#purple dividers dump

[animatedglittergraphics-n-more]

purple dividers dump

[anitalenia]

⋆.˚⟡⊹₊⋆ 𝙈𝙐𝙇𝙏𝙄𝘾𝙊𝙇𝙊𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝘿𝙄𝙑𝙄𝘿𝙀𝙍𝙎 ✧˖°. ݁₊ ⊹

♡ྀིྀི⋆.˚ 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 . . .

‧₊˚ ✧ neapolitan bling dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ berry toned mdni dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ blue & brown dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ cherry blossom dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette deer & bunny dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ monster high dividers 𝐈 + 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘸𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘯 & 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘢 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ giant dividers / headers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ bale!batman dividers / headers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ continue reading dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ angelcore dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ dune dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ romantic goth + fangs dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ red & blue bimbo dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette deer dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ soft pastry dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ neapolitan dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & white cinnamoroll dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ apple white dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ earthy black girl aesthetic dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ orange / brown sunny beach dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ brown & green fairy cottagecore dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ strawberry shortcake dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ black & magenta dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ red & black dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ red & black dividers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and green dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ red and blue heart dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & purple dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ white and gold dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ hello kitty dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ lace dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ simple sanrio dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ fairy imvu headers / dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ fairy dividers / headers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ purple & gray simple cyber dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & blue dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & black dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & black dividers 𝐈𝐈 + pink and gold dividers, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & black dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & purple mdni dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ caramel choux cookies & pompompurin mdni dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & white welcome headers + matching dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ sparkle gif dividers 𝐈 + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ black, white, & green minimalist dividers, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ blue & black grunge dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 .

‧₊˚ ✧ autumn / coffee dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ strawberry vine dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ y2k grunge-ish dividers, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ animal crossing dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & brown dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ butterfly inspired dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈, + 𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘰𝘯, 𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘺2𝘬-𝘪𝘴𝘩, 𝘤𝘰𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦, 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈𝐕 + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

♡ྀིྀི⋆.˚ 𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 . . .

‧₊˚ ✧ orange & black fire dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ glittery halloween dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ glittery red & black dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ sparkle gif dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ sparkle gif dividers 𝐈𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ black, white, & green minimalist dividers, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ blue & black grunge dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 .

‧₊˚ ✧ autumn / coffee dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ strawberry vine dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ y2k grunge-ish dividers, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ animal crossing dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ butterfly inspired dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & brown dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

♡ྀིྀི⋆.˚ 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 . . .

‧₊˚ ✧ none yet . ﾟ

[prismatica-the-strange]

The End of the World as We Know It | So if I Fly too High and My Wings Start Melting

Warnings: 18+, period stuff, blood, show typical violence

Pre-relationship Daryl x Loveday, but post I Feel Fine

I just know that if you send this man out for a tampon run, he's bringing back whatever comfort food he can find on top of it

Icarus by Ben Thornewill | Banner By @saradika-graphics | Dividers by @firefly-graphics

"You alright?"

Loveday jumps at the sound of Daryl's gruff voice and looks over at him, forehead still pressed to the cool cement wall of her cell.

"'M fine," She huffs, hand pressing hard against her lower abdomen, "D'ya need somethin'?"

"Was gonna see if you wanted to go on a run, but I ain't takin' ya if yer sick."

"You're goin' out?" She asks hopefully.

"Plannin' to," He readjusts the strap of his crossbow, "Why?"

"Think you could grab me some stuff?" She carefully moves to sit on the bed.

"Depends."

She finds a scrap of paper and scribbles down a small list.

"Yer sendin' me on a tampon run?" He asks, taking the paper.

"That a problem?"

He shakes his head, brow furrowing as he reads over the list, "But I ain't pickin' you dandelions, the hell you got that on here for?"

"Dandelion tea helps with cramps," She explains, "Since we have limited meds I thought it'd be a good alternative. If you can't find a box and don't wanna do it, it's fine-"

"Nah, I can get it," He shakes his head again, "You need like'a handful or a bag of 'em?"

"However many you grab should be fine."

He nods and turns to leave, stopping when she says his name.

"Thanks."

He nods again and heads off to go meet Zach by the gate.

She makes her way out to the courtyard where Carol is helping make lunch for some of the younger kids.

"You got a pan I could use?" She asks, "All the ones in commissary are gross."

"Yeah, there's one hanging there," Carol points to one of the posts, "What'cha need it for?"

She sets the pan on the hot grill and dumps the contents of her medium drawstring bag in it, "Cherry pits."

"Cherry- what?"

"Yeah, you heat 'em up, pour 'em in into a bag or fold 'em in a towel and bam, heating pad," She looks over at her confusion, "Period cramps."

"Ah!" She nods, turning back to the task at hand, "You need any... hygiene products? I can ask around."

"Nah, Daryl's gonna try and grab me some tampons while they're out. I got enough to tide me over."

"Oh! So that's what happened," Carol laughs.

"Hm?"

"He came out here actin' like he was going out on some life or death mission, but when I asked what was so important he went all red in the face 'n told me it wasn't any of my business."

"It's just tampons," Loveday snickers, "I don't get what the big deal is."

"The big deal is that you asked him to get them," She bumps their hips, "I dunno what you did, but you've got him wrapped around your little finger."

"Daryl barely tolerates me," She scoffs, pouring the hot pits back in her bag and pulling it shut, "It's just these southern boys get all flustered whenever the topic of periods comes up."

She gathers her bag and step around the counter, leaning over it with a smile, "Y'all need some better sex-ed classes."

Carol chuckles to herself as she watches her walk away, knowing damn well Daryl more than tolerates her.

"What are you looking for?" Maggie asks, watching Daryl dig through another bathroom cabinet.

"She wants a certain kind," He mumbles, waving her away.

"Maybe I can help?"

He scowls at her, but hands her the list.

"This is Loveday's handwriting," She says teasingly, "You runnin' errands for her now?"

"Shut it," He snatches the paper back and shoves it in his pocket.

"Well there's not much of a selection," She grabs the box of store brand pads and shoves it in her bag, "No room to be picky."

He knows she's right, but he's gonna check the next house anyway.

After scouring the downstairs bathroom of the house next door he finds himself looking upstairs and comes across the room of some teenage girl. The bedspread is purple and frilly and boy band posters are pinned all over the bubblegum pink walls.

He rummaged through the backpack hanging on the desk chair, tossing the loose tampons he finds in his own bag.

He picks up a stuffed bear off the bed and scoffs to himself as he drops it.

Then he notices there's two closets. The doors of one are folded open, but the other has a normal door.

He carefully opens it and steps into another bathroom.

He cracks open the cabinet beneath the sink and a smile spreads across his face, "Jackpot."

He grabs the two boxes and puts them in his pack, one thing down.

He walks back into the bedroom and he does one last sweep, eyes landing on a moose plush on one of the shelves.

Loveday doesn't exactly strike him as a stuffed animal kind of girl, but there's something so her about it as he turns it over in his hand he can't help but take it.

Looking through the rest of the house, he stumbles upon a large, dark green, pullover hoodie that he absent-mindedly puts in his bag too.

"What is Dixon doing?" Zach asks as they load up the car, the small cul-de-sac raided of everything useful.

The group pauses to see Daryl ripping up handfuls of Dandelion from the side yard of one of the houses and shoving them in a paper bag.

"The hell you all gawkin' at?" He snaps when he sees them watching, "I get what'm told'ta!"

"Who told you to get flowers?"

"None'a yer damn business!"

He zips the bag in his backpack and the head back for the prison.

"Hey."

She looks up to see him leaning in the doorway of her cell, back pack hanging off his shoulder. She smiles at the sight, "Hey."

"Got yer stuff," He says, flustered by her smile. In avoiding her eyes he sees bloody water in the sink, "You alright?"

"Huh?" She follows his gaze, "Oh! Yeah! Just bled through my pad."

She scratches the back of her neck awkwardly, "First couple days are always the worst."

"Well, maybe these'll help," He tosses her one box, then the other and her smile comes back with a vengeance.

"You actually found them?"

"Found'a couple more things too," He feels his cheeks warm under her expectant look.

He hands her the bag of dandelions and a small box of baking chocolate he found.

"I know it ain't sweet but I thought maybe you'd want it," Then he pulls the hoodie out, "Found this, too."

He refuses to meet her eyes as he gives it to her and she starts to think maybe Carol was right, "'N this..."

Her heart flutters when he holds out the stuffed moose and he hears her stand before she takes it from him.

"I had one like this when I was little," She says softly, and he looks at her, stomach twisting at the look on her face as she hugs it to her chest. He tenses when she reaches up with one arm to pull him into a hug, kissing his cheek as she pulls away, "I appreciate it, Daryl, really."

"Mhm," He nods turns to go, stopping for a moment before walking away, "You need anything else, just ask."

It starts raining out of no where the next day and a chill settles in the prison.

She's never been more grateful for a hoodie than then. That's how she finds herself leaning in the frame of the doors, watching Daryl and some of the others under the pavilion through the downpour.

She tugs at the big sleeves, imagination running wild with ideas of curling up in his lap while he laughs with his friends. She scoffs at the thought.

She always gets affectionate around her period, but after being stuck on a bus with a couple for a year, and not knowing anyone here well enough, she hasn't exactly gotten a chance to act on it.

But Daryl, he's... hot. The arms, the hair, the voice, she's not above admitting she finds him attractive, and he seems to have a thing for her too.

She wonders if he'd indulge her if she asked.

She pulled from her thoughts when she hears him whistle and she looks over to see him trying to get her attention.

She gives them a small wave, smiling shyly.

He motions her over, but she shakes her head, and shoves her hands in her pocket, looking up at the grey sky.

She steps back in further when he comes jogging over, ducking in the doorway.

"You alright? You need somethin'?" Water runs down his face, dripping from his hair, "Saw you starin'."

"Yeah just..." She glances down at his lips for a moment, "Listening to the rain."

She's practically drowning in her sweatshirt and the sleeves completely cover her hands when she wipes a raindrop from her cheek.

"Looks good on you," He says after a moment, and the way she smiles makes heat flood his cheeks. He clears his throat, but before he can say anything he feels her sweater covered hands take his face and pull him down against her lips.

He doesn't exactly kiss back, but he doesn't pull away either, still in shock when she breaks the away.

"Sorry," She says softly, biting her bottom lip.

"No its..." He clears his throat again and stands straight, "It's fine."

"So if I tried to do that again?" She grins, trying to hide her rising anxiety with humor, but he just looks at her and brushes her bangs out of her face. She gasps when he tugs her back against him into a rough kiss.

