#its so pretty but it has no business being this complicated to draw

[bumbleboa]

rainy day

[atoriv-art]

What's your favorite Nejigaa headcanon?

love when i get these so i get to ramble. thank you so much

well i started to be fond of them as a pairing from the idea of neji finding some solace from his clan issues in suna! he initially started going there as just as extra protection sent by konoha for gaara in whatever diplomatic business he might be on, but eventually gaara starts requesting him specifically because

it gives neji some space from konoha as he knows it stresses him out, and gaara post-chunin exams is someone who really wants to offer others a helping hand when he can

he's fond of him :3 there's some brief panels in chunin exams where you see gaara appearing to be a bit fixated on neji (like he got fixated on sasuke, just to a much lesser extent) and i think that would morph into fondness as he chills out and no longer sees people whose anger he relates to as 'prey', so to speak!

the whole 'you almost killed my teammate' thing wouldn't just go away immediately even if gaara Is friendly with lee, imo neji is the type of person to hold onto those grudges even if lee himself might not, but he's also someone who is very easy to disarm with like... honesty and empathy. and as much as gaara is stone-faced, he is also very much someone who has a lot of both! his Tone initially rubs neji the wrong way because it's just So unfiltered, but it also gets to him because it's impossible to dispute gaara's sincerity when he puts everything so bluntly, yknow? and as someone who grew up hiding or otherwise obscuring many of his true feelings (majorly by necessity, but later on also out of sheer habit), it's a trait that neji finds very very admirable — its part of why i like him with sasuke too, i think neji is drawn to people who are very openly themselves, people whose ideals are impossible to ignore

this got so long (as youd expect.) and definitely strayed from the initial ask so here's a read-more <3

neji fusses over him a lot id say, he comes to think of gaara as a very noble person — someone with power and who is trying to make the world a better place with that power — and he gets protective over people he considers so fundamentally Good. i think it's nice for gaara to have someone like that around (esp divorced from his past, a bond that he's managed to build on his own by his own merits) and it gives him a lot of fondness for neji in return :)

a lot of their rs progression is this back and forth of finding out like, how much the other Feels and how gentle the other can be when not forced into situations that bring out the worst out of them.. i Love the idea of gaara's disposition softening up (being more outwardly sweet, more playful) a lot as he grows closer to people, it's why i like drawing him being so affectionate even though he's so introverted... i think the contrast is cute :-)

i'm also super fond of the thought of them unpacking some of their family troubles together lmao, i think it'd especially be good for gaara as he has a lot to retroactively think about once he's not on survival mode 24/7 and he might benefit from a detached third party as a listening ear — his siblings have their own baggage attached to their father, their mother, and their uncle, after all. and well if anyone knows what it's like to have a complicated family history it's neji :P

also as a bonus. imo temari+kankuro would get along with neji (…after a bit. everyone involved here is a bit of an asshole but that's part of their charm ok.) but kankuro treats him like he's his secret extra sibling. meaning he really likes the guy but also meaning he will not know peace under their roof. they argue about anything and everything

hinata and gaara also get along pretty well despite gaaras Past. mostly because i think hinata should be friends with every autism boy there is (shino. sai. etc) but also because i think the thought of her being like "i know he used to be a serial killer but let's hear him out people can change 🥺 he's so sweet he likes plants" is really funny

[button-cat]

uhggh I just wanna get this off my chest abt pressure

ever since the new update, the games been less enjoyable for me. Not just bc of the zerum drama, but also the painter. The autoturrets are quite difficult for someone who’s played doors and pressure since release

and then there’s Sebastian. Idk but the ring left a bad taste on my tongue bc pressure isn’t abt romance. Plus it doesn’t help that both zerum and simps have been whining abt the “marriage” constantly

I just miss when pressure was a fish doors game and there wasn’t this much shit surrounding a new fandom

Yeah i honestly do quite understand you- I didn't really know about Pressure before until the collab between Pressure and Regretevator which got me interested in the game but i do understand how upsetting it is when something like a game, show, etc you enjoy ends up getting a lot of controversy around it- i have experienced it many times before :(

I haven't played the new update yet (being busy with school and plus- i prefer to play on the days that I don't have school- :b) however i have seen it through videos and- for me the autoturrets seem pretty complicated to get through, (this is coming from someone who has beaten doors as well as other games that are hard-) plus i have seen a video where somehow the autoturrets managed to get rid a bunch of health to someone despite them hiding which- uh i don't think that's quite fair- ;D i know pressure is supposed to be a hard game but- from what i've seen, I don't really like the autoturrets either- :b

I have seen many people upset with the change to painter- personally, i like both versions of painter (the old and new one- :D) but I do understand why people are upset about it- the old one I can't really explain well but it definitely had some sort of charm to it that the new version doesn't quite have- but I do see why the devs wanted to change painter :D

And about the marriage thing- yeah I don't feel like the ring really quite fits- don't get me wrong it does look nice on Sebastian but I personally don't think it quite fits in like Sebastian's lore- as someone who absolutely loves reading the lore of characters, I personally don't like it when things end up contradicting each other in it- like i'm pretty sure when you get sent to prison they take everything but i MEAN EVERYTHING you have on you, even rings- and even if Sebastian was able to keep the ring in prison, I definitely doubt Urbanshade would let him keep it after- and also,,,the fact that he also um- grew a lot. I don't think the ring is gonna fit on him anymore- ;D this may be silly to some people for me to get upset about something like this but- idk i just genuinely don't like when things in lore just,,, doesn't make sense- this is just my opinion tho !

honestly i also find it quite ridiculous how much people as well as Zerum have been making the marriage thing such a huge deal- the way how some people get genuinely pissed about it is something that I find quite concerning but how Zerum acts about it is also something that I find pretty strange and iffy and maybe kinda,,,immature- some of her comments i did see it kinda condescending and just- not really an appropriate way to like- react, y'know? It actually concerns me honestly- :/

I just feel like many of these things, especially the controversy, could've been handled better- from what i'm seeing, it does seem Zeal is trying to improve himself as well as the game by recognizing things he's been doing wrong so- i do have some hope that things end up getting better in the end !! I really like Pressure and I wanna see it improve and continue growing since it's a pretty good game !! ^^ i do wanna make some posts about Pressure (i did plan making a post about Sebastian where i just put show some of my headcanons about him with some drawings :3) and just- have fun with posting about the game without so many controversy surrounding it- :b

also, if its really affecting you- I do recommend to not focus on the controversy and also maybe like- not interact with the community- like maybe take a break from it !! as someone who used to like- get involved with controversies in the past, it can be pretty unhealthy- in the end, focusing on all of the dramas and controversies in the internet and getting involved in it as well can end up just- stressing you out and maybe even just your mental health get worse- which is why i recommend to just sometimes distance yourself from the community and game if it gets too bad- and do things you enjoy doing ! I may not really know you anon but- please remember that your mental health is more important, okay? :D (this also goes to the rest of you !! Your mental health is more important- please take care of yourself !!)

that's mostly all i wanted to say- sorry for the very long response btw ;D im a very huge yapper sometimes even if i try to avoid being one lol-

[coolkat223]

I'm probably gonna be gone for a while soon so I'm gonna just put down all of my idea's (Doesn't have to be a story, Could be what you may think would happen if this WAS inside the SAGAU-verse for simplicity because there is a lot of concepts I have and some of them may take long to write so I don't want to have too much on your hands at the moment) So my first idea: Content creator Reader, (Twitch because its easier) Where they have chat constantly in their mind and can be accessed by other people like Nahida going through their brain and chat can see this too (as a sort of second monitor) [Not In Imposter] And Writer Reader. Basically this can go two ways, One is where reader was creating the concept of man first before actually making Teyvat or made Teyvat first then humans, Or simply made Teyvat itself and when humans appear reader is all like: "Oh my god! Is my drawing okay?! Did a spill happened when I wasn't looking? (is my baby okay???)" Can appear as a hand with a pen(cil) which is their main form and they can draw in anything and can even draw themselves an avatar to make them seem less threatening or less confusing for humans.

Reader that is a student tells everyone that tells Al-haitham that they got detention (or suspension) for defending themselves at school (probably the most realistic and normal idea you will read in SAGAU) A reader that can sort of swap between persona's of archons. an example of this is if they take the persona of Venti they get speed similar to him but not quite. Same for Zhongli with his shield, Raiden with chests- i mean uhhh Thunder sword Ig (Idk what am I supposed to say here???) Nahida = Check their (mind) browser history. Furina = Flexibility (because water) [Literally the only one with Imposter Au potential because of accidental survival] Brain-rot reader accidentally saying THE WORST possible sentence you could say in Genshin (especially in a place where the language there is over 9000) And lastly a reader with a crap-ton long playlist and they just accidentally stumble across it Once again I recommend that you do not make a story because A: that would take too long, B: Because I have to go to a trip really long and I need something to read on my phone when I'm over there. C: Because if i did this separately then it would be like a discord conversation at night and nobody would have a chance to even send mail if its filled to the point its like an overflowing cup.

