#probably the most complex piece I've done in while!!

[ifindus]

Kaptein Sabeltann and all the antagonists!

[brightstarblogs]

Yuma Month Day 14: Home

This is probably my favourite piece I've done so far for this month and is the most complex digital art piece I've ever done (my program complained I used too many layers and crashed twice). I've been wanting to draw this for a while but never had the motivation until now. After all, home isn't a place, it's the people.

This is a scene from my fanfiction, 'A Family to Share Your Pains With' and it is a very special fic to me for a very personal reason. I really hope I did it justice. Please don't read if you haven't finished the game.

Also, this is my first time drawing stretch marks. I have a headcanon Desuhiko has them due to his forte so I challenged myself to try and draw some. They're small but I wanted to add that detail. I also tried to draw everyone in a different sleeping position to reflect their personalities.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

'You're reading too much into ATSV.'

[aka meta analysis is good for the soul]

I often get told on this blog that I'm reading too much into plots or scenes or things in general.

And honestly, fair point. I do the most.

And as a writer, I will say that I do it out of pure respect.

[actual photo of me reading the script and going for my 'reading too hard at ATSV notebook']

Movies take years to write.

People spend months of their lives genuinely toiling over these characters, often times creating more work than what can ever be reasonably used. Months of revisions and scraping work.

For weeks, about a dozen people probably went to sleep dreaming or thinking up what Hobie would wear, what Gwen would say, what emotional cues Jess will have.

A lot of people dedicated years of their lives and creative labor into that story.

To me, it isn't at all bizarre to take an hour out of my day to sit and consider the story they spend a lot of time trying to tell.

Compared to the labor they have given me, multiple 40+ hour work weeks for years - an hour or two is literally nothing lol

It's literally the least I can do.

As a writer, I feel like its only right to sit back and look deeper into a story.

To analyze the writer's intentions, or examine their storytelling tactics and abilities.

We are taught to consume media so quickly and rapidly that to offer time to critically analyze a piece of work is considered bizarre, too much work, or pointless.

As if there's nothing to read into. Or as if speculation and meta analysis is helpful to no one.

If someone spends five hours drawing fanart that is accepted. If someone spends two hours writing fanfic, this is expectable behavior.

But I spend the same amount of time to look deeper into the work of the writers, and often times I'm met with surprise or treated as if I'm overly uptight.

It's like snickering at a person who asked there was deeper meaning behind a painting. While standing in an art gallery.

When streaming shows drop all in one day, it becomes about the Easter eggs and watching it as fast as possible as not to be spoiled.

Then at the end of it, you wash your hands of it and wait for the next big release.

People spend years, decades of their writing career trying to write realistic characters with layered motives. Or stories with complex themes.

Comic Book and Screenwriters included.

I myself try very very hard to do so - to provide foreshadowing, and emotional insight into the characters, their motives, their faults.

If I heard someone say that the piece is not worth looking that far into, all the work I've done as a writer gets overlooked.

Writers cannot grow if people are consuming their media without caring enough to look critically at it as the work of a storyteller.

So yes, I'm looking too far into it. Cause writers can write that far into it. And that deserves to be examined, acknowledged, and praised.

To assume less is too assume lesser of the writers who put everything into the media you enjoy.

This year of all years, we should be appreciating the work Screenwriters put in.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - I'm not being an asshole (well, not trying to be).

I'm looking at writers as vital parts of a movies production. Because they are.

We look deeply at the art style, or the animation, or the music. Writers are not shadow figures. They're people with careers. And them and their work deserve to be spoken about and acknowledged as a work of effort just the same as CGI artists or editors, or directors.

I implore you - Read more into it.

If you're a writer yourself, doubly so.

Read FAR into it. Build your analyzation skills, come to your own conclusions. Break the story down every which way and look at the characters from every angle.

It's fun, it's free, it makes the characters so much more real.

So many people on this website hope to one day become published writers. One thing they do to help you achieve that in college, is by racing things like scripts, and looking critically.

Meta analysis is good for you as much as it is the writers.

If you don't think you're cut out for it, or would have nothing to add, still try. Not for the brownie points, but to feel closer to the characters and the story.

If you've seen ATSV (or any Fandom media) and haven't ever really sat and thought about it - everyone's moral stances, why they want what they want, why they've made the mistakes they've had, where you stand on it all - I highly recommend it.

You might come away with some surprising conclusions about characters or even yourself.

Think about your favorite characters, and what might happen to them in the next movie.

There's really nothing wrong with reading that far into it.

Fifteen minutes of thinking, or an hour of writing is nothing compared to the months of work that went into this absolute masterpiece.

Trust me, the first time you catch some shit that makes you go

ITS LIKE A HIGH I TELL YOU.

Touch grass? Nah bro, touch your local library card. Go there right now. Take out this book.

There's gonna be a discussion tomorrow in class.

If you read this far heyhello I think you're rad as hell.

Here's a Hobie for the road because he's a great companion.

Bye.

[skylermadness]

Welcome to the Rider Side (Iskandar TF)

(Original Date of Upload: July 8, 2023)

Original Description:

I was going to upload this yesterday but forgot to. I know next to nothing about the Fate series, and honestly it seems like it has too many pieces to put together to really be able to get into it safely. Nonetheless, I wrote this while I was bored one set of days and in the mood for Iskandar, who is honestly my only Fate-related mood. What can I say, I like fiery redheads. I tend not to deal with lack of MC in works but I wanted to try something unique and different. Same with the goo trigger here, although I've done quite a few goo triggers so that doesn't really count. Either way, this was a fun story to write and a nice diversion from the usual that I work on! Rated Mature for bulge and implied masturbation.

   Cosplay was an unfamiliar endeavor for Rufus, to say the least. This was both in terms of how it functions and how expensive such a thing can be. But with a convention coming up in his hometown, Rufus had been rather antsy in regards to doing it. It was something new, it was something interesting! He's never tried something like this before, and that only fueled the desire to jump the shark and attempt something like cosplaying. No matter how complicated it may be!

   …then again, that doesn't really bar the fact that he chose what may have been the most complex character possible to try such a thing with, and that was the character Iskandar from the Fate series.

   There were quite a few reasons why such a choice was absurd. First was the fact that he chose a character that was predominantly armored. Second was that he chose a character whose armor pieces were… unique to say the least. So much so that the only way to procure them would be through custom means. And with there being only a month until the convention. But he also really liked the character, so much so that he was willing to do everything in his power to attempt to do this… right?

   Rufus sighed, his foot pressing on the brake of his car as he drove up to an intersection. Eyes lingered for a couple seconds, keeping track of the intersection before his vision drifted to the block ahead. He caught sight of a small building, wooden in material in contrast to the predominantly concrete, stone, and brick of the buildings surrounding it. The sight caused him to perk up a bit.

   He was lucky for a single thing, and that was locating a replica of Iskandar's blade. One that ran for a cheap price. It did have to be procured locally, but that was fine since the store was near his apartment.

   Once past the intersection he drove for a couple more seconds before pulling over to the side in front of the building. Doing all the usual procedures he left his car and locked it before turning to look at the building itself, evidently being a small store judging by the shelves that were noticeably visible through the window. His sight trailed upwards for a moment, catching the store's name that was displayed atop it. 

   Maurice's Exceptional Cosplay Collectibles…

   Although only the name Maurice seemed to be written properly. Everything else after it was rather crude in writing, alongside being written above something that was scribbled out. Peculiar, but not the most worrying thing. Probably a rebrand when this store took over whatever the previous one was.

   Finishing up his gawking, Rufus finally took the plunge and stepped into the store. A small bell rang above him as he stepped through the door, his arrival being signaled throughout the almost shack-like shop. Although the only acknowledgement of his existence after that was from who he presumed to be the manager, a rotund man with a thick beard and a balding head. The store's titular Maurice, Rufus had presumed.

   "'ey. Ruf's, right?" the man said, his voice deep and gravelly. 

   With a nod Rufus responded with an, "Er, yeah."

   He wasn't surprised that the storekeeper was anticipating his arrival. The site where Rufus found the replica sword just happened to have a section for item reservations. 

   Maurice nodded, then bent down to rummage beneath the counter. After a couple seconds he arose with a rather long and thin box in hand and set it upon the counter. "Take a look-see," he said with a smile. "Rather impress'ly designed!"

   Curious, Rufus stepped up to the counter and opened the box. The object within it was wrapped in red cloth, which he undid in order to look at the object itself. His eyes then widened in surprise. "It's made of metal…?"

   "Yup! An authentic sword ya' gettin' 'ere!"

   Authentic felt like an understatement. Rufus was expecting some plastic mock-up, but this appeared to be a legitimate spatha-type sword. Metallic blade, equally metallic handle and pommel. And yet it had all the makings of Iskandar's blade. Golden emblem on the cross-guard, a lion's head at the pommel's end. 

