#it’s just a character design choice but it ruins it for me

[traitor-boyfriend]

Maybe I'm in a minority since I see it so often, but I'm personally not a fan of any Stan/Kyle/Style fanart that depicts the two looking exactly like Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Even though they do share a few physical similarities (as we saw especially in "Post-COVID"), I like to think of Stan and Kyle as their 'own people' so to speak, and not just their creators' avatars. When I picture Stan and Kyle in my mind, they look quite different from Trey and Matt:).

Plus, looking at anything Style related (fanart/fanfic etc.), and imaging Matt and Trey in their places...just kinda weirds me out lol.

I've always enjoyed your South Park takes, so I would like to know what you think about this:).

i actually had a draft saved talking about this very thing prompted by a question posed to em *years* ago and this is the perfect opportunity for me to talk about this

i wouldn't say you're in the minority -- i think that's the aspect of transformative fiction in both prose and art that people enjoy exploring the most, which is bringing to life their specific physical vision of what the characters would look like; south park is perfect for this considering the relative blank slate it provides fans courtesy of its animation style.

i know there are a LOT of people who did not care for post covid's future adult designs for the characters. i personally didn't feel that strongly because regardless of whether post covid's narrative is considered canon or not, i don't feel impacted by the writers and animators presenting a vision of, say, stan and kyle as adults that differs from my own, but i understand that even having any presentation of them as adults 'ruins' the mystique of it remaining an entirely fan-centric concept. though i fully understand why they do, i did find myself wishing that perhaps stan and kyle had designs that were a little more creative than simply being renders of matt and trey as adults. which is how i've always conceptualized the characters -- separate entities independent of their creators, and i think it was something of a wasted opportunity to make them a bit more unique. maybe that would have been a more apt comparison with a different narrative, but i never really envision stan and kyle bearing too much resemblance to neither matt nor trey.

i'm also not here to dictate the terms with which anyone interacts with their media of choice, though -- i know there's people who *do* want stan and kyle to resemble matt and trey as their creators and their physical analogues, and that's fine, it's just not for me. i've also never understood projecting fictionalized relationship dynamics of real people in the form of 'shipping' real, extant people, but i don't care about it enough to think too in depth about it. if that's your bliss chase it i suppose -- i don't get it and it's not for me, but quote-unquote normal people would say that about my position writing prose about fictional cardboard cut-outs if they were fifty year old men with children, so. glass houses and whatnot.

my point being -- i don't seek out fanart or fiction of stan and kyle as funhouse versions of matt and trey, but if someone else does, that's fine. i definitely borrow small aspects of their physicality occasionally, as i think a lot of people do. for instance, i like to draw kyle with gap teeth, and i've seen stan with bleached hair gaining a LOT of popularity within the last few years. these little borrowing acts feel sort of like an homage to me; imbuing the characters with a touch of real life by pulling from the source. but when it comes down to it, i don't want them to share too much in order to preserve that distinct line between creator and creation.

ultimately i think it comes down to your own personal relation to both the characters and the artists depending on what you like. i do feel like i'm currently seeing a bit more of stan and kyle mimicking matt and trey in a fictional setting more than i have in the past, but i don't necessarily believe it's a bad thing even if it's not what i'm seeking as a fan participating in the culture of south park outside of the show. it's just not what i prefer because i enjoy seeing the absolutely bonkers breadth of different interpretations of these characters and their personality traits and how that's expressed in a visual medium -- even when i see some and go oh, you don't understand these characters AT ALL, because i recognize that my understanding and interpretation of them is influence entirely by my own read on them, and other people are also thinking this of me. and that's the cool thing to me is how many magnifying glasses we can hold up to one personality and come away with entirely different conclusions.

and a lot of this is just influenced by age and where you probably first found south park! i'm almost thirty and have been watching south park more than half of my life (what an odd sentence to type...), and my pop culture sensibilities and cultural touchstones are a lot more in-line with matt and trey than probably much of the current online fanbase, as fandom typically skews young and different entry points are going to have a lot of sway as to how the characters may be interpreted. for instance, my vision of adult stan and kyle -- or even stan and kyle as teenagers or young adults -- is going to look a lot different than a 19 year old whose introduction to the show was from edits of tiktok, which is not meant as a disparagement but just an observation that fans like that are going to be shaped by a different cultural landscape than what i came of age with in addition to the shifting tone of south park as time has gone on.

anyway, on a personal level, i'm not sure if this is necessarily reflected in *my* art all the time, but as a general inclination there are some specifics of how I envision stan and kyle

- stan's face, to me, is usually wider and rounder. generally I try to make stan's features "softer"; kyle's face is longer and sharper, more angular. though I usually give stan a broader chin, but not a cleft

- stan is hairy in the body but not as much the face; kyle is hairy in the face but not as much the body

- I guess I usually think of stan as being sort of short and stocky? maybe not short, but definitely stocky. definitely more on the broad, muscular side and weighing more than kyle. stan is rectangular but kyle is built like an inverted triangle.

- genuinely have a hard time imagining kyle overweight -- I always imagine kyle relatively lithe, more toned than overtly muscular but definitely not shrimpy. this is probably where i deviate the most from a lot of common attributes given to kyle, where he's typically shorter and smaller than stan. don't know if it's ideally how i would describe them but guess i would say kyle has always seemed more phenotypically "masculine" to me than stan, but i wouldn't describe either of them as appearing very feminine.

- If they aren't the same height I like to draw Kyle taller because I love being controversial ❤️

- not relevant in any way but one of those odd but highly specific details: stan has bigger hands but kyle has bigger feet

- I fence-sit the kyle with freckles vs. kyle w/o freckles war by just giving him several moles. and i literally don't care how insignificant it is I physically have to draw stan with an earring. at least one dumb little stud

[jess-the-vampire]

Hey Jess-the-vampire, been awhile since i've borrowed through your tumblr (or been on tumblr in general). you've seen the Star vs. pilot and heard new of the series returning, what are your thoughts on them?

i have already shared my thoughts about the idea of the return, i'm pretty sure it's a pitch tho, and not something confirmed to be happening

but anyways, i am......nervous about that, it's just....no offense to daron, but given what happened in the latter half of the show, i just do not trust her with the property again

words can not describe how messy and rough the show became and sadly, daron doesn't recognize really any of it, and that doesn't give me a ton of hope for a continuation to really fix what happened

and i obviously don't like where it ended, so i can't look forward to THAT being continued, i don't like starco so i can't even say i'd watch for them either

i could watch out of curiosity, but i have never had my faith more broken by a creator then in star, and i feel like you'd have to do a full restart of the entire franchise to maybe bring my faith back

because i do think the show has massive potential, it was good at one point, but when a show ruins characters the way this show did, and plot points, and makes constant nonsensical choices on a regular basis.....yeah

as for the pilot?

i mean not much has changed enough for me to have any huge comments on it, i've known about a lot of these old pilot ideas and designs before, like how weird as hell tom looked, or how sol was marco's original name

i do like star's pilot outfits, there's still some decent humor in there, makes me nostalgic for when the show was at it's best

marco is way grumpier in the pilot, i almost wish he was more grumpier in the show to contrast star a bit more often, i always liked it best in the show when marco and star contrasted each other more

once again, tom's finished design is peak and i'm very glad he got an upgrade from....this XDDD as funny as it is

the show always had some adult jokes it seems, but i see why they would tone it down for the final product, this was still a show aimed to kids, i think the butt shot made sense to cut for that XD

[meganthemutt]

Me: desperately wants to ship Lucilith because Lucifer is adorable and they have potential to be wholesome and sweet.

