#just a neat thing i was satisfied with

[retcon-writer]

9/5/23

The sound of the thunder scares me to death. It’s not the sort of thing you’d expect from someone like me, scrawny as I am. Weak people like me generally need to be quick to be brave against the world to survive around here- not that I’ve had a chance to go elsewhere, what with the tight security around nowadays. Impossible to leave without a permit, I tell you. Not that I don’t get it, what with the recent events and missing persons incidents, everyone’s scared outta their mind… running around like rabid rats if you ask me.

No… rats are harder than people. It’s because they’re weaker, so they can sense danger better. It used to scare the hell outta me, I always found them so ominous as a young ‘un. Always lingering around, watching, thinking…

Of course I figured that was a load of hot air when I caught and cooked my first one, I suppose the fact I hadn’t done so already was what allowed me to catch it so easily. Y’see, the weak also hope. They hope for the companionship of someone stronger, someone to protect them- not that I’m like that, I just noticed that in others… no, perhaps that was a lie.

But this hope, I noticed it, and took advantage of it, the rats, they skitter around so frantically when they realise one of their brethren have gone missing. Luckily, I had a talent for cleaning- as my last occupation left me with lots of experience and a bruised eye on my way out, and I am very good at keeping myself clean because of it. I’d just simply revisit the rat den and they’d welcome me- hoping with all their beady eyes that I’d either feed them or drop dead, I made sure to snag one on my way out when they were all focused on their own activities.

That kept me going for a good while, but soon they’d install curfews and guards stationed around, hoping it’d help; I found it very cute. All I’d need to do is call out with promises of food or throw an off-hand insult from an alleyway to get a drunk to come down with a score to settle- though I tend to avoid them, processed alcohol isn’t as nice as you’d think, and I need to keep a straight head to remain careful. And here I’ve gone on and on and I realise, I haven’t been scared of them since I gutted my first. They were no longer indecipherable beings that always seemed to watch, I no longer had issues figuring out what they were thinking while looking at me: pity for a poor child, desire for companionship of a fellow weakling, rage at a brat that had called them a “lumbering oaf”, fear of prey looking up at their predator.

I used to do it for the food, but nowadays I just do it for the sport, thrill of the hunt and all that- but it truly is an amusing game, even if the other players don’t feel the same way. And if they truly don’t wish to play, they can always leave; as if! Guards have set this district in a more or less complete lockdown. And everyone knows it’s not to hold the culprit here; it’s for the people. They can’t have the other districts overflow, or have people leave the city, otherwise what would happen to their precious tax income? And of course they need their guinea pigs- lambs of slaughter I say- to get more hints and clues to further their limping investigation. I’ve noticed they’ve been cursing their protectors more than their killers on their deathbed as of late; not that I’ve suddenly grown a bleeding heart, personally I find it quite amusing. I have to say though, I do pity the lower ranks of the guards that do the actual investigating. Higher brass who locked ‘em in here are safe in their ivory towers (they aren’t) while the guards down here come across my rosy works and barf, which is quite rude if I have to say.

Oh yeah, I’ve been getting into art as well recently. I know it’s bad taste, but “what is art if not a way to express oneself”- I think someone once said that to me anyway. Recently I’ve been thinking this pond has gotten a bit small for me, I think I’ll likely see what a district closer to the castle has to offer, perhaps I’ll have some towers to climb.

But for now, I’ve noticed a few rats following me again, it’s not very rare but not exactly common either, so I’ll have to take care of this, making as little ‘a commotion as possible, I bid thee adieu.

I think I’ll be able to make a pretty flower with these ones.

