#it has good shapes and i want to portray this in my art one day

[laithraihan]

Hi, I love your art sm. Just wondering, are you at all interested in drawing nsfw stuff? Totally understand if you aren't tho!

Hi thank you very much 🫶💜 I tried drawing NSFW before but realized it's not really my thing, sorry about that

[barbielore]

As part of the more diverse Fashionistas range, Mattel released their first Barbie portrayed as having vitiligo in 2020.

This was followed by another Barbie and a Ken in subsequent releases. As June 25th is World Vitiligo Day, I thought I would take the opportunity to spotlight these dolls.

For anyone who is unaware, according to the Mayo Clinic, vitiligo is a skin condition often caused by an immune system reaction that "occurs when cells that produce melanin die or stop functioning" and results in pale or white patches of skin. This can occur in anyone, but may be more noticeable in people who have naturally darker skin.

I personally do not know all that much about vitiligo, or the patterns with which vitiligo tends to present, so I asked a friend of mine who has vitiligo for their opinions on the dolls.

Overall their review was that these are "all really great" which was good to hear: I'm glad Mattel are putting in the effort with the representation. Specifically regarding the Ken and the original Barbie fashionista, they said that the shapes around the eyes didn't look quite right. Specifically the Ken looked "a little fantasy" and the Barbie looked "a little weird in 3D", though the box art looked right.

One of the things they specifically noted was that having big splashes like that but having the rest of the skin be quite even was "a little unusual" - though did want me to make sure I noted that segmented vitiligo is a real thing and does present differently in different people. They did note that it was most common to appear on the face, followed by hands and feet, followed by other body parts, so having it appear on the neck but not the rest of the body certainly isn't impossible but would be a more unusual presentation.

Regarding the second Barbie fashionista, they were more positive, and noted this doll more closely resembles how they look. (However it is important to note that they also said that they wished she was wearing "cuter clothes". Do you hear that Mattel?)

When researching for other opinions on the vitiligo dolls, I noticed several people also mention that it is common for patterns to be symmetrical - but then also other people commenting that their own vitiligo presentation is non-symmetrical, so this did not strike them as notable. In my opinion, this would be all the more reason to showcase multiple dolls with the condition - so that different kinds of presentation can all be represented.

[lixiesfreckless]

p1harmony and their kinky-haired girlfriends

a bit niche, but the reader(y/n) is typically portrayed with eurocentric hair(which isn't bad!), so when this idea popped into my head yesterday I just HAD to indulge it as a kinky haired girl myself <3

Keeho

metaphorically falls to his knees whenever you come home from the salon

"oooooh girlllllll-" [immediately starts screaming with you]

will take a million photos of you because he's lowkey obsessed with everything that you do with your hair

don't know what style to do next? don't worry, he has a photo album in his phone that's kept track of every hairdo you've ever had, in case you want to try something new or return to a previous look

he WILL lay your edges better than you. and he absolutely slays the swirls that he likes to put in them

matching silk bonnets!!!

if you own any wigs, HIDE THEM if you're watching reality tv. Keeho will otherwise run to grab one while you watch the kardashians just to up the sass level

in all seriousness you guys love acting a fool in your wigs. bob-offs are a monthy endeavor

Theo

wash day connoisseur

he's taking off work. he doesn't care

knows it's a whole process and wants to help in any way he can because he's not very good at braiding or styling kinky hair

makes it into a spa day so you don't stress

has the leave in conditioner-water-gel combo DOWN and takes his time sectioning your hair so the curls define just right

loves talking to you like you're in a salon and he's just the hairdresser trying to get to know you(it's his sneaky way of checking in on you)

will complain/be sad when you say you're getting a new style in because he gets so attached to the current one but he immediately forgets the old one the minute you come home with something new

Jiung

LOVES braiding your hair. you'll actually quit going to braiders yourself in favor of staying home and binging your favorite show while jiung finishes your ends for you

in fact, if you teach him to cornrow, he will be OBSESSED with braiding cool shapes on your head in case you ever want a badass protective style

he finds it very therapeutic and loves being close to you for prolonged periods of time, bonus points if you fall asleep. he will simply die if you do that

has a playlist just for times like these </333

late night trips to the beauty supply store! because he didn't get enough rubber bands and wants to finish your hair TODAY

Intak

LITERALLY falls to his knees whenever you come home from the salon

"okay okay, this is my favorite look on you" he has said this every time

enamored and cannot stop staring at you

pictures of you allllll over his social media, he's basically a fanpage

wants you to braid his hair so bad, and when you do you both know he looks so goofy but it's adorable

"do you need anything from the beauty supply store? I'm on my way home from work right now"

oiling your scalp is his job(he won't let you do it because he knows how relaxing it is when you don't do it yourself)

he is so focused. and it is SO cute.

Soul

matching hair!!!

no I'm so serious he keeps his hair longish so you guys can always match. he will dye it, he'll let you braid it, put cute rings and charms in it etc. you guys will show up to EVERY event matching if he can help it

speaking of charms and rings, he will buy the coolest ones he can find just for you to try because he thinks you look ethereal with them and can't get enough of it

begs you to let him accessorize your hair(like you're an art piece! because you are, to him at least)

crazy head massages whenever you don't have your hair done

will always say that he doesn't have a favorite style, but whenever you get braids with beads at the end he acts a little stupid

Jongseob

this boy LOVES a good fro

doesn't matter if it's big or small he just can't wrap his head around the fact that your hair literally DEFIES GRAVITY

thinks your hair is the coolest thing in the world(he's jealous)

wants you to explain to him in detail anything that he doesn't understand. he hates having a language barrier whenever you two talk about hair and he wants it GONE

so when you notice him using lingo that you taught him, you get all flustered and he thinks it's SO cute

whenever you need to take down a protective style, he is THERE and ready to set a new record

he's literally a speedrunner and thinks it's a fun little game because it is. there's a folder in your notes app with his best times

[gemsofgreece]

Hello! Firstly, I wanted to thank you for the work you do on this blog. My mother's side is Greek and came to the US around WW2, and as I've gotten older and tried to learn about Greek culture, I've found that it's hard to find sources that aren't inundated with American pop-history. It's been really lovely being able to learn more from your blog for the past couple weeks.

Second is my question -- re: the pop history issue, I've noticed that people in the American queer community have a knack for "reclaiming" figures in history and mythology without always having an abundance of evidence for their claims. And like, I'm trans. Obviously the idea of some of things being true is cool, but it also feels disingenuous sometimes. Do you know of any good resources or books written by actual queer Greeks about either their contemporary experiences, or the history of queer people in Greece that isn't just conjecture?

Thank you again! Have a great day :)

Hello! It makes me so happy that you found my blog suitable to inform yourself on this part of your ethnic / cultural background. I hope the blog will keep being a useful source of information.

Because I am not going to lie, the way Greek history and culture, more like a snippet of it, has been almost forced into American pop culture is indeed through a disingenuous conjecture. Honestly, it's not so much a matter of accuracy per se. It's more that a niche piece of the culture has been taken and presented as almost the entirety of this culture, which eventually leads to tremendously false impressions, no matter how earnestly this niche part is explored. There is also the tendency to shape ambiguous evidence into unquestionable conviction.

I will attempt to explain why this can be a problem. Let's take the axiom - because it has reached the lengths of being treated as an axiom - "Ancient Greece was gay or Greece is gay or Greek culture was gay culture or Greece is / was a gay haven". If we really study Greek history and culture in its entirety, in a span of 3,500 years or more if we also take into acount the pre-Greek civilizations which eventually helped produce the Greek, while the existence of gay people (i.e Sappho), non-straight sexual practices (i.e erotic amphoras), ambiguous literary relationships (i.e Achilles & Patroclus?) and varied expressions of sexual desire observed especially in male deities are 100% well attested and recorded, they still comprise overall a very tiny part of the Greek civilization. Whereas it is often portrayed in western pop culture as the very essence of Greek civilization, exploration and studies of sexuality and gender identity throughout its history could amount to maybe a 1-5% of all documented knowledge associated to the Greek ethnos, its history and its legacy. Think of it this way; Greece happened to be in the epicenter of many formative achievements of humanity; spreading, contributing or improving on science, arts, extant religions and linguistics. It has been an area extremely ravaged by war because it has a very strategic position on the map. It has been in the core of three of the world's largest empires and it has been positively or negatively influential to all three (and the generator of one of them). There are so many things, struggles and achievements, to study and explore and draw from as part of your identity, that a constant foreign obsession and trivilization and sensualization of the sexual practices of people long gone eventually will start sounding disingenuous or lacking or even demeaning. Just like every individual aspires to be acknowledged and respected for more than just their sexual or gender identity (i.e skills, feelings, talents, achievements, personality), it is the exact same with culture and heritage. People want their culture to be appreciated in its entirety and not for a super niche area that is also exaggerated, if not exploited to serve foreign agendas, trends and marketing (because let's be real, not all have noble representation motives).

Okay, now I have to ask: do you know Greek? Because I can recommend you some sources, however Americans do not translate Greek works unless they are from 750 BC :)

Here's a quick heads-up:

The Greek society is a pseudopuritan society - one where people act like puritans when it comes to judging others but not at all when it comes to themselves. The gay male community has by far the biggest visibility nowadays. Lesbians come second. Other sexual orientations follow i.e bi, poly, pan. Gender (trans, non-binary, fluid etc) identities have less visibility. Asexuals also have near non-existent visibility. Most non-het non-cis people face problems in their families rather than in their studies or in urban environments. Non-cis people, especially AMAB people, might also face hardship in the workplace (like not getting easily hired).

Because the society is pseudopuritan, it tolerated and embraced and worshipped several LGBT people, except if they attempted to communicate their experience. Great composers and authors were openly gay and Greeks knew it and loved them, because they didn't explicitly involve their sexual identity in their work or because they didn't expose the pathogenies of the Greek society. If they had done that, the reception could have been different. Because of all these reasons, most of my sources will be from the perspective of gay cis men (the most visible LGBT+ community) and it will be mostly the great work and legacy they left behind, rather than their explicit documentation of the experience of living as LGBT+ in Greece.

LGBT poets and authors:

Constantine Cavafy (1863 - 1933), one of our best poets. This can be useful to you because his works are actually translated in English.

Napoleon Lapathiotis (1888 - 1944), openly gay in such times, he wrote a lot of erotic poetry.

Augoustos Korto (1979 - ), a married gay man, successful writer and activist, he has written extensively on the topics of death, depression, motherhood and love, often drawing from personal experience.

Kostas Tachtsis (1927 - 1988), poet, distinguished author and activist for gay rights during the Colonel dictatorship in the '70s. He suffered in his life and in his death as well. His murder has not been solved yet. He has written an autobiography and numerous novels with autobiographical elements. He was gay, either cross-dressing cis or maybe trans or non-cis (we don't know that back in time how exactly he identified) and had also been a sex worker for some time.

Napoleon Lapathiotis

Music:

Music won't give you direct information however it could be a way to bond with people you could connect with over similar experience.

Manos Hadjidakis (1925 - 1994), one of our two greatest composers and a rare genius, was openly yet "discreetly" gay, not out of shame but because privacy on all aspects of the human experience was absolutely essential and sacred to him. He was also an Oscar winner, although he would hate me for saying this (he threw his Oscar in the trashcan). Besides listening to his music, I would recommend watching interviews or listening to excerpts from his radio shows, because of the ease with which he could challenge anyone's intellectual capacity.

Sotiria Bellou (1921 - 1997), a lesbian or perhaps bisexual woman, she is worshipped for her unique voice, which became the ultimate symbol of the heavy-duty (underground at the time + now part of UNESCO's cultural heritage) rembetiko music genre.

TV Shows with representation:

Maestro in Blue on Netflix, a big part of the story is the romance of a gay couple suffering in oppressive families in the province

Milky Way, one of the main characters is pansexual and non-binary, and the actor is gay IRL. There is also a brief lesbian romance or a side narrative of supressed female homo- or bi- sexuality. This show will soon get in some international platform but I don't remember which one (not netflix), so keep it in mind.

Milky Way

YouTube:

There are a lot of LGBT+ people in Greek YouTube but my faves are:

ΚΡΙΜΑ by ZoePreTV: Zoe is a lesbian or bi herself (not sure but I know she's openly in a relationship with a woman) and she makes lengthy very informative quality podcasts with celebrities or everyday people, often belonging to marginalized groups, and they talk about their experiences. If you can understand Greek, this might be the best source for what you ask. I watched a fantastic episode with a trans woman and sex worker talking about her life. It is one of the greatest podcast episodes I have ever watched, hands down.

