#obsessed with the style mimicking here

[spaghetticat3899]

Made the mistake of following a tag of something I like and am prone to fall into obsessing over again.

[diminuel]

Wanna hear something crazy re-“are these entitled commentators demanding updates actual readers?” question you just asked:

When I was in another big fandom, some…dedicated haters of the ship/character I liked would seek out BNF's and do basically what’s happening here: demand updates, criticize the characterizations but in the most wank-y way possible, etc, in order to make the creators feel like “real” fans of the ship/character hate the writer's work. More than one of the newer/younger authors&creators would end up quitting because of it! (Add to the death of real comments from real fans and the hater comments stand out waayyyyyy more ☹️, no wonder people just don’t bother after a while)

Yes this is psycho and yes it’s like, do you not have your own ships to have fun with??

(extra psychotic cus it was often by fringe members of the most popular ship (at the time anyway)?? Like, it’s ok! Go enjoy your many fan works with your ship! For bonus points the popular ship was only really a *thing* in the newest live action adaptation and in the older fan works of the original medium (comics) because they changed the canon ages and like merged 2 characters together, so they were extra like, insecure about how there were older, more popular ships in the fandom pre-adaptation or something so they deliberately went after even works that predated the adaptations and would attack it for being out of character!? Idk it’s crazy.

But once the open hatred of the ship/character didn’t work to discourage the creators/fans (and in fact would fuel the creators! or they would just delete on sight), the haters then learned hide their open hate as entitled “fellow fans” demanding updates or leaving “criticisms” of the writing. Like if an author complained in tumblr or discord to their friends of actual entitled fans of demanding updates and mentioning it hurt their drive to keep writing out of spite, these dedicated haters that literally stalked(!) these fan spaces would then start sending those same styled update demands, knowing it would drive this creator away from the hater's hated ship/character! Like, get a job! Touch grass!

So if you are in a fandom with a known amount of dedicated haters towards your ship/character (like say to the point where they have their own nickname for those shippers something like “Heckers” or “H*ll*rs), one sadly needs to be aware that haters those don't just stay in their lane, even if it is the 2nd or even 1st most popular part of the fandom! Punching up or down they justify it either way as “but they are hurting MY fav ship/character by writing this therefore I’m “justified”!” Crazy)

But also, yeah Fandom etiquette has TANKED in recent years and with the new generation because of both the rapid growth and mainstream awareness, maybe for good and bad because. Say the example of SPN, the old “don’t bring up shipping and Destiel at Cons to the actors!!” attitude has changed, for the better really! It’s no longer treated like a dirty little secret! Yay changing attitudes towards the gay community! Destiel fandom existing and creating most definitely lead to Cas continuing to be on the show and Destiel being canon at the end! But also like, you now get fans directly threatening the lives of actors/writers etc on Social Media for “sinking” their ship or playing an evil character or asking TRULY inappropriate questions at Cons, etc. so…

In conclusion, some of these entitled questions and demands for updates are 100% legitimate bad mannered fans being entitled and rude, because bad mannered fans have always existed and now fandom is sooooo big and fractured there's basically no common etiquette. And also, more then 0% of them might be obsessive haters of your ship/character mimicking the style&language of that kind of fan BECAUSE they know it makes the creator annoyed and less likely to continue writing for the ship/character they hate! Crazy I know! Either way, ignore them! If they are real fans and readers of your WIP then they are not the kind of reader you wanna creator for anyway! And they also might be crazy haters trying to smother your creative flame cus they are jealous! Do your thing!

I’m old and have followed works that got updated 10 years (!) later! A few extra days/months/weeks means nothing to me and it should mean nothing to real fans! It’s what the subscriber button is for! And also if you as a fan wanna give the author incentive to write more, leave them real and engaging comments! T'is the true, renewable energy! Not using these nasty , smelly, smog making demanding comments as fuel aka the whale oil of comments! And commenters, when writing these motivational fuelling comments, don’t even mention it’s for motivation! Heck don’t even say something like, can't wait to see more! at a certain point, just be happy it was written at all in any amount and extend that gratitude to the author (with your desire for more being your fuel for your comment!)

(But if you wanna maybe get the bad mannered fans off your back, remove any exact dates from your authors note after a while and like make a progress post on Tumblr to link to where you can just edit and add your time estimates and “announce” delays there so the poor widdle fans don’t *have* to “dig” thru pages of wonderful art and other (🙄) fandoms the poor dears. But it may also help so you feel less pressured if you don’t make yourself beholdened to a schedule, unless you like the deadlines for your own productivity lol then I just salute you. But that way you can just point to any annoying demands for updates to that one page)

Good luck! Do your thing! Enjoy a new fandom and the new creative energy it brings! A starting a new fandom gives you such a different rush/energy than an old, mature fandom for you. Neither is better or worse but it’s fun to have both! Enrich your enclosure !

Interesting and to be honest not entirely surprising? I’ve been in fandom for a long time too, so I’ve seen people be mean for no reason other than they enjoyed being mean and belittling fellow fans for enjoying their fandom differently than they did.

And you see quite a lot of stupid things in the Supernatural fandom when it gets to ship wars and slinging insults at each other. I had the feeling that I've seen everything but eh, fandom can still surprise me.

I do think people should get different hobbies than pretending to be fans and leaving mean comments to discourage others from writing. I don’t know if that’s what’s happening because who honestly cares enough about my niche A/B/O Destiel fanfic to want to sabotage it now, after 50 chapters are already out?

Just the general idea that fic or fanart of one thing is somehow eating up valuable “screen time” that should be dedicated to other fancreations (of different ships, dealing with different themes) is ridiculous in my opinion.

I could somewhat understand people being tense and overdoing it trying to prove to themselves and the creators that they are the true fans of the show and that they need to be catered to. But why put that effort towards fanworks of a show that’s been over for nearly 4 years? Prospective creators and platforms aren't going to look at AO3 and think "this random person wrote this historical arranged marriage AU, the SPN continuation should better follow its lead!"

You are completely right that I feel fandom etiquette has tanked. The barrier between fandom space and creators is just too brittle or at times even nonexistent in today’s media/ digital landscape. And social media aren't curated fandom spaces, it' all kind of things mashed together. And some people don’t seem to understand that the fanart and fanfic they scroll past on twitter isn’t “content” that is being produced to garner their attention. Likewise, my fanfic isn’t content I’m paid for to create that is just there for people to consume. It’s for fun, it’s free, it thrives on community. Nobody pays for it, which means that clicking away and ignoring it doesn’t cost anything. It’s no waste of time or money.

Anyway. I want to have fun in fandom. I try to share that fun. And sometimes I just fall down into a hole. And not just a different fandom hole... This whole year hasn’t been easy and that affects how and what I can create even though it’s not obvious what is going on behind the screen if you just look at my output.

All in all, creativity doesn’t always translate to a regular and consistent update schedule.

[shellshooked]

whats ur process for landscape studies? im absolutely obsessed w ur painting style 🙏💖

hi darling! here’s a video of my usual process:

this is very simple and i am by no absolute means a professional (in fact very much a beginner when it comes to perspective and backgrounds) but what helps me the most to figure picture studies out is the following:

a) figure out colors and how they work in context to the picture BEFORE you start. make a palette, and the background color (in this example, the sky)is crucial to understand the value/hue of the other colors since it is the background that essentially dictates it. I usually start with value (is the color dark or light?) then hue (what color is it?) and lastly saturation. Picking in this order helps me find the colors of the picture without color dropping which i think is really important to understand how to color. Pick the colors for the main objects of the picture and not necesarilly every detail, also pick colors of the high lights and shadows!

b) divide everything into shapes as much as you can, and do it with as few brush strokes as you can. This is smth i very much still need to practice since i tend to fixate on details when i paint, but the point of picture studies is to mimic an environment/picture and interpret it in our own way. Find geometrical shapes for trees, mountains (in this painting i chose grass to be rectangular while the mountain follows rounder shapes only) so as to help the viewer understand what you’re mimicking without actually copying the exact shape you see in the picture. this is by far the trickiest step for me but once you master shapes and how to apply them to your study, i think picture studies will become playground material to you.

