#sorry this answer took so long lol

[bumblebeehug]

That's a very good point! Although I guess you could argue that we already had Natsu thinking Lucy was dead in the Alvarez arc? (And in GMG he literally watches a version of Lucy die.) I suppose the responsibility part would be different as you mentioned (especially if it's Ignia. Or! Lucy could die in the process of saving Natsu). But I also wonder if the 'one wish' is a fakeout plot. And if we can truly trust Elefseria. I mean who is powerful enough to grant a wish? Any wish? That's some karmic justice Genie shit type beat. (Thank you btw, for answering these asks)

(In regards to this https://www.tumblr.com/bumblebeehug/763935002780172288/ive-been-thinking-about-that-too-or?source=share )

I'm a firm believer of the fact that natsu needed all the different stages of Lucy dying. First time around it was a "fake" Lucy, the one from the future. It's the fist time we reallsery see Natsu in that broken anger, but he doesn't go insane. He's still very Natsu, no END-mode or anything, because there's still hope in his mind that he can save his Lucy (plus another bunch of factors that makes it so he doesn't activate demon mode).

The second time is during their war against Alvarez. This time he's quite involved with the whole END thing, he knows he's riding a fragile wave and that he can succumb to the demon stuff soon, so losing Lucy tips him over. At the time, he's ready to die (see shiiro's suicidal-natsu post https://www.tumblr.com/shiiro-arts/764022215033389056/is-natsu-sucdal?source=share for better insight) and he doesn't really consider a life without Lucy. He didn't think he'd make it out of that war alive, because Lucy (in his mind) wouldn't.

He naturally didn't expect her to be alive, or for him to snap out of the demon-mode, so when they all somehow made it out the other side, I think a small, thin string of hope deveoped in Natsu's heart. The bad thing is that it completely relies on Lucy's life. He can't afford to lose her again, because as far as he's concerned, he can't blame his next strike of insanity on being a demon. But he'll go completely insane if Lucy dies. He'll turn into a demon, or at least a monster, stopping at nothing until he's burned everything. An earth where Lucy dies isn't an earth worth existing.

The one wish being a fakeout plot is absolutely something I could see being true. Maybe it isn't even on purpose, Elefseria could have a scewed idea of what he's capable of, hence the reward that should be amazing in theory. It's also possible that Elefseria won't make it out alive of the 100yq. Mashima is sadly not above taking the easy way out of the corners he writes himself into. I just hope that isn't the case, cus I also know that if Mashima puts some effort into his plots, they can end up as masterpieces (Tartarus for example)

[ask-queen-arti]

(the ask box is open!)

[lucabyte]

hello

is this how your peopls work. i am obsessed with your comics and the panel layout and the way they react to eachother and sdgafkhgfdhsagfha s i very desperately need to have a grasp on how you see them in their dynamic and interacting and i feel like i don't know as much about how isabeau and loop be interacting but i am so so so so SO curious as to how that goes and how they feel about eachother pre-"i'm a former siffrin" and post-"ok you know who i am"

oh hell yeah a diagram we love a diagram

but yeah i'd say you've gotten my interpretation of the dynamic down pretty solid??

in general i think my instinct with loop-isabeau interactions is a lot tamer/calmer than others ive seen, my reasoning for why being hmm... i think i can note my core 'things im keeping in mind from the text' here

isabeau's line in act 6 remarking that loop seemed 'shy'. for all of loop's bravado @ siffrin (and thus the player's pov), they are still siffrin, so while it can be easy to percieve them as this loud bombastic personality-- there is this textual reminder that them acting this way is probably due in part to being up against siffrin, someone who won't speak unless spoken to (and thus loop takes the initiative, and is also presumably reveling a bit in making them uncomfortable and annoyed, inkeeping with their self-hatred and self-flaggellation) this to me reads as a reminder that they'd probably retreat into their shell hard when presented with other people- the party included. so even if i can see them trying to undermine their relationships with others, i think it's probably more on the insidious 'insulting siffrin to make the party protective of them' side, because that also feeds into 'proving' that the party only cares about one siffrin and that loop can be replaced. meanwhile isabeau has shown that, even with a vicious jealous streak, he can mostly keep a lid on it. he's the most emotionally intelligent of the group, and would probably be able to suss out loop's self-harm-via-getting-people-pissed-off-at-them gambit relatively simply given how obvious it is. also isabeau is not immune to insecurity-- and would probably let loop take some precidence over their relationship with siffrin because 'well i cant compete with the guy who actually went through All Of The Timeloop With Them.' because like... damn how are you supposed to do that. loop understands their pain better than isa ever could, and it would show in their fucked up unspoken understanding of each other (because how is Isa to know thats because theyre the same guy, and not just because the timeloop traumabonded the fuckers baddddly. which it also did.).

