#kind of i mean i'm mostly talking about the art book

[blackberry-sage-tea]

I see a lot of people discussing the Veilguard art book and lost potential in the finished game, but most of the time it's about the Joplin cut of the game and the dropped ideas from it. I didn't think that was necessarily fair, because while a lot of Veilguard's plot has remnants of the Joplin cut, it involved a lot of spitballing from years and years before the game's release.

The concept art in the Veilguard section of the book is closer to what the game was intended as a finished product, and there's a lot of interesting tidbits to take out of it as well. I'd like to highlight some things.

(please forgive the crappy quality of the pictures I've included here but if you want to see the art properly you should really buy the book because it's gorgeous)

(tagging this as "veilguard critical" because my primary interest is exploring ways in which the finished game falls short of its extremely cool concept art)

Armors

Almost all of the armors in the game are a direct one-to-one translation of armors designed in the concept art, but with a few key differences that result in them looking significantly more garish in practice (sometimes it's the brighter/more saturated colors, but mostly I think it's character models that have very different proportions than a lot of these were clearly designed around). I've included a couple--I think if you compare them you'll see what I mean.

Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of these come with special helmets or masks that "complete" the look--in the case of the Veil Jumper heavy armor I've included below, it's kind of nonsensical without one because it's clearly meant to resemble some sort of bulky diving suit (I don't think it was conceived as a combat armor at all). The game doesn't (iirc) include the helmets with the armors or tell you which one matches which.

I think this is down to technical/time constraints. I don't know pretty much anything about the modeling for the game and how the character creator shaped its character design principles, so I won't say anything more than that, only that the concept art and the finished game seem to have differing ideas of how character silhouettes should look.

Also of note is that the design notes of the mercenary armor set describe it as "an easy disguise for Rook to use to blend in when traveling in northern Thedas". These are the armors used in Blood of Arlathan--and yes, the concept art features hoods, helmets, and masks to cover the face.

Environments

Most of the environments that show up in the game can be found as direct translations of concept art from this book (albeit brightened and more saturated in-game), but there are a lot of dropped concepts.

Rivain was supposed to have an extremely diverse culture with even some ethnicities players wouldn't even recognize as being from Thedas, and a note that the growing Qunari community in the country alarmed "both Tevinter and the Qunari Triumvirate" (fascinating idea, too bad no Rivaini city made it into the game). There are some city ideas in early concept art but most of it is coastlines.

Minrathous has TONS of concept art for parts of the city we are never able to go to, such as an undercity, high town, the dwarven embassy, the Colosseum, mansions, etc etc.

There's concept art for the Black City in the Fade, making me wonder if we were going to go there at some point in development.

There's concept art for an Antaam dreadnought, so we were probably going to go on one at some point.

Arlathan had a lot of planned environments for more ancient ruins, areas of the forest that were being warped by magic, more ominous trees, etc. Another instance where something was supposed to be a lot bigger than what we got. Some of the art that looks like it was almost fully modeled are some "altered gravity" environments like the sort we saw in Trespasser.

The Anderfels was originally going to be mostly the red, cold, cliff-ridden desert that it's been described as in previous games. Instead, Hossberg is a swamp (I see no concept art for it in the book?). I think we were also supposed to see way more active Warden architecture, like outposts and stockades.

Something that I don't think is ever brought up (and is obfuscated by the terminology the game uses) is that the Lighthouse is a stolen eluvian hub, and the buildings are all separate buildings that got caught in the magical radius when Solas stole it. The light at the top is meant to scare away dangerous things from the Fade. Solas apparently is supposed to have deliberately offered this place to you as sanctuary? I don't think any of these things show up in the game, though Rook mentions a non-existent conversation with Solas talking about the Lighthouse.

There's a bit where it shows Neve's room in the concept art and it's so disappointing to compare that to the finished game. She almost had a proper noir detective office, dark and with "single lightbulb" style lighting. In game it's a very warm, bright, cutesy little space. It's not the only place that does this, it just highlights my biggest issue with the game's approach to its environments. Many of the locations are the same but the atmosphere is significantly weakened by its lighting choices.

Enemies

I mostly want to use this space to talk about dropped enemy/creature types, since that was something I felt the game was lacking and made the worldbuilding feel much smaller than Inquisition.

The art book has a dropped concept they called the Scoundrels, which was a set of enemies using reused assets that would serve as recurring mini-bosses, it seems. I've provided an example of some of them, which involve pallet swapping and mix-and-matching existing art assets to prove the concept. You would have choices on how to deal with them once defeated (like kill/spare), like the Inquisition judgment scenes.

They experimented with different types of dragons, including one designed around a bear animation rig instead of your typical high dragon.

Rivain was going to have a whole host of sea monster enemy types to encounter, including a "mermaid", a giant lobster monster, and a "land shark"

The Necropolis looks like it could have had way more enemy types than what we got, with suggestions of more "mad science" Frankenstein-esque enemies, giant skeletons, etc, as things the Mourn Watch typically fights or has to calm down.

Arlathan was going to have more types of plant enemies, including Sylvans and Veil Jumpers who were "incorporated" into the forest Annihilation style.

Factions

The game's factions in the art book each come with little blurbs that outline the intention behind their conceptual designs (most of which were put in the game, as I talked about earlier with the armors). I found these interesting mostly because of the parts that don't seem to match the finished product of Veilguard.

The Antivan Crows were designed around being showy, wealthy, carnivale/acrobat assassins, essentially. There was meant to be a wide range of Crow "types" at play, with some more ominous and threatening and others more stylish ("the elegant to the scoundrels"). One thing I want to quote directly comes at the end of the blurb: "They may not be nice, and it is totally reasonable for a player to be opposed to working with assassins, but this specific group is not intended to be uniformly grim". While the idea that they're a beloved part of Antivan culture seems planned from the start, this concept is still a far cry from the uncritical support you and your allies are forced to express in-game, and the "family friendly mafia" feel that pervades most interactions with them.

The Shadow Dragons were designed around being underdog vigilante criminals against an impossibly powerful political machine. The book explicitly cites both "Batman the Animated Series"'s Gotham as well as "The Shadow" (the latter for the Viper specifically) as inspiration (despite this, the game has only 1 nighttime scene in Tevinter and that's at the opening), which would imply that they were meant to be seen as anti-heroes. The bit at the end of this blurb is also revealing: "To redeem the Tevinter they love, they might have to make deals with demons both literal and metaphorical". This, too, suggests there was supposed to be a conflict of having to take extreme and underhanded measures to achieve their noble ends. They don't do anything objectionable in game so the remnants of this idea in Neve's storyline just looks like oversensitive hand-wringing.

The Lords of Fortune are essentially the fun-loving adventure faction. The blurb suggests a group with less scruples than what we got in game (emphasizing the money incentive when recovering or preserving artifacts, for example), but on the whole the big issue with this one is that it seems like most of their content didn't make it in. Their armors are so gaudy because they like to wear the treasure they find, and they're often so scantily clad because they're proud of their bodies and like to show them off (which would have been clearer with more Fortune NPCs to interact with).

The Mourn Watch feels like the most accurately realized faction in this game, because aside from some tonal differences (which, again, feel very much like color and art style problems) they are pretty much exactly what the concept blurb describes. Masters of necromancy who guard against threats from beyond the Veil and within the necropolis, who specialize in anatomy and all things spooky.

The Veil Jumpers, I think, were supposed to have a heavier emphasis on the danger of exploring Arlathan forest. The blurb feels almost like something written for a recruitment poster--Are you a brave enough dude to join an expedition to reach the forbidden city??? Reaching Arlathan sounds like it would have been a harrowing ordeal (no one has even set eyes on it), Veil Jumpers would have had homes in campsites, aravels, and tree-houses, and the reasoning behind inviting non-Dalish into the faction (which is suggested to be a very recent development) would have been justified by the sheer danger present in every waking moment of being in the enormous, shifting, transformative Arlathan forest. Also, in the really early designs, some of them were shapeshifters.

The Grey Wardens are...well, they've already been designed in previous games so there isn't actually a lot to add here. Probably the biggest thing talked about in the notes that I'm disappointed by is that there was, originally, an intention to make the Northern wardens more distinct from the ones we already knew. There would be a lot of warden types where some were dark and hardened from what they'd experienced, where others were more the classic knight in shining armor. Some would have remnants of the cultures they came from (like an Orlesian warden in a fancy outfit wearing a mask, or a warden that looks kind of like a cowboy), others would fit the mold of a standard warden more strongly.

As a side note I want to say that I see a lot of concept art of the factions "in action"--it's clear they were thinking about ways in which they handled missions and engaged with the world. I am reasonably sure that the faction system as a whole was part of the multiplayer design philosophy that got dragged into the final singleplayer game--you're just supposed to pick a faction and can play missions for them with your friends. The story is bare-bones but it doesn't have to be elaborate because it's the gameplay experience that brings you back, not the story or characters. They just need to be cool enough to draw your attention.

The reason I bring this up is because in-game your main experience with these canonically awesome, badass faction members is them standing around doing nothing while you go out and do most of the hard work for them. Having a bunch of factions of adventurers shaping the world around them makes sense for a game where you are playing with others--not so much when you're in a single-player game that doesn't allow for extra NPCs to tag along.

I think it would also explain why some factions have less content than others--all of them were created under a different design philosophy than the one they were finished under (where the story relevant ones were prioritized over the ones that weren't).

Others

Other tidbits I wasn't sure where they fit in:

The notes on Venatori magisters indicates a "daytime" and "nighttime" appearance set. This, coupled with another note on the Rivaini coasts that mentions the environment changing with the tide, implies there may have been some kind of day and night mechanic in the works that got scrapped (similar to DA2).

Notes on Antaam and Venatori enemies suggests there were more support classes (ex, an Antaam war drummer).

There are several creature or outfit designs (such as the Crow head helmet) that are said to have been made as "Halloween" outfits--this seems to me like a remnant of when this was planned to be a live-service game, perhaps as part of holiday armor packs.

Assan's back legs were conceived as actually being part dog rather than part lion.

Emmrich becoming a lich looks like it might have been more explicitly motivated by his fear of dying (choosing to become undead for immortality) rather than his fear being the barrier between him and lichdom as the game has it (he frames it in-game as being more of some kind of protective duty).

Anyway, I think most people who have paid attention to the development of the game are aware of the idea that DA4 started as a single player game, got scrapped and remade as a live service multiplayer, and then that got scrapped and remade into the single player game that we have today. Now, I can't claim to be particularly knowledgeable on the subject, but the impression I am getting by reading the art book is that massive amounts of Veilguard's game design is still based around being a live service multiplayer.

I think the concept art of this game and its factions is so grandiose and dramatic compared to what we got because they would have originally had the time and funding to make those levels while people are paying for and playing the base game. The factions have very few developed NPCs and bare-bones storylines because the intention was originally for you and your friends and other players to be what the factions consisted of. The gameplay is an action RPG because tactical RPGs don't work well when you're playing something live with other people. The environmental design is mostly linear "dungeon" style levels with very few open hub levels because anything that leads to you wandering around ignoring your friends for story is not good for the multiplayer. You get no faction interactions because each one was its own self-contained part of the game players could pick from. Etc etc.

I think the process of making Veilguard was taking the story from Joplin (which has a chapter of the artbook that extensively details its story but suggests very little if any assets were made for the game) and the assets from Morrison (a game that has no chapter of its own in the book and no indication of what, if any, story it would have had) and stapling them together even though the two of them were not at all designed with the other in mind. They spent their development time making what they had as finished and unbuggy as possible, and then had to give up on the rest because they didn't have enough time.

I know this was kind of already obvious to anyone paying attention (I've certainly seen some people talk about it before) but I didn't feel like I really understood it before reading the art book. At the same time--Veilguard looks like it had a lot of cool concepts? Even assuming a lot of these are from Morrison, like, these factions could have all felt like they worked? They could have kept that grey morality feel (in fact it sounds like they planned to), the themes of comradery while fighting against what seem like insurmountable odds, the sense of adventure and danger. The art style includes ideas both wondrous and frightening, and it could have added a lot of richness to the setting if nothing else.

I felt this way reading the Inquisition artbook too but the foundations of the series still feel pretty sound, you can see a lot of love and work and creativity went into the designs for this.

I just don't feel like the finished game matched what I see here.

Would love to see the 80 pound version of this book, Matt Rhodes.

[mehiwilldoitlater]

TFP Bumblebee x Ballerina!Reader

requested by @dilucragnvindr-my-beloved

Rafael knew you for a long time; being the kid of his neighborhood was normal. You were older than him, the same age as Jack at least, but besides that, you never bothered talking with him and being a listener for his problems.

Being in a big family means being forgotten sometimes, and maybe it was your kind and understandable nature that led you to become a half-sister to him. And, mostly because he was an open book to you, you immediately noticed the change in behavior in the boy, but he was a smart one, so if there was a problem, he could have always come to you, no?

Well, problems did come in the form of a big, scary robot that had noticed how close you were to the boy and presumed your affiliation with their enemy. Only after your rescue from the nemesis Rafael did finally open up to you about the Autobot…and Bumblebee. Oh, so now the mysterious yellow sports car had a meaning!

You became a helper in certain situations, but never that close to the point of being part of the team and getting a guardian. As you liked to say, you had something that was making you busier than ever.

"It's because she's practicing ballet at a higher level!" Said Raf with a hint of pride. You smiled, waving your hand like scoffing away those words.

"I'm still trying to reach that! I still have to pass the audition."

"Oh! Like for a rock band?!" Said enthusiastically Miko, more interested in that than your dance practice.

