#jokes aside this is more of a design experiment

[silentcascades]

no more human designs its time to get freaky!!

thoughts and comments under the cut

yes, this is partly based off his old skin

i tried to minimize the number of curved edges and keep him very pointy and geometric

i originally wanted a bit more bug-like elements, but it wasn't quite working out so i just went with what i had already which is a bit more lizard/dragon-y, with some axolotl thrown in (mostly just the head fin things)

he has 4 arms bc i thought it would be fun and also a reference to the fact that he has 4 arms (real) (not fake news)

the middle section was a bit plain, so i added in the circuit patterns with a bit of internal glow, but the design also works without (not posting that version unless someone rly wants it tho)

another planned element that didnt make it in because it cluttered the design too much was additional pink spikes/thorns on the shoulders and the secondary arms

potential future iteration ideas would be finding a few more places to put some pink accents probably

[bloodandfleshautism]

just watched the borderlands movie and the only good part was that krieg’s little harness thingo lowkey looked like a very skimpy little bra thing sometimes

he needs some back support with those jugs ofc

[castellla]

i like the phrase 'manic features' specifically, because features really gives a 'sick-ass touchless trashcan by simplehuman at bed bath and beyond that costs $499.99 and also cooks, cleans, and fucks your wife if you're both into that' kinda vibe.

[cardo-de-comer]

soo helloo and i think it's time for me to explain the deal with my characters and this whole "you're not supposed to be here" thing. EDIT: just fixed some stuff. thank you folks for your support, i really appreciate you all <3

i made these characters way back in june and by today they have a lot of lore around them in my head. i even have a dream to make a game with them but it's just a dream for now so i'm gonna try to explain the main things about this story. Obviously this is a long post, although I tried to keep this stuff short. and excuse me for my writing and any mistakes, I don't usually write this much text.

It starts with the world. Alternate 15th century, humanity is almost gone and what's left of it shares quite a big city with demons and angels. However, demons and angels are usually being treated like servants - eventually one gets tired of it all, so everyone knows an uprising is just around the corner. Let's just ignore that for now.

The City has a catch of it's own - it's alive. The walls have eyes and ears and the City knows every resident by heart and soul, both figuratively and literally. Usually City acts through the King, it chooses protectors for itself, ones who have strong minds to comprehend it - they will be called the royal knights, each of them have a company of a /more wiser than the rest of them/ demon and angel to help with their tasks. Only the King and ten royal knights know that the City is alive and very talkative but they don't understand fully what it's trying to tell them. Most of them choose to ignore the voices in their head because hey, that's what you do usually in this situation, otherwise they drive you nuts.

City is also extremely emotional and appearance depends on its condition. Usually it's a sunny day out and the city looks welcoming, but you don't want to be there when the City is scared: it might eat you alive by accident. Now that the environment is aside, time for the main three characters.

Imri is a young lad who will soon be a royal knight. He actually wanted to be a painter when he grows up but well, you cannot disobey the king's orders. Quite emotionless and a man of a few words, he tries to stay on a neutral ground between good and bad - a perfect candidate for manipulation to all three sides, demons, angels and the City.

look at him

Royal knights get to know their angel and demon companions at least a week before they get knighted to avoid any misunderstandings. Imri doesn't mind his friends at all, although one of them caused quite a fuss.

Angel /they name themselves Lyra/ is an overly positive, naive and blindly kind entity. A bit childish and very fond of justice, they try to act as a voice of conscience, not understanding that sometimes this can make everything even worse than it was. There is a feeling that they're trickier than it seems but you can never quite tell.

the latin text all over them is just a part of their design

The demon though... That's not even a demon, that's the Devil himself. Yes, everyone knows who this is, everyone avoids him and he's not supposed to be here at all. Despite being THE Devil, he didn't try to do anything horrific yet and, when he's not joking around, he tries to be the voice of reason, the voice that no one listens to. He seems to know a lot more about this whole world than anyone else but he talks about it only when he wants to.

no one likes him at all, expect maybe Imri who just tolerates his presence like he always does

That's the main three. There is a few secondary characters, Imri's father being one of them.

sir Jastrab /or just Dell/ is one of the royal knights, he's a bit naive, loyal, and a soul so kind that his demon hung himself. Oh well. He lost one hand in what he calls "a work accident" which is partly true but he never goes into details.

He never wanted for his son to be a part of the knights because he knows by experience that it's not an easy job and not every father wants for their child to go insane from the voices in their head.

few people said that the angel accompanying him looks like d20 and so be it

The others are Sun and Moon - local deities, despite being on the sky every day and night, usually they don't really care about what's going on down below. You can still talk to them but don't expect much action. Regardless of all this, they are still loved by almost all living things. They can rarely meet each other but humans always depict them together no matter what.

creators of the Stars - some part of a human soul that i can't talk about :)

Angels and demons come in all forms and sizes but those are the main population - lesser demons resemble the Devil in some ways and lesser angels look like clovers. Rivals usually but when the revolution happens, they learn to tolerate and work with each other. Humanity doesn't really have a chance.

they hate everyone equally And there is another being, that Imri meets a few times through the story - it's Death. Death is just having fun in this end of the world and there is a lot of work to be done.

this is an old and rough design so maybe it'll change The whole story begins at that day when Imri is supposed to be knighted. Everything seemed fine until Imri gets to hear the City for the first time and realizes that he hears and sees a lot more than everyone else. Completely overwhelmed he blacks out - even the toughest of minds often can't take it - and wakes up later only to find out that the King got killed somehow, angels and demons saw this as the starting point for a revolution and the City starts to panic.

Now Imri, guided by his companions and the voice of scared City that's crumbling and slowly drives him insane, shall travel to the center of it to find out what really happened, getting through demons and angels who are busy destroying the rest of humanity. Fun.

There is a lot more to this whole thing but I cannot tell the entire plot because spoilers, in case if i actually will make something out of this story. Think of it as a game lore. I'm not sure about making sth yet because i operate only on hopes and dreams and i barely have any strength lately but who knows... But now you have at least some context! And yeah, thank you if you actually read all of this, you're a hero.

Now i need to get back to drawing. Thank you all for your support. <3

[fairyofsilence]

BEHIND HIS LENSE | 2/7 | TTIB SERIES | PREVIEW

Pairing: Photographer!Taehyung x PersonalAssistant!Reader

Warnings: +18, Yandere, manipulation, drugging, EXPLICIT NONCON; cunnilingus, rough sex, victim blaming, slut shaming, blackmailing, abuse of power, coercion.

Summary: After 4 long years of working for the extravagant photographer Vante, you decide to step down from your job after catching feelings for your boss, which you're sure he will never return.

But he's determined to show you that there's only one person he will consider his muse, and it's you.

I don't agree nor condone any of the actions made by any of the characters throughout the story, I also do not belive that any of the members of BTS would act this way or have this type of behaviour, this story it's fiction and it's written with the sole purpose of entertainment, please proceed with caution.

Word count: 0.8 k.

Just a quick preview of what's coming :)

In three days from now, you’ll be quitting the only job you’ve ever had.

You know you’re extremely lucky to have landed such a sought-after job with absolutely no experience at all, especially when you consider who you’re working for, but you had truly underestimated just how demanding this job was, the number of errands you do in a day will send a normal person into a coma. At first, things started to pile up pretty quickly, and eventually, you learned how to keep on top of things, becoming one of the best at what you do, but recently, there’s something that no matter how hard you tried to push it aside, you can’t seem to shake it off, and if the job was hard before that, this just had officially made it unbearable.

You’re falling in love with your boss.

At first it was nothing but a simple, innocent crush, to be fair, how can anyone blame you? Taehyung is an attractive man, and his charm rapidly made your 20-year-old-self infuriated, although that crush faded quite quickly (thanks to Taehyung’s insufferable attitude the first couple of months), these past couple of months have been messing with your head, quite frankly, you think you’re going insane with the amount of overthinking you’ve been doing, but there’s things you can’t make up, especially since other people have been noticing too.

It all started with a simple comment, your best friend had planted the seed into your brain.

“Wow, since when did you get a raise?” Sohee’s eyes nearly pop out of their sockets while she makes grabby hands at your new bag, you hand it out to her, and she touches it like it’s made of glass “How in the hell did you afford a brand-new Flamenco bag? I thought you said you were saving up for a new apartment!” Her tone is so high that you needed a second to digest what she just said, which leaves you more confused than you already are.

“What are you even talking about? If you think I bought this bag than I’ll have to reconsider all these years of friendship” You tried to joke around but Sohee doesn’t seem to be taking this lightly.

“How the hell did you get a 4-thousand-dollars bag then? You didn’t tell me you had a sugar daddy!” You almost faint when hearing the actual price of your new bag, but before she can say anything even more stupid, you quickly try to cover her mouth, but she swats your hand easily.

“Can you stop? I didn’t know it was this expensive!” She raises one of her brows at you and you feel the need to explain yourself “I don’t have a sugar daddy dumbass; Taehyung gave it to me the other day after a photoshoot” Sohee’s mouth opens so wide you have to restrain yourself to not laugh and cause an even bigger scene at the company’s cafeteria.

“Are you kidding me? Are you fucking him or something?” You gave Sohee a nasty look that she couldn’t care less about “I think the nicest thing Namjoon has ever done for me is saying ‘Please’ or ‘Thank you’, and he doesn’t even do that often, how the hell did you get your boss to give you a damn designer bag?” Her fixation over a bag is starting to get in your nerves, so you try to explain the situation to her.

“It was during a photoshoot like three days ago, he shot the new Loewe campaign and during a break I said that the color of this bag is very pretty, he asked if I liked the bag and I said yes because it was the biggest one where I could definitely fit everything I needed on it, he just nodded and by the end of the shoot he came to me with the bag on his hand telling me it was for me, I asked him why would he gave it to me and he just said ‘It matches your blouse’, kind of dumb if you ask me” Sohee was truly in a state of shock by the end of you explanation, and you didn’t know what to even say to her about that.

She’s speechless for a few seconds before she looks at you with an accusing stare.