[fuumiku]

They’re really interesting foils in many ways. I’ve always thought that Marcille & Mithrun have underrated dynamic potential. Give me the cringefail dungeon lords. Give me the elves with ears-centric metaphorical self-image issues. Give me the academic elites whose deepest strongest desires will always remain unreachable and the only option is to turn to the corrupt forbidden fruit of a demon pact. I am so so normal about Mithrun and Marcille

I wonder if the resemblance between captain Mithrun and general Hagreus aka Marcille’s fave in Dalclan is intentional… They definitely look very alike. It could represent idealization vs reality? Something something the romanticization of elves and their societal drama in their fiction vs a very real and imperfect product of their military system. The canaries certainly aren’t glamorous next to whatever Hagreus is the general of. I feel like she never had the opportunity to notice the resemblance herself bc within seconds of meeting him he was wrestling her on the ground but. If she had… She would so think he should have been his actor in the tallman stage play of Daltian Clan in that new extra comic hehe. I love the little details like Hagreus’ lips being drawn with extra details because they’re full and pretty while Mithrun’s lips are drawn with extra details because they’re chapped lmao.

This art is all silly and surface level but in my head mithrille is like so dramatic and I make up daltian clan level big plots with them gbdgd. I made a spotify playlist for mithrun if y’all interested, rn it’s mostly centered around cravings that consume and losing yourself and illusions inspired from his time as dungeon lord but it’s branching out. Varied vibes, levels of intensity and degrees of confusion and await you ✨ I would emotionally rant about Chainsaw Man ost lyrics and how they tie in with Mithrun and the winged lion’s relationship but this post is already a monster

I want more of these two please please please pleaseee just one or two interactions in the new canon content coming up… All they ever did was debate philosophy on desires and human self-fulfillment and try to murder each other, please… I never get to gush about them and I can’t shut up so if you want more thoughts I talk about them more below

To get a girl to peacefully accept arrest follow these simple steps: in private, ominously stand above her and forcefully interrogate her, while in public, tell her you’ve met before (untrue and also not a pickup line) and interrogate her with a thin veneer of decorum. If all else fails, threaten and follow through on said threat. My guy needs more than just physical therapy I’m afraid

Sorry if most of these were Marcille-centric with Mithrun standing there looking cool, if I were doing these more from Mithrun’s pov things would be like "She’s a bit much but I guess I don’t mind hanging around her." or "Oh you’re a half-elf? -insert elven supremacist rethoric-" or "I have to keep her from becoming demon stew." immediately followed by "Did someone say demon? Kill kill kill kill kill" since these are set prior to like really knowing another. Then things would be more like "huh she has bad tastes in novels but her magic research is pretty interesting" and "I’m lonely and don’t understand myself— Oh she loves talking about feelings? Oh shi-" That last one is an aspect of why I like Marcille and Mithrun’s potential dynamic lol. She’s very… Emotionally intelligent alongside being impulsive. You think you have no feelings because the world has beaten them out of you? Think again!! Marcille be upon ye! -In a therapy sort of way but mostly in a connecting with people and your own self through interpersonal relationships and talking kinda way. I just think a lively, upbeat, annoying friend way too interested in your personal life would do him good, the canaries are nice but like if Marcille went to prison and was a sort of extra new bunkmate I think that’d be interesting and fun to read is what I’m saying

Unlike Kabru she wants all the useless messy filler of his backstory, eating chips while listening. Like two chibi sets side by side, "me and my fellow canaries, name name and name-" "Hold on that’s too much info we have to compact this" vs "Then we were to sleep on the third floor of the dungeon, which had the look of a mausoleum, and name and name got into a fight over the campfire placement." while Marcille is like uh-huh what next what next while kicking her feet. She thinks of pre-dungeon pompous Mithrun and is like omg you went through a character arc and became better as a person- and then he opens his mouth and she’s like nevermind let’s keep working on that. She would also go "ew ur hair is greasy" and give him a full hair care treatment. What I’m saying is I need them to be forced to spend time in a dungeon together and become besties through a life or death roadtrip