   "Did… did you make this or something…?" he asked, dumbfounded.

   "Eh, ya could say that."

   And all of this for twenty dollars. It felt practically farcical to him. "Is this like some kind of rental thing, or…?"

   "Nah. We jus' get a lot're items than we know what t' do with."

   Rufus opened his mouth to respond, but was unable to think of one.

   "'s a good sword though. Heard it's owner was quite the beaut as well!"

   "I uh, yeah…" he responded, unsure how to take all of this. This experience was getting more surreal by the second. "I'll just make my payment and be on my way then," Rufus said, beginning to fish out his wallet.

   His eyes still lingered on the spatha. There was something that felt off, but he just couldn't pinpoint it yet…

                                        ----------------------------------------------------------

   It's been roughly ten minutes now since Rufus had arrived back to his apartment. He was originally planning on making himself some lunch before resuming his plans to find a suitable way to complete his cosplay, but those plans were thrown out the window rather quickly.

   He sits on the couch, and in front of him is a small table. The sword is splayed atop the table's glass counter, the box it came in disregarding to the side with the cloth it was wrapped in laying beneath it. The man was still awestruck at the realism of the object. He was half convinced that if he poked the tip he'd accidentally cut himself and draw blood. 

   Reaching out a hand he hesitantly grasped the dark blue grip of the blade and picked it up. With both hands he held the blade up to his face as if he were inspecting it. The object was rather lightweight which made picking it up not very challenging. The only real concern was his lack of knowledge when it came to sword etiquette. How do you hold it? Do you have to clean it or something? Where do you even put it once you're finished with it?? 

   "Oh, what will I do with you…" Rufus questioned the blade, not expecting much of an answer. 

   He had slowly come to the realization that there was a small issue now in regards to having such a realistic object. It would likely not work well together with whatever other pieces of the cosplay he'd scope out. He'd have a set of faux armor and whatnot and be wielding some hyperrealistic blade that could probably get him arrested. And it definitely wouldn't fit with the cheaper option of going for a more casual fit.

   He sighed, beginning to mutter to himself. "I did not think this thought much, did I?" There was also a very vocal thought in the forefront of his mind: he really wanted an easier way to complete this cosplay.

   His peripherals then caught onto a glowing below him. Turning his head downwards his gaze caught onto the golden emblem within the middle of the sword's cross-guard. The emblem was looking to be glowing brightly now. "Wha…?"

   He didn't have much time to process it though. He was suddenly startled as a strange fluid-like substance poured down from the emblem and onto his hands, which had then prompted Rufus to panic for a moment and let go of the blade. Luckily, it only fell beside his feet and stabbed into the rug.

   Rufus didn't think much of it though. He was preoccupied, looking down to inspect his hands. Gobs of reddish-brown goo of some kind had found their way onto his hands somehow, flecks of it slowly moving up and towards his arms. "Uhhhh-"

   That wasn't the only weird occurrence either. Rufus felt the fingers of both hands twitching just ever so slightly, this feeling being accompanied by a far stranger sight. A thickness was entering the man's hands, fingers steadily growing larger and denser. His hands were increasing in size as well with both of them appearing to stretch out larger, bulkier. Palms were looking to be swelling and gaining a meatiness to them, and the increase in size to both parts of his body just looked like they had at the very least less than doubled in size.

   The mysterious goo continued to progress its way up and around Rufus' arms. The young man could only watch in a mix of awe and confusion, unable to articulate his feelings. A massive chunk of it was encapsulating his wrists, lengthening further upwards to fully wrap around his forearms. It felt as if the region was being encased in a rubber-like substance, and ementating from that substance was an odd feeling of warmth that coursed through the veins of his lower arms. Much like his hands, the size of both forearms was steadily growing. However, this time it appeared they were accruing muscle mass. The softness that they had originally possessed was being sloughed away and replaced by hard, beefy, and warm muscle. It had even come with a surge of strength that was only progressing further into his body.

   While the rubbery cuffs remained on his forearms, strands and gobs of goo broke from it and trickled up his arms more. This didn't seem to lessen the mass of the arm cuffs, as if all laws of physics did not apply to this substance. As the strands of strange substance inches across his upper arms, the surge of power coursing through himself was moving into the region as well. Thick muscle was packing into the area, arms hardening with it as it formed quickly. Biceps bulged out of them while triceps transformed and matured rapidly. All the softness his arms originally possessed was getting erased, melting away into a firm new form. Heat had filled his arms as they were granted an instant workout, and he could feel the short sleeves of his t-shirt attempt to stretch over his thickening appendages while the goo began moving beneath them and towards his torso. The fabric got filled with creases as his muscles pushed up against them, the thick crevices that divided his newfound musculature  practically etching into the gray cotton. This only got more prominent as his shoulder muscles started to change and his deltoids expanded, the overall region broadening as things were moving up and past his arms.

   With his shoulders bulking out, Rufus could feel his form start to widen out while his skin was stimulated by the rubbery texture of the goo. It was practically phantasmagorical as to how this all felt. Unrealistic, bizarre. He couldn't help but take a moment to snap out his daze and curiously paw at the cuffs encapsulating his forearms. The liquid consistency seemed to have hardened, the marbled reddish-brown having become some kind of long latex-like 'wrist'band that even with his newfound strength he'd be unable to pull off. But then again, this substance was somehow making him muscular…

   He stopped pulling at the cuffs, instead raising an arm up and giving it a good flex. The act as a whole caused the associated sleeve to split across his bicep, unable to contain the now muscled limb. "Woah…" he vocalized in awe. He would be lying if he said he didn't like this feeling of power that was steadily coursing through his entire being.

   Concern was fading into curiosity. He moved his attention downwards, eyes staring at his torso as he felt the transformative substance travel from the left and right sides of his body. It was steadily moving towards the middle of his body, and as it did so it was only inciting more changes. He could feel his very core heat up like some kind of furnace, an almost exponentially enhancing sense of might emanating within his chest.

   Rufus had possessed a rather pudgy build. Soft, fatty, some would even call it a little schlubby. But something, or rather everything about that, was changing. As the goo moved across his chest towards the middle of his body, a firmness was entering the area rather rapidly. The softness of his pecs was hardening, getting packed with powerful muscles. His shirt steadily filled out as his musculature was increased, pectorals pushing forward more and more as they grew and expanded. He was garnering two massive slabs of raw meat on his chest. It was getting so prominent that the newly developing cleavage was indenting into his shirt's fabric. 

   Beneath his shirt the substance that was infusing him with this power continued its coverage of his form. Once it converged beneath the middle of his chest it began to expand outwards again. A portion of it arose, rubber-like goo steadily raising to cup Rufus' thick pecs. A sizable portion in the middle remained visible however, the goo seeming to avoid covering his cleavage. It would eventually rise until it nestled beneath the man's collarbone, which itself still seemed to be widening out. Between the goo and his broadening size, Rufus' t-shirt was just struggling to contain his massive form. And it was evident his form was only going to become even larger.

   The marbled browns and reds of the supposed fluid had also been making its way downwards, the territory it was claiming around his abdominal region being a lot larger than it was on his chest. It has first stretched over his belly, a soft squeezing ensuing as it did so. The fat within his belly was being pressed down into his body, being flattened and molded into a more muscular form instead. Abdominal muscles were being pressed out of his gut, bubbling forward as three rows were being forced to materialize into a six-pack of abs.

   His sides were increasing with heat as his obliques rippled, the lower half of Rufus' torso continuing to get pressurized as the goo started to surround it now. A burning strength being filled in the region, power pushing forward throughout the form as new muscles continued to get molded into him from the mysterious substance. It wasn't long until it went into his back as well, the goo entering the region and closing in on his spinal cord. As it did so, wide portions of goo were beginning to extend from the top of the chest portion of this weird rubbery chest plate of his. It stretched out, snaking over his shoulders and moving onto his upper back. Both segments of substance would meet at the midline, in between his trapeziuses, and then run downwards in a single thick line to converge with the portion of gooey plating that surrounded his lower body. All the while his spine was being massaged by the substance, another soft warmth emanating across his back as inches were now being added to the young man's height.

   The changes in height were getting slightly evident now as Rufus caught onto his shirt riding up his now muscular abdomen. His six-pack was just etched into the gray fabric perfectly, and the shirt's hem was steadily moving towards said six-pack. But he was quickly growing more preoccupied with his chest. His thick pectorals. He couldn't help but slowly bring up a hand and poke a chunky finger into his cleavage. Although the very act of moving a limb seemed to be taboo to the shirt at this point, rips echoing from behind him as his back and shoulder muscles were moved. And somehow this initiated a chain reaction as tears formed down the sides of the tee, and a few finally formed within the front. One especially noticeable rip was right over his pecs, giving Rufus a clear view of the rubber chestplate and the middle of his pecs.

