#something about the art style just speaks so heavily to me

[lorrainailurophile]

IMPORTANT

I know of the accusations against me, and I am here to speak up about the proof they showed and talk about each one.

1.

The expressions i put on my OC are just expressions and faces that fit her in the scenerio shes in. For example, in this context, she was talking creepily. This face is somewhat used a lot when talking creepily. So that's what I did...same goes to the ":<" face, i just draw what i think fits her.

2.

Its hard for me to explain this one, but still. I made Muri when i was at my lowest, I remember being super hyperfixtated on Ranfren to the point i was a little delusional, to save my own mental health i made a self insert, aka Muri. The main reason she looks similar to the other character without a costume, is because Muri is basically wearing what i wear (which is a style a lot of people wear). And the hair is very different from both Murderer and Carpet Kitty's. (If you want more explanation on this one please ask)

3.

Heavily inspired, not copied. I do not even think of copying people. But what i can admit is that yes, it is inspired.

4.

Its a standing pose, standing poses look similar when compared, but still, here is my speed paint. (Recording of my tablet since i cant download it)

And for the stray version, Muri is supposed to look messy, since when she was a stray, she lived in the woods. She had resources of her own. And she wasnt a catman.

5.

I already explained this one, the backround Daisensekai used is an offcial Ranfren art, and i just so happened to redraw it as a backround to my video.

6.

???? I dont know if i need to explain it but i still will. When i firstly thought of naming Muri, i thought or all kinds of names. I started thinking of the name Mary, but thought it was too basic, then i thought of Mari, but someone already had that. So i made my own name for her. Muri.

I hope i cleared up everything, if anyone is still curious or did not understand something, please do tell + for @sweetswirlybread you're a fucking weirdo for drawing what you have drawn and talking like that to good people who YOU DONT EVEN KNOW. Please get off of Tumblr and never come back

[thunderc1an]

Happy Pride Month from Mousewhisker & Jayfeather

[sskk-manifesto]

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple and how “ability users” (opposite to “normal people”) learning to accept themselves through the acceptance of their own abilities is a queer metaphor of acceptance of own's sexual orientation and gender: an essay by me

[hongluboobs]

ok i was cooking up another hong lu analysis thing bc i noticed SEVERAL things in his base id art the other day and wanted to share with the class but they just dropped a new one in the canto V trailer and i have some stuff i wanna talk about that one:)

My Hong Lu knowledge and interpretation is very heavily influenced by reading Dream of the Red Chamber, which may not be the best because I don’t know how much Limbus will pull from the book because it’s Long as fuck but I think it’s given me a deeper knowledge of Hong Lu.

Keep in mind this ego is NOT out yet so i could be totally off base depending on what the full animation/corrosion/sin affinities are like and this is totally theorizing but I wanted to have a go at anyway!! And this got totally out of hand so reading is appreciated :)

One of the first things I noticed here is this Hong Lu seems VERY Bao-yu. We still don’t know for sure what Hong Lu is within the context of Red Chamber (i don’t think it’ll be straightforward considering how that book works) but it’s important to note!

He has this little hat on (this is the best pic i can get atm to show it’s not a fancy hair tie, unfortunately the footage we have rn is a little scuffed)

and Bao-yu is ALWAYS depicted with a hat like this.

This could just be because that’s the appropriate outfit for Chinese nobility (I unfortunately have little to no reference point here, feel free to correct me, but from some quick searches hats aren’t ubiquitous and ESPECIALLY not ones of this style.) I think it’s worth noting because it comes up in nearly all modern depictions of Bao-yu.

There’s also the pearl Hong Lu is wearing on his neck/chest area, which is where Bao-yu wears the magic jade he was born with. His jade is translated into Limbus as Hong Lu’s jade eye, but this plus his hat and the abno’s themes REALLY makes me think we are dealing with some Bao-Yu stuff here.

Speaking of the Abno’s themes, now i can actually go over them! All we have for Walking Pearl right now is the MD event (as well as general observation), but there’s a few things that are relevant.

Just based off design, the abnormality seems to be mostly about the precious (the pearl) and the filth (the muck) intermixing. which makes sense with the EGO being named “Effervescent Corrosion” and our holders being Hong Lu and Rodya.

There’s some symbolism around greed/wealth (the offspring filled muck desiring the pearl and fighting for which one will earn it? the muck tarnishing the pearl? ) and I think we should read into that because it’s Hong Lu and Rodya who have this one and they’re both very tied to their financial status. Those two sharing an ego makes me insane for a bunch of reasons but that’s probably for another analysis piece! But duality is REALLY important for those guys and that’s a theme they’re emphasizing here with both the pearl and muck within the clam.

There’s also some elements of shelter/protection/potentially entrapment with the clam’s shell which are HUGE for Hong Lu, especially with his egos so I think those may come up.

But mostly it’s about the mixing of the precious (likely “wealth” here) and the unsavory, which works very well with what we know of the Jia family. The design likely referencing Bao-yu and thematically dealing with the Jia family makes me think each of those individual readings are more likely because they’re deeply tied together!

And now onto the MD event! I did not write this in order so I may repeat stuff here but. I realized I had to cover the design first so here we are!

First thing that stuck out of me is this portion when you choose to sample some of the clam’s slime.

Sibling/family infighting is very Jia family. It reminds me a lot of this line base Hong Lu says.

You could take this a step further because the clam is something that would typically offer shelter from the rest of the world, and even though it protects, its offspring continue to kill and eat each other.

It seems fine, the offspring have this lovely shell for protection, and they have the precious pearl held within, but even as they are sheltered and wealthy. They are still getting killed and eaten by one another! Reminds me of someone I know:)

It reminds me of some bits in the later half of Red Chamber, where family members more obviously start acting behind each other’s backs or turning on each other, some even killing other family members.

Another part of the MD event that I got something out of was the beginning portion.

using specifically jade as the color for the seawater is a Hong Lu thing. I may be reaching with this bc it’s more than likely just flavor text BUT when taking this color with the fact that there’s nothing in the water it makes me think of an important scene in Red Chamber where Bao-Yu is described as an empty shell, so I wanted to mention it. We know Hong Lu has TONS of water motifs, especially when relating to his family (see his base ego)

The main reason I brought up this section of the MD event is because of the question brought up by the last portion.

If you take one thing from Dream Of The Red Chamber into your perception of Hong Lu as a character, it should be the themes of ambiguity, duality, and being between binaries. Because he sure as hell does that a lot!!! (and i’m not just talking about his gender) He is both genuinely curious and sheltered with an urge to learn as much as he can, but he also plays dumb frequently, backpedals and asks a lot of stupid questions on purpose to maintain others’ perceptions of him. He is CONSTANTLY walking the line between truth and illusion and it can be hard to tell which is which and precisely how much is fake or real, which is why I find him such an interesting character to think about.

Tangent about Hong Lu's characterization aside, it's really easy to read this line as about his family's perceptions of him.