Eponimos. Zoe's best friend, who is an openly gay man, although he approaches matters of sexuality very delicately as he values his privacy a lot. He doesn't talk often about such matters (recently he did) but his channel is awesome for his lighthearted humour and the maturity of his positions. I love watching his content.

The podcast I mentioned.

LGBT+ Magazine: ANTIVIRUS. ANTIVIRUS also has this list with recent queer literature, featuring both Greek and foreign writers. Here is the link. It's in Greek though, like everything above...

Art: Yannis Tsarouhis (1910 - 1989), one of the most influential and successful Greek artists. He painted a variety of themes, he was inspired and developed Greek folk and Byzantine art, however he was also particularly notable for his love for the masculine physique and he established the classic image of the "Greek sailor" in art, theater and cinema internationally.

A great photo of Tsarouhis in his atelier.

I wouldn't consider myself well-versed in the topic, so I invite anyone who knows sources that could also ideally be easily accessible to the Anon, to give some recs in the comments. From my side, Anon, hopefully I was of any help.

[biggestqiblifan]

What the fuck?

You can't even draw.

What on Earth are those things?? Please stop trying.

Your little dragon crossovers are so childish! You just splash some color on and call it a day. Then you COMPLAIN about how HARD it was for you.

Boo hoo.

Grow up.

Ok, first of all fuck you.

Who the hell are you to say those things to me?

Listen ANON you're a coward. You hide behind your screen and anonymity, saying whatever shit you want and not caring, while I am out here just trying my best to not crumple.

You do not know the FIRST thing about me.

But, hey, its your opinion I guess.

Secondly, at least I try.

I am not the best at art, especially digital art. I'm NEW TO IT! I have never even TOUCHED a good art app! I use PAINT! I have to try make the most of it! And for your kind, kind information, I DO put thought into my drawings.

Prepare for a detailed info dump and for having your cowardly ass handed to you.

I think about the characters I'm drawing. They're personality, life, preferences. From there I begin shape.

Lord Morgarath is a cold character. Most people associate him with like black and purple, the dark spectrum, so I worked those colours into it. But I also tried out the other end because it might make sense for him to be like that.

He didn't necessarily begin as evil.

The wings are a tawny-tanish colour speckled with black to show his corruption (they also look really cool). The horns are high and point up, to me they seem like it gives authority. His scales are intricate, portraying a life of extravagance. The spikes on his back are curved, sharp and cunning. Just like him.

(the golden helmet thingy just seemed like something dragon-him would wear)

All in all, he seems ready for battle.

Also, have you noticed the amount of detail I put in?

No-one's going to notice that ruby! I don't even know how to draw a gemstone! But I put in the effort and gave it my best shot, because I care about my work.

Now, Halt is a different story.

He may seem relaxed as shown with the eyes, they are half lidded for tiredness, and he just seems really calm, like he always does in the books. But who would have a deadly tail poised to strike if they were not alert?!

The tail has a stinger because he is deadly.

(The little pendant thingy that is holding his cape seemed like a suitable place for the Oakleaf Symbol of the Rangers)

I chose royal blue for him, because I just think in some messed-up part of my shithole of a mind that it suits him and his royal blood.

His entire body and like shape (idk, think of the head) is robust, sturdy and practical. Nothing fancy. But suited to survive.

I gave him like diamond-shaped shape patterns BECAUSE REASONS! The scale designs aren't very intricate either because he is a sort of simple man.

But yeah, I can't change your opinion, so there you go. Now you know.

I put work and EFFORT into these things! And besides, in what logic do you just smash colours together and get things like this?!

So in conclusion, you failed.

No, I will not stop trying, no I don't care what you say or think you are just one person, and yes, you utterly failed to make me feel bad about myself and ruin my day.

Have the day you deserve.

[firendgold]

Pk now I want to hear tour rant about how Harrydore is bettter than Grindeldore. Bring it 🤣❤️

ohhh, this one's easy. I've been in this fandom on and off since 2006, and seen how Harry, Albus and Gellert were written pre- and post-'Dumbledore closet interview'. cracks knuckles

got to hit you with that readmore though. and it's going to be in two parts. I rambled again. ^^

🗲

//

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//

(...'rambled' is perhaps an understatement.)

🗲

grindeldore vs harrydore

grindeldore

the tl;dr of the below is the following sentences, and then I'll get into it. My philosophy on gr*ndeld*re extends to all other ships in all other fandoms, especially HP: if it's not an AU and you have to excessively mischaracterize Character A to get them to 'fit' with Character B, then it's not a good ship, canon or not. Albus Dumbledore is quite often mischaracterized in order to 'fit' or 'keep' him with Gellert Grindelwald.

here's my problems with how gr*ndeld*re is most often portrayed:

Inconsistency within canon. JKR is partly mostly to blame for this (because she has contradicted her original 2007 statement in the present day with more interviews in the 2010s and with the Fantastic Beasts movies), but the first problem is: gr*ndeld*re was originally an unrequited ship. The original statement was that Albus was dazzled by Gellert's power, his presence, their similarities, their shared ideals... but That Woman wasn't explicit on whether Gellert ever returned his feelings. But based on her quotes where she says "falling in love can blind you to an extent" and that [Dumbledore] was "terribly, terribly let down" by the result of that whirlwind relationship, I think it's safe to assume that her original idea of Gellert cared far more for seeing his grander plans realized than for the needs and feelings of his 'equal'. And yet... in fandom, they are most often portrayed instead as star-crossed lovers torn apart by 'conflicting ideals'.

The second problem is that in the avalanche of fics and art that have come from The Reveal, the original lesson (/moral...?) behind the reveal of gr*ndeld*re, and how it shaped Albus as an adult, leader, and progressive, just... got lost. Completely lost. The whole point of it was to show that even Albus (supposed 'paragon of goodness' until book 7 showed the fandom that he is a regular human being) can make 'relatable' mistakes like... you know... being friends with a fascist. Being in love with a fascist, even. Thanks to said retcon interviews and the new movies (and even before that tbh) the fandom has since: overexaggerated Albus' new clay feet to the point of bashing him, idolized Grindelwald's red flag traits and ideals to the point where he has become the new "Tom Riddle was just misunderstood!" guy, and twisted that lesson/moral/whatever to mean that actually Albus and Gellert were tragically kept away from each other by an itsy bitsy little difference of opinion. A minor little fight. Casual death of your sick sister. Haven't we all been there?

The fandom diminishing the real reasons why Albus and Gellert eventually clashed, were destined to clash, is bad enough. What's worse is the opposite end. Some Dumbledore-bashing fans go the other way and paint present-day Dumbledore with the same brush as Grindelwald, even going so far as to say he still supports The Greater Good even though his entire character is literally built on being the opposite of the pro-magic, anti-Muggle philosophy. Albus has also been painted in some fics and even meta discussions as someone who 'regrets' his past not because his sister died and his brother is estranged from him, but just because his ex-boyfriend is in prison and he maybe kind of regrets not going full fascist with him. Like... bruh. NO. There are people who ship gr*ndeld*re just because they feel like Grindelwald, the worst dark wizard in the world, the reason why Voldemort is only a minor league little lord in comparison, is an appropriate "punishment" for the character they already dislike and thus misinterpret. (Side note: I'm not sure if I'm in a worse hell watching Albus' character get whitewashed for fascism or demonized so he can be a miserable lonely gay.)

Albus diminishes himself to meet Gellert's needs. An in-universe problem this time instead of a meta/RL one: Albus and Gellert were lovers, yes, but in order to be so, Albus had to actively start neglecting his siblings (since in Aberforth's words he was 'doing all right' taking care of them before Gellert showed up) and leaning more into anti-Muggle sentiment. He put all his energy into what for most of the magical world was a wild goose chase after some fairy-tale items. (Remember, most wixen don't give a shit about the Deathly Hallows, or think they're even real.) He became the person Gellert needed/desired most. Albus became a version of himself that he despised later in his life and after his death.

Relationships often include the members changing, and it's easy for even the most devoted partners to fall out of love if they change and are now too different from one another, or one person changes and the other... doesn't. After Ariana died, Albus chose to become a different person and champion the same people he and his family once despised. He chose to stay away from Gellert, whether he called it cowardice or principles or whatever else. And his choice put him in conflict with Gellert, who at sixteen refused to change course or rethink his ideals even when his choices led to the death of a magical person (the type of person he supposedly prizes above all others). His magical boyfriend's magical sister, even. And we see no sign that Gellert changed, repented, or considered Albus until decades later, at the very end of his life—far too late.

Healthy relationships require give-and-take, sacrificing for your partner in things big and small. For high-stakes relationships like Albus and Gellert's (queer in the 1800s, sweet Merlin), that is even more true. During that steamy summer of 1899, it was Albus who did all the sacrifcing/giving and Gellert who did all the taking. Gellert may have entertained the idea of bringing Ariana along on his quest with Albus (we don't know), but Aberforth was right to say that it would have been torture for her—and no alternate idea was brought up that would prioritize the wellbeing of Albus' siblings while he was away. And in the moment of required reciprocity when Albus was at his lowest, Gellert left him behind and went off to go rule the world. Not even the most diehard shipper can argue against the fact that when Ariana died, Grindelwald left.

This problem is even more personal/biased than the other ones. Albus and Gellert parted ways in 1899. They didn't see each other again until the duel in 1945 (because fuck Fantastic Beasts, the scripts don't even make fucking sense). Albus defeated Gellert, put him in prison, and then went on living for another fifty-two years. And That Woman expects me to believe that Albus never had a relationship with anyone before Gellert, and never even looked at another wizard afterward? In 52 years, he was one-and-done? He never once fell in love with other people, whether or not he fully trusted them/let them in? Be serious. Pull the other one. It's not realistic, and it doesn't speak to the kind of man Albus Dumbledore is. He may not have found a man to check the same boxes Gellert did, but he wouldn't arguably be looking for someone too similar to his old flame. He might not trust them unconditionally or be the Perfect Partner for them (bc whew traumaaa), but there would be other people for Albus in a realistic Magical Britain (even discounting time travel shenanigans). Before the reveal, the most popular people to ship Albus with were Minerva, Alastor, and Elphias Doge; these options are still arguably more valid. Albus Dumbledore loves love, he champions love, and he doesn't think he deserves it after his sins, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't go looking. It's mind-boggling to me that with all the well-deserved disavowing of JKR following her anti-trans hate (and her shameless pandering to the same people calling her a witch poisoning their children's minds decades ago), that some people still treat her words about Albus and Gellert's relationship and its effects on Albus in particular as gospel. I sure don't. (Especially because she said he became "asexual" after His One Gay Experience when like. That's not. What asexuality is??? And ace gay people exist???) Whether you count the FB movies or not, there are still decades of Albus' life that are a mystery, and I refuse to believe he closed his heart and caged his dick for all of them.

IMPORTANT END NOTE: These observations obviously do not apply to all gr*ndeld*re shippers. Some people genuinely do like both characters, characterize them correctly, and still want to see them together for reasons. I'm not going to judge them. I ship a frigging time travel age gap ship, how the fuck could I. And I'm also aware that a lot of fics/art are made to color in between the lines of what we don't know in the fandom, bringing Albus and Gellert together during the mystery years, or making one wizard better for the other to address all the ship baggage. I just can't join them because of how rarely that occurs (and, admittedly, how much I personally can't see it). You would not believe how many fics and discussions I've seen that lionize Grindelwald and treat Dumbledore like an accessory, or completely mischaracterize Albus' motivations, intentions, and actions, and then put him with "the other Big Bad". UGH.

Most of the time, I see gr*ndeld*re the ship hurting Albus the individual. It's very rare to find an iteration where Albus is not bearing the consequences of Gellert's choices, Gellert's actions, Gellert's mistakes and harm done. I think Albus deserves better than to be Gellert's accessory just because he loved him deeply long ago.

okay. whew. that was a lot.

a character limit prevents me from continuing here, so the second half of this versus will go elsewhere, sorry!