   "Hooh…" he felt warm at that. Everything about this was warming but that very sight moreso. So, so much strength is piled onto him. It was so immense, so powerful. He just couldn't resist going from poking to groping as he cupped a pec with a hand. It was so… stimulating feeling that rubber press up against his flesh, and he could still feel the slight softness that his pectorals possessed. The feeling just made his blood pump faster than before, so much faster.

   He was… enjoying this, wasn't he?

   His thoughts were then broken as he heard another portion of his clothing break, this time with his legwear. Looking down he saw that the button holding his jeans together had snapped open, and in general his jeans were starting to feel tighter. But the tightness in his jeans was the least of his problems as… so much began happening at once.

   The goo had already moved well past the waistline, now beginning to encapsulate Rufus' pelvis and the area beneath that. It was perhaps the most sensual part of the entire change as he could feel the substance squeeze up against his more sensitive areas. He couldn't help but stand up from the couch now, the man feeling a considerable heat erupting in his rear as the region was consumed by the gooey substance. The area was getting so much thicker, becoming round and plump as his glute muscles became even larger. And with his waist already getting wider, this addition to size caused the seat of his pants to just split open, that very sound causing Rufus to moan a bit as his cheeks flushed with red.

   Then he felt his groin stir, and his cheeks flushed even redder.

   A massive hand was moving down to the area as Rufus started to feel an immense, almost erotic emotion well up in him. Sweat was beading on his forehead while he looked down, the zipper of his pants splitting open more and more as he saw his undergarments bulge out more with each passing second. All the while the rubber was stimulating every nerve within his growing groin. Blood was practically shooting down there as he couldn't help but hover his hand above the area for a moment before cupping it. "O-ohhh…" he moaned out again, his voice sounding a bit deeper, but his brain was swimming in erotic ecstasy to care.

   With all this pleasure overtaking Rufus' mind, he was too preoccupied to take full notice of more changes, now continuing to press further down his legs. His thighs were practically burning with heat as they were encapsulated with brownish-red goo, hamstrings and quads being packed with substantial muscle much like his arms were minutes prior. Tears echoed through the air as the stitching on the sides of his jeans was being split open by his thickening legs, and the denim in general was getting creased with his new musculature engraving into it. 

   The goo seemed to end halfway down his thighs however, globs of it instead trickling downwards as it moved past his knees as onto the crus of his legs. Once it reached the mentioned region, it went back to expanding in surface area. Although this time it seemed to be doing so like it did his forearms; circling around his lower legs to form one large rubber bracer. This was especially noticeable with the bottoms of his jeans running up his legs, his height growing yet again with another set of inches being placed into his legs. And while it did so, his calves steadily ballooned, now being grown out into massive bulging muscles that continued to vy for his legwear's attention and rip them up further with each passing moment.

   As Rufus continued rubbing his bulge, he widened his stance a bit. The substance had also finally run beneath his footwear, now having reached the man's feet. The tongue's of his shoes were pressed up as the rubbery material cascaded down the bridge of both feet, the size of his feet seemingly getting stimulated by this and beginning to grow. His footwear was quick in becoming undersized; his heels practically dug into the backs of each shoe while the sides pressed the cloth that was containing them outwards more and more. The toecap of the shoe was beginning to bulge as his toes pressed up against it, the side of the bulging growing even more prominent as his toes got thicker. The overall meatiness of his feet was just increasing rapidly, and it wasn't long until his shoes finally began splitting apart to reveal them. And while his feet grew, the rest of the rubbery goo completed what it set out to do. A small bit of it slipped in between his big toe and the adjacent one before running beneath the soles of his feet. It was at this point that his original footwear finally just burst open.

   Rufus shuddered a bit, hesitantly unclasping his bulge as he let out a rather deep sigh. All of his senses steadily came back to him as the ecstasy slowly wore off. 

   He swallowed a forming lump in his throat, the man feeling his neck thicken in size. "I-I should probably leave that for…"

   His sentence trailed off as he caught note of his voice, realizing the deepness crawling into it with each passing word. It was sounding so commanding, so boisterous! And familiar as well…

   "Woah- I sound exactly like…" his eyes trailed back downwards. The way the rubber had plated his body, especially his torso, was also… "Iskandar…"

   With that very realization, a large grin formed on the man's face. That sword, it was making him a splitting image of its wielder? How was that possible? Why was it possible? Did that weird storekeeper know or-

   "O-ough, itchy…" Rufus' thoughts broke as he felt an itchiness on his face. No doubt a sign of the final physical changes to his body finally ensuing.

   He raised up a hand and casually scratched at the itching, the feeling mainly isolated around his chin. He had already possessed a bit of a beard around the region, but the brown coloration of it was noticeably changing. Starting at the roots, a soft red was steadily expanding across his beard. Alongside that the thickness of it was increasing, the hairs growing thicker and more connected as the visible style of his facial hair looked almost spiky. This look was only exacerbated as a spiky-like stylization was forming from where the hairs met his face. And his beard only moved further to perfection, a well-kempt lustrousness entering into the very hairs. More and more red continued to consume the follicles, dull brown becoming brighter and brighter by the second. The ends of the beard moved up the sides of his jaw to meet his sideburns, and from there the bright red was starting to enter his hair.

   While his beard changed his face was altering at the exact same time. A broadness entered his jawline, chiseled it out more as the softness of his face was getting hardened. His facial structure was being altered, skull shape shifting due to the roundness of it was being lost, becoming a bit more square with the steady widening of it all. The youthful look his young adult face had was also fading, bits of age setting into it with wrinkles etching around his eyes. Although perhaps the most prominent changes occurred within his facial features; his slight mustache sinking into his skin, his eyes getting slightly larger while the irises gained a bright red coloration to them, and his ears pushed out slightly. There was also a change in his nose, it getting larger and the bridge getting wider in size as the broadness of his nose seemed to become an almost defining feature of his face. Lastly were his eyebrows, getting bushier while the bright red coloration formed within them as they did so.

   The final bits of changes came to the rest of his hair. As the flaming red swept across his, the overall style was being altered drastically. While it had originally possessed an almost medium length to it, that length was shortening rather rapidly. This was further proven by his forehead getting more visible as the part of hair flipped over was shrinking into his scalp. After a few seconds it also seemed the way his hair was directed was altering, the centralization of it all being swept back and changed to all of his hair being pushed backwards. A wild, untameness was forming within it as well with bits and pieces spiking out as if the hair were actually lit aflame. Despite it all, with the shortening concluding, his hair had garnered a noticeable denseness to it that it didn't possess in its prior state.

   With that all the strange warmths and newfound power surges started to die down, as if Rufus' body was already getting used to it. A sign that the physical changes seemed to have concluded. Although Rufus felt a bit too preoccupied scratching his beard. Not because it was still itching though, it just felt nice to run his fingers through the dense hairs. "Ooh, that feels good…"

   All of this felt good actually. This thick musculature, this masculine physique. Hearing his deep voice resonate through his ears, just feeling his own strong presence within the room. It was exhilarating! Although his scritching slowly came to a halt as he realized something. His head turned back downwards, eyeing the strange rubbery substance that still clinged to his body. 

   "Are you gonna melt off or something…?" he muttered. He wasn't sure what it had left to change. But after a couple seconds a change in texture drew his attention to his arm. Why did he feel something furry? Wait…

   His eyes now laying upon it, Rufus found that the rubber cuff that encapsulated his forearm was shifting. The top and bottom ends were fluffing up with a soft, white, and dense furry fringe. Meanwhile the material of the rubber itself was shifting to a cold and hard metal that he could feel graze his skin. The featurelessness was lost as crescent-like and ellipsoid shapes formed within the back of the newly changed metal.

   It wasn't the only part that was changing either. His already filled out shirt seemed to fill out more, tears further splitting it as the rubber that divided the fabric from his skin got bulkier. Metal spread amongst the mysterious substance's entirety, the reddish-brown marbling changing to a pure brown while a soft golden coloration formed to outline where his pectorals and abs were. A bronze chestplate seemed to be what it was becoming. Meanwhile the Y-shaped segment of goo that stretched across his back changed to a separate more flexible material that made it more like a set of straps, those straps held together by a triangular buckle on the middle of his back.

   It was at this point that the remainder of his shirt seemed about ready to tear off, much of it seeming to almost burn itself away. But a portion of it around his shoulders and back remained, shifting into something drastically different. A thick white fur emerged from the collar, growing thicker and thicker by the second, while the back portion of the shirt extended and turned from gray to bright red. The furriness of the collar continued to thicken, and a golden design was arising from the bottom of the lengthening back. It wasn't long until the former shirt was the densely furred caped mantle that sat upon Iskandar's shoulders, held there by a single blue leather strap around his chest.