timeloop stressful as fuck. absolutely has both of them on tenterhooks the whole time. we visibly see how it affects siffrin (despondance & mania & aggression), and we see SAPfrin be very. very very despondant. so it would seem to me that loop is basically in a perpetual state of mania, given how sif's internal monologue begins to resemble their way of speaking (with the tee hees and such) when they are clearly broaching into manic states. one can assume that if you take loop out of the Torment Nexus, while they probably wouldn't faire well, all of the tension and pressure that's holding them up would collapse, likely putting them more depressive again by default? Of note, whenever i write loop's dialogue (which im told i do well? i will be honest i kind of feel like that's far too high praise.) i initially write it as very blunt and pissed off-- and will afterwards go back in and Maybe change wording to be more 'silly', but mostly i just add tildes~, italics, exclamation points and laughter to the pissed off dialogue without changing the actual content of it?

loop likes their friends! They are fucked up in the head about it (badly!!!) but they like their friends! They still care a lot, and can barely even hide it a little bit with their aloofness in game. it feels redundant to even try pointing out where they slip up because its everywhereee. They de-person their Actors because theyre the same lines over and over and over, but you see in SAP alone how any break from the script makes them overwhelmed with emotion, and how devastated they are if that deviation occurs a second time and becomes predictable (dying to the king after triggering the requisites for the true end, forcing you to go through it again). BUT!! You take their friends out of the timeloop and let them be New Unpredictable People again? I genuinely find it hard to believe mx siffrin "i love my friends so much id explode the world about it" nolastname would be able to see that and just go "nope im emotionally disconnected i can keep being a bitch to these guys forever". like no theyre gonna slip into being at least neutral no matter what. even if it's in a quiet depressive state when the mania wears off.

my biggest deviation from frequently observed fandom things here i think: i think loop doesn't actually believe that ISAT!Party are 'replacements'. they rarely if ever word a sentiment like this. this is something the fandom goes for because the horror of being replaced wholesale probably WOULD make it easier to cope if you considered those people to Not Be Your Real Friends. But loops WHOLE act 6 spiel? 'THEY WERE MINE FIRST. I LOVED THEM'? (paraphrased) they obviously desperately want to be with them again, and know they're the same people. The Fighter/Defender discrepancy clue is mostly metatext here-- since Loop never acknowledges the defender title-- just calling ISAT!Isa Fighter-- because they are the same guy. Your Fighter. They even call them Fighter in the "You got memory of X, your Fighter will now..." dialogues! Which are practically system dialogues! So. they see these isabeaus as the same. And while I would not put it past them to come up with the "they are different, my party is Dead" thing to Cope... I do think it is a delusion, plain and simple, and that I think any post-knowing-the-truth party would probably shut down weird rituals ive seen the fandom propose (often in a cute way??? it makes me feel insane?? like the concept of loop 'memorialising' their 'dead' family is not cute its nuts. they are being nuts. its like actively feeding into an extremely maladaptive coping mechanism. sorry this is like a massive sidebar but like. Yes i do think this is something loop might do if left unchecked. but it should not be presented as sane or rational? it outright undermines the themes of the game to treat the concept of 'Loop's party' being 'dead' as 'True'?? There's like several points in the game where Loop and Siffrin express that things that happened in the loops Still Happened even if the party dont recall it-- which is why their actions-- being cruel or doing 'experiments' still hold weight and can be Wrong. That it's tragic that the party will never remember but that their forgetting is NOT a pass to do whatever with no consequnce (experiment, bad touch, etc). It follows that by Nixing all of "loop's party", treating them as seperate, in some way implies loop's memories are Lesser and what they did "doesn't matter as much", which is antithetical on account of being contradictory to however you take the stated theme. PLUS... The game and Paratext are clear that there is One Timeline. SAP is in the same contiguous space as ISAT-- it is effectively just that on the loop between SAP and ISAT that we the audience dont see-- loop ate that star and when the loop restarted there were two of them. for all intents and purposes one can intuit that Loop 0 of isat and SAPfrin's first loop are legitimately identical from sif's POV, as Loop does not reveal themselves until Loop 1. BUT YEAH GIANT SIDEBAR OVER. THIS WHOLE READ OF THE TEXT INFORMS MY THOUGHTS RE: ISALOOP AND RELATED CONCEPTS VERY GREATLY)

jesus christ i wrote a lot in the above um. sorry. i dont know if its intelligable. uh. good luck?