He pulls away suddenly, leaving her dazed.

"I wouldn't stop ya."

He walks back out into the rain to rejoin the group, leaving her wide-eyed and breathless.

[book-girl4evaaa]

❝ How Very <3 ❞

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴:

"beautiful"

01:57 ━���●─────── 08:39ㅤ ㅤ

◁ㅤ ❚❚ ㅤ▷ ↻ ♡

First of all rp blogs so you know who I am 😭 @ask-the-great-heather-chandler @athenas-weirdo-daughter

☆ Matching pfps with @manically-depressedd-psychopath ☆

@ book-girl4eva -> @ book-girl4evaaa

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{ is it just me or is this looking aesthetic as heck? }

Call me Bea or Eva (I like Bea better tho) ⸙ minor ⸙ libra ⸙ geeky ⸙ Athena Cabin ⸙ overuses the ✨ emoji ⸙ book lover ⸙ bilingual ⸙ ace most likely ⸙ free Palestine 🍉 ⸙ British, unfortunately (🥄) ⸙ major Gracie Abrams fan ⸙ Infp-t personality ⸙ ambivert ⸙ African pride ⸙ theatre kid ⸙pepper soup enthusiast ⸙ writer ⸙ artist ⸙ religion is.... complicated but leaning towards agnostic⸙ singer (sort of) ⸙nerd ⸙dancer ⸙ fangirl ⸙sport-lover ⸙ daydreamer ⸙ hopeless romantic ⸙ future designer ⸙ glasses gang ⸙ arsonists ⸙ tag me in poetry! ⸙ green, blue and purple>>> chaotic good ⸙ in a world of heathers be a Veronica ⸙ my sexuality is "?!?!!!!?????" ⸙

I'm always ready to make new friends (no creeps, please) so please talk to me!

Dislikes/Dni: Zionists ☄ creeps ☄ misogynists ☄ sexists ☄ racists ☄ homophobes ☄ transphobes ☄ bigots of any kind ☄ eating mushrooms ☄ geography ☄ mean people ☄ Monday mornings

Nicknames: Beatrice (by Turtle I miss her :() Beanie (by Shree) Belle (by Tina) Bee (by Myna and Fishy) Bea Bee (by Loife) Bumble Bee (by Ife mi <3333 (archivist)) Bear (by Kitcat) Beezus (by Riyana) (Bea)utiful (by Leta)

If you need someone to blurt random facts, rant about life, or just yap then I'm your girl! Feel free to give me nicknames and chat about random stuff :)

Also, send me asks, please :)

Moots!

Fandoms I'm active in: Pjo, Tpq, Kotlc, Gilded, Hamilton, MCU, agggtm, Amari and the night brothers, the hunger games, six of crows, the folk of the air, heathersssssssssssssssss and many more!

I can speak English, yr 9 level Spanish, tiny bits of Hindi (don't ask) and a few insults in yuroba

DNI if you are: a Zionist, a creep, a misogynist, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or just mean/disrespectful.

personal tags: #bea updates - any random og post • #[Bea reblogs] - reblogging a post • #[Bea's on the line] - answering an ask • #bea's wip - self explanatory

"Guess I picked the wrong time to be a human being,"

Side blogs:

@book-girlswhispers (idk Im just vibey and writey on there)

@step-into-my-candystore (my heathers/musical blog)

@she-used-to-bea-mine (my vent blog)

So have a good day, be kind, and love yourself<333

This blog supports Palestine

If you don't, please leave me alone :)

Don't forget your daily clicks!

Byeee! <333

All images from Pinterest, dividers by me :)

I hope you enjoyed my ✨ extremely aesthetic ✨ intro post!

(Veronica Sawyer photo dump underneath because I love herrrr)

Credits to @westerburgresidence for the user boxes!

[silly-mantis-creations]

Divider Dump

Hey guys! I went to GifCities for the first time in a while, And grabbed some dividers for you! I hope you enjoy!

¡!PHOTOSENSITIVE IMAGERY AHEAD!¡

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

PURPLE

PINK

RAINBOW

[givehimthemedicine]

have we talked about Will's scribble loop?

Will drawing the tunnel map is divided into two parts. this is from part 1, where he dumps out all his crayons and starts scribbling.

then we go away to other people for a bit.

when we come back, Will is still scribbling, and that leads into the part where Joyce and Hopper start assembling the map.

yet all that time later, it's the very same purple/black scribble Will is working on.

"maybe no time elapsed in between these scenes, and it just picked up immediately?" "maybe he spent a really long time on that one paper?"

no because they're very clear that he's been productive while we were away. we see him adding to a pile of papers on the floor, besides, Joyce and Hopper already have a bunch of papers in the living room.

"they just recycled footage and normal people don't notice things like that" well yeah. but it's not exactly the same footage.. I mean it's obviously from the same shot but it's not the same frames (see the placement of his hand and the loose crayons)

also:

notice how in part 1, he picks up the only skinless dark crayon on the table and starts scribbling that big purple section. then in part 2, he's still holding, I assume, that same crayon (because he's still actively coloring purple), and yet now there's another dark skinless crayon down there by his wrist. by all appearances this is all just from one continuous shot, so where'd that twin crayon come from?

[st4rsinthenight]

|★| ROTTMNT OC INFO DUMP: Tanner Mayfield.

INTRO !!

|★| "Hey- urh, could I help with that-?"

|☆| So, my OC's name is Tanner Mayfield and they are a supplier for the Purple Dragons Tech Club, like- fetching materials for inventions and that kind of jazz. Though, they are not considered an actual member yet. Tanner, is as well Repo Mantis's helper. Y'know, repossessing stuff for him when Repo doesn't have have the time or patience to deal with overbearing clients without having to get, erm- violent with em.. Another form of 'profession' that they do is that they, well, help Todd Capybara sometimes- y'know, around with the dogs at the puppy rescue. They sometimes bring him stuff for the puppies such as dog food, toys ect- and they also get stuff for Todd as well, such as lemons for lemonade and, well, sometimes the basic necessities if they have the income for it- since they know that 'a million dollar smiles' won't pay for, urm, anything.

|★| Tanner as well, whenever he goes out to reposes something for Repo, like- retrieving an item from a Yokai or an harsh, or unforgiving costumer/client, they wear a yellow bunny mask to cover up their face, to protect their identity- as to not let others know who they are holding a grudge against. But now it has become a habit and he wears it way more often, even if they are dealing with a chill client. Also, they go by the name of 'Star Bunny'- well it's not much of an alias for them, but they were given that name by a couple of costumers so it kind of stuck with them. The reason for that nickname is because, over the right eyehole of the mask, theres a big star design on it in a darker shade of yellow. If that makes sense. Tanner, also wears the mask while they are put scavenging for the Purple Dragons Tech Club. Maybe they instructed him to wear it for some odd reason that they don't understand..yet.

|☆| I'm also thinking of making them Julia's older sibling. They would help- or they would be forced to help around with the brownie clan. By baking brownies for the girl's scouts and delivering them to customers and stuff. In short, Tanner is something like a delivery boy. However, In most cases- I don't think that Tanner would mind. Though there would be times where he would just- wanna refuse, especially if he has a lot of chores and work in mind that he wants to get done. Just to comply because they were chased around the house by Julia for denying to bake and help around the Brownie Clan.

DIVIDER BY: @enchanthings

(1) INTRO !! | NEXT → (2) BASIC INFO !!

[sansloii]

Dissect your own writing style. What do you do most often? What do you want to take away from other writers (tag them if you want)? What is something you want to break out of?

when i started eons ago (2011/2012-ish), I had major issues with splicing-- where i felt the need to reply to every single thing in a response. even though it seemed like my muse was thoroughly engaged with whoever they were interacting with, it made my writing quite awkward since i would jump from one topic to another--from one focus to the next--and it didn't really flow well either. it wasn't pleasant to read and if i went back to re-read it, i found it very tedious. i would scan it, which is even worse because if i'm not properly re-reading it, why would anyone else, you know? i also struggled with many of the things most people did, which included dumping a thesaurus ( not to the point of purple prose ) into my writing and praying it would make it better.

anywho, i mention splicing first because it was the driving factor in me reshaping how i wrote and everything else either came after or changed with it.

style and structure

my current writing style is divided into three parts: Reaction, Thoughts, and Response. how these three are arranged are completely dependent on how the prior post in the thread left off but more oft than not, they are in that general order; my outlines ( when i do write them ) are in a similar order too. It has its upsides ( it makes it easier for me to direct a thread or a response to something because there's a structure ) and downsides ( if I'm not willing to compromise on structure here and there, it makes it difficult to frame my writing properly ). overall, though, it's helped me--as frustrated as i get with getting things down

reactions and thoughts tend to either take 2/3rds of a reply and a response takes up about 1/3rd. the reason why reactions and thoughts are bundled together is because, to me, they're more or less blended together by default and trying to section them out like "here's a reaction. then a thought" interrupts the flow of my writing. instead, they're layered together so it allows me to maybe going back and forth when a muse is reacting and/or thinking about what's happening in a moment. the response is, more oft than not, interacting with the other character if it wasn't included in the previous section and active dialouge. i've been guilty of having my muse say things, do things, and think things that don't push anything forward so at the end of a reply, i make sure to evaluate whether or not my muse has done anything of substance if needed.

things i've noticed i do a lot are:

repetition for emphasis ( e.g: he tried over and over and over again )

including phrases/descriptions/entire sentences that a partner used not necessarily in that thread/ask, but in another in order to make a connection between the muses a bit more apparent

splitting dialouge with an icon or with a singular line of thought

splitting dialouge with action that's not "he said, she tells, they laugh", etc. if i can

if there is a theme that is going to prevail throughout the entire response/ask, it's usually established in the first or second paragraph

i'm sure there are other things that i do but these are the few i've noticed because they're more of an active choice i make.

dialouge

something i also do that's not necessarily visible in my writing is that i repeat my dialouge to myself with the general mannerism of whichever muse is talking. so take for example, mikah and kurama ( @un1awful ). these shits do nothing but make jabs at each other if they're not actively engaged in something serious. as a result, they're very dialouge heavily. mikah's words have to be concise and sharp ontop of conveying bits and pieces of their ego because of who they're dealing with ( like here ). mikah's not threating kurama--so it can't be too aggressive or too insulting... but it also needs to convey that they want him to shut the fuck up without them outright saying "shut the fuck up", you know?