Hong Lu (or rather, Bao-yu) can be read as being the source of the contamination in that he is the heir of the Jia family who is just an absolute fucking failure of everything you’d want in an heir for that time period.

The clam containing the filth can be read as Hong Lu’s lies (whether conscious lies or otherwise) to himself and others about the true “filth” of his family. Really good example of this is with another bit of window dialogue, but these lies and half truths come up quite a bit if you know where to look. (what happened to cohort of kin looking to stab each other in the back at every turn???)

We already have Hong Lu’s assorted water motifs (his feet make ripples on the water in his base id, land of illusion has so much water theming and shows the Jia mansion is surrounded by water) so I think this is a reasonable analysis to make :)

There’s some other sections to the MD event, but there’s nothing of note that triggered the Hong Lu sleeper agent in my brain & also this has gone on long enough that I wanna talk about predicting some stuff for the ego!

I am manifesting Gluttony/Gloom/Wrath for this ego!!

Gluttony and gloom are in the MD event’s skill check already and I think tie in nicely with the themes. Gluttony works with the offspring in the muck killing and eating each other and themes of greed with the pearl (plus the ego is primarily green and that’s a pretty good clue) and then gloom comes up a LOT with Hong Lu’s family (Liu Hong Lu, the only one that remarks on his jade eye, is also the only Hong Lu with gloom. land of illusion requires 5 gloom resources and also relates a lot to red chamber/his family) Gloom’s also generally a stand-in for water which exists here.

Wrath in Hong Lu generally manifests in him going “yeah, maybe my family was a little fucked up actually” internally, instead of manifesting as taking direct action about the fucked up things like it works for most other sinners, and acknowledging that his family was at least partially filth and killing and eating eachother (metaphorically. maybe literally) works for that

i am not an expert on sin analysis but i wanted to take a prediction bc it’s fun :)

I have a couple of predictions for corrosion and i’ll be real they are the main reason i wrote this thing because i LOVE when bad things happen to Hong Lu!!

Since this ego seems to be referencing Bao-yu so much i can pull stuff from Red Chamber too which makes it more fun :)

First one I came up with is Hong Lu taking the place of the pearl within the clam and getting locked in there! A bunch of his egos have to do with being controlled/trapped so i think it works and it also can work as a parallel for Bao-yu’s treatment by his family. Bao-yu’s name means precious jade, and he’s often treated more like his namesake than a person, heavily controlled and never allowed to leave the Jia mansion (or, in this case, the clam.) I just think it’d be fun!

My other concept has to do with more Red Chamber stuff, notably what happens when Bao-yu loses his jade. I’m not quite there yet in the text, but from what i’ve heard he becomes incredibly unstable and essentially loses his mind. This sets the Jia family’s downfall into even faster motion and from that point things get REALLY fucked up. Since the pearl here parallels Bao-yu’s jade, I think having a reference to that part of the book would be really fucking crazy for all 5 people who have read 1800+ pages of red chanber to get to chapter 94 where he loses that thing. Also i just want to see Hong Lu lose his mind i KNOW it would be terrifying and chilling. but they may be saving that for his distortion (manifesting)

In my skimming Red Chamber table of contents to find when Bao-yu loses his jade i just found a chapter where Bao-yu’s father admires a pearl but we will just ignore that for now bc this has taken long enough to type already and that is several chapters off. but there may be more analysis when this thing actually comes out!

Thank you for reading this far!! I hope you enjoyed me looking far too deep into an unreleased ego we know next to nothing about for fun! this took WAY longer than expected to type out but i’m glad I did because I loveee telling people about Hong Lu!

There is a very real chance very little of my analysis and prediction is reflected in canon BUT please remember that truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true and even if this doesn’t turn out to be correct now u know a little more about Hong Lu and the themes he plays with :)

[ihugzminseo]

needed me. pjh x reader. part I.

pairing : toxic!gf!jihyo x afab!reader

synopsis: 5 years. 5 years of hell to you, 5 years of sadism to her. 5 whole years, you and jihyo have been on and off. why? she's toxic. it's completely insufferable the way she treats you, because she just treats you so badly. that is, outside of bed. god, she's so good in bed. but the on and off is too much, so you decide to leave her. for all. as you said the previous three times. so, you inevitably come crawling back, because you both know deep down, you need her.

warning : non-idol au, unnie!jihyo (jihyo is 27, reader is 25), slight s&m, possessive!gf!jihyo

word count : 0.7k

a/n : this is the first (of many) songfics!! this fic is heavily inspired by needed me by rihanna (hence the title ykyk); 

to feel a little more, and give a little less. know you hate to confess, but baby, ooh, you needed me.

disclaimer : this fic has been on the brain for a while, but PLEASE, for the love of all things sacred, do NOT by any means depend on a partner, especially one that's toxic. speaking from experience, it crushes you. seek the help needed, and do not lean on them. at all. this is a work of art, and does not depict any real life instances.

october 2nd. today would've been you and jihyo's five year anniversary. and hypothetically, it is. because this is the day you two got together. for the first time. you weren't fond of college, so you applied for a part time job as a boutique assistant. you've worked at this boutique for nearly eight years, and jihyo was a fairly frequent customer. from her long dark hair, to her big doll-like eyes, to her sweet-as-honey voice, you were in love.

you could go on and on about what you loved about her. her hair looked so healthy, you hated big eyes but godthey suited her so well, her figure was everything you aspired for, her style was top tier but most of her clothes were from the boutique you worked at anyways, her voice was so sweet sounding it drove you crazy. and most of all, she always came directly to your register. not your coworkers, you. and god forbid you were out one day, she'd have another one of your coworkers hold whatever she was planning to check out that day and she'd come back when you came back.

it seemed like the people around you could sense the chemistry between you and jihyo before either of you even sensed it yourself. jihyo had only been shopping there for four or five years, but she was so inclined to walk right over to you, as if she'd known you since day one. and a stranger would think you had on really tacky makeup with the way you blushed everytime she came around.

the two of you initially only engaged in small talk, but that led to the two of you having genuine conversations while you checked her out, like you were two best friends meeting over coffee. and she was just such a sweetheart, it damn near hurt.

she'd smile and nod while you spoke, pretty long lashes batting against her cheekbones when she blinked. and when she spoke? you could listen to her forever. she spoke slowly, almost sensually, and that smile she'd had while on the receiving end of the conversation never faded. she would "unintentionally" touch your hand while handing you her card, feeling the rough prongs of all your rings against her soft hands.

and one day, she slid you something while you took her card. a sheet of paper. "call me? XXX-XXXX-XXXX ♡" . didn't even take you a second to reread it, just a glance up mimicking her sweet smile and a mouthed "you got it".

in all honesty, you hadn't really expected her to pick up. you'd expected to listen to that eardrum-bursting ringing sound for the next 20 seconds before you were eventually told to leave her a message. but, it was definitely a bit of a shock to hear that honey-like voice answer the call with a "aww, you remembered to call?". her voice was much raspier than usual, and she tripped over her words trying to say 'remembered'. jihyo was drunk, very obviously drunk at that.