im also on team 'orrery book and sif's thoughts about it belie a real deep-seated brainworm' re: their response to a Cautionary Tale About How You Will Inevitably Kill Your Double seemingly being "Nah, we'd be besties."... like. i do think it is. funny. and not particularly Unbased. Given how they are. For siffrin and loop to specifically be compelled by how they are the same guy. And i think that there's a lot to be mined from 'Both of them are convinced that the party knowing who loop is would fuck up everything badly, so they're going to great lengths to conseal this' played in tandem with '... they are like. very much explicitly doing things together that are directly related to a feeling of shared ownership over siffrin's body and form & the fact they are The Same Guy'. like it is a hysterical setup to me and i think is only added to when you have to put Isabeau in the middle of this polycule also. With the few exceptions of times ive drawn stuff specifically hinging on characters Knowing Who Loop Is (which is like. all bonnie-centric stuff so far? i think?), i take a lot of care to try and make their exchanges Vague as if they are worried about being overheard or saying something that's too much of a smoking gun. But also it's really god damn funny to think about how concerning some of those things could sound the vaguer you make them. Remember that above all i live and die by The Bit. (... as do they.) ie basically because im powered by The Bit thats why i focus more on the sloop side because its like. actively Funnier and more drama filled. or at least presents oppertunities for such. i feel like on isabeaus side here its kinda frequently like

yknow ? (oh god my formatting is broken now) . i DO very much think it can become like. niceys. of course. i think they can just be normal fucking throuple eventually (though if i'm going that goddamn far into the future u may as well partycule the fuckers 2 me. by the time theyve solved whatever the fuck you call pre-reveal isiloops i think odile has gotten involved at the very least. but this is why i mostly keep myself to the realm of 'the mostly immediate post-game conflict' stuff since i think all these characters leave off the end of the game with such solid springboards for arcs set up (clearly intentionally) that the infinite realm of possibilities opens up too wide for me to be comfortable with.) anyway i keep thinking about the tragicomedy of isabeau finally finding an "in" to nurture a friendly bond with loop by comisserating and steeling themselves for changing again even though it feels like a betrayal of their previous actions/beliefs and how fucking funny the idea of 'loop reveal but theyre like 2 weeks into using she/they' is. just like you get all the way through the horrors of 'oh jesus christ the timeloop was even worse than we thought it was' but now '.. d. do you still . what pronouns do you want?' is tacked onto the end. Sorry did you hear something . must've been the wind. anyway . this ask is a fucking mess i hope its readable like at all . can you tell ive been brainscramblied for six weeks

TL;DR:

yeaghj you got it. its not like im doing anything revolutionary im just trying to stick as close as i can do what i percieve the characterisation is in canon & thus generally dont tie down any of my fanwork to specific post-canon-plot-concepts. its all just nebulous extrapolation set 'pretty close to the end of the game because i think these characters are going to grow and change extremely rapidly once the game is over given how they're all intentionally poised for character arcs when the game ends'. but also you should put isabeau in the worst social bind of all time with two of the most mentally unwell BPD OCD havers youve ever seen and let him try to figure out the balance of 'be gentle' and 'treat them like the almost-30-year-old adult they literally are' while he also balances his own set of entire life changes it'll be fine he'll be fine (someone should probably check on him)

[illuminatedferret]

About TGCF Canon: I just realized that the missions Jun Wu gives to Xie Lian are very disadvantageous for Xie Lian.

He immediately butted heads with Pei Ming on Mt. Yu Jun (PM's own territory) and on Ban Yue missions, both striking where it's most personal: PM's ex-lovers and family matters.

Next is Ghost City, and I'm certain it's to sour the relationship between him and Hua Cheng with LQQ's loud righteousness right in the middle of Ghost City, infamous for its inhumane atmosphere. Additionally, "Ming Yi" was already 'a spy for the heavens' in Ghost City, so the risk of offending HC and/or Ghost City is very, very high.

I think JW's refusal to banish XL (Fangxin Guoshi) was also partially to stoke more fire between XL and LQQ (or, potentially, with everyone else as this puts distinction between XL and other gods by this point; LQQ already thought it doesn't matter if XL was banished again or not anyway)

And then Brocade Immortal; JW told XL to go with Quan Yizhen, infamous for not playing well with other gods / not sociable / fights even his own followers. I also don't doubt that this is to have XL and Ling Wen's "good coworkers" relationship go downhill.

Which means, JW tried to pit XL against literally all the major martial gods (other than FX and MQ who, logically from outside PoV, already have a strained relationship with XL), The major civil goddess, and the most powerful ghost king/supreme.

...Insane.

(Bonus: if Shi Wudu's impending heavenly calamity timing was also by Jun Wu's design, JW also managed to pit XL against SQX (friends) and SWD, both major elemental gods and also Black Water (the other calamity) in one fell swoop...

I count this separately bc we don't know if the timing is actually by JW's design. Plus HX has nothing against XL, and SQX/SWD has no prior connection to XL. In short: if Black Water Arc had happened before XL's third ascension, it'd just happen the exact same way without XL... which makes the timing suspicious, especially the closeness to Mt Tonglu's reopening. I have a headcanon about this but that's kind of a different topic)

-🍁

Yes to all of this! Jun Wu was definitely angling to create conflict between Xie Lian and his peers in the heavens, and I think he had two goals in doing so. The first was to isolate him by sabotaging his relationships, and the second was, I believe, to show Xie Lian the worst of the heavens and to encourage resentment towards them.