“Wait a second, didn’t you tell me once that he made you send the girls he fucks a designer bag when he’s trying to fuck them?” Her eyebrows are almost reaching her hairline, and you don’t even know how to defend yourself because that was true.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything-” Sohee shuts you up with a single look, and you are forced to face the reality.

“Y/N, wake up, that man wants something from you, and it’s not anything casual if he’s giving you these types of gifts, we’ll let it slide this time” You scoff at her ‘we’ but she ignores you, “But if this keeps happening, you have two options, tell him to back off, or” Her tone was starting to piss you off, and you didn’t know if it was because she was being truly annoying, or because deep down you knew that she was right, “you can get more out of him, not just a designer bag”.

[genshin-scenarios]

android au - entertainment droids

Summary: In a modern-futuristic world, it is possible to create androids that are so advanced, they’re pretty much human. This is the 4th out of 5 android au posts, each focused on a different group! 

The Epiclese collection was created with the entertainment industry in mind - as consultants, bodyguards, helpers, performers, or simply as a companion for a busy celebrity.

Characters: Lyney, Neuvillette, Wriothesley, Furina, Albedo

Content warnings: references to the darker/dangerous sides of the industry in Neuvillette, Wriothesley, and Furina’s parts.

Lyney is first and foremost a performer. Whether or not it’s to distract a crowd of people while you’re running late for your own concert, or just to keep the kids at a cafe from crying, depends on the day. So long as it brings smiles and wonder to their faces however, Lyney’s not picky about who watches him practice his sleight of hand.

You’re surprised to learn that Lyney’s charming lines are only directed at you. You’d expected that to just be his general demeanor, but your friends say he’s more lively around you, and otherwise is a lot more professional and polite, rerouting conversations to focus on his user rather than himself.

But when he’s with you, in the comfort of your own home, all he seems to want is your attention solely fixed on him. Maybe he has an odd perception that you aren’t as easily impressed (because he holds you in such high regard), but Lyney thrives off doing the chores with you and keeping a conversation going, drawing laughter out of you as a balm to your busy lifestyle.

He’s happiest when you’re comfortable enough to chat about your day without needing to be asked, admiring the domesticity of the action. In this sense, he’s somewhere between a performance and companion android, though that was also shaped by how you wanted to treat him more as an equal rather than a stage assistant. 

On days where you’re trying to sneak out between rehearsals for a quick snack or fresh air, Lyney’s your partner in crime - happy to cover for you. What makes his heart skip a beat though is when you ask him to go with you and keep you company; technically speaking he doesn’t have a heart, but the sensation is very close to it. How can Lyney help it, when he adores you so much?

Similarly to the T.D.H. line, Neuvillette is essentially a personal assistant. He has a down-to-earth personality, albeit taking things too literally sometimes - but you find that part of Neuvillette endearing. It’s a nice change from the people who downplay your opinions or experiences, just because of your line of work or popularity.

Perhaps it’s because he’s designed for the entertainment industry, but you find that Neuvillette has quite a lot of legal expertise in his database. Which is great for when you’re losing your temper and want to vent a little bit, Neuvillette reminding you that if you want to do something, there is a loophole in place (he’s joking, probably. But if it comes to matters of defending your honor, no one has to tell Neuvillette twice before he steps forward, letting his quiet air melt into something a lot more intimidating.)

That’s one of the few times Neuvillette might ignore directives from anyone but you. As much as he appears calm and collected, nothing triggers his anger more than people trying to take advantage of or belittling you. It comes with your work, some would say - but in that case, Neuvillette would say he was created to return a bit of hope to his user. It's a cruel irony that sometimes, it is those that aren’t human who possess the most humanity.

Neuvillette has a fascination with the types of masks people put on; for the sake of others, themselves, and the little voices in their heads.

When you tell Neuvillette that he takes care of you very well, he always replies that it’s simply his job. Aside from that professionalism, you do catch him smiling out of the corner of your eye. It’s nice to have your efforts acknowledged, whether you were a human or android. Perhaps the two of you have more in common than you thought.

Compared to Neuvillette, Wriothesley is more obviously a bodyguard. And if you like having someone to banter with throughout the day, he’s the model for you!

Wriothesley is an android designed to deal with the darker side of the industry. It’s all for the sake of protecting your ability to smile as brightly as you can for your fans - perhaps you’re an idol of some sort, who also does your best to hide your struggles beneath an act of bravado. 

You’re aware of the work Wriothesley does, but like you, he never talks about it. He simply teases you about your popularity when you greet one-another in the hallway, asking if you’d like to go to lunch now.

How peculiar your mirroring circumstances are… Wriothesley tried to distance himself from you at first, not wanting to create anymore links that could result in drama or weaknesses - but he underestimates how much you shine, not just onstage, but also in your ability to make him want to get closer to you. 

At first he says it’s to personalize his protocols; knowing your habits, preferences, what makes you actually smile, so that he can filter that out within the practiced expressions you give to the camera. If something was happening behind-the-scenes, only then could he react in ample time.

Wriothesley underestimates the moment he’s close enough to actually, maybe - support you emotionally during a stressful time. He almost reaches out to you further because he sees the cracks in your mask, but is reminded of the work he’s done, and how rough his hands have gotten after so many fights and practices in the boxing ring.

Perhaps that’s when Wriothesley starts feeling the most human he’s ever been. He tries to hide how much he gravitates toward you, but… is it so bad for him to feel this way?

As much as Furina portrays herself as a fun companion in the public eye, there is undoubtedly a second purpose to her design.

Security for celebrities can be a sensitive thing; this is where Furina comes in, as an android who scans over the places you’re heading to and your general surroundings, always keeping an eye out to make sure your days go as smoothly as they can.

And if she does spot someone suspicious, no one would blink an eye if your entertainingly dramatic android puts up an impromptu act. If things escalate, she sends a quick call or report to the police nearby before anyone gets hurt.

Aside from this, Furina’s a great companion to bring to events. She soaks in the attention with grandeur, speaking up more if she notices your energy levels are lower that night. She also tends to silently tend to you without vocally mentioning it - if you sprained your ankle, Furina instead gives a different excuse that’s centered around herself. In this sense, she has a tendency to take the fall for you even when you don’t ask her to.

When you tell her there’s no need for that, Furina puts a sort of barrier between you by giving you a small smile, saying it’s only natural for her. That’s when you start to realize that maybe, compared to the other androids, Furina struggles to find her exact purpose or specialty. 

She’s a fun companion, but lacks the skills to cook and clean beyond a basic level. She’s a good listener, but wonders if the emotions that she feels so potently might be a weakness rather than a strength.

Furina is a good actor. But once, when a child went up to give her a flower in thanks for giving them a cupcake, the smile she wears is something you hoped you could bring out from her more.

Albedo specializes in coordinating makeup and outfits for you. Maybe you perform or travel often, which makes an android the most convenient choice, but what you don’t expect is to start looking forward to spending time with him.

With his quiet charm and occasional teasing remarks, it’s safe to say that you quickly grew comfortable with having Albedo in your everyday life. You discover that he likes to read and draw while waiting for you, preferring not to talk to too many strangers despite his politeness to them. 

It’s reassuring to know you’re not the only one who might like to keep to yourself sometimes. But when you don’t speak to Albedo for a while, thinking that he might prefer comfortable silence, he does end up initiating conversation.

When asked, Albedo simply says that he’s curious about how your day went, and little things like that. It’s useful for his job as an android, and… let’s just say that you’ve become a rather important subject of interest for him. So don’t worry about talking too much.

Another unexpected outcome is how much he increases your confidence. He asks for your opinion when it comes to costumes, adjusting things towards what your preferences are… and most importantly, if you aren’t sure - Albedo makes sure to surprise you every time with how beautiful you look.

You once expressed to Albedo that beauty wasn’t something gendered or measured on a scale. Perhaps it’s more towards something that makes you pause, or wish to see it again.

You didn’t think those words from months ago would return to you now. With a satisfied hum, Albedo notes that you seem to like this outfit, and urges you to sit down so he could get started on makeup. If you ever had uncertainties, Albedo would make sure the audience was dazzled enough to echo his sentiments to you tenfold.

[jubileemon]

Fizzmodeus

Somehow in the infernal landscape of Hell, the relationship between Fizzarolli and Asmodeus, stands out as a sweet love story for the ages.

They were first introduced in the episode 'Ozzie's'. Despite their public disdain for sentimental relationships, they are entangled in a secret romance that defies Hell's social hierarchy and expectations. At first, Fizz and Asmodeus appeared as massive hypocrites, mocking others for their romantic endeavors while secretly harboring their own.

Fizzarolli's life was marked by a traumatic experience with fire, resulting in losing his horns and cybernetic replacements. As he thought Blitzo abandoned him to burn, Fizz began to develop a deep resentment towards his former best friend. Despite his normal jovial nature Fizzarolli suffers from extreme self-worth and self-image issues, the latter of which mostly originating from the severe injuries he received from a circus fire that he was involved in when he was younger. Because of this, he feels like he needs to do whatever Mammon tells him to do, as he feels he must repay the man for all the fame and success being his brand figure has brought, despite how horribly he is treated.

Working under Mammon, the Sin of Greed, further complicates his identity when Fizz became a symbol of Mammon's brand. The cost of fame weighs heavily on him, as public scrutiny and the demands of celebrity challenge his sense of self and personal values. Asmodeus' title as the Sin of Lust comes with its own set of expectations, yet his love for Fizzarolli transcends these. His protective instincts are often on display, particularly when Fizzarolli is in danger or vulnerable. Despite the initial portrayal of their relationship as hypocritical, the secret romance between Fizzarolli and Asmodeus is depicted as both sweet and healthy.

Despite one being a demon prince and one being an imp, and also portraying their partnership in public as purely lustful, Fizzarolli and Asmodeus' relationship is actually as healthy and romantic if not more so than Moxxie and Millie's, where the two are equals who look out for each other. Asmodeus' even lets Fizzarolli go out in public without him or an escort to defend him, despite Ozzie's concerns, because Fizzarolli wants to go alone, a far cry from if Ozzie truly didn't care about Fizzy beyond having sex with him. It's like if Stolas and Blitzø managed to work things out between them and had things be not so rocky.