I hope this helped, again, i am NOT a professional and I haven’t mastered these tricks yet, but they are what’s helping me learn a lot as I make them! I think picture studies are a lot of fun and the fastest way of learning how light and color work together. Sorry for the chunk of text, I’m unable to not be lengthy when explaining stuff😭 God bless you!

[starferret]

omg hiiiiii :3

Ok so first off thank you guys so much for all the love and support on the previous comic, it really does mean a lot. I might try to continue it in some way, either by just drawing some key moments, or sharing the script of it. But anyways!! Here’s some behind-the-scenes and fun facts about the comic!

This was the initial concept sketch from back in May. I wanted to focus on the creepy expressions that Luigi would have with mimicking Dimentio’s, but didn’t go that much into detail in the comic since it was just meant to be sketching out the ideas

These were the sketches for what was the next planned sequence, but I just didn’t like the action poses. SPEAKING OF ACTION POSES-

When trying to visualize the fight scene, I’d boot up Smash Ultimate and observe their attacks. I’d go to training mode and have so it advances by one frame at a time and just stare at it. I just spammed all of their attacks to learn about their fighting style and how they move.

Fun fact! Pretty much every Dimentio that floats behind Luigi were all drawn while I was on a 6 hour plane ride back in August

Writing stories always have you researching the most bizarre and mundane shit. I had to scrub through videos to see how Mimi teleports, and in the end I didn’t even do the one in the video. In Chapter 2 when Mimi is chasing you, she has a unique animation when she enters the room where she basically materializes out of a bunch of squares. There was no way I was going to be able to replicate that effect in 2 panels, so I went with the normal flipping animation- which she does do in her normal form.

Time for fun details :3

While the “dependent” one isn’t based on any specific moments, the other two are each from the previous Paper Mario games (woohoo I love canonical timelines!). “Insecure” is based on Luigi telling Mario about his adventures in TTYD, while his partner Blooey says that he’s lying. “Obsessed” was a bit harder for me to find an example of, but I settled on a line from his diary in the original Paper Mario. In one of his entries he talks about how the Goomba family came to visit and gave him a treat, and he writes “It looked so yummy I ate it without telling my brother! My FP increased by 3. .........You think he'll notice?”. Now this could be interpreted as “do you think he’ll know that I ate it without him” or something like that, but the way I interpreted it was that he’s proud of his FP increasing and wonders if Mario would notice this ‘accomplishment’, as if he’s desperate for his brother’s approval.

Luigi’s hand twitching is him trying to break free :) that punch angered him so much that he overpowered Dimentio’s control on him enough to be able to move his fingers around :)

Also I drew Bowser on Carrie cuz I didn’t know how to draw him running lol

[kentokrazy]

nanami kento with a curly haired s/o!

a/n: my hair is 3a+b so this is mainly based off my experience with washing and styling! im going to make it as vague as possible to try and include other curl types and the process but i might get some stuff wrong im so sorry, i got taken away with this….

nanami kento x gn!reader

cw: hopefully none

seeing as most people in japan dont have curly hair, it would be something that did cause him to pay attention before you started dating

part of him wanted to ask to touch it, but he knew better once he heard you rant about some woman coming up to you and touching it without asking

before you spent the night together he *really* had no idea how high maintenance it is

the first night you spend the night he’s confused but curious about your bonnet, you tell him your favorites - if it has elastic bands, ties or is scrunched

(the next time you come over he has a few of your favorite ones under the sink, just in case)

you talk about satin bedsheets, how you want silk ones but they’re too expensive and when you come by to spend the night next time your side of the bed has a silk pillow case

he listens to you about all your different products, taking note of what you like about each one and what they do, if they make your hair too stiff, too heavy for your hair, doesn’t add enough moisture

he looks at all your oils, what they do and which ones, your hair grease, castor oil, etc.

you teach him about your homemade hair masks, keeping the house stalked with olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, jojoba, tea tree, whatever you use

the first few times you style it around him hes watching like a hawk, taking note of each step from exfoliating your scalp, parting your curls in half, parting it again and lathering it until your hands are way too foamy and dripping all over the tub, then he watches you detangle your hair with your fingers while you condition.

you tell him about how you used to sit with your mother and she’d do your hair, how most of the time it was a pain in the ass- having a tender head and her yanking your hair apart then threatening to hit you with the brush sometimes she did but but ultimately looking back now that you didn’t have it, you missed it. there’s a deep seated warmth that comes from the memories thats almost spiritual

after kento hears about that he starts doing his own research on how to help better

the next time you get to wash day around him he asks to help, and you’re hesitant but ultimately come around

he props your knees on a towel comfortable, rolls up his sweatpants and sits on the ledge one foot in the tub the other out

hes gentle with your hair, finally fully touching it and almost melts at the touch. your curls twist around his fingers and its hypnotizing, hes obsessed!

he parts your hair mimicking your movements he watched down to the muscle twitch

the massage he gives you while he washes your hair makes you feel like you’re in a salon

he rinses your hair out with gentle scrunches instead of your aggressive twisting and then scrunching

you almost stop him from detangling your hair but he’s so careful, if you get the slightest painful tug he’s rapid fire with apologizes and a massage

you walk him through each product and how much to put, he scrunches your hair and then carefully helps you flip your hair

then it comes to the twisting and suddenly you’re grateful he’s here because now your hair is split in half and he’s twisting one side and you’re doing the other

“you’d make a good stylist,” you had joked to which he responded “only for you.”

this becomes routine most times, there are other times where you just need to relax yourself, and he respects that

you’ll sometimes let him pull the curl very gently, if he wants to touch it, because he knows how much time it takes and his body will never be found if he tries to do more than that

everytime you get to wash day he’s secretly hoping you’ll let it go natural because anytime you do that means you don’t have plans of going out for the weekend and that he has free reign to play and touch with your hair

it feels nice so you let him

he massages your scalp, stares at the way your hair lengthens so much and then bounces back against your scalp

he loves how soft it is, how it’s like his own cloud, how you stand out from the crowd and it’s like ivy sprawling out, spring tree’s shining in the sun and how it makes you look so much more ethereal

he loves to massage oil in or grease your scalp, how you tilt your head back into his touch and the serene relaxation on your face

when you whine and complain about your bonnet falling off and say something along the lines of “i go to sleep with it on and wake up with it checking out at the store without me” he snorts so hard he splashes coffee all over himself

when you’re sleeping and he notices your bonnet slipping off, he’ll put it back on

when you straighten your hair, he doesn’t hate it per-say, but you do definitely notice that he seems less touchy with your hair even though you tell him its free game

once its back his eyes linger on your hair more, and it makes you feel fuzzy inside that he’s so enamored with your natural hair, especially since growing up it had been too much for other people, always in the way, always too much or a commodity for others to stare at and disrespect, but he just sees it as an extension of you and is enamored with it

if you get any protective styles like braids, locks, twists, cornrows, its like a kid in a christmas store. he’s staring any chance he gets (but his favorite will always be your natural) because he’s just so mesmerized and enthused about the different styles you do

when it’s time to take your braids out he gets to work, untwisting and cleaning up any strands you take out and end up on the floor

he has to hide his face when you’re humbled by the lack of growth because he knows he shouldn’t be laughing but each time you’re so earnest

i got too carried away

i wish i could just hire someone to wash my hair but at the same time don’t touch it

also my love language is acts of service so this is 100% just my self indulgence

[pennycat83]

I've been meaning to ramble about the meaning and plot behind Pink Bitch Club

But I think I finally got the plot! I'm also using another person's comment as they added a perspective to this series I hadn't considered until I re-watched it.