I don't think the /timing/ of Shi Wudu's Heavenly Tribulation is suspect, just because we're never given any suggestions in-novel that it's possible to manipulate the timing of Tribulations like that (and I think it would have come up), but He Xuan finding out about the fate swap was definitely Jun Wu's machinations! Hualian talk with Mei Nianqing a little about this- holding onto that piece of information until he wanted to get rid of Shi Wudu, then letting He Xuan discover it. In the end it's getting rid of two birds with one stone- remove the Water Tyrant, who was getting a bit too big for his britches, and Shi Qingxuan, who was Xie Lian's only friend in the heavens.

Also, you may not want to go into the opening of Mount Tonglu, but I do! Jun Wu absolutely timed that. I don't care how bad of luck Xie Lian has, that the ghost rut started right when Xie Lian was alone with a Supreme ghost?? He was definitely hoping Xie Lian would get hurt in some way, and his relationship with Hua Cheng would be ruined. No way that wasn't him. There's this ongoing reflection I have with TGCF after reading it for the first time where I look back and realize how much of Xie Lian's 'bad luck' is actually Jun Wu. When you learn about the second shackle, you think it's just that, but no, it's the all-powerful man in the sky who's obsessed with you and wants you to suffer and be his Junior. It's fucked up.

[lobo-inu]

RANDOM HC 🫵

Miraak, though kind of awkward at them, is nonetheless an amazing hugger (he gives off those vibes)

!!!! i love this, and fully see it as canon! :0

the awkwardness comes from the fact that Miraak is still very touch starved, but is simultaneously afraid of physical affection. the only person he goes to for physical touch is Robin - but it’s still kind of awkward due to their height difference. x)

…which is why they wait until they’re home to have more efficient and cozy hugs.

[thlayli-ra]

Hello! As a fellow CM Punk fan may I ask a cool ECW Punk fan art ? I loved his look back then with his long hair and all! Thanks ☺️

Here you go! 😁

[ivanttakethis]

top 5 worst ivan mischaracterizations ( aka could you list five worst traits people give him that are just totally wrong) i love to hear people complain but if you don't want to you can ignore this ask have a good day

Anon I am SO glad that you asked!

Ivan is my favorite character in Alien Stage because he’s really complex.

I could talk about him and his characterization/mischaracterization all day and still have more to say after that. Now you’ve given me the perfect opportunity to write a bunch of my thoughts down.

These complaints are in no particular order and are ultimately subjective.

Also, I’m not a Patreon supporter, so I can’t comment on anything that might’ve been confirmed or debunked over there.

Top 5 Worst Ivan Mischaracterizations:

Ivan is an unfeeling and emotionless person

Ivan was trying to kill himself and Till during Round 6

Ivan hates Mizi

Ivan is arrogant

Ivan is violent

This is going to be a long one, so I’m putting everything under the cut. Let’s begin!

1. Ivan is an unfeeling and emotionless person.

I find this mischaracterization to be one of the most frustrating because there is so much evidence to the contrary.

As a child, Ivan is described as someone who struggles to express his emotions and connect with others (imo he’s neurodivergent-coded, but that’s a whole other discussion). But notably we’re not told that he doesn’t experience emotions.

This official art kills me every time I see it because it shows that Ivan knows he’s different from the other children and that it probably makes him stick out and he wants to fit in somehow so he tries to practice/fake it so maybe he won’t be so alone (the imitating behavior is also coded imo).

Beyond all of that, we see plenty of times throughout the series that he feels things, rather intensely even. He’s wistful about the stars and meteor showers and the thought of freedom. He has a curious nature, observing others, wanting to learn more about how they work; how he can emulate them.

And then there’s all of the feelings that well up when it comes to Till. The most obvious is that Ivan loves Till, in his own fucked up way. But there’s more to it.

He wanted attention from Till (maybe the first time he’s ever wanted something in that way). He did everything he could just to get Till to even so much as glance in his direction. All of the fighting, and the bickering, and the instigating was because Ivan craved reciprocation. He grew obsessed.

When Ivan managed to free both himself and Till, he was thrilled!

And when Till let go of Ivan’s hand to return for Mizi, he was very clearly heartbroken.

Ivan felt jealous of Mizi and Sua’s relationship, knowing that he would never have that chance with Till.

Ivan felt lonely because he thought Sua was just like him, only to realize that wasn’t true (because Mizi loved Sua back) and he had no one to relate to.

Also, the entirety of Black Sorrow?? Hello??? He was yearning for more than what he could get. He was resigned to his minuscule place in Till’s life. The song is full of mourning and sadness and grief.

In Round 6, I believe Ivan knew what he was going to do.

He was desperate for anything he could get from Till in his final moments. I think that’s part of why he kissed Till. If his only goal was to deliberately lose, why not skip the kissing and go straight to choking?

Ivan was a dying man overwhelmed with emotion and he desperately wanted Till to look at him, see him, make him feel content for the first (and last) time in his life.

Even if some of these emotions are not necessarily healthy, it shows that Ivan was capable of feeling something.