Marcille is insecure about her ears, long, like an elf’s pride should be, but rounder, inelegant. Seeing Mithrun though, the epitome of beauty, with his half-cut ears make it a sillier thought. Not sure if Mithrun is the best person to reconnect with ur elven culture with but it sure is an option Marcille would so appreciate being around someone both cool headed and kind, I genuinely think they’d get along, like not that Senshi isn’t that too most of the time but I think Mithrun would be in a way that’s more refreshing to her. I’d be so curious about them discussing Dalclan, I doubt he’d have read it but she could make him read it, maybe post-canon with the excuse that they’re trying to find him a new hobby hah. He’d tear into the writing and everything but it’d be a fun time, I like to think that it’d make him a bit less prejudiced. Marcille @ Mithrun "👉👈 Soo maybe you don’t know these books they’re pretty recent having come out 50 years ago but…"

I’ve been in a Mithrun phase I want to make and read Mithrun-centric fics and angst so baaad. I razz him a lot here but he’s literally a traumatized military man that became obsessed with revenge due to bad coping and neglects himself in the process idk not much for him going on and some of it is because he has to work on himself, but hey no one’s perfect it all comes from a place of love and relating though I prommy. He’s the one ungodly angsty squeaky toy blorbo with brain damage rep I have don’t take him from me

[queenlucythevaliant]

make your choice

Digory didn’t think much on making choices. The whole world would be over when his mother died anyhow.

Of course, this didn’t keep him from being curious or adventurous. It was exciting to meet new people, exciting to go exploring and to speculate about whatever mischief his Uncle Andrew was up to. Being a lively young boy was perhaps the best distraction from being a boy about to lose his mother.

Going after Polly was so obviously right that it might as well not have been a choice at all. What else could he do? It was easy to be righteous in the face of an evil old magician who said things like "Ours is a high and lonely destiny."

Yet once they were there in that rich, in-between place, with all the worlds there were splayed out before them— ((Make your choice, adventurous stranger)) Well. What sort of lively young boy would he be if he turned back now?

Digory could feel the bell’s magic ((strike the bell and bide the danger)) beginning to work on him. There was no use in resisting. He felt tendrils of magic sinking deep beneath his skin, laying claim to any free will he’d ever had. He said as much to Polly, but she wasn’t listening.

Polly said ((or wonder till it drives you mad)) that he looked exactly like his uncle when he said that.

Jadis’s whole world had ended. Everyone had died, and she’d just gone to sleep. She might have stayed sleeping forever if he hadn’t woken her. Sitting outside his mother’s sickroom, Digory wondered ((what would have followed if you had)) if that was really so shocking. Hadn’t he been preparing for just such an end? Were Charn and Mabel Kirke so different?

Narnia was not an end. It was a beginning.

And face to face with the Lion, Digory was forced to admit that the bell had not been magic. Nothing had caused him to strike it. Make your choice, the writing had said. Digory had chosen. 

I’ve spoiled everything. There’s no chance of getting anything for mother now.

The enormous Lion asked him, "Son of Adam, are you ready to undo the wrong that you have done?" and Digory sputtered his maybes.

"I asked, are you ready?" the Lion said again.

At that very moment, an ultimatum flashed through Digory’s mind. If I salvage your beginning, will you prevent my end? If make amends, will you save my mother? He thought of refusing, of holding his choice hostage until his future was secure. Could the Lion be bargained with? Could Digory twist his arm, as he'd twisted Polly's?

But what Digory said was, "Yes."

Jadis conjured such lovely visions of the future. His mother's face would lose its gray sheen and she would say, Why, I'm beginning to feel stronger. There would be no more morphia, no more of the terrible drawn look about her when she slept. She would rise from her sickbed, vibrant and whole ((Come in by the gold gates or not at all)) rise and walk to the door and fling it open and then Digory would go running into her arms. 

He gasped as though he'd been mortally wounded. Perhaps he had been in a way. After all, had the gate not said ((take my fruit for others or forbear))? 

Jadis ((for those who steal and those who climb my wall)) called Digory the Lion's slave. Years later, he would think back over all that those words implied. The Witch seemed to think that Digory had no will, if he was willing to subordinate himself to Aslan.