Also me: Kinda creeped out and turned off of it because of the fact that Luci and Lilith have the EXACT SAME hair color and style and hating myself for it because that’s not a valid reason to not ship it.

[skrunksthatwunk]

just finished the original devilman manga. wuh!!

[frogfacey]

I have thoughts brewing in my brain about mouthwasing fans and their "rescued curly" designs. because there's a couple of layers to it that vex me.

Like mostly, it sits in stark contrast to what the game is actually saying about people's worth in a capitalistic society. Not only is rescue definitely not coming (because why would you waste the money heading out that far to retrieve the ship of a company that has gone bankrupt?) but if Anya says that she cannot lose her job because she has no savings and Jimmy's pay is docked because he messed with the ship, Curly would not have the money to pay for rescue, let alone get the surgeries people are suggesting. Curly would go into life ruining debt to get these surgeries. And that is not even taking into account that no one seems to understand how these procedures actually work. And it seems to be (even if unintentionally) framing Jimmy putting Curly in the pod as some kind of final selfless action when it is obviously not? It is a selfish self serving choice because it made him feel like a hero and killing himself afterwards means he wouldn't have to consider what Curly's life would be like should rescue ever come. The need to see Curly happy and rescued (*cough* and as non-disabled looking as possible *cough*) comes from a refusal to sit in the uncomfortable reality set out by the themes and setting of the game. That is not what is going to happen to that character and, moving to the second thing that bothers me, that is not what happens to people in real life. Real people in this character's socioeconomic position with analogous jobs get horrifically injured all the fucking time and they are not getting government subsidised bionic prosthesis (because of fucking course it's always bionic prosthesis because people are fetishistically obsessed with sci-fi bionic prosthesis) and magical skin grafts. They cannot afford to pay for the surgeries or afford to spend time away from work to recover, so if you can fucking believe it they actually just live without the magic prosthetics. Just idk through your attempt to prove how cool and knowledgeable about disability you are by showing off your cool prosthesis designs you have accidentally shown your inconsideration towards the existence of poor disabled people. Is basically my point.

[disappointment-comics]

i think i’m just sad that none of them got to grow before they died

luther was still living in the manor, which he’s always done for his whole life. so much of his arc has been about outgrowing this place and learning to leave. but he still winds up in the ruins of the place he grew up in. i could’ve believed it as a character choice IF we hadn’t already seen luther figure out how to live independently in the world in dallas. instead it was a regression

diego deserved to break the cycle of abuse!! he’s always been softer than he lets himself be, the role of father should’ve been a really big thing for him. and yet he ends the season without his kids and with the whole mess with lila and five. they spent the whole season trying to convince me he was a loser and a failure when he seemed really normal and trying his best. which is exactly what he was as a child, designated number 2 and never good enough.

i was a big s3 allison defender but then they did NOTHING with all the big swings they took with her character, so it was all for nothing?? ray walks out?? (which seems so ooc for him but i guess it was an actor scheduling thing) no conflict with claire very little resolution with her family and no introspection into what her choices and control issues mean for her.

klaus had this whole storyline with his powers and then didn’t get to use them at all… like that’s literally insane. it felt like they were really setting klaus up to reflect on his relationship to addiction and the parts that are and are not related to his powers, but then it just stops. he doesn’t apologize, he doesn’t get comforted, doesn’t learn to save himself, and he just dies, which is such a waste of a character that’s always represented an interesting blurring of life and death. i really would’ve liked to see klaus get some autonomy this season, since so much of his life is other factors making decisions for him, but nope.

five. i don’t even think i have to say anything here.

ben loses so much character autonomy halfway through this season. he’s another character who’s always been at the mercy of others, maybe most of all, and he doesn’t even feel like a main character in the season ABOUT him.

viktor has some moments with getting to confront reggie, but even those fell flat for me tbh. the line from reggie saying “you deserved to wear the mask” just proves that none of them ever understood that NONE of those children should’ve been in the masks in the first place. vik had built a genuinely good life for himself and didn’t get to keep it. dying as an umbrella martyr is not revolutionary when they’ve all been doing that their whole lives. living as a happy, normal person is actually much more radical. also he should’ve got his violin back.

[captain-heartstrings]

I’m asking this out of pure curiosity, in another post you said one of the reasons you don’t like the nightmare critters is because they don’t follow the design rules set by the smiling critters, exactly what do you mean by that? Like in your words what does a critter have to look like to be considered a smiling critter? I’m not trying to be rude or anything I’m just trying to understand what you mean

I dont find this rude don't worry- a lot of people don't actually notice this, but sometimes when a group of characters are designed together, in order to make them look cohesive, there are unspoken rules that may go unnoticed to viewers untrained eye, but helps keeps the characters looking like they came from the same place.

I mentioned, back when I was into Welcome Home, that they used a very special rainbow pallet that hardly ever included purple.

And when old black and white cartoons are brought up, there's specific clothing and anatomy (like pie cut eyes and hose-like limbs) that define the rules of the era.

If you want a cohesive character design, you have to pick out the rules, and then decide when breaking them would benefit the character in a way that won't break the viewers immersion.

Some of the most obvious rules I caught for the smiling critters:

- 2 color pallet.

- Simple Charms

- Tongues but NO TEETH

- Dynamic posing that speaks to their personality

Some of the critters break these rules for the benefit of diversity, but never ALL of them! Dogday is the leader, so he gets an extra color, Crafty is all white, but her CHARM is rainbow, so it balances it out. Kicken doesn't use a lot of his second color, because the LEADER is also using that color.

None of their charms get that detailed. All of them maintain the no teeth rule because that was the whole fucking point of their creepy factor- big open GAPING maws, no teeth. And all of their poses spoke to their personalities. Half of them aren't just *standing there* with a hand up for no reason, and none of them used the same pose.

Now let's compare with these rejects.

Ignoring the fact that Mob Entertainment failed to realize they didn't even post the right images for the first three nightmare critters they showed off (failing to include the iconic smiling critters line-shadow-effect)

-Simon, Maggie, Rabie, Allister and Touille break the color pallet rule, this amount needs to be lowered. To like 3 at most. Holy shit.

-Icky, Maggie, Touille, and Baba's charms are FAR to detailed, they do not need to be.

-THE TEETH OH MY GOD I HATE THE TEETH SO FUCKING MUCH you have ruined anything scary about them in one simply design choice I hope you're happy Mob entertainment.

- Touille and Allister have the same pose. Icky and Maggie have the same pose. Simon and Poe have the same pose. And NONE of them are as effective at telling their personalities as much as the smiling critters were.

Further more- even beyond rules. Icky is FUNDAMENTALY FLAWED as a design. They're ugly- not to mention we all struggled to know what the fuck he actually WAS supposed to be when he was released. It took someone pointing out that he didn't have a tail for me to realize he was one of those toxic frogs.

If you're gonna make something based on a group of characters you ALREADY made, and try to pass them off as new characters, I expect the rules to be the same. These are ugly knock offs made to sell more plushies on Mob entertainments website and I hate them with every FIBER of my being.