So… yeah. That’s why I really dislike the emotionless characterization of Ivan. There’s so much depth to his emotions and character, but some people just skim the surface and reduce him down to nothing more than a cold and stoic person.

2. Ivan was trying to kill himself and Till during Round 6.

This one is probably more often a misunderstanding than a mischaracterization of Ivan. I think some people may have seen IvanTill referred to as “toxic” or “obsessive” love when it came to how Ivan felt and behaved around Till and thought Ivan was on some “if I can’t have you, no one can” shit, but that completely ignores the wider context of his character. Ivan was devoted to Till to a fault.

To Ivan, Till was his reason for being. Till was his universe. His god. Till was something to be revered, protected, and worshipped. Ivan couldn’t live without Till. That’s why he sacrificed himself, so he wouldn’t have to continue on in a world without him in it. But he also wanted to protect Till, no matter the cost.

Pretty much everything Ivan did was to protect or care for Till: trying to escape Anakt Garden with him, watching over him after Till was attacked by the aliens in the club, freeing him from his collar over and over and over again, every chance Ivan got.

Nothing about Ivan’s feelings or behaviors toward Till suggests that he would ever harm him, let alone kill him. There’s a reason why when Ivan was “choking” Till it didn’t look like he applied any pressure, there was no struggle for air on Till’s end (even if he had mentally given up, physically there will be some sort of reaction to having your airway compressed), and we don’t see any marks on Till’s neck afterwards.

It didn’t matter what happened to Ivan as a result. Till was the only person who mattered to him.

He would do anything for him. He would quite literally rather die than have anything happen to his god.

Ivan only ever knew how to give all of himself to Till, giving up his life was inevitable.

3. Ivan hates Mizi

I’ve seen this one more so in fan fiction, usually for angsty circumstances, but this just completely sidesteps their canon relationship, which is positive and, dare I say, friendly.

He gave her piggyback rides when they were kids! In the lead up to Alien Stage, we see them chatting and Ivan being pleasant towards her in a sort of “big brother” type way without hiding some sort of darker emotion behind it.

Now, is Ivan envious of the relationship Mizi has with Sua? Yes. Does he hate that he’ll never get to have the connect they have with Till? Yes. But Ivan hasn’t given any indication that he hates Mizi herself. And I think that’s an important element of his characterization.

Yes, he has negative feelings surrounding Mizi, but he never takes them out on her or lets himself feel negative towards her as a person.

Edit: I started writing this section BEFORE we got the official art of Ivan hanging out with Mizi, but holy fuck am I glad I took so long to finish this because now it’s canon that Ivan got along well with Mizi and they were even close as kids despite the fact that Ivan loved Till and Till loved Mizi.

In conclusion, Ivan and Mizi were reasonably close and (imo) would’ve been besties in slightly different circumstances. Ivan is NOT a Mizi hater!!

4. Ivan is arrogant

Yes and no. On the surface, Ivan comes across as mature, confident, and in some cases arrogant, but as we see more from his perspective it quickly becomes clear that the arrogance is just a mask he wears for others.

Deep down, Ivan is very insecure and his self-esteem is almost nonexistent. He views himself as insignificant, twisted, unworthy. He vilifies everything that he feels and does. (“Thank you for being a victim of my shallow emotions” anyone?) Ivan fully convinced himself that Till wouldn’t give a shit about him if he died to keep him alive. That’s not the behavior of an arrogant person. Far from it.

His arrogant mask acts as a shield to keep others from seeing the monster he thinks he is. He’s even kept parts of himself out.

I think that’s also where his tendency to be an asshole comes from. Keeping people away, not wanting or knowing how to drop the arrogant mask, internalizing everything, projecting onto others (like that whole talk with Sua about self sacrifice).

So basically:

Characterizing Ivan as an insecure person who hides behind false confidence/arrogance to keep people from seeing the real (and somewhat fucked up) him? Great. Fantastic. Love to see it.

Characterizing Ivan as an arrogant asshole “just because”? Terrible. Hate it. You burned my crops and killed my cow.

5. Ivan is violent

I don’t know how this one came about, but it rubs me the wrong way so I’ll touch on it here.

We know Ivan instigated physical fights with Till when they were kids because that was the only way to consistently get Till’s attention (not saying I condone that btw). But outside of that, I don’t think Ivan has been violent with anyone else? And would he even be violent with Till like, recently?? I would say no.

Now I do think Ivan would resort to violence to protect Till, but nothing beyond that. I don’t don’t even think he would use violence to protect himself.

He’d probably just revert back to being a “perfect” obedient pet to avoid or diffuse confrontation. That’s what he did as a child; while Till fought back every chance he got. Till’s fighting spirit is probably one of the things Ivan loved about him. Maybe in part because he couldn’t find it in himself.

