#its just. bouncing around in here

[queerdiscowing]

So many future man thoughts but im unable to make anything coherent out of them

[feroluce]

So I spoke somewhat about my thoughts on Emanator Sampo here, but I never really thought of it from a design point of view or what kind of powers he would have until just recently. But I actually kind of love leaning into it from a "stage hand" perspective?

Because like. Aha's body in THEIR official art is completely black, giving attention to all the fun brightly colored things around THEM. And that's so fitting for Sampo! He usually prefers to be a side character. He likes to act from the shadows. His is a much more subtle hand.

So I wonder if as an Emanator, a lot of his clothes are actually very dark? Not necessarily plain, still extravagant and needlessly detailed in things like cut and quality with lots of different fabrics and textures and ornamentation, but dark. Or maybe even his skin itself becomes blackened further down his body; his hands in particular are dark, as a sort of sleight of hand reference.

The motif of a lot of straps wrapped around him like in his canon design is still present, but they're all loose and flowing off of him like paper streamers now instead of restraining him or holding him together. He is no longer contained! Or maybe they're still a bit more rigid/heavy, but just draped more like red stage curtains!

And this is like. Fully self-indulgent, but I love inhuman designs, and there's nothing in canon to say I can't do this, so screw it! Go for broke!! Maybe it's not visible to normal people, but Sampo having a second set of arms would be really cool, as further sleight of hand reference. One set is almost normal looking, but his hands are a bright, attention-drawing white, and the other is dark, set almost in the shadows of the first arms, to act less noticeably.

He also has something of a broken heart design to him in canon (the front of his black shirt with its jagged shape down the middle; his coat looks like a full heart shape in the back), and I actually like him keeping that element as an Emanator, because I think it suits him. Sampo says his taste in aesthetics and views on Elation involve human dignity,

and the story he helps create in Belobog involves the long and winding road of resistance and survival and eventual triumph in the face of some very adverse, oppressing odds. (I'm pretty sure I heard he once called Wildfire "artless" though, plus the man acts like he thinks Shame is some kind of dessert, so like ndkdjzjskkd) But the point being!!

I think Sampo is someone who can appreciate heartbreak and angst and tragedy in a story, because it makes the victory at the end all the sweeter. And this would be another thing he shares with Aha, because I think THEY did bless the Mourning Actors partly just to be a little shit, but also because Aha does recognize tragedy as part of THEIR Path, too, and you can see it in some of the game. So a broken heart motif can still suit him, and I like him having elements of both comedy and tragedy. Like his clothing having a happy sun/sad moon (like the moon in Aha's art) or him having both of the traditional comedy/tragedy masks in his design.

And as Emanator, Sampo can maybe play with the stage settings environment, too. Like lights sometimes behave strangely around him, appearing blindingly bright to someone or dramatically dark. Sampo wills it and suddenly there seems to be a metaphorical spotlight right where he wants everyone to look. And when he doesn't want to be noticed, his face seems to be cast in shadow, he seemingly just fades into the background, no one notices or recognizes him and he sneaks away easily. He can create smoke or fog literally out of thin air without his bombs now, too, the air will just suddenly thicken until his stage is obscured, and Sampo can set the scene as he pleases or disappear without a trace.

And in line with being a stage hand, Sampo can direct attention like no other. He was already extremely good at this as a normal mortal, and becoming an Emanator only took it up to 11, past human limits. Sampo points, and all present feel compelled to follow his fingertip. He looks away, and they all follow his gaze. He can even affect the mood of an audience; he can influence everyone to be calm and placid or he can whip them into a feverish frenzy. Sometimes a crowd will start to become unsettled, agitation stirring until it boils over, until it incites a full on violent mob.

And in the middle of all that chaos will stand one perfectly calm figure, face cast in shadow, until they quietly slip away out of sight.

[senselessalchemist]

The Beheaded makes a pitch

[andromeda3116]

planning to make a move tonight with this guy and deeply terrified even though i know he's interested, he's made it very clear that he's interested but putting the ball in my court to decide what, if anything, i want and i've made up my mind to pursue this but like. i've been single since the obama administration because there's not, like, a person-shaped hole in my life, i don't need to be with someone to feel whole, and i have to make room in my life for another person and idk how to do this and i hate feeling vulnerable or exposed or out of control and giving someone else the power to hurt me and having to just. trust that they won't. but i kind of... accidentally already gave him that power without realizing it. i kind of... feel like this is just acknowledging something that's already started.

i am. so nervous.

like, a little giddy, a little eager, a lot anxious for no reason other than how terrified i am of major changes even when i feel like they're good ones and. and. and.