   At the same time, the rubber that was around his thighs shifted to a deep blue, hardening into some kind of short legged under armor. But his jeans still seemed to fill out, a separate layer of fabric seeming to emerge from under the materializing belt that was beneath the first layer of legwear's waistline. This layer of fabric continued to push itself downwards, reds and golds noticeable through the tears in the denim of his jeans. It wasn't long until his former legwear would follow in what his shirt did by mimicking a fire starting and blazing itself away while segments of it were changing, hardening to a bronze like his chestplate possessed. It seemed his jeans were becoming a set of lengthy tassets that stretched down to the length of his knees. All while a golden buckle appeared in front of them, clasped onto Rufus' waist, and manifested a triad of blue straps that snaked around his waist. A sizable weight formed within one of these straps, a scabbard for the very trigger of his transformation appearing from mere nothing.

   The last portion of rubber was on the crus of his legs and his feet. Like the segment around his forearms, fringes of fur grew from the top and bottom portions of the greaves while the rubberiness was hardened to metal. A layered metallicness was also formed within the substance that has covered the bridge of his foot. Meanwhile the portions that had gone between his toes and under his feet became a more leathery consistency instead, his new pair of footwear seeming to be rather sandal-like. 

   Rufus ran a hand above the flat bronze of his chestplate, a sense of finally dawning on the transformed man. This was real armor that had finally graced the man's skin. Authentic, perfect. He could feel every chunk of metal, every bit of fur, even the fabric of his cape grazing the back of his legs.

   His eyes then laid on the sword, the catalyst to this all, currently stabbed in the rug of his apartment. He effortlessly picked the object up, Rufus reveling in hearing the soft shing of the weapon reverberate through his ears as he placed it into his scabbard. 

   "I guess you did give me the perfect cosplay that'd fit you, huh?" Rufus said while patting the scabbard. He then followed the statement up with a deep laugh, letting himself just swim in the pure boisterousness that this form exuded. It just felt so good.

   Quieting down a bit, his gaze then trailed to his arm. Casually raising it, Rufus gave the arm a good flex! Feeling all that raw strength and power coarse through his veins.

   "I am definitely ready for that convention now!~"

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 44 Museposting

Hello internet void. What a great conclusion to a fantastic arc! I'm locked in and ready to spend the rest of my life with this manga now. ...Maybe. No matter how the manga proceeds from here, I'll hold the Rakuzaichi arc close to my heart for it's nuanced examination of family and duty. And for introducing my favorite character in ages.

Hakuri the precious unhinged bean is STAYING! Another rescued abuse victim for the goldfish bowl, hooray! I hope he isn't shelved after this arc but my goodness he definitely deserves a break. The whole cast does, yeah, but this boy still has a lot to process.

I love how Hakuri's character arc is resolved here - he's finally free to choose his own path after everything he's been through. Ice Lady broke him out of the Sazanami mindset, Chihiro proved there was hope for him, and Shiba gave him an opening to leave his cage behind. Now he can truly find out what's waiting for him beyond the misery and despair he lived with for so long. Oh Hakuri, you deserve all the happiness you find.

And once again, Chihiro's empathy is on full (if somewhat subdued) display. The scene of him wanting to encourage Hakuri as he says he's lost now that his dad is dead squeezed my heart into pieces. Yeah, Kyoura was shitty. But losing an abusive parent isn't a ticket to sudden happiness and purpose most of the time. They were still your guiding star, as Hakuri himself says- for better and worse. Especially if they only became overtly abusive later in your life. The grief that comes with their passing is hella complicated and often leaves you feeling worse off even if your life will be objectively better from now on.

Hakuri was in survival mode for so long thanks to Kyoura that he doesn't know what to do now. He and his remaining family are better off without each other too. Chihiro probably doesn't grasp the complexities of this kind of grief but he does know what it's like to lose everything and be set adrift in the world far too young. So he gently reminds Hakuri of the potential waiting for him outside of the cage...

... and Hakuri responds so sweetly:

Aaaah my heart. You shouldn't talk about yourself like you're property, Hakuri!

This gives me some hope that we're not quite done with him yet. Hakuri's free now but he (understandably) has a low opinion of himself. He still feels the weight of failing the Ice Lady and Chihiro trading Enten for his life and wants to do more. Be more. Feel worthy of what they've done for him. And who better to help him make the most of his new lease on life than the guy he sees as hope incarnate? The grief might overwhelm him at times, and the effects of the abuse he endured won't fade for quite some time. But he'll be alright as long as he's with his samurai.

This is Chihiro's story above all else so I don't think we'll get another deep dive into Hakuri unless it's to further our protagonist's character. But I'm waiting to see what he's set up to do going in to (what appears to be) the Kamunabi arc with baited breath. I hope he really does get to be Chihiro's equal instead of learning the art of Offscreen Sorcery from Shiba. And even though it'll probably be Hiyuki's turn to shine next, I hope she doesn't overtake him in terms of importance to Chihiro's story and the narrative as a whole.

I'll save the doomposting for another time (if it's even warranted). I've got a ton to say about Hakuri now that the arc is over, but that'll probably be a separate post made while we all succumb to brain rot during the break. But yeah. Hakuri. I love him so much. I just hope I'm not pining for scraps of him after all the work the author put in to making him so endearing.

No dwelling on what-ifs! Onward! What about that random shot of a drum?

I think it's interesting that we get a small panel of taiko/wadaiko. They have nothing to do with any major themes in the arc itself, other than the sticks used to hit them being called bachi (Hokazono probably patted himself on the back for that one). I think it's used to lend a sense of finality to the end of the proceedings for the Sazanami clan. These drums have a variety of uses through their long history in Japanese culture, but the one most relevant here I think is in theater and performance arts. Small taiko drums are used to help accentuate performances by setting the mood. Here in Kagurabachi, I think it's specifically linked to Kyoura's line at the end of Ch. 39:

Yeah, the origin of the meme. The EN translation is apparently pretty conservative while the original JP line had more of a showman flair to it. "The show must go on" or along those lines. I'm not a pro at Japanese by any stretch, but it would tie in nicely to the continued use of performance-related terms in this week's chapter. The cruel spectacle is over for good. The curtains are drawn and it's time for all the living participants to go home.

2/2 on destroyed buildings marking the end of an arc. Let's keep it up!

But what is next, indeed? How many people expected Chihiro to try joining the Kamunabi, anyway?! Definitely wasn't on my short list of things that could happen, but I'm really warming up to the idea because of what it says for him as a character.

Normally, a shounen protagonist is someone who is reacting to the plot as it happens. Even if they're out to change the status quo, something has to occur to give them an opportunity to act (yes, even after they've answered the Call to Adventure). Bad guy acts first, something happens to a loved one, natural disaster strikes, etc. The universe gives them an opening and the protagonist strikes. But here, Chihiro creates his own opportunity.

Hiyuki and Tafuku could have just taken the blade away from him in his weakened state and left him at square one trying to find leads. Most authors would take this development path I think! But this is Kagura-fucking-bachi so we get to see another fascinating side to Chihiro instead.

Chihiro recognizes that he doesn't know as much as he thought about his dad's legacy. And that he can't continue his crusade without some serious power on par with the Hishaku clan. So instead of doing the typical shounen protagonist thing and resolving to push through adversity with friendship and sheer force of will, he adjusts his tactics. His resolve is intact but his strategy is changing.

This was indirectly foreshadowed courtesy of Shiba in ch. 12 and reinforced by John Hishaku in Ch. 32:

Don't you love it when characters consistently actually act how we're told they do? Chihiro's always thinking and learning; he's not waiting for fate to give him a chance. No matter how strongly he feels about recovering the swords, he's able to accurately assess his own situation and make the most rational decision (hot-headed moves fueled by deep empathy for others being an exception). I love a protagonist that recognizes when they're out of their depth and adjusts accordingly, man. No practicing slamming his head against a brick wall until it breaks for this guy- he'll find some scaffolding to climb over it instead. Or ask a badass woman to punch a hole through it for him.

I also think it's quite significant that Chihiro's directly asking others for help now. In the beginning he seemed uneasy about letting others share the burden of his father's legacy, but now he's trusting Hiyuki and the Kamunabi to help him manage it. Obviously he's asking to join because he won't let them take full control and responsibility, but he's still facing reality head-on. How will that play out for him? Opening up to Hakuri and trusting in him paid off massively, so maybe it'll work out again?

The last time he worked with the Kamunabi, most of the squad was wiped out by Sojo though. I would not be surprised to see a grudge match of some kind between Chihiro and Kazane despite both of them being on the same side in the same org this time... but we've gotten a few glimpses of all kinds of potential inter-group conflict since very early on. It's not surprising that the Hishaku may want to exacerbate those fractures by letting the Kamunabi get a hold of Magatsumi:

Ch. 7

Ch. 11

Ch. 18

Ch. 22

Ch. 24

So as of Ch. 44, it's clear that internal politics will play a major role...