It's okay. have fun on your trip. Also I have to think really hard for them because some ideas are easy to figure out while the other ones are hard to go around.

ContentCreator!reader: This one will be complicated for the reader. It is like Nahida but the reader can't deactivate (in the near future the reader can deactivate them but sometimes forget that because they got use of the chat in their head.) and will have to pretend that the chat either likes their connection to their family and friends in their homeworld or like they are also different creators from another universe and that's how all creators communicate.

Writer!reader: l like both of them so I merged them together. To the characters they sometimes see them as a hand holding a (pen)cil or in their human form which are mostly black and white and their hair is multicolor like a mood ring. When the characters do something that they have no business doing makes them frantic and worried about them like a mother, even goes to give them cute nicknames to them (ex: little maple leaf- Kazuha, precious snowboy- Chongyun.). The characters will be embarrassed but sometimes they get into trouble on purpose so the reader will be dotted to them. (It's pretty much a contest of 'who got the most affection from the reader.')

Student!reader: I'm guessing that the reader is very smart like Al-Haitham and is very proud of being smart. That they have a fight with their own teacher for who is right or wrong (in most cases the reader is right and the teacher has their pride broken they expel you out of spite.). At the end of Al-Haitham pats the reader on the head and tells that he is proud of you and even teaches you other methods.

SwapPersona!reader: Definitely for the imposter au. The reader will have the powers of all the Archons and to tell that they use a certain one at the end of their hair will glow (ex: Teal- Venti or Green- Nahida) and also use their signature moves. Once the other saw that the reader did it they will realize that they are the real creator while the one in the throne is the real imposter.

Brain-rot!reader: My guess is that the characters will be worried because to them the reader is very calm and mellow. To get them started saying some worst words the characters will help them calm down. (The yandere route is just the characters just kill the person that makes the reader angry.)

The reader's playlist: This one I feel that the reader will have a song that is dedicated to certain characters. Like Immortals by Fall Out Boy for Zhongli, Elastic Heart by Sia for Childe, and Thunder by Imagine Dragons for Razor. While the characters hear the reader singing the song they dedicate to them their vision will glow. The characters will feel proud of themselves and on rare occasions they were even singing the song to themselves.

1, 3, and 5 are hard to figure out the longest. I have already done 2, 4, and 6 instantly and I really enjoyed doing them especially for 2 and 6 being my favorite to do.

[suckishima]

okay so i know i posted a few weeks ago that i did get to see the haikyuu movie when i was in japan last month and ive been so busy i didnt fully have time to process lol so ive been writing down thoughts as i remember them so, spoilers under the cut (no particular order)

final rally pov shot was craaaaazyyy (sidenote i saw challengers today lmao and they did a similar pov shot thing a couple times and it reminded me how sick it was to see such a complicated thing be animated)

in addition to that tho, while i liked the drop of the music then to just have it be kenmas breathing, i felt lie his breathing seemed a little repetitive?? like it was possibly just the same couple voice recordings repeated???

and also tbh.. i kinda didnt love how after the super amazing pov animation the way they chose to animate the full court flashback to tokyo training camp was just like a flat pan around the room. it just didnt feel all that dynamic after seeing something so cool, and maybe it was just my screening but the image was kinda blurry and not that crisp at that part

in general tho i thought the sound design was really cool, so much of it just straight up felt like a live match happening, and the part when kenma tells hinata to stay interesting and the sound cuts out?? ooo v effective i thought

and then the birdcaaaage aaaah i loved the way the wings like got all stifled in the cage when kenma first trapped him and then ofc the bursting out of it oooo im excited to see it again in imax

there were a tonnnn of small moments that i assumed wouldnt make the cut that actually did too, yaku sitting on lev's back when he's doing pushups, the bokuto/kuroo hair swap flashback lmaooo, goshiki having to share his ipad with tendou (i cant remember for sure now if he actually says that or not but theyre definitely in the movie), bokuto and akaashi coming over and talking to yachi and ah i think theres more. a lot of them were shortened down a bit, but i appreciated them getting attention nonetheless. sadly no kuroo/lev poop conversation though lmaoo

i thought the kuroo/kenma flashbacks were pretty good as well, i think they possibly added a few lines?? it seemed like there were more frames of stuff of kuroo being inspired by the "lowering the net" concept which was really cool bc thats really integral to his character to me. and then theres this line where kenma is like "hinata has kageyama and i have kuroo" and uhhhh that is news to me!! im like 90% thats new content lmao, and oooo it was good, the shots they chose with it too gooood

oh for some reason they changed how kenma flops??? he falls with his butt up in the air instead of just flat??? like why lmao, obviously that was like an Actual Choice they made bc they had to draw it and obviously had the manga as reference and it makes no difference other than to confuse me lolll

im interested to see it again distributed by crunchyroll too bc im sure some of the subs i saw werent right, a few lines just didnt make sense and there were a few instances of like "lead blocking"

and okay. i gotta talk about the chapter 298 stuff

its there its in the movie!! but,, it's watered down lmao

and i think i was also too in my head and overanalyzing it which im disappointed in myself for so im hoping on rewatch ill have a better time

the "hes always been one step ahead of me after all" was like as perfect as it could get tbh, it looks just like the manga and tsukki like says it just right and yamaguchi comes onto the court behind him totally focused and aaah really loved it. then the service ace and tsukkis little laugh it really good

but then i'm torn on the actual serve and block, there's no inner thoughts on yamaguchis "oh no the ball isnt drifting enough" and then tsukkis silent reply "no that was plenty" before stuffing it, so we arent hearing their like mind reading/intuition connection there which was a bummer. and thennnn im not positive on this bit but i dont think anyone repeats anything about the serve and block being the perfect play?? (its yamaguchi echoing ukai in the manga) and then no little flashbacks to how theyve been training

HOWEVER the big main flashbacks of seeing how yamaguchi walks from behind tsukki to in front of him are there!!! and the way theyre presented is interesting? i was like taken aback by the decision to have the clips being showed within their silhouettes as they move toward each other (i couldnt even tell thats what it was at first tbh..) that i missed whether or not all the panels were in it..... (majorly disappointed in myself for that one). idk visually i found it a little confusing i guess and so i couldnt fully appreciate and im hoping itll look cool on rewatch when i understand whats happening

and then the high five ahhh it was pretty good, idk if anything will ever live up to that manga panel for me, the joy and success and sense of achievement in that image means so much to me lol, but its animated fairly well. do wish they didnt cover tsukkis smile tho

then kuroo asks how tsukki feels about volleyball and he says its fun and he smiles and its.. fine. like ugh its just one of those things were this entiiiire section just slightly suffered from being a two minute segment of a movie instead of a whole episode (or even just half an episode tbh), like something about his smile and saying it was fun just fell a little flat for me and i was unfortunately a little sad about it, i was hoping for a little more buildup and like emphasis. this is a huuuuge culminating moment for him and it didnt quite feel like it to me bc the movie had to have other priorities where a season wouldnt have

later one when tsukki and kuroo are like battling at the net exhausted tho and tsukki smiles again that was pretty good, the animated is really top notch when theyre all panting n stuff, and the voice acting there was great, really liked it

[excaive]

Finally got around to read your comic, and now I have many, many questions.

Did KJ BUY the worm ? How is did they meet ?? Gimme the backstory I beg of u!

first of all thank you for reading my comic!! I really appreciate it 💗

Always welcome to ask as many questions u want (and I'm pointing at everyone reading ur also very welcome to ask any questions) and I'll gladly answer!

Even if I take a hot minute to actually answer asks due to lack of energy, I appreciate and enjoy when people get curious about my ocs <3

So to answer your questions! Get ready for Lore

Did KJ BUY the worm ?

KJ did not buy Jamie, Jamie wasn't even worm-shaped to begin with!

KJ's parasite is an abnormal Floral Parasite - but even that categorization is slightly misleading because Jamie is first and foremost a Regen Parasite.

What are these parasite types I'm talking about?

