#table for eight

[gelato-hearts]

Lore book covers for my old DnD group: Table for Eight (unofficial but my favorite). Unfortunately, my friend group fell apart before the campaign ended, so I’ll just put these here. I had a lot of fun working on them.

Table for Eight(in order): Latz, Evontis, Vera, Help, Joer, Ulnir/Torben, Sorrel

[javelinbk]

Paul McCartney in a deleted scene from Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

[tinylongwing]

Have the roughest silliest doodle since I don't have time for anything more complex. The LH discord event prompt was to place at least one of the characters in some sort of western/desert/saloon/etc kind of scene and to have a cactus with a cowboy hat involved.

So here's Dale fucking around trying to put some guy's hat on Johnnie (the guy in the background has a face suitable for a muppet I do believe) while Rigo laughs at them being dorks.

[luuxxart]

shuyuu obligatory post-con diner visit go!!!!

[figofswords]

i love to cook and i love food! i love cooking and i love eating! i love making food and then eating it! wait what do you mean i have to do this three times a day every day for my entire life and also dishes and grocery shopping and

[invisiblegarabgetruck]

"murdering me" ????

Did Rick kill him without asking him???????

[evan-buck]

goddd at this point i just want tommy in the show. i just want to know that every now and then he's going to show up - on calls, at chimney's house, hanging out with eddie etc. like if he can't be with buck, whatever. sure. it's stupid but ok. but why does he have to just disappear? like why shouldn't he be flying the next helicopter we see? why shouldn't maddie speak to him when she's calling in for air support to a scene?

[plumbogs]

I love some good angst so any "Nervous Subject is suffering, traumatized, and manages to escape" story is great but for goofs I also like to think that he could. just leave at any time. just Walk Out. and at this point the Beakers are trying to convince him to leave but he's currently living in their basement rent free and the experimentation really isn't much worse than a real minwage job so

[bunnyscribblesbjd]

some fall-flavored sina photos :) 🎃

[eorzeashan]

Angst mode time. Still not ever getting over how Eight never fully recovered from Imperial Intelligence's fall, and the short reunion in SoR with Keeper did nothing to alleviate that-- it made it worse. What conversation they had was awkward and stilted, and Eight had meekly resigned to the fact that Keeper did not value him as a person, despite this not being the least bit true from Keeper's side. But as you know, the mission came first. Shara came first. Once again, Eight set aside his own feelings and dwindling personhood to serve as a spy who now had no place beside the man he would've moved mountains just to be seen by, and for that, he only fell deeper into losing sight of who he was. For what little remained of Intelligence, Eight had died with its dissolution. No closure was afforded, only a painful silence and unsaid breadth between two men who could not bear to broach years of loyalty, who had deeply hurt one another and not even known the depths of the inflicted wounds.

Keeper left the way he came.

Then came the Eternal Empire. Five years meant nothing to Eight; it was a life he would not have lived regardless. Lana thought she saved him from the carbonite, but at most it was exhuming a corpse. Pulling him back from the dead to ask him one more time to bloody those hands. And Eight, loyal Eight, did his duty, neither differentiating friend nor foe in a galaxy that had abandoned him.

[toyastales]

Pool ball candles

[batsplat]

I don’t know if this is a crossover that makes sense but I saw that you like doctor who and MotoGP which are two things I enjoy a lot so if you had to a-sign Valentino, Marc, Casey, Jorge, and Dani as a doctor which doctor would each of them be (the one most like them) and would there be crossovers for who’s who.

ontologically fascinating ask in that the premise supposes all the aliens are essentially variations upon the same guy. and given I do indeed am a known doctor who enjoyer, I will absolutely have a crack at this. obviously some of the aliens will inevitably have more of a doctor-ish vibe than others, which made some of these trickier than others. but this kind of exercise is fun in that it forces you to think of like... the key, non-negotiable character traits you associate with each guy. so here goes

dani: struggled most with this one. I initially thought maybe third doctor - some kind of homage to the samurai styling and three's martial arts thing. idk I could picture dani dropkicking an alien. (literal, not motogp alien... although maybe?) though mainly this pick is about the UNIT team environment. you've got this loner vibe, right, paired with this sense of superiority over some of those you're working with: maybe you've been exiled to earth and have to spend time with a bunch of humans or maybe you have to share a garage with a teammate when you'd really rather not. it's about capturing the energy of early premier class dani who flirts with the line between being kinda shy and awkward versus being a bit of an arrogant prick. the contemptuous vibe the doctor brings to the table... he knows how good he is! boy wonder dani surrounded by people convinced he's going to be the next big thing. a lot of the time three just wants to be left alone to do his work... three's the most grounded doctor (no pun intended) and between the pragmatism and the haughtiness, there is an appeal to this pick