"Not quite. I want to learn in the Dance Academy of New York, but to do that, I need to be judged by a committee."

"New York?" Jack asked, "It's on the other side of the country. Are you sure about it?"

"I know it's far..." But who doesn't take sacrifices for their dreams?"

You failed to notice a strange look coming from a certain robot.

Bee was one of the first to find curiosity in this new world, always with his head in some new activities only for the joy to know and embrace this world that had accepted him.

And, of course, he was ready to accept your own humanity, as he accepted the ones of the other kids. You were somehow similar to Rafael due to your calm demeanor, but you were also different. You pushed Rafael to develop his hacker skills, listened to his rumbling and passion, and the boy enjoyed helping you some time to time in your own passion. Though he didn't know it, Rafael had dragged the Autobot into long hours of recording your training, making Bee more curious about you than ever.

On Cybertron they did have many things that could be related to Earth in the matter of art, but that…that was new. Your body was strict, rigid, and immovable as stone, but your movements were graceful like a fresh energon river. Your feet tipped, holding your entire body high in the ground, allowing you to make moves that his own metal body couldn't even dare to make, and he did dare.

Ratchet never knew how Bumblebee got his head crashed on that wall; that was a secret between the mech and no one.

And then those jumps! When fully prepared, the distance that you were able to cover in one jump was remarkable! Sometimes he feared for you to fall, to hurt yourself, to the point that, even after a perfect landing, you could see his hands already in position to catch you. You couldn't hold a giggle sometimes, thinking about how cute that mech was during your training. But your elegance and grace were only a product of your passion and dedication to your art.

"I think it was good!" Said Rafael putting in reverse again the video. Your face, instead, showed another result.

"No, no. The position was good, but I ended up too unsynchronized. These legs shouldn't have made this movement at all."

A series of sounds came from the Autobot, calling your and Rafael's attention.

"Bee said that it was perfect; maybe you should take a rest! Too much training could become distressful."

You sighed; maybe those two were right? But the audition was just a few weeks away! You didn't want to stop…

Well, maybe that was a bad habit that Bee had noticed. Rafael did have talked about it before, maybe sugarcoating the matter by saying that you were a very dedicated person, but when he saw how bad your feet were, how many painful wounds, abrasions, blisters, and more you had on them, hidden under those silky slippers…

You were a warrior, but even a soldier needs to know when to stop.

Sometimes it wasn't about getting good; sometimes it was just about loving to dance, swinging around, following some music from the radio, and circling around mimicking a few moves. You were really something that he couldn't describe, a creature from beyond space.

It was in those moments, while he watched you, that he allowed himself to dare a little, moving his hand towards you, two fingers on the ground, the other two a little higher than the other, moving them at your time and speed. It was then, when you noticed him, that with that kind smile you allowed yourself to touch him, to become your partner even for just one song.

"You know Bee?" you spoke, holding some laughter. "You make such an amazing dance partner!"

Under his mask, he's smiled, without care if someone else could enter the room, finding the both of you in that position.

Rafael understood why, after the day of the audition, when your results came back, his guardian showed so little joy from your acceptance entry. While everyone congratulated you, he stayed in the back, faking happiness in front of your excitement. Bee was happy, really, your dream was coming true!… And that meant that you needed to leave.

"I'll be back for Christmas and holidays. Aldo, my phone will always be ready!"

That was you who said that to everyone… That was what he wanted to hold on to, alongside the knowledge that he wanted to be there, the day when finally everyone would be able to see how shiny you were, what a star you had become, one that he already knew.

He promised you this too the day of your departure for the academy, to see you at your first performance for the opera!

He just hoped to have some more time…

[awakenedevildays]

「bleachers and interruptions」 Art Donaldson x F!reader

You can find the other parts here!

━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━

"For how long are you planning to stare at her, Donaldson?" Tashi approaches Art while he is busy looking at you in the stands, a book in your hand as you wait "for Tashi" to finish her training. 

"w-what?" he detaches his eyes from you and your friend wants to laugh at the deer-caught-in-headlights look on his face, a clean tennis shirt in his hands waiting to be worn.  

Tashi stands in front of him, the smirk on her face growing wider by the second, her hands on her hips "Donaldson, I can smell your desperation from miles away" he avoids her gaze and turns around to take off his shirt and put it in his tennis bag along his racket, but Tashi stands in front of him again "she told me about what happened at the beach" she adds and smirks, Art stops in his tracks at that 'fuck, she knows' he takes advantage of slipping on his unstained t-shirt to hide his red cheeks from your best friend. 

"Shouldn't you be worrying about you and Patrick, Tash?" his eyes look down to fix his shirt that looks so ruffled to him right now, "don't worry about me and Patrick, but I have to worry about you two idiots for obvious reasons" Art looks at her confused and waits for her to explain. 

Tashi moves her hand up to pat his shoulder, her smirk fading away and giving way to a small smile.

"She's a wonderful person you know? She deserves all the love in the world and I know you've got plenty to give... so don't keep her on the hook for too long" she takes her bag.

"What do you mean?" He frowns, keeping you on the hook? he tought you had changed your mind, considering you didn't approach him not even once after the night at the beach.

Tashi takes one glance at you, and then back to the blond in front of her.

"She's waiting for you to make a move, Art. She's really shy and not really good at these kind of things..." Tashi's gaze flickers at you again... "If she wasn't interested you think she would have come to watch you almost every training day?". 

He wants to laugh at that, 'she didn't look shy at the beach' he thinks but doesn't say it out loud "she comes here for me? I thought she's here to see you!" he exclaims.

Tashi can't stop the smile forming on her lips at his outburst, the disbelief in his voice clear as day.

"You can't be that naive, can you?" Tashi teases, her tone lighthearted now, having gone from teasing to trying to comfort him. "Sure, some days she might come here for me, but it's mostly for you, I can assure you, I'm just an added bonus" Tashi concludes and Art feels so stupid, he should've at least tried to talk to you. 

"oh..."

Tashi sees his expression change slightly, realization beginning to dawn on him, so she rests a reassuring hand on his shoulder, smiling at him knowingly "don't beat yourself up too much about it, Art. It's never too late to fix your mistake. Believe me, she's really into you... but Art, there are few people I care about more than I care about tennis, and Y/N is one of them, if you hurt her in any way-" Tashi pushes her index finger into his chest, her grin growing devious once again, "-I'll castrate you, then you definitely won't be able to charm her anymore with only your stupid blond curls, understood?" "yes m'am." he answers immediately.

Tashi laughs, finding his quick response both amusing and endearing, her hand moving to ruffle his blond hair. "That's more like it, Donaldson. Keep her safe and you won't have too worry about keeping your body intact. I'm sure you're more than capable of that"

Tashi goes to the changing rooms and Art turns around towards you again, only to see you already looking at him and he smiles widely, now that he knows you didn't change your mind about him, and that's surprising considering the story he told you, he feels like he can actually talk to you without blushing like the teenager he still is. 

You blush slightly as he looks at you, a shy smile tugging at the corner of your lips, your heart skips a beat when he flashes that winning smile of his. How he was able to be both endearing and incredibly handsome at the same time was beyond you, but the sight of his bright blue eyes and the way his blonde hair was swept to the side from the light wind was enough to make your breath hitch.

His hand goes up in greeting and you wave back, book now closed and he sign for you to stay there as he walks out of the tennis camp, his steps fast almost in a run and you laugh 'he is so cute' you think. A few minutes later he is next to you on the bleachers.

As he approaches, you can't help but look carefully at his face, a bead of sweat running down his temple form the training he just finished, you curse internally as you feel yourself growing a bit hotter when his arm flexes to let his tennis bag fall on the ground next to him.

Art sits down next to you, taking a moment to catch his breath before turning to you, a cheeky grin on his face.

"hey" 

"hi..." 

You both giggle for realizing how awkward this moment is.

Art runs his hand through his hair, trying to tame the damp strands and make himself look at least a little bit presentable. "Sorry for this" he pauses for a moment, a smirk coming to his lips, "although I think you kinda like it" you laugh 'fuck, he noticed'. 

"Oh shut up, I didn't come here for you" you lie, your cheeks slightly red in fear of being caught "oh, really? a little bird told me otherwise..." he suggests and you would really like the ground to open and swallow you, you bite your lips "I'm going to kill her" you mumble under your breath and Art laughs as he sits down next to you, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

He gazes intently at you, a slight smirk on his lips, "please don't, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her" you frown at his words and seeing your confused expression he keeps going. 

"I thought you weren't interested in me anymore, after that night" his smile is sheepish, "the next day, when you and Tashi came to watch the final between me and Patrick you didn't talk to me at all and... I don't know, I felt like I fucked up" his hand goes through his hair, a bit embarrassed to reveal his insecurities to you so soon and you want to slap yourself "Art... no you got it all wrong". 

Art blinks in confusion for a moment, his expression changing into a mixture of surprise and relief "so you weren't avoiding me?" he asks, turning his head to peer closely into your eyes, searching for any sign to confirm his words.

"No! well, yes... but it's not cause I wasn't interested in you, the total opposite actually, I'm really bad at these things I didn't know what to do or say" you admit and play around with the cover of the book still on your lap.

Art couldn't help but laugh a little bit at your confession, "If it's any consolation, I think you're doing just fine right now."

He pauses for a moment, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear, his blue eyes shining with warmth.

"You could've just told me then, you know?" and he could have done that too. 

"I know... I'm sorry" you whine hiding your face in your hands and he rests his left hand on the back of your chair, his body facing you while he waits for you to look at him again "don't be, I could have tried harder too" he comforts you and you look at him again, a sweet smile on his face. 

You couldn't help but smile back at him, feeling the tension start to dissipate between you "guess we both messed up then" you laugh, shaking your head in disbelief at the realization of just how much time you wasted because of your mutual shyness.

"But we stil have time to solve this, if you want to, of course" you're nodding even before he can finish the sentence. 

Art can't contain his excitement as he sees you enthusiastically nodding your head. He lifts his hand and rests his palm on your cheek, his thumb gently caressing the soft skin "I take that as a yes, then?" he asks, a playful smile on his lips, the thumb on your cheek now tracing the outline of your lips.

"mh-mh" you say unconsciously your eyes locked in his. 

 Art continues tracing his thumb across your lips, his touch light and almost teasing, feeling your gaze on him, he lifts his eyes to look into yours, a cheeky smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"You look so cute when you're all blushing and flustered" he whispers, leaning a bit closer to your face.

"You talk like you're not in the same position as I am" Art laughs softly, his breath mingling with yours, he leans in closer, the smile on his lips widening as he sees you start to fidget slightly.

"Not like it's a bad thing though, right?" he whispers, his hand moving from your cheek to gently grasp your chin, tilting your head up slightly.

"absolutely not" you whisper and just when your lips are about to touch a voice interrupts the moment "Hey! the camps are closing you have to get out" the coach calls out with a small smirk and Art turns around to look at him embarrassed, ears and cheeks red "sorry coach! we're leaving". 

The coach gives a knowing chuckle before heading out again, leaving you and Art to recover from the interruption.

You can't help but feel a twinge of frustration at the coach's interruption, ok, that was embarrassing you put your book back into your bag before sliding it on your shoulder. 

Art lets out a small sigh before reluctantly getting up from the bench helping you too by grabbing your hand "sorry about that, the coach has the worst timing" he wants to strangle him, really. 

"Don't worry, he is right" you say and he starts to guide you towards the stairs to get out. 

Art feels his muscles relax as soon as the cool night breeze hits his skin, he's still hot and sweaty from the training, he glances at you "that was a good session, wasn't it? even with the interruption" he jokes as he looks around, noticing the sun slowly setting behind the trees, lighting the sky in a beautiful shade of pink and orange. 

"you did good, I really like to watch you ad Tashi play" you ignore his real intentions and decide to talk about the training itself, you really like to tease him. 

Art can't help but let out a small laugh at your response "so that is the only reason why you come to see our trainings? To watch me play?" he quips, his tone light and teasing as he nudges you slightly with his shoulder. 

"I already told you Donaldson, I come to see Tashi play, not for you" you taunt again and Art shakes his head in false disbelief, his tone still playful and light "right, how could I forget. Just for Tashi, of course".

He playfully rolls his eyes, his shoulder slightly touching yours as you walk next to him. 

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but you can't compete with her" and Art stops on his track a fake shocked expression on his face and you tug on his hand still connected to yours to walk through the campus and towards the dorms.

Art puts a hand over his heart and lets out a mock gasp. "How could you" he says before starting to follow you again, a cheeky smile on his lips as he glances in your direction.

As you both make your way towards the dorms, Art can't help but feel contentment at the sight of your hands connected together, swinging naturally alongside you while you walk. You two stay in comfortable silence until you are in front of your dorm room and your hand detaches from his to grab your key, Art stands behind you, hands in his shorts pockets as he waits for you to turn back to him.

You unlock the door, feeling a flutter of anticipation as you turn to face him again. Art is still standing close, his eyes fixed on you with a warm smile on his handsome features, he takes a step closer, now leaning against the wall next to your door.

The soft light from the hallway casts a gentle glow on him, his blond hair slightly disheveled and he looks so incredibly handsome that you find your breath hitching in your throat 

'what should I do now?' you ask yourself as you smile at him, but before you could open your mouth to speak, he does first "not that I don't like to meet you like this, but what would you think about a date? with me, of course" he mentally facepalms himself, 'was it really necessary to add that?' Art feels a faint blush color his cheeks as you laugh at his awkward addition.

He rubs the back of his neck, still smiling sheepishly "sorry, I just wanted to be clear about it, didn't want you to think I was planning a date between you and Tashi" he jokes as he lets out a small laugh of his own, the embarrassment fading away as he sees that you don't seem to mind his blunder.