on the flip side, we have Andris, who also has ego and is also sharp.... but the way he is sharp is different. he has that "customer service" type of voice--very even and is intentional about what he says and how he says it. any bite he has tends to be a bit subtle. for example, here when he addresses seth ( @starpoacher ), he's teasing back but he's also still a little annoyed about seth barging in, hovering over his shoulder, etc., hence the use of "sir chef" instead of Seth's name. it comes and goes quickly because... it's seth and he will ultimately get over it, but that's how he tends to convey things.

it's a little awkward repeating dialouge to myself but it also helps me identify better ways to say something or to figure out if something is not quite right about a phrase my muse says. my muses also have different cadences when they speak so repeating them in that cadence does help when it comes to placing it in a reply and knowing where i can break it up, if needed.

what i want to take away from other writers + what i want to break out of

i require the ability to proofread better.

i don't think i'm the only one that thinks faster than i type and so, i forget words/sentences/etc. and don't catch it until i circle back for a second read... after i've posted it. it doesn't happen a lot but when it does i cringe so fucking hard.

i also have a bad habit of writing too much and not being willing to cut things out even if i don't like it, which stems from the mentality that "longer is better" and it's not. longer without substance is not better. longer with tedious language is not better. longer to the point of... not quite knowing what the point of the reply was is not better.

i've curbed a little bit of that through reading the threads and asks answered by others ( @un1awful, @rexpyre, @nezumivc103221, @bloodxhound, @royaletiquette to name a few ) and it's less to take from them and more to just... see how they write, i guess? and not necessarily things that i'm involved in but thing threads or asks i catch that are interesting to me. it helps to take a step back and not think so much about how i write things for a little bit and just... read something else--something that i have nothing to do with. in a way, it helps me be a little more objective with my own writing.

as much as i like my style and the way i write, seeing it over and over again makes me crave variety. i want to see how other people describe things or get from A to B. to that point, varying sentence structure is another thing at the back of my mind that.... i have a love-hate relationship with. on one hand, i can write something and be perfectly fine with it. on the other, i look at it and wonder why i have multiple long sentences like "[action/thought] and [action/thought]" right next to each other. it's that or a bunch of short sentences bundled together. sometimes, it's even a long and short sentence but they don't flow well like that... so they both need to change. i get though it somehow but not without some difficultly

Unprompted | @eternasci

[sigmastolen]

It's Repotting Day!

aka i am Literally So Normal about my african violets

(for reference here are the Before pictures)

elmyra got the most work done today—i divided her 3 crowns into separate pots. allow me to introduce, l–r: elmyra prime aka big elmyra (henceforth just "elmyra"), little elmyra, and baby elmyra. they're all super leggy rn, not sure if that will change now they're separated and no longer have to compete with each other. you will notice baby elmyra has moved into little sister's tiny pot- she will be moving into little sister's old spot on the suction shelf as well.

pinky was business as usual, but i do think i managed to get her sitting straight in her pot for real this time! her neck (now buried) has like a 90° angle in it, it's so dumb. pinky, elmyra, and the brain all got graduated to tall 4" pots bc they are big girls and also bc pinky and brain's cheapie purple outer pots were well and truly finito.

side-by-side like this you can really see the color gradation in the brain lineage—l–r, brain, little sister, and baby brain. little sister moved from the tiny pot to a short 4" like little elmyra and baby brain, bc she was super rootbound and she deserves it. you can see her foliage is more compact than baby brain's though, because of the tiny pot. after her current flowers, she probably won't bloom again until she matches baby brain's sprawl. i actually didn't do anything with baby brain today—she moved into the big pot relatively recently, so i'll leave her alone until next winter. you will note brain looks intensely leafy in this photo; it was incredibly difficult to cram the soil into her pot at the very top bc of how many fucking leaves she has. pinky was a little hard, too, but brain and her children are on another level.

the propagation box also got a restock, although not with nearly as many leaves as i removed (intentionally and un-) during today's operations. i only added 4, because there were already 4 growing in the box; the rest i regretfully (read: catholic-guiltily) threw out bc honestly i already have more violets than i can handle.

the ferns also got new soil and big fern moved into a tall pot as well bc she was also super rootbound and i want her to continue to grow large and luxurious. not that i really have space for her to luxuriate in—

—as you can see, my shelf situation is ridiculous. it is cantilevered out from the windowsill and as such has a visible downward slant due to the weight of all the plants; i super need to figure out a bracket situation underneath so it doesn't dump my best beloveds all over my bed, and i need to do it before i can get bigger and better (and not-plastic) pots for the big girls. the elmyras are all in baggies bc i wanted to baby them after the trauma of their separation. all the others, i'm leaving to the open air bc hopefully they're all robust enough to withstand the stress of today's repotting, but if they start to look like they're going backwards i'll bag them, too (even if i have to buy roasting bags or something to even fit over brain and pinky—even in her diminished state, i could barely squeeze elmyra into the 2-gal bag, and not without tearing the mouth to make it wider).

so that was today's big adventure! it took i think a little over 2 hrs and my leg fell asleep so bad sitting on the concrete and i got so fucking cold working in the shade so the violets wouldn't get sunburned and my back hurts! but my girls all look so happy!

[fountainpenguin]

"Don't wanna live as an untold story! Rather go out in a blaze of glory... I can't hear you; I don't fear you..." (x)

---

New Criminal Experience chapter today!

Chapter 6 - “Voiced”

❤️ Read on AO3

💙 Start from Chapter 1

💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics

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Mumbo Killsalot Jumbo didn't get his name without reason. You don't mess with a wandering trader's llamas.

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

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Canon-typical violence; additional warnings in the AO3 chapter's author's note

---

One breath later…

It only takes one scratch of a spectral arrow to light him up like one of Between's randomly spawned mobs. The invisibility potion makes it worse, actually. Without skin to block the light, he's blinding like a ghost as BigB drags him out from beneath the table by his leg. Mumbo balls himself around the llama respawn blanket, squeezing as hard as he can, but Carrie, Vee, and Slippers hold him down and wrestle it away. Scarlet fabric slips through his fingers. Mumbo flops back against the floor. The restaurant's lit by purple endflame. It's brighter than you'd think, actually, considering how many endermen and endermites live here.

Am I the main light source now?

Vee cannot help him. That's quite all right; wouldn't expect her to. She stands with fists clenched in her sleeves, eyes averted. And BigB cannot help him. He's in a crouch, not looking either. The whole patrol's standing now, peering over the leafy divider wall or else circling around to join their captain. Ripple_Weave and Snakesnake leap right over, thumping on the table. Typical.

… I can take them. I know I can. This isn't over. Agh, can I do this without hurting Vee or her vex?

Carrie ties the patrol banner at her neck like a cape. "You got good trades?" she asks, barely glancing down at him.

"What?"

"You're a wandering trader. What do you sell?"

Mumbo flicks his eyes around the patrol. That's a lot of eyes bearing down at him. A lot of curious faces. "I… I don't particularly want to say in a room filled with anarchy individuals, but I do specialize in something I care deeply about, yes." Is she trying to empty my pockets? Dumping out his things isn't the smartest move before a fight. "Most of my things are with my llamas. I just came to get their blankets back."

Carrie says nothing, just scrutinizing him with pinched-up eyes. What's that look mean? Mumbo tries to hold her gaze, but flickers his attention away and back again. It's, ah… quite difficult to face her head-on. She's got a scowl full of venom with a cherry on top. A poisoned one, probably. Vee leans forward with folded arms, bringing her mouth near her captain's ear.

"They're like ravager saddles. He's bonded to his llamas like I am to Muddy."

Ah, I'd rather you didn't make them sound especially valuable…

Carrie rubs the edge of her captain's banner between thumb and forefinger. "I have no quarrel with you," she starts to say, and probably, "I'm just here for Skizzleman," but the words are lost. The butterfly hybrid host hurries over, loud and flapping. They can't just do these things. They can't attack each other; they have to leave. Carrie says they will, but lunges forward to grab Mumbo's water glass and silverware. She clangs them together… mostly by bashing the cup into the tiny shovel rather than the other way around. Her big wings swish outward, big back straightening, big shoulders squaring up.

"Everybody, may I have your attention? Listen up, because I'm only going to say this once. My name is Carrie, short for Carrion, and I'm captain of my patrol."

I can take them.

Mumbo flips over, mostly rolling, and jumps back to his feet as fast as he can. Halfway up, he whips the modded scythe from his soul slot and rears it back behind his head. You thought his body glowed bright? Try a netherite weapon with 17 enchantments on it. Shouts explode across the room, not only from the patrol. Snakesnake and Ripple_Weave look at him in utter shock, but before they can react, Mumbo swings the scythe straight through their chests. Ribbons of fire tear behind it. Beyond the Sharpness V and Fire Aspect II - not to mention Sweeping Edge III - this thing's got the Ambush and Illager's Bane enchantments slapped on top. Yeah, slime blocks are very important to Doc's friends, including the vulture hybrid he did that job for. The pillagers explode, scattering pixels, arrows, and emeralds all across the tablecloth. Thank Looting and Prospector III for that. His communicator vibrates in his pocket. He doesn't need to glance at it to know what it says.

Ripple_Weave had their soul reaped by MumboJumbo using [Raidbuster Prototype] Snakesnake had their soul reaped by MumboJumbo using [Raidbuster Prototype]

Their crossbows crash across the table and tumble to the floor. A red-gold sheen whips across his figure. He tightens his grip on the scythe's handle. Dynamo bonus. Next hit hits harder. Although I may have lost my Ambush…

Swirls of cyan energy spiral around him before zipping across the restaurant, straight out the door. If he did the little ritual right when they started this journey as trader and escort, they're off in search of Impulse's thermos now. His comm buzzes again, which should mean-

Ripple_Weave healed MumboJumbo through Anima Conduit and their soul was stored in [iDrink] Snakesnake healed MumboJumbo through Anima Conduit and their soul was stored in [iDrink]

Illagers shout and leap, drawing axes and crossbows- Mumbo whips around, taking out Starjump and Roadrunner even with Ambush ineffective now. Both vindicators dissipate, souls whirling off like the rest. Cosmos and Sundance fire bolts at him. They slam his shoulder. Mumbo staggers sidewa-

A ball of spikes crashes against his side, lurching upwards, and flings him straight across the leafy barrier wall. He hits the patrol's table with a thump. The scythe flies from his hand and clatters out of reach. Zigzags of pain shoot across his head, and Mumbo coughs so hard, it burns.