————————————————————

Anyways, those are my Top 5 worst Ivan mischaracterizations! Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk 🖤💙

[septembermonologues]

dorym is such a silly ship (they are driving me insane) cause it's like. babe I love how you're worried about your bae's coping mechanisms like that but have you considered...looking in a mirror? HAHA jk....unless-

no seriously!!! they know each other like the back of their own hands and are still so capable of keeping the other in check/grounded but heaven forbid they extend any of that understanding to themselves lol.

after the last two episodes ive been feeling sooooo normal about them that ive just been trying to finally get my dorym/'foreigner's god' thoughts together in a way that's coherent to anyone else but i think "i keep an eye on dorian while he sleeps (dorian doesn't sleep)" and their "i want to be there when it happens" "i dont" exchange bringing back up some of that "that sounded like a threat" "thats what it was" tension that breaks soon after because they know they need each other/the other needs them has had me thinking about this line all day (plus your ask giving me an excuse to talk about it lol)

[destroyerofgirls]

your name twin post. that’s all. oh my god.

Part 1

Fuck baby, just like that. Fuck, such a good boy. Such a fucking faggot, sucking me off. Don't worry, my prince, when your dick comes in, I'll be the pathetic fag on his knees instead of you.

Mmmm fuck, you're getting better and better, you're such a fucking pervert. Such a horny little faggot. Fuck, your mouth feels so fucking good, sweetheart.

Those eyes, fuck, those eyes are so fucking gorgeous.

Get up.

You look so much like me, my prince. We're so much alike. Same name, same eyes, fuck, even our mannerisms are starting to be the same. We've been together for a while, haven't we, my prince?

You're going to fuck me, I know, you're nervous. But, you're going to do it, I'm not taking "no" for an answer.

What position? You're the one who's in charge here, you pick. Don't be nervous, if I don't like something, I'll safeword and we can take a pause and I'll let you know. I know you want to be in charge, you're nervous yet excited. Take what's yours, fuck me.

[peteytheparrot]

how to make. comic

Step one after coming up with a really epic idea (aka daydreaming for hours on end) write it down and doodle it really shitily in your notes

Step two forget about it for months on end before making it (I have so many random comic ideas unfinished) (this is why you write it down before hand)

Step three finally get your ass up and make the sketch 💞💞 Step four spend way too much time making the panels because they HAVE to be perfect for some reason (or else I’ll freak tf out and die /j)

Step five and six make the lineart and coloring, and then add the speech bubbles, this is where you can tweak the wording and or change where the speech bubbles go (mostly done so it flows better)

(Don’t be afraid to cover up your art with speech bubbles if needed, ik it kind of sucks but reading ability is very important in comics, and having your speech bubbles all wonky WILL turn off readers, no matter how good your art is)

step seven make a REALLY lazy background because you do NOT want to do shit this time!! (Pretend they don’t have lighting on them I merged the layers 💖)

Step eight spend too long on rendering aka lighting and shading!! Step nine add more epic effects aka final touches!! This is always nice to do because it makes it look a lot prettier (like adding overlays, gradient maps, blurs, and noise… idk)

Andddd you’re done, I usually work on multiple comics at once because I CANNOT sit on one thing only!! Nuh uh!! Comics take fucking ages and will ALWAYS take ages so if you don’t have the patience for it I’m sorry bro 💔 you will not handle it 💔

Although! When I started making mini comics they took me like? 10+ hours but the more I did them they now take around 3 hours at the shortest. This one took 5 hours.

This is just how I make comics btw, most comics I see don’t go fucking crazy on the rendering/lighting/shading (usually on comics I see there is none tbh! And it works for them!) I’m just insane and like to make my comics look really pretty or else I’ll explode for some reason.

Also 😇 if you wanna see more comics of these guys go here for places you can read them at 😇

[muzzlemouths]

Since you're working on a new fic/au, this might be a good time to ask: how do you start creating a new story? Do you start with an outline? Do you open a word doc and go in guns ablaze? What's the process on that I'm very curious

I sat on this ask for a couple days because I've been struggling with figuring out how to answer it, since the actual answer is that I don't have a process. Not one that sticks, anyway.

For DMD, I had a clear, concise idea in mind for how it would start, how it would end, and a few scenes that needed sorted in between. But the "outline" looks something like that one post:

Most of my fics that end in "?" for the final chapter look like this.

In terms of my oneshots and drabbles, I very rarely have any sort of outline in mind. I'll get an idea for a scene that I want to see, and I'll just start typing until it's finished. Anything over 3k words normally has me writing down some notes for direction, at least.

As for DFtR, due to the nature of that story (what with having three alternate routes) it was pretty much required that I write a full outline, otherwise I would undoubtedly lose track of some details.

My newest au, Easy As Pie (formerly Stardust Hotel) also has a full outline, though it is far more simplified than the one for DFtR, and acts more like guidelines for me to follow with only the necessary/important information established, which still leaves me with room for changes where/when necessary.

For example, here's an excerpt from that outline which has the main bullet point (What that scene is "About") and then a brief description of the room underneath that I can use as a descriptor, while writing everything else around it. That is, the dated appearance of the room is the main focus, and everything else that occurs in this scene will be written as a secondary focus.