To start off with, there's Minor and Major Parasites

Minor Parasites are generally considered "low-effort" on the account that they provide a handful of attributes to their host (e.g. color change of eyes or hair, horns, claws, fangs, tails etc.) without asking for much in return. Minor Parasites are easy to get your hands on, easy to buy, and sadly easy to replace. If a host just thinks of parasites as accessories and don't bond with them, they tend to wither away quickly and you'll have to replace them if you want to maintain attributes. Great for business, bad for the little guys (parasites)

This is easily countered by acknowledging and respecting one's parasites, but if people grow up only knowing of parasites as fun accessories you can buy and mess around with, they wouldn't really know better. Doesn't help with how parasites are marketed

Now to Major Parasites!

Major Parasites are companions! These aren't as common to buy due to controversies of modifying Major Parasites as they're more complicated things on the account of being more "sentient" (Minor Parasites are sentient as well, but don't possess the ability manifest their own body so to speak. Quite at the whim of their host)

Jamie is a Major Parasite, and a Regen Parasite, which is a type of Transformative Parasites.

How did they meet ??

Great question! Regen Parasites are just kind of There. Whether people are born with them or get them really young isn't quite clear. Some say it's genetic, some say it's region-based, some say through tradition - but it's pretty inconclusive because Transformative Parasites are a pretty broad category.

So, Jamie has been with KJ since they were young! And Jamie was not worm-shaped as I mentioned earlier, it looked like this initially

Just a fluffy comfy glitter beast, which KJ never actually saw physically due to being plagued by violent intrusive thoughts when they were younger, and so Jamie would never physically manifest while KJ was awake as its goal was to comfort KJ to manage dealing with that stuff.

A trait of Regen Parasites is that they love their host unconditionally, and accept their host in their entirety. In KJ's case this helps significantly for them not to beat themself up due to intrusive thoughts because Jamie doesn't think less of them at all. Intrusive thoughts stand no chance against a fluffy brain beast <3

Also you might notice KJ looks miserable in that drawing and that's because they are. They were the weird (and repressed) kid with OCD and autism, and sometimes other kids just found them off putting or too weird, and perhaps also annoying because KJ really loves being around other people, but a lot just push them away and they end up not picking up on any hints that people want to be left alone because it's not said straight up </3 Despite his best efforts to stop being a weirdo just so he'd be able to be around others, it made KJ miserable :<

Anyhow, back to Jamie and its wormification.

The way Jamie became worm-shaped is due to merging with a Floral Parasite that was infected with a Mushroom Parasite!

Yes, parasites can also be infected by parasites, and those parasites are Mushroom/Fungi Parasites

So, Floral Parasites are a type of parasite you can contract through ingesting or smoking certain plants. Most common Floral Parasite is Spiced Mint Parasites, which is just straight up weed with mint taste. and maybe also a parasite in it if you're (un)lucky.

And so it happens KJ smoked a splumt (Spiced Mint Blunt) that had an abnormal Floral Parasite in it, which then merged with Jamie and that is a good thing.

It is not advised to have more than one Major Parasite because it can both strain the Parasite Bond with the host, and in the worst case scenario the parasites aren't compatible and might result in death. Risky stuff!

But all is well because KJ became even weirder and the freak he is now

I don't know where to go from here, but here's a list of Jamie's attributes!

Attributes include:

Note that the mushroom parasite has affected the attributes of the other parasites, so the categories aren't clear cut.

REGEN PARASITE ATTRIBUTES

Turbo healing

Able to rebuild tissue and bones

 Basically can revive someone from death if within minutes of the person's death by slithering mulitple tentalces from its mouth into the wound, practically rebuilding the tissue and releasing chemicals that jumpstart the body to work again.

 Stings like a fucking bitch tho holy shit. Like pure alcohol but worse somehow

Their saliva has healing attributes. Not as effective as the worm's mouth tentacles.

Increased strength and indurance. They can crush things with their bare hands with little issue. Like phones.

FLORAL PARASITE ATTRIBUTES

No gag reflex. Can't have KJ choke on it every time it comes out.

KJ can hold their breath for a stupid amount of time, but they are also able to breathe thru the parasite.

High lung capacity

Can float around KJ when complete out. It is solid to touch, but it will also avoid touch from anyone else than KJ. Try to grab it and it will disperse its form and gather together again into a solid body out of reach. will whack you in the face with its face or tail like a wet trout if you do this, so maybe don't. It Will Hurt.

MUSHROOM PARASITE ATTRIBUTES

KJ can speak thru the parasite and can alter their voice.

KJ's jaw is very flexible.

Connection to the fungi parasite network. This does not affect KJ whatsoever, but now every single mushroom parasite in existence know how much of a freak they are.

I could go on various tangents, but I'll stop for now :p simply ask if anyone got any questions about anything mentioned, I got a plenty of lore <3

[maiappas]

..

starting over on a new account feels liberating, but also scary, but also kinda pointless...? i’ve been using tumblr since 2010 and the landscape has changed so much. post engagement is at an all time low, and besides, none of my old mutuals are still around… even if they were, i wouldn’t know how to reach out to them to tell them i have this new account.

honestly, i have no idea how to connect with people and find friends as someone who ships pretty much anything. it feels like most people ship a specific ship and don’t like its ‘rival’ ships, especially if said ships are considered “problematic.” i have a couple friends from previous fandoms who enjoy both zutara and zucest, but that’s about it.

i’m also kinda terrified to be harassed off any platform (again)??? haha… i long for the days when people actually adhered to ‘don’t like don’t read’ and respected each other’s business. i don’t like to use the terms proship or profic for myself, even though i am by definition. i just think it complicates things and solidifies my position in the ‘proship/anti’ discourse, despite me wanting nothing to do with said discourse.

i guess i feel like i will have accomplished something if i can meet just a handful of people who share my interests on here, but it’s probably a weird metric to measure ‘success’ on when that type of thing is out of my control. maybe i will feel more accomplished if i draw x amount of fanart or write x amount of fic? but then i fall into the trap of treating myself as a content-creation machine, even though i’m just a guy who likes to create things sometimes. that mindset is probably a remnant of being some form of ‘tumblr-famous’ since i was a young teen. i am still trying to undo the damage that did on my mental health lol

i suppose it doesn’t help that this is a pretty old fandom, and that its recent revival is attributed to the netflix live action, which i have very little interest in discussing. it feels a bit lonely here, is all.

i guess as long as i’m here, i’ll keep writing and drawing these self-indulgent things and keep putting them out there, without expecting any results— just a labor of the love i have for the series. it’s the best i can do for now!

[autumnslance]

2 19 23 (hiiiii Lyn! Hope your weekend is going well!)

(Hi! And it is, thank you! Saturday was pretty busy, so hoping to put together a bookshelf Sunday and otherwise relax with newly arranged books!)

2) List 3 shipping tropes you don’t love

The main reason I don't care much for love triangles currently is the over-reliance on them to often try and force conflict. Done well, with actual quandaries between the 3 points, it can be decent tension and a meaningful choice. But too often, if it's just "the 'choice' isn't one why are we bothering?" and/or "polyamory fixes this easily" then the triangle has probably failed in its narrative intent.

(I watched the movie version of "Paint Your Wagon" when young, and dodging the triangle problem with the former Mormon woman saying "I used to be married to a man with 2 wives, why can't I have 2 husbands?" And the men going "Sound logic" and working out a schedule where they each got time with their wife while just being platonic buddies to each other was formative.)

That thing where people demonize or kill off or otherwise "get the canon lover out of the way" so they can write or draw their preferred ship. Usually done to female characters. It's entirely unnecessary and pretty gross.

Unrequited Love is one I'm gonna have to agree with Richard Siken on. Also the way it's often used is in a pining/mooning manner but can also lead to attitudes that step into being "owed" love/sex/attention and it just doesn't feel good, especially if one's ever been on the receiving end of such in real life before.

All that said, I don't hate the first and third tropes here necessarily, they're just often either overdone and/or often difficult to do in a way that isn't annoying to awful.

19) How long did they know each other before getting together?

For Aeryn & Thancred, about three and a half years-ish. Being loosey-goosey with my year-and-change-per-expac timelines.

(With my original story pairing, they knew each other maybe 15 minutes, most of it ballroom dancing, before being informed they were being tossed into an arranged marriage within the next couple months. It takes them a few more months/a couple years to sort things out. And then things get complicated.)

23) Have they met each other’s families?

Thancred has met Aeryn's family in Thavnair; maybe someday I will get that darn fic wrangled where they run into her family at the end of the Thavnair intro before returning to Sharlayan. Since then, her family's been around for the various EW plot stuff and beyond into the patches; the couple has their own little apartment within the family's city residence.

And of course they didn't initially realize it, but he did know her brother Zaine first.

Aeryn knows everyone Thancred considers family, and has for years.