Also y'know watch the series or else this is bullshit.

💔Minako's Room/Gyaru Talk 💔 Both more or less talks about How Minako and Gyaruko are besties. This is very important however as we see Minako eventually kill both Gyaruko and her dog by the end of Minako's Room. The motivation is more or less shown in Gyaru Talk. She's jealous of Gyaruko, we see them both get ready to hang out and watch as Minako mimics certain things Gyaruko does (even her dominate hand, which is supposedly her left, as she's seen struggling applying her makeup unlike Gyaruko). The actual talk they have during the make over is presumably the day Gyaruko died and features snippets of her the assumed moment she died, pleads about how good a friends they are.

💔Pink B**ch Club💔

This is the point where Minako finally snaps and starts imagining a perfect world where she didn't kill Gyaruko (evident with the moment before the chorus). However, there's another layer added to it in the form of Charlotte and VYT. Neither of them are real obviously but I'll get into why and what they are later.

The music video is peak upbeat cutsieness with hints here and there that something isn't right, up until the end where we get the reveal that Minako killed them all, again. We also get a montage of Minako mimicking their fashion styles once again.

This is kinda where a big character revelation comes in the form of the lyrics "The moment I meet you, in the fog that can't be lifted, I can change". Minako's obsessed with being anything but herself. She finds an escapism from her own situation (presumably depression or a psychopathic undertone) and identity in the form of mimicking others. It feels a bit cheap to say 'hence why she's always associated with a broken heart emoji unlike everyone else', but it does fit the idea that she's hollow without something to imitate.

She imitated Gyaruko until she killed her (potentially BECAUSE she just kept copying her until she got called out) and now she keeps doing it to the others.

This isn't where her character ends however.

🖤🧡Chi no Squi/GAL!🧡🖤 Chi no Squi is interesting as it depicts a completely disconnected plot from everyone. As turtleqqqq suggested, what if everyone (aside from Gyaruko) are characters in movies that Minako is so obsessed with she's decided to force herself into the role of a key character in that movie. A character her 'friends' admire and are possibly the love interests of. This is more evident in this video as it shows something akin to a movie where Charlotte gets betrayed and rebels from her religion worshipping the Devil instead, which by the end is shown to be Minako to her (probably missed the implied adultery of her mother leading to her eye getting shot out as well).

As someone else also proposed there's a good chance Charlotte did exist but Minako now sees her more as we do, I disagree though.

GAL is probably the hardest hitting example of this as we Gyaruko as the leader of an all girls Bozozoku. Which just shows how hard Minako is repressing what actually happened to her. She ends up being betrayed by one of members (who was in love with the leader of the gang they were fighting), and being left for dead until she kicks their asses and collapses in the rain, only for Minako to find her and mimmick the opening.

But we already know who Gyaruko is, she was Minako's best friend, who'd probably never even joined a gang before they met. This is just how Minako wants to see her as to not think about what she's done. This applies to all of her friends, in her eyes she's a saint to all of her friends and helps them however she can. Saving them at their lowest points, except for VYT.

💜OTOMEROID💜

This is where my own personal theory comes into play. I don't VYT is is based off any friends of Minako, I think she's the other side of Minako's personality. Her lyrics seem to parallel Minako's in terms of how obsessed she is with understanding love and how robotic she feels. Given how Minako seems to be doing all these actions apathetically it'd fit that some part of her would question why she's so obsessed with this feeling. What adds to it is that VYT IS Minako's maid, not only that but we only see her really reflect on these feelings when Minako's asleep. Meaning that deep down Minako probably knows what she's doing isn't right but can't stop herself at this point.

The 'Update' being the revelation of this that Minako pulls the plug on quickly with the final quip of "She was right". This also explains why her heart was ripped out in Pink Bitch Club. Basically every thing that happens to VYT Minako mentally did to herself.

💔Psychodelic 💔

So by this point Minako's broken herself to the point she's a selfish, obsessive person who wants to be anything but herself. But with Psychodelic we get a slight wrench. Given how the video depicts a lot of repeating imagery before alongside how it's all displayed on a projector, I think Minako might've trapped herself in a slight cycle of reminiscing on the non existent past she used to have with her friends. Or at least trying to remember it whilst her memories of Pink Bitch Club have fully tainted them.

Onigiri Dance

There isn't much to pick up on outside of the fact Minako's animated better than everyone else and she and Gyaru are the only ones in proper angel clothing which also further supports my idea that they're the only real people in the story.

had to update 'n fix my spelling mistakes 'cause I hate seeing misspellings in my work

[heartfullofleeches]

Bro I just got obsessed with Reboot Wally and OG Wally from Welcome Home dynamic I absolutely love OG Cholly and Reboot Cholly dynamic! (Already liked the buddy, like even more now hehe)

BUT ANYWAY THAT ISN'T THE POINT- Could you, like, pass OG and Reboot Cholly designs? Want to make silly little things, feeling inspired and in love (⁠灬⁠º⁠‿⁠º⁠灬⁠)⁠♡

These are their human designs as I want to draw both in the near future and as much as i love them I'm not good at drawing rabbits/antro currently

Og Cholly has a dark complexion and honey colored eyes. Their hair is a golden brown and styled as best I can "bumper bangs" as seen in this picture here. They wear tan overalls and a striped white and black tee, and a scarf that's sort of a burnt orange color which they tie around their head with the excess fabric mimicking rabbit ears. They also wear white gloves

Reboot Cholly has pretty much the same color patterns only their eyes are slightly softer in hue. They wear the hat mentioned here which hides majority of their hair, but their bangs are still like ogs and hang from the front. They still wear overalls, but never have the straps pulled up and instead wear them dangling at their waist. Their shirt is a solid black with a single white streak through it. They wear striped, fingerless gloves

[wazzappp]

So, I recently acquired a copy of Blue Diamond, which collects issues 7-16 of the New52 Blue Beetle 2011(?) run, and there is some nice lore.

Scarab hosts have lengthened life-spans, especially considering Sky Witness was a full grown (middle? aged) adult at time of bonding with Khaji Da.

Also, not shown but still of interest, Khaji Da + Sky Witness are the inspiration for “the cruel god, Quetzalcoatl”, due to Sky Witness, a Mayan Priest having near-single-handedly chased the people who would become the Aztec Empire out of Mayan lands using the Scarab’s power. (Also, the armor looked very very different on Sky Witness than it does for any other Scarab Warrior?)

Long term bonding results in scarab technology staying, even after the scarab leaves, although this may be affected by how hastily Khaji Da left him. (Sky Witness [SW] got obsessed and possessive over Khaji Da, [guy calls it his love and was pissed about Jaime, like *yikes*], realized that the armor couldn’t extend his life anymore, so he went into a pyramid, and blew it up so as to entomb himself and the scarab inside of it and prevent the scarab from taking another host. Khaji Da immediately detached in a semi-successful attempt to flee.)