"jihyo, you sound drunk. really drunk. are you alright?" did it feel right outwardly asking that? no, but it was on your mind so you did. what wasn't on your mind was hearing "you don't question your elders, y/nnie. im not drunk." three things. one, you could hear the slur in her voice. two, she was a really bad liar. three, elder? she didn't look much older than you, so you hadn't thought to address her as such.

"elder? jihyo we look the same age." was all you could get out. jihyo was charismatic, but understanding what she said was like a rubik's cube. "i can just tell im older than you, im 27 y/nnie. and you look younger than i do." oh. 27. like you'd thought, she's barely older than you. 2 years was not that much of a difference, but it must've counted for something to the pretty drunkard on the other end. "i see. jihyo, im 25 though. you're like, barely older than i am."

should've stopped talking earlier. wayyy earlier. as you learned, jihyo didn't really like being proven wrong.

"so? im still older, even if it is 2 years. so be respectful." her voice was still raspy but now it sounded like she was almost snarling at you. god, you would've hung up right then and there if you knew what your misplaced quick wit and her very well hidden sadism would do to you. because it did barely anything, if anything at all, right.

[lahazywriter]

Meet and Greet (Reboot Wally x reader)

Inspired heavily by the TikTok made by @bloodrediscream. Love your work!!!

The convention center was vibrant as ever. People in costumes, food stalls, art booths and even meet and greets. My eyes got lost in all the banners advertising the meet ups for different celebrities, artists, and creators, while my smile grew wider as I recognized a few names that I didn't see last time I checked the schedules. I felt an aggressive pull on my hand dragging me back to reality. My smile faded as I saw the annoyed look on his face.

If he's going to have an attitude all day why did he join me. I fought back the urge to roll my eyes and continued forward. "This is amazing! So many of my favorite creators are here!" I looked up at my boyfriend hoping to rub off some of my excitement on him.

He just looked down at me and shrugged, his face remaining annoyed. I released a heavy sigh and pulled my hand away from his. "I think I'm going to explore on my own. We can meet back up in a couple hours," I held up my phone while walking away. "Just text me, when you're ready."

I spent the next hour perusing the aisles of all the different booths. There were so many ideas in one spot it would take me the entire week to go through everything. Even with that much time I still have doubts that I'd get through all of it. I felt a vibration in my pocket and took out my phone. I had 3 missed calls and 17 messages. I didn't hold back the eye roll and set my phone to 'Do Not Disturb' after sending a message of where I was.

The crowd for this Meet and Greet was insane. There were girls screaming, some crying, all were hourding the lines to the booth. My curiosity got the best of me as I joined the line wanting to see what all this commotion was about.

To my surprise the line was moving smoothly. It didn't take long until I could read the banner that said Welcome Home, each letter having it's own color. The name sounded familiar, I remember reading about a reboot of it happening a little while back. I recalled babysitting for my boyfriend's siblings and how they'd beg for me to put this show on. I racked my brain to remember any specific episode but nothing was coming to mind.

"NEXT" the loud voice shook me to my core. My thought bubble was abruptly popped as I stumbled to move forward. I looked at the security guard as he ushered me to go past the velvet rope he had undone. I felt panic erupt inside me. When did I get to the front? Who am I even meeting? I don't have anything for them to sign.

I tried to calm myself down with deep breathes as I moved closer to the table. My calming methods were immediately ruined as I looked at the man at the booth. I felt blush warm up my cheeks. He was devishly handsome, I couldn't blame the girls I saw earlier. He had messy blue hair, that had been done up in an old hair style. His rsmile was sweet but his eyes…those are a different story. For some reason I felt as if he was looking directly through me, reading my thoughts, trying to uncover my soul. It sent a cold shiver down my spine.

I laughed off my nervousness and tried to avoid his eyes. He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Hello neighbor! Thank you for coming to the meet and greet! Do you have something for me to sign?" He sounded tired. His delivery was perfect almost as if he just started the day and his energy was at it's peak, but I could feel the exhaustion behind it.

"You look tired."

"Excuse me?"

My eyes widen at my mistake, I felt my face flush and grow warm. I wanted to rip out my voice box and stomp on it so I could never speak again. Instead the word vomit began.

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking and a thought slipped through. You look wonderful, not exhausted. Very handsome. Just great, perfection even. Oh you have pictures, can I have one?" I picked one of the photos off the table, and handed it to him. He signed it quickly before giving me a smile bright enough to grow flowers. "I hope your day is going well…Wally."

He chuckled before responding. "Of course it is, I get to meet all my wonderful supporters and fans." He held out his hand for me to shake and I did so.

"Well, to be honest. I've never actually watched your show."

"Oh?" Wally stopped moving his hand and looked at me with confusion. I felt my hands start to get clammy. I tried to gently pull my hand away but Wally held it firmly.

"B-but I am definitely a fan and will be binge watching it as soon as I get home. Thank you for time!" I finished shaking his hand and waved before leaving the booth. I wanted to die from embarrassment. Why did I even go up there? I've never even sat down and watched his show in it's entiretity. I ran a hand through my hair to calm my never ending thoughts. I looked at the picture of himself that he signed.

"Show me your smile" - Wally Darling

His signature was perfection, I wouldn't believe he didn't just copy and paste it 1000 times over if I didn't see him sign it right in front of me. Did I smile at all when I went up there or did I just stand there like a fool? Wait. Why did I care? I have a boyfriend. Oh shit I have a boyfriend. I pulled out my phone, over 30 missed calls. I immediately called him back. He picked up on the first ring, and started yelling at me through the speakers, why didn't I answer him, why was I ignoring him, blah blah blah. I held my heavy sigh back and told him where I was. He responded by hanging up the phone. I looked at the ended call for moment before putting it back in my pocket, I guess that means he was coming to me.

There was more fangirling happening, as a bunch of girls started forming a circle around who I can only assume to be Wally. I looked over there and he appeared to be singing and dancing to Shakira. I almost burst out into laughter, at how good it was. Guess there's a pretty good reason why he's on television. It was a cute sight. I sighed and looked at my autographed photo again. Wally Darling. Show you my smile? I looked up from my picture to see where he had gone, and found him in the middle of a crowd. I looked at the picture again before looking back up. To my surprise, he was already looking at me. His eyes were half lidded and as piercing as ever. The cold shiver came back as he looked at me. At least I thought he was. Without realising I followed the command on my autograph and gave him a smile, or his general direction at least.

I shook my head at my delusions and began to walk away to find my boyfriend. At least I can say I met THE Wally Darling. I see my boyfriend hanging around the booth selling drinks when I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around and see Mr. Darling himself standing before me. I gave him a wave and a confused look.