"Ow…"

"That's gonna be a lot of incident reports," BigB says from a chunk away.

When Mumbo forces up his head, vision blurred, Vee's standing with both arms lifted, but her vex trio seem to be awaiting a command. Carrie's switched from her standard blue vex form to full seravex mode. Four long, pink wings smack the air behind her, stretching towards the ceiling as though cradling the sun. These ones are feathered and full of muscle. She's got a thick stick slung over her shoulder, and the stick's attached to a chain. A massive spied ball dangles like a braid. And it glitters purple.

"Seravex can enchant their maces?" he asks, weakly. How… how much damage did that do? His communicator's in his pocket, but that felt like a lot.

… Like, a lot a lot. Is there some kind of Trader's Bane enchantment that parallels the Illager's Bane he's got on his own weapon? Or maybe I just took 60% extra damage from Ambush III. Fair's fair. Mumbo slides a hand across his chest, feeling out the gash in his side. Two of those spikes punctured so deep, he can fit his knuckle in the tears of vest, shirt, and skin. Blue energy oozes out, coating his bright white fingers in a cyan glow.

"I was talking," Carrie growls back. "And this thing's got the Critical Hit, Committed, and Void Strike enchantments, so I suggest you park your tush."

[Full chapter on AO3 - Link at top]

[butterflyinthewell]

Gift for Godzilla day.

Shin Godzilla as a cosmic horror. He became a universe and watches humanity’s hopeless existence as he recreates and snuffs it over and over.

But WHY???

This very short fic is an observation of the world. Godzilla is a vessel and a perspective to tell it through.

Horror is a reflection. If you don’t like what you see, smashing the mirror won’t fix it. You have to figure out how to fix the actual issue or else it’ll continue on and on.

Fic text and ao3 link are under the cut.

Rating: T

They called him Godzilla.

In their terror and fear, they watched him evolve through burning misery. Them, and the radiation they dumped into the sea, sealed their perpetual split-atom fate. The blame lay eternally on them, their ignorance was no excuse. They would suffer.

He grew, and razed, and enveloped, and absorbed, and mutated, and expanded, and swallowed, and devoured, and digested their pitiful, purulent blue ball of a planet in his roiling maelstrom. He pushed onward, rending apart time, space and existence until only he remained, the single tenebrous echo of a wrathful species long ago destroyed.

Inside his void, he recreated it all. They never knew. Ignorant filth.

The minuscule fools thought the universe was over thirteen billion years old. And they were right from their perspective.

They were wrong about their macabre existence. Silly little things, really, they got lost in their collective occhiolism and never looked past it. What more should he expect from unthinking microbes?

Many called out to the deities they worshiped over the eons. Maybe those deities existed somewhere.

Godzilla waited to meet them, to fight them, and so far none challenged him. Perhaps they feared what he would become to devour them, too.

He manifested his physical form when their atomic age began, he walked across their tiny places of worship and he disrespectfully cut them to scorched atoms. Their screams were prayers he ignored as insignificant. Their sacred blessings counted for nothing.

After the first time, after the trains, and the choking ice, and the agony, he expanded.

He became.

Thirteen billion years held no meaning to him after he became. He was everything. Time, space, matter and energy. They did not know. They did not understand. They did not learn.

It all happened again inside him, inside the void he wore. A downward slope was all he saw, but they, the feeble ones, never could.

Godzilla’s inner sense alerted him of obstacles and incoming threats, and he obliterated them like paper. His lurid cosmic light split the darkness in purple rays. He grasped atoms and divided them until everything ceased to be.

Puny insects, their destruction meant nothing.

He began it again, seeking change, and disappointment blossomed as hypernovae in the airless, black emptiness. Gamma rays tore galaxies apart and life became impossible as hate consumed him. He destroyed it and started another, heedless of what he snuffed out.

They thought the stars were balls of gas contained in galaxies. Quasars blazed along his expanding outer edges as the voids between them swelled. Black holes pin balled through the emptiness. Cosmic radiation sustained him, each source glowing brighter than a billion suns.

The stars were his eyes, looking down in accusation at the blue globe no more significant than dust at the bottom of the sea. Spinning galaxies persecuted the masses of murderous ghouls who refused to recognize him as their all.

He showed them the quasars as a red glow in the crust of his flesh. Let them see the horror, hideousness and meaninglessness of their existence reflected on him. They were insects, pushing through their hopeless, useless lives, killing and maiming each other over religions, and food, and land, and money, and, sometimes, love. Love, twisted into degradation and disgust. Their rage, apathy and loneliness fed him. He spat radiation on them while they spat radiation on each other, a vomitous mass of wrath.

Often, Godzilla reappeared to remind them of who their true master was. He burped up blood in their streets and tore their architecture apart, smirking at the harmonies in their mournful wails.

Their bodies splattered like paste under his feet, his footprints left trails of unrecognizable red mush amid dusty bone powder. He transformed their towering cities into disarrayed rubble until dead flesh and construction materials looked the same.

They never understood, nor remembered, regardless of how many times he collapsed everything and started it anew. It ended the same, every time, with the trains, and the ice, and the silence.

No apologies came. They weren’t sorry. They should have been. Fools.

As the ice spread over him, he closed his sightless eyes under the watchful stars and went inward, where it all began once more. He recreated everything over thirteen billion years until the ice held him still.

And again, and again, and again, further and further inward. These weak, pitiful creatures were terrible learners. He waited for the deities they begged for, waited for an end to atoms themselves.

Such execrable creatures on their blue globe could never conceive of how long or how old anything truly was. They suffered, it was their destiny to suffer endlessly, because they refused to understand every breath they took was willed by him. Sometimes he stopped their breath to watch them die, just because he could. They didn’t matter to him.

He was lost, no one knew, there was no trace of his yearning. They created him, all the agony after falling on their shoulders.

Let them shout. Let them beg. Let them cry. It never reached his uncaring, cold ears.

Godzilla continued imagining inward, another vessel frozen. Perpetually growing, the void within a void, a sempiternal horror.

They did this to him, and they paid eternally. There would be no shaft of light in the darkness forever killing them. No. No salvation, no forgiveness, no relief, ever.

Their suffering was his.

[anitalenia]

⋆.˚⟡⊹₊⋆ 𝙋𝙄𝙉𝙆 𝘿𝙄𝙑𝙄𝘿𝙀𝙍𝙎 ✧˖°. ݁₊

♡ྀིྀི⋆.˚ 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆 . . .

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette dividers 𝐈𝐈, 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈, 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦, 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ strawberry girl dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink symbol dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink coquette symbol dividers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ bimbocore dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette deer dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ coquette deer & bunny dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ gray + pink masterlist pack . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ cutegore dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink kuromi dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ neapolitan dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & white cinnamoroll dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ minimalistic heart dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ red & pink simple heart dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink lace dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ intricate pink dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & blue dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ black & magenta dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & purple dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and green dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink and white dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & black dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & black dividers 𝐈𝐈, + 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & black dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & gold dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ random pink dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ random pink dividers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ random pink dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink lace & ribbon dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & white welcome headers + matching dividers . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink imvu dividers / headers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink imvu dividers / headers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink imvu dividers / headers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink imvu dividers / headers 𝐈𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & purple mdni dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink mdni dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink mdni dividers 𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink mdni dividers 𝐈𝐈𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink borders 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ my melody bow and wings dividers + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink sanrio dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink butterfly dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & brown dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ hot pink dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & orange summer & ocean dividers 𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ chaotic sanrio inspired dividers + 1 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈 , 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 & 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈𝐈, + 𝘨𝘪𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘤. . ﾟ

♡ྀིྀི⋆.˚ 𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 . . .

‧₊˚ ✧ pink sparkle dividers 𝐈 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ my melody bow and wings dividers + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & orange summer & ocean dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink butterfly dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ hot pink dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ pink & brown dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 .

‧₊˚ ✧ pink sanrio dividers 𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ animated divider dump 𝐈, 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘴, 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘴, 𝘮𝘥𝘯𝘪 𝘨𝘪𝘧 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ animated divider dump 𝐈𝐈, 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘭𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘭𝘺 & 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ divider dump 𝐈𝐈𝐈, + 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 . ﾟ

♡ྀིྀི⋆.˚ 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 . . .

‧₊˚ ✧ one . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ two . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ three . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ four . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ five . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ six . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ seven . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ eight .

‧₊˚ ✧ nine . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ ten . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ eleven . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ twelve . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ thirteen . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ fourteen . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ fifteen . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ sixteen . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ seventeen . ﾟ

‧₊˚ ✧ eighteen . ﾟ‧₊˚ ✧ nineteen . ﾟ

[rutilation]

Composite Super-Weeds from Hell: An Analysis of Flower Language in Chainsaw Man

Once upon a time, I started noticing the flowers in Chainsaw Man.  Then, I couldn’t stop noticing them.  1 trillion open tabs later, and here we are.  I must share my sickness with the world.  Is every last plant in this manga meaningful? Probably not. Are at least some of them meaningful? Absolutely. So, I'm throwing the entire pot of spaghetti at the wall, and seeing what sticks. A few things to note before we start:

Color is a crucial aspect of flower language, but can be rather ambiguous in Chainsaw Man.  I’ve heard tell, for instance, that the coloring choices on the backs of volume covers, those in the anime, as well as the official colored re-release of Part 1, were not overseen by Fujimoto himself.  Case in point: at the café where Reze works, there’s a decoration featuring dried stalks of grain which the colorists seemingly mistook for lavender and colored purple.  As such, I’m going to ignore any color choices that I’m not 1,000% sure Fujimoto was responsible for, and will use only his colored illustrations and choice of screen-tones as a guide.

I’ll be primarily using hanakotoba, rather than Victorian floriography, as my guide for meaning.  However, it’s worth noting that the vast majority of Japanese-language hanakotoba compendiums I’ve seen online will also list western interpretations of a given flower alongside Japanese ones, so those wouldn’t exactly be obscure information in Japan.

I wish I could add way more reference photos to this. Alas, tumblr has an image limit.

I’m going to be saying the following words a lot, so here’s a note on terminology: ray florets refer to the “petals” of Asteraceae flowers—each of which is actually its own flower, disk florets refer to the tightly clustered, bud-like flowers that make up the central disk of Asteraceae flowers, and ‘flower head’ referrers to the entire inflorescence of an Asteraceae.

This undertaking quickly became. huge.  So, in the interest of not dumping an entire brick shithouse of text on my potential readers, I’m dividing this in half, and will only be analyzing the plants of Part 1 here.  I’ll post about Part 2 at a later date.