Scarabs change their host’s dna, adding some of their own.

In that case, I’ll change my statement about the scarab mimicking genetic markers on native cells to avoid an immune response, and instead state that the scarab inserts its own dna into the native strand of dna that codes for those markers, as well as tampering with the immune system during the adjustment period, so as to avoid the body responding to its own modified cells, as well as Khaji Da.

Might send you another ask bc I might have more to say but don’t want to risk this getting deleted while I look for the panels I’m thinking of.

ooOOOoooooo Good to know!! I didn't like what New 52 did with Jaimes character but I will say the genetic fuckery / body horror is very very nice. Jaime watching his own fingertips burn off. Forever engrained in my memory I LOVE IT.

FUCK YEAAAAA KHAJI DA HAS GENETICS FOR THE WIN. eeeehehehehehehehe were mimicking viruses again here you love to see it you LOVE to see it. Assimilating the central nervous system (leaving the brain for last) first and then going for the immune system sounds like some good pathogenesis. Rabies style (in the club. freaking it rabies style) moving through the axons to try and avoid an immune response would make sense. LEAVING THE HOST GENETICALLY ALTERED FOREVER EVEN AFTER SEPARATING HOW VERY VIRUS OF YOU KHAJI <- compliment.

Jaime living longer than everyone he knows / straight up not aging angst my BELOVED. God I love messing with him so much. Pulling a jellyfish on Jaime might be Khajis biggest accomplishment and also their biggest mistake. This boy without his family. I think Bad Things would happen really quick.

Please do!! Always makes me happy to see the source material taking the body horror just a little farther <33

[wolfxplush]

Darker Max Headcanons

PLEASE READ: The following contains sensitive material such as self harm, obsessive behavior, stalking, and delusion. Max is a mentally ill individual, please be warned before reading!

Max’s obsession with Gary runs deep, far beyond simple admiration or fixation. His mind warps Gary into a symbol of everything he wishes he could be, and the gulf between their lives drives Max to dark places.

•Max keeps a hidden shrine to Gary in his room—a collection of photos, stolen belongings, and even a piece of Gary’s discarded homework. It's meticulously organized, and Max spends hours arranging and rearranging it, sometimes talking to the shrine as if Gary could hear him.

•Max blames himself for not being worthy of Gary’s attention. He fixates on every perceived flaw, every awkward interaction or missed chance to be near Gary, and uses self-harm as a way to “purify” himself. Each cut or burn is, in Max’s twisted logic, a way to bleed out his inadequacies. He believes that by punishing himself, he’ll become closer to Gary’s perfection. He often marks his skin with Gary’s initials, creating scars that he wears as a reminder of his devotion.

•Max’s obsession turns darker in his fantasies, where he imagines taking full control of Gary’s life. He dreams about scenarios where Gary would be forced to rely on him completely—maybe if Gary were injured or sick, Max would be the only one who could care for him. These fantasies are soothing to Max because they create a world where Gary *needs* him. In these dreams, Max goes as far as thinking about hurting Gary just enough to make him vulnerable, then "saving" him.

•Max’s obsession is all-consuming, and his self-destructive behavior is fueled by his belief that Gary’s rejection—or even indifference—is his fault. He develops a ritual of sorts: whenever Gary acknowledges him in any small way, like a passing glance or shared air in a room, Max marks the moment with another self-inflicted wound. It’s as if each scar connects him to Gary in a physical way, making his body a map of every brief moment he thinks they’ve shared.

•Max is terrified of anyone else getting close to Gary. Every time he sees Gary laughing with friends or talking to someone else, it feels like a personal betrayal. Max internalizes this feeling, punishing himself even more harshly, as if he’s failed in some way. In his more unstable moments, Max fantasizes about getting rid of anyone who threatens his connection with Gary. While he hasn’t acted on these thoughts, the idea of erasing Gary’s distractions haunts the darker corners of his mind.

•Max has begun collecting clothes that resemble what Gary wears, even going so far as to steal a few items from Gary's locker. When he's alone in his room, he dresses in Gary's style, pretending to be him, looking in the mirror and mimicking his voice and gestures.

•Max has recreated entire moments from his past with Gary— times when they were in the same room, or shared the same class. He'll stage these moments alone, rehearsing Gary's lines, speaking them out loud as if Gary is actually there. Max fills in the gaps with fabricated memories, telling himself that Gary cared for him.

•After Pete officially left the trio Gary and Max had formed,Max views him as a traitor, believing he’s drifted away from Gary and their once-close bond. Max starts stalking Pete throughout the school day, always keeping his distance but never losing sight of him. In the hallways, Pete feels Max’s eyes on him, watching his every move, but when he turns around, Max is always just out of view. Max leaves subtle, disturbing signs of his presence—scratches on Pete’s locker, cryptic notes slipped into his textbooks, and objects in Pete’s backpack rearranged to show he’s been there. Max just wants them all back together again. Is that so much to ask for?

The scenarios here are all a work of fiction and character development.

[zee-rambles]

Well I was wondering how you learned to draw rottmnt. I can draw there heads but how do you draw the body’s so good!! T-T

References, references, references. And TONS of practice. When you find something that you’re obsessed with and just keep drawing it over and over, you tend to improve over time.

I look up poses online, draw a regular body, and then add a plastron on top of that. I’m not that great at poses, so unless it’s a really simple movement, I need a reference for it. I have a bunch of references for the shapes of each of the boys’ bodies, but I’ve drawn them so much that I don’t really need to look at it that much anymore. Hands and feet are still tough though.

So here’s a funny thing. I’m actually TERRIBLE at drawing men/boys, and learning to draw plastrons has made it a lot easier for me. (Casey is SO Hard to draw). At first I mimicked the style of the show, and you can see how not so great it looks in my earlier middle blue bros drawings. The early pages of my comic have some growing pains too. Then, I stopped trying to mimic the style of the show and tried my own. My angles are a little bit rounder, and I don’t really give the boys the signature smirk/beak the show is known for.

When it comes to drawing their heads, all of them, except Mikey (who is the HARDEST because he’s so round) are pretty much a bunch of squares. Most of their torso’s are some variation of a hexagon. Drawing the back of Raph’s shell and Donnie’s battle shells are still tricky though.

Mostly, it’s all trial and error. It takes me a long time to do the sketching, until I think it looks good enough to post. I’m not the best artist, perspective and foreshortening are nightmares for me, and I don’t know what I would do without google images.

[theroundbartable]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "theroundbartable "?

Haha^^

10 fics will be hard for me to do, since I'm very bad with names and I don't really.... Save any. I read, like, comment and move on.

Let's start with my name first. That's easier. Theroundbartable was a joke I made a couple years ago and I had it as the headline of my blog for a while when I was still Changelink23.

I'm not sure where it came from anymore... But I think it was kind of the basis for "connecting the dots". Which is a fanfiction I wrote that is about Gwaine and the knights making up stories about Merthur. It was their game to guess what Merlin was up to and gossip about Arthur's pining. And collectively, they'd make up the entire series on accident.

My idea then was that the knights gather in a bar, got really drunk and basically play DnD with the BBC Merlin storyline. So, the knights of the round table, but at a bar. And maybe that table was round. And maybe it was their regular seat and they called it the round bar table.

After Changelink outdid its purpose and I got really deep into the Merlin concepts, I decided my name should fit the theme. And what else am I doing here with you guys, other than exchange ideas about Merlin while half sounding on drugs? It's my idea of being part of this fandom, I think. All of us sitting at the round bar table and having fun with the series together.