"Uh hi? Did your meet and greet end?"

"No, but I forgot to add something to your autograph. Couldn't let you get away without it."

"Oh. I didn't realise." I handed him back the photo trying not to linger on the idea of our fingers brushing against each other. I watch as he quickly scribbles something in one of the corners. He doesn't hand the photo back and instead he gives me a sly grin.

"So are you single? Did you come here by yourself?" He looks at me with those same piercing eyes. I wanted to say yes really badly. Which is awful. I mentally slapped myself to restart my thinking process. It took me a moment to answer but by the time I could string together a sentence, my boyfriend had already found me. He put a hand on my shoulder and tried to look as intimidating as possible. I rolled my eyes and shrugged his hand off my shoulder. I looked at Wally with an apologetic smile.

"No, I'm not."

Wally didn't respond, his gaze was on my boyfriend. It felt sinister like he was trying to kill him with a look. I mentally laughed at the idea. I'm just overthinking things. I nudged my boyfriend in the side, so he would stop this dick sizing contest. Wally finally tore his gaze from my boyfriend and looked at me with a smile. He handed me my photo, it had one of the corners folded in. He gave me a quick wink before turning on his heel and heading back to his booth. I turned around and noticed my boyfriend had went back to the drinking booth. I started to walk over to him, and unfolded the corner of my autograph. My internal thermometer broke as I saw the 10 digit number followed by xo. I folded the entire photo and put it into my pocket.

"That was some meet and greet."

[pixiestein]

a lil mouscedes design bc i’ve started actually getting comfortable with digital art recently & my fcking apple pencil stopped working so i can’t do anything until they replace it 🙃 anyway ever since i heard mouscedes is coming to g3 i’ve been wondering about her design bc girl her g1 design was Atrocious im sorry but the colours, the patterns, the way she describes her style as “totally upper beast side!” and yet it’s never shown in what she wears? girlie just wears a cheese shirt & some ballet rat trap heels? where is her rich girl old money new york um excuse me this drink is wrong can i speak to the manager swag?? they fr did not capture the rich girl vibes which is disappointing bc while it’s definitely not my thing, i do love exploring different styles & aesthetics and the Classic Rich Girl aesthetic is something we haven’t rlly seen from them! so i’m curious what they’re gonna do w her for g3, cautiously optimistic bc i don’t think it can be worse than her previous design, buuut still worried they aren’t gonna do her justice. if they don’t heavily feature yellow in her colour palette im gonna sue fr give yellow a chance i swear it’s not a bad colour!!!! anyway. look up what a real life rat king is if u wanna see something weird & gross but that’s what she’s based on, just a fucked up amalgamation of rat bods stuck together & slowly dying. ik some people have said that she should’ve been in eah bc the rat king is a character in the nutcracker, but i mean, it is quite monstrous. like if u saw one in real life would you not think there was something monstrous & supernatural going on? so i gave her like ten tails bc i want her to look kinda weird to be clear that she is actually a monster. her hairstyle was very much inspired by willow pill’s rat look tbh…pink added in ofc. and the buttons on her skirt & jacket are little nyc manhole covers :3

[marcheriest]

Every piece of ur art i see makes me more excited and enthusiastic. Just scrolled through in a blaze of glory, and it's super inspiring to see how your style works. I want to embrace some of the almost collage-y elements in my own work.

What is your process like?

Thank you so much, your message made my day. I wanted to answer this publicly since many people tend to ask about my process, and honestly it’s a little mysterious to me too and is hard to condense into a proper step-by-step.

For illustrations, I rarely do any prep, and rely heavily on my mood and instinct to instruct how I draw (unless it’s for a client). I sort of “find” the piece halfway, and the difficulty is in carrying the idea I discovered in drawing it through to the end. Music helps me in keeping the mood consistent. You could point to any illustration I’ve done and I could immediately tell you what music I listened to to achieve that piece.

Basically:

Harness the fury -> Draw -> Drawing looks like something awesome -> REJOICE -> Add colors -> Become obsessed with finding the right colors -> Lose sight of everything -> Despair -> Oh this looks good actually -> Force self to refine so other people can understand what you made better -> FINISH

You might gain some better insight watching my process videos, which are on my Youtube page. I also speak at length about my thought processes and technical tricks on my Patreon.

[littleaipom]

Propaganda post about my fave medias time! [#1]

Hiiii, I just wanna talk about and recommend some things I like on my blog here! I don't always draw fanart for everything that I like and find inspiring, but I like sharing what I feel are gems with others. (the gifs im adding arent mine)

I've got a small handful of movies that involve animals and a predator+prey relationship, with plenty of cute moments mixed with heart-aching moments. They're all animated kids movies with the potential to hit pretty hard. There's something tragic to the way each movie acknowledges nature and has a character try and fight the standard order of things.

One Stormy Night

Over time, this one has become my favorite of these. This movie can provide such an unexpected comfort with how it approaches friendship as something that can transcend all else, and not need any complex reason to exist. It centers around a friendship between a wolf and goat, from how they first become friends and into how they have to fight to keep their friendship. The art style and protagonists are adorable and goofy, maintaining a delightful levity and earnestness throughout the whole movie. There is still plenty of drama surrounding their romeo-and-juliet-type relationship, and the lengths these characters go to to be friends is captivating. I rewatch this movie every now and then and it still manages to make me cry through it's earnestness and the truths it speaks to.

You are Umasou

The art style for this is extremely bright, unrealistic, cartoony, and adorable. The story is similarly cartoony, and yet it hits on some very grounded topics about family, facing difficult truths, and finding your own path in life even if it doesnt fit what's conventional. This movie gets bonus points from me for having two main predator+prey relationships that mirror each other. It's heartwarming and silly and has plenty of entertaining action moments with a good dose of drama. It's really charming and sticks with me.

Chirin's Bell

Heads up, this one is bleaker than the rest, and I love it for it's tragedy(behind the very cute artstyle for the sheep, no less). The protaganist sheep starts from an understandable position where he is tired of being the prey, the victim. His journey to do something about it pushes him to see and do things he never would have done otherwise. And it's this path he takes that has both impressive and unintended consequences. The film seems to pose questions like "is it better to live in ignorance if you can?", "how far will you go to ensure you can't be hurt again?", and "how do you reconcile with abandoning your origins?". The ending feels inevitable and yet haunting all the same.

Leafie: A Hen into the Wild

This one has held up for me perhaps the least, due to it's specific brand of cartoony-ness and unexpected gross factor(this ties into the original vs english/censored versions of the movie. arguably it's a personal preference thing in the end, but i'm actually glad i watched the censored version first.) However, it has still hit home for me several times before and deserves it's credit! The movie tackles the idea of remaining locked inside a system vs living free in the wild where there are many more dangers and mistakes to be made. It also focuses heavily on motherhood, where love and selflessness win in a fight against the uncaring and unmoving whims of others and nature itself. The protagonist's determination to be free and live the life she wants despite her ignorance and the pain it causes her is very moving to me. There is tragedy sprinkled thru the movie and yet it's underscored by how the protagonist is resolved see it all as worthwhile. The movie is often goofy, often dramatic, and overall bittersweet.