With that, let me begin by talking about the flower which I believe represents the Hayakawa family.

Hydrangeas appear twice in Chainsaw Man.  First, on the cover for chapter 15, as Power hangs off of Denji while they pose for the camera and, second, on the calendar in chapter 72, as Aki comes to the realization that he loves Denji and Power more than he desires revenge.  They have a number of meanings in Japanese culture, many of which are actually rather negative.  Unlike the camellias that will appear later in this analysis, or the ever-famous cherry blossoms, hydrangeas don’t lose their flowers in a poetic or melancholic fashion.  Rather than falling or wilting, the flowers simply dehydrate, lose some of their color, and shrivel up on the stem, where they will remain until winter forces them to yield.  As such, it’s apparently common practice to prune them before they can get to this point, so as to ensure a heavy bloom for the next season.  Because of this tendency to overstay their welcome, and become unsightly as a result, they are associated with stubbornness, haughtiness, and callousness.  You can also add ‘fickleness’ to that list of negative connotations, due to their coloration and blooming period.  When and how much they bloom is contingent on the vicissitudes of annual rainfall, if there isn’t enough, you’ll have a lackluster season, if it comes early or late, so too will the blooms.  Because the anthocyanins that provide its pigment are sensitive to acid, its color will also vary with whatever soil it’s planted in, and a shrub already in bloom will even shift color over the course of a season.  To the groundskeepers and gardeners of Japan, it seems that the hydrangea is a stubborn, cantankerous asshole of a flower—not that we would ever use those adjectives to describe the leads of Part 1.

There are, however, a handful of positive meanings ascribed to hydrangeas in Japan, such as tolerance, ‘heartfelt gratitude,’ and ‘patient love.’  For our purposes though, the most crucial of these is that the tightly clustered arrangement of its flowers is seen as a symbol of harmony and family bonds.  Taken together, these meanings paint a picture of a tight-knit family of prideful shitheads who are subject to the fickle whims of rainfall and soil fate, all wrapped up in a single flower.  I don’t think I could have picked a better symbol for our doomed trio if I tried.

Something else worth noting are the other plants that accompany the hydrangeas in the chapter 15 color page.  While I can't tell what the tree on the right is, the other two plants are pink tulips and a palm tree. In hanakotoba, pink tulips represent ‘budding love,’ affection, and ‘true love.’  This chapter comes soon after Denji’s disappointing boob-fondling, which was the first step on his journey towards realizing he isn’t attracted to Power, that it’s possible in the first place to relate to women in ways other than sexual or romantic attraction, and that he loves her as a friend. So, alongside the hydrangeas, the combined meaning of these flowers seems to be: “These two, (who are assholes btw,) are starting to love each other as a family.” Palm, meanwhile, means 'watching over you,' 'firm determination,' and success. If we're meant to also derive meaning from the tree as well as the flowers, it almost feels like foreshadowing of Power's role towards the end of Part 1, of how she protects Denji even in death, and is ultimately the one to tip the scales enough to allow him to prevail over Makima.

One last thing: as I alluded to earlier, hydrangeas are heavily associated with Japan’s rainy season, which spans early June to mid-July, and June is the month that the fantastical family photo from chapter 79’s color illustration is dated to.  I dove into this in excruciating detail in one of my metas regarding the dates and calendars that appear in Chainsaw Man.  Please, do give it a read if you get a chance.  More people need to know of Fujimoto’s shenanigans.  (Ignore my flower language analysis in that essay, though.  I was young and green.  I mistook ‘fickleness’ for ‘impermanence’ like a rookie, like a chump!)

With hydrangeas as our baseline, I’d like to talk about a more recent addition to the list of flowers.  I know I said I’d only be looking at Part 1 flowers in this essay, but there’s a certain aspect of this flower’s portrayal that’s very important to keep in mind going forward regarding how Fujimoto uses flower language.

These flowers in the stained-glass are Platycodon, also known as kikyou, also known as balloon flowers, also known as Chinese bellflowers.  Given the use of a medium screentone, they’re probably the standard purple variety, rather than white or pink.  At least, they ought to be balloon flowers.  From the downturned blooms, to the alternating arrangement of the lanceolate leaves on the stem, to the shape and curvature of the petals, and even the screentone, everything matches.  However, the flowers on the door have six petals, whereas balloon flowers only ever have five.  As a matter of fact, much of the symbolism associated with balloon flowers comes from their five petals.  As far as I could dig up, only one member of Campanulaceae has six petals: the Canary Island bellflower.  But, its leaves are a completely different shape than those in the illustration.  In addition, it is a vine that doesn’t stand upright on its own, again, unlike those pictured here.

So, it’s definitely a balloon flower, and given how much their five petals play into their cultural significance, I highly doubt that the sixth petal is a result of mere oversight.  My takeaway from this is that Fujimoto is willing to, at times, fudge botany for the sake of making some artistic point.  Going forward, whenever we encounter a flower that doesn’t exist, isn’t blooming in its proper season, or has something otherwise off about it, we need to ask ourselves: what’s the rationale behind this?  With regard to the balloon flowers specifically, my thoughts are as follows: in China and Japan both, the five petals of a balloon flower are taken to symbolize the five elements of Taoism, as well as the five senses.  If you’ll recall chapter 84, Makima claims that humans used to have a sixth sense before Pochita ate its corresponding devil.  Perhaps this sixth petal is a vestigial remnant of that bygone reality.  That’s the best I can come up with for now, in any case.  I doubt we’ve seen the last of it, and I feel our understanding of this mysterious six-petaled balloon flower will evolve with time. 

Now, onto the more sentimental meanings of the flower: ‘undying love,’ sincerity, grace, and—get this—‘longing for a friend’s return.’  The fact that this flower adorns the door that ushers Denji both in and out of hell tells me that it’s reflecting his emotions.  A few chapters earlier, Denji lobotomized himself in order to avoid thinking about Power and Aki, but then started rambling about French dogs, a street food specific to Hokkaido, which he probably ate with them on their trip.  And, in this moment, Denji seemingly spirals into despair at the prospect of not getting laid, but promptly falls through a door which loudly proclaims ‘I love and miss my friends’ in flower language.  Ouch. 

Something else worth noting is that the balloon flower makes two other, subtler appearances.  It can be seen on two panels of the stained glass on volume 14’s cover, as well as in the café where Yoshida brings Denji and Fami.  However, neither of them are the traditional blueish-purple color. Those on volume 14’s cover are definitely white, while the graphic design in the café is simply screentone-less, and thus, could be either white or pink.  White balloon flowers mean ‘neatness’ and ‘obedience,’ and pink balloon flowers symbolize misfortune.  Given how Famine is manipulating several different factions, and the fact that the café is where Yoshida invites those difficult personages whom he is trying to bring to heel, I think it’s safe to say that they’re both white, and that white balloon flowers are being used as a symbol of social control.  One color stands for the jackboot stomping down on our characters, while the other stands for the love that makes all the drudgery and indignity worth fighting through.  I wonder if these two versions of the flower will be directly contrasted with each other in the future.

Another nonexistent flower appears in the very first chapter.  It appears to be some sort of thistle… which is also a parasitic vine?  After much googling, I’m pretty sure that no such plant exists.  The closest I could find was the broomrape family, but their flowers look nothing like the one in the illustration, and as far as I can tell, they doesn’t predate on trees, only other herbs.  The meaning of a parasitic vine is quite obvious in context—Denji is asking Pochita to live on through him—but the flower itself has something to say as well.  Thistle mean independence, ‘don’t touch me,’ and retaliation in hanakotoba, alluding to both the harsh austerity of Denji and Pochita’s lives up to that point, as well as their scrappy determination to keep living.

Now that we’ve talked about some quasi-unreal flowers, let’s look at some examples of Fujimoto using flower language ironically, starting with Himeno, and the many flowers which adorn her stretch of the story.  While the centerpiece is undoubtedly the chapter 25 cover page, we’ll first need to delve into some other flowers to fully appreciate it, starting with bouquets she left on the graves of her old partners. 

To my eyes, these bouquets seem to contain white chrysanthemums and Easter lilies.  I’m going to take an educated guess and say that the daisy-like flowers are calendulas, based on the size of the flower heads, as well as their distinctive cup-like shape.  All three of these are very common as funeral or sympathy flowers, with the white of the first two representing a return to purity through death, and calendulas in general meaning grief, mourning, and ‘the sadness of parting ways.’  All in all, appropriate choices for a somber occasion.

The flowers on the Ghost Devil have between 5 and 12 pale petals.  Said petals are sometimes thin and pointy, but at other times, broad and bluntly-tipped.  The centers seem dark at a distance, but are more variegated in close ups.  All of these characteristic remind me of the many species of wild anemone; in fact, there are patches of them growing near where I live that look almost exactly like these.  Anemones are associated with death, sickness, and forsaken love; all quite appropriate for the Ghost Devil.

Keeping those in mind, let’s look at that chapter cover, starting with the more straightforward flowers to identify: those of the background.  Upon first glance, I figured they were Easter lilies—which would fit; as I mentioned, they’re a common funerary flower.  But, if you look closely, you'll note that the flowers are clustered together in little radiating bunches reminiscent of spider lilies.  (Although the stamens aren’t nearly long enough for those to be a possible match.)  Consider also how the petals are bent slightly further backwards than those of the typical lily.  I believe these are actually Lycoris squamigera, known as surprise or resurrection lilies in English, and natsuzuisen in Japanese.  In hanakotoba, they have the following meanings: ‘I would do anything for you,’ 'heartfelt fun,' 'sad memories,' and 'deep compassion'—all of which, in my mind, line up with Himeno’s feelings towards Aki, while also expressing that she’s about to sacrifice herself for him.

Now, onto the flowers in her bouquet.  They have broad, flat central disks, large flower heads, and small, sparse, spatulate stem leaves with an alternating arrangement.  After much waffling, I determined that they are most likely to be Leucanthemum, either oxeye or Shasta daisies, which have the following meanings:

Leucanthemum vulgare/oxeye daisy: patience, generosity, tolerance, sorrow, innocence

Leucanthemum × superbum/Shasta daisy: patience, endurance

It’s also worth noting that the broader, non-botanically-specific meaning of daisies in hanakotoba is ‘faith.’  I think that could work as well, considering that, in this scene, Himeno is taking it on faith that Aki will live on and mourn her.  The meanings along the lines of patience, tolerance, and endurance could also allude to how Himeno has stuck with Public Safety, which she no longer wants anything to do with, which she knows will be the death of her sooner or later, for the sake of watching over Aki.  ‘Sorrow,’ I believe, speaks for itself.  But, I think the meatiest reading of this bouquet can be discerned by taking a step back, and considering it in the context of those other flowers I just talked about. 