[back2bluesidex]

One Last Contract - MYG, JHS, KNJ

2. Curiosity Killed: None Yet

Pairing: Contract husband!Yoongi X contract wife!Reader, ft. Keeper!Namjoon and Ex-fiancé!Hoseok  

Theme: Mystery, angst, smut, dark, morally grey characters, soft yandere (no non-con or dub-con)

Summary: 

As a professional wife, you have no choice but to say yes to marry Min Yoongi - a mysterious yet intriguing man. But as you start living with him you discover things that meant be secrets, and it may end up being your ruin. Will your keeper aka bodyguard Namjoon and your ex-fiancé Hoseok, who abandoned you without any explanation, be able to pull you out of grasp of the man who you are falling for?

Warnings: soft yandere, implied meds addiction, mentions of death and abuse (nothing triggering). NSFW!!

Inspired from The Trunk (K-drama)

Banner designed by the utterly talented, the kindest, the nicest soul on earth, the one and only @kingofbodyrolls, Lissa. 😘😘😘💜💜💜

Minors do not interact!!

Series Masterlist | Masterlist | Patreon (For early access)

A/N: So, I am back bitches. enough of moping around, now it's the time for some dark stuff. after contemplating for some time, I decided to post the series here. but the future still depends on the engagement that I receive.

Read the full series on Patreon

Min yoongi moves like a shadow in his own house. 

Sometimes you think his feet are padded like a cat’s, hence, those make no sound when in the move. 

Whenever your eyes meet his, a cryptic smile crawls up on that beautifully pale face of his, as if he knows what exactly you are thinking. 

You have seen a ton of men in your lifetime but you have not seen another one like Yoongi. 

His father owns the biggest hotel chain of South Korea but he is a music producer. He produces music in his own small label that specializes in BGMs. 

Strange. 

Yes. Min Yoongi is quite strange but you find him intriguing and in a way similar to yourself. 

Just like Yoongi, you left your past behind and now you are running behind a future that’s as hazy as fog. You have no clarity but you don’t hate it at all. 

You don’t hate many things in life. 

You don’t love anything either. 

“What are you doing this afternoon?” Yoongi asks - his mouth is so close to your ears that you can smell the faint minty scent of his tooth paste. 

You don’t startle. 

“House chore.” you reply flatly. 

Things between you and Yoongi are rather flat and easy - unless you are fucking. 

“Ummm..” he moves away. From the beeping of the coffee machine you can tell he is ready to brew his morning coffee, “how about you come to my studio? The boys have been wanting to meet my new bride for some time.” 

Behind you, you can hear the coffee machine buzz. 

“How many people will be there?” you ask, cracking open an egg in a mid-sized clear glass bowl. 

“Four. five including me.” Yoongi replies. 

To any outsider, this scene will appear to be a sweet Wednesday morning with husband and wife going about their plans for the day, cooking together in the kitchen. Only if complications were visible - you are sure you would have a large storm cloud looming over your head. 

“Okay. I will be there. Text me the address.” you reply, pouring the egg in the pan. The sizzling sound blooms like music in your ears. 

Min Yoongi moves like a shadow in his own house. 

So, you don't realize when he nears you, wraps an arm around your waist and kisses you on the cheek. 

“Thanks Jagi.” he whispers in your ear again. 

A chill runs down your spine. 

Being a contract wife is still being a wife regardless of the arrangements. Thus, you get no relief from the house chore. And you like it this way. 

You like it when you have something to do. 

Having something to focus on means fighting less with your demons - remembering less what you left behind. 

You neatly fold all the clothes and smooth a hand over each of those. The fabric is soft and velvety. You wonder how much these costs. You wonder if Yoongi always wears materials like these. 

You wonder why you even care.

Your phone vibrates cutting through the chain of your thoughts. Kim Namjoon’s name appears on the screen. 

“Is everything alright?” the text reads.

Kim Namjoon is appointed by the company as your Keeper, in simpler words, your bodyguard. 

When the company got to know Yoongi’s “Undisclosed Reason” they decided to appoint their finest keeper as your personal security.

But if you are being honest, you feel more at ease with Yoongi than you have ever felt with Namjoon in your close proximity. 

After you witnessed him breaking the hand of a human being with no guilt, no remorse - you realized people often don’t look like what they actually are. 

With the build of a mountain and that fluffy golden blonde hair - Kim Namjoon appears to be godly. But deep down he pets a devil and lets it take him over when needed. 

“Yes.” you type and send your reply, then you recall you need to update him about your afternoon plans. 

“I am going to Min Yoongi’s workplace in an hour.” you type and send again. 

“Okay. I will be at the tail.” Namjoon replies in an instant. 

You have mastered the art of faking. 

Given the fact this is the most important skill for the job you do - you had to adhere to it and you did, that too, in record time. 

You look at the mirror, practice your smile - one, two and three times. 

As you look at your reflection, you find a single hair in your eyebrow that is slightly longer than the rest. 

Great. You have no tweezers with you. 

Leaving your room, you go to the master bathroom. You don’t expect to find any as Yoongi had lived alone in this house for a year after his ex-wife’s death. 

And just as you expect, you find no tweezer. 

Then you wander around Yoongi’s room - to his attached bathroom. 

As you open a cabinet that looks like a medicine container - you come across a dozen of white medicine bottles.

The labels read - Aripiprazole, Risperidone, Clozapine and Haloperidol. Turning one upside down you see a name written under the bottle. 

Ryu Seohyun. Yoongi’s ex-wife. 

You waste no time in pulling your phone out of your pocket, clicking pictures and sending those to Namjoon. 

“Can you find out what these are for?” you add a text. 

“Okay.” Namjoon replies after a minute. 

“This is Jeon Jeongguk, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung and Kim Seokjin Hyung.” Yoongi introduces one by one. 

You smile your practiced fake smile, everyone smiles back. 

“Nice to meet you, Y/N-ssi.” Kim Seokjin says. 

“Nice to meet you all too.” you reply, setting down the cartoon of coffee that you bought for them, “please enjoy.” 

“That’s so nice of you.” Kim Taehyung chimes in. 

“Jagi, how about we take our coffee to my studio?” Yoongi proposes, just when you are about to sit down. 

“Ohh.. Yoongi hyung, territorial huh?” Park Jimin teases. 

“I have always been very possessive about the things that I like.” Yoongi replies, tugging a loose strand of your hair, behind your ear. 

Yoongi traps you between him and his desk. 

Your waist meets the cold wood, you shiver a little. 

“You look nice.” his eyes dips down from your eyes to your lips, to your collarbone, to your bust. 

“Thanks.” your heart expands in your chest. 

Yoongi hooks his face on the crook of your neck. At first he sniffs and then starts placing open mouthed kisses on your skin. 

“Are you under some kind of medication?” you place your question carefully. 

Yoongi sucks on a spot on your neck, “why?” 

“I found some medicines in your bathroom cabinet.” 

Your husband halts his actions. Detaching his face from your neck, he looks at you - no hint of smile visible on his face. 

His eyes are dark, unbelievably dark. 

He pushes you further against his desk, “have you heard that proverb? It goes something like curiosity killed the cat.” 

You don’t reply but suck in a deep breath. 

“Never enter my room without my permission, okay Jagi?” he presses his body on yours. 

Your hand that is placed on the desk, stretches with the impact. It knocks against the coffee cup and the liquid spills on the back of your palm. 

“Ah!” you groan in pain. The coffee was still so hot. Your skin reddens immediately. 

“Shit” Yoongi runs to retrieve some tissues, “we need to visit the hospital.” he says in haste. 

“It’s okay- I am fine-” 

“Y/N. We are visiting the hospital.” he shuts you completely. 

Just as you knew, it was nothing serious. 

The doctor wrapped it up, prescribed some meds and ointment and asked you to take care. 