So yeah, check them out if any sound interesting! ^^

[cleverchildblizzard]

random headcanons for Destiny cause I said so (featuring Koko who belongs to @myvirtuallove!!

was just bored so her you go

Destiny isn't as traumatised as Pico and the gang,since she was in a whole other school when the school shooting happened.But she has experienced some attacks going towards her school due to other students biting off more than they can chew and getting in trouble.It wasn't daily or anything,but each time it would heavily affect Destiny

Destiny also deeply values her friendships,so if someone was to mess with her friends she WOULD NOT let that slide.She would defend them as best as she can but if it gets physical she'll loose it,but sometimes goes to far.

Koko: ...Destiny?

Destiny: What.

Koko: Did you...did you just SHOOT that person.

Destiny: Not my fault they were being a dick.

Koko: Well you right,but that doesn't mean you KILL THEM!

Destiny: Oh calm the fuck down,I'll just throw them in a hospital or somethin'

Koko: And after that?

Destiny: We get some Mcdonald's.

Destiny has some scars from kickboxing training,she lied to her mother telling her that whenever she would come home with bruises.What her mother didnt know was that majority of them are from when she would go out with Pico and the gang,usually getting stabbed,punched and all of that stuff.Desting told her mother when she was older,and her mother was MAD but overall happy that her baby didn't die or anything.

Speaking of Destiny's mother,her mother is kinda strict but at the same time loving.Her mother expects the best from her daughter but doesn't pressure her or anything,instead actually listening into Destiny's interests and helping her be the best at THAT instead.Her mother wanted to at first make Destiny become a nurse but Destiny wanted to do gymnastics and kickboxing.But Destiny didn't tell her mother cause she didn't want to disappoint her mother.

Destiny: Uh,ma?

Mother: Yes?

Destiny: I don't wanna do no nurse training...

Mother: ...Really? I thought ya liked it,baby.

Destiny: Just didn't want to disappointed you.

Mother: ...Oh,baby,ya never disappoint me,yeah? I know my daughter is the best,remember that. *gives Destiny a forehead kiss :)*

Destiny: ...thanks ma.

Mother: Now whatcha wanna do instead?

Destiny: Kickboxing.

Mother: That's it?

Destiny: And...gymnastics.I thought you wouldn't want me to do it-

Mother: Nonese! I did gymnastics when I was growing up! Did ya know your grandfather taught me how to do boxing?

Destiny: Oh..wow.

Mother: Now,when ya come back from school call ya father so he can find some gymnastics and kickboxing clubs nearby 😊

Destiny: Okay...

Destiny grew up in a religious house hold so she grew up with A LOT of initial homophobia,but it was never by her parents.More of people outside her house like kids at school and stuff.Also her mother told her that being gay was a sin but you should never disrespect them for it.Destiny grew out of religion when she got older.

Now for some headcanons about her relationship with Koko!!! (Koko belongs to @myvirtuallove)

Destiny randomly buys stuff for Koko,whether that's some sweets or fucking dresses this woman's love language (both platonic and romantic) so Koko better expect a lot of gifts.Same with Pico and the others,Destiny buys them stuff to cause she accidentally saves up cause she has nothing to buy so her money just rots in her bank account.

Now,if we were to ignore the little fanfiction I was writing about Destiny being in love with Pico,Destiny's in love with someone else.Jay,my other fnf oc who is GF's cousin,which means he is a DEMON (remember that)

Jay btw (old ass art I'll update his design later 🫡)

I feel Koko would be a but protective of Destiny cause,its a demon.What if one day he just takes Destiny's life?! (The only thing Jay did take away from Destiny was her virginity but shhhh Koko doesn't need to know that...)

Destiny would probably be dragged into Koko's shopping sphrees or something since Destiny's clothing style is DRY,no sauce or anything but comfy and casual clothing

Koko: C'mon Destiny u need a glow up!

Destiny: idgaf

Koko: To bad,no let's go!

Destiny really appreciates Koko's friendship with her but would never admit it. (she doesn't wanna admit that kind of stuff cause she doesn't like being vulnerable.)

and that's it hope u guys like my silly gal!!!

[webcomicreads]

The Issue with "Foefic"

For as long as humans have created things, others have looked at the fruits of their labour and thought, "I can do that better." Drawing inspiration from something you see and think you could improve upon is not wrong, it is how innovation works when it comes to creating tools, art, cooking. However, some people mean it in a malicious way. A way that teeters on jealousy and, if I may, clout-thirsty.

Lore Rekindled is a "retelling" of the (unfortunately) Eisner award winning webcomic Lore Olympus. From what I saw on the post introducing it, it is "better drawn and better written." I, like many, have issue with Lore Olympus. The writing is lacking and absolutely not award-worthy, and it even misses the mark as a cheesy harlequin romance. Persephone's characterization has no consistency. The art, while striking and easily recognizable, leaves a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to backgrounds. I don't consider it noteworthy, but it is heavily pushed by Naver's Webtoon, and that is probably why it keeps winning awards. With how low my opinion of Lore Olympus was, I dived into Lore Rekindled hoping to find something with more substance.

I did not find that substance.

LR suffers in different ways than LO. It assumes that you have read or are at least familiar with the major characters of Lore Olympus, which is understandable. The characters are re-written and interact strangely. Many of the characters in LO are meant to come off as "old money," and this shows in their lifestyles, fashion, and way they speak. The characters in LR all appear to have the same voice. If I were to print out a transcript of this comic and read it out loud, they would all be indistinguishable. LR is "better drawn," but what I think they meant is it is less toony. The backgrounds are better most of the time, but the panelling is boring and lacks the dynamicism seen in the original work. The plot is, if I'm being honest, just AU fanfiction (derogatory).

When I also learned that this creator had an original comic, I was very interested to see what it brought to the table. As I understood it, LR was a side project. So you can imagine my surprise when I looked at both the old and the new Project Reaper and it is just objectively a worse comic. The the majority of the cast has same-face syndrome, and seem to live in a cool-tone hell with no furniture most of the time. The concept of how to dress and style characters seems to be locked into what a 15 year old thinks is badass, but that fits for the story. The plot and dialogue reads like something a middle-schooler would make as an RP scenario with friends. The colouring is lazy dodge and burn, which just emphasizes that the author does not care about cultivating a space or atmosphere or world for these characters to live in. They are just toys to mash together to make your angsty super cool comic that you're going to pitch to Dark Horse for REAL, GUYS. And the first comic for this series is written right to left. In the author's defense, they were a teen when they started the original comic.