Leaving aside the specificity of flower language, daisies in general are regarded as fun, cheerful, innocent, and kind of juvenile—which is why they aren’t exactly mainstays of sympathy arrangements.  I think the choice to give Himeno a funeral bouquet of daisies after making a recurring motif of more proper mourning flowers is meant to express an irreverence towards the supposed solemnity of death, especially as it relates to Public Safety grinding their foot soldiers into paste.  The reality of their circumstances, of the system that is killing them, renders the sentiment of all those ‘mums, lilies, and calendulas hollow, inadequate, and trite.  Thus, a blatantly inappropriate flower better conveys the tragicomedy of their lives.  Much like how the puerile dick-kicking was Himeno’s requiem, a funeral arrangement of fun-loving, pink surprise lilies and blithely cheerful daisies is a middle-finger to the conveyor belt of death that all devil hunters are strapped to, one final testament to her flippancy and defiance.

Another instance of ironic flower language can be found in Reze and Denji’s flower.  This one frustrated me for the longest time.  At first glance, you look at it and think: oh, a daisy, and fill in the blanks with young love, and innocence, and so on, and so forth.  That’s not a daisy, though.  Daisies have between 15 and 30 ray florets.  This one has twelve, at the most.  I say ‘at the most’ because, not only do the flowers that Reze and Denji receive at the beginning and end of the arc have a different ray floret count from each other’s, the number of ray florets on the same flower shifts from panel to panel.  In the panels where they’re clear enough to count, Denji’s has 12 is one panel, and 10 in another.  Reze’s has 9 in one panel, and 7 in another.  And to top it all off, Denji’s flower only has a screen tone in its second set of panels, not the first.  Maddening.  Amorphous color-changing daisy that exists to spite me.  I spent about a week counting and recounting the ray florets, hoping they’d eventually make sense.  But, it was only when I gave up, and decided to ignore Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Shifting Ray Florets, that I made any headway in identifying this mystery Asteraceae. 

Observe Denji and Reze’s flowers, and compare them to those seen in the cover illustrations for chapters 25 and 49.  While the latter have a multitude of skinny ray florets, the former have fewer, broader ray florets.  This, I think, rules out daisies, asters, calendulas, and chrysanthemums—which narrows it down to cosmos and coreopsis, as well as the more sparsely arrayed wild variations of marigolds, zinnias, and dahlias.  After much thought, I concluded that the most likely candidate is wild marigold—probably either Tagetes patula or Tagetes erecta.  Note the bulbous growth just below the flower head; in botany, that’s called a receptacle.  Of the plants I’ve mentioned here, marigolds and zinnias are the only ones with a similar shape to Denji and Reze’s flower, having a long, thick receptacle—which, unlike the ray florets, is drawn consistently in every panel featuring this flower.  In the other plants I’ve mentioned, however, the receptacle is petite, stout, or both. If you look at the upper right of Himeno’s bouquet, you can see an example of that more typical shape.  Anyway, between marigolds and zinnias, the former is most likely because the flower in the illustration lacks the zinnia’s distinctive, variegated disk florets.

Now that we’ve solved the mystery of its taxonomy, let’s move on to the subject of its meaning.  In hanakotoba, marigolds represent despair, grief, and jealousy.  I suppose it’s fitting that the group raising funds for orphaned children chose a flower associated with death and mourning?  Beyond the diegetic explanation, I like the dissonance of using such an ominous flower as the emblem of Denji and Reze’s cute-but-doomed puppy love.  It’s the irony of Himeno’s daisies, but from the opposite direction, with both, I think, displaying a similar devil-may-care attitude.  We’re doomed, but we might as well make merry about it.

Given the use of a medium screentone, I also suspect that this is an orange marigold, rather than a yellow one.  Orange marigolds in particular mean ‘prophecy’ in hanakotoba.  If this additional meaning is intended, perhaps it relates to the fact that this story arc is a closed circle that begins and ends with the same flower.  I also wonder if there’s significance to the fact that their flower is a wild marigold, rather than the more recognizable, heavily-bedecked, hybridized version.  I take it as an allusion to the fact that Reze’s feelings for Denji were, ultimately, sincere and spontaneous, despite all the cold artifice that initially brought them together.

A third example of ironic hanakotoba can be found in chapter two, in the field of flowers where Denji finds the kidnapped girl.  Judging by the size and conical shape of the flower heads, and their rotund central disks, I believe that these are asters from the Kalimeris family.  While there are several native to Japan, yomena is the most well-known and ubiquitous.  In hanakotoba, it means obedience and ‘hidden beauty,’ with the name itself meaning something along the lines of ‘bride’s greens.’  While the yomena’s name and meaning are surely intended as a paean to demure and submissive femininity, here those associations are cast in a definitively negative light: the girl is hidden because she’s been kidnapped, and obedient because her body has been made into a puppet.  In my research, I actually found quite a few flowers that had meanings along these lines, and I must say that it’s very Fujimotocore of Fujimoto to either deftly avoid those flowers, or twist their meaning into something sinister, as with the yomena and white balloon flowers.  Truly, this man loves mean, domineering women with his whole chest, and recoils from anything to the contrary.

Now that we’ve established that Fujimoto likes both irony, and making up flowers, let’s do hanakotoba in hard mode.  We’re going straight to hell.

See this thing?  This gave me the most trouble out of any flower here.  It’s a basal clump of sword-shaped leaves, with one or more five-petaled flowers emerging from the ends of leafless stalks.  Primrose?  No.  Hellebore?  No.  Anything Ranunculaceae?  At all?  Please!  It looks so much like a buttercup!  No.  Is there perhaps a species of crocus that happens to look like buttercup?  No.  Pentas?  No.  Babiana stricta?  No.  Phlox?  No.  Dianthus?  No.  Nemophila?  Also no.  This went on for several weeks.  If it were just some random flower drawn to take up space in one or two panels, I wouldn’t have tried so hard.  But, the ground in hell is copiously littered with these things; they literally extend as far as the eye can see in any panel where the ground is visible.  Rather than being drawn as an afterthought, it seemed instead that extra attention was being paid to the details of the plants throughout the hell excursion, so it galled me that I kept hitting a wall whenever I tried to identify this mysterious flower.  It’s as if those hyper-detailed close-ups of dandelions in chapter 63 were a thrown gauntlet, daring me to identify the flowers that would appear soon thereafter.  In the end, the closest real-world analogue I could find was the plantainleaf buttercup, a wildflower native to the mountainous regions of western North America.  But, even aside from being pretty obscure in Japan, it still doesn’t perfectly fit, as the flower in the hell chapters has no stem leaves at all, whereas the PLB does.

About the time I started going crazy, about the time I started wondering to myself: “What if, down in hell, oleander is an herbaceous wildflower instead of a tree?”  I was forced to admit that—much like the six-petaled balloon flower, much like the parasitic thistle-vine, this probably wasn’t strictly a real plant.  After admitting defeat in that arena, I finally hit a breakthrough when I started thinking about the mystery flower in the context of the few other plants to be found in hell.  There’s a dandelion, a rosette-shaped weed of some sort (probably broadleaf plantain,) along with what I believe to be several cosmoses (more on those later.)  All three are hardy, fast-growing, weedy, and a common sight in poor-quality or otherwise disturbed soil, and I figured this mystery plant was likely to be in the same category.  I started looking up common weeds in Japan, and found three that were very close to the mystery flowers in one aspect or another.  The flowers in question are spring starflower (Ipheion uniflorum,) blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium rosulatum,) and creeping woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata.)  I’ve come to believe that the mystery flower is actually an amalgamation of woodsorrel and one of the two other plants.  Its flower looks exactly like the woodsorrel’s: small, pale, and delicate, with five petals that have a blocky, rectangular character.  The stalk it emerges from could belong to either of the other two I just mentioned, as I couldn’t completely rule either out.  Both are basal clumps of sword-shaped leaves, with flowers emerging from the ends of upright, leafless stalks.  Hell, it would seem, is a big empty lot full of composite super weeds.  Two weeds for the price of one. 

When you view this combo through a hanakotoba lens, it gets very interesting, especially if you assume that the base of the plant is spring starflower.  That one means ‘a sad farewell,’ despicableness, ‘enduring love,’ and resentment.  As for the woodsorrel, it means joy, ‘shining heart,’ and ‘a mother’s love.’  If you combine the two together, I interpret the resulting alchemy as ‘an awful betrayal at the hands of an idealized maternal figure, one you can’t help but love anyway.’  A sweet, cheerful flower lounging atop a base of trauma, ambivalence, and abuse.  Is that not Part 1 in a nutshell? 

It gets even juicier if we zero in on the meaning within just the context of this scene.  While these starflower-sorrels extend as far as the eye can see from chapter 64 onwards, they’re actually barely present for our first glimpse of hell at the end of chapter 63.  What’s more, they’re nowhere to be seen in hell during the Falling Devil arc.  I posit that they emerged to reflect Tolka’s feelings of fresh betrayal and terror at the hand of his mother figure, and came to dominate the landscape as his doom approached, and the gravity of his situation set in.

As for blue-eyed grass, though: prosperity, ‘rich emotions,’ and ‘a lovely person.’  Kind of boring by comparison, not spicy, not juicy, not a metaphor of Part 1’s themes of abuse.  Count me as a starflower-sorrel truther. I suppose I should also talk about the dandelion too. It's associated with the whole fortune-telling, make-a-wish thing, but it also means 'pure/sincere love' and separation. Maybe the hanakotoba is relevant, or maybe the dandelion is just there to set up the vibe of a weedy, vacant lot. If the former is true, then my read is that it--like the starflower-sorrel--is reflecting Tolka's emotions in the moment.

There’s another flower seen in hell which I’ve only briefly mentioned. Much like the character who’s named after it, it’s more significant than a first impression might have you believe.

Cosmos—Greek for orderly arrangement—is a flower that earned its name from its ray florets: always 8, and always uniform in size and length.  Its use in Chainsaw Man draws upon its meanings in both hanakotoba and floriography.  On the one hand, it means love, sincerity, purity, affection, and modesty, and on the other, the order, harmony, and beauty of the universe, and these dual meanings are embodied in the character of Cosmo.  (Well, maybe not the modesty part.)  But before I get ahead of myself, let’s set this flower’s fiendish mascot aside for a moment, and look at the panel where cosmoses actually show up.