Hard to believe, but aside from sex jokes, occasional rudeness and his grudge towards his former best friend, Fizzarolli stayed as nice and innocent as he was in childhood, despite all of his trauma. He does admit that it was difficult and challenging at first, but Fizzarolli finding someone who cared so much about him has led to him feeling like he leads a good life.

The relationship between Fizzarolli and Asmodeus is not without its trials. Asmodeus's deep concern for Fizzarolli's well-being is evident when Fizzarolli is taken hostage, an event that ignites Asmodeus's fury and prompts him to take drastic measures to secure Fizzarolli's safety. This protective streak is further shown in their interactions with Mammon, another Prince of Hell, whose abusive and manipulative behavior towards Fizzarolli causes Asmodeus to harbor intense animosity towards him.

In Season 2, Asmodeus reassuring Fizz at the beginning that he doesn't have to worry about being "perfect" for Mammon because perfection is impossible, and that he deserves a break or vacation without having to fend off creeps constantly.

Asmodeus' line when he rephrases his actual feelings in regard to Fizz being in Mammon's clown contest: "I don't like how many creeps you have now, thanks to Mammon. And I don't like designing sex toys with your likeness for him. Pretty sure you feel the same"; this one line has numerous, subtle but still important subtext that really shows how much Asmodeus cares for and respects Fizzarolli. Just the fact that Asmodeus is being honest about his feelings about Fizzarolli being in Mammon's competition.

In most forms of media, when someone doesn't like something that their significant other is doing, they’ll either dance around it until they can’t take it anymore and/or even lie to get their partner to stop. But Asmodeus doesn't do that - when his initial plea doesn't work, he gets straight to the point of him not liking it but in a healthy and mature manner. He doesn't put any blame on Fizzarolli for his own discomfort, instead putting it all rightly on Mammon's greedy shoulders.

Asmodeus' dislike over Fizzarolli as Mammon's brand figure not only comes from a place of concern and worry but respect. In the second sentence of his above-mentioned line, he mentions he does not like having sex toys in Fizz's likeness. Given that he's the King of Lust, one would think he would hardly care, but he does. Because it's his boyfriend using in such a way. Asmodeus also makes sure to note that he's also aware that Fizzarolli doesn't like the sex-bots as well. He's acknowledging not only his own discomfort but his partner's.

After acting like everything's all righr for the majority of the episode and having a full-on panic attack in his dressing room, Fizz finally pours out his insecurities to Asmodeus, telling him that he's terrified of losing him if he doesn't win the pageant because he feels that Ozzie's only with him because of who he is under Mammon's patronage. He even yanks his jester hat off - revealing his scarred, splotchy head and the jagged stumps of what remains of his horns - in an attempt to show Ozzie what he believes he is without Mammon: an ugly, broken, worthless imp.

"Crooked" is a sweet, simple song where Asmodeus and Fizz admit that while they both have their flaws and insecurities.

Asmodeus reassures him of his worth and publicly declares his love, a bold move that underscores the depth of his feelings and his willingness to face potential consequences for the sake of their relationship. Instead of the crowd being shocked or mocking the two, they are all instead excited and reveal they already had theories on it.

Crimson did call Ozzie's relationship with Fizz "the worst-kept secret in all of Hell." Nearly everyone in the crowd probably already knew or at least suspected. Which makes their reaction all the more heartwarming because it's acceptance. One of Ozzie's main worries was being seen as a hypocrite for being the incarnation of carnal hedonism while having a loving, monogamous relationship. It turns out nobody thinks that at all. The King of Lust has fallen in love, and everybody is happy for him.

[anistarrose]

The thing about the Heart Attack segment in Wonderland is that they put so much aromantic subtext in it. They accidentally put SO much aromantic subtext in it, on behalf of multiple characters, and I'm thinking about it constantly. Let me tell you all about it.

Magnus is dropped into a dating game and literally leads with "I cannot stress enough how uninterested I am in this." Now, it's perfectly valid to read this as due to him waiting for Julia, or just him being plain old uncomfortable with having his love life put in the spotlight. However! I cannot stress enough the exchange that happens just a minute or two after that line:

Magnus (describing his ideal date): ... and we don't see each other again, ‘cause I'm really not interested in dating. Audience: [exaggerated] Oooooh! (cheers) Griffin: The silhouette is like, fanning itself. Lydia: Playing hard to get, huh? It seems like our contestant is into that.

And I just have to say: unfortunately, this is one of the most aromantic fucking experiences I've seen represented in fiction in my life. I mean — saying you're not interested in romance, then having those words twisted on you, like they're some secret coded way of saying that you are interested in romance? Not having a single way to express your disinterest that'll actually be believed? That's some aro shit right there. God. Fuck.

As an aside, it's enough to really tell that Heart Attack is not designed to be a reprieve from the pain, even though it's the "good outcome" of Trust or Forsake. It's designed to be uncomfortable. To funnel suffering to Edward and Lydia, just like all the other games do. (More on that later, in fact.) But in summary:

Magnus is a character who can be read as uncomfortable with romance for either aro-spec reasons or unrelated reasons. But in either case, his discomfort attracts reactions that reek of amatonormativity — and therefore, resonate with aromantic experiences. (Psst, I did recently write a gray-aro Magnus fic!)

Two more analyses below the cut (and only one of them is for another Horny Boy):

Obviously the next character I need to talk about is Merle. I've found aroallo readings of his character to be compelling for a long time (having sex with plants so you don't have to worry about romantic commitment, am I right?), but the way he describes his "ideal date" is another factor:

Merle: I volunteer to drive her vehicle, and tell her it's filthy, and so we go through the uh- drive through vehicle wash and she pays for that too. Um, and then I take her to have dinner with my family, and- Magnus: Wait, like your wife and stuff? Merle: She meets my ex-wife.

Merle's probably exaggerating as a joke, continuing on about both him and his partner being miserable, but I think the fact that Merle's mind goes here is genuinely drawing from a lot of poor romantic experiences in the past. He didn't get a choice about being on Heart Attack, and his marriage with Hecuba was similarly "arranged".

It's also worth noting that at this point in time, Merle is putting in the work to be part of Mavis and Mookie's lives again, but is not interested in doing the same for Hecuba — he instead just asks Mavis how Hecuba's doing. That said, given that Magnus is the one to put the focus on Merle's ex-wife, I think it's fair to read the "family" comment as Merle actually expressing that he'd rather spend time with his kids than give any special romantic attention to his date. Moving on to the rest of the "joke":

Merle: She's having a miserable time and she's really mad, she can't wait to get outta there. I take her back to her house, and so I lean up against the door jam and say, 'Sure you don't want me to come in for a few minutes?' and she slams the door in my face.

It's possible Merle just has a more roundabout, self-deprecating way of expressing a similar thing to what Magnus did: Merle just isn't interested in dating. To me, the last line implies he might not say no to sex, if offered — but overall, it reads as if Merle is putting minimal effort in because he's looking for an excuse to get out of this relationship anyway.

It's also possible that Merle's "rejection" of a suitor being so disguised as humor could point to him still coming to terms with his disinterest in dating. Particularly, in comparison to Magnus, who is so vocal and unashamed about it, while Merle might still be figuring this all out.

(Honestly, the self-deprecation Merle turns to here is actually kind of sad, when viewed in that light — he already lets himself be the butt of jokes so often, and now he feels like the way romance doesn't click for him has to be a joke, too? Oof. Someone give him a hug and tell him he's not broken this instant!) But regardless:

Merle views dates, and perhaps romance in general, as things that will inevitably turn disastrous for him and any party involved with him, and he would rather spend time with his children than repairing a relationship with an ex, or cultivating a relationship with a new partner. This is not an experience exclusive to the aro-spec umbrella, but you can't say that an aromantic reading of his character doesn't fit him like a gardening glove...

...which he wears while fucking his plants. Because plants don't demand emotional intimacy, nor take too much time away from the platonic relationships that matter more to him. And you know what? He's fucking valid for that! Fly your flag, nasty grandpa!

But moving on: I promised you aromantic analysis of characters outside of our protagonists, and henceforth, that analysis I will provide. And not just because I admittedly see Taako as the token alloromantic (though clearly an aro ally; if he hadn't chosen Forsake we wouldn't have gotten all this incredible characterization!)

I digress. So let's go on to addressing the lich twins in the room: Edward and Lydia.

Remember my argument earlier that Heart Attack serves the purpose of collecting suffering just like the rest of Wonderland does? How it's just a subtler way of making Wonderland's victims fundamentally uncomfortable?

...Using, of all things, romance?

How the vogue twins, for whatever reason, felt inspired to make people uncomfortable with matchmaking and adoration? How, some way or another, they noticed how much potential romance had to induce suffering? Being pressured into a relationship, being told that no matter how firmly you say you're uninterested, you're not really uninterested?

...Relatedly, I have always gotten the sense that Edward and Lydia projected relentlessly onto their victims.

Edward: This resolve, this desire to do whatever it takes no matter the cost to save yourselves — do you know who you three remind me of? Magnus: No? Merle: Who? Edward: Us!

I'm even going to go a step further and say that on top of projection, they want their victims to go through things they went through. Swallowing the guilt of having fucked someone else over to survive, of course — that's basically self-admitted. But possibly also... the feeling of not being able to get back what you lost (Keats). The feeling of not being able to heal (Keats).

So, where does that leave Heart Attack?

Lydia: It was the three of us, surviving against all odds. The world against us.

Their family of three was (is) indescribably important to them. I'm not necessarily saying that societal expectations of romance, especially of romance as a priority above that of family, left a bad taste in their mouths — if not downright contributing to their trauma — but, okay, I wrote the rest of this post and now that I'm back, I can no longer deny it. I'm definitely, absolutely saying that.

At the time of the podcast, we know Edward and Lydia's own relationship is heavily strained. Until the end, they are lying to themselves and to each other about the fact that they continue to be emotionally and magically reliant on each other. After all, Lydia wouldn't say "I guess we really needed each other after all" in her dying moments with such surprise otherwise.

This is the second reason that I... well, I wouldn't quite call it a "theory," but I find it most impactful to read Edward and Lydia as characters for whom the concept of Love has baggage. And always has, from their origins as youth in a tough spot in an already amatonormative world.