[innocentlymacabre]

Due North [Part 3]: Into the Thick of It, Part I

14.08.21 | Part 2

Fantasy meets slice-of-life in the secretive, wonderous, and oddity-rich lives of the residents of Due North

The quiet early morning moon washed Alecia Ossario in its silvery tinge. She was dressed in black from head to toe, turtleneck covered with a leather jacket with far too many pockets to even be possible on top and jeans and lace-up boots on the bottom, save for her hair which had decided green was the way to go tonight. She made a mental note to tell Jasper to bring the delivery time a couple hours ahead, so she doesn’t have to be up when the only other people awake are the aquatics, gnomes, and faeries. Still, primetime for client scouting.

The silence of the night was broken only by the faint sound of an approaching car, thrumbling slowly down the end of the road. It purred along almost noiselessly, but on this particular night, nothing else, not a frog or an angry moth (those things could work up a real racket when they wanted) stirred even in the slightest, and no music from a water sprite afterparty rung through the night (If there’s one thing those guys know, it’s how to party, Alecia thought to herself), making it the loudest sound for miles.

Its busted headlights illuminated only a few feet of the winding road in front of it, something that Alecia thought was a touch risqué, especially considering she quite valued the cargo, and the side lines were more amphibian than she would have liked. She spun her fingers by her side, weaving a little light in between her slender fingers and let it fall in front of the car. Grateful for the light, it steered a bit more steadily before coming calmly to a stop a few feet in front of Alecia.

The driver turned the engine off and stepped out. A black boot hit the ground first, a tiny spark flying off, before a jaunty, dapper man stepped out. He had a dark trench coat draped over a brown suit and a half-buttoned olive-green shirt. He rounded out the sombreness with a yellow scarf and topped it all off with a top hat balanced on his head, tilted precariously to one side. His face belonged to a much younger man, all save for the eyes, which betrayed his true age.

“Alecia!” he exclaimed. “How you doing, darling?”

“Just fine, J, just fine. You should really get that headlight fixed, ya know.”

“Yeah, you know how it is. Always something in the way.”

“Uh huh. Well, shall we get down to business?”

“Always so quick on the draw, Alecia. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you didn’t like me very much,” he jested, leading the way to the back of the car nonetheless.

“Who said I liked ya? I do like what you’re carrying though, if that helps,” she said, winking.

Jasper mimed being shot in the heart with a laugh, then opened the trunk; Alecia twiddled her fingers and redirected the light from the road to the trunk to get a better view. Two plastic-wrapped packages, roughly the size of sacks of flour, gleamed in her light, boasting colourful pills packed to the brim, threatening to spill and scatter across the pavement.

“Jasper, plastic? I thought we’d already had this conversation, come on.”

“I know, I know, sorry. Last-minute complication leaving me with no choice. Won’t happen again, don’t worry.”

Alecia huffed. “Fine. Leave it with me. If a satyr drops by, I’ll throw it in as a “gesture of good faith”.”

Producing a knife from one of her jacket pockets, Alecia made a small, sharp cut in the packaging of one of the two, scooping up the pills before they could hit the ground. She crushed the edge of one of them and sucked on the produced powder, testing its strength and pocketing the rest.

“What? Still don’t think I’m good for it?”

“I don’t think you’re smart enough for it, J. Twice now you’ve been duped into bringing me candy. Not even the good kind. Ended up giving it away with meals at the diner both times.”

“Hey, twice in – shit, how long has it been? Whatever. Twice in however many years is still pretty damn good!” he protested.

“Yeah, well, I’d just like to make sure it’s not thrice. But yeah, you’re good for it this time.” She reached into another pocket and produced a wad of cash. Jasper took it with an exaggerated bow, Alecia’s response to which was to roll her eyes, and unloaded the two packages before closing the trunk and walking back to the driver’s seat.

“Fix that headlight, J,” Alecia called out. “Can’t count on me for light on your other routes.”

“Bye Alecia!” came the singsong reply as he sped off into the night.

Liking the story? Consider reblogging so it can reach a wider audience!💜 Continue reading below :)

↝✧↝

Berto, true to himself woke up well after noon. Bella, most untrue to herself, woke up even after him, having chosen to finish moving in after dinner the previous night. After a decidedly most undignified wake up, as Bella had so elegantly put it, Berto dragged the pair of them to a bookshop simply named Deluca’s. He raved about it the entire way there, claiming it was half the reason he moved to Due North at all.

Large glass double doors stood front and centre, opposite the canal that ran through the town. Small tables lined the two storefronts it occupied, its wonderfully comfortable light spilling out onto the pavement in front. Postcards hung from near invisible strings, each one unlike its neighbours, boasting fantastical narratives and landscapes dipping in and out of reality.

Overlapping scents floated around inside, books, new and old, mingling lively with fresh-baked cakes and pastries; the quietest music, soft around the edges, piggybacked on the aromas. Rows of books lined the front half of the store, some simply stacked on shelfs, some on painted carousels, others on platters hanging from the ceiling, and still other, ludicrously expensive ones, behind glass cases. The latter half boasted the most impressive patisserie either one of Berto or Bella had seen (“And I did a year in Paris!” Bella remarked). Lines of pastries, macaroons, puffs, breads, doughnuts, waffles, and more streaked down the enormous glass casing, leaving the two of them instantly famished, despite having eaten only half an hour ago.

Alia Deluca herself manned the counter, introducing herself proudly. It wasn’t arrogant pride, Berto noted silently, even though, looking around, she had every right to be. Rather, it was indulgent and her smile warm and welcoming, inviting you to enjoy with her.

Bella ordered a black coffee with a plain muffin and Berto, with a little more than a little difficulty, managed to ask for a strawberry tart and an iced coffee. Bella thought she glimpsed something vaguely bear-like in the kitchen while placing her order, but then kicked herself for making fun of someone’s body.

“Such a vanilla order,” Berto chided once they were seated. The sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing, and the riverbank glittered with fish merrily making their way about, so they took a table outside.

“What? Afraid I embarrassed you in front of your new little friend?”

“What?” Berto cried incredulously.

“Oh please, you could barely make it to the end of that order!”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he firmly negated, smiling slightly nonetheless.

Bella would have perhaps been less focused on teasing Berto if they had sat inside. For all the attention they spent on the bookshop itself, they had completely neglected the patrons, a mere glance at whom would have proved to be a rather useful introduction for the oncoming evening.

Dotted across the tables and mingling amongst the books were people of all sorts. Faries, harpies, and other small, winged creatures were either sat at tiny tables hanging from the ceiling, enjoying appropriately sized coffees and breads, or zipped around through the shop, their own light mixing comfortably with Deluca’s’ ambiance.

At a table on the ground, sat an elf and a dwarf dressed for two completely different occasions. The elf was clad in colourless clothes, black from the top to bottom, save for a red and white striped scarf. The dwarf, on the other hand, looked like he would be right at home amongst the stars of Milan’s fashion week (if, you know, they allowed people standing at half the average human height). A white shirt was tucked into burgundy trousers with a chequered blue jacket buttoned up on top. He completed the ensemble with a small yellow scarf tied around his neck, half tucked into his shirt, half falling out gracefully on top of it. Their coffees had gotten cold and were instead signing rapidly at each other and pointing to places on maps strewn across the table, apparently amid a high-stakes discussion.

Another was occupied by a donsy of gnomes, chattering across enough servings of biscuits and cups of tea to go around two per gnome and still have more to spare. They were a little lounder than Alia would have liked for a bookshop crowd, but they ate a lot and tipped heartily so she didn’t mind them all too much.

Cats floated around the books section of the store, merrily browsing Alia’s collection. Only their heads were visible at any one point, the rest of their limbs operating invisibly, and even they puffed in and out of visibility. Contrary to what one would have thought, the cats had exemplary hygiene standards: these cats didn’t shed nor drool and if they happened to somehow make a mess of things, they could magic it away along with themselves. Of course, their little disappearing act gave their kind the ability to be very, very good thieves (Alia had even met a few, thankfully not at her own place though) but the clowder that frequented Deluca’s spent a small fortune every month on books and then spent hours talking to her about them – they were her favourite customers.

Berto and Bella would have met all these people and more, if only they had sat inside, and would maybe even have been advised not to cross a minotaur’s territory, even by accident. Instead, all they saw were the fish, scales gleaming in the sun as they dipped in and out of the water, swimming merrily along the canal.

↝✧↝

thanks for reading!

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[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #30: NONE SO BLIND...

March, 1988

THE COMPOSITE AVENGER!

OH MY GOD THIS GUY IS SO GOOFY LOOKING!

So, the East Coast Avengers are dealing with the Super-Adaptoid over in their book (although disappointingly he doesn’t copy the powers of the current team) and the West Coast Avengers are going to deal with some guy that composites their attributes?