But was it not Aslan who made Digory realize his own culpability ((shall find their heart's desire and find despair)), and in the same breath gave him a way to repair it? Had not Aslan given his will back to him?

And at the foot of the tree, Aslan gave Digory his future back as well. 

He was old, but now he is young again, watching as the stars fall headlong across the black of the world-that-was. The world is ending at last, but Digory does not fear such things any longer.

[squorttle-pox]

idk if it means anything really, but i think it's interesting how after all their time together as a couple in a christianity-adjacent world, lucifer and lilith only had one (1) child, and it was only 200 years ago at that

[huni-bii]

The way my brain tells me I should be putting more effort into my art and then does a 180 when I see a more simple art style and then does ANOTHER 180 when I see more detailed art and then does aNOTHER

[apocalyptic-dancehall]

hey!!! harkening back to this post, i drew it a while ago and forgot that i was done coloring. verrrry sketchy and messy and doodly

[cowboysuperhero]

WOOO charlie realed!!! hes speaking!!! i blacked out and woke up to a finished animation i dont know what happened

[lemongogo]

[forgottenbxy]

when AM said "i was in hell, looking up at heaven" and psycho mantis said "humans were meant to bring each other nothing but suffering" when patrick bateman said "my pain is sharp and constant and i dont wish for a better world; in fact i wish to inflict my pain upon others" when characters hurt others and cant help themselves, when characters are full of so much pain and hate they destroy everything around them and its still not enough

[andrewknightley]

i wish i was more diligent i wish i had a focus sigh

[monster-noises]

8, 12, 13

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in I have been trying to write a webcomic since I was in the 5th grade.. the veritable Graveyard I could walk you through... Gracious gracious.. But the last project I abandoned before I started working on Haggarty (and my numerous other current projects, don't Look at me ;;><;>) was called End of the Atlas! It was a sci-fantasy apocalypse adventure thriller? type thing? with a strong focus on interpersonal relationships and internal struggles against a backdrop of much larger circumstances (as many of my stories do) A planet that had only in the last few decades settled into relative peace after ages of war is beset upon by a cosmic force who wants to consume everything; With the luck of being in the wrong spot at the wrong time four (mostly) strangers have become the key to stopping the destruction and must face terrors both external and internal on their journey to the End of the Atlas (comical eyebrow waggle)

12. Easiest part of body to draw

This is going to sound Silly because they are just Cylinders, basically, but there are some subtle shapes to forearms I like to think I've gotten a pretty good grip on.. (genuinely I struggle with most parts of the body, even those I'm super familiar with T<T art is hard and yet I continue to do it...)

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

this is one of those questions that really confuses my ability to interpret what's being asked skdjgfhsg cause the answer could be 'No one comes to mind, because I tend to only keeps tabs on and engage with artists whose work resonates with me' if the classification we are going with here is like "art you recognize is Good and Skilled but you don't really like" Or the answer is ' basically the entire cast of drawfee' because watching them draw never stops being inspiring but, save maybe julia, none of them really do stuff that's like My Thing? but I still really like a lot of the art they make so? does that moot the point? so the answer is one of those two things sadfskdf

[moe-broey]

Funniest thing about the Big Run stage is that it's actually one of the few Turf War stages I feel I excel on because my go-to strat is Dip Into A Corner and Spam Tentamissles from A Safe Distance and also final bit of the match fucking Storm The Base swimming VERY FAST with my bombs when no one is looking (<- probably an extremely annoying type of player HAHAHAHA)

All that goes out the window when One: I'm stripped of my regular weapon (Reef Lux my beloved) and Two: I am being kilt to death by frying pans from all directions.

[not-equippedforthis]

this little exchange at the beginning of baskervilles warms my heart so much. i could write an entire essay just on this alone. god.