Ignore Violence’s leg being on the wrong layer, and take a close look at the field of flowers.  In the background, we can see what are most definitely cosmoses, with each concave flower head having 8 large, toothed, evenly-spread ray florets, with thin stems, and a small central disk.  Looking at the foreground, though, things have gotten a little weird.  The overall shape of the flower heads is the same, and they still have the distinctive silhouette of a cosmos, but there are only 5 or 6 ray florets on each flower.  Finally, on the far right of the panel, in extreme close-up, are the five rectangular petals of creeping woodsorrel, and you can even see that its petals have a slight downward-curve, as opposed to the upward-curve of all the other flowers.  After this panel, the cosmoses disappear, and there are no other plants to be seen in hell aside from starflower-sorrel.  I believe that what this panel is depicting is the moment that the plants of hell transform to reflect Tolka’s fear and despair.  The cosmos flower, then, is a representation of the neutral fabric of existence, which is acted upon by human emotion to create to a new, fantastical lifeform that defies of the laws of nature.  In other words, these background plants are a synecdoche of Chainsaw Man’s main world-building conceit, representing both devils, and the human fear that brings them into existence.

Both here, and in Cosmo’s displays of fearsome power, do we see the cosmos flower’s association with order and harmony put in a menacing light, for the order and harmony that upholds Chainsaw Man’s universe is inscrutable, hostile, and unforgiving.  But, there’s a silver lining to all this that is, again, exemplified in Cosmo herself.  A while ago, I read a meta on Cosmo, which speculated as to the true nature of her character, and what the whole Halloween thing was actually getting at.  You should totally give it a read, but to surmise, this person posits that Cosmo, having gained knowledge of all things, understands that the best remedy to the cruel farce of existence is to have fun, be yourself, embrace your spookiness and imperfection, and spend your finite time alive having gay sex being with your loved ones.  I pretty much 100% agree with this person’s take.  Why do you think she has big, heart-shaped pupils?  It’s because she’s seen the truth at the center of the universe, and it is love.  Love and sincerity—as codified by cosmos’s meaning in hanakotoba.

There are a couple of other possible connections regarding cosmoses that are more tenuous, but which I still wanted to make note of regardless.  The flower’s most well-known characteristic is its 8 ray florets, and ‘8’ is a number that has shown up quite a few times in Chainsaw Man.  When the cast is trapped by the Eternity Devil in Part 1, the clocks are stopped at 8:18, the Future Devil is housed in cell 108, and the number 108087 kept cropping up in the background Where’s Waldo-style earlier in Part 2.  There’s also an ‘8’ on Yoru’s bread bag.  Not sure what that last one’s about, but, bread aside, the numeral keeps getting used as a symbol of, I want to say… the mysteries of the universe?  Probably because ‘8’ is the infinity symbol tilted 90°.  The last thing I want to note is that it’s possible Cosmo isn’t the only one of Quanxi’s fiends to be named after a flower.  ‘Hagi’ is Japanese for bush clover, which, like the cosmos, is a flower that blooms in autumn in Japan.

With that, we’ve gone over most of the big ones, but there’s still plenty more to talk about.  Let’s start with Quanxi’s herb garden/tree nursery/vineyard.  I’ve numbered the plants more or less in order of how sure I am in my identification, so let’s go down the list:

The lovely metalwork here on the fence helpfully clues us in that these are grape vines, rather than, say, ivy or morning glory, which can have similar looking leaves.  Because of their association with wine, both the fruit and the vine mean ‘euphoria’ and ‘oblivion’ in hanakotoba.  This is likely alluding to the fact that she’s having sex pretty much any time she isn’t working, as well as her philosophy of turning a blind eye towards any information which would make her unhappy.

At first, I thought these were pines, which would work, don’t get me wrong.  Pines are associated with renewal, endurance, and longevity in Japanese culture—a fitting symbol for the character who’s implied to be the oldest hybrid.  But, after some additional digging, I determined that the overall shape of the plant was much more in line with rosemary.  In hanakotoba, rosemary means faithfulness and ‘unchanging love.’  I see this as a counterbalance to the unsentimental hedonism implied by the grapevine, which is probably why these two plants are the ones that most dominate the frame.  Indeed, Quanxi loves two things: escapism, and her girlfriends.  Or, maybe the presence of rosemary just means she eats a lot of potatoes, and needs two big bushes worth of rosemary to season them with.

I believe this is yucca, though I had also considered that it might be aloe or snake plant.  However, we see aloe in Part 2, and care was taken to draw it with the little spines on its leaves, which this plant does not have.  Snake plant usually has stripes or banding, and sparser, wavier leaves in a less orderly arrangement. So, I ruled that out too.  In hanakotoba, yucca means ‘dashing’ and ‘brave.’  I think that speaks for itself; she’s quite the badass.

Much like the yucca next to it, I believe this is also a young tree.  The shape and arrangement of the leaves look very much like plumeria to me.  Plumeria means elegance, sunshine, ‘blessed person,’ passion, and ‘shy maiden.’  My interpretation is that this plant is an ode to her girlfriends.

Here we see dense clump of serrated, rhomboid leaves.  I think this is mint, which means ‘efficacy’ and ‘virtue.’  Now, I don’t think Quanxi cares about virtue one way or another, but she sure is effective and efficient!  Fujimoto told me she always keeps fresh mint on hand in case she or her girlfriends want mojitos.

I thiiiink this is bay laurel.  This one has a dual meaning, as the plant in general means glory, victory, and honor, while the leaves on their own mean “I will not change ‘til the day I die.”  That last one reminds me of how Kishibe describes his feelings for Quanxi in Buddy Stories.  He loves her because she’ll never die on him, and because their relationship will never become close enough to beget the risk of true vulnerability.  Also, she uses these for soup.

Overall, I find this array of plants to be curious, and quite different from others that have shown up before this point.  Her setup has one decorative flower that isn’t blooming, a grape vine which hasn’t borne fruit, and three trees which are residing in flowerpots instead of the earth.  I’m not sure what to make of it, but it feels like there’s a dissonance being implied here.  Much to ponder…  Anyway, speaking of vines:

The cover of volume 3 is full of five-lobed green leaves which are closely clustered together, making me think they are ivy.  In hanakotoba, ivy means ‘eternal love,’ marriage, friendship, faithfulness, and immortality.  I think their presence here is alluding to what Himeno wants, but can’t attain: a long life together with Aki, outside the clutches of public safety.  The fact that the ivy is overlaid on top of her gives a dreamlike quality to the illustration, adding to the idea that the ivy is standing in for that which Himeno fantasizes about. Back to Reze:

Reze’s kimono here on the cover of chapter 49 tripped me up for the longest time, because I at first assumed that its design must be depicting the same flower she received from Denji; but as we’ve established, that can’t be the case.  The colors don’t match, and neither do the size and shape of the ray florets.  That was a marigold, and these are daisies.  While I’ve already talked at length about daisy symbolism, there’s actually one more aspect to it that I haven’t brought up yet, one specific to Bellis perennis and Argyranthemum frutescens—the common daisy and the marguerite.  The schoolyard game of plucking the flower to determine if your crush likes you has made its way into the hanakotoba of those two varieties, and they thus have meanings such as ‘oracle of love,’ ‘fortune-telling,’ and ‘secret love.’  I think this might be the most relevant interpretation to this illustration, as it alludes to the ambiguity of Reze’s true feelings towards Denji.  She loves him, she loves him not…

On the cover of chapter 46, we have a medium-sized shrub with dark leaves and large, white flowers.  There are a number of plants which could fit that description: gardenias, magnolias, roses, camellias, etc.  At first, I was having trouble ruling anything out.  But then, I remembered that in this moment, Reze is beheading herself.  Duh, of course those are camellias.  Later, I noticed a leafy stem sticking out on the far left of the bush that confirmed my assumption.

The leaves of a rose do not grow directly off of the branch which sprouts the flower, but from small, offshoot stems, unlike the plant pictured here.  Gardenias, meanwhile, have a whorled leaf arrangement, with three or more leaves radiating in different directions from a single point—again, unlike those pictured here.  Magnolias have a similar leaf arrangement to camellias, but they don’t have the large volume of petals that the flowers in the illustration do.  So, these must be camellias.

Camellia japonica is associated with samurai, Edo period nobility, and honorable death.  This is on account of the life cycle of their flowers.  They fall off whole, and in the peak of their bloom, rather than gradually wilting as most others do.  White camellias have an additional meaning of ‘waiting,’ which fits when you consider that this image depicts the tense standoff that precedes Reze’s massacre.  But, beyond that, I also interpret the use of white camellias, rather than the more-iconic (and decidedly romantic) red ones, as a sign that Reze and Denji’s romance isn’t meant to pan-out.

Real quick, let’s talk about this tree seen briefly in Reze’s cafe.  The braided bark and downturned leaves are a dead ringer for Ficus benjamina, a common houseplant that can mean eternal love, trust, friendship, and marriage in hanakotoba.  Leaving aside the marriage bit, I think this tree could be expressing the strong infatuation Denji feels for Reze in this moment, as she has just asked him out on a date.

With that, we’ve arrived at the final flowers we’ll be looking at today: the bouquet that Denji was never able to give Reze.  Here are my guesses as to the flowers that were clear enough to identify.

Very large flower heads, pale central disks, clearly Asteraceae, but they only have 8 and 10 ray florets respectively.  I think these two are single-flowered dahlias, which mean ‘gorgeous,’ elegance, and gracefulness, but also: capriciousness, and betrayal—which is probably what Denji was feeling in the moment.

Spotted lilies, probably Lilium auratum or some hybridization thereupon: ‘love and beauty that is unadorned and down-to-earth.’  That sentiment feels very country mouse to me.

Pale, unspotted lilies: purity and dignity if white, vanity if pink, and if yellow: cheerfulness, deceit, anxiety.

This one has 8 broad, frilly ray florets—so, probably coreopsis: ‘love at first sight,’ and ‘always cheerful.’

Looks to me like tsuwabuki: ‘perseverance through adversity,’ and humility.

Some filler, likely baby’s breath, meaning: happiness, gratitude, and ‘pure of heart.’