Occasionally I'll also include brief phrases/conversation just to ensure that said lines make it into the fic, and so I don't lose track of what is meant to be happening in that moment. Those bits normally look pretty silly (at least to me). Here's one of them!

And that's my process! It's kind of a mess, but it works for me, so that's all that matters haha

[flipfliqyaoi]

Got any Mouse Kaboom and Sneaky Headcanons?

YES okay so, Mouse is a childhood friend of Flippy, he went through elementary in France(or whatever the equivalent town/nation in the htf universe is) and then transferred to the Happy Tree Town middle+high school, where he met the green bear. they were both bookworms so very often they hung out in libraries and doing homework n yapping together hehe ^_^ Being a foreign student he got kinda automatically outcasted and struggled to make connections with anyone besides Flippy — who was kind enough to stick by his side and give him a chance at forming a friendship throughout the grades. when they got out of school, Flippy wanted to enlist to escape the worsening financial situation (or living situation in general) that's going on in his family, and Mouse was DEVASTATED he didn't want to see his one friend just leave him like that and risking his life. He sort of tried to talk Flippy out of that idea like "dude are you sure? Are you sure? Like that's a pretty big decision you're making h.haha, like have you thought about it for long. do you think it's a good idea?" And the latter is just..... Dead set on wanting to genuinely go. Sooo Mouse sighed in defeat and was hesitantly like " ^_^.... hey um. Actually. how about I enlist too? Me and you, working together, sounds nice to have a familiar face in the military, no?"

This makes Mouse's death all the more tragic, knowing how the accidents Flippy caused led to him having his childhood friend's blood on his hands. yeowch !! And maybe feeling a type of overbearing guilt knowing he didn't firmly say no to Mouse's reason for joining the military in the first place. Joining cause your friend is too — that's... Definitely um. a choice!

For Sneaky: both Mouse and Flippy met him when they got to the military base — Sneaky is from a military family, generations had served before him and his parents wanted him to follow suit in that path as well. So yeah that's why he was there. Sneaky's got some obscure stories he occasionally tells when there's free time to just chat, which intrigues and humors the new buddies he met, forming a nice companionship around the trio. Sometimes he and Flippy just lie down and have deep talks in the middle of the night, pondering over their thoughts and regrets, they both cherish those moments where the illusion of peace was convincing enough they can just let their inner thoughts stream out about literally anything, almost without a feeling of worry. Flippy has tried to verbalize his doubts on the hatred against Tigers before towards Sneaky, since he felt safe enough to say something about it to him & Mouse, after he secretly had a sweet face-to-face interaction with a Tiger(s) who also didn't want to fight. Right before he got assigned the leader role in the Operation.

"Do you think this is really worth our time and effort?" "Well, I'd like to believe so. You know how those Tigers are." "m.. it's just that - I've never really understood why we're supposed to keep on hating them." "How so? Don't you read your history books? They're awful creatures, Flippy. You've read what they've done to species like us. We gotta make them pay for what they did." "I just think- doesn't this just feel all kind of pointless to you at any moment? like retelling the same story over and over again, thinking there would be a different ending. I don't know — It's getting tiring." "Are you trying to say the Operation is not necessary? Or are you just scared to lead it?"

andd like I said in another rant before (i think.), this COULD be a theoretical reason why he was clumsy in the mission. He didn't want to kill the Tigers after he realized they're like any other species. And that act of clumsiness costing the lives of his childhood friend and his pal basically fuckin' wrecked his mental state forever. All cause he had a moment of mercy for the enemy team, basically to him it felt like he just chose the enemy over his comrades. He's going to forever think that Sneaky and Mouse feel utterly betrayed by him, and. yeah it's a complicated thought process he's goin through :3......... Is this even coherent idk.

is it deathly obvious im a unicorn wars fan. sigh

[delatoid]

Are there parts of anatomy you struggle with?

Short Answer: If they count: proportions, hands, feet, "masculine" faces Long Answer:

Proportions

So my main thing I think is proportions. I tend to default to one "height" which I basically think of as just my height (5'3" / 160cm) and that's where I base everything off of. A bit quick n rough, but the middle here is the height I tend to most default to. Left and right are other "default" heights I have since it's the easiest for me to visualize it in my head. But ultimately they're still compared to the middle default "me" height when I'm drawing.

Left short height is how based off of Sister of Mine's height and Right tall height is based off of my previous partners lol

Any shorter or taller or anything in between I kinda have to really fiddle with it since it's harder for me to visualize. Default height is easy, since that's mine and I know where my arms/legs/whatever start and end. With the other two, I can basically just imagine them compared to me, but I still have to think harder than I normally would trying to portray those heights. Am I making sense? Idk Idk if this counts but any shorter than the left "short" height (i.e. children) I also don't know much how to portray since to me they end up just looking like Adults with Tiny Bodies like Ye Paintings of Olde

Hands

This is a pretty common one, but I'm a bit picky at this point. I personally think I have a good grasp on hands, but I really don't like sketching out the structure for hands and stuff since it's a lot of sketching, resketching, and fine tuning.