I’m down for that! I think every superhero team should have to deal with someone that’s just the whole team in one dude.

I sure hope this cover isn’t a lie!

This issue also seems like its a fill-in.

Instead of Steve Englehart who has been the writer since West Coast Avengers vol 2 started, we have Al Milgrom as the writer. Al Milgrom has been the artist on the book so its plausible that Steve Englehart needed more time to script the follow-up to the Phantom Rider subplot so Al Milgrom stepped up to write a done-in-one.

So I don’t know if it will be all that relevant but

Last times on West Coast Avengers: the West Coast Avengers just finished up an arc about a Zodiac organization made of astrology obsessed robots. The leader Scorpio stupidly teleported Zodiac and the Avengers to another universe where the constellations were different so the robots stopped working. Then Moon Knight harassed a man who likes to dress as a bull until he, the bull man, died in a plane crash. It was all part of the same arc, trust me.

This time: horrifying babies.

Al Milgrom, please learn to draw babies if you’re going to confront me with two horrifying cherubs on page 2 of a book.

Also: is it laundry day for Wanda and Vision? Why are they wearing their uniforms around the house? I know Vision has a TV sitcom dad sweater. I’ve seen him wear it!

Anyway, nightmare babies aside. Uncle Wonder Man reads Tommy and Billy the story of the Blind Man and the Elephant.

You probably know it. Or are vaguely aware of it.

Some blind wise men feel up an elephant and give their own, narrow interpretations of what kind of beast it is based on what they touch. One touches the tail, and thinks an elephant is ropelike, another touches the tusk and thinks its spear-esque.

And at the end they can’t agree on what an elephant is because they only bothered to touch one thing. The moral being “there are none so blind as those who will not see.”

The story is lost on Billy and Tommy who passed right the fuck out during this minute long story.  And Vision says that the more complicated theme of the story was probably beyond their baby brains anyway.

(How old are they at this point? Comic book time makes that complicated.)

But Simon says that mostly he just wants the two kids to get used to him being around as their uncle.

Aww!

He’s pretty busy with his movie career and superhero work but he wants to be able to visit this part of the family as often as he can.

Simon Wonder Man Williams gets in his Quinjet to fly back from New Jersey to L.A. but finds weird green bug robots smashing into the cockpit despite whatever defensive grid the Quinjet apparently has.

The robots shred his stylish red jacket but he manages to smash them and radio the West Coast Avengers to report the situation.

Wonder Man: “Attention Whackos! This is Wonder Man. Am being attacked by robots of unknown origin. Activating signal beacon. They’re strong li’l suckers, but I should be able to handle ‘em. There’s only a few... uh-oh! ... hundred!”

The transmission cuts off there so back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, the team assembles, gets into another Quinjet and flies off to help their teammate!

Meanwhile, Wonder Man finds himself held captive above a spaceship hovering over the Midwest.

A shadowy figure on a monitor with a tentacle mouth introduces himself as one of the Sligs -- an up and coming new warrior race who want to prove their mettle.

And like many other comic book antagonists, instead of just getting down to what they want to do (cutting a swath of conquest through the galaxy or annihilating the Fantastic Four) the Sligs decided they’re going to beat the shit out of the Avengers first to prove that they’re cooler than the Kree and Skrulls.

Also, and to be fair, they want to conquer Earth so they’ll have to tangle with the Avengers one way or another. Might as well take advantage of a surprise strike to test, analyze, and defeat the team.

But, yeah, mostly they just want to rub the Kree and Skrulls’ faces in it that the Sligs, an alien race from a- oh actually they first appeared in a Fantastic Four issue. So they weren’t invented just for this. That makes them slightly less laughable.

According to Marvel wiki, they appear in this, in Fantastic Four 209, and in Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet. So they’re laughable again.

Anyway.

Things are already not going great for the Sligs as a technician warns the leader that Wonder Man is straining their engines by fighting so hard against the stasis beams.

The leader dismisses it as no concern and is more focused on the rest of the West Coast Avengers arriving to rescue Wonder Man.

Embarrassingly, the Slig ship just blasts the Quinjet into another dimension.

Their ability to do that kind of renders the rest of their plan to best the West Coast Avengers kinda pointless though, right? Like, the Sligs could get rid of the West Coast Avengers like that. Just leave them stranded.

But no.

And granted, that would make a boring issue.

Instead, the Sligs reunite Wonder Man and the West Coast Avengers in this different dimension so they can throw a big, beefy green robot called the Examiner at them.

And by at them I mean at Wonder Man.

The rest of the team is frozen in stasis so the Examiner can test what Wonder Man can do.

And with each fight, the Examiner will adapt and improve.

As Wonder Man realizes, this kind of screws over the rest of the team, if the Examiner adapts to fighting Wonder Man and then goes against his less powerful teammates.

Wonder Man decides the thing to do is to totally wreck the Examiner in their fight so it can’t use Wonder Man tier strength against the rest of the team.

And he does. He totally wrecks the Examiner in one panel.

Unfortunately, the Slig leader tells the technician to reassemble the Examiner and compensate for the damage he received.

So Wonder Man is placed in stasis and Tigra is freed, leaving her to face an upgraded Examiner.

The Examiner warns Tigra that his shielding is now nigh impenetrable. Nice of him to give her the heads up.

But what Tigra realizes is that she’s still faster.

She climbs up the Examiner and then jumps off when he tries to smash her. So instead, he smashes in his own chest plates.

And now that the chassis is breached, Tigra jumps back up and goes ham on his wiring and such.

Tigra: “He may have been ready for Wondy’s strength, but that didn’t prepare him for my savagery! And so scratch -- literally -- one Examiner!”

The Sligs use this new angry cat battle data to make an even better Examiner and then swap out Tigra for Mockingbird to test the new guy.

Mockingbird quickly joins her battle staves to make a battle ten-foot-pole so she can pole vault from the Examiner.

The Examiner says Mockingbird is agile (and wonders if that's just a Earth lady thing, because the Examiner is down to stereotype) but that he’s a lot faster after battling Tigra.

So since Mockingbird can’t outpunch this giant lad and can’t outrace him, she takes a page from Captain America that “a clever, skillful pro can beat any opponent!”

Basically, she lures the Examiner to the edge of the floating land chunk they’re fighting on and trips him so he falls off.

Dropping men off cliffs is becoming her signature move.

Also, I think the Examiner obliterated one of those floating planetoids with his face.

The Slig leader is starting to see that the Avengers live up to the stories told about them. But hell if he’s going to stop now. He has the technician re-assemble the Examiner with strength to challenge Wonder Man, speed to rival Tigra, and ... uh... I guess being smart enough not to get tripped off a cliff.

Hawkeye is sent to face the Examiner next.

And he’s been spending some of his stasis time thinking about how these one-on-one fights have been robbing the Avengers’ of the advantage of teamwork.

With that on his mind, he tosses down a high voltage arrow and loudly declares that he doesn’t need it.

The Examiner: “Beware, Avenger, my power is approaching levels it has never before attained! No amount of strength, speed, skill or savagery can best me now!”

Hawkeye decides to test this with some high impact explosive arrows.

They make the Examiner stumble back a step but he compensates before he can, I dunno, stumble off the floating land chunk like an idiot again.

Hawkeye tries a net arrow next, which the Examiner tears apart like no thing. Then he has to use some putty arrows to slow the guy down so he can put some distance between them.

And at a safe distance, Hawkeye uses some concentrated nitric acid arrows, which he just so happened to have with him (Hawkeye’s quiver is as good as Batman’s utility belt and you can take that to the bat-bank).

It seems like the chassis is still quite durable but the acid seeps into the Examiner’s joints and he falls quite to pieces.

Boss Slig immediately commands that the Examiner be buffed and re-assembled. The technician tries to warn the boss that this exercise is starting to draw so much power that its becoming dangerous.

The boss just yells RE-ASSEMBLE! so the technician does.

Iron Man is up next.

Hm. Despite being the second strongest dude on the team, Iron Man now has to deal with an enemy that’s been buffed by fighting over half the team. If Iron Man had gone first, he’d probably have wrecked the Examiner as quickly as Wonder Man did. Now, he has a challenge.

Also, the Examiner can fly. Adapted that from the Wonder Man fight and has had it all along. Could have come in use when he was tripped off the edge of the land but hey, hindsight is something something.

Repulsors and the uni-beam both fail to do much to the Examiner. And the Examiner’s counter-attack spikes Iron Man out of the air.

But Iron Man lands near the arrow that Hawkeye dropped and he suddenly realizes Hawkeye’s strategy.