Beyond the symbolism of the individual flowers, there’s something else noteworthy about this arrangement.  When you think of a romantic bouquet, what usually comes to mind?  I think of roses, tulips, lilies, and carnations, with maybe some baby’s breath as filler.  Here, though, only two of those flowers make an appearance.  When he went shopping for a bouquet, I think Denji went out of his way to pick one that consisted primarily of flowers that looked like the one he had given Reze, which is why most of them are Asteraceae.  Rather than going with a more traditional bouquet, he chose one that he could connect to a happy memory with her.

And, that’s the last of them!  To whoever's reached the end of this, thank you so much for reading.  If you have your own thoughts as the identity/meaning of any plants, please feel free to chime in.  I knew approximately 3 things about botany before I started all this, so I still have much to learn.  I’ve also skipped over a few plants in this essay—mostly just things that were too indistinct for me to identify, but I’m also leaving Makima’s houseplants for my next essay, because I tentatively suspect that they may be related to some plants that show up in Part 2.  See you then, hopefully I'll finish it soon.

[tad-ahrt]

I decided to dedicate this new art book, I got it just the other day, to my Zelda ideas and studies- 'cause it's such a creative series, and also it's fun/stimulating to try and "modify" Totk (since we all know by now that it's not all that well thought out.. not to throw any shade lol) Info dump over

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've heard many people talk about how they find the difference between Botw's Zonai and Totk's Zonai to be too jarring - Which I don't personally mind because I've also heard that the difference is because apparently Botw's Zonai structures were already ancient ruines (aka the beginning of Zonai civilization) by the time of Mineru and Rauru (aka the end of the Zonai civilization). Which is really interesting.

And also a shame why Totk didn't spend any major time giving us any insight beyond the Zonai devices being a major part of their culture. Or even how the Zonai managed to make whole islands float. And they never even explained how or why the Zonai just... Ascended into the sky???? 'Cause we know they were surface dwellers at one point due to the Zonai ruines in Botw.. But at the very least if Nintendo wanted them to have originated from the sky as like a holiness thing, they could've just said that they were Skyloftians that somehow never descended onto Hyrule, or that they come from the Wind tribe, or that they were crafted by Hylia Herself or something et cetera, at cetera. I feel like the lack of a clarification is just a major oversight in my opinion, because it would have become a welcomed addition to the Zelda lore. The Zlore...

So in order to elaborate on the divide, and also the sky-thing, I decided to delve into the theory that they were originally surface dwellers!

The post-ascension Zonai are basically just Totk Zonai but with the basic scale colours modified so they resemble the Botw/Totk dragons more, and the pre-ascension Zonai just flat out have dragon heads because of, y'know, the Zonai's whole shtick?

I wanted the Zonai, as a race, to be descended from dragons because:

1. It explains why they haven't shown up in any previous Zelda game. They're a relatively "new" "cross breed". (Though I haven't figured out what the dragons "bred" with yet- if at all. Sheikah, hylians, Rito, whatever the hell Kilton and Koltin's race is..)

2. It fits nicely with the ouroborous thing Totk has going on. What came first: the chicken or the egg? The dragons or the Zonai?

3. Dragons have already appeared in previous Zelda games like Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Seasons ( I think). And that only helps to link Botw/Totk's dragons to the Zonai.

×××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

Anyway back to my drawings:

I used a achromatic colour scheme for my default zonai because I think it would be really interesting if the Zonai's colours were based on their "powers".

Mineru's design is purple due to her being the sage of spirit, Rauru's is yellow/white because of his light magic, and so on- but I hc the pre-ascension Zonai to be split into three (3) sub-tribes? clans? Based on the three Godesses: Din (power), Nayru (wisdom), and Farore (courage). So these pre-ascent Zonai will have red, blue, or green/gold colourings (unless they're too important I guess? Or just specialise in a different power like a sage would). So just swap out the black/grey for a different colour and you'll see what I'm trying to get at lol.

I also made their hair less scaly so there would be a more obvious connection to them and the Sheikah, just look at that 3rd eye man c'mon Nintendo, the theories!!..

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Side note: I don't think there would be much of a difference between male and female zonai, except that female Zonai are bigger because they follow reptile lore. (Also giant dragon women 👀👀👀).

I also believe that, the Zonai are a matriarchy (meaning women are expected to be in authority) because of the Godess/Goddesses being female, Zonai women being larger when they live in a warrior-heavy society (see: Botw barbarian armour). And this would also explain Botw/Totk's dragons (Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh) having female pronouns and a very high status. Leaving credence for the theory that they were once Zonai and weren't always dragons. (This will feed into the 'plot' later).

However, Mineru's height is still considered "smaller" for a Zonai because she is trans. Hope this helps!

Essay Over

[kalicofox]

More of the HomestuckxDC AU experimental thing from the other day. Tim gets an info dump. Ish

Red Robin crouched in the rafters of the warehouse he’d found- the sounds of talking and laughing driving away most of the more wary denizens of the district, and drawing him to it like a moth to a flame.

“O, you getting this?” he breathed, and got back a quiet affirmative.

Down on the warehouse floor, there were thirty-one metas, all in various colors that seemed to divide them into groups that congregated, conferred, then split up again as they mingled.

The majority of the metas had grey skin and horns that graduated from red closest to the skull, through orange, to yellow at the tips. And wings. Colored, semi-translucent butterfly wings.

As he watched, another human looking meta, this one in shades of pink slipped in through one of the skylights and floated down to join the throng.

One of them, the dark haired boy in blue with a ridiculously long hood, slipped through the crowd to chat with him, though whatever he said was too quiet for Red Robin to hear through the rest of the chatter.

They spoke for a couple of minutes, then the blue kid turned and made his way through the crowd, picking up one of the grey kids in all dark red, and another in greys and beiges with fantastically long braids as he went.

Air swirled through the warehouse, cool and fresh, as the blue kid lifted into the air then settled on top of a shipping container, and a moment later, the other two landed next to him, red and fuchsia wings fluttering.

“All right!” The kid’s voice didn’t boom, but it did something funny, and almost at once the talking died away as the rest of the kids (teenagers, really, they were about his age, it seemed like,) turned to look at him. “So we’re still not back. It looks like this place is getting closer, though! They’ve got the right constellations, and the technology level is about the same, so I’d say we’re well on our way home!”

“I still don’t know why we aren’t going back to Alternia.” One of the grey teenagers groused, his purple wings, a lighter shade than some of the other purples in the group, fluttering.

“Because Alternia was a fucking pit.” The red-winged teenager on the shipping container said flatly, his voice harsh. “And before you say anything, Beforus wasn’t much fucking better. We’ve got the best chance at fucking living if we stick with the humans.”

‘Stick with the humans.’ Tim blinked. So… they didn’t consider themselves human? Was this an alien invasion, then? But they were talking about getting home… Dimensional displacement, possibly?

He whispered as much to Oracle, who made a thoughtful noise.

The fuchsia winged alien on the shipping container cleared her throat, and suddenly she was leaning on a massive, golden, double-ended trident that had apparently come from nowhere.

“We ain’t got someplace better to go, dum-bass.” She drawled. “If we head back to Alternia, chances are I’m gonna still be queen of everyfin, and we’ll all die. Beforus, and Fef’s queen and we’ll all get culled ‘for our own good.’ Nah. We’re stickin’ with the squishies.”

“Still,” The teenager in blue said excitedly, lifting into the air slightly on a soft swirl of air, “this world is pretty cool! There’s superheroes! And they fight bad guys and everything!”

Several people groan, but a couple of others perk up.

“This may be a decent place to lie low, then.” One of the human teenagers, a girl in the same beiges and greys as the fuchsia winged alien on the shipping container called. “We can gather our strength and recover for a bit before attempting to move on again.”

“We shouldn’t stay for too long.” The meta in the pink that had passed Tim on his way down to the group said, his voice carrying easily despite the slight rasp of disuse. “People around here’re trigger happy as fuck.”

That gets winces out of a few of the humans, but a low chitter rises from the aliens, a sound that makes the hair on the back of Tim’s neck stand up.

“They wanna strife?” The gleeful way that the blue-winged alien in shades of yellows and oranges said that made Tim wince but the pink wearing guy just shrugged, half turning away from her to look at two other, similarly dressed people. Both of them aliens, with similarly shaped triangular horns.

“Nep, Meu, I pointed this guy I found in your direction. He’s a little trigger happy, but his soul’s coming loose, and I figure we might as well fix it while we’re here. He’s supposed to be one of the heroes around here, so we might as well build up the good will.”

Tim nearly fell out of the rafters.

Trigger happy hero? That was Jason. It had to be. What the hell did he mean, ‘his soul’s coming loose’?!

[axarmae]

Lore Dump #1: Kimora

CW: Mentions of forced sterilization, and mentions of death due to the government not caring

Kimora is a planet that is divided into two sections; there is the upper section called the "Bubble" where the rich live and the lower section which is the mines and slums. The air quality on the planet is horrible because of the mines and processing plants all over the planet. The planet itself is unstable because of all the mining that goes on deep into the planet's crust.

The Bubble

The nobles of the bubble profit off of the mines by selling rare purple gems (name in the works) to the Empire which covets said gems

The gems were mined by exploiting the poor people of the lower section

The nobles wear bubble-like helmets over their heads to keep the purple smog out of their lungs, so they do not get purple lung (think black lung because of coal, but instead it is purple because of all the dust that gets kicked up because of the mines and planet quakes)

The nobles live lavish lifestyles without a care in the world

The Mines

Almost everyone either works in the mines or factories

Working in the mines is more dangerous, however, it pays better and is less competitive than getting a job in the factories

People spend hours in the tunnels which are barely tall enough for the average adult human to stand in

The Slums

After the destruction of Earth, Kimora was flooded with countless refugees

Most refugees were handed over to the Empire; the rest were forced to keep their heads down

The slums are overcrowded; disease and purple lung run rampant

The lower sections of Kimora have one of the largest variety of species, which leads to a lot of inter-species breeding. Kimora has a pretty bad overpopulation issue in the lower section. This led the noble governing body to decide to sterilize large groups of species (really it is because they did not want to have to care for their citizens---for control). Because of all the inter-species breeding some of their offspring ended up being infertile anyways.

The death rates on Kimora are high. High infant mortality. High maternity mortality. High worker mortality. People die every day due to not being able to feed themselves, poor working conditions, etc. Purple lung is a major factor. While working in the mines it is recommended for people to wear ventilators. The issue with the ventilators is that they slow you down while you work. Which leads to a lower yield, which means less money to feed you and your family. So some people decide to forgo the ventilators which has a heightened risk of developing purple lung.