Over time I've developed some hand poses that my brain can kinda just pull up and draw really easily (some examples above). It works better for my simpler pieces, or if I combine it with some obfuscation (props, hair, clothes, w/e) but of course it doesn't really work for my more "high effort" pieces

So what do I do if I want to make better looking hands? Use references, of course! It took me a while to graduate from "artist who thinks references is cheating like tracing" to "artist who knows references are a useful tool", but I'm glad I got there since it's so much easier to structure a hand when you can see how it's supposed to look like!

Some examples here of pieces where I've used pictures of my own hands as reference. No pics of the references themselves, though since I don't really like posting pics of myself (sorry!) A tiny bit related, but for full body stuff I tend to take full reference shots of myself as reference as well, and it's really nice especially for more "involved/dynamic" poses.

Feet

So, the problem isn't "I don't know how to draw feet" since I mostly just use my own references like I do with my hands, but it's more like "how do I render this without it looking like I'm a foot fetishist" If I don't render it like the rest of the piece, it's gonna look weird and incomplete and like I don't know how to draw feet. But I need to be careful since (to me) it's kinda easy to get carried away with details and overrender and it just looks like I like feet a bit too much. So for the most part when I've ended up having to draw feet it was for simpler things where I don't really need to render them much at all. I think the only piece where I've managed to strike a good balance was this Nagumo piece I did a while back.

Actually, fun fact, this was originally sketched like two years prior but I never ended up finishing it until later, and I'm glad I waited since I definitely wouldn't have been able to solve the Rendering Problem back then :L

Masculine Faces

No pictures since this is still a problem I'm kinda embarrassed about it but think like Jojo Character, Kiryu Yakuza, Kenshiro FIst of the North Star, you know the big macho man type face. Since my style tends to be a lot rounder, more "sharp" masculine features like that don't really fit well with how I draw, I think. It also comes down a lot to their eyes, which I think I struggle with the most too.

[tricitymonsters]

Hello!

I've been meaning to ask for a while and am finally shooting my shot.

What painting would represent the guys and the MC in a relationship? (including Marcel, Raath and Kazu if you so please). As in their dynamic as lovers. I.e. someone could be The Kiss by Klimt or The Swing by Fragonart.

I may or may not be looking to make a redraw of said painting with the boys and my OC 👀. (Though this may be too ambitious on my part and I'll just end up with unfinished sketches).

Augh I've had to think this one over for a loooong while because there's so many things that come to mind. I may have to hold off on the other guys for a bit cause I think I need more time to consider BUT

Il bacio, Francesco Hayez (1859) for Mori

It's in the assertiveness and the confidence. Part of moris hotness (at least to me) is that he's not afraid to go for the things he wants and while he's not insistent enough to be a sex pest he's got a determination that makes him pretty appealing. The hand on the face really does it for me.

Alphonse Mucha (any really but esp Job)

Amir is just... made for embellishments and ludicrous hair and such languid, liquid poses esp when he gets to wear flowers, sheer fabrics and leave a titty or two out.

Knight Duties, La Draws - Akello

So something I've always been fascinated with as a writer is linking poc back to fantastic archetypes that they often get excluded from. I don't see enough black characters given a lot of the highly romantic traits usually associated with knights and I distinctly remember seeing this painting kinda early after making Akello's beta chapter and thinking this was SUPER appealing and that I wanted Akello to have a kind of chivalry under his pragmatism. It's hard not to imagine the guys as chivalrous in their own ways but I wanted akello to be the closest to this kind of vibe.

[pankomako]

The mental image of creating the most horrifying mii and the crowd cheers for you and failboat loudly announces. You and your opponent have won Autism. Even louder cheering ensues

yknow what at first i was just gonna draw the twitter screenshot itself but you gave me an amazing idea

[iinryer]

Hi there, back again! I was just wondering if you have any tips or tricks for either drawing poses or hands? They’re the bane of my existence but your art makes it look so smooth and clean and I’m obsessed (srsly tho your art is awesome) if not, totally fine!

wahh thank you!!

for hands, unfortunately my tip is just lots and lots and lots and lots and LOTS of practice. i LOVE drawing hands, but it took me a long time to get here. i hated drawing them and always avoided them and that was frustrating so i just focused on them for literally a full year—like genuinely i was in high school and every project i did in my drawing class had hands in it 😭😆 and! it worked! i love them now AND i have a pretty solid grasp on their weird shapes and forms!

along with practice, my number two tip will always be REFERENCES! i use sooooo many references when i draw, for poses and for likenesses etc, but ESPECIALLY poses. doing a search for “[general pose/scene you have in mind] stock photo” will yield many references for you to pick and choose from, it makes my life so much easier

i made these a while back for the gotcha discord to show this exact thing! character references, clothing references, pose references, etc!