As soon as you exit the hospital, with Yoongi beside you, Namjoon runs up. 

Your breath gets a little labored at the sight of him. 

“Y/N, did he do something?” He asks without any greetings or so. 

“No. it was an acc-”

“Who are you?” Yoongi cuts you off. You see him measuring Namjoon from head to toe. 

Even though Yoongi is a lot shorter than Namjoon - his mere presence challenges Namjoon’s authority. 

“I am her personal security.” Namjoon answers. 

Yoongi quirks an eyebrow and then smirks. 

“Why? Is your company afraid that I might do something to you?” He questions you. 

You look away. 

Namjoon steps closer to Yoongi, “You can’t do anything to her. Lay a finger and I will break your hand.”

At this Yoongi breaks into a loud laugh. Everyone around you stares at him. You close your eyes in frustration. 

“She’s my wife. I don’t need a manual to know what I should and shouldn’t do to her.” Yoongi attacks. 

“Your wife for a year. Only a year.” Namjoon’s words leave through his gritted teeth. 

“We will…” Yoongi turns towards you, laces his fingers through yours, “see about that.” 

Permanent Taglist:

@chimchimmarie @coffeedepressionsoup @meowstake @vonvi-blog @nochuel @chimmisbae @i-have-no-life-charlie @mikrokookiex @jjk174 @lallataegi @savageyoongi @jwnghyuns @parapiop7 @futuristicenemychaos @armystay89 @ryryvna @purple-realms @ssbb-22 @miniesjams32 @mar-lo-pap

[eroguron0nsense]

Garp, Fascism, and Parental Failure

Garp is truly one of the most interesting One Piece characters for me because of the extent to which his dogged, relentless devotion to a fascist system–and the supposed "order" it promises to uphold in the face of anarchy or rebellion–perseveres no matter how many times it fails him and his son and his grandsons. He's fully aware of the deep-seated corruption and atrocity, and feels some kind of moral obligation to bend its rules to protect the innocent (as we can see with his attempts to protect Rouge and Ace), but when faced with widespread femicide and infanticide, genocide, slavery and endless examples of egregious cruelty, he is unable to comprehend the notion that the system is indefensible, or that the only moral choice he can possibly make when faced with that level of atrocity is to leave and resist it. His son recognizing the inherent, inexcusable failures of the World Government and its armed enforcers–literally quitting the force to start a revolution– changes nothing. The order to slaughter pregnant people and infants at Baterilla can't convince him otherwise. The countless instances of bribery, the tolerance of atrocity from state-sanctioned privateers, everything about the history of the Valley of the Gods are all things he's aware of, and takes issue with, but never comes to the conclusion that he cannot affect positive change within a system designed for oppression. The public execution of his grandson–a prime example of the marine's fundamentally irrational, arrogant, vindictive cruelty clearly bound to blow up in all of their faces even before their Pyrrhic victory at the summit war–makes him waver, but even when confronted with this obvious, indefensible injustice against a child he raised and rescued by people seeking to murder him on live TV and desecrate his corpse as a show of power, he cannot bring himself to act against it in any meaningful way no matter how much it hurts him to leave his grandson to die. If he can't veto it, he'll stay Vice Admiral and suffer through Ace being sacrificed on the altar of fascist state control, and functionally leave Luffy for dead in the process while he's at it. He fails every single person he wanted to love–Ace, Luffy, and almost certainly Dragon–and allows himself to be reluctantly complicit in countless crimes against humanity again and again and again because he's so deeply steeped in this notion of preservation of order through state control that he convinces himself that even this disgusting, atrocious, fundamentally flawed and untenable excuse for a government is better than abolition, better than revolution, or just the act of expecting accountability or literally anything better from the systems that issue false promises to protect you. Dadan beating the living shit out of him and calling him a failure as a grandfather, as a self proclaimed defender of the people, is one of the most important scenes in the Postwar Arc because a lesser series might frame Garp as a tragic, helpless figure suffering more than anyone else due to conflict of love and duty, but One Piece refuses to whitewash his actions/inaction or allow the grief and suffering caused by systems he's complicit in to take precedence over its real victims: the D brothers.

There's so much I could say about statism and anarchism and the ways people have internalized the supposed necessity of state violence to the extent they can't oppose that violence even when it ruins them or their loved ones, but that horrible indoctrination and its devastating consequences for both him and his family are what makes Garp so fascinating to watch and so thematically/politically important to One Piece as a whole.

[sirfrogsworth]

These folks watched a whole ass movie not realizing the main character was transgender and it was a 2 second kiss between men that made them lose their ever-loving minds.

It's amazing to me that if it weren't for those 2 seconds, many of these folks would have given this movie a 4 or 5 star review. But two seconds of the most vanilla, non-sexy, yet genuine and loving kiss somehow ruined every moment of enjoyment the previous 90 minutes brought them.

Imagine if they realized the trans allegory. I wish I had a way to tell them. I wish I had a way to make them realize they related to a trans character. That they rooted for them. That they accidentally empathized with a trans story.

This was a beautiful movie. In every sense. I really hope between this and Spider-Verse, we can have a moratorium on every 3D animated movie using this style of character design.

It's time to let go of the rubber toy look.

I love Toy Story, but its success kind of doomed 3D animation to never take any risks. I thought maybe it was just a limitation of the medium, and perhaps it was for a time... but after seeing Love Death + Robots and Arcane...

I realized they can make 3D animation look however the hell they want now.

The rubber people were just risk avoidance.

"That's what people are used to and so we're sticking with it."

But the real beauty of Nimona was the story. I won't spoil it but the plot is pretty much, "If you get to know a trans person, you probably won't hate them anymore."

Not knowing any trans people is one of the biggest factors in anti-trans bigotry. And so this movie uses allegory to let an audience get to know a trans person. And you get to experience someone slowly start to understand what it is to be trans from an outside perspective.

It's sad that will probably be lost on those folks above because all they will remember is the kiss. Seriously, it was such a harmless, mundane, blink-and-you-miss-it kiss. But I'm hoping that others will take the lesson of this movie to heart. That you should get to know people before you judge them.

Part of me does wish we could tell trans stories without allegory. That we could just have overt trans characters. But I think this is the best representation possible right now.

It's crazy that Supergirl was one of the bravest shows as far as modern trans representation. It wasn't an edgy HBO drama trying to push boundaries. It was a family-friendly superhero show and they were just like, "Here is a transgender woman with superpowers and it's fine." And I loved that it was part of the character but it wasn't all the character was. Though I think they just missed the manufactured "moral panic" window where that choice would have been extremely controversial causing boycotts of Warner Bros. and whatnot.

My only complaint about Nimona was a small penis joke. It went by very quickly and many may even miss it. But I was surprised to see it in this movie in particular. Especially since those jokes can have collateral damage toward trans folks. With all of the positive messages, wasting a joke on body shaming was a tad disappointing. I mean, it was a fairly lighthearted "Is it cold in here?" joke. I don't want to make it sound worse than it was. But it still registered on my Richter scale of things that bother me.

Anyway, I wholeheartedly give Nimona a 5 out of 5. It helped me understand my friends on a deeper level and it was warm and funny and entertaining. There was a scene at the end that was so beautiful and heart-wrenching and I was crying my eyes out. The animation and the symbolism and the acting were just so perfect.

It's a shame Disney tried to kill this movie. But I am so glad it was allowed to exist despite that.

[theoutcastrogue]

That said, the D&D 3.5 Paladin was bad. It was badly designed, it had bad rules, and in conjunction with the other notoriously bad rule, alignment, it could cause havoc.