"But yes, I would love to take you on a date" he says with a more confident tone, his eyes shimmering with excitement at the thought.

 "I would love to" Art is filled with contentment as he sees your excitement. He runs his hand through his hair a small smile forms on his lips as he gazes at you, his blue eyes shining with happiness.

"How about tomorrow night? There's this nice restaurant near that I've been wanting to try" he suggests, his voice filled with nerves but anticipation as well.

"Tomorrow is great" you step closer when you see Art bending towards you "good, I'll pick you up tomorrow night at seven" you nod. 

As you confirm the time for your date, he can't help but smile wider, the excitement coursing through his veins, he gazes into your eyes for a moment, savoring the anticipation building between you.

"I can't wait" he whispers, his voice filled with excitement and a hint of nerves, leaning closer and placing a soft kiss on your forehead "I'll see you tomorrow" "goodnight, Art". 

As you watch Art, his handsome features bathed in the soft light of the hallway, he smiles back at you, his eyes filled with warmth and affection. "Goodnight" he says softly, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he sees you close the door slower than necessary, as if you don't want the moment to end just yet.

"Sweet dreams" he whispers after you close the door, shoulders lighter now that he finally has a real chance with you and the smile on his face doesn't leave until he is asleep in his bed.

━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━

Do not copy or repost.

[kokii-omii]

Kind of a dumb question but how would your ocs interact with Yuu? Do they find them weird or just dont know about them/Ignore them?

like game yuu? cuz id have two ways for both pre book and post book interactions

(this might be a lot so I'm cropping)

Maddie would not gaf about Yuu til Riddle Ob's

he would watch Yuu and what their plan was to take down riddle's tyranny but wouldn't do anything to help, but overall he wouldn't think much of Yuu

After Book 1 however, Maddie would probably put in more effort to actually assist Yuu and Grim if he could, and even invites them to his personal tea parties and make conversation with them, he would be that friend you call for help with no questions asked, need to hide a body? call Maddex

__________________

Krohn would be friendly to Yuu and i dont think much would change post book 2 cuz he'd still act the same, he would visit ramshackle often if Yuu ever needs help with the heavy lifting

__________________

The Octa Quartet would try to offer their "assistance" to Yuu in order to get on their good side, but like every offer from octavinelle, everything comes with a price

and they make Yuu get their hands dirty in return, in book 3 where ramshackle gets taken, Leo and the Manta twins come in and give Yuu an offer from Viri, and when they go to Viri's art studio, He tells them that he will assist them in taking the picture from the museum, and free them from azul's contracts

but in return Yuu has to give the picture to Viridis instead of Azul

its mostly transactional pre and also during book 3

but post book 3 Viri is more reliable and lets Yuu in his art studio anytime, Leo tolerates the prefect and talks to them if they ever see each other, The twins are less threatening to Yuu since they wont have a reason to do so anymore

__________________

Ezmond is literally Vil jr, would constantly berate and insult the prefect and ramshackle for being so raggedy and run down, think Regina George and how she acts towards people, thats how Ezmond interacts with the prefect, especially because they dont have any magic

Ezmond's overblot is pre book 5 post book 4,

but he actually starts being kinder to the prefect and starts gifting them stuff like skincare products, and some outfits he thinks they would like, and would even help clean up ramshackle because he thinks its still raggedy and that the prefect doesn't deserve to be living in such conditions

__________________

since Pan has a reputation of being "reliable and trustworthy" he would probably be one of the first people from ignihyde to ever interact with the prefect, it could low key come off as condescending but he helps the prefect because he thinks they're a sad wet cat for having no magic

Peyn would not care for Yuu at first, cuz honestly thats none of his business, would be a bit mean to yuu but over all he doesn't care

During book 6 Peyn and Pan are found in one of the boxes in Tartarus and accompany Yuu and the pomefam down to where idia is, they make sure The prefect doesn't get hurt by the phantoms

they only split up in order to be the ones to drive the chariots for the others

Post book 6 the two of them hang out with the prefect in idia's absence, and give them more games and manga and such as an apology despite not even being fully associated with STYX

Peyn joins the first year friend group and starts hanging out with the rest of the group more often

Pan invites Yuu to game night at the ignihyde dorm

__________________

Lucien would not pay attention to Yuu at all, but if they even did interact they would reprimand yuu and grim (mostly grim) for their attitudes, and even perhaps tell yuu off from malleus, because a magicless human shouldn't be around his liege, let alone calling him something so informal like Tsunotaro

his overblot is somewhere in the months between the end of book 6 where ramshackle is getting fixed

he learns to let loose and to stop being so formal, and ends up inviting the prefect for tea often to talk about ramshackle's decor and history

[anniflamma]

This isn't a question, but rather a love letter to your art<3.

Thanks to you, I've started enjoying Greek mythology and the Bible again (I mean from a point of artistic, mythological, historical, and theological analysis; my status with any kind of religion is being agnostic XD).

And I already enjoyed Epic the Musical, but I really love the designs you make, how you empathize with the symbolism and lore of the Gods when designing them, and how you make Odysseus so human with his crude expressions that makes me empathize with him (And he's one of the characters I hated the most from Greek mythology lol)

And then there’s your art about the bible, I have to admit that I tend to avoid the biblical religion because of the weight it still has on our daily lives, the damage it has done from the past to this day, and how they deny it with current hypocrisy (I live in Spain, there the official religion is catholic), but your lgbt drawings have really encouraged me to open the bible and see it from an objective and neutral point of view, and just enjoy it as another book and not as something I’m forced to follow.

Also I didn’t know there was so much LGBT content in the bible XD Seriously, thank you so much, if you had a patreon, I would pay you for the amount of happiness and culture you have given me (^///^)

By the way, reading your posts I found out that you recently experienced an internet drama that has become so popular lately. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry that both you and that poor artist had to go through this, that human hypocrisy has no limits or shame, and that I agree with everything you say. Just because we like a character or an author doesn't mean we agree with their crimes or ideologies.

I hope you have a nice day<3

Hi! I’m sorry it took me a while to respond! I mean it, I’ve read this over and over, and it makes me so happy. I’ve been thinking about how to respond, but sometimes it's hard to get it out into words.

It makes me so happy that my biggest interests make others interested in it too. Heck, when people ask questions, I get all giddy!

Talking about biblical/christian saints, greek myths, history, different cultural views and changes was kind of the whole point of why I started this tumblr blog. I have so many drafts filled with random info about LGBTQ+ saints..... Now… I post mostly thirsty drawings of greek gods with hairy chests... T.T

And I sympathize a lot when it comes to religious trauma. I consider myself lucky in these matters, my mom is Catholic, and she has her views that I don’t agree with and hurtful. Yet she still supports me in her way and watching my bible retelling animatics, everytime I post a new bible animatic, she writes me: "What have you done to Daniel..."

I also have my hurts and anger towards hypocrisies too, and I guess this is my way of countering that?

LGBT content in the Bible is something that really fascinates me. I think it's important to keep in mind that people from about 2,500 years ago had very different views when it came to gender and sex compared to how we see it today. In a way, the Bible does have strict social gender expectations, and if you didn’t fit in, then you weren’t considered part of that gender. But at the same time, it acknowledges that your sex. I think it’s in the Talmud were it discusses the fact that, throughout the Bible, there were about eight genders:

Zachar: male.

Nekevah: female.

Androgynos: having both male and female characteristics.

Tumtum: lacking sexual characteristics.

Aylonit hamah: identified as female at birth but later naturally developed male characteristics.

Aylonit adam: identified as female at birth but later developed male characteristics through human intervention.

Saris hamah: identified as male at birth but later naturally developed female characteristics.

Saris adam: identified as male at birth but later developed female characteristics through human intervention.

Some scholars even believe that Abraham and Sarah were Tumtum. A Tumtum is not considered to be very distinct but rather flexible between male and female sex/gender—"sometimes he is a man, and sometimes he is a woman." The simple fact that God said Abraham had a womb and from it, he would have children. Some say that this is why he is a Tumtum, while some historical linguists argue that ancient Hebrew didn’t have the vocabulary for male genitalia yet. Both arguments are valid, and I like them both!

There’s tons of stuff I could bring up—Joseph with his princess dress, Naomi and Ruth, David and Jonathan, and the discussions around whether Daniel was a Saris Hamah or a Saris Adam. We know he was called a saris, but we’re just not sure which. And then there's Jael, whose story is filled with a lot of phallic symbolism, and even her name is very gender-neutral.

I think I’m going to end here. I could yap about these things forever! But thank you again taking your time writing to me and I hope you also have a nice day! <3

[shinesurge]

Webcomic rings run by people within the community are cool and you should support them

I've been loudly struggling a little bit with corporate webcomic Stuff lately so I want to mention something positive to balance it out: webrings run by small groups of creators earnestly trying to support each other are slowly making a comeback and I for one am delighted.

If you weren't around for them in the before times, webrings were just some folks who hang out a lot who feature each other on their websites. That's literally it lmao. There's generally no money involved and it only really functions the way it's supposed to if people have control over their own websites AND genuinely want to participate and get excited about other folks' work, which means the practice has pretty well fallen by the wayside over the years in webcomic culture given. Everything. In the rare event someone decides to do something like this it's usually in the form of a link list somewhere on their website; this doesn't usually indicate any sort of mutual support, it's just a list of what the creator is reading themselves.

A webring, though, is an official banner or hub that people gather under intentionally where each member is more or less on equal footing. It's essentially the concept of "a rising tide lifts all boats" put into practice, each creator brings their own audience to the table in a passive, opt-in sort of way that's different from working for a publisher since there isn't necessarily a Top Spot or a paycheck everyone's vying for, and individuals retain autonomy over both their own work and how (if) they promote each other. You're all at your own tables in an artist alley rather than fighting over the table in the front of the book store, essentially.

I have two rings and one collective for you today!

Webcomic Ring was brought to my attention AGES ago by Holly, one of the artists featured there, and I might have brought it up at some point but I'm doing it again lmao. This is exactly the kind of thing you ought to be looking for; a small group of enthusiastic folks having a good time making their weird little comics. You probably haven't heard of much in the catalog, that's PERFECT in the context of webcomics that's where the GOOD SHIT is. Finding something like this is A Gift go dig around in the longboxes for a while.

Then a few people have pointed me in the direction of the KNIFEBEETLE collective and that's neat too! Most of the comics there are already fairly well-known, but the vibes are excellent and I haven't seen a lot of talk about the collective /itself/ outside folks already in the know. I think it's important for this sort of thing to be more visible to folks who aren't terminally steeped in webcomic culture already so here I am telling you about it. You were probably reading several of these before I suggested it, but that's how a webring works! For it to do its job you should take those bigger creators' tacit recommendation of the less popular titles as a sign to go read something new and strange. Wild, I know these are practices held over from the old internet, but I think we should try and bring them back.

Lastly, I want to mention Spiderforest, which is a collective (slightly different from a webring) BUT still a very cool project readers starved for new stuff should pay attention to.

You've probably seen Spiderforest kicking around for a long time already; they're wonderful and have always been an overall positive force in the community in my experience. They really focus on building up a community, and especially welcoming newcomers and helping them get their feet under them. Full disclosure, I've been asked to apply by a few different folks over the years and the only reason I never did is I don't have the ability to participate in their forums and such as frequently as they want their creators to; it's a very good system (from my outside perspective) that might contribute to the community staying mostly healthy in ways that art communities usually don't and I appreciate it a lot!

ANYWAYS that's all I got for now, just trying to balance out some bad feelings I've been having by talking about some good stuff. Please go binge an archive this week.

[pastorfutureletthembe]

Just noticed something cool.

This is yuyu's account, and she was in charge of the storyboard for Y6.

And those:

Are Yuki Nakazawa's fanarts. It's fanwork. But she worked on the official content.

The last one makes the set not so innocent. Why? It was published before Y6. So it's not exactly a spoiler but we have some people with media literacy in the link click fandom. This? Not rocket science. As flashy as the dead wife trope, if you ask me.

We'll talk about the set as a whole.

Before I get into it, Yuki Nakazawa also published another fanart which, in retrospect, was an actual easter egg: "And Then There Were None"

This being established, we can assume there is something hidden there. Still, keep in mind that those are, once again, fanarts. It isn't going to stop me from noticing things. I recommend you look at each picture closely before you read any further.

First clue, which is solved: Vein is dead. Or pretending to be, probably. There are clear allusions of him leaving.

A word stands out: CAMFLAGUE. Twice actually: once on the poster and a second time on the magazine cover, concealed by Xia Fei's silhouette. This word? Not a word? it sounds a lot like CAMOUFLAGE though. Or so google keeps correcting me lmao.

which is an interesting word to hide in plain sight when you notice there are also two attempts at disguising Xia Fei as Vein: the coat and the glasses.

CAMFLAGUE is a made up 9 letters word. The Chinese tended to view life diametrically. So when a change occurred in one aspect of life, that change was a result of a change in its opposite. Therefore, as a symbol of extremity, "9" in Chinese Culture is also a warning, a turning point. In ancient Chinese Classic Yijing, or the "Book of Changes", wherever number "9" appears, it is a crucial point of change and transformation. FELIX also contains the number IX.

There is a glint to Xia Fei's left earring, a ring, and to Vein's necklace, a moon. First, earrings symbolize beauty and strength in Vaishnavism while in Hinduism, earrings symbolize elegance, strength, and identity, serving as integral ceremonial adornments, embodying transformation and the sacred nature of beauty in various narratives. Second, in tarot reading, The Moon is a card of illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be. Much to think about.