[thepetrichist]

Cannot emphasize enough how fucking cool this is. You should absolutely check out the aGameScout video above, but in case you don't have time, here's some highlights/Fun Stuff about the obstacles he had to overcome to pull this off:

The glitched colors mentioned above are absolutely wild, and we are really talking about "impossible to see" here. They've all got community-given names, and a few in particular have caused past players issues when playing and actively prevented them from getting the crash. Here are some screenshots taken from Blue Scuti's game, so you can see what I'm talking about. (You'll see two different level counters - this is thanks to Blue Scuti's streaming setup, so you can read score/lines/levels more accurately.)

Level 146, "Dusk", is the first really bad one. The previous world record, held by a former world champion who goes by EricICX, ended here.

Level 148, and my personal favorite: "Charcoal", is the next nightmarish one.

A player who goes by P1xelAndy had his run end here, and for a very understandable reason. You see, these players aren't playing on monitors or high-def screens. This is NES Tetris we're talking about. They're playing on CRT TVs. Levels like Dusk and Charcoal are next to impossible to see.

If I recall correctly, Level 151, "Australian Outback", is pretty bad on CRTs too, but don't quote me on that.

So in order to get the game crash, Blue Scuti had to play through all these levels and successfully hit one of the game crash triggers - a massive accomplishment.

Two more players (as of 1/5/24) have since gotten the crash - Fractal161 (the current world champion), and the aforementioned P1xelAndy. However, Blue Scuti is, as far as I'm aware, still the world record holder as of 1/5/24, because the other two managed to hit the first possible crash trigger, whereas Blue Scuti had to hit the second!

The best part of all of this? Blue Scuti and Fractal were racing to see who could crash the game first. They were on stream at the same time when Blue Scuti managed it, and the sportsmanship displayed by Fractal (extreme excitement!) is a great indicator of what the Classic Tetris scene is like.

(See also: one of the current top players, Sidnev, is a trans woman, who came out within the past year or two, I believe? And as far as I've seen, everyone immediately switched pronouns etc. with no issue!)

If you're interested in checking out some Classic Tetris stuff for yourself beyond the aGameScout video, I'll put some links under the cut!

The History of NES Tetris World Records by EricICX (outdated as of Blue Scuti's game crash, but still a great introduction)

Classic Tetris World Championship 2018 Final - the video that got me into Classic Tetris, played by two extremely influential players. (Sadly, Jonas Neubauer, the 7-time champion, died in 2021 - the shape of the CTWC trophy was actually changed to a J-piece in his honor.) This game is a great showcase of the two former dominant playstyles, DAS (Jonas) and Hypertapping (Joseph), and a fantastic benchmark for how far the game has come compared to...

Classic Tetris World Championship 2023 - I've linked the full playlist, but if you're only going to check out one video, check out the final! These games are dominated by the current - and likely permanently-best, playstyle, Rolling.

Game Crashes:

Blue Scuti

Fractal161

P1xelAndy

So apparently the pro-Tetris scene is exploding right now because a 13 year old nerd just reached the game's true killscreen for the first time ever

[mariyekos]

I've managed to get a bunch of >1.5k word days (and even two >3k!) recently and it makes me think man. If I could figure out how to write more short fics, I'd have so much to share.

But 95% of the ideas I come up with can't be executed in fewer than 15k words, which is a problem because that usually takes enough time for the Doubt™ to set in. I've always struggled to be concise and sometimes I look at my writing and think huh, there's too much fluff here. Last year I practiced with 100 word drabbles and maybe I should try to get into that again this year...work on more 1-5k stuff...

I think part of it is that I often feel like I need to get everything I have to say about a topic/idea in a single fic. I need to get more comfortable just doing things in bits and pieces and coming back in another fic. Series exist! It's doable! But brain stuff, argh!

[arolesbianism]

I wanna draw oni characters with designs based off of abnormalities from lob corp but 1 motivation and 2 I wanna make Olivia plague doctor soooo bad because the idea makes me go crazy especially with making a white knight printing pod design too but it's the latter bit that would be hard as hell and then I'd also have to make Jackie one sin like legally and I don't wanna do that both design wise and character wise because one sin is my bestie