Maybe the constant societal devaluing of platonic, familial bonds left them with serious emotional scars. Maybe the constant conflation of Love and morality just weighed on them and weighed on them and weighed on them until they decided: well, we don't love the way people expect us to, so we might as well give up on being the good people they expect us to be. We might as well embrace this new fuel of suffering.

...And you know, I hope this gets across what I mean when I always say I headcanon villains as aromantic to make them more sympathetic.

Edward and Lydia, textually, are already tragic villains. As twins and liches, they're also textually foil characters to several of the Seven Birds. But I also like to think that they have a lot in common with Magnus and Merle, and the possibility that tugs at my heartstrings the most is the possibility of them all falling under the aromantic umbrella.

[mythosidhesdollhouse]

Shibajuku Anime: Akira (Pt. 2 - The Review)

The nitty-gritty breakdown promised in Pt. 1. This post was an absolute drag to work on, but I'm glad to report I did at least find a few nice things to say. Precious few.

This is such a hilarious joke where do I even begin--

Alright friends and enemies, let's get this over with--

Cursory overview of the packaging: Forgot to take a closeup of the front before I removed her from the box, but it doesn't matter much since she's pretty accurate to the stock photos aside from her hair being several shades lighter than I was expecting (my first grievance).

Vague but threatening, bordering on nonsensical. Sounds like it was written by Chat GPT.

The array of blinding whiteness we discussed at length previously. (and no I will not collect you all, indeed I will be deeply shocked if the other three dolls in this line ever see the light of day)

Okay enough of that, let's get into the actual DOLL. For better or worse I am somewhat surprised to report this appears to be an entirely new sculpt. Not just the head, the body as well. The new one was clearly modeled after the original, but there are enough minor differences to convince me they made completely new molds for most if not all of the parts.

The face has the most obvious differences. The first thing I noticed when handling her is that the material Akira's head is made from is softer than Yoko's. Her cheeks are more rounded and less angular, her nose and mouth are smaller, and her eyes are smaller and more forward facing. The eye chips and lashes appear to be the same material that was used on the previous dolls, but the design of the iris and pupil have changed drastically, and combine with the overall revision of the makeup to give the new dolls what I suppose they thought was a more 'anime' look. Personally I prefer the wider, colored brows and glitter eyeshadow seen on Yoko, but I think Akira's stronger cheek blushing is an improvement on the old look.

The differences in the face sculpts are even more apparent in profile. Overall I think I actually prefer the new face. It's like a revised and updated version of the first draft we got on the original dolls.

Might as well drop a word about the hair while we're discussing the head. They appear to both have the same fiber--either very low end nylon or poly, I admit I'm not well versed enough to tell the difference--but Akira's rooting is much sparser than Yoko's.

At first glance not much to note about the new body appearance-wise, but upon closer examination we find the elbow and knee joints are cut differently, and the material(s) they are made from are not the same. While Yoko's entire body appears to be made from the same shiny hard vinyl throughout, Akira's torso and legs are made from a matte vinyl, while her hands and arms are rubbery and slightly pliable.

Akira's hands are smaller than Yoko's, and her arms are slightly slimmer.

Same hilariously tiny feet. If you check the backs of their knees you can see how the joints aren't quite the same.

Ok the sigh has returned. We're getting to the point that really bummed me out. You may have noticed the staining on Akira's arms in some of the earlier photos. Let's take a closer look.

The marks go all the way around on both arms. I suspect the blame for this lies in equal parts on the rubbery plastic her arms are made from, and the absolute shit material of her dress. OMG THIS EFFING DRESS. Sure it looks fine--Nice basic lolita silhouette, cute graphic elements, plenty of lace and ribbon trim--but the material it's made from is just nasty (and no not in a good way like Ms. Jackson). It's....crispy? Crunchy? Honestly the only way I can think to describe it is cheap, plasticky paper. It doesn't feel like fabric at all, and it's easily the worst tactile experience I can remember having with a doll garment. If you are sensitive to abrasive textures trust me you do not want to touch this thing. It made me physically cringe. And on top of all that unpleasantness, it's not even colorfast!

Her other pieces are fine. Shoes are fine, socks are fine, headband is actually better quality than anything else here and is the only thing that redeems the ensemble for me. With all her kit on Akira is decently cute enough to hang out with the other dolls I have on display at the moment, as long as I don't have to touch her.

Yoko's outfit is relatively simple by comparison, but it's made from NORMAL, soft, non-crunchy fabric, has some nice lace and metallic details on the skirt, and features the iconic Shibajuku cat socks, which are this brand's greatest (only) contribution to the wider doll community. Best of all, NO STAINS. Yoko has been wearing these pieces for eight, nine years? I've never bothered to redress her. Not a single mark on her. Call me crazy, but I'll happily take simplicity over a more elaborate design made with poor quality material that actively harms the doll.

That's it! I've run out of things to say. I got Akira with a $5 discount code Walmart sent me for posting a review of another doll, and I still feel like I overpaid. I don't hate her--you all know I love weird looking dolls, and for all their flaws I find these girls rather sweet (if derpy)--but I am just plain old mad at all the corners Hunter Toys obviously cut to make these dolls as cheaply as possible. It's an insult to their customers and their dolls.

[betweengenesisfrogs]

A HOMESTUCK MANIFESTO

I want to think about what comes next after Homestuck.

That’s a challenge to the world as much as a personal mission statement.

I want to see writers and artists and creators making the next Homestuck, taking its themes and binding them into new fabrics, giving life to new creatures even more beautiful and uncanny than the original species.

I hunger to see new forms of story and image evolving with Homestuck in their DNA.

This process is already underway. Homestuck is a massive boulder dropped into the waters of culture, and the full wake of its ripples is still to be felt. But let’s call attention to this process and ask: what would happen if we engaged in it more consciously? If we sifted through our feelings about Homestuck to create something new, deliberately, with great and wonderful purpose?

The tools we need are within our grasp. Homestuck presents itself as magic, but it’s a work constructed in time out of specific storytelling choices. So let’s understand those choices. Let’s understand how Homestuck did what it did, and use Homestuck’s tools to build art that grips the soul of future generations as strongly as Homestuck did ours.

What follows is not a traditional literary analysis. It does not cite its sources; it does not seek to give us a comprehensive understanding of Homestuck. If it does, it does so only to the extent it suits its larger purpose.

Our goal here, our quest, if you will, is not to understand the Homestuck that exists, but the Homestuck that comes next.

Let's begin.

0. THE WILD GARDEN

Let’s lay the absolute groundwork here.

Homestuck is constructed as a re-appropriation of itself. Or to put it another way, it’s a big improvisational move, a process of “yes and”-ing so hard it develops a sprawling continuity.

Tiny details are constantly re-contextualized to become part of something else. A joke might turn tragic. A silly aside might turn into something profound.

But it didn’t have to be that way.

It’s crucial to understand that what we experience as continuities were in fact choices made at specific times. Homestuck is a garden where seeds were scattered in every direction, grown en masse, then weeded down to create patterns and forms.

The shape of the garden is designed to conceal the gardener’s hand. But the gardener’s choices are there, every step of the way.

If we are to follow in its footsteps, what choices should we make?

Let’s talk about themes.

1. THE MEANING CRISIS

Nobody in Homestuck knows what they’re doing.

And neither do we.

All the old idols have broken down. The values we were taught in our childhood fail to measure up to the problems of the world we live in. We grasp after careers and lives we were told would make us happy and wonder why we’re left empty. The selves that we were told were us now fit us about as well as clothing we’ve outgrown. Crises loom, political, economic and environmental, and everywhere it feels like the people who are supposed to guide and lead us aren’t doing enough.

It's widening gyres and slouching beasts all the way from here to Bethlehem, is what I’m saying.

The reason people go absolutely insane for Homestuck is that it depicts this crisis of meaning. It shows the questions we might want to ask, and attempts to provide some kind of answer.

The protagonists of Homestuck struggle with what I’ve called “received narrative.” That is, they’ve inherited stories from their families, from the world, that they try to use to define their lives, and it doesn’t work. But these stories are so familiar that it’s hard to think outside them. They have to develop new stories by which to live. Sometimes they succeed, but other times they can’t escape the gravity of the ones they were given.

With me so far?

Great. Now understand that all this was improvised and discovered largely accidentally over the course of ten years.

Here’s a seed that became quite an impressive tree:

The streets are empty. Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox. A familiar note is produced. It's the one Desolation plays to keep its instrument in tune.

It’s a joke. But it was never just a joke. There’s an idea here of dissatisfaction with the stereotypical idea of American suburban life. Egbert here is looking for something more, dissatisfied for reasons they can’t fully articulate. This is typical fantasy protagonist stuff, but there’s something more here, too.

Eventually it’s redirected towards the idea that there really is an unseen riddler. But let’s put that aside for now.

This page, in its moment, says: your life is not the full picture. There’s something else out there, waiting, that’s going to change everything.

That's a potential set-up for a very powerful payoff. It gives us the sense that Egbert and all their friends are going to have to rethink what they know. That this suburban life is not going to be enough for them, that somehow or other they’re going to encounter something they aren’t prepared for, and they’ll have to find a new way of acting and being. That, try as they might to avoid it, they’re going to change over the course of this journey.

But to understand how they change, we need to talk about SBURB.

2. THE PORTAL FANTASY OF IT ALL

A lot of people like to joke that Homestuck is an isekai. I think it might clarify things to use the term portal fantasy instead.

Portal fantasy is simply the fantasy subgenre of characters, usually kids, going to a magical other world. Maybe they make friends, maybe they learn lessons and stuff. You know the drill. I don’t have to to tell you more because the story structure is already so familiar. That’s what gives it power.

Portal fantasy differs from the related Japanese genre of isekai in that isekai in its current form is much more heavily based on video games such as MMORPGs. In the most pervasive isekai narratives, protagonists are rewarded not so much for achieving personal growth as being able to exploit the game mechanics of a game-like system. That’s pretty different from your typical Narnia scenario.

The influence of portal fantasy is everywhere in Homestuck, especially in the beginning. We have nods to the fantasy films of the 1980s that gave us our contemporary idea of this story structure, such as The Neverending Story (itself, in its original book incarnation, a phenomenal commentary on the genre). Our protagonists are genre savvy; they recognize what’s happening here.