[natlacentral]

STYLISED EXTREMES

RARE IS IT TO FIND A YOUNG ACTOR WHO ALIGNS SO PERFECTLY WITH THE ROLE HE’S BEEN CAST TO PLAY, THOUGH SUCH IS THE CASE WITH IAN OUSLEY. THE YOUNG TALENT, KNOWN TO FANS OF THE NEW LIVE-ACTION VERSION OF AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER AS MASTER STRATEGIST SOKKA, HAS TURNED HIS CHILDHOOD FANTASIES INTO ADULTHOOD ACTING DREAMS. HE TALKS TO US ABOUT HOW MARTIAL ARTS SHOWCASED HIS ACTING TALENTS AND FINDING LOVE WITHIN.

You’re playing the character of Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe in this new Live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender and you’re trying to restore peace and save the world with Katara and Aang. How was it to play such an iconic character?

 It was such a blessing to play the role of Sokka. I grew up on the show and it was one of my main inspirations for starting to do martial arts, so it was surreal to get the opportunity to join this project. Sokka to me has always been the voice to the audience in a way and was obviously so funny in the animated show that trying to capture the essence of the character is something I took very seriously… by not taking myself too seriously. It was a balance of being free in that space while still making it fit the live-action tone of our show. 

 

How has being Cherokee played into how you shaped Sokka and approached portraying the character?

 Building the world of the water tribe, which is based on indigenous culture, is something that was obviously crucial for us to capture accurately. Sokka is a proud member and leader of the Southern Water tribe and as a show, everything from the set designers, costume department, to props team created the physical world for us to live in, which made it easy to melt into the story we’re telling. I’m incredibly grateful to be on Team Water tribe with such a beautiful cast of amazing indigenous actors and actresses.

 It’s never easy to come into a well-established franchise. How does this live-action version remain true to the original spirit of the animated series, will there be any easter eggs in this show that fans of the original series will recognise?

 There are more than a handful of easter eggs in our show that the fans will be excited to see. They’ve already found so many of them just in the teaser, which is so fun to watch. Part of what makes this project so special is that everyone working on it has such a deep emotional connection to the show and wants to make it as good as possible, which means keeping that same breath from the show we’re basing ours on. Everyone was working their hardest to bring to life their side of the world whether that be an actor with the character they were playing or the writers' room bringing the scripts to life. For me, that meant trying to fight for as much comedy as I could every day, which is such an important part of the original show. 

 

Did you have to learn any new skills for the role and what were they?

 We did a six-week boot camp before we started shooting, which included stunt training every day, with all four of us together for most of it. That meant that I learned how to bend all four elements, and as we all know, my character can’t bend any of the four elements. In fact, when we meet him, he really doesn’t like bending at all because it was the main cause of his trauma in the past. Most of my stunt training consisted of learning how to look “untrained” as a fighter. We worked on throwing wide punches and improper hand placements for the forms with Suki and stuff like that. 

Talk to me about the costumes. Do you remember when you did your first fitting, how did it feel transforming into Sokka?

 It was one of my favourite parts of our show, getting to put on such intricate, detailed costumes daily, the costume designers really did such a fantastic job. The first time at the fitting with my wolf tail freshly cut and everything, was the first time any of it truly felt real. When I put on those clothes, especially my “warrior” look, it felt like I was living the real-life version of playing pretend in my room as a kid! Of course, when I was a kid, I was pretending to be Zuko, but still. 

 

So, how did acting come about for you?

 I got into acting through my martial arts competitions and being in the local paper for winning a state or district title. A talent scout from my hometown reached out to my mom to invite me to come audition, and being 13 years old, I’m sure I was terrible, but I was shameless. I think she saw something in me because she invited me into the class, and then I moved to Los Angeles when I was 14, (where I’m still based), and took acting classes out here. 

 You’re still working on learning your craft being so young and ready for what’s to come. Do you see yourself becoming more of a transformational or character actor? What are the dream roles for you?

 What a fun question! You’re right, I’m still working on my craft, and as an actor I don’t think you ever stop getting to do that honestly. What excites me right now is material that is going to stretch me equally as an actor and as a person. I love the research part of taking on a character, so a role where I could totally transform sounds really intriguing to me. I have always been drawn to extremes, so I love stylised films and then also, very realistic films. Tim Burton and Yorgos Lanthimos have been such inspirations to me on the stylised end of things, so the opportunity to jump into something otherworldly would be very enticing. A dream role for me right now would be to do something completely different from Sokka and play the villain of a story whether that be in a superhero context or otherwise.

 

Would you be open to playing romantic leads too, given your Instagram bio: ‘I was made for love’?

 That’s so awesome. Yes, I totally would be open to playing a romantic lead, but as for my bio, it’s meant to be more of a mission statement in a way. I think we were all made to love and truly be loved. I’ve found that sense of identity in loving God with my heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

Speaking of love, fashion is a passion of yours I see. There must be plenty of designers falling over themselves to dress you and make you their muse. Any favourites?

 Some of the brands that are really catching my attention right now are Maison Margiela and Acne Studios, but my personal favourite has been Hedi Slimane’s Celine as you can probably tell!

 

You have a clothing line called KALÓ SOIL. Tell us about that and how it came to be as well as your passion for repurposing clothing and vintage items.

 Kaló Soil is a project I joined in on with a couple of my friends. We were selling a collection of curated vintage items from the 1940s-1990s. We eventually added our own in-house collection to our brand to learn how to cut, sew, pattern, and creatively direct a brand. Some of our styles include taking patterns from our favourite vintage pieces such as a fencing jacket from the 1940s made with brand new materials with our own twist on the detailing. 

What are you wearing right now just in case your style icon is reading this? 

 Well, Denis Rodman, if you're reading this right now, I’m wearing some Hedi-era YSL boots, baggy raw denim Kaló Soil jeans that have some real gnarly heel drag on them, an old 3/4 sleeve French chore jacket and a Tiffany chain from the ‘70s that used to be my grandma’s. 

 

What about music, a fash-influencer must pay homage to the tunes too. What’s your ear porn?

 I really love music. I had a scary number of minutes racked up on my Spotify wrapped this year honestly. I’ve been listening to a lot of Blaze Foley these days. I grew up in a very musical family, so I’ve played drums my whole life. I sing every day, everywhere I go, and my friends wanna kill me for it, I’m sure!

 

Ok, choose one song that sums up your wish for the future.

 Let It Be by The Beatles

[uzumaki-rebellion]

“Black Boys Bloom Thorns First: Volume 4, Chapter 62″

Need to catch up? Masterlist HERE.

"Ha, I am a fighter and a lover I'm the freaky baby daddy, I'm a bad motherfucker I'm the earth, wind, fire, and the thunder I said I am, go ask my mother You don't believe that shit believe what you want to Alright, ok, so, shut-up! Speak language come straight from the gutter Observe the terms that we trade with one and other Like, what's good, what's popping, what's cracking What it is, how you living, what's happening Work songs that the slaves sang back then The playground chants, with little girls clapping

Blackjack Johnson NYC, R-O-C-K-I-N-G Son and the moon, earths, stars, and planets Before the song done y'all gonna all understand it…"

Mos Def – "Ghetto Rock"

King N'Jadaka left Shuri's lab early enough to take a shower and grab a quick breakfast in his new king's suite inside the palace. The two-story home hadn't been used in over three hundred years when Queen Shuriyah occupied it with her large family. Every space inside the immense dwelling smelled ancient and expectant, like it was waiting for someone like him to inhabit the grand luxury all around him.

Before the sun rose to herald a new day, the king of Wakanda walked around admiring antique furniture that had been around since his ancestors toiled in cotton, tobacco, and indigo fields of the southern American states. While his maternal forebears suffered the ravages of shackles, lynchings, rapes, and being sold downriver, his paternal blood lounged on exquisite fixtures surrounded by enchanting art and creative wall installations that portrayed historical scenes of Wakanda's past glory. He made a mental note to have some things removed and stored away safely because he knew his children would be too tempted to play with heirlooms that could never be replaced if broken or stained with fresh jelly fingers or sticky fruit candies. The British museum he robbed before Riki was born would give millions just for the few small panther statuettes and warrior shields hanging in his new bedroom. He calculated that the living room alone was worth over twenty million.

N'Jadaka chose the space for his new home because it separated him far enough away from the lower levels to feel isolated in the palace. Neither T'Chaka nor T'Challa ever occupied it, preferring the smaller, single-floor homes closer to the throne room. He had three children, and the way his mother let slip some information on the ancestral plane, N'Jadaka thought it would be prudent to have a bigger space for whatever children were coming in the future. Unlike the other living quarters that had the pizzazz of a swanky post-modern bachelor pad, the queen's former home carried the air of domestic tranquility for children, a more appropriate place to care for his brood of busybodies.

Lieutenant Ayo waited for him outside his suite to escort him to the Council of Elders for their first meeting with him as king. Noxolo and another Dora, Aneka, guarded his private living space.

"Good morning, Your Highness," Noxolo said with pride in her voice.

"My king," Aneka said with captivating eyes, observing him.

"Good morning. I won't be back here until later this evening," he said.

They both nodded.

He walked away and adjusted the dark royal robes that had been waiting for him in the new suite. They were very similar to the dark robes he wore the first time he was king. The gold necklace housing his golden jaguar suit rested on his chest, gleaming as bright as the gold slugs on his top and bottom teeth. The Onyx Squad, another elite military unit that worked for the royals and backed up the Dora Milaje, stood at the ready when N'Jadaka stepped out of the elevator. Four of them flanked his sides for extra protection, their services requested by N'Jadaka and procured by T'Challa as he prepared the palace for the new normal. He knew what was coming Wakanda's way and the country would have to get in line with the increased security. Their obsidian helmets, curved like the shape of a gazelle's horns, gave the Onyx Squad an intimidating appearance, especially with the lower part of their faces covered by a dark face mask that matched the color of their suits.

T'Challa met him at the entrance of the throne room with Ramonda. He gripped hands with his cousin and they bumped shoulders with sincere affection. Ramonda stood with a strictly business expression.

"Ready for your first day, N'Jadaka?" Ramonda asked.

"I got you here with me, Auntie," N'Jadaka said.

Ramonda's lips quirked up and her eyes shined with amusement.

"Well then, let us go inside, nephew," she said, rubbing his back.

The Council of Elders rose with M'Baku entrenched in the fold near Zinzi. General Okoye stood with her spear in her hand next to M'Baku. N'Jadaka took a deep breath and walked into the room with a languid pace to his seat. No one sat down until he did. Settled and eager to hear what he had to say, everyone there looked nervous. He glanced at T'Challa who sat directly to his right with Ramonda sitting to his left. T'Challa nodded at him with encouragement.

"In two days, I will meet with Wakandans who I will reeducate about geopolitics, the American military-industrial complex, and neo-imperialism in the west. I have sent you all the names of the participants as promised. I've also invited you all to attend the plenary session of that meeting. This transition team will then be prepared to join my African diaspora invited delegates for a three-week long conference to create the United Diaspora Consortium that I want to be put in place next year," N'Jadaka said.

"Can you create something of that size in three weeks?" M'Kathu asked.

"The best and brightest in the diaspora are coming. These are people who work in the trenches. If more time is needed to hammer some things out, we will extend the time here," N'Jadaka said.

He leaned forward to ease the elders carrying tension in their shoulders and tapped his kimoyo, tossing up the breakdown of the three-week schedule.

"Their first three days will be touring Wakanda so they can see with their own eyes what we represent. You are our elders who will welcome home the lost tribe," N'Jadaka said.

He stood up and walked around the large image of the schedule.

"They will need time to process the mind-blowing beauty and pride of the Wakandan people. You are the only nation full of Black people we have ever seen in complete control of your destiny. Wakandans bypassed the Maafa, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. This may bring up resentment, grief, jealousy, anger, and hurt. They have endured so much and to see a place like this… heaven on earth… it may be a tough pill to swallow. Your comfort for hundreds of years is a lot to take. We'll have to answer their questions. 'Why did you forsake us?' 'How come you couldn't share your technology and strength to aid us in our darkest days?' 'Why should we trust you to reach out to us now?' They have every right to feel a way about that."

N'Jadaka stood near Zinzi. The others kept passive faces, but Zinzi lowered her head as if to think of answers to the questions presented.