Chihiro I love you for being able to put the pieces together yourself instead of relying on someone else like other protagonists often have to do.

I expect that working within the Kamunabi will help Chihiro form a firm opinion on whether or not they can be trusted to help him in the long-term. It'll probably also be Hiyuki's development arc as she reconciles her ideals, what she sees in Chihiro, and what she's witnessed at the Rakuzaichi with how the group operates.

I don't want to speculate too much on exactly how it'll all play out but I'm so freakin' hyped man. This is also a great chance to learn more about Kunishge, Azami, Shiba, and the Seitei War...! Oh man! LORE! WORLDBUILDING! I live and breathe for this kinda stuff when it's done well. The war criminals' different takes on the Kamunabi have had me interested in the org for a while now so I wonder what Chihiro will think of them by the end of the arc. Will he be able to work with them for the rest of the series? Will they splinter due to their internal conflicts and the Hishaku's machinations? Will Hiyuki stay with them or go her own way? I want to know! Hmm... on the topic of working with the Kamunabi... I know I said earlier that Chihiro's been opening up since he met Hakuri and is willing to work with the Kamunabi full-time now, but I don't believe he's at the point where he's willing to fully entrust the dangerous, painful parts of his dad's legacy to other people yet. Chihiro's still feeling personally responsible for the deaths the sword WMDs are causing while putting all the pressure to succeed on his own head. He's letting other people help him out but it's his duty alone to minimize the damage. I won't be surprised if this is touched on either in the Kamunabi arc or a later one. Keeping Shiba's "you'll break" line in mind once more, I think Chihiro learning to share his pain and burden could be a major turning point for him.

I don't want to say it must or will happen -I'm not the writer. I just think it's a very potent thread that's had some buildup since the start. Who can Chihiro trust to help him with more than logistics and fighting? Does he even need someone like that or is he going to become strong enough though learning from his enemies? I'm really interested in seeing if the little family he's building will be able to do more than cheer him on from offscreen at the very least... I've got some worries about the story structure going forward but I want to wait and see what happens in the next arc before letting my hopes be crushed.

Seriously, I'm not going to doompost yet. Really. I'm just going to fucking die waiting an extra week to see what happens next.

[hero-israel]

The attack 100% will push Israeli society further right, further toward mistrust, trauma, and retribution. The attack will also 100% fail and have devastating repercussions for the people of Gaza. Maybe the Hamas losers know this, maybe they intended it to happen. A violent chaotic cathartic release with no real plan or attempt at achieving any kind of goals... were they that delusional? Did they think they would start the next Arab Israeli war and bring Israel down?

Or were they fully intending to fuel their own martyr complexes and to martyr hundreds of unwilling Palestinian civilians in a desperate attempt to make Israel lose the optics war? It's probably this one, and it only proves that they are LOSERS, they are sad pathetic losers and their greatest triumph is shooting grandmas and trying to capture Jewish sex slaves to prove what big manly men they are, while the women and children in their towns are being bombed to pieces. Disgusting pieces of shit.

But about that optics war... Mass executions and rapes and kidnappings by Hamas militants have done more to repair Israel's image in normal (I repeat and emphasize: NORMAL) people's eyes than any amount of sharing graphs and documents and educating people, or state sponsored tweets could ever have. This is the true Mask Off moment for Hamas and Gaza. Even antizionists are taking to social media to say "stop the violence innocent people are dying this is so bad we stand with the people of Israel." Like this is such an utter disaster for Gaza it boggles the mind how they greenlit this attack.

Like I truly think if Bibi orders a ground invasion most people aside from internet leftists and Arab nationalists would be alright with it. I hope he doesn't, I think a measured and careful response is crucial right now, but that's how badly Hamas fucked up whatever goodwill they had today.

It will push Israeli society further toward the right in terms of military / security crackdown and generally bleak attitudes towards coexistence with Palestinians (moreso). I would like very much to believe that Israelis will notice that the current government of right-wing channer trolls is totally talentless and lazy and that their incompetence and unnecessary cultural divisionism directly made possible this tragedy, and will then replace the right-wing channer trolls with right-wing skilled leaders. Note that by "right-wing skilled leaders" I no longer include Netanyahu, who should be as permanently discredited as the rest of them. The structure of Israeli electoral politics has let me down before, and I don't think Netanyahu has enough human decency to resign when he so blatantly ought to.

We are going to see something in Gaza that we haven't seen before; there is really no choice. I'm just not sure what that "something" will be.

I've seen several posters on Jewish Reddit argue for a full land invasion and lasting re-occupation of Gaza. This would be a Carter-Iranian-hostage-rescue level catastrophe. Gaza has been prepping for an Israeli land invasion for 15+ years, it is the basis of multiple Hamas and PIJ battle plans, we can assume every street and alley is boobytrapped and every window can hold an RPG launcher and every room can become a hostage site. Lasting military incursion with boots on the ground seems doomed to fail - and then if it succeeded it might be even worse, Israel would have to bleed its military and economic resources into managing the day-to-day lives of 2 million Palestinians. Of the options for eliminating Hamas, that would be the one that was worst for Israel in the immediate term, so it is the one I don't expect. Other options are terrible too, but less so for Israel itself.

To be very frank, I'd almost rather they skip Hamas and launch a decapitating strike on Iran directly. Terrible repercussions of course, but it avoids the usual script, the obvious boobytrap aspects, and puts a final "bookmark" on the threats that both Hamas and Hezbollah could represent.

[chaifootsteps]

Recently I was listening to an old writing podcast, and one of the pieces of advice that was given was: "Never publish your first story." The reasoning was that your 'first' story was usually something that you've had around since grade school, and it was overly-complex and you were far too attached to it to be able to look at it objectively and cut/change parts that didn't need to be there.

Honestly, I think this is advice that Vivzie never got to hear, or never fully internalised. Hazbin is something that she's had as a concept for years (possibly to the point of it being over a decade old), and she's wrapped up so much of herself in it that any criticism of it feels like a criticism to HER.

And she isn't the only one, either. A lot of newer animated shows feel like they're concepts that the creator has had for ages, that they've put so much of their personal experiences and preferences into, but once they've released their precious baby idea to the public and have to adhere to the demands of a studio (not in Vivzie's case since it is her studio) and they start receiving criticism and people going: "oh I could have done that better" they take it so personally that it's impossible for them to consider their work as nothing more than a product for consumption, which is what it is to the rest of the world to an extent.

Agreed. If I were teaching a class on writing a story for public consumption, it would start with showing everyone this clip. Because this is something that I think Vivzie and like you said, a lot of creators like her have trouble with, and it's something I've had to constantly repeat to myself while working on Original Thing.

"You know how I said you were the most special character/story in the world? Well, you're not. I mean, you are to me, I love you more than anything! But you're probably not special to everyone else."

[f-smutt-fitzgerald]

Yo Daddy, you’re pretty messed up so I’m hoping you’ll respond. 😘

How would you reckon the TWST cast would murder someone they absolutely hate? With the intention of getting away with it (very important note)

Also, shower thoughts for Azul, if we vivisect one of his legs off, would he lose one tentacle or 3 or them?

I take it you're in a murder mood, you doin' okay bro...?

Gosh, the whole TWST cast? That's gonna take a lot of thought. Jeez this is going to be a long response... Let's see...

Heartslaybyul: Riddle is pretty studious and well read. I'm sure the murder itself would be one of passion and rage, probably violent and messy, but if no one else is around to witness it, he'd have a good enough knowledge on how to clean it up and properly dispose of the body.

Cater would use his clones to sneak up on and overpower the person, then the clones would help him clean up the scene and dispose of the corpse.

Trey, I'm getting a Sweeney Todd situation for him, bakes them into a pie, cooks up the body parts into different dishes for a feast. Would he ever actually kill anyone? I don't think so, but he's sly/secretly cunning enough to come up with the perfect crime I think.

Ace and Deuce would help eachother clean it up, Deuce probably drops a cauldron on someone or something, then they get caught because it turns out the person isn't actually dead after they think they've disposed of the "body" and/or they leave out like important pieces of evidence.

Savanaclaw: Leona turns them to sand. Like, on a beach.

Ruggie would use his signature spell to walk them off a cliff.

Jack, well he's a good boy, so while I'd see him breaking someone's neck or strangling someone to death in a fit of rage, he'd probably turn himself in right after.

Octavinelle: Gosh, look, if you've read Den of Beasts or Bloodlust, you probably know I've already put a lot of thought into how these fuckers would kill someone/dispose of a body... Lots of sea creatures in the ocean these boys could feed a corpse to. There's a lot of fucked up gangster shit you could come up with for the octotrio. I trust your imagination can come up with something, because the sky is the limit.

Scarabia: Kalim, again, a marshmallow, but hypothetically speaking, if someone *reaaaally* managed to piss him off, he would take them out into the middle of the desert and drown them with his signature magic, then let the elements take care of the body.