[qoldenskies]

what's your separated au about? :0

WHERE WE WENT WRONG ASK SPOTTED [LOCKS IN]

okay essentially without going into spoiler territory (it all seems kind of typical but there's a lot of twists and turns i have planned!!! trust me)

VERY basic premise, with leo/donnie with draxum and raph/mikey with splinter. i'm going to keep leo and donnie's names as they are for simplicity's sake and say that at one point they just decided to use the names their bio father gave them when they asked draxum for like... Actual names, they were probably just numbered before. they both have kind of messy complicated relationships with him

^^^ draxum is a pretty shit parent but im not going to make him super abusive (its fine when people do, im just going for the more nuanced approach!!). he's very goal-oriented and for a long time he's struggled to see the weapons he created as people, although he never outright Abused them. he was pretty emotionally neglectful and hard on them when it came to training/pushing them into their roles, and over the course of the story he's going to grapple both with humanizing them and also descending into a spiral of paranoia as things go on (all im gonna say about what's going on with him right now)

personality alterations are more subtle in some places and more obvious in others. raph is a lot more serious and overprotective, mikey's very similar to his canon characterization but he's a lot more rebellious and determined to prove his own independence, and donnie's actually very blunt and deadpan to counteract leo being UHHHHHHHHHH. hmmmmm. an insane person!! (lmao raph/mikey are dog-coded in the way that mikey is an excitable puppy and raph is an old sad sheepdog, and leo/donnie are cat-coded in the way that donnie is a cat that stays in high up places and glares at you, and leo is the type of cat that rolls on its back and looks cute and then ATTACKS when you try to pet it. thats the best way i can summarize them)

donnie was very much the family stickler on his side of the equation and leo was unruly and untameable, but that kind of... switches after some things happen. leo becomes complacent out of fear (he is so complicated and fucked up god bless) and donnie changes his priorities after he meets mikey.

because essentially the core of the story is that donnie and mikey being the youngest of their families, with overprotective older brothers who are actually kind of more reliant on them than the other way around, want to connect and actually be a family (as well as stop the conflict going on) but raph and leo REALLY DO NOT WANT THEM TO.

and i mean REALLY. really really. raph distrusts donnie and hates leo and leo DESPISES both raph and mikey (disaster twins are really codependent and its gonna shine through), so there's really just opposition on every side of the equation. things turn out alright in the end, but it's.... a long, long process. there's a point in the story where they have to do the unlocking ninpo thing and it takes so much longer and it is so much worse and its such a fucking mess LMAO

wow i love my sep au (one man's junk but with more crying and blood in it)

if things go according to plan it'll start after i finish canary continuity, i already have it all outlined. its just beginning stories that is kind of a struggle for me so the first few chapters are gonna be hard. even though i KNOW what im doing bleckgh.

[odysseys-blood]

literally how i feel any time i read this line. absolutely NOT

i think he's a great mirror type character for the mc depending on how much you draw on the default ra-on and their characterization, but more specifically their feeling of inferiority to solomon (which i take for my mc loyal). both the mc and bael are stuck filling in for a role for a king that neither feels they're well equipped for or were even born to hold and the fact that bael's so used to taking the fall that he's automatically ready to do it for you too is just. man. orz

[sapphic--kiwi]

tholomule family portrait 💛🤎 (full tholomule parent designs under the cut!)

the posthoot friday night inspired me to finish my mom and dad tholomule designs - their names are Atticus and Fiona 💛 Atticus is both boys’ bio dad, but Fiona is Matt’s biological mother and adopted Steve when she married Atticus. They both work in the Construction Coven which takes them away from home a lot, which is why Steve had to help raise Matt 💛 they attended Hexside, but worked in Latissa for many years before moving back to Bonesborough sometime during Season 1 (in order to put Matt into Hexside after Steve brought it to their attention he was being bullied at school). (I also worked on designs for Atticus’s siblings, one of whom is Boscha’s three-eyed-mom - I’ll post those hopefully soon but yeah the matt and boscha cousins HC is so personal and real to me)

[hauntingblue]

LUFFY!!!!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN CONVERTED!!!! LUFFY BELIEVER FULL TIME!!!!! LET US WORSHIP THE SUN!!!!