One object stands out in the bloody artwork of Vein: the blue and white Vase. Qinghua is traditional Chinese porcelain, painted in cobalt blue glaze on white porcelain. It's an art working on negative spaces. There are different patterns used for this technique, and lotus is one of them. I'm no expert in pottery, though there is obvious meaning lost in translation, as I love to tag it. However, the lotus is important motif, I can tell you that much. Mostly because of its relationship to Buddhism. Buddhism symbolism in Link Click is highly related to Vein's character (I made a long ass meta about this, go check it out if you have time to waste), specifically in term of "luck" and "enlightment".

Lastly, the artwork with Vein and the vase also show figurines of the characters in YINGDU. While a mini Lu Guang seems to be crying over a fallen Cheng Xiaoshi, Liu Xiao is looking right at Vein who is pointing at Xia Fei. It could mean many things so I won't expand on this gesture for now but it's worth mentioning.

In conclusion, I'd say there is a strong possiblity that Xia Fei might take Vein's place as Cheng Xiaoshi's killer, for revenge. He is looking for the truth and when he's going to find out who killed Vein, or who orchestrated his demise, he's going to go after them. He seems to have a good lead on people with powers too. And since he's studying applied physics, he might look for ways to give himself powers, artificially.

Of course, the presence of Liu Xiao in the fanarts and in Xia Fei's life is important but, as always, the mystery around his character makes any theory kind of pointless?

Don't worry, I still have ideas!

His relationship with Xia Fei is important to what is to come in Link Click season 3, that much is obvious.

The PV shows Liu Xiao as Xia Fei's agent or something, while Vein is watching over him from a distance, through screens. We know there is some kind of partnership between them even before that, despite the canon fact Xia Fei strongly dislikes Liu Xiao for some reasons. I think Liu Xiao is taking care of him for his own interests, though.

In Buddhism, whispering in the ear symbolizes a confidential communication method, reflecting the importance of privacy and personal expression in decision-making processes. Of course, in the context of YINGDU, we know it means Xia Fei is giving information on Cheng XIaoshi and Lu Guang to Liu Xiao, but we still don't know to what end.

Additionally, I'm working on a meta about what could be Vein, Liu Xiao and Xia Fei's powers. Basically, it's related to the fourth wall and how Link Click is starting to break it more and more in merch and other media. This meta made me think of it and I can't wait to share the concept with you all. It's based on the three wise monkeys that embody the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". Coincidentally, I do think Xia Fei is the one who speaks no evil and Liu Xiao is the one who hears no evil.

I think Xia Fei is just like Cheng Xiaoshi, emotion driven, but he's also very intelligent and surprisingly perceptive: he doesn't like Liu Xiao, he doesn't like working with/for him, he doesn't buy his friendly act. However, I don't see any future when he doesn't get used by Liu Xiao in his evil plans. With Vein out of the picture and Xia Fei's new motivation, it might not be easy to see through manipulations.

Wait and see!

Okay, that's all for today!

[onlyancunin]

Just musing about creativity today. About how that one incident made me almost disappear from my socials, compared to how much I posted before.

As I opened my YouTube app today, my first recommended video was I can't keep doing this by struthless, a creator whose takes & approach are very close to my heart. Published 18 h hours ago as I'm typing this, he talks about how deeply the hate comments/DMs can affect us if they reopen a very particular wound.

For me it's cross-platform harassment - this anonymous hateful tumblrer popped up around the time I was (am?) experiencing a phenomenon on Reddit, where someone would downvote almost every single one of my comments minutes/hours after it was posted. The reason why I'm thinking is just one person, is that it happened notoriously over 2-3 weeks - and the only reason why I'm using the past tense is that I'm not posting much anymore. My comments would go from 1 upvote to 0 shortly after publishing, and only then the upvotes would start to amount. Even comments that ended up having hundreds of upvotes were initially downvoted by somebody.

This made me feel... observed. Looked at. Stalked, even. At first I tried to brush it off with the "I have a hater, so I must be famous" attitude, but then this hateful tumblrer decided to let me know what they think. And - a certain Redditor went through my posts history & dragged my personal trauma into an unrelated discussion. What's even more alarming is that they were alluring to something I posted on my previous account, which means I have been already not-fondly remembered.

The moment it became multi-platform, it got a little too personal for my taste.

Now is all this all just one person? I doubt it. From the way this reddit discussion was going on, I got the feeling they were coached at least by one other person. The comments seemed unrelated to one another and lacked continuity of thought and topic, as if after each comment of mine someone outside of the discussion went "now ask them about xyz and see what they say".

Or this could be, obviously, just my galloping paranoia.

Storytime: back when I was in elementary/junior high (in 2004, I'm a fossil), I started posting my art on a fandom message board. I was experiencing soul-crushing bullying at school at the time, on the grounds of me being poor & "weird" (and that's not even an exaggeration - an abusive family will shape you that way). Publishing my works online gave me an escape and quickly became my safe haven, as I was getting mostly positive feedback & support. But of course I had my haters even then, piling up on me under the commandment of one jealous girl on the same message board. And I'm saying "jealous", because looking back I don't see any other reason why a 19 year old soon-to-bee art school student would go off so hard on a 15 year old posting her fanarts online. This, and also other people on this board would tell me the girl is clearly acting jealous and insecure.

So that was school and this message board - and then there was my little website I set up some time later, where I'd publish my works. Back then there instead of comments there was something called "guest book", where people would let the author know they came by, shared their opinion & whatnot.

I was getting mostly kind words, until one day I got a very nasty, hateful comment on there, telling me to "have some shame" and that my works are "flat and ugly" and that I am overall "stupid". If memory serves me right, I tried to discuss them, explain myself, tell them off. I don't remember the details of what I said, but I remember the harassment stopped only after my then online best friend used very vivid language telling them to go f#ck themselves. Suddenly - silence.

The harasser's nickname was "sinister". I still remember it to this day, despite not knowing the meaning of this word at the time.

All of this to say I've unfortunately experienced cross-platfom harassment before.

And that worked just beautifully with what my Cazamom was preaching, which was that "people would only ever like me for my drawings", due to my "oversensitiveness". The combination of attacks on my character & online thrashing of my art created a stress fracture on my psyche that never truly healed. I'd wager that's the reason why for the longest time I hated all artists (including myself), and why I sometimes got into the mindset of inviting hate towards myself, acting against societal norms. And no, I didn't do it on purpose, but it just kept on happening.

As if me being hated was just... a given. A matter of time.

Which circles back to the video I shared in the beginning - and the importance of sharing even little parts of ourselves, because those little pieces of us might be huge for someone else.

So I'm sharing - about what I learned and what I'm trying to come to terms with, now that it resourfaced in my mind. Hopefully some of you find this interesting and/or insightful.

And - if I may - I encourage you to let your favourite creators know how much you like them / their art. Throw in reason(s) why, if you feel like it.

This is not me fishing for compliments (unless you have some, in which case please feel encouraged), more like asking to help balance out the general feedback an artists might be getting. The supposed "healthy" ratio of negative to positive comment is said to be 5:1, but with something as personal as art, I'd bump the ratio up even by tenfold. All depending on artist's vulnerability.

So tell the people you like that you like them, before others shut them off. Tell them you like their art, before someone tears them down for it.

And remember - if you wouldn't ask someone for advice, don't take their "constructive criticism" to heart either. Each comment is an envelope containing a message for you. Unpack, understand and recycle the ugly envelopes. Keep your mind's place safe and nice. It's the only one you've got.

Picture: WIP of a piece with the idea of Astarion hesitantly accepting love.

[st-just]

as someone who mostly doesn’t read any fiction by sociology majors or queer people who like to construct things, I want to know more of what you think about Cobra Kai. It’s interesting to see someone with a more “academic” relationship to fiction watch and talk about silly pulp stuff that I like.

I admit it’s utterly corny and “non-prestigious” for lack of a better word, but it does somehow speak to me in it’s shameless ‘80s-ness, and I want to know about what this says about me.

(I do like more intelligent fiction as well, but mostly artsy movies. Prestige tv or literary fiction has historically been too much of a time commitment to stay philosophically focused the whole time. I was a voracious reader as a kid, and I’m trying to read Anna Karenina, but the internet has rotted my attention span. I can do a 100 minute art movie, but reading a book chunks at a time is somehow hard to stay engaged with.)

Sorry this has taken so long to answer - was waiting to finish season five and then just forgot

I mean mostly I think it's entertaining trash with some enjoyably scenery-chewing performances and surprisingly good fight choreography? I also respect the utter commitment to the bit, in this world where 'karate' is a pan-Asian marital art that does legitimately give low-level superpowers and also guns don't really seem to exist. The shameless '80s nostalgia bait clashing with the modern setting is also done with enough effort and self-awareness to mostly be really fun. But it's honestly more background noise than anything I'm actually watching with analytical intent.

That said the show's conception of and preoccupation with masculinity is just fascinating for how deeply held and also unselfaware it seems to be?

Like Johny is clearly a comic, pathetic figure, right? Especially in season one, he's a failure of what mature masculinity is supposed to be (deadbeat dad, shitty insecury housing, no steady work or marketable skills, embarrassing piece of shit car, neither a long term relationship nor success when he tries for something casual). His fetishistic attachment to the outward signifiers of '80s machismo is presented as something to laugh at, both because of how outdated they are and because he can't live up to them. But! The show also presents him as having a kind of Quixote-esque nobility about him, and the next five seasons of tv are a long sequence of him basically achieving all the things he was pathetic for lacking in the premier.

More broadly, the show has a very, very clear thesis that the vital core of being a Good Man is a) being able to deploy incredibly violence through personal strength and skill b) but choosing not to do so as a demonstration of restraint and virtue c) unless it's for a just cause or someone is really asking for it. Like, literally every male character with an arc is good at karate! Even the MIT-bound dweeb who was introduced to get shoved into lockers and the annoying brat Ipad baby younger son! The show simply does not care to waste screentime on a guy who can't punch you into a coma.

(There's something almost like, chivalric about the plot beat in season 5 where Daniel has dutifully chosen to give up his vendetta against Silver because protecting his wife and children is more important than abstract principle or glory, and then his wife needs to cajole and convince him to get back in the fight with her blessing. Warrior-aristocrat-ass gender role enactment

(Because it's the 2020s, a select number of women can be warriors too. As long as they're incredibly conventionally attractive, and also never defeat/emasculate any of the really important men. I did actually laugh when the only non-supermodel-hot major female character was written off between seasons with like a single line of explanation))

Besides all that - I mean it's kind of hilarious how the show is so studiously colorblind is filling its supporting cast and has a few relatively prominent asian characters whose race is just literally never important in any way, and then also portrays The Orient like it's 1980 and the closest anyone involved has ever come to Asia is watching a couple horribly dubbed wire-fu movies.

[amalthea-13]

Hi again! Same anon!! Thanks for responding!! I wanna respond again if that's okay. Again, if not then feel free to delete.

First thing is that I really like that interpretation of Stolas's Striker line. I never saw it that way and when you did it felt really interesting. Originally I found it hard to emphasize with why he'd say that or bring it up at all. Even now I still kind of do, but that's a feeling thing. And it's what makes discussions like this super interesting to have.

I do agree that they're adults!! Which is why the clarity between them is so important. I wasn't trying to say that Blitzo didn't understand that the deal was wrong, he totally knows that! What I mean about Stolas being clearer and addressing specific things was how (and sorry I know now you don't like talking about it. Critics get stuck on it because it feels more important) the names and how that specifically made Blitzo feel. Not the deal. Like turning off the faucet is good(the transaction) but there's still all this water on the floor(the names). Absolutely does not need to go through every single thing he said wrong or meant This was but was taken as another, but tackling the deal alone doesn't feel like it Gets everything. The transaction is separate from the treatment is what I mean, hopefully that makes sense. And of course same to you, we don't see eye to eye but I don't think you're wrong. Perspective is cool like that

I don't agree with you on why Blitzo blew up the way he did or that he was only projecting. I find it really hard to see it that way, honestly. Which is fine, again I don't think you're wrong. I think he was saying how he felt about the behavior. Not taking Stolas seriously because he didn't believe him, not because he has a poor image of himself (he does, not denying that!) but because there wasn't anything countering that Stolas felt the same way. In his perspective, I mean. I think Blitzo didn't see him as a person and kept the thought that it was the same the other way. That it WAS a kink thing, and in exchange for being mostly cool with that and engaging that way he gets the book. So when Stolas starts leaving and laying his own perception of Blitzo's "answer" to his own feelings/dismissing him and Blitzo gets upset about "Feelings Bullshit" being sprung on him. It feels like the blame for not taking Stolas seriously is solely on Blitzo when he wasn't even close to saying that or feeling that way. If this makes sense? I hope it does xndkdj.

They aren't really understanding or listening to each other. Or giving a lot of room to see the other's full perspective. They're also being very people about it and not saying everything they mean properly, the clarity that these two absolutely need.

(Back at the Striker thing oooo I love that a lot) Reading your response made me feel a little different about the "I don't look down on you." Blitzo just doesn't believe it. But I really really can't vibe with the reason why he doesn't is because of self hatred. It rubs ME wrong lol. I do think Stolas learned!! I'm sorry if it seemed like I was saying he didn't. He did! He did!! Just that what he is learning and improving on isn't exactly what he should. "I don't look down on you" is right, he doesn't and is trying to respect and be genuine! But he didn't learn why Blitzo felt that way to begin with, and it was his treatment/behavior/the class divide(that while not there after mastermind anymore I personally don't feel like is the fixit all that they needed), not "Blitzo hates himself".