So how does someone whose average panel looks like the example above come to the conclusion that they can make a better comic? It's simple: Project Reaper is original, but LR has base material you can go off of. Anyone can read a comic and think "I would do THIS for this panel, and I would do THAT for this character introduction." I did it reading both of these comics. But if I were handed only the script for either of these projects, it would not come as easily. Lore Rekindled only looks "better" because it has Rachel's work to build off of. This goes back to what I was saying at the beginning, that the "I could do that but GOOD" view isn't doing you any favours, especially when you aren't doing your own IP well.

I think writing a little hate piece once in a while is good. Draw a hate piece if you really need to (though I would just show it to friends, personally.) Consuming a little media you hate is also good. As a creator, it is important to see and understand why you hate something, what you would change, and what little glimmers of good are in an otherwise pile of garbage. It helps you grow, to realize your tastes, and what not to do in your own work. Critically acclaimed writer Alan Moore agrees! But to have a whole comic with a regular update schedule redrawing something you hate is... It's giving "look at my sonichu comic redraw!" It is loser behavior.

Plenty of people create media out of spite, and I encourage it. I do it too. But the work should be your own. You need to put this energy into your IP. If you keep being a "hater," you'll never guess what you attract. Other haters! And those haters will like you, for now. But one of these days, someone will go through your list of essays and think, "oh, but I don't see any fat people in YOUR work that aren't plus-size model attractive." All it takes is one comment or take that a similarly-minded reader doesn't like and there could be a master list about you!

I am, of course, not saying you can't make derivative works at all. The doujinshi market is full of fan creations, and every art site you go to will be full of fanart. But the difference between LR and these works (generic sexy flavour of the month artists aside,) is that they are made with love. With passion for the original work. I think back to Homestuck AUs because, while I may not have liked them, these creators were doing it out of love for the characters. I follow a few guys on twitter who have been drawing a picture of their anime wife every day for over 10 years. That's love! Then you have more transformative works like Hello from Halo Head, of which some of it's characters are off-brand animal crossing characters. I love that. I think it's neat that the creator loved that little cat twink enough to bring him into their comic in a new form.

I think the point of this post is that you can use spite as a motivator, but it should be for your own creations. We have a limited time on this planet, and even less time where our hands are still able to pick up a pen. Put this towards your passion for the medium, for the stories in your heart. It's rough out there for creators, and it can be hard to find an audience in the ever-churning seas of the internet. But, please, don't put all your effort into "foefiction." That is cringe. And, if you're going to anyways, it'd better actually be good.

PS B^u

[wariofranchisefanblog]

A new WarioWare has come out and I got enough playtime in to feel comfortable talking about it in full, so I’ll do just that.

Right off the bat I can say in short: this is a good game and a good WarioWare. Not up there with my favs, but it does a lot right. My experience did end up quite differently than anticipated and I’ll explain why soon enough.

First I want to talk about the presentation, which I think is an easy high point. Everything is vibrant and colorful, the art keeps showing the strengths of the current style and everything feels very much like it should. Microgames run that perfect mix of genuinely nice looking and deliberately cursed and the cutscenes are the best of both worlds, being smooth and lively, while returning to Gold’s full voice acting.

Speaking of cutscenes, that brings us to the story related stuff and that’s where the game shows some interesting tricks up its sleeves. In terms of structure it’s a return to the pre-Gold era, with the closest to an overarching theme being the vacation set-up.

I do think the Ware crew is in top form, likable, fun and full of life as always and two stories in particular even do something major.

Kat and Ana’s story marks the shocking return of Cractus, bringing a Wario Land character into WarioWare and Young Cricket’s story sees his Kung-Fu Ball partner finally brought into WarioWare properly. Both of those are really massive and show a willingness to more heavily utilize elements from other parts of the verse, which I find incredibly exciting.

Oddly enough, the weaker link of the story for me this time is Wario himself. Now don’t get me wrong, everything that happens here is usual Wario antics and I do like how non–english versions of the script like japanese and german, have him be actually be nice about bringing the others along. His confusion at the Crygor drawings and later ascending to godhood, with the cast roll confirming he got a happy end, are all good too, plenty of nice stuff here.

He just feels weirdly absent here. Having no presence in the Remix stages, no bonus mode in his image and even the final stage has him stuck being cursed to have his face be the avatar of an angry volcano. It doesn’t really feel like Wario and ends with him being the only one of the cast with no moment to shine during the climax, which I can’t help but find a little disappointing.

Still, it’s not a big deal, after so many games Wario taking a slight backseat isn’t a dealbreaker, it just stood out a little.

Moving away from that, there is the audio side of things. The music as usual is full of unapologetically catchy jingles and some major stand-out tracks such as MegaGame Muscles and the Form Guide theme.

We got full voice acting again and with it our first taste of Kevin Afghani as Wario. Pre-release stuff had me very on and off with how I felt about it, but having heard all of him in the game: yeah, I like him! He does have some wonky deliveries, but the overall voice still feels like Wario and has its own fun appeal. Certainly more noticeably different than Mario and Luigi, but I am optimistic Kevin will greatly grow into the role, as he gets to play him more and more.

Then we get to the big one, the gameplay and this is where I was thrown for a loop the most. With this being a direct Smooth Moves successor I thought I’d know what to expect, but was quite caught off-guard in many places.

This surprisingly ended up being the most difficult WarioWare for me by a long-shot, enough that I actually had to take advantage of the second chance mechanic, which I never had to do in Gold and GiT.

If I had to sum the game up in one word, it would be demanding, Wario commanding you to move it is not just a funny title, it’s the name of the game.

With the Wiimote, you could get away with just sorta doing the poses in a lot of cases, but Move It really demands you do the exact poses, down to holding the Joycon juuuust the right way. 

More than anything I was surprised how strict it could be in that regard, not following the form instructions is asking for trouble, but I have to say, at the same token I was amazed how well things worked once I got the hang of it.

I’ll admit, I was ill while playing the game, so maybe that caused me to be a little more daft than usual, but it took me a bit to really get into it and I had to consult the museum several times for some microgames to figure out what I even needed to do.

I do think the game is a touch more complicated than usual for WarioWare, since you have to take effectively two controllers and specific poses into account, on top of grasping what each microgame demands of you, but once it clicks everything feels well thought out and purposeful. Getting things down is immensely satisfying and shows some really stunning results of what the Joycon can do.

That said the game isn’t entirely without jank, Hand Model being a notable culprit of it. The game finds several fun applications for it, but anything regarding reading forms or how many fingers you hold up, can be really clunky in the heat of the moment. In general, the strictness of the forms also means you need to really be prepared for every microgame, since slouching with your form could lead to a bad desync

Still, even with some jank I do think stepping up to the challenge to get a feel of it and get better is very much worth it. I wasn’t sure how to feel at first, but my opinion on it only went up the more I played.

That covers it for the main stages, as for the side-content though, yeah, that is where the game shows a weaker side of itself.