The Examiner boasts that it has grown too powerful for the arrows to threaten. But Iron Man uses the high voltage arrow to recharge his armor and then uses the power to magnetize the Examiner’s chassis.

Sure, Iron Man couldn’t destroy the Examiner, the guy can’t continue the fight with his limbs magnetized to his torso.

Slig boss: “Astounding! Each of these warriors seems to be holding some ability or weapon back so we are faced with a new challenge each time. Compensate!”

Slig technician: “Am attempting compliance! Tapping into stardrive engines now!”

The Examiner is demagnetized and made immune to that tactic. And Dr Pym is unfrozen to face a the Examiner that is now immune to the strengths of Wonder Man, Tigra, Mockingbird, Hawkeye, and Iron Man. That’s... uh... a hurdle.

Dr Pym does his Dr Pym Particles thing and unshrinks some tools.

But a buzzsaw breaks against the Examiner and just gets Dr Pym WHAP’d in response. A flamethrower also proves useless.

The Examiner draws near and Dr Pym says “I get the picture! I know when I’m beaten. But I warn you, don’t touch me!”

This just makes the Examiner want to touch him more though.

Which Hank was counting on, that sneaky Hank.

With the Examiner presumably savoring an Avenger showing fear at last, Hank is able to tap the robot on its chest.

Dr Pym: “You saw my ability to enlarge shrunken inanimate objects -- well, you just have to ask yourself... ‘how did those objects get shrunken in the first place?’”

And then he smashes the teeny Examiner with a hammer.

Good job, Hank!

I like how fed up the technician is getting. The boss is sunk costing hard at this point.

So the Examiner is buffed and reassembled and put up against Moon Knight.

And Moon Knight is thinking, oh shit, I’m screwed. He’s a badass normal dude with some extra selves he doesn’t want to talk to and such powerful tools as... an axe and also a boomerang.

Against a dude that is now buffed up enough to sweep the West Coast Avengers as a team.

Speaking of selves he doesn’t want to talk to, Steven Grant and Jake Lockley both yell that Marc is screwed if he fights that thing.

But another voice pipes up in his head, Khonshu, GOD OF THE MOON.

Moon Knight: “Khonshu?! You speak to me again. But it may be for the last time, unless you can somehow help me beat this creature!”

Khonshu: “You do not need my help, o Knight of the Moon, you need but look around you!”

Moon Knight: “This dimension... I hadn’t realize... it’s full of moons!”

Khonshu: “Indeed! Untold thousands of them. And we draw our power from the Moon! Now be the Moon Knight -- be the Fist of Khonshu as you never have before!”

AND THEN MOON KNIGHT GOES HAM AND TEARS APART THE EXAMINER WITH HIS BARE HANDS

HOLY SHIT

The Slig boss is stunned and shaken and other words. But the technician is now 1001% done.

Slig technician: “Oh, shut up! The power drain has frozen out our safety back-up circuits! Stardrive overheating -- this thing is gonna blow!”

The West Coast Avengers and their Quinjets are snapped back to Earth because the Slig ship can’t maintain the dimension shift.

Wonder Man: “I warned you guys you couldn’t beat my buddies!”

Slig boss: “Be not so smug, Wonder Man! Even now we are transmitting all our test results back to our home base -- with all that data about your race, we will surely find a way to conquer y--”

And then the Slig ship explodes.

Countless light years away, presumably on the Slig homeworld, they receive the data and the report that the expedition to Earth has been destroyed.

Another Slig technician: “Our computers have correlated and interpreted the data -- This, then, is a projection of what the warrior-race called the Avengers look like!”

YOU HAVE PULLED A FAST ONE ON ME AGAIN, A COVER TO A COMIC BOOK!

Ahem.

So. The Slig computers, assuming that the Avengers are one uniform race and not a bunch of different peeps with different abilities, conflates them all into one COMPOSITE AVENGER.

And the Supreme Slig is so freaked out by the mighty Avenger warrior-race that he orders that all Slig fleets must avoid going anywhere near Earth.

It’s nice when things work out.

I’m not sure how Wonder Man in the last panel knows that this is the picture that the Sligs would get. Yeah, it ties into the story he read at the start of the issue but how does he know that this episode of his life would bookend so satisfyingly?

He is so pleased with himself though.

So!

This was definitely a fill-in. Meant to spin the wheels a bit. And its a fun story! Not substantive by any means. Most of the issue is a bunch of fights. There’s not really much in the way of character beats. But its fun to see the Avengers all out-fight or out-wit a dude that’s growing to counter them!

The Examiner is kind of a boring opponent. Doesn’t really have the spectacle of the Super-Adaptoid looking like a mishmash of his opponents and using their powers against them. But he works for this issue as someone for the Avengers to style on.

I’m annoyed that the West Coast Avengers don’t fight a guy that’s a mashup of their powers and aesthetics. That could have been fun.

But I’m not disappointed with the issue we got. And the way the Composite Avenger was actually used was a cute enough take on an old tale.

Plus, the issue had Moon Knight empowered by THOUSANDS OF MOOOOOONS and going ham. I can’t hate that.

Good job, Al Milgrom.

You wrote a hell of a fun story.

Follow @essential-avengers​ for this post again months or years later, whenever I catch up. Like and reblog if you liked this issue and think other people will like it. Or reblog it to add comments or reactions. I love to hear what people think about these comics.

[dashielldeveron]

OMG EARLY IM SO EXCITED. I HAVE TO CAST IN MY BETS ON WHO I THINK THE MYSTERY MAN IS BECAUSE IVE BEEN THEORIZING BUT IM LIKE SUPER BAD AT IT 😭😭😭 BUT LIKE I REALLY THINK THAT IT COULD BE KAMINARI 😭😭😭😭😭 I mean ok reasons being 1 - isn’t present mic, 2 - is kinda unlikable in prev routes (perv 💔), and as for new hints there are a couple of manga/anime shots focusing on him hands because quirk so maybe ?? nice fingers ??? Although I do doubt myself because even though I do love him I just don’t think he’s 60k words material, he is not that complex as a dude 💔💔 but if it is him (which it isn’t ) I’m totally ready to be absolutely SEATED to see wtf his deal is (in my head I was trying to brainstorm what a denki route would be and what I came up with is that its basically like a reverse bkg route where mc knows that he is their soulmate but absolutely cannot fucking STAND him, so they intentionally lead him down every wrong path so that he doesn’t find out 😭😭😭)

I’m trying to come up with other characters it could be and like I have 2 more srs options and like a couple crack ones. 1 is all might, I’m not sure if he’s even appeared but all might to me has a lot of presence in the anime that I just assume he’s a background character in fic even if he isn’t. Main reason why I think it could be him is because being that guys soulmate would definitely come with 60k words full of complications. Like he is an old ass man and the very public symbol of peace how do even find out that he’s ur soulmate…. But the more I think about it the more I think it’s probs not him because like why would we not like him that much??? I mean he’s old?? But that’s the only thing + I’m not even sure he even appears 😔😔😔.

Next guess is maybe midoriya, I love that man so much but I’m pretty sure he is WIFED 💔(I remember his appearance in the shinsou route (( to be fair seeing him be with another woman would make me kinda not like the scenes he’s in leading up to his route….thinking thoughts))) and his hands are also given incredible focus in the manga so points to sucklable fingers. Also his route would definitely have 60k words of complications because number 1 - the girlfriend and number 2 very public hero (number ONE) very busy he probably has no time to spend with his actual partner, let alone two + he’d never cheat to begin with. I’m probably reading too much into it because he’s most certainly paired up with someone else but I do love him ( trying to brainstorm a route idea for him like I did for denki and his would just be like thinking he’s ur soulmate but his ass is so busy that you can never spend enough time with him to know so mc resort sto getting into very weird very extravagant accidents so that they can spend more time together)

my more unserious guesses are like iida (has appeared but hasn’t done anything too unlikable to my knowledge) or sero (same as iida) or just by some miracle it’s shinsou again lolol. BUT THOSE ARE MY STAKES, ILL BE IMPRESSED IF EVEN ONE OF THEM IS REMOTELY CLOSE. I’m hyped for the sleepover event, fic comes out for me at like 7am so I’m setting my alarms!!!!! I can’t wait to see all the clothing choices and I’ll have like a million new scenes to draw!!!!!

have decided i'll post any speculation sent in......shan't respond. 👀

lololol are we on opposite sides of the world??? love that. love that this manga that is good but also bad has brought us together :) get some sleep!!! you'll have something to look forward to when you wake up!!!