but a different alien is more suited to the third doctor in terms of actual personality, so... for dani, we'll keep the trappings of three, but maybe in terms of actual personality veer a tad closer to nine. very much a big-hearted incarnation of the doctor despite having been thoroughly beaten down by the universe. regret, frustration, a reckoning of sorts with his own ineffectuality... nine's arc of coming to terms with his failure to save others, versus dani's arc of coming to terms with not achieving what people expected him to. nine is a transitional doctor, one who's all about finding himself in the aftermath of loss + tragedy - it's a journey that's very much about finding some measure of peace. reckoning with how painful and unfair the world can be, finding meaning within it anyway. nine's also committed to his worldview, his sense of morality... he's rigid at times, inflexible - though he's sometimes successfully challenged to reassess his beliefs. embraces a little more nuance by the end of his tenure while still never wavering from certain core values... the world might reward cruelty, might be unfair, but nine can choose to fight anyway. commitment to the struggle, even if it's ultimately futile! I'm still not wholly convinced by how good a fit this is because nine's outwardly manic persona is key to his characterisation, but. well. maybe you'd go three's life circumstances with nine's soul (?) with one's gruff exterior. having to make a choice, I'd go nine

jorge: this one's a straight contest between two doctors for me. my first thought was six - you know, the one with the whacky clothes. on a meta level, there is something to how the doctor who showrunners really ramped up the quirkiness to the max with this version of the doctor without figuring out why that had worked with past incarnations. one of my fave things about jorge is that whole process he had to try to figure out his 'character', attempting to construct a persona in this deliberate, self-serious way with constant reference to valentino, reflecting upon everything he did to the point of omphaloskepsis. and six at the start of his tenure was also a bit of an... unfinished product, rough around the edges - just too abrasive a personality to work in this particular show. also one of the most outwardly arrogant incarnations! six is always A Lot, with this flamboyance and passion that just suits theatre-kid-at-heart jorge. and six does calm down, stops trying to be so edgy... idk, to me just a little reminiscent of jorge's evolution. stopped trying to come up with a 'character' that rivals valentino's - which does work rather nicely as a meta-textual parallel with that particular era of doctor who. six might have been stubborn, poorly socialised, sometimes a handful to deal with... but also someone who softened some of the rough edges. it's taken some time, but he's won a lot of fans over. eventually

all that being said, I'm leaning towards the other option here - and bring back three, a better fit for jorge than he is for dani. a lot of the stuff about the working environment applies here too, of course... like, you've got an alien who's being made to work a nine to five job surrounded by actual human beings; the interpersonal interactions tend to be a bit hit-and-miss. three's self-seriousness, his pompousness really work here... his tendency to pontificate, I see the vision for jorge. and - let's not forget - three's run was very much defined by his relationship with the master, who got to actually be a very regular antagonist in that era. that particular dynamic has taken some radically different forms over the years... but the third doctor, for all of his antagonism with the master, brought a certain 'only bitch in this house I respect' vibe to the table. jorge would get obsessed with his old academic rival who keeps showing up to bother him/commit mass murder. after the master's first appearance/mass murder spree, the doctor can barely contain his enthusiasm at the thought of fighting the master again soon. that's jorge, if he were a time travelling alien. going three

casey: right, casey's getting the old soul treatment. the first doctor fits that brief and is also the most irascible incarnation, back in the earliest days of the character when they just wrote him as kinda a dick for a while. do I think casey would abduct two school teachers just because they poked around where they wren't supposed to and pissed him off? well, yes. that sounds like a casey thing to do. the first doctor is stubborn, moody, frequently dismissive of those who aren't as brilliant as him. doesn't trust easily. blunt, pragmatic, sceptical of authority. a bit of a loner. and given he's the first incarnation, he's also the version going through the most culture shock!! not always easy, is it, when you're constantly surrounded by all these [humans/europeans] who baffle you. the first doctor did get to mature a bit, got to have some fun and lean into his natural inclination towards mischief... a piece of work whose heart is mostly in the right place, even if he doesn't always show it particularly well