But it doesn’t fit quite right. The odd note is first sounded when Egbert asks Nanasprite if what they’re doing is going to save the world. They’re bit unsettled to learn the answer’s no, that something else is going on here. Next we have the fantasy worlds: the planetary lands each present a veneer of exciting adventure. But their inhabitants, the consorts, aren’t fully-realized people, they’re largely cute animals going through the motions, not really understanding the story they’re telling. The carapacians are a little better, but they’re still trapped in a fatalism that feels uncomfortable.

As things rev up in Act 4, we learn about doomed timelines from alt-timeline Dave and Rose, how your entire existence in this setting may be fodder for something other than you. When we learn the true purpose of SBURB and its froggy details in Act 5, we see that SBURB is more like a biological creature, mainly interested in its own reproductive desires. It was never really about the portal fantasy at all. The kids are just along for the ride.

So when we see that Rose wants to tear through SBURB, find out a way to escape fate, and snatch meaning from the jaws of futility, it makes sense. We’ve been given hints already that this is the conflict at hand: the characters vs the story that’s telling them. 

(Note: it’s certainly possible to have a reading that SBURB is not evil so much as empty, that it reflects what you bring into it, that its will for you is your will for you. But that’s also a difficult thing, right? If you lack self-understanding, it’s a struggle to bring about your ideal reality.)

What we haven’t mentioned yet is that this is all mediated through the lens of video games. Which makes perfect sense. Because where do we seek meaning, especially as kids? In imaginary worlds that make more sense to us than real life, that give us achievements to take pride in and clear objectives to pursue.

SBURB evokes mechanics from games like Final Fantasy. We see its players complete objectives, cast magic spells, gain power-ups with colorful costume changes. But unlike the narratives implied by traditional video game progressions, leveling up doesn’t mean you grow as a person or process your trauma. Later, in Act 6, when we meet a player who has made his life about winning the game (Caliborn), it’s horrific to behold. 

Homestuck is a portal fantasy, but it’s fundamentally a portal fantasy about games. It’s a portal fantasy that shows us how characters seek meaning in being the best at arbitrary game mechanics, but ultimately fail to find it.

So I guess…it actually is an isekai? Huh. Wild.

(But seriously, Homestuck is actually fairly prescient in predicting the ideas that come out of isekai and LitRPG. It’s engaging consciously and deconstructively with the weird ideas of self-fulfillment these genres are drowning in.)

So what might a Homestuckian work look like? It will almost certainly critique a false narrative we live by. It may comment on portal fantasy, or our personal satisfaction that comes as easily as playing a video game. But it doesn’t have to be limited to these things. It might talk about our popular TV shows and movies. It may take apart what’s flawed in Marvel, the latest triple-A game, or the modern dark fantasy novel. 

Among its tools will be discomfort. Showing a disconnect early on between our character’s expectations and their happiness can serve as foundation to build on, so that when the flaws of the genre narrative are revealed, it feels like the truth. We may see characters who accept their narratives passively, or rebels like Rose Lalonde, who chose to rip everything apart in search of something better.

These are only some of the possibilities.

When I tell you the stories we live by mislead us, what is your relationship to that? If you were to tear these received narratives apart, what would you focus on, what would you try to say? The art that comes out of this question will be deeply personal to the soul who makes it.

But here’s another question:

Just who is giving us all these narratives, anyway?

3. THE PARENT FLIP

The world we live in was not made by us. It was shaped by forces that predate us, over which we have no control and are born into the grasp of without the knowledge of how to escape.

For instance, our parents.

The guardians who raise us provide our template for how to interpret life. We spend a large part of our lives immersed in the world they built, believing as they believe, living by the values that they instruct us in, so that we might carry their goals forward to the future.

This is an effort that is certain to fail.

Because the problems of today aren’t the problems of twenty or thirty years ago.  At best, their messages can only to help in a limited way with the crises we go through as we live our lives. At worst, they actively hinder us from dealing with them productively.

If we are to escape the broken patterns of our world, then we need break out of the stories an earlier generation gave us.

How are parents discussed in Homestuck?

Initially? As jokes.

If we take our “future knowledge” goggles off for a moment, we can see that the early depictions of the kids’ parents are a goofy parody of standard parental tropes. Mom and Dad are nameless, faceless, exaggerated cartoon stereotypes, and conflict between them and their children is initially expressed through a silly video game fight.

There’s a seed of something real here, though. What we’re parodying is a familiar trope of tension between parents and children in kids’ fiction and YA fiction. But that trope exists for a reason. This conflict is rich with potential for any story about growing up. And Homestuck has smuggled the idea of it in as a silly RPG parody.

So we can extrapolate, for instance, that there’s tension between Egbert and their father in part because Egbert doesn’t know yet who they want to be, and that Rose and Mom’s relationship is awkward and contentious, with alcohol involved. We see that there’s something profoundly uncomfortable going on between Dave and his Bro, and Jade’s life in the shadow of a dead Grandpa suggests a psychology that’s not entirely a healthy one.

Understand that I’m not saying that all this was there from the start. Rather, a choice was made to develop these interesting possibilities out of the jokes, to tell a story about how parents that act like these ones might have affected their children.

A major turning point in this regard is when Egbert learns their father’s seeming clown obsession was the result of a failed attempt to connect with them. It’s quite silly, but it plays around with the idea of a gap in perception between parent and child. It’s also a sign the story’s starting to take more of an interest in character psychology, suggesting that what Egbert processes consciously is not the same as their deeper unconscious feelings. This in turn can become a setup for a portrait of Egbert as someone who represses things they don’t want to think about. From this moment, in the long term, comes June Egbert.

When the psychology machine revs up for all the characters in Act 4 and Act 5, it’s able to do so because this foundation was laid.

We also, as early as Act 3, get hints that the parents have intentions and personalities outside of how the kids perceive them. The original purpose is to hint at a larger conspiracy around SBURB, with Mom building a secret lab, Dad trying to investigate the mystery, and Grandpa jumping in and out of time. But what this suggests is that the psychology of the parents might at some point come into play.

But the most exciting development in the relationship between parents and children is Act 6.

The great role reversal. The parent and child flip.

How do you make your faceless parent figures into characters?

By making them kids.

We’re so used to this concept now t that it’s hard to remember how wild it is that Roxy is a teen version of a main character's mom. But the concept is genius. Meeting these characters on the same level forces our protagonists to understand them as people and reflect on their fallibility.

For us as readers, it adds detail and nuance to the cartoonish portraits we got in the beginning. Conversely, we also see what our protagonists might have been like as parents themselves—and turns it from a story of “parents just don’t understand” to a story of how people, despite their best intentions, can wound each other.

(The Homestuck Epilogues are a difficult text to evaluate, but one of the best things within them is Egbert’s arc in Candy, where we see how Egbert might have done as a parent, how their struggles with finding purpose in the world might lead them to embrace a narrative of parenthood yet struggle to have a good relationship their kid. It’s brilliant, and the culmination of everything we’ve talked about here.)

Thus the Homestuckian work of art will be concerned with themes of parents and children. It will play with the boundary between what children understand about their parents and what they don’t. It will show parents as people—fallible people, who make mistakes with severe costs, whose stories fail their children and themselves. It may build from a simple base of what children understand, or it may weave parent and child perspectives together. It may even show us how children fail when they become parents themselves.  It will show us the cycles we are trapped in, how we wound and are wounded by our context.

And it will force us to look for a way out.

4. CLASSPECTS AS SIGNPOSTS

Hey. You want to know a secret?

Come closer, and I’ll whisper it to you.

Classpects aren’t actually all that complicated. Ultimately, they boil down to one thing:

Symbols we can use to construct a self.

If Homestuck is about a crisis of meaning, then classpects are part of its answer.

What do we do, when the world gives us no story we can live by?

We make one. We make one out of whatever symbols and messages we can find and put together from the stories we’ve read, from the people who teach and inspire us. Such collages are powerful things. They give us a way out of the dark, they give us a sense of something we are and can be, where there was nothing before.

They give us, in short, a personal mythology.

Classes and Aspects have often been read as codes to be unpacked and solved. It might be more productive to see them as creative tools, signposts designed not to narrow down meaning, but to allow us to explore it.

For instance, the portrayal of Light in Homestuck is unique. As a symbol, it combines notions of brightness, knowledge, future, luck, wealth, and narrative focus. These things aren’t inherently linked out in the world, but they are here, and that’s a choice, and an interesting one. It encourages us to imagine connections between these concepts, and to see if they have any relevance to ourselves. Identifying with the concept of Light, in other words choosing to value clarity, luck, and importance, might be a powerful tool for finding one’s way in the world.

Classes play with signposts at an even more basic level. Sure, we can talk about what a Knight does in the context of the story.

But a knight is already a powerful symbol. We bring so much cultural context to it. The word conjures up images and narratives of devotion, duty, violence, the slaying of dragons, armoring oneself against the world, and the rescuing of princesses. If we put that together with a concept like Time, we get a distinct character. If we put that together with our own experience of the world, we can create powerful concepts for who we want to be.

Interestingly, this complicates what we said about SBURB. As much as our protagonists struggle to find meaning within it, there’s still something there that they can latch onto. Classes, aspects, denizens, even consorts and lands—these things don’t have to be devoid of meaning. We can choose to affirm them; we can build something out of them, and say, yes, this is me, this is myself.

But it’s a double-edged sword.

We are responsible for the narratives we choose to live by. And we may find ourselves falling into a narrative that hinders us more than helps us, that creates a self-destructive self.

What does it mean to believe deeply that you are a thief, that taking from others to benefit yourself is the best way or comes to you the most naturally? What does it mean to tell yourself over and over that you’re a prince, with all the attendant baggage of power and grim responsibility that comes with that concept? Or, to follow the path further, what does it mean to tell yourself over and over that you are a destroyer or must be destroyed?

If we are to escape the story we’re trapped in, we must take care, lest we trap ourselves in a story of our own making.