"My mother left my father in a rage when she found out about you. Ran away clear across the country to hide me from him. She couldn't understand why he wouldn't bring me here… the son of a prince, the fourth heir to the throne. I watched her scream at my father on the night she learned the truth about Wakanda. The pain in her eyes… the feeling of abandonment and betrayal. The world could've been different had we stepped in as a force of good against a cruel world that used us as chattel slaves. Millions died in the ocean who didn't even make it to land of any kind. Millions more were harshly broken down into servitude in the Caribbean to be eventually dragged off to North America… Europe… the global south. My cousin Marisol comes from the largest population of African descendants outside the continent. So many enslaved Africans died from the brutality of the conditions they found themselves in so far away from home. Their lost tribe children are going to come here, look us in the eyes and say 'Where were you when the Maafa happened?' What will we say? 'Sorry, not our problem?' We all know that's the truth. Wakanda didn't give a damn about other foreign Africans suffering. It's why my father never told you about me, because he knew his people didn't care."

N'Jadaka took a moment to walk over to the window. He looked out over Birnin Zana and the mighty river that flowed through it.

"I can't lie to you. I get it now," N'Jadaka said.

He turned back to the elders and his two family members.

"My children thrive here. My oldest daughter is trying to learn several languages at once and wants to be a linguist when she grows up. My son raises panthers and baby elephants and talks all about caring for exotic wild animals and getting others off the endangered species list in other countries. My baby girl grows plants and designs elaborate little mini cities cultivating a balance of protecting humans and nature… keeping them in harmony. They have the best education, the best health care, and the best lives to be productive, happy people when they grow up… and I swear to God, I would protect that peace with my life right now just because they are Wakandans too. But we have more than enough to turn other lives around and make ways for other children like mine to have beautiful futures like the ones you've created for your citizens. I know this nation isn't perfect, but it is the best one on the planet. Will we be the leaders the lost tribe needs, and own up to our choices? Or will we allow America and her allies to dictate how the world will run now that they know we exist?"

N'Jadaka let his words weigh heavy on their minds. Swiping through the schedule glowing brightly in the middle of the room, he pointed out further schedule breakdowns, meeting topics, and a quick overview of the members of the transition team. They took a ten-minute restroom break after three hours, a chance to stretch their legs before he tossed up a briefing that he wrote the night before, concerning Asgard.

"I have more to share with you and it doesn't leave this room. Nick Fury informed me we have an extraterrestrial menace possibly coming to earth."

The elders became agitated and worry stretched across their faces.

"Shuri is crunching data from our probes and I will update us with more information from the survivors once they have been processed. Norway is taking them in as refugees," N'Jadaka said.

N'Jadaka shared images that Fury sent that morning of the survivors. The Asgardians were shell-shocked. They carried the haunted look that N'Jadaka recognized from his days of blowing up small villages and towns searching for insurgents.

T'Challa took over speaking. He discussed new security measures and evacuation worst-case scenarios. Underground bunkers were reviewed and M'Baku jumped into the conversation with backup plans into the mountains of the Jabari lands if they were needed. N'Jadaka requested joint training with the Jabari warriors and the Wakandan military. He brought the closing back around to the transition team meeting and the upcoming UDC gathering.

"The rollout of the UDC will be gradual and low-key. We are focusing on the grassroots because they know the needs of their people in their various countries," N'Jadaka said.

"Thousands of outsiders coming within our borders makes me very uncomfortable," Bhira said.

"The west will be at your gates sooner than you think. I want our people out there prepared to lead their own communities that will back us up. My Aunt Lia believed that the oppressed know what they need to make their people flourish. Resources given to and controlled by Black women will pay off in the long run for everyone," N'Jadaka said.

"We believe in equality of all the people in Wakanda," Efetobo said.

N'Jadaka pointed to the giant windows.

"The people outside of our borders do not. Patriarchy and imperialism go hand in hand… right along with keeping women in their place. Black men out there are just as trash as the white men who oppress them. The biggest threat outside of white systemic racism is our own men murdering and terrorizing Black women and children in their communities that have no access to resources and serious protection. Anything we put together with the consortium will be biased toward Black women in leadership positions. Black women are the key to everything, and the weapons we entrust with our War Dogs will protect and take out any threat to them. We will not save everyone because too many Black people in the diaspora are too far gone lusting after proximity to whiteness, or turning against Black women and leaving their children to fend for themselves. All skinfolk ain't kinfolk and we will root out those who hold the others back," N'Jadaka said.

Zinzi looked at the other elders who were uncomfortable with the idea.

"King N'Jadaka does present something that we have never had to take into consideration for a long time. The power dynamics here are not the same as those out there. However, I will bring forth our history in the past when we too had to learn how to overcome the prejudice of men who thought like the sexist men in the outside world. There was a reason we had several queens ruling the nation after Queen Shuriyah passed. They knew how to get things done and raised up sons in a culture of seeing women as equals. It took generations in our own land before we ever let a man rule again," Zinzi said.

N'Jadaka centered their attention back on him as he sat back on the throne.

"In your diaspora delegate packets, you will find the complete, vetted bios and resumes of the people coming here. The group is sixty percent women. I have also invited delegates from several Indigenous nations throughout Canada, North America, and South America. We will be packed and it will be challenging work. As your king, I ask that you be open to these people. We are creating ways for them to be self-sufficient and capable of pushing back on all the harm that has come to them and prevented them from flourishing," N'Jadaka said.

"What if they come to our country, see what we have, and want to stay here? We are not set up for refugees and people crossing our borders to illegally immigrate as they do in your birth country," M'Kathu said.

"People leave their homes when they are desperate. We share resources to uplift them and once they are self-sufficient, protected, and able to live comfortable lives, there is no need to leave for anywhere else. Wakanda will have global allies," N'Jadaka said.

"What if their local governments resist our efforts? Prevent us from coming into their countries with our resources, or try to steal them from us?" Efetobo asked.

N'Jadaka snapped his fingers and the Onyx Squad stepped forward. The Dora Milaje high above them pounded their spears into the pillars.

"We take them out… quietly," N'Jadaka said.

"Will we do the same to local Black leaders who want to use our gifts to benefit themselves… misuse or mishandle the resources we give them?" Zinzi asked.

"This is the reason I'm bringing in the grassroots experts. They will steer us away from charlatans and sell-outs. Plus, knowing the most powerful nation in the world will hold them accountable if they squander or do their people wrong will deter a lot of tricksters," N'Jadaka said.

"Hence the need for grassroots Black women leaders, no elites in power," T'Challa said.

"Trust me, those types of elite Black leaders will fall all over themselves to be chosen as the guardians of the Wakandan wealth brigade." He leaned back. "Nothing like this has ever been done before. We'll have some bumps in the road and may even have to recalibrate if there are problems. The fact that the world knows about us is a detriment because we have to move more covertly. Our only saving grace is that no one gives a damn about poor Black people, so we'll be able to fly under the radar for a couple of years as we take root. We'll use the Outreach Centers as a ruse to be in the countries we go into. Americans love heart-warming poor people stories to make them feel good. We keep their attention on those public places, and then we can move where we really want to be," N'Jadaka said.

"Are we not asking for western aggression overtly? They will view our presence as a quiet invasion. This can turn against us, make other countries come here," M'Kathu said.

"In the next decade, the west will make permanent incursions back into Africa the way China does now. Asian nations are already buying up land and preparing to siphon resources away from the continent as neo-colonizers, and the west will want to dominate that action again. Timber, oil, cobalt, uranium, diamonds, platinum… the continent's riches have always benefited non-African nations. What do other African leaders do? Nothing. Tribalism, brutal wars, and taking on the worst behaviors of their former colonizers have been the way since Africans fought for their own independence from Europe. The outside counts on us to fail so they can move in and bring fake democracy and phony stability. It's all a cover to root themselves here and take what they want all over again. And we let them," N'Jadaka said.

A male guard protecting the outside came in with a woman, Gabisile, attached to the palace's PR team.

"King N'Jadaka, we are ready for you at the time you requested," Gabisile said.

Big-boned and serious about her work, Gabisile held a stylus pen and her comm tab, ready for action. N'Jadaka stood up, and the others did too.

"When you have your private meeting, please consider what I have said," N'Jadaka said. "Queen Mother, I want you to be in on this with me," N'Jadaka said.

Ramonda pulled her shoulders back and looked at her son first before stepping next to her nephew. T'Challa grinned. N'Jadaka wanted his aunt to understand her value to him in front of the elders. Their first interaction hadn't been the best in that same room, but he paid respect to her seniority in the family with her expertise in foreign affairs. He was about to inform the world that there was a new king in Wakanda. She could point out the roaches versus the snakes. Roaches were useless, but if there were a few snakes he could use in other foreign governments, he wanted her to point them out from jump. The U.N. was meeting in Geneva at the end of the year. N'Jadaka bet that the C.I.A. would target them somehow for something egregious. He needed to know how to read the room and Ramonda had been to enough international galas with T'Chaka to have an insider scoop through the wives. She had been wise counsel for T'Chaka and T'Challa, and he wanted that wisdom, too. Despite her upstanding reputation and regal bearing, Ramonda was and would always be a warrior and a fierce protector of Wakanda.

"That went well," Ramonda told him as they walked with T'Challa out of the throne room.

"I hope so," N'Jadaka said.

They trekked to the West Palace instead of being carted there. He wanted the palace staff to see him moving among them. He stopped to check in with his press secretary and the man with that title was shocked to see N'Jadaka coming to him first. Many people did a double take when they glimpsed the Onyx Squad with the Dora Milaje. Gabisile guided them toward a large hall that seated one hundred members of the Wakandan central governing body. W'Kabi sat in the front row and pretended to ignore Okoye walking past him to position herself behind a podium. N'Jadaka stepped into view and everyone stood up. He directed them all to sit as he took a seat at a curved table next to the podium. T'Challa and Ramonda sat next to him as they powered comm tabs up and a map of the country projected behind them all. N'Jadaka noticed Shuri waiting in the wings to give a briefing on the Asgardians and the extraterrestrial threat. He checked his kimoyo beads. His children would be brought to his office after the next two section meetings. After that, he was going to take a tour of the housing that the diaspora delegates would stay in, and then he had to be in the media room to practice a state of the nation address. He would have dinner with his entire family before seeing his grandparents off as they returned to the Jabari mountains, satisfied that the family was all together at last.

N'Jadaka buckled down into his role as the preeminent world leader.

King N'Jadaka ate a messy plate of grilled meat and vegetables. His children sat around him on his office floor as they ate their food from a low round table and cushioned stools set up in front of his desk. Sydette pushed back her bowl of seasoned rice and marinated pork bites.

"Baba, can we stay in the palace longer with you? School is out and we have a long break," Sydette said.

"Please?" Riki added.

Joba wiggled on her stool, her eyes pleading for him to say yes.

"Mama has to work, and we'll be with our nanny all the time. I want to be here," Sydette said.

"My mommy is here and she can take care of us while Umi Yani works," Joba said.

"Grandpop is here too, so we can be with him, and I promise we won't wear him out a lot," Sydette said.

N'Jadaka grinned and licked his fingers of rice and sauce.

"Your Mama wants you home when she gets home," he said.

"We can just fly home at night… Baba… puh-lease!" Sydette begged.

She held her clasped hands up to her chin and batted her enormous eyes that matched her mother's.

"I'll talk to her about maybe staying a few days during the week," he said.

"Thank you!" Riki shouted.

His son ran around the table, hugged him, then darted for the door.

"Where are you going?" N'Jadaka asked.

Riki turned around.

"Mpilo has a game I wahn play on his computer!" Riki said.

Joba hopped out of her seat and dashed after her brother.

"You two get enough to eat?" he asked.

They shook their heads and bolted from the room.

"You don't want to play it too?" he asked Sydette.

"I want to stay here with you so we can have a chat."

"A chat, huh?"

He stuffed his mouth with his last piece of chicken and wiped his lower lip.

Sydette stepped away from her stool and crawled onto his lap. She touched his nose ring, then kissed his cheek.

"I'm proud of you," she said.

The maturity in her voice and the serious expression on her face reminded him more of how much she had grown in Wakanda. Her island accent was fading, and she sounded more like a native Wakandan every day with her growing vocabulary.

Kora, Riki and Sydette's nanny, stuck her head in the partially open door.

"Your Highness, I am here to take the children for their nap," Kora said.

N'Jadaka checked his kimoyo and stood.

"I have to go on the tour," he said.

"Can I come with you? I don't want to take a nap," Sydette asked.

"Well, if you come, then Riki and Joba will want to go too—"

"No! Just you and me, Baba."

N'Jadaka nodded.