Now personally, I never had ANY problems with it in my tabletop games. I played paladins and loved it, and I loved it when other people played paladins, and it was great. But that's because, collectively as a group, we took ONE look at that terrible rule where the paladin's code of conduct prevents them from associating with Evil characters or "someone who consistently offends her moral code", and immediately went, "that's stupid, we ain't doing that, it would ruin the game".

We also didn't love the concept of alignment as a cosmic force, and didn't care for Usually Evil Goblins and Always Evil anything. And when a class's signature ability fully depends on whether creatures are capital E Evil, well that affects storytelling, doesn't it? But we all saw it the same way, and we were happily able to change it without any disagreements. In the end we had a Paladin… similar to 5e now that I think of it: completely ignore the Code's association clause, tailor the Code to personal stance or a specific Order, Detect only fiends and undead and the like, Smite anything you want, Fall only if you really fuck up, and never presume that just because you haven't Fallen yet everything you've ever done is justified and correct and anyone who disagrees with you is objectively wrong.

Basically, there were 2 options in 3.5. You either houseruled and/or handwaved things, and in matters of alignment interpretations erred on the side of "what makes the game go",

OR, you played with Rules As Written, and filled the forums with questions like "should the paladin fall?" (one such thread per week, conservatively), "we got into a fight over the Paladin, what to do?", "is it Evil to pick pockets? because we have a Paladin in the party", "the Assassin uses poison, shouldn't that offend my moral code?", and shit like that. Just... pointless strife, all the time. Again, never happened to me, but I was appalled to read about it, over and over and over.

People got intense with 3.5 Paladins (both pro and against) because it was BADLY DESIGNED and had BAD RULES. Its mechanics forced narrative choices on the entire table, and the only way to make it frictionless was having a party where no one wishes to explore a character's bad side ever, no one does things that aren't bad but WotC branded Evil™ in this or that splatbook, and everyone magically agrees all the time on "what is right and what is wrong" and "what is Lawful and what is Chaotic", which is simply impossible. The most subjective thing in the world (ethics!) was presented as an objective cosmic force, and how you interpreted it would determine how much damage the Paladin deals in combat, and whether the Paladin could keep associating with the party, and if the Paladin is still a Paladin. And all that in a game, let's not forget, whose basic, fundamental premise is "kill things and take their stuff". I'm sorry, this is tremendously stupid. It's the WORST design.

I know that for some people it worked as written, and good for them, but for the many many people it didn't work, well it's obvious why.

[watarfallar]

Still got the brain worms

Grian: Are you good? Scar: In what sense? Grian: Generally. Scar: Oh, definitely not.

Scar: Wait you like me? For my personality? Grian: I know, I was surprised too.

Grian: I'm not mean. Name one mean thing I’ve ever done. Scar: When we were younger, you convinced me eggs weren't real. Grian: They're not. Scar: Haha, very funny. Grian: I'm serious. Didn't you hear? Scar: No… what happened? Grian: …Why would you fall for this again-

Grian: Why are you on fire? Scar: This is just how my day is going.

Grian: DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT JOKE WAS FUNNY? IT WASNT. NOBODY IS LAUGHING. Grian: pulls up a graph THIS IS WHEN YOU TOLD YOUR JOKE, YOU HAVE SINGLE HANDEDLY RUINED COMEDY! IVE ALSO ASKED MANY COMEDY SCHOLARS ON THEIR OPINION OF YOUR JOKE AND THIS IS WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY! Scar: I've been researching comedy for the past 20 years, and I have genuinely never seen a joke this bad. We have used quantum physics to look into alternate universes to see every joke made, and yours was still by far the worst. Grian: CONGRATULATIONS! YOUVE SINGLE HANDEDLY CREATED THE WORST JOKE IN HUMAN HISTORY! HERES A MEDAL! pulls up a horrible ms paint drawn star that says "you need help

Grian: I believe in you, Scar! Scar, to themself: God, I must suck. The nicest thing Grian can think to say to me is that they don’t doubt my existence.

Grian: Last night, I had a dream about sandwich pizza. Scar: What? Grian: It was pizza with bread on the top and the bottom. Scar: So a calzone? Grian: You can’t just name things I dream up.

Scar: Good morning! Grian: Is it? Is it really?

Scar: Grian just said "I have an appetite for destruction" and then they reached down and untied my shoe.

Grian: But that’s censorship. Scar: Well done. You are correct. You’re being censored. Now go.

Scar: So I was just having a conversation with Grian about Star Wars; particularly, about the choice of architecture. The amount of people who die from falling down bottomless pits is TOO DAMN HIGH! Like, who designs architecture like this? Catwalks with no guard rails whatsoever, just zigging and zagging through enormous voids. Giant holes to nowhere! Grian: It's by design. It's a cleaner look, for a more elegant time. Scar: Like… who the fuck put this hole here???? And why???? Grian: Exhaust? Scar: Darth Maul falls down a hole, Palpatine falls down a hole, Solo falls down a hole, everyone falls down a hole! Star Wars universe needs OSHA. Grian: Luke falls down a hole, Boba Fett falls down a hole… Scar: Yes, yes, I forgot about those! R2-D2 falls down a hole in the Millenium Falcon after he fixes the hyperdrive. Grian: We're onto something here! Scar: Obi-Wan almost falls down a hole. Grian: C-3PO falls off the barge into the sand. Pretty close to falling down a hole. Scar: His lightsaber does though. Grian thinks hard about what other Star Wars Characters fall down holes Scar: What if the hole is symbolic? The hole represents the dark side. Grian: Nah, doesn't work. Luke chooses to fall down the hole instead of joining Vader/The Dark Side. Scar: Fair point.

Grian: How long do you think it'll take? Scar: I don’t know, three or four. Grian: Three or four what? Days? Weeks? Months? Scar: Yeah, maybe five. Grian: Five what?!

Scar: Ah shit, I forgot. Grian: Forgot what? Scar: How do you expect me to answer that?

Scar: Why do you think I don’t like you? I do. I would kill for you. Scar: Ask me to kill for you. Grian: …First of all, calm down-

Grian: Being half asleep and feeling someone gently plant a kiss on your forehead is one of the purest kinds of love in the world. Scar: Unless you're home alone.

Scar: My goal is not to be the best, but to inspire someone enough to one day surpass me. Grian: YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT EVERY TIME YOU BEAT ME AT CONNECT FOUR!

Grian: Act natural. Scar: For this kind of situation, the most natural thing would be to panic, so technically I can panic. Grian: NO, that’s not what I meant! Act like it’s a normal day! Scar: My ‘normal’ days of late, consist of a lot of panic. Grian: Will you just cooperate? Scar: When a person is panicking, they are not apt to cooperate very well!

Scar: venting endlessly to Grian about their week Grian, every once in a while: in a monotone Wow, that is so wild.

Grian: A banker? Me? Scar: Yes, Grian. Grian: But I don’t know anything about running a bank! Scar: Good. No preconceived ideas. Grian: I’ve robbed banks! Scar: Capital! Just reverse your thinking. The money should be on the inside.

At the police station Scar: Hi, I’m here for Grian. Police officer: Who’s Grian? Scar: Ah, you must be new.

[cumplanecrash]

If you saw this at 6 am, no you didn't. Tumblr wouldn't do that to me, we're too close for that 🤣🤣🤣

Over 1200 words of panic! in the bamboo house, including the snippet I posted last Wednesday. It's a beefy boy because I'm far enough ahead that I feel like I have enough buffer to edit with a clear head, so splitting it up in the middle of a scene just feels petty. This part follows directly from chapter 1 of the AO3 version.