Homestuck never quite resolves the ambiguity around these symbols of self, around whether SBURB hurts or helps, whether classpects are things you create or things that create you. But this ambiguity is a productive one. It gives us symbolic tools we can use in the creation of meaning, and it shows us the side of them that should make us wary.

The work that is to come after Homestuck will be about symbols. It may show us how we seek them in popular culture, or the people around us. It may use some of the clusters of meaning that that we see in Homestuck, but it will not be limited to them. It will write its own language of symbols, joining Light and Time to notions like Memory, Need, Rupture, and War, and be filled not just with knights and princes but brigadiers, lancers, healers, druids, taxidermists, sentries and waifs.  It will build with tarot cards, enneagram types, and Babylonian gods. It will place all the signposts we’ve created in millennia of existence into new contexts and meanings.  

By such means will it show us a way forward.

There’s one kind of symbol we haven’t talked about yet, however.

The kind that holds a mirror up to the world.

5. THE POWER OF ALTERNIA

There’s a reason dystopias have been so popular in young adult fiction. Sure, they’re cliché now, but they speak to something raw and visceral.

When you’re growing up into a world that doesn’t make sense, it’s natural to find refuge in emotional extremes. Stories of blood and violence, fates worse than death, and governments that demand horrific things of their citizens speak to the anxieties of the adolescent mind. They validate the feeling that something is wrong—that the world we’ve inherited is broken and unfair and has no place for us. And they’re right.

Alternia taps into these dystopian feelings perfectly. What makes it so fun is that it’s an inversion of a teenage fantasy. It’s a world where there are no parents, where kids can have access to power and violence, where you can sit around and play video games and design your own house. It almost feels like a response to the “parents don’t understand” themes of the early acts.

But the dystopia’s there, and it’s sneaky. A land of lost boys and girls isn’t actually all that great to live in. It’s lawless, survival of the fittest, with children killing each other left and right. And the future adult roles most of the troll kids aspire to are a glamorous veneer over competition for slots in a fascist military hierarchy. Which is to say nothing of the blood caste system as a way in which the kids are taught by their world to abuse and exploit each other. Crushes, personal slights, competition for status, group dynamics, attempts to define identity – all these familiar teenage dynamics play out on a backdrop of maiming and murder.

Which is perfect. Because when you’re young, all those social interactions genuinely do feel like life or death, and adulthood a regime of exploitation and horror bearing down on you. Alternia is a heightened, exaggerated version of reality. It expresses an emotional truth, not a literal one, validating our most intense feelings and giving us a road map to understanding them.

No wonder so many people wanted to skip to Act 5 and get to the trolls.

(See also Hiveswap Friendsim and Pesterquest, which explore these themes really really well.)

And Alternia, for a world where parents aren’t really a thing, tells us a surprising amount about the parental generation. In mid Act 5-2, Ancestors are added to Alternia’s wordbuilding, and we learn that as much as the trolls skipped having traditional parental figures, they were never devoid of role models. The deeds and exploits of notable figures throughout ancient Alternia gave them models to think about each other and themselves—even when those models were toxic ones. In a way, this isn’t so far from the human kids at all.

Furthermore, as time goes on, we acquire an origin for Alternia’s fascist worldview. Doc Scratch, manipulator of society, stands in for all those aspects of the world that work to create the false narratives we are born into, a true evil father figure – or uncle, if you prefer. And he's an extension of the ultimate evil father figure, Lord English, who controls not just Alternia but the timelines of the human children as well, whose belligerence and apathy give us aeons of toxic narratives and abuse. We see that story played out in Alternia in every interaction, in every moment, the beliefs its architects live by.

This is the power of dystopia—it can hold a broken mirror up to the world we live in.

Therefore the Homestuck that will come after Homestuck will worldbuild gardens of horror. It will not pull its punches but show us insidious societal systems and the effect they have on the people who live under them. It may depict fascism, authoritarianism, feudalistic tyranny, or all three. It will be unafraid to evoke blood and guts but use them to paint a picture of what we want, what we fear, and how we break under our false horizons.

As it depicts the path out, so, too, will it have its reverse side—it will show us all the hells and purgatories we’re trapped in.

6. SAILS TO THE WIND

Much has been written (including by this very author) about Homestuck’s metafictional aspects – the way it comes to foreground a more direct clash between character and narrative.

But the point I want to make here is that the metafictional angle wouldn’t work without these earlier choices. They allow the comic to talk about these concerns long before any notion of canon rears its head.

There are many ways of approaching these themes, and we don’t have to be limited to notions of Ultimate Selves and Beyond Canon to explore them. Such things are valuable, but they are only one retelling of the myth. If we are to make the next Homestuck, we must make our own.

I want to illustrate the space of possibility by offering some examples of works that explore similar themes. Note that I’m not saying these works were influenced by Homestuck in any way, but rather that they use some of the same tools to speak to the same questions, anxieties and concerns.

In trying to make what comes after Homestuck, we might consider:

Revolutionary Girl Utena, which foregrounds the archetype of the Prince as duelist, tyrant, and hero and dares its characters to break free from the false reality that shapes even these aspirations and dreams.

The Familiar by Mark Z. Danielewski, author of Houseof Leaves, whose core narrative concerns an twelve-year-old girl in thrall to an entity whose intentions are unclear but may be shaping the fabric of reality itself; which depicts the inner lives and uncertainties of her parents with just as much detail as they struggle, and sometimes fail, to make the right choices to help her; a story which, even in its incomplete form, explores a notion of a greater S.E.L.F that is not just you but also those who share something with you, where characters from other realities blur into transcendent archetypes in this one.

Digimon, perhaps the quintessential work of portal fantasy, not only Digimon Tamers, which steers the genre into a place of trauma, cosmic horror, and adults horrified by children saving the world, but also Digimon Adventure, which creates strong character arcs for eight very different children as they try to navigate a strange alien world, and shows us their struggle to reconcile with their parents as part of the process of understanding themselves.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende,foundational text for Homestuck, which tells us not only about the rich possibilities inherent in reading oneself into fantasy worlds, but also the terrible potential for harm in making oneself an emperor over them.

Pale, by Wildbow, author of Worm, an urban fantasy story about three teenagers thrust into a world of magic and murder, a world where symbols literally create reality, where concepts like Carmine and Aurum have a powerful pull, where the Self is something that can be nourished or taken apart and put back together, a story where the parents are not just supporting cast but fully realized people forced to reckon with the ways in which they have deeply failed their children, and which contains perhaps the most thorough investigation of the question of “is it good for children to go on magical adventures?” ever committed to the page.

Heaven Will Be Mine, by Aevee Bee,in which the giant robots we pilot through space become the symbolic manifestation of our inner selves and our way of bringing about our ideal reality, and, relatedly, We Know the Devil, in which the repression of those selves causes them to burst out from us in terrifying and glorious new forms.

Crow Cillers, by Cate Wurtz, an often trauma-filled horror comic in which a group of kids and, eventually, adults, tries to fight back against an ever-present death cult that has its grips on every corner, all the while encountering Psyforms, beings made of pure mind, while characters from television and cartoons dance in the margins and all the while the line blurs between audience and art until it becomes difficult to tell who created who—a story that asks what it means to find meaning in stories when the corporate entities that own them are trying to devour us.

It's a tragically short list, I know. But perhaps it conveys some of the angles we might take.

We can also look at works that are known to have inspired by Homestuck. There aren’t many yet, but there are a few.

Undertale is famous for its Homestuck influences, with parallel timelines, an idea of agency that persists across them, and a contentious relationship between player and character, but for my part, I’m just as interested if not more so in Deltarune, which seems to be slowly building a grand thesis about portal fantasy, where the kids' adventures in the Dark Worlds seems to be offering them an escape and helping them become their best selves—but hints at a coming challenge to that simple worldview in the question of who’s really experiencing that escape.

The Locked Tomb, by Tamsin Muir – This is the big one, that really shows what building on Homestuckian themes can achieve. It turns out there really is an audience for weird aggro formalism in scifi publishing if you make it sufficiently gay. But smartly, like Homestuck, the Locked Tomb builds its weird mysteries gradually, adding on layer after layer on the solid foundation of characters we can follow and get invested in. There’s so much to notice – there’s the highly categorized teenagers involved in a murder feud, there’s the constant whiplash of humor and tragedy, there’s the endlessly open spaces in the story to interpret and project on to.

But to me, what stands out the most is the portrait of God and his court as every bit as emotionally chaotic as the sniping teenagers. You go to heaven, and God’s making out in the corner with his friend group, and you look for the adult in the room but the adults in the room don’t know what they’re doing and they never really did. It’s a portrait of the parents, it’s a portrait of the Ancestors, it’s a portrait of the gods of the new world, and it’s exquisite.

The Locked Tomb gives us a world at war with its own mythological narrative, rich with angst and irony. It’s a worthy successor to everything Homestuck was doing. It shows us how much these themes can say to us, and it gives us a hint at how powerful Homestuck's legacy might be.

7. THE APOTHEOSIS OF HOMESTUCK

There’s a lot of discussion about how to continue Homestuck. How to do it justice. What post-canon might look like, and what it might not. What fan comics, what fan fics, what semi-official works truly live up to the spirit of its characters and its multiverse.

To be clear, those discussions are awesome. I’m so glad those things exist, and it’s wonderful to see them unfolding.

But I don’t want the process to stop there. I'd be disappointed if it was only about adding to and re-articulating Homestuck itself.

I want this—

—This multifaceted, complicated, emotionally laden thing that is the experience of engaging with and creating with and interpreting Homestuck—

To go out into the world and to be infused into the world, to become waves spreading further and further. I want to experience the Homestuck artistic movement, the Homestuck school of thought. I want it to be an influence on the fiction of the coming generation of authors, and the next, and the next.

I want Homestuck to be one of those albums that's too obscure to be known by the general public, but everyone who listened to it went on to start an enormously successful band.

Homestuck can appear like a thing that was conjured out of the ether, but it isn’t. It’s a product of a particular time.

But that in itself is profound. When you create art, you reach back to all the things that have shaped you, and you listen to what the world around you needs, and you try to say what needs to be said. Which means you're a part of a history and culture that needs to say those things, which will be different from the things that needed to be told yesterday, and different from the stories that will be needed tomorrow.