another option for casey is twelve, another a pick that does kinda work on a meta level. twelve follows on from some massively popular incarnations, keeps dropping all-timer performances that don't always get the appreciation they deserve from the casual fan. the real ones know how goated he is. twelve starts out REALLY surly, not exactly the most outwardly empathetic doctor - let's just say his bedside manner could use a little bit of tweaking. at the same time, twelve's very preoccupied with questions of morality... he has a tendency to be incredibly harsh to those he doesn't feel live up to his standards - ones which at times feel a touch arbitrary, even hypocritical. also very harsh towards himself!! twelve goes in heavy on the self-loathing, pairing an ironclad confidence in his own abilities with plenty of doubts and insecurities. casey's all about confidence - both in the positive sense that he's got a lot of it and knows he can always rely on his obscene levels of talent, but also in the negative sense that he's constantly terrified of letting everyone else down and can have his self-belief shaken under the right circumstances. possibly setting off a streak of crashes. twelve's another quite rigid sort at the start of his tenure, very capable of lashing out at anything in range, though he does chill out a bit. and he's a very kind version of the doctor, principled, got a dry sense of humour... one of the more misunderstood incarnations and still somewhat underappreciated. this is already a good fit to me! but I'd also throw in a wild card tenth doctor in there, for that tendency to think he's always in the right and a reluctance to admit to certain shortcomings - he's just a little less reflective and honest with himself than twelve. a Proper Grudge Holder who went to the resent and remember class of conflict non-resolution. his rather remarkable capacity for self-delusion doesn't hurt with the parallels either. ten's admittedly a bit too happy-go-lucky for casey's whole deal... primarily I'd still say twelve

marc: went the other way from casey with this one and considered the doctors with younger appearances. five would be an interesting pick - an incarnation that really embraced having a young face, who felt like some of his previous incarnations had been trying way too hard to appear old and mature. there's a vibrancy and charm to five that suits marc I feel, cheerful and a tad naive (to the point of being somewhat childish) and wanting to really engage with the universe... he wants to live life to the fullest, wants to have fun out there, rejects cynicism. and for his troubles, five absolutely gets put through the wringer. this is a man acquainted with TRAUMA. full time companions really don't die very often in this show, but one of the defining fifth doctor stories features just that. as he continues getting blows dealt by the universe, he becomes more guarded, wearier, cautious of trusting others. but also... idk, five is a bit too spineless I reckon, lets himself pushed around too much, is too easy to manipulate and too docile in the face of authority - that's not marc

my actual pick is eleven (for meta-narrative points, he follows the incarnation who is seen by many as the archetypal doctor). marc's got this interesting career arc where - because of the age profiles of his competitors and the gap left by the injury years - he's gone from always being the baby to being the old man... with seemingly little time spent in between. eleven's very much all about being an old soul in a young body and is one of the incarnations that best manages to capture that energy - for all the outward exuberance, the mania, this is someone who has seen a lot and hurt a lot and carries that burden with him. eleven has a steeliness to him that works for marc, a cheerful facade that covers a real ruthlessness. a lot of emphasis during eleven's tenure is placed on how much the doctor lies, just constantly deceiving and playing his games and... well! marc! with eleven you do lean into the secrecy and mystique of it all - he's just quite a slippery guy where he does obviously care, where there's a select group of people he loves with all his heart, but he's also plenty capricious and arrogant and is willing to withhold vital information if he thinks he knows best. all about the contrast between the cheery exterior and darker, cunning interior. very marc. eleven

valentino: tough. tough! you can legitimately go at least 4-5 different directions here. a lot of the marc + eleven stuff applies here, though marc fits eleven's coldness a little better I reckon. you can copy and paste everything I said about ten in the casey section here too - they're all traits valentino and casey are aligned on, maybe go even more all in on ten's hubris for valentino. ten's outward demeanour does suit valentino better than casey, with the charm and the cheeriness and the manic energy and all that. and meta-narratively it doesn't hurt how crazy popular ten is, to the point where plenty of the more contrarian fans think he's overrated. he also just keeps coming back... refuses to fade into irrelevance! fans aren't allowed to forget about this bloke, however they feel about him. still, ten's not got quite enough of an edge, doesn't have the self-awareness he needs to lean into some of his nastier traits. another good shout is the second doctor, who kinda revolutionises the game by introducing the concept of regeneration into lore - and is also softer, gentler than his previous incarnation, a bit more capable of communicating with others and performing empathy and all that stuff. and is playful!! might pretend to be the fool to catch others off guard, but is constantly plotting and scheming and has a tendency to be more control of the situation than anyone thinks. it's that element of trickery and mischief that makes me like two as a pick... though, idk, I reckon he's a bit too nice to quite work

on the other end of the spectrum is seven, who was my initial impulse actually. seven is the manipulator, the doctor most willing to coldly maneuver enemies and allies alike to suit his purposes, very secretive... this is the real arsehole doctor. which, y'know, does suit valentino. plus, he's got this paternalistic energy, especially towards his companion ace - this is an era where the doctor/companion relationship is most oriented around the doctor being a teacher. where the seven pick falls apart for me is that there's a real contrast between his early playful personality and then his later manipulative, darker turn. these two sides of him feel in opposition to each other in a way that feels distinctly un-valentino, like with him it's all part of the same package y'know. seven is also a bit too cold and detached... valentino is more emotional, more passionate than that. and seven is a bit too obviously manipulative, that's the number one thing he's known for - you need someone more charismatic and popular than that I reckon. which brings us to four, the most popular incarnation of the character from the classic era who also got some of the highest quality writing, continues to be iconic however much time passes. four is this bohemian weirdo, eccentric but also charming... like the second doctor, he tries to catch others off guard, and he's big on joking around to do just that. he's also moody, at times mercurial, capricious... harsher than he initially seems, with quite a temper. he's also a bit too dispassionate to 100% fit valentino, but still the closest option - so four