Also please tell me if I'm using any words wrong, I am very new here haha

AO3 🔗 just the updates 🔗 writeblogging this au 🔗 first 🔗 prev

How the fuck did Qi-ge figure out something was wrong this quickly?

And just why was he here? They'd been on-Peak for a shichen tops, and Shen Jiu didn't know exactly what Shen Yuan did when he had to deal with the sect leader (he very purposely buried himself into his metaphysical blankets whenever Yue Qingyuan came around), but even if he filed his reports promptly, it still took time for characters to be written and ink to dry.

Fucking -- if Yue Qi had ever had a weakness, it was children. Especially bratty little boys named Shen Jiu who chased other children with legitimate intent to kill, wearing ill fitting robes that had been dragged through the mud. (Just a bit! As little as possible, because Shen Qingqiu's disciples did not deserve to have their belongings ruined! But, even shrunk, the robes were sized for teenaged disciples, not toddlers.) The scene felt designed to ensnare Yue Qi's sympathy, and even more distressingly, his meddling.

"Two Xiao Jius...?" Yue Qingyuan was saying with quiet awe. Which! Was exactly what Shen Jiu was talking about!

"No!" Shen Jiu shouted from his hiding place behind Shen Yuan, impulse control of a four year old combined with the speech-compelling aspects of the curse, difference clear now that he had felt one without the other. "Two Shen Qingqius, only one Xiao Jiu!"

"Don't get it twisted!" Shen Yuan sounded just as angry in front of him, crossing his arms and stamping his foot. "There's a nice categorization system already in place; don't confuse everybody needlessly."

"Yeah!" Shen Jiu shouted. "Don't get it twisted!"

Very helpful addition, that.

Shen Jiu did his best not to hold it against himself -- running his mouth had been his most fatal flaw throughout most of his childhood, such as it was, no matter how many times he should have learned to hold his tongue -- but he couldn't help but be frustrated. They still hadn't come up with much of a plan for how to handle the other Peak Lords, and now he was hiding from Qi-ge while yelling at him, as if that made any sense.

Qi-ge went to one knee, staring directly into Shen Jiu's eyes as he said, "Xiao Jiu." His gaze refocused slightly to Shen Jiu's right, "And...? I'm sorry."

"Yue-da-ge doesn't--" Shen Yuan started, before making a retching sound. Shen Jiu quickly glanced to make sure it was an affectation. "A-Yuan never had a chance to say. The curse is effecting our word choices, by the way."

A large, warm hand cradled his left cheek; he could see the other hand move to mirror the move on Shen Yuan. "Xiao Jiu and A-Yuan have been suffering. Not to worry; you'll have access to any resources the sect can rally to resolve this." He turned to Ning Yingying, visible in the doorway behind him now that he was kneeling. "I assume Mu-shidi has already been called?"

Shen Jiu turn his head, making a face, only to find himself looking into the eyes of Shen Yuan, also making a face.

"A-Yuan had hoped to have more information to share before troubling Yue-da-ge and Mu-ge," Shen Yuan blatantly lied.

Huh. The System had called it a speech-compelling curse, not a truth-compelling curse. Useful, that.

"And clothes that fit," Shen Jiu added, nodding to Ning Yingying.

"And something more substantial to eat than whatever snacks we all had in our pockets," adds Luo Binghe's voice from farther outside. "Of which there should be enough to go around, if Zhangmen-shibo is inclined to stay while Shizun and Shizun make themselves presentable."

Shen Yuan cupped his hands around his mouth to call out, "Stick with the same names, Bing-ge! This situation is already confusing enough without all that!"

There was a pointed silence where everyone wondered whether the cheeky little brat would actually take that liberty, and Luo Binghe blushed furiously. "Ah, Yuan-shizun and Jiu-shizun...?"

Shen Jiu waved his arms to negate the notion, backing from Shen Yuan a step to accomodate the movement. "Xiao Jiu isn't anybody's shizun," he said quickly. "Yuan-ge has the golden core and the people skills; he's got all that covered."

Yue Qingyuan gave him a sharp look at that, but he had also made enough room for the disciples to enter, and Shen Jiu needed to be able to take more than a step without stepping on his borrowed robes in order to have this conversation.

"Yingying-jiejie, hand that here, please," he chirped quickly. "Yuan-ge and Xiao Jiu can help each other make sure everything lays right, don't worry about us!"

"Everything smells delicious, Bing-ge," Shen Yuan said warmly. To be fair, it really, really did. "Don't let Yue-da-ge bully you out of your own room, okay? This is Bing-ge's home too."

The no-so-little-anymore beast blushed luminescently at that, and, well. Shen Yuan had certainly done a good job changing their prewritten fate! Given the choice, Shen Jiu would rather be a calamitous beauty than the victim of poetic justice. Just. Just leave all those parts to Shen Yuan to be awake for.

Getting dressed in appropriate robes did not actually leave much room for private conversation, especially with the sect leader on high alert so close to the door, so Shen Jiu did not have much extra time to confer with Shen Yuan. "Do we have a plan, or...?

"Keep it as vague as possible?" Shen Yuan hissed as he tugged at the side of Shen Jiu's robes, laying them straighter. "None of the things we know are actually relevant, if you think about it."

"Speech-compelling curse," Shen Jiu ticked off, tugging his hair out from where it had gotten caught. Did they have time to tie it up? Shen Yuan had the now-oversized guan when they'd been split, but Shen Jiu's hair was loose and likely greasy as all hell, in a way it hadn't been since the Qiu estate. "Speech controlling curse, at least enough to misdirect." One of the more complicated ones then.

"And almost entirely separately, the transformation," said Shen Yuan, dragging him over to his (Shen Jiu's? Shen Yuan's? Shen Qingqiu's.) bronze mirror and digging into the boxes on the table until he found the simpler ribbons he used when he braided his hair for bed. Yeah, good enough. "It couldn't have been two spells though, it was so fast -- way faster than the demon had been up until then."

"Activating a preset array of some kind?" Shen Jiu asked. "Why there?"

"The only one who could tell us is now very, very dead," Shen Yuan noted with sad finality. What an innocent soul, to mourn a demon who had inflicted such a hardship on them.

"Remember to teach your disciples that they can't question the dead," Shen Jiu told Shen Yuan's reflection in the mirror. "They're teenagers, so it's a forgivable oversight, but it's always easier to interrogate even a liar than a corpse."

"Our disciples," Shen Yuan said with conviction.

"That is not the deal the System and I made," Shen Jiu told him with the same strength of conviction. "It's not fair, but you can't actually make me go back."

"Oh." Shen Yuan draped himself across Shen Jiu's shoulders. "You said that. I keep expecting to have to fight for my right to be here, but you really want me here?"

"Gege," Shen Jiu chided. "I really hated teaching. And being Peak Lord comes with way more responsibilities than privileges. Sorry, but you'll have to be stuck with the shit end of the stick." And Shen Jiu flounced out of there.