You did address them! Thank you :) Evidence is naturally very helpful. Yeah we don't see eye to eye but like I said in the start, it's these perspectives that make these discussions really interesting. We feel this and that very differently and it's because of this that and the third but we aren't really wrong about anything. Beauty of art or what the fuck ever LOL

You were very clear and I do understand the line of thought well. I hope I was clear too. Thank you!

OH and in the comments "It really doesn't help that Blitzo has been very avoidant with communication" VERY frustrating I agree. In my perfect world Stolitz has a break for a Really long time or reel in on what's on the line and just be friends. There's less stakes in a friendship. Blitzo has gotta get better at things, Stolas needs Time, they both should just tackle this all....Much Later.

Stolas, Blitz's Insecurities, and Context

Firstly, want to thank you again for being kind in my asks yet again. While we may not agree, I will take the time to tackle the arguments/disagreements in this since I like to be clear, concise, and understood in every discourse I have.

Lets dive in.

1.) Context Matters

When it comes to the line about Striker, context really matters. While I have no qualms with you bringing up that line, without the added context surrounding Striker and how Blitz sounded like him. Stolas was making a very pointed and direct point to make Blitz stop dehumanizing him and reflect on his behavior.

Striker was spewing ideas that would have in the end resulted in Stolas being dead. Blitz was regurgitating and restating the same ideologies bar for bar, and Stolas clocked it.

Him trying to contradict Blitz's thinking here was on purpose and then he pivots to make Blitz reflect;

Stolas: I don't look down on you! How many times do I ha- When have I ever?! You speak just like that vile Striker friend of yours. The one who tried to kill me and you couldn't be bothered to come help me. Remember him?

He made a point to say Blitz sounded like the same guy who nearly killed him and wanted his head just for being- born rich. The context paints a bigger picture about how Blitz feels about their relationship and the class imbalance between them. Blitz truly does not view Stolas as a person.

2.) Apologies for the Nicknames are POINTLESS

I'm going to try and remain civil with this point, because as a Stolas Stan, this specific argument is a never ending fucking nightmare with Blitz D!ckriders. I get a tad feral because honestly to apologize for the nicknames makes NO SENSE.

The nicknames and the transactional fuckings GO HAND IN HAND. The context of their relationship colored the way Stolas's statements and shitty flirting translated to Blitz. Therefore, yeah he did apologize for his behavior. As I said, he changed many of his behaviors abruptly to respect Blitz as a person.

Again, Blitz Defenders for some reason cling to these scenes for NO reason when they are long past and never been repeated in Season 2.

"But Amalthea it was never addressed!!!"

Stolas's entire fucking statement DOES address that the relationship as a whole, from its conception till now had been WRONG. I don't know how to address that anymore directly;

"But this transactional thing we have, it's not right anymore. It hasn't been. It never was. And now all I can see is how wrong it is to be so tethered to someone in such an unfair way... and not know how they feel."

Stolas realizes he never should have been so attached to Blitz in such an unequal dynamic that colored their relationship in the classist context it had. Stolas is sorry. He has changed behaviors, respected Blitz's work, and continues to support him even when it DOESN'T BENEFIT HIM.

I am kinda getting tired of driving this point home over and over, but he has done everything he should do, but somehow it is NEVER enough. At this point it feels like ya'll want him groveling at Blitz's feet apologizing for every single thing he said, when he already acknowledged it was wrong. I'm trying my best to not be aggressive about this point, but it just feels so unfair since Blitz has never, ever taken the time to apologize to Stolas for consistently traumatizing him, insulting him, embarrassing him at Ozzie's, I mean I can go on and on, but the only time we want apologies is when it comes from Stolas over a few lines of dialogue he never repeats and behaviors he stops, but Blitz can walk around being a bitch and no one bats a damn eye? C'mon now. This is a pointless argument that is biased against Stolas and is not a fair argument. Blitz Defenders, please let. it. go. It's one of those arguments that no matter how it's handled no one will be happy.

3.) Blitz's Projection onto Stolas

I am fully prepared to be alone on this argument, but I'd like to remind everyone here I have studied literature for roughly the last 4 years. So I ain't entirely senile or crazy or whatever else.

This is a matter of analyzing Blitz's claims about Stolas's behavior and providing substantiative evidence that he is projecting.

In the transcript this is Blitz's entire horrifying tirade:

Blitzo: Treat me like one of your little butler imps?! You can't just dismiss me like that! [He begins tearing up.] I mean, you royal fucks think you can do this EVERY TIME, like you can just play with our feelings because we're smaller and not as IMPORTANT! Well, I'm not letting you, BITCH! LET'S GO!

Claim #1: Being treated like a butler that he can be dismissed whenever Stolas pleases.

This claim holds very little water, but lets talk about the fact Blitz literally does this to Stolas. He only shows up for sex and only calls Stolas when he needs help or assistance. Outside of that Stolas consistently tries to contact Blitz on non work related topics and even tries to invite Blitz into his home to cuddle at some point.

Wanna talk about being called and dismissed whenever? Let's talk about Ozzie's because this shit pisses me the FUCK off.

You call him up, tell him it's a date, then publicly humiliate him, THEN, THEN you have the audacity to get mad at him for inviting you in and trying to in some sense comfort you, THEN yell at him and leave him there without a second thought.

Shit, almost like you called him up for something you needed then dismissed his ass when he was no longer useful.

Claim #2: Stolas Plays with Blitz's Feelings

AS IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN USING AND ABUSING HIS FEELINGS SINCE YOU TWO REUNITED, BLITZ!

Stolas:(blindfolded) You have no idea how long I've craved this kind of passion, and how much it means that the one who wants me is ... my first ever friend!

As if you didn't know this man has loved you since the beginning while he cried it out before your dumbass tried to leave. You really are going to sit here and tell me this man, Stolas of the Ars Goetia, the one who has waited on you for TWENTY FIVE agonizing years, this is the man playing with your feelings?

The man who would rather let you make fun of him than see you upset?

Stolas : I'M SORRY NEVERMIND , IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL. I WAS JUST WORRIED ABOUT YOU. YOU SEEMED VERY UPSET AND YOU TOOK OFF SO FAST. BUT MAYBE I READ TOO MUCH INTO THAT. I'M GLAD IF THAT'S NOT THE CASE. I WASN'T UPSET EITHER I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE YOU WERENT'T AND OBVIOUSLY YOU CAN HANDEL ANY STUPID JOKE A CLOWN CAN MAKE. ASMODEUS CAN BE VERY INVASIVE IN HIS HUMOR. BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS PRETTY FUNNY MYSELF. WHAT HE SAID ABOUT ME AT LEAST. I ENJOY BEING THE SUBJECT OF JEST. MAYBE YOU CAN SAY MEAN THINGS TO ME TOO NEXT TIME YOU COME OVER.

(Credit to SilverBlade67789 on Reddit)

Or is it you that is playing with HIS feelings? Hm?

Calling up HIS line and making him think it was going to be a date, yknow what lemme pull THAT transcript too!

Blitzo: I was wondering if you… wanna come with me to a club tonight?

Stolas: Are you asking me on a date, Blitzy? *blushing and his pupils turn into hearts*

Blitzo: I-yes, I suppose that is what's happening. How fast can you get down to Lust?

You make him think its a date, make him think you're going to treat him to a good night. Now how do you know he would be sooooo willing to come? Well he told you, he loves you, he wanted you for his first time. I mean c'mon you're not completely stupid, Blitzo.

Claim #3: That Stolas Views Blitz as Less Important Than Himself

I will be referring back to my religious symbolism essay for this part so if you haven't had a chance, it's linked.

One of the main things I note about Stolas is during Mastermind is he kneels down to accept the punishment of an imp. He gets on his knees willingly and doesn't ask for special treatment.

In the GIF above, you can see Stolas is on his knees. This is meant to be a symbolic moment where Stolas is humbling himself to be on equal grounds with him by putting aside his wants to prioritize Blitz's needs.

Very similar to Blitz putting himself on the rails during Sinsmas to be on equal ground with Stolas, a moment where neither of them are lowering themselves, but the other is lifting themself up to meet Stolas where he is at.

Stolas does not view himself as better than Blitz, if anything in the Full Moon argument he views himself so much lower than Blitz due to the arrangement they had for so long and how he treated Blitz during it.

But wanna talk about treating someone as less than? Do I even have to pull up the transcript of Blitzo casually pressuring Stolas for sex because he believes that's all he wants? Do I need to pull the GIFS of Stolas looking visibly upset and uncomfortable?

OOPS already did.

Stolas: I'm tired of this. I'm uncomfortable how you're speaking to me now.

Blitzo: Oh, come on, Stolas. You can't tell me this isn't a fantasy of yours. [gets up on the table] You want me to show your rich, prince-y ass what a real fuckin' is. [pulls on Stolas's robe]

Stolas: Stop it! [walks away]

Blitzo: Ha! I'm right, aren't I? [gets off the table] You get off to getting plowed by people you look down on.

Talk about fucking dehumanizing. The man pours his heart out to you because he truly cares about you and- you chalk all that up to sex? To a kink? A fetish? C'mon Blitzo you can't project onto him forever. You can't continuously expect him to take the downfall for YOUR short comings.

Oh! Oh! Let's not forget that Blitz doesn't think Stolas can DIE for like half a season, and therefore is why he felt NO urgency when Striker took him! Despite KNOWING Striker has access to ANGELIC ARTILLERY!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "he can get hurt?"?! YOU KNEW THAT INSANE POSSUM FUCK HAD ACCESS TO AN ANGELIC RIFLE DUMBASS!

LOOK, LOOK YOUR EMPLOYEE LITERALLY WAS HOLDING IT, SO DON'T BULLSHIT ME THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW HE COULD GET HURT, OR DIE! CONSIDERING HOW FUCKING UPSET YOU WERE THAT HE WAS GOING TO KILL STOLAS or as you say: "to off my easiest lengthy ticket to Earth behind my back."

Need I go FUCKING on? You don't see that man as a person, and surprisingly he tried to treat you better than you EVER treated him. Talking about some "you think you're better than us", that man has literally been so good to you while you couldn't be bothered to worry while this was happening to him:

Then after that you can't even be bothered to shoot him a text.

All of that SHIT was projection and I will DIE on this hill alone if I have to.

Blitzo : GIT BEVVER SWOON :(

Stolas : THANKS YOU BLITZ, THAT MEANS A LOT.

Stolas : I MIGHT BE HERE A WHILE, IF YOU EVER WANT TO VISIT. ( Heart Emoji )

(Credits to SilverBlade67789 on Reddit)

CAN'T EVEN BE FUCKING BOTHERED!

If anyone views anyone as "less than" it's the fucker consistently dehumanizing, oversexualizing, and objectifying the owl man. Don't bring that shit around here ever again Blitzo.

[End of Tackling Blitz's Claims]

It is all pure projection and bullshit. I will willingly die on this hill by myself, but I'm sorry there is evidence to backup the things I say. I don't go looking for stuff to just tear Blitz down, but it gets to a point when all people do is tear down Stolas that I gotta start yanking the skeletons outta Blitz's closet and throwing the corpses at people, in their faces.

This isn't about Stolas's behavior alone, but Blitz's own complicity in it. Again, who broke into whose home?

4.) Blitz's Poor Communication (Getting Tired of Talking ab this Fuck)

Blitz's inability to communicate properly ain't Stolas's Problem.

I know that may come as a shocker for many of you reading this, but Stolas expressed himself calmly and fairly to Blitz. He didn't insult him or force him to do anything.

However, instead of trying to talk to Stolas or get Stolas to stop he starts YELLING AT HIM!??!?!?!

(MY BABY FLINCHED- I'M GONNA CRY)

Blitz starts yelling at Stolas out of a fear of pure rejection, then proceeds to go off on Stolas while projecting entirely.

He takes no time to choose to be healthy and say: "Wait wait wait! That's not my answer! You can't ask me that and expect an answer, Stolas... I need some time, please?" No, no he proceeds to call him a "royal fuck" and be surprised Stolas wants nothing to do with him or to sleep with him the next episode.

Borderline replicates the same verbal abuse Stolas went through for twenty five years and thinks he should respond well to that? Your inability to communicate is not his problem, bye bitch.

5.) Stolas is Willing to Be Humiliated (Kill Me, I Hate Having to Talk ab This Again)

It makes me physically ill having to drive this point home again. However since no one seems to be willing to let it go, I will stick to my guns and fight this fight. (ALEXA CUE NON-STOP FROM HAMILTON)

The reason I say Stolas is a poor flirt and meant nothing by his comments is because he doesn't understand the social connotations around them. Is that an excuse? No, but he is genuinely sorry. He severed the arrangement and on top of that stopped so many of the behaviors that bothered Blitz.

But I literally bring up text based evidence regarding the fact the man is a victim of abuse who is used to being insulted by his wife because she humiliates him in front of EVERYONE, socially ostracizing him.

He took years and years of abuse and cruelty, this shit is borderline normal to him and he reenacts what he knows, plus mirrors Blitz's behavior to socially fit in. It's why he flirts the way he does. It is all things he learned from environment and from mirroring Blitz.

The worst part that is left out is the fact Stolas would willingly be humiliated if it meant Blitz was happy with him.

"I ENJOY BEING THE SUBJECT OF JEST. MAYBE YOU CAN SAY MEAN THINGS TO ME TOO NEXT TIME YOU COME OVER."

He thinks this shit is normal. He does it to protect himself when he thinks people are upset with him! He'd willingly let Blitz humiliate and dehumanize him if it meant he wasn't mad!