in conclusion: loved answering this ask, really made me think lol. I did try to come up with a unique pick for each rather than honing in on the crossovers - though there's still a few doctors I've mentioned for multiple aliens. and also a few more I could probably make a case for, like seven and jorge or twelve and valentino or nine and casey... but you have to cut yourself off somewhere. this did made me realise the key similarity between the doctor as a character and the aliens as a group is the massive ego - partially justified by actual brilliance but still insufferable. I mean, there's also some crucial differences, like how the doctor is a selfless hero who goes around saving planets while the aliens are egocentric tax evasion-inclined athletes who mainly just care about winning motorcycle races. but apart from that, there's a decent amount of common ground yeah

[automatonwithautonomy]

my sick ass table!!!!!!

[nanowatzophina]

This made me laugh but that might just be my broken humor.

(Yes. I gave up drawing the chairs pretty early on. Forgive me but this stupid thing took more time than I intended.)

Ref: good ol’ studio c

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Watchlist Tag Game!

Thank you @waitmyturtles for tagging me!

Currently watching

A Boss and a Babe - cute, easy to watch

Bed Friend - cute, easy to watch HA! who am I kidding. Despite the icky trauma I love this one. Let's hope it sticks the landing.

Chains of Heart - I was going to wait to watch this one (like Big Dragon) but I got SO DRAWN IN and now I'm obsessed.

The Eighth Sense - I knew a kbl would be gorgeously made but this one is knocking all other kbls out of the park. It's also stabbing me in the heart. But I love it.

Future - a little cringeworthy, a little slow, but it's light and easy.

The Promise - I have to watch this a week behind since I don't have a subscription hence I miss the analysis and discourse, which is needed because the characters' motivations can be frustrating. Plus colours!

UMG - I wish this could have had a midnight museum level of depth, even a 10 years ticket, but it's slapstick crack. Which doesn't make it bad per se but it's a little too light and throwaway whilst also trying to be sort of a character study. I also wish they had given the aliens a blurred focus because they're much less menacing when you can see it's just prosthetics and make-up.

3 Will Be Free - I started this a while ago but stalled mid-way through ep 3. I'll get back to it soon but I find Joss a bit wooden.

Looking forward to watching soon

New shows: 

Our Skyy 2 - I might end up having to watch each ep later than everyone else (and thus hiding the tag for the whole series sadly) because Wed and Thurs evenings are the WORST time for me. But SO EXCITED!

Double Savage - I might also have to wait and binge this one later because it might be difficult to squeeze this in with all the above.

Older shows:

The Director who buys me Dinner - the eps are only short, so I could binge it at some point.

HIStory 5: Love in the Future - the ep lengths daunt me, so maybe I'll binge it during my next long break from work?

Big Dragon - not sure when I'll get round to this but it's been on my list since before Christmas.

Ai Long Nhai - this has also been on my list for a while, maybe too long now...

Remember Me - ditto (I can't even remember what this one is about).

To Sir With Love - starting to think I won't watch this though...

Would like to watch but can't for region locked/subscription reasons

Our Dining Table - it looks so soft and domestic!

Destiny Seeker - the colours!

Also - any gl recs gladly taken! It's harder to keep track of what's airing and when with gls...

Tagging some peeps whom I haven't interacted with much recently (it's me not you) and some who have popped up in my notifications recently: @seeking-moonscapes @jemmo @markpakin @elnotwoods @youdontloveme-yet @airenyah @ablazenqueen @wen-kexing-apologist @vegasandhishedgehog @colourme-feral @kyr-kun-chan @lurkingshan

[himboblackdragon]

On Xunfeng

Was reading about the Eight Trigrams in Chinese mysticism, which I definitely don't grok fully but are an interesting exercise in the powers of 2 and whose existence I only know of because it's written the exact same way as the word for "gossip"... anyway I came across a familiar two characters:

name: 巽 xùn image in nature: 風 fēng (wind) phase: wood attribute: penetrating state: gentle entrance animal: 雞 jī (fowl/chicken) (but also a modern slang for penis is 小雞雞, little chicken)

Conclusion: Xunfeng's name is a dick joke *