#saturday is going well

[sainz100]

just a few Max moments ❤️ | 📸 x x

[disposal-blueeee]

VARGASTOBER - day 24 : mirror

[nanihirunkits]

#october 26th airdate for episode 1 confirmed /hj ⟡ credit: mesemerry_

[sneezysubbyboi]

I fear I ate..?

[myokk]

“Class, today we’re going to repot the baby mandrakes because they’re getting a bit too big for their current homes! Aren’t they cute?”

[bruhstation]

Any ideas for Skarloey Railway??

of course! I'm working on their designs (they're some of the most requested characters in the 1k followers poll haha) but I do know what they're like in casa tidmouth.... the skarloey railway people entertain (not outright encourage) thomas' ideas about the supernatural phenomena plaguing sodor like telling him stories of a train that fell off a bridge, the tale of godred, etc. and thomas with percy in tow would storm off to find said mysteries that they provide. they're the silent pushers of the plot that mainly hangs out in the background and watch as the truth behind the island of sodor slowly unfurl while their hands are mostly clean. however, a certain irish young man clad in green may say otherwise....

I did doodle rusty, sir handel, and peter sam! here they are.

the rest will follow suit sometime later. I've featured skarloey in my introduction comic from two years ago, and I still think his design is solid! just needs a bit of refining, I suppose.

[satans-knitwear]

Me and the besties experiencing joy!!!

I did a good weekend!!! With fabulous company!!

[mcgrillzdumpinc]

I'll likely make a more in depth post once I've read through all the translated light novels but

Hello Apothecary Diaries fans I am in volume 8 and would like to reassure you about the choking scene from volume 5

Spoilers under the cut!

Okay so there's a scene at the end of volume 5 (the manga is not there yet) that many have interpreted as sexual assault. For the sake of those sensitive to such topics, I'm going to give a light on spoilers version of the scene and then an in depth analysis. Personally, I do not view the scene as sexual assault, but it is very forceful and carries A LOT of very sad subtext. You'll understand what I'm getting at in the more depth part.

So, the general gist of the choking scene.

MaoMao and Jinshi are in the garden to escape a banquet. They talk for a bit about a very scary incident that occurred that day (thankfully nobody was killed) and share casual conversation. Then Jinshi brings up that they're at this banquet to find him a wife. I won't spoil the specifics, but fyi MaoMao has been wearing an accessory this whole time that loudly announces (to everyone except herself, of course) that She's The Favorite™. Despite how obvious Jinshi has been with his intentions, including holding her hand and combing his other fingers through her hair while mentioning the whole wife thing, MaoMao evades him while thinking "I'm not capable of love". So, she tries to dodge him by offering up another woman. This is what causes Jinshi to snap and choke her, as well as hold one of her arms behind her back to stop her from fighting back.

He doesn't kill her. As far as damage to her throat, the text doesn't indicate any. He then leans his weight on her. MaoMao then remembers how she was taught sex techniques against her will be the Verdigris House women & decides to use those techniques against Jinshi. She then promptly leaves and Jinshi feels like the most pathetic man in world.

The two don't interact beyond official matters until towards the end of volume 6. Jinshi brings more rare medicine in lieu of an apology. The two talk around the wife situation again and MaoMao gets tickled. It isn't until volume 7 that they have an actual conversation breakthrough.

That's my light on spoilers version of the events. Now I'll give a more in depth version, that's honestly a good chunk of my own meta-analysis around the events of volume 5.

Honestly, volume 5 is full of really interesting scenes regarding Jinshi and MaoMao. This is the first volume after Jinshi has been forced back into Imperial Brother status, yet the first thing I noticed that actually changed between JinMao is how MaoMao takes initiative with him now. As soon as she learns an insect plague might be on the horizon, she dives into unprompted research and delivers her findings to Jinshi. She's no longer working at the palace or for Jinshi, but she still takes on the extra burden. She also takes initiative to get Jinshi some extra sleep (though she misinterprets his desire to not sleep alone). And later in the novel, when they're in the paper makers' village, MaoMao acts so cute when reapplying Jinshi's burn scar makeup. I'll let screenshots talk for me.

Like man. She's so cute. And I wonder, if these two didn't have to deal with social standing and imperial drama, would we get way more of them just being cute and companionable? If MaoMao wasn't an unwitting member of the Who Wants To Be An Imperial Princess race, would her feelings for Jinshi have grown without so much pushing and urgency on his end?

But I digress. I think a lot of volume 5, especially once they reach their travel destination, is MaoMao trying her best to keep her blinders on even though she is in the thick of imperial drama. She's especially desperate with regards to the blazingly obvious fact that a certain someone of very high status is in love with her. I think the end of chapter 6 does a very good job of driving home one of the major reasons why MaoMao is reluctant to trust Jinshi's feelings.

To add fuel onto this unfortunate fire is that MaoMao, as an unmarried courtesan's daughter, was attacked as an infant by her mother, sought after by fucking Lakan of all people, ignored while crying as a baby, and forcibly taught sex (to the point of tears!). She also had to cover for Luomen's own eccentricities, specifically ensuring they had enough money to feed themselves. MaoMao, to put it shortly, has been taught not to believe she can attain anything beyond her very simple life of being a lowly apothecary.

And then here's Jinshi who, as a prince, has been forced to grow up fast & have all his favorite things taken away from him. I think MaoMao is the first time he ever wanted a person. He is, for lack of a better word, obsessed with her. I think a lot of his pushiness & tendency to be clingy with her is him desperately trying to make sure he doesn't lose her. If he makes her his wife, then, well, she can't leave.