Not so much in terms of what’s here though. You got your standard towers, as well as MegaGame Muscles, which no joke, may be my favorite stage in the game. It’s frantic, fun, the music slaps and the set-up of Mr. Sparkles having ascended to being a literal god of fitness, is pure WarioWare.

The new Pyoro game of the day is a fun, different take on it, much like the one in Smooth Moves was as well and Dirty Job is a cool bonus game expansion of a more stand-out microgame concept.

That is really it as far as the single player content is concerned though and it does feel a liiiittle on the meager side. No souvenirs, which Smooth Moves and GiT didn’t have either, but Smooth Moves had more bonus games and GiT had the final Pyoro stage, Penny Remix, more bonus games, unlockable art and the Wario Cup.

We do still have a decent variety of multiplayer modes to work with and I did get a friend to come on by to try them, save for the 4 player exclusive one.

I think it’s a good selection, in concept it has the best multiplayer mode offerings since Mega Party Games (though I did like GiT a lot too), but there is one issue I have with it and I think GiT was a little guilty of it too.

As I mentioned, I do think there is a learning curve on how to play this game most effectively and you feel that even more in multiplayer, where someone not as in the know, is naturally gonna accidentally grip his Joycon slightly wrong, despite doing the pose and need some extra instructions, much like the characters in GiT can take some learning.

It is something you can overcome and have a good time with, WarioWare is a very good ‘’don’t take me too seriously’’ kind of multiplayer experience, but on the whole, if they want a true party game WarioWare, I still think something simpler like Mega Party Games is in order and by all means, I wouldn’t mind them doing something like that again.

On a side note, I also find it a bit of a shame that the nice new models for the cast, updated to resemble their designs in this game, are ultimately watered down to sprites of their heads during multiplayer gameplay. With how much emphasis is being put on multiplayer to carry the game for longer, I think it would have been nice if they put in the work to fully animate GiT-style models for the multiplayer modes.

That small gripe aside, as I said, I think multiplayer is fine, but not quite the pick up and play experience for people new to the game, as I feel they wanted it to be and I do think a bit too much of the game is locked behind multiplayer.

But yeah, that’s WarioWare Move It. It’s good and if you like WarioWare, you’re getting what you wanted out of it. It’s not one of my top games in the series and feels a bit too lacking on the side content front, but on the whole, I had a good time and it gets a surprising amount out of a controller that I have an openly low opinion on.

[dreadnotau]

Its been a decent couple of months of productive work, so it's sadly time for a schedule change. I'll be posting pages two weeks apart again. Details provided below if you're curious as to why.

In all honesty there's no big dramatic reason this time around. I've just slowly lost drive to work on Dread Not as often and as thoroughly as I used to be able to. As I said in one of my previous posts (that sounded suspiciously like this one), I want to focus on other projects as well. One of those is my personal art blog, which I've neglected even though I've had art on the backburner that I've been meaning to post for AGES. Kingdomrune is another one of those, where I have shit I could post that I just... never did. Dread Not takes a lot of time and I miss being able to dedicate that time to consuming media instead of just grinding and trying to produce my own. One of the most important things to do as an artist is to broaden your horizons and take in as much art as you can, to diversify and expand what you know and what you can make. But, when all day every day I'm just sitting and drawing my own thing, it's like I have tunnel vision and my creative resources run dry. It's starting to feel weirdly soulless on my end, because I don't feel nearly half the inspiration to make the pages as I did when the big hiatus ended. It's all dependent on time and exposure, and I can only crunch for so long before it starts to feel damaging to me instead of fun and creatively fulfilling.

So what does this mean, practically speaking? Well, for one, I'm spacing out the page upload for the rest of Act 1, as previously mentioned. I'm well aware this will kill the pacing and it'll drag out longer than it theoretically needs to, but I'd even rather that than trying to rush out a page in the Two Days I have free this week (yeah, ONLY two days free out of the ENTIRE week. Don't ask me why it's not even my fuckin' fault this time). If pages become even more scarce than 1 page per 2 weeks, blame it on college. I'm getting new subjects and I don't even know the class schedule yet. Concerning Act 2 though, I'll be changing the structure of the pages from their core. I'll be switching to a different drawing software (probably Krita, suck my dick Photoshop) so it'll take some getting used to. I can't even promise bonus content or anything during the necessary break between acts because of that shift in software happening, I've never done a massive technical move like this. However, it'll allow me to, not only work on Dread Not better, but expand my art overall, so it's definitely worth it. I've wanted to get into animation for YEARS and Krita seems like an okay place to start (the gif on this post WAS made with Photoshop, but shitty gifs are about all I can make as animations in Photoshop). Act 2's style will, predictably, differ heavily from Act 1 and (with how long writing the dialogue alone for it is taking), it might end up being Longer than Act 1, too. Visually, it'll probably be something like cleaned up and coloured sketches, with simpler colour palettes and simpler (big airquotes) visuals overall, and it'll speed up the process and possibly allow me to post more than one page at a time. Possibly. That's not a promise.

I'm sorry if that's disappointing to anyone, but I physically can't make myself continue the current artstyle across all acts. It's just not feasible.

For those curious about the FARTHER future of Dread Not, I have plans to turn Act 3 into a series of fics rather than full comic pages, and something maybe a bit more insane for Act 4. I don't have everything figured out yet, and I don't want to make any false promises or give any grand ideas I won't be able to commit to, since only time will tell how my creativity will flow years from now. If you all want more content from me specifically, again I'm planning on reviving my art tumblr like a half buried zombie, and you'll probably see more there than you bargained for once I actually get into the habit of posting things. If you're mayhaps interested in my original stuff, keep your eyes peeled for a guy called Duro, I might start posting about him some time soon.

As always, thank you for your patience, and apologies again if this news was disappointing to anyone. I'm just one guy and this comic is a titan of biblical proportions. I'll keep you all posted on any further developments and plans for the future! Stay tuned!

[the-lincyclopedia]

for the AU game — QT sleepaway camp AU

Ooh, did you know sleep-away camp AUs are my weakness? I don't read or write a lot of them, but I do have a two-part Check Please summer camp AU whose setting is based heavily on my own camp experiences (I've spent parts of 16 of the past 21 summers at the same sleep-away camp), and writing it was so much fun. But okay, here goes:

I'm going to set this with the monarchs and their peers in their early teens and attending camp as campers, while Teleus, Relius, Phresine, the Magus, and Pol are counselors. (Every time I do something like this, I realize how few powerful older women we get in the series.)

The camp's theme is spies/adventure stuff. Teleus leads the physical challenges. Relius teaches kids to make and break codes. Phresine teaches the minutiae of reading facial expressions and speaking so that your co-conspirators catch a double meaning that everyone else misses (and, like, interpersonal manipulation generally). The Magus teaches about plants, particularly for healing and poisoning purposes. Pol teaches martial arts until an entitled parent gets him fired by threatening a bogus lawsuit just because their kid didn't like him.