And yeah, it makes me physically ill to talk about this because I know what that's like. Making yourself as meek and pathetic as possible, just so the person you love will maybe, just maybe see you as a person again.

If they don't? Let them blow all their steam and anger out on yourself, even if it destroys you.

Hell, Stolas even let Ozzie off the hook for insulting him and humiliating him; "ASMODEUS CAN BE VERY INVASIVE IN HIS HUMOR. BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS PRETTY FUNNY MYSELF. WHAT HE SAID ABOUT ME AT LEAST."

The man won't defend himself! He will willingly be humiliated!!! He is a horrid flirt and I'm so so so sorry on his behalf but FUCK why can you all not let it the FUCK go!? Please, he is sorry! He didn't give that man the Asmodean Crystal for nothing!

To address your statement: "(and sorry I know now you don't like talking about it. Critics get stuck on it because it feels more important)"

I want to make it clear why I hate talking about this topic and it is literally because almost all of Stolas's behaviors can be explained by him being a victim of abuse.

Yet any bad behaviors he has it is expected he grovel and apologize, but Blitz never apologizes and no one bats a damn eye. Everyone gives Blitz the trauma pass over and over despite the fact that 90% of his trauma is self inflicted.

Stolas's trauma was forced upon him and no one seems to care! No one gives him a break or lets him off the hook and THAT is why I will not back down. It's why I will keep writing essay after essay until my point is made clear.

He is always willing to be humiliated. To be publicly treated like a joke.

He unintentionally perpetuates that hurt to Blitz because Blitz openly insults Stolas and Stolas takes it as flirting. He thought it was mutual.

He made a mistake and misread and incredibly difficult man. Sue him.

Well sue me, since he has no money at the moment. (joke)

Moving on I think I've run out of things to bring up purely because I am- upset and very frustrated because I know this fight and argument is never-ending.

I try to remain civilized, but at some point you get tired.

Amalthea Out.

My Ask Box is Open and I love you all so much! Thank you for your continued support!

If you want to be on my tag list, let me know in my ask box! <3

[thehoodedproxy]

Heya there fella,

Wanna share some Zeti/d6 headcanonsss?/nf

This is the first time I got an ask in my inbox in the past six years that I've officially been on this website, and I'm not normally the kind to share headcanons publically. But sure, why not! Sounds fun, honestly!

Warning, this will be long.

●For general Zeti headcanons, partially including as a species, I'll start with dietary. Canonically, Zeti's are omnivores. So they obviously will have varying diets like us. So that means that some of the deadly six will have different dietary preferences.

An example is that I think Zazz would be surprisingly more vegetarian than carnivorous. he likes chicken and fish sometimes, but nothing beats straight vegetables like carrots and cucumber to him.

Zeena and Zik love fruits, but Zeena has a preference for salads with meat. Zeena likes lighter meats in general, but she does have a more carnivorous side.

Zavok and Zor are the most carnivorous, but Zor doesn't find much satisfaction eating as frequently as the others. Zor loves spice and chocolate, though. -Zazz would probably put chocolate on something just to see if Zor would eat it. Zavok loves a good rare steak or just anything meaty. He likes herbs and spices and gourmet food sometimes, but nothing is better than a good rare meat for this one.

Zomom is actually the most balanced diet wise. He may love junk food, but eating things like sandwiches and salads as well as yogurt is something I imagine he does a lot. Mostly because salad is a common thing, thanks to Zik and Zeena. So Zomom is just a bulky guy due to all the bread and junk food, but surprisingly healthy otherwise. Zomom canonically has and will eat other living creatures, though. (Like mobians)

●Hobbies could be an interesting second thing to talk about.

Zavok obviously likes to meditate and train to hone his strength. That's his big thing. (sometimes, he'll meditate with the others when they're quiet enough in order to bond. Like when Zor is writing poetry, Zik is gardening, or Zeena is busy doing her nails.). I feel as though Zavok also likes to read up on history and finds calligraphy relaxing.

Zik is a gardener. He likes to make tea. Writing about his legacy is also a common thing he likes to do. He canonically likes to go clubbing, so I imagine he likes to dance and drink a lot. (He might be a bit of a flirt or something, idk)

Zor is a poet. He likes reading, studying on the forbidden shadows, gardening with Zik, and tending to his roses. (He definitely looks up to Zik, so I imagine he likes doing little things to be able to hang around with him.) When Zor's feeling more lazy, he enjoys napping with Zomom, maybe cooking something to feed Zomom because he's bored. He lets Zeena do his nails, hair, and makeup frequently and just chills with Zazz in general.

Zeena canonically loves nail art and going to the mall and such. She definitely likes doing her makeup and focusing on her hair and fashion. But I have a feeling she has a secret side. She likes writing! It's a bit more fanfiction-like than real books, though. Something silly and possibly almost even sweet at times, but not too sweet because she can be a demon. (Also because, Zeti's aren't really 'sweet' persay) She also enjoys bugging Zazz and Zor in her free time because she has no one else to bug.

Zomom is usually just seen trying to better his abilities or eating. he feels insecure about the way he's perceived by others, specifically like he's a failure. So I imagine he usually tries to make sure he's useful in some way. He doesn't do too much, but he likes to hang around Zor and Zavok sometimes.

Zazz is wild. He likes loud things like music and doing things with action. I imagine he likes a lot of punk rock, metal, and jazz. Zazz likes to train with Zavok a lot. He admires Zavok, so he'll just hang around, even if it hurts his brain sitting still and learning. Fighting is one of his favorite things to do, and he does not mind getting hit (usually, at least.) And he also enjoys just running around and bugging everyone. If they aren't entertaining enough, he'll just run along to the next person.

●I think they all have very interesting opinions on each other. They all respect one another and care like a really weird family.

Zavok looks up to Zik, and they view each other as father and son sort of figures. ▪︎Zavok is confused by Zor's lazy and dramatic antics a lot, but he respects Zor's abilities. ▪︎Zavok is very confused by Zeena, but she's useful and easy to convince into doing her work. ▪︎Zavok canonically states that Zazz and Zomom are viewed like brothers in battle. They may be some of the weaker members, but he respects their loyalty and devotion. He especially respects Zazz's tenacity and determination.

Zik views everyone like students. ▪︎He views Zavok as a son and star pupil. ▪︎He respects Zor's abilities and his studies but thinks Zor could stand to be less lazy. (I believe Zik was the one who brought Zor into the deadly six) ▪︎Zeena is a talented strategic fighter and planner to him, but she should focus more on her studies than her vanity. ▪︎Zomom shows potential, but Zik thinks he needs to hone in on his emotions and abilities more. ▪︎Zazz could work on a lot in Zik's eyes, but he is useful when it comes to learning about the enemy.

Zor is pretty indifferent to everyone, or at least he tries to be. ▪︎he admires Zavok's presence, strength, and leadership, but that's about it usually. ▪︎Zor greatly admires Zik, listens to all his teachings and ramblings. He wants to be like Zik in the future. ▪︎Zor sees Zeena like an annoying, bratty older sister. ▪︎Zomom is Zor's favorite, hands down. Zomom is perfectly fine with letting Zor nap away and be lazy. he doesn't judge and is calm enough to just chill with. (Zomom also eats his portions when Zor is given too much) ▪︎Zazz is chaos. He likes chaos and destruction, and it causes misery. But Zor doesn't always enjoy Zazz's loudness. They are close, though, and Zor respects Zazz's determination and tenacity.

Zeena is annoyed by everyone, but she does care... somewhat. ▪︎Zeena likes Zavok the most, he's hot. I guess. Strong, respectable. She likes that about him. ▪︎Zeena probably thinks Zik is an old sleazy bag, his prime is past him. But she respects his teachings, most of the time. ▪︎Zeena likes mocking Zor and using him as a mannequin for her beauty experiments. But Zor is honestly kind of like a weird little brother. ▪︎Zeena has no big opinion on Zomom. He's big, fat, and eats a lot. She probably doesn't help Zomom's self-esteem issues. ▪︎Zazz is really annoying to her. He's loud, interrupts things, and wrecks her stuff. He's just a really annoying older brother to her.

Zomom is kind of apathetic, really. He cares more about food than others. But he does respect everyone. ▪︎Zavok is a good leader in his eyes, but he is very harsh. He thinks of him as close, though, but he worries about it. ▪︎Zik has the garden. He has the insight. Good teacher, but he sometimes takes a toll on Zomom's self-esteem. ▪︎Zor is interesting, makes him food. Probably one of his favorites in the group. ▪︎Zeena is mean to him a lot of the time. ▪︎Zazz is a bud, a confusing bud.

Zazz likes everyone. ▪︎Zavok is his favorite. He looks up to Zavok greatly and respects him. ▪︎Zik is cool. The old man is fast and wise. Zazz thinks Zik is kind of wild and fun for an old man, really. ▪︎Zor is fun to bug. He's fun to hang out with, too, unless he's doing his cruddy poetry or napping. But those are fun as well. (He thinks it's funny when Zor gets cranky and will never admit he thinks the poetry is sometimes cool) ▪︎Zeena is fun to bug as well, but he doesn't like that she ignores him a lot. ▪︎Zomom is a buddy. big guy. Fun to spar with. He'd try an eating contest with Zom, but Zom would win.

Sorry this was long, but I have even more headcanons that I can't even remember. My sibling has some too that we share as well. This may be a bit messy, but i tried to make it understandable. I'll try to fix it later if there's anything that needs to be.

-Hope this was fine.

[archipithecus]

Friends at the Table is a podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends, and asking "what if X was Y? what if W could do Z?"

anyways here's a non-comprehensive selection of some times FatT asked good hypotheticals

(spoilers for Autumn in Heiron, Marielda, Winter in Heiron, COUNTER/Weight, Twilight Mirage, Sangfielle, and some Bluff City i think) (i know Spring, Partizan, and Palisade must also have good "what if X was Y?" but i'm still catching up) (this got way long so i'm putting it behind a readmore) (shoutout to Search at the Table at https://curiosity.cat-girl.gay/ for letting me do this) (also to Transcripts at the Table for writing this all down in the first place)

KEITH: What if I was a snow...hawk… ART: What if you're like, a Dr. Seuss animal? KEITH: Yeah! What if I was a star-bellied sneetch?

KEITH: (laughing) What if the bird was a can opener!

AUSTIN (as Zaktrak): It's like, what if a, what if a factory or train or a windmill could read a book?

AUSTIN (CONT.): And then he, he looks up, he actually has like a very… his build is kind of like, angular and… not thin in terms of like, weak? But he has a sort of… androgynous character about him, in terms of his like, what you would think of as like his body structure. And… very beautiful blue eyes. He’s sort of like, what if David Bowie was super black.

AUSTIN: And that's kind of like, the picture you get of her, is like, What if Fero was like, 30% less hyperactive? Still way more hyperactive than everybody else in-- the world? (laughter) but like, just a little more in tune, with the world.

AUSTIN: What if fire was matte?

ART: What if a—what if a 90s after school special needed some graffiti

AUSTIN: Yeah. He asks you, um... watching what unfolds, and there's, there's, it's--and this is the fuckin' nerdiest thing I'm ever gonna say; it's like what if A-ha's Take On Me was an AMV? Was an anime music video?

AUSTIN: Ali’s character, how did she describe her character, “what if Han Solo used to be Beyonce?”

AUSTIN: It’s like, what if the American government was just another American company?

AUSTIN: It’s like what if holograms did gifs, basically?

ART: You how like Han Solo’s always talking to the Millenium Falcon, but what if the Millenium Falcon-- AUSTIN: Could talk back? ART: Had a chance of, yeah, of deciding he was angry.

SYLVIA: For example. Like just p - yeah, what if they have psychic assassins there. Oh! What if this planet’s an alien? What if this planet is a psychic assassin? Which is a great sentence I just said.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I should note that this is also like "What if the Super Bowl was attended by high fashion models?", right?

AUSTIN: We don’t get a lot of elderly non-binary people. And so Saint Auger is like, what if someone you knew from Portland was 82?

AUSTIN: It’s almost like, what if a crown could be a dunce cap?

AUSTIN: It's like- what if there was a really enterprising twelve year old, who like, [laughs] made a physiology- uh, person- a physiology like, model, but with dirt and rocks and sticks. Also there's no face, the face is also just one of this solid black rock plates.

AUSTIN: And again, there’s just light streaming in through—I think this room is mostly, like, does not have a huge window, but it does have little eyelet windows at the top of the, towards the ceiling, that run horizontally along the room, and just like, bright—it’s almost like, what if colour could be shadow? Do you know what I mean? Like, what if instead of it being that a shadow crosses your face, it is this prismatic glow that moves across the group of you as this thing crawls around this space station.

AUSTIN: It’s like white and blue, there are stars, it- you know, I think that the- it’s, it looks like the way you might imagine like, what if the UN had spaceships?

AUSTIN: What if you mixed your- your selfhood, with the notion of wings. Or the notion of flight. Not just flying. That’s where we’re going.

AUSTIN: This giant battleship that’s like ‘what if a millipede instead of legs had guns and what if it was all around it’?

AUSTIN: This thing is like the size of like a major city. This thing is like, what if Manhattan was a battleship. And instead of buildings it had guns. Except now they’re made of weird black glass.

AUSTIN: The first time he showed up I described him as what if Canderous Ordo decided to have a robot body one day? And slowly began to replace it.

AUSTIN: There’s a little— Yes, it’s like what if a cow— what if Christian Slater was playing a cowboy from New Jersey, and also was Canderous Ordo. And also he eats through his hands.