Jamil, how wouldn't he kill someone? Lol He'd probably use his signature spell to get the person to kill themself, making it a true and proper suicide that couldn't link back to Jamil.

Pomefiore: Vil, poison. He'd find a way that it wouldn't be traced back to him, maybe pin it on a crazed fan of the person he kills *cough cough* Neige *cough cough*. Even if Vil got caught, he'd use his influence to get out of any actual jail time.

Rook, well, The Most Dangerous Game is all that comes to mind, and given how in chapter 6 we find out how his family has like, actual hunting villas around the world, Rook would probably lure his enemy to a more remote villa and then proceed to hunt them down in a sadistic and fucked up game of cat and mouse. Let's be honest, he's definitely already done this, and his fucked up reasoning would be "your fear and passion to stay alive even in your dying breaths, that is the most beautiful thing any man can experience".

Epel, hit them over the head with a shovel or an axe, feed 'em to the pigs. He's a farm boy through and through, don't need to be more complex than that.

Ignihyde: Idia, ooh, my next story is gonna go into some fun ways Idia could kill people. For the sake of this question... He'd probably design a little assassin robot, maybe something that self destructs after the job is complete.

Ortho: Remember in the first Halloween event when Ortho was legit going to kill and probably vaporize those annoying magicam influencers? Yeah. That.

Diasomnia: I know the least about this dorm, but for Malleus, like, however he fuckin' wants, and like, who's gonna stop him? He could murder someone in broad daylight in front of a crowd of people and no one could do anything about it. Malleus would go home like nothing even happened.

Lilia, he's definitely assassinated people in the past, and murdered plenty in his war days. He could kill someone and leave no trace before flying away.

Sebek would kill anyone who so much as looks at Malleus weird. Disrespect Malleus, lose your life. Lilia would probably clean up after him.

Silver is probably fairly talented with a sword and probably learned a thing or two from Lilia about assassination. Similar to Sebek, he would kill for Malleus's sake, but would do so more out of honor and duty as opposed to blind, annoying devotion.

Now, for your question about Azul, I feel like his merman body would be almost a different entity from his human form, so like, if he lost a leg or tentacle in one form, it wouldn't show in his other form... But for this question, I'd say if he lost half of his human legs, then he'd lose half of his merman tentacles.

[amazing-spider-man-book-club]

The Amazing Spider-Man #4

Published: September 1963

Containing: "Nothing Can Stop...The Sandman!"

Introducing: The Sandman/Flint Marko, Betty Brant

Synopsis: Peter struggles to cope with the combined onslaught of character defamation in The Daily Bugle and the arrival of new supervillain The Sandman.

Read alongside us here:

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-1963/Issue-4?id=4007

@frankendykes-monster : Something like our first "routine" Spider-Man issue, not much comes to us in the form of new developments, after six prior stories across four issues, we've settled into a formula it appears. As such there's not much to bring up beyond what's new.

If I recall (given the erratic scheduling of our posts so far), this is our first time hearing that J. Jonah Jameson is publisher of The Daily Bugle, given that NOW Magazine was introduced back in #2. It's fascinating to hear Peter talk about Jameson as if they hardly know each other when it's Peter that has to supply the photos of Spider-Man. The power of the press is at an all-time high as Peter can't seem to manage to get much done with this much bad publicity. One thing of note is that this is Spider-Man's first time trying out doing something good for other people, though in the reactionary world of superhero comics that translates to "trying to stop some guys from committing petty theft." The police of NYC seem to have come to terms with the fact that Spider-Man is a fact of life, though mostly because they also have to worry about whoever Spider-Man fights in a given issue.

The Sandman is, once again, not a psychologically-complex character by any means, but it's another opportunity for Ditko to flex his skills as character design; the opening splash page is probably my favorite piece of art from the entire run though that's mostly due to how it commands so much impression of three-dimensional space. Flint Marko doesn't even have a costume so much as just his clothes. The Sandman is probably the most far-fetched character we'll be introduced to across the entire run (not that I've done it myself but I feel like he'll stop making sense if you think about how his powers work for more than five seconds or so). Most people are content to just have Flint turn one of his hands into a giant sledgehammer to try and smash Spider-Man with so seeing all the unusual ways he contorts his body here is a treat.

We get our first glimpse at the fact that Liz Allen, finally named, will be one of Peter's love interests, though because this is a Spider-Man comic he completely botches that up. Betty Brant also makes her debut though not with much fanfare; she'll become more important later on.

What is probably most interesting about this issue is the fact that it's 1963 and Peter has a TV in his room er I mean the mental toll that not only being Spider-Man but the reaction of the world around him to his actions does to Peter. Much more so than last issue, Peter is put through the emotional wringer here trying desperately to plan ahead for situations only to forget about something else, staying in control just to lose his cool immediately, worried desperately about possibilities when he needs to be focused on the "now." It's what helps make Spider-Man the proverbial teenage superhero, not in the literal sense but more thematically with how everything is the biggest and most tragic and messed up deal ever when you're a teen.

@duel1971 : Another great issue introducing another classic villain! Sandman is in theory extremely powerful and certainly gives Peter a run for his money initially but in the end is defeated by a simple vacuum cleaner. Not quite science hero stuff but it’s fun.

Loved all the little details of Peter’s personal life in this issue: sewing up his costume while watching the news, fumbling a date with a girl because of his secret identity, and playing a hilarious prank on J.J.J. (whose smear campaign has, if anything, gotten even worse in this issue).

The public hysteria around Spider-Man seems to be escalating, and the story ends on a bit of a downer note as a bunch of chatty pedestrians express their very mixed feelings on our hero. Peter resolves to continue his superhero career, but can’t help but have doubts.

It goes without saying that the art is great to look at but Sandman’s powers allow for some stunningly inventive visuals. Most if not all of these original designs by Ditko are hard to improve on and Sandman’s striking design is a great example because he’s still wearing that exact same shirt to this day.

[cavalierclavier]

I really like your comic. Out of curiosity, what are your art inspirations?

that's a really good question with a slightly difficult answer because i tend to absorb bits and pieces of any media i like into my art style lol

(this got a little long, so answer under the cut)

if i go far back enough, i think my first real taste of comics as a medium was Cassandra Jean's graphic novel adaptations of Miss Peregrine

(images copied from her announcement of the second book)

looking back on it now, the overall style is loose and sketchy, but still readable (which are not necessarily words i'd use for my own style lmao) but there's the use of value and solid black that i still strive for. the style is also very manga-esque, but i definitely picked up a few things on drawing faces and action from these books

(her more recent style is a lot cleaner and a lot more graphically complex, but there's still an emphasis on interesting, readable shapes)

there's also Peter Nevins, who did the original cover for the Hadestown concept album (and the cover for the NYTW recording? correct me if i'm wrong). he also did a few covers for Anaïs Mitchell's other works

(i actually drew a piece based on that second cover a few years ago)

he primarily works in linocut prints, which is a medium that kinda forces you to think in terms of value. while i mostly use the stuff he's done for Anaïs Mitchell as an example, i'm also fond of the original work on his shop

over the years though, Drawfee has probably been the most consistent source of inspiration? it feels a little weird to call them that, especially considering the fact most people know them as a comedy show, but i've been using their speed draw videos as background noise for ages now

i'm really fond of the atmosphere that they've created with their channel, and it's been so fun watching and growing in art skill alongside them (and sometimes having my vocab for the week be utterly destroyed by one of their bits)

there's definitely way more people i could name (CanisAlbus and asmeesh here on tumblr) and a huge pile of webcomic artists (Tracy Butler, Meg Syverud, Sarah Webb, Petra Nordlund—there's so many) but this post is already unreadable so i'll stop there lol

thank you for the ask, and thanks for reading Outsiders :D!!

[badmoodbatflowers]

fic tag game

I was tagged by @beri-allen! <3

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

18.

2. What's your Ao3 word count?

183,264 total.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Wednesday (2022).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Who is in control?

Sweet like honey

Of curses and intrusions

Unclaimed

Golden retriever boy

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do! or at least I try to. The mental health has been a bit of a dumpster fire recently but I really appreciate every comment and always try to respond even if it's weeks later lol

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't think I've written anything with a particularly angsty ending, except my lil angsty drabble: But you're not special, you're evil.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think most of my fics end happily bc I am a sap, but maybe Golden retriever boy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I wouldn't consider it hate per se, but I have encountered people who don't know how to use a back button and who think I care that they disagree with my bi4bi headcanons.

9. Do you write smut? What kind?

I literally only have three fics that are not rated E lmao

10. Do you write cross-overs?

I'm not really deep enough in any other fandoms to write cross-overs, and they are never my go-to to read either.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yes, one chapter of No such thing as purity with my darling kae (who is not on tumblr)

13. What WIP you would like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I outlined an angsty hurt/comfort wyclair piece that picks up during S1, but I struggled a little with Enid's voice and the complexity of the dynamic given where it falls in canon, so it is mostly abandoned. I think it was a good idea but it requires a lot of time and attention I don't think I can give it rn. Maybe one day I'll go back to it

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I actually don't know that I have one?