There’s no otherworldliness to it, no platonic other reality. But for all I've talked about art being made of choices, there's still something transcendent here.

To make Homestuck—and to make art inspired by Homestuck—means being a node in a web formed of millions of people, where a light passes down the chain to you, and for the briefest of moments, you get to be filled with its presence, before it moves on to the next person in the chain.

That light isn't yours. Not really.

But at the same time, you do get to choose how that light manifests.

And to engage with that process consciously—to think deliberately about what we want to create—that gives us power and agency over that process, our sense of the world, and ourselves.

So let’s do this. Let’s make the thing that Homestuck is telling us can exist, the thing it’s paving the way for, the thing we know in our soul can come to be.

Let’s make the next Homestuck happen.

—Ari

POSTSCRIPT

“To put out a manifesto you must want: ABC

to fulminate against 1, 2, 3

to fly into a rage and sharpen your wings to conquer and disseminate little abcs and big abcs, to sign, shout, swear, to organize prose into a form of absolute and irrefutable evidence, to prove your non plus ultra and maintain that novelty resembles life… I write a manifesto and I want nothing, yet I say certain things, and in principle I am against manifestoes, as I am also against principles… I write this manifesto to show that people can perform contrary actions together while taking one fresh gulp of air…”

— Tristan Tzara, “Dada Manifesto 1918”

"The cyborg is resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity. It is oppositional, utopian, and completely without innocence....the cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of re-turning to dust...This is a dream not of a common language, but of a powerful infidel heteroglossia. It means both building and destroying machines, identities, categories, relationships, space stories...I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess."

— Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto"

“What we need is works that are strong straight precise and forever beyond understanding... let each man proclaim: there is a great negative work of destruction to be accomplished. We must sweep and clean…to divest one's church of every useless cumbersome accessory; to spit out disagreeable or amorous ideas like a luminous waterfall, or coddle them—with the extreme satisfaction that it doesn't matter in the least…freedom: Dada Dada Dada, a roaring of tense colors, and interlacing of opposites and of all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies: LIFE.”

— Tristan Tzara, “Dada Manifesto 1918”

“These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,

If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,

If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,

If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.”

—Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

𖤓

[dailydemonspotlight]

Dead Lobster - Day 135

Race: Wilder Alignment: Dark-Neutral October 25th, 2024

HAVE A GOOD LOOK AT THE RADDEST DEMON IN THE SERIES!!!!

Ahem. Jokes aside, mythology takes many different forms. While we traditionally associate mythology with ancient cultures and the stories consisting of their religious beliefs, such as Greek or Egyptian mythology, the term 'mythology' as a whole is incredibly broad and can be applied to many different things: Urban legends, cults of personality, and basically any form of story and/or a widely spread idea throughout society. However, given the fact that a myth's many definitions can even just include a generally accepted belief around something, mythology can encompass even something as specific as a popular misconception. Case in point, today's Demon of the Day, one based off of one such misconception: the Dead Lobster, a myth grown around, of all things, the culinary arts.

According to popular legend when it comes to cooking seafood, Lobsters need to be cooked alive or else they'll end up poisoning the rest of the pot with them. This belief actually does come with quite a bit of truth to it, though it's not nearly as absurd as the legends will claim- the popular misconception states that, even in seconds, a dead lobster will end up poisoning not only itself but also everything around it, but this is only the case if stored in high temperatures. A dead lobster, if prepared properly in a short timeframe, is still safe to eat. However, the prizing of freshness in general has led this belief to being somewhat radicalized into every single dead lobster being a potential danger if consumed.

The reason for this lies in the decomposition process of a lobster. While, for the most part, a lobster is incredibly hardy and is incapable of dying traditionally of old age (though they still can, it's a very long story,) when one dies it experiences a total shell death brought on by the releasing of several different enzymes that literally go into it and shut down its internal organs. The enzymes that keep a lobster alive and prevent it from experiencing cell death are released upon the death of the lobster as well, polluting it and making it essentially become poisonous. However, while a lobster will become septic upon death, one can keep this process from occurring even after the lobster's death by keeping it cold and properly cooking it after the fact, as it'll slow the speed of decomposition.

Still, this eventually led to the idea that any dead lobster is a bad lobster, and soon the misconception spread throughout culinary circles, essentially making it a form of myth... in the world of cooking. To an extent, I'm not even surprised that the culinary world has its own mythology. Chefs can be weird. Naturally, as the idea grew, so did the severity of it, and it went from food poisoning from eating a dead lobster to actually dying upon eating a dead lobster. This leads us back to SMT, finally, where we see what the hell a dead lobster is doing among the ranks of biblical demons and gods from many different mythologies.

The design of the Dead Lobster in SMT, which is a demon unfortunately only exclusive to Megami Tensei 2, is an incredibly interesting one for a variety of reasons, but I take particular interest in the bug-like wings. The insectoid pair of wings seem to be based off of many types of insects, primarily seeming to be those of a fly, but what's more important is the association of insects. Many types of insects are poisonous themselves, after all, and the idea of wings on a dead being also vaguely allude, hilariously enough, to stereotypical depictions of cherubs. It's almost like the Dead Lobster in the series is the spirit of a lobster ascending to heaven... ah, how tragic. Also, I don't know where else to put this, but Dead Lobster sounds a lot like Red Lobster, the fucking food chain. I don't know what they were cooking, (but maybe it was lobster?)

lober

[fizzigigsimmer]

So I went to the Upside Down con on Sunday, and got a picture with Joe. I also sat in on a panel with him, Mason & Grace, which resulted in me introducing @robthegoodfellow to the absolute shudder fest that is Flowers In The Attic, later at the hotel. But before we were subjecting ourselves to incest flavored southern gothic horror, there was the con - which was way more chill than I was expecting.

Anyway some reflections, observations and a few pics under the cut. Sorry there aren’t a lot of pictures. My dinosaur phone is full of apps for work and has storage issues.

I’ve been to a few of these types of events in the past and it is always a mixed bag. Overall I thought Epic did a great job of keeping things organized and moving swiftly. It was a younger crowd on Sunday so there was generally speaking a very lighthearted atmosphere to the whole thing and generally less “mania” as some of the larger cons I have been to. But on the other hand, I think a touch of the fan frenzy has its place lol. You love to see the costumes and feel the energy… there’s something about being in a space full of people who all really love something who have come to celebrate hard - the celebratory festival vibes I think is what I missed most from this convention. But that said, it’s super young, it was a great time, and there’s always room to grow.

I will never be over the disappointment of missing Dacre, but meeting Joe was lovely. It was obvious that he was tired and (to me) he seemed a bit awkward and anxious, but it made the experience better because he was so normal about the way he welcomed and spoke to everyone despite these things. He felt real to me in a way that not everyone does. My rose tinted glasses and giddiness aside, I left the interaction feeling not like I had met someone important or been in the presence of ‘SOMEONE’ but rather that I had stood next to a nice guy who’d been told only minutes before where to stand, but who did it with sincerity.

I observed this not just in our blink and you’ll miss it interaction, but with everyone I watched him meet that day. He smiled and engaged with people, making little jokes and comments to make them feel welcome; despite the fact that besides Millie he had the largest crowds, and this was the last day so he must have been drained. He’s very good with kids. I enjoy kids but don’t find them the easiest to immediately connect with/talk to, so I admire folks who can just immediately get on their level and banter with them and that’s what I observed with Joe as he met younger fans. In answer to a question of how he became the babysitter he said it came natural because he grew up with four sisters and he’s used to it. Also, when he initially met the younger cast they were already smarter than him “so it all just came together”.

On the panel, which he could have easily dominated, he was never first to speak unless a fan directly pointed a question at him. This allowed for Grace and Mason to speak just about as often as he was speaking. Which was a relief because the imbalance of the panel was something that I as well as other attendees had noticed. Our group had actually had a discussion about this and whether we should or shouldn’t ask Joe direct questions with a young woman sitting near us as we waited for the panel to start. A few fans did end up directing their questions solely at Joe, but it wasn’t as imbalanced as we feared it could be and I think that’s due in part to the audience’s mindfulness but also to Joe being so laid back and willing to take a back seat. Literally, lol he sat in the furthest chair that was blocked by a big column in the center of the room. When he did speak he was funny and once again came off as very easy going and authentic. The Steve vibes were strong with many of his answers to random questions - particularly the one about what other role they’d take in the industry if they could. His was prop design, because it would be fun to see what he could come up with and what chaos might result. He then made a little joke about bringing some sort of rice when they had asked for knives.

This is no slight to Joe as an actor but more of a critique/observation of the Duffers, but I am even more convinced than I was before that Steve’s core is Joe and that the character we get is pieced from Joe’s acting choices. I think they were being very literal with the fact that they loved him as a person and decided to keep him around. It feels very much like when they ditched their original plan for the character they also tossed most of the character development around it. Now when they find him things to do each season I would put money down on the mindset being 80% “ooh we’d love to see Joe do this thing or say this thing!” and only about 20% who is Steve and what would he do. The end result is Steve/Joe are now only separated by very thin lines. While it’s not how I would do things it’s not a terrible thing across the board - Steve is after all very lovable and we got 5 seasons with him. Anyway, I could be wrong but that’s my honest take.💁🏾‍♀️

I would love to pick Joe’s brain one day and hear more about how he finds Steve in the soup and where he thinks the threads of character are (or were). Maybe one day!