"Kora, take Riki and Joba to their Grandpop. I'll be back with Sydette before dinner."

Kora hesitated.

"I'll take it up with Yani. Don't worry," he said.

Kora backed out of the room, and Sydette's smile beamed back at him. It was probably a good idea to have one-on-one time with Sweet Pea. He was so accustomed to herding them all together everywhere that he never once thought to cordon off time for individual activities away from the others. Waiting in his office for an expected whining fest from the other two in protest, he was pleasantly surprised that there was no blowback. He stepped out, holding Sydette's hand. Mpilo straightened up his desk and shut down the computer graphics the children had played with.

"How were they acting when they left?" N'Jadaka asked.

"Sleepy," Mpilo said.

"No fussing when they noticed Sydette wasn't with them?"

"No."

"Cool. Ready to leave?"

Mpilo moved over to them and they all strolled into the outer floor plan where Tlotliso worked at her desk and his new assistant press secretary, Pheijna, met with his media team and Gabisile's team.

"Off to take the tour and I'll be back to do a run-through before dinner," N'Jadaka said to Pheijna.

Taking in all the people working for him now would be an adjustment. Spending years working covertly to accomplish anything had been easy. Having thousands of moving parts to look after in the palace reminded him to stay focused. He would run them the way he ran his military unit in the Navy Seals and as a mercenary. As the head honcho, he had to set the standard of expectations and hold everyone's feet to the fire to make sure his goals flowed smoothly. To his relief, the Wakandans at his beck and call were all professional and took the king's word as law. To them, he was an Udaku. He may have come from the outside, but he was Prince N'Jobu's son. Wakandan royal blood ran through his veins.

Gabisile attached herself to their large group, and they met with his security team in the hall.

Sydette watched every move he made and looked at all the people he had power over to do his bidding. She clung to his hand tighter, and no one questioned him about her joining his tour team. They were driven in a convoy to what N'Jadaka named the Homecoming Village twenty minutes away from the palace. It was a luxury hotel that had been transformed into a Lost Tribe oasis with amazing cottages that faced the river and the wide expanse of land that housed elephants, giraffes, zebras, and other wildlife the visitors would wake up and see every morning. There were lush gardens and ancient trees that outsiders had never seen the likes of before. The roofs of the detached cottages reminded him of curved acorn tops, and different sections had different animal themes to match the herds that roamed freely throughout the property. In the middle of the hotel was an open coffee shop and snack bar where elephants traveled through, so they wouldn't have to walk miles around the river to get to their grazing areas. Sydette squealed when an impressive mother elephant and her young charge cruised through the shop right in front of them. She clapped her hands and then her mouth fell open when a giraffe stuck its head through a window opening to see what little person made all the exciting noise. He wished Riki and Joba could've witnessed it too, but there was something special about having the experience with his oldest girl by herself. It would be something she would always remember about their day together.

N'Jadaka was pleased that the visitors would all have a magnificent view of the palace in the distance. He wanted them to see that a man from their ranks ruled from there, so anything was possible if they united.

"You like it, Sweet Pea?" he asked his daughter.

Sydette glanced around at the various cottages as they walked through a gorgeous garden pavilion.

"It's so pretty!" Sydette said.

"You think our guests will like it?"

She nodded enthusiastically, and he lifted her up in his arms as they studied the movement of a curious peacock that strutted its way to investigate all the newcomers. The media team took pictures of N'Jadaka there, and in other places they explored.

"It's peaceful here," he said.

"Look Baba!"

They gazed at zebras running down a slope of land, kicking up dust. A few giraffes chewed on leaves from the tall trees nearby, unimpressed by the activity of their animal neighbors.

They toured the interior of a cottage and admired the amenities outside with a grand view of the grasslands below. Soon, they moved inside the larger structure of the five-story hotel itself, which had several restaurants and a club inside. He met and spoke with the hotel staff who were all excited to see him in person as they prepped the property. N'Jadaka stressed the importance of what this meant for the people coming to Africa for the first time. Sydette leaned into him as the gravity of his work sank into her understanding. Swinging his hand as they walked together surrounded by his team, Sydette gazed at him.

"Baba… you are like the Baba for everybody now," Sydette said.

"A king has to think that way sometimes," he said.

"I think the visiting people will be so happy to be here," she said.

"I hope so."

"I love it and I know they will love it too."

"What's your favorite part of Wakanda, Sweet Pea?"

"Being here with you," she said.

He squeezed her hand a little more and guided her toward their transport vehicle. Sydette fell asleep on the way back. He carried her to his grandfather's suite to join the other children who were already up and running around playing. Placing Sydette on a guest bed, he stroked her braids and kissed her forehead.

"See you at dinner, Sweet Pea," he whispered to her before leaving the room.

Riki and Joba took turns stepping on his feet and trying to get him to walk them around the living room, but he had to do a run-through of his speech back in the media room.

"You have a break at all today?" Dante asked.

N'Jadaka patted his grandfather's shoulder.

"I'll rest later."

"Don't burn yourself out. Delegate, JaJa."

He left for his office and ran into Remy in a busy hallway.

"King N'Jadaka," Remy said, averting his eyes.

"Remy."

"I look forward to your address to the nation tonight," Remy said.

N'Jadaka regarded the man with disdain, but he kept it in check, walking past Remy with a brisk stride into the media room. He took a sip of water from a bottle Mpilo carried for him and listened to Gabisile and the man responsible for handling his teleprompter. The segment director busied himself with the recording team and after a quick fifteen-minute briefing, N'Jadaka stepped behind the podium and did two run-throughs of his speech.

Gabisile gave him some pointers on where to emphasize words and corrected some pronunciations of his Wakandan. The Panther Tribe had a southern Wakanda dialect and N'Jadaka tried to fudge over parts because he didn't want to mess up. Sections of his speech he'd have to say in English with closed captioning for citizens. Mpilo stood behind the floor director and gave a thumbs-up with a cheerful grin. Gabisile approached him after his second run-through.

"King N'Jadaka, we need you to smile more. This is a very important speech, your first to our people, and it will set the tone for your reign. Your face… it is so serious-looking. We know you want to present yourself as an influential leader, but a pleasant facial expression goes a long way," she said.

"I'm trying not to feel tense."

"If you feel your body growing tense as you speak, grip the edges of the podium. It gives off confidence and allows that tension to flow into the podium and not your words. I love how you speak as if you are talking to your family. Flow into that more. Your daughter said it best. You are the father of the nation. Tell us what we need to know under your rule, as if you were talking to your children. You were gentle and confident in the presence of little Sydette. Treat your speech that way, too."

"I want to do it one more time," N'Jadaka said.

"Your Highness, it is time for your dinner," Mpilo said.

"Eat, take a little time to relax and we will be ready for you here," Gabisile said.

He exited the media room with Mpilo.

"Go home and be with your family. You've been working hard all day," N'Jadaka said.

"Oh, no… I want to be here and watch your speech in person," Mpilo said. "I'm going to eat with some staff in the banquet hall and I will meet you back in the media room."

"Bet."

He released the Onyx Squad for the evening and walked with Okoye and Ayo.

"Honest opinion, General Okoye. What do you think of me so far?" he asked.

"I underestimated your leadership potential. You seem more than prepared for your new role, Your Highness," Okoye said.

"My father was an excellent teacher. I want to walk in his footsteps," he said.

"My king, if I may be so bold, I think you are creating your own path," Ayo said.

"Thank you, Lieutenant. That's a big compliment coming from you."

Two new Doras guarded his home. He entered his dwelling and took a shower first before changing into dinner clothing. Mpilo would bring fresh royal robes to the media room for him. N'Jadaka took a moment to catch a cool breeze on his terrace and smoke a cigar. A little fatigue caught him before he left to eat with his family.

Disa and Grandpop arrived with the children and his paternal grandparents. Umama and Baba Z would stay to watch his speech in Ramonda's suite with the rest of the family. He gave Disa a warm hug and kiss on her cheek.

"I can tell you were running around today," Disa teased.

"I got your message after I came back to the palace. You're leaving for the Jabari lands?" he said.

Disa flicked a loose strand of hair from her left temple.

"I'm going to check out some temple structures with my Phase Two team. Can you keep Joba with you this weekend? Her nanny will be with her in case you have extra work. I'm going to stay with M'Baku and Ayomide."

"That's no problem. Everything is good, even with the shutdown of Phase Two?"

"Yeah. I have other projects to take care of and there are my preparations for the UDC conference."

Her eyes were evasive. Something was up. He assumed it was M'Baku's brother-in-law.

Adebiyi.

N'Jadaka picked up on her attraction to the giant builder. She'd always liked older men with swag, and Adebiyi was no slouch. A somewhat crotchety personality for N'Jadaka to warm up to at their first meeting at the ball, Adebiyi acted distant around the hoopla surrounding the king's coronation party… however… he wasn't a slouch when he was near Disa.

There was a spark of something between the two, and because N'Jadaka knew all of Disa's tells, he had to step into the knowing with a bittersweet feeling that his closest female friend, the mother of his baby girl, his first love… she had found someone new for herself.

It was all over her face at the ball. That glow of attraction in those early days of getting to know someone.

"Have your nanny bring her to me at my office before you leave."

"Your office? I don't want her interrupting your work—"

"I'll take off for the day once she is with me," he said.

"Great," Disa said.

She looked him in the eye finally, and it confirmed his assumptions about Adebiyi in his gut.

Yani arrived moments later with Twyla and Marisol. He gave Twyla and Marisol affectionate hugs and double-cheek kisses. His eyes trained on Yani as the other women joined the rest of the family inside the private family dining hall. She dressed in a modest jade caftan with her face made up as if she were going out later.

"Hey," he said, trying to sound casual, even though his throat became dry suddenly.

Yani stood in front of him, rubbing her right arm and looking around to see if anyone else watched them.

"Sweet Pea told me she had fun with you at the housing tour for the UDC. They have elephants that just walk through the hotel?" Yani said.

"Yeah."

"You have a good day? Ready for your speech?"

Yani's voice sounded rushed, like she strung words together just to say something… anything.

"Today went well. I'm ready to address the nation… listen… um… Disa is heading up to the Jabari mountains this weekend and I'll have Joba with me. Can I keep Sydette and Riki too?"

"Uh… yeah. It would be nice to have a free weekend for myself."

"Okay, good… um… I'd like to talk to you about possibly keeping them more often here in the palace during the week. They're off for their school break."

The side of Yani's lip twitched. She appeared unsure.

"Think about it," he said.

"It might be too much for you to handle now that you're running everything," she said.

"You know I have a ton of help, and they can be with me when I'm in my office working."

"They'll distract you."

"Not during my lunches and while I'm reading reports. I'm a multi-tasking father."

She looked doubtful.

A royal server passed them by with a tray of broth bowls to start their meal.

"We better go in," he said.

He turned to walk into the dining room. Yani held his arm back and kissed his cheek.

"That's for good luck tonight… with your speech," she said.

She rushed past him and entered the dining room.

N'Jadaka stayed put. Her kiss was warm on his skin. The softness lingered.

Sydette ran out to get him.

"Did you ask her, Baba?" Sydette asked.

"What Sweet Pea?"

"Mama… did you ask her if we could stay with you?"

"I did."

"What she say?"

N'Jadaka kept staring at the open dining room door.

"Baba!"

Sydette tapped his arm.

"You two can stay with me this weekend."

"Yay!"

Sydette danced around him. N'Jadaka reached down and lifted her up over his shoulder. She burst into hysterical giggles as he walked into the dining room, waggling her body and tickling her sides.

Hearing her joyful laughter made him feel like the best king and father in the world.

Chapter 63 HERE.

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[kitausuret]

2022 Year in Review

Tagged by the delightful @seek--rest .

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 19 new pieces, and 3 chapters updated on Dust to Dust.

2. Word count this year: 63,201 (wow!), with 17,337 of those words having been added to Dust to Dust.

3. Fandoms I wrote for: Venom (comics), Marvel 616, MC2 (Marvel), Spider-Man (comicsverse), Fantastic Four (comicsverse), Carnage (comics), Scarlet Witch (comic), Venom (movies)

4. Pairings: - Eddie Brock/Flash Thompson/Venom Symbiote - Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson - Flash Thompson/Venom Symbiote - Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote - Dan Lewis/Anne Weying/Venom Symbiote/Eddie Brock ...and then a bunch of platonic pairings as well! But we would be here all day for that.