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think I do fairly well with descriptions/body positioning etc.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sometimes writing dialogue is like pulling teeth.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If it's a language I know well enough, then sure.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Wednesday.

19. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I feel like this changes all the time but possibly If you wanna go to heaven. The supernatural elements were fun and it was a gift for my dear nik, who in turn has gifted me a succubus!Wednesday fic I will cherish forever (killing boys).

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day?

If I was going to rewrite anything, it would probably be SLH. It has evolved a lot due to the nature of writing while posting, so I'd probably want to edit and revise it to make it feel a bit more cohesive and trim the fat.

Not sure if you have done this already but @nonamemanga @suchaladyy @the-strangest-person I am curious about your responses 👀

[fanaticsnail]

Weird asks game!

What is/are your comfort character(s)?

Okay, this is a loaded question and I will give you my best answer 😤👌.

Favourite Comfort Character, One-Piece edition:

I have a few comfort characters. You'd think purely from the amount I've written for them, it'd be Mihawk or Sanji - but, surprisingly, it's not. I do enjoy writing for those guys, their voices are the loudest and easiest for me to write for. They'd also be the best companions to drink wine with, my old job being a viticulturalist and cellar door salesperson has me immediately wanting to nerd out with those two.

In saying that, these are my five nearest and dearest 🖤

Benn Beckman: Shanks' first mate, chain smoker, perpetually exhausted from keeping Shanks out of trouble, good with kids, legendary protector, most competent member of the Red-Hair pirates. He is the comfort character I am drawn to the most. Just an all round cool guy, able to get things done.

Donquixote Rosinante: I love this character. Clumsy, cute, endearing, protective, found-family, a 'daddy' to Trafalgar Law. The fact he's so complex: former member of the Dragons, a marine, a gangsta, double-agent - all the while being an absolute sunshine person. I adore him.

Revolutionary Sabo: Sibling to Monkey D Luffy & Portgus D Ace, Sabo is another competent, silent character (I am now sensing a theme). The fact that he's a semi-happy, blonde, steampunk character had me immediately drawn to him (considering my affection for Percy de Rollo from Vox Machina and Alois Trancy from Kuroshitsuji). And he's a partially burnt fire-bender... Hmm...

Koby: the way Morgan Davies portrayed him in the live action had me immediately smitten. He's Aussie. They made Koby Aussie. I have to like him. It's against the law to not have him as a comfort character. He just needs to be given a Cooper's Pale Ale, a Bunnings sausage and partake in a tim-tam-slam and it'll sort him out. My rescuer syndrome had me drawn to him.

Massacre Soldier Killer: Eustass Kid's first mate. The mask-wearing, blonde bombshell with the twin blades. I love him, I can't explain it. He just needs to be spoilt, smothered in kisses and told he's pretty.

OKAY I THINK I GOT CARRIED AWAY.

Thank you for your ask. Got me thinking: "What do all of these characters have in common?" Probably the fact that they're all exhausted from caring for everyone and are in desperate need of a break 💀

[ina-nis]

I don't know if this is a symptom of AvPD but it's definitely not anything "normal" - it is a symptom of something.

I fall in love easily, over time, as I deepen my connections and feel safe with the other person, receiving the amount of attention that triggers it.

A superficial connection evolving into close relationships, then... unrequited love. It is very intense, and devastating.

Reading about "how to stop falling in love easily" or "how to not get a crush on a friend" don't really help either. Distancing myself from others and keeping relationships superficial is already something I do, for example. Or that you should rely on other friends and family - well, I will fall in love with my friends if I have not yet. If our relationship stop being superficial, it will happen 100% of the time.

Yes, even when they're partnered and married even. It doesn't matter for my feelings, all what matters is that someone is my object of love and I want them. But I can't have them so I "stop".

This is why I keep my relationships superficial and go out of my way to remain distant from partnered friends.

Unrequited love is really, really painful.

"Of course! You only think about love all the time! You need to do something else!"

Imagine my life is a puzzle.

I already have most of it complete.

There's one piece missing. I can't find it.

I could call it a day and just say "this is good enough".

But I can't. I literally can't. My brain doesn't obey me. I can't stop obsessing over it, that missing piece. I can't reframe the situation and think about all the good work I've already done because the puzzle is incomplete.

Even when I try to add other pieces that seem similar, they don't quite fit in there and that upsets me!

(Remember: this is all happening while I'm struggling with my brain to stop doing that because this is not what I want!)

Trying to not think about the missing piece makes me think about it even more.

Trying to do anything else works for as long as I'm doing things. All. The. Time. It's absolutely exhausted and the moment I stop? The missing piece! Why can't I find it?!

That missing piece is romantic love.

That missing piece is ruining everything else I have going on in my life because I can't simply ignore it, reframe it or find a substitute.

And I can't solve it either! Obviously...

Yes, this is going to keep on ruining all my relationships.

And yes, I'm positive once I find that missing piece, I'll get actually better - I cannot do that on my own, considering what I need.

I've been probably in denial for year and years about having obsessive-compulsive traits, because they don't present in the "stereotypical" forms.

It's in my mind, in my feelings.

What really aggravate things is the fact that this compulsion is not on me, towards myself or towards objects and places.

It's about other people and about my feelings toward said people.

The treatment for OCD and other Obsessive-Compulsive related disorders is medication and therapy. Medication have not helped me in any of my mental illnesses, and therapy (I can afford) is extremely limited and shallow for the type of complex problem I'm dealing with.

So no, distractions don't help for long enough. And this is not a matter of finding stopgaps and substitutes either.

I know what the problem is, I know what the solution is, I'm trying to get it but it doesn't depend on me only. It's very frustrating.

I'm happy with my life.

I finally have a self-esteem.

I can't stop my obsessive thoughts.

It's like... they exist separately from my happiness and self-esteem - understandably so! - so there's not much those 2 will be able to do to help because I can't make the missing piece issue "disappear" from my mind with a good self-esteem or happiness in other areas of life. They're completely different things.

Do you know what that space that can be filled by the missing piece represents?

Emotional loneliness.

I don't know if I'll find the missing piece. I don't know if it exists at all. I just wish I could... remove myself from it even if a tiny bit without burning out. I wish I could establish and maintain my connections and get closer, deeper, without having romantic feelings getting in the way.

I feel like I can't help it. It's not my fault.

Love (of the romantic type) is an emotion and like all of them, it has a purpose and a place.

I cannot get rid of it.

[crabbng]

I have some questions!

1 How do you draw things that are usually labeled "i've never drawn it before or i don't know how to draw it?" like do you look at a reference of it (i mean, how else are you gonna draw it) but like im talking complex things cause i was trying to draw like market stalls and i just had no clue how to draw it while looking at, it doesn't have to be perfect i just couldn't do it so i gave it up. And when you draw it do you usually have an idea in your head how it's gonna be facing which direction or do you just draw the characters then the item they are interacting with or the item/object first?

2 Second question, when do you think a outfit or hair change should happen? i think hair changes are gonna happen with the outfit sometimes but i really love outfit changes and you do those i was wondering what you think is best time? cause i've seen you have outfit changes in a day pass in the story and new outfit but i've also seen you change outfits when new arks happen so i was wondering when do you think are the best times for that?

last question

3 In one of your old my hero comics you left it without finishing it and Kirishima and Bakugo were fighting/arguing, and you said "call me when they interact meaningfully in canon again and i’ll draw another comic where they make up lmao" did you mean that? cause if they interact meaningfully and it's even the slightest bit gay material im jumping at the chance to tell you if you meant that im partly joking but if you had a way for them to make up can you just tell me so i wont be stuck wondering? this comic was 3 years ago i feel old but i was just wondering

1 How do you draw things that are usually labeled "i've never drawn it before or i don't know how to draw it?"

i draw it badly 🤣 but really, the answer is just practice. if it looks weird, draw it again. look at it and think 'well why is this going wrong, what looks weird' and then grab a new piece of paper and start completely over. try it from another point of view.

if it's a market stall that isn't integral to the story, just a background piece, i'm not going to care much about it, because the reader probably won't either. as long as its not bad enough to actually draw the eye there, i call it good. done is better than perfect, as they say.

2nd part of that question: i do have an idea in my head of how i want the panels to look. if that's not working though, i change it.

i usually place my characters first. unless its an establishing shot where the background is the most important thing, or far away shot, then characters may go in afterwards. i guess if the panel is mostly background, background first. if the panel is mostly character, character first. that's how i generally do it. just try and do it in the way that makes it easiest. if it's not working out one way, try the other.