Next

[crk-kr-to-en]

hi again, same person who sent the most previous ask (at least i hope lol since im too afraid to come off of anon)

is there any particular reason as to why you think the english shadow milk isnt the real shadow milk either? i mean everything he says in english is canon, so I don't see how that wouldn't make him real? im not saying he can't act serious at times, but i feel like him being unserious is a part of his character, not to mention the various jester inspirations his design takes. idk if i misunderstood what you had said or not, it just confused me as to why it's supposedly not real just because he acts unserious at times sob

Cookie Run Kingdom is a KOREAN GAME, with KOREAN VALUES where they originally write the story in the KOREAN LANGUAGE which has POLITENESS LEVELS that the English translators ate either trying so hard to convey or couldn't give any less shit about even trying to accurately convey it that it still ends up not making sense. (Shamil in this case ESPECIALLY?? The other Beasts were simply toned down violence) (This is not aggressive, this is Homestuck capitalization method emphasizing.)

English Shamil is just the product of the English translators attempt to make a character that would highly appeal towards Western fans, aka: Tumblr Sexyfication™️. Everything he says might be "canon" but there's this evil we call the English Localization who ruins everything for everyone for the sake of money. They even only provided CJ with less information about his character that reduced him into a "male harlequin" when the Korean voice makes him more noticable that he wasn't always a jester. Jesters in real life also used to be scholars but they refuse to even acknowledge that? How to you mess up THIS BAD that it wasn't intentional??

Majority of Korean Shamil kingdom interaction lines are not only silly, there are at times where he's genuine or just straight up unhinged.

Genuine: "Cookie of Knowledge? I used to be called that~"

Unhinged: "Wolf! A wolf appeared!!!... Really, or not?" "Have you ever lied? Then we've already met~" (This bitch wants us dead, bro.)

An entirely different line(also unhinged): "If you trust me, I'm a liar. If you don't, I'm a bad cookie. What's your choice?!" (What the FUCK are you talking about😭) replaces "If I told you I'm a liar, would that be a lie?" (this is just silly :/)

And comparing those to the English lines, En ONLY makes him look silly.

And I have NEVER seen this many Cookie Run ads before, and all of them are Shadow Milk. They never did this with Burning Spice or Mystic Flour. What I even find So ANNOYING about the english crk channel is how much they're exploiting people's Shamil favoritism into watching a lot of their videos because it's about Shamil.

800K VIEWS??? 200K FROM A MILLION??? OMG. EVEN THE ONE HOUR VIDEO WHO NEEDS THAT??!?!

He's not even a normal complex character anymore. He's starting to become another brain rot character. 😭

[fluffydeoxys]

thoughts on my hank design and how it's changed since my first attempt ~3 months ago, under da cut.

There are kind of two main aspects to Hank. There's a big, hulking and monstrous quality, paired with a swift litheness that's still important to encapsulate. Hank is powerful, but he's not slow. As demonstrated quite clearly in the animations, he's forceful and acrobatic. There are some ninja elements to his Consternation design, but he's not the skinny, nimble type.

Thus, while he does lean quite heavily into heavy muscle girth, I am happy with the balance I think I've achieved. I think a lot of this is achieved by making the tassels free-flowing and weightless, in tandem with the open bottom half of his coat.

This was an interesting thing to toss up between: open or closed coat? In addition to this, flat or popped collar? In the end I chose an open coat and a downturned collar for a few reasons.

For the open coat, firstly, it let me showcase the belts and harnesses on his legs properly, which I'll touch on later. It also allowed me to give the coat some room to flow and flap out, which is in direct contrast to Zero, albeit she can lean more into this with her full cloak. It also comes across as more 'open', like Hank welcomes challenges and danger. Coats can be quite effective in conveying mysterious, closed-off characters, but in this case, it's helping them come across as mysterious and dangerous. Capable.

I think I may still draw a more closed coat from time to time, especially for simple stylisations or when drawing Hank as a little creature. But who knows, maybe the more sensible belt structure in the middle might make it easier to simplify it.

I went with a flat, downturned collar because Zero already had a distinct, flared collar that hid her face. While an upturned collar would just emphasise Hank's head and create some dramatic angles, I like it being more in line with its shoulders. I described in a previous post about how I depict/think about design elements of Hank about how I think lowered but broad shoulders convey this particular kind of "relaxed". Not chill and comfortable, but merely waiting. His surroundings aren't that important, but when they are, you can see his alertness. Unsettling, I would imagine.

Giving the belts a more sensible structure was the main motivator for doing this (+well. improving artistically since then, I s'pose), and I am quite pleased with it. This time, I focused on the idea of "restraint" in tandem with "preparedness", which a harness perfectly encapsulates. Hank's restraints are sort of... figurative. It can be willed and pulled and tugged by the Machine, by a power on high. Tugged about by the narrative. It is restrained by its body, held back from true destruction.

The clothes are tight, conforming, applying pressure. Focus, assuredness, prepared for slaughter. They serve a single purpose: death, and with no real interest in being protected. It wants to hurt, to feel something, and to do the same to others. There is more 'protection' in the torso at least (and it looks quite sturdy and hefty itself) so Hank isn't a complete sitting duck dumbass, though. I also quite like how there's barely any skin showing, just the tiny slit of forehead and half of their fingers.

It illustrates a pretty interesting comparison between Zero and Hank. Zero is a little more dressed down but not anywhere near casual. Gives off a sort of 'retired' energy, which is intentional. A passive, wandering force. Whereas Hank is like a storm rolling in, active and hunting. He has a very strong and intentional hunter-like quality.

The skull kneeguards were a very random addition, but I think it's adorable honestly. I love adding little cute qualities (when appropriate), another one of these things being the Antipathy design on his coat pocket. It's subtle and you can only really spot it when you're looking closely, so it doesn't ruin the overall cohesion or intimidating factor.

The choice for the underside of his coat being a red gradient was to have some visual variety and interest, but it is also an intentional parallel to the Other Place, or at the very least, the red-black gradient of Nevada's sky nowadays. The way it is worn and tattered is a direct mirror of Zero.

I've become quite fond of Hank with black nails; I think they contrast nicely with fingerless gloves and how pale their skin is. But I'm a huge fan of claws, and now 2BD also has them too (though this is just in the gloves) alongside Zero, so I kept my original idea of retractable claws, but now I have them retract into black nails.

I felt it was a cute, intimate detail that Hank has a holster on his leg specifically for Zero's knife. It's a piece of her that she willingly lends him from time to time, and Hank, who normally doesn't care about 99% of things that walk this earth, has a spot on his body for that weapon. And that Zero would willingly surrender a tool to him when, realistically, he doesn't actually need it. Little things like this showcase their "closeness" quite aptly, I feel.

Hank is much more heavily scarred than Zero because while both of them have fought for lifetimes, Zero's journey primarily happened a long time ago, in the infinite spiral of the loop. Her scars are old, pale and weathered. Theoretically, they are as many as Hank, but her present body isn't displaying every injury in every lifetime. Meanwhile, Hank is in the present, actively fighting, tearing through others and being torn apart. Its scars are fresher, and it is stitched together more often. It's scarred down even to the very fingers.

"Crush, Destroy, Kill" being on the back of Hank's neck was just a fun, random idea I had. I don't imagine he got it tattooed; rather, it appeared one day when Hank was revived. I like to think these principles, this 'motto', is literally etched into their skin.

I liked how the metals of Hank turned out more bronze, whereas Zero is silver. I don't think it has any particular meaning, but it just looked interesting. Though speaking of, I liked making Hank's metal jaw quite square, with the little two fangs on it. I also like depictions where the metal has a full row of teeth (and I may draw it like that on occasion myself), but it looks nice and sturdy and square like this. Also helped by the heavy metal texturing. Looks like a weapon all on its own LOL

A much more minor thing, but the proportions have also contributed considerably to a better depiction of Hank, in my eyes. His shoulders are broader, and his head isn't as high above them - personally, I think he's almost always slouching, even if only mildly at the neck. They just don't care about 95% of 'presentation' besides this very specific idea that Hank likes. His arms are nice and large, and I think they look much better with this sturdy, stocky muscle and body silhouette compared to my first, older version. Also their goggles aren't so dang big. Funnily I struggle a lot with drawing Hank's face with the correct proportions, but I am getting better.