[vapehk1]

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Conclusion The Keystone Nova Bar 20000 Disposable Vape with its transparent vape tank is a game-changer in the vaping world. This stylish, functional device offers a unique window into your vaping experience, allowing you to see the juice level and ensuring every puff is fresh and flavorful. Designed for convenience and longevity, the Nova Bar is perfect for on-the-go use, delivering consistent performance and a delightful range of flavors. It's a sleek, user-friendly guide to a more enjoyable and hassle-free vaping experience, combining cutting-edge technology with a touch of fun. Read the full article

[dreamingpine]

you think if i died someone will remeber me here? whille someone think of me some many years in the future and be like "oh i remeber them. they did some cute art sometimes. i wonder ehy they stopped uploading?"

i hope they think of me fonly and simple come to he conclusion that i just got busy with life or something. not that id have died. i hope. i don wanna make someone i dont know sad when they think of me. id be very uncomfortable i think. considering i dont know them. i think id feel the same for people i do know. i think living in my famil house has helped me with this because of how intrigrated i am in this dynamic, even if im quite.

i feel like if i live alone itll only be a matter of time before i quitely dissappear from being and being in everyone memories. i know the internet isnt as immortal as we've come to think but i dont think i wanna dissappear. i dont hink so anyway. i. like. watching tv? well not in the traditional sense but i like seein hings. i also used to like reading but i havent like. been doing that. i also like drawing i think, even tho its like. hard.to do. im not good at commitment i think. im sure.

i think. itll be a long and quite time before i go but. i . have.

i. uh. have heart? constipation? emotion.

i dont talk. and its like a joke now, but sometimes its hard to. sleep. and i. i dont think i work as much. at least compared to others but. i feel like im at work alot. i dont.

i dotn enjoy stuff. i would like to. and then

i. im not making the most of what i got. im. very complacent i think. i dont know if thats the word. things are. moving forward. its. it feels like. its o ly a matter of time before im left behind? the

he world. is a scary gloomy place. why cant i. why cant i be. the. be better. be nicer to people. be fun for myself. be the light in the dark. for me at least. i.

feel complicated when i think of me. the. i only look on if i rip a part of me out from my living beating chest and. place it in. put it in a. a pretty boy character. then i can see. and think and torment while being. while having a wall up because. its not me~ it not~ .like that. and i

im sorry chacter of my own that i like .im sorry my favorite store bought chacracter. who is not mine but had very little to say. so ive ripped you apart. and tormented you. for amusement. it was intreting. in sorry. i know your not real but.

im not.

story. maker. raconteur enoug. to. to feel like "okay but its a compelling story and the idea would be a nice thought piece for blah blah." i dont

i dont even have the art skills.

why do i always. justify and rationalize. my. sorrys are losing meaning. oh gosh.

[xtruss]

Art: The Rembrandt of Aberdeenshire: The Extraordinary Life of Artist James McBey

This artist’s work took him from Scotland to the Arab world, and he saw the price of his work rise enormously – yet today he is largely forgotten. Now, a new exhibition reveals a lifetime of adventure

— Nicholas Wroe | Thursday 9 March 2023

Soldier Resting, Birsu (1917)

The story of art and its protagonists in the first half of the 20th century is a pretty familiar one. But the procession of star names inventing art’s various “isms” inevitably leaves out artists who chose to operate away from the cutting edge, yet who in their day were well known, celebrated and well rewarded for their work.

One such artist is James McBey, (1883-1959) who has found a new champion in the journalist and writer Alasdair Soussi. Soussi not only published a biography of McBey last year, but is now curating an exhibition dedicated to him at the Aberdeen Art Gallery.

“There are lots of possible reasons why McBey is not so well known these days,” says Soussi. “He was not particularly clubbable and never really joined the arts establishment. He was also most esteemed for the now unfashionable art of etching. But aside from being a stellar artist, he had the most extraordinarily adventurous, almost cinematic, life and I think the time is right to reassess both.”

McBey’s biography is indeed a full one. Born out of wedlock in rural Aberdeenshire in 1883, he had a fraught relationship with his mother who later took her own life. He left school at 14 to become a bank clerk, but by his mid 20s was a largely self-taught and successful artist and etcher. By 1917 he was the official war artist to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force; his portrait of TE Lawrence is part of the Imperial War Museum’s collection.

On his return from the war, McBey was routinely described as an heir to Rembrandt and Whistler as an etcher and print-maker. His success coincided with a boom in the prices of some of his prints, which fetched up to £30,000 each in today’s money.

The 1929 Wall Street Crash put an end to the speculative price bubble but by then McBey had a grand London townhouse. He spent the second world war in the United States engaged in unsatisfying but lucrative work painting portraits of business leaders and justices of the supreme court, and in 1946 he returned to north Africa, where he lived out the rest of his life as a leading figure among the louchely artistic Moroccan expat scene.

While McBey’s work is held in collections all over the world, Aberdeen is his spiritual home, and the gallery there boasts a comprehensive permanent collection of his work. Soussi’s new exhibition acts as a biographical guide to the man behind the art, displaying artwork as well as family photographs and diaries.

“He kept everything and he recorded everything,” says Soussi. “His diaries are an absolute treasure trove, not least about his very complicated love life.” McBey had innumerable affairs before and after his marriage to his wife, Marguerite, details of which he recorded in code in his diary. A code, it turned out, that Marguerite had cracked.

“He would paint and draw his lovers and he certainly regarded them as muses, with all that that entails,” says Soussi. “But it should also be said that all the evidence points to these relationships not being just a one-way street and he maintained friendships and corresponded with many of his lovers for the rest of their lives.”

Although Scotland held many dark memories for McBey, the artist continued to visit and, perhaps surprisingly, maintained the Presbyterian faith of his childhood. He refused to work on Sundays throughout his career and in later years used his diary code to record not love affairs but instead messages praising and thanking God.

“He is buried overlooking the strait of Gibraltar,” says Soussi, “and he was the very definition of a man of the world, but for all that and for all his travels and his travails, a part of him remained a son of Aberdeenshire to the very end.”

Shadows & Light: The Extraordinary Life of James McBey is at Aberdeen Art Gallery, to 28 May. Shadows and Light by Alasdair Soussi is out now.

Man of the World … Five Highlights of the Exhibition!

For someone who was initially turned down for active service because of his poor eyesight, James McBey had an almost unrivalled front-row view of the first world war in the Middle East. He was with British general Edmund Allenby in Cairo, Alexandria, Damascus and Aleppo, and witnessed Allenby’s troops’ 1917 entry into Jerusalem, the first European – and in effect Christian – army to have occupied the city since the Crusades.

Portrait of Marguerite McBey (1950) by James McBey. Photograph: Aberdeen City Council (Archives, Gallery & Museums collection)

Portrait of Marguerite McBey (1950)

McBey’s wife is sitting in the garden of El Foolk – the Ark – their home in Tangier. The artist was endlessly unfaithful, but the two stayed married despite several separations. In the 40 years Marguerite lived after McBey’s death, she acted as a steward for his life and work as well as becoming a noted watercolour painter.

Marrakeshia (1936) by James McBey. Photograph: Mike Davidson/© Aberdeen City Council (Archives, Gallery & Museums collection)

El Marrakeshia (1936)

McBey was endlessly absorbed by the light, colours and ambience of Morocco and would paint markets, street scenes, acrobats or, as here, the sex workers of Marrakech, complete with the sumptuous fabrics of their clothes. On the headstone of his grave in Tangier, “He loved Morocco” is inscribed in Arabic.

Dawn: The Camel Patrol Setting Out (1919) by James McBey. Photograph: © Aberdeen City Council (Archives, Gallery & Museums collection)

Dawn: The Camel Patrol Setting Out (1919)

This etching on paper achieved a record price for a modern print in the 1920s. It features an Australian camel patrol conducting reconnaissance in the Sinai desert. McBey travelled with the troop, recording his own first time on a camel as: “Little bit nervous, but after mounting felt all right. Does not appear so far from ground as I thought it would.”

[blurglesmurfklaine]

Should I be a mad person and ask you all the author questions?

I forget that "mad" means "wild or crazy" and I misread this as "Should I be mad?" anf i was like OH MY GOD WHAT DID I DO???? JJHDKJHDKJD

but to answer your question YES!! I answered all the ones I didn't get to already beneath the cut!