Now, fanfics:

1. Dirty laundry by Gybslythe (Voltron)

It's just... It has sentimental value for me. The author put down the story because they were bullied, sadly. I just felt at home in that fanfiction because the places seemed so familiar to me and I caught the feeling. I could compare it with me visitung my godmother as a child and the described places were just the best moments of my entire childhood. Also the writing style is SOOO good! I mimicked it for a mock exam and that was my best English Exam during my A-levels.

2. Sadly I don't know the actual name of this one :/

Funnily enough, it was a Gravity falls fanfiction... And a Bill cipher x reader one at that, which is WILD that I ever read it. The Reader thing really repulses me. Lol. The thing is, it was very non intimate and the world building blew my mind. It started off with Bill realizing his existence and step by step, he'd give his knowledge to the one human that interested him and therefore lost his power. The reader, however, grew with the knowledge and in the end, wakes up as the entity Bill had been. Just, suddenly knowing she existed, no memories of ever being human. It was so well done and pulled at my philosophical brain, I built "Wired" off of it.

3. Not a story but a series...

Anything by CaffeinatedFlumadiddle. This is the series that made my Merlin writings what they are. I read these and they brought me SOOO much joy! I used to write really depressive stuff. Still do. But after reading these, I wanted to bring that joy, too. I really dug into my humor after that and it really changed how I see stories and even myself and became the foundation of what I focus on in dialogues.

4. From the grave to the cradle by larcluce

I admit it, I'm a bit biased for this one because I'm so proud of larluce for posting their first story after wanting ME to write it. As if I could have done it justice. It's so good for a first work and yeah... I'm very proud of them.

5. My soul has your claim, my soul is in flames

(Voltron) i'm currently reading that due to my online friend's suggestion and it's just... Maybe it's because I'm currently obsessed with it but it really is just that good. It's everything I want from a voltron fanfic :) obliviousness, pining, misunderstandings, and reassurance and Lance's death reveal. Like... Yeah. I'm a sucker for this story.

...

There are probably a lot more on my list but I'm REALLY bad at remembering stuff XD I remember when I stumble on them. I just listed the ones that are at the top of my head. Sorry it's not a full ten :/ I actually write more than I read too. When I start reading, my mind gets ideas and then I have to write them down and I somehow rarely finish fics over 100k words.

BuT wRiTinG tHEm iS fInE.

By the way, I haven't read "like the cycle of the year" yet. It's been on my list for a while but I haven't gotten around to it. I know it's a fandom favorite. But maybe that's what's putting me off. It'll probably make me feel inadequate after reading it and comparing it to my stuff and then I'll feel bad about my writing. Which would by both oddly motivating and off putting, lol.

As a little bonus, I'll just say what I'm currently working on/planning to work on for now.

1. second chances (Drarry)

I've been writing on that one for over a year. Which is the longest I ever spend on a fic and also the longest fic I've ever worked on in total and also the one I most edited. I'm writing it for my girlfriend. I feel like I'm getting closer to the end and I will post it once it's finished.

Jkr sucks, by the way. She'd probably hate the story which satisfies me greatly.

It's a time travel au, obviously, in which Drarry was a muggle therapist after the war. The magical world doesn't respond well to the idea of therapy but that's not Draco's concern even though it should be. He just wants to atone for his sins. Being thrown back in time gives him that chance... But it also awakens deep traumatic issues while he struggles to help the good side and betray his parents and friends in the meantime. It's very analytical of his character and he suffers a lot and it's a lot of fun to do.

2. Karak'nirir- the goddess of creation (Voltron)

A Lance centric Voltron fanfic in which he is gifted the power of a goddess. I'm trying to get back into world building and well... I just really love Lance XD

3. The clockroom (BBC Merlin)

... It's on hiatus... Again. It's so hard to find the time to work on it. But I will... At some point. Probably. I hate unfinished business.

4. ... I'll probably focus on the Merthur marriage concept next. In which Arthur tries to raise Merlin's status and has Merlin learn magic in order to defeat Emrys. Cause then Merlin would be druid king and they can get married XD i want to apply some stuff I'm currently learning through "my soul has your claim" and maybe that will change how I write in the long run, too.

5. .... I should be working on a book that's publishable. Maybe feedback from professional book sellers will help me improve my work also.

By the way... Having 4 wips kills my brain. I hate it. One fic at a time. That's how I work best. It's too much for me. I'm dying. I have no ideas how other people do it.

Anyway.

Thank you for the question, anon ^^ I hope I answered it well enough XD

[ndostairlyrium]

10 things about me 🍰

Tagged by @greypetrel @shivunin @idolsgf and @demandthedoodles 💛 thanks guys for the free therapy session! ;u;

1 - Sometimes I feel like I don't have a personality, just coping mechanisms and a whole lot of reactions caused by anxiety, which is one of the reasons why I started therapy. Apparently I need to just sit down and ask myself "what do you need now / in general?" and it's helping me finding out who is the person I'm wearing << she's kind of an idiot but I'm starting to like her the more I connect to her.

2 - Huge cat person. They're the most communicative beings on earth, they have social cues and a plethora of personalities. Did you know they evolved to mimick the cry of human babies to attract our attention? They have a special "meow", basically. When they do that, we immediately turn our attention to them because our preservation instincts kick in and we're forced to respond. I just love cats so much omg 💛

3 - I can't remember shit, really. It's either a problem or a funny thing because my memory is very selective for no reason lol I know that you hate peas but I can't remember if you needed a lift to the airport or a pack of crackers when we talked yesterday. But when something negative happens... ooohboi! I'll somatize that for years and would remember every single detail, even the color of the sky in that specific moment.

4 - Never tell me that The Divine Comedy is a fanfiction. That's a major turn off. It's one of those things I take very seriously, tbh <<

5 - I don't vibe with horses lol I befriended a horsie called Carrot when I was 7 and horse riding was one of my favorite things ever, until the guy made me fly to the ground because something scared him :' I don't really blame him, but it was a painful experience - hopefully for me only. I tried to connect with other horsies later on but it never worked out.

6 - I horribly love chocolate based desserts. Big faves are sachertorte (of course lol), tiramisù, millefoglie (it's a layered cake with custard/chocolate ganache and puff pastry), and everything that comes with chocolate ganache. Carnival fritters give me so much joy too! Last time I had those I almost wept because they were so good lmao

7 - I really enjoy weird Medieval guys, the miniature style critters you could find on tomes. I'm fairly obsessed with them because they're so stylistically elegant but so dumb to look at 💛 A new addiction I found out I have is looking for creepy looking baby jesuses on Medieval and Renaissance paintings whenever I visit an exposition.

I mean... Doesn't he make you laugh? He's glorious!! A Unit™

Also HIM! The lovechild of Billy Crystal and Tim Curry 💛 yes I have more, yes I will post my collection somewhere <<

8 - I never had bubble tea, but I will - once I gather enough confidence to try this cute Japanese bar that opened around here << they have like 50 different options and options make me feel like I'm in front of an audience ready to hit me with rotten fruits. Hopefully it's worth it? Lol

9 - My body refuses liquorice. I thought I was allergic but you can't be allergic to liquorice apparently. But like, hear me out, whenever I ate it, I got the most horrific allergic reactions, no kidding! Even its smell, or a smell close to that makes me wanna run as distant as I can because my skin reacts to it o-o

10 - I did write more than 5 long fics (not counting one shots) in a span of 10 years, which they say it's impressive, considering the amount of chapters and the multiple revisions I always do. I tend to be overly critical when it comes to my writings, so I tend to avoid rereading what I do, except for my second mass effect fic about the Lazarus project, "In A Moment", which I'm very proud of. It's a "what if Shepard asked herself how she came back and if she really came back before the events of me3? And what would her reaction be if she found out reapers' tech was involved in her comeback?" kind of fic. Spoiler: she didn't take it well. I couldn't find anything like that in the mass effect section of the site I publish my stuff in, so I wrote it myself lol it's in my native language tho .-. Hopefully one day I'll find an editor and a translator to cover in money

-

No I'm not dense, it's just an impression << whoops! Sorry!