2 Second question, when do you think a outfit or hair change should happen?

depends on the situation the character is in. chaar wears her uniform most of the time, so she doesn't get many changes. most everyone else would have access to other clothing, so it feels weird for me to not have them change. when hana and bon are on the run, they don't have extra clothes, so they don't change (except when bon gets hana a new outfit). tera wouldn't have wanted to be nude in the forest, so she just stays in her outfit, and kiigari doesn't care.

so my answer is, if they would have access to clothing and a reason to change (i.e. new day), there's no reason for me not to change their outfit. BUT! that's just me. it's also completely valid to just never change your characters clothes so they have a distinct Look.

last question

3 In one of your old my hero comics you left it without finishing it and Kirishima and Bakugo were fighting/arguing, and you said "call me when they interact meaningfully in canon again and i’ll draw another comic where they make up lmao" did you mean that?

no :) i mostly said that because i doubted it would happen (i still do). you can tell me if they ever reunite, but no, i don't plan to make any more krbk comics. i don't know how they make up, i would have to see how the story pans out.

hope that answers your questions! i rarely think too hard about my actual process, but i hope you can get something out of what i could sort out.

[teaveetamer]

People are exagerating. Sure Engage has a plot that is less complex than 3 houses, more light hearted and clearly cheesey but the lore around Sombron is pretty solid. He isn't like the Agarthans who themselves lacked a bit of in depth since Arval/Epimenides lore was never further explored. But compared to Grima and Anankos, Sombron is good damnit.

Ok this reply got long and maybe a bit off topic

Counter-intuitively, the fact that Engage has a much more solid, comprehensible plot and clearly defined lore and character motivations is what makes it less interesting to talk about. At least on a metatextual level.

There is no need to debate "why does Alear go to Firene first?" because we know. Alear goes to Firene first because they were the first to ask for help. There's no need to debate about "how much of the evil done in the game was Sombron's fault?" because we know. All of it.

And really, you can see this in, like, every fandom. How many people spent years talking about the plot of ATLA? Now how many people spent years talking about the plot of Voltron? I don't have numbers, but I've watched ATLA at least a hundred times and spent many years in fan-communities for it and I've hardly seen any extensive discussion about the plot. Meanwhile I've never even seen an episode of VLD but I can give you a rough overview of its plot just based on all of the discussions about it.

With everyone on the same page the only thing to debate is how well it was executed, and that's going to be down to personal taste 100% of the time. On some level we all know that so once you've said your piece there's really no reason to continue arguing about it.

Think of all of the most enduring Fire Emblem wank. It's like, Ike sexuality, Edeldiscourse, and ship wars. So something that was left intentionally vague and ambiguous because homophobia, something that was intentionally muddied by the developers for marketing the waifu purposes, and something that is either not discussed at all in canon or is left completely player-determinant with no canon confirmation.

Like honestly I think 3H just broke our sense of what is "normal" for discussion about this series. Awakening and Fates did see some discussion, but the transformative side of the fandom, at least IME of those games' fandoms, faaaaaaaar outweighed the metatextual side.

Some people liked them, some people didn't, some people explained their positions. The people who liked it stuck around to make art and fic and whatnot, and the people who didn't moved onto other things.

In addition to being a mess, I think 3H was also just kind of got trapped in its own feedback loop/death spiral because of circumstance. With previous games, for the most part, if you didn't like the game you played it, maybe talked about it for a little while, and then moved on. You know, you found another game or another show or another hobby or something that held your interest. 3H came out right before the pandemic, and if you played it and didn't like it... you were probably still talking about it, because what the fuck else were you doing in 2020 while you were trapped in your house with nothing to do and no new games or shows or media coming out? And now it's like everyone has wasted so much time talking about it that Sunk Cost Fallacy is out in full force.

I mean it's anecdotal but I felt like, despite all of the wank, 3H discourse was largely winding down by the time we were hitting January/February of 2020. I might've even observed as much back then, too.

Unfortunately it's another one of those things where I can't create an alternate reality where COVID didn't happen, or where 3H released on schedule in 2018 and Engage was our Pandemic Fire Emblem instead. But given trends in every other industry (e.g. most youtubers saw a huge influx of views in pandemic times that tapered off as people got back to their lives, Netflix saw a huge jump in subscriptions in pandemic times that tapered off as people got back to their lives, heck, even pets got adopted at record rates and then taken back to shelters at record rates after the pandemic) it'd be silly to assume it couldn't have happened to FE as well.

And I'm sure I'm going to get That Anon that insists that 3H is the most specialist game ever and I'm just butthurt because games I like better didn't sell as well or get as much fanfic or whatever. But we, like as a species, have a tendency to believe that when we (or something we like) succeeds it was based on merit, and when we (or something we like) fails it was based on circumstance. But the reality is that it's usually a little bit of both. If 3H was a completely dogshit game with no redeeming qualities then all the pandemics in the world probably couldn't have saved it, but there were no doubt circumstances in the game's favor. Because frankly, it's rather mediocre and unpolished in many aspects, so who knows if it would have garnered the audience it did without being in the right place at the right time.

breathes

Anyway if you ask me, I think what Engage really lacks is a solid, un-permadeathable side character or side characters to draw the audience in. Like, Fates had the siblings (especially Takumi) as strong supporting cast that were likable and sometimes tragic and involved in the plot throughout. Tellius had its Laguz royals, Soren, and Ranulf to create drama and intrigue outside of Ike. 3H had the lords, obviously, but also characters who weren't recruited could shuffle around the various plots and play different roles.

Engage treats pretty much every cast member besides Alear and Veyle as disposable, even the royals (I mean IIRC Timerra barely speaks after you're done with Solm and even Alfred, Diamant, and Ivy start getting pushed to the sidelines toward the end). Which means there's not really a lot of time to get invested in them before they disappear. Which is very much a problem with FE as a series and how it handles its death mechanic so I can't exactly blame Engage for it, but there were games that did it better in the series, too.

[fallingtowers]

Serious question: do you see Disco Elysium as copaganda because it humanizes cops, despite its brutal condemnation of police work? If so, how do you square that with disliking Succession, which does the absolute Most to critique capitalist structures while humanizing (but not endearing) its characters because, yes, even the worst of the worst are human? This isn't meant in bad faith, I'm genuinely curious!

this got long so i'm putting it under a cut

i've grappled with the question of "is disco elysium copaganda" and, like, no, obviously de isn't copaganda in terms of intent; it's obviously a clearsighted and intentional critique of the police and capital at large. (i've had the same thoughts about the discworld city watch books, another piece of cop media that i like a lot and whose creator by and large seemed like a decent guy, even if pratchett was less of a Hardline Marxist than the za/um folks.)

however, i do think de occupies a kind of uneasy position in the cultural landscape because while, yes, it would be pretty tough to play that game and come away from it being like "wow! cops are great!" a LOT of people came away from it being like "wow! kim kitsuragi so cool! i love hdb he's my little meow meow!" and, at least in some cases, i think it might well lead to those people developing a voice in their mind which is sympathetic to irl cops.

TO BE CLEAR, i don't mean disco elysium Made People Like Cops. i mean it might have made certain people, on an emotional level, without realizing it themselves, more inclined to judge the actions of irl cops somewhat more sympathetically.

that isn't to say that disco elysium has done more bad than it has good -- i genuinely don't believe it has. i just mean to illustrate that talking about this stuff is by necessity a double-edged sword. humans are naturally inclined towards sympathy, and by showing someone's perspective in the way that de or succession do you're priming the audience to, while not necessarily liking that person, at least attempting to understand them.

this is a little problematic especially in the context of succession -- in a television drama, especially one of succession's caliber, we expect intriguing and complicated character motivations. and so we get this web of familial loyalties and obligations and neuroses, while in real life i doubt most rich right-wing media people operate on motivations much more complex than "i want to make lots of money, and if i get [insert minority here] killed in the process that's just a bonus."

"even the worst of the worst are human" -- this kind of ties into the point i'm making. yes, of course, but do we need media that shows this? there are other ways to critique capital without giving the spotlight over to the worst of the worst. no matter how starkly the spotlight picks out their flaws, the spotlight is still on them.

again, i don't think it's like a moral ill to watch succession. i don't think it's a particularly bad show. it's fine! i'm not even trying to argue that it's doing more harm than good -- for all i know, it might have driven home the fact that capitalism bad to tons of viewers who hadn't already internalized that knowledge. i guess all i'm saying is it makes me feel weird when people reblog my joke textposts and tag it with "#this is sooo roman" or whatever.

so, to sum up: is de copaganda? nah, not really, BUT. is succession actually propaganda? nah, probably not, BUT. and the "but" in both those cases is "but, even if you're reasonably certain the media you are consuming wasn't created to actively manipulate you, it is still a good idea to always apply the wisdom of 'i am not immune to propaganda' and think about how it might be affecting your opinions and biases subconsciously"