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

YES. I have an angsty like, Old Flame/It's Complicated bc It Was Friendship But Also Something More where one of them os very hurt and they become estranged and i have not started because i have BITS AND PIECES but not an actual... plot. I also feel like I kind of already did something similar with 'tis the damn season and don't want to bore everyone with the same shit lmao

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

(TW: SA) waaaaaaay back when, I tried writing a really angsty AU where one character gets sexually assaulted and it was honestly like. the second thing I ever wrote but the issue with that was that I was 15 and had no idea what I was talking about and while it's not particularly problematic, I feel kind of weird and icky about having written it especially being socialized as a woman like. Idk it makes me feel like a supid kid writing about shit they had no business having an entire story centered around, and it got really dark in some places and I feel like that's not and never was me, or what I want people to think about when they think of my stories. So it will stay and die on my ffnet page with the rest of the shit I aint too proud of

4) favorite character you’ve written

FINN!!!!!!! I love writing Finn and maybe it's because he and I share a braincell (or lack thereof) but I have always loved him and adore writing him in shit <3

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

I was so surprised to have fallen in love with writing Quinn, even though she is SO hard for me to get quite right most of the time. I love her your honor

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

online? enthusiastic!!!!

irl?.... WE DONT TALK ABOUT BRUNONONONOOOO

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

Walks, leave the house (has been harder since anxiety spiked since quarantine), talk to people. I feel like I am very intrinsically motivated, BUT very extrinsically inspired. I definitely draw inspiration from the world around me

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

depends on my mood tbh! most of the time its in silence by myself, but sometimes I will put on instrumental/classical/lo-fi music to help me focus if i need it. I know i will be judged for this, but I STILL WRITE FIC ON MY PHONE SOMETIMES WHEN I GET THE OPPORTUNITY SO SOMETIMES I wRITE aROUND OTHER PEOPLE< STRANGERS EVEN (at least I don't use the notes app anymore ksjdfkjsd)

12) your weaknesses as an author

UGH. Setting, describing movement, LOGISTICS,timelines i HATE TIMELINES like no i dont know when any of this happens but like its gonna happen aight???

13) your strengths as an author

I think I'm pretty good at emotions, specifically downward spiral sjahkjdaks I love me a good breakdown. I also like to think I'm funnt sometimes and write dialogue alright

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

not all of them but most of the time yeah ksjdhfksjd I have one for "State of Grace” and one made by the lovely @honeysucklepink for “Sing To Me” (which I WILL finish eventually i promise, but it reminds me of a Turbulent Time In Life and has been hard to write recently due to things I never would have seen coming a year ago)

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

I don’t think so??? I have an OC child i killed in a zombie apocalypse once that i sort of feel guilty about oop

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

Read more than you write, don’t be afraid to ask for a second pair of eyes, and work collaboratively, i promise you’ll love it. Also fucking read through your shit before you post it bc “idk how to say they fucked intensely” will come back to haunt you more than the dead zombie child

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Bullet points for sure and I’ve also found a love of Google Jamboard and Microsoft Journal!

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

Depends on what sort of time/motivation I have, really. Long time/No Motivation: Short. No Time/Lots of Motivation: Also short burst. Motivation AND Time (very rare): I will not move from this spot for two hours (mostly short spurts tho)

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

“Not bad for a fourteen year old!”

22) are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

Age Gap and Student/Teacher relationships is a huge squick for me, so I’d probably never write it. D/s stuff I don’t understand enough about so I def wouldn’t feel comfortable writing it lmao

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

forgot about this one and tbh gave me Big Ouchies. From An Honest Man (spoilers ahead on the off chance anyone is reading it):

“Look, I know the situation doesn’t lean favorably in my direction, but we have never lied to each other.”

Christ, he can’t take this anymore. Kurt spins around ferociously.

“All we did was lie to each other!” he snaps, finally letting out a sob. He made it through the mediation, but seeing Blaine face to face is so much harder than he ever could have imagined.

Kurt watches Blaine’s confusion morph into pain as he continues. “I said I didn’t love you,” he points at his ex-husband. “And you said you did.”

Thank you for this ask Yue!!! Sorry it took so long for me to asnwer lmao BUT UR A REAL ONE <333

[katya-1917]

So... thought some more...

Tigger: Two possibilities - 1. He has no idea what he's using. Someone else set it up for him. It's an old shitbox that lives under his writing desk and the peripherals are also kept under the desk when not in use. He uses it for email, tracking his bouncing PBs in a simple spreadsheet, and occasionally things like printing up multiple copies of a letter to send to everyone or touching up a picture of himself and his friends or drawing Roo doing something cute, probably bouncing. 2. He uses Arch on an absolute brick of a laptop. Arch because it's as exciting and unstable as Tigger himself, absolute brick because if it's going to be in a bag he's carrying while bouncing, it better be sturdy.

Kanga: She has a late 2000s beige box at a desk between the kitchen and the dining room. It runs Debian because that's just as stable and unchanging as she is. She uses it to look up recipes, make and print recipe cards, and store pictures of Roo being cute. Occasionally emails, mostly with Mrs. Heffalump, and using simple spreadsheets to keep track of things around the house, or a shopping list kept as a simple text file. She doesn't know how to reboot it, she just turns the monitor off and on.

Roo: He uses Kanga's shitbox when he needs to. Mostly emails to Tigger and the Heffalumps. He's too busy playing with Tigger and with Lumpy to spend time on a computer anyway. He has a terrible shitty budget cell phone so Kanga can call him from the house landline when it's time for lunch.

Rabbit: He has a similarly aged and specced machine to Kanga's. He runs some obscure lightweight distro. He uses the machine to email with his distant relations, complain about Tigger on the 100 Acre Wood neighborhood forum hardly anyone even knows about, and keep track of all of his garden information and preserves in a very complicated set of spreadsheets. When he does go on the Internet, it's to be the social media/forum equivalent of a toxic HOA president.

Gopher: He has an insanely rugged "work tablet" type portable device. It runs a horribly outdated OS, and its only real purpose is to store data regarding mine safety to hopefully prevent accidents via good recordkeeping. Half the time, he forgets to even carry it with the rest of his tools.

Pooh: He has an absolutely ridiculous 2000s kid machine. The tower looks vaguely like a hunnypot. The mouse is sticky. The keyboard is sticky. The monitor is older than the tower. It runs Windows XP with a ridiculous "hunny" theme from a third party program. Pooh thinks it's cute. He has no idea how out of date it is. He has almost no use for a computer, but somehow ended up with this freakin' thing. It mostly gets used for shared activities when Piglet comes over. Pooh's tried using it for tracking how much hunny he eats, but the spreadsheet just made more rumblies in his tumbly whenever he went to update it.

Piglet: He doesn't have a computer. He's a bit scared of technology and doesn't want any in his house! He's happy to use Pooh's to play a game together, though.

Eeyore: He has a pretty battered laptop someone else threw out. He hasn't changed much from how he found it. It mostly gets used to post his moping online to a blog a handful of folks ever read. The people who do read it think it's an interesting perspective. Or they just like the boopable donkey snoot in the author's profile pic. It's hard to say.

Ms. Heffalump: She has a truly ridiculous early 00s all-in-one that sits on a kitchen counter. It gets used for pretty typical mum stuff - storing recipes, finding recipes, a little bit of email. Nothing on it has ever been updated. It runs Windows 98, badly.

Lumpy: He doesn't have any devices of his own - if he's out he's usually with Roo or with a grownup who can tell time, so he'll be back for lunch and for bedtime, so he doesn't need a cell phone, and he's much too busy being a kid to have any use for a computer. Well, except when Roo or Kanga decide to email something for Lumpy or both him and his mum.

Owl: He has a very fancy laptop. He tells everyone it runs Arch because that makes him seem Really Good At Computers. He actually uses Endeavour because he's not quite as good at computers as he'd like people to believe. He had to talk about it with Tigger once. He did not enjoy that.

Christopher Robin: He has a school issued Chromebook. No one's ever actually seen it. He doesn't like seeing all this technology in the Hundred Acre Wood, and he never brings his tech there with him.

Twilight Sparkle would totally be an Arch Linux poweruser.

Rainbow Dash would probably use a decked-out Windows PC for gaming, but fall shitty tech trends without question (AI art, NFTs, etc)

(Flim and Flam would be the ones pushing the AI art and Web3 shit)

Rarity would probably be snobbish and use a Macbook, before either raging like a beast or sobbing whenever it randomly breaks.

Fluttershy would be likely be way too scared to even use a computer, until her friends pressure her into getting a cheap Chromebook so she could at least get online. Even then, she would mostly use sites like Facebook to post about the most mundane shit imaginable, while likely unaware what exactly a "meme" is.

Pinkie Pie would be extremely reckless and use an outdated version of Windows without being aware, while constantly infecting her PC with viruses and crapware. In addition, she would probably get frequently contacted by tech support scammers, think they're actually from tech support, but annoy them too much with her Pinkie Pie antics for them to really do anything.

Applejack would be total luddite who only upgrades Windows very reluctantly. She doesn't even like to use her computer that much, but when she does, she just wants it to "get shit done" without having to deal with annoying gimmicks.