And since even my grandma got tagged in this, I'm tagging automatically whoever feels like doing it lol

[giftedeath]

yellowjackets verse ( includes spoilers ) buffy gets pulled up from jv to varsity her junior year bc she's actually really good, and improves significantly her sophomore year since thats the year she becomes the slayer and it hits hard, strengthens her a lot. she's a midfielder and obsessed w watching maradona plays, mimicking his style, etc. coach ben and her are close bc its very serious for her and she's always asking for extra practice. she loves the hobby bc it makes her feel like she's something other than the slayer <3 she's a prominent figure on the varsity girls soccer team ! problem is everyone can tell she's trying too hard, and also she's weird and her teammates think she's in a literal gang, so they actually really don't like her / she's outcasted but its fine bc she has her own group of friends outside of soccer anyways.

she almost doesn't go to nationals bc right before ... she ends up telling joyce about being the slayer, and she thinks about leaving to go to la but decides nationals will be a good thing. so when the plane crashes yeah she's like... fuck but also she's like well mom won't even care i'll just die out here. but then obviously the superpowers come into play, except buffy's bitter and doesn't want to be 'used' by girls who don't even like her, plus she can't hunt bc she sucks at using guns and also can't stand the idea of hurting innocent creatures ( i KNOW she's so </3 ) so she falls into a different role. kind of a protector role. they don't even trust her at first but then she starts doing things that gain that trust. i'm especially thinking of her joining tai and van when they leave the cabin , she goes with them and offers to take first watch. her hearing is elevated, she's stronger. it's her idea to fight off the wolves with fire, she's able to carry a girl on her back bc of her slayer strength, etc. she gets pulled into friendships specifically with misty and nat who also were somewhat outcasted, so it felt kind of right. her previous friendship w coach ben starts to deteriorate as she gets closer to the other girls. when they eat jackie, she's hallucinating and thinks that it's just an animal ... and when tai tells her the truth she essentially breaks down. can she even go back from there ? spirals and the only thing keeping her sane is u guessed it, lottie

[onefleshonepod]

Transcription and image ID below the cut:

Image 1:

Possible List of All* Of The Homeric Refs in TLT *definitely missing some but I'm only putting stuff that I've got decent evidence for on here, you could extrapolate forever.

In the bottom left is a second-century bust of Homer with light grey text beside it: WHO ARE YOU I AM FROM ANCIENT GREECE In the bottom right are images of the Odyssey and the Iliad

Image 2:

CONTEXT:

Homer is the assumed author of the lliad and the Odyssey, two of the oldest extant works of western literature. These are in turn a source for a lot of the Greek mythological canon.

The lliad is about Achilles, across a set of days in the 9th year of the Trojan War; it spans Achilles’ retreat from the fighting, the death of Patroclus, and Achilles’ killing of Hector. Ironically it does not depict his death, the taking of Troy, or the Trojan Horse. We lost those bits of the Epic Cycle and only have second-hand reports :(

The Odyssey is about Odysseus… on his Odyssey… going home… lol. People know this one more I think.

(Tamsyn has said before there's a lot of Iliad influence on this series… yeah I can tell!)

I also talk a bit about the Aeneid because Virgil was obsessed with Homer and mimicked him a lot in that.

Image 3:

PRIAMHARK & PELLEAMENA Text above Priamhark in light purple: slides wanted to autocorrect this to ‘Primark’ so badly. if only unethical fast fashion was his only crime

We're starting with Harrow's parents, the Lord and Lady of the Ninth. A lot of stuff stems from this.

Priamhark is named after King Priam of Troy.

Priam is the father of Hector, Cassandra, and Paris, amongst up to 100 other children, by various wives (ikr lol) (also, more than that if you count children-in-law)

Pelleamena is named after King Peleus of Phthia. Peleus was the father of just one son, Achilles.

Achilles slaughtered many of Priam’s sons, including Hector, and most of the rest died in the Trojan War. We can extend this to read as a metaphor, or foreshadowing, for Harrow’s conception and birth. One prodigious child— at the expense of hundreds of other Trojan/Ninth children. Also, the Ninth is about as Trojan-style doomed as it gets lol.

Image 4: In the top right is an image of Orlando Bloom as Paris in Troy (2004)

GIDEON NAV (BUCKLE UP THIS IS NOT SHORT)

Gideon is also one of the only remaining ‘children’ of the Ninth House (‘We are all the sons and daughters that the House of the Ninth possesses, Nav.’), so can be said to be a metaphorical ‘son of Priam’ — thus, arguably can be read as either Hector, or Paris.

PARIS:

Their mothers predicted they'd cause destruction; Hecuba dreamt of a burning torch, Wake called Gideon the Bomb. They were supposed to die as infants because of this.

Except neither DID, and were raised unaware of their significant heritage until later on in their life. Paris as a shepherd, Gideon as, uh, Ninth Nun.

By the time of the Iliad most Trojans fucking hate Paris; to them he's the conflict-starting prettyboy embarrassment who shouldn't have survived as long as he has. Similarly, Crux considers Gideon the ‘cuckoo’, the ‘millstone hung about my lady's neck’ and the shame of the Ninth.

(Also, two-named (Paris-Alexander, Gideon-Kiriona); the second name is bestowed as a kind of title! Just noting that 4 fun really.)

You could do a whole analysis of the Judgement of Paris, and Paris choosing Aphrodite (love), and Gideon rejecting Cytherea's offer of mercy in order to lob herself on a fence to save Harrow, which is a certain type of choosing love, I guess, but I don't have room and I need to think abt it more.

Image 5: In the top right is a screenshot of “Press F to Pay Respects” prompt from Call of Duty overlaid on the painting Death Of Hector (Achilles Dragging The Body Of Hector), by Gavin Hamilton

GIDEON NAV CONT.

HECTOR:

Best warrior of Troy, begged by their wife/lover (Andromache/Harrow) not to go and get killed, because they're all she has left; does anyway. Shit's tuff.

The state of their bodies post-death are almost identical. In AYU, Gideon's body ‘has ‘still failed to rot’ despite being left outside in ‘fluctuating temperatures’ — ‘animals refuse to touch it’ and it remains ‘pristine’.

Similarly, ‘the pack of dogs did not maul Hector’ because ‘Aphrodite […] kept them away both day and night, and anoint[ed] the body, / so that (there would be) no lacerations of the skin’ and ‘the power of the sun would not / shrivel the skin around his limbs and sinews’.

Both bodies are unsullied due to divine power.

They also both sport a neck wound; Hector was killed by Achilles’ spear through his neck. We currently do not know for sure how the fuck Gideon got hers, but she has one.

(Harrow begs John for Gideon back in a similar way to Priam begging for Hector's body from Achilles, as well.)

Image 6:

GIDEON NAV CONT. 2

Personally I think she’s kind of both of them, and kinda think that's the point. The most revered son of Priam and the most sneered at son of Priam, united into one character, one ultimate child of the Ninth.