5. Stories with the most... (note: I am excluding DTD since that has been a multi-year project) Kudos: Don't Misread the Signs (D.A.V.E.) - 85 Bookmarks: Don't Misread the Signs (D.A.V.E.) - 21 Comment Threads: Complicate Me, Elevate Me (Symbiot3) - 8 Word Count: Finding the Light Again (Symbrock, VenomFlash, Symbiot3) - 5,206

6. Work I'm most proud of... Honestly? Dust to Dust is the obvious answer, because any progress I make on it, I consider an accomplishment... but I'm really, stupidly happy with how "Anywhere but Here" (Eddie Brock | Venom & Mary Jane Watson, set during Maximum Carnage) turned out. MJ is such a complicated character with such a long, long, long history behind her and I'd wanted to address the friction between her and Venom for an awfully long time. As you can see by the bottom (being shameless here) I was happy enough with it that I wanted some art, and @maydayparkers was kind enough to indulge me.

7. Work I'm least proud of: Kind of an odd question? I'm proud of everything I wrote this year, haha, but hmmm I wish I'd done more research on the Fantastic Four comics of the era before writing "A Day at the Park". I felt pretty unsure going into writing it, because I really wanted to write the time that the Venom Symbiote was in the custody of the F4 but I didn't want to read the Byrne F4 run... still, it's not like me to write something in an era where I'm largely winging it. I'm glad the fic was well-received regardless, I loved writing ReedSue (and Franklin!).

8. A favorite review I received: Let me tell you something: I got not one but two really heartfelt comments on "The Look of You" (symbiot3, a focus on Eddie), which is a fic I was a little nervous about posting but I'm so glad I did. I also got some beautiful art done by my friend Nex (my commission is the second picture in the link), which you can see also at the bottom of the fic.

@guessimabasicnerdgirlnow also left me these really sweet words:

Aww, this is beautiful. We don’t see fictional men with body image issues often, but this fits Eddie very well, he’s very proud of those muscles so it’s easy to imagine that the idea of getting fat would bother him. Good thing he has two loving partners that are there for him to help him accept this new shape and understand that it is healthy. (And who also helped him reach this healthy state in first place). Ah, and isn’t this setting a fan’s perfect fantasy: them all happy and living in decent conditions, getting healthier, loving and supporting one another? 🥺

I also had a close friend reach out to me after reading the fic to tell me how much it meant to her, and that she really enjoyed seeing a story where weight gain and body shape change were portrayed as a positive thing. In fact I'm getting a little choked up and teary just thinking about what she said because it really, really touched me.

Like... a lot of what I write is just kind of silly, self-indulgent stuff. Or fluff. Or smut. But this is one that was really important to me.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: Uuuuhhh gosh. I burned myself out pretty hard after Symbruary, but I managed to get "Complicate Me, Elevate Me" out as my 100th fic after a DTD update. It's probably my favorite Symbiot3 smutfic that I've written so far. Porn with feelings! It took me forEVER to finish, though, especially given that I'd started it back in February.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: When I was trying to come up with ideas for Comics Scarlet Witch Week, which eventually led to "What Binds Us Together", I was stunned to discover that Victoria and Wanda had canon interactions together. I guess I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed writing them together, to the point where I'm excited to write them in a much larger piece for this year. I love... women.... 💋

I also created an attorney OC for Dust to Dust Chs. 12-13 that I got really weirdly attached to LOL. Jason Tolliver, you deserve better than what I put you through.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: From "Stranger in a Strange Land" (Andi Benton | Mania & April Parker), which I wrote for Symbruary Day 1:

Her expression wavered. For a second, it looked like April was going to break down, but all at once, her whole face set. She ground her teeth and shoved past Andi. “You’re wrong. I’m not like any scenario you’ve ever known.”  She watched April keep going. And then- “Mania was made in a lab.” April stopped.  “My… my symbiote. It - she was made in a lab. Just a piece of the Venom symbiote. A copy.” Andi stepped closer, uncertain at first, but her voice growing clearer as she went on. “For the longest time, she didn’t know who she was, or how to feel, or where she belonged - even getting attached to me, it was a mistake. She was alone, and scared, and all she’d ever known her whole life was anger and hatred.”

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: I expanded into quite a few more pairings! I wrote my first Parksborn fic, I wrote a fic focused just on Tarna and her partner from Venom: Space Knight, my first proper PeterMJ fic, and my first fic with Jubulile as Toxin's host. I also wrote my first fic with Wanda that I've truly felt proud of (sorry, Wavelengths) with "What Binds Us Together".

13. How do you hope to grow next year: Honestly, I want to continue expanding the characters and pairings I write about. I want to explore a wider variety of characters - like honestly. I want to write more women. That might sound silly but it's true! I just need to get some of my ideas actually into Fic Form instead of just rolling them around in my head.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year: Oh gosh oh gosh. There are so many people I could tag here. @amaronith, always, for never letting DTD die and for always supporting my symbiot3 works. @softgrungeprophet for the HOURS of conversation about PeterFlash and HarryFlash and Flash Generally Speaking. @theopolis for accidentally giving DTD a B plot by getting me into Harry (like, REALLY getting me into Harry). @seek--rest for her insight on fic stuff and encouraging me to go outside my comfort zone. The 3 artists I commissioned for works based on my fics. @decaffeinatedparadisemaker for just being an absolutely delightful person to get to know and I love talking to him about fic stuff. @oliveroctavius for also giving me Harry brain worms but in a different way. Possibly a worse way. I have a WIP inspired by one of his pieces, it's.. it's definitely something lol.

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: There's a character in one of my fics named after one of my co-workers. That's all I'm gonna say!

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Don't read comics or you will get way more ideas than you will know what to do with. Also don't read comics intending to learn more about one ship because you'll just end up completely fixated on a different ship and before you know it you've got a high school au with a meetcute between a football player and a marching band pit member and also it's based on the Gwen Stacy mini.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: OBVIOUSLY I'm looking forward to getting back to Dust to Dust. Hopefully this weekend I'll finish the New Year's Eve Coffee Bean Gang fic I meant to finish.. uh.. last weekend. But otherwise, there are a tooooon of WIPs in the most recent entries of the asked and answered tag. Have fun!

Here's a little snip from the NYE fic though:

“Well, I hope that Petey-o gets here before the ball drops,” Mary Jane said. She did a little spin, sending her sequined skater skirt twirling around her hips before she stopped and draped her arms over Gwen’s shoulders. She leaned in with a wide grin. “Or else I’m going to get the first kiss of the new year from Miss Gwendolyn.” Gwen flushed bright pink and turned to dislodge her friend’s arms. “Now that’s ridiculous. Can you imagine all those people down in Times Square, just… just kissing strangers? All because of, what, the time of the year? Getting twenty dollar hats and stupid novelty sunglasses you can only wear for one day, tourist madness, all night cleanup for—”

Me: it's a PeterFlash fic Also Me: it's an Everyone fic

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read: Not sure who hasn't done this, but if you'd like to, you definitely should go for it! Or even just answer the questions you want, I'm not your boss.

[cononeillbreastingboobily]

I posted 26,410 times in 2022

That's 20,819 more posts than 2021!

562 posts created (2%)

25,848 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@one-trash-alek

@treesofgreen

@/emi1y

@/dingdongyouarewrong

@/officialgoogle

I tagged 13,132 of my posts in 2022

Only 50% of my posts had no tags

#our flag means death - 2,725 posts

#ofmd - 2,522 posts

#izzy hands - 958 posts

#lmaooo - 911 posts

#&lt;3 - 747 posts

#blackstede - 635 posts

#wwdits - 502 posts

#stede bonnet - 457 posts

#stedward - 397 posts

#art - 377 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#lock her up oh my god 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I think that Our Flag Means Death's Stede Bonnet is the perfect character for our times actually. In an age when it's so easy to give in to nihilism and bitterness in the face of everything awful that's happening ALL THE TIME, he remains gentle, kind, and constantly authentic in his caring attitude towards those he holds dear. He is by far the most "lover, not a fighter" character I've seen in a very long time.

I mean, he reads his crew bedtime stories! And they like it! He wears nice, colourful clothes, drinks tea, has an entire library onboard for god's sake, and you never have this feeling that the narrative itself wants you to think that he's being "too much". He's Stede. And he's great just the way he is.

And he finds people who appreciate him for it, too! I mean, Blackbeard is completely enamoured and fascinated from the very start, not just by Stede himself, but his way of being, too. And you'd think that this rough, legendary pirate would clash horribly with this gentle, slightly pathetic soul.

AND YET

They invite each other into their lives. Edward teaches Stede how to swordfight, Stede treats Edwards to the nice things he treats himself to as well, like good tea, wines, even comes along with him so he can experience the life of high society for an evening! And they both hate it in the end!

I love that, among many other things, OFMD is a story about how you shouldn't lose touch with the part of your soul that genuinely loves life, the world, and the people around you. It proves that, if you have a gentle part to you, it pays off to cultivate it. And the right people will come around and appreciate it endlessly.

1,488 notes - Posted March 19, 2022

#4

Seeing how Con has been reacting to fans and fanmade content ever since OFMD exploded is making me nothing if not emotional. The last two conventions he attended too, he seems to be really enjoying himself, and I love that so much.

Given how youth-obsessed we as a society are these days, seeing this man who's well into his fifties be confident in himself, being fawned over no matter what he does, being sexy and having fun, soaking up people's reactions like a cat laying in a sunspot, it's just. Idk. It makes me lose my goddamn mind.

1,513 notes - Posted August 21, 2022

#3

Do you think that at some point after Stede and Edward decide to become co-captains some members of the crew of the Revenge get stuck in an endless loop of "ask your other captain"?

1,901 notes - Posted March 20, 2022

#2

One of the (many) things I absolutely adore that happened due to the release of Our Flag Means Death, is this huge, sudden, loud, wonderful shift in what body types we find attractive.

Those little gifsets of Ed asking Stede to stab him? People saw Taika's tummy peeking out of his little crop top and lost their minds.

That one scene where Izzy cuts up Stede's shirt? Gifsets of the aftermath of that have people raving about Rhys's tits!

Every more or less shirtless moment on the show has people perked up, gushing about chests and tummies. And don't even get me started on ARMS.

And I just love how, through the introduction of an array of actors with diverse bodies, OFMD didn't just normalize seeing people not shaped like supermodels on TV. This show genuinely portrays them as attractive and desirable.

And whether it's characters desiring each other, or it's fans voicing how hot they think they are, it's just, it's beautiful. I love that this show, among other things, proves that no matter your age or your looks, you can be desirable. And that alone brings me so much joy.

1,955 notes - Posted April 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Whenever I think about Oluwande something really weird happens to me. Suddenly I'm giggling and kicking my feet and saying "Olu, Olu, Olu 🥰🥰🥰" while thinking about his handsome face. I want him to hold me in his arms. What the fuck.

3,655 notes - Posted August 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cherrymoonxx]

Hi ✨ it’s good to see you & I hope you’re well! 💘 If possible I would love a muse p2 reading from you 💭 I absolutely love your readings, you are so amazing with your words and are able to create a picture in the mind 💌

My hobbies / things I enjoy would definitely be the arts! I am very passionate about acting. I love film, tv, fashion, music, books, painting, I could go on! 🎭

Thank you so much for your time and energy, you are truly one of a kind ⭐️ x

E B 💋🪐

Hello again! Aww thank you for liking my readings🥹💖 I’m doing well, hope you are too!

Also, you have so many cool hobbies! Acting?? That’s amazing! Have you acted in anything recently, like a play or something along those lines?

Alrighty, let’s get to the good stuff:

Your energy reminds me of nighttime, when everything is quiet. I’m reminded of the stillness of night and the mystery that lurks in the unseen. I’m also getting the image of seeing the moon’s reflection in a body of water. There’s something really mystical as well. It’s like a hauntingly beautiful kind of vibe. Kind of like how the ocean can be both beautiful and deadly. There’s an air of mystery and allurement that draws you in.

Hmm so I’m thinking that your artist is someone that deals with aesthetically pleasing visuals. I think this is some kind of director, like a film or music video director. This is someone that has an eye for beauty, but they look for unique beauty. Something that stands out and draws you in. I feel like they specialize in short films/videos. Maybe they even work with various artists to create music videos for their songs. They may create videos that focus on more mysterious/gothic themes. Like an ethereal hauntingly beautiful kind of vibe with a hint of fantasy. they are fascinated with these darker themes but they don’t portray them as something scary. It’s more of an alluring portrayal of beauty that’s meant to captivate the viewer.