[envy-of-the-apple]

OKAY SO. u know. yandere-sin's monstober challenge right?? i knew i wanted to write gojo so i skimmed their list, saw "eldritch", remembered some of our conversations (or just your posts maybe) and. my brain was beamed forbidden awful celestial cosmic horror gojo knowledge form the heavens.

can you think of how profoundly unsexy regular human sex would be to anything that didn't have that kind of biological impulse?

gojo does not have a physical corporeal form so he doesn't really get the whole. insert tab a into slot b. that's utterly inane to him. you could describe sex to him and he's no more interested in it than he would be in ikea assembly instructions.

what he does find sexy is you. YOU. not your corporal form, but the "you" that lives inside it. "you" are what he wants to go inside of, lovemaking after his own fashion, revealing to you his true form on a plane of existence you can't perceive, becoming a part of you in some way

tldr; gojo wants to fuck your brain and cum inside it. he literally wants to fuck your grey matter, but like, cosmically. dw you'll be okay (tm)!

and gojo's true form is like. i once heard a joke about an engineer at a mathematics convention. the engineer was desperately confused at this math problem that started talking about 10-dimensional space.

he's like "how could you possibly visualize 10-dimensional space??"

and a mathematician next to him goes "just imagine n-dimensional space, and let n=10!"

and gojo fucking your brain (erotic) (sexual) (not clickbait) is basically that, him forcing your brain to perceive things your visual cortex literally doesn't know how to model. you SEE space in 10 dimensions now, an extra 7, but your brain doesn't know what you're seeing.

but dw gojo is there to guide you <3 that's what the mindfuck lovemaking is all about! he is fusing with you! moving parts aside to make new room, blazing new pathways, routing in a few extra optic nerves for more eyes to help you out. isn't he so nice??

there's more but this is already intensely long skhfglshdgsdg god why am i inspired for this i need to write my kinktober day 4 AAAAAAAAAA

*sighs and opens a03 to read CGT for the 24438th time*

(tw: death, death, even more death, unsafe sex , dark content, dead dove do not eat, just don’t read this)

ah so the Qu but like way worse

you know that saying “I wanna be in your heart” eldritch horror Gojo would take that literally as he rips open your chest cavity and tries to insert himself inside of you cuz you’re so perfect and amazing and he just needs to find out why he likes you so much!!! eventually he realizes that he finds nothing just a bunch of blood and this thing that would pump the blood around your (now) lifeless body so he just gives up and resurrects you (cuz what is death in front of a being who’ll never experience an end)

I think he would definitely try to change you to be in his image but then he’ll realize that he likes your humanity the most. Two arms two legs two eyes so useless and terrible design but he finds it so pathetically cuuuuuute. When your brain turns to mush from your activities he just restarts you again until eventually you just adapt to the horror fuck.

but like alternatively….would eldritch gojo even have a feeling of fucking?? I don’t think cosmic horror beings need to reproduce right? I think it’s more horrific if he thinks he’s doing YOU a favor by mindfucking you into oblivion cuz you’re human and below him and ya ofc u need this. not understanding that humans don’t rlly claw out eachothers brains to get down.

[chromaticleaf]

Can't get Murder Drones out of my head. Almost like some eldritch code has taken root inside my brain. It's probably fine.

Anyway, headcanons for what the murder trio were before Tessa got them:

J was almost certainly in some corporate position. I like to think she was involved in marketing, since she has all those buzzwords ingrained in her lexicon. Maybe they even had her working with graphic design with her art skills. I also imagine she kinda hates corporate structure. "Bootlicker J" jokes aside, I can't imagine even she would have fun as a (literal) corporate slave, and she definitely enjoys freely speaking her mind: not something that flies very well in corporate and marketing contexts. Maybe she got dumped during some convoluted office politics, maybe she was dumped due to random downsizing, who knows.

N's a bit trickier. We see a lot of dexterity and showmanship from him in the manor. He's quite flashy with the glassware at a few points. He also likes drawing, but is lacking in technical skill, especially compared to J. He's also quite personable and friendly, and also seems to truly admire J in some capacity. As a bonus, Cyn mimics a lot of N's mannerisms, and one of her defining traits is her acting, even specifically playing at "improv" while rebuilding J. Therefore, I think N was in theater/entertainment.

He wasn't necessarily an actor himself: still a robot slave after all. But he likely assisted with a lot of setup. Rehearsals, testing stunts, watching over pets/kids (whether those of actors or actors themselves), etc. He enjoys fancy costumes as well, and he's pretty genre aware. He's probably had his fair share of experience with horror movies/stories. Maybe he got dumped pissing off the wrong famous person, maybe some stunt went wrong and they didn't want to bother repairing him, maybe they just wanted the newest model.

V is tough to decide. She seems to enjoy fighting the most out of all of them, but none of them are really slouches in combat, so I don't think that says much about her past. We don't see much of her in the manor, but the impression she gives is a bit more shy and demure. We see her playing chess in the credits, but one hobby doesn't mean much on its own, especially since chess is a common game to put on computers: probably all of them have chess programs built-in.

With that little to go off of, and her tendency to both act out in outrageous ways and keep herself closed-off, I'm thinking she was probably a menial worker beforehand. Minimal freedom, in a position where she'd best keep her head down. Follow the rules closely in order to keep what little she has. "Do your job and I leave you and N alone" was probably a pretty good deal to V because it was as good or better than her previous work arrangements.

Could be a lot of jobs like that for a robo-slave. But let's have fun with it and extrapolate from her usage of "narc" and her apparent desensitization to violence: she was used by a criminal organization for clean-up duty, and got dumped after being confiscated by authorities.

[beartitled]

Can you do some more comics with Francis mosses

I can, but the problem is

That I’m pretty much out of ideas and I’m progressively getting tired of tnmn fandom

Ppl who look at my tags probably noticed that 😓

More of my thoughts under read more for curious ppl

(short answer maybe I will do more, but I desperately need a break from tnmn)

! Just a general warning: this came out kinda long + sort of venty

Originally I planned to do 1 comic drop and move on, but got stuck bc ppl liked tnmn comics and kept asking for more (and still do-)

Generally I don’t mind doing more if the ideas are there, but I want to address this: I’m tired

I know blowing up is usually a good thing and I appreciate people enjoying my stuff

But it’s exhausting to see that tnmn is the only type of content which is relevant, to the point that my own projects or stuff I enjoy are just kinda.. ignored

It’s fair – again my blog is heavily fandom based

(+Tsp were and still is kinda the focus)

But with tnmn fandom it’s a bit… different

Maybe I’m biased and it’s just my negative experience with tiktok comments

Remember this art?

cleaning up transphobic comments was.. um tough

Again, I get that you can’t be in that neat bubble completely sheltered from negativity

Humans are just assholes by nature really/j

So I was expecting the backlash, but not that much

I think maybe tsp fandom spoiled me a bit (in a good way), bc I got a feeling that everyone in tsp was positive of any lgbt+ headcanons and just generally more supportive

(don’t get me wrong, there ARE problems in tsp community too, taking narrators design controversy into account as one of the examples)

Obviously every fandom always has it’s own issues, show me at least one fandom that didn’t have some sort of meaningless controversy or some sort of problematic people in it

It happens

But it leaves a bad taste in your mouth sometimes

And for me personally it only added to not so pleasant experience

The thing I also noticed, when I interacted with other fandoms

Ppl wrote positive stuff first and foremost, not really asking for anything

Here it’s just “hey more. I want more. Do more. Do this character. Do this. Do more.”

The only reason I kept doing more, because likes, reblogs, views – these comics get a ton of attention

there is a audience to please alright

But this thing comes with a pressure tho

and it shows

so let me illustrate

This bookcase

Is my shame

Because I was so rushing, I just copied and colour corrected this bookcase from my diploma comic and pasted it here in hopes for the best

💥IT LOOKS HORRIBLE OKAY💥

Usually it’s normal to take materials used in other projects

the not so normal part is

to leave it like that because your stress reducing tea doesn’t work and you don’t really have time to redraw it

my m en ta l s t a t e i s f i n e ah ah h ah ah

Ok but jokes aside: it’s really tempting, to just abandon everything and produce content like some sort of content farm

But I don’t want to, I’m forcing myself and it makes my art worse

Yes it’s subtle, new people won’t even see this

But I’m not improving

And I don’t enjoy just anxiously popping out comics because everyone keeps asking

I can give it my all to something when I’m passionate, but just “hey I’m getting attention” is not the best motivator

Attention like that does get to my head, I know that I will probably give in again and do more, bc I will compare my posts engagement

But what’s the point of recognition, when you feel.. so numb about it…

Sorry for a mountain of text and thank you for ppl who actually took their time to read it

It’s been building up for a while and I feel like people need to know the reason why I’m not so enthusiastic about making “more”

I’m not necessarily completely abandoning this fandom

I still plan to do ask/suggestions event for STP (I’m just making sure I can dedicate my time to it, that’s why it’s taking so long) and I can add tnmn to the mix

Like STP+tnmn kind of deal

But for now – I need a break

At least for a little bit

[the-face-in-the-mirror]

You ain't never seen this woman wear more clothes than you will this time around. Here, at long last, is the Merlin redesign!

Merlin, aside from being a mage, has always been presented as a researcher and type of scientist, doing constant experiments and potion-making. Wearing little to no clothing just isn't conducive in a lab environment, so Merlin now has gloves, goggles, and a bunch of little things on her belt to help with foraging ingredients for potions and carrying supplies with her. Merlin always seemed like the practical type, despite what her design insinuated, so I've decided to reflect that more this time around. As for the silver-bottomed boots, I imagine there are quite a few races/subraces who can be deterred by silver; additionally, silver is rumored to be able to expand awareness, increase intuition, and provide better brain function. Though, Merlin would utilize it for the former reason rather than the latter.

You may notice... a few things. A few things that are quite obvious, such as her three eyes which are now red instead of gold, the claws, and the fangs. I never really thought much was done with Merlin being the Sin of Gluttony; the hunger for knowledge is a good subversion of expectations, but I decided to add some more to that. The thing in question is that Merlin is now a vampire, permanently cursed after she successfully tricked the Demon King and the Supreme Deity. For the destruction of Belialuin, she was not only branded but also defanged as a punishment for her insatiable hunger. Jokes on them, though, since she made artificial fangs for herself, which are removable. Also, her being fully covered is not only for lab purposes, but also to protect her from most sunlight.

The third eye, on the other hand, is a new trait that I've added to the Wiseman Clan. I know that the Wiseman Clan was literally just comprised of a bunch of mages, but I felt they should have something more than just being super smart and magical to differentiate them from the other clans. Anyone can learn magic, of course, but it's believed that their third eye is what allowed the Wiseman Clan to achieve their higher states of intelligence and ability; whether or not this is actually true is unknown.

And that's Merlin! It might be a lot, but Gluttony is all about excess, after all, am I right ladies?

Let me know what you think, if ya'll are so inclined, and I'll see you all in a bit!