Harrow thinks Gideon is Hector, the shining helm, the man-slayer— the ‘greatest warrior the Ninth has ever produced’.

Crux thinks Gideon is Paris. Lol. It's just perspective.

Despite all of Gideon's protests, she still dies in battle ‘for the Ninth!" and is a very good and dutiful child of the Ninth at the final hour, just like how Hector and Paris die in battle in the name of Troy.

(Also yes maybe, if we push it, we can link her to Patroclus, too— in that Harrow and Achilles both do something IMMENSELY rash in response to their deaths, and initially refuse to let them go to rest once they've died. And there's lots of fighting over the body. They also both get impaled <3)

Image 7: In the top right is a screenshot of the Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2 saying “Use your imagination.”

HARROWHARK NONAGESIUMUS Above NONAGESIUMUS in light purple text: IGNORE THE TYPO I NOTICED IT TOO LATE

Who Harrow is identifiable with is… arguable. Since her father is Priamhark, is she too Hector, the last hope of a once-great city? Or through Pelleamena, is she Achilles, the supernaturally impressive warrior doing great damage in the pursuit of a dead lover? Or is she Andromache, the wife left behind?

Certainly she has an… Achillean response to the death of Gideon Imao, in that she goes to extremes (lobotomy!) and refuses to let her go, in much the same way Achilles won't initially bury Patroclus.

We might even look at her as the Paris to Alecto’s Helen (disastrous love with the most beautiful woman in the world) but I think that's weaker.

I won't stretch it. You might fit her in dependent on situation, but I think Harrow is more of a biblical character, to be honest. Her name is literally Harrowhark Imao and she’s going to Harrow Hell in Alecto…

Image 8: In the top middle is a cropped image from The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli showing Venus' head with the background removed.

LYCTORS & CAVALIERS:

Cytherea is another name for Aphrodite, referring to her birthplace near Cythera. The ‘seafoam green’ of her dress right at the start of GTN is probably a sly nod to her real identity— Aphrodite being born from seafoam.

Ulysses is the Roman name for Odysseus. John insists he named Ulysses after his grandma's dog, not after Odysseus. I say ‘hmm, creepy’, but also, I'll be the judge of that. Because he’s one of those suspicious stoma ‘deaths’, and it would be very Odysseus, to pull back up and Not Be Dead after being presumed so. (Also, Ulysses is U—, one of the dead kids John puppets pre-Resurrection. Odysseus is famous for having the protection and favour of a god, Athena.)

Cassiopeia was the mother of Andromeda, a vain queen who was chained to a throne forever in the constellation named after her. Bit harsh. I think Tamsyn says it's unfair in the back of GTN Imao. Curious, though, when you consider John probably renamed all the Lyctors and Cavs when he resurrected them…

Image 9: In the bottom left is a pencil drawing or print of a woman who may be the mythological Pyrrha.

PYRRHA DVE

Pyrrha (red-haired) was the name Achilles took while in disguise as a princess on Skyros to avoid the Trojan War, which would be his doom. (His nutters little son Neoptolemus, born from an affair during this period, was nicknamed the masculine Pyrrhus.) Pyrrha is also found to be in disguise— as Gideon the First.

Pyrrha & Gideon also fight with a sword and spear, the same way Achilles does.

Honestly this one is stressing me. If she is meant to be Achillean in any way beyond the disguise thing she’s so done for. Achilles kind of HAS to have a terrible time and then die a legend. That's his whole thing. BUT, Pyrrha is also the name of the wife of Deucalion, who helped repopulate the earth after the Big Mega Flood Myth that every religion seemingly has. So you never know, if the River bursts its banks, so to speak, she might be one of the only ones to make it…? But the connotation that Tamsyn points out in the back of Harrow is the Achilles one, and honestly I see that more.

Image 10: In the bottom right is a cropped part of Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, showing Alecto the fury's face with the background removed.

ALECTO

Alecto (‘the implacable or unceasing anger’) is the name of one of the three Furies, the daughters of Gaia (Earth!), who punish wrongdoers and oath-breakers; in the Oresteia, they punish Orestes for his murder of his mother. She’s gonna punish John for killing everyone on Earth and breaking his promise to her! Who's excited?!

Alecto has a bit of a role in the Aeneid but I don't think it's massively relevant to anything at the minute. She incites war at Juno's command. Worth remembering ig.

I kind of think you could say she was Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world (at least by John and Harrow’s estimations) that keeps accidentally igniting huge feuds, but she’s literally called Alecto, so.

Image 11:

PALAMEDES SEXTUS

Palamedes was originally named Diomedes, ‘Athena’s favourite goodboy’ as per Tamsyn in the back of Gideon the Ninth.

I am in zero doubt that this is because Pal is successful in wounding Cytherea at the end of Gideon the Ninth, the same way that Diomedes is the only hero to wound Aphrodite on the battlefield in the lliad, forcing her to retreat.

Palamedes was also a Greek soldier in the Trojan War, most notably calling Odysseus’s bluff when he pretends to be mad to avoid the draft. He was a bit of a smartarse and invented a bunch of stuff and then Odysseus got him killed, but I don’t think the parallel is super strong.

(With GTN theming, Palamedes as a name is more likely to be linked to the Arthurian knight Sir Palamedes, but we won't go there now.)

Image 12: In the bottom left is the top half of a first-century sculpture of Juno.

MISC.

Protesilaus Ebdoma: Protesilaus is the bloke who died first at Troy. It is literally a bit of sly foreshadowing about him being dead already. It says it in the back of GTN. Admiral Sarpedon: I have NO idea why the Admiral is named after the son of Zeus that Patroclus kills. Maybe just because he was the leader of the Lycians and the Admiral is… an Admiral? We don’t know enough about the TLT one to dig into this, but Zeus neglects to save him when Patroclus kills him bc of Fate N Stuff so maybe he'll plead to John for help/mercy (perhaps on account of their hookups lol) and John will be like ‘nah can't soz’

Juno Zeta: Juno, the (Roman) mother of the gods… I'm gonna be honest I often completely forget Zeta is Palamedes’ mother lol. I assume that's mostly why she's called this. Ultimate Mother Name or whatever. Maybe someone has a better reading of this than me but we don’t know a lot about her so.

Camilla Hect: is probably not named after this, but there is a Camilla of the Volsci in the Aeneid who's a warrior maiden vastly underestimated until it's too late and she starts killing savagely Imao.

Image 13:

OTHER STUFF:

Gideon is named (albeit accidentally) by the shrieking spirit of her mother:

[in smaller text and indented] …they only got one word out of her: she had screamed Gideon! Gideon! Gideon! three times, and fled.’

The rule of three with ghosts is a very common trope in ancient epics: Odysseus tries three times to embrace the ghost of his dead mother, and Aeneas does the same for his wife Creusa. No such sentiment from the spirit of Wake, but the allusion is the same, which is fun.

‘Dios apate’ was the seduction of Zeus by Hera in the lliad to distract him, while the rest of the gods return to the fighting, after he expressly forbade that. This is probably one of the most direct allusions in the series lol.

Image 14: In the bottom right is a crop of Gustave Doré's 1857 illustration for Dante's Inferno, Plate IX: Canto III: Arrival of Charon.

OTHER STUFF:

The Noniad is a big pisstake of the lliad/Odyssey/Aeneid epic poem tradition. ‘-iad’ as a suffix means ‘song/poem/story of’.