AUSTIN: There is just this like… I think it’s just metal unfolding across space. Like, at some point Volition just kind of spat out a, a, almost, it looks like a cloud of ink but instead of ink, it’s metal. And it’s just unfolding indefinitely in space like a huge— like what if Akira, what if at the end of Akira when Tetsuo turns into a weird flesh monster? It was that but various types of metal, just like bubbling all over the place throughout space, and I don’t know how you deal with that! But suddenly in the middle of the Mirage there is just this, this ink splatter, this, this gaseous, you know, spread of metal.

AUSTIN: And it’s like — again, it’s like a pistol — it’s like what if a pistol was also like a curved sword, like almost like a scimitar or something?

JANINE: What if we do a live show, but the only live show we ever do is at Bakucon?

ART: Um, let me tell you, this is a nice coat, you guys. Um, I think it’s sort of like what if… What if a leather duster jacket was like an ephemeral idea.

AUSTIN: It’s like … I think the way I described it was, what if there was a Companion Cube that could have its corners pulled apart and in the middle is a weird glowing sphere?

AUSTIN: He has this dope, like, “What if the Millenium Falcon was a deep V?” Instead of just that little bit at the top, it goes really deep down. Or like, “What if Pacman was really long?” You know what I mean?

AUSTIN: Okay. You find him like, rolled under the bottom of his, uhh, or like on a, it’s not rolled under, he’s on like a little, like cart that has a pneumatic lift, or it’s like, it’s like a, it’s like a robot that walks around. It has like- it’s like a Boston Dynamics- like what if a Boston Dynamics, like four-legged robot was also a thing you laid on top of? Like one of those carts that goes underneath a car, to repair it. You know what I’m talking about?

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): [exhales thoughtfully] Like what if milk was a solid.

AUSTIN: But it still has that ribbony-quality? [chuckles] It still has the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric? But is definitely amplified a great deal, probably? And also, we know it’s sharp, so there’s probably some… sharpness to it? You know… there’s probably, like… what if a ribbon could be a sword you pull out of a sheath?

AUSTIN: And also, Saint Sommer is a big lion man. Saint Sommer is, like… Skein. And is a big… a big… like, a big lion man. Not like Lion-o from Thundercats. Like… what if Scar could… had a big human body? Was, like… What if Scar was cut?

KEITH: And it sort of like, snap! Like, that, it's like… when we were talking about what the sound it makes, I was picturing… what if folding a blanket sounded like sheet metal?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know I think it’s like, I think this is very much like, what if the Venom symbiote was made of thread, right?

AUSTIN: So maybe it's like a- like imagine, what if a mop could just mop by itself.

AUSTIN: I won’t talk more about that stuff, but you already saw the big picture of “what if Connecticut was a space ocean,” so, you have at least some context there.

AUSTIN: It’s huge. It’s the size of a continent, right? It’s “What if South America was a big circle?” It’s “What if Europe and Eurasia was a big circle?”, constantly cast on this planet. And, you know, from space it kind of looks—not flat necessarily, right, because it’s a curved planet, it’s a sphere, or spherical, but, you know, it’s flat.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if Texas stood up.

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): “What if cars brought things to you instead of bringing you to things?”

AUSTIN: It’s just like a very bright, colorful—like, what if Steven Universe did the Sailors of the Ark? What if that team did it? It’s very good.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if it’s a can opener that does that. Like a living can opener like. Grrrngaaah! I’m going fucking open holes in things! Grrngaah!

AUSTIN: Imagine that they're almost- in my mind they're like what if a martini shaker was a piston.

AUSTIN: It's like what if you could package a sunset, y'know? Into like a cube

AUSTIN: I can't believe we started this recording by looking at pies [KEITH and DRE laugh] that make me hurt and ended with ‘what if all foods could be jelly juice?’.

AUSTIN: I saw a big buffalo picture and I was like what if that was a person, that looks cool.

ART: But what if some of these skeletons are like, sick of this shit?

AUSTIN: I think I pitched this show as like: what if Ghost in the Shell but-but magic and witches instead of cyborgs and stuff?

JACK: So, out come this nascent organization who we’re calling Shapeknights. Who are -- I think the easiest way to say it is “cowboys for trains?” They are, like -- what if instead of the cowboy riding alongside the train on his horse, he was corralling the train? Or he was trying to understand the train, or was trying to --

ALI: I think Marn, herself is a little bit more like—like what if a capybara was a siamese cat?

KEITH: Yeah. So, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, but if not, if you don't know what I'm talking about with the goggles, at least look at that. ‘Cause it's a good image. It's sort of like, what if you had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe?

ART: It’s like, what if the antagonist won the Mummy movie right, this is what happens-

KEITH: What if instead of one, big, beautiful hat I have two small, beautiful hats?

KEITH: Like what if they made headphones just for being cool at a party?

KEITH: What if you make pizza by opening the box? That it was an empty box until you opened it.

AUSTIN: What if insects were made of teeth?

JACK: She’s the fuckin’ person of the train. She’s like what if a train could output a person.

KEITH: What if the train was a nice train?

ART: What if a Madame Tussauds came to life?

AUSTIN: What if fire could be a ghost?

AUSTIN: Looking through this here, sounds like what you wrote here was “What if a dolphin was like a velociraptor?”

AUSTIN: They’re hitched. Yeah, they've been hitched. Three of them have been hitched. And I said horse, but I want you to imagine is what if…what if a shrimp were a horse?

JACK: You sort of just like rise up the slope. It's a bit like what if a train was an escalator.

AUSTIN: What if Beyonce was Poison Ivy?

AUSTIN: All my cards on the table, Millennium Black is like what if Blade stopped being a vampire hunter and started being a casino owner.

AUSTIN: He's sort of like what if Alex Jones wasn't terrible

[buttastic]

so over the past few days I read this comic called mary tyler moorehawk by dave baker and I think I have to talk about in a more formalized sense but I don't want to do it on a platform where I'm connected with actual comics people so here you go tumblr. there's gonna be a lot of spoilers for mtmh here (and to a lesser extent of house of leaves and rant: the oral biography of buster casey) because it's impossible to talk about this thing otherwise

here we go

the first thing I will say about it is that it takes rather a lot from both mark z danielewski's house of leaves and chuck palahniuk's rant: the oral biography of buster casey.

this is not a problem for me. if anything, this is the opposite of a problem for me. I love those books. I've been wanting more comics and specifically more big published graphic novels that do the kinds of post-modern structural weirdness that these prose novels do. but that kind of gets to my problem with it:

there are completely vanilla straight-forward comic pages and then there are hol-esque prose sections and never do the two intertwine.

the story is this: à la house of leaves, a journalist writes about the production of his favorite canceled-after-9-episodes tv show, mary tyler moorehawk, in an alternate 5-minutes-to-a-hundred-years future dystopia à la rant. this leads him to try and track down the original creator of the characters, where he discovers that mtmh was originally based on a comic. the structure then bounces back and forth between sections of this comic from plot points long past where the show cut off and journalistic sections where the narrator interviews people and does a bunch of junior detective stuff. that is the Plot and Structure.

the Premise is that dave baker, the actual author/cartoonist who lives in our world, receives a package in the mail that contains the manuscript of the book we're reading, that was delivered to him by dave baker, about his quest to find dave baker. I wish I could post screencaps of the intro, but alas hoopla doesn't let you take those so I'm stuck with what other people have posted.

but so anyway this entire book revolves around dave baker doggedly extolling the singular genius of dave baker while dave baker kind of shrugs at the camera. it's breathtakingly narcissistic in a way I almost respect.

the dystopian future that this takes place in is one where owning physical objects has been made illegal--for environmentalist reasons?? we'll come back to the bonkers politics in this. but so the primary entertainment is either fascist propaganda films or hologram web streaming videos with no stories where you watch people do mundane activities that I have to imagine is some kind of dig at tiktok. the only option outside of that is the way of the physicalists--people dedicated to the cult of illegally hoarding physical art objects from before such things were purged. the only people who are allowed to own anything are corporations, who can own anything including people, but honestly if we think too hard about what it means to live in a world that truly owns nothing this whole story starts to fall apart.

like it seems like mostly it's illegal to own art? but people are described as drawing several times so art SUPPLIES are at least acquirable, somehow? but whatever, not what this is about.

but so anyway somebody gets the bright idea to revive the old ways of tv shows (except they have to broadcast them onto dishwashers instead of tvs, since dishwashers are one of the few things people are allowed to own. also, somehow, broadcasting is meaningfully different than streaming) but also along with this she revives all of the evil predatory shit tv companies do verbatim, which feels really weird.

like the book is about dave baker (the journalist)'s quest to figure out why his favorite tv show was canceled and he lives in this dystopia where art is illegal and he managed to illegally watch this show because his uncle knew a guy who knew a guy and he has to dodge police raids to even talk about this stuff--

--but the reason his favorite show was canceled is because a tv ceo tried to claim perpetual rights to someone else's comic characters and that person left in a huff?

like idk! do something interesting with your setting! I actually do not think trying to combine the approaches of house of leaves and rant is a bad idea. they both feature people talking Around an object/person that is never directly depicted but still shines through anyway, and both have elaborate metanarratives running at the same time. there's a lot to work with there!

so I think the mistake here is trying to combine the Worlds of hol and rant. hol takes place in a world that is basically identical to our own to try and get you to wonder if the navidson record actually happened, or at the very least if johnny truant actually found someone writing about it. rant takes place in a scifi near-future to continuously bait and switch you with wondering how far removed this reality actually is from our own. both of these are extremely Core To What These Books Are About.

mary tyler moorehawk, on the other hand....seems to just be using these as a fun aesthetic to explore?

mtmh makes extensive use of hol-style footnotes, but they never really go anywhere. they're extra set-dressing but they always immediately resolve themselves and are almost completely ignorable. every once and a while one will loop back around, but never in a way that's plot-critical.

the scifi setting is completely incomprehensible unless you've also read rant and know kind of what it's aping. in rant there is a big cultural divide between upperclass people who do their media consumption by plugging sensory recordings into jacks in their brains to feel things second-hand and lowerclass people whose brain jacks have been rotted out by exposure to rabies (listen it's chuck palahniuk) who have to actually experience things in person if they want to feel anything.

like, I feel like this is what mtmh is gesturing towards with the divide between hologram tiktoks and Real TV but it feels sooo telling that baker decides to replace palahniuk's focus on real sensation to one about....watching better tv

I don't want to get too in the paint of defending chuck palahniuk here because I am on record as hating that bastard (and I do. even if I do like the book rant for the most part. it's complicated) but rant is at least a book About something. rant is a book about feeling everything you can and defining who you want to be when other people have already made up their minds about what you'll be and also the AIDS crisis. house of leaves is a book about love and grief and obsession and rampant un-checked obsessive-compulsive disorder.

so what's mary tyler moorehawk about? that's easy: comics! sort of.

at least, it wants to be about comics. mtmh is trying to weave you a tale about how discovering the right piece of media at the right time in your life can Change you and make you realize how wonderful art can be. problem number one with this is that in mtmh the medium that touches people is a tv show, not a comic, but we'll come back to that. problem number two is that this revelation doesn't Do anything for these people except teaching them that they like art now. nobody except genius auteur dave baker attempts to actually Fix anything about their situations or society, and a constant throughline in this is is that fictional people are better than real ones.

I just think that's really sad? that's really sad. in the end of the book dave baker the journalist takes back his own findings and dave baker the comic genius' loose pages back in time to deliver them to our world dave baker, who is apparently the younger self of the coolest guy who ever lived. (I found This whole plot weirdly derivative of the scott pilgrim anime but what's another one here, right?) dave baker the genius tells dave baker the journalist (these ones are actually different guys) that he needs to make sure mtmh gets published as a comic, not as a highly corporate work to get butchered, and to foster a future where art and artists by extension are protected by society.

well that's all well and good, but what does art Provide in this universe, exactly? mostly, it seems like the primary functions are escapism and validation, the two most toothless things anything can provide. in the face of this horrible dystopia we must endeavor to Feel Better About Ourselves In A Way That Makes Us Feel OK About Avoiding Other People. great, awesome

I know I'm avoiding talking about the comics thing once again, but let's circle back to what this dystopia actually is. oh god tumblr is eating my shit let's see if I can reconstitute this

so things are described as fascist and corporate in mtmh a lot but the actual things that happen—loss of private property for environmentalist reasons, a focus on communal experiences instead of private ones, the death of consumerism—feel pretty unambiguously leftist. it's not enough for me to call this comic right wing, but it IS enough for me to call it centrist hand-wringing about how art won't be able to exist under communism. but whatever. this book is not really interested in making grand political statements.

so if there's no point in a better future, let's imagine a better past. finally, let's talk about mary tyler moorehawk's relationship with comics.

the climax of mtmh occurs when journalist dave baker finally tracks down auteur dave baker and discovers that mary tyler moorehawk—the beloved, deeply flawed, and obviously meddled-with tv show he dedicated his life to—was originally based on a much longer, infinitely more nuanced and elaborate series of comics.

this is the crowning achievement of this entire book. the world opens up under our protagonist and he learns to no longer be content with shadows and to walk out of Plato's cave. everything this book was trying to do crystallized for me at this moment, because of how much it mirrored my own entry into comics. for me, it was the feeling of discovering my favorite anime were based on manga. it was hearing that the guy behind invader zim also made comics. it was learning who jack kirby was and how hard he had to fight to make his art. it's the Core Thesis of not only this book but all of cartooning—that indie comics are a beautiful realm of possibility that are one of the few modes of expression that can exist completely divorced from corporate oversight and executive meddling. it's beautiful!

and it's maybe 3 pages out of this 250 page book?