I actually feel like you guys would meet unconventionally. Maybe they were out doing something really simple like having lunch,or walking to the store, when they spot you. You could just be going about your day, too caught up in your thoughts to really notice anything. Meanwhile, your artist is over here looking like they saw a god/goddess incarnate. They’d be so awestruck by your beauty and they knew they couldn’t miss an opportunity to have someone like you in one of their films. Next thing you know, you have this attractive stranger coming up to you fumbling over their own words. They clumsily introduce themselves as a director and tell you that they were interested in making you the star of one of their films. At first, you don’t take it seriously because hello stranger danger. Luckily, they do sense that they’re coming off kinda strong, so instead, they give you their business card and tell you to consider it and give them a call back. You take the card and later find yourself googling them. You end up seeing that they are indeed a well known director and find that they are quite talented. And maybe you feel a bit confused as to why they would come up to you out of all people. Some insecurities may start to creep up so you it takes some time before you decide to call them up. But when you do, they are ecstatic!

It’s safe to say that you quickly become this person’s muse. They think you embody the essence of their signature aesthetic. To them, you are the personification of allurement. You’re enticing and magnetic but also gentle and intelligent. Your energy is addicting and leaves many wanting more. You have this ability to sort of shape shift in the way you allow others to perceive you. To most, you radiate this strong aura, but to those that get close to you, you allow them to see a softer/gentler side of yourself. Your artist sees this dichotomy and would often depict you as a powerful being while also showing these softer sides. In their videos, they may use water imagery to show these sides. Like they may show your strength in a setting where there’s water rushing (like a waterfall or the ocean with particularly strong waves) and then they may showcase your softer side in a setting where they have you staring at your reflection in a pond hidden away in the forest. To them, these visuals really highlight your beauty and aura. Oooo they could also have like little story lines in which you play different characters. Like maybe in one video, you’re the heroine but in another you’re the villain plotting your revenge. What’s interesting is that there’s no dialogue in these videos so everything is all about the visuals.

I feel like eventually you two would become a sort of dynamic duo. “The artist and their muse, inseparable.” You may be the source of inspiration and even spark envy amongst others because of how clear your love is. Your artist may include you in every last one of their creations and this may cause others to be jealous. Regardless, your artist will love you wholeheartedly. It would truly be a strong bond. A power couple.

Okie dokie that’s all im seeing. I hope you enjoyed this reading!

Thank you for participating in another reading and thank you for your patience!!

Have a lovely day/night 💕

[ttakttakmedead]

Week 8 : Real Talk on Body Modification and Health

today, I want to dive into a topic that’s been on my mind since week 8's lecture —body modification and how it’s portrayed on visual social media. yup, we’re talking about tattoos, piercings, cosmetic surgery, and even some more extreme transformations that are all over our feeds. with the rise of platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc, we’re constantly bombarded with images of body modification that look super cool (or sometimes super scary and unreal).

The Digital Stage for Body Modification

First off, let’s talk about why body modification is so appealing. It’s a form of self-expression, a way to tell the world who you are without saying a word. Whether it’s a delicate tattoo with personal meaning or a dramatic surgical change, body mods can be empowering. They can also be a statement, an art form, or just a fun way to change your look.

But here’s where it gets tricky—what we see online isn’t always the whole truth. Filters, Photoshop, and the perfect lighting can make anything look amazing. It’s easy to forget that there’s a real person behind those images, and sometimes, a lot of pain and maintenance too.

what ‘aesthetic templates’ are on social media

Aesthetic templates aren’t just about fashion or trends—they’re about shaping how we see ourselves and others. When celebrities and influencers promote specific looks or lifestyles, they can inadvertently reinforce narrow beauty ideals. This can lead to feelings of insecurity or the pressure to conform, which can affect our mental health.

Korean singer, IU once mentioned on Happy Together 3 that her daily diet consisted of an apple, two sweet potatoes, and a protein shake. She did this to lose weight while filming a show and successfully shed 4 kilograms in 4 days.

This sparked a viral trend known as the 500 Kcal diet, with numerous YouTube videos showcasing people attempting it (i remember trying this diet when i was 15 too). However, this diet trend has contributed to a rise in mental health issues among South Koreans. (Naher, 2022)

BUT! it’s not all negative. Public health campaigns and positive influencers/celebrities are starting to shift the narrative. They’re advocating for body positivity, diversity, and inclusivity. They remind us that beauty isn’t one-size-fits-all and that real life isn’t always filtered or perfectly staged.

For example, a Korean-American rapper, singer, and songwriter Jessi, celebrates body diversity and encourages self-love through her platforms. Jessi has also been quite transparent about her several plastic surgery procedures, most notably her breast augmentation, as well as the filler she had put in her lips and face. Jessi did, however, clarify that she had her fillers removed and now loves the way her body looks. She declared that she was now aware of her limitations and that she now encourages everyone to accept and cherish their bodies, regardless of whether they decide to get plastic surgery or not. (Kelly-Ouyang, 2020)

Over 2.2 million people have viewed the YouTube video "Jessi's breast surgery confession." One of the hosts asks Jessi if she's ever been made fun of, and that's when she makes her "confession." She responds that people often talk about her behind her back but never in front of her.

“For example, they would say, ‘You have fake boobs.’ OK, so what if they are fake? I paid for them.” said Jessi

On the other hand, influencers like Jameela Jamil challenge these norms by advocating for body positivity and criticizing unrealistic beauty expectations. She once called Kim Kardashian West "toxic" for posting an advert promoting a dieting lollipop. Kim was promoting a product from a company that provides diet goods, such as lollipops, which decrease hunger. According to the company's website, lollipops are meant to be consumed during food cravings. (btw, the same company has had social media adverts banned in the UK) However, there is a disclaimer that reads, "The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements." (BBC, 2018)

you can read the full article here!

Microcelebrity culture plays a big role too. These influencers may seem larger than life, but they’re also human. They have their own struggles and insecurities, just like the rest of us. It’s important to remember that what we see online is often a carefully curated version of reality. Being a good digital citizen means being smart about how we consume and share content, especially when it comes to body modification. We need to question the reality of what we see, remembering that not everything online is real. Before considering a body mod, thorough research is crucial—look up reputable artists or doctors, check reviews, and understand the risks involved. Think about the long-term consequences, as many modifications are permanent or semi-permanent. It’s also important to respect others’ choices; just because a particular modification isn’t for you doesn’t mean it’s okay to judge someone else who has it. Finally, let’s not forget the importance of body positivity and acceptance. Social media can make it seem like everyone is perfect and constantly upgrading their looks, but the truth is, everyone has insecurities, (me too!) and that’s okay. Embrace who you are, whether you have modification or not. remember, everyone’s body is their own canvas! :) thank you, xie xie, kamsahamida, arigato! hope to see u in my next blog! >.< References:

Abelman, D 2023, ‘K-pop star Jessi is entering a new era of sexy - and it doesn’t include plastic surgery’, Allure, viewed 19 June, 2024, <https://www.allure.com/story/k-pop-jessi-plastic-surgery>.

Anon 2018, ‘Kim Kardashian called “toxic” for Advertising Diet Lollipop’, BBC News, BBC, viewed 19 June, 2024, <https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44137700>.

Kelly-Ouyang 2020, ‘Idols who helped improve the female body image’, allkpop, allkpop, viewed 19 June, 2024, <https://www.allkpop.com/article/2020/09/idols-who-helped-improve-the-female-body-image>.

Naher, TA 2022, ‘Does K-pop promote a positive body image for women?’, Mindless Mag, Mindless Mag, viewed 19 June, 2024, <https://www.mindlessmag.com/post/does-k-pop-promote-a-positive-body-image-for-women>.

[dahliadoesart]

Day 1 of Looking at Art for An Hour a Day

Today I looked at The Peacock Skirt by Aubrey Beardsley. Below is a very rough collection of notes/my thoughts-I may organize it into a better post eventually. I think this work is super duper cool, and would love to talk to anyone who has opinions!

The Peacock Skirt, Aubrey Beardsley

Work is all about the interplay between the two figures. Focal point is right between them, one on the left is curling around, looking down in controlling way. Has strands curling around the entire image, giving a sense of control and power. Interestingly, really only the skirt and the face of this figure are pictured, the skirt isn’t even particularly realistic. The actual body consists of essentially just two lines, very little detail. Beardsley does a really great job of conveying what is important, and letting the rest go, with the lack of detail in some areas just serving to heighten your attention on the important parts, not to distract you. Relatively blank torso is made up for in some sense by the peacock on the figures shoulder. Peacock has large skirt disguising the small size of the actual bird itself. I believe the bird is meant to be a representation of the figure on which it is perched. Twisting form of the bird mirrors that of the figure, with the feathers serving to hide the small form of the actual bird itself in the same way the skirt hides the figure. Peacock also has fan made primarily of dots-this is interesting as almost the entire rest of the image is done in either lines or large blocks of black and white. I believe this gives it a sort of surreal quality, removing it from the main focus on the two characters and letting us see it as more secondary. The actual head of the figure is essentially just emerging from the blob, with a looking down gaze. While the heads of the two figures are just about level, the one on the left is still looking down, heightening the sense of control. The blank eyes, the odd posture, the gaze not into the eyes of the other, and the plant like, dramatic hair of the figure on the left all give it a supernatural feeling. Whatever it is does not appear fully human, and is somehow messing with the figure on the right. I think that while the figure on the right is less detailed, its still super interesting. If you look at just the top half it looks…defiant? Like it knows it should be scared of the other thing and is trying its best not too. However, I think the bottom is really fascinating in contrast to this. The figures left arm bends inwards at a dramatic, unrealistic angle, allowing their hand to be in their dress. I believe this lets the shoulder be posed in the defiant way Beardsley wants, while still keeping the figure from interacting with the leftmost figure, and portraying a sense of smallness. Additionally, the knees of this figure are a sharp contrast to the rest of her, extremely detailed, knobby, and just generally in a rough shape. This, combined with the odd angle of the arm, and the tears in the bottom of the skirt all give a sense of weakness or defeat. The figure on the right is clearly not in a good state. Finally, I find the figure on the right’s right hand to be interesting. The pose is delicate, her fingers softly curled. This seems to not reflect the fear and unease of the situation. However, something is directly above it, maybe fire? It seems as if whatever this is is emanating from her hand, potentially conveying that the figure on the left is not the only supernatural one. This lends to the dramatic contrast between the top and bottom of the figure on the right, with the mix of confidence and shakeness potentially showing the uncertainty of how this situation will end up.

In general, I think the way Beardsley uses color is absolutely brilliant–different parts of this work have dots, white, or black as the primary focus, and we move between these areas effortlessly (ie the hair of the figure on the left vs the dress of the figure on the right). The lack of care for the specific details of human form, combined with this inconsistent aesthetic, and general sense of unease in the scene itself creates a really incredible way of conveying the wrongness of the situation, without any explicit story itself. Just looking at it, the work feels like a reflection of manipulation and abuse of power, and is able to communicate the terror associated with those situations, with only one scene, which is very cool.

[geekitygeek]

literally no one on here will care but i put together a playlist for my D&D character ages ago and now I wanna type out how each song relates so here goes:

Symphony - I imagine a lot of scenarios to songs. In this case, I couldn't get the image of Niwyss welcoming guests to one of her many parties in the Emerald Glade to the chorus. This in fact stuck with me so long that I commissioned art of it (that i still need to frame, woops)

(There's Gotta Be) More To Life - This is more personal to me. A lot of traits in Niwyss are things I wish to exude myself, and this song relates to deeper thoughts I have about life which I want to portray through Niwyss.

God Help The Outcasts - Esmeralda's sense of justice (and some physical traits) were a big inspiration in developing Niwyss. Ultimately, she's been surrounded by a lot of bigotry and cruelty, and she wants to find a way to spread good in the world.

Angel - This is what would play when she's seeing Marla from across the room. There's love there, but even I'm not totally sure Niwyss recognises that it goes beyond friendship just yet.

Brave Shine - I'll be honest, there's a couple of songs with no real deep meaning. This is one of the songs where I'm picturing a whole anime intro with the party.

Dancing In The Moonlight - Another party song. It's pure feel-good music and I'm sure a medieval D&D version would fit perfectly at a Glade party.