Irene and Helen are in the same cabin every summer for several consecutive years, and they go from being friends as children, to not getting along at all as pre-teens because Helen mistakes Irene's femininity for vapidness and Irene thinks Helen's androgynous style makes her sloppy and gross, to getting close again as teenagers when they realize that they're both just trying to get by in a sexist environment using different tactics. (Me, basing fic ideas on my own life? Never.)

Gen and Sophos both start attending the camp really young, but Gen switches to the older session earlier than Sophos does, just in time for Costis to start attending camp for the first time. Gen and Costis are cabinmates and get off on the wrong foot when Gen is kind of a jerk about Costis not having been to camp before and Costis overreacts, but after a really weird two weeks during which Gen helps Costis learn the ropes in the most convoluted way possible, Costis is surprised to find that he's somehow actually really good friends with Gen.

Nahuseresh gets ostracized from the social group at camp for being openly bigoted in a whole bunch of different ways, but he doesn't say anything bad enough to get kicked out of camp. Quedue, on the other hand, non-consensually kisses Irene at the first dance of the session the one year he attends camp, and his parents have to come get him the next day, because the camp director (Hephestia?) is having none of that.

[wicca-wicca-whack]

Yata Misaki x Reader

You’d been a member of HOMRA for about a week before Yata’s constant stammering got to you. On one hand, it was cute- he had trouble talking to girls, and it was almost flattering for someone to stutter the moment you entered a room. On the other hand…

“Dude! Your board is so cool,” you complimented his new skateboard, looking at the art on the bottom of it.

“Th-thanks...”

It made it unnecessarily hard to hold a conversation. You’d mentioned you skate, hoping it would open the gateway for a normal conversation, but he’d just nodded jerkily, avoiding your gaze. The other members told you not to worry about it- Yata had always been this way, Rikio had said, waving a hand lazily. As if that made it okay.

Politely, Tatara had pointed out that you were the first female HOMRA member above the age of 18- which you supposed made sense. He hadn’t been forced to socialize with a girl on his own level since he was in school, you guessed. Izumo insisted Yata would warm up to you, but you were getting fed up quickly. How long did he need? You’d been coming around the group of men for at least two months before you’d joined, the decision itself coming after you’d been robbed in an alley and narrowly avoided being heavily injured by the man who’d held a knife to your stomach.

And still, Yata treated you like the plague. So, you’d devised a plan, with the help of Tatara. To get the skater alone, maybe get him to talk to you more. But your current predicament was not at all what the pair of you had discussed.

Somehow, you’d gotten locked in a room together, and while, in theory, Yata could break it down, you both knew it would invoke Izumo’s wrath if he so much as scratched anything in the bar, let alone break down the door leading to the backroom. So, you grabbed your chance and, while sitting on a wooden box, watching Yata try and figure out how to open the locked door without breaking it, you asked if he had some kind of issue with you. You watched him turn to give you a confused look, and your eyes travelled over his flushed face.

It was no secret among the other guys that you thought Yata was hot. I mean, why wouldn’t you? He was slim and athletic, and his fighting style was oddly entrancing to you. And you’d seen him interact with the guys before, when he didn’t notice you coming in. He was really a sight to see.

“W-why would I h-have a problem with you?” He didn’t speak very loud, cheeks puffed out indignantly.

“Well, what should I think when the hot skater guy can’t speak to me for more than five seconds?” Bolder than you intended, and you cringed internally. Why would you say that? Right now?

“The… hot…?” You could swear he was about to explode, with the color of red he’d become.

“NO! Well, yes! Well- fuck.” You tried to backpedal, then decided that was worse than him just knowing what you thought. “That isn’t the point, the point is- well-”

“I-I didn’t know-”

“How else am I supposed to get to know you or even think about-”

“Y-you’re really cute too-”

With your voices overlapping, and your mind running, you almost hadn’t heard that. “You think I’m cute?”

Yata gaped his mouth like a fish, and if he could turn redder, you were sure he would. “Well-”

You didn’t give him the chance to keep going. You lurched off the crate, leaning up just enough to grab his face and give him a chaste kiss. You could swear his mind was static at this point, from the lack of movement from him, but then one of his hands hesitantly settled on your hip, and he pushed into the kiss, and your stomach erupted in light butterflies.

You pulled back, and he looked like he might say something, but the door opened, and he dashed out the door, with a high-pitched “See you!” tossed out behind him. Izumo watched him go, confused, and then turned his gaze to you. You shrugged, pretending to be just as confused.

Maybe being on the offense with getting to know him would be a good idea. His nerves were just standing in the way, you guessed.

Not for long.

[the-full-shakespearience]

He was not of an age, but for all time

Sometimes that famous quote by Ben Johnson about Shakespeare feels more real to me. Shakespeare's work has been hugely popular for over 400 years, and it connects us not just to his time but to all the time in between.

This is a page from from my copy of Macbeth from The Temple Shakespeare. The Temple Shakespeare was a collection of Shakespeare's plays published individually. These little red volumes were published prolifically from 1894 - 1930 (The New Temple Shakespeare was published from 1934 - 1956). They're fairly common in vintage bookstores throughout the English-speaking world. My copy of Macbeth was published in 1896.

One of the previous owners (perhaps the original owner) left their name inside the cover:

It looks to me like the name is Z. R. Stuber (though it could also be E. R. Stuber). There is also a little ticket listing the bookseller, Gilbert and Field at 67 Moorsgate Street, London E.C. The only information I can find about the bookseller is a reference from the Royal Academy of Art. They have a listing for Don Quixote of the Mancha by Edward Abbott Parry that also had a ticket in the front cover for the same bookseller, which they describe only as a book seller in London during the 1890s.

The area of the city that housed this bookshop was heavily bombed during the Second World War, which lead to the widening of London Wall just west of here. Most of the buildings around this address are obviously modern, though this building is either older or was built/restored in an older style.

This is 67 Moorgate today, a store selling designer greeting cards and stationary:

This book went on its own journey for more than 120 years before I acquired it, being bought and sold an unknown number of times before getting here. It is a century older than I am. The people who first printed, sold, and bought it are gone. The store that sold it is gone. The street it was sold on is unrecognizable. The company that published it was bought by another company that was in turn bought, like a matryoshka doll of corporations.

The story inside was already ancient when this was published, and now the world in which it was created is as inaccessible as the Elizabethan Era.

And yet something has endured.

Knowing that other people have shared in these stories with us makes them real like almost nothing else can. Charles I retitled his copy of Much Ado About Nothing. Sylvia Plath annotated her Hamlet. Z. R. Stuber left their name in Macbeth.

This is my copy of Macbeth now, but for how long? Will it outlive me? Will its fragile pages fall apart before I do? Or maybe I'll leave my name in the cover so that one day someone else can try to decipher my handwriting and know that we read the same lines.