Christmas album either haha. he recorded it with his family, so it feels like a special atmosphere. btw, what are your favorite Christmas songs? and thank you! On Friday I will have the main lesson at the end of the semester and I will find out if my teacher appreciated such a podcast. I hope so, because he has a great taste in music.

wow! these are such wonderful dreams! I believe that you will definitely succeed because it seems to me that you are very talented. Maybe it will cheer you up, one of my favorite artists - Chris Rea learned to play guitar only at the age of 23 and achieved popularity! therefore, I believe that everyone can definitely fulfill their dream.

On a snowy day, I like to walk down the street a lot and take photos and then come home and cook hot chocolate :) On a rainy day, I dream that the rain will end as soon as possible and watch movies. what about you? btw, do you have pets? and if you don't mind I have a few questions about music (actually I have too many of them haha I'm interested in analyzing people's interests) do you have a top 5 favorite albums? if you could talk to any musician, who would it be?

#srs21 #🎁

0 notes

onestowatch · 4 years ago

Text

McCall Talks New EP, Fake IDs and Self-Imposed Isolation [Q+A]

Atlanta-born artist McCall released her latest EP On Self Loathing on Friday, September 18. With lyrics as straightforward and cutting as its title, the candid 5-track project shows McCall at one of the lowest points in her life and understandably so - as she admits, it’s been a volatile last few years. Speaking to her now, however, it seems like she is in a much better place than On Self Loathing suggests. Coolly, she tells me about her plans to move to Minneapolis for the year to make her next project with producer Bobby Rethwish. “I feel extremely free right now,” she notes. “I think it’s a little ridiculous that as an artist you’re expected to live in LA. I’ve been inspired by artists like Bon Iver and Imogen Heap who don’t live in a music capital. I’m pretty grateful quarantine has allowed me to see beyond the big city.”

According to McCall, making this record was “like therapy,” a way to identify and unravel the deep insecurities that have been holding her back. Overall, the most remarkable attribute of McCall’s On Self Loathing is its ability to discuss mental health while avoiding cliche, preachiness or melodrama. It is obvious that her pain is heartfelt and legitimate, as McCall believes that she has let everyone in her life down, including herself. At times, it even feels as though the record is a form of penance as she fixates on the same issues over and over but that is what gives On Self Loathing its sincerity - it sounds just like anxiety and self-hatred feels.

Its production underscores this feeling with precision. In the project’s midway point “Without Even Trying,” McCall sings, “I’m sorry I can’t come out / I really hate myself right now.” Punctuated by frenetic drums and assorted synth noises, played staccato, the track’s production draws unexpected inspiration from hyper-pop. But although much of hyper-pop feels cartoonish and ironic, McCall’s On Self Loathing is grounded, using the eccentricities of the sub-genre without any trace of its ridiculousness.

Carefully assembled, the record was written in a self-imposed exile from October 2019 to January 2020, and the artist’s attention to detail is transparent across On Self Loathing. Ones to Watch had the opportunity to talk with McCall about her latest project, fake IDs, and becoming nomadic. Read the transcription below.

Ones to Watch: You got your start using fake IDs to play in bars when you were a teenager. How did these early moments shape your identity as an artist and person?

McCall: Growing up I didn’t ever really want to go out to bars and drink or anything like that, but I got a fake ID for the purpose of playing shows. It didn’t feel risky or sneaky to me. I thought “I don’t want to give up these opportunities to play shows just because of my age.” It was a very natural, easy choice for me. I’m very lucky, though, to have had a lot of older people in the scene that looked out for me... I guess it taught me that rules are extremely arbitrary, and if I want to do something, I can find a way to do it. The pursuit of music is very holy to me, and I’m not going to give up.

Because music is so important to you, I imagine you had to overcome a lot of obstacles, beyond just a fake ID, to make it work. Has quarantine presented any major issues for you as an artist?

I started making this project in October 2019, and I kind of put myself in a self-imposed quarantine to focus on it from November to January. I told my friends “if you want to see me, you’ll need to show up at my doorstep! I’m not going out.” Bobby [Rethwish] and I have always worked remotely, so we worked on this alone from our bedrooms. I had no idea, but the writing of On Self Loathing did condition me to handle COVID, I guess [laughs].

youtube

Have there been any benefits to getting locked down right after your self-imposed isolation?

Yeah, honestly, it gave me the freedom to move back home to Atlanta for a bit. I’ve been in LA for the last few years. I think it’s a little ridiculous that as an artist you’re expected to live in LA. I’ve been inspired by artists like Bon Iver and Imogen Heap who don’t live in a music capital. I’m pretty grateful quarantine has allowed me to see beyond the big city, and now, I plan to live in Minneapolis for a while to make another record with Bobby. You can make music in so many other places besides LA. I’m excited about moving away.

I feel it’s outlandish to expect all musicians, many of which aren’t making solid returns on their work yet, to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. There’s also definitely something to be said about fostering a local music scene.

Yes, exactly. In the not-so-distant past, before recorded music, musicians were minstrels, traveling around the country. They were not glamorized. I think there’s something religious to me about being a nomadic artist.

Is there anything in particular about On Self Loathing that you are especially excited to share?

I’m obviously so excited for people to hear the music itself, but I wrote a book of essays to go along with it that explain where I was mentally when i wrote the songs and what I did to not feel that way anymore. This record was like therapy to me, but I also took a lot of time afterwards to work through these things. I want to stress that. I didn’t write this dark project and then go on my merry way. I wrote it, worked through my issues, and now, I’m ready to release it. I’m excited for everyone to hear it.

Now that you’ve left this period of your life which produced On Self Loathing, does it feel at all like a time capsule of where you once were?

For sure, honestly it feels like a turning point. The process of writing this EP was like a before and after. I’m a completely different person. It truly helped so much to write this and I feel so much lighter now.

For someone approaching this record for the first time, what would you say its overarching theme is?

I didn’t like myself very much. The EP captures different aspects of my personality that I didn’t really like. In the essays, I phrased it as having a lot of little demons in my head, and they wouldn’t stop making me feel bad. The only way I could get rid of them was to give them space to say everything they wanted to say. Once it was done, I looked at everything and was able to see that I was no worse or better than anyone else.

#McCall #On Self Loathing #Q&A

0 notes