Disobedient - Niwyss's rebellion song. She absolutely would be blasting this out when sent to her room, if speakers existed in Avalon. She knows her training is important for the future, but my gods everyone is so uptight about it.

Easy - Saying goodbye to Marla all those years ago was hard. They just needed more time. Time to at least find out if there was room for something more.

Feel The Love - Another party song, but I feel like this perfectly portrays Niwyss's enthusiasm and positivity. If someone's getting you down, Niwyss will absolutely console you and then eldritch blast their ass.

growing up is getting old - Niwyss has had to take on a lot of responsibility as she's grown up, essentially to be the next generation who will do their utmost to prevent further death and destruction. And that's scary. Also lifespan angst. She and Bryn will likely live the longest out of the whole party (provided she doesn't die during the campaign)

Guess Who Is Back - More anime intro goodness in my mind theatre. Trust me, it looks cool as fuck.

Out of Our Minds - Niwyss lived two lives at home. She'd be out until the early morning hours on the regular with combat training at 9am. But she wouldn't trade it for anything. Memories are important to her, even if that means climbing up a makeshift ladder to her room at 3am.

Out Tonight - Similar to above, Niwyss could finish training or schooling at 5pm and be ready to go by 6pm. The parties are her escape, though for all we know, that could be to her detriment in the future.

Perfect Day - This one's for reminiscing on her childhood, playing with friends, whether it was Puck, Marla, or her schoolmates. Everything just seemed simpler back then.

Umbrella - Partly a joke addition... basically Niwyss has an earring in the shape of an umbrella. It was originally crafted by Puck as a welcome gift for Marla - a symbol of shelter in dark times. Upon her quick departure, Marla left the charm with her letter to Niwyss.

Waiting On A Miracle - She knows her parents mean well. But Niwyss doesn't feel like anything's good enough for her parents, or the Council. But she's seen what looking for constant approval looks like in Petran, and as much as she loves her big brother, she doesn't want to get to that point.

Wild and Young - Another celebration of Niwyss's love to see the world and enjoy the company she encounters along the way. As long as her life will be, she only gets one go, and wants to make the most of it.

Utakata Hanabi - A somewhat sad ending to the current list, this captures how Niwyss feels when she's alone. Longing for peace, longing for a day when she can see her dear friend again without the weight of the world on their shoulders. Constantly looking back to simpler, happier times.

[eyedove]

im gonna talk about homestuck in 2023 under the cut and how it has influenced my art irreversibly but not just in the style in which i draw things but also in the way i imagine scenes, the way i interact with music, and the way i engage in the creation of fan works

genuinely still in love with the animation of the [s] panels in homestuck. they start as pretty utilitarian, but by enter, they're starting to get cinematic as hell. adore the use of minimal actual animation by just zooming and tweening that gets snappier and more satisfying to watch occur over time.

(the constant movement: always panning or zooming except in small key moments influenced SO MUCH in terms of amv and video editing in the time they were released. i do not have anything to back it up but i would absolutely put stock into the conspiracy that it really contributed to the back-and-forth inverse panning style that most video editing apps have nowadays.)

and yeah yeah it was fine and all but then we get make her pay and we get these sequences that have SMALL MOVING PARTS that are not just spritework from the comic panels themselves and are made specifically for the animation, but they're still fairly simple, like vriska's arm moving on an elbow hinge toward her face. it's mixed in with the same method of letting pan and zoom do some heavy lifting. parallax panning. animated-music-video vibe. that's what it was! animated music videos! i remember people getting excited about this prospect of indie-style, animated music videos in 2014 with mystery skulls and freak kitchen.

cascade. my teenage brain was forever changed by cascade. telling a story through animation was my fucking dream (it still is) and i am just now in recent years understanding, even after taking animation classes in school, how fucking incredible these things were at teaching (admittedly the basics of) animating shit. it had a multi-media feel: it was a good live example of how to use differences in style and detail to create emphasis and drama. how to keep a tight color palette (in pixelated scenes, anyway, it's something the fully illustrated scenes sort of missed), how to give the illusion of movement, how to keep an eye interested in the material through movement, how to frame and balance a shot. how to give a silly or lighthearted vibe vs a serious and dramatic one through pacing and expressions (expressions are something i've always struggled with and continue to do so, both in real life and in art).

most of FUCKING all, homestuck's art style is FUCKING INCREDIBLE at delivering art shorthand. the drawing of the basic shapes of hands without fully fleshing them out. no shading on limbs - so foreshortening looks more natural without extra rendering.

ok there were a couple that really hit and some that missed. sometimes both in the same flash. (personally not about to defend some of game over, although it did do a pretty good job of shit that others did not, which was keeping track of everything happening, where and when) and the earlier ones are waaaay more influential to my style.

some fucking day ill release one of the 463782469 animatics i have anywhere from half-to-two-thirds done and it'll probably be EXTREMELY apparent.

tl;dr the snappy, rubberbandy movements, constant panning and zooming, multimedia feel, and sparingly used hi-detail shots from the time of about make her pay up to cascade are just. imo fucking beautiful. they let you take in the music with a nice, interesting, emotional visual that easily and cleanly portrays a story. (the times it doesn't is a pacing issue, not a problem with the format.) i want to do shit like that. i want to make something that has a story like that, has replayability like that, and hits like that.

[jayietheriverwarrior]

And now for the last (for now) TLK art I currently have done - sorry for just reusing the Kion art from the last drawing, but I didn't feel like drawing that mane again.  I'll warn you now that I'll probably be reusing a lot of these for different family portrait type things. Lazy, yes, but I don't draw TLK art that often these days and these are more family/group portrait type things than full scene drawings anyway, really just there to let you compare designs.

Anyway, since I drew Kion with his siblings, it seemed only right to draw him with his Lion Guard in the first movie's art style.  So here's the Guard! I'll also go a bit into my headcanons for how I would fit TLG into my TLKverse, if I were still writing anything in my TLKverse.

Background again belongs to Disney, and was edited for use by here: www.deviantart.com/through-the… You can see them without the background here.

I very heavily referenced Fuli off the cheetah at the very beginning of the first movie, and I changed her colors and pattern to look a bit more fitting for a king cheetah, while still trying to keep her looking properly like herself. Beshte was fun to draw, I definitely wanted to get across how bloody huge and terrifying hippos are, especially since they have jagged spear teeth rather than the harmless peg teeth they're portrayed with in TLG, while still having him as his friendly happy self. I mixed elements of the second movie's hippo designs, and his TLG design. Bunga is basically the same, I just darkened his coat to look more like a real honey badger and aged him up a bit by making his eyes smaller, face longer and less rounded, and lengthening his torso. Ono's adult design is based off of the adult egrets in his flock that appear in TLG.

The one I changed the most is Anga - I really love her design, but after looking at photos of martial eagles online, and seeing both how their faces darken as they age and how they're more of a dark brown with spots than purple with little V markings, I decided to change her design to look more like a real martial eagle, while still keeping a lot of elements from her old design, mostly shape and lineart-wise.

~-~-~

Now onto my headcanons. In my imagining of things, there's no Roar of the Elders. Kion is the second son of Simba, who is working very hard to reestablish good ties with the herds after the destruction Scar wreaked on the Pride Lands. As a result, he is frequently meeting with various herds, addressing problems and building up trust, and sometimes Kion gets brought along so Simba can keep a protective eye on his beloved son. When Kion starts getting friendly with some of the young animals around the Pride Lands, someone brings up the idea of forming a new Lion Guard, but this time with animals from various herds and animals around the Pride Lands, as a sort of way of reassuring the herds that the lions weren't just going to trample all over the rest of the kingdom like they did under Scar. As stated, Simba is very eager to not piss off his still somewhat mistrustful subjects, so he agrees.

However, after the loss of his first son Kopa, Simba is very overprotective of his other two children. Kiara we see dealing with that in TLK II when she has to constantly have Timon and Pumbaa looking after her - for Kion, he was initially really excited at the idea of training to become leader of the Lion Guard - until he realized that it was just his father's way of giving him his own personal bodyguards while ensuring that his son never actually faced any danger himself. Simba helped train the Guard and pushed not-so-subtly for Kion to be protected and kept out of danger should anything actually happen. While the Guard were cubs, the positions they held were more ceremonial than anything, a way to assure the herds that they were being listened to and represented - but they were all being trained for the day that they could actually step up and take their true place as guardians of the Kingdom, and as time passed and Simba got more protective, Kion began to despair that he would ever be truly allowed to be his own lion and make his mark on the world without his father constantly trying to protect him.

Kion's friends, growing up beside him so closely, could see the effect this was having on him, and tried in whatever ways they could to make him feel better or to help him get away from his dad's protective gaze for just a little while. Bunga in particular acted obnoxious and goofy in public mostly to divert animals' attention away from Kion and to him, and to help shield his friend from the blame if anything less than perfectly safe managed to happen... better for everyone to roll their eyes and blame Bunga's incompetence for things getting out of hand, rather than Kion getting in trouble for disobeying his father's strict rules. Around his friends, Bunga was a much more mature and sympathetic indivudal. It was he alone among the Guard who knew of the hyena cubs Kion had befriended in secret, and who he met at the border often, playing games of wild adventures the Guard could go on (yes, I'm going with the "the events of the show are just games Kion plays as a kid, but his friendships with the Guard and with Jasiri are very real - Janja is Jasiri's friend who disapproves of her friendship with the lion prince, but covers up for her anyway, Jasiri and Kion make him the villain in their games mostly as a teasing joke, but they both very much care about him despite his grumbling about meeting with Kion being dangerous).

Anyway, the next bit I'm not as clear on how I imagine it happening, but when Kion's mane has just grown in (so older than he was in the show, think closer to Kovu's age in the second half of TLK II, has a full mane but still a very new adult), something happens that results in him getting the scars on his eye and Ono getting partially blinded. Kion not only has to deal with the trauma of the painful injury, but also the reaction of the rest of the Pride Lands. Simba has shielded his son so completely from any chance of danger that most of the Pride Lands don't actually know the prince that well. So all they see is another second son of a king with an eerily-familiar scar on his face, and the rumors and whispers of Kion becoming a second Scar start spreading through the Pride Lands like wildfire. Kion is horrified. He hates being compared to such an evil lion just because he has a scar on his face, and having so many mistrust and doubt him. To make matters even worse, he can't even combat the claims himself, because Simba has basically refused to let him step foot outside of Pride Rock except under heavy guard since the attack happened. He feels more trapped than ever.

That's when Bunga comes up with the idea. The Lion Guard protects the Pride Lands from intruding animals, but it's also meant to be sort of a spiritual position - they must fully understand the Circle of Life and uphold traditions and some other stuff that I haven't quite pinned down yet in my mind. Anyway, the Lion Guard is meant to complete their training with a pilgrimage to the Kingdom of the Tree of Life, where deeply knowledgeable healers live and use the unique herbs found in the kingdom to heal many ills (no magic healing here, just a lot of knowledge and herbs). The pride that lives there has a deep respect for the Circle of Life and the Great Kings of the past, and they are meant to help guide the Lion Guard in the final steps of their training. Simba will never let Kion go on such a long and dangerous journey, and the Pride Lands will never trust Kion unless he does something drastic to prove his dedication to his part in the circle of life - something drastic like traveling to the Tree of Life and completing his training. So Bunga and the rest of the Guard (and Makini) explain their idea to Kion, who hesitates over disobeying and scaring his father with his departure, but eventually agrees, desperate to finally prove himself. They sneak away, sending a bird a few days later to tell Simba why they left and what they're doing.

Stuff happens kinda similar to the show after that, but more toned down. Basically they travel to the Tree of Life, learn to love the place and the respect and ability to take on actual responsibility as a true Guard that they find there, and decide to stay permanently. Ono' eyes are never fully healed (though the healers do find ways to help restore his vision a little, mostly they help lessen his pain and help him fully recover in that sense), but he adapts well to his new role as the guard's Smartest. They never return to the Pride Lands this time, instead sending another bird to tell Simba they're staying. By this point, the whole TLK II thing has happened, so Simba is sad to lose his son but much more able to understand and respect his decision now. Kion eventually marries Rani and becomes King Consort of the Tree of Life. Simba and Nala travel to the Tree to meet their son's cubs, and Kion visits the Pride Lands to meet Kiara's cubs.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed my ramblings, and my drawing.