[youngpettyqueen]

presenting this dialogue without any context because I made myself laugh really hard with it-

"“How about Lizzie Bennet?” … “We’ve got so much in common. We read a lot of books, and we’re deeply annoying to rich men who actually love us a whole lot.”

“You wish you could be Elizabeth Bennet.”

“I think you’re my Mr. Darcy.” 

“I think I should’ve checked you for head injuries.”"

[abyssalpriest]

Damnit lev lmfao. I was thinking about Shiva wearing corpse ash being resonant for other reasons, something about his relationship with the Bright Skinned Ones and death and whatever. No, no. More fucking importantly: Oh I wonder why Shiva is known for. you know. wearing bodies. his appearance is a mass of bodies joined together. yeah

[99probalos]

beach episode!

[monty-glasses-roxy]

I've been thinking, what if after Ruin, Roxy is able to contact Cassie's dad to come get her from the old pizzeria somehow? Like they deal with Mimic and then they call her dad before heading back up to meet him?

Cassie immediately flinching as she realises she's accidentally said the same shit "Gregory" did. Bonus points if Cassie's dad was a surviving member of the initial group of construction workers that went down there and got killed. He just pauses mid-sentence and squints as the cogs turn in his head, around the same time both Cassie and Roxy realise what they're doing.

They both scramble to clarify they're not Mimic actually, this is one hundred percent real, they really are under the Raceway, they swear while he goes silent, not knowing what he should do here. Should he... call someone? Does this mean Mimic is out? That the security is down? Are they actually down there? Is he suppoosed to just... go there and find out if it's a killer robot or his daughter and a nice robot?

Like really, what is he meant to do here lmao the Minis with Roxy and Cassie just have their heads in their hands over this. They didn't think of it either, but also come on guys you should have realised

[prospitfox]

.

[jils-things]

meow

[natandacat]

Had sleep paralysis for the first time since getting long covid, and damn is there an interaction between sleep paralysis and chronic fatigue? Genuine question, I feel really weird even several hours later and I'm curious

[maraschinotopped]

i hope we get more info about queen buzzbeamer because im sooo intrigued by her. she brings up implications. the fact that shes protesting/breaking away from a workplace that (allegedly) is exploiting her & her coworkers, and that shes popular enough with said coworkers to actually pull off a riot makes her seem.. not that bad?? like shes just an exploited worker leading a protest (albeit a leader who is seemingly.. quite cocky. and quick to blow things up. though i dont blame her for the latter since i think most exploited workers end up wanting to blow something up lol)

theres also the fact that she seemingly has nothing to do with n&q? so there would be no reason to fight her? most of the others have at least some reason to be fighting (or have beef with) n&q- pinhead seems to be the leader of most of the criminals in comet city so its likely they simply butt heads often; pokie i think just wants quasar dead, but it could also be to protect her planet's 'core' as mentioned in the unused takes video.. whatever that means; cephla i dont have a solid reasoning for but she could be trying to capture quasar due to her infatuation; guardian could be fighting against her will, maybe either due to malfunction or old dormant code; junkbot is obviously a guard bot made to fight intruders; and ill be honest mayor grimm doesnt seem to have a reason either, but from what we've seen about his general personality so far, he may just want to fuck with them for funsies lol.

so its like... why are we fighting queen buzzbeamer. does stonecold actively control/manage the woodworks she works at? why would he?? hes currently running a different business in an entirely different field of work. did n&q get caught in the crossfire of the rioting and decide to get payback? it would just make the two seem petty as hell. maybe theres a better possibility im not thinking of but imo.. it seems n&q have just decided to start shit.

bonus thought. the fact that protesting a workplace is put in such a bad light here (even with supposedly good reason to) brings up... interesting possibilities to how lightyeargames works as a company. is it fucking propaganda (for lack of a better term, but you get the gist: trying to portray the act of rebelling against higher powers as inherently bad, as to try and quell inside discontent). maybe the development hell NAQ1 went through was influenced by bad working conditions as well as general mismanagement?

anyways would fighting queen buzzbeamer mean n&q are on some level union busters.