I've been talking almost exclusively about the prose side of this book so far. the other half is the actual comic Mary Tyler MooreHawk, the one the show is based on.

it's a fun, cute pulpy adventure comic about a family of do-gooders repeatedly trying and failing to save the world.

it gets bleaker and bleaker as it goes along. where the prose half is potentially the more interesting half, I think the comic half is the more compelling one, where a recently aggrieved bunch of adventurers keep losing more and more but decide to pick up and keep trying anyway because it's all they can do.

the style is fun, both visually and in terms of genre. it's kind of a pastiche of all kinds of adventure comics from different decades and different countries, though this does mean it dips into some pretty racist tropes near the beginning.

it, like the prose, is much better on emotionality than politics. unfortunately for it, I think it gets bogged down in what the other half of the book is doing. it's a petty simple and compelling story but elevating it to being The One Story That Will Save The World shines a lot on a lot of its inadequacies, some of which I don't even think are actual inadequacies.

pinning the entire media revolution on what appears to be a flimsy children's serial is summoning my inner "read another book" guy and I don't even think it's a bad children's serial. I think if the prose part had talked up more about the parts of this comic that we don't get too actually see at all instead of presenting a small section of it like a mic drop it would've gone over better.

because at the end of the day, mtmh is just a pretty conventional comic. even in-universe it seems like the thing that was novel about it is that no one else was making comics. this kinda gets at my big picture problem with this whole book:

I have been talking about the structure and maneuvers of this narrative purely in comparison to prose novels.

part of this is on me. I could really easily compare the included sections of comics in this book to the black freighter sections from watchmen, for example. but that's not really the most interesting part of watchmen, is it?

I see in mtmh a deep and abiding desire to do something different with comics as a medium, or at the very least a desire to do something different and also showcase comics. but the problem with that is that it derives most of its big maneuvers from and expresses them through prose.

I found this comic because I was reading through reviews over on solrad the other day and found this one by elias rosner. I was getting annoyed about 1) this book being an obvious house of leaves pastiche and then not getting talked about by someone familiar with house of leaves, and 2) the assertion that this book was more about tv than comics when it seemed obvious to me from the premise that this a book about the way comics are devalued.

but the more I read of this thing the more apparent it became to me than while it has massive respect for comics as a cultural heirloom, it either doesn't know or doesn't care about the interesting structural and narrative maneuvers unique to comics and defaults to drawing from prose.

grant morrison has been churning out bizarre post-modern comics since the 80s. we live in a post-homestuck world. pick up a michael deforge comic. read even just a scott mccloud book on the possibilities of comics? read anything. read shoujo manga with brain-breaking panel setups. read webcomics interrogating what it means to be a comic. read abstract comics. read weird comics. comics comics COMICS! there's so many of them!! they're all so interesting and weird!!!! come on man!!!!

anyway. I think there's a part of me that really wants to like this book. in a lot of ways, I feel like I was the target audience. but I also think it had ambitions that were not at all matched by the level of skill and effort baker could put into it. idk. I've only ever read one other book by dave baker, everyone is tulip, which struck me as a solid but weirdly copyright-dodging retelling of real life musician poppy's real life abuse. maybe I'm just destined to always be frustrated by this guy.

[lylahammar]

(Feel the need to state this up front: I'm bisexual, afab, kinda cis but also kinda trans, nonbinary isn't the word I'd use for myself but... alas, it's the only one people recognize as a general consensus)

I've started to understand why the term sapphic is more appealing to some people, but it still really bothers me as a descriptor/category. When talking to a friend about it (she strongly prefers Sapphic as a term), I started to sus out why:

The vast majority of my initial exposure to the term was always attached to something... aesthetic? Stories or art or music, but of a specific *type*. To the point where it gained a hyperspecific meaning of a period or historical setting, "gay woman trapped in comphet marriage and needs to be saved by bold lesbian", young girls fooling around with girls with no need for commitment because everything is fleeting and nothing is permanent and choices dont matter... on their own, these are perfectly fine narrative choices and are fun to play in sometimes, but they sure start to just seem... repetitive and restrictive and borderline fetishizing. To me, it reads as a term specifying that the love women feel for other women is the only kind allowed, that it's true and pure in a way the love a woman feels for a man isnt, and that her true self can never be realized without admitting she was in love with women since the beginning and was always supposed to be. Achillean gives me the exact same vibe.

On the other hand, my friend feels the term is *less* specific, and to her it allows *more* room for people who don't identify strictly as feminine or as a lesbian, for her it just is a broad umbrella term that allows for any variation of girl-identifying-person who likes girl-identifying-people.

Ultimately, I don't think she's wrong, and I don't know that my interpretation is right. But I think I've been exposed to a.... imma call it a "hyper-aggressive romanticization" of a particular way of existing that just puts me on edge in a way that's hard to explain to people who don't feel the same way about it. I don't think there's anything wrong with romanticizing something like that it's just that... for me, who still identifies as a woman despite being om T, who is married to a cis woman, etc... it feels ironically exclusionary and fetishizing, and mostly feels fantastical and escapist, rather than grounded in anything real.

TL:DR, it feels like a book genre, not a usable term/identifier

Ohhhhh okay I see I wasn't sure if there was something actually problematic about the term that I wasn't aware of, that sounds like it's just a preference based off of the vibes of the way some people use it

honestly I prefer sapphic and achillean because the terms "wlw" and "mlm" are so clunky and hard to say and sound goofy in my brain lmao not to mention the fact that mlm has a separate negative meaning that gets mixed up a lot

and the term "lesbian" is very specific and doesn't apply to all women who are attracted to women

so like....... idk I guess it sucks that some people have given the term sapphic a bad association for some but I'm gonna keep usin it if that's the only reason why bc I don't really care about all that and if ppl know me then they'll be able to tell that I'm not being a weirdo about it lol

[cottoncandy-cult]

Artistic Temptation

Ban x Reader

(Y/N) was in the kitchen with Ban as he prepared several orders, that night was a busy night at the boar's hat as they had once again moved to a new area. She wasn't a server but rather she did the dishes, needless to say she spent a lot of time with the silver haired man. But yet they rarely ever spoke, both usually engrossed in their work. Even outside of the kitchen, the only ones she actually spoke to were Meliodas and King. She and the other girls were just too different to actually hang out, she was a tomboy and a drinker who was just too quiet. When they weren't working, she was usually sitting in a back corner table and drinking while she worked on her art. She had a book that she drew in, having a photographic memory made things easier for her to fill the pages. She had even drawn the sins, not that she told any of them. Gowther knew but is that really a surprise? "Hey (Y/N), Elizabeth isn't feeling well. Can you take over for her?" The captain of the sins peeked his little blonde head in, giving her a smile that she just couldn't say no to. "Sure thing, be right out." She called to him with a soft smile, quickly trying to untie her apron.

At least until she realized she tied it weird and couldn't see what she was doing, blushing deeply she turned to Ban who was taking a short break. "Uh... Ban... Can you help me?" Her blush darkened as he looked up at him, that sexy smirk dancing across his face. "Sure, what do you need?" He spoke with a slight drawl, approaching her as she turned her back and looked over her shoulder. "Can you untie me; I can't see what I'm doing." Her cheeks were cherry red as he stepped up behind her, she could feel his warm hands brushing against her exposed skin thanks to her uniform. She tensed a little when feeling his hand brush against her butt, then she felt the apron come undone while he stepped back and chuckled. "There you go." She quickly removed her apron and tossed it over a nearby chair, mumbling a sweet but shy thank you before she rushed out without seeing the blush on thief's cheeks. He had touched her bum on purpose out of impulse, mostly because it just looked so soft, and he had to see for himself.

After they closed up (Y/N) was beat, her feet ached alongside her back as she took a seat at the now empty bar and laid her head down. Though she glanced up when hearing the stool to her right move and the sound of something being sat in front of her, when (E/c) eyes looked up all she initially saw was a mug of beer and when she glanced to the right, she spotted a grinning silver fox. "You look like you could use a drink." He shrugged his broad shoulders and leaned forward onto the bar before he began sipping his beer, she felt a smile creep across her face and slowly sat up beginning to drink the beer put in front of her. "Thanks... There's a reason I prefer the kitchen over working out here on the floor." She giggled and the angelic sound made him chuckle a bit, while nodding his head he spoke up. "I know what you mean, I don't care much for working with customers."

That night was 2 weeks ago, the two had spent all night drinking and talking about anything that came to mind. He actually helped pull her from her shell, something that made the others happy as well. Currently they had stopped in some kind of forest, taking a break from traveling and working. There was a town about 20 minutes away by foot and Elizabeth had gone with Meliodas into town to gather some supplies. It wasn't clear what the others were doing, but (Y/N) was settled under a tree and began drawing in her book. She had been drawing a picture of Ban, King had once told her of the days that he had his long hair, and it made her curious. She had never tried drawing anyone or anything without it being something from memory, at least not since she was a kid. She was just finishing up when a voice startled her, luckily it wasn't enough to make her mess up the image. "What're ya drawing?"

She easily recognized this cheeky tone as Ban's voice, making her blush darkly and quickly move to shut her book. "Nothing really... Just... Doodling..." Her voice was soft and shy as she suddenly felt like a bunny under his crimson gaze, Ban's smirk growing as he hopped on top of her. His fingers glided over her sides, her beautiful laughter escaping as she squirmed and tried to push him away with one arm while holding the book up with the other. Unfortunately for her she ended up tossing her sketch book to the side, though she was too busy trying to escape from his tickles to notice. That was when he had quickly jumped up, taking advantage of her panting tired out form, he quickly grabbed her sketch book. When she noticed she quickly tried to grab it, but he held it up, making her hop but even then, she still couldn't reach it.

"Come on (Y/N), let me have a look. You know I won't judge you." His smirk turned into a sweet smile, making her blush and step back. She looked away before nodding her head softly, making him pat her hair gently before he began looking over all of her drawings. His grin was growing, he was amazed at this secret talent of hers. He realized that despite all the talking they've done lately he knows nothing about her really, she was an enigma to him, and it was weirdly attractive to the albino male. "Wow... Why didn't you tell me you could do this?" His words came out soft but deep, making her cheeks a crimson color. "I feel like it might creep people out because I draw them..."

His chuckle made her heart flutter as he looked at her, his eyes seemed so soft and sweet. "I'm sure the others wouldn't care, especially with how awesome you've made us look... Your drawings are almost as beautiful as you..." His words caught her off guard, but before she could say anything he had planted his warm lips against hers. She was shocked at first, but quickly began to kiss back. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and his curled around her waist. It was pure bliss for her, being in his arms made her feel warm and safe. When the kiss broke, she gazed up at him with glossy (E/c) eyes, giving him a sweet smile. "Seems there's truly nothing you can't steal." Her voice was sweet, she took his hand and placed it over her heart. The silver haired man simply smiled and leaned his forehead on hers, slowly swaying with her in his arms. "I love you (Y/N)... No one will ever steal you from me..."

[rhysgore]

top 10 space marines who should be pregnant

fabius bile should be, has been, and will be pregnant again. its literally not even a competition. like we literally read in detail about his water breaking and him being shocked at having a healthy baby even though all of his equipment (ahem) is broken down and unviable and then later on he's like "i should have aborted that thing when i had the chance". the text talks about his womb and his messy divorce and him losing custody of his daughter. he's so mommy it's actually silly.

that guy from the IW pregnancy machine book gets a special mention even though i haven't actually read it simply because of the amount of genital TF and forced impreg stuff i've seen him subjected to. this is not a complaint. also just the fact that i can say "the IW pregnancy machine book" and it's not a joke means im legally obligated here.

abaddon, who does not really project any kind of pregnancy aura but would look great waddling around extremely rotund and pissed about it. we put him in maternity power armor and he's having a bad time. yeah i'm fetishizing him too don't worry. i think he'd be a terrible mother but also he would 100% breastfeed in the middle of strategy meetings and people would just have to deal with it

erebus but crucially it's a rosemary's baby kind of situation. he's chill with it though

i think all blood angels are inherently crazy fertile, being the offspring of the guy who is so fecund he's morally obligated to only do anal, but shoutout to azkaellon specifically for having "deliberately poking holes in the condom" energy.

not a book character but ulfar roguetrader got the opposite of a hysterectomy in commorragh. hysteroplasty??? is that what it is?????? anyways they were breeding him full of elves over there.

ahriman, on this list partially because you COULD argue that he's already a mother to hundreds of beautiful (if somewhat sandy) children, but mostly because i think tzeentch is a shadow contender for "patron god of chaos who would most be willing to make his devotees suitable for pregnancy on a whim". while most people would reasonably argue slaanesh for obvious reasons, or nurgle, transformation stuff is solidly tzeentch's domain and there's no reason to assume that it DOESN'T extend to "genital tf of your funny wizard for laughs". also imagine him big and round and still wearing that fuck ass mask. cute.

rushal. i don't think night lords are physically capable of carrying their own children, being descended from someone whose womb almost certainly has some sort of evil hex upon it, but that will not stop them from knocking up others. it's like a shrike type situation where they drop their young off in other birds' nests but in this case it was him getting an amateur orchiectomy-vaginoplasty wombo combo so sevatar could "accidentally" put a baby in him. ah well.

feels fucked up to have gone this far down the list and not have a death guard guy on here yet especially since i HAVE actually seen typhus pregnancy art (with flies but it counts, to me). DG as a whole somehow go very rapidly from "they would Not be able to conceive at all" to "having to pause mid-battle to quickly lay a few eggs before getting back to it". thank u grandpa\

titus. no specific reason other than i want him to be my pregnant wife