The spirit summoning we see in GTN and HTN is very similar to how the spirits are summoned in the Odyssey underworld episode, with the blood offerings.

The River, full of disquieted dead people, plus the discussion of the ‘two banks’ in The Unwanted Guest, is very Styx-like. I think this is definitely intentional. Dulcinea kind of suggests crossing it is the ultimate goal in TUG; perhaps we'll get some kind of Charon figure to help us do that in Alecto?

Image 15: In the bottom right is an image of a golden apple.

BONUS: IANTHE

Iphis and lanthe is not a Homeric story, but it's in later sources like Ovid. TLDR: Iphis, born female and raised as male, is later transformed into a man so she can marry lanthe. (Queer theorists love this one!)

She might just be called this because Ianthos is ‘violet’ and the purple is a whole third house thing but. Anyway. I can’t remember if it says anything about this in the back of GTN.

(One fears that wedding in Alecto has to involve lanthe in some capacity, though. Oh god.)

But those apples she’s meddling with are curious. They're probably some kind of original sin thing, since when they're mentioned:

“Oh my god.” […] Two apple cores sat in a perpetual state of perfumed rot by her bedside: her attempts to halt decay had progressed admirably. “The classical vice. Oldest sin in the book.”

But they do make me think of the Apple of Discord that Eris lobs into the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, which kicks off the whole Trojan War. I can see lanthe causing some shit at the apparent wedding with a stunt like this. It probably won't happen but… well, it's fun 2 think about :)

the locked tomb x homer: a not particularly comprehensive guide that no one asked for put together by a brain-fried uni finalist and it's all probably already been said but whatever

(previously discussed by me here (insane diagram linking everything) and here (paris, hector, gideon))

(sorry 4 dodgy photo editing... tried to add Visual Interest but. well. graphic design is my passion dot jpeg)

[ai4cf23]

mixed feelings (assignment 1)

When people think of writing, it doesn’t always occur to them that it can be a collaborative process. Why would it be? It’s an incredibly intimate art form that has no visual imagery beyond words on a page. The job of a writer is to evoke emotions through these words, to take ideas and somehow formulate them into a unique amalgamation that both encapsulates and explores the human psyche. So how, exactly, would someone (or something) fit into that?

In my own experience, I have found that sharing my writing is deeply terrifying. Coincidentally (and perhaps unfortunately), it is also very, very helpful—given the right group of people. A proper workshop can be extremely productive; having other writers read and give feedback on your work is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself. There are a few objective errors they might be able to catch: plot holes, grammatical mistakes, formatting issues. But the value in workshop lies mostly in the subjective interpretation of your work. Does it flow properly? Does the conclusion feel satisfying? Do you relate to the characters? Is the dialogue natural? What does natural dialogue even mean? Given that there’s no solid answer to any of these questions, I have doubts as to whether or not AI could be helpful in this way. If we take, for example, the concept of dialogue: it’s an active struggle for many to capture the “humanness” and verisimilitude of what good dialogue should be. If a real, living, breathing person cannot translate the very experience of conversation, then what hope does an AI have? I don’t say this merely out of skepticism either, because I’ve tried. Below is an example of a scene produced by ChatGPT after I provided it with the prompt: “can you write a scene between two characters arguing about where they should go for spring break?”

Despite its ability to produce…something, the dialogue itself is very cluttered. People don’t talk like this. For attempt no. 2, I ask it to make the dialogue more natural.

Still a no go. It interprets "natural" as more "colloquial", which, while true, doesn't work if it doesn't have an understanding of what colloquial speech entails.

“Sarah, Miami is so mainstream. I was thinking something more off the beaten path, like the Grand Canyon,” is giving sit-com. If ChatGPT were writing for a Disney channel show, then maybe this would be acceptable. But in a work of prose? No dice.

Okay. Let’s try something new. This time I ask if it can produce a work about adjusting to life in the city in the style of Lorie Moore’s How to Be a Writer, a notable and more importantly, distinct example of prose written in second person. Her writing is wonderfully whimsical and is not entirely linear. The first attachment below is an excerpt from Moore, followed by ChatGPT's output.

Here, it’s nailed the style…sort of. The basic structure is there. But the diction is slightly off and the prose is awkward in a way I can’t quite articulate. It doesn’t “flow.” It is also obsessively literal in a way that feels strangely shallow. No one thinks of the subway in a way that is nearly as romantic as "underground chariot." Some other parts have potential: the phrase "tetris-like living" is interesting, but it's still wordy and unrefined. What is most glaringly obvious, however, is that it lacks imagination. Could ChatGPT have come up with something as randomly clever as "a short story about an elderly man and woman who accidentally shot each other in the head, the result of an inexplicable malfunction of a shotgun which appears mysteriously in their living room one night"? Would it occur to an AI to call Mr. Killian pore-face?

Evidently ChatGPT is capable of mimicking specific works, but it doesn’t really know how to produce content of a certain caliber. While I don’t ever intend to use AI to actually write in my stead, this severely undercuts any hopes I had for it being helpful in a collaborative/workshop capacity. I admittedly have not plugged any of my own work into ChatGPT just because it feels…sacrilegious? In a way? It’s a little unsettling knowing that my writing could be used to train it.

However! Back to the point. Where does this lead us now?

For me, the question of AI in its current iteration (or, at least, the version of ChatGPT that I have access to) is whether or not it can learn how to think abstractly in the way that is required of objectively “good” writers. Although it can try to mimic specific writing styles, that doesn’t mean it can achieve the same quality of work or produce something that is artistically sound. I think AI has a long, long way to go before it can begin to replicate the humanity that is required of prose fiction. That being said, it also makes me deeply uncomfortable that AI could ever potentially reach that level of sophistication. Writing is ultimately a form meant to capture the human experience. If a machine can somehow learn to accomplish something similar, then what does that mean for us?

For reference, I’ve also attached an excerpt of my own writing about living life in the city, loosely inspired by How to Be a Writer (this is also why I plugged that specific prompt into ChatGPT). This was written half a year before its release.

[spaciebabie]

I absolutely adore your style and it brings a lot of joy to me, it makes my brain go brbrrrrrrrr

If it’s okay to ask, how did you find your style?? Like, what inspired and all that?

i have had many inspos over the years! the reason i started drawing more seriously was b/c of fnaf sos a lot of my inspo came from the creators at the time. for a while i was drawing sonic-esc b/c of RaeBae if any1 remembers them. there was also this youtuber named AlexAnimations I believe? im pretty sure they've changed their channel name multiple times, but yeah. also rebornica for a brief time? also some warrior cats creators at the beginning? there was some overlap in the fandoms lol (and i have been obsessed w/cats since i was 5) and then there was this ut artist i dont remember the name of, but i liked how they drew chara n frisk

i kinda just grabbed things from other art styles i liked. back when i was inta hamilton i grabbed the heart tongue from Galactibun n sometimes when i draw eyes you can tell the inspo came from their art from back then. recently, i started mimicking the lineart style of the manga art from Demon Slayer b/c i like the weight of it.

beyond that ive just drawn w/out a style in mind. i havent had much of an experience w/"finding my style" i just kinda drew.

im noticing a lot of younger artists out here trying ta "find their style" and tbh i advocate for just....letting it come ta u w/time. i wouldn't think abt it too much b/c eventually you'll discover that you have one! just draw for funsies :)

urg wish i could show u some of my old fnaf art but its literally impossible its all been physically destroyed :< my old laptop is probably in a junkyard somewhere. hate that i didn't think ta grab that stuff b4 we got rid of it