And I think the choking scene is him finally at his breaking point. At this point, he has lavished her with gifts, been very forward sexually with her twice, and given her a new hairpin that is essentially this story's version of a promise ring. It's MaoMao's repression/reluctance vs. Jinshi's desperation and so far she's winning.

But then she pushes him past his breaking point and he takes physical action against her. MaoMao responds by performing an unspecified sexual act on him.

So why don't I personally take this scene as sexual assault?

Mainly because I think the people actually guilty of sexual assault her are the Verdigris House women who forced MaoMao to learn sex.

As far as I understand it, whether MaoMao can actually say no to Jinshi is left up to interpretation. If we're talking on social status terms, she can't say no. But if you look at Jinshi's overall treatment of her, both before and after this scene, I very much think MaoMao can say no and instead chooses to defuse the situation.

Because what isn't for interpretation, however, is MaoMao's abysmal impression of what love and sex can actually be for her. So she defuses a situation by using sex, something she herself doesn't like, and doesn't allow Jinshi to reciprocate, which leaves him feeling terrible, too.

I want to be clear. I do think Jinshi is in the wrong for physically attacking MaoMao. But the sexual portion of the scene, at least to me, falls squarely on the shoulders of MaoMao's fucked up backstory.

Anyway, I think I've typed for long enough. I am using the official translations of the light novel for this analysis, so if any fans have access to alternate translations or WN only knowledge that throw my analysis in the trash bin, please let me know (fyi puedo leer el español).

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Collection of edits from this comic with Disco Elysium dialogue.

[thriftybruce]

GrFa AU where everything's the same except Stan's a woman now (+ happy holidays LMFAO)

S.E.P. Font Credit to Thomas Candlish

[nattikay]

ear

The ears are definitely the part of the head that I've been dreading the most, because I've always struggled to make them work. I was never 100% satisfied with the ear results on past heads, so this time I'm trying a different method. It's based on TinnatuPaws's ear patterns, not actually printing and using any of them directly because I wanted that front border to have a slightly different shape, but taking the general method/idea. Took a couple hours to put together a working pattern because I only had a vague idea of what I was doing, and I guess the final look is pretty similar to TinnatuPaws's canine ear design anyways so perhaps it would've been easier to just use that one directly but w/e too late now. I think it turned out pretty alright, but of course the real test will come once I actually put fur on it.

These ears also probably look a tad on the large side for a standard housecat--that was intentional; I'm a bit worried about this head base being a bit too small compared to the other parts of the suit so I'm gonna try compensating by exaggerating the ears, head floof, and cheek floofs a bit. This base already has proportionally very large eyes so I think I can get away with it. Fingers crossed!

I did try on my previous head with the new body the other day to get a better idea of the size ratio and it looked alright, though while the base for my previous head is similar in size to this new one, I do think it might be sliiiiiightly larger overall, even accounting for the fact that it has fur and this one doesn't yet. Hopefully the difference won't be all that significant and I won't be walking around with a comically tiny head, but as with the ear method, the real test won't be till I actually fur it. So....we shall see.

[draconesmundi]

I just got here from storyteller saturday ask and then this blog so can you elaborate on dragons being crocodile relatives?

HAPPY STORYTELLER SATURDAY

So crocodiles are part of a bigger group called pseudosuchians, which include things like armoured Desmatosaurus, leggy creatures like Saltoposuchus, shark tailed swimmers like Dakosaurus, beaked herbivores like Shuvosaurus... Pseudosuchians aren't often talked about so I was really happy when the little herbivorous Simosuchus had a spotlight on Prehistoric Planet!

Pseudosuchians are my favourite animals, all of them. And dragons are my favourite fictional animals, so basically I made draconic pseudosuchians. They have the same skeletal details and body plan, with a few fantastical elements...

Dracomorpha, the dragon group, split apart from crocodylomorpha back in the Jurassic. Dragons have overlapping scales rather than discrete osteoderms, and also have fleshy projections (fins, frills, wattles, barbels). They have horns, but so did some prehistoric crocodiles so that's nothing new. Many dragons have osteoderm rods on their shoulders and flanks supporting a membrane of skin, but so did some prehistoric reptiles. Dragons are venomous while crocodiles are not, and dragons fly using magical adipose tissue to generate a magic field, while most crocodiles cannot do this.

Many dragons are semi-aquatic and launch themselves into flight with a strong tail-propelled leap...

[frangipanistars]

six(ish) sentence Saturday

“We’re not doing that.” 

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun! And you know you want to,” she murmurs  seductively as she steps up to him, reaching out with one hand to play with the lapels of his suit jacket. 

“Lucy.”

“Tim.”

He knows he’s in trouble and getting on board really damn quickly even if only to avoid public embarrassment about the precarious situation building in his pants. But when she trails her fingers down toward his belt and doesn’t make any move to let go again any time soon, he knows he’s definitely lost this fight. 

“Come on, there’s no one around. I hear a supply closet calling our names for some quick—” she leans in closer, standing on her tiptoes and brushing her lips against his “—dirty fun.”

And that pretty much does it. 

Their kiss is short but feels absolutely filthy, and then, as soon as they've parted for air, he's pulling her toward the end of the hallway to go find that supply closet she mentioned before he can overthink it.

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

I want to love and support postal service workers during this stressful time. And I do. However it's hard when they do some things

[somegrumpynerd]

Time for a new toy!

Cat toy won by a pretty good margin, so tomorrow there will be a little novelty cat toy in the garden!

So that means...

("Nothing" option will still attract a cat)

[satans-knitwear]

What does a takeaway even cost?

I don't think many deliver round here unless you spend at least £20??? Some are more??