And here they are, all together with their proper height scales now! There's a less obvious size difference between Hank and Zero now, which I am very happy with. Their shapes are more distinct, as well as their body types and silhouettes being much more distinguishable. I would probably redo Zero's pose to better reflect her personality but there are other things I want to work on, and I mainly prioritised that pose as being a clear reference.

i like hank with big tongue sory

[back2bluesidex]

One Last Contract - MYG, JHS, KNJ

3. When The Past Hunts

Pairing: Contract husband!Yoongi X contract wife!Reader, ft. Keeper!Namjoon and Ex-fiancé!Hoseok  

Theme: Mystery, angst, smut, dark, morally grey characters, soft yandere (no non-con or dub-con)

Summary: 

As a professional wife, you have no choice but to say yes to marry Min Yoongi - a mysterious yet intriguing man. But as you start living with him you discover things that meant be secrets, and it may end up being your ruin. Will your keeper aka bodyguard Namjoon and your ex-fiancé Hoseok, who abandoned you without any explanation, be able to pull you out of grasp of the man who you are falling for?

Warnings: soft yandere, SMUT, Fingering, mentions of death and abuse (nothing triggering). NSFW!!

Inspired from The Trunk (K-drama)

Banner designed by the utterly talented, the kindest, the nicest soul on earth, the one and only @kingofbodyrolls, Lissa. 😘😘😘💜💜💜

Minors do not interact!!

Series Masterlist | Masterlist | Patreon (For early access)

A/N: Here we go.

Read the full series on Patreon

Memories, sometimes, are like broken records. 

Nothing sounds pleasant when you put those in play. Hence, those are mostly stacked in the back of the mind to collect dust on the surface, to get old with age and to haunt back from time to time in the shape of nightmares. 

When your fingers touch the record cover at first, you don’t understand what it is. It is unlikely to have something so dusty in a kitchen cabinet. As you pull your hand out, you see your fingertips being coated with dust aging back from where you have no clue. 

You squint at the particles - several questions swirl inside your brain. 

If it was another time, you would have left it be. But somehow you fail to contain your inner demons whenever it smells the faintest smell of information regarding Min Yoongi. 

You don’t know why. You don’t know how. You just know you want to know him more, better, and destroy yourself in the process of it. 

So you slide your hands at the back of the cabinet again. Your toes hurt from bearing the entire weight of your body but you don’t care. 

When you pull out the dusty object - you find it’s a record player. The thing is so old that it has lost its original colour. Everything is maroon and black now, the edges are ripped in tiny slits. There is something written in Chinese with big bold letters, you don’t even try to read or understand. 

You rather focus on the contents inside. When you tilt the sleeve a little, a record, a polaroid of an USG and a tiny note spill out. 

The note says, “Min Yoongi, you killed me” in a scratchy handwriting, suggesting it was written with very little to no care. 

In an instant you know what it is. 

“She made sure I have a copy of her suicide note. She wrote two of those. Kept one where she died and one in this so I have something to haunt me from time to time.” Yoongi says in a hushed, flat tone. The lack of emotions in his voice suggests that he has no regret or anger or anything else left for the woman. 

Again, you don’t startle. But you wonder if Yoongi is pissed at you for digging his personal belongings, something he already warned you against once. 

You meet his eyes, but there is no sign of negativity. He is not staring at you but at the objects in your hands. 

“She was two months pregnant when she died. I didn’t know.” 

“And what if you did? Would you not instigate her suicide then?” the words leave your mouth and you do nothing to conceal or sugarcoat those. 

Yoongi chuckles drily as he finally looks at you, looks into you. 

“I didn’t instigate anything. But I am glad that she died.” 

If you were normal, this admission would have run your blood cold. But you guess your blood has already gone dry, so your veins fill with an excitement - an oddly comforting one. 

“We all have a past that we are not quite fond of. Right, Y/N?” Yoongi’s eyes glint with mischief or something akin to a spark that ignites from knowledge. 

His eyes tell you that he knows. That he knows enough about you. 

And you know he has all the resources and power to find out who you are, what you have been through. 

A cryptic smile spreads on his face. With that scar and his gums on display - Min Yoongi looks like a teenager with a thousand year old soul. As if he had killed cats to stay young. 

When you shake off his presence - his words register in your mind - word by word - meaning by meaning. 

We all have a past that we are not quite fond of. 

Min Yoongi hinted on your bruised, ragged past - something that you have been trying to leave behind, something that has been bothering you - in the shape of a recurring nightmare. 

You force a laugh out, trying your hardest to appear nonchalant and numb. Even when you are anything but. 

A flare of anger, hurt, feelings that you thought you buried long ago, resurface. And you laugh it off again. 

“What do you want for dinner?” you move around the kitchen to distract yourself. 

“You” the reply comes. 

“Y/N.. we can’t- we can’t get a hold of him.”

“What- what do you mean by that?” 

“I don’t think he is coming.” 

“No. n-no! No no no no! No he can’t do this to me. He can’t. He loves me. He lov-” 

“You okay?” Yoongi shakes you awake. Your eyes open within a fraction of a second. Even though it takes a little bit of time to adjust your vision to the darkness of the room - Yoongi’s glossy, feline eyes pierce down your sleepy, hazy ones. 

He flicks on the bedside lamp, you blink to adjust again. When you are done, you nod in affirmation, “nightmare.” 

You are drenched in sweat. Your forehead, the back of your neck, your pillow feel extremely damp.

“So this is what happens to you” he leans down, partially hovering above you, “when the past haunts.” 

You divert your eyes from his. Looking into those hypnotic orbs may do more damage than good. 

“Want me to distract you?” the words are spoken right inside your ear.

“Why not?” you reply, turning your head towards your temporary husband again. 

His lips close around yours. You kiss him back in an instant. 

If anyone asks you about the peak benefit of this contract marraige with Min Yoongi, you will choose sex in an instant. 

He makes up for the lack of physical intimacy you had been suffering from before meeting him.

His hand makes its way inside your underwear, rubbing on your clit, making you moan in his mouth. 

Without any warning, he pushes two of his fingers in and scissors your velvety walls. Your waist bucks to meet his greedy fingers deeper within you. 

His ruthless motions pushes you closer and closer to your climax. 

Just then your phone vibrates with a text on the nightstand. You have half-mind of ignoring it but then it’s your company's rule to attend important texts and calls no matter when and where. 

So you extend your hand and retrieve your phone. 

You read the texts from the lockscreen. 

It’s your best and only friend, Soomin. Her texts are read: 

“Y/N!!!! Jung Hoseok is back!!!! He just called me to ask about you!!!!!!  I said I don’t know anything!!!!!!! He said he will call again if he needs help!!!!!” 

Your orgasm dies down. Anger takes up the hollow place. 

“What is it, darling?” Yoongi asks, sensing your disconnection from the pleasure he has been providing you with. With his fingers still seethed deep inside you, he says, “Hope it’s not about another man, hm? I told you, I don’t like to share what’s mine.” 

His eyes have that maddening look that you have come to love and fear at the same damn